#//then i must be doing a bad. and that logic only applies to me unfortunately sdhgdshgdsgs

[revvywevvy]

playing corporate clash bc my girlfriend started playing it and we goin crazy stupid

lookit my funky little goblin

[ilikekidsshows]

Retooled Marinette makes me feel ashamed that I ever believed in her to grow out of her flaws and I hate that. Doesn't the show say that people refusing to change for the better when given the chance makes them bad people and deserving of the worst? Not that I agree with that line of thinking, but when Chloé got written off in s3 despite the slow but noticeable progress she made then the same should apply to Marinette now in season 5, right?

She was given a second chance by Cat Noir at the end of season 4 and Marinette refused to take it for more than self-validation. She straight up left when she wasn't rewarded for season 4 with Cat sticking his tongue down her throat for real, but sure, tell me about her having "learned and feeling sorry". She STILL didn't ask for his feelings and needs even ONCE in season 5. Or at least, I can't remember anything. Just Marinette still only doing with Cat whatever SHE wants and then getting pissed when she was told no. Which Adrien then was blamed for cause Marinette can't life without being pampered.

By the show's own logic, season 5 should have been the one having doomed Marinette as irredeemable in her "partnership" with Cat Noir because her inaction and unwillingness to face her real flaws in Ladynoir and work on it because it makes her uncomfortable to hear even a single not-validating word lead to Cat Noir not making it to the end battle, and instead he resigned to his lonely doom locked up in a cell with nightmares in a different country after having lost his private life, because he was forbidden to ask for even the tiniest thing in this "partnership".

Sure, she didn't actively sacrifice him, but she did less than nothing to ever help him or allow him to think that he has worth beyond what use and relief she gets outta him. She demanded that he can't make decisions for his own sake cause that stresses (tm) her and he must wait for however long until she finally may be able to spare some time to remember him in any of this. If he asks for anything, he's abusive scum that's horrifically suffocating her and must learn to know his place at her feet and servitude or else she'll probably start crying again that she's so pure-hearted and faultless in Cat's irrational neediness to be viewed as human being with worth. She'll just wobble with her lips and that's it. She never did more anyway. No wonder Catrien was left with nothing and didn't make it. Being stuck with Ladynette basically means you've got nothin on your side, but still have to prey and be grateful that shes even giving you "that much"

Everything can only ever happen on HER terms and whenever SHE deems it necessary to happen. And yet she never EVER did a single thing to prevent the finale situation from happening. 5 full seasons and Cat Noir still had NOTHING but she sure is still screaming for more.

It was more important to her that SHE gets to do and have whatever she needs than making sure Cat has ANYTHING or any kind of way to ask for help when he needs it. That's supposed to be her pure love? No thought ever spared for him besides what SHE wants from him? Heaven have mercy on Adrien...

Hawkmoth is gone now, the mission is over. Nothing will undo the fact that Marinette wholeheartedly risked Cat Noir's well-being and safety to a lonely doom with a smile on her face because she apparently needed to be pampered and been given everything first before she could ever even start humoring the idea of giving a damn about Cat as a person who doesn't deserve a helpless and lonely doom.

How unfortunate that Marinette in Canon doesn't agree with me on that. She DOES apparently think Cat deserves to meet his end all alone and without anything to help himself as long as he mets his end outside her view so she can make further excuses for herself and why she's the bigger victim actually. That's all she ever cared about, what's supposed to change now?

I once thought Marinette was supposed to CARE for Cat Noir and not just for what consequences she'll face for his horrible treatment and end. I have never seen a protagonist be this rewarded and excused for being self-centered and willfully ignorant to outright toxic degrees. That girl is almost PROUD of her negligence and toxicity and only cares about not being viewed as bad for it. Cause she had her chance in season 5 and quickly proved that her understanding of making up for her flaws is "I'll allow you to dedicate yourself to my care and comfort even more. Your welcome 😊". Is that supposed to be effort? A caring display of partnership? Shes literally just letting herself get pampered but gives nothing of substance back.

Good for Adrien for leaving in Kwamis Choice. I hope he'll dump Ladynette's ass again in both identities in season 6 cause no way is that girl not gonna horribly neglect Adrien now in and outside the mask again. Season 4 Ladynoir is just gonna repeat itself now cause Marinette learn SHIT and she'll be too busy (tm) again with everything else to be there for her boyfriend who just became an orphan.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get another original Glaciator-like situation, with Adrien waiting for hours for Marinette in his garden with the picnic he prepared for their date, but Marinette forgot about it cause she's busy as Ladybug with her army of unnecessary heros no one fucking needs.

She'll of course only make excuses and not actually try and improve my. The orphan will just need to learn and not "mistreat" his girlfriend by being "needy" and "unreasonably controlling" by wanting her to there for him.

I have no hope that Marinette is not gonna neglect the hell outta Adrien now, I honestly fell so stupid and betrayed now after almost a decade of emotional investment that I once had so much hope in her character and the show killed all of it. I hope at least Lila gets her fun outta this cause Marinette is the rotten link in the love square, not Adrien. The love square always goes to shit the second Adrien needs something and Marinette never learns ANYTHING besides crying harder to still get her way.

I shouldn't want for Lila to wreck shit, but ngl I honestly do. Let her be the one to tell Adrien of the secrets, ironically I could actually TRUST in that to be honest and not Marinette-biased.

---

I’ve grieved over the loss of a character I enjoyed. Because that’s what it is: a loss. I recently went back and watched some season one episodes and those are still good. Marinette is a fun, empowering protagonist you can root for and Adrien is allowed to be intelligent and helpful. It feels like the writers actually had faith in Marinette as a character, that they didn’t need to make everyone else look like stooges for her to look good. Adrien was allowed to have feelings and thoughts separate from what Marinette wants, but I do remember the fandom hating him for this, so I bet those people consider the remote control RealDoll that's been abused into submission an improvement.

I also went through a phase of thinking: “was I wrong to think this show that showed its protagonist’s failures to communicate as a bad thing was going to have her grown out of it?” but then I realized that, actually, no other kids’ superhero show with this setup would NOT develop its protagonist into a more understanding and considerate version of themselves. They would know better than to have the hero’s final confrontation with their main (only) villain be caused by them actively ignoring said villain’s schemes and getting jumped. This has been Superhero Writing 101 since Spider-Man. The crew behind Miraculous are just either staggeringly bad at understanding basic storytelling, or they think they’re making a show for syndication, which commonly aren’t allowed to have shifts in status quo in order to allow the showing of episodes in any order. They have said that the show is fully serialized now, so you know which one I think it is.

It really makes me wonder. Astruc insists he has enough story ideas that he’s only used 5% of them, and, like, the show is so repetitive it better be only 5% of any epic storyline. Although, I have no faith in Astruc’s creativity or ability to come up with stories or characters that aren’t copied from better writers, so undoubtedly the 95% percent to go is just more of the same. But, Marinette already won her RealDoll prize and committed felonies to humiliate her school nemeses, so what is there left for her to forsake her morals for in the future 7 seasons of 12 total? Is someone else gonna swoop in to keep Adrien away from Marinette just so that Marinette can start up with her harebrained schemes again?

I have no doubt Marinette is going to be doing weird shit to keep Adrien in the dark about the various things she’s keeping from him, having to rush over to a date she forgot all about because she was too busy with herself again, or stalking Adrien any time he hangs out with people other than her. And through all of this the writers will expect us to side with Marinette and root for her because she has “good intentions”, she’s stressed out or she’s insecure about Adrien’s love for her. I have no faith in Marinette’s ability to be a good girlfriend because of the writers’ inability to write her as someone I’d trust around someone she has feelings for.

