#That's not to say I didn't sometimes just post things while I was on but I also had a tag for that on that blog

[wordbunch]

Ben Grimm x reader headcanons

a/n: HEAR ME OUT. or don't. anyway this is for my weird girlies bc i SEE THEY'RE ASKING FOR IT, dinner is served 💞 essentially my brain wrote this on its own during a couple of weird days of being sick, alone, and having fever dreams post-fantastic 4 in imax 😶 FLUFF OVERLOAD ahead

meeting at work for the first time, him working as a pilot and you being ground control 🥺 two essential halves of the same thing!!!!

this man locked you down IMMEDIATELY, like "yes. this one. no one else in the universe."

being married before the fateful space mission which made the Four into Fantastic four and thinking that you have your perfect sweet life

and of course you were on ground control duty for that one, meaning you heard A LOT of unsettling things happening on that spaceship and you were just happy to have your husband back, in any way shape or form

to say the least, the first weeks after that mission were a strange and challenging time for you and Ben most of all

the other three were as supportive as ever

but going from living a calm little life in a small apartment, having cooking dates and watching a nerdy tv show in the evening, to having a soulmate who is basically a mountain, Johnny (your bestie) sticking his nose in your business all around baxter building and Herbie beeping next to you as you make dinner... was really quite something

as much as someone with an outside perspective might think, you were and remained his absolute rock

of course Ben was all like "if you want to leave me i completely understand" but your stubborn self would NEVER.

"i remember us saying 'until death do us part', and as far as i can see, we are both still very much alive." and that topic was closed

still he thought about it many more times but usually without telling you, not that he wasn't beyond grateful for your love and support, it's just that he didn't want to burden you and change your life upside down

but nevertheless, you two decided to start navigating your new reality together

he is terrified that you will be scared of him (how could you, he is still the love of your life)

initially trying to tread lightly on some topics but eventually you grow comfortable with joking about things, and seriously Ben is so sarcastic and funny, and you match that so well, that the whole team is tripping over themselves with laughter at your little banter

underneath a rocky exterior there is a heart of absolute gold and that didn't change with any physical transformation

he has sooo much love to give, and he is so devoted to you and amazed by you and feels lucky beyond measure

your laughter is his favorite sound in the world, bonus points if you think your laughter is unattractive

whatever your interests are, he will at least try to get into them, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes he will pretend to dislike something but actually enjoy it and he likes when you tease him about it!!

behind closed doors he is the biggest softie of all time

you give him lots of words of affirmation complete with nicknames, but his heart absolutely melts at "baby" and "Benny"

when you're feeling extra romantic and darling, you will call him "handsome" but when you wanna get on his nerves, "thingy" is the way to go 😂 (don't let Johnny ever hear that one)

he is an amazing listener

sometimes you feel he over-compensates for the fact that your life had to change so much, by doing too many nice things for you; there are always flowers, coffee/tea in bed, a scented bath, your favorite food or a handwritten note waiting for you for no special occasion

always hanging out together while cooking

Whatever your insecurities are, he will claim they are his favorite things

when you lean your head on his shoulder, or press your forehead to his, or take his hand with your much smaller one, his heart grows 10 sizes

Ben has a random dislike of scented candles, while you love them - you best believe he lets you light as many as you want anyway

his taste in music is very random and niche, and that is one interest you really bond over; yes Johnny will eavesdrop and pretend he is hating on your music choices but actually be vibing

if you can play an instrument, Benny boy is even more amazed at you

of course Johnny loves asking very inappropriate questions, but the two of you play along until you leave him flabbergasted, and the two of you a laughing mess

this man can lift you up basically with one hand and it is so much fun

you do like a good pair of broad shoulders

also he won't hesitate to literally just pick you up and carry you away from a conversation if the rest of the family is being insufferable, it's hilarious and endearing 😂

if you are ever anxious, Ben is the perfect partner to have because when he hugs you and hides you away, literally nothing in the world can touch you

and yes you can still hear his heartbeat

if you love a weighted blanked, he's your perfect match, except he is only allowed to put one arm over you lest you end up squished and suffocated

it is actually a struggle for him not to love you with his full strength but he is beyond terrified of ever hurting you in any way

also has quite a soothing voice to bring you out of your sometimes loud thoughts

sitting on the balcony at night and watching the sky in silence together is one of the ways you like to unwind and sometimes some unsaid things will come out at this time

sadly Ben has a strong tendency to close himself off when something is eating at him, in his mind he has already bothered you enough for 5 lifetimes just by existing, he doesn't want to pile more things on your back

you are painfully aware of this and you try to let him be, but your heart cracks every time you walk into your room and his back is turned towards you; then you have to pry a little bit and, if nothing else, give him a bit of extra love and reassurance and cheer him up

to say he is protective would be an understatement, in small situations as well as big ones, for example his side of the bed is the one closer to the door, just in case

you are the most precious joyful thing in his life

hehe

when you guys are out in public and someone dares to throw him an offhand comment, you are READY to throw hands

some kids be calling you mrs thing in the street lmao

but luckily it is more common that he gets recognized by an enthusiastic fan, and then your eyes all but tear up in joy

he deserves good things!!!!

he is a very "that's my wife!!" person if u know what i mean

you always reassure him that you wouldn't change a thing about your unconventional love story and that he is perfect in your eyes, that he never has to think he is inconveniencing you and that you are not having a hard time because he is... himself

his clothes are ridiculously large on you, you adore it

Ben gets jealous in a sulky way for obvious reasons, even though he trusts you with his life

therefore you make a point to always latch onto his arm when you are out or at an event; your man is a hero and you are proud to be his soulmate and best friend, judgmental comments be damned

you gotta gently push him to get out there a bit more and live his life, but with you it's less intimidating

when the two of you babysit Franklin those are some of the happiest times ever, chaos love and giggles galore

he has such strong dad instincts it is just crazy, and the baby looks comically small in his arms

yes Franklin likes to climb him and yes you are laughing while internally praying to keep those memories forever

Reed and Sue trust the two of you completely and you literally offer to babysit even without them asking

those times also include all of you falling asleep after going out to the park or reading children's books in silly voices

and then it results in a bittersweet scene of Ben sprawled out on the couch, you on top of him an the baby in your arms

@ ben enjoyers plss back me up on this! <3

[strawwbyy]

Overtime my view on all the Kings have changed... and I've come to the personal opinion that Satan and Mammon are the best love interests. I've made a post a long time ago on why Mammon (imo) is the best option for an actual relationship, but thinking back Satan is also a great option. They're both great but have differences, I want to point them out.

This is all in my opinion!!!!! Mind you I haven't read all cards, but (I think) enough to have made up my mind.

Like I said I've talked about Mammon before on this post. But, I'd like to add some things. Overtime, it's been clear that Mammon grows more and more attached to MC as time goes on. He talks about his extreme devotion all the damn time, specifying sometimes how he's more in love the more he sees them.

Also, sometimes I wonder if some Kings (or demons in general) have a preference for MC, at least at first, due to them being related to Solomon and having the same soul, however this doesn't apply to Mammon. He didn't feel strongly towards Solomon, he mostly saw his time with him as just messing around/having fun, but it wasn't love. However with MC, he's said multiple times that he LOVES them, and that he fell in love at first sight. This makes his love more honest to me, seeing as he's liked MC since the beginning because of who THEY were, not because they're Solomons Descendant.

I've also learned thanks to people who share screenshots that Mammon is a lot more infatuated than I first thought... We know that he devotes himself greatly to MC, acting like they're his master. But, I feel like deep-down he doesn't actually see himself as MC's posession, but that being theirs makes MC his (if that makes sense...) He did say, in his H-Scene, that he went for this to gain MC's favor, since there were a lot of other devils trying to own them already. He wants to make MC dependant on him completely. It's slightly scary, because this means that he's actually kind of very obsessed. He spends a lot of time on MC, even scolding devils behind their back when he deems their attitude towards them unproper. Also, Bimet, Valefor and Eligos refer to MC as their Queen/King, and sometimes even Mammon does so, so it's clear he's talked to his nobles before about it, and has already decided that MC is basically his. He's also talked about marrying and kids.

Onto Satan, sometime ago I wasn't that into him. He was fun, but I never really saw him with a lot of love. However I've been enlightened. He (from what i've seen) never says that he's in love with MC or anything, he's not very lovey-dovey. He even got slightly shy when holding their hand once.

He gives his all to protect MC and make them happy. It doesn't show too much, but it's a clear fact. I don't want to bring it up...... but even in Mammons pirate card, he uses all his free time getting to work to build a barrier to keep MC safer, which isn't something a King would usually do.

Another thing I really like about him is that he's just really happy around MC. He loves spending time with them and you can really tell that deep down he loves them fr fr

(Of course I don't need to mention that he's really hot. And strong! But this isn't a satan appreciation post lol.)

Now... I want to mention that, although in my opinion Satan and Mammon are the ones who seem to love MC the most, and they're both great, they have a big difference.

Satan is a lot more... Human? Idk how to say it, but by this I mean he's more "normal" than Mammon.

