#this is what really should be called anti shipping. youre doing the opposite of shipping youre making them kill eachother erotically

[turnedpalefromlackofsun]

one time i drew a picture of my favorite ship beating the shit out of eachother and since violence is sex to me, i tagged it as ship

and then people got confused and then i got confused. to this day, im still confused.

[brujahinaskirt]

It's not even about the vindication of calling a ship, okay. It's that the supposedly anti woke studio wrote about 3 million words of medieval fiction centering the relationship of the two main characters who are in most ways (or in all ways if you follow the obvious canon momentum of the story) meant for each other, as counterparts who help each other survive the great travails of their lives and who challenge/complete the other to become fuller, braver, kinder people. It's so clear these two people are soulmates, platonically or romantically, something observed consistently by the world around them and by themselves.

Except their society (feudalism, Catholicism) dictates that they are intended to be completely incompatible by nature and divine law. Not just for the obvious fact they are both men, but they are separated by what is arguably an even steeper chasm of social class. Their existence even as friends utterly spites, interrupts, and threatens feudal order right down to its theological and philosophical roots. They should not see each other as human and yet.

It's the fact that they do. The fact that the entire story has been about this--that these two protagonists fit together, undeniably, and grow to love each other fiercely (a love that deepens superbly from their knee-jerk playful puppy-friend-love in kcd1 to something selfless and mature by the end of kcd2). And they do so despite the immense opposition by their world, their social circles, their faith, and indeed their fandom.

And yes, it really does fucking matter that all of this culminates into a deep onscreen romantic love (if you get out of the way and allow it to) between two fandom-beloved male main characters (not just side characters rammed in for an optional gay romance but THE main characters of the duology; the "you" as in the player character and your erstwhile dick-jokes bro you have perhaps grudgingly at first been invited as the audience to love) in a historical fiction story that has been wrongly touted by the worst of our contemporaries as the holy grail of cultural conservatism.

Holy shit. Warhorse -- y'all. I'm sorry I doubted you. So few game writers understand how love works and indeed how people work, let alone translate it so well onto the screen.

Calling this an "optional romance" is not technically incorrect, I suppose, because it's true you can opt out and choose to remain platonic friends. But this language feels like a disservice, as if Henry & Hans's romance is a typical RPG wham-bam fanservice makeout with a minor fan fave character who never interacts meaningfully with the player again. Or as if it's a Bioware-style "give this NPC the right gift and do their side quest and you get to see a jankly ugly-bumpin' montage" situation.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is so very much not that. The "main, optional" romance scene in question is just one consummation event of two people who have been growing up and falling in love in front of us over the course of some 200-300 (or god knows how many) hours. The fact these protagonists openly love each other is very much not optional.

This is, sincerely, groundbreaking storytelling in this medium and this genre. How fucking cool that we all got to see it now.

[damnfandomproblems]

https://www.tumblr.com/damnfandomproblems/768609563277688832/fandom-problem-6564-im-sorry-but-i-can-never?source=share

I'm pretty sure most people who use puriteens are using it in a serious but tongue in cheek capacity, what's wrong with that? Also WHY is brat in there? Was that intentional, or are you just really really young, and/or have no interaction with people over uh, 20? Because everyone I know outside of fandom knows what the word brat is, it's a common word. It might be regional, but it's FAR from something that originated online.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

A few additional anon responses: (Previously posted on their own, but I realized we had a lot of them so I decided to edit them all into one response to save space.)

Anon:

This smells like tone policing

Anon:

Brat is literally "a child, typically a badly behaved one". I don't know what you expect! Do you expect people to spell that entire definition out to refer to children who behave badly, instead of just using a word as it's meant to be used? You do know language is a shorthand to express complex ideas, right?

Anon:

Lol. No. I didn't listen to my great grandmother use the word "brat" to describe spoiled children (seriously, have you not ever heard the phrase "spoiled brat"?), AND my mother use the word, AND myself use the word as someone in their 30s, just for someone who doesn't even know the first two things about the word to claim that using it means someone is chronically online or "immature". Usually it's quite the opposite. So much unearned confidence in this ask, when you're just patently wrong.

Anon:

You can pry "brat" from my cold, dead, hands, you uncultured swine.

Anon:

“Brat” has been used for hundreds of years as one reply pointed out. Second and longest point of all, people who are calling minors “brats,” “puriteens,” and “snot goblins,” are referring to minors invading spaces not meant for them. Friendly reminder that there was a case of a minor who was 14 on a Discord server with other minors and the moderator was an adult. You know where this is going. The adult was grooming all of those minors, showing NSFW artwork of Cookie Run characters to the minors saying that the artists and people who like certain artwork and ships are “pedophiles” and that the adult running the Discord server is “one of the good adults.” That minor was bullying a classmate over Cookie Run ships, which is how the mother found out what was going on. Not only that. The minor had a Twitter and interacted with NSFW artwork. There have also been scenarios on Twitter where minors butt into conversations about sexual content. A minor was interacting with the Azur Lane Twitter account, which is a lewd gacha game filled with anime tiddies that can be comedically large. That minor claimed that one of the (at the time) latest cards of one of the game’s characters was “fetishizing their culture.” It’s a game about battleships and aircrafts as anime waifus. There are minors that invade adult spaces and then throw a fit that they’re getting kicked out. Some obnoxious minors will fling the word “pedophile” around at any adult that tells them to get lost. I saw a 15 year old go, “I bet your pedo ass got off to that.” “That” being the adult telling the minor to stop having conversations about sexual content out in the open on social media like Twitter and to stay out of adult spaces. There are also minors who unironically regurgitate the same puritan sentiments extremist “Christians,” 90’s soccer moms, and old white guys that tried to blame GTA for gun related crimes. That is where the “puriteen” (as corny as the term sounds and looks) comes from. It’s the same puritan mentality, but being performed by younger people. To end this off on a hot take, minors should not be on social media. Because there are creeps that lurk on social media and adults who groom children into an anti mentality and antis are the equivalent of a cult. I felt chills seeing minors on TikTok saying, “I’m scared that I will become a predator for still having a crush on a character who will still be underage by the time I become an adult.” Some of the comments under that TikTok video were also thinking about seeking therapy related to that statement. If you still think people who get mad at minors who invade adult spaces are the problem even after I provide these real scenarios of minors getting involved in spaces they’re not supposed to, then idk what to tell you. Sorry that this ended up being hella long, it just annoys me to see someone invalidate adults in fandom that keeps minors out of adult spaces and labeled them as “the actual problem.”

Anon:

I think it might be you who needs to get off the internet for a while and maybe open a dictionary?

[autistichalsin]

Okay, I’ve been a bit scared because I’ve been observing from the sidelines, but I do want you to know this isn’t a hateful or troll ask, I’m genuinely asking for clarification.

In my experience, “pro-shipping” has always meant ‘problematic shipping’, and all of the people I’ve talked to about this have said the same thing.

Am I the one who’s misconstrued? I really don’t get it.

Being called “pro-harassment” or “pro-censorship” is hurtful and confusing as all hell.

I don’t harass people for what they create. I don’t care to do that. I block and move on, and warn people if I know they could be upset by the content.

But I also don’t understand how certain things are justified.

I am personally not bothered by much, but I have watched friends and acquaintances go through visceral traumatic reactions because people have decided to air out their coping by sharing it with the public. (I.E, people who write romantic incestual fics, etc)

I don’t give a shit what people write. I really don’t. But it feels harmful to use the excuse of coping when you, in turn, could be hurting dozens of others.

Like I said, I genuinely am not trying to be hateful here. I’m confused, and still distraught that all of this is happening. I don’t think anyone deserves to be harassed. I just also don’t get the logic here.

Pro-shipping never once meant problematic shipping. It meant opposite of "anti" because antis would come and invade the tags and asks, calling them all kinds of names if they found their ships distasteful.

