#they might not even clock the outright abuse

[3amferaltrashdemon]

I see this and I raise you:

YES Alfred would absolutely be an enabler in such a situation with no excuse for why he didn't step in, but how you portray him depends on the narrative voice.

An outsider would see Alfred as a bad person but it's important to understand that not all victims hate their abuser and that's what often traps them in the toxic cycle for so long. In situations where Bruce is portrayed as an abuser, the batfam may initially or continually try to rationalise his bad behaviour, leading to an unreliable narrator where the kids don't identify that what is happening is abuse.

It is also important to acknowledge that victims often don't see enablers as people who did anything wrong and may bond with them on a familial level, often seeing them as a source of comfort- someone who brought them tea and an ice pack and soothing platitudes after something goes wrong. In this situation Alfred could be portrayed as a 'good guy' even if the audience can acknowledge that he was not a responsible adult. You can be part of a dysfunctional family unit and be beloved simply because you are the lesser of two evils.

In other situations, it could be written as 'Alfred is oblivious (sometimes willfully, sometimes not) and therefore can not be held responsible for Bruce's actions' which would still put him firmly on the side of should not be taking care of children, but would definitely mean that the kids are less likely to hate him.

The third (and arguably the worst) depiction of Good!Alfred Bad!Bruce is that the kids see that Alfred considers Bruce a son and also consider Alfred stepping in as making him chose between his son and his grandchildren. This is my least favorite justification because it involves the kids

A: acknowledging the abuse

B: acknowledging that Alfred is in a position to step in. And

C: Being okay with Alfred choosing neutral ground/Bruce over stepping in for his grandchildren.

Which would logically and emotionally be the least likely and would spark the most hatred/discontent from the kids.

I think the best way writers who don't want to write Bad!Alfred deal with it is just to very sparingly portray him and let readers draw their own conclusions.

Pssst...hey... Alfred can't be "good" if Bruce is "bad"

If Bruce is written as abusive and obsessed with "the mission," then logistically, ya gotta write Alfred as an enabler/accessory to the abuse.

It is impossible for Alfred to be there throughout all Robins, be first witness for multiple years with multiple children "suffering" and still have the kids be like: "Oh well, Alfred is still an angel, though." They would've known he hadn't helped them.

Imagine a building is on fire, and someone just stands there and watches it. They didn't start it, but they also don't try to put it out. They don't help anyone get out. They don't even bother calling for help. Yet, they still get a medal for their bravery??

There would only be 2 ways that Alfred could be seen as a "loving grandfather" if he

1. Outright stops Bruce by confronting him directly or getting the kids out from the first sign of abuse.

2. If Bruce is at least a somewhat decent father. Sure, he can make mistakes, and he can fumble sometimes. But Bruce can not be actively harmful to the kids for years without Alfred being aware and choosing to leave the kids to fend for themselves.

Alfred would have to be written as a non questions asked, 100% dedicated to only a "True Wanye" kind of butler. He would have to see the kids as not real Wayne's to allow an abusive Bruce to continuously harm them. The kids would know this and hate BOTH of them.

[renthony]

i respect you very much, and I don't want to argue with you, but I have to ask: how does me asking for an endocrine diagnosis in order to get access to the meds that are saving my life affect you in any way?

Me, personally? It doesn't. I don't know you.

But as an intersex person, it deeply concerns me at how often I see perisex trans people tell each other, "oh, see if you can get your records changed to say you have some kind of endocrine/hormonal disorder," because it will not make you safer. It will not protect you. Maybe it'll work out because you have an incredibly chill doctor who actually cares, but there is every chance it will backfire on you.

There is every chance it will open you up to even more scrutiny, medical manipulation, and outright bigotry. There is every possibility that at some point down the line, your attempt to avoid transphobia will open you up to more medical manipulation and abuse.

As many times as I've seen "try to get your records changed to show an endocrine disorder," I almost never see people talking about the ways it can fuck you over. I rarely see perisex people talking about the ways the current US administration and the culture wars are hurting intersex people, too. While a lot of intersex people get forced on HRT, there are also plenty of intersex people getting denied the HRT they do want, under the exact same horseshit that trans people are. Using "endocrine disorder" as a loophole might not even work.

Personally, I am currently avoiding going to see my doctor out of fear that I will be coerced onto estrogen, which I do not want. Every time I go to the doctor, no matter what it's for, I have to deal with doctors trying to steer the conversation into "correcting" my body, in ways I have already told them I do not want.

I have a massive issue with the way I see perisex trans people use intersex people as a rhetorical device or as a shield, without having any understanding of intersex experiences. I see posts outraged about how "easy" it is for "cis kids with disorders" to get the HRT they want, when the reality is that those are intersex kids who are often forced into medical "correction" they don't need. I see posts telling trans people who get clocked to "say you have a hormone imbalance," as if that will help in the slightest. It's ignorant and potentially incredibly dangerous.

My problem is not that you're taking something away from me. My problem is that it potentially opens you up to another form of bigotry, and the fact that so many trans people are passing it around as great advice with no caveats is yet another way intersexism isn't being taken seriously.

Do it if it works for you. But be aware that it might backfire on you horribly, because medical intersexism is alive and well. It is not an easy loophole that will solve all your problems. It will not keep you safe forever, and it might not keep you safe at all.

[flightfoot]

Honestly, overall, I think most of the criticism towards Marinette for her lies and secrets surrounding Gabriel's identity and Sentidrien have at least been relatively on-target. I think some of them have been overly pessimistic towards her, but it hasn't been insane, and it's at least been about things she actually did.

Like, try comparing it to the reaction with Chameleon salt, especially towards Alya. (Yes I'm still bitter about that. I might have stopped being bitter IF IT WASN'T STILL A SUPER POPULAR FREAKING GENRE UNTO ITSELF).

Most of the saltfic scenarios and criticism towards Alya for her actions in Chameleon have been based on "what-ifs" such as "what if she fell for Lila's lies so thoroughly that she believed any nasty thing Lila claimed about Marinette, and then responded by being verbally abusive towards Marinette and even outright violent towards her, outright bullying her even." Making this gigantic leap from "She can't clock Lila's lies" to "she will be more horrible towards Marinette as a consequence of those nasty things she says than we've seen her be towards her worst enemies." And then also writing or fantasizing about her being punished by like, losing her ability to get a job in the future, being disowned by all her friends, having grown celebrities say nasty things about her, etc.

Most of the Marinette salt I've seen has been more limited in scope, with most of it being about actual things she did in the show, though sometimes ascribing nastier, more malicious intentions than the narrative does, like having her treat Chat Noir like a tool or being interested in her own comfort at other's expense. But it's still using actual examples of things that happened in the show for it.

Like... the closest equivalent of the Alya bashing fic tsunami that resulted from Chameleon would be, when applied to the stuff Marinette's being salted for currently (well, some of it. The Alya bashing fic stuff is SO out of proportion I don't know that it's possible to do this in a totally proportional way) would be for Marinette to take the fact that she was given Adrien's Amoks and that he doesn't know about them, for her to mind-control him into being her boyfriend, using them to force him to have sex with her and drain all of his bank accounts for her, and then having his friends realizing what she's doing to him, beat her up, ruin her for life, and for Adrien to leave and find a better girlfriend.

Like with Alya bashing fics, it's following off of a "what if?", in this case, "what if Marinette kept the rings and was a way more awful person than she's ever been shown to be in the show." Similarly, Alya bashing fics tend to use the "what if" of "what if Lila told far worse lies about Marinette than we've seen, and Alya was a way worse person than she's ever demonstrated to be?" And yeah, in the Marinette scenario here, we actually see her giving Adrien back his Amoks. But given that he doesn't know what they are, she could feasibly ask for them back without him knowing how important it is that he keeps them. Also Alya has demonstrated that she won't believe particularly nasty lies that Lila tells about Marinette, even with evidence (we see that in Ladybug), but that hasn't stopped the saltfic industry from flourishing in the half a DECADE since that episode aired.

The fact that I'm not continuously seeing 15% or so of Miraculous fics making Marinette out to be mind-controlling abusive rapist in order to have Adrien and his friends take revenge on her shows how much more sane and reasonable the current wave of Marinette salt is from the STILL ONGOING Chameleon saltdom tsunami.

...I'm still just very bitter about this. I still see people asking for these kinds of fics like they're just normal things, and even with filtering them out and muting people, I still run into fics regularly that do this sort of crap to Alya (and a lot of the other ML characters to be fair, but Alya gets it the worst.) And it just makes me laugh whenever I see people complaining about how unfairly hostile the ML fandom is being towards Marinette because it's STILL, even now, six years after Chameleon aired, less than the shit towards Alya, and I feel like I'm yelling into the void to an extent here because it's been normalized to the extent that it's just priced into the Miraculous fandom it sometimes feels like. When it's so far outside the bound of any realm of normality or sanity relative to the shit thrown at most of the other characters, that it becomes comical when you actually try to put them into proportion with each other.

I still just can't stop feeling this festering bitterness about the unfairness of it all.

[sunshine-zenith]

A thought — Ballister and Ambrosius’s relationship probably wasn’t public in the movie until the end. They probably weren’t secretive about it, given how Todd (someone neither of them like or would confide in) was clearly antagonistic to Ambrosius after Ballister’s jailbreak, but even then that just might be because their connection was well known — they liked each other more than any of the knights liked them, most being neutral overall to Ambrosius and outright bullies to Ballister. No one in the public seems to know about them

Media perception is a reoccurring factor in the movie, with the opening scene giving exposition in the form of a news cast. During it, Ballister is shown to be controversial, with a there being a few comments questioning the Queen’s choices related to him. Ambrosius is also brought up as someone everyone’s looking forward to seeing officially knighted, with no one questioning his relationship with Ballister or even bringing it up

While everyone is fearing and hating Ballister after the Queen dies, Ambrosius is still popular among the masses — people stop him in the streets to get his autograph. Nimona, who admittedly probably didn’t do much digging into Ballister beyond the initial news reports on the Queen’s deaths, seemed surprised that Ballister and Ambrosius had a connection. She even had an “ohhhhhh” moment after picking up on their vibe the first time they saw each other post-arm chop (and yeah she initially calls Ambrosius Ballister’s nemesis, but she clearly clocks that something romantic was going on given the “arm chopping is not a love language!” comment). She also asks if he wants to die in a (literal) closet, which like. Y’all.

Before the Queen’s death, all their PDA is in private (on the catwalk) or subtly around other knights (helping each other put on their armor with lots of heart eyes and lingering hands). Otherwise, their interactions are those of Two People Who Are Close but aren’t necessarily explicitly romantic (Ambrosius wanting to throw hands on Ballister’s behalf, teasing each other, Ambrosius cheering with the crowd). Granted, there wasn’t a lot of screen time for them to just be happy before Everything Went Wrong.

We can’t really judge whether they were private from their interactions after the Queen’s death, since most are focused on a “so this traumatic thing happened and I don’t know where we stands right now” vibe or have them just fighting. The three times Ambrosius says he loves Ballister, one was just the two of them on the catwalk, one was in a mental rant and not actually out loud, and one was while they were trying to hide their identities. Ballister continues to defend Ambrosius, saying he’d believe them if they could just talk and that the arm thing is just “complicated,” “part of their training, up until Ambrosius outright tries to arrest them (which might as well be a breakup without saying “we’re breaking up”).

In the comic, the Director says she knew about their relationship and that she disapproved. Given how much she manipulates things, it wouldn’t surprise me if she knew in the movie, and encouraged them to downplay things at least — “you should keep your private lives private so you don’t taint your public images/yes we support you, obviously, but you’re here to protect the people, not show off to them/you don’t want to overshadow things with more controversy, wait a few years until after you’re knighted/what if this is just a phase, it would be a mess to clean up if you go public now/people will talk if they hear Gloreth’s only current descendant, a promising young man, is being courted by someone they aren’t certain about who comes from nothing and can’t pass your genes on/you have each other, shouldn’t that be enough?/etc.”

We don’t see them be in a relationship publicly until after the wall — the symbol of fear of the unknown, systematic abuse and oppression, refusal to learn and grow, and let’s be real homophobia/transphobia — comes down and the Director — the one going to murderous extremes out of fear of change — is dead

I dunno. This movie is a large celebration of being queer, but it’s also about how queer people are demonized by society to the point of everyone suffering. Ambrosius is the model minority everyone loves but no one knows because all eyes are on him; Ballister is both tokenized and targeted from the moment the public meets him, having to prove himself over and over until the public unquestionably turns on him entirely; and Nimona is called a monster for just being herself. All three already had to hide who they really were. I’m not 100% sure if Ballister and Ambrosius were out or not about being together, but it’s not a stretch to see, and it fits in with the themes/arcs of this movie

[cerastes]

I'd like a little more insight into your opinions about that post you reblogged, which stated that "families are the biggest danger to children".