Mammon is amazing, yes, but he's almost too perfect in a way. Everything he does feels so far from MC (or us even). Again, he's really perfect in everything he does.

Satan feels a lot more sincere to me. Overtime I've come to the conclusion that Mammon has ulterior motives with what he does, with the fact that he wants to eventually make MC dependant on him. Meanwhile, Satan is a lot more straight-forward to me, a lot more emotional. He feels more human in his interactions, while Mammon feels more like a fictional character.

Idk if it's understandable. I feel if you've seen enough of them both you know what I mean. A lot of times I think WHY is Mammon the least popular King, but I think it might be because of that: Mammon is less emotional in his ways. Almost too perfect compared to Satan, who feels more like a normal guy who happens to be a really angry demon King.

This isn't to say Mammon isn't my favorite. HE IS. But I really enjoy Satans personality as well, it feels more real. This is a bit of a word vomit, but hopefully someone gets what I mean? lol

[kjiscrawlingbackformore]

Lilies in the Valley : Riverside

Mom!Jackie Taylor x Reader (post!rescue au)

Masterlist | Previous Part

Summary: Marrying Jackie Taylor was the best thing that ever happened to you. And it seemed to only get better with the additions of your babies. Yet the mystery of Jackie’s past seems to burrow its way into the life she’s built.

Warning: NSFW but like soft and barely there 😭

A/N: I heard your cries😔 here’s part two probably not what y’all wanted but it’s what was in my soul to pen to paper yk

The steady hum of the stream echoed only a few feet away, it made the trek of the walk and the heat of the sun lighten in your mind. Your lips tug into a grin, and you squeeze Jackie’s hand in your own. “Just around the corner.”

Jackie didn’t respond she just nodded, her feet dragging as she followed your prompting. You paused as you caught the sight of the small river brook on the edge of your land. It was still just as you remembered, sunlight glittering on the surface, water rushing over smooth stones, the old fallen log still angled like a bench at the edge of the bank.

You looked back at her. “Come sit.”

She hesitated, like her body was still locked in some invisible brace, but then she moved. You both sank down on the log, your thigh pressed to hers. The shade from the old sycamore overhead cooled the space around you.

For a long while, neither of you spoke. The only sound was the gentle flow of water and the occasional chirp of a bird calling out through the trees.

You kept your hand over hers. Patient. Present. “Do you wanna talk about it?” you asked softly.

Jackie’s lips parted, but nothing came out. She shook her head once, fast and sharp. “I can’t.”

“It’s okay,” you murmured. “You don’t have to.”

Her eyes filled suddenly with tears, and she swiped at them roughly, angrily, like crying was something she didn’t want to give permission to.

You gave her a moment, then tilted your head toward the brook. “My grandfather used to bring me here,” you said quietly. “Before school, after school, sometimes even when I was skipping school. Which he pretended not to notice.”

That got the smallest flicker of a smile.

“I’d sit right there—” you pointed at the smooth stone at the edge of the water—“and just think. Or not think. Just… be. It was the only place where I felt like the world didn’t expect anything from me.”

You shifted to look at her, your voice tender. “One time I was maybe nine? And I got into this big argument with my mom about something dumb—probably chores. I ran out here crying like the world was ending. And my grandpa just… sat next to me. Didn't say anything for the longest time. Then, finally, he put his hand on my back and said: ‘Sometimes life squeezes you so tight you forget you’ve still got lungs, so take deep breaths.’”

You laughed softly at the memory. “I remember blinking at him like that was the weirdest thing I’d ever heard.”

Jackie let out a breath, almost a laugh. Almost.

“But he meant,” you continued, “that no matter how tight it gets, no matter how much the world tries to press in, you can always take a breath. Even if it’s tiny. Even if it hurts. You just breathe, and remember you’re still here.”

You reached for her hand again, threading your fingers together.

“This place was always mine growing up. But now?” you said, your eyes on hers. “It’s yours, too. Just as much. You don’t have to talk, or explain. You don’t have to be okay. But you can be here. With me.”

Jackie swallowed hard. You saw her jaw tremble. Her eyes filled again, this time with something softer, something breaking open.

And then, finally, the tears came.

Not the panicked kind from the truck. Not the held-back ones in front of Misty. But real ones. Raw ones. The kind that meant something inside her trusted you enough to fall apart.

You said nothing more. Just pulled her into your arms and held her by the brook. And for the first time in hours, she let herself breathe.

It all confused you. The way her past seemed to have this iron fist on her. You wanted to help. Wanted to do something anything. Yet that didn’t seem like it was an option. You hated that you couldn’t do more to help Jackie.

The sun had begun to dip low, casting long golden shadows over the riverbank. The air was thick with that late-summer warmth, the kind that wrapped around your shoulders like a blanket. You and Jackie had been quiet for a while, her head resting against your shoulder, your hand drawing lazy circles along her spine.

Then you felt it, the subtle shift in her breathing. The way she tensed like something inside her had finally begun to stir. Her voice, when it came, was quiet. Like it cost something to say. “I didn’t get to grow up being me,” she said.

You turned a little toward her, watching her eyes stay fixed on the rippling stream. She didn’t look at you, just kept her gaze steady, like breaking it would break her too.

“Everyone expected something. Always. A daughter who didn’t talk back. A student who always made honor roll. A best friend who knew how to play along. A girlfriend who knew how to disappear just enough to make the guy feel big.” Her voice cracked just slightly. “A golden girl with nothing beneath the surface. Just bright teeth and shiny hair and the right kind of laugh.”

She paused, and your hand found hers again.

“I didn’t know who I was,” she whispered. “I didn’t even know what it meant to be Jackie Taylor. Just—if I fit into the mold, then maybe that meant I mattered.”

You said nothing. You knew she didn’t need words. Not yet.

“And then the world ended,” she said, the words like glass in her mouth. “And I thought… this is how I die. I die and I don’t even know what it was all for. Who I am. What I loved. If I ever really loved anything. I was so fucking scared.”

She pulled her hand from yours and covered her face for a second, gathering herself.

“I promised myself… if I lived… I wouldn’t lose myself again. I couldn’t. I would be someone I recognized.”

And then, slowly, she looked at you.

“And then I met you,” she said, voice breaking open like the floodgates couldn’t hold it back anymore. “Sweet and kind. Brave. Gentle. My biggest advocate. You just… you are just my world.”

You felt your chest tighten. You hadn’t been expecting the intensity, but it settled deep, somewhere you couldn’t name.

Jackie’s lips trembled. “It was like… life didn’t start until I met you.” She shook her head. “No. My life didn’t start until I met you.”

You reached up to brush her hair back, but she was already continuing, already spiraling into the ache of it.

“And now it feels like… like the wilder—the universe is taking it back. Like my second chance was a loan, and I missed a payment or—I fucked it up somehow. That I did something wrong to warrant losing this. You. The kids. This life. My life.”

Her voice cracked completely, and she turned her face, ashamed, overwhelmed. You leaned forward slightly, resting your forehead to her temple.

“I don’t get it,” you admitted, soft and honest. “Not all of it. But I see how it’s hurting you.”

Jackie let out a slow, shaky sigh. “It’s just hard.”

You nodded. “Well… I’m here for the hard parts too.”

That did it. Jackie’s hands found your face, her eyes red and raw with tears. “I know you are,” she whispered. “I know you are.” And then she kissed you—desperate, deep, like she was trying to memorize the taste of you in case the world fell apart again.

Like she was trying to prove to herself that you were still real. Still here. You kissed her back just as fiercely. You were. And you would be. For as long as she'd let you.

The morning light was pale and golden, streaming through the kitchen windows like syrup. The house had been quiet all weekend, the kind of quiet that wasn’t filled with toys or questions or tiny feet slapping against hardwood. Your mother had taken the kids Friday night, promising sleepovers and pancakes and a whole lot of sugar you’d pretend to disapprove of. And you had been grateful. You still were.

Because Jackie hadn’t left your side.

Not since last night by the river. Not since her hands had clung to your face like you were the only thing tethering her to the world. She moved like your shadow now, close, silent, eyes tracking you like she was afraid you’d vanish if she blinked too long.

You’d made coffee. Poured her a cup. She took it without a word, fingers brushing yours and holding there for a beat longer than they needed to. You brushed your knuckles down her back in passing and she leaned into it like touch was oxygen.

“You wanna come out with me?” you asked gently, setting your mug down. “I was thinking of tending to the garden a bit. Water the herbs, pull up the carrots before they get too thick.”

Jackie nodded. She didn’t speak, just reached for your hand. So you led her out into the sun.

The garden smelled like damp earth and rosemary. The air was still cool enough to be pleasant. You crouched to loosen the soil, humming a bit to fill the space, and glanced up to find her kneeling beside you, watching.

You leaned over and kissed her cheek. “You’re gonna get dirt under those pretty nails,” you teased.

She didn’t smile. But she didn’t pull away either. Her eyes closed at the kiss. Like she needed it.

