#otherwise she has very bad manners

[inkbirdie]

i don’t normally post personal pictures here but my dog went to the groomers and her themed photo is incredible

she looks like she just walked off the set of the Muppets Christmas Carol it’s so great

they always take these kinds of pictures and usually she’s just sitting on the set nervously (she hates costumes) which makes it all the more impressive they could dress her up in russian orphan cosplay

(this is what she actually looks like btw)

her name is Neko and she’s a cutie :) she has anxiety and is weird and barks a lot but we love her anyway

[mavigator]

i talked about it a little bit already but i have things to say about it. for context, i was born with amniotic band syndrome. the amniotic band wrapped around my left wrist in utero and stunted the growth of my hand. i was born with about half a palm, four nubs for fingers, and a twisted half of a thumb. i can open and close my thumb and pinkie joint like a claw.

yesterday at work i had a shift in the room with 5-10 year old kids. i had my left hand hidden in my sleeve (a bad habit of mine). a kid asked if he could see my hand, and even though internally i was debating running into traffic, i said “sure you can” and showed him my hands. he stared for a moment, looking disturbed, and then said “i don’t want to look at that anymore”. that hurt to hear, but i understand that kids are new to the world and he probably didn’t mean it out of malice. i put my hand away again, told him that it was okay, and that i was just born that way.

he then went on to talk about how he knows a kid with a similar hand to mine and called it “ugly”. i told him that wasn’t a very kind thing to say and that he wouldn’t feel good if someone said that to him, and he replied that no one would say that to him—because he has “normal hands”, and he’s glad he does because otherwise he’d be “ugly”. i tried to talk with him for a bit about how everybody is born differently, but he just started talking about a girl he knows with a “messed up face” and pulled on his face to make it look droopy. i went on some more about how it wasn’t very kind to talk about people that way, but the conversation moved on to something else.

i’ve told my supervisors about it and they’re going to have a talk with his mom. what i wanted to say is this: i’m genuinely not upset with the kid. kids are young and naturally curious, and he clearly simply hasn’t been taught about disabled people and kind ways to speak to/about others. which is why i am upset with his parent(s). i know he’s encountered visibly deformed/disabled people before (he said so himself!), yet his parent(s) clearly haven’t had any kind of discussion with him about proper language and behavior. i knew from birth that some people were just different than others, but my parents still made a point to assert to be kind to and accepting of others. i wonder if adults in his life are the type of people to hush him and usher him away when he points out someone in a wheelchair. that kind of thing doesn’t teach politeness. it tells children that disabled people are an Other than can’t be acknowledged or spoken about; which, to a child, means disability must be something bad.

i’m lucky enough that this was a relatively mild incident, and that i’m a grownup with thicker skin. i’m worried about the other kids he mentioned to me. has he been talking to them this way? when i was a kid, i had other kids scream, cry, and run away at the sight of my hand. or follow me around pointing at me and laughing at me. or tell me i couldn’t do something because i was ugly or incapable or whatever. one time a girl at an arcade climbed to the top of the skeeball machine, pointed at me, and screamed at me to put my hand away and wouldn’t stop crying until she couldn’t see me anymore. another time, a kid saw my hand, screamed at the top of her lungs, and ran into my friend’s arms, crying hysterically about how i was scaring her. that second incident made me cry so hard i threw up when i got home. i can kind of laugh it off now, but having people react to me that way as a child is something i’m still getting over. why do you think i have a habit of keeping my hand in my sleeve? it just irritates me to see children that have clearly not been taught basic manners and kindness—their parents Clearly missed something pretty important .

[risuola]

▶ MOM ISSUES — late night talks, cuddles and lots of theatrics. that's what living with your boys mean, but your mom seems to see it a little differently.

contents: college+roommates!au, sa/domestic violence mentioned (it has nothing to do with the story, but it's a warning nonetheless) — wc. 800

a/n: there it is! i've been thinking about this story for months, drafting dozens of scenarios and finally it's happening! this series will be made of short pieces about three best friends turned roommates that slowly realize there's more to it than just friendship. it's not gonna be chronological, more so a series of random moments from their adventure - in the masterlist i'll try and organize it in an order, more or less. also, as you read it, can you hear Suguru's nagging voice when he calls Satoru's name or is it just me?

𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝙀𝘿𝙇𝙀𝙔 | series masterlist

First thing you learned at the beginning of your university journey is that no amount of sleepovers and cuddles could ever justify sharing an apartment with two grown ass men. To your mom, at least, because once you told her that you and your two best friends – Satoru and Suguru – are going to live together, there’s not a single phone call that goes without her assuming you’re being regularly subjected to domestic violence and sexual harassment. They are men, she always tells you and it’s been long since you’ve given up any attempts to tell her otherwise. They were futile after all and what surprised you the most was that your boys are no strangers to her.

With a low grunt you made your way above Satoru’s ass and dropped onto the mattress in the middle. Both men shot you a short glance before resuming their things – the white haired one was playing a game on his phone and the brunette was reading a book.

“How’s mom?” Gojo broke the silence, cutting the thick tension around you with his voice. “Still convinced we’re fucking you dumb every night?”

“Satoru–“ Geto was quick to nag his friend and his manners (lack of them, actually), and the other one didn’t skip a beat before defensively asking “what?”

“No, it’s fine,” you sighed, covering your face with your hands, hoping to squeeze out some stress out of your head that way. “I can’t believe it. She knows you two for over a decade and it’s only now that she’s absolutely convinced I’m being abused even though she knows I’m safe with you.”

“She used to feed us cookies and now what?” Satoru gasped, his theatrics reaching a critical point as he dropped his phone onto the pillow and fake-sniffled dramatically, clutching the fabric of his white shirt over his chest.

“Do you want me to give her a call?” Suguru offered, now focused more on you than on his book. He reached to you, pulling your hands away from your face and brushing some stray hairs away from your forehead. There’s a delicacy to his movements, a subtleness that the other one of your friends lacks and you’re yet again made aware of it, when Gojo throws his arm over your middle, pulling you towards his body as if you weighted nothing.

“No, Sugu, it’s pointless,” you replied, exhaling deeply and patting the strong grip away before it got a chance to suffocate you. The very aggressive cuddle only got more intense and for a brief moment you thought Satoru wanted to squeeze you out like a toothpaste. “Besides, we all know that whenever she talks to any of you, she’s as sweet as honey. It’s only me who has to listen to her weird assumptions.”

Gojo scoffed and giggled at the same time, a huff of air brushed against your cheek as he nuzzled his nose right next to your temple, threatening to bite your cheek. “Told you she’s gonna get addicted to criminal podcasts when you were introducing her to Spotify and you didn’t listen to me,” he said in a light tone and the few seconds of silence that followed made your heart skip few beats. Any sudden loss of words is always a bad sign when it comes to the blue-eyed princess. “Does your mom know about our sleeping situation?”

“Oh god, no,” you whined, pushing his face away before his teeth sunk into the flesh of your cheek that he always insists, reminds him of mochi. Sugar addict.

“Should I accidentally send her a selfie with our bed in the background? On the group chat?”

“Satoru.” Suguru grunted, nagging again and visibly reconsidering all the life choices that led him to being friends with Gojo. You knew that look, you saw it many times over years of friendship with them.

“You can do that, Toru,” you replied, your tone dead serious. “But if you dare, I will change my number into yours in her phone and you’ll be the recipient of the shitshow it will cause. And you know the hell will break loose.”

“Throughout heaven and hell, you alone will be the fucked up one,” Geto mused, pressing the dark red, hand-painted bookmark that you gifted him a year prior, between the pages of his book, ultimately deciding that it’s enough of reading for today.

“Point taken, no pictures then,” Satoru hummed and nodded once, ignoring the obnoxious insult and he let go of you, suddenly not overly dramatic anymore. He got back into indulging his phone-gaming addiction.

You let out a small sound of resignation and helplessness and crawled underneath the sheets. Suguru soon joined you on the pillows and as you quietly chatted the time away, Gojo fell asleep, nuzzled between your shoulder blades.

[sapphic-agent]

So. I finally read this fuckass comic that's been talked about again recently. I'd only ever heard about it before so I decided to check it out. I'm gonna go through some of the pages and give my two cents because why not?

I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I don't get how Katara is "out of character" here. This is very reminiscent of Book 1 Katara, who was playful and teasing and immature and acted like, y'know, a kid. I know Bryke might have you thinking otherwise, but she shouldn't baby Aang all the time.

Especially because he is supposed to be practicing and just... isn't doing it. This was her way of lightheartedly trying to motivate him, which I think is pretty on brand for her.

You could make the argument that Katara is being dismissive here, but honestly? The subject clearly makes her uncomfortable. She was kissed (without consent) before a major battle by someone she saw as a friend. Of course she was uncomfortable. She has every right to not want to talk about or acknowledge it.

Calling that out of character is not doing Kataang shippers any favors when the most common criticism against them is their tendency to brush aside Katara's autonomy.

(At first when I saw this panel, I thought maybe she was being a little abrasive towards him. But... She's the same way with Toph in The Runaway. This isn't behavior that came out of nowhere. Why is it that it's only a problem when it comes to Aang?)

I guess a better question here is, is Aang out of character? For me, it's actually yes and no.

I think they made him overly mopey. Like yes, he's had his moments in the show, but drawing hearts in the dirt? What kind of shit is this??

Not to mention his weird little monologue inside the rock ("Who's really playing games here, Katara?" Are you actually serious, Bryke? Idc what anyone says, those words would never leave Aang's mouth). It feels like a bid to make him more sympathetic so that the reader feels bad for him. I'm fine labeling that OOC.

However...

