#or even just generally horrifying or disturbing to them

[iwanttobepersephone]

Ok but like am I the only one who actually finds the idea of getting drunk terrifying??? Like I ain't ever gonna do that if I can help it, really. Like, just, I, I dunno that just sounds so so so scary why would anyone ever do that. And the not remembering what you say sometimes thing?????????? Oh my god no no no that's not good not good at all

[serial-unaliver]

genuinely so tired of those "I interviewed this sex criminal as a psychologist and here's how you can protect your kids" true crime videos. for a psychologist you're a little stupid for expecting honest answers in this scenario. it's like people who say porn is bad because ted bundy said porn made him kill people. you underestimate how many of these people legit just want attention and will do anything to stay in the public eye. they're also probably going to enjoy scaring you when you make them aware how disgusting and disturbing you find them from the start. yes, even people you see as not in your sect of humanity will experience annoyance in such a scenario. just in general there is every incentive to lie in these top 10 horrifying true crime interviews™️. also lol @ that one lady who did those videos ending up being a qanon weirdo

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

I read this week that Instagram is pushing “overtly sexual adult videos” to young users. For a Wall Street Journal investigation, journalists created accounts that could belong to children, following young gymnasts, cheerleaders and influencers. The test accounts were soon served sexual and disturbing content on Instagram Reels, alongside ads for dating apps, livestream platforms with “adult nudity” and AI chatbots “built for cybersex”. Some were next to ads for kids’ brands like Disney.

This is something I’ve been trying to get across to parents about social media. The problem is not just porn sites. They are of course a massive concern. Kids as young as nine are addicted. The average age to discover porn is now 13, for boys and girls. And many in my generation are now realising just how much being raised on porn affected them, believing it “destroyed their brain” and distorted their view of sex.

But the problem is bigger than that. Porn is everywhere now. TikTok is serving up sex videos to minors and promoting sites like OnlyFans. The gaming platform Twitch is exposing kids to explicit live-streams. Ads for “AI sex workers” are all over Instagram, some featuring kids’ TV characters like SpongeBob and the Cookie Monster. And there’s also this sort of “soft-porn” now that pervades everything. Pretty much every category of content that kids could stumble across, from beauty trends to TikTok dances to fitness pages, is now pornified or sexualised in some way for clicks.

I think this does a lot of damage to Gen Z. I think it desensitises us to sex. I think it can ruin relationships. But beyond that, I also believe a major problem with everything being pornified is the pressure it puts on young girls to pornify themselves. To fit the sex doll beauty standard; to seek validation through self-sexualisation, and potentially monetise all this like the influencers they’re inundated with.

Which, of course, puts girls at risk of predators. Predators who are all over TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Predators whose algorithms helpfully deliver them more content of minors and steer them towards kids’ profiles. Predators who are taking TikToks of underage girls and putting them on platforms like Pornhub.

And this is even more terrifying because adolescent girls are especially vulnerable today. They are vulnerable anyway at that age—but today they have far less life experience than previous generations of girls did. They are extremely insecure and anxious, and much less resilient. Combine this with the fact that they are now more easily exposed to predatory men than ever before in history, and served to strangers by algorithms. And another thing: girls are also able to look way older now. They have AI editing apps to sexualise themselves. TikTok filters to pornify their bodies. And access to every kind of make-up and hair and fashion tutorial you can think of to look sexier and more mature. I don���t think enough parents realise how dangerous this situation is.

Which is why I find it so frustrating to see some progressives downplay the dangers of all this. Those that dismiss anyone concerned about the pornification of everything as a stuffy conservative. And somehow can’t see how the continual loosening of sexual norms might actually empower predatory men, and put pressure on vulnerable girls? That seems delusional to me.

Let’s just say I have little patience for those on the left who loudly celebrate women sexualising themselves online, selling it as fun, feminist and risk-free, but are then horrified to hear about 12 year-olds doing the same thing. C’mon. No wonder they want to.

But I also find it frustrating to see some on the right approach this with what seems like a complete lack of compassion. I don’t think it helps to relentlessly ridicule and blame young women for sexualising themselves online. I don’t think it’s fair either. We can’t give girls Instagram at 12 and then be surprised when as young women they base their self-worth on the approval of strangers. We can’t inundate kids with sexual content all the time and be shocked when they don’t see sex as sacred, or think sex work is just work! We can’t give them platforms as pre-teens where they are rewarded for sexualising themselves and presenting themselves like products and then shame them for starting an OnlyFans. We can’t expose them to online worlds where everything is sexualised and then be confused why some of Gen Z see their sexuality as their entire identity.

And again, on top of these platforms, girls are growing up in a culture that celebrates all of this. They are being raised to believe that they must be liberated from every restraint around sex and relationships to be free and happy, and many have never heard any different. Celebrities encourage them to be a slut, get naked, make/watch porn and make money! Mainstream magazines teach them how to up their nude selfie game! Influencers tell millions of young followers to start an OnlyFans, and pretend it’s about empowering young girls to do whatever they want with their bodies! I can’t say this enough: their world is one where the commodification and sexualisation the self is so normalised. It’s heartbreaking. And cruel that anyone celebrates it.

So sure, young women make their own choices. But when we have children sexualising themselves online, when girls as young as 13 are using fake IDs to post explicit content on OnlyFans, when a third of those selling nudes on Twitter are under the age of 18, I think it’s safe to say we are failing them from an early age.

I guess what I’m trying to get across is this: it’s tough for girls right now. It’s tough to be twelve and anxious and feel unattractive and this is how everyone else is getting attention. It’s tough to constantly compare yourself to the hyper-sexualised influencers that the boys you’re interested in are liking and following and thinking you have to compete. It’s tough to feel like the choice is sexualise yourself or nobody will notice you. The sad reality is we live in a superficial, pornified culture that rewards this stuff, and in many ways punishes you if you’re modest and sensitive and reserved, and a lot of girls are just trying to keep up with it.

We need serious cultural change. We need to wake up to how insane this all is, how utterly mental it is that we allow young girls anywhere near social media, and how we’ve let the liberalising of sexual mores escalate to the point where pre-teens are posing like porn stars and are lied to that it’s liberation. And where we need to start is with an absolute refusal from parents to let their kids on these platforms.

So please. If the relentless social comparison and obliteration of their attention span and confusion about their identity wasn’t enough, this has to be. Don’t let your daughters on social media.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

i rewatched Dune Part Two recently and one of the most striking shots for me was the one of the Fremen attacking the Sardaukar on wormback, while holding the Atreides flag.

Like, we just saw the Sardaukar forming up with their numerous flag bearers, even trying to maintain their flags raised after the nuclear detonation (in a shot that mirrored the famous "Raising the Flag in Iwo Jima" statue to me btw, nice nod to imperialism).

And then the Fremen arrive, but they're not bearing their colors, their flags, not fighting in their own names, instead it's the Atreides colors. The colors of their new, imperially appointed rulers. New pawns in the warfare between Great Houses, soldiers instead of freedom fighters. Urgh. Wish i could make gifsets.

Yeah yeah yeah it's horrifying!! You are watching a national liberation movement get successfully co-opted by a superpower and it's awful!

They did such a good job making it feel creepy and foreboding when the Atreides symbols and motifs start re-appearing in the last hour or so of the movie. The second Gurney shows up he immediately re-introduces the Atreides way of looking at the world, and it's disturbing how easily Paul falls back into thinking like that, seeing the planet and its people as tools to be used in an inter-imperial power play. (It's right after Gurney tells him about the family nukes that Paul has the signet ring out for the first time since the beginning of the second act and we're like OH NO.) This is before he drinks the Water of Life; he is already starting to think like a colonial duke again some time before he declares himself one.

After the opening montage where we see the piles of bodies being burnt, we don't see the stylized Atreides hawk symbol for most of the movie. The next time it appears is on a vault of nuclear weapons, which are never treated as anything but a curse. It's so important that Stilgar and Chani are with Paul and Gurney when they open the vault so we can see their horror at these weapons and the gleeful, casual way Gurney talks about them. Chani is also seeing an aspect of Paul that she hasn't really witnessed before--Paul, the Future of House Atreides--and she does not like it.

And then of course the whole ending battle is making the point over and over again with repeated imagery that Atreides and Harkonnens are exactly the fucking same. All the imagery from the initial Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen in Part One--which at least shows the Atreides as brave in the face of overwhelming odds--gets inverted into something that's supposed to make us shudder. That scene of Gurney hacking his way through the crowd of soldiers with someone carrying the Atreides flag behind him? Nightmarish.

All of this stuff is super important to what the movie is trying to say because it is very very easy for us to buy into the Atreides' propaganda about themselves being the good guys. If we're paying attention to what Chani tells us in the literal first 3 minutes of the first movie, we already know we should be viewing them with a bit of critical distance. And while I think there is plenty in the first movie to make us side-eye their noble image (Leto saying we will bring peace to Arrakis?? fucking yikes dude), it's easy to forget that because Leto generally seems like a good dude to the people close to him, and he dies tragically so we never get to see much of what kind of colonizer he would have become. And I think it's easy to start thinking well if only Leto the more reasonable parent had lived then things wouldn't have turned out this way.