As you moved through each task—watering the mint, trimming the lavender, inspecting the tomatoes—you gave her small, loving kisses. One on her temple. One behind her ear. The slope of her shoulder. Each time, she reached for you. Just a little. A hand to your back. Her fingers brushing your wrist.

You did most of the talking. About the weather. About how your cucumbers were starting to take over the damn fence again. About how the bird feeder kept attracting squirrels no matter where you put it.

Jackie was silent.

Not cold. Not distant. Just... quiet in a way that made the hair on your arms lift. Still, you didn’t push. You knew better than to tug too hard at something still healing. Instead, when the work was done and the sun was higher in the sky, you gently took her hand and said, “C’mon, let’s get cleaned up.”

She followed you back inside, fingers never letting go of yours. You turned on the taps, tested the temperature of the water. Gathered the towels. Lit a candle without thinking. And when you turned around, she was already peeling off her shirt, not with seduction but with intention.

And then she looked at you. Like really looked at you. Maybe for the first time that morning.

“I love you,” she whispered, like the words were carved out of something raw and real inside her.

You opened your mouth, but you didn’t get a chance to speak. She was kissing you, hard, breathless, pouring everything she didn’t have the words for into the press of her lips. Into the way her body folded into yours. Like love could be an anchor. Like desire could speak for what her voice couldn’t.

She held your face in her hands like you were something sacred. She kissed you like it was a prayer. And as her body met yours in the soft steam of the bathroom, it was less about lust and more about reclamation, her hands gripping, her mouth desperate, like she was stitching herself back together with every touch.

She didn’t cry. She didn’t speak. But you felt it all. Every I’m sorry. Every don’t leave me. Every I’m still here. And you gave it all back in kind.

The water lapped gently against your bodies, steam curling around the edges of the porcelain tub. You sat behind her, knees bracketing her hips, your arms wrapped loosely around her middle as she leaned back against your chest. Her skin was damp and flushed, her breath finally evening out. The rise and fall of her body matched yours like a rhythm you’d known for lifetimes.

Neither of you spoke for a long while.

You let your fingers trail through the water, over her stomach, slow and soothing. Jackie’s hands were resting on top of yours, thumb brushing lightly over your knuckles in a repetitive motion—like she needed the anchor of you, still.

You pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder. Then her neck. Then the back of her head, your lips catching on damp strands of hair.

“You okay?” you murmured.

She nodded, just once, barely perceptible. “Yeah,” she whispered hoarsely. “Better.”

You reached for the washcloth hanging over the edge of the tub and dipped it in the water, warm and citrus-scented. Gently, you began to run it down her arms. Over the curve of her back. Along her thighs.

Each movement was unhurried, reverent. “You know,” you said softly, “you were like this once before. Right after Lily was born.”

She shifted slightly, not in discomfort but at the mention. “Yeah?”

“Mmhmm. She was just two weeks old. You were exhausted. Wouldn’t let anyone else hold her. Not even my mom, remember?”

Jackie gave a small huff of air. “She looked so small in their arms.”

“She was small. And you were scared. But you still got up every time she cried. Even when you could barely keep your eyes open.”

You rinsed the cloth, then draped it over her chest, letting it rest where her heart beat slow and steady under the heat. “I remember holding you in this same bath. You cried and told me you didn’t know if you were doing it right. That you were scared you were going to mess her up.”

Jackie turned her head just enough to glance at you. Her eyes were red again, but softer this time. Open.

“And I told you then what I’ll tell you now,” you said, brushing a knuckle along her jaw. “You are everything to this family. You are doing it right. Even when it feels like the world’s crumbling underneath your feet.”

She didn’t answer. Just turned her face toward your neck and breathed you in, like she needed to memorize the way you smelled. The way you felt around her.

You held her tighter. “She’s okay,” you whispered. “They’re both okay. You’re okay.”

The bathwater shifted as she shifted with it, finally curling herself toward you. Her cheek pressed to your collarbone. Your hands slid around her back as you sank lower in the water together, her legs tangled with yours.

She was quiet again, but not eerie anymore. Just present. You felt her lips brush your skin, just under your jaw “I’m sorry,” she breathed.

“For what?” you asked gently.

“For everything I can’t say out loud yet.”

You kissed her temple. “It’s okay. I’m listening anyway.”

The sheets were warm, tangled around your legs as you leaned back into the pillows. The room was dim, bathed in the soft glow of the lamp on Jackie’s side of the bed. Her hair was still a little damp from the bath, tucked behind her ears as she sat cross-legged, knees brushing yours.

She was babbling — a rambling, familiar sort of monologue that made your chest ache with quiet relief. Like finally seeing a light begin to shine again.

“…and I swear, one of the kids tried to turn in a book report on The Lion King,” Jackie was saying, snorting softly. “Like, not the book it’s based on. No. The Disney movie. With full conviction.”

You laughed into the crook of your arm, already stretched out toward her. “Honestly, points for creativity.”

“They’re gremlins,” she muttered fondly, rubbing a hand through her hair. “Little hurricanes of chaos. I love them. But I dread going back next week.”

She flopped onto her side and curled against your chest like it was the most natural thing in the world, like her body belonged there. You tilted your head just enough to press your lips to the crown of hers, letting the scent of her shampoo settle something deep in your bones.

“You seem more like yourself,” you whispered.

She hummed. “I needed today….needed you. Feels like I can breathe again. Like the fog’s cleared.”

You smiled into her hair, hand drifting up and down her back slowly. She nestled closer, her thigh slipping between yours, her palm resting on your stomach. “And I know you’re gonna want to watch something before we sleep,” she teased, voice low, lips grazing your collarbone. “You and your need to hear Rachel Green yell before bed…”

You laughed, shifting a little to look at her. “Hey. It’s comforting.”

“It’s ridiculous.”

“It’s ritual.”

She pulled back just enough to meet your gaze, eyes soft, warm, and a little mischievous. “Well, I don’t want to watch TV tonight.”

You opened your mouth to ask what she did want, but the words didn’t get the chance to form. Jackie was already moving, climbing over you, settling her knees on either side of your hips.

Her fingers cupped your jaw gently, then slid into your hair. And then she kissed you. Slow at first, tender, tasting of toothpaste and honey. But then it deepened. Urgent. Like she couldn’t get close enough. Like she needed you. All of you. Like she needed it to remind herself of everything good and alive and safe.

You didn’t hesitate.

Your hands found her hips, held her steady as her body pressed into yours. Her kiss was everything, gratitude, love, hunger, a desperate need to reclaim something soft and real.

And for the first time in what felt like days, maybe weeks, you let go.

Let yourself fall into the heat of her, into the way she whispered your name between kisses like a prayer. Let yourself believe that whatever darkness hovered around the edges of your world… you’d still have this. Still have her.

The way Jackie kissed you was different tonight.

It wasn’t just hunger…though there was plenty of that—it was the kind of need that came from surviving something, from staring fear in the face and deciding to live anyway. Her hands roamed your body slowly, reverently, as if relearning it, as if promising she would never forget it.

You could feel the tremble in her fingers, the stutter in her breath as she dragged her lips along your jaw, down your neck, pausing just over your pulse. Her voice came out a whisper, shaky but sure. “I need to feel you. All of you.”

You nodded without speaking, your own breath caught in your throat as your hands skimmed beneath the hem of her shirt, lifting it gently. She helped you take it off, discarding it somewhere in the sheets. And then your fingertips found her skin, warm and alive and trembling under your touch.

“I’ve got you,” you murmured, your lips brushing just below her collarbone.

Jackie’s eyes fluttered shut. She let out a soft sound, almost a whimper, as your mouth traced a path down her chest. Her thighs tightened around your hips as you pulled her closer, the heat between your bodies growing with each shared breath, each brush of skin.

She reached for the hem of your shirt next, dragging it over your head with shaking hands. And when your bare skin met, when her mouth found yours again, open, desperate, something in her cracked. You felt it.

Not in her body, but in the way she melted into you like she could finally stop bracing for impact.

You rolled gently, guiding her onto her back, taking your time as you kissed your way down her body — worshipping, anchoring. Every sigh she gave you, every gasp, was its own vow: I’m here. I’m yours. I’m still alive.

Her hands tangled in your hair as your lips found the softest parts of her. She arched into you, not just from pleasure, but from pure release — like all the fear she’d been gripping had nowhere to go but through you, through this.

You whispered her name between kisses. Told her how beautiful she was. How loved.

How real.

And when she came undone beneath you, it wasn’t loud or wild. It was quiet. Shaky. A sob that turned into your name. A trembling that didn’t stop until you held her again, curled tight in your arms, her fingers pressed to your chest like she was checking to make sure your heart was still beating.

The room had settled into a hush, just the sound of your breathing, Jackie’s breath fanning soft and steady against your collarbone, your fingers tracing lazy shapes along her spine beneath the sheets.

Her weight was slung across you like she couldn’t bear to be anywhere else, not even inches away. You didn’t speak. Didn’t need to. Not when her body said everything.

But then, almost too quiet for the moment to hold, she whispered into your skin, “I don’t talk about the crash… not because I forgot. Or even because I want to.”

