#zero is valid because i was at zero for a decade

[smimon]

private conversations are private so of course there is curiosity. How many fandom people do you chat with privately on tumblr and/or other platforms?

[cometblaster2070]

madame morrible has the worst fucking luck ever and I CAN'T because first of all after decades and decades of waiting she finally gets her most promising student yet right; she finally gets someone who actually has magic and who might actually be able to read the grimmerie and help further her and the wizard's plans and COINCIDENTALLY this student (bless her heart) is shunned and ostracized by literally EVERYONE including her own family and is desperately craving some form of parental love and affection and validation and acceptance and so madame morrible is like 'ooh this is fucking PERFECT this girl is going to be SO easy to manipulate into doing what I want what could possibly go wrong wow.'

and in comes the fucking pink lesbian.

because elphaba is shunned and hated and all of her peers avoid and detest her because she's weird and green BUT then all of a sudden?? out of nowhere??? she and her pink roommate who, mind you, had a choreographed song and dance routine which involved the entire student body in which they detailed how much they really really hate each other, got really fucking close??? now they go everywhere and do everything together??? they are attached at the hip and looking longingly into each other's eyes WHAT IS HAPPENING????

you are madame morrible and you think galinda upland is in love with your student and what is worse is that your student might be in love with galinda upland and that fucking SUCKS because how the fuck are you supposed to properly emotionally manipulate her now. and it makes absolutely zero sense to you because WHY is galinda upland, the most popular girl at shiz taking an interest in your student??? WHY IS SHE HERE, WHY IS THE FRUITY BITCH RUINING YOUR PLANS???

glinda's very EXISTENCE is a thorn in your side; her simply being herself and interacting with elphaba is probably the reason why you feel a headache coming every time you see them together and is perhaps the reason why you scream into your pillow at night because this absolute loser lesbian just being there might upend a huge fucking chunk of what you've been planning for years.

and then the fucking cherry on top of all of this your student decides to play vigilante and flies off into the sunset and then that leaves you stuck WITH her situationship who you hate more than anyone in the world and you're forced to sort of team up with her for a bit except she doesn't really know magic and she's just being sad and gay and moping about missing her girlfriend and you're sitting there FUMING thinking about how all these fucking witches are fruitier than fuck and all of them are useless to you at this point.

like this is just madame morrible at shiz after elphaba asks her to include glinda in their study sessions just realizing 'dear god I am going to be ping-ponging between these lesbians for the rest of my fucking life aren't I.'

ik she needed elphaba for the plot and for her dastardly plans but in all honesty if I was her and elphaba came up to me at 1am and was like yes please I need you to include my roommate with whom I have a homoerotic relationship in our study sessions or else I will quit right now. also, you have to go down to our party this very instant and tell her in person yourself bye and thanks, I would've just handed in my resignation letter right then and there and cut my losses.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hi Skyen, hope you're well! I'm seeking some advice and since you used to work doing mainly art commissions I figured asking you was worth a shot.

I'm a furry artist and I'm looking into doing commission work as a side gig while I finish animation college, and hopefully acquire enough experience/clients/notoriety to turn it into a full time job once I graduate.

Do you have any advice for someone literally just starting out with fresh accounts and zero following? Especially when it comes to reaching people and getting your first clients, and anything that one should take into account when working with NSFW specifically. Also advice for pricing your work is always useful 😅

No need to answer obvs but I'd appreciate your viewpoint if you want to share!

Got 2 asks on this exact subject so I'll write up what advice I can. One big caveat: I haven't worked as a commission artist for like half a decade at this point, and this job has a tendency to change fast, do not take anything I say as gospel. This is advice from a limited perspective, be critical of what I say and trust your peers and the people you are in community with before you trust me.

building audience

Step one is getting people to notice the artwork you create. Literally nothing else can happen until you have eyeballs on your work, and the most consistent and reliable way to make that happen is fanart. Ideally you'd want to produce fanart in a fandom you are personally engaged with and passionate about and familiar with, and which also has a sizeable community whose attention can help you build recognition and a base of followers.

This isn't always possible, and there's many a working artist who creates work for fandoms not out of deep personal connection, but because the fandom is large and relevant and a good way to capture the goodwill of algorithms and content feeds.

This approach has some downsides. For one, genuine fans can usually tell when someone's engagement with Their Thing is shallow, and for another it can be deeply creatively exhausting to chase the algorithm. I don't recommend this approach, but it is a valid means of building a business.

Another important consideration, especially when you are early in your career, is that volume tends to trump quality. Every artist will eventually learn that their shitty joke-doodle they sh*t out in ten minutes on a whim will get a billion reposts, and their complex personal work that took eight weeks to finish gets 2 likes from their closest mutuals and a comment from a bot saying "wow!"

In the age of the algorithm, what machines and for you pages value is a consistent, high-volume of output that generates user engagement. You will generally get further, faster, by producing a lot of work than you will producing great work. Again, this can be rough on your mental state, and a fast way to burn the fuck out, so please be careful and mind your health before all else.

The best way to build something that will last is to build your audience in communities and around fandoms and themes and ideas you genuinely care about and enjoy exploring and interacting with. Being your authentic self and creating work from your authentic interest is generally both healthier and long-term better for your career than trend-chasing. Treat trend-chasing and volume > quality output as tools in your toolbox, as creative and business decisions you can make to achieve a specific purpose, never ever EVER let them become the center of your praxis or your philosophy. Never ever EVER allow the Numbers™ to be your source of validation and accomplishment.

building business

Ok, so you've got eyes on your work. You've got some followers. How the hell do you get them to commission you?

Well, again, by demonstrating a capacity to create kinds of art for which there is demand. In the furry community, there's brisk trade in things like ref sheets and character design, for example. For most fandoms, ship art is a product which tends to be in demand. Being able to do really good expression sheets is a marketable skill. Being able to create compelling and clear emotes for streamers and creators is a marketable skill.

Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of styles is valuable. Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of genres is valuable. If you can do both comedy and romance your appeal expands. If you can do shonen-like action and angst as well, it expands again.

Equally, being incredibly good at a specific niche is valuable as well. Focusing hard on an under-served niche of work can give you a lot of opportunities to be the Go To person for that specific kind of thing.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is marketing yourself. Not only showing that you have the skills, but actively informing your audience that you are available, eager and willing to practise your skill for a fee. You have to sell yourself. It sucks, but you have to do it. You have to advertise what you can do, and you have to suffer the rejection and annoyance that comes along with doing that.

You have to ask people to commission you. You have to raise your hand and demand attention. It's not fun, but it's business.

Walking the line between self-promotion and being a person is hard. I can't help you that much with it, it's a very personal balance to find. Stay in touch with your soul, but kill the part that cringes at yourself.

Ultimately, you best marketing asset is your portfolio. Every time you do work, show it off. Repost it, retweet it, spread it around. If someone is happy with what you've made for them, do your best to make sure that other people see that happiness. Ask your clients (politely) to tag you when they share your work.

Oh, and for the love of god, sign everything you create, slap watermarks on anything that's likely to get reposted, and make it impossible for someone not to find your business email on your profile.

building network

If you're a commission artist, you are in community with other commission artists. You share interests, you share experiences, you share needs.

Practise solidarity. Absolutely seek out professional peers to help your business, but equally seek out opportunities to help them with theirs. If someone comes to you for art and you don't have commission slots open, point them at a colleague who you know can do the work too. Gas up your peers and spread their work.

Be a symbiote, not a parasite. Respect the craft of your peers, and don't chase celebrities and big names in the hope of coasting on their coattails. It will fail.

smut

If you're a working artist, at some point you have to reckon with smut and r34.

These genres are excellent sources of income, and fertile ground to build a business and network of customers. BUT. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that they are "the easy way" or a shortcut. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking you can simply offer to draw tiddies and rake in the cash.

It's work and graft same as literally any other form of labor, it's challenging on both a technical and creative level, and the audience can sense if you're looking down on them. If you approach this from a position of shame, of "eugh, I'm debasing myself by doing this for rent money," it will not work, and you will lose standing and respect in the eyes of every peer whose support you need to succeed.

Just as in all other forms of creativity, if you treat the audience as morons who will slurp up whatever slop you serve them, then you will attract clientele that agrees with you, and you will deserve the misery they will inflict upon you.

If you are going to work in smut, establish your boundaries and enforce them. Know that good clients will feel safer and more comfortable with an artist who clearly states their red lines and earnest interests than they will with someone who tries to attract more clients by pretending to be open to work that they are actually uncomfortable with.

Never, ever, EVER let a client push you to create work you are not comfortable creating. It scars your soul in both the short and long term.

Also, when working with this kind of content, know the rules of payment processors and know how to hide the nature of your business from them. PayPal should never, EVER know the details of the content you sell with their service. Frankly, neither should your bank, most likely.

Look to your peers for advice and best practises about this. And be meticulous about your bookkeeping.

money

I want to tell you to charge at least minimum wage for your time. I want to tell you to charge substantially more than that, because your labor is specialized and highly skilled.

But the economic reality of commission work is that there is a crushing downwards pressure on the labor price of art, which has only been made more devastating by the rise of generative AI, and especially when you are a young artist just starting out, you're going to find yourself in a position where charging even minimum wage for your time will turn away a huge proportion of your potential customers.

