#need him in a way that is frankly offensive to feminism

[bisluthq]

hi nat! i wrote in a few months ago about a situationship/fwb that i’d fallen for that was driving me insane, and even though it’s stupid and you’re not a romance column i think my friends will kill me if i bring it up again and i’m losing my mind so this has to get out SOMEWHERE i’m sorry.

we’d had a minor spat over something stupid and never got back on good terms, but despite the fact we were hardly speaking he was insanely flirty whenever we ran into each other—rubbing my back to say hi, prolonged staring from across the room, offering to visit me at work, sharing songs he knew i liked—and his friends kept alluding to something on his end i didn’t know about. which was frustrating and weird, but not nearly as weird as when i found out he was dating a girl who looks EXACTLY LIKE ME (to the point my close friends got us mixed up at a party & thought a pic of her was a pic of me) despite the fact i was the opposite of his usual (very consistent) type. so now he’s going out with a literal clone of me down to style, voice, mannerisms while liking selfies w/ my tits prominently featured and watching me at parties as she’s talking to him, and just… i’m reeling from all the mixed signals of whether he cared or not and feeling guilty about my petty resentment of this girl who’s done nothing wrong but i still hate in a “what does she have that i don’t?” way. she unironically thinks rupi kaur is deep / that the tramp stamps are punk / writes bad music & constantly posts catty "she ain't me" shit but i hate that i’m fixating on these things as if it’s a competition or it makes her a worse person! it doesn't matter! i'm sure she's lovely but i cannot see past my resentment and envy and internalized misogyny. over a boy with a weird chin. i hate college.

anyways sorry for making you read all of this, i'm just going fucking crazy and need a reality check. i love your blog and hope you're having a great day!

Dude, my suggestion is block them both on socials for a while because this is driving you bananas and you don’t need that. As you say, this chick’s done nothing wrong except be mildly annoying (and fwiw she does sound annoying and that’s okay to acknowledge like you don’t have to force yourself to think she’s cool for feminism purposes) and date this dude that you’re not dating (she is allowed to do that and he’s allowed to date whoever he wants since he’s not dating you). I always find it mildly flattering when people move on to girls who look/seem like me. I’m like “lol so clearly that made an impact” 💀💀 and frankly I don’t find it offensive if I look like girls someone dated in the past because that’s evidently the type and idk those girls made an impact 😂💀 I also think college is way too young to establish what his “consistent” type is yk like maybe he liked girls who were different and then hooked up with you for a while and realized he likes that aesthetic. Fair.

as for if he cared or not, I mean he realistically did but he’s with this other girl now so it’s a moot point? Like do you want to have her leftovers if they break up? Probably not lol. It doesn’t even really sound like you want to be his friend. I’d just block them both for a while and let it go.

also college does suck in that way but the depressing thing is all of life sorta sucks in that way. Life is full of trying to figure out if someone likes you and if you like them back lol and if you like them enough. I was complaining about this to my old (in terms of age) friend recently and that’s basically what she told me - that it doesn’t ever really get that much better. We can try hand it over to the universe and disengage but a lot of things are going to just… bother us. Which is okay. It’s okay to be a bit bothered and a bit sad, just don’t let it govern your life or make you do crazy shit. I think that’s the part that does get better lol because when I was younger, a lot of my crazy thoughts would manifest into crazy actions - like showing up places hoping this other person is there or sending essays to them or talking to their friends about it and whatnot and now I’m like “okay well this is a crazy thought I had” and I maybe wallow in it for a spell but then I go and do something else and distract myself from it and most of the time things kinda work out.

also, and I firmly believe this, things ought not be Super Hard™️ - and that’s something I struggle with in my current relationship because we do have serious ups and downs and sometimes I feel like we have too many downs. Like I enjoy the ups but I think the number of downs we have isn’t altogether super healthy and fwiw there are reasons for that (we both have issues lol) but it’s like… things shouldn’t be Hard™️. They can be challenging in a way that helps you grow, but they shouldn’t be super difficult. And then in my case, I also think like even if it’s hard I really LIKE this person as a person and evidently he likes me so maybe it’s worth it but 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ I do wonder if the amount of drama is a problem. And that’s in a very committed, adult, stable relationship - so what hope is there for complicated FWB scenarios 😂😂😆

[casually-slips-into-coma]

An Essay (sort of) Explaining the Many Grievances I Have With Debbie Gallagher

Once again, Debbie is the fucking worst.

I’ve been wanting to write out my feelings towards her character for a fucking minute now just so that I have a full concise list. Now, I can talk about how Debbie has a constant need for attention, or how her character has become someone unrecognizable in the past few seasons, or how she’s a terrible mother, but what I really want to focus on is the center of my issues with her: her sexuality. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about to be a homophobic rant or anything. I just think her queer development has been written terribly and that should be addressed.

Too often I see people praising queer characters or relationships based solely on the fact that they are queer, and as a member of the community, I get it. I am also starved for representation. This, however, does not mean I’m going to settle for annoying, poorly written characters.

Why Make Debbie Queer?

The first thing I want to address is why suddenly develop a WLW storyline for her. Given that Debbie started as a little girl on the show, this gives the writers a lot of opportunity to give a character like that interesting storylines because she does not yet have a solid personality. It gives writers the liberty to take her story anywhere they want to without the constraints of established character because she, as a person, is still developing into adulthood. The show runners unfortunately dropped the ball with this.

From season 4 and onwards was when Debbie began showing interest in dating, sex, and romance having just turned the corner to puberty. From then up until season 9, she has shown exclusive interest in men. It isn’t until Alex the welder that Debbie deviates from this path. Alex is portrayed as a stud who confuses Debbie. I am inclined to believe that Debbie was originally attracted to her because she was masculine and therefore close enough to the people Debbie had previous experience with.

This arc was treated very much as Debbie experimenting with her sexuality, something that Alex also ends up realizing after Debbie tells her that having sex with a girl is “not that bad” and “like having sex with yourself” (S9E4). Once this storyline wrapped up (with Debbie shouting “you make me want cock again”) the writers powered through, adamant about Debbie now being a lesbian.

I have two theories as to why they’ve been fighting so hard for her queerness.

1) This was around the time that Cam was leaving Shameless. This obviously didn’t end up happening, but I was under the impression that the writers were freaking out at losing their token gay character and needed to fill that position. When Cam ended up staying, they were stuck with a queer Debbie storyline and decided to just go with it.

2) Shameless was planning on doing a WLW storyline regardless of Cam’s choice to leave and were originally going to give it to Fiona and her lesbian tenant that she had a close relationship and a lot of chemistry with, but Emmy Rossum wanted to move on from Shameless, and so they pivoted and gave the arc to Debbie, a character that was not supposed to be moved in that direction and so her new sexuality seemingly came out of nowhere. Fiona as a bisexual character would have made sense. Debbie still does not.

Shameless’s Awkward Relationship With Bisexuality

One of the biggest issues I have with Debbie is her insistence on being a lesbian. Lesbianism doesn’t come out of nowhere. Bisexuality, however, can. When you grow up being told that you are supposed to feel attraction to men, and you genuinely do feel attraction to men (which Debbie has expressed in past seasons/episodes) it’s easy to ignore your attraction to women and write it off as something that either isn’t a big deal, or something that isn’t there. It’s a lot more confusing than being strictly at one end of the spectrum. It would have been so much more believable if they had simply made Debbie bisexual. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t because the show has a history with bi erasure.

Bisexuality has been treated badly all throughout Shameless, used as a vengeful plot device back in the earlier seasons where Monica was only ever with women when unmedicated. Then in Season 7 when Ian’s boyfriend Caleb cheated on him with a woman (enforcing the stereotype of bisexuals being unfaithful) Ian, possibly acting out of anger or ignorance, said things like “only women are bisexual. When a man says he’s bisexual he’s really just gay”. The only semi positive bisexual representation on the show was Svetlana and Vee when they were in a poly relationship with Kev (though I also think that storyline wasn’t handled as well as it could’ve been).

This fight against the bisexual label in media is not a new one but it is also a harmful stance to take when writing a sexually fluid character. Debbie declaring that she is, in fact, a lesbian after waxing poetic about how Matty had a big dick and Derek had a great body and knew what he was doing is not the way to go. 

You could argue that Debbie, like many other queer women, is an unfortunate victim of compulsory heterosexuality, but frankly I don’t think the writers are well versed enough in queer theory for that to be a possibility.

Debbie as The White Feminist

Debbie is the pinnacle of white feminism. It’s an unfortunate thought that has occurred to me a few times throughout the show. She talks a big game as a man hater and someone after the equal treatment of women but she herself participates in a lot of problematic and anti feminist behavior.

For one, she r*ped Matty back in season 5 when he was blacked out and unconscious. This was a point in the story that was glossed over and one where she suffered no repercussions other than Matty no longer wanting to be around her. It was explained in the show that Debbie didn’t realize what she did was wrong until after she was explicitly told so because she was maybe 14 when it happened (not 100% on the age Shameless is very inconsistent about timelines). It was treated as somewhat of a punchline, something that Shameless has unfortunately done more than once when referring to male sexual assault (Mickey’s r*pe, Liam in season 10 ((i think??)) and in this latest season, Carl) but that is a different topic. 

