#poc have been put through the fucking worst at the hands of white people. and its not rlly....

[3416]

Hi! this is by no means a mean spirited question, i just wanna understand your pov, is your problem with them making kato racist and then redeeming her at the end that she is the main? bc in s3 moyo was homophobic and they redeem him at the end, was that fine bc he was a side character? i rly wanna understand, pls don't take this the wrong way. is it bc it's really weird to wanna make us emphasize with a racist main? that maybe this story would be okay with moyo as main? is that what you mean?

hi anon!!! thanks for the clarity of tone, i appreciate that you’re willing to hear out why people are upset about it all. here’s my take on the whole thing, but there are definitely dissertations to be written about it, and other’s opinions flood the tag rn, rightfully so, so you can go check those out too!

i’d say there are definitely MANY reasons people are upset, so i’ll go point by point that you mention. i definitely think the idea that wtfock stepped back, looked at an opportunity for an all new season, and then said you know what we’re gonna do? make this about the redemption of a white racist and EXTREMELY privileged character, AFTER baiting with moyo and yasmina. the idea of people being redeemed and learning is necessary bc they do, but this isn’t a revolutionary idea, as it’s been conveyed across media for ages. the messaging itself doesn’t even feel..... aimed at the target audience, and if it is, it’s kind of ridiculous to show kato as this girl who doesn’t know better bc.... she’s literally growing up in the 21st century. that’s not to say young people can’t be racist, but young people are exposed far more to global social conditions, ESPECIALLY those who use social media, so the whole thing is not only a little far fetched, but also just kind of a tired and uninventive idea. there are so many tropes wtfock could and are choosing to follow even in just their current storyline that feel.... outdated and ridiculous and like the worst way to tell this type of story to young people. the people in this world who actually need representation to be understood and redemption in the eyes of the society and the audience aren’t skinny white chicks with everything going for them, lol.

moyo was majorly homophobic and misogynistic, and a lot of people have pointed out misgivings about that over the past 2 seasons with the writers of the show themselves. wtfock have a very limited number of poc acting in their show, and so for them to make the active decision to have the one nonwhite character in their boysquad be the overtly homophobic one was racist too, however intentional. it’s why people are so willing to forgive moyo and recognize that... the character himself is being done dirty in those characterizations, but not only that, moyo was not the love interest or even a main character in robbe’s season. we saw that growth in the background, and because robbe was willing to forgive him and understand where he was coming from, the audience themselves were able to do the same. there’s plenty more to be said for this, but it’s worth it’s own post, and i have a couple asks i’ll answer about my opinions later on moyo as a character.

since we don’t know the EXACT trajectory of the season and it’s all just speculation rn.. it’s hard to tell whether or not moyo being the main would fix the whole issue of the plot and writing that’s going on rn, lol. but i can say for sure though that it would mean a hell of a lot more for representation and storytelling if he were. to have a black boy be the main character of a tv show in belgium??? and get to tell his story?? there would be more intrigue and more learning going on on the whole... and if wtfock handled it properly, we could finally get some nuance and a whole actual black person’s pov in this time of worldly political upheaval but also just... daily life and the way he has to wake up every day and deal with the concept that there are people he’ll interact with who genuinely look down on him for his skin color or being biracial in general, maybe the issues that would raise internally about his own identity. we could see HOW moyo’s home life actually is, rather than just how it looks from a rich girl’s perspective, and we could see him work through his own issues of toxic masculinity and misogyny, where some of that came from and how he can tackle it. now imagine all of that, and then take a look at what we ARE being given instead.

the storyline itself is something that has it’s own load of problems, and a lot of them stem from the fact that kato is the main. if kato were the love interest, and we were seeing moyo have to work through this from his own pov... i think the story would end up vastly different than i expect it’s going to. i hope this helped you understand in any capacity, but whether wtfock try to make kato a redeemable character or not, they’ve wasted a very wide open opportunity to actually......... do something meaningful with a story. white people don’t need to be told we deserve redemption, we already are in like 99% of the media out there. it could have been so much more impactful on a young audience to see the reverse. to convey that maybe... sometimes people don’t deserve that forgiveness, and you SHOULD know better, especially in a world with an abundance of information and resources right at your fingertips.

[thebluespirit83]

debunking pro-snape/anti-james arguments and putting it on the internet because clearly i hate myself. buckle up. this is gonna be a VERY long post. im ready for the amount of hate i will get; im willing to take one for the team. 

1. james forced lily into dating/marrying/etc him 

this literally never happened? because its almost as if lily is her own person who is able to stand up for herself-

“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,” said Lily.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily.

She turned on her heel and hurried away [from james]. 

-and so she would not allow someone to walk all over her. its almost as if james (canonically) matured as a person, and she appreciated this, realised he was a good person and got feelings for him? because james’ only negative traits were that he was conceited and a show off. people are able to mature and grow from these things! james did this! he did not ‘force’ lily to go out with him!

2. james and the other marauders bullied snape

you know what, i cant even disagree with this one. you’re right - they did bully him. but lets look a little bit at the context. 

sirius and james were both upper class, naive white rich boys. they are idiots. they were both stupid smart teenagers!! they were popular! and while this does not excuse the gross bullying snape was subject to-

Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him

Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular ... Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes.

-it (unfortunately) makes sense with context. james and sirius also stopped bullying people, and even expressed discomfort/regret with the way they acted-

“I’m not proud of it,” said Sirius quickly.

“Of course he was a bit of an idiot!” said Sirius bracingly, “we were all idiots!

[sirius talking to remus] you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes

A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it.

-when they were younger! i’d also like to point out these little lines i noticed when i was finding quotes for my argument which snape stans like to ignore:

James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other

I mean, he [snape] never lost an opportunity to curse James

there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, spattering his robes with blood

wow, look at that. the hate they felt for each other was mutual! snape also jinxed james! but oh wait - james was the one who matured! snape was the one who bullied his son twenty years later because he looked like james! 

3. snape didnt abuse the kids at hogwarts 

here’s a real argument i saw when looking through some pro-snape posts: ‘snape wasn’t an abuser, because abusers don’t let their victims retaliate, but snape did let the kids talk back to him’

what. the. fuck?! 

this is the dictionary.com definition of abuse: ‘to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way’ or ‘to speak insultingly, harshly, and unjustly to or about’. i’m pretty sure snape did both of these things-

“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!”

“So,” said Snape, gripping Harry’s arm so tightly Harry’s hand was starting to feel numb.

Snape threw Harry from him with all his might.

[hermione’s teeth]  "I see no difference."

‘Idiot boy!’ snarled Snape [at neville]

-on multiple occasions. i’d also like to remind you guys that neville’s worst fear is SNAPE?! his TEACHER, a figure that is supposed to be there for emotional and educational support is his worst fear in this entire world?! above the woman who drove his parents to insanity? over failure, over his abusive grandmother, over everything? his teacher? and for the pro-snaper that used this quote-

Nearly everyone laughed. Even Neville grinned apologetically.

-to claim that it was a joke, it isn’t a joke. because when snape came out of that cupboard, he was terrified. yes, it’s an embarrassing thing to have as your boggart, but the point is is that it is. he is terrified of that man. 

4. james only joined the order because his wife was a muggleborn and he ‘had to’

this is just factually incorrect. james had been sticking up for muggleborn rights since he was in school, far before he started dating or even became friends with lily: 

“Apologize to Evans!” James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.

“I’d NEVER call you a - you-know-what!”

so this is literally not true!! plus, at least he did join the order, whatever his reasons where (which were canonically good). snape didnt join the order. snape was friends with someone who suffered discrimination in society, and instead of using his privilege to help her and support her, he joined a group that was set on murdering people like her. when james had a friend who underwent oppression (remus/lycanthropy) you know what he did? he illegally became an animagus. 

5. snape had to be a death eater to survive at hogwarts as he roomed with blood supremacists

this is the shittiest excuse i have ever seen in my entire life. as a poc, this comment really reminds me of the argument ‘i was raised in a racist white household! i cant control my beliefs!’

you can always control your beliefs. i understand not going on big rants about blood inequality in front of a bunch of supremacists, and i understand wanting to blend and fit in (especially because he was unpopular and needed the support the slytherin boys provided), but i will never understand then becoming an active member of the group yourself. he got the dark mark. he helped voldemort. he was a death eater, and a proud one at that! no-one forced him to join. this argument literally makes my blood boil. 

6. snape had a lot of trauma from being raised in an abusive household

okay? so did sirius. so did neville. luna was bullied at school, just like snape. harry lived in an abusive household. did any of those people bully children? did any of those people join a blood supremacist group? and dont get me wrong, im not calling any of these people perfect - they all had a lot of flaws - but none of them hurt another people to the extreme that snape did. 

7. snape saved the trio’s lives many times

this is the absolute bare minimum. ‘oh wow, he didnt let harry die!! what a king! he should be respected and praised! we should excuse all of his other actions because he didnt let people die <3′ 

8. snape is not a perfect person, he also did good that many people overlook

you’re right, snape did do some good things in his life. but unfortunately, for me and many others, doing a couple of good things doesnt excuse all of the shitty, abusive things he did too. we’re not ignoring them - we just dont think they’re good enough reasons to forgive him. 

‘but james and sirius hurt others! you ignore all the bad things they did in favour of the good!’ you do the same thing with snape, first of all. second, they did a lot of good stuff. james’ and sirius’ only crimes were being annoying. for being a bit of a dick, conceited, knew they were hot and were a bit entitled. while these things are annoying as fuck, they were also stupid teens that eventually grew out of their behaviour and became better people. not perfect! better. while snape just stayed bitter at the marauders, long after their deaths, and even took his anger out on an innocent child. 

9. people only hate snape because he was poc and queer coded

as a poc and queer person, please stop. this is a very bad excuse. being poc and queer (which im pretty sure he isnt, but anyway) doesnt excuse you from your actions. plus, a huge amount of harry potter readers are poc and lgbtq. why would they hate snape for those reasons?! 

so thats all i got for today. im not gonna go into a deep snily/jily thing because i literally cannot be bothered. anyway im done. i need to go revise, i’ve already spent long enough on this. 

[normal-thoughts-official]

Ur take on a malec beauty and the beast au please

ugh you got me in a difficult position here because on the one hand, i do love the idea of a beauty and the beast malec au. i just think the idea of a socially isolated person who thinks themself/is perceived as monstruous and who has locked away their heart and doesn't believe they could ever be loved fits magnus like a glove. but on the other hand, i don't want to make magnus, a brown character, animalistic, for obvious reasons. and i can't really think of a way to make him monstruous that doesn't fall into animalization/beastification (both racist tropes) or ableist tropes

so i'm thinking... maybe the spell is just that people are repulsed by him/fear him automatically? like it just creates this horrible almost impossible to ignore repulsive/fear/"fight or flight activating" aura around him for absolutely no reason and makes ppl be repulsed and/or hate him. even if it doesn't change his appearance at all. it's not really a changing or shifting spell, more like a spell of hatred

which like.... i know doesn't sound like anything poc/queer people don't already go through but there is a main difference which is that it makes it impossible to find a community. like even other brown and queer people look at him and feel this... huge disgust and even fear and might even hide and so the isolation is absolutely total and it fucking hurts. and besides it is one thing (a very bad thing) to walk around and have to be on constant alert because you never know if someone is going to be violent, and have to deal with occasional comments and disgusted reactions... it's another to consistently have like, children screaming and people cowering 100% of the time without exception, you know? he's basically living the life ppl with social anxiety think they live and he has nowhere to turn to, no one who understands or who's more likely to actually want to talk to him because of his differences. there's no one to lean on. even the people who love him aren't immune to it, even if of course they are not turning their backs on him

so anyway here are my thoughts: this was totally done by camille lol beacuse the whole backstory about being mean to an elderly lady doesn't fit magnus anyway and also i just like sprinkling camille angst where i can. so after magnus finally got himself free of her and her stupid claws she hexxed him back into isolation. both as punishment (a kinda "if you don't want me, then you have no one" logic) and just to make him more vulnerable because again, abusers want you alone and isolated and away from a support network so you are more dependant on them and more likely to buy into their thwarped logic if they can immerse you in it. so she's just trying to manipulate him into getting back with her, because she wants him and most of all his power

and basically you know the drill, if he doesn't find anyone who will love him romantically until the rose withers yada yada he will die. and again she just wants to make the spell so it constantly drives home how alone he is and how he can't find anyone who will love him (except for her), and make it so he's more and more likely to come back to her as time goes by because then the spell will be broken

(sidenote: camille obviously doesn't actually love him, because anyone who does that to someone doesn't love them. but as the one who cast the spell, she can lift it whenever she wants. so all she has to do is kiss him and lift the spell and be like "see, magnus? who else would love you like this, but me? even after all these years?". and honestly if it had come to that magnus would know she was lying because there is no way this is love, none. but anyway it doesn't come to that, that's just what her plan is)

anyway it still doesn't work because magnus is done and he won't get back to her, and he particularly doesn't want to get back with her after, you know, all this trashfire. and he just sets his jaw and is like "fine" and accepts that he will live however long he still has with his friends and people he loves and away from her, basically

and like gosh sidenote but this would have been so painful for his friends. camille very deliberately made it romantic love because she knows magnus has so many fucking people who love him, but him and the immortal squad have found family dynamics, not romantic ones. so there is nothing they can do even though their love for magnus is just... so real and pure and they hate to see him like this, hate to know that right when he finally got rid of her she made sure he still couldn't go out in the world. especially since magnus has always been so damn sociable, loved to be surrounded by people and to meet them and care for them. but here he is, walking as hidden as he can and with his head down avoiding eye contact because he knows the horror is there and some children run away screaming when they see him

and i just picture this desperate little scene with raphael in particular where he's just like.... "i'll try to kiss you. we have to try" and magnus is all, "my boy, you don't even like kissing, and she was very adamant that it had to be romantic" and raphael is almost in tears like "but i do love you, goddamn it! i should be able to undo this spell" and it's so sweet that he's trying and willing to be in this really awkward position where he kisses (yikes) magnus (which is just weird especially since magnus is kind of a father figure to him) because he's just... so desperate to have him free of her, finally, once and for all, you know?

but obviously it doesn't work, not even with dot, who had a kinda fling with him in the past but doesn't really feel Romantic Love™ for him even though she does love him, it's just... not what the spell requires. and it's unfair as hell and there are lots of tears but just the fact that magnus falls asleep surrounded in a teary cuddle pile after some of the absolute worst kisses of his life because his friends/family love him enough to put themselves in such an uncomfortable position in the hopes of making him free, is enough to make him feel a little better. and the fact that they are still there for him and obviously still love him so fiercely even though looking at him now literally evokes fight or flight instincts in them is already more than anything camille could ever give him. if anything, she's proven how loved magnus is

and that helps him get through it that day and is something he tries to hold unto in the worst days, but still, it's hard and it just... sucks. it's tiring to go out in the street and always have people staring at you and to see the horror in their faces and be so isolated and never really know what might happen, if he will be attacked or harrassed or what exactly will happen. so he isolates himself more and more and soon the only people who ever see him or visit him are his friends. and fuck, do they hate seeing him like this

things settle in a weird kind of way. magnus is still living his life and working as a wizard and etc and in a way the spell even helps him have some more credibility because you know, isolated scary person is kinda what ppl expect from wizards. but he avoids having contact at all costs and mostly sends the potions they request and stuff their way, and the only ppl he sees are his friends unless he absolutely can't avoid going outside. and he's fucking miserable. and every once in a while camille will come back to be like "so, magnus, are you ready to stop with this little tantrum of yours and come back to me now? how is the rose doing, by the way?" because god forbid he catches a break

also it turns out that magnus' adoptive streak becomes even stronger because he is 1- extra lonely; and 2- empathizing more than ever with the outcasts. don't get me wrong, he always has, he's a fucking brown, bi trans man for fuck's sake. we all see ourselves in the stray dogs and lonely people one way or another. but now this is turned up to a thousand, so, you know

so he has one (1) extra kind of contact in his life which is basically with stray animals (particularly cats cuz u know, this is magnus) that he finds around in need of help. they can all leave if they want, but a lot of them stay, particularly the black cats, disabled animals, and others that have a particularly hostile environment outside. you know

(not me again with my very specific hcs about deaf pitbulls who fall in love with my faves but LOOK pitbulls are very sweet and caring animals who don't deserve the fame of monsters that they have and if the idea of one being best friend's with magnus and them having a loving and caring relationship doesn't appeal to you then idk what the fuck to tell you)

this of course doesn't help his image cuz this guy is just going there and collecting black cats and snakes and has a huge pitbull around with him at all times but it's not like it can get any worse so magnus doesn't care, and besides, he can't just leave them out to die in the cold and harrassment of middle ages white ppl who think black cats are the worst possible thing but rats carrying deadly diseases are fine (and look, i know rats are also animals that get a lot of shit and persecution, but like, seriously, clean the streets)

and every once in a while there will be a person in need too, like a homeless person in need of a place to stay or some sick person who has been abandoned or something of the sort, so magnus brings them in as well and cares for them as well as he can, but also tries to maintain minimal contact because he's been burned too many times, okay

so like, cue alec! i know in the original BATB belle ended up with the beast to save her father's life but fuck that. i lowkey consider making it "izzy ran away from home so alec comes after her and they both end up staying with magnus" but i think i like it better if it's just alec who decided to leave. like he's done with the abuse both towards him and his sister and he wants to be able to live his life even if he's gonna have to start over in some other village all alone. anywhere but here and all that

and of course alec used to be plenty rich and he has a lot of skills that help him pass by - he's a good archer and hunter, he's a good leader and organizer so he could do wonders for a failing business, he's smart and cunning - but he also has, like, 2 gold coins to his name. maybe some more from stuff he took from home and sold, but still

initially he is living at a tavern and i guess i'm making simon, raphael, and maia tavern owners again! i don't even care anymore, it suits them. rapha is the cook and the three of them run the business and simon also makes musical appearances during dinners every once in a while, and they are living the happy queer polyamorous life of their dreams. we have no choice but to stan

anyway alec is staying with them and he becomes friends with i think maia in particular since, you know, she is the one with the most contact with the customers since rapha is in the kitchen and simon is up the stage most of the time. plus they are both the same brand of bastard and they have an easy understanding between them that just works

and look! simon, raphael, and maia are 3 trans, non-christian/non-white (unnecessary addendum: the concept of whiteness didn't exist until around the 17th century, but whiteness as a concept came basically as a substitute for christianity [link to source], so i'm counting the fact that simon is jewish and raphael and maia are not culturally european as equivalent to non-whiteness in this context) people, so it's not like they would ever kick a gay man running from an abusive home out. but you know what they also are? magnus' friends. and after a while of talking to him maia thinks he is trustworthy enough for them to send magnus' way, because magnus needs as many friends as possible. plus, he wouldn't kick a person in need out, so unlike with them magnus can't really push this newcomer away so he'd have more company. plus, the possibility that he might fall in love with magnus and undo the stupid spell is there, i'm just saying! i'm not saying it WILL happen but why not give it a fucking shot?

