#then again we have a lot of people in general..

[phantomspren]

I was just going to put this in tags but I'll put it here.

This is why I'm uncomfortable when people make sweeping generalizations about conservatives/Republicans.

On a fundamental level, I do disagree with the political beliefs that lead people to holding those labels.

But at the same time, there's such a huge difference between someone who is Republican because they think that we should have lower taxes, and someone who is Republican because they think rich white men are the only people worthy of rights.

When we make those blanket statements of "every Republican is racist" or whatever, we're making it less likely that those people are going to do stuff like this. Often it leads to people doubling down on their beliefs, even if they are inherently harmful.

You also have people like my mom. She is a registered Republican, born and raised in Idaho, super super Mormon.

She's a registered Republican because she thinks that society should be built to promote the family and help families thrive.

But she also supports universal healthcare.

I tell her all the things I think are cool about Harris and Walz and she's always like "wow, yeah, that is really cool!"

She's a high school teacher and because of that now supports gun control.

She doesn't give a shit that I'm aroace. (Haven't talked about gender stuff but I'd feel pretty comfortable bringing it up at this point to be honest.)

The thing is that the public/left awareness of the Republican party has shifted, following the people who are in power. Because those in power are getting more extreme.

There are people who have always held really extreme right-wing beliefs.

There are people like many who are voting for Trump who used to be less extreme, but have followed those in positions in power in gradually making their views more extreme.

There are those like my mom and dad who have some not great but far more reasonable beliefs who feel like the Republican party no longer represent them.

It's important to talk about those problematic beliefs that people like my parents hold, but at the end of the day they are genuinely good people. They've got internalized racism and homophobia and misogyny just like everyone else, but they're still good people.

Honestly even most hardcore Trump supporters are good people. (My grandparents voted for him! They're some of the kindest people I know!)

But if we just throw everyone under the label of "Republican" and then assume that includes things like homophobe, white supremacist, etc, you're going to end up with a lot of people who don't want to get behind what you're behind.

It's so much better, in my experience, to build a report, built trust, try to genuinely understand where the other person is coming from. I've talked to my Trump voting grandparents about trans people and they listened to me. I may not have changed their minds, but they have at least seen that other side from someone they respect.

That's going to go a whole lot more good in the long run than just calling them Republican and never talking to them again.

Of course there's more nuance than this, and if someone has like genuine beliefs that. Really really not great. Dump their ass. It's not worth it. There's a difference between someone who's a white supremacist because that's what they deeply believe, and someone who's just parroting what they saw elsewhere. The later deserve time and understanding, because they have the potential to turn into the former but aren't there yet.

And of course there are people like my mom. If she took a political compass quiz it would tell her she's liberal, hands down. Still a registered Republican.

Anyways, these are thoughts I've had for a bit and maybe I'll write something later that's a bit more planned out. Hope that makes sense.

And there's just a ton of nuance here that I can't get into because I've almost hit my time limit on Tumblr and I need to go take an exam. Plus it's dumb to expect me to elaborate on every possible way this could be misinterpreted. Just assume I kinda know what I'm talking about please, unless I accidentally said something blatantly incorrect. O7

Please vote tomorrow.

Be compassionate.

Imagine those around you complexly.

Think about my mom. :p

Have a cat picture for the road.

i'm a huge fan of Republicans, conservatives or however you want to be politically labeled choosing country over party. please let me see more stories. it's a brave thing to do this. even if you voted for him in both 2016 & 2020 but you changed your mind now, WELCOME. it's a massive deal to get out of any cult successfully & MAGA is no different. being filled with anger & hatred, & fear is intoxicating & honestly easier than choosing to do the right thing. i'm glad you saw the light.

check your registration status often & don't stop talking about Project 2025. they can pretend they're distancing themselves from it as much as they want but it's absolutely their policy. we can do this though if we just show up & VOTE. we got this 💙

[knife-eared-jan]

Ok, as much as I have been hyping and playing 12 hours a day since it got out (still in Act 1 though, bc I'm a slowass player and completionist), I feel like I have to say something that is getting hard to ignore at this point... and I wanna preface this by saying that I am loving a lot of aspects of the game and I adore the writing when it comes to the companions, who I am obsessed with.

And maybe this will get better yet, as I generally heard the writing picks up once the story progresses beyond picking up all companions..

But I'm starting to get quite upset at the way the writing just does NOT care about the established lore and the politics of Thedas like at all, when to me - and many others - that richness, nuance and depth of the world is what makes the games so special.

(Spoilers below)

I looked past the way the elves in Arlathan just seemed to know that their gods are evil and Solas is "kind of a dick" but was right about that. When, you know, that made him basically the Satan of their pantheon up to now.. It was after all the tutorial stage of the game and I understand that you wanna ease newcomers into the lore. I could also handwave it in-universe with Morrigan being there - she could have filled the Veiljumpers in on the discoveries of the Inquisition or even what the Well told her.

It felt a bit weird that our contacts in every other faction just accepted this huge revelation without a blink, but again it was the early stages and I also get that having a discussion about it 6 times with different faction leaders would have been incredibly tedious. So I ignored that. And yeah, at least the First Warden found it hard to swallow.

The fact that they brushed aside the gods finding elven subjects - many of whom after all still worship them - with one sentence from Solas was disappointing though. Instead they chose to ally them with the Venatori and the Antaam who are the pure evil factions with no nuance or motive to side with them besides a comic book level of hunger for power. They didn't even throw in a sentence about the gods maybe speaking to the Venatori through the Archdemons to get them on their side or how it's very ironic that the Venatori, who want to make Tevinter great again, stoop to working with the pantheon of the people they oppress because they see them as lesser and other. No political exploration of the massive lore implications at all.

It really hit me when I picked up Davrin and he commented how Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain blighting the world would really endear us (elves) to the rest of Thedas - this was the first time anyone actually mentioned the political impact of the elven gods being real, freed, evil and blighted on modern day elves at all, when this should be HUGE. It should be ugly. It should be complex. It should be explored in as many examples as bloodmagic and the oppression of mages was in DA2. It should be a central point of Act 1. (This btw made me love Davrin so much in that moment because this was the first time in the game for me when I actually felt like talking to a Dragon Age elf and even just that one line felt like home.)

And now I just did Taash's first companion quest and it seems Qunari lore is also being ignored (except for the gender aspect of it, which I look forward to). Taash's mum was a scholar and had a baby and the only problem about that was that it could breathe fire and was special but otherwise all would have been dandy? Like she would have just been allowed to keep Taash long enough to find that out about her baby if she was living under the Qun? That directly contradicts everything we know about how the Qunari's culture around reproduction and childcare works.

Sorry to be negative and talking myself into a rage - I know it's not something people want to see rn. But like, I realise you have to brush over some lore intricacies for brevity and to make it digestible for new players. But this is a world initially inspired by Wheel of Time and ASOIAF, both of which are interesting because of the depth of ficitional cultures, lore and politics, and hence it's also what gives Dragon Age its appeal. And now they take us to the most politcally interesting areas on the world map and just get rid of all of political depth?

That's really disappointing. Imagine if Winds of Winter dropped all political themes just because there's several previous books and it's been some a lot of years.

Also, I managed to play DA2 before I ever played Origins and they could introduce me to a vast established background of lore just fine back then.

Sorry. Rant over. But I had to get that out of my system.

[cleolinda]

Reporting from Birmingham

HOLY SHIT THE LINE

I’m in a blue oasis so this will probably not hold true for the rest of the state, but holy shit. This line wound through a hall in the library, around a big outflow room, and doubled back into the hall again. My mom said that when she drove past early this morning, the line was ALSO down the block. Later, she saw three buses from a senior living facility pull in on her way to our house. And then she and I went at lunchtime.

People were there to VOTE. I saw—well, on second thought, I’m gonna cut out some people-watching detail here, but I saw a lot of things that struck me about ages, health conditions, personal responsibilities. A number of people had clearly gone to a lot of effort to be there. Some of the voters looked young enough that this might have been their first chance to vote. Somewhere behind me, I heard a man say something in part like “…what a turnout like this…,” and the woman who must have been with him reply, “Well I think we know what it means.”

In other words, a big turnout for Kamala Harris. I’m sure there were Trump voters in that line, but this is, on the whole, not a Trump town. We always go blue. I haven’t seen many yard signs in my neighborhood at all, but I’ve only seen Harris/Walz. My mom has seen exactly one Trump sign this year. (This is why I say my observations will not hold for all of Alabama.) So this is what I expected, but at the same time, THE LINE. I know I’ve stood in line out on the street before, but I do not recall the line ever winding around and doubling back like that. The observation that women over 50 who remember what shit was like before Roe v. Wade are turning out to vote with a vengeance—I think I was seeing that as well, yeah. There were some seniors on a mission in that library.

The thing is that a lot of people are pissed off for a lot of different reasons this election, and then on top of that, there’s a lot of excitement. It’s like the thrill of 2008 plus the urgency of 2020. And everyone in that line still knew that Alabama’s nine electoral votes will go red anyway. Sure, we have downballot races—I just chose the “straight party voting” option, you make one mark and that’s all you have to do, plus one (1) Walker County measure we were voting on—but we all knew that we couldn’t do much to help in this big generational event of a presidential election. Run up the popular vote a little, maybe. But we were all still there by the hundreds on people’s lunch hours, not missing out on this.

Imagine what the enthusiasm’s like in states where it’ll make a difference.

[marisatomay]

So I do GOTV canvassing during major election cycles for a lot of reasons but a big one is for my own sanity—it’s an opportunity to talk to my community and see what the vibe is going into an election which is a great marker for how people feel about Life in general. So I’ve been doing that for the last few days and today I finally came across a Republican counterpart:

He was about my age but he didn’t have a clipboard or his phone out with a list of houses he was hitting like me he just seemed to be wandering aimlessly in his very bold Susan B Anthony Pro Life Foundation shirt and some flyers like he was just waiting to find someone to talk to instead of doing actual canvassing.

After passing him multiple times on this afternoon’s route he finally came up to us (my brother and me) and asked who we were with and then asked what drew us to the Ds. I said something vague about policy because I was trying to be pleasant but he insisted on knowing The One Thing that had us (me) out canvassing for the Dems and it occurred to me that he had a very Ben Shapiro-ish look on his face. He wanted to debate me. Not my brother who was standing next to me and giving him perturbed look. Me.

So I told him flat out: Abortion. And suddenly it was like a record scratch in his brain. All of the prep for the upcoming debate he wanted to have that everything about his body language was choreographing was gone. Like that one answer hadn’t occurred to him at all.

He stuttered through something like “oh that’s my issue but the other side ahah” before walking away. I was pleasant for the whole interaction but I was firm in my answer. It was weird, though. You work for a “pro life” organization but you can’t pivot when someone says they aren’t? Or was it that I actually said the word instead of dancing around it using euphemisms due to shame? I’m not ashamed. I am pro abortion.

Anyway that was the only republican canvasser I’ve seen out this whole time and he wasn’t even affiliated with the Trump campaign, or any campaign, and seemed very aimless. And I live in a former (as recently as 2016) Republican stronghold within the Philly suburbs. If the Rs want to win Pennsylvania again they needed to regain ground here. If they have, I’m not seeing it. And their ground game certainly isn’t the reason behind it.

One more thing because this shouldn’t matter but it does: this guy had at least 6 inches on me. I’m 5’2” and femme presenting. I look younger than I am especially when I’m not wearing make up like I was this afternoon. For the whole interaction he technically addressed both of us but it was clear that he was talking to me rather than my brick shithouse brother who was standing next to me. He thought I could be intimidated. He picked wrong.

[ruyakasunshine]

F1 drivers rated on how likely they are to know what ao3 is

note : this is just for entertainment. I will also use this to make a general reminder not to get anything fanfic/rpf related outside of sites such as tumblr, ao3, or wattpad. Enjoy!

