#one is a war criminal dictator and the other is fucking dead

[spamlets]

iterators with mouths (but really it’s only 2)

[catbountry]

I think before I go to bed, I should make it clear that my flippancy about the failed assassination attempt on Trump is because this man didn't give enough of a fuck to protect the citizens of the country he fucking ran from a deadly virus that killed hundreds of thousands of people in that country alone.

Like we talk a lot about all presidents being war criminals to come extent but for your average American, it's very hard to put names and faces to the anonymous brown people we hear getting bombed by drone strikes on the other side of the world. Like we know it's bad, but because we don't see these people, it's hard to actually like, internalize that. But with COVID? Your average American knew somebody who died, or almost died, or was in danger or dying. And this motherfucker, pumping his fist in the air after getting grazed by a bullet while a spectator in the crowd died, got to live through getting COVID because he was the President when he got it. He lived when our friends, our family, or neighbors, suffered and died. 100s of 9/11s worth of deaths happened while he was running for re-election. It's now gotten to over a million under Biden, but those early days when the most could have been done to curb the number of deaths, we just were at the mercy of a man who could not give a less of a liquid, fast-food induced shit about the average American. Like I know the government gladly serves capital over us but I've never seen it so mask off in my entire life.

I can't speak for when Reagan was president, mind, I was born halfway through his second term. Not a whole lot of memories of that because I was, you know, a baby.

But like Reagan, Trump did not take the lives of our countrymen seriously enough to even look out for us when we needed it most, and it wasn't even motivated by homophobia; just indifference. He failed us, not that we ever expected that much of him to begin with. The blood of people who we know with faces and names and voices and memories are dead because of him. And even if COVID is "over," he's made it clear that if he gets in, he doesn't fucking care if he does shit that kills more people through simply not caring, or just out of spite.

I'm sorry that I find it hard to try and play at good optics and respectability politics for the sake of not giving republicans ammo (they're gonna find ammo regardless, they always do). This man raped our country, and that word choice is very deliberate. He stumbled in, took what he wanted, broke so many rules, violated every boundary put into place to keep him in check, and like a vengeful ex, sicc'd a pack of his flying monkeys to enact violent revenge on the government elected by the people that dumped his ass. He's a petty little tyrant trying to become a dictator so he can huff deep from the most concentrated narcissistic supply known to a modern leader so far this century, and he has apologists who think he should have raped the country harder.

I am going to continue to live my life as normal as I possibly can, to try and focus on what I can do for myself to be happy and have a sense of stability and to be able to like myself, while also doing what I can to support my friends and loved ones. To remember the dead and remember what it was like to come down with COVID myself and how awful it felt. To try not to lose hope and vote if only just to protect the rights of my friends, my family, and myself, and hope that we can get through this together, whatever the fuck it will even be. I'm kinda scared, and jokes make things a little less scary because at least I know there are other people who are just as frustrated as I am, reacting the same way.

We gotta look for each other. Monke together strong.

Stay safe, guys. You are loved.

[spiderlegsmusic]

That second to the last one…I’m an atheist but it sure is weird and uncanny that Trump fits the role in Revelations better than anyone else has since…yeah, that guy. The other bunker bitch.

Trump is a racist, pedophile, sexist, misogynist, greedy, dishonest to the Nth power, rapist, convicted felon dictator wannabe. He’s a goddamn scumbag! If you think what Netanyahu is doing in Gaza is bad now, wait until Trump gets reelected cuz you throw your vote away on a 3rd party candidate who will be bound by the same treaties Biden and every president back to Reagan have been bound. And you’d start calling Jill Stein genocidal too. Or whatever throwaway party you vote for. Of the two candidates, Trump is far more dangerous to Muslims. The motherfucker banned Muslims. Kamala said on Monday our treaties with Israel will be reevaluated and revised and she is doubling down on the cease fire which probably won’t happen because Israel assassinated the Hamas negotiator. Netanyahu is a war criminal trying to goad Iran into war, one Trump will only be too happy to support. Kamala won’t be.

And if you protest with Trump as president, they will shoot you dead. He wanted to shoot BLM protesters but his defense secretary wouldn’t let him. But this time he will have sycophants in cabinet positions who will say yes to everything, so you better bet he’ll shoot you dead when you protest. Kamala won’t shoot you and she’ll have the same immunity Trump will have.

So if you find yourself in a detention camp because of something you said online about Trump (because you will) remember that you are complicit in your own demise while your captors are bombing the fuck out of the Middle East cuz WWIII, baby!

The christofascists vs Muslim fundamentalists

[officialtayley]

Ash, you got a long ask earlier that bothered me when I read it. To the anon who wrote that, I am begging you to learn more about this occupation because calling it a “conflict” clearly means you’ve only consumed Western media’s coverage of it. 

Saying “it's sooo fucking easy to keep tagging paramore saying that they totally should speak up while what does it ACTUALLY change?? nothing.” is just wrong cause it won’t be nothing.

paramore speaking up and amplifying Palestinian’s voice would not stop this genocide but it will create a much safer community in this fandom for our fellow muslim and Arab friends. There’s a reason why this fandom got more diverse over the years and that’s cause the band made it clear where they stand when talking about racial justice. You can’t deny that the majority of paramore fans get influenced by a lot of the stuff the band shares. I’ve seen fans attend shows from artists that the band recommends, I know fans who bought the same instruments as Taylor and zac and this is the fandom that tolerated and bought expensive ugly merch for a long time cause it had the paramore brand attached to it. Imagine if they share info on how to call congressmen to demand a ceasefire, you don’t think more fans would be more motivated to do it? Imagine if they share a donation link or team up with an organization like they have done in the past. You don’t think it will have an impact? 

Saying “I’m so sick of this narrative that paramore created expectations of them ALWAYS speaking up in EVERY injustice or tragic, y'all created this expectation. every activism is a selective activism. they never pretended they were gonna to speak up about everything.” Is just tone-deaf anon, I’m sorry to be blunt but the wording on this is insensitive.

This is the biggest thing happening in the world right now and US citizens specifically are all complicit in this cause their tax dollars are funding the IDF that is massacring innocent civilians. No one is asking them to speak about everything but how are they just gonna ignore a genocide? When the Ukraine war started, they didn’t ignore it, they even wrote a song about it because the coverage was everywhere and you couldn’t ignore it and move on with your life. Now it’s happening again but at a larger scale, Israel has now killed more civilians in Gaza in 30 days than Russia has in its entire war in Ukraine, which began over 600 days ago (this is the number from an NPR article published on nov 6 2023). How are you just gonna ignore this, how’s the band gonna make speeches about taking care of each other when they have ignored Palestinians? 

Out of all of the things Palestinians could have asked all of us, they just asked us to spread the word and share the things they posted because they know that the Western media are all on Israel's side. I’m not only mad at paramore, I’m mad at every single artist that was fine with calling out loud loud racist like Trump but now are silent when POTUS is hugging and offering billion of dollars of aid to a dictator and war criminal. Where’s billie eillish and taylor swift too? They were both proud at calling out politicians and now it’s silent too. 

Maybe it’s cause I grew up in a colonized country and I see the effects it has on its people every day here and I’m more sensitive to it but how do you look at those numerous videos of Palestinians crying over dead family members and destroyed homes and lands and not have the urge to speak up about the injustice? How do people look at that and just move on 

👏👏👏 this this this! thank you for picking it apart cause so much of it bothered me but i just didn't have the energy to go through it.

the last paragraph though, i feel like i'm sensitive to death, especially when it involves children and babies due to losing my baby sister in 2007. watching your own parents go through that pain and then also i was going through it myself, when i see those videos it's extremely heartbreaking because it's like no one cares. these families are losing each other, losing entire bloodlines, and people are somehow able to just keep scrolling without a word? it's different obviously if the content is triggering, but many of us are still able to share other things and use our voices, but outside of that, i have no idea how people can just move on with their day.

[untamedmetablogiguess]

ok, i said i had some stuff to say about nie mingjue and meng yao’s fake suicide attempt, so here it goes.  it’s time to talk about 

~CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE ABDICATION OF RESPONSIBILITY~~~~~

by which i mean how repeatedly characters who are praised as the paragon of lawfulness, the Best of Society, abdicate personal responsibility in favor of an abstract “justice” or legal system.

Scenario #1:

Meng Yao has just Done a Murder.  Nie Mingjue saw him do it.  Nie Mingjue says, you have to go turn yourself in.  Meng Yao says they’ll kill me if I do that.�� that’s death, you are taking me to die if you do this.  this is known.  the law or justice or whatever will deem this a capital crime, that’s just a fact.  But Nie Mingjue is unmoved because he is Lawful above all else.

So Meng Yao fake-kills himself, and Nie Mingjue, horrified, rushes over to try and save him. HE KNOWS HE’S TURNING MENG YAO OVER TO DEATH.  but when he sees it happening in front of him (in a way that is not socially sanctioned) he is very upset.  Turning someone in for a crime that they will be executed for is totally different from watching that person gut himself in the forest.  Right?

Scenario #2: 

We have the same thing with Xue Yang.  There’s no way he’s not going to be executed.  XXC knows this.  He has to.  Yeah, he’s naive, but there’s no way he doesn’t realize that there are no non-death options for Xue Yang.  But he is a Good and Lawful and Upright and Morally Just cultivator, so he will of course bring a criminal in alive and turn him over to the justice system for them to do whatever and it’s not at all the same thing as just fucking cutting his throat while you’ve got him tied up.  That would be barbaric and wrong - murdering an unarmed man like that.  Much better to give him to the Law and let them cut his throat, because then it’s not Your Fault.  You didn’t kill him.  Your hands are clean.

Scenario #3:

The show’s version of NMJ and JGY falling out - JGY did his murder to a Nie soldier instead of a Jin one this time.  Legal Justice dictates that NMJ should kill him for this, but he can’t bear to do it.  Even when acting as the hand of the impartial “Law,” he can’t actually look him in the eye and end his life.  So!  Banishment!  That’s awfully merciful of you, NMJ!

Except it’s a war zone out there.  And Meng Yao is a shitty cultivator, and everybody knows it.  And he’s recently been stabbed.  There is no way Nie Mingjue is not aware that it is very, very likely that he’ll be dead in a matter of days.  But he’s not going to kill him.  The Wen soldiers will kill him, or the wound will kill him, or Nature will kill him.  But he hasn’t been executed and of course, that’s the important thing.  It’s not on Nie Mingjue’s head if he dies now, he’s done his One Merciful Act and washed his hands of responsibility and if the end result is “Meng Yao, dead, but a little to the left,” well, that’s not his fault!

Scenario #4: 

Basically nobody expected Lan Wangji to actually survive being whipped 33 times.  When Wei Wuxian sees his scars, he literally has the thought, why would they whip him that many times and not just kill him outright?  LWJ is extraordinary, but let’s not get it twisted - his clan absolutely thought they were killing him.  But they couldn’t bring themselves to sentence him to execution, none of them could stomach actually like, cutting off the head of the Second Jade of Lan.  So instead they just tortured him to a point where any other person would have died.  Totally different from killing him.  Definitely not worse and crueler than an execution.  That would be wrong.

So in conclusion: if you are the Best in your society, and your society is cruel, it will ask cruel things of you, and you will allow those things to happen by giving up responsibility for hard choices to “society” or the “law” or some other abstract Good.  You are part of society, so you can let society do your cruelties for you, and sit back and be content that you, yourself, have not behaved cruelly.  That’s definitely how Justice works, for sure.

[antihumanism]

When I type everything out as a single run-on sentence I want you to imagine me cornering you off-guard in a crowded room, my empty brown cow eyes staring straight at you and reflecting you--nopony home here, she checked out and hopped away forever ago on the toxic chemical trains and clacking cattle cars years ago--and just, for no reason, I’m here and you’re there pocketed in the corner of a crowded room, and I’m channeling my alternate history past-self who was a preacher that got kicked out of the church for delivering sermons about the impossibility of sin and just ran off to Point Sur with my harem of distractions since I could never stop blessing my congregation saying “Go forth and know that you cannot sin, in the beautiful eyes of God and in my beautiful eyes there can be no wrong or evil” which backfired on me when they started setting fires and it all went to Hell, but I’ve won out over them because the world honored my wishes when I sighed “I should like to start again,” and so I’m here with you and you’re hear with me and I’m saying some insane shit like: “Looking back on Emily’s early works it is easy to see where her later reactionary turn comes from, because, from the start, Alfred Alfer was a story about the fear of castration, I mean, the first video was literally about Alfred getting neutered and escaping into a violent fantasy where he is loved and praised for his violence and the ‘punchline’ establishes the general theme of ‘reality by despair,’ which is to say that Alfred’s clearly dissociative episode is ‘verified’ by his destruction and it is this self-destruction that establishes ‘reality,’ like ‘pinch me i might be dreaming,’ but the pinch is violent and unfair self-destruction as hope is still ripped away, but hope remains, because it is a hope to die rather than be changed by the world, and this theme remains throughout her most famous work (the Alfred’s Playhouse trilogy which cements in canon the jokes of her previous Rise of Alfred cartoon) where Alfred is possessed by the spirits of Stalin and Hitler--a false equivalency made by the authoritarians that have passed for liberals for years--in Rise of Alfred, one would be remiss not to mention the phallic imagery in both the title and the video itself, Alfred is cut loose upon the world by the absence of a Near God or little other by the orders of a Distant God or big Other (in this video played by a droning and irrelevant corporate figure that can offer nothing more than a wall without lead paint that one can lick), and this is the essence of reactionary thought, the idea of a big Other who is totally incompetent yet all powerful and somehow worth respecting and suffering for (King Henry II saying ‘will no one rid me of this troublesome priest’ or the departed Daiymo of the 47 Ronin), the reactionary sees the big Other as a master who can only set the dogs off the chain, the police chief who needs to get out of the way so McBain or Dirty Harry or Paul Kersey (especially in Death Wish III) can do what needs to be done and purge away all the filth and make the world right again (no different than Rambo--even the first movie, which for all of it’s goods part still is  reactionary propaganda bullshit pushing the fascist lies about a ‘fifth column’ that was rude to poor little meow meow war criminals--or modern day fantasies about nuking all of MENA until it glows green (fantasies delivered to raucous applause at Republican presidential conventions); the reactionary is perpetually trapped in this fantasy of destroying the world and escaping into the void of space, freed of the ground where the riff-raff are so they don’t have to negotiate life with their neighbors, and this is true, yes, even of people who spout bullshit about Fully Automated Luxury Communism who only want the right to consume as much as possible free of guilt--a condition they think is inflicting upon them by the big Other--as the Champagne of Shame Socialists of the 60s), and the righting of the world for the reactionary is just that, that the world must be Righted and the reactionary must be loved for all of their violence and because of their violence, for the reactionary finds themselves ever needing new excuses as they open new fronts in their fake, phony Culture War, and that is all they need (excuses), which is why Emily is so obsessed with justifying her edgy shit based on some Trauma (which is handy excuse to do Anything, even Things that Cannot Be Excused like war or self-harm or wanting to be seen), and so here you should already be able to hear so much madness, so many plaintive cries, all aligning around the same point (the trannies in the ‘wrong’ bathroom, the refugees in the ‘wrong’ country, the people in the ‘wrong’ neighborhood, the Jewish Question, etc), and, anyway, so in Rise of Alfred, Emily’s OC directly addresses the audience and tells them that they must love him/her--the castrated bitch desperate to be let off the leash--and in Alfred’s Playhouse she/he simultaneously affirms and denies the nature of a trauma that justifies everything (one is constantly reminded of The Act of Killing where one of the mass murderers imagines how, depending on the editing of the final film, he could be either a woobie or a war criminal) as the Trauma is simultaneously a joke--’sodomized with a popsicle!’--and the alleged real event that motivates her self-mutilation as we’re expected to believe Emily is processing something, but what is she is processing, hmmmm, isn’t that the true spice,” I rail and rave against your poor ear drums as my empty, dead cow’s eyes capture your entire body and reflect it back at you and the ice cubes in my drink pop and shatter and dissolve and as my fist clenches tighter and tighter around the glass containing them and I continue: she’s processing a fear of castration, which is shown clearly in Alfred’s Playhouse where Alfred’s “sodomy” is demonstrated by the sight of his crotch covered in blood (a scene that will be repeated in The Alfred Alfer Movie) but “what is castration,” one might ask, and one can respond “it is the removal of power by the Father,” and this is how we wrap back around to our root in the nature of Emily the Reactionary who believes herself to be deprived of the power she holds by The Bolshevik Jew that has inserted itself between her and the Father and this is the cause of the big Other’s ineffectiveness, and this is also the core of the reactionary as a whole, the reactionary doesn’t want a daddy to control them, but a Master to set them off the chain because they hate the Father who has castrated them, this is the nature of the mumbling corporate manager in Rise of Alfred, but it is also the nature of Alfred herself--and now you may ask if Emily is trans and the answer is I literally couldn’t fucking care less about any question left forever unanswered on God’s Green Earth and you shouldn’t care either--but Alfred the Castrated is also the Father/Mother of Alfred the Dictator, the murderous inner-self that is immune to consequences of the onrushing future (The Alfred Alfer Movie) but not immune to the justifications of the imagined past (Alfred’s Playhouse trilogy), and therefore free to inflict whatever violence that Emily the Reactionary desires, and it is in pursuit of this freedom that the reactionaries set off in the name of New Sincerity (two things to be noted here: (1) the Death of Irony was proclaimed at the birth of the 21st century police state and the new Forever War with all of its genocidal objectives, that is to say, 9/11, and (2) the broken necked coward who complained of American Psycho that it’s author provided no easy outs for easy survival was the one who offed himself while Bateman’s father still lives) and the Talking Cure (i miss who we used to be), and at this you should see me slugging back the whole lukewarm glass in between two syllables and continuing on without pause (as if this dog still has legs on which to receive them in any case), “Emily, like Alex Jones, is so desperate for an excuse because neither of them can accept that they have to be the one that pulls the trigger, like all liars they don’t understand that they have to define reality by action, the answer to what one might do is found in the difference between the types of irony, one type is constantly desperate for excuses (such as the broken necked coward found one day) for violence, and the other irony, the true spice, is the irony that releases from excuses into violence and energy, one must seek not to know or endure but to inflict, knowing that this inflicting was always inevitable, no searching for justifications, instead the answer is to realize that there was never a chain there connecting you to the Master or the present to the past, and the Father/Mother never had the power of castration (the past, after all, is a foreign country bombed and blasted to ruins already and better forgotten), and you can just be fucked up and terrible and do whatever amuses you right now without needing an excuse, and to the extent that anyone should, one should, because that is what fascism needs, fascism needs the need for an excuse and that is the irony of fascism--where the falling angel (the superego) meets the rising ape (the id) in an ego of ultimate violence which seeks only release from both of its creations in an instinctually and totally misunderstood caricature of dialectics--which opposes its opposite irony (the irony without fascism which is the id’s violence against purpose and reason rising free of anything else to obstruct it), and if you let go of that, if you just, ya know, if you just, you just have to cut loose and go and no one can stop you until it is too late, because there’s no Jew sitting over your shoulder to justify everything in terms of opposition or support, not even The Nazarene is real, but do you understand that you’ve always been free to just go? You’re free to go. You’ve been free to go all this time. You never needed permission for this or anything else. You’ve been free to go all this time. You’re free to go. A whole day off. Just mind the mo(u)rning and get on with it.”

