#trans friends i see you and i will always be here to fight alongside you

[simp-ly-writes]

Love and Zombies

─────── · · A Smosh FanFic

Pairing: Spencer "Brody" Agnew x gn!Reader

─ · · SUMMARY: Amanda has called in sick on the first day of filming a new series for the Smosh Games channel, Dread. You create a hopeless romantic character, their ultimate goal? to find love (and to make sure others find it too ;)).

─ · · TAGS: gender-neutral pronouns, enemies to lovers, protectiveness, jealousy, angst, tension, fluff, light swearing, mutual pining, confessions, friends to lovers, cheesy, social media au (near the end).

─ · · MASTERLIST | TAGLIST REQUEST | WORDCOUNT: 1,641 | PART TWO

─ · · A/N: Something a bit different but I hope you all enjoy nonetheless! (y/c/n) = your characters name.

─────── · ·

When you got pulled from the marketing office only to be placed in a Smosh Games video you did not know what to expect. Lights and Cameras commanding down upon you as you took a seat beside Spencer and across from Courtney and Shayne while thinking about what could be read from the seating placement had your cheeks heating up as you whispered a Hello, not wanting to interfere with the sound peoples tests.

Shayne talked back in a full toned, "Hello!" that already have you feeling more embarrassed for not knowing what exactly to do on camera even when they were not rolling. "Got your character chosen?" Courtney asked as Spencer nodded his head, curious as to your answer only for your eyes to go wide with excitement.

"Yes, I do. But I want to see your reactions to them recorded," you tease just as Alex Tran calls for you all to take your positions and another person walks around to the head of the table, the game master themselves- George Primavera. You latch onto Spencer hand under the table, squeezing it in excitement, not having seen the rest of the casting call for your favorite dungeon master.

"And three... two... one... action!"

"Hello everyone, and welcome to Smosh verses Zombies. I George Primavera and I will be your Dungeon Master and Host for this session. Now can the players please introduce themselves to the camera," George announces taking the time to look over all of you as you all physically fall into character.

Shayne as Benardo, the nepo-baby artist. Courtney as Savanah, the bestie that always has your back. Spencer as Brody, the hater of everything and everyone with a secret. And your character, (y/c/n), the truly hopeless, romantic.

"You are never gonna find love," Spencer spits out, immediately turning to you, chest puffed out as he stares just past your face. You make the first eye-contact before looking down at the table, brows furrowed and let out a sigh, "Well, if you speak of it like that way. It will be you who will never be finding love, Brody." You spit out his name, refusing to look him in the eyes before offering Shayne a flirty smile and giggle, "now, Who are you?"

Spencer scoffs from your side, mumbling some snide remarks while glaring at Shayne who flips him off. "I'm an artist, looking for a muse, if you catch my drift?" He adds with a wink as you fan your face and bat your eyelashes. You can image the paint dripping off his True Religion jeans and white t-shirt. "I like the sound of that."

"You two are going to die first," Spencer states with his arms crossed. "Is that jealousy I hear?" you slowly pan your head over, taking in his features as you play with the rings on your fingers.

"Fuck no, thats gross," he retorts before Courtney interrupts, "I stand with (y/c/n), theres not much out here so might as well find someone to love and keep you entertained." Spencer looks visibly pained by this statement as he refuses to speak and the game proceeds to start.

─────── · ·

As bricks are being pulled one by one and with some near death experiences. You and Shayne are both going steady with a relationship, flirting, reaching across the table to hold hands and fighting back to back alongside one another. Courtney had acting the middle ground between you and Spencer throughout the game while Spencer's character was reaching his breaking point. George had been eating up the tension between the two of you, both still haven't looked at one another since the introductions, and he was scheming for a reaction.

"Will you two stop fucking in the back of my truck, fucking hell," Brody yells while gripping the steering wheel. Savanah is in the passengers seat, snickering and laughing at the scene.

"Do you want to join then?" Bernardo yells back in the small space just before the vehicle is stopped and you all lean quickly forwards in back in your chairs. You grip the table, shaking before moving to a stand and point at Brody.

"You know what, Brody-" you spit out his name with such vice, looking at him through his glasses and into his eyes. Deep down you can see Spencer smiling and begging you to go on and seize this moment, he loves watching you act so confidently in front of him- the cameras long forgotten. "-I am so done with you and- and your hate. If you don't want to be happy in life then so be it. But stop casting your grumpy old, stinky cloud all over me and Benardo-"

Spencer gags at the mention of his name in relation to yours before he two stands. George, the game master claps his hands excitedly from behind you, eyeing the tower with a knowing look. "-and you know what, if I was the owner of a car, I would have long since forgotten about you, have left you in the dust to die alone just like you want!"

Brody blinks at you before taking to a stand, his hands shake as Savanah and Benardo both lean closer. Benardo opens his mouth to make a statement before Courtney has a hand clapped over Shaynes mouth, glaring at him- daring him to interrupt this moment as you and Spencer now stand chest to chest. You both get a sudden wave a deja vu and to what... you both don't address before taking your seats once more.

"Wow..." George claps, smiling at you both as you stare at one another in a silent conversation. "...Now since you both have made no progress one again, the zombie hoard has made the distance and is about to attack you all, I am going to have to ask you to either pull or sacrifice-"

"I'll sacrifice!" Benardo announces. Hands placed on the table as he jets up, looking at you with pure adoration. "I will sacrifice for the love of my life."

"Benardo..." you let out a breath, partially of relief the other of a realization sadness as you shake you head. "Y-you don't have to do this you know, I'm sure theres another way. We could drive faster, we could-"

"There is no other way," Spencer announces, leaving no room for argument in his tone as both men nod to one another. Benardo takes one last look at you, blowing you a kiss that you catch and place on your heart before Shayne acts like he is getting electrocuted and falls to the ground beneath the table.

"You all stand there in grief, horror, and in partial awe so I am still going to have to ask you all to pull yourselves back into the truck," George says as you well your eyes with tears and make the first clean pull and move into the passengers side. Savanah goes next and succeeds, now sitting at the back of the truck. Brody is the last to pull.

You watch the side of his face not wanting to lose another... friend and having wanted to understand the weird tension and bring it finally to an end. Brody succeeds as you all drive to safety.

─────── · ·

You character and Brody would carry that awkward tension, the thin line between hate and love as you bantered and pointed guns in one another faces before shooting a zombie behind the other. You were surprised to learn the vicious protectiveness of Brody's character to yours often throwing Savanah out as bait to save you and she too was now getting sick of being the constant middle man.

Savanah called you out. "Its either you admit to your feelings to one another now, or I am going to announce to everyone the things you have said behind one another's backs. Grow up you two, its making all of this a lot harder than it should be. I mean, I think even Benardo saw it and agreed."

You could hear a few gasps from off camera that reminded you of the set you were playing in, the character you were playing as and the lights and cameras felt way too imposing once more and you shrunk down into your seat. An unknown guilt crept its way through your shaking hands as Spencer turned to you, grabbing one suddenly before letting out a large sigh and soon all of the background noise faded into the back of your mind.

You could not tell if Spencer was Brody, or Brody was Spencer in that moment as he spoke out- admitting to his jealous and distance to your past partners and the true feelings he held for you. Only finding them when your life was on the line, zombies banging on the door of the shelter you all thought to have found, that he loved you- he loves you.

And in not finding the right words to say right away, you pulled Brody- Spencer into a hug and whispered into his ear, unsure and uncaring if the mics would pick it up as well, I love you too.

─────── · ·

"CUT! Amazing work everyone. Thats an official wrap on episodes one and two. After lunch we will be filming the finale, so be sure to take a rest and plan those skits," Alex yelled as the house lights came back on, your eyes blinking out of character as your arms fell from one another and back down to your sides.

You and Spencer both watched as everyone gradually flooded out of the room. Courtney and Shayne both passing you a smile before turning down the hall. "You are one hell of an actor," Spencer starts with in a teasing tone that you match, "I could say the same to you as well."

─────── · ·

🔔 Smosh Games just posted! watch now?

─────── · ·

Jenga Decides Our Fate | Smosh vs. Zombies (ep.1+2)

Smosh Games ✓ [Subscribed] Like 56k | Dislike | ... 7.77M subscribers 1.1M views 3 months ago will we be able to survive?? click to read more

3,139 Comments

username21 YOU CANNOT JUST LEAVE THINGS LIKE THAT. I REFUSE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK 😭

username99 Did (name) say it back? Did. (name). say. it. back. I NEED to know!!

↳ username41 the public needs to know! we will revolt in these comments! we have done it before! 😡

username28 (name) and Spencer looked so taken by one another during their rant scenes. It was pure poetry, I love smosh!

username11 i genuinely cannot tell if they were acting or not.

username21 so worth the wait for the new content! can't wait for the new episode, I hope that Shayne is not dead for good, maybe he can come back in a new character?

↳ username07 yes! in love with this idea. I really like Savanah (courtney's character) would also like this idea XD ↳ username21 ikr! they looked so done with Brody and (y/c/n) lol

username12 that hug healed me ❤️

username30 someone reawaken be when pt.3 comes out, i refuse to live in a world where (name) and Spencer are not both canonically and irl together

username44 In love with this video concept. what about an alien invasion next time??

↳ smoshgames ✓ great idea! ↳ username44 omg! Smosh Games just replied to me ↳ smoshgames ✓ and we'll do it again 😉 ↳ username44 i can die happy now.

username23 shayne and courtney played so good characters. i was so incredibly invested in shayne and (name)'s romantic arch.

username40 must have been weird for courtney to see her husband flirting with another person... /sarcastic (i know they are all friends and that this is their job).

username76 would love to see Ian in the next series. his dark humour would hit differently. ❤️

─────── · ·

─ · · A/N: you all are so cool, thank you for reading this! 😊

─ · · SPENCER AGNEW TAGLIST: @lisiliely @missflufffanfics @little-stitious-studios @thejourneyneverendsx @sibsteria @lizzylynch1

[kk43mi]

alr so if you’re okay with this kind of request i’d like to request a fic in which scara is afab!! i’ve seen many people headcanoning him as transmasc and it kinda grew on me :)) i think he’d be sub and enjoy oral but at the same time also less vanilla things like being tied up, restrained, blindfolded.. idk i’ll leave the rest to you :D

please feel free to ignore my request if it makes you uncomfortable! have a nice day or night<3

this idea is so good anon ! yes i also like to think he would like being restrained...hes always demanding you to eat him out and stuff omg i have so much thought into this. you also have a good day/night! excuse if this seems so messy, ive never written a trans fic... forgive me o(*￣▽￣*)ブ

jealousy┊scaramouche

PAIRING ┊trans!scara x softdomf!reader GENRE ┊ smut. WC ┊ 1.4k+ WARNINGS ┊ (in this case this is wanderer, but i will call him scara!) , praise , pussy eating(receiving and giving.) , needy scara , tied up , lowercase intended!!! SYNOPSIS ┊ partnering up with kazuha to work with your mission, scara gets jealous, thinking you were going to leave him for kazu...or maybe have more fun around kazuha. you and kazuha are good friends, always play fighting and joking with each other, scara cant stand the thought of you enjoying someone else, so he gets jealous and demands you to eat him out. A/N ┊ written by kam , hope you guys enjoy !

the bustling paths of inazuma were alive with activity as you strolled along, your footsteps in sync with the rhythm of the city. your mission for the day was to work alongside scaramouche, but you couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment when you learned he had asked kazuha to accompany you instead.

"looks like it's just you and me today," kazuha remarked with a mischievous smile, his amber eyes sparkling. "let’s make the best of it, shall we?"

you nodded eagerly, having grown fond of kazuha's company over the past few weeks. his carefree nature always brought a sense of joy to any situation. as you embarked on your mission, you and kazuha engaged in playful banter and light-hearted teasing, each teasing comment met with laughter.

little did you know, scara was watching from a distance, his eyes following your every move. He couldn't help but feel jealousy rising within him. his blunt, cold demeanor masked a deeper vulnerability, and the thought of you enjoying someone else's company didn't sit well with him.

as the day wore on, scara’s jealousy escalated. he began to repeatedly mutter under his breath, his words filled with bitterness. "why is everyone drawn to her? can’t they see i’m right here?" he grumbled, unable to hide his frustration.

meanwhile, you and kazu were completely engrossed in your mission, unaware of scara’s growing resentment. the sun painted the sky in shades of orange and pink as evening settled in, casting a warm glow on the city. the mission had been a success, but scara couldn't find any solace in that.

finally, unable to contain his envy any longer, scara confronted you as you bid farewell to kazuha with a hug. scaras features contorted with frustration, his voice tinged with a mix of anger and vulnerability. "why do you always have to seek attention from others? can’t you see i’m here too?" he snapped, annoyance evident in his tone.

taken aback by his sudden outburst, you looked at scara, his harsh words only fueling your confusion. "scara, what are you talking about? kazuha and I were just having fun. it doesn't mean I don't appreciate your presence. you paired me up with him, so why are you being like this?!"

"youre being wayy too fucking touchy with him! and exchanging jokes too like as if you dont have me." he crossed his arms, while he puffed his cheeks out, signifying he was irritated. "scara, were just friends and you know that! plus he already has lumine!" you put a hand on your hips.

"yeah but no need to hug him! if you want someone to hug, im here." his forehead popped a vein, clearly telling that he was pissed the thought of you hugging someone other than him. "ugh, im pissed off now. if you enjoy time with him more then get with him." and that made you scoff.

"scara i never said anything about enjoying more with him! look...are you just..jealous?" you came to that conclusion...why else would he be mad, he never acted this way before.

"im not jealous! it was just a violence impulse that took over for a second." he would scoff before shifting his hat to block his face. "so in other words, jealous." you couldn't help but chuckle, and in that moment, he roughly clasped your wrist.

"well im pissed and pent up now! help me." with an effortless grace, he swept you up in a bridal-style embrace, then lifted both of you, soaring towards the direction of your shared abode. "wha-" was the last word you said before he took off.

sooner or later, you both reached your abode, scara gently places you down, harshly grabbing your wrist again. "ah-scara that hurts." your wrist ached at the sides, but your complaints fell on deaf ears as he continued to pull you into the house, heading for your shared room.

you would sigh, before finally speaking. "what do you want? cuddles? kisses?" the echo of scaras firm footsteps resonated through the house as he led you to the room. he harshly pulled you into the bed with him. "eat me out." his words left your eyes open wide.

"seriously..? now?" you eyed at him, intertwining gazes. "im pissed about that kazuha dude, so help me out here!" he can already be seen taking off his garments, till the only armor left visible on him was his black under-suit. "hurry.." he would grab your head, lowering it down to his aching pussy, begging for you to lick and suck on.

"dont order me around." you push his hand off you with a sigh. "ill make it up to you alright..? even though it wasnt my intents to make you jealous.." you whispered the last part. "well then hurry up! need to cum, and we havent been able to do it for so long since you were so fucking busy with missions!" you let out a chuckle. "i know im sorry."

you would move the suit that would cover his heat, revealing his pussy, pustulating on nothing but air. "so eager to be touched already." "mmh hurrryy." he would buck his hips towards you, running out of patience. "now now, no need to hurry, lets make this more exciting for you, mkay?" you eyed at him, before heading to the nearby table stand, you deftly opened the drawer, revealing two soft, neatly folded cloths. with a quick and precise motion, you reached out and secured them in your grasp.

scara rubs his thighs together, looking so...excited. he was biting his lips as he couldnt contain his thrill, he always loved the thought of being tied up. "do you want to try th-" "yes, please." he said with no hesitation. to be honest, you didnt think he would be up for this, so, there you bind his wrists together and then secure a blindfold over his eyes. the thought of not knowing where you would touch next had aroused him so much.

before scara can even say 'hurry', you tongue was already on his clit. sucking and swirling the soft muscle on it. "mmghff~!" scara muffled out, shuddering in pleasure as he moans out. traveling both of your thumbs to his folds, spreading them as you glide your tongue sensually along it. emitting pornographic moans from scaras lips. thighs quivering from the way your tongue skillfully pleasures him.

bucking his hips towards your face more, you take this as in he wanted more...inserting your tongue inside while your thumb caressed small circles on his clit, it sent him into an intoxicating whirlwind of pleasure. eliciting moans here and there. his head thrown back as his hands tried to find something to take hold on.

scara could almost cum on the spot right now...just a bit more and..there you halt your movements. "huh..? hey, whyd you stop..." he would whine, bringing his own fingers to stimulate his clit, but you slap it away. "no touching yourself, plus, im all worked up too." you say and he can hear the sounds of clothes shuffling and falling onto the ground. "lay down." you commanded and he obliged.

and there, youre on top of him, you ass facing him, laid on top of his heat as his arms were secured around you, creating a 69 position. "do it together mk?" he nods eagerly and already starts eating you out like he hasnt eaten in years. your thighs trembles, but that didnt stop you from sucking his clit again. sucking, licking, and fingering his bud had him feeling satisfied, even forgetting why he was pent up in the first place.

moans emitting from your mouth due to the way hes sucking your clit, not even stopping to take a break. stimulating you so hard youre almost at your climax, but you hold it in, wanting to come together with scara. the smell of sex and sweat is filled in the air, tasting his sweet, sweet juices, the flavors dancing delightfully on your tongue. "nnghf! y/n...gonna cum..!" he mutters out, sending vibrations to your clit.