This is just the current grid, because if I had to do it with every driver that raced this season, I'd get a surprisingly high amount of drivers to talk about.

20. Fernando

Grandpa. Need I to say more?

19. Checo

In a recent GQ Sport interview, he revealed that he didn't even have social media on his phone. I'd be surprised to hear he has any ao3 tab open up there.

18. K-mag

I don't feel like I need to explain this one. But I also believe that if Haas got him to read a chapter of a wattpad fanfic out loud where he has to replace Y/N with his own name after every penalty point he gets, he would have stopped causing so much ruckus. Or he might even cause more, who knows what goes on inside his mind.

17. Nico Hulk

Hear me out, he doesn't know what a fanfic is, but if he were more popular with the writer, he'd read the shit out of those.

16. Valterri

I could pay actual money to hear him read a 'kidnapped by one direction' self insert story out loud. If there is any Sauber intern lurking here, please consider. Wattpad as a sponsor would bring you a lot of money, think about it. I promise you will see a rise in your fandom if the name of the team was "wattpad kick sauber". I would buy merch. You need the money the way the constructors are going. Think about it.

15. Lance

I don't know too much about him, but I will assume he doesn't spend too much time on social media, or googling himself with all the hate he gets. But maybe if he were to read a strollonso fanfic, we might get to see him have actual expressions on his face. Granted, that would be a look of horror, but I will take what I can.

14. Carlos

I think he might combust if he read any ABO fanfic. I might want to see that.

13. Max

He is too busy sim racing to care. Good for him, I wish I could say the same about myself but alas I am too busy reading the same fanfic for the 23th time.

12. Yuki

I believe if you pronounced the term "Y/N" next to him he might assume that's a car brand. Or, like, hello in a foreign language. Again, good for him.

11. Zhou

Hear me out, fanfics seem to be quite popular in China, and he has a sister, there is no way he hasn't heard of the existences of it. I don't think he has read any though, which is for the better.

10. Franco

Our dear Franquito hasn't been on the grid for long enough to discover the amazing word that fanfics have to offer, but let me tell you that if he hasn't found out stuff yet, he'll find some soon enough. Let the writers have time to write a little bit more about him, and soon we'll get an instagram live of him reacting to those.

9. Liam

I think he is young enough to have googled himself (he had to find something to do since he's been a reserve driver since like the year 2010), but he also hasn't been a permanent member, so he might not have enough material to accidentally stumble upon.

8. Esteban

He googles himself. He knows there are fanfics. And he fucking likes that. If there is a rise of pierresteban fics on ao3 after Brazil 2024, he will be the first one to know let me tell you that much.

7. Lewis

Okay you might be wondering why this senior citizen is up here, and the answer is simple : he is too famous not to know. Like COME ON. He's been here since 2007 (which is longer than some people who'll see this post have been alive for— that's a scary thought for another day), he has been in famous and televised rivalry, and he has to live with the existence of the quote "everything but a lover" about nico and him.

There is no way he hasn't READ a fucking brocedes fanfic. If he is willing, I will teach him how to use ao3 so he can look-up some "fix-it" fics. He might use some inspiration, and who is better for that than tired college students writing about their sad ass in between lectures?

6. George

He seems like the type to lurk a lot around the internet, so the chances of him finding the link to a fic on the third page of google isn't impossible to me.

If you find any comment of someone correcting your spelling, you know who did it.

5. Pierre

He probably googles his name too often not to have stumbled upon a "Reader x Pierre Gasly" wattpad fanfic. sigh.

4. Alex

Alex, I know that you are the second most likely to have tumblr (right after george who actually has an account). The chances of you knowing what a "lemon" is is way too high for my liking.

3. Charles

The C in Charles stands for Chronically Online. My boy was known for liking tweets about himself, and we know that fans talk about fanfics on twitter. He clicked on a link of a lestappen or sebchal fanfic at least once out of curiosity let me tell you this much.

2. Lando

Too chronically online not to have read fanfics about himself. I just know he typed in "lando norris fanfiction" straight in google at least once. Jail.

1. Oscar

Here me out : his sister is a K-pop fan. If you believe that she never yapped about a fanfic she read to her brother, you are strongly unfamiliar with sibling relationships. But the chances of him not listening to her are also very high, so maybe he shouldn't be so high up my list. But oh well.

He is also good at hiding his game, but he is as online as Charles (you thought you were sneaky but we caught you clicking on that link of Max playing air-hocket dear Osc.)

For my own mental health though, I will assume he hasn't read about his own self yet.

[froginmygarden]

Got a little brain worm on the way home and have a need to write it down. Just a drabble because I'm not good at writing.

DC x DP Just a (clone) couple

Joung Adult!Team Phantom for some reason end up in the DC universe. For reasons, there aren't any equivalents of them here. Danny and Sam are together and Danny and Dani have a familiar relationship. Whatever the reasons they stay in this universe.

So Sam, Danny and Dani start making a life together as a family, Tucker goes on to make a "small business" involving VPN's and tech in general (finds an anthropomorphic girlfriend on the way or something), Jazz goes to uni (JL members city of choice, although I advise against Gotham or Metropolis, because that would make this too short).

For some MORE reasons unknown, although they might be by the making of our favourite clock-man, the DP people's DNA has by default markings of being clones in DC (I don't know if this is canon or fanon but Connor had something like that ╮⁠(⁠＾⁠▽⁠＾⁠)⁠╭). The thing is here Jack = Bruce, Maddy = Alexander and Jeremy = Clark, Pamela = Lois! Do you see my vision here??

So *JL member from the perspective city* meets the Fenton/Manson/Nightingale?? family accidentally when they are visiting Jazz, and has a sweet deja vu moment. Some time passes and the off handedly mention it to someone in the JL.

Batman being the paranoid bastard that he is goes on to check this thing out, because he can smell the fish from a mile away. Thinks the couple are clones, gets very paranoid again and starts making plans, plans get found by his kids, kids tell the JL and friends. So starts the collective discussions of what should they do, some say that they should get rid of the clones, some others that they don't have proof for anything nefarious and shouldn't do anything at all, someone points out that they have literally showed up out of nowhere and that it is reasonable to be suspicious. And Connor is also there.

Meanwhile Team Phantom is going about their lives like normal, but with a "I know that you know" mindset, and don't really bother with hiding themselves.

In my opinion the part that has to be the most glaringly noticeable about them should be that Danny (Batman's clone apparently) should wear a lot of flannel and have a "Midwestern Nice" personality" (the stuff of legends I have only heard about in passing) and over all should resemble Clark in fashion sense. For Sam (Superman's clone apparently) the exact opposite - she can put the GOTH in Gotham.

And all JL angst/drama/confusion happens in the background as we follow Connor Kent's/Superboy's POV and him dealing with having two half siblings and the half siblings being together and them having a child and this is too much for him oooooooooo noooooooo nononoonononoonononononno what in the sweeet home Alabama whhhhhyyyyyyyy!??!

So it's like a metronome tick's between the POVs of fluffy new life/potential threat to the JL I mean the child of Bruce/Lex and child Clark/Luis having potential super-smart, super-powered (potentially evil??) children. But overall it's crack.

Maybe I'll plan it out and actually try to write it, but meanwhile you can enjoy my half-ill/fever induced brain worms and play in the brown dirt puddle I call my creative thinking.

To who ever finished reading this

Good night! ;P

[fierceawakening]

It depends on what liberalism means exactly. I don’t know how old you are or whether you’re in the US, but I’m in my 40s and USian, and for most of my life “liberal” was how you said leftist in any sense, which is part of why o ask what people mean by it. Popular T shirt during the W years was DAMN right I’m a LIBERAL.

(“I’m a liberal” might have meant “I’m not a communist.” I can’t tell from your replies here whether you are one, but if you are and are disliking that I’m not, that’s a bit less baffling but we’re probably at an impasse. I know people whose close family members were slaughtered by Mao, so “we can try this again and it’ll work” wouldn’t likely sway me without a lot of clear argument for how we keep it from degenerating into that.)

So yeah that word doesn’t have negative connotations for me. I’m pretty sure the word people use now for what we meant then is “progressive,” but I could not quite be one of those depending on where the cutoff is which is why I keep… asking… where the cutoff is?

There’s also “liberalism” in a different sense which refers I *think* to Enlightenment thought in general. It’s been many long years since i studied enlightenment thinkers, and back when I did I was an older teenager and hadn’t done much questioning of a lot of things. But the primary thing that struck me when I read people like Kant, Locke, etc. was that they had a vision of everyone being fundamentally equal in worth, and things like race or religion as incidental, kind of like the cherries on a sundae.

This is both good and bad, or at least that’s where I eventually landed with all that.

The good part is that sometimes aggregating everyone helps get rid of bias in the way things are run. Think about women gaining the vote, or poll taxes being struck down so black people could vote. We’re all fundamentally the same. We all fundamentally should get the same say.

(Donald Trump in the US is currently threatening this. Many if not most people consider that a five alarm fire. If he gets to dismantle or corrode this, people will suffer greatly. A lot of people, in my not so humble opinion, will die.)

The bad part is that sometimes there’s a broad history of discrimination and repression. When that’s the case, sometimes recalibrating the measurements to zero everything out doesn’t do enough. Societal histories reverberate, and undoing the damage is hard, long term, and careful work.

Acknowledgement of this is often the difference between “liberals” in the sense of “progressives” and “conservatives,” who tend to think traditions are important and worth preserving even if they create inequalities (and, as they get more openly fascist, may value these traditions precisely BECAUSE they create inequalities.)

So if the question is “do I think that lasting inequality needs to be addressed in social policy,” yes? But I’d think most left leaning people believe that?

Most feminists I’ve met do too I think. I guess we could say there are a few people out there who are a blend of conservatism (or libertarianism?) and feminism, like Wendy McElroy, but I’d be inclined to just say libertarians at that point.

So once again: which definition of liberalism are we using here? *Who* are we insulting?

But yeah if you’re asking in the US politics sense I’d call myself progressive, though the old term was “liberal” and that feels less weird.

Mostly in agreement with Bernie and AOC?

…So now I’ve made a long effortpost explaining my politics in detail. Are you willing to do the same, or are you just going to keep insulting me while not opening your own beliefs to scrutiny as well?

[Tiktok user Clairrorism]

[pruneunfair]

Tropes in manhwa are awful yet people still defend them

I'm in a bad mood right now so what better way to release all that pent up anger by ranting on what can ruin a good story.

1: Slavery being inserted only for cheap plot and slaves being demonized as obsessive/greedy monsters for "not knowing their place"

Theres nothing wrong with wanting to insert slavery in your story AS LONG as it's not just cheap plot to make your MC look "better" by buying from a single to all of the slaves because let me tell you this: there is no such thing as a good slave owner, you cannot morally own another human being. A lot of manhwa like to have slavery be a part of their plot completely ignoring that just because the MC goes "wow this is terrible" doesn't make them a good person after they buy a slave.

Remarried empress does this with its villian Rashta by pushing the notion that she's being greedy for not wanting to stay in poverty so Navier won't suffer because apparently a slave wanting what the silver spoon mouthed nobles were born into is so terrible not to mention they justify slave owners and slavery in general as a punishment for criminals (neglecting the fact that children can be sold by their parents)

The villainess has fun again justifies a child slave being bought by the lead and he becomes an obsessive shouta love interest, fans continously justify by using the ancient lolicon excuse "he may look young but he's actually 99182823 years old!"

In divorcing my tyrant husband, Robelia buys 30 slaves and the only 2 that consistently show up have no other personality other then "we love you FL we will worship you till the end of time!"