That post did not include a proposed solution, and I would like to know if you have a solution in mind.

I don't see how it doesn't involve giving the police greater leeway to invade the privacy of homes. Or otherwise putting childcare in the hands of government workers who don't live with the children. Government workers who either never had children and have no idea what it is like, or who do have children and should be spending that time minding their own.

You’re kind of self-reporting when your first and seeming only thought on the matter is “This necessarily means giving police or government more power” and not “the dynamics of power between adults and children are so immensely messed up and the concept of protecting children has been warped into a puritan shield towards any cause except actually protecting children”. That post you’re referring to is not in the slightest a hard read, anon. I’d say it’s pretty darn explicit and clear in its intent, in fact.

If you look up kidnappings, the majority happen between family members. If you ask any child therapist worth their moral salt what it’s like practicing their craft, they’ll tell you that the vast majority of the time it’s mainly grounding work with the child and actual psychological work with their parents, who are the actual reason behind the issues with the kid most of the time.

Most if not all cultures are just not at all kind with children. The most immediate people to a child — often their family — are either their greatest protectors or their biggest threat. Sometimes, it’s both simultaneously, and this isn’t some fake deep philosophical nonsense, either; a lot of times, a parent or the parents might genuinely wish the best for the kid, and yet, they are horribly abusive in ways they don’t even clock as abuse or as treating the child as mere property that they get to order around. Even when that is “for their own good”.

Forgive me if I sound outright insulting here, but if you didn’t even grasp this before wanting to have this conversation, are you at all equipped to have this conversation? This is not even getting to the puritan shield part, just the part where family as both a boon and a threat is concerned.

I’ll also have you know that conversation around and about a problem can exist without offering solutions and merely acknowledging it as a problem. This is known as a “conversation”. Demanding solutions in your conversations necessarily is how you get bad ideas and fringe, often extremist answers.

[imagitory]

Not to call anyone out because everyone's entitled to their opinion and I don't want anyone getting attacked for theirs...but I saw a pro-Calypso post on an Epic the Musical community I can't reply to that kind of sent me spiraling that asked why Beast from Beauty and the Beast gets so much less hate than Calypso does when they "did the same thing."

Now I don't know if we're talking Disney's animated classic Beauty and the Beast specifically or the OG fairy tale or whatever, but um...have we forgotten the fact that Belle chose to stay with the Beast? And that Odysseus, in contrast, had no choice in whether to end up on or stay on Calypso's island? On the contrary -- Ody not only actively wants off, but he is so unhappy at the thought he'll never get home that he tries to unalive himself at one point. Then of course if we're talking Disney's Beauty and the Beast in particular, we can point out that Belle stays because she gave her word, not because she was physically unable to leave, and she leaves the castle out of fear for her own safety after going into the West Wing and enraging the Beast ("promise or no promise"), only to take the Beast back because he saves her life and is badly hurt in the process. Then the two nurture a real friendship -- something Odysseus and Calypso never did, in all their time together -- before Beast willingly lets Belle go with no expectation that she'd return, let alone break the spell on him and the castle servants. In contrast, in Not Sorry For Loving You, Calypso doubles down on how she treated Odysseus and turns everything into a pity-party for herself. She acts like she's sorry about how she treated him, but frames her disregard for his boundaries and freedom as her "coming on too strong" without ever acknowledging that she legitimately ignored Ody's feelings and wishes at the expense of her own. She uses the abusive-partner playbook to the nth degree, attempting to invalidate any hate Odysseus might legitimately feel toward her for what she did by passive-aggressively acting like it's his fault that he didn't accept her "love" for what it was ("and if you hate me, then I'm sorry my love's too much for you"). She even gets upset about why he "won't love her too" even though she knows full well he's a married man still very in love with his wife Penelope, who Calypso has been purposefully separating him from for years. Oh yeah, and on that note, Odysseus is already romantically committed to someone else, so Calypso has even less reason to presume Ody should return her feelings. Even Beast, who is in love with a single person and also has a ticking clock over him to fall in love quickly to break the curse on him and all of his servants, loves Belle sincerely enough that he didn't get angry or resentful at the thought that she might not love him back. He doesn't try to guilt-trip her into loving him. Even though in the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, there are a lot more toxic elements -- such as the Beast claiming he'll die if Belle doesn't return to him -- that doesn't change the fact that Belle has some agency in her situation, with the Beast connecting emotionally with this single woman over time in a way that she comes to see him as a dear friend despite his hideous appearance. And of course just about all adaptations of the story heavily lean away from or outright subvert the original's more problematic elements because they're rightly seen as toxic.

Look -- I don't see any problem with anyone feeling pity for Calypso. With her lonely backstory and lack of knowledge of how to interact with others, it's easy to. I could even see people arguing she cared for Odysseus in her own weird way. But that doesn't change how much she disrespected Odysseus's agency and used her goddess-y powers to keep him just as trapped on her island as she was, at the expense of his and his family's happiness. I personally view Calypso as a very well-developed anti-villain for this reason -- she can claim she loved Odysseus...but if she did, she didn't know what love really is, because love at its core is about selflessness, and Calypso at her core is incredibly selfish.

[torchwood-99]

Modern AU Headcanon

(This basically turned into a soap opera)

Faramir is low contact with Denethor. Denethor isn't outright abusive (not like in the films) but they have a strained relationship. In some ways they're very similar, and in others ways very different. They both have very firm senses of right and wrong, and struggle to meet in the middle. In particular, Denethor believes very much in filial obedience, but feels like Faramir is judging him, which Faramir probably is at least some of the time, and this creates antipathy between the two.

It wasn't too bad during Faramir's childhood (except that Denethor's work and mental health meant he wasn't always present, but Imrahil and his family made sure Faramir and Boromir had a supportive family unit), but when Boromir died their mutual grief and the lack of Boromir as a buffer meant that things got very bad with them.

Before they could still be prickly and disagree over stuff, but they could also spend pleasant time together, discuss mutual academic interests, etc... But after losing Boromir the strain between them grows worse, and in the end they have to step away from each other.

So they're still in each other's lives, but their communication is limited, and has a degree of formality. Even after the worst of the antipathy has passed, there's a mutual discomfort between the two, to avoid arguments they maintain a certain coolness, which they're both a bit sad about.

Eowyn is no contact with her family, and it happened quite drastically from their perspective, but for Eowyn it was building up for a while.

Eowyn pretty much ran away from home.

Theoden had an ongoing condition that lasted several years, which left him with limited mobility and on a fair bit of medication, meaning he required near constant care. And through a mix of being the youngest and a girl, the weight of his care fell onto Eowyn's shoulders.

Their family horse farm, Edoras, is in quite an isolated area, which is also fairly conservative in terms of gender roles and has a stigma around mental health and disabilities.

Theodred and Eomer did everything they could to keep their farm (horse breeding/training?) going, and the work certainly had a toll on them, Eomer perhaps giving up on his career in the army. However the work was work they both genuinely cared about, and found fulfilment in. They also had clocking off time, to go down to the pub and hang out with friends, and their work did give them the chance to travel and meet with other people.

Eowyn was stuck in the house, tending to Theoden 24/7. She had no clock off time, except for when one of the boys offered to watch Theoden so she could have a couple of hours to go for a ride or go to the cinema. Because this wasn't "their job", they saw this as them being very generous to Eowyn, and naturally during that time laundry wasn't done and dinner wasn't prepped or anything like that.

Eowyn's academics struggled because of this, and because her family's work was either the farm or the military, academics wasn't particularly prized and it was just accepted that Eowyn had no future in it. Eowyn might not have considered herself the academic type, but the lack of degrees severely limited opportunities for work and experiences elsewhere, no university, less chance of a career. Her life would be wedded to the farm, but as doing the housework and support stuff so Eomer and Theodred could focus on the farm and the horses. She also only got housekeeping money and the odd the bit of pocket money, but as the profits from the farm are handled by Theodred and Eomer, she had to depend on them for cash. She didn't get a regular wage or anything like that, nor was she getting a profit from the farm.

During this time, she was also groomed by Grima, a family friend of Theoden who helped with money and the farm and visited regularly to keep Theoden company, something Theoden depended on as he was isolated. Grima started off trying to offer Eowyn a shoulder to cry on, commiserating with her on her lack of opportunities, trying to drive a wedge between her and her brother and cousin, offering her presents and trying to make her feel dependant on him. Eowyn disliked Grima so she always held him at arm's length, but she didn't speak up about his creepiness because she thought her uncle needed his company.

Eomer eventually saw Grima crossing a line with Eowyn, touching her hair perhaps, and he didn't care for him either but stuck up with him for Theoden's sake, but after seeing that he made it clear he was to stay away.

Theoden did eventually recover, but Eowyn's position in the family remained unchanged. Theoden was anxious to be in his old position as one of the guys, so he threw himself back into the farm work, and all the domestic work stayed on Eowyn's shoulders. It was also left to Eowyn to ensure Theoden continued with his treatment, taking his medication, going to appointments, which Theoden, in his discomfort at being seen as sick or frail, spun as Eowyn being a typical fusspot, and treated his accepting treatment as him humouring her. He joined the guys down at the pub, while Eowyn was left alone at the house.

Eowyn finally called it quits after hearing Theoden having a heart to heart with Eomer about how he loved him as much as a son, thanking him for all the work he did keeping the farm going while he was sick, and declaring him and Theodred his legacy, assuring him he trusted them with looking after the farm after he was gone.

By this point Eowyn did have access to some of the family cash, mostly so she could do the shopping and see to other domestic costs, and she took out a decent portion, what she saw as her due for years of being an unpaid housekeeper/carer, and then got a train to Minas Tirith, (the big fancy city filled with opportunities).

There she meets Merry, an PHD candidate/lecturer on herblore, who lives above a pub with his boyfriend Pippin. Pippin owns the pub, but lives off his trust fund. Their roommate, Frodo, recently moved in with his boyfriend Sam, and Sam's girlfriend Rosie, and Eowyn meets them while looking for a cheap place to live. She ends up working the pub, getting double pay as bartender/bouncer, because she knows a lot about self defence.

Eowyn struggles a bit adapting to her new freedom and independence, and apart from work mostly hides in her room, overwhelmed by the culture change. Merry and Pippin (especially Merry) encourage her to be more social and take advantage of all the opportunities the city has to offer.

Of course the Fellowship, Sam, Frodo, Pippin, Merry, Aragorn, Gandalf and Gimli are still just as much of a gang as in the books, as was Boromir before he died, and Pippin's pub is their regular meeting place. The Fellowship "adopted" Faramir after Boromir died, and through them Eowyn and Faramir meet.

Faramir is going through a career change, deciding to do a PHD in History, which he wanted to do all along, but he gave up in favour of working for the family business. Eowyn is looking for a purpose after leaving home, and she and Faramir get chatting about university courses (the universities in Minas Tirith don't charge fees). Eowyn wants to retake her school exams (GCSEs equivalent) and Faramir offers to tutor her.

After passing her school exams, Eowyn is still by nature very outdoorsy, and wants to do a degree that gets her outside as much as possible. She ends up pursuing a career in conservation, actually following in Aragorn and Arwen's footsteps, who do conservation work and start Eowyn up with trying a bit of volunteering, then helping her to get onto an apprenticeship scheme.

Back at the farm, Eowyn's family is blind sighted by her disappearance, especially Eomer who is panic stricken in case something happened to her. (He actually tracks down Grima and threatens him in case Grima did anything to her.) Because Eowyn never said anything they had no idea she was so unhappy, although as the housework starts piling up they do start to get an idea of just how much work Eowyn did, and how little free time she had.

Eomer becomes obsessed with finding Eowyn, not entirely convinced she wasn't kidnapped, and manages to track her down to Minas Tirith. Eomer knows Aragorn through his army days and through Boromir, but because Eowyn switched her last name after moving to the city and is cagey about her past, Aragorn doesn't know she is Eomer's sister, and when Eomer comes to the city and looks him up, Aragorn offers to help him find her. He brings Eomer to the pub, where Eowyn sees him and panics, and gets Faramir to help smuggle her out.