Sorry that being indirectly accused of supporting harassment hurt your feelings. Imagine how I felt, being DIRECTLY accused of supporting rape in real life because of my taste in fiction. You are throwing in your lot with people who can't distinguish fantasy and reality.

I don't like incest fics either, anon. They are triggering for me. So you know what I do? I don't read fics tagged as incest. For that reason, I have never been triggered by an incest fic. I suppose I would be if I read an incest fic that wasn't tagged as much, but you will never find a single pro-shipper who defends posting such content without a tag. You are responsible for your own experience online; it is your job to curate the content.

If it was just seeing that the fic exists that triggered the response, then I'm sorry to say they're still in the wrong. As a survivor, learning that triggers exist and how to navigate those triggers is on you. We are responsible for how we deal with our trauma. Your friends didn't deserve their traumas, and they deserve kindness and support, but requesting that people never be allowed to write distasteful fiction so that they don't have to be upset by the idea that someone somewhere shipped incest is not reasonable. Their feelings are valid; it's totally reasonable to be triggered, to strictly curate your online experience. It's reasonable to block everyone who ships the upsetting incest ships, to put an "incest shippers DNI" on your page, all of it. It's not reasonable to call them supporters of IRL incest or to accuse them of causing your trauma. It isn't hard at all on AO3 or Tumblr; they even give you the option to blacklist/filter out certain tags so you can avoid it without blocking users. There's easily half a dozen safeguards that already exist that are a lot less radical, a lot less likely to be weaponized against queer users, and a lot easier to enforce than trying to remove them.

Me writing fics, such as a character using kink to cope, can only harm a user who doesn't curate their feed (and who reads fics they know will trigger them, which I can only assume would then be a purposeful form of self-harm). Denying other survivors their coping mechanism, though, IS a direct form of harm. Stigmatizing recovery by saying that survivors are in any way akin to abusers for creating fiction is a direct form of harm.

It sounds to me like you've absorbed some very harmful and very narrow ideas of what recovery should and should not look like, and what is and isn't a good/valid survivor. You might want to reflect on why you're turning your attention to policing what survivors do to cope so much.

[just-antithings]

What's the worst take you ever read ?

Mine was an anti saying that we should follow all canon sexualitys in fanfic if the character is straight they should stay straight and vice versa and how gay people have represention now so why do they have to change their sexualitys and also no mental I'll don't make your characters have autisim if it isn't canon no Aus that aren't in canon don't make them fat if they are skinny (ignoring that most of the time this happens its when characters make a fat character skinny)

Do they know that if they want canon they can read the orginal content right ? Like fandom was never in history canon 2 they don't have to read fancontent at all if they don't like how it's operated

In the same breath the said that that gay ships are not represention so why are they so pressed about it if you read their post you'll feel like a gay ship killed their mother (oh and I forgot they also said that lesbians even if canon should not be put in fanfic because of fetishaztion)

The whole thing is a dumpfire to be honest I thought is was satire at first but noooo 100% percent serious

Fandom for me is for fun for me I'm not coming home from work to have to deep analysis of my fanfic characters I just want them to cuddle honestly some people find fun analyzing characters fun more power to them some have fun with deep discussions about morality of characters and as I said more power to them but some of these people act like the *I only want fun in fandom spaces and nothing deep* all lack media literacy and critical thinking skills when it's most likely someone who just wants to rewind for the day I love analyzing classics for fun but fanfiction for me is escapism I want the villan to be redeamed I want these two characters who hate eachother to kiss its not that deep honestly , I'm not stupid I know that this character is wrong and a bad person I just ignore it for the sake of the coffee shop au

Some people go into fandom and are really surprised to find fanon in it and fanon isn't always as bad as people make it to be most of the time it's that they don't like the opinion even if it's somehow canonicaly correct so it gets called such

The only good point they made is about how people get bullied and callled homophobic for shipping gay people with the opposite sex (and this is obviously wrong when I'm looking for a ship I'm not looking at their sexuality I'm looking for who they look better smooching with and it's not taking representation the same as making them gay doesn't take straight representation)

yesterday I found my new worst take by an anti

[elainsgirl]

"b-but azriel is a f-boy. he's jealous. he's possessive. he's entitled. he's icky.. he's... he's..."

Azriel is so misunderstood because of bonus chapter. "Gwyn can help him with his darkness" are you okay?? Azriel is not some broken person you guys make him out to be! We don't have enough of his pov to see how he is... that's just a glimpse of it.

It baffles me that Gwyn was dragged into these ship wars so she can "save azriel and help with his darkness and trauma" (im obviously talking about the weird ones who ship them together. I've met good gwyn and azriel shippers) ..... Gwyn is an amazing character, stop saying that weird stuff. Not to mention people romanticizing her getting saved by azriel- its annoying and disgusting!

Also Azriel getting shipped with everyone! Like bro, he's fine!

I ship Azriel with no one as of now. Sure him and Elain have moments but... its not enough for me to fully ship them yet. We need everyone's pov before we start making up these theories and gaslighting people so much! Everyone claims to say "Im thinking most of the people in this fandom is 12 year olds" nah, its all of you. Yall can't accept the fact that people have different preferences and opinions. Yall bully people off the internet because of fantasy book??? hello??? are we like, okay??? not to mention people act like this book is so unpredictable! baby, this is a normal fantasy book! nothing about this series is unpredictable at all!

Not to mention Acotar tiktok people have got to be one of the most sensitive people ever! Can't even make a funny video without someone having to debate in the comments. like please shut the hell up. so glad tiktok is getting banned, those insufferable people can get away.

The way Azriels character has been completely twisted by the fandom to suit their anti elri agenda is truly something. The way they potray Azriel as such a disgusting character with Elain but are ok shipping him and Gwyn - cause suddenly he then becomes the perfect male for her. This is why I just cannot understand anti logic - they’re constantly warping whatever they can to fit their ships or disprove elriel and if you have work that hard - taking scenes out of context, adding in your biased interpretations, lying about quotes - just to disprove elriel….says enough about the confidence they have in their ships.

I hate hate hate the fact they use Gwyn as the only one who can “heal” him or challenge him etc, its not Gwyns job to change a grown, 500 year old man. She deserves so much better then the way she’s being treated, dragged into a shipwar for having one innocent conversation- that too more focused on his powers then the man himself - with the opposite gender. I think if Gwyn had shown she felt some way towards Azriel such as having a crush on him or Nesta teasing her about all the supposed “alone” time Gwyn and Az were having in SF and she blushes or gets shy whatever - I would totally understand gwynriel more, and if that was what Mass wanted she never would have given us a descriptive scene on how bad down Az was for Elain - such a scene should have only been for Az and his final Li aka in this case Gwyn. We never got detail descriptions on how badly Cass wanted another woman when Nesta was introduced as early as acomaf. Most stans have really put Gwyns story and journey as a character to the sideline and instead focused on forcing her into a relationship with a man and romanticising that - it just feels icky to me personally.

Its some kind of joke that Az is being shipped with every other person aside from who he wants the most LMFAO.

Thats fine if you don’t want to ship Az with anyone and instead wait for the book, I think thats best to make sure you’re not disappointed by any outcome. Idk, some people do act so immature & childish within the fandom and I think its fair to call such behaviour out. I can accept people have different opinions and as much as they’re entitled to those I am equally entitled to judge or challenge their takes in my own space. As long as no one is saying or doing anything to affect someone beyond the screen - challenges and debates are normal within fandoms. Yh such as how many times certain people have scared off artists and have made others become inactive due to the harassment they’ve received- its all sides of the fandom. Heavy on nothing about acotar being unpredictable but I kind of like how each parallel, pattern and foreshadowing all comes together so nicely in a cute set of 3. Its clear where Mass is going with the storyline and I cannot wait to see it playout.

Welp TT was banned but now its back, so those people are here to stay.