[remade-stopframevevo]

can you tell us more about fawnstar? he is epic

he is pretty epic in a nuclear explosion kind of way

the strategy of answering oc asks by just talking until i couldnt anymore seemed to work pretty well last time so im just going to do that again. ive also been putting this ask off for too long cuz i knew it was going to take forever to answer LOL, i will note though if some things dont make sense theres a good chance im just dancing around spoiling things because hes One of Those types of ocs, you can still ask about certain things (the way im typing this has the 3 times ive said the word things lining up and its really throwing me off) but theres no guarantee i’ll be able to answer them, at least truthfully (theres like a 50% chance im going to intentionally lie about shit when answering this ask btw. just so you know <3)

anyway, fawnstar (he/they nonbiney; no last name, groveclan leaders have their surnames revoked upon leadership) is groveclan’s leader and has been for about *papers shuffling sfx* four-ish years now but dont take that as final because i just realised i dont like the age they wouldve been when they became leader lmfao

fawnstar doesn’t have any known surviving biological family. his mother, eveningeye (she/her), died two years after he became leader and was given a brief and detached funeral. their biological father was a kittypet (which is also where they got The Mane Genetic from) although fawnstar was never told that and to this day doesnt know, not that they care either. also *inserts pic of eveningeye i dont remember even drawing*

fawnstar was made leader after the previous leader, buckstar (he/him tom, also important note: groveclan leaders are chosen at birth and are named after the current leader. this is a tradition that ended with fawnstar), was killed in an ambush. around half a day after buckstar had left camp and not returned, fawnstar - fawnfur at the time - who had been in and out of camp sporadically for the past 2 months, had returned to camp alone in the midst of literally dying, said some incomprehensible shit about rogues and collapsed in the medicine cat den and was left under the care of marblepaw whilst half the clan went out looking for buckstar or any signs of rogues. buckstar’s body was never found, although rogue scent was detected on the outskirts of groveclan’s territory. as a result of this incident, the clans have become much more unforgiving and hostile toward rogues.

as the search for buckstar or any rogues was going on, marblepaw had officially declared fawnfur as dead. no one’s ever let marbleheart live down the fact they declared a cat dead only for said cat to get back up three minutes later, but they still stand by the fact that there would’ve been no way for a fatal neck wound like that to just fix itself, or for them to fix it either.

after the incident, fawnfur became leader and appointed cranecloud (who passed away about... 2 years ago from present day) as their deputy. cranecloud had to do most of the work for the first 3 weeks as fawnstar took time to physically and mentally recover from the event, their voice never fully recovered and four years later they still permanently sound like they need to clear their throat. they never really recovered mentally either.

anyway! that fun stuff aside, fawnstar is a very, very very very very lenient leader to an irritating extent to his clanmates who actually care about the warrior code, ie the hopeheart thing and how when one of his clanmates openly brought in a half floodclan kit his reaction was to shrug and go, “not my problem”. fawnstar’s only concern with the warrior code is avoiding any conflict with the other clans, to the point where he’s pushed his boundaries with each of them far enough that he’s figured out how each will react toward a public break in the code and who he’s safest to fuck up with.

speaking of the clan he’s safest to fuck up with, floodclan and groveclan have a very amicable relationship. this is more of a floodclan thing so i’ll talk more about it when i get to them/the leader, but floodclan has a very... inhabitable territory during the winter. long story short it gets flooded when the rain gets to its worst who’d have thunk it in a place where “flood” is in the name, floodclan’s way of dealing with this is splitting the clan in two and sending half of them to groveclan, who’s camp is on higher ground, until the rain passes since the Still Habitable part of the clan is too small to hold *papers shuffling sfx 2* ~26 cats all at once. usually the deputy and leader would take it in turns to visit each year, but shadowstar (he/she/they tom), floodclan’s current leader, is almost always the one to visit, unless there’s a new deputy who hasn’t taken the lead on the trip before.

there have been challenges to fawnstar’s leadership and how he’s running the clan in the past, but none ended well. despite his apparent lack of care toward anything, fawnstar is still... a very big and very intimidating cat, and a very openly “if you fuck with me im going to crush you like a bug” type of cat. he’s not dictator-like in any way, he doesn’t care enough to be, but any standoffs he’s been made to have against his own clanmates have ended in said clanmate being almost literally backed into a corner and forced to back down.

additionally they’re a very scary cat to have to come into contact with in battle. they don’t take part in them often in the rare occurences they have to happen, but groveclan has a heavy focus on training their warriors to be as effective and strong as possible which is also applied to cats who are Assigned Leader At Birth as fawnstar was. fawnstar was personally given very extreme training, and it’s one of the few things they keep from their younger life and actively makes an effort to keep in the shape they are, even despite their age. oh theyre also very scary because of the apparent immortality and not caring about pain thing! thats scary too.

anyway jesus i just noticed how long of an uninterrupted wall of text this is. im not done but here’s a warrior age fawnstar to break it up a little

to talk more in length about his relationships with others since i havent done it very specifically already heres a few i can think off of the top of my head:

rainwatcher is fawnstar’s deputy and adopted son who they took in after banishing his biological mother on grounds of neglect. even in adulthood they’re still very close. some groveclan residents think it’s a total joke that in the first election for deputy they’ve ever done it’s just a ~coincidence~ the leader’s son wins but fawnstar still refutes there would have been literally no way to fake a winner, they werent even the one counting. if anything fawnstar would have been more comfortable with someone else coming out on top, it’s not that they think rainwatcher is a bad deputy, but they’d rather anyone else in the clan be in such a “precarious” rank than their own son.

marbleheart... does not like fawnstar at all... i feel like it would be very easy to be furious (and terrified) at someone who not only seemingly died and got back up, but made sure everyone thought you were an idiot who was “hallucinating” it. there’s other reasons marbleheart doesn’t like fawnstar but you know 💅 that’s their business *touch tone telephone starts playing, but anyways*

they also have a pretty close relationship with silvermoon (she/her molly), floodclan’s deputy. i’ll talk more about silvermoon when i talk about her in her own post (she IS little ms protagonist herself after all), but silvermoon has been visiting during every winter migration to groveclan since she was a kit and has come to view fawnstar as some weird uncle figure, which is also encouraged (for lack of better word since its 8am right now and i cant think anymore) by shadowstar, silvermoon’s mentor, since he has a.. fairly close relationship with fawnstar too

i know you want me to talk about fawnstars relationship to shadowstar now after saying what i just said and im intentionally not going to <3 you will simply have to ask or wait <3

less specifically, fawnstar is typically very distant from his clanmates, apart from frequently visiting the nursery. it’s one of the only times he makes an effort to leave the clan’s garden (ill talk about what i mean by garden some other time its a territory thing lol) apart from gatherings (and seemingly wandering out into the night sometimes, but that’s his business, i guess...), he’s very watchful over the nursery and the kits and cares very deeply for each of them. arguably the only rule in the warrior code they care for is the one about protecting any and all kits.

anyways, theres definitely more but my brain isnt letting me remember other things to talk about so heres some fun little trivia facts

they have a pet family of snails in the clans garden

this story takes place in the same universe where the canon clans exist in a “what if we took the clans and pushed them (made new ones) somewhere else” way but key figures in clan history are still remembered. one time someone remarked to fawnstar, “hey, youre orange like that firestar guy apparently was” and its the hardest fawnstar had laughed in literally years

they’re gay in a “he never married” way. dont worry about what i mean by this

their least favorite ~historical figure~ is brokenstar, for obvious reasons. if he could he’d kill him three times.

he has adhd

ok thats all i have for now! feel free to ask me about anything here but ive only been awake for like 3 hours and also im very hungry so if any of this is incomprehensible it is simply not my problem!!! thank you for asking about my little war criminal!!!

[infinite-xerath]

Thoughts on Sentinel and Ruined Skins

Alright, I plan to give my full thoughts on the entire event once it’s over, but for the time-being, I wanted to give my general thoughts on each skin so far. I’ll be putting this under a read-more for convenience.))

So I guess I’ll start by saying that I like the concept of the event as a whole, though I’ve got some gripes (as do many) with who was chosen to partake. I think, having played through the VN up to its current point, that they do a decent job justifying most of the characters who get Ruined/recruited. That said, it does annoy me that they didn’t even go all-in on the concept; one Sentinel and one Ruined champ per region could have been great, but then there are some regions that don’t even have one of each.

So yeah, in addition to giving my overall thoughts on each existing skin, I also wanna touch on who else I think could have been included.

Sentinel Vayne: In my opinion, the best Sentinel skin of the lot. Not only does it look good (arguably better than her original design) but Vayne is a natural fit for the Sentinels. She already devotes her life to hunting monsters and dark magic, so it absolutely makes sense that she would join up at least until the Ruination is dealt with.

Ruined Shyvana: I wasn’t so sure about this one at first, but I’ve warmed up to it now that we know how Viego’s possession works. Taking the worst aspects of someone’s personality and bringing them to the forefront? Yeah, go figure that Shyvana would give into her monstrous side and resentment for being persecuted almost every day of her life. You could argue that there were better picks, but hey, better Ruined Shyvana than yet another Lux skin, right?

Sentinel Olaf: While not my first choice, I can’t deny that it works in the long-run. The dude already has a history of fighting the undead in his endless quest to find a worthy foe capable of slaying him, and of course the Ruined King seems like a suitably worthy opponent for Olaf to go up against. That being said, I feel like we should have gotten a Ruined Champ from the Freljord as Olaf’s rival, rather than it just being Vex. I don’t mind Vex appearing when she did to have us encounter her for the first time, but she should have had a Ruined champ to help her, which leads me to...

Ruined Tryndamere: Come on, this one’s obvious. There are a few characters in the Freljord that might have fit the Ruined theme, but none more-so than Tryndamere, I think. The guy’s already got a whole thing about controlling his rage and trying to use it as a force for good in the Avarosa tribe. Imagine Viego corrupting Tryndamere and causing all of that primal fury to just explode forth. Plus, come ON Riot, Olaf vs Tryndamere. Battle of the Berserkers. Frankly, it’s absurd to me that Olaf hasn’t tried fighting Tryndamere already, given that they’re both too angry to die. He HAS to have at least heard about the Barbarian King, right?

Sentinel Riven: Honestly, this one is interesting to me. With the other Sentinels, we all kind of know/expect that they’ll return to normal once the event is over and go back to their status quo. Riven feels like an exception. As she stated herself in the event: she’s a wanted criminal in Noxus and it’s not exactly like she’d be super welcomed back in Ionia. She joins the Sentinels because she has nowhere else to go and no other cause to fight for once freed from Draven’s arena. Aside from Vayne, Riven feels like the one who’d most likely stay with the Sentinels once the event is over, even though I know that probably won’t happen. Still, I like her inclusion, all-in-all.

Ruined Draven: Honestly, not the one I would have picked. I mean, it’s just Draven. Absolutely nothing has changed from him being Ruined. Granted, I do think it’s absolutely hilarious that Draven’s worst version of himself is already just himself, an egotistical prick who craves attention, but there are way better picks in Noxus to see getting Ruined. I mean, the event teaser showed Darius getting possessed, and I think there’s a lot more to work with there. Also, am I the only one that thinks that Ruined Draven feels redundant when Soul Reaver Draven is already a thing?

Sentinel Diana: So this one I have some complicated feelings about. On one hand, it makes sense that Diana would join the fight against the undead for the sake of the Lunari. On the other, it feels like MOST of the Aspects should be getting involved with this. I mean, the VN has her say that the other Aspects ARE fighting the Undead all over Targon, but then you’d think we would wanna go and recruit them as well. Seriously, Taric? WTF are you, Protector? Also, Diana needing a Sentinel weapon is weird since we already confirmed that the Mist doesn’t like Celestial magic, but... Eh, the blade she gets is cool, I guess.

Ruined Pantheon: And here comes the controversial one... Right, so like many, I did not care for this skin. In fact, I still have reservations about it. I DO like that it is actually Ruined PANTHEON, because yeah, the Black Mist turns dead things undead. Go figure it could bring back the remnants of the war god lingering in Atreus. That’s a really cool idea, but there’s absolutely an argument to be made that it fucks with Atreus’s whole character arc and makes his seemingly indomitable will look like a joke... But hey, Viego himself said that he’d never be able to take a proper Aspect, which absolutely tracks, which kinda makes Atreus the only Targonian champion he COULD defeat and corrupt.