Again, your portfolio will be the greatest argument for the value of your work, but you have to build that portfolio first, and very often that means doing a f*kton of work for not remotely enough pay until the pressure of demand finally works in your favor.

I don't condone or justify this state of affairs. It is horrid and I hate it, but I don't know how to fix it either.

Making a living from content creation of any kind requires you to get lucky, on top of working obscene hours and foregoing rest and vacations. It's not a safe or sensible plan for a career or paying your bills.

My sensible advice is to get a "normal" job you can survive doing, and do your creative work on the side, and resign yourself to the possibility that the creative work may never actually pay your bills.

And that is soul-crushing, but I cannot stomach pretending that hard work and gumption will guarantee anyone a decent living if they just try hard enough.

There are people who are better at every aspect of my work than I am, and they struggle harder and work for longer, and they will never see half the success I have, because I happened to get lucky, and they happened not to. It's wretched.

I'm not telling you not to chase your dreams. I'm telling you to do it with your eyes open, and with compassion for yourself first before all else.

All of this to say: I can't tell you what to charge for your work. It depends on everything from your competition to your niche to your genre to your community to your economic situation. You have to figure it out on your own.

All I can tell you is never forget that your work is worth more than the market will let you charge, and to raise your prices as soon and as much as you can. Try to reach at least minimum wage for your time as fast as possible.

in conclusion

Again, I haven't been a commission artist full time for a long time, please do not take any of this as gospel. Listen to your peers before you listen to me.

But trust me about the solidarity. It will save you when all else fails.

[maxdibert]

there are two lines about Mary in the books we don't know if she is a muggle-born or a half-b lood

I don't know i thin that girl who is inventing lies about me and befriending bullies and harassers just for hating on me that @mrstellmeafuckingsecret doesn't agree with you. And if she thinks different then you're wrong because she's the only who can have hc in that fandom. Their hc are the only only only one valid. If you don't se a character the same way as her and her little minion @vulcajes then you're a racist.

Hey, but you all spend your time talking about Nazi characters, about fascism, trivializing the REAL political terror caused by fascist dictatorships and the Nazi movement just so you can hate on fictional characters, and you don’t care. You also spend your days justifying rich, WHITE, abusive brats, but apparently we’re the racists. I mean, if you imagine a character who’s not described in the books as white, that’s totally fine. But if someone else imagines James Potter, canonically white, canonically rich, canonically someone who stripped people naked in public, canonically violent and abusive, as problematic? Nah, that’s unacceptable. You’ve officially won the progressive jackpot!

Hey, imagining irrelevant characters as white? Racism! The worst! Let’s burn that person at the stake! But defending and justifying an abusive, aristocratic, WHITE brat whose main abuse target was a working-class kid with ETHNIC FEATURES, much poorer and from an abusive family? That’s totally fine! He’s the icon of the wizarding world! Y’all are real social justice warriors, huh?

What I tried yesterday was meant as satire, I thought you’d react to a different kind of headcanon, I didn’t expect you to be this twisted about it. I think you’re just way too young and still think you can use the race card to validate your hatred or to destroy someone. Two things for you:

1) For someone to be racist, they need to do racist things. Imagining a character—who has been represented as white for decades and was white back when y’all still had baby teeth—as white, is not racism.

2) Your little Tumblr community, with its four diehard followers, is not the whole internet. It’s not even the whole Marauders fandom. You don’t represent any majority. You represent yourselves and your four internet friends who go along with your nonsense. Honestly, it’s sad that just because you read and consume the same ten fandom blogs all the time, you think that echo chamber reflects global reality. Like, self-importance is one thing, but you’re seriously overdoing it.

3) Just because I use certain tags @vulcajes doesn’t mean I’m going into those tags. I use tags related to characters I’m talking about or who come up in questions. I’ve used “Harry Potter” a thousand times and never looked at the main tag. I’ve used “Ginny Weasley” a thousand times and never went into her main tag. I know you’re desperate to paint me as the monster under your bed because it’s always annoyed you that I call out your cognitive dissonance—thinking you’re a social justice warrior while defending abusive characters—but that’s not my problem. However you imagine a character who isn’t even relevant to Lily Evans herself (who name-drops her constantly) is totally irrelevant to me. I have no reason to know, because unlike you, I’m not stalking anyone. I only respond when you say something about Snape, that is a tag I do check, and that’s how your posts come up, sweetheart. Keep up.

4) You should know that accusing someone of certain crimes (like offenses against protected groups) and spreading false rumors (as I’ve seen you all doing) is illegal. Saying Mary McDonald is white is not a crime. But believing whatever crap you hear about me just because you need to paint me as the villain, and then reblogging and spreading that crap, is a crime. It’s called defamation, by the way. And it’s reportable to Tumblr. You have zero evidence to back up your conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, I’m calmly collecting receipts and will be reporting you all for harassment as many times as it takes. Not just you either, your little circle of friendly accounts too. And anyone else inventing things. It’s all good.

5) I’m not racist, but you are hypocrites. And when I say “you,” I mean you, your friends, and the echo chamber you live in. You’ve launched an entire hate campaign, full of slander and lies, against me just because I imagine a character—who has been headcanoned the same way for TWENTY YEARS—differently than you do. Like, people were writing fanfics with Mary McDonald as a white girl before you were even born. I was 16, reading Marauders fanfics back then, and she was white in pretty much every one. It’s not my fault there are generational or cultural gaps, but it is your fault for not being able to look beyond your own navels.

It’s absolutely pathetic that you’re going this far, throwing around defamatory nonsense, just because someone disagrees with you. You know what it’s called when you try to silence someone, destroy their reputation, and spread lies just because they don’t think like you? Totalitarian methods. These are the same methods used in authoritarian regimes, including fascist ones—which you love to mention but clearly don’t understand at all. I’d be ashamed to accuse someone of racism without proof when you constantly minimize abuse, sexual assault, and bullying. I’d be ashamed to call someone racist when your favorite characters are WHITE CIS-HET MALE CLASSIST ABUSERS. The double standards you live by are honestly embarrassing.

Clearly, you all still have a lot of growing up to do, but that’s not my job. What I do ask is that you stop using insults, lies, and defamation. And if you don’t, that’s fine too. I have nothing to hide, and I haven’t done anything wrong, so I’ll just keep collecting proof (something you can’t do) and report you all to Tumblr as many times as necessary.

Sending my regards and a little kiss to all of you and your friends—you’ve really exposed yourselves as a bunch of hypocrites who only care about social causes when it’s about fictional characters no one even cares about. Everything else? You don’t give a damn. You’re drawing-room revolutionaries. Keep “boycotting” J.K. Rowling from the comfort of your living room while constantly using her character names and boosting her SEO. You’re really ruining her life, huh? Totally dismantling the system. Just a little more and you’ll reach Robespierre.

[scottcyclopssummers]

X-Manhunt Omega - A masterclass in mutant mess

I read it. I wept. Not because the story was good. Or because it made me emotional. I wept because the issue was comically bad. One of the worst crossovers of this decade. But I won't go into explaining what happened in the issue. Here is what I have a problem with:

1. The Mishandling of Cyclops’ Trauma

Scott was tortured for months by Orchis and publicly put on trial to be executed because he was the face of mutantkind.

In X-Men #3, Scott’s panic attack was a deeply personal, well-written moment that reflected his trauma. In X-Manhunt: Omega, it’s just a plot device to get him stabbed by Wolverine.

This isn’t character-driven storytelling. It’s reducing trauma to a spectacle. Instead of giving Scott emotional depth, the issue treats his panic attack as just another dramatic set piece. Reducing his trauma to just "denial" is dismissive.

2. How to Gaslight 101: A Prof. X Tutorial

Xavier made Scott watch him kill the Agnew, which was later revealed in X-Men Infinity Comic to be a lie. The Agnew were never real. This raises a fundamental question:

Why did he make Scott watch him “murder” them in the first place?

This was never explained. And worse—Xavier waited until now to tell Scott it was fake. That means he let Scott believe he had witnessed a murder for no reason.

There’s no logic behind this except to further manipulate Scott.

Xavier had zero reason to put Scott through that.

Instead of acknowledging that he emotionally abused Scott, Xavier just shrugs it off.

The narrative never answers the fundamental question: Why gaslight Scott like this?

The issue just sweeps it under the rug.

3. No Consequences: The Xavier Way

Xavier spends the entire issue dismissing Scott’s emotions, calling his anger “hatred” instead of acknowledging what he did.

He never apologizes.

He never takes responsibility.

Instead, he plays the victim and then leaves for space.

The writer describes Xavier as a MacGuffin rather than a protagonist, claiming Scott was the one with the hurdles to overcome. But this framing is exactly the problem. Xavier is the cause of everything happening in this event. He manipulated, lied to, and emotionally abused Scott for years. Yet instead of facing consequences, the story reframes Scott as the one who needs to move on.

Ayodele even admits:

“Scott is still so hurt and fixated on Charles to see it. So, I made his ‘enemy’ say it… ‘Yo. Look around. Wake up.’”

This is infuriating. Scott isn’t “fixated” on Charles; he’s trying to hold him accountable. But instead of validating Scott’s justified anger, the story treats it as a personal failing.

4. Storm’s Shock-a-Palooza

Storm’s actions in this issue are wildly inconsistent. She claims she wants no part in the hunt—yet she tries to kill Scott by striking him with a lightning arrow, sending him plummeting from a spaceship to Earth. Sure. Let's call that "stopping him."