There's a damn manhwa out there literally called the order of slave breeding and even when a story tries to do this correctly such as VADTD with Penelope being portrayed as a bad person for what she did to Eckles, fans have been so deluded by the idea that FL's buying slaves is "girlboss" that they think Eckles should be grateful to be Penelopes "pet"

2: ML's murdering innocent people after one guy hurts the FL

I already made a specific post about it before and I'll say it again: all this does is make your male lead/father figure look like a horrific monster. While you could say it's because its a medieval kingdom (objectively that is true that they would do this) manhwa and OI is the same place where despite in those times taking a mistress was considered normal they still view it as cheating and "how could you pick that slut when you have such a perfect wife!? 🤬" in most stories. So yes, modern morality is still inserted within these tropes. While I can get it's a way to show that the man in questions loves the FL so much he's willing to go to such lengths to protect her I think just mutilating the guy that actually did the sin would be enough because try imagining yourself as a faithful servant who was amazing at your job getting brutally slaughtered by the Emperor because your boss attacked his daughter or lover.

Into the light once again does this with Aishas dad murdering all the relatives and close friends of a count that tried to kill Ysis and Aisha, Aisha doesn't seem to care despite being in a situation where she was wrongfully executed in her past life.

Remarried empress does this too. After Navier is nearly killed by Krista's brother, Heinrey tortures and kills the dad and slaughters the servants of the zemensias. I can't remember if he also murdered the remaining family members but I wouldn't put it past him.

3: protagonist centered morality

Protagonist centered morality is the biggest indicator that a piece of media is dealing with a mary sue FL. Whatever the protagonist says is right is immediately morally correct. This is actually used to justify the last 2 examples with "it was for the FL!" Things like slavery, murder, workplace abuse, union busting, pedophilia, and being a POS to your loved ones are all justified if the protagonist finds a cheap way to justify it and you HAVE to agree with her because her backstory is very tragic 🥺. Protagonist centered morality also ruins the chance for good characters since the FL herself never has to grow as a person so she stays the same exact thing as she was just with more enablers and random characters will be treated as villains even if they aren't actually wrong about being suspicious of the Protagonist or calling out her behavior. It twists the narrative in such incomprehensible ways that you don't even know what your reading anymore. I can't even list all of the manhwas that do this given how many there actually are so I'll just list some that are at least self aware there Protagonist is awful/morally grey or isn't even a bad person but they still have flaws that can be pointed out

Villains are destined to die

My in laws are obsessed with me

Not sew wicked step mom

Depths of malice

The villainess turns the hourglass

Beware of the villainess.

4: villains being dumbed down to make the lead look smarter

This is unfortunately another common staple often used as a quick way to make the FL look smart and witty but is that really hard to look smarter when everyone else around you is an idiot? Not only does the FL not have to put in actual effort to best her enemies but you just start to pity the villain for basically being a punching bag. Dimwitted villains aren't always bad in fact they can be some of those most entertaining characters no matter much they lose but that only works when they are meant to be seen as a goofy character that your not supposed to take seriously. Villains that are written as extremely childish and stupid but your still supposed to treat them as serious antagonists on the other hand are just annoying since you wonder how the protagonist even got killed by them in the first life if they're so stupid.

Isabella de Mare while admitly having a good reason for being dumbed down (she's a teenager in the 2nd life so it's reasonable she wouldnt be as smart as her adult counterpart) is still a joke of a villainess who keeps flipping back and fourth from a snot nosed whiny brat to a mastermind only at convenient opportunities when the plot needs conflict.

Mielle from the villainess turns the hourglass was first portrayed as extremely conniving as she arranged for Arias downfall in the shadows but in the second life she fails at every scheme she has even though she has Emma and Isis to help her out.

Ragibach is a literal demon possessing the body of another woman with the goal of setting demons loose on the word to start another human vs demon war and she succeeded in that the first time, the devastation was all there so clearly she has to be a formidable antagonist right? Well no, she's another case of being dumbed down further and further so Keira can succeed and while they do understand some plot holes such as Ludwig not trusting her as much in the second life it doesn't change the drastic character change from evil genius to bumbling idiot.

In short: dumbing down your villains so your lead can look smarter is essentially going to give the equivalent of a hydrogen bomb vs a coughing baby.

5: feminine women being demonized as basic "other girls" sluts

Okay this one isn't nearly as terrible as the others on this list because we all love the good old "a demon makes itself look beautiful to deceive humans" kind of villain, in fact as you probably know by me by now, white lotuses are my favorite kinds of character and even in media outside of manhwa I always find myself drawn to angelic villains but it seems like this is less of that and more of "Oh those are all the other girls who just want a man to save them, look at how much better my badass rich boss babe is for working for herself while taking all of their men at the time 😎" in manhwa. As soon as a traditionally feminine girl shows up, comments are already calling her a two faced bitch and half the time protagonist is already skeptical of her. This is the opposite of what being a feminist really is, a real feminist wouldn't be putting down other women just because they dress with more pink with bows and skirts and while I do think for most manhwa this is unintentional I do wish that we could have more characters like Psyche, Helena, Athy, and Jennette that prove that being overly feminine doesn't make you a backpedal on feminism. This doesn't make the badass or sexy fl's bad either, it just means they can co-exist.

An angelic villain should be treated as evil for being a well calculated schemer, not because they have a light colored color scheme

6: toxic relationships being romanticized as good

You know for a large community that claims to be about girl code a good chunk sure likes to look the other way when it comes to toxic relationships as long as the abuser is "hot" and theres always the terrible excuse such as "he has trauma!" Or "he doesn't know how to show his love normally!" No just no we aren't doing that here. Cry or better yet beg has this problem with not only the narrative claiming that Matthias graping Layla is okay because she actually loves him and doesn't know it but a large part of the fanbase also defends it, the same goes with try begging, a manhwa written by Solche who also wrote cry or better yet beg and once again despite Leon being an abuser everyone's ready to justify his actions because he's just a soft little boy who ends up falling in love with Sally awww 😍 (what the hell?) Everyones all about not justifying abusers because they had a sad past until it's the "sexy" male leads with daddy issues.

7: maid slapping

This shit isn't asserting your dominance as a boss bitch it's just work place abuse. This trope has gotten so out of hand of being justified by narratives and readers that there is an entire webtoon called this isekai maid is forming a union that's all about criticizing twisted manhwa tropes that get brushed off with maid absuer being at the biggest one. It's funny because a lot of people complain that Isekai maid union villainizes the nobles too much but they never ask the same questions when a OI is demonizing maids as greedy and lazy in order to deserve a beating. This doesn't just stop at hands either it can escalate to threats of mutilation just to assert dominice which is absolutely sick. Most of the time these leads used to be office workers or terminally ill patients, they know how terrible it is to be treated like garbage by their superiors yet they continue to absue every maid who isn't getting on their knees for them. Most maids in real history would not mistreat a noble even if they were the most hated in the house and even if they did they'd be fired without a letter of recommendation so why can't the FL's just fire the rude maid if they care about dignity so much because I'm pretty sure getting violent with a maid isn't very dignified either.

8: disgusting age gaps

Very similar to #6 but in this case while the ML/FL isn't a cruel monster to their partner it doesn't change the fact that grooming and pedophilia is still a crime worthy of life in prison. You'd think "oh no way, this can't be justified can it?" You'd be wrong. Now I belong to house of Castillo thankfully has a larger fanbase of people who think that a relationship between a girl who got groomed by her knight is bad but in cases like into the light once again a lot of people like to say "Well Aisha is technically 28 so it's fine!" When it really isn't since Aisha is still mentally 14. Taming my ex husbands mad dog is another one that does this with Reinhardt grooming a 16 year old boy and its apparently meant to be "cute".

9: claiming a character as unattractive yet giving them a perfect body and appreance

I just think this is a major cop-out since there's time where they want to make a realistic story yet also wanting a fantasy fufilment. I don't think its a coincidence that the only woman in tears of a withered flower that yout supposed to support is a Victoria's secret model body type. Even though she's meant to be an overworked exhausted 33 year old woman being mocked for losing her beauty she sure as hell isn't drawn that way, the only other women around hae soo are all women with smaller boob's and in general more common body types that are either classed as stupid or jealous that Hae soo is so beautiful that all the attractive men want her

how about we don't pit all the women against each other for once? And let's especially not villainize other women because their jealous they could never be have large boob's and tiny arms+waist at the same time?

10: the commoner protagonist actually being a noble rich person all along

Look I know most of us had loved those "the hated child is the lost princess" GLMM but we need to drop it because it's kinda disappointing that the nobody who had to work their way to the top is actually a secret magical princess who had royal blood in them all along. While I did think the villainess turns the hourglass was a pretty decent read I was super disappointed finding out that Aria was of noble descent all along. I liked seeing a commoner protagonist for once and it really felt like it was critiquing the idea that all commoners and poor people who want nice things like the nobility are greedy animals. Something similar can also happen with certain saintess manhwas that decide to twist itself into "the villainess was the true saintess all along!" And I'm just sitting here thinking "well there goes the hope that you didn't need the super duper rare power to be a strong character"

I feel way better now after writing all this.

[deeppenguinstudent]

I don't care. I will ALWAYS defend Thea muldani. You guys talk about the age range between Kevin and Thea, which is so dumb because Kevin was 18 and Thea was 21. That is basically Jerejean's age range (22 and 19), which is 3 YEARS. And I don't see anyone talking about Jeanne's age range? (19 and 24).

To the people saying that got mad that she said, "Are you sure ur not up to ur old tricks again?" literally just what? Please, please read her wiki because the reason she said that was because she thought tetsuji was the one who beat him up, NOT riko.

She was the ONLY one so far that even questioned riko's authority and acknowledged he was a bastard (somewhat). She's not fucking blinded by the Nest. She's JUST Exy obsessed like Kevin!!

Also let's talk about this?

The rumours had gotten so bad that both the master and Kevin also believed Riko's words? How the hell was Thea supposed to know anything? She was a victim as well and it just annoys me so much when people use this to just completely stain her character and make her a huge bitch. She's literally a dark skinned woman. Even tetsuji told her that she has to work twice as hard because people wouldn't take her seriously. If she even had an inkling of an idea knowing what they did to him, she would fuck them up

Also the reason why no one batted their eyes was because the Ravens fucking eachother is completely normal. It's some sort of screwed up thing that's been going on for generations, even before Riko and Kevin had joined Evermore.

To the people who say Thea does not care about Jean I will literally chew your lungs BECAUSE HAVE WE BEEN READING THE SAME BOOK.

Do you guys not realise how close Jean and Thea truly were? Thea and Kevin were the only two that Jean actually had a good relationship with in the Nest. Just look at the text!! Thea is one of Jean's weaknesses because he trusts her so much, and we know that Jean always blurts out shit he's not supposed to when he's beside people he really trusts (Neil, Jeremy, Kevin)

Her little parisian duckling! He literally followed her everywhere 🙁🙁 Gosh they mean so much to me. (Also, the reference to Elodie's duck dress and Thea's way of calling him?)

Last bit. I just find their relationship is just watered down SOOOO much because people hate Thea for unconventional reasons. You can dislike her character for sure, but I feel like a lot of people have so many misconceptions about her so I just wanted to clear it up!!

Please Nora give us more Thea and Jean in TSC2 😔😔😔

Edit: Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a minor under the age of consent and sometimes the child's family to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. This is the definition of grooming btw and it's confirmed that Thea dated two other people when Kevin was a minor and didn't think of him like that until he was a freshman in college ie 18 years old?? It's completely different because she wasn't even pursuing him at all??

[drdrizzey]

Late Halloween drawing!!

