#not just when he's dealing with Trauma™

[birb-catto]

Summarizing Cale's Coping Mechanism in 3 Words (Meme Edition):

(lol not really no)

But this guy described his coping mechanism in the Sadness Test as:

The way to endure past sadness, loss, and this motherfucking memory…

It was not to stand firm without being shaken up by them. It was okay to be shaken up by these things from time to time.

And:

“I need to do my best from here on.”

He needed to do even better for his friends who had left him first.

A faint smile appeared on Cale’s face. However, nobody frowned after seeing the smile. Everybody could tell that it was a smile that was full of emotions, a bitter smile that appeared after a lot of anguish.

“I will find a way to persist if I keep doing that.”

Cale didn’t know the method of overcoming this memory.

He will simply persist through it for the rest of his life.

—Chapter 719: The Method to Enduring Memories (2)

This guy, who tends to either ignore his problems or make a bigger mess out of them, is so mature in this part. He acknowledged that he can't simply remain stoic and unmoved in his grief. So the next big thing is to acknowledge what he is feeling, do his best and then he can persist through it.

I'm so proud of my boy.

[lassieposting]

Been thinking a lot lately about romanced Astarion post-spawn ending.

Because like. The Funnest™ thing about cptsd is how much of it gets delayed. When you're trapped in a lengthy, ongoing traumatic situation, you do not have the ability to process and start healing your mental wounds. Your brain and body go into survival mode, and all that matters in the moment is that you somehow cope with the horrors. He wouldn't have been able to even begin dealing with the physical, mental and emotional toll of two hundred years of torture, brutalization and dehumanization while he was under Cazador's control; he is in constant danger, surrounded by sharks in the water, and survival means not letting them smell blood. He can't afford to fall apart, to show weakness. He is shockingly functional and competent in-game, partly because he has to be to work as a game character, but also partly because...it do be like that, to some degree. When death, for whatever reason, is not an option, you just have to shut down and keep going. People adapt in order to survive, and when we learn that showing an "injury" (physical or psychological) only gets us punished, we learn to hide it.

Early-game Astarion is terrified - of Cazador, of Godey, of being hunted down by his siblings, of being staked or sold off at the first opportunity by Tav and the other companions, of turning into a mindflayer, of another painful transformation, of losing himself when he's only just regained his autonomy after two centuries, of what Cazador will do to him if he ever finds him - the man is overwhelmed by fear. He's on thin ice as a vampire, and he's not going to give them any more reason to want him gone. Survival instinct is still in control, and in this new situation, crafting some fragile safety for himself means not only selling his body for protection, but also being useful. Clear-headed. Good in a fight.

Endgame Astarion finds himself in a completely different situation. The time-sensitive overarching threats - Cazador and impending ceremorphosis - have been dealt with. He has a loving, supportive partner he's really starting to feel safe with - Tav/Durge has proved that they're on his side, that their affection is genuine, that they don't just want him for the one thing he's been told he's good for. They've told him they're going to help him find a workaround for his sun allergy. He's getting fed regularly. He has time to stop, and breathe, and just. Recuperate.

For the first time in 200 years, he is safe.

And it will probably take a while to catch up, during which time he will seem to be coping really well, but at some point, his brain is going to realise that he's safe, and it's going to finally start processing the sheer fucking horror he's been through. Since I haven't seen anyone talking about this particular fun aspect of cptsd, allow me to offer u some thoughts on issues Astarion and Tav might end up dealing with in the months/years postgame, during the

✨ Delayed Trauma Response ✨

Memory Gaps: Astarion realising, as he opens up to Tav, that there are entire years or decades of his life from which he has only a handful of memories. Great big blank stretches where he has no idea where he was, who he was with, what was happening to him. Some of the gaps cover years at a time where he was so dissociated and shut down that he just didn't retain any memories of what was going on around him. Some are shorter periods of particularly horrific torture that his brain has deliberately blocked out to protect him.

Recovered Memories: At some point, years into the future when he's done A Lot of healing, he might find that every now and then, a fragment of those lost memories will unexpectedly come back to him. He'll catch a particular scent on the breeze, or overhear a specific phrase in the street, or cross paths with someone whose face is oddly familiar, and he'll get a glimpse of an acute horror he'd filed neatly away where it couldn't hurt him anymore. He very rarely remembers all the context to those flashes of his past. He might recall that he was punished, but not what he was punished for, or he might remember words spoken by a greedy conquest, but be unable to recall the man's face.

Dissociation: Tav knows going into this relationship that Astarion has basically made an art out of dissociating during sex. They also know, from their shared encounter with the drow twins, that he's not great at enforcing his own boundaries - he'll always say he'll speak up and back out if he stops having fun, but in practice he rarely does; he's not used to having the option of saying no to his partner, and being punished if he tries. So they know there's going to be some practice and experimentation and negotiation necessary there, to figure out the rough limits of his comfort zone. But once he starts really processing, there may be days where he just checks out completely. Tav will touch his shoulder, and he'll startle and apologise - "Terribly sorry, darling, I was miles away for a moment there." And Tav will gently point out that he's been sat in the same spot vacantly staring into the middle distance for hours. They've been checking in on him occasionally and this is the first time he's responded. It's unsettling, to say the least.

Lost Time: Astarion was very young when he was turned, physically mature but emotionally juvenile. He was basically an overgrown teenager, in the phase of life where elves are just starting to learn who they are and what they want, and figure out their place in the world. But he never got to do that, because he spent his formative young adult years in a world where everyone became an abuser, where his only means of surviving was to smile and charm and obey while even his basic human dignity was stripped away. He learned that communication is based on manipulation. He learned that the powerful can do whatever they like to the weak. He learned an incredibly toxic, abusive way of life, and that was his family dynamic, his everyday life, for as long as he can remember. Now that he's free and safe, he's realising that the world doesn't actually work that way and that he's now far behind even shorter-lived races in social/emotional development. He's grieving for the person he could've been. He's grieving for the life he could've lived. He's grieving for all the years he already lost, and the ones he'll lose in the future as he flounders to catch up. A decent chunk of his life was stolen from him, and that's time he will never get back.

Flashbacks & Night Terrors: Specifically the kind where your brain convinces you that an injury you had a long time ago is actually an injury you have (or are receiving) right now. There are nights where he'll wake Tav in a panic, because his back feels like it's on fire, he can feel every freshly-carved wound dripping blood and he's in so much pain he doesn't know what else to do. If Tav looks, they see nothing out of the ordinary - old, long-healed scars, same as always. But the pain and the fear and the distress are all very real to him, and all they can do is try to comfort him, cover his back with cool damp cloths or healing salves, remind him he's safe now and they're not leaving him.

Boundary Shifting: Sometimes, Tav can come up and hug him from behind, and he'll melt into them a little bit and go all soft and happy. Other times, he might flinch away or go rigid at the same gesture. A lot of the time, it really depends on how he's feeling on the day, but at least a little bit of it is deliberate - he's pushing to find the limit of just how much autonomy Tav is willing to give him. He wants to know at what point they'll stop respecting his "no". Will they accept it if he doesn't want a hug? If he wants to sleep in his own room tonight? At what point will understanding turn to anger at being rejected? From the drow twins four/fivesome, we also know he's got a tendency to push his own boundaries, and jump into things he's actually not ready for, and Tav would be the one holding his hand through the fallout as he tries to figure out what his own boundaries even are.

Frustration! So, so much frustration. He wants to be Over It already. He wants to move past everything that ever happened to him and never think about it again. He hates that Cazador still has a grip on him, even in death - he doesn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction of dwelling on all his punishments, his cruelties. Sometimes, that frustration is going to explode outwards at Tav - he'll get angry at them for coddling him, or find something small to start a fight over, or he'll set an unreasonable boundary and try to defend it because he's still learning what healthy boundaries look like. Sometimes, it will implode inwards, and that won't be about Tav at all, but they'll get the brunt of it all the same - it might come out as self-loathing or self-punishment, and he'll react by doing something stupid, like trying to drive them away, because having a secure, relatively healthy relationship is terrifying and the instinct is to destroy it before Tav can. There will be yelling and angry tears and deeply unhealthy coping mechanisms, and they'd have to work through that. Trauma is ugly, and Astarion is right at the beginning of a very long journey towards healing.

