#the automatic assumption kills me

[lttleghost]

me: I do think it's especially not great that transmasc Jesse overshadows egg Jesse since transmasc Jesse is not as canon compatible-

some dumbasses: OH DO YOU THINK TRANS MEN CAN'T HAVE COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIPS WITH MASCULINITY? DO YOU NOT THINK TOXIC MASCULINITY HARMS TRANSMASCS? DO YOU JUST HATE TRANSMASC PPL?

me: not what I fucking said

[brittlebutch]

the only thing i don't like about 'Alex should have asked for help' AUs/theories is that they all seem to have the base assumption that we actually Know Anything about The Operator, and the fact of the matter is that we simply Don't.

[inbarfink]

Okay, so I already wrote a bunch of stuff about how that scene, although it is really sweet, is also kind of a Bad Sign for Simon - how he refuses to learn the Obvious Lesson from the Winterworld adventure (that being the Ice King again is probably a really really bad idea). But I want to talk about it also a little more about what it means for Fionna’s character as well. 

Because while sitting around and wallowing in self-loathing is probably bad for Fionna, especially after being told that she shouldn't be allowed to exist, and Simon is right to try and get her out of her funk. It's also still worthwhile for Fionna to have some introspection about the Consequences of Her Actions. Because she and Cake really did not consider them at all at first. They have a sense of morality and an instinct towards heroism, but they also tend to kinda forget the fantastical worlds they visit don’t exist entirely for their fantasy and have kind of a Protagonist-Centered-Morality fallacy. 

Most obviously you can see it in the market in Ooo. How Cake, in her excitement, damaged and hurt and even killed

A bunch of innocent marketgoers without even noticing. And then Fionna immediately jumped to Cake’s defense against these ‘weirdos’, who were actually just normal kinda-righteously-angry Oooian citizens.

It’s actually very similar to the whole Winterworld situation. Fionna’s assumption that she’s automatically the hero and protagonist of the story and black-and-white view of the situation and her tendency to kick ass first and ask questions later meant that she just recklessly injured a lot of innocent people.

(It might’ve been worse actually cause at least in Winterworld she was at least manipulated by an evil Wizard)

Fionna and Cake clearly have a great potential for heroism, but they do need to be a bit more considerate of the situation and people around them. And it does make sense considering that from their perspective - they’ve been living a very ordinary life up until now (and Cake was literally an animal. A very clever animal, but still not bound by the same standards of morality as the talking animals in Ooo). Action and adventure and fantasy stuff has been purely the realm of daydream and video games for them - and Fionna literally speaks about it in these terms.

(also, Fionna's Main Character Syndrome was undoubtedly validated when God literally told her that she was created to be the main character of her universe)

So yeah, it takes them some time to really process how to be heroes - they need to grapple with questions that Finn and Jake already kinda dealt with seventeen years ago. And actually a lot of those; how to resolve a situation without necessarily using violence, when does a 'villain' actually deserve sympathy and kindness, the importance of the larger context of any given conflict... their confrontations with Ice King all played a big part in that. It was never just him, but he was still a very major part.

And for Fionna and Cake right now, learning these lessons require some amount of personal introspection. So while it was a sweet attempt at comforting, I dunno if Simon’s little ‘the only problem with that universe is that this Alternative Me was terrible because he didn’t even acknowledge or remember Betty as the love of our life and the light of my entire universe’ thing is actually Good. 

I’m not quite sure Simon is the best person to teach Fionna and Cake heroism 101, because he is so focused on the Crown Quest as the thing that brings back Meaning to his life, and because his fatherly instincts just kinda go “Sad Young Person???? MUST GIVE COMFORT!” and also on account of the kidnapping.

I’m sure Fionna is going to become the heroine she dreams about eventually, it’s just going to be a bumpy ride. The best we can hope for is that they accept Simon’s comfort, that she doesn't start believing that she is nothing but an Error for the entire universe like the Scarab claims, but don’t necessarily listen to all of Simon's his words either.

[fairuzfan]

I think what really frustrates me about accusations of antisemitism when we say certain crimes are committed by the Israeli government towards Palestinians is that there is this base assumption that the individual identities of the people in the Israeli state are subject to individualization and identification but then we come across Hamas and all the resistance movements and people automatically categorize them as "good" or "bad" who either are "supported" or "not supported" by Palestinians. Aside from the fact that there are diverse political opinions within Palestine, people always seem to separate Hamas as a uniquely terrible group that only seeks to inflict violence irrespective of their current status of people under occupation not knowing how to change their circumstances and not afforded any contextualization.

When Palestinians talk about certain crimes against us perpetuated by the state of Israel we're told "that's libel" because our oppressors draw their identification as a nation-state as a "Jewish" state. In the same breath they condemn Hamas for killing Israelis and being uniquely antisemitic and not because they're actually fighting for any liberation. Forget the larger political context — the situation in which this exists is irrelevant in the short term analysis of how Hamas is "A Terror Organization".

Hamas is a result of circumstance. They wouldn't exist if the occupation didn't exist. You can't deny that hamas is the direct result of israel, and not because of the incendiary things that came out about who funded hamas or whatever — they are, at their core, a resistance movement against a colonial force.

And yeah, there are Palestinians that have said they don't like Hamas I guess but that... doesn't really matter to people who aren't Palestinian. The reasons they don't like Hamas are within their context of occupational circumstances. You can't just take quotes of Palestinians saying they don't like Hamas and frame it outside of their circumstance as a people living under an occupation. It would be dishonest not to mention that the greatest threat Palestinians face is the occupation. We (Palestinians) all acknowledge that. The differences in political opinion within Palestinian society aren't applicable to Israelis and non-Palestinians because you are not affected by Palestinian society in the same way that Palestinians are affected by Israeli and USAmerican society.

