#what about that is destroying the community?

[justagirlswrld]

Help me, invincible, you’re my only hope.

a/n: somebody asked for part 2 and i was like you know what hell yeah lmao. thanks for the likes and reposts!! feed back welcomed. (might delete kind of feel like it sucks lmao)

part 1

warnings: violence, arranged marriage, unprotected p in v. the usual sex stuff.

Mark is sprawled haphazardly across his bed, just reaching deep sleep when he’s jolted awake by the sound of what he thinks is an injured cat.

His head is pounding when he finally finds a thin device wrapped up in a shirt underneath his bed twenty minutes later. He can’t figure out how to stop the aggravating noise and is ready to rip it in half when he remembers what it is.

You had given him the technology the day he left Soloria. Your nimble fingers briefly showing him how to use it to communicate with you. When he finally got it to work the screeching stops and the screen comes to life with the same pale, yellow energy from the transporter.

To Mark’s surprise you appear from the device as a hologram, your skin pastel yellow instead of your usual hues of pink. “This is so cool.”, Mark says in awe.

“Mark Grayson?”, your voice is almost a whisper.

“Just Mark, Y/N.”, Mark sits the tablet down on his desk before standing in front of it. He wants to bring up how you said you’d send a ‘transmission’ before he came back to Earth two months ago. But then he starts thinking of your mouth stretched around his length and you have to call his name twice to get his attention.

“This is of the most Importance, Mark. I need your help.” Mark crosses his arms, half of him wants to tell you yes so he can finish the simple task and have his face buried in your sweet cunt for another three months. The other half of him is mad that you were just now calling.

Mark’s pride outweighs his lust and you watch as his hologram shakes his head no.

“No? You can’t say no, you are invincible, defender of the helpless.”, Desperation laces your words but Mark doesn’t pick up on it, all the blood had rushed from his head to his dick while he was reminiscing about his time with you.

“I’m not in my suit.”, Mark picks the device up, fixes his semi in his pajama pants then lays back on the bed, “…And you didn’t send me a transmission for two months, what’s so important now?”

Your hologram sighs, “I deeply apologize, Mark. I meant to send a transmission sooner but you know I had to marry-“, Mark’s eyebrows raise in surprise. He’d completely forgot that you were forced to marry an arranged suitor once your tryst was over. He didn’t think you’d actually go through with it.

“A wedding is a month long celebration on my planet, I’m contacting you at my earliest opportunity.” Mark is listening to you but he’s also trying to ignore the feeling of jealousy coursing through him. “This is why i’m communicating with you now, Mark.”

You explain to him that you’ve married a tyrant, how he wants to enslave your people and destroy your planet.

Mark’s thick brows pull together, “Isn’t that what Edolan said when he lied for you?” Mark continues with a smirk on his full lips, “You don’t have to tell me your planet is going to be destroyed for me to come fuck you.” He meant every word too. He’d been thinking about you since he’d left and was getting tired of his hand.

“This is not about pleasure, Mark. My people are in peril and you are the only one who can stop this monster-,” You grunt disdainfully before continuing, “I tried to eliminate him myself but he was stronger than I thought. I’m now a prisoner in my own home.”, The whole statement takes Mark completely aback. He’s still not convinced that you weren’t just saying this for some dick but he agrees to come anyway.

You explain to Mark how to transport with the thin device before ending the transmission. Mark wonders if he should come naked incase you transport him directly to your room but ends up suiting up.

When Mark’s feet hit cobblestone, he takes in Soloria with a smirk. Besides the kids that usually play in the streams near the courtyard nothing seemed out of place. He knew it was just a booty call, not that he was mad. He’d just have to teach you how to ask for dick like a normal…person.

Mark is gliding to the castle,thinking about what he wants to bend you over first when the castle’s huge doors fly open to reveal a brawny, orange man simmering with rage.

“My wife sent you to defeat me?! I laugh in your face! You can not stop me! I will enslave you and the rest of these Solorians-“, He balls his hand into a very, large fist. “And kill anyone who defies me.”

Before Mark can respond multiple wolf like creatures appear from thin air causing screams to errupt from the townspeople near him. The aliens snap at him with rows of sharp teeth, they’re ferocious as they try to latch onto him but it takes Mark minimal effort to defeat the animals.

“You’ve gotta come with something stronger than that!” Mark says taunting your ex husband as he pulls a beast in half, covering his suit in its silver blood.

Mark flies the rest of the distance to the castle. When he arrives your ex-husband is waiting for him, he’s trying to use his gargantuan body to block the castle doors.

Mark lands and walks over to the large stone steps with his palms raised, The Solorian towers over him with a sneer. Mark’s face fills with annoyance, he really wanted to get up to your room but someone always wanted to fight.

“Hey, man. Just go and don’t come back. I don’t want to hurt you.” Mark says, hands going to rest on his hips.

“Hurt me? A puny earthling could never!”, Mark kicks him into the far side of the castle, his body resembles a star fish when his back connects with the stone wall. Debris fall on his unconscious head. When winged guards fly from the castle he points in the direction of your ex husband and advises them to chain him up.

When you hear the commotion from outside your window you peek your head out of the room and smile cheerily while dancing with happiness when you see the orange man being put in chains.

You throw a lively party in Marks honor, it starts that afternoon and stretches into the wee hours of night. You’re completely fucked up by the time it’s over and Mark has to fly you back to your chambers, he lays you on your large bed gently before stripping off his suit.

When he turns back to you you’ve taken off the jeweled dress you wore. You were now completely naked save for the shimmering tiara in your hot pink hair.

“Invincible, my savior.”, You say sensually, crawling over to the side of the bed Mark was standing by. It sounds like the mead was leaving your system but Mark didn’t want to take advantage of you, his mom always said drunk people can’t consent.

It took his viltrumite strength to remove your pink hand from his crotch, he accidentally groans out loud when he sees you biting your lip in annoyance. “You no longer want to lay with me?” You ask as you sit back on your heels. Mark had been whispering vulgar things to you the whole party and you were giddy in anticipation.

It takes everything in Mark to not look down at your supple, bare skin. “N-No, I really want to lay with you but you had so much to drink.” You laugh, taking his large hand in yours then pulling him to sit on the bed beside you.

You rub your hand on his muscular thigh and tease your pink fingers under the leg of his boxers. “Mark Grayson, You worry too much above trivial things.” When you kiss him it’s all tongue and he thinks he might buss on the spot, luckily he doesn’t but he’s a panting mess when you pull away from him.

Mark uses the last ounce of his self control to stop your wandering hands. He was trying to show some restraint but god, he just wanted to slip into your tight walls. “I-Uh think we should wait till the morning. You had so much mead, Y/N.”

You ignore his words and slip onto his lap, knees on either side of his hips. You steady yourself by placing your hands on his lean shoulders, “Mark, please fuck me. I have not experienced pleasure since you were on Soloria….I feel like a virkin.”, your voice is whiny and breathless. You didn’t even realize you were grinding your wet cunt on his clothed erection until it started sending tingles down your spine.