[actuallycassidyiambusy]

Hi there!

Are you proship? Just curious, no hate /gen

On that note, how/ why did you choose that stance and what're your thoughts on those of the opposite spectrum?

Hi😁

Okay, so here's the thing. I am absolutely, undeniably, both feet in the water, proship. I don't give a fuck what people are into when it comes to fiction. I really don't. Because it's fiction. It's fake. I'm not gonna get all bent out of shape because people play with their dolls differently than I do. That's a waste of energy.

Huge age gap? Fuck yeah, dude.

Monster fucking/humanxbeast ships? Fuckin BET.

Toxic relationship where they're both obsessed? 🔥

Cannibal/vamp/killer ship tropes? I'M HOOKED.

One sided/stalking/kidnapping ships? Abso-fuckin-lutely.

Pet play ships? Hell yeah, brother.

Incest ships? Not really my cup of cocoa, but hey, you do you, dude. It's not hurting me any.

Priest fuckers? And demon/priest ships? Can't get enough of that shit.

Self shippers? Hell fuckin yeah, you get that fictional character's attention, baby.

I could literally keep going, but I'm sure you get the point. In my opinion, people can ship whatever they want as long as they aren't hurting or harassing real people. Do I count antis getting triggered over a drawing or fic as hurt? Nah. I'm talking physical/emotional harm or relentless harassment. You know, the shit antis do to US. From what I've seen, proshippers just wanna play with their toys without some anti coming and kicking over their sandcastle because it's not the way THEY would have built it.

As far as people who prefer to stay away from the proships, that's okay. It's okay not to enjoy something. It's okay to see something and be like "Eh. Not for me." But that's it. That's where it should stop.

What I'm not okay with, and I've said it before, is the pointless attacks and the superiority complexes. The people who feel the need to pound their opinions into your head. These certain people who get offended by proship and think the whole world has to stop and filter/censor themselves for their benefit. I'm not gonna cradle someone who feels the need to cry and complain about lines on paper.

You don't like something? I can respect that. Move on. But leave people alone for fuck's sake. You know what I mean? What is the fucking point of going on someone else's post and telling them to hurt or kill themselves? What's the point of seeing someone's work and instead of scrolling past like an adult, they write some huge paragraph as to why we're going to hell and they're better than us in every way? The same goes for proshippers who attack other proshippers. I don't get it. The name calling, the fucking one sided dick measuring contests, the holier than thou mindsets. Over a drawing or a fic? Really? C'mon.

There are ships out there I really just don't like, but damn I can appreciate some good ass art when I see it. I won't seek out a fic on a ship I don't like just so I can leave some shitty comment. I will never be some anti screaming into the void of the fucking internet because someone drew or wrote about a problematic ship. I don't like to argue about this stuff, but I will defend myself and I will defend other people who just wanna play pretend.

Something antis need to understand is "DNI" works both ways. Don't like it? Don't interact with it then. Plain and simple.

[sylvies-chen]

after seeing a tweet about season 2 coming out I thought now would be a good time start The Bear to fulfill my need to have seen every single show in existence! I’ve only seen the first 5 episodes so far but here are my thoughts:

it seems everyone in this show except marcus (he’s just in the corner perfecting his lil donuts!! leave him in peace!!) teeters so beautifully on being absolutely detestable. some *cough cough richie cough cough* do venture into unlikeable territory but then when they do, the writers bring in a scene that instantly gives them an extra layer and shifts you towards empathy. it’s a really delicate balance but so far it’s working for me!

this is, at its core, a show about how to go about taking pieces of something broken and turning them into something better and beautiful, revamping it without discarding its true nature— and this is true in both the inwards sense, relating to carmy’s (and sugar’s and richie’s) grief and mental health in learning how to move on from a tragic loss but not forget your past pain, and then in the outwards sense as well regarding to the restaurant and the Chicago community, how to make a successful restaurant without forgetting the people they serve, how to not be a gunslingin’ dive but also not a gentrifying posh joint.

speaking of that internal turmoil though, I’m absolutely lovinggggg the bear motif and it fits perfectly with this idea! it’s like carmy has so much bottled up inside him, both good and bad, like his passion to change the restaurant mikey left him but also his pain and grief and sorrow, and him trying to let the bear out of the cage and slowly tame it or control it in his dreams is very reminiscent of someone trying to get a hold on their own psyche. but it’s like. no dude. you gotta let it all out, let it go wild! both the pain and the ambition! it will let you be more loving, be healed, and be a better leader! gosh, it’s so so good.

JON BERNTHAL IS IN THIS?? Oh wait I think I vaguely remember @levijeanqueen watching this show just to see Jon Bernthal on her screen. sky babe this is me formally saying that I should have followed in your footsteps sooner omg I love this

richie gives me whiplash because he starts crying about his kid and I wanna give him a hug and tell him he’s a good dad but then he yells at syd and I get filled with rage and then he calls the cops on the mobsters when someone else solves the problem he couldn’t because he can’t stand not being needed and then anti-hero by taylor swift starts playing in my head because it’s him hi he’s the problem and what do you mean he accidentally drugged children with xanex i-

sydney is my GIRL y’all!! she has such a passionate, eager spirit about her that she can’t hold in and yet she also lacks confidence in a lot of ways and like. she is me!! I am her!! I kin this woman so hard. (that’s actually my first time using that word I hope I did it right lol). I’m so obsessed with everything she does, I can’t wait to see her grow and evolve as a chef, and to gain more confidence! also I need to learn more about her backstory right tf now like what was that catering business?? what’s her family like??

I don’t know where people are shipwise with this show?? it’s not a show that offers a lot of substantial material on that front but shipping is so much more fun when you have zero expectations and can kind of just go with the flow and take your own creative liberties so I like having fun with it. anyways I definitely feel a certain vibe with carmy and sydney but also marcus is so outwardly sweet to her when no one else is so I’m not mad about that either.

I think carmy and syd are like… two side of the same coin? they’re not the most alike but they’re not polar opposites either, they’re very much foils of each other and they each are the parts of the other that the other wishes they were. like sydney very openly wants to be skilled like carmy (she’s skilled on her own ways though might I add) and be a fearless chef and innovator, and carmy I think less-openly wishes he was like sydney: new, fresh, eager, not beaten down by the verbal degradation of high-end culinary culture, hopeful about the world and creative. I really like that sort of connection between two characters, it kind of alludes to a deeper idea that this bond was meant to be in a way? their chemistry is fucking fire too like wow

but then there’s marcus and sydney, which I think is cute because marcus has that sort of fun experimental eager green energy that sydney has and that many others (like tina and richie) have discarded or snuffed out, so I think he could be like a nice bright spot for sydney. idk. I need to know like a million more things about her character as well, she deserves all the screentime in the world. but in the meantime I’m just chilling, enjoying the little itty bitty crumbs that let me have my fun lol

anyways I’m sorry if that was too long for you lovely folks but I hope it was a worthy interruption to your regularly scheduled tumblr scrolling because I really love this show and I can’t wait to finish these last two episodes before moving on to this new season!!

[destinyc1020]

I really don’t understand why you try to normalize the fandom weird behavior. Just call it what it is, it’s weird and disrespectful. No need to go in circles and justify and normalize this act by saying others have it too and give examples that have no correlation to Z/T situation. Well good for them, should we clap and say tell people to keep clowning T/Z? I don’t get your thoughts anymore.

Nobody is saying to normalize weird Stan behavior Anon 🙄🙄

All we're saying is to STOP giving it any attention because you cannot control what others tweet.