Do I think Aang would purposely physically hurt Katara? No. Do I think Aang would get so caught up in his emotions that he stops being mindful of himself and his surroundings? Well.

Both times you could label an accident. But both times resulted from Aang being careless and being unable to regulate himself. Now, you could make the argument that this is OOC because Aang learned and developed past this point. And I would agree, if we were talking about Book 2 Aang or even mid to late Book 1 Aang.

But honestly, character regression is very on point for Book 3 Aang. Especially post DOBS. Most of you already know about my beef with Book 3 Aang, so I won't get into that.

Now, I do think that Aang would be a little more apologetic and guilty considering how regretful he was in Book 1. But him prioritizing his own feelings instead of how he affected her? Completely on-brand. In EIP he was upset about how he messed up his chances with Katara, not that he kissed her without consent and upset her.

But even if this couldn't fit Katara and Aang as characters, even if they were outlandishly OOC and completely different from the characters we knew, that doesn't really matter. This comic is official and canon. Just like the comics where Aang ignores her in favor of his weird fanclub and she swallows her hurt and puts up with it. Just like LOK where Aang is a neglectful father and Katara is a mild mannered housewife.

You can dislike this comic and criticize its portrayals all you want. But it's still canon. You can't ignore canon, especially when your main argument for Kataang being better than Zutara is that it's canon

[faberown]

IS ADAM A MISOGYNIST?

Answer: NO. And this should be obvious to anyone with some brain.

But let's try to give more explanations. First of all, let's start outside from the show, and answer a more important question:

IS ADAM A MISOGYNIST IN THE BIBLE?

Well, no. Actually, Adam in the Bible is one of the characters that respect and love women the most, which is ironic considering the time when such things were written (let's remember that until less than 200 years ago women were considering PROPERTY of the men). But then, why is Adam considered a misogynist today? Well, because a problem that unfortunately has afflicted us for a long time: people forget that the mentality of people when the myths were written was very different from today, and what means one thing for us at the time meant another. But unfortunately people don't understand this concept, because it is much easier to read and interpret in a literal way, or rather, in a way that conforms to their own thoughts, so as to justify their beliefs.

Let's take for example another famous myth, that of Hades and Persephone. Many modern interpretations see it as a kidnapping, but the truth is that Hades never kidnapped Persephone: before picking her up, in fact, he had asked permission from Zeus, her father (and also his brother... who was the brother of Demeter, the mother of Persephone... so he married the daughter of his brother that was born from an incest between his brother and his sister... yes, the Greek gods were the embodiment of Sweet Home Alabama). Only after Zeus had given him permission to marry Persephone had Hades gone to get her, because again, daughters at the time were PROPERTY of the male parent; not CUSTODY, just PROPERTY. The mother and daughter had no right to say anything. So, in fact, a kidnapping never existed: Hades simply went to take what belonged to him. Not only that, but Hades behaved in an unusual manner for the time: instead of immediately taking advantage of Persephone as was his right, once in the Underworld he courted her and treated her with extreme respect. He has never cheated on her and has always sincerely loved her (they are literally the ONLY healthy couple in Greek myth), and he himself even proposed the deal to Demeter when he realized that she sincerely wanted to spend time on the surface being the goddess of spring.

See? If we don't base ourselves on a literal interpretation of the myth but rather integrate it with the culture and mentality of the time, suddenly what seemed like an act of violence becomes one of the most beautiful couples in all of Greek mythology, which in fact they were. Now, let's try to apply the same reasoning with Adam, Lilith and Eve.

First let's make one thing clear: Lilith DOESN'T exist in the Bible, so here, to avoid too much confusion, we will simply talk about sacred texts, but that doesn't change much since they were written in very close times. Now, was Adam a bad husband for Lilith? Obviously not. That is a modern feminist literal interpretation of the myth, because they wanted to find at all costs a way to criticize religion and patriarchy (and no, I'm not mad at feminists, I'm simply mad at all those who misinterpret something just to justify their beliefs). In this myth, as we well know, Adam and Lilith had to have sex and she didn't want to be under him, and he replied that she always had to be under him. The problem? Again, the mentality of the time was different. To begin with, the idea of ​​the time was that "sacred" sex, and therefore the only sex allowed in Eden given that it was an earthly Paradise, was only that aimed at procreation; and to procreate, according to the mentality of the time (a mentality that has persisted until very recent times), the only right position was that of a missionary, otherwise the child wouldn't be born (in fact the prostitutes stayed on top not to risk getting pregnant). Is this false? Of course, but for the mentality of the time it was absolute reality. So what Adam is saying to Lilith is not "You must be submissive to me, slave woman you must obey me patriarchy blah blah blah", but rather "sorry, but I can't magically change the position of our organs, if we want to have sex we have to do it this way, so just accept it". Basically, it is as if today a woman wanted to get pregnant by only having oral sex, and after her boyfriend points out that it is impossible she accuses him of being misogynistic: who would you side with? So no, Adam never tried to impose himself on Lilith, Lilith was simply a bitch who wanted to do everything as she wanted and thought she could go against even her own nature. And considering what she did AFTER she escaped from Eden, it's very clear how out of her mind she was; I won't go into detail, just know that she has a long history of cannibalism, rape and pedophilia.

Let's talk about Eve now; again, the idea that she was subservient to Adam arises from a modern feminist misinterpretation. Eve was created from Adam's rib to be "more docile", but then again, "docile" thousands of years ago didn't mean "submissive" at all. "Docile" was considered synonymous with "affectionate, loving, faithful, gentle", and did not take into account submission to the master or anything like that, which in fact had another name. Eve was therefore not created from Adam's rib to be his servant, but rather because in this way they would both complete each other and love each other in the purest and deepest way (the classic saying "I love her as if she were a part of me") . It is, in a certain sense, a variant of a Greek myth that saw all people once united, only to be divided by the gods, and therefore destined to seek their other half through love. In fact, Adam and Eve were a united couple and loved each other madly, to the point that Adam, in many variants of the Bible and even in more modern works such as Milton's Paradise Lost, eats the forbidden fruit because he doesn't want to separate from Eve (which places him, by symbolism, in a heroic way but also as a worse sinner than her, given that he chooses mortality and desire instead of divine grace). In some other versions, even, God doesn't free them together but places them in different places on Earth, so that, after the initial quarrel due to the forbidden fruit, they understand how much they need each other and seek each other, and then reunite in love and begin humanity.

Alright, and with that, we're done with the "accurate biblically story" part. Personally, I was very disappointed that Viv didn't use the real version but limited herself to choosing the extremely wrong modern feminist one, given that I think the original one is much more interesting. But now, let's go further and move on to the second big question:

IS ADAM A MISOGYNIST IN HAZBIN HOTEL?

Hazbin Hotel clearly presents many differences with the sacred texts, to the point of creating a mythology more in its own right than being a reflection of the real one; consequently, let's try to look at it without taking into account what actually happened in the Bible. But even in this case, if we exclude the story described in Charlie's book (which has so many holes that it is impossible not to consider it false, especially considering it was written by those who are described as revolutionary heroes, something never confirmed by any other character of the series), then Adam is not a misogynist at all. Let's analyze his character: all his best soldiers are women and he never shows any doubt that they would know how to do what, since time immemorial, has been considered a man's job; his right hand is a woman and he allows her to speak back on him and even boss him around sometimes; his boss is a woman and even when they disagree he still respects her authority; and the list is still long. The only times he seems to despise women is when he talks to Vaggie, but it is clear that in that moment he is despising her more than women, since she is a traitor and an enemy. Haven't you ever seen a movie where the villain takes advantage of the situation to make fun of the hero, behaving in a way he didn't behave with his henchmen or allies? Well, this is basically the same. Should we consider him misogynistic because when he talks to Charlie he makes silly jokes and pranks and proudly talks about his experiences? I expect such behavior from a slightly rude person, certainly not from a misogynist. Based on this logic, Alastor (who slaps Vaggie on the ass in the pilot) and Lucifer (who objectifies Eve and Lilith by talking about them as if they were trophies during the battle) are misogynists too. It's just a ridiculous thought.

In particular there is a scene in which I want to focus to demonstrate his total absence of misogyny, namely the moment in episode 6 when he and Lute notice Charlie and Vaggie in Heaven. In that scene, Lute grabs him by the collar and orders him not to speak loudly, with a very rude attitude to boot. Not only this is a total lack of respect given the different rank that they have (let's not forget that he is her superior, moreover in a military context, where discipline and respect are considered fundamental and absolute), but it also destroys any idea that Adam might be a misogynist for one simple reason: he lets her do it. People tend to forget this because Adam acts like an idiot and Lute acts like the bossy one, but the difference in strength between them is enormous. Lute is good at fighting with an angelic spear, but Adam can summon weapons, shatter magical shields with a punch, open portals, fire beams of power equal to the most powerful laser on Earth, and even defeat Charlie who in power level is equal or even superior to the Deadly Sins except for Lucifer. Adam can literally pick up Lute and break her bones like she's a breadstick, and no one could scold him for anything since he, being the general of the army, has the authority to give punishments if he feels there is a lack of discipline. If Adam had been a misogynist and a woman had dared to treat him that way, he would have immediately reestablished his authority by punching her in the face, or at least threatening her; instead, he lets her do it and listens to her advice, and he even seems genuinely sorry after she makes an offended face because of an unkind comment of his. Let's said it again: Adam, a being who can fight on equal terms with the princess of Hell and win, doesn't get angry after being treated badly and with disrespect by a woman inferior to him, but rather listens to her and follows her advice. Does this seem misogynistic to you?