Mark would’ve laughed in your face if he wasn’t so hard.

With his resolve weakened he can do nothing but lay back, muscular arms tucked under his head for comfort. He watches you with glazed eyes as you pull his boxers down enough to allow his hard cock to be set free.

You waste no time, sinking down on him with a moan. The stretch is so wonderful that it has you wondering why you didn’t follow him to Earth instead of getting married.

You place both hands on his chiseled stomach for purchase as you raise yourself up on your toes, bringing your wet cunt down on him roughly. This pulls moans from both of you, Mark has to force his eyes open to watch as you ride him. He wants to remember the image of your soaking cunt sliding up and down his cock in the moonlight for the rest of his life.

Mark allows you to stay on top of him until he notices your feet becoming wobbly. He sits up and instructs you to lay on your back.

Once you’re lying on the soft covers, Mark positions himself in front of you, kneeling on his heels while he takes your legs and throws both over his shoulder. He keeps them together as he pulls your lips apart, teasing you both by sliding his length back and forth between your wet folds.

Mark’s tip bumps into your nub with every soft thrust and it sends your toes curling. He notices the appendages and can’t help but to bend your leg some and pop them in his mouth, licking and moaning around them as he slides into your warmth.

You let out a whine that turns into a breathy moan when his hips meet yours. Mark licks your toes one last time before moving your leg to its original place on his shoulder.

Mark’s strokes are deep and well paced. Each one has you crying out as he repeatedly bumps your cervix and brushes against spots deep inside you that you didn’t know existed.

You grip the covers and throw your head back in ecstasy as Mark ruts into you, breath hitching and back arching as he begins rubbing hard circles on your swollen clit.

You cry out when your release sneaks up on you. Your thighs tremble as Mark flips you on your stomach then sinks his hard cock back into your spasming sex. You cry out, voice carrying in the open space of your room.

Mark kisses and suck’s your neck as he chases his own release, his voice is breathless and warm as he whispers sweet nothings in your ear. Through your lust induced haze you swear you hear him say that you should’ve married him instead of your ex husband but your approaching orgasm steals your attention.

Mark’s head drops into the crook of your neck as your cunt convulses around him. He thinks about pulling out but it’s like your soft walls pull him in deeper and deeper, you clench around him once more and his eyes are rolling back as he comes. He has to fist his hands in the covers to ground himself.

He pulls out of you slowly and moans at the sight of his release leaking out of your puffy cunt.

Mark is lying on his back, trying to catch his breath when you start speaking to him, your breathing just as haggard as his. He’d assumed you’d fallen asleep.

“Did you offer to marry me?” You ask Mark, watching his blushing face with the help of the moonlight. “Wh-what? no.”, he stutters out, he looks anywhere but at you as he fluffs a pillow on your bed.

“Are you being deceitful Mark Grayson?”, you scoot over to where he’s lying and press your sweaty body against his. You whisper in his ear and watch as he shivers, “If you were serious during our throes of passion I accept your offer but I would need to get adjusted to earth first.” He wraps his arm around your neck, biceps bulging as he pulls you closer. “Let’s talk about dating first.” Mark says through a yawn. You knit your brows together in confusion, “What is dating?”

[misfitwashere]

Trump's attack on the American mind

Behind his closure of the Education Department, his assault on higher education, on science, and on libraries and museums, lie the oligarchs of the techno-state.

ROBERT REICH

MAR 20

Friends,

Today, Trump is dismantling the Department of Education. He’s ordering wrestling executive-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shut her department. 

His executive order will effectively destroy a $100 billion-a-year executive department created by Congress under President Jimmy Carter 45 years ago. 

But there’s a much larger plan here.

Combine this with Trump’s attacks on higher education — his gutting the funding of the National Institutes of Health (which provides a large portion of biomedical research) and the National Science Foundation (engineering and computer research), and his effective closure of USAID (which underwrites research in global diseases).

Put this together with Trump’s (and RFK Jr.’s) attacks on vaccine science, 

Combine this with Trump’s attacks on the freedom of speech of university students and professors. 

And Trump’s and rightwing governors’ attacks on teaching the truth in our schools about America’s history of slavery and Native American genocide. 

Put this together with Trump’s attack on America’s libraries — last week’s executive order mandating cuts in the funding of libraries around the country — which will jeopardize literacy development and reading programs, reliable internet access for those without it at home, and homework help and other resources for students and educators.

Combine this with his attacks on America’s museums (the same executive order cut their funding, too). And his attack on the arts, as illustrated by Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center (last month, he announced himself its new chair, replaced 13 board members, and inserted a new interim president). 

What’s the larger picture? What’s the overall purpose? 

Not to mount an “attack on the liberal state,” as I keep reading. Not “a culmination of Trump’s culture wars.” Or that Trump seeking “small government” over “big government,” or is advancing traditional conservatism over traditional liberalism. 

What’s really occurring is an attack on the American mind. 

Throughout history, tyrants have understood that their major enemy is an educated citizenry. Slaveholders prohibited slaves from learning to read. Nazi’s burned books. 

Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny. 

Those who believe in democracy, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of the movement for free, universal public education; and for public libraries, museums, and the arts. They understand that democracy depends on people knowing what’s occurring around them and having the capacity to deliberate critically about it. 

Trump is only the frontman in this attack on the American mind. 

The attack is really coming from the anti-democracy movement: From JD Vance; and from Vance’s major financial backer, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who staked $15 million on Vance’s Ohio senatorial election in 2022 and helped convince Trump to make Vance vice president; and from Thiel’s early business partner, Elon Musk. 

Thiel is a self-styled libertarian who once wrote: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Hello? Freedom is incompatible with democracy only if you view democracy as a potential constraint on your wealth and power.

Behind Vance and Musk is a libertarian community of rich crypto bros, tech executives, back-to-the-landers, and disaffected far-right intellectuals.

Curtis Yarvin comes as close as anyone as being their intellectual godfather. He has written that political power in the United States is held by a liberal amalgam of universities and the mainstream media whose commitment to equality and justice is eroding America’s social order.

In Yarvin’s view, democratic governments are inefficient and wasteful. They should be replaced with sovereign joint-stock corporations whose major “shareholders” select an executive with total power, who serves at their pleasure. Yarvin refers to the city-state of Singapore as an example of a successful authoritarian regime.

Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.

It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient, and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control. 

Be warned.

[phneltwrites]

omg looking at the ask game and realizing you have THREE space aus! wow what a treat! but i would like to ask specifically about the space vikings

I LOVE SPACE

ok i actually have quite a bit of this written but it's all in chat format because space vikings is a collab w a beloved friend. and I was like I can turn that into actual prose so I can share but i uh. didn't. so. i might come back to this later

background:

Wilhelm is a space viking living on a generation ship that is slowly moving through Simon's solar system on its way to its final home destination. Several generations into this, the myth they have is that they left a planet in the middle of ragnarok and are moving to a new land. Generation ship looks like this

Big enough to support multiple communities but not so big that they don't need to raid and trade to keep themselves going.

