#which is such a common sentiment it showed up as I was typing it

[bucephaly]

Reconnecting Cherokee Masterpost

I’ve had a few Cherokee posts blow up on here and as a result I’ve gotten lots of ‘my grandma said she was cherokee’ ‘I’m supposed to have Cherokee roots I wish I knew anything about it’ ‘I was never taught anything about my Cherokee ancestry’ type sentiments in my activity. So! I wanna make a little masterpost with some resources on how to verify or disprove these types of family stories and how to get started for those interested in reconnecting!

A little about me and a disclaimer. I’ve not been reconnecting that long, about a year and a half, and before that I didn’t know I was Cherokee. I did not grow up Cherokee and I am white. What I’m going to be talking about is simply resources for genealogy, language, good places to connect online, etc. these are all things I’ve dealt with as I reconnect, but I am not any sort of authority on Cherokee issues or culture. The purpose of this post is to get people who know absolutely nothing about Cherokee identity and community started in learning more and seeing what needs to be done before reconnecting. And I acknowledge that the genealogical records and resources available for Freedmen descendants and Afro-indigenous people may not be as conclusive, and I simply urge Afro-indigenous people to do what research you can. I am also only Cherokee, I can’t speak for how any of this works for other tribes. Now, to get started

I’ll be talking about

Genealogy

Enrollment

Basic info about Reconnecting

and Language

Genealogy

Genealogy is the most important first step for anyone wanting to reconnect, or even just wanting to claim Cherokee ancestry at all. Unless you have done genealogy research that has shown ancestry connecting you to ancestors on the accepted Cherokee rolls or you are or have family who are citizens of one of the 3 federally recognized Cherokee tribes, please do not make claims of Cherokee identity or ancestry.

Fake ‘granny stories’ of Cherokee ancestry are very common, particularly in the South / Appalachia. These stories often go something like ‘my great-grandmother was fullblood Cherokee. She hid out from the soldiers rounding the Cherokee up for the Trail of Tears.’ There are many many variants, such as children being adopted by a white family, being traded away, or just otherwise being left behind or abandoned. I also frequently see ‘they escaped and hid in the mountains,’ ‘they pretended to be white / black,’ etc. Remember, the Trail of Tears happened in 1838, 185 years ago. My ggg grandfather was 2, so unless you are 60+ it would be unlikely that a great grandparent was alive during that period. This mythical great-grandmother is also occasionally an ‘Indian princess.’ There are many excuses for why ancestors might not show up on known Cherokee records, such as ‘the records were burned in a courthouse fire’ or ‘they were intentionally removed from the records,’ etc. Physical features are also claimed to prove stories, such as high cheekbones, dark hair, darker skin, etc. Old family photos showing grandparents with tan skin, etc, are also brought up pretty frequently. None of those prove anything, as many people of European or mixed ancestry can have these traits. Stories like this are also not exclusive to white families, they can definitely be present in Black families as well. These stories are most often entirely fabricated or resulting from a misunderstanding. It’s pretty common to have someone be familiar with the fake stories but convinced that their family story is the one exception and has to be real, which ends up being instantly caught as fake by anyone that knows the history, you’d be surprised haha. Here is a post I’ve made talking about fake stories in more depth.

DNA testing cannot prove descent from any specific Native tribe. An ‘indigenous American’ result on a DNA test does not prove native ancestry, as DNA tests are frequently wrong especially when it comes to ‘trace ancestry’. Nor does a DNA test showing 0 native DNA prove that one doesn’t have native ancestry. DNA tests are a novelty and irrelevant to native genealogy. The only time they are useful is in finding cousins through DNA matches, which can be especially useful for adoptees.

Now, getting into actual genealogy, the main process with Cherokee genealogy is fairly simple. I’m not going to go in depth on the process of genealogy in general, there are plenty of resources for that. Get what info you can from your family [names, birthdates, places people lived] of your recent ancestors, then find their census records [census records from 1950 and earlier are publicly available] or what records you can, and go back, finding their parents, etc. The goal is to get around to 1900. See where they were living at that point, as that will effect what rolls they might be on. There are three main Cherokee rolls that are looked at for determining ancestry [but there are other rolls as well]

The Dawes Rolls taken between 1898 - 1914 recorded the Cherokees living in the Western Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory before Oklahoma Statehood. This roll came with allotments, parcels of land given to the Cherokees. Cherokee Freedmen are also recorded on this roll, along with Intermarried and Adopted Whites. This is the roll that CNO and UKB uses for enrollment. Here is where it can be searched.

The Baker Rolls taken between 1924 - 1929 recorded the Cherokees living on the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina. This is the roll that the EBCI uses for enrollment

The Guion Miller Roll taken between 1906 - 1911 recorded Cherokees living anywhere and was associated with a cash payout.

I can’t find free searchable databases of the Baker or Miller rolls, but you can find them on some ancestry sites like ancestry.com with a membership or free trial. Also, be aware that these rolls all have “Declined” sections of people who applied and were declined for having no proof of ancestry, mostly just applying to try to get money or land meant for Cherokees. This is especially true of the Miller roll, where 2/3rds of the applicants were declined.

If your ancestors aren’t on any of these rolls, can be found in US census records before 1900, or aren’t living in the Cherokee homelands in the early 1800s, they are almost surely not Cherokee. Also, be wary of results on ancestry sites that start cropping up in the 1700s where the only evidence is another person’s family trees. There are many people claiming descent from Dragging Canoe, Chief Moytoy, and others that put these things on their ancestry trees when none of these people have any descendants. And people will just make up entirely fictional people. Just be sure there are actual documents tying them to the Cherokee and to your ancestors [as people will make up fake children of real figures like Nancy Ward as well]

There is a fantastic resource for Cherokee genealogy in the Cherokee Research and Genealogy Facebook group. The researchers are experts on Cherokee genealogy and will run your lines for FREE and determine conclusively whether you have Cherokee ancestry or not. When they find someone with Cherokee ancestry, they will also find your ancestors’ enrollment applications, allotment locations, etc. they’re really fantastic and I highly recommend checking them out and saving yourself the trouble of doing the research yourself. Just read their rules thoroughly. Even if you did do some research, if you hit a wall or just want confirmation, check them out! Especially if you think you found legitimate ancestry, getting them to double check will remove any doubt.

Enrollment

There are three federally-recognized Cherokee tribes. Each has their own community, resources, and different requirements for enrollment. These are: the United Keetoowah Band [UKB] located in Tahlequah, OK, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians [EBCI] in Cherokee, North Carolina, and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma [CN or CNO] in Tahlequah, OK. Each of these have distinct histories. Cherokee Nation is the largest by far.

Be wary of fraudulent state-recognized Cherokee tribes. If a Cherokee tribe is not one of the three mentioned above, then it is not recognized by the others as legitimate. These state tribes often take resources that are supposed to be going to legitimate native communities [such as school funding], spread misinformation, etc. These communities often have obviously fake non-Cherokee traits such as ‘naming ceremonies’ and members with laughably stereotypical names like ‘spirit wolf’ and ‘white owl’ lol [also, this is specifically about state tribes claiming to be Cherokee, I can’t speak to the legitimacy of other groups.]

Two of the three Cherokee tribes have a blood quantum requirement. Blood quantum [BQ] is how much ‘native blood’ one has, depicted as a fraction. BQ is a very complex topic in native communities, which I won’t get into here. EBCI has a 1/16 BQ requirement, so to be a citizen you must has 1/16 Eastern Cherokee blood, as well as have an ancestor on the Baker Roll. UKB has a 1/4 BQ requirement, so citizens must have 1/4 Cherokee blood and an ancestor on the Dawes Rolls or the 1949 UKB roll. CNO has no BQ requirement, if an ancestor is listed as By Blood on the Cherokee Dawes Rolls, or listed as a Cherokee Freedman, then you are eligible for CNO citizenship.

Do not come into Cherokee spaces just asking what sort of benefits enrollment can get you. It’s pretty disrespectful and makes it seem like you only care about what you can take from us.

Reconnection

So you did your genealogy and found that you have documented Cherokee ancestry, what next? Reconnection is a long and difficult process and I’ve barely even started, but I’ll try to give what resources and info I can.

Who can reconnect? This can vary between people, but most often I see people [biased towards Cherokees who are active online] saying that anyone with legitimate documented Cherokee ancestry can reconnect. Some people prefer reconnectors are able to enroll in one of the 3 tribes, some prefer people have connected living family, it varies a lot. In my experience as someone who is white and not a citizen yet, if you are respectful and humble, people are pretty accepting. It’s also important to think about why you want to reconnect. You need to be prepared to give back to your people as much if not more than you get. That means learning the language, the history, learn about current issues, etc. Don’t go into it just wanting to be able to say you’re Cherokee as a fun fact or get some sort of monetary benefit. It’s also important to remember that you will get asked to prove yourself. Don’t be offended if you’re asked if you’re enrolled, who your family is, how you’re Cherokee, etc. This is part of our cultural protocols. Not only do we want to keep people with fake family stories from getting into our spaces, we also just like finding relatives! It’s also very important to remember your place as a reconnecting Cherokee. Don’t think having legitimate ancestry suddenly means you’re able to talk with authority on native issues or suddenly claim to be oppressed. If you’re white, don’t suddenly start claiming to be a POC or “white-passing,” you can be white and Cherokee. Cherokee is not a race.

Reconnecting is a difficult process, especially if you are far from any Cherokee communities. You cannot reconnect alone. You aren’t reconnecting to some distant past, or to stories in a book, you are reconnecting to a living community. This can be tough for people who are far from Oklahoma or North Carolina, and there are some things that are not really possible to learn except in person. But you can still learn, and there are some online spaces. I particularly find the ᎠᏂᏣᎳᎩ ᏍᎦᏚᎩ (Cherokee Community) Facebook Group valuable. It’s kinda small, but it’s one of the best ways to engage with Cherokee community online. Sorry if you’re a Facebook hater, Facebook is going to be your best bet for actually meeting people and engaging. The Cherokee Community group requires proof of ancestry before members can join. This usually just means sending your tribal ID or your thread in the Cherokee Research and Genealogy group to an admin and they’ll let you in.

Here are some good basic things to check out for reconnecting

OsiyoTV

Cherokee Nation YouTube

Museum of the Cherokee People YouTube

Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars Club by Chris B Teuton, Hastings Shade, Sequoyah Guess, Sammy Still, and Woody Hansen

Cherokee Earth Dwellers by Chris B Teuton and Hastings Shade

Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee [note: this was written by a white man in 1910 after after spending some time with the Eastern Cherokee. The history is iffy, but the stories were recorded directly from Cherokee storytellers.]

Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation by John Ehle

Do your own research, but be extremely wary of Anything posted publicly online. There is lots of misinformation about Cherokee culture. Personally, I mostly do my learning in the vetted Cherokee Facebook groups, in books written by actual citizens, and by talking with connected friends. Google is rarely your friend in this case.

Language

The language is the center of our culture, it is what makes us Cherokee. It is our duty as Cherokees and as reconnecting people to learn the language. I can’t stress enough how important it is. If you aren’t putting any effort to learn the language, it shows others that you aren’t committed and you will likely have trouble getting any help reconnecting from others, it just looks bad haha. Not saying you have to be fluent overnight, I’ve been reconnecting for a year and I still am very much a beginner, ‘it doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you don’t stop’ as CNO language teacher Ed Fields says. Luckily, there are plenty of resources for learning online!