So, to conclude, no, Adam is not a misogynist, he's just a slightly rude person who thinks his jokes are funny (and it must be said that no one ever contradicts him). He's like the classic pompous friend that any of us have had in life. Calling him misogynistic means to have no clue what misogyny, or patriarchy, is. Viv's problem (as unfortunately with many others) is that she uses words to describe her characters without really knowing what they mean, and she relies on her personal experiences (extremely subjective and without any objective value for the rest of the world) to write them. If Adam is indeed based on an ex-boyfriend, then that ex-boyfriend was just a ridiculous pompous prideful guy who didn't know what education was, certainly not a misogynist. I don't wish for Viv to meet a true misogynist in her life, but if that will happen she will immediately understand how stupid she was to describe Adam as one.

[yeeterthek33per]

Misplaced Toddlers and Mayhem (Katrina Gorry x reader)

A/n: I wrote this while I was drunk, so if theres any mistakes or something, and it doesn't add up... Y'all can blame the boxed LIIT 😂

Part two

Summary: Harper takes a walk, Kyra and Charli are in shit unless they find her, Mini has a heart attack, and you make a new friend... or two.

--------

"Harps?"

....

"Harper?"

....

"Shit."

----------

Honestly, you hadn't even expected to be out today, and now you're being forced to go out Christmas shopping and one of the places you were being forced to go to was basically a wild child haven.

Kids just about terrified you. You avoided them like the plague. One bad run-in was enough for a lifetime for you. One toddler shoving their dirty little mits into your face, leaving you coming down with a nasty lung infection, was enough for you.

They were grotty, and whiny and just not your crowd.

You used to love them. After that experience, though, you felt a little more enlightened, so you left the crotch goblins to their parents at all costs.

However, your sister was insistent you get something for your nieces. She doesn't understand why you can't stand being around them now. She knows what happened but thinks you're being ridiculous, and when you're relying on her to keep you housed for the time being, you had to play nice.

As much as you loved your nieces, you loved them from a much larger distance than your sister liked.

So you had to deal with holidays and birthdays. Meaning you were stuck doing toy shopping. In the local toy store. Where kids are allowed to run rampant, occasionally bumping into you, making you wince, and very occasionally, you receive an apologetic look from weary parents.

As you're walking down the sports aisle, with your nieces having taken a liking to soccer, you end up shopping for a couple mini balls and some cones, and what looks to be a training goal.

You aren't sure since you dont follow it majorly, but it'll do. Despite your own weariness, you knew they loved you and anything you gave them. You had to hand it to Ashley. She'd raised some otherwise pretty decent kids.

As you're browsing around for some pink cones, knowing little Emily liked the colour pink, you spot a little girl just standing there. It wouldn't be a surprise to you, considering kids are typically allowed to run rampant. But the little thing looked about two years old, if that.

What kind of parent let's their two year old go off on her own?

The moment she spots you, it's like she knows you. You had never seen this child before. She runs up to you, making grabby hands.

At first, you think she's aiming for the pink cones in your hand, but the moment you even offer them to her, she bats it away and continues making grabby hands at you.

"I- Hi kiddo? What's up, huh? Where's your mum? Or dad?"

"Wibbons, wasso"

And then it clicks. She wants your hair ribbon, though you don't register the second part. So, in an effort to keep the child calm (at bay), you pull your hair down and offer it to her. She quickly begins to play with it before trying to kind of half attach it to her own head.

It makes you laugh a little.

"Hewp me pwease"

It honestly kind of makes your heart melt a little. She seems like a nice kid. She's not really dirty as such. But you never know.

"You want them in your hair, huh?"

She nods eagerly. You sigh, knowing you're stuck now.

"Okay, turn around for me, I'll put them in, but you gotta stay very still for me."

"Okay!"

To her credit, for a two year old, she does stay very still. You carefully use the ribbon to create a mini bun with a bow and she's vibrating with excitement when you're done.

"Yayyy, tank yoou."

Well, at least she has manners.

"Wow, you look so pretty. What's your name?"

"Ha- Hart- Harp-..."

She seems to be struggling a little, and it kind of makes you giggle softly.

"Harpa!"

"Harper?"

She nods, giggling slightly.

"Alright, Harper. Can you tell me where Mum is?"

The little blonde looks confused for a second. Shakes her head at you and points off to the outside of the shop.

"Cha cha."

It makes no sense, and honestly, what did you expect from a two year old?

So you do what any responsible adult would do here, and ask the lady up the front to check the cameras to see if she'd come in with anyone.

Of course, no dice. She's visible walking into the store completely alone.

"Oh boy."

--------- meanwhile----------

"You fucking lost my daughter?! Charlotte Grant, what the fuck were you thinking?!"

Charlie glares at Kyra, who is snickering lightly as Katrina rips her a new one. Though Katrina whips around to her now too.

"Oi, what's so funny? You were supposed to be watching her too!"

Kyra gulps lightly.

"I was watching her! I went to go get ice cream for us all and told Charlie to stay with her!"

"Rubbish! I told you to stay with her while I went and got her some more chips. That kid eats like you do sometimes, I swear."

"What a load of bull!"

"Is not!"

"Will you two knock it off!"

Katrina is quick to shut the two bickering, totally adult women up. They both shut their mouths simultaneously and look to the shorter, much more terrifying woman.

"Where is she?"

"We don't know, we both came back, and she was just..gone!"

The older woman feels like she's about to have a heart attack. She starts running through different possible scenarios in her head.

"Is it possible that she could have wandered off? Maybe she went to go find that toy store we passed on the way?"

"Fine, we'll go check, but the moment she's not there, we're calling the police."

Both of the kids nod at Katrina and quickly take off running toward the area where the shop was.

--------

"Where Cha Cha? I wan ice keem now"

"Who's cha cha, Harper?"

"Cha cha sissy."

Okay, so, 'Cha cha' is her sister. That's a start. She's already had you kicking a ball around with her, and now she's demanding ice cream. So you duck outside to the ice cream truck quickly for a small cone, hoping to god she's not dairy intolerant or something.

She happily munches on the cone while you contemplate what to do. You could call the police. You probably should call the police. That is until she suddenly up on her feet, pointing erratically at a very frantic looking blonde and brunette, followed by a pissed but frantic looking shorter brunette.

"Cha Cha! Cha Cha, Mummy! Kywa!"

You're relieved. But now also mad. You were about to give this person a piece of your mind. It is so dangerous leaving kids on their own like that.

"Oh, Harper baby! thank god."

"Mummy, I made new fwend!"

The shorter looking woman looks up at you and the words you were going to say just kind of stop in your throat.

"You did, huh? Well, you gotta thank her for getting you that cone, then."

The kid looks up at you with a cheesy grin.

"Tank you y/nn"

The Mum turns to look at the other two, who are now looking at the ground, shuffling awkwardly.

"And you two! Apologise to this poor woman right now. You couldn't watch Harper for two seconds on your own, seriously! You're 21 years old! The pair of you!"

"Sorry!"

"We are really sorry."

You smile a little.

"Honestly, it's not a problem at all. She had us all a little worried when she walked in on her own. But she was really good, no trouble at all, honestly... well... aside from the glaringly obvious."

Seriously? Stick to your guns, you said. You're pissed, you said. Yeah, right. She is pretty hot, though...

Seriously..?

"Honestly, though, thank you so much for looking after Harper, I know she can be a little much for some, especially considering it looks like she's raided your hair ribbons too."

You chuckle a little shaking your head.

"Not at all, honestly. She was a little demanding, but she's definitely well mannered, and she was pretty relaxed the whole time. All I got from her, though, was 'Cha Cha', 'Ribbons' and 'Wasso'... I wasn't really sure what to make of that too much. I assume one of you is Kyra, though."

The shorter woman nods slightly, pointing to the brunette behind her. She waves a little. "I'm Kyra, this one is Charlie, or as we affectionately call her, 'Cha Cha'. I just call her Idiot though."

"Hey!"

The two of them start bickering, and eventually, Charlie has Kyra in a headlock. The woman in front of you facepalms and shakes her head at the two of them.

"I'm so sorry, just ignore those two. You'd think they were 5 and not 21 year old adults. I'm Katrina, Harper is my actual child. These two just forcefully adopted themselves to me."

At that, both of them stop for a second. Kyra speaks, "Hey! You still love me like your own!"

"Excuse me! She loves me more than you." And they're back to wrestling.

At this point, you're trying to stifle a laugh behind your hand. You look down towards the little blonde girl, who is now on her feet, looking at the two of them, the cone she had now fully eaten but completely covering her face and hands.

Katrina looks down at her as well.

"Oh my goodness, Harper. How do you do this every time?"

The little girl giggles as her mother crouches down to wipe her face with the napkin that had been around the cone, but you notice it's kind of already messy, so you grab some of the sanitiser wipes you usually keep on you and offer them to her.

She has a grateful look in her eyes as she accepts them from you.

"Oh my god, thank you, honestly, I swear I normally keep this kind of stuff on me but I kind of just dumped everything in the car when I got the phone call saying she was missing."

"It's all good. I'm happy to help."

She smiles gratefully at you.

When she's done, she picks Harper up to keep her still and in eye sight, but the toddler has other ideas and reaches for you instead making grabby hands, wanting into your arms instead.

Katrina goes to protest, but you reassure her and take Harper into your grasp, the little girl quickly latching onto you and starts playing with your necklace.

"I swear, I've never seen her like this before. She's usually pretty shy around strangers or any of my friends that she doesn't spend a lot of time with."

"Really?" You ask, surprised. The girl had been so friendly with you. Why you?

"Really. I've never seen her like this."

You look down at her, smiling softly. You poke her hand a little.

"Guess I have a new friend."

What has gotten into you. You thought you were supposed to be terrified of kids. What's different about this one?