Abandonment Issues: Astarion wants the relationship to be one between equals, but he's kind of got Tav on a pedestal all the same. They saved him. They helped him get rid of Cazador for good. They chose him and love him despite a wealth of better (in his eyes) options, and all his baggage. They stayed with him even when he has very little to offer them. We know his vanity and obnoxious self-absorption is a fragile attempt to obscure the fact that his self-esteem is in the dirt and he has virtually no self-worth, and there are a couple of occasions in-game where it becomes clear that he's afraid of losing the one person who somehow considers him lovable. After seeing Sebastian and all the other conquests, he begs Tav not to hate him, saying that he did what he had to. If he has a rival for Tav's affections, and Tav informs him that they broke up with the rival to be with Astarion, he's shocked and the first thing out of his mouth is, "You ended things with them for me? Why?" And if Durge tries to break up with him for his own safety, his facade drops and he immediately asks if he did something wrong. So while he's not afraid to argue with Tav, if something happens - like an angry outburst - that upsets or angers them, and he thinks he's at risk of losing that one steady, stable person in his life, he might well cling and overcompensate to try and repair what he thinks is a fracture in their relationship. He'll fawn or beg or crawl into Tav's bed to "apologise" and "make it up to them" because, well, very occasionally it worked on Cazador. With patience and good communication and lots of repeatedly driving the lesson home to overcome 200 years of education to the contrary, he will eventually start to believe that "I'm really pissed off at you right now," does not equate to, "You are the worst mistake I've ever made and I am leaving you."

Panic Attacks: I feel like honestly he'd get some symptoms of these on a fairly regular basis, but he's never been given any option other than just trying to power through them. He's used to realising he's shaking, he's used to feeling like he's watching himself from outside his body, or like he can't breathe even though he doesn't need to. He's very familiar with the sickening fear in his gut, so intense it makes his head spin. He's not used to being comforted or reassured about them - he thinks they're normal. Tav disagrees.

Anyway, cptsd is messy and complicated and often looks very different from person to person so these will not represent everyone's but these are just some ideas for what the ongoing recovery process might make them work through, based on the aspects I'm most familiar with.

Projecting? Who's projecting? I'm not projecting. Shut up.

[sunarryn]

DP X Marvel #10

It all started because Clockwork got bored. That was the only reasonable explanation Danny could come up with. One minute he was signing ghost realm tax paperwork—yeah, turns out being Ghost King came with bureaucracy—and the next, Clockwork was swirling his little time-staff like a smug ghostly Gandalf and muttering something about “character growth” and “you’ve gone soft, Daniel.” And then bam, vortex of neon green time-energy, and suddenly Danny Fenton—a.k.a. Danny Phantom, Ghost King, Defender of Amity Park, Sloppy Hot Mess™—woke up in Westchester, New York, in a bed that smelled like lavender detergent and severe academic trauma.

Also, there was a kid across the room with laser eyes. Like, literal laser eyes. Danny dodged the optic blast with a yelp, crashed into a dresser, phased through it out of panic, and immediately got tackled by some blue-furred acrobatic Shakespeare enthusiast named Hank McCoy, who tried to sedate him with a tranquilizer gun the size of a trombone.

The chaos didn’t end there.

After an hour-long misunderstanding involving accidental ghost-punching, a kid phasing through a wall and screaming about “this new spirit trying to possess my Xbox,” and someone named Jean calmly levitating him mid-air like he was a naughty kitten, Danny finally got an audience with Charles Xavier. That guy. The bald one. Professor X. Wheelchair. Mind reader. Wears a turtleneck in July.

And of course, as soon as Danny sat down, Professor X pressed two fingers to his temple and Danny felt his entire mental vault of trauma shatter like a haunted snow globe. “Ah,” the Professor said with the polite cadence of someone realizing they’ve just tuned into a true crime documentary instead of the weather channel. “You have a great deal of… unique experiences.”

Danny laughed. Hysterically. “I died at fourteen and now I run a death monarchy in an alternate dimension. Unique is so last week.”

Turns out Clockwork, that glorified antique grandfather clock with too much free time, had decided that Danny needed to “learn to connect with others his age again” and “gain allies outside the Ghost Zone.” So he dropped Danny off at a mutant boarding school like some sort of half-dead foreign exchange student. And Charles Xavier, either because he’s too nice or secretly thrilled to collect weirdos like Pokémon cards, welcomed him with open arms.

Now, Danny wasn’t a mutant. He made that very clear. He was a half-ghost hybrid from an accident involving his parents’ DIY death portal and a broken sense of safety regulations. But that didn’t stop the other students from assuming he was just a weirdo with very specific powers and a questionable haircut. The moment Rogue tried to absorb him and got an accidental flash of the time Pariah Dark tried to possess his left kidney, she screamed, exploded a tree, and refused to make eye contact with him for a week. Logan thought that was hilarious and called him “Casper with PTSD.” Danny called Logan “Hairy Ferret Man.” A rivalry was born.

Also, it turned out that mutants at Xavier’s School had no chill. None. Zip. Zero. When they found out Danny could go intangible and invisible? Prank war. Full-on, Cold War-style prank war.

Kurt teleported hot sauce into his shoes. Danny replaced Kurt’s shampoo with slime from the Box Ghost. Bobby froze Danny’s underwear drawer. Danny phased into Bobby’s room at 3 a.m. and whispered “I’m always watching” into his ear like a cursed Roomba. Scott tried to discipline them with a “team bonding” exercise. Danny phased his clothes off in front of the entire class during the obstacle course.

He did not know Kitty Pryde could scream that loud. Or punch that hard.

Things escalated.

One day, Jean and Ororo walked into the library to find Danny floating upside down while holding a book with his foot, chewing a pen, and muttering to himself in the Ghost Zone’s dead language. When asked what he was doing, he said he was “reverse engineering a spectral war code to crash the cafeteria’s menu algorithm so they’d bring back pizza bagels.” Jean left the room. Ororo gave him a high five.

That might’ve been the least unhinged thing he did that week.

Because Danny had fans now. The students—bless their hormone-fueled, superpowered hearts—thought he was the coolest thing since Wolverine got into a fistfight with a vending machine. He had followers. A literal cult. Called themselves “The Phantom Phreaks.” They made glow-in-the-dark hoodies with his face on it. One kid tried to dye their hair white using bleach and ghost peppers. It didn’t go well.

It got worse when Peter Parker showed up.

Apparently, he was doing some college-credit tutoring with Xavier’s School because of course the kid with radioactive spider powers and crippling anxiety was the designated Marvel mentor. Peter tried to explain the concept of “laying low” and “not being a public menace” and Danny just blinked, turned intangible, floated through a wall, and popped his head back in to say, “I once bench-pressed a building-sized ghost walrus. I am beyond menace, Peter.”

They became friends instantly.

Peter would swing by to help with science classes and would end up staying for hours, mostly because Danny was a magnet for eldritch ghost disasters. One time, a time-displaced pirate specter named Captain Bloodwhistle tried to possess the student kitchen mixer. Peter got covered in spectral marshmallow fluff. Danny laughed so hard he accidentally ripped a hole into the Astral Plane. Peter got dragged halfway in. Jean had to psychic-yank him back with what she described as “a migraine made of bees.”

Also, Danny started dating one of the Cuckoo sisters.

He wasn’t sure which one. They wouldn’t tell him.

One of them would show up to lunch, sit next to him, hand him a thermos full of ghost chili, kiss his cheek, and then disappear into the crowd. Danny asked once if they were just messing with him. The Cuckoo in question smiled and said, “Maybe. Or maybe we’re all in love with you. Isn’t that romantic?”

He nearly screamed.

That was before the Avengers got involved.

Apparently, Xavier forgot to tell them he’d adopted a literal half-dead godchild of the underworld into his school. So one day Tony Stark landed in the front yard in a red-and-gold panic and tried to “detain the supernatural threat.” Danny responded by phasing into the suit, taking control of it, and flying it into the sky while singing “Let It Go” at full volume. Tony had to eject mid-air. He landed in a bush. Scott filmed it. Jubilee added sparkles in post.

Then Nick Fury showed up and tried to recruit him.

Danny told him he was already King of the Dead and the living were beneath him. Then he tripped on his shoelace and fell into a bush. Same bush Tony had landed in. They bonded. Kind of.

And then Loki showed up, because someone (cough Wanda cough) told him that a teenage ghost king with ancient death powers was living rent-free at Xavier’s. Loki tried to seduce Danny into joining his side. Danny asked if his horns were compensating for something. Loki cursed his shampoo to turn his hair pink. Danny retaliated by summoning an actual ghost bull to chase Loki through the halls while yelling, “Fight me, Party City Maleficent!”

Charles suspended them both for 48 hours.