Simon is on a planet with earth level technology which means they know that the vikings come from space but they think it's another planet and they can't find them and they can't do anything to stop them coming from raiding. He's a travelling bard and gets scooped up on a raid and taken to the ship.

Now. Here is the thing. This fic has a lot of worldbuilding (thank u to my friend who let me go wild) but fundamentally it is a bodice ripper. This is captive-captor romance. This is 'I'm so tortured by the evil that I do' v 'uh I'm kind of the guy having the evil done to him' romance.

(I saw this picture and was like. that's a resentful concubine)

Wilhelm has never taken a thrall before, secretly disagrees with the practice, but he heard Simon sing when they were scouting and when he's brought aboard the small raiding ship they use, the one that uses sun sails and can only travel within a solar system, he cannot allow August to claim him. August should hand him over due to Wilhelm's social position as son of the jarl, but August challenges him and Wilhelm, best berserker in their village, defeats him and humiliates him and takes Simon.

Cue like every trope you can think of here. People being like ooh you never had one before must be special. August wanting to get back at Wilhelm. Simon not being a very good captive and Wilhelm maybe having to do a little maiming to protect him. Wilhelm being like 'well if you just learned the rules' to Simon even though the rules are oppressive. ...Wilhelm maybe having to put Simon on display a little.

"This is how it works Simon. Now you're safe because I'm strong and you weren't before because you weren't."

Wilhelm is like "I'm not like the rest of them, I chop my own wood with my laser axe and I tend my own garden and--"

"And you keep me as your slave."

(and then they leave viking society because Simon is right and being a killing machine is destroying Wilhelm yaaay)

ask game

[pikuniku53353358]

Rain world + the amazing digital circus = glitch world!

II don't plan to develop this AU any further, so if you like the concept, you can start promoting it to the masses so that more people know about au. You draw art, create memes, and so on, making sure to put the hashtag "glitch world au" under all posts. The future of this au lies only in your hands. You can find out more about the plot below.

I'm telling you about this au's lore:

WARNING! I ran the entire text through a translator because English is not my native language, so there may be some mistakes in it. I hope they won't be critical. Okay, now I'm explaining to you for the local lore. Madness of Entertainment was one of those iterators who, even after the departure of the Ancients, remained faithful to the task, and he tried to solve it primarily because of that... Madness was lonely. A naive, slightly goofy, kind-hearted iterator. Everyone considered him an oddball and did not want to communicate. So, spending his days alone with his thoughts, at some point he thought of creating a large simulation, where the local rules would state that the void sea would not be able to turn you into an echo, to stuff the consciousness of all beings who want to ascend into this very simulation, and, in fact, that's all. Madness sent a triple confirmation, all the iterators in the world were alarmed, but they were not happy with the arguments their colleague came to and only became more convinced of his eccentricity. By the very concept of ascension, it means that your physical shell disintegrates, and your mind, as it were, ascends, turns out to be beyond all that exists, in fact, it turns out to be at the point of no return. How can the simulation convey this if no one knows what lies beyond this very point of no return? It will not be an ascension from this world, but some kind of nonsense. And besides, iterators are trying to find a solution to a great problem in THEIR REAL WORLD, and not in some kind of incomprehensible simulation done in a hurry. The ideas of Madness were rejected, and he could have fallen into despair if one of the iterators had not seriously said: "Besides, our Creators have long since left. Who are you working so hard for anyway? For these stupid creatures crawling through our structure?" Something clicked in his head, and the idea of giving lower beings a path to enlightenment stuck firmly in his mind. And he decided to start saving creatures... Other iterators located next to it. Because in the local group, where Madness was, how can I put it mildly?.. There were only dumb cattle. In fact, only Madness itself was normal there. Sea of Despair was particularly distinguished from this group. This person was very fond of creating various creatures, especially scavengers, but at the same time had sick sadistic habits and therefore she could calmly start beating her creations naturally or worse. Having probed all this, Madness began trying to establish contact with all this artificially created horde of scavengers through observers and force them to go towards his target so that the iterator could move the consciousness of all creatures into the simulation there. But Sea wasn't stupid either, her watchers had spotted the aliens, and so she decided to play along with Madness plan. She allowed most of her scavengers to come to someone else's installation, and then, through her observers, gave the command that they begin to destroy someone else's installation, preferably from the inside. The scavengers followed the iterator's orders and during this terrorist attack were able to damage some of Madness systems responsible for his artificial intelligence, making the already slightly strange iterator even more crazy. He forgot his real name and gave himself the nickname "Caine".

Sea decided to stop there, considering that she was able to take revenge on this naive freak and called everyone away from someone else's installation, leaving Caine alone with himself again. The iterator was still burning with the idea of saving the lower beings, but now he wanted to move them into the simulation not for the sake of lifting everyone up, but for the sake of everyone having "fun" there. Yes, Caine began to believe that everyone in this world lacked "joy," and he wanted to fix it. He will come up with all sorts of adventures for all newcomers, feed them well, and in general, the creatures there will live in peace and harmony and blah blah blah. Well, then, willy-nilly, all sorts of slugcats and lizards began to come to him from time to time, which Caine safely irrevocably moved into the simulation, before erasing most of their memory.

This is if we talk about the general lore and Caine, and now I'll tell you about the rest of the characters. Pomni, Gangle and Zooble are the creations of another crazy iterator from a local group named Nothing Is Perfect. This iterator is a fierce perfectionist and has been trying in vain all this time to create the perfect being. But as you know, it's no use. Gangle and Zooble were the first to enter the simulation. The iterator had previously held everyone hostage, locked up in his room, literally chaining all the poor things in chains. But Zooble, as a stronger being, was able to get out, Gangle helped, and together they escaped from this madhouse. But Gangle was still chained up, Zooble couldn't untangle them, so they came to Caine, and when he saw Gangle's condition, he counted... That chains are already the last century for fashion and beauty, I replaced heavy chains with light ribbons for the mouse, in fact, thus freeing the poor thing from these shackles.

Pomni, the most recent at the time got into the simulation. And she was able to get out of the installation on her own. It was thanks to her tail that slugcat managed to fight back against its creator. In fact, this tail is a separate organism, for the most part, Pomni is able to control it, but if this reptile gets into a rage... That's it, no one will be able to stop this crazy limb. According to the law of meanness, it so happened that the tail also turned out to be very similar in appearance to the scattered ones, so she is now even more afraid of him, despite that it was he who, in fact, was able to save his mistress's life. Speaking of the scattered ones. Since Caine hadn't checked his simulation for possible errors all this time, it eventually turned out that if a creature's hunger, happiness, or anything else greatly exceeded its normal status, an error would occur and the simulation would turn the creature into a fig, you know what, that is, those scattered ones creatures. Which Caine then sends to the void sea, where no one else has seen them.