As for rooting for the villain, a lot of people are pointing out how Lila is the most likely person to tell Adrien the truth at this point, because doing so is “bad” because it will make Marinette look bad. When the “bad” thing to do is to respect Adrien’s right to know about his dad being a villain and he himself being a remote control robot anyone can easily control or destroy, yeah, I’m gonna be rooting for the bad guy. Never mind with how the “perfect” world Marinette is enjoying was created by her conceding victory to the previous main villain, you bet I view it as something that should be undone.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

What the hell did people want Steven to do? Kill the diamonds? Yeah sure bro that's a great idea hey um what happens after he kills the pseudo religious being of godlike power? The issues on home world are systemic and run deep killing the diamonds would be horrible idea- yes they are dictators but you can't fix the issues fascism causes by just killing the leader and in some cases you make everything worse, i might not buy whites redemption (she went from genuinely terrifying matriarch and cruel to a blushy 'i must atone mess?) but steven was not a selfish idiot who forgives other people's abusers on their behalf, if another war started earth would be screwed, the solution to the problem wasn't as simple as kill the bad guy- to everyone who complains that diamonds will just start killing again- steven is taking active effort to make sure that never happens! I get why people are angry the diamonds get away with abusing pink, being dictators and still have power in home world- it feels like a major injustice but the bigger picture flat out shows that steven isn't being selfish for maintaining his moral purity (and even if he was I would defend him, the same way i do with aang and batman). While I have my complaints about the ending (mainly how white diamond was written) and hate how pink went from morally grey/questionable to evil hate sink, the fact that the secondary crystal gems, and lars and the off colors were basically irrelevant in the finale, but I will fight anyone who says the only way to solve complicated issues in the world is to 'kill the bad guys!' and that when fighting against racism or abusers or fascists etc the only correct way to deal with the problem is kill the people who are racist or abusive or fascist- some of you people are so focused on 'justice' or 'fairness' that you neglect everything's else like if I applied your logic to the real world we could just forget things like protecting basic rights or fixing systemic elements of social injustice etc, I genuinely hate the diamonds (especially white) and the og shows finale as a whole but steven is not an abuse apologist- he's a diplomat who uses violence as a last resort, there is a ton of other issues with su but God can we look at the ending with nuance? It sucked ass with the pacing and the fusion designs were pretty bad but it wasn't endorsing abuse apologism- Steven was focused on the bigger picture while I have my issues with him as a character sometimes I can say he was being noble here and was not a whiny piss baby, pussyfooting around something he 'needed' to do. The show was never about good killing evil and our 'moral duty' to do so, it was a show with anti war messages with a few botched aesops and wonky art, there's actual shit to complain about with steven universe but Everytime I hear all the comments about how toh made up for steven universe's sins or about how batman and aang are selfish etc it drives me insane,like I could point out so many unfortunate implications in su that are actually bad but y'all focus on the least problematic shit in the show and accuse of Rebecca Sugar a bisexual jew married to a black man of being a nazi apologist! You claim toh made up for the sins of Steven universe and laugh at the 'jab' the show made at Steven universe but there's a few things that don't hold up Dana is friends with Sugar (it is definitely not a jab) and the shows while they have similarities should not be compared, they are fundamentally different shows, like the stuff they do have in common (developing several characters that end up having no real effect on the finale or plot, badly written main antagonists etc) still don't justify the comparison yes they are filled to the brim with lgbt characters and are fantasy shows but one is magical girl/boy space opera about self love the other is a dark fantasy comedy that is about inclusion and coping with disabilities/trauma and while they have overlap they are not the same.

[hacked-by-jake]

hi! i wanted to share some of my thoughts about phil if you dont mind :)

i saw a lot of people saying that jake and phil may know each other and now i really believe in this theory. when mc is going through hanna's call log they calling phil and he immediately recognises they're number. sure maybe he saw that number in lilly's video but- 🤫

when lilly finds this paper on the street with nymos id, i think it was phil who put it there. it just seems logical to me. who else in duskwood could do that? i doubt jake had a lot of time to hire some random creep.

if mc is female jake doesn't care if someone flirts with mc and when it comes to phil he suddenly intervenes??? kinda sus. i have a feeling that they used to be some sort of rivals or frenemies, who knows 🤭😄 but tension between phil and jake in the game isn't unnoticeable for sure

–🪐

Hey Ho, dear Anon! :D

Well, I’ve been thinking about this theory a couple of times, but I honestly have to say that I don’t think they know each other. At least there are other explanations for the points you mentioned.

For example, the one with MC’s number, which would only indicate that MC and Phil could know each other if Phil has the number of MC. However, I rather think that Phil got the number from Lilly's video. After all, most of us agree that MC’s number only ended up in the group due to a mix-up. I think the number of MC was originally not a phone number but the number of the note that Richy lost. Hannah wanted to send the number to Jake but had no time and therefore sent it to Thomas and he thought it was a phone number although it was not.

And I don’t see any reason why Jake and Phil should know each other because of MC’s number. After all, MC and Jake don’t know each other, so why would Jake send MC’s number to Phil? I think Phil knows the number from Lilly’s video and he knew MC would contact him sooner or later and that's why he saved it.

The thing with the sticker on the lantern. By now I think it is quite possible that Jake himself was there to attach the sticker. 🤔 I mean, through episode 10, we know that Jake was not far from Duskwood. Maybe he was already nearby to apply the sticker. We know that Jake used to come online late because he had things to do.

It’s also quite possible that Phil was the one Jake contacted as a stranger to attach the sticker. Maybe Jake secretly and anonymously contacted Phil and Phil did it because he didn’t know it was Jake. Unfortunately, I do not believe that it is necessarily a sign that the two know each other.

And I think the two main reasons for Jake’s hate against Phil are simple: Phil really said incredibly disgusting things about Hannah. Things that were absolutely not okay and he did absolutely perpetrator & victim reversal, which is of course completely bullshit.

And Hannah is Jake’s sister, so it’s clear that Jake doesn’t like him because he insulted Hannah and said terrible things. It would be weird if Jake, as her brother, didn’t find that bad. And I think that’s one of the reasons why Jake is so against Phil and jealous.

The already existing dislike because of the things he said about Hannah. Of course, Jake doesn’t want MC to have contact or anything to do with such a person. Then there is the fact that Phil has flirted the most with MC and has shown the most open that he is interested.

That means Phil could be the biggest threat. On top of that, I think that Jake has pretty big self-doubt and insecurities, after all he is wanted by the government and a relationship with Phil would definitely be easier which of course is a 'threat' to Jake. Because Jake knows that Phil would actually be the better choice. :(

So, I definitely understand where you come from and what you mean but I must honestly say that I doubt it. I think if they knew each other, that would have been a topic in the game otherwise it would actually only be unnecessary. Of course it is still possible, but in my opinion there is no real evidence. :/

But still, thank you a lot for sharing your thoughts with me! Of course I don’t mind. I love talking about duskwood theories and I really enjoyed it! 🥰

I really hope you will have a wonderful day/evening/night! Take care of yourself and stay healthy! 💚

[mourning-again-in-america]

been trying to work out, assuming maximal malevolence and institutional competence from a 2024 trump admin, what all could go wrong in the worst of all worlds, within our Constitution.