What are you gonna do? Pop a blood vessel EVERY single time Z goes to an awards show or gets photographed with someone of the opposite sex? 🥴🤨

Instead of focusing on the fact that she got NOMINATED for a freaking SAG award (which is a huuuuge accomplishment and such an honor amongst her peers), y'all are worried about the intanets and what ppl are saying on that stupid bird app 🙄🙄

I'm just starting to notice a pattern that anytime Z has some type of success or appearance at an awards show, it seems like the focus the next day is complaining about the jokes about Tom, or worrying about what fans were shipping her with whoever she took pics or presented with etc. Like give it a break.... Ignore them. 🙄

I've already said time and time again that ppl need to grow up, and that it's disrespectful to ship ppl together who are obviously in rlshps with other ppl. How many times have I said that in my blog? 🥴

I cannot control (and neither can fans) what ppl say on twitter.

What I DON'T like (and I've said it many times before) is when fans come into MY blog space and write obvious anti statements like: "Z is leaving Tom for Timmy", "Timmy flew on Z's plane to Paris, so it must be true love", or "Tom and Florence are perfect for each other, and one day they will meet and fall in love" 🙄🙄

I almost feel like some of you all purposely seek this nonsense stuff out on twitter in order to complain about it. 🥴

On the other hand, I don't seek this stuff out, so when ppl bring their ABZ/ABT mess to MY blog with the intention to troll, yea, it irks me.... and I've already written dissertations about this in the past.

[phoenixwrites]

Found this browsing their tumblr and roflmao I think someone forgot to tell them what anti really means. It means you're pro censorship and also pro harassment. Like I'm glad to know they proudly are okay being called antis and horrible people and that they're 100% okay with sending death threats or people reblogging their call out post using a hashtag promoting violence to "pedos":

And remember folks, i literally just told this to somebody but, when a pedophile reaches out to call you an anti—even from anon—they’re calling you an anti-pedophile, so i’d personally thank them lol they want us to be sad they’re saying we’re anti-pedophiles??? yeah, no thanks lol tell your mama too while you’re at it

I checked out the blog in question, just a little—I’d heard that they were manipulating photos of me or something. The level of unhinged is a little terrifying and I honestly hope they’re talking to a therapist, because I think they’re going to hurt someone or themselves over their manufactured callouts.

“Anti” for those who are curious, are fans who make their opposition to a ship or a person their entire personality and have determined to harass and abuse righteously crusade against said person or ship instead of doing the adult thing and focusing on the things you love rather than the things you hate.

For the record, I had periods of doing this kinda thing myself, particularly towards Reylo and CS, because I hated the ship so much. Now that I am older, you know, practically ancient at 32 (how they love to harp on my age) i’ve learned that even though I find the ships viscerally disturbing and problematic, people who enjoy them can and should. For however much I loathe Reylo, Reylo fanfic writers are getting publishing deals and that is incredibly inspiring to me. 

[arcane-flame-blog]

Of Exosuits and Space Dragons

*Brapttt! Brapttt! Brapttt! Brapttt!*

High energy bolts of anti-proton flashed down the testing range and tore several targets into shreds, moments later what was left of the targets were obliterated by a heavy rain of high explosive rockets that covered the far end of the testing range in a sea of fire and smoke. After the smoke cleared all that was left standing on the range was a set of blacken pockmarks. At the opposite end of the range a shining Voth Exosuit stood with small amounts of steam expelling from its hot weapons emitters. Next to the mech, a Clan Ru technicist examined the data on the padd with a serious eye. The technicist looked very much like her ancient Troodontid ancestors but was wearing a Khitomer Alliance uniform and had three stripes of paint on her snout: Red, White, and Black.

Moments later the Voth Exosuit knelt and the cockpit opened.

“YEE-HAW! THAT WAS AWESOME!!!”, The pilot yelled ripping off her helmet revealing the face of an alien woman with cervine features. She was a member of the Faanan species, a species descended from deer-like ancestors that still possessed many of their facial features. The Faanan pilot then jumped out of the exosuit as the Ru technicist looked slightly annoyed before focusing back on the data on the padd. The Faanan pilot ignored the judging gaze and strutted over to a replicator.

“One Cetsa please!” The Faanan shouted. A weird light frothy pinkish brownish liquid in a rose color glass appeared in a shower of light. The Faanan grabbed the glass and downed it as the Ru technicist stared at her.

“Faberi, what the heck is that?” The Ru technicist said after a moment.

“It's called a Cetsa and it's good! You should try it and live a little Chize!” Faberi said as she replicated another Cetsa and handed it to Chize the Ru technicist. Chize looked at the glass warily and then hazarded a taste. Immediately the Ru technicist spat out the drink and fell to the ground coughing as the Faanan burst out laughing.

“Really Chize,” Faberi said after catching her breath, “if you don't like it you don't have to be overly dramatic about it!”

“Were... you... trying... to... kill... me?!” Chize asked between coughs.

“Lighten up!”, Faberi said helping the Ru rise to her feet. “It's just a old recipe from your brother's old ship. He thought I'd enjoy it.”

“That explains everything...”, Chize said rolling her eyes, “Weird undrinkable slop from a ship of weirdos. Explains their ridiculous logs though, they were probably downing this stuff – and – worse, then bumbling around the universe while hallucinating alien nebula blob things. Anyways, the exosuit's power output is good and its adaptations for non-hadrosaurian pilots seems to be working well based on your performance.”

“Yeah!”, Faberi cheered, “It felt like being a one woman weapon of mass destruction! I bet I could even take on a Cosmic Hydra in this!”

Chize rolled her eyes at the mention of the Cosmic Hydra. “Really, you're going on about those space dragons again.”

“You know there are various types of cosmozoans out there! Why are you so quick to dismiss the hydra?”

“The other cosmozoan have been documented. Thus far I haven't seen any hard data on magic multi-headed space dragons that shoot gravity warping beams from their mouths. I don't care what some guy at the bar said, your old legends, or some badly distorted long range sensor reading. If they existed we would have readings about them, or do they just magically distort and erase sensor readings when they are nearby?”

“Where's your sense of wonder and adventure?”

“I prefer hard data to made up legends. What are you going to tell me next that there is a – I don't know – a group of mysterious bioluminescent moth people who live on a magical planet with flying islands that float around in their atmosphere.”

Faberi giggled and picked up a padd. After a few button presses she triumphantly handed the Padd to a shocked looking Chize.

“They're called the Alshain.”, Faberi said triumphantly, “They're in the process of joining the Federation. We did a joint operation with them while you were on leave. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Chize, than are dreamt of in your philosophy... Oh and they also have stories of the Cosmic Hydra too.”

Faberi stuck out her tongue and then erupted in laughter as Chize sighed and tried to focus back on the Exosuit test data. Weird space stuff aside, the Voth dissident made exosuits seemed like they were going to be a boon to the alliance's arsenal.

[junosswans]

The many times of Midoriya Izuku rejecting Bakug*u Kat*uki & what it means to them

Again, not exactly anti-bakug*u but I'll tag it like so and hide his name so that people who potentially don't want to read it don't have to

(contains: mha comic spoiler, antibkdk but it's really complicated, in general critical of a certain blonde character but I don't think there's anything mean spirited here and my point isn't to shit on him, but to theorize where he's heading towards)

Thinking about how over and over izu chose the other option as opposition to bak*gou and feeling a moment of hope for a liberating ending between the osananajimi but then also grim cause hori probably won't do that (or the jump editors won't let him do that)

It's a thought that only came to me after the comic apology scene, which so many 💥🥦 shippers screamed over, and it led to me contemplating the progression of their relationship & how they were positioned in the story as archetypes.

I kept on thinking about how in the apology scene, Izuku never directly replied to bkg's apology. Bkg said I'm sorry for everything I've done, and Izuku's immediate action after the shock was to apologize to everyone for being inconsiderate in his previous words.

I'll have to say this first, I don't ship them at all and could never see myself doing so (for apparent reasons), and as someone who endured bullying and abuse I hate bkg a lot, but thinking about their character development is really interesting and as far as angst goes, they probably have the most dramatic mutual-but-also-not-mutual pining relationship ever and its honestly kind of fun to think and read about, lol.