But fucking desert power?? That was Leto's idea. This is Leto's dream being realized. The plan was always to use the Fremen as pawns in the power struggle between the Great Houses. Maybe not quite in the way that Paul does cause he definitely goes off with it, but the end result is just as much a product of Atreides imperialism as it is of Bene Gesserit religious colonialism. The Atreides aren't inherently any more noble or benevolent than the Harkonnens in their intentions, they just have better PR. But the end result is exactly the same: a pile of dead bodies being set on fire.

[yanderes-galore]

TF2

Yandere romantic Demoman concept

I can try, sure! Hope I get his character right and I'm sorry this took forever :( Here's some general HCs about him.

Yandere! Demoman Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Drinking/Intoxication, Manipulation, Violence, Murder, Blood, Dark themes, Overprotective/Possessive, Mentioned Kidnapping, Isolation, Dubious relationship.

The Demoman, or Tavish, is usually the drunkard of the team no matter what side.

He's foul-mouthed and a brute who lives for battle.

Although, there's times he's polite and actually really nice towards others.

In the comics he's proven to be level-headed and reasonable when he has a clear head.

He's fine with killing for money and is a little sadistic.

It's shown/mentioned in the comics that Demoman lives in a mansion.

So I imagine Demoman is a horrifying foe to most... but is just the sweetest to you.

He adores his obsession and likes to pamper them.

No doubt uses drinks to bond with you more.

I like to think it's another case of where the yandere looks terrifying but actually would do anything for their darling.

He really is caring, even if his mother doesn't think he works hard enough he still cares for her.

Demoman would probably be one to provide for you.

He's probably both protective and possessive, but is more protective.

He works a dangerous job and wants to keep his dearest safe from harm.

Maybe he leaves the mansion for long periods of time, if he did he keeps things stocked up and makes sure you can care for yourself there.

He isn't really one to stalk... although he does often text or call you to check on you.

If he kidnapped you he isn't going to keep you in some dingy cellar with chains.

He'll give you your own room with comfy furniture and a phone that only contacts him.

He's never too forceful, never trying to force advances or drinks.

He's patient and attentive to the needs of his beloved.

Demoman would love to cuddle you after a long day of work.

Despite his nature he always manages to be gentle with you.

If anyone hurt you then they're dealing with... well...

A drunken Scotsman running towards them with malicious intent... most likely with a sword.

He'd call you by affectionate names and for the most part... the relationship isn't too bad.

There's a good chance you could've been with him willingly and never noticed darker behavior until later.

That or the relationship seems normal... besides the fact he kidnapped you.

Demoman would be loyal.

After all, what kind of man would he be if he smothered and pampered you only to leave?

You most likely don't meet his work friends.

If you do, he keeps it brief and usually sticks by you.

You're isolated... but well cared for... up to you if that's a good trade off.

He's a bit manipulative.

As in, it often feels like he's bribing you or convincing others you're just shy and not isolated.

Demoman definitely hides the more toxic parts of your relationship.

It's unknown if he's delusional or just actively ignores it.

If he did kill someone, it's out of your sight.

For example, if someone tried to tell him what he's doing is unhealthy or tries to take you away?

Well... he has no choice.

You'll never learn of that person's fate, he'll clean himself of the blood or just tell you it was from work.

He is a mercenary.

Although... he may admit to darker things while drunk.

Which disturbs you... and when he realizes his mistake he's quickly pulling you close and apologizing.

Overall, Demoman isn't the worst... in fact, he can hide his red flags well by blinding you with his adoration and gifts.

It just depends... do the benefits outweigh the issues he has...?

[midnightactual]

Does Yoruichi Know More About the Soul King?

why is Kisuke losing his shit in chapter 615, 616, and 617:

while Yoruichi is essentially unfazed by these events and just casually ready to seal Mimihagi into being a new Soul King in the same chapters (and 618)?

stop and think: Yoruichi apparently doesn't know what Mimihagi is except by Yhwach's commentary and she says as much. yet she arrived completely ready and prepared to do a ritual to make a new Soul King despite having no reason to have believed Mimihagi might appear. it was not predicted that the Soul King would get killed, as Kisuke is horrified by this actually happening (and neither Kisuke nor Yoruichi seem clued into Ichigo's Quincy blood making him susceptible to manipulation)

it doesn't particularly make sense that she would turn and disable Ichigo before making him into a new Soul King, if he is theoretically the main method of stopping Yhwach, which we can assess from Kisuke's commentary about "Mr. Kurosaki". this is especially true given Ichigo has allies present (Chad, Orihime, Ganju) who would resist, and who Yoruichi would need to take out to do that.

admittedly, Yoruichi seems very confident about being able to take out or at least seriously injure Yhwach by herself, and Yhwach treats her technological threats seriously rather than no diffing them via face-tanking. he doesn't give some Darth Vader-y "Don't be so proud of this technological terror you've created," commentary in response, he avoids the wires and directs Pernida to attack her to prevent her from hitting him with something she says will destroy him. why do that if it would have no effect?

so, if Kisuke didn't assess it as at all likely that the Soul King would die, Yoruichi didn't really know about the Soul King's limbs being on the loose, and Yoruichi didn't intend to turn Ichigo into a new Soul King, why did she come ready to make a new one?

well, logically, the simplest answer is she's just always ready to make a new Soul King, so she just happened to have the stuff on her

that sounds weird though, right? like that's Batman levels of being overprepared. maybe she only brought the seals for this mission? but again, why? maybe the seals are just general purpose?

even if the latter is true, we can surmise that Kisuke probably doesn't know she can just make a new Soul King, though, or else he probably wouldn't be quite so panicked or surprised that the shaking of the worlds had stopped

and even if the latter is true, this doesn't quite explain why Yoruichi is much less disturbed than Kisuke is, even before Mimihagi shows up

Bleach is a manga where people lie. we know this for a fact. Yoruichi also has a relatively loose relationship with the truth. so, given she is apparently concealing capabilities from Kisuke, perhaps she's lying about (apparently) not knowing what Mimihagi is when she says, "According to this guy… this curious black thing is Reio's arm!"

we know from Klub Outside that back in chapter 178:

Q158. 藍染が「最初から誰も 天に立ってなどいない」と言って、浮竹を見ながら「君も 私も 神すらも」と言いましたけれども、ここの「君」は、浮竹と霊王の関係を暗示していましたか。 As Aizen said "No one ever stood atop the heavens before", he then looks at Ukitake and continues "Not you, or I, or the Gods". Was that "you" bit supposed to imply the relationship between Ukitake and the Soul King? A158. そうです。 Yes.

Aizen knew about Mimihagi, or at least Jūshirō having a connection to the Soul King even then. maybe Yoruichi did too? we get some interesting observations like this from Shunsui in CFYOW:

“Well, Captain Kurotsuchi and Yoruichi have probably found out by their own methods. They probably even found out what happened next before I did.”

and this from Shinji:

Hirako watched Hisagi’s back before suddenly turning to look toward the aristocratic district. “The aristocratic district, huh…? Come to think of it, Yoruichi’s been saying there are a lot of fishy things going on there.”

and this:

Kukaku had casually heard about this situation from Yoruichi, and there was a chance Mayuri had also found this information through his own methods.

and this from Shūhei and Kisuke:

“In other words, you want information from me too?” “I’ve asked Miss Yoruichi for the same. I’d like data from all angles.

and we notably get this from Shūhei, which tells you how crafty Yoruichi really is:

Though he had been shown a way of battling that was great enough to make him think that the only person who could keep pace with Urahara in terms of ability was Yoruichi Shihoin, Hisagi stayed to maintain dignity as a Soul Reaper.

and finally we get this which really tells you what Yoruichi is competing evenly with in terms of intelligence gathering:

While ignoring the “bugging” that was no metaphor, Mayuri turned his eyes to the image receiver in front of him. What was displayed there appeared to be the Rukongai as seen from high above. If a person from the living world were to see it, they would have likely concluded it was a shot of a desolate village taken from a satellite or airplane. However, the Soul Society naturally had no satellites in the air. When Akon saw the image, which was leagues more sophisticated than the best satellite surveillance images from the living world, he was half impressed and half dubious, remarking, “That’s pretty precise, though I should expect that from you. But why’d you go to all that trouble to devote yourself to building a surveillance system from scratch? It would’ve been a heck of a lot easier to just build it on top of the Visual Department’s system… Actually, wouldn’t that have been more efficient?” The Visual Department—that was the general umbrella organization that managed the visual surveillance system that spread like a net primarily over various places in the Soul Society and the living world and, in recent years, even a section of Hueco Mundo. Its ties ran deep with the Department of Research and Development, and by joining forces, they could access all types of intelligence from various sources and use that as a basis for analyzing the current state of affairs.

somehow Yoruichi is competing against an aerial surveillance and CCTV-equivalent system that would make the NRO blush. so, it's not unreasonable she would've known about Mimihagi (and Pernida?) and simply concealed that information by using Yhwach's explanation as a convenient excuse. likewise, we get this:

In contrast to Byakuya’s immediate suspicion, Yoruichi’s eyes suddenly went wide then narrowed as she stared at Tokinada. “…! I see. So that’s why you chose me rather than Yushiro.” Tokinada accepted their stares as he smiled—grinned, smirked!—vulgarly. “You saw it, didn’t you, Yoruichi Shihoin? The Reio Ichigo Kurosaki struck down and the state he was in even before he was killed! But I can see that you don’t know what that was. Yes, you don’t know what the Reio was from the start. But Kisuke Urahara should be aware.”

now maybe Tokinada is right, but maybe he's wrong. he underestimates her plenty, after all. especially given it seems he doesn't know what Yoruichi did up there after Ichigo cut the Soul King in half

I think, when you put all these things together, it becomes clear Yoruichi is at least equal to Kisuke and Mayuri in intelligence gathering, and has certain edges over the both of them. even if there are things they know that she doesn't, the reverse is also true: she also knows things they don't. this is not particularly surprising given:

Mayuri adjusted the coordinates depicted on a screen and continued both tediously and politely, “If we call the Shihoin family the Tenshi Heisoban because they are the heavenly defenders of the realm, and they have the role of managing the arms that the Soul King supposedly bestowed on them, then the Tsunayashiro are the ones managing the past itself.