It’s good to learn the syllabary or at least familiarize yourself with it early, as it’s a good introduction to the sounds present in the language. It’s an important part of our culture and the language too. There are also many learning resources that are only in syllabary, so you’re missing out on those if you don’t know it. Here are some good resources for learning:

Simply Cherokee Syllabary by Marc W Case [HIGHLY recommended. I got reasonably confident in syllabary in like a weekend thanks to this book. You can find fairly cheap ebooks versions. It has a story for each character that makes it so easy to remember and associate the characters with their sounds.]

Learn Cherokee Syllabary app [Apple] [Android]

Syllabary fonts and keyboard

There are lots of resources for learning the language. It’s really good to hear it as often as possible when learning vs just reading it, as I’ve messing up so much in my pronunciation from just reading it and now I’m having to break habits. You preferably want to hear first language speakers. There are two main dialects of Cherokee, usually roughly split between Eastern and Western. Dialects vary a lot within those communities as well. If you still have contact with any relatives that speak Cherokee, it’s always better to learn as much as you can from them.

Cherokee Nation language department [just explore this site, they have lots of resources!]

Cherokee Learner site [explore this site too, this is a great compilation of pretty much every Cherokee language resource, eastern and western]

Online Cherokee Class with first language speaker Ed Fields

RSU Cherokee Lessons [youtube]

Mango lessons

Other apps, including the Memrise course

Online Cherokee dictionary

That’s all I can think to say right now! I’ll probably add to this later as I learn more, find more resources, and get suggestions from others. But for now, good luck, ᏩᏙ, ᏙᏓᏓᎪᎲᎢ !

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think all the characters are assholes?

Because i think they are despite their tragic backstories and i also don't think they appreciate Yuu enough, except for maybe the first years

I mean, the TWST characters are (mostly) inspired by Disney villains... Plus, they’re immature high schoolers still in the process of emotionally maturing. Of course they're not going to be perfect balls of sunshine. They're all going to be rude or have faults in their own ways, but they also have their strengths and charm points. I do call them assholes (lovingly), but I would hesitate to slap a singular label on any of the characters when they're all very well-rounded and morally ambiguous.

On the topic of Yuu, I think it makes sense that most of the cast doesn't really "appreciate" them. To begin with, most of the characters are not the openly sentimental types; they wouldn’t overtly express that gratitude even if it were present. Then we have to consider that Yuu isn't directly involved in their character growth or arcs in most cases; it's often the other characters who are confronting the OB boys or instigating, physically battling them to snap them out of it, and then comforting them afterwards.

As early as book 1, that pattern holds true. Ace is the one that initially pissed Riddle off. Adeuce are dueling Riddle. Ace decks Riddle and claims his last straw. Trey is the one calling out to Riddle as he's losing it. It's the members of Heartslabyul who gather around Riddle when he reawakens following the OB. (I'm not going to go through and list off what happens in every single book, but I'm sure you can think of many other instances... Lilia insulting Leona, Deuce and Epel having the heart-to-heart on the beach, Octavinelle's plot against Jamil, the twins checking up on Azul post-OB, etc.) To me, it feels like it is the boys and their bonds with one another responsible for the change, not Yuu's involvement. Yuu is usually along for the ride and actually does and says very little despite all the fandom jokes about "being the school's unpaid but overworked therapist" or Crowley's shallow claim that Yuu can help the boys learn to cooperate (which feels more like a vague ruse only shown in the prologue to shoehorn Yuu into the plot). There's actually very little in-game that shows them being active in helping the students change for the better. Much of the time, the boys can resolve their own struggles to get along without Yuu being there (like all those pair-ups in book 6–sure, it may have taken a while, but the fact remains that they did eventually resolve their own issues and cooperate without Yuu having to orchestrate for them; this also happens many times in events like Port Fest, Wish Upon a Star, Ghost Marriage, the Halloween events, etc). A very common complaint (at least among English speaking players) is that Yuu isn’t “involved enough” or that they don’t have a big impact on the events of the story. Therefore, most of the boys not feeling close or indebted to Yuu makes sense from their POV. What has Yuu actually and explicitly done to help them? Not much. It’s mainly in individual fan interpretations where Yuu/a Yuusona/an OC in Yuu’s role is actually able to play a more substantial part in each characters’ life and growth. In general, the standard in-game Yuu is more of a "fly on the wall" character that witnesses events unfold rather than someone who plays a large role in each book. The boys are seemingly the main characters, not Yuu. It's just convenient to have Yuu/a blank slate in the story because they, as an outsider, need TWST concepts explained to them (thus making it easier to give exposition to the players who may also be unfamiliar with the information). The first years, by comparison, are closer to Yuu simply because 1) Yuu is implied to be in the same year level as them (so they're more likely to be exposed to one another) and 2) their preestablished relationships with Grim, Ace, and Deuce opens them up more to first year interactions. "Friends of friends", if you will. It makes more sense than Yuu being appreciated and loved by everyone/most people in the main cast of 22ish. (How many people do you know irl that have 22ish significant friends?) They spend the most time together. Everyone else tends to stick to their own groups (with maybe the exception of Heartslabyul, since Yuu is already close with Adeuce). They’re just... not as intimate with Yuu, and therefore not as inclined to find much appreciation for them.

I want to clarify that this doesn’t mean there are zero instances of the characters outside of the first years expressing gratitude toward Yuu. Like, of the OB boys, it’s only Vil who consistently apologizes for the trouble he caused (note though: it’s not specifically to Yuu, but to everyone in the VDC/SDC squad. Yuu is then given prize money from most of the other boys as thanks for letting them crash at Ramshackle… Of those, only Kalim cites being grateful that he was able to stay and have fun with everyone because of Yuu green lighting the decision. This makes sense, as Kalim’s one of the few who wears his heart on his sleeve and is friendly to most. It just isn’t true for the majority of the cast, and we shouldn’t expect it to be.

As late as book 5, you can see characters like Leona not being so happy to be called out to or for Grim to act all buddy-buddy with him. That indicates to me that the rest of the cast is not that close to Yuu + related parties and doesn't have a real reason to be. (Note: I'm not counting character voice lines here as proof of friendliness with Yuu, as it can be argued that the relationships and events explored in the cards don't run in tandem with the main story and are meant more as fanservice for the players.)

Again, while it's not that fun to read in a narrative, it does leave things open-ended for anyone who wants to self-insert or to expand on those blank relationships for their own characters. I believe this is by design to appeal on an individual level to players. You get out of it what you put into it!

[gaywineauntsstuff]

Question?

We talk about how Tim, Jason and Damian’s parents raised them pre Bruce but why don’t we talk about Dick Graysons.

Bc even before all of the court of the owls shit the way that man was raised was wild.

So remember Dick was a member and active participant of a circus as a child. A trapeze act without a net who was expected to pull his weight since he could walk.

That means that despite what everyone thinks John and Mary Grayson absolutely could not afford to gentle parent their child.

At all.

Dick had to know how dangerous his life was forever. He has to be perfect because if he fails him or his parents die. They die with a mistake. Don’t stretch your hand out far enough and someone falls.

And despite the fact that the Romani aspect of his character was born out of a writers need for fetish content. I still find it interesting to explore.

And since I am European! Halys circus truther

It gets more interesting because the anti-Romani sentiment in Europe is vile, obvious and violent. (And I say this as a poc who grew up outside of Europe and moved here for college. Like you’d never imagine the type of shit they say about a group of people with no shame before turning around and commenting about how crazy it is that poc are treated poorly in the rest of the world.) Now imagine your child is working a dangerous gig while being part of a hated minority and you have to go and advertise your whole families location because you are the centerpiece of a show.

Yall think Mary and John Grayson didn’t teach their kid to lie? To fit in with any group humanly possible.

You think Mary and John didn’t teach dick to switch from, mama to mom to Daj. To switch accents and tones and languages since before he could walk on his hands?

You think that this kid who grew up traveling everywhere wouldn’t know how to integrate himself so fully into the society he’s in that he’s invisible as an outsider?

When Dick talks to Bruce in Juvie right before hes taken in as a ward he has an American accent. A Gotham accent and not the ones the other kids has no Dick has a Bristol accent. When he first meets Alfred he has a charming softly British accent, the kind that isn’t immediately noticeable unless you share the accent. The softening of the vowels and heavy central consonants. Think kids who went to British schools abroad and learned English from people with British accents.

Bruce notices this but doesn’t think much of it I mean kids can adapt to their environments startlingly quick maybe the kid just kinda picks up accents.

But then Dick becomes robin and he’s horrifically good at it from the get go.

Which sends alarm bells in Alfred’s head because he raised Bruce at that age. He taught Bruce to defend himself at that age. Bruce wouldn’t be about to do 1/10 of what this kid can do.

No eight year old should be able to throw items with that sort of precision even a child as good at gymnastics as dick. No child should be that comfortable with a knife in his hand.

And of course dick always had an excuse, he grew up around fire breathers and knife throwers of course he’s good.

And Bruce notices when Dick goes out as Robin and begins to help people because for the first few months, he never speaks first.

He’ll save someone and when they thank him, he’ll reply in their exact accent.

The crime alley rougher tones

The high class smarmy Bristol accent

The open vowel Jersey accent

When he meets Superman there’s the barest edges of midwestern twang in his every word.

And it’s just unnerving

He flickers between cultures like their clothes in his wardrobe, accents like they’re a new set of perfectly fit shoes.

He’s just good at it.

And it’s a game to him.

He sees how close he can get to your accent without coming off as suspicious.

By the time he’s being doing the Robin shtick for a while and knows the areas he just immediately switches to the most common accent there even if there aren’t any people around.

His facial expressions and hand gestures change as well.

It adds to the myth of the Batman because the gcpd for a long while believes any Robin reportings to be a myth because one minute someone is reporting a Jersey accent the next genial Californian, or a tv safe reporter tone, one minute the kid is conversing in perfect Russian the next he’s speaking Spanish like he grew up in Mexico.

When he wants to get away with a mistake his voice switches to one indistinguishable from a scared child, with a mild stutter, overgramarization and the scared world slurring children do that makes your heart soft

When he wants people to listen to him his he’s eloquent and enunciating perfectly. He sounds far older than his years.

And everyone thinks they’re hearing the real Dick Grayson speak and it makes their hearts happy because look at how he puts on a show for everyone but trusts me enough to talk without lying.

Without ever realizing that they’re one of the people watching the show.

[ecoterrorist-katara]

I really liked your meta about bloodbending, this is a big ask but how do you think that the whole bloodbending storyline could/should be rewritten? It’s clear that the writers are using bloodbending as a metaphor for slavery but it rarely comes across that way, and poor Hama was failed spectacularly by the writing

hello anon! thank you for this fabulous question & hope you don't mind that it took me ages to get to it.

TL;DR: I think making Hama into a serial killer/abductor was a terrible narrative choice. If it were up to me, Katara would have a (child-friendly) ethics discussion about bloodbending with Hama, who then joins them on the Day of the Black Sun. After the war, bloodbending becomes a lynchpin issue when the North attempts to colonize the South, but Hama and Yugoda find healing uses for bloodbending in the kerfuffle.

But first, my "ATLA bungled colonialism themes" soapbox: to me, bloodbending is a metaphor on two levels. The storyline about how Southern Waterbenders are captured and then transported to the FN certainly seems to reference the Transatlantic Slave Trade, like you said, though without the labour exploitation aspect; the storyline about Hama and bloodbending feels like an allegory for guerrilla resistance in general. Imo the narrative kind of cheapened these potential real-world connections by making The Puppetmaster a spooky Halloween special with a dash of “an eye for an eye” parable. The narrative's treatment of bloodbending, and Hama, feels like an unintentional reflection of “unacceptable” colonial resistance and "dark" knowledge of the colonized (fearmongering around Vodou etc). A common colonial narrative is that the colonized are sinister and underhanded for engaging in things like guerrilla warfare, which is either too violent or too cowardly depending on what’s more convenient for the colonizers’ narrative at a specific point in time. I think ATLA’s approach to bloodbending reflects this general sentiment, especially since Hama is drawn as this creepy Hansel & Gretel-style witch, a keeper of a sinister / untrustworthy / threatening type of knowledge. I also really don't like the part of the story where Hama became a serial abductor out of this indiscriminate thirst for revenge. While it's possible in real life for a colonized, incarcerated person to make those decisions, and good fiction can explore that effectively, a children's show is not the place. ATLA's target audience and general tone couldn't handle all the complexities around that, so they turned Hama into a cartoon witchy villain. Groundbreaking.

