#theo's actions are not excused because of his abuse

[eneiryu]

What do you think Alec feels/thinks about Theo? I know that they're best buds and everything but as an outsider with no emotional ties to who Theo used to be and the things he's done, what do you think he wouls feel when learning about the Dread Doctors and things they did to him and where he came from? I just think the thoughts from somebody who is purely subjective about all that hell would be so interesting. Would he feel angry on Alec's behalf? Would be feel pity? Would he not really care too much but be glad Theo survived?

As is possibly becoming my very predictable response, I think it’d be complicated. At least the way I write them, Theo was one of the first trusted mentors Alec had as a werewolf: someone who explicitly wanted to help him, who he could only temporarily hurt, if he slipped up and accidentally hurt him at all, and someone who just seemed so comfortingly confident not only in his own abilities, but in Alec’s eventual ability to conquer his.

But Theo is a murderer. And at least in my opinion, there was nothing excusable or justifiable about his killing of Josh or Tracy—the Dread Doctors weren’t making him or manipulating him, it wasn’t a survival thing. And I think that’d be hard to reconcile with who Alec now understands Theo to be, even though he didn’t know Josh or Tracy. They were still people, and more to the point, people that Theo had personal connection with—as fucked up as it was—and Theo killed them for power.

And then there’s the fact that Scott saved him, and the McCall pack took him in, and if you go one by one, Theo did some pretty horrendous things to each of the pack. Killing Scott, putting Lydia in Eichen, driving Kira’s powers out of control, nearly turning Liam into murderer, etc., and so I think that would also be difficult for Alec.

Understanding Theo’s history with and abuse by the Dread Doctors would help, I think. In more ways than one Theo was made, not just in his genetics but in his understanding of the world and his actions. Finding out about it all, likely in bits and pieces, would be as horrifying for Alec as for any of the pack, I would think.

But—and this has always been the thing that’s drawn me to Theo, at least in my interpretation of him—I think it’s Theo’s own guilt over his actions that would let Alec eventually come to terms with it, in the same way that Theo (hopefully) does. Because the difference between someone who genuinely regrets their past actions and tries to make up for them, and someone who tries to distance themselves from them with excuses, is the difference between someone who can truly be part of a trusted community and a friend and mentor, and one who can’t.

[libellule-saphique]

Good points, actually great points.

Unfortunately the show will always use Marinette's psychological humiliation and character persecution for a "good laugh"

No other character in the show has been subjected to this much and caught backlash for their actions.

Adrien stans have so many excuses for their support of his character "He doesn't get as much screentime" "He's been sheltered all his life and abused" "He's not as bad as Felix" "poor Chat uwu *dramatically sobs*

At this point they make any claim they can to back him up no matter how much in the wrong he is or how ridiculous it sounds.

For many other reasons I don't care for Marinette salt as much as I do general MLB salt, MLB writer salt, or Adrien salt because while Marinette's salt is reasonable and not bad (if reasons are logical) there are many MLB fans who go from salting her to downright bashing her. It's no surprise to anyone that Marinette's crush on Adrien has been the face and reasoning for salting her to began with, the obsessiveness, the irrational jealousy, the awkwardness in which she herself can't escape from because the writers desperately need some form of humor so why not make our female protagonist the butt of jokes right? While giving the second lead who happens to be a white cis male everything on a silver platter and our female lead a slap on the wrist.

It's a slap in the face. Especially to the younger audience who look up to the show. It's a huge contradiction mediocre disappointment preaching girl empowerment & romance on one hand and also teaching the audience that it's ok to harass the one who's affections you're trying to win over no matter if they object, no matter how many times they make themselves clear, that they don't feel the same way you got to try, try, try again. And eventually you'll get them in the end. With good determination and enough charm & persuasion you will get what you want in the end.

What kind of message is that to younger audiences? Why not teach them in life, they will not always get what they want no matter how much they want it, or work for it and that it's ok for people to not reciprocate your feelings. It is your individual responsibility to handle rejection in a positive manner? And not only do they teach the opposite they use the male deuteragonist as the perpetrator of harassing our female protagonist constantly episode to episode, season to season to no avail.

And we're supposed to support his efforts in winning his Mi'lady's heart, because they're "soulmates" despite Ladybug being visually upset, disgusted, and annoyed by his behavior. His stans get equally pissy because of her rejection and go out of their way to call her a "bitch" "mean" "cruel" and not appreciative of him though, she handles most of Paris by herself just fine even when they're working together (it's not like he helps her in any major way anyways if anything he harms more than he helps) He practically distracts her with corny and very cringey puns and failed flirtation attempts to which she is expected to explain to him time after time it's not the appropriate time. She should not have to do that.

Marinette is expected to apologize for things that aren't her fault like in Copy Cat when Chat Noir lies to Theo out of jealousy about the relationship he has with Ladybug causing Theo's akumatization, by the end of the episode Ladybug does the explaining and apologizing despite not being the one to cause the mess in the first place. This leaves him to not have to take accountability for his actions because "our good protagonist Marinette did!" this happens with friends, Adrien, even her bullies. Marinette has to calmly explain and apologize for other people's short comings when she shouldn't have to.

And as I said before Adrien stans complain about Adrien's lack of screentime despite taking up majority of Marinette's by being the conversation topic, goal, or thought in someone's mind (someone being Marinette) like in Pigeon it focuses on Marinette creating a derby hat for a school contest, doesn't seem bad at first until the narrative decides to add Adrien in it by being the face of his dad's fashion brand therefore modeling her hat. Why couldn't someone else do it. They do this for next 3 seasons which usually consists of Marinette's crush on Adrien and trying to confess to him.

Marinette's characterization somewhat goes somewhere from seasons 1-2 to seasons 3-4 being wrapped up in Adrien, awkward, shy, and less confident to trying to focus on herself more, confident with herself, and less focused on romance but ofc the writers have to find a way to humorize the show and they can't possibly think of any other way than to humiliate Marinette. This is simply bad writing, not humor. Showcasing your protagonist's crush in the center of her life and not allowing her form a single sentence when interacting with him isn't humor. the writers do this 4 seasons straight for the sake of their idea of "humor" because sure there isn't another way we can make our fans laugh? Having your male deuteragonist harass your female protagonist ,not taking no as an answer and getting petty, snarky, sarcastic, knowingly unhelpful, rude, & vindictive because of rejection isn't the "height of romance" not acknowledging your male deuteragonist's flaws and problematic traits while consistently highlighting your female lead's flaws isn't perfect, its blatant misogyny.

Having the protagonist's classmates blind as bats to the protagonist's bully's lies, manipulation antics, and tricks to where no one believes her not even her own parents isn't good writing. (hell it doesn't even makes sense)

Not allowing your female protagonist to move on and potentially have character development and maturity just for the sake of the male deuteragonist's feelings isn't good writing.

Pinning the 4 love rivals (Marinette, Lila, Chloe, Kagami) for the male lead's affections against each other while allowing the male characters (Adrien, Luka, Nathaniel) to get along just fine despite liking the same girl (Marinette) isn't good writing. it's misogyny "cause girls are catty right? and boys are peaceful negotiators

(there's no valid reason why the girls couldn't get along)

Writing off love rivals so they don't interfere "too much" with the main Love Square ships isn't good writing.

Stating your male lead is perfect therefore needs no development isn't good writing. It's honestly just lazy half ass writing at this point.

I can argue confidently Thomas dislikes most his female characters if not all of them. The writers give Marinette, our lead some development to only knock her 3 steps back to square 1. She tries desperately to move on only to be forced by her own best friend to dance with Adrien (NYC special) which is already problematic itself because Alya is supposed to be Marinette's bff but she constantly disrespects her boundaries, breaks her trust, and believes/ sides with her bully/tormentor over her multiple times. After Lukanette's breakup Marinette voices how a relationship wouldn't be the best idea with all the responsibilities she has, the things she has to keep from her s/o (her identity as Ladybug), a lie she would have to make to protect her identity which is highly reasonable and justified despite this, Adrien somehow now knows he has feelings for Marinette (after being just a friend) and all that matters is "his feelings" no one takes into consideration that Marinette doesn't want a relationship for good reasons and is overwhelmed by alot already. but the writers don't care, they make Adrienette canon to coddle Adrien's feelings.

[above shows an image of two hands giving high-five to the left representing the MLB writers and Marinette and one hand drowning to the right representing Marinette]

At the end of the day we are told one thing

"Doesn't matter what happens in Miraculous Ladybug, as long as Adrien Agreste is coddled, babied, and sympathized with because who has it harder than a rich white french boy who harasses the main female lead who happens to be bi-racial all because he likes her right?"

Marinette's Suffering

I just realized something.

As long as Marinette has a crush on Adrien she'll always be humiliated.

She'll always be a anxiety ball.

She'll always be laughed at.

She'll always brought down.

She'll always be in distress.

She'll always be putting his feelings before own.

She'll always be putting his needs before her own.

Her crush on Adrien brings out the worst of her. When she's a mess, stuttering, fumbling, falling.

Then when there's a guy who is 10x better than Adrien they take that opportunity away from her, because Oh! If Marinette loses interest in our pretty predatory rich white boy then he'll lose relevance to the plot as if he contributes any fucking ways. The only way the male writers of this awful show can keep their favorite predator white boy in the picture is if Marinette has a crush on him which derives off her suffering. As long as Marinette has feelings for him she'll always suffer. Adrien can't be out of the picture for more than afew seconds because the writers are so cowardly that they rather have their protagonist suffer than let any other character shine. It's ridiculous how in order for Adrien to stay relevant that means Marinette has to suffer because of her crush on Adrien. It's not fair. Marinette has to suffer just so he can stay relevant?

That bastard. He does nothing to contribute to the plot whatsoever. All he does is harass Marinette and make her life a living hell right with Chloe.

Marinette finally does move on from him and somehow despite being happy with Luka they decide to bring her crush on Adrien back so the audience doesn't forget about the pretty pervy rich white boy! Yay!

He's a pervy white guy. A creep. His creepy harassment is fucking disgusting and he always has to be in the plot because little poor Adrien is so fucking important without actually doing anything important.

I hate this Eurobrat pred.

[adrianfridge]

“Problem is, though, sooner or later, physical pain, it's... It's manageable. See, real pain is emotional pain. That is the kind of pain that lasts.”

[caribbean-ace]

It feels like it’s been ages since i’ve spoken about Station 19 but finally we had 6x01. I’ll go over my thoughts so spoilers ahead:

I think most of the attention was drawn to Maya and Carina. There’s so much to unpack with these two, from them trying again for a baby (thank God the writers listened and our favorite wives took another road, you know the more realistic one in this case). With Maya she’s clearly angry and frustrated and obviously that’s something that affects everything in her life including her marriage, she has been able to manage it but since it backfired so badly i get where this anger is coming from. From this episode i got that Carina is angry too, but her emotions are obviously different from Maya, both of them coming from abusive household it shows how they have decided to deal with all of this. I’m so glad Carina is back to her old self because babying Jack is the least i want to see from them.