There was also the time in which she lied to her boyfriend about being on birth control so she could trap him into a relationship with pregnancy (which also counts as r*pe!!) Good on Derek for getting out of that.

Debbie has also been pro-life in the past. Now I understand this was when Fiona was pressuring her into aborting her pregnancy, and as a pro choicer myself, I believe that Debbie was fully in her right to have bodily autonomy and go through with the pregnancy. This isn’t where the issue lies. It’s when Fiona finds out that she too is pregnant and tells Debbie that she wants an abortion that Debbie accuses her of “killing her baby”. Again, her behavior could be explained by her age given that Debbie was still a young teen during this time.

When her actions as a White Feminist become less excusable is mostly in the latest season. Her relationship with Sandy is one that I’m not really happy with because Debbie doesn’t deserve her.

Recently, it has been revealed that Sandy is actually married to a man and has a son. It’s explained that she was basically married off against her will at the age of 15 to a man twice her age. This implies that the product of the marriage, her son, was most likely conceived through dubious consent (or worse) at the hands of an adult when she was just a kid. Just because Debbie thinks that Sandy’s husband “seems nice” does not give her the right to try and make a victim of grooming feel bad about not wanting to be with her abuser. While I understand that Sandy’s son has no fault in how he came into the world, I’m still gonna side with Sandy when it comes to having to take care of a child she didn’t want and who is most likely a source of trauma for her. It’s not difficult to sympathize with Sandy and see that she’s clearly gone through something fucked up and Debbie, despite claiming to love and support her, AND despite her dumb white feminist arc about wanting equal pay and all that jazz, turns her back on the girls supporting girls aspect of feminism.

This isn’t even mentioning how shitty it was to just leave Franny by herself and assume that one of her siblings would take her to school and pick her up and stuff as if they don’t all have separate lives. She talks a lot about being a good mother but decided to “let off some steam” by fucking off to a gay bar to get loaded on coke and fuck a gay man (which wtf thats not a thing that really happens with casual coke but whatever I guess). Once she realized she fucked up, instead of taking responsibility she decided to paint herself as the victim as well as spew offensive bullshit about how she “probably has AIDS now” because of her sexual encounter with a gay man. No lesbian in their right fucking mind would ever say that because as members of the LGBTQ+ community, you are at least a tiny bit informed as to how devastating and tragic the AIDS crisis was for queer people.

(I also have an issue with how Debbie capitalized on her felony as a sex offender and her sexuality to start her Hot Lesbian Convict business but I think that’s enough said.)

Blame the writers

The show got almost an entirely new cast of writers after season 7 which is why the show feels more like a sitcom with low stakes and no consequences rather than a drama, but if there is a queer writer on the team it’s not very evident. Even the better half of the queer relationship story, Ian and Mickey, I don’t feel has really been done justice since the change in writers. It’s just become painfully obvious that the actress is a straight girl playing a gay character (not to mention I have never seen any chemistry between her and all of her female love interests). I don’t fault Emma Kenney (the actress) for this. I actually really like her as a person and I like the videos she makes about the cast and such, and I think she does her best with the script she’s given. My complaints with Debbie are targeted entirely towards the writers.

This brings me to my final point. I need them to let Debbie be alone. Her whole thing for the second half of the season has been that she clearly has abandonment issues and is afraid of being alone. It’s why she’s so adamant about keeping the house and fighting with Lip about it (I’m actually on Debbie’s side for that one but that’s besides the point). They had her and Sandy break up which leaves Debbie to spiral further into her loneliness. From a writing point of view, it makes sense to take this opportunity to give her an arc in which she can overcome that and feel comfortable with herself so that she can move on as an adult instead of jumping into a new relationship. This is especially true since this is quite literally the last season ever of the show and any character development needs to be wrapped up. Introducing a new character out of nowhere does not give the viewers enough time to actually get invested in the new relationship. It’s also unfair to Debbie’s character because her arc is going to feel incomplete.

Anyway,,,,,,uuuhhhhh,,,,,feel free to add on if u want lmao

[communistsans]

Bi/pan lesbian is not a term you should use.

Let me be clear, I think the experience you're describing is real, but the term is offensive to bi, pan, and lesbian people. Bi, pan, and lesbian are separate sexualities. They cannot be put together because they are directly contradictory. And before you say "what about x sexuality and ace," that is different, because the terms bi, straight, pan, lesbian, and gay all define the romantic and sexual parts of attraction. Ace only describes a lack of sexual attraction, leaving the question of who they are romantically attracted to. So if someone says they are ace and bi, it works because from that you know that they are attracted to women/men, but only romantically. You wouldn't say, "I'm aromantic, asexual, and bi," because all those things overlap. You can't be attracted to no one romantically or sexually AND be attracted to men/women. Lesbian describes a sexuality that means women/fem aligned people who are EXCLUSIVELY attracted (romantically and/or sexually) to women/fem aligned people. Bisexual describes a sexuality that means someone attracted (romantically and/or sexually) to 2 or more genders. Pansexual describes a sexuality that means someone attracted to others (romantically and/or sexually) regardless of their sex/gender.

So that's why the term is nonsensical, but why is it offensive to lesbians and bisexuals/pansexuals? I'm bi woman, so take my lesbian commetary with a grain of salt.

I believe every sexuality has a bit of wiggle room, and also that that doesn't mean that a person can't use the term gay/lesbian. I don't think a straight man being attracted to one guy makes him gay/bi, I don't think being a lesbian and being attracted to one guy makes her bi/straight. I'm bisexual and people often ask me if they are bi because they are attracted to x obviously attracitve celebrity, and the answer is usually no. It takes more than being attracted to a couple of people of the opposite sex to be bi/pansexual. What makes you bi/pan is being able to be genuinely attracted to, date, fall in love with, and be intimate with people of the same and different sexes/genders. I think straight and gay people alike can have genuine attractions that do not align with their sexuality and still be that sexuality. However the key here is that those are exceptions. When 99% of your experiences are exclusive to one gender then yes, you are gay/lesbian. I don't think that genuinely liking your high school boyfriend because he was a sweet guy and you hadn't figured yourself out yet makes you not a lesbian. And I think to say that it does is also lesbophobic. Just to get the whole "sexuality is fluid" out of the way.

Relationships between women are so often devalued, and lesbians often suffer from people erasing their sexualities, or people assuming that somehow they must be attracted to men in some way. This is a fucked up and lesbophobic way of thinking, and it's stupid that they have to deal with that. Lesbians shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of personal experiences for fear of having their sexuality questioned/invalidated. Politically speaking, it is critical for lesbians to ensure the term lesbian means a sexuality of women exclusively being attracted to women, please do not interfere with this term. It is important to their communities that it stays that way. However I know what is politically convenient isn't always what is personally true. On a personal note, I think the distinction should be this: if you HAVE BEEN attracted to a couple of men in your life but could never see yourself being with a man and being happy, and can easily say that 95% or more of your attraction has been exclusively to women, you are a lesbian. If you ARE attracted to men and could see yourself being happy in a relationship with a man, you are bisexual or pansexual. As a bisexual person, I don't experience or see my attraction to either men or women as exceptions, they are both natural and part of my sexuality. I also want to note that it is unfair and lesbophobic to assume that because someone has liked one guy in their life it somehow discredits the rest of their experiences, especially when we dont hold gay men to the same standard. In fact, its usually the opposite! If a straight man has one experience with another guy everyone assumes he must be gay/bi, even though he has only ever been attracted to women. Ultimately, if someone says they are a lesbian, they like women and just women. End of story. Yes there could be different personal anecdotes, but lesbians are attracted to women alone. To say otherwise is lesbophobic. If you are attracted to men, you aren't a lesbian.

Implying that lesbians are attracted to men is lesbophobic, so why is the term "bi lesbian" also biphobic? Well because in addition to erasing the meaning of lesbian, it also erases the meaning of bi. Bisexuals are often believed to secretly be straight or gay. We are not gay or straight, we're bi. I get the term is trying to say that you have a strong preference for women; many bisexuals have a preference, however you are still bi. If this "preference" is that strong to the point where you basically are near exclusively attracted to women, then you are probably a lesbian. You are either a bi person with a preference for women, or you are a lesbian. You cannot be both bi and a lesbian. Substitute bi for pan here and the commentary is the same.

I've also seen people who say they call themselves bi/pan lesbians because they are attracted to women and also to nonbinary people. And okay, I see where you're coming from here, but that doesnt mean the term isn't offensive. Gender non-conforming and nonbinary lesbians are a thing and I'm not about to police nb lesbians; they have always existed and been important parts of the lesbian community. But if the only nb people you find yourself being attracted to are nb lesbians and other fem aligned people, you're still a lesbian. If you aren't comfortable with that because it erases some peoples identity, then use bi/pan, because those are the terms to describe attraction to 2 or more genders. Or use queer! I knew a couple in college who were a lesbian couple until one of them came out as trans masc. To not invalidate them, their partner said they were queer instead of lesbian.