Anyway, I think the start of The Puppetmaster is actually very promising. Hama's story, and the children's discovery of her SWT roots, was touching. Katara's growing sense of unease at discovering the "darker" uses of waterbending (taking water out of flowers) is interesting. Katara is the perfect character to explore the intricacies of "how far is too far in colonial resistance." Because she's not a pacifist, like Aang, but she's also not a total pragmatist, like Sokka or Suki, and she cares about the fates of random people more than Toph. She's angry and compassionate in equal amounts.

I would love a conversation between Hama and Katara about bloodbending -- not in the dead of night while Katara has to protect her friends, but where Hama talks about the genuine hopelessness she felt in the Fire Nation prison. And Katara could talk about why she thinks bloodbending is wrong -- taking away someone's agency -- and Hama can ask Katara what she would've done in that scenario; maybe she can point out that she could have made the FN guards kill each other, but she only made them open her cell door, so it was the least violent escape she could have done; and I think, framed that way, Katara would have started to see bloodbending not through a lens of fear and disgust, but sheer pragmatism, and realize that all bending can be good or bad.

During the war, I think Katara and Sokka could convince Hama to join them on the Day of the Black Sun: Hama, for the first time in decades, has hope, and she gets to see some of the people who used to be just little kids when she was kidnapped from her home.

After the war, bloodbending would become a hot button issue in North-South relations. I could easily see the Northern waterbenders being horrified at bloodbending, in the same way Medieval Europe & puritan America have been horrified by witchcraft and other feminine-coded knowledge. I could envision the Northerners using bloodbending as justification for why women shouldn't be allowed to waterbend, and justification for why the South is backwards and therefore needs the North's influence (which would also tie nicely into the North and South comic). While Katara is busy with the political BS, Hama is swapping notes with Yugoda the healing master, and then they would eventually arrive at the conclusion that bloodbending could be used to heal.

(I can't take credit for the "Northerners horrified at bloodbending" idea, btw -- colourwhirled's Southern Lights has a storyline around it.)

Anyway, Hama deserved so much better. I like seeing her in AUs where she never had that stupid "kidnapping FN civilians" plot, like the aforementioned Southern Lights, or Lykegenia's The Things We Hide (which I read earlier this year and loved!). Hama and Jet's storylines are why I don’t trust ATLA’s politics, nor the politics of its creators. As much as I love Zuko and find his redemption arc to be an incredible story of a conscientious objector in the heart of the empire, Hama and Jet should have also gotten their redemptions too.

[transingthoseformers]

Okay, cause see, now I have QUESTIONS.

Does Cybertron have schools, or high schools? Do they have societal norms? Do they have popular kids, bigoted people? Does homophobia even exist there? Do they think there's Cybertron versions of traditional people that would probably call Mirage or Bumblebee their own version of slurs for having human partners??

And while we're on this topic, does anyone ever question if Cybertron has their own versions of mental health disorders we have on Earth? How do they treat them?? Do they even treat them????? Or is it just non-existent because they're robots? But they have the compacity to feel love and shit like that, but there's no such thing as Depression, Anxiety or BPD over there?

Like what are the societal norms over there? What are the class types over there? Because we all know Mirage was definitely some rich kid but what about Bumblebee?? And Optimus? And my girl Arcee?? Like what were their lives before all of this??

LIKE THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED.

You also have to account for the war and how badly that's fucked everything up

Because

From everything I've seen in various continuities:

There are academies and stuff

Bigoted people do seem to exist on Cybertron, though often in unfamiliar ways

Homophobia does not seem to exist in say IDW, (iicr), can't say much for other continuities but I personally like to think homophobia would be rare to nonexistent on Cybertron

(though, in IDW it seems to be rare to marry and considering idw Sentinel there might be a Thing against other bots having life partners in general. Or sentinel might just be the dick in the room and it's rare rare to hate on others having romantic relationships on Cybertron)

I don't think they'd have existing slurs for organic x mech relationships as it's just That Plain Old Unfamiliar, but I can see mecha getting nasty about it. Especially given how common anti organic sentiments are in various continuities

Cybertronians 200% have mental health conditions, we see it in a decent amount of continuities (whether it's meant to be a ✨character quirk✨ or they actually want to talk about mental health or if it's The Latest Haha Joke; Please Laugh™️ /s)

How they treat them seems to vary across continuity because I think they just... Don't in some continuities, and that never goes down well. At least in IDW we can tell there's a focus in psychology and these guys have at least one competent therapist. But in IDW there are Many Horrors and it's very willing to show us them.

We know in Aligned there was a caste system before the war, which went not well. We see in IDW there's Functionism which dictates social class by altmode. In tfa there's Whatever The Fuck Is Going On with civilian frames v Warframes. The role of Prime is usually a big deal (though it's superseded by Magnus in tfa) (the matrix of leadership is often involved, but not always). Though everything usually goes to shit once the war starts

We don't know enough about Knightverse to fully place Optimus's origins (iicr), but he just seems a lot younger and less big of a deal than some other iterations of him so I have a few ideas what he Wasn't

I can definitely consult tfwiki for more specifics on Knightverse lore

[pinguwrites]

Kinktober 2023 | Day Thirty-One — Jackson Rippner + ghostface!reader

Pairing -> jackson rippner x ghostface!reader

Summary -> In this college au, Halloween is nearing its corner, only for the festive mood to be cut short when your classmate is brutally killed. As the series of murders continues, Jackson Rippner finds himself the next target, oblivious to the fact that his hunter is you, his girlfriend, the ghostface.

KINKTOBER 2023 MLIST

Warnings: mention of death, jackson being a simp

Disclaimer: Red Eye characters, plots, quotes, etc. do not belong to me and belong to the rightful owner(s). This is only fanfiction and this is just for fun.

This is just an excerpt for the full-length fic that's coming out, bc I felt like this prompt deserved something much longer than just a drabble.

A/N: not me reading over this thing after it's published and seeing all the mistakes 😭

Jackson Rippner was trying to become more romantic for you, an endeavor that started about a week ago after he noticed you liked passionate men. It was a simple conversation about fictional crushes — you know, the ones you have as a kid when he realized all the men you had pointed out were terribly lovey-dovey and all sentimental-like. A few origami roses here and there, some thoughtful gifts, maybe some poetic letters, and he was sure that he could outcompete all of them. He was the only man you needed, the only man you could ever want.

He knew how it sounded—pathetic. Since when was he the type to change himself for a girl? He was no Romeo or Jack Dawson, and he certainly didn’t want to be. He wasn’t a simpering fool, chasing after a pretty girl like it was his life’s mission, but as it turned out, he was for you. And if you liked your men romantic, then Jackson would be romantic

Starting off with whatever this was: a package of your favorite stuff. For one, two books you mentioned wanting to get but couldn’t spare the money for, which Jackson painstakingly searched through the town for. He finally found them in some niche bookstore on the outskirts of Craven, overpriced for the value—or some other equally stupid bullshit—even though he knew damn well that he could get it for half the price if he drove further into the main city. He would have, but he knew his father would get pissed if he wasted that much gas money, and fearing to face his fist, he settled for the high cost. It’s for her, so it’s worth it.

For second, and last—at least for now, some bath bombs. He made them from scratch, swiping the ingredients from around the house. He used a cedar wood scent for the essential oil, as it was the closet smell he could get to his cologne, and made three bombs, wrapped them in plastic, and put them alongside the books in the bag.

It was perfect. You were going to love it. You had to love it. How could you not?

He closed the bag and placed it on his desk, ready to go to sleep, when the landline downstairs rang. It was probably telemarketers, but it could also be his parents, who were out on date night. 

He headed downstairs and picked up the phone, but the voice on the other end caught him off guard. “Hey,” a woman said, but it didn’t sound natural. It sounded like there was a voice modulator, the ones that criminals used in those crime shows you forced him to watch.

“Hey?” Jackson responded, confused, and a little irritated.

“I know who you are.”

Jackson tried to focus on the sound of the voice. Maybe he could pick out who it was if he listened close enough, but it was a fruitless effort. It was female, but too common to tell.

“You’re the one calling me,” he said, tone laced with amusement, “I should assume so.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“A creep? A weirdo?” Jackson laughed. “A stalker? I dunno. Take your pick.”

It was quiet. For a moment, he thought the woman hung up, but then she spoke again, “A lover. I’m a lover, Jackson.”

“Good for you.” He glanced back at the package he left on his desk. He was tired, and didn’t want to deal with this right now. “Now, how about you either stop acting mysterious and tell me what you want, or I cut the call.”

“Someone’s going to die tonight, Jackson,”  the woman said. Oddly enough, Jackson felt a twinge of excitement at her words. It was oddly thrilling, and adrenaline inducing to hear such a thing. It was at this point he realized with himself that this was a prank, because who would just admit to premeditated murder? but still—it was hot. He wished you would say those things.  

“I hope it’s that girl from my English class. What’s her name? Ah, fuck, I forgot. She’s the bitchy one —all emotion. Screams every time the lights go out. You know her?”

“Yeah, I know her.”

So, she’s been on campus, Jackson thought. Following me, maybe. I can’t believe it! 

“It’s not her, though. But who knows, maybe she’ll be next. Would you like that?”

“Doll, I really don’t care. Do me a favor, and don’t call me again.”

He put the phone down and went back upstairs. What a fucking psycho. He was too tired to deal with this shit. After freshening up, he pulled the covers over himself and turned off the lamp, drifting off into a peaceful slumber.

Taglist:

@rainyforest777

@thatwitchybitch420

@madeinuk

@gentyleman

@henrywintersdearestgirl

@shroombloom-rry

@meetmeatyourworst

@mrkdvidal1989

[kharmii]

I've got to write an appreciation post of my new favorite thing. I recently watched Black Clover E.138 'In Zara's Footsteps' which was a Zora Ideale themed episode that made me love him more.

-So it starts out a flashback into Zora's childhood. His now deceased father gets a sprig of white gladiolus from a meek flower seller who gives them away for free because Zara is his hero. He tells his equally meek son that he was partial to the fragrance of those particular flowers.

Fast forward to the present. Zora is lounging seductively in a tree dressed like a dirty whore. He looks somewhat like Zagred and eerily like a zoroark gijinka from pokemon. (HAHAHAHA...don't go there in that fandom, yeesh...)

He says sarcastically, "Yeah.....like I have time for crap like that... I don't need to train with them. I didn't join the Black Bulls to make new friends and play around."

(The teeth look real, and his jaw looks unhinged. There's some not spoken of f-up somewhere in this design)

He goes off on a solo trip to really put his nose to the grindstone. They have to fight wars with demons and sheeit, so he has to really focus on his training. He dons a full-body-covering nondescript robe to cover his tiddies so random creepos with freaky tastes don't flash cash at him again. Zora is actually a sensitive introvert, so he doesn't appreciate that sort of attention. For some odd reason, he decided to put some unnecessary accessory on his robe that looks vaguely like a collar and leash. Whatever dude.....

