#so it was double torture

[kyuutekyu]

Well at least Cincinnati also lost... 😒😐

[moongothic]

Madoka is the promise you won't turn from a child, full of hopes and dreams and the wish to save the world, into a bitter adult who just wants to hurt others and ruin people's lives

Madoka promised to be there for you to remind you of the person you wanted to be and to stop you from becoming what you sought to destroy

Madoka made that promise and became the very embodiment of it

[lord-squiggletits]

Reread/skimmed my oldest Pharma apologism posts (mainly the ones about Pharma not being a functionist) and it just occurred to me that possibly another reason the fandom saddled Pharma with the "functionist bigot" label is because his introduction by First Aid says that everyone hates Decepticons, but Pharma really really hates Decepticons. Mix that with the portion of the fanbase that lionizes and whitewashes the Decepticons, and I can easily see it entering common fanon that "Pharma hates Decepticons -> the Decepticons are freedom fighters wrongly maligned by the Autobots/the franchise -> Pharma must be a bigoted functionist since he hates Decepticons who represent freedom."

The simpler explanation is just that Pharma is an antagonist and therefore gets the "everything about him must be evil and wrong" black-and-white analysis so common in fandoms in general, but given some of the bizarre Decepticon takes I've seen I can also easily see Pharma's Decepticon hatred being taken as a sign of him being bigoted and evil.

Though AGAIN in this case it would still be singling Pharma out as a bigot for crimes/flaws that multiple other Autobots are guilty of like.

Oh, Pharma hates Decepticons? Well a lot of other Autobots hate Decepticons too, First Aid's narration about Pharma even says "we all hate Decepticons"; for that matter, there are a lot of Decepticons who hate Autobots. It's a massive civil war that's lasted for a lifetime causing two groups of people to be stuck in a near-permanent blood feud, you can't assume that every Autobot who hates Decepticons (and vice versa) hates them because they're a bigot. Maybe there's been a war where both sides have been building an ever-increasing mountain of reasons to hate each other, so hating the opposite faction is a social problem caused by war and politics rather than a sign of individual moral failing.

Pharma worked at the New Institute so that means he must be evil/bigoted? Chromedome and Brainstorm also worked at the New Institute, but there's no widespread fandom shunning of them or headcanoning them as bigots.

Hell, even the very premise of assuming Pharma is a functionist bigot for hating Decepticons is ignoring the very premise of Pharma's motives, which are, uh... being blackmailed by the leader of the Decepticon Justice Division, who represents the ultimate form of Decepticon ideals to the point of literally wearing their symbol as his mask? So how were we jumping straight to "oh Pharma hates Decepticons bc he's a posh bigoted functionist" when there was a far more immediate interpretation/headcanon of "Pharma hates Decepticons because he's being tortured and blackmailed by one."

That's not to say that Pharma couldn't have hated Decepticons before Delphi, and I think you could make interesting headcanons/extrapolations based on either idea. But still. It kinda feels like people saw Pharma and just wanted to make him the Token Evil Autobot who's the opposite of our Good Heroic Autobots regardless of whether evidence from canon supported it or not.

Good riddance to bigoted functionist Pharma fanon, I'm so glad that the majority of Pharma fanon these days actually gives him a chance and puts him on equal footing as other Autobots.

[shakingparadigm]

It's a bit silly that found it unlikely for Luka and Till to be the final match back then. The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense. Sure, Luka and Ivan are incredibly similar in terms of personality and image, but in terms of circumstance Luka and Till are opposite sides of the same coin. I really couldn't envision a better matchup.

[serickswrites]

So Tired

Warnings: kidnapping, restraints, gag, torture, video camera

Caretaker’s eyes burned. They hadn’t slept in days and they hadn’t stopped pouring over what little information they had about Whumpee’s disappearance. They couldn’t stop looking, but they also needed sleep. They would be of no help to Whumpee if they couldn’t keep their eyes open.

