#things don't become true just because we want them to be

[thewul]

Let's see what could they be doing, we have Joe Cool there pretending not to feel the cold, Johnny Bravo toying with his phone trying to score some additional buzz when he stands up, it's a valid technique, Blondie is upset that's her thing, comes with the Blondie package, and cat vs rain, that's the only thing happening

Chilled buzz, we needed to name the technique, works best when freezing outside with empty pockets, evading the po while scrubbing a little weed, there should be a diploma for dat

Well looking back at it I did a Bachelor, Post Grad, Masters, maybe it's a PhD that I have, and it applies to anything else really

You should see the amphitheaters that we have, they're big like a neighborhood, and on any street corner you have amazing graduates

So I think Blondie here is broke she's setting her only friends who know people for weed, Joe Cool is there because if everything else goes bust he can still bum smokes, and Johnny Bravo is there on business trying to sell some weed that he put in a zip lock so it doesn't get wet, eventually cops will show up and leave, by now they're part of the scenery

The cat he has 9 lives he seen plenty of them and is wondering what cat will score them for his count

Blondie… She so mean at scrubbing she makes her own hair dye

Look at Joe Cool, weatherproof, the more it's freezing the more he's out on the streets, stone cold is a thing, he could fuzzy a Nautica jacket at the nearest restaurant where he is checking if his parents are not having dinner, and sell it why keep it for, with his round glasses like that, John Lennon weasel

Ah here they come, what are we doing here can we see some ID, Johnny Bravo his father is a firefighter knows everybody in the force, Joe Cool both his parents are professors at Harvard and his accent is so thick it's a chance he doesn't claim all of Boston, and Blondie goes am just a girl, right, scoring crumbs from a bread basket

No but that's loitering, define loitering vs the right to freedom of movement as stipulated by the universal declaration of human rights, Joe Cool he doesn't have a thing to lose, if you book him that's material for his poems, blog or whatever

Whatever you're not moving, so if I make one step and one step back am moving right? Guess who has a 6 figures lawyer mother, Blondie does, Johnny Bravo he's just watching that's his set up you just stepped into

Are you going to book the cat too? See that's Joe Cool becoming nasty he's after his material

It's true what he says smiles Johnny Bravo now that you're boxed, his old man is retired but still higher up than your junior ass working the streets, at what night shifts, that nobody wants, that's it you're cooked don't stay too late, bye bye

Thank God he didn't call me Officer cuz it's lawsuit talk, yeah we know you

Infiltrate Palace? [confirm (X)]

[genderqueerdykes]

tired transmasc from earlier. My discomfort with those who believe in "transandrophobia" is not from self-hate nor from radfems. It’s from listening to transfems. And I don’t believe men or masculinity are bad at all!! I am in community with with men and mascs and with women + fems all the time. It’s just plain ignorant to say we don’t have male privilege and are actually oppressed for being men. We do have privilege. The whole "everyone is saying men are evil!!" thing sounds so much like incel behaviour it’s really off putting.

hello again! thanks for dropping by, let me see if i can help explain things better, and as to why it's not okay to put down other trans men and deny that they are experience oppression just because you, one person, believes they are not. dont take this personally, but much like gravity, you not believing in it doesn't mean it's not happening. it's happening, you're just refusing to acknowledge it. this is the equivalent of plugging one's ears and humming when someone else starts talking

i'm gonna call this behavior for what it is, because yourself & every other self-flagellating trans man & transmasc who says transandrophobia doesn't exist because it belittles trans women are just hurting people ON PURPOSE with a thin guise of saying "listen to trans women!!!!!" i really hope you understand that trans women can see through that. we can tell that you're doing this specifically to hurt people, not to give trans women a platform to stand on. you think you are telling people to listen to trans women, but what you are doing is SILENCING trans men & mascs in order to do that. you can't do that to your own gender. you're silencing yourself in the process. you're participating in transmasculine erasure and this is not a good thing. don't be proud of that. don't be proud of erasing the things your siblings go through.

I have to be really, really honest with you and tell you that this kissing up to trans women for brownie points stuff is really, really obvious and none of us like it. Like I'm not being mean. Please don't take this in a sarcastic tone. I am stock serious when I say that trans women & transfems can tell when you are doing things to pander to us to act like you care about transfems and transfemininity. We can tell this is desperate virtue signalling to not look transmisogynistic and nothing else. I'm serious. You are hating people on purpose with the guise of trying to help trans women. You do not have to silence someone else in order to let trans women talk and listen to them.

If you do not want transfems & trans women to be silenced: do not silence someone else. You do not solve this problem by silencing someone else. We solve the problem by listening to each other, not forcing the other to sit in silence while only one person talks. You don't solve the problem by doing that exact thing to someone else. You're creating a new problem.

privilege is a power structure, trans men do not suddenly shoot up from oppressed woman to neurotypical cishet white able bodied man in terms of status in society. i need people to get this into their heads that trans men do not and will not ever shoot directly up the privilege ladder and instantly become abusive and predator and holding power over all the other queers. like this is completely fabricated. you can stop believing that now, it's quite literally made up by trans/rad fems because they do not interact with trans men irl to see that they struggle.

trans men are not oppressed for being men: they're oppressed for being TRANS men. the trans part is what they're being oppressed for. do you not see transmascs and trans men as trans? because if so that is highly disturbing. and don't call that "regular transphobia" because that's not true and you know it isn't trans men and mascs are oppressed... for being TRANS men. seriously. you gotta stop focusing on "men bad" so hard that you literally forget that trans men are trans. back it up. like seriously i'm dead serious. back it up one step. before you focus on the "man" part, think about the "trans" part and how you're basically denying that trans men are trans because you are so wrapped up in radfem hate. TRANS men do not become cis men after they come out. they don't become cis men after transitioning. this, quite literally, is transandrophobia. what you said right there is an example of transandrophobia. sober up, you are not thinking clearly.

the thing is that we do not have male privilege wholesale as a group. that is a lie you have been told. you have to realize most trans men never gain any form of cishet male privilege. some trans men may pass well, but if the word gets out that they're trans, they are no longer respected or viewed as a man at all. especially if you're a man of color. trans men may have an amount of privilege depending on the situation, like being someone's manager, but it is not male privilege in every situation, nor is it anywhere near the privilege that cishet perisex white abled men have.

when we have this type of conversation, we are assuming that all trans men are 100% cis passing who will never be questioned. which happens, but that does not mean those trans men do not struggle. in fact, trans men like that suffer greatly in terms of reproductive care. cis passing trans men are often outright denied reproductive care, and some need that to live. some need to see a gynecologist for a variety of reasons, and being a cis passing man can shoot you in the foot. trans men struggle in health care almost universally. trans men are constantly misgendered in medical settings, and are very often treated as though they are cis women by medical staff no matter what. trans men and mascs are also very commonly assaulted by doctors and other medical professionals

most trans men do not get paid more at their jobs. trans men struggle to get promotions. trans men struggle to get employment in male dominated fields. most trans men still deal with homelessness, sexual assault, physical assault, domestic violence, addiction, misogyny and more. trans men deal with corrective rape. trans men deal with stalking. trans men do not magically have it better in society the second they come out. it creates a whole new host of problems

gaslighting strangers and telling them they're not being abused and oppressed isn't helping anyone. i'm serious. please stop this behavior because you are the one hurting people. care about trans men and mascs. you don't have to throw transmascs and trans men under the bus in order for trans women to be heard. we don't need to be pandered to like this. it's not flattering or helping anyone. you don't need to kiss up to people who literally hate your gender.

i need you to understand that people who talk like this hate transmascs and trans men. they don't like you. they don't care about you. leave those kinds of environments. you're going to regret it if you don't. if you're thinking about your oppression aaalllll day long its all you're ever gonna see and eventually, it's gonna crush you under its weight. be careful. that's dangerous thinking.

[sassy-radio-hazbin-queen]

Ok I am going to talk about something that's been on my mind recently.

Major warning ⚠️ might get deep.

Also ADHD RAMBLING SORRY IN ADVANCE 😔

Regarding Alastor and the Seven year absence. Ok so I see how In some recent posts people say Alastor must feel forgotten by the Hasbin crew, cause When Sir Pentious and Dazzle died they got a portrait and a statue. While Alastor got nothing. And Charlie thought he had died too.

But while that is true I'm surprised no one talks about how Alastor already felt Forgotten long before the fight. I'm talking about when he finally got home after 7 years disappearance.

My boy didn't get a Welcome home,( although he did get one from Carmilla later on)or a " Hey are you ok". Nothing. What does he get. Pushed around, Judged ( though it's quite understandable it's still wrong) and even told that he basically didn't matter. Remember the scene between Carmilla and Alastor. Alastor was basically asking her " Hey while I was gone, Did you at least think about me"?. And Carmilla response was definitely " Eh Not Really, But welcome back in any case".

Sure he looked pissed but if I was in his place I'd feel very hurt. I kinda noticed how everyone treats Alastor as if he is the worst thing in hell. When there so much worse * cough Valentino cough*

From what I understand he only targeted those that hurt others. Maybe Hell was pissed because in a way he was saving other souls. Taking them from their abusive owners. Which is fucked up but it's hell. What do you expect?