This comes on the heels of the Gordon themed episode. Gordon is a freaky soft-spoken guy who can't handle being alone. He needs the constant company and emotional support of his friends. Zora, otoh, claims he doesn't need friends. He probably doesn't mean that 100%, but he's the type of person who thrives on solitude and needs a lot of alone time to recharge his social batteries.

Zora stops at his village to visit his dad's grave and leave his favorite flowers. Viewer sees a lot of good shots of his sad tired looking eyes and can tell his flippant and douchey manner of speech is hiding a deep sadness and weariness.

He's surprised to find out someone else already left those same flowers recently, and he talks about how his dad was the pride of their village because he was the first commoner to become a magic knight. Now there are more of them, thanks to Yami, but back then, it was unheard of.

Walking through a forest, he happens on some kid training fairly decent water magic without a grimoire. He says, "This kid's got potential. Well, good luck with that..." and prepares to walk away unseen, but the kid gets accosted by some visiting nobility.

Zora ends up chasing them off with a stink bug, but the kid gets a parting shot at them. Zora admonishes him for going against three guys. The kid's dad shows up and asks him why he looks upset. At no point does he assume the freaky looking guy with sharp teeth and tattered robe might be the cause. Good thing, because he would have been wrong. Zora doesn't scare the children.

The kid rants about how he wishes he had a different family that wasn't poor, and how he wished his dad was more like Zara so he could train to be a magic knight. Zora is perturbed, but the dad says he's right and starts denigrating their family for the hard times they were going through.

Zora wordlessly picks the child up and hauls him off in a fireman's carry while the dad is in no way panicked. Zora must have that sort of presence. He dumps the kid in front of his dad's grave and tells him to call him, "Awesome Mask Guy" and he will call him "Snot-nosed Shrimp". He talks about how his dad never complained about anything and never had a harsh word to say about anybody. The kid expresses resentment that he is aiming too high.

The sentiment brings back a memory of when more normal looking Child Zora told his dad he was aiming too high because commoners couldn't become Magic Knights. His dad kept trying over and over and failing. The dad replied that he may have failed the Magic Knights exam more times than he can remember, but he didn't think he set his sights on something unachievable. He only tells him he will join the magic knights someday because he honestly believes it will happen one day. -And it eventually did happen.

-So he tells the kid that if he told the other kids who accosted him that he would be a magic knight someday with a straight face, then he must believe he can do it. If that was the case, then he wasn't aiming too high. He said his dad used to talk like that too.

Zora shows the kid the doll his dad gave him, and the kid starts ripping on him asking if the doll is supposed to be him? Zora replies that the doll is Zora the Supermage the Mysterious Herald of Justice. He may talk a lot of smack but he's a good man. He fights evil from the shadows. The kid keeps ripping on him and saying he's not a toddler. He says it's a lame back story and asks him if he's srsly into dolls? He asks him how old he is?

Zora gets all dreamy and tells the kid that (doll) Zora was the son of a peasant, just like him, but he wasn't impressed by nobles or royalty because deep down he knew there was something he could do that they couldn't. Kid was intrigued wondering what Zora would have that rich people didn't have. Zora replied he wondered what that could be? If the kid wanted to be a magic knight someday, he'd better figure it out.

Zora is asleep in a tree late afternoon, presumably after a day of really getting some hard core training in. Since his magic deals with complex traps, he probably has to sit around doing deep thinking 90% of the time, and only 10% of the time is execution.

The kid is out practicing magic nearby when the visiting nobles attack him, this time armed with a powerful magic item. Luckily, Zora was able to step in to assist with his Uno Reverse Card Trap before the kid is incinerated. He sends the fire back, but only in a harmless way that gives the kids a scare. They drop the magic item, and the kid picks it up.

Kid comes back with his dad who accuses them of stealing the magic item. They attack with fire power, but the other dad surprises them with strong water magic. The accuser threatens to call the magic knights. That's when Zora shows up in his usual costume of tiddies out and pants cut so low one can practically see the top of his junk.

Zora talks about how he witnessed the whole thing earlier, and the son was the one who stole the magic item looking for a fight. He tells the guy he's a shitty father and doesn't deserve the magic item. The two guys run off humiliated, probably because they thought they were showed up not only by a commoner, but a commoner who is also a male prostitute who services clients with a magic knight fetish.

The kid and dad relate how they took the magic knights exam several times and failed, but they knew that their hero Zara also tried and failed several times. That inspired them to not give up. The kid seems to come to the realization who Zora really is, even though he doesn't say it out loud. He says he believes he knows what Zora the Supermage has that the nobility doesn't, and he also doesn't say out loud what it is. Then he apologizes to his dad for saying bad things about their family.

As Zora leaves, the kid thanks him and says he must really be Zora the Supermage. Zora replies that he's just trying to be a good mage, and then he encourages him to keep trying and leaves with a stink bug prank with the worst hrrderking look on his face.

On the way out, Zora says something interesting. He thinks about Yuno and Asta and how they always make the assertion they are going to become the next Wizard King. He says out loud, "The only reason those two can say that all the time is because they truly believe they can do it. You just wait and see, Dad. I'll make it to that zero stage everybody's been talking about lately, and I'll start by whipping my sorry squad mates into shape."

I was like, "AHAHAHAHA!!!! You'd better deliver, Mr. Background Character!"

Level zero is like Wizard King level ability in that world, -like Julius Novachrono who can control time is probably that level- although I don't think Zora is the type who'd want to be the actual Wizard King. He has the attitude like being a magic knight is more than the costume and recognition. Maybe he'd want to be the first commoner who'd reach that level of ability? Add to that, but Zora is probably the weakest in the squad, like Julian said when he encountered Zara, his magic wasn't that strong, but he was able to execute it in complicated and well-thought-out ways. Zora probably takes after his dad in that way. He's not a 'push past your limits' type of guy like Asta. He's careful. He has to think things through and only act if he feels like he's 100% going to succeed.

[shmowder]

Back to your dom/sub tierlist for a bit. Which of the doms and switches on your list would prefer an obedient sub and which would prefer a bratty one?

I personally feel like Andrey would definitely go for a bratty, feisty sub, as would Bad Grief when he's domming. They both seem like they'd be into someone who's a free spirit. When Grief moves into the Cathedral and you don't get rid of Barley, he says, "There's some undeniable freedom inside you." Idk, I keep thinking about that.

Also, something tells me Daniil and Mark might have fun with a brat? Georgiy might get something out of putting them in their place, but I don't know if he'd like it, necessarily.

Everyone else, though, I think would prefer an obedient sub. They're too serious. This is perhaps influenced by the tragic absence of brat bones in my body 😔 I'd love to hear your thoughts even if they're different from mine!

🐿️ anon

Those are really good ideas omfg we are on the same wavelength

All the Kains claim they want an obedient bottom but really, they want a brat to break and wear down until they obey their every word.

Not all the characters hold the same intentions for the type of reader they want. For example, Aglaya would try to get you to obey her every word and follow her rules while Mark Immortell thrives on tricking you and making you accidentally break the rules. Aspity wants you to have blind trust and faith in her while being completely unhinged.

Or the spoiled Reader. Victor would be still try to show he's in control, while someone like Rubin would steal the moon from the sky for you and be at your beck and call for every need. Lara is more authoritarian while Artemy is more sentimental in bed.

The enthusiastic category refers to a bottom reader who makes their partner know how much they want them, how much they're enjoying this and absolutely smitten with their partner.

Dom or top Characters there would be down bad for a reader who showers them in compliments and drowns them in love.

Yulia would absolutely melt from the affection.

While someone like Eva would match your energy and return it tenfolds.

General Block would find your enthusiasm refreshing, especially since he has no use for coyness or shyness. He wants someone direct and as honest about wanting him as he is about them.

Anna thrives under attention and praise, stroking her ego is the best way to ensure she has a great time in bed. She doubles her efforts to impress you and show off her flexibility.

With brat Reader, someone like Maria would get an absolute thrill from breaking you down.

While someone like Georgiy would gradually wear you down and make you concede on your own.

Andrey would take you up on your big talk and all bark no bite, then ask why you're quiet all of the sudden, huh? He earned his arrogance and the right to be confident because he knows he can follow up with his promises.

With Daniil, it's like having a brat off? He'd love an obedient reader just as much ngl, but I had to make him pick a side. He claims he can handle a brat, but absolutely cannot in reality and end up getting his ego hurt when he can't get you to obey him. Dankovsky can only tame the softest of brats.

The powerbottom category is super fitting.

Someone like Oyun would willingly give up power and let you pull him around by the horns and take the lead.

While Katerina would pretend to put up a fight for power and lose at the last minute.

Peter is there because it's less work to do for him during sex, he's– Well he isn't the most attentive partner, you'll do most of the work.

Young Vlad actually wants to be overpowered. He would piss you off deliberately just to have you ride his face out of spite.

-

Isidor is... well... Listen. All of us thought about being sandwiched between Isidor and Simon at least once, right? That is a very normal and common thought that everyone in the pathologic fandom has at least once...right???

He'd want you to obey, that man has very little control about the things around him; his bedroom won't be one of them.

Simon is a little fucking shit I tell you. He'd walk on you and Isidor doing the deed all unbothered just to have a conversation with him then leave without sparing you at glance, at other times he's very attentive in bed and lets you be freely without rules or anything.

[atla-confessions]

"I think the reason anti Kataang shippers sentiment is less common in general fandom (not just Zutara fandom) is because you have to go deeper to find it usually." No offense but it just sounds like you're saying to find toxic ka shippers you either have to actively look for them or solely engage in the shipping side of the fandom....which is a sentiment you can extend to basically any other shipping community...

Okay, so some hardcore Kataang shippers are very toxic. Most Kataang shippers are very casual (that I've encountered).

Zutara shippers are a classic case of should have been canon shippers. This particular type of shipper generally has a more negative reputation in fandom as they believe their ship should have been canon and will argue this. It will affect their metas, art, analysis, ect. You don't have to be a Zutara shipper or even a shipper in general to accidentally encounter a meta very slanted by shipping. You can just kind the slanted content without wanting to see it.

Some shipping communities are very famous for harassing the creators of shows. I don't know if Zutara is one of them but I have been in enough fandoms to know that shippers have a bad rep in this regard. So, it's not a case of you have to actively look for shippers or engage in shipping fandom for all shipping communities.

In fact, this fandom is not one of those cases. In the commentary for the Ember Island Players they allude to the toxicity of the fandom's ship wars. With the VAs refusing to give a ship and with Konietzko stating, "It divides nations." This is not a hidden war, the general fandom knows about it. This is actually the case in many fandoms.

Plenty of people outside of the shipping fandom are affected by the toxicity of shippers because they often make up a large and passionate part of the fandom. They can dominate discussion at cons. Write a large portion of the fanfiction. Fill character tags with art of theirs ships. There is a lot a passionate sub-fandom can do that can affect the rest of it.

X

[punsmaster69]

9/JAN/20XX

been a minute since i stayed in my room all day by myself.

once upon a time, that was a pretty common occurrence.

and maybe i still won't, but it's how i've spent today so far.

feels a bit different now that i'm actually lifted off the ground.

while stretching out as much as i could, i accidentally knocked something off the bed with my foot. lazily rolling over to see what it was, there was no real intention in me to get up and grab it.

a stuffed plush of a bear laid pathetically on its face.

i glanced back at the other stuffed animals on the end of my bed.

"...but these ones feel special for some reason."

"must be the fabric quality."

..that's what i'd thought the day she won them for me, right?

they're not particularly notable in quality, in honesty.

still, they do feel special.

sliding off the bed and landing on my feet next to the bear, i lifted it to meet my face.

the stuffed animal's beady eyes, obscured partially by fur, returned my stare.