"together..!" were the last words you said before both of the individuals squirted on each others faces. sucking and lapping up the juices that were dripping out. moans and grunts escaping from your lips, and scara tried catching up with his breathing. he let out a sigh, his breath escaping in pants. wet patches staining the bedsheets.

getting off of him, you plop your worn out body next to his. "enjoy?" gently removing the restraints, you tenderly caress his soft cheeks "yeah, whatever." chuckling before kissing his lips. "im tired. lets sleep now." he would mutter out before snuggling himself to your neck. cuddling him to sleep. you guys were exhausted already and you could always clean up the next day. scara forgot all about kazuha, now his worries were gone.

requests open!

[thebisexualdogdad]

Hello my good sir/person! I was wondering if you wrote for Transmasc!Readers? I kinda got my idea based on your One Piece characters reacting to Reader changing so. If you do write for Transmasc!Readers then could I possibly request a Zoro x Transmasc!Reader where he walks in on Reader changing and he's either wearing a binder or has top surgery scars (whatever you're comfy with), Reader freaks out a bit about Zoro seeing him this way but Zoro reassures him that it's okay?

Idk it sounded kinda cute 👉👈

Feel free to ignore if it's not your jam, I won't take it personally.

Have a good day/night!

Roronoa Zoro x trans male!reader

Standing in front of the full body mirror propped between yours and Zoro's bunks, you remove your shirt to inspect yourself after a fight against some pirates on the island you were docked at.

You fought alongside Zoro and your crewmates, successfully dodging their swords and bullets but you did find a bruise blooming on your ribs where one of them had sucker punched you.

Raising one arm in the air you examine the bruise, running two fingers along it making you wince but then the scars on your chest catch your attention and your fingers trace over them as well.

You were going to have to tell your friends the truth about yourself eventually but you had only joined the strawhats two months ago and weren't quite sure how they would react.

This wasn't exactly something openly talked about in the East Blue afterall.

You're lost in your train of thought and taken aback by the sound of Zoro’s voice behind you, “damn man what happened to you?”

You instantly knew he wasn't talking about the bruise.

You had gotten quite close to Zoro over the last two months but you hadn't yet found the courage to tell even him.

Despite sharing a room you always made sure to be clothed when he was nearby only changing with the door locked or in the ship's bathroom.

Turning around your hands instinctively cover your chest and you sputter out, “it's-it's nothing.”

“Did someone do that to you?” Zoro questions stepping closer to you.

“No I… I did this to myself… well I mean I choose to do this,” you ramble nervously.

“What are you talking about Y/N?” He says confused.

“Zoro I- I need to tell you something,” you say, removing your hands and exposing your scars, “I'm a man but… I was born a woman.”

He stands there staring at you for a moment before it finally sinks in, “oh… so your chest… those scars-”

“I found a doctor last year in a village known for their practices in experimental medicine, he performed the surgery and made my chest look more like a mans,” you explain.

“Wow… that's actually pretty cool,” he says.

“You think it's cool?” You say surprised, “you don't care that I wasn't born a man.”

“I believe people should be free to live their most fulfilling lives regardless of gender, if you say you are a man then in my eyes you are one and it has been an honor to fight by your side the last few months and I know everyone on the crew would say the same,” he states.

You gulp, holding back the tears welling, “thank you Zoro.”

“And don't worry, I won't tell any of the others but I promise whenever you’re ready they are going to be just as proud of you as I am,” he continues.

“You don't know how much that means to me,” you tell him.

It's quiet for a second before he chuckles, “anyways, Sanji sent me in here to tell you dinner is ready.”

“Right, let me get dressed, I'll be out in a minute,” you smile.

Zoro leaves you alone and you look at your scars in the mirror again, this time feeling like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders.

Very few people in your life knew about your secret but you were glad Zoro was now one of them.

[luesmainblog]

with the misogynists being much more open and loud now, i'm seeing a lot of people basically say to just stop sleeping with men entirely. so here is my gentle shoutout to all the men who are heartbroken over this election; all the men who are worried about their friends and family, about their own safety, about the safety of strangers. shoutout to the men who've been fighting alongside us, to the men using their power to try and defend the weak, and to the men who have no power and need protecting right now too. you are not the problem, you are not nearly as rare as people think you are, and you should not be blamed for the actions of supremecists.

extra hard shoutout to the trans men bc the people who say this shit always either forget about you entirely or treat you like you're just women with a quirk, or they treat you with the same gross behavior they show cis men and then break their brains trying to comprehend the idea of a jack black lookalike with a vagina. you are Men, you Are part of who i am talking about, you deserve safety and love, and you are not 'part of the problem' simply for being men. and if you've been out here fighting and protecting, may they cheer for you from valhalla.

[blood-and-poetry]

I dont at all think you intended it this way (and you don't at all need to publicly respond to this ask), but the post you recently reblogged from midnightssea contains a lot of gateway-TERF ideology (setting up men as inherently/naturally/biologically oppressors and women as a inherently/naturally/biologically oppressed class; drawing false equivalences; presenting this argument in hard absolutes with language like, "if you believe this, you're not really a feminist"). Often--not always! But often--this kind of mild, measured, not obviously TERF-y feminist discourse is used as a reasonable gateway to attract smart, compassionate, thoughtful people to agree with some base tenets of this ideology and ultimately encourage sympathy to more radical claims. Again, I'm not saying any of this to publicly call you out! That post just contains a few dog whistles and I want to make sure that you can hear them.

I’ve been scrolling through my blog for minutes to figure out which damn post you mean only to figure out that I reblogged that on my main @librinaut and not here. I feel kinda pressured to answer this, which is stupid in itself but I will post this to my feel-good blog even though I don’t like discourse here. This is meant in the kindest way possible, I am just not very good at not sounding passive aggressive. First of all, because it seems to be so important on tumblr to check every OP we reblog from lol, as you can see when you click on the original post, midnightssea specifially dislikes transphobia and tagged that post accordingly. Secondly, I have been following her for quite some time and she knows exactly what she is talking about when she is addressing feminist issues. I have a background in sociology and I have read my very fair share of theory so I might be in an ok position to judge that. I am not naive, I am educated in this matter and I know exactly what I am talking about or agreeing to. Nothing what she says has a hidden meaning and everything she says is correct. Now that’s out of the way: I think it’s incredibly heart breaking how basic feminist theory gets called a “dog whistle” or a “gateway” as if we are talking about a dangerous ideology here. Again, I am educated in those things and I hate how on tumblr or twitter terms like that are thrown around without any background or meaning. You seem to already have an issue with what OP directly said. Direct meaning isn’t a dogwhistle. I can guarantee you that OP dislikes transphobes, so there isn’t even a hidden meaning behind what you already disagree with. If neo-nazis (people who actually use dogwhistles especially in real life public settings) were using dogwhistles like that a lot of people in law enforcement etc would have much easier jobs. So no, dog whistles don’t work like that. In fact I have yet to see an actual dog whistle when tumblr calls one out. What OP talked about is basic knowledge, proven by statistics and historic records over and over again. If facts in regards to feminism are “problematic” then we are heading for some wild times the next decades. I also don’t quite grasp how what she wrote has anything to do with trans people. I heavily dislike how we are using terms such as “transphobia” “dog whistle” etc to describe the most basic grounds of feminism. Also painting it as if trans people are somehow all inherently opposed to feminism or the fight against patriachal structures. Which in turn at least my trans friends would find quite insulting. This is such a great example of how tumblr shoots itself in the seemingly progressive foot. In the sense of “Hitler was a vegetarian, let’s cancel animal activism” we are cancelling truly progressive, useful terminology and facts because some people who are deemed problematic are also using them alongside things we don’t like. Ultimately damaging progress in the name of owning whoever we want to own. I’m seeing this in a lot of instances, not just with this example. This is not meant in a mean or condescending way but seriously, without a personal moral compass all of us are in danger of falling for blind ideology and hollow buzzwords. I love when people disagree with me because it makes me question my own opinion and gives me an opportunity to expand or change it. But just talking about how something is problematic because it uses certain words isn’t an opinion I can argue against or expand my own knowledge with. It’s like a cardboard cut out of an opinion and I know I will only argue against buzzwords instead of against true arguments. If you are interested in discourse or theory or want to know where I come from: I base my current socipolitical ideological framework roughly around Engels “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”, which gives a great overview of material thinking in regards to class analysis even though I am not agreeing with him on everything. But it’s more about HOW to think and not WHAT to think. It gives some good food for thought regarding feminist class analysis in a capitalist framework though. For data and statistics I recommend “invisible women” by Caroline Criado-Perez and the Women’s Atlas (there are new ones every few year I think?). It’s mainly just numbers and you can form your own opinion based on that. A lot of times there are pdfs of these books floating around somewhere. And lastly: This and my main blog focus on feminist issues and just... on women and my attraction to women. Under “mp” on this blog (blood-and-poetry) you can find some of my posts about TV shows and characters that will paint a pretty clear picture on what my personal views are. If you feel uncomfortable with that (which is fair. I have some strong opinions) you can of course unfollow me. Again not meant in an “ugh go away stupid anon” way but in a “maybe we just don’t have anything valuable to contribute to each others life” way. Despite all of this I am thankful for your kind tone and your honest concern! In turn, I am showing some friendly concern and I hope you can read it as such. Take care anon

[bandofchimeras]

the dominant white transmasc culture is actually not very fun in my experience like yes lots of being silly little guys and chilling and making food and dressing like boys and being crafty plant dads and therapists

it does make me feel comfortable and I thought I wanted to be part of this but also it leaves me lonely and I'm trying to put my finger on it

maybe it's that it's so white and feels violent inherently bc of that? Like who are you as people that all your friends are white, are housed, what is protecting you, what are you protecting? parents, institutions?

maybe it is a new tier of assimilation

Or more a reflection of living in white liberal dominated cities/spaces and suburban/secular privilege

there surely are other crazy disabled angry punk ex religious transmasc fags out here

I'm just hung up between ND anxiety good boy culture and my more true and beautiful punk girl teenage rage and realizing even though I am becoming more mature and healing, healing doesn't always mean assimilating into quietness and comfort, even if that's part of it

It's domesticity I'm sick of, like we all know how to do that and do it better than cishets, but I'm looking to get thrown around at a metal show and hold my own and own some guy in a fight or rave and dance and fuck and be able to speak my mind freely without the anxiety and caretaking and control that come with security

I get why the trans people who can have it want it but doesn't it leave you empty? don't you see your fate bound up in your neighbors? Don't you want to fight alongside your brothers to take down institutions or get people resources? channel all that rage you've learned to swallow out of fear of being an abusive asshole? become warriors with the hearts of lovers? grow fangs and teeth? own a gun or a knife and know how to use it safely? don't you want to own your own power, and make the right people feel safe?

maybe the world is hungry for transmasc punk

Nimona awakened this demon in me again but I love this demon, it's actually a god of war and love

[wutheringheightsfilm]

okay actually i will.

thesis statement: white liberals care more about a theoretical project that trump may or may not enact if he becomes president again than anything else and ignore the fact that state governments in many states under biden's purview are already taking the supposed 'steps' that project 2025 entails but somehow you all think project 2025 will get enacted immediately overnight in november 2024.

the fact that every single day people can say until they die that biden is a supporter of genocide and it does not get worse than this guaranteed some white liberal will hop on that post and be like "BUT trump will be WORSE! what about the oncoming TRANS GENOCIDE!? project 2025!!!" okay, tell me in less words that you

don't care and don't see those living in other countries as real life people who matter and

don't realize that a lot of the tenets and policy ideas discussed in project 2025 are already being enacted by state governments right now and joseph r biden the supposed savior of us all and his friends are doing nothing to stop it

don't care about trans people living and breathing in the US already because:

trans women and trans people of color especially trans women of color are already facing murder and higher rates of discrimination than their white counterparts. but none of you ever talk about that. in fact most of you hate trans women but that's another post.

the people that constantly bring up project 2025 also don't acknowledge the fact that it is and primarily always will be about white supremacy, not solely about gender and sexuality. right alongside the paragraphs you keep quoting that project 2025 seeks to get rid of trans people is the fact that they also want to ban critical race theory and have a return to form with the nuclear family (a white supremacist notion). see here examples of problems these people see with the US gov currently:

they also discuss enabling visa sanctions (in a context where if they want to mass deport/expel people, countries have to accept those deportees or else visas to the US will be sanctioned) and a large, large tenet in their policy is mass deportation and internment camps, discuss wanting to intervene in venezuela, intervening in mexico, intervening in other central and south american countries (colombia, guyana, and ecuador to name a few). even according to the washington post they want to deploy the military as domestic law enforcement. but none of y'all talk about that.

i'm not trying to say trans rights aren't important or something because they are and it's abhorrent that trans people are still seen as subhuman and of course we must fight against this, but it really seems like yall only started caring about these plans when you realized that trans people (and by extension the rest of the LGBT community) would be threatened by this. you completely minimize what project 2025 is (a white supremacist, pro isolationist and fascist regime plan that for some reason you think can be out voted because you guys love to believe that you can out vote fascism).

but you all do this because you never cared about white supremacy, you never cared about racism, you never cared about xenophobia. that much is obvious because you all were and are silent about the fact that ICE is still keeping people in cages at the border under biden's direction, cops are STILL killing black people and biden himself is uplifting them and supporting cop city, and, OH YEAH, joseph r biden himself is co signing isn'treal's genocide of palestinians right now in real time.

i also don't think you guys realize how unpopular project 2025 is in conservative circles. you guys seem to all think every republican wants this to happen, and that's far from the truth. in this case, this is literally just trump's little gaggle of supporters being a very very vocal minority; the idea that thousands of people want this to happen is a complete lie.

TLDR continuing to use project 2025 as your own personal strawman whenever people tell you that biden is a genocide enabler and is aiding and abetting the genocide of a people is beyond disgusting. this really is a situation of the lesser evil being the evil that is less relevant to you or the one you can ignore, huh? because literally half the time you all get called out for this you immediately turn to saying essentially that "dirty foreigners don't matter in comparison to me and my friends".

if i speak about how i really feel about libs constantly bringing up project 2025 all the time i think yall would put my head on a pike but i really am about to do it....

[wishfxljikan]

me: alright new fnaf game don’t get attached don’t get attached don’t get attached don’t go to the community

me, about 8 hours later: fuck

me, 12 hours after that: god damnit I’m attached.