And after they have returned to UA, and bkg accidentally called him deku as usual instead of Izuku, his reply was a smile and "you don't have to force yourself", which...

Like, can we stop a moment and think about how Izuku never directly addressed bkg's apology? The way he said "you don't have to force yourself" as if he's given up on hoping? If I am the author and I wanted the apology moment to be the salvation the two needed, I'd definitely let Izuku accept the apology then move on. There's no point in dragging things out unless I'm preparing for a greater moment of enlightenment. Unless the reply Izuku had in his mind was not what we are expecting (acceptance).

From my pov, I think he was hesitating. He was having second thoughts and he was unsure. If it was set before the final arc, Izuku would probably immediately accept the apology, or say "I've never blamed you/been mad at you"-- no matter how we view their relationship, we can agree on that, right? But why the hesitation now??

I think we're close to the reveal of the reason for the change of mind for Izuku, judging from how the story has been building up. And I have a theory which is an unlikely one but I also really want to see if anyone else feels the same.

One of the main theme of this story, or of most stories, is the discovery of self-identity. To establish your name and develop your personality & world view and find where you belong. It's a very common theme, yeah?

MHA is a story that's defined by choices instead of predetermined fate-- todoroki chooses to use his power to neutralise but not harm (unlike what he's been taught), midoriya chooses to save eri despite nighteye telling him he couldn't do it, the LoV thinking bkg would be good villain material and him rejecting them, and the dichotomy between the heroes and the villains? It's "I choose to become what I want to be not what others (eg my father, society, etc) want me to be" versus "society called me a villain so I will be one as my revenge".

For Izuku, I’d argue that his journey of becoming himself relies on the rejection of his childhood, in which he was repeatedly told that he had no right to choose (quirkless people can't be a hero, you should kys instead, you need to become the next symbol of peace, so and so), and he needed to defy those voices and choose his own path. And as someone who played a big part in those negative voices, bkg was someone who Izuku needed to reject. (By reject, I don’t necessarily mean cut off. What I mean is that they both need to reevaluate their view towards each other and stop seeing the other as someone more/lesser, which had been a constant in their dynamic until very recently; Izuku needs to reject what bkg used to say to him and the labels that he had given him. Only with this could they achieve a healthy & balanced relationship.)

It started with him reclaiming the name deku by choosing ochako’s interpretation over bkg’s; and then cheering for todoroki when td and bk faced off in the sports festival;

And Izuku did, repeatedly. It was small but it was there, how he was trying to push the influence & shadow of bkg (his abuser) out of his personal narrative, in a passive way. It was unintentional statements and outbursts at first, and it was kind of a one step forward two steps back situation (which is common for abuse survivors who are trying to make amends), but I think he was coming to the realisation that it’s what he needed to be the hero he wanted to be.

Tbh, I really really didn’t expect this line. Like I was so so so bracing myself for midoriya to cheer for bkg but then he DIDNT and it was insane and I screamed. Anyways--

Then it escalated into deku vs bkg 2 and well, that was definitely a lot of emotional baggage to unpack. It was an incredibly painful read for me because well… the level of mental gymnastics you’d need to do in order to view the world like bkg…. bro needed the psych ward not a hero school. There were definitely a lot of moments that shippers would swoon over, but if you’d allow me to go blue curtain a bit I’d say the most important line is this one:

There was also the “it has to be you kirishima who goes to save bkg because if I was the one who’s holding out a hand he would rather die than catch it” in which, yea it was accurate assessment. But like. Anyway I don’t feel like getting into that today...

Wtf bkg? You thought of me like that?

Judging from how it’s been emphasised over and over by bkg and AM lately, Izuku changing from someone who has no regard for his own well-being will be a major plot point in this last arc, and this will likely include his relationship with people. In order to grow from being overly self-sacrificial, he will need to distance himself from people who hurt him or at least, acknowledge that people who would hurt him doesn’t care for him and move on from there. And this leads us to this line:

Prior to this, I don’t think Izuku gave too much thought to their relationship. He likely attributed all the bullying and namecalling to his quirklessness and “it’s bkg being bkg” and this was the moment when he was like, ah, so you hate me on a personal level, you pick on me not because you look down on quirkless ppl (Izuku probably internalised a lot of the shame & discrimination regarding that) but because you really hate me, midoriya izuku, specifically. You THINK I look down on you, and you THINK I get beaten up by you because it’s fun for me or something. All the while I've idolised you and looked up to you and believed so earnestly that you will be a great hero. It’s through this fight that they finally get a glimpse of what the other thinks of them and it’s when Izuku started to contemplate the definition of friendship, affection, and relationships in general. I feel like after this was when the distance between the two really showed, even though the air between them became less tense. Bkg had learned the truth of OfA, but in terms of plot progression it didn’t seem to do much for the two. The “helping deku to train” acted as a plot device to explain how he got stronger, but aside from that, how did this part contribute to Izuku’s character development?

And really, I think we are seeing bits and bits of how Izuku is mentally distancing himself from bkg (he still cares but not as much and as extreme as before), although it could just be my wishful thinking. one of the notable instances is this frame from the apology scene:

When I read this, I was like...??? So you actually know that friends aren't supposed to beat you up??? On one hand, the IRONY but on the other hand, there's a part of me that's holding out for the possibility that this is hinting at something bigger in the future. Could this statement mean that he will learn to draw a better boundary between himself and people who don't treat him fairly (which is very often)? I definitely hope so.

To be fair, I didn't remember either, so I went back and had a look:

He didn't remember. oh. my. god. You would have thought that he definitely would, but he didn't remember at all. (I ugly laughed, for a moment) Whether it was because he had too much on his mind or that he didn't exactly care is left for you to determine.

The other reason for this theory of mine was Todoroki's development after the license exam. We got to see how Izuku told Shouto it's ok to not forgive his father, but because he's "a caring person," he was waiting for an opportunity. In which, kinda a wack argument but it was indeed very much in character for him to say so.

...ok.

It was said before by many others, but the two really have a lot of parallels as well as opposites, like childhood trauma, refusing to use his quirk to the point where it hurts himself vs forced to cope with a quirk that hurts himself, and of course most importantly, learning to come to terms with your trauma and making peace with your abuser.

What Midoriya said above irked me a little, because no, you are 100% allowed to not forgive him forever and that doesn't make you a bad person, but then in the next chapter we got this:

And then we get to know exactly what Shouto was waiting for:

He was waiting for endeavour to change before deciding whether he should forgive him. In which on this aspect I really think Todoroki was coping a lot better than...... anyone else in this series even though he's often depicted as a dense & slow person. So with the parallels in mind, could this be what bkg and deku are heading towards as well? Would Izuku's mind change after witnessing the conversation between Natsuo and Enji? Could we expect more of the dirty laundry between the two will be revealed to the other characters and they will be forced to face it? Will Izuku need to do the same thing, to hold off his judgement and possibly decline the apology until bkg really has proved himself?

On bkg's side, we have been seeing a lot of references to him being the one who knows Izuku the best, even bkg himself said so. There seem to be this shift of power balance where it used to be izk chasing after bkg, and now bkg might have to chase after izk who's less interested in him now. (If this is the case, imagine the angst. The role reversal. The pining. Oh my god hori would be insane to pull this but it would be so delicious--)

In the latest chapter, we saw shigaraki declaring that he was not interested in bkg at all, aside from his relationship to Izuku. Shigaraki demonstrated his unrivalled power which gave bkg a great shock. By the presupposed logic of “the characters of mha need to learn to be something other than who they’re told to be,” for bkg who’s always been told that he would be the greatest, the most powerful, the protagonist in life, it’s probably his moment to learn how to step aside and support others (which he evidently hasn’t mastered yet, since he burnt hadou’s hair again). If I am to maximise the dramatics in this plot, I might even force him to renounce his status as a hero because I crave the poetics and the internal struggles, but that’s unlikely. However, since right now we are having two people facing off, one of which rejected Izuku’s help in their childhood, and for the other one Izuku wanted to save his childhood (The visual parallels were so blatant that there’s no way it’s not intentional) so I’m really, sincerely looking for a role reversal between Shigaraki and bkg, between a “false hero” and a villain (label wise).