Caretaker blinked a few times trying to clear their blurry vision. They were seeing two of every word they read. They needed sleep more than they needed another cup of coffee. But sleeping meant that they weren’t looking for Whumpee and they needed to look for Whumpee.

“You look awful,” a voice came from the doorway.

Caretaker jumped, but smiled weakly as they saw Friend standing in the doorway. “I feel awful.”

Friend walked in and put a hand on Caretaker’s shoulder. “You can’t overwork yourself, Caretaker. Get some sleep. Come at this with fresh eyes.”

Caretaker shook their head. “If I stop looking for Whumpee who’s going to find them?”

“You don’t have to stop looking. Just take a break. Get some sleep. Come back refreshed.”

Caretaker opened their mouth to protest, but Friend spoke first. “Tell you what, I’ll look over the information for now and I’ll tell you my thoughts when you wake up? Fair?”

Caretaker yawned. “F-F-Fair,” they said around another yawn. “I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Take your time,” Friend called as they settled in at Caretaker’s desk and pulled out their phone.

Friend pulled up the video feed from the camera they had installed in the room that they had locked Whumpee in. Friend Whumper smiled to themself as they saw Whumpee bound at the wrist and ankle and ball gag stuffed in their mouth. They certainly were having their fun with Whumpee. And it was fun to see Caretaker suffer so. Whumper pushed the button that allowed the video camera to transmit sound. “I’ll be home soon and we can really start with some fun. I was reading a particularly interesting article about burns. What do you think, Whumpee?”

Whumper chuckled at the fear in Whumpee’s eyes. This was going to be so much fun.

[froggiesir]

all the teams i think theyd be on (last life here)

[faaun]

my research partner and i are huddled in a blanket in paddington waiting for a too-late train i already miss you and you and you

[hailsatanacab]

@the-witchhunter - this is incredibly disturbing, i love it. fair warning, i took it more in the direction of that oglaf comic (nsfw) where Vlad fully doesn't realise that this is a love shrine, this is a completely normal thing that you do for your arch enemy!

———

“Daniel! I can explain!”

“Oh… my… God...”

“Daniel, really, it’s not what it looks like!”

“Really?” Danny breathes, shocked and honestly kind of fighting down the urge to vomit. The thermos slips from his fingers and clatters to the ground, the sound echoing far too loudly in the enclosed space. “Because it looks like you have a shrine dedicated to my dad in your closet.”

“No, that’s not—it’s more complicated than that, Daniel. You wouldn’t understand.”

“I don’t think I want to understand.”

“Your father is a ridiculous man, Daniel. I hate his stupid face so much. Look at him!”

Vlad turns back to the actual shrine, with actual candles and actual flowers and actual photos of his dad with… Holy crap, did Vlad cut out Mom in each of the photos? What the fuck? 

Wait… Look, Danny tries not to look too closely at the weird things Vlad has hidden around his mansion dedicated to his mom, but he’s fairly sure that the pictures of her he’s cut out (in heart shapes—yeah, Danny’s definitely going to barf) are the ones Vlad’s put in his other weirdo closet shrine that Danny also wishes he’d never seen.

“Why don’t you just have one shrine? Why have—no, you know what, I don’t want to know. I think I’m just gonna leave.”

Yeah, that sounds like the best option. Danny takes a cautious step back, very ready to get back home, bleach his eyeballs and maybe never look at his mom and dad ever again. Or, at least, not until he has successfully blocked this from his mind forever.

He only gets one foot out the door when Vlad lashes out and grabs him. The day just keeps getting better and better, really, doesn’t it? Even as he twists and turns, he can’t get out of Vlad’s ironclad grip and he’s pulled even farther into the closet. 

Panic rises in his throat as Vlad shuts the door—what the fuck is happening? He doesn’t want to be dragged into Vlad’s creepy shrine to his dad, what the fuck? What the fuck!

“I loathe your father, Daniel, I hate him with the very core of my being. Look at him!” 