Which brings me to: Jack! I was sad for him (in some parts bc he went through so many hard stuff) but it seems he doesn’t want to get better and he does not want to own responsibility for his actions. Andy stood by him and he goes and lies to her. He needs to work on his emotions and own them. I hate how the show goes: oh poor Jack but he’s never assuming responsibility for what he does, i’m hoping this is a wake up call for him, women in his life are not supposed to be his savior.

Oh Sullivan, what am i going to do with you, they are still pitching the whole Sullivan is a hero and he can do no wrong. It bothers me to no end that he pretends he wouldn’t have done the same, like if you’re ruthless, please by all means own it, don’t try to make excuses about it! Was Maya wrong? Well yes, but that does not make him a hero, if anything he’s being a hypocrite. I don’t know how this is going to play out since i thought Maya and Andy were going to battle head to head for being Captain but Beckett is here still so idk, it seems that Bishop vs Sullivan is on and of course i’m supporting my smol olympian firefighter all the way.

For the rest? I liked Vic and Theo hyping up Travis, he’s such a good firefighter, let’s see how everything plays out with Dixon. Do i think he’ll win? Idk but i want Travis as a firefighter :( Also i like Ben but i kinda hate when he’s like oh i’m playing by the rules but it’s only okay when i break them, since i’m doing it for the greater good. Yes, maybe he was right, maybe not, they were both doctors and able to control the situation but come on, i don’t like when he decides when it’s right to break the rules.

Anyways those are my thoughts, i did live tweet about the show, you can find me here babbling about stuff✌🏽 see ya next thursday! Station 19 is back🔥

[fhaf123]

I have to respond to this cause I’ve been thinking about this so much

I’ve always excused a lot of theo’s actions and defended him and I’ve always wondered is that actually because of a moral belief I have or am I just biased and really like his character but as I’ve thought about it more I realized I’ve only done this with certain villains and I’ve managed to put villains into 3 categories.

1) are those who I believe are pure evil no matter what happened to them they’ve gone past a point where I can’t see any redeeming qualities and then 2) are villains who have done horribly evil things that I can’t defend but who I still believe are capable and have the chance at redemption and then theirs 3) villains like Theo who I just can’t view as him as evil I can awknoldge that what he did was wrong but I get it he was an abused kid who was stuck in a horrible situation being manipulated while his life was constantly in danger and I can’t judge him cause of that anybody in his situation would do exactly what he did and those that say they wouldn’t probably are lying to themselves we could say oh I wouldn’t be manipulated or even if I was forced to hurt someone else I would rather die but most of us would do it he was 9 and spent his whole life with them the fact that he was able to change and become better proves he wasn’t all that bad plus they forgave argent for trying to kill them and killing how many other supernaturals simply because of his childhood why should Theo be any different

#4 emails part 3

I just wanted to share some emails sent back and forth about my fic Sense of a Foreshortened Future because I need inspiration to start writing it again. In these emails it's referred to as #4 because it was the fourth Thiam fic I ever started writing. I will do my best to remove what I think is spoilers.

Hi hello,

Okay so I have this one question which is: do you think Liam forgave Theo for what he did?

I'd like your initial opinion before you read my brain thoughts on why I'm conflicted about this question.

Brain thoughts (there's a lot unfortunately and they are going to be kinda all over the place):

I have this very basic concept of why I like enemies to lovers, it's not that they love each other because or despite their past actions or who they used to be, they just love each other.

Liam- at least the way I'm writing him- thinks of Theo before Kira's prison and Theo after as basically two different people. Can you forgive someone if your brain isn't connecting that they were the same person who did the hurtful/bad action?

At what point in an abused child's life do they become responsible for the actions they might have been manipulated into doing? At what point do you draw the line in the sand? Is it when they turn a certain age, or are removed from the abuse, or when they have people telling them what they're doing is wrong? Is it fair to judge someone based on a decision(s) they made while being threatened with death? 

Where does manipulation end and personal choice begin? 

Could you ever forgive someone for hurting you and the people you care about like that? I want to say that I'd be able to, but if I came face to face with that I don't know if I would be able to do it. I'd want to be able to forgive. Do you need to forgive someone to love them in a healthy way if you've both grown?

Is forgiveness something that happens all at once or do you need to wake up every day and forgive again?

What even is forgiveness? It could be reconciliation with the person who hurt you. Maybe it's when the negative emotions you used to feel about someone are replaced by positive or neutral ones. It could be when you stop feeling resentment or the need for revenge. Is it forgetting or ignoring or fully acknowledging? 

Maybe it's all of those things.

Do you think Liam forgave Theo for what he did? Does he have to?

From inside a library contemplating the meaning of life, seven

God okay so this is a lot. bravo. You've clearly thought about this a lot so I say to go with whatever you think because I have no idea how to answer this I'm going to be honest.

But no he doesn't have to forgive him, I'm just not sure if he has.

I think maybe Liam has forgiven him in the way that he doesn't feel contempt or want revenge. I think I need Liam in the story to realize that the person he keeps referring to as Evil Theo is the same Theo that he is almost friends with is the same person. I think a lot of the anger he has for Evil Theo is aimed more at the idea that the pack was hurt. I think (later on) Liam will remember what it felt like when he was being manipulated into trying to kill Scott, and how that situation didn't define him as a person because he did the work to be better after that and Liam will kinda apply that to Theo.

[crazysleepydreams]

To steal a thiefs heart

Summary: Deborah DeVries wasn’t anything special, the only thing special about her was her genus friend Theo that worked for Gruber´s: Constuction & Security! She wasn’t even supposed to go with him to the bowling alley to meet his friends/co-workers, but that did happen and her life turned chaotic from there….. A Die Hard AU. What will change once Hans falls in love: will it end as a fairy tail or will it be doomed from the start?

Chapter 5

Even if Deborah had done her best to not make a scene jakob Bambergen´s words had together with his disregard for basic politeness such as turning up on time pissed Hans off and he wasn't the only one that felt anger flow through him Karl felt it too and with one simple look at each other they had decided to do something about Jakob´s words: words that Hans believed only he and his men had understood so he was pleasantly surprised to see the feeble excuse of a man being slapped by said pretty brunette and then get called out for his actions.

Hans stood close to Deborah to make sure he could get her out of harm's way if Jakob tried to react in any way to being slapped, he felt relieved when he saw her taking a step back as precaution and bumped into him. He took a step back to allow her some space and almost smiled when he saw that even if he would have wanted Jakob would be unable to because Karl was already dragging Bambergen out of the place. Unconsciously his own hazel colored eyes found her green eyes and he saw her blush before looking down at the ground.

“Forgive me Herr Gruber…” Hans' keen ears could pick up her mumbled apology and he knew that with everyone around them Theo would be with them at any moment, he had to react now before she would be whisked away.

“No, no Deborah it is I who owes you an apology.” He was quick to reassure the young woman that already had been verbally abused in the curse of the evening. He saw that she looked up surprised at his words and he offered her what he hoped to be a gentle smile. “I apologize to you in my own name and that of my company: you came here as a guest and I'm ashamed to know that a man under my employ uttered those words toward you, as I´d be ashamed to hear them uttered toward any other woman. You did not deserve to be treated that way and I am truly sorry for that.” Hans felt that the apology had been overly formal and impersonal.

“ It is fine Herr you can't control what those you employ think and in this case say I don´t believe that I was supposed to understand it.” Hans felt relieved that he had not offended her with his apology and he realized that if he compared her German and her Inglish it was her Inglish that was slightly accented: it was a soft almost non existent tilt familiar, but at the same time Hans couldn't put his finger on it.

“If I am forgiven then please call Hans and not Mister.” Answered Hans with a smile that grew when he realized that he had made her laugh.

________________________________________________

“There is nothing to forgive, but I´d prefer to call you Johannes.” Said Deborah shyly once she had stopped laughing looking at the taller man.

“I feel that if I'd try to convince you to call me Hans I would lose for sure.” Answered the German with a gentle smile.

 Deborah was about to continue talking with the man when her friend calling her caught her attention.

“Dee!” Came the urgent call from Theo before he hugged her, she rolled her eyes but didn't break the hug. “Mary and Heinrich told me what happened: are you fine?”

“I’m doing fine Teddy. Did his words hurt? Yes. Am I going to allow some words to ruin my night? No. Please calm down: we haven’t even started to bowl, you dragged me here for that sole purpose. I'm not leaving until I’ve at least beaten you.” She did her best to reassure her best friend of the fact that she was fine: even if that wasn’t the whole truth she wasn’t feeling up to bowling before all the drama and now she would prefer to just curl up on her couch with some book….

“Are you sure? I mean we can totally leave if you aren’t feeling up to it. No intention to offend Hans.” Deborah could see how her friend was trying to make sure that she was fine so she did her best to give him a gentle smile.

“No offense taken Theo and please Deborah if you aren’t feeling up for the evening you both may leave.” Offered Johannes gently.

“Look I thank you both, but I’m sure that I’m up for some bowling: if that changes I’ll let any of you or Karl know.” She promised both men before tugging Theo with her. “Come and help me with the drinks for the girls Teddy: I hope that the waiter listened and didn’t put any ice in my Cola! it's just so gross when it melts and mixes with the soda…”  She gave Johannes a small wave over her shoulder.

Okay as I said before: still no beta, but I’ve gotten someone that proof reads it now and that really does wonders to my will to write so THANKYOU: @inflation-of-mind !!!! So if anyone is interesed please contact me.

So please leave a comment a like or a reblog! And there is no beta so until I find one we’ll do it this way: not sure how fast I’ll update I’m a stud so it might vary. Also if You want to read the previouse chapter you’ll be able to find them under the #To Steal A Thiefs Heart

[liliaeth]

Fix it’s for Teen Wolf

I can think of a few things that would have made Teen Wolf better.

1.  I wanted more focus on Scott’s emotional response to what happened to him.  I don’t mind that Scott isn’t the type who complains about getting hurt. The problem for me was that the show rarely dealt with the consequences of Scott’s pain, and thus to the casual viewer often made it look like he simply didn’t mind, that being hurt didn’t bother him at all. Or worse, that nothing all that bad had happened in the first place.

 Doing this undermined many of the hallucination scenes.  For example, in Season 2’s Party Guessed, we get hallucinations for Stiles, Jackson, and Allison which give us a view into psychology, letting us know their issues without spelling them out.  For Scott, we got Allison making out with kanima Jackson.   Compared to the others, it felt shallow and confusing.  The writers couldn’t even bother to give us dialog.  He received the same treatment in Season 5, when they read the book designed to trigger their memories about the Dread Doctors. Stiles gets yet another scene about his dead mother who has been crucial to his story since Season 1.  Lydia sees her grandmother and her connection to both Lydia’s powers and Eichen House, as well as foreshadowing her treatment at the hands of Valack.   Malia about her Mom and sister’s death at the hands of the Desert Wolf, which is her entire arc.  And Scott?  He gets a nightmare about a dog that was never mentioned before and would not be mentioned after.