She and Faramir open up about their past together. Faramir doesn't push Eowyn to respond to Eomer's arrival in a certain way (even though his grief over losing his own brother makes it tempting for him to do so), but his understanding of the situation encourages her to give it a go.

Eowyn and Eomer's reunion is difficult. With a lot of anger and blame on both sides.

Eomer is angry at Eowyn for making him and the family worry so much, and for leaving without a word. Eowyn is filled with residual fury for how she was treated over the years. Eomer accuses Eowyn of not being loyal to the family, which infuriates Eowyn as she gave up her identity for the family.

Eowyn asking Eomer when they first noticed she was gone, when breakfast wasn't made or when they saw that last night's washing up hadn't been done, and that hits a little close to home.

When Eowyn does open up about she felt all those years, and how it felt hearing Theoden call Eomer and Theodred his legacy, all the while treating her like a crutch it embarrassed him to use, Eomer initially responds with explanations and excuses and an insistence that they "all had to do their bit" and that "Theoden didn't mean it like that" or Eowyn was "taking it the wrong way". He also thinks Grima the root of most of Eowyn's problems, and while Grima made things a lot worse, Eowyn is frustrated that Eomer can't see she was unhappy without him.

Eomer eventually asks Eowyn why she didn't just say anything. Eowyn struggles to explain, and Eomer struggles to understand, the pressure Eowyn felt to do as was asked of her, how Eowyn never felt like she had a choice and how she was just expected to do the "women's work", and how that choice was made for her, especially in light of her youth and her dependence on the family, the suffering of her schoolwork which was dismissed as her being "not book smart" and only good for working on the family farm, and any attempts of hers to speak up being waved away as young adult's grumbling and moaning, making her feel guilty for not being happy with her lot.

All of this is a massive blow, as he and Eowyn were very close as children, and he always saw the two of them as a team, and always expected that Eowyn would just come to him if she had a problem.

There's a lot of shouting, a lot of tears. This all takes place in the flat, and the Fellowship (Faramir included, honourary member) are downstairs, trying to eavesdrop on it all. Some (Aragorn, Faramir, Arwen, Frodo and Sam) are trying to act like that they're just there in case Eowyn or Eomer need them afterwards, and insist they're not listening in. Merry, Pippin, Gimli, Legolas and Rosie are shameless about trying to here everything that's being said, and at one point for a human pyramid on the bar table so that Pippin can be lifted up high enough to put his ear against the ceiling.

Eomer is devastated after the meeting, and is left reeling that his sister, who he thought himself very close to and always on the same side as him, had been unhappy for years, and nurtured resentment towards him and the family he adored, and the farm he made his life's work. Aragorn and Arwen take him home to cool down, and let him stay with them while he and Eowyn try to figure things out.

Eowyn does eventually begin to reconcile with her family, but stays in Minas Tirith, while Eomer goes back to their farm.

Eomer and Theodred occasionally come up to meet her, but Theoden isn't up to travelling. Eowyn's relationship with Theoden is very slow to heal in particular, due to Theoden's own lingering demons regarding his years being dependant on Eowyn, and Eowyn struggling to disconnect her (understandable but unfair) resentment of Theoden being sick and needing to be taken care of, and her (very fair) resentment of how he treated her following his recovery.

Faramir and Denethor's relationship still has underlying strain, but Eowyn and Faramir's growing closeness improves it a bit, as she and Denethor actually manage to establish a bit of a rapport, both being spiky tongued, (Eowyn all the while having Faramir's back), and Eowyn also acts as a buffer between them, as Boromir did. Denethor and Faramir's relationship has to be managed carefully, but they see more time with each other, and the time they share is spent more comfortably. Denethor is very happy (in his way) when Eowyn and Faramir become official.

Eowyn doesn't go back to Edoras for several years. When she does go, Faramir goes with her. Partially as emotional support, but also to introduce him to Theoden as her fiance.

[general--winter]

Could we please get general relationship headcanons for Haru from Persona 5?

author's note: HARU!!!!!!! omgomg I love her so much and I know I'm going to say that about almost every single Persona woman but can you blame me??? Hashino might be a steaming, heaping piece of shit but somehow he wrote some pretty kickass women. I guess a broken clock is right twice a day. Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy! :)

rating: teen

fandom: persona 5

pairing: haru okumura x gn!reader

word count: 1068

warnings: canon-typical content

summary: What would it be like to be in a relationship with Haru?

While Haru is a very soft-spoken woman, her convictions are rock-solid. She wants to be at the forefront of her late father’s company, and she has no issues asserting herself to do this. However, this doesn’t mean that Haru didn’t go through a lot to get to this point, especially as a woman who sought to take over a familial position of power at a company in Japan. Because of her abusive ex-fiance, I imagine that Haru would be weary of opening up to someone romantically ever again. Not that she ever “opened up” to that douche canoe, but an experience like that can really mess with your perception of what romance and love actually is. You would have to work hard to gain her trust and be someone incredibly dependable. Of course, Haru is a bit of an eccentric, so sharing these interests would make her happy, but I think for her sake and comfort, someone stable who she can come to rely on and open up to would be perfect.

As for how Haru is when actually beginning a relationship, I think she would be very traditional and would expect those types of things from you, whether she’s aware of it or not. Things like expecting you to open the car door for her, push her chair in, pay for the meal, take her coat off, etc. That’s the kind of society she grew up around, so that’s the type of courting she’s been socialized to expect. To be eased into the idea, if you will, even if she already really likes you. And she does. If you go this route, she would be incredibly flattered that you considered her expectations on how to ask her out. If you outright asked her to be your partner, however, it might fluster her a lot. Weren’t there steps to this process? She would think it strange that you’re acting purely off of emotions, but in a way, refreshing and indicative of the new life she’s decided to live. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with either approach for her.

For a first date, I actually think she would want to go to a garden. It sounds pretty obvious for Haru, I know, but sometimes the most obvious answer is the best one! We all know that she adores gardening and everything to do with the cultivation of flowers and crops. If you didn’t know Haru very well before dating her, this may very well be the first time you hear her raise her voice beyond her normal tone, explaining facts to you about every flower and plant within the garden. She’s like an encyclopedia on this type of stuff, and to you it’s incredibly endearing. The whole time, she holds your hand and swings it up and down as she points out all of her favorite flowers. Remember these.

Haru’s love language would be quality time. I’m not completely sure what happened to her mom in canon, but I think it can be safely assumed that she was not around for one reason or another as she is never mentioned. Her father was busy with the company as well, leaving her alone from a young age, presumably with teachers at school who were already spread thin among the classroom, or with nannies at home who were only with Haru because they were paid to be with her. They may have come to care about her, but their primary obligation was their job, and while child Haru may not have understood that explicitly, the impact follows her. No one spent much time with her because they wanted to, and Haru craves that. Even if you’re doing work or reading a book or something, do it in the same room as her. Maybe not explicitly cuddling though, not at first. It takes a bit for her to work up beyond holding hands. After you’ve been together for a while, though, you won’t be able to peel her off of you. She rests her head on your shoulder and lays in your lap often, begging for you to pet her hair with no shame. It means the world to her that you would choose to spend time in her presence, and even more when you actively do activities with her. This is because if you choose to do so, the conclusion she would draw is that you definitely aren’t with her just for her money, you’re with her for her. I like to think she would love doing jigsaw puzzles or just taking walks around the neighborhood she lives in. I was considering giving her gift giving as her love language actually, but I figured that as a child of a rich CEO, Haru probably had her “love” bought all the time by her father and later, her ex-fiance. If you give her gifts, make sure it’s something incredibly thoughtful, like her favorite flowers/something you made yourself, or something she’s morbidly curious about, like a true crime book or real animal bones.

Seeing as the Phantom Thieves are the only people Haru is close to after her father’s death, she would definitely introduce you to them. She’s not above radiating a threatening aura to them to behave around you, so you definitely don’t have to deal with the antics of Ryuji and Ann at first. She does really care about getting their approval on whether they like you or not, since she does highly respect their opinions and them as people. However, in the end Haru has learned through her life not to rely on the decisions of others in her own life, so she wouldn’t make any decisions about you based on what her friends say.

Overall, look forward to a mostly calm and very wholesome relationship with Haru. Due to the path she has taken in her life, it will be necessary to ensure that you can support her through her unique hardships as a majority shareholder in a major company. Whatever you give into the relationship, though, Haru gives back ten thousand-fold, ensuring that you never feel alone and that you are just as taken care of as she feels with you. You will have your own responsibilities as the partner of an Okumura, but there are a lot of adventures ahead of you two and that fills both you and Haru with precious optimism for the future.

[leadit24]

Legal Ramifications of Bullying at Work and Holding Workplace Bullies Accountable

Introduction

The Hidden Crisis in Modern Offices

Ever felt sick to your stomach before walking into work because of a certain colleague? If so, you're not alone. Bullying at work is an invisible epidemic affecting thousands daily. It doesn’t always involve yelling or slamming doors—it can be subtle, but the impact? Devastating.

Why Bullying at Work is Everyone’s Business

No one clocks in expecting to become the target of constant criticism, exclusion, or humiliation. But when bullying goes unchecked, it poisons the well for everyone. That's why understanding how to hold workplace bullies accountable is essential for both employee well-being and company success.

Understanding Bullying at Work

What Does Workplace Bullying Look Like?

It isn’t just playground antics with a paycheck. Workplace bullying can involve repeated, deliberate behavior meant to degrade, intimidate, or isolate an individual.

Common Traits of Workplace Bullies

Let’s call them what they are—power-hungry manipulators. Bullies in the office often thrive on control and fear. They:

Verbal Abuse and Intimidation

From passive-aggressive comments to outright shouting matches—this is the most visible sign.

Exclusion and Manipulation

Think silent treatment, withholding information, or purposely leaving someone out of meetings.

Sabotaging Work or Reputation

Spreading rumors or taking credit for someone else’s work? Classic bullying move.

The Psychological and Professional Toll

Emotional Consequences

The mental toll is brutal—anxiety, depression, burnout. Victims may feel worthless, second-guess their worth, or even consider quitting a job they once loved.

Impact on Productivity and Company Culture

Teams can’t thrive in a hostile environment. Morale dips. Absenteeism rises. Creativity disappears. Bullying doesn’t just hurt individuals—it costs the business, big time.

Legal Rights of Employees Facing Bullying

When is Bullying at Work Illegal?

Not all bullying is illegal, but when it crosses into harassment—based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, or sexual orientation—it breaches discrimination laws.

Employment Laws That Protect Victims

Laws vary by region, but most protect against harassment and victimisation. In the UK, for example, the Equality Act 2010 may apply if the bullying links to protected characteristics.

The Role of Workplace Mediation

Mediation as a First Step

Enter workplace mediation—a voluntary, informal, and confidential process designed to resolve conflict early before it spirals into a full-blown legal battle.

How Workplace Mediation Helps Restore Harmony

By focusing on communication and rebuilding trust, mediation removes barriers and often mends fractured relationships faster than you think.

When Mediation Fails: Escalating the Issue

Filing a Formal Grievance

If talking it out doesn’t work, it’s time to file a grievance. This formal complaint kicks off an internal investigation and opens the door to disciplinary action.

Moving to Disciplinary Action

In serious cases, HR may launch an investigation, resulting in suspension or even dismissal of the bully if misconduct is proven.

Taking Bullies to Court

What Constitutes a Legal Case Against Workplace Bullies?

If bullying results in physical or psychological injury, or violates employment rights, the victim may have grounds to take legal action.

Tribunal vs. Court: What’s the Difference?

Employment tribunals handle workplace disputes, but more severe cases might land in civil court—especially if damages are significant.

Employer Responsibilities and Liabilities

Duty of Care and Safe Working Environment

Employers must legally provide a safe, respectful work environment. Ignoring toxic behavior isn’t just unethical—it’s illegal.

Legal Consequences for Employers Who Ignore Bullying

Failure to act can lead to lawsuits, fines, damaged reputations, and mass employee turnover.

Holding Workplace Bullies Accountable

Documentation is Key

Victims should document every incident—dates, times, witnesses. It creates a strong foundation if things go legal.

How HR Should Intervene

HR’s role is crucial—they must remain impartial, investigate complaints thoroughly, and take decisive action when needed.

When Termination is Justified

In extreme cases, firing a workplace bully is not just justified—it’s necessary. Protecting your team comes first.