"Guess so." You meet Katrina's gaze, and she suddenly looks down at the ground before she turns to look at the other two, and you think you see a hint of a small blush rising to her cheeks.

Must be imagining things.

"Hey, you two! Stop fighting. Can you go back to the car and get Harper's bag, please? I'llmeet you both where we were sitting"

Kyra quickly let's go of Charlie, and they both nod and take off towards the carpark. You watch as Charlie shoves Kyra a little on the way, and you snort slightly.

"Hey.. I was wondering if you wanted to come and get something to eat with us. If you have time, of course, I wouldn't wanna take any more time from your day."

"Honestly, I'd take anything to get away from christmas shopping, but if I come home with nothing for my nieces, my sister might actually kick me out." You say jokingly, rubbing at your neck.

"Oh! Of course! We better let you get going then." She looks a little disappointed at first but quickly covers it with a smile. She just kind of stands there.

"Yes.. yep.." You hesitate for a second, and then you slowly gesture at the happily occupied Harper in your arms.

"Right! Sorry, yep, taking her now."

It's adorable and makes you grin a little, leaving a warmth to fill your chest. Though you're a little sad that you don't get to spend more time with them.

Harper tries to cling to you as you hand her over, but she sulkily climbs back into Katrina's arms once she realizes you aren't staying.

She buries her head into her mum's neck when she's situated. It makes your heart melt a little, already a little attached to her.

"Nice meeting you all." You smile and turn to leave back into the toy store to continue shopping.

Katrina pauses for a minute before leaving with Harper. She feels weird. Like she doesn't really want to let you leave. Sure, you were attractive, and Harper clearly loved you already, but this was just a really lucky situation, and you were technically a stranger to her.

She gets back to where they were sitting and sets Harper down beside Charlie and sits next to them.

"Hey, you okay Min'?"

She looks at the blonde confused.

"I mean aside from the heart attack you gave me, fine, why?"

Charlie, at least, has the decency to look a little guilty at that.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I promise we'll look after her better. But not what I meant. You look a little.. I don't know... disappointed? Not mum disappointed, more like sad disappointed."

Katrina steels her features at that.

"What? No.. I'm fine. I'm a little disappointed for Harper, if anything. I've never seen her so quickly attached to someone like that."

"Yeah, I thought it was weird that she let someone near her, actually."

"Right? She's always been wary of everyone. She double took me when she was born even."

Charlie chuckles a little at that.

"Sounds about right for her, seriously though, I don't think it's just Harper on this one."

Katrina raises a brow.

"She's pretty hot, she looks about 28ish, definitely your type."

"If she's so hot, why don't you date her?"

"Because one, I'm happily single and two because she was clearly eyeing you up."

"Yeah, because I was looking for my kid, who was practically clinging to her."

"But even after that, Mini, you know we do pay attention. She clearly had the hots for you."

It's Kyra that interjects now.

"Seriously, you two, what is it with you and interceding my love life?"

Charlie grabs her by the face and turns the now suddenly defensive Katrina's head towards her.

"Because we love you, and we want to see you happy, and we want what's best for Harper and what makes her happy. We can see you were clearly attracted to her. Now, if you don't go back to that store to try and find her and get her number, I will do it for you."

She goes to protest but again she's shushed by the blonde.

"I promise we'll watch Harper with our lives. Now please go find her."

Katrina's hesitant, but she blows out a breath, and she receives a tap to the butt as she turns to go back to the shop. She glares back at Charlie, but she's already preoccupied, making her daughter laugh as she tickles her.

They were right. It's always been her and Harper. Even with the whole team and sisters like Kyra and Charlie, it felt like it's always been her and Harper against the world. That's always felt like enough, but even then, she knew something had always felt a little disconnected.

Now wasn't the time to delve into stuff like that, though. She jogs back towards the store and sees you leaving the store right as she gets to the path leading up to it... with a trolley full of... soccer gear?

She shakes away the thought for a moment and jogs up to you. "Hey!..." and she realises then that she never even got your name.

You look up at her, tilting your head in confusion but smile nonetheless.

"Hey you, I thought you'd left already. D-Did you need something?"

She's a little out of breath from the impromptu jog. To be fair, it is her off day.

"Hey..sorry to bother you like this, but I honestly couldn't leave without at least asking first."

"Is everything okay?"

"Of course, yes, everything's great, Harper is with the other two. They promised they'd keep an eye on her this time. It's just that... I've had a bit of a think and..."

You're patient while she speaks, and the curl of your lips as you listen has her heart racing a little.

"Would you want to, maybe, go out sometime?"

That catches you off guard. You weren't expecting that one. You blink in surprise at her.

"Like just the two of us?"

She nods, a little shyly.

You bite your lower lip to suppress a bigger grin than you want to let out.

"Of course, I'd love that."

"You don't have to if you dont want to though, honestly I understand if you're taken or- wait, yes?"

You stifle a little laugh and nod at her. Yeah, she's definitely cute.

"Yes, Katrina, I would love to go on a date with you."

She grins widely.

You offer your phone to her, the contact section open with a new contact.

"Add your number, and I'll shoot you a message?"

She agrees quickly and types her number in and gives you your phone back.

She gestures back to the trolley beside you. "Soccer fans?"

"Their mothers are. The girls are taking after them pretty quickly, though."

That's when she spots the pendant on your necklace, a little soccer ball. Was that why Harper was quick to go to you?

She smiles and nods, understanding, before looking at her watch. "Shoot, I have to go. The girls are probably worried I got kidnapped or something."

You let out a soft laugh and wave her goodbye as you walk to your car to load the stuff back into it.

You save her contact as "Cutie 💖" and shoot her a message when you get back to your sister's place.

-----

Katrina is just getting into her house when her phone pings in her pocket.

"Date on sunday night? The name's Y/n, btw 😉"

She's smiling a little too hard at her phone, and it doesn't take long for Kyra and Charlie to pick up on it.

"Who's that you're messaging, Min?"

She shakes her head.

"Nobody of your concern."

Kyra gasps in excitement. "It's that girl, isn't it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

She's glad she's got the night off for sunday now, though.

"Anyway, any chance you two can watch Harper sunday night?"

The pair look at each other, exchanging looks with cheeky grins before nodding.

Katrina's watching them warily, but then they both suddenly squeal and tackle the midfielder to the ground in excitement.

"We're so proud of you! You're going on a date!"

"Who said it was a date?" She gasps from under them both, having the air knocked from her after hitting the floor boards.

"Puhlease, that look in your eye told us everything we needed to know."

"Ugh, get off me, I technically haven't even said 'Yes' yet."

"Well hurry up and do that!"

"You have to get off me for me to do that!"

Shes practically dragged to her feet and handed her phone, the two girls looking at her with sparkling grins and giddy looks in their eyes.

She types in a quick message and sends it to you.

'Hey! I'm really sorry about not asking, I can be a bit of an asshole when I'm not paying attention. 😅 but yes, definitely. Sunday sounds perfect 😊'

Her phone pings straight away, it makes her grin just that bit more.

"It's all good. You had three kids on your hands 😉 I probably would have done the same thing. 6pm sound good?"

Charlie whines pouting. Katrina hadn't even realised they were now reading over her shoulder.

"Aw man, and to think I liked her already."

"Oi! Sticky beaks, knock it off. Go get Harper cleaned up. Or something."

They both groan and take Harper to go get washed up and changed.

'6pm is good. See you then 😉'

------------

Let me know if y'all want part two for this.

[korasonata]

Was bored and also procrastinating other things, so have a ranked list of Hermits based on whether I think they can cook or not for funsies. Vibes only.

—

Beef: The expert. Is well versed in almost all manners of cooking, and is an extremely skilled chef, particularly with regards to meat dishes, and is a particularly skilled butcher.

TFC: Also up there with Beef, but TFC is also a master of rare ingredients. He’s good at foraging, and he uses ingredients in his cooking that aren’t typically used in just every day life. His techniques may seem a bit primitive, but they are highly effective and his style of cooking might be called simple food made complicated.

Stress: Also a very good cook who puts a lot of emphasis on nutrition. She makes meal plans and prepares a lot of her food at the beginning of the week, and her cooking always makes sure to include a balanced diet. She enjoys cooking and likes to have fun with it. Makes a killer roast chicken.

Impulse: Is surprisingly good at home style cooking. He doesn’t make anything fancy or anything, and his presentation is always a little sloppy, but his food at least tastes good.

Cub: Doesn’t cook much, but when he does he is actually secretly a very good chef. He cooks for himself a lot, but it’s only once in a blue moon that someone else gets to eat his food.

Wels: Is a decent chef, but is incapable of cooking for a single person. He makes way too much food every time and is incapable of portioning, and as such he is the direct inverse of Cub, and he never cooks for himself if he’s alone. Is also very good at desserts.

Ren: Has a bottomless pit of a stomach. Has a big appetite and loves all food and really enjoys big dinner feasts. Is also good with cooking meat specifically. He has a special smoking method that is a real crowd pleaser. Is also good with basic rice bowls and his cooking tastes very homely.

Gem: Is good at treating fish specifically. Also anything involving wild game. Like TFC she is very good at foraging and using ingredients found in the forest. Her cooking is a bit unrefined, but has a very light, refreshing sort of feel to it.

Cleo: An average cook, but is very good at a few specific dishes. (As a side note I’ve actually tried one of Cleo’s recipes that she talked about on stream and it is literally the greatest thing ever, I made it once and people request it all the time)

Joe: Is good at making drinks specifically. He makes a mean margarita and is good at making mixed drinks and cocktails, but otherwise is an average chef with regards to food. Makes very good nachos though.