Mayuri suspects that the Shihōin only supposedly got their artifacts from the Soul King (and I here submit to you that the Shihōin are equivalent to both the Saiyans and the Tuffles)

Yoruichi is also unflustered as Tokinada goes on and on about the 'Original Sin' and doesn't really care, with repeated, "I am still me," comments. maybe she already knew, or at least suspected. what, she didn't investigate after having seen the Soul King for herself? sounds fake

[wixhing0nastar]

Abuse Narratives in RWBY: Yang Xiao Long Edition (Feat. Ruby Rose)

We've all witnessed and talked about Blake and Weiss being abuse survivors for years. Blake escaping from Adam and Weiss escaping from her father were both huge, impactful events that have shaped the narrative of the story in many ways.

Yang on the other hand has managed to fly mostly under the radar with the abuse she's suffered up to this point. Her jokey, happy-go-lucky facade tricking the audience just as well as it has her friends and family for years.

(Note: this is going to be a long post, so strap in. Also this is your warning I am not going to be holding back in my criticism of Tai, so if you don't want to see me go into detail about how exactly he abused Yang, I highly suggest turning back now).

TL:DR: Yang was neglected and parentified (aka: abused) as a child and that’s the root of a lot of the issues that she’s currently struggling with in Volume 9 and a large part of her healing is going to be centered around her relationship with Blake going forward.

Let's start by establishing what exactly I'm referring to when I say that Yang has been abused. Because while I'm certainly referring to her being neglected after Summer's death, I'm more so referring to the years of Parentification that was caused by said neglect (in addition to the verbal and emotional abuse hurled her way).

Let's start by defining what exactly Parentification is since it's where most of Yang's current problems stem from.

[Parentification is] a disturbance in the generational boundaries, such that evidence indicates a functional and/or emotional role reversal in which the child sacrifices his or her own needs for attention, comfort, and guidance in order to accommodate and care for the logistical and emotional needs of a parent and/or sibling. (Hooper, 2007b, p. 323)

Ruby establishes in Volume 9, Chapter 1 that Yang was the one who raised her. It's important to note that in the context of her saying that, she's telling Yang that Yang was the one responsible for her moral development as a kid.

Research has shown that the building blocks for morality are generally in place by the age of 4. However, "children need adults to help them at every stage of childhood to nurture these seeds into full development." (Harvard, Raising Caring, Respectful, Ethical Children, p. 1) With "childhood" commonly considered infancy to age 12.

Using this we can reasonably assume that Yang was Ruby's primary caretaker or at the very least co-parenting with Tai from the time of Summer's death to at least age 14 (when Ruby was 12)... which mind you, is already over a decade total and only three years before the show starts.

Now that we've got some of the science out of the way, let's start looking at the show itself to see just how bad the situation was.

Burning the Candle

This iconic scene actually paints a fairly horrifying picture of Yang and Ruby's early childhood when you start to break it down.

I waited for dad to leave the house.

Meaning that by that point, probably only a few months after Summer's death based on the timeline Yang establishes, Yang already knows Tai will reliably leave her and Ruby alone without supervision for extended periods of time in order to pull this off.

I must have walked for hours.

Meaning that it likely took several hours for someone to even notice they were missing in the first place. The fact Qrow knew exactly where they were indicates that Yang either left a note or clue about where they were headed and I'm willing to bet the only reason it took Yang that long to walk was because she was like two feet tall at the time (since Patch is like... a tiny island... which brings me to the next line...

A toddler asleep in the back of a wagon

Again, to clarify, Ruby was a toddler. Toddlers are between 1-3 years old... meaning this all happened when Yang was a maximum of (and likely, based on their physical appearances) 5 years old.

So to summarize, Tai was regularly leaving Yang, his five-year-old, home alone and in charge of her three-year-old sister... which would be horrifying to think about on its own but this is Remnant.

Which means that Tai was regularly leaving his grieving five-year-old at home alone when they didn't live inside a kingdom's border and there were known wild Grimm in the area... who are attracted to negative emotions.

Wow... I wonder why Yang felt the need to try to diffuse the tension with humor and keep everyone in high spirits all the time. It’s almost like it was a life or death situation growing up. (/s)

Anger, Fear, and Burn

Before jumping into the next big narrative piece, let’s talk a little bit about Yang’s semblance, Burn, and how it works. Because it’s important to establish before starting to dig into Volume 4.

Let’s start with how Ruby describes it:

Don't worry! With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special.

Notice how Ruby doesn't mention anything about Yang needing to be angry to use her Semblance? In fact, while it’s unclear if this is entirely true, it has been stated previously that Yang’s powers come in part from her hair and no one has refuted that claim in like 8 years so it holds some weight.

Moreover, recent volumes have actually been hinting that Yang likely doesn't even need to use her anger to activate/maintain burn. And that she just does so out of habit more than anything.

Now, why exactly would someone intentionally limit themselves by tying their semblance into in emotion like that? Well, first let’s answer the question, why anger?

And well... anger is a secondary emotion.

A secondary emotion is an emotion fueled by other emotions... masking your feelings of sadness, hurt or grief with anger can be easier than experiencing the primary emotion.

And moreover,

The feelings that anger commonly masks include fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, embarrassment, betrayal, jealousy, sadness, hurt, and worry. (Alta Loma, Understanding Anger as a Secondary Emotion, Web, emphasis added).

Fear is, of course, a bit of a running theme in RWBY, there was a whole speech and song about it at the end of Volume 7, after all.

But more than that, there've been two people on two separate occasions who've called Yang out for being scared when she's posturing: Ren and Raven.

And while Ren was pointing out that she uses humor to try to deflect when she’s scared, when Raven said this to Yang she was absolutely outwardly angry... and Yang admits to being scared in the moment yet still standing there.

Also note that humor = friends/winning, anger = enemies/losing.

Which makes you wonder, what was happening growing up that made Yang instinctively react to fear of danger with anger and planting her feet instead of running away? For that let's go back to what we learned from Burning the Candle and the V5 short real quick.

We know there are living Grimm on Patch. Maybe not as many as elsewhere, but both times we are given glimpses into Yang and Ruby's childhood on Patch they are attacked by Grimm, which isn't a great sign.

How old do you think Yang was the first time she or Ruby had a bad day and attracted one of them on accident and she had to fight it off on her own (because she couldn't run, she had to protect Ruby)?

How many nights do you think Yang would spend reading Ruby stories and telling her dumb jokes to get her to laugh to try to make sure they weren't attacked? How often did Ruby have to force herself to be okay? For both their sake?

Volume 4

Now let's talk about Volume 4, aka: when Tai had the chance to step up and didn't.

Now right off the bat he's okay. There's nothing inherently wrong with him bringing her the arm and being excited at the thought because he doesn't know how she's going to react to it though it is a little weird he opened her mail without permission.

The rest of Yang's first V4 episode, however, makes it very clear both to us as the audience and Tai that Yang isn't doing okay... but Tai doesn't do anything to attempt to help her.

Which is why what happens in the next episode is kinda messed up.

Yang wakes up from a nightmare about losing her arm in a seriously traumatizing event and goes downstairs when she realizes there's a distraction people are over.

Then we get the fight and despite Yang laughing it off in the end... honestly Tai is being very condescending towards her, which Yang even points out. Like, someone made a slightly adult joke in front of her and he flies off the handle and starts a fight with her and starts making digs about her not being a real adult ready for the real world and let's just break that down before dealing with the actual problems in this episode.

Yang, as established, has been fulfilling the role of parent (while barely getting any parenting herself) for years. She's been fulfilling the role of an adult since she was 5! And at this point in the show she's also legally an adult. So not only is it condescending, it's also untrue.

Then we get this line.

I guess you lost some brain cells along with that arm.

Not only is this beyond callus, Yang is clearly actually upset by this.

And notably, she only treats it as a joke after Oobleck dropped his cup. AKA: after being reminded that they aren’t alone in the room.