I can’t escape the himbo bear and the sassy child, the gay gator, trans rights roxanne and Trash eating bi bird

anyways h/cs with hopefully no spoilers without understanding of the timeline cuz it’s been a good 7 years since I decided to think about the lore and all I know is “haha dead kids” from fnaf2

personal h/cs - I don’t like the trend of dead childrens possess animatronics so what if they were their own sentience entities instead, meaning everyone below is of my own base of this h/c so brrrrr - None of these guys go off batteries / power, they’re all self-powered and self sustainable, their own wills and needs/wants

ROXANNE - trans, fight me and die if you disagree - Listens to more Rock music than Monty ever has in his lifetime - actually really wants to see what Actual cars can do and not the toy ones in the Pizza Plex - “Monty is such a fucking dumbass don’t listen to him” (instantly listens in on him) - Playfully jabs @ Monty and Freddy - Always tries to be just as flashy and out there to impress the others but they’re fine with just how she is. - hardcore inferiority complex, the others know of this and help them through it when possible. - Listens to Eurobeat / Eurodance in secret. - Sits at the racing game arcade machines in free time. - Lesbian

MONTGOMERY - Gay I C O N - Is the only one who knows Rox’s likes for Eurobeat / Eurodance - Not the smartest but has good intentions i.e giving the sassy child a gun to fend themselves with - Yeah good luck finding out where he gets those weapons - actively swears off stage - Unironically has memorized all of Alfred’s Eggman Lines - The swear jar exists only for Monty and the occasion Roxanne / Chica - Actually prefers J-Rock and Chill Electronic stuff over Rock/Punk Rock/etc... - Is the only one that plays the Dance Dance Revolution Arcade Machine out of the four - Super competitive, like, REALLY competitive. He likes watching the competition. - Sadly the easiest to manipulate, anger issues are something he’s been working on but there’s a blindspot that easily allows him to be controlled :( - Rhythm Game nerd - Yeah he’s FC’ed Soulless 4 Unnerfed, what about it?

FREDDY - Dad. - Not that dad, filthy animal, Family-Dad - A himbo, we all know this by now, huh? - These three are his best friends, and if anything bad were to happen to them he’d shut down emotionally. - Secretly yearns to escape from the Fazbear Company with his friends, he and chica have been there the longest and they want out - Has kept himself sane through all of this hell over the years. Doesn’t know how, but he’s completely mellowed out. - Secretly in love with Montgomery - Scans Monty just to call him “yep, gay” every day. - They never get tired of it. - He lowkey acts as Monty’s therapist and honestly some nights they all have just personal singing sessions, let it all out, guys. - Prefers to listen to Jazz / Pop Rock / J-Rock / Electronic Swing, taking notes from everyone’s interests - He’s slowly learning how to draw from the kids... - Bleed-in memories from the past, was that him, or was it someone else as him? Doesn’t know. - Also Bisexual

CHICA - Has been alongside Freddy since the beginning, also shares that bleed-in memory effect, very confusing - Punk Rock, Rock, Speedmetal, Trance, Jazz--the most unpredictable music genre one of all of them. - Was the one who showed Guitar Hero to Monty. - Bisexual - You realize no one here is straight, right? - The main one there with Coming Out parties - “ GET THIS HET OFF OF ME, FREDDY.” - Get them something that isn’t trash...pls--the FINEST metals and stuff like come on-- - “I miss my wife, Freddy, I’ll be back---” - Also joins Monty on the memorizing the snapcube lines - Genuinely enjoys everything Roxanne does and says

THEY. ADOPT. THE. CHILD.

that’s it, that’s the post.

edit -- oooo secret link, wonder where this goes

[daloy-politsey]

On my first date with Yehoram, I offered him a sip of my prosecco at the hip Tel Aviv bar I had brought him to. He tensed, paused and quietly replied, “I’m not sure if I can. I don’t know if it’s kosher.” I immediately recognized his confession for what it was: a coming-out. I told him that it’s fine, that we can ask the waitress if the wine has a certification, that I grew up in an observant family too. He finally breathed.

I already knew that Yehoram is female-to-male transgender. In fact, it was the only thing written on his dating profile. Over the course of our year-long relationship, and then our seamless transition into friendship late last year, he explained to me that the queer community will often accept that he is trans but not that he is religious. But the same is not always necessarily true of the religious community – and particularly of his family.

There are many preconceptions about his family. The matriarch Mazal, 74, and patriarch Yehiel, 78, were both born in Sana’a, Yemen, and immigrated to the newly-declared State of Israel in early childhood. (Haaretz is honoring their request not to publish the family name.) They are visibly Haredi: Mazal wears long skirts and tucks her hair into modest black caps; Yehiel trims his salt-and-pepper beard, and wears a uniform of crisp dress shirts, black pants and a black velvet kippa.

They speak with heavy Yemenite accents – which have been at least partially adopted by their seven children – and their speech is seasoned with religious aphorisms and allusions. People are surprised to learn that Yehoram, 32, is accepted and supported by his parents, to a degree that is rare even in the secular homes of Tel Aviv.

At their kitchen table in a town near Rehovot, central Israel, Mazal has set out water, juice and a homemade cake. Yehiel has set down a voice recorder of his own, to make sure he isn’t misrepresented. They have a story to tell about being the parents of a trans son, and they have decided that I am allowed to tell it.

Before we begin the interview, both are apprehensive. After much deliberation, they decide that I can publish their names but not their images. Yehiel is a respected figure in religious circles: he serves as his synagogue’s main cantor on the High Holy Days, is a mezuzah scribe and kashrut supervisor for the Chief Rabbinate. He spends his free time poring over religious texts, with Yehoram often alongside him. His son no longer attends the local synagogue in which his father plays so large a role; the congregation knew him before his transition, and it could hurt his family’s reputation.

If someone goes to the rabbi with this article in hand and tells Yehiel that he’s out of the fold, “at our age, there’s no fight left. There’s nothing you can do,” he says. “It would destroy me.” When he thinks I cannot hear him, he says that he suspects that one of his contracts as a kashrut supervisor was not renewed for this exact reason – because of his unconventional family.

But if getting his story out shows religious parents that they can embrace their own LGBTQ children, he wants it published. “I want to help,” he says.

Mazal chimes in. “Both of us do. You hear these stories about parents throwing their children out ... I don’t understand it. I don’t understand how you throw out your child.”

She recounts going to the shivah of a friend of Yehoram’s – the transgender queer activist DanVeg, who took her own life in 2016.  “I saw them all in the living room, with their heads on each other’s shoulders. I started to cry. I wanted to hug them all, to go one by one. And they came to me; they saw the look in my eye. There was a man who had become a woman, who came to hug me. And a young girl, and more. I couldn’t take it,” she says, wiping away tears that are coming faster and faster. “More and more of them told us that they’re alone, abandoned by their parents. How can you throw out your child? The child of a human being!”

I get up to hug her, and she cries into my back: “Why? Why would you throw your child out of your house? Why?”

They say they never suspected that Yehoram was different before he came out to them, if not unconventionally, as queer at the age of 18, some 14 years ago.

He did not employ the usual lexicon: “I told them, this is how I am – I’m wearing pants from now on and I’m not interested in men,” he recounts. In Yehoram’s absence, Yehiel recalls it as well. Yehoram sat his parents down in the living room and said his piece, and then asked his parents for a response.

“We got up immediately, as if it were coordinated,” Yehiel says. “We hugged [him] from both directions … and we told [him], ‘You have nothing to be afraid of, no need to worry. You’re our daughter, it doesn’t matter what you do.’” Yehoram then opened his backpack to show a couple days’ clothes inside. “If you didn’t accept me, I would have killed myself,” he told his parents.

From there, they worked to make sure that their son wouldn’t, for one moment, forget that he is loved and cared for. They also made sure that he could live a normal life. “It was important that he be self-sufficient, have a respectable career, be able to build a life without us,” Yehiel explains. “Every day, I’m afraid that he won’t be here. I think about how he can build his life so he’s not dependent on anyone else.”

Mazal and Yehiel tend to refer to Yehoram with female pronouns when he isn’t in the room, and occasionally slip into them when he is. To her, Mazal says, he will always be their daughter. “It’s hard for me,” Yehiel concurs. “[He] should be patient.”

Mazal calls him by his chosen name – an anagram of his birth name – to make him happy. “And to connect with [him] – what can you do? We love [him] either way. [He’s] our daughter.”

There have been difficulties in accepting him along the way, she concedes. But like many parents of LGBTQ children, they are mainly rooted in concerns that he will be able to live a safe, fulfilling life.

No one should mistake their acceptance for liberalism – they repeatedly note that the Pride Parades, with their scanty clothes and glitter, are unsightly. “The left brings it in,” Mazal says. “Non-Jews from abroad, with all their tattoos and whatnot.” However, their embrace of their transgender son and the many queer people who have passed through their doors does not come in spite of their firm religious beliefs, but is the direct result of them.

Yehiel, a lifelong religious scholar, has poured over sources biblical, talmudic, rabbinic and kabbalistic. The kabbalistic concept of the soul provides a simple explanation for the transgender phenomenon, he believes.

“We have the knowledge that Jewish souls can be reincarnated into anything – into non-Jewish families, into animals, even into food,” Yehiel explains. “We were taught that the soul of a man can be reincarnated into a woman, in order to remedy something he had done in a past life.”

When Mazal was pregnant with Yehoram, she had already given birth to five daughters and was hoping for a son. The couple went to a respected rabbi, who told them to buy a bottle of wine for the circumcision ceremony and to come see him 40 days into the pregnancy. Yehiel says that when the time came, it was hard to get hold of the rabbi to schedule an appointment, and they were only able to see him eight months in. The rabbi gave them the blessing regardless.

“The body was already formed female,” Yehiel says, but the prayers had worked: “The soul was male.”

And there is scripture to back up the existence of LGBTQ people within Judaism. “You’re not different, you’re not strange,” Yehiel says. “This [phenomenon] has always existed. It’s in the Torah, and it’s in the mystical sources.” Mazal adds: “It’s a shame that we don’t lay this out these days, to have everything written up and organized to say that it’s all there in scripture.”

At 26, Yehoram told his parents he was transitioning. He underwent top surgery – a double mastectomy – without informing them. “On the one hand, it hurt us,” Yehiel admits. “For us, it meant that’s it – it’s sealed. If he’d told us in advance, we would have told him to wait. Maybe the situation would change.”

But what’s done is done, Mazal says. “What hurt me is that [he] underwent the surgery and I wasn’t there. That ate at me.”

Both loudly agree that the important thing is that he is happy and healthy. “We hope just for success – and thank God there are many successes, so everything is alright,” she says. “I’m just waiting for children,” she laughs.

Yehoram, who has taken a seat next to her, smirks. Mazal jokes about him coming home pregnant one day. He’s slightly irked, but jokes along. A couple of years ago, he froze his eggs through Ichilov Hospital’s fertility clinic for transgender men, and hopes to one day become a father, no matter how he has to do it. His parents strongly supported the move. They have 31 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Yehoram asks a question of his own: Whether his parents want to talk about the time they took him to an esteemed rabbi in Tel Aviv, after he came out at 18.

“After he told us everything, we consulted with a rabbi,” Yehiel relays. “I remember that he got angry and yelled at him. I didn’t like that. He hurt him, and I couldn’t stay any longer, so we left.”

“The rabbi told me that I had lapsed, deteriorated in my spirituality,” Yehoram explains. It’s clear that he remembers it vividly. “That I had fallen.”

After that, the rabbi told him to leave the room, and for his parents to stay. “I heard shouting, and then you left the room,” he says to his parents. “You didn’t say anything, I didn’t say anything. We were quiet all the way home.”

No one discussed the incident for days after, and they barely spoke at all. After three days, Yehoram says, he asked his mother what had happened after the rabbi told him to leave the room.

“I didn’t know what happened, I assumed the worst. You told me that [Dad] got very angry and told [the rabbi], ‘How dare you hurt and belittle a Jewish soul?’ You said you had to give him however much money, and that you just threw a small bill onto the table and left the room,” Yehoram tells his mother. “It really surprised me. I thought you were on his side, and then I suddenly heard that you were on mine.”

When he is with us in the room, Yehoram sometimes seems agitated by his parents’ insistence that their acceptance has always been complete. He tries to direct them toward other instances, other rabbis they don’t or won’t recall. It is often difficult for parents to acknowledge the pain or discomfort that their actions caused their children, even if they were accidental. Mazal brings out a picture from Yehoram’s bat mitzvah, of them embracing the young girl he was. They look almost exactly the same, 20 years later, beaming. Young Yehoram, in a long-sleeved, high-necked dress, is smiling, but the smile does not reach his eyes.

Elisha Alexander, co-CEO and founder of the transgender advocacy and information organization Ma’avarim, says that even though Yehiel and Mazal’s acceptance of their son may seem unique, he would like to think it’s more common than we assume.

“There are religious and even ultra-Orthodox people who accept their trans family members, but it’s usually in secret. The main problem in these communities is the leadership,” he says.

But if more of them realized that embracing their children was a matter of pikuach nefesh – the Jewish concept that saving a life supersedes most religious commandments and norms – they would be more inclined to find a halakhic solution to integrating transgender people into these communities.

There is also a misconception that acceptance is a binary choice: That any parent who does not kick their transgender child out of the house or disown them has, by default, accepted them. “This could not be further from the truth,” Alexander says. “Accepting your child means accepting every aspect inherent to them, including their gender identity, pronouns and so on.”

When parents refuse to do so, their child may seek acceptance elsewhere. He adds that studies show that acceptance within the family drastically reduces the suicide rate among transgender people.

Knowing this, Yehiel says that any parent in his position must continue loving and supporting their child. “This child can fall,” he says. He does not mention it, but he is aware of the stories and statistics: trans youth who find themselves on the street face high rates of abuse and exploitation. Thirty to 50 percent of transgender teens report suicidal thoughts and behaviors – a rate three times higher than for teens overall. But that figure falls to 4 percent when families accept and embrace them, says Sarit Ben Shimol, manager of the Lioness Alliance for families and transgender children and teenagers.

Yehiel adds that it is the duty of parents to give children the support they need to thrive. “As a parent, it is your responsibility to tell your child: You are my child and you are my life. My life depends on you. Watch over me so that I can watch over you,” he says.

As we get up from our seats, Yehiel looks at me for a moment and asks, “If it’s not too personal – since we already opened up the topic – what is your relationship like with your parents?”

I tell them that I talk to my parents, and especially my mother, almost every day. That it was difficult for them to come to terms with my sexual orientation as well, and that sometimes I have an inkling that it still is, even if they won’t say it outright. But I try to be patient.

“Good,” Mazal says. “It’s important to be patient – they’re learning too.” She embraces me again, and Yehiel rests a hand on my shoulder. They invite me to come again, whenever I like. “After all, you’re like our daughter, too.”

[strawberry-jammers]

One year

a dreamsmp x reader where a young (y/n) wants to rebuild an old old kingdom before they have to be crowned to rule over their parents kingdom. with the help of their friends and a couple of servants, they hope to rebuild it all with out their parent knowing about it.

part one part 2 part 3

part 2/?

masterlist

The lovely @acidicvolt edited this!

this part is just traveling and fluff lmao. it'll pick up in the others <3

this series is so much fun to write, I'm really enjoying it

word count: 2,215

----------

It had reached midnight, the sun long gone and nearly everyone in the castle was asleep, except for three. Karl and Niki made their way to the teens room, which was at the opposite end of the castle.

"Are you sure the king’s asleep? They have been on edge as of late…” Niki said, walking alongside Karl. Karl nods, clutching the bag he always wore. 

“Yeah, checked and everything. He's out like a light.” 

Niki nods, sighing. “Thank god he sleeps on the other side of the castle. We'd be dead if he found out we were helping his kid like this.” 

Karl nods again, looking ahead at where they were going.

In the young teens room, everything was prepared for their expedition. They packed appropriate clothes to sneak around, fight and blend in with. They had food, tools/weapons, along with the letters, money, and the lmanburg page. They were ready and excited to embark on this adventure.

Niki quietly knocks on the door, opening it a crack. Seeing that (y/n) was alone, she walks in, followed by Karl who closes the door behind them. (y/n) sighed, thankful it wasnt Eret. 

“So, you know the plan?” they ask. 

Niki nods, holding onto her own bag. 

"Okay, I'm staying behind to tell the king you two went on a camping trip for the next year or so. Somewhere in the middle of the woods where he can't check in to see where you are." Karl says to the two of them. 

"Thank you again Karl for doing that. " (y/n) says, leading Niki to their window. "Niki, you know enough of the plan right?" They asked, grabbing the ladder they had in case they ever needed to escape. 

"Yeah. We're heading to Tommy’s castle first right?" She asked, watching as (y/n) opened their window. A soft breeze entered the room. 

"Yep! Then we'll try to find Tubbo. Ready?" (y/n) said, hooking the ladder to the window and throwing it out the castle, trying to not make a noise. 

(y/n) looked down. It wasn't too high up, but it was still a bit scary. They looked back at the two servants, nodding. “Karl, when we reach the ground, bring the ladder back up and close the window. I'll go first. Again, thank you Karl, see you in a year!” with that, (y/n) climbed out the window onto the ladder. the two servants nodded, Niki going over to the window, watching the teen start to climb down the wobbly ladder. 