Jax is one of the creations of Sea of Despair, and I think it's clear from his scars that the scavenger went a little crazy during his stay with his creator. He got to Caine by accident when he was doing the iterator's next assignment. After Jax got into the simulation, they were able to remove the stitches that had been sewn to his mouth all this time, and more or less patched up the wounds. Unfortunately, Caine couldn't fix his sanity... Kinger was a representative of a rare species of deer. An endangered species. And one of the iterators of the local group wanted to help these poor devils in preserving the population. The idiot's name was Four Rays. To all the individuals that Ray could find, he, with the help of observers, put special sensors on their heads, like for tracking. But most of the observers did it carelessly, breaking half of the deer's skulls, damaging their brains in every possible way, and so on. As you can imagine, this has only caused the population to shrink further. Kinger was lucky. His brain wasn't badly damaged, mostly affecting his memory. Now the deer couldn't remember anything very well. Together with his beloved, Kinger came to Caine. Due to the fact that this type of deer was relatively lower and smaller than the original, they were able to climb through the opening into the structure. The inspectors noticed these two, notified Caine about it, and then he was able to remotely move them. Ragatha was affected by the last iterator in the local group, which is now dead. His name was Enlightened Sky, I couldn't think of what exactly caused him to die, but his structure eventually collapsed, just like it happened to Moon. Ragatha lived in a region close to the sky and was badly damaged during the collapse. The debris was flying, there was a lot of dust, and Ragatha miraculously managed to survive.

However, in the process, she received a huge wound on her back, which also hurt a lot. Her spine also cracked a little at that moment, so the poor thing could barely walk at all. But she still managed to crawl to Caine, moved into the simulation, and there the iterator gave her a cloak to hide this terrible wound and a bow, purely so that Ragatha would not be too sad.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

Trump signed an executive order closing the department of education

Fuck it...

I...

*big sigh*

Last night I had to take some big calming breaths because a 14 year old asked "what are the Jews" and when people tried to explain thee child was like "do they live in Germany?" And then that started a conversation about the Holocaust and the 14 year old was like "I thought Germany liked the Jews"

And this is the same 14 year old that didn't know that South America existed, thought the Southern United States was "South America" and when I finally got the point of the entire continent of South America existing they asked "Does it have States too?" Over Christmas, and Geography is their best subject.

That conversation did not end with the 14 year old understanding what the Holocaust was (their argument was they'll take world history next year) or who the Jews were. Just like they don't know where South America is after last time I tried to explain something to them.

But sure, instead of trying to impose better education standards, let's just... throw the entire DOE right out the window.

I'm sure that will go well.

I'm too tired to even try now. After how bad the South America conversations went, I just left at the start of this one.

"But shouldn't you be trying to help when the system obviously failed them." Fuck, I'm this close to giving up. I learned the fucking continents when I was fucking five. We had a goddamn rhyme for it and everything. And I was fucking bullied for looking German, and therefore looking like a Nazi, in elementary school. This isn't me throwing a goddamn pity party about being bullied or whatever. This is just me pointing out that kids knew this shit when I was in elementary school, and I thought the education system sucked BACK THEN and I'm the victim of watching it be WORSE now through this 14 year old, and now Trump is destroying the DOE.

I'm so fucking mentally and emotionally exhausted of this shit.

-fae

[skibasyndrome]

I wanted to ask your thoughts about a topic that I think might resonate with you since a lot of your writing surrounds it and since you talked about it the other I thought it'd be nice to hear what you have to say.

I grew up feeling very ashamed of having sexual feelings, and other things taken in account made me really repressed. For a very long time I didn't even admitted to myself I was queer until I was actively in a fandom with queer people.

But sex in general was always taboo regardless of gender but for some reason young royals has destroyed a bit of the misconception I had around it. The show in itself depicts a beautiful and safe environment for queer sex which I'll always be so grateful for.

And then fanfic came along and that was another block taken down because fanfic allows us to be even more free in our writing etc but sometimes I feel conflicted about how it can feel good to feel this free reading about these characters but irl still have this block.

Your writing is so amazing in that regards because your character are exploring it all and I don't know how it would be if writers would stop themselves from writing what they'd want to bc they're afraid of what others might think... I wouldn't have read all these stories and felt myself freed from societal rules of what's okay and isn't.

But sex is also drench in shame regardless bc if you like kinky stuff your weird, if you like too much sex then it becomes dangerous. But writing about those very things feels like a rebellious acts, do you agree? It's like art can do so much and sex in that regard is something we have to push through as well in order to make our point across like there's nothing wrong with it but why do we hold on to the shame more ? Of course we can keep it strick to fanfic I don't expect you to reveal yourself etc I was just thinking about the way yr is different in that concept because it challenges us to see sex differently because Wille and Simon see it differently, does that make sense ?

Hi, dear anon! Thank you so much for sending this in and for trusting me with it 🫂💜 I definitely have loooots of thoughts on this, and I hope that I can express them coherently. Sorry if this gets rambly!

First of all: I'm very, very sorry that you grew up with all that shame around sex and sexuality around you. I'm really happy to hear that things are better now (at least the part about admitting to yourself that you're queer 💜) You deserved better, everybody deserves better. But I relate to that a lot. I grew up in a politically and religiously conservative environment, so of course sex was something people got shamed for and homophobia and queerphobia was rampant.

Interestingly enough (or maybe it's not that interesting at all, who knows) being in a fandom did the same thing for me, except I got lucky because I was able to find a place in a fandom and with fellow queer people at a pretty young age. I think without that, I would've had a way harder time coming to terms with my queerness, even though I remember already thinking about it when I was like eight or something. It's absolutely invaluable to be able to get a sense of community like that and to know that there's more out there in the world, be if for you and your own identity or just what's possible for humans in general. I'm endlessly grateful for fandom and especially for fanfic for being able to provide that!!!!

And the funny thing is, even though this is far from my first fandom and far from my first time engaging with queer content there was still something incredibly special about Young Royals and the way (queer) sex is treated on the show (and I know it's not just queer sex, but that's kind of the lense I use to look at it, so I'm going to be focusing on that). Like... even though, technically, I had it all more of less figured out already, the show did change something for me, and even 1,5 years later I'm still struggling to put it into words. But there's something about the way the sex is depicted that makes it so... uncomplicated? Like, even though the sex is very central to the story, to the way Wilmon connect, and to one of the main conflicts (with the video tape), it's never an issue in itself. They're both so quick to admit it, they did nothing wrong (maybe... maybe the most important line of the whole show to me tbh). And even though shit hits the fan because of the video and they both go through hell and back in all kinds of ways because of it, there's never any inherent shame around it. It's so different and refreshing in that sense - these two guys like each other, so they do what feels right for them, and there's no issue with that. It's almost... celebrated? Is that the right word? throughout the show, it's what they do for comfort and connection and to feel closer to each other. I don't watch nearly enough tv or movies to really know if that is overall as revolutionary as it felt to me in particular, but... yeah. For me, personally, that was one of the first times queer sex on screen looked like that. It really is exactly how you call it, beautiful and safe!