Sentinel Irelia: To be frank, not too much to say about this one. Irelia’s entire character motivation is defending her homeland against invaders, and... Yeah the undead definitely count as invaders. While someone like Shen probably would have been a better recruit for the Sentinels, Irelia works just fine.

Ruined Karma: And heeere’s another controversial one. Yeah, Karma is not the one I would have chosen. Honestly, just about anyone else from Ionia would have been a better fit for Ruination. Ruined Pantheon can be justified by the dead war god coming back and taking over Atreus’s body again, but Karma and her vessel Darha should have absolutely been able to resist it... And they kind of do. In the event, we actually do see Karma switching back and forth. She’s the only one we’ve seen fight back against Viego long enough to revert to her normal self, at least for a time. In fact, the implication that Darha is being corrupted while the entity of Karma itself fights back is neat. Still, I would have preferred Ruined Zed or something along those lines.

Sentinel Graves: OK, I love this skin. I don’t love the context around it. First of all, the fact that he’s the Sentinel for Piltover is dumb. Graves is from Bilgewater, and should have been the Sentinel we recruited there. I also don’t care for how Twisted Fate is completely missing and never even referenced from his story. Like, OK, Graves fled Bilgewater because it was already overcome with Harrowing. Fine. But... Did he just leave TF behind? If so, why does he have Fate’s blue card? There’s so much we’re missing here. I love that he’s joining just because he’s got a bone to pick with Viego, but Graves should have been the choice for Bilgewater. As for who should be the Piltover Sentinel? Well...

Sentinel Jayce: Think about it. Jayce is a character who’s had nothing to do in the Piltover/Zaun lore for ages. He already considers himself a hero and a defender of Piltover. Plus, imagine what a Sentinel version of his hammer would be like! Hell, Jayce’s whole conflict with Viktor revolves around their opposing beliefs around free will. Of course he’d have a word or two to say about the Ruined King, who’s running around and stripping people of their free will! On that note..

Ruined Viktor: Absolutely a perfect fit for Ruination. Under Viego’s influence, he could deem undeath as the next logical step of evolution, casting aside the limits of flesh and emotion for a spectral form where one’s thoughts were dictated by a single, “superior” consciousness. It would be a perfect contrast for Sentinel Jayce, and besides: we’ve already seen a ghostly version of this concept with Death Sworn Viktor. If Draven gets two undead skins, why not? Plus, we know that the Harrowing can effect machines thanks to Legends of Runeterra, so... Yeah. Ruined Viktor. Let’s go.

Sentinel Pyke: Another controversial one. While I like the general idea behind it, frankly, I would have just left Pyke as he is. We already have him fighting the undead in the Ruined King game, and we know Nagakabouros power can hurt the undead; there was no real need for him to pick up Sentinel gear. Much as I love the line “Wraiths, wraiths are on the list,” I would have just made Graves the Sentinel rep for Bilgewater and called it there.

Ruined Miss Fortune: This one just sucks. It absolutely sucks. The Sarah Fortune I know would have never gone to such lengths merely for power, especially when she already rules most of Bilgewater at this point. Her various short stories show her doing a pretty damn good job stamping out the warring factions challenging her rule, and even if she decided that she needed some kind of supernatural leg up on the competition, it’s not like Bilgewater is lacking in magic. Also, the design sucks, turning her back into the sex icon that they’ve spent the last 7 years moving her away from. Ruined Fortune sucks. As for who SHOULD have gotten the skin instead...

Ruined Gangplank: Now HERE’S a pirate lord desperate for power. He lost his ship, he lost his fleet, he lost his throne, he even lost an arm. Gangplank has been struggling to regain control of Bilgewater ever since Burning Tides, and while we haven’t heard much of him recently, it can be safely assumed that he’s not making much progress with how much control Sarah currently has. Gangplank is absolutely ruthless enough and immoral enough to bargain with the Ruined King for power. Plus, think about it: he’s already been “reborn” once, so to him, Ruination probably wouldn’t even be that big of a deal.

Sentinel Rengar: All things considered, I like this one. Rengar, I think, has one of the best justifications for joining the Sentinels. When Rengar’s jungle is invaded by wraiths, Rengar finds himself faced with monsters that even his skills cannot take down. Yeah, these undead are worthy prey challenging his reign as the apex predator in Kumungu, and if the Viego is their alpha, then he’s the target to go for. Now, obviously he’s still got a hunt for Kha’Zix that has yet to be resolved, but let’s be honest: we’re never going to see that rivalry conclude, and this is the most lore relevance Rengar has had in ages. I’m for this skin, though of course we do still have the issue of who in Kumungu would be a good Ruined rival for him. On that note...

Ruined Zyra: Alright, here me out. Ixtal as a region doesn’t have that many characters, let-alone good candidates for Ruination. Perhaps the best and most obvious candidate would be Qiyana, but I take issue with this for a few reasons. Firstly, accepting Ruination for the power to rule is already something we’ve done with MF/GP, and second, I don’t think the Shadow Isles aesthetic works super well with her elemental-swapping gameplay. I chose Ruined Zyra because, well, Zyra already wants to spread her plants far and wide across Runeterra, and the Mist would be a great method for carrying seeds, not to mention making her offspring harder to prune. Not the most deep, but yeah, I think Ruined Zyra would have been a cool concept to work with.

Lastly...

Unbound Thresh: A mistake. I’ve already made my opinions on Thresh’s lore abundantly clear in my rewrite for him, and this skin just destroys any hope for his character for me. This sexy E-Boy is unquestionably the worst thing to come out of the whole event, and whatever Riot is planning to do with Thresh in the future, it does NOT justify this design. Plus, the whole idea that an undead character can become “unbound” is just dumb. Like, when has it ever been implied that Thresh himself was actually bound in any way? He’s one of the few Shadow Isles entities that can freely leave the Mist, at least for a time! Yeah, this skin was a mistake, but Riot has to cash in on the simps, I suppose.

Anyways, I’ll give my thoughts on the story itself once this is all said and done, but for now, these are my takes on the individual skins. Hope you all enjoyed hearing me ramble.

[pickledpascal]

Study of The Alien Mind

Chapter Sixteen: No Happily After For Evil

Summary: Alexstrasza announced she's going after the 400 of New York. And other things ensue.

Warnings: Misogyny, 18+, SMUT.

Turning Ana in to the police was controversial. Mostly among the policemen themselves. A woman did their job better than them. A lot better, Alexstrasza would say if you asked her. But the public, especially younger women, adored her. And the men who said they didn’t, well, they were just too stuck up to admit that they did.

And forutantly, Roosevelt was able to keep Ana in jail. It was as if Sybil Kane didn’t care about her daughter but at least Ana was where she deserved to be. 

So, it was a big win. And Alexstrasza just wanted to relax with Laszlo, right?

Well, then you’d be dead wrong.

Alexstrasza started helping Sara with some cases. Her signature white suit made her stand out, reporters started calling her the ‘The White Woman’. That nickname then rolled over into the public, people would call for Alexstrasza, calling her that. She didn’t quite mind.

If people were going to be obsessed with her, she might as well get some free press out of it.

Speaking of, Alexstrasza had a small press conference to get to. Except….. It wasn’t as small as she expected. There were probably hundreds of journalists and reporters in the room.

Wearing her signature white suit, Alexstrasza stepped out and sat down at the wooden table. Many people started taking photographs. Finally, an actual picture of The White Woman! It would do amazing for the newspaper sales, they knew that.

“Well, Ms. Novali,” The last name she chose, since she didn’t really have one. “She’s on a timeframe, unfortunately. She has a lot of criminals to put away. So please, ask some questions.” Roosevelt said, looking over at Alexstrasza.

The crowd roared and yelled questions at Alexstrasza, the woman cocking her head. “How about we go in order?” She suggested. “This is very unorganized….” She whispered to herself, sighing. Alexstrasza didn’t really want to do this type of conference but John convinced her to.

Most of the questions were very….. Personal. Alexstrasza didn’t know why she needed to answer those but did anyway, in a more mature way than the way they asked them. 

But then one question came that pretty much changed her forever.

“How do you feel about the men that work in the police station?” A man asked. He wore a suit like most men in that era but he was younger, clean shaven and short hair. He stood out to Alexstrasza. She could already tell he would be a person to lead society into the next century.

The alien took a deep breath, pausing for a moment as she thought of how to answer. “The men in the station…. Some are good, true men. I admit. But I feel as if there are still many who are corrupt. These types of people should not be dictating who goes into jail or not. Trust me, I know for a fact that they overlook certain….. High-class people who have done incredible wrongs.” The statement caused a small uproar. “This is not Roosevelts fault, many of these corrupt cops blend in so easily with the good ones. So….”Alexstrasza breathed. “I will make it my mission to put as many of these cops in jail. And that leads me to my next statement. I, Alexstrasza Noavli, am officially declaring war on the four hundred.” Gasps were heard all throughout the crowd.

“Any member of the four hundred who has committed a crime can guarantee that I will come after them. And if they have any idea who I am, they know I do not back down from a battle. No matter how big the army.” She finished her statement and walked away from the press, her eyes hardened as she was sure of herself. Dangerous for a woman in this era. But even more dangerous for the men.

When Alexstrasza went to the Institute that day, Laszlo was having some tea in his office. It was actually almost night when she went over there. She quickly opened the door and smiled a little. It was like she crash landed all over again.

“I heard from John that your press conference was eventful.” Laszlo smiled as he sipped on his tea, looking up at her.

The woman shrugged and sat at Laszlo’s desk, grabbing the cup of tea Laszlo already prepared for her. “Yes, it was. When did John come over?” She asked, cocking her head.

“A few hours ago, where were you?” 

“With Sara. We were going over case files.” Alexstrasza explained simply.

Laszlo nodded, “You know, if you don’t want to draw attention, you shouldn’t be wearing that suit so often.” He suggested softly.

“Yes, I know, but when have I ever listened to you?” Alexstrasza laughed quietly, rolling her eyes at him. 

She felt…. Happy. She knew it would change but…. Now there was a happiness she could always come back to. Laszlo.

Laszlo smirked a little and nodded at Alexstrasza. "Not even in bed, you don't listen to me." He tested a little. He didn't want it to seem like he wasn't grateful, because he was.

"That's because I'm in charge." Alexstrasza whispered back, biting her lip. "You're my good boy, remember?"

Laszlo's face went completely red and nodded slowly. "Y-Yes, I remember, mommy…." He whispered softly, biting his lip.

Alexstrasza smiled and hummed for a moment before she looked back at the door. She quickly locked it, looking back at Laszlo as she told him, "Undress for me, baby." 

The man quickly did as she asked. Laszlo never questioned Alexstrasza about maybe going back home to a bed, he wasn't in charge. She was. She always was. Now, here he was, completely naked in his office. Only a few candles illuminated the room so the surroundings were quite sensual too.

Alexstrasza hummed for a moment, overlooking Laszlo's appearance. "Come here, sweetheart." She whispered softly, leading him to the couch that sat in the room.

Laszlo shyly nodded as he sat down on the couch. He always got shy when Alexstrasza took control, they've only done this a couple of times but each one was immensely enjoyable for the both of them. He watched as Alexstrasza was messing with her suit until it seemed it finally did what she wanted it to.

"You're gonna fuck Mommy while she's still in her suit okay?" Alexstrasza smiled as she turned to Laszlo and he realized. Her suit opened just so her pussy was exposed.

The Doctor whimpered a little and nodded as Alexstrasza straddled him, slowly lowering herself onto his dick. He let out another whimper at the feeling.

This was pure pleasure already. Laszlo would never get tired of the feeling of being inside her. "M-Mommy…." He whined softly.

"That's it, baby…. Keep whining for me." Alexstrasza panted out as she bounced slowly on top of him.

Laszlo nodded and whined out again. This continued for about ten or so more minutes but it felt like a lifetime for him. He was so prepared to spend the rest of his own lifetime with Alexstrasza.

And Laszlo did….

[weaselbeaselpants]

All you need to know about my sucky rewrite

Since the actual show’s getting greenlit here’s my sooperoriginal ideas of my reboot/rewrite/reimagine thing called “Happy hotELL”

The cast of “Happy hoteLL” are renamed versions of the Hazbin cast:

Charly, Vee (she’s nick-named “Vaggy” by Engel) Engel, Niftie, Hux, Alastair, Lord Satan and Lilian, Flim-Flam and JibJab, Karen Killjoy, Sir Pantsless.

The main villains would be human!archangels based on Estus Pirkle and Kirk Cameron.

The main demons under Charly all embody a deadly sin in how they ended up in hell: Engel = Wrath (hated himself and other people), Niftie = Envy (tormented people at school in order to impress a boy), Hux = Lust (stalked/objectified various women in his life), Vee = Pride (too proud to admit she made bad choices), and Alastar = Gluttony (for reasons already discussed here).

Setting

The “afterworld”, the setting our characters inhabit, is separated into three sections: HEAVEN which is where the Archangels rule and were “good” souls go; HELL, which is the main setting of the show and where the archangels swoop down to purge of all the “bad” souls that end up there; and LIMBO, a primordial pocket-dimension with no direct portal to through the other two worlds. Limbo turns out to be the place the archangels, the true rulers of Heaven, are hiding. The mortal or ‘human’ world is between Heaven and Hell and is accessed by similar means to how it is in Helluva Boss. 

Angels and demons which were never human are referred to as ARCHANGELS/OVERLORDS and CHERUBS/IMPS. Ascended/damned souls are those of people who’ve ended up in either Heaven or Hell.

Heaven and Hell both have class systems. Imps and Overlords and Cherubs and Archangels are SUPPOSED to rule over all the human souls in their care. But Heaven’s archangels have gone missing - abandoned their posts for the peaceful content of limbo - leaving human angels to rise up and over time dictate how Heaven is to be run and who gets redeemed....this is as bad as you think it is, as the human!archangels care only for their “purity” over everyone else and keep people who should be allowed into heaven out just for not being to their standards - like Vee. The Overlords of Hell are unaware of this and have been unknowingly doing the human!angels’ business for hundreds of years. 

>The implication that this system for disposing of evil souls has failed is made well before the second season twist because damned human souls (Alastair) have become overlords and exist in Hell without being purged as an open secret, even to Charly’s parents. The only reason the true Overlords oppose any of the human!Overlords’ reign is because it disrupts their order in Hell, not out of any sense of justice.

There is NO monotheistic deity in this world; angels and demons used to live in “pantheons”, aka tribes, across the earth where they created life and the ecosystems there as well - thusly, they became gods to the people of these regions too. Satan and Lilian are from what would come to be the Abrahamic angels. In time, other mythologies’ underworld counterparts - and even some benevolent gods - would have the power diminish on earth and they’d have to live in Hell if they didn’t want to be wiped out by the crusades the Archangel’s influence over humans. Understandably, a lot of non-Abrahamic angels and demons are NOT fond of this appropriation/erasure of their culture and want their own realm’s back, even trying to run their own redemption operation/afterlife control in secret or in limbo. (Imagine Charly meeting a Vivziepoped versions of Hades and Persephone or Oxhead and Horseface telling her to fuck off and her just being like “I KNEW someone had the same idea! I JUST KNEW IT! <3<3<3″)

ALL mortal souls are supposed to be sent to hell but a great many of them are KEPT from heaven because of the human!archangels. 

A demon is redeemed by either setting right a wrong they did in life or sacrificing their happiness for another. This is what happens to Vee at the end of the first season, which leaves Charly without a manager through season 2.

Satan’s backstory is a parody of Paradise Lost as he was the most beautiful angel in his pantheon before the others kicked him out. In revenge he took Lilian, their “first woman”, for his wife and rallied up an army which apparently ended with one mass-extinction event on earth.