raphael in particular is of course super protective of magnus and he swears to god that if this guy gives him half a bad look raphael will end him, which earns him some pats on the shoulder for his troubles and "rapha, we don't want magnus to be hurt either"s. maia says that she's been assessing him for quite a while now and she's pretty positive that he won't be terrible to magnus, but if she's wrong, she'll kill him personally too. and rapha trusts maia. how could he not? she's maia

so, they send alec magnus' way. "i'm sorry alec, but we are struggling to make ends meet *hides gigantic gold stash* and the tavern is packed *raphael upstairs stomps at maximum speed to make it seem like their 13 empty rooms upstairs actually have people* and we really need your room to give to this customer *simon in a wig* BUT we have a friend who we're sure will give you shelter if you ask, it's not very far away, and once we have a free room we will let you know". and alec is just like, okay, because he's been staying there for free or considerably less than the usual fee/in exchange for some stuff he hunts for quite a while now, and they are nice, so it's not like he can complain

and they don't tell him about the spell exactly because it is not their story to tell but they do let him know what to expect re: magnus' vibes and say it's a spell. and alec's like ok i guess. alec's very practical, he doesn't really care, and it's not like it's the guy's fault anyway. which is exactly why maia is sending alec there

so they send magnus a heads up ("magnus this guy is HOMELESS and we are SOOOOO packed can you please give him shelter for a little while thx xoxo"). alec arrives there a while later carrying like 3 prime rabbits he has hunted as a thank you gift because he hates being dependant on people but it's not like jobs abound in the middle ages, and he is actually a little embarrassed to go in and ask this guy he doesn't know for shelter but he IS kinda desperate. for now

anyway he is standing there with his 3 rabbits debating whether or not to knock on the door and magnus just opens it magically like "i know you're there, dear, just come in" so alec does and awkwardly presents him the rabbits and shit and is all "thanks for letting me stay, uh. i can help you with food and taking care of the house and stuff" even though, you know, magnus has magic and doesn't need it

(and magnus appreciates it deeply, because it is tiring to do it all magically on his own but most non-magical people don't even consider that)

and like... it is very awkward at first because magnus does NOT trust at all and he mostly just wants to keep away from anyone who can... look at him. but they ARE living together (oh my god they were roommates!! just kidding they each have their own room but you get it) so it's inevitable. but like magnus' insecurity makes him keep to himself for long times and makes things awkward, kinda like how the initial days with the beast and belle the beast was rude and kinda shitty except magnus is not shitty, just... private

and maybe the subject even comes up like "thanks for the meal alec. i'll go eat it in my room" "i mean, you could eat here if you want" "and ruin your appetite? no thank you" and alec is just like "*shrug* it won't ruin my appetite. unless you are my parents, the concept of failure, or some girl wanting me to marry her, i don't think there's a lot the spell can do to make me scared. besides, you literally have a kitten on top of your head right now and you refuse to remove it and are using a spell to keep her from jostling when you move" "her name is Fluffy, and she is sleeping!" "right, my bad" "wait did you say the concept of failure?" "yea"

it's not that the spell doesn't work on alec; it does, just like it works on his friends. but he is willing to go beyond that initial repulsive reaction that he knows is illogical anyway (and alec is the kind of guy who is just like "if my feelings aren't logical, i don't listen to them" which in this case is useful lmao). and the thing is that once you get to know magnus there is nothing about him that is scary, and the feeling just becomes completely ignorable, because humans are nothing if not adaptable. but most people don't want to go through the trouble to try, and magnus himself doesn't want to let himself be vulnerable enough to give them a chance because there IS a great chance that he will be met with some level of aggression, even if it's an unintentional microaggression

and eventually they grow closer and build trust. i think this happens particularly when camille steps in for one of her regularly schedule shoving-it-in-magnus'-face visits and alec is just like. "hey why don't you just use magic to keep her away?" and magnus realizes that he never even THOUGHT of that and like, jesus, how much has he been unconsciously torturing himself? so he does it, and he ends up telling alec about the story of the spell, which might be the first time he's told someone that didn't know him before the spell was cast

(alec: "so she's basically just killing you slowly?" magnus: "don't be silly, alexander. torturing me first is the most important part". and he sounds self deprecating and almost resigned and god alec feels murderous)

ohh but wait bonus: magnus says that she will only undo the spell if he gets back with her, he doesn't mention that it technically can be undone by romantic love or whatever bullshit's going on because he doesn't believe it can happen anyway, so, who cares

anyway! time goes by. fun fact: alec and magnus get along really fucking well. magnus is so so smart and knowledgeable and he shows alec many of his inventions that never got to see the light of day or that were stolen by someone else who wasn't cursed and took all the credit. he also fascinates alec with his magic, but mostly with his personality. there's something just endlessly endearing about this guy who is so fucking proud of his puns and so so nice and gentle to every creature he encounters, be it a kitten or a pitbull, who's letting alec stay with him for no reason other than that alec needs it

and alec is so goddamn appreciative of it because like he IS and we stan! and he's always trying to give back to magnus which is kind of a rarity, but most of all he's also extremely funny beneath the whole no-bullshit attitude, he's caring and fierce and resourceful and strong (so's magnus) and they click so well. they can also talk about their similar experiences with like, abuse and trauma without making it super heavy and they're just,,, so supportive of each other. so like yeah surprise surprise they fall in love

but they don't really say anything because (on magnus' part) that's just fucking ridiculous, he's a monster; and (on alec's part) he will put magnus is a way too uncomfortable position if magnus doesn't like him that way and they will just... be living together. and magnus will feel like he has to compensate to alec somehow and alec doesn't want that. it's just complicated when one of them is dependant on the other, and besides, alec has had very little to offer magnus so far

(no, he has no idea how much his company means to magnus and has brighted his depressed ass life. he is stupid)

sometimes magnus' friends visit and they're always just so happy for him, to see how he's hanging out more and let someone into his life after so long. it earns him a lot of forehead kisses and "i'm so happy to see you like this". and over time he starts to invite them over more as well as just open up back to the people in his life :')

angsty but also kind of fluffy sidenote: i picture that every time they kiss his forehead or cheek or whatever they linger for a little while and then open their eyes slowly and sigh like "i had been hoping that it would work this time. magnus, you know i love you, right?" and magnus is all like "i know just from you saying that, darling. it's just not how the spell works" and aaa

and like to be extra clear im not saying that alec fixes him or romantic love heals him or whatever, just that having let someone in, someone who didn't know him before the spell, and have them completely accept him and realize how much he had been missing out re: touch and human contact helps him realize how much he misses his friends and how pushing them away is stupid when they've never been anything if not supportive of him. they don't care that he's cursed. and obviously magnus was already on the way to that if he even managed to let alec in anyway

anyway! dramatic healing scene. LOOK. usually i'd be all for "they don't change back actually because people don't have to look beautiful to be lovable". like the original BATB disappointed me sooo badly because i had just been hoping that he'd stay the same way and still be loved. but in this case it's not that magnus doesn't look beautiful! it's that the spell has made him be hated by people for no reason other than existing. and breaking the spell is not changing magnus himself, it's changing that hatred. so, yeah. i'm not saying it's a deep metaphor or anything, just, you know daudhasdja it's different from the usual monster thing

and i'm torn here because on the one hand i LOVE the drama of the original BATB where everyone decides to gather to kill the beast and belle saves him and shit, but idk if it fits with the vibe ive been building here. no actually @ me shut the fuck up. you know how i mentioned that they kick camille out with magic finally? i actually had no intentions of following through with this in any way but like of COURSE she would be absolutely pissed out of her mind and want to get back in some way, we already know she's vindictive. so i'm gonna use that. this is what neil gailman meant when he said that writing is just making a rough draft and then writing it again but like it's on purpose this time

anyway! so after they yeet her camille is obviously furious and fuming and it might have finally dawned on her that magnus will NOT fucking cave and she is losing power over him, not gaining it. so she decides to play a last card and get him to almost die so he kind of HAS to take her bid, you know? so she makes up some shit about how magnus has kidnapped the lightwood heir and she's only now hearing about it, and no one else is safe and yada yada. and she has "proof" because alec IS indeed there and again the spell just helps everyone easily agree with her that magnus is That Kind Of Guy or whatever, and middle ages ppl weren't exactly waiting for a good enough reason to grab their pitchforks. and they don't even KNOW about the spell, really. all they know is that he's very powerful, secluded, and they all fear and almost hate him just from one look

so camille makes up some bullshit story about how he made a deal with the devil to become extra powerful, and that the source of his powers is the rose, so they have to get rid of the rose to kill him. (sidenote: i never understood why the hell the rose was never used as a weakness against the beast. like was he keeping it super guarded and safe just for the fucking shits?) so they devise an attack so someone can sneak up and get the rose, and camille makes up some bullshit story about how they have to destroy the rose a specific way so it takes longer and she has time to manipulate magnus before he dies. man, it's easy to be a villain when your target is secluded

anyway! big attack at magnus' house. magnus' friends don't hear about it until it's too late because camille knows exactly who they are and warned them that they were on "the witch's" side. alec is maybe away hunting when it happens? camille obviously has magic in this AU so she can check for that information. maybe she even says that she will be the one responsible for finding the lightwood heir so there is minimal risk of him revealing that she lied lmao

oh no, violence! they battle and yada yada. catarina is probably the first one to realize what is happening because i figure she, madzie, and dot are the ones who live closest to magnus'. they send fire messages and get ragnor, simon, maia, raphael, and meliorn to help. oh yeah, and alec i genuinely forgot trust me to forget about romance in a romance-focused au. but alec is the only one of them without any magical resources and he's far away and on foot, so he's gonna be the last to get there, which camille had been counting on

but alec or no alec, they can keep the attackers at bay because they're all powerful and smart and shit and a lot of them have magic as opposed to the mundanes who don't, but of course that's mostly because they are holding off on attacking and the invasion is mostly a distraction because their PLAN is to use the rose. and camille tells them all to leave once the petal puckering starts so she can "protect them from any lashouts" (have her big villain speech). and it's not like any of magnus' friends is gonna leave to go after them when magnus is dying, bUT they also won't attack camille because she's his only hope. and they won't be able to get to stop the rose plucking in time because that's in another room and while she made it slower than something that the person can use to kill him in a second it's also not slow enough for them to get there on time (maybe there's a spell against magic use near where magnus keeps the rose? just for extra safety, so the ones with magic can't portal there or whatever)

anyway. big villain speech. magnus screams in pain every time a new petal is plucked. his friends are either running to the rose thing desperately or trying to get camille to stop this madness, she's going to kill him for fuck's sake. i don't know which chooses to do what so you can figure that out i guess. and for that extra drama, right when the last petal was going to be plucked, wee woo alec lightwood arrives! and he went straight for the rose because magnus had told him about it and he figured that there was a good chance the attackers might go for it. so he shoots the person's leg or something and gets them away from the rose and yay, day saved! mostly. because now there is only one petal left to fall before magnus dies, so at the very least, his lifespan has been shortened considerably. also, he is still in pain

i'm torn about what happens to camille then. on the one hand, i love killing camille! bonding activities for the whole family. on the other, she kinda is the only one who can save him now. they all know magnus won't want to get back with her, but hey, it's not like camille wants a relationship! she wants magnus to be her asset. a relationship was just the best way to get him to do that she had initially. but magnus doesn't want to cave and be dependant of her, so, you know. but maybe they can try to convince her to stop this fucking madness, god knows how

so okay yeah no camille-killing yet because they don't want to jeopardize magnus' safety, so she just leaves convinced that either way, she wins, and this might be the best possible scenario actually because magnus will have lots of times to think it over and be real desperate and come to her and strike a deal. so, yay her! she just needs to lie to the mundanes that the mission was successful or whatever, and it's not like that's gonna be hard because magnus won't want to be seen there again, so

we are all running to check up on magnus now. he's kinda like, on the ground coughing blood, but he'll live for as long as the last rose doesn't fall. still, they all settle on trying to help him, getting him in bed, tending to his wounds, etc. and thinking about what the fuck they are all going to do now. so you have raphael and maia making magnus soup, simon running his mouth as he throws around ideas on how they can fix this, ragnor, cat, dot, and madzie (who is here now that the danger is over ofc) checking and rechecking magnus' vitals for the billionth time and trying to figure out how much time they have, meliorn using their fae powers to stop his pain. and madzie is all snuggled in bed with magnus holding his hand and asking if he wants her to tell him a bedtime story, and magnus just... feels cared for and loved

alec meanwhile i think would tell what ACTUALLY happened to the person who was doing the rose thing - i actually have thought about it and think it might make sense for it to be luke. just because i love him and it kinda fits the whole "initially sided with shadowhunters, lately became a downworlder" thing. and like luke genuinely believed he was saving a person/people so alec brings him in too and magnus is all "catarina, dear, can you help heal his leg? i would, but i don't think i have enough magic right now" because he is the sweetest man immediately wanting to help the guy who almost killed him. and luke is in awe

(and alec brings him on purpose, too, because he knows that anyone who actually talks to magnus for a little while will see what an amazing person he is. and he hopes that luke, as a mundane, can tell the others that and turn them against camille)

and after that, of course, alec sits down by magnus' side and Does Not Leave. he's just there holding his hand and talking to him and magnus' friends, who are all also kind of. sitting there, trying to snuggle up in a gigantic pile of like 10 ppl to cuddle close to magnus and make sure he feels loved and cared for and that they know he is real. madzie gets special privileges in that sense because she's smaller and also a kid, so she gets to be kinda snuggled up with him. so alec has to be content with holding magnus' hand lmao (which he is, he's just happy that he's alive and okay. and he has a whole plan to get camille to undo the spell, mostly involving getting the mundanes against her and telling her that she is only safe for as long as magnus lives, because once he dies, she will have a bunch of ppl who will hunt her down to the faces of the earth to make her pay for what she did to him. the only reason they didn't do that yet is because she can still save magnus' live, so is she really going to let him die knowing that she will be next?)

so alec takes his hand and tells magnus that they will fix this, he promises, and give a little kiss on magnus' hand. just a little peck, no deep intentions, but magnus gasps a little because he feels something, and his eyes water a little bit because he's so touch starved and tired and hurt and alec kissed his hand and he can feel this kind of ache inside him, somehow a good ache, but he just can't explain it. and so alec notices his watery eyes and he very tenderly wipes his tears away and tells him that they're all on his side, will always be, and kisses him on the forehead. and this kiss? this kiss is full of adoration and love and purpose, and magnus gasps and the wounds that hadn't been healed suddenly mend together, and the petals that had fallen go back to the rose before it disappears in a beautiful flash of light, and suddenly magnus' magic is back full force and he just looks at himself for a second, and everyone erupts into joy because holy shit, the spell is broken

and alec is so confused because again! he didn't kNOW about the whole true love's kiss thing or he would have asked magnus to let him kiss him as soon as he learnt about his feelings, because even if magnus didn't feel the same way, alec could undo the spell. and he's like "why the hell didn't you tell me?? we could have fixed this months ago" and magnus is like "i didn't think it would make a difference. wait, you're in love with me? have been for months?" and alec is like "first of all, yes. second of all, i have nothing else to say, i just said 'first of all' because i was so indignant"

and magnus laughs and jumps on him and kisses him on the mouth this time and they are both smiling and laughing into it and so so happy. and raphael is kind of just peppering kisses on maia's face too, like, "you were right, he undid the spell, thank you" and maia was never sure that this would happen but she will take the credit actually please and thank you

and they all live happily ever after and kill camille together the end i guess. god this post was so long i'm so sorry

[buckevantommy]

'(Un)Happiest Season' review

Simply put, it wasn't enjoyable as a romance or a comedy or a Christmas flick. It failed on many fronts, but this reviewer from Salon.com puts the thing into words for Happiest Season's main failings: 

What's bad: There were two main criticisms of "Happiest Season." The first being: Can't LGBTQ audiences have a holiday movie where the main plot isn't about mining the anxiety and trauma associated with coming out, being closeted and casual homophobia? Then there's the fact that Harper really is just kind of the worst. After pushing Abby back in the closet, Harper ditches her in a town where she doesn't know anyone to go drink with her ex-boyfriend until two in the morning, then proceeds to call Abby "suffocating" when called on it. It's a pattern of s**ty behavior that is pervasive and present throughout the movie, so her redemption arc doesn't feel super genuine. 

Why can't we have main queer characters in Christmas movies without their presence being all about their queerness? We want fluffy festiveness, dammit! They could've made Harper less selfish and more attentive while still playing into the *I'm not out yet Because Reasons so we need to hide our gay relationship* trope, but they didn't. Who knows why, but what a waste. 🎄👩‍❤️‍👩☃️

^ Look at that trailer and tell me you don't expect Misunderstandings with fun and tropey antics + Domestic Christmas Shenanigans + Comfort for Hurt! You will be sorely disappointed. 😞 

NOTE: The flick does have a few good moments. And it's probably worth the watch just to see what's missing/mishandled when it comes to queer characters and queer romances in mainstream movies. 

But it's not really fun or funny or heart-warming - where are the snowball fights? Insightful conversations? Christmas elements like eggnog/spiced wine, candycanes, mistletoe? Where are the many colourful side characters and the hungover brunches? We get one scene of ice-skating for a few minutes and it's wasted on sibling rivalry bs rather than, say.. Abby and Harper skating together but not being aloud to touch—omg the tension!! 😍 

There's just not enough comfort for the hurt Abby (Kstew) goes through; the film wholly lacks those warm-n-fuzzy Christmas vibes; there's just way more wrong with it than is right with it - which sucks, because this had the potential to be such a great movie if only Harper was written as less ignorant/selfish and we'd gotten more enjoyable family interactions and more festive fun - like a celebration in town. Instead we get a few limited shots of the adorable town, a crappy bar, and an OTT fancy Christmas party for performative rich white folk on a career path for power and "perfection" (ie. wholesome family values). 

The story they went with was definitely better suited for a dramatic film, so in a romcom setting it really didn't work. Plus the side-characters were flat; we needed more depth from the supporting characters, more meaningful interactions. 

^ Look at those intro credits!! Look at all the domestic happy moments and tell me you don't want to see a movie filled with such fluffy festive goodness!! Well, if you don't want to see such moments, don't worry because you won't. I naturally thought we were going to get this kind of romantic-and-non-romantic happiness dispersed throughout the entire film, but no. Not a one. There's 5 minutes of Happy Couple at the start, and that's it 📸☹️ (unless you count a photo collage of the happy ending and year that follows stuffed into the end credits). 

BTW: That intro song is the most Christmasy song in the whole movie. The soundtrack features modern pop songs which 1) don't help set the festive vibe and 2) are really fucking annoying; the song choices are grating, not pleasant, not enjoyable, and they overpower the scenes with a whole lotta noise. I really wish we'd gotten more tunes like the one above. 🎶 

About the image below—Abby is actually miserable the entire time, getting worse by the day, barely a smile seen on her.. while Harper is the one schmoozing her family and contacts with teeth bared, so.. this image isn't what you'll get, just fyi:

(also: the only POC actors they had were the perfectionist-stone-faced-bitch's husband and his girlfriend - wife + hubby being secretly separated.) 

The things that the Salon reviewer liked are the same things I did (see below), but imho even those elements weren't enough to save this film from being: 

an infuriating 102 minute-comedy of errors buoyed by a healthy dose of gaslighting 

More cons of the flick are pointed out by denofgeek.com: 

Some of its issues come from the structure of the film, which shoehorns very real queer struggles into wacky rom-com tropes too fluffy to contain the stakes at hand. Meanwhile the choice to have one half of the lead couple be so aggressively and repeatedly cruel—while her high school ex Riley, played by the ever-perfect Aubrey Plaza was standing right there having all the chemistry in the world with the other romantic lead—was a fatal one.

It really was a dramatic plot idea crammed into a fluffy narrative. You can see the conflicting genres fighting to stay alive and they both die a slow, agonisingly dull death throughout the film. The whole *Abby being converted to loving Christmas by Harper inviting her to spend the holidays with her family* thing, only to have Harper force their relationship + Abby into the closet. Straight conversion much? I'm 100% sick of heteronormative bs in my queer Christmas films. 