As for the freedom that come from reading fic: yep. hell yes. That is definitely a big part of why I love writing and reading fanfic. It's freeing, in so many ways. Of course that's not something that's exclusively limited to fanfic, and you will always find me talking about the inherent emancipatory potential of art of all kinds, but I do think that, especially compared to what you'd call traditionally published (romance) books, fanfic has a lot more freedoms. Fanfic writers have the possibility to publish the most self-indulgent stories ever, we don't have to tie everything into a neat bigger plot, we don't (unless we struggle with perfectionism, but... you know) have to try to make the story perfect or fit into any of the molds traditional publishing or literary history provides for us. We can create straight from the heart, on a whim, to work through shit or to ask questions or just because we thought of something interesting and couldn't let it go. And, when it comes to smut, we can just (again, theoretically, I won't pretend there aren't always all kinds of pressures that do influence what people feel comfortable writing and publishing)... write whatever.

It makes it easier to explore things that other types of media don't always give people the space to explore, like smut, kink, queerness, all sorts of different forms of relationships. And I think it gives a lot of writers the time and space to just explore. And I think that's something more people should be allowed to, both in fiction, but also just in their minds or even in life, explore. This can mean all sorts of things, but I also very much mean those things, sex, kink, queerness, relationships, etc. But especially for people who don't have the means to get into these things themselves, for all kinds of reasons, but also for people who don't really want to explore things as themselves fic can provide a safe space. Because you do get a close insight into things you've maybe never seen before or even thought about before, you get to experience them alongside the characters, and it can go all sorts of ways. It's safe, because you're not putting yourself on the line, but you're also right there, emotionally.

And that is not to say that reading smut is something that has to do with personal sexuality for people (although I think it absolutely can), but it's like a playground to just. Exist in. See what happens. Enjoy the variety of ways human beings can express their feelings for each other, enjoy the variety of ways human being can experience joy and connection and pleasure, or even the more difficult emotions. It's cathartic to be able to see all that.

I think that is also where the difference between reading about characters experiencing these things vs trying to face them in real life comes in, because fic is such a safe means of engaging with (sexual) things. It makes sense that it's easier to enjoy these things theoretically. Because even after we go through all these efforts of trying ourselves out and deconstructing the harmful notions and the internalized shame and then things society or our parents of whoever got into our heads instilled in us, they're so difficult to fully get rid off, and there's always more puritanism of all flavors coming our way. Don't beat yourself up about not being at a level of comfort that you want to be at (yet), but I hope as time goes on this will get easier for you 💜 I know thus far this has been a very allo kind of conversation, but you know, even if sex isn't something you're interested in for yourself at all, there's still a lot to be taken from engaging with it through fiction I think. That's also part of the beauty, even if there's something you could never envision for yourself - you can experience if through art!

I'm so incredibly happy that my writing could contribute to you feeling freer yourself, that is an incredible compliment and I appreciate you so much for saying it 💜 I really feel the same way about all the fic I've gotten to read, honestly. And I do love that we have fandom spaces to, for the most part, be able to read and write freely. I do think that's an act of rebellion in itself! Creating art is always rebellious in some ways, and art that you will not get paid for and thus don't have any restrictions on even more so (again, nuance, out there in real life art should get funding, but it should still always be able to exist independently of market pressures). I think especially in a society that's still so horribly sex-negative (because even though sex is omnipresent in a lot of ways there are so so soooo many restricting ideas tied to it, like for whom is it okay to have sex, how much sex, what kinds of sex etc) and queerphobic it's absolutely an act of rebellion to lean into these things and depict them as the beautiful and messy and amazing and complicated parts of human existence they are for many people.

And this is where I tie it back to Young Royals specifically: Again, not an expert on all things media depiction of queer sex, but to me personally, YR and Wilmon are revolutionary, just for the fact that their sex is so normal. Not in a normative sense (because, fuck that. there's no normatively normal way of having sex, it's all beautifully weird), but in the sense that it's just what they do. Because they want to, because it feels good, because they want to try things out, because it brings them comfort, all kinds of reasons! And it's never something they think they shouldn't be doing, it's never something they are made to regret. It's the people out there who try to shame them that are the problem, never these two queer guys having sex. That's fucking beautiful and comforting and will forever be one of my favorite aspects of the show.

[questionablecuttlefish]

Why Lux would get along with Jinx's PnZ circles:

Some super easy headcanons:

Vi - Is an overprotective but well meaning big sibling. Familiar! Lux has one of those too. I think Lux would find the deep, painful rift between the sisters horrifying on a deeply personal level for her, because she would be imagining what it would take to push her and Garen to that place and it'd scare her to her core. I think she would be invested in helping Jinx heal her bond with her sister, for Jinx's sake above all else. She'd make it a mission.

Ekko - is a forthright, compassionate community leader of a group of outcasts, just like her. When the Baron war heats up in S2, he takes in refugees, just like Lux did with Terbisia during the Mage Rebellion. They both care deeply about Jinx and have very similar moral compasses. Lux's rich girl status might initially put Ekko off but he's easily mature enough to see past it - she's not a Piltie or an Enforcer - and Lux is mature enough to see that Jinx would benefit greatly from repairing her relationships with friends who genuinely care about her despite the wounds.

Caitlyn - Is the only daughter of a proud aristocratic lineage, just like Lux. These two have a lot in common, and Lux would understand the weight of The Family Name and The Legacy intimately. I think Lux would see a lot of Jarvan IV in Season Two Caitlyn's spiral to authoritarianism - like Jarvan, she lost a parent and it pushed her to punish and persecute a minority in response. Both had their grief and rage manipulated by a third party and both had second thoughts when they realized how far off the edge they'd leapt.

She was able to keep a cordial political relationship with Jarvan after the events of the Mageseeker, to the benefit of her community, and I could see her wielding similar diplomacy to build a bridge with Caitlyn from a POV as Jinx's partner.

Mel - Yep, a lot of the above also applies to Mel, but even more so with Mel being a mage (with Light-adjacent magic no less!) and one whose authoritarian matriarchal figure (Ambessa/Tianna) went to some grim extremes trying to cover up her magical talent to protect her from a sinister organization trying to destroy/exploit her for it (Mageseekers/Black Rose). They have similar complex relationships with family, preference for diplomacy over violence, and innate compassion. A lot of Mel's story is almost a Noxian mirror of Lux's own. They would have a LOT of common ground and a lot to talk about.