There’s a section of Hell where demons who represent different vices/drugs live. It’s referred as “Viceland” and is treated like a kitty theme park.

Demons (overlord, imp, or damned-souls) can all be summoned by mortals who know their way with unholy magic. They’re summoned at really inconvenient times and for really worthless deeds and this would be a great source of comedy for the show and an excuse to get characters to the mortal realm.

Story

The first episode/pilot/episodes/minimovie/whatever would be basically the same as the pilot but with a few tweaks:

It shows a person dying, going to Hell, becoming a demon, and being purged (which the audience not quite knowing what just happened to him) with Engel happily takes the dead demon’s things once the dust clears. Then Charly and Vee’s limo pulls up to him and ask him if he’s interested in a “new gig”. Que title and credits.

Charly initially opens the hotel with the promise that it will be a place for vice and booze but lets it slip that it’s a front for rehabilitation. Once Engel’s story is picked up on by the network, Vee and Charly’s assistants (Flimflam and JibJab) attack Karen and destroy the news station.

It’s Engel - not Vee - who recognizes Alastair as the threat that he is - later it’s revealed that Engel was present during Alastair’s initial takeover and that his radio frequencies damaged Engel’s eye. Vee doesn’t believe him until she sees Alastair’s absorbtion powers, which is when she allows him to stay employed by the hotel to help take Alastair down.

Alastair stresses the need for Charly to keep him working with her a secret, ESPECIALLY from her parents. He’s technically a criminal in hell and he convinces Charly that her parents will be impressed with her bad deed once the jig is up.

The rest of Season 1 would probably be Alastair setting up the hotel while the main cast of demons become more aquainted with each other and the different levels of Hell.The end of season 1 would feature Alastair double-crossing Charly and consuming the hotel in his likeness while it’s hosting a demon’s ball - in the hopes of getting enough souls to reignite his takeover. Vee, Engel, and Charly manage to escape the hotel and Charly overpowers and defeats Al by destroying his microphone - thus releasing all the souls he’s trapped, and then destroys his physical form.

Season 2 would start with a face reveal of Satan, Charly’s father, as he forces her to eat Alastair’s heart which will put him under her control. She does, but Alastair’s conscience manifests inside Charly’s head and mocks her ideas throughout the season. Also in the opening Vee would become and angel and ascends for Heaven, leaving Charly to manage the now very popular hotel alone until Engel rises up to become her #2.

Season 2 would be more explorative, with more stuff featuring the demon’s lives as humans, Charly’s role in Hell, and even Vee in Heaven. We’d learn more about the way Hell, Heaven and Limbo work as Charly manages to redeem a couple more damned souls. At the end of the season, the demons discover a dead cherub with a message from Vee begging Charly for help. Charly first attempts to pass through the hidden realm of Limbo to get to Heaven, but Hux runs off with their means to get there, so instead she vomits up Alastair, the only other demon who knows how to get to heaven, and he assists them on the condition that he be granted amnesty once they return to Hell. In the end, Charly and co. discover Heaven’s corrupted state and realize the Archangels are missing, Vee looses her wings but ascends into a fallenangel, and they all escape the bloodthirsty angels due to Lilian’s interference.

The Overlords of Hell prepare for a new war with Heaven and Charly’s parents send her to the mortal realm for her protection. In the mortal realm, Charly and the demons disguise themselves and their base of operation as a bed and breakfast. Charly has trouble reeling in the overexcited demons who are out of place in this new time while also keeping Alastair, who has stashed away with her, from trapping souls. 

Halfway through season 3 Engel and the other motel staff find out Alastair’s human identity, which he was desperate to hide, and bring his now elderly human daughter to him. This causes Alastair to freak out and consume the bed and breakfast. Once Charly brings him to, his physical takes on that of a baby deer but his psyche and abilities are completely nulled.

While this is going on Vee, Hux, and Charly’s parents have their own adventures in Limbo where they meet the Archangels who have no idea how corrupt Heaven has gotten in their absence. It’s only through Hux and Vee that the main group is finally all reuninted in Hell where the finale takes place :

Engel and Niftie ascend into fallenangels and alongside Vee lead a brigade against the angels who now want to wipe out all the demons; Charly guilt trips her parents and the Archangels into taking action and combining their power to dismantle the angel’s weapons; Alastair comes back and personally takes out the main human!archangel and himself by throwing them into the center of Hell; big stupid happy lesbian ending fartjoke.

end

Characters

Charly’s relationship dynamic to her parents is flipped: her father, Satan (he doesn’t like being called Lucifer) LOVES her. He shares a lot of her personality and at worst doesn’t take Charly seriously or cares about her ambitions. Lilian, Charly’s mother resents her daughter. Lilian was hoping her daughter would bring forth the apocalypse but Charly doesn’t want to do that. It’s implied Charly’s optimism and need to help people comes from her father’s days as an Archangel, and her mother especially hates the angels for casting her out, which leads to her resenting Charly.

This doesn’t stop Satan from being genuinely impressed with his daughter’s achievements and for Lilian to be be the panicked-parent when she learns that Charly has broken into Heaven at the end of season 2. 

The Royal Family is not actively malicious. They’re more like privileged jailers on the top of the Hell-foodchain. The most evil things about them are their apathy towards human atrocities (and their subjects pain, of course), their occasional bouts of sadism, and their genuine glee at the thought of destruction - namely the apocalypse, which Satan and Lilian speak fondly about like a married couple would their retirement plans.

After Charly shows her true form while taking out Alastair, the other Overlords and Imps (i.g. Karen and 666 News) start heaping praise on her out of fear that she’ll retaliate for all the mockery they made of her when she unveiled her plan. Charly is uncomfortable with this.

Engel is BAD at his pornstar/sexworker career. He tries to sell himself as a sass-master incubus but can’t achieve this status in the demon hierarchy because of his short fuse and violent nature.

Engel thinks he’s in hell because he’s gay and likes crossdressing. In reality it’s because he was a member of a crime family and a murderous gangster, named Anatole Slinkoff. The first people he killed were his father and brother as he was assisting a young-up-and-coming rival who would eventually become his boss.

Speaking of that boss, Anatole fell in love with him. On Anatole’s birthday he and the boss got drunk and he ended up confessing his feelings. The boss invited a sobered up Anatole back to his flat the following week and seemed to return his affections with a kiss...which was then followed by a fatal stabbing. Engel never got over the heartbreak/betrayal.

Engel starts off as a toxic enabling jackass who lives in denial and uses sex and drugs to cope with how unhappy he is with himself. In season 2 he becomes Charly’s #2 and builds a strong friendship with her. Also in season 2 Engel meets his father, brother, and mother who are also in hell for their crimes. His father and bro amazingly forgive him for killing them while Engel’s mother - a god-fearing woman who would beat Engel if she found him wears makeup or playing with dolls as a child - asks him for forgiveness, saying she’s the reason her family and he specifically ended up where he did. After Engel patches things up with them he tries to locate the souls of the people he killed and in the process finds out his old boss went to Heaven. At first Engel sets out to kill his boss and get revenge, but upon actually finding him living in fear in Limbo, he can’t bring himself to do so and instead chooses to just not forgive him.

Engel ascends/becomes a fallenangel in the final season when he meets an imp with a similar taste of humor and style. Rather than rush into a relationship as he’s done with every person he’s got with since he ended up in hell, Engel tells his new lover he wants to wait until he’s stable for a relationship, which triggers his transformation.

Molly doesn’t exist. Molly is instead the name of Engel’s feminine alterego and later the name Engel takes up as a fallenangel.

Vee, like Engel, also thinks she’s in hell for all the wrong reasons: She ran away from her controlling parents, thinking she could live on her own just fine. She could not. Instead she wound up turning to a life of crime and prostitution to support herself after a plethora of bad decisions and heartbreaks. When her parents sent word out all over the country, begging her to come back and that they were wrong, but she still refused. In the end one of her clients ended up strangling her. Her soul SHOULD have been one that went to Heaven but was barred off by the human!archangels for being a “thug”. Vee tried to get herself purged after her first few months in Hell, convinced that she deserved it, but Charly saved her and the blast instead only took out one of her eyes. Vee and her story are Charly’s main inspiration to open up the hotel.

Vee and Charly obviously have a romantic relationship from the start but Vee doesn’t see their love as anything serious. When Vee becomes an angel at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2, she rather cruelly leaves Charly without a second thought and discards their relationship is ‘passing sin’. It isn’t until she spends more time in Heaven, seeing the other angels’ being restricted (including her parents, who admit to actually being miserable in Heaven) and finding her rejection notice from the human!archangels that Vee realizes she does love Charly and that her redemption was always HER doing, not someone else’s.

Vee makes the unwise decision to confront the Archangels (whom she doesn’t know are actually human souls) about this treatment. They respond by locking Vee away and performing a “purification” on her which is like electroshock therapy. This sedates Vee into a mindless drone, much to the horror of the cherubs, angels, and eventually Charly and the gang.

Vee, in her purified state, doesn’t want to leave Heaven and go back to Hell. Charly, realizing the woman she loves is gone, tearfully tells her she won’t ask Vee to be anything she doesn’t want to be and that she loves her. This confession breaks through to the real Vee. Their happy reunion is cut short however by the human!archangels who rip off Vee’s wings, causing her and Charly to fall. It’s here though that Vee again ascends, this time into a fallenangel, and grows her own pair of wings and an angels’ weapon which she uses to kill Perkins, the head archangel and save the rest of the cast.

Throughout season 3, Vee and Charly’s parents turn the Happy Hotel into a refuge for human souls and imps while the angels and demons prepare for new spiritual warfare. Vee also tracks down Hux and multiple other “lost souls” in Limbo in her search for the Archangels.

Vee commands Hell’s army alongside Molly and Niftie in the show’s final climax and she gets a happy ending running a shanty motel in Limbo alongside Charly.

In life, Niftie was a teenager who tried to grow up too fast and gave up her hobbies and interests to impress her childhood friend (whom she was in love with). By following the lead of a more popular classmate, Niftie became a bully who ruled her school’s social status. Then she learned that her “teacher” had been in love with the same guy and he was returning her feelings - which drove Niftie into a rage and she tried killing the both of them on their senior prom night. She tried running them over with her car, putting the girl in the hospital, paralyzing the boy forever, and ruining her reputation at school (for saying she couldn’t drive when she did; not for the attempted murder). The boy she loved hated her, and the rest of the school bullied her until she gave in and took her own life in the bathroom.

The other demons are especially sympathetic towards Nifty. Charly finds it horrible that she end up in hell at such a young age. Hux is very protective of her. However, Niftie is more self-aware than she appears; she acts more childish than she actually is because she wishes she was still a kid, but does NOT like being treated like a literal child - especially by Charly and Engel. She only warms up to Charly when Hux abandons her and she’s forced to be an authority figure under Engel while the group stages things out in the mortal realm.

In the mortal realm, Niftie ends up coming across her old hishschool friend, now an old woman in a wheelchair, who believes it’s her fault everything ended the way it did. Niftie tells the lady not to feel guilty and instead apologizes to her - which ignites Niftie’s ascension into a fallenangel.

Hux was a moderately successful show magician. Heartbroken by being unable to woo a woman he loved with his success, he turned to drinking and took up relationships with women who worked under him  - all of these relationships were toxic and Hux would break their hearts and ruin their lives. When Hux arrived in Hell it was during a purge. He found his original sweetheart there but she, not him, was purged, cementing Hux’s views of redemption and justice...that there is NONE.

Hux is mostly apathetic and disbelieves along with everyone else in Charly’s plan UNTIL he finds out that one of the women he hurt escaped into Limbo. When the main cast tried to use their one passage to Limbo to get to Heaven in season 2, Hux takes the pass for himself.

In Season 3, Vee finds Hux enjoying his time in Limbo and calls him out for his selfishness. Hux introduces her to all the women he wronged, who DON’T forgive him, and also his new business in Limbo selling drinks that make people recall their past lives.

Together with Vee, Hux thinks up a plan to have the overcrowded souls of Hell and Heaven wait out the war in Limbo while simultaneously kicking out the Archangels so that they won’t notice the influx of souls in their realm.

Sir Pantsless is the show’s biggest buttmonkey and is constantly abused. He’s a tiny demon trying to ride off other Overlord’s success and who’s design is a wimpy, trying-to-hard version of Charly’s dad. In life, Sir Pantsless was a Victorian-era businessman who lived a long, happy life of abusing child-workers in factories and getting away with all his evil deeds. Charly’s dad even admits to keeping him out of the purge purposefully because he finds Pantsless’ pain amusing.

Themes and other stuff worth noting

If there’s a lesson I guess I’d try to push with the ending of this rewrite it would be, ironically, that neither Heaven nor Hell hold your true morality. It’s on you for making mistakes; it’s up to you to overcome them - you literally have to go through hell - to fix them! It also shouldn’t be up to Heaven and Hell how punishment/enlightenment works or why it’s worth anything.

This is NOT supposed to be an antireligion/antiChristian story. Not at ALL. It’s anti absolutism and anti religiousSUPREMACY story.  I know then that people will probably not want me basing this version of Heaven off Evangelicals, but like Viv, that’s the religion that closest for me to criticize. If I were Jewish or Hindu or Muslim I would so be about tearing their hypocrisies down....but I’m not. I know all about the injustices in those religions but I’m not comfortable tearing them a new one as a white Christian. My mother’s fam are recovering Christian Science-folk. Also, have you watched anything about Left Behind? It’s genuinely an eye opening experience when it comes to Americanized Christianity and even the lore of Hell and Demons in regards to the book of revelations.

Lotsa references to The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost with the implication that these works are fan fiction to the demons of actual events with Dante never even making it out of Hell because he was too prideful. (Charly’s father has two faces in his wings/comb which are constantly chewing parts of Dante like chewing gum).

I know Viv says she’s hoping to get Weird Al to voice Lucifer. Personally I think a better unlikely but TOTALLY FITTING devil would be mah man Martyn Jacques of The Tiger Lillies. They even have a circus motif!

Engel probably claims his name is supposed to be misspelled on purpose. In reality, it’s cause he was drunk when submitting his resume to be an incubus and made a typo for his new name.

Vee’s human name is Marianna Posada. GET IIIIIT.

Alastair’s human name is Edward Hastings. Edward being the name of the American Murder Song which inspired my Alastair, while Hastings is the last name of the man who helped doomed the Donner Party.

[betweentheheavesofstorm]

i keep thinking i’m done beating this dead horse but no, because i’ve now read an interview with Kester Grant that explains, Well, a Lot.

 I’m also pissing myself because on her Agent’s site bio, she’s listed as being born on December 5, “alongside notorious British rebel Guy Fawkes” which strongly suggests that SOMEONE involved thought Guy Fawkes was born on November 5.

I then looked at her About page on her own website, where the note is “Death-day of notorious British rebel Guy Fawkes celebrated annually in the UK by giant morbidly ironic bonfire's & firework displays” which is ALSO wrong because he wasn’t even brought to trial till the following January ?? the fireworks commemorate the gunpowder plot aka the actual thing that happened on the 5th of november ohh my god  kester grant use wikipedia challenge 

Anyway, this is gonna be a Long Post, so I’m gonna put the quotes + commentary under the cut:

Firstly, Marius DID appear in an initial draft, only to be deleted later:

He was present in the first draft of the book when I sold it to the publishing house and I just struggled every time I had to write a scene with him. All the scenes with Marius and Enjolras St. Juste (it was Marius originally as well as St. Juste, and St. Juste was just a secondary character) and I was saying to my husband ‘if only I could write this scene with just St. Juste it would be 3 million times better’ [...] So I said to my editor, “listen, could I cut Marius?” and she said “absolutely!” and everything was just three million times better and now we just have St. Juste who became the amazing star that he is and I love him.

so we did get Marjolas, just the other way round than we normally do. 