For the most part, when you're not feeling for Abby's harsh treatment by her would-be fiance and everyone but Riley ignoring her completely, you will be bored af from the lack of festive cheer - not just twinkle lights and boisterous seasonal music, but those good ol' homey family Christmas vibes. With the Harper house + family members, everything's a performance, so that lack of sincerity and warmth makes for a depressing viewing experience: 

^ Jane (one of Harper's 2 sisters) is the only character allowed to be consistently genuine in the narrative (aside from John, but he's restricted mostly to phonecalls, and Riley - but even she's keeping Harper's secrets). Jane is the only character who is naturally vibrant and reminds us of some of the reasons we get excited about Christmas movies: to feel joy and to enjoy the company around us during the holiday season! 🎄☃️🥳 But rather than give us a fun day out with Jane + Abby, we get Abby + the second sister (i don't even remember her name, just BitchFace) which leads to more bad treatment of Abby - this time by two spoiled af no-smile rich kids. *le sigh* Jane carries the spark of honest joy for the entire Harper clan and that is TOO MUCH to expect of one character, let alone a side-character. 😪 

There are so many ways the story could've been tweaked to make more sense and be somewhat enjoyable, including: 

The orphan!Abby thing is just bad. Rather than give Abby a voice, chances to let her personality shine, almost everyone interacts with her to merely briefly express their condolences for her long-dead parents 🙄 

Abby is a pet-minder, ie. she's an animal lover, yet at no point do we see her interact with animals! Not a dog or cat or hamster, no reindeer at the petting zoo, nothing. 🐕🐈🦎🦜🐠

Riley + Abby getting together (even just a kiss) 👄 

Abby + Harper separating so Harper can get her shit together - and then we get several flashforward shots of them separately living their lives (Harper especially), and then meeting back up again - maybe the next holiday season, after some much-needed time apart 🏃‍♀️🤸‍♀️ 

side characters who engage with Abby in a sincere, meaningful way instead of ignoring her (again, we got Riley, but she was outside of the family dynamic) 😊 

MORE FESTIVE CHEER! where were all the staple Christmassy passtimes, the smile-inducing season-specific experiences??? 🎉 

More from denofgeek: 

Where the script gets into trouble is that it doesn’t distinguish between Harper being closeted and her poor treatment of Abby. The two are separate issues and treating them as one does no favors to Harper, nor others struggling with the closet. As Dan Levy’s beautiful monologue late in the movie alludes to, the closet is a safety mechanism—but it’s not a free pass to treat people like garbage. [...] 😟🏳️‍🌈

Even a brief conversation teasing out that being in the closet doesn’t justify how Harper acted, and that plenty of people in the closet don’t treat others like trash, would have been important. Instead once Harper is out (which the movie takes pains to make clear only happened because Harper’s sister Sloane outed her), and a gesture so small it could never credibly be called grand is made, all bad behavior is washed away. [...] 😤🙅‍♀️ 

The jarring underlying issue is that 'Happiest Season' attempts to apply the standard rom-com and made-for-TV-holiday-movie tropes to queer life. So Abby having to go back into the closet isn’t framed as a painful regression or being forced to deny an essential part of herself, but rather a fun twist, in the vein of “but the guy she insulted on the plane is the owner of the ornament factory she has to impress to win the Christmas contest!”🚪😒 

All of Harper’s behavior adds up to making her feel like something the audience wants Abby to be free of, not someone Abby should be fighting for. Once Riley tells Abby about Harper’s cruelty in high school, where Harper outed Riley and mocked her rather than standing up for her or finding an excuse that protected them both, it becomes incredibly difficult to root for the lead couple to get back together, or for Harper at all. 👏💃 

With this information, Harper’s other transgressions go from frustrating to part of a larger pattern. Sadly, it’s a pattern Harper repeats when her sister outs her and she throws Abby under the (lesbian) bus. 🤬 

FAVE THINGS: 

all interactions between John (Dan Levy) + Abby (he's witty, honest, and 100% the most entertaining element of the entire film; i wish we'd gotten more of him) 😆 

Riley (Aubrey Plaza, Harper's ex) + Abby's scenes together because CHEMISTRY, both between the characters and the actors 👩‍❤️‍👩

Notable between Abby + Riley scenes include 3 instances of Riley comforting Abby's hurt: outside at the fancy party (Abby feeling excluded/ignored/not worth anyone's time due to the way they treat her even though they don't know she's gay), at a gay bar in town (sandwiched by scenes where Abby's made to feel like crap by Harper), and at the fancy home Christmas party where Riley gets Abby something stronger to drink after hearing Abby was going to propose to Harper (but it's been a helluva shitty week and those plans are dead) 👭 

Every scene with Riley was blessed relief from the hurt and discomfort and boredom of the rest of the time with Harper's family. 🤩 

Sister Jane, for being a genuinely fun character 🤗 who was written starkly different to her family and treated somewhat like an outcast 

Aubrey + Kstew killin it in various pantsuits 👀 

In contrast, Riley connects Abby to queerness, bringing her to an LGBTQ bar to decompress and enjoy a Christmas-themed drag performance. It’s the most relaxed and comfortable Abby is on screen since the opening scenes, a chance to glimpse Abby’s authentic self before Harper summons her back to heterosexuality, and where she once again ignores and disappoints her. Riley actually talks to Abby at the various holiday parties whereas Harper keeps leaving her to please her family, especially her father. It’s not hard for the natural chemistry between Plaza and Stewart to take over

I wouldn't watch this film again. For a hopeful Christmasy love story I'd just watch all Abby + Riley's scenes: 

In closing, here's a batshit article title from observer.com that just makes you go, huh? 🧐:

‘Happiest Season’ Isn’t Happy, But That Doesn’t Make It a Bad Rom-Com

Um.. yes, yes it does. 

Rom-Coms are supposed to be fun, light-hearted stories about love even when the plot deals with lying - The Proposal, Sweet Home Alabama - so a movie that leaves you hurting more than comforted in sympathy with one of the main characters because the (apparent) love of their life is treating them like shit, then it doesn't deserve to be in the genre of Rom-Com. 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨💞🎬

In summary, Abby and Harper got 5 minutes of happiness in the beginning, and an eventual happy ending after a super rocky middle. The journey was painful and unenjoyable, and it made their happy ending unbelievable and, for Harper, undeserved because of her behaviour through 90% of the story. 

In short: it was not, in fact, the happiest season. 😕👎

[floosies]

Mio Amore

pairing: mob!Tom Holland x poc!mob!reader

warnings: cursing, mentions of violence, implied smut

“oh my love, 

you were meant for me.

Mio Amore”

-The Flamingos

Inspiration from the film ‘A Bronx Tale’ directed by Robert De Niro (1993)

Tom had never been a jealous man, for everything he ever wanted he got. He had the world at his feet. A man of business and wealth. It made him cold, frigid, maybe even spoiled, but none of that mattered to him for some time because again, by the simple wave of his hand or a glance, everything was given to him. She however was not an object or money. She was far more than that.

He’d seen her on a business trip, she was the daughter of an older man who was to retire his dealings and leave them in her care. She was smart, eloquent, and quiet. When he tried to rouse her interest it came at no avail, why would she entertain a Holland boy? The moment she called him that, a passion began. Boy? He was anything but that; many of his former flings would agree to that. It was figurative though. 

A boy is what she saw him as, because he acted like one. His demeanor was that of a toddler, it would be hysterical and shameful at the same time if she were to entertain his whims. Further in her conscience though, she knew what the world would think if a woman like her were to even near a man like him. There were still some traditions that the older generations wished were respected and one was that power houses do not mix, especially when they are so different. 

What did Tom know of this? He knew nothing and he learned that, the moment he told his father about the way she disgraced him in front of the other bosses. When his father explained her disapproval towards him, anger and nothing but anger came forth. Sure, his family was old money, but he was in charge now. The world was his, practically, and if he felt he deserved her he was going to get her.

Trusting his right hand man Harrison, he found out her information. A “meeting” was made for them to talk about business. Tom being young and inexperienced in the traditions created by the older generations was not going to be deterred by a simple notion that she could not be seen with him. By this point, he wanted more than a fling, he’d had her followed for sometime while the “meeting” was arranged, and his interest in her only continued to grow. If anyone was to deny that she was beautiful, they were lying to themselves, the way he saw her, she was a fucking goddess sent from some heaven to ruin him.

It was agreed they would meet in Milan as she would be attending fashion week with her mother, and he figured it’d be a nice change in scenery. They met at a cafe near where she was staying. It was quiet and slow paced, something he was thankful for. She arrived in a beautiful silk blouse and black skirt, the way it showed off her waist was enough to have him drooling.

As she neared the table, he stood up going to pull the chair for her, “you look lovely as always,” he remarked. She smiled at his compliment as she took a seat, “thank you. Your suit. Tom Ford? It’s very well tailored,” He thanked her as well. Not missing a moment, a waiter arrived and took their order. 

Now was his chance, “if you gave me a chance, we could have more of these kinds of outings.” She rolled her eyes, “there are people who would disagree about these outings,” then she took a sip of the white wine he’d ordered for them. Of course Tom was not about to go through this again, what he hadn’t realized is that as his anger rose, he had bent the fork he was holding. 

Their food arrived before he could say something, the waiter saw the bent fork. She was amused, but she knew he wasn’t. “it’s fine. Thank you,” the waiter left as soon as Tom said that, “I think you should know that I could care less about what the old fucks have to say or think. You shouldn’t care either, we’ll be the heads at the table by the end of the year.” She shrugged knowing that was true, “still. You’re arrogant at best and an asshole at worst.” He scoffed at that, “you’re really going to go off what my business partners say about me? I would have thought you of all people knew personas were important.” It was a small jab, but still a jab.

Wiping off her hands she looked over at him, “see what I mean. I’ll be here for two more days, learn to apologize and humble yourself. Then try to find me, I won’t wait though.” She didn’t hesitate, and left right after telling him off. Milan was too gorgeous to be spent on bad company. 

On the last day, she figured he’d finally given up or couldn’t bring himself to see the truth. Her mother had already left for her flight back to their home in the states. As she finished packing one of her guards came in, “ma’am Mr. Holland is outside, he wants to know if he can come in.” She wanted to be annoyed, but by this point she was growing fond of his trying. Shaking her head she answered, “sure. Let him in, then close the door.” The guard nodded letting Tom in. In his hands was a large bouquet of roses.

Juliet roses were her favorites, how he found this out was a mystery to her. Still she couldn’t deny the sweetness of his efforts, “you really don’t have to waste money on trying to impress me.” She said taking the flowers and placing them on the small coffee table in the hotel room, “but seeing you smile is a good enough reason.” He wasn’t going to stop, “why go through all this? Our lives are already targets, do you want them to have more reasons to go after us?” 

His hands combed his hair as he tried to gather his thoughts, “like I said. Fuck’em all darling, I’d like to see them try to even put their hands on you. I’m not good with all this emotional stuff- I know that.” He paused, nearing himself to her, his hands wrapping themselves around her waist. Usually she would push him off, but something about this moment felt different, “but I can’t get you off my mind. All I wanna do is be with you, you’re far too gorgeous to be alone. The more you try and push me away, the more I’m going to try to get you be with me.” His lips beginning to brush against the nape of her neck.

Kisses began being placed down her neck, “you’re saying all the right things, but do you mean them?” A chuckle left his lips, the vibrations causing goosebumps to spread over her, “only one way to find out darling.” Their lips then met into a frenzied kiss. She knew she was going to miss her flight, but what she was about to get into was far more enticing, “well then show me.”

[savnofilter]

no nuance november!

a/n: which is basically you have a bunch of opinions and dont explain any of em' and let your followers discuss them (much more suited for tiktok sjsnj). i'll be doing it since it compiles with many topics like fandom, racism, lgbtq+, politics and etc. i highly encourage people to do this simply because why not? feel free to send your own opinions n stuff, i wanna know what my followers think!!

disclaimer!! ⚠️ all of these are broad, not pin pointing certain people or situations. even though these are my opinions these were all in fun and have been collected over the years and will change as time goes on. nothing is sugar-coated so thread carefully. feel free to agree or disagree. :)

warning(s): mentions of racism, p*do micro aggression, fetishizing, toxicity, abuse, politics, labelling, mental health, cancelling, fandoms, ages.

key:

iswis = i said what i said, no explanation to that one.

whe = will happily explain.

stop sexualizing gay/m|m/yaoi relationships. it's not only demonizing to the males, it's also very fetishizing. (iswis)

most times /10 yall root for "feminine men" when you really mean white boys and fetishised asian men on social media. (whe)

bullying someone isnt educating. you either cant cope with the fact people have different opinions from you or you have a struggle with things either always never going your way or the opposite. (iswis)

straight people will never have a say in lgbtq+ issues. stop inserting yourself. (iswis)

white people will never have a say in poc issues. stop inserting yourself. (iswis)

poc will never have a say in black people issues. stop inserting yourself. (vice versa but im black and it happens more often to us lol) (iswis)

using the defense, "but black lives matter, right?" when one black person does something bad isnt facts, youre racist. (iswis)

fandom adults need to stop gatekeeping the target audience (demographics) to animes/shows. (iswis)

poc people can be racist. (whe)

even if a certain site was adult doesnt mean that every adult wants to see your porn. either keep it to yourself or tag properly. (iswis)

saying shit like, "im more xyz than you and im not even xyz" is not only disrespectful but disgusting. just because you believe in a popular opinion of a group does NOT suddenly make you a person in it, get over yourself. (iswis)

dont hate on people for the same things you have done at a young age. (ex: writing fanfic, seggs, etc) (iswis)

blaming a minor/someone mentally unstable for being abused is not only victim blaming, but it enables the notion that people who go those things that they wanted it. (iswis)

going off of that last point, if you do victim blame for situations and been in them yourself you either still havent coped with what you went through and still think it was your fault when it wasnt. (whe)

it's stupid people hate minors for being undeveloped when adults are the reason as to why people get traumas, abused and quite literally are destroying the world right now. (iswis)

gen z is white as fuck. (iswis)

early 2000s kids are equivalent to 90s kids who use to post, "only 90s kids under this" and post something that 2000-5 experienced. (iswis)

dear 2005+ kids, abusing harmful substances and having sex doesnt make you grown. stop it. (iswis)

adults, being able to post porn doesnt make you grown or mature, stop believing that it does. (iswis)

just because it's a coping mechanism doesnt mean it's healthy. (iswis)

avoiding conflict doesnt mean youre mature. if there is an active problem and you know ignoring it will only benefit you and not the actual problem at hand that is selfish. (iswis)

black women generate clout for everyone. when we're hated the person gets patted on the back, someone appreciates black girls they are praised, and people of many groups repeatedly steal from our culture. (iswis)

YES THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING BLACK AND AFRICAN AMERICAN. (whe)

if youre black you do not have to be democrat OR republican, there are many other parties. (whe)

i do not trust either parties, no minority should. (whe)

this 2020 election was not a win for poc people no matter who won. (iswis)

we do not decide whether or not what to do on columbus day. it is up to the natives themselves. (whe)

pointing out other countries (current) faults is not racist. although the issue can be misconstrued, if proper research is done it safe to say it's an educated observation or opinion. (whe)

privilege heavily varies; ex, americans are seen as privileged, while the people who live in it experience a disadvantage because of the societal standards. within the country itself. (whe)

americans, stop saying that america is the worst country and there are other countries who are suffering much worse than we are. yes sometimes it sucks but do not label it as the worst. (iswis + whe)

white people are privileged and will always be until we break the racist issues deep rooted in EVERY community. (iswis)

9/10 when marginalized groups like (women, lgbt) are mostly focused on white people and never address the poc counter parts. using the excuse "well idk much about that" is not good enough and just promotes pseudo-white supremecy. (iswis + whe)

do not use aave. (iswis)

aave is not gen z language, stop calling it that. (iswis)

gay men (white especially) use black women and get praised for the things we do that are called ghetto. (iswis)

yes it is offensive if you touch a black persons hair with or without permission. we are not your pets nor zoo animals. (iswis)

and yes it is offensive if you see a black women with beautiful hair and assume it's fake or ask, "is it yours?" "is it real?" (iswis)

using jailbait as an excuse to lewd minors is just as disgusting. (iswis)

beauty standards for women is rooted from pedophilia. (iswis)

using other pedophilic relationships as an excuse to ship yours is disturbing and you shouldnt be near children at any capacity. (iswis)

everything doesnt need a label. (iswis)

the fact that gangs have been criminalized while mafias havent is racist and feeds the stereotypes that poc are criminals. (iswis)

people are more forgiving to white predators than to poc (neither are good but people let white off the hook more often). (iswis)

if youre okay with your friends being racists, creeps, abusers you are just as bad. (iswis)

although you can like what you like, making dark content shouldnt be as glorified as much as it is. (iswis)

some kinks do deserve to be kink shamed. (iswis)

adults need to be more held accountable when held in situations with minors. (iswis + whe)

everyone perceives the world differently, many people will see the same things you see differently. (iswis)

calling people crazy for questioning the things around them doesnt make them crazy, youre just asleep. (iswis)

the human body can function without a soul. (iswis)

stop disrespecting christianity. you wouldnt do the same with hinduism, islam and etc. (iswis)

the bible was altered by white men and the true meanings have been misconstrued. (iswis + whe)

bullying someone who you THINK is problematic is not excuse to be hateful. youre just scum and feel the need to justify your actions. (iswis)

not everyone has to like you and dont need a reason. (iswis)

just because you dont like someone doesnt mean you have to make a show of it. be mature and move along. (iswis)

yes callouts/cancelling has its place but it's never done right. (iswis)

"cancel culture" wasnt a thing till white people joined in. (iswis)

dont cancel someone for stuff they did years ago. bringing it up is important but not allowing them to understand, reflect, and apologize is not only bullying it defeats the purpose of bringing awareness. (iswis)

big writers need to stop complaining when one fic or a few dont do good. not only does it rub in small writers faces, it shows that if you need people's validation to write you probably shouldnt be writing. some works will be popular and some will flop, get over it. (iswis)

stop witch hunting & crucifying people for shit you have done or your friends have done and going "uwu sorry" when you get caught. (iswis)