(And remember, Yang uses humor as a coping mechanism).

And both Oobleck and Port can clearly tell that this wasn’t appropriate at all and immediately following that, they pointedly step in to ask Yang how she is doing with everything.

Which Tai has not done.

And Yang opens up to them! And she tells them that she’s still struggling and coming to terms with what happened to her. Which in turn causes Tai to finally talk to her about it, but he’s being pushy about her getting back out and “being her new normal” and even refers to her PTSD as moping when she just got done saying she’s still trying to process and recover.

And it’s again Port specifically who steps in and gives her some genuine advice without trying to push her her into anything she’s not ready for and then Oobleck joins in and they go out if their way to ham it up to make her laugh.

So overall, Tai’s being extremely dismissive of the trauma that she’s gone through and minimizing her feelings at every turn.

Which then leads to this scene...

Which is when Tai’s dismissiveness starts to make sense (and I’ll come back to this when I’m analyzing the last episode).

Let’s break it down. To start, Tai knows that Yang is going up to her room, they pointedly have her call out goodnight from upstairs so Tai knows where she is physically and what her intentions are.

Secondly, there’s no way that Tai doesn't know you can hear people talking from the front door from Yang’s room. He’s owned this house for like two decades minimum at this point.

So when Oobleck and Port ask after Ruby, there’s no way he should assume Yang won’t be able to hear everything he says. And he very much lays the burden of Ruby’s safety at Yang’s feet. He’s not going after her because he has to “look after some things.”

AKA: Yang.

And then she comes to him literally the next day wearing the new arm and wanting to train and he doesn't question her at all, even though 12 hours earlier Yang was very much not ready?

We then don’t see her at all for five episodes until we get the scene where she’s training with Tai and honestly, his advice is kinda horrible.

To start, even he says his advice is based on watching her Vytal Festival fights, meaning that everything is based on watching three matches.

He points out she uses her semblance to win every fight after the qualifiers (which is true), and Yang rightly points out that everyone uses their semblances to help them win. Then Tai says this:

Because not everyone else’s is basically a temper tantrum.

Not only is this very unlikely to be true, but even if Yang does need to rely on her anger to activate her semblance, calling it a temper tantrum isn’t accurate at all.

In fact, the way Yang uses her semblance takes a great deal of emotional regulation to pull off. She not only is able to make herself angry enough to use it at will, she’s also able to stop using it at will. Meaning Yang is capable of instantaneously switching from one emotion to another.

That’s not a temper tantrum, that’s someone with superb emotional control choosing what emotion to feel when it’s most appropriate.

Furthermore, the “what happens if you miss” comment is so ridiculous I don’t even know how to start other than saying we literally saw exactly what happens when Yang misses her first attempt in Volume 2! When her semblance is being revealed! And the answer is... she gets another shot.

And if they’re stronger... like not using the thing that makes her ridiculously powerful is certainly not going to help.

And honestly... Yang doesn’t do what Tai says. He says it’s useful in a bind but Yang doesn’t use her semblance only in emergencies from here on end. In fact, what she actually does is pick up some tricks from Pyrrha and she starts hiding her semblance from people!

And noticeably, Tai isn’t the one who tells Yang to fight smarter. That’s a line of thinking she develops on her own between the first and second times she faced Adam.

And then Tai takes credit for her “suddenly” getting better like she hadn’t successfully hit him so hard he needed to take a pause and the fight he did win was only because he attacked her when she was being vulnerable with him... her father who she’s of course not going to assume is going to attack her while she’s opening up to him... because she wouldn’t do that to Ruby.

And then we get to Yang’s last (real) episode of the volume when she’s setting out to get Ruby. Remember when I said Tai’s dismissiveness started to make sense and we’d come back to it? Well we’re back to it.

Note how Yang pointedly doesn’t tell Tai that she’s leaving, despite him having indicated to Port and Oobleck that the only reason he wasn’t also going after Ruby was because he was staying with Yang?

And how in the end he doesn’t leave with Yang to go find Ruby even though supposedly the only reason he hadn’t was because he wanted to make sure Yang was okay? And now Yang’s going after Ruby? Alone?

Paired with how pushy and condescending he was acting towards her in the other two Volume 4 episodes he was in, on top of having neglected and parentified her for at least a decade, this really reads as him wanting Yang to get better so he can shove her out the door to go after Ruby, and not him caring at all about her as a person.

(Which is why I really struggle to feel bad for him in his V8 scene... if he was so worried he could have been there).

Yang’s Actual Temper Tantrums

Let’s address these really quick before moving on to the final section. We’ve actually seen/heard of four different instances where Yang actually was having something resembling a temper tantrum while using her semblance.

I’m going to start with the Neon fight because it’s the easiest. But Neon as a character relies on knocking her opponents off balance by getting under their skin in a fight. She tries to make them angry and yes, it does work on Yang in this instance. But that’s Neon’s whole thing, in any other match up Yang would have been fine.

The other three times all had to do with her hair (namely, when Junior gets her hair in her trailer, when the ursa gets her hair in the Emerald Forest and... in V4 when Tai refers to her having a rough first haircut).

Going back to the bit about how Yang’s powers, in part, come from her hair and this actually makes a lot of sense in the context of Yang’s childhood. If she was regularly in charge of protecting Ruby and some of the finite power she did have as a kid was because of her hair, of course she gets freaked out by losing some... and we’ve already talked about Yang using anger as a mask for fear.

Bumbleby and Volume 9

So let’s talk about where we’re going now, because of all three of the abuse survivors in this show, Yang is the only one who hasn’t really been confronted with and forced to deal with it yet.

Because at the end of the day, being parentified and neglected for years has left Yang scared to open up emotionally and more than that, uncertain of her identity outside of being Ruby’s parent.

Because up to going to Beacon, that was basically Yang’s entire life. It’s entirely possible the only reason she went to Signal was to learn how to protect Ruby better all things considered.

Which is why the development between her and Blake is so important this volume. Yang desperately needs to be valued as something other a caretaker and protector and so far they’ve been emphasizing the fact that Blake loves Yang because she’s a goofy dork who makes her smile, not because she’s strong enough to level a mountain.

And while Blake’s relationship with Adam was abusive, unlike Yang, Blake does have a framework for health relationships thanks to Ghira and Kali and she’s worked through her own trauma from being abused romantically enough that she’s in a place emotionally to help Yang start working though hers. Starting by giving Yang a person she can trust not to leave who also isn’t and has never been dependent on her to muck up Yang’s healing process.

Because there’s a difference between someone choosing to stay and someone not having any other choice because they were/are dependent on you. And (absolutely no shade to Ruby here) she’s already had someone in the latter position choose to leave her anyways.

In Conclusion

Yang was abused as a child and into her late teens and is in desperate need of some type of unconditional love and affection that she doesn’t feel there are strings attached to in order to finally begin healing...

And therapy, but they’re a little low on that for the foreseeable future.

[moonspirit]

I NEED MORE Aruani and Jeanpiku post-rumbling headcanons. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!!!!! THE POTENTIAL THE CHEMISTRY AAAAHHHHHHHHH

AHahah xD Hello anon~

You know, it strikes me that in both relationships, everybody is a polar opposite from each other (but sharing some tiny similarities).

Because between Aruani, Armin's the more "dominant one" (in a soft-boy way) whereas in Jeanpiku, that's Pieck's role xD

On a double date, Armin will compliment Annie in the sweetest, most innocent way possible, something like "omg Annie you look so pretty in that hat (⁠灬•⁠ᴗ⁠•灬⁠)⁠♡". But can you imagine Pieck? Just smirking as Jean tries on a hat or a shirt or something before she goes: *whistle* "Hooo boi, I wanna smash ( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡ °)"

Cue: Annie blushes a billion degrees, while Jean is slightly scared for his life.

On the other hand, if the four of them run into some bullies trying to pick trouble, you have Annie radiating dark energy so terrifying nobody dares to come close to Armin or even say a word to him. With Jeanpiku? There's Jean who's jumping at the chance to be a cool-guy by scaring off the bad guys by whispering menacing things at them.

Cue: Armin being all "hehe isn't my girlfriend so amazing ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝) ", while Pieck scoffs about being able to do better than Jean (she's secretly very impressed).

In a cafe or restobar, Armin wants coffee, Annie wants a hot chocolate, Jean wants red wine, and Pieck wants anything with 96% alcohol.

For food, Armin wants something cheesy, Annie wants something sweet, Jean prefers gourmet and savoury while Pieck orders that one thing that breaks the Scoville scale in terms of spiciness and proceeds to set everyone's face on fire.