Final Thoughts

Creating a Culture Where Bullying Isn’t Tolerated

Prevention starts at the top. A zero-tolerance policy, open communication, and regular training are the cornerstones of a healthy workplace.

Empowering Employees Through Awareness

Knowledge is power. The more employees understand their rights, the better equipped they are to shut down toxic behavior before it takes root.

Bullying at work is more than just bad behavior—it's a legal and moral issue. When workplace bullies go unchecked, everyone suffers. But with the right steps—mediation, documentation, legal support—you can take back control, protect your team, and create a workplace where respect rules the day.

[mcginnlawfirm]

What Is the Statute of Limitations for a Criminal Case?

When you're dealing with a legal issue—especially one as serious as a criminal case—you don't want any surprises. One concept that often catches people off guard is the statute of limitations. This legal time limit determines how long prosecutors have to bring charges against someone after an alleged crime has occurred. But the rules aren’t the same across the board.

So, how does it work? Are there crimes that don’t have a time limit? And what happens if charges are filed too late? Let’s break it down.

Why Do We Even Have a Statute of Limitations?

The statute of limitations isn’t just a random rule—it serves an important purpose. Over time, evidence deteriorates, memories fade, and witnesses become harder to track down. If prosecutors waited too long, it could become unfair to the accused, making it difficult to build a proper defense.

At the same time, the law recognizes that some crimes are too serious to be forgotten. That’s why certain offenses—like murder—don’t have a statute of limitations at all. The government can file charges no matter how much time has passed.

The General Time Limits: How Long Do Prosecutors Have?

The statute of limitations varies depending on:

The severity of the crime – More serious crimes tend to have longer statutes of limitations, or none at all.

State vs. federal laws – Every state sets its own rules, but federal crimes follow a separate set of guidelines.

Special circumstances – Some crimes have exceptions that extend or “pause” the time limit (more on this later).

Common Statutes of Limitations for Criminal Cases

Misdemeanors (minor offenses like petty theft or trespassing): Typically 1 to 3 years

Felonies (more serious crimes like burglary, fraud, or assault): Usually 3 to 10 years, depending on the crime

Sex crimes against minors: Often extended or eliminated altogether due to the nature of the crime

Murder and certain violent crimes: No statute of limitations – prosecutors can file charges at any time

While these are general guidelines, every jurisdiction has its own variations. In some states, serious financial crimes have longer limits, and others allow extensions under certain conditions.

What Happens If the Statute of Limitations Expires?

Let’s say a crime was committed 15 years ago, but the statute of limitations was 10 years. If prosecutors try to file charges now, the defense can file a motion to have the case dismissed outright. In most cases, the court will agree.

This means that even if new evidence surfaces after the time limit has expired, prosecutors can’t pursue chargesunless an exception applies. This is one reason why some crimes—like sexual offenses involving children—are being given longer or eliminated time limits in many states.

Exceptions and Extensions: When the Clock Pauses

There are situations where the statute of limitations doesn’t run normally. These exceptions can extend the time prosecutors have to file charges:

The "Discovery Rule" – In some cases, the clock doesn’t start ticking until the crime is discovered. This applies to crimes like fraud, where victims might not realize they’ve been deceived right away.

Fugitive Status – If the accused flees the state or country, the statute of limitations may be paused until they return. Otherwise, people could simply run from the law and wait for the clock to run out.

DNA Evidence in Serious Crimes – In many states, if new DNA evidence is discovered in cases like sexual assault or homicide, prosecutors can reopen the case even after the usual time limit has expired.

Crimes Against Children – Many states extend or remove time limits for crimes involving minors, especially sexual abuse. Some laws allow charges to be filed years later, even into adulthood.

Federal vs. State Laws: What’s the Difference?

Federal crimes operate under different statutes of limitations than state laws. For example:

Most federal crimes have a 5-year statute of limitations.

Serious offenses like terrorism, child exploitation, and major financial crimes often have extended time limits or no statute of limitations at all.

Tax fraud cases get 6 years, while immigration offenses can have varying limits.

If a crime violates both state and federal laws, prosecutors from either jurisdiction can bring charges. In some cases, if a state statute of limitations has expired, the federal government might still have the power to prosecute.

What If New Laws Change the Time Limit?

Here’s an important detail: New laws extending the statute of limitations generally don’t apply retroactively. If the time limit has already expired, prosecutors can’t suddenly revive an old case just because a new law extends the deadline.

However, if the time limit hasn’t expired yet, a change in the law could extend the deadline further. This is especially common for sexual assault cases, where lawmakers have recognized the need for more time to report and investigate.

When Do You Need Legal Help?

If you’re accused of a crime, time is critical. Even if you believe the statute of limitations has expired, don’t assume the case will be dismissed automatically. There are exceptions, legal loopholes, and prosecutors might argue the clock started later than you think.

On the other hand, if you’re a victim seeking justice, understanding the time limits is just as important. Some crimes can still be prosecuted long after they happened, especially if new evidence surfaces.

Either way, consulting with an attorney is the best way to know where you stand. Laws change, exceptions apply, and you don’t want to navigate it alone.

Final Thoughts

The statute of limitations plays a huge role in criminal law, shaping which cases can and can’t be prosecuted. It’s designed to protect fairness—but it also means that justice has a time limit in many situations.

Whether you’re dealing with a legal issue yourself or just want to understand how the system works, knowing these rules can make all the difference. If you need guidance, an experienced attorney can help you sort through the legal maze and figure out what applies in your case.

[emeraldspiral]

Death Note sequel/remake where a new killer gets a notebook and uses it to target crooked politicians, dictators, CEOs, bigotted loudmouths, and celebrity abusers. Things go well at first. The killer doesn't make the same sloppy mistakes Light made in the beginning and only targets people known worldwide so their location can't easily be narrowed down. They do however leave a lot of messages as their calling card, either addressing what their victims did to deserve their fate, or addressing the public to discourage cult worship and clarify their positions to stop conspiracy theorists and opportunists attempting to speak for them.

Early on they consider what they're doing to not only be justified, but their moral duty. But their perspective becomes more complex when they realize people who try to speak out against abuse and misconduct are now being accused to attempting to get "innocent" people killed on purpose with false claims, and wonders if their actions are deterring victims from speaking out for fear of retaliation or just not wanting to have the death of their abusers on their conscience. Killing also gets harder when public figures start secretly changing their legal names to thwart the notebook.

Things really ramp up when another killer emerges with the opposite political leanings and begins targeting prominent members of marginalized groups and their advocates, scientists, climate activists, and anything "woke" and leaving messages to spread disinformation, conspiracy theories, and bigoted rhetoric and inspire cult worship.

The first killer then makes it their mission to find the second before Interpol to stop the second killer's notebook from being weaponized by the government or another bigoted chud.

The list of suspects is easy to narrow down to a handful of incels who spent a lot of time on a message board talking shit about the specific public figures who were killed and also had people they had personal beef with die under circumstances that might've been influenced by the notebook. Some even hint that they might be the killer or have confessed outright, although most dismiss them as clout chasers. But even if the first killer could figure out which of them is the true culprit, they still have to learn their true name and face and where they keep their notebook without being discovered themselves, which is easier said than done when they still don't have shinigami eyes but the second killer does, and they're in a race against the clock to get to the second killer before Interpol.

[conkniving]

it was not entirely out of the realm that fallon was veteran — the omnipresent eye on the back of her cranium. though not outright confirmed prior to july, it was rumoured the biker belonged to the gang of which territorially lurked through anchorage. it was enough to magnetize the spare conspiratorial look. they were best ignored. now, the masses seemed to spectate each individual gesture the mugshot made with the nettled breath. for the alluring promise that she might let slip her true identity, the course of action that allegedly lead her to play a hand in an innocent's murder. at the very least, they were frightened enough to steer clear, and that suited her just fine. it was very rare that anyone felt courageous enough to confront, high on a social sense of justice. and that was just amusing. the rest of the time, fallon was a lone wolf. a practice that had come from years younger and ousted by prepubescent peers that moulded fallon into the sort of person who cherished their singularity.

it only devolved into a problem when the recesses of her tainted mind deemed it appropriate to antagonize its predecessor. it had become less frequent ( 'shockingly' — as though drug abuse catalyzes rather than combats ), the episodes she labeled them, when the world felt insurmountably claustrophobic and there were simply too many people teeming in the periphery that at any moment's notice she could truly lash out with instinctual defense. but those episodes persevered, and would creep up her back like a swarm of spiders, colluding that she was in danger, that they would get her, that nowhere was safe. god, she felt so fucking vulnerable in those states, she hated it. despised it. chewed the insides of her cheeks until the copper taste distracted her even marginally. the blithe affect of the bastard would dissipate like the mirage that it was, and each little pinprick would sting deeper than the surface if luck turned its back on her and she was pitted in a situation she couldn't run away.

so, like a sixth sense, fallon felt the telltales of such an encounter as she slowed in her stride from sleepy cat books. the sun was setting, though it did not beg for the shades she still pulled from her collar and slipped over eyes narrowing in their toss over her shoulder. the din of anxiety whispered to peer back into the bookstore, that someone was following her. there hadn't been many others she hadn't clocked upon arriving an hour before, and as the thai strolled stiffly along the sidewalk, it wasn't until she very nearly collided with a halted figure that she turned her attention forward. a jolt passed through fallon, taken aback that someone wholly unfamiliar would dare stand stalwart before her, and then it dawned that this was what forebode her. not followed, but walking carelessly right into the maw.

and then. the blonde seethed. a torrent of palpable anguish like that of a fury. a gaze so piercing that it shattered the lens that failed valiantly to hide eyes widening with vexation. vexation, and gradually, hurt. this woman, identified swiftly as someone related to the murdered, began with a flavour that tasted bitterly of that therapist, jo. who had also similarly stopped fallon wherever they collided to batter with accusations. except, jo was a demon she could handle. a woman so undone and unhinged, it was almost pitying. this woman, unnamed, was a devil. one who inexplicably knew the exact spots most tender to dig a talon within and tear fallon open.

muscle worked to close the jaw that gaped slightly in the aftermath of the finale of venom. the bastard wasn't even aware of the visible reaction this woman had evoked: brow furrowed, nails sunk into the hardcover of the couple books in one arm against her chest, breath choked. and pathetically, fallon leaned imperceptibly away. on the back foot. at a disadvantage. who the fuck did this person think they were? with all the might of every fibre, the darker of the pair forced herself to close in, to steel her voice, to will her visage into one only of threat: "you don't know a fucking thing about me."

it couldn't be left there. she couldn't leave well enough alone. another stream of reality, fallon would have turned heel and stormed away. this was not that one. occupied hand lowering to join the other at her side, body rigid, a foot scuffing forward to minimize the gap of their vitriolic exchange, she addendum, "if you have any sensibility, you will stop. right. there. because if you truly believe that i am capable of 'ripping someone away from this world', despite the fact they would never release an actual murderer, then you're fuckin' stupid coming for me." finally, though quivering it may be, fallon smiled a ruthless, toothy spread. "i won't rot in a cell for willow. but i might be pushed to rot for someone else — if you're so willing."

𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐂𝐀𝐍’𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐏𝐀𝐘

                                     ( 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 @conkniving )

( 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄, 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 )

An onslaught of paranoia had plagued the young woman ever since Willow’s fate unraveled. A prickle of infection spread from her core as grief grew numb and fear took over. Holding it together was harder than it seemed. She had trouble sleeping without her daughter snuggled close in her arms, pulling the sleeping child closer as the night passed them by; another sleepless night for her after another. Wasn’t it embarrassing for other five year olds to know that their peers still slept in their mother’s bed? Would they understand it was for protection? Was there any more empathy for what had happened to her small family? Could children be as cruel as the ones who’d taken Willow’s life? Were they bred into their own tiny fates or did they have the world to blame for when they grow cold?

No. Systems fail all the time, and bad things happen all the time, but it doesn’t excuse cruelty. It could never excuse the act of taking another’s life.

She didn’t know how to explain to Goldie that boogeymen weren’t hiding under their beds, nor closets, nor their walk-in pantry, but instead real monsters are the ones who hide in plain sight. When her daughter was smart enough to suggest that Mommy should face her own boogeyman and be brave, well… Rhodes could only offer a hushed sob as she held her daughter in her arms. kids say the darnedest things

Which brings us to our point to the present day.