Even beyond that, her characterization feels forced.

Why is she suddenly so protective of Xavier?

Why is she bothered by Sage asking for a spaceship, something that is barely a fraction of her resources? Storm has never been one to hoard wealth. My guess is that this is Eternity.

But, rather than making her actions feel organic, the issue seems more focused on giving Storm a flashy “cool moment,” even if it comes at the cost of her characterization.

5. Snikt McStab

Logan had zero relevance to the plot...until he suddenly delivered a dramatic monologue about Scott fighting for everyone’s dreams… and then stabbed him.

How does stabbing someone help with a panic attack? Scott was losing control of his powers due to trauma, and instead of helping in a rational way, Logan impaled him. If anything, that should’ve made it worse. But nope. Scott instantly recovers. Logan also has the audacity to tell Scott he "poked" him. I guess what Weapon X did to him was "poking" too.

There were better options right there:

A telepath could have calmed Scott down.

Indestructible Rogue could have restrained him safely.

But Logan had to be the one to "wake Scott up," because apparently, stabbing someone is the peak of wisdom. Feels more like the writer’s self-insert moment than actual storytelling.

6. Bittersweet? Bitterfake? What difference does it make?

Xavier faces zero consequences and everyone acts like this is some tragic farewell.

Emma kissing Xavier on the cheek makes no sense.

Rogue hugging Scott at the end is hollow because she and Uncanny cast spent the entire issue dismissing him. (Not counting how they use his name as an insult in the previous issues.)

The issue treats this as a “sad but necessary” moment instead of what it actually is: Xavier getting away with everything.

The final insult? Instead of resolving Xavier’s crimes which would have been a good way to redeem him, the story reframes the "protagonist" Scott as unreasonable. One good thing does come out of this. Charles finally fucks off to space to be the bird lady's sex pet. The X-Men gather, tears streaming down their faces. A sob here, a choke there. Or perhaps, they're just choking on the overwhelming aroma of bullshit.

To summarize:

Scott gets gaslit and forgets Magik can teleport.

Storm is out of character.

Had no idea stabbing a person suffering from a panic attack can get rid of a panic attack. (According to one writer anyway)

Wolverine is the in-character Stab-Happy Asshole Extraordinaire.

Xavier faces no real consequences. (In character for Xavier)

Unnecessary monologues all around.

Unnecessary character appearences.

Necessary characters don't appear. No Rachel. Magneto has no lines. No Juggernaut. Warren, Hank and Bobby are hardly there.

Xavier is now Hickman's problem.

If the goal was to make Scott “wake up” from dreams, maybe they shouldn’t have made this entire arc feel like a bad fever dream. Perhaps Xavier or someone else is still manipulating all of their minds. I wanted to give this issue more grace, but the way Scott's trauma was handled....ugh.

[perfctvelvet]

I love love loved thé Jenna ortega fic, could we get a p2 plzzzzzzzz?????

Endless Summer; Jenna/Reader

Summary: Jenna is back for the Summer, but this time Y/n changes her approach.

Content: 2nd POV. Infidelity, reader's softer/nicer side comes out, angst (with a happy-ending), kissing, fingering (reader receiving), teasing.

It's the hottest day of the year on record. People from the neighborhood were either laid out by the pool, baking in the sun, or inside under the blast of cold air. Summer was never your favorite season. Sure it's branded as the time of year when all the fun can be had but all it did was cause agitation and weird pressure to always be having fun.

The arguments in the family home were frequent during the summer time. Your parents argued as if you and brother were still little kids that they had to find a way to entertain. Usually the two of you would bond of your shared annoyance, but this year was different. Maybe one of your parents passed down the arguing gene because your brother was fighting with his girlfriend nearly everyday.

You were surprised that Jenna was still around. You were even more surprised that she would agree to spend the entire Summer with your family. It doesn't seem possible that that little situation you two had hasn't crossed her mind since. Surely she would expect it to be way too awkward to be around you, but she agreed to come anyway. Neither of you had really spoken to each other, and it's not because you still dislike her. How would anybody be able to talk to her when she was constantly fighting with your brother? Your parents...well at least they were married. Your brother and Jenna's relationship barely cracked the one year mark and they were bickering like an old married couple. Day in and day out someone in this house was furious and it made your head spin. You were always marked as the "moody" one who wasn't happy with any decision, but after this Summer, you deserve an apology!

"Well turns out we won't be going to the state fair because you father agreed to work a Saturday!"

"Okay, it's not a big deal, mom. Plus last time we went everyone got food poisoning from that hot dog stand. Remember?"

"Whatever...I'm going to the mall."

She stormed out with her purse thrown over her shoulder and a box of Marlboro Reds in the other. You don't know when she picked up the habit of smoking, but the grey hairs and extra lines in her face gave it away that she was stressed as hell. Both of the relationships you were surrounded by this Summer gave you zero hope and only affirmed your hook-ups-only behavior. Seeing everyone, especially your parents, crash and burn in these tightly wound relationships made you adverse to them. Maybe you could find someone to work it out with and leave harmoniously, but you aren't going to hold your breath for that moment.

Not even five minutes later after your mother's dramatic exit, your brother cam e bolting down the stairs, a complaint about Jenna on his lips. It was like the universe was giving you sign after sign.

"She can be such a bitch sometimes."

"Hey! Don't call her a bitch!"

"Oh so now you like Jenna?"

"It doesn't matter if I like her or not, don't call another woman a bitch in front of me!"

Sometimes you just wanted grab your brother by the ear and twist it in the same manner you would when you two were both ten years younger. Your parents had problems, albeit ones that could be solved with more communication, that were valid. Paying for a mortgage, other expenses, and your brother's college would cause anyone to crack. That was a lot of pressure for most people. They're getting older, crankier, and their patience has worn thin after raising two kids for more than two decades. You could see why they argued. Your brother and Jenna however were just kids. What would they even fight about? Where they're going to eat tonight? Who's party their attending? They seemed so young and naive compared to the real world problems owned by your parents'.

"She's always on my ass about something. I already have a mom, I don't need another one."

"Okay, well what are you doing wrong?"

"Why do you assume it's my fault?"

"I don't know Isaac, maybe it's because I know you? I've only been here for three weeks and so far I've watched you leave her here to go hang out with your high school friends. Don't you think she feels a little isolated?"

"She can come with me if she just asks."

"Who wants to hang out with Jake and Billy? Do they still make fart jokes and play with that whoopie cushion? They're grown ass men in a twelve-year-old's body, who wants to be around them?"

He sighs in frustration before rubbing his face in his hands. Your little brother needed to face the music; he's not built for a relationship. And you're not just saying that because you have your own thoughts about Jenna.

"Okay well...maybe I don't want to be tied down," he sounds so unsure of himself as he speaks. He looks around to make sure his girlfriend is nowhere in sight before continuing. "I just sort of miss my freedom. I really like Jenna and she's a great girl, but maybe I'm just not ready to commit."

"College boys are never ready to commit," you laugh.

You've seen your fair share of college relationships end because one party wants to continue on partying and that is usually the guy in the relationship. It was kind of sad seeing your little brother going through the same thing.

"If you don't want to be with her, you need to tell her. Don't keep her here all Summer just to dump her when you go back to campus."

"I didn't say I wanted to dump her!"

"Okay well you need to figure out what you're going to do, or else you're going to spend the Summer making each other miserable!"

You could tell Isaac wanted this conversation to end. You were broaching a truth that was too hard for him to face right now.

"Whatever...I'll be back in about two hours."

They say daughters are more like their mothers, and sons their fathers, but that couldn't be more untrue in this household. Your brother was avoidant just like your mother. And while you picked up on some of those traits too, you found that you weren't like either of your parents. Maybe in the past you were, but that changed the day you told them your date to homecoming your sophomore year was another girl.

Now your mother is racking up the credit card bill at the mall, your brother is probably heading to his weird friend's house, and your father is God knows where. That leaves you alone in the house with Jenna. You had a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach. Since that encounter with her you softened on Jenna. You were being a little bit of a bitch to her when she first came around and then you fucked her. You know you confused the shit out of her and that wasn't fair. You struggled to get the words 'I'm sorry' to come out of your mouth all of your life and it wasn't going to be easy now. But this was the first time you two were alone since that night. It's been months.

When you go upstairs to your brothers room you find that it's empty. You know she isn't downstairs, so they're is only one place she could be.

A week after that moment between you and Jenna, your mom found bikini bottoms in the jacuzzi. She called you to ask you about and you told her they were yours. They belonged to Jenna, but you didn't mind taking the blame. Surprisingly though she was didn't chew you out, but that resulted in her and you father moving it from the balcony to the backyard. It had been perfect on the balcony because it was so private, but now if you want to lounge in the hot tub you run the risk of one of the neighbors seeing you.

They replaced the jacuzzi with some lounge chairs thinking that their children wouldn't be enticed by some simple chairs. What they didn't understand that their balcony felt like an escape. It caught the breeze in the right way and faced away from the neighbors. It was relaxing and the perfect place to clear your head. And that's where you found Jenna.

She sat with her feet dangling over the concrete edge and she was holding onto the railing. You slid open the screen door and somehow she didn't hear it. You hated to disturb her, but you needed to talk to her.