You stayed still, waiting.

She shifted slightly, resting her chin on your chest now, blinking slowly as her eyes found yours. “It’s because I did things I’m not proud of.”

You didn’t flinch. You just brought your hand to her hair and combed your fingers through gently.

“We all did,” she continued, voice dry, like the words had been waiting for years at the back of her throat. “It wasn’t just survival. It was… uglier than that. Desperation makes you someone else. It rewrites your instincts. Your morals. Some of the things we—” Her voice broke for a moment. “The choices we made out there, they never left me. I wake up with them still stuck to my skin.”

You nodded slowly, and when you kissed her temple, she didn’t pull away.

“I think the worst part,” she said after a long silence, “is that some days, I don’t even regret it. That’s what haunts me. Not what I did — but how necessary it felt. How it made sense. Out there, there were no rules. Just instinct. Hunger. Loyalty.”

Her eyes glassed over then, unfocused. Distant.

And then they fell back to you.

“But when I’m with you… when I’m here, in this life we built—the garden, the kids, you—it feels like proof I survived it. Like I’m still redeemable. But when people from before show up…” Her voice caught again, just barely. “It all comes flooding back. That version of me. And I get scared that you’ll see it too. That you’ll look at me and see a monster.”

You pulled her closer, thumb brushing just beneath her eye where a tear had begun to slip.

“I see you,” you whispered. “Just you. The one who wakes Lily up with bear pancakes and argues with Josh about shin guards. The one who kisses me like the world’s ending, just because we’re breathing.”

Jackie let out a shaky breath. “You really think I deserve all this?”

You cupped her face gently. “I think you deserve everything you’ve been too afraid to ask for.”

Her lips wobbled. Then she nodded, gradually and leaned back in to kiss you. This one softer. Grateful. Lingering.

She didn’t say thank you. She didn’t need to.

You both just stayed there. Holding on, breathing in the silence that followed confession, the kind of silence that only exists between people who love each other enough to carry the dark parts too.

You knew she was asleep. As you stared at the ceiling feeling Jackie’s breath fan your neck. You had to wonder. What did they do out there? What was so bad to make Jackie tremble and become a shadow?

She mumbled names a lot. She’ll have a nightmare and it‘ll always end with a gasp of a name or a wide eyed fearful expression that always made you feel…scared. Maybe it was the fear or how you could see something shattered beyond her eyes.

It broke your heart.

Still it made you want to look into it. You won’t. For Jackie’s sake you won’t. You’d wait for her to tell you. But God did you want to figure it out and help her overcome whatever is trying to claw itself back. You still the urge…the urge to do something was so gradually unbearable.

The urge to protect your wife was gnawing at you. It seemed to buzz around you like an house fly that won’t just die. You kept sitting in the weight of Jackie and her past until your eyes were heavy, and everything faded around you into slumber.

[shuggymaniac]

I thought about your post where Ray teaches Shanks some manners and I thought "what if Shanks was actually a bit rude before and also didn't know how to show his crush in a healthy way?" (yes, this is also a thought because of your headcanon abt Shanks does not very nice things to Buggy when he is jealous)

This may be an exaggeration, Shanks was shown as a good kid, but he sometimes says things a little rude in my opinion

I said this before and agreed with anyone else who mentions it, these kids grew up with grown a$$ pirates who show love through cursing, teasing, stealing or just hanging around one another.

So it’s no surprise if Shanks was painted as a good kid, because he acted the same way as them, while Buggy is the “Problem child” for having emotions and opinions.

In fact Buggy would probably be confused when he tried to complain about Shanks pulling his hair, or throwing away things he liked overboard, or stole food or his hat from him, or even teased him about his nose knowing how Buggy gets angry about all of those things, yet do it purposely, and the only response he’ll get is something like…

“He’s just playing.”

“Stop overreacting he just wants to spend time with you.”

“Are you really going to stay mad at Shanks just because he almost threw your *insert item* into the sea?”

“We’re gonna sail in the same ship for a long while so you better get over it because there is no point to staying mad.”

Etc etc….

But like most adults, Rayleigh has to realize that Buggy is getting upset more and more, maybe after a breakdown? Or maybe Shanks going too far? Or just noticing the boy isolating himself because no one listens to him?

So he is forced to teach Shanks and Buggy manners and boundaries, which also forces the rest of the crew to do, Buggy is happy, Shanks HATES it!

What do you mean he can’t just hug Buggy whenever he wants? What do you mean he can’t force Buggy to play with him if he doesn’t want to? What do you mean I’ll get punished if I threw Buggy’s stuff off the ship? I’ll get new ones!! He always promises.

Shanks will go insane because he is not used to that!!

He is used to saying or doing rude stuff to show that he liked the person if he didn’t like the person he’ll just ignore them and not “play” with them like he does with Buggy, or the rest of the crew. But it’s a fact he has to deal with and grew up on.

Kind of funny thought because they always say that when you become an adult you will be the opposite of your younger self, so seeing shanks being a little polite and patient adult, makes me wonder if he was worst grimlin than Buggy.

[utilitycaster]

re that "he did all that shit and we love him for it post" I've been trying to come up with a generalized phrasing for this and I feel like I keep falling short without giving direct examples so can I just say the idea of all the, "well if the MIGHTY NEIN had had Bells Hells' plot/if CALEB were Imogen you'd like it" is such a bizarre ignorance of how stories work that you can't even really argue against it because it's like saying "well if you rode a dinosaur to work, my toast wouldn't be burnt!" Like this is clearly not following a logical pattern; you can only kind of go "...what?"

There are certainly characters who have traits I immediately find appealing, but it is extremely possible for a character I didn't originally like to grow on me through the narrative, based on, to get back to the jumping off point, the shit they did. It's also extremely possible for me to dislike characters I originally liked for that same reason. Characters are not, to me, a modular piece you can pull from the story unchanged (this is also why so many AUs leave me cold); they are a product of that story. They are defined by the decisions they make in the context of the story. They should also very much be a product of the world in which the story takes place (or if they aren't, that should also be explained); character should be inseparable from narrative and story. In other words, if the Mighty Nein were put into the narrative of Bells Hells, I expect that either they would take greater initiative and be more decisive and interested in the world around them and tell a story that I would like more than the version with Bells Hells, because they made choices I enjoyed more; or that they would fall into the same patterns Bells Hells did and I would take the same issue. It's not particularly groundbreaking to say characters (or people) at a point in time have some demonstrated personality traits but that those can change based on events in which they participate - that's the core of nature vs. nurture in real life, and again, pretty foundational to the concept of storytelling - and yet these arguments treat characters as isolated and immutable. The fact is, while I do think the narrative in which they were placed did Bells Hells no favors, I can't judge them on a more suited narrative that doesn't exist.

This also ties into another thing I see in fandom a lot which I can generalize a bit, the pushback against "he would not fucking say that." It is true that characters have much more range and flexibility than many people write them; we're all familiar with the reduction of characters to tropes and shapes and their favorite food and catchphrase. But there are limits. Sometimes the answer to "what would make him fucking say that" is "nothing short of mind control or otherwise totally gutting his personality; if you want to write a fic in which he says that in-character of his own volition, you should probably find a different character to write about."

And if I had to guess, a lot of this comes about because people do latch on to specific characters for whatever reason (which, again, fine; first impressions do in fact count and are valid) but then cannot handle other people disliking those characters (this is unequivocally bad not in a moral sense but in a get a fucking life and ability to leave other people alone sense) and so they try to set up a situation in which the fact that you like your blorbo and not theirs is either hypocrisy or bigotry, and the problem is that's virtually impossible to prove. What's I think wildest to me is just...I don't get how you have that bad an understanding of narrative. Like, to use another CR example, Vex and Vax are identical demographically except for gender, and have the same rough backstory. I personally prefer Vex by a long shot, and some people feel the same about Vax - and I don't think this is misogyny! I think it's that Vex has her personality and Vax has his, and I were to say "well if VEX made these choices would you prefer her" to someone who likes Vax, the answer would not only probably be "yes, because I'm interested in him because he has the personality of someone who would make these choices," but also I, personally, would be less interested in Vex because I like her now for her personality and the choices she makes in canon. This seems obvious, and yet people will make the same attempt at comparison towards characters who are far, far more dissimilar.

Anyway this is all just to say I think the fastest way to make it obvious you are not smart enough to participate in media analysis is to treat characters as inherent absolutes rather than a slightly irregular ball of clay that is further shaped by their story - some initial shapes might be more appealing to some, but the final shape cannot be separated from the process of story. If a character were in a different story they'd be a different character so yeah I probably would have different opinions; this is not a gotcha. What if the world were made of pudding.

[wilt1-11]

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+×+ headcannons, in bed

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(yes I'm convinced most of them could all be switches...)

I was ranting abt headcannons with my boo boo bear and I felt like posting it just cus so enjoy...

Ignore how messy it is I was kicking my legs while writing ts and it's taken from a convo so like bare with me

Includes

Mentions of spanking, size kink, use of no protection, p in v, oral, some more things I probably missed...