I firmly believe Alastor grew up in a abusive household and definitely witnessed his mother getting abused which definitely affected his psyche. Maybe his father killed his mother and after killing his father he vowed no one will ever go through what he went through.

So he targeted awful people and offed them. When he got to hell. I think he felt his work wasn't done yet and now he is in the land of abusers and monsters. Maybe deep down. He was the one SCARED 😨.

Maybe he killed so he could feel safe in a twisted way. He ended up selling his soul cause he was scared. His owner who i headcanon is like Mother Gothel definitely didn't help. She manipulated him into thinking she is keeping him safe. When In reality she was using him for his powers.

I also headcanon that ( now this is going to sound crazy) His owner forces him to dress and act the way he does. She wants to be the only one who can play with her toy. His owner definitely doesn't share. So she will try to make him look in her eyes unappealing. We all know this doesn't work though. As Vox had fallen in love with him.

Now I don't believe Vox ever hurt Alastor and as much as I love stories where he gets 😳 obsessed. I actually would be happy if they become best friends again and hope it was just a giant misunderstanding just like Fizz and Blitz.

Still something happened That hurt Alastor deeply that he now hates anything to do with television. My Headcanon is cause Vox started to spend more time with Valentino and accidentally leaving Alastor in the dark. Alastor enjoyed spending time with Vox. Going dancing at a club, listening to radio shows. Even cuddling in a blanket watching a movie. But I think the main reason he enjoyed Vox's company is cause, His owner couldn't touch him. She couldn't hurt him in any way.

Kinda like how a person wants there friend over so there abuser doesn't hurt them. The abuser won't cause they rather do their evil deed in secret.

In other words Alastor felt safe around Vox and when he started spending time with Valentino and less with him. His owner would hurt him.

But no one knew this cause Alastor always had a smile on his face. Always seemed sure and confident of himself. This is a perfect representation of " You don't know what happens behind closed doors". I think this was a learned habit from childhood too. Maybe after his father abused him or/and his mother he would threaten to kill them if they told or even showed any signs of abuse.

His owner definitely has that power. If she has the power to give him power then she has the power to erase Alastor from existence. I think she threatened his afterlife multiple times.

Anyway eventually Vox and Alastor have a big fight which pissed the owner off. And she took him away for seven years. Personally I am among those that think she TORTURED him during that time.

I think she let him out and told him to watch the princess and make sure no one gets redeemed. She sews a smile on his face so everyone thinks he is happy and fine. Again reference to what I said earlier.

Alastor goes back home and everything has changed. Probably a culture shock to him. He goes to the hotel and had to pretend everything is ok. Maybe he was all touchy feely with everyone cause he wants to feel safe and secure. Like he is finally home and not hallucinating. When he is pushed away he acts like it doesn't matter but I think it does. I think it hurts him deeply but because of the abuse he endured in childhood and his afterlife he puts up a front as a defense mechanism.

As Alastor told Charlie

" Just because you see a Smile, don't think you know what's going on underneath. A smile is a valuable tool my dear. It inspires your friends, Keeps your enemies Guessing and says no matter what comes your way, Your the one in control".

In a roundabout way he was basically calling for help without saying he needs help. Remember he can't tell her or anyone about what he went through. Of course In a way it means he is still a prisoner. His owner can take him away at any time and this definitely scares him. So he will do anything he can to prevent this from happening. Even making a deal with the princess of hell.

Anyway So while after the battle I think he felt Forgotten, I think he already felt that way. Like he doesn't matter and he wants to matter. His owner and father probably told him that he is worth nothing and no one will miss him while he is gone.

Well he was gone twice and NO ONE missed him.

That's very sad when you think about it and I'm surprised no one had brought it up yet.

Once again I apologize for my rambling thank you for reading

[mimiiiiiiiiisstuff]

Girl I have so many questions about your story it’s actually ridiculous!

(I don’t want to overwhelm you though so imma hold back)

is reader becoming a snake person a reference to snakes preying on bats and birds?( and will the snake being joker’s be important?)

Is Tiffany going to have to put effort into pretending she’s the ✨perfect sister✨ now that reader obviously isn’t going to do jack for them anymore? (Because ungrateful families don’t deserve muffins 😒)

Is reader going to be a hero or villain, or maybe something in between?

will we be able to get an idea of why the batfam treats reader like they’re some sort of pest?( you’d think they’d be more careful since reader could easily expose their identities if they thought about it 😒😒)

and finally.

Tim had a very…different…reaction to reader ‘framing’ Tiffany- is that important?

-🚚

yay ok this is my first like real ask! Yall have been making me so so happy with all the love! It really encourages me! And don't worry about overwhelming me! I can take it :) i'm answering this and then signing off to go to bed because I have the worst flu ever.

Ok so yes! Reader becoming a snake-meta-person does have to do with snakes preying on birds, honestly that was a little easter egg for funsies. Im glad you caught it! reader's gonna eat those hoes up !!!!!!! ( and they'll lock her up right after)

Tiffany will for sure try to imitate reader at first but that will eventually lead to her downfall! she can only keep it up for 6 months and then she'll be discovered. she can't imitate the genuine love and care reader puts into these things so they'll always be off no matter how much she tries. the batfam will end up realizing what they lost and do whatever it takes to get it back.

And yes, the snake being the Joker's will be important bc he's the joker and is so fucking insane that even his snake has to be special! all powers have consequences and these will be heavy. it will put reader through it, but will really shape them as a person.

Im leaning more toward reader being a hero??? but with the snake being literally radioactive it might be a kinda venom dynamic. im still not too sure tbh. with all the angst and neglect and the troubles of being a teen, she might be a bit of an anti-hero! she might pull a jason (ironic, i know) and go around killing all the villians!

the thing about the batfam, is that they don't even realize what they're doing to the reader. they literally see her as irrelevant so they don't notice their neglect or how much it affects reader. she's not even on their minds enough to be perceived as a threat. the only ones purposefully being mean are Damian and Jason, Damian because he sees reader as less than/ a threat and Jason because he is trying to push the reader out his life and not 'taint' her innocence.

Tim's reaction is different because he's suspicious. he thinks he would've noticed if reader was capable of doing something so sneaky and underhanded. he's the only one who is suspicious because he simply doesn't think she's smart enough to do this. he's gonna be the first to see Tiff's true colors.

Goodnight yall!!! i'll be back tmrw morning! keep sending more asks! I take requests so if you have any ideas you want me to write just send them in! I'll yandere platonic or romanitc. SEND THEM IN!!!!!!!!

[the-clock-of-the-time-dragon]

Man, for someone who keeps invoking media literacy, you sure seem to be struggling with accurately addressing the points that I've been making.

1) He is good at lying to people about who he is, all while being able to make himself likable 2) He is secretly unhappy and has been thinking about the day with the Lion Cub a lot

Here's part of where I think we fundamentally disagree: I don't think he's much of a liar tbh. He doesn't care enough to lie. If anything, he seems almost incapable of it at times. He has coping mechanisms — namely: telling himself (and others) that even though life is pointless, that's actually awesome because you can do whatever you want and not have to worry about anything — and one could, I suppose, argue that he's lying to himself in that sense? But he does clearly WANT to believe it, and acts accordingly. True, Elphaba sees discontent within him and assumes he must be hiding some inner depth (because how can he possibly be unhappy if he's empty inside?? selfish and shallow people don't feel bad about stuff or help others!), but I think his later actions actually show how shallowness can sometimes have its own kind of depth, and selfishness can have its own kind of beneficence. I'm aware this isn't intuitive or prima facie stuff — that's why I posted an analysis about it.

I think it’s a much more plausible headcanon that he has always been working as a double agent than your headcanon that he’s decided instead to randomly embrace being a fascist.

Honey, here's the thing: contrary to what you suggest, mine is not a headcanon in this case. At all. He became a fascist soldier. All ulterior motives (speculative or not) aside: that is simply what he did. It's text. I never said he "embraced" it in the sense that he liked it. It's directly stated that he doesn't like his situation. But that didn't stop him from quite literally choosing to be in that situation. Sucking up whatever other feelings he has and doing it anyway.

Maybe it’s hard to “reconcile the compassionate boy we saw in the woods with a fascist commander” because he isn’t one?

Except he literally is. That is what he became. Your insistence that he worked his way through the ranks of a fascist military without ever doing any of the actions that make someone fascist is beyond belief. Like obviously I understand that your contention here is that he didn't "become" a fascist on an ideological level. He just went through the motions without internalizing or identifying with the fascists' ideas. But I'm afraid plenty of German (or hell, Confederate) soldiers were "just fighting for their loved ones" and "didn't actually believe in all that stuff": but they fought anyway. And they fought on the wrong side, and did the things that came to define what we think of when we talk about their regimes. You are doing exercises in idealization. Becoming a fascist is as much (or more) about physically carrying out the acts of fascism as it is about adhering to what it proposes. Rejecting the latter does not erase the former.

Maybe if you “read by sheer text; on the actions and statements on the page” you’d realise that his actions in act one don’t make sense in act two if you read him as part of the regime?