Danny used the time off to open a haunted lemonade stand in the Danger Room. It made five grand and summoned three minor demons. Hank was not pleased.

And look, Danny was trying. He really was. He went to his classes (when he remembered), tried not to make sarcastic comments during training (he failed), and even got a job at the school paper writing ghost horoscopes. (“Sagittarius: avoid mirrors this week. Capricorn: the undead whisper secrets to you, don’t trust them unless they have snacks.”) But trouble followed him like a clingy poltergeist.

One time a field trip to Central Park ended with a ghost bear rampaging through the zoo. Another time, he got possessed by a Victorian poet ghost and started writing depressing haikus on the bathroom walls. He once accidentally opened a mini-portal in the girl’s dorm by sneezing. No one knew how. Not even Clockwork.

And oh, Clockwork?

He’d drop in occasionally, hovering in midair with that smug look, sipping ghost tea, and muttering things like, “Growth looks good on you,” while Danny was being chased by a ghost goose that had eaten a cursed student ID.

It was chaos.

It was ridiculous.

It was unhinged, feral, terrifying, and oddly heartwarming.

Because for the first time since he’d become half-ghost, since he’d died and come back and been crowned a spectral king with too many responsibilities and not enough hugs, Danny had a home that was weird enough for him. A home full of flying kids, clawed professors, laser eyes, psychic meltdowns, teleporting blue elves, and students who didn’t flinch when he told them his parents once tried to dissect him in a lab accident.

He was just another freak among freaks.

And he kinda loved it.

Even if his bedroom lights occasionally flickered Morse code insults.

Even if Logan kept threatening to shave his head in his sleep.

Even if Peter Parker made a “Ghost King Survival Kit” and stuffed it with snacks, holy water, and emotional support memes.

Even if the Cuckoo sisters left threatening notes in his locker written in glitter glue.

Even if Xavier kept giving him polite but exhausted psychic lectures about “not weaponizing the garden gnomes.”

Even if the Danger Room now had a setting labeled “Phantom Mode” that was literally just a green portal, a pissed-off dragon ghost, and an army of flying textbooks.

Danny Phantom was home.

And Ghost King or not, these mutants had no idea what kind of disaster they’d just adopted.

[sneppu]

The Reasons Why Severus Snape is Secretly a Cat, Actually.

I'm saying he's a neglected and abused stray little black cat and here is why

He's very meow meow. VERY kitten.

Black cats are vilified and assumed by some to be evil. Coincidentally, both of these things happen to Snape as well.

Difficult to befriend. Cats are already picky about who they like, and Cats who have had it rough are even more difficult. One cannot just waltz up to a cat like that expect friendliness, or even indifference for that matter.

Extremely bad, no good, very bad luck with dogs. Seriously, the man MUST have dog trauma by now. Werewolves? Sirius, one of his biggest haters and tormentors, a dog animagus? even Fluffy mauling his leg?? The first two were marauders, yes, but that's not a good thing when it comes to Snape. (not all dogs and cats dont get along, but its certainly interesting. Personally, I headcanon him as a definite cat person who has a bad associations with dogs but thats a whole other post.)

Very hissy and snarly and unpleasant when threatened - and sometimes, even when YOU think there's no apparent threat! This is premium Gato™ Behavior. An abused little shelter cat, horribly unsocialized, becoming hyper defensive anytime anything happens to him, even if the thing that is happening is kind.

it fits with the idea that hes "mean for no reason" because there IS a reason - cats are complicated little guys! Where you see a nonissue, He might see a threat. Where you see kindness, he might see mockery. Where you see playfulness he might see cruelty, and so on. After all, he's been on the receiving end of it all too often.

Cats like this usually end up stuck in shelters - not a home - because no one will take them. They're too offputting, they're too mean, they're too much trouble. One could argue that Hogwarts itself IS that shelter in this scenario; a place to be, but not a home. Not really.

Worth noting: maybe to Harry, Hogwarts can be considered a sort-of Home, but he actually found kindness and friends there. Severus lost his only friend and was tormented there. Better than his incredibly shitty situation with his family? Certainly! but Shelters often are.

SWM fits as well; A moment of extreme distress from being humiliated, afraid, and overwhelmed? all those jeering laughing faces while he is vulnerable and unsafe, defenseless at the hands of people who have continuously hurt him for years?? and to see and know that his friend - his BEST friend - the only friend; the only PERSON, he has, is there holding back a smile as it is happening too? Have you ever met a cat in distress? of course he lashed out. It's honestly astounding that he didnt lash out MORE.

and while on the subject of SWM, him lashing out at Lily applies here too. A cornered, distressed cat (especially one with a history of abuse) sees everything as a threat , even people it is normally friendly to, if it's distressed enough. Have you tried to bathe a cat? or maybe tried to coax one to get into a cat carrier for the vet? these things are very difficult but manageable at the best of times but "vulnerable, afraid, humiliated, and threatened" are NOT the best of times, I fear.

it even works with his occlumency and the way he deals with vulnerability as well. Cats, when in pain, do their best to hide that pain. This is because to be outwardly hurt is to be vulnerable, and that can lead to predation by bigger animals. Severus too, hides his vulnerability. The things that truly matter to him, his worries, his soft and squishy bits, and loyalties all carefully locked away.

Rivalry with Minerva?? that's just good ol' unserious cat drama. Have u ever seen an indoor cat staring down a stray through the window? silly little creatures. They'll grumble about it and act like its on sight (and maybe it is!) but when you're not looking, there'll be sniffing through the glass and pretending they dont care while they nap suspiciously close by.

Starved for affection and touch. An abused stray, past all the hissing and the fear and violence, once they're finally given a chance and finally understand that they are safe, just wants to be loved. They usually end up being the most affectionate and loyal cats of all! only to those they feel safe with, of course.

And speaking of loyalty, that applies here too. He was loyal to Lily, the first and only person to show him kindness (though my feelings for her are very complicated) and he was later loyal to Dumbledore. Unfortunately, neither of these people ever truly took in the stray, not really. And so the Stray was never actually socialized, and never completely safe, and never actually given a home.

and finally.. his death. Cats have a tendency to hide when nearing death, or dying.. and as such, often die in solitude. Severus may not have exactly had a direct hand in this of course, but.. there's something about him dying in this shitty little shack, far away from the action, presumably alone (or so he thought until Harry and his friends materialized out of nowhere under the cloak.). He wasn't actually alone in his actual final moments, but in the time leading up to it? Very lonely.

In a way, one could say that Lily came closest to adopting the stray Sev cat. And maybe she would have! maybe she wanted to take in the stray at one point - had planned to, even! But her friends told her he was dirty and gross, "who knows where that things been! he's probably diseased". and The marauders kept tormenting him, making him increasingly defensive and hissy and violent, as cats often are in that situation and then it was also "look how cruel and mean he is! he'll only hurt you". and maybe when the time finally came and that defensiveness finally WAS aimed at her it only confirmed what she had already begun to believe. And then she decided she wasnt a cat person after all. Who knows? One could make an argument for all of that. Do i see things that way? maybe, maybe not. My feelings toward every character who is not Snape are largely indifferent for the most part.

Verdict: Severus Snape is a Cat. He is a little kitten meow meow. Give this man a little cauldron to curl up in asap

[softly-sirius]

Hellooo I’d like to request a how the bear staff treats you on your first day of your period pls thanks!!!

Hi Anon, thank you for your request and your patience. If I've missed someone you really wanted please reach out and I'll do a follow-up :)

How The Bear staff look after their partner on their period? (Gn)

Currently on shift: Carmen, Marcus, Sydney, Richie, Fak, Luca

18+

TW: This piece talks about reader having a period, which is not solely a female experience so I have tried to keep this piece gn. While I haven't explicitly written anything suggesting reader deals with gender dysmorphia or trauma relating to getting their period because I don’t feel at all qualified to write about that, I also have tried not to include anything that denotes the reader as presenting as female. Please reach out if there is anything I’ve missed 

Carmen

He’s… confused, but he’s got the spirit. 

You’re his first proper partner so it takes a while for it to click

Doesn’t understand why you keep going to the bathroom all day? Was it something he cooked?

Doesn’t understand why you suddenly want to sleep with clothes on? 

Why do you constantly want to suck him off for nothing in return?

Why do you keep getting so upset over something insignificant?

Why are you taking so many painkillers?

How come you’re constantly talking to Marcus about chocolate? 

