#she was 14!!! 14!!!!!!!! she deserved better

[creatingblackcharacters]

oh i hope we can still submit, my favorite Black characters is Claudia de Pointe du Lac

Claudia is a tragic figure. Her life, and the love other characters have for her, both shape the entire narrative of the show. Turned into a vampire at age 14, she spends seven years sneaking into different universities to learn about vampire lore and teach herself half a dozen languages, in order to get away from her violent Maker and find community with other vamps. She loves the main vampire (Louis) like a father but is frustrated by how easily he falls in love with terrible men. At one point, driven to a desperate state by her loneliness and resentment at an eternal childhood, she goes on a killing spree, draining hundreds of people ranging from schoolkids to old steamboat captains and recording their last words in her diary. (This doesn't single her out as a uniquely violent character; every vampire gleefully murders and we're meant to cheer them all on, especially her.)

I love Claudia's rage, her intelligence, her sense of humor, her horrific crimes, and the core of tenderness she still has underneath it all. Every IWTV fan agrees that she did nothing wrong and in fact deserved to commit even more atrocities.

(In addition to celebrating Claudia I also hope this gets more people to watch IWTV--it's one of the absolute best shows I've ever seen)

While I admittedly think the last episode of season 2 was a slap in the face of the lessons of antiblackness throughout the rest of the show, yes, I do think IWTV is one of the best written shows on the topic I've seen.

I appreciate you mentioning her love for Louis, because I feel like so many people minimize or straight up ignore it. She loves Louis, and her love for Louis (and his love for her) is evidenced throughout the show. But she is frustrated and fed up, and rightfully so! It's one of those things when you have parents, lovers, friends, where it's like... "I love you, but you clearly don't love you and refuse to make better choices, and I can't keep dealing with you not taking care of yourself because it's not hurting just you. It's me, too."

I know we all joke she did nothing wrong, but she slipped up a couple times last season lol. But overall, she would have never been in those situations if not for Louis and Lestat. Truly, the best vampire there was.

[sir-gio22]

TRAIN WITH ME ~Ben Shelton

Part 1

Ben shelton x reader

Prompt: you are a tennis player and your father trains you, too much. One day you faint and after you and ben happen to see each other.

Warnings: abuse, overtraining, fainting, mentions of hospitals

You're supposed to be the N1

You're supposed to be a rising star

You're supposed to be in the top 10

You're supposed to train bett

You're supposed to have a perfect technique

You're supposed to win every match, every point

You're supposed to serve better, to never double fault

You are a failure

A failur

A failu

A fail

A fai

A fa

A f

A

These are your thought, slowly fading away as you faint, on the cold floor of the hotel gym. After training for five hours in a row with your dad.

Those thoughts. They were the words your father say to you, every god damn day of your life.

Five hours ago, he dragged you away from the food you were eating, you didn't deserve it, he said. You only need to train, train, and train.

He made you run for three hours, only taking two little breaks, that was more than enough, your father said.

It's 6pm, he went to book a court for two hours for you to train after ‘dinner’, which he won't let you eat.

I will introduce yourself, if you let me. You are the child of a ex-pro player, your father was, twenty years ago, a slam champion and the n1 in the world.

When you were born, he didn't wanted a child. He wanted a prodigy. A pro student and player.

Your family, being rich, always made teacher come to your house to teach you, homeschooling you for years. The only time you would socialize where when your father would take you to elegant events about tennis or introduce you to other rich people. They usually were all adults, and the kids you would befriend in those nights were all spoiled and already acting like adults. They had the latests phones and clothes, they had perfect grades and everything they wanted, you, on the other side, had the things you needed to live when you deserved them. If you didn't train your father won't feed you or make you sleep in the cold and old basement.

At four years old, you were already winning kid tournaments, at 10 you won the national under 10 tournament, at 12 the under 12 one, at 14 the under 14 one, and at 15 your father made you play qualifying in the us open, you played small tournaments before in other countries, some 250 or 500 and a challenger 1000, but never a slam.

That week you won three rounds, but you got another qualifier prodigy at the fourth, which you lost to.

And your father let's say…he wasn't happy. The opposite. He was in the stands when you lost, your opponent celebrating, you shook hands and saw your fathers glare. You knew what was coming. And it was terrible.

That night you got beaten by him. And hard. You still have those scars, and you slept in the basement.

But what does you mom do to your father treating you like shit? Nothing.

She can't do anything. She's dead. A disease, the doctors says.

The truth?

Your father poisoned her slowly, it made her develop a disease. And the doctors? Corrupted by him.

Let's get back to the current time.

When your father left you sat on the floor of the empty gym, your father paid the hotel to have it exclusively for you when you wanted (when he did, just to specify, you had no word on this).

Your heart beating fast, too fast. It feels like it'll explode any second. Your ears were ringing, your vision blurry, your whole body not just sore, but exhausted by the excessive training.

You fainted.

Two hours later, getting shoken by someone made you regain consciousness. It was you father calling you to train.