"You know if you fall you can sue the shit out my parents. Maybe even pay off the rest of your college."

You try to lighten the mood but your joke falls flat when you see her face. She looks as if she's been crying with her eyes slightly puffy. Seconds later she turned away from you. You felt guilty despite not having done anything. You were on your best behavior, but you have this sinking feeling that you played some sort of role in everyone's agitation this Summer. So you join her as a way to keep her company.

"I heard everything."

"What do you mean?"

"I know Isaac wants to break up with me."

You heart drops at her confession. You didn't think about the possibility of her hearing the conversation you had with your brother. Now you feel awful.

"Jenna-"

"No, no, it's okay. At least you were defending me," she gives you a half-hearted smile. "I should've seen this coming though. He'd rather spend time with his boys than be with me no matter where we're at."

"Let me guess, he does this on campus too?"

Jenna nods her head in confirmation. You hate to bash your brother so you keep your mouth shut, but inside you're berating him for being so careless.

"Jenna, I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. It's not your fault," she lets out a heavy sigh, one that makes your guilt feel deeper. "I called my parents, I'm going to be leaving next weekend. I'll break up with Isaac on Friday."

Everything about tonight has left you in a state of shock. The last thing you expected though was what just came out of her mouth. You felt remorseful that it had to get to this point, but largely you felt that way because you feel like your chance at a proper apology is now gone. To anyone else maybe it wouldn't matter since Jenna was going to be out of the picture anyway, but to you it did.

"Well if I can't be excuse my little brother's shitty behavior, then I can excuse mine. I wish I could change how things were between us last time."

"You mean you barely saying a word to me and then making me eat your pussy in a hot tub?"

You stared at her, mouth open in shock at how bold Jenna had become. She enjoyed seeing your reaction, finally feeling like she had the upperhand around you.

"I'm just messing with you," she continues. "I know I was probably annoying and coming off as a try-hard in the beginning. Now I just feel like there's not point anymore. I get a little sarcastic when I'm jaded."

"Well I would be a liar to say I'm not stunned by all of this, but in all honesty if you were like this from the beginning I've probably would've liked you instantly. I know that sounds shitty, but we're both making confessions today."

"Can I make another confession?"

"Go for it."

"I liked our night together. You were a little bit too mean for my liking, but I don't think I've felt the same amount of pleasure since."

You had called it the moment you two separated that night that Jenna wasn't use to sex like that. You smugly declared in your head that Jenna would be thinking about it over and over. Now that you've got confirmation about that after her telling you she's going to be leaving for good, you don't feel like taking victory laps. Instead you feel a little sad knowing this is going to be your last moment alone together. It was bittersweet.

"Well my confession about that night is that I thought about it my entire drive home. Knowing more about you know I guess I feel a little bit shitty about it and wish I could override it with another moment."

Jenna focused less on the confession of your internal feelings of shame and more on what was between the lines. You wanted another moment alone with her to do something similar but under a different circumstance. She was blinded by her own desire of needing someone to be there for her to stop herself from kissing you. Her night was suppose to end going to the beach tonight with Isaac to look at the stars, but instead it was going to end with her finding comfort in his sister.

Jenna's kiss was much more powerful than you expected. This side of her felt more true and honest than that happy-go-lucky girl she first met. You wish you'd seen right through that act and got through to her in a different way, even if she says she liked it. Her lips dance against yours in a bruising kiss. You feel her tongue poke at your lips and you let her in. You kiss her as if she was something more than just a hook-up because that's what she needs, and you need to feel better about yourself.

You feels her arms wrap around your neck when she fully turns her body to you. Her legs no longer dangle over the dangerous edge of the balcony. She presses her front into you and you hum in delight. She feels so warm and her lips taste so sweet, but it was a different flavor chapstick that she used this time. Everything about her seemed so different that you struggled to be in control. But, apart of you didn't care about who is or is not in control of the situation. You let things happen naturally, and it felt naturally to let Jenna guide you this time.

"I want you to take your shorts off," she says between kisses.

Each second passes and she seems more and more desperate for the affection. She was touched starved to say the least. You give her what she wants and slide off your lounge shorts without breaking her kiss. She presses into you once you're just in your panties and you yield. Your back meets the rug that replaced where the jacuzzi use to be. Her hand comes between your legs and she rubs your clit through your panties. You don't mean to break the kiss but you throw your head back and moan in delight.

"Fuck Jenna!"

She loved hearing your moans more this time because something about them sounded so different this time. She takes this moment to place her face in your neck and suck at your sensitive skin. She could feel you melting beneath her. You embraced every moment instead of shying away or trying to change anything. She keeps rubbing your clit just to feel your hips rise and legs shake. You can't keep yourself still because the pleasure is too good. A wet spot appears on your panties and you can feel just how sticky you are now. Your pussy was beginning for more attention instead of being touched behind a barrier of fabric. And Jenna could feel that.

Jenna slides her hands into your cotton panties and she moans feeling your slick against her hands. It makes her grow wetter in her own panties. She glides straight over your clit and her fingers slide into your pussy with ease. You let out a blissful sigh instead of a full blown moan. You love the feeling of her nimble fingers filling you up.

"You like that? You like that Y/n? You like me being on top and fucking you with my fingers?"

In that moment she wasn't your little brother's girlfriend, she was a girl who shared the same feelings as you. Fucking her in this capacity felt much more natural that you questioned whether she got with the right sibling.

You don't respond to her. You just close your eyes and let her fingers pump into you. She curls them inside of you and massages your sweet spot and you swear you're seeing stars. She pulls away from your neck to sit up and look down at you. She can see how hard your nipples are through your tank top and it makes her desire grow even more. She bends down again and catches the fabric between her teeth. Jenna exposes your tits and quickly takes your nipple into her mouth.

"Yea! Just like that! I really, really like that!"

You were desperate for release and Jenna loved that. It wasn't the control, but the fact that she was apart of something where both parties were excited for each other. So much with Isaac felt one-sided that it warped her perspective on what she wants. You weren't doing anything to her yet she felt like you were giving her so much.

"I want to make you cum," Jenna sounds just as desperate as you now. "I want you to cum for me, Y/n."

You nod your head fervently. It was like you were saying 'I'm sorry' over and over again and she was accepting the apology. She overwhelmed you with her fingers in your pussy, mouth on your tits, and now her thumb pressing against your clit. Your moans were turning into weak whimpers and you release all over her fingers. There was no room for embarrassment, just nothing but pure pleasure. Jenna, of all people, made you feel like you were in heaven. You wanted to show your gratitude for her, so instead of letting the post-orgasm lull hit you, you grabbed her face with both hands and crashed your lips against hers. It's been so long since you've kissed someone intensely or even felt like this. Everything feels so heightened that it makes sense you blurted out, "I want to eat your pussy," in between a heated kiss.

It was only fair that you ate her out, and you were more than happy to end up between her legs. She laid down where you once did and you pried her legs open. She wore a skirt and the smallest panties you've ever seen.

"Did you know this was going to happen?"

"It wasn't for you," she admits, "but I'm glad you're the only one who's ever seen me wear something like this."

The fabric was so thin that her pussy almost swallowed it. It left nothing to the imagination and it was interesting to see Jenna wear something like this. With cheap material like that, it was easy for you to rip it off of her body. She squeals in amusement and sits up so she can watch you take the first lick of her needy pussy. Instantly her taste floods your senses. You feel her hand intertwine with yours as you begin to move your tongue across every inch of her swollen pussy. You loved how she felt against your tongue and you cursed yourself for not doing this last time. You lick and suck at her, producing the lewdest sounds imaginable. You hope the sound doesn't care in the soft breeze, but you also don't give a fuck anymore. The only thing you could think about was Jenna. You rub the underside of her thigh with your other hand and keep her legs nice and spread for you. She can't pull her eyes away no matter how fast it makes her heart pump.

"Y-You're so good at this," she whines.

You had put your ego away to show that you were sincere, but it was like she was calling it to come out. Hearing her praise you only made you work her pussy some more. You wrap your mouth around her clit and suck on it. The attention makes her shake and grab onto the back of your head. She pushes your face into your pussy as if you would even dare to move away. You wanted to leave in this moment forever; the moment where you lick and suck her while she moans in pleasure for you. You hum against her wet pussy and that sends her overboard. You feel the flow of cum drench the lower half of your face and you don't pull away until you lick up every drop.

It was all the desire she still felt inside of her that made Jenna crash her lips against yours for one more sloppy kiss. Her cum mixes with both of your saliva in a lewd way. Jenna never gets this nasty during sex but she did not care just like you didn't.

The sun has completely dipped over the horizon before you two finally calm down. You lay with back flat against the rug, staring up at the sky while Jenna grabs the remnants of the panties you ripped off of her.

"I accept your apology, Y/n," she says as when she finally joins you, laying her body next to yours.

"Thank you."

It's the last thing you said to her with just the two of you alone. She didn't wait to Friday to break up with Isaac, in fact she did it the next day. Jenna took the dissolving her relationship easier than Isaac did. Your mother used it as an excuse to do something that wouldn't require everyone to join now that there was some awkwardness to that. She would take you and Jenna shopping to have "girl time" aka time where she could rant about your father and blow off some steam. It seemed weird that her now ex-boyfriend's mother was still being so kind to her even though she wasn't obligated to, but she embraced it. You and her didn't get to talk much over your mother's new stories of life, but that was okay. You don't think this is going to be the last time you see Jenna.