Seraphine - Going outside Arcane canon, Seraphine's just a giant sweetheart and a very easy best friend for Lux and Jinx as a couple. I think Lux would see a lot of her own somewhat naive but heartfelt wish to end conflict and persecution through nonviolent means reflected in Seraphine. It might unsettle or inspire her.

Zeri - A fellow mage whose powers Lux might try to help her develop, Zeri's going to remind her a lot of Jinx, just as reckless, maybe a little less volatile. But she's got a big heart, and wants to fight to protect her vulnerable community, what's not to like?

Ezreal - Including him because wanderer though he is, he's a Piltover boy. as i've said before I don't think this works as a ship, because they don't really have compatible personalities for a romance and their narratives are going in different directions, but as a friendship, once Ez actually stops pedestaling her from afar and gets to know her, there's a lot of fun dynamics to work with, particularly if you have Jinx around for Ez to bicker with and get into shenanigans.

A lot of this has found its way into the Ill-Omen's Series and my other fanfics. The more I write the more they all grow on me.

[bayetea]

I think that something to keep in mind about hazel is that in her first life sammy was the only person in the world who has shown her kindness. her mom was only ever nice to her when she was providing her with income. hazel is living in a society that considers her race subhuman and even members of her own community hate her because of the rumors about marie. she isn't just ostracized at school she's explicitly stated to have experienced violent bullying from other kids and yet she still protects them from being harmed by her cursed gems. she was neglected and abused by her mother and she still gives up elysium so that marie doesn't have to suffer in the afterlife. the very first time hazel retaliated against abuse was when she fought back against gaea - and her retaliation got her killed. her character is so effusively kind in a world full of hatred and injustice because she knows that she can't let herself succumb to bitterness like her mother

I think those months after her birthday when she was abducted to alaska are genuinely the absolute worst of her life specifically because she lost sammy, and his absence etched a crater-sized hole in her chest where his kindness once was. she can't get that from anyone else anymore. the alaskans don't welcome her and pluto can't reach her there and her mother is dying slowly right before her in an evil plot to destroy the world that she feels complicit in. genuinely her only option in this situation had always been to run away so that she couldn't be used as a pawn anymore, which she considered during those horrifying months but couldn't because gaea would retaliate against her mother. so hazel does what she always does: allows herself to suffer for people who have treated her poorly

and this post isn't about frank or percy but I think that this is something to contextualize as it relates to frazel and the percy&hazel dynamic. the foundation of her relationship with them is simply the mutual kindness and trust that they're able to develop in such a short time because they very quickly recognize the good inside of each other. hazel puts herself in harm's way to save frank and percy numerous times and it isn't one-sided like things were in her past life, they emphatically do the same for her as well. frank and percy show her how they care for her in ways that are so earnest and vehement (frank saying "we're not going to let you die again," percy saying "we're not letting anything happen to you", etc). as characters for whom the past is a source of conflict one way or another (hazel's blackouts and intense feelings of guilt over gaea, percy breaking down over his lost memories and getting triggered by things that conflict with his understanding of the world i.e. the evil centaurs, frank redeeming his ancestor's besmirched legacy and figuring out how to use the family gift), they readily offer kindness and understanding in the present without asking each other to suffer for it

and this is especially true of frank: by accessing hazel's blackouts and experiencing the events of her past life, he is sharing her heaviest traumas and burdens so that she doesn't have to experience them all alone. this burden-sharing is transitory; frank gives her his firewood, which is literally his life - and his life is the thing that finally grounds her. his life anchors hazel so that she doesn't get blackouts anymore (and he forfeits the weight of his heaviest burden to a person he can trust to take care of him). this thread of frank preventing hazel from being overtaken by adversaries of her past continues numerous times throughout son of neptune, most significantly when he shapeshifts for the very first time to save her from alcyoneus and when he comes up with the plan that gives hazel the chance to finally defeat her old enemy - and that's when she kisses him for the very first time. I consider this the very essence of their romance: reciprocation. it's not "you make me whole", it's "I love you and trust you to care for me as I care for you", it's "in being with you, I discover new depths within myself", it's "knowing you has given me the strength to grow"

so that's basically my favorite thing about son of neptune and I think a lot of people forget how intense the emotions in that book managed to get. it's not the most popular pjo novel but I don't think any other book in the franchise has evidenced how deeply three people who have literally just met (frank only knew her for 3 weeks pre-son) can touch each other's hearts by virtue of simply being kind to each other. like those boys LOVE hazel and think she's a wonderful person and express that repeatedly and I think that's just so sweet because she finally gets to have this in her second life. she really deserves to be cherished like that <- my longwinded way of saying that hazel was the gem all along, just like her mom finally realized in her last words before they died

[pluckyredhead]

You know, I’ve heard for a long time now about how Devin Grayson tried to adapt Daredevil Born Again to Nightwing while missing the whole point of it (something about ignoring all of Dick’s connections in the hero community?). Is that more fandom slander?

It's hard for me to answer this without knowing exactly what people are saying about Born Again, but sure, you can look at Devin's run as a riff on Born Again, I think that's absolutely fair. But it was Chuck Dixon who turned Blockbuster into a Kingpin-esque villain to begin with, so to blame her for riffing on another storyline and not him is...well, it's the same "men get a pass but Devin Grayson MUST be canceled" shit all over again.

Also, again, I don't know exactly what argument people are making here, but Born Again is definitely not about Daredevil's connections in the hero community! That man doesn't have friends lol. But more to the point, Born Again is very much about how Matt is strategically isolated by Kingpin, and Devin's Nightwing arc is also deliberately about Dick's isolation, first because uhhhh Blockbuster kills a bunch of his loved ones and then because of the shame and trauma of Blockbuster's murder and the rape. Like, the story is very much about how sexual assault can cause the victim to feel isolated. That is the point.

Also, the fact that Dick was constantly calling Babs and the Titans to solve his problems for him was in fact one of the major weaknesses of the Taylor run. It doesn't make it seem like he has friends, it makes it seem like he's incompetent - just like if Batman called Superman to help with every Arkham breakout, those would not be good Batman stories.

Anyway, superhero comic books have been around for nearly 90 years, and there is a finite number of potential plotlines, so I don't actually think it's a problem to riff on a previous one. Hell, there's a long history of both DC and Marvel literally reusing stories panel for panel because they figured the original readers had all grown up and moved on, so they could get away with it. However, I think it's worth looking at whether the riff has anything new or interesting to say that sets it apart from the previous one, and when I look at those three stories, I see:

Frank Miller: "What if the villain finds out the hero's secret identity and uses it to destroy his life, breaking down his sanity in the process, but the hero finds the inner strength (and arguably Jesus) to come back fighting and save the woman he loves?"

Devin Grayson: "What if the villain finds out the hero's secret identity and uses it to destroy his life, breaking down his sanity in the process - and what if the villain's 'defeat' just makes everything worse, and the violation of the hero's moral code becomes entangled with the violation of his body, leading to a further downward spiral that no one around him can understand, because he's too traumatized and ashamed to tell his loved ones what happened?"