“How could you do it?” The barked question remained open-ended, a whisk of breath stolen from her breathing. Pain, torturous pain- in her chest swells knowing that the subject of her cousin’s murder was free to walk around and was now staring her in the face. She remembers that day, now emblazoned within her mind branded and charred: released on bail on july 10th. “And exactly how much was your freedom worth and why do you get to live your life freely?” Her breathing hitches. How could authorities have let the Iverson family down like this? How could they let the main suspect get away with murder, how could a judge not place an insurmountable price upon a murderer's head. In most cases with damning evidence, bail can be posted to almost 1 million dollars!!! How was it fathombable that they walk freely? Evidence was substantial, wasn’t it? The same drawing on the other’s body matched the drawing on the body her and her family had to identify…

“What could she have possibly known that would resort in her death?! What are you hiding? What are you not saying?! What are you protecting?"

Bravery aside, involuntary reactions left her breathless, gasping for air. Her posture stiffened, every muscle in her body coiling with a restrained tension. The air grew dense around her, as if an invisible force pressed upon her shoulders, threatening to suffocate. Her gaze, sharp and unyielding, bore into Fallon, seeking answers buried beneath layers of suspicion. The lines etched on her face, usually soft with maternal tenderness, now hardened into a mask of resolve, etched with the weight of unresolved grief. Her lip trembles, breaking that anger as she stands face to face with what she assumes is death.

“Tell me.” She hiccups. "How could you rip someone away from this world? What darkness have you seen and why do you think it’s an excuse for your fucked up behavior? What on earth would possess you to take her life away from her? What right do you have?”

None. That was the answer she wanted to hear. Fallon had no fucking rights to her cousin. “She had a long life ahead of her. She had a family. She had people who miss her and love her. You caused so much pain." Finally a hand raises to wipe the sniveling tears from her face.

“Or did it not occur to you to think that she’d have a family that loved her? Was she nothing but collateral damage? And why would she have to pay with her life?!”

In that charged moment, her hands clenched into fists, nails digging into her palms, anger surging. It was a bitter concoction of loss and a fervent desire for justice. Her muscles work tirelessly to suppress the torrent of emotions threatening to spill forth. She doesn’t like insults, but even now a couple brew in the pit of her stomach.

“Were you selfish enough to think that she’d be someone like you? Lost. Alone. Unlovable. And Unwanted.”

a seething sharp exhale burns in her lungs. "You'll rot in a cell for what you did."

[virtue-and-beneviolence]

The ghost in my home is you.

You and Shuji remember your relationship differently as you learn to live without each other.

An angsty Tumblr draft; no idea of word count and here's a content warning for blood.

It was his house. He'd bought it outright years ago - a cash offer with the spoils of his first big deal as a part of Toman. It was a modest detached house he'd found with Kisaki's help. And while his unofficial roommate may have had ulterior motives for evacuating Shuji from his home, the taller man was appreciative of the help nonetheless.

He didn't think he'd ever have a place of his own. He was free of the scrap and strife and violence he left behind years before in his family home. If you could call that abusive mess a family.

He had a house, sure, but it was an oddly hollow dwelling. Sparsely furnished though not for a lack of money so much as a lack of understanding of how he was supposed to know what to put in a whole house. It was Shuji, take out, and balled up suits destined for the dry cleaner against the world.

For a chaotic man full of life, his living arrangements were bizarrely sterile when you met him. It started innocently with you bringing plants every time you came to visit your new friend. Your plan to bring life into his home worked, even if he killed most of the plants because his sheepish smile when one died was to die for.

You breathed life into that place. You made it a home, warmed it like his personal hearth. And for the first time, he had someone to cook with. Even better- he had someone to eat with. Someone who he could talk about everything and anything with without having to hide half his life from.

All of a sudden he had someone to protect and love. He had a reason to make it back to that home of his.

The relationship was a whirlwind and all too soon he was facing the aftermath.

You were gone.

So why did he taste you on the rim of his orange juice jug?

Why'd he feel a pinch on his side and a shiver down his spine when he guiltily left his suits scattered on the floor at night?

Why did the warmth of the aircon on his neck feel so convincingly reminiscent of your breath in the twilight between wake and sleep?

Why did he feel like at any moment he'd wake to find you watching him sleep with that dopey little look in your face that he loves so much?

Why'd he swear he heard the door to the onsuite bathroom click shut at 5:55 am? Why'd he hear running water as if you were going about your morning routine?

Why'd he wake to tears dampening the bedspread you picked out and left behind to find his right side too warm and his arm asleep as if you'd been there just seconds before laying on him all night?

That was it. Enough was enough.

He was calling in a favor with his realtor in the morning.

There was a ghost in his home and she looked just like you.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was a place of your own, somewhere he'd never touched.

It was homey. Decorated in your favorite style. Full of pictures of people you love rather than someone you loved once.

You could finally leave behind some of your sillier things and lean into adulthood. You were mature alone, without him, and it was a point of pride. The chorus of family telling you two to grow up had long faded in the distance now that you were alone. All it took to grow up was leaving him.

You could walk to your bed without stepping on a discarded cuff link or tripping on designer slacks.

You could cook the meals you wanted how you wanted and when you wanted, without being beholden to your partner's unreasonable and unpredictable work hours and unsophisticated palette.

You could journal nightly and listen to your podcasts and do chores for one instead of two.

You could finally breathe without being plagued by the clock; uncertain when, or if he'd come home. You didn't have the crippling weight of fear that if he did make it home, he might be on death's doorstep. There was no need to have a sewing kit labeled first aid at your front door. Finally you had no fear of calling a doctor rather than playing one while dread filled your throat with bile because what if you were hurting him worse?

Gone were the days of coming home to the door ajar. Of hearing the distinct tacky sound of tread in coagulating blood as you walked in your shared home. Of not knowing if Shuji made it back but just barely, or if a rival had broken in and was waiting to take or kill you. Of finding him in the tub bleeding terribly, and beaten so he was hardly recognizable. Of having to reach out through the stiffness of psychosomatic rigor mortis of your own to see if his skin was still warm. Of having to know this meant his adversary, or the corpse of one, must be somewhere in your home.

You could live in peace now.

You could live safely.

And yet, without him, you couldn't laugh. There was no silly joyful banter, no warming each other through the night, or someone's antics to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Safety at the cost of all that was joy and novel and thrilling, that was what this home represented.

It was a place he'd never touched.

You supposed that's why it always felt so cold.

Ye so here it is @gennabi @wildartist @l-tora-l 🤙🤙🤙

[allmightluver]

**bnha spoilers** I'm just sat here with renewed realisation of what All Might is going through. 40 years. /40 years/ he held and refined that power and dedicated his every waking (and sleeping if Vigilantes is anything to go by) moment towards the goal of defeating AfO and creating a society in which people could feel happy and safe. And now as it turns out AfO is still alive, society is broken and he has given a literal piece of his soul to this young boy leaving himself with only phantoms

Yes. I don’t think people quite grasp what all he’s going through.

It’s been shown recently to us that some, if not most, heroes have underlying ambitions in becoming a hero. Whether for money, glory, fame, popularity, doesn’t matter. They’re ultimately in it for themselves. Toshinori’s intentions from the beginning have been the most pure- he wanted to be a symbol that people can look to and know things will be ok. A symbol of hope. This boy was only around 14 years old when he decided this. What kind of 14 year old sees the world that clearly? Sees that people have no hope, that a veil of darkness covers them. The only thing I can think of is- Toshinori did not have a good childhood. Something had to have happened to a boy that young to stop seeing the joy in life so early, and see the world’s flaws. Truthfully, I believe he was an outcast- due to his quirklessness. Most likely an orphan, perhaps abandoned by his parents, as we’ve never seen him have any family. I do truly believe Toshinori has been alone all his life. I don’t doubt more could have happened to him as a child before he met Nana. 

Some may argue that Izuku is the same age, and therefore it shouldn’t be that hard to see why Toshinori wanted to be a hero at such a young age. BUT, Izuku had someone to look up to, ever since he was a child of four years old, to inspire him to be a hero his whole life *cough cough* All Might. Izuku also was quirkless, much like Toshinori, and an outcast because of it (hence where I assume Toshinori was much the same). But ultimately, Izuku wanted to save people because he saw his hero do it. It really wasn’t until Izuku was a bit older, has been in UA, has been on rescue missions, has seen what the heroes see, that I think he’s truly realized how dark the world really is. Toshinori didn’t have that. He didn’t have someone to inspire him as a child, someone to look up to, a hero to inspire him to help others. At that time, heroes hadn’t become as popular as they are in present times. Toshinori saw the world for what it was, on his own, at a tender age. I think that day Nana ran into this blonde hair kid, she eyed him up, noticed his scraggly form, looked into those captivating blue eyes, and saw a man who’s lived through the world’s horrors- experienced the worst it has to offer-, and wants to save everyone he can from the same fate, all in a 14 year old boy. 

Then after only a few short years with the woman he saw as his mother, she’s killed in front of him because of his own weakness- he wasn’t strong enough yet to protect her. The only other person his life, Gran Torino, literally abused him. He beat him to a pulp, taking his own emotions out on a teenager, and I doubt Toshinori said anything of it. He probably thought he deserved it. He’s still afraid of Gran Torino to this day, remembering the beatings and expecting more for his failures- even if he doesn’t know what they are surely he’s at fault for something, but he’s the only person who’s stood by his side for this long. Even while at a distance, and spouting nothing but criticisms along the way. But Toshinori had to put aside his own emotions to be that hope for everyone. He left everything he knew to go to a new country on his own, to learn how to be a hero, to be that hope for someone.

Vigilantes showed us just how hard he worked. Toshinori literally stayed awake with no sleep for days on end- 3 in the chapter I’m referencing- because people needed help, people needed saving, and no one else stepped up. He fought villains, rescued civilians, repaired damage, cleared rubble, (even accept and eat food that was against his dietary restrictions after his injury) whatever the public needed, all while draining himself further. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion because he had no help, once literally falling asleep while mid-leap across the city because he simply could go no further. 

^^These happen in succession of each other^^

No one stepped up to say “Hey, Mr. Number 1, you’ve been working hard lately. Let me help you!” No one tried to take over his position. Even the Number 2 hero, Endeavor, never tried to take some of his burden. His only goal was to try to be better than All Might in terms of power- he was never trying to be the hero that the people relied on All Might for. Everyone relied on him when things looked grim. He was the back up plan. And all of this happened before Toshinori’s injury. 

The only thing he ever wanted to do- help people- he can’t do (at least the way he’s always known how to). The ability to save people has been taken from him in the most gruesome way. He was finally able to fight the man that killed Nana, and in a rage that I’m sure echoed with all of the emotions of the previous users, he smashed that man’s head like a grape. But not without consequence. Several organs are gone. The pain is excruciating. He wears that man’s mark on his body for the rest of his life, never truly able to rid himself of the filth.

Then we have Nighteye’s betrayal. The man that helped him as a sidekick, the man that grew to be his only friend. Now some people may ask why Toshinori flipped like he did to Nighteye looking into his future when he was concerned about him making it through his injury. What I believe is Toshinori didn’t want to know when he would die (and really, who does). Now he knows he’s on a time limit, knows the clock is ticking. Time is running out to keep the world at peace, and with him as he is now, how long can this go on? 

I think the betrayal, doing something that Toshinori specifically asked him not to do, is what hurt the most. How can he trust Nighteye anymore? He already can only count on one hand the people he can trust, let alone befriend.

He’s wasted away into a skeleton, a shell of the man he used to be. He can’t over exert himself without his only lung bleeding in protest. It’s canon in the side books that he really doesn’t eat much, which isn’t good for his diet without a stomach now (he’s supposed to have several small meals a day). He is quite literally punishing himself by starving. (Granted, he doesn’t feel hunger anymore.) He’s a sick man, beyond medical help at this point. They can only stabilize him and hope for the best. For five years now he’s in constant pain, every day. He loses blood like sweat. Surely his veins are bruised and collapsed with how many times he would have needed to be hospitalized. Whether from losing too much blood, being too dehydrated or starved from “forgetting” to eat, or an organ failing as body continues to fall apart. “...even as my body rots and grows frail...” - Toshinori People are bound to stare at him as he walks down the street. A tall, willowy, skeleton with a grimace on his face and blood stains on his clothes as he coughs up more into his own hands. There would be the ones who outright ignore him when they walk by, the people who offer pitying smiles and sympathetic glances or just outright stare, and then ones who are afraid of his appearance- children screaming at the mere sight of him and running to their parents to hide from the monster. Each one is another knife in Toshinori’s side, an ache in his chest. If only they knew who I really am.