Israelis literally debate in open courts about whether or not to shoot unarmed Palestinians who hold rocks. There are no such discussions in Palestinian society. There are no systems really that can allow for Palestinians to feel like they actually have a political representative. Fatah, or the PA, is just a blatant puppet of the Israeli government. No one trusts them lol. So which avenues are we supposed to turn to when we are shot even as we peacefully protest? If our avenues rely on Israelis to decide that for us, then is that liberation? Is that freedom?

There is just a deep, deep dishonesty in people's treatment of defining what a state represents vs an individual and its almost always weaponized against Palestinians when we talk about the violence we experience and how we counter it.

[bogleech]

Guess I have to make a main thread about this. Someone decided to fight with me in the notes on this post just yesterday about Gaza and made select responses of mine into a callout thread here, where they say my anger towards the IDF is all a cover for antisemitism. This didn't make any sense, because they said they were also against the IDF killing civilians, and I repeatedly said that Jewish people aren't to blame for the IDF or represented by the IDF in any way, putting us supposedly both on the exact same page. What gerry leaves out of their own screenshots, and I'd actually forgotten, is that at first they came at me from an angle that I was disrespecting the victims in Gaza.

So this implies they feel gaza is being subjected to a genocide, and a pretty big one, since they're upset my language made it sound "smaller and tamer." When it becomes obvious that I do in fact consider it a serious genocide, that's when they switch over to saying that my criticism of Netanyahu or the IDF is inherently an attack on Jewish people.

Notice I never actually said "zionists" in this screenshot, even, but that I defined "regular humans" as humans who don't want to kill innocent families. That would automatically include Jewish people since they overall do not wish to kill anyone, but have in fact spent quite a lot more time trying not to get killed. I believe there may be entire books about this fact! I think there's even whole museums about it, if I'm not mistaken?!

So then they pivot to saying I'm an antisemite because I said the IDF and its supporters can "burn in hell," and they say "invoking hell" is an antisemitic dogwhistle, which is definitely news to me?!

So I tried to clarify, again, that I'm only angry at the people who are themselves killing civilians and the "pro-genocide maniacs" who defend the killing of civilians, which they responded to as if I had "lumped them in" with those. You can just see right there that I didn't make any assumption that they were a part of that at all. Thanks to their earlier comments I still thought I was speaking to someone 100% against the IDF's actions, but every time I said that the killers and their advocates alone are bad, they've framed it in some new way as me just not liking anyone Jewish. So now that you have that context:

...In a response to an ask, they finally just say they hated me to begin with and set out with the intention to "bait and sealion" me (their own words!!) into saying something they hoped would be antisemitic, which they believe was successful despite me never saying anything about Jews other than "this isn't their fault." They saw what they admittedly wanted to, so strongly, that they show me saying "this isn't the fault of Jews" as evidence that I blame Jews. But speaking of people "going mask off"

In multiple more recent posts and asks, this person appears to say that they simply do not believe the IDF is really targeting children or ambulances or relief aid, that "none of those are true," and the deliberate targeting of any children is supposedly just a conspiracy theory??? So I guess they did successfully troll me and I feel like a real gullible dumbass, because the only reason I continued responding to this person in the first place was that they said they were in fact against the ongoing massacre. Instead, these comments sound like they think the IDF is being unfairly vilified by dishonest propagandists, and that's why they hated me enough to try and fish for callout fuel. That's the nastiest fucking thing anyone's yet pulled on me about this and it's not one that I'm just going to ignore. I should have smelled a troll early on and just blocked them, but it's SO hard for me to suspect ulterior motives. I always go in thinking people mean well, and that there's just a miscommunication we can work out. I almost feel like this individual noticed that and tried to exploit it?!? Unfortunately I'm sure this kind of thing will happen again simply because I don't intend to obediently shut up about what's being done to Gaza. It's not logistically possible for the death and destruction to all just be accidental collateral damage. Don't let anybody ever fool you into thinking the IDF is the face of the Jewish community or vice-versa, just as you can't let anyone fool you into thinking Hamas represents all Palestinians. Especially don't engage this person, stop doing so if you have been, and block them.

[alwaysshallow]

serial killer ghost x detective reader.

he's probably the biggest case in your entire career—and you just know you can't fuck it up. not when you're new in the crew, not when they trust you with solving the case that they feel miserable in. you got the transfer from another unit to get a chance. you don’t want to lose it, like you lost the previous one.

four months. four months and the madness of killing innocent women doesn’t stop. it’s nowhere close to stopping, considering you have only scraps—he kills women at night, women that are single, between mid twenties and thirties. successful women, or more likely what society would find successful in women. those clues are nothing but lame, but you’re in no position to complain. at least it’s something.

it’s your full month in the city, when you sense something is wrong. you can’t quite put what exactly, but something is. you automatically put your hand around your weapon, checking the surroundings on your way back to your apartment, chinese in your left hand. a mundane walk for food turns into crazy assumptions that the murderer could be looking for you too. or, he already found you.

yet, you can’t find anything, so you just go back. 

except, the feeling doesn’t pass. you feel it on your way to work, home, and even if you’re safe in theory, you don’t feel particularly safe. it’s gotten to the point where your boss sees it and asks if you need help. talks with you, how he can transfer you back, or set you up with another case. “anything, but losing your health,” he says to you, and you hate it. hate the absolute politeness in his voice, his sad, father-like smile, like he knows what he’s talking about. 

he doesn’t.

so, one day, you check again all of your doors, windows, and possible spots for hidden cameras. it takes you another hour, and you feel you could go crazy soon. there’s nothing, the murderer didn’t strike in over a month, and your paranoia might cost you your job.

“it’s not worth it,” you sigh, before opening the door. there’s a guy with a pizza hat and a pizza in his hand. delivery guy. you pay him without even thinking of it, a smile on his face when you say goodbye, a smile on yours. 

smile that fades quickly, when you open the box, just to see the message inside, written with a black marker, probably.