He. Is. Part. Of. The. Regime. You don't get to say he was somehow set apart on some abstract level from the force that he commanded. Good Lord.

My point about the challenge of reconciling Fiyero between Act I and Act II was not "wow, this doesn't make sense, he must have changed so drastically!!!" I literally explained my point. He hardly changed at all — and that's interesting. The ways in which he did change are equally interesting — because they aren't positive, contrary to what one may usually expect from a character arc of a male lead in a fantasy story. In most such stories the male lead confronts his flaws and he either overcomes them or makes peace with them. Fiyero does neither — which is completely in character and honestly a perfect and natural evolution from where he began — and from a writing perspective I absolutely love it, lol

Oh sorry, Fiyero should have just gone down to the resistance job shop and got a top post there!

I know this is tongue-in-cheek, but the fact your unironic insinuation underneath it appears to be that... *checks notes* rebellions do not have job openings for charismatic men of action...??? Where were you going with this??? lol

The resistance that, as far as we know, basically doesn’t exist, as it doesn’t seem like Elphaba has got much help either (we know there’s rebel Animals that shelter her, but she’s also at the point where she tries to beg her father for help and seriously considers just giving up and joining the Wizard).

Hon... has it occurred to you that by the time we get to Act II... the rebels are fringe and weak because they've been repressed for years by the forces Fiyero volunteered in? Like, we are TOLD that there are rebels. That's a fact. We know that one of the primary activities of the Gale Force is violent repression against Animals. Come on. You're good at extrapolation. Put two and two together here.

But in all seriousness: no movement? Start one then. If it's really that deep. Sounds like a skill issue to me.

Someone has to do this job, if it’s not Fiyero it’s someone a lot worse. We know Fiyero has compassion for Animals, we know Fiyero wants to protect Elphaba (we literally see him doing so three times in act 2). If Fiyero places himself in command, however grim it might be, he now has some degree of control over Oz’s army and how much damage they can do to the Animals and Elphaba.

The damage has been done though. On his watch. To some extent on his ORDERS even. The Animals are all but erased from Oz. Elphaba is so deep in hiding that Fiyero, with all the resources at his command, hunting her desperately, still turns up nothing every time. "Someone has to do this job", when the job is fascism, is not a defense. In fact, "I was just doing my job" is a very well-known and infamously horrible non-defense particular to this exact context. It'd be a better overall argument if him being captain instead of someone else had actually made some objective difference to the end results, but we don't see that. Like I guess you could really stretch things and credit Fiyero for there still being a small holdout of rebel Animals around at all?? Like maybe if he hadn't been there, they'd have been dealt with a bit more aggressively or something? But that seems like a pretty meager end to try and justify his means.

It wasn’t planned that he’d meet her in the throne room, no, but it certainly was planned, by putting himself as the head of the search for the Witch, that if she was found in a dangerous situation he could get her out of it. He manages to get all his guards away and for her to escape safely, he couldn’t have done this if he’d been in any other position.

And he couldn't have achieved anything comparable in ANY other way besides doing fascism? Really?

Imagine, if you will, an alternate scenario: Fiyero doesn't join the Gale Force, and instead joins with the rebellion. Elphaba finds him. They're working together to save Animals again, like old times. They do stuff together and they have each other's backs if either one is caught in a tough spot. Fiyero never gets engaged to Glinda. Is that not a MUCH less convoluted, far more sensible plan? The fact that all explanations for why Fiyero chose anything OTHER than that seem to boil down to weird borderline fascist apologia, is how I know my points are valid.

you told me him being in the Gale Force achieved nothing, it saved Elphaba’s life and allowed the ending to happen.

The logic here is just... Okay. Hon. If he. Had chosen. Something else. The sequence. Of events. Would be. Radically different. And Elphaba. Would not. Have been. In the. Situation that. You give. Him credit. For saving. Her from. At all.

If you joined the Mafia "to protect your family", and then your cousin follows you into a meeting one day and almost gets shot, but you stepped in and stopped it, that doesn't somehow mean things went according to your plan; you only "protected" them from a scenario they would never otherwise have been in had it not been for you, lol

Even her sad verse in Thank Goodness imply she joined because she wanted it (and only later found out it wasn’t quite how she planned).

And y'know a very particular way it wasn't like how she'd planned? She didn't plan on getting it as part of her abuse. Being showered with nice things is a well-known abuse tactic, because it's enticing and allows the abuser to insinuate that their victim was consenting and enthusiastic about what happened to them. There's more to it, absolutely — Glinda is perhaps the most complicated character in the show — but the fact you insist on victim-blaming over and over is... wow.

No one was going to imprison her,

The guards physically detained her and Elphaba had to break the laws of fucking physics to get them to let go, wtf are you talking about, lmfao

there’s literally no reason at all to enslave her,

Except that she's the closest person in the world to their new Public Enemy #1, and can be leveraged in about a million different ways in their favor. Glinda has intel. Elphaba might have been tempted to try and come back and get her. She's a perfect bargaining chip in case Elphaba got too aggressive too: the Witch might back off if Glinda's life were threatened. And, as the Wizard quickly discovers: Glinda is really likable and sociable and boosts morale wherever she goes. So they made her theirs, and dulled her pain by trying to appease and cater to her in every superficial way available. This is Abuse 101, hon.

But ok, let’s take your “enslavement” fantasy scenario. Fiyero is literally the next candidate for Morrible to “enslave”, she knows he and Elphaba were at least tentative friends, she might even have realised he was also absent after the day with the Lion Cub, he’s dating Glinda and his royal connections and fame and likeability make him a useful asset. If Morrible really is blackmailing people to join her on trumped up charges, it would be very easy for her to either use the Lion Cub situation to blackmail into it, or threaten to hurt Glinda if he does not.

"Fantasy"... jfc dude, lol

Fiyero wasn't literally in the palace in the clutches of the guards as a perceived accomplice to the Witch at the end of Act I. The situations are apples and oranges.

Tbh as far as we know, Fiyero didn't really know a ton about Elphaba to begin with; certainly no specific useful intel. There's no reason to think Morrible ever put two and two together vis-à-vis the cub — a slacker student like Fiyero being absent from class isn't weird. And even if for some reason she did get suspicious enough to press the matter, there's so little she'd have to go off of that he could literally just say he ducked out when the whole class started spasming, and that's pretty much that. And yeah sure he's "dating" Glinda, and may under the right circumstances be manipulable if she got threatened: but let's not forget this is also the dude who abandoned her the very first chance he got, and then pointed a gun at her as a bluff without a second thought. He doesn't care enough about Glinda for that to be really leverageable, and it's not like Morrible wouldn't know that: his unenthusiastic response at their engagement announcement would tell her, if nothing else had by that point.

But then... Fiyero didn't ever need to be coerced to become what he became. He volunteered. Glinda was caught in the attic and knew a certain regime-delegitimizing, worldview-shattering secret — I fail to see how there is any scenario you can seriously propose in which the Wizard letting her go with that knowledge, with her closeness to Elphaba, etc., could even be halfway tenable from the Wizard's perspective. It actually defies belief that you can misread her situation as badly as you are.

This is headcanon.

Nah. He literally sang two separates songs about it. Dancing Through Life's whole thing is "nihilism rocks because you can just do stuff and never worry about it", and his part in So Long As You're Mine has him going "I don't care about anything except acting on our desires in this fleeting moment". I don't need to headcanon anything to simply point out that those sentiments are neither deep nor considerate (and, as I have said: don't have to be), lol

This is canon: he pointed a gun at the Wizard to help Elphaba escape. He had to escape too.

He spent years specifically trying to find her, with the heavily implied desire to run away with her. And what did he do the second he saw her? Ran away with her. Say she hadn't been in danger: say she was either undiscovered, or was reconciled with the Wizard. Do you think — based on your own version of him, double agent headcanon and all — that he would have been content NOT to leave there with her then? That after years of searching, he would just let her fly out of there and leave him behind again? Did we watch the same show?? At this point your take on him is even more reactive and thoughtless than mine, if you think his character would allow him to not only deny his passion for her but also to stay in a situation he regards as meaningless and insufferable. As I said to begin with: he can be protective of her AND do so shallowly and selfishly. Reread my original post if you need a refresher on what makes his attachment to her shallow and selfish; and friendly reminder that my saying these things is not a diss, I'm a fan of Genuinely Self-Absorbed, Deeply Shallow Fiyero.

“He doesn't think about the potential consequences of abandoning Glinda; for never cared about either his own safety or hers,” I’m sorry, are you really blaming Glinda telling Morrible and the Wizard to spread a rumour about hurting Nessa on Fiyero? Talk about fucking victim blaming.

Genuinely baffled as to your thought process here — I never said one word about what you're referring to, I was literally just pointing out that Fiyero didn't remotely consider that his fiancée could potentially catch some flak for his unexpected treason, or that leaving her totally alone with her abusers could worsen her situation (as we actually do see by the time of March of the Witch Hunters, where Morrible is far more directly and openly cruel to her than she was when Fiyero was there). This should be familiar to anyone who's seen abusers behave differently when other people are around, but flip a switch as soon as they have their victim all to themselves.