"you're only special because of her, huh?"

i can tell myself i'm not a stuffed animal person.

i'm not the type.

i'm not a sentimental guy.

and it'd probably be true,

if it weren't for her.

the other plush creatures had been arranged by size at the foot of my bed, resting against the baseboard.

the doing of a neater skeleton than i.

and, the un-doing of a messier skeleton than he.

sitting myself in front of the wrecked arrangement, i tried to recreate how they had been previously.

two equally exaggeratedly fat animals start the line off at the largest size - differently colored chickens.

floor bear is the dead-center of the grouping. it's got longer brown fur and a small gold ribbon tied into bow around its neck. the bow and the animal's eyes are somewhat obscured by the fur length.

then, a creature i can't quite determine between raccoon and squirrel which it might be.

either or, whatever that one is has a little fall cardigan on.

smallest, final of the line, is a something that is decidedly not an animal.

stuffed shape is more fitting, it being a heart; that kind of semi-shiny, soft material.

"I never want to be ap-heart!"

reads the front.

the embroidered font is fancy and silvery.

texturally, the words are rough.

really, they're the exact quality one expects from festival booth prizes.

so to be displayed on the end of my bed like this...

it's more a sentiment to the memory surrounding them.

another day like that would be nice. can admit to myself now that i really would enjoy it.

friends can s

the festival setting in particular isn't quite the part i'm thinking about.

where around here could we

....

properly seated, the stuffies feel like an audience in a way i hadn't noticed before.

on the other hand, putting them anywhere but on my bed feels like disrespect.

for now, i'll turn them the other way.

——

turning them away feels wrong in a way i'm not sure i could specify if i tried, so i rotated the bear back to me.

it's a show of innocence.

of normal-ness.

friendshipness.

(the friendship-adjectives are getting out of hand.)

i held my hands up to further prove to the inanimate object that innocence.

i put them back down because hands don't have anything to do with this.

"you're a gift from a friend. no other way to see it."

not entirely sure at this point whether it was really the bear i was convincing - or entirely sure why i was bothering doing this to begin with - i moved on.

...

i already noted the amount of "friendship" adjectives i've been coming up with over time to excuse things.

𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.

sure.

unspecific enough.

"friendship" is a nice label you can put over things that you don't wanna give any 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 labels to.

labels feel like making a choice.

labels feel concrete.

labels feel like 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

and, uh.

you know something?

never have been the kind of guy to act first.

another thing calling it "friendship" is good for is...

can't call it "cowardice" when i won't vocalize (or similar) what's occupying my mind

if it's still called "friendship."

maybe the fact that i'm trying to justify it at all should bring light to somethin'...

but that kind of self awareness is reserved for therapy calls.

and i'm hanging up the phone for now.

[blubushie]

Saw your post responding to that ask about tf2 fics and you're right, as a transwoman who isn't out at work the perception of how men act around eachother vs how they actually act is always jarring. Obviously it changes depending on the people, their relationship to eachother and the group dynamic but i find a lot of the time writers don't capture the bond properly. It's hard to articulate but there's almost always a sense of fair play to the insults and banter (again, depending on how they feel about eachother) that usually knows when to back off and when they've gone too far. If someone goes to far there's a backdown and a gruff apology usually. Likewise with any corrections it's usually blunt and possibly can be construed as harsh but it's also not necessarily rude or demeaning, just a "hey you fucked up doing this/that's a bad way to do it, here's how you should" type of sentiment

Idk it definitely isn't always like this and this is just my (North American, White) experience. There's definitely still some shit, "locker room" type talk and casual misogyny is really common, but it feels like the dynamics are always either portrayed as aggressive machismo competition or homoerotic tension

Nah yeah you hit the nail on the fucken head.

And I know that often the whole "homoerotic tension" thing is played up because fics are usually about shipping and homoeroticism is the goal. As for aggressive machismo, yes this is a thing that happens but it's not something that happens with friends usually. The kinda aggressive machismo interactions I see in fics is the kinda aggressive machismo men have when they're strangers in a group and still establishing their pecking order with each other—it's not the kinda dynamic that friends have, especially long-term friends.

Additionally with long-term friends, yeah, we usually know what is and isn't off-limits to banter or rib about, to the extent that crossing certain lines are worthy of resulting in a physical fight. But even when someone crosses a line on accident there usually isn't hurt feelings, just a quick correction and maybe a brief apology (simple as "sorry") and everyone moves on. It's never some dramatic scene full of angst or some shit—we aren't in high school anymore!

I rarely see this depicted properly in fanfic or even in commercial media, which is honestly SO strange to me because male mateship/friendship is such an important focal part of male socialisation and coming of age. It's weird to not see it represented or so often represented inaccurately. I've seen montage music videos that show it better than cinematic media or literature.

[blueopinions49]

Mistyping on MBTI

Introduction 

The purpose of this post is to understand what are mistyping and how they happen. I’ll explain some of the patterns ive noticed when it comes to some of the mistypings as well as some of examples ive I personally disagree with. Please dont take any of this as a personal insult if any of these examples I give are things you've done in the past or the typings I disagree with are your own. 

Case #1Misunderstanding Functions 

-What I refer to by the misunderstanding of functions I mean it's the general purpose of the function and how does this function work and perceive reality. I understand that functions can be complicated and Carl Jung’s definition of Ni can be convoluted and confusing (sometimes just plain vague) however I do think that typing people/characters  needs at least allot of backing up with your knowledge of functions. Usually the misunderstanding I see with each functions comes out in these ways.

Si- Memories/Any form of previously obtained knowledge 

Se-Impulsiveness and Aggression

Fi-Sensitivy and Emotionality 

Fe-Caring

Ti- Thinking in any capacity 

Te-Rudeness 

Ne- Quirks and Quips 

Ni- just knowing stuff

Ex-Sasuke Uchiha (ISFP)- Sasuke is often typed as an INTJ due to his preference for Ni-Fi HOWEVER when it comes to how he perceives reality and his way to deal with conflict its pretty clear he is an Fi dom. There is this misconception of Fi=Sensitivity and Emotionality. However this couldn't  be farther from the truth. Fi is simply preferring your Core Values and desire over the other. His goal was always Fi related NOT Ni related.   

Case#3 Simplification of Functions

Following the last case this is usually the more common one I see when it comes to mistyping usually people will flatten functions or just straight up default to god awful stereotypes of each type when it comes to typing them. You'll often see people “Trope Type” certain charcaters. Most of their arguments revolve around the aesthetic of the character and then their functions. Which is why those peoples typing will usually look like this.

ESXJ-Mean Girl and stuck up

ISXJ-Boring ones

ESXP-Immature,Dumb or straight up substance abuse 

ISXP-Edgy 

XNTP-Quips and Quirks but always the smartest 

XNFJ-Kind Humanitarian

XNFP-Sentimental mess

XNTJ-Villain

Ex-Naruto Uzumaki (EXFP)I know I previously typed him as an ENFP however I've been thinking of the relation of his Se-Ni throughout the show and I might change my typing. However thus far every single Se dom argument I read for Naruto reads like this “ Well he is immature” “he is impulsive and reckless” “ can't be an Ne dom because Intuitive=smart and Sensor=Dumb” sometimes they don't say this word for word but their arguments boil down to this. And I find it quite frustrating cuz those same people look at you straight in the eye and say that you're intuitive bias, even tho they are the ones defaulting to stereotypes. 

Case #4 Positioning of Functions 

Character development in MBTI is more complex than character development in Enneagram. Depending on the movie/tv show the character might either develop their inferior function or their tert function. Which is why understanding the position and model you are using for MBTI and be consistent using it. The position of function is important because they are what defined the person and how they approach data management. Also certain characters might have preference for their tert function rather than their aux functions. Some Characters just use their stack in a very balanced way. 

Ex- Sokka (ESTJ)- He is often typed as an ENTP due to his exaggerated use of Ne in the later seasons. To me at least he is an ESTJ with a preference for TeNe. Sokka never really uses NeTi in the first book. His priority came in form of TeSi (Organizing the environment with a solid metric and detailed positioning of others). His development came in the form of his Ne not Fi. To the point he ends of sticking to it in Book 2 and Book 3. 

Case #4 Character Traits=/=Cognitive Preferences/Perception

Often people conflate how a character/person acts instead of how they think and proceed with conflict. MBTI isnt really a personality theory but rather and understanding of your cognitive process and preference. It's based on how you perceive reality and how you make decisions based on your dominant function. If anything enneagram would be closer to an actual personality test. 

Ex- Amy March (ESFP)- I took such a long time to come to this typing because similarly to Naruto people only talked about how she was an annoying immature child. However her monologue points to her stresses and how she must stick to her SeTe rather than SeFi due to how the environment is working and suppressing women in that era. 

Case #5 Just making things up 

This is the most common one I see when people type characters, they usually just make things up. Sometimes there isn't any contextual evidence on what they are talking about and will mostly differ to broad and vague statements that hold no wait or aren't represented in the narrative. Sometimes they'll just take things out of context and will just go with them and end up convincing people even if their argument is 95% fabricated stuff and the 5% is misunderstanding on their part. 

Ex-Ada Wong (IXTJ)  Ada Wong’s Ti is non existent and no one online has ever written an argument where I there is enough evidence on what they are saying. Ada isnt a person who is interested in analytical process and internal understanding. Even character development comes from XiFi not Fe. Sorry but liking Leon but not really isnt a good argument for low Fe. Her development isnt about understanding the emotional state of the other or in relation to the other but rather the self. Even OG Resident Evil its stated that she struggles with her own values and emotional state . It's almost as if their argument hinges on ISTP=Spy characters. 

Case #6 Misogyny (yeah...we are going there). 

Often in typology you'll notice a dichotomy between Female characters vs Male characters. You'll notice that female characters are twice as likely to get typed as Feelers even when they dont show much usage of any feeling function. Often the arguments I see its in reference to either showing the character struggling emotionally or reacting in some way to something bad happening in their life. But when male characters such as Homelander and Patrick Bateman who have multiple emotional outburst in their runs but most people type them as Te doms. While Female characters that have emotional outburst such as Asuka and Jennifer Harding (Both Te doms) both get typed as ESFP because=SeFi=angry and emotional. It often happens in cases such as Bakugo who gets typed as an ESTP but if a female character does the same thing she gets typed as an ESFP. Im not calling you a misygonist  if you typed any of this characters like this I just think that you should reconsider your typology process. 

Ex-There are allot of these so I just gonna point to a few 

Alice Liddle (INTP) - Being typed as an INFP but very clear her struggle is between Ti-Si and understanding her Fe.

Nancy Wheeler (ESTJ)- Being nice=/=Fe she has always preferred TeSi (organizing and structuring things in step by step processes) Over using Fe. 

Madison Montgomery (ESTP)- Her character is pure SeTi and her struggle with her Fe is shown in both S3 and S8. 

Yenneffer (INTJ)- NiFi reaching the ideal self is her goal also her Te is very on your face. 

Part 2 will focus on the enneagram 

Please dont take any of this as an attack its an analysis on things ive seen and read if you are gonna disagree please be civil. 

[nonuggetshere]

Was PK really the crybaby of his clutch? Why did everyone think PK was dead?

PS: I would love it if you ever decided to info dump on us about all your wyrm ocs and what their personalities are, because everyone sounds super fascinating!!

PSS: Since finding siblings has been common in au's anytime Flower's outside Hallownest, I should let you know that I was beset with the immediate image of one of PK's relations hauling in Ghost to Flower and PK by their scruff and going, "They were found raiding the kitchen. Why do they look like they're yours???" And PK's speechless and Flower's dissolving into tears and Ghost just starts flailing because: Hey!! Their sibling is hurt, and THAT'S THE GLOWY PERSON THAT TOOK THEM SO I BET IT'S THEIR FAULT LET ME AT 'EM!!!"

