#they're not *bad* parents though

[jaytriesstrangerthings]

House and Pet Sitting

wc: 569, stranger things, steve harrington centric

They’re not bad parents. Not really, they were around most of the time and always made sure he had all his necessities when they went on their trips. Up until he was 16 and had his own license they always made sure someone stayed home with him. They paid for his gas and all the bills and they didn’t ask much of him. He’s always done his best to make them proud and once in a while they say they are. But it never feels genuine, always kinda feels like they’re following a script, like a friend said “you must be so proud of Steve,” and they had to think about whether or not they’d ever said those words to Steve.

They never hit him, he always had food, and they waited until he was 18 to cut him off. Even then he got to stay on their health insurance and they let him stay at the house rent free.

So no, they’re not bad parents. And they love him, in their own way. But sometimes it feels like he’s more of a convenience than anything else. It’s nice to have him around at the house when they’re away because he can keep the pool clean and the yard mowed and he can make sure the food doesn’t go bad and make sure their closets stay moth free.

There are worse parents. Sure there are better ones too, but there are worse parents. He should be grateful. They never hit him and they always made sure there was food, even if it was just cereal or frozen corn dogs, there was always something to eat growing up.

Yes his dad would make passive aggressive comments about his athletic performances and his eating habits, sure his mother would ask how school was going only to forget having asked and ask again. It could be worse. That’s what Steve tells himself, it could be worse.

“It could be better, though,” Robin argues as they cuddle on the living room couch one night in early summer. 

They have their own apartment now, still in Hawkins but it’s theirs and until they have a solid plan it works. His parents asked him to house sit for a weekend. They’ve been home a lot more and Steve sees them just as much as when they were constantly traveling despite being in the same town.

They need the pool taken care of and their new dog fed.

They never let Steve get a dog, they shed, and they’re loud, and they’re messy. But they have one now. A sweet border collie that sheds like nobody's business and barks at every passing squirrel and butterfly.

She’s a good dog, loves to cuddle and play and is overall very well behaved. She gets fed better food than Steve ever did, some fancy dog food that Steve would be willing to bet taste better than the frozen corn dogs his parents stocked the house with while he was growing up. It’s fine, Steve’s fine. It only bothers him a little that his dad is more aware of the dog's birthday than Steve’s.

Eddie keeps insisting that Steve should stop house sitting, especially if they aren’t going to pay or even feed him. But Steve doesn’t think he’d even interact with them if they didn’t need him from time to time. If he can’t be wanted, he’ll be needed.

[anna-scribbles]

they should've been at the club(infertility treatment centers)

[littlebitofdnd]

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak

[shannonsketches]

The way I will simply never recover from this page:

Vegeta's Panic and then IMMEDIATE affection for his new baby

Vegeta being excited to have a daughter

Goku assuming his wife Magic'd their children out of herself

Supreme Kai being embarrassed for Goku

Beerus getting wasted

Bulma saying she will raw dog her husband frequently and expeditiously with her whole chest, in front of god and everybody

Whis being like 'i gotchu babe 💅 but i gotta borrow ur man first or there'll be no more boning for anybody lol'

[anonymous-force]

more ponies I drew from my old sketches

[missmolsa]

At it again with my favorite worsties!!!! Divorce when

[bolly--quinn]

I’m so curious about your headcanons of Diane, personality, her history with Rick, etc.

tbh I’ve been seeing content of Diane being “a sweet and gentle bimbo housewife with 2 braincells” and I grew tired of it…. So I thought of this!! For me I like to think that she was a cool and badass woman rather than a shy, timid woman… I also think it’s somewhat canon (according to the fandom) that she’s the breadwinner of the family (haven’t figured out her job yet) while Rick is a stay-at-home parent and takes care of Beth, also she’s intelligent!!! Not as smart as Rick though but like she’s not airhead.

What do you think ?? and what are your thoughts on Diane ? <3

I mean I knew Diane wasn't gonna be an airhead since we know Rick is attracted to power lol (like Unity says it's planning to become the universe, practically a god and Rick is like super into it so obviously Diane has to have some semblance of ambition and the ability to take charge lmao)

I'll be honest though I didn't love her depiction in Fear no mort (obvious reasons are obvious) but I did always picture her as a woman who could handle herself and is sarcastic and teasing (affectionately) and strong-willed

I actually wrote stuff in my notes app about their dynamic and made this little venn diagram about it

bonus: here's the personality traits that I think Beth gets from them

[serpentface]

What's the Wardi cultural take on Akoshos sleeping with/partnering with/marrying other Akoshos?

It's not highly regulated to a degree that there are overwhelming cultural norms about it. There's a lot of societal focus on akoshos being theoretically suitable sexual partners for both men and women due to being dual-gendered, but not to an extent that relationships with One Another are stigmatized.

They also largely get to escape from the most severe concerns about penetrator/penetrated power dynamics because they're not regarded as Men (they're regarded as dual-gendered, and they're a female social class on every practical level), there's no status of manhood to Lose by receiving sexual penetration. The only real thing you see in that department is people assuming that one acts as 'the man' and one acts as 'the woman', but this is largely due to preoccupation with a notion of sex being Penetration With A Penis (and that Penetration With A Penis means that one person is in a Man's Role and one person is in a Woman's Role). But this will not be regarded as unnatural as in same-gender male relations, akoshos will Have to take up a position in this sexual dichotomy if they want to have Real Sex (Penetration With A Penis) with each other, and this is not unnatural and doesn't involve gaining or losing status since they are simultaneously male and female, not men.