Now for PDA? Armin manages to sneak in a kiss now and then; he's very very good at it okay?! Nobody's looking, and a quck smol peck on Annie's nose! In general it's very soft and mild with Aruani, they're all about the tiny gestures like hand-holding and brushing back each other's hair... but do not underestimate them! When they go home, it's time to rearrange Annie's guts (❀❛ ֊ ❛❀)♡

Jeanpiku tho? Pieck's easily Rated 18+ at all and any times, but Jean's... pathetically innocent. This guy has never had any game, only pretense, and it's much the same with kissing and sex. Pieck would make out with him for 0.10 seconds and it leaves him burning up and fainting on the ground. RIP. There's also logistical constraints, which is that Pieck TRIES to sneak a kiss just to get a rise out of him but he's!! too fucking tall! Fuck this shit! (it gives her a lot of frustration poor girl. But she gets what she wants in the bedroom (≖⩊≖))

Materialistically, Armin likes books and buildables (like plane models and ships in bottles), Annie likes puzzles and anything that involves getting a cute fuzzy thing as a prize (bonus points if it's baked and edible too), Jean appreciates classical art, painting supplies and fashionable accessories... and Pieck... oh Pieck. She brings home the most unhinged titan-sized and deeply horrifying things like occult items, full-size plushies that look disturbing and dinosaur fossils. Jean always pretends to hate them but then takes care of them more than her... for her <3

[thesnazzysharky]

Hot take: Monster 3 is a decent character

Out of all the creatures in this game, Babcube seems to get the least amount of attention and seems to be widely disliked. I do get it to some extent, it's not my most favorite character, but to the point of disliking it? Nah. Firstly, I've seen some claim that there's nothing to the creature itself in terms of background or lore, which isn't true. Its purpose seems to be representing some kind of symbolism. "Old Experiments" is the title of the ambience that plays in the area that Monster 3 resides in and is also the ambience that plays when Monster 3 chases you in Endless Mode (albeit only in the og version of sjsm). Simply going off the name and the fact that it's associated with Monster 3 gives some disturbing implications. That being, at some point amidst the chaos that Ghost Cow was causing in the hospital, a literal infant (or possibly multiple infants) were involved in some way. Infants that were involved in some twisted experiments that somehow birthed the creation of... that (do remember that this is the same game that directly references Unit 731).

Either Monster 3 is supposed to be that infant or infants merged into one or Monster 3 could be a paranormal manifestation of the pain those infants went through. The pain of being trapped down below in the hospital, which is represented through the box containing the baby head, and eventually succumbing to whatever experiments were performed by the possessed staff. That is what Babcube symbolizes. Some extremely fucked up shit was happening down there (which was already made pretty evident by Monster 4, the Hanged Man). It might not be much, but the implications are definitely there. That's kinda the point of the monsters and is what separates them from the specimens. The DLC tells you jack shit about its creatures. Leaving things up entirely to your own interpretation and speculation. Karamari Hospital is all about its mystery. It's why, although pretty funny, I'm not a big fan of Wambu's "How a body got the bag" story apparently becoming Monster 2's canon backstory. It feels like it misses the point of Monster 2 and Karamari Hospital as a whole. But that's just my take. Secondly, its design. It's very simple. An infant's head in a rusty cube. Yet it still manages to be unnerving and bizarre. Frankly the most bizarre creature in this whole entire game in my opinion.

"Well that's just weird" isn't the only aspect to its design however. It's just very unnatural and uncanny in general. The way it glitches in and out of existence as it slowly moves towards you. The way the head itself clearly resembles that of an infant, yet it subtly doesn't 100% look like one, with the closed eyes, wrinkled face, and unnatural looking mouth and nose, making it strike the uncanny valley. With the face looking even worse when it randomly distorts.

And the sounds... dear god I fucking hate the sounds this thing makes. Similar to how the face resembles an infants, the sounds from Babcube resembles the crying and wailing of an infant, but there's that uncanny valley again. It sounds like a crying infant... but not fully. Its crying sounds muted and croaky. Not loud like a regular infant, but definitely odd and strange. Combine all of this together and you get a creatures that's disturbing to ponder about, unnerving to look at, and uncomfortable to listen to or even be around. A creature that feels like it shouldn't exist, yet it does. A creature that really makes my skin crawl. Not in a downright scared or horrified way, but in a "what the fuck am I even looking at or hearing" kind of way. A creature that I just feel really bad for and wonder what happened to birth it.

Like I said, it's not my most favorite character, but I don't dislike it either and I appreciate what they add to the game and the atmosphere of the hidden basement. I don't dislike or think any of the enemies in sjsm are bad in fact. Some are weaker than others, but I think they all add a little bit of flavor that makes this game so enjoyable and cool to me.

[chvoswxtch]

Hey there, I was wondering if at some point you could do a one shot of female reader who has PTSD from being trafficked and Frank comforts her during one of her nightmares or flashbacks?

I’m a survivor and just could really use some measure of comfort right now. That maybe there are people who care. That I’m not alone. That things will get better. That maybe one day I can actually have a man who will love me.

Thank you so much.

my darling nonnie,

I just want to say how proud of you I am. I cannot even begin to imagine the horror you went through, and I am so very sorry that happened to you. I am so grateful to know that you made it out and you are safe.

you are absolutely not alone, not here. I can assure you that one day, you will meet someone who will take the time to listen to your story, and will love you through it, and do everything they can to make you feel protected. you are worthy of love and happiness, and nothing that was ever done to you was ever your fault.

I want to apologize for taking so long to get this to you, but I hope it provides the solace that you need. I want to thank you for trusting me with this, for sharing your story with me, and for giving me the opportunity to gift you with some comfort. I hope this makes you feel supported, and I hope it makes you smile. I am sending you every ounce of love I possibly can. ❤️ 

warning: light swearing, angst, mentions of ptsd word count: 1.7k

right here.

The faintest disturbance to your otherwise peaceful slumber instantly made Frank’s eyes flutter open. He had always been a bit of a light sleeper, and during his time in the marines, he had to be ready to wake up at a moment’s notice and prepared to jump into action if need be. This made it particularly hard for him to be able to sleep in, even when he really wanted to, but it did grant him the ability to rescue you from the lingering monsters that came after you in your dreams.

Opening up to Frank about your traumatic past had been a task that terrified you, and you had put it off as long as you possibly could. It was difficult to talk about in general. You didn’t enjoy having to relive that nightmare all over again, but sometimes beneath the depths of sleep, your mind didn’t give you a choice. The first time you had a nightmare in Frank’s presence, it was terrible. 

You had been thrashing around in your unconscious state, warm salty tears staining your cheeks, and the feeling of strong hands holding your body down only sent your subconscious into a further state of panic, crying out for anyone to help. It was several minutes before Frank’s deep voice broke through your psyche, and your eyes suddenly snapped open to meet his horrified ones. Frank was straddling your hips, his large hands wrapped firmly but gently around your wrists, and he had them pinned against his own chest. You could feel the warmth radiating from his skin through your fingertips, and his heartbeat pounding wildly in his chest. His face was twisted up in a concoction of pure concern and unmistakable fear, and that caused an onslaught of overwhelming emotions to crash into you like a merciless tide against an unsuspecting shore.

Fear. Guilt. Shame. Panic. Insecurity.

It all washed down your cheeks in wave after wave, and apologies spewed from your lips like glimmering sea foam. Frank didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what you needed from him at that moment, but he did his best to navigate you away from the storm in your own head to the safety of his serene embrace. 

He had swiftly pulled you up into his arms so that he could hold you in his lap, cradling the back of your head in his large palm against his chest, pressing his lips to your forehead in a permanent kiss. His arms were wrapped tightly enough around you that you knew he wasn’t going anywhere, but not so much that you felt suffocated. Frank rocked you gently in his arms, alternating between shushing you quietly and whispering sweet nothings into your ear to calm you. 

You couldn’t let go of him. Somewhere along the way, you had gone from being terrified of someone to touch you to needing Frank’s touch more than the oxygen in your own lungs. Even despite knowing about Frank’s past and what he had done, you knew he wouldn’t hurt you. It was extremely hard for you to trust anyone like that after what had happened to you, but you trusted him. You knew his intentions were always pure. Frank was always gentle with you. He never pushed you to talk if you didn’t want to. He respected all of your boundaries, even the ones you didn’t voice, but he could see. When it came to intimacy, he followed your lead and always made sure you were comfortable before he did anything. 

But it wasn’t until that moment that you realized how safe you were with him. 

That moment of clarity was a huge breakthrough for you, because you finally realized that you had someone that would love you through anything, and would go above and beyond to protect you. 

That what had happened to you would never happen again.

Once you had finally calmed down enough to speak, you told Frank the truth about your traumatic past. Frank listened intently and without judgment, and held your hand the entire time, crafting the safe space you needed to get that weight off your chest. You could see the crestfallen shine coating his waterline as you spoke, and feel his rage for those who had hurt you in the way he tightened his hold on you. 

Everything seemed to click into place for him. He’d had his suspicions that there was something you weren’t telling him. You were just as hypervigilant in public as he was. Shades of discomfort and anxiety coated your face whenever people moved into your space too suddenly, especially men. You had been weary of him when he first met you, and took awhile to warm up to him, but he had just assumed you found him physically intimidating, or that you knew the truth about his past before he’d had a chance to explain himself. Intimacy was a slow process in your relationship, not that he really minded, and he had picked up on your sensitivity to being touched. 

Frank knew the signs of PTSD. He had seen it in several of his friends during his time in the marines. He saw it every time he looked in the mirror. And he saw it in you. 