"Trump will round up all out-of-status immigrants and catch a bunch of innocent US persons (citizens, green card holders, etc.)" Undoubtedly likely to at least some extent. US citizens can certainly challenge their detention via writ of habeas corpus (tho likely only in federal court[1], US persons with a weaker tie almost certainly can (perhaps depending on visa). Unfortunately, release into general populace is likely the only way most people will leave immigration detention as fedgov has strong caselaw on its side, saying that you have to eventually determine where someone should be released to, but courts should give strong deference to the fedgov. Unlikely, IMO, that >1,000 people with in-status immigration status or citizenship will be locked up >2 weeks. That's still bad, because Trump will certainly make detention facilities as much of a hell as he can[2]. "Trump will crack down on peaceful protestors via the Insurrection Act!" This is a significant fear of mine. The President has the authority to bring the military into any area where a state requests its necessity. This could easily turn into issues if the supposedly insurrectionary areas are in deep red states, but stable deeply red states lack for cities producing masses of demonstrators. Moreover, Florida and Texas are not, as one might think, deeply red. Trump won the former 51-48 and the latter 52-46, and it is not unreasonable to think that 10% of 2020 Trump supporters would not support a Republican successor candidate. Could this be stopped by the courts? In extremis, the courts obviously have jurisdiction and so it does not follow that even in a "middling case" of a nonconsensual military occupation, the courts must be silent. What if a state doesn't request troops and the President represents that there was no request? The insurrection must be so bad for such a state sovereignty that a good analogy for what it would take is the nonfunctioning of the courts, generally, in the area. I do not expect more than 5% of "Trump judges" to uphold an unlawful invocation of the Insurrection Act.

"What about the disappearance of national injunctions?" The national injunction or nationwide vacatur question has reached a peak, and Trump could break it, but it wouldn't be a breaking by Trump alone (the Biden SG has mentioned the possible unlawfulness of such remedies), and it would easily be possible for lower courts to say "We applied nationwide injunctions before, we'll do it again" and the Supreme Court to say "We've allowed them before, and this particular case isn't where we should get into it"

This does not cover any legislation or agency rulemaking that would be possible. Writing this has made me glad for the sovereignty of states turning custom into rule.

[1]: Supreme Court nugget: A man in the military was put in detention for behavior against military guidelines. A Wisconsin state court judge granted a state writ of habeas corpus. Supreme Court said that state courts can't intervene against federal detention in this way. I think the logic extends to CBP detention. [2]: An optimist might think that Trump would make things so bad that cruel and unusual punishment might come into play but I doubt that, it would have to be ridiculously bad for it not to be gummed up in court proceedings during the entire administration or for the courts to say "we don't like it, it's bad, but it's Constitutional"

[maciek-jozefowicz]

“Of Villains, Victims and Heroes” — A Logic Puzzle Set from “My Silly Puzzles”

[ What did Shakespeare say about the world? That it is a stage and that we are all actors on that stage. Every one of us is wearing a mask, trying to hide the real us behind it, acting out our personas. I enjoy unmasking people. (Which is something that many people fear—being unmasked.) I suppose it’s a sick form of entertainment.* It does not make me an endearing person. Although I am “nice”, I hate falseness. Perhaps that is why I like truth-tellers-and-liars logic puzzles. These puzzles are about unmasking the characters, finding out who is really who, or who is really what.

In the real world, of course, it is not so easy as it is in a puzzle—it takes time and patience, keen observation, reason and an understanding of human nature**. Judging from his writing, Shakespeare must have been good at unmasking people.

“Of Villains, Victims and Heroes” is a truth-tellers-and-liars puzzle set from my book “My Silly Puzzles”. The premise for the puzzles was inspired by two rhymes that appear in my book “My Silly Poems.” They form a preamble to the introduction of the puzzles. The set consists of 18 puzzles. Most of the puzzles use three characters, but there are also puzzles with four, five, six and seven characters. ***

—————————

* But it is not only for fun that I unmask. While in public, I am civil to all and can get along with all, in private, I am highly selective. The people around you, influence you. Their mindset influences yours—positively or negatively. That is why I exclude from my private life people with mindsets that I am repulsed by, mindsets that I find to be toxic or merely shallow. I also exclude liars, fakes, phonies, hollow materialists, manipulators, schemers, vulgar opportunists, etc. (Some would consider this selectivity closed minded. It is not. I am open minded, but also highly judgmental. For example, I am willing to eat foods from different cultures, but I am not willing to eat poison.)

** In knowing others, one must first know oneself, and to know oneself one must be able to fearlessly take off one’s mask.**** I say fearlessly because many of us not only mask our true selves from others, we also mask our true selves from ourselves. This is called self-deceit, or denial. We especially hide our negative qualities—selfishness, narcissism, ignorance, enviousness, etc. For example, many people hide their narcissism and selfishness behind a mask of Empathy. (Generally, bad people, as well as shallow people, need masks; good people do not.)

*** If it only was as simple as a puzzle. But, unfortunately, in the real world liars often tell the truth (to gain credibility) and honest people sometimes tell lies (out of kindness*****). So then how does one tell which is which?

**** My definition of “family” is “a group of people among which you are comfortable being yourself; a group of people among which you feel comfortable being unmasked.”

***** Honest people should avoid telling lies out of kindness (or out of fear). Doing so perpetuates other people’s self-deceit. Self-deceit is unhealthy for any individual. It is also unhealthy for society. ]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NEWSBREAK: Handsome Held for Ransom

If we count From 10 to 0, Helplessly hoping For the coming of a hero, Will He, or She, appear? 3…2…1…OH, DEAR!

But what if the hero does appear and the victim and the villain, too, are near, and we can’t tell which is which—which a villain, which a victim and which a hero be? Should we bother, or should we flee? Are there rules we can apply to help us them identify?

Yes. At least here, you won’t have to guess, because here the heroes are rude and mean, they can cut your feelings with their keen,* but they always tell the truth**; the villains are nice and sweet, but full of sweet deceit, that is to say, they always lie***; and the victims do what they must do to get by—sometimes they give us a truth and sometimes they give us a lie.****

—————————

* Though these types of clues have been deleted or these puzzles would be too easily defeated.

** and the truth won’t rot your “tooth”.

*** and lead you astray with their bouquet of lies that make you feel really, really, really nice until…until they give you their “bill”. (There is a price for so much nice!)

**** They are forced to be pliant to the needs of their client.

< 1 >

Ashley: “I am a Victim.”

Amelia: “I am a Hero.”

Angie: “I am a Villain.”

https://www.amazon.com/author/maciek_jozefowicz

[mirceakitsune]

Wanted to start by saying this is NOT a call to attack FA: Unlike the Twitter mob that came after several of us last week, I don't do mobs to harass people. But it does intend to show the extent of the abuse happening on the platform, to the point where logic is pushed to the very limit just to go against artists the site considers undesirable. Needless to say this isn't getting posted on Furaffinity, both because it contains the image I was banned for and joking which is officially forbidden there I guess.

After initially being banned for a week due to the fact that 7 years ago I sketched some joke about foxes eating babies, I was then banned permanently for my latest 3D render. Upon contacting the staff they must have realized how utterly absurd that was so they reverted to the original temporary ban. While this was definitely good news in the moment, I feel there's a huge problem that needs addressing fast.