Doc: Like Cleo, Doc is good at making a few very specific dishes. He makes several German specialties and is also very good at treating vegetables, but outside of these specialties he is rubbish.

Bdubs: Stereotypical grill dad. At least he thinks so. His seasonings consist almost exclusively of basic spices. Meat is the only thing he cooks, but otherwise possesses no real flare for cooking. Despite this, he thinks very highly of his skills, and the food he puts out isn’t bad really, so the Hermits still let him cook every once in a while.

Scar: Scar always tries his absolute best, and his cooking swings wildly from perfection to the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten in your life. There is no in between. It’s 50/50 what you’re going to get, but he has fun either way.

Jevin: makes a mean Mac and cheese, but outside of this, he is a very basic cook. He makes himself sandwiches and grilled cheese and maybe some pasta, but otherwise doesn’t cook much else.

Hypno: Ok. He can kill something and cook it, but he’s not the best butcher and his food is just kind of thrown together. There’s no real theme to any plate he puts out. He’s half decent with seasonings and spices though.

XB: Can make fried rice and that’s about it.

Keralis: Can copy other people’s dishes when given instructions, but when left alone has no idea what he’s doing.

False: Doesn’t really cook much. She probably could, but most of the time she’s after something quick and easy. Whenever she gets hungry she just grabs an apple from the bowl or eats whatever leftovers are in the fridge cold.

Etho: Lives almost exclusively off of instant ramen.

Zedaph: treats the kitchen like a chemistry lab and anyone eating is a test subject. He’s not allowed in the kitchen very often.

Xisuma: This man could burn juice. I don’t know how, but he’d do it. He is a sopping wet cat in the kitchen. He’s the type that tries to cook but fails so miserably that every time he just ends up making a bowl of cereal for himself instead.

Grian and Pearl: have cooking battles competing over who can make the most disgusting dish. Grian is like the little toddler that always wants to help but is so bad that no one will let him. He’s also always the one standing over your shoulder and sneaking bites of things when you turn your back. Pearl can’t cook herself, but she has good knife skills so she is often allowed to help out with the prep work.

Mumbo: Will eat anything and everything you throw in front of him. He does not care. He also does not cook at all. When left to fend for himself he demolishes the kitchen by eating every raw ingredient in the pantry. This man would eat a sack of flour if you let him.

Tango: This man does not eat unless you make him. You have to physically drag him to the table to get any kind of nourishment, but he is always very appreciative of other peoples cooking.

Iskall: Orders takeout exclusively.

[forsoobado137]

You mentioned misogyny for female nations in media but how do nations see the line between male and female I feel it's more equal among nations as war is war and a soldier is a soldier also you mentioned Hungary but how do other female nations handle misogyny

I feel like the role of a female nation in war varies a lot. Some are soldiers equal to men, while others are only allowed non-combat roles. Otherwise, the diplomatic and bureaucratic workload they have is equal to other male nations.

I believe they handle the misogyny in a lot of different ways. Belgium is kind of used to being pushed aside due to being surrounded by her flashier neighbours. But has her limits for how much patronizing she can tolerate. She will assert herself in sexist interviews, but she will do so in a polite manner because she doesn't want to "make a scene".

Seychelles has the misfortune of being a woman of color. So not only does she have to deal with misogyny, but also being objectified by tourists who see her as nothing more than "exotic beauty." Because of her role as a tourism destination, she's kind of forced to put up with it all. She tries to not let other people make her feel bad about herself, and focuses on enjoying life.

Belarus has zero tolerance for it. She'll literally threaten to chop a man's dick off if he's sexist towards her. She is unapologetically herself in interviews, and will be very blunt about what she thinks the journalists intentions are. She used to be harassed by paparazzi a lot for photos of her "acting crazy", but she fixed the problem by threatening their families.

Ukraine has to deal with a lot of misogyny and stereotyping. People often hypersexualize her because of her big breasts, and paint her as submissive, gold-digging bimbo (which is often how Slavic women in general are portrayed in media). Ukraine is dismayed by how people see her, and it makes her deeply uncomfortable. She usually focuses on what she can control and chooses to help others. She also attends women's marches a lot, and acts as a role model for Ukrainian women.

[sixx-sixx-sixx]

THE TRADER’S DAUGHTER - cooper “the ghoul” howard x female!oc — PART 2

EDIT: FOLLOW @bonafideyapper FOR FUTURE PARTS!

warnings(?): allusions to bisexual!cooper towards the end; bad grammar/bad writing/bad formatting; (I was intoxicated while I wrote a lot of this); bad depiction of a southern accent (I’m literally from the south); incorrect fallout lore; overall warning for general fallout violence; Daisy is 4/5 here; dbf!cooper

part 1

During Josiah’s time roaming the aftermath of the fallout for the benefit of the vault, he became an important part of forming strong relationships between the vault and outsiders. Under his guidance, the vault had a successful trade relationship that spanned over much of the old territory.

Daisy has very distant memories of the vault, mostly just an old television set that played movies that she could vaguely make out. To her, life didn’t really begin until she woke up on an old couch being watched over by an old woman that owned a shop in the small town. Shortly after their arrival, her father established himself as a trader of chems and other invaluable items, creating a permanent place in the town after a few months.

cooper was a frequent customer at Josiah’s. He’d gotten him a place to take refuge in after escaping the vault with his daughter, after reaching out to an old female friend of his. she owed him a favor for him saving her ass from some raiders, and then for cheatin’ on him with the same fuckin’ raider.

Coop would develop a soft spot for the trader’s daughter. He’d known from the moment he met her that she’d be a firecracker someday. the first time they had met, the little girl was no taller than a bean sprout, and she was hidden behind her father’s legs. she had been playing with a handmade doll behind the counter when cooper walked through the door, greeting his old acquaintance with a big smile.

“Josiah, you son of a bitch. How’re you settlin’ in?” the ghoul drawled easily, reaching out to shake the man’s hand in a faux-professional manner before pulling him forward to greet him.

The brown eyed girl looked up in curiousity at the sound of the bell on the door, immediately getting up to hide behind Josiah’s legs. she had never seen anything like him before, the skin of his face stretched tight and scarred in various spots from decades of radiation exposure (and probably some chem abuse, but whatever, it kept him from going feral). The vest he wore under a long overcoat was buttoned neatly despite his otherwise disheveled appearance, and there was a once-fancy faded blue shirt peeking out from the under the vest. Something in her little brain recognized the pattern of faded gold, she thought she had seen it in one of the many tv-screened dreams she would have each night.

The ghoul set his bag of various meats (totally not just a whole bunch of ass jerky, he saved that for himself whenever he got the chance) and other supplies down on the low countertop between them and tipped his hat to the little girl, offering her a yellowed smile, “howdy, li’l lady. you must be that flower your daddy’s always talkin’ about.”

Josiah looked down at his kid and forced the young girl into full view of the ghoul. He wasn’t raising no pussy, he had to expose Daisy to everything the wasteland had to offer. And, despite his appearance, Cooper had a larger than life aura to him even after all of the damage he had sustained through the years. The father was sure his kid would adapt to the ghoul.

“Introduce yourself, Daze. Coop don’t bite.” He formed a joke and looked over at the ghoul, “Unless you misbehave, then he might eat you right up.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Cooper. My name is Daisy.” She said in a polite little voice, still working on looking up at the cowboy. She wasn’t afraid of him, she just had some nerves was all. Getting used to the new scenery around her was gonna take some time at her young age, but she’d be a natural in no time. Whole town would gonna be in love with her by the time she turns 6.

“pleasure to meet you, little Daisy. you can just call me coop, no need to be ‘fraid of me. i’m the best bounty hunter this side o’ the wasteland, one of the good guys.” coop says the final line with a easy lie, his eyes flashing up to Josiah who had seen the internal conflict he faced in the time he had known the ghoul. He sure as hell wasn’t one of the good guys, but he could be for the few people he cared about in his big age.

“Now, why don’t you go run along an’ let the grown folks talk alone?” Cooper reached down and patted the top of Daisy’s head, watching her run along to the back office.

Josiah pulled a case out from under a shelf and counted out the vials of chems that he owed the ghoul in exchange for the supplies he brought, giving him a couple extra for a cheaper price because he liked the guy.

“You did a good job there, Joe. She’s gonna be a little killer some day, I can tell she’s got your survival instinct already. Between the two of us, she’s bound to learn at least two useful fuckin’ skills.” Cooper leaned over the counter a bit and took the box from his old (lover) friend. Josiah nodded in agreement and looked back towards the door for a moment, “Thank you, Cooper. I’m serious, I owe you more than just a couple extra vials.”