“thought you got rid of me that easily?”

[writingsforwinter]

I don't much pay attention to critique of my writing because everyone is entitled to their opinions of my work and those opinions are valid. I don't always like my own work, either.

However, the way that men talk about my work is sometimes particularly frustrating to me because of the way that those critiques are much more targeted and personal than the critiques that women make. This is a comment a man made about my poem "The Morning After I Killed Myself," a poem I wrote at age 21 after leaving an abusive relationship and attempting suicide nearly 5 times in under 4 months. Most of the attempts were near-fatal. I think that easily sums up the motivation behind the poem, none of which even remotely involved a desire to promote "shock value."

"Manipulative" is a word that is disproportionately used to refer to women, along with words like "deceitful." In this comment there is an automatic assumption that I, a woman writer, am exploiting issues of mental health for my own personal gain. Amid a public narrative that insists men are enduring a "male loneliness epidemic," women's mental health is often dismissed, ignored, downplayed, and entirely negated. We are often portrayed as crazy, hysterical, unstable, and all the words in this comment, which ironically equates womanhood with being mentally ill while simultaneously pretending that only men suffer from mental health issues.

Yes, it's just a comment. Yes, he's just a stranger. But I also remember the man who made a disparaging comment about my first book of poetry, Survival Songs, released in 2013. He mocked my writing and said "It sounds like it was written by a teenager."

It was. I was 18.

[hestella]

Hannibal Lector: A New Face

A/N: I'm currently not done watching Hannibal so there are A LOT of mistakes and it probably won't make any sense lol please tell me out of the kindness of your heart if you want me to fix anything or want to let me know. Also some scenes are improvised by me, I don’t own any characters except for my OC(which is, well, you), all credits to Hannibal NBC and Red Dragon series. LOVE YOU ALL

Warnings: mentions of violence, sexual violence, blood, murder, use of Y/N(cause I can't think of a cool name), Fem!reader, kind of POC reader?, psychopath reader, trauma, mental illness, BLIND READER

Will Graham was gifted a special talent, the talent to see and read a person's mind, no matter how wicked or broken it was, he was able to know exactly what and why and how. His talents were greatly appreciated from the FBI, especially solving murder cases.

He had some of friends, but there was one particular and close friend he had, her name being Y/N.

She seemed to be also have a special natural-born talent. After an unfortunate event, she was permanently blinded and needed to have a walking sick with her, but she still was able to memorize and observe the smallest details of practically anything she felt and heard. Her talent was also what the FBI needed, but she never actually applied, or even participate on those kinds of stuff, unlike Will.

In fact, she was just a plain old professor, teaching philosophy, she gave lectures in colleges and universities for a living.

At first Hannibal thought she was boring, until he actually got to meet her.

When Jack got to know Will, it wasn't that long after he also got to know Y/N. Will constantly mentioned her, about her abilities and how she would have thought about some things. Will knew better than to actually mention FBI cases to her, but the other way, there wasn't anything stopping him. If Will was doing lectures, not with the FBI, Jack automatically sought her for help. She reluctantly accepted, not because of the work itself but for Will, thinking that he would heal when she solved some cases for him, giving him a break. She had control of her lectures, so she was at least more flexible than Will. And with all seriousness, she was good. It was different from Will’s way of investigation, but she was able to collect evidence according to the case and end up with a conclusion, which actually helped Jack a lot, since Will’s investigation relied on his assumptions, that he himself couldn't really make sense.

"Whoever that killed these girls probably has some kind of women that look like those victims. It can be a daughter, a long gone crush, a mother...someone that they have deep connection, whether it's positive or negative. That makes them most likely a male." She explained, after listening to all the information she needed.

"We already assumed that this was a male, unintentionally. Any other observations?" Jack said.

"It's most likely a daughter, though. Young, all from different campuses. He chose these campuses specifically, I'd say, probably one his daughter goes to, or is planning to go to." She continued. "However..." She stood up, walking towards the board with the pictures, wandering her walking stick from side to side.

"He...he has a thing for killing. he's not doing this for pleasure, it's...it's more like art. Precise, like....." she turned around. "...like those people who hunt wildlife." she said.

"...what?" Jack asked.

She bit her lips, not knowing how to say it. "...like those people, I can't, I can't explain it." She looked towards Will, or just turned around where she sensed he was, for help.

Will nodded. "..yeah, I get it. I can see that, wildlife hunters."

"He probably also owns some personal space, like a cabin, out in the woods where he can dissect and dress the animals he hunts. That's probably where he killed these girls too. He would have been used to it, if he used to, or still currently is a hunter." She muttered.

"Yes, where he can butcher, cool, and storage animals, and apparently people. Even if someone accidentally saw blood or, smelled something from there, it makes sense because it's for that purpose, except it's for animals." Will continued.

She nodded and looked back at Jack, her eyes not really focusing exactly to him. "...did that help?" she asked.

"...quite." Jack looked at her only white eyes.

“im glad,” she gave him a faint smile. “But I’ve been trying to ask…is there someone else here? Apart from Will, me, and you?”

“allow me to introduce myself, Ms. Y/L/N, I’m doctor Hannibal Lector. I apologize for my unintentional ambush,” Hannibal stood upon respect, even if she couldn’t see.

“ah, so you were the one. I thought I was having delusions,” she turned her head to face him, her white eyes staring somewhat at Hannibal. She walked towards him and reached out her hand, which Hannibal accepted gently and respectfully. “No need to apologize, Dr. Lector.” She gave him a smile too.

“I should say you’re quite flexible on communicating, even though you’re visually impaired. Different from Will, you try to have eye contact with people. No offense, by all means,” Hannibal muttered his short observation.

“I’m not offended, it’s true. But there’s no need to psychoanalyze me, doctor.” She let go of his hand and reminded him, slithering away from Hannibal’s attempt to make her step out of her circle.

