#or ask questions about them

[imjustheretofangirl003]

The familiar person sat at the counter, not even bothering to sugar and cream their coffee before downing the scalding liquid, drawing an eyebrow raise from the villain.

Shit, I knew he was resistant to heat after Boston, but that just looks miserable. He thought to himself, heart calming from the initial adrenaline of recognizing him.

He sat there alone, not even on his cell, just refilling the cup from the carafe. It struck the villain he wasn't meeting civilian friends here, or even working a low profile job.

I'm going to regret this im going to regret this I'm so-

Before he could realize, he was sitting next to the hero, attempting a friendly smile.

"Hey."

...

It went on like that for embarassingly long. One would think an arch nemesis would indulge in their enemies company only long enough to learn of a great weakness, or person of interest. But the villain couldn't stomach the idea. Something about seeing him out in person, out of costume made him seem so fragile.

And in some ways he was. The apartment the hero -we do not ask why the villain has seen the heros apartment, thank you- rented was a dump, and the landlord did nothing to fix anything. For all his cunning and brawn the hero did not have more than a high school degree, if that. And so he became a bit of a maintenance man for him. See? No odd reasons at all.

If he was being honest, he liked this new routine. The hero never caught on, since the villain wore a full mask and voice modifier as his trademark. And, whether he knew it or not, the hero benefited from this situation as well, with the villain being careful not to hit a limb he mentioned was sore, or let fights go too late in the night if the hero worked the next day.

It was all going peachy until the villain screwed it up, because of course he did.

Reluctantly, he had agreed to a team up with a much more violent villain, and things went down hill from there.

The power this rogue held destroyed more than the villain ever did. He considered himself a more, theatrical villain. At some points, it felt like he was fighting the rogue himself, attempting to redirect attacks to less populated areas. One of these attacks having completely shattered his voice modifier. He was careful not to speak, until he couldn't anymore.

Things had gotten messy too fast, all he remembers is looking up from the ground at the exhausted hero looking around for the rogue. The shattered display in his mask quickly calculated the next hit would be from behind, and directed at his head. Shit. Not even the hero could survive that, and he knew it.

It was coming too fast.

He wasnt seeing it.

Someone had to do something.

Somebody anybody just-

"MOVE!"

He didnt realize he was even the one who screamed until he saw the simething click in the heros eyes as they locked on him amongst the rubble. The hero moved at the last second and for a second the villains heart soared, until he realized the projectile was now in a direct path to him.

The villain didn't have time to curse before he felt himself yanked into the air by his metal collar, feeling the rattle in his bones at the explosion just beneath him. Craning his neck, the heros face was nothing but stone, showing no drop of emotion at what assuredly, must be a pretty dramatic reveal, if he says so himself. Plopping him down on a nearby rooftop, the hero only hesitates a split second before taking off at a speed the villain had never seen before to take care of the rogue.

...

"Why did I think he'd come" the villain grumbled, sitting two rooftops away from their usual diner.

It was closer than he shouldve been, but he couldnt help it. He peeked back into his binoculars, a drastic step down from his usual technology, mostly because his helmet lay useless at his side. He didn't bother going back to the lab to fix it after the fight.

It didn't seem as important all a sudden.

He waited another moment before uncrossing his legs and standing, doing what has become his new signature, grumbling and pacing.

"Stupid stupid stupid stupid- ARGH!" He kicked his helmet across the rooftop, not noticing it stop abruptly until the figure spoke.

"Is that any way to treat something you own, didn't your mother tell you to treat things with respect?"

He regreted the yelp that escaped his throat at suddenly being yanked out of his own thoughts, face burning with embarassment. He grabbed for his cape, backing away slightly, feeling incredibly ridiculous in full costume without his mask, with the hero in nothing but civilian clothes in front of him.

"I-I swear I wasn't here to start a fight, I-I just wanted to... to see.." He felt himself hit the wall before he realized he'd backed himself into a corner, with the hero still walking his way, shattered helmet tucked under his arm like some kind of sportsball.

"To see if I'd still show up?" The heros voice was quieter, as if trying not to spook a wild animal, but not for a second patronising. The villain nodded, and hung his head, only for the hero to gently lift his chin and point to another building the opposite side of the diner. He was confused until he explained "I was waiting for you too, the only reason I saw you was when you stood up to do your pacing." The villain felt his face heat up at that.