90% people believe content creators with bigger audiences. (iswis)

people spontaneously posting, "uwu take care of your mental health" doesnt mean that they actually care. (iswis)

people are always quick to judge people with real mental health such as depression, anxiety, adhd, and etc are always the one to turn and pretend to be exactly what they just mocked. (iswis)

dont have kids if youre not going to take care of them. (iswis)

stop baiting baby otakus (people freshly getting into anime) into watching cp like yarichin bitch club or boku no pico. they are minors, it's not funny, stop it. (iswis)

stop being protective & toxic over anime characters. if they were real they probably wouldnt even like you. (iswis)

just because someone is your friend doesnt mean that they arent toxic or abusive. (iswis)

start believing when people show their true traits. (iswis)

trauma happens in different forms, stop saying something didnt happen because it didnt go the way that has commonly happened or the way it occurred to you. (iswis)

stop saying minors should "know" while also being the loudest to say that our brains arent even developed till 25. (iswis)

the adult age should be raised to 20 years old. (iswis + whe)

tos should be raised to 16 years old. (iswis + whe)

minors take "18+" & "minors dni" out of your bio. (iswis)

yelling at minors for finding the content you freely put out without any care is your fault not theirs. (iswis)

there are plenty of adult sites that are more confined for adults but you guys ignore them because youd rather get popular on writing erotica on a popular social media platform. (iswis)

trying to cancel someone over one mistake and or blowing said things out of proportion is toxic and stupid. (iswis)

if you take someone saying they need to distance themselves for mental health reasons personally and make them feel bad for it youre an actual shitty person. (iswis)

if someone disrespects you, you have the right to say whatever you want in response. (iswis + whe)

stop hypersexualizing everything (adults especially). (iswis)

the excuses of, "they look grown" "i mentally think xyz" "theyre fake" is creepy and weird and yall should come up with a better excuse. (iswis)

yes i do believe minors should be writing for minors only, but i will not give a shit if an adult does if said characters are aged up in every work sfw or not. (iswis)

stop saying teens cant go through traumatic things and cant experience mental illnesses. it just shows that you werent cared for as a child and never get the therapy for it. (iswis)

gen z has a very colonized idea of activism. (iswis)

feminism was never for all women until the rest of us forced ourselves in. and even now it's still an issue whether or not people realize it or not. (iswis)

poc solidarity doesnt exist as much as we try to make it happen. (iswis)

colorism is an issue, and no you will not tell me otherwise. (iswis)

the hot cheeto girl is offensive and demeans black & hispanic culture. (iswis)

stop bashing minors for breathing, just say youre mad youre not young anymore and move on. (iswis)

black men are the white people of black people. (iswis)

there is no reason as to why you anyone would refer to black people as "blacks". nor should you (non-black people) be arguing whether or not to say nigga even with the hard r. (iswis)

if you (pertains to white people) think white privilege doesnt exist but go on to make fun of or ignore minority problems you are the living and breathing example of what we are talking about. (iswis)

loli/shotas are fucking disgusting and people who like it deserve to be tortured for eternity. (iswis)

seriously, stop using theyre "fake" as an excuse. (iswis)

if youre comfortable with being hateful to someone but still consider yourself a nice person because you do the hate minimum to be a decent human, youre either a narcissist or have a god complex. (iswis)

coons have no say in black issues. (iswis)

people need to stop blaming the "home wrecker" for ruining the relationship when it was the s/o's fault as well. there is no home to enter without an owner. (iswis)

stop saying any asian man yo see reminds you of a haikyuu character and or any anime character. it's racist. (iswis)

stop saying any asian person looks like a kpop idol, it's racist. (iswis)

stop downplaying and invalidating when black women go through traumatic things. not only does it promote that we have to be strong and save everyone else's problems, it says that we dont have emotions and cant be a victim which is disgusting. (iswis)

if you say shit like "minors curate your own experience" then go and turn around to say you REFUSE TO TAG YOUR SHIT YOU ARE LITERALLY MAKING THE PROCESS OF CENSORING HARD! (iswis)

white women are just as much of a problem as white men. only difference is sex keeping them apart. (iswis)

stop saying kpop is racist. expecting artists from a different political progression to understand that things can be offensive is bland. (iswis)

people accept boy groups fuck-ups more than they accept girl groups. and most times out of ten, the males are worse. (iswis)

if you engage in nsfw conversation with a minor, it is your fault they responded. (iswis)

anyone can be abused. (iswis)

stop coddling adults and bullying minors. (iswis)

most of you females have internalized misogyny and dont even know it. (iswis)

you can callout issues without having to drag a group of people. same with uplifting. (iswis)

if youre fine with being a sheep unfollow me. (iswis)

seven deadly sins is not a good anime. (iswis)

there is a difference between boku no hero academia fans based on if they call it "bnha" or "mha". (iswis)

ships literally are not serious stop harassing people over ships. (iswis)

do not harass creators of series because they do something with THEIR story. make your own. (iswis)

stop saying horikoshi sexualizes his women too much/mineta is the worst when you guys enjoy shows like one piece, hunter x hunter, naruto and etc. (iswis)

minors often or not are sheeps (heres your sign you dont have to agree with everything other people say). (iswis)

just because minors can be mature doesnt mean that they are adults. stop treating them as such. (iswis)

we should give more voice actors in the asmr (idk what to call it) community more recognition instead of just one. (iswis)

writers are the ones that send hate to other writers. anon hate is so corny and if you do it that goes to show that you are truly a toxic person wearing a fake mask of kindness when youre not on anonymous. (iswis)

stop being mean to smaller writers because they did not have as much luck as you. (iswis)

stop blaming your readers because one story flopped. (iswis)

ignoring someone's shitty actions encourages them to do it more. (iswis)

going to school and getting a job is much harder now than it was before. (iswis)

being an adult doesnt automatically make you mature. just because youre older doesnt mean youre better or you opinion is more valuable. it just shows that you werent heard when you were younger. (iswis)

there should be no reason as to why someone of the age of 18 should be having any romantic relationship with someone who is a minor. (iswis)

hawks is a shitty character. (iswis)

bakudeku isnt toxic. (iswis)

just because bakugo is in a ship, doesnt mean it's toxic. (iswis)

stop shipping male characters together simply because they have screen time together. it's creepy. (iswis)

almost all of 1-a students have ptsd and anything close to the after effects of being traumatized. (iswis)

no, editing characters to be poc is not racist. youre just mad they arent "white" when they never were. theyre asian and come in many colors as well. (iswis)

wanting to only be with a different race to get a mixed baby is fucking disgusting. (iswis)

stop ignoring pedo relationships between older women and younger boys and or with older women in general. (iswis)

males can be abused, stop telling them to suck it up or that they cant go through things. (iswis)

shaming young females about things they cant control is misogynistic and is damaging to their identity and shouldnt be excused. (iswis + whe)

not all females have to shave. (iswis)

what you dont like in someone is the projections you see of yourself on other people that you dont like about yourself. (whe)

popular bl stories extremely misrepresent gay relationships and frankly it's disgusting that theyre boosted as much as they are. (iswis)

jjba isnt ugly, you just watch animes to sexualize the characters. (iswis)

it's shitty that anime and kpop only became cool once white people stated to like it and made it mainstream. go gatekeep family guy or something. (iswis)

if you have been anime fan for a long time you were with bullied/teased for just generally liking it or you were a weirdo who recreated shit from it. (iswis)

weaboo and weeb were bad terms till we made them positive?? literally otaku is the word for it but we use weeb instead lol. (whe)

normalize and promote educating someone without going straight to bullying them. (whe)

haikyuu isnt really a good manga/anime nor is the art style the best but the characters make up for it. (iswis)

stop misusing terms and stop nitpicking definitions to manipulate your narrative. (iswis)

toxic positivity is manipulative and if you have to make it back handed you are not as nice as you like to make it seem. (iswis)

studying a major doesnt mean youre actually good in the subject. (iswis)

normalize people realizing their past mistakes and growing from it. (iswis)

do not self diagnos unless you actually feel like you may have that issue and would like to seek help. mental health is not a personality trait. (iswis)

stop projecting onto people. (iswis)

stop misusing terms and stop nitpicking definitions to fit your narrative. (iswis)

stealing any type of work should not be tolerated. (iswis)

constantly trying to trigger someone to go back to their old ways (being toxic, abusive, addiction, suicidal etc) after changing is toxic and manipulative. (iswis)

if you make jokes about hurting kids and or feel the need speak badly about them i do not want to speak to you. (iswis)

the human brain wasnt developed to understand complex ideas such as death or the universe. (iswis)

we will never truly know what is beyond our skies. (iswis)

thats all, thanks for sifting!

[vonhrxsvelg]

that’s it. kid gloves are coming off.

it’s 2020. we have dealt with a pandemic and rightfully increased anger towards police brutality and the wrongful deaths of innocent black people. we have been handed a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to take time out of our lives, listen to the voices of POC, and do our own self reflection on how we can unlearn our own racism and be better allies when it really matters.

the fire emblem fandom has a racism problem the size of jupiter. this is in no way new information, people of color have been saying this for years. these past few nights have truly brought out the worst in people.

we have people making tone deaf posts crying over rightful distrust towards law enforcement that does everything BUT protect people. we have clowns trying to explain and trivialize racism to people who have directly suffered it, whether in their current day-to-day lives or through transgenerational trauma. we have people who are called upon to hold themselves and their friends accountable who instead mock POC for daring to put them on the spot. people who speak out against this treatment are called aggressive or bullies when most of the time it’s the other way around.

here’s the thing: i’m a white jewish girl. i have a ton of privilege and a platform in which to amplify the voices of people of color. i am not saying anything different to any POC in the 3H community.

I’M NOT STUPID. I KNOW EXACTLY WHY THEY’RE GETTING HARASSED AND I’M NOT.

here’s what i’m going to do. i’m going to shut off anon on my blogs. i’m going to get more serious about who i follow and consider my mutuals. i’m going to continue amplifying the voices of people with perspective on this.

if you want to cry about how ‘boohoo we’re making the game with a huge subplot centered around racism and prejudice all about racism and prejudice’, go put on your big boy pants and tough it up. maybe read about propaganda films that affect how people view reality and consider not taking a nap during your sociology classes.

tl;dr: I AM DONE FUCKING AROUND.

[punkbuttt]

To be honest, when I went to the protest on Saturday , I really had no idea what it would turn into. I was fully expecting the demonstration to end at 3:30 line the event page said, but it didn’t and I was naive to think that in the first place.

We walked peacefully, there were a few people who were spray painting occasionally, but other protestors stopped them. That was the worst of it in the beginning. Just some spray paint on a building that could pay to have it removed ten times over. It wasn’t until we got close to the highway that protestors at the front started telling us to turn back. But my friends and I kept going. A barricade of police officers and their bikes stopped the march, and that’s when the tone changed completely.

Some people jumped on top of car and started smashing it. They were white. Then, canisters of smoke were released into the crowd. I don’t know what the smoke was but it wasn’t tear gas. I won’t lie as soon as I saw it I panicked. Other people did too. But we stayed. I’m so glad I wasn’t alone, but also very grateful we happened to run into my one friend at the beginning. They have experience with preotesting and we’re able to get us through it safely while still being helpful.

Then flash bangs started going off, and the car was on fire. We moved away just in case of an explosion. My friends and I ended up right in the front line of the protest, linking arms with strangers to hold the line. Yes, I was wearing a mask and so were the protestors. Only a handful of cops were, and even less than that were wearing body cams.

At one point they told us to move back. And without giving us any time to respond, or follow their order, we were being shoved with bikes. I took a handlebar hard to the gut. On cop shoved my friend as hard as she could to the ground. But we still held the line. Across the intersection from us, cops had surrounded a group of protestors with their bikes and wouldn’t let them go at first. When they finally did, two of the cops bikes were stuck together and they couldn’t get them apart without dismantling the bikes. A nice comedic break for a moment.

After a while, it seemed like the protestors on the other side of the intersection left to go back to city hall. I saw one person get arrested when this happened. Right before that, a counter terrorism group of police officers appeared in full riot gear. They walked off into the crowd opposite of us. I don’t know what happened with them. After a little while longer, and when more cops left, we went to city hall too. We walked to the municipal building first though, where the Frank Rizzo statue is. Frank Rizzo was the police brutality icon of Philadelphia mayors. This statue should have been taken down long ago. It was absolutely trashed when we got there and about 50 officers were guarding it. A fucking statue.

Cops came up from behind us to join the others guarding the statue. If you were in their way and didn’t move immediately, you got shoved or hit with a baton. We heard a girl ask for a nurse because she got hit and thought she may have a concussion. People were getting pepper sprayed by cops on the street. A girl ran out of the crowd with a bloody nose.

I heard some screaming and saw a white man holding a fucking Molotov cocktail. All the protestors around him shamed him into it throwing it at people. But he did smash the windows of a cop car and use the Molotov cocktail to light it up. And then the car park a few yards away went up in flames. And car a little further up from that one was lit on fire. And so was another. It almost seemed like it was being done to push the protestors back. We just stood there an watched the cars burn in front of city hall for a bit.

I didn’t realize how much my feet and legs were hurting until we sat down in front of city hall. We had been protesting and on edge for hours at that point. People were handing out masks, food, and water. It was around 6 at this point. I had originally thought I’d be down at 3:30. A Starbucks on the other side of city hall was burning. There’s a fire station about 5 blocks away and it took them forever to respond.

After hanging around city hall for a while, the 8pm curfew was announced. We had about an hour left before then. It had been a very long day, so we decided not to push our luck and head back to my place before curfew. On the way back, we saw some looting. I couldn’t care less. Some places that weren’t hit were starting to board up though.

Once we were at my apartment, we ordered food from a place close by and unaffected by the riots. Essential businesses, i.e. restaurants, were allowed to stay open. I hadn’t eaten all day. I took a shower and put all my clothes in a plastic bag to be washed separately.

We talked through what happened. We watched some shows to decompress. But there were long moments of silence just going through all social media, keeping up with what was still happening outside. Checking in on friends and family. You can’t just forget about what happened as soon as you leave the protest.

My one friend stayed over and my other friend left to go back to their house at 3am. At this point, worrying about corona was pointless. We had been around each other all day and strangers too. We’ll see what happens with that. But I couldn’t let that stop me from standing up for what’s right.

The next day, I stayed home. There were check points all around the city and Septa wa shut down so I was without any reliable transportation. But I spent the whole day arguing with family over it. I don’t know how many times or how many different ways that I had to make the point that black lives are more important than property. But I can’t let it slide anymore.

My mom called me later that day. I hadn’t told her I was at the protests, but since my aunts knew because of a Facebook argument we were having (it’s still going on, almost a whole day later) I wanted to tell her myself. We got into a huge fight. At the end she was weeping. I had a breakdown after that call and cried too. I don’t like to make my mom cry or worry about me. But it’s nothing compared to how black parents feel everyday.

I’ve been continually checking in with friends to make sure they’re safe and to see what’s going on in different parts of the city. I downloaded the citizen app to keep up with what’s going on around me. As I wrote this, it was hard to concentrate with all the information coming in from friends and the media. I heard multiple explosions. A fire started in a home near a coworkers house. The looting is starting to get closer and closer to me. I’m slightly worried because I live alone, but my apartment is basically in the back of a building and none of my windows face the street. I think I’ll be ok.

If you go out and protest, be safe. You’re risking catching and spreading a very contagious and deadly disease. Wear a mask, bring hand sanitizer. Take a shower and separate your clothes as soon as you get home. Sanitize what you brought with you to the protest. Social distancing is impossible so be prepared for the worst. Yes, protesting the quarantine was wrong. This isn’t.

It will be scary. This was the first time I’ve ever experienced a protest like this and there were point where I was shaking and on the verge of tears I was so terrified. Prepare yourself for that. And prepare yourself in general. Make sure you eat beforehand, bring lots off water and snacks, bring medical supplies, and know your rights.

If you’re white, don’t speak over the POC protestors. Let their voices be heard and protect them at all costs. Put yourself between them and the cops. It works.

Don’t feel bad or guilty if you can’t physically be there. You can still raise awareness, call people out on their racism, and donate to bail funds and other places to help the protests. Those are actions that we still need. And if you do go out and protest, don’t forget to take care of yourself after. Take an hour or two off of social media to reset and protect your mental health.

I’m writing this up because I don’t want to forget the details of what happened. Also I hope this helps inspire you to act. I know I don’t have a great following on here and I don’t care either way. But if this is the motivation someone needs to do something, I’ll be happy.

[foodbytesback]

How To (And How Not To) Support BLM Through Food

Much like how it was only a matter of time before I addressed COVID, it was only going to be a time before addressing the other disease plaguing America: racism.  Even if it may seem tangential to the focus of a food blog, America’ history of racial inequality and police brutality that have come to a tipping point in the wake of the killing of George Floyd can not and should not be ignored.  

Full disclosure: I’m a white (-passing; 25% Japanese, 100% irrelevant in this context) guy, so I am not going to claim to truly understand the full extent of what the black community has been experiencing all these years. If this was, ya know, a real publication with a real staff of writers, this story would have been given to a black writer. The best thing than non-black people can do to show their support is to listen to black voices, then act accordingly.  

However, since that would lead to a very short article, I’ll also take a moment to reiterate some of the things that said black voices have been saying.

Supporting Black Restaurants

One of the best (food-related) ways to show solidarity with the black community is to support black-owned restaurants.  This is getting increasingly easier to do, since many municipalities, wanting to save face and show superficial support to the protesters, have accumulated lists of such restaurants to make them easier to seek out.  And, with more and more states beginning to reopen and consumers being more and more eager to dine out again, there really isn’t much of an excuse not to.  Needless to say, doing so will put more money directly in the hands of black business owners, protecting their livelihoods.  

It may also be worth noting that with many non-black-owned businesses also voicing support, there is a right and wrong way to go about doing so.  

Ben & Jerry’s Response

Ben & Jerry's response is probably the most sincere one that I’ve seen from a non-black company.  Where many companies stopped with vaguely saying they stand with the protesters, Ben & Jerry’s went out of their way in this tweet thread to give a brief history of systemic racism and discuss how to enact reform at a local level.  And it all feels genuine, because the company has a long history of supporting social justice.  Ben and Jerry themselves were even arrested in 2016 while protesting in Washington D.C.  All in all, they use their privilege and the platform that comes with it to not only call attention to the plight of marginalized groups, but to demonstrate how to bring about effective change.

Bon Appetit’s Response  

Meanwhile, we have this editorial by BA’s editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport.  At surface level, it seems supportive enough, acknowledging that BA has a duty to address the issue, and urges its readers to support black-owned restaurants.  However, several things about it come off as performative at best, patronizing at worst.  A good chunk of the editorial is links to other BA articles they’ve done relating to race (many of which were done after the killing of Floyd on May 25th), so after a while the tone seems sort of self-congratulatory.  At the end, there’s a tacked-on call to donate to ACLU or NAACP, two already well-funded (although still very worthy) organizations that don’t need support as much as smaller bail funds, mutual aid funds, or local chapters of Black Lives Matter.  It also feels worth noting that, for all the claims of wanting to amplify black voices, back in mid-May, BA’s parent company, Conde Nast, laid off or furloughed hundreds of employees, many of whom were POC.

Hopefully I haven’t shot myself in the foot here, I had actually applied to a couple of positions at BA back in February. But in the grand scheme of things, making sure the right voices are being heard right now is more important.

EDIT: While I was doing last minute editorial work on this, a screencap of Adam Rapoport doing brownface has begun circulating around Twitter. 

Fucking YIKES.

[arsnovacadenza]

So I finally played The Wolf Among Us

 Being the big bad wolf fan that I am, I’d been dying to get my hands on the game after seeing images of Bigby floating around pinterest. Then I found out it was discounted around 50% yesterday and I knew I GOTTA have it.

Here’s a not-so-short rundown of my thoughts since no one’d read my full review anyway. Also, bear in mind that I never read the graphic novels so I’ll be judging the characters and plot solely on the first and (currently) only game. Spoilers under the cut!

The good:

Bigby. God I ENJOYED playing as him. There was great satisfaction being able to play this rough, potentially dangerous character and see him grow into this person that Fabletown finally grows to accept. During my first playthrough, I wasn’t able to play him as a brutal, full blown anti-hero because I need to keep him on the community’s good side. I’m definitely gonna replay the chapters and choose the more violent options and see him go full badass wolf on everyone. Speaking of badass, I constantly kept thinking to myself “Wow, I’d LOVE to play as him in an action game.” That one big fight scene against Bloody Mary made me go “You’re doing great, sweetie! Keep it up!” 

The story definitely got me hooked. There wasn’t a time when I wished a speed button was available unlike Hashihime in the Old Book Town where I got bored during a sex scene.

It didn’t remind me of Happily N’ever After and its forced self-awareness that borders on annoying. Mini rant: I love when stories are set in a world where fairy tale characters meet and interact with each other, but that doesn’t mean every work that does it interests me because the handling of  the theme may not quite work (for me at least). I haven’t rewatched Shrek, but I never rolled my eyes every time they make a joke about a fairytale character. I never watched Once Upon a Time but I feel it’s gonna be a pretty mixed bag? It’s just weird seeing all these adult characters taking the whole thing seriously and not in an endearingly self-aware kind of way. The Wolf Among Us kinda did it nicely in that yeah, these were fairy tale characters. Let’s see them work their way as poor people living in New York. I like how they take on the poverty angle because it kinda reminds me of my country, sorta. 

To my surprise, the fight scenes DID IT for me. It’s satisfying to be able to beat the shit outta people I wanted to punch from the very beginning of the game (the Tweedles and Mary. Boy I wanted to see them banged up real badly). To be honest, I never played these Telltale games and I had my doubts about the combat mechanics. Turns out they were done pretty well. Also, I can’t shut up about the final brawl against Mary because....Big Bad Boi.

