#to not give a fuck about protecting the vulnerable groups in your own society

[rosemaries-shroom]

If you voted 3rd party or didn't vote at all (if you legally could that is)

Fucking block me. You're just as responsible for the shit that's happening as every fuck who voted for that racist, sexist, homophobic piece of shit.

15 million of you chose not to show up. *15 million*

"Oh your vote won't matter" what would 15 fucking million votes have done? How could 15 million people decide that they're willing to condem every minority in this country to suffering because "neither option was good"

ONE OF THE OPTIONS WAS LITERALLY A RAPIST AND CONVICTED FELON BUT OKAY SURE, THEYRE BOTH EQUALLY BAD

Fuck all of you, our blood will be on your hands too

[cruelsister-moved2]

i'm talking to a beloved friend about how upsetting the whole "bi lesbian" business is to me as a lesbian, but he believes that labels aren't important, that it isn't really hurting anyone, that people should live and let live, that this stuff divides the community, etc., and i don't know what to say to that or how to convince him that it matters and i'm wondering if he's right. you're one of the most well-articulated blogs i know, so i wanted to ask what you think (unless it's too upsetting/controversial of a topic). what would you say?

sorry I took a while to answer this I just never feel like i have the head space to give a decent answer!

i mmean first of all assuming your friend isn't a lesbian that's pretty rich of him to assume its his place to decide. one thing I run into a lot is people who aren't lesbians and don't understand the relationship between lesbians and men is not comparable to the relationship between gay men and women. there's complex dynamics of oppression and misogyny here but to put it very bluntly, basically every lesbian either has, or knows another lesbian who has, been sexually assaulted by a man specifically because they are a lesbian. the politics of sexual availability are just utterly incomparable between lesbians and gay men and it's frankly extremely heartless not to care about WHY lesbians can be more protective of keeping men out than gay men are with women.

secondly, ironically, it's kind of just essentialising labels to use terms like this. the words lesbian and bisexual are both super clear about what they mean. when I hear the term bi lesbian im honestly just confused because some of them mean a bi girl who prefers women, some of them mean a bi girl who somehow identifies with lesbianism politically(?), or a perjorative against lesbians who are dating trans women, and more often than that it doesn't seem to mean anything in particular and is just a useless and confusing term stuck on in front of the word "bisexual" which was already explaining the situation fine on its own. I have literally seen people using the term who were gay trans men so I mean who the fuck knows 😭😭😭 there just isn't a question being asked to which "bi lesbian" is the answer.

thirdly, there's literally only one word to describe a woman who is never attracted to men. there are so many words for sexual fluidity or whatever that it's just capricious to decide you also need the ONE which applies to us. and people claiming words don't have meaning or whatever like yes and we apply meaning to them it's how we communicate. people calling themselves bi lesbians KNOW what the word colloquially means and that's exactly why they want to use it, it literally has that appeal to them because of us 😭😭😭 but you can't be a lesbian at your core based on vibe or something. it, like every other label, is something you pick to fit to what you're already doing. like you can call yourself a lesbian all you want but if you're not Doing Lesbianism then you're just essentialising some inherent meaning to the term that doesn't exist. any meaning it has is imparted by us, lesbians, doing lesbianism, regardless of how non-lesbians feel about that!!

finally, in an appeal to emotion, I don't think people who aren't lesbians realise how cruel this shit is. being a lesbian in this patriarchal society is so deeply exhausting and traumatic and isolating and I don't think people realise how much it seeps into every interaction. people don't recognise how vulnerable we are, how small a group of the lgbt community we are, and how little we are made to feel welcome when we really need a community that accepts us for who we are & lets us be us. the fact our boundaries are afforded less concern than like someone's right to feel edgy by cosplaying as us is a case in point!! lesbians deserve some fucking peace of mind!!!

final point but it's important to say that this isn't gatekeeping because no one is stopping you from BEING a lesbian. if you want to be a woman and only date women you can ;I find it kind of funny because if you want to be a lesbian that bad then be my guest <333 we are just asking for the word to be applied accurately. like if we're all in agreement that a word doesn't define who you are then you can't like change who you are by applying an inaccurate word to it

[the-writing-mobster]

So, you said that “You’re What I Want” will be following the political conflicts between Monsters and Humans (which I cannot WAIT to see), but I was wondering how you would show this? Of course, racism (speciesism???) is a heavy topic to cover, especially in writing, and is shown in different ways. Expecting that the humans won’t take the freedom of monsters so lightly, what type of Monster racism can the readers expect to see in YWIW?

(Also, love your writing and characters! Can’t wait to see more of your beautiful content!💖)

Thank you for the ask! And great question!

⟨⟨I want to make it clear that if this is the only interaction someone has with topics such as; Racism, Anti-Blackness, Xenophobia and anti-Semitism then I would encourage them to get more involved.

I'm happy to offer some form of insight, but I would also urge and encourage one to watch media made for and by POC and not just starting and stopping at fanfiction. I'll leave some good recs in the tags⟩⟩

When it comes to the monsters, the heaviest amount of discrimination they would face would be on the basis they are considered "demons." Their biggest prosecutors would be Evangelical Christian Fundamentalists. (Lol who ISN'T victimized by evangelicals?)

I pull a lot of inspiration off of right wing conspiracy theories about The New World Order and how Christian evangelicals would react specifically to "Demons" (not good)

Here's an example of the type of discrimination monsters would face;

Fetishization (shit like "I heard monsters have "ruts"/Big dicks/are really rough in bed/freaky/I want to fuck a monster girl..." shit like that. They would be treated like a Sexuality and not, ya know, sentient beings capable of thought and feeling... It would be awful 😥)

A LOT of "The end times are here" and "this is the democratic baby eater pedophile elites last step in their plan for world domination! Letting hell loose on us! Just lettin Satan walk amongst us, brothur!"

Literal dehumanization for not being... Humans... There would be a lot of legal problems trying to get paperwork done. Legitimizing monster identities, their money, integration.

Interspecies/racial relationships would be demonized (no pun intended) and fetishized.

NIMBYism

White Flight 2: Electric Boogaloo

Think Alex Jones and Marjorie Taylor Greene.... Yeah. YEAH, now you know what I'm talking about.

Keep in mind, New World Order conspiracy theories are inherently anti-Semitic and I'm not about to erase that. In fact, knowing the behavior of right wing political pundits, they would undoubtedly rope in other minorities such as Jewish people as a way to blame them for the demons on the surface.

Also, hmmm, do any of these sound familiar? If so, it's because White Supremacists have the same fears and reactions to everything.

⟨⟨Again, I want to reiterate that these kinds of discrimination already happen irl to MULTIPLE GROUPS but esp Black Americans and I would hope that a fanfiction isn't the thing opening peoples' eyes to this; but if that's the way some people learn, then I'd want to do it as well as possible, and I'll do my best to provide resources as well. This is not a light topic to be used for entertainment value, ya know?⟩⟩

Who would be the first to accept them in a real world situation?

The queer community would def be one of the first to accept them ESP the Black Queer Community, simply because it was that community [black queer individuals] which opened the doors for pretty much all civil rights PERIOD.

Don't get me wrong, there would be some backlash from human marginalized communities, as a way to distance themselves, but ultimately, the reintroduction of magic into society could be used as a great tool to protect vulnerable people and the communities would learn to hopefully accept, empathize and fight with the demons. It's the true anarchists understanding that MY LIBERATION is dependant on YOUR LIBERATION, and is the drive to work together.

This fic would explore magical solutions that are based in real world solutions (as in, all the solutions are stuff we, humans could do in real life, it's just being portrayed in a magical way with mythical creatures) For example, mutual aid, building community, housing the homeless, and so much more.

There is an emphasis on Intersectionality. After all, you can't spell community without unity.

That being said, that won't really be tackled until the second part, as the first part is dealing with Crime Syndicates.

These are all extremely heavy topics to tackle, but I do want to explore the real world consequences of the world Toby Fox created and in my humble opinion, left unfinished.

If I have any Black, Jewish, Latin and/or Asian American readers, I would love for you to reach out through PM and possibly beta for this fic, because when handling these topics it is imperative to have sensitivity readers.

ALSO if you're a POC content creator, feel free to hop on and promote your own fanfics, art and writing, I'd be more than happy to give you all a space and promote your art. As far as I'm concerned, this blog is safe space for this fandom.

[tricktster]

Hey, follow up to my post about The Satanic Temple because @wrexie asked and I realized I hadn’t fleshed out this thought: I mentioned very quickly that I wasn’t including legislators who identify as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in my breakdown of the numbers of self-identified Christians in the House and Senate, but then I totally dropped that thought and failed to explain why I didn’t include them.

I promise, that was not weird gatekeeping about who gets to be considered part of the Christian faith. I ommitted LDS members when I was discussing the relative Christian/Non-Christian makeup of the legislature specifically because, historically, the LDS church has been a target of religiously motivated legislation, and boy oh boy do I have a yucky example for you:

It’s 1878, 31 years since Bringham Young and the 148 other members of the nascent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints arrived at the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and per the LDS registration numbers, there are now 125,046 people who belong to the church. Now, the total US population at that time was roughly 50,000,000 (not counting indigenous people because racism), so LDS members were not threatening to overrun the country by any means, but, you know, 125,000 is starting to look like a pretty significant religious movement, and that relatively significant religious movement became An Issue in the eyes of the law, because as of 1878, 20%-30% of LDS members practiced polygamous marriages in accordance with their religious doctrine and beliefs. (To save you the google, LDS Church didn’t formally renounce the practice of polygamy until 1890.)

Now, there’s a lot of reasons to criticize the concept of polygamy as it is practiced in patriarchal communities, chiefly: holy shit that is not a fun position to be in if you’re, for example, a woman or alternatively a boy who’s throwing off the gender ratio. So when the first LDS polygamy case (Reynolds vs. US) went to the Supreme Court in 1878, the court could have easily decided that while there was nothing wrong with having a religious belief in the merits of polygamy, the harms that it caused on vulnerable people in practice were sufficient grounds for the practice of polygamous marriages to be abolished.

But let’s get real, it was 1878, women and children weren’t fully people in the eyes of the law, and the Court had a bigger and shittier argument to make. Here’s an excerpt from the decision:

“Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe, and, until the establishment of the Mormon Church, was almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and of African people. At common law, the second marriage was always void (2 Kent, Com. 79), and from the earliest history of England polygamy has been treated as an offence against society. After the establishment of the ecclesiastical courts, and until the time of James I., it was punished through the instrumentality of those tribunals, not merely because ecclesiastical rights had been violated, but because upon the separation of the ecclesiastical courts from the civil the ecclesiastical were supposed to be the most appropriate for the trial of matrimonial causes and offences against the rights of marriage, just as they were for testamentary causes and the settlement of the estates of deceased persons.

I’ll parse that shit for you, and spoil what happened to Mr. Reynolds. The Supreme Court essentially decided as follows: America is a white, Christian nation and we do not tolerate the religious practices that we associate with uncivilized places like ALL OF ASIA AND AFRICA BECAUSE WE’RE EXTREMELY RACIST. Anyway, we, the Supreme Court, intend to Keep America Great (and Christian!), so in conclusion we have decided that the LDS Practice of Polygamy Is A Crime Now, Please Go To Jail And Pay A Massive Fine, Thank You!

Reynolds is still the law of the land; it’s never been overturned, and that’s not great (even though the decision had the effect of protecting a lot of women and children over the years). It’s a gross decision and it’s a bad decision - not because it’s the wrong outcome but specifically because justice is not the point here; the Supreme Court in deciding Reynolds used the concept of the American National Identity to smack down a minority religious group strictly because they challenged the status quo, and that, my dudes, is basically the judicial equivalent of wiping your ass on the Bill of Rights.

So, yeah, I deliberately omitted the LDS legislative members when discussing the prevalence of Christian beliefs among American lawmakers because until like... remarkably recently in American history, the LDS church was not the motivating factor behind religiously motivated legislation, they were the target. Jehovah’s Witnesses too, boy oh boy did the JWs ever bring a lot of lawsuits to be able to practice their faith as mandated by their religion, and they actually scored a few big wins.

Again, I’m not saying “join the Jehovah’s Witnesses!” or “actually fundamentalist polygamy isn’t all that baaad.” I’m just pointing out that the effect of religious legislation and religiously motivated jurisprudence isn’t just a threat to the athiests and godless commies among us. The deeply religious should give just as much a shit about this as the non-religious, because if you let these rights erode in furtherance of promoting your own religious beliefs, all it takes is ONE demographic shift before it’s your religious practices getting outlawed.

Also, again, there’s a way for the Court to reach the right decision if a religious practice is genuinely harmful, and that’s to recognize that everyone has the right to their own faith, but that the State has an interest in preventing harm caused by religious practices. I mean, the Court has historically fucked that analysis up too (because racism/sexism/homophobia, etc.), but it’s still way better than the Sir, This Is A Christian Nation approach.

Final note: the religious makeup of the current Supreme Court is notable because three justices, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Breyer, are Jewish (everyone else is Christian). If you’re interested, start paying attention to how they rule on religious cases. Better yet, read Breyer and Kagan’s dissents in Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby, where they opposed one of the worst Supreme Court decisions of all time. (In Hobby Lobby, the majority ruled that Hobby Lobby [company motto: Michaels, But Shittier] didn’t have to abide by the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act because it was somehow a violation of the corporation Hobby Lobby’s religious beliefs!!!!!!!!! to provide their employees with insurance that covered contraceptive health care. It is absolute horse shit.)

Anyway, the Christian male conservatives made the decision, overcoming the women and Jewish justices’ dissenting opinions, and from that outcome and the well-reasoned dissents from Kagan and Breyer alone, one could probably posit that increased diversity on the bench is a GREAT IDEA to protect against oppression from a religious majority.

....That’s not happening while a republican is president, though, so for the love of god get your vote by mail done EARLY this year.

[idk-my-aesthetic]

How to indoctrinate someone into a cult in a few easy steps

Step 1) identify potential recruit - IE someone vulnerable. Common targets are children, people who’ve been rejected by peers or other communities, people who are lonely and lacking external support systems, etc. Those groups are more likely to be targeted but anyone in a sufficiently vulnerable place can be susceptible to this kind of indoctrination

why would a terf try to indoctrinate someone making a post that is literally advocating for trans inclusion? a couple reasons

OP is expression a genuine critique of the way cis centric feminism excludes and hurts trans people. But it also expresses 1) a feeling of isolation and 2) frustration with a group the cult opposes. both of these things can easily be used to manipulate ppl into joining the cult

Now obviously OP is clearly educated on the dog whistles used by terfs and know to tell them to fuck off, but the terf doesn't exactly know that when making their manipulative comments. when recruiting for a cult you might as well make an attempt to manipulate and recruit anyone who seems viable, the worst they can do is say no. and if they tell you to fuck off because they saw through your attempts at manipulation, then you can get yourself a nice screenshot of a "evil" trans person "rudely" replying to a "kind and helpful message". it's a win win and all that.

Step 2) the soft sell. you need to hook the possible recruit in. this can be done in many ways, maybe they draw you in with a promise of community or salvation, or you're convinced to go to a barbecue with a friend. they talk to you about the unfairness of society and offer you an answer to your problems.

the soft sell used above is an ideological sell, with a nice sprinkle of love bombing to seal the deal

"we know. we care." and "We do not expect you to be our human shield. In fact, we want to stand with you and take the blows with you," are both manipulative statements designed to pray on those feelings of loneliness. they imply protection, community, people who want you and care about you. why would anyone reject that?

"We would react with feminist analysis about how bio sex affects sex based oppression more than gender identity."

this is the soft sell of the ideology. they don't come out the gate calling trans people predators, they water down and soften the ideology into the most palatable form possible. terms like "feminist analysis" are carefully chosen to make the argument sound as academic and reasonable as possible.

"but its often difficult when there are people who think that being called female is an insult instead of a body type."

once again a soft sell, but this time instead of trying to make themselves seem academic the focus is on making the opposition look ridiculous. It implies trans people are ridiculous for not wanting to be referred to something as “simple” and “obvious” as a body type, while also flattening and oversimplifying the very complex topic of the spectrum of human sexes and genders. Basically it’s a very condescending straw man argument

It also paints trans ppl as misogynistic for thinking “that being called female is an insult”. Paint yourself as the desirable moral high ground vs their problematic ideals. Once again this is a strawman argument.

Both of these strawman are particularly infuriating bc none of this was even being discussed in the original post. They dragged their strawman into the conversation just to make themselves look better, but whatever

“but its often difficult when there are people who think that being called female is an insult”

I’ve already established how “ppl who think being called female is an insult” is just a shady dogwhistley way to demonize trans ppl. It’s like setting up your own scarecrow and giving it a MRA t shirt and a trans bracelet

But if you focus on the “but it’s often difficult” part, this is just an obvious attempt to shift the blame for your feelings onto trans people. This implies that there are people who want to protect you but they just can’t because those mean ole trannies won’t let them :((. Isn’t it so tragic?