As soon as he works up the nerve to ask you about it, you’re back to ‘normal’

It’s like clockwork, every single month

Then one day he’s talking to Richie….a day that will live down in infamy and Richie tells him what's up. 

Carmen never mentions it, but soon enough he’s cooking up food with high iron content. 

Bringing home Marcus’ ‘leftover’ desserts (he asked Marcus to make them just for you)

He’s offering you his nicest sweats and buys a soft blanket for his apartment. 

You think nothing of it until he asks you to check his phone for him and you see the webpage he’d had open about period side effects and how to treat them. 

Suddenly all the peppermint tea in his cupboard made sense. 

He’s such a secret sweetheart and he’ll deny it if you mention it, but he would do anything to make you feel better.

Sydney

She really, truly, gets it. 

I feel like your cycles align

It’s great because she always has what you need. 

Pain-killers, pads, tampons, cups, period underwear, pills, whatever method you use you have each other covered. 

Who knew boiling each other's menstrual cups could be so romantic? 

Matching little period pouches, that Syndey probably embellished especially for you

You both make little cocoons on the sofa out of blankets and cuddle

She’ll make you packed lunches for work with iron-rich foods

You both kind of know when the other is approaching, emotions are a little stronger than they would normally be, so you’re always supporting each other through it 

Candle-lit baths together with no over-head lights and soft music

Fak

He’s a giant teddy bear and a human space heater 

He is an essential part of your period survival strategy

If he even dares to leave the apartment on the first day of your period, he gets the silent treatment for the rest of it. 

He will happily have you wrapped around him like a koala, and if he needs to move and get something he just carries you and your blanket with him. 

Luca

Prince/ss Treatment ™

Sweet nicknames

Backrubs

Never makes you stand up to get anything if he can help it

Copious amounts of chocolate

Brushes your teeth for you, after eating copious amounts of chocolates

Kneads your stomach like dough 

Kisses you until you're sick of it

Cries with you at the sad movies you insist you can watch

Sways you in his arms

Will happily hold your lower body in place when you need to stick your head outside the window to get some fresh air to stop the nausea. 

Marcus

Ultimate Prince/ss Treatment ™

Anything you want, you will get and he will make it from scratch

Fluffy socks warmed up in the tumble dryer

Heating pad

Massages

Kisses

Cuddles

You pick what to watch all day, no complaints

He will run you a bath, get your pyjamas ready for you and let you cry into his shoulder when you’re overwhelmed by how sweet he is. 

Styles your hair for you (if applicable) to keep it away from your face

Richie

A possible controversial take, but will bring it up before you if he sees you suffering

He just does not care, he had a wife and has a kid, he will not be grossed out

If you feel embarrassed about it, you get over it quickly with how casually he talks about it

If anything aches his fingers are massaging it before you can even ask

He will buy you pads, tampons, whatever you need, he’s proud of it because it proves he has a partner. 

If he sees you boiling your mensural cup in a pan, he’ll take it upon himself to do it for you.

He’ll just boil it while cooking up his scrambled eggs in the morning

He probably even just put it in the dishwasher…and promptly bought you a new one. 

It’s the colour of his eyes because he’s romantic like that, kind of wanted to get it personalised too, just for shits and giggles. 

You bleed on his sheets? Who gives a shit, c’mon give him a cuddle

You bleed through in public? No problem, he is standing behind you with his hands on your hips so no one can see, or giving you his hoodie to tie around your waist. 

Will give you shit for how emotional you get, but he gives you shit for everything so if he didn’t it would feel even weirder. 

He has it marked on his calendar, his wall calendar because he’s old school.

He’s not always one for words, but the way he gently rubs his thumb over the bump of your tummy for hours without even mentioning it, eyes glued to the TV, but lips pressed to the top of your head? Words couldn’t do justice to how precious that makes you feel.

Still Hungry? Here is our Menu:

Would you love me if I was a worm?

Would you peel my orange?

Will you watch Barbie with me?

Wiping off their kisses

Are the bear staff jacked and kind?

[catgrandpa]

I started this post with the intention of asking for fic recs where Bruce gets his kids early, but then I ended up just writing some ficlets

_(:3 」∠)_

I still really just want recs I swear but I wrote these anyway and am incapable of doing more with them so here

☆彡

Dick Grayson is 8 years old when he watches his parents die. Bruce is 24 years old when he sees a young boy’s life fall to pieces. He’s far too young to be a single father. But he sees too much of himself in the child, and he knows in his heart that he won’t be able to walk away from him.

He talks to Alfred about his fears of only furthering Dick’s trauma by failing him as a guardian. It takes some time, but Alfred is able to convince Bruce to find a therapist and take some discreet parenting classes. He’s still Batman, and I don’t think he’s capable of Gentle Parenting™ but he does do better. Plus, Dick is young enough to learn to read Bruce before the teenage hormones kick in so they manage to communicate much more effectively with each other.

☆彡

Bruce meets Catherine Todd by chance because there was a cool park Dick wanted to stop at. She’s trying to deal with her hungry and fussy 3 year old step son, but she’s young and stressed out and hungry herself and she just doesn’t know what to do. Bruce offers to take them out for lunch. He asks Dick to take Jason to the play area in the corner while they talk.

She breaks down and tells him of her struggles with addiction. She does her best to keep Jason fed, but it’s so hard. Feeding him means she goes hungry most of the time because she can’t quit using. Jason wouldn’t survive if she had to go through withdrawals with him.

He’s not even her kid! Not really. Her husband is just an abusive deadbeat so she doesn’t have a choice. She does love him, but she never wanted kids, and she can’t just let a child die when she can do something.

Bruce fills their fridge and cabinets to the brim (he offers to do much more for them but that’s all she will budge on. She has too much pride to accept outright charity, but she will do what she can to keep her kid safe) and he makes it clear to her that he is willing to take care of Jason for however long is necessary when she decides to take the first step to get clean.

Two months later, Willis gets arrested and Catherine shows up at Wayne Manor and tells Bruce she signed up for inpatient, but she thinks it would be best for Jason and for herself if Bruce would be willing to take permanent custody. She stays in Jason’s life, just not as a mother figure.

☆彡

A year or so later, Bruce gifts Alfred with a vacation as an early birthday present. Things have been hectic with the sudden acquisition of two sons, and Alfred has done so much, he deserves a break. Bruce promises he’ll be able to handle two kids on his own.

Turns out, he was mostly right, but only just barely. The kids are fine, the manor not so much. He ends up hiring a few services to help out with general housekeeping. A couple of those workers also happen to be regular hires for the Drakes.

Bruce overhears them talking about how sad it is that those awful people treat their toddler more like a doll than a child. He learns that not only do they leave for long periods at a time while not hiring a proper nanny to watch over their son, just expecting the help to take care of him, but they also lock him away on his own whenever it’s ’not fashionable’ to have a 2 year old around.

Alfred comes back to the manor on August 15th, just in time to celebrate his and Master Jason’s birthdays together. He opens the door and dodged around a very excited 4 year old jumping up and down in the entry hall.

“ALFIE! ALFIE! BOOSE GOT ME A BABY BWOTHER FOR MY BIRFDAY! LOOK! LOOK! HIMS NAME IS TIMMY AND HE’S THE BESTEST!”

Alfred leans over to peak behind the boy, and sees a very quiet, very small child standing behind him.

“Oh, dear.”

☆彡

The day Bruce got the call from Talia telling him she was pregnant with his child was one of the best days of Bruce’s life. The day she called to tell him she miscarried was one of the worst.

The only blessing was that he didn’t need to explain it to his kids. Talia was going to move in once she was in her second trimester, and they planned to reveal her pregnancy together.

He got the call two weeks before her flight out. He begged her to come anyway, he loved her, they could still be a family. She refused.

Six and a half months later, he walks into his bedroom to find Talia standing by the window with a squirming bundle in her arms. With equal measures steel and sorrow in her eyes she tells Bruce she is sorry for what she put him through, but it was the only way to keep their son safe. He gathers them both in his arms and holds them tight as she explains.

Her father had planned to raise an heir to be the Demon Head. He would be kept a secret from Batman until the very end. But when Talia gave the final push to birth their son, he came out quiet. She panicked for a moment until her midwife quietly leaned down to listen to the baby’s breathing and then looked up with a soft smile, she bundled up the small thing and handed Talia her baby. Big beautiful green eyes blinked up at her. The midwife leaned closer to Talia and whispered, “Sadly, your son was stillborn. I’m deeply sorry for your loss, but surely The Great Head of the Demon would be willing to allow you some time away from your duties while you recover.” Talia allowed the woman to cover her beautiful cooing baby gently with soft linen and silk and carry him from the room. Later that night she left her home with her son and boarded the first flight to Gotham.