[the-real-sasuke-uchiha]

It's been, like, a decade since the story has completely ended (... I don't acknowledge that spin off with the kids or the weird novels), but I still don't understand what people mean when they say Sasuke has a lot to apologize/repent for. What exactly does he have to apologize for? The only thing he ever did wrong was attack Karin to get to Danzo, and he already apologized to her for that. His desire for vengeance was completely selfless and motivated by love and respect for his clan. He didn't attack innocents. He didn't involve anyone else in his problems. Yet, so many fans love how Shikamaru got revenge on Hidan when, to me, it just emphasizes how selfless and justified Sasuke is in contrast. Shikamaru wants to avenge Asuma who died fairly in battle on a mission because he wasn't strong enough. He even tells Tsunade he would leave the village regardless of if she allowed it or not. He involved Ino and Chouji, rushed in without knowledge of Kakuzu, and almost got them killed immediately. And Asuma is just a teacher! not even a fmily or clan member! They all would've died if it weren't for Kakashi being there to help them. Whereas Sasuke takes on his burden alone.

And for all that the fandom likes to critique Kishimoto on his writing choices, he's not a horrible writer. This sequence is purposeful. Shikamaru was the one who led the Sasuke retrieval mission. And shortly after Hidan's death, Sasuke kills Itachi. It was a well-structured sequence showing the validity of Sasuke's motivations compared to Shikamaru's whose motives weren't as justified in comparison, despite the validity of his feelings.

So, it's not that no one in the story can understand Sasuke--they can! All the characters just want to project things onto Sasuke. Naruto wants Sasuke to be a surrogate/prerequisite for the village to validate his sense of self and carry the burden of Naruto's loneliness. Sakura wants him to return her empty "love." Kakashi wants to right his wrongs vicariously through Sasuke and making him return Sakura's affection like he wished he could have for Rin, be a present friend for Naruto like he wishes he could have for Obito, not seek revenge because Kakashi is a mediator meant to to maintain the status quo in the village (a guard dog/"Hound" lol). Itachi wants Sasuke to be a blank slate anyone can impress whatever upon: he wants Sasuke to value the village over their clan and family (which itself is incomprehensible with the feudal structure the setting is based on). The village, and Naruto once he becomes Hokage, wants Sasuke to be a tool to use for the village's benefit. Maybe the only thing Sasuke has to apologize for is being a the protagonist of a revenge-based seinen but forced to be the deuteragonist in a battle shounen 🤷🏽‍♀️.

Dear anon, thank you for this gem. I don't know what else to add, because this is so perfect on its own.

For the record, I dislike Shikamaru, but I think he was right to want to avenge his sensei and go after Hidan. What is totally enraging is that he gets sympathy and assistance for doing all the things that Sasuke is trashed for. He is hateful and vengeful, and nobody tells him to just let go and not get consumed by revenge. He risks his friend's lives and gets zero reproaches, while Sasuke gets emotionally blackmailed by Naruto for all the kids that risked his life trying to forcefully bring him back, even when Sasuke had zero control over that. Kakashi goes far and beyond to help him, when he had tied Sasuke to a tree to lecture him about revenge. There is just so much hypocrisy that it hurts.

I am tired of reading all the ridiculously absurd "wrongs" that Sasuke supposedly did. This is a freaking show about murderer ninjas, but nobody seems to have a body count except for Sasuke. Which gets inflated to ridiculous levels, because Sasuke is apparently to blame not only for the crimes he committed, but also for the ones he imagined. He has no right to be angry and upset, he has no right to fight for his justice, because, in a world where the end justify the means and shinobi are meant to behave as tools that sacrifice everything for a mission, Sasuke is the only ninja that is demanded to find his way without even scratching a fly.

Sasuke has nothing to apologise for. He is the one being owned serious apologies and reparations. From everyone. From Sakura, for sexually harassing and trying to murder him. From Kakashi, for being the shittiest and most biased sensei, for being a hypocrite hokage that never attempted to make justice and for never prosecuting the surviving instigators of the Uchiha massacre. And from Naruto, for glorifying Hiruzen and for the same reasons as hokage Kakashi, because he too swept everything under the rug and never even tried to make justice.

Sasuke did nothing wrong. He grew just too magnificent for an antagonist, and they had to murder his character and his soul to make main character shine in his dumbness.

[devilstrapinthepanicroom]

I'm so extremely tired of the fuckass take that there needs to be no resolution to Cas's confession. I'm completely serious when I say that every time the writers/actors repeat this, we as a queer community get pushed back decades in terms of representation.

For the sake of clarity and self-preservation, I'm prefacing this by mentioning that I'm a destiel shipper and that I love both Jensen and Misha. This is in no way meant to bash Jensen, but I can't ignore that I've seen a lot of con clips lately that have been burrowing under my skin and it's been sewing seeds of discontent. Simply put, Jensen is just being used as a singular example here of what I'm trying to convey.

"It doesn't need to be talked about," and "Dean accepted it, he took it in, it doesn’t need a resolution," are Jensen's favorite way of skirting around the destiel issue when he's asked about it at conventions. On the surface, it's the perfect non-answer. There was a love confession, one character wasn't able to react at all due to Reasons™, and now everyone can be happy because it's finally out in the air (just don't ever talk about it again because we won't acknowledge it). Alright fine, it's not the worst thing that could've happened with Dean and Cas.

But there's something about the wording of "resolution" that sits wrong. The words resolved and reciprocated are not interchangeable, but that almost seems to be how Jensen and the writers use it. "It doesn't need to be resolved," and "It doesn't need to be reciprocated," have two wildly different meanings. It would be okay if Dean didn't reciprocate Cas's feelings, because that would just be Dean. Yes it would be disappointing, especially considering how the entire last seasons were building up to the confession, but it would at least provide some closure for Cas right before he died. For Cas to know that he was heard and understood, that his feelings were validated despite Dean not feeling the same way.

But that's not what happened. Cas's confession was never resolved. Meaning, he as a character and we as an audience both never got any sort of closure for the 11 season long build-up of their relationship. Cas laid his flayed heart bare for Dean to see, in his most emotionally vulnerable moment throughout the entirety of his time with Dean, and Dean didn't react at all. There was no concrete confirmation one way or the other that Cas's words had reached Dean. There was zero reflection from Dean on his how his relationship with Cas evolved over the years, radio silence on how he felt about knowing he changed Cas's life, and there was even no acknowledgement that Dean took his confession seriously. For all the audience knows, Dean could've dismissed everything that Cas had said with romantic intent as a brotherly love, and if there's room for doubt then there is no true resolution.

To this day, a significant portion of the fanbase writes off the confession as platonic PURELY BECAUSE the scene itself had no closure. Even a simple difference such as changing "I love you," to "I'm in love with you," could've allowed for a more shocked emotional reaction from Dean, and Cas would be positive that Dean understood his true intentions. But Cas can't be positive that Dean knows. And it’s horribly invalidating. It's heartbreaking. Cas had died not ever having a response or acknowledgement to the love that killed him.

And the lesson the he, and we as the queer audience, are supposed to take away from this? Be grateful because at least you got to say it. You should just be happy that you were even allowed to express your love. You shouldn't expect to have your feelings validated in any capacity if you're queer.

You can say I'm exaggerating but I'll leave these lines and you can interpret how you will:

"The one thing I want is something I know I can't have."

"Happiness isn't in the having, it's in just being. It's in just saying it."

The general spn staff's attitude towards Cas and their queer audiences here is just deflection, manipulative gaslighting, and the barest minimum amount of representation they could spare without becoming "woke". And I'm done pretending that this was a breakthrough for queer fandom culture when in fact it's just vaguely shitty.

[moongothic]

So a few weeks ago I ran into this, old, old Crocodile meta post from 2015, the OP of which hasn't been active on Tumbr (at least on that account) since 2018. And this post (along with some of the OP's other posts) has been living in my head rent free since then.

There was just something there about seeing these old meta posts, completely detached from the current state of the story, the fandom and the Crocodad Propaganda... It just made for a truly refreshing read, but they also had such great observations about Crocodile I hadn't even thought about or noticed*, and somewhat most importantly... validating my own feelings/observations about things I've been kind of afraid to vocalize myself lest I apper completely delulu. Like I dunno I do worry sometimes if I'm just reading into things too much just to make massive reaches to get The Reading of the character that happens to support the Crocodad theory specifically, instead of trying to get a more objective reading instead. So seeing someone else make either those exact same or similar observations nearly 10 years before I did is so validating, and really just made me want to discuss some of those things.

*(Like this whole post about how "DON!" is often used to add emphasis and show the true beliefs of characters, and how Crocodile doesn't really say things with a DON!, almost like his heart isn't in most of the things he does or says. I dunno it was such a good read)

Sidenote: I do want to quickly comment that I don't agree with the OP on some of their readings about stuff, and more importantly, due to the age of the both the original posts and the OP not being active anymore, I didn't want to, like... Treat them as if they just posted it recently and interact with the posts as such. (I dunno, when people go digging through my decade old main blog and start reblogging shit I posted in like 2014 it just. I dunno, it's just kind of uncomfortable. Like you're allowed to browse my past but I wished people let my ancient cringe stay in the past. But that's just me) Like for example I feel like OP has a fundamental misunderstanding what being "trans" really even means (thus I don't agree with their take on trans Croc), but again, OP's take is old and so I don't want to hold it against them. They could have grown since then and come to better understand what being trans means, and regardless of that they don't have to buy into the theory either. And I absolutely do not want anyone to start trying to pester them about it or anything (again, they posted these things nearly 10 years ago), regardless of if they're still active or not. But yeah, that's why this is a whole separate post rather than a reblog with commentary.