Anyway, I think this is it for me today, I read the lastest chapter yesterday and there were so many thoughts on my mind and needed to vent a little (a lot)...

But then, these are all just theories and most of the time, manga theories remain to be just that. If this really happened hori will probably go to god tier author for me, but I really don't think that's gonna be the case, haha

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

I love that the internet is forever and there is record of you shipping incest from teenage mutant ninja turtles. Like you can change your blog name but there it is. 😂 OMG. What a time to be alive. You will really never escape that. You’re not queer like you wanna be so bad (for what reason, who knows) you’re queer like- you’re a fucking deranged freakazoid who likes incest from kids shows. Instead of writing me a really nice fic, maybe just get therapy.

Aaaaaaaaaaand there's a permanent record of you wasting your Halloween writing me this garbage. You can call yourself "radical" for the rest of your life, but you'll never change the fact that you're a sad, Puritanical TERF with literally nothing better to do than harass real people over fictional characters. Animals are people too, but apparently I'm not, yeah?

Not to mention that you'll be trying to sell yourself as "radical" with this shit literally hanging over you:

And what the hell made you think I'd ever want to hide who I am? There's no goddamn shame in valuing the lives of real people over fictional characters, whereas there's quite a bit in doing the opposite, because that suggests a really small, wretched life. Sounds like you're doing quite a lot of projecting about who wants to erase what.

I'm a queer freak, loud and proud and unchangeable. You're a sad sack. And there's no reason on earth I'd want to hide either of those things. I don't even need to beg people to think I'm "scawy" (seriously, nobody is scared of radfems and TERFs, we just think you're morons and feel sorry for you), you clearly already think it already if you're so terrified of my words you have to hurt me without even knowing me. I didn't even know your stupid blog existed until you decided to permanently link it to this morning.

Whereas I'm very curious what the hell you were doing stalking my blog to begin with, considering there isn't even a lot here that could be classified as guilty wank material. Are you that lonely with your fellow TERF nazis? Do you need to try to do something awful that you think is righteous to get out of bed in the morning? Do you have a record of trying to hurt three people a day before one of your so-called friends will give you a smidgen of the affection you so desperately need?

Anyway, I'm glad there's a permanent internet record of the way that radfems so heavily intersect with antis. Like, hey, maybe there is a reason you guys overlap so much. Maybe there's a reason you're all going to be jumping at ghosts long after Halloween is over.

Also "freakazoid?" Are you in middle school? I don't even need emojis to try to convince you I'm laughing, because this shit is hilarious enough on its own. Especially if you staple it to your own blog with another incoherent spiel.

Therapists agree with fic writing, but I think you should consult your own, because your life is probably genuinely shitty if it drove you to make this ask. Like, seriously, this came so out of the blue I have to believe you've just had a breakup or something that makes you run around, desperately harassing people like this.

Chances are you're just going to pretend you didn't read this--antis have a way of doing that, and so do morons desperately clinging on to the last word like kids trying to win the "are too" game. But there's still a record for those sweet baby antis out there for the next time they think about jumping into bed with radfems who seem to think that animals matter more with people, and there's going to be a record of your misery.

So, anyway, I'm not going to write you a very nice fic. I'm going to write you a very nasty fic about transmasc turtles in love. Happy Halloween, you poor unfortunatel soul. Unlike you, I’m not hiding shit.

[hamliet]

Proship basically means you don't think people should be harrased over ships or media they like even if it something "problematic". (That's the short version, if you want I can give you a more in-depth version that explains the fandom history behind it)

Thank you!! See, by your definition I would definitely be pro-ship. But there's nuance too lol. Like this is another response I've gotten:

trying to give a fairly neutral definition here since this is a subject of a lot of discourse. a proshipper: someone who is ok with people creating stuff for any fictional ships, even the "problematic" ones - up to and including inc*st & minor/adult. (emphasis on fictional, they do not condone this at all irl). an anti is the opposite: someone who believes certain ships (and fictional content) should be off limits, and it is immoral to engage in it, because fiction can influence reality.

(Thank you, Anon!)

And I've had others (who are good friends!) message me and tell me it's become inextricably associated with csa which is horrifying if true but my guess is pockets of this are true and pockets are not.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is what I mean by "vague" definitions. It probably means something different to each and every person.

My short statement is that I do not like the "anti" movement. That said, I also think a lot of them are really hurting, but bullying others isn't okay. You can dislike something and post about how you dislike it, imo that doesn't make you an anti (but some people might call themselves that? Vagueness again!), but if you start harassing other people, we've got problems.

So like. What do you call yourself when you're more on the live and let live side and don't care to control what people do in fiction, but also think fiction is a part of reality that is both affected by reality and can affect reality, but also believe it is pretty much never a 1=1 equivalent? And also believe everyone has competing needs and what is healing for one person can be hurtful to another? And it depends on what is taken as canon and what is not? (Like, aging characters up, for example.) And hate the morality play tendency of media nowadays, but also think that there is such a thing as an irresponsible story too?

Anyways. That's where I stand. A big ol' noodle salad of "nuance and empathy should be the key factors in this discussion here."

[teletraan-meets-jarvis]

What I Want - Part 2

AO3 Link

Chapter Title: What I Need

Pairing: Crosshair x fem!Jedi Reader

Summary: Following the awkwardness of the night before, you go to an old friend to try and process your feelings for Crosshair.

Click here for Part 1

Warnings: 18+, a bit more frisky business but not full on so rated 18 just to be safe. Swearing.

Word Count: 2.6k

Author’s Notes: You ask, you get!! Thanks so much for all the support and love for part 1 ❤️. As a thank you, I bring you part 2, I hope you enjoy! If this one takes off a bit as well, I do have an idea for a little bonus chapter around the Bad Batches' reaction. As always, feedback/comments are massively appreciated along with reblogs. Fic is below the cut off, thanks for reading!!

Taglist: @aerynwrites @shannon-lynn-21 @saltywintersoldat @tired-night-owl @wille-zarr

A comm alarm beeped softly, slowly pulling you out your slumber. Giving the device a sleepy glare, you shut it off and huffed back onto your bunk. Wrecker’s snores were echoing off the small ship barracks, you rolled your eyes at his sleeping form across the room as you swung your legs over the side of your top bunk. Below you, Tech slept soundly, he managed to fall asleep with his goggles on which were now sitting wonky on his relaxed face. He also had a datapad clutched to his chest, almost like a teddy bear, which made you chuckle to yourself.

You’d barely slept after getting back from the mission but being a General stopping over on Coruscant meant rest would be a pipe dream. Your alarm was set to get you out of bed and ready for the first of what you were sure would be a hundred and ten briefings today. You were always happy to shoulder the politics for the team, removing that burden from Hunter so they could keep to themselves. But today, you could really do without it.

You looked over at Hunter and Crosshair’s bunks, the former sleeping up top with an arm over his eyes. Probably to block out the few small coloured lights on the ship that shone from critical systems, preventing the room from being truly pitch black. You didn’t envy Hunter’s enhanced senses, they seemed to cause him quite a bit of discomfort when they weren’t on missions. You should probably pick him up an eye mask one of these days.

Below him, Crosshair slept with his back to the open room. One of the few times you ever saw his body relaxed was when he slept. You cringed as you remembered yesterday’s awkwardness with the sniper and mentally cursed at yourself for causing, what was, an easily avoidable situation.

Shaking your head you jumped silently off of your bunk, mindful to not wake any of the batch. You gently removed Tech’s goggles, placing them in their usual spot before moving over to grab some fresh robes and head for the fresher. Today was going to be a real drag.