Your confession only made your relationship stronger with Frank. It helped him understand you on a more intimate level, and helped him figure out what you needed from him when things got bad, or when the shadows of your past came to plague your dreams.

Like they were doing right now.

Frank turned over from his position on his stomach to mold himself against your back, reaching over your hips to grasp one of your hands, lacing his fingers through your own as he brushed his lips against your ear. The little distressed whimpers he heard coming from you broke his heart, and he hoped that he could pull you from the horror film playing in your head before the climax.

“Wake up, sweetheart. C’mon, wake up for me.”

He lightly brushed his thumb along your lower stomach soothingly, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck, caressing your jaw with featherlight kisses from his plump lips.

“Listen to my voice. Come back to me, baby. C’mon, m’right here.”

He listened intently for the sound of your breathing to become shallow, and a rush of relief flooded his senses when he felt you start to grip his hand for reassurance. 

“There ya go, attagirl. Come to me, baby.”

Frank could faintly see the reflection of the moonlight twinkling in your eyes as they shot open. The shuddering inhale that cut through the silence made his heart ache, but he fought through his own emotions to focus on you.

“Frank?”

The smallness of your voice coming out in shattered fragments hurt him more than any wound he’d ever had. He gave your hand a gentle squeeze, pressing his lips to your neck in a tender kiss as he whispered delicately into your ear.

“M’here, sweetheart. Right here.”

For a moment he just held you, his thumb tracing invisible shapes against your skin, giving you a moment of space to figure out what you needed in that moment. Sometimes you knew that answer, and sometimes you needed him to find it.

“Need somethin’, honey?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“S’alright. This one wasn’t so bad, yeah? S’gettin’ better?”

The sound of your deep exhale was loud in his ears. He felt the stiffness of fright slowly melt away from your bones as you relaxed into his embrace, and Frank knew he had you back.

“Yeah.”

For a moment it was silent, nothing but the echo of your confirmation and the summertime breeze rustling through the trees lingering in the air.

“Thank you.”

“Never gotta thank me, sweetheart. I wanna help.”

“You do, a lot. Sometimes I feel like…like I ask too much of-”

“Hey, don’t start that.”

Frank heard your soft sigh of protest, and he held you against him that much tighter in his own silent response.

“I don’t think I can go back to sleep.”

There was a twinge of guilt resonating in your soft confession. Frank glanced behind him to look at the clock on the nightstand, the lime green digital numbers reading three seventeen in the morning. 

“You hungry?”

“What?”

The tone of your voice was a mixture of perplexity and amusement, but he was just glad you sounded like you again.

“Lemme take ya to breakfast, c’mon.”

“Frank, it’s like-what, two in the morning?”

“Three actually.”

Frank was halfway out of bed, prepared to drag you with him, when you gripped onto his hand and your melodic laughter filled the room. God, he had missed that sound.

“Where are we going for breakfast at three in the morning?”

“That diner down the street ya like. They’re open twenty four hours, and they’re one of the only goddamn places in this city knows how to make fuckin’ hash browns right.”

The more Frank talked, the louder your infectious laughter got, and he found himself grinning from ear to ear with pride.

“What are you talking about? What is the right way to make hash browns?”

The incredulity was clear in your tone, even though you were laughing so hard you could hardly speak.

“Gotta cover ‘em and smother ‘em. Onions, cheese, ketchup, maybe a lil hot sauce. There’s a right way and a wrong way, alright? The fact you don’t know there’s a wrong way means you ain’t ever had ‘em right, and what kinda man would I be if I didn’t fix that, huh?”

Frank didn’t wait for your reply. He lifted you up by your waist and gently folded you over his shoulder, his arm wrapped securely around the back of your thighs as his free hand came down against your ass in a light smack while he grinned widely.

“Now c’mon, baby. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” 

tags: @day-dreaming-goddess @neverlandcity @charmedkim @queenofthenoobs @stilldreaming666 @mattymurdock1021 @bubuslutty @messymissy @dark-academia-slut @strawberry1042

[rotzaprachim]

I’m deeply disturbed and horrified by the bds decision on standing together as you can see - no I don’t think they’re a flawless organization, no one is, but I think they’re doing excellent work and I had the privilege of meeting alon lee-green and sally Abed in person years ago. We talked in a small group about some issues they were working to bring people to the table on. One thing I think that’s critical to talk about with standing together but just with radical politics in general is that I think there’s an increasingly large issue with internet leftists who have not had experience with community grassroots work reading the practical praxis and strategies of community grassroots work - no matter how radical - as centrism or aquiescence. But that’s just not how it works. If you want to change peoples’ minds on an issue they have strong feelings about, you can’t label your cause WITH THAT ISSUE. In standing together’s case, the three big issues we talked about were rent hikes, violence against women, and police brutality, all of which they were at that time working to try to being people from different SECTORS of Arab and Jewish society to the table on. The reality is that a lot of the people those damn awful things happening too???? Conservative. Many of the Ethiopian Jewish families whose sons might have issues with the police who they wanted to get to talk to Palestinian families? Voted for Likud. Many of the people experiencing rent hike issues? Ultra orthodox. Many of the women experiencing abuse and even femicide came down a range of conservative relifious backgrounds. It didn’t matter what politics the standing together organizers held- and they are mostly very left wing- what mattered was how they could actively work to meet people where they were at, right now, to get change happening.

Because that’s how community grassroots stuff happens - you recognize that terrible shit happens on scale to people whose politics you might not agree with, and you work to help them anyway. I mention this all because I think the bds decision on standing together was beyond idiotic, but I think the discourse around it actually illuminates a lot of failure to understand grassroots politics in a way that’s really concerning for future serious progressive activism. Because online and IRL I see a lot of throwing around of terms like “mutual aid” and “community activism” and then IRL I’ve noticed leftists who are only interested in community with tiny groups of other leftists who say the same “enlightened” things and have the right anticolonial water bottle stickers or shaved haircuts. The wider community is sheeple and a town hall meeting is only worth going to for one specific issue- agriculture???? Omg that’s useless! And I live in a REALLY politically progressive area, quite a left wing area, it just /looks/ different than us American leftists can understand, but it doesn’t pass the sniff test for blah blah blah. Because I think this attitude is widespread and demotivating, and ultimately it’s a terrible route to imagining change, because all it does is encourage leftist tribalism and make people feel they’ve “found Allies” and “enacted change” without changing anything practical, even at the grassroots level. Because your revolution should come from the love of the people, but the first thing is, you have to love people, as a whole, and that starts with real people, in your life, who might have problems. Because if it isn’t for them who is it for?

[baroque-hashem]

Hello - sorry to bother you! I’ve seen a lot of your posts about leftist antisemitism and then the associated hate anons.

I am positively horrified by the way young people—my generation (Gen Z, though I’m a cusper) in particular—are becoming quite literally violently antisemitic over a definition of Zionism they completely made up.

I studied radicalisation and extremism at university, and even still I’m simply at a loss for words.

While I am certainly on the left of the political spectrum, the term ‘leftist’ has left such a bad taste in my mouth since the 7th of Oct. I don’t feel comfortable identifying as such anymore.

Sorry about this being disjointed and a bit rambley. I just wanted to offer my support and commiserations. Kinda just scared of what the world is becoming.

No bother! Thanks for sending this my way. And it doesn't feel disjointed, but even if it did that's okay. It's a scary time for Jews. We're watching people we called allies turn their backs on us. I had an older Jewish woman tell me the other day, "We fought with them for civil rights, we fought with them for gay rights, we fought with them for women's rights. Where are they now when we need them to fight with us?" It was heartbreaking because she's right. I think David Baddiel had a point when he said "Jews don't count" to leftists. It's disappointing. It's disturbing. I wish I knew how to fix it. I don't. There's a reason antisemtism is called the oldest hatred. It's persisted for disturbingly long. I think all we can really do is continue to fight disinformation and hatred with education and empathy. There's a reason Jews say Am Yisrael Chai. We live. We persist. We have outlived all of our enemies. And we will outlive this.

יברך אותך ה' וישמרך

[penaltyboxboxbox]

If you want to share; do you have any horror movie reccs? I kinda like the less indie ones haha, but anything is nice!! I really enjoyed Talk to Me and Black Phone from some of the recent-ish ones. Looking forward to watching Longlegs!

oh man do i !! ill share some of my favs and this got really long so under the cut lol

i love scifi horror, and prometheus/alien covenant is such a big pick for me, david8 one of my fav horror antagonists ever. Also in the scifi horror genre, i ADORE event horizon, its basically demonic haunted house in space with the best cast ever and you should watch it.

I love Robert Eggers generally (the lighthouse is probably my favorite movie of all time tho i dont really consider it horror) but the witch is definitely horror and if you like historical/period pieces its an absolute must watch.

If we want some more serious veined and disturbing horrors imo- lets go with Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer by Lanthimos. Theyre slower and heavy and too bright and too horrible. their strangeness just picks at you, movies that really feel like someone grabbing your face and forcing you to look. in a similar world, i like funny games, both the original and the remake, as well as suspiria, the original and the remake. It's become rather trendy lately, i keep seeing gifs of it around lol, but Possession is also fantastic, another great performance from sam neill.