Tears gather on Bruce’s lashes and he tells her everything will be alright because now they can finally be together as a family. Once more, she refuses. She tells him Damian and his boys are far too precious for her to bring the danger of the league of assassins to their door. Bruce closes his eyes in sorrow, but nods his acceptance. He asks her to at least stay the night together. They fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms with their baby boy safely bundled between them. Talia is gone when he wakes.

☆彡

It’s been one week since Talia left and, while still beyond upset, Bruce feels like he’s starting to have a decent handle on things. He is sitting with his boys at the breakfast table, Dick and Jason to his left, Tim to his right, Damian in his arms, and Alfred across from him. They’re finally able to have a relaxing breakfast. No babies crying, no food fights, no arguing, just the sounds of eating and gentle chatter.

He feels a small hand grab his right sleeve and give a gentle tug.

“Boo?” Tim asks, quietly. Bruce feels his heart warm at his son finally feeling like he can speak up without permission.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Why isn’t Big Sister sitting with us?”

Alfred is the only person in the room other than Tim to not startle at the sudden appearance of a 5 year old girl standing next to Bruce at the dining table. He simply sighs, stands up, and grabs another place setting for her at the table.

[yume-writes]

*Gasp!* I-I can't believe enough people like my writing, thanks for tagging me and I need my tissues to cry how wonderful you guys are! (Jk Blows my nose and wipes tears).

This will be different since I decided why not take a break from the Blue Rouge Arc. (Don't worry, I'm still writing more ideas into it so be patient. ;) )

So Basically remember All those Jokes about Heavy Iron being a Megop/Opmeg Child? Well... What if He is?

Hold Your Horses just yet! Before we begin, I want to clarify that this doesn't take place for the Blue Rouge or Wedding Fiasco, not even the Vengeful Blues ship happening and Megatron isn't obsessively insane, yet.(That's the ship name of Megatron, Blue cop & Optimus for you.) Also, Jun is not experimented M.E.C.H because I don't want my Baby Boy THAT kind of trauma so this takes place in another Timeline. Remember, Cybertronians are Asexual as a species and only created by Primus by the Well of all sparks. (Excluding Fanfictions since I don't want to make you uncomfortable by the amount of Fanfics involving, a different way of being created.)

Before Primus stopped creating more sparks due to the constant rampaging war and deaths, He decided to create one last spark based on the Leaders of Two Factions, not for peace but....

.

.

.

.

.

Out of SPITE! That's right, Primus is so fragging tired of them that He Decided to create a Love Child based out of them, OUT OF SPITE! to be shamed and Humiliated! Oh just because you guys have a Divorce, that doesn't mean you got to involve everyone in it HUH!? Yeah, Primus is already TIRED that He Decided that his last Creation is a Megop/Opmeg child to Spite them!

Ironically he's also caring and pitiful about what he created that he decided to transport the sparkling away from Cybertron from the war between two factions and not let It be involved by their Parents Ideology clashing in, by a Faraway yet Familiar planet of one of their Cousins... MACHINA.

(Which I call it. "Primus' Spite Child.™", this basedly a what if, purely Based on Primus as a character if he wasn't all mysterious. Can't wait to see their reaction, peace out!).

MCB x TFP crossover

Imagine making your god so annoyed of your fighting he creates a whole love child based on you and your rival. Like, how do you react to that?!

Also they don't know about Heavy Iron at first! Primus transports them away to Machina so they would have no clue about him! The moment they find out they're shocked, how could he be their child?! They can't even do that!!! And when they find out PRIMUS HIMSELF made Heavy Iron, god how do you even react?!

Optimus has to deal with that knowledge more because Heavy Iron is with the bots at the moment. He doesn't know if he should act fatherly to him, or act like a mentor. He tries both, but Heavy Iron keeps ignoring. So Optimus is at a loss. It doesn't help that the matrix feels like it's laughing at him

Megatron has to take a minute to take the reveal in and he still doesn't fully believe it. Primus, their creator, made a child out of spite because of their fighting, how do you take that in? Megatron does like that Heavy Iron is extremely strong and keeps trying to get him to join the cons. But because of Jun and the Metal Breath it's not working

Primus is insanely even more annoyed. Even after the reveal the two are STIL FIGHTING!! He made a child in the hopes the two would stop and it did nothing!! At least Optimus Prime is trying, but still. The war has been going on for a long time, and that's from a god who has been around since the start of the universe! If he could he would put his head in his hands, he sooo tired of these two

Heavy Iron had no idea he technically has parents and he honestly wants no part in either of them, leave him alone

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Maternophobia

I could use our bone boi getting stepped on, head cruelly cocked back so he can't see dem panties. Part of me wanted the image to be them all tied with with Nami hilariously giving Jinbei shit because he's supposed to be able to handle things. But no. Boney get a "whiteout" panel and that makes this a true red-letter day. This is subtle, but it is exactly what I wanted to see out of Brook & Gunko. He seems to recognize something about her. He's able to learn she's a fan. So even given this tense situation, he's very polite in his rejection to be a music slave. But specifically highlighting how Luffy gave him a new lease on life.

We've established the idea that Gunko might be somewhat a victim in the sense of never really knowing she had a choice. Brook is providing proof that circumstances can change and relationships can change them. Do you know how badly I wanted Brook to have a moment like this with Kiku? Obviously Gunko is an antagonist and that makes things very different in a lot of ways, but I love how even the framing here and following that bit from Nami serve to highlight what we talked about last time. Brook is getting a chance to show where his specific experience and wisdom can do what Jinbei cannot. And that is something very cool and very hard to express so I want to highlight it and admire it when it happens.

With that out of the way...iconic. You know what? No. It's peak "Wife Bad" Boomer Humor™ but it works because it is so unabashedly peak Boomer Humor™ and doesn't feel like it needs to put on pretentious airs of justifying itself. This is hilarious. The real monsters have awoken from the children's dreams...THEIR MOTHERS!!!

Fuck it, based. I have mother issues, stopped being scared of a pathetic drunk as I got older but when I was a kid that shit was terrifying. I don't think these giant moms are that bad, but they sure seem strict and imposing. A serious challenge indeed. We also have Spooky Gregg back hanging around a few panels so that's nice. It seems our eulogy was premature. But he is already a ghost so it's never fully inaccurate to honor his memory.

Jokes and personal trauma aside, there's a bit more thematic harmony with this gag than just lol scary moms. A land like Elbaph is now where kids are well behaved and focused on education kinda sounds like a land of strict, strong moms keeping them in line. Not a huge deal, the gag is good on its own, if they were actually Dorry/Brogy's wives I'd be on their side because you better not have run of on a 100yr duel if you're married. But it does connect more to what's going on than just being a silly goof.

Speaking of cool, very impressive Collun. He's jumped up to the front of the line and willingly got involved in the compulsion to follow the arrow just for a chance to help and keep things calm. Down below with Ripley & Scopper finding this out is hilarious...and kinda feeds back into that point about parents. Gaban's all like, hell yeah that's mah boy. Ripley's not having it and demanding he go save the kid. Hilarious and they're cute together.

And it leads to the cool part at the end! Sure there's a former Roger Pirate heavyweight jumping into the fray but they have angered the Devil Child and that is not a smart thing to do if you like things like being alive. I will never ever ever not love the series treating Robin like a core threat on the Straw Hats rather than a smart pawn to try and capture. Show Saul how far you've come by showing how fiercely you'll protect the friends you've found girl.

[ilikekidsshows]

In general the stans just fully hate the idea of abuse victims that can negatively impact the "good characters" in the show so they start coming up with some bullshit reasoning to make it so that doesn't happen in the fanon version they made up and think is real.

Whether you like her or not, Chloe is 100% an abuse victim but the issue that people had with her is that her character arc was centered on her (which is a good way to go about it because change starts with the self), she didn't have people to immediately vouch for her "goodness" (coughfelixandzoecough) cause it's not her victims' jobs to help her if they don't want to, and she did backslide a bit cause old habits die hard. That is to say it was far too realistic for their liking (at least in the earlier seasons) and it didn't end with her being a Marinette dicksucker so they say that she deserves to be abandoned by the man who raised her (white male apologia is abundant in ML) and abused by her mother (yet another case of characters being abuse apologists). Compare that to what happened with Zoe and Felix. Just not a good look all around when you're only willing to think that only "perfect/good" abuse victims are the only valid ones.