Another person I have seen using this term is women who are basically bi/pan or even straight who for whatever reason have stopped dating men permanently, despite being attracted to them, and this actually has some historical precedent. During 2nd wave feminism these women called themselves "political lesbians," giving up dating men in order to free themselves from misogyny. If this is your experience, do what you want, but again, the term bi/pan lesbian is harmful to lesbians and bi/pansexuals and please call yourself something else. I think it's fine to call yourself a lesbian or gay for convenience sake if you really do never plan on dating men again. Please just understand that the lesbian/bi/pan communities need to have the integrity of these terms for political reasons. Lesbian is not an umbrella term the way gay or queer is. On a personal level, yes there is wiggle room, but on political level these terms need to have definitions.

Ultimately if you identify as a bi/pan lesbian, please stop using that term. It's problematic for lesbian, bi, and pan communities and frankly makes no sense. If you want a fluid term, you can always just say "queer" or "queer with a preference for women." Normally I don't care about what people identify as and I against gatekeeping, because in the end it doesn't hurt anyone. But this isn't about gatekeeping. The term bi lesbian is harmful, which is why I'm asking anyone defending that term to please reconsider. If you identify with this term, I'm not sending hate your way and I'm not trying to invalidate you. I'm just saying this term is harmful and there are plenty of other non problematic ways to describe your sexuality, like wlw, nblw, sapphic, or queer.

If I got something wrong here please tell me! I just think there is a lot of really hateful debate going on here and it's extremely unnecessary. But my final stance is that the term bi lesbian/pan lesbian is offensive, biphobic, and especially lesbophobic, and we should do better by the lesbian community, who are constantly being erased.

[arilkang]

Hello everyone, it has been a long time since I have written a long text here where I expose my personal considerations regarding some themes and today I thought well to do it. I'm reading Boku no hero academia for some time now and being on par with the manga, I would like to talk about something that some (especially on twitter) continue to say. No, it is not Dabi's theory - which I am sure he is what the theory says but Horikoshi doesn't want to tell us - but about a plague of fans of any work: the hatred for the main female characters and a sort of battle for the "ship".

I don't go into fandoms for this very reason: you are toxic, let me tell you. You are among the most toxic people in the world, together with those mythical Renee Young haters with whom I screamed some years ago because they actually don't know what human dignity is.

Speaking of BNHA, I have noticed the greatest hatred lies in Uraraka Ochaco, which is seen in these following ways:

1) she's useful only as Midoriya's "love interest"

2) useless because it doesn't do anything really important, Tsuyu is more active.

3) She has no real ambition

4) she's the same as Sakura and therefore useless.

5) other things I don't remember.

Now I analyze point by point, just because I want to talk about it. Let's assume that this hatred towards almost exclusively a female character denotes a profound misogyny also because, I would like to tell you, why don't you say something about Aoyama? I don't think he's so useful. Or Mineta. Or other male characters who aren't that useful.

But no, Uraraka is worse. Uraraka is not only a "love interest" but she is much more, she is a character that makes such an important and strong growth that it is only to be admired. If she was just a love interest, in theory she had to follow Midoriya wherever he went but hey she doesn't. Furthermore, the relationship that they have is very healthy and constructive, therefore reducing it to a simple "love interest" is disparaging. There is mutual trust, mutual respect and affection between the two and this is more important than you think.

On her "uselessness" frankly I don't even talk about this because in each arc Uraraka proves important and necessary for some dynamics. Re-read the manga.

True ambition, she is said to have no ambition. "I want to help my family", "I want to help other heroes." these are not valid ambitions? I think they are extremely valid and concrete compared to those of Midoriya himself or Bakugo (one who wants to be a hero like All Might and smile like him and the other for purely personal ambition and affirmation).

But now I want to talk about the most important point: the comparison with Sakura. And I also add Orihime so you can understand better (and more people will criticize me I know). This is connected to the "uselessness" point.

Sakura Haruno (Naruto) had crazy potential in the first part of the manga, especially when she became aware of having to improve so that she would not be continuously protected by Naruto and Sasuke. Huge potential of an emancipated woman who defines herself... That Kishimoto has not been able to manage. She become a medical ninja, she become strong but not strong enough because she still needs to be protected regardless. Maybe only in the last part of the manga but not much. From a woman with enormous potential she becomes the violent one who speaks only fundamentally. And now let's talk about violence. She is violent against Naruto. Only against him. Why didn't she have the same attitude with Sasuke who, in truth, abandoned her and then attempted to kill her? In Sakura there was absolutely no growth in feelings, admitting how wrong Sasuke was and condemning him, going to him and punching him (I know she tries but she remains with the thing that "I'm in love with you" but how can you be after what he does?) and let's not forget how she faked a confession to Naruto because she wanted him to stop following Sasuke. This is the thing that makes Sakura fundamentally toxic: if Naruto said "okay okay, I'll be back with you." she would lie to him and herself practically for her whole life and I don't think this is a healthy behavior. Rightly, at the end of the manga she manages to assert herself a bit, but she had a great potential not managed well. Don't mention me Hinata and the "is worse than Sakura and at the end of the manga she has become a housewife" because I would say that in the meantime Hinata has been strong and important in her being a secondary character and now I will reveal one thing: if you go to search on the internet for feminism in Japan, you will see an interesting thing. Now things are changing, however, basically a woman, if she works and she will marry someone and have children, she quits and stays at home. There are several researches that talk about it - but they also underline that this dynamic is changing - so Hinata's is a cultural heritage. Present in all women (including Sakura anyway, Temari ect.). If you know something about this, or you want to correct me, you can but in a polite way.

I also put Orihime in the middle, just to make people understand how badly certain female characters have been handled. Orihime is a cute girl, adorable and to be embraced continuously but... But everything she does revolves around Ichigo. She continually thinks of him, the continuous "Kurosaki-kun" which when I followed Bleach was a kind of ironic mantra. Her powers, obviously only healing and this irritates me, however extraordinary they were, they do not evolve while we have the great protagonist that is all him (shinigami-hollow-fullbringer-quincy and 400000 things). She doesn't evolve, or rather Tite Kubo doesn't make her evolve much. And if you notice, the only character who deals with these things is Rukia (she's violent too unfortunately but she's not toxic towards someone) in my opinion the only female character built well. Orihime is truly totally influenced by Ichigo without changing that much. By the way, why are healing powers associated only with women? Why can't they have an offensive power?

And from here we move on to Uraraka: she is not violent towards Midoriya or others but sje respects and supports them, she grows continuously and she wants to improve (ex. those traineeships that she does with Gunhead and Ryukyuu), takes inspiration from Midoriya to improve, not to stay with him on Sakura/Sasuke or Orihime/Ichigo style. She continues to evolve and improve and with her all the female characters and this gives honor to Horikoshi both for the realistic and strong construction of women and for the representation (we have a bisexual character if you remember well) then all the criticisms, in the face of this reasoning, they fall and they are really childish because you are not denigrating a character, but the whole work of a mangaka that, apparently, you have not understood.

With that, happy reading 💫

[migleefulmoments]

Once again, ccers have labeled some of their favorite fairytale tropes as indisputable facts.

Cassie: 

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Anonymous asked:  Okay I’m trying to figure out why people believe C/C is a thing. Not saying you are wrong, I just have 0 context to go on and you seem to have an interesting outlook. Would you mind telling me the background to this? Or why people believe D is in the closet? (Also I’m curious why nobody uses their names and instead letters).

Cassie: Nonnie, that’s a tall order. There’s SO much that absolutely indicates M is a beard and CC is most definitely real (not true. There is NOTHING to prove Mia is a beard or that cc is real).  Not the least of which is the absolute adoration on D’s face whenever he looks at or talk about C. (Wait, so your biggest and best evidence is that Darren looks at Chris with love and adoration? That isn’t proof of anything except for your own bias, your Harlequin Romance ideas about love and that you don’t understand what constitutes “proof”).  I’ve never once seen him look at M that way and usually when he is forced to speak about her, he does it in an almost offhand way and I don’t think it’s EVER in a complimentary way (”Ever” was her typo. This statement is not only NOT proof of a relationship but it isn’t even untrue. The cc fandom picks and chooses the evidence that confirms their bias and proves their point. Darren has looked at Mia with love and adoration and has said sweet things to her.  He also married her which trumps all of the goo-goo eyes they imagine he’s given Chris over the years). He’s said she’s a big girl when told people were bullying her, referred to her as a ball and chain (NO he referred o himself as a “ball and chain”), and frankly, he treats her badly (NOT TRUE. If it was true I don’t understand what you guys even like about him.  A man who treats his wife badly is a dick). He’s repeatedly slammed car doors in her face, walks as far ahead of her as he can, (Both of those scenarios were to avoid paparazzi photos of them together. It’s impossible for us to understand what it is like to have people taking our picture and making up stories about us so we can't compare this behavior to our lives.) got in the car for the sham mockery and left her to fend for herself in that monstrosity she called a wedding gown to try and get into the car (Yes, that is what all grooms do.  That is why the bride has attendants), and shook her hand at one of the first big events they attended after they had supposedly been dating for over a year (This is another flat out lie. As I debunked- Mia and Darren were photographed standing together before the red carpet and he introduced her as his girlfriend to another person standing near them. See what I mean they pick and choose to prove their point even if it means lying)   Contrast that with how reverently he speaks about C and how conscious he always seemed to be when they were in public together and there’s no contest (He tells the exact same story every time. Wonder why?)  The love sick puppy with his whole face lit up like a Christmas tree appears whenever C is mentioned (What are you 12? Nobody who is over the age of 12 and mentally sound believes that puppy dog eyes are proof of a relationship).  Paying attention to background moments is important (In other words slow it down, gif it, add music, repeat lies and notice the small stuff while ignoring the big stuff and maybe you can find cc in all the proof that Darren and Mia are happily married. Hear with your eyes because you will never find cc if you don’t). you will never If you need more, I suggest going through some of the bigger CC blogs and reading them.