Hannibal wasn’t able to get a hold of her. She rarely talked, but rather tried to hint the FBI about the evidence. He tried inviting her to dinner but she was always somehow reserved. She surely seemed careful about who to let in her circle.

Hannibal tried to step into her personal space by packing up food that he made and giving them to her. He planned to do that to Will too, getting to know him and partially using it to show her what kind of a person he was. His plan was this: pack breakfast for Will, then let Will tell this event to her, and then eventually making her comfortable enough for him to make breakfast for her too. It was getting two rabbits by one stone.

Hence, that was what happened. A second of silence surrounded the two, as they chewed and swallowed the food.

“Agent Crawford told me you have a knack for the monsters,” Hannibal mentioned.

Will put down his fork and looked at him. “..I don’t think the Shrike killed the girl in the field.”

Hannibal also put down his fork and leaned a bit forward. “The devil is in the details. What didn’t your copycat do to the girl in the fields? What gave it away?”

“..everything. It’s like, he had to show me a negative to prove that-“ he sighed. “Y/N would’ve explain it better,” he muttered. “it’s like he had to show me a negative so that-so that I could see the positive.” He rubbed his face.

“….Y/N?” Hannibal muttered.

“Crawford wants her. I don’t want her to be, but I feel like she can see more than I can.” Will looked around. Hannibal noticed this.

“…May I ask you a question, Will?” Hannibal said, his breakfast long forgotten. Will just waved his hand, nodding his head. “Do you live with someone else here?”

“..yeah, we, Y/N and I thought it wouldn’t be that bad of an idea, rather than getting separate rooms…” Will explained. Hannibal nodded. So that was the thing he felt was off about the house. He was honestly surprised, but didn’t let that out.

“where is she, then? Sleeping? I would love to share this meal with her too, if she can,”

“She leaves at 4 in the morning to go to her job.” Will replied, taking another bite of the food. “and she’s strictly vegan, so I don’t think she’ll be able to eat any of these,”

“I see. Her job, which is..”

“Teaching. Modern philosophy at Johns Hopkins.”

“ah, Johns Hopkins. I should’ve known.” Hannibal almost gave him a smile.

With the additional information, it was too easy for Hannibal to roll Jack Crawford up and persuade her to be one of his patients too. He added a little bit of extra reasoning with her injury, telling Jack perhaps the right therapy may make her sense more, and less be obstacled by her blindness. It wasn’t his initial goal to help her sense like a not-visually-impaired person, but he was confident it was possible.

He decided to pay a visit to her lectures.

(Should I make this a series??)

[thydungeongal]

When you talk about games like Odnd 'not balancing encounters' - could you elaborate more on what you mean by balancing? I've seen you mention that not all encounters were meant to be won by the players but to me that doesn't preclude balance. For example even if the players might not win a fight, choosing to not give a room enemies that can trap and insta kill players is still 'balancing'. You're just balancing for 'they may very well need to just run from the fight' rather than strictly 'they will win this fight and expend somewhere in the range of X and Y% of their resources'

I mean old D&D very rarely balanced for either to be fair. Played as written it was entirely possible to run into a room full of instant death bees that theoretically could one-shot a player character.

But what I mean generally speaking when I talk about this difference between older and newer editions is that older editions of D&D don't take party level or party size into account when generating content. Whether you've got a party of four level 1 characters or a party of twelve characters of levels 5-10 your characters might still end up running into 40-400 goblins in the wilderness.

Meanwhile D&Ds 3e to 5e all ask you to take character level and party size into account when generating content for the game. This isn't inherently bad in my opinion, but it represents a shift in playstyle.

Of course in practice what the old D&D approach often means is that starter level characters stick to starter level dungeons until they can take on higher level threats, but even those starter level dungeons are less concerned with the idea of presenting a fair and balanced challenge for the characters that players can expect them to be able to overcome and more just. Random generative bullshit. And players can't ever go in expecting to have a fighting chance against everything. Those instant death bees appear 1d6 at a time in dungeons, 5d6 in their lair.

But yeah the game is kind of balanced with regard to the idea that characters don't ever really need to engage unless they choose to or unless they get unlucky. Whereas modern D&D often builds a bunch of safety nets into combat (not dying immediately at 0 hp, more hit points per character, ready access to healing, etc.) older editions build that balance through having procedures for detecting encounters beforehand, and even if that fails combat isn't always necessary (catching monsters by surprise means automatically being able to evade them, running away is always an option, sometimes the monsters simply don't react with hostility). I guess it's a certain kind of balance, but it's a very different kind of balance from what I mean when I say "balanced encounters," which I broadly use to refer to encounters that are custom built to take into account party size and level with the assumption that under normal circumstances the party should emerge victorious.

[antimony-medusa]

"They're honestly so sibling-coded."

I grew up in a conservative, rural area where people got married young. It was not uncommon to see marraiges happen when the people involved were 19, 20, 21, and there was this sort of expectation that any relationship you were in in your teen years had like a 70% chance of leading to marriage. More, if you were especially religious. This attitude was so pervasive that if a woman was friends with a man, or even hung out together, there was this automatic societal assumption that you were early relationship, which led into late relationship, which led into where you were going to get married, which led into babies and a family.

And I hated it. I hated it because I was aroace and didn't know it yet, but even just as a baby feminist feeling out what it meant to be a woman and how I was perceived in the world, I hated the assumption that all my m/f relationships were only worth something if they were leading to romance and marriage (and babies). The idea that men and women couldn't be friends, because men only thought about women in a romantic/sexual way, was actively taught me by everyone from pastors to helpful older coworkers. I even got told that f/f friendships were basically killing time until you got into a romantic m/f relationship, which is where you'd find actual fullfilment and happiness. It sucked.