Bonus points if Ghost yanks a kitchen knife from their void to menace PK's knees with.

WAIT I NEVER POSTED MY PK FAMILY LORE(tm) ON HERE? THIS MUST BE FIXED IMMEDIATELY

Will paste all of it under the cut

And KDHDKDHDJ YEAH Ghost would be a Menace

So wyrm culture places a lot of importance on strength, kingdoms led by wyrms tend to be heavily militarised, war-mongering kingdoms,

Ebur was an outliner in that he did not care for these things, he was born a weak runt and even as his condition improved he still preferred to curl up next to their dame and watch his siblings playfight. Despite this he wasn't at all disliked by his dame or siblings, who indulged in his interests as well and whenever he played with them his siblings tried to pick games that he could play too.

The hatchlings grew and eventually started to learn how to hunt and went out with their dame to learn how to navigate and survive in the wastelands

But an unfortunate rockslide and tunnel collapse (or a flash flood? Probably would work better, there fuckers are made for digging so I dunno how Addamas couldn't just. Dig him up) separated Ebur from his family, when he was still too young to live by himself. After days of searching Adamas couldn't find him and assumed him to be dead, and young Ebur was left to fend for himself

He knew enough to survive on his own even though it was hard

I've been toying around with the idea of a mortal taking pity on him and taking care of him for a while before it pretty much became unsustainable to feed a giant log of meat, but it's just an idea for now, nothing concrete yet

So PK's family assume he's dead and he gave up looking for them a long time ago,

Also he's like the only one who fully ascended into godhood

AS FOR THE REST

Adamas: She's an old wyrm, she had many clutches in her lifetime and the clutch which Ebur belonged to was her last, having had them much later in her life she decided they'd be her last. She's a much more "typical" wyrm and a tough love kind of gal, she shows her hatchlings love through her actions but also thinks the best way for them to learn is to throw them in the deep water straight away. She values strength a lot like other wyrms, although she doesn't think physical strength is all there is to it - she saw potential in her youngest son's cleverness and regrets not being able to help him hone it. While most wyrms value their scars, seeing them as trophies of their battles, Adamas thinks it's foolish; believing instead that scars just prove that you weren't quick, smart or fast enough, they're not a bad thing to have but you shouldn't be proud of them and should learn from them instead - a sentiment a lot of her hatchlings inherited from her, including Ebur.

Another thing about her that goes against most wyrms, she is completely uninterested in leading anything or anyone. Having had her own empire back in her younger years she had now completely abandoned that type of lifestyle, preferring to wander alone.

Long after her last hatchlings left her nest, she lost a fight with a younger wyrm. Driven away from her old territory and gravely injured she travelled into the mountains, burring into the side of it and deep in the peaks where she would eventually succumb to her wounds. Being reborn, she now permanently resides in her old tunnels in the mountains, hunting small critters, travellers and picking from her own rotting corpse for sustenance. She's quite content in her new situation, preferring the peace and quiet the cold mountain peaks give her.

Fossor: The oldest of the clutch as well as the biggest and strongest of them. She can hold her own yet prefers not to fight, taking on their dame's philosophy about scars and turning it up to 11 - choosing to immediately resolve your problems with violence and fighting is a sign of cowardice and weakness. Nonetheless, she's a devastating opponent to face. Although they were originally named for their passion for digging (the damn nest had so many holes after Fossor was born), they certainly earned the second meaning to her name - gravedigger.

They were quite protective over their little siblings when they were young, especially the smallest of the clutch Ebur and partly Melpomene. After it was time for them to leave the nest Fossor was the one who stuck the longest by her siblings before finally splitting off to found her own kingdom. She chose not to be reborn into her second form, finding her wyrm form to be way more convenient, and it helps avoid her any trouble from the majority of possibly hostile neighbouring nations.

They took on a mortal as a mate, and although he is long gone by now the two of them had a child - Nivalis. Although at first her conception was only for political reasons and convenience, Fossor quickly grew to adore their daughter. Nivalis is now a beloved princess, one who helps their parent a lot in running the kingdom (the small stature loser to mortals does have its benefits) yet keeps dreaming about one day leaving the nest and getting to explore beyond the kingdom's borders.

Ossum and Adustus - The middle children, the two of them were tied at the hip from the day of their hatching. Both named for their colouring, Ossum meaning bone and Adustus singed/burned...and Ossum partly thanks to their old habit of playing with the cleaned remains of their prey. Ossum is the more reserved yet hotheaded of the two while Adustus is the levelheaded extrovert of their duo. After their last sibling, Fossor, left their side the two decided they'd stick together permanently. Life as a duo was exceptionally hard for two gigantic apex predators so they chose to be reborn, and as neither is interested in ruling anything they chose their forms to blend closer with the mortals, hoping to not be recognised for who they were. Now, they still travel together, spending a few months in any given kingdom before moving on. Occasionally they like to visit their siblings and dame.

Melpomene: (@bluethepearldiver oc, just relying info here) The second youngest and the second to split off from the group, she found a village of wyrm and casted off her old form to join them. After protesting against invading a neighbouring mortal village she was exiled and presumed dead, only to later return and kill the village leader.

Io: (Again, Blue's oc, relying info) First sibling to split off so he could found his own kingsom, which he now rules alongside his mate Careuleus (gay rights <3). He's more of a typical wyrm with his style of ruling, certainly aggressive yet still somewhat benevolent. He took on a smaller form to be with his partner

[mymarsmoonandstars]

About Killmonger...

and his usage of the word sacrifice, and how he compares to Namor

.

.

.

It's so interesting to me that just like Shuri, Killmonger is wearing white in the ancestral plane. They're mourning clothes for him, too, aren't they? If they are, in a film about moving through the grief and resentment that comes with loss, his white clothes represent that Killmonger is stuck—stuck in anguish, stuck in rage. This may explain why he told Shuri that Ramonda sacrificed her life for Riri, because in his mind, his own father N'Jobu sacrificed his life for the African diaspora.

(By the way, I am using the word sacrifice here because this is the language Killmonger uses, and I merely want to study why. I myself do not believe N'Jobu's or Ramonda's deaths were. When black folks are murdered, I don't view their deaths as sacrifices. They didn't want to die. Both N'Jobu and Ramonda were human beings desperate to save someone (or someones, in N'Jobu's case). The word sacrifice to describe the deaths of black people should be applied with the utmost care, because there is a history of people using that word against us, as it places culpability on the murdered black person instead of the one who actually did the killing. It also reduces black folks to always being the strong and resilient type when we can be victims, too.)

In the first film, Killmonger's father's death motivates him to finish what N'Jobu started and spread vibranium weapons outside of Wakanda to wage a vengeful war—this is his way of "taking care of business" which he encourages Shuri to follow. In calling Ramonda's death a sacrifice, he does not take away blame from Namor, but rather does so to inspire Shuri to act. He urges Shuri to make sure her mother did not die in vain and to instead use her to justify even more bloodshed, just as he had done with his own father. Him wearing white shows he hasn't progressed from this sentiment, and even after all that's happened, he is still very much in pain. It's like he wants Shuri to wage the war that he never got to.

I think Killmonger views the loss of his father as a sacrifice to cope with it, and to him, his father's and Ramonda's deaths are one and the same. In reality, N'Jobu was killed by his own brother then abandoned. Ramonda was drowned as punishment. Neither wished to die. Neither should have died. But to view their deaths as sacrifices? It takes away the brutal truth and gives their deaths purpose. Sacrifice as euphemism. Sacrifice translated into action. He spurs Shuri to vengeance this way, but it doesn't come across as manipulative. For Killmonger, Ramonda and N'Jobu both died protecting a Black American(s), and being that he's never healed from his trauma, he coaches Shuri in the only way he knows how.

But how is never as important as why, isn't it? I've been trying to come up with an answer as to why Killmonger mimics Namor's line. I think to understand it, you have to draw some parallels between him and Namor. The core of what makes them anatagonists is that they both wanted to wage war against colonizers in the name of protecting their people. But they have much more in common beyond that:

White supremacy displaced both Killmonger and Namor. N'Jobu had to hide them away in Oakland just as Namor's mother Fen had to take refuge in the water.

You know how N'Jobu always told his son about how beautiful the Wakandan sunsets are? And how Fen told her son stories about a land and people who never had to change? N'Jobu and Fen filled their children's heads with stories of their homelands dressed up as fairytales. Consequently, Killmonger and Namor grew up thinking of home as an idyllic place that they should have belonged to, but a place always out of reach.

Killmonger and Namor witnessed their father and mother grieving the loss of where they came from. They inherited this grief, this longing.

They have a complicated way of seeing life—they fiercely want to protect their people, but are so blinded by this that they harm those who should be their allies (Killmonger killing black people and other people of color as an American soldier, Namor's assault on Wakanda, both becoming the very thing they hate).

Adding onto the last point, death is sadly common for them. As a boy, Killmonger says, "everybody dies, it's just life around here" which is very similar to Namor's "when you age as I do, you realize we all lose everyone we love." Their hearts are hardened against death, and this is truly a sad thing, and allows them to commit tragedies devoid of sympathy.

So it's kind of perfect that Killmonger echoes Namor's "how is never as important as why." The two characters uphold the same motif of the Black Panther films—to not only look at their methods, which are not the best and at times even downright wrong, but to understand the reasoning behind them.

Remember, despite everything, T'Challa still takes Killmonger to see the Wakandan sunset. The image of these two sitting together and watching the sun go down in Wakanda embodies this theme of empathy, and mirrors Shuri and Namor watching the sun rise over Talokan.

[pinguwrites]

Forever Yours | Jackson Rippner (Kinktober 2023 | Day 31 — Jackson Rippner + ghostface!reader)

READ DISCLAIMER

pairing | jackson rippner x reader

summary | In this college au, Halloween is nearing its corner, only for the festive mood to be cut short when your classmate is brutally killed. As the series of murders continues, Jackson Rippner finds himself the next target, oblivious to the fact that his hunter is you, his girlfriend, the ghostface.

word count | 5k

Warnings: smut, rough sex - SM, jackson's insecure, kinda sub!jackson, reader and jackson are sick and crazy, mention of parental abuse, masturbation, brief mention of animal death/abuse (hinted)

Disclaimer: This is part of my unfinished works. I don't write anymore, but I still wanted to publish what I have. I'll use bullet points to explain what I planned to happen at the end. Also note that this is heavily unedited, there will be a lot of mistakes.

"You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings. You can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything" — Closer, Nine Inch Nails

Jackson Rippner was trying to become more romantic for you, an endeavor that started about a week ago after he noticed you liked passionate men. It was a simple conversation about fictional crushes — you know, the ones you have as a kid when he realized all the men you had pointed out were terribly lovey-dovey and all sentimental-like. A few origami roses here and there, some thoughtful gifts, maybe some poetic letters, and he was sure that he could outcompete all of them. He was the only man you needed, the only man you could ever want.

He knew how it sounded — pathetic. Since when was he the type to change himself for a girl? He was no Romeo or Jack Dawson, and he certainly didn’t want to be. He wasn’t a simpering fool, chasing after a pretty girl like it was his life’s mission, but as it turned out, he was for you. And if you liked your men romantic, then Jackson would be romantic.

Starting off with whatever this was: a package of your favorite stuff. Two books you mentioned wanting to get but couldn’t spare the money for, which Jackson just knew he had to buy, even though it would piss off his father — he was always stingy with money — but he figured it was fine as long as it came out of his own pocket. Some bath bombs he made from scratch, swiping the ingredients from around the house. He used a cedar wood scent for the essential oil, as it was the closest smell he could get to his cologne, and made three bombs, wrapped them in plastic, and put them alongside the books in the bag.