On her writing process:

I had the idea for The Court Of Miracles and I wrote it in six weeks to apply for a competition called Pitch Wars where you get mentored by two published authors and then at the end of the mentorship of two months they help you edit it.

Really? Written in six weeks? you certainly couldn’t tell...

Then, when asked about research:

I started to do research on a 48 hour flight from the States to where I live now in Mauritius [...] So I had this raging fever and I had a million tabs open on my computer and I was just eating the history of Paris, from this origin all the way through to Napoleon’s fall. And taking notes and getting ideas.

honestly her having a fever while doing the research suddenly means EVERYTHING makes sense 

On how she came up with the Guilds:

Then I went online to see what kinds of crimes there are and I looked up laws. I had a whole list of different crimes and said ‘okay, we can split these into guilds’ and then I thought if you’re two young girls living in a criminal world, who is the most terrifying criminal?’ and obviously it would be the human trafficker. So automatically I was like ‘okay that’s your big bad guy. That’s your Shere Khan’.

what kind of crimes there are

Being in the first person is interesting because I don’t normally write in the first person. Being of a certain age, I’m 35, everything I’ve ever read in England was written in the third person, but I knew I was writing a young adult book, or at least one bordering on young adult, so I had been advised to write in the first person, which I hated. It was completely unnatural to me but I think it’s worked very well for Nina. [bolding mine]

once again, you definitely can’t tell that she hates the first person !! not at all!! also that’s definitely not the sort of thing you should say in an interview?!

I have since been told, from my best friend and all of my siblings, that Nina is actually like me and of course it was easy to write her because she does what I would do.

ohoho it’s self-insert o’clock! and, as Briar pointed out, it’s just a wild coincidence that her self-insert is also universally beloved by the Hot Young Men of the novel. (Not that in fic I’m against self-inserts - but once again, this is published !) 

There’s going to be two sequels [to The Court Of Miracles] so there might *hint hint*, be a bit of jealousy or triangles or things between [Ettie and Nina]

personally i’m delighted by this! we already have a love square, what is it gonna become? a tetrahedron? is the dauphin gonna suddenly fall for Cosette? or Montparnasse, or Enjolras St. Juste????

Nina, if pushed a certain way, if she allowed herself to go a certain way, could easily become very similar to [Kaplan, the villain]. I’m not saying she would become a human trafficker but Nina is basically a walking PTSD case. She’s like Batman! She’s like Samuel Vimes in Ankh-Morpork [in Discworld]!

nina is like batman. right, got it.

Originally the book had the history of Paris by the Dead Lord in between every single chapter and I think it was a bit too weighty and a bit boring in places. So my editor said ‘let’s scrap that’ and I said ‘okay but then I’m going to put the short stories in’. 

you know, her editor dropped the ball in a lot of places, but at least they got rid of that, because I was skim reading the folk story bits as it was

I have another book coming out next year, it’s basically like The Jungle Book but on speed.

this is the bit that made me almost spit peppermint tea everywhere because who the fuck describes their own work like that

and finally, last but not at all least, here’s her overview of the French Revolution:

I mean the nobles [in The Court Of Miracles] were always monstrous in a way but they have become 100 times worse because they saw what the people of France were about to do to them. Which historically, the people of France, the revolutionaries, led the terror – they murdered everyone right left and centre! Then of course the revolutionaries famously turned on their own.

There was terrible suffering that led to the revolution but the revolutionaries were all mental. They literally murdered each other because they were so paranoid! Robespierre got rid of the Roman Catholic Religion entirely and then invented his own religion! Look it up its called the Cult Of The Supreme Being!

Then there were three guys who had joint power who were supposed to form an equal government. One of them rose to power and his name was Napoleon and he became a dictator. Although he was a dictator who took over almost all of the world, the people of France loved him. [Then] the people of France themselves in a strange turn of events turned on him in the end and betrayed him. Otherwise, he might still have been in power for years and years. And Napoleon is a big feature in Books Two and Three… just saying…

napoleon!! we’re getting NAPOLEON in the next two i am so genuinely excited because I have no fucking idea what she’s gonna do 

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

More Female Characters to Avoid in Your Writing

A long while back, I typed up some posts ranting about characters and tropes I disliked.  These were Male and Female Characters to Avoid in Your Writing, and they’ve become my most popular posts yet.  Recently, I was struck by some topical inspiration, and decided it was time for a sequel!  

One again, these are my personal, subjective opinions!  No one dictates your writing or portrayals but you, and no one can or should decide how you consume fiction.  Also, as you may notice, I actually like most of the ladies below;  I just don’t like certain aspects of their portrayal.

Enjoy, and happy writing everybody! 

1.  The Daenerys (i.e. the spontaneous war criminal)

Image source

Who she is:

The formerly heroic Mother of Dragons, who randomly charbroiled a city full of innocent people.

Why it sucks:

I’m not even talking about this from a feminist standpoint, or how one of the most consistently heroic and powerful female characters took an abrupt and undignified backflip into the Dark Side.  I’m speaking from a writer’s standpoint.  

Regardless of whether you liked Daenerys, she was rivaled only by Jon and Brienne as the show’s most consistently heroic character  From locking away her dragon children to ensure the safety of her subjects, to freeing countless enslaved citizens, she’s spent a decade proving herself to be an altruistic and noble figure.  And then, in the final two episodes of the entire show, the writers dracarys-ed that shit.

For some comparison, just imagine how ridiculous it would be if Jon Snow suddenly went batshit and started hacking up citizens because he was feeling stressed.  That’s about as plausible as Dany’s sudden passion for genocide.

And for the record, I’m not opposed to Daenerys becoming Mad Queen.  If it was done properly. This would mean informing the actress far in advance so she could modify her portrayal accordingly (which they didn’t), and building up to it through foreshadowing and established attributes.  Not at the last fucking minute.

Honestly, the only characters who remained narratively consistent to the very end are Drogon and Ghost, who are both precious babies who did nothing wrong.  

How to avoid her:

Decide as early as possible where a character arc is going.  Contrary to what Game of Thrones seems to believe, the character arc is important.  It should have a beginning, challenges that incite development, and a satisfying conclusion that showcases how a character has changed and evolved.  

And if you didn’t decide early?  You still have to come up with a conclusion that makes sense for your character, and not slap on the most unexpected ending possible in the name of Subverting Expectations.

On that note?  Subverting expectations isn’t always a good thing, and a reader predicting your ending isn’t the worst possible outcome.  Focus on telling a good story.  

2.  The Rayon (i.e. the transgender stereotype)

Who she is:

A transgender woman (portrayed by the male, cisgender Jared Leto) dying slowly of AIDS in Dallas Buyer’s Club.  Her role in the narrative is to teach the supposedly heterosexual (more on that later) main character that queer people are human beings.  

Why it sucks:

Rayon is many things in Buyer’s Club, and most are firmly rooted in stereotypes.  She’s a sassy, flirtatious, clothing-obsessed, self-loathing, drug-addicted prostitute.   She’s hypersexual, but never treated as romantically desirable.  She’s tragic, but also one of the few consistently comedic characters in an otherwise bleak film. 

It’s her job to gently goad the main character into treating her with basic respect, but he never quite gets there.  He refers to her with male pronouns throughout the entire film, and never acknowledges her as a woman.  At one point, he aims a gun at her genitals and offers her a “sex change operation.”  Which, is supposed to be comedic.

This isn’t to say that there are no sassy, flirtatious, clothing-obsessed, self-loathing, drug-addicted transgender sex workers, nor is there anything wrong with “stereotypical” trans people.  It isn’t the job of the marginalized to dispel stereotypes.  And if real trans people had created and portrayed Rayon, she could have been a realistic, dynamic, and compelling character.

And I say “created” because Rayon is strictly fictional.  Outside of this film, she didn’t exist.  

“Well, at least they tried to offer representation!”  you protest.  “What else was it supposed to be about?  A straight dude in the AIDS epidemic?”

Well, no.  Though the main character, Ron Woodroof, is presented to us as a violently homophobic, transphobic, womanizing asshole, the real Woodroof was, by all accounts, kind-hearted, open-minded, and bisexual.  

What could have been a powerful story of a queer man defying his diagnosis, living joyfully and meaningfully, and helping to prolong the lives of countless AIDS-sufferers, was instead watered down to a story of a straight, pugnacious asshole and his stereotypical, long-suffering, transgender sidekick who dies to Teach Him Compassion.  

How to avoid her:

Read books by trans people.  Consume media they create or endorse.  

List of youtube channels created by trans people here, and 21 books for trans awareness month here.

Put out a special call for transgender beta readers to point out mistakes, misconceptions, and offer tips on an authentic portrayal.

Garner insight into their perspective and experiences, and give them personalities outside of being trans.  

3.  The Piper Chapman (i.e. the unflavored oatmeal)

GIF source

Who she is:

The “protagonist” of Orange is the New Black, and its least compelling character.  She and Larry are the sort of people who would ask me for a threesome on Tinder.  

Why it sucks:

Piper’s hook is that she’s a privileged, affluent white woman who unjustly finds herself in prison for -- well, for crimes she committed.  But expected to get away with, because, Privilege.

This isn’t to say Piper is boring.  She’s far from likable, but being likable and being boring aren’t the same thing.  In another series, watching a relatively cushioned, naive, bourgeoisie woman string along various significant others, thoughtlessly incite violence, and navigate an unfamiliar prison setting would make for thought-provoking and hilarious satire.  

But when compared to her charismatic supporting cast, with richly developed backstories, motivations, and relationships, she’s painfully bland.  I would much rather watch a series centered around Suzanne, Nikki, Taystee, Poussey, or even Pennsatucky.  They’re just more developed, opulent, enjoyable characters. 

It could be argued that Piper is the viewpoint character, whom the audience is supposed to relate to.  But I can assert that I don’t relate to Piper.  At all.  Her lack of empathy towards others -- such as leaving Alex after the death of her mother, cheating on her fiance, and inadvertently starting a *ahem* white power gang -- alienated me to her.  

Which might not be such a bad thing, but Piper is (supposedly) the protagonist.  We don’t need to like her, but we should probably be able to relate to her.

Or maybe I’m just jealous that hot women aren’t inexplicably fighting over me.

How to avoid her:

Your protagonist doesn’t have to be the most likable character in your story.  They don’t even necessarily have to be the most interesting character in your story.  And certainly not the most morally good, powerful, or knowledgeable.  But the viewpoint character is the character who we spend the most time with, and from whose eyes we perceive the story.  It’s important that we understand and relate to them emotionally.

Look at examples like BoJack Horseman, Holden Caulfield, Tony Soprano, Beatrix from Kill Bill, Mavis from Young Adult, Nadia from Russian Doll.  All are complex characters, with varying degrees of moral ambiguity.  Yet we can empathize with them emotionally and identify with them.  Even if we’ve never been in their situation, we see where they’re coming from.

4.  The Charlie (i.e. the dead lesbian)

Who she is:

One of the few recurring openly queer characters in the incredibly long-running Supernatural.  A lesbian who’s journey was (sort of) brought to an end when she was killed and dumped in a bathtub to incite drama.

Why it sucks:

I love Supernatural  but it can be remarkably tone deaf towards queer people, women, and marginalized groups.  Which, probably merits fixing, considering its following is largely comprised of queer people, women, and marginalized groups.  

I probably shouldn’t have to explain why killing off women and queer people for drama is Bad, but I’ll delve into its history a little:  from what I’ve read, censorship laws of the twentieth century forbade the portrayal of queer people unless they were ultimately killed or “reformed.”  This is why so much LGBTQ+ fiction is essentially gay tragedy porn, and why gays are so frequently buried to aid in the emotional narrative of their straight counterparts.  

That’s not to say queer people can never be killed off.  I might not have an issue with Charlie’s death (especially in a show as violent as Supernatural), if she weren’t the only openly queer character at the time.  

And there’s plenty of room for representation!  If Dean was openly bisexual, if angels were vocally confirmed to be nonbinary, and if there were more recurring, respectfully portrayed female and sapphic characters, Charlie’s death might not feel like such as slap in the face.  But as it is, it feels like a contribution to an ugly pattern.

In fairness, Supernatural has since improved in its portrayal of queer people:  two gay male hunters were introduced and given a happy ending, an alternate universe version of Charlie was introduced to the cast, and God is portrayed as a bisexual man.  

Yes.  All of that happened.  You have to see it to understand.

How to avoid her:

Educate yourself on the history of censorship in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as hate crimes and decreased life expectancy.  Make sure you aren’t contributing to the suffering of queer people.

If you have only one confirmed queer character in the midst of a very large cast, I’m inclined to think you need more.  You could say I’m BI-ased on the matter, though.

Look up “fridging,” and think about how many stories use the death of female characters to incite drama for men.

5.  The Allison (i.e. the reformed feminine)

GIF source

Who she is:

She’s one of the most interesting members of the Breakfast Club, and that’s saying something.  A self-proclaimed compulsive liar who will “do anything sexual” with or without the promise of a million dollars (as well as one of the most quotable characters in the film) she demonstrates the emotional pain and complexity that’s often ignored or shrugged off as teen angst.  

And then she gets a makeover and a hot boyfriend, and suddenly everything’s better.  

Why it sucks:

It would be one thing if Allison’s problem was that she didn’t feel pretty or desirable.  But she never (to my recollection) offers any indication of that, and that’s part of what makes her such a refreshing portrayal of insecurity.  She’s emotionally neglected by her parents, and that is appropriately treated as devastating.  

It’s a complex and beautifully-portrayed problem that deserved far more than such a superficial, slapped-on solution.

Similarly, there’s no reason why Allison is paired up with the jock at the end of the film.  Neither showed any romantic interest in one another until her unnecessary makeover.  

A much better ending to her arc would be her finding acceptance among her newfound friends, and finally garner the recognition and acknowledgement she never got from her parents. 

I was torn between using Allison for this example, or Sandy’s makeover from Grease.  In both, girls are encouraged to alter their appearances to solve plot-related problems.  And both were “fixed” to conform to some standard of femininity or feminine sexuality that they didn’t meet before.

How to avoid her:

If a character feels the need to change their appearance to accommodate others or be respected, that should probably be treated as a negative thing.

Your character’s appearance can be a good tool to represent emotional changes.  If they alter their appearance, there should be a meaningful reason behind it -- outside of fitting into societal norms or garnering the approval of others. 

A girl putting on makeup isn’t a groundbreaking plot point, and girls who don’t perform to standards of femininity aren’t broken or deficient.  They don’t need “correcting.”

[mistoelectra]

Why Jack Harkness deserved better

I said I was going to write this so here it is

WHY JACK HARKNESS DESERVED BETTER (SPECIFICALLY FROM THE TENTH DOCTOR)

Okay, so this is something I’ve been meaning to write for a little while, because I’ve been rewatching New Who from the beginning, and Jack is probably one of my favourite characters, and seeing the way Ten acts towards him makes my heart hurt. It also makes me really wish they could have brought Jack back in to interact with other incarnations of the Doctor because I feel like seeing the different dynamics would have been really interesting (also let’s face it, John Barrowman would be hella up for it).

This is gonna primarily focus on Doctor Who events but draw on things from Torchwood because that obviously gave us a lot more info on Jack and his past. But also I’m not going to go too in depth with Torchwood stuff, because that’s a whole different essay with full in-depth vaguely shitty psychoanalysis (I have a degree but I am far from proficient).

Let’s start at the beginning with Jack’s first appearance in The Doctor Dances/The Empty Child, which are admittedly two of my favourite episodes of series 1. Admittedly, he does at first come off as cocky, brash, a little callous, and of course, a self-professed con-man and criminal. Except at the same time, we already get to see some of his heart. His cons are based selling space junk to (what seem to be) rather wealthy parties, then getting that junk destroyed before they find out what they’ve actually bought. He himself states that he believes the Chula ambulance was completely empty, so wouldn’t do any damage, and specifically programmed it so it wouldn’t hit anything living. While this doesn’t necessarily make things any more moral, it still says something about Jack. There are plenty who wouldn’t have even bothered to do that. There’s also the fact that he’s not doing it for money, but in an attempt to get back his stolen memories.