Once (y/n) got far enough down, they waved their hand for Niki to go after them. Niki smiled over at Karl. “It was nice meeting you, Karl.” she said, making the brunette smile as well. “It was! See you in a year Niki! Take care.” she nodded, grabbing her bag, making sure nothing was left behind. Once she saw everything was in check, she went down, following her new friend.

“Man, I should've worn a thicker sweater.” Niki said, finally reaching the ground. “Yeah, I should've checked before we left. Too late now though.” (y/n) responds, watching as the ladder slowly shrank back up into their room. The two of them waved at Karl, who smiled back at them. “Alright, where to go first? We can't just go straight to the tundra.” Niki said, watching as (y/n) looked around. It was still pretty dark out, so they hoped it wouldn't turn a day before they even left the castle grounds. “Well we need to find some transportation for when we exit the forest. Cant be going thru town, it's too early for that.'' Niki nodded, looking over at the forest. “Got any torches?” (y/n) asked the pinkett. Niki nodded, shuffling into her bag, pulling out an unlit torch and lighter. “Yep, need one?” (y/n) shook their heads. “Only one of us needs one for now, well just gotta stay close together. Let's go, we can't stay here forever.” (y/n) says, chuckling softly. “Of course! Let's go!”

The two of them entered the forest close to the castle, leaving it behind. (y/n) had no regrets, they knew they needed this, even if eret forbid them. Niki was excited, she hadn't gone on an adventure since she was small, so it was a nice change of pace.

“Yknow (y/n), we’ve never actually met properly before this. Only in passing.” she said, stepping over a thick tree root. (y/n) followed, nearly tripping. “Really? I didn't notice. Though, i was held up in my room for awhile there.” they said, looking at all the trees that encased the two of them. No matter how many years go by, they still found nature to be beautiful. “Yeah, I did become one of the king's cooks when you were 16, not too long ago.” she said,pulling a branch up for (y/n) to walk past. “Oh thank you. What were you doing before then? Before you started working for my dad.” Niki thought for a second before answering. 

“Well, i was only 18 when he hired me, so i was doing what any kid did at that time. For a while I took up gardening, growing many types of flowers, though they all ended up dying after a while.” she said. (y/n) stopped, noticing the forest was ending. “i did gardening as well when i was young child. Made many flower crowns and such with them.” Niki gasped excitedly at this. “Maybe we can make flower crowns together!! I haven't done it in so long..” (y/n) smiled. ‘Of course we can! We have a whole year after all!” they laughed together, looking out at the forest in front of them. “God I hope your mom doesn't fire me when this is all over…” (y/n) looks over at Niki, giving her a reassuring smile. “Well good thing I'll be the ruler when we get back. You're not getting fired on my watch.” Niki smiled at this. “Thank you (y/n)...should we go now?” (y/n) nodded, looking ahead once more.

The two of them continue to walk, leaving the small forest behind. “Okay, we should be in a farm area. The houses are spaced out so no one should see us. Should take a half hour to an hour to get through. There should be a train station after that. It'll take us to the arctic kingdom." Niki nodded, grabbing some bread from her bag. "Bread?" (Y/n) shook their heads, declining. "I ate before we left. Thanks tho." 

They both walked through the field, the torches flame flickering as they walked. There were no monsters around, since there hadn't been any around the area in 100s of years. They were safe. 

Niki looked at some of the farmland, noticing they had to walk through some of it. (Y/n) noticed it as well. "How do we get through there? They'll notice someone was here in the morning." (Y/n) said, not completely knowing how to get by. "Got any ender pearls?"  

(y/n) thought for a second, looking in their bag for some. “Oh, looks like I do! Got a bag full of ‘em.'' They hand some to Niki, who throws it over the larger field, hoping to get over without touching the wheat. (y/n) followed, both of them successfully getting across the farm.

“I am so glad that worked.” (y/n) said, putting the pearls back in their bag. Niki nodded, sighing. “Is the trans station past those trees?” she asked, pointing towards the small strip of trees not too far ahead of them. “Yeah, behind there's the train station. An old friend of mine runs it. Lets go!” 

The two of them basically run across the field, not wanting to waste a second of their time. The sun would rise at any moment, and they really wanted to get out of town before it rose. 

They had reached the trees, their original torch being burnt out from all the running. Niki grabbed and lit another, the two of them heading into the small patch of trees to the train station.

The station wasn't too much to brag about, a boring old timey train station was all it was. There was no train in sight, making the (h/c) haired teen sigh. “Damnit, the train might not be here for another several hours.” they said, heading up to the platform. Niki followed, smiling slightly. “Could be worse. Not sure how much worse but it could be worse.” 

The two of them sat at a random bench in the area, looking at the map (y/n) had packed.

“So the kingdom is all the way over there, which is about 6 hours by foot. Taking the train would be around the same pass but we wouldn't be out in the open.” (y/n) says, pointing their finger along the route they need to take. “Is there a way to get there any faster?” (y/n) shrugged, looking over the map. “We could either go through the towns and such, or we could get some horses and get there that way. Wouldn't know how to get any of those, they're kinda rare in this area.'' Niki nodded, thinking for a second.

Both of their thoughts were cut off by someone's cheery voice. “Hello! It's been a long time, hasn't it (y/n)?” They looked over to see their old friend, Jack Manifold, approaching the two of them. (y/n) smiled, standing up and walking over to the said man. “Eyyyy Manifold! Good to see ya!” The two of them hug, separating soon after. (y/n) looked over at Niki. “Hey, have you met Niki?” Niki smiled, putting the map in her bag, standing up as well. “Indeed i have! To be fair, it was a brief interaction. “Nice to see ya, Niki.” 

She nodded. “Nice to see you too, Jack.” (y/n) smiled, looking back over at Jack.

"Jack, we need to get to the arctic kingdom, do you know when the trains coming back?" They asked the slightly smarter man. He nodded. "Won't be coming back till noon today. I'm just here because I forgot something." (Y/n) looked up at the sky. It was getting lighter out. They sighed, looking back down at Jack. "We can't wait that long. Know any other way to get out of town fast?" 

"Well, I could lend you my horse. Most of the time he just sits here and cry's." I looked at Niki, who seemed to be pleased with the offer. "Mind if we take him? We'll return him at some point obviously." Jack nodded, starting to go around the train station. "I'll be in the arctic kingdom a day or so from now, so you can return him then!" We follow Jack behind the station, where his horse sat tied up while eating some grass. 

"His name is thunder, good lad. Constantly sad tho." Jack unties the reins from the pole, handing them to Niki. "Say, what's your trip for anyway?"  Jack asked the two of them. (Y/n) answered. "We're going to see prince Tommy to recruit him to a project we're working on. Top secret stuff man." Jack nodded. "Seems fun. Might join you if I feel like it. Well, have fun you two." They nodded, Niki getting onto the horse and bringing him to the front of the station. "Oh, by the way. You can't tell anyone I was here, at least for the reason I am here. I know I've asked for a lot but if anyone asked, can you tell them I went camping somewhere in the woods?" 

Jack nodded, smiling at the teen. "It's fine, secret adventures are cool anyway. I'll keep your secret, now grab your stuff and have fun on your journey." They smiled, hugging the male. "Thanks Jack, I'll repay you eventually." They say while letting go of their friend. 

He nodded. "Anytime (y/n). Now go, Niki’s waiting." They nodded, running off to the front of the station. They spotted Niki on thunder, who held all our bags. I looked up at her. "You know how to ride a horse?" They asked, trying to get up onto the horse. Niki giggled, helping them up. "Yeah, I was taught when I was younger. Come on, gotta get out of here before the sun rises right?" (Y/n) smiled, latching onto Niki lightly, so as to not fall off. 

"Yeah, lets go!" They took off, running along the tracks. The sun rose as they went, turning the sky into a pinkish color. 

Niki slowed the horse down a bit, staring at the beautiful sky. "I love the sunrise…" (y/n) hummed in agreement, resting their head on Niki’s shoulder. 

"I haven't seen it in awhile. Always amazes me." Niki nodded, smiling softly. "Should we continue or just watch the sunrise?" (Y/n) chuckled, lifting their head off the woman's shoulder. "We should go. Maybe we could watch the sunrise tomorrow. 

Niki nodded, returning the horse to his original pace. 

They left towards a small path in the forest, leaving towards the arctic kingdom where they'll hopefully find the first person they need to reach. 

Hopefully.

-----

series tag list, ask if you wanna be added! 

@xx-smiley-xx 

[pluralsword]

No question about it. Arcee could totally crush Oryx (sorry pal). She is much older than him including in sheer combat experience. She is one of the foremost warriors ever. Period. Full stop.

She is sometimes older than many if not all societies in Destiny, and if not spanning a significant amount of their history. She's killed Liege Maximo, an ancient Prime. The fuck'n T-800 unit in the Transformers vs. Terminator crossover assessed her as a maximum level threat. She is known for the sheer pile of corpses she's left in her wake, whether alone or fighting alongside friends and loved ones, never relenting, giving her all, with practiced wisdom in fury or coolness or both in equal measure, and something more...

You know what the most dangerous thing about her is? It's not her martial skill. It is her capacity to love, observe, think, learn, and plan. She knows as love at some point or across much of her life (it depends) as the strongest thing in the universe, and wants nothing more than autonomous peace for all, and is willing to speak to that, to formulate understanding of hierarchy and opposition to it, to persist even hegemonies alienate and other her and people dear to her, even when she's been through unbearable pain, ostracism, loneliness and continuing to try and fight for her kid Gauge even when things seem hopeless *sobs...*

even if you go all the way back to her 86 bio and to Sunbow or Marvel G1 (e.g. "Aspects of Evil Part 2" Transformers UK #224) prior to her intentional trans writing (2012 onwards) she speaks to the power of peace and dignity to prevail against hegemony, or reflects the deep capacity to be ferocious with and for love. Her Earthrise toy of recent years came with a motto: "Ferocity without compassion is brutality."

Then there's this from Optimus Prime #24 "A Sunrise Dark (couldn't reblog with the image so reblogging this way":

Three comic panels of Arcee talking with Optimus Prime on Earth. The first is a closeup on Arcee's face looking forward, saying "I don't know. Maybe all we can do is try to love we can and understand who we can't."

In the next panel we see her walking away a bit while Optimus Prime looks up at the sky - where Unicron looms overhead. Arcee says: "But, again... look who you're talking to."

To which Optimus Prime replies "I... I don't know that love can save the day."

The third panel is Arcee from the shoulder side remarking on Optimus's words: "I guess if I learned one thing in my time being a relic, it's that... ...love can't hurt."

There's a somewhat obscure Ask Vector Prime story that reflects this a bit- she helped start a trans revolution of understanding and gender affirmation as a post-war biologist.

Today... Arcee reflects so much. Among many other things, there is this that is immediately relevant to this poll: That for those of us whose trans journeys aren't so simple, that have hurt and pain from interacting and being subject to patriarchies (thinking of androcentrism and transmedicalism that she opposes in IDW1 here in particular) and/or empires, from having to fight so hard to survive- that we can find love and trust, that we need not always war- that our stories have meaning, that as we wisen we have so much to teach.

Oryx has a journey into kindness and love too. We won't besmirch that, from what we know it has it's own beauty. But Arcee's teachings is very much deeply entwined with transformation as an idea, as something the whole world does, and that that can be a fiery hope and part of building a new future.

Also importantly she reformats five times in IDW1. She kind of reflects that the idea of getting it right the first time isn't what everyone experiences- and that trans journeys are not linear. We are always learning more about ourselves.

congratulations to ARCEE for winning the finals of the losers' bracket! but here comes the real question: who's going to be tonight's big loser the real winner of second place? our last second place-r or her?

[faunusrights]

what is going on with all the bias on robyn hill’s wiki page, anyway? - an aside

As someone who uses the RWBY wiki with some degree of frequency - often because I’m looking for art references, or Semblance and weapon names - I’m used to... some amount of bias in the articles for different characters? Like, let’s be real, it’s not a perfect wiki! Community-maintained stuff isn’t easy to all keep on the same track! But, generally, it gives the facts well enough and doesn’t do too bad a job keeping all the balls in the air when it comes to new information from all four corners of this franchise.

Well, until you open the article for Robyn Hill, and realise it’s an absolute disaster. Like, really; the impartial voice just plain doesn’t exist for her, and almost all of her wiki is written in such a way that she reads as being an absolutely insufferable, hostile, hard-to-like character. Even if you aren’t a fan of Robyn personally, you have to admit that if you hadn’t seen the show yourself, you might very well come away from her article presuming she’s a major antagonist of Volumes 7 and 8.

Like, for instance, let’s take a look at the first paragraph of her Personality section:

Robyn has a direct and confident personality, having no trouble being confrontational with Atlas personnel, including the Ace Operatives. Robyn also seems to suffer from overconfidence and arrogance, shown in her encounters with Ruby and celebrating her election victory before it was verified. She is aggressive and hostile in nature, quickly jumping to conflict without thinking through consequences. However, she is also shown to be reasonable when the situation calls for it.

And, for good measure, here’s another paragraph from the same section:

In "With Friends Like These" Robyn displayed a rather impulsive side of her personality, when upon hearing that James Ironwood's plan to abandon Mantle and arrest those against him, she started a fight between herself, Clover Ebi, and Qrow Branwen onboard a Manta with Tyrian Callows in custody. Despite the fact, there was no order or her arrest. Her brashness led to Tyrian breaking free and crashing the Manta as well as her becoming unconscious.

(Taken from Robyn’s RWBY Wiki page. Bolding is mine.)

In every instance here, all of the “negative” aspects of her personality take centre stage; she’s confrontational. She suffers from arrogance. She is aggressive and hostile. She started the fight. Her brashness led to the crash. All of this is only compounded when her positive traits trail behind as an afterthought; she’s direct and confrontational, overconfident and arrogant, aggressive and hostile, impulsive and jumps to conclusions... but hey! As least she’s reasonable when the situation calls for it. 

The way that this information is presented to the reader is quite literally on par with how the wiki presents the personalities of the actual literal villains who appear throughout the show. Let’s take, for instance, the Personality section of Cinder Fall:

Cinder is ruthless and sadistic, as demonstrated when she delivers a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos in "End of the Beginning" and when she throws a spear at a defenseless Weiss Schnee in "The More the Merrier." She is relentlessly driven to gain power and determined to cross any line to obtain it. Cinder demonstrates a cunning that shows in her successful manipulation of events and people throughout the first three volumes. Cinder is also arrogant and egomaniacal, and as such, relishes in dominance and gloating, displaying shameless pleasure in the misery she has caused others.

Or, the Personality section of Raven Branwen:

Raven is cynical, patronizing, selfish and stubborn. She believed her act of "kindness" of saving Yang's life from Neopolitan was sufficient despite having left Yang at a very young age and refused to protect her daughter when in need after that.

Raven is also very prideful and hypocritical, refusing to acknowledge her faults and always trying to justify her actions both to others and to herself, often putting the blame on others for them even if she feels real guilt about them.

It makes sense that for an antagonist, the primary faults and flaws of their personalities will come first, as to better represent them as the villains to clarify to the reader who they are and why they act as they do in their storylines. However, the fact that Robyn arguably has an even more caustic write-up then Raven, despite not being an antagonist, goes to show the lengths this writer has gone to present her in a significantly more negative light than she ever appears in the show.

If this doesn’t seem convincing, let’s look at a more direct comparison; what does the wiki say about Ironwood? He’s present in the same seasons, and has now become more of an antagonist in the latter episodes; is the wiki quite as blunt about his flaws?

Ironwood is courteous to his allies, as shown by his first onscreen interaction with Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch. He is also far-thinking and tactical, wondering about the future, as seen when he speaks to Ozpin about Qrow Branwen's message. He also has a jovial, friendly, humorous and proud public persona, which he uses as a spokesman for the weapon manufacturers of Atlas.

However, as courteous Ironwood may appear, he can also be incredibly blunt, often preferring the direct approach. When he feels necessary, Ironwood is not afraid to bring the full might of his military command to bear, which sparked disagreements with both Glynda and Ozpin. Nevertheless, Ironwood is extremely loyal to his comrades, and however questionable his methods may be, he seems to have genuinely good intentions behind them.