As to why we use their initials and not their names means it doesn’t appear when their names are searched.

Anonymous asked: Okay more questions! Didn’t M and D start dating before G/lee? During their college years too right? And I assumed it was to avoid it being searched but it it for reasons? Maybe to avoid rude fans that disagree?

Cassie: Nonnie, if you believe the current version they are spinning, they met pre G/lee, as for when they started “dating,” well, it’s changed so many times I’ve lost track. I think the latest is 2011, but I’m not sure. (There are photos o them lying on next to each other one what is clearly a date with Darren’s pre-Blaine haircut so they have been dating since early- to mid-2010)  They tried to say before G/lee, but D blew that outta the water when he said he had never been committed to anything as long as he had G/lee during one of the interviews he did near when it ended (It is not rational to throw away all of the evidence that they dated before Glee- photos, comments from Darren and MIa and from friends in exchange for one offhand comment he gave to a reporter. This is a perfect example of how the fandom uses confirmation bias t  guide their beliefs)   Honestly, if anyone can keep the ever changing timeline in order, they deserve a reward. D sure as hell can’t. (Just because Darren isn’t. sharing dates with the fandom doesn’t mean he doesn’t know. This is a silly analogy Cassie if one of your students used this type of argument, I know you would shut it down)   They went to college in different parts of the country and M is older than D. 

I could give two shits less about fans that disagree. I don’t use their names in case THEY (or D’s collection of dumbasses that make up his team) search things here (Wait, so you hide the names so that if Darren’s team can’t find it but Abby has said many times that Darren reads your blogs daily and his team does as well? They even change their plans based on what you say.  This is confusing Cassie). The “fans” that don’t agree see everything we post, as they incessantly stalk our blogs and respond directly to what we say. I stopped bothering to see what they were saying a LONG time ago. It’s always the same old crap. But hey, hope they enjoy spending all their time writing epic posts about my fandom that get three notes, maybe four (You should DEFINITELY read my blog, it would keep you from making a fool of yourself believing something that is so obviously untrue because you would see could read about how your “proof” is all untrue. I have debunked the majority of the cc lexicon and  provided evidence to back me up) 

Hi is it okay if you could tell me when WS came into C’s life as a person who’s seen more than a friend? Like when and how long before the hand holding crap. I have no motive or am trying to start any fight, I am just really curious.

Cassie: To the best of my knowledge W first appeared with C in December 2011. (Wrong December 2012) The super awkward hand holding was June 2013, on the 12th, if memory serves. (Sure, I will beleive you) The day D was confirming M as the ball and chain. Never forget that France has super strict paparazzi laws to protect celebs. Everything released has to be with approval, unless something has changed. (We have photographic proof that Chris sat on Will’s lab at Naya’s party 12/7/12. We have a pic of Will kissing Chris at Coachella 4/13. The fact that you believe it happened on “confirmation day” is only because that is what Abby repeats but it isn’t true)

Anonymous asked: Thank you for responding to my WS question, so that means the tame bearding started when C said that stuttering thing implying there’s someone on An/dy’s show. Not surprising tbh. Kinda sad CC literally had to hide from like day 1, hope they won’t have to one day.

cassie1022 answered: Nonnie, you’re exactly correct about when it started with C. He definitely didn’t mean W when he made that comment on AC’s show. It is sad that they’ve had to hide for so long, but I’m hopeful that won’t always be the case. (The Andy Cohen interview was on April 2014. How in the hell Cassie can agree that the “bearding” was tame after that interview when we have Chris on Will’s lap 12/7/12 and a kiss in April 2013 at Coachella. Darren and Mia had been dating for at least 4 years by the time Chris did this interview It’s ridiculous that you can claim that it “definitely wasn't Will” The truth is you have no insight into who Chris was speaking of and all evidence points to Will.  Stop living in your imagination).  

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Whenever i see anything m related…Anon

ajw720 Hi nonnie, I am not posting your ask because i can already see the hate coming my way, but i need to make a comment. M’s job is to beard for D, her job, for which she is compensated well. Part of that job is to hide his sexuality. And as part of it, she is supposed to enhance his public image, it is literally her job to look good on his arm and to not embarrass him. (Abby, you know that you have no proof of this and to surmise that “It is literally Mia’s job to look good on his arm and to not embarrass him” is you once again embellishing your own fabricated stories about a man and woman you know nothing about.  It’s really not healthy for you to be living this deep inside your fantasy.  You are getting too specific Your theory that Mia is simply Darren’s arm candy and nothing more proves that YOU have no idea what a feminism is). 

And frankly, aside from her deluded stans, she does the complete opposite, constantly and all the time. It is not badass to vomit on stage and boast about it.  It is not woke or feminist to have offensive, derogatory, and misogynistic themes and decor at a bar she owns and that D is publicly attached to, I would imagine it is against the CA health code to have naked women gyrating on the bar where they serve drinks. (You would imagine? Come on Abby, you're a lawyer, you know you're full of shit. They weren’t naked and people step on the bar all the time. I have never seen you rage about that. You have no understanding of what “woke’ is or what feminists believe.)    It isn’t cool to wear a boob shirt to a professional event your public partner created that is marketed as family-friendly (Are you scared of boobs Abby? You have been to Elsie and it isn’t full of 2 yo’s. Darren has a potty mouth at Elise and I’ve never seen you be upset that his mouth isn’t family-friendly)   It is completely insensitive to be mad that a young man tragically died because it interfered with her interview (This is so overblown.  That wasn’t what she was doing and it’s time you stop using this to rally your troops, it’s a low blow and it isn’ true).  It is frankly criminal in my opinion to raise money from fans and then not use it for the stated cause (another untrue “fact” you keep repeating.  The money was for the project they completed).  And I could go on all day (yes becuase you’ve made most of them up yourself).  She is harmful to his image and becomes increasingly more so every day (This is untrue- she is his wife and Darren is about to have his best professional period in the next 6 months.  I have never seen one bad work about MIa that wasn’t directly tied to the cc fandom, in other words, nobody outside the fandom dislikes Mia and she isn’t negatively impacting his image.  Their wedding was extensively written about and on several best wedding lists without one bad word about Mia which also proves she isn’t hurting his image. You have also been saying this since 2015= of it got worse every day it would be 1,825x worse than when you first mentioned it)  And any team that cared about their client would have removed him from the situation years ago.  And if they needed him to be straight, get him a beard with ambition beyond being a beard.   

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Anonymous asked: What happened with Mia, why everyone hates her? I'm new at this :(

chrisdarebashfulsmiles answered: A/non this is a long story. A lot of us tried to ignore her as much as possible for years (Bwahahahah the lack of self-image is overwhelming)  You of course already know that she’s a beard ( honestly not an opinion but a fact proven by a lot of things, public and not (NOT TRUE) - let’s talk about her living with her real bf “and D” for example) (Again I have disproved this trope, They don’t even comprehend that Ben has a live-in girlfriend and has been with her for a while now) and this wouldn’t have been a problem if she wasn’t the daughter of a powerful couple (jealous much? This wouldn’t be a problem if her parents weren't rich? WTF?)) and she was kind enough to truly love other people than herself (This trope is so untrue. Mia’s friends adore her and comment on how great she is.)   Because in that case she would have been a perfect beard and a wonderful friend for D. (It’s hilarious that she believes this is a valid argument) But unfortunately for D mostly the reality is way different (and yet Darren has never made one comment that suggests Mia is a beard, he is with Chris - in fact they have both denied they were in a relationship- or that he’s unhappy. This trope is 100% cc fabricated).

I can say to you, while suggesting to keep an eye for some posts about her here, that we have public video and post reporting how much awful she could be with D and his fans (I’m curious about this-anybody know what she is talking about?)  Or we wanna talk also about her fans? With the excuse of going full bearding following D everywhere every time ( obviously she talked about grueling work and heavy travel schedule in 2015) she and his group stole the money asked with a fundraising for a new video. And don’t forget: She’s rich AF. (Again, so jealous that her parents are rich-her parent’s money is not her money. She’s an adult. She didn’t steal the money for the video-they made the video Gorilla.  I’m going to write another post about this lie) 

Our despising is mostly related to the shit she does to D, tho.(Which the cc fandom has completely fabricated.  How would they have any info on what she. does to Darren? He’s never said one negative word about MIa) 

leka-1998 It’s been 2 years since they forced the encagement. Almost 1 year since the sham mockery and not even 1 month since everyone and their mother included it in their 2019 recap (Leka morphing into Abby.  As for posting -that is what friends and loved ones do. However, most of the “Recaps” were Top 9′s on Instagram and people don’t choose those pics, they are literally the TOP 9 liked posts of the year). And would you look at what’s happening, there are still people coming here wondering if something’s wrong.(Not a logical conclusion, they are reading your lies and then coming for answers) 

Archives here are a good place to start. Let me just say one thing. She’s mocked Cor/y’s death because an interview had to be rescheduled and she was not happy about it. She’s an all around bad person and the complete opposite of what D stands for. (And what exactly does Darren stand for? IT seems to me that he loves his wife and their life. His potty mouth and love of sex puns fit nicely with her).