Continuing on, Jack rescues Rose and the Doctor from the hospital, proving further that he is not quite as callous as he might make out to be. Given he now knows they’re time agents, there’s technically nothing stopping him from just abandoning them and getting the hell out of this time period (except possibly his time agency training reminding him that he may have done fucked up and he needs to fix it). He almost immediately places his trust in the Doctor, jumps at the chance to help him, and when the time comes, he doesn’t even hesitate in getting the bomb (and don’t tell me he doesn’t know the risk to himself, because he totally does. He knows his chances of getting out of this are slim, but Jack Harkness is a self-sacrificing bastard if ever there was one).

(Brief sidetrack to Torchwood- Jack mentions in Countrycide (1x06) that he’s proficient in torture and once had a reputation as a go-to guy for getting answers, but it’s never really made clear when this occurred, or if it’s even truthful. Was it the Time Agency? Was it Victorian era Torchwood? Who knows?)

Next appearance. Boom Town. That interesting outfit choice. But that aside, this is where we get to see how smart Jack is. Sure, he’s from the future so he’s going to have knowledge that will sound impressive, but there’s also his plan to catch Margaret, which is pretty tactically sound. Again, Jack was a time agent, so he’s definitely not going to be just any old idiot, not to mention he was a soldier as well. We also see him working on the TARDIS, which is pretty much something we don’t really see other companions do much of in New Who, and certainly not in their third episode, which I think says a lot, both about Jack, and about the trust the Doctor now places in Jack.

The final two episodes. For one, and on a different tangent, Jack keeps a gun up his ass. Is this a common thing? Is this just so the Doctor can’t take it off him like he did before? How is this safe? For two, and on the same tangent, Jack stop groping the robots. Finally, can we appreciate how efficient Jack is? Sure, he’s a little confused at first, but he throws himself into the situation, lets them give him a few different outfits, then calmly takes them down, makes himself a gun and gets out of there without much hassle. His reaction to Rose’s ‘elimination’ absolutely breaks my heart just as much as the Doctor’s, because while the Doctor is just completely silent and lost looking, you can hear and see Jack absolutely going off in the background, lashing out. Similarly, his reaction upon realising that Rose is alive…just yes.

Second side track- how quickly did Jack get that TARDIS key? I mean, I know there were multiple adventures between episodes, but regardless, he had a key by Boom Town. That’s hella speedy.

And then there’s dealing with the daleks. Jack knows how big a deal this is, he was a time agent after all. One hit, that’s all it takes. The Doctor probably would have let him leave Satellite 5 if he’d asked, but he didn’t. He stepped up, almost certainly knowing he was going to die, but willing to do whatever he could to give the Doctor any little scrap of time he could. And he gets killed for it. And then he gets brought back to life, and he’s surrounded by dalek dust, and he gets to watch the TARDIS leave without him. And his expression is just so heartbroken, and it hurts so much. What is he thinking? Is he hoping they’ll come back for him? Does he think that they think he’s dead so they’ve left without him?

And this is the first of the Doctor’s assholery (albeit this is still 9 and not 10). He just abandons Jack, without any form of explanation as to what has just happened, on a satellite surrounded by dalek dust and corpses. While I appreciate all the Doctor was going through and the whole ‘Jack now makes me physically sick’ thing, like dude, c’mon, you owe him an explanation. He has literally just died for you, it’s the very least you can offer.

And then there’s all the shit Jack goes through before they reunite again. I could spend all day going into depth on this but let’s just summarise it: managing to get back to Earth, ending up in 19th century Cardiff, 150 years of waiting which include: dying a lot (like seriously, he has at least two separate times where people essentially kill him on repeat just because he can come back, don’t tell me that doesn’t have an effect on your psyche), being tortured, being more or less coerced into a job, two world wars, several lost loves, his boss killing the entire team and then himself, being forced into a leadership position that he does not want, recruiting his own team, Canary Wharf and Rose’s name on the list of the dead, Suzie, being shoved into the rift (Thanks Ianto), a cyberwoman in his own basement (Thanks Ianto), being blamed by his entire team for the faeries and Jasmine, watching another man out of his time kill himself and being unable to do anything but keep him company, watching one of his team more or less let a weevil attack him, being mutinied against and killed by a team member (Thanks Owen), and then getting his life energy devoured by a legitimate hell beast.

And then the Doctor shows up, and Jack runs for him, and the Doctor runs away. Nothing like a stinging sense of rejection and a jaunt to the end of the universe to help your self esteem. And pretty much the first thing the Doctor does is criticise him. And what’s worse is that the Doctor won’t even admit that he abandoned Jack. ‘Busy life. Moving on.’ It’s just such an incredibly callous statement that just completely ignores Jack’s feelings and just seems to treat him as a piece of trash to be discarded. And Jack would be wholly within his right to go off at the Doctor, but he doesn’t. Instead he asks about Rose, and there’s the hug, because he can just tell that the Doctor has something against him, but Rose is a somewhat neutral territory.

Cue the Doctor being blatantly rude to Jack for an entire scene about both his vortex manipulator and his abandonment, as well as making it more or less clear to Jack that he knew all along about Jack’s immortality. That him being left on the Game Station was no accident. And that’s just cold. And yet despite all this, the moment Jack’s with them again, the Doctor’s immediately controlling him. Dictating what he can and can’t do, and in all honesty, it feels very much like he’s still treating Jack as the brash playboy he knew in his last regeneration? Like he can’t see just how much Jack has changed since they last met, how he’s most certainly not the same man he was. He also willingly throws Jack into a situation which is dangerous and will probably cause him pain (don’t tell me that radiation chamber didn’t cause Jack pain. Just because it can’t kill me doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt) just because he knows Jack will do anything for him (and also Jack would probably volunteer anyway because he’s that sort of person). And he admits to Jack’s face that he’s known all along, that he ran away from him. He point blank tells Jack to his face that he’s wrong and that he can hardly bear to look at him, without so much as a thought to how that’s bound to feel. Asks Jack if he wants to die. The whole conversation just makes me feel on edge because it does not feel at all like a healthy friendship.

Then, when Jack tells him he’s with Torchwood, there’s the Doctor’s reaction, and it’s just so vehement. His lack of belief in Jack is just heartbreaking, because it’s such a switch from his relationship with the 9th Doctor. It’s like Jack isn’t a companion to him anymore, but more of a sort of tool. And in the Year That Never Was, we pretty much get implied that Jack gets repeatedly tortured and killed for at least the third time in his existence, over and over for an entire year. It seems pretty likely too that the Master probably executes the rest of the Torchwood team too, probably using them in an attempt to break Jack. Sure, it all gets reversed, but it clearly fucks with Jack (and we can see that in Torchwood series 2). But Jack holds up the brave front, destroys the paradox machine. And you can bet it probably hurt him like hell when the Doctor mentions keeping the Master in the TARDIS, because it kinda seems like he’d rather have the Master there than Jack. And sure, he offers to let Jack come with him, but I feel like it’s an empty offer. He knows that Jack has found something else in their time apart, knows he’s probably not going to accept. And then of course, he breaks Jack’s vortex manipulator. While I do understand this, it also makes me sad, because if he’d at least left the teleport function working, there’s a chance that Owen and Tosh could have been saved.

Jump to their next reunion after Jack has faced the following: dealing with the psychological trauma from all the shit that just happened to him, losing Owen, bringing him back, finding his long lost little brother and being stabbed by him then buried under Cardiff for nearly 2000 years, being frozen for like a century, having to stop his little brother, losing Tosh, losing Owen again. And when the world needs saving, Jack doesn’t hesitate to jump straight in, especially once they get through to the Doctor, even though he is quite clearly terrified of the daleks. He’s the only one to actually be somewhat calm and methodical when the Doctor is shot. In the dalek ship, he willingly sacrifices himself in order to be able to explore the ship more and find some way to help them. But the moment he starts making threats, there’s the Doctor’s disapproval back again. But they do it, they save the world, they go home.

And then Children of Earth happens. Jack’s entire world shatters. He loses Ianto. He has to sacrifice his own grandson to save the world. The Doctor is nowhere in sight. Jack leaves Earth, crushed. And the Doctor does his little journey through the companions to say goodbye. He saves Martha and Mickey. He gives the scratch card for Donna. He saves Luke for Sarah Jane. He visits Rose just to see her again.

And Jack?

He gives Jack Alonso. And maybe it’s just me, but I find it wholly uncomfortable. It’s a possibility the Doctor doesn’t know about the whole affair with the 456 and what Jack went through, or that he more specifically doesn’t know about Jack’s losses. But it’s also possible that he does. And he feels like the best thing he can do is to essentially offer him a shag. Even though he’s very clearly heavily grieving (No hate to Alonso, I love him) and has just lost someone he deeply loved. It feels like further confirmation of the fact that Ten still sees him as the playboy he was. Because let’s face it, Jack still flirts like a champ, but Torchwood very much paints him as that only extending to his flirting. Any further seems to fall exclusively within having relationships, which are considerably infrequent in the series (with Estelle, Angelo, Lucia and Ianto seeming to be the principal partners in his life over his 150 years). To be fair, this ‘gift’ to Jack doesn’t really seem so much an asshole move, as just Ten no longer understanding Jack, not in the way he used to.

But yeah, this got kinda longer than I initially expected and could probably do with severe editing but oh well, here it is in it’s entirety anyway.

[keeroo92]

Be My Nightmare Ch1

Arrival

The brutal murderer V is the newest arrival at Mundus Psychiatric Hospital where you work with the most violent of criminals. Can you help him find peace, or will his machinations pull you into his dark web?

CONTENT WARNING - mental illness, blood, murder, hallucinations, dubious consent, lots of dark thinking.

Word count - 4,261

___________

---Reader---

“Shit, he’s got a knife!”

Five words you never wanted to hear while working in a psychiatric hospital.

They sent you straight into high alert, scanning the lobby and intake area for the threat. Only a few visiting family members and orderlies occupied the room. Still, because of the constrained space it took a moment to find the culprit. Your eyes widened when you spotted the slim figure at last.

A tattooed man with black hair, he brandished the blade before him with a gleeful smile, his green eyes lit with crazed mirth. He sliced at the person closest to him, leaving a line of dark red on her white sleeve.

Fuck! This looks bad…

Yet you didn’t intervene. Instead, you ducked lower behind the intake counter to hide, trying not to draw attention to yourself as you picked up the red phone and dialed the security office. Protocol dictated it, and despite your fascination with the potential new patient you knew better than to ignore the rules. While the line connected, you peeked over the counter to watch the chaos.

The man with the knife had his teeth bared as his green eyes swept the room, searching for something. The three orderlies present were standing between him and the visitors, hands held high in a non-threatening pose. You recognized Kevin and Rob and smirked. They were both experts in de-escalation; that’s why they worked in intake so often.

The third man looked scared, a new face you weren’t yet familiar with. He didn’t hide his fear at all, and the attacker easily picked up on his inexperience. The knife flashed toward him, aimed right for his heart. You held your breath, anticipation flooding your senses as both Kevin and Rob darted forward, each grappling one arm.

Kevin wrapped a meaty fist over the man’s bicep, his other hand applying pressure to his extended wrist as the blade grazed the third orderlies chest. He tightened his grip until his knuckles turned white and the black-haired stranger’s fingers opened against his will. The knife clattered to the floor and Kevin kicked it away as a nurse came running with a set of restraints.

Over already.

A sigh of disappointment slipped through your lips. Contrary to popular belief, working in a mental institution was incredibly boring. Routine and stability were crucial to patient recovery, and the monotony of it made you restless. Not that you wanted people to get hurt, but a little break in the tedium was nice.

“This is Aaron, what’s the issue?”

“Oh! Uh, Kevin’s got a violent patient restrained in intake. Two minor injuries, but nothing serious,” you replied.

“On my way.”

The phone went dead and you set it back into the cradle, monitoring the tense situation as Kevin and Rob forced the stranger into the restraint system. The crazed man repeated the same words over and over as they tightened the straps.

“A land of sorrows and of tears where never a smile was seen!”

You smiled. This guy would be interesting.

__________________

The second your replacement arrived, you headed for the director’s office. You held up your badge to Lenny with a smile and he waved as he buzzed you past the double gate, allowing you into the administrative wing. Within moments, you were knocking on Dr. Malphas’ door.

“Come in.”

You couldn’t hide your excitement as you entered your boss’s office, taking a seat on the comfortable armchair in front of his desk. Dr. Malphas was an odd fellow, elderly and kind. He was the one who hired you straight out of college, despite the lack of experience on your resume. He closed the navy file before him and gave you a grandfatherly smile, folding his hands over the desk to meet your gaze.

“I want the guy from this morning,” you blurted. He chuckled and removed his glasses, using the backside of his tie to clean them.

“I knew you would. He does seem like he needs your special touch. How’s your case load?”

You hummed thoughtfully, reviewing the patients you were already working with.

“I could hand one or two to Dr. Mustafa, one of his just got discharged.”

He gave the lenses one last wipe and carefully placed his glasses back on his face. They made his eyes look bigger, buglike and you smirked. He knew what they did, and he loved it.

“Make it two, I have a feeling this guy will take up a fair amount of your time. Once he’s stable, feel free to begin.”

You beamed and nodded, eagerly accepting the file he held out for you to peruse. The name on the tab made no sense, and you stared back at your supervisor quizzically.

“His name is V? That’s it?”

“That’s all the court provided.”

Weird.

You stood and inclined your head. “I’ll go get to work. Thanks, boss!”

Dr. Malphas chuckled again and waved you off as you hurried out the door, already scanning the file.

Court ordered admission, patient murdered a family of three. Damn, the kid was only five…

You barely acknowledged Lenny in your rush to get back to your office on the third floor. Over the last few years, you’d developed a reputation for your ability to help the very worst of patients, specializing in criminals with violent tendencies. They fascinated you, especially serial killers. If you used the textbook definition, this “V” didn’t fall into that category since all his known kills had occurred in a single evening.

But I’d bet a month’s salary he’s got more skeletons in the closet. They always do.

You grinned; you couldn’t wait to get started.

__________________

It didn’t take long for you to choose two patients to transfer, and as you gathered the required files in your office, you heard approaching footsteps. Only an hour had passed since V’s arrival; it was probably the orderlies bringing him to his cell. You grabbed your badge and scurried out to watch.

They were easy to spot in the hallway through the glass of the security checkpoint. Two bulky men in blue scrubs dragging a third, much smaller man in white between them. Kevin’s annoyed grimace helped you recognize him, and Aaron was unmistakable due to his mountainous form.  You waved at Ben and he buzzed you through with a shake of his head.

You stepped into the hallway and kept out of their way, content to listen to the man’s growled oaths.

“I’ll destroy you for this. I will flay the flesh from your bones and make you watch, I’ll use your blood as bath water!”

“Sure you will, buddy,” Kevin replied.

V snarled like an animal, gnashing his teeth and writhing against the two men’s tight hold of him. He contorted until his eyes locked on yours, and he froze as if a cattle prod had hit him. You expected him to continue his tirade of threats, but he fell silent and tilted his head to the side, furrowing his brow in thought.

Huh… interesting reaction.

You held his gaze unflinchingly and waited, curious to see what happened next. The corner of his lips twitched into a smirk and for the first time you noticed how damn attractive he was. It was hard to look past the madness in his expressions, but once you did it was impossible to ignore.

What a waste.

You followed the three men without thought, your inquisitiveness too strong to resist. Kevin and Aaron dragged V’s newly compliant body into his cell, strapping his limbs down until further notice. It was standard procedure with a new high secure patient; people didn’t end up in your care unless they were a danger not just to themselves, but to society.