The meh:

Most of the character designs didn’t wow me. I could name the characters whose design I liked: Bigby, Georgie, Flycatcher, Bluebeard. The rest? Not so much. Some characters like Nerissa were a hit-or-miss while the rest are predictable (Bufkin, Crane, etc) or completely forgettable (Faith and Vivian’s design. Faith’s was at least memorable because her introduction was). The worst one, to me, was Bloody freakin’ Mary. Her design was simply underwhelming. I absolutely adored her true form, but her glamored form was simply...not there. I understand they don’t  want to play the edgy up to eleven which was probably why they didn’t make her tattoo-ed up like Georgie (which is a shame because her emblem has a cool design. Imagine the cool tattoos she could’ve had), but her design was just half-assed (to me anyway). Not gonna lie, I actually was hooked up by her first appearance  —a tough looking enemy with big butch energy  —and then she opened her mouth and she sounds like fucking Bayonetta. This is probably just my personal taste, but I hate the femme fatale villain trope to death and I hate seeing this masculine lady sounding like a generic seductive villainess. Plus, I didn’t see her much during my playthrough so she ended up NOT coming across a real threat or a worthy opponent to Bigby, just a violent bully I need to get through. 

The love interest character’s development was a mixed bag. I didn’t hate Snow White (like some people seem to do), but I was disappointed that she drifted away from Bigby before she gets the chance to solidify herself as his equal and partner. I know she marries him in the graphic novels, but I didn’t quite root for them to be together in the game. Mostly because of the boss-employee dynamic they had towards the end of the game, but it’s also because I also started to see how she didn’t grow to be somebody who understands Bigby and the plight of the non-human characters of Fabletown (case in point being Mr. Toad and TJ). She keeps saying that she does understand what life is like for people like Holly and I did sympathize with her when she talks to Bigby about her wanting to make Fabletown a better place, but the plot cuts her development once she has to act as Deputy Major in Crane’s place. She eventually becomes affixed as a cog in the machine. Sure, she’s needed to keep the system running, but her insisting on going by the (outdated) book just didn’t work I kept getting reminded of Louis from Beastars and how got his character development was. In Louis’ case, he started out as an covert bigot who strongarms his way to obtain authority, thinking he’d be able to make the world a better place. He does make good out of it, but we also see him coming to terms with his vulnerability which leads him to reach out towards other people with the same goals. Simply put, he changed from a know-it-all who wants to change the world so they’d suit his own views better to someone who genuinely wants to make a difference for other people. This....kinda doesn’t happen with Snow White. It’s probably because the POV (who stays on Bigby the entire time) or they’re saving  her character development for the sequel; we can’t really tell until Season 2 comes out.

Speaking of which, how does being a giant, fearsome wolf in disguise reflect on Bigby’s relationship with other animal characters like Mr. Toad? I thought there was some potential in contrasting Mr Toad’s inability to afford glamor and Bigby having his lycantrophy knife handed to him by Snow. I imagine the animal townsfolk would take jabs at him having the privilege to remain constantly human without having to constantly return to the 13th floor but it never happened. 

The resolution of the Crooked Man’s plot felt rushed and I was disappointed with how they handled the organized crime plot. It was built to be a grand scheme beyond Crane and the murder of the girls, but they resolved it way too quickly. It’s probably just me, but when you have organized crime and financial exploitation by (persumedly) a mafia, do you expect the villain to have their ass handed back to them in two chapters after their buildup?I  mean, during Bigby and Crooked Man’s confrontation at the factory,  I kept expecting the  Crooked Man to make his escape after the battle against Mary  — him being immediately dragged to court was anti-climatic. Does it really take that short a time to take down a big, magical mafia boss? Shouldn’t he have other witches at his beck and call (the secret lab at Johann’s place definitely hinted at that!)

I won’t refute if somebody brings up the lack of diversity in the entire cast. As far as I know, there was only one black person and they didn’t do anything with her character. I thought It would be nice if we get to see POC characters like Aladdin or Yeh-Shen (or replace Aladdin with Sinbad or Ali Baba if we want to go for total accuracy). It doesn’t help that the predominantly white characters look generic. Heck, some of the girls could have some variety in body shapes. For example, why not make Holly be a big beautiful woman? If you don’t want to make her morbidly obese, at least make her look heavier. You know, because she’s a troll. No, her wanting to look beautiful by concealing her troll form doesn’t work. Her wanting to be her own kind of beautiful (especially according to Troll standards) can be contrasted nicely to Lily having to wear her human skin because she needs to cater to her clientele, thus further emphasizing her lack of choice in her employment to Guido (and by extent the Crooked Man). 

How long has it been since the exodus? Why is the Fabletown government still this terrible? I really want to be able to see the demographic at a bigger scope. For example, I’d like to see more of the dynamic between people like Bluebeard and the people at the Business Office. Also, what’s up with people with various problems going straight up to the Business Office? Do they not have accountants? How do they handle the legal stuff with the mundies? Who’s handling legal? The organization at the Business Office is just...weird. I thought they’d have some sort of higher council since I thought they’d need a bigger power to keep more powerful magic beings (like the witches) in place. Are things done better in the graphic novel?

Some of the animation lagged/look really janky on my Envy 13 laptop. Also, I encountered a bug at the beginning of some chapters where choices show up when they don’t need to, as well as some weird cuts during scene. Had to exit and reboot the game to proceed. 

That’s all I can think of now. Feel free to send an ask so we can gush about the husbando material that is Bigby Wolf if you have other opinions!

[amphtaminedreams]

A/W 2020 Fashion Month: Before Vogue Went Blank (Part 2)

Hi to anyone reading,

I was going to start this post by jumping straight into Dion Lee and part 2 in general but there's been a lot going on the past couple of days-although this blog is primarily fashion, it wouldn’t feel right to start talking about designers without acknowledging all the shit that’s been going down.

^Photo Credit to @spiltcoco on Twitter

Yesterday, police footage came out of US police murdering yet another black man in broad daylight-George Floyd. He joins Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and Alton Sterling, plus hundreds more named and god knows how many more unnamed African American citizens in the ever-growing list of victims of police brutality.

The majority of these are just people going about their daily lives, a majority of them doing absolutely nothing wrong; even those we know to have committed crimes have been unarmed and non-violent offenders. That being said, their offences are beside the point when we’ve seen the white perpetrators of mass shootings be calmly cuffed and escorted into the backs of police cars as if they were the ones selling cigarettes without permits. American police, given the amount of them that are armed, regularly become judge, jury and executioner trained for 8 weeks by an institution that originated from slave patrols. I cannot imagine how terrifying it is just to walk around as a PoC in America. I cannot imagine the collective trauma that has been suffered because of recent events on top of the intergenerational trauma that most likely exists because of centuries of oppression. I cannot imagine what it’s like to live in a country that was built to suppress you and was by law allowed to do so until very recently, those original structures still in place. I cannot imagine what it’s like to be made to feel like this is your fault. I mean, Boris Johnson is a useless, cold-hearted twat and I won’t defend him or this country for a minute (we have much blood on our own hands, and racial profiling is just as much a thing here as it is in America-I read earlier that you’re 28 times more likely to be stopped and searched in London as a non-white person compared to a white person), but I still can’t imagine him publicly advocating for the mass murder of groups he knows to be primarily made up of black people via Twitter. This whole situation is so unimaginably fucked up; anyone who still sees America as one of the world’s most developed nations needs to take a long, hard look at what is going on and reconsider that opinion.

Whilst we can’t fix everything, we can all speak up and make our voices heard, and it is our duty to do so. It’s not good enough to just “not be racist”, you have to be ANTI-racism, even if that means constantly reflecting on your own privilege and challenging your assumptions. Neutrality is complicity. Signing a petition isn’t going to change the world, but it’s a start:

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_abi&recruited_by_id=7ba70000-a127-11ea-87fb-d1ff0bf6ea96

As I publish this, there’s less than 50,000 signatures needed to hit the target of 6,000,000 so if you happen to see it, get signing! There are lots of other petitions online but Change.org seems to be the only major one you can sign in the UK as the other are US based and require a zip code. I never thought I’d close a paragraph by quoting Macklemore but the line “no freedom 'til we're equal, damn right I support it” is at the forefront of my mind right now. Again, neutrality is complicity. We’re never going to achieve a fair society by sitting on our asses and hoping things will improve. Let’s all do the best we can.

Sorry if that intro wasn’t what you came here for, but I just think it’s so important to talk about. I know I’ve said in the past that fashion is supposed to be an escape from everyday life but there are some times when real life needs our attention and this is one of them. Feel free to unfollow if you disagree.

Anyway, onto the fashion. If this is the first post you’re reading, welcome! There’s a part 1! But I don’t wanna be pushy so start here if you wish!

If you read part 1, welcome back! 

I ended that post by practically falling at the feet of Dilara Findikoglu, and I so wanted to start this post by regaining a sense of dignity and go straight into what-the-fuck-ing at Dior, but I know breaking chronological order would really piss off those “OmG I’m SoOo OCD, tHis BuzZfeEd aRtiCle WiTh DiFfereNt SiZed TiLes ToLd Me!” which is basically me minus claiming liking things to be organised means I have OCD-no, just dermatillomania and the denial that a compulsive skin picking disorder has anything to do with OCD because the neuroses club that is my brain doesn’t have any space left. SO, I have to continue where I left off and star the post with Dion Lee, whose collections I am a big fan of.

I could ramble a bit more but I did enough of that at the beginning of part 1 and am sure I’ll do more than enough in this post anyway, so here it is, Dion Lee:

Considering we ended with the maximalism of Dilara Findikoglu, sliding back over towards the other far end of the scale with a designer that tends to pitch their tent on the borders of the minimalism camp feels correct. Dion Lee, fortunately, seems the perfect collection to open with. There aren’t many other brands who do edge in such an understated and masterful way. If you want to be ready for combat and look like you’d fit right in at Vogue at the same time, look no further. This season’s collection is full of perfectly placed cut outs and immaculate tailoring and subtle street fighter-esque details as ever, and that’s why it pains me to say it:

Not that this is enough in the way of critique to restore my dignity by any means, it’s not a patch on last season.

I don’t think there was a single bad look in that show, and at times it felt like I was weeding through them here. When the looks were good, they were GOOD but a lot I found to be disappointing. Plus I have no idea why you’d put tie-dye in an A/W collection. I appreciate that it’s an Australian brand and that our winter is their summer, but they’re presenting to the rest of the world at fashion week and anyone in Paris, Milan, London and New York is going to be freezing their tits off and looking like a twat in an orange tie-dye sundress. There wasn’t much of a dip in quality for the menswear compared to last season, but honestly womenswear left a lot to be desired. That’s what happens when your expectations are high.

I used to think that if you assume the worst, it’s impossible to feel let down. And then I saw Dior’s A/W 2020 collection. Did a full 180 on that statement.

I suppose it’s a step up from haute couture, but then at least the styling in that was simple, and it just didn’t look like anybody had tried at all; here it’s clear Maria Grazia chucked everything she could at this collection, every headscarf, every gingham print, every shallow feminist undertone, and it was still a fucking mess. At first you think some of the individual pieces are cute but have just been ruined by the styling, and then you begin to look, and realise that even those individual pieces could’ve easily been bought in a New Look Boxing Day sale.

THIS IS CHRISTIAN DIOR, SUPPOSEDLY ONE OF THE MOST LUXURIOUS BRANDS OUT THERE. WHAT IS GOING ON!? 

I don’t know, I included as many looks that I didn't mind as I could, but it’s like there always has to be a crappy, unnecessary detail in there. Everything is so literal. Of course the collection based around the divine feminine has the models dressed like basic ass Greek goddesses, so of course the collection based around the modern woman and equality has women walking the runway in ties and ill-fitting shoes too. Maria Grazia, here is a box:

Think outside of it. 

Next is, thankfully, Elie Saab:

No, not exactly a trailblazer of a collection, but executed with poise and elegance as always. I mean, the styling is spot on. It looks like each part of the outfit was made for another, to contribute to a whole clearly envisioned look, similar to what we saw in the Alberta Ferretti show. Elie Saab is known for its haute couture shows where all the tiny details, the sequins and the silk and the embroidery come together to make something beautiful, and this is just that on a larger scale, with less “wow”s and more quiet admiration, more wishing you were the one wearing that outfit. If you’re gonna play safe, do it this well. The night dresses are stunning of course, but not even my favourite bit of the show. It’s the casual looks, the pussy bows and the ruffles and the neck scarfs and the private girls school monochrome colour palette with the occasional pop of red or purple, a toned down version of what we saw at haute couture, any of which deserve to be worn whilst eating macarons in front of the Eiffel Tower before trip to Musee D’Orsay. It’s Poppy Moore’s school uniform grown up and made fit for a fashion magazine editor:

Somehow managing to cram an Emma Roberts early 2010s fashion moment into every post is my talent, who knew. Wild Child was really a gem.

Erdem was a mixed bag:

With a lot of the outfits, I can’t tell if I actually like the garments that much or if I just like the look as a whole. I mean, without sounding too gluten-free Callie from the Valley, I like the VIBE, but there was a lot of outfits I almost included before I had to ask myself “LAUREN, do you ACTUALLY like this or do you just like the walking-into-your-sugar-daddy’s-will-reading-to-claim-his-fortune DRAMA of it all!?” 

It happened a couple of times, where once I took off my black and white, theatrical violin accompanied entrance filtered sunglasses, I realised that the actual print was ugly. A collection so cohesively ornamental and kitschy is going to lean too far into that at times, and they were a few overly-fussy moments where it seemed less nudge nudge wink wink and more like Erdem Moralıoğlu fell into his grandma’s wardrobe, stole some fabric, and called it a day. I don’t want to sound like I’m not a fan of the collection because overall it’s gorgeous, I just thought it was a bit much at times.

Continuing with the theme of clever seasonal continuity that weaved its way throughout this year’s A/W offerings, Ermanno Scervino kept the core of his summer collection and made it just that little bit darker, added some weight to everything, and this is one of the rare occasions where I like the winter incarnation a lot more. I’m not huge about either but there’s a lot of things I’d love to wear here, the coats especially.

Up next is a reliable favourite of mine: 

Etro.

Was it REALLY necessary for you to include ALL those coats I hear you ask?

Alaska Thunderfuck as Gia Gunn voice: Absolutelyyyy.

When it comes to bohemian fashion, Etro is unbeaten. Everything is always exquisitely coordinated and styled. Like I usually fucking hate aztec print but I love the way it’s done here. I’ve never known a brand to make belts seem like such an integral, tasteful part of the outfit in a field where they so often seem like a last minute addition for the sake of accessorising; it pains me to say it, but Elie Saab, I’m looking at you. It’s your only fault. 

Yes for bringing back embroidered jeans! Yes for all those high necks! Yes for the tapestry print! Yes for the Afghan waistcoats! Etro will keep fedoras cool forever and I love them for that; I don’t know if she ever actually wore any of their stuff but I just know Stevie Nicks was in her prime would’ve ate this shit UP and she is my style icon for the ages. Plus, I might be way off base here but a lot of the collection seems to be inspired by traditional Romani style and it’s a beautiful direction to take things, a treasure trove of layers upon layers and rich textures and opulent prints.

I can’t wait til the phase of my phase of my life where I can swan around in maxi dresses and ponchos. I just hope those maxi dresses and ponchos are Etro.

Onto another brand which hasn’t had a bad show since I started my reviews: Fendi. This season, they took their late 60s/early 70s wild child aesthetic and gave a millionaire’s high maintenance wife spin on it, and what’s not to like about that? 

I mean, Fendi is a brand which is always going to excel in its F/W presentations-the rich, bohemian prints (pro-tip: if you can’t already tell, me mentioning the word bohemian in a review pretty much guarantees I like the collection), the furs, and the warm colour palette all perfectly translate into clothes suited for walks through a city going through a post-summer burnout, where it rains red and orange leaves. You can tell Silvia Fendi is in her element when she’s got texture to play with, something that comes across in the gorgeous coats Fendi consistently puts out, and this season continues that trend. Plus, there’s a lot of adorable details here-shoes that show off the decorative socks underneath, the cube shaped bags and those furry ear muffs which I hope bring about a high street muff renaissance because they’re the equivalent of slipper socks for my ears and THEY’RE ACTUALLY REALLY PRACTICAL. The only thing I’m not in love with is the mirrored glasses, and I can’t help but think how replacing them with a pair of grandad style aviators would be the icing on the cake for the collection. Maybe I just need to see Miss Robyn Rihanna Fenty wearing them and then I’ll get on board. Usually works.

Ah, GCDS. I got so excited for it after last season but this time round, it was a bit of a disappointment. There were a few outfits that semi-matched up to how cutting-edge I saw their last collection, however a lot of the pieces looked pretty low quality. I get that streetwear is in the name, but it’s supposed to be a high fashion take on that, and a lot of the looks were quite pedestrian. Stand outs are the top 2 rows and the leather motocross style jumpsuit on the far right, third row down, but the quality of these pieces wasn’t consistent across the board and I feel like I ended up having to convince myself I liked some of the others just so I had enough photos to justify including the brand. It really sucks when I look back on how ahead of the game last season’s collection was-we’re talking outfits that wouldn’t be out of place on Instagram’s Tokyofashion page and as far as I’m concerned that’s the fashion holy grail. Some of these looks, especially the menswear, could be from a Boohoo TV ad and that makes me sad.

Meanwhile, Giambattista Valli put out a collection that looked like a virtual postcard of Parisian fashion; if a St-Germain-des-Prés streetwear themed Instagram doesn’t exist already, someone should capitalise on that, stat, because if my typical vision of French feminine fashion is correct it would be full of outfits like this. I feel like this is what a fashion novice EXPECTS Chanel to look like. Trust me-these days the reality is much more disappointing.

There’s many things I'm happy to see here besides the tulle and florals and prettiness I expect of the brand. Obviously the berets and the bows and the elbow length gloves are the kind of off-duty ballerina style touches I’ve become accustomed to but there are also some nice surprises here: the military style white jacket, the unexpected snake motif on clothing that’s otherwise overly delicate, and to my delight the return of the boater hat. IDGAF, this is the summer where I’m buying myself one off Ebay and making this happen for me whether they become a “thing” or not. I shouldn’t squander having this little of a double chin; the opportunity may never present itself again. 

I haven’t watched Killing Eve in a longggg time since there’s only so much of two women attempting to kill each other and then miraculously avoiding death you can watch but I’d love to see Vilanelle prancing round a city in this kinda shit slitting some necks again. I hope that doesn’t make me sound like too much of a sadist; only in a purely fictional world is this something I want to see, I assure you.

Givenchy was really, really great this season too, imo. Definitely a step up from the last RTW anyway. Aside from the drama of the exaggerated floppy brim hats and the quirky tassle detail dresses a la Schiaparelli, a lot of these outfits kinda remind me of something a Miranda Priestly/Cruella De Vil type would wear, and you know me; I’m all for that kind of intimidating, about-to-either-slap-you-or-fire-your-ass bad bitch energy. The gathered leather gloves with the androgynous subtly checkered power suits feels CORRECT and if Giambattista Valli is the bottom in this relationship, Givenchy is the top. Am I allowed to reinforce sapphic relationship stereotypes as a bi girl? Probably not. I’m sorry. Won’t do it again. Just this once. And you know I’m right really xoxo

And OMFG Gucci. Another impeccable collection for me, honestly. Once again, it’s probably my favourite of the season. How it is that Alessandro Michelle gets it SO right for me despite his vision being so bold and different every time? He has this specific brand of strange, conceptual beauty which blends past and present trends in a way so supreme it should be considered art. It’s not a term to throw around loosely but the man is a genius, and tbh I’m still not over the human head props from the 2018 F/W winter show.

In my Haute Couture week review, I talked about the Viktor and Rolf collection (which I loved, don’t get me wrong!) and said that pretty meets grunge is my fave thing ever-this is that, but much even more substantial and intelligent. The Wes Anderson-esque pieces or that late 60s/early 70s hipster aesthetic that I loved in last season’s show hasn’t been done away with either-be it the level of detail or the colour scheme, it all somehow fits together. Never did I think I’d see dresses fit for porcelain dolls through the lens of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen seamlessly slotted in between outfits that could’ve been put together from the clothing rack of Dazed and Confused’s costume department. I want it all-opulent fur-trimmed coats, crucifix jewellery and pilgrim hats I’m sure both Edgar Allan Poe and modern goths would approve of, and the tiered skirts that wouldn’t be out of place in a Westworld saloon. The models were delightfully sad and almost creepy looking and I wouldn’t change that for the world. To say 10/10 doesn’t do it justice, so I’m gonna have to open a reviewer’s can of worms and say 100/100.