Cooper shook his head and lightened the mood, “Us cowpokes gotta stick together up here, you’ll learn that soon enough, Vaultie. Don’t you worry about her, you know I keep my word.” As soon as Josiah had successfully gotten his sleeping daughter out of the vault, he had made his oldest wasteland acquaintance promise, swear even, to protect the young girl in case anything were to end up happening to the old vault dweller. Cooper had always been a man of his word, no matter how badly the effects of radiation and the fucked up immortality would change him.

a/n: okay!! welcome to the end of chapter 2, definitely leaning towards cooper being (canonically?) bisexual & again definitely some kind of gay tendencies between the old buddies. But anyways, maybe I’ll flesh THAT out if anyone’s interested.

a/n 2: also considering accepting requests for cooper stuff outside of Daisy’s story, gonna try my hand at 2nd person POV writing. if you have something you wanna see me try to flesh out then feel free to message me/send me an ask ❤️

taglist: @savanahc @one-of-thewalkingdead @silverose365 @neverendingdumptser

[lakesbian]

i was pondering some Thoughts about how people sometimes refer to worm as a "found family" story (& how this is sometimes mocked), how in-text alec explicitly says that the undersiders are the closest thing rachel has to family, how taylor tells them "you're my family, in a way," how the found family trope works in general, etc.

access to financial support, housing, medical care, And So On, is primarily attached to the institution of the family. the material necessities provided by membership to a nuclear family are why it's so common for people to reconcile with or keep in touch with family members they wouldn't if there was no material value attached to that relationship. the cultural prioritization of the nuclear family is how we get people offering "well, they're family" as an explanation for remaining associated with someone they wouldn't otherwise care about (or would even actively be trying to escape from, but this post is more about just Social Incompatibility in families than the outright abuse that the structure enables), with the expectation that the explanation is considered to make inherent sense.

aside from the found family trope demonstrating a lack of imagination about non-familial ways important relationships can take shape/demonstrating an inability to see relationships as truly important or deep unless they mimic the nuclear family, i think a lot of what appeals about the found family trope is a character dynamic that provides the same support, security, and undying love/depth of connection that the idealized nuclear family is purported to--and that does so as an escape from and superior replacement to the original blood family.

and what's interesting about the undersiders is that they're extremely not that. they're terrible at communicating. many of them don't get on with each other very well. they're oftentimes even actively shitty to each other: everyone but taylor towards rachel, brian towards alec (and aisha, but she's actually related to him), taylor towards alec and aisha. but there's still repeated in-text acknowledgement of a supposed familial dynamic between them! i think they're a "found family" in the sense that their group imitates the general role of the nuclear family--a small unit of people who (are supposed to) function as each other's fundamental supports in a world that, at large, does not care about any individual member, and who (are supposed to) do so regardless of any internal conflicts or lack of compatibility.

like, this is not a particularly articulate analysis of the nuclear family Whatsoever, but i don't think it's inaccurate to say that the compelling thing about the undersiders is that they are a "found family," but specifically in the sense that a lot of their dysfunctions are reminiscent of those found in typical, real-life familial bonds--people who wouldn't necessarily be getting along otherwise, or are even actively sorta bad for each other, forming very deep & intimate connections simply because they're materially forced to spend a lot of time together and have each others backs when there's no guarantee anyone else will.

for example: alec and aisha call taylor + brian 'team mom and dad' in a mocking manner not to indicate that they're kind/caring, but to indicate that they're being condescending micro-managing assholes...who aisha and alec are going to unquestionably listen to anyway, because they're a team, right? and you have to listen to your team leaders. i am onto an Observation here i think. deeply compelled by the idea of a ""found family"" where all of the similarities to an actual nuclear family are, despite being what drives the intimacy, also blatantly fucking dysfunctional

[burnt-kloverfield]

Just saw Heretic, the one with Hugh Grant and Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, about the Mormon Missionaries.

It's definitely a scary movie. It tried to be mind bending and twisty, and it was, but not in the way it was trying to be. I'm just jazzed that there's a horror movie with Mormons.

It's definitely not a Mormon Horror Movie, just only slightly closer to a Horror Movie about Mormons. I did really enjoy this movie, but it was clear that it wasn't made by Mormons. Like there's a certain flavor of behavior that mormons have that the missionaries just didn't have.

Like I'm Mormon. I was a sister missionary. I was a dang good sister missionary. These missionary characters only vaguely resembled the sister missionaries I served with. Like, they've got the cardigan down. But otherwise?

I literally leaned over to my brother in the theater and went "these are really bad missionaries." Like they didn't actually even open the Book of Mormon. They didn't read a scripture. They didn't even start with a prayer. These gals had horrible conversation skills and absolutely did not teach anything. They came in totally unprepared.

Hugh Grant is perfect and phenomenal in this, and I have met so many people saying the exact same things he has. Countless people with his talking points. (At least until we get to the legit scary parts of him. That was actually scary.)(no spoilers because holy crap)

The last part of the movie felt rushed, and like something was missing, like they cut out scenes or something, but the ending was nice and a relief. Good ending.

It was a good movie. The thing was that the details that it missed were in the cultural aspect of how Mormon missionaries(and mormons in general) actually act. Like you wouldn't know unless it was your culture or religion, you know? Like, they didn't even have a Book of Mormon in hand to give him. Sister Paxton just had her one she had all marked up and sticky noted in her bag(she didn't even have her quad with her?). And the one elder that came looking for them? Where was his companion? There are few things that a missionary gets sent home for and leaving your companion is a big one.

I do appreciate the direction they took with Sister Barnes, of her being smart and logical and sincere and tragic backstory. Very perfect set up and good foil for Sister Paxton who was born and raised mormon in Ogden Utah with 8 siblings. And honestly, I am glad that she got to be smart, too.

But it was very clear that the actress didn't know how mormon behaved or acted. She didn't pray like a mormon. Any born and raised utah mormon is going to fold her arms over her chest and bow her head and start her prayer with Dear Heavenly Father. But Chloe East instead clasped her hands. I rarely ever see Mormons clasp their hands if they're not on their knees at the side of their bed.

Like, it's not like it's a sin to pray that way, it's just that there's a way people who were born and raised a utah Mormon move and act and speak. And this wasn't it. And I could tell and it was distracting.

Like Hugh Grant spoke more like a Mormon than the sister missionaries did. He got the wording and the phrasing and cadence right for certain things. Especially the little Morony vs Moroni mispronunciation thing.

It's just interesting how clear it is to tell when someone isn't actually a part of the culture just from mannerisms.

Sorry for the long post but dang, this movie was good, and could have been so much better, but how do you convey that there's a certain way that utah mormons hold themselves.

[gddancefloor]

kasane teto headcanons since i have a very specific portrayal of her

for context, chimera (in the way im going for here) are a type of japanese demons that take a form similar to humans (with the exception of wings and a tail) and are known for their mischeviousness. teto is part chimera from her father's side.

teto x miku is used in here, and ted and teto are siblings, ted being the older one by 6 years.

Text HCs below the cut [warning, long!]:

UTAU Teto (15):

Sapphic. Likes girls. A lot.

She was a kid with an attitude and never smiled in photos if she was asked to, only if she wanted to. She also usually can’t look straight into a camera and looks away.

Teto developed a crush on Miku when she quietly sang for her for the first time, and was completely mesmerized by her voice. Miku was her inspiration to pursue singing.

Speaks English very, very badly and has an extremely strong Japanese accent. She usually has Miku translate things for her, but not even Miku is that great either.

Has a bit of a “chubby”/round face. Didn’t grow out of her baby-face.

Her hair naturally curled into a drill-like shape once she put her hair into ponytails, and now she chooses to exaggerate their shape by using a curling iron.

Despite not liking stereotypical pop music, she secretly likes girls who listen to it as she is into girly girls. (ahem, miku)

She doesn’t like to have her hair down, she’s embarrassed by how she looks with it and was forced by her parents to wear it down as a kid. 

Cusses a lot when comfortable to. She is often horrible with manners and being “proper”, unless in a traditional Japanese setting. Otherwise, she gives zero fucks.

She has one of the most impressive singing voices and very beautiful control over her pitch, but doesn't like to sing in front of people due to stage fright.

Avoids eye contact. A LOT.

Her birth certificate lists “Chimera” as a sex by mistake from the issuer, and she is actually female. She sometimes identifies with it to mess with people and make them confused/frustrated.

As full chimeras age slower, Teto is often called a “31 year-old” despite being alive only 15 years. This is not true, as she ages normally due to being half human, and mistaking her to be older makes her angry. Unfortunately, she’s often called 31, or a “held back student” by her classmates.

She camouflages her tail as a belt, but it is very much so a real tail. She hates it being touched. In general, Teto hides any of her chimera features as much as possible in fear of being seen as a monster. If comfortable, or angry enough, they tend to come out on accident.

Miku is the only outsider that has ever seen Teto's chimera form because she trusts her. (Miku thought her wings were the coolest thing ever!)

She believes she's extremely unlucky, considering she was born on April Fool's Day, and has had nothing really go right in her life, especially in regards to bullying as a kid.

Definitely has sharp teeth. Gotta tear into that bread somehow!

Used to pull on Ted's hair and scream at him when she was a kid. To this day, she doesn't know why. He has nicknamed her "demon" for a while because of this.

Ted is quite overprotective of Teto and encouraged her to try her best to sing, even if Teto's singing was... quite bad as a kid.

She and Miku split up when they were kids due to a major argument and didn't speak again until Teto saw Miku on social media performing on stage. This is what drove Teto to become an "Online Idol" on niconico to regain the attention of her and hopefully get back in contact with her. It was just Teto made it very obvious she was being a Miku ripoff (hence the outfit).

Family doesn't like singers. They encourage every member of the Kasane family to pursue an instrumentalist career, but they never made it big, and so they had to resort to the "shameful" career of making ramen. Teto is the only successful musician AND singer in the family.

Synthesizer V Teto (late 20s):

MUCH more mature. Rarely curses, and tries to stay mannerable and quiet. She also has better control of her chimera form.

Doesn't mean she won't be bratty or snooty at times. That's just Teto naturally.

Hair reddened with age as any older Teto iterations prior to SV had her with pink hair. It's a chimera trait to have red hair and red eyes.

Is the one that handles all of Miku's (30-ish, NT) events and concerts, and likes to make sure that she's not overworking herself.

Now underneath a professional talent agency, Teto left behind her "copping Miku's style" thing behind and now dresses in something more like her style. She likes the military-chic look a lot.

Her and Miku don't get much time to hang out anymore, but they still keep in contact despite their hectic music careers.

Her and Miku are a married couple. You know how celebrity marriages are, except this one has no drama and they aren't public about it.