And there is nothing wrong with Adrien reacting "badly" to any of the news he gets. I'd argue that at the very least him finding out about Gabriel being Hawkmoth doesn't really have anything to do with his abuse narrative and might even have more to do with him being Chat Noir. Him reacting badly to his dad being a terrorist would be just as natural as anyone irl finding out a family member they were close to was a serial killer. The real issue isn't about his "bad reaction" it's that it'll affect all the "good" characters that "tried their hardest" to keep him in the dark because "they love and care about him so so much." (Not enough to let him be his own person but sure. These people are on the verge of becoming his new abusers lbr.) It's about how his "bad reaction" will Make Marinette Upsette.

Honestly, I think the stans would even be on his side if canon didn't have Marinette insert herself in the family drama and stupidly keep it a secret because she doesn't want to be inconvenienced with the fact that her bf has real emotions and could possibly be upsette with her for even a second. She was the one that brought this on herself and for some reason people think that Adrien should take the blame for it?

Like ultimately they don't want to think about "abuse" as anything other than a buzzword but one that only applies to Marinette and maybe a select few but only if that select few is part of the "good character" group and if they immediately forgive her if she did something wrong and willingly become one of her on call servants.

---

Yeah, like, apparently, to Miraculous’ writers and fans, “no one deserves to be abused, even bad people” is a super-hot take, as is “sometimes, how trauma victims deal with their trauma is inconvenient to you, and you’ll have to accept it isn’t about you.” Like, how Adrien would deal with his dad being a supervillain is not a Marinette Crisis(™), but the Marinette standom can’t shut up about how bad Marinette is feeling and how much worse she’d feel if Adrien started on a recovery process.

Nothing the abuse victims do in this show will ever be good enough, unless it allows Marinette and her stans to ignore their victim status as a whole. This, I think, is why I haven’t seen many posts disparaging Kagami despite her also being a child abuse victim. Her trauma never has a chance to make things inconvenient for Marinette, so she’s okay. She’s strong and capable, unlike her fellow victims.

Frankly, I think the toxic Marinette stans just hate abuse victims period, considering the difficulty they have with getting through a single interaction with someone without slipping in something ableist. Like, I got the most asinine anon just this week and I didn’t need any details about what set them off to know it was from a Marinette stan just because of how ableist it was. These kinds of stans can’t even pretend to be normal about other people for five seconds. It's like they think they need to be awful or someone will come in and revoke their Marinette stan card.

[hikaaa-bi]

i find it funny how people praise the owl house for breaking the trend of redeeming the villain when the show instead took the laziest path with dealing with their villain. i mean, i get it. not all villains need to be redeemed and sometimes, it's just fine to kill them off or defeat them. no character is irredeemable, but sometimes the point is that people refuse to change.

but what they did with belos was just lazy. he didn't need to be redeemed, sure, but his ending was way too anti-climactic. he was such a complex character to just be labelled as Pure Evil™ and killed off at the end. he didn't need to be redeemed, but he at least deserved to be acknowledged as the three-dimensional complex character that he is. he wasn't just a disney-esque villain who did everything for power and had no depth to his personality. he was a symbol of religious trauma and how it affects people. he was a horrible person but also a sympathetic one, because i can only imagine how harmful growing up in the puritan era would have been.

like i said before, the show being cancelled is not an excuse. i was so excited to see all the religious and spiritual themes in belos's past, and all the theories that fans were coming up with. hell, some fans did a better job of representing belos than the show ever did. i just feel like it was a whole bag of lost potential. belos could have been one of the most insanely complex and well-written villains but the creators of the owl house wants to impress its fans, so they pull a "haha we're not like other shows because we can't sympathize with the villain!" newsflash: you don't need to redeem the villain in order to portray them as sympathetic. azula from avatar and simon from infinity train are good examples of sympathetic villains/antagonists who don't get redeemed.

it's even more ridiculous considering how rushed and badly written lilith's arc was, even though she cursed her sister, tried to kill a literal child, and almost got her sister turned to stone. you'd think if the show despises redemptions so much, they wouldn't give lilith a lazy and rushed redemption arc like that, only to render her useless for the rest of the show.

[sweetheartsofpanem]

Comfort - Peeta Mellark

Purely self indulgent fic, I’m not doing the best right now and I wish I just had Peeta here to give me a hug :( sorry if there’s any typos or anything! fyi, i will take requests! i write for a lot of different characters so just ask if i will and i might! i don’t really have any restrictions on what i’ll write about minus smut:)

Pairing: Peeta Mellark x Female!Reader

Warnings: maybe OOC!Peeta?, mentions of trauma but no description, pure fluff, slight angst?, idk if there’s anything else lmk if i missed anything

Word Count: 600(?)

Like I said, purely self indulgent. (Y/N) is sad and Peeta is a Sad Baby™ himself and understands how to comfort (Y/N) because of it.

Masterlist

Peeta could tell you were upset the second he laid eyes on you. Your smile when greeting him wasn’t as bright as it usually was and you seemed distracted, like you weren’t really present, when Peeta began talking about his day. He always seemed to pick up on your moods, even when you tried hiding the fact that you’re upset from him. Dealing with his own traumas and bad days had caused him to be able to spot yours in seconds.

“(Y/N)?” He says your name softly, so as to not startle you, and smiles softly when you turn to look at him. He tucks a loose strand of hair behind your ear, tilting his head as he studies your features.

“Are you doing alright, my love?” His voice is soft, so gentle, and it causes the dam to break. Tears begin to slide down your cheeks as you shake your head, a sob racking your body. Peeta gathers you up in his arms and pulls you into his lap, holding you tight against his body.

“It’s alright, it’s okay, I’m here.” He kisses the side of your head, one of his hands rubbing up and down your back while he rocks you slightly. He feels his heart tighten as another sob falls from your lips, his hold on you tightening.

“If you’re feeling up to it, we can talk about what’s bothering you. Don’t force yourself to if you don’t want to, okay? We can always talk about it later.” Peeta pulls you away from his body so he can see your face and smiles softly at you, wiping the tears off your cheeks. You smile weakly at him, trying to convey to him that you were grateful for his comfort.

“I-I think I j-just need to c-cry.” Peeta nods his head in understanding, kissing your forehead. He pulls you into him again, whispering sweet nothings and comforting words in your ear. Your sobs eventually subside, but tears still fall from your eyes as you hold tightly to Peeta. He doesn’t let you leave his arms until you’re no longer crying, but even then he doesn’t stop taking care of you. He draws you a warm bath with scented bath salts, ones he knows help calm you down. Once you’re seated in the bath, he whispers about anything that comes to mind to distract you from the bad thoughts as he washes your hair. After the bath, he helps you into the clothes you always prefer when having a rough day.

“Thank you.” You whisper to him when you’re settled in bed, your head tucked into his chest and his arms around you. One of the things you loved most about Peeta was his ability to be so kind, so loving, without even thinking about it. It was just in his nature to be that way and it made you fall head over heels for him the first time you witnessed it.

“Of course, my love.” His whispered reply makes you pull back from his chest to look up at him, pure adoration and love in your eyes for this puppy dog of a man you called your boyfriend.

“I love you.” You whisper, your lips split into a lovesick grin. His smile mirrors your own as he pulls you into a gentle kiss, trying to put all his love into the gesture.

“I love you more than you could ever know.” His murmured reply is all you hear before you’re slipping off into a much needed rest.

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

So have any unpopular opinions about the owl house? Mine is that Gus should gotten more recognition in the show and the fandom.

i agree honestly, gus was a character with so much potential and they completely squandered that. but at least he got a few episodes centred around him, unlike bow who had no role in the story apart from being the emotional support and the occasional comic relief.

my unpopular opinion is that.. the fandom blames the disney executives too much. don't get me wrong, they definitely screwed over the show and refused to let dana give us the entire story she had planned out. but a lot of the bad writing in s2b and s3 (and heck, even in s1) was the entirety the writers' fault.

unlike some other shows, the creators toh actually got the opportunity to wrap up the story. there were a lot of shows that were just cancelled with no warning, and the creators never got to write a conclusion. in that sense, the writers of toh got lucky and they should have used that to their advantage.

especially in s3, all three episodes together had a longer runtime than that of a movie. and i believe disney announced the decision to cancel when s1 was almost over, so they had all the time in the world to plan things out and make a coherent plotline instead of focusing on rushed ships and fanservice.

i was so excited for s3 and it was sorely disappointing. belos went from being a complex three-dimensional villain to just your standard Big Bad™ with no motivation outside of pOwEr. hunter was given trauma after trauma to deal with, and none of it was addressed properly afterwards. huntlow was rushed and unnatural, and screwed over both characters involved. luz's whole epiphany and the palisman was extremely lackluster, and her palisman didn't even play a huge role in the narrative afterwards. titan luz was just a deus ex machina and went against the original message of the story, which was that “there is no chosen one”.

overall, i feel like the creators did a bad job of handling the story and fans should stop blaming everything on the show's cancellation. it's an easy excuse because they don't want to hold the writers accountable for their bad writing decisions.