Gucci is a tough act to follow, and I’m sorry it has to fall onto the shoulders of Halpern. In the nicest possible way (as if there is any nice way of saying it), I don’t think I any expected anything but a downgrade, so if anything, my standards will be lower so...Michael Halpern, you can thank me I guess? 

That was really mean, I’m sorry. It’s not a bad collection, and I definitely like it more than last season’s. It’s a slightly garish colour palette at times but an exciting one in spite of that, which when paired with the animal print dotted throughout makes this collection the perfect fit for a tropical beach party or at the very least, a semi-decent night at the Caribbean themed bar in your local town centre. The sequins and silk, a Halpern trademark, are as tastefully done as ever, and seeing them on the models, I can’t deny these are some power fits-the kind of clothes you are bound to look and feel confident in; if you wanted to play queen of the urban jungle for a night, this is what you need to be wearing.

Ah, Hermes.

Generally not one to stoke a fire inside me. In all fairness, the tailoring here is really, really nice and French biker chic, and the pieces are perfectly crafted-it’s not that I don’t like the outfits because I think that if I saw one of them individually in a natural, messier setting I’d probably be impressed. These are classy, elegant winter looks and what more could you want when you’re looking for outfit inspiration for this season? It’s just that it’s always a little too neat and uniform for me, and on the runway I like my fashion to be risky. This could almost be the sophisticated mother to a Tommy Hilfiger collection and whilst that’s something I would probably wear if I wanted to look put together, it’s not what you get excited to see at fashion week. Primary colours all together aren’t where it’s at for me either, the infamous colour scheme of the cheap plastic playhouses you’d find in the garden of every working/middle class British household back in the day. Yes, I had one. So did the after school club I was forced to attend whilst my mum was at work. Apparently the negative connotations are still too much for me (a boy I went to the after school club with did once fall off the back of one and crack his head open so maybe it’s justified).

Isabel Marant was pretty much exactly what you’d expect from Isabel Marant; if the Etro bohemian woman is one who rolls out of bed and chucks on the first thing she sees, the Isabel Marant bohemian woman is the one who claims she’s done the same thing but who actually planned it all out the night before. She designs for the gluten-free, bikram yoga Kourtney Kardashian style “hippy” who claims to be a free-spirit but would definitely not do acid with you. I was gonna say it was a collection for the Gwyneth Paltrows of the world but then I remembered Gwyneth proudly released a candle she claimed smelled like her vagina and changed my mind-she’d definitely do acid with you. 

It’s definitely a cohesive transition from the summer collection; both have that seemingly laid-back, clean-cut vibe, and cater to the rich, impeccably groomed scented candle loving woman everywhere. Obviously the pieces are a tad more suited to an alpine lodge in Switzerland than a beach in Malibu this time round, but that same mild colour palette, pretty, naturalistic patterns, and generally relaxed fit persists. It’s cute enough.

J.W Anderson is a bit of an enigma.

Despite the experimental silhouettes and the kooky details that you think would very “look at me!”, the collections still seem to have a chilled, easy-going feel to them. They toy about with the strange but remain entirely sophisticated whilst doing so-I think it’s because aside from the little quirks that make the garments J.W Anderson, they’re otherwise fairly reserved and simple; even the quirks themselves mostly tend to be exaggerated, more conceptual takes on more typical stylistic motifs anyway. Anderson has a knack for producing statement pieces that don’t look like they’re trying too hard to be statement pieces, a talent he expertly deploys at Loewe as well. Whilst Maison Margiela collections are like the fashion equivalent of that Jughead “I’m weird, I’m a weirdo” speech, J.W Anderson’s refusal to conform is quiet and modest. I like it. It’s not generally my personal style but I can admire the thought behind the work, and there are still some things I’d love to try. I have a few standouts-the shoes with the hoop detailing dancing from the ankle straps, the dress on the bottom right with what appears to be art nouveau typography on, the trench coat with the cape detailing and the gossamer dress to its right are all stunning, especially that dress. If I ever want to dress as the bubble Glinda the Good Witch descends in when she meets Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I know where to go, though I don’t suppose there’s going to be an occasion that calls for that any time soon. Can I just have the dress anyway?

Kim Shui is another new designer I found through blessed Twitter screencaps-thanks guys for doing my research for me. Much appreciated.

But anyways! Like Charlotte Knowles, it’s clear she’s still establishing her aesthetic as a designer, and thus far I love it. The whimsical, throwback prints on urban silhouettes that range from the androgynous suits of city dwelling cool girls to the amped-up sex appeal of nightclub dresses is gorgeous, especially twinned with dainty headscarfs and opera gloves-all in all I think this a very cool and wearable collection and I’m looking forward to the next collection she puts out.

Next up is Lacoste, and IDK why I always include their collections to be honest, considering they’re not really known for “high fashion”. I guess it’s because my dad has collected Lacoste shirts since I was little so I kinda have a soft spot for it and feel obligated to include it every time presentation season comes around. Yes, the outfits are unbearably preppy and the colours are garish but I feel like that’s kind of the appeal? So what if some of the tracksuits look like they could’ve been pulled out of a bad mafia movie? I see the argyle jumpers, with a bit of wear and tear, as a charity shop gem my sister would come across (she has the #Y2K Depop girl knack for finding old designer pieces in the shittiest charity shops without the audacity to try and sell them at a 70% markup) that I would then steal from her wardrobe to wear myself, contrasted with a ripped mini skirt, chains and and docs. I see the POTENTIAL of a look that is very fuck you to the rich middle age tory styling we see here. It’s punk, okay?

Lanvin was STUNNING this time around. Maybe it’s because I’ve been watching Mad Men recently and it reminds me of the fashion on that-which I hope somebody won an award for at the time BTW, it is SO fucking good-but I just adore every look here. I can’t even remember if I reviewed Lanvin’s SS20 show, and so clearly if I did it wasn’t that memorable (no shade intended), however this collection is a different story. Every single one of these outfits is iconic movie moment worthy, a 60s Cher Horowitz plaid two piece equivalent that would get screencapped and replicated ad-nauseam, all the best looks of Betty Draper and Peggy Olsen and Joan Holloway and Megan Calvet brought together and refined for the modern day woman. I might even consider sacrificing my anti-royalist principles if it meant I could transport myself back in time and switch bodies with Grace Kelly so I could make this collection my princess-off-duty wardrobe and drive around Monaco in that Bella Hadid look, roof down, all the drama of the fur trim and the gloves and hair whipping about in the wind (but in this unrealistic vision I can actually see what I’m doing and I’m not choking on random strands and swearing at Mother Nature as if she is a real entity with a personal vendetta against me).

Loewe! More J.W Anderson! I’m gonna try not to repeat myself by arsekissing too much all over again and get the good points out of the way quickly! So rapid fire: elegant! Delicious colour palette! Interesting shapes! I think I’m seeing a Victorian/Edwardian influence there! Correct me if I’m wrong! I like it! The coats are strong! Remind me of the suffragettes! But lets pretend in this case these Loewe style coat wearing suffragettes are not raging classists!

AH. Apart from that, it was a bit too austere for me. I definitely preferred Anderson’s eponymous collection; there were a fair few recurring details in this show that I couldn’t get behind that I didn’t include, in particular this bib-like black panel that just kept popping up on everything. Sorry J.W Anderson. But a 50% success rate is still good! And at the end of the day, having 2 collections on Vogue Runway at once is more prestigious than the accumulative total of every accomplishment I’ll probably ever have achieved in my life by the time I’m on my deathbed so what do I know anyway? Sigh:( At least I’ll always have the honour of having the largest head by circumference of my class in year 4, right *sweats nervously*!?!?! 

Louis Vuitton was definitely a downgrade on last season for me. There were for sure elements I liked-the Vera Wang-esuqe mixing of the tulle bustle skirts with the rougher, more masculine biker inspired vests and jackets was a cool choice, reminiscent of Gucci’s mixing of the lace dresses with harnesses. I enjoyed the baroque jackets and subtle nods to steampunk style too. Though we’ve already seen it a lot this season, the wet look coat with fur trim I can’t help falling in love with, and I’m immune to the potential ugliness of the muted blue monotone look purely on the basis I can picture Ripley from Alien in it. So like I said-it’s not as if I hated it. I guess when it comes down to it, the collection wasn’t bad so much as I just had higher hopes. I will say though, the staging was INCREDIBLE. As a history nerd, I never thought I’d see the day when a Henry the 8th lookalike actor was part of the backdrop of a Paris fashion week show-and I always thought there was no interesting career path for me in the subject!

And another big name I don’t tend to be so partial to, Maison Margiela. IDK, I did like last season but I wasn’t a fan of haute couture and it took me a while to warm to this. Call it deconstructed, experimental, whatever, but you know when you can’t decide what to wear and you’re in a rush so you kinda just throw all the shit you decided against into a pile? Well, my initial thought was that this season Margiela is kinda that, on the runway.

I will say, once I let go of my need to see a clear shape, a lot of the individual pieces were stunning (NOT the puffed up tabis though, I still can’t even get behind the regular ones). I guess I just wish they’d go for less is more with the styling because as it currently stands, it makes it hard to actually take the clothes in. 

Ultimately, one thing you can always say about Margiela, like their clothes or not, is that it has a monopoly on being effortlessly bold.

Marc Jacobs I really liked again, though I will say it doesn’t stand out quite like the S/S collection did. That was absolutely STUNNING-I can’t remember specifically where I ranked it in my top ten but I know it was at least in the top 5. This, on the other hand, is...pretty. It’s very pretty, and very put together, so I’m not saying at all that I don’t rate it. I suppose it’s just a lot simpler than I expected it to be-I don’t have a problem with simplicity, at all, especially if it’s what a brand is known for but I feel like part of the appeal with Marc Jacobs is that it’s pretty kooky. I mean, not Thom Browne or Margiela kooky, but commercial kooky at least. I feel like the kookiness is lacking here? And that’s where this feeling is coming from? And also, the fact that Lanvin tackled the same era and did it a lot better? So there’s that, too. Plus, I adore Miley Cyrus but...why? Random celebrities waking the runway just doesn’t do it for me-it always comes across as a publicity grab, as if the designer isn’t confident enough in their collection’s ability to get people talking on its own, and I suppose in this case that says it all really.

Margaret Howell was...well, Margaret Howell. She’s known for her basics, and they’re always pretty non-offensive “regulation hottie” in the words of the icon that is Damian from Mean Girls. It’s been, what, four years? More? Since I last watched that film but I’m pretty sure watching it about twenty times between the ages of 9 and 15 tattooed it on my brain. I include her because even though they don’t get my pulse racing, I like these pieces; considering the fact that expecting straight white men to ever have style on the level of barbiedrugz (his instagram is my favourite thing ever) or Rickey Thompson is ludicrous, Margaret Howell’s menswear looks are probably are the best, realistic goal for any future partner. Because I like my men dressed like Paddington bear/a depressed Brown University English lit lecturer, okay? Or in other words, Will Graham from Hannibal.

Marine Serre had a few good moments-the looks that I liked were the ones that stayed within her lane of blending the weird with the visually appealing. There were a lot of cool things going on, and I like the utility vibe (the boot with the pouch detailing and the mask are perfect examples of this done well), but outside the fits I picked out a lot of it went over my head tbh.

Marques Almeida is a show I was looking forward to-it has such a youthful, experimental quality to its collections (it’s no surprise the designers said they were influenced by the HBO show Euphoria this year!), similar to Central Saint Martins, and you can tell the designers (Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida) are based in London too; we are talking about the birthplace of the punk fashion movement, and as a designer it’s probably almost a rite of passage that you incorporate elements of that into your work. Marques Almeida does that with a flair and consistency you can count on. Their clothes don’t have the wildest silhouettes or anything like that but the fun they have playing around with print and colour and the ease and confidence with which they settle on those combinations always comes through-the black and white coat with the yellow furs trim is one of my favourite pieces from the entirety of this season’s offerings.

I wasn’t so fond of Max Mara’s SS20 collection and I'm not gonna lie, this isn’t THAT much of a step up for me personally. It’s just one of those brands I feel obligated to include because it’s talked about quite a bit but I’m not totally sure if it’s for me. Too monotone, but I’ll give it another season! And I mean, there is a slight improvement here-this collection is a lot more laid back than the stiff, austere feel of the last, and there are some very well fitted and structured pieces. A lot of the looks kinda remind me of a 2020, fashion take on The Breakfast Club’s “Basket Case”, which is kinda cool, and just from looking at the clothes, the high price tag is palpable. Also, scruffy hair club unite! Though obviously it’s intentional here! That’ll be my excuse for the next time I turn up at work looking like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards-Max Mara made me do it.

Ending on those words of wisdom, I’m gonna bring this post to a close, because I can’t fit any more photos in! I’m desperately hoping that I can fit this all into 3 parts like I did with my last RTW review but even if I do have to make 4 posts, I still include my top 10 shows as I did before. I hope to get that post up within the next couple of weeks! After that, I’ve shot a Lana Del Rey inspired by each of her different albums and “era”s though given last week’s events I’m on the fence about whether to post it or not, especially given her silence over the last couple of days. I’m really proud of what I’ve put together and I’ll always love her art and music (I have 2 bloody tattoos, for fuck’s sake!), so I’m trying to think how I can reconcile that with those awfully worded posts and just the general lack of awareness of bigger issues that she’s displayed the last week. JFC, being a Lana stan has always been so chilled up until now. All the very valid and important takes aside, that “Lana pls delete that post and apologise, we can’t fight the barbz all your stans are depressed” tweet is the only good thing to come out of this shitshow. He got a point. Breathing feels like effort lately:( IDK, if you’re also a Lana stan and you have any opinions on the matter, feel free to DM me, because I’m feeling pretty conflicted rn.

Most importantly though, are the issues I opened this post by talking about, and I thought I’d finish by including the thread of petitions I saw on Twitter. Like I said, a lot of them aren’t available to sign in the UK but to anyone who read up until this point (thank you!) idk where you’re reading from so maybe some of them will apply to you:

https://twitter.com/yericvIt/status/1265801832930045953

Also, while we’re at it, because every tory voting twat seems to treat our country as if it’s some beacon of hope where racism is non-existent and love to tell PoC to stop moaning about their experiences, here’s a thread of black British men and women who have lost their lives to police violence:

https://twitter.com/illh0eminati/status/1266441604170223617

Thank you for reading until the end. I hope that you enjoyed the fashion part of the post but also that if you did read this far, you read the other bits too if you didn’t know what was going on already. It seems like everyone does but you forget that Twitter’s a bit of an echo chamber and that outside of it, there’s a lot of ignorance, whether intentional or not. I know Tumblr has a similar audience to Twitter so I imagine there’s loads on here about everything going on too, but ya know. I wanted to talk about it just incase. 

Stay safe, keep fighting the good fight, and again, thank you for reading!<3

Lauren x

[oadara]

No Social Media and Comment on Racist Game of Thrones Leaks

I’m queuing this post because I will not be on social media today. There have been spoilers and leaks for the first three episodes, and I’d like to avoid those and just enjoy the episode without it being spoiled.

Now my comments on the leaks:

Yesterday we had a very interesting exchange on Twitter discussing the leaks the claim that Missandei will be killed and that the Unsullied will go crazy and kill the women and children of King’s Landing. Most of you are white and you might not have been able to see the inherent racism in such a theory but I’m here to tell you it’s there, loud and clear.

After mulling it over a bit more after the discussion I got myself worked up because the more I thought about it, the angrier it made me. In the past, the show has been tone-death to its portrayal of people of color (POC), more specifically the Mhysa moment in season 4. I will leave the Dothraki out of this particular discussion because that’s a problem inherent in the books as well. However, after some backlash from the Mhysa moment I believe the show has been much more conscious about how POC are portrayed.

In fact, in the first two episodes of this season, the show went out of its way to show how the North reacted to the foreign army, mostly composed of POC, of Daenerys, and it was with fear and disdain also known as xenophobia and racism. We had two such scenes where the only two characters who are POC got to experience that fear and disdain first hand. To the point where they had a discussion that after the war was over, they would return to Missandei’s homeland of Naath.

Now, we have these leaks that claim that the Unsullied, a group of a highly trained, highly disciplined soldier, who are mostly POC and are the unsung heroes of the Battle of Winterfell are going to suddenly lose their minds and attacked innocent white women and white children. So, after showing the unsullied being treated poorly by white people, the show is going to turn around and have the white fear justify, by having this army of POC attack, innocent white people. Do you see what the problem is?

I can already feel that someone you want to reflectively justify this by saying that color doesn’t matter, and this is just war and people lose it sometimes. But I’m here to tell you that it does matter because it was shown to matter by the show itself at the beginning of the season and because in our real world these visuals do matter. Game of Thrones is a very white show, it has exactly two speaking roles filled by POC, and is going to kill these two roles off by having one be the sacrificial lamb for the other one to go crazy. Thus, by the end killing off all the crazy brown people.

If you cannot see how racist as fuck that is, I don’t know what to tell you.

P.S. While I’m at it, I want to address the misogynist portion of this leak. Because apparently, this leak wanted to hit all the sweet spots.

A lot of the criticism surrounding Daenerys has been misogynistic in nature. She’s judged by a different metric as male characters and her actions are viewed through the lens of, is she a crazy power-hungry female because in our patriarchal society, women who are ambitious, women who want power, women who are not deferential to men, have to be crazy. The worst part is that this is intrinsic to our society so women like this get criticized by both men and women.

So, Daenerys is going to go crazy at the end, because this is a theory that has existed since the character first appeared. There is zero new about this. However, in this scenario Jon Snow has to put Dany out by, can anyone guess? Stabbing her with his sword. I guess we are still not done with Nissa Nissa.

As misogynistic as this already is, let me point out the grandeur misogyny here:

By the end of this series, we will have two powerful queens, who will both go crazy, both have to be put down by men so that a man can rule peaceful now that the power-hungry woman is gone. Though, there’s an alternate leak where Sansa takes the throne, because reasons. By the way, having Sansa take the throne doesn’t make this any less misogynist.

I think HBO is well aware of how this could come across but more importantly, I know GRRM is well aware of the double standards in which his female and male characters are judged. He did not just have Jon and Daenerys go through parallel journeys for fun. There’s more going on there if you care to look into it.

Okay, and now I am so done. 

[loptgangandi]

so! literally no one asked, but these last 3 weeks have been a hell of a ride let me TELL YOU 

so happy mun-day now you get to hear all about it!! (with pictures, I’m not a monster)

here’s the cliffnotes version: 

december week 1: simultaneously moved back into a place and took classes then moved out of that place while taking classes and planning a 2-day overland trip from sweden to madrid. took said trip. 

december week 2: attended the unfccc climate conference COP25 in madrid, got kicked out for protesting in solidarity with indigenous ppl & kids, got let back into COP the next day & proceeded to go to more panels and also protests. no i did not see greta thunberg but she was there. I did not see harrison ford either. I did shake al gore’s hand tho.

december week 3: week #1 with my mom’s new twin one-eyed cyclops kitties (yes both of them), spent the week frantically writing 2400 words of nonsense that hopefully resolved themselves into two coherent enough papers to snag me a nice grade then took a 36-hour trip up to london to see my sister perform at her bitchin new job.

elaboration under the cut.

Hell Week (or) Why You Sometimes Should Fly to Climate Conferences

So, after the nonsense with The Roommate From Hell (reddit rant here), I moved out of my room at her place and back into the dorms (where I still had a lease through the end of December). That required a fair bit of effort, but I moved things bit by bit over the course of about a week, and it was manageable. 