It was nothing big, but it was perfect. You were going to love it. You had to love it. How could you not?

He closed the bag and placed it on his desk, ready to go to sleep, when the landline downstairs rang. It was probably telemarketers, but it could also be his parents, who were out on date night. He decided to go head down and check anyways. 

He headed downstairs and picked up the phone, but the voice on the other end caught him off guard. “Hey,” a woman said, but it didn’t sound natural. It sounded like there was a voice modulator, the ones that criminals used in those crime shows you forced him to watch.

“Hey?” Jackson responded, confused, and a little irritated.

“I know who you are.”

Jackson tried to focus on the sound of the voice. Maybe he could pick out who it was if he listened close enough, but it was a fruitless effort. It was female, but too common to tell.

“You’re the one calling me,” he said, tone laced with amusement, “I should assume so.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“A creep? A weirdo?” Jackson laughed. “A stalker? I dunno. Take your pick.”

It was quiet. For a moment, he thought the woman hung up, but then she spoke again, “A lover. I’m a lover, Jackson.”

“Good for you.” He was tired, and didn’t want to deal with this right now. “Now, how about you either stop acting mysterious and tell me what you want, or I cut the call.”

“Someone’s going to die tonight, Jackson,”  the woman said. Oddly enough, Jackson felt a twinge of excitement at her words. It was oddly thrilling, and adrenaline inducing to hear such a thing. It was at this point he realized with himself that this woman was just messing with him, because who would admit to premeditated murder? 

“I hope it’s that girl from my English class. What’s her name? Ah, fuck, I forgot. She’s the annoying one—all emotion. Screams every time the lights go out. You know her?”

“Yeah, I know her.”

So, she’s been on campus, Jackson thought. Following me, maybe. I can’t believe it! 

“It’s not her, though. But who knows, maybe she’ll be next. Would you like that?”

“Doll, I really don’t care. Do me a favor, and don’t call me again.”

He put the phone down and went back upstairs. What a fucking psycho. He was too tired to deal with this shit. After a night of wrapping gifts, all he wanted was to rest. But still, even as he drifted off to sleep, he couldn’t stop thinking about that call. A gut feeling told him not to dismiss it as a prank, but before he could contemplate it any further, he fell asleep.

+++

Jackson drove his car to Westwood’s campus, towards the west side of the college where he knew you were going to be. You had a 2 PM class on Thursday, and right about now was when it ended. He usually picked you up, driving afterwards to a diner, or sometimes to a random spot where you could both be alone and make out in.

As he watched the students pile out of the building, he spotted you, near the back of the crowd, having a conversation with your good friend Lisa. He narrowed his eyes once he saw what you were wearing — a dark, plaid miniskirt with a black crop top. Even from this distance he could see the curved outline of your breasts, and imagined the view from behind, but as you got closer, he noticed the look on your face — concerned, nervous. In fact, he noticed the look on everyones face. They were whispering amongst each other in hushed voices, unlike most days when they were loud and rowdy. 

You waved goodbye to Lisa, then headed over to the car, getting into the shotgun seat. In a quick movement, you gave Jackson a kiss on the cheek, then leaned back with a heavy sigh. “Did you hear?” you asked.

“About what?” He was a little worried, but knowing you it was probably because you got a B on a test or some other stupid bullshit. He started the engine and pulled out of the driveway, exiting onto the main road.

“You know,” you said, not leading much on. “The girl.”

Jackson rolled his eyes. “I can’t understand you when you speak all cryptic like this.”

“Sorry — I just thought you knew. She went missing, just last night or something.”

Jackson froze. “What?”

“Well, not missing.” Your voice was a little awkward, as if you were uncomfortable talking about it. “Lisa told me she’s dead. At least, that’s what she heard. But you know, the police haven’t come out with a report and I haven’t looked at the news yet.”

Jackson couldn’t believe it. His mind went to last night, and the mysterious call he got. Did the murder have anything to do with that? It couldn’t be a coincidence. Would it be interfering with an investigation if he didn't tell the police?

“What’s wrong?” you asked, your tone holding a hint of concern.

Jackson wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell you. It was probably just nothing, but still, he didn’t want to keep any secrets. It was Relationships 101, communication, even though he was shit poor at it. 

“I got a call last night,” he said, as nonchalant as he could. “It was this woman. Her voice was masked, so I couldn’t recognize it. She, uh, told me that someone was going to die.”

You huffed. “Are you being serious?”

“Yeah.”

You swatted his shoulder, making him chuckle. “You have to go to police, Jackson! They can track down the call and find out who it is — maybe she’s the murderer. Haven’t you thought of that?”

“I did,” Jackson said. Seeing the look on your face, he relented. “Alright. I’ll go to the station after I drop you off, happy?”

You shook your head. “I’m coming with you. I don’t want to leave you alone. What if you’re being targeted, hmm? What if you’re next?”

Jackson rolled his eyes. “Stop overreacting. You can come, but you’re just gonna get bored.”

You were fine with that, so it seemed.

He drove to the police station, noticing the presence of reporters. He managed to slip you both past them, though he suspected that the only reason he got through was because they weren’t interested in them.

He went up to the front desk and told the lady he needed to report something. She nodded and brought out a paper to record, when she realized exactly what Jackson was reporting and decided to call the lead detective on the case.

It took a while, but eventually called Jackson and you over to Detective’s Reisert’s office, settling you both down in a pair of chairs.

It was a series of routine questions. When did the phone call happen? What was said? Who was in the house at the time? Why didn’t you tell anyone? What did the voice sound like? 

At some point, you were ushered out of the room. It was silly, because it’s not like you had anything to do with this, but then Reisert asked: Who do you think it was? Is it possible you knew this person? Why were you called?

“She knows who I am,” Jackson answered. “I mentioned English,” Jackson didn’t specify exactly why he brought it up, “and this girl in my class, and she said she knew her. She could’ve been lying, though, I never told her a name.”

“And what do you think she meant by saying she was a lover? Do you think it’s possible this is someone who has a crush on you?”

Jackson laughed. “Probably.” He didn’t know many men or women who didn’t have a crush on him at some point.

“Someone who doesn’t like your girlfriend?”

Jackson’s mood got cold. The idea hadn’t even passed his mind. If this mysterious woman was the killer, and did have a crush on him, then of course, you were a threat. He suddenly felt very uncomfortable, and it was clear Detective Reisert could sense it, because he placed a hand on Jackson’s shoulder and said, “Son, don’t worry about it. Those are all the questions I have. You’re free to go.”

Jackson shrugged him off, not leaving. “Who was the victim?” he asked.

The detective hesitated. “Miya Reinhart. She’s currently missing, but we’re doing everything in our power to find her,” he said, getting up from his seat. “We’ll investigate the phone call and see if we can find out where it came from. If it’s anything worth checking out, we’ll call you back in.”

He ushered Jackson out the door. You were patiently waiting in the lobby, hands interocked, nervously glancing around. Why did some bitch have to die? he thought. Now I’m going to have to deal with all of this.

As he approached you, the name Miya Reinhart ringed in his head. He could’ve sworn he knew who it was. Maybe someone in one of his classes, a friend of a friend? It wasn’t until you both started walking out the door did it click in his head.

“It’s Miya, right?” he said, looking over at you. “The curvesetter?”

You groaned at the mention of her. “She thinks she’s so smart, it’s a wonder she has any friends at all. You know, just the other day —” you fell silent, taking in the look on his face. Slowly, your eyes filled with guilt “. . . Oh.”

“Yeah.”

You nodded your head, licking your lips. You opened your mouth to speak, but ended up not saying anything at all. Maybe it was for the better.

Jackson put his arm around you. He drove to your house, a two-story with a nice front lawn and backyard, pretty flowers and sprinkles that ran through the night. He parked in your driveway, hesitating for a moment, before deciding to hell with it and reach into the backseat, pulling out the little bag of presents he made for you.

“I don’t want you to be thinking about anything bad,” he started, handing you the gift. “I got you a little something, maybe it’ll take your mind off of things.”

You opened it up. Inside was a bath bomb, colored red, and two books. Horror books. Stephen King novels.

You paused for a moment. Jackson got a little nervous and glanced over at you, wondering if you liked it or not, but when he saw the little smile on your face, he relaxed.

"Thank you, Jackson," you said genuinely, closing the bag. "You didn't have to get something for me."

He shrugged. "You're my girl." He didn't say anything more after that. There wasn't anything else to add. That was all the reasoning he needed.

+++

Jackson liked to think he had a reasonably good friend group. There were four, not including him — Daniel, a football player who got here on a full scholarship ride; Aneria, a relatively calm girl who liked basic things like the mall and stripped blue jeans; Lisa, your ride-or-die, not much more needed to be said other than the fact that you two were so close he was almost concerned you were gay; and then, of course, you yourself. He wasn’t entirely sure how this group of people came to be, but the basics were — Daniel and Jackson were friends, you and Lisa were friends, Daniel had a crush on Aneria who was loosely friends with Lisa, and so Lisa agreed to try and bring them closer together, and lo and behold, everyone came together like ingredients in a cake.

Jackson’s eventual investigations revealed that Aneria did not like Daniel back, and so the entire thing was a waste except for the fact that he met you, but it wasn’t like he was booting himself out of this group anytime soon. 

“She’s been scared recently,” Daniel told Jackson one day as they were both smoking outside behind a dingy restaurant. “Because of the murder, you know?”

Ah, right. The police report came out the morning after Jackson went to the police station. Miya Reinhart’s body was found in the woods near her house. Police were apparently investigating some promising leads, but at the moment they had nothing more to say.

“And how does that benefit you?” Jackson wondered, taking in a slow puff.

“She’ll want protection,” Daniel said as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’ve been driving her back to her dorm recently, she doesn’t want to go by herself, nor do her parents. They like me, dude. Parents plus my masculine energy should be more than enough.”

“Masculine energy?” Jackson said with a scoff and chuckle. “Sure, dude. Just ask her out.”

“It’s not that easy. I mean, how’d you ask your girl out?”

Jackson leaned his head against the brick wall. “She wooed me.”

Daniel thought about it for a moment. “Maybe I’ve been doing it all wrong. I should be asking her for advice, not you.”

“That’s probably right.”

“You know, I’m planning a party next weekend. Halloween-themed.” Daniel got up from his position and dusted off all the dirt from his pants. “You gonna come?” He lent out his hand.

“Yeah, ‘course.” 

Jackson let himself get pulled up to his feet. They started walking down the street and back to the general vicinity of where both their neighborhoods lay.

“It’s a costume party, obviously. And I’m thinking I should make Halloween-themed treats, the type that moms make when we’re kids, you know?”

Jackson never experienced that. As a child, his Halloweens were his mom trying to do something nice for the family, then getting drunk and upset after his father never showed up. After a certain point, Jackson stopped anticipating any type of celebration and his mom stopped making an attempt. 

“It’s a little childish — but who cares? You can get the drinks, right?” Daniel continued.

Jackson nodded, hands in his pocket. “Yeah, and food, too. How many people are gonna be there?”

Daniel shrugged. “I don’t want this one to be big. I was thinking just us five and, like, a plus-one.”

That was more than fine with Jackson. In all honesty, he didn’t like Daniel’s big parties, the ones where everyone he ever talked to was invited, where he had to clean the house out because Daniel was too crossfaded to move a muscle. 

At least he had something to look forward to this week.

+++

“I told you someone was going to get murdered.” 

Jackson sucked in a breath. He had an awful feeling when he picked up the phone — he should have known it would be her again. His eyes darted nervously around the room, paranoid — across the walls and the crevices of the room, the windows and the opened crack of the closet door.