So OP in their post speculated how in this moment (chap 206), based on the face he makes and the serious look he gives to Luffy, Crocodile seems to find the idea of someone being willing to die for someone else's sake absolutely incomprehensible, as if he's trying to wrap his head around the mere concept. That, or he used to know what it was like to hold someone/something that dear to you, but has long forgotten what it was like

Rereading this arc a while back I couldn't help but to take notice of this panel too and that unusual, somber(?) look on Crocodile's face. But because I'm a Crocodad Truther, of course I couldn't help but to feel that this was a face of recognition, of Crocodile understanding Luffy exactly in this moment, that willingness to do anything for a loved one. Especially because I have been speculating Crocodile might've been doing all of this with the goal of nuking the World Government out of orbit to protect his long lost baby boy (it's just that he simply finds Luffy's insistence on protecting this random ass princess from a random ass country he has zero ties to ridiculous, as opposed to like, doing all of this to protect immidiate, close family)

So again, despite the different reading it is validating as hell to see someone else think this panel in particular was odd. But the more I thought about it, I did kind of start leaning towards OP's reading. Now this one was originally pointed out by opbackgrounds, how in this scene (chapter 196) while Crocodile is meant to be laughing and mocking the royal guard for "throwing their lives away" to protect Cobra, he isn't actually smiling. We don't even get to see his full face with his eyes blacked out, so we don't get to see Crocodile's true feelings in this scene

And that does kind of reframe what he says in the second panel. For a long time I wondered if the implication was that Crocodile does actually value people's lives more than he lets on (especially with his seeming willingness to blow up a million people in a violent, orchestraded coup), just having a "small sacrifice for the greater good" kinda outlook (as we know, casualties can't be avoided in war, Croco and Luffy both agree on that) (where as I would IMAGINE Dragon having a more "no sacrifices, we have to save as many people as possible" kinda principle)

But now, looking at these two moments together, and knowing Crocodile has trust issues for unknown reasons, there is also that option that, perhaps... No one has ever shown that kind of loyalty towards him, a willingness to follow him to the grave or support him, to stay by his side? And if so, maybe, in these two scenes, Crocodile does recognize that kind of deep loyalty and trust and love, and has to cope with the fact that he has and may never experience it himself, that he's doomed to be alone, surrounded only by people who "respect him" out of fear (something that could be extra painful while knowing someone had just recently betrayed him by leaking his info to ruin his plans/after figuring out it was Robin, his very literal partner in crime. Like talk about rubbing salt into a wound).

And y'know, that is an extremely sad reading and I feel so bad for my poor little meow meow (that man needs a hug so bad), but also that doesn't really add to pushing The Crocodad Agenda, which is very unfortunate. Especially because I feel like between the two readings, Crocodile recognizing loyalty no one will ever show him (and being hurt by the fact) feels like a more comprehensive and simple reading, than if one is about him showing he doesn't fully believe in what he's doing is right and the other about him relating to Luffy on a deeper level.

But then, as OP pointed out in their post, for the entirety of page 2 of Chapter 207 while Luffy is keeling over from the poison finally kicking in, Crocodile looks like he's fully letting down his walls to express genuine relief, as if the those beliefs Croc had carried and convinced himself were true were just confirmed

What're his beliefs again? That trust in others is worthless, and you can not afford to have ideals if you're weak, great strenght being the only thing that allows you, if not straight up justifies you, in doing whatever you please? Now, maybe it's just me, but if Crocodile was showing relief here over his belief that trusting others is worthless after being reminded time and time again of the love and loyalty the Strawhats have for each other and the Alabastan kingdom has for everyone in it (etc)... I dunno, I feel like that would be kind of weak, if that's where Crocodile's internalized beliefs were wavering. But if Crocodile's whole Utopia-plan had been about destroying the WG to protect his baby boy (and release the whole world from the WG's oppressive rule while he's at it) at whatever cost, while he deep inside knew what he was doing was fucked up beyond belief... Yeah, Crocodile trying to convince himself what he was doing was "justified" would make sense. Him having his beliefs potentially even waver a little bit through out this whole ordeal would make sense. Crocodile in this moment experiencing relief that what he had told himself was the righteous would make sense.

Everybody remember's Doflamingo's speech from Marineford, about how history is written by the victors and its them who decide what is right and what is wrong- the winner becomes "justice" itself. Vegapunk kind of called back to this concept during his broadcast too, and yeah, Crocodile did kind of introduce us to it back in Alabasta. If he had won, he would have been "justified" in what he had done, because it'd be him who'd be deciding what's right and what's wrong.

Now I don't really have anything else to add to that post in particular (though I absolutely love the reading on the Crocodile vs Robin part and now that I've read it I can't unsee nor disagree with it), but OP did make a separate post speculating about some of design decisions Oda made regarding Crocodile, starting with discussing the logo for Baroque Works. And they pointed this out

Bro wrote this in 2015, they have no idea, oh my god, dude had no clue whatsoever

So quickly looking that one up and yeah, wings have sometimes been used to represent the sun (most commonly with the sun, as a winged sun?) and yeah, that actually has a lot of meaning in the current state of the series re: God of Liberation the Sun God Nika. But what's more is that this is actually the SECOND time we're actually finding a way to link Crocodile to sun-symbolism, the other being Crocodile being a reference to the Egyptian god Sobek (protector god, god of military, go to Wikipedia), who has an alternative form (/fusion with Ra) called Sobek-Ra, where he is a sun god. And what was Crocodile trying to do in Alabasta if not falsely "liberate" the country from its original rule. Also worth noting is that seemingly the winged sun was most commonly used in Egyptian iconography, so if Oda ever did research Egyptian mythology for inspiration in Alabasta (which, considdering the sheer amount of Stuff in the story as a whole is more than likely), then it is very possible he could have read about the winged sun and used it intentionally.

But what I do find interesting is that, yeah, wings kinda are a symbol one would considder "heroic" or related to "freedom". And, as I have been going on and on about, if Crocodile's ultimate goal in creating his funny little "utopia" was to overthrow the World Government and "free" the whole world of their rule. Like. That really lines up with the whole symbolism with the sun and the liberation and the freedom and shit, like. Why does it line up so neatly good dear god

I dunno how to end this post, these were just a few little things that I had been thinking about after coming across OP's blog and, yeah, just wanted to discuss them.

Again, OP hasn't been active for years, but if they did suddenly come back please don't bother them or god forbid harrass them/try to get them to change their mind about trans Croco. Just don't start shit, please.

End of post byeeeeeeee

[autolenaphilia]

The average tumblr queer hates fascism and terfs, and they should, but because they have zero understanding of what those ideologies actually is, they end up repeating such ideology anyway.

They have zero understanding that it is the transmisogynist bioessentialism that makes radfemism so poisonous. So they call trans women mentioning the words "misogyny" and "patriarchy" a terf, while their use of "afab/amab" reveal that they haven't unlearned any bioessentialism and transmisogyny. I've written about this at length before.

And this intellectually lazy acceptance of reactionary thinking goes far beyond that.

Criticize the institutions of religion and the family on this supposed queer communist site, and you'll get massive cries of protest from these queer leftists. And in content if not form they are basically indistinguishable from fascist rhetoric about how "queer leftists who read too many jewish writers (like Marx and Hirschfeld) are trying to eradicate the vital institutions of tradition, religion, family and community with their soulless materialist globohomo." (Note that the link is to a critical glossary of the alt-right on rationalwiki, so there are slurs galore)

And yes, that is what i'm doing, and I'm very proud of it. Abolishing religion and the family, and all of their sanctified traditions is a very important part of the communist project. The main Jewish writer who convinced me of this is Marx, read him.

"The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." Literally read The Communist Manifesto, which openly calls for the abolition of the family. A lot of suppose leftists repeat what the manifesto calls "The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child"

It's especially ironic to hear such things from self-described queers, as if family, religion and tradition aren't the most common tools used to oppress queer people.

A lot of reactionary garbage with a superficial anti-capitalist veneer has gotten into the left, which is not new. The just mentioned manifesto spends a whole chapter criticizing reactionary forms of socialism. I have myself used Marx's still valid analysis as my basis to criticize reactionary anti-capitalism.

There has been so much nationalist garbage absorbed by the left at this point that fascist thinking crop up all the time in the left. This is because planting the roots of 19th century romantic nationalism tends to bear the same fruit. And tumblr leftism is the most intellectually lazy kind of leftism.

Like your average pseudo-leftist position on nations is basically ethnopluralism, a neofascist ideology originating in the European "New right" that is trying to sell the old wine of blood-and-soil nationalism in new bottles for a postcolonial world. It's creator Henning Eichberg spent decades trying to sell his Völkisch ideology to the left. With some success, it seems like. Like the neofascist in ethnopluralist clothing position that "every culture has the right to preserve their own culture and tradition from the onslaught of global capitalist culture" is something that you'll see all the time regurgitated by supposed leftists. The one 19th century european/western concept that is seen as universally applicable is nationalism. It's bleak.