 2. I wanted more focus on Scott’s trauma in general. In Season 1, Scott was repeatedly mentally and physically violated by Peter, terrorized and abused by Derek, and hunted by the Argents, and it was taken as a given.   Even the recaps at the beginning episodes in other seasons barely show any of that.  For example, Gerard attacking Scott in clear view at the hospital, stabbing him, and threatening his mother, never appeared in any of the recaps, even in episodes where it would have been important to remind the viewers about it.

While the show had no issue showing us over and over again how Stiles or Derek or Isaac or Allison or any white character really was hurt, they did not focus on the pain Scott was put through, and thus let the viewers conclude that those events didn’t matter.

The show literally had Scott try and kill himself, twice in less than two days, first in Frayed, by refusing to let himself heal, and then again in Motel California, yet neither of those suicide attempts are mentioned even once afterwards. And this while it would have been a good call back in s5b, when Scott is once again not letting himself heal after Theo killed him. and yet again, no mention whatsoever.

 3. I wanted more consequences for certain characters.   I liked that Scott and to a lesser extent Derek were confronted with the consequences of their actions. When they screwed up, they got called out on it. When they did something wrong, it wasn’t excused.  Then they made up for it.

In contrast, certain characters, especially Stiles, got to do whatever they wanted and it was either dismissed as funny or used to make them look sympathetic.  Stiles got to be mean and cruel, and the narrative still treated him as if he were the best friend ever.  He got to assault people, hurt them, and it was treated as if somehow he was the victim. 

For example, I would have liked Stiles a lot better, if when he tortured Scott with lacrosse balls, punishing him for who-knows-what, if someone else had called him out on it or if Scott had got to defend himself, instead of just taking it because Stiles was angry.  Scott allowing Stiles to hurt him to maintain their friendship was a pattern between them, just as much as Scott taking responsibility for things that aren’t his fault.  He keeps on doing it over the course of the show, but it would have been nice if the show at the very least had made it clear that that didn’t make Stiles behavior acceptable.

Just like I wish that Peter had actually faced consequences for his actions – and/or shown some kind of true remorse for his misdeeds--instead of the others just letting him hang around after all the horrible things he’d done or reduce it pettiness.

 4. I would have liked more time spent on Melissa and the McCall family in general, especially on Melissa’s initial reaction to Scott being a werewolf. In the show, they barely spent two minutes total on Melissa’s reaction to finding out her son has been turned into a werewolf.  By the end of s6b, she was barely even behaving like a mother anymore. Even to the point where we don’t even get a conversation between her and Chris about his attacks on her son before the two of them start dating.  Now don’t get me wrong, I liked Chris and Melissa in a relationship, but it was missed opportunity to humanize both her and Scott that they didn’t bother to show her finding out about that and her reaction to it.

Instead we got the whole horror reaction, of her being horrified at seeing her son’s other face, the reaction that any LGBT kid fears when they come out to their parent. Which could have been a great metaphor, especially if they had then made it clear that Scott was bisexual.

 5. I would have liked more focus on Boyd.   The production time spent on Isaac and Erica, while Boyd’s arc was treated as almost an afterthought. We barely even got any hint on his past, in the episode before they killed him off.    They started out with Boyd as the one who wanted to be like Scott, and then never explained it.  Why not focus more on that, and their relationship?

(similar complaints go about Mason, and how little we knew about Mason, outside of him being Liam’s friend. Like... what was his relationship like with his parents? What is Mason interested in, what does he want to do with his life... how did he deal with the after effects of the Beast...

 6. I would have liked more focus on Alan Deaton. The show had such huge potential with this character’s backstory, not just with the Hales but as an emissary in general.  There was this whole mythology about druids that they barely even delved into.

To not even start on how little we knew about his personal life? Why did he and his sister have different last names? What was their relationship like?

Does he have any romantic relationships? Friendships, relationships in general?

Or how about more time spent on his role as a father figure to Scott, we got so few crumbs of their relationship when we should have gotten so much more

 7. I would have liked more focus on Scott and Theo’s interaction in Season 6.   I get that in 6a, they had Scott primarily focused on getting Stiles back, but I’ll never understand why they then didn’t use 6b, to deal with the fact that Theo had tried to murder Scott and was trying to make it up to him and the pack for what he’d done to Scott and the others.

I don’t mind Theo interacting with Liam.  Those scenes were great, but they should have at least one scene with Scott and Theo dealing with the issues between them.  For Theo’s sake, as much as Scott’s.

 8. I would have liked a complete rework of Season 6A in its entirety.  If you’re going to focus a season on an actor who isn’t available, then you have to make it about his impact on the others. Show us what difference this character made, by showing us the effects of his absence, rather than just try and make it about a romantic ship. (I’ve written a post about this already in greater detail, so limiting it to that, but seriously, that season was such a huge wasted opportunity.)

 9.  Actual character growth for Stiles. For a character who had as much screentime as Stiles did, it’s shocking just how little character growth Stiles had over the course of the entire show. This contrasts in a really bad way, when you look at how much every single other character grew and changed over the course of the show.

Just look at the last four episodes of 5b, to give an example. After almost an entire season of watching Stiles at his worst, focusing on emotional scene after emotional scene with him, he suddenly got relegated to comic relief. Why? Because they didn’t want Stiles to grow, because unless he grew, there was no way for him to go but down. If Stiles had taken responsibility for his actions, then they’d have had to admit that he did wrong in the first place. And they couldn’t have that happen.

 10. And last but not least. More moments of the kids being kids. Even if it’s just proms and beach parties. Moments where we see the characters spend time together, when they aren’t trying to stop some bad guy. Where we can see them be friends, hang out with kids their own age. Even just to remind the audience just how young these children are. And where the viewers along with the characters can rest in between the horror, because doing so makes the horror hit far more strongly in contrast to the light.

 11. Also, a better lighting budget, pretty please Davies, were a few more light bulbs that much to ask for?

[maskthesimp]

This. All of this. I'm not denying he deserved punishment, but the punishment he got was way beyond the crime. Spending literal months being murdered over and over is not comparable to what he did.

Let's say he should have died once for every person he was responsible for the death of, even non-innocents and people he didn't directly murder. He died almost more in that short compilation we saw in season 6 than everyone who died because of his actions in 5. And that was only SOME of the times he died over the course of...a couple of months? Maybe a number of weeks? Even if we say he died once each day, which isn't likely it's probably more often, that's way more than the deaths caused in s5 (not counting La Bête because that wasn't his doing, he couldn't do anything about that). It should have been like...10 at the most. I think I actually calculated it at some point on Reddit how many deaths he was responsible for, and it was...small. A very small number compared to what everyone seems to think it is.

At the end of the day, he was a manipulated child who was made to believe power made you a good leader. He clearly looked up to Scott in some way and wanted to be like him, so it makes sense he'd wanna be an amazing leader like he was. He went down the wrong way to achieve that goal, though, because he was manipulated and abused by old ass entities that could literally alter people's perceptions of reality.

The Theo we saw in s6, I think, was the real Theo peaking through. Not the puppet that was literally raised to be a serial killing experiment that we saw in s5. The fact that people excuse everyone else who has killed and not Theo is kinda just showing they have no media literacy. How come Mr Argent doesn't get shit? We know he's killed a ton of shapeshifters in his life. Some were more innocent than others, some being killers, but he's still a murderer. I suppose he did face some sort of punishment. He lost his whole family for it. So I can understand that.

But also...fucking Allison. Allison god damned Argent. I swear to god, the lengths people go to justify her actions and not Theos is insane. It makes me wanna scream. She was arguably WORSE than he was! She didn't have a good reason to do what she did! She deadass tried to kill her boyfriend and all her friends because her mum died. Her mum, who spent her entire childhood lying to her and being manipulating and controlling to an INSANE degree! Her mum, who died trying to kill her innocent boyfriend and his innocent friend for no reason! She sided with her genocidal grandfather, turned on her father and her friends, tried to murder Boyle and Erica, and helped them get tortured. She turned on them multiple times, too. Once in s1 and then again in s2. There is no justification or decent explanation for her actions. Whereas with Theo, at least he has a half-decent explanation. He was abused into that lifestyle for YEARS! It took Allison 5 seconds, and a bullshit letter from the grandfather she knew was a genocidal lunatic to make her try what he tried.

okay so can we talk about how dirty they did theo??? not even the whole thiam thing (which totally should have happened, you can fight me on that).

but like the hellscape they sent him to?? like I know he killed people. but so did Peter. so did Chris. so did Jackson. and yeah Jackson in particular had extenuating circumstances. but you're telling me theo didn't?? like he was kidnapped, experimented on, and raised by literal sociopaths from the age of what?? 9?? he probably spent years trying to make friends with the other chimeras before they became failures and died!!

the Dread Doctors mess with people's minds and memories on MULTIPLE occasions and you expect me to believe that that little child maliciously pushed his big sister to her death?? for what?? no, I refuse. I refuse to believe that a nine year old child (in their right mind) decided to murder their older sibling. no. either the Dread Doctors fucked with him like they did Tracy or they killed Tara and made Theo believe it was him.

I also refuse to believe that that was actually Tara that dragged him to hell. no matter what the dessert fox ladies said. I firmly and immovably believe that that was Theo's own creation. that his subconscious believed that this is what he deserved for what happened to Tara. that his own guilt was literally trying to rip him apart.

I acknowledge that without the hellscape Theo would not have been the Theo that anyone would even want around. but I am thoroughly mad about the hypocrisy on everyone involved's part.

The only reason they punished Theo is because he almost beat them. Stiles HATED Theo because he outsmarted him. Malia hated Theo because he tricked her. Liam hated him because he used his own mind against. Scott hated Theo because Theo managed to rip his pack apart and actually killed him. (I will make an exception to the hypocrisy on Malia's part cuz that is actually on brand for her.)

And again he did kill people, but his eyes are still gold/yellow. he never killed an innocent. not like Peter or Chris or Jackson or other characters I am forgetting (leaving out Malia and Derek cuz Malia's was her mom's fault and Derek's was Peter's fault, technically Jackson's was not his fault but the point stands) oh like Deucalion and his alpha pack.

and if someone says that his eyes don't change color bcuz he is a chimera, maybe. just maybe. but can you name someone he killed that had not already killed someone (besides Scott and that is iffy)

i will retract any of the above points if feasible contradicting evidence is found. I am also very, very open to discussions about and additions to my argument.