And then I moved away, and I got out of the conservative religious circles, and then in my 20s, people kept saying the same thing. At least it wasn't saying "god made you for relationships (and babies)," but it was still saying that y'know, men are only interested in one thing, and it's cruel to lead them on, and so on, and so forth. Half of the world is going to only think of you in terms of what you're good for in relation to their relationship status, and the other half of the world is going to tell you to suck it up and deal with it.

This is still the background radiation of much of the world, still. I am getting this less in my 20s because many of my male friends are married, (or gay), but still, as soon as I meet someone new the interested looks start to pile in. As a person who doesn't plan on getting into a romantic relationship, I do not love this.

Immediately seeing a m/f friendship and going "ooooo they're KISSING" is not respectful of the guy's ability to have friendships with people he's not having sex with, but let's look at what it messages about the girl in this scenario.

A) women are only worth talking about in terms of what they can do to for men, what they are in connection with men B) friendship is unimportant and not real, women only exist to be romance options

So I feel strongly about allowing women to be percieved as their own beings and have cross-gender friendships without turning it into romance.

This is not an uncommon take on the internet! I see a lot of people talking about allowing people to be friends without defaulting to shipping.

But I don't know how to tell you that seeing a m/f relationship and saying "Oh they're siblings", when we're talking about celebrities/streamers is still sending a lot of the same messages. The core thing you're communicating is still the same. It's falling into the same traps.

I get the sense that a lot of people see a relationship they want to sort of celebrate and enjoy, and they know that shipping is bad, so they just shunt the "oh they're special to each other" to the left into a family dynamic. I will just say they're siblings, that way nobody can accuse me of shipping, and I'm good!

But what this does is still messages a) woman are reduced down to their relationship with a man, into what they can do for the man, and b) friendship is unimportant and not real, women only exist to be non-romanceable family and the rest of them, the romance options.

If the only way you can conceive of a woman as being important to a man is either being romantic/sexual with him or by saying that they're related, that's still bad. If you literally have to put one of the strongest relationship taboos in our culture in the way or you'll just default into kissing I guess, that's still messaging some really concerning things about how you're portrating women.

And once inside the family dynamics, jesus fuck, you guys. Family dynamics have such a trend to slot women into nurturing and protective roles, where the "older sister" "is the one with the brain cell" and "will take care of him" and will be there suborned to his story to be a surrogate mother figure that takes care of him. This, frankly, sucks.

I am an older sister as a fairly important part of my identity. I love being an older sister. But the way this fandom treats older sisters as tiny non-sexual mothering machines with no interiority or autonomy is not good at all, when it comes to actively respecting women as people.

Honestly, I don't like either option, but when you look at how women get treated when sisterified in fanon (older responsible figure who will take care of our precious baby boy) and how women get treated when shipped (mothering options still exist here but also sometimes they dom him), I might prefer the shipping. And I just did a whole multi paragraph about how much the shipping sucks!

I'm not even going to get into what happens when women get actively assigned mom in a family dynamic. All the worst parts of shipping with none of the fun smut.

I am aware I am talking about the worst excesses of family dynamic here, because this fandom offers lots to choose from, and there are ways to do family dynamic in a good way. Some of the most important relationships in my life are familial, and when actually delved into, you can absolutely still portray a full and nuanced portrayal within a family dynamic. This is a possibility. But god, when I look at the fandom trends and what rises to the top of my dash, oof.

And like, there's a larger trend in this fandom where people seem to be incapable of thinking of friendships as valuable and worthy, if you see them as important to each other it must be familial, but when you do it with women, damn.

Can we give seeing women as full autonomous being who are capable of their own opinions and desires a shot? See them as more than just romance options or [illegal to romance] options? Just let them be friends? Please?

[illmoraineakoi]

Theory: Victim was never actually deleted or killed.

The Flash project being closed without saving didn't do anything to him because his file had already been saved automatically the moment he was created.

Why do I think this?

Because that's what happened with Chosen.

We never see Alan save the Flash document he made The Chosen One in. Nor Dark's, nor Orange's. But that doesn't matter, because is seems Flash automatically saves a stick figure's .EXE into it's own directories, under a "Players" folder, which itself contains a folder specifically for stick figures.

This likely happens the moment the stick figure is named and turned into a symbol, as a part of the process of turning that stick figure into a symbol, or "Player".

Which is a process Victim did go through.

The original document he was created on didn't matter.

He already existed. He was already an external .EXE process functioning outside of that specific document. The only thing closing Flash might have done is shut his process down, but his file was still there, just like any other normal execrable file.

And I'm not even certain that would've happened, because it doesn't seem to matter if Flash/Animate is open for the sticks to exist and function on their own. This leads me to think that each stick figure is it's own executable/application process, which runs separate from any other program or application, even if they were originally created on or apart of one.

And AVA4 heavily implies this too:

The each have their own processes the computer is handling individually. Orange's is completely separate from Flash's. Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow's processes are separate from Chrome. And so are the Facebook stickers, strangely enough.

[Also something I never noticed: Avast is running during AvA4. But it hasn't detected the stick figures or taken any action to defend the computer against them. This might possibly because Alan hasn't specifically run a scan; Chosen hadn't been automatically detected until he made Avast run a scan. Avast is one of the strangest parts of AvA canon I s2g.]

We never actually see Victim die or disappear or even the Flash program closing, in AvA 1. It ends immediately after "No" is clicked, which leaves the viewer with the implication and the assumption that closing the program has ended Victim's life. And for a majority of AvA's history, that implication was likely true, and what Alan originally intended, back when he made it.

But that implication is now wrong, leaving how Victim survived a mystery that will (hopefully) be answered Saturday.

But the fact that it does end so suddenly without showing anything has left the door open for so many possibilities, and I don't think it's out of the question that things continued even after Flash was closed, things AvA 1 never showed. I think it's possible that Flash closed, but Victim remained on the desktop, and continued the fight until he was gotten rid of or even escaped in a totally different way.