I love 80s horror, The Thing is probably one of the best horror movies ever made, just a masterclass of tension and effects work. I love the movie CHRISTINE which is about a murderous possessed car. the shining is a fucking classic and still one of the most unsettling movies for me to watch. i also love children of the corn, the strange folk horror of it is really just kind of crazy cool and underrated imo..

back to recent, its very hyped but It Follows definitely lives up to that hype. one of the best film scores in recent memory, insane performances and sense of dread. if you dont mind extreme heavy violence, green room is a fantastic watch. get out is a modern horror classic and another must watch, and i see it talked about less, but i love peele's US even more and find it so so terrifying, lupita nyongos performance in it is beyond haunting.

im a huge huge sucker for a monster movie, i adore monsters, i've already mentioned the thing and alien series which are great examples but here, take some more! i loved crawl, alligator themed florida horror. Underwater, if you like a big monster. del Toro's mimic is crazy and creepy. Annihilation isn't what id call a horror movie, but its quite horrifying, and definitely has some of my favorite movie monsters... same with When Animals Dream its more a coming of an age than a True Horror but its my favorite werewolf movie ive ever watched so i would be remiss to not mention it

i also LOVE found footage, a subgenre only really pursued by horror film, and theres a lot of bad ones but a few good ones lol. The Bay is one i'll always recommend, it uses so many mediums so well to weave this very real and awful tale of ecohorror. the OG, the blair witch project. Hell House LLC is the perfect halloween movie to get freaked out on before you and your friends go to a haunted house...

i could go on and on but this is already a lot lol....but theres so many great horror movies out there!! you need only to watch them 🫶 hope you enjoy if you do check any of these out!!

[ghostonly]

I see a lot of discourse about what is or isn't allowed to be called body horror. It's a topic that is very close to home for a lot of people, namely, in the disabled community. Abled people will often tag things relating to disability as body horror, and that's understandably very upsetting when it relates to something that is someone's normal.

But on the other hand, I have also seen a lot of people, perhaps overzealous disability allies, or perhaps even overly sensitive disabled people, who more or less call for the complete removal of the term.

The term body horror exists for a reason

Not only is it useful in discussing the contents of something, but it serves as a pretty common and necessary trigger warning.

The question of what is or isn't allowed to be called body horror really comes down to

A) Extremity

And

B) Context

The term and trigger tag exist to shield people from content that is psychologically disturbing or triggering to them. You cannot simply divide the Okay uses and Not Okay uses by saying "if it's a medical condition, you can't call it body horror"

Extreme medical conditions involving missing body parts, prosthetics, visible transplants, extreme scarring, and so on can be triggering to a lot of people - and not just abled people who are bothered by disability in general.

These things can also be triggering to other disabled people, especially those who associate certain medical conditions, situations, treatments, etc with their own medical abuse.

Now, the most important fucking part of whether something can be called body horror or not is CONTEXT

If someone is talking about a video game, such as the new Legend of Zelda game, and giving warning to other people about an opening scene focused on nonconsensual grafting of a new arm while Link is completely unconscious, the use of the term body horror can absolutely apply. It is related to the body, and the situation is horrifying. Someone who is sensitive to body horror needs to be warned about the topic.

A photo of someone who only has one arm is not body horror.

You do not tag someone's fucking selfie as body horror, so help me god. If there is a visible prosthesis or it's a closeup of where their stump had been scarred closed, it's appropriate to tag those as Prosthesis, Prosthetic, Scarring, Scars, or Medical. If people are sensitive to these specific things, they can blacklist them.

Are we getting it?

Say it with me:

Body horror is a topic or genre.

Body horror is not a real life person.

A real life person comes with useable descriptors, and none of them include "body horror"

Fantasy genres and topics and situations, including medical subjects, can be called body horror. The term "body horror" is used to describe the topic or genre, not the character in the fantasy setting. If someone violently loses a limb in a game or TV show, them being an amputee is not body horror. It's the violent loss of the limb that's body horror. Please, go ahead and ask anyone who violently lost a limb if the situation that led to amputation was flowery and comfortable for them. I really, really doubt it.

In fact, I would hazard a guess that someone who lost a leg to a car accident may actually be very triggered by witnessing that happening on TV. Just a guess.

And on the topic of ableism, some of you abled people have no fucking idea the kind of shit disabled people go through on a regular basis and your ignorance is genuinely embarrassing to read, so please spare us all and keep your mouth shut about whether you think someone's medical trigger is acceptable to you or not.

[im-wide-asleep]

Species Anomaly Report - Why this episode of Vita Carnis is so frightening.

-Spoilers, if you haven’t watched Vita Carnis and plan to, there’s gonna be spoilers up in this thing. I do highly recommend the series, it’s one of my favorite analog horrors, though definitely mind the trigger warnings. Speaking of triggers, this post is gonna mention the following: Child death, death in general, gore and the likes. If you think this needs more warnings, just ask, okay?-

I always see people talking about how much this video scares them, but never see anyone talking much about why.

Vita Carnis is already a pretty “efficient” series. It doesn’t rely much on jumpscares, which is great, seeing as they’re normally used just to get a reaction from the audience. The only actual jumpscare I’ve noticed people talking about is the cabinet scene in the mimic documentary episode. Even then, it’s done pretty well. The slow buildup and the fact that it’s not as passive as a lot of others does make it frightening enough for people to recognize it. However, Species Anomaly Report does this without any of that.

If you’ve seen the episode, you’re probably remembering the audio most of all. Now, people scream a lot. Particularly children. The sound of people just screaming isn’t something most people would find that disturbing on its own. That’s where the story really comes in. You already have the background of the family hiking in the woods, you have the information on how the harvester functions, but now, everything is blending together in a way that hits people right in the psyche. First off, the child. Humans have an instinct to protect children. This is super obvious in parents and such, but child death and harm is rightfully uncomfortable for just about everyone. Even in lots of horror media, child death is skirted around. Of course, it happens, but it’s usually relegated to backstory, or it’s something that is more often avoided. Even if a child is placed in danger, they’re usually safe by the end. Species Anomaly Report plainly does not do this. The boy dies, in terror and agony. This, placed on top of the fact that we know the explicit details of how the Harvester goes about killing him, combined with the audio, gets viewers right in the instincts. It doesn’t stop there. The Harvester acquired a second victim, the boy’s mother.

The mother’s death brings a specific hopelessness to the narrative. Her child is suffering a horrible death that she is forced helplessly to witness, and she suffers the same end. The audience, who either consciously or subconsciously shares the mother’s desire to protect the child, will also share the hopelessness that comes with knowing it’s impossible. What truly makes this episode harrowing is that fear, topped with the horrible sinking sensation of hopelessness. The viewer is trapped along with the mother, watching a child die all whilst knowing there is nothing that can be done.

The other carnis are definitely disturbing, (but not the trimmings. No. 1 trimmings fan.) but the harvester didn’t carry some of the same fear as the humanoid figures of the mimic, hosts, etc. What made this facet of the narrative so innately horrifying is how it targets the instinctual desire to protect those more vulnerable, yet instantly snatches it away, holding it out of reach as you succumb to the hopelessness and terror.

[haven-is-happy]

Meeting the family

Summary: Echo gets some shore leave and turns his comm off

Word count: 2,3 k

Warnings: Just kissing, this is completely sfw

A/N: Had a ton on fun writing this, I hope it's good enough for your expectations. The sentence prompt is in there

Tags: @cloneficgiftexchange @wizardmando

As a general rule (gently suggested by Captain Rex to the 501st), Echo is not to be disturbed when calling with his girlfriend. Not only because of possible less-than-innocent activities on the call, but also because of how damn happy Echo was when he ends the call himself undisturbed.

When he got together with Y/N, his optimism skyrocketed. Every mission, assignment and battle was done quickly but thoroughly, so he could come back to her. He made the other troopers work faster to be done with the paperwork (much to the displeasure of Fives), cleaned up when others didn’t want to, anything to get rewarded more time off.

Even general Skywalker noticed a difference. Echo no longer went with any crazy plan Fives threw on the table. He’s stubborn enough to convince them of a safer route, or staying behind on base for the craziest assignments. 

“I want to come back home,” he answered every time. Nobody asked him what “home” was. It was against regulations, but everyone turned a blind eye.

Rex has never actually met her, but he was sure he like will like her when he does.

—---

“Well, call him again! What if it’s an emergency and we need to leave for an impromptu mission?” 

Despite Rex loving his men with all his heart like brothers, sometimes, he gets quite frustrated with their headstrong attitude. Especially if he does a headcount at breakfast and finds some of them missing.

“Maybe he went to a bar and slept over?” Jesse suggests and shovels a spoonful of military rations into his mouth.

“Impossible. It’s been more than a day. Echo is not that kind of person,” Kix counters, “I would expect that more from Fives.” He points at the trooper with his clean spoon, his face sporting a half-smirk.

From the other end of the table, he hears an offended “OI!”.

“Don’t pretend to be offended, Fives, your tab at 79’s is still open. Besides, Echo has someone waiting for him home, he wouldn’t do that.”