The good old Creepypastas from the mid 2017s are what basically got me into drawing and art in general. I quite literally started off just to make fanarts of them and boy, I made so much. I know some of those characters are outdated now but I don't want anyone to feel offended from me drawing them, that's really just a really nostalgic Fanart for me with the classic found family dynamic we loved!! Then later on I really got into those slenderverse ARGs and especially marble hornets and again, I filled sketchbooks just with marble hornets comics and fanarts so thats also something lmao

I had a hard time choosing who to draw here arggh

My inner child heals a bit more every time I draw any Slenderverse and Creepypasta character or even my old Creepypasta ocs

Also I want to add a disclaimer that I do not ship Creepypasta characters with anyone and that to me, they always acted all like siblings to each other! (Saying that because I know some people are really sensitive about ship art in this peculiar fandom and I agree that's a tricky one, but for me they've always just been a big silly family in their spooky manor, having fun)

Here's some dynamics I love and loved picturing them with :

- sally is the cute little sister that nobody can say no to and she KNOWS it, she WILL make everyone play dress up with pink ribbons and no one can do anything about it

- Jeff is a really good big brother to her and really tries his best for that

- Masky is 100% the tired big brother having to care for all of his annoying siblings. Since he's a proxy, Slenderman especially asked him to keep an eye on them and to quote, "give them what they ask for and not letting them break stuff or argue too much" which leads him quite often to having to drive to MacDonalds at 3am, because one of them whined for it. He also pretends he hates it but in reality he really cares about them. Also headcanon, this is some alternative version of Tim/Masky from marble hornets because we'll, obviously this is supposed to be Masky and somehow some people literally dont know where he comes from and just twinkifies him (which is a jumpscare to me because tim is literally amazing, hello?but a lot of people seemed to not know where he came from, well go watch marble hornets if you havent its awesome (i'm looking at yall tma and mouthwashing fans, you WILL love it too)

- my HC for Toby is that the guy has a lot going on but he's also not a kid, i like seeing him in his twenties or so. And he loves ranting about really random stuff just to annoy pretty much anyone and especially Masky because he doesn't complain much, and if he does then Toby will just find it even funnier and follow him around, explaining to him like...I don't know random stuff like describing his whole feed of cat videos or something or internet drama

(also that's not a mischaracterization of them as characters it's just my version of them in the way my little autistic brain in sixth grade pictured them, which means very non canon inaccurate)

Here's the fun reference I used :

[edennill]

In which I puzzle over metaphysical implications as regards the peoples inhabiting Arda

fyi, a certain familiarity with the (predominantly Christian, I think) concept of fallenness/unfallenness is assumed, although it turns out that it doesn't necessarily work here. Feel free to ask for clarifications

So. I'm once again wracking my head as I try to make sense of what I shall call: 'metaphysical states' of elves, men and others, because the subject is emphasised and lampshaded a lot in the books, and I can't force it all to make sense when taken together.

Ainur are a specific case and I should really leave them aside for now. They certainly can fall — and, unlike angels, change their mind, apparently (which goes both ways) — although they do seem to be more all-or-nothing than everyone else. Still, I think as long as one doesn't go into the implications of time and what its existence or nonexistence changes, they're almost straightforward. But then you have:

Elves. The 'Fall of the Noldor' is very strongly emphasised as a metaphysical fall from grace and further evils, even ones unconnected with the matter of the Silmarils themselves, are blamed on it later (Maeglin!) So far so good. Except. Non-Noldor are also liable to behave in ways that are not exemplary in the slightest, and it doesn't seem to signify a cesura in the same way — and the Noldor in Valinor were able to commit acts that perhaps weren't as heinous as what we call crimes, but weren't good either. Getting into rancid fights with your brother isn't much in comparison, but these are not the actions of unfallen people.

And on the other hand, authorial quote (paraphrased): "Elves in some ways represent Man in an unfallen state". And I'm inclined to agree: they aren't subject to death (except they may be killed, so doesn't this already break down?), and there is something very poignant in the image of their artistry, "extempt from earthly limitations". But they do not lose it, not in any easily tangible way. We can argue that evil diminishes creativity and it's probably true, but there is no hard line anyone passes. And this is again lampshaded in-world with the Númenoreans ("If we die because of some darkness that lay on us before, than why don't the Noldor?").

Which brings us to Men. The existence of a direct cause-effect relationship between fallenness and mortality in Arda cannot be ascertained (Even taking into account a Catholic framework, I feel that logically it need not be the same relationship as the Biblical one since, in contrast with the Garden of Eden, the world was already marred when humans appeared). While I consider the Tale of Adanel to be Gondorian in origin, I can also see the possibility that whatever Men did back then, beyond memory (or in other words "we purposefully forgot") was just that much worse than Alqualondë and the Oath. In any case, Man is very straightforwardly Fallen.

Hobbits. The rules for Halflings are presumably the same as for Men, which is certainly notable, given that they seem to be the least inclined to evil of all incarnates. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but unknowing of wars and violence. A pastoral image, only in-world it's true.

And at the same time, my musings bring me to the unexpected conclusion that dwarves are the only notable "generally unfallen" kindred. Which is, in context of everything that regards them, weird — because by their actions, they are very similar to Men. And yet — either the circumstances of their creation make them disadvantaged from the start (which doesn't really make that much sense), or something happened off-screen, or it's the same case as Saeros, or Thingol sending Beren to his death.

Ents? I honestly don't know if we've seen enough of ents to judge, although they seem generally good-inclined? Huorns are a different kettle of fish.

Before I try to explain orcs, it would do well to know what they are exactly.

In other words, I cannot make sense of it all, enough that I've resorted to calling the default state of incarnates in Arda "semi-fallen" (or, as is, "semi-unfallen"). Which is not a thing that makes sense, philosophically speaking — but I can find no better way.

(Although, to be quite honest, the default state of being in Arda (because of the discord?) seems to be significantly different from the unfallen state of Man as described by religious thinkers in some ways, and not all of them regard merely such things as physical marring, so perhaps "semi" isn't the worst way to describe it.)

In any case, if someone has thoughts on the subject, I'm very open to hearing them.

[shutupineedtothink]

More ep 8 + 9 thoughts, in no particular order:

Rio looks at Agatha the way Agatha looks at other people when they say something angry or misunderstood or untrue about her — mainly, hurt. It’s fine, I’m fine. By not accepting her nature, Agatha’s doing the exact same thing to Rio that people have been doing to her for centuries and if that ain’t trauma i don’t know what is.

I’ve heard people say it was out of character for Rio to go all evil witch in ep 8, but I think it was a choice. She was so hurt by the deal Agatha wanted from her to never see her again, she said you know what, fine. You think I’m evil? I’ll be evil. Let’s play. But even as she puts on this show she’s saying things like I’m the natural order of all things and you love me, and why don’t you want me? And again, this is an Agatha move. Putting on the show of the evil witch to hide her pain underneath. Calls back to ep 1 too, when she says I can’t kill you, but I can make you wish you were dead.

I tend to kill my coven members. So do I. — That boy and Agatha are mirrors what did I tell you. 🙌🏼

I still can’t quite wrap my head around what she was thinking when she tried to give him up to Rio. Did she see him start to turn himself in and know that that’s what Rio needed him to do, so she changed to her evil side to make him second guess himself? Or did she genuinely think screw this in that moment and then changed her mind? I don’t know, and I don’t think we’re supposed to know, and that’s really interesting actually.

And Billy! Basically manipulates her into sacrificing herself for him using Nicky! My dude you really aren’t that nice. In that sense… he really got all of them killed.

I say more about this in my general show overview post which is coming soon, but once I was able to let go of where I thought Agatha should go as a character, I realized a couple things: a) her journey isn’t over, so this wasn’t supposed to feel like a complete arc and b) I think the point of her character is that you just can’t pin her down in one category or another. She’s not fully evil, she’s definitely not good but she can make good choices, she’s not a complete villain but she’s not a hero or anti-hero either. She’s truly unique in the MCU in that sense. And interestingly, it seems like Billy is going in a similar direction. We’ll see.

So Agatha is the “maiden mother crone” of the last episode right? We’ve now seen her in all three stages, she was the mother up until she died and now is the crone as a ghost playing the Guide to Billy. I’m gonna go with that.

There’s a .2 second look of pain on Agatha’s face when Rio tells her Lilia is dead. That’s when she found out. She does care about them, she’s just definitely not going to show it in front of anyone else.

Lots of great line repetitions in these last two eps (covenless witch, get used to this feeling, etc), but one I could have used again was Rio’s “te veo” — she does say the line about watching Agatha just as closely as you watch everyone else, which was great. But idk I wanted that to come back one more time.

See my previous post for my Nicky thoughts but it seems like the more discourse comes out the more we all agree that is Rio’s child just as much as Agatha’s. The question then becomes, was he just created from their love and magic, or for some other reason? Personally I would love to see more play out with Nicky and him possibly being “a demon, or an agent of Mephisto” and that’s why Agatha can’t face him. She needed more time to figure out how to change his fate but she couldn’t. It’s almost a Bucky/winter soldier situation, but instead of hydra it’s literally the Marvel god of the underworld controlling him. There’s a movie in there somewhere for sure. (MCU witch movie??)

The music banged in these eps especially the choral opening to ep 9, so cool.

Am I the only one wondering why Agatha is RunNInG when she’s in labor? Like where’s she going, who’s she running from? Just an interesting opening.

It’s Agatha All Along in several ways: Agatha (and Nicky) originated the ballad, Agatha used the ballad to kill witches for centuries, she was telling the truth all along about the road not existing, she was the one who bound Jen, and she knew all along it was Billy who made the road. Not exactly the character transformation I was gunning for, but I see the vision now.

The Peggy Carter cosplay I live 🤌

I still don’t think Agatha outright intentionally killed Alice. I still think she either genuinely didn’t have control in that moment, or Billy subconsciously made her do it to make her the villain. (Edit, Jac basically confirmed option 1)

I LOVE that she’s a conwoman. It makes so much sense for her character and even in a more genuinely evil context I love a con.

Agatha says she was going to kill them in her basement on day 1, but Lilia stopped them. If they didn’t attack her, would she have found another way to take their power? Idk but it seems more to me like she’s just trying to make Billy feel better.

I’m itching for more, but I do love the emotional moment between them in the basement at the end. Agatha lets just a little bit of her true feelings peek through, and Billy gets a little perspective as well.

Ok, I’ve now listened to the full 3.5 hour House of R pod on the finale, including their interview with Jac Schaeffer, and she confirmed a lot of my thoughts here so. Nice.

OMG Jac said this thing about the Road being Agatha’s lie that Billy made real and I got CHILLS

I’m expecting some baller fan edits for this show now that it’s over absolutely can’t wait

I could probably say more, and if I think of more stuff I’ll add it in comments. But also look out for that full show review post.

[aspergerasparagus]

Oh no I did again, more toxic yaoi but this time there's a lot more of it cos I finally finished it after like a week. Woops.

Anyway Frankie discovers a new way to make money and the contestant is suffering once again. Enjoy.

Also on Ao3

Preparations for the new season had been progressing well, although it would still take them longer for this season given that certain cast members had been disposed of and their replacements were taking some time to be completed. In the meantime to keep the fans engaged and excited for the show's return Frankie had had a rather genius idea, if he said so himself. Well not entirely, Lucky had been the one to inadvertently mention it while making himself dinner. The human had mentioned that with all the cameras everywhere he was starting to feel like he was in one of those content houses he had seen online. This had of course led to Frankie badgering Lucky for the next few hours, demanding all the details especially after he accidentally mentioned the revenue such things were generating. Of course his contestant had adamantly refused to let Frankie stream him 24/7, kicking off about how it was “an invasion into their privacy”, wasn’t he aware the rabbit was already watching his every movement… Regardless Frankie had begrudgingly come to an agreement with Lucky, only being allowed to stream him during certain hours and not without telling him they were live. While this could have cut into the possible profits, it did also reduce the risk of someone slipping up while keeping the fans hungry for more.