"A-Ah...." he cleared his throat. "I'm uhm... sorry about today. Things got out of hand I-I never should've agreed-" The heros shook his head, cutting him off.

"You saved my life today. You have been for a while. I couldn't pin down what had changed between us. Why you suddenly would have a malfunction or end fights early" he laughs, and it sounds like bells "I never in a million years it was because you were my diner boy!"

The villain felt himself try to tuck into his collar, heart racing as fast as it did that first night he heard a very familiar voice.

'My...?' His thoughts lingered on the simple adjective.

The hero looked him over, and offered a smile. "Do you... have a place nearby you can change? So we can talk over coffee?"

He mulled it over for a moment before hitting a button on his suit, causing it to reorganize and contract to the size of a lunchbox, taking it and the busted helmet, flushing once more as their fingers brushed, and stashed both in a corner on the rooftop. The villain turned, dusting off the purple lasercat sweatshirt, and looked up at the hero expectantly.

"R-Ready" he offered after a moment, the hero just shook his head, muttering "diner boy" before scooping him up, much to his surpise.

"Hey wait woahwoahwoah I don't do flying!" The hero gave him a quizzical look.

"You have a high tech hoverboard"

"Yeah! That I use with my suit! That has altered gravity so I dont get motion sick!"

The hero snickers, not trying very hard not to, and set him back down, walking toward the fire escape instead.

"Cmon then Mr. Delicate Stomach." He turns and smiles as he holds the rail. "Please, come explain that to me over your four sugars two cream coffee."

The villain cant help but keep up with the banter that has always felt so natural between them. "Says the one who practically drinks gasoline! Diner coffe is bad enough as is, but heaven forbid you add a little sugar in your life!"

The hero laughs, and the villains heart feels light as they follow him down, chatting like old friends as they meet in their diner, once again.

A villain nurses their loss in a quiet diner when an equally tired person enters, and orders a coffee in a very familiar voice.

[tam--lin]

In light of increasing anti-trans and anti-abortion laws in the United States, I am once again humbly requesting you inform yourself about jury nullification, your ability as a juror to vote against convicting people being prosecuted under unjust laws. Nullification was instrumental in legalizing abortion in Canada - it informed jurors can use it to help protect healthcare workers and protesters in the US, too.

[linkedin-offficial]

me when i get the opportunity to think about speculative biology and non-existent game mechanics in media i like

⠀

[clownoverrat]

"please learn about my disorder so you understand why I react the way I do" and "my disorder is not an excuse to be an asshole" should co-exist and people should understand the difference

[keferon]

The tac net crash chapter is one of my favorites so far~

Ah and. Guess what. I just discovered that including this post, I made 50 pieces of fanart for Mistakes on mistakes until.. I’m so sane and normal about this story can you tell👍

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 283

Now Jason would like it known that there was no mpreg situation going on. He isn’t even sure where people got that idea in the first place. Sure, he had taken a few Cores from the goons-in-white who had dared to set up in his turf. 

And sure maybe the excess energy from the pit (no wonder he’d been so irritable) was what said baby halfas (Okay, so they’re half human? Alright) had used to reform. And maybe the oldest is visibly less than a year old. 

But there Was No Mpreg Situation! He is this close to shooting someone! It was annoying (and slightly amusing) when it was just his goons, but now the Bats have seemingly got it in their heads! Dear Gotham it’s a good thing he’s not planning on like, ever revealing who he is because he would never be able to live this rumor down. 

[Winged Ghosts Au too, that seems to be getting lost in reblogs when it's just in the tags lol]

[reality-detective]

To see this... It is just so dang beautiful... Humanity is coming together 🤔

[thedisablednaturalist]

You will not be able to fully understand or relate to people with differing disabilities. Being disabled yourself does not give you immunity to having biases, ableist ideas, or misunderstandings about people with different disabilities. We all have unique struggles and things that help/hurt us, and it's both beautiful and frustrating. It's what makes our community strong but it also can lead to infighting and miscommunication. Be aware of other disabilities, listen to people outside your specific condition. Don't talk over others and if you do apologize and learn from it. Don't assume because YOU haven't encountered something that it means anyone talking about it is lying or exaggerating. We can still have each other's backs without having the same experiences. We can do this. Take my hand.