[downbursting]

ex

okay i’m gonna slap this down and then stop spamming dashes.

here’s a big tl;dr of headcanon and canon information.

as forcystus has no canon-confirmed background i’m putting together a loose timeline of his origin based on what i understand of the atonement of kratos novel, what was in the game, and my own personal headcanons. if the isola modlies need me to resubmit my app or clarify anything i can definitely do that.

also a forewarning - the grand cardinals may have reason for doing all the terrible things that they do, but that doesn’t excuse it or negate their actions.

but they are, in essence, all direct victims of the world cruxis has created. they are perpetuating a cycle of abuse because that is what they’ve been taught is the only way to break free. 

MISC. headcanons.

Forcystus isn’t very book smart, is not terribly inclined to the sciences, and can’t remember a spell to save his life. He is a very gifted speaker, though. Surprisingly eloquent when he puts his mind to it.

His handwriting is garbage. He can’t type. He’s not great with magitechnology. His cannon has been smashed up so many times he knows how to do most of the repairs himself now. Kvar ends up making trips out to Iselia.

But he is an incredible tactician. 

The Iselia Ranch is rarely attacked. This isn’t just due to the non-aggression treaty, it’s because the ranch’s defenses are nearly impenetrable. 

Because he is visibly disabled Forcystus is often assumed to be the weakest of the Five Grand Cardinals. They aren’t... wrong but they sure as hell aren’t right. He’s often attacked when he leaves the Iselia region by Renegades and human insurgents. Forcystus takes this in stride.

He’s naturally gifted at manipulating the wind which makes up for how shitty of a spellcaster he is.

His eyesight is starting to fade. Constantly straining his remaining eye + constantly pushing his body to its limits is drastically affecting his ability to function.

I’m calling it here. His exsphere is actually serving as a glass eye. The eyepatch that covers it is the runecrest. 

He’s a mess internally. Without an exsphere in Isola he may actually be in a fair amount of pain. Which is fine because he’s used to that, it’s just he no longer as the exsphere to grant him the strength to have rasputin levels of unkillability.

He is/was left-handed.

He doesn’t like what he does. But he does it.

PRE-DESIAN

1. born in sylvarant. i have only second-hand knowledge of the finer details of the novel as i’m reading it very slowly (and using google lens) but per friends who are able to read it, forcystus is confirmed to be sylvaranti. as is magnius.

1b. forcystus has no canon age! but sticking together some lore that might not actually connect, I think his age may actually closer to one-hundred and fifty than the two-hundred i proposed initially.

1b.  forcystus is a first generation half-elf.  his mother was human from asgard - descended very distantly from theo the summoner, his father was a wandering elf. they met by chance when she was paying tribute to the shrine of wind, fell in love, and started a family. they were always on the move and so much of the hatred towards half-elves was something forcystus was kept from.

however, the waning mana in sylvarant took a toll on his father. and shortly thereafter, forcystus’ mother took sick and died. forcystus was left in the care of his mother’s family, who treated him kindly behind closed doors, but coldly when others were around. he was instructed to tell others he was an elf and that they were caring for him until his parents returned.

1c. forcystus was raised believing in the summons moreso than the church of martel.  the church - and the fact that it more or less implies half-elves are a plague brought upon the world - bothered him.  he ended up internalizing a lot of this hatred that was being preached at sermons.

1d.  as an adult he has a wealth of incredibly vulgar curses. celsius’ frosty left tit, efreet’s sagging balls, gnome’s bow, undine’s breath, etc. he will crack them out and get creative when he’s upset.

1e. forcystus has barely had any formal training in magic or combat. his fighting style was very unique and relied on him synergizing with the wind, using his body itself as a conduit for artes. we see a little of this in the anime! But in his prime he was lightning fast and each punch had the force of a hurricane behind it.

the people of asgard said he was “blessed by sylph”. right up until they found out he was a half-elf, then he was a demon blight upon them. 

1f.  a human boy he was friends with ran and told the church leaders when forcystus revealed the truth to him. he thought he could trust him and wanted to talk about how he missed his parents.

 forcystus left of his own accord. his relatives were apologetic, but they did not argue with him. in fact they requested that he say that he lied to the, and tricked them. young forcystus believed that this was his fault and did so. forcystus was about fourteen and was out entirely on his own.

2. forcystus met magnius sometime in his teens. the novel shows that they are very close and magnius is suggested to be more loyal to forcystus than to yggdrasill himself. and so i’m just gonna say they met when they were fairly young. maybe sixteen - seventeen.

2b. i headcanon that forcystus rescued magnius from humans, stated that he was going to “mend the rift between humans and half-elves” and magnius initially came along to laugh when forcystus fell flat on his face because that was utterly impossible.  

3. forcystus’ first attempts at enacting change was little more than a children’s crusade.

in his naivety he thought people only needed to meet half-elves  to understand they weren’t a threat, not fully comprehending how enormous the problem was or how far back it stemmed.  but he firmly rejected the desian ideology, rejected multiple requests to join, and was vehement that half-elves and desians were different and he was going to prove it.

naive and hopelessly optimistic, they did make some positive change in some of the cities they went to. forcystus was a kind, compassionate, and a gifted speaker - and so the people who listened to him came away repeating the message. the ones that didn’t went out of their way to try to hurt him. forcystus was beginning to tire of all the cruelty. they saw so many terrible things on this journey, rescued so many people from incomprehensible situations, that his idealism was beginning to wane, however he pressed on.

eventually they felt as though they had enough support to go to palmacoasta, intending to petition the acting governor-general to help pass laws that would better protect half-elves and remove the loopholes that allowed them to be treated as second-class citizens or indentured servants. they were welcomed with open arms and promised to be treated with dignity, as they’d proven themselves to be just and true, and that their proposal would be heard out in its entirety.

and then the moment they were comfortable, the group was betrayed.

it became a violent, bloody battle and nearly all his companions were slaughtered. while magnius escaped, forcystus was captured and taken prisoner. he was tortured for days.   his dominant hand was cut off, his eye was gouged out.

they planned to execute him.

however, forcystus snapped and slaughtered all of them before they could execute him. the wind slashed the rope holding him up and he ripped through them like a hurricane. the desians arrived shortly thereafter to a mostly destroyed city square and a mostly dead half-elf.

once they had him stable, he was rushed to the asgard base where he went several reconstructive surgeries. when he was finally no longer mostly dead, he told magnius he no longer believed humans were to be trusted, that he had been right all along, and the two of them joined the desians.

desian. pre-grand cardinal status.

1. forcystus aided in the half-elf uprising of tethe’alla. though the english version omitted it, the japanese audio specifically states that forcystus’ desian hero reputation originated due to his deeds in tethe’alla. 

given that there is an instance of an uprising mentioned in another skit - the olfe uprising, which occurred 130 years ago - i’m going to take as that’s when this happened.

given how cruxis operates and the age i have set for him i don’t think this was under orders. my headacnon is when he found out about the flourishing world he had to see it for himself. he wanted to see what  a world full of mana would be like, and what a world without desians could be. he either stole a key card, or heard about the otherworldly gate, or the acting cardinal granted him the opportunity to glimpse it. and that was really what killed his hope for peaceful coexistence. 

when he saw things were actually worse in the in the flourishing world than they were in the declining world, he realized things would never be better for them. that was the moment he let go that just being good was enough to change people’s minds.

and that was also the moment he started carving a bloody path through every single person responsible for the atrocities he was seeing. magnius eventually joined him, along with a handful of other tethe’allan half-elves.

by the time he returned, in worse shape than he was when he left, with many more injuries and much less mobility, they weren’t even angry at him for going AWOL. they were celebrating his name.

1b. forcystus carried on with this during his tenure as a desian soldier. despite walking this awful path, he never let go of what he was doing this. if he saw an injustice he would fight it. this was such a common occurence that his commanding officers eventually just threw their hands up and promoted him, gave him his own squad, and let him do as he pleased. 

1c. while the chosen’s nora death was a tragedy and the result of renegades, the reason that the city was razed to the ground was because forcystus and magnius found out half-elves were being abused within the city walls. humans opted to believe it was the will of the summons rather than two incredibly pissed off twenty-somethings.

1d. 

1e. the dialogue regarding the seal on niflheim is translated oddly. in english if you bring kratos with you he states that “1000 years ago I sent the grand five cardinals to strengthen the seal” but in Japanese, it states that he notices that the seal was weakening 1000 years ago. but half-elf lifespans are only 1000 years at most so this makes no real sense. magnius and forcystus both strike me as very young.

what i propose is that resealing the book is something all cardinals have to do and is part of being appointed to the post. they are essentially replacing the seal of their predecessor, as either the predecessor has gone on to Derris Kharlan to be a creepy angel or has died horribly.

1f. as forcystus is the only cardinal who doesn’t recognize kratos, i believe that forcystus was promoted during the time kratos stepped down. at most he’s probably only been a cardinal for 70 years.

2. forcystus gets on well with most everyone. however, there is a growing rift between he and pronyma. this is partly due to her behavior in the demon book - and the fact that she likely created a pact with demons to boost her power so she’d win the leadership role - but is also just because forcystus thinks lowly of her leadership style, though he does respect how she’s able to keep them on task.

he isn’t keen on trying to usurp her, though. he obeys his orders. 

3. magnius really just wants to be the boss tho and forcystus supports his ambition like a good friend.

desian. grand cardinal.

1. his promotion took forever because he remained headstrong. however the reality of the world wore down his will to fight. this eventually settled into a desperation to just protect his people and be freed of the constant human threat.

1b. forcystus does not like to be called lord forcystus. he often gently corrects his soldiers, but they ignore him and insist that it just makes him more lordly.

he doesn’t keep fancy quarters. he has a single room in the same area the barracks are in. forcystus eats with his soldiers, knows all of them by name, asks after their children and spouses, etc, etc. 

when lloyd kills his soldiers he is furious. reclaiming the exsphere is what cruxis wants, but what forcystus wants is for lloyd to understand the lives he just took.

1c. he keeps his ranch plain. the fanciest thing he has is some accessibility options - elevators, additional benches, etc.  he is basically held together with glue and sheer determination at this point.

1d. forcystus hates magnius’ ranch and has gotten lost in it so many times that there’s a spot between the floors someone is instructed to check.

1e. forcystus’ eyesight is starting to weaken. he relies on his ability to sense/smell the aroma of mana to make up for it. he is likewise not doing so hot thanks to old internal injuries. 

he was appointed to iselia as he possesses a calm disposition and would be able to protect the main branch of the chosen family... but also because he is so beat to shit he couldn’t handle the constant attacks that come with trying to handle a big, bustling region like palmacoasta.

2. magnius was reluctant to leave his side when they were appointed. forcystus was equally as uneasy. however the two of them remained very close. magnius called him often. it was frequently very difficult to get him on the main line as they would have an open call while they did paperwork.

2b. forcystus and kvar have an unlikely, weird friendship. kvar is the one who made forcystus’ canon and the windstones he fights with.  kvar also thinks he’s a fucking idiot and forcystus thinks a weird snob. but kvar is the only one forcystus trusts to repair his equipment, and the only one he trusts with all his medical care.