Teto's English is much better now and she can hold a conversation. Her accent is still quite thick though.

Just an older, more mature version of UTAU Teto. (I'll make a seperate post for her because this is getting LONG.)

I'll probably edit this a lot — it was copy-pasted from a google doc. Bear with any mistakes!!

[lets-try-some-writing]

How good would the bots handwriting be?

In English? In Cybertronian? Why not both?

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙

On Cybertron, writing anything by hand was not exactly common. Technology trimmed the process down a great deal and writing by hand was seen as something reserved for the higher castes. A written series of glyphs was a material promise, something important and made only to be used in serious events. Otherwise most everything was done digitally to save time and improve efficiency. Autocorrect most certainly helped many a struggling writer back on Cybertron.

With this in mind, as resources cut short and Earth lacked the needed materials to make a surplus of datapads, handwriting skills became very clear. More so than ever once the children decided to try and teach the bots to write for possible cover reasons. One could never be sure when one would need a bot to sign them out of school early.

Arcee has the worst handwriting by far, a surprising twist considering her dainty digits and relatively small size. One would think writing would come easy to her, but she hates doing anything like that by hand. She can type quickly, but writing out anything on a datapad, much less paper of all things? No she would much prefer being on Shockwave's operating table over having to possibly write her report manually. The glyphs of the various dialects on Cybertron are too much for her and the hatred of writing transferred over to English even though it is FAR easier to write in. The team won't say it to her face, but her writing looks like chicken scratch in both languages. The children don't know she is garbage at writing in Cybertronian too, and the team are content to leave them with the thought that she is just bad at learning English.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack share one braincell on a good day, and their writing shows this. They write exclusively in the wartime Wrecker dialect that formed over the millions of years of conflict. No one but Autobots can even begin to read their writing as its all a strange deviation from Autobot encryption. Sure they can write in mainstream Cybertronian dialects, but it looks awful and honestly the team prefer having to put on reading glasses and stare at their encrypted writing over having to get out a dictionary to even begin to parse out their other writings. In light of this, they do not write in English when asked to use an Earth language. Instead, they like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other such languages due to the ease of which they find encrypting the writing to be. They are hated by Bot and human alike for their habit of making things more complicated than it needs to be.

Ultra Magnus writes in the most computer generated manner known to any of the bots. How he does it is a mystery. Yet somehow he got so used to manually writing out his signature that now his every written glyph comes out as if it were typed. He doesn't seem to notice or care for the team's gawking, and he absolutely refuses to write in English simply because he had no interest in relearning writing. The team don't know, but the real reason he doesn't want to write in any other dialect is because he purposefully trained his motor functions to only write in his very specific manner. To try and learn a brand new written language would mess that up and ruin his clean and crisp glyphs.

Ratchet is an odd ball in his writing. When in a hurry, his writing in both Cybertronian and English looks like the Doctor's scrawl that those outside of the medical field have no hope of figuring out. However when he's not in a rush, he has a very distinct method of writing his glyphs and letters. In Cybertronian dialects of any kind, he adds extra emphasis in places where there has been no need for further glyph usage since the age of Wrath. In English, he adds interesting swirls and excess E's absolutely everywhere as if it is an additional glyph meant to add meaning to the word. Rafael tried to correct him once. That didn't end well.

Smokescreen has never written anything in his life. He can type like lightening, but he was never schooled in traditional manual writing simply due to how time consuming it was and how unneeded the ability happened to be at his post. He can't do any writing to save his life, but he has managed to convincingly fake the ability to write when in a tight spot. He can scribble and make it look like REALLY bad Tarnian dialect. And since that particular script hasn't been used since the city was destroyed, most don't judge him for it. But Optimus knows, and when he has time, he does what he can to school the rookie. Rafael has also taken it upon himself to try and teach Smokescreen some English with limited success.

Bumblebee grew up under Optimus, and Optimus in turn grew up under Alpha Trion. The two have startlingly similar handwriting more often than not. They both know many languages and dialects and are fluent in them, they both share glyph usage preferences, and both are known for their regular language swaps in writing. The only way to really tell them apart is to look REALLY closely at either the curvature of a specific glyph in Ancient Cybertronian or to stare really hard at the way their write their O's and B's. Both write like they walked straight out of ancient eras of old on a good day and write like living dictionaries for pretty much any other dialect. The team and the children gave up trying to figure out who wrote what a long time ago. If they can't pick it up from the context of the writing, they can just assume its important regardless.

[a-killer-obsession]

Fuck it,

👒Strawhat sex headcanons

cos I'm absolutely on deaths door sick rn and I just wanna drabble my thoughts

🔞 Minors DNI 🔞

Luffy

Ace and entirely ignorant of anything. Come on now, you saw him on Amazon Lily. Next!

Zoro

Fucks, but half the time leaves lovers unsatisfied. Falls asleep immediately so he doesn't even see their grumpy pout. Bisexual but leans towards men

Loves to deep throat, giving and receiving

Always rough

Pretty even spilt between top and power bottom

Loves impact play, giving and receiving

Loves public sex, will absolutely keep going if he gets caught. Same goes for masturbation, even if Sanji starts kicking the shit out of him while he's still going

Nami

Gay gay lesbian gay. Loves those ladies! Big fan of tits especially

Fingerbangs like her life depends on you cumming. Call her the Squirtbringer TM

Loves to use toys on her lovers, especially vibrators and butt plugs. Loves to see her girl with a pretty sparkly diamond plug

Kinda vanilla otherwise though

Top for sure

Ties some absolutely stunning shibari

Usopp

Straight but what a ally fr. Respectful AF

Gets flustered so fucking quick if you flirt with him though so you'd have to be so fucking foward to get him in bed. You'd have to be practically riding him before he stops being a blushing mess

Actually pretty good in bed though, decent size and stamina. Never misses hittin that spot yah know? 😎

More vanilla than angel cake though, and will absolutely chicken out if you ask him to spank you

Talks big talk though. Good with his mouth at both ends

Switch but don't expect him to be a dominant top

Doesn't know the meaning of a quick fuck, this man ✨️ makes love ✨️

Sanji

Straight, for sure, don't mention that time with the waiter boy, or that time with that very muscular male customer, or that time when he-

Anyway *cough* loves having anything in his mouth. Practically begs to have his face sat on, can absolutely cum untouched from that alone. Sometimes gets so into it that he forgets he's supposed to put it in at some point and just ends up eating you out for literal hours till you have to literally rip him off

Don't mind the blood nose :P

Cums so quick once he's in that its frankly embarrassing, but he'll keep going after, for you~

Walk him like a dog 🐕 this boy is a BOTTOM

Absolutely has a praise kink

Needs it to be romantic every time or he WILL pout. He'll give you a quickie if that's really what you want but he prefers to take his time, set the mood, make you a nice cocktail and light some candles

The first time you play with his ass he'll act like he hates it, but then he'll end up shyly asking you to do it again

Wants zoro to destroy his ass

Chopper

MINOR, NEXT!

When he grows up tho... he is a deer... he likes deer... maybe a mink would be ideal actually

Robin

Oh she for SURE fucks

Pansexual but prefers older lovers

Loves to be a soft dom, big time into forcing orgasms out of her partner and teasing them

Open relationship with Franky, loves to play good cop bad cop with him and a sub (with her as good cop)

Abuses her devil fruit for sure, turns her partners into overstimulated, fucked out messes

Loves to ride faces but is also very skilled at giving blowjobs

Has no issue eating ass

No kinks are taboo to her even if she's not into it, she'll give everything a go though, for research

Really skilled with shibari, shares notes with Nami all the time

Reads a lot of bodice rippers and quite literally takes notes, like she fully has a notebook of things she wants to try and is working her way through it

Doesn't really care about getting off, she mostly just likes to watch other's get off. Sex is one big research project to her and shes more than happy to study

Franky

About as fucked up in bed as Wire, biggest deviant of the crew for sure. Wano afterparty you bet they had a long indepth conversation to compare notes, and Wire was happy to show Heat off for him and Robin

Bi with a preference for women

Has all manner of toys and furniture, probably made most of them himself

Usually a hard dom, but unlike Wire he has no problem being a bottom as well

He is a ride you will not survive, your wheels will come right off

Loves risky public sex (fic coming soon 😎)

You better believe when he rebuilt his body he gave himself the biggest dick you'll ever see, its ribebd for your pleasure and it ABSOLUTELY vibrates

Don't expect to be able to walk afterwards, but he's an aftercare king 👑

Brook

May not have the facilities to get off, but still enjoys watching

Often watches Robin and Franky, especially if they're playing with a sub. Sometimes he'll join in with a toy because he's hesitant to push raw bone against a lover (ha, bone) but usually he just watches

Plenty of imagination though, sometimes he'll tell Franky and Robin what to do, more in a suggestive way than a dominant way

I imagine he would feel sexual enjoyment the same way one might enjoy a good cup of tea. He may not be able to get physical relief but he still enjoys the mental tingle

Before he died he was a massive slut though, rockstar vibes, every carnal disease you can think off. Was big into having his face ridden and sex under the influence

Too old to understand labels but if you really took the time to explain he'd probably say he was pansexual

Jinbei

This one goes out to my homie 💖

Straight but has no problem with it if swords happen to cross. Which is just as well, since there's canonically two of them 🍆🍆 He'd also never suggest a threesome, but he'd say yes if you suggested it

Also enjoys watching along side Brook. They call it "Oldies Night" when the four of them get together to watch Franky and Robin destroy some sub

Super respectful! Will constantly make sure you're comfortable and allow you to guide him to do whatever feels best

Not big into kinks but happy to explore them if it makes you happy. Won't do anything that'd inflict pain though, even if you beg for it, he's too big of a softie

Has that deep generational sense of taboo and shame instilled in him that makes it hard to get him to open up about what he wants. You'd have to have been together for a really long time to get him to be honest. Even so, makes you feel completely comfortable sharing your own kinks and never ever makes you feel ashamed even if he's really not into it

Eventually you'll get him to reveal that he enjoys being edged and cockwarming

Not a big fan of young girls fawning over him cos of his ex-Warlord status. Much prefers women his own age. No real preference for basic humans vs fishmen vs even minks, they're all human in his books

God he's so strong though, given how much bigger he is than most woman he will straight up use you like a cocksleeve if you ask him to, I absolutely would, dear god

Never leaves a partner unsatisfied, but I think he'd avoid giving oral cos he'd be so anxious about his teeth and he never wants to hurt a lover

[bethelighthalazia]

Obliviously obvious

Summary:  Your friends tease you and Changbin until one of them takes it a little too far.