Losing Nighteye took a toll on his hero work as well. Mirai was a huge help in the past, and took care of all Toshinori’s paperwork, while also reminding him to take care of himself. Without him, Toshinori was even more buried beneath his responsibilities. Plus, now he was on a time limit. He even snapped briefly in his first meeting with Tsukauchi, accidentally revealing himself as All Might because he was under too much pressure, and telling the detective he literally couldn’t handle doing everything by himself (who graciously took over the paperwork side of things for him). 

He was living a double life now, having to lie to people left and right about who he was while in his small form, about how he became so sickly, why he was here in the first place who the heck is this skinny old guy. Surely he had multiple visits to the doctor while continuing to repair the damage done by AFO (there’s a limit to how much the body can handle at once. And things I’m sure continued to fail as time went on). Then he would be bedridden for as long as the doctors could keep him strapped to a bed, until he couldn’t take the people’s cries for help any longer, and would jump into action. (It’s also revealed he has something of a super hearing- able to hear danger- which may have been a form of danger sense of OFA that was never fully unlocked?. Either way, he surly could sense disasters happening while he could only lay and heal from his latest surgery. Those poor doctors must have had to re-stitch him several times). People blame him for not preparing society for his retirement, that he failed in passing on the torch so to speak, but in reality he did everything possible to keep society from falling for 40 years, doing all within his power just to keep things afloat. He is only one person. One human being, he can’t do everything despite trying to. Society failed All Might.

People blame him for not being a good teacher. He didn’t exactly have the greatest teacher himself to learn from. He’s never had to teach anyone anything, he just punches! He’s learning. And for his own credit, he’s an incredibly wise man, he has years of experience under his belt, and an intelligence score of 6/6, scoring up there with Nezu! He may not always have the right way to bring something up, but he’s doing his best. Yet even he blames himself for Izuku not being able to control his quirk better. Every time the boy hurts himself, it’s just another tally on the chalkboard of Toshinori’s failures. He himself knows the boy deserves better, better than him. Useless. Pathetic.

Then his friend from America, Dave, essentially became a villain trying to preserve Toshinori’s legacy after Toshinori told him about his injury. Dave went behind his back, threatened people, injured people (pretty sure people died), all for Toshinori’s sake. Something he didn’t want to begin with. Having to put your only other friend in jail for trying to help you surely couldn’t have been easy.

Oh, by the way? All For One isn’t dead. All Might will fight him again, publicly, have his weakened form exposed to the world, and have his own emotions toyed with as he finds out about his master’s grandson in the villain’s hands. Would Nana hate him for leaving her son alone like she’d asked, and dooming her grandchild to be raised by the greatest villain? Could he have done anything to save him? But Toshinori isn’t allowed to feel, he has to smile and push his own feelings aside once again, because there’s a villain to be fought, and only he can fight him. Despite coming out on top, he’ll have suffered severe head trauma, broken left arm, destroyed right arm, and several cuts and bruises that are sure to scar. And then, his quirk, the only thing that’s been allowing him to help people, the gift given to him that he carefully held for 40 years and molded into his own until his very consciousness was permanently carved into it, blows out like a match in the wind. And he’s done. Used up. Empty. Broken. Hollow. Alone, again.

He overhears his student, Bakugo, admit that he blames himself for All Might’s retirement. If he hadn’t been captured, All Might wouldn’t have had to save him, and he wouldn’t have had to fight AFO. Of course Toshinori knows that’s not true, his time was about to run out anyway. It would have happened one way or another. But how can he explain to this child that he wasn’t the cause of his hero, the world’s greatest hero, fighting for his sake, bleeding for his sake, being forced into retirement to keep him safe. Every time Bakugo sees the bandages covering Toshinori’s body is another reminder of the pain and sacrifice Toshinori willingly gave to keep him safe. Toshinori wasn’t held when his mentor died. He wasn’t told it was ok to be sad, that grief and mourning was a natural process, that it takes time to heal. He wasn’t told it was ok to cry. Instead his feelings were beaten out of him as he wondered if Gran Torino blamed him for Nana’s death. He already blamed himself How then, does he comfort a child mourning for him? For what he lost.

And then he gets the call to come to the hospital. Mirai, Nighteye, his old sidekick friend, has been gravely injured, much like he himself was only a few years ago, and most likely won’t survive the night. And to his horror, Nighteye is happy to see him, smiles at him, says he doesn’t hate him for what happened, only wants Toshinori to be happy. He can’t accept that, at least let him apologize, reconcile his sins before it’s too late! But it is. Another fractured piece of his heart gone.

Of course, seeing your students beat up and their arms completely destroyed must have hurt. Instead of being able to save these kids, they’re the ones that hurt themselves to save everyone else. And if Bakugo had kept OFA, things could have been very different (especially with what we know now of OFA and people with quirks). Toshinori wasn’t mad at Izuku for transferring it away, he’d never regret choosing Izuku, and I believe he still would have stayed by Izuku and Bakugo’s side should it have stayed in Bakugo, doing whatever he could to help.

As he tells Aizawa, “I’ve decided to live,” -that statement seems so melancholy, besides obvious reasons. It sounds more like another task he has to accomplish. He didn’t die he was supposed to die with the AFO fight, and now the whole life he lived is over. The world has no use for him anymore. If not for Izuku, he’d have nothing left keeping him here. But because his boy made him promise to live, he’ll do so. Though it almost seems like he says those words with regret. “I’ve decided to live.” Not, “I’m going to live!” “Nothing can kill me!” “I won’t go down without a fight!” No. “I’ll live if I have to, only because you asked me to.” The man is obviously and outwardly depressed. He has so many things against him. No doubt has severe PTSD, anxiety, among others. Not to mention his own physical health. Every day hurts. It’s painful to be alive. Why would he torture himself if he doesn’t have to? For you, my boy. You’re the only thing keeping me here. The only light in my dark world.

He tries to help Izuku find out the previous holder’s quirks, to help his boy in any way he can now that he’s worthless, and goes days on end without sleep, running his body into the ground. He even forgets Christmas. Only to find that by giving the boy the same gift he had received, he may have just doomed him to an early death, among psychological torture (danger detection). (Granted, he really doesn’t know how everything works, and he’s afraid to talk to anyone about it). His boy could live only half a life.

It’s only been a few months since he retired, and society has fallen into shambles. People are blaming him. People are dying. He watches helplessly as his colleague fight his fight for him, and end up battered, bruised, crippled, dead. He students, his boy, battle the monster he should have killed. Children are bleeding. This shouldn’t happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Is everything he worked for, everything he fought to protect, to build up, to inspire, is all for naught?! Did he live a foolish dream and doom the world? Was all the the friends he lost, tears he shed, the organs he destroyed, the pain he endures on a daily basis from the hole in his side, and the blood he continues to bleed every day, for nothing? The public, the ones he protected for so long, mourn his absence, but surely there are those among them who also blame him. The statue from his last fight in Kamino one that he never asked for was decimated in a mock of his catch phrase- the one that was supposed to give hope.

Now he can feel his own vestige speaking with Izuku in the OFA realm, even with out OFA in his own body anymore. His clock as nearly reached it’s limit, Nighteye’s prediction is due any day now. The only thing he wants is to see his boy smile at him, to give him some shred of hope. Yet the child remains unconscious, and Toshinori can’t even hold his hand from the bandages covering his arms. Will he still be able to fight? Is there any coming back from this now? Did I break him?

With all Toshinori has been through, I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen him just outright break down. Anyone, anyone, else should have crumbled under the pressure of holding up the world for 40 years alone. And instead of being able to pass it on to someone when he can no longer bear its weight, it simply falls to into the abyss. People don’t credit All Might enough for everything he’s done. Most don’t realize the sacrifices he’s made. His character is so unbelievably profound and deep, it’s more than just the “I am here!” people focus on. He’s a deeply troubled, layered, complex character. And I can’t find fault within him.

[sinkix]

Haikyuu!!│Obsessive/Yandere HC’s │

Warning - Contains dark themes, mentions of emotional and physical abuse & sexually suggestive/explicit (18+) content, reader’s discretion is advised.

Characters - Hinata, Kuroo, Daichi, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi, Oikawa, Bokuto, Tendou & Kageyama.

Important Note: This is in no way romanticising or normalising toxic/abusive behaviour, you should not do as such as this is incredibly dangerous and unhealthy. If you identify any of these in your own relationships please seek help from a member of authority, counsellor or someone who can remove you from and aid in your recovery from the situation. This is a great contrast from all my other work on here so please read with caution. Stay safe <3

Hinata - The Hell-bent Visionary

Danger level: 6.5/10

So you’ve caught the eye of Karasuno’s ray of sunshine?

Bask in it’s warmth while you can, for the sun sets and leaves a chilling dark in it’s wake.

When he becomes focused on something, it’s hard to break the dedication he has. It’s unyielding, firm and persistent. Once you light a fire in him, it’s near impossible to put out.

And you didn’t just spark a flame, you formed a whole inferno.

Blowing up your phone with texts, calls and the tapping of rocks against your bedroom’s glass from late night visits to your doorstep. Greeted with the sickening scent of blood-red roses filling your nose at a reminder of how firmly he has you in his hold that will never falter. The lingering scratch marks adorning the window panes that you could have sworn were not there the night before.

 He can’t get enough of you, and the more time he spends with you, the more addictive your presence becomes.

He’s hooked, reaching the point of rivalling his sporting passion.

He learns to balance the two equally, and any second that isn’t spent practising, he is by your side or doing everything in his power to be.

It’s tunnel vision. All he sees is you, and the ball, nothing else matters. Relentlessly chasing for both long after his lungs tire and legs give out.

 He is a dark, unwavering force of nature, itching to monopolise you and eradicate any threat on what belongs to him. Yet around everyone else, he's a bundle of lovable sunshine who wouldn't dare hurt a fly, and while he doesn't show an outright aggressive nature, you know there's something sinister lurking underneath that might one day snap. 

It’s his stare that haunts you the most.

That ominous, chilling stare which pierces through your heart and impales it on a stick, out on display for him to marvel at in all it’s vulnerable beauty. The level of intensity and sheer devotion glinting in his eyes is nothing short of haunting.

Luckily for you, Hinata will not cause physical harm, but it’s his presence and ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ nature which will slowly but surely chip away at you until your sanity is reduced to dust. The worst part? Since he is loved by everyone, no one sees the twisted side you do, and as a result left permanently in a state of self-doubt and second guessing. Your mind will eventually spiral into a descent to madness until your right where he wants you.

Be careful, for even the sun’s light burns out eventually. And when it does, you’ll be swallowed by the darkness.

Kuroo - The Devil’s Reciprocal

Danger level: 9/10

Ahhh, the bad boy who smells of cigarettes and sex, the one who lurks in bars long after midnight eyeing up his prey. This man gives Satan a run for his money. I hope you’re prepared. What did you do to catch his eye, anyway? 

Whatever it was, it’s doomed you to an eternity in hell on earth.

Or heaven, if you’re a glass half full kind of person.

Kuroo drew you in like a moth to a flame, you knew he had no glinting halo, but that was his appeal.

 He was the incarnation of everything your parents warned you about, and you couldn’t get enough of it. 

Hell, you still can’t. But that doesn’t minimise the damage done to you every second he turns the light on, reeling you in once again, further and further until there’s no escape, utterly blinded by his deceiving tactics.

He has many admirers, you know. So in his eyes he feels you should be privileged to be given so much of his attention, that once received would leave any sane person running.

Unfortunately, you don’t seem to be sane enough, and he recognises this. He knows he’s got you hooked on his every word, dragging out the syllables like a lullaby that leave you entranced and begging for more.

 What can I say? The man has a way with words, and you’re totally enthralled by every sentence. 

Kuroo recklessly waves his charm like a gun, never a moment of hesitation to utilise it in order to get what he wants. 

And he always gets what he wants. 

It’s so dangerous it will leave you down on your knees in an act of submission and prepared to do anything to please him. The tip of the pistol aimed at your temple as if daring your defiance.

He revels in seeing that doe-eyed expression, fully aware of how much control he holds over every cell in your body. All of them scream out for him, for Kuroo. To kiss you, touch you and whisper sweet-nothings into your ear that linger with his hot breath scathing your neck, burning his scent into your memory until it’s one you’ll never forget. 

With all that temptation comes  consequence though, because once you give in, you’ll face the sadists horns that lurk underneath. 