2c. the grand cardinals have drinking parties. miyajima has stated repeatedly she laments having to cut that part of the book.

2c. forcystus realized before anyone else that magnius was dead. he just didn’t say anything because he didn’t want it to be true. he just kept trying to call him again, and again, and again, until pronyma came on the line to tell him magnius and kvar were both dead.

2c. half-elves tend to flock to the iselia region because he goes out of his way to make it safe for them, no matter who they are or where they hail from.

2d. forcytsus killing the renegades in his base drove him to his breaking point. he was not in his right mind. everything from the moment lloyd killed his men to the moment they showed up at his base was just his worst nightmares coming true.

the other cardinals were all dead. he had just stained his hands with the blood of men he had trusted. and then people came in telling him it was all for nothing? nah, he was mentally checked out.

3. though he is usually very calm and collected, sometimes he disassociates and will just go through the motions because something triggered a memory, or a feeling he simply can’t process. sometimes he has vivid flashbacks.  sometimes he has uncontrolled explosions of rage. 

and most everything he does stems from a place of deep fear and trauma. this does not excuse his actions nor how far he has gone to hurt humanity the way he was hurt but he truly believes that due to humans being the dominant species on aselia, there is no way half-elves will ever be safe there.

3b. his belief in yggdrasill is really best compared to someone worshipping a god. while not a psychologically weak man, he is an incredibly damaged man who was offered a cult at his darkest moment. cruxis and the lie of derris kharlan is all that kept him going some days, the thing that prevented him from being crushed by the enormity of the hatred for half-elves. unfortunately it’s also what causes much of the hatred towards half-elves to begin with - but given the discrimination and oppression that mithos and martel faced, he believes that hatred runs so deep it would exist no matter what cruxis did.

this is a man who no longer believes coexistence is possible and that humans are just waiting to turn on him.

 forcystus is loyal to the cause and fervently clinging to the idea that all of this wasn’t for nothing. by the end of the game it’s all he has left. 

3b. he is absolutely going to have a psychological breakdown when he realizes everything he did was for nothing. and all he was in the end he only ever did more damage to half-elves and their place on aselia, choosing to be a monster who abandoned all his morals, and hurting people for a lie. 

he’s staving it off right now but barely.

anyone from cruxis is welcome to know this information.

[princecupcakee]

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,320

Chapter: 3/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3)

Next Chapters: Chapter 4 (AO3)

Summary: Recently divorced and ‘incapable of love’, Eddie Kaspbrak moves to Los Angeles for work and a small, small hope of a fresh start. Broken up and never dated again, Richie Tozier tries to get back into love with help from his love of music. Quickly meeting eyes and one concert later, they think that maybe love isn’t that bad. So they try it one more time.

Chapter 3: Richie Tozier At The Movies, Eddie Kaspbrak With His Thoughts & Richie Tozier With His Guitar

Tags/Warnings: Angst / Unhappy Ending / theres only one sex scene but this is explicit anyway / Bisexual Richie Tozier / Gay Eddie Kaspbrak / Post-Divorce / Implied/Referenced Cheating / Inspired By Remembering Sunday (All Time Low) / Inspired by The Book Ninja by Ali Berg / Implied/Referenced Child Abuse / Implied/Referenced Abuse / Implied/Referenced Manipulation

Tag-list: @richietoaster​ , @s-s-georgie​ , @mikeuris​ , @gazebobullshit​ , @that-weird-girls-blog​ , @tozierking​ , @thoughtfullyyoungduck​ , @s-onora​ , @bellarosewrites​ , @lermanslogan​ , @ambitiousskychild​ , @ghostnebula​ , @vanillaredvelvet​ ,

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 3

Richie Tozier At The Movies

After bringing Eddie home that morning he set out for his next vinyl-date (the name was a work in progress) before going to his sister’s house. He tried to have his head in it, he did, but all throughout the car ride, he couldn’t think straight. He wondered how Eddie was, what he was doing on his day off. He couldn't think of anything even when he had already gotten there. He needed to focus, he wanted to, but he couldn’t stop his head from floating into the clouds.

So when he walked into the movie theatre, he knew he should’ve just stayed home. Alex looked amazing and Richie knew that, but that didn’t really help. They’d picked a new action movie that was heard to have a song from the record in its soundtrack. By that time, he had dropped over 30 records on the local subway, have gotten multiple emails from music lovers like himself, and gone on quite a few dates already. A few memorable ones were Will, a man from Hawkins getting over a lost love, had talked a little too much about said lost love. The two decided to stay as friends. After that was a date with Theo, a New Yorker in search of a painting and person. Similar to Will, in search of his lost love, they’ve decided to stay friends as well. Now, Alex, a writer from New York City who moved to LA two years ago in search of new love, had messaged him after he dropped, ‘Appetite For Destruction.’

“Hi! Richie, yeah?” Alex smiled at him, holding a bowl of popcorn and two drinks. Richie nodded as politely as he could as he thought, ‘why doesn’t Eddie have the same accent?’ “Cool,” Alex hummed, “lets go?” “Sure.”

Richie was glad they went to the movies. It was dark and loud, and your excuse to not pay attention to your date is staring intensely at the screen to look like your focused on it. So, for ninety long minutes, he plotted about the easiest ways to get out of this date. ‘I have a dentist’s appointment’ sounded a bit too rude and overdone to him, ‘I have to take care of my niece and nephew’ was true, but sounded pretty useless. From the 90 minutes, he was able to think up nothing. 

“That was a nice movie,” Alex began, smiling at Richie. “Yeah, it really was,” Richie smiled, “but, uh, see, I gotta run." “sure,” Alex waved, slightly annoyed. Richie turned around didn’t look back.

Richie sat in the backseat of his car, staring at its ceiling. He started this to find love, to move on from what happened with Connor, and breathe. But now its seems like a waste of time to him. He can’t even focus on a date without just leaving to sit around in his car. And for what reason? He didn’t even know. He’s getting all of the chances that he didn't get but he’s just throwing them away. He’s just leaving and wasting. Maybe he just doesn’t get that chance. Maybe he just shouldn’t.

He checks his phone for the time and squishes to the front of the car. He didn’t need the stereo, he needs something going for him, no matter how deafening. Drumming a steady beat on to the steering wheel, “Robert’s got a quick hand.” Finishing the first verse, he turns his keys and drives out of the space. “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,” he swayed his head side to side slightly driving over to Annie’s house.

Eddie Kaspbrak With His Thoughts

Eddie laid down on his bed checking the large, fancy clock hanging above his head, 2:30 PM. After the magnificent sunrise he witnessed with one, handsome, charming, funny, surprisingly smart Richie Tozier, he went home. Richie winked and said ‘wait’ after he brought Eddie back, and of course, that sent the shorter of the two in a bit of a craze.

He’d never felt this. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. It was strong and wouldn’t let him breathe and made his heart explode. When he laughed, when he sang, when he smiled, Eddie couldn’t keep his mind off Richie. It wasn’t like this with Myra. How could it have been? She was there, to keep him alive, not let him live. ~ “Eddie-bear, have you taken your pills yet? You know, you’re mother called me last week, reminding me that you have a seafood allergy, why did you never tell me about that? I’m your wife, Eddie. I’m supposed to know these things about you! What if you ate something that made you sick? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, Eddie! Do you want that? Do you want me to be in pain?” ~ But with Richie everything seemed, brighter. He never said anything Myra did, he never forced Eddie to do something he never wanted to do, he never put words into Eddie’s mouth. ‘It’s clearly too early though, I mean four days? Can you fall in love in four days?’ Eddie dropped his urge to Google that, not wanting to get up (or be disappointed if no, you couldn’t fall in love in four days.) He was never strong. Physically, emotionally, he had always lost. He was never brave. He was the one that sat on the sidelines, afraid to see what’ll happen. Afraid to listen to what he wants. Was that because of his mother, or Myra, or him? He never really wanted to find out.

Sonia was controlling, she watched Eddie’s every move, didn’t let him do anything. Sonia introduced the two, and Eddie thought he had to fall in love. When Eddie married Myra, he thought that maybe he would be slightly freer. He was very visibly wrong. She wasn’t any different from his mother. After 15 years of being married, he realized hoe abusive his mother was, how he didn’t want that marriage anymore, and how more appealing men are to women. He told Myra the night he filed their divorce, all she did was leave the room. She left the room to call his mother. ~ “Don’t you just love her, Eddie? She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s responsible, and she knows how to take care of you! You were such a mischievous child back then, when you played with that stuttering friend of yours, he was such a bad influence on you. Isn’t he… queer? I can’t even say the word. Disgusting. You shouldn’t have been friends with him, Eddie. Are you still friends with him? You must get him out of your life immediately, Eddie! I don’t want my Eddie-bear being like him.” ~ But what if he was in love? What if he was in love with a man? A man he’d only known for four days? Eddie sighed, fighting back tears. He didn’t need this. He shouldn’t be doing this.

He walked out of his room, feeling as if he can’t breathe there. But this is Los Angeles. This isn’t home. He walked down the long hallways heading down the stairs back to the library. Why had he come here? He didn’t know either or, he did, just didn’t want to say it. Eddie took a vinyl from the bottom of the shelf, ‘Never Trust A Happy Song’ in a small font above ‘Grouplove.’ He didn’t know any songs on it, but he figured anything would be better than being trapped in silence with his own memories.

He tried to mimic Richie’s moves from before, failing quite a few times. He winced at the loud sound of what seemed to be the end of a song. ‘Take me to your best friend's house, roll around this roundabout, oh yeah,’ played in the- Eddie really needed to Google what that thing was, ‘can you fall in love in four days?’ Rang in his head once again, forcing him to put his phone down and take a seat in the large chair before him.

He wondered what Richie was doing, why’d he had asked him to ‘wait’ and then leave. He wondered if maybe Richie had fallen in love before. If maybe Richie felt how he did. He wasn’t supposed to, that was sure, but he wanted to. He wanted to know the feeling of loving and being loved, maybe he had, maybe Myra was the feeling of loving and being loved. Or maybe it was Richie. Eddie wouldn’t know. He had hoped it would be Richie though. That made him smile, nothing like what he had gone through with Myra.

But it was also his fault. It may have done him good but it was still wrong. He may have needed it but that still wasn’t acceptable. He did do it. He wasn’t being responsible, he wasn’t being right. He did owe Myra something for what he did. He could’ve done it simpler, and not ruin his marriage in the most unnecessary way there was. He had to go to that bar, that night. ‘Somethings are too good to pass’ he tried to make a good excuse, but he knew it wouldn’t have worked. He was right.

But he didn’t owe Myra his life or his heart, he owed her an apology, a divorce, and something that would have been better for both of them. And what was better for both of them was leaving. It wasn’t exactly leaving New York, it was just leaving, no longer in each other’s lives and forget. Forgetting has always been much easier than actually facing your problems. Forgetting left things there, not having to see them anymore and not thinking. Forgetting meant, even for a little while, nothing can be any worse.