[whumpsday]

🛠 Catharsis Masterlist

(robot whumpee, defiant whumpee, whumpee turned whumper turned caretaker)

Left with debilitating trauma after escaping years of abuse at the hands of his captor, Luan had the perfect outlet for all the emotions he didn't want to deal with: a customized Catharsis Therapy Bot™, designed to look and act just like his captor and react satisfyingly when he took his artificial revenge. Luan and his robot's lives are both turned upside down when a public announcement declares the model sentient, leaving Luan to try and pick up the pieces of the thinking, feeling being who's only ever known hurt.

⛓️ = Luan's captivity

⚡ = 1's captivity

🧰 = Recovery arc

Story:

🧰 Talking (#1)

⛓️ My Place (#2)

⚡ Unboxed (#3)

🧰 (coming soon)

AU:

Kane & Jim x Catharsis: Kane & Luan

Fanfiction:

Rayan x 1 by sowhumpshaped

Other:

Fanart

Picrews

Answered asks

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Musings: Unreliable Narrators: Claudia vs Lestat

I've seen so many Lestans calling Claudia an unreliable narrator as a subtle/overt way of calling her a LIAR™. They're swearing up & down that S3 will revisit everything to disprove Claudia's diaries, and that THE TRUTH™ will finally be told by Lestat. Please set the record straight White Savior Massa Lestat 😔🙏 cuz heaven knows you can't trust NONE of these Darkies--not Louis, not Claudia, and clearly not even Negroid-Adjacent-Asian Armand. They're all Liars™, but lord knows Lestat "I never lie" de Lioncourt's never lied!🤞(x x x)

The Claudia-antis then pretend they GAF about her by jumping on Louis. Louis-antis constantly yell at him in 1x5 cuz he attacked Daniel for demanding to read the missing pages about Claudia's SA; calling Lou a dirty pimp exploiting Claudia and violating her privacy by giving Daniel ANY of Claudia's diaries to use in the memoir he knew would be published & sold. Claudia's diaries were private & never meant to be read by anyone, let alone mass-consumed; and Louis' a terrible effing scumbag just like Santiago to have anyone read her words, when he knew how upset she got over Les reading all of them ("don't do that, it's private!"). She's a liar but her words are sacred.

First of all: People keep forgetting diaries/memoirs/etc are NOT required to be 100% TRUE/ACCURATE in order to be 100% AUTHENTIC/SINCERE. 😤

TVC/IWTV are all about perspectives. Anne Rice revolutionized the vampire genre by humanizing vampires to the extent that we get their own voices & perspectives, more deepely contextualizing their motives, desires, fears, and even traumas and sufferings. But part of the tragedy about The Vampire Claudia is that for all the yelling & hollering she does in IWTV & TotBT, we never really get her words from HER account until Merrick. Even then, it's in a very limited form: a meagre handful of diary pages, and her ghost haunting Louis in a rage. AMC went the distance to really flesh out Claudia's diaries, and expand her voice, while still acknowledging all the ways the voice of a little girl has been ventriloquized & editorialized by adult men.

AMC's decision to compare Claudia to Anne Frank & Stephen King is VERY telling.

book!Claudia's diaries are pure Horror a la Stephen King, as all she really only used them for is to document her Murder Plot, and plans for going to Europe with Louis to find the truth about vampires from a more reliable source than "The Father of Lies," Lestat.

In contrast, AMC!Claudia's diaries inc. all the grisly Horror aspects, but with the added more nuanced dimension of ALSO being a far more Autobiographical a la Anne Frank, who was merely writing as a teenage girl dealing with teenage girl things: her thoughts & experiences with her family & her love interests, etc. The backdrop of the Holocaust is something Anne never really spoke on; but historical context is clear that she obvs still experienced it, and her diaries are often edited & editorialized & curated & marketed & sold & read thru the lens of the Holocaust; even though that was never the point of her private personal writings.

After her death, her diaries were given to her father, Otto Frank, who then chose to edit & publish them, to memorialize his daughter since his whole family died in the camps. Because Otto removed large pieces of Anne's writing, arguments persisted over whether Anne & Otto should be considered co-authors or not. It's Anne's diaries, but whose curated story/narrative is this, Anne's or her dad's?

Her dad removed the sexually explicit material from Anne's diaries about her sex life/experimentation/etc; as well as mundane vignettes. Her diary was "editorialized" not to deceive or lie to people, but to respect her privacy. (Ofc uncensored versions are now published. 🙄)

There were also things in Anne's writings that portrayed IRL people she knew in VERY unflattering lights, that she herself chose to present certain ways. One dude took particular umbrage over Anne having renamed him "Mr. Nitwit" cuz she didn't like him, and TO HER he was stupid AF, but to his family he was a paragon of behavior.

Just cuz Anne represented Mr. Nitwit in a certain way doesn't mean she was lying on him. She didn't like him, and was writing HER TRUTH about how she perceived him, regardless of how he or his family saw him. He and his family kept tryna get her diaries & film/stage adaptations edited to more accurately/truthfully represent, and he was shot down every single time, cuz it doesn't effing matter what anyone else thought. Anne's opinions aren't any less valid just cuz he took offense! All that matters is what SHE thought about him. And TO ANNE, Mr. Nitwit was a frikkin moron! 😂 Eff him!

Likewise, it doesn't matter that Les insisted how happy they all were at Rue Royale, pointing out that there were good moments Lou never mentioned, or loving & romantic moments Loustat shared. IWTV stands as-is as a representation based on how LOUIS felt, eff Les! Same way it doesn't matter that Lou insisted that he tried as hard as he could to do right by Claudia--and it ESPECIALLY doesn't matter if Les felt he deserved to die or not. All that matters is that TO CLAUDIA, somebody needed to die to satisfy her resentment & rage at how miserable SHE felt about her life; that not even her diary pages could hold as her effing ghost restlessly wandered Rue Royale, not at peace. SHE decided that her opp was Lestat; eff him!

And this also applies to Claudia's POV of Les' injuries in Ep5. While I still believe part of why Les' bloody appearance changes is cuz of vampire healing a la the books/film (since we KNEW Les's super strong & already had the Fire Gift in S1), I also think a HUGE factor's that we saw the fight thru 2 key povs: the victim being abused (Claudia & Lou in 1x5), and the abuser victimizing himself (Les in 2x7). Ofc Loustat each hyperfocused on their injuries. Les was bleeding from every effing pore. BUT! He never denied that he bit Lou SEVERAL times (draining his blood to WEAKEN Lou), and beat Lou's face. BUT! None of Lou's injuries were oozing as bad as Les', which is ofc a sign of minimizing Lou's injuries to make Les seem more sympathetic--meanwhile Claudia's broken leg & head injury weren't shown in 2x7 AT ALL, cuz SHE'S the one doomed to die.

And the Trial brings me to another point.

Second of all: Intent matters. Claudia's reasons for writing a diary, and Lou's reasons for using Claudia's diaries are LEAGUES different from Santiago's

Like I already said:

Claudia's diaries were used against her in the Trial to condemn her to death, burned alive at the stake all for the unforgivable crime of hating the father who abused her and her favorite parent, and taking action to get rid of Lestat for good when he refused to let her go free, all cuz he wanted/needed to keep Louis chained down to him. Claudia's diaries (her corpus/body of work) was passed around to the coven in 2x6 & the audience in 2x7, her privacy violated as all her deepest darkest thoughts & feelings were thrown in her face, mocked, and used as ammo to ultimately kill her. She was told to be feel "SHAME!" for trying to stand up for herself, and mind-fogged and forced to STFU when she spoke out of line.

Lestat HELPED Santiago & Sam & Armand misread & misrepresent & decontextualize Claudia's diaries, yet y'all fools expect Lestat to be a paragon of truth in S3?! 😂🤣 Y'all honestly think Les will show up in S3 totally reformed, with zero chance of partiality, bias, hurt feelings, bruised egos, defensiveness/offensiveness, skewed perspectives, embellishments, misconceptions, or fallible logic whatsoever coloring his narrative or demonstrating how Les' POV is just ONE of MANY sides of the story!? He swore on his own blood and STILL lied!