In the two hours he left you were supposed to get back to your hotel room and study, and he's already mad because you're still in the gym.

“Were you sleeping, huh? Don't lie! I told you you had to study! What were you doing?! Resting? You don't need that!” He slapped you. Your left cheek reddening.

He made you get up and pushed you outside, then to the tennis courts.

You had to train with the strength you didn't had, the only this you looked towards every day was sleep.

You entered the court, there were hard courts divided by two benches and a umpire seat.

You didn't think that any other player would be playing in those courts, since usually your father books a secluded one where there's just you two training, because he has the habit to yell at you when you make mistakes.

But you see a young player in the second court, you recognize him, *Ben Shelton*, you never actually look at others players or chat with them, but sometimes Ben came to you to chat since you started playing professionally.

You wave at him, hoping he won't notice the eyebags under your eyes and the state you're in. More on the other side than on earth.

Ben was training with his father and coach, Bryan, having a parent as a coach isn't a pleasant thing, for you. But Ben seems to love being coached by Bryan. Well, can't blame him, Bryan's a sweet man, not an abuser.

You place your bag on the bench near the one where put his. You father was still at the gate, chatting with another coach, while Ben and Bryan came to you.

“hey! Long time no see, huh? Been some months since we talked, I wonder why you never get seen anywhere other than tennis courts. Anyway, how's it going?” Ben says

“Hey, nice to see you again ben! I'm alright, a bit tired, my old man's killing me. But don't tell him I'm complaining” you joke, still by telling a truth.

“Mine isn't taking back either, I feel like dying every practice ahah”

“That's not true, ben, I train you the right amount. Not too much, like their father does. Are you sure you're not training too much, bud?” Bryan chimes in.

You're eyes widen the much they can because you're so tired to actually make a shocked expression, what do you reply to that? You could tell the truth, ben was the closest thing you had to a friend after all, or you could lie, and if they believed you you'll probably faint again and go to the hospital.

You stay silent for a moment, their eyes locked on your face, concerned and worried about you.

What will happen? Find out in part 2!!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this at school so it might not be that good, but let me know what you think! Should I continue this?? I already have the part two in mind but no spoilers🤭

[scintillyyy]

actually it is interesting how dixon has tim discover his feelings for steph over the course of and in contrast to what was ultimately his failing relationship with ari & like. listen i'm not here ti cast judgment on either tim or steph here, but it was very much written by dixon as like. steph knowingly was very pushy about wanting to be in a relationship with tim even knowing he was actively in a relationship and fundamentally did not care about tim's girlfriend as a human being because steph saw tim being in a relationship already as basically minor inconvience because she wanted tim & tim clearly seemed to want her so he should just be with her instead. and like tim's hands clearly aren't entirely clean here either, because he did kind of ultimately just going with the flow and letting things happen. (but!! i am on the side of both of them are messy teens in their first relationships & neither deserves lifelong castigation for 14-15 year old messiness, let's be clear). but the circumstances around this messiness even being able to happen is because ariana is fundamentally unable to truly know what's going on as she's never privy to the secret. she had no way of knowing what tim is doing or who he's meeting--sure she gets jealous when she sees tim notice steph, but she never knows that there's another girl in tim's life exists & can't know. meanwhile the whole time steph is flirting with tim she is well aware that ariana, or "tim's girlfriend" exists. tim & steph exist because at the time of his relationship with ari, tim was allowed to actively and consistently interact with another girl while actively in a relationship with another one & steph was well aware and a participant in that.

and that's kind of by design--dixon, i do think dixon fairly early on decided that he was more interested in tim&steph over tim&ari, but i do think it's important to note that when dixon created ari he's on the record of conceiving of her as a lois lane type romance interest for tim, she was clearly originally intended to have long term sticking power for him. but then--*readers* didn't vibe with her. there's letters in old issues basically asking--"hey, is steph going to come back, hey is steph going to date tim, hey love steph when are they getting together". so while dixon got fully on board with tim & steph i think it's safe to say he was also. probably very cognizant of readers deciding they like a different love interest better.

so there's an interesting pivot in dixon once tim & steph are firmly on the "getting together" train and it's that tim is not allowed to exist of breathe near other female characters without being chaperoned by steph or it involving steph somehow in deference to steph's jealousy issues. with steph's entrance into tim's life, tim is moved away from the mixed more sex friend group (that existed with callie & ariana) of gotham heights high to 1) homeschooling in keystone 2) all male boarding school brentwood. the only female friendship he gains is star, and that's used in a story for steph to misunderstand and start stalking star and her brother in an attempt to find tim & catch him in the act. tim is no longer allowed to team up with girls his age or a little older without stephanie there. he's not even allowed to be concerned about random adult woman dana (his stepmom) without steph breathing down his neck despite the fact that once they start dating tim is doggedly pretty loyal to steph as far as girls were, far more than he ever was with ariana. & like. in universe this is an interesting character beat for steph considering the start of their relationship being that steph pushed tim while he was in a relationship & is paranoid of all other women, that they'll act like she did. but from an out of universe perspective you can tell dixon was absolutely shutting down any other relationship possibility for tim other than steph. he knew the pain of creating a love interest that got subsumed in interest by another and was under no circumstances going to let anyone else in that that could become a threat to his girl. hence, every time he teams up with a girl after steph has to be there, monitoring & chaperoning. which is very interesting. considering their beginnings and steph's own willingness to hang out with a guy known to be taken without his girlfriend there & her eventual disallowment of tim to do anything with girls who aren't her.