In this one short paragraph this person is using multiple types of manipulation and is demonstrating a pretty textbook attempt to indoctrinate someone. I applaud their form it’s near perfect /sarcastic

Now obviously OP knows enough to shut this down, but let’s talk about what might happen if someone who didn't know how to do that was approached by a similar message

The soft sell doesn’t stop after the first interaction. that's just the litmus test to see if they'd be wasting their time on you or not. The point is to keep the conversation going and continuously manipulate them deeper and deeper into this worldview. The inductor will often try to take things to a private conversation, like going out for coffee or, more commonly online, taking things to DMs. This prevents any friends of the possible recruit or more knowledgeable tumblr users from poking holes in their logic or identifying their manipulative techniques. It’s also helpful to isolate the possible recruit as quickly as possible.

This leads pretty easily into the next few steps, step 3: the new worldview (tldr distort their worldview into one that suits your own needs), step 4: establishing the enemy(an enemy gives them something to oppose, to fear, to direct their anger towards, and a reason for you to ask them to stay so you can fight the enemy together), and step 5: the dear leader. From there you use step 6: peer pressure to prevent them from leaving, fueled by an unhealthy dose of love bombing and punishing dissent

the middle steps (3-5) don't have to be in that exact order and are usually involved in the early steps to indoctrinate, and then weaponized against ppl in the later steps to keep them from leaving or criticizing

and ah, yeah that's how to indoctrinate someone into a cult. You will note that intelligence has very little to do with protecting yourself from cults. the only thing that does work is understanding how they work and being able to recognize their tactics and dogwhistles

it really is so uncomfortable being a trans man in cis centric conversations of feminism. I just wonder. do they know about people like me? do they care? if I brought it up to them, how would they react? Do they expect me to be their human shield?

[nightwingmyboi]

hi! i know you probably get a lot of questions and i’m really sorry for adding mine to the pile, but if it would be okay could you please explain what exactly is talon!dick about? i know in the court of owls storyline he was supposed to become one, but i thought it never actually happened? or is it just a fanon thing and i’m just dumb lmao i’m really sorry for bothering you

Not a bother! Enjoy getting asks. So, interestingly, the seeds for the Court of Owls storyline were kind of planted during Dick’s time as Batman. It seems that way to me at least, because we got this: 

Batman (1940) #691

Where Dick discovers that Bruce was keeping some sort of mysterious secret concerning the circus and his parents...this seems to me to be a hint about the Court of Owls since it’s never explicitly cleared up Pre52. And in Gates of Gotham as well, Dick begins looking into Gotham’s colonial history with Alan Wayne and such...just as Bruce does in the Court of Owls storyline later. Dick and Bruce both even have the same underlying problem in these arcs: 

Gates of Gotham #4

Batman (2011) #7

About not knowing Gotham as well as they think they do. So, it seems to me that we were originally supposed to get Dick!Bats in the Court of Owls storyline Pre52, and New52 snatched that storyline and gave it to Bruce instead. DC even haphazardly tried to give Bruce a family connection to the Court like the one Dick has lmao! 

Batman (2011) #10

Wow, this isn’t totally coming out of nowhere and it makes complete sense! Whatever, this is not critical to know, it just kind of stinks that this arc that seems to be tailor made for Dick slipped through our fingers! Had to complain about it :/ 

But anyway, actually concerning your question lmao...the Court of Owls is a secret society run by of some of the richest, oldest families in Gotham. This society has been ruling Gotham from the shadows since colonial times, largely through their undead assassins, who are known as Talons. These Talons have incredible healing powers/regenerative capabilities; the only way to take them out is to freeze or decapitate them. Anything else and they’ll just heal. For quite a while, this group was thought to be a myth, known only through a nursery rhyme. 

As Bruce begins investigating them further, he keeps finding clues that hint to Dick having a connection to the Court in some way. This culminates in Bruce being captured by the Court, and actually finding a coffin for Dick: 

Batman (2011) #5

Can you imagine if Dick had been the one to discover his own coffin?! How fucking chilling would that have been?! Instead it’s basically a footnote. The sheer wasted potential here!!! But whatever! These coffins held the Court’s assassins, and with this last bit of proof, Bruce was able to confirm his suspicions about Dick’s role in the group. The Court of Owls had planned for Dick to become their Talon. 

Initially, Bruce meant to keep this information to himself, but Dick, concerned for Bruce’s health, comes down to the cave to try to see if he can help with the case. Bruce breaks the news: 

Batman (2011) #7

And he doesn’t do so with any tact. When Bruce continues to ignore Dick and not give him a straight answer, Dick gets pretty upset and starts shouting at him. But does Bruce explain himself or apologize for leaving Dick out of the loop? Nah. Instead: 

Bruce punches Dick in the face. Some more completely unnecessary and gratuitous violence directed at Dick by his own father! And while he’s also delivering such terrible news! Just awesome! This punch was done in order to show Dick’s electrum tooth, proving without a doubt that Dick was meant to become a Talon. Could have just told him Bruce. Or done an x-ray? You have holograms man. 

It turns out that Dick’s childhood home, the place Dick funded and maintained with his own savings even after living with Bruce, the place that he always returned to for comfort (in Pre52 at the very least, he went there in the aftermath of Bruce firing him, Jason dying, etc.)...was actually a freaking child slavery ring. And some of the people that Dick considers family were actually planning on selling him; he doesn’t know which ones were part of it and which ones were clean. If any were clean. Could he even know for sure that his parents weren’t in on the deal? So, all of Dick’s happy childhood memories, tainted by this horrible reality. This is a pretty huge deal. Kind of would have been amazing if Dick had any agency in discovering this life-shattering truth, but whatever. At least Dick will be able to reflect for a few moments on this revelation, right? Yeah, you know DC by now. That’s a no. It’s all about Bruce actually: 

“...But they’re not Gotham City, Bruce. And neither are you.” 

Bruce is focused on his issues; he talks about how he doesn’t know if Gotham is “his” city after all, because that’s the most important thing right now obviously. Meanwhile, Dick is having to pick himself up off the ground in the background. Maybe Bruce could take even a small moment to comfort Dick after dropping a bomb like that? But instead, it’s the reverse! Dick, blood dribbling down his chin, is actually having to give Bruce advice and direction here. As usual of New52 and Rebirth, issues that seriously effect Dick take back seat to Bruce’s problems. Joy. 

So, fast forward a bit, and Dick is having to fight several Talons, including his great-grandfather, in order to protect the mayor. Ironically, during this fight, even Cobb was like “Wow, Batman sure was an ass when he hit you, huh? Bet that hurt loser.” 

Nightwing (2011) #9

So even the undead assassin recognizes that Bruce was a jerk lmao. Bruce never actually apologizes for hitting Dick though, so he better just get over it I guess. 

Moving on, you’re right anon. Dick doesn’t become a Talon here. Cobb's more interested in killing Nightwing for standing in his way, though there is a moment where Cobb does seem to try convincing Dick to join him and become a Talon: 

So there is an inkling here that the Court wants Dick. But Dick refuses to take the offer (”screw destiny!!”) and ends up kicking Cobb’s butt. So, for a while, Talon!Dick was just a popular fanon AU. 

Until the most recent arc with Ric that is. It turns out, Dick’s “amnesia” was actually the result of drugs, fake therapy treatments, and a magical hypnotic mind crystal (couldn’t decide on just one way to fuck Dick up I guess). His supposed therapist and doctor were actually members of the Court of Owls; they took advantage of Dick’s vulnerable state after he was shot in the head to try to make him their Talon. And, just because all of the above brainwashing wasn’t enough, Cobb tracked Dick down and also put him in “synaptic receiver” googles that implanted false memories of him being a Talon into his mind. So, because of all this, Dick briefly became a Talon for a single comic book. 

Nightwing (2016) #66

Yeah, you read that right. All of this nonsense for one comic book of Dick being a Talon. Dick almost immediately breaks free because somebody nicks the googles. Not that I like the idea of Dick being a Talon all that much, but with this much buildup it was underwhelming to say the least! 

Frankly, Talon!Dick is a concept oft underutilized or poorly executed by canon. It’s an intriguing AU with a lot of potential, but in canon, I’m kind of on the fence about it sometimes. The circus is so important and formative for Dick (“you can take the boy out of the circus, but you can’t take the circus out of the boy” and all that) and it’s really depressing to me to think that Dick would have negative associations with the place, especially since it taints every memory Dick has of his parents. And, as I said earlier, Dick often returned to the circus for comfort when he was upset, and now he can’t have that safe haven, because the childhood family that he so values actually tried to sell him into child slavery. After 70-something years of respecting Dick’s circus roots, it almost seems a little wrong for Dick’s origin to be tainted like this to me? Dick just can’t have nice things huh :/ 

Anyway, I hope this was helpful info, even with all my complaining lmao. Thanks for the ask! And for giving me an excuse to vent my frustrations lol ;) 

[holographic-chogi]

Protector pt.18/?

Author: holographic-chogi

Pairing: fem!reader x skz

Warnings: swearing, abuse, violence, the cold.

A/N: So, I’m very torn on whether or not I want to do a sequel. I have another story I’m planning for sure, so there will be more content regardless. However, I kinda love writing these characters so if you guys want to see more, I’d love to continue with this universe. We aren’t at the end yet (we’re a few chapters away) but we’re approaching. Lol and to anyone reading all these author notes for the first time, I’ve been extending the story quite a bit, hence me saying we’re getting close to the end all the time. As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated!! Hope you guys enjoy!

Summary: a virus has wiped out most of humanity, and society has collapsed. People survive in groups where they live in constant fear and a struggle to survive. Women were the primary victim of the virus, leaving few behind. You are one of the few, kept in secret since the beginning. However, you’ve just been caught.

Masterlist

The overwhelming soreness was the first thing you noticed.

You woke up on the floor, sprawled out beside the bed, back to the bare wooden floor. As you became more and more lucid, you became aware of the several points of pain spread throughout your body.

Your left shoulder, your right forearm, your neck. Your wrists. Not to mention, a nasty headache.

You forced yourself up, limbs shaking from exhaustion and overuse. Would it have killed you to crawl into bed before passing out? You guess you could cut yourself some slack this time.

You lean back, flinching as your back cracks in various places. Sore was absolutely an understatement. 

You flinched as your door swung open, a feeling of dread sinking in as it revealed Hyuk on the other side. He seemed very nonchalant as he eyed you and the room up and down. 

“Damn. He really did go to town.”

You don’t bother responding, choosing instead to continue stretching out your back.

He clears his throat, and you finally spare him a glance. He looks smug. “Taeil sent me over to make sure you weren’t still tied up.” he crossed his arms, licking his lips as he continues to stare you down. It makes you shudder. “I almost wish you were. I bet you’d like that, hm?”

You narrow your eyes at him. You feel vulnerable in your current state, especially with this man looking at you like you were prey.

He continued, kneeling down to your level. It was then you realized that his look was becoming one of lust, no longer just smugness.

“Strip.”

Your eyes widen and your knuckles go white from the grip they have on your forearms, completely ignorant of the pain it causes. You couldn’t handle another one of these sick freaks, not the way you are now.

You can’t hold back the exhale of relief once you hear the knock at the doorway.

“Hey, I’m here to pick her up.” Hyoseob’s voice, thank god.

Hyuk looks back lazily at the open door, before looking back at you. “Next time, then.”

He strolls out, as if nothing had happened. Clearly Jiho and Taeil weren’t the only people to fear in this place; you couldn’t be any less safe. 

Hyoseob walks past him, and the two don’t exchange so much as a nod before Hyuk closes the door behind him.

As soon as the latch clicks, Hyoseob’s visibly relaxes, before scanning you up and down warily, “rough night?”

You burst out laughing, unable to ignore the hilarity of that understatement. Your whole body radiates pain as your shoulders shake; your voice think with hoarseness as you use it for the first time today. “Yeah. We’ll call it a ‘rough night’.”

He snickers a little, “Yeah, you look like shit.”

You chuckle a bit more, before letting your laugh die down. “I bet.

He sits on the floor next to you, “any specific reason you’re on the ground?”

“I think I fell asleep down here last night,” you pause, “Or maybe passed out.”

He nods, holding out a hand to you, “ready for breakfast part two?”

No. You’d even rather have another date with Taeil. Just the thought of Jiho’s face made your entire body tense. “I’m guessing I don’t have much of a choice.”

He spoke solemnly, “you probably don’t.”

Luckily, he had grabbed your good hand as he hoisted you up, pulling you to your feet as you winced. You wobbled a bit on your feet as vision spotted black, gripping Hyoseob’s shoulder to keep yourself from keeling over. “Sorry, I’m just kinda lighthea-”

You freeze mid sentence, clutching your gut as overwhelming nausea radiated from your stomach, “I-I’m,”

You vomit again, doing your best to lean away from Hyoseob as you lose what little contents of food you had left. When you look back at Hyoseob, you see his face clouded with worry.

“What happened to you?”

“I’d rather not get into it”,  you croaked. Your voice sounded terrible.

He nodded knowingly, “You’ve obviously been strangled, from the bruises and vomit, and,” He raises your right arm, revealing the burn on your arm, “And you’ve been burned. Anything else I should know about?”

You look at him blankly, voice deadpan, “My other shoulder is dislocated. Pretty sure my wrists are fucked up from those ropes too.” You nod towards the ropes lying loosely on the ground beside your bed.

He slowly lowers your hand, “We need to see if you can walk on your own. If you can’t, we’re gonna need to push our plan backward a few days.”

You pull out of his grasp, determined, “Oh absolutely not, I can walk.” 

You start trudging towards the door, ignoring your body screaming at you to rest. “I can’t survive another day in this place.”

---

You were sitting back at the table from yesterday, nervously tapping your spoon as you were taunted by the empty seat in front of you. Hyoseob was beside the table again, eyes directly ahead of him.

You whispered under your breath, “What am I gonna tell Jiho about the bruises? You said they were visible.”

He looked down at you for a second, pointedly, as if to say ‘you know you aren’t supposed to talk to me in Jiho’s house’.

Then you heard the steps, and the familiar racing of your heart continued.

However, to your surprise, Jiho rushed past you, beelining for the door. “Sorry, can’t stay for breakfast. There’s been someone spotted nearby on patrol.”

You open your mouth to ask who, but Hyoseob notices and beats you to it, “Anyone we should be worried about, sir?”

He shook his head, “He’s gone now, but that Thai kid from JYP was spotted snooping nearby, so keep an eye on Y/N” He glared at you, “seems you can’t stop causing trouble.”

Your heart thuds in your chest. Bambam? What was he doing here? Did the others know something was wrong? You kneaded your hands together, smiling to yourself.

Little did Jiho know, you really, truly, weren’t alone.

Jiho scoffed at your expression, turning towards the door before adding, “He won’t get far.”

Sure about that? The man has some long legs.

As the door closed behind him, Hyoseob spoke from behind you. “We should leave now, nevermind waiting until tonight.”

You whirl around in surprise, “are you sure that isn’t too risky?”

He nods, “Everyone’s gonna be distracted with the intruder today, and no one will question us being alone, since I’ve been assigned to protect you.”

It makes sense. Excitement begins to bubble in your stomach as you stand from your chair, breakfast forgotten. “Then let’s get the hell out of here!”

He chuckled before gesturing to your plate, “Food first.”

---

Despite the hurry the two of you were in, you couldn’t deny how good the chilly air felt. The snow was obviously an obstacle, but it looked so pretty as it collected on the ground.

You had been “escorted” to your room to grab your things, and the two of you had traveled through the forest from there. The snow clouds above made it difficult to identify the cardinal directions, but you could still make do.

However, the pace the two of you were going at was fast. Faster than what was comfortable, especially in your condition. Your breaths were ragged as you tailed behind him, a familiar burning feeling returning to your lungs.

When you vomit the first time, Hyoseob stopped to cover it, making sure it’s untraceable. It’s a common after-effect of being strangled, but with each time you did it, he appeared more and more concerned.

You braced yourself against a tree with your good arm as you retched, fingers numb as they clutched the bark.

“Fuck, Y/N. Can you make it?”

You nod vigorously, wiping your mouth before staggering over. “I’m fine. Keep going.”

Could you? You weren’t sure. What you were sure of, is you would die trying before staying another second at that hellhole. You’d much sooner give your life to the winter before any of those men, any day.

And so you kept going. You tried paying attention to your surroundings, but Hyoseob just powered forward. What surprised you, is that beside your own fear, he seemed terrified too. He had seemed so calm and unmoveable before, but you couldn’t miss the trembling in his fingers as he pulled you forward. You’d blame it on the cold, if it weren’t for the look in his eyes.

Like wild game just before you shoot it between the eyes.

Suddenly, you hear shouting in the distance, and the two of you freeze.

You look up at him, squeezing his hand in reassurance. “It’s okay, it sounded far off.”