After new year I made a joke render about the January 6 capitol riot, consisting of bunnies beating and humping secret agents to catch politicians with a news caption calling them the far-right. I never imagined someone would find a way to argue such a thing is against any TOS on the planet, presuming the silly tone made it clear this is intended as pure parody. They not only considered it worthy of a PERMANENT ban, but went for the most absurd route possible in doing so: Suggesting it's COVID misinformation of all things. Two years ago I was warned to stop talking about COVID and ever since I have respected that wish… despite this the ban message suggested they removed more journals where I somehow violated this rule while listing this image as the main reason.

Obviously I didn't care to support or promote anything there: I just realized January 6th would be a fun subject for a project to have fun with. Nowadays I don't even believe most stories about election fraud since Republicans failed to bring more evidence to light… QAnon I legit consider crazy on most things, not all but most of what they say goes too far even for me. If there was any intent involved, it was making people stop taking everything so god damn seriously an making it a taboo you can't even poke fun at… same thing comedians do and are now getting beaten up for on stage for, once upon a time a certain Charlie Hebdo got shot up for it. Unfortunately the people who practically run FA are more in line with how the Taliban reacts when someone makes a caricature of Allah or Mohamed: We're at the point where fun is literally banned if it offends the religiously strict ideology of the day. And thing is, they could at least update their TOS to say "any joke that could offend us is forbidden"… instead they use deliberately vague rules that can randomly apply to anything so anyone can target you if they have it in for you.

I'm not among those who think Dragoneer is evil: I don't know him but from my few interactions and what I've seen he's a pleasant person. He's completely lost control of the site though: Whoever is both writing the rules and appointing moderators are literally doing whatever the heck they want. I literally don't feel I know what can even be posted on the platform any more: Even if I depressed myself by reading their bizarre TOS periodically just to remember every crazy little detail, it's applied so broadly you can't know what will practically get you in trouble just by reading it. In this case it doesn't say anywhere "joking about something automatically means promoting something else that's slightly correlated".

Unless Elon Musk buys FA like Twitter, I don't see much changing to be honest. None the less I at least wanted others to see how bad it is given it's a general current. If in the year 2023 it's literally a crime to draw a simple joke on a mainstream art site, anyone with some awareness should be terrified of where we're once more headed: You know it's bad when you have to make a parody of a parody about being attacked for making a parody.

[baejax-the-great]

Pillow Talk

Late night conversations between two friends who happen to be sleeping together.

Chapter 2 | M | 935 words | Shepard x Garrus

Garrus rested his head in his hand, elbow digging into Shepard’s bizarrely large pillow. “Shepard, our first time together… are you really saying you hadn’t watched any vids beforehand?”

Nadia grinned. “Do I hear you implying that I’m good in bed, Vakarian?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m Garrus Vakarian, and this is the best lay on the Normandy,” he replied in a sing-song voice. She laughed and rolled over onto her side to face him, the sheet falling away to expose her bare chest. “But seriously. Most people, when faced with… unfamiliar, uh—” he gestured uselessly in the air “— equipment… take a little longer to figure out what to do with it.”

“My proficiency scores in tech, firearms, and miscellaneous have always been above satisfactory.” He shouldn’t be surprised. He wasn’t surprised. But Nadia raised an eyebrow. “Why, wondering if I’ve bedded a turian before?”

He hadn’t been, but now he was thinking it. “Uhh…”

“I’ll admit it, sleeping with Nihlus was a surprise.”

Garrus choked. “What?”

Nadia cackled and gave his hip a quick shove. “Relax. I think I said ten words to the guy, and nine of them were hostile.”

For a turian, that did not rule out sexual attraction. Possibly not for Nadia, either. No, definitely not for Nadia. Weird to think that but for a few chance events, he might have been watching Nihlus spend months flirting with her instead of Liara. Might have clued him into a few things a bit earlier. Garrus swallowed.

“You’re my first turian,” she assured him with a kiss to his forehead.

Why did she make it sound like there would be a second?

Not that that should bother Garrus. She could do whatever she wanted. They hadn’t exactly set terms for this, whatever this was. A one-night stand that turned into a week. An ongoing experiment in stress-relief when every day was a firefight. A way better sleeping arrangement than that human bunk on deck three.

Nadia inhaled deeply and held it a moment before carefully saying, “Despite the rumors, I didn’t sleep with anyone on the SR-1.”

“Huh.” Ashley had been certain Shepard was sleeping with Liara. Talked about it at length. A little too invested in it, as far as Garrus could tell, not that he ever discouraged the conversation. Maybe he even analyzed all the so-called evidence she provided, tucked it away somewhere like a little police-case in his head, documenting any suspicious behavior between them. Didn’t tell Ash his findings, but wasn’t disappointed when Tali asked her to elaborate on human mating customs.

“Did you?” she asked.

“What? No.”

“No one you had your eye on?”

“I was too busy staring at Saren’s wanted poster.” Shepard snorted. “Nah. It, uh, didn’t occur to me.”

“You might have been the only one focused on the mission, then. Some of the crew got pretty… forward.”

“Like who?” Garrus asked, as if he hadn’t catalogued every instance of Liara’s hand brushing Shepard’s on Noveria.

“Alenko.” Garrus blanched. “Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming, either,” she continued. “He’s a pretty by-the-book kind of guy, and Alliance regs are clear. You don’t sleep with someone under your command on your ship. Once you hit shore leave, maybe, but you keep it under the radar and hope the brass doesn’t see you. Anyway, I felt bad turning him down. Not because I was interested, but because there must have been feelings involved for him to want to break regs in the first place.”

That would help explain some of what happened on Horizon, Garrus supposed. Though, he couldn’t help but notice Shepard was flagrantly violating regs now and what her own logic had to say about that. He cleared his throat. “Are the Alliance regs for anyone on the ship? Or do hired vigilantes get a pass?”

“I’m not Alliance anymore. If Cerberus has regs—” Nadia shrugged “—Fuck ‘em.”

“Can’t argue with that,” he replied. Though it didn’t answer his question of whether there were feelings here. Treading the waters of interspecies romance was muddy enough, and Garrus wasn’t that great of a swimmer. He might have liked some clarity on the matter. Or a life vest, if he wanted to get his metaphor right.

Unfortunately, Shepard had already moved on. “To get back to the beginning of this conversation,” she said, a finger crawling toward a sensitive divot between plates, “I did watch vids, hours of them. They just weren’t the sexy ones.”

He cleared his throat again watching her little hand work. “What kind of vids?”

“Human versus turian combat, hand-to-hand basics for interstellar marines, non-human pressure points and how to access them…” She stroked the sensitive skin that turians could only ever reach with their talons. Weird to have soft, warm pressure there. Weird and good.

“How did that, uh… how did that help?” he asked.

She leaned up and pressed her lips to the unarmored skin of his neck. “I figured the softest, weakest spots on the body were probably the most sensitive,” she breathed over him.

Shit if she wasn’t right.

“You used the same skills from hand-to-hand combat to sleep with me?”

“I applied tactical knowledge to a novel non-combat situation.” Garrus rolled his eyes, even as he felt his blood pulsing in response to her ministrations. Shepard kissed his neck again. “And I thought you marked me above satisfactory. Maybe even excellent. Best lay in the Normandy?”

He stared her down, a long slow breath through his nose. “I think I’m going to need another assessment of your skills, Commander.”

Nadia grinned. “You’re on.”

[lexpressobean]

Thoughts on Kikaichu as actual Parasites.