Alan closing Victim's project without saving did nothing to him.

(The same cannot be said for Victim's clones, which likely did rely on Flash to continue to exist. They were copies of his own symbol Victim had pulled into the project from the Library, so Flash had likely been treating them as aspects of that project, as much as everything else Alan had drawn. While it could technically be possible for Victim's clones to have had their own files that were made when Victim pulled them down, much like Purple's clones were files in AvLoL, I doubt it. I feel like it's much more likely they were handled by Flash itself.)

[oreo-oro-orero]

I thought I would talk more about how I feel Ekko is often mistreated or ignored by the Arcane fandom and why I think that is and spoiler alert I Anti-Blackness is at least a part of it.

Ekko is subjected to what a lot of black boys are too in real life which is  adultification. Ekko just like a lot of black boys was essentially forced to grow up and due to this I think a lot of the Arcane Fandom treat him as an adult and thus judge him more harshly just like how in real life black boys are often treated as older then they actually are and thus are subjected to more scruinty and Ekko is sadly constantly subjected to this by the fans. This is in direct contrast with Jinx who seems to be given a lot more leeway which to a certain extent is understandable because it is her story essentially but I still find it odd how she is given the "oh poor baby pushed around by the big bad world must protect" but Ekko is just given a side glance and a "he's doing fine" when both Ekko and Jinx deserve that "need to protect" additude but yet it feels like Jinx is given the most of the protection and Ekko is just left to fend for himself.

Honestly I don't think a lot of the Arcane Fandom looks at Ekko as a victim and that is genuinely upsetting. They look at his situation as more of a success story but even then his "success" is is very sad when you think about it.  Yes he built a community and yes I guess he did "turn out okay" despite his situation but he shouldn't have had build that community in the first place and just because he did doesn't mean he's healed, trauma doesn't just go away because your relatively okay compared to everyone else. I also think his hurt isn't taken as seriously as the other characters because he doesn't actively display it as much, in total his hurt is displayed in two main instances and that's it mostly, the other times he's on screen he's either angry or at the very least mildly annoyed or somber which is interesting because this is most likely a mask he wears and this mask is a direct result of the adultification I talked about earlier. 

Ekko suffers from what a lot of black characters do which is that despite them going through the same or sometimes even more trauma then non black characters, their trauma is often overlooked or downplayed to be less then it is which is something that happens in IRL to black people all the time. Also this mischaracterization of Ekko extended to Shipping as well to where some people label him as an abuser towards Jinx which is ironic because he is one out of like 2 other characters that doesn't actively kill anyone and if anything he tries to avoid that as much as possible so I genuinely don't understand where this abuser assumption came from, is it because they genuinely Believe it or is it because they saw a black man being aggressive an automatically assumed he was the one in the wrong in the situation.

I got a little bit ranty there and I apologize but Ekko is my favorite character from the show and just fiction in general and I feel like he has so much to offer but he is seemingly being mistreated by other fans of the show and that just doesn't sit right with me. I just hope next season really gives him his time in the spotlight.

[rjalker]

Edit: Can't believe the irony of me having to say this, but I do apparently have to say this: Not wanting boobs and not wanting to be seen as feminine does not mean you are, or want to be seen as masculine. I'm not transmasculine just because I don't want boobs and don't want to be seen as feminine.

You cannot read a post where the point is having boobs does not equal being feminine and go oh! right. Because not wanting boobs equals being masculine! No!! I'm not transmasculine! I'm not trying to look masculine! Kill the gender binary that has a stranglehold on your views of gender!

Stop shoving nonbinary people into a new set of binary boxes!

___

the idea that having boobs gets you automatically and inherently classified as being "female presenting" and "feminine presenting" in so-called progressive circles makes me want to maul people.

I've said this before and I'll just keep repeating it forever: I'm disabled. I can't wear a binder. If I tried I'd dislocate several ribs and that'd be the least of my worries. Like. you know why ribs not being where they're supposed to be is dangerous? Yeah. Yeah. Use your imagination. That's a real thing I have to worry about.

I can't even wear a sports bra that's several sizes """too large""" comfortably.

And yeah, I can use trans tape, but that takes concerted time and effort to put on and take off, and every time you put it on you get different results, and you might just mess it up entirely and waste it, and it can get itchy if you're sweating with it on (and it's 90 degrees almost all the time it's not actively winter here, so that's...literally unavoidable. Even sitting in the living room. Because the electric company charges an arm and a leg for AC during the summer AND won't even give you enough to actually cool your shitty tiny apartment even with all the doors shut and curtains drawn!!!!!), and it's expensive to buy more of.

And especially because this declaration of "feminine presenting" or "female presenting" that gets shoved onto you is not only misgendering you, but placing the blame on you for being misgendered for not looking not-female enough. It's no longer the speaker making incorrect assumptions, they're now literally declaring that this is a concious decision you make. You are choosing to "present" yourself this way...by having a body that you have no control over.

And even when it comes to clothes, the idea that the clothes you wear is another purposeful, conscious Presentation™ of your gender...

Even if we ignore for a moment the fact that being disabled and poor severely limits the clothes you can wear and even just have access to, what about people who literally don't get to choose what their clothes are? Kids whose parents buy their clothes for them, people whose carers choose their outfits for them?

My gender is not "sun-bleached tank top and shorts with a reflective sun hat". That's just what I wear so I don't die of heat stroke every time I set foot outside, and so that my joints are not being painfully constricted every time I move. I literally can't take my hat off outside during the day without developing a headache (or are they fucking migraines? fuck if I know!) within minutes from the sun trying to murder me from my light sensitivity. And it took me years to even realize that it was light sensitivity causing this. I remember in middle school the substitute gym teacher asked if I was a vampire because I moved to the closest shady spot every time we moved to a new area.

And like. Let's be honest. Even if I could safely wear a binder...They're fucking expensive.