He shook his head, gripping your hand tightly. His breath showed in a cloud as he spoke, “Not far enough, and it’s in our direction. They’re tracking us.”

He released his hand completely, “I have to throw them off now. You’re on your own from here.”

You shivered as he rubbed your forearms, trying to warm you up before he departed.

“Stay traveling in this direction until you find a clearing, there’s usually a ton of rosehips there, but I can’t guarantee it because of the season.” He turned away from you, ready to bolt. “From there, there should be a path to the left that takes you to the farmhouse. It’s long, but you can make it.”

You smile at his retreating figure. “Rosehips can survive the winter just fine.”

“So can you.”

Taglist: @leetaemintrashnumber1 @peachescherryheart @lico-rice526 @claire4799 @lanie-is-a-unicorn @tottalbabe

[alines7777]

(image drawn by me, their name is Bandersnatch, an original character by me, and i guess you could say they’re also my mascot)

here is an economic prediction i submitted to twitter a few weeks ago, and so far, it’s still holding accurate:

[open original thread (link)]

i have a troubling prediction for landlords, that i've already held in mind for a while. this prediction is troubling in its own right, but it's especially troubling for landlords, since they're the ones carrying it forward without knowing where it ends. they're fucking up bad.

with a widespread eviction crisis that is frankly already ongoing, working people without permanent residences will face greater difficulty than ever finding work. nobody will be in a position to lease properties, and without anyone to lease them, the [landlords’] assets will be liabilities.

landlords will become desperate to liquidate these properties, or simply abandon them outright. very, VERY few people will actually own homes, and the majority of homes will be held by banks or property holding firms.

no human individual [particularly in urban areas] will hold any rightful claim to any shelter ever again. not without violence. everyone will blame landlords, and rightfully so, as they were the ones in a position of most legal autonomy, and they will have nobody they can sensibly blame but themselves.

it was landlords who profited from artificially raising demand for shelter by holding shelter as ransom for perpetual debt, turning a basic need into a commodity for passive income while everyone else has to work. and the tragic thing for them is that they're going to lose it. [the tragic thing for everyone else is that they will gain absolutely nothing from this particular loss for landlords, unless serious social changes are made, LEGAL shelter will become even more  unavailable to them than ever.]

but the despicable thing about them [landlords] is perhaps that they probably think it's better to lose those properties than to let working people have a jubilee on their watch.

regardless, the more properties that are held under fewer owners and the less access people have to them, rent will bear a greater cost for the rest of society. if the rest of society can no longer afford that cost, that cost will soon become a huge problem for the landlords.

in reverse, say for the sake of argument that everyone ends up with a home to their name and still there might for some reason be some properties left over in landlords' names for rent. they'd seldom have any tenants for very long. the landlords’ properties would still become liabilities.

landlords will have no choice but to turn back to work. one way or another, holding property for rent will no longer remotely suit anyone's interests, and it will become a thing of the past. but people will still seek shelter, and one way or another, they're going to get it

[close original thread]

of course, none of this is to even to speak of the expectation on the part of landlords that their tenants should bear the cost of the mortgage for the landlords’ continued ownership over the properties in question, and then for society to deem landlords entitled to say that they themselves took on the risk.

to make this relatively brief, it’s an absolute contradiction in terms, and to make it rude, total garbage. sure, the risk belongs BY NAME to the landlord, but if anyone but the landlord is bearing that risk to fulfill the mortgage, then it isn’t even a risk at all as far as the landlord is concerned. even within a capitalist worldview, in the principle of the matter, you have no rightful claim to any of the rewards of taking a risk if your intent is then to offset the actual and prospective costs of that risk onto someone else and to give yourself the reward. if anything, the recognition of such a title to such rewards for such a risk would be fuckin FRAUDULENT. it’s plain to see that landlords were hoping to eat their cakes and still have them. but of course, the banks holding the liens on these mortgages don’t care, nor do lawmakers. as far as they’re concerned, in many senses, landlords are their patrons. as long as the banks are satisfied that they’re getting the money they think is theirs for the mortgages, then the properties in question still legally belong to those named as the borrowers for the mortgages, namely the landlords, even if the money doesn’t come out of the borrowers’ pockets.

landlords will then claim that they’re providing an essential need, but why should that by done by landlords or in the manner undertaken by landlords? i think we’ve already established that the question of landlords’ interests intrinsically makes the process of fulfilling the need for shelter needlessly expensive and convoluted for everyone but landlords, and is ultimately unsustainable and self-defeating. yes, landlords do fulfill the need for shelter, but for how long? must you insist that they in particular should be the ones doing so? are you so willing to accept the manner in which they offer shelter, just to protect their already dubious claim to the distinction of providing shelter? NONSENSE!

a simple and natural solution to this problem among others would be for the expansion of tenants’ rights. for example, if the rent paid by a tenant or a group of tenants is forwarded to the cost of their landlord’s mortgage, and the rent they’ve paid accounts for at least a third of the amount the landlord borrowed plus interest, then they ought to be entitled to petition for the transfer of the mortgage to the property rented to their names. if a tenant or group of tenants renting a property with no outstanding mortgage have paid in rent at least 166.67% of the market  value of that property, they ought to have the right to petition for that amount paid to constitute a purchase of the property in question. tenants would have far greater prospects in their living conditions, and it certainly is a step forward for alleviating and eliminating precarious living conditions and issues begotten by them, including homelessness and the artificially inflated demand and cost of housing. and landlords would lose nothing but the despotic amount of leverage they have over tenants, unless they happen to consider that to be a tremendous loss in itself, in which case, landlords are invited to consider that coming from a known and proud anarcho-communist who very openly has no sympathy for their interests, under the circumstances my terms are far more than compassionate.

it should go without saying that this is by no means a complete picture of the rights for tenants that are fit to be advocated for. it similarly goes without saying that i couldn’t possibly think of every one of them. nor would it be fair to me, nor would it in anyone else’s interests for that to be delegated to me, especially if my readers feel it is my onus to do so as some way of vindicating my critiques against capitalism, to which i say “PEARLS BEFORE SWINE”. from my perspective, my critiques against capitalism are overwhelmingly sound, with or without any creative anti-capitalist solutions on my part.

obviously, landlords, lawmakers, and perhaps even bankers will resist the expansion of tenants’ rights, at their own economic and physical peril, hilariously enough, but it bears fighting for tenants’ rights anyhow, by any means necessary, as it was the deprivation of rights for the vulnerable, such as tenants, that led us all into this crisis in the first place. we have much to gain if we do fight, and EVERYONE stands to lose quite a lot if we don’t

[delimeful]

the shapes in the silence (8)

warnings: deceit (morally ambiguous), lying, arguing, negative thinking(lots)

Chapter 8

Apparently, ‘longest nap of his life’ meant three hours, because that was all he got before Patton came knocking gently on his door, snapping him out of a hazy nightmare in a cold sweat.

“Hey, kiddo!” He greeted, eyes suspiciously bright. Ugh, morning people. “We’re having a house meeting!” 

“A what?” Virgil responded automatically. He, of course, knew what a house meeting was, but- “You’ve never invited me to one of these before.” 

Patton had the grace to look sheepish. “Well, we don’t have them very often, and you didn’t… really want to talk to us last time we had one!” 

Oh yeah. He’d been absolutely certain it had only been an excuse for them to all complain about him suddenly ‘moving in’, so to speak. It’d taken actually eavesdropping before he realized it was actually an argument over who kept stealing Logan’s jam. He was fairly sure Roman had only passed up on accusing the new ‘unfriendly neighborhood Dark Side’ because he was the actual culprit. 

“...Sure, okay.”

He followed Patton downstairs, and found the others sitting already in their customary spots on the couch. Out of habit, he stepped towards the spot he normally sat as ‘Puff’, before remembering himself at a slight look of surprise from (still normal-sized) Roman. He propped himself up against the wall closest to Logan’s chair, not in the mood to loom menacingly by anyone who might be perturbed by it.  

As expected, Logan ignored him completely. “Good. Now that we are all here, I believe we should address the situation regarding Roman’s recent shrinking episode.” 

“Did you figure something out, Microsoft Nerd?” Roman asked, leaning forwards slightly. Virgil wondered how the nicknames had such little bite when they were directed at anyone but him.

Logan glanced at Virgil, but upon seeing no question about the situation in his expression, simply continued. “Currently, my hypothesis is that this size reduction happens to us due to the fact that we are incorporeal manifestations of a personality. For example, things like feeling overwhelmed or vulnerable might cause us to involuntarily shapeshift as a mechanism to protect Thomas or ourselves.” 

He flipped a few pages in his notebook. “I believe that is why access to our normal functions is limited whilst in the reduced form, as well, which is highly inconvenient.”

That would really stress Virgil out if he hadn’t already mastered the art of driving himself into the exact mental state needed to trigger his transformation either way. 

“As such,” Logan continued, “we need more information in order to find a solution. I believe Roman can help me test this hypothesis by focusing on aforementioned overwhelming thoughts to see if he can activate this reaction at will.” 

“What? Why me?” Roman protested immediately. “Why don’t you do it, Specs?” 

Logan gave him a condescending look. “Because I have no feelings, obviously. You are the only one we know of showing this symptom, anyhow. Our control group, so to speak.” 

Roman groaned, and for a moment, his gaze flicked to where Virgil was standing, wishing he was in bed as they talked about stuff he already knew. He straightened up a bit, narrowing his eyes back at Roman. What?

The creative side pulled his eyes away without giving him any sort of answer, but Logan hadn’t missed the byplay either. He stared between the two of them for a moment. Patton blinked at all of them mutually, lost in the silent stare off. Slowly, Logan leaned back. 

“If you’d prefer to do this at a later time-” He started, but Roman cut him off. 

“No, it’s fine.” He stared at Virgil like he was trying to convey something meaningful with the words. Virgil stared back, catching exactly none of it.

A moment and a flash later, Roman was sitting on the couch, doll-sized. Patton made the ‘oh no, cute!’ face again, and Virgil couldn’t help but stare. He was so… small. He couldn’t believe Roman had let him pick him up at all, so much could have gone wrong- 

“Oh, it worked!” Roman said, surprised. Logan hummed consideringly, already deep in thoughts he didn’t bother to share with the rest of them. 

“Can you turn back?” Virgil asked, voice sardonic. Roman scowled imperiously at him, but very noticeably did not get any bigger. 

“That part… appears to be more complicated.”

“Maybe try thinking about the opposite of what got you that size!” Patton offered, Logan nodding in agreement. 

Roman didn’t seem as easily convinced, but he did close his eyes and make an expression of thinking very hard for a few moments. Virgil took the opportunity to go make himself a bagel. It went perfectly up until the toasted bagel popped up loudly, and Roman groaned, presumably at his concentration being broken. 

“Anxiety.”

“What?” He responded through a mouthful of crunchy bread. “I’m hungry, I don’t have to watch you focus. You always figure it out eventually.” 

It was definitely meant to be delivered dismissively, but a second later there was a loud clatter from the lounge. Virgil poked his head around the corner. Roman was full-sized again, and had knocked a cup off the table in the process. He squinted at the startled creative side for a second. This was the second time in a row that had happened after he’d spoken.

Was Roman fucking with him? 

… No, Princey was too clueless for that. It was probably just coincidence.

Logan had taken it all in stride, turning to Patton and asking him to replicate Roman’s feat. Virgil took the opportunity to steal some of Logan’s Crofters and smear it over the other half of his bagel. Petty crimes. 

Once he re-emerged, Patton was still the same size, midway through an apology for not being able to manage it. 

“It’s quite alright, I have plenty of new information to look through. Oh, and Anxiety?” Logan called out, making him freeze where he was three steps up the stairs already. Could he seriously smell jam like a hunting dog? 

“Have you experienced anything like this before?” Logan asked, and everyone’s gaze turned to him.

Great, it wasn’t about the jam. It was so much worse. There was no getting out of it this time.

“No.” He answered bluntly, and ignored the way the lie tasted sour in his mouth. “I haven’t.” 

He looked away before he could see the mistrust form in their eyes, and retreated to his room. He hated lying to them, partially because it felt awful, wondering how and when they’d find out his untruths, but also because the more Virgil lied, the better of a grasp he got on the situation.

As such, it was almost unsurprising when he opened his door and found Deceit, standing in the middle of his room and eyeing his messy floor with distaste. He still felt his heart jump, though, looking over his shoulder as though the others would have trailed after him to witness the impromptu meeting. He slammed his door shut after him, already scowling darkly.

“What are you doing in my room.” He asked, flatly. Deceit gave him a deeply patronizing look. 

“Oh, because I can totally just stand around in the plain sight waiting for you to get back from your little get-together. That definitely wouldn’t get me harassed by those naive idiots.” 

Virgil gritted his teeth at the insult, voice coming out sharp. “I’m the one being harassed. I told you to leave me alone. Get. Out.”

Deceit raised an eyebrow. “Like you weren’t practically calling my name with all the lying you’ve been doing. Obviously, you know that even just hiding the truth counts as a lie. You’re clearly doing much better than a liar like me.” 

“Shut up.” Virgil snarled, the shadows in his room curling around his feet. He clenched his fists, ignoring the feel of nails biting into his palms. “You’re just sour that Thomas still hasn’t noticed you, even after I split off and proved that Dark Sides can appear to him.” 

“Oh, you’re so right. It’s not like I want to keep helping him without needing all that attention or anything.” Deceit smiled smugly, as Virgil worked his jaw. “You can’t play the villain forever, Thomas won’t still hate you and get hurt because of it. I’m much worse off, helping keep him safe by keeping him in the dark.”

“I don’t care if he hates me.” Virgil returned, ignoring the way Deceit’s lips thinned knowingly. “Thomas needs his friends, needs people, and if he goes down the road you want him to take, he’ll be alone and hated his whole life, and he won’t even know why.” 

“Virgil, you’re the farthest thing from a hypocrite I’ve ever met.” Deceit offered, saccharine-sweet. “After all, you certainly wouldn’t know anything about being alone and hated, now would you?”   

“Yeah, it’s my job.” He spat, furious. “I’m supposed to keep Thomas from feeling the way I feel preemptively, genius.” 

He took a deep breath, trying to prevent his voice from slipping. “I knew what I was getting into when I revealed myself. Maybe you should focus more on your own role instead of nosing into my business.”

Deceit’s eyes narrowed slightly with irritation. “Yes, I’m definitely the one slinking about where I don’t belong. You’d never take advantage of someone’s trust under false pretenses, after all.”  

Virgil bit into his tongue hard enough to make it bleed. Deceit smirked, as though he’d never been irritated at all. After a moment, the look smoothed over into something more contemplative.

“You are so obsessed with Thomas upholding society’s standards, so afraid of him becoming a bad person. But you don’t have anything to worry about. After all, you’re a reflection of him, and you’re so very selfless, aren’t you?”  

Virgil recoiled as though struck, but there was no victory in the other side’s expression. 

“You made the right choice. The others will accept you when you’re exposed. You won’t regret it.”

With that final condemnation, he sunk away, and Virgil was left alone with the silence ringing in his ears. He hated fighting with Deceit, hated that the man wasn’t above tearing at sensitive spots to get his own point across, hated the raw, cut-open feeling that came with it. 

Most of all, he hated that Deceit was right. 

He was just using the others, lying to them to assuage his own pathetic loneliness. He’d made his choice, he’d known he’d be surrounded by people who didn’t want him there. He’d known, he’d known, and it still never got easier.

The transformation was at the edge of his senses, only a grasp from shifting him, and for a moment he entertained the thought of letting it happen. Running back to them, curling up in the presence of Thomas’ best attributes until Deceit’s words were barely even whispers in the back of his mind… 

Something clicked in the subconscious, and he let the errant dream go, sinking onto his bed. Thomas was making another video, and though it didn’t seem like he was going to be summoned this time, he still had work to do. He pulled up a screen of the scene through Thomas’s eyes, attention catching on every possible minor flaw, predicting the audience’s every possible reaction, determined to make the editing process hell so that only the best of Thomas was shown. 

That was his job, after all.

[maddie-grove]

My Top Ten Victorian (Ish) Romance Novels

Notes: Queen Victoria’s reign lasted from 1837 to 1901, but I learned in a literature class that sometimes the Victorian era is defined as lasting from 1832 (when the First Reform Act was passed) to 1901 (when Victoria died). When it comes to historical romance novels, I think the second definition works better; a romance set in 1831 usually comes at the tail end of a series or universe beginning in the 1810s/1820s and still has a Regency flavor, while a romance set 1832-1836 has a decidedly non-Regency feel. Incidentally, I’ve noticed that 1830s-set Harlequin Historicals are labeled “1830s,” rather than “Regency” or “Victorian.” No one knows what to do with the 1830s! Also, many of these novels are set in the USA. Three are specifically set in Chicago, which is kind of weird!

1. The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan (2013) 

Exact Setting: 1860s England.