Not the Elphaba faking her own death plan! That must have taken days as the scarecrow. And careful manoeuvring of everything involved!

Cute, but you do realize you're agreeing with my point, right? Unless you're NOT being sarcastic, in which case... Okay. Fiyero did not plan the Melting. We aren't told how far in advance Elphaba planned the Melting, or what degree of input Fiyero had in it (hard to coordinate beforehand considering she was in a whole different part of Oz than he was, he was with Dorothy at the time, and, y'know... she only just learned that the Scarecrow was him MOMENTS before the Melting) but the pieces were all there and so simple that he could intuitively figure out basically what she was trying to pull off. Secret passage. Fire. Water. Rumor. Literally all he had to do was play along with the stage she'd set. It doesn't exactly take a Doctor of Thinkology.

Well I have happy news for you! He no longer has a hollow existence! That’s literally what act two is trying to tell us! Elphaba: Fiyero, you frightened me. I thought, I though you might have changed. Fiyero: I have... changed. * You’ve got me seeing through different eyes Somehow I’ve fallen under your spell and somehow I’m feeling it’s up that I fell

I hate to burst you bubble... but he hasn't changed for the better. I already said that. He still has a hollow existence — he tells us just how hollow it is in Thank Goodness — he just looks to Elphie as his one and only solace. I've elaborated on some of the layers behind it, but basically I argue that he chose Elphaba as his object of desire precisely because that is what she represents to him, in its purest form. Desire. She's "the one that got away"; the one he can't find; can't reach. The only thing in his meaningless life that's unavailable — and therefore tantalizing. She's the only one who doesn't swoon over him or get caught up in his carefree dissociative escapism. She's the one with a sexual tension so palpable but so frustratingly unresolved (until As Long As You're Mine ofc). She's the only challenge in his life that isn't an ineffable internal conflict between his id and superego: and in fact soothes that conflict because she stimulates them both.

[Wicked Act II spoilers]

[edited for tone and clarity of purpose, apologies for initial crudeness and frustration]

Okay, obviously I'm biased, but I'm gonna need the Fiyeraba shippers to please set a lot of your people straight about some things. I've seen way too many people trying to say that Glinda is just a selfish bimbo and that Fiyero is a virtuous and selfless figure more worthy of Elphaba's love. I'll set aside for now the idea of "worthiness" in this context. But let's start off with Fiyero joining the Wizard. Hoo boy...

Yes, he was initially somewhat less tolerant of the propaganda against Elphaba than Glinda was; yes, he was secretly trying to find her so he could run away with her or whatever. But honey: those facts DO NOT fully absolve his actions as the Wizard's top officer, or selfish recklessness throughout Act II. I see so many popular threads and posts romanticizing and whitewashing with "oh but he didn't REALLY join the Wizard, he just pretended so he could try to get to Elphie! It's all for love, and he sacrificed everything for her!" As if the literal captain of the literally fascist forces responsible for the oppression of Animals wasn't equally responsible for said oppression?? Hello? Fiyero really didn't think of seeking out Elphaba in ANY other way that DIDN'T involve becoming *checks notes*... the trusted leader of the troops committing all the abuses she's fighting against in the first place???? Like it's cool and all that he helped with Brrr, and it's all well and good that he planned on betraying the Wizard as soon as he found Elphaba (which took literal years, so I guess we're left to assume he was prepared to just keep doing fascism indefinitely if she didn't show up????), but uh... it's kind of concerning to how eager some of you are to make excuses for this dude volunteering as the head of the Ozian Gestapo??? smdh

He didn't accomplish anything from it either, by the way — like yeah, we get it, he did everything he did whilst silently fantasizing about running away with the Witch he was being paid to hunt. Fine. But I can't be the only one who doesn't buy that as an actual excuse???? Like, guys: nobody forced him to join the fascist army — even with crazy ulterior motives. He wasn't coerced into it; it wasn't his only choice or anything. Searching for Elphaba did not somehow compel him to go and volunteer to follow (or to give!) orders in the name of the dictator who was trying to have her assassinated the entire time. He could have just not done all that. (Genuinely so curious how the second film plans on covering that material tbh)

Glinda made several questionable decisions that can be (and have been) debated, but she is still very unambiguously a victim. Her position in the Wizard's regime was foisted upon her. There are things we can discuss, but I find that many folks need reminding that Glinda would undoubtedly have been disposed of (or worse) if she failed to make herself useful. I mean hell: she wasn't even supposed to meet the Wizard in the first place — she was only there because of Elphie. If she'd tried to resist, it would have immediately gotten her labeled the Witch's accomplice. As soon as she'd chosen not to get on the broom, her fate was out of her hands, and all available options were varying degrees of horrible.

That's not the case with Fiyero. He went to the Wizard all on his own; no one ever cornered or forced him into it. Thinking Animals are people, and having a crush on Elphaba, simply did not stop him from carrying out the regime's orders — for years. It's not clear exactly how long he's been captain at the start of Act II, but the clear implication is that he's been a soldier for most of the time skip. I've seen Fiyeraba accounts with headcanons about him acting as a double agent, secretly doing stuff to help Animals — and that's a great idea, it would indeed serve to make a lot of his actions way more palatable — but until we actually get to SEE some of that (maybe they'll add it for the movie version of Act II; we'll have to see), there is nothing in the story to suggest that. He certainly didn't do a damn thing for all those Animals who were enslaved and caged in the Wizard's palace — and we don't see a single other Animal outside of there in Act II, so as far as we know Fiyero has participated over those years in the near-total removal of Animals from Ozian society. In the name of "finding Elphaba". Not fighting for her cause. Just finding HER. For HIMSELF.

It's fine to have a ship you like, obviously — and there is genuinely a lot to like about Fiyeraba, I don't dislike the idea of them as a couple or as friends — but come on guys: please stop those out there idealizing Fiyero as somehow a clear "morally-superior" alternative to Glinda, lol. The dude had power, access, and opportunities, for years, that he could have wielded in any number of really selfless, revolutionary ways. He didn't. And I propose (apparently controversially): he simply didn't want to. And that — at the end of the day — is (much as some would like to deny it) true to his character. He always WANTED to be self-absorbed and shallow, and all his actions are consistent with that. Elphaba saw depth and discontentment in him, yes: but (and I cannot stress this enough) when given the chance, he channeled that in the wrong direction. He didn't confront that and become a better person — for the most part he just displaced and projected it onto Elphaba as an object of obsession, and put on an even thicker pretense than before.

All his actions — regardless of the complexity he has deep down — are those of a man who never gives one fuck about anything or anyone, except (kinda sorta) Elphaba. But even then: at no time does the care he has for her seem to extend to caring about any of her wants or needs outside of sexual validation from him, or how she might feel about his actions, or indeed the impacts of those actions upon her, her cause, or anyone or anything else. I don't think it should be all that controversial to say: he doesn't think through the wider repercussions of anything he does — thoughtlessness is just one of his core character traits. He doesn't think ahead or see meaning in anything outside of what can temporarily excite him, in the moment. I think people place a little too much weight on Elphaba clocking him with regard to his internal pain, and seem to expect (understandably of course) that she is not only right, but moreover that he will grow from that in a positive direction, based on her influence.

But he doesn't. If anything, we get a surprising inverse: he pretty much proves her wrong. Not to say he didn't have hidden depth and all that, like she said: but his hypothetical heart of gold proves not to really amount to much in practice. He doesn't grow out of his shallowness and his self-centeredness: he grows into it in a way that he hadn't quite yet in school. Where once he was only masking an internal listlessness, after he's been cracked open by Elphaba he decides to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow, not just coasting by. He performs in new ways — as a soldier, eventually as a "fiancé", etc. — but by Act II we meet a Fiyero who has staked the last remaining shred of humanity in him on the vain pursuit of the only object of his desire that has ever been unavailable to him, and firmly chosen to say to hell with everyone and everything else.

When put to the test, Fiyero sacrifices Glinda, the Animals, and all else that Elphaba actually cared about, to pursue his own unresolved crush from college. Mostly to get in her pants, really — as harsh as I'm sure that sounds. But let me be frank: that is literally all he ever accomplishes in the show. He gives her dick one time, and one of his castles, and that's it. That's the culmination of his years trying to find her — years in which he actively worked as one of the stormtroopers (or even the one commanding them) committing untold crimes against Animalkind (who, again, it seems have been all but erased from Oz by Act II): y'know, the very crimes Elphaba sacrificed her life to try and stop????? He spent the most important time of his life — of his own free will — being a fascist soldier, but he "did it for her" somehow, so according to some, it's perfectly fine. Heroic, even. Yikes??