[hearts401]

If you’re reading fazbear frights I’ll tell you which story broke me it was count the ways I honestly think Millie would have never climbed into Funtime Freddy’s stomach hatch if someone actually helped her

REALLL godd millie ily :( her grandfather knew what was up one of my fav lines is when one of the kids calls her a brat and he believes sehs not... waugh

[haunted-xander]

Whoopsie I forgot to post things. Again. This is becoming a pattern I feel

[earfgoddesss]

i did this and YOU can also do your own.

[hjonko]

shes my blorbi scrimble wimble stinky possum

[spiras-outpost]

They really had this poor child fighting Demons and Murder Machines 😭

[byfulcrums]

Something I love about ATLA is that it doesn't force the "forgive the villain" on all the characters. It's been left clear that Ozai is a bad person, and there's no chance of redemption; the only reason he's not dead yet is because Aang is a pacifist

The one episode where a character is supposed to forgive someone who has hurt them in the past is the one where Katara is off to kill a man (which, fair) and Zuko helps. In that episode, even if Aang is telling her to let go, she doesn't forgive him. She never will. But she spares him. Not because she thinks he doesn't deserve death (he does), but because she's not willing to continue the cycle of violence

Killing someone can have a very important impact in your entire being, mostly depending on who you are as a person. Aang would've never recovered from killing Ozai. Katara wouldn't be who she is now, had she taken her revenge on the man that killed her mother

And the best part of it is that Ozai doesn't deserve to die. Not in a "I'm defending him" way (ew), but in a "he deserves worse that than" way

Taking away his bending was the perfect punishment for him. He believed bending made you superior and he never cared enough to train something besides his bending. What a loser. Zuko and Azula wouldn't be restrained by something like that

He's alive. Nobody has forgiven him. Nobody ever will

[five-flavor-soup]

my toxic trait is thinking that ‘then you didn’t love her like I did’ isn’t a horrible thing of katara to say actually. “she was 14 and angry and grieving that’s why she said it” she canonically saw kya’s body right after the murder. it would’ve been her, had kya not sent her away and lied to yon rha. kya took katara’s place to save her. katara was, to absolutely no fault of her own, the catalyst in kya’s murder.

sokka has a right to say he doesn’t want yon rha murdered in revenge. sokka lost his mum in a horrific way because of the southern raiders. but katara lost her mum in that same horrific way because the southern raiders wanted her dead. the kind of grief they experienced is different. katara’s is smeared with survivor’s guilt: katara took over kya’s role in the tribe to the degree that, in sokka’s memories, kya’s face is replaced with katara’s. katara’s need for revenge, her need to look yon rha in the eyes and tell him that he failed, that he murdered the wrong person—it’s a different kind of need for revenge that sokka might feel.

sokka’s logical nature might allow him to push it down until after the end of the war; katara, faced daily by a boy she connected with briefly about the loss of a mother and was then betrayed by, whose sister just tore apart a recently connected family, who was given a chance to avenge by that boy, would not have been able to. both because of her sense of justice and her more emotion-driven, righteous nature.

‘then you didn’t love her like i did’—then you didn’t experience her death the way i did; then you didn’t feel the same type of guilt i did; then you didn’t feel the same sense of responsibility i did. that’s why she said it. and i really don’t fault her for that at all.

[longmaxsilvarg]

will forever have a soft spot for chloe cause yeah dawg i get it we can try to avoid becoming attached out of the overwhelming fear of being abandoned again but miserably fail together

[tongues-and-teeth-and-reblogs]

Dark Cacao after, not even despite her best attempts, because of her best attempts, she’s locked herself in an endless cycle of pushing everyone away and ending up alone. She wants to protect everyone so desperately, but she doesn’t realize her literal walls are naught but a gilded cage, and her metaphorical walls are built too closely for them to contain anyone but herself to inhabit.

[matt-murdick]

aegon targaryen they could never make me like you

[elipsi]

the girl i had a torrid semi romance at orchestra camp in middle school posted a photo of her bf and he's so ugly :(

[k4txlulzz]

my childhood idol and now daughter shes so cutie patootie💔

putting her in my pocket forever

here are my headcannons: shes like a huge geek probably

has a ton of energy

and is surprisingly blunt and intense sometimes

[galaxythreads]

well it would appear I have another pair of extensively damaged blorbo siblings to poke at.