ALL MY PERSONAL OPINION!!!

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MINORS DO NOT INTERACT 18 and over please and thank you<3

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-YEONJUN

-he's def a more dom heavy switch but like when he's a sub he whines. No arguments.

-IDK IF HE WOULD USE PROTECTION ALL THE TIME....I feel like he would use it if you wanted to but he would prefer it raw

-LIKE BRO I just know this man would be pouting and just whining so fuckibg hard if he got head like he'd grip onto ur hair and tug for his life type shi

-when he's domming he'd def go rough I'm sorry. Like bro HAVE YOU SEEN HIM POP HIS HIPS. We all know he's good with them.

-also like idk if he'd be a soft or hard Dom cus like he's said he has a big heart before but likeee idk I feel like he'd just do spanking maybe but he would praise alooooottt. He'd deff kiss you while you two are going at it no one can say no. He would 100% be kissing ur lips so passionately if he's going rough as a small sorry.

-I HONESTLY FEEL LIKE YEONJUN WOULD LIKE ASS MORE... idk cus sometimes I think he might like both but rn idk I feel like he'd like ass more GOD HE WOULD LOVE SPANKING YOU.

-he would definitely have stamina definitely. Idk he just comes off that way LIKE OMG you two would be going at it for hours and not realize how long it's been until you both are satisfied.

-AFTER CARE. I feel like you two would just collapse on bed right after and he just clings onto you like a sloth or smth. But after you two rest I feel like he'd cook you both ramen and help you out of bed or smth AND THEN AFTER you two would deff shower tg idk it just seems like smth yj would do.... Cus like this man OMG AGHAGAGAAAAAAA I CANT ALL THESE DANG MEN. HELLO. TELL ME WHY ALL OF TXT IS SO FINEEEEE.

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-SOOBIN

-like I said. SWITCHHHHHHHHHHHH but he'd just be a soft Dom he'd definitely love getting rode not sorry. And this man would be handsy, not like overly handsy but like he'd definitely put his hands on your chest and just get off 10× better just cus of that... WE ALL KNOW SOOBIN IS A CHEST MAN.

-no protection. Like he would try to remember but he would just act like he forgot or he actually did forget...

-SOFT DOM SOFT DOM SOFT DOM. he would be such a soft dom like I genuinely can't stop ranting abt this. Like when this man does take the lead he would take it slow like kai or gyu. But we all know this man would be big. AGAHAGAGAAA like he'd hold your hand while you two are going at it and he'd make sure he's not hurting you asking you like "is it okay, am I going to fast?" LIKE SHIT LIKE THATTTTA AGAGAGAGAAAA. he'd be such a sweetheart in bed.

-HE MOANS. HED BE ALL SHY ABOUT IT TOO. He'd definitely let out soft little 'ah's like kai but he'd be more like 'ah, ah, ah' like ykwim idk maybe I sound crazy but likeeeeee hehehe. HED DEFINITELY PRAISE YOU TOO. But not like smth like yeonjun like "you're taking me so well" like not that It'd be more sub core. Like "I love you, how did I ever manage to get so lucky, I don't deserve you, you're so beautiful" SHIT LIKE THAT AGAGGAGAAAAA

-OMGOMAGAOAMAMA I hear so many people saying breeding kink but idkkkkk UGHHAAAA I feel like soobin would be vanilla like kai and beom PERSONAL OPINION!!! but like if you had to give him a kink he'd have a breeding kink idk he act like he came inside by accident but he didn't tell you it's cus he didn't want to pull out... OR HED HAVE A SIZE KINK LIKE THAT MAN IS TOO BIG FOR HIS OWN GOOD...

-he is a lazy eater. THIS MAN WOULD EAT YOU OUT LAZY ALL PUSSY DRUNK NOTTTT SORRY. LIKE HED GIVE IT SLOW SUCKS AND USE HIS TOUNGE SLOWLY LIKE HES WORSHIPING UR BODY AND THEN HED JUST LOOK AT YOU WITH THOSE DAMN HALF LIDDED EYES AS HE KISSES YOU WITH HIS PRETTY LIPSSSS.

-HE WOULD FINISH FAST. I feel like he would have a bit bad stamina too because he's not the athletic type but the time you two spend in bed and how good it felt would make up for it

-AFTER CAREEEEEEHEJSHAHAAAA he'd be so sweet AGAGAGAGAAA LIKE HED HOLD YOU CLOSE AND JUST CARESS YOUR HAIR AND TELL YOU HOW MUCH HE LOVES YOU. And when you two wake up I feel like he'd wake up and take a shower first then make you breakfast in bed (idk if it would be safe to eat tho...) and after you eat he'd start you a bath and help you wash up AGAGAGAGGAAAAAAA. He's such a sweetheart don't even...

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-BEOMGYU.

-Idk I feel like he might just be the only member that would be a Dom and stay a dom... like taehyun would switch if you convinced him rly well but I feel like beomgyu would do it once but just Crack up trying to be a sub I'm sorry

-HE IS MINDFUL. He would remember to use protection but if you asked for raw he wouldn't complain.

-he wouldn't be rough at all. Big no no. He would definitely be gentle and slow, I feel like he'd be good with his hands...I mean this man plays guitar...he'd definitely watch how you feel and care more about your pleasure more then his he would be very considerate. Especially if he cares abt you alot. UGHHAAAAA

-HE WOULD GRUNT. but when he moans (like he would try to hold back so they would sound a little supressed but...) omg. Bro he'd sound SO. DAMN. WHINY. No one can argue with me on that or just know someone's gonna end up with no hair at the end of the day.

-honestly idk what he would be into maybe I just haven't thought abt it that hard but I feel like beomgyu wouldn't have that many kinks I feel like he'd just have a praise kink and that's abt it maybe a small strength kink but he'd def he'd like kissing alot too idk but I think he'd just be good enough with having your body...hehe

-HE WOULD HAVE LIKE JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF STAMINA not too fast not too slow like he would take it at a pace that would make you both feel good and finish after you only.

-AFTER CAREEEEE he'd definitely caress your hair and pull the covers up for you and let you use his arm as a pillow and he'd hold you and just be quiet letting the moment talk for itself AGHHHAAA JUST THINKING ABT IT ITS SO CUTEEEE. And like after you two wake up you guys would take a bath together I think and you two would wash eachothers hair and bodies. He'd def love having you wash his hair it would make him feel fuzzy inside UGHHHHAAAAA. I'm sorry writing these is making me look like that one nayeon clip...

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-KAIIIIIII

-I'm just gonna say it he would be a more subby switch. Like bro this man gives such sub vibes I'm sorry.

-HE WOULD BE KINDA LIKE SOOB... I feel like he would use protection if you told him too but he would forget in the moment and you two would end up doing it raw...

-OMGGGGG DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MANHANDLING KAI. He'd def man handle. Like no arguments. LIKE EVER SINCE HES BEEN WORKING OUT OMG HAVE YOU SEEN OF FUCKING BUFF HE GOT. Like bro you'd be on top but I feel like he'd either

1- not know his strength so he'd flip you over and just start doing slow strokes bro. He'd definitely go slow. LIKE SLOWWWWWWW maybe hes a bit nervous cus youre so beautiful but he would eventually learn what makes you feel good.

2- orrrr hehe he'd know his strength but he'd end up maybe squeezing your hips a little too hard cus he feels so good.

-I KNOW IVE SAID THIS FOR ABOUT LIKE ALL OF THE MEMBER BUT LIKE KAI IS DEFINITELY ABSOLUTELY GOOD WITH HIS FINGERS. do I even need to explain. He plays guitar and piano, let that talk for itself.

-he'd definitely moan but like soft 'ah's LIKE OMG I CAN IMAGINE IT SO VIVIDLTTTATTAYAAAA he wouldn't be that vocal like maybe yeonjun but he'd definitely make softs sounds every now and again telling you how much he loves you AHAGGAGAAAA.

-he'd definitely be vanilla I'm sorry... I JUST CANT SEE KAI WITH ANY MAJOR KINKS SAME WITH GYU OR SOOB...

-KAI WOULD FINNISH FAST idk I feel like he would get off by you so quickly and he couldn't help himself and cum without warning, he would be a bit clumsy with warnings because he can stop moaning and squeezing his eyes.

-AFTER CARE. he'd definitely hold you in his arms in his chest and give you lazy kisses. LIKE OMGGGGAGAHAHAJAKSGSIDJD LIKE THIS MAN WOULD BE CUDDLE HEAVESNSBDJD AFTER YOU TWO GO TO POUND TOWN. UGHHAHAHAAAAA.

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-Taehyun. I'm rolling up my sleeves for this one

-HED BE A TOP. BUT HED SWITCH IF YOU MANNAGED TO CONVINCE HIM. Like he would enjoy being on top and doing on the work because he likes seeing you feel good. Like it does something to himmmmAGAHAGGAAA.

-HE WOULD DEF USE PROTECTION. Like he would be mindful and make use he's not doing anything you wouldn't want. Like you two would have a safe word. HE WOULD CARE ABOUT YOU.