It's just really fucking annoying that so many people equate binding with being trans and so many people who are supposed to be allies are just so comfortable labeling other people, who they haven't asked, as "feminine presenting" just because of the presence of boobs. Like we have any choice in the matter. Like having visible boobs just means you're asking to be misgendered.

[pipperoo]

rambles about the black blade under the cut because i’m fascinated by that dumb little weapon

a picture of it features within the black book (shown in killer track) so it most likely existed around the time the book was written or it could have even existed before. this thing is probably around as old as the book. maybe willabella helped create it too.

we know that the black blade is the only thing that can kill miss holloway, it completely bypasses her curse/deal. we know that it can also kill wilbur cross as miss holloway used it on him in the witch and the web. it potentially could be the only thing that kills him too, but there’s no confirmation on that. wilbur is a strong sorcerer, it’s likely that he also has some kind of immortality too

i like to think of it as something forged from the black and white itself. it’s a piece of shrapnel from the black and white, a fragment. that’s the only thing that makes sense to me for it to bypass the lords in black’s gifted immortality. i like to imagine that it’s so dark and shadow-y that light can’t even reflect off of it.

i’m wondering if the disciples automatically wield it? like is it something the lords bestow to them directly? do the lords have any control of it? can it be summoned by the book? does wilbur always wield the blade? and in the timelines where miss holloway kills him, does she just wrestle it away? or are there others where she acquires it by different means?

my assumption is that wilbur does hold onto it in the same vein that miss holloway usually is the one with the book. there may be some timelines where they each have the other, but typically he has the blade, she has the book. i don’t know, it makes sense to me if the blade is something passed from the lords to wilbur cross, especially if they have a desire to erase holloway from the playing field

we don’t know anything about what their fights look like. it could be a lot of spell slinging, maybe they wait to strike in the shadows when the other is distracted so it’s over quickly, it could be a full on physical brawl. we don’t know. i feel like it always devolves to fighting over the blade and then trying to get a stab in. i do think it’s interesting that these two are such powerful magic users, but their big fight will always come down to who can get a grip on a knife.

a headcanon i have for the blade is that, when you die because of it, your soul is instantly pulled to the black or drowsytown where you will essentially remain forever. maybe in a deep slumber where there’s nothing or maybe you’re tortured for eternity. could depend on who you are. and that’s why it can permanently kill holloway, because it traps her soul and prevents her from resurrecting.

another is that even one little slice is enough to kill you. not right away, but if it draws blood, it will eventually kill you like some poison or rot. (this is completely stolen from the mechanics of death’s scythe from supernatural) you can use it to kill like any knife, but one scratch is all that’s really needed (tho i’m sure they often make sure the other is dead, beyond just a small cut, like how wilbur eats holloway’s heart in one timeline) maybe the black and white slowly devours your soul or it’s poisoning your body in order to snatch your soul. i feel like there’s so much angst potential and it could make the fights more interesting because it makes them more careful. they can’t be as risky in the fear that a random swipe could end them.

i just really want more lore on this thing, but who knows if we’ll ever get it

[artofhazbinhotel]

Class of 09 as The Vees part 3

Valentino: If you were my boyfriend, what would you do for me?

Vox: I don't know, anything you want?

Valentino: Anything? Damn. So any depraved ass shit you're just down for?

Vox: For you? Yeah

Valentino: Could I choke you while we make out?

Vox: If you want

Valentino: Could I smack the shit out of you in public?

Vox: Yes please

Valentino: Self esteem

Vox: Am I too desperate?

Valentino: No, not your self esteem, my self esteem, it's through the roof right now

Valentino: You think I'm just another sheep, don't you?

Velvette: Is sheep interchangeable with dipshit?

Vox: Valentino, you're a cold, corrupt, selfish, psychopathic bitch. Literally the most sadistic fucking whore- I wouldn't be surprised if you like killing animals

Valentino: Haven't tried

Vox: You don't even get mad at the assumption of that! You're severely twisted, evil, manipulative, and in general just a heartless bitch.. Doesn't mean I don't want you every waking moment of my sad fucking life

Valentino: Excuse me?

Vox: You show every sign of an abuser and I don't give a shit. You're the kinda guy who'd choke me goodnight, the kinda guy who'd walk in on me cutting and take the razor blade and do it for me. I don't want a boyfriend to marry, I want a boyfriend who helps me plan my own suicide. You're that man Valentino, I need you bad

Valentino: Bitch you need therapy

Vox: Right, honey?

Valentino: "Right, honey?"

Velvette: Dude I said don't call me that in public

Vox: Oh, I thought it was don't say it in private

Velvette: If I didn't want it in private why would I want it in public??

Velvette: You probably don't even watch anything good

Valentino: You watch Smallville

Velvette: You're evil

Valentino: You're friends with someone who's evil

Velvette: You're friends with someone who watches Smallville

Valentino: Holy shit don't say it that loud!

Vox: But then you gotta ask, would you rather be alone? Or have a hot twisted bitch who demeans you in public but gives amazing head? These are the real questions that plague society

Velvette: But why?

Valentino: That domestically beats me, I have no fucking clue

Velvette: I feel like he sexts in perfect grammar

Vox: Is this really necessary?

Velvette: Is that extra cheese at Chipotle necessary?

Vox: I don't get that every time-

Velvette: I'm so hungry

Valentino: Red lobster cheesy biscuits?

Velvette: Fuck no, chipotle

Valentino: You don't like the cheesy biscuits?

Velvette: They're okay

Valentino: I'm a whore for the cheesy biscuits

Velvette: You say you're a whore for everything

Valentino: Oh yeah, like what?

Velvette: Bottled water, massages, Internet, McDonald's French fries, Percocet-

Valentino: We need to hang out less

Vox: Like you could write a better script

Velvette: Then this? I totally could

Vox: About what?