There’s no goddamn way in hell Danny is looking at any of the pictures, no thank you. He squeezes his eyes shut and wishes he were somewhere, anywhere else, when Vlad jerks his arm forward so he comes nose-to-nose with the largest framed portrait of his dad in the very centre of the table, smiling with his doctorate and a very unfortunate 80s mullet. Dear God, no.

“I hate his smug face! I hate his stupid fashion sense, you have no idea how much I detest that orange jumpsuit of his, how much I want to claw it off him and tear it to shreds! If I have to listen to him say another boneheaded, idiotic, ridiculous thing, I will—I’ll rip his throat out with my teeth! You don't know how long I spend here looking at him, imaging all the ways I'll have him grovelling at my feet. One day, Daniel, I'll have him one day...”

———

The sun was going down when Danny finally managed to escape and find solace in Sam and Tucker. He's not going home. Not yet.

“Danny, are you okay? We were so worried, we couldn’t get hold of you for hours! Where were you?”

“Sam, Tuck… Vlad, he…”

“Holy shit, Danny, you’re shaking, are you alright? What happened, what did he do?”

“I think… I think he wants to fuck my dad.”

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

I sincerely apologise to the double album truthers.

I never should’ve doubted you.

[gothsuguru]

starting my curator!geto fic officially now! <3

[elfswiftiestuff]

The Double characters as songs from The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology by Taylor Swift

Part 1/?

Xue Fangfei & Shen Yu Rong: The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

'Was any of it true? Gazing at me starry-eyed'

'And I don't even want you back I just want to know / If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal'

'cause once your queen had come / you'd treat her like an also-ran // you didn't measure up / in any measure of a man'

'were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?'

'did you sleep with a gun underneath our bed?'

'I would've died for your sins / instead I just died inside'

'And in plain sight you hid'

'But you are what you did'

'And I'll forget you but I'll never forgive'

'The smallest man who ever lived'

[swiftieintraining1649]

[blueper-saiyan]

Despite not enjoying reading Planet Vegeta survives AUs very much, I still end up spending a fair amount of time thinking about what Vegeta would have been like if he’d actually grown up in the role of prince like he was supposed to. Obviously, he would have still been a tyrannical mass murderer except with far less insecurity and trauma, but that’s not really what I find interesting. I’m curious how he would view his role. In the regular timeline where basically every other Saiyan dies, he’s clearly (imo) decided that he needs to embody the absolute ideal for a Saiyan (or at least the version that he’s come up with, which is strongly biased by the fact that he grew up with only one adult Saiyan, was surrounded by people who hate his whole species, and was influenced by Freeza who both enjoyed messing with him and could directly profit if Vegeta was wrong about his own culture. So uh, probably not a particularly accurate version. But that’s a different concept to explore.). I’m not even sure if it was a conscious decision by Vegeta or not now that I think about it. Being very likely to be the last member of his species puts a very strong pressure to live up to or down to the expectations that everyone who met him would have. Beyond that, he’s royalty, and that means he’s supposed to be held to a higher standard, so he’d feel that pressure to leave a final impression even more than Nappa or Raditz. (And they both seem to care about it too, especially Raditz, which is interesting, but I’ll leave that sort of meta to the hardcore Raditz fans since I mostly just care about Raditz for the way he impacts Vegeta and don’t think as strongly about him)

So in contrast to the canon timeline, if Vegeta was growing up in a timeline where there were plenty of other Saiyans, would he feel that same pressure to be exactly what everyone expects of him? He’d have a more accurate picture of those expectations as well. I can’t decide whether or not I think that alternate version of Vegeta would still want to be the perfect Saiyan in quite the same way. Would he chafe against the actual ideal if it wasn’t more or less a framework he formed for himself? Would being able to actually be judged against it make it less appealing? What if some of the ideas about what makes a good Saiyan were things he disagreed with? Or would he still be loyal to his species and do the best he could to be the perfect Saiyan prince and then king, regardless of how high that standard might be or how much he dislikes some of it? He’s certainly canonically willing to subject himself to an impossible standard that causes him and everyone else a lot of problems. But is that only because it’s a standard he constructed himself?