-but if he was a bottom I feel like that'd come out if you were giving him head or riding him not sorry </3 like bro he'd grunt ALOTTTTTTT but when your head is just too good he'd definitely let out some whimpers. TAEHYUN WOULD WHIMPER. NO ARGUING SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

-TAEHYUN IS GOOD WITH HIS FINGERS AND I COULD PUT THAT ON MY SOUL. like omg his hands can not be looking that good and he just does nothing without them all day. No, no fucking way. OMG tell me I'm not wrong he would love just bending you over his bed or putting you in his lap and watching you squirm as he just fucks you with his fingers I'm sorry. DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HIS MOUTH. YOU ALL THOUGHT IT TOO WHEN UPSIDE DOWN KISS CAME OUT AND HE SAID "sip it like an avagatto" GOD IM SHAKING THE BARS ON THIS CAGE GET ME OUTTT. I feel like he'd eat you out a bit messy but he would know what he's doing, like he'd start with open mouthed kisses and then start using his tongue just slurping and suckingAGAGAHHAHAAAA I CANT DO THIS IM GOING TO HELL.

-omg I'm sorry I can't get this out of my head but taehyun would be such a ass man. ORR HED LOVE SEEING YOUR FACE. Like bro he'd love doggy, missionary, or omg A NASTYYYYYYYY ASSS MATING PRESS. Like he'd just love seeing your face and what he's doing to you and ONAGAGAAA OMG Idk if he'd love you scratching his back or he'd take your hands and pin them so you can't do anything. AGAHAGAGGAA AJJSUEOSMAVSJDHD OMG IM FREAKING OUTTTT AGAGAAA.

-this man would have at least one kink. LIKE I FEEL LIKE HED LIKE DEGRADATION A BIT OR SPANKING.... especially when he's jealous but we're not ready for that talk... OMG DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED ON A STRENGTH KINK GOD THAT MAN. HE WOULD LOVE MANHANDLING YOU, like he wouldn't do it accidently like kai but he would like flip you over alot or switch positions alot

-GOOD STAMINA. This man is athletic omg HE CAN GO FOR AS LONG AS YOU TWO LIKE I feel like he would finish at the same time as beomgyu tho, after you but you both would Finnish multiple times, I feel like that would depend on the mood tho...

-After care. Omg this man would clean you up and get into bed with you without a word. HED PUT HIS ARM UNDER UR HEAD LIKE A PILLOW LIKE GYU. Omg and he'd just look at you as your head is against his chest and OMGAHAHAGA he'd like fix your hair for you and caress you just giving you the most loving look in your eyes with a soft smile showing of his damn dimpleehehehheAGAHAGAGAAAAA like omg and he'd kiss you on your forehead and just give you the most tender intimate kiss on your lips like I'm giggling.

AND AFTER YOU TWO WAKE UP HED GET UP AND MAKE YOU TWO BREAKFAST AFTER FOLDING A SET OF CLOTHES FOR YOU ON THE BED AGHAGAGGAAAAA and then after you two would shower together and you two would wash eachothers hair AUGAHAGAAA IM CRYINGGGGG WHY IS TAEHYUN SOO AGAGGAAAAAA.

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Omg send help. I JUST HAD TO POST THIS AND GET IT OUT THERE SORRY.

Um anyway bye bye hope you liked my rant i mightve gotten a bit carried away with tyun but we dont talk abt that<3

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[academia-dearden]

Why do you dislike batman?

Ooooh vaste subject

So funnily enough, I do dislike his character, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you came to that conclusion because of my "what if my blorbo and your blorbo came together and beat up batman" or my "how I would write mia winning a fight against batman" posts- and I didn't write these posts because of my dislike to the character, so I thought I'd explain that first. Regularly you see dc character vs dc character polls, or batman vs everyone polls, and while it's silly to get upset about polls, I happen to really like thinking about fighting and writing superhero fighting scenes, and those kinds of polls, by essence, frustrate me for two reasons. The first reason is that this is pure power-scaling, based on the idea that each character has some kind of stat, power level and they beat or lose to others depending on that stat, which is such a demoralising loss of all that makes writing and reading fight scenes so fun: motivation, timeline (which version of each character is fighting which), initial state (do they have any previous injuries or vulnerable points?), environment, sheer luck, how good or bad a match they are to eachother specifically... In short, power-scaling is the creativity killer. The other reason is that these polls don't actually take in account the characters' actual abilities so much as their popularity, and with batman being both super popular and very known for his competence, this leads to people assuming Batman can beat just about anyone without knowledge of the character and their actual skillset, leading to aberrant results where a character that's basically invulnerable and godlike and unbelievable amounts of OP would lose against a highly trained human. At the same time, I was also working on attempting to make heads or tails of the DC Heroes ttrpg handbook 3rd edition, which uses fictional characters as examples for their different stats, and had the harrowing experience of learning that according to DCH3, Starfire has a lower strength stat than Batman which would shock anybody who knows anything about Starfire (no one is saying Batman isn't strong, he's in peak physical condition for a human, but Kory isn't a human, she's an alien on par with kryptonians and amazons).

So my frustration wasn't so much with Batman as with this general tendency to not take into account all the beautiful things about writing combat and all the intricacies and data about the characters' specific abilities, reducing them instead to a stat heavily influenced by popularity and a good amount of dc's careless glazing. And I was like "I can write about anyone beating the hell out of batman and make it credible", and I think maybe it got lost in translation (because many people don't know Mia, or were just, for their own reasons, enthusiastic about this idea) is that "my blorbo" is canonically weaker than Batman. It's about how fun it would be to figure out how different characters would work together, playing with context and everything that makes fighting fun, and sometimes even silly ideas (like, I think Green Arrow could easily win against Batman if he targeted him with the atomic warhead arrow, unless of course we're talking about Adam West Batman, in which case a dolphin would probably appear in front of the nuke arrow last minute and sacrifice itself for Batman). It's this idea that anyone can beat Batman, and power-scaling is dumb and the idea of your personal fav no matter the strength beating up this kind of symbolic character can be both cathartic and funny!

So, tldr: I didn't write those posts out of a dislike towards Batman so much as a love towards writing combat, because thinking about fighting is so fun and if you do it while listening to music you can create epic fight scenes in your head and that's a wonderful boon.

Now, onto your actual question, because I do unfortunately happen to dislike Batman. As you may have noticed from my stalling, and while I'm a confirmed hater, I don't love dissing characters other people like unless it's about making a specific point about something else, because just because I don't find them compelling doesn't mean others don't and that's really just the heart of it: I just don't find Batman compelling. And I don't want my reasons for it to come off as me trying to make others feel bad about finding him compelling, because that's just silly. Also this is specifically about comics!Batman, I'm well aware he had interpretations in so many stuff that I mostly didn't watch (except for like Nolan's., Battinson and of course Adam West Batman), this is specifically me disliking Batman in the comics. With all that said, I think the major reasons for that are:

-I don't find billionaire heroes compelling. I know for others, the fantasy of a good billionaire is appealing, but for me it's just off-putting. There's not much more to it.

-being such an old hero, Batman has been written in so many different ways by so many different people it's hard to pick just one characterization. Of course, I could just pick the most compelling, but I happen to love a lot of characters who interact with Batman in comics when he's not necessarily at his best- and sometimes those comics are very important groundwork for these other characters. I like the disturbing parallels Batgirl 2000 draws between Bruce and Cain, I like the conflict between Batman and Anarky, I like how Seeing Red portrays Bruce as a dark reflection of Ollie that he's scared to resemble, etc, etc.: in general I feel like Bruce's behaviour is important for these characters and my understanding and appreciation of them, and I don't mind "sacrificing" his better characterizations, in a sense, in order to better appreciate these stories.