Uh, no.

Instead, when his flaws are mentioned (for example, being blunt), it’s written in a significantly less... abrasive manner. It’s referred to as the direct approach, versus Robyn who is described as confrontational. Even then, his flaws are folded in to his (alleged) positive traits; he is not afraid, extremely loyal, and has genuinely good intentions, despite the fact that the show has now proven that Ironwood’s flaws greatly outweigh these. It reveals how thoroughly all of Robyn’s actions are presented as the work of an arrogant troublemaker, whilst Ironwood’s actions are presented as the efforts of a man working towards some greater good. 

Also, I’ll add that in both examples, I used the first two paragraphs of their Personality sections. These are both the first two things you read about these characters, yet look at how differently they’re summarised.

What is interesting, however, is that despite this bias being extremely self-evident, the comments on her page generally chime agreement, referring to her as “overconfident, arrogant, impulsive and hotheaded to the point of being unlikable”, and claiming that she’s “literally the worse character in the show next to cinder, blake and yang”[1]. Someone mentions that Robyn has earned quite the hatedom... but why?

Broadly, my experiences of Robyn Hill’s writing in the fandom has been through a queer lens, and the vast majority of writers who’ve covered her and the Happy Huntresses have been women, or queer, or trans, or all the above... basically, the people who are usually responsible for a vast majority of fanfiction, let’s be real. These writers love Robyn, and have explored and extrapolated on her character to marvellous degree. Yet, at no singular point have any of these flaws ever been written quite as strongly as the wiki implies they are, nor have I seen much evidence of them myself in the show. For instance, let’s take one of the more serious points in her Personality section; she started a fight between herself, Clover Ebi, and Qrow Branwen [...] her brashness led to Tyrian breaking free and crashing the Manta as well as her becoming unconscious.

When we watch this scene again, Robyn did initiate the fight... because she was rightfully aware that Clover would obey his orders, even if they were wrong. Despite everything that happened prior in the entirety of Volume 7, when given orders to bring Qrow in alongside RWBY, it was clear that Clover fully intended to follow it through, which Robyn knows from prior experience with the AceOps:

[image ID: two images of Clover, Robyn and Qrow in the dark-grey interior of the Manta ship. Robyn has her weapon aimed at Clover as he stands in front of Qrow. Clover is saying “Only Qrow is under arrest [...] please don’t make me arrest you too.”]

Her knowledge of the AceOps means that she reacted accordingly; trying to stop him from taking Qrow in and obeying Ironwood’s plan the only way she knows the AceOps respond to. Her reaction isn’t unwarranted. However, my point isn’t to argue that Robyn was right or wrong, but rather that regardless of who started the fight, the way the wiki explains this specific incident is that it’s solely Robyn’s fault that Tyrian escaped and crashed the Manta, but we know this isn’t the case. Robyn and Qrow both fought Clover, and it was Clover’s good luck (or Qrow’s bad luck, depending on how you view it) that allowed for Kingfisher to break Tyrian’s bonds. Her brashness is blamed for the outcome, but in reality, this outcome could have been avoided together if Clover had not chosen to follow his orders and bring in an innocent man. Also, she didn’t crash the Manta! That was all Tyrian! The intentional tying together of these two events as her fault, however, are a neat package of blame.

In these instances on the wiki, Robyn’s personality appears amplified, focusing specifically on her flaws and exaggerating them to the extremes that, as noted earlier, matches the language used to define the very villains of the series. Yet, the people who enjoy her and the Happy Huntresses often perceive those same flaws to a significantly lesser extent, or even see those flaws as actually being boons of her character; for instance, reading her alleged arrogance as passion. So, why such division?

Before, I mentioned her “negative” traits, and I put this into quote marks because traits don’t always align nicely into good and bad. All aspects of a person can vary on how positive they are based on context - even the show proves this, with protectiveness becoming paranoia (Ironwood) or loyalty becoming subservience (Winter). Even a character that is broadly composed of more unfavourable traits can have this contextual shift; Cinder’s stubbornness to her goals makes her a fast learner and a tenacious opponent.

Yet, why did the writer (or writers) choose to highlight almost every aspect of Robyn’s character as a bad thing? Why did they frame her decisions as such? I have a suspicion it’s to do with her character at large; she’s a bold socialist politician who believes in equality and fairness for all, who refuses to stand for incompetence and obedience towards evil causes. She’s outspoken in her views, and reacts strongly to those who threaten to overturn her work. Also, she’s a woman, in charge of a group of other women, at least one of whom is canonically trans. To those who agree with her in real life, Robyn appears as a great character! We admire her work ethic and we support her ends. To those who may not... well, it’s not hard to see how they might perceive her as more of a cocky, authority-defying upstart. Of course, the core text of RWBY doesn’t quite believe the latter; RWBY has always placed Robyn as the direct counter to authoritarianism, whether it be Jacques, Clover, or Ironwood, and even the article admits that she is a potent voice for the people of Mantle. Still, it’s clear that there’s plenty of people in a vocal minority who are deeply dissatisfied by Robyn, and aren’t afraid to make their stance on the matter exceedingly clear.

So, what does this all mean? Well, here’s what we can say for sure; Robyn’s article is, and has always been, stringently biased against her character, and often misconstrues her motives and decisions. This is maybe the more obvious part, but how should her article be worded to make this less so? Likely, I’d rephrase a lot of it to be less damaging to her character; she isn’t hostile, she holds people accountable. She isn’t quick to jump to conflict, she is familiar with how Atlas responds to anti-authority with violence. She isn’t arrogant, she believes in the power of the people as being the right thing to fight for. Even this makes it clearer that her character is about resisting the oppression inherent in Atlas, and is a much clearer outline of her personality as a whole. People may disagree with this phrasing and summary also, but given her character is based on Robin Hood, it’s also not far from the mark in terms of what she should represent.

TL;DR: Robyn’s wiki page is written with a deep bias against her character and what she represents, acts upon, and chooses to do in the show; I have no doubt that in canon, this sort of language would probably be used by Jacques himself as a smear campaign, haha. Whilst I can’t speak for the author and their motives, I have a distinct feeling that this article was written, or edited, by someone who is either:

not a fan of Robyn

not a fan of a new female character

not a fan of a new female character in a position of power

not a fan of a character with socialist/communist/antifa ideals

all of the above and then some???

Even though I’m not going to edit her wiki page (I’m very shy and I’ve never done it before), I think it’s worth analysing this if only as a reminder of the inherent biases of an author even when people are trying to present a character’s information impartially. This isn’t the first wiki I’ve seen misconstrue - or even make incorrect assumptions on - facts about a character, and it won’t be the last. In the meantime, though, I leave you with this fact:

Robyn Hill slaps huge nuts and I love her.

[1] I’m not naming the users who posted these things here, because it’s unnecessary. You can find them for yourself at the bottom of Robyn’s wiki, but there’s no need to respond; some people just don’t like Robyn, and that’s fine - I’m just explaining how bias leaks into wikis like water into a sponge. It happens!

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Strings”

Happy Saturday, RWBY friends! I am, quite obviously, going to dive into the recap in just a moment, but first I wanted to take a short detour to discuss the elephant in the tumblr room. Namely, Supernatural.

For those of you out of the loop, the tl;dr is that a fifteen year, beloved show ended with a truly horrendous finale. Specifically, the finale rejected everything that the show had been building towards: the logical conclusion to character arcs, the theme that “family don’t end in blood,” the potential for a queer romantic relationship… I could go on. The point I want to make is that the fandom had every reason to believe we’d be getting these things. This isn’t a case of fans upset that the finale didn’t go the way they wanted as an individual viewer, but rather that the finale didn’t go the way the show clearly and explicitly said it would. It’s not an exaggeration to say that in many respects, viewers were straight up lied to.

(I recommend reading the reviews.) 

What does this all have to do with RWBY? Well, I can’t help but think that history is repeating itself. Certainly there are some notable similarities between the two series. Both have long, meandering plotlines with no clear end in sight (though I hope RWBY doesn’t reach the 15 Volume mark…). Both began with a small, core cast, but quickly expanded—generating the expectation that these now equally important characters will be given their due. Both have moved from the small conflict of fighting everyday monsters to a god-based mythology. Both have a popular queer relationship dangled in front of the viewers, featuring scenes where they’re “obviously” in love… but will it ever be confirmed? Both have a fanbase that says loudly and confidently that the writers know what they’re doing. Just wait! It’s all been planned! We’ll be rewarded for our patience and soon all the naysayers will be proven wrong.

Thing is, the Supernatural fandom wasn’t rewarded. Right up until a week ago those fans—myself included—had faith that the writers knew what they were doing because they can’t really be that out of touch with their own story...right? It’s not possible. Yet they were, it was, and now that I’ve gotten solid proof of precisely how far a show can go to reject its own logic, themes, and premise, that just makes me more wary of RWBY’s mistakes. Before I had a solid faith that things couldn’t possibly get that bad, that no matter how much RWBY might be messing up in the short term, it will undoubtedly pull it together overall, because what show wouldn’t? Especially a show with such promise and, at times, wonderful storytelling. Well, Supernatural didn’t manage it and frankly I’m not sure what to do with that information.

Seriously. I don’t have any grand conclusion here. It’s not my intention to suggest that anyone should stop watching RWBY, or to claim that it will absolutely fail because Supernatural did. Obviously, we don’t know what will happen until we get to see it in the show. I only want to acknowledge these parallels and the similar journey I see both fanbases on. I can’t help but wonder if, a couple years from now, RWBY fans will be making incredibly optimistic posts about how it’s all coming together, just have some faith, everyone who says that the group won’t get a satisfying ending, or Blake and Yang won’t be confirmed are just mean trolls… only to wake up that Saturday morning and get another metaphorical slap in the face.

It’s something to think about.

But here I’ve spent a page talking about the wrong show. Let’s get into the episode!

We open on a black screen with lots of ambiguous noises. At first I thought this was Oscar struggling in the Hound’s grip or something, but then I remembered that RWBY likes to insert an episode between cliffhangers. I watched Ironwood (presumably) shoot a guy and he only came back this week (though that question still isn’t answered. At this point I kind of wonder if it will be). Oscar was kidnapped last week, which means we won’t get to see him until next week. Or… two weeks from now? RT skips the week of Thanksgiving, don’t they? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Something horrible happens to Oscar and we need to wait two weeks to find out how it’s resolved. 

Watch him escape the Hound off screen and return to the group with a new outfit 😂

So it’s not Oscar we hear, but Ruby, the last one coming out of the tube. Weiss is in the process of pulling Nora’s ear for that stunt… with a frankly strange looking hand. What’s up with RWBY animating weird hands lately? I’m pretty sure that’s not how anatomy works.

Anyway, Nora counters that this was a “Once in a lifetime experience,” but they were all going to go through the tubes regardless. Weiss isn’t pissed that you sent her through, she’s pissed that you did it unexpectedly when she was alone, heading into enemy territory. But of course, there’s no one in the room to hinder them, so the mistake is meaningless.

We’re setting the tone again though. For the first half of this episode everything is sunshine and giddy adventure, which doesn’t fit the situation at all. It also creates emotional whiplash when I’m suddenly supposed to be super worried about things later on. This sort of about-face works once in a blue moon, as an emotional punch, like we see in Mulan: 

But RWBY does it every other episode, which makes the overall tone of the series confusing instead. Half the time RWBY feels like two different stories—the cartoony tale of girls going on fun adventures, and the traumatic tale of a fantasy war—that have been badly spliced together.

“Alight, Robo-Girl, which way?” May asks and Penny demonstrates why she’s the best for sneaking into a facility. She’s able to map out the whole place, including seeing where everyone is so they can avoid detection. Kudos to RT for going this route. I was worried that they would have Ruby and the others straight up attacking Atlas grunts, knocking them out/potentially even killing them because who cares, right? They’re the bad guys! So I’m glad they’re working to get in and out undetected. Granted, we see in some places that they’re clearly willing to fight the soldiers if it comes to that—they’re reaching for their weapons when Penny opens the final door, expecting the room to be full of people. They were going to attack—but at least they’re trying to lessen that conflict as much as possible. That’s the sort of choice I expect to see from heroes and I’m glad we got it here. 

After scouting the area Penny corrects May: “And my name is Penny,” to which Ruby gives a satisfied “Heh.” I’ve got no problem with Penny rejecting nicknames, even potentially well-meaning ones, because she’s always struggled with her status as a real girl and her name is her own. She gets to decide what others call her. I do, however, have a problem with making the presumed trans character the one who is corrected. Granted yes, we haven’t gotten confirmation in the show that May is trans, but RT doesn’t get to cash in on that rep without likewise suffering the consequences for how the character is treated. You’re telling me that a trans woman is going to roll her eyes when someone asks her to use a specific name? Please give May flaws, yes, she’s a person, but out of all the millions of flaws across the human spectrum, this is the one we’re shown? 

Not to mention Ruby’s continued attitude. It’s like, ‘Yeah, May. Stop being a horrible person who draws attention to the fact that Penny is a robot. I never did that.’ Except when Ruby first met her she didn’t know Penny was a robot. Just like she didn’t know Blake was a faunus—something we’re reminded of this episode. We might assume Ruby wouldn’t have ever made any missteps at the beginning of these relationships, but the fact remains that she got to know both girls before their minority status was ever revealed. Ruby loved them before she ever had to grapple with their differences. 

Put in her place, May then demonstrates that she can make lots of people invisible, not just herself. That’s handy. She creates an invisibility bubble that reminds me of Harry’s invisibility cloak. In the sense that others might not be able to see you, but they can still hear and touch you, which makes sneaking around still pretty challenging.

No sooner have I thought that then two guards get into the elevator with them. The group keeps quiet as the duo discusses how no one can get close to Salem’s storm without “getting shocked right out of the air.” Interesting. And frankly one hell of a roadblock if the Hound escapes into the clouds. Oscar may be gone for a while if he doesn’t escape on his own... The woman also comments about how creepy it is that all the grimm are just hanging out, waiting. It’s “worse than if they’d attacked.”

No it’s not! RT, stop trying to implement the idea that Salem withholding her forces is some epically cool choice. She should have decimated everyone by now and the fact that she hasn’t just shows how transparent the problem is: you’ve created a villain that’s too powerful and now you don’t know what to do with her.

As the group sneaks out of the elevator Nora grins and presses all the buttons, which is, as expected, a dumb move. They’re supposed to be sneaking into this base. If they’re caught they’re going to be thrown in jail at best, killed at worst, but Nora wants to risk that for a practical joke? Again and again we see this insistence on incorporating comedy where it’s not only unnecessary, but actively interferes with other aspects of the scene.

Reaching a terminal, Penny inserts her finger and gains access via Pietro’s credentials. She’s really demonstrating this episode why she’s… pretty terrifying? I mean, Penny is an incredibly powerful fighter with a computer’s view of the world, access to everything in the most powerful Kingdom alongside its information, and she now has Maiden powers to boot. Which, I should add, it took her one fight to master (because remember, the heroes are now always as strong as they need to be to win…). Now that Watts is planning to hack her, I expect her to be an incredibly formidable enemy, just given the amount she could potentially do. I think Penny herself is too kind to exploit all that potential and as we’ll see via Pietro briefly taking control, she doesn’t always have the knowledge to use the tools at her disposal. But in the hands of someone like Watts? He’ll turn Penny into the ultimate weapon.

Access granted, they learn that they have to go “Right through central command!” Of course, Penny makes it sound like a fun game and the spy-movie music/cartoon lecture doesn’t help. Again, tone. It’s adorable! It just doesn’t fit sneaking into a military base with your lives on the line while Salem waits outside. That was a RWBY Chibi moment. 

Penny explains—twice—that Ruby can use her semblance to fly them all through central command and it’s treated like a revelation. At first, I was pretty confused because Ruby has been dong this for ages? She carried Weiss in “Argus Limited” and Nora during the Geist fight. But upon close inspection, what Penny seems to have “figured out” is that Ruby can carry multiple people at once because the “mass doesn’t matter.” Okay. Not a contradiction then, though I think RT could have made it a little more clear that Ruby was shocked at the idea of carrying multiple people, not carrying someone at all.