Anonymous asked: Not the same anon, but for someone rich, M dresses really really badly. You would think rich people could dress themselves especially since they can actually afford a stylist lmao

chrisdarebashfulsmiles answered: I’m for the people right of choice of wear whatever they want tbh, anon (I stand for freedom of choice except if you are Mia....then I can trash everything about you).   Sometimes she is dressed by AW, sometimes by Lu/lu. The point is that most of the time she chooses the wrong dress alone because of her desire to be a ‘90 badass woman 20 years late. Something that I can understand because of my age but I also have to say that if you have to walk on a red carpet… You need to do it in the right way. She seems unable to understand this fact.(Everyone is free to be you and me except Mia who has to follow the patriarchal rules set forth by society 100 years ago: women are to be seen and not heard, should look pretty but be modest because it’s her responsibility to make sure men do not get boners when looking at her.She is supposed to wear new dresses according to Abby and they should be designer so as to look at Darren’s level. She has to look beautiful as defined by the ccers’ beauty standards or she is a labeled a bad person whom they are then free to bully).   

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

so, okay, I meant to do some looking back/looking ahead posts a week ago, but one of the things I’m trying to do this year is spend way less time self-flagellating about things that genuinely don’t matter, so I’ll just say that years and decades are basically human constructs and move on.

it’s been a weird decade, in general. in 2009, depending on the time of year you’re looking at, I was either finishing undergrad or starting grad school. I hadn’t really gotten into the MCU fandom because it basically didn’t exist yet, and the Loki aspect definitely didn’t. I was still living in a nice house and I don’t think my dad had moved out yet; at that point I had some idea that my parents could get their shit together. I got Scully about halfway through that year. I was just starting to get into video games, but I wouldn’t start learning console games for another year. I had just barely begun to question my conservative, evangelical upbringing, because in college I learned that gays and liberals weren’t just Bad People and then that feminism was maybe, actually, a reasonable point of view describing the world as it really was, instead of perpetual victims looking for things to take offense at. (when I say I was raised conservative...) I think I was identifying as a “conservative feminist,” at that point. I still basically didn’t swear, even if I’d at least gotten more okay with hearing it. I can’t remember exactly when I first encountered the idea of asexuality, but I think I was tentatively identifying as “demisexual but still basically straight” when I finished grad school two years later, and it took even longer to realize how Not Straight I am and to start identifying as queer in general.

in 2009, if someone asked me to imagine where I’d be in 10 years, I probably would’ve assumed I’d be married to a dude and I might even have kids, so like...there’s that.

there are other things I assumed/hoped I’d do that still disappoint me, mostly in relation to finishing and publishing some original fiction, but...honestly, I did do a lot. I graduated from college and then grad school (and wrote a thesis for both, plus a paper I’m still proud of about Tess of the D’urbervilles that represented my early understanding of rape culture), and I learned from teaching freshman English as a TA that I absolutely do not ever want to teach. I spent a long time trying to get a decent job and finally ended up with one that actually makes use of my education, and I’ve had it for five years. I did some freelance editing and I was pretty damn good at it, even if it was also kind of miserable. I got majorly into a new fandom and met a lot of great people because of it (and wrote a decent amount of fic). I went to several conventions and got into cosplay. I did some more international traveling, some of it completely by myself. I played a whole bunch of video games, which was a great new hobby. I got into customizing action figures and opened a little Etsy shop. I started collecting Loki stuff. I got a tattoo. I had a seizure and was in a car accident (unrelated and several years apart, but they were both...alarming). I dealt with my parents’ protracted divorce, which is also the biggest thing that made me recognize the fundamental hypocrisy of what I’d always been taught. I loved Scully with all my heart for almost the entire decade, and when he finally got really sick, I made an incredibly hard decision because I wanted to do right by him and said goodbye to my furry little boy. I adopted Hazy probably too soon after, so the transition was a little tough, but pretty quickly I discovered I loved her with all my heart too. I did a lot of work to manage my depression and anxiety; I also spent several months feeling much more actively suicidal than I ever had before, and I survived it. I gradually made an 180° shift in my convictions about--well, politics, but really everything else too, and I got a lot more politically engaged because of it. I woke up to a whole lot of realities about the world, basically. I started regularly calling my representatives, wrote at least a couple hundred postcards to voters, and volunteered with a couple local campaigns (one was unsuccessful, but I also spent some time working to defeat a nasty bathroom bill, and we won that one). I gradually realized I was super asexual, and then that I was also aromantic, and then that I was hella queer in general. I went to Pride for the first time. I started realizing I probably have ADHD and trying to get help for it (no luck so far, but...I’m working on it).

aside from not publishing anything, the one really negative thing about the past decade is...I feel like I’ve lost a lot friends. nothing dramatic happened, but it was easy to drift apart from people I knew in college and grad school after I graduated and I wasn’t with them all the time. the part that bothers me more is the friends I originally met online. a few of them stopped talking to me entirely and I never knew why; others have just kind of drifted even though I’ve tried my best to keep them, and I miss them, and I really...don’t know what to do about that. (I mean, is there any possible way a conversation that boils down to “why don’t you talk to me much anymore” or “do you still care about me in general” is going to go well? because I figure there isn’t.)

in general, though--it’s been a weird, long decade. waking up to the realities of injustice has been tough because it means I spend a lot of time trying not to despair about those realities, and in some ways it was a lot easier when my views were more black and white and I didn’t realize just how ugly life could be. I’m a lot angrier, to be honest (and a lot more existentially exhausted). but...between recognizing my own queerness and gradually shedding the toxic beliefs that informed the first 2/3 of my life, I feel like...I have a much better idea of who I am as a person. I am far, far more fully myself than I was when I just believed what I’d always been taught about the world and about the supposedly default states of being, and I like that person a lot more. I’m really, really proud of myself for how much I’ve changed over the past decade, because frankly that was a lot of work and it’s hard just getting to a point where you can realize that maybe everything you’d always taken for granted was wrong, especially when nearly everyone else in your life still believed it and didn’t understand why you’d reject what they’d always taught you. so that’s really not bad, in terms of things I accomplished, and that’s something I need to remember. 

[cherry3point14]

ALONE | BUMPED HER HEAD AND BRUISED HER SOUL

DESCRIPTION: You can’t begin to believe how close you were to death, or how much you wouldn’t have cared to go. 

SERIES MASTERLIST

[Chapter One takes place before EP5 of S9. Eventual Dean x Reader. Characters: Dean, Sam, Reader, OFC (Readers Sister) Warnings: light violence I guess. Also, there’s talk of a butt for one whole line]

It might be the drinks you've been sipping for the past few hours or the fact that you haven't eaten much of the meal in front of you, but either way you wink at your little sister and mutter under your breath as the waiter walks away, "bounce a nickel off that thing, right?"

She wrinkles her nose at you but there's laughter in her eyes, "you're such a perv."

You both suddenly dissolve into fits of giggles, like you have since you were kids when forming an in-joke or planning a masterful prank. You have matching laugh lines around your eyes as you laugh, and it ends with you both falling back against the leather booth seats and waggling your eyebrows at each other. You're not sure there's a better sound in the world than you both laughing together like this.

Even though you've spent the last few days with your sister, while you visit her and her new apartment, it feels like it's been years. It feels like long enough that your heart aches for seeing her again and you want nothing more than to soak up every second. When you'd first seen her, you'd felt like something was off, but you'd ignored it just as quickly because she was there in front of you. Her eyes sparkling, her hair wet from the shower and her sweatpants as ragged and worn as they had always been.

Now you're sitting in this tiny restaurant days later and nothing had changed. You were still constantly struck by the need to greedily hoard every joke and memorize every expression. It was a weirdness she had been constantly calling you out on, but you had no explanation. You'd just stare at her all doe-eyed and tell her you'd missed her.

"So this guy…" you begin almost feigning indifference. Almost.

She rolls her shoulders like the question might roll off her back with enough effort, a habit of hers you'd forgotten, "I'm just not ready for you to meet him and give him the third degree is all."

You scoff into your glass, hiding a grin, "I am not that bad."

"Not that bad? Not that… you do remember what happened to Scott, the poor schlub who actually dared ask me to prom?" She eyes you suspiciously like you're planning a repeat performance.

You remembered well enough. You, being five years older than your dear sister, had shown up at school to pick her up the following day, found the boy in question, and then proceeded to give him a very detailed lecture that touched on feminism, respect, and your sisters right to choose her prom date. But that also included your right to choose where to bury him if she came home upset or assaulted in any way. What Sophie hadn’t understood at the time was you weren’t just her sister, you were as much her mother and father too. 