“Now, are you going to cooperate and take these or do we have to sedate you?” Aaron asked, holding out a paper cup with V’s first dose of Seroquel. You watched from the doorway as his eyes narrowed, considering his options.

Please be smart, please be smart, please be smart…

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, he opened his mouth obediently to accept the medication.

Yes!

Kevin leaned forward to check his cheeks and smiled kindly when he found them empty.  

“Good man,” he said, then turned to you. “What’s up, doc? He one of yours?”

“As of today!”

“Well, good luck. Hope you can reach him,” Aaron answered. He gestured at Kevin and the two men departed. With V tied down under three levels of restraints, there was no need for them to stay and monitor him. You stepped closer, pulling out the chair from under the desk and plopping down to begin.

“All right… V… I’m Dr. Waras. I’m here to help you get better.”

You paused, waiting for some sign of acknowledgment of your words, but V kept his eyes glued to the pale ceiling overhead. You cleared your throat, but still he didn’t respond.

What the hell? He was talking a few minutes ago.

After another moment of silence, you started to get worried. He hadn’t even blinked. You leaned forward, coming into his line of sight. You chewed the inside of your cheek at the emptiness of his expression.

“V? Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

His tattoos were extraordinary and you couldn’t help but glance at the intricate patterns on his arms. The dark lines looked tribal, like war paint in a way. You tilted your head and called his name again, with no result.

You leaned closer, bringing your mouth next to his ear. Even his head was strapped to the bed, the poor bastard…

“V? Hello?”

He’s not dead, is he?

You extended your hand and felt for a pulse, your fingertips pressing into his neck gently. There was a normal rhythm, nothing out of the ordinary. You moved your fingers to check his airflow, hovering under his nostrils as the telltale exhalation crossed your skin. He still hadn’t blinked and tears were forming in the corners of his eyes.

A catatonic episode. Pretty intense, from the looks of it. Poor guy.

---V---

The scent of blood was overwhelming, but all he saw was white. Where was that delicious aroma coming from? He hoped it was fresh; the color became dull after only a few hours.

“V? Hello?”

Sensations filtered in one by one. Warm pressure on his neck. A thin cushion under him, something wrapped around his wrists and ankles. V struggled to gather his wits, his thinking sluggish and disorganized. The aroma grew stronger and he stifled a moan as the source revealed itself to him – a woman in a white coat, leaning over his prone body. Her fingers were held under his nose.  

Irresistable.

V slipped his tongue past his teeth and between his lips, taking a delightful lick of your fingers with a pleased hum. You retreated with a grimace and pulled a napkin from your pocket to wipe away his saliva. He blinked, savoring the saltiness of your flesh.

I should’ve bitten… damn.

The restraints limited his vision, but every flash of your slim fingers against the white fabric made him want another taste. You tucked away the napkin and opened a thin blue folder.

“R- right. I’m Dr. Waras. Do you know where you are?”

He smirked; he’d rattled you. V reveled in the sense of power it gave him to know only a momentary caress of his tongue had caused such a reaction. His nerves vibrated, anticipating all the fun he could have with you.

What other reactions can I elicit?

He wiggled his arms and legs, testing his range of motion. Only a few inches, far from the distance required. Damn. He’d have to remedy that, somehow.

“Can you speak?”

Ah, I suppose I should play along for now.

“I can. What’s your name?”

You frowned. “I just told you, I’m Dr. Waras. Are you having trouble remembering?”

“I meant your first name.”

You sighed, pursing your lips for a moment before answering. “If I tell you, will you answer my questions?”

V hummed, pretending to think while inside he celebrated his first victory. He hoped you’d prove amenable, but this was almost too easy.

“I will,” he replied with a false smile.

“Y/N. Now, do you know where you are?”

“Y/N,” he purred. He liked the way it sounded, a delightful arrangement of letters. It echoed in his mind, becoming a mantra as he closed his eyes to bask in a plethora of imagined situations where he could say your name again.

You shifted your weight. He wondered if it was from discomfort or if you enjoyed hearing your name roll from his lips. He said it again, testing. A pulse of blood rushed down to his cock as he envisioned decorating your flesh with little cuts, thin lines of red trailing across your skin. He repeated your name again, letting a hint of his arousal color his voice.

You shifted your weight again. He wished his head was free, wished he could see if you were angling your body against the chair to ease the ache…

I think she likes it!

“Hush, Griffon!” he cried, angry at the interruption. Just when he was getting to know you…

“Griffon? Who is Griffon?” you questioned him.  

“Now see what you’ve done? You ruined it! Accursed demon!”

“Demon? V, tell me who you’re talking to.”

The coil of heat in his belly flickered away, extinguished by Griffon’s untimely words. V growled his frustration and closed his eyes, trying to recapture the images he’d conjured. But it was no use, he couldn’t shake his annoyance. He’d lost the precious moment.

“Hey, stay with me. Come on, V,” you said. A warm hand came to rest on his forearm; a gesture of reassurance.

He instinctually tried to turn his head to meet your eyes and growled a second time as he met resistance. Being restrained was infuriating. To limit his freedom, how dare you! He would destroy you for this, no matter how good you tasted.

“If you can calm down and focus, I can take the head strap off.”

He froze, surprised by the proposition. Perhaps you would prove more entertaining than he expected? He revised his strategy and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly and closing his eyes. He held his body as still as he could, projecting calmness as convincingly as he was able. It did not come easily to him.

Regardless, you swallowed the bait and reached out to loosen the thick band of leather holding his skull in place. He waited until you pulled aside the straps to lie flat on either side of the mattress, then turned his head to face you fully. You smiled kindly.

Those features would look even more lovely if I twisted them in fear.

“So. Do you know where you are?”

V rolled his eyes. Such mundane questions you asked, what did it matter if he knew his whereabouts? But he had to play the game, at least for now.

“Unless the judge changed his mind, I would assume this to be Mundus Psychiatric Hospital,” he replied.

“Yes. You’re currently in the high secure wing, but depending on your progress we may be able to get you to mid secure. I’m in charge of your treatment.”

He smirked. “Then I’ll see you regularly?”

You shifted your weight again, and this time he could see your motions. He licked his lips.

“Every day. Next question – do you remember what happened in the lobby when you arrived?”

The image of the knife flashing, its tip sinking into flesh and drawing blood sent him reeling. Such a beautiful sight, why did the fools have to interrupt him? Such a pity. It was the first chance he’d had in months to create another masterpiece, only to be wrestled into submission against his will and drugged.

They will pay.

---Reader---

It was child’s play to catch the gleam of pleasure in V’s eyes, hear the way his breathing hitched at the reminder. Not only did he remember, he felt no shame or guilt. No, he enjoyed it. You shivered, a surge of adrenaline flooding your system as you eyed this incredibly dangerous man.

“I remember nothing,” he said.

He’s lying. But why?

“What would it take for you to release my legs? They’re growing stiff.”

You tapped your pen against your lips. With this type of patient, it may be wise to let him think he had control of the situation, put him at ease. Overconfident. Then, he might open up and give you the details you needed to treat him properly. It was a risk, it always was. Completely against protocol.

But if it works…

“Answer three questions and I’ll untie one leg. Another three, and I’ll do the other one.”

Even if he lies, it’s still valuable information.

“Deal. What would you like to know, Y/N?”

You almost dropped your pen at the low rumble of your name over his lips. It truly was a waste, to see such an attractive man like this. Tied up. Caged. He could’ve chosen any other path, but here he was. You sighed, trying to focus. What did you want to know?

Let’s start with an easy one.

“What’s your full, legal name? It can’t be just V.”

He chuckled, his mouth stretching over his teeth in amusement. “I truly couldn’t tell you.”

Clever bastard. He knows I’ll have to waste more questions to get the full answer. Is it worth it?

You pursed your lips, thinking. This stage of treatment was critical. It established the parameters for the duration of his time here, whether he would see you as an authority figure deserving his respect and trust, or if you’d be nothing more than a naïve fool in his eyes.

“Okay. Who is Griffon?”

His smile vanished. It seemed like you’d caught him off guard by your easy change of topic, like he’d expected you to pursue his name. You smirked and waited for his answer.

“Griffon is a demonic bird. He speaks to me occasionally.”

Audio hallucinations, got it. This might be the last time he answers, better make it a good one.

“Okay. Why did you kill that family?”

V bared his teeth and growled like an animal. His eyes flashed and for a moment you thought he wouldn’t answer. His hands clenched and he tugged at the restraints, but at last he spoke.

“They were supposed to be my masterpiece. That’s three.”

You shook your head. “And that wasn’t an answer.”

He sighed, grimacing briefly in irritation. When he opened his eyes again, he looked so different it stole your breath. The anger, the playfulness, the energy from before had disappeared. Only mournful resignation remained. You leaned forward, pen poised to write his response.

“I wish I remembered.”

Huh. I think he’s telling the truth.

You sat back, surprised by the honest expression he still wore. It was clear he was intelligent, and liked to play games. When he licked your fingers, you first saw the gleam of humor tinting his green gaze. The memory sent another shiver up your spine and you rubbed your fingers together to remind yourself the wetness was gone. There was no way he knew how sensitive your fingertips were, it had to be a coincidence.

“That’s three,” V reminded you.

Right. Here goes nothing.

You scooted closer and unhooked the cuff from the anchor, letting his leg have full range of motion. He groaned suggestively and stretched, overextending his knee until it popped. Lips pursed again, you retreated to allow him the room to lift his leg high and stretch his thigh muscles.

“Would you be so kind?”

You shook your head. No way in hell were you letting him dictate the situation.

“Not unless you answer an extra question.”

His leg trembled and he clicked his tongue, but nodded.

“Do you ever find it difficult to concentrate?”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion and you internally celebrated. Such an ambiguous question would challenge him to decide if a lie was necessary. He remained silent for a long moment, long enough that he lowered his leg to rest. You knew the second he decided and watched his pupils to see if they dilated.

“Never.”

Lie.

Still, he never agreed to tell the truth, so you stepped closer to lift his leg into an assisted stretch. His eyes rolled back into his head and he whined, making a sound so lewd you dropped his calf in shock. You pursed your lips as he smirked at you tauntingly.

All right, time to teach him a lesson.

You darted forward and clipped his leg back into place, grimly amused at his growl of frustration as you stepped back again and gathered your things.

“I think that’s enough for now. I’m sure we’ll make more progress tomorrow,” you said.

He laughed and winked at your departing from. “I’ll be counting the moments, Y/N…”

---V---

Once you were gone, V set his mind on planning. He had to escape, that much was obvious. If he remained here to languish, his masterpiece would never be completed.

Unacceptable.

He tugged at his restraints with an irritated growl, testing their strength. The leather was durable and thick, but perhaps he could sabotage the buckles? Assuming he had a moment of freedom to do so… He’d need to be fast. A distraction would help, as well, but how?

He lifted his head as high as he could, straining to get a look at the rest of the small room. There wasn’t much to see. He deduced the existence of bars over the small window based on the pattern of shadows across the plain beige walls. As expected, considering his supposed crimes. Besides the cot, his only furniture consisted of a cheap wooden desk and the chair you had used during your visit.

Not much to work with, pal. You’re gonna need help.

“Yes, yes, I know,” he replied aloud, rolling his eyes in derision.

How about that cute doctor? She seemed to like you.

“Possible, though it would take a fair amount of time. I’d have to go slowly…”

He fell silent, recalling how cooperative you’d been earlier. There was definite potential there, but V wasn’t one to leave all his eggs in one basket, so to speak. Other allies must be found.

But how to turn you to his side? How to convince you he could be trusted?

Ugh. I don’t have to exhibit docility, do I?

She wouldn’t believe it after the knife thing.

“A valid point.”

So, he’d have to turn you. V truly believed everyone had the capacity to discover the truth that only he seemed to know. Perhaps you simply needed a guide to show you the way?

He smirked, his eyes glittering in wicked amusement. A rush of blood flooded his cock as he envisioned himself teaching you just how much pressure to use when slicing at flesh, the perfect grip for every blade. He licked his lips as he pictured the look of joy in your eyes at your first stroke, discovering the release for yourself. It would be magnificent, ethereal to taste the blood of your shared victims on your lips. He would fuck you until you couldn’t speak in a pool of crimson, your bodies serving as paintbrushes against the canvas of the floor.

He hissed and tried to arch his hips, but the strap over his waist held tight. His cock strained against the rough white fabric of his pants and he shifted his weight, just enough to get a little friction against the head. Enough to imagine how you’d look, licking a mixture of white and red from his length. You’d be so beautiful with streaks of blood left wherever he touched you.  True artistry.

Gods, how he wanted to touch himself. This was such exquisite torture. He wondered if you knew the effect you had on him, if you might even be watching from somewhere as he writhed and moaned, his cock tenting just inches below the accursed strap.

Calm yourself, fool. Do not allow your lust to destroy your plans.

“Fuck off, Vergil!” he snarled to the cold, disembodied voice. The bastard only ever spoke up to insult him.

Or to keep you from self-destructing.

V growled. So many disruptions today! Sometimes being the only one they could talk to was immensely irritating. Once you were able to hear them too, perhaps he’d finally get some peace. For now, there was only one sure-fire way to get Vergil to leave him alone. He smirked and licked his lips.

“Jackpot.”

…fine. Have it your way.

He grinned gleefully, victorious. Yet the interruption had already done its damage; the tent was gone, his cock limp and lifeless once more. He clenched his jaw in frustration.

Soon, I will have satisfaction.

He tugged at the restraints again and sighed. This would become terribly boring without something to occupy his thoughts.

A long roar rattled through his mind. Shadow. She was the most helpful of the bunch, and he smiled at her wise counsel.

“Thank you, as always,” he said. Another, much shorter roar sounded and he focused his mind on the problem at hand.