Premise: Politician Oliver Marshall has ambitions of enacting egalitarian laws, including the proposed Second Reform Bill, but his illegitimate birth and non-aristocratic upbringing make that an uphill battle. Then a marquess makes him a peculiar offer: in exchange for supporting the Second Reform Bill, he wants Oliver to publicly humiliate Jane Fairfield, an heiress who is despised by high society for her bad taste and oblivious rudeness. Oliver, too often the object of aristocratic bullying, has no desire to harm Jane, but he doesn’t feel that he can refuse the marquess outright. Then he realizes that Jane isn’t what she seems; instead, she’s a brave, clever, lonely woman who’s putting on an act so she can stay unmarried and continue protecting her younger sister. Also, he likes her and finds her wildly attractive, despite her nightmarish fashion sense.

Why I Like It: This is my favorite romance EVER. Jane is an all-time-great heroine: intelligent enough to engineer a complicated marriage-repellent scheme (and change it when circumstances require), strong enough to expose herself to ridicule out in the world (and come home to an uncle who thinks she’s inherently a bad person), and vulnerable enough to break your heart. Oliver, a bruised idealist who must reassess his go-along-to-get-along approach, is nearly as compelling. Their romance is full of top-notch banter and solidarity in the face of a world that wants them to be enemies. And there are almost too many excellent subplots to count: Jane’s sister’s secret romance with an Indian student at Cambridge, Oliver’s younger sister’s foray into activism, and Jane’s brittle frenemy-ship with the Johnson twins, to name a few.

Favorite Scene: The first time Jane drops her act in front of Oliver, or the defeat of the marquess.

2. A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole (2017)

Exact Setting: North Carolina, USA, during the Civil War.

Premise: Marlie Lynch's life has always been complicated. The daughter of a free Afro-Caribbean root worker, she spent half her childhood with her mother before being sent to live with her white paternal relatives. Now she works for two different secret organizations: the Underground Railroad (with the help and approval of her white abolitionist sister) and the black-Unionist-run spying organization the Loyal League (with the knowledge of no one). When she’s not doing that, she’s pursuing her scientific interests while still honoring and using her late mother’s rootworking practices. Her situation becomes even more fraught when she agrees to harbor Ewan McCall, an escaped Union POW, in a secret chamber behind her bedroom wall. They bond over their shared intellectual interests, but is there any time for romance when Marlie’s home is being overrun by loathsome Confederates?

Why I Like It: Many historical romances have good love stories but don’t do much with the setting, while a few excel at portraying the past but fail at creating a compelling central relationship. Alyssa Cole’s Loyal League novels are the total package, and the Southern-Gothic-tinged A Hope Divided is the standout among them. Marlie and Ewan’s courtship is portrayed with tenderness, intelligence, and delicacy. Cole brings just as much sharpness and nuance to her portrayal of the time and place, representing groups of people who tend to disappear in popular discussions about the Civil War. I also really appreciate Ewan as a character. His mind works differently from most people’s (in that he would probably now be considered to be on the autism spectrum), and he worries that he’s a bad person because he doesn’t feel a lot of angst about some morally complicated decisions he made in the past. The narrative does a good job of showing that Ewan is no better or worse than anyone else for using tools other than empathy in his moral reasoning. Also, Marlie is a top-tier Gothic heroine.

Favorite Scene: Marlie reflects on the villain’s oh-so-convenient conception of Southern womanhood. I’m also a big fan of the entirety of the bedroom-wall courtship.

3. The Suffragette Scandal by Courtney Milan (2014)

Exact Setting: 1870s England.

Premise: After his hateful father and self-serving brother abandoned him to a grisly fate in war-torn Strasbourg, Edward Delacey narrowly survived, with his faith in himself and the world around him shattered. Now he’s back in England, and his younger brother stands to inherit the viscountcy that legally belongs to him. He’s not interested in the title; however, he does feel compelled to stop his brother from ruining the life of Frederica Marshall, a daring investigative reporter who writes about discrimination against women. As he lends his (jaded, reluctant) assistance, Frederica’s optimism begins to infect him...and that’s not the only reason he wants to stay around her.

Why I Like It: I love Frederica as Oliver’s little sister in The Heiress Effect, and she’s even better as the cocksure firebrand heroine of her own story. It’s rare that a heroine is allowed to be so successful in her chosen field at the beginning of a romance novel, but Milan accomplishes this while still giving Frederica enough vulnerabilities and flaws to make her interesting. Yet Edward, a wounded cynic who chooses to do good despite believing that he’s a garbage bag and the world is a shit-pile, is what really pushes the novel to all-time-great status. Their story is a wonderful illustration of the best things that love can do; his faith in the world is revived by her ideals, and her worst impulses are tempered by hearing about the lessons he’s learned in his darkest moments. Plus, they have some really funny banter. 

Favorite Scene: Edward explains why torture is ineffective and wrong. (I put years of hard work into getting my torture degree at torture college! Fuck off!)

4. After the Wedding by Courtney Milan (2018)

Exact Setting: 1860s England. 

Premise: After her father was accused of treason and committed suicide, Lady Camilla Worth was passed from home to increasingly shabby home, eventually fading into obscurity as Camilla Winters, a housemaid in a corrupt clergyman’s home. Adrian Hunter, the son of a black abolitionist activist and a white duke’s daughter, is visiting the clergyman in disguise to gather information when he and Camilla fall victim to a dastardly plot. Force to wed at literal gunpoint and thrown out of the house, they must work together to annul their marriage and get to the bottom of the clergyman’s sinister doings. 

Why I Like It: Camilla is the first bisexual heroine I ever encountered in romance, so I was already primed to love her, but it would’ve happened regardless of her orientation. Desperate for any kind of affection after losing her family in a particularly cruel way, her struggle to find love while trying to protect herself is extremely moving. Adrian also has an affecting arc, in which he learns how to let go of family members who don’t really care about him and acknowledge his grief for his brothers who died in the Civil War. Finally, the conspiracy plot is absolutely explosive.

Favorite Scene: Camilla deals with trauma through legal research. 

5. An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole (2019)

Exact Setting: USA (mainly Illinois and Mississippi) during the Civil War.

Premise: Daniel Cumberland once believed that freedom and justice would prevail for black people in America, but then he was kidnapped and enslaved for several months. Now free, he works for the Loyal League, fueled not by hope but by pure rage. Janeta Sanchez, a mixed-race Cuban-Floridian lady from a wealthy Confederate family, is also working for the Loyal League...as a double agent, because she believes that’s the only way to save her father. Paired with Daniel to gather intelligence about possible European aid, she begins to question her loyalties as she sees more of the world and gets to know the people her hypocritical white family has kept her away from. Daniel, meanwhile, begins to see a way of coping with his trauma and an uncertain future.

Why I Like It: Historical romance often shies away from the worst parts of history, or at least frames them as remaining firmly in the past. Alyssa Cole not only starkly portrays the horrors of American slavery, but also confronts head-on the terrifying realization that things do not inevitably improve over time. Yet Cole’s frankness doesn’t reduce the novel to a horror show; there is plenty of joy and kindness and hard-won hope between Daniel and Janeta. Deceived and guilted by her family into supporting an appalling cause that hurts her, Janeta is a complex heroine who develops wonderfully throughout the novel. Daniel is also one of the best-written heroes in romance. Finally, as in A Hope Divided, Cole sheds light on an aspect of the Civil War (the involvement of Europe) that doesn’t get a lot of attention in popular culture.

Favorite Scene: Janeta and Daniel talk alone for the first time.

6. Wild at Heart by Patricia Gaffney (1997)

Exact Setting: 1890s USA (Chicago, Illinois).

Premise: Lost as a child and raised by wolves in the wilds of Canada, the Lost Man has been discovered by “civilized” people and forced to “live” with a Chicago anthropologist for study. (Really, he’s being held captive.) Only Sydney Darrow, the anthropologist’s widowed daughter, has the sense/compassion to say, “Hey, maybe we should treat this man like a person and not keep him locked in a glorified cell where a disgruntled employee can taunt him.” She gently introduces the Lost Man back into human society, and the two find themselves getting along better and better. But can the Lost Man ever truly adjust to the human world? Or will he forever express his love by giving dead fish to people? Or is okay, sometimes, to express you love with dead fish?

Why I Like It: This is one of the most bizarre romances I’ve ever read. It sounds like a romance that someone made up for a sitcom. It sounds like a fever dream. It’s absolutely brilliant, too, because Gaffney commits. The Lost Man thinks of everything in animal terms; he accurately identifies Sydney’s aunt as the “dominant female” of the household, he has decided opinions about which animals are neat and which ones are pains in the ass, and he shows his love with a beautiful, freshly caught fish. There’s a real sense of loss in his arc; it’s necessary for him to transition into human society, but he’s also lost a beautiful, meaningful world. His romance with Sydney is also a great version of the Monster Boyfriend story; she’s the one who sees his humanity and recognizes many of his more “animal” traits as positive. The backdrop of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition is also charming.

Favorite Scene: Michael reflects on who’s hot (otters) and who’s not (wolverines) in the animal kingdom.

7. To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney (1995)

Exact Setting: 1850s England.

Premise: Jaded Anne Verlaine moves to the tiny village of Wyckerly after her wildly unhappy and unpleasant husband Geoffrey inherits a viscountcy. They’re greeted by Christian “Christy” Morrell, the local vicar and Geoffrey’s childhood best friend. Christy is dismayed to see the man Geoffrey has become, but he’s even more disconcerted by the attraction he feels for Anne...who returns his feelings.

Why I Like It: Although she stopped writing historical romance in the late nineties, Patricia Gaffney remains one of the most stylistically inventive and emotionally intense authors in the sub-genre. Anne, a warm and witty bohemian atheist, is a wonderfully unique heroine, while the sweet and scrupulous Christy is a similarly refreshing hero (and, really, an ideal clergyman, with high standards for himself and hardly a judgmental thought towards others). Despite the (delicious) angst involved in their relationship, they’re one of the most convincingly happy couples I’ve seen in romance; they don’t just grow close because of sexual chemistry or their shared complicated feelings about Geoffrey, but also because of their shared interests, oddly compatible senses of humor, and respect for each others’ differences. The village of Wyckerly is vividly portrayed, plus Gaffney makes great use of Anne’s writings and correspondence with Christy to shape the narrative.

Favorite Scene: Anne gets angry with Christy for being so good in the face of Geoffrey’s bullshit. 

8. Silk Is for Seduction by Loretta Chase (2011)

Exact Setting: Mid-1830s England and France.

Premise: After emigrating from Paris to London, Marcelline Noirot and her two younger sisters started a dress shop catering to newly rich and middle-class women. Thanks to Marcelline’s innovative designs and her sisters’ sales/accounting skills, they now stand a chance to be the favorite shop of the entire aristocracy...but first they need an early adopter. Help comes in the form of Lady Clara Fairfax, a beautiful but dowdily dressed girl who’s starting to have doubts about her perfect-on-paper betrothed, the Duke of Clevedon. As Marcelline devises a new wardrobe for Clara and spends more time with Clevedon, it becomes more and more clear that Clevedon is perfect...for Marcelline.

Why I Like It: I’m a simple woman; I like elaborate descriptions of over-the-top 1830s fashion. What’s more, I love Marcelline. She’s a fully realized character with interests, talents, and history that have nothing to do with Clevedon; she misses the sweet husband she lost to an epidemic, is anxious to build a future for her young daughter and her sisters, and spends a lot of the book demonstrating her talents in gorgeous detail. Just like the massive gigot sleeves on her dresses, she takes up space. Overall, the romance resembles a really good 1930s romantic comedy; Clevedon is a great straight man, the love triangle is elegantly resolved, and everything just feels beautiful. 

Favorite Scene: In one of the best sex scenes in romance, Marcelline tells Clevedon that she loves him, knows they don’t have a future, and wants him for one last night just the same.

9. The Hostage by Susan Wiggs (2000)

Exact Setting: 1870s USA (Chicago, Illinois and Isle Royale, Michigan)

Premise: Beautiful new-money heiress Deborah Sinclair has always done what’s expected of her. When her aristocratic betrothed shows his true colors, though, she works up the courage to tell her dad that she wants out. Unfortunately, Mr. Sinclair is not receptive...and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is literally happening around them...and this random dude just showed up to kidnap her in all the chaos! Before she knows it, she’s on a boat to remote Isle Royale with Tom Silver, a rugged frontiersman who lost many of his friends and his adopted son in a mining accident caused by Mr. Sinclair’s negligence. Because Mr. Sinclair was found not legally liable, Tom has resorted to holding Deborah for ransom. Although he has no desire to harm her, he’s prepared to hate the daughter of his greatest enemy; she’s also not too fond of him, given that he kidnapped her and all. As they wait for Mr. Sinclair’s reply on Isle Royale, however, they get to know each other better.

Why I Like It: I never thought I’d love a kidnapping romance that wasn’t Beauty and the Beast, but Susan Wiggs can sell me on pretty much anything. (It helps that Tom has excellent motives, yet isn’t validated by the narrative for choosing to kidnap Deborah.) This is one of the best adventure-romances that I’ve ever read; much of the first act is an incredibly tense, complicated chase sequence through the flaming inferno of Chicago, while the later chapters consist of their trying to survive together on Isle Royale in the depths of winter. The emotional  journeys of the characters are just as compelling as their physical ones. One of my favorite romance tropes is when one protagonist feels like they should hate the other one, but instead ends up going “wow, this person is obviously not doing okay...wait, am I worried? Should I help them? Actually, I kind of admire them now???” The Hostage has this trope in abundance.

Favorite Scene: The entire part where they’re trapped on Isle Royale together. So many survival details! So cathartic!

10. The Firebrand by Susan Wiggs (2001)

Exact Setting: 1870s USA (Chicago, Illinois)

Premise: Outspoken and awkward, Lucy Hathaway (Deborah Sinclair’s BFF) is a failure at being a lady, but she’s far too passionate about women’s suffrage and dress reform to care (much) about society’s scorn. On the night of the Great Chicago Fire, her world is upended in two ways: her family loses most of their money, and she catches a baby who got thrown out of a burning hotel window. Years later, she’s a kick-ass activist and single mom running a proto-feminist bookstore. Then she learns that her daughter’s father, banker Randall Higgins, is still alive. Once a proud, thoroughly conventional family man, Rand has been a practical recluse since the fire that scarred his face, ended his marriage, and (he thought) killed his daughter. He’s overjoyed to have his daughter back, but now he and Lucy must figure out a way to raise the child that they both love so much.

Why I Like It: I was worried when I began this novel, because Rand starts out as a smug, boring sexist who thinks that a woman’s place is in the home. I would probably hate the book if Rand didn’t end up completely changing his worldview, agreeing with Lucy’s parenting methods, and risking the wrath of his bank colleagues by joining Lucy at a protest. As it is, Rand’s character development is incredibly satisfying, particularly because it’s emotionally realistic. (Instead of being swayed entirely by romantic love or overwhelmed by Lucy’s vast superiority, he learns to see things from her perspective and recognizes that her actions make the world a better place.) Lucy, for her part, is probably one of my top ten heroines. She’s an active, thoroughly engaged progressive who listens to people more marginalized than her without making a big show of it; she’s a thoughtful mom who genuinely likes her weird kid; and she’s got massive insecurities and a stubborn streak that keep her from being too perfect. 

Favorite Scene: Rand sees Lucy’s ideals reflected in their daughter’s response to his kind-of-messed-up face.

Further Note: Is Victorianish my favorite type of historical romance? I think it is!

[bigskydreaming]

It really, really, really can not be stressed enough, what a disservice fandom has done to the complexity of Dick and Slade’s canon comic book relationship, by simply reducing it to your fairly standard hero/villain trope. As well as making it just a master/apprentice dynamic like in Teen Titans. Their comic book dynamic is just not remotely interchangeable with that one. At all.

Among other things in the comics, in all of their encounters, Slade’s very presence is a constant living, breathing reminder of three of the outright worst moments in Dick’s life, and a walking embodiment of some of his biggest issues, all rolled up in one package.

1) Slade’s entrance to Dick’s life is the accompaniment to one of the greatest betrayals Dick has ever experienced. In order to get revenge for the death of his son, Grant, that he wrongly blamed the Titans for, Slade enlisted Tara Markov as his accomplice BEFORE any of the Titans ever met her. When her ultimate allegiances were revealed in the Judas Contract, and she singlehandedly took down and captured practically every Titan except for Dick, who escaped Slade when the latter saved him for himself....Dick, along with the other Titans, had to reconcile the fact that this woman they’d called their teammate, their friend, that they’d shared so much with, told so much to...had never been one of them. 

Not really. She’d been plotting their betrayal and deaths from the literal first moment they ever met her. With Dick having to shoulder the additional burden that like...he was the team leader. He was the one who ultimately was responsible for approving her addition to the team, who made the decision, who vouched for her and said okay. I am giving you my trust, and by extension, telling everyone of my teammates who puts their trust in me to do right by them, that it is safe for them to trust you as well. Whether or not Dick needed to heft that much responsibility for Terra turning out to be a traitor is really not the point in this specific instance. All that matters is that he did.