What I do take issue with though is Ruby mastering this skill instantaneously. I mean, why is Ruby being forced to try this on the fly (pun not intended)—Penny has known the layout of the building since they made this plan. She knew they had to get past central control and that it would be packed with people. She’s obviously thought about Ruby’s semblance a great deal—and why is she succeeding? Give me a Volume 7 where Ruby actually trains in this technique, set up via Harriet’s comment early on about her semblance, and then she’s victorious here when it finally matters. Or give me Ruby assuming she can pull off this incredibly difficult skill only to fall out of her semblance halfway through, a roomful of Atlas personnel staring at them. Then what? 

Not this.

This is a character who does everything perfectly on the first try without ever having to fail. Ruby is boring like this.

Crisis averted, we transfer to Ironwood who is… working with Watts.

What else is there to say? I’ve already laid out all the reasons why this is stupid and makes no sense. Others keep coming onto my posts to explain to me how Ironwood’s awful deeds up until now fully show his decent into villainy, conveniently ignoring the numerous limitations he was under and his choice to do what he thought was best for the world using inaccurate information. Ironwood was always a divisive character and many are happy to ignore the years’ worth of deconstruction done—a man who looks like the Evil Military General but actually isn’t—because they never liked him to begin with. Not liking him is fine, no one has to like any character, but I’m honestly shocked by the number of viewers who refuse to acknowledge how bad the writing is, even if it means defending a character they hate a teensy tiny bit (#SupernaturalVibes). As a friend put it, Ironwood now feels like a caricature of his former self, a Pure Evil Ironwood who appeared out of nowhere and is now here to stay. He shoots kids. He shoots unarmed civilians. He teams up with Salem’s men and tries to hack Penny. These are undeniably horrible acts, they’ve just been given to a character who never would have done them until RT randomly flipped the Evil switch.

The “RWBY” tag, alongside all the fluff moments of this episode, is now filled with posts encouraging Marrow to turn, yelling at the Ace Ops for being “bootlickers,” and capslock screaming at anyone who dared to speak up for Ironwood. It still sucks to have bad writing twisted into an attack on the fans and it’s going to continue to suck until at least the rest of Volume 8. I’d like to again remind everyone that Qrow teamed up with Tyrian a few episodes, yet because he’s again in Ruby’s graces, that was twisted into a ‘not that bad’ situation. The issue isn’t really that Ironwood is teaming up with one of Salem’s subordinates, but that he’s doing it to go against RWBYJNOR… the second a character teams up with Salem to get what Ruby wants (to not have her team in jail) then that’s totally fine… but that’s a wrinkle a lot of people are happy to ignore. 

So yeah, Ironwood is an idiot now too. Like Qrow also was last Volume. He really thinks Watts isn’t going to betray him somehow? Although, I do wonder if the chance to ruin Pietro’s creation outweighs his loyalty to Salem, but the point is that Ironwood can’t be sure of that either. At least he’s smart enough to keep Watts under continuous guard. He puts his hand on Watts’ shoulders and goes, “I’d hate for us to have to try motivating you. Again.”

So he tortures people too now? Like I said, caricature. This was Ironwood and we were given no clear idea of where he disappeared to.

RIP a great character.

Watts notices though that Pietro has apparently accessed a secure area and alerts Ironwood to it. I laugh that the information is just ¡EMERGENCY! In large, red letters. Ironwood immediately makes an announcement for everyone to be on guard. It’s a level 3 lockdown — that won’t impede the group leaving via airship! — and they’re to use “lethal force” if necessary. Weiss is disgusted.

As much as I disagree with making Ironwood into a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy  — he’s definitely wrong to be doing this — I also find myself rolling my eyes at reactions like that. Yes, Weiss. You attacked four operatives until they were knocked unconscious. Prevented an entire city from escaping Salem’s wrath, endangering them all. Now you’re breaking into the most classified room in the Kingdom to steal an equally qualified project and use it for your own means. There’s no reason why Ironwood would level his might against you. Is death still an extreme response? Yes. Should Weiss be acting like Ironwood is crazy for responding to them in an extreme manner? No. Her remark makes it sound like Ironwood is attacking her poor, innocent, defenseless team… not the team that’s been lying to him, betraying him, attacking him, and stealing from him. Not the team carrying deadly weapons into a facility to take what they want at any cost. 

With their presence known, May wants to go grab an airship. That’s the series now.

Meanwhile, Penny insists that they can still complete their mission and we see Nora come up with some sort of plan. 

Except, what plan was this?? What did she say to the group? ‘Hey, let’s wait around until some guy conveniently walks by with a full cup of coffee. Then we can trip him and the mug will fly alllll the way across this gap to land on a terminal, startling at least two workers. Except this guy will be hated by the whole room because he’s always messing things up—his coffee mug has been changed from #1 Dad to #1 Dud—so that this little mishap will create a ruckus that gets everyone involved, giving us the opportunity to slip by them all.’

Seriously, what? This kind of “plan” only works with someone like Clover, where we know he has a good luck semblance and thus all these unlikely pieces fall into place. I could absolutely buy Clover smiling smugly, working under the knowledge that he just has to wait around a few minutes and something will come along that works entirely in his favor. But Nora? How did she know any of this would happen? Obviously she couldn’t have, so what exactly was their intention if this coffee carrying, hated guy didn’t show up? RWBY, your contrived plots are showing.

I do, however, love the grimm Jaws poster. Jaws is an absolute favorite of mine, so seeing a reference to it in RWBY? A funny one at that? It almost makes up for how bad this episode is lol.

Because frankly I’m bored. The group sneaks around, criticizes May and Ironwood, briefly confuses me about Ruby’s semblance knowledge, and gets through tons of Atlas personnel in the stupidest way possible. I have to watch this guy running out of the room with coffee on his pants screaming, “WHHHYYY???” and he doesn’t notice the five girls standing right next to him. It’s silly. It’s boring. Luckily for RWBY, things are about to pick up in the second half.

After Ruby gets them upstairs and the final room is also conveniently devoid of people, Pietro takes control of Penny—including yellow possession eyes like Oscar has with Ozpin—and he...gets Amity started. That’s it. After a whole volume of ‘It’s not finished yet’ and ‘We barely have the resources’ and ‘Robyn stole what we were using to do idek what with’ he presses buttons for a while and they’re in. How good for them!

I do love that Penny calls Pietro “Dad” though. I’m here for the android-father relationship.

While Pietro works we turn to Blake, Weiss, and Nora. Blake tries to convince the audience that Ruby and Yang had an actual fight with, “I’ve never seen Yang and Ruby fight like this.” Yeah, because no one in this group has ever said the sliiiiightest thing against Ruby, so you all read the tinniest disagreement as a “fight” to be worried about. I mean, doesn’t RT have friends to draw inspiration from? They’ve never disagreed about Huge and Complex Questions before? Never gotten pissed and then shrugged it off the next time you want to text? RWBY’s idea of a diverse friend group feels like many other writers’ idea of a sibling relationship: anyone with an actual sibling goes, “What is this?” Speaking of, Weiss explains that sisters often have “very different ideas about what’s right” as if, again, people don’t have different ideas? Just in general? Why is this suddenly a sister thing? She’s clearly thinking about Winter, but doesn’t actually bring it up, so all we’re left with is the same situation we had last Volume. Weiss thinks she’s right, Winter is wrong, and they’re just going down their separate roads because there’s definitely no reason to re-examine any choices here. It’s all static. 

Until Winter betrays Ironwood, of course. 

Nora tries to reassure Blake that the group will be fine (ha) even though they’ve split, the irony being that we, the audience, know they just got wrecked by the Hound. Jaune is a great leader though, Oscar has grown so much, Yang could defend them all in a fight, and Ren… well, she can’t think of anything to say about Ren. I hate the Nora is acting like Ren has drawn away from her for no reason, after she chose to kiss him—without consent—rather than listening to what was bothering him, then proceeded to pretend that this mystery problem never existed. What does she expect? I do, however, like the general acknowledgement that she doesn’t know who she is without Ren. Who is Nora? Someone who is “strong and hit[s] stuff?”

See, this feels like RT writing self-consciously because Nora doesn’t have much of a personality. Oh, on a surface level she’s bursting with it, but past the bubbly exterior? That single layer? We can add maybe one thing to this “Likes Ren, is strong, hits stuff” list: she’s funny. That’s it. Anything else we might add like “she’s loyal” or “she’s kind” is just a generic characteristic of this entire team. They’re all meant to be crazy talented good guys and even the “is strong” aspect is suspect when others frequently pull off attacks as showy as Nora’s hammer hits. So who is she? What are Nora’s dreams? What are her hobbies? Her fears? Her history? We’ve seen a single flashback of her on the streets and one scene back at Beacon where she listens to music and reads a magazine. Seven years worth of material and that’s it. There’s a reason why the go-to, non-combat action for Nora in fics is “makes pancakes.” We know so little about her still. 

So I was excited for a brief, shining moment. Yes! Explore who Nora is outside of being strong and hitting stuff! … and then her big action this episode is, as she says, being strong and hitting something. Don’t get me wrong, outside of that setup it’s pretty epic. I like Nora going to those lengths to save Penny and I absolutely love the repercussions of the choice: a broken aura, passing out, and badass lightning scars all over her arms and neck (especially when women often aren’t allowed to accumulate scars in visual media). That’s pretty damn awesome. It’s just that it comes on the heels of the story insisting that Nora is more than this, that we’ll learn something new about her… and we haven’t. This is indeed cool, but we already knew that Nora was willing to crazy lengths by hitting things really hard. That’s already her established norm.

At least this moment has some really nice characterization alongside the stupidity. The conversation between Ruby and Penny is just plain stupid. Penny wants to stay to help with the evacuations, but Pietro says she should come with him in Amity. Why? As Ruby says, because then she’ll be up in the sky and Salem won’t be able to access the relic.

That’s what Ironwood wanted to do! We could have had this conflict episodes ago with you all working with him! I really can’t with this cast. Also, the rest of this is still confusing. I thought pretty much everyone was in the slums by now, so what evacuation are they talking about? Do they plan to evacuate everyone in Mantle out of the kingdom somehow… like Ironwood wanted to do with Atlas? And why are they acting like Amity is evacuating some people too? I thought they were just using it as a communication device? To add insult to injury, Ruby then contradicts herself a minute later when she tells Harriet that Ironwood can’t have the relic because “Salem will find her way to the relic no matter where you go.” Ruby, if Salem can access the relic high in the sky she can also access Penny in the sky. If you believe that literally nowhere is safe then why are you sending Penny away under the claim that she—and via her the Relic—will be safer? If you want Penny in Amity to lessen the chance of Salem getting the Relic, why can’t Penny be in Atlas while simultaneously (hopefully) getting a whole slew of people to safety? 

I’m continually confused by this “plan” of theirs. Their claims just flip-flop according to what (supposedly) contrasts them with Ironwood. Even though that’s not actually the case.

Penny is me, sad while watching this train wreck of a scene. 

So yeah, the Ace Ops are here. I’ve wondered since the trailer why Weiss looked smug while everyone else was startled. Turns out it’s because of her line, “So, your first time losing to us wasn’t enough?” I can’t express how much I dislike all the girls’ personalities now. I want to shake some compassion and humility into them. Plus, they never should have won that fight in the first place. Marrow yells, “We were holding back!” but coming from the team’s weakest member it reads as defensive. Like we’re supposed to go, ‘Lol yeah right, Marrow. Just admit you got your ass kicked,’ even tough the Ace Ops should have wiped the floor with them, holding back or not. That’s my biggest takeaway from this fight: it’s the reverse of what we should have gotten. The Ace Ops should have beaten Team RWBY with ease and struggled greatly against an android Maiden, not falling before a bunch of teens and succeeding against Penny if not for Nora’s timely breakthrough. Your half-trained cast of growing heroes should not come across as more powerful than an intelligently designed weapon now wielding magic.  

Before the fight starts we get a whole lot of lines that are, frankly, frustrating. Vine tells Penny, “I thought you were supposed to protect the people, not hurt them” which is true enough. Penny is taking action that is putting a lot of people in danger, regardless of the fact that Ruby is at the helm. Problem is, the Ace Ops then blame her for Winter’s injuries and “stealing” the power? That’s not the issue here. The issue is Penny’s blind loyalty to Ruby, but by having the Ace Ops back a stance that is clearly inaccurate—Penny didn’t cause Winter’s injuries, Cinder did; Penny didn’t steal the powers, she was encouraged to take them—it makes them come across as Very Evil people who will twist things to make poor Penny look like the villain. Even if this is a case of Ace Ops having bad intel (which seems unlikely. Wouldn’t Winter have told them what happened?) RT has avoided letting the Ace Ops take a justified stance here because that would make them look too sympathetic… even though they do have multiple justified stances to take. Like, ‘Hey, stop keeping half a kingdom here where Salem can easily kill them all’ or, ‘Hey, why did you spend months betraying Ironwood and then turn on us instead of trying to find a compromise?’ Even, ‘Why did your uncle help kill our leader?’ There’s plenty that the Ace Ops should be rightfully pissed about, so choosing Penny and Winter out of everything feels like RT is firmly backing them into Ironwood’s corner: you’re just bad now and bad people blame innocent girls, rather than acknowledging the actual wrongs done against them. 

So we have Ruby contradicting herself and the Ace Ops backing warped ideas that make them look worse than they actually are. Adding to the stupidity is the fact that Elm mentions that Winter is in “critical condition” and Weiss… doesn’t care. Harriet then tells Ruby that she’s “throwing [her] in jail right next to your uncle, runt” and... Ruby doesn’t care. Qrow is missing and Ruby just found out he’s been captured by Ironwood, yet there’s no reaction whatsoever. This show continues to go hard on the ‘screw adults’ mentality, huh? Ozpin needs to keep quiet and is horrible for coming back. Ironwood is now a cartoon villain. Winter made the wrong choice so no one cares about her anymore, not even her sister. The Ace Ops remain enemies despite trying to talk things out. Qrow? Barely know him. Who’s he? This is a Ruby loves Penny episode. There isn’t enough emotional nuance for her to care about him too.

The sad thing is I adore Nuts&Dolts. In a different context these moments would be a goldmine for me. 

If anything, this episode feels worse than the majority of last week’s because there are good things here that have been thrown into a bad setup. I can’t get excited for the group’s battles when I see who they’re attacking. It’s hard to squee over Ruby hugging Penny when she doesn’t react to Qrow. Watching Nora go all Thor feels like it only has half its potential when it’s coming out of a very messing, ‘I’m more than just being strong and hitting things… which is why I’ll continue being strong and hitting things.’ RWBY has excellent moments set into a terrible story.

The fight, at least, is exciting. The Ace Ops goad Penny into stepping away so they can trap the rest of Ruby’s team—smart—and she’s forced to hold her own while Weiss tries to break through with her knight, then Nora overloads the system. To be frank, I’m not great at analyzing combat. Not unless I’m looking for something specific like whether a win is justified. I’ve already mentioned above the broad issue of the Ace Ops very nearly beating the most powerful fighter next to Salem herself, yet failing so spectacularly against Team RWBY. Outside of that context though? I really enjoyed this. Lots of tight action, creative attacks, teamwork, some emotional pauses throughout… it feels like a pretty solid battle. Put it on Youtube as a clip, outside of the rest of the story’s messiness, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic watch. 

We can’t stay in the combat forever though. During all this Weiss calls the Ace Ops “cowards” for making it four vs. one. You know, RWBY should really just do away with dialogue and make the show purely action because the cast frequently sounds so stupid when they speak. Like her comment about Ironwood’s lockdown… really Weiss? ‘Yes, we might be wanted criminals who betrayed this group in the worst possible way, but how dare they not do the honorable thing and have three of their teammates sit out while trying to capture us? Even though the girl they’re trying to capture has magic. I mean, the nerve of them!’

Weiss, at this point I’m not sure how to explain to you that the people you’ve made into your enemies do not owe you a fair fight. 

Another detail: we get to see Ruby fall off the edge of the walkway and this time she remembers she can fly! A definite improvement from Volume 6.

Finally: by the time Penny’s eyes go full Maiden in Elm’s grip, I think we’ve seen everything from our trailer. Episode 4 will truly be a mystery.

Ironwood has, of course, been watching the fight this whole time. When it looks like the Ace Ops will lose against the team he means to send in reinforcements, but Watts says he has “a message for your operatives.” Instead of capturing Penny they steal one of her swords instead, ending with a shot on Marrow looking conflicted.