Claudia had NOTHING to prove to anyone but HERSELF. Yes, she lied about not having dreams, cuz she was TRAUMATIZED, and tried to make herself be strong by not giving her nightmares power.

Ofc she had no idea how badly that lie would affect Lou, who agonized over the possibility that Claudia had no dreams, just a void. But she did not lie with the intention of maliciously hurting anyone. And mostly she lied to try to make the lie a reality: she'd rather NOT dream at all than keep having nightmares (about Bruce, Les, WW2, whatever was bothering her). Claudia's an unreliable narrator cuz all we have are her diaries, NOT cuz she said/wrote something in her diary that wasn't true. Lou thanked Daniel for helping him regain a lost piece of his memories, cuz it makes Claudia more flawed, but also more REAL. Lou'd been holding onto to her diaries as a lifeline cuz up until that time HE COULDN'T REMEMBER HER right.The diaries were all he had left--the most direct & reliable vestige of his dead daughter; where every word and ink splatter was crystalized as darn near gospel, not the living breathing girl herself. It is a mistake to treat diaries as 100% truth/fact. Cuz like I said, not one & nothing is REALLY 100% honest/true, that's impossible, through sheer fact of human fallibility. Contrary to popular effing opinion by anti-Claudia/anti-Louis Lestans & Armstans, a person who lies isn't necessarily A LIAR™.

So yeah, I just have to smdh at the copium some Lestans are huffing. They swore up & down that S2 would revisit Ep5 to prove that Louis & Claudia were lying about their poor uwu blorbo Lestat dropping Louis from the effing atmosphere; and now they're swearing that S3 will revisit S1/S2 to prove that Claudia's a liar and her diaries are effed up.

The anti-Louis Lestans had egg all over their effing faces in 2x5 - 2x8, when it became UNDENIABLE that Armand heavily factored into Louis' unreliability--AND Claudia's. YES, we been knew since S1 that Loumand tampered with Claudia's diaries, but S2 revealed even more, that Armand went BEHIND Louis' back to remove pages they DIDN'T agree together on. Claudia obvs had negative things to say about Armand, and he got rid of them cuz he didn't want DANIEL figuring out the truth about him. (Ofc, anything negative Claudia had to say about Lestat was left right where it was.)

Armand wanted Lestat to come across as negatively as possible, to Louis AND to Daniel; to make himself look better, like the genuinely better/kinder/safer option--the injection called more humane than the electric chair, although they're both terrible forms of torture. 🙄 That came at the price of sacrificing Claudia (literally & figuratively), and compromising the integrity of her diaries.

But regardless of what is or isn't missing from her diaries, and regardless of how she decided to minimize her traumas and emphasize Lestat's faults, it still doesn't take away from the fact that TO CLAUDIA, she felt she had been wronged by BOTH her parents, and acted accordingly to free herself from a bad situation the only way a child born & raised to be a effing KILLER knew how: by KILLING. If she was 100% honest about ANYTHING in those diaries, it was about the fact that she wanted Lestat to effing PAY, and SHE felt he deserved it, for the way he'd treated her AND Louis.

[aihoshiino]

it ate my fucking 'ideal oshi no ending' ask??? Tumblr, whyyyyyyy

i didn't write shit down anywhere else, I'll try my best to 'member. i'll write down everything again as good as i can, lets pray i wont miss anything :'D

okay, so aqua does his super smart (stupid) plan, but he and kamiki survive and end up hospitalized. kamiki wakes up first and, while he doesn't regret all the things he did, decides to stop™ and to also honor Ai and her memory by telling aquas version of what happened. bc at the end, kamiki loves Ai. and Ai loves her children, and he wants to finally honor her and her wishes by doing what she'd want. (i had been pondering that one a bit more after sending the og ask, and i want his eureka moment to be smth like him being close enough to death that he actually manages to talk to Ai in the afterlife. or at least thinks that he is)

anyways, when aqua wakes up, he's surrounded by his friends and family. kana gets to bitch slap him bc she said she would do that and honestly i support her rights and wrongs. big affirmation of aqua being loved and supported by everyone.

then he gets a private talk with akane, who essentially goes 'okay what did actually happen' and they get to bond over both having had to deal with being suicidal and having attempted to end their lives, essentially a role reversal to the Love Now arc.

after that, ruby talk to resolve THE FUCKING KISS. let ruby finally properly break down and start to move on from the sarina/gorou thing. hell, use it so aqua gives her a push to talk to kana and mem-cho about how shit ruby was to them while going all black hoshigan. allow her to acknowledge that she has been imitating Ai and finally step out of her shadow. THANK YOU

also, solely needed, aqua and kamiki talk. idk if that was in my original ask (i think it was?) but let aqua find out about kamikis reasoning for going with aquas version of the story. and then, let them have a proper talk. (.... kamiki comparing aqua to Ai. aqua finally calling Ai his mom,,,, please,,,,)

then, timeskip pages where we get to watch rubys idol career now that she stepped into the light as herself. akane and kana acting together (akane and kana friendship. Please.) cute group stuff. aqua and ruby healing.

(bonus page: Ai smiling as she watches.)

bonus chapter gets to be aqua kana confession, can be ambiguous or ends with them dating, idc, just let kana confess.

This is. Not as well worded as the original, but this was the crux and i think the most important stuff? i did add a few scenes i thought about after sending the original ask.

(also, if anyone wants to use any of this as basis for an alternative ending fanfic /oneshot, this is the blanket permission for that.)

2024 - 2024 CLOSE ENOUGH WELCOME BACK ANON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this is the ending Big Akasaka doesn't want you to see!!!

ok no all jokes aside I still really love this!!!! I think this is basically my ideal ending for the Oshi no Ko we got - obvs if you start really diverging from the canon material you can do basically anything with it but I think when I was still in my "surely aqua will live <- clueless" era immediately post 163, this is the kind of ending I was imagining - bittersweet and still marked by tragedy and trauma but that at least allowed everyone to start the process of getting back on their feet and working their shit out.

[beloved-of-john]

Hi, I'm sorry if this comes across as trying to debate your faith, that's not my intent but as someone who was raised Devotely RC, and left the church after realising my queerness, I'm kinda curious what led you to join the church as a queer man?

That's a very valid question, and I really do sympathise with your experiences. I of course agree that the Catholic church is not great™ in its stances on queerness (and some other social issues). Maybe it's my hope that things will slowly improve, although I don't expect to see that in my lifetime.

I think at the end of the day it's the theology for me. I already had a Christian faith before I decided to convert, but when I started to read more into Catholic theology, it connected so much more with me than the Protestant ways of explaining things that I was used to. My personal experiences of God aligned much more, eg. things like having spiritual experiences with the Eucharist. I also loved the traditions, observances and the style of worship. All I can really say is the Catholic way of doing things connects me to God in a way nothing else does.

With my reasons for wanting to be Catholic laid out, I then had to consider my queerness. My godmother is a devout Catholic and so was her husband, and they had always been some of the most supportive people in my life of me being trans, so I knew that a queer-affirming version of Catholicism was possible. I was still scared of not being accepted though, so my godmother told her priest about my situation and he told her that it didn't matter if other people don't accept me, because what matters is that God does. And that did it for me really. I've been used to just living being an act of defiance for a long time now, so what else is new? If there's a space I'm not wanted, that's a space I'm going to take up. Especially if my own happiness stands to be gained. That's the priest I go to now for instruction, and while we haven't really discussed my transness, it makes a big difference to my confidence to ask questions knowing that I'm safe with him.

I think it probably helps that I realised and accepted my transness and queerness long before I felt a calling to religion. Going through that vulnerable point in my life while dealing with institutional transphobia/homophobia from the church would have certainly made things a lot more difficult when it comes to my relationship with religion. I have had bad experiences with religion growing up, and I do consider myself to have religious trauma, but I went from a very religious primary (elementary) school to a completely secular high school, and the queer stuff all went down at the latter, and my parents weren't and aren't religious. I do think God showed His presence in my life when He knew I'd be ready for it.

To sum it all up really, Catholicism is the version of Christianity that connects with me the most, I know a queer inclusive Catholicism is possible despite whatever the Pope says, and I am secure enough in my queerness and my faith that no amount of being told off is going to make any difference to me. God made me incredibly stubborn (and trans) so the haters can take it up with Him!