Now, as an example....how many fics that touch on Slade and Dick’s relationship in comic book settings in any capacity....how many of them offhandedly reference the fact that Slade is unique among many villains or enemies of the Justice League, Titans and Batfamily, in that he knows Dick’s secret identity...and by extension, has long since figured out those of every other member of the Batfamily?

Now with that in mind.....how many of those fics ever do anything with the fact that....Slade only HAS this knowledge in the first place....because TERRA told him Dick’s secret identity way back when....after Dick trusted HER, his teammate and Slade’s secret plant from day one....with his identity and by extension, Bruce’s as well, and Jason’s, and every other member of their family who was later added in the future?

Like, it isn’t just something where Slade figured it out on his own, or Dick told him....this highly crucial, critical and rare information that Slade has when few others have it, even other heroes....Dick never voluntarily gave to him. Its stolen goods, effectively, with Slade only having gotten it by virtue of Dick’s mislaid trust in someone else entirely.

My point being.....we talk a lot in fandom about how Dick is so trusting, but the reality is....even while Dick does make a point to give people the benefit of the doubt and extend his trust at times to people with not so great reputations....this is a willful, deliberate choice on his part, a conscious effort, and not evidence of Dick having an easy time trusting people or being naive.

The reality is, Dick has massive trust issues, born in large part of the fact that his team once all almost died because he put his trust in the wrong person.....and SLADE IS QUITE LITERALLY THE FACE AT THE ROOT OF MOST OF DICK’S CANON TRUST ISSUES.

(It also needs to be acknowledged that this was while the team was very much the TEEN Titans, and Slade’s earliest appearances absolutely made not at all veiled inferences that Slade seduced Terra and used a sexual and/or romantic relationship to manipulate her and get her allegiance in the first place. When she was very much a teen herself. She was a victim as well, and Slade predatory in his interactions with her. It was statutory rape every bit as much as Liu with Dick. Like.....it is what it is guys, and you might not want to go with that take for him yourself, but no different from when people choose to focus on instances of Bruce’s abuse, you can’t get upset at people who DO want to acknowledge this aspect of things and be like....fuck any kind of Slade redemption or Slade positivity.)

2) Slade also happens to represent one of the single worst moments of Dick’s life, and what he’s often regarded as one of his greatest personal failures.....and that’s Joey’s death. Joey was possessed by the evil spirits left over from Raven’s home dimension after the team finally banished Trigon for good, with his own possession powers having made him particularly vulnerable to them possessing him en masse, and they over time took more and more control of him until he was effectively just a helpless passenger in his own body for a period of months, maybe even longer than a year. 

While these spirits went about using his body to infiltrate and then hijack control of The Wildebeest Society, a group made up of former Titans foes for the express purpose of defeating the Titans.....and then as leader of the Wildebeest Society....having them systematically hunt down every Titan to ever exist, past or present, murdering many of them and capturing most of their superpowered members for the intended use of their bodies as hosts for the spirits sharing Joey’s body.

Now, not only is this a pretty direct parallel to Dick’s own experience being a brainwashed mole of the Church of Blood for over a year, secretly working to undermine his own teammates without any conscious control or even awareness of his own actions there, and with none of his teammates any the wiser, just as Dick himself hadn’t suspected anything wrong with Joey leading up to this reveal....

But after the Wildebeest Society had successfully either captured or killed every other Titan, Dick infiltrated their headquarters in disguise, in an attempt to free his teammates....only to be be caught and imprisoned by ‘Joey.’ With the latter then revealing the truth of why he was acting like this....and then continuing to keep Dick as his prisoner, chained up right by his side and tortured and helpless for over a week, as he and his minions continued with the rest of their work in preparing the carefully drugged/comatose Titans to be the spirits’ new hosts.

Let me reiterate....for over a week, Dick was the prisoner of evil spirits parading around in the body of one of his closest friends - the literal first person Dick chose to place his trust in again after it was first broken by Terra’s betrayal in the first place - while these spirits, did all of this in front of him with Joey’s face and body....gloating, taunting him, trying in every way imaginable to break him and his spirit. The whole time callously speaking of their intentions for the rest of Dick’s closest friends and their bodies, as they went about the final steps of their plan to basically use Dick and his team as the very tools they used to destroy everything they’d ever worked to protect and save.

Dick was only able to stop this and wake up the rest of his team...with Slade’s help, when the latter came in search of Joey himself. And at the end of it all, Joey was able to retake control of himself long enough to beg his father to kill him, before the spirits were able to overpower him again and use him to fulfill the rest of their plans.

Right in front of Dick.

Dick of course had spent the entire time he was a prisoner, trying his best to get through to Joey, believing with all his heart that Joey was in there still and could be saved, and of course, blaming himself for not seeing that something was wrong with Joey and stopping all of this sooner.

And then and there, Dick saw Joey resurface just as Slade did.....but while Dick saw this as proof that Joey was still there, could still be saved, they shouldn’t give up on him....Slade believed that doing the right thing then and there meant honoring Joey’s wishes for one of the first times ever in his life....even though that ultimately meant....also running Joey through with his sword. Again.....with Dick right there, still powerless to do anything to get up and help Joey, stop Slade, or propose another plan of action. He watched one of his best and dearest friends killed by his own father, because...in Dick’s own eyes....he’d failed to come up with an alternative in all the time he was prisoner....and failed to stop things from getting to that point in all the time before that, while Joey was possessed.

My point being....in the comic books, whether Dick and Slade are currently on good terms, bad terms, or neutral terms....they always exist for each other as a constant reminder of the death of one of the most important people in their lives. With that death being something they each blame themselves for and consider one of their greatest failures...as well as that death also being something they each at times have blamed each other for, for failing to come up with a way to save Joey, or protect him before he got to that point.

3) And finally, the third item of importance that I’m gonna gloss over for now as its more directly relevant to a post I wanna make about this later.....Slade’s direct involvement in the destruction of Bludhaven literally can’t be stressed enough. Whether you deem it in character or think he was written largely out of character at the time, with a case to be made for either stance, I think, the point remains that if you’re referencing Bludhaven having been destroyed at all, to any degree....Slade is once again at the heart of that matter, integral to every step of how that ultimately played out....with his position as the Society’s point man on that operation and his own personal grudge with Dick over various things, as well as Dick’s training of his daughter Rose - at Slade’s own insistence, but in ways Slade wasn’t pleased with, since Dick helped cultivate Rose’s actual heroic inclinations and instincts, which Slade did NOT sign off on - like, these things were directly step by step the path towards the Society ultimately following through and dropping Chemo on Bludhaven. With like, that being something that Slade absolutely could have stopped, thanks to his position, and even promised Dick as part of the agreement they made, that he WOULD keep from happening....only to renege on his word there.

In conclusion, Dick and Slade’s relationship and dynamic is SO SO SO SO SO MUCH MORE complex and varied than its basically ever made out to be in fanfics, and stems in large part from this one specific little tidbit that hardly ever seems to make it into fics’ final cuts.....

Slade respects Dick. Even when he doesn’t like him.

And I know, I know that fics pay a lot of lip service to this idea, but for the most part, its not substantiated. Or its clarified as though Slade respects Dick’s potential, or what he could be with Slade’s help or instruction....but that’s literally not the point of their canon.

The point is despite Dick being decades younger, Slade respects Dick as an opponent. As someone who has beaten him, bested him, in various ways and at various points. As well as respecting Dick as being a person who Slade’s son respected, and trusted, and valued a great deal. With a lot of Slade’s own memories of his son transferred onto Dick at times as a proxy, with Dick essentially acting as a stand-in for the son that Slade regrets never taking the time to get to know better...and here’s Dick, who knew and understood Joey better than just about anyone, certainly better than Slade. Which I personally believe Slade resents and even hates Dick for, for being someone that Joey both trusted and loved when Slade knows that likely wasn’t true of Joey’s view of him.....but I believe its also why Slade has never been able to bring himself to actually try and kill Dick and be rid of his threat to his plans for good....because doing so would be like killing the last real link Slade sees to the son he himself killed by his own hand.

Dick Grayson, for Slade....also happens to be the man who had every reason to not want anything to do with anyone associated with Slade, after Terra broke his trust, because of Slade’s own machinations.....while at the same time...Dick Grayson and his willingness to still extend that trust to Slade’s own son not long after that....are the very reasons that Joey ever had the opportunity to be the hero that Joey had always wanted to be....and that people ultimately remembered him as. There’s a reason Slade wanted Dick to be the one to train his daughter, after all - with the reason he was pissed at Dick for it ultimately being that Dick ended up being better at it than Slade had hoped, and Rose ultimately siding with Dick instead of Slade herself.

And even more importantly, IMO, Slade - even at times when he resents Dick for it at the exact same time - respects Dick for the choices Dick makes. For the precise fact that they aren’t the choices that Slade himself would make, that they’re choices Slade often thinks he couldn’t make.

He doesn’t disdain Dick for his choices or priorities or look down on him for them. Dismiss him because of them. They’re the heart and soul of WHY Slade respects Dick....and the fact that even with those extremely different priorities that Slade often doesn’t agree with...Dick STILL manages to come out the winner in a lot of encounters.

So this Slade Wilson who grudgingly admits that Dick Grayson has potential, but that its stunted and wasted without his own training, and because of the ‘weak, ill-advised’ choices that Dick makes and the things Dick prioritizes.....

Like, that has as little to do with actual canon pre-Flashpoint Slade, as the actual canon pre-Flashpoint Dick has to do with the depiction of him in many of these fics. Where Dick feels hopelessly outmatched and inadequate next to Slade or when facing him, like, he desperately starts praying the second Slade enters the fight cuz that’s the only way he’ll survive....or else he feels naive and dumb, or thinks how foolish he must look to Slade, or how raw or untrained or novice.....not to mention the times he’s focused on viewing Slade as a reflection of Bruce in various ways, or his dynamic with Slade as having anything to do with his dynamic with Bruce.

Again...umm, what? No. That’s not how Dick has ever been shown viewing their relationship either. The times he’s in conflict with Slade, he’s not questioning himself or second-guessing his abilities or praying he survives - he’s usually just PISSED, because of whatever thing has brought him into conflict with Slade this time. And not in that fanfic way where he’s unreasonable or irrational because of his anger and it clouds his judgment...in the way where he uses his anger to hone and focus his skills and just keep him going no matter how many hits he takes. Slade is an opponent whose skills Dick absolutely knows better than anyone else, and by extension respects those skills absolutely - but he is at the same time an opponent Dick has faced many times before, AND WALKED AWAY FROM EVERY TIME. 

No, Dick doesn’t take his victory or even his survival against Slade for granted, but he’s not remotely fear-stricken or rendered inadequate by the possibility of failure....he knows that there are no guarantees of success, but by the same token, he’s equally aware that Slade’s reputation is no guarantee of his own failure....with his own track record with the man being proof of that.

And at the same time....when they’re not directly in conflict....Dick does not feel invalidated or naive or dumb when around Slade, because of their age difference. He isn’t suddenly rendered like he feels like he’s a little kid sitting with a grown up. He’s usually just tired. He has as little illusions about Slade as Slade has about him. Dick KNOWS better than ANYONE, just how much Slade doubts and second-guesses his OWN choices, regrets his OWN priorities and decisions at times. So by extension...Dick doesn’t take their encounters OR Slade’s opinion as reason to feel inadequate or second-guess himself? He knows damn well that Slade has a higher opinion of choices that Dick himself even regrets making, than Slade does some of his own decisions. 

There’s not this.....gap between them experience wise, not in the sense that Dick can remotely compare to Slade’s much vaster library of life experiences, but rather in the sense that like.....Dick doesn’t care, you know? That’s not the point. Dick’s never comparing himself or his decisions to Slade’s with a measuring stick any time they encounter each other, because each encounter they have is so vastly more weighted by what they both represent to each other, their shared tragedies and personal failures and regrets, and their mutual awareness of these things and what they embody for each other. Dick - just like Slade himself is - is usually too preoccupied being focused on every thing that being around the other brings up for him....to have any mental energy left over for all this other stuff.

Comic book Dick and Slade, for each other, just carry too much knowledge of the life experiences they both have in common, because of their past interactions and shared connections.

Anyway, I will do another post soon about the comic book Renegade arc in particular, because its SO much more interesting than just the ‘Dick was Slade’s student or apprentice’ facsimile that I think people assume it to be. Like, Dick didn’t go to him as a supplicant, and Slade didn’t for a second think he was actually turning traitor. Slade asked him to train Rose in exchange for Slade’s help with his own plans, in part because Slade RESPECTS Dick’s skills as a trainer of heroes, not seeks him as a student for himself....but ALSO as a kind of manipulation - personally, I think he was hoping to use Dick’s inevitable concern and compassion for Rose as a buffer to keep Dick from betraying Slade or tripping him up when he tried.....and of course Dick actually ended up getting ROSE to turn on Slade instead? 

But at the same time, its not one sided at all, because there was a particularly clever bit about how Dick faced off against Superman as Renegade, and tried to use his heartbeat to send Clark the message that he wasn’t actually betraying the heroes and not to listen to the words he was saying, but the fact that his heartbeat showed that he was lying....except Slade had ANTICIPATED this, and had rigged the glove of Dick’s Renegade costume ahead of time to be like, wirelessly linked to a remote he had as he watched Dick and Clark’s interactions through the video feed on Dick’s mask.....and Slade used this remote to send wireless signals through Dick’s glove that matched the sound of Dick’s heartbeat and in essence let Slade alter the rhythm of what Clark thought was Dick’s heartbeat....but was actually just Slade literally clicking buttons. 

So Dick was getting more and more confused about why even though he was saying all this stuff about being too jaded by the League’s failures and done with heroism, like, why was Clark actually BELIEVING him instead of realizing he was clearly lying from the sound of his heart....and Clark was actively getting more and more upset as he talked and actually trying to FIGHT him and Dick eventually had to flee with Clark actually like.....furious with him, and Dick had no idea why. With this, I think, being one of the things Dick actually full on HATES Slade for the most (and I think what directly motivated Dick getting Rose to turn on her father) - like, Clark has been Dick’s number one support and fan from day one, even when Bruce wasn’t at times. He’s the one person who has pretty much ALWAYS believed in Dick no matter what. 

And Slade managed to take that away. To get Clark to literally look at Dick as the enemy. To not believe him, believe in him. Like. That’s something I don’t think Dick has ever forgiven Slade for or ever will.

So yeah. There’s so much more to Dick and Slade’s dynamic than fics represent, and I wish people delved more into this other stuff, because its so much more INTERESTING in my opinion than just like, your usual ‘older supervillain toys with younger outmatched superhero’ or master and apprentice stuff, etc.

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

we’re partners in this.

so titans 2.12 was mostly about (awkwardly) moving pieces around to get them in place for a grand finale. it was great! but also awkward. but great! let’s talk about it, if you don’t mind:

SPOILERS ahead.

1. i apologise for going off on a tangent right off the bat, but i just had this weird bit of insight about this show’s universe and it’s kind of hilarious. so you know those clickbaity articles about titans fucking up its worldbuilding by having its characters be so blase about protecting their superhero identities? (screenrant and cbr have inundated my newsfeed. oh good lord the pain. the agony.) maybe that’s just how It’s Meant To Be. batman and robin have been around for at least a decade and a half; the big bat’s likely been around for longer. the justice league is a sophisticated organisation with connections, representation and influence on worldly affairs. no doubt there has been countless battles and alien invasions--to the point where superheroes have become so ingrained in public life that their identities are semi-public knowledge but Nobody Gives A Shit. it’s like asking folks about their local legislators--people are aware that they exist and perform a Function in society and that a minimal amount of research would reveal who they are, but most aren’t keen on/interested in doing that. as a result, keeping up a secret identity isn’t the priority it used to be. and That’s Fine! the titans universe is its own beast with its own internal mechanics and as long as it’s internally consistent, let it deviate from its comic origins as much as it wants to.

oh typical emmram, i can hear you say. scrambling for explanations to excuse careless writing and plot holes. well, dear Strawman I Just Made Up, you may be partially right--there was a time when i would’ve waved my ‘the author is dead’ flag, but (i like to think) i’ve matured since then. but also: have you considered that plot holes aren’t really plot holes if you can successfully use what’s been established about a story’s universe to explain them away and that it’s significantly more fun? 

with this background in mind, i can appreciate more than ever that titans plays out more like an intense, soapy family drama (with perhaps higher stakes than your average soap). this was never a show about a bunch of disparate heroes coming together and finding purpose in order to defeat a common enemy. this was always about a bunch of kids who grew up in a world where vigilantism and superheroing and magic and alien invasions are just an accepted part of life, and the deeply dysfunctional ways they keep coming together and pinballing away, over and over again. there’s no point where each of the characters have definitely Gotten Over Their Issues so they can all gather together to defeat the big bad; it’s why this late in the game we can have rachel looking for people to connect to and relate with that aren’t a series of adults who claim to protect her but only keep her in the dark; hank at the bottom of a self-destructive spiral; dick barely picking himself up from rock bottom, and kory falling apart at the seams. 

so anyway, that’s it on this edition of Emmram Tries To Give A Grand Unifying Theory of Titans; let’s move on to the actual episode.