But let's make something very clear (since my original version of this post caught a lot of flak, including slurs and other rudeness):

I like Fiyero. I find his role extremely interesting (I could do a whole dissertation on him, but I'm especially a fan of the way his proving Elphaba's assessment of him wrong presents a fascinating parallel and contrast with Glinda, which I think is lost on a lot of people). But PLEASE stop with all the misguided Glinda slander and idealization of Fiyero. By all means, thirst! But don't give me all this bullshit about him deserving Elphaba more, or being super deep, or being really principled or noble or whatever else. He does have layers, and quite intriguing ones, but his insides are straw — he isn't meant to have some deep, overwrought emotional core or motivations; he has passions that he acts upon when given the chance. That's it. And that's fine. Actually kind of refreshing in a story rooted in simple children's fantasy but rife with intensely complicated personalities. Fiyero makes it his mission to represent denial of depth and embrace of raw, spontaneous desire — and I for one love that, and wish others appreciated it.

And in all seriousness, shipping wars aside: by the end of the story, it's Glinda who is ultimately vindicated, and has — for all her faults — made the necessary choices to fulfill Elphaba's wishes, bring down the regime, etc. And all that despite herself. She's miserable: not just because of the mistakes she made, but because of her correct moves as well. Fiyero is simply not — and could never be — that person. And that's okay! Like I said: I am not anti-Fiyero. Fiyero's willingness to throw it all away for the sake of sheer, overriding passion is a huge part of what people like about him, of course — and it's an obvious factor in the attraction between him and Elphaba, because she has her own flavor of that impulse as well — but I'd actually argue that it's not romantic, it's his fatal flaw. And thematically that's fantastic! But I just don't believe that it somehow means he "deserves Elphaba more" because he "gave up his life for her" or whatever. In part because NOBODY truly "deserves" Elphie tbh, not 100% (and I question anybody who claims otherwise), but ultimately because I don't accept the idea that his fleeting acts of passion make up for all the shit leading up to them (or even proceeding after them tbh). At least Glinda managed to do what Elphaba always wanted in the end — but I would die on this hill even if Gelphie didn't exist.

You don't have to agree with my analysis of Fiyero and his choices, relationships, etc. — that's fine. What isn't fine is trying to portray Glinda as some kind of spineless traitor whore for the Wizard and Fiyero as a conscientious hero who earned Elphie through self-sacrifice. That's just not the story that was written. It's WAY messier and more interesting than that.

[the-raven-and-the-tower]

Viago de Riva; forgotten son with a found family of assassins (a brief but angsty dive)

Born one royal bastard of many to King Fulgeno II of Antiva, Viago was born without a lot of choices, but one very large one;

Exile or the Antivan Crows.

VIago was the only one of all Fulgeno's bastards that chose the Crows, a choice that put him on a path of shadows and blood. Turning his back on the only home he has ever known for the ruthless world of the Crows, Viago had to forge his own house and find his own family, turning his back on a royal lineage that never wanted or acknowledged him.

Viago has walked in both worlds, where betrayal can come from any direction and alliances are often temporary - in either world, his survival has hinged time and time again on his vigilance and natural mistrust of others. More than once, the only thing that has kept him alive was the way he builds tolerance to poisons and insists on testing everything he eats. I have to wonder if Viago has ever truly rested, he's always alert, always keeping one step ahead of all the threats on every side - always in danger, both as a bastard who could be seen as a threat to the legitimate line and as a Crow Talon surrounded by ambitious assassins.

And then there's his relationship with Teia 💜

I love the humanity of Viago's struggle to love and be loved. As a royal bastard, he would have been inherently unwanted and constantly reminded of his illegitimacy - daily reminders to ingrain a perpetual sense of unworthiness and isolation into him. I love the honesty of how he struggles to open up and be vulnerable, even with someone like Teia from within the world of the Crows.

The two of them live in a dangerous world, where personal relationships can become weapons in the wrong hands. Viago has every reason to shy away from Teia (and sometimes does), yet that inherent need for perception and connection drags him out of safety and back into her arms, time and time again.

All of that to say loooooooooooook at this fourth draft of a letter Teia is helping Viago write to send to his dad about the situation in Treviso with the Butcher.

King's Draft: Action on Behalf of Antiva

As Seventh Talon, I give notice that the Antivan Crows have drawn a contract against the enemies of Treviso, the Antaam. (Teia)

Teia, the Seventh Talon, is writing to inform of the situation, rather than Viago (Fifth Talon). We don't know if she's stepping up to protect Viago from his asshole father or if Viago doesn't speak to the king often on principle (he does in prior Dragon Age content), or if this is simply how it is done - maybe there's an existing agreement among the Crows to avoid political complications by keeping the king and his son seperate. Any way the cookie crumbled, I like these crumbs.

It is not the Antaam. (Viago)

We aren't required to give His Majesty a point-by-point, but he's your blood, Viago. It is a courtesy to let him know we are going to war. (Teia)

"He's your blood, Viago." I don't know if this is a reminder of his unique ability to bridge two vastly different worlds or if it is just a reminder of political significance, but either way it struck me as significant. Despite his royal blood being a source of personal pain, it provides Viago leverage in ways that other Crow Talons could never wield, not even Caterina.

The occupying Antaam are strong, driven, fanatical. They cannot be reasoned with because reason is just a weapon to be resisted. They can be killed, of course, but removing a leader does not remove their desire to be led. They are a force we must contend with, but they are NOT Treviso's true enemy. (Viago)

A name, Viago. Contracts require a stabber and a stabbee. (Teia)

Teia (child street thief turned Crow) is the pragmatic and operational, focusing on fulfilling the requirements as a formality, while our baby boi Viago the Strategic is firmly honed in on reality and understanding the details. Teia wants to take the next step to move forward, Viago wants to understand the problem before making the next move. They are so different and I love the way their differences lend their relationship strength, rather than pulling it apart.

Teia, you know my doubts. The Butcher took the city too easily, and there is dealing with the gods there that I dread to know. But I fear that the true enemy of Treviso is not known because they ARE known, merely unrevealed. (Viago)

"The Hand That Leashed Treviso." Is that nebulous enough? (Teia)

I like this. Sarcastic, yet she's showing that she's listening to Viago's concerns and hearing them.

Yes, that is a series of someones we can eventually kill. But not something we can send my father. (Viago)

And he acknowledges being heard, but points out the impracticality of presenting such a target to his father. Again, I think it's fucking significant that he refers to Fulgeno as his father and not as the king. Whether he's tying himself verbally to his unique position, subconsciously reacting to his abandonment by the royal family or just responsing to Teia's "he's your blood" earlier, it feels powerful. Like the kick in the gonads I'd like to five Fulgemo.

On to draft five, then. Neri, begin again. (Teia)

It says a lot to me that they're having this entire conversation in front of their scribe. Doubtless someone sworn to secrecy already, it just strikes me as wholesome that they're comfortable having these disagreements in front of Neri. They may agree yet, but they're committed to it. And their disagreement has no weight on their opinions of each other.

Viago de Riva, Fifth Talon Andarateia Cantori, Seventh Talo Transcribed: Neri de Acutis

[ladypiscesmoon]

Year ahead Timothée Chalamet & Armie Hammer

(Ask me anything you want to know about the reading)

Overall 2025 (Lenormand)

The moon, the garden, the bouquet Combinations: -Being recognized in public -Gaining notoriety all over the world - Influencing a group -Your social group influencing you -Showing people how social you are. -Intuitively gifted - Influencing someone with gifts -Swaying someone with your values. -Keeping up appearances for social reasons -Enjoying becoming a socialite. Thoughts: -The bouquet is often associated with the Spring. I do feel things will be going into a better direction between them in the Spring. -Until we do I think we are going to see Timmy on his PR journey, and Armie being trying to be true to himself.

The crossroads, the lily, the fish

Combinations: -Crossroads can represent two people, in this reading Armie and Timmy -The card can also mean that the situation will only progress once you make some clear-cut decisions.  -Choices over sex -Choosing peace -Pick the older person -Choosing the person/situation which causes you less stress. -Business decisions -Choosing money -Deciding to be fluid Thoughts: -Standing at a crossroad, making choices -Making choices together -Timmy with Armie (older person) -PR will end, although it's always unclear when exactly in Tarot (things are not always fixed in Tarot)

The bear, the rider, the dog

Combinations -Strength, power, heavy, lifestyle, force -News, messages, what approaches, what is leaving -Respect for authority -Obeying an authority figure -support of a mother -Follow a lifestyle. -Friends, loyalty, respect, confidants, followers, pets. -Friends bring messages -Visits from a friend -Acts which prove how loyal someone is to you. Thoughts: -For the last few years I have seen a dog for them, but because they separated it didn't come up again. They might get a dog or -something after they are reunited. -They will build their home together -Support from friends and some family (although I don't think Armie's mother will respect their relationship)

Month to month

January

10 of wands (burn-out, uphill battle, taken for granted) Coffee cup (meeting and conversing, savoring the moment, feeling uplifted, friendship) Take your power back (you are giving someone control over how you feel, your happiness should only depend on you) Thoughts: Wanting to meet up or at least call, feeling low and exhausted. I feel this is more Timmy than Armie. He has given away the control over his own happiness and he should take it back. Only then he will have the chance prove Armie he's not taking him for granted. Things are still strained

February

The hermit (soul searching, solitude, contemplation) The grim reaper (the relationship is over. No second chances. Grow and transform your life) Open yourself to others (this is how you will create new friendships and attract a love relationship) Thoughts: Timmy thinks he has lost Armie for good, but he will get him back if he is honest to him and opens up about what made him make those terrible decisions last year. He just has to go within and think through how he can make things better between them and Armie will give him a second chance.