Genre: fluff

Pairing: Changbin x fem!reader

Word Count:  1194

Warnings: none

networks: @mirohs-aurora-society

[note: this has been requested by @dinossaurz. I hope you like it <3 not beta’d]

© by bethelighthalazia. Do not repost, copy or translate. Unless stated otherwise, those works are mine and born from my own ideas. I don't have any claim on the mentioned real existing Idols whatsoever.

“Why don't you tell him, y/nnie?” Jeongin asked you for the probably hundredth time. Your friend knew about your feelings for Changbin and when he found you watching his hyung once again, the younger one tried to talk you into confessing to the rapper. “Because he would never feel the same, Innie. I'm not his type, believe me.” Was your answer, completely unaware of the feelings Changbin had developed for you ever since you became their choreographer. Some of the other boys noticed and it seemed like they made it into their personal mission to make you confess.

A few days later, you were sitting in the practice room with all the boys. You´re watching the dance practice to see where the guys can improve and what they did very well. While doing so, Minho was peeling some oranges for you and his members, handing you some of the pieces, but Changbin took them before you could, causing your best friend to shoot a glare at the younger male. “No no, hyung, y/nnie doesn't like the white stuff around it.” He mumbled and proceeded to peel the pith off of the orange slices before then handing them over to you. For you, this altercation was something normal, after all, the two of you are best friends, the others though, they just stare at you for a few moments. 

“She doesn't like the white stuff, eh?” Hyunjin asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows, but then chuckled. “It's the pith of the orange. It has a name and it's not ‘white stuff’, Binnie.” Changbin was about to give a snarky remark, but a look from Chan lets everyone go quiet again to focus on the video. When you finished your orange, you got up again and smiled, looking at the boys. “Should we try again? Jisung, you have to be a little faster, or else you could hit Minho. And you, Hyunjin, please calm those hips, yes? Yongbok is not a strip pole,” you chuckled, getting in position while the others gather around. “Oh, Binnie, your shoelaces are loose.” Again, some of the others shot you and Changbin a glance, who thanked you with a smile and crouched down to tie it properly again. 

A few hours later after practice, you all were gathered in the dorms, the boys usually invited you even though you were ‘only’ one of the background dancers and their choreographer, but you had such a close bond to them all by now. One of them actually fell in love with you over time; Changbin. And if he knew that your heart beats faster for him too, it would be a lot easier. 

You found yourself sitting next to him again, casually chatting while you all waited for the food, you were having a bbq together, and the others were watching you two with an amazed expression. It was very obvious for everyone that the two of you were head over heels for the other, just neither of you seemed to realize that. While you and Changbin were talking about music, he was casually cutting some meat for you and putting it on your plate, he even offered you some with his chopsticks that you ate without thinking about it. “Will you wipe her mouth too, hyung?” Han asked in a joking manner, a grin plastered all over his face, he just couldn't resist teasing.

“Yah, I could ask Minho hyung the same, Jisung!” Changbin hissed, his face covered in a light blush. It wasn't that he wouldn't want to do it, but it probably would be a bad idea, after all he doesn't know if you would be comfortable with it. “Huh, me?” The older one asked with a raised eyebrow, head tilted while looking at both of you, your face flustered as well. “I'm not the one shooting heart eyes to our choreographer.” Minho's words caused you to look up, blinking slowly. You hadn't really listened to them, but a chuckle from some of the others had pulled you out of your thoughts.

“I- I don't!” Changbin tried to defend himself, but the stutter and the blushing did not help at all. A laugh coming from the other end of the table let everyone perk up, looking at Seungmin who was the source of it. “We all have eyes, hyung! You're so obvious, it's a miracle that y/nnie hasn't noticed already. Even Hyunjin knows that you fell for her! Well, she hasn't noticed tho, otherwise she'd have confessed to you already…”

These words caused two pairs of chopsticks to drop onto the table with a clattering noise that cut the deep silence of the others. Your eyes wide, you tried to process what happened just now, your heart thumping hard in your chest. Did Seungmin say Changbin likes you? This probably was just a joke, right? Even Jisung sat there, silently staring at the two of you, jaw dropped. Only then, Seungmin realized that he possibly either has caused a big fight, or he has helped you, not entirely sure yet what it would be. 

Changbin on the other hand just sat there, swallowing hard as he looked down at his hands. Should he just seize the moment? What if you don't like him like this? He could lose his best friend, just because his heart had to find its way to you. 

“Binnie?” You asked quietly, blinking as you tried to process the situation right now. “Is- is that true?” The others just look at you two, Chan already mentally preparing himself to intervene if necessary while Minho shoots Seungmin a glare, the younger one praying that he didn't just destroy a friendship here.

After a few more minutes of silence, in which everyone is just staring at Changbin and you, the rapper then exhales slowly, fumbling with his pocket for a bit before pulling out an envelope. “Uhm…yeah. I- I actually wanted to- to ask you out, but-” He starts, his hand shaky as he puts the envelope on the table, his face deeply flustered. “Uhm…there's a carnival in town and I know you like those, so…I wanted to ask you to go there with me and then…you know…tell you-” Seeing him this flustered brought a deep blush onto your face as well, your heart beating so loud in your chest, you'd swear that the others could hear it too.

In the silence that followed, you tried to sort your thoughts. Changbin, your best friend and the man you fell in love with, also has feelings for you? Very slowly, as this revelation settled in, a smile appeared on your lips as you took his hand to give a gentle squeeze to it. “I- I would love to go with you.” you whispered, causing him to let out a relieved breath, his usual happy smile growing on his face again. 

With this, the others slowly turn their attention back to the food, Chan giving you a reassuring and proud smile before he also continues eating. Changbin and you stay leaned against each other, enjoying the slow beginning of a journey you'll take on together. 

taglist:

@mingis-mizu, @tinyelfperson, @hotteokkay, @minkilicious, @bunnliix,

@gong-fourz, @yeosangiess, @jayshoneybee, @dinossaurz, @scuzmunkie,

@h3arteyes4mingi

(if you want to be added to a taglist, follow the taglist-link in my pinned post)

[very-straight-blog]

Aegon and Aemond. Brothers. Rivals. They can't stand each other. They're jealous of each other. The shadow of the Iron Throne looms ominously over Aegon. It suffocates him, haunts him in nightmares since his childhood. From the moment he heard his mother's prediction: "Rhaenyra will kill us all if you don't become king." These words rang like a bell in his head for several more days, and then they died down, but didn't go away. He tries to drown the fear of the future in wine – somehow, this makes it even worse, alcohol leaves an aching emptiness inside, and also a terrible hangover. He stopped trying to live up to his mother's expectations a long time ago. And his father's? Well, he would never be better than Baelon anyway. It's hard to compete with someone who never existed. A dead boy can be absolutely, oh so perfect. The only son Viserys wanted. His promised prince. Aegon is jealous of Aemond. He's everything Aegon couldn't be. At some point, his quiet younger brother became taller than him, stronger than him and – damn, probably even smarter than him, otherwise why would he spend so much time in the library? It's not in Aegon's nature to compete, so he just gets angry and plans to become even worse, just to spite everyone. Self-destruction is now his habit. Aemond condemns his brother – condemns his bad manners, his depravity, his weakness. He had burned out all the weakness in himself a long time ago. He had to and realized it quite early – in Driftmark.

They often think about that night – never talking about it out loud. What can they even say? Aegon winces and looks away, seeing the ugly scar on his brother's face when he removes the eyepatch. He remembers his hungover, confusion and nausea from the sight of the eye on the table. Aemond's eye. Then a slap and a feeling of helplessness. That whole night feels like a delusional crazy dream. He never admits it – not even to himself, but guilt has been haunting him ever since – he's been trying to numb it with alcohol and sex, along with the rest of his feelings – hatred, loneliness, pain – Gods, Aegon feels too much. Sometimes it seems to him that he feels everything at the same time. Aemond doesn't feel anything. He forces himself to clamp emotions inside like a spring – one day they will erupt, he feels it. In his memories of Driftmark, there're only bitterness and anger, and also the realization that now only he can protect this family, and it means he needs to be strong. Aemond isn't quite sure what this means, so he looks at his mother – she sacrifices herself for the sake of duty, she does what's required of her and never complains. Aemond decides that he'll be the same. He grows up several years overnight and tries very hard not to cry.

When Aemond's anger finally bursts at dinner, Aegon raises his cup without even thinking. "We are family. You may cuff him about as you wish at home, but in the world, we must defend our own." He's already let him down, it won't happen again – this thought flashes through his mind when he hits Luke's head on the table. He had wanted to do this for a long time – these little bastards look too happy, too loved, even despite their questionable origin and the fact that one of them maimed his brother. That evening, for the first time, they feel a strange new feeling – something like unity.