Knowing how skin and the body generally works on a medical level, the "hive" aspect of the Aburame clan really drives me crazy. 'Cause parasites are real, obviously, but the size of Kikaichu beetles makes absolutely no sense in comparison to irl skin parasites. At least not in a bee hive sort of way lol

rambling because my mind craves logic and I'm specializing as a wound care nurse but it's literally anime so what do I expect lol

No, wounds don't freak me out, I'm more terrified of generally handling vomit and babies than I am a dehiscence of a 15cm long surgical site lol. The human body can literally take so much abuse before it really starts to give and try to alert you that you need help! And once you give it help, it really can come full circle to the wound 100% looking like it was never there. The body is an amazing thing <3

However the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "parasite" is always going to be "tapeworm". That's not gonna change. However, kikaichu are not worms and CERTAINLY don't grow that fucking huge or live that long. (A tape worm can live long enough to graduate with a fucking PhD. Can you believe?) I haven't been exposed to any urgent situations involving parasites yet, however, the one I would compare a Kikaichu to that is (unfortunately) also common is the scabies mite.

Very briefly, scabies mites (Sarcoptes scabiei) are technically a type of arachnid that grow no bigger than a bout 0.5mm in size, but CAN be seen with the naked eye if you're looking for them. They crawl around the skin and burrow specifically in the top layer of skin, called the epidermis. The epidermis is that protective layer of skin and can be between 0.5mm to 1.5mm thick depending on which part of the body you're looking at. After the epidermis, you have the dermal layer, which is where sweat glands, nerves, and capillaries are found. Scabie mites will not burrow that deep because they only burrow to lay their eggs and such. As they do this they can cause visible tunnels and other marks that can be mistaken for acne or other skin conditions if not properly identified. You'll most likely know because the itch is VERY BAD.

They're very easily spread by close contact and a scabies infestation needs to be treated with a prescribed pharmacological means.

However, kikaichu are definitely a lot bigger than 0.5mm. In the case of size, I would compare them at minimum to fruitflies/medflies, which grow up to 3-5mm and maximum to ladybugs 4-7mm.

3-7mm > 0.5-1.5mm... obviously. And the holes which Kikaichu swarm out of that the audience has seen before are about a size comparable Shino's nostrils, IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!

You're telling me those things were in his mouth?????????? S H I N O N O

That would mean, in realistic terms, the Kikaichu are fucking around in Shino's body to the bone and muscles and THAT'S A REALLY SCARY THOUGHT. Even just passing the epidermis to the dermis is alarming! Compared to the dry, protective epidermis that can and does take damage, the dermis can be 1-4mm thick depending on where you're looking and is where skin does it's business. All together that becomes 0.5-5.5mm of space BARELY big enough for a fruit fly do mess around in. It makes just enough sense in terms of THAT size, but last time I checked, having the skin penetrated to the dermal layer is just asking for infection to happen. You're first natural line of defense has been breeched, there's a pretty good chance you're gonna be bleeding (blood vessels) and general body fluids are going to be draining, which is bad for a multitude of reasons, and there's damage that gonna affect the nerves, and realistically this shit is going to be ABSOLUTELY painful if they're constantly manipulating those areas near nerves. These kinda of things CAN make new connections and things like that, sometimes damage is forever. (Case by case basis).

So my first thought to more or less "magically" solve the problem with anime logic, is that first of all, it's an anime and logic doesn't have to apply haha.

On a more sci-fi level, in which kikaichu are smaller than we've seen them shown, maybe they have been purposefully been allowed to burrow into the dermal layer of the skin at least because the blood vessels seem to be in direct contact with the chakra system. Kikaichu's prefered food is chakra, but they WILL mutiny and eat their respective Aburame from the inside out if they don't balance their chakra smartly. So it's safe to say Kikaichu are at least carnivorous as well, and so I only imagine these absolute nightmares would swarm their prey in the wild, and actively bite through and burrow into the body of the prey until they found the chakra system and went to town on that poor unfortunate soul. Eaten alive, how the hell did they "tame" them in the first friggin' place??

I like to think two things:

1) Kikaichu are passed down from parent to child, and the parent has control over the Kikaichu until they have been RIGOROUSLY trained for generations to comprehend that this baby/child isn't food, it's a new hive. If bees can comprehend time, Kikaichu can comprehend what an Aburame is. If they insist on trying to drain the babe or the babe just can't tolerate them, the parent takes the Kikaichu back and the babe is assigned another insect or position in general. Like hell they're gonna try to force a relationship like that.

2) As part of the successful symbiotic relationship, Kikaichu regularly debride the tunnels and borrows that they carve into their respective Aburame, and are naturally intuitive in avoiding as many nerves and blood vessels as possible. The chance of infection is never 0%, however, kikaichu are pretty good about taking care of their tunnels, and so it gives the Aburame more time to focus on their things, like increasing the amount if chakra in their system. To ensure that they stay healthy, Aburame are encouraged to eat as much protein and Vit C possible every day, whether it be meat, beans, lentils, eggs, oranges, tomatoes, or even supplements as times modernize. The dermis is living tissue and as long as debridement/tunneling is going on, it needs to be nourished as much as possible.

I don't know how the hell Aburame deal with the obvious drainage that would be coming from their bodies, assuming the dermal layer really is free game for the Kikaichu. But the magical solution is that... they don't? Because... drainage is minimal. The Kikaichu just do such a good job lol. Maybe they purposefully... carve entrances to be flappy, or they purposefully create pocket spaces underneath seemingly healed areas of skin to easily burst open when necessary. That's the biggest thing for me, leaking body fluids. There's no way around that shit besides straight up denial lol Maybe they wear a special kind of dressing underneath their clothes, or that's directly applied with their clothes. Maybe that's what that cute little backpack is filled with, who knows!!

Idk man. I'm sure the Aburame authority forces encourages many of their non-hive members to pursue medical nin training in order to give the clan more privacy in general too. All medics that claim the Aburame name are exclusively used by the Aburame Clan. A non-Aburame medic may end up healing tunnels and burrows that were meant to stay open because "oops" and now you have an X amount of insects possibly suffocating within a completely sealed pocket of the skin, and also now there's a very good chance that after those insects die, that whole area is gonna frickin' abscess and cause infection induced tunnels the longer it's left alone and GROSS THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! THERE IS A DELICATE, ORGANIZED, SELF-SUFFICENT PROCESS TO ALL THIS!! A PROCESS!!!

Like... the other ninja in the NartVerse can make as many jokes, jabs, and comments about the Aburame as they please (INO? BITCH??? but to be honest I still love her lol). But these MFers are constantly playing Russian Roulette with these high maintenance demon spawn from hell, and there are VERY little defences against Kikaichu, virtually none. Like the only thing I've ever seen actively thwart Kikaichu across all media is killing them with mass fire, countering them with large amounts of poison gas (both very exterminator like) or literally just feeding them chakra until they're so stupid full, they can't move, the little gluttons. As far as genjutsu, it's been stated that it's both effective and ineffective, so idk about that. But the Aburame are just SO set up to be the living breathing embodiment of Shinobi as defined by the NartVerse. They're whole clan culture relies on the threat of enemies. If they have no enemies, the whole relationship is an exhausting endeavor for literally no reason. It's not worth it if there's no one to fight or protect! But when there is a threat, you want them on YOUR side.

I suppose the best bet is to incapacitate the Aburame individual asap and the Kikaichu will tend the individual, making escape easier. But, if you DID manage to kill that Aburame right away, that particular Aburame's swarm is now suddenly without its food source and without restraint.