2. rose’s story could’ve been so good, you guys. actually you know what, scratch that (she types, on a computer while having 20+ years’ experience in knowing how to use the backspace key), it’s a great story that got muddled in the process of the show trying to tell a number of great stories all at once. this season has been inexorably building up to dick grayson becoming nightwing, using his unreliable narration to build up suspense as we see him battle personal hangups and the fallout from literal decades of trauma to gain a sense of equilibrium and a renewal of purpose (it can be argued that even now, on the cusp of actually putting on that dang costume, he hasn’t really learned anything--but i’ll get to that later). if this is the main story that this season is trying to tell, then taking two gigantic detours for episode-long flashbacks and building up to jericho’s death as much as they did makes perfect sense. it also makes sense to set slade up as a foil to dick, in that they are both caught up in their heads and make self-absorbed decisions to protect their ‘children’ but dick comes through with the realisation that that’s a crock of bullshit. 

but that’s not the case, is it? there are so many things going on at once but they’re all orbiting around this throughline of ‘dick becoming nightwing’ and so we only get the barest glimpses of some relatively complex character motivations and development going on with the others. 

2.25. in this episode’s flashback (we’re still getting flashbacks! in literally the penultimate episode of the season! god i have never wanted to take a red pen to anything more) we come to a number of weighty realisations: the extent of rose’s powers, her feelings of otherness, her desire to connect with her father so that she doesn’t feel alone in her otherness, how desperate she is to connect with him--so much so that she’s willing to throw away her entire life and undergo physical mutilation in service of his revenge plan--and how...learning exactly how her brother died and... being with jason??? made her change her mind??? ok that last one’s a bit muddled, but i’ll try and make sense of it.

as far as i can see, there are four big turning points in rose’s story so far:

a) that moment in the car when slade invites rose to join him and reveals that he’s basically been funding her ‘normal’ middle class life till that point. i can imagine how destabilising that realisation might be to rose, and why she might think going along with slade, no matter how weird and how abrupt, is how she’s going to live a life true to who she is

b) but imagine actually being taken in by the titans, being given shelter and support and succour by a group that her father had described as ruthless and manipulative. i can imagine her still being on board with slade’s plan, but maybe the reason she didn’t do all that she could’ve possibly done while at the tower to sabotage the titans might be because she’s actually interacting with these people, and while they might be a Hot Mess, they aren’t actively cruel or vindictive. i wish the show had woven in more scenes of rose interacting with the others, of her learning intimate things about their pasts, of her bonding with the younger titans’ struggle with their own ‘freakish’ natures. rose hardly seems to have any presence at all after her intro episode, and that’s a pity.

c) dick’s confession about what actually happened with slade and jericho. it’s more complicated than she was lead to believe--her father was actually complicit in her brother’s death. it’s a very confusing moment for rose, who’s already (probably) feeling the first stirrings of guilt, unsure, really, about her devotion to the father and brother that she’s known only for a little longer than the titans themselves, and slowly coming to the sick realisation that slade used her as a pawn in his game against the titans. 

d) jason latching onto rose is understandable--he saw her as the only person making the effort to connect with him when he was feeling vulnerable and rejected by almost everybody else. jason practically bleeds a need for connection and acceptance. i don’t think rose anticipated that jason would come with her, or be as attached to her as he is--but she sees in him a sensitive and struggling soul baring his heart to her, and in herself the kind of deception and secrecy that she’d originally wanted to rebel against. so she finally comes clean with him, and thinks they should help the titans against her father.

i mean. i might be making some assumptions (actually i’m making a lot of assumptions, to be fair), but i’m just trying to work with what the show’s given us, which is... not insubstantial, but haphazard enough that it’s easy to forget that rose exists sometimes. 

3. i fell asleep right after watching this episode for the first time, and apparently at some point before actually sleeping i appear to have had some kind of Great Insight about it because in the notes app on my phone i typed in “dick bruce concept of justice” with no further explanation.

i’ve spent the better part of this evening trying to retrace my train of thought, and i think it went like this: essentially, i was curious that dick was so broken up about jericho dying that he banished himself to a five year long lonely journey to seek penance that ended with him voluntarily getting himself arrested, but didn’t seem all that cut up about zucco dying or basically ordering the deaths of the scientists at the asylum in 1.07. betraying jericho and the older titans’ trust in him is a far greater burden on him than being responsible for the death of people who have wronged him or hurt the people he loves. but this is also a man who has internalised batman’s mission and ethos for the better part of his life, so he can’t actually come out and admit that. instead the two things come together to form one conclusion: he killed jericho, and he must be punished for it. 

(i also imagine locking himself away in prison was a result of growing up under the influence of batman--who responded to trauma by embarking on rigorous, brutal, solitary journey of penance and extreme self-discipline. batman doesn’t ask for help. batman goes to the batcave and rides it out.)

so when dick finally breaks himself out of jail, it isn’t because he’s come to a great realisation about his self-destructive behaviour (although he’s aware of it on some subconscious level); it’s because he realised the thing he was punishing himself for didn’t actually happen. he hasn’t really learnt a lesson. to be fair, he would need some pretty intensive therapy to untangle the things running through his head, so it seems quite believable that this is the way he gets back on his feet in time to be nightwing.

4. i know people think that the conversation between rachel and kory was awkward, and uh, it kinda was a little bit, but it makes sense that they can talk like that to each other. rachel wants to protect dick but feels confident enough with kory to lash out at her; kory is unafraid to be vulnerable or sad around rachel which just feeds into the trust that rachel has in kory. i don’t know, i thought that conversation was a nice way to both re-establish this dynamic and give some insight into what kory’s feeling.

5. god, mercy graves--a family woman!--tenderly wiping the blood off gar’s chin after having turned him into her own personal killing machine is just... so unsettling on so many levels.

5.5. it continues to KILL me that gar had so much faith in the titans right up to the very moment he had his fucking skull opened up and his brains messed with against his will: an undeserving loyalty to a family who took his easygoing acceptance of their shitty treatment of him at face value and essentially threw him to the wolves. how do you even start recovering from this? i feel like we’ve gone past the point where a few heart-to-hearts could help.

6. man, hank spiralling the way he did was too brutal to be anything but deeply uncomfortable. i’m sure the teenager who bought hank’s suit from him was supposed to inspire hank and remind him of his place and purpose as a titan, but it came off as kind of a cruel joke. hank has been putting his body out on the firing line over and over and over again, and his lesson is to be told that he isn’t putting himself out there enough? yikes.

7. stu and lily and their collective disdain for dick grayson’s drama are my new favourite characters on the show and deserve their own damn spin-off. MAKE IT HAPPEN DC

[monstersandmaw]

Poodle the Gnoll... (sfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

So, @thecriticalcanuck​ has been patiently trying to get a commission off me for months for this story, and I finally had the chance to do it, so here it is.

We’ve met ‘Poodle’ before, in a snippet where he sat chatting with his friend beside a river which I can’t seem to find any more :( , and in a series of asks/idea-bouncing sessions which you can read by following the 'fluffy gnoll’ tag linked.

This story features a male gnoll, nicknamed ‘Poodle’, who ranks absolutely at the bottom of his clan because of his ridiculously fluffy coat. Humans coo over him, gnolls laugh at him and abuse him, and he has only one friend in the whole world, a mid-ranking female gnoll.

I used my previous headcanons about gnolls and their society for this one (based off hyena society), in case anyone’s curious about the social dynamics and roles etc.

Length: 3337 words Content: bullying and abuse, both verbal and physical, young orphaned child, angst, and, well, fluff.

***********************

“Oi, Poodle!”

The shout rang out but he barely had time to flinch before a pail of freezing river muck was upended over his head. The fur, which had been standing wildly on end in the stiff wind blasting across the hunting plains, became plastered to his head in seconds, and the yipping, wheezing laughter of the other gnolls carried a long way across the whispering grasses. The commotion drew a small crowd, and his heart sank. Here we go again.  

He cursed as the foul slime dripped down his face and into his bright, golden eyes.  

“That’s hilarious! Look at him!” one of them snickered, shoving the distracted, muddy gnoll over so that he landed hard on his hip, causing more laughter.

“Hey, you could use all that shit to style that fluff of yours, Poodle,” another sneered. “Give yourself a nice quiff or something!”

“Yeah, slick it back off your face. Show all the girls those pretty eyes…”

“Or don’t! Who’d want to look at you?”

The group of four females and one male paced and circled around him as though he were a wounded satyr as he rubbed the mud from his face. He bit back the habitual hurt that blossomed in his chest at their words.  

He was used to it.  

He’d always had a coat that was three times thicker and fluffier than any other gnoll, and, being a male, he ranked lower than any female in the clan, and because of his looks, he fell below all of the other males. It didn’t matter that he was damned handy with a war axe. Outside of a raiding party, he was bottom of the pile, and even during a fight he ranked pretty low.  

“Get up,” a harsh female voice snapped, and as she joined the hooting and guffawing gnolls, she cuffed him around the ear so hard he saw stars. “For fuck’s sake, look at you. Go and bathe. We have to go into town and I won’t have you stinking like the back end of a minotaur.”

He sighed. “Yes mother.”

“‘Yes mother’,” the others all parroted, still snickering.  

The high-ranking female only shook her head in disgust at the sight of her son and stalked away as he pushed himself up onto his hind legs and shuffled off towards the winding, fast-flowing brook to wash himself off. And of course, the torment didn’t end with that single bucket of sludge.  

Herah and her best friend, Zila, were apparently not satisfied with simply messing up his coat, and followed him down to the freezing water. He was struggling to rinse the disgusting slime out of his thick fur as they trotted the last few yards over to him and pounced on him while he had his head under.  

“Wash it out well and good, Poodle,” Herah snarled in his ear as she yanked him back up, sputtering and coughing.  

“No one’s going to groom you, Poodle. But we’re gracious females. We’ll offer our help…” Zila added, placing her paw-like hand on the top of his head and dunking him again.  

Water rushed into his open mouth and he began to cough and struggle, but Herah was huge. As the daughter of the clan’s lead female, she was built for brute strength, and there was no arguing with her. She and Zila were his chief tormentors.  

Beneath all the fur, he was a lithe, muscular gnoll, and might even have been an attractive prospect for one of the females, but because of his stupid pelt, he’d never attracted anything but derision and ridicule from the females, save for one.  

Herah and Zila soon grew bored with ‘washing their little puppy’ and had left him, bedraggled and gasping on the riverbank. By the time his thick, wet fur dried off, he’d be even fluffier than he had been before all this started, and from the howls and shrieks of laughter and the looks on the bullies’ faces as he approached to the camp, that had been their plan all along.  

Kira trotted over to him just as he returned, somewhat shakily, to the encampment and gave him an affectionate noogie on the top of his head. She was taller than him, but not by much. “What’s up?” she said. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “The usual.”

“You get ‘Poodled’ again?” she asked, ears flicking softly.  

He nodded.  

“Come on, a group of us is going into town. Your mum has some things she wants to trade, and I want to talk to the blacksmith to see if I can get a new axe. You want to come with me?”

“Mother says I have to come anyway. Normally she shuts me away in her tent when she has to go, so I don’t know why I’m coming along this time. Maybe she thinks a bit of light relief among the clan while the humans coo over me will be good for morale…”

Kira punched him on the arm. “Don’t let them get to you.”

“Easy for you to say,” he snarled, lifting his lip slightly in a gesture that would never have been tolerated amongst the other females. His best - and only - friend merely laughed and slung an arm around him, nuzzling her wet, blunt nose into his ear and eliciting a high, silly laugh from him in response.  

As he’d predicted, the harsh prairie winds whipped his soft fur up into a mass of dandelion fluff by the time the small contingent arrived at the nearest town. Ordinarily, the arrival of eight or so gnolls at a human settlement would have sparked panic, but this clan was known here, and had agreed not to raid the inhabitants, in exchange for the right to trade and some degree of protection for them from other neighbouring clans.  

The two friends followed the rest of the group into the backwater town, and while his mother and a few of the other high ranking females took themselves off to barter for better weapons from the blacksmith, the pair waited by the fountain at the centre of the town. Hierarchy was everything, and, whether at war or trade, the elite got the first pick of everything.  

Lingering in the shadows, two females were watching him and occasionally yipping and laughing. He kept one large, rounded ear locked onto them, listening as they gossipped amongst themselves.  

“They’re doing it again,” he muttered softly to Zila out of the side of his mouth.

“What?”

“Herah and Zila… they’re making bets on how long it’ll take for a human to coo at me.”

“Oh fuck them,” she growled, but no sooner had she said it than a pair of human women began pointing at him and covering their mouths in a poorly veiled attempt at hiding their giggles.  

He flicked a piece of gravel into the well and turned away.  

As he turned, he caught sight of a human girl in a ragged, faded dress, with bare feet and dirty hair. Something lurched in his chest at the sight of someone so vulnerable wandering around on her own. The other gnolls spotted her a second later.  

They dropped to all fours and began to whoop and yip as they advanced. He didn’t think they’d actually hurt her, but the look on her face told him that she didn’t know that. He’d been in that girl’s position before. He knew what it felt like to have two full-grown females advancing on him, licking their teeth and laughing softly.  

Instinctively he made a step towards them but Kira grabbed his arm. “Leave it,” she warned. “It’s not worth it, and they’ll tear you to pieces. You’re not protected by the treaty; she is.”

“I don’t care,” he said, yanking his arm free. “It’s wrong. They can pick on me all they like, but she’s…” he choked a little. “She’s just a kid, Kira.”

Kira’s face softened, and he made a split second decision.  

Dropping to all fours too, he trotted over to them and circled round in front of the advancing females and behind the girl. He sat down beside her like a huge guard dog, ignoring the way it instantly demeaned himself further in their eyes, and stared straight at the females.  

Taken by surprise by his gesture of absolute defiance, they drew up short. “What’s this, Poodle?” Herah asked in a soft, dangerous drawl. He fought off a shudder of fear.  

The little girl heard the nickname, however, and giggled, all fear forgotten. “Poodle!” she exclaimed and grabbed hold of his arm, hugging him and pressing her mud-smeared cheek against the soft fur and snuggling him. “Poodle,” she repeated, almost like a prayer.

The gesture sent something soft and protective shivering through him in a way he’d never experienced before. Male gnolls were fairly well known for being the broody, protective ones, while the females were aggressive, warmongering protectors, but he’d never felt anything like that; no desire to mate, no desire to raise a brood of pups, and yet, confronted with this small, helpless human who found his fur a source of comfort instead of ridicule, he felt that feeling surge in him. He blinked, fighting the unexpected prickle of tears. It was a brotherly, even paternal, kind of protection that he’d never experienced, and it lent him strength.  

He stared the females down hard. On this, he would not back down. “Pick on someone your own size,” he growled. “There’s no sport to be had here.”

“Well, well.” Herah lowered herself down slowly onto her haunches and tilted her head, smiling humorlessly, and her friend, Zila, took a step closer to him, lips curled, canines showing.  

“Careful, Poodle,” she crooned in a low voice. “You’re courting more than just ordinary trouble if you keep this up.”

The little girl let go of him and, putting herself between the two gnolls, she crossed her arms across her chest, pouting and staring up at the female. “Leave Poodle alone,” she squeaked. “He’s a nice friend.”

Herah burst out laughing so hard she toppled over sideways, one hind leg kicking. “Oh my fuck,” she swore. “That’s precious. That’s so fucking precious. You just got told off by a fucking human pup, Zila!”

Zila took exception to that and launched herself at her friend, and the two began to scrap in a cloud of snarls and dust.

Taking the opportunity, he stood up and took a step away. Halting suddenly, he glanced down at the little girl and saw her wide eyes staring up at him. A heartbeat later he found himself saying, “Come on. Let’s leave them to it.”

Before he could turn and walk away, she slid her hand into his leathery palm and squeezed her fingers around his index finger. Tears swam in his eyes but he swallowed them down and led her quietly away from the fighting females.  

Kira stood by the fountain still, her ears pricked forwards and a dumbstruck look on her face, but she was no longer alone; she’d been joined by a male human.  

“Getting yourself into trouble again, I see, Elsie…” he chuckled at the child. “Ah, it’s a shame she’s got no one to look out for her.”

“What?” the gnoll asked, his grip tightening on her hand slightly.  

The man nodded. “Yeah,” he said heavily. “She’s nearly four years old, but her folks died a little while back and she just sort of… drifts from home to home. No one has the time or the funds to support her really.”