But I had to be out of the dorms and have the place clean by the time I left for the climate conference, which in itself was a whole lot of coordination. Wednesday the 4th of December was probably among the worst, most frustrating days I have ever had, and I desperately hope I never have to deal with that level of fuck this fuck you fuck me fuck everything for a very, very long time. Somehow -- by some miraculous act of the gods -- I pulled it out, and managed to get my stuff into my friend’s basement, my plants into another friend’s apartment, my bags packed, my room clean as a whistle, my self moved into my hostel, and to every damn class that week. My interrail tickets came the day I planned to leave -- it was a tight fit -- and I managed to book trains and busses from Uppsala to Madrid with half an hour to spare, and get on the first train (Uppsala to Stockholm) in good time.

The next 48 hours went like this:

Stockholm -> Copenhagen (by train): uneventful, but Copenhagen train station on a Friday night is a little dicey, especially when you’re dragging around a 45 lb suitcase and another 15 lbs on your back

Copenhagen -> Hamburg (by overnight FlixBus): Uneventful, and I was sitting by a window with no one sitting next to me, so I was able to doze a bit on the trip. 

Hamburg -> Basel (by high-speed rail): This one I should have booked. The website said that a reservation was recommended, and I understand why. If I’d had a quiet cabin -- or even just a consistent seat for the whole 7-hour journey -- I’d have been able to get a decent night’s sleep. Instead, I kept having to move to give people their reserved seats, and didn’t get more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep.

Basil -> Olten (train): this one was a mistake

Olten -> Brienz (train): where the fuck am I

Brienz -> Lausanne (train): oh right yes that’s the direction I want to go yes good get on that one

Lausanne -> Geneva (train): oh thank fuck, I 100% know where I am and am back on track. Sunglasses & 30 hours without sleep is a Look.

Geneva: Spend 3 hours with my mom, put a week’s worth of clothes into a considerably smaller suitcase, eat dinner. meet mom’s new kittens, Saga and Luna

Geneva -> Lyon (bus): Get confused about which bus to get on, get told off by the bus driver we were trying to convince to let us on his bus, realized mom had been trying to put me on the wrong bus. Get on the right bus. Go to Lyon with bus driver who speaks no French or English, only Spanish.

Lyon -> Barcelona (night bus): Hell. Just. Absolute Hell Bus. Wanted To Die all night. Assigned to aisle seat just before the very back next to a very, very tall man who was quite polite but had no room for his legs. Behind us were two men, one of whom was loudly chewing gum until he took off his shoes and fell asleep, the other of whom snored like a gd bulldozer. Aisle seat and wailing baby a few rows down meant that my chances of sleeping comfortably were 0. I did manage to doze off a bit, but only because I was so strung out from not sleeping the night before. Eventually made it to Barcelona alive and lent my phone to the very nice lady with the wailing baby (plus like 5 other family members, none of whom had cell service). 

Barcelona -> Madrid (train): Absolutely gorgeous train ride through the Spanish countryside that I really did want to stay awake to enjoy. Managed to do so until we got to an elevation where it was just thick, dense fog and I let myself fall asleep. 

Madrid: I arrived at my hostel groggy, dazed, and in pain from two bad nights in a row. I considered a nap, but also considered that I’d need to wake up early the next morning and would need to fall asleep. Opted to try to set up my COP25 blog instead. Failed due to aforementioned grogginess. Walked to the corner to get some food and tried to pay for it with Swedish kronor, which didn’t work. Apologized, explained to the amused man that it had been a long weekend, paid him in Euros instead. Used the hostel’s dry sauna (!!!!), took a shower, and went to bed. 

COP25 - The Old White Fuckening

So, listen, I’m not going to go into detail about COP. If you want to read about how much of a tonedeaf clusterfuck the negotiations were (as opposed to the really interesting, inspiring stuff happening in the side sessions), BBC has some good articles. 

If you want to listen to some of the press conferences and plenaries, here they are. I especially recommend the ones by the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus, Fridays for Future, and as many of the Indigenous Peoples’ statements as you can (most of them are in Spanish and/or Portuguese. Because the COP was supposed to be held in Chile, many of the registered Indigenous participants were from Amazonas because it was supposed to not be far to travel). 

If you want to listen to some of the side events, the webcasts have been recorded here. Click the link, and then click “Join the event.” I again recommend the ones by Indigenous groups (if you can understand them -- we all had translation headphones in the sessions, but I don’t speak Spanish, so I can’t really go back and revisit them). Also, this "feminist attempt at connecting the dots” on “climate crisis, corporate power, and climate finance” and this one session from a Nigerian NGO and the government about One Health and the connection between climate change, disease, and other health risks -- and how badass Nigeria is at tackling them. 

On the subject of tonedeafness, some absolute bullshit went down on Wednesday, December 11th. 

Here is the article on BBC, but it’s a bit incomplete.

Here’s what happened.

COP25 2: The Old White Fuckeninger (Starring Military Police!)

So on Wednesday, December 11th, Greta Thunberg -- environmental wunderkind with truly glorious bitchface -- sat on a panel before a hall full of condescending adults in which she demanded accountability and immediate action from national leaders. 

At the end of her speech, the delegation of Fridays for Future -- Greta’s own youth movement, which has become a global phenomenon -- stormed the stage. Representatives of Fridays for Future admitted that they knew what they were doing was against the rules, and they were ready to face the consequences: having their admission badges taken away (being “debadged”), and not being blacklisted from future UNFCCC events. 

Neither of these things happened. Instead, UNFCCC praised the young activists, and let them keep their badges. 

A few hours later, another activist group in attendance -- not an Indigenous one, a point that was raised by a young Native American man during the Fridays for Future press conference -- staged a sit-in outside the main hall where a large plenary meeting was scheduled. Said meeting was full of gimmicks, including a live call to the International Space Station so an astronaut could talk about the view of climate change from space. 

I was going to attend the plenary. I joined the protest instead. 

Admittedly, the decision was partly made for me by security. After pushing, shoving, and jostling the (mostly adult, heavily Indigenous, mostly PoC, heavily female, heavily Queer) protesters, as well as violently snatching their badges off their lanyards, security started herding them -- as well as anyone in proximity -- out into the open docking area outside the hall. One woman nearby, who hadn’t meant to join the protest and who had just been filming, tried to duck out of the group and got sternly told by a security guard “No. Keep going forward. No turning back.” A similar thing had happened to me -- I hadn’t made up my mind about joining the protest, because I didn’t have all the information -- but security made the decision, and in the end, I’ll always prefer to be with the people facing the police rather than those they’re protecting. 

It was... furious. It was emotional. The leaders of the protest had us form a circle and turn our backs on security and the door. WoC -- many of whom were Indigenous -- led not just standard protest chants, but songs. Renewal songs, fight songs. The common theme was the intersection of environmental justice and femininity, queerness and suffering under colonization, anti-capitalism, anti-exploitation, and a call for colonizers to repay the colonized for all of the loss and damage already caused by climate change (climate reparations). 

Eventually, UNFCCC made a decision. They decided to close the door on us. Security “escorted” us to the docking bay entrance, and the military police took over. Fortunately, none of them started anything. Obviously, none of the protesters did either. We made it back to the venue entrance eventually, but only those with journalist/media badges were allowed back in; the rest of us were not. Even people with Observer badges (like mine) who hadn’t been part of the protest weren’t being allowed in. But some people who were panelists, delegates, etc. came out to stand in solidarity with us. 

Once it became clear that no more joint actions would be taking place, I went home, and waited to see whether the negotiators would be able to talk UNFCCC into letting us back in. 

They did. Can you imagine the headlines? “UNFCCC Kicks Out Protesters, Bars Civil Society Observers From Climate Talks.” 

Talk about going down like a lead balloon.

Which is about what the conference in general did. I was able to go back and get some more stuff out of it... including another big protest, this time led by Fridays for Future and sanctioned. It was so, so good. Many of the people from Wednesdays protest were also there, and while spirits weren’t exactly high, the emotions being expressed were more along the lines of determination and tenacity than fire and fury. Both are valid, and both have their place, and it was nice to have a balance -- especially at the end of the week, when we were all flat-out exhausted. 

The Aftermath

And then I just didn’t stop moving. Saturday and Sunday I spent exploring Madrid and staying out late, Monday I flew back to Geneva from Madrid (because absolutely fuck Spanish busses and also absolutely FUCK FRANCE’s weeks-long general strike that I’m sure was for something very important. I’m sure. Because France never strikes over trivial things). 

Tuesday-Friday was a takehome exam that I swear to god was more labor-intensive than my actual undergrad thesis, and Saturday-Sunday I flew to London to visit my sister at her new job as an actor in Shrek’s Adventure. Mom was supposed to go with me, but she has a slipped disk and sent me up alone. Which was nice -- my sister and I almost never hang out just the two of us. But that’s another thing I’ve been dealing with -- quite a bit of extra Stuff To Do that Mom Can’t Do because Back Hurty and there have been days when she literally could not move. 

But now I am here! I still have work to do, and it’s holidays so there’s Holiday Stuff happening, but I’m hoping to get back to writing here in the next few days. 

And if you’ve read all of this, you’re fucking incredible and I love u and here are some one-eyed black babie kitty gremlins for ur viewing pleasure.

<-Saga | Luna ->

They’ve got little bare patches on their tummies because bbies gotta be spayed

They got this tower two days ago and have learned to share, but the learning curve was steep

Saga doesn’t like cuddles but she likes pats and being in the vicinity of humans

Saga says hello

Pictured: Luna in my arms, Saga in Proximity

Luna stole my Spot!! >:C

If Saga steals something and then tells u to answer a riddle to get it back pls let me know. she does that sometimes. it’s very naughty.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Fantastic 4 2099 #1 Thoughts

Again, I ask, who is this for???????????????????

Let’s put aside for a moment how the cover poorly reflects upon the story, both in terms of what the story will be about and even how most of the characters in question look.

The premise of this book is that HERBIE on the orders of his mother is seeking out his ‘family’, which we’re supposed to interpret as meaning the F4 obviously. But the actual protagonist of this title is in fact a new version o Venture.

Venture was arguably the very first super villain of the 2099 line. A cyborg cowboy bounty hunter sent by Alchemax to track down Miguel O’Hara not long after he first got his powers.

The new rebooted Venture is a decidedly nicer cyborg cowgirl (cowwoman? Cowwoman?) bounty hunter who is helping HERBIE find his ‘family’ after HERBIE promised her something ‘better than money’ back in 2099 Alpha.

What that was we don’t know, if it was anything at all. It seems like Venture sort of took this weird outdated little robot on faith when it said it had something better than money. Which at best leans against the impression she’s clearly intended to give off in this issue and 2099 Alpha, and at worst makes her look like an idiot.

I will talk briefly regarding the mere fact Venture got a reboot like this.

It’s a double edged sword.

On the one hand nostalgic fans like me are unlikely to take to this character because we prefer and are more invested in the original Venture, who is also one of the more stand out 2099 villains in general. On the other hand if you HAVE to reboot this line then at least it is something decidedly different. Venture has a different personality, a different gender even a different (albeit more stereotypical) speech pattern.

The wider problem isn’t so much with Venture as a character (though a bounty hunter out of a futuristic Western in a Disney product shortly after the Mandalorian TV show debuts, what a coincidence) but rather her placement in the story.

Why on Earth would you launch a comic book about a futuristic version of the Fantastic 4 and make the main character anyone who isn’t the F4!

It’s like if the original F4 were introduced through following our protagonist Willie Lumpkin!

The personalities of the F4 themselves are fairly bland though I will say this.

Karla Pacheco does a great job applying the ‘methodology’ behind the 2099 reimaginings of the other Marvel characters to the F4.

This is in fact (to my knowledge) the very first time there has ever been a true blue (no pun intended) 2099 spin on Marvel’s first family. Though there was a Fantastic 4 2099 back in the 1990s it merely starred that universe’s versions of the original team.

Whilst I do believe Peter David could’ve come up with something better, Pacheco here essentially swaps and remixes traits from the original F4 in a way which on paper could’ve made for a compelling team.

Instead of 3 men and an Invisible Girl, we’ve got 3 women and an Invisible Boy, who’s abilities are mostly used for thievery and smaller scale stuff like that. It fits well in the barbaric environment of the Thorites encampment.

Instead of a hotheaded youth as the Human Torch, we have an adult woman...now let’s get a little controversial. If I’m not mistaken the woman in question was Hispanic/Latin American (I don’t know the difference sorry, not American) so that probably does play into a negative stereotype. But she’s also a mechanic (like Johnny used to be), and also kind of the rouch street level brawler type (like Ben tends to be) and also the person in a romantic relationship (like Reed/Sue). What spices this up too is that she’s not in a relationship with anyone actually on the team. I guess that makes her a little like Ben, with her wife the equivalent of Alicia Masters. But I still think it’s more of a remix of Reed and Sue because no one else on the team is romantically involved with anyone else.

Instead of an inventor who happens to also be able to stretch, we’ve got an inventor who uses her inventions to mimic stretchy powers among other things. It’s essentially taking Reed’s real strength as a character, his brain, and making it directly the result of his super powers themselves. A consolidation if you will.

Finally instead of a monsters looking craggy rock creature who’s feared by some people and regards themselves as ugly, we have a beautiful diamond creature who’s regarded as a freak due to her parentage, not what she looks like exactly. She’s even referred to as a golem, which is clearly the inspiration for the Thing too. She’s also the youngster (which makes her like Johnny but I’d also argue like Franklin or Valeria too) and she has a direct blood relationship with one of the four (like Sue and Johnny) but a parent/child relationship not a older sibling/younger sibling dynamic.

Also most of the characters are poc and/or queer and/or children of same sex relationships, or at least relationships different to a cis man and a cis woman hooking up.

Neither I, nor do I think the author, are trying to float some kind of weird ass message about heterosexual relationships or white people becoming a thing of the past (though there are weirdos who do claim such things). But if stats are to be believed such people and such relationships are undeniably going to become more common in the future. Thus the traditional nuclear family, whilst unlikely to ever truly disappear, is nevertheless not going to become the default state of family units.

But the concept was let down by the execution.

First of all we see the F4 briefly in action (with Venture, again our protagonist) nowhere in sight) at the very start of the comic. Then we begin the laborious task of going to each member to establish them as people and finally get right back to the action scene at the start of the story.

Sometimes this structure works, but not when we’re literally following a whole other character, and not when we’re gradually unveiling each character’s abilities and looks, it just turns the comic into a chore.

It is particularly a chore considering that Pacheco seemed to overuse characters saying ‘Ha’.

But possibly the absolute worst thing about this story was the ending.

So as it turns out HERBIE has a few screws loose and this whole time he hasn’t actually been searching for his family, but rather trying to recreate it by recreating the F4.

He’s been exposing random people to cosmic rays of his own design and whenever it invariably doesn’t work, changing the rays and trying again. Sometimes the rays just murder and mutate his targets, sometimes they do manage to get together but then something goes wrong and they die.

This is what happened to 3/4 of our new F4 2099, when they get close enough they contort and die in horrible ways.

HERBIE is then so angry about failing once again he unleashes his weapons on Venture and Invisible Boy.

Basically HERBIE is a FUCKING  PSYCHOPATH!

Which isn’t an unamusing premise, nor even an unamusing twist in concept.

But again in execution (no pun intended) it’s awful because not only did we soldier our way through this chore of a comic book that wasn’t even following the F4 themselves, but when we FINALLY unite the team and FINALLY deliver an F4 for the 2099 universe...we immediately kill them...and even the character we were following just in case you might’ve liked her even a little.

So the whole comic is fucking pointless.

Exempting Conan 2099, this was the ONE title that might’ve really appealed to older 2099 fans as there was an untapped niche in the pre-existing iterations of the 2099 universe for the F4 to fill. It was one of the few instances in which this event wouldn’t have to compete too much (if at all) with the older iteration of the 2099 universe and where something new and different didn’t have to come at the expense of something old and beloved.

But instead we got $5 worth of our time wasted.

And that applies to hypothetical NEW fans too. This is an issue #1 so if anyone had been inclined to check out this title or if this was introducing them to the 2099 line as a whole they got royally screwed because there is literally no story left to go after this.

So I ask again of this whole event.

Who.

Is.

This.

For?

Don’t read this trash.

[melo-yello]

Bloodie Knuckles

Not my moodboard

Pairing(s): Sweet Pea x POC Reader

Warning(s): swearing, angst, fluff

Summary: Y/n has got an axe to grind and some missed placed rage. Who better than Sweet Pea to help her out.

A/N: This takes place somewhere in season 2. I like my Sweet soft but tuff around the edges so be prepared. Also reblog or comment and I'll add you to the Taglist.

Word Count: 4k+

Wrappers and loose leaf pages decorated the floor around your feet. The awful mood that hung on your shoulders since receiving the worst news of your life only seemed to pile higher and higher.  

“Where the hell is it?” You curse ripping yet another item form your locker and tossing it to the tiled hallway floor.

The pastel pink snake plushie flew from the top shelf.  Sweet Pea had won you that on your last trip to Midnight Park , a cruddy little amusement park just pass Greendale barely worth the trip. The small theme park had been a home away from since you guys were kids. Fangs and Pea would compete for prizes at every single booth while you and Toni took on every coaster in sight.

Naturally Sweet Pea would take you there as a first date. Insisting Pop's just wasn't special enough. After taking down three 8 year olds, a 12 year old and two 14 year olds in a water gun race Sweet Pea presented you with the goofy pink snake with enough charm to rival his own.

The teddy usually proudly positioned at the top of your cluttered locker now lay on top of your dingy white canvas high tops.

The longer you searched the small confides of the metal walls the more your temper edged over its peak.

You slammed the now empty locker enough force to rattle a few beside it. It rang up and down the corridor. The mob of teens rushing to morning classes almost shrieked to a standstill to find the source of the abrupt commotion.

“Jeez Y/n, are you okay!?” The former lead pussycat turned river vixen asked placing a concerned hand on your shoulder. One of the last people you wanted to see at the moment. All too easy of a target to lose the full weight of your rising temper.

Cynical laughter erupted from your chest as you turned to face her. She had no idea the unbridaled flames that wait behind that glass smile you gave her.

“You would know wouldn't you, Popstar Princess. Or are you too busy to care about what happens to the Southside?” You quipped down at the girl who barely made it past your shoulders.

Out of the corner of your e/c eyes you see Toni and Fangs turn the corner just in time to watch the scene unfold. You shrug.  Your rage in every sense was grounded.

Toni knew that wild look in your eyes all to well. She tugged the taller serpent down and whispered something to him. Fangs simply nodded and pulled out his phone. He exchanged a few phrases and then hung up all without his eyes leaving your face.

Too bad you couldn't bring yourself to care.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

Hostility steeping dangerously hot between the two of you.

“Oh just that your Mom is doing great job of screwing over the Southside!” The venom that had been boiling in your veins finally slipping over.

“My mom is just doing her job!”

“I'd sure as hell hate to see what it looks when she doesn't!”

“What is your problem?”

“Don't even get me started. Shit, even you aren't that blind, Primadonna?! Let me see I can't pick between her being a hypocrite or forcing me and family out on the street.”

“Y/n, I'm so so sorry it's jus-”

“But tell me how does she possibly fit the time in her busy schedule to pull all nighters with Sheriff Keller in sleazy little motel rooms.” You hissed pulling your ring clad hands into a tight fist.

Each finger arrayed in metal and cheap gemstones. Your h/c curls hung freely as a menacing glare settled onto your features.  

Astonished gasp sweeps through the crowd.

“What the hell are you trying to say?” Josie's remorseful confusion melted into furious indignation.

Wild eyed embarrassment made its way onto her face. Your lips curl in sneer as you clear your throat. Before the words could leave your lips grunts and curses rippled from the back of the mob of teens.

“Move the fuck out of my way.” Rang the gruff voice of the tall dark haired serpent pushing his way through the crowd  and glaring down at anyone who dared to question him just to plant himself directly behind to you.

A firm warm hand grasped your shoulder. His touch nearly cold compared to the searing heat broiling just below your brown skin. You glance long enough to meet the soft pleading expression that played across his features.  