What do you THINK is gonna happen, bro?? The second an Aburame loses their grip on their consciousness due to external influences, the bugs go bonkers because I'm pretty sure Kikaichu are simply persuaded to be in this relationship and have NO tolerance for bullshit like alcohol and overheating temps. If their Aburame dies, they probably cause just as much chaos as they would as a wild, unattended swarm. Then YOU BETTER HAVE fire or poison gas or SOMETHING handy. The only way to calm them down is to offer them chakra and a new host with equal or even more chakra reserves. Otherwise the mutineers must be eradicated.

And for serious... Like, any deeper and the kikaichu would be in the hypodermal/subcutaneous layer of the skin and that's where a lot of connective tissue is located. Let's NOT mess with that shit, shall we? NOT a good idea. It's called connective tissue for a reason first and foremost...

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

(1/2) I know this is some controversial topic and that you sometimes cover US politics, but what do you think the american left needs to improve to reach to more people and be taken more seriously?; It's unbelievable that in the very 2021, apolitical folk are still fallin into the whole "the leftist are a bunch of crazies" narrative, we may do some pushback the last three years against conservative politics.

(2/2)  But it's still not enough; on your personal opinion, what fundamental core value needs to be changed to engage to these apolitical people and that leftist want politics to improve the quality of life of the population without being labeled as a "petulant, whiney children" There's some greek-flavored advice that we can apply to our discourse? Thanks in advance :)

========================== END OF ASK ======================

Ooooo… Great question! And by “great” I mean “Do you want me to go down in flames and get cut a thousand times with pitchforks??” xD But it’s very interesting so I will answer it! And you will be subjected to an essay of 3.200 words 😘💅 (I want to be meticulous, don’t come at me)

Please assume the tone is light and conversational. I am not in a very serious or dramatic mood, and I don’t want to estrange any group by assuming the role of an all knowing tutor or someone who always has the high moral ground. This is just 1am blabbering.

I am not against leftists. On the contrary, I know their side so well that I think I have a solid opinion on its flaws. (I have friends who are left- okay I’ll stop xD) Needless to say, the right side also has flaws and the two sides often share flaws. But right now, we are only talking about the leftists. And of course, #notallleftists xD I recognize that leftists are ordinary and diverse people with empathy and capability of critical thinking and problem-solving (Did I mention I have friends who ar--) Jokes aside, I think my following is quite left leaning and I am not bashing them here. I am criticizing the movement as a whole and trying to see where it can be improved.

***** Anyways, I will generalize the bad traits for the sake of everyone’s time, it’s what I am saying! So, when I say “they” I will probably mean “some” or “the bad apples” etc.  *****

To begin, US leftists don’t want to, but they are accidentally imperialist xD Unfortunately, they don't know much about other countries, and they don’t usually have knowledge of countries they are talking about if they don’t have an immediate connection to them. Not knowing things is fine, but when people on this site are like “ugh Americans” this points to an ignorance and a sort of entitlement that doesn’t occur this often in other countries. My internet cycle is overwhelmingly leftist and yet I continue seeing willingness for ignorance all around - and when I check it’s not by conservatives.

Leftists think their (social and not) politics apply to every country and culture, that people in different countries classify themselves as they do in the US. And when people from those countries talk about their problems, there is always an American that wants to give input based on American politics, and without knowing the situation in this other country they want to talk about. Ironically, the last one is a behavior of conservative politicians. Conservative politicians and citizens sometimes think it’s fine to intervene in other countries for “the greater good”. Well, leftists do the same but on the internet. It stalls conversation and makes it messy and force foreigners to apply to American standards.

Because leftists don't understand social differences between countries, they project their own politics, and that can make them seem obsessed with skin color and blind to cultural diversity. They act like only Americans or certain countries have every lived through colonialism and suffered slaughter and slavery. (Because they don’t feel the need to study and learn further.) To an American that might not be the case, but when Americans converse with foreigners about foreign issues, they seem to have a blind spot.

They act as if only white, cis, straight people can be perpetrators of imperialism. Booyyy I have news xD Yes, of course white, cis, straight people can be perpetrators of imperialism, but the attitude that they are the first to blame, always, it’s faulted. I have many experiences, but let’s start with a very simple one, of an Indian American young woman who thought only a lota can clean you with water in the toilet, and that Europeans haven’t heard of bidets or any other means of cleanliness (or that they have the bathtub RIGHT THERE xD) One of the highlights was a Black woman insisting “Medusa was Black because my grandma told me” despite what Greeks were telling her.

Another thing that stuck with me was the case of a Greek who wanted to write about the people who happen to be a minority in the US (you would call them poc I guess). Many people from those countries were enthusiastic about the project and aided the writer as much as they could, sharing culture and realizing how many things in common they had. But it was from same populations in the US that the writer found people who blamed them for daring to write something outside of their culture. (To explain, most US Americans were fine, but only in the US were some who were hostile). Or, I have seen Chinese Americans being offended by a certain thing (I think it was something about fashion) saying “this is an offense to Chinese culture” meanwhile Chinese people from everywhere else in the world (99% of Chinese, I’d say) said “I don’t understand… this is fine!”

Many US American poc categorize all light skinned Caucasians of the world as White Americans and the rest are the “cultured” Black or Brown people. US Americans are now learning that Slavic cultures exist and it’s… something else to watch leftists realizing light skinned people can have great embroidery and they are not actually stealing Mexican traditional clothing xD (reference to an obscure “calling out” comment on tik tok).

I don’t specifically target US poc here, I am just mentioning that everyone conveniently forgets them as if they are untouchable and never said anything ignorant, while they are as active on social media causes as other Americans. In fact, if most poc are aligned to a side, that would be the Left. They are a very big part of the progressive movement – and that’s why I am giving so much space here for them – but then it seems they can’t have a share of the “bad” things of the leftist movement, only the good. Which is humanly impossible, to be always correct.

That’s one of the problems of leftism, that in a way pardons certain minorities and by doing that it not only lets the problematic bubbles grow but also infantilizes those minorities because it passes the message that “they can never do anything wrong”. While background matters when having an opinion, I see that skin-color goes ridiculously above opinion on these matters, which is not very egalitarian. When I argue with a person, the last thing I see is the person’s skin color. When someone says “ancient Greeks were actually a Black nation ad then they became White” I don’t care how this person looks like. No matter your skin color, you must take responsibility for the misinformation you are spreading. I won’t assume that because someone is a poc that they can’t study and learn more about the matter of discussion.

So… the “issue” doesn’t come from being white, cis, straight etc but from being raised as a US American. I don’t imply by any means that being a US American is bad. The last thing I want to do here is enforce guilt. (If you are feeling guilty already I must be mistaken in my wording so I am sorry for that). I am talking about certain beliefs that come with raised as a US American. Similarly, many beliefs a Greek can have are because of their environment. Everyone is affected by their background in one way or another. 

American leftists believe that even the piss poor British farmers benefited from colonialism – and still benefit perhaps on a systemic scale. So, with the same logic, even the lowest layers of the US American society benefit from imperialism and war crimes overseas. (Truth is the quality of living in the US is great and extremely progressive compared to most of the world, because of the US’ politics. I had analyzed this in a previous post). But American leftists never mention that when it comes to THEIR case, because it doesn’t give them an advantage.