-speaking of his better characterizations, the things I see most often pop up from his fans are how he's an optimist character who represents hope and love because he's a rehabilitationist, he doesn't believe in punitive violence, he just wants to help his villains get better, he never gives up on anyone. All of that sounds good, except I'm not a rehabilitationist, I'm an abolitionist. Perhaps one might say that it's a step over punitive justice, and maybe that was the case when Batman was first created, but my dislike of his rehabilitationist politics goes hand in hand with perhaps my biggest nemesis in DC: Arkham Asylum and the Joker. The Batman-Arkham rehabilitationist model explains crime from an individual standpoint, whereas many of the greatest causes for crime are systemic; but if we address the system, if we fix these issues and Gotham criminality diminishes, well, there aren't anymore comics to sell. It also comes against the vision of the traditional superhero villain, who can be bright and colourful or dark and terrifying but is always out-of-pocket one way or another, there's a sort of whimsy in the traditional batman villain a la joker or ventriloquist that sets them apart from normal people because regular evil, in DC's eyes, is boring. All of that leads DC to prioritise, at least in bat stories, a medicalized model of crime where yes, criminals are not hopeless causes that need to be locked away forever, but they are psychiatrized, there is something psychologically wrong with them that needs to be fixed so they can become functional models of society again- making Arkham into a magnified vision of this very real issue we see in our societies, with aberrant inventions such as the ASPD diagnosis criteria, which basically boil down to "doing crime" and "being poor", are extremely susceptible to racist bias, and in praxis are most used as an argument to refuse prisoners parole than for any sort of therapeutic purpose. We criminalize mental illness and psychiatrize crime. This feedback loop of hell, along with Joker's massive edgelord mainstream popularity, is probably the reason for how overwhelmingly sanist/psychophobic DC consistently is in media, and especially bat-stories, to the day. One could argue that this is not a Batman problem so much as a DC problem, and that's true, but to me the issue starts at the core of Batman: Batman has to be rehabilitationist, because we need Batman to represent hope that things can change for the better, but things cannot change for the better (because oh my god we would have to take risks with creating new rogues/new stories for Gotham instead of relying on old villains we know are gonna sell, the sales who's going to protect the sales we need to sell a product) and Batman cannot actually cause systemic change (because that's political and controversial and what about the dudebros who are gonna read the comics and because oftentimes dc writers are not as progressive as they might believe themselves to be and most importantly because comics can be a tool for propaganda and the DC editorial who keeps letting fucking Tom King writing Wonder Woman and Batman titles is probably not super interested in a prison abolitionist batman). So in the end, to me this portrayal of Batman tied in to hope just feels like slapping a label of progressivism on storylines that ultimately promote the reaffirmation of the status quo, and mentally ill people are the ultimate losers in this equation -with very real consequences, since the Joker is far too often the general public's conception of a mentally ill person, and all this mythos about the dangerous crazies feed into real life criminalization and demonization of mental illness.

-finally, the last thing that makes me uninterested in Batman, and I will say mostly modern Batman, is that he's a perfect character written by imperfect people. Obviously, the aim of writing a perfect character is impossible, since what's perfect for one is flawed for another -just to take the example from earlier, to me, a "perfect" vigilante would not work with the police and they would have an abolitionist perception of justice, whereas for someone with a rehabilitationist perception, a perfect vigilante would be something else entirely. On top of that, DC has the annoying tendency to hire terrible people to write their comics (neo-nazis, sexual offenders, war criminals...) and those people tend to have equally terrible worldviews that very negatively impact what they would consider a perfect hero. Of course, thankfully, these are not the only people out there writing Batman, hence the heterogeneity in Batman characterizations. On top of that, well, we need conflict -and, probably because of the modern super popularity of the batfam, conflict within the batfam shocks and sells: let's not forget Batman is DC's favourite cash-cow. However, and despite evidence to the pointlessness of the task, DC is determined to hammer down on Batman being perfect, and the consequences of that is that we get Bruce doing things oscillating between "that kinda sucked" and "actual abomination" and the narrative bends over backwards to validate it. Again, this is more a DC issue than a Batman issue, but it is centred around what appears more and more frequently as a characteristic of modern Batman: he is perfect, infallible, and fuck it if we need to get more and more classist and psychophobic and promote abuse apologia to continue feeding into the narrative because all of those messages appear increasingly more acceptable to DC than the idea of Batman being wrong. Also personally I don't like perfect heroes I like it when they fuck up and eat shit and learn and keep learning and becoming better people all their lives so obviously that image of Batman isn't compelling to me.

[thestrangestthing89]

This is such an interesting topic to me so I'm going to weigh in...

I don't think the original Anon comment was trying to excuse objectively bad behavior. I think they were just trying to explain the time period to a fandom that really doesn't seem to get it. It was a neutral comment not meant to attack anyone. I think the fandom tends to take things to an extreme when the truth is actually in the middle. So yes, letting your kids wander around all day without supervision or any concern for what they get up to isn't great. There used to be commercials on tv that had to remind parents where their kids were. The "It's 10pm do you know where your kids are?" commercials. Not a good look. However I do think there is something to be said for not hovering all over your kids which is what seems to happen now. I think people need to find a balance. I grew up in the 90s. My parents generally knew where I was. It wasn't the total lack of concern from previous generations, but there was also just simply no way of keeping track of kids during the day and parents have jobs. So they knew I was hanging out with neighborhood kids but didn't always know specifically which one. They knew I was somewhere in the neighborhood though. It was normal for younger teens to babysit while parents went to work or ran errands (my babysitter in elementary school was a 13 year old and this was common lol.) It was also just understood that older teens in the neighborhood and adult neighbors would be keeping an eye on things if the parents weren't able to be around. Something that I think is very different today - I don't think people trust their neighbors to do this anymore. I think a lot of people are interpreting being given some freedom with neglect and I think there is a lot of nuance here that gets ignored. I don't believe my upbringing was neglectful. I never personally felt unsafe and knew if there was a problem I could tell my parents. That being said, there were obviously some people who couldn't go to their parents if they had a problem and that isn't ok. There is a balance here. Kids do need to learn to figure things out for themselves up to a point. This isn't neglect. It's teaching necessary life skills. I saw a post once where someone pointed out that you learn all the life skills you need playing kick the can with all of the neighborhood kids between ages 5-18. When you hang out with a bunch of people there are arguments sometimes but you learn to deal. Independence does not automatically equate to being emotionally neglectful. Context matters and specific situations are going to be different. I think a lot of people these days have this fear that something bad will happen if they let their kids out of their sight for 2 seconds. I'm not saying things aren't dangerous or that there aren't valid concerns, just that there seems to be a big shift towards people being hyper-vigilant and I don't think that's helpful. It's just a different type of neglect. I think there is a big disconnect between how people of different age groups are viewing what counts as abuse or neglect. Because I don't know a lot of people who would view being given some freedom in childhood as neglectful. And I also don't know a lot of people who think parenting now is teaching kids to be emotionally intelligent. It's more like that it's teaching them to be emotionally dependent on their parents. So I think this is where the disconnect is coming in when it comes to interpreting the show. Because older people watch the middle school kids biking around by themselves and get nostalgic for their childhoods and younger fans watch and see nothing but danger (I'm ignoring the plot of the show for a second. Obviously there is danger these characters face lol). But the show is being written by people who are older who have a different view of this time than the younger fans.

That being said, the way the main character parents are depicted on the show is NOT abuse or neglect. They aren't trying to convey this with the story. That isn't the moral argument the writers are making. The only abusers in this story are Brenner, Lonnie, and Max and Billy's dad. The other parents are conveyed as normal parents and normal families. Complex and imperfect yes. But otherwise normal.

It's true the writers are critiquing parts of the 80s and modern society. But this isn't a parenting manual. I wouldn't say that Karen/Ted, Joyce, or Hopper have abusive or neglectful tendencies. I think those are words meant for extreme situations. They aren't perfect parents but they aren't supposed to be. They make some mistakes, sure but I don't like using extreme language to describe those mistakes.

I think the fixation with labeling things is making people miss the nuance here. For example, we see Karen more than once try to reach out to her kids and get them to talk to her. This is the opposite of emotional neglect. Her kids are teens and don't always want to talk. But we do see Nancy reach out to her in S3 when she is struggling at work. Ted offers to go talk to Mike when Will is missing but Karen says to give him space. Again, not neglect. Giving kids space to process things on their own is sometimes important. I'm going to hold off on commenting too much on Ted right now. I don't think he's an absentee parent like the fandom says but there are obviously some problems with his comments towards Mike. I think there is more a disconnect with them because they aren't understanding each other and it will be resolved later, but I'll hold off for now. Karen and Ted's marriage is also a product of the time. Calling it a loveless marriage is complicated. Karen would have been told to get married to someone who had money and stability. A lot of people still do this. It's not necessarily wrong to not marry for love. People just want different things. She wouldn't have had a choice though and that's where the problem is. But a "loveless marriage" wouldn't have necessarily been detrimental to their kids upbringing. In the context of the show, I don't think it was. Mike and Nancy aren't emotionally traumatized by their parents. If parents aren't in love that doesn't mean they don't love their kids.

Joyce is also someone I wouldn't say is neglectful. Her situation makes people uncomfortable and they want to blame someone for it and she gets the brunt of it with this fandom. But back then single mothers were treated very badly. The blame here is with society and deadbeat husbands like Lonnie. That's what you are meant to critique. Not her. She's in an impossible situation. Single women are historically not treated great. The critique is on society not her parenting styles. And I know this fandom gets weird about Hopper. On the surface he's the conventional male hero. But he's not this. Like all of our main characters he doesn't fit in. He's the grieving dad who lost a kid and is struggling to cope during a time when men especially weren't talking about mental health. I think people have a hard time seeing past the fact that he's a straight, white man to see the nuance here. His depression didn't go away the second he had another kid to take care of. You are supposed to feel empathy for this situation. Hoppers mistakes were addressed directly on the show and it's clear El isn't forever changed by his behavior. And Hopper was right to say she needs to learn consequences he just went about it wrong. But El was wrong too. This plot point was resolved already. They both apologized and moved on. So we aren't meant to be left with residual rage that he once yelled at her. Both characters moved on and learned from their mistakes so we are supposed to as well. Every character on this show has flaws. It's what makes them interesting. The time period is influencing a lot of these flaws so understanding the perspective of where these characters are coming from is important in order to understand the point they are making. The are critiquing 80s society but they are critiquing our modern society too. I think a lot of people take the parenting on the show very personally for whatever reason. Within the context of the story, you are not meant to view the characters of Karen/Ted, Joyce, or Hopper as the bad guys. They are flawed but not evil or abusive. You can't critique the show or 80s society if you aren't understanding what 80s society was like. I think this is where the extreme language and fixation with labeling often comes in. It's to cover up not following the depth of the story. I don't think it matters what you call it so much as how it's being written and resolved. But people get fixated on phrases and repeat them and it erases a lot of context.