I can't even say the far-left cliché of "read theory", because a lot of theory is garbage. Not all of it though. This list comes from my libertarian marxist/"councilist" biases but Nationalism and Socialism by Paul Mattick is good, as is "Third-worldism and Socialism" an excerpt from an early 70s pamphlet by the British organization Solidarity, and the 1989 essay The Universality of Marx by Loren Goldner.

[darkenedroses-world]

chat this shit is so funny to me 😂

Okay so

First of all, it’s genuinely wild how people act like writing X Reader fanfics is some unheard-of criminal offense when bigger YouTubers like Markiplier, DanTDM, Vanoss, PewDiePie, Dream, Corpse, and literally dozens more have had full archives of reader-insert fics written about them for years. And the key word there is reader. That means it’s not me, not their real-life friends, not some forced ship between people who never asked to be dragged into that—it’s you, the person reading it. Whoever needs a bit of comfort, a distraction, or even just something fun to imagine for five minutes. The stories aren’t hurting anyone, and they’ve always been a thing in fandom spaces. But apparently when I do it, it becomes the end of the world?

There’s a huge difference between X Reader and creator x creator content. Like, I don’t know if y’all conveniently forgot about the Markiplier and Jacksepticeye incident from a few years ago, but that artist who kept pushing shipping art of them onto their Twitter feeds? That’s what crossing the line looks like. That’s where discomfort comes in—when it becomes invasive and pushes a narrative onto real people in a way that removes their agency. What I’m doing isn’t that. I’m not writing them x each other. I’m not making weird art and tagging them. I’m writing fiction for people who choose to read it and find comfort in it, plain and simple.

So watching people act like I’m committing war crimes over something that’s existed for decades in fandom is honestly hilarious. Especially when the discourse devolves into calling me racist like that’s your “gotcha!” moment. First of all, throwing around a term like that with zero backing is not only reckless but also grossly irresponsible. And calling it “revealed!” when I’ve literally said it’s not true? That’s not “revealing” anything. That’s you trying to validate your own narrative because you’re mad I didn’t cry and delete my account when y’all started spiraling. I’m not going to explain my entire identity to strangers on the internet, but I am mixed—and you don’t get to look at one situation, ignore all context, and decide who I am. That’s not how it works, sorry.

At the end of the day, I’m still going to write. People enjoy it, people support it, and people find comfort in it. If that offends you more than people who do actual harmful things online, maybe take a look at your priorities. Because right now? I’m just chilling, still getting messages asking for new posts, and still living rent free in some of y’all’s heads. Stay mad, I guess.

Also i’m still working in the recent requests! Thank yall for having patience!

[wandasaura]

Heyyy I’m a rando but I wrote+interacted on wattpad for over a decade and personally I found it to be full of theft, and children (which was not crazy because I was also a child and then teenager), and harmful misinterpretations and tropes (g!p is a big one that’s very popular), so as an adult now it’s very unlikable and uncomfortable but I think of it now as an echochamber for children to share their work with each other because it’s so accessible; sure why not, that’s their playground I guess. At that time I’ve had my work stolen more by kids than I have on any other site on the internet and it’s near impossible to wholly reclaim that work. If my work is stolen from sites like ao3 or tumblr…guess where it’s always going….

have not touched wattpad personally in years and would not with even a ten foot pole. Also the ad system is atrocious, I remember when there were ZERO ads, and now they’re everywhere, and I understand the importance of that, it’s a free site+app, but yeowza the model is so shite

hi !! okay yes, i can work with this !! the stealing of works on wattpad is absolutely diabolical and outright insane, but i did not realize it was still occurring. regardless, valid point, go off. i can entirely back the wattpad as an echo chamber for children as a child that grew up reading/writing on wattpad. and there was no such thing as tagging back in those no ads, no offline reading, probably first pov golden days. i will say i am very aware of the misinformations and tropes, but i typically just avoid them the same way i weed through them on here (because trust me some of the fics on here are a jarring experience to put it simply)

but the ads have gotten better on wattpad !! we’ve gone from entirely ad free, to 3 fics in offline list, to ads every chapter and 2 offline fics, to 2 offline fics and now ad skips! you watch 1 ad and get 3 ad skips, and i have 55 but nothing to read rn. also would just like to preface that wattpad reading is like a seasonal experience. i find a good wattpad fic once every three months and it fills something in me. it’s like an online experience of eating the frosted sugar cookies at an elementary school party.

[samueldays]

Former race anon here, wouldn't there be more than two options though?? Like, isn't "I'm not oppressing anyone ergo Black people's worse results are genetic" jumping to conclusions? Culture, upbringing, education, income, crime rates et cetera should all be considered at the very least not less valid reasons.

For the record, people have been doing linearly better and better on IQ tests in the years since they were implemented. You seem to be big on evolution, so I suppose you might explain it with that, but when we're talking about only some seven decades of time, wouldn't it be far easier to speak of rising education rates and easier access to information (as well as possibly a certain modern focus on specifically preparing children to do well on similar tests)?

I feel like there is a danger of overcorrecting and jumping from one thing straight to the other side of the pendulum when you try to refute it.

Short answer is the other way round: "Black people's worse results are mostly genetic, ergo there's no point blaming me for oppression".

Long answer... is very long. Yes, there's a lot of factors. Yes, environment plays a role. But I have looked at the arguments at great length and concluded that one, genetics is the largest factor, two, genetics is the factor whose role is being most strongly suppressed.

Three, tongue slightly in cheek: the nonrandom environment is indirectly genetic in the sense that it's mostly picked by your parents with whom you share a lot of genes. ;)

There was once a large-scale attempt at trying to resolve that indirection, where the government had great plans to improve the lot of a new generation of a what the government saw as an underclass, by having them be raised by other parent figures outside of the underclass environment so that the children wouldn't grow up to be underclass.

If I say it started with the "Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869", establishing the "Aboriginal Protection Board", you might anticipate that this is leading up to the incident later known as the "Stolen Generations" in Australia and it was a failure both practically and morally. I do not want to try that again.

I feel like there is a danger of overcorrecting and jumping from one thing straight to the other side of the pendulum when you try to refute it.

I feel like the other side of the pendulum would be hatred and regression, but my position is one of futility: stop attacking me for things I didn't do and I can't fix, and you can't fix, and nobody seems able to fix, and previous attempts at fixing it directly had a tendency to become atrocities, both genetic and environmental programs.

So much for the big programs to fix environment. Meanwhile a lot of other things have made a lot of indirect, gradual and cumulative improvements to environment (and towards closing the racial gap in environment) like famine being so far gone from America that hunger activists are having to define down "food insecurity" with criteria like "missed one or more meals in the past month", and the race gaps in performance and outcomes stubbornly persist. If this is environmental, it's a kind of epicycle-laden environment which behaves awfully similarly to genetics! I'll copy a specific example from an earlier discussion that I have to hand: the NAEP math assessment of students found that whites were 30 points ahead of blacks in 2005 and whites were 30 points ahead of blacks in 2022.

In the replies, Brazenautomaton put forward the argument that this is perhaps because nobody is even trying to close the gap, the zero change is a result of zero work put in, race activists are too busy writing intersectional fanfic to do anything useful.

If that's true, that still suggests the same response as if it were genetic: no resources should be put towards environment-focused race programs because they have a 0% effectiveness at closing the gap and will spend the money writing intersectional fanfic instead of doing anything to help Black kids.

I'm aware of the Flynn effect. It is also not closing the gap.

Something else that frustrates me that's hard to properly explain in a single post is how much there's an interlocking set of lies and fallacies defending racial environmentalism, from the platitude "race is only skin deep" (proven false here) to the guilt-by-association ad Hitlerum, or the absolutely colossal motte-and-bailey "race is a social construct". Imagine having your legs broken and someone sneers "legs are a social construct" because they oh-so-cleverly found edge cases in the definition of leg. There's selective demands for rigor, and there's calls for a "more-closed evidentiary culture".

considering that data availability and reuse have been among the community features that have made human genetics vulnerable to counterscience, restricting access might be part of the strategy for closing the evidentiary culture. Data repositories and consortia are beginning to take these actions.22 Some scientists have argued that restriction is a totalitarian affront to scientific freedom,23 but restriction need not be direct prohibition. It could involve increasing friction. For example, collaboration with an existing data consortium member could be a prerequisite. Or access (and ultimate publication) could be limited to groups that preregister studies whose evidentiary threshold and significance are vetted in advance—with a set of standards for legitimate causal genetic comparisons among racial groups.

This suggests to me that on some level the environmentalists in high places know that they are wrong and they're trying to cover up the evidence, and they're wishy-washy about it because they're compromising between their scientific obligations and their moral beliefs.

Merry Christmas, anon.