—————————————————

“Hey! Look what the Lothcat dragged in” someone called after you as you trudged up the steps to the GAR Headquarters. You turned around to see none other than Anakin Skywalker jogging up behind you.

“Nice to see you too Skyguy” he chuckled at the nickname as he threw an arm around your shoulders.

You fell into companionable chatter as you made your way to your first meeting, the dark halls of the military headquarters looking indistinguishable as you attempted to find the correct room. Members of the Coruscant Guard patrolled the halls, nodding politely to you both as you strolled past.

Eventually you found the room where Mace, Plo and Luminara were waiting, along with some clone and human high command. You stood outside the door for a moment, readying yourself to seal your fate of being talked at for a solid eight standard hours.

Eventually you caved, mostly as you were on the verge of being late if you debated standing outside any longer. Begrudgingly, you sat through briefing after briefing. All the voices and different rooms blending into one grey blur as you tried to take in what information you could, but your tired and stressed mind was having none of it.

While it was nice to catch up with some of the other Jedi, you always felt a bit out of place among the perfect members of the council. More so now than ever.

You ended up wandering back to the temple with Anakin where you both retired to his room and you flopped down onto his simple bed with a whine.

“Okay, what’s going on? You’ve been off all day” Anakin was the closest thing you had to a brother, you trained as Padawans together and due to your similar age you became fast friends. You knew about his marriage to Padme and decided that if you could offload your dilemma on anyone, it’d be him.

“I fucked up” you groaned out from behind your hands.

“What’d you do?” Anakin replied in a playful tone.

“I might’ve got a bit hot and heavy with one of the clones in my squad, led him on and then cut it off” Anakin raised an eyebrow at your confession. “And now he’s pissed at me”

“Why?” You weren’t entirely sure which part of that entire thing he was questioning.

“Because I started the whole thing, I wanted it. Then all of a sudden I did that whole guilty Jedi, must follow every word of the order thing, gave him some pathetic look which said really sorry I can’t have attachments mate, hope you understand. He called me out on it before I could even utter the banthashit excuse and then he stomped off and hasn’t spoken to me since.”

“In his defence, seems like he was probably wound a little tight” Anakin replied with a chuckle which you just groaned at.

“He has every right to be pissed. Hells, I would be if the roles were reversed. Whats with this whole self-righteous act us Jedi have going on?”

“Look, it’s hard being a Jedi at the best of times. It takes an inhumane amount of self-control, which is why its not a path for the weak. But being a Jedi while at war… it’s a lot. You’re emotions are running high, you’re forming bonds with soldiers on the battlefield that you shouldn’t be, but none of us can help it because it’s uncharted territory. Maker knows I’d hunt down anyone who hurt Obi-Wan or my Captain. Yes, It’s not the Jedi way, but neither is fighting a grand-scale war.” Anakin’s eyes were alive with emotion as he spoke, be he quickly caught himself and then it was gone.

“My point is, don’t beat yourself up so much. No one is getting kicked out the order or in his case reconditioned if that’s what you’re worried about. Figure out what it is you want, and then just be discreet about it” you looked at Anakin like he’d grown two heads, he just winked at your confused stare.

“Okay let’s keep it simple. Are you attracted to him?” You thought back to the night before and firmly nodded in response.

“Do you like him as a person?” You pondered his question.

“Well, it’s Cross. I wasn’t sure if he even liked me for a long time. He’s closed off, anti-social, but he’s also a good guy, cares about his brothers, has saved my ass multiple times, and he is kinda funny in his own, snide way” you rattled off with fondness in your words.

“Well then I suggest you go and talk to him.” Anakin replied, giving you a knowing look when he spotted the small smile on your lips as you spoke about the sniper.

You took a deep breath, glad to have finally gotten that off your chest and feeling content that you now knew what to do next. “Thanks, Ani”

“Ugh please don’t call me that” he moaned back, apparently only Padme was allowed to get away with that one.

————————————————

Your walk back to the Marauder felt like it dragged on and on. Your brain ran over a thousand scenarios of what to say, how he’d react and you were about to short circuit. There was so much risk, so much possibility, that you did your best to shut your mind off and let yourself handle it in the moment. These things never went as planned anyway, it was best not to guess.

The large door to the ship hissed open, your boots clanking on the metal surface as you cautiously walked into your home. It didn’t take you long to find Crosshair, he was sat in the main hull methodically cleaning his hand blaster. Everyone else must’ve been asleep. He was just in his blacks, the material hugging him in the most wonderful way, it’s like whoever designed those things was trying to trip you up. The contours of his arm muscles flexing as he worked, his strong chest looked practically chiselled at the heart of his lean frame. You had to force yourself to calm down a little bit.

“Uh, hey” you greeted awkwardly. “Mind if I join you?”

You took his silence as a well he’s not saying no. He didn’t spare you a glance as you walked in and took a seat opposite him. As a General in the GAR, you rarely got nervous. War, as a concept, was simple. You knew your purpose, your objective, you had a job to get done and you’d do it. The risks never stopped you, rather they fuelled you. Probably why you’re such a good fit for the bad batch.

But this right now, personal feelings, not knowing where you stand with someone you care about. Because if you were honest, you really did care about Crosshair, the same as you did the rest of the team. You’d only been with the squad just under a year but you’d gladly lay down your life for any of them in a heartbeat. If you could at least get back to where you were before the other night, you’d be over the moon.

You weren’t used to being so nervous, you let your hands fiddle with you dark Jedi robes as you readied yourself to speak again.

“Look, I’m not here to throw some crap about being a Jedi at you, I promise. And I’m sorry for trying it before” he still didn’t look at you, finding his blaster much more interesting. But you could tell he was listening, you had his attention. Might as well keep babbling.

“In terms of an explanation for what happened yesterday, well I guess I panicked.” You sighed as you tried to find the next words “The way you made me feel that night, I… I’ve never felt like that before and everything i’d been taught over the years screamed at me that what I was doing was dangerous and wrong. I now realise that I’m just an idiot. I make my own decisions and I… uh -well, I stick by that one, starting something that is.” Still nothing.

“I know this is probably a long shot. But in the interest of being transparent” you rambled “uh… if you want to go down that road again, I’m up for seeing what happens, can be as casual as we like. I promise I won’t freak out on you again.” You chuckled and thought you almost spotted a slight pull in the corner of Crosshair’s lips “But if you want to go back to how we were before, I’d also really like that.” You watched him for a while as he gave no acknowledgement of your words, his cleaning finished as he now gave the weapon a once over in his hands. Having said everything you needed, you got up from your seat, looking away from him.

“Well, if I can do anything else, let me know” you turned on your heel to leave, feeling slightly defeated but glad you’d at least made the first step.

“I could think of a few things” he finally spoke as he leaned back into his seat and continued to stare at his blaster, still not meeting your gaze.

Well that caught your attention, you turned back around to face him as he carried on ignoring you. While his tone was unbothered as he spoke, you knew him just enough to know his words held a meaning. He was playing with you, back to his usual teasing and you could’ve laughed at the relief that washed over you. This you could work with. A cheeky idea popped into your head and you’d decided to run with it.

“Oh really?” Throwing caution to the wind, you strode over to the sniper slowly. His gaze finally meeting yours after all this time, watching you as you got closer and closer. Practically drawing you in with his amber eyes. You pushed him back by his chest, creating enough room so you could straddle his lap. “Care to elaborate?”

He huffed out a short laugh at your words, his face overall unbothered but his eyes, they were burning into you. “You’re a smart girl, I’m sure you’ll figure it out”.

You hummed in response, deciding to kick things up a notch you wrapped your arms around his neck, bringing your faces just breaths apart. “Something like this?” You asked, pausing for another second before bringing your lips to his in a surprisingly soft and gentle kiss. You felt his hands come up to rest on your back, pulling you closer as you continued your slow dance. This was so different from the other night, where before there was desperation and lust, now there was something more… tender, passionate. You were quite glad you weren’t standing as the way he moved against you would’ve definitely made your knees weak.