I think a lot of this fandom tends to misrepresent what happens on this show because of not understanding the time period. The Wheelers are abusive and neglectful to people who have gotten gently parented. But that was just what life was like back then. Parents didn't track their kids every move. They couldn't. Sure sometimes this was neglect. But the Wheelers as they are depicted on screen, are not shown as neglectful. They are just shown as normal parents of the time. It's relatable to a lot of people watching. I had a similar upbringing and I personally don't think gentle parenting is great. I see a lot of kids still struggling with emotions when that type of parenting was supposed to help make kids emotionally intelligent. I think there is something to be said for giving kids a little independence and letting them figure things out for themselves. I don't really think parents being constantly involved in everything their kids do is going to lead to well rounded adults. I think it leads to a lot of young adults who can't handle their problems without their parents. I think that's where the confusion comes from with the teens and young adults in this fandom. They aren't familiar with being given freedom and independence and it seems scary and dangerous to them. Not all parents are great at talking about emotions and sometimes it's better for kids to work though those things on their own. I see people confused about the AIDS references too. This was impacting a lot during this time. So I don't like when people in the fandom are so dismissive. And an extension of this is people comparing Reagan to Trump when they aren't comparable - at least the reactions to each of them aren't comparable. A lot of people loved Reagan. It's why we have a cast of outcasts. They are all people Reagan didn't like. They are people who didn't fit in and they are shaped by the time period. The time period on this show is important and isn't just for nostalgia. So it's not just that the fandom struggles with figuring out how Mike and Will are showing IH. They really don't understand how much each of these characters don't fit into their town in different ways. You have to understand the setting of the show. It's like a character itself. I think some of the young people in the fandom like to assume the younger characters are relatable to them and are there for them. But I don't think they understand them as well as people who were actually teens in the 80s.

As a history buff - all the analyzing and historical context for everything really is a big part of what intrigues and interests me about the show. Even moreso than the deeper "theories" that people otherwise get into! Why the characters might act the way they do, why the sets are the way they are, the references and how they are integrated and reformatted for a modern audience, the music, the costuming, the character arcs and motivations, what was actually going in real history at the time, the culture. Ahhhhhhh. The 80s. My focus eras have always been fixated on the 80s and 90s so that's what drew me to this show in the first place - and not quite a nostalgia factor, it's just what I feel is a very interesting era in modern history, even how close it feels in context of humanity. But it's important!!

The Wheelers are such a worthy topic. I think a misunderstanding is definitely whewwwwwww as you've detailed, some validity there. Definitely cannot hold them up to some of today's modern parenting practices. And the "well, it was normal and commonplace and that's The Way it Was" as I state myself is not something incredibly praise-worthy, but it's realistic. The way it was isn't always Right, but it's not all Wrong - there's nuance and consideration. Are they the best examples of parenting???? No. But, neither is Joyce. Clearly both Karen and Joyce love their children. In different ways. With different lives. I don't think it's useful at all to be like "oh Joyce loves her children more than Karen loves her children." That's not really fair. I do think it's fair to say Ted loves his kids more than Lonnie loves his, however.

Anyway, I think you hit a lot of engaging topics in your ask about parenting styles and a greater conversation is to be had about the whole era context and differences but I'll leave this as is. You made interesting points!!

And ooohhhhhhh yes!! The other contexts - the societal pervasiveness of the fear of the AIDS crisis and the differences in the conservative presidency, then and now. All to be considered for the show - and you cannot completely use modern sensibilities, caveat to the writing and creation happening today, so there is a retrospective and commentary angle as it's not a true product of the times.

"You have to understand the setting of the show. It's like a character itself."

This this this this.

[journey-to-the-attic]

💃💃💃

lord help me i don't know how to arrange these pictures in post

[marshmellowtea]

listen i like robert whumping chris as much as the next guy but i don't like when people treat it as evil villain robert enacting torture on a hapless victim chris that's not their relationship.........the push and pull is vital to their dynamic.......robert pushes too far sometimes yes but chris usually is able to push back in some capacity and even get some jabs back in sometimes that's what makes their dynamic so compelling.........chris is also an Asshole they're two Assholes in love and the Beef is how they express that

[mistyycowoa]

Confessing my sins to the internet because my irl friends don't know my tumblr

I'm actually a horrible friend and I don't plan to change :)

I'll be a good friend to anyone I actually like and I usually don't associate with people who I don't like, but sometimes there will be an occasional lonely (usually annoying) kid that follows me around. (They're lonely for a reason.) I kinda hate people who are loud literally all the time but I can hold my tongue and this kinda person just doesn't leave because they're not being told directly to leave.

What do I do? I talk to them only when I need them, I make unnecessarily mean comments as a joke, I point out their obvious flaws that I know they have a hard time changing, and all while they still follow me around like I'm not kinda bullying them.

Sometimes I'll treat them like an actual friend when I'm in a good mood, but if I'm not, then the unfortunate victim becomes my emotional punching bag. (I have ways to quickly fix my mood and this is completely unnecessary and I could distance myself until I feel better like how I do with actual friends.) I think this is like. Breadcrumbing? Anyways yeah, toxic shit.

If any of your "friends" treat you like this, they don't see you as a friend. If they leave you doubting if they like you or not, leave you doubting if you're actually friends, they probably don't see you as a friend. (because that's the case for me :3 )

I'm a horrible human being and I don't feel nearly as bad as I should about it :)

[light-wrath-paradise]

Kinda fucked up how all the people I know are like "Yeah I know what I want in my life. I want to work in X field and I want/don't want a long-term partner who I'm going to marry, I want kids and-"

and I'm there just like 🧍

[kobochajunkbox]

Copypasta'd a charming quote I saw from the Mad Max game (2015) to search the source and-

[neverendingford]

.

[goldentigerfestival]

Yuri's dialogue (JP) is so fascinating to study, like... the repetitive use of certain words/phrases that others use sparingly but he uses constantly. the way it feels like his vocabulary is more expansive than what he uses, but he defaults to a "comfort" level of speech. the way it mixes in with his sort of "street talk" words and the sheer level of informality. the way his "street talk" phrasing is contrasted by the tone of his voice (on that note, people I know who also know JP are also very endeared by these aspects of him so I KNOW IT'S NOT JUST ME!!!).

'cause the thing is, he uses phrases that yeah, other people do use, but he uses a handful over and over and over (contrast to other characters' sparing use of repetition). it's actually... really refreshing? it sounds more relatable and less "video game/anime/JRPG/RPG" writing or something, idk. like closer to how a real person would speak.

I do my best in my translations not to make things sound too stiff across the board, but Yuri makes it so easy. it's why I'm so interested in translating all his lines in Vesperia, like... the actual, original tone for him with his original wording because it's smth Eng only players don't get to experience ('cause even if you listen with JP audio, if you don't know the language, ofc you're gonna miss out on context. it's nobody's fault for not knowing, just... they unfortunately miss out). the thing is, there are a lot of times when the lines in and of themselves are not contextually incorrect in the English ver (usually the situation for smaller scenes, because they altered the text outright for more important stuff which was the stuff that originally set me off, but there were also plenty of cases of just vocal tone shifting with the correct context that still gave off the wrong impression), but Yuri's tone is shifted away from the original in Eng even though it's completely and perfectly translatable.

I am by no means about to translate the entire game because let's face it, I really don't care that much for Vesperia on the whole. I'm kinda stuck with it because Yuri's there lo and behold I actually am WAY more engaged in his stories in Rays, Link and Asteria because it's an amazing character put into circumstances where he actually gets to shine and feels more alive, which Vesperia did not provide nearly as well with its very disjointed story. also, Tales gachas have banger stories that are arguably better than the mainline games, and they regularly make Yuri a very central character to the gachas. Crestoria was also about to do it until they pulled the plug on that game and I'm pretty confident something interesting has been lost to the world. also I just generally don't have the energy or motivation to do that, so... I'll only be focusing on Yuri's lines, especially because his stuff is where the bulk of the messing around was. he's just insanely fun to translate for and I love burying myself head first into his speech.

will I actually finish this project? dunno. will I get around to posting it? whatever I get done (so all of it if I complete it), and if I decide to call it quits then I'll post what I have at the time I decide that. will it take a long time? probably, but I can always mention stuff along the way...

[leatherbookmark]

it really is a bummer when you see another translation of a work you've enjoyed translated to your language -- as a kid or recently -- and all the stuff that was translated/localized in your language is... kept as it was (usually in english) in that other translation