To tie it up with how American leftists see the world, there is youtuber I like, who is a US American woc and one time she said “My country is bombing Brown people” in an annoyed tone and it just sounded so offensive I closed the video. It’s obvious the youtuber doesn’t support the bombing, but it was just the phrasing which left a bitter taste in my mouth the whole day. It was the fact that 1) she could make a statement in an annoyed/joking tone 2) people in those countries don’t identify as “Brown” outside the US (and you are talking about them now) 3) your country is indeed bombing them so maybe at least categorize them as they wish?? They have a certain ethnicity, so mention that and stop categorizing them like dog breeds! They already have the bombs, do you want them to hear Americans categorize them like that?

Moreover, many US leftists think they care about other countries while, in actuality, they don’t. They just want to make other countries have the exact progressive US politics - because that’s the only “correct” political system they know. That shows even in kind of superficial matters. In a movie about Greek mythology, they will make sure there is an American Arab, an American Black person, an American East Asian person etc (which would be a cast that would reflect American diversity, not Mediterranean) and are hesitant to cast Greeks or ask Greeks how the portrayal of the story and figures could be better and respecting.

Another thing, they take everything too personally. They think success and failure of a movement is highly dependent on them as an individual. It’s difficult for them to approach a harsh past or present situation in a levelheaded manner because they don’t realize this situation has been universal. So, they feel a special kind of guilt and that makes them over apologetic but also overzealous (like a righteous self-flogging zealot) and that is what drives people away. They combine that behavior with ignorance about the rest of the world, and you can see why a non-US American might want to keep their distance.

I had some Americans apologizing to me because their ancestors did something to Greeks and just… don’t. I know you have the best intentions, but it makes everyone – even me – feel bad. There is no need for apologizing because 1) you and your family did nothing wrong 2) it was centuries ago 3) this bad shit happens/happened literally everywhere. You might as well apologize for your people knowing how to cook. It’s FINE, really, it’s FINE. For instance, do you think I have a grudge on YOUR people running a slave trade six centuries ago while there was dozen active slavetrades in the area, and while Greeks of the Byzantine empire probably bought slaves some decades before they were sold to slavery themselves? Do you see what a mess this is? Not only it doesn’t fix anything, but you also put unnecessary weight on yourself, as an individual. It’s fine to be aware and trying to fix past mistakes - if it’s possible - but there is a certain delicate process that must be followed. Not… whatever this is.

To continue on the extreme individualism, leftists think it's the end of the world if they have done or said something controversial (and that's also because they have cultivated a culture where any small transgression is a potential danger to the whole society :p aka "the left eats itself"). Around them people feel they must tread on eggshells just in case they phrase a thing wrong or post something that could be linked to a person the Left doesn't like.

The left is also on the extremes, so I have to put 1000 disclaimers every time I say something. (I guarantee that the example with the Chinese people will be translated by some Americans like “Theitsa promotes Asian hate!!”) Do you know who doesn't annoy me if I don't put 1000 disclaimers? Certainly not Conservatives. I had more harassment from leftists than I had from actual nazis, even though my blog is not conservative or (god forbid!!) supportive of nazism or any type of supremacy. Even nazis completely understand my beliefs before they send hate. (It might be odd but I never had one not understanding my point xD) But the leftists who sent hate misinterpret stuff, or they don’t bother reading actual posts. The funny thing is that I usually agree with these progressives in 99% of issues but they don’t care asking or learning, they just decide our morals are opposite. I mean they don’t have to like me, but many leftists don’t even read the basics.

On top of that, leftists rarely want to have a conversation with a conservative. I don't say go and AGREE with a conservative, I say just talk. (see? I feel the need to clarify here because many leftists might say “Theitsa wants us to go and AGREE with conservatives! Does Theitsa want us to become nazis and homophobes???”) How does one feel they have to be sooo righteous and then cauterize every member of society who disagrees with them? Why do leftists rarely want to have a conversation? Some people were ready to attack me for referencing a meme which referenced Steven Crowder, as if that shows I am his supporter 😩 (Guilty by association is strong on the leftist side and it’s very reminiscent of authoritarian tactics, another thing that needs to be improved, to my opinion.)

I don’t support Crowder (I know Crowder has done awful stuff) but I shouldn’t be scared to admit I like the “change my mind” episodes. (Flash news, leftists, you might like a part from a person’s work and not 100% support that person!) I like the episodes because both sides are heard, the conversation is civil (for the most part xD) and I can see the thought process of the two speakers as they explain their worries and what solutions are out there.

Most of all, in those episodes I see how BOTH sides CARE about the SAME problems, it’s just the perspectives that differ. And those conversations highlight the issues the left hasn’t studied very well, so it helps the leftists understand what they need to learn in order to better society. But where the “immaturity“ of the leftist side can show is in the unwillingness to approach the “opponent“ as a human just like them.

(They might instead prefer to call Mexicans white supremacists and claim that “whiteness” has no color because quite a few poc voted Republican, as some leftist news sources have stated)

What is more, is it just my idea or conservatives understand leftists better than leftists understand conservatives? Of course both sides jokes about the other one but I am talking about the serious talks. Leftists just describe conservatives as horrible people who want all minorities to perish and we must not talk to them while, surprisingly, the conservatives are the ones who stereotype less the opposite side. (I am talking about the normal, moderate people). From what I have seen, most simple people who are conservatives DON’T want the US’ ethnic and sexual minorities to perish. They are worried about problems they don’t have a good understanding about. And the only way to make them understand it’s to… talk to them, show them what good the left to offer.

Some leftists think conversation is “emotional labor” but 1) that applies to actual labor as in… jobs, so stop invalidating doctors, nurses, teachers etc, 2) yeah, sorry, sometimes things get difficult and you have to explain your side. (As non US-Americans endlessly have to do for US-Americans). That was, is and will be life until the sun swallows us all. You can’t be THAT militant on social media with 100 posts per day and remembering 50 different campaigns about social issues but the moment someone genuinely asks you for directions on your side you shut them off with “why do you demand labor from me? Do your own research” (hint: most likely they have done their research, but they are stuck, and you don’t help them like this).

If you are very tired and don’t want to explain (as it is your right) you can be polite about it and not blame the individual about their circumstances when they are trying to learn. If you DO want to explain but you get tired, be more organized. Have posts and F.A.Q.s ready, or send them to someone else (a friend, a blog, a youtube channel, an article, whatever). Instead of leftists arguing their positions, sometimes they are like “Do more research and realize I am right.” Yyyeah the other person is not gonna do that – especially because you haven’t pointed them anywhere or supported your position with arguments. Moreover, leftists can have the attitude of “I stand for PROGRESS, how can I ever be wrong??” Weeell things are not black and white and me, you, everyone has the potential to not have a not that beneficial to society position at some issues no matter where we stand on the political compass.

For the “petty whiny children” thing, I believe a lot of people might think that because the youth is usually making noise about progressive issues on social media. It’s true that oftentimes in social media discussions their emotions get the best of them (it’s happened to everyone) but combined with the lack of life experience they may have about the world, the argument sounds silly. (I heard one leftist university student say that the US shouldn’t have borders because borders are bad but then they realized they don’t want people to come and go as they please in the US, so she said there should be SNIPERS in the borders to shot everyone who tries to get in…….)

And, as I mentioned, the leftists are very quick to cancel and attack for the slightest transgression so people prefer to deal with the conservatives who can, at least, take a slight misstep, than meddling with people who are going to cancel them for doing or not doing a small, insignificant, but not ‘woke enough’ thing. Leftists are constantly checking each other to see if they are doing better and better (even in silly issues) and that can be intimidating to someone who is new to politics.