‘Don’t take me tongue tied, don’t wave no goodbye,’ He’d never heard this song before, but something about it made him feel like he did. Maybe, if he tried hard enough, something about it would make him feel like he knew himself, too.

Richie Tozier With His Guitar

He rang the doorbell, running to the side of the porch to not be seen. He crouched below the window and as if on cue, a little girl pushed the curtains away and looked out the window. “I know thats, you Richie!” A little girl said, opening her front door. “Aw, how’d you know that Maddie?” He said, ruffling her hair. “Mommy said you were coming,” she said putting her hands on her hips. “Just you and Walter today?” “Yup!” “Alright, go get your brother, I’ll be in the living room. Your mom’s gonna be calling any second now,” he said as he watched Maddison walk up the stairs and call her brother.

Richie walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, moving the guitar from his back to the floor. Just as he predicted, his sister rang the phone, “I’m already here Annie. They’re getting their guitars, we’re playing stuff today.” “Thanks, Rich. I owe you,” she sighed gratefully over the phone. “No problem. I missed these goblins anyway.” “Okay, thank you so much, I have to go. Mom’s gonna be there soon. Oh and tell Walter to help Maddie with her painting, she gets really unhappy when he doesn’t and-“ “I know this already, go.” “Thank you, Richie.” “Your my sister, its my job,” Richie laughed and put the phone down.

“We’re here!” Maddison smiled, brother in tow. “Hi uncle Richie,” Walter said softly, sitting by Richie’s feet with knees against his chest.

He was two years older than Maddison, the same age gap him and Annica had. Maddie was five while Walter was seven. The two were fairly opposite, Walter preferring to keep to himself while Maddie was outgoing and social. Outside of her sister, he raised them. Annie was a good mother, but being a single one, she didn’t have it any easy either. Her husband died less than three years ago from an accident. Thats why he came over more and took care of her kids more. It didn’t help that the whole problem with Connor rose in the time of this and him having a responsibility to not fuck up kids left him out of it for a while. Until he was just angry, he never took it out on anyone, that he made sure of, but he was just angry at love. Maddie and Walter were a help though, it made him forget. Forgetting is much easier than confronting, its like painting over graffiti like it was never there.

“What are we playing today?” Maddie asked, leaning her head to the side exaggeratedly. “What’s a song you guys want?” Richie asked looking back and forth between the two. Walter stood up, walking to the small shelf that sat by the TV. He walked back with a cassette tape in hand. A paper was stuck on to the tape, and in small letters and font, ‘Tongue Tied - Grouplove’ written on it. Richie smiled kindly at him, “How do you know this song?” He simply shrugged and urged him to take the tape. “Lets play it then,” Richie nodded while picking up his guitar. Walter held breath to say something, Richie having to give him permission before he did. “I already know the beginning. C-could you teach me the middle?” “Which part?” “After the second chorus.” “Sure. Anyone wanna sing?” “Can I sing with you? Like, you're gonna sing and I’m gonna sing too, both of us sing!” Maddie said excitedly with big hand gestures (Richie wondered if part of that was his doing. He assumed that it probably was.) Richie nodded, “one two three four,” G. “Don’t take me tongue tied,” G. Then, C. “let’s stay up all night,” He sang with Maddie. “I'll get real high.” Richie sang as Maddie shook her head. Despite Richie’s smile, a dark room, broken glass, smoke, tears, screaming, flood his head. ‘Fuck! Can’t I do anything right?’ He cried that night. “Slumber party, pillow fight,” The two sung in harmony again, “My eyes and your eyes, Like Peter Pan up in the sky,” Maddie sang bringing her hand up above her head to mimic Peter Pan flying. Walter and Richie laughed. “My best friend's house tonight,” Richie sang. ‘Stan? You there? Look, I-I need a place to stay. I’ll tell you about it when I’m there. Yeah… yeah, Th-thanks.’ “Let's bump the beats till beddy-bye,” Richie smiled, despite fighting back tears. ‘Connor. Connor. Connor.’ He thought. “Don’t take me tongue tied,” Richie sang. ‘Eddie. Eddie. Eddie.’ He thought, the tears behind his eyes, drying away, “Don't wave no goodbye.”

By the time they had sung three songs, Maggie and Wentworth were already at the door. He said his goodbyes and walked back to his car. Hearing the first song back again in his head, his breathing sped. He threw his head back and whispered to himself, “Breathe, Richie. breathe.” He thought about how uncomfortable and disgusted Connor looked when he got down on one knee. He remembered how Connor screamed at him, how Connor mocked him for thinking that he actually loved Richie the way Richie did for him. ‘Please.’ ~ “What? What the fuck?” Richie thought he was just surprised. “Dude, gross. I wouldn’t marry a man. That’s fucking gross. Look, man. I have a girlfriend, we aren’t fucking together. Thats so fucking weird.” “but I- I thought-“ “Thought what? That we were together? Fucking gross. Get out.” ~ Richie turned on his stereo. Anything is better than this. He didn’t need to cry, he didn’t need to listen to whatever the fuck was going on in his head. He doesn’t need to stay, he can leave.’ Please, don't let me down,’ the radio played loudly. Richie thought it was weird, songs like these weren’t on the radio, but he sang along anyway. “Please, don't let me down, You better come around,” he softly sang against the loud radio. He never liked his voice much. He used it for comedy, for words he didn’t want to say. He didn’t know how to describe it, but he felt as if he just shouldn’t sing, he sounded better doing impressions anyway. Although some people like it, like Walter and Maddie, he wondered if Eddie liked it too. “You save yourself, I'll save myself each time around,” he sang louder, trying to catch what his voice sounded like. ~ “Stan? You there? Look, I-I need a place to stay. I’ll tell you about it when I’m there.” “You can always stay here Richie. Don’t worry,” Stan sounded like he already knew. Richie guessed everybody saw it coming. “Yeah… yeah, Th-thanks.’ Richie tried not to break into tears. ~ He was going to go drive to Eddie. He was horrified, but he was gonna go to Eddie. As much as he would hate to admit it, he needed him. Needing Eddie to love him, thats debatable but needing for Eddie to be around him, he knew he really did need it. He hoped maybe Eddie needed him too. “You save yourself, I'll save you too next time around,” he sang. When Eddie smiled up at him he didn’t know if he could breathe. It was never like this with Connor. With Connor he always wondered who the woman that left their apartment was, with Connor, he always got shouted at and argued with. With Eddie, he smiled, his heart raced, his stomach churned and it was never like it was with Connor. “I'm not around, I haven't been here for a while,” he sang, the electric feeling coursing through his veins.

“You know I'll never be back now,” He shouldn’t break his own heart. Connor’s gone. He’s not coming back, and Richie’s thankful for that. With Connor gone, maybe someone else will stay. Maybe Eddie will. Richie smiled at the thought of it.

He ignored the nagging feeling of possibly not being loved back— again.

[thehollowprince]

1/2 complete fabrications made up by fanon to make a character same more likeable or relatable or to simply usurp Scott’s role as the titular hero, the Teen Wolf // Unlike Scott Stans, Stiles & Derek fans don’t need to erase canon or rewrite our favs as a completely different characters than they are in the actual show in order to make them more likable or relatable: they already are. So much that even ur whiny, bitter, OBSESSED fav Posey keeps gushing all over Stiles and Dylan O’Brien’s acting

2/2 completely unprompted and openly admitted that he wanted to play Derek because he was jealous of Sterek/Hobrien and desperately wanted Teen Wolf fans to ship Stiles with HIS character Scott instead. So yeah: if you think that Teen Wolf fans and viewers are ‘racist’ for preferring objectively talented actors and unique fictional characters to your bland, whiny, boring, toxic, irrelevant fav Tyler Posey/Scott McCall, then Tyler Posey must be the racist of them all. 🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽

I worry about you, I really do. It can't be healthy for your mind to be this obsessed with how other people view 1: a fiction character, and 2: an actor you've never met and probably will never meet.

Like, are you okay? Seriously?

Because if you actually watched the show there's no way you can write all of those things and not understand how racist your being by going out of your way to remove any kind of context just so that you can paint the brown boy as a horrible, evil person. A brown boy you later go on to describe as bland and boring. I mean, which is it? He's either evil or he's boring? I'm getting mixed signals here.

I mean, the very thought that Stiles and Derek fans don't erase canon and rewrite it to makes them look better is so laughable that I'm actually kind of nauseous. I really do wonder what fandom you interacted with, because it wasn't the Teen Wolf fandom that I saw on Tumblr.

Tyler liking Dylan's acting isn't news to anyone. They were best friends both on screen and off. Do you not support your friends?

Althoughthat does bring us to the weird part of these asks. I'm seriously confused as to where and why Hoechlin and O'Brien came into this "conversation"? I never mentioned them. But this all just goes to further prove that you seem to have this mindset that if anyone likes Scott/Posey, then obviously they must hate Stiles/O'Brien and Derek/Hoechlin. That's not how that works. I can like Tyler Posey and Scott McCall without it reflecting negatively on the other two.

You do understand that, right? Please tell me you understand that?

I actually really like Hoechlin, and since we're speaking objectively, I can say with all honesty that I don't think that O'Brien is all that and a bag of potato chips the way some of you do.

As for all your other bullshit, please supply me with links to where Posey said all this stuff about wanting to play Derek and get in on Sterek, because I don't remember anything like that happening. I remember him dissing Sterek (in a way too polite for some of you) because he got tired of being constantly harassed by fans over a crack ship.

But we've already gone round and round on that one, so well just slide right past that and address your accusations against Scott's character.

We recognize that it was extremely OOC for Scott to do so we turn to canon to try and find some reasoning behind that move within the context of the story. Otherwise, such an incident doesn’t make any sense / Scott assaulting someone out of jealousy is neither OOC nor an isolated accident, though. Canon Scott McCall repeatedly assaulted Jackson over Allison, violated a rape victim’s boundaries, bodily autonomy and consent, mind-raped Corey, used Hayden as bait against without her consent, etc...

Scott threw down with Jackson when the latter was physically/sexually assaulting Allison at the time. Or did you block that out of your mind? Yes, it was actually what's-his-name that was controlling Jackson, but Scott didn't know who it was at the time. Should he have just let Jackson-not-Jackson continue? No, because then you'd be hear telling me how Scott did nothing while his girlfriend was assaulted.

You people really are a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". You are fully committed to twisting anything and everything Scott ever did paint him in a negative light.