You held up your hands in mock defeat, "so I was… overprotective. I'm practically a different person now."

And the strange thing was you were different, but you couldn't explain why. All you knew is that there was an insufferable gnawing in the pit of your stomach, like an itch you couldn't quite reach. You were older and wiser, but your sister? She was just the same as she had been years ago. It should have been off-putting that she'd remained a snapshot of a personality frozen in time while you had changed with the years, except you refused to see it. Instead, you allowed yourself to be convinced her new charmed life was the same as growth. The job she always wanted, the decent sized apartment not far from work, and now the so-called perfect guy. Well, the perfect guy she wouldn't introduce you to.

You reached out your hand across the table, like so many other times this weekend, suddenly needing physical contact with her. You ran your thumb over her knuckles drawing her in for a serious moment, "but promise me, next time I'm in town? I swear I'll be nice, I just want you to be happy."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. I can't keep him away from my best big sister for too long."

"I'm your only big sister," you reminded, acting offended by drawing your hand back and placing it over your chest.

She raised her glass to your mocking, "wouldn't have it any other way, sis."

After a little more teasing about her mystery man, asking if he was the one and making sure he was treating her right, you decided to call it quits on the evening since it could only last so long. There was no way you were going to finish the food in front of you. The thought of eating it and letting it bloat you any further made you feel sick to even consider it. Not when you could feel the alcohol in your system buzzing away and, along with your sister's presence, it all made you feel light enough to float away if no one held on to you. It was one of those perfect early summer evenings. Warm enough that you didn't need a jacket but not so humid that everything felt sticky. How you'd got this lucky to be spending an evening like this you didn't know and frankly, you didn't want to question it.

You lured over the waiter again with what you thought was a charming smile but likely looked ridiculous on account of the alcohol in your system. "Can we get the check please?" you hummed. 

"You're already paying for a hotel room instead of staying with me, at least let me buy you dinner!" She whined suddenly giving you a flashback to her as a child. All pigtails and high-pitched squeals.

"Nah uh, short stack." You teased as you waved your card at the returning waiter.

It was after signing the receipt when you stood up and reached for your bag, that you noticed the hazy quality of the street lamps you could see through the windows. They were almost blurry and not in the you've-had-too-much-to drink way. Like there was something wrong with them like they were made of the wrong stuff or…

"Move it, some of us have work tomorrow." Sophie bumped your shoulder with hers snapping you back from wherever your mind wandered to. It was just the glass distorting the light, you decided. Although you made a conscious effort not to look at the lights again when you got outside, instead slipping an arm into Sophie's and hurrying her in the direction of the waiting taxi. Like you didn't want to risk finding out something wasn't right about the evening.

In the back of the cab, you laughed a few more times and made rushed plans for the 4th of July before the car stopped outside of an impressive apartment building, "text me when you're home," you insisted as she slipped out onto the sidewalk.

She pulled a face at you as you rolled down the window, and grandly gestured behind her, "erm, it's right there."

You rolled your eyes, "you know what I mean. When you're home and the door is locked. You know, when you're inside your home dummy."

"You're such a weirdo."

"Your favorite weirdo. Love you!" You nodded to the driver that he could carry on to your destination.

"Yeah love you too. Text me when you're inside your LOCKED hotel room, freak!" she called after the car as it pulled away. 

Your lips stretched into a grin as you sunk back into yet another seat, comfier than any taxi you remember but then again this was the city, maybe things were just nicer here. You lived outside of a small town across the country so you probably couldn't compare expectations for public transportation.

The breeze from the window you'd left open whirled about you as the cab rounded corners and avenues. You couldn't help smiling to yourself, amused by the cool air whipping your hair around your face, as a child might be.

"Do you want me to close that?" the driver asked into his rear-view mirror, unable to see your face and gauge if it was bothering you.

"Nah, I'm good." And you were. Really good. Comfortable. Happy and—

Cold. Why were you so cold?

Why was everything so much darker than you remembered? Your arms were heavy above you and your wrists stung from keeping your body suspended above the floor. The toes of your boots barely able to reach the concrete below. And that's when it happened. The flood of realization that you weren't, in fact, sitting in a comfortable cab on a warm summer evening but you were surrounded by darkness and a world of monsters. Something sharp was buried in your neck and you could hear movement. The weight of stormy footsteps and muffled voices.

That's when they appeared. One of them, the offensively tall one, immediately started working on the ropes that bound you to the ceiling while the shorter one, although still taller than you, lifted your head with the crook of his finger to take note of your fluttering eyelids while he gently pulled the IV needle from your neck. They were all sharp jawlines and strong eyes the pair of them. Close enough to be the only things in focus among the blurry world that was still coming back to you.

"She's alive, must have snapped out of it when we killed the son of a bitch. We've gotta get her out of here." He commanded his friend.

Your throat felt like it was burning, like sandpaper against a stone, and you rubbed at your neck to try to ease the feeling once your arms swung free from the ceiling, "both of them?"

"What?" they snapped in unison, surprised that you were even speaking.

"You killed both of them?" you croaked again but you didn't need to wait for their answer because you could see it now. A flash in the darkness, two glowing blue eyes appeared from nowhere and began approaching the three of you bringing on waves of Déjà vu.  Flashes of the hunt, finding the place, the dead girls, and nearly killing one of them only to be caught in their trap.

But both the men in front of you were seemingly unaware of the approaching danger while they focused on your face.  

You were weaker than normal. Drained of not just your blood but a vast amount of your strength, still your reactions were no less impressive in the face of impending danger. You yanked the blood-soaked knife from the man who had cut you down and elbowed the guy in front of you before launching yourself forward with every possible ounce of energy you had left. A grunt echoed off the walls for your effort, the noise catapulting you forward as much as the adrenaline until you felt the satisfying contact. The Djinn's face frozen in shock as his meal turned into his demise.

The blade dug into his chest but burrowed deeper into his heart as you fell forward, the weight of your body landing on top of the parasite with your hands trapped between you, still wrapped around the handle of the knife. For a moment you didn't breathe. You were motionless enough laying on top of him that you might be dead. Watching his face closely with your own, waiting for any sign that you hadn't killed the bastard.

When you were finally satisfied you rolled sideways off of the now dead Djinn and gasped for air or hope, anything. Reeling in the truth that nothing had been real. Not your well-adjusted sister with her hopes and dreams or your arguably boring life as a mildly popular newspaper columnist, hidden in a cabin away from the world. No. She was still as dead as she had been before the Djinn sent you off to wonderland and you were still living a lonely and dangerous life hunting the scum you didn't even want on the bottom of your shoe.

That’s when you realized you were shaking. You'd almost allowed it. You'd been so happy to stay there watching her grow up that you ignored every red flag. There had been no fight in you, nothing tethering you to this reality full of violence and hard decisions. And now you'd been dragged back here, forced to carry on living, knowing what you could have had back there. You don't need to say it out loud to know the truth, you'd have happily died there, just like those girls before you.

But there was no time for the tears that threatened to spill over your cheeks, there was never time. You felt two pairs of strong hands lift you up as gently as possible. Gripping you and barely touching you at the same time.

"So you're a hunter?" the shorter one asked.

All you managed to grumble before the blood rushing to your head made everything dark again was, "good guess Columbo."

Continue to Chapter Two

[tellywoodtrash]

People aren’t to happy with the idea of Omkara walking away from Gauri because that’s what she’s asked of him. But it is in character for him, isn’t it? Having not watched all of IB pre DBO, I still know with his drug issues and generally non-confrontational personality it makes sense. Also why is it always expected of men on screen to just push and shove their way into the girl’s life in general? If anything in this case it would’ve made more sense than usual because they’ve both confessed?

Hi anon!

Not only is it completely in character for Omkara, who is non-confrontational and commitment-phobic and runs from any kinda relationship unpleasantness as a person (remember how resentful he was of Riddhima for the pink cushions, yet unable to ever say anything to her?), it’s also so icky and gross that the viewers (mostly female) think this thing of a male character NOT pushing and shoving their way into is a “lack of him feeling deeply” or loving her “enough”. People need to get it into their heads that CONSENT and RESPECT FOR THE WORD “NO” are a really important part of any relationship. If a grownass adult woman says NO, for whatever fucking reason, it may well be for “the wrong reasons”, like ego or revenge or whatever the hell, who the fuck is this guy to decide that his “reasoning” matters MORE than her refusal and that he has to “save her” from herself? It’s downright patriarchal and barbaric! People have the right to make these decisions for their own lives, and if it’s a wrong decision, they’ll deal with the consequences later. Tum apna dekho na bhai?????? 😒😒😒

But at this point, this zabardasti waali shaadi trope (which my phone fortuitously and correctly autocorrected to “tripe”) and all its associated fuckery, has been so normalized and romanticized by Tellywood over the last few years, that I think it’s practically seen as “the ideal romance” now. The abusive fuckboy who doesn’t stop imposing himself and his decisions about the relationship’s fate is seen as “Wow, he’s so take-charge and strong! Such sexy alpha male!” 🙄🙄🙄

In this case, when I think of it, what’s really irking me is how Shivika decided that they have to stop this wedding and reunite Rikara. Full offense, you two don’t even know the whole story - you don’t know the full extent of what Omkara did to Gauri, starting from Bareilly. When HE HIMSELF is saying he’s unworthy of her forgiveness and love, which he absolutely is, who the fuckkkkkk are Shivika to decide “oh no, but ISHQBAAZI!!!!” Gauri may be deciding to marry Ajay for all the wrong reasons (she isn’t even really planning to, but run away instead after Richa-Mukesh get hitched), but even so, she has allllllll the right to move on in life after the crap Om put her through. Om seems to understand this, but Shivika are so high on their nonsense relationship working out despite their rocky start, that they think they know what’s better for Gauri than Gauri herself. This basic lack of respect for her NO and putting a premium on romantic love over the real important things in a relationship - trust and respect for each other - is frankly really offensive and anyone who understands baaaaaaasic feminism should be against this kinda fuckery.