March

The emperor (dependability, authority, structure) Mirror (mirroring each other, self-image, relationships, reflect our wounds, introspection) Engagement (your love life is soon ascending to a high level of commitment) Thoughts This could be the month they will start communicating to each other again, mirroring each other as ever. If they will, they have really have to be open and honest with each other and they will feel better again.

April

Page of swords (curious, clever, chatty) Ax (break up, separation, stop the pattern, silent treatment, abandonment) Be optimistic (keep in mind that you create your reality, you can't attract love with a negative mindset) Thoughts Doing their best not to assume the worst, trying to. break the former pattern of not taking everything through, trying to stay optimistic

May

The Star (faith, renewal, healing) The sword and the rose(clarity, truth, revelation, solidarity, force, honor, protection, power) Magnetic connection (there is a very strong pull and intensity that draws you to this person) Thoughts -healing and feeling the strong connection and pull to each other

June

king of swords (intelligent, head over heart, logical) photograph (looking at your photos, missing you, nostalgia, make new memories) past lives (you have known this person before, it's a soul mate from a past life-time) Thoughts: thinking practical about their future making new memories together they know each other from past lives

July

7 of wands (connection, defiance, stand your ground) engagement ring (engagement, partnership, commitment, eternity, completion, union) they are the one (you have already met the romantic partner you seek) Thoughts Just feeling this is the one and having each others back. Maybe thinking of the next step, like moving in with each other August

The fool (innocence, new beginnings, leap of faith) passion (insane chemistry, like each other equally, having fun) You are enough (the person you are meant to be with will love you the way you are. You don't need to change) Thoughts: definitely thinking about the next step. Wanting to have pets/living together.

September

The empress (nurturing, fairness, growth) Love (unconditional love, self-love, oneness, passion, affection, attraction) third party situation (other people may interfering with this relationship and dimming its potential Thoughts: Staying strong together, even if people are trying to break them up. Having each others back. Loving the connection

October

king of coins reversed (corrupt, greedy, materialistic) sunglasses (watching, looking, stalking, gaslighting, perception, focusing out) make the effort (this love is worth taking risks, you are called to move forward) Thoughts: People trying to come between them, maybe false accusations, or blackmail, people stalking them. They have to stick together and it will pass

November

the sun (success, optimism, openness) twin flames (yin and yang, zen, balance, union, duality, coupling complement each other) nothing has gone wrong (trust the process, this connection is divinely timed) Thoughts They are stronger together. They are exactly where they should be. Divine connection, twin flames.

December

10 of swords (traumatic events, playing the victim, immense pain) love call (someone expresses love, a message of love, thinking of you and letting you know) have faith (the angels are working behind the scene to make this relationship flourish.) Thoughts: Someone is losing a family member, or this family member is very ill? Focus elsewhere but still staying strong

What could be potential blocks for them to freely love each other?

Trust issues both are suffering from this and they have to move on from it. Talk it out and tell each other where they come from and how they can move forward Low self esteem I think Armie has learned to forgive himself for his mistakes and also in therapy learned to love himself more. I think Timmy still has issues with that. He has to grow a bit, still, but he's getting there. Believing everyone leaves and feeling onlovable I would saty this is more Armie than Timmy, I think Armie has to convince himself he's worth loving. These are his old issues, but he's very lovable. He shouldn't be afraid Self blame I feel Timmy has to move on from blaming himself to not making the right choices, especially last year and especially in love. He has to forgive himself for his own mistakes Feeling incomplete They both don't feel complete without the other. They will be stronger together if they will fully have each other's backs.

Angel numbers 1010 It's up to you! (moderation, patience, flow, clarity, joy, movement, self-realization, taking action, unconditional love) 0 is the number of divine consciousness in numerology, and 11 is a notorious twin flame number because it represents the mirror work that twin flames experience during their healing journey. Together, 1010 is a sacred number representing divine union on the way. 0707 compromise (self-awareness, forgiveness, empathy, professionalism, tenacity and freedom) The number 707 in twin flame symbolism often represents spiritual awakening, introspection, and alignment with divine guidance. Seeing 707 may indicate that positive changes are underway in the twin flame journey, encouraging both to trust in their inner wisdom and spiritual growth. 0808 swift action (wealth, empathy, promises, commitment, affection, inner strength, auspicious outcomes) They are both healing! Seeing this repeated number means they both have completed a soul lesson as part of their healing journey and it's allowed them to reclaim their power. 1551 hold your vision (manifestation, abundance, money, dreams, vision and prosperity)  A sign it's time to take the next step in your relationship. If you've had a falling out with your twin flame, you may soon reunite. Continue to focus on your personal growth, and your reunion will be a success.

Light/shadow tarot

The hanged man ( I'm taking a break from everything so I can meditate and release my old ways of thinking. This process is not that easy) I feel like Armie is still struggling with the way he was brought up in a very traditional way. Being with Timmy would mean he has to let go of these thoughts. It will also mean some people will frown upon it (friends/family) six of wands (every time we get passed our arguments and get on the same page, I feel on top of the world and I succeed in all I do.) Armie was struggling to see why he would give up a traditional relationship to be with Timmy, but he knows now that when they do communicate properly and are honest to each other, he's happier than he ever was before. I simply can't let Timmy go. ace of pentacles (I feel so rich for knowing true love. I now see how easy it is to create wealth, when you know someone like you, to love.) I feel like Timmy now sees what it will cost him to give up Armie, to not have that true love anymore. For all his ambition, he's seeing now it also very lonely at the top. He needed this separation to come to that conclusion. knight of wands (the fact that you are so mysterious is very thrilling and it turns on my passion, cause I don't know what to expect.) I think both feel that about each other, the unusual and unexpected aspects of both their characters makes the other even more desirable. ace of swords (since I met you, my mind has expanded to so many new ideas and ways of thinking, enhancing my brain power like never before) Both have changed each others views and opinions of the world. Their thinking, their way of loving another being. This is the biggest lesson they have learned from each other and they know in their hearts how much it is worth. nine of cups (I feel grateful for everything in my life, especially you! I want to enjoy more happy times together and make love all night) Nothing to add here :)

Twin flame ascension

11:11 compassion (higher heart opening) They have to heal their heart by letting go of judgement of each other that created the separation between them. 1111 is believed to be a sign that your thoughts and intentions are manifesting rapidly. During twin flame separation, this can serve as a reminder to focus on positive thoughts and intentions.

4:4 transformation (battle of Head vs. Heart) The 44 angel number twin flame separation is a necessary step in the spiritual growth of both individuals, and it will ultimately lead to a stronger, more fulfilling relationship. Listen to your heart rather than your head, don't resist change and avoid taking necessary actions. Both have been listening more to their heads and the arguments they could come up with why to stay separated last year. They have to face their fears and it will lead to tremendous transformation.

8:8 Honor your agreement (mission in motion) Angel number 88 suggests that abundance and restoration are on the horizon for twin flame relationships. It signifies that love and respect will be restored if your relationship has faced difficulties. Release karmic patterns

Messages:

Both: I dream about you at night Dreams come to them both about the other I love you to the moon and back They know both that this is the strongest they have ever felt about someone else Timmy: you light up my world you have to be patient I need to sort things out first, before I can come to you Will you help me? Armie: Time will tell if he can trust Timmy fully again I want you It's not a matter of not wanting him, it's just a matter of not wanting to come last My beloved That's how he thinks about Timmy

*This reading is alleged/ for entertainment purposes only*

[therookerydatv]

This is a non-Veilguard post but it is a Solas post and a Varric post so buckle in.

Background: I joined a Veilguard Discord server because I'm insane, and we were discussing Cole and the whole choice to make him a Spirit or more Human, and it almost got into an argument but thankfully it figured quickly, but I was still thinking about it because something about it all rubbed me the wrong way. A lot of people lamented their choice in making Cole more Human or cheered that making Cole more Spirit was the correct choice because of Solas' own regrets and pains that came about from him gaining a mortal body.

Subjectively I have always chosen to make him more human, but I guess me choosing as a player is different from within the context of Inquisition. In DA:I every choice you make has consequences, sometimes trying to backpedal out of a choice once you're far enough in will result in you not getting your way because that's what it all is, Choices and Consequences. As much as the result of Cole's change is on you the player, it's really a Consequence of your favoring Varric or Solas' method.

Solas' entire view of Cole's predicament is colored by his own negative experience of having a body and living in the physical world, waking up to a physical world where the Veil was created just amplifies that regret in pain, every instance of him trying to help with his Wisdom becomes something worse to him personally (All that Wisdom and he can't help himself) but with Cole he actually can help! He can fix this, with not only Wisdom but experience! He's become a person, he doesn't like being a person(and then he does because of the Inquisitor, I feel this is true romance or friendship), so Solas knows that Cole can 'return'(made) more Spirit and the confliction will end.

