#this person is someone I know has been brainwashed but I feel so betrayed and heartbroken

[theresnothingcruviswithme]

How DARE you.

How dare you comment on my post saying I feel betrayed by people who say they love me but then vote and support a man who is seeking to actively harm me and the people I care about

How dare you comment “I love you” when your actions and words contradict you so thoroughly

[comicaurora]

Are there any tropes or lessons you like to see used on the five man band.

I.E.: the lancer needs to learn the power of friendship or the heart needing to learn self care

Oh man. So many. Just off the top of my head-

The Leader is out of commission and The Lancer gets their wish of being in charge! Oh god why is everything so difficult this is like herding cats how does The Leader stand it

The Smart Guy has friends now, so it's easy to forget that before The Band they were isolated and awkward and overall very alone. Let's unpack that!

Oh nooooo The Lancer was overconfident and got their ass beat by bad guys and now they need to get rescuuuuuued nooooooo what if they learn a lesson about truuuuuust

The Heart supports the team without complaint… but what happens when they need support? (hugs. hugs happen)

Has The Lancer… betrayed us?? (maybe a little, as a treat, but not for long so relax)

Everyone else is out of commission! It's up to The Smart Guy to sneakily save the day!

The villain of the week made someone in the group experience Deep Emotional Issues and now The Heart is going to straight-up murder them if nobody stops them

hey bad news they brainwashed the chillest friendliest member of the gang and now we have to do an absolutely terrifying fight scene about it

Everyone on the team is relying on one member's unique skill to save them all while the rest of them buy time, and the only person who isn't sure they can do it is the person doing it

One of them is cornered, but wins using a skill they picked up from a teammate (and possibly complains about it nonstop)

Everyone is being independently interrogated about something they all did and every single one of them is either stonewalling or lying outrageously

Okay one of the team is out of commission let's try REALLY HARD to take care of them and handle any problems WITHOUT BOTHERING THEM I'm sure this won't result in a comedy of errors

Everyone gets knocked flat in a one-shot move but how cool is it when the powerhouse is the only one who manages to get back up

Okay you guys go handle the main villain I'll stay here by myself and hold off the entire army of minions no sweat

Oh hey, turns out this Heart character we've been underestimating isn't weak or underpowered, they're just usually much too nice to kick anyone's ass half as hard as they deserve. congrats on finally finding their breaking point tho

One of the characters is feeling useless, sure hope they don't push themself to deeply self-destructive extremes to compensate

Somehow The Leader has been temporarily compromised to the side of Evil I sure hope The Lancer doesn't take it upon themself to solve this the only way they know how (running off on their own and getting their shit rocked)

Local Lancer Unfortunately Concludes They Are Undyingly Loyal To These Idiots

[morlock-holmes]

I recently found this article about Robin DiAngelo and it's really stuck in my head now. This woman is so instructive about the underlying psychological processes animating us in the early 20s, and it's totally unintentional, which makes her fascinating to me.

Partway through her presentation, DiAngelo asked us, “What are some of the ways your race has shaped your life?” She told us to give our answers to each other and added that if we were white and happened to be sitting beside someone of color, we were forbidden to ask the person of color to speak first. It might be good policy, mostly, for white people to do more listening than talking, but, she said with knowing humor, it could also be a subtle way to avoid blunders, maintain a mask of sensitivity and stay comfortable. She wanted the white audience members to feel as uncomfortable as possible.

In our group of three, Southern, who is white, went first. Like Woods, she was already steeped in DiAngelo’s ideas; Southern had led two church book groups in discussing “White Fragility.” She was fully persuaded that, as she said to me afterward, “we’re all racist in that we’re swimming in a culture that is racist,” and that “we don’t think, as white people, of white as a race that comes with all kinds of conditioning.” Yet, in the moment, in response to DiAngelo’s question, she struggled. She couldn’t articulate much of anything about how she’d been shaped by being white.

I went next. I, too, was ready for everything I heard from DiAngelo. In fact, I knew this very question was coming. Just the day before, I’d been to a session she ran for a fractious city department that agreed to let me watch as long as I didn’t describe the event; the department’s equity team had brought her in to spur white self-awareness. But I had failed to speak about my whiteness as formative. That is, I noted that my color gave me infinite advantages, but the words, while sincere, were passionless. I emphasized instead that three of my five nonfiction books were about race, that I thought about race constantly, that back in junior high my best friend was one of the few Black students in my school, part of an experimental busing program in the early ’70s, and that the way our friendship ended still haunted me, that I’d betrayed him badly.

At some point after our answers, DiAngelo poked fun at the myriad ways that white people “credential” themselves as not-racist. I winced. I hadn’t meant to imply that I was anywhere close to free of racism, yet was I “credentialing”? And today, after a quick disclaimer acknowledging the problem with what I was about to do, I heard myself offering up, again, these same nonracist bona fides and neglecting to speak about the effects of having been soaked, all my life, by racist rain. I was, DiAngelo would have said, slipping into the pattern she first termed “white fragility” in an academic article in 2011: the propensity of white people to fend off suggestions of racism, whether by absurd denials (“I don’t see color”) or by overly emotional displays of defensiveness or solidarity (DiAngelo’s book has a chapter titled “White Women’s Tears” and subtitled “But you are my sister, and I share your pain!”) or by varieties of the personal history I’d provided.

This is like some fucking 70s EST or scientology brainwashing shit.

Like, look at the list of responses to this question:

If you deny that being white shaped your life, that's White Fragility;

If you are too eager to show solidarity, that's White Fragility;

If you share personal history, that's White Fragility

If you talk about times when you were made aware of racism, that's White Fragility;

It seems like pretty much every single thing a white person could possibly say in response to that question is "White Fragility".

DiAngelo is clear that we're all inherently racist, but I want you to attend to the emotions that the author, Daniel Bergner expresses. He and his white colleague are eager to participate, and they know, and have heard, that their participation will be racist, but their primary emotions are anxiety and shame.

They are convinced that they have somehow shamefully failed at a very important task, despite the fact that DiAngelo is very, very clear that there is no way to succeed.

More than that, they feel shame at their desire to succeed, and anxiety at the idea of not trying to succeed.

Honestly as you keep track of the article watch how good DiAngelo is at subordinating people:

The surge of attention, DiAngelo told me, made her at once leery and hopeful. She worried that the posts were “performative,” the book “just a badge.” Yet, she said, “there’s a sense of scales falling from people’s eyes,” mostly because of the killings of Floyd and, before that, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, but also, she believed, because of the work she and her antiracism colleagues have been doing. She felt a similar mix about the ASAP emails from corporations. “The very urgency itself says you don’t have a very deep understanding of how hard this work is, and how long it takes and how ongoing it needs to be,” she said. “Racism is not going to go away by August, so how about we do it in August?”

Being too excited to start being antiracist is evidence of how bad you are at being antiracist!

This woman is a terrifying menace.

What struck me reading both White Fragility and this article is the way that this way of talking and thinking distracts extremely heavily from concrete action. Everything pulls into an increasingly subjective, and religious realm, and the question of what we're actually trying to do recedes back into the fog:

Singleton spoke along similar lines. I asked whether guiding administrators and teachers to put less value, in the classroom, on capacities like written communication and linear thinking might result in leaving Black kids less ready for college and competition in the labor market. “If you hold that white people are always going to be in charge of everything,” he said, “then that makes sense.” He invoked, instead, a journey toward “a new world, a world, first and foremost, where we have elevated the consciousness, where we pay attention to the human being.” The new world, he continued, would be a place where we aren’t “armed to distrust, to be isolated, to hate,” a place where we “actually love.”

Bergner, and basically everybody he interviews, have gotten so excited to tell us whether this is a good idea or a bad one that they have forgotten to explain what "this" actually is.

I want you to do something brave. For a moment, forget that you and I think that it is utterly asinine to devalue "written communication" and let's agree with Singleton, putting emphasis on it is an example of white supremacist thinking.

Let's also pretend that we are teachers. What are we doing differently?

What specific classroom policy are we putting into place?

Are we eliminating all written classroom material?

Are we allowing social studies students to choose whether they prefer to give reports orally or as a finished written document?

Are we doing exactly what we were doing yesterday but trying to keep in mind that we shouldn't assume that a student is stupid just because they struggle with reading?

You'll notice that the range of options goes from "Insane radical thing that the school will never do" to "Something so obvious that basically any sane person will agree that it's a good idea"

You'll also notice that it's like pulling teeth to get anybody to actually put things into concrete terms like that (None of the people interviewed for that article is capable of doing so).

Hell, you know what I didn't notice until just now?

During a training in January 2019 run by [Darnisa] Amante-Jackson , which Chislett recorded, Amante-Jackson...went on to present “some characteristics of whiteness,” prominent among them “an obsession with the written word. If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.”

During a later session a white employee causes a giant stir by... wait for it...

Refusing to write on a poster during a brain-storming session.

This is the powerful hypnosis these people are working; you and I can listen to them talk about "obsession with the written word" and it doesn't occur to them or us to ask why so much of their anti-racist workshop revolves around the written word, revolves around demands to use the written word, and grinds to a halt when people refuse.

[utilitycaster]

To elaborate on this post specifically with regards to Worlds Beyond Number, well, Suvi says it all, really:

They love being on my tab, they love having fun, they love being protected by me, but they never listen to me and they don't care.