[kingkatsuki]

Imagine Dynamight going to a school to be interviewed by the little children there, sitting down in one of the chairs in their classroom that is far too small for his hulking form but he sits down in it without complaint as the kids sit down in front of him with crossed legs.

And he loves it, because they have no filter— just like him, and they end up asking him the most blunt questions without hesitation. And some of the questions he’d never usually answer if they were coming from broadcasters or reporters, but he can’t lie to these kids so he keeps responding openly and honestly.

Even when one of the little girls asks “Mister Dynamight, do you have a girlfriend?”

It’s a rumour that’s been circulating for months as the media try to work out who the mysterious woman is in his life (if there even is one!) and it’s confirmed immediately when Bakugou answers with a, “Yeah, I do.”

And as his PR manager is having a meltdown in the corner, Bakugou’s grin is wide when the little boys in the room sound out a simultaneous chorus of “ewwwwwww”

[8-xnny]

People:”Ew sharks are so ugly and mean and terrifying,their literally the most dangerous thing in the world”

Sharks:

[halavibe]

choi san and jung wooyoung (ft. kim hongjoong) in wanteez ep. 24

[varilien]

you know me, in the way that matters most.

[sincerlyus]

Nerd talk!! :P

Based on this:

I really like the idea of Dipper asking a billion questions about their adventures, and one day they just they talk and talk about their time together in college and GF. He'll get to know how dumb and silly they were.

[knifearo]

ultimately when it comes to shipping and fandom space treatment of aspec characters i just don't accept "aro/ace people can still date/have sex" as an answer from nonaspecs. like yeah. mhm. okay. now i think we both know that you're not saying that out of real interest in the diversity of aspec experiences. so you can turn in your seventeen-page essay on why and how you plan to examine this character's aspec identity within the context of a romantic or sexual relationship complete with evidence from canon and peer reviews from multiple aspec people within the next week or i'm putting you in the pit from the edgar allen poe story

[crimeronan]

i've seen a couple people in the notes of this very good post about fictional polyamory by @thebibliosphere say things along the lines of "oh, i've been doing it wrong :(" or "how do i know if i did this right??" or "i should probably give up and start over, i wrote this badly :(" and. no!!!!

(i AM seeing far MORE people say "oh, this clarified and helped me so much, i think i know how to fix issues i've been having with my own story" which. YES!!!!)

listen. if you're a monogamous person who's writing a polyamorous relationship, and you've been focusing mainly on The Triad and All Three Together All The Time as the endgame, that's literally fine. that's a perfectly acceptable and strong starting point for your plotting, imo. you do not need to give up on a story that you've started like this.

but the things discussed in the post Can and Should improve your execution!

you can keep the same plot beats and overall relationship arc 100%. polyamorous relationships are infinite in their formations, every one is unique. "basically a monogamous romance but with three people" Does exist, as a relationship type. you're not hashtag Misrepresenting (TM) poly people with it

BUT i do think it will help to read up on some poly people talking about how their relationships Differ from monogamous ones.

so i have outlined some basic important concepts about polyamory.

MORE IMPORTANTLY though, i've broken down some questions that you can answer throughout the writing process to strengthen your individual dyad relationships, your individual characterization, & your characters' individual feelings/experiences. this is a writing resource have fun

future kitkat butting in to say i spent over two hours writing this and it definitely needs a readmore. it is also NOT comprehensive. but everything should be pretty simple to follow! feel free to reblog if you find it helpful yourself or just want to reward me for how gotdan long this took KSLDKFJKDL.

i've grabbed quick links for a couple of the important concepts, some have SEO pitches in them but the info largely seems to be good. (if i missed anything Egregiously Gross on these sites i should be able to update the links with better ones later, since they're under the readmore.)

sidenote: this is NOT meant to be overwhelming, despite the length. if you can't read all of this, that's Okay. you do not need to give up on your writing.

here we go:

compersion!

compersion is a BIG thing in a lot of polyamorous relationships. it's joy derived from seeing two (or more) of your partners happy together, or joy derived from seeing your partner happy with someone else.