So for the next week, Frankie would stick to his word and the new livestream would go on for a couple of hours each day, slowly gaining a following with people clamouring to see more of their adored winner. Of course while Lucky was the star, Frankie was always close by, always there to come up with ideas with what his little cash cow could do that day to earn them some additional funds and to moderate if Lucky started to act up. 

It was during their last livestream that Frankie finally noticed that there had been a gradual shift in the chat’s tone. Originally he hadn’t paid it much attention, leaving it mostly to Lucky to keep an eye on and engage when necessary. But as the days went on he slowly started to take more of an interest. It seemed that while there was still a good majority of people here just to see Lucky try and speedrun the parkour courses or make a fool out of himself, there was also a much larger subsection who seemed to be there not just for him. Frankie had found himself being mentioned more and more in the chat logs, which he assumed was due to his charisma and unusual appearance, but when reading through them later that night he realised it wasn’t just himself being mentioned, it was both of them within the same messages. A lot of research and googling terms later (seriously what did toxic yaoi mean?) finally led Frankie to the conclusion that a fairly substantial number of the viewers were only there to see Frankie and Lucky interact with one another. It seemed they were becoming the hot new “couple” and from Frankie had researched, couples streams made even more money.

The following day as always Frankie cheerfully made his way over to Lucky’s room, not even attempting to knock before he barged his way into the room. 

“Wakey, wakey my lucky contestant we have a new day of content to film and we are going to need to get started early as I have an extra exciting day for us!” Lucky just groaned and clamped the pillow tighter over his head in a feeble attempt to block out his intruder's chipper voice. Letting out a small snort of amusement, Frankie effortlessly yanked the pillow away before pulling the man out of his bed by his collar, earning him an earful. “Now, now none of that Lucky. I need you up and ready and looking your best for today’s stream. This is going to be the biggest one yet.” The man gave him a curious look from behind the mask (Frankie made him sleep in it, just in case), before finally yanking his shirt free from the rabbit’s grip.

“What’s so special about this one? Wait if you’re starting the next season early I swear I’ll push you into one of those grinder myself!” Frankie just waved his hand to dismiss his golden goose’s concerns as the man bristled next to him.

“Of course I’m not! We’re nowhere near that stage yet, do you know how hard it is to make a replacement for Henry. Urgh the investors are still pissed off about that one… Nethertheless I promise this will be a nice and easy stream. So you can wipe that scowl off your face and get dressed, I’ll even get breakfast ready for you~” Humming to himself Frankie saw himself out while Lucky just stared after him, a small shiver going down their spine. 

Frankie had been busying himself in the small kitchen he had set up when Lucky finally joined him. The man seemed on edge as he sat in the chair furthest away from the rabbit, their body stiff and ready to jump to action. His little contestant had good instincts, even if he didn’t know what Frankie had instore for him today he still knew him too well to not suspect something. Frankie purred softly as he grinned widened, that’s why Lucky was his number one contestant, the show's only winner. His special little human. Plating up the food he set it down in front of the man, who looked at it like it was poisoned. 

“Don’t look at it like that, it’s just normal food I swear. I’d offer to taste it for you but we both know that wouldn’t do much.” The sickly sweet tone didn’t reassure the Contestant  who hesitantly poked at it before slowly placing a forkful into their mouth, correctly assuming Frankie wouldn’t temper with the food, at least not without the cameras rolling. Smirking to himself, Frankie took a seat next to the man, resting his head in his hands as he took in the human, earning him a sour look.

“You’re being far too nice today.”

“Can’t I be nice to my biggest money maker?”

“Absolutely not, it’s you were talking about Mr murder parkour game host. I’m not stupid enough to think you’ve just turned over a new leaf. You’re up to something and I’m going to take a shot that it’s not going to be good for me.” Frankie could only chuckle and sit back as Lucky spat out his accusations. He was right of course, which only tickled the rabbit even more.

“Perhaps, but I assure you you won’t get injured, intentionally anyway.” Dropping the announcer voice, Frankie leaned in closer to Lucky who froze instinctively, his voice lowering as he murmured against their ear. “Who knows, you might even enjoy today’s stream. I know I will~”

Lucky bolted out of their chair like it had been electrified, causing it to clatter to the floor with a metallic clang as he pressed himself against the wall behind them. His body was shaking as he kept his eyes locked with the rabbit’s as they just let out a cruel chuckle, pleased with the reaction.

“Jumpy today aren’t we? Well I won’t torment you any more… for now at least. So eat up and I’ll see you when you’re done, Lucky.” Dusting himself off, Frankie left the man cowering against the wall shooting daggers at him the whole time until he was out of sight. Frankie could feel the pep in his step as he headed back towards his office to make sure everything had been set up as he had asked. He wanted everything to go as planned but given how suspicious and high-strung his contestant was being, he was sure he’d have to resort to his plan B. Frankie couldn’t stop the sneer that spread across his lips at that idea. He had hoped it would end up that way. Not only would it give the viewers something truly special to watch but he couldn’t deny it was getting him worked-up just thinking about it. Stopping at the entrance to his office he gripped the handle and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. There would be time for this later, for now he had to focus before Lucky eventually worked up the nerve to show his face and begin the stream of their lives.

It took Lucky less time than Frankie had expected for them to appear at his door. He really needed to stop underestimating just how impressive his star could be. Taking his usual seat, the man crossed his arms, huffing slightly, like a child annoyed with their parents for some perceived injustice, as he fixed the rabbit’s stare.

“Go on then. It’s not like I’ll be able to get out of this, but if you try anything Frankie I swear-”

“Oh hush, you’ll be fine Lucky. I promise. It might not even be that long of a stream in the end if you behave and follow the script.” Frankie could see their eyes narrow behind their mask, even less trusting of the creature now. Nonetheless he finally heard them sigh as they flopped back into the chair, resigning themselves to the whims of their showrunner.

“Fine. What have you got instore for me today? Speedruns? Parkour demonstration? Oh please don’t let it be another cooking tutorial that went so bad last time-” Chuckling Frankie held his hand up silencing the man.

“No, nothing like that this time. Thankfully. Today’s stream as mentioned will be a little… different. I’ll explain everything to you, and our audience, at the time. So come along, and no I am not telling you anything before you start making demands. Like I said you’ll find out in due time~” The smooth voice he put on did nothing to ease the contestant who, after hesitating for a moment, followed after him, mumbling under their breath about how bad he knew this was going to turn out. Of course Frankie could correct him, but honestly he was getting a kick out of keeping his little Lucky in the dark.

Typically Frankie did most of their broadcasts within the more centralised areas of the facility or within the lobby areas. Good lighting and “safer” areas where Lucky could show off his skills. But for today’s broadcast he had a slightly different idea, given he was sure he knew how the reveal was going to play out and it would save on time when the inevitable happened. Leading his contestant towards Frankie’s Frosted Peak, he noticed out of the corner of their eye how the man began to stiffen as he realised their destination. Typically Lucky avoided this area of the facility, most likely due to the possibility of a certain someone releasing the slime onto him but he did occasionally venture there if Frankie was in tow. Well he wouldn’t have to worry about the fear of drowning this time, something much worse would be chasing him this time if Frankie played his cards right. 

Reaching their destination the rabbit beckoned this superstar inside and positioned him just by the check-in line before clicking his fingers. At the sound a couple of drones whirled to life and drifted up into the air, slowly beginning to circle the pair, the cameras attached to them swivelling to fix themselves on their targets. Frankie saw Lucky’s eyes darting between the drones, a look of confusion coming over him. Of course these were a new product the rabbit had been able to purchase with the funds his little money maker had been able to so generously generate for him, and of course he’d gotten the best money could buy (well within reason, the investors were keeping a closer eye on his spending habits recently). Clearing his throat, Frankie took centre stage as the lights on the drones flickered to life and the familiar sound of the other cameras turning on echoed around the room. The chat screens soon began to flood with a wall of text, endless streams of messages that passed by so quickly it was almost impossible to read one before another immediately took its place. 

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to a new stream! I’m sure you are all excited to see what we have planned for you today and I assure you today will be a very special episode. As you might have seen on our social media pages we have been planning a special little gift for our most devoted followers. You know who you are, I’ve seen the comments~” The teasing tone caused the chat to burst into a frenzy of messages, while Lucky just glared at the back of the rabbit’s head. He knew something was wrong and was about to voice his grievances before Frankie spoke up once more.

“So as a thank you from the both of us, we have a treat instore for you. First off a certain chat filter has been removed temporarily, you know the one I mean, and secondly your favourite host and his lucky little rabbit will be putting on a show for you, all you have to do is choose what show that will be~” Clicking his fingers again, the screen behind them on the Peak blinked on revealing a poll of some sorts. Frankie could only smirk as he saw Lucky squinting from behind his mask to try and read it before he froze, realisation dawning on him. Making his way over to his favourite contestant, a soft purr escaped the rabbit as he leant down to whisper in the man’s ear, his voice almost feverish.

“I told you this was going to be a special show, Lucky. Aren’t you excited? I am positively ecstatic myself. I wonder what option they’ll choose? You know which one I’m hoping for, don't you my little rabbit~” Lucky could only stare ahead, eyes transfixed on the screen as the votes began to pour in by the thousands, the words atop it, flickering menacingly back at him.

Choose our first date activity!

“W-what the hell is this about? What’s going on Frankie?” His voice faltered slightly as he forced the words out of his throat, still unable to process what exactly was happening. Letting out a soft chuckle, the rabbit nuzzled his cheek lightly causing Lucky to jump away from him, eyes wide with confusion before quickly a wave of anger spread over them.

“This is what all those bloody streams were for weren’t they?! Just some fucking excuse to make me play out your twisted little fantasies! How didn’t I see it before!” Frankie could only grin wider as Lucky finally began to put the pieces together. While he’d give the man credit, he was smart enough to be able to read the rabbit pretty well, it seemed he was fairly blind to the actions being carried out around him. Never realising the narrative arc being acted out around him by Frankie until it had to be spelled out for him on a giant screen with thousands pouring in to vote on his fate. Honestly Frankie would be disappointed if this wasn’t so satisfying to watch play out in real time.

Finally composing himself, Lucky rounded on the announcer, grabbing him by the bow tie and dragging him down to eye level. Frankie could feel the man trembling with rage (and embarrassment) as he glowered up at him

“Stop the fucking vote!”

“Oh? You don’t want our fans to help choose the perfect first date for us? Are you getting all shy again my little rabbit~?” The fake sincerity in his voice only made the man’s grip tighten on his tie. He’d never managed to piss off his little contestant like this before. Such pure, unfiltered animosity and resentment radiated off the tiny little human, it was practically suffocating and it was all directed solely at him. Frankie was completely intoxicated and loving every moment of it. 

Arousal probably wouldn’t have been the correct word to use to describe how he felt right now, given that he wasn’t technically able to feel something like that given his state of being, but he was sure this was a very close facsimile of it. Perhaps euphoria or delirium could also be used to aid in its description. Regardless, Frankie’s plan was playing out even better than he could have ever imagined and his little Lucky was playing his role perfectly. Now to see just how well the man could keep it up seeing as they were barely even halfway through the first act.

“I said stop the fucking vote!” 

“I can’t. These people paid good money to watch us go on a cute date and they’ll get that. Neither of us can afford to make the big men upstairs mad at us now can we?” Hissing like an angry cat, Lucky lurked away from the rabbit, a look of pure resentment in his eyes.

“Bastard…” Frankie could only giggle before he turned his attention to the chat screens, to see what they thought of their little lovers tiff. They were eating it up. The chat had now worked itself into a frenzy as messages spilled in by the second, all clamouring to demand more. Suggestions on how Frankie should deal with his “naughty little bunbun”, people questioning how this was going to play, people chanting to get their choice to the top of the poll and a variety of other messages, all echoing the same fanatic energy as the rest of the chat. Now to give them a real show.