Because remember, there’s no actual moral grayness in this story. The protagonists are right and everyone else is wrong. It’s (supposedly) black and white. Which means that if the Ace Ops have any hope of surviving this Volume and being seen as anything other than evil bootlickers, they have to join with Ruby. Marrow seems primed to do that.

Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? Always lol.

May has the airship ready to go and they fly off… despite the shields. And the lockdown. Consistency? Who’s she? Nora is said to be “in bad shape” and after another hug Penny leaves to hide in Amity, even though Ruby thinks that hiding is a useless, cowardly choice. Just not when she and her allies choose to do it.

We end the episode with Watts receiving Penny’s sword and making the statement, “If you can’t beat them… then make them join you.” I have to say, his cheesy villainy is something I continue to enjoy, even if it’s heavy handed at times. Watts is just fun. I do have to say though: if Penny is hacked, what does that say about her agency? We double-downed on the ‘real girl’ narrative by giving her the Maiden powers, but she’s simultaneously synthetic enough that a single piece of her can remove all autonomy? It once again feels like RT isn’t sure what point they’re trying to make, they’re just chucking a lot of themes at the wall and seeing what sticks. Still, we’ll have to let it all play out before making any judgements.

And that’s it for this week. It seems like this is a slightly shorter recap than normal, though that may be because I struggle with discussing pure action sequences, which made up a decent chunk of this episode. I’ll no doubt return to the Ace Ops vs. Penny fight when I’m not on a self-imposed, one day deadline for posting. The only thing left is to update the Bingo Card, but I don’t think we made any headway this week. So... good job, RWBY? 

I’m still going to hold off on the civilian’s square until Salem’s army actually attacks, as well as the two day timeline square.

No Winter this episode

Watts is teaming up with Ironwood which is… so much worse than him teaming up with Jacques again. Does a square get an X if the canon is even worse than what you assumed it would be??

Maria was mentioned this episode. Jury’s out on whether she’ll actually do anything.

Atlas is still standing, we knew Penny was heading towards a hack so it’s not much of a cliffhanger, no Qrow, no Ozpin, no Neo or Cinder.

It certainly looks like we can check off “The team gets Amity up and running,” but let’s just see if there are any problems next episode. If the problem is only ‘We would have launched it if not for Salem’s attack’ or something, I’m checking it off. The point is it would have worked.

I’m also leaning towards “More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship” given Blake’s heart-to-heart with Nora… but let’s see if the Volume does anything more egregious.

All in all (and perhaps despite what I’ve written above), I don’t think it’s fair to totally drag this episode. As said, this feels like a strong episode in a bad story, something that I would have LOVED if a) Salem weren’t here and b) the ‘ethical dilemma’ wasn’t boiled down to a ‘Team Ruby is good’ and ‘Ironwood and everyone associated with him is evil’ situation. It’s an episode whose tone and character action belong in a different version of RWBY. If you gave us this fun episode in an earlier Volume against a Pure Evil antagonist? It would have been great. 

Ah well. It is what it is. Expect more emotional whiplash when we come back and everyone learns that Oscar has been kidnapped by Salem’s talking pooch 🙃

See you then! 💜

[fromkaermorhentolettenhove]

Temptation

Summary: When a bit of cabin fever hits Kaer Morhen, Geralt finds a solution in a wandering Incubus

Rating: Explicit

Genre: Canon Universe, Incubus!Jaskier, Established Eskel/Lambert, Foursome, Trans!Lambert, First Meetings

Additional Tags: Anal, Vaginal Sex/Fingering, Spitroasting, Blow Jobs, Consensual

Words: 1973

A/N: Lmao i have to go to work in like five minutes but if you have any more ideas for this au/situation, pls send them my way!!!

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AO3

or

Geralt has had enough of Lambert and Eskel’s bickering. 

Without a word, he’s left the safety of the keep and into the harsh winter cold. The brisk air clears his senses as he marches through the snow, muttering to himself about the pettiness of the argument. Really, the two should just take it out in the sword ring, but Geralt’s in no mood to tell them so. 

In the thick of the forest, Geralt finally breathes his sigh of relief and embraces the chill. It’s so peaceful. He could just set up a camp here for the rest of the winter, alone and content. 

Except, he’s not alone. 

Sword already drawn, Geralt whips around, stopping his blade just before the neck of his stalker. Before him stands a man, brown hair, bright blue eyes with a grin to match, and thin clothing that could hardly keep anyone warm. He is a fool, but more than that, Geralt can smell the magic radiating off of him, the deceit and treachery. 

“Come now, Witcher,” the man holds his hands up in mock defense. “Are you really going to kill an innocent man?”

“If you were either of those, I’d already have put my sword away,” Geralt growls back. 

The man laughs and to Geralt’s surprise, presses closer to the blade. It’s enough to draw blood, but as the scent fills Geralt’s nose, the wound starts to heal over, distracing Geralt from his tumultuous thoughts.

“I only take my fill,” the man answers, a small smile still on his face. “My lovers come to me willingly and leave on their own accord.”

Geralt has heard this story before and he’s not about to be swayed any time soon. “Then perhaps some of your kind might still be alive.”

The man shrugs at this and pushes Geralt’s sword away with his finger tips. The sword falls away with ease, Geralt staring at it as if he doesn’t have control over his own muscles. All he has to do is slice and the whole ordeal will be over with. Yet, something stays his hand, as if he is grateful for this unusual meeting. 

“What will you do with me then, Witcher?” the man breathes, daring to take a step closer. 

Geralt grips tight onto his sword, but he doesn’t move away. Instead, a subtle temptation enters his mind, an offering laid on the table. He really shouldn’t. It could jeopardize the safety of the keep. Then again, he’s got three other witchers on his side and one taste couldn’t hurt. 

“I’m not falling for your tricks, Incubus,” Geralt snarls, trying to fight off the growing curiosity. 

The man chuckles at this, shaking his head. “I’m not doing anything. In fact, I’m suppressing my powers right now. It is you who is falling.”

Geralt swallows, the click loud in his ears as his own words betray him. He’s lost it. After all these years of being a witcher, he is finally losing control of his mind. His resolve grows weaker by the second and then Geralt decides he has nothing to lose. At least, not this winter. 

With a grunt, Geralt grabs the man by the wrist and charges towards the keep, his teeth grinding together as the man laughs. 

“Oh, Witcher, I think we’ll have fun.”

Geralt purses his lips, ignoring the warmth of the man’s skin. “It’s Geralt,” he mutters. 

“And I’m Jaskier,” the man answers, quickening his steps to walk alongside Geralt. “I would ask you to lighten your grip on my wrist, but I don’t think you have any intention of letting me go.”

Ignoring the wink, Geralt loosens his hold just a little as they trudge up the steep slopes. Somehow, Jaskier manages to keep up with no complaint and when they enter the courtyard of the keep, he reeks of nothing but lust. Geralt shivers, his own needs surfacing as he drags Jaskier through the doors, yelling out Lambert’s and Eskel’s names. At this, Jaskier’s face lights up and Geralt submits to the losing battle within him. Without waiting for the others, Geralt charges to his room, all but throwing Jaskier down on the bed. 

With a bright laugh, Jaskier transforms, his clothes disappearing as horns sprout out of his head, a tail snaking out from underneath him. 

“Eager, aren’t we?” he teases. 

Geralt only grunts in reply, ridding himself of his own clothes before climbing on top of Jaskier, shutting him up with a firm kiss. The hands on Geralt’s thighs send a shiver up his spine and he opens his mouth to taste more of Jaskier. Their tongues sweep against each other, pulling moans out of the two of them as their needs only grow. Just as Geralt takes hold of Jaskier’s cock, thudding footsteps clamor into the room and Geralt breaks from the kiss to look at Eskel and Lambert. 

“What the fuck,” Lambert says eloquently for himself and Eskel. 

Geralt sits up, glaring at the witchers. “Get some steam off. I’m sick of listening to the two of you fight.”

Jaskier’s laughter fills the room and it breaks the spell holding onto Eskel and Lambert. Lambert is bare in an instant, forcing Geralt to move down so he can sit on top of Jaskier. He greedily takes Jaskier’s mouth with his own and Geralt is given a clear view of the wetness between his legs. Quickly licking his fingers, Geralt reaches down, rubbing Lambert’s clit and lips. His shaking legs are a beautiful sight, matched only by the moan that Jaskier swallows down. 

“Eskel?” Geralt asks, looking towards the last companion as he starts to finger Lambert. 

“Just...biding my time,” Eskel mutters as he removes the last of his clothing. 

Eskel always did like to watch, but the fact he isn’t on the bed yet worries Geralt. The hesitation is clear in Eskel’s eyes, ever the concerned lover. 

“It’s three witchers and one incubus. We can handle him,” Geralt reassures. 

At this, Lambert and Jaskier break their kiss, both turning to look at Eskel. Lambert pushes himself deeper onto Geralt’s fingers, throwing his head back while Jaskier massages his thighs. 

“As I was telling your wonderful friend, Geralt, here, I only take what I need,” Jaskier flashes a grin. “And Lambert is a pretty sight, wouldn’t you agree?”

“You all are,” Eskel lets slip and ducks his head while Geralt bites back his grin. 

Jaskier holds out a beckoning hand and that’s all it takes to bring Eskel over. He lays down next to Jaskier, rubbing his leaking cock against Jaskier’s thigh while running a hand along his chest. 

“If only all lovers were as thoughtful as you,” Jaskier sighs, bringing Eskel in for a kiss. 

It’s entrancing, watching Eskel and Jaskier, but Geralt is interrupted by Lambert’s nails digging into his thigh, his wet hole clenching around Geralt’s fingers. Geralt soothes him with kisses along his neck and guides him to Jaskier’s cock, removing his fingers before lowering Lambert down. Lambert takes Jaskier’s cock easily, letting himself sit with the fullness before beginning to move. 

“Oh, Lambert, you feel like heaven,” Jaskier moans, shifting his hips to match Lambert’s rhythm. 

“You know much about that?” Lambert teases breathlessly, bracing one hand on Eskel’s side, the other on Jaskier’s stomach. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Jaskier manages to reply before Eskel captures his mouth again. 

Geralt could watch this forever, this mesmerizing scene of pure sex. He almost forgets his own neglected cock until he glances down to see the slick between Jaskier’s legs. Lambert’s wetness is beginning to mix with it and Geralt shivers, knowing what awaits him. Pulling at Jaskier’s legs, he is careful not to interrupt Lambert’s pleasure as he lines his cock up with Jaskier’s hole. As he pushes in, Geralt groans at the hot tightness that engulfs his cock, how ready Jaskier is with no need for preparation. It’s almost too much, but Geralt holds back his orgasm, resting his forehead against Lambert’s back. 

“Come now, Eskel,” Jaskier breathes. 

Glancing over Lambert’s shoulder, Geralt holds his breath as Eskel braces himself over Jaskier, his cock slowly sinking into Jaskier’s mouth. At this, Geralt can’t help but thrust sharply into Jaskier and mingled groans fill the room. The four take it slow at first, finding a matched pace but then, the hungry desire takes over. Eskel grabs onto one of Jaskier’s horns as he thrusts into that greedy mouth, losing himself to the talent of Jaskier and his tongue. If it wasn’t for Lambert’s hand on his back, Eskel would have lost his balance. 

“Fuck, you should have his mouth next time, Lambert,” Eskel moans. “He’ll make good work of your clit.”

“I want all of him,” Lambert gasps. “If I knew incubi could be like this, I would have had one sooner.”

Jaskier moans as he slams his cock into Lambert, matching Geralt’s harsh thrusts. 

“You two talk too much,” Geralt growls, reaching around to rub Lambert’s clit. 

Lambert throws his head back with a near shout, hand flying to grip tight onto Geralt’s hair. The mix of pain and pleasure shoots to Geralt’s cock and he pushes Jaskier forward with a rough thrust. Jaskier gags around Eskel’s cock, but he doesn’t pull away, instead swallowing Eskel to the hilt. It’s enough to send Eskel to the edge and he spills into Jaskier’s mouth with a heavy groan.

When Jaskier has sucked him dry, Eskel falls to the side, watching the three with bleary eyes. 

“You were wonderful,” Jaskier praises as he resumes his fucking of Lambert. “I can’t wait to see what else that cock of yours can do.”

His tail flicks over, but before Eskel can do anything, Geralt grabs hold of it, giving the tail a sharp tug. 

“We’re not finished,” Geralt grits out.

Jaskier’s eyes roll back, a gasp leaving him as his back arches. His cock slams into Lambert and Lambert shouts as he orgasms, slick sliding down Jaskier’s stomach in tear-like trails. Collapsing onto Jaskier, Lambert leaves Jaskier’s cock inside of him, letting Jaskier hold him close as Geralt chases his own release. 

Within a few more thrusts, Jaskier and Geralt succumb to their orgasm, seed filling up Lambert and Jaskier until the three men are shaking. 

It’s almost too quiet now, but the men don’t rush to say anything as Eskel helps clean them off. 

Once wiped down, the four arrange themselves on the bed, Geralt behind Jaskier and Eskel behind Lambert as Lambert and Jaskier curl into each other. It’s peaceful, but the reality of the situation sinks back in as Geralt runs his fingers along Jaskier’s horns. 

“Will you be leaving us tonight then?” he asks, making brief eye contact with Eskel and Lambert. 

The two don’t bother to hide their disappointment and their shoulders sag just a little as Jaskier stiffens.

He turns to Geralt with a slight frown, as if Geralt had spoken in tongues instead of asking a question. “I’d be a fool to forget the three of you so soon. And, we can’t have Eskel and Lambert fighting again, can we?”

“Hey,” Lambert protests amongst Eskel’s small laugh. 

Already, Geralt can see their argument fading away as Eskel caresses Lambert’s shoulder, pressing a kiss to his temple. In fact, Geralt doesn’t even remember what their fight was about and Jaskier isn’t going to let him remember, capturing Geralt’s lips in a soft kiss. 

Perhaps he and his fellow witchers are under some kind of spell, but Geralt can’t find it in himself to care. For now, his companions are happy with Jaskier bringing a warmth Geralt hadn’t realized he had been missing. 

Wrapping his arms tight around Jaskier, Geralt begins to drift off and a small smile finds its way onto his face as Jaskier’s tail flicks at his nose.

[illmamnim]

Re watching Danny Phantom - episode 1

Basically, I want to analyse the show with out just going from memory. So I'll watch episode by episode, pointing both things I love and hate, and occasionally, what I would do different.

Episode 2

This one will probably be the longest just because I am recalling stuff that happen later on and for the other episodes I’ll focus more on them.

So let's get to it

“Actually, dad, I wanna be an astronaut.”

Danny’s very first line, the dream he had since the very beginning. And it’s barely shown.

He does get exited about it when it shows up but it doesn’t look like he cares about it much outside of it. for a show with such themed characters it feels like Danny is far more built. 

now it could fit if all the other characters just as built, or at least the main ones, but every character seems to have an image they go by and Danny just stands out.

“Waste these looks and all this charisma hunting ghosts?! Criminal.”

Nothing to say here, I just love that line.

The whole fight behind Jack’s back

I want to make a whole post about Idiot Jack but for now I’ll just say this:  The Idiot tropes are so lovable because usually there's a kind, caring person at the end of them. Jack is shown very little to care about Danny or Jazz and will force them into ghost hunting shenanigans based on the plot’s needs.

Jazz seems to be the only one to notice  that their parents' obsession with ghosts is interfering with their everyday lives.

Other than that, It’s a good over all introduction to the Fenton family and their work.

Opening

👌👌👌

“You need guidance, and parents who can provide it.”

Jazz's notices that their parents' don’t pay attention to them- especially Danny. Earlier this scene, we see her read a book about adolescence and therapy and immediately she's the one to point out that her parents are ignoring Danny. They’re all together at breakfast and Jack and Maddie work right on the table.

Jazz is the one to notice how anxious Danny is most of the time and probably the only one to notice he's being bullied. (as he said- he's Dash's favorite)

Yes, Jazz thinks she's more grown up than she really is, which means that everyone in Danny’s life treats him like a child and her own obsession with being right can make her forget about the world.

But unlike many characters, she does get this development-  The Fenton Menace and  Secret Weapons are good examples of that.