[kamalkizehr]

Thoughts i wanted to unload xp

I understand the view points of many of those in america at the moment republicans and liberal alike but how is having trump any way helpful and is an actual ban on people from different countries or a wall between one neighbour actually that helpful i mean illegal immigrants arent good but a fucking ban a wall loud public statements That are controversial questionable can be taken offensively (dude come on if shoe was on the other foot a lot of republicans would have been offended and go on a gaint Facebook comment section war

Again )

But another question why has the rise of triggerers risen like

There are more republicans who would post or say something offensive just to plain see people react and act like a troll rather than defend their stance on the politcal matters

Which in my opinion the clashes wouldn't have happened if more people (democrats ) went forward with ideas and stances after making sure everyone was on the same page though because frankly if they did i think not everyone would be having so many disagreements

Sure its not offensive, illegal or bad for a guy to wear make up many men have been employed in cosmetics for years eventually they we're gonna wanna show off the skills on themselves for once instead of models or maybe a lot of people are coming out have every right to and but why not try and keep it pg or at least understand not every parent wants their children exposed to something thats hard to explain for a certain amount of time and later when the child is mature or adult enough to understand the topic give more info and allow that freedom so he or she can decide for them selves but at the appropriate age because frankly does anyone else not find 12 year old bisexuals weird

Dude come on this stuff needs a limit everything needs a limit and more education thats key but get on the same page and teach kids math and let them graduate at least before he or she decides to become a weed addicted demi sexual pan romantic traveling artist in Nebraska i mean like

YOU DONT NEED THAT SHIT TO BE SPECIAL

NOR TO BE AN ARTIST

OR ANOTHER SEXUALITY

AND IT DOENST MAKE YOU SUPERIOR OVER ANYONE NOR DOES TRYING TO BECOME A MINORITY

THE MINORITIES WILL ALWAYS NEED TO BE IMPORTANT SO THAT THINGS REMAIN FAIR

BUT MENTAL, PHYSICAL DEASES NEW SEXUALITIES AND GENDER IDENTITIES GIANT ARGUMENTS OVER WHOS WORSE WHOS BETTER AND WHY PEOPLE OF A RELIGION OR A RACE OR CAST SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN A COUNTRY

for one sorry i was shouting but like

I am gonna bring up the stupid over used facts all Americans are immigrants and that not all of them had great lives back in europe which is why they moved isn't there hypocrisy in saying middle eastern people don't get to do that

But again some should stay but why not give elderly, parents and children a pass sure europe has many other options aswell but is it so awful some people choose America fine if its a ban And no dont we dont want more immigrants

Fine just be nice to the ones you have than frankly is that so hard

And dont start Ohhh but feminism is just bitchs wanting to be better

It isnt like that man i mean like moms should get maternal leave

And dads should have time off too to help out

If a woman hits a man or falsely accuses him of abuse or rape should get punished obviously but for God's sake if there weren't so many perverted idiots and guys who think its ok to just go invading a woman's personal space isn't cool and the fear of it is something that is a main reason that's basically help create the giant following

Is it unfair and used extremistly at times ofcourse everything and anything will be misused this is humanity we're talking about not saints or prophets those A**holes left a while ago

(Getting to religion)

But is it so bad to be a feminist really man

Come on for gods sake it isnt its just wrong when it turns biased and in the favour of the other gender which is basically just sexism not feminism

(Can we please agree on the fact there might be a fucking difference!)

And true western countries dont need it as much as middle eastern or south Asian African or south American even might need it but feminism isnt a bad thing (PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT NEVER STARTED AS A BAD THING IT WAS FAIR THEN AND THOSE WOMEN STARTED IT OUT OF JUSTIFIED REASONS AND IT DID BENEFIT BOTH GENDERS LOOK IT UP DO SOME RESEARCH MALE RAPE CASES WERE FINALLY OPEN BY THE FBI THANKS TO THE MOVEMENT IN THE 60'S ITS A THING THAT CAN BE BOTH GOOD AND BAD JUST LIKE REPUBLICAN IDEALS OR LIBERAL AND NEITHER STARTED AS BAD THINGS! )

As well for religion why must everyone use the term not all Muslims are terrorist but all terrorists are Muslims like the liberals have points for that thatsoffensive man seriously AND THAT IS SO NOT HELPFUL AT ALL MAN LIKE

I swear the amount of adults ive seen and met who think their religion is being destroyed and their customs as well because their children have become internet addicted assholes (like myself inculded ) who want to disrespect them their Morals and values and become foreigners and American ofcourse because theyre so cool blah blah blah

(Personally fuck it i kinda like being Pakistani but i do enjoy the internet ) which for some reason has become a the main reason why I get lectured more than i think i really need man i mean my language can turn vulgar and i can be socially a little awkward if uncomfortable but like why is me liking rock music and youtube and having a accent a reason to assume i would rather be American i do love my home and where i am from i am proud of my family and where we come from but why enjoy every thing else in the world aswell and not be considered a traitor or something

(Ok too personal )

Alright maybe what i am trying to get is how come no one can just elect a decent a leader or agree to disagree about things but still respect each other stay open minded but have your morals close by and principles uncompromised biasness is human but why no agree to disagree and leave it at that

The insecurity increasing and old facade of wanting to be rich and famous and not work for it has come back

Help me on patrion, like my video post photo blah blah blah dude just get a job why is it so necessary to work in entertainment for hells sake

I mean its valid you wanna sure go ahead maybe you are worthy but like stolen content and fake stories and new sexualities for gods sake please

(No longer about politics i suppose )

Here's my mind on it i guess

LGBTQA community has every right a straight white male or female would have no more no less but gender and sexuality identification maybe kept a simple (memorable and easier to define on fine paper and print during adoptions divorce marriage leavint the country or not etc ) and that being hetreo, homo, bi, A and pan because that makes sense

Its simple

And works

And as well for gender identification

On fine paper

if you are Male to female m to f

Female to male f to m

Something less explainable just keep it trans

Because frankly leave it at that why not just like why not?

Its simple makes sense justified fair and but isnt over done for some petty individuals looking for attention to take advantage of (ofcourse no guarantees but why not just keep some faith ? )

And no one gets to chose all on paper until after 18 because thats fucking fair

(Come on its not like its illegal to come out say it in public )

And yes none of that would be applied in most countries especially not mine but it would be a good start in my opinion

Any way i think i am done venting my thoughts anyone who is annoyed can ignore (why did you read this much of it and not justgo three lines and decide nah boring lets bail )

Anyone who has an opinion or would just like to talk is welcomed BUT CAN WE PLEASE KEEP THIS CIVIL I MEAN NO DISRESPECT TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING BY THESE STATEMENTS

i was just venting some thoughts

And not trying to force them on anyone or anything but i just wanted this out of my head and see if others agree or not (no not for the purpose to be right or wrong ) but because i can't be the only one who thinks all the political maddness right now was all avoidable and that people are becoming

Weirder

Not in a good sense

Not because of religion race or anything like that just like

Mind sets

I feel like its like the key to harmony and at least balance or peace is right there no one wants to take it

I am probably going to regret posting this but i am gonna anyway not like people actual read my blog or anything

[loavesofoaves]

Game of Thrones Episode 7.01 Review

Cut for Spoilers

Shall we begin?

This is the single line of dialogue Daenerys utters after an entire scene where nothing really happens except pretty music, breathtaking backgrounds, and setup to her return to her family home, Dragonstone. It also sums up an episode that on the surface has some promising stuff going in but is mostly filler.

Arya’s Revenge

Whelp, the leaks were real. After slitting Walder Frey’s throat at the end of season 6, Arya is still thirsty for blood and decides to poison the entire Frey clan (save presumably the women and children) at a feast while wearing Walder’s face. While it is exciting to see those responsible for the Red Wedding get what’s coming to them from the last Stark they expected, the scene feels unearned. First, Arya’s vendettas have always been against individuals and having her mass murder with poison (especially when “Weasel Soup” was omitted from Season 2) just doesn’t seem her style. Two, because Arya’s Braavos arc was clumsily handled in the show, we never saw her learn how to wear others’ faces, so to have her imitate Walder Frey so flawlessly requires suspension of disbelief.  Third, while we know Arya has the motive for this murder, we have not seen the setup other than a quick scene at the end of the previous season. How long has she planned this out? Why did she take this detour when she stated to Jaqen in season 6 that she was a Stark and was going home? When did she find out offscreen that Robb’s wife had been pregnant? How long has she been masquerading as Walder? The whole thing just feels rushed, fanservice-y, and the classic D & D “creatively it made sense so we wanted it to happen.”