compersion is really important as a concept because it highlights that every individual relationship within a polycule is different -- and that that's a GOOD thing. it's sort of the inverse of jealousy.

by the "inverse of jealousy," i mean that instead of feeling left out and upset and possessive, you feel happy/joyous/content.

i can use personal experience as an example: it's a Relief for me when my partners receive joy/support/sex/romance/etc that i can't (or prefer not to) give them. and i love seeing my partners make each other laugh and be silly together.

it's 100% okay for a poly triad not to be together 100% of the time, it doesn't mean that the third member is being left out or not treated equally when two people do things alone together.

(i have individual dates with my partners all the time! PLUS larger 3-and-4-person date nights.)

if the third member DOES feel jealous or left out, then the polycule can have a conversation to figure out what needs/wants aren't being met, and solve that. this happens semi-regularly in my polycule, as it will happen in any relationship (including monogamous ones)! it's just part of being an adult, sometimes you have to talk about feelings.

metamours!

a metamour is someone who is dating your partner, but ISN'T dating you. this may not be relevant for people writing closed three-person romantic sexual triads, but it's a super helpful term to know.

the linked article also lists different types of metamour relationships with some fun phrasing i hadn't heard before. the tl;dr is: sometimes you'll be domestic cohabitation friends, sometimes you'll be buddies with your own friendship, sometimes you might not interact much outside of parties, every relationship is different.

there's no one-size-fits-all requirement for metamour relationships. sometimes polyamorous people will end up dating their metamour after a while (has happened to me), sometimes polyamorous people will break up with one partner for normal life reasons, but remain friendly metamours.

the goal of polyamory is NOT for EVERYONE to fall in love. it is 100% okay if this happens in your story, it happens in real life too! but it is also 100% okay for characters to be metamours without ever becoming "more than friends."

(sidenote: try to kill any internalized "more than" that you have when it comes to friendship. friends are just as important and special and vital as partners.)

of course there are a million ways for messiness to occur with metamours within a complex polycule, exactly like with close-knit platonic friend groups. however this post is not about that! there's enough "here's how polyamory can go wrong" stuff out there already, so i'm focusing on the positives here :)

open versus closed polyamorous relationships!

i'm struggling to find an online article that reflects my experience without directly contradicting at least SOME stuff. so i'll give a quick rundown

google has a bunch of conflicting definitions of open relationships and whether open relationships are different from polyamory. the general consensus seems to be that an open relationship prioritizes one partnership (often a marriage), but that each partner can have extraneous flings or long-term commitments (most often sexual in nature).

this is not typically how i use the term wrt polyamory. the poly concept is pretty simple. a closed polyamorous relationship is one with boundaries like a monogamous one. there are multiple partners in the polycule, but they are not interested in having anybody new join said polycule.

an open polyamorous relationship tends to be more flexible -- it just means that IF someone in the polycule develops mutual feelings for a new person, it's fine for them to become part of said polycule if they want to! the relationship/person is open to newcomers.

some groups will need to negotiate this all together, others will just go "haha, you kids have fun." just depends on the individuals!

with open AND closed polyamorous relationships, the most important thing is making sure that there's respectful communication and that everyone is on the same page. but there's no one-size-fits-all way to do that.

i wish i could give you guys a prescriptive "You Must Do It This Way" guide, but that's.... basically the opposite of what polyamory is about, HAHA.

feelings for multiple people!

i was gonna tack this on to the previous section but decided it warranted its own lil bit.

a defining feature (....i'm told?) of monogamous relationships is that a monogamous person only has feelings for One individual at a time. they only want a relationship with one individual at a time. or, if they DO have feelings for multiple people simultaneously, they're still only comfortable dating one person at a time & being exclusive with that one person.

this is perfectly fine!

the poly experience is generally different from this. but once again..... polyamorous people all have different individual perspectives on this.

for me, i have never been able to draw hard boxes around romantic vs sexual vs platonic relationships, & i love many people at once. my personal polycule lacks many strict definitions beyond "these are my chosen people, i want to forge a life with them indefinitely, whatever shape that life takes"

some poly people feel explicit romantic or sexual attraction to multiple people at once, some poly people feel almost no romantic or sexual attraction at all. i'd say that MOST poly people feel different things for different partners, which is not a bad thing!