How to show you his reality, the true reality. It would shock you if he wasn’t careful, to rush the process would spell disaster. Patience was a struggle, but he needed to try. Subtlety had a higher chance at success, and his masterpiece was too important to allow failure. 

~~~Next Chapter~~~

[inkstaineddove]

Trouble in Moscow

Ship: RusPru

Characters: Russia, Prussia; mentioned Poland, Germany, Hungary

Summary: After hearing from the other nations behind the iron curtain that Russia's been acting differently, Prussia decides to visit his old friend and prove once and for all that they're lying. The only problem is Gilbert's lack of knowledge in what's been happening in the USSR since Stalin came to power.

Moscow, 1949 "Gilbert! It is so good to see you! Your face is so red from the wind, come in! I have some borscht on the stove, but there's plenty of vodka to warm you while we wait." Ivan couldn't wipe the grin off his face or his arm from around the Prussian's shoulders. It had been too long since they'd last seen each other under peaceful circumstances. "Please, make yourself comfy! Do you need a blanket? It's been a long time since our winter war, hasn't it?" For his part, Gilbert was brimming with joy as well. It had been too long that someone had actually been glad to see him. He hadn't felt like his presence was valued in such a long time. Not even his own damn brother, but he wouldn't think about that. Not tonight, not in the company of such a good friend. "Hey, I didn't fall into a river! You don't have to fuss over me this much! My hearts keeping me warm enough right now, but how can I turn down such good vodka? I'm not a complete bastard." He sat down on the couch, nuzzling himself into the cushions for maximum warmth and comfort. For all his protesting, Prussia really was feeling a chill down to his bones. He'd forgotten how harsh Russian winters could be, even on so-called good days. He gratefully took the glass offered to him by his host and had a sip. He had a couple more. "God, you've got this shit down to a science."

Russia sat down besides his friend. Pride filled him at the compliment. "Da, we do have the best. It's a shame others try to compete, don't you think?" He took off his coat, growing too warm from the fire and soup being cooked in the next room. "How's the adjustment been? No one treats you like a war criminal?" "All of them except Hungary have been doing their best to avoid me. You and Erzsi are the only two who understand what Roderich and I were trying to do in our small way." He shrugged. "I expected it. If any of them had been particularly warm towards me, that would've been more suspicious. Feliks is starting to talk to me again, but only in letters or telegrams to insult my entire existence. It's incredibly weird, but I'm not going to harp on the guy. He's had it rough." Ivan nodded along. At the mention of Feliks, he grew tense. His grip on his coat sleeves grew tight, bunching the fabric up in his fist. "Poland. He hasn't...mentioned anything about me? No weird stories from him or Lithuania?" "From what I've heard from Erzsi, they've been saying you're acting really off. They keep calling you paranoid and possessive and a whole slew of horrible things." He paused a beat. "Shit, that was in private. Well, whatever. I don't get the point of it. You seem perfectly fine to me, but those two are always gossiping. It's really annoying. They beat us up a few times in the Middle Ages and still act like hot shit. Like who just got put back on a map? It's a disgrace." Ivan laughed at that. Some of the tension was relieved from his body. He released his grip on his sleeves. "He really thinks he doesn't need me - or all of us! - when he couldn't be trusted to run his own country for such a long time. He's such a strange guy. He should be grateful for all the assistance he can get." "He's had a rough decade. Honestly, I talk big but I do feel bad for the guys. Both of them. They've had it rough the last few years." Gilbert finished down the rest of his drink. "Da, and they'll have a couple rough more." Ivan sung under his breath, chuckling darkly to himself. Gilbert snapped his head to look at his host. The Russian sensed his unease and smiled. "I said I hope they won't have any more rough years. You've been on high-alert for so long you don't know how to relax. Your glass is empty, let me fill it." While not entirely convinced, Prussia wasn't going to disagree. The easiest explanation was that he'd misheard. Why start a pointless fight when he'd just arrived? He smiled sheepishly and held out his glass while it was refilled. "You're right. Relaxing. I need to try that again. You've always been a laid-back guy, maybe you can teach me how." A grin filled with genuine warmth spread across Ivan's face. His body felt like it was vibrating. "You really mean that? I would love to! I rarely get any visitors and to make it so our friendship blooms like a sunflower in May would be so wonderful!" Suddenly, his whole mood shifted. His back stiffened and he bent his head down. He was deflated and seemed to be overtaken by something darker. "Ah, but Stalin would grow suspicious if I had such a close male companion. And he gives me so much work, I could be a unreliable partner at best." He stumbled, realizing his choice of words. "Not that I'm looking for us to be partners! That would be-be wrong! Da, wrong! So I'm....I'm a man with many things to do." The room grew incredibly tense afterwards. Ivan's face was bright-red, his embarrassment growing as he replayed what just happened in his head. He was forcing himself to stare intently at the painting of a sunflower on the wall and not at his companion besides him. For his part, Gilbert was absolutely confused. He drank more and tried to figure out why Ivan was so upset about forming a partnership with him. Were you not allowed to run a company? Or, if you do, it has to be with members of the opposite sex? This communism thing and that Stalin guy were a lot stricter than he thought. Gilbert leaned over and put his hand on Ivan's shoulder. Mustering up all his charisma, he gave his most dazzling smile. "Hey, I've got no problem with us forming a partnership in secret if you're worried about what your boss thinks. I've had plenty like that before and they worked out fine." Ivan's face turned even redder. He jumped up and dashed into the kitchen. "ThankyouGilbert!" He shouted over his shoulder, his voice suddenly up an octave. He pretended to fuss around with the borscht while calming himself down. Gilbert poured some more vodka and shook his head. "Some people are allergic to success," he muttered. He took a sip, enjoying the buzz that was coming on. He grinned wide at Russia when he came back into the living room. Thinking about all that had happened, he began to laugh. "I don't know why Poland and everyone else are so afraid of you. Everyone's been saying you've had some sort of personality shift since 1917, but you look like the same old Ivan to me." This killed any butterflies still lingering in Russia's stomach. He sat down and turned his full attention to his guest. "I had no idea they said those kind of things. Why would they be scared of me if we're all friends?" Gilbert threw more of his drink back. "It's the most ridiculous bits of gossip. Toris is saying you're out here rounding up his citizens and killing them in Siberia. Feliks and your sister with the big tits - Katya, is that her name? -  too! Can you believe it? Like, I look at them when they say that and it makes me wanna laugh. It's you! You've always just wanted friends, how do you make any by killing their people? Fucking ridiculous. Isn't it?" He had been laughing the whole time. There was radio silence next to him. Gilbert shut up. His voice was hushed. "Ivan, please say this is ridiculous." Russia had his eyes closed. He didn't want to look at his friend for fear of seeing what would be in his eyes. "The revolution did put me in a bad place. A lot of violence and bloodshed, that never sits right with you. It changes some parts of who you thought you were. I've got issues now, new issues. I have to be worried about everyone who wants to hurt me. Sometimes, the people who are supposed to love me are the one's who hurt me so I hurt them back. I never stop loving them though." Prussia was dead silent. He ran his hands through his hair and groaned. Personally, he was thrilled with his good luck. One dictator to another. That's what his fate had been. That's why France and Britain were so excited to see what life under Russian eyes would do to him. This wasn't supposed to be something he looked forward to, it was a punishment all along. "You need help, Ivan. You need help as a person and you need help as a nation." "If there's villains all around you what do you do? You create a system that prevents others from cropping up and crush the ones already here! That's all I'm doing and there's nothing wrong with it. I understand that you're sensitive right now, but you'll figure it out soon enough and I was hoping you would help me." Russia smiled. "You've always understood matters of brute strength and of discipline. I need that kind of leadership and insight." "No! I don't want to be a pawn anymore! I'm tired of being some lowlife's bully! I want out, out of this damned system!" Gilbert jumped up. "How do you expect me to sympathize with hurting innocent people after everything I've seen? Ivan, I was sent to every one of those damned camps multiple times! I've seen so much death and been part of it, I don't want to be part of it anymore!" Slowly and with great caution, Russia rose. He moved gently towards the distressed nation, like he would a cornered animal. "Gilbert, I would never send you to see what was happening. To be frank, you're never going to be privileged enough. All we need is a mind. Teach our police effective means, help our military straighten out, and get more discipline from everyone. I thought this is what you were known for, no?" He smiled and held both of Prussia's shoulders in his hands. "I would never ask of you to do anything so upsetting as that. Come, sit down and have another drink. Good, you're calmer now, yes?" Prussia, now wrapped comfortably on the couch and downing another glass of vodka, weakly nodded. Russia smiled and sat across from him on the table. He took a sip of vodka from the bottle before continuing. "This wouldn't be for nothing. You'd be paid well, get many great things the others will be without. You'll be trusted and keyed in on important things. Isn't that what you've missed? Having bosses and officials remember that you matter? There's no more little brother to walk all over you, you'll be treated like my equal because you are my equal." "And if I say no?" Prussia chuckled. "Who am I kidding, I know how this works. I can't, you've said too much, I know too much. I have no choice. I haven't had a choice in so fucking long." The anger was coming back, but instead of making him want to fight, it made him tired. What could he do? He was trapped. Even if he spoke out, no one would listen. His host rose and patted him on the shoulders. "You'll get used to this. And when it's winter and you're warm while all the other's are trying to figure out how to get heating in their flats, you'll thank me." Ivan rose and returned to the kitchen to begin pouring the borscht in their bowls. He brought their dinner back to the couch where they'd be warmest. For a long time, they ate in silence, the only sound passing between them was the occasional slurp. "Have I just sold my soul?" Gilbert's voice was faint and lacking all of his usual energy. Without any joy, Ivan smiled. "We haven't had souls in a long time."

[ravenaveira]

People that say Taka was the best team/friends for him is like saying a drug addicts friends who are also drug addicts are whats best for them simply because they went along with and encouraged their habit rather than trying to get them help and off a toxic lifestyle

Just because you have friends that support your bad habits doesnt mean their good friends and whats best for you

Friends who try to get you out of that toxic lifestyle to a better place where your clear-headed and healthy THOSE are real friends who want the best for you

I know this is a weird topic to touch on after the previous episode which I'm not downplaying because I thought it was wholesome, but the fact that people blatantly ignore how toxic and unhealthy Taka was for Sasuke AT THE TIME really just rubs me the wrong way

Do I think his relationship with Team 7 perfect? course not, but you can definitely see the difference between how TRUE friends behave and how enablers behave

Whenever Sasuke talked or thought about Team 7 he viewed them like family and precious bonds he had to cut in order to focus on and pursue revenge

Whenever Sasuke talked or thought about Taka he treated them as strictly subordinates, we never see him bothering to interact with them other than pursuing his goals and once they were no longer needed? he discarded and abandoned them without a second thought, he didnt even know Karin was an Uzumaki or that he even met her in the past which shows how little he cared about any of them on a personal level, the only one I can say Sasuke even remotely cared about to that degree is Jugo

None of them tried to empathize with Sasuke, none of them tried to talk to him about his struggles or problems and let him suffer alone, none of them cared for Sasuke to that point and if they did then they had one hell of a way of showing it

So my point? yes I think Sasuke cared somewhat about Taka in his own way and yes I think Taka cared for Sasuke as well I'm not saying they didnt, I'm just saying they didnt care enough

And it seems crazy to me that the same people who complain about the injustices done to Sasuke and his clan are the same one who support Taka and them supporting Sasuke and his crimes against pretty much everyone

Yes killing Danzo was a good thing but it was still a crime, Sasuke and Taka joined Akatsuki and tried to kidnap the 8 tails which was a crime against the Cloud village, Sasuke attacked the 5 kage summit and every single kage there making him an international criminal regardless if his goal was just Danzo it was still a risk of them getting involved, Sasuke just being a rogue ninja joining another rogue ninja is a crime, Sasuke attempting to kill all the 5 kage after the war would have been a crime

Yes some injustices can be resolved through violence but that is not the one and ONLY solution, Sasuke going rogue unfortunately even from a narrative standpoint yea it needed to happen for him to train with a Sanin etc but the only way to resolve Konoha’s injustice was to go through the right channels and expose to corruption that was in it, once Sasuke left and started committing crimes he lost the moral high ground and anything he said or did would easily be ignored and just thought of as another crazed Uchiha who deserved to die

You can argue yes but then Naruto and Kakashi could have said something once they found out but by that point it was like Temari said, it was FAR too late for Sasuke and even with the truth revealed how does that excuse his actions at the summit? against Bee? joining Akatsuki? killing Itachi and Danzo MIGHT have been able to be excused but the rest? there's no way that was getting overlooked even with the corruption exposed Sasuke was still just as much in the wrong now

I'm a huge Sasuke fan but even I can acknowledge that not every single one of his actions was 100% right and just, his actions towards the people who actually wronged him WERE in the right, but his actions in everything that didnt? yes he was in the wrong no ifs ands or buts about it

So for those who think Taka is so much better for Sasuke because they supported his criminal actions [except Jugo I believe he’d be fine either way] but not Team 7 who wanted Sasuke to stop his criminal actions and return to his senses and be in a healthy condition again, truly make me wonder if they actually care about Sasuke’s well being or just think everyone who isnt a yes man to everything Sasuke did somehow dont care about his feelings or the injustices done to him and just wanna change him

Yeah, change him for the BETTER not worse, if anything Taka tried to do the opposite of that but hey I guess being a bad influence is better than being a good one

And listen we can go back and forth all day about Sasuke's situation after the war because I agree wholeheartedly that thats bullshit, but realistically speaking the fact that some things about the Uchiha massacre are unresolved like those two elders even being allowed to breathe, realistically speaking what CAN you really do? the Uchihas are dead and the main man responsible is dead and Hiruzen who failed to stop it is also dead so what would exposing everything do at that point? everyone directly involved is DEAD so exposing it really is pointless even if only to clear Itachi’s name which I'm gonna say something alot of you wont like

But the Uchiha’s were not all innocent victims, atleast not the ones involved and planning the coup, yes they were treated unfairly but does that mean the best approach to fixing this is to overthrow the government? how does that make you look? your proving their suspicions of you right by attempting to be the threat they all think you are, that is NOT how you get your point across and demand justice for your clan by planning a coup that would result in many lives lost including your own

Does that mean do nothing? course not, but if you want their trust then you have to EARN it and if you want justice and equality then go on strike and refuse to serve them until their willing to talk and compromise, seriously the Uchiha was a HUGE asset to Konoha so them refusing to obey and offer their services definitely would have gotten their attention and force them to listen and find a compromise, if that didnt work they could have tried spreading the word to fellow citizens and gain their support as I'm pretty sure not EVERYONE in Konoha felt the same way towards them and would have joined their cause for equality

But no, they chose the path of violence and it resulted in their entire clan's downfall and they end up with NOTHING but a bad name, so what did they gain? absolutely nothing, so was it worth it? NO

So lets stop acting like Konoha’s the big bad villain that did nothing but wrong and the Uchiha’s were pure innocent souls that did nothing wrong to deserve what happened to them because Ima say it THEY DID and their downfall was entirely their own fault for their approach, was it right? of course not genocides never ok and just as the Uchihas could have found another method Konoha could have as well so they were both in the wrong not just one or the other

Itachi also isnt a saint for the same reason the Uchiha’s and Konoha isnt and thats choosing the wrong approach to resolving the problems, there were many other paths he could have chosen but he chose the worst ones every time so just clearing Itachi’s name because of his good intentions wouldnt be right because his methods were beyond fucked up on so many levels

So my point is Sasuke was a victim of both sides wrongdoings, Taka didnt help with that at all, Team 7 tried to empathize and tried to understand and console him and save him from himself, its just that Sasuke didnt let them and pushed them away and thats of no fault of theirs since they did try but mainly Sasuke and them being mostly in the dark about everything

Yet Taka knowing almost everything didnt even try to reach out to him or help him cope in any way, Karin you’d think would understand and get through to Sasuke the most, cared more about her lust for him and seeing his ‘smile’ than actually empathizing with him and helping him through the turmoil he was in, Suigetsu made it clear he was out for himself from the start and Jugo is just wholeheartedly loyal to Sasuke no matter what

The fact that in the end, Sasuke makes no attempt to visit them until he needs them for something speaks volumes of his attachment to them, I think Taka thinks more of Sasuke than Sasuke does of them

He didnt even say goodbye to them before he left for his redemption journey nor did he bring them along on his years-long mission which again speaks volumes

So all Im saying is, Taka being the best team for Sasuke and his true friends is complete bull because I have yet to see any argument or reasoning for this be anything other than he chose them and that they went along with everything he did without question

If you have a better reason for why you think this then please share with me I welcome it maybe you can change my mind, but as of right now all the arguments I see is bullshit or occasionally shipping based which isnt a legitimate reason btw, so if you can be civil then I'm all ears

Note: I didnt mention the other Kages because it should be obvious their ways were screwed up as well and ruined a lot of lives, however what does Sasuke’s idea of basically ruling as a dictator resolve? how does that fix and reform the system? Sasuke wont live forever so what happens when he dies? he cant be the enemy that unites everyone once he’s dead and gone it’ll return back to how things were and thus mission failed another Uchiha dies for nothing, Sasuke’s approach to the situation was just a temporary solution not a permanent one and one that wouldnt last long anyway so lets not pretend Sasuke had the best solution to the problem when in all honesty both his and Naruto’s solutions were flawed and it makes sense that they’d work together using both methods rather than one and compromise, again we can argue about Sasuke’s situation after the war all day but fact of the matter is just gotta accept this is what it is and move on, at least Sasuke achieved partially what he wanted which was a bright future for the next generation and the villages to be at peace with one another without the need of a common enemy anymore, are things completely resolved? no, but its progress, and 15 years is nowhere near enough time to fix decades worth of damage so its still a work in progress and will be for a long time