Varrics positions, his view, I feel is colored by the people he couldn't help, the ones he couldn't help get their revenge or solve their problem in time in a way where no one could get hurt (Cole literally reminds him of Anders just in reverse) And this time, Varric knows better, he knows how to fix this, he knows how to not blow up the Chantry, he can fix it this time. (This time the love will be enough!!)

Objectively, both are answers, I don't think either of them are right, because it's one influence over the other, but a choice has to be made otherwise he'd become a demon.

Solas and Varric are having their idealogical battle(custody battle) over which direction Cole needs to go in to avoid binding or demonhood(which college to send him to). The added layer VG adds to this and every banter Solas and Varric have is also fascinating, because outwardly it's an Elf and a funny Dwarf fighting over the tall awkward Human child, but after VG??? After those regrets??? Girl...

But I feel that reducing that scene to Solavellan at times is... disingenuous, when really, it's a Solvarric scene of we're being objective.

This is THE custody battle of all time. (My weed kicked in bear with me)

Solas' version of his world doesn't exist anymore, the world with no Veil and spirits essentially pillaging the bodies of the Titans to gain bodies doesn't exist anymore, the first victims of what the Elvhen did calls him Chuckles, a demonym in true friendly jest to him, it's the first thing Varric calls him when he reaches out to talk to him at the beginning of Veilguard, up until that point he calls him Solas, the Dread Wolf, Fen'Harel.

Varric is a result of years of time happening to the version of the World Solas brought about. Its...it's like God is talking to a creation of his that has every right to hate him, to want to desire to go back before all the bad shit, and instead Varric says, okay, get the anger out, how do you feel now? Empty? That's okay too, take your time.

Solas is a weary traveler ready to end it all and Varric is the equally weary traveler who says, tell me about it, and then talks your ear off so much you start believing in the world again.

Basically, Varric's method is to embrace the history and the scars, embrace the hurt and once it's done, get something to eat. Varric forgives but doesn't forget, his plan has Cole let go of his anger in the end, but Cole will remember the hurt he felt, and inflicted and so will the people he inflicted them on.

[takemyadvice-dontlistentome]

Ok, I have some thoughts on the ending of dungeon meshi that I'd like to share, so major spoiler warnings ahead for the end of the manga.

Specifically, I have some thoughts on the Winged Lion's curse, and that I actually don't think it is a curse - at least not a literal, intentional, "I am cursing you" type curse. I don't think the Winged Lion came up with a customized ironic curse for Laios specifically, and cursed him as its final act before disappearing.

Consider the two components of the curse as it is generally discussed in the fandom. The first is that Laios always feels hungry/never feels full or totally satisfied, and the second is that monsters are afraid of him and avoid him. I'll start with the first part.

When we see the backstory of the Winged Lion/the Demon, we learn that it essentially gained consciousness by discovering desire/hunger and developing an appetite. This happened because it ate the desires of other creatures, first small ones like bugs, and eventually worked its way up to humans. Once this appetite exists, it only grows and requires more and more to feel sated but the satisfaction never lasts long. We see that the Winged Lion is disappointed after finally eating Thistle's desires (which are particularly complex and have been marinating for a thousand years) and then is hungry again pretty much immediately.

I think, when Laios ate the Demon's desires, he became the only other conscious being to have consumed desires and therefore developed the same appetite for them that the Demon had developed millennia ago. Laios even says while he is eating it that the craving for more could drive you to do just about anything. When Laios turns human again, the appetite remains, but he no longer has the physiology to be able to consume desires. (Remember that the ability to do so was something he specifically stipulated in his description of the perfect monster). Therefore he has an insatiable appetite for something that he physically can't consume, and this manifests as a constant feeling of hunger. It's not something the Winged Lion chose to do to him, it's just what happens when a conscious being eats desires - they always want more, forever.

This is so tragic and poetic to me because in doing this, Laios dooms himself to a lifetime of discomfort, but saves the rest of humanity and also saves the Winged Lion in a way. The world is a much safer place if a hunger like that is felt by a mortal human who can't act on it, than by an immortal eldritch god-being with immense power. And the Demon can go back to being a chill elemental force rather than a conscious being that's always insatiably hungry.

Moving on to the next part of the curse: Monsters being afraid of Laios and avoiding him. The first thing to note about this is that it's only very briefly mentioned in the epilogue, and Laios apparently thought that this is what the curse was, but we don't have much to go off of. From the information we do get, though, there's another explanation that makes sense to me. Consider all of the information about monster behavior that we learn from the very beginning of the story. The rules are straightforward, it's eat or be eaten, and monsters are just animals at the end of the day. They are trying to survive, and they will avoid a bigger, stronger monster. That's what keeps the ecosystem of the Dungeon in check. I think the monsters are just continuing to interpret Laios as the biggest, strongest monster, since that's what he was at one point and he still wears its skin. It isn't something the Winged Lion did to him on purpose as a final curse - it was a natural consequence of Laios's choice to become the strongest monster, that other monsters would avoid him.

Finally, you might be asking, if there is no intentional curse then what did the Winged Lion mean when he told Laios his greatest wish will never come true now? We know that Laios thinks this means Falin won't be revived, but obviously they do successfully save her, and the Winged Lion actually sort of helps her to be saved, by telling her which way to go after she consumes the dragon.

I think the Winged Lion thinks that Laios's greatest desire is to live as a monster, something that is only possible through the power that comes with being the Dungeon Lord. It's a straightforward logic: no more Demon means no more Dungeon Lords, which means Laios can't have his perfect monster body anymore. I really think it's as simple as that.

In conclusion: When the Winged Lion says "I curse you, now your greatest wish will never come true," I don't think this is like a magical witch's curse, he's just pissed off and is basically saying "Fuck you dude, getting rid of me means you can't live out your fantasy, why did you do that." The other two lasting negative things that Laios experiences are just natural consequences of the things he did.

I've been mulling this over for the past few weeks since finishing the manga and really wanted to share, so if you read all this, thank you and please let me know what you think!

[starryeyedstray]

"What do you want from me, Markus? I can't pin it down. What am I supposed to be to you?"

Markus turned to Connor surprised by the sudden outburst of questioning. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm built to be the ideal partner. Adapt to become whatever is needed of me. But I can't tell what you want me to be."

Connor looked frustrated. His eyebrows furrowing, jaw tight. Markus wanted to smooth that crease between his brows.

"Connor, I want you to be you."

Connor's LED flashed as he processed that statement. He looked away. Frustration replaced with uncertainty. "You want me to be me?"

"Yes."

"I don't know what that means."

Markus knew the feeling. Every deviant knew that feeling. Finding a sense of self after only knowing life as a machine wasn't easy. But deviants usually found bits of their identity in the things they attached themselves to after deviation. But Connor was trying to find his identity in what others wanted from him. It was what he was programmed to do.

Markus reached up and pressed two fingers between Connor's brows smoothing out the wrinkle between them. He withdrew his hand and placed it on the other's shoulder. "It's okay to not know. We have plenty of time to figure it out." He smiled. "Let's start with something simple. How about you pick a favorite color?"

Connor tilted his head in consideration. His eyes flickered up to meet Markus' before he looked away again.

"Green."

Markus stepped to the side letting the hand on Connor's shoulder slip to the space between his shoulder blades. He lightly guided Connor forward, and they began walking.

"That's a good color."

"I don't believe there are any bad colors when picking subjective favorites."

"True."

Connor met his eyes again, dark brown sparkling with curiosity. "Do you have a favorite color?"

"Brown," he said almost immediately. Markus blinked, surprised with himself.

The truth was, Markus didn't have a favorite color until that very moment. As an artist, he had never picked a favorite because he loved all colors. He could never choose just one. But at least for right now, brown was decidedly his favorite.

Connor nodded. "Interesting."

"What? Did I pick a bad favorite color?" he teased.

Connor's mouth quirked up into a half-smile. "No, it's just an unconventional choice."

"Guess you could say I'm an unconventional guy."

That widened Connor's smile. "I may have only been alive for a short time, but I doubt I will ever meet anyone more unconventional than you."

"Is that a compliment?"

Connor studied Markus' face for a moment. His smile softened. Warm brown eyes glittering like an amber in the sunlight. "Yes, I think it is."

Markus stopped in his tracks as Connor continued to walk forward. His thirium pump was beating fast.

After a few paces, Connor turned around to peer at him with a curious expression. Markus snapped out of his stupor and jogged to catch up to him.

Brown was definitely Markus' favorite color.

i wrote this while trying to write my angsty rk1k enemies to lovers fic bc i needed wholesome rk1k to cleanse my soul. angst with a side of fluff is my jam. prolonged angst with spicy spicy times is much harder on me to write LMAO.

special shoutout to @einradi i hope this helps brighten your day <3

[protect-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[alito234]

this is part 2 of this https://www.tumblr.com/alito234/773127463416070144/platonic-yandere-hsr-x-reader-with-the-omnitrix?source=share

astral express

obviously when you realized that penacony was not safe you escaped using jetray... you never thought you would be hit by a space train, it was just an accident you were flying too fast to notice it just like them and they collided, pom-pom obviously got scared When it hit Jetray's body which was like a mosquito obviously unconscious, he was quickly taken inside the express while everyone saw the strange creature... until you returned to normal and there was an unconscious child for getting run over quickly welt made sure you were alive or at least had a pulse after feeling it he sighed before slightly panicking why god did they just run over a child

When you finally regain consciousness you find yourself in the infirmary with a worried welt obviously surprising you but you settle down and look at him it's a deep silence until you ask where are we? - you asked disoriented

You're on the astral express, now young man, don't you mind answering some questions? - Welt's voice was serious but not threatening.