Kira turned her head as the group of females left the blacksmith’s, and she said, “They’ve finished. Come on, let’s go. Leave her…”

He shook his head. “You want to come with us?” he asked, and Elsie nodded.

“I love Garrett!” she giggled. “He gives me cookies sometimes.”

The fighting gnolls gave a snarl and the child cowered slightly, scuttling around to his other side.  

“You can’t keep her,” Kira hissed.  

“I know,” he retorted. “But while they’re there, I can’t just…”  

His friend sighed. “You’re too gentle, sweetheart,” she said.  

The blacksmith’s was empty in the wake of the small trading party, but the half-orc was still standing there and watching their approach from his doorway. “Well, well, Elsie,” he said when he saw the three of them. “You’ve charmed yourself a new friend, have you?”

“Poodle is my friend,” she said proudly, and, embarrassed, his rounded ears swivelled back to lie flat against his fluffy head.  

“Poodle, eh?” the blacksmith chuckled, looking the gnoll up and down. “Well, I’ve met stranger folk than you. What can I do for you?”

While Kira headed off with Garrett to look at the remaining selection of war-axes, Elsie reached her hands up and demanded, “Pick me up, Poodle!”  

He swallowed thickly. How could something so defenceless and so… so useless be so… endearing. Was this what it felt like to be a ‘proper’ male in the clan? To have his protective and nurturing instincts toyed with by the innocence of little ones? Acting on those instincts, he stooped and picked her up, settling her down on his hip and letting her sink her fingers into the thick fur of his mane. He was wearing his usual leather jerkin, but her explorative hands reached for his curved, sensitive ears, and she laughed wildly when he flicked one out of her tickling fingertips. He found a little smile on his own muzzle, and her hands then found that, and began to play with the soft, fuzzy velvet of his dark nose and lips, poking and pulling at him.

“Stop that, you pesky little scrap,” he chuckled as she yanked his ear again.  

Kira returned a while later to find him sitting with her in his lap on the floor at the foot of an anvil, whittling a little dog out of a spare piece of kindling with his belt knife. It wasn’t a whittling knife, so it wasn’t the cleanest of sculptures, but her friend had always had an artistic flare.  

She paused and watched him until he eventually looked up at her. Kira took half a step back at the look on his face. She’d never seen him look like that. Gone was the haunted look, the hunted, jumpy glances, the humiliation and torment. He looked soft and sweet, and truly happy. She swallowed the lump in her throat and sighed. Her own female urge to protect her friend suddenly intensified.  

As if responding to that, he tilted his head and whined a wordless question at her.  

She smiled and shook her head. “What are you making?” she asked, coming over and adding, “Mind if I sit too?”

Garrett looked out of the doorway into his workshop but didn’t interfere. The half-orc left them to it, pleased that Elsie was finally getting some attention.  

“I’m making her a little poodle,” he said.  

Kira leaned her cheek against his shoulder and murmured, “You could leave, you know?”

He stiffened at that, the knife falling quiet in his hands. He drew a deep breath and then let it go gently. Elsie was looking at the half-formed sculpture that lay across his palm and started to fiddle with it, her fingertips tracing the outline of the figurine. Then she yawned openly. “I could,” he said. “But… you mean, with her? Fuck, Kira, I’m a nobody. What would I do with a child? I don’t know how to raise a gnoll, let alone a human.”

Kira shrugged. “I think you’d do alright. You’ve got the empathy, you know. I think you’re the first person who’s really understood her. Or maybe she’s the first person who’s really understood you…”

He looked up at her and blinked. “Come on,” he murmured. “You get me…”

She nuzzled his ear the way he liked. “Mostly, but… I’ve never been alone the way you have. I’m a female. I have rank -”

“Despite hanging around with me,” he joked.  

Kira didn’t laugh. “Yeah. And that sucks. Your parents have practically disowned you, you’re the clan’s whipping boy, and you’re miserable. Think about it… alright?”

Elsie sighed and he felt her weight sink against his chest. She yawned again and leaned further into the warmth of his body. He murmured her name, but she was closing her eyes already. “No, no, no,” he said. “Don’t…”

He looked up and found that Garrett had returned, clearly wanting the use of his forge back.  

“Where does she live?” he asked, keeping his rough voice low and quiet.  

“She sleeps at the temple,” he said. “The priestess takes care of her mostly. When she’s got time…”

“I’ll take her back then.”

Kira took the half-finished figurine from him and slipped his belt knife back into the sheath for him, and he stood carefully. The action slightly dislodged Elsie, but she shuffled and clung to him. He looked up at Kira and said, “I… I can’t…”

“C’mon,” she said, nodding a grateful farewell at Garrett, who returned the gesture and watched the strange trio leave his workshop and head towards the temple at the far end of the town. Kira looked at the way he held her and said, “Buddy, you’re a natural at this. They missed a trick back at the clan with you…”

He smiled. “I’ve never… I mean…” he swallowed.  

“Playing house, Poodle?” a shout rang out across the street, and he froze, tail stiffening. “Happy families?”

Herah and Zila were stalking down the road, and they’d gathered a few of the others too.  

Kira braced herself beside her best friend, and Elsie stirred in his arms, waking as the tension rolled through the group. “Poodle?” she murmured.  

“Shh, it’s alright,” he said gently. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

With the innocent faith of a small child, she believed him and turned her face from the others, burying it in the thick mane around his neck.  

“No gnoll wants to mate with you,” Zila jeered, “Not even Kira here, so you’ll, what, steal a human child?”

“It’s not even stealing,” Herah cackled. “They told me that one wants that one. He’s literally just picking up the trash.”

Something snapped in him then and, unthinkingly, he handed Elsie to Kira. His lips curled back and his hackles rose. “Say that again and I will kill you,” he said. “I mean it.”

His hand found the haft of his axe and he shifted the weight of it, ready.  

Herah actually faltered. They’d seen the way males could get when defending the pups, but admittedly, that was over gnoll pups; clan pups. This was new for them.  

Kira murmured something softly to him and he twitched his ear. “What?”

“Leave it. It’s not worth it. If you get hurt, you won’t be able to see the priestess and ask if you can take care of her.”  

The steady gaze and sound advice of his life-long best friend filtered slowly through the pounding rage in his skull and he finally nodded curtly, returning the axe to its holster. Elsie was nervous, her eyes wide, but he took her gently back from Kira and turned to Herah.  

“I’m leaving.”

He turned his back on his clan, the folks who had made his life a misery, and, with one final look at Kira, one final smile, he added, “Thank you.”

“I love you,” she said. “Take care of yourself, and her, alright? Don’t vanish forever…”

“I promise.”

With his back to the red disk of the setting sun, he made his way to the temple. The priestess was more than happy for him to take the child, deciding that she’d rather keep the temple offerings to feed her own habits than feed the girl, and he continued on his way out of the other side of the village into the quiet evening.  

“Poodle?” she asked sleepily. “Where are we going?”

“You know that’s not my name, little one?” he chuckled fondly as she yawned, settling herself more comfortably into his arms.  

“What’s your name?”  

As the sun sank below the hills, he paused. Turning into the very last rays of red light, he looked back. “Aten. My name is Aten.”

************************************

If you like gnolls, you can read Brenn’s story here: Male gnoll/hyena boy (Brenn) x female reader Part One (nsfw) Part Two (sfw ish) Part Three (sfw) Part Four (nsfw) Part Five (nsfw) Part Six/Epilogue (sfw)

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[naughtyxstories]

Werewolf (ABO) Universe

OOC Notes:

this universe has a lot of specific structural elements so feel free to message to discuss variations to our muses’ specific (aka - the one we are playing in)

all of my muses are available for this universe but it is noteworthy that even my female muses are Alphas.

all genders welcome

MODERN VERSE

To make it clean, I will set everything in the fictional city of Blackrock, on the west coast of North America

Variable is whether the entire world is comprised of shifters and wolves or whether there are still regular humans completely unaware of these dynamics going on.

Blackrock is populated by the Werewolves (either wholly or primarily) of the Pack

Being an Omega is biological and they are the only ones capable of bearing young

Both Alphas and Betas can breed with Omegas

In this modern world, all claims and mating pairs are supposed to be consensual.

However, there is still abusive partners and families and so forth.

Pairings could be any organizational structure. Therefore it isn’t uncommon for anyone to be paired or grouped into 3-4 people

Scent gives everything away but scent blockers do exist.

Alphas experience rut but generally chemically block themselves from going through it. Still at least once a year, they are supposed to experience it. Some put it off longer. The longer you put it off, the worse the rut is when you finally experience it. (for example, instead of two or three days, it’ll last a week and be much harder to maintain control)

Omegas can only block their heat for a maximum of one year or they will damage their ability to bear pups. Blocking it has no impact on the severity of their next heat. They are always extreme. Young Omegas tend to have irregular cycles, which means they have to be extra careful.

Courtship rituals, gifting and so forth are all still a part of society but an Alpha may be bold and just declare their intentions toward an Omega. They run the risk of scaring off their intended however.

Betas tend to court the most diplomatically, aware that they are culturally perceived as lesser but they tend to be more rational and do not experience the rut so therefore may be appealing to an Omega. They have to work a little hard to assist their Omega through their heat but they can do it.

Historical

A/B/O is biological. Alphas are the leaders and soldiers. Betas run all the businesses and manage the money. Given the rise to the top pits Alpha against Alpha, there are not that many of them. They will literally fight to the death.

In general historical societies, Omegas are treated as mere property and permitted to own nothing or control their own resources and bodies.

I would push this all the way back to Vikings era so that one of the pushes for the raiding is to find Omegas for breeding purposes.

Once claimed and mated, the Northmen tended to be very respectful of their Omegas and it was considered shameful to abuse your Omega. They were also permitted to manage money and could even keep their children if there was a petition to sever the mating bond. Omegas could petition their Jarl or King/Queen to sever the mating bond if they are unhappy with their mate. This was a great shame to the mate.

This puts the Northmen as unusually progressive for their time-period but most outside their communities would have no idea.

The Northmen are, as a whole, extremely protective of their Omegas and pups.

Fuck with them and the Northmen will fuck you up.

RULES OF COURTSHIP FOR THE MODERN BLACKROCK VERSES

[under the cut]

Overview

failure to abide by these Rules can result in the Alpha being expelled from the pack or even executed if the breach is egregious or results in permanent harm to an Omega

the ritual is specific but there may be differences between the arrogant/foolish pack members and those who have given their courtship a great deal of thought.

at any stage, the Omega may reject or refuse the Alpha. at the beginning this is just refusing to accept a gift or returning the item. as the courtship progresses, the refusal must be more specific and direct. the law will intervene if an Omega reports they are afraid to refuse an Alpha

after being refused, an Alpha is not permitted to renew their Courtship.

Stage One

it begins with gifts

the gift is intended to be personal and have meaning

arrogant Alphas may only gift money or a hank of freshly caught game

thoughtful Alphas will try to offer symbolic items or items they think will catch the Omega’s interest (ie a book, flowers, fresh food, a blanket which carries their scent)

cooking for the Omega is usually the next step and intended to demonstrate that the Alpha has the means to provide for their mate and pups

an arrogant or foolish Alpha will take the Omega to a restaurant or provide the Omega food prepared by another. Only an immature Omega would not find such behaviour offensive

anything more than ‘polite’ touches or kisses would be considered an insult to the Omega (polite would be touches to the hand or arm, kisses on the cheek and similar)

Stage Two

increasingly intimate dates starting with public occasions or where other family are present

public or chaperoned dates are followed by personal dates, alone in their homes or in some other setting allowing more privacy and increased intimacy

the gifts and offerings also become more intimate (such as clothing, underwear and jewellery)

the Omega may take to wearing or keeping with them an item carrying the Alpha’s scent

intimacies and touching may increase but it would be considered insulting to go beyond ‘making out’ or a sort of heavy petting

Stage Three

the bond is starting to really form between Omega and Alpha

they will crave each other’s presence and feel bereft if too much time passes without seeing one another

an Omega may lose their ability to reach orgasm without the presence of the Alpha, as if their body is already tied to their Alpha. this can feel strange or even make an Omega feel upset or uncomfortable and can be a challenge for the pair to overcome. it is the first true loss of control to a specific Alpha. it can result in a split or end of the courtship if the Omega does not deal with it well.

there is still no penetration but they may have been quite otherwise intimate, touching, caressing and even oral sex

the gifts will continue as well as other caregiving exercises, fixing up things for them, or even planning for a future ahead, meeting friends and family, presenting themselves as a couple in public and so forth

Accept or Refuse

an Omega’s scent changes usually approximately a week before their heat will commence

an immature or younger Omega will have a shorter window (48 - 72 hours rather than a full week) and their heat can be triggered by someone they know going into heat

at this stage, the Alpha will offer himself to their selected Omega and the Omega must decide to accept or reject that Alpha.

if rejected, the Alpha must leave and will seek the assistance of friends and family to calm themselves and frequently go through a rather harsh rut for getting so close and then being rejected. it is personally devastating but there are no social consequences for either Omega or Alpha.

everyone understands that when down to the final choice, the Omega has a right to decide and therefore refuse the Alpha

Heat / Rut

if accepted, the Omega and the Alpha will go through all the soft furnishings they possess and set up their mating nest, usually in the Alpha’s home

as the Omega’s heat starts to build, the Alpha will get more protective, quite literally stockpiling supplies in the home and loathing being separated from their chosen mate.

the heat may trigger the Alpha’s rut and this is considered the most primal and intense of bonds.

the heat usually lasts for just under three days (or about 65-70 hours) where the pair will have periods of rest but will not wish to be separated.

during the mating, the Alpha may knot and do so more than once within his mate. it is not mandatory though, although a pregnancy is unlikely to result if there is no knotting

the Alpha will not wish to be parted and will take great pleasure in preparing food for the Omega, bathing and maintaining physical contact

any interference by a third party will result in violence. sometimes a family member or members will stand guard outside the Alpha’s home to ensure the pair are not disturbed

the mating usually takes about a week, sometimes just under, sometimes just over before the mated pair will tolerate being separated from one another.

the period of time after the heat but during the mating is often sweet, silly, playful and gentle. sex continues but it has lost the urgency. for some this is their favourite part of their mating.

Claiming

Following the mating there is a claiming ceremony

the ceremony is more for show -  a public demonstration of what was already privately settled.

it forms a legal bond between the pair and gives the Alpha legal rights to any pups that resulted from the mating.

without the claiming ceremony, the Alpha has no legal right to the pups and paternity may be denied

it is a vulnerable time for an Alpha

between the mating and the claiming ceremony, an omega still has the right to change their mind

to do so would be considered humiliating for the Alpha

sometimes a spiteful Omega will deliberately lure an Alpha to this point in order to humiliate them and permanently spoil their chances. Once a refusal has become common knowledge at this stage between mating and the ceremony, the Alpha is unlikely to ever be accepted by another Omega.

THE EXCEPTIONS

There are only two acceptable exceptions to the above Rules of Courtship that will not result in severe consequences for the Alpha who has breached said Rules. These exceptions are mandated and any Omega signed up for them has done so voluntarily.

The Offering

An unusual ritual and only reserved for high ranking or particularly honoured Alpha Wolves that have performed a great service for the Pack. Omegas who are interested in being claimed by the Alpha may present themselves at a great celebration. Fancy gowns and fine suits are worn. Music, dance and fine food are offered.

At the culmination of the evening, the Omegas are presented and the Alpha may select whichever one has caught the Alpha’s interest. It is considered a great insult if no Omega is deemed satisfactory.

The Omega’s heat is deliberately triggered, usually through chemical means, and the Alpha may take the Omega home. The Offering takes the place of both the mating and the claiming ceremony, although many still have a claiming ceremony at a later date.

The Hunt

The spring is the season of the heat, when Omegas are more likely to go into heat. As such, Omegas will, more often, permit themselves to actually go through their heat and not use chemical blockers. It feels safe as there are so many enduring their heat at the same time. Betas will often assist the Omegas through their heat.

At this time of year, an Omega may sign up for The Hunt. An old-fashioned ritual harking back to the original days of the Pack. A group of Omegas, all on the verge of their heat, will sign up. The Alphas then also register. The Omegas are set free first, able to run (in either form) through the woods. An hour later, the Alphas are set free to chase them, following the scent of the Omega of preference.

Surrounding the acre of forest are a series of small cabins. Once captured, an Omega will be brought to the cabin by their new Alpha. It is unusual for an Omega to leave the grounds without becoming pregnant. It is a very intense and primal mating ritual that produces a strong bond between the mated pair. Something about the Hunt pulls at the Wolf part of them in a very primal way, which they have never managed to work out of their society.

Claiming ceremonies thereafter are optional.