Intertwining your bodies and tracing a switchblade across your jugular, he’ll stretch his lips into a wide, cunning grin, slamming into you and rutting his hips until they connect with yours. Throwing your head back in ecstasy, your whine will be stifled and cut short by the piercing slit of a blade shallowly opening the skin of your throat, the sharp sting lingering as his tongue deepens the incision with delight.

He is incredibly possessive, so anyone he deems a threat will be mercilessly eradicated, soon to be forgotten though. He will never allow your thoughts to be consumed by anything but him. 

Grinding his body against yours, the husky murmuring of pillow talk he is all too skilled at will leaves your knees trembling and buckling before him, with the one question he will only ever accept one answer to.

“Tell me sweetheart, who do you belong to...?”

Shuffling the cards and dragging cigar smoke across his lips, he’ll sip that glass of gin snidely and lock you in place with his smouldering gaze. Forever a reminder there’s no escape from his enslaving curse.

Daichi - The Despotic Protector

Danger level: 6/10

Karasuno’s father figure and reliable captain rolled into one. I hope you’re prepared for a lifetime of suffocation, because he’s never letting you go.

He takes on an almost a parental role in the relationship, and a toxic one.

Controlling, overbearing and monitoring your every move. He will never allow you to do anything without his permission out of fear for your safety.

I mean, what if something happens to you while you’re not within his peripherals? 

That’s a thought he simply couldn’t bear.

He’ll lock you in the confines of his home if he has to. But don’t get mad sweetheart, it’s because he cares for you.

Soon enough Daichi will have isolated you from the world, never seeing the shining of sunlight unless your arm is looped around his in a crushing hold. 

Friends? You can forget them, he made sure to steer you far, far away from those. He just can’t risk them laying a finger on you or putting you in harms way, he would never forgive them.

Daichi desperately tries to convince you he has your best interests at heart, and unluckily for you, you fall right into his trap.

Your whole life is consumed by him, and only him. Watching the clock tick by aimlessly until you hear his footsteps up the driveway, scurrying to the door to greet him like an obedient dog upon his arrival.

Pulling you into a loving hug that threatens to squeeze the life out of you, you can’t help but let your mind roam and ponder the question lurking at the back of your thoughts.

Has he ever killed with these hands?

They seem too crushing. Like a brute, inhuman force. You can picture his fingers wrapped around someone’s throat and draining them of oxygen almost too easily.

Little did you know, your hypothesis was painfully accurate. 

An old childhood friend of yours, currently 6 feet under in the yard. Your bare feet trampling over his grave and none the wiser every time he allows you to set foot in the garden.

You’ll never know, though. It’s not like you can check your phone without his permission anyway, he’s already blocked their contact.

Days, weeks, months pass by of his constant monitoring and controlling behaviour. The CCTV’s scattered in every corner of the house, the social deprivation and loneliness that creeps in every time he’s not there as you roam the barren household, the purple finger marks roping your wrists from when he kept you in a paralysing grip,daring your disobedience.

and you can’t help but wonder,

Maybe the person you needed protecting from was him.

Tsukishima - The Mendacious Manipulator

Danger level: 8.5/10

How unlucky you are to be paired with this mentally destroying sadist. 

At first Tsukishima’s wit, sarcasm and clever quips were what allured you, never did you think they would be used against you. Wielded like a weapon with a blade sharp enough to slice you in two.

And I’m warning you, every cut hurts.

There’s no escaping from it, a string of degrading remarks whispered cruelly in your ear while holding hands in public, appearing to be a cute and affectionate couple, but a sinister secret lurks underneath that only you know of.

He’ll treat you like a dog, expecting you to be at his every beck and call, serving on your knees with a painted smile that’s woefully forced on with every ounce of strength you have left.

You are his puppet, his useless little play thing that he makes painfully aware of how disposable they truly are.

And don’t take him for a fool, he will discard you if he sees fit.

Unmerciful, cruel, snide, are the some of many words that can describe Tsukishima, and as you’ll soon find out none of them are pleasant.

He will craftily make you open up to him. Revealing your deepest insecurities,traumas and troubles then sheath it like a sword to your neck, holding you hostage to your own weaknesses in order to gain that empowering sense of control he oh-so revels in. Endlessly striving to achieve his selfish, favourable outcome. 

This Yandere is one of most intelligent of the bunch, and unfortunately for you, does not use his intelligence for charitable or good-natured purposes.

He knows exactly what to say to leave you curled up in a ball, tears streaming and wracked in emotional agony as you plead for forgiveness on something that isn’t even your fault. He knows this, but finds it comical and all too amusing to see you so broken over something when you weren’t the one to blame. He gets off to your mental anguish.

You’ll be left stumbling the streets at 2 in the morning, contemplating your life and everything as you know it, he will warp your perception of the world until he is the only one you can crawl to. After all, it’s your fault, right? He’s the only one who could tolerate you, everyone else abandoned you because you were so insufferable.

...is what he’ll have you believe. In reality, Tsukishima was pulling strings behind the scenes to ensure you would distance yourself from friends and family, resulting in them doing the same. Wrapping you around his finger and twisting your behaviour into one that’s volatile and unapproachable, until you’re left totally alone.

You’ll never know though.

That mental fortitude will soon shatter, and when it does, he’ll cackle at it’s pathetic remains.

Yamaguchi  - The Diffident Vampire

Danger level: 5/10

I’m sad to say, but your tween Twilight fantasies will be crushed when you stumble upon this mess of a monster.

I don’t mean to say he’s a literal vampire, but you’ll understand the use of this metaphor once we delve into some of his tendencies.

He is incredibly insecure, the walking embodiment of the very word.

Now that isn’t the reason you should be warded off, everyone has self-esteem issues. However, this trait of his plays a huge part in siphoning the life out of you.

He captured your heart with his soft and sympathetic nature, easily startled and somewhat skittish.

You didn’t see what was below the iceberg however, and once you did, he sank his teeth in and began to suck before you could escape, draining you dry until you have no more left to give. Nothing to spare until he is licking his lips in satisfaction, swelled with the abundance at the emotional dependency he has built up on you.

He needs reassurance like a life line, and while some might find this endearing at first, it undoubtedly becomes highly toxic and emotionally exhausting.  

Yamaguchi is incredibly volatile with his sensitivity, you have to watch your words and be sure he doesn’t misinterpret them and become dejected. He will read into everything you say and question every little detail. 

This is one of those Yandere’s that wouldn't do it intentionally I don’t think, but by the time he catches himself it’s too late, he’s in far too deep to stop and I don’t think he ever will once he realises how addicted he is to you, your words boosting his sense of worth and being the only form of confidence he’s ever felt in his life.

It’s quite sad, really. 

Don’t pity him too much, though. That’s the trap. That’s how reels you in until the teeth marks adorning your neck are a harsh reminder that you are nothing more than food for his ego.

If you ever think about leaving, he will have no qualms grovelling at your knees, razor to his wrists and begging you to stay. A cruel memoire at what keeps you tied here in the first place.

Pity.

Care.

The mutual empathy you saw in him that drew you in was now broken and one-sided, his selfishness far outweighing this trait of his and becoming your death-sentence. 

The marks will never fade. One day you’ll collapse to your knees and cave, but he won’t stop until he has bled you bare.

Oikawa - The Venusian’s Nightmare.

Danger level: 8/10

Oh charming Oikawa. The pretty boy with enough carnal seduction to rival his greek goddess counterpart. Hair smooth as silk, eyes glinting with mischief and a smirk that could bow you down on all fours. He has everything, or so it seems.

Sanity isn’t one of them.

He is VERY demanding when he craves your attention, which let’s face it is pretty often. If he doesn’t get it? Definition of a nightmarish brat.

He will whine, complain, blow up your phone. Still not available?

He’ll simply disappear.

For how long? Who really knows. He likes the thought of you on edge and anticipating his return, thoughts of him plaguing your mind to the point you question if you’re the one who’s obsessed.

Don’t worry though, when he returns he has enough sensual suave to make you forgive him ten times over.

You may think his bratty and sulking nature is the worst of it.

Oh how wrong you are.

Push him to his limits or the closest thing to it and you’ll face a cut-throat, teasing sadist who will tie you to the bed with a sickening sparkle in his eyes, marvelling at your skin jaggedly sliced open like a sheet of paper, tracing the wounds with his tongue and lapping up the blood before pulling you into a heated kiss which seems almost loving, if it weren’t for the metallic taste intertwining your tongues as a harsh reminder that you’re not here by choice.

He is definitely the type to mock you and howl with laughter as your body spams and writhes in pain, degrading you with the most vile remarks till tears spill from your eyes.

“Awh poor (Y/N)-chan, crying like a baby. Can’t handle the pain? What a pathetic little whore. Maybe if you beg enough, I’ll ease up the pressure~”

Sometimes he’ll leave you there wrist-bound to the bed post for hours, coming back in occasionally until your level of pleading satisfies him. 

His change in treatment is paradoxical in the aftermath, he will release you from your restrains and rub your skin with such tender care, it’s agonisingly deceiving.

One of the most dangerous things about him is his intuition, it’s damn near supernatural and makes for a natural born lie detector. Oikawa will sense the slightest shift in your mood, tone and body language. He knows you like the back of his hand, making it all the more unnerving to be in his presence.

This can be a positive if he is looking to fill you with ecstasy, since he knows every sweet spot, curl of his fingers and words to whisper that leave you trembling in mind-numbing pleasure.

Though you know once coming down from your high, your moments of heaven will slip through your fingers before crashing back down to reality.

He can read you like a book that he wrote with his own hands and it’s horrifying, he can predict what you’re going to say or do before you’ve even made up your mind. Which as you can guess, makes escape or wheedling out of a threatening scenario a null alternative.

If you decide to make the suicidal mistake of lying, your body will never quite function the same once he’s through. not to mention the plethora of emotional scarring that comes along with it.

After catching you in your mendacity and deeming your punishment enough, he’ll decorate your body in cuts, bruises and hickeys that throb from the abuse of his teeth. Laying you down in bed and tucking you in gently, wrapping an arm around in an act of ‘protection’ that was formerly wrapped around your throat in an act of threatening asphyxiation.

Eyes fluttering closed hours after he drifted off beside you, your heart rate quells and the tears staining your cheeks dry, preparing for the repeated cycle when the sun rises. 

How foolish to be lured in by such a facade, even the most beautiful of creatures can be hideous. 

Bokuto -  The Volcanoes Slaughter

Danger level: 9.5/10

The ticking of a time bomb, the cracking of the ground beneath your feet.

Once you are swept up in this man’s wrath you know there will never be an escape.

and he’s fucking terrifying.

His energy and vigour were what charmed you, his upbeat enthusiasm that while volatile, was very contagious and encouraging. 

If only you had known what kind of disaster was laying low under the surface.

Akaashi had tried to warn you, but you simply never listened.

He pities you now, for you’re in the same boat as him.

Eternally putting up with his violent tempers and erratic nature, which you often get the brunt of behind closed doors, left to cover the scars with a scarf and cheap pot of concealer.

His moods switch as quick as the direction of the wind, a gust too strong that leaves you flying back like a ragdoll against the wall.

Or that may just be because he actually threw you in a fit of rage, itching to see your limp body crack against the drywall to soothe his rage. Drowning the voices in his head with the sound of your soothing whimpers filled with agony.

While he may beat you black and blue whenever the overflow of emotions take over, he still does ‘care’ for you in his own sickening way, and would never have any qualms snapping a neck or two if it prevented anyone else laying a finger on you.

Though to be honest it’s the furthest thing from care, it’s downright monopolisation of something he deems his object.

How dare they hurt his personal punching bag, don’t they know you’re his and his alone to mark up in any way he pleases?

To everyone else, he seems like a very loving and protective boyfriend who has the occasional mood swing. If only they could pick up on the flinching of your body when his voice raises even a decibel, or the way you retract in fear at the swatting of a hand too close to your face. 

The anxiety felt when in his presence is indescribable, your whole body will soon become accustomed to trembling in fear, your fight or flight kicking in at the mere mention of his name. His voice sends every hair standing on end, bracing for the impact that may or may never come from his grazed fists.

Treading on eggshells and analysing every word before you speak will become second nature, even the tone of your voice or the way you arrange a question will be heavily thought over before even daring to let it escape your mouth.

You just can’t risk it, even hearing a word he doesn’t like will result in the tectonic plates shifting, getting closer to his impending eruption.

Once you hear the rumbling, you’ll know it’s far too late to run. Burned by the raging lava and consumed whole in a flood of pain and misery, it will destroy everything in it’s wake, even you.