Dragging yourself away from his lips, you searched his face. His mouth pulled into a barely there smirk “That’s a start.”

“Who said I was finished?” And just like that, the last few strands of tension between you both snapped and you relaxed in his arms. You fisted your hands into the front of his blacks and pulled him back to you, his tongue slipped between your lips, curious and demanding. He was everywhere again, filling your nose with the scent of the standard cheap GAR soap but mixed with something earthy, something so distinctly Crosshair and you couldn’t get enough.

You could tell why the Jedi order frowned upon such activities, kissing Crosshair was intoxicating. You couldn’t think of anything else other than the handsome clone in front of you and just how much you wanted him in that moment.

His hands wandered lower and lower down you back until they rested comfortably on your backside, pulling you further up his lap. Feeling mischievous, you started trailing kisses along his jaw. Setting a teasing, languid pace as you mapped out the spots that made him squirm. Crosshair was never a man of many words, so you made it your mission to see just how vocal you could make him.

As your lips met his pulse point, he gave a loud exhale and you smirked in victory against his skin as you continued the onslaught on his senses. You definitely seemed to be doing something right as his hands found themselves in your hair, clutching slightly and you couldn’t help the soft moan that escaped you. Even while trying to gain the upper hand in the situation, he always had some control over you. It was maddening in the best way, setting your veins alight with desire.

Determined to get another victory you traced your tongue against the base of the side of his neck and trailed it all the way up to the bottom of his ear, which you teasingly took into your mouth, teeth grazing the soft skin. A strangled moan escaped the clone and that was the moment where you knew you were hopelessly and utterly gone. Your mind filled with nothing other than wanting to be closer to Crosshair.

“Not very Jedi of you” he commented, slightly breathless when you finally stopped teasing him and came back up to meet his eyes. Looking down at where your bodies were pressed against one another, you chuckled.

“What exactly about this situation led you to believe I was ever a model Jedi?” You smirked, though it was only visible for a second before his mouth was back on yours, devouring you as his hands greedily roamed your body.

You continued making out like teenagers for most of the evening, taking the time to explore each other, enjoying the closeness. Contentment settled over your body, almost as if this was were you were meant to be. If Crosshair’s arms were where you belonged, well, you could think of worse places to be.

Back to Part 1

Back to Masterlist

[zire-in-space]

Hyping Ships Needs to Stop when:

Hyping ships needs to stop when:

- it is not canonical

- it is between two real life people

- it enforces a sexuality on a character that is not their canonical sexuality, whatever it may be

- it has a toxic tie to it, and any real relationship like it is very abusive *bakudeku, bakuracka and most bully x bullied ships

- it enforces ANY lgbtqa+ stereotype onto a canonically straight character to "prove" they are not straight

- it enforces ANY straight stereotype onto a canonically lgbtqa+ character to "prove" they are not lgbtqa+

*reminder to the non-straights that do the two above: you are not helping to stop the stigma around fetishizing non-straight relationships if you actively participate in this shit. If you complain about sexual or dirty stereotypes between two people of the same gender having affection while being friends, and do this, you are not helping for shit and are a hypocrite.

- it makes western and/or non-western close or distant friendships seem "gay" because showing physical or emotional affection or a tragic backstory to a friend that is the same gender is now gay, apparently

- it is very forced onto the creator and studio of the franchise when shippers start doing these things:

1. Shippers creating petitions to make their ship canon *happening with most anime ships, unfortunately. Happened to the steven universe studio to the point that someone quit because of it*

2. Shippers sending death or rape threats to the creator and/or studio members *steven universe shippers, hi there*

3. Shippers bullying other people for shipping CANONICAL SHIPS

4. Shippers constantly dragging the idea that "the character's sexuality is not mentioned DIRECTLY BY GOD HIMSELF so they must be gay, bi, pan, or ace"

5. Shippers using typical bro and homie moments to say a ship is canon and "hyping it up" on social media, which is basically putting pressure on the creator to not "let the fandom down!"

6. Shippers using well-bonded friendships where both characters have epic respect for each other for being "gay"

7. Shippers using clothing style and aesthetic to "prove" a character is not straight

8. Shippers call anyone who explains this a "homophobe" despite having these same rules against straight people pushing the hetero onto a clearly gay character

9. The ship is basically really bad fanservice for the gays/straights or anyone in between *mostly for iNcLuSiVitY / r e p r e s e n t a t i o n

10. Shippers saying that even though the character is not canonically gay, they still might be a "shy" bi or pan - even though the character's respect for certain characters and style DOES NOT PROVE ANYTHING, and a character's sexuality is clearly shown with BLUSHING or CLEAR FLUSTERING with males/females whenever a canonical crush or attraction is shown and NOT when someone gives them a goddamn compliment or bullies them because people get EMBARRASSED or just feel nice and blush jesus christ

11. SHIPPERS DO ANY OF THESE BUT INSTEAD OF THEM PUSHING NON-HETERO ONTO THE CHARACTERS, SHIPPERS PUSH THE HETERO ONTO A CHARACTERS

- NOTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTERS YOU ARE SHIPPING IS FUCKING CANONICAL OR SLIGHTLY CONFIRMED

Now, reminder that "There is not enough representation for lgbtqa+ couples in the media" is not a fucking excuse to push being lgbtqa+ onto a clearly and/or canonically straight character. Nor on the goddamn creator or studio. Do not create a goddamn "hype" with a large part of the fandom for a ship that is. Not. Canon.

Reminder that healthy friendships are typically based on idolization, empathy and affection and this never means these two people are non-hetero.

And by the way, these "totally gay" or "totally cute" ships actually ruin the way well-bonded friendships are seen between two people of the same gender. And WIDENS THE FUCKING STIGMA for non-hetero and hetero people to be in a friendship, since it assumes they want things to happen for both straight or non-straight friendships - just stop. If your defense to this is "the heterosexuals have been doing this forever, though!", then i am sorry, but you lost this debate. Us straight people haven't done this on purpose, it's what society has nurtured us to do whenever we see a guy and girl friendship - we automatically assume one or both wants more than a friendship, and this is totally a misogynistic take so gender roles get reinforced. So using "straight people have done this forever" just proves that you do understand you are partaking in the reinforcement of queercoding and toxic gender stereotypes and roles of human beings. People should try to do the opposite, and enjoy a really good platonic relationship. Straight shipping culture literally is despised by most straight females for the lack of female inclusivity, misogyny, queercoding, and female plot devices that have furthered away from us the ability to have male friends. Males now use "friendzone" jokes or harrass girls who they manipulated into being their friend since everywhere it is shown that all it really takes is for a guy to like a girl and to be in a friendship and boom, relationship. Straight women have hated this forever.

And "heteronormativity" doesn't really exist in creator's works. It's what the creator imagined their characters and relationships to be. If its all hetero, let it be hetero. If its all homo, let it be homo. If its a straight creator who made a homo character let them! If an lgbtqa+ person made a straight character let them! And I know people will question the first part on this list, but fanfics and fanart are never bad! I mean like the pedophilia and lewd sexist imagery definitely needs to get yeeted but other than that there ain't no problem! It's obvious it's an alternate storyline than the main franchise. :D

So any haters of this need to shut up and eat the fact that you are not the creator of the franchise, and you will not "convince" or "petition" or just put pressure for any ship to be canon onto the creator. I know this post is kind of agressive but I'm so tired of trying to explain it to lgbtqa+ shippers and homophobic anti-gay shippers about this stuff. So here is a last note:

Let creators make stories - complex characters each with their own styles and aesthetics and relationships - without the pressure of changing anything in it to fit society's queercoding or gender-roles, my broskis.

Thank you :D