“But perhaps there is another way if you are really so set on not playing with me Lucky…” The man stopped his pacing to stare the rabbit down. It was clear that he wasn’t remotely close to trusting another word that came out of the monstrosities' mouth but if it meant getting out of his current situation he would at least consider listening. 

“The people need a show. They have all paid good money to be here, so we need to put on something that they’ve never seen before and that fits in with our clients… tastes. So I propose a little wager, nothing bad I swear. You won’t get hurt and if you win, no date. How does that sound Lucky?” The man just held the rabbit’s gaze and he let that offer process. There was the possibility that Lucky would refuse. Just say fuck it and go on the “date” regardless of what it would turn out to be and that would be that. But Frankie knew his little rabbit too well now, better then maybe he knew himself. He knew what he’d choose, that is why he’d planned this out. Why he’d even brought him to the Peak to begin with. He was playing right into his hand without even realising. This wasn’t for the viewers or the money anymore, this was just for Frankie’s entertainment now.

“... What do you propose?” 

“A little game. Very simple; you win, no date.”

“And if I lose, I have to go on the date?”

“Correct. You’ll also need to play along regardless of what is chosen. Give the people what they want.” Lucky fell silent again before finally sighing and resigning himself to his fate.

“What game do you have in mind? I’m guessing us being here isn’t a coincidence.” Frankie felt a shiver run down his spine as he turned to face the cameras once more.

“So observant my golden goose! I suggest we play a simple game of “tag”. You try to get away from me while I chase you. Manage to get to the top before I can catch you and you’ll win. I’ll even give you a head start~” The chat was lapping this up, the messages quickly devolving into mindless key smashing over the idea of them seeing the two objects of obsession playing out a common trope in their fantasies (Frankie was all too aware of the type of things that were being written about them regarding situations similar to this). Meanwhile Lucky just eyed the climb behind him. He’d done it before, he could easily do it again. Frankie was sure there he was thinking that there was a strong possibility he could beat him, hell Frankie (the actual one), couldn’t catch him. What chance could this little rabbit who spent all his time watching tv screens and narrating possibly do?

“Fine, but I get a 30 second head start.”

“10.”

“20. And no slime.” Frankie could only purr as Lucky went to take his place at the starting line, not giving the rabbit a chance to argue. 

“You can be so demanding my cheeky little rabbit~” Beckoning the drones, they followed after him and soon took up position, one coming to rest just beside the contestant while the other hovered just over Frankie’s shoulder. 

“Now chat, remember to root for who you want to win and let’s see if our only winner can beat the Peak once more!” Dropping the voice he chuckled softly. “May the best player win Lucky but I’ll warn you, don’t go easy on me. I’m not going to let you get away from me with what’s on the line.” Frankie saw them shiver before they snapped their head back around to focus on the course in front of them. Clicking his fingers the chat moved to the large screen on the peak, pushing the voting poll to the side so they could witness how the viewers were chanting for them.

“Okay, so on my mark! Ready, steady, run rabbit run~”

Lucky was off the starting line like a bolt, the drone shooting after him to make sure it didn’t miss a single shot. He was fast, faster then he was during the 57th season. All the training he’d been doing since he’d “agreed” to stay on was certainly starting to show itself off now. He was effortlessly vaulting himself over the obstacles set up in his path and sliding under others. However while Frankie was admiring his contestant he was also keeping a countdown in his head, counting down the seconds until he could go after his prey prize. The moment he hit 20 he coiled his legs up before launching himself up the first ledge of the course completely negating anything before it. Easily flipping himself up he looked up to see Lucky just ahead of him getting ready to deal with the rotating platform, the man risked looking over his shoulder after he heard the rabbit land and Frankie saw their eyes snap wide as he realised what the rabbit was up to.

“Fucking cheating bastard…”

While Lucky was used to the other Frankie simply chasing him down like a mindless beast, he was a lot more cunning, able to more freely utilise the benefits this body of his provided him. And he intended to utilise everything he had to put on a good show. Charging ahead after his fleeing contestant it didn’t take long till he was on their heel, getting close enough he could have grabbed them had they not suddenly swerved to the side, sending him off balance and threatening to topple over. Taking his momentary stumble Lucky quickly launched themselves to the next level, leaving Frankie to try and correct himself before pulling himself up after them. But Frankie didn’t care. This was so much fun! Chasing after his contestant like a scared little rabbit was definitely something he could get used to (he could finally understand the appeal the other Frankie saw in it), and he was thankful it would play out for longer. It also seemed that he wasn’t the only one enjoying this. He knew Lucky would deny it but he’d seen it when they’d dodged him. The spark in his eyes. He was enjoying this too and that only got the rabbit more worked up. The thrill of the chase infecting both of them and ensuring that both would give it their absolute all.

Higher and higher the two climbed, neither letting the other get a chance in. The chat screamed out for them, chanting their names over and over as they continued their game of cat and mouse. It was looking too close to decide who would come out on top as Lucky rounded the final bend and sprinted ahead towards the peak. Frankie was loving every minute but alas all good things had to come to an end and he had no intention of letting his contestant beat him. There was too much at stake after all~ Lining up he saw Lucky sneak a glance towards the peak, just a few meters and he’d be the winner. And that distraction was all Frankie needed. Lowering himself to all fours (undignified he knew) he launched himself forward tackling the man who only had the chance to yelp before they both crashed into a pile just a couple of meters short of the finish line. 

Without missing a beat Frankie pinned the man flat on his back, hands gripping his wrists as they struggled under him but it was no use, Frankie had caught his prey and he wasn’t letting him get away now. They both remained silent for a moment except for the contestant's laboured pants filling the air as he tried to catch his breath, eyes locked on each other. The chat must be losing their collective mind right now. Finally Frankie leant down, mere inches from Lucky’s face as the man just held his gaze. His voice was low as he spoke, a small quiver to it as he had yet to come down from the high of the chase.

“I caught you my little rabbit~” Unable to keep his composure at the suggestive tone, Lucky finally looked away earning him a chuckle from the rabbit on top of him. Given the small muted noise they’d made it seemed he’d embarrassed them. Cute.

“Fine, fine you won. Now get off me already! We don’t need to be giving anyone any more ideas…”

“Oh trust me, this is nothing compared to what I’ve seen them write about us~” The man could only flash him a look of confusion and concern at that comment but that was enough about that for now. Nuzzling his cheek Frankie finally lifted himself off the contestant, offering them a hand as they went to climb to their own feet. After debating for a moment he hesitantly took it only to cry out as Frankie threw him up into his arms, and while carrying him bridal style (for the fans), leapt off the peak earning him a number of curses as Lucky grabbed at him. 

Once safely back on the ground, and after having to dodge a kick to his face, the rabbit took up his position, making sure the chat was clearly visible.

“And there we have it folks! A race like you’ve never seen before here at Frankie’s Parkour Palace! Wasn’t that exciting? I know I enjoyed myself wholeheartedly throughout the whole thing~” The chat burst into life once more, clamouring to scream their praises, complimenting the contestant on how well they did and a lot of the chat becoming a little more descriptive as they went over how Frankie caught his bunbun and how they had wanted to see how it could have played out. Frankie could only smirk as Lucky went red behind their mask as he continued to read the chat. What till he saw the fanart Lucky had found of the both of them. Clearing his head he reached over and pulled the man to his side, slipping a hand onto his shoulder.

“However seeing as I was the winner it’s time to see what date option, you the chat, has voted on. I can hardly contain myself to see what option you have all voted on, and I’m sure Lucky is just as intrigued to see what you have in store for him! Now to final votes!”

Clicking his fingers once more the screen moved to show the votes, slowly moving up from the fewest to the final viewers choice. Frankie could feel Lucky stiffen under his hand, their hands gripping his costume for comfort as he awaited his fate, hardly able to breath. As the list slowly rose up, Frankie could only pull Lucky closer to himself until it finally reached the top voted option:

Winner: Dancing

“Ooooh so chat wants us to have our first dance together as our date~ It’s a little early for that but I’m sure it’ll be good practice for the future.” He had expected an elbow in the side for the comment but Lucky continued to stare straight ahead, eyes focused solely on the results.

“Anyway, we’ll be back in an hour and have everything set up for you then. So as a little bonus for being such a good audience, I would like you to choose the song. Remember to choose something appropriate that fits my little rabbit the best. I’ll let you in on a little secret to help you choose, my little superstar actually has some moves. Let's see if we can get him a tune he can show off to~” Now that got Lucky to rip his gaze away to look up at the host, alarm in his eyes as he processed what they had said.

“W-wait how… how do you know-” Holding a gloved finger up to his lips, Frankie hushed them softly.

“So we’ll see you in a little bit and get voting!” With that the feed cut off as the drones returned to Frankie, the chat feed still displaying as they debated about what song they should choose. Meanwhile, Lucky just stood there before violently ripping himself away from the creature, his eyes filled with fear as he stumbled back.

“How? How did you know that?!” Feigning ignorance Frankie just cocked his head to the side, like a confused pet who couldn’t understand their owner's request.

“Know what, Lucky~?”

“You know damn well what I mean you bastard! Did… did you rig the vote?!” Frankie couldn’t keep the innocent act up as he suddenly cackled and gave his contestant a cruel grin. 

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t know everything about you did you? A show like this means we have to run background checks on all contestants. Very thorough background checks. I know everything about you my Lucky. Where you lived, where you worked, where you went to school… who your parents were.” The last part made the man bristle up like an angry cat but the fear in his eyes reassured Frankie that he wasn’t going to lash out like last time.

“Your father was a dance teacher and in turn, when you were younger, he taught you too. Of course you never pursued a career in it, glad you didn’t by the way or you’d never have ended up here, but I am aware you did win some awards in your younger years. I just wanted to put those skills of yours to use is all~” As he talked, his voice dropping once more, he made his way over to Lucky who could only cower away like a little rabbit, fear gripping him like it never had before. He looked so small and fragile now as Fankie casted him in his shadow. So unlike him.

“Don’t act scared Lucky, I won’t do anything. All we’re going to do is dance and that’ll be it. Just a normal first date~” Frankie was sure that would have been the end of it, until something ignited in his little rabbit's eyes and without a chance to react they reared their head back and slammed it into his causing him to yelp this time as their forehead connected with his nose. Stumbling back in shock he clutched his face as Lucky held his ground, glowering at him, a small trickle of blood leaking from the crack in their mask. The rabbit remained silent for a moment, processing what had just happened before his smile grew wide. 

“Now that’s more like it Lucky~! That’s what I want! I hope you bring that passion to our dance! I can barely stand the wait now~!” This was the contestant he wanted. The one who had braved the show, who beat all the odds and even him in the end. The one who even when terrified held his own and refused to back down. His golden goose, his little rabbit, his “Lucky” contestant. His everything.

After being coerced into finally letting the rabbit treat his wounds (who knew headbutting something mostly comprised of metal would do more damage to them than the rabbit), Lucky now sat sulking on the side of his bed, nursing his bandaged head. He was still pissed off at Frankie given that whenever he looked at him the man just shot him a sour look but it didn’t seem there’d be any more violent outburst for the day. Hopefully.

“So seeing as this is an important stream, I acquired you some new clothing as while stylish and practical that suit isn’t going to cut it. You have to dress up for a date after all~” The man just rolled his eyes and pouted but Frankie was sure he was somewhat eager to see the new threads he got, seeing as the suits are all he’d worn for the last few months. Something different would make a nice change and probably keep him well behaved. Picking up the package he’s brought back with him as he’d gotten the first aid kit he handed it over, the other man taking it cautiously. After inspecting it he quickly began to tear through the wrapping before pulling out the suit jacket, shirt and pants that had been inside. 