To top things off, we also get a scene of Arya running into a group of Lannister soldiers who offer her some rabbit and are shown to be presumably decent human beings. I could make some bullshit excuse and say the scene exists to create sympathy in Arya and question her judgments toward her enemies (especially with her fresh from murdering all the Freys, mirroring Sansa’s attitude that the children should be punished for the crimes of the whole family), but we have proof that this scene was added to give an Ed Sheeran cameo as a surprise for Maisie Williams, who is a known fan.

Da fuq.

This is a whole new level of pandering to actors low, even for D & D. I have nothing against Sheeran, or even the scene itself—it’s an OK scene—but my concern is that because this season has been condensed, this is not the most efficient use of screentime. Maybe the scene will have payoff in the future, but I just can’t help but feel like it was shoehorned in as an afterthought, especially with the thoughtless use of a song that is supposed to be about Tyrion and Shae.

Bran Arrives at the Wall

That’s it. That’s really all there is to say. Which is all well and good—I’d rather have the episode skimp on parts that don’t need to be fleshed out rather than add in unnecessary filler (which is why Bran’s storyline in the show is one of the least offensive. Less is sometimes more). We do get a nice long creepy vision of the Night’s Army, so that’s cool. I don’t really get why Bran’s psychic prowess and snooping on Edd’s life proves his identity, but there are better things to get annoyed about.

Jon Is That Kind of Feminist that Will Mansplain the Second You Disagree with Him

We see Jon, Sansa, and Davos addressing a crowd of Northern Lords at Winterfell.  Jon declares that both boys and girls must train for the upcoming war, and when one of the lords disagrees, Lyanna Mormont shuts him down by saying that she isn’t going to sit around knitting socks while there’s a war going on.

Well, excussssse me, princess, but you need warm fucking clothes to survive a winter war, so someone has to knit the fucking socks. Say it with me kids: FEMINISM DOES NOT MEAN DISSING TRADITIONALLY FEMININE ACTIVITIES.

But Jon does have a point: This is the war to end all wars and half the population should be able to defend themselves. And we do get a nice moment with Brienne feeling validated, so I’m totally here for that.

Next, there is a debate on what should be done to the Umber’s and Karstark’s lands. Sansa wants to give them away to more loyal houses, but Jon insists that the surviving children of the traitor lords who perished in the battle with the Boltons should not be punished for their fathers’ crimes. They argue as sketchy Littlefinger smirks and grinds up against a wall like he’s taking a really satisfying shit. Ew. Seriously, like, could you be any less subtle?

Book! Littlefinger is such a good villain because he’s charming and charismatic and he makes people want to believe him. But Show! Littlefinger continues to be a mustache-twirling charlatan whose time is clearly running out. Even Sansa is shooting him down and insulting him with witty zingers at this point. He will never be able to recover from D & D’s poor writing choices from Season 5, but hey, he’s supposed to be one of the final villains soooooooo…

Anyways, the Jon-Sansa argument feels manufactured, as it’s out-of-character for Sansa to speak up in a public setting like that (but then again, when has show! Sansa had consistent characterization?). We get a scene afterwards of Jon scolding Sansa for criticizing him in public (where’s your “I’m With Her” shirt now, Jon?), but she reassures him that she is just trying to look out for him so he doesn’t make the same mistakes as Ned or Robb. She also warns Jon that Cersei is just as big of a threat as the White Walkers, and interestingly, Jon says, “It sounds like you almost admire her.” While I don’t buy this “Is Sansa power-hungry?” subplot, I am all for a Sansa-Cersei showdown in the near future.

Speaking of…

Pirates of the Caribbean 6: Why Is Jaime Still Here?

Seriously. I’m not amused anymore. Even if you throw the books out the window, how does it make any narrative sense for Jaime to still be standing by Cersei? She did exactly the thing Jaime feared the Mad King would do—a man he killed knowing his reputation would forever be tarnished because of it. And last season’s finale seemed to suggest he was finally done, with his look of disapproval at Cersei when she ascended the throne.

But nope. Jaime is still here because D & D fucked up his character arc by sending him to Dorne and now they don’t know what to do with him after half-assing his Riverlands plotline. Sure, he’s a little ticked off that Cersei’s irresponsibility led to Tommen’s death, but that’s not a dealbreaker. He wants to talk about his feelings, but Cersei—who the show has repeatedly emphasized as loving her children—no longer gives any fucks. THIS is finally book! Cersei. A delusional woman who has no regard for loyalty or logic and only loves her children and Jaime as extensions of herself, she ignores basically everything Jaime has to say, furthering my query as to why the fuck he just doesn’t up and leave.

Well, I can foresee what might cause this eventual rift: a certain swaggy pirate. Frankly, show! Euron with his new wardrobe looks like my headcanon of Daario Naharis (sans the blue beard). But whatever, let’s roll with it. He has changed his tune and now wants to marry Cersei, not Daenerys, in order to get revenge on his niece and nephew. He offers her his fleet in exchange for her hand (while also making a joke about Jaime’s lack of two hands), but Cersei declines. Eurio Greyjaris, however, promises to come back with a gift to persuade her.

Now I am OK with Cersei and Euron becoming the big bad power couple, but this would be, ahem, more dramatically satisfying if D & D had actually bothered to develop Euron instead of, you know, DORNE.

Welcome to the Shitadel

In probably the most uncomfortable training montage ever, we see Samwell at his glorious unpaid internship at the Citadel cleaning up shit and serving bowls of something that looks like shit in rapid succession and retching—ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to barf. But hey, I’ll give credit where credit is due: This was an effective way to convey the passage of time and show, not tell, Sam’s hardships. Especially when Sam’s storyline has been skimped on and was in desperate need of some catching up.

The Citadel is also Hogwarts, because first-years are not allowed into the restricted section in the library and Slughorn is there (although I totally did not recognize him). Samwell asks Professor Slughorn if he can have permission to go to the restricted section because the world is basically going to end if no one reads up on those white walkers, and Slughorn promptly tells him that Climate Change is a hoax invented by Dorne. Thus, Sam steals the books and looks over them with Gilly and toddler Sam, who has finally aged accordingly.

Oh, and Sam realizes he should tell Jon about all the dragonglass at Dragonstone even though Stannis already did several seasons ago?

Oh, and also Jorah is there dramatically thrusting his rock arm out and rotting away in a cell.

And Finally Some Progress: The Gravedigger

So I am biased because I am a Sandor Clegane stans, but damn it, it is nice to see him get the screentime he deserves for once. We find the Hound traveling north (although this is in the Riverlands, and it wasn’t snowing at the Twins where Arya was but fuck geography!) with Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr. They stumble upon the house he robbed in Season 4, and just as he predicted, the kind father and daughter he screwed over have died. Finally coming to terms with his actions, Sandor shows remorse and buries their bodies, noting that they deserved better.

There’s also a fair amount of banter with Beric and Thoros here, which is good, because it looks like we’re going to be seeing more of them. After dissing Thoros’s man bun, he asks him why he’s so grumpy and the Hound responds, “Experience.”

Same.

Sandor asks Beric why he’s still alive when there’s nothing special about him (because there’s no Lady Stoneheart for him to die for) and then Thoros has the Hound look into the flames and instead of coming back with a zinger, Sandor does indeed see what looks to be the vision of the walkers we saw earlier in the episode and…a mountain…

~airhorn sounds in the distance~

CALM DOWN IT’S NOT TIME FOR CLEGANEBOWL YET.

They do seem to be headed for Eastwatch by the Sea, which is also where Tormund is going…hmmmmm…

What’s the deal with Dragonstone?

And finally, we get Team Targaryen landing at Dragonstone, which has conveniently been deserted by Team Stannis after being so disappointed by how he was handled in Season 5 that they couldn’t even anymore.

And….that’s the end of the episode. I wouldn’t mind, as the music and visuals for the scene almost make up for the lack of dialogue, but god damn deadpan Daenerys just isn’t showing the emotion this scene deserves. I just don’t feel the significance of Dragonstone here, so perhaps maybe this scene could’ve benefited from some dialogue.

And hell, I just realized Ed Sheeran had more lines than Peter Dinklage in this episode. Let that sink in.

Overall

This episode was OK. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either. I thought we got some much-needed coverage of the Hound’s and Sam’s plotlines while also covering the usual bases. Barring the cold open massacre (which as I said before, was purely fanservice), it was a very standard first episode of the season, and a yearlong+ hiatus was not going to change that. But the problem with that is that this is a shorter season than usual, so we shall see if things from here on out have problems with pacing, which, based on past experience, they probably will be.

5/10

And a confession: This Tormund hitting on Brienne thing is getting old. It was funny the first few times, but now it just makes him look like a creep who won’t take “no” for an answer. We haven’t seen any real character development for this guy in a while; I’m hoping his detour to Eastwatch will give him something to do.