I honestly don't know which "rape victim" you're referring to, but here's a better analysis of what Scott did to Corey which is better than anything I could come up with. Full credit to @princeescaluswords

Per the Hayden thing, where was this outrage when Stiles stole a police vehicle to hold a kidnapped Jackson in? When he killed Donovan? When he illegally made copy keycards for the police station despite knowing it could cost his dad his job? The time he purposely got his father drunk so that he could find out more about a murder case that he had no right to? How about the fact that he knew Lydia's body size without ever having really talked to her before? What about him trusting Theo? What about him assaulting Scott after he had literally died?

What about Derek taking advantage of three emotionally compromised teenagers in order to build up his own strength and then pretty much abandoning them when they didn't worship him as alpha? What about him physically assaulting a bunch of teenagers more than once?

I'm not making these up. They're all there if you actually watched the show.

All of these characters have done morally questionable things throughout the course of the show to beat the bad guys, but for some reason its only the brown boy that's being held to such a ridiculously high standard.

Hmmm? I wonder why that is? 🤔

Does it explain why Scott threw Isaac? No. There is no excuse for what Scott did, but the ritual that awoke the Nemeton does offer an explanation. And see, that’s the difference between you and me, in that I understand the difference between an explanation and an excuse / Your fabricated and already debunked “the Nemeton made him do it!” crap sounds an awful lot like an excuse for Scott’s canonical shitty actions and violent behavior tbh. Even Posey said that Scott abused Isaac out of jealousy

I really don't have time to again explain to you the difference between an explanation and an excuse. I've never excused what Scott did to Isaac. It's actually one of the few times I didnt like him, which is why I looked for any reason as to explain that reaction. It's not perfect, but it is plausible.

The funniest thing about all of these to me is that you are very clearly a Sterek shipper who worships those two characters and tears down Scott in an attempt to boost them up, but in canon, Stiles and Derek were two of Scott's biggest supporters/cheerleaders. So, y'know, sleep well knowing the characters you love were big fans of a character you hate.

I mean, that's so sweet it has to be fattening.

[merrysithmas]

You may have already answered this, if so I'm sorry, but if Boris was ok with Kotaku having another bf cause it was less 'serious' for him, then why did he beat her up? I'm not gonna lie, it made me really uncomfortable, and even Theo was surprised. I was just not expecting that, and then it's like never brought up again? Idk

I think Boris hits Kotku because he grew up tying violence to emotionality, he was beaten himself continually until he began to associate love with abuse, and also because he fears losing her because it will assert that he is not "man" enough to keep her (a maladaptive thought process indoctrinated into him by his father, the miner culture, internalized homophobia, toxic misogynistic conservative cultural norms, and toxic masculinity).

Boris often hits Theo when he is confronted with sexually or romantically charged situations, and Theo who is in somewhat of the same boat gamely joins in. Hitting Kotku however was out of emotional fear (fear of reprisal in his reputation or fear she might say something about him to others or fear of self-loathing), not physical or emotional repression of something ultimately good (his attraction to Theo). Which is why as readers one startles and offends us (Kotku), and the other (with Theo) we can excuse.

When he hits Kotku he reverts to his father's abusive teaching -- beating is a way to control the people you say you love. It's just "part of love" as far as abused Boris knows.

Yet, Boris is EXTREMELY ashamed of himself for treating Kotku so badly, even weeks later, which Theo notes. Boris' behavior isn't forgivable but through the lens of fiction we understand why he has those indoctrinated behaviors especially when it threatens his masculinity. Boris' intense remorse for hitting her also suggests that unlike his father Boris retains self-analysis and although he was taught abusive behavior he is intelligent enough to understand it is bad and he doesn't understand why he did it, he doesn't want to do it. I.e., he is a child and there is still hope for change and freedom from that abusive cycle of violence which is often inherited.

It is likely Theo's caretaking and love influenced Boris to realize what actual affection and reliability and connection and home was. Not what Vladimir taught him and what he was regurgitating with Kotku. This is one of the reasons Boris asserts at the end of the book that knowing Theo likely saved his life. He doesn't just mean knowing him saved him from OD'ing or gave him company when he was desperately lonely -- knowing Theo and Theo's affection put a tack in the tire of his maladaptive learned behaviors as a teen and allowed him to stop in his tracks and see a new world of possibilities and reflect on his actions as a choice not an automatic reflex.

Theo, despite their mutual adolescent hedonism, helped save him emotionally and morally. Tragically Kotku will likely suffer the damages of domestic abuse forever. Boris has the ability to change (and does - at the end of the novel he points out he would never hit women or children). The book is a means through which to see the tragedy of child neglect and what damages it does in different ways to diff kinds of kids. Through fiction we see their decisions and postulate how to save all of them from people like Vladimir, Larry, Kotku's impoverished situation, and relationships with damaged young boys like Boris.

[borispav]

Why do you love Boris so much? He's extremely abusive

I knew I’d get an ask like this sooner or later bc this is tumblr and y’all are just oh so predictable. 

But anyway.

I’m going to preface this by reminding everyone that no one is required to like or dislike a certain character. You can hate or love whoever you want, as long as you’re not chasing other people down and lecturing them about how they’re ‘not allowed’ to enjoy a fictional character for whatever reason. 

Yeah, Boris has done some really shitty things, things that shouldn’t be condoned or excused or glossed over. However, you can love a flawed character without ignoring or denying their faults. I don’t support some of the stuff he’s done, no, but those things don’t completely obliterate his character for me. This is because- while I don’t think those things are okay- I do understand why he did them, which saves the bridge of emotional connection from being burned down completely. Boris is extremely well-written. He’s complex, layered, thoroughly fleshed out, and most importantly: realistic. If he wasn’t any of these things than yeah, I would find it hard to like someone who acts out in such erratic and extreme ways. However, Donna gives us context, background, and exposition so that we can make our own judgements and come to our own conclusions. We know that Boris had an extremely abusive father, we know that he grew up fairly isolated from other people, and that he was constantly in and out of school. He never had a stable, well meaning, adult figure in his life, and he also grew up thinking that people deserve to be hit, because this was literally all he knew.

None of this excuses him hitting Kotku, and yeah, if that was where you drew the line with him then that’s okay, to each their own. The reason why I, personally, continued to love him is because I don’t think his mistakes define his character. And I don’t think that one negative aspect of a person should be the sole element of focus when determining if they’re deserving of love or not. I’ve said this before in another post but i’ll say it again, in real life there are morally grey people. Nothing is clean cut/black and white. Everyone has a bit of good in them and a bit of bad, so it’s unfair to completely write someone off based on one part of their personality, especially if they’ve proven that they are actually good people at heart. 

Boris, when you get down to it, is one of these people. He had his problems yeah (mostly when he was younger) but he really wasn’t ever purposefully malicious. He was violent because he was taught that violence is natural and acceptable, not because he knew it was wrong and still made the conscious choice to do it anyway. Again, while his trauma doesn’t excuse anything, you still can’t completely discount it either. It’s not like he was some privileged kid who had the means of understanding all the consequences of his actions. It’s important not to feed into the “cancelled” and “problematic” culture that permeates this website. Real life people do not-so-great things, but this doesn’t always mean that they should be completely condemned or seen as inherently bad people. Boris fucked up a few times, but he’s still an incredibly loving and kind person. He shared everything he had with Theo (even when he had close to nothing), he was forgiving and amicable to almost everyone in his life (even if they’d done deplorable things to him) and he was ready to give his life in order to right a wrong he made all the way back when he was only a child (stealing the painting from Theo). 

There are a billion other little parts of him that are so immensely rich in goodwill and benevolence, and they just can’t be forgotten about or overshadowed by his mistakes. He’s much more than the bad things that have happened to him, or the bad things he’s done. 

[your-dietician]

MLB & the Dodgers needlessly delayed an obvious Trevor Bauer decision

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/mlb/mlb-the-dodgers-needlessly-delayed-an-obvious-trevor-bauer-decision/

MLB & the Dodgers needlessly delayed an obvious Trevor Bauer decision

Trevor Bauer is not starting for the Dodgers on Sunday. That was the obvious decision from the moment a temporary restraining order against the pitcher was filed on Tuesday, and even more so when the graphic and disturbing details were revealed on Wednesday. That the decision for Bauer not to pitch didn’t come until Friday is the infuriating part, emblematic of a sport that pays lip service to caring about women but always seems slow to demonstrate this support in practice.

Major League Baseball placed Bauer on paid administrative leave on Friday, the mechanism by which Bauer is removed from the roster for seven days while an investigation is ongoing. MLB can extend the administrative leave, which is not yet considered discipline (but can later be applied as time served against a future suspension), by asking the Players Association for a seven-day extension.

Since the joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy was instituted in 2015, seven players before Bauer were first placed on administrative leave. Five had their administrative leave extended at least once, agreed to by the MLBPA as an investigation was ongoing.

A sixth — Jose Reyes in 2016 — had his leave converted to a paid suspension until the completion of his legal proceedings. The collective bargaining agreement gives the commissioner the power to do this if he feels that “allowing the Player to play during the pendency of the criminal or legal proceeding would result in substantial and irreparable harm to either the Club or Major League Baseball.”

MLB in-season domestic violence investigations

Since the start of the Joint Domestic   Violence , Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy, agreed to by MLB and the MLBPA, started on August 21, 2015.

Bauer’s hearing to respond to the restraining order is July 23, so it’s reasonable that his administrative leave could last until at least then.

Reyes had already been arrested in Hawaii and had a trial date set for April when he was placed on paid suspension five years ago. Charges were eventually dropped because Reyes’ wife did not cooperate with prosecutors. To date, Bauer has not yet been arrested or charged by the Pasadena police, though an investigation remains ongoing, and per Bob Nightengale at USA Today, is increasing in scope:

“We were looking into some things and we thought we were nearing the end,’’ Lt. Carolyn Gordon, who is overseeing the investigation, told USA TODAY Sports Friday. “We are not close to the end.

“This investigation is bigger than we thought. So we have to look a few more places. We want to try to uncover as much stuff as we can.’’

Gordon said the police department has received new leads in the investigation that began about six weeks ago.

The restraining order obtained filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, as described by Katie Strang and Brittany Ghiroli at The Athletic, as well as Jeff Passan and Alden Gonzalez at ESPN, detailed sexual encounters with Bauer on April 21 and May 16:

On May 17, the day after the alleged assault, the woman went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with “acute head injury” and “assault by manual strangulation.” San Diego police spoke with her. The woman said she “attempted to downplay what occurred out of concern for my privacy and what my statements might lead to.” She told police she didn’t want to file charges.

Bauer’s representatives sent along screenshots of texts between Bauer and the woman who filed the restraining order, along with a statement from one of Bauer’s agents, Jon Fetterolf, which includes, “We have messages that show [the woman] repeatedly asking for ‘rough’ sexual encounters involving requests to be ‘choked out’ and slapped in the face. In both of their encounters, [the woman] drove from San Diego to Mr. Bauer’s residence in Pasadena, Calif. where she went on to dictate what she wanted from him sexually and he did what was asked.”