Tom Taylor: "What if the villain finds out the hero's secret identity, but nothing bad happens because of it, and the hero gets beaten up but not fundamentally broken down in any real way and can still totally win a fist fight, and then someone else kills the villain but not in a way where the hero has to feel bad about it, and so the hero never has to make any hard decisions or experience loss or failure, but in exchange is not the agent of his own salvation or that of his city? Also, what if when you hit Dick Grayson hard enough his mask goes SPLOOT and flies off?"

And look, the Devin version is dark. It's not for everyone and that's fine. I personally prefer the Miller version as a story. But the Taylor version is infuriating to me, because it feels like such a waste of my time.

AND FINALLY, even if you (not you personally, anon) want to accuse Devin Grayson of copying Frank Miller, Tom Taylor is therefore copying Devin Grayson copying Frank Miller, which is surely worse? And as the post I reblogged from @dickgraysonsptsd pointed out, Taylor got all sorts of awards and accolades for his toothless writing (elevated by the artistic brilliance of Bruno Redondo, who deserves so much better) while Devin still has people accusing her of all sorts of buckwild nonsense 21 years later.

[stacksattack]

just got a very unsavory follower so obligatory post about this

[saranitysstuff]

so clearly you didn't read it

"i don't think mafuyu's mother is abusive" so that's not a matter of opinion, she is abusive

mafumom ignores boundaries by throwing out mafuyu's things and looking through her computer, she dismisses mafuyu's feelings when mafuyu shares them with her, she is manipulative, she has strict curfews and is possessive of mafuyu, and she is judgemental to mafuyu and the rest of n25. she is 1000% emotionally abusive to mafuyu.

"she has mafuyu's best interests in mind" if this were true, she would listen to mafuyu when she literally breaks down and explains how she has been feeling (she doesn't, she just says mafuyu is confused) or when kanade tells mafumom that mafuyu is suicidal (again, she doesn't!)

"she cares for mafuyu" again, being explicitly told by kanade that mafuyu wants to die because she feels she can not pursue her own interests and completely dismissing that is not caring for her own daughter. at all.

"she gets shaken and lashes out" - WHY would she lash out at her daughter for expressing her own interests, and why does op think it's acceptable for her to do so? her reactions are NOT appropriate at all, she does not accept mafuyu's feelings and only wants mafuyu to do what she orders her to do without taking into account what mafuyu wants

"she's never openly communicated with her mother" when mafuyu DOES and tells her mom how she has been feeling and why she wants to pursue music, mafumom IGNORES HER. like, sure, maybe before she's never communicated and that is causing her issues, but when she DOES communicate (and when kanade ALSO communicates with mafumom) mafumom literally just ignores her! how is all the blame going to mafuyu when she DOES communicate with mafumom??

"being told that mafuyu must be a good girl is the only thing that's happened to mafuyu" she has controlled mafuyu's life to the point mafuyu has no sense of personhood, leaving her completely emotionless with no direction in life, she destroys mafuyu's belongings, she cuts mafuyu off from any meaningful relationships, she displays no sympathy towards how mafuyu is feeling, she ignores multiple people telling her that mafuyu wants to disappear, she was reprimanded harshly as a kid for wandering off and mafumom had grabbed her so hard that it caused pain to mafuyu (who literally could not have been older than 8 years old), even mafuyu's father recognized how abusive and controlling mafumom was being and literally helped mafuyu pack her things...do i need to go on??? watering down her trauma to her "just not having a rebellious phase" and "not communicating" shows that op never read the story

what exactly do they mean by colopale "doing damage" to "younger players" with kanamafu?

"she glazes herself when the group first mentions OWN" is she not allowed to be proud of her work or discuss it with people she is comfortable with? my god

there is nothing wrong with not seeing mafuyu as plural. sega is not trying to make DID/OSDD rep here. i also don't think mafuyu has a dissociative disorder. it's all a matter of opinion. but attacking people (who mostly are plural themselves!) for hcing a character they like as plural, using a bad post as your "citation," refusing to read criticism from people who have actually dissected the post and calling it a "skill issue" makes you a really shitty and annoying gimmick blog.

if you are going to decide whether or not a character is plural, maybe use your own critical thinking skills and read the media instead of using a really bad post that is just blatantly wrong about mafuyu and her situation instead of saying "skill issue" and "we're not a headcanon blog" (which you are btw...most of the characters on your blog are not confirmed to be plural, you are making a verdict about whether they are based on how they act...which is a headcanon...because it's not explicitly canon lmao)

Mafuyu from project sekai

!! rating: Not Plural. ok hear me out. do not kill me for this.

okay buckle up i have a LOT TO SAY on this one. please save any comments for after youve finished reading this entire post.

i know sysmafuyu is a VERY COMMON headcanon among this fanbase, i know it is cherished i know it is loved, to a point a good handful of people will unironically think it is a canonical thing, when sadly it is not.

commonly, within the sysmafu headcanons, we have her two other alters; yuki + own. yuki is characterized as mafuyu's good girl persona whilst own is characterized as this edgy boy (unsure specifically where that one came from, save from white day? feel free to give more insight, mafuyu fans)

although as i just said yuki is characterized as mafuyus good girl persona. persona. an act, she purposefully puts on because of how overbearing and overcontrolling her mother is. this is not inherently plural.

own, or OWN, is a username mafuyu went by to upload music anonymously, the reason its called "own" is because its finally her own space, free from her mothers shackles, this again; is not inherently plural

the way mafuyu exists as a character (and thus grows and learns more As A Person, thats what pjsk is literally all about; change and hashtag friendship) has absolutely no signs of plurality; she is extremely monotone, very autism creature for lack of a better word ( just her expression + tone of voice usually, im not saying she has autism ) and when interacting with strangers or people shes not as close to as her group mates, she puts on the good girl persona that her mother thinks she is, mafuyu purposefully acts that way. it is important to her as a character that she is purposefully acting that way.

there ARE HOWEVER emotional dissociative barriers, which is not exclusive to systems + plurality

someone else, @buggitino phrased it all So SO much better than i ever could, and i will link that post here: x

[or here]

please read that post in its entirety before commenting, as it has points i was going to bring up in here but again phrased in a much much better way

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[cienie-isengardu]

Sokka's sexism

Sokka’s sexism from the earliest episodes is an interesting case, because the Southern Water Tribe, at least from what was presented to us on screen, doesn’t seem to operate that much on gender roles? Especially when compared to the Northern Water Tribe?

I mean, yeah, warriors (men) went to war, while women, children and the elders stayed at home. But as Hama’s story shows, when Fire Nation attacked Southern Water Tribe, both female and male benders were fighting against invaders arm to arm and it seems like they were the actual first line of defense there, not the non-bender warriors.