For a split second your confidence crumbled into conflicted confusion. The hurt just below the surface peeking through. A lapse in your molten fury that was cold and vulnerable revealed itself to his piercing deep brown eyes.

“Y/n. Don't.” He warned gently. A simple request to leave that night where it was.

To leave that night at Shady Palms a memory. A memory swallowed in secrets. Secrets that didn't belong to either of you. You both just witnesses to one of the many lies that litter this town. A lie on the Northside two serpents were never supposed to see.  

…

“How about we grab some snacks then we can try that corkscrew thing I was telling you about.” You giggle pulling Pea's blazer onto your shoulders as you both exited the motel room. Hiding away the lacey f/c bra from the outside world as you straighten your black pencil skirt and shuffle into your shoes.

The defined h/c curls that crowned your head and elegantly framed your face at the beginning of the evening were now ruffled and slightly frizzed.  Strong thick fingers had worked themselves in and out and around them. Pretty much ruining the style.

Not that you could complain. His methods were proving to be quite satisfactory to say the least.

“Baby, if I knew all you needed to be absolute freak was a room at Shady Palms, I never would have waited for a special occasion to bring you here.” Pea laughed tucking his hands into his slack pockets not bothering to button the top half of his white dress shirt. He wore the red trail of hickies down his neck and chest with pride. His thick charcoal locks were smoothed back and out of eyes. Making those chocolate irises even more captivating.

Sweet Pea finally dawning something without leather or a snake on it.  

You didn't look like serpents tonight.

You just looked like teens. Teens with trouble in your eyes and hope hidden behind every smile. You almost looked like you belonged on this side of town. Like maybe you crept from your bedrooms as your loving parents held each other in their own bed as the tikes slept soundly down the hall and your golden retriever curled up on the edge of your bed.

The only tell of Southside on you both was the serpent ink.

You shoved the giant teen and nearly tripped over your creme colored pumps.

“You still can't walk in those things?” Pea snickered offering his arm to steady you.

“I wear them to keep up with you. It's not my fault I've got to look like a giraffe to do that.” You grumbled while accepting his arm and tucking yourself into his side.

A smirk settled on his face genuinely happy to welcome your warm frame close to his own. You rest your head on his shoulder.

“A sexy ass giraffe.” Sweet Pea chuckled.

You couldn't help but laugh at him and how matter of factly he said it. A snort escaping your throat only made him laugh even harder.

“Right this way Mayor McCoy.” The hardy voice of Sheriff Keller rang out as he stepped into the hazy fluorescent light with a self assured grin on his face.

The laughter died in your throats. Your feet cement themselves to the ground. Pea slid his hand from his pocket and laced his fingers into yours. You pressed your palm flush against his.

A silent promise of loyalty.

Not matter what.

Mayor McCoy shook her head latching onto his arm.

“Oh come Tom, how many times do have to tell you. Call me Sierra.” She giggled tugging a puppy dog eyed Sheriff Keller into a room a few doors away from where you and Pea stood frozen.  But not before she pulled Keller’s lips down to hers.

“Shit?!?” Pea muttered as you both stared transfixed on the Mayor and Sheriff tangled around each other.

Both watching as the door shut to the cheap room.  Waiting for the click like it was permission to breath. With that the tension in the air fizzled.

“I really hope they don't need anything from the vending machine.” You snickered awkwardly looking up at Pea doing your best to resurrect the bubbly energy of before.  

Sweet Pea took the bait as he pressed a kiss onto the back of your palm and wrapped his arm around your soft hips.

“I don't think Skittles come in a self righteous flavor yet so we're safe.”

Your steps retake the aimless trot to the machine glittering in the moonlight at the corner. Little jokes tumble back and forth from your lips to his. Leaving whatever those two were doing in that room.  Leaving the illusion of the North side intact.

Here was so Safe. And so Honest. And so Pure.

...

You snatch yourself free from his grip pressing the overflowing emotions back down in their bottle.

“Are all you northsiders that dense? It seems that our beloved Mayor McCoy is busying putting in overtime screwing-”

“Oh Fuck You, Trailer Trash!” Josie screamed pushing you square in the chest ruffling the grey tee with sleeves cuffed and blood red script reading Try Me Bitch.

You stumble back.

Ooos ripple from the surrounding crowd.

“Take it back, Pussybrat!” You demand stepping up to her.

“Why should I! Hey maybe you tell your parents to pay their damn rent and they wouldn't have these problems when someone actually does what their job.” The mob continued to instigate.

Your chest tightened. The rapid drumming of your own heartbeat filled your ears.

“You'll be lucky if you can stand after saying that shit to me!” You snarled her sweater dress filling your fist and drawing back with the other.   

No hesitation.

You swung full force only for your body to be snatched backwards and slung into the air and finally over an impossibly broad shoulder.  

“What the hell!”You bark trying to shake yourself free from the constrictor grip Sweet Pea had on your hips.

His signature scent of cheap cologne and wildflowers gave him away immediately.  

“Josie you okay?” Pea mused ignoring your protests as he helped her to her feet.

“She sure as hell won't be if your let me finish what I started. Put me the fuck down!” You growl slamming your fists into his back over and over again.

“She's sorry too.” Sweet Pea shrugged making no indication he even felt your hits.

Josie just nodded waving him off as she straightened her mustard mini dress with off the shoulder puffed sleeves.   

A steady ache in your fists made that clear he was unphased so you stopped.

“You can bet your pretty ass I'm not.” You spat wiggling in Pea's firm grasp.

He kissed his teeth and turned away from her as the crowd parted letting him through. No one was willing to chance the absolutely definite asskicking they'd get if they didn't step out of his way.

Your curses circled the hallways as he rounded the corner. It wasn't until he stepped inside the empty gymnasium did he place you on the ground.

“You crossed a line back there.” Sweet Pea scolded staring down at you in utter disbelief.

“No Pea I didn't you made sure of that!” You huffed crossing your arms glaring back at those disappointed dark eyes.

Don't gimme that look.

“You know what I'm talking about! Shit,Y/n! We made a promise not to say a word. That was not your shit to unpack!”

“Someone had to pop the wannabe teen idol's bubble! She was gonna find out eventually!”

“You didn't do that for her! That's not why you said that shit! You had half school watching! THAT IS NOT HOW YOU HAN-”

“I HAD THAT SHIT HANDLED, PEA!”

“LIKE HELL YOU DID, L/N!” Sweet Pea shouted throwing his hands in the air. His own temper flaring which only fueled yours. Sweet Pea cut his eyes away from you.

“YOU HEARD THAT COCKY LITTLE BITCH, PEA! YOU HEARD HER CALL ME TRAILER TRASH! SWEETS, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE ON MY SIDE!! AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES THAT THE NORTHSIDE IS TRYING TO SNUFF US OUT!” You raged eyes wild as you press your curls away from your face and those e/c eyes of yours settle on the ground. The shame of it all beginning to set in.  

“I heard it and any other day I would have chewed that brat out, but I'm not standing by so you can total McCoy's ass and get suspended. Babe who else's side could I be on? Why do think I tossed your crazy ass over my shoulder? You've got to chill you're starting to sound like Jones.”He snickered rolling his eyes doing his very best to lighten your mood.

But the tension pressed into your features didn't clear.    

“SWEETS I'M SERIOUS! IT'S LIKE THEY'RE TRYING TO ERASE THE SOUTHSIDE! FIRST OUR SCHOOL! THEN OUR JACKETS! THEN OUR CLOTHES! AND NOW OUR HOMES! THEY'RE TAKING EVERY PIECE OF THE SOUTHSIDE FROM US! Before we know it ...they'll be...nothing left.” You fumed stepping toward him and taking his hand in yours halfway expecting him to pull away.

He didn't.  

Instead he curls his warm fingers around yours without hesitation. Perfectly surrounding your hand so naturally as if his were made to intertwined with yours.  

“Gonna take a wild guess this doesn't have shit to do with Josie.”

Your words stick to the mucus that starts to coat your throat. Eyes glassy now, you just nod as you try to swallow the lump forming in your throat.  

He always could read you like an open book. Hell most people could but he was good at it. All the hidden meaning and subtext were child's play for him. He just knew you.

Pea's your even match. He always made you feel safe and like nothing could get to you. Like the world just couldn't knock you down. Like as long as you had each other there wasn't anything that could tear you two apart. That you didn't have to cry if you didn't want to.

But not now…

Everything just kept crumbling. The hot tears you'd been sealing away since you tore that eviction notice from your door stung at the corners of eyes.

“Aye Y/n, we're fine. We're gonna make it Serpents always do.” He whispered confidently pulling you into him and your head to his chest gently stroking h/c curls away from your face.

“Sweets, I'm sorry. Just sorry. So fucking sorry.” You muttered wrapping your arms tightly around his waist. Trying pull him as close to you as possible. Anchoring yourself in his frame. Hoping to hide every fallen tear in the fabric of his black shirt. Teeth tearing into your bottom lip as you beg yourself to be strong.

"No you're not Baby. What did you do? Why are you apologizing?” He hummed trying his best to just hold you. Hold onto your trembling form while you unraveled in his arms. Wrapping himself around your broken parts so he could brace your fall.

Vulnerably for you was the hardest. You hated to let him see you break down and hurt and cry. Giving him part of the weight of the pain you carried always gave you pause.

Could he still love me when I break.

Could he still love me when I fall apart in front of him.

You had a tendency to hold it all in usually until it all came pouring out. Sweet Pea gently rubbed circles into your back and tangled his fingers into your soft h/c curls.

And waited.

“Yes I am.  I'm so sc…so scared. Sweets, I'm sorry because I'm scared. I've been so scared for days. I haven't been sleeping. Barely eating. I don't have anywhere else. Sunnyside is all I've got. I can't go anywhere else. Aren't you scared, Pea? I'm terrified. I haven't been this scared in a long time. I was trying to be brave. I wanted to be brave for you, for Cass, for the serpents, for everyone , but… I just can't. What are we gonna do?! Fuck I can't be some foster kid! What if they take me from all of this. All I've ever known! What if they take me away from the serpents! What about Cass? What about Fangs?! What about Toni?! What about Jug and FP?! What about you Sweets?! I Can't Lose Everything Again! I Can't Lose You! Fuck Keller! Fuck the Mayor! Fuck My Folks…fuck them…they.” Your voice hitched in your throat. You couldn't bring your lips to form those words.

You trembled steadily.

...

The morning after your older sister's graduation. The stillness of the small metal house.

The quietness.

Completely uncanny. No fussing baby brothers woke you that morning. No 4 year old sister to throw a fit as you move her toys from the middle of the hallway floor. No smell of burning bacon and oatmeal filled the air. The loud curses traded between your mom and her boyfriend never came.

The tidiness. Like it had been professionally cleaned. Just an empty trailer and 10 year old.

A freshly sober big sister sat on the rickety sofa with an unopened beer next to a crumpled sheet of notebook paper. Her diploma tossed on the far side of the room. She just stared at the place where the tv should have been. Your little fingers unraveled the wad of notebook paper only to find a half assed letter.

Princess,

I'm done waiting for him. We're Leaving. Cass will take care of you.

Good Luck, Sweetheart.

scribbled in your mom's handwriting smeared with her signature peachy pink lipstick. Just below that a dingy 20 was taped to the page. Hot tears barreled down your cheeks as Cass stood snatching the beer from the table.

You latch yourself to her wrist. Pleas for her to stay rip from your lips. Snot trailing down your face as she freed herself from your grip.

“Screw them! Princess my ass! What the hell does she think a 20 is gonna do for the rest of your life!” She hissed slamming the trailer door.

The motorcycle revving and spraying the loose gravel by the trailer as she sped off out of the Sunnyside. You sat sticky faced with your knees tucked to your chest on the steps and prayed that someone would come back home.

...

“You don't have to say it. Baby, I know. Trust me I know.” Sweet Pea breathed unevenly as he squeezed you gently. He held the same tension in his shoulders as you.

The last couple days Sweets had been busy doing jobs for the Serpents. Pulling gigs well into the night. A welcomed distraction from the mass eviction of Sunnyside Trailer Park.  

His home and the home of over half the Serpents.

His family.

Everything was falling apart.

The look of ruin that flashed across his aunt's face only to be replaced with solemn hopelessness sent chills down his spine.

Everything you both had ever known was teetering by a thread and you had been trying to shoulder it all by yourself.

You had hidden your terror in texts and in silly jokes and songs when he called. Assuring him that the Northside couldn't phase you. No matter what.

You lied and he believed.

Moments like these made it painfully clear in the grand scheme of this war between North and South you were still children who knew too little and whose voices didn't matter enough.

The silence was almost suffocating.

“Baby, you don't have to apologize,”He paused to cup your face in hands just to be sure your eyes met his, “We're all pretty damn scared. I've had knots in my stomach for days. I thought it be easier to ignore this bullshit. Wait for it to blow over, but only seems grow.  Shit's hit the fan. Every time the Southside makes a statement it's punished. Drowned out like we don't deserve this town. Like we couldn't possibly know what this town does in the dark. The crime. The murder. The theft. The drugs. Hell even the psychos. Somehow are all thought to be spawns of serpents. Like all the demons of this town must be ours. But if their honest with themselves every monster that haunts this hell hole is of their own making. Lies are the only thing holding everything together. But we won't roll over and die. They can't tear us apart. Or scare us into submission.” He spilled out as if he'd been holding his breath. Pea bit his lip as a tear or two dribbled down his cheeks. His deep brown eyes holding such a courageous fear.  

Like he was too afraid not to be brave.  He had somehow managed to push all his fears and his worries into unadulterated boldness.

“Pea look at us we're a mess. Cryin and shit.” You smiled brushing a tear from his cheek.

“Baby, I'm not afraid of what I feel. You shouldn't be either.” He teased pressing a chaste kiss on your lips which was probably salty and snotty and gross. He made no indication he cared. He just returned your weak smile.

“I'm trying. It's just hard you know.” You mumbled placing your forehead against his chest.

“I know. I know. You did pretty good.”

“Really?”

“Really, Y/n. Just don't attack anymore cheerleaders. I think they put people off the squad for that shit.” He chuckled lifting your chin and placing a kiss on your forehead.

“I owe her an apology, don't I?” You wince rolling your puffy e/c eyes and taking his hand. Sweet Pea shrugged.

“You told like half school about her mom's affair so probably.” He nodded following you to the doors to the hallway.

Before you could reach them; the gymnasium doors swung open to reveal a very worried Fangs, Jughead, and Toni.  

Your faces still wet and tear streaked. Especially yours.

“So this where you love birds ran off to.” Jughead snarked the worry peeling off his face.

Fangs without hesitation pulled you away from Sweet Pea and into a bear hug.

“Oh Y/n,”  He cooed then held you by the shoulders scolding you, “What hell is wrong with you?!? Picking fights with the mayor's daughter?!? You wanna get rounded up all over again?!”

Sweet Pea snickered at the over affectionate serpent, but he still shifted to catch your expression to be sure Fangs wasn't upsetting you all over again.

“Sorry Fangs.” You smirked sheepishly.

Fangs nodded and pulled you in for another hug before letting you go. Toni shoving him eagerly aside.

“Outta my way, Mama Bear.” Toni said meeting your eyes with a burning ferociousity.

Toni's fairy-like stature was entirely inconsequential when she hit you with a face like that. Just a reminder she was very capable of kicking the ass of anyone in the room.

She traded death glares between you and Sweet Pea.

“Toni, I kno-” You cleared your thought to offer an apology, but she cut off with a hand.

“That was really stupid and-”

“And I shouldn't have done that.” You sighed hanging your head. Your temper had put Sweet Pea's shame.

“AND really bad ass!” She smiled punching you in the arm and then hugging you.  

“Get over here Pea. Thanks for snatching up this crazy bitch.”

“Somebody had to.”The larger serpent just cheesed motioning for the other boys to join the hug.

The ring of bell brought the full house moment to the end. The five of you headed out attempting to pretend nothing had happened and get to 2nd period on time.

Taglist:@sweetwatersnake @nongmac001 @wayward-river @baileyboo22

[jujuspams]

O-Ren Ishii

Now I’m all for the bad guy getting what’s coming to they ass, but in the case of O-Ren Ishii I was put at odds

I was not pleased when she died

I mean yea she fucked up Beatrix on her wedding day, but hell playas mess up too

No but in all seriousness I think she was the only one that I wanted to live

Of course I was rooting for Vernita, but that was because I always root for the Poc

But I changed my mind after the bitch missed that fucking point blank shot

I mean how the hell do you miss the hoe and she’s literally a couple of inches from you

But this ain’t ha post, we are here to discuss the true badass of Kill Bill

Let’s start with her backstory

Let’s start with how her dad was fucking all them niggas up

Like my dude did not come to play with they asses

If it wasn’t for Pretty Riki he would’ve won

Now the first time I watched this I was young

So when Boss Matsumoto threw her mom on the bed I feared the worst bitch

Like I’m sorry I can watch just about anything, but I can’t do rape. I can’t even read it in books

I also don’t think I would have been able to keep my eyes open if my mom’s blood was falling on my face

I’d be scared it’ll get in my eyes, now I’m dead cause I’m freaking out under the damn bed

Oh sweet sweet revenge

It felt even better when I found out the nigga was a whole pedophile

Like yasss sis you fuck that old nasty nigga up

I also really enjoyed the anime portion of this movie, I thought it was something different and I liked it

Can we also discuss how fucking stupid his henchmen are, like if you ask me when she pulled the sword out it sounded like the nigga was busting a nut

Then when they walk in what do they do, fucking stare at the bloodied girl in the room

Like nigga I would’ve came in busting shots, what the fuck you mean

These niggas waited damn near a whole minute before they stared shooting

Then when they do shoot they miss all the shots, like how explain that shit to me

After you stop shooting and the girl ain’t there anymore I would’ve dipped because apparently this bitch has trained harder than us or she a damn ghost

Either way I want no parts of it

Can we talk about this iconic scene, like my girl was like nawl let this little nigga finish first before I end his life

Like he really tried to come for my bitch O-ren

Boss Tanaka really thought he was doing something

He must thought he was going to get a pat on the back or something

I feel like he tried to test her gangster or pull her card

Not only was she a female but she was also half Chinese and American

So I feel like he was trying to see if he could punk her out, but my bitch had something for that ass

I mean as soon as his ass was done screaming across the table my bitch was on the move

She had to do that though, because if she didn’t the rest of them would’ve tried it too

She had to show that she wasn’t no weak bitch to be played with

She literally came for that niggas head

Them bitches went on hush mode after she cut that nigga head off

My good sis said let me say this shit in English so y’all know how fucking serious I am

She said look here you weak bitches, come for me again and I won’t hesitate to make a fucking example out of you

Play with ya momma and not my girl O-ren

While we are on the subject can we just appreciate the empire she built

She has a right hand woman who is a high schooler, who was fucking people up left and right

Like you know you the shit when a female Yakuza boss wants you on her squad as her right hand

Like can you imagine, I can’t but I’m sure it was a nice damn feeling

Like her impact is so amazing

I’m all about a good aesthetic and this fight is a blessing to my eyes

Like the snow all over and the pure white of her kimono and the contrast of her blade and hair

I honestly really enjoyed this fight and you can tell they put more thought into her fight than the others, including Bill’s fight

Like even the sounds in the background of the fight fit so well together

Can we talk about how they were giving each other praise as they were fighting

My only thing is that I hate how short the fight was, but I get it they didn’t want it to be to long.

I really enjoyed this fight and I’m sure y’all can tell

I just didn’t want my girl to die, like it was clear that Bill was using all of them to get what he wanted

Like he was manipulating all of them and he played the game well I will give him that

I just wish that O-ren could have seen through that shit and teamed up with Beatrix or something

But if that happened she definitely would’ve taken all the spotlight

It wouldn’t be on purpose, it’s just that she’s that bitch.

In conclusion my bitch deserved better and was not to be fucked with

She was not the one and she would not hesitate to fuck you and yo whole family up

So y’all better put some respect on her name