Because here is the thing. Suvi is of the Citadel, which is part of the Empire. We do not have a full understanding of the geopolitical system but as a rule an empire is participating in conquest; sometimes two empires both exist and attack each other and so the exact scenario gets very gray and complicated but I think we do all agree the Empire is not great.

Suvi is of the Citadel. She holds a position of great privilege within the Citadel. This is in part because her parents were, as far as we know, betrayed and murdered by an enemy of the Citadel (having themselves been, again, based on what we know, reformers and rule-breakers as well as extremely capable spies) and she was adopted by one of their closest friends, who became the Sword of the Citadel.

She is not the Citadel. She is a 20-year old who was primarily raised within it, with all of the above complications of her parents. She is not single-handedly responsible for every action the citadel takes. She is not personally trying to stop Ame or Eursulon, only saying that there will be consequences if they leave. Consequences that she has experienced after Ame ran into the kudzu and Eursulon went after Naram and they all attempted to break Ame's curse; consequences she knows will become more and more dire if she continues to disobey Steel, particularly a direct order; consequences that already resulted in Ame being in a coma for a month. (The court-martial, I will say, is entirely on Suvi; the rest is not).

And in all of those situations: Ame and Eursulon were, as Suvi says, happy to have Suvi's purse pay for room and board, and her wizard's staff open doors, and to be put up and fed at the Chantry, and take the skyships, and train at the Citadel and have a marvelous time there. It's been several days and they could have left sooner, and they didn't. It's very "no ethical consumption under capitalism, which means that I can do whatever I want" rather than like, attempting to make slightly less harmful choices from Ame and Eursulon. Their choices aren't coming from a principled stance against the Citadel and Empire; they are coming from a "well, thanks for all the fun and the safe place to stay and the resources for research but you told me not to do something I wanted to do and I won't wait an hour to try and see if we can come to a solution that works for everyone."

For that matter, they're making these choices in part because of what a wizard of the citadel is saying to them; and yet Suvi's presence was said by that very wizard to be crucial to Ame's survival, and they're still not waiting.

[stepping outside of all of the above and the below: I think all the actions being taken, as a listener, are fucking great because this is D&D and conflict is fun and also all of these characters are like, the equivalent of 20 years old and level 2; this is not me saying Suvi is right and Ame and Eursulon are wrong. Rather, Suvi is no less right or wrong than the others, and she is extremely justified in feeling hurt and angry and that her friends are willing to take and not give.]

Something I've found in a lot of sf stories but especially actual play is a pretty strong and frankly, weird bias within the fandom of exactly this nature, as the linked post said. Someone affiliated with an empire or a power is somehow, as an individual, responsible for every harmful action that power commits. They're brainwashed. They're evil. They don't get it. They just need to come around to the right mentality. And that right mentality is, of course, that of the good rural person with nature magic. They are a leader within their small community and hold an immense amount of power over them - and perhaps beyond - but don't worry, they use it correctly. They're wise and they're right about everything.

Except they're not. They are frequently either idealistic to the point of ignoring the realities of the situation, or very limited in their viewpoint, or do not realize the immense privilege of being in their position as both a person in nigh absolute benevolent power within a small domain and also the only person with that power. Those wise, provincial, nature-based characters rarely understand that to exist within a complex and yes, extremely flawed and even ill-intentioned system like the Citadel is to be, even as a person with privilege within that hierarchy, a cog.

Suvi cannot just leave. She exists within a vast system and she is not stupid or brainwashed for acknowledging the realities of it. I think that yes, a very possible path forward for her is one in which she grows to question the Citadel's practices. I also think that to treat her as the embodiment of this entire empire, or to expect that her only way to be a good person is via a sudden about-face at the cost of everything she has, when she is a level 2 apprentic, is not just overly simplistic but flat-out incorrect. And I think that to assume Ame is objectively correct for not waiting a very brief amount of time for Steel (when, in fact, one could argue she should have left immediately upon being contacted; she had been absent from her duties for months already) is similarly oversimplifying to the point where one's conclusions are no longer useful.

Recall that witches' familiars are said to embody the traits within them that, to be an effective steward of their position, they often must set aside. Ame has been letting hers lead her.

[morganafayes]

i want to talk about the dark tower (5.06) because it is SUCH a frustrating episode for multiple reasons. it’s unique in that it’s one of the only morgana/gwen centric episodes in the entire series - and yet it ends up becoming a detriment to both of their characters’ development. this episode sucks not just because of the evil gwen plotline (which was terrible yes. we love the writers just removing her autonomy over and over again for no reason!) which resulted from it but also because the lost potential of it all - when this setup could have been easily used to create some of the most interesting plot lines for gwen (and morgana) in s5

like. sorry to say but would it be that impossible or insane for gwen to actually sympathise to some degree with morgana here without magical brainwashing. to me its not! the thing about gwen is that she's a morally driven character first and foremost. one of the main reasons she falls in love with arthur is because crucially, she sees him as a good person. she loves him for the values that she believes he upholds and his desire to do justice. it was same with lancelot - it's emphasised that she liked him because he's honourable and good. we also see that she values her morality and doing the right thing above her own emotions at times (re: her not wishing for uther's death even after he killed her father).

with that in mind, would it be that insane for her entire perspective on arthur and merlin (AND magic) to change because of morgana? firstly, gwen never finds out that merlin poisoned morgana. this is very important to me.... because although yes he didn't 'have a choice' (im not gonna get into all of that but i understand both sides of the argument. whatever) he still did something wrong. like. killing 1 or 10 people in the trolley problem still makes u a murderer. she has every right to hate him. he objectively betrayed her and took advantage of her trust. i feel as if gwen would sympathise with morgana and at the very least this would affect her opinion towards merlin to some degree, and make her realise he's hiding things (because she, like arthur, doesn't know half the shit he gets up to and does! she even less than him!). furthermore (and more importantly) i can absolutely see gwen sympathising with morgana against arthur to some degree too. like yes he's her husband but AGAIN she's someone who always puts her principles first and objectively arthur is upholding his father's legacy by continuing the oppression of magic users. he is textually an oppressor. in 5.13 its clear gwen doesnt fully distrust or hate magic from her conversation with gaius (although she might be suspicious of it considering her past experiences) so she would probably be very sympathetic and understanding if morgana were to explain to her what it was like to be a magic user under uther's reign. how demonised and oppressed they truly were and continue to be. like. she would absolutely still criticise and call morgana out for hurting innocent people but ultimately morgana's cause (despite it being not really true to what it claims to be) would be sympathetic. at the very least she would see that arthur is wrong, even somewhat, for continuing to uphold his father's legacy. especially because (as the writers seemed to forget for some reason.) of her extremely complicated relationship with uther in the past, considering he almost had her killed more than once and did in fact murder her father because of his obsession with banning magic. and now her husband is doing the same thing.

no of course gwen would not side with morgana at this point in the story. but she would understand her and sympathise and it would create such an interesting moment of character growth/conflict. it would make her question her marriage, the things she THOUGHT arthur and camelot stood for and whether those things are really true. it would make her doubt merlin's character and realise he's hiding so much more than she thought. it might make her distrust him or demand the truth. it might make her wonder what SHE wants to do as queen, as a ruler in her own right, especially if she starts to have ideological disagreements with her husband. there's literally so much that could have been done with her in s5 as fallout from just this one episode and they did the most boring thing ever and made it suck so bad. bbc merlin writers ur not seeing the pearly gates

[antispopausandstuff]

though i likely wouldn't de-age Adora to be in her teen years, personally, there is a lot of potential in a story like that.

a 16-17 year old child soldier who was held up to the standards of protector, healer, de-escalator, and overall a weapon meant to serve what she believes is the greater good, after being groomed by her mother and father // authorities and bullied // abused by her sister, only to discover not only that her entire future was a lie, but so were those she called family.

having to face the truth and undo the propaganda and brainwashing done to her all her life, she makes the choice to become She-Ra after taking the first step: realization.

( i feel like a lot of people hold the idea that 'choosing' to hold a title means that you 'chose' to suffer every single consequence that came after, thus the reboot stripping away Adora's autonomy in choosing the Sword of Protection, rather than it just being thrown into her hands without so much as a simple understanding. )

then, through her perfectionism, savior complex, and inability to change every single aspect of her worldview, out of a deep need to maintain some reason about her previous life, she gives her sister, Catra, a way out, in spite of all the pain she's suffered at her hands.

logically, Adora owes nothing to Catra. she could've walked away and no reasonable person would blame her ( though, that seems to be a stretch nowadays ), because there's only so much one can deal with before keeping yourself at a distance is all you can do.

it's difficult, to turn away from your home and become a 'traitor', when they had betrayed you first, for your entire life. but you don't even want to acknowledge that yet, because so much has happened in so little time, and you're not only a revered warrior goddess, but part of the people Etheria fears and hates.

it's difficult to undo the teachings of your mother and father, of not just staying still and passive when accused, yelled at, or intimidated.

it's difficult to not have a panic attack at the first sign of punishment. you had never been punished before. as far as you knew.

whether or not you know it, you begin to overcompensate. taking over any and all plans, struggling to hear the others out of fear of rejection or offense, having to hold your breath each and every time someone speaks, and trying to follow all directions down to the T.

you burn out.

Adora is not only a victim of propaganda // brainwashing, but severe psychological, emotional, mental, and physical abuse through the hands of those she loved and trusted with her whole heart, who she showed compassion, sympathy, and understanding without hesitation, even when she was afraid.

part of the reason why her story is tragic, in my eyes, is because she was a child that had to be an adult.

yet, the show // fandom only wants to acknowledge that if it's convenient or if Catra is involved and can be her 'savior'.

[pheonixdrop]

I wish we knew for sure whether or not Garroth was actually mind controlled because it’s so annoying to try and argue any point. Like you could read it three different ways and it’s entirely based on your opinion and specifically your opinion of garroth. Was garroth 100% brainwashed or mindcontrolled? Was Garroth manipulated into it? Was Garroth just being a little bitch? Who knows!!

And even then, mind control and brainwashing are different things! Brainwashing is a kind of mind control but not all mind control is brain washing! If he was brainwashed, then that means he was most likely manipulated to the point of fully believing whatever Zane/Lillian wanted to, but if he was mind controlled, then he probably didn’t have much autonomy over his actions because he was literally being controlled.

Like I’m a little garroth hater most of the time and even I can’t really argue that mind control didn’t happen! my only points are that the plot in general is kind of shit considering all the implications that aren’t actually acknowledged and that total mind control isn’t really the best option considering Garroth didn’t have that whole fighting on the inside thing going on, so he was essentially just being puppeted until Laurence went “stop it this isn’t you 🥺” and it somehow immediately worked

I’m very passionate about how much i don’t like the betrayal plot if you can’t tell

L + ratio + it’s my favorite arc + I think it’s fun and complex.

I don’t think he’s “mind controlled” if that means like. Magic or fantasy hypnosis, but he’s very clearly being emotionally manipulated by Lilian and Zane. He’s in a lot of distress after seeing Laurence kiss Aphmau, NOT because he is jealous, but because they had a heart-to-heart where Laurence directly promised him that he would let Garroth make the first move, to accommodate for Garroth’s hesitance. He’s upset because Laurence (seemingly) broke his promise.

But that’s not the point where he betrays them! No, INSTEAD Garroth removes himself from the group to try and regulate his feelings, because he KNOWS he won’t be acting rationally if he’s around them. Is this mature and healthy? Absolutely not! But it makes SENSE. Garroth is a very private person. He struggles to express himself, and already has good reason not to trust people (he’s been on the run for 5 years at this point, and the last person he fully trusted proceeded to be a shadow knight that tried to kill him. Twice).

But Garroth is doing what he THINKS is best: not making his feelings everyone else’s problem. He’s trying to deal with it on his own by pretending to be sick.

Of course, they’re worried about him, so when a traveling doctor (Lilian) comes by, they send her his way. And she presents herself as a medical professional, someone he could trust, that could give him an objective view of the situation. And she used that to manipulate him.

She breaks down his trust in them, bit by bit. She convinces him that they’re using him. That they don’t care about him. He’s nothing but a tool to his loved ones. He’s already isolated himself, so it’s not hard to keep him isolated. She makes him feel like an idiot for trusting them. When he’s isolated, he can’t interact with his loved ones, can’t disprove what she’s saying. And so it makes sense. It all starts to make sense.

Laurence going “this isn’t like you” doesn’t work because “UwU 🥺 magic of fwiendship” or whatever the fuck you seem to think it is, it works because it very rapidly snaps Garroth back to reality that Laurence has no fucking clue what Garroth is talking about. It becomes clear that he loves Garroth, that he knows and respects him. And Garroth realizes he’s been tricked, because the version ofLaurence that Lilian convinced him existed isn’t the Laurence he’s fighting.

TL;DR: He’s brainwashed in the same way that Will Grahm is brainwashed. Yes, his actions are his own. He chose to do what he did. But he would have never done it if he hadn’t been manipulated by a trusted medical professional.

[free-for-all-fics]

Ryan Gosling/Beach Ken and maybe Simu Liu/Tourist Ken prompts. I don’t know, maybe some of these can be interchangeable between which Ken you want. Pls tag me if you’re inspired by any of these and I’d love to read it! 💕

1. Something similar to that scene in Toy Story 3: You’re a doll that’s one of Barbie’s friends. You’re not named Barbie, but have your own name. You don’t have a Dreamhouse like the Barbies but your place is cozy enough and you like it, having given it your own personal touch. You’ve had an unrequited love for Beach Ken but can’t compete with how perfect Stereotypical Barbie is. Besides, Ken is usually stuck to her side like glue. Wherever she goes, he goes. So you keep your feelings to yourself. You’re sure Ken only sees you as a friend anyway. But while Barbie is still in the real world, you’re horrified at Ken brainwashing all your friends as he turns Barbieland into Kendom.

With Barbie gone, he turns his sights towards you and keeps you for himself, wanting to make you either his bride-wife or long-term long-distance low-commitment casual girlfriend. The choice is yours, but you’re not leaving his sight until you decide. He keeps you confined in Barbie’s former bedroom of his now Mojo Dojo Casa House and tries to brainwash you too, but it doesn’t work because you already love him. You feel heartbroken and betrayed that he’d try to turn you into his mindless piece of arm candy or servant like he’s done to the other Barbies. You used to daydream about him finally noticing you and returning your feelings, about being wrapped up in his arms and kissed silly, but he’s becoming someone you don’t recognize and it scares you. You often lie awake while he sleeps soundly next to you in Barbie’s former bed with his arm either over your waist or behind your head. After who knows how long under house arrest, you break down and have a panic attack.

“I can’t take it here, Ken! I’ve always wanted to live together but not like this! You were wrong about me, about what I wanted. I do want to be with you, Ken, I do! Just please take me away from this, take me away!”

Your crying and hyperventilating makes him feel things he’s never experienced before. What is this pain in his chest? Is this…remorse? Guilt? He doesn’t like these feelings and wants them to go away. He wants to see you smile again. When was the last time you smiled? He’s horrified when he realizes he can’t remember. He holds you and caresses your hair as you sob, even as you try to struggle out from his grip and push him away or beat your hands on his chest in frustration. He’s begging you to breathe and cease your tears. As he tries to talk you down from your panic attack, he realizes what a mistake he’s made. Let him earn your forgiveness. Give him a chance to fix this. What can he do? Please, just tell him what to do to make it all better, to make you happy. All he’s wanted is love, he’s just been too foolish and focused on Barbie to see you were always there, already giving it to him. He was seeing things through tunnel vision but he can see more clearly now.

2. Write something for the Ken of your choosing with the Toy Story 3 quote, “She’s a Barbie doll, Ken, there’s a hundred million just like her!”

“Not to me there’s not.”

3. You’re a mermaid doll that Ken falls in love with. While he’s a land walker and you’re a sea princess, you make it work. He’s often carried you around bridal style to different places he wants you to see and lets you stay in his large swimming pool at his house or in the bathtub so you can spend more time together. Most often you meet at the beach during the day, but sometimes you’ve met on the beach at night after everyone else has gone to bed. You’ve spent many nights together around a nice campfire. Ken always tries to show off and impress you, and you’ve splashed him with your tail sometimes to be playful and flirty. You’ve shared kisses while going for swims together, gone on treasure hunts, etc.

4. You’re a human that Ken starts dating after the Kendom Versus Barbieland debacle. You never thought he was crazy unlike some other humans he’s met. You help him acclimate to the real world and stay by his side as he works to discover who he really is. He’s so in love with you he’s even taken you to Barbieland, regardless of what the suits at Mattel might have had to say about yet another human crossing over. What Ken was not expecting or in any way prepared for, however, was you getting sick. (Whether you’re sick while in Barbieland or the real world is up to you.) He’s unfamiliar with things like fever, headache, cough, etc. Nobody truly gets sick in Barbieland ever. They’re always cured within seconds. But this is the first time he’s seeing the full extent of sick symptoms on a human and it’s even more concerning since it’s all happening to you, the woman he loves.

He genuinely thinks you’re dying. He’s never witnessed death before and doesn’t really know what it is, but as beautiful as you are he can’t help but think you look like death itself and it terrifies him. Is it possible to die even in Barbieland? He doesn’t want to think about it. You ask him not to leave your side, but he thinks he has no other choice than to fetch Doctor Barbie. You do your best to calm him down as he begs you to hang on and wait for him until he returns. Don’t fall asleep just yet, he’s heard falling asleep can cause humans to slip into something called a coma. He’s not sure what that is either but it sounds really bad. Don’t succumb to your sickness and leave him while he’s gone. Please don’t slip away, he’ll be back with the doctor soon, he promises. He holds your hand. He kisses your forehead while he presses a cold cloth to it. Doctor Barbie uses everything at her disposal to make you feel better and Ken follows her instructions to a T. You assure Ken you’ll be fine, you just need medicine and lots of rest. Despite your many assurances, he’s still determined to watch over you 24/7 until you’re fully recovered.

5. You’re a doll and Ken dates you after working on discovering himself. What you’re not prepared for is the unexpected seasonal change in Barbieland as it turns to winter and becomes incredibly cold. It’s almost always summer here in Barbieland, but the Winter and Christmas Holiday Barbies are visiting and have brought the snow and cold with them. It’s fun for a while; You and the other Kens and Barbies experience snow for the first time and are shown how to make snow angels, snowmen, and have snowball fights.

But the cold eventually soaks through your clothes and seeps into your bones, becoming too much. So you and Ken retreat back inside and get the fireplace going. After you get changed out of your wet clothes, Ken wraps you in his mink fur coat when he realizes you’re still shivering. You’re so used to the summer sunshine weather in Barbieland that chilly winter is new for both of you, but maybe it’s not so bad if it means you and Ken can snuggle up together under the warmth of his coat and the many soft blankets while the fire in the fireplace burns. There was a special drink the Holiday Barbies gifted you too. Hot chocolate or cocoa you think it’s called?

6. You’re a Haunted Beauty Barbie like the Mistress of the Manor, Ghost Barbie, Vampire Barbie, or Zombie Barbie. Everyone else in Barbieland is either low-key or high-key scared of you and steers clear. Whenever you leave your haunted mansion or whatever you live in, none of the Barbies or Kens interact with you much if they can help it. They think you’ll put a curse on them or suck their blood or something, even though you’re actually harmless and really nice. It’s near impossible for you to make friends because of your off-putting appearance. You know you’re kinda scary looking with your gothic or Halloween style, but you don’t want to change it to suit their preference because you believe it’d be disingenuous to who you are. You’re actually kind of shy and introverted, usually sticking to reading books or making art. Beach Ken is the first person brave enough to approach you and talk to you like you’re normal. He’s nice to you and invites you to hang out with him, wanting to be your friend. Over time, you share your likes and interests with each other and your friendship becomes a romance.

Ken is happy to learn he was right about you and that you’re actually a very sweet person underneath your scary exterior. You introduce the other Kens and Barbies to things like Halloween and show them it doesn’t have to be scary, it can be cute and fun too! With things like pumpkin carving, dressing up, arts and crafts, candy, etc. One time you gave Ken a goth or Halloween makeover when he asked, since he was still trying to discover his identity at the time. He wasn’t sure if he identified with the goth or Halloween aesthetic, but he appreciated you taking the time to make him over. He really thought this new look was fun to try out! He wouldn’t mind if you gave him more makeovers in the future. You really are a pastel and goth couple and it’s adorable.

7. What if it was Ken who started having an existential crisis and dark thoughts in Barbieland because the human in the real world who was playing with his doll needed his help? He’s expecting a child, a young girl or boy with childhood trouble but is surprised when he instead realizes it’s you, an adult who’s Going Through It. When you finally meet him face to face, you can’t believe that he’s real, that he’s standing in front of you in the flesh. But only a Ken would probably wear outfits like what he has on now. It suits him though. You played with his Ken doll to escape reality for a bit and take a break from the stresses of being an adult, but it seems you’ve inadvertently poured your feelings onto him and they have seeped into his psyche. He’s experiencing new things like his eyes are leaking, he has feelings that there’s danger but no threat is in sight. What are these things and what do they mean? Crying? Anxiety? Seems like you don’t just need his help, he also needs yours.

While he’s in the real world, you take him shopping for some normal clothes, but he turns it into a modeling montage. You try to demonstrate how to eat and drink real food, but watching him reminds you of the dinner scene from Beauty and the Beast, etc. Shenanigans and Hijinks ensue and you fall in love along the way. After you show him your world, he takes you to his and gives you a grand tour of Barbieland (When Tourist Ken tries to cut in and give you the tour himself, your Ken tells him to back all the way off! You’re his girlfriend and he’s got this!) Your eyes light up in amazement much like how his did when he entered your world.

8. You’re either an equestrian in the real world or a Cowgirl Barbie with a ranch called Barbie’s Horse Adventures. Either way, you have pet horses and lots of experience working with them. You surprise Ken by bringing over 2 horses so you and he can go horseback riding. You teach him how to ride and he’s so ecstatic yet nervous because he wants to do it right. He wants the horses to like him. He feeds them treats and laughs at the feeling of their lips and big teeth against his hand. He pets their necks and helps you look after them. You go horseback riding either through beautiful forested trails or along the beach. It’s awfully romantic and Ken can’t help but lean forward in his saddle to kiss you while your horses are walking side by side. He apologizes afterwards, but you tell him you liked it. Your mutual love for horses is the starting point of a beautiful romance. He can’t let you do all the labor by yourself! He loves helping you around the ranch as a….What’s the word again? Groom? Are you married now!? Is he your groom-husband and you his bride-wife??

When your horse gets spooked and rears up on its hind legs and throws you off, Ken is immediately off his own horse and coming to your rescue. Are you ok?? Are you hurt? Let him look you over please. He’s not a doctor but he has some First Aid supplies in his saddle bag. When one of your mares gets pregnant, he’s so excited and wants to name the foal when they arrive. Both of you are by the mare’s side while she’s in labor and give her everything she needs. But for some reason, she’s suddenly not looking so well. You don't know what's wrong. It was moving along, then it just stopped.

“But her water broke, right?” Ken asks, petting your mare’s neck to comfort her.

“About ten minutes ago.”

“I think she's distracted.”

“What?”

“By that colt over there. She keeps eyeing him like she'd prefer a little privacy.” Ken is already back up on his feet, urging the colt away. “Shoo! Get out of here! Give poor mama horse a break!” He comes back to your mare’s side and resumes comforting her. “There, that's better, huh? Now you can push your little baby out with some dignity.”

“She's doing it. She's pushing. Yeah. Here we go. That's my good girl. Ok, here it comes. Well done, [horse’s name]! It's a girl/boy, just like we were hoping for, Ken! Look how cute she/he is. She's/He’s so sweet. Welcome to the world, little one. What do you want to name her/him?”

“I have to admit, I'm amazed how great you were with [mare’s name],” you later commend Ken while you’re both watching her with her new foal.

“What can I say? We totally bonded.”

Ken is so proud and encouraging when the foal tries to stand up on its long gangly legs and walk for the first hours of its life. That’s his horse, and he loves them already. They’re gonna grow big and strong under his care and he’s gonna train and ride them once they’re big enough. He’s a proud Horse Dad!

9. You’re a child doll in Barbieland, so you never age or grow up. You’re perpetually young both mentally and physically. Barbie and Ken are either like your big brother and sister or your adoptive parents. Tourist Ken is like the Cool Uncle who tries to get you to like him more than Beach Ken by bribing you with ice cream for breakfast and other fun things behind Beach Ken’s back. Beach Ken and Stereotypical Barbie are great at raising you like a sister or daughter, but there’s not really much of you to raise. You’ve never grown bigger or changed. Until the human in the real world who’s playing with you starts experiencing puberty and having the weird thoughts and feelings that go along with it.

You become self-aware that you’re not growing and have the same confusing thoughts and feelings. You’re full of questions and become self-conscious about your body. You’ve lived here for years, so why aren’t you an adult yet like most of the other Barbies and Kens? You never really thought about it before, but you want to grow up. When Barbie moves to the real world and becomes human, you go with her. When you experience growth for the first time, you’re both excited and scared as your body and personality go through constant changes. When you visit Barbieland, you’re so excited to show all the other Barbies and Kens how you’ve grown taller and updated your wardrobe, among other things.

10. You’re Stereotypical Barbie’s twin sister but you’re a Plain Jane Barbie. You’re like the Mary Bennet to her Elizabeth Bennet. You’re not conventionally pretty, you have hobbies but aren’t exactly talented at them, your social skills are weak and your flirting game/love life are nonexistent. Your sister is a girly girl and you’re a tomboy. In the real world, Mattel said something about sisters who are total opposites being more marketable and selling more toys. You have a huge crush on Beach Ken, maybe you even love him, but he’s been pining for your sister for so long you doubt he’s ever really noticed you. If there’s one thing you are good at, it’s being invisible.

He’s always tried to impress Barbie or keep her attention on him. You’re so clumsy and socially awkward in comparison to your perfect and popular sister, you can’t count the number of times you’ve fallen flat on your face or otherwise embarrassed yourself in front of the other Barbies and Kens when you’ve tried to fit in or stand out in a good way. Your attempts to embody your sister have all failed and your friend group is small or nonexistent in contrast to her large social circle. But you’re still worried about her when her feet become flat and she keeps falling over herself. You try to console her when she gets cellulite and thoughts of death. She’s always been there for you when you needed her emotional support, especially when you finally confided in her that you have a crush on someone. You weren’t brave enough to tell her who it is, but she was supportive and encouraged you to go for it anyway. She gives great pep talks, so now you’ll do the same for her.

When Ken tries to turn Barbieland into Kendom and kicks Barbie out of her Dreamhouse, he lets you stay. You’re torn between them and don’t know what to do. You’re stuck in the middle of a conflict between the man you love and the sister you love, and you don’t want to choose one side over the other. The situation is made even more uncomfortable when Ken realizes his patriarchal brainwashing didn’t work on you like it did the other Barbies. You didn’t go with him and your sister to the real world, so he eventually puts together that your immunity must be because you already love him. This is not how you wanted him to find out about your feelings, but there’s no going back now. Your secret is out in the open. What happens next?

11. You’re a doll and the kid who was playing with you leaves you unattended and at the mercy of their younger sibling(s). In the real world, the little kids color your hair a bright unnatural color with markers and/or cut it in a choppy, messy style. They scribble on your skin/face and mess with your clothes. So in Barbieland, your appearance reflects that. When Ken (and maybe Stereotypical Barbie) see what’s happened to you and what a mess you are, they come to your rescue and you’re given a luxurious makeover. Your boyfriend (and bestie Barbie) do your hair, makeup, wardrobe, etc. They give you lots of personal attention as they fix you up and get you back to your normal, beautiful self in no time.

[radykalny-feminizm]

I think I just lost a friend because of my views on feminism. Apparently she doesn't feel safe in this relationship anymore because "she feels uncomfortable with how my second-wave feminism rhetoric paints all men as the agressors" and "she doesn't want to be in a relationship with person with transphobic views". She was the first person I had enough courage to talk to about radical feminism after I peaked roughly a year ago. I know there is no use trying to salvage this relationship. I am crying, but I feel numb at the same time. All the cases of radical feminists being ostracised, cancelled and attacked, sometimes by their close friends, that I read about suddenly feel as tangible as these tears. I know there is no use trying to explain my values to her again, since she would only regard them as an attack on her values again (she admitted that during our discussions she felt that I was, in fact, attacking her views, which was me simply showing her the differences between hers and mine). I know she is not willing to consider a different perspective. But in my breast there is still this visceral desperation to try to make her understand.

She has been hiding this all from me for 7 months. Says it has come to a climax. I don't know what to do. I feel so alone.

I wrote about this to you, because you are Polish, too. I couldn't bring myself to use Polish in this ask, because it would make all of this more unbearable. I see more and more girls and women in Poland endorsing gender ideology or even transitioning. I cannot express how relieved I was to find that there is at least one other compatriot who understands, how it is to be a radfem.

I am terribly sorry that this happened to you. I can't imagine how betrayed and disappointed you must feel. You trusted her, and she betrayed that trust. This person was not your true friend if she rejected you because of your views that don't harm anyone.

I agree that there's no point in trying to explain things to her anymore, since you likely discussed it many times over the course of 7 months and she still didn't understand. If someone steadfastly sticks to their position and is not willing to compromise, despite being shown facts that undermine that position, then that person is simply brainwashed. Woke people are very similar in this regard to religious people. They close their minds to all uncomfortable facts and arguments because they have their set of views that they accepted without reflection and find it comfortable to hold onto. They don't have to think independently and that's convenient. She felt "attacked" because she couldn't intellectually and emotionally handle the possibility that what she and the majority of people from her environment consider to be the truth, might not actually be true.

Your story makes me angry. For fuck's sake, people are becoming radical nationalists, racists, homophobes, misogynists or religious fanatics, and they don't face the same ostracism as radical feminists, especially when they're men. It's sick. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that for some people, the worst thing you can do is simply care about women without regard for men's feelings. It shocks me that people just accept every ideology that becomes popular on the internet and are willing to destroy friendships and lives even, in its name. I know that woke cancer is becoming increasingly common in Poland, and I hate it.

But you know what? There are many of us, more than it may seem, because through situations like yours, we often have to hide. You are not alone. There are many women who don't even know what radical feminism is, but they share most of our views because they simply make sense at a logical level, based on observing reality.

Another matter is that everything comes to Poland with a delay. Here, gender madness is still a novelty accepted uncritically, while in the West this was the case a few years ago. Now, the West is slowly waking up, and more and more people are starting to see the illogicality and harm of this ideology. It will take some time for this to start in Poland as well, but it will start. Then, many people will understand that they were wrong, maybe your friend too. At this moment, the fact that you are right probably doesn't comfort you, but that's how it is. I strongly believe that although we are now being cancelled, judged, and rejected, someday at least some of the people doing this will realize their mistake. Many people who are now radical feminists were previously trans activists and male apologists, including me. Change is coming. We have to persevere and do our part.

I hope you will feel better soon. This person didn't deserve to be your friend. I hope you'll be able to find another friend who will have an open mind and heart. If you'd like, feel free to reach out to me privately. It's important for us to stick together. I am thinking of you and sending you lots of strength.

[incorrect-jojolands-quotes]

i have some theories for jojolands

This is in regards to Dragona Joestar and how they might become the main antagonist.

I came up with a few scenarios, some of which can be combined together, as to how Dragona would end up going against their brother.

Dragona becomes a villain to enact revenge against Jodio. Jodio does something that harms Dragona or goes so far with something that Dragona wants revenge against their own brother. It could be that Jodio had a justified reason for his actions but Dragona refuses to accept it, or maybe Jodio was framed for his actions, but nothing can convince Dragona to believe their brother's truth. Regardless, the two siblings have a fallout over this, and Dragona probably convinces the rest of the gang to turn against Jodio or leaves the group to spend the series sending enemies to Jodio before finally facing him. Maybe, we find out how influential Dragona really was in the crime world and how they use it to their advantage against Jodio. In this scenario, Dragona sees Jodio as someone who must be punished and killed for what he did, whether he even did it or not, and either never knows the truth or knows the truth too late. This feels like the most obvious, easiest ending that could result in an expected fight between family members given what we know about the siblings.

Dragona becomes a villan by trying to save the world from Jodio. Whether it be that Jodio's actions become harder to justify or Dragona ends up being manipulated or brainwashed by someone else during the series, they see that their brother is purely evil and cannot be saved or changed with just love or reasoning. Selflessly and possibly through an epiphany, they feel obligated to apprehend their sibling for the good of the world, maybe feeling regret that they were unable to prevent it from the start, and now need to stop Jodio at all cost. This ending doesn't need to be driven by revenge but it could be a contributing factor that led to the ultimate fight. Dragona ends up dying but thinking they were doing the right thing the whole time and never realizing they caused more harm than good in the end. Maybe, they thought they succeeded in turning Jodio into a good person and dies believing they succeeded. Whether Jodio forgives them for never realizing the truth is up to interpretation.

Dragona becomes a villain because they simply snapped and self destructs. Compared to Jodio, Dragona seems to be the most cautious and, as an older sibling to a psychopath, spent their childhood being expected to be the responsible older one and dealing with Jodio's behavior. They are the older sibling trying to keep everyone in line. Dragona spent years pleasing people, keeping out of trouble, and taking accountability for Jodio and others in situations where someone should have taken their own accountability instead. Years of enduring this life can cause anyone to eventually break. Once they snapped, we get to see a more deranged, insane version of Dragona that is different from what they used to be: more unpredictable, risky, sadistic possibly, and unstoppable. Jodio is no longer a brother but instead a competition, a pest that needs to be beaten and destroyed at all costs. What the siblings are competing could be one or many things: money, a parent's approval, a reputation, etc. In this scenario, Dragona takes more of a Dio role and Jodio probably becomes more like Jonathan instead.

Dragona dies but their clone is created and becomes a villain instead. Based on an observation with The MATTEKUSASAI; no clone of the Stand has been perfect or an exact copy if you think about it. Dragona dies halfway through the story in this case but is then "ressurected" as a clone. Whether this was Usagi's intention or a flaw that simply could not be controlled, this new version of Dragona is mentally altered to consider Jodio as an enemy meant to be betrayed and destroyed rather than an ally that was their brother. Maybe, they are an exact replica that simply showed Dragona's true intentions hidden underneath their predecessor's persona. Maybe, they are reprogrammed to destroy Jodio at all cost. Alternatively, the clone could have been made against Dragona's will, possibly a zombie that still has Dragona's consciousness begging to rest in peace, and Jodio needs to end the clone's life; in that case, the clone might become an enemy by simply wanting to exist as their own and fight for that chance at living.

Dragona has always been the villain and Jodio is the real victim. Note that the story has been mostly through Jodio's eyes and he seems to think highly of Dragona. But, it brings a possibility that Dragona isn't who we think they ate. In this scenario, we learn that Jodio's ASPD diagnosis was switched with Dragona's diagnosis, either accidentally or intentionally, which would explain why the results seem sketchy for a 15-year-old but not if Dragona took the test at 18 and the results switched. Dragona is revealed to be the real psychopath with ASPD who is capable of hiding their true emotions and manipulating others while appearing to be the "sane" one in comparison- us readers won't pick it up until it is too late. Dragona secretly spent years making Jodio feel bad because of his supposed issues and this was actually the long game for Dragona to pursue "the mechanisms" for themselves. Jodio is the one abused by a psychopathic sibling instead and is torn between loving Dragona or letting them go. Even after the end of the series and knowing the truth, guilt is inevitable but Jodio may be able to find his peace after surviving.

One of the things I noticed with Dragona is how similar they are to Jonathan in a sense that both are the older of the siblings and both have some sort of code-of-conduct they follow; Jonathan aspires to be a "gentleman" and Dragona apprehends their teammates when they do certain actions like steal from Iko Iko or Rohan's house. Jonathan particularly ceases all good faith towards those he deems irredeemable or pure evil; who knows if Dragona has a similar philosophy as well and Jodio doesn't become an exception.

Anyways, having Dragona as a villain would really be a game-changer, as it goes against the sort of family-bond theme that the Joestars have but does call back to how the feud between Jonathan and Dio led to the events up to part 6 .

[mleemwyvern]

tell me about sausage in the superhero au. he basically has phoenix powers if i read the google doc right, and that’s awesome

he does have pheonix theming! so sausage is possibly the most traumatized person in this au, and thats because i took inspiration from his empires s1. you know, the whole xornoth thing.

so! xornoth, most recent member of the villain squad, has some Pretty Awful powers. he can mark someone with a touch, and anyone he's marked, he can influence them through dreams. send nightmares with subtle brainwashing weaved in, and slowly, over months of dreaming, twist their minds to his own views. he's been using that to spread the word of how amazing powers are. how beautiful mutations can be. how the world would be better if everyone had them. they're a gift.

sausage was one of xornoths targets. the dreams showed him the light, and now he knows how much help these powers would be. to anyone. and unlike most people, he wanted to join them. he would seek out the villains, request powers of his own, and vow to join and help them make a better world. so he did.

finally getting his powers felt like a rebirth. fiery eyes, talons, and huge, majestic wings of fiery red and orange feathers. he can even fly. not with powers, but from the sheer size and strength of his new wings. and the powers themselves? flames that heal and protect instead of burn. he loves it. he feels more himself than ever before. this really is a gift, and now he can help the world and everyone in it by giving them amazing powers too!

and when his best friend fwhip happens to get injured, that's a great opportunity to come over for a visit, serum in hand. he heals him, of course, and then tries to explain how he felt after getting powers. how much better and stronger he is now. wouldn't it be nice if everyone had some? wouldn't fwhip want them too?

fwhip didn't want them. but he didn't have time to protest before the needle went in. cue a bunch of yelling, a horrified and betrayed fwhip, and a worried sausage who keeps reassuring him that it'll be so much better once it's over. hes going to love the powers, he promises. it's gonna be okay.

fwhip is not okay. he calls up his sister gem, who is an official hero, and ends up at the hermitcraft agency to recover and try to get used to his new form and powers. he never does end up liking it.

a while later, after discussion with the heroes, its found that sausage- who didn't just stop at fwhip, and is out there dosing more civilians- is almost definitely under xornoths influence. a team is sent out to capture him and, later, try to break him out of the brainwashing.

the mark is removed. the powers-based mind control part is gone. the effects remain. human brains really do not like admitting they were wrong, and it takes time and effort to change the patterns of thinking xornoth has encoded in sausages mind. but it is possible to change them, now that hes away from the influence itself.

now sausage gets to face how badly he fucked up, how much his mind has been messed with, and that fwhip is Not Happy. he hurt his friend. he may have been trying to help, but he did not help. he can't even trust his own mind. did he ever want powers in the first place? or was that all fake too? he doesn't know. he doesn't know whats real or how much of this was him. how deep did it go? how much of him has been him since that first night of nightmares? is he ever going to truly be himself again?

it still feels like powers are right. like he should be giving them to anyone and everyone. part of his mind keeps telling him that everyone will be so much happier. but fwhip is clearly not. fwhip doesn't feel comfortable in his own body anymore. the powers...... he hurt someone. his best friend. permanently and irreversibly. and his mind is fighting itself.

the mutations he loved no longer feel nearly as good anymore, and he ends up clawing at his legs, his wings, covering the floor in feathers.

everything is wrong. he can't bring himself to use his powers on those injuries. he- he doesn't know if he actually wants them gone, some part of him still loves the majestic pheonix features, they feel so right but that's so wrong- maybe its some kind of fucked up penance. he doesn't know anymore. he just can't. those will heal naturally.

that's his rebirth from the ashes.

its not easy, and its painful, but so is life. so is growth.

he apologizes to fwhip. he goes to therapy. hes so, so sorry. for everything. and maybe someday he'll be able to be who he was before.

they both hope they can be friends again.

[lazaruspiss]

So, about Dick and Jason…

(for anon <3)

“Jason & Dick’s dynamic—specifically 1) how different they are yet their differences complement each other, and 2) how they have the potentials to be unhealthy attached with each other with push and pull, YET also the potentials to be each other’s solace, possibly even the only one who can be the other’s solace, as they actually understand to the root the baggages that they both carry (e.g the Bruce baggage) and can help the other work through or even overcome it.”

I um. I had fun. Somewhere around the 5th paragraph I started to wonder if I was getting carried away, and then I blinked and it doubled in length. I had many words in this little brain o mine.

Well, they are different for sure, and one of those differences is whether or not they’d actually think that themselves. Dick tends to see Jason as being down right unknowable, someone he tries to understand but can never quite keep up with. Jason thinks they’re all too similar, that they’ve both been deeply betrayed by Bruce as well as the system, and doesn’t seem to realize that Dick doesn’t feel the same. The crux of their conflicts is a complete gap in what they know about each other. The nature of which neither of them are really that self aware of.

Dick knows that Jason feels wronged. That he was failed both as Robin and as Jason Todd. What Dick doesn’t seem to understand is that it wasn’t his fault. That when Jason talks about being let down he is almost always talking about Bruce, and if not him, then the system itself. In some ways Dick’s misunderstanding of that is simply a result of the sense of self loathing that he’s developed over the years. And another part of it stems from Dick’s instinct to see himself as an extension of Bruce. Bruce’s failures are his failures, and his failures are a burden to Bruce. In a lot of ways Dick’s personal journey of separating himself from both Bruce and Batman was completely upended after Blockbuster and the bombing of Blüdhaven. With his personal life upended it’s not surprising that he’d fall back into old habits. Batman and Robin are each other’s responsibilities. They’re partners until the day they die. So much of Dick’s world had revolved around Bruce that asking him to separate himself from Bruce, even just conceptually, starts to feel more akin to asking him to cut off a limb.

Jason doesn’t understand the extent of all that. There’s no way for him to know that, especially since the biggest issues Dick has are ones that he’s not even aware of himself. This tends to, somewhat understandably, make Jason feel impatient with Dick. He genuinely doesn’t seem to understand why he and Dick can’t agree on anything. He knows Bruce is the biggest wedge between them, but doesn’t understand why Dick can’t let go of Bruce. If anything he sees Dick as another brainwashed victim of Bruce and his mission. Jason is also a poet. In the sense that his preferred ways of communicating are counter intuitive and often exasperate the problem rather than solving it in any way. Which doesn’t make repairing the already tedious gap between them any easier.

The to kill or not to kill debate is also no small part of what’s keeping them at odds with each other. Dick needs to believe in a kinder way. He’s already hanging on by too thin of a thread to give that up. It would be tough enough even if it was just a matter of him thinking killing is always and inherently wrong, but it’s also a deeply personal matter for him. He can’t go back to the time where he felt himself cave on that. He never really healed that ache, and given just how deep it is I’m not sure it’s even possible. What happened with Blockbuster left him shaken in a way that is not easily steadied. And Jason is a continuous tremor. An unapologetic shaker. In his eyes it’s the only way to really change things. He’s often right, but it’s less than helpful when it comes to trying to connect with Dick. The way Jason pushes him is an attempt at challenging Dick to be better in Jason’s eyes, but to Dick it’s just salt on the already painful wounds.

All that to say that these kids have some communication issues. A bit more than some, really. Two passing trains, neither going where they really need to go.

The closure they both need is practically one in the same, and does come back down to where they stand with Bruce. Jason needs – and wants – Bruce to acknowledge him as a victim both to the Joker and to Bruce’s own negligence. But Dick is a bit trickier. What Dick wants is to be acknowledged as an equal to Bruce. What Dick needs is for Bruce to acknowledge the harm he’s both done in the past and the harm he continues to inflict on Dick in the present, and for Bruce to either change for real and for good or for Bruce to leave his life entirely.

Jason had always questioned Bruce’s methods, and dying was undeniable proof that Bruce was doing it (“it” being both fatherhood and justice) wrong. Jason knows what his needs are. Jason has so much self awareness over Dick that it makes stories about the two of them jarring. When Dick reflects on his relationship with Bruce he almost always takes on some of the blame. Dick never asks for apologies. He reaches out to Bruce first. He either frames it as “I said some things that went too far” or “We both said things we regret” when those sentiments are often unjustified. There are times where I struggle to even find what it is that Dick said to Bruce that he feels so guilty about, because Dick would rather spend his life apologizing than give up his relationship with Bruce. Jason knows Dick can’t let go of Bruce but he also knows that Dick needs to cut him off more than anybody.

Dick is ultimately the one who needs to be pulled out of the gutter in order for there to be any real mending between the two of them. That means Jason would need to rework how he approaches Dick. Jason has the spirit and a lot of the right ideas! But he can’t get anywhere with Dick if he doesn’t adjust his pace.

(A bit of a weird aside here, but they remind me of a poem I wrote as a kid. I don’t remember the actual content of it, but it was a story about a spring and a glass as a metaphor for relationships. The gist of it being: if all you do is push on the spring it will just bounce back in the end, and then all you have have is broken glass. The spring being your struggling loved one, the glass being the relationship, you get the idea.)

The tough part is the Dick does still need to be challenged on his beliefs in order to grow! So there’s this tricky balance that needs to be struck between calling out his warped mindset around Bruce while not pushing him so far that he shuts Jason out entirely. Jason is, however, still human. No one has infinite patience, and helping pull Dick from the Bruce shaped hole he’s dug his heels into is no easy feat. I think it’s possible, but very very difficult. But if they did get to a point where Dick had finally separated from Bruce and recognized how Bruce had done wrong by him then the rest would almost be laughably simple. Justifying and legitimizing Dick’s pain justifies and legitimizes Jason’s too. Dick already knows that Jason has been hurting, but I think the self reflection of his own relationship with Bruce would really help Dick when it comes to understanding why Jason is as hurt as he is. It would make Jason's issues with Bruce feel real in a way that Dick hasn't always let himself acknowledge.

They can get there. Eventually.

[geddy-leesbian]

HEYYYY !!!!! so i was just wondering a few things if that’s okay

1. what re games have you played?/which is ur fav

2. did u like luis the moment he was introduced or did knowing his full story really connect w you?

3. rare pairs!! i love rare pairs so please explain any of the ones u like with luis :-) not asking about any in particular i just like to see people talk abt stuff they like

TYSMMM BYEEEE

YAYYY ASK!! IT'S MORE THAN OKAY

1. so my RE pipeline was kinda wild. In 2020ish I watched my sibling play through RE4 on our wii, but didn't have any strong feelings, like nothing stuck with me. I literally forgot Luis existed, I had zero memory of what he was like in that game. Then last year they showed me this fantastic youtube video and I was hella interested in Leon/Luis so they replayed RE4R (they're insanely good and had already beaten it several times) and I became OBSESSED with Luis and Leon and RE generally. After RE4R they binged and replayed (with me watching ofc) some of REmake, RE2R, RE7, and Village. The games I've actually played myself are RE1 but only the DS port, Revelations, RE4R, both Chronicles games, and this obscure beauty that is incredibly noncanon but actually very dear to me:

(and I've at least read about/watched some cutscenes from all the other games)

This is insane of me, but honestly I fucking love Darkside Chronicles so much that I almost want to say it's my favorite, but I won't go that far and just say that RE4R is my favorite with an honorable mention to Darkside. 

2. My first real exposure to him was from that youtube video so like

yeah I was hooked immediately and then got deeper and deeper into RE lore and loved him even more 

3. Of course I love Winterserra. I just love that they're both what they need, that they save each other; Ethan needs saved from his infection/the corrupt part of the BSAA, Luis needs a malewife someone to save him from himself and his guilt, making him feel like he deserves to live and pulling him out of his depression. 

I'm also going to gush about a nonromantic pairing that I really love: Luis and Alfred Ashford.

It all goes back to Darkside Chronicles:

My brain worms honed in on "traitors to Umbrella" and went "ah yes so Luis Serra would have been in Rockfort if he'd tried to sabotage the Nemesis Project instead of quietly disappearing to Valdelobos. Interesting." That spawned a whole AU where Luis avoids execution by being charming as hell. Seeing as Alexia Ashford was a child prodigy, Alfred is 👀 when he finds out that a prisoner he received is also a child prodigy (I imagine Luis being the first and last child prodigy to end up in Rockfort, most would just be too brainwashed and manipulated to want to break away. I mean I guess technically Wesker and Birkin were child prodigies who broke away but Luis would still be the only one that ended up in Rockfort) and has Luis moved and treated better than other prisoners. Luis learns to roll with Alfred and stay on his good side, eventually managing to con him into believing that a) he did not betray Umbrella at all but got framed by his coworkers and b) an elaborate bullshit story about Luis actually being nobility.

... which Alfred REALLY likes and he gets to be the first non Ashford to enter the private residence, where he's supposed to be Alfred's companion until Alexia wakes up. I'm going to cut this ramble off here but being Alfred's BFF is actually hell on earth tbh (Alfred is genuinely very fond of Luis and tries to treat him well, but the problem is that Alfred Ashford is a mentally unstable absolute WEIRDO that has no idea what normal people enjoy and their basic needs so like. Yeah. It's better than being physically tortured/executed/a guinea pig, but still a very bad time!) but Luis hangs in there and eventually escapes back to Valdelobos, but as a very different person, a very bitter one who would really, really not want to help Leon and Ashley… but still would eventually.

My last Luis rare pair is Luis/Annette but there's not much to elaborate on really. Annette likes fucking him because she's trapped in a loveless marriage and William hasn't had sex with her in years and Luis is young and pretty, and a lot better in bed than William. Luis likes fucking her because he feels like a monster for his work and misses Leon (this is an AU where they knew each other as teenagers) and sneaking around with a blonde reminds him of sneaking around with Leon back in the day. There's nothing emotional, just two people using sex as a coping mechanism to distract themselves from how deeply unhappy they are. (i kinda lied it does get a bit more interesting with Annette entrusting Sherry to him when Everything Went Wrong, but up to that point the "relationship" is 100% physical, only sex, no feelings.)

AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING I ALWAYS LOVE ANSWERING ASKS <3

[egg-emperor]

I feel like Eggman wouldn't bother with a relationship even if the other person worshipped and served him perfectly

In the rare chance Eggman genuinely saw value in having someone else around, he still probably wouldn't waste time trying to manipulate or swoon them. He'd probably zap them with an instant brainwashing/corruption device, use them however he wants for whatever period of time, and throw them out when he gets bored.

If for whatever reason the doctor chooses to leave their being in tact, he'd never give them any kind of acknowledgment unless it's specifically something that benefits him.

The only important thing is that he's getting worshipped and praised. He doesn't care if it's willing or unwilling.

Oh definitely, I love aromantic Eggman and he'll never care for a relationship and want a genuine deep meaningful one lol. Everyone he works with has always been temporary to him, to serve a purpose in serving him and doing his dirty work for him to benefit selfishly, and then discarding them when he's done. Doesn't matter how loyal and loving and well performing they are, he'll never see them as more than pawns to use for his success, toys to play with and break, and subordinates to order around until they're no longer of use to him, it never lasts.

He has been known to manipulate people to side with him ever since his first team up with a living being with Knuckles, and the latest example of it to keep any form of a relationship sweet for the sake of their use to him is Sage. But it's always on those conditions and he usually always drops them in the end. It can be because they fail or betray him but even in cases they don't, like Knuckles and Infinite who stuck with him in loyalty, as soon as the dirty work is done and he gets what he wanted or just no longer sees use in them, he'll still get rid of them

He has seen manipulation as a good working method in a few cases in the games though. I also feel that, unlike actual mind control, his ability to manipulate minds through his own actions and words gives him a sense of more personal control and power that he desires and takes pride in for using his sly cunning skill to corrupt the mind and use it for evil. He loves playing people for fools which makes him feel like the genius in control with power over them mentally and he likes how he can laugh about it in their face later, like with Emerl.

He wouldn't try to swoon anyone much, he may briefly attempt to work his charm to lure someone in before he brings out harsher or crueler methods but I think in his mind he doesn't believe he has to try because he's so perfect, handsome, intelligent, charming, and lovable in a delightfully diabolical villainous way effortlessly all the time, so he doesn't feel he has to act to accomplish that. And if they don't want to accept the truth they'll have to when he takes over the world by force, one way or another the whole world will know one day anyway XD

But yeah he's definitely not going to waste time putting the effort in to manipulate if he doesn't see it as worth it and the most optimal method to get his victim on his side. He is also interested in full on mind control and corruption to the point he has attempted to mind control the entire planet, so I can see him jumping right to using a device to mind control people to do it much quicker with much less time and effort when he feels it's the best option, he does enjoy being able to decide and control what they think and how they act 100% literally.

But I feel he wouldn't want absolutely every member of his empire and worshipper to be completely mindless, he'd also get a lot of satisfaction in forcing it through threat and cruelty only, so while they still have a desire for free will they have no choice and will always be aware of how he stripped it away and are helpless, forever aware of his power over them so they know he's won. And it gives him the genuine attention and possibly admiration he also desires, as it may feel he has no real audience for it if none are conscious anymore.

He has attempted lies, manipulation, and propaganda to lure in the masses too but I don't think he'd play it up for long, once it brings them in he'll immediately show his true colors but they can't turn back because he'll trap them in it by either keeping them under his thumb with threat and fear and/or mind control. After all, the way he tried to come across as good and friendly with his Interstellar Park in Colors for example was just a cover and attempt to gain trust in the meantime for his plan to eventually use his mind control cannon on Earth.

As for the very rare chance someone genuinely admires him for who he is and not the lies and propaganda, as I feel a lot who think they do (like a bunch of rl Eggman fans) couldn't handle him if they met him because he's such a terrible person lol, I feel that he would enjoy playing around with them without using full on mind control. Instead seeing how far he can take them in their admiration, how useful he can make them, and how far he can corrupt them all with his cunning charm and manipulation to craft the perfect servant. It would be a fun game to him.

But I don't see him putting in tons of effort to manipulate and swoon them, I think over time he'd reveal more and more just how terrible he really is and that they're not really an exception to his cruelty and they'll always be beneath him like all the rest. That he doesn't have to treat them nicely and earn their admiration and service, he deserves it anyway and demands it and they have to obey because he said so and he's the one with all the power and control, so they have to learn to take it and not complain if they don't want punishment.

I mean he is playing into what Sage wants with the family dynamic as a way to maintain her loyalty and efficiency a little in ways that can seem sweet by are very conditional and manipulative- but at the same time doesn't hide how terrible he is in terms of evilness in wanting to take over the world and rule his evil empire, hating and wanting to kill Sonic and friends, and how he'll yell at her if she doesn't do exactly what he wants, and she has to side with him despite all that and luckily she does because of her genuine undying devotion despite it.

So I can see him using similar tactics on other willing servants. Sometimes he might play into and say and do what they want to hear to gain trust and bring them in closer and make them more attached to make them sink deeper into his trap but there won't be much heart and effort and certainly no genuine care in it at all. They have to be the kind of person that will appreciate and treasure even the little things just because it's coming from him as their superior brilliant almighty ruler, which will also prove to him if they're promising in the use they can be to him.

I think it would give him a huge power trip and ego boost as he could use it as a testament to how he can be genuinely so admirable and willingly worshipped like he's also always desired and believed himself to be with his massive ego. It's just that he can and will happily use force and threat to get it and he will also still use it on the subjects he manipulates too to keep them in his clutches, he'll never be completely kind and warm to anyone. All that matters is that he crafts the perfect servant for him and he'll enjoy doing so through mindfuckery.

I think he would also enjoy getting to use them to set an example for how everyone should be under his rule whether it started out of willingness like them (but might change when they realize how terrible he is and he becomes more cruel but are now trapped and have no choice), or how they'll be forced to be if they don't comply with it by threat and violence or total mind control. I'm imagining that he's going to do the same with Sage being the "favorite child" of his, who is as obedient and useful as he desires and knows how to take cruelty from him and will remain loyal as they undying love and devotion for him + his manipulation seals her in.

But like always, he's not really attached, he's not nice to them and trying to make them swoon all the time as he will enforce it through violence and cruelty too, and he doesn't plan on keeping them around and will rid of them when he's done. Or if he does keep them around, he might end up mind controlling them eventually to make sure there's never a chance of their loyalty changing because he won't trust anyone long term but it will be fun playing with them for a while with them conscious until then. That's a way to combine the methods.

That's also very true with him not giving them acknowledgement unless it's something that benefits him specifically. Those are the same conditions with Sage as he only praises her when she does exactly what he wants. It also pushes them to work super hard just to get the smallest amount of his recognition or very rare praise when they're satisfactory enough, which again is actually only really for selfish self beneficial reasons for what he's getting out of it and how it will further encourage them to serve. Not that there's a choice either way!

But yeah absolutely it doesn't actually matter to him if they want to serve him or not because he doesn't care about them and will happily force them. He takes what he wants whenever he wants because he's Eggman and nothing will stop him. And one of my favorite things is how he'll do anything to get it with many methods such as violence, manipulation, mind control, and more, all of which are messed up and evil. I love his cunning trickery and outright cruelty and how there's always deeply sinister reasons behind it either way >:)

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

trying to go to sleep but my brain just decided to remind me of. c!dream living in de walls. c!dream mentioning c!tommy first in the l’manberg declaration of war and nearly forgetting everyone else. c!dream taking c!tommy’s first two canon lives. c!dream accepting a loss to his power- his perfect, happy family- in exchange for symbolic control over c!tommy. church prime. c!dream declaring himself god and c!tommy his prophet. c!dream giving c!tommy specifically gifts for pogtopia and a very personal letter to try and explain himself. c!tommy’s admiration for c!dream and his despair at being betrayed. c!tommy stepping down as president because he knew his and c!dream’s story wasnt over.

c!dream spending weeks meticulously framing c!tommy. “i don’t give a fuck about spirit.” c!dream taking pains to condition c!tommy into not only obedience but friendship. c!tommy viewing the abuse as bonding moments. c!dream sabotaging the party so c!tommy would believe only he cared. playing games with tridents together. protegeinnit. c!dream specifically not blowing up his own tent in logstedshire, so he could always come back. “he was here to watch me”. c!tommy desperately calling for c!dream when distressed. c!dream constantly looking for c!tommy even though he had no reason other than his own. 

the community house. doomsday. “you’re too fun.” a prison built with every trigger c!tommy has. a compass. c!dream forcing c!tommy to choose between his freedom or c!tubbos life. the mock execution. threatening to torture c!tommy forever. a spectacle for him. to make him beg and beg and beg. c!dream slinking back when c!tommy threatens to kill himself. c!dream desperately begging to c!tommy that they’re friends before pulling out the revival card.

c!tommy seeking closure. a book asking why. c!dream constantly affirming it wasn’t that bad. conditioned friendship and a knife in the wound. “my friends, my items, you.” c!dream brainwashing c!Ranboo to drop the bombs to keep c!tommy trapped. it’ll be just like exile. ““that’s the tommy I know.”” death used as a form of punishment. c!dream threatening c!tommy with immortality through a cheerful facade. c!tommy desperately begging to be c!dream’s friend. c!dream declining to torture him further. ghostbur’s death.

c!dream immediately crawling to logstedshire after the prison break. “i’ll kill you then revive you then kill you again.”” threats in friendly, casual tones. c!dream chasing and torturing c!tommy so much there was a blooper death. c!tommy deciding there was no point in life anymore. c!tommy deciding he was already c!dream’s puppet, pet, plaything (to quote him directly). the torture mixtape. ““miss me? :)”” the signs everywhere.

c!dream always looking at c!tommy, always. c!tommy falling into extreme paranoia when c!dream’s name is as much as mentioned. c!tommy hiding in a cave addicted to invisibility because he’s so scared of being seen. c!dream hiding in a decaying prison writing on the walls. c!tommy’s horror at the idea of killing c!dream even if he is his abuser. c!dream turning from surprise from c!clingy’s attack to tormenting c!tommy specifically immediately after.

c!clingy’s life only being spared because they begged and begged in terror. c!dream dragging c!tommy to the prison and beating him further when he refused to obey. burning c!tubbo’s items but keeping c!tommy’s in his inventory.  an experiment that either leaves him a test subject or has him as the one person defying c!dream as always. c!tommy falling into feeling helpless again once his symbols of freedom were destroyed. ““dream doesn’t want me dead.””

c!dream laughing at c!tommy’s pain like it’s entertainment. c!dream blaming c!tommy for everything even as c!tommy tries to show him kindness. murder and instant revival again to prove a point. pausing at a sense of understanding he’d have been furious for anyone else having. “i don’t want to be alone” as an explanation for tearing someone’s life apart. dying hand in hand the only way to end the cycle, and it starting up anew regardless.

c!primeboys makes me go so fucking bonkers like MAN. why tf is this in a minecraft roleplay this is insane the fucking themes and layers… and idk which ones are even INTENDED which makes it just so much more fucking one of a kind. i love them. they make me insane /pos

[itcamefrombeneaththeblog]

Why Do I Have To Be Depressed For You To Care? - A Longpost Journaling/Rant

Today marks my 120 pounds lost. From 400 to 280.

One of the things that makes this journey I'm on hard is that I'm totally alone in it. Most of my life I have gone through alone. In 30 years I've had maybe 6 people I'd call close friends. 2 of them betrayed me horrifically. The other 4, well, Like I love them. But we're adults. We all live far away and I rarely see them. One is a mom, one is married to the love of his life, and the other two are far away.

As far as lovers go? Well when you're 400 pounds they're non-existent. The idea of someone loving you seems as probable as mystical fey creatures. Especially when you have a job as fucked up and hard as caregiving for your grandparents who have alzheimers, which I did from age 21 to 29. Nobody wants to be in your life when you go through that. I don't blame them, I didn't want to be in my life then either.

So it shouldn't be hard for me now should it? I mean I'm a fuckin' professional at being alone now. Aren't I? Is anyone ever? I'm as healthy as I've been in yeeears. I've lost 120 pounds. And I'm sitting here, in a chair, listening to the wind softly blow my curtains next me. I can hear my neighbors, the squealing of tires. It's very lonely. I'd love to have someone be like, great job babe, or something like that. Just a celebratory kiss would probably make the last ten years of my life worth it.

But here I am alone. And I'm not so much sad, as I'm just hit by the realization that I did this for myself. This person I dislike so much, I transformed them, me, into this new person. And I originally did it so I would be more attractive. Such a silly reason, but that's the truth. I started out trying to make myself more desireable and in the end I seem to have found myself. This should be a grand revelation, but it isn't. I still feel empty.

I dunno. There's desperate lonliness within me. And that's not attractive, but I feel like I really hate how we as a race of beings have normalized not caring about the lonely souls like me.

I'm no incel. I'm not a poor sad sack or a woe is me lame asshole whose sad all the time. But this blog often finds me being very sad and talking only about things that are dark and depressing.

And that's because depressing has got me a bunch of views, people commenting, and so many people have seen my work. Depression sells. Isn't that...wrong? Why do I need to be depressed for you to care? Why am I only interesting to you when I'm suffering?

Did you know I've made a bunch of positive and health conscious posts? Probably not because nobody seems to give two shits about them. But the suicide poems, the poem about being SA'd as a child, poems about death and heartache, they do *really* well.

Why have we normalized sadness? Why is it cool in these artistic spaces to be so destitute emotionally? I don't know. Part of me thinks these are rhetorical questions that can't be answered satisfyingly. Part of me considers it to be in that misery loves company vein.

Is there a point to this? Well if you read this far I hope so, so you didn't feel like you wasted your time. I hope my writing is interesting to you. The point I want to make is that I lost 120 fucking pounds. That is staggering. I lost a whole person. I should be jumping for joy with friends or a lover.

But I'm not. It's like I've been programmed, brainwashed into feeling morose all the time because I don't have this or that, but also because being morose and sad gets me the attention I so desperately crave. How fucked is that? I've conditioned myself into a state of self-destruction.

So...I guess my ultimate point is that we need way more love in this culture, as cliche as that sounds. Because I think a lot of this isolationist jag our generations are on suck. And I'm as much to blame as anyone. We need a radical shift in mood, otherwise how are we, the dreamers, ever going to influence the chamge we want to see, if we're not willing to chamge ourselves?

I want what I want. I want someone to give a shit. Just one.

And holy goddamn, that one person is harder to find apparently than 120 pounds is to lose. That is profoundly painful.