Some leftists get REALLY turned on by righteousness (Frollo villain style) and instead of trying to unite the society, they aim to divide it further. They don’t want to create bridges but burn them and find themselves on the “right side“ of morals.

And, last but not least, they don’t realize leftist propaganda is a thing. Malicious people are EVERYWHERE and they don’t just magically avoid the left. Leftists are not automatically super virtuous people. There are some manipulators and bullies around, so one has to be cautious even with leftist sources. (Cross-examine stuff, always. You might have the best intentions but accidentally share something nonfactual because you trusted a source).

Ok that was all, I think. To anyone who comments, PLEASE keep the tones down, have a conversation, take it slow, remember it doesn’t help us being hateful towards each other. (And causing serious friction wasn’t the purpose of this post). Oh, and if you need a clarification on something I said, before gossiping with your friends about how awful I am, do me the courtesy of first asking me what I meant xD

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

Morality-Focused Frameworks Of Discussion As Acts of Control

This is a post in response to a larger conversation I’ve been having with @eshusplayground. I have a perspective that I think would be really relevant to the conversation but I also don’t want to derail the specific focus of the following posts she’s been making recently.

(Trigger Warning For Abuse Discussion and Brief Mentions of Rape)

---

So I’m in the Hellraiser fandom. More specifically, I’m a Pinhead/Kirsty shipper.

For those of you that don’t know, Pinhead is a demonic torturer from hell who’s design is inspired by the BDSM community. Characters who open a magical puzzle box have unknowingly given themselves away to his violent underworld community of eternal torment and depravity. Hellraiser is a film about romantic and sexual horror, and there’s quite a lot in there about abuse and trauma. Kirsty is a traumatized person, and in my personal opinion, very likely a CSA victim.

And I ship these two characters together.

So the subject matter of my particular fandom is extremely intense and niche and complicated to navigate, although YMMV (I have no trouble with this franchise, but I cannot really handle GOT or American Horror Story, for example). After I grew interested in Hellraiser and integrated into it’s fandom, my perspectives about the way we have conversations about villainous characters started to have a major shift.

I often see people have these intense conversations (and arguments) about where a particular character exists on a moral scale, with the subtext (or outright text) that if they tip too far one way or another, they can be rendered unworthy of their own subgroup of fans within their own fandom. People who love those characters or find them shippable are then subject to moral judgements.

So how does one apply such logic to a psychosexual torture demon?

The answer is you can’t.

The frameworks people online use to have these discussions do not make any sense when talking about my fandom. Hellraiser is a dark horror fairytale presenting disturbing, surreal images and behaviors in order to discuss complex and difficult experiences and perspectives. The monsters within it, like Pinhead, are more metaphor than anything.

Now, my follower count is too low and my fandom is too niche for me to really be on the receiving end of a lot of the cruelty that manifests online about the moral validity of the fiction I enjoy. That said, between the anti-kink TERFS and the younger folks involved in purity culture on this site, I can imagine exactly what it would look like. You know what they would look like.

“You’re an Abuse Apologist!”

“You’re an Abuse Fetishist!”

“You’re reinforcing sexism!”

“he’s an irredeemable torturer, you’re probably okay with literal real world rape lmao uwu”

“This is bad kink representation and you’re complicit in the abuse real men do to women because you like this!”

Now, setting aside the fact that the canon lore context of Pinhead involves him having a human soul brainwashed by a monster god to become what he is, and is also in a roundabout sense “redeemed” in canon, I think most people utilizing this kind of framework would assume that I believe Pinhead can be redeemed in the way online Discourse (tm) means it, because that’s how we talk in fandom about the villains we really like.

I do not want to redeem Pinhead. I don’t think he even needs redeeming. I don’t even see value in that conversation at all. Redemption is not a concept that makes sense for what he is, or what he could become as a character. The framework of Pinhead as a Real-World-Equivalent Human Male Abuser who Cannot Be Redeemed From His Actions would inevitably dominate all conversation, regardless of the fact that it is inherently incorrect and detrimental to real, robust literary analysis of the narrative he exists within and how brilliantly it actually interacts with male on female abuse as a subject. By nature of it’s gross oversimplification and misrepresentation, It ruins the potential for greater, more nuanced and complex conversations.

And that’s the thing: my engagement with this particular story and it’s characters has a lot to do with the potential in the narrative to examine how trauma interacts with love, desire and gender politics. Hellraiser has a very unique way of exploring that kind of subject through a storytelling aesthetic that appeals to me (horror/fairytale, gothic romance, etc).

This is about to get personal, so strap the fuck in.

I am the victim of gendered abuse, in that I had an emotionally abusive step father and sexism was absolutely a factor in why that manifested the way it did. I am also a second hand victim of gendered abuse, in that my biological father was a serial stalker and rapist, and other male abusers (or just self-centered family members) caused severe emotional destabilization in my childhood. I grew up viewing adult men as unstable, selfish children. My family endured a lot, and I came to resent the men in my mother’ life for not taking on the role of protector and nurturer when she needed them most. I had discovered the great lie of traditional masculinity: in the face of real crisis, grown men were not protectors. They did not hold together the domestic space. They abused or faltered and abandoned us. This was a repeated pattern among several men in different roles. I was often left picking up all the pieces, taking on roles as a child that these men could not. I had to have strength they did not.

My experience of desire for romantic intimacy with men and men in roles of stable, nurturing authority now inherently involves a jumbled emotional soup of fear, pain, and a deep longing that comes from a place of feminine vulnerability, a desire to be taken care of instead of being the caretaker.

The narrative of Hellraiser pushes a lot of buttons for me. It speaks to my own trauma experiences in a very specific way. In an effort to further that conversation, I’m trying to create a piece of art (a fic) inspired by the deeply personal feelings this film gives me.

For me, Pinhead represents the Jungian shadow masculine, a simultaneous mix of fear and desire, the potential for suffering and pleasure, and everything in between. These experiences are inherently intertwined for me. And Kirsty’s experiences mirror many of my own.

In other words, in order for me to get out of Hellraiser what I get out of Hellraiser, Pinhead has to be exactly what he is, and everything that he is. Which includes monstrosity. Which includes the potential for change. His place in the narrative must fully, truly embody this conversation I need to have with masculinity, which inherently involves painful, scary things.

Anybody demanding that I either denounce my interest in him as morally offensive because he’s a monster in the full sense of the word (and not just the aesthetic one like what is currently trending in Monster Boyfriend fandom), or force a traditional redemption arc upon him as if he were a real life human person who must repent for his real life sins, are essentially saying that I am not allowed to engage with this work of fiction in a way that is transformative for me. And that’s very unfortunate, because honestly, I think my perspective is so much more dynamic and has so much more to offer.

This is not just about basic catharsis. This is not even a power fantasy about emotionally transforming a powerful (white) dude, or “bad boy” fantasies, both standard arguments for villain stanning that feels like it has never truly represented me or the complexity of my experiences and interests. This is a full-on conversation and act of self expression I want to have through art about the experience of fear and trauma when dealing with men as a woman who desires men.

And I don’t think a person has to be traumatized in order to want to engage with this type of fiction. I want to be clear that my experience is not a justification for my interest (I do not need to justify myself), it is an example of a perspective that gets erased by the framework of these conversations.

To me, the framework of moral validity for enjoying fictional villains and monsters and whatever you please feels incredibly stifling to the complex, dynamic ideas and analysis that I