It was almost enticing. It was like a game, in a sick, cruel way. Who was she? A tormenter, a killer. Criminal.

“What do you want?” Jackson asked, stern.

 “You.”

The audacity! he thought. “I have a girlfriend,” he responded simply, wondering whether this was the right time to call the police. He almost didn’t want to. He wanted to see how far this would go, but he knew that was stupid.

He was still wondering whether this whole thing was a prank or not. It was possible that this was a huge coincidence, and with the murder they were simply taking advantage of a bad situation. 

“Maybe she’ll be next.” 

Jackson’s heart thumped in his chest, so loud he could feel the beat throughout his entire body. He felt his body chill, goosebumps along his arms. No. This was not a prank anymore. 

“Listen here you bitch,” he spat into the receiver, “you hurt her in anyway I’ll find you and gut you like a common whore. You understand?” 

She laughed, no — giggled.

“You’re so protective. What a man.” 

Jackson was about to end the call and call the police but then she added, “But it doesn’t matter. You’re too late.” 

He could feel his breathing waver, shaking. In fear or anger, he didn’t know — probably both.

“What do you mean? What have you done to her?” 

The call ended.

“Fuck!”

Jackson threw the telephone into the wall, watching as it broke apart and left a dent. Upstairs, he could hear his mom call out his name in worry, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was already putting on his shoes, sprinting out of the house and towards his car. Without abandon, he started the engine and sped down the street towards your place. It would take a good ten minutes. Your parents house wasn’t as close to Westwood as his was. The whole time he couldn’t stop thinking, What if you were already dead?

His palms were sweaty, and he was driving recklessly. There were few cars on the road. He he was subject to honking more than once, and it was out of sheer luck that he avoided being pulled over by a cop car.

When he finally arrived, he rushed up to your front door and rapped, frustrated when there wasn’t an immediate response. Where the fuck were your parents?

He thought about going over to the side of your house and climbing to your window like he used to do when you first started dating, but the door opened and to his great relief it was you standing there, unharmed and looking rather confused.

But still. He couldn’t take any chances.

“Jackson?” you said, surprised. “What are you — ”

Jackson pushed his way inside and locked the door, wrapping his arms around your figure, letting your head rest against his chest as he used your comfort to calm his heart. It felt like the world was not functioning the way it was supposed to — everything was so fast and heavy but muted, like he was in a dream. A disturbing, horrible dream.

When you pulled away, you opened your mouth to speak, but he placed his finger against your lips, shushing you.

“Are all the windows locked?” he asked, his breathing steadying.

“Um.” You thought for a moment. “I dunno. Maybe.”

Jackson sighed, wanting to pinch your side for being so careless. How many times had he told you to keep all house openings locked?

He went to every window on the first floor, while you followed behind, barraging him with questions. What happened? Why are you here? Is something wrong?

He placed his hands on the side of your arms. “Call the police, okay, doll?”

Your eyes widened. “What?”

“Just do it, I’ll explain after I check upstairs.”

“Babe, just tell me now.”

Jackson moved past you, but you grabbed his hand and dug your nails into his palm. “Tell me,” you said softly, but your tone indicated that you weren’t playing.

He paused. After taking a deep breath so he could speak properly without running out of air, he spilled everything. When he finished, you reacted in a way he didn’t expect, but was grateful for— calm and collected, albeit worried.

He went upstairs to lock the rest of the windows. He heard your faint voice talk to the police downstairs, explaining the situation. When he made it to your bedroom, however, he noticed something odd. There was a pile of dirty laundry in the corner. Once he made sure that all the openings on this floor were locked, he removed one of the shirts, which had small red spots. Like a splatter.

He sniffed it, against his better judgement, and recoiled at the scent. It was most certainly blood. The iron was unmistakable. 

“What are you doing?”

He turned around like a deer caught in headlights.

Jackson held up the shirt. “What is this?”

“N-nothing,” you stammered. “Lady stuff.”

“Like what?” He narrowed his eyes. “Periods?”

With a faint blush, you nodded. He rolled his eyes, wishing that this type of conversation wasn’t so embarrasing.

“Give it to me,” you pleaded. “I was just in the process of cleaning that when you came. I don’t want the police to see this.”

Jackson gave the shirt back to you. What you wanted to say was — ‘I don’t want a bunch of old men to see this.’ 

+++

“One more time, let’s go through what happened when you came here,” Detective Reisert said. “When you told her — your girlfriend — what had happened, would you say she was frightened? Panicked?”

Jackson sighed. He was sitting on your couch with the police as they canvassed your home. You were being interviewed in the dining room, and your parents were on their way back from the work convention they were supposedly at. There was a swath of news reporters outside your house, as well as confused neighbors. All the curtians and blinds were shut closed, to give you guys at least a bit of privacy, but the nosie and flashing lights were just as distracting as the sight of them.

“I mean, yeah,” Jackson said. “But it’s not like she was having a panic attack. I don’t see why you’re interested in her reaction. I need to know whether she’s safe or not! What happened to the phone call? Did you trace it or — ”

“It’s from a burner account,” Reisert said. “The person who did this was smart. But we’ll find them.”

Jackson was not satisfied. “I want security. For her.”

“We’ll have someone protecting her twenty-four by seven. What I want to know is why she was so calm.”

Jackson couldn’t believe this. “Because she was. She’s just like that. I mean, her cat died a few months ago and she didn’t even shed a tear.”

“Didn’t even shed a tear,” he repeated slowly. “That’s odd. How’d the cat die?”

It was then that Jackson realized what the detective was implying. “She didn’t do this, if that’s what you think.”

“Everyone’s a suspect, son.”

“I’m not your son!”

Reisert paused. “You’re right. Where is your father, by the way?”

“Not important.”

“I think it is. I think it’s a parents responsibility to raise their child properly. To tell them not to say things like, ‘I’ll gut you like a common whore’. That is what you said, right?”

“She was threatening my girlfriend,” Jackson snapped.

“Of course, of course. What about the stain on her clothes? The blood?”

Jackson wished he had never mentioned that at all. “It’s from her period.”

“And what did it look like?”

“I dunno, red.”

“. . . Those are all the questions I have.”

Detective Reisert got up from his seat and gave a polite smile.

Jackson rubbed his temples, finding this whole situation to be absolutely insane.

When he passed by the dining room, he overheard you and some others officers talking. It’s not like it was a crime to eavesdrop. This wasn’t a police station, he could stand wherever he wanted.

“It was a period stain,” you said with an exasperated tone.

“On your shirt?”

“Yes, I was . . . I was doing something, and I didn’t have a towel, you know? I don’t want to explain this, I shouldn’t have to! It’s personal.”

“Can we see the shirt?”

“It’s upstairs, but I already cleaned it.”

“With what?”

“Hydrogen peroxide. I-It’s not weird, I’ve been doing it since I was eleven. Ask my mom when she comes back, she’s the one who taught me.”

“We will. Thank you for your time.”

You got up, the chair rubbing against the hardwood floor. You walked over to Jackson with tears in your eyes. He immediately pulled you into a hug, guiding you away from everyone else and towards a more secluded area.

“Shh, shhh, it’s okay.” He rubbed your back, soothing. If only Detective Reisert could see you now. Look what his team had done to her. “Let it all out.”

“I wanna go upstairs,” you cried, grasping onto his shirt. 

“Yeah, I’ll take you.”

They went to the guest room, as your bedroom was being occupied. He laid you down on the bed and wrapped a blanket around you two, letting you sob into his jacket. It was wet now, which he didn’t like, but he wasn’t about to stop you or move your head.

As he soothed you, he thought about everything that was going on. He couldn’t believe that this was happening, to him and his girlfriend of all people. And the thought of you being targeted . . . 

They were still like that for a while. Your parents came back home and made a big fuss, rightfully. They never liked Jackson that much, so after thanking him with a half-assed smile they asked him to leave the house. There was no way Jackson was going to leave you after this, but the police officer who was being stationed at your house insisted as well, so reluctantly, he agreed and headed back home. He kept you on call the entire night, even when you were sleeping. He needed to hear you, even if it was just your breathing. He needed to make sure you were alright. 

+++

“That’s absolutely crazy,” Aneria said, walking side by side with Jackson. They were both heading to their next class which they both shared. They always walked together. Usually Jackson would drop her off and go on his own way, but he’d been missing too many classes and he didn’t want to get in trouble with the school. If that happened they would contact his father, and his father would just give him the fist.

“Yeah,” Jackson agreed, kicking a small pebble across the sidewalk. You were staying at home for the time being. You had taken a few days off, and while he knew you were protected, he still couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“What exactly happened?” Aneria asked, brushing back her blonde hair. “I mean, I heard rumors that they think it might be . . . you know . . .”

“Might be what?” Jackson snapped, turning to look at her. He didn’t mean to lose his patience, but he was in a bad mood. He sighed. “Sorry. I’m just pissed. Tell me.”

Aneria hesitated, then spoke, “That it might be her this whole time.”

Jackson paused in his tracks and turned to look at Aneria. “It’s not. It’s not, why would she do that?”

“I’m not saying I think it’s her, I’m just letting you know how people are feeling,” Aneria said with a shrug. “Also,” she added nervously, “I’m looking out for you.”

She placed a hand on Jackson’s arm. He felt mildly uncomfortable.

“I’m worried about you. Some psycho is stalking you. She’s murdered people, and I — I’m worried about you. So is James, even though he might not say it.”

Jackson shrugged her hand off. “I’m flattered.”

Aneria didn’t say anything more after that. When they got to class, a few people were looking at him with pitiful stares, and after the lecture was finished, the professor pulled him aside to ask if he was okay. Jackson said he was, which was a lie, but he was not about to pour out his heart and feelings to the old man who used to yell at him for not doing his work. 

+++

———

(This is where I stopped writing 😬)

The next part is a short scene where Jackson reminisces about old times and how he met you. Back in highschool you were a good student, but also a preppy bitch and he didn’t really like you. But somehow you won over his heart and instead of going to some fancy college like you thought he would, you ended up staying with him in community college, which he suspects is the reason your parents don’t like him so much.

He also talks about the fact that he’s never had sex with you, and is actually a virgin. He’s nervous about the intimacy.

+++

“You shouldn’t be here,” Jackson chastised, pulling you away from the rest of the crowd and into his arms.

They were at a football game.  

So basically this a small scene where Jackson and the rest of the crew except Lisa and Aneria are at this football game. The next day they realize someone else was murdered, and the police clear you up as a suspect because of your alibi.

In another scene, you try to have sex with Jackson, but he pushes you off. You get a little annoyed and decide to just call it a day, because you’re under the assumption that he has slept with people before, he just doesn’t want to sleep with you.

The police start looking into more clues related to Jackson. They think this is the work of some yandere/stalker, and they think it might be Aneria for a hot moment because she so obviously has a crush on Jackson. They end up dropping that train of thought.

At the Halloween party, Aneria makes a move on Jackson, inviting him into a bedroom upstairs. But you stop her by stabbing her through the heart. Jackson is shocked and also incredibly turned on. You rape him. He struggles at first but eventually gives in and fucks you back. It was supposed to be a blood kink, knife play sort of scene that was really rough and crazy on both sides.

Jackson doesn’t understand fully though, because you weren’t there during the time of one of the murders. You tell him not to worry about it. You suggest running away to some other state or maybe a foreign country. Jackson is ready to leave it all behind.

As you get in the car before anyone notices something is wrong, Jackson notices Lisa in the driver’s seat. She’s been your accomplice this whole time, and she was the one who murdered someone at a football game. You both drive into the night and are never heard from again. 

________________

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