“Oh wow. I’ve never had something this nice before.” 

“I suppose not but you deserve something nice for our date. Plus it was in the budget so I coughed up a bit more. I want you looking your best for your fans.” Rolling his eyes he gently laid the suit down on his bed, treating it with the utmost care as the rabbit just smirked watching him. It might be the first time the man’s worn a suit before in his life bar for interviews, but it did tickle him to see that even though it was a gift from Frankie, he still treated it so gently.

“Well gone on, try it on. It should fit given as I had it made for you using your measurements. I need to make sure you’ll look presentable.”

“R-right, right- wait, how do you know my measurements? Oh you know what, never mind. I don’t think I want to know right now.” Groaning he went for the zipper only to hesitate as Frankie continued to watch him showing no signs of leaving.

“Frankie, I’m not changing with you watching.”

“You’ve done it before during the first time you were here. It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”

“Frankie get the fuck out before I headbutt you a second time.” The rabbit could only giggle, heading out to give his little rabbit some privacy. Such a shy little thing.

After a few minutes, Lucky finally stepped out. He seemed almost shy as he opened the door, presenting himself to Frankie, like a child trying something on for their parents to gauge their approval. Frankie’s eyes lit up immediately as he came over to inspect his contestant, circling around them as he checked it all fitted correctly.

“Well look at you, someone does clean up well don’t they~”

“Shut up. I feel stupid.”

“Well you don’t look it. Someone might even say you look handsome or is the word hot nowadays~” Grimacing beneath the mask, Lucky shooed the rabbit away as he chuckled to himself.

“Please never say that again. Honestly though, do I look okay? I don’t want to embarrass myself more than I already have today.” Taking a step back, Frankie ran his eyes over the man as he twirled around on the spot for him. He could certainly turn a few heads in this get up, good thing Frankie was the only one around to admire him.

“You look good Lucky, I’m being honest. You know I wouldn’t lie to you without reason.” Humming the man patted the front of the suit before nodding.

“Okay, if you say so. Shall we get this over with then.”

“Lucky, remember what you promised. You need to play along and act like you’re having a good time. So wipe that sour look off your face. I’ve also thought of the perfect place that can act as our dance hall for the evening!” Offering up his arm to his date, Frankie beckoned the man and with a groan he obediently took it, allowing himself to be led into the unknown.

Frankie hadn’t been lying when he had said he’d thought of the perfect place to turn into a dance floor. Considering most of the facility was covered in parkour equipment (or bodies) there had been only one clear choice, Hexa-Havoc. Dropping down into the arena, Frankie let Lucky down as the man inspected the area, a nervous look in their eyes. He hadn’t been here since he’d won and from the way he’d started to pick at his jacket, it didn’t seem he was particularly pleased.

“This was your idea? How are we supposed to do this on a floor that’s constantly falling?” Frankie just shook his head as he went over to a hidden control panel in the wall, starting to fiddle with the settings.

“The floor only starts to fall when the game’s started up, I’m not going to do that so I assure you it’s stable. Don’t trust me, run around and check it for yourself.” Finally getting the right settings down, he slammed it closed and made his way over to his date for tonight, the man turning to meet his gaze.

“You ready?”

“It’s not like I have a choice. But to warn you in advance it’s been awhile since I’ve you know…” Frankie dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, besides I’ll be leading so you’ll have nothing to worry about. Just follow my instructions like you always do and we’ll have our viewers melting in our hands in no time.” Speaking of viewers, it was time. Clicking his fingers like last time, the drones suddenly descended from the darkness above before the screens lit up, chat suddenly coming to life as the feed started up once more. Seemed they’d been anxiously waiting for the return of their favourite couple and seeing as one had undergone a drastic costume change since they were more than eager now. The screens filled with excited messages at the sight of their winner and how good he’d look on the rabbit’s arm.

“Welcome back dear viewers! I see you’ve been craving our return but as promised here we are, back to entertain you once more with a very special bonus so lovingly picked by you, our viewers. Now without further ado, let us get this date underway and be kind to your sweet contestant, he’s a little shy. It’s our first date after all and I want it to be memorable~” Frankie couldn’t help but look over at his golden goose as he spoke, the man tutting and averting his eyes, but the embarrassment was clear. “Now let’s get down to business and see what song was chosen, it’ll be a surprise to all of us so let’s hope it was a good one.” Spinning on his heel, Frankie made his way over to Lucky and with all the charm of a fine gentleman bowed and offered up his hand to his date.

“Now then, may I have this dance my little rabbit~”

The lights in the room suddenly dimmed, the flooring changing from the technicoloured patchwork of colours to a soft blue, coating them and everything in the light. Lucky hesitated , his hand floating between them both before music suddenly started up from the unseen speakers that surrounded them.

Open the curtains

Lights on

Don't miss a moment

Of this experiment

Oh, the book is strange

Like clockwork orange

Keep your eyes buttered till the end.

Snatching his hand, Frankie pulled him close to his chest, Lucky instinctively grabbing at his shoulder with his free hand. Throwing him a dirty look, Frankie could only smirk as he slipped a hand around his contestant’s waist and started to lead their dance. Of course Lucky was slow off the mark, fumbling slightly with his steps, trying to keep up with the rabbit best he could. Pressing him closer Frankie took charge and soon they were matching one another perfectly, as if they’d choreographed this from the beginning.

Cut it off, cut down your loss

All that stubborn loyalty is gonna get you killed

In a world built on convenient theories

For the puppets on TV

There is comfort in the strings

If you're gonna control me

At least make it interesting theatrically

Frankie led his contestant around the floor, spinning and swinging him around with ease. Locking eyes with one another, the rabbit was surprised to see Lucky smirk before he spun himself into his arms, his back to his chest. Taken aback the rabbit could only freeze up, now this was a side he hadn’t seen before. But it was only a momentary lapse, Frankie letting out a purr as he slipped his hands back around his little rabbit.

“Keep up, Frankie.”

“Oh, I will don’t worry~”

Down, down, and down I go

I tell myself I'm a tough girl

Down, down, and down I go

I could never, ever, ever touch the soil

Slipping away, the drones turned their attention to Lucky as he took centre stage. He was getting into it now as he showed off just what he was capable of. He was so controlled in his movements, moving between each action almost without having to think. He made it look effortless. Frankie could only watch as his little rabbit became the highlight of the show, just like he had last time. His superstar was at it again.

My heart goes right

My head goes left

And end up on your bed

Huh

Coming up behind him, Frankie snaked an arm around him, wriggling an eyebrow at the last line which earned him an eye roll. Worth a try. Taking his hand once more, they continued their dance across the floor, so in sync it must be a sight to behold for the viewers. Not that Frankie was really paying attention to them. He’d see the takings at the end, right now his Lucky had his undivided attention.

Sure I'll be your marionette

Here, tug on my thread

Spread me open for dolly pink, snow white artificial beauty

Maybe we're all cold machines

Stuffed in the human skin

With human sins

Sewed up by the gods of city

“Hold on.” Frankie’s voice surprised Lucky who only just managed to wrap his arms around the rabbit in time as he extended to his actual height, easily lifting the man off the floor as he swung him around. He could hear the other man cursing him out as he refused to put him back down, but he didn’t seem to be too mad, given how he heard him a small snort of laughter slip out.

Cut it out, you've already lost

All that precious bravery is gonna get you hurt

In a world that feeds on the minority

May that self-centred belief lead you to peace

If you're gonna replace me

At least have the audacity to kill me thoroughly

As Frankie lowered him down, Lucky hesitated as he caught the last couple of lines. Locking eyes, Frankie could see the words hitting a little too close to home, his money maker starting to remember where he was, what he’d gotten himself into. Quickly sweeping in he took his hand, continuing their dance. This little game of theirs was his and his alone to control and it would only end when he decided it was time.

You gave me strength

Hopeful curiosity

Maybe there are still happy answers left for my discovery

What's the colour of the electric sheep you see?

And if you love me

Can you love your everything too, for me?

Coming to the end of their dance, Frankie pulled the contestant closer to himself as their movements began to slow before he finally dipped them as the music faded out. Leaving them alone with the sound of Lucky’s heavy breathing and his heart hammering away in his chest. He could feel their hands trembling slightly as they held onto his neck for support, realisation about their situation truly coming into clarity for the first time as the monster and man faced one another. Frankie let out a soft growl as he gently lifted Lucky’s chin, forcing them to crane their neck up so they were practically touching now.

“What do you think we are now, Lucky? A prisoner and their warden? Business partners? Lovers?”

“There is nothing here but vitriolic flirting.” Frankie could only chuckle at his answer, he wouldn’t expect less from the first winner of the show. Truly there was no one else like them. Leaning up he placed a “kiss” against their masked forehead.

“I’d be hurt, but you seem to know me too well my little rabbit~ I wouldn’t want it any other way. So let’s continue this dance until the end, I promise you I’ll be the one to end it. No one else deserves that honour except me.”

“...I know, I wouldn’t expect anything less.” His voice was so small as he spoke, almost sad knowing how he would meet his end. Some would have found comfort in the fact that it wouldn’t be the other Frankie but he could be just as bad if he wanted to be.

Releasing his chin Frankie trailed his hand down Lucky’s neck before suddenly tightening his grip around it, not enough to do anything, just enough to make his point. He felt the man swallow nervously beneath his hand but he didn’t break eye contact, holding his own once more.

“You know, when the time comes around I promise I’ll make you a spectacle. Your end will be deserving of all that you’ve done for me and the show. It’ll be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before!” Frankie was getting worked up just thinking how’d he do it. It had to be spectacular and go down in history, but he still had plenty of time to figure out the details. He wasn’t in a rush to get rid of his cash cow just yet. 

“How considerate of you, but remember Frankie, you’ll still have to catch me first. And I’m not going to let it happen again.” Frankie barely had time to register the sucker punch that was swung at him, only just managing to block it, releasing Lucky’s neck in the process. The rabbit couldn’t say he was surprised by the action but still a little shocked at how close his little rabbit had gotten to landing another hit on him so soon. Such tenacity. 

“Oh, keep this up and I might have to punish you~” Lucky just shook his head before releasing his grip on the rabbit’s neck, letting himself go limp and slipping out of their grip.

“I assure you being here with you is enough punishment but if you do, don’t get it from those guys. You should see what they’ve been saying...” He motioned to the screen behind him, Frankie finally acknowledging his viewers as he glanced at the chat. Oh, oh yeah they were losing their minds once more and with the filter removed they were being a little bit more descriptive and graphic then previously. It seemed the dance and their little interaction afterwards had gotten them into a frenzy. Demanding more and for Frankie to take things further, but they’d have to wait till next time. Frankie wasn’t going to get anything more out of Lucky tonight, except maybe a kick in the teeth.

“Well chat I hope you got everything you wanted and more with this stream! Also let’s give our little superstar a round of applause, even I was surprised just at how well he could move but we’ve all seen him on the courses so we shouldn’t expect anything less. Now until next time, I hope to see you soon!” With that feed cut off, leaving Frankie and Lucky alone. His little golden goose had his back to him, lost in thought no doubt about. He’d had a busy day so Frankie would cut him some slack. Slinking over he gently nuzzled their cheek, snapping them back to reality as they shooed him away.

“How about some dinner? My treat. I even have some wine so I can “wine and dine” you properly.” Lucky still seemed a little distracted but quickly shook his head clearing his thoughts. Not wanting to dwell too much on the rabbit’s promise any longer.

“Yeah alright, I could definitely go for a drink right about now. So what do you have in mind for food?”

“Well we could always try making something togethe-”

“Hell no you stupid rabbit! I’ve already had a stressful enough day as it is, don’t joke about something like that! You just cook me something seeing as this is all your doing. I deserve to take it easy for once.” Frankie could only laugh as Lucky put his foot down, the man pouting at him from behind his mask.