some poly people are even monogamous-leaning -- they have just chosen one romantic partner who is themselves part of a larger polycule. (so this monogamous-leaning person has at least one metamour!)

or alternatively, they might have one romantic partner AND a qpr, or other ways of defining relationships. (this is a factor in my own polycule!)

i made this its own point because if you're writing a straightforward triad, this is unlikely to come up in the story itself -- but it's worth thinking about how your characters develop/handle feelings outside of their partnerships.

like, is this sort of a soulmateship, 'these are the only ones for me' type deal? in which they won't fall in love with anyone else, and can be fairly certain of that?

that's pretty close to typical monogamous standards but you Can make it work. just be thoughtful with it

alternatively, can you see any of these characters falling in love Again after the happily-ever-after? and how would the triad approach it, if so? what would they all need to talk about beforehand, and what feelings would everybody have about the situation?

it's worth considering these questions even if the hypothetical will never feature in your actual canon, because knowing the answers to these questions will help you understand all of the individuals & their relationship(s) MUCH better.

i've been typing this for nearly two hours and there's a lot more i COULD say because... there's just a lot to say. i'll close out with some quick questions that you can ask yourself when developing the dyad dynamics within your triad

first, take a page and create a separate section for each individual dyad. then answer these questions for every pair:

how does each pair act when alone?

how do they act differently alone compared to when they're with their third partner?

are there any elements of this dyad (romantic, sexual, financial, domestic, etc) that these two people DON'T have with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

are there any boundaries or hard limits within this dyad that aren't shared with the third partner?

if so, what are they?

partner 3 goes out of town alone for a few weeks. what are the remaining two doing in their absence?

(doesn't have to be anything special, it's just to get a sense of how the two interact on a day-by-day basis without the third there)

what is something that each partner in the dyad admires about the other -- that they DON'T necessarily see in the third partner?

what problem do These Two Specifically need to solve in the story before their relationship will work?

how is that problem DIFFERENT from the problems being solved within the other two dyads?

doing this for ALL THREE dyads is VITAL imo. that way, you develop complex and nuanced and different relationships that all have unique dynamics.

those questions should be enough to get you started, i hope

then After you've charted the differences in relationships, you can start to jot down similarities in the overarching triad. what does one person admire in Both of their partners? what are activities that all three like to do together? what are boundaries or discussions that all three share?

but the main goal is to figure out how to Differentiate each relationship!

a polycule is only as strong as the individual relationships within it. if two people are struggling with their own relationship, adding a third person won't fix that.

(UNLESS the third person is the catalyst for those two to, like, Actually Communicate And Work Their Shit Out. i just mean that the old adage of "maybe if we just add a third-" works about as well to fix a miserable non-communicative marriage as, uh, "maybe if we have a baby-")

AND FINALLY.

if you're not sure whether your poly romance reads organically to poly people, you can hire a sensitivity reader with poly experience. if you can't afford that, you can read up on polyamorous resources like a glossary of terms & articles actually written by poly people. (and stories written by poly people!)

you can also just.... ask poly people questions, if they're open to it. i like talking about polyamory and my own relationships so you're welcome to send asks if u want, i just can't guarantee i'll answer bc my energy levels fluctuate a lot and i don't always have time.

polyamorous people are in an uphill battle for positive representation right now & so the LAST thing i want to see is authors giving up on their stories bc they're worried about getting things Wrong. well-meaning and positive stories that treat this kind of love as normal, healthy, & aspirational are So So So Needed. even if you guys end up with some funky-feeling details.

seriously, if you're monogamous then you probably don't have a full idea of Just How Nasty a lot of people can get about polyamory. i wish it DIDN'T mean so much for you guys to want to write nice stories about us, but it does mean a lot. and it means a lot that you want to do it WELL.

in conclusion. this is not a prescriptive guide, it's just a way to raise questions. and also, you all are doing FINE.

[benevolenterrancy]

Art prompt of Shen Qingqiu holding the aro flag (fits his color scheme)

the real reason this man doesn't realise he's tripping every romance flag in the story