Tendou - The Jesters Despair

Danger level: 10/10

You really opened pandora’s box with this one.

And once you so much as cracked it for a peak, just that little inkling of curiosity, the lanky arm of a redhead yanked your wrist and dragged you in with him.

Tendou’s eccentric and offbeat disposition was something you had always admired, it was what made your heart flutter.

Now? That eccentricity is put to the most horrifying of uses.

Mind games, manipulation, and unpredictability beyond your worst nightmare.

Tendou is the type to sink a blade into your skin and cackle maniacally while you cry and plead for him to stop. Edging himself and eyeing you up greedily at the painful fear in your eyes, blood trickling down your skin with each incision.

He’ll pull your hair back and slide his tongue along the cuts, his lustful gaze boring into your own as the pooling saliva leaves a chilling feeling on your skin, nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought of his DNA entering your bloodstream.

He thrives on trickery and deception. He’s the type to say something incredibly warm and soft-centred, one that makes your pupils expand in newfound hope with the question of “...really?” rolling off your tongue. That inkling of hope sparking the thought that maybe, just maybe he’s changed. 

Only to burst into a fit of laughter at your naivety, teasing you relentlessly for how gullible and moronic he thinks you are. 

This yandere is incredibly incalculable. Here one minute, gone the next. Don’t even bother trying to figure out what he’s doing or where he is, you’ll never know. It keeps you on your toes in the most negative and unnerving sense of the expression, he gets a buzz off leaving you wondering, and takes great satisfaction in knowing you’re probably thinking about him.

 However, he expects you to be there whenever he needs you, regardless of circumstance. And if you’re not? You’ll have consequences to face.

I’m sorry to say, but there is no chance in hell you’re surviving this experience, there’s no doubt you’ll be murdered eventually. 

After all, he does get bored easily. Not so much as giving it a second thought on disposing of you once you are no longer a source of fresh entertainment for his sadistic desires.

With each passing day his treatment becomes increasingly brutal, searching for new ways to fulfil that empty feeling in his heart and cold, hollow look in his eyes. Don’t even bother trying to save him, not even he would know where to start.

Every night as you shut your eyes on the hardwood floor beside his bed, you can’t help but wonder if this is the last time you’ll ever close them.

And for your sake? You’d better hope it is.

Charming you with the humour of a Jester and putting on a show, he’ll make it certain every time you laugh, will be paid back with tears twofold. 

Kageyama - The Majesties Tyrant

Danger level: 7/10

Kneel before your highness or face his wrath. Kageyama Tobio is the most commanding of them all. Permanently trapped in his dictatorship with no hope of revolt. 

He doesn’t become set on things very often, but once he does it’s something he’ll never give up until he’s conquered it wholly.

Stubborn, moody, domineering and demanding. With just enough of a soft side he uses to persuade you back again. 

Fuelled by ego, pride, and a sense of superiority, he will never stop until he has your total obedience.

Being the dense man he is, this is usually achieved through simplistic means of intimidation and threats of aggression.

Kageyama will not hesitate to raise his fist and back you into a corner, cowering in recoil at his menacing aura that itches to do damage

You will do what he says, whenever he needs it, no if’s but’s or objections.

For such a hard headed ruler, he’s surprisingly childish and unsure about how to express anything other than abuse.

I think a part of him genuinely does like you, but it’s far too clouded by his toxic nature that it could never be seen as even slightly redeemable.

The most you’ll ever get out of Kageyama is the occasional hug, in which he squeezes you far to tight and resurfaces the pain of last nights bruises.

He doesn’t resort to physical violence often, as he is always reprimanded by the team to control his anger. If only they knew what he was like behind closed doors. I suppose you could credit it to Karasuno that he hasn’t accidentally killed you yet.

Yet.

When it comes to matters in the bedroom, he is focused solely on his own gratification, yours being a second thought he never so much as acknowledges.

Collared and threaded by  chain, you will crawl beside him and take it all until you’re gasping for air. The only thing he cares about is climaxing and leaving you with the cleanup.

He’s quite self conscious, so don’t expect much physical affection unless he’s chasing a particularly intense release.

Kageyama is highly jealous and frequently painted green with envy, so expect your social life to dwindle significantly once he has his hands on you, literally and metaphorically.

Thankfully, he won’t isolate you entirely, but it’s enough to leave you feeling segregated from the rest of the world. A lone member of his regime that you are forever trapped in with no chance of escape.

Bow down with a meek mutter of “Yes...master.” His crown will twinkle in the moonlight as a symbol of your everlasting enslavement.

The king of the court, and the ruler of your heart.

[fandomoverdrive]

Okay I just need to go on a rant about Whirl because I love him he might just be the most tragic character in the entirety of MTMTE and considering the candidates that’s a pretty hard position to cinch. Some of this is gonna have mentions re: self harm, suicidal tendencies/ideation, overall bad coping mechanisms etc so if that’s not your cuppa please scroll on. 

This gets long so here’s the obligatory read more. 

Let’s write “tragic” in flickering neon letters with the fact that Whirl’s first appearance in MTMTE, dropping the titular “how to say goodbye and mean it,” is a personal soliloquy delivered as he’s in the midst of constructing his own funeral pyre. Whirl is lost, directionless, trapped and unwilling to be such in a postwar environment. But how did we get here? 

Whirl is without a doubt a driven character. In the prewar functionist society, he had no qualms switching careers, risks be damned. Whether he’s always had a knack for disobeying authority or was simply driven by passion or both isn’t elaborated on, but he’s got a hell of a hardheaded streak that’s impossible to ignore. When destroying his business wasn’t enough to deter him from further rebellion, the Senate was happy to turn him into an empuratee and destroy not only the opportunity but the capability of continuing to rebel by pursuing his passion. This is what I’d personally consider the big ‘whump’ moment, less so the use and abuse as a pawn that followed but the point of trauma at which we begin to see Whirl’s psyche begin to twist.

From this point forward we see Whirl in and out of prison, let loose when he can be useful to someone else’s ploy and otherwise incarcerated for a buffet of offenses. No longer able to be constructive and having little if any control of his life, Whirl becomes aggressively destructive. In response to having everything he aspired toward ripped away from him, permanently, he builds a mental defense of bitterness and anger and paves over his black hole of self worth with a veneer of outright assholery. It’s here that he bares his metaphorical fangs and pushes - with gusto - anyone who might even suggest they’re trying to appeal to reason or get close to him as an individual. 

It’s hard to imagine, given even subtly different circumstances, that Whirl would not side with the decepticons for the war. While he’s single-handedly responsible for radicalizing Megatron towards violence, the ‘con intent at the start of revolution - that movement in society should be possible and a caste system based on alt mode is unethical - aligns quite nicely with what he’d already aspired to do with his life. His conscription to the side of the autobots is just another instance in which his autonomy is cast aside. 

Whirl is a tool. Whirl had a passion for watchmaking, but now he can’t, so his new passion is violence. Whirl is a gun and someone else has always told him where to point and all he’s ever been given for his cooperation is the blame of pulling the trigger. Whirl is an asshole, Whirl is unpredictable, Whirl isn’t a mech anybody would ever think twice about saving - the answer would always be no. Whirl wants to die. Whirl only wants to die on his own terms and he’ll be damned if he’s going to keel over under the orders of someone he doesn’t respect, for a cause he doesn’t believe in. 

A few years of this sort of treatment would be enough to drive anyone insane, let alone the millennia of warfare he suffered through. Worse yet is the one time he found a group, a team that was known for the unorthodox and taking on the big messy challenges, the Wreckers kicked him out. Whirl was too much for the mechs that were too much and there’s no way in hell that doesn’t still sting. 

That’s how we get here:

Whirl defends himself through isolation from others. He can’t be hurt by others if he never lets them close enough to be hurt by. In a hypersocial society, he has no close long-term friends, he is one of the few with no roommate aboard the Lost Light. He made himself as unpalatable as possible. He’s crass, he’s volatile, he makes it clear with every word and action that Whirl is first, you don’t mean anything, I’d leave you for dead in an instant..... But that’s not true, is it? 

Whirl is shown being completely, dramatically, self-destructively caring throughout the series. Between risking his life for the scraplet colony disguised as a protoform, participating in an untested spark jumpstart to save a life, coming up with a plan to rejuvenate Tailgate’s spark, and performing a spark transplant surgery on Megatron - without whom the world would never have been even a fraction as cruel to Whirl as it had been - Whirl is far from the most selfish character in the series. It’s in his nature, however, to deny such, to the point where he more than likely believes his own narrative that he’s irredeemable, self-absorbed, invincible, degenerate, and neither capable nor deserving of close interpersonal relationships. 

It’s also how we get here:

Whirl is one of the characters that we more frequently see in a state of disrepair. He fights passionately and recklessly, with no regard whatsoever to whether or not he makes it out of a scrum with all his limbs intact. Injuries like these, and those that he experiences elsewhere in the series, would put other mechs out of commission through pain alone, but as long as Whirl is conscious he doesn’t stop until the fight is over. 

As depressing as it is to think that Whirl is simply at this point accustomed to extraordinary pain, it’s even moreso to think about the more likely concept that he wants to be hurt. Whirl doesn’t have control of a lot that happens to him, but do you know what he does have control of? Who he chooses to shit-talk. More often than not we see Whirl being blatantly disrespectful of his superiors, and some of the more dangerous mechs aboard the LL. While obviously his intent when insulting Ultra Magnus isn’t to start a fight, harping on Drift (and subsequently getting cold clocked) or Cyclonus is a little more self-destructive in nature. 

While Whirl has been in therapy, we see during the encounter with Fort Max that he’d shared very little of what he actually considered traumatic with Rung. With no material to work with, Rung wouldn’t have been able to give Whirl instructions or advice as far as a healthy coping mechanism, and so I’m firmly of the belief that Whirl goes out of his way to get himself hurt as a way to have a vague sense of control. 

On his actions and guilt:

Whirl is immensely guilty. When he’s overcharged, he admits that everything feels like his fault - and unfortunately a lot is. Whirl believes he’s the bad guy, and he’s willing to take the fall for actions that others might find immoral. There’s a lot Whirl has done that he’ll likely never forgive himself for, even if he garnered the ability to start forgiving himself for the small things, but the character he’s created for himself has been part of him for so long that it’s near impossible to tell where to draw the line between caricature and his genuine self. 

At this point in time, Whirl is not capable of improving himself without external assistance. 

He has accepted (however wrongfully) that he is not cared about, trusted, wanted, or respected. 

His assumptions become self-fulfilling prophecy as he - consciously or not - works to perpetuate his image. Whirl is a dick, he’s unfazed by anything anyone says about him, if someone is insulting him they’re probably right, why bother arguing unless it’s with the intent to get in a fight? He doesn’t pay attention to others, he doesn’t pay attention to himself, nothing that anybody could say could possibly make a difference. 

Right? Right?

Wrong. Part of what makes Whirl so heart-wrenchingly tragic is that it is so incredibly clear that nobody has ever told him he mattered. Rodimus throws out what could be interpreted as a snide remark, “even the crazy bastard makes a difference,” and that aside sticks with him. Millions of years of warfare, of being a tool to use, an expendable soldier, a rabid dog to throw at their enemies, and not once did someone turn around and say he was anything good. He’s been thanked for saving lives, for contributions, for individual acts, but his reaction to Rodimus really cements in my mind that nobody has ever said that he, that Whirl, was important. 

Whirl is a broken character. He’s subsumed by his own self-hatred that he perpetuates and justifies with a mask of cruel indifference and aggressively abrasive snark. He’s alone, by what he thinks is his own choice but is really a horribly misguided attempt to keep himself safe. He’s got no potential for growth unless someone wants to force their way through his defenses in order to help him find the line between who he is and who he pretends to be in order to keep from being hurt. Whirl is terrified of abandonment, and guarantees that nobody will ever be able to leave him by never letting them come close to begin with. He’s not a good person, he’s violent and callous and has little regard for the consequences of his actions, but he is that way because of the life he was forced to lead. He falls into consistent patterns because he craves control, even if those patterns are self destructive. It’s proof of the little growth he was allowed during the course of MTMTE/LL that after their quest was over, he didn’t attempt suicide again but instead got into the revolving door of incarceration for petty offenses. 

All in all, Whirl is one of the saddest characters in any media I’ve consumed and please someone get this despicable bastard helicopter a new therapist and a stiff drink