“So demanding, alright I’ll see what I can do. And I’m going to count this as our second date you realise. So will I be coming home with you after this?” 

“You’re lucky I don’t turn hexa-havoc back on and see how long you can survive it.” Snortin Frankie held out an arm letting Lucky (begrudgingly) to climb on as the rabbit began to scale his way back out of the stage. Overall Frankie had to say that everything had gone better than he could have expected, he couldn’t wait to see the taking from today~ It had to have been their best show to date! Looking down at Lucky, clutched in his arm, he couldn’t help but smirk. He couldn’t wait to see what his “Lucky” contestant would do when the time came for their final show. Frankie knew he wouldn’t disappoint him regardless of what the outcome would be. That’s just who he was. His contestant, his everything.

[abigail-pent]

entirely too many people: "I won't vote, or I'll vote for Jill Stein! because [poorly thought-out appeal to morals] and [something something genocide]!"

me:

you don't exist in a vacuum. none of us does. your life and choices have moral weight. your vote is not just a symbol. your actions have consequences.

if Trump is elected, he'll give Bibi the green light to do whatever he wants in Gaza - not like now, when Biden has been trying to rein him in, albeit not enough and not very successfully. if Trump is elected, every uterus-bearing person in this country will lose full bodily autonomy, probably for the rest of our lives. the man wants to put Elon Musk, destroyer of social media apps, in charge of cutting government jobs and departments. the man has promised RFK Jr. that he'll get the fluoride *out* of our water. (he is taking public health advice directly from an antivaxxer who started a measles outbreak in Samoa because of his beliefs. people died!) every single one of his generals has said he's a threat to democracy, a pathetic Hitler fanboy, and if he's elected he'll get the nuclear codes... *again.*

and then there's Jill Stein, who pops up every 4 years to try and peel votes off a Democrat. she's never been interested in building her party, only running for the highest office in the land despite 0 governing experience or fleshed-out policy proposals. Jill Stein, who can't deny taking money from Putin, who was endorsed by David Duke of the KKK and took way too long to disavow that endorsement, whose running mate is proudly transphobic and would support abortion bans. The woman is an Assad apologist. Assad, who slaughtered thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria. If you vote for her because you think she cares about Palestinians, you're simply not paying attention. And returning to the Putin of it all - Russia meddled in US elections in 2016 specifically by targeting leftists and people of color and trying to get them to support Stein instead of Clinton. Look at the patterns. The same thing is happening again.

When you vote for either of these people, or when you don't vote, you make it more likely that Trump will win. That is a moral consequence of your behavior. If you don't vote, or vote for one of them, then you are culpable and complicit in whatever happens next.

You may not agree with Harris on everything. You may wish she was more left on x or y issue. You may wish she'd said more about Gaza (have you seen this?) or that she came down harder on Bibi in public than she did behind closed doors. But there's no doubt that she is more progressive on every single issue than Trump is. Trump, who thinks he should be a dictator, who thinks you should not be able to vote, or that if you do, then your vote shouldn't matter. This man wants to make it so you never have a real voice again. And in return for what? He doesn't want to serve you. He doesn't want to serve anyone but himself. He doesn't care if you or your loved ones bleed out in a parking lot, or if your lungs betray you with covid, or if you starve yourself to keep up with your rent payments, or if the planet boils because we didn't invest in green technology. He only cares about himself.

Vote, because people fought and died for your right to do so. Vote to keep their sacrifice from being in vain. Vote so the next generation can have as much autonomy as you did.

Where I’m at, personally, is that I think voting when you have the franchise is a civic responsibility.

If you’re from the USA and currently possess a vote, you do in fact have a duty to use it in the way that will do the most good to the most people. The weight of imperialism does not lift that burden, it multiplies it. You are determining how much funding UN famine relief may get and whether distant countries will be invaded and you cannot shrink from that. No amount of whinging about your red state (states flip all the time—Virginia was ruby red a few decades ago!) or your misplaced guilt can change that. Everyone from the dawn of time has lived with hands soaked in blood, being part of a society means being complicit in horror, you can become paralyzed by that or you can start to work to save people.

(If a single person is protected by a Harris presidency who’d die under Trump then you actually do have a moral obligation to help them. Failing in that task is, in my opinion, selfishness. Sometimes sympathetic selfishness: people who have lost family due to the incompetence of the best option have the right to shrink back from necessary choices. Humans grieve. That just means everyone further out in the circles of tragedy needs to develop some risk assessment skills and vote on their behalf.)

If you’re in Britain or Brasil or the EU or Georgia or Aotearoa the same holds true. The global community remains a community in which every country impacts the other, no nation lacks some dispossessed minority which needs to be protected. Voting is always important and you never get to slack off. Even if your vote is diluted or subverted you have to try. There is no winning the task of creating a better world, you’re going to keep doing it for the rest of your life.

I believe all this is true and I also believe that Tumblr is the worst possible environment to convince anyone of their truth. It’s probably not possible to harangue anyone into taking moral action. The disappointment of a stranger rarely motivates anyone! But one does have to speak up periodically, so here’s my general plea: Vote. It’s quite literally the bare minimum.

[neverenoughmarauders]

Hi! what are your thoughts on the ever present fanon idea that James repeatedly asks Lily to date him before she finally concedes (he pesters her tbh)?

I feel like this throws a lot of people off of Jily as it just adds a bit of creepiness to the ship and makes it weirder for Lily to get with James considering this behaviour, after what must’ve been a fair amount of reckoning since he tormented her childhood best friend for years. Like even if Lily hated Snape at this point I don’t think she’d forget how James treated him easily and let James off the hook without a proper reckoning so adding pestering behaviour to that dynamic just makes their relationship more unlikely ya know. Honestly just tryna find reasons why fandom in general dislike Jily more than jegulus atp.

Hi anon

This idea that James repeatedly asked Lily out I think far precedes Jegulus. In my youth, the few fics I engaged with (often because my best friend kindly helped translate them) seemed to position it as a very cute thing - although it always annoyed me even then, because it has no basis in canon. The day and age where James persistently asking Lily out was seen as cute are over, and now this fanon idea is presented in favour of Jegulus or Snily.

Actually, as an aside, in general the marauders' story is one that has aged poorly... You can't really view the marauders without the lens of it being the 70s and during a wizarding world war - but people do and it completely changes everything.

How do I feel about it?

I feel the same way about this as I do with all fanon ideas that get presented as evidence. It drives me up the wall no end. We all get carried away with our own interpretations and that's fine, but if people cannot separate canon from interpretation of canon /headcanon from fanon, how can we have an informed debate?

Canon:

"Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?” “I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” ... “I didn’t mean — I just don’t want to see you made a fool of — He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!” The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not ... everyone thinks ... big Quidditch hero — ” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.

My interpretation of canon:

The conversation between Snape and Lily to me indicates that it is a relatively new development (which means sometimes not long before/after the whomping willow incident). At this point I think it's hard to argue that James has asked Lily out - why on earth would Snape feel the need to point out that James fancies her if this be the case.

Canon:

“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly. “Go on ... Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” ... “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,” said Lily. “Bad luck, Prongs,” said Sirius briskly, turning back to Snape. ... “There you go,” he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus — ” “I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” Lily blinked. “Fine,” she said coolly. “I won’t bother in future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.” ... “What is it with her?” said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him. “Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate,” said Sirius. “Right,” said James, who looked furious now, “right"

Also canon: Lily found James attractive at this point, despite not liking him very much. It was confirmed in an interview, in response to whether or not Lily hated James, but as we know even from the source text:

“How come she married him?” Harry asked miserably. “She hated him!” “Nah, she didn’t,” said Sirius.

My interpretation of canon:

James is being an immature d***. That aside, nothing about this dialogue suggests to me that James has ever asked Lily out before. Why? James looks FURIOUS at the rejection, he does not give off the vibes of someone who has routinely been rejected by Lily.

There's also the small stuff which doesn't by itself mean anything but which adds up, such as Sirius' and Snape's reaction. Sirius doesn't come across as someone who has seen this a hundred times. He's obviously far less affected or surprised by the outcome, but that's not the same thing. Snape completely loses it with Lily - why? It's not the first time James and Sirius has bullied him, but if it's the first time Snape has listened to James ask her out - worse still, use him to ask her out, he might be furious. He told her so, didn't he? James Potter fancied her.

My headcanon:

We know Lily found James attractive, and that James is shocked to be rejected. We also know Snape is nervous that Lily might be falling for James: 'I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are' Why? Probably because by now Lily and James have flirted a little on and off. If Lily spoke the way she spoke to James by the lake - if James routinely asked Lily out - then the conversation between Severus and Lily makes no sense.

If people want to like Jegulus, they can. Personally, I think Jily holds everything I want from an "enemies" to lovers trope, and if I want another trope it's usually best friends to lovers, and I've got prongsfoot for that. Or if I am feeling like I want both, there's always Jilypad <3

[prettyoddfever]

Hey, sorry if you've already done a post on this but do we know why Ryan ross stopped wearing stage makeup /makeup in general? I haven't seen any pics of him during pretty odd with any makeup on xx

Ryan only wore stage makeup from June – December 2006. It was just a short phase and then he was totally over it.

The Pretty. Odd. era started in 2008. Ryan and Jon talked a lot that year about how they wanted to make music that was more “honest” and authentic. At that point they viewed all of the Fever-era performers, costumes, makeup, and elaborate sets as “distractions” that weren’t necessary if the music was good enough to speak for itself. There were times that year when Ryan would almost look down on the Fever-era’s dramatic stage shows in a condescending way, as though those things were totally beneath him now. He certainly wanted to distance himself from all of that. He also made comments like “I think we’d be silly if we were wearing the circus outfits again. I don’t even know how we got on that kick.” He also told Cosmogirl in spring 2008 that “I think we’re playing a lot better than we used to... I guess you could say we’re more about sounding good than looking good.” Even his comments that weren’t dismissive of the Fever era still made it sound like the previous version of the band was inferior.

I loved that Ryan had found a direction he was happier with! But he didn’t seem to care that a lot of us were kind of hurt over how he was treating the Fever era. He had moved on. Ryan was more focused on establishing & defending the new version of the band in 2008 (and making it clear that fans didn’t own P!ATD; the band members controlled it and could take it in whatever direction they wanted). A lot of us were definitely interested in the new era, but we were loyal to the old familiar one. I wanted to be able to like both, but many of Ryan’s comments sometimes made me feel silly for ever thinking the Fever era was cool. 

Ryan changed so much every year. He also seemed to like to shake things up and make changes to the band so he could feel a stronger sense of ownership & control in something that was more authentic to who he was at each point. Like we had seen many other times, Ryan wasn’t interested in doing something for approval and he didn’t care what other people thought (which could be a strength). He was just going to move ahead with what he liked. Ryan told NME in 2008 that “Fever was a moment in time and it’s not who we are anymore.” Basically, his interests & focus had changed by 2007 and he wasn’t interested in looking back. Here’s something Ryan told Alt Press in 2010 when they asked him if he regretted any decisions from his years in P!ATD:

“At the time, I wouldn’t have changed anything, whether it be the weird makeup or whatever. Now would I do that? No. But at the time, that’s what I felt like I should do, so I did.”

I’ve seen some people these days make comments about how they wish the modern P!ATD had the Fever-era makeup/aesthetic and that its absence is somehow connected to Ryan’s absence? I have no idea how that conclusion works. Any hint of theatricality that the band had after the split was because Ryan was no longer there. Take a Vacation by TYV is basically what Ryan & Jon had in mind in 2008 for PATD’s third album... and that’s a far cry from AFYCSO. 

Basically, people change as they grow up nbd.