So like you might see individual culture critics finding stuff to nitpick about it as their annoyance of the week or a singular Guy here or there who thinks it's weird, but this isn't a widespread norm. The vast majority of people don't give a shit about akoshos having sex with each other. The worst thing you're likely to experience Solely by virtue of being in an akoshos-akoshos relationship is someone asking you (probably with genuine curiosity) which one does the man stuff and which one does the woman stuff.

Akoshos also don't experience Hard expectations for marriage (though there are societal pressures that make marriage an attractive safety net all the same, ESPECIALLY marriage to a man) so unofficial life-partnerships between akoshos are pretty much the Only same gender partnerships between unwed people that are going to go unquestioned. ((Sworn brotherhood is technically a same gender life partnership for men that is Functionally similar to marriage (in that it's a kin-making practice between unrelated adults), but the tradition is Built upon the assumption that both parties will be married to women and that a primary goal of this kinship is to provide security for both parties' wives and children)). Marriage obligations in general are more lax in the economically secure but not Wealthy lower mercantile classes (as obligations to support and perpetuate one's family are universal, but these obligations can be filled simply by having at least One son who can get hitched, and marriages in the lower classes have no political functions and therefore there's less reason to ensure All your children are wed (there's still incentives like dowry, but this is not desperately needed when a family is economically secure)). So akoshos in this class group tend to have a Lot more freedom in terms of their life arrangements and chosen partners (though still experience the limiting frameworks of structural misogyny in other capacities).

The only thing that is out of the picture is akoshos/akoshos marriage. Marriage in this society has a predominantly reproductive function, the concept of reproductively non-viable marriages is generally considered absurd. This is not JUST this culture's form of homophobia, as marriage is a very practical arrangement at its core - both in a reproductive capacity and as bedrock for the patriarchal blood-kinship family system that forms the core social unit. The idea of same gender marriage isn't just absurd because 'ewwww weird' it's like, that Cannot work within this system, it Cannot fill core functions of what a marriage intends to do here, the ways on which marriage and kinship are BUILT makes same gender marriage practically (rather than just socially) untenable.

The sole exception to the 'marriage = reproductively viable" rule is that akoshos can be married to men (which in practice is almost always as a remarriage after a man has secured At Least an heir). This has a Little bit of internal logic here in that they perform predominantly female social roles (thus are suited to being a wife, even if they can't bear children) (and also on practical levels of them having the same legal status as women) but it's really more of a 'this is just how it's always been' kind of thing. A lot of the older pre-Wardi identity dual-gender roles that got mashed together under the 'akoshos' name would have involved marriage to a man as a second wife/concubine, in addition to his primary wife who would bear his children. Men potentially having multiple spouses has not been retained as a cultural practice, but the notion that an akoshos Can be a wife to a man has survived into modern day legal and doctrinal practices around marriage.

So like this being said, marriage as it is legally defined is only between a man and a woman, a man and an akoshos, or a woman and an akoshos. In practice the latter two are comparatively VERY rare- a man/akoshos marriage cannot provide children (though an akoshos can practically fulfill all other obligations and duties of a wife), a woman/akoshos marriage Can provide children (and while akoshos cannot function as a male heir, these children Will take their akoshos-parent's family name (though the wife retains her father's family name)), but akoshos are legally grouped with women in terms of rights and privileges (including being permanently under legal domain of their father unless they have been legally handed off to a male husband) and Cannot provide hard power patriarchal support that this family system is built upon and therefore depends upon, which makes these marriages socio-economically insecure. They can obviously still be a good partner and parent, but this is not the same as having the Legal hard power of a patriarch.

Akoshos marrying each other would be reproductively and socially nonviable, and is treated as a similarly absurd concept to a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman. It's just not a part of the marriage and kinship framework, it's not a thing that you can Do.

[tricoufamily]

a current day nils and a 90s college student nils who's way too intense about his internship walk into a bar

[tatsumi-rin]

Moral Orel doesn't seem 100% like a show I'd feel seen in if you don't know me but then I remember the episode with the special ed kids and underneath the usual satire on extremist bible belt religion it reminds me WAY too much of how actual special ed departments treated me and other kids growing up.

Like the writers must HAVE BEEN THERE IN LIFE, man. I'd kill to sit down with Dino Stamatopoulos and find out what the fuck inspired him and the other writing staff that day.

[mothraranger]

I read one fic and now I ship the Animated versions of Ratchet and Ultra Magnus, I shit you not...

...aaannd I wanna give them a kid or two!

[susandsnell]

my hot take on Lizzie: the Musical is that the love story becomes infinitely more compelling the more actors/the production lean into Alice's flaws and selfishness rather than presenting her as some fragile little flower who's the voice of reason (tag novel below)

[fourfoldfires]

"greystone, eh? that's a name that wouldn't sound amiss belonging to one of my people." "it's not as glorious as you might think, master belanger."

(clementain belanger, wandering duskwight bard // aveline greystone, knight of house haillenarte)

[welcometoteyvat]

jing yuan and yanqing are giving zhongli and xiao if the latter’s canon relationship was Actually fanon’s made up father figure/adopted child dynamic

[adore-gregor]

ayyy

[blackjackkent]

Feeling weirdly anxious about having my parents visiting from Maryland for the holiday weekend. I'm definitely still not fully settled in the house yet and it's really the first time I've ever had them as proper guests in any place I've been living; usually I go to their place for holidays and such.

It'll probably be fine but bleh.