[fallout-lou-begas]

On the one hand, it is absolutely a sign of the complexion of the dev team and of the times that FNV has little to no presence of real life Indigenous people. Not "tribals." Real Indigenous nations that live in that general area like the Mojave, Paiute, Apache etc. On the other hand, I think using groups like the great khans, the unnamed "tribal" from Hanlons stories, the zion tribes, as props to hammer in on US settler colonialism in general and of the actual US state of California in particular, is pretty clever. That is, these things can be shown to the player without using the pain of Indigenous peoples, their lives and their blood, as a way to carry that message. If the massacre at bitter springs had been of Apache it would be less effective and in very poor taste, in my opinion. I think overall the criticisms are still valid, but I think theres some interesting alternative interpretations. But on the other hand, the allegory falls apart because the khans AREN'T the victims of colonialism. In the first game and onward they are chattel slave owning rapists. They are more of a criminal gang than a distinct culture. And in FNV theres the suggestion that the khans are defending themselves and are victimized in the mold of Indigenous tribes which fought the US and attacked settlers. But in reality, they are objectively in the wrong when attacking the NCR (don't deserve to get massacred, but still), and the genre fiction of the whole thing breaks the metaphor. Like applying anti colonial rhetoric to the hells angels. Like how the allegory of ghouls as a marginalized group breaks down entirely with the introduction of feral ghouls in fallout 3. While some ghouls in prior entries might attack on sight, this was only if the player got close, and they weren't really a danger. So people having this hard on about hating ghouls in fallout 1 and 2 was meant as entirely illegitimate. That allegory doesn't work after f3 since we are meant to think that at any moment, for no known reason, they can turn into a cannibal corpse. The genre fiction of it all spoils the thing. anyway, read cadillac desert.

this is exactly what i mean by the "baggage" of fallout's depiction of "tribals" and even just the word "tribal" to describe its various disparate post-apocalyptic nomadic groups, because while they can be used as you say to brush up against indigenous identities allegorically, there is a very deafening silence coming from the lack of actual indigenous people as well. it can't help but imply that these fictional groups are 1:1 substitutes for the thing they're depicting allegorically, with a mixed degree of intention and success, because there's no counterbalance or counterexample to either contrast these allegories against reality or even further ground them in it.

you run up against this a lot in genre fiction. the X-Men, for example, have served as a clumsy allegory for marginalized identities and civil rights struggles for decades, with several mixed attempts to try to reconcile its fictional symbolism with acknowledgement of what's real and literal. my own personal bugbear is that while I absolutely love Jadzia Dax in Deep Space 9, I would have loved it even more if Jadzia was a real actual trans woman that Dax had implanted itself into, or even if Jadzia Dax at least had a regular mundane non-alien trans woman bestie to queen out and compare notes with.

and yeah, the whole thing about feral ghouls being completely hostile sight with zero alternative interaction potential (and the same goes for powder gangers as cartoonishly evil victims of an empire's carceral justice system, and fiends as cartoonishly evil drug addicts, and...) is that videos games are constantly trying to stage endless combat encounters for gameplay reasons while also not making the player feel bad about slaughtering endless combat participants for narrative reasons. (and the powder gangers are only shoot on sight if you get vilified by them, but the first non-tutorial quest in the game is either helping them kill everybody in the town that just saved your life because they're harboring the guy they tried to mug, or...stopping them from doing that by killing them instead).

[shrimpmandan]

I think at this point anyone who calls themselves a proshipper but is like, staunchly aggressively no-matter-what anti-RPF is either deluding themselves or thinks that the concept of "real people being reimagined as fictional characters" hasn't existed for decades at this point.

Everyone was fucking raving about Hamilton and Clone High barely a few years ago. A lot of extremely famous, influential movies are based off of real people, such as The Wolf of Wall Street. Every single fucking cartoon you've seen that references a real life historical figure like Cleopatra or Napoleon is technically doing RPF to some degree. THE MAGIC FUCKING TREEHOUSE IS RPF.

All this is ignoring how much we WORSHIP AO3, but-- but but, the founder of AO3 very much supports RPF. And by supports I mean they actively WRITE RPF. Tons of American Idol stuff that's all obscenely popular!

Now of course, there's gonna be some people who have a kneejerk rebuttal about how it's "different" with historical figures, that it doesn't matter because they're all dead, or that movies and books are different from fanfiction that may or may not be sexual. Except all of those arguments make absolutely zero sense when you think about them for more than two seconds.

Shouldn't the subjects being dead make it... more disrespectful, on a base level? You could made a valid case that with historical figures, nobody is left alive to mourn them. In comparison, people who have died relatively recently still have loved ones alive to mourn their deaths, and who would very likely be negatively mentally impacted by stumbling across an RPF fic. Understandably so--

but wasn't our whole argument that other people's feelings are their own to deal with, and not our responsibility?

You can make a similar case for serial killers, too. The victims of Jeffrey Dahmer still have friends and family that are alive. I would imagine they wouldn't want to see posts sexualizing or glorifying him-- but I doubt they're seeking out anything related to him /at all/, frankly. And then we're back to point one about how all that matters is that shit is consistently tagged and that people simply don't read what they don't like.

In my opinion, the sole, sound argument against RPF would be sexual RPF of minors. Even if no contact or even grooming is happening: that is still sexual content of a living minor. That is CSEM. That is a completely valid thing to be against. I honestly fail to see why sexual drawings of real minors are illegal, but not writings. Still, writings and drawings do not involve the same amount of /direct/ abuse as 'regular' CSEM and CSA, but making the argument of psychological harm is fair, especially when this is a case of a child being directly sexualized against their will.

But then we're still back to square one.

Don't like don't read.

Honestly, I'm neutral on RPF. I'm against anything that involves a sexualized depiction of a real child, and I'm generally not super interested in or comfortable with reading fics about real people, but it's also not a topic I can just disassociate myself from and say that it's somehow disconnected from proshipping. It isn't. Proship communities are built off of the backs of RPF shippers, like it or not. And honestly, I couldn't care less so long as the shipper in question is still respectful of the privacy of the subject(s) they're writing about. The version of the person they're writing is fundamentally not real, and that's a weird thing to wrap your head around. One could even argue my own reasons for singling out child sexual RPF is hypocritical or contradictory, and I wouldn't disagree. I think having mixed feelings on the subject is understandable. But being completely, over-archingly against it due to knee-jerk discomfort? It just seems a bit silly to me.

[enchantedchocolatebars]

A Welcoming Embrace Back Home

Fanfic for Camila Mama Week 2024 (@camilamamaweek).

Day 1: Embrace/Home.

To commemorate this wonderful week, I opted to write short stories that feature Camila and her second daughter, Alma, who is one of my OCs.

This story in particular can be seen as a sort of sequel to this fic.

Summary: Camila returns home with Beardo Philip two days after delivering Baby Alma.

Enjoy!

(Thanking my friend @pokeycub for being a fan of the title).

"I'm so glad to be going back home with you, mi amor," a tired Camila told Beardo Philip with a soft smile while in the front passenger seat, holding the little bundle she had given birth to two days ago.

She was swaddled securely in a light pink cloth, which matched the knitted light pink cap she wore on her little head.

"How have things been at the house without me?" she asked quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to Alma's forehead.

Camila immediately spotted the small smile appearing on her lips from the affection and giggled lightly.

Despite being only zero months old, she was already such a sweetheart.

While in the recovery room, Camila had no doubt that she would grow up and accomplish great things.

Coming up to a red traffic light, Philip gently pressed his foot against the brake and looked at Camila holding their daughter so tenderly.

He gave a soft, melancholic smile as he spoke.

"They've been terribly different without you, love," he managed to admit with a mumble.

Mornings were missing their usual cheerfulness for him without hearing Camila's bright voice as she brewed her coffee, and two nights without her by his side in bed felt like two whole decades.

"Is it foolish for me to say that they've been the toughest two days of my life?" he asked softly with a trembling breath.

"What?" Camila whispered with soft shock at his question, reaching to cup his cheek with her right hand.

She could sense the emotions that were wavering in his voice.

"No, of course not, Philip," she answered with great understanding.

"Being away from you and Luz in the hospital made me feel the same way. It's not foolish to feel the way you do."

Camila felt the need to alter the topic to make her husband feel better.

"Are you excited about being a father?"

"I'm..." Philip slowly shifted his gaze downward from Camila's hazel-brown eyes as he sighed.

"... Actually quite nervous," he stated, finishing his sentence.

If Camila wasn't in the car holding Alma, she would cuddle Philip.

"You know, it's actually quite normal to feel like that as a new father," Camila validated him with a tender smile.

"It is?" Philip asked, genuinely surprised by that fact.

Camila nodded.

"But that's okay because you won't have to go through it alone. You have me to help you every step of the way, as well as an amazing family. Remember, Philip, you're a Noceda now, so it'll be okay."

Philip smiled softly as he accepted his wife's tender touch.

"You're right, thank you," he said to her, leaning forward as they shared a kiss.

Camila had a knack for knowing what encouraging words to say to lift Philip's dejected spirit, and that was what he loved most about her.

As soon as the light turned green, Philip carefully accelerated the car forward.

...

"Hola, everyone," Camila greeted her daughter and parents inside her home with a warm smile, holding her newborn while Philip stood by her side. "I'm back."

Luz gasped.

"Mom!" she shouted happily, hurriedly leaving the couch and rushing toward her mother.

She began to wrap her mother in a loving embrace, being extra cautious not to squish her new baby sister in her love hug.

"Mija!" Camila's parents exclaimed at the same time as they rushed over to give their daughter a hug.

Philip followed suit and took part in the family hug to express his affection.

Camila felt so happy to see her family welcome her back home with such a warm welcome.

When Alma grows up and is capable of giving hugs, the mother is confident that her hugs will be equally loving.