Admittedly, at that level of divergence in experiences between canon Vegeta and a Planet Vegeta lives AU Vegeta, it’s hard to even really call the resulting character Vegeta still (the reason I don’t enjoy Planet Vegeta lives AUs) but I do feel like something about this question has relevance to actual Vegeta’s characterization and motives. Does he care so strongly about being Saiyan only because they’re all dead and therefore he’s forced to represent the whole species whether or not he wants to, and he’s embraced it at this point? Or is it because his father did a good job of instilling pride in him during the brief time they were together (for all the good and ill that his pride has caused)? Is he only so devoted to his “Saiyan pride” because he’s the one who came up with his version and no one else can truly decide how well he’s following it? Or does not having any external validation of how well he’s doing just make his self-imposed (and generally self-destructive) task harder? How much of why he’s so insistent on it is due to Freeza?

Freeza has a line shortly before he starts torturing Vegeta that I think about sometimes, where he basically says that he thought Vegeta was special and better than the other Saiyans. Up to your interpretation of Freeza whether Freeza genuinely believed that Vegeta is special somehow or if he was just doing some particularly cruel emotional manipulation there. Regardless of the intent behind it, if that was the attitude that Freeza was demonstrating most of the time, maybe Vegeta doubled down on being Saiyan because Freeza kept trying to claim he wasn’t like them, and he was able to see the insult. There’s also an alternative interpretation of Vegeta that he was convinced he was better than the rest of his species because of the way Freeza treated him. It’s an extremely good way to isolate him after all. In which case Vegeta only started (I often mentally call it “performing Saiyan pride” but I’m sure there’s a better way to refer to the behavior) after realizing he’d been lied to and manipulated for the majority of his life. So embracing being Saiyan so aggressively is a sort of penance for discrediting his people in the past. Or if he’d been performing Saiyan pride all along, the reveal that Freeza killed the Saiyans just spurred on a more intense performance.

Seeing a version of Vegeta with different pressures on him might give answers to some of these questions I have about why he behaves the way he does (yes it’s because he was never meant to be inspected this closely and he takes the roles he needs to for the sake of the plot, no I do not care I’m taking him seriously anyway), so I end up thinking about that version of him where he knows for sure what it means to be a Saiyan.

[justaweirdspecimen]

And thats how my heart broke, realized, healed, and was set free. Taylor Swift is a goddess in writing lyrics, it connects with everything and its meant to be understood with thousand meanings. She really is something. And she is freaking good at what she do.

[the-somwthing]

It’s still interesting to me that I see people mostly blame Scott for making Pearl have a bad reputation (this is about DL btw), and then others will point out that Pearl was usually being weird or a menace to others and that’s why she had a bad reputation not just cuz Scott was saying she’s his crazy ex soulmate, but NOBODY brings up that Ren (and BigB) literally went around saying “PEARL IS A DEMON!!!! IF YOU GO ANYWHERE NEAR HER YOU WILL DIE!!!!” Like… if ANY outside force is making Pearl unfairly look bad I’d look to the guy acting like it’s a witch trial rather than the soulmate who simply recounts the things Pearl has ACTUALLY done lol.

[tcfactory]

i was going through some old asks and now im colluding concepts og!mobei finds out og!sqh is no.1 emergency fuck of the peak. bro is the sect bicycle. mobei is seething and he doesnt know why. sqh also doesnt know why. "WHY ARE YOU MAD YOU USE ME FOR THE EXACT SAME THING?!" the word 'use' makes him more mad. he is sulking and no one here realises its jealousy

Please imagine MBJ somehow arriving to the conclusion that SQH has to have some special magic dick that made them pick him as the best emergency fuck. And ofc MBJ has to try for himself, maybe that will help shed some light on things.

(They are not going to learn anything about why SQH is the sect bicycle, but they do learn that he has sadistic dom tendencies that MBJ enjoys probably more than he ever expected.)