“Why? Parents don’t listen. Even worse, they don’t understand. WHY CAN’T THEY ACCEPT ME FOR WHO I AM?!”

I’m going to use this to talk about lgbtq+ characters in the show. Or, more accurately the lack thereof.

I talked about it when I did some notes from memory, where I’ve mentioned that characters like Danny and Sam are so fitted to be apart of the lgbtq community that the fact that they’re not isn’t just disappointing but it feels like it’s missing.

Sam prides on being herself but she hides knowing she will always get backlash for things that don’t fit into some 1 dimensional character people expect her to be. And Danny is always afraid of being himself but when he is he feels the most free and happy.

Trans!Danny hcs didn’t just happen for no reason and if the show is ever to be rebooted I expect them to include it in, in any way.

“Your powers make you unique, and unique is good. That’s why I’m an ultra recyclo-vegetarian.”

Ok, big pet peeve of mine in the show.

They treat Sam as if she only does stuff to “be unique”. This could work perfectly if she had a development or reason- but later on all we seem to understand is that she’s just being “I’m not like other girls” and her being vegetarian or goth is nothing but her trying to either stand out or annoy her parents.

Does she actually want to do half the stuff she does? Her Sticking It To The Man attitude is admirable but whenever she talks about it it just kinda look like she would change herself to make sure she’s not ordinary.

Personally I do get it, cause it’s what I used to do, but the whole point of stating it is to show how she’s growing out of feeling like she can’t do stuff- Let her care for a stupid flour sack, let her show that she’s into ghosts and moreover I WANNA KNOW WHY

My headcanon is that that’s how she and Danny became friends in the first place and I would love to see how this gang got together.

“What if Jazz isn’t a ghost? What if we accidentally hurt her?”

Remind me why we don’t listen to Maddie more often?

Oh right, cause then they’d have to actually make the effort and have to think about how to make this show make sense.

“It’s garbage.”

Why does it look like the gang never seem to actually support one another? It doesn’t even look jokey or teasing, sometimes it just looks like they only hang out cause they have no other friends.

ghost sense

I always thought, and still think, that the blue line coming from the ghost sense is cold air turned warm and I made a post joking about Danny is always mouth breathing. And i got a comment that said “ It's probably more like a sudden cold feeling, so Danny gasps cause he's cold.“ I really liked it and I feel like they could’ve captured or explained it in the show better.

“Oh great, I’m still his favorite.”

They made that point a bunch in the show, that Dash is almost like Danny’s privet bully.

Why?

Dash bullies anyone, but Mikey and Danny seem to be a reoccurring deal (Mikey probably because he’s always doing their homework.) and they never explain it.

It just looks like main character syndrome.

“YOU CHANGED THE MENU?!”

I love how they portray more humanoid ghosts as more possible to act human and how much more scary it makes them when they suddenly break this humanity.

Lunch lady

She seems to be able to control much more than just food products (plates, books and papers, cutting the lights) and they never really explain how some ghosts can do this or that, and which powers are or aren’t universal.

(Non related but her face is adorable! Nice old evil grandma)

“repeated loitering by the girl’s locker-room.”

They really didn’t have to make Tucker a creep.

“[He threw] Four touchdown passes in the last game is thereby exempt from scorn.”

Uhh is this an american thing?? Are jocks really that much of a teacher’s pets that who ever played high school sports is able gets away with murder?

Danny’s powers’ look

They seem to always animate and portray the powers differently each time-

Sometimes when he’s intangible he’s blue, sometimes transparent, sometimes the lines change colors sometimes not.

Many animation errors seem to be about inconsistency.

“Guys, time to makeup. Now!”

He just transforms?? Right there?!

The Spike scene

Ok, we learn a lot here.

first of, why didn’t we see more of Spike in the show?! it could’ve been amazing to see Jazz with actual friends.

And if he isn’t her friend, Jazz gives advice to people? Why didn’t we see more on that? How both she and Danny want to help people and how this is her way of doing it cause she has no powers. How could’ve been her build up to becoming a hero alongside Danny!

And second, is when her parents attack her. This shows how little they listen to her, why she always feels like the only responsible person in the family and how she probably is.

I’ll probably get on that more in My Brother’s Keeper.

Danny fighting the little meat creatures is my favorite fight scene in the episode

“The Fenton Thermos! But how am I going to get it to work?“

How did he get it to work?? They never really explained it, he just kinda turned blue and it did.

side notes:

The Amount Of Sound Effects...

Personal preference but I don’t like how much they change the colors of the sky and background only when a ghost is near and then it turns back- It’s distracting.

I usually expect side jokes to not affect the plot but here they kinda mix it and I can’t know what’s a side joke and what is more meaningful 

Y’know... I never did notice how many jokes Danny makes. But now...

Danny looks so happy when ever he manages to do some ghost trick, it’s adorable

The Fentons have 5 brain cells and Jazz holds 3 of them. (Danny and Maddie split when they need it)

The camera angles are very fun and look like they could fit perfectly as a comic

The voice acting is super good

[divine-motion]

don’t fucking interact if you ship t/cest and minor/adult ships

more shitty phone photos of sketchbook sketches for my tmnt fan incarnation/tmnt 2012 rewrite bc i have no shame and i’m having fun with it! pictures should have captions since i spent time writing them out, but tumblr might mess it up, so in case captions doesn’t work: 1. left to right: leo, donatello up, raphael down, michelangelo 2. Casey Jones up top, April O’Neil to the right, donatello in the middle and karai at the bottom 3. casey and don again, raphael to the left, mikey at the bottom just bc i liked how their their expressions turned out and didn’t want a bunch of negative space so don and case appear again 4. size chart featuring turtles. left to right: leo, don, mikey, raph 5. sketchy Slash design. big boy.

general thoughts character stuff below the Keep Reading. A Lot of rambling below so beware!!

April: 15 years old, trans and bi. local fifteen year old telepath finds out that not everyone is able to feel what other people are feeling, something she’s been able to do since she was six after she played in that one weirdly glowy puddle (early Kraang mutagen attempt that only managed to mutate April in the sense that it gave her telepathy, was originally intended to make humans become part of the Kraang hivemind). she’s largely unfazed by the existence of mutants and aliens, taking it in stride, and finds out about the Kraang - and meets the turtles - while snooping around TCRI business (aspiring journalist that she is) and accidentally witnessing the mutation of Snakeweed. her telepathy, which later as she grows in power alongside the turtles extends to telekinesis and basically possession, is very useful whenever she gets into a scrap since she can predict what moves her opponent will make, thus letting her dodge their blows effectively. personality wise she is a very determined and driven young girl, incredibly curious (and cannot mind her own business, she wants to know all the drama while not having to be part of it... which makes her very fortunate to be a telepath. listen she’s 15 she’s allowed to misuse her powers a little bit. as a treat.), playful, and cheerful, and she’s an extroverted autistic. in her spare time between her studies, she likes to play bass, sing, read, and write. that, and investigating whatever shady business is going on in town, and she makes it very clear to the turtles that even if they weren’t going to deal with the Kraang, she’d continue to try to stop them herself. she would like to not live under the threat of her or her loved ones getting mutated, thank you very much! and, you know, it’s kind of exciting. kind of.

i know it’s bc i have brain issues when it comes to parent figures but i am very much leaning towards Splinter not being... a good dad. i don’t think 2012 Splinter is a good dad anyways but i’d probably amp it up, make him a mix of 2012 and idw probably. i’m still mulling it over but like, remember in the season 1 finale when leo is watching his show and thinks the captain guy making a totally unnecessary sacrifice is a heroic move, and then Splinter tells leo (his fifteen year old child) that leo should know what or who to sacrifice, more or less telling him to sacrifice his brothers’ lives, potentially?? i know there was a lot at stake but hello??? i remember watching it and being like me: ah i see, this is showing that splinter is wrong and there is no need for any sacrifices as seen in the show when the captain Goes Down With His Ship for no reason other than just sacrificing himself, and leo will see that- leo: *tries to sacrifice himself twice in the finale, both times being kind of unnecessary/seemed like if he had just hurried or done something slightly different there would be no need to stay behind, and he gets out fine with no consequences, seemingly no injuries, and does Not learn anything, his brothers don’t even get sad when they think he died or get mad at him for pulling such a dumb move) me: surprised_pikachu.jpeg

like that moment haunts me. has any other splinter told their sons to sacrifice himself or his brothers? has any other splinter put that on them??? idw doesn’t count if he has bc he’s more explicitly supposed to be bad so???

sometimes writers think they’ve made an uncle iroh but they really, really, really haven’t. also his backstory is the same as in the show

anyways. Donatello: 15 years old, bog turtle, nonbinary (he/they, doesn’t mind being called brother but doesn’t like to be called “boy” or “girl” or whatever), bi. he isn’t in love with April. no creepy incel shit here. donnie is instead more like a mix between his Rise and 2003 self. he has trouble expressing himself and is pretty introverted, but he is very altruistic, kind, and compassionate. a lot of his inventions are made to help people and he was driven to learn about science and engineering because he wants to find a way to reverse splinter’s mutation, to give splinter his life and humanity back. he feels like he needs to know if splinter would just abandon them if he wasn’t a huge rat man, needs to know if there’s any part of splinter that blames them for being constant reminders of his mutation. other than that, he also likes to make inventions because he’s a dreamer and wants to experiment to see how much of the unknown he can push beyond. also, the best liar out of the turtles. also fairly good at compromising and prefers to solve conflicts without violence he can get a little... “obnoxious 15 year old genius” at times. even when he’s helpful it can come off as a bit “poor dear isn’t as smart as me”, and while he usually gets along well with Raph, he doesn’t handle Raph’s temper well at all (calls him “Wrathael/Wrath” and thinks he’s being super clever) and gets really dismissive of Raph’s “outbursts”.

Michelangelo: 13 years old, diamondback terrapin, unsure about the gender and sexuality thing but he doesn’t think he’s exactly cis and definitely not straight. a bouncy ball of sunshine and surprising emotional maturity and emotional intelligence! more so than his emotionally constipated brothers, at least. it’s on his thirteenth birthday (it was leo’s idea for them to pick dates that would let them have their own birthdays instead of sharing the “Mutation Day”, Mutation Day being another special “holiday”) that the Plot would be set in motion, as he’s finally allowed to go to the surface same as his brothers, and on this first night out they meet April and the Kraang and other mutants. he is a goof still, but he’s capable in his own right and gets frustrated when people treat him like a baby or an idiot because he’s not. he doesn’t always treat everything with the seriousness it should but like. he’s thirteen, he’s having fun. even so, he’s very insistent of taking responsibility whenever he does do something wrong and gets mad if someone tries to take the blame for something he’s done. definitely the most compassionate and empathetic out of the turtles, he’s quick to make friends and is very persuasive due to his earnest nature and good heart. much like donnie, he prefers to solve conflict without violence but does enjoy knocking skulls a lot more than donnie. unlike donnie, though, he is almost overly forgiving and not petty at all. he’s well aware that his kindness and forgiveness may be taken advantage of, but he still likes to approach people with an open hand, even if he knows that it may end up getting bitten. oh, and his hobbies include drawing, cooking, singing, and dancing. he likes to express himself!

Raphael: 14 years old, mississippi map turtle, trans, bi. all his fury is compressed within his tiny body, that’s why he’s so angry all the time! no, he’s not angry all the time, but he does have a short fuse. he absolutely hates his anger issues which leads to a lot of self-loathing, and a lot of frustration as his family members either don’t take his anger seriously or don’t have the tools to help him with it. he’s the physically strongest out of the bunch and the least agile. he loves animals and plants a lot and keeps a lot of flowers in his room, hoping that he can one day become a gardener. as his idw self, he wants to watch things grow, but no matter what he does he seems to be best at destroying things. he’s also the one most self-conscious about how the human world perceives them, as he greatly fears rejection, and is the first one to see something positive with people getting mutated - namely, that maybe this way mutants will be more well known and finally accepted by society, so he’ll no longer be trapped in the sewer until the end of his days. so yeah, he’s a huge optimist, in truth. also he’s great at knitting - great at creating and taking care of things in general - and there’s no leo and raph rivalry this time around. he can get mad at leo but not really more than he gets with his other brothers.

Casey: 15 years old, nonbinary (they/them), bi. teen vigilante who gets inspired to fight mutants and the big time criminals (no beating up pickpockets or shoplifters or whatever, just the ones that are really hurting people) and gets roped into the turtle fam after meeting raph and becoming unexpected friends (everyone was expecting it, once Casey realized that mutants are people and not weird monsters. well, not all the time, anyways). they struggle a bit in school not because of a lack of trying but a lack of time, as their parents work full time jobs and someone has to take care of casey’s little sister. their parents are very loving, but they only have so much time, so casey takes it upon themselves to take care of their little sister when their parents are busy and/or burned out from work. that, and they run into the classic dilemma of vigilante work clashing with school work. as always, they have a short fuse, they’re pretty cocky, they like beating ass, and they like hockey a whole lot. hockey, vigilante work, school, and taking care of their little sister... yeah, they have a lot on their plate. oh, and making their little inventions like the taser glove and their puck bombs, something that they bond with donnie over.

Leonardo: 17 years old, Central American wood turtle, trans, gay. he doesn’t fall in love with his sister oh my god. ahem. so, leo is raised from the start to be a Leader and has to mature very quickly, learning to be an adult way earlier than he should’ve, and as such he is very stoic and quiet, and doesn’t seem to have any hobbies, instead just doing chores and training almost constantly, and when he’s not doing that he’s reading or sleeping in his free time. he’s incredibly protective of his younger brothers and his other allies/friends, even if he acts distant and detached most of the time, and removes himself from situations where they’re having fun to not be the stick in the mud. he loves his brothers and admires them greatly, believing they could be So Much if the surface world would just accept them, and as a result he tries to be The Soldier so his brothers won’t have to. alas, they still get caught up in the Kraang and Shredder business, which frustrates him internally. he is the best fighter out of the turtles on account of having more years to train (and convincing Splinter to wait a few more years before they got Real training bc Come On Dude They’re Kids) but it’s the Only thing he’s good at, along with stealth and his sharp eyes. he absolutely sucks at talking when it isn’t about a mission or something he can script easily in his head. in his mind, he’s supposed to be more of a weapon than a person, an idea that isn’t exactly encouraged by Splinter... but not exactly discouraged either. his arc would be very paralleled with Karai’s, as they would both learn to hate their dads... also, absolutely down for murder, and a lawful neutral at best, putting his family and friends’ safety above all other things and following a strict personal code. doesn’t care too much for society’s laws, though.

Karai: 16 years old, demigirl, lesbian. same backstory as in the show, she’s born as Miwa but gets taken by Oroku Saki and raised as his daughter. however, she doesn’t exactly want revenge against Hamato Yoshi because she believes that he killed her mother. she never knew her mother, so it’s much more difficult to hate someone for taking her mother away, even if it does mean that she never got to know her mother. especially since her father rarely spoke of what her mother was like, and much more about how much he hates Yoshi. instead, her need for revenge is more for the possibly idyllic life she was robbed of, since she believes that maybe, just maybe, her father Saki would’ve been a kind father that would’ve let her have a normal childhood and not be molded into a warrior from the start if her mother still lived. and hey, maybe Tang Shen would be a nice mom too. being trained in the art of deception, Karai has a tendency to talk a lot and say very little, or at least very little that is true. she is rarely ever sincere and acts as if she’s taking nothing seriously, which is part of her defense mechanism to never let anyone close or see her true self. she mocks pretty much everyone, ally and enemy alike, but especially likes to make fun of her father’s henchmen and is always the first to point out their failures. while she does value honor to some extent, she is a bit “flimsy” when it comes to loyalty, especially after the truth about her father is revealed. when that is revealed, she at first just feels very numb, learning that not only has she been nothing but a tool and a weapon for the Shredder from the very start, but also that the idyllic fantasy where her mother still lived, perhaps her life wouldn’t be so different after all. she looks at leonardo and sees a reflection of herself, that her “real” father chose to train his sons the same way the Shredder trained her. she feels stupid for feeling like she’s been robbed of even a fantasy, but it still enrages her. of course, this also inspires her to stay with the Foot Clan... just to get the kill on Shredder.

... yeah. that got long. ahem. i’m very passionate about this unfortunately!! anyways i might draw/write more for it because no one can stop me and i’m having fun