In contrast, during siege of North Pole, in the final of Book 1: Water, we don’t see any female bender helping defend their home except Katara, who was involved in protecting Aang when he was in Spirit World.

Since all the waterbenders were captured from the Southern Tribe, it makes sense that non-bender warriors stepped in and got involved with war, while the kids and elders were left under women’s care.

Another example comes from “a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery and trust”, known as ice dodging. As Bato explained, it is a rite of passage for young Water Tribe members and in their village “done by weaving a boat through a field of icebergs.” When a child turns 14, their father was supposed to take them to ice dodging, so they could earn their mark. Though the episode itself was focused on Sokka’s ceremony, Bato never specified it as something that boys alone should do and not only Katara (girl) but also Aang (outsider) is allowed to take part in the ritual. Once Sokka proved himself, everyone of their group got a mark, as a sign they passed the test. Interesting thing to note, since Bato did not specify it is a rite of passage for boys alone, it suggests girls were expected to know how to sail in boats of the Southern Water Tribe. Of course, again, war didn’t allow to continue this tradition as men (Hakoda, in case of Sokka & Katara) left to fight against Fire Nation.

Later, when Sokka and Katara reunited with their father, Hakoda did not try to send away Katara nor relegate her to just a medic job during the invasion. In Northern Water Tribe episodes, we learned that teaching for waterbenders there was defined by gender - women were allowed to learn only how to heal, while men how to use their bending in fight. Hakoda, nor Bato nor other of their warriors even for a moment questioned Katara’s presence on the battlefield nor the presence of women in the ranks of their allies like a blind, 12 years old Toph or the female water benders from Swamps or female(?) soldier from Earth Kingdom

And during battle, Katara did not fight in rank with other soldiers, she first alone secured Appa during submarine attack, then alongside her brother and father took down guardhouses - Hakoda himself told her and Sokka to attack one when he took down the other one

showing how much he trusted his 15 years old son and 14 years old daughter while ordering them attack on Fire Nation adult soldiers hidden in well guarder place.

Later, when Hakoda got seriously injured and Sokka temporary took the command of their forces, we could see that Hakoda relied on Katara to follow his troops and not ever once tried to send her back “to safety” or argued she should leave him behind, as often it happens with heroic (male) figures. Quite the opposite. When Katara offered him to “wait here if you want”, Hakoda firmly said “I want to press forward with the others”, which meant his daughter needed to come with him directly into an already ongoing fight (even if they stayed more at the rear of their army, they were still on battlefield).

She and her brother, alongside with the youngest members of Invasion, were forced to flee on Appa once the battle was lost, but no other adult woman was included. During Zuko’s coronation, when all war prisoners were released, in the background we could again see the female character(s) from Swamps.

And let's not forget how impressive Hakoda was by Suki when she single-handedly captured the warden at Boiling Rock prison and did not try to stop her from fighting against Ty Lee alongside Zuko and Sokka against Azula.

Understandably, we have no idea how the Southern Water Tribe and its culture looked like before the war, even arguably, the characters themselves may not have a clear idea due to growing up in dire times. But my point is, Hakoda and Bato, the two main adult Southern Water Tribe’s warriors that Avatar: The Last Airbender allowed us to know more about, have never shown any direct sexism toward Katara or other female characters. And though Sokka was the oldest boy at their village, there is no reason to think women did not hunt in absence of men, because one person would not be able to provide for a whole community 24/7. Also, as Hama proved, the Southern Water Tribe’s waterbenders were capable of fighting and their gender did not play any vital role the way it happened in their sister tribe at North Pole. 

Of course, Fire Nation’s repeated attacks affected residents of South Pole and their living conditions but from the little bits the show gave us, I think it is correct to assume if Sokka grew up with Hakoda around to guide him as he should, his behavior would be different from the sexism and dismissive attitude toward Katara or Kyoshi Warriors. For one, logically thinking Southern Water Tribe’s warriors need to do all the cooking, sewing and keeping their camp clean all on their own during war so it is not a “girly job” but a vital part of a warriors skills to survive and ensure their equipment is in the best condition. But Sokka doesn’t know it, because there is no one to teach him the importance of those skills. All Sokka had was father’s farewell words to cling to - and I’m not sure if Hakoda truly expected his son to be able to protect Katara and the village in his absence, or he just tried to make Sokka feel a bit less depressed about being left behind. You know, by giving him purpose and a Big Important Job to focus on and to feel needed and trusted. 

Which leads me to think that Sokka’s sexism is not rooted in Southern Water Tribe’s culture itself, but in his own insecurity and pressure of being the oldest boy in the village. If girls could be warriors - and be better than him - it would put into question all his self-worth, purpose and the trust given by father. Once Sokka met Kyoshi Warriors and later all the skilled girls, it challenged him on a very personal level, but he accepted the truth and moved on and alongside, finally became a true warrior and a man. 

And I find it indeed an interesting case, as Sokka’s sexism and dismissal of girls is not necessarily stemming from the culture he is part of, but rather is the effect of not knowing said culture & pre-war history of his Tribe. And of course, from his own insecurity. 

[beneathsilverstars]

i do think about how pre-canon isafrin would be such a fucking mess

[puck-jay]

Today on things I wish I could actually say in my masters dissertation :

The religious texts sound weird because they are full of references like and then THIS GUY! showed up, and THIS GUY! is clearly super important, because he is hyped up for a full paragraph but then you get absolutely no detail on THIS GUY! it's just, And then it was HIM, wink wink. You know. HIM. THIS GUY WE DEFINITELY ALL KNOW ABOUT.

[chittychittyyangyang]

Between waiting for V10 news, my own personal stuff, and the US now being on fire (partially) literally, I know I've been pretty quiet here. Even before all of this I was pretty shut down emotionally, and I am just very absent as a person right now. I feel like many are struggling, and I wanted to share something that has helped me some:

What I find myself thinking about the most is like that she was out there and brave and looking for love at a time when her existence was criminalized. It's hard to remember that there was all of this light in the dark ages, but there was still these brazen romances. And I don't know that love was still stronger than fear, at least at times.

You're Wrong About - Kitty Genovese and “Bystander Apathy”

Stories about existing and loving in a world that wants you gone. It's not that horrible things didn't happen or won't happen, but that we will make do. Loving who you love, and being you matters. All of us matter. Our stories and lives, big and small matter.

Take care of those close to you. Find little moments of joy. Disconnect when you can. Read, create, and rest when you can. If you feel like nothing you do can change anything, volunteer. Sure, you can't fix a broken system right now by yourself, but you can help people have a hot meal they might not otherwise get.

As for the RW/BY stuff here, that's not going to change, other than maybe less in part because I just use this as an archive between volumes. I've been here for so long it would feel weird not to at this point. I know some people have found some level of comfort that I'm still here keeping up this blog, and I hope I continue to provide that for people (and, of course, bees).