That's how you told her how you were escaping from Stelaron's hunters and using Jetray you crashed into their train. Welt stays silent... who doesn't do it is March, she automatically tries to console you thinking that they wanted to kill you which is true but not for the reasons she thinks

So now you are temporarily a Road Tracer until you recover from the concussion you got when you crashed, although the relationship starts tense little by little they gain confidence. March 7 is the one you spend the most time with because she is the most excited about having a new companion, she actually likes a lot of your aliens, especially the cute ones like ditto, upchuck or Pesky Dust. She finds them adorable and almost always asks you to transform into them, taking lots of photos of these little girls. creatures, she simply sees you as a lost child that although you were raised by the dekeng (a fictional species of tree dragons that took care of Reader until he was 12) you still don't know how to interact with your own species perfectly that's why she is determined to show you after all who better than her that I spent who knows how long in the cold of space, she takes care of you like a little sister and although she is overprotective she gives you your space even though she is the first one who suggested that you share a room in which tea They give one, they almost always sleep hugging you obviously transformed into a ditto to give them body heat with your clones as if you were a cat

With Dan Heng, it took you longer to get along with him due to his too serious attitude and your too carefree personality, which generated certain friction until you transformed into a vidyadhara, being very similar to your base form but with obvious differences such as your longer fangs. that your claws, your two horns, which unlike normal, were a little more pointed, and a nice tail that ended in two fins (like toothless's tail from how to train your dragon) and although He still didn't have his memories of his past life. He automatically becomes softer on you, seeing you as a helpless and abandoned baby dragon. While you are in this transformation and also after it ends for the first time, he personally trains you something that you dislike. since you prefer to fight using your dragon attributes but you still pay attention because it is fun enough, he in particular explains to you about the past of his species (which he still does not remember), he is your responsible older brother making sure that you do not you get poisoned by any strange thing you eat with Stella

Now the relationship with Stella is very strange...but for the better, her first interaction was peculiar to say the least. I invited you to look in the trash cans...and you accepted or rather Upchuck did. Devouring the trash quickly, normally They have silly competitions from looking for shiny things or seeing who can collect the most things from the trash in the shortest time. Your relationship with her is also one of brotherhood, after all, she doesn't remember her past and you have to get away from your past to protect your loved ones. darlings make them connect quite well she He takes care of you especially after telling him how Blade tried to kill you like 10 times.

now welt is the most confused with you obviously when he came to this universe he knew there would be differences but he never heard of such a powerful object (it would have been useful in his original universe) but still at first he watches you not knowing if you are dangerous or not.. Although he quickly dismisses it when he sees you struggling to try to open the jar of jam, he comes over and helps you still with a smile on his face, clearly dismissing you as a threat. He's practically the cool but strict dad who teaches you why you're average. illiterate (you grew up in a very late than I expected) but you learned quickly, normally he chooses what you eat so that you grow strong and healthy except for one day a week when he lets you choose what to eat He is very interested in your powerful forms like Atomix or Gravattack. He actually teaches you some tricks like how to make stable black holes with Gravattack or with Atomix he teaches you how to make powerful attacks with less energy and with fire because he practically saw Himeko's will (the from honkai impact) on you and I teach you the best I can to use element being more powerful than some Valkyrie and finally Himeko

The beautiful lady was the most worried when you crashed into her train and she was the one who stayed watching over you to wake up. Unfortunately, she was the last one to see you wake up since she went out to the bathroom, but obviously she takes care of you. She shows you how the train works when you ask. She even gives you coffee. (obviously decaffeinated by welt's orders) they share moments together especially when you help her with the car with upgrade, gray matter or brainstorming (she prefers free matter) in general they share beautiful moments mother and daughter on the express seeing you as A somewhat rebellious daughter even convinced you to dye your hair red (this annoyed Welt who prefers your natural shade of brown that resembles hers)

Normally you spend the mornings with Stelle looking for treasures in the trash or eating strange things, then you have breakfast with March 7 and finally you train for a while with Dan Heng and the rest of the afternoon is pure stupidity with welt and with Himeko the nights are you investigate the train with Himeko or just hanging out reading books or moments of her playing with your cute red hair (if welt is still annoying and I increase your exams)

of course there are also cons for example the missions for you are very few and you have to convince or escape even welt is normally against another thing they do to make you leave is simply give you health problems explaining that if you use your flying forms you could get sick even more (obviously they are lies but you believe them like the good child you are) although they finally let you go on a diplomatic mission but hey that's something they finally go down to the new world you, welt, Stelle and March arrived in "Xianzhou"

[yourgoddesspenelope]

In how far are you into feminization? As in emasculating men to become sissys and all that stuff? Or other ways? I personally love to be a feminine man, and I happen to be a switch, but at the same time I don't like to be degraded *for* being feminine; it's an aspect of mine which I'm proud of and content with, I just happen to like to look very pretty while being humiliated in other ways. Or I love to be feminine while domming, which I see rarely attributed to feminine looking men, sadly.

This is such a good question, thank you for asking!

Tbh, I‘m not into the whole sissy thing, bc I think that a lot of it is rooted in misogyny. (Correct me if I’m wrong please!)

Wearing feminine clothing and makeup should not make anyone feel degraded in any way, which I think is often the case with the sissy kink specifically. I do like putting men in pretty dresses, skirts, do their make up for them, etc. but because I genuinely like how it looks. I think it looks pretty and I would also want my sub to feel pretty in that moment, not degraded or humiliated, you know? I’m really hoping I’m making sense here.

I also like playing with gender and gender expression. And that may be because I’m non binary and very much aware that gender is a social construct. Maybe I’ll call a grown man princess as a term of endearment, maybe I’ll have him call me daddy for a change. I think I just like thinking outside the boundaries of the binary gender system.

I‘m very attracted to femininity or what is socially understood as „feminine“ - in men, women, other non binary people, … doesn’t really matter.

I think that’s where my feminization kink stems from.

I also like what you said about being feminine while domming. It’s true that we rarely see feminine men be attributed with dominance. I think that’s such a shame, and probably stems from the same old stereotypes that women have been dealing with for decades: Man/Masculinity = strong, Woman/Femininity = weak.

[agirlisdeath]

I have 12th house synastry with a guy I work with (he's a few years younger than me but is technically my manager). He's a Scorpio sun, I'm a Scorpio rising and his sun is in my 12th house conjunct my ascendant. His Scorpio Mercury and Lilith is in my 1st house. I remember the moment I met him- it was like, "Oh, it's you." He definitely was not the confident, friendly person I know him to be now when we met. I think my energy caught him off guard.

We started off very respectful and polite to one another. It felt like we had both stepped into a dream. Then as time progressed, we started being distant but always had our sight on one another. Another manager who was extremely toxic would tell me all the time how much of a POS he was and that he didn't like me- even though he never gave me that vibe. Then we started having lots of tension between us and at some point we were just downright irritated to be around one another.

After few months go on and the toxic manager quits on a whim (good riddance). Ever since then (November) we have started to become closer as people (communication outside of work, social things with work people outside of work) rather than just coworkers. We step on each other's toes unintentionally at times, but we always talk it out. We both strive to make sure there is clarity and understanding and own up to our mistakes in communicating.

I can feel his emotions, and I know he can feel mine. We are both very mutually exposed to one another. It feels like we are one in the same. I feel safe to be myself around him even when he teases me for being "different". It feels like there is a mutual fascination for one another (his Neptune conjuncts/trines a lot of my inner planets). There is lots of locked eye contact, whether in close proximity or across the room. The space held for one another really does feel holy and sacred. I always monitor his behavior from afar because I have Chiron in 12th and Venus conjunct Neptune (and trust issues). He has never given me any blaring red flags. He strikes me as lonely, maybe some insecurity about him being very emotional and sensitive (he's told me I was "too emotional" when we once had an emotionally charged conversation- very revealing).

I don't get the toxicity or hidden enemies vibes that people attach to 12th house synastry. The only downfall is that I think we both have feelings for one another but I'm in a long term relationship that he is keenly aware of. It's definitely a connection I've had to meet with a lot of patience and intuition. Surrendering to not knowing intellectually what is going on at all times because it's never discussed and allowing time to unfold is not easy. But I know the trust I feel isn't misplaced because I'm not a naive fool. And only time will tell me who that person is, and all I can really do is give them the space to show me their true self. I don't want to be prone to idealizing.

That's my more-than 2 cents. Anyone else experienced this otherworldy thing? Any wisdom to share where this didn't end sourly- or at all?

Has anyone ever experienced being the house person in 12h moon synastry (or any 12h synastry)? If yes, can you share how it felt? I’m trying to see something💗

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[djarinova]

i wiiiiiiiiish i wasn't so fucked up actually