Velvette: About a girl who's superpower is all her insides are poisonous so if a guy tries to molest her his eyes melt out of his head and he dies in a slow grueling pain

Valentino: So then he can't deny it? That's good

Vox: Why wouldn't you just make it so her superpower avoids getting molested altogether?

Velvette: Who the fuck would wanna watch that? Her superpower is nothing happened? Wow great movie idea

Vox to Sir Pentious on that call be like: You are so fucking pathetic, I hope you kill yourself while your mom watches

[babybatss-blog]

CHERRY

Johanna x capital!reader, 1100 words

Summary: After meeting you at a victory party, Johanna can’t seem to keep her eyes off of you. But aren’t you capital scum?

Cw: Johanna slightly out of character idk this ain’t my best work, reader is from the capital, reader has a bad relationship with her parents, and multiple mentions of Johanna’s family dying. Reader and Johanna kiss at the end.

Chandeliers, ballgowns, and crowded rooms. An idea of true torture for Miss Johanna Mason. It feels like just yesterday she was in her district living her boring life, but now she’s been forced to parade like some show pony, dressed in stupid clothes with idiotic people. Naively, she thought that this exploitation would end with killing her whole family and celebrating killing 23 other children, but no, here she is in some random mansion toasting expensive champagne with people she’s never met.

After some excruciatingly long conversation about the rugelach that was being served, Johanna manages to finally slip away, strolling along the outskirts of the party as to avoid any unwanted attention from her overly tight dress. She considered just jumping out a window and sprinting out of there, possibly catching the next train straight out of this hellhole and never looking back. Surviving in some cold dark woods would be better than staying here anyways.

That was until she saw you. Standing by a buffet in your frilled pink outfit, you grab a cherry and pop it into your mouth. Something about the way your cherry stained lips enveloped the fruit, how your hands artfully moved and how your eyelashes fluttered in satisfaction by the taste. You seemed so peaceful, enjoying your silent moment away from the crowd just like Johanna is. Her eyes drift up and down your body, taking note of your curves and gravitating warmth that she hasn’t felt in a long time.

So against her better judgment, Johanna struts over to you, a cocky smile on her face as you look up to meet her. This night may be interesting after all. She picks a cherry up from the ornate bowl, popping it into her mouth while maintaining eye contact. Instead of being flustered or blushing by her act, you merely spit the pip into a tissue and place it down.

“Johanna Mason, right? I saw you on the games, it was quite an impressive feat.”

“Thanks. I didn’t expect to be stuck in boring parties like this one, but at least I’ve found someone to pass the time with.”

To this you giggle, a small laugh that is sweet and pleasing to the ears. Johannas fake smile softens, in a way that it hasn’t in many a year. She likes that sound, and strangely wishes to hear it more. “Your too sweet, miss Mason. I actually agree with you though, my parents are regular sponsors of the games and it drives me insane all these parties. At least it has good food!”

“You like cherries hey?”

You look down, an unfamiliar blush coating your cheeks in the same shade as those beloved fruits. “I guess so. They honestly aren’t my favourite, but I appreciate their taste and they are a good snack at times. What about you?”

Johanna scoffs, looking away from you towards the crowd of posh attendees either conversing or dancing. Normally, her automatic assumption would be to enter a state of defence, now used to judgment from others. But Johanna isn’t dumb, she can read a room and can easily tell that you’re a peaceful soul. So, she concedes in honesty, facing back to your curious figure. “I’m not much of a fan of fancy food. Honestly, my favourite is my mum’s old lentil soup.”

Your eyes light up, being uncharacteristically intrigued by such a simple notion. “Sounds delicious! I would love to try it sometime!”

Johanna’s face drops, realising you don’t know what happened to her family. But some abnormal, caring note sparks within the usually guarded victor, not wanting to throw away that blooming pip within you. Your sweet, too sweet for your own good. Therefore, she swiftly recovers herself and continues off as normal. “Then it’ll be done. I’d love to take you back to my hometown someday, teach you what the world is really like.”

“I would love nothing more. If I can convince me parents to let me out is all…”

“Convince? Your old enough to make your own decisions by now aren’t you?”

You shake your head, clearly petrified by the notion. “Oh no no no. That isn’t how things work with my family miss Mason. I’m lucky if I can even enter the garden most days!”

Johanna’s face screws up in disgust, the complete opposite of your worried expression. Boldly, she steps forward and takes your hand. “Follow me.” Without protest you let her lead you, leaving the party out to a balcony. From the balcony you take a sharp left down a stone stairway, covered with green vines and moss. You try and be careful to not slip, but Johanna seems to have a different idea as she quickly skips down the stairs and leads you to a chair, where she plops down beside you.

“You need adventure Cherry. Nobody wants some boring life, and it’s not what you deserve.”

“Cherry?”

“Yes, Cherry. Your sweet like a cherry, small and bright. And Cherries come in pairs. It’s weird, but I like you Cherry. I’ll be your partner in crime.”

Johanna can tell by the look in your eye how her words affect you. Your closed off lifestyle leads you to not truly know what the world has to offer, but the respect and acknowledgement on your face shows that you truly appreciate her actions. Your eyes drift down to her lips while licking your own, and something in the two of you draws you together, a magnet which intertwines your bodies as one.

Subconsciously your hand drifts up, resting on her jaw. Johanna’s eyes also fall to your lips, in a way she has never felt before. “Would you… Be my partner in crime Cherry?” Johanna’s words come out as merely a whisper, as you lean in, your breath touching her flustered skin. Despite the screaming words of protest from your parents within your mind, you close the gap, enveloping her with a passionate kiss. Johanna eagerly returns the affection, her hands sliding up into your hair to push you even closer.

The kiss takes both of your breaths away, so you break apart with gasps. Soon enough, your breath returns and you manage out a couple of words.

"Well, partners in crime it is."