At Beyond the Box Score, Sheryl Ring outlined the legalities of consent, specifically how it relates to Bauer:

With this background, you probably now see what the problem is with the text messages released by Bauer’s team…and why they haven’t yet used them in a court proceeding. First, the messages essentially confirm that some sort of encounter occurred and that violence was involved. Second, they do not, in and of themselves, constitute consent for either encounter; at best, they constitute ratification of the first encounter only. Flirtation, in and of itself, is never consent. Third, nowhere do the messages mention punches or concussions, which means that even if Bauer’s victim consented to rough sex and choking, those messages don’t excuse the concussive blows. And fourth, Bauer admitted to performing sex acts on his victim without her knowledge whilst she was unconscious, and she cannot legally consent to those acts.

Bauer hasn’t yet been charged with a crime. It doesn’t mean he won’t be, and it certainly doesn’t mean he won’t be suspended by MLB. The seven previous players who were placed on administrative leave were all suspended, for an average of 62 games. The fewest was 20 games for Julio Urías in 2019, who spent the minimum of seven days on administrative leave after getting arrested on suspicion of domestic battery for reportedly shoving his girlfriend in a parking lot.

From Jorge Castillo at the Los Angeles Times in August 2019:

In June, city prosecutors announced they would not file charges against Urias and no action would be taken in connection with the report, as long as he is not arrested again for violent criminal behavior in the next year and he participated in a 52-week domestic violence counseling program in person.

Which brings us back to the timing of all this.

Of the six MLB domestic violence suspensions in which the incidents took place in season, five players were placed on administrative leave within 24 hours of either the incident itself or news of the incident. Domingo German’s incident in question came on September 16, 2019, but pitched two days later for the Yankees, who said they didn’t know about the incident until he was placed on administrative leave on September 19.

With Bauer, the restraining order was filed on Tuesday. Even if MLB and the Dodgers didn’t know of the severity right away, those details were widely reported on Wednesday.

But we had to go through the charade on Thursday, before the Dodgers’ series opener in Washington D.C., during which manager Dave Roberts said that Bauer was going to start on Sunday and that the team was simply following the direction of MLB.

“Regardless of what the organization wanted to do, this is what has to happen,” Roberts said. “It’s out of our hands.”

While technically true that the CBA gives the commissioner sole authority to impose discipline for violations of the domestic violence policy, there’s also the common sense of not wanting a player who is accused of felony assault to represent your team right now.

The Dodgers have made roster moves with ulterior motives before.

Ross Stripling was sent to Arizona for a month while on the minor league injured list for “lower body fatigue” in 2016, which was really just to limit his innings not yet two years removed from Tommy John surgery.

Walker Buehler was optioned during the All-Star break in 2018, which just so happened to deny him enough service time to fall four days shy of a full year, which assured he’ll be a free agent after 2024 instead of 2023. “It’s workload, it’s roster management,” Roberts said at the time.

The Dodgers could have sat Bauer themselves by saying the decision was related to the long-term health of the roster. But please spare us the line, “It’s out of our hands.” That was insulting, and it’s ridiculous Roberts was even in the position of having to say it.

MLB might not have been too concerned about acting promptly, perhaps wanting to wait until the morning of Bauer’s start, to start the seven-day clock as late as possible. Maybe their timeline was accelerated by the terrible optics — and resulting bad press — of having Roberts go through the motions, not realizing the harm it inflicted.

Or maybe the league didn’t care.

This is an industry that saw Jared Porter rise through the executive ranks, receiving nothing but glowing reports about what a great guy he was. Only to have it all come crashing down within days after being named general manager of the Mets, for sending unsolicited, lewd texts to a female reporter years earlier. When Hannah Keyser at Yahoo Sports asked Mets president Sandy Alderson how many women were interviewed about Porter’s character before getting hired as GM, he said none.

MLB is an institution in which Mickey Callaway’s lewd behavior to women was called, in a report from The Athletic, “the worst-kept secret in sports.” Yet he was hired by the Mets and Angels after his time in Cleveland despite this reportedly notorious past, before getting suspended this year.

Callaway and Porter were both placed on MLB’s ineligible list through at least 2022, but they are by no means alone. MLB as an industry has fostered this abhorrent behavior towards and treatment of women for decades.

When Addison Russell was placed on administrative leave by the Cubs in September 2019, that same day, as chronicled by Sara Sanchez at Bleed Cubbie Blue, owner Tom Ricketts and president of baseball operations Theo Epstein answered questions from the media.

On Friday, with Dodgers team owners, team CEO and president Stan Kasten, and head of baseball operations Andrew Friedman all in Washington D.C. to visit the White House for winning the 2020 World Series, only Kasten spoke to reporters.

Kasten said some substantive things, including, per Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register, “We’ll have things to say about questions like that when this is over. But it isn’t over, and to say anything while it’s ongoing would not be proper. I don’t want to do that.”

But it was this, in Dylan Hernandez’s column at the Los Angeles Times, that is enraging:

While Kasten offered lip service about being “mindful” and “sensitive” to the opinions others have on Bauer’s situation, he sounded as if he failed to grasp the seriousness of the problem.

He greeted reporters on Friday by joking about the advice he offered manager Dave Roberts the previous day before his daily pregame videoconference.

“I told him, ‘They’re going to talk about Trevor Bauer,’” Kasten said. “Just say, “Can we please talk about foreign substances?””

He laughed.

As an organization, you can’t puff out your chest after backing out of a deal for Aroldis Chapman in December 2015 after news of his domestic violence — for which he was later suspended for 30 games — came to light; and you can’t boast about how acquiring someone like Roberto Osuna, as his 75-game suspension was ending, was not for you, only to turn your head now.

When the Dodgers signed Bauer to a three-year, $102 million contract in February, a good chunk of the introductory press conference featured questions about Bauer’s past online harassment of women — I talked about this at the time on two different podcasts — which persisted mostly because he kept giving non-substantive answers.

“There’s some stuff that’s more public with Trevor that definitely was something that we wanted to dig into. We had multiple conversations with Trevor. Stan and I talked to Trevor,” Friedman said on February 11. “From our standpoint, it was important to have that conversation. We came away from it feeling good about it. Obviously, time will tell, but I feel like he is going to be a tremendous add, not just on the field, but in the clubhouse in the community. That’s obviously why we’re sitting here.”

The Dodgers bet heavily that Bauer’s pitching would outweigh all the baggage. Right now those odds aren’t looking so good.

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[demonzdust]

Was there ever any confirmation about the details of Theo's backstory? Like, was it ever specified when the Doctors first approached him? Or whether he was an active participant in his sister's death or a passive observer? Anything about what happened to his parents or what happened to him between the time he vanished out of Beacon Hills to the time he showed back up? It's hard to get a read when so much is either unknown or from unreliable and/or conflicting sources in cannon.

Unfortunately, the answer to all of these questions is no. We stop learning about Theo’s backstory in S5.

Speculating and theorizing about all of the questions you’ve just asked is basically the focus of my Teen Wolf fandom existence since 5A aired.

It’s kind of disappointing that we don’t know, but at the same time, it allows for interesting opportunities to create fan works about Theo because you’re not tied to anything definite.

I think there are a ton of clues to what might have happened in the show, specifically in Theo and the Dread Doctor’s actions.

For instance, it would be fairly safe to assume that Theo’s early experiences with them likely mimicked the experiences of the other chimeras. That he was probably buried underground at some point, etc.

We also know that he probably wasn’t all that innocent before the Dread Doctors came into his life because the Surgeon tells Theo that he could never be a True Evil because he was never Truly Good.

Could the surgeon have been saying that just to fuck with him? Possibly.

But I think most likely Theo was a kid with the potential to become psychopathic, that they then groomed into what they wanted him to be.

We know that Theo had to be young when they first came into his life (couldn’t have been older than when he killed his sister). We also know that the Dread Doctors can meddle with children unbeknownst to people around them. We know that they targeted Theo at a young age.

That doesn’t exactly have the makings of a happy childhood.

At the very least, it’s probably okay to assume that Theo had the deck stacked very much against him.

He was an eight year old child (or younger) at the mercy of terrifying supernatural beings who made him into their experiment.

That doesn’t excuse any of his later actions, but I think it’s something about Theo that people often overlook.

He most definitely was a victim of (more than likely prolonged) abuse at a very young age.

The “Did he kill Tara?” question is harder to answer, I’ve got some theories but that’s probably a longer post.

Personally I like to imagine the details of all of the above eventually come out during long intimate post-redemption conversations with Beacon Hills resident True Alpha. XD

(Send me Teen Wolf Asks)

[kimtotes]

Sutter started to post the TikTok scenes on Ig and I’m actually dying because he picked a super sad video of J/T in 6.13,like from an obviously J/T shipper🤣I honestly wasn’t expecting that,he picked a Jax video and two from the Mayans,but not Gemma👀🤣I can’t wait for Theo and Kim to do the next episodes,but some people are already getting on my nerves kinda excusing Kohn and acting as if he wasn’t that bad🙄some people really live in an AU where Kohn was just a weirdo,Gemma was a great selfless mom and Wendy was a lovely girl and the perfect match for Jax,but Tara was just a malicious bitch,thank goodness Theo and Kim know the drill🥰Kim knows what’s gonna happen and calls him agent douchebag🤣I love when he was like it’s not gonna end well for him lol and my Theo pointing how Tara was hiding it from Jax,like she didn’t want to get him involves at first🙄I hope haters stopped twisting Tara’s motives and actions😓Please🤣Theo called Luann,LuLu🤣I love him❤️lol

I watched it and it was so sad 😭!! Say something is definitely a J/T song and I think of them whenever I hear it, it’s brings on the sad otp feels 😩. I’m shocked that he picked a J/T vid! Lol he proved me wrong, not one of the first round of vids were of Gemma or Opie 😂. Kim and Theo are gonna go off during these eps, they already can’t stand Kohn! I’m so excited, I’ve been looking forward to these eps too! I am honestly so alarmed by people who downplay how horrible Kohn was! A few anons have already said that they’ve seen haters shitting in Tara for kind of overreacting with Kohn, like did they not see the same eps I did 🤨?? They’ll excuse some of his behavior because he didn’t rape her, like are you fucking kidding me?? He was an abusive stalker who almost raped her in the Push and there’s also a strong possibility that he may have raped her in Chicago, or at least things may have almost went there like they did in Charming. That’s just sickening to me 🤢. Also stalking alone is a serious crime, the man followed her across the country?? People need to take that type of stuff seriously and it honestly makes me wonder what they’re like in the real world 😳. Seriously!! I’m so glad Theo and Kim are on the good side of the fanbase! I can’t wait to hear what they have to say in the next few eps, they already hate Kohn 🙌. I know they’re probably gonna really get into in the Push since that’s probably the biggest arc in that episode, I’m so ready for the Tara/Maggie praise that I’m sure we’ll get! I couldn’t stop laughing when he called her Lulu 🤣