As if a lightbulb went off in his head, Kix turns to Rex.

“Have we checked if he isn’t with them?”

Rex shrugs. “We don’t even know if the person lives on Coruscant, much less know their location.”

Fives froze for a second in realisation. He starts hitting Jesse next to him, as if possessed.

“She is on Coruscant! I have her address in case of an emergency!”

The entire table groans.

“Then kriffin lead with that!” “Fives!” “And you didn’t tell us this sooner?!”

—

"Hear me out: Melted cheese with carrots."

"You know what, that actually might be good."

Since your leftovers ran out for lunch, Echo and you were brainstorming cooking ideas. 

Well, it is more of "Echo says a food combination and you shoot it down". It sometimes feels like he has no sense of taste, his tongue fried from eating republic rations all the time.

The holomovie has become white noise at some point, background in your conversation while you cuddle on the couch.

"The carrots have to be boiled so they don't crunch, we could maybe even use blue cheese," you list off ingredients, in thought.

"I'm sorry, WHAT cheese?!" Echo is half horrified and half curious at your statement. 

"Oh, you know, a cheese that has a bit of grown mold on it. It adds flavour and it's not bad for the body at all," you explain, watching his expression go from 100 to 200.

"How could mold on cheese be anything other than bad?"

"Actually, I have no idea. It just is," you shrug and pull out a datapad, putting in a shopping list.

Echo peers over your shoulder. 

"Does it really need that many ingredients?"

"Yeah. You need the pasta, salt - which we already have - and the sauce needs some cream, garlic, cheese and carrots. If you want to spice it up we can add some ham," you say, counting the ingredients on your fingers. You're by no means a master in the kitchen, but you want to feed your boyfriend food with ACTUAL flavour.

Echo lays his head on top of yours, pressing a kiss to the crown of your head.

"Can you teach me how to do it? I want to cook you something someday," he mumbles into your scalp, pressing another peck after he finishes the sentence.

"I will if you want to, but you don't need to cook me anything! I can always look up recipes or we can order takeout."

"But I want to."

It makes the corners of your mouth rise and warmth spread to your chest. What the republic thinks is a hardened soldier is also a softie who wants to learn how to cook for someone he loves.

"Thank you, love."

Echo doesn't need to move his head to see your smile, he just knows. The tone is obvious to him.

"Cooking is really complicated," he puffs out.

"Oh you have no idea. Pasta is mostly simple to do, one of the easiest dishes in fact," you point out. After sending the shopping list into the app, you toss the datapad to the side.

Now just to wait half an hour for the groceries to arrive, carried by a simple task droid.

You don't want to point your attention towards the TV or go out shopping. It feels like you're wasting precious time you have while Echo is on shore leave. You want to be wrapped up in him for the entire remainder of his vacation.

Curled in his side, you can feel every single muscle of his athletic body through the thin shirt of his blacks. He knows you don't mean anything by it when you snake a hand under his shirt and start drawing shapes into his skin. 

As always, his skin is warm to the touch, bringing you instant comfort.

By the time the movie ends, the hypnotic nature of drawing circles into Echo’s skin puts you in the sweet zone between awake and asleep. His chest rises and falls as he watches the credits (something only he ever does), syncing your breathing with his.

Warmth blooms in his heart at your sleepy form, like small fireworks in his veins. He feels as if body will burst.

“I cannot stop smiling when I look at you,” he whispers to you, making you smile in return. He isn’t even sure if your brain registered it or turned it into a pleasant dream. 

He slowly moves by centimetres on the couch into a more comfortable position to take a nap and let you snooze.

However, before Echo could even begin falling asleep with you, a sharp ring makes him flinch out of his own head.

An adorable whine leaves your throat.

“Is the food here?” Echo asks and gently takes your arm off him, getting up to get whatever is at the door.

“Hopefully,” you grumble out and lay down flat on the couch, covering where Echo was sitting.

“Can you put everything but the bread in the fridge? I’ll cook in an hour,” you speak up, louder than usual so Echo hears you through the apartment.

You hear the door open and then-

“What the kriff are you doing here?!”

You shoot up from the couch so fast your head nearly spins. Echo rarely swears so to you, this would be a jedi-level threat.

“Well you didn’t answer your comm so Fives told me where your partner lives-” “That information is for emergencies!” an identical voice replies to your boyfriend before getting shot down by (what you assume is) your Echo.

When you get into the line of sight of the door, you realise why.

There, right outside the threshold of your door, stand at least six clones, all wearing the same armour Echo has left neatly in a pile by your shoes. All of them have lines, triangles and patterns painted on their helmets in blue, black or red.

Echo’s legion.

“Well you weren’t answering your comm and… oh…” a blonde trooper in the front with his helmet under his arm speaks out and trails off when his eyes land on you.

“Yeah, I have told you I am away.” You’d think his annoyed voice is hot if you weren’t in a situation that could put him at such risk.

Right behind the blonde clone (who you assume is his caprain Rex from what he Echo told you) is a clone with a standard haircut and a number five tattooed on his temple in galactic basic.

His twin, Fives. You remember his tattoo from a conversation you’ve had with Echo. You wanted to meet him some day as he means so much to your boyfriend, but you have hoped that the meeting would be in better circumstances.

Before anything else can happen, you want to diffuse the situation. You don’t know if a clone trooper legally be in a relationship, as the war made the Senate refuse to look at anything else (certainly not look at the rights of the soldiers fighting said war). You might be in deep waters.

“Good afternoon sir. Is Echo in trouble?” You inwardly grimace. That was such a stupid question to ask, acting guilty in the court before even getting called to the stand.

A small smile gets to the captain’s lips.

“No, he isn’t. We’re just here to check on him because he wasn’t answering his comm.”

Some of the weight leaves your shoulders. You really didn’t want the first meeting with his brothers to be about disciplinary actions.

Echo’s entire face goes red, caught in the act. “I thought I put it on emergency only,” he tries justifying.

“Next time, double check. I sent you a message an hour ago. We wanted to know where you are,” another clone, one with a republic tattoo across his face, suggests.

“I told commander Cody that I am taking a day of shore leave. Did he not tell you guys?” Something shifts in Echo, like a knot coming loose. His stance shifts to be more relaxed and a single hand reaches out for your own.

His captain takes out a datapad and reads through messages while you two watch, previous anxiety dissipating just a smidge  .

“Ah, Cody got called away yesterday for a diplomatic mission.” The captain puts away his device and turns back to Echo.

“I- didn’t know that. Sorry Rex” utters your boyfriend and squeezes your hand. You squeeze back, seeing the guilty look on his face.

“It’s alright, you couldn’t have known, General Kenobi got the call and needed to leave immediately,” the blonde, Rex, reaches out a hand and pats his shoulder. 

Then, his head turns to you and he nods respectfully. “Nice to meet you ma’am. We’ll be going, sorry to bother you.”

“No problem at all,” you reply and watch the troopers utter variations of hellos and goodbyes, with his twin being the last to leave your porch.

He sends you a mischievous smile and reaches out a hand to shake yours. “I’ll stop by some time.”

He sends him a glare as he pulls away. Fives pats his shoulder and turns around, jogging to catch up with the rest of his brothers.

You lead Echo back inside your apartment and shut the door behind. His hand leaves yours and he kneels next to his armour to take out the commlink from his pack. He pushes a button, switching it on.

A bit sheepish, he puts it back and stands up. “Sorry you had to meet my captain and brothers for the first time like this,” he looks down.

You reach out a hand to cup his cheek and lift up his head to make him look at you.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re not in trouble,” you say softly and curl your free arm against his waist. His hands instinctively reach out to rest at your hips and bring you closer.

“I really wanted my comm to be off for the day, to spend the time with you. I’m sorry mesh’la.”

“Stop saying sorry for things out of your control. Your captain is sweet for wanting to check on you.”

He brings your foreheads together, something you have learnt is a kiss in his culture.

“Still, we could have gone through our day without this. I want to be here with you. For you. I don’t want you to feel like we are one message away from never seeing eachother again,” he murmurs.

You sigh with a sad look on your face.

“But we are, Echo. And that’s the reality. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t here for me,” you reply and pull away just enough so you can kiss his cheek and then bury your face in his neck. 

His hands go from your hips to hugging you. It’s the kind of bear hug that makes it impossible to breathe deeply, but you’re okay with that.

“I’m here for you too,” you whisper into his skin and land a peck on the junction of his neck and shoulder.

His arms falter and he pulls away, only to kiss you like his life depends on it.

He has no qualms pushing his tongue past your lips, multitasking while gently walking the two of you over to your couch.

“Kriff!” you squeak out as you stumble a bit, unaware of your surroundings from the haze of kissing. You stabilise yourself against Echo’s muscular chest and plant your feet firmly, making your boyfriend almost lose balance in return.

As you both regain your footing, your eyes meet again and you both snicker at the clumsy attempt at romance.

You want to lead Echo towards your couch to continue the session, but the bell rings again.

“So help me force Fives, if it’s you, I am going to put sand in your bed!”

“I think that’s just the delivery droid. It’s been an hour.”

“Oh, cool. Can you show me the recipe?”