[therelativist]

Beaujester Is The Best and Here’s Why (an essay by Alpha Ray)

North vs South – Opposites Attract

Beau and Jester aren’t a likely couple. Beau is a standoffish butch who favours melee combat and knows little to nothing of magic. Her weapon of choice is simple – fists, elbows, knees. Quick and brutal. She’s a scrapper who hides her more academic interests behind the veneer of a jock. Meanwhile, Jester is a humorous trickster magic wielder who avoids melee as much as possible. A ‘leetle blue teefling’ who attracts people and befriends them easily. She’s loveable and loving in turn. As happy go lucky as they come. Hey

It feels like an unfortunate trope – the happy, well adjusted one fixes the gruff, standoffish traumatised one. But the second you look beyond the fronts the two characters put forward things seem very different.

Neither of them like to let people in and both utilise a front to prevent that. Jester focuses on others and never lets anyone too close. She takes any chance to deflect the conversation away from her and towards others. Beau takes the opposite approach, which is trying not to let people get close. Both require people to turn a more insightful eye towards them to get behind their barriers. Thankfully, both have high wisdom. Jester is slowly learning that she can express negative emotions without her friends abandoning her for not being the perfect, happy go lucky seed of joy and chaos she puts across whilst Beau is learning that she can be creative and can have friends and love those friends without opening herself up for abandonment. And they’re both teaching each other more healthy coping mechanisms including finding the balance between standing up for yourself and finding your own space, and being welcoming and friendly and creative and investing time in other people.

They bring out the best in each other. They’re different but they look out for each other and complement each other. Beau takes the melee and Jester takes the range when they’re trying to deal with an enemy with the monk doing her best to tank. And maybe they’re both very good liars, but they suck at lying to each other.

Compulsive Liars – How They Support Each Other

Marisha has described Beau as a liar and Jester certainly feels that she herself is one. Again, on surface glance it sounds like a recipe for disaster. And yet the conversation where this all came from came about as a result of them failing badly at lying to each other and responding by being honest. That’s what they bring out in each other.

Jester needs someone who will take her seriously and not dismiss her and her needs. She presents a cheerful demeanour which hides her real thoughts, hurts and feelings. This is something that probably came even from her childhood and feeling pressured to indicate to her mother that she was happy with her living situation as so not to stress her out.  Anyone who can’t read beyond that front runs the risk of encouraging Jester to further disinvest in herself and to focus on the other person. Thankfully, Beau’s demonstrated a determined ability to reach out to Jester and to take her seriously. She’s been the most successful at getting her to admit negative emotions in a way that displays clearly her understanding of Jester. But she doesn’t just encourage the acknowledgement of negative emotions, she encourages Jester to laugh and is willing to go along with her pranks and tricks. Beau takes every aspect of Jester seriously from the ones which are more fun and cheerful to the ones which aren’t necessarily pretty or nice or easy to deal with. Jester needs someone to talk to who will reassure her when needed but also still support her creative outlets and Beau has proven herself willing and able to do that. When travelling to Xhorhas, Beau played along with dramatically reading the smut book and with the jokey worship of Jester to convince the kobolds that she was a god instead of shutting Jester down or dismissing her. And Beau found it fun and laughed right along with her because of their relatively similar senses of humour. That didn’t start later, Beau and Jester have been pulling pranks and having fun since the first time they shared a room and decided to inform the guards that they were naked for no real clear reason beyond that they could and Jester wanted to.

As someone who struggles with her sense of self worth, anyone who isn’t willing or able to wholly appreciate and support Beau is ultimately going to be toxic for her. Thankfully, Jester has been championing the Beauregard Appreciation Squad from the start She’s built up Beau when other members of the party have torn her down, encouraged her to try things and supported her in her success. Jester respects Beau as an equal, and Beau likewise respects Jester. She values her opinion to the point where when Beau’s challenging Dairon about letting people in, Jester is the example she uses and who she talks about the most. Beau’s also learned that the way to get Jester to open up is to open up herself and to allow herself to be vulnerable, thus exposing things about herself that she’s ashamed of or would normally keep to herself. This degree of communication about real feelings and real hurt is unique to Jester.The fact that Jester let Beau expose herself and didn’t mock her but responded in kind is the best way to teach Beau that her friends do care about her and won’t let her down. Jester had the benefit of a loving mother but for Beau, who had parental issues, being able to admit that she loved someone must have been huge. Oh, and also they love each other.

Beau and Jester bring out the best in each other. They both tend to lock their feelings up and put up a front but they’re also both uniquely good at getting the other to admit their feelings and hurt and things that they’re ashamed of. They encourage more a healthy expression of emotions,better coping mechanisms in each other and are both pushing each other to make better life choices. Beau is receiving the support she wants but has never had, someone who believes in her and her abilities. Jester has found someone who doesn’t just love the happy parts of her but loves the angry and the sad and the hurt as well and encourages her to show her true feelings.

Jigsaw Puzzle - Fitting The Pieces Together

Beau and Jester have a surprising amount in common, not least their uncharacteristic willingness to open up to each other. Their senses of humour align, their love of the group and investment in their friends, their love of animals. Hell, they even adopted a dog together.

While they might favour different styles, both are ultimately scrappy fighters and enjoy fighting in arenas and bars, both with and against each other. They both enjoy friendly competition and neither are sore losers, Jester willingly accepting defeat in the Evening Nip and promising that she’d come out victorious next time. Plot twist, she didn’t but neither did Beau and they mostly fought alongside each other not against each other. They’re always willing to throw down and have each others backs.

They also share a love for animals and actually adopted a dog together (though Marisha seems to have forgotten this) to the point where Liam actually coined the ship name Lavorregard. Beau’s attempted care for Professor Thaddeus as well as owl Frumpkin shows an empathetic and emotional side she normally tries to conceal. She and Jester both have this protective instinct when it comes to animals and both crave their judgement free affection. They both were lonely growing up without many friends and as such it makes sense that they’d turn to animals to find that companionship. However, when separated from their animals they both very notably turned to each other and were surprised but relieved to find that same support and same concern shown from other people. They both have a lot of care to give and Beau, when Jester exposed herself, didn’t mock her and instead chose to support her and to show the depth of her care for her.

Most importantly, they have fun together. They find pleasure in each others company. They have similar morals (both prioritise their close circle over society at large but generally try to avoid doing too much harm and prioritize individuals over governments/countries). While Beau feels increasingly large scale social obligation due to being an Expositor-in-training, she has proved herself willing to break individual laws and not tied to any one country. They have both expressed willingness to work with the drow and a desire to understand them without simply dismissing them as evil and display an unwillingness to believe propaganda. However, both were down to fuck up a guy who was threatening Jester’s mother and ultimately put their close circle of friends and those they care about first.

They both find smut entertaining and both enjoy reading, though Beau is reluctant to admit her nerdier interests. They both enjoy pranking others and both have a flair for the dramatic. They also both have more vulnerable sides and both need someone to open up to who will understand and support them. They derive pleasure from each others company as well as being able to have emotionally heavier but vital conversations. They each allow the other to be honest about how they truly feel. They’re both young women who are encountering a milestone in their life and learning about the world. They also both love each other

Team Blue - The End

To conclude, they’re gay and in love and would have a surprisingly strong and healthy relationship based on mutual love and support as well as genuine enjoyment of spending time together. They never mock each other and always try to build the other up. They tend towards healthier coping mechanisms and more honest airings of their feelings when they’re together and bring joy to each other’s lives. They deserve each other in the best possible way.

Thank you for reading and have a nice evening.

[theywontlistenunlessyoutry-blog]

Y’all Ain’t Woke (and Neither Am I)

Okay so, I’m not sure how to start this because I know that this is a subject that requires tact. Lots of tact. Tact that a lot of people on this website don’t have, but whatever. That’s not the point of this, not all of it anyway.

The point here is.

Y’all ain’t woke.

Every day I come on this website and I see nothing but mudslinging. Some of it is well deserved and some of it is not. That is again, not the point here. The point here is hypocrisy.

There’s a lot of it. From a lot of people. It’s part of the reason why I’m not giving any specifics onto my identity (I made this blog specifically for this and I may never use it again honestly), because the people on this website will find some way to invalidate me for it. I’m not saying this as a person of a specific identity. No gender. No sexuality. No race. Though I acknowledge that the person I am behind this screen will influence my writings no matter what, I will also try to acknowledge my specific bias’ as a type away at this on my tiny ass phone screen in a valiant attempt to get my opinion out into a great sea of voices.

I am here to acknowledge something that a lot of people on this website don’t seem to have.

Common human decency and understanding.

Now you may argue, “hey aren’t you making some pretty broad assumptions?!”  and, “isn’t saying something like that rude?!” Except perhaps with more explicit language. It is the internet. I will not judge you for using the fuck word. I will however judge you for using other words if you so choose to use them, and I’m sure some of you will. But back to the point.

Every day I come onto this site and I see hate spewed from every corner. Not from everyone, no, but from many. Some of this hate is valid and rational, as sometimes the world hurts you and you need a place to vent. A place to be yourself where no one knows who you really are behind the screen (except the FBI, but they don’t count). It is a comfort in a world that is out to deride you. Oppress you. Kill you, even.

Yes, the internet is a comfort.

Yet, so many people can not grasp that on the internet you are not alone.

On the internet you are connected to millions of people, all with vastly different life experiences. Different morals and values. Different world views. Many treat the internet like some alien dimension when in reality the internet is the closest reflection to the human subconscious that we have ever known.

And that is frightening.

There are hate groups at every corner, unchallenged by the rules of an uncaring and prejudiced algorithm made and maintained by people who could give less than two shits about you.

There are cults, out to snare vulnerable minds.

There are stalkers, rapist, abusers, law enforcement, corporations.

There are people out there and they are out to get you, and that is frightening. We are a frightened race for we cannot even trust the very people who had sworn to protect us in some way. Parents, teachers, cops. All have harmed you in some way, intentionally or unintentionally.

We live in a world built upon the backs of oppressed and enslaved people. Not just in America but all across the world, in every government system, in many forms, is a sickness. The sickness is wealth. The sickness it apathy. Perhaps the sickness is even privilege.

Ah yes, privilege.

It is a word that people on this site use to hide. Yes, even me.

We use privilege to invalidate, just as we try and invalidate the existence of privilege.

No, I am not just talking about the existence of white privilege, which most certainly exists though some may doubt it.

To all those who deny, let me tell you this.

One, privilege does not make you a bad person.

Two, almost everyone has privilege.

Yes, you heard me right, almost everyone has privilege.

Despite what some will have you believe, White Privilege is not the only privilege that exists.

Straight Privilege.

Cis Privilege.

Wealth Privilege.

Able Bodied Privilege.

Religious Privilege.

Education Privilege.

Hell, the privilege to even be able to access the internet in the first place.

All of these privileges exist and you have at least one of them. Having a privilege does not mean you’re a bad person, because no one asks to be handed these privileges at birth.

Many people do not even realize they have privilege, because that is how the system is formed. It is formed in such a way that those that have turn their backs on those that have not. That they ignore the plights of others because they do not see that they exist. That they lack empathy for those that are different and therefore turn on them because that is what society taught you to do.

We are all guilty of this.

No, it does not matter if you are Black or Asian, or Indigenous, or White, or any other race or ethnicity. Just as it does not matter if you lack a limb, or if your brain does not process information in the way that is considered standard, or if your body works without trouble.

Everyone has a bias against someone and it shows, yes, even on this website which supposedly teaches tolerance.

Let me assure you it does not.

I come onto here and all I see is hate.

Now, let me preface this with saying that you do not have to love those who have hurt you. Those who took their ignorance a step to far and left a mark on you that you feel will never heal. Those that leave a thousand little scratch marks on your soul every day until you can’t stand it anymore. Those that took your act of pent up suffering as an overreaction and needless anger and never once considered the source.

You do not have to love those that hurt you.

You just need to understand.

People on this website will take one look at you and invalidate your experience because you are white, or a cis man, or straight. Just as the outside world will take one look at you and invalidate your experience because you are black, or a trans woman, or gay, or any other marginalized community.

We do this and call it progressiveness. We do this and call it rebelling against our oppressors. We do this and assume we have the moral high ground because we love one kind of person while scorning the other.

We scorn our fellow humans, people who suffer just as we do in our own lives, if perhaps in different ways, because of the benefits a cruel society born on bloodshed dictated we have at birth.

This is not a movement towards the future, but a movement towards vengeance.

A movement that turns those who could be allies into monsters because they cannot understand the exact suffering you have gone through.

But that is unfair and close-minded.

No one can understand the exact life you have lived, not even those who fall into the same categories as you. No straight white able-bodied cis man’s story is the same, just as no gay black disabled trans woman’s story is the same.

But we can empathize.

We can empathize, should empathize, hold out hope that someone will empathize with our suffering.

I see wishes for empathy. I see people calling out for it. I see people perfectly capable of it.

Yet I see no empathy.

But, perhaps that is a generalization.

Not all people are like that.

Not all people.

Hmm.

Now doesn’t that sound familiar.

You hear it all the time don’t you.

“Not All Men!” or “Not All White People!”

It is a loud cry. It grates on you, because for years the kind of person who says this has been the same person who saw all women as sexualized meat sacks. Who saw Black people as thugs. Who saw Muslims as terrorists. Who saw Latin@ people as gangsters.

Or did they.

You see, here on this very website we look to the people who say these things as lesser. Incels, entitled White folx, White Feminists(not to be confused with White people who are feminists, of course). Yes, we use these words to deride people who have oppressed us, who have invalidated and hurts us over the years. Perhaps it is understandable in some cases (or always in the case of Nazis and White Supremacists), but that is not the point.

We say these things and then console ourselves with knowing that it is not oppression, for these people have been the oppressors for years. Our vitriolic words hold no power over them because of the institution which has deemed us lesser.

“It can’t be racism, the person who said it was Black!”

“It can’t be ableism, they’re in a wheelchair!”

“It can’t be biphobia, she’s a lesbian!”

But it is, and always has been.

You see, despite all the powers that we lack from the government, we all have one power which can be used to hurt others.

Our words.

Words are the gateway to belief, to rhetoric, to ideologies.

You may not believe that someone is hearing you because of your place in society, but I assure you that people are listening. That people are internalizing the things you have said in some way or another. Even if that person is just you.

Every time someone says “I Hate Men,” or “I Hate Straight People,” or “I Hate White People,” it is internalized and it hurts someone. Perhaps yourself, perhaps some lost soul looking for someone to hate, perhaps someone who falls under that wide umbrella and lacks self-esteem.

You may not have meant all of that specific demographic but someone will take it that way. You can clarify all you want, but the way you say things has power. Just as the way you ignore things does.

Intentionally or unintentionally, we are hardwired to internalize propaganda. That is why so many POC, or LGBT+, or disabled people get pushed out of inclusive spaces, spoken over. We have been hardwired to believe their words are less important by a society we are all suffering under, and everyday we must work to rewire ourselves to disbelieve that rhetoric.

Everyone must work for it.

Even me.

Even you.

Do not believe that you cannot be racist just because you are not White. You grew up in a society that valued whiteness over colour. That valued pale beauty over the deeper shades and tones that are just as beautiful.

Do not believe that you cannot be ableist just because you are in a wheelchair. Society has taught you to not value yourself or others who lack parts of their bodies or have their brain work a different way.

Do not believe that you cannot be sexist because you are a woman. One only needs to look at those called TERFs and Radfems to see the rampant transphobia that plagues them.

Do not believe that you cannot be prejudiced against someone else just because someone else is prejudiced against you.

Suffering is part of the human experience.

It simply manifests in different ways.

So many on here want a better, brighter future, and yet cannot envision one that does not come at the cost of someone else’s comfort and safety.

That is not progressiveness.

That is prejudice.

That is hate.

In order to have a better future, we must not pull someone else down to pull ourselves up. That future it not better it is oppression in a different form, it is vengeance for your hurts.

In order to have a better future you must separate those that have hurt you from the system that perpetuates their hate.

You do not have to forgive them.

You do not have to stop being angry or scared.

But you must look past them.

We cannot generalize your suffering and place them on the shoulders of other people. Just as we cannot speak over those suffering an experience that you have not, and then turn around and believe it does not exist. We must acknowledge and accept each other’s existence, but deny and dismantle hateful rhetoric and no matter who it is leveled towards.

We claim the future is together, and yet invalidate those that we perceive as having suffered less when in reality they have likely suffered in a different form.

We cannot dismantle the system that divides us apart, we cannot go alone and afraid of those who do not look or think or act like us. We must go together. If we do not then we will only be torn apart by those that wish to oppress us.

We must look inside ourselves and confront the monster that has grown inside of us. The monster of hate and division that causes us to look at our fellow human and deem them lesser for things out of our control.

We must overcome the bias that society has taught us.

We must be angry, but not at those who have not harmed you, but at the system which has poised our privileges at each other’s throats.

We must go forth but with awareness and acceptance of each other’s existence and suffering.

No one is alone on this planet.

No one is alone on this website.

Someone will hear you, but will what they hear help?

Or will it divide us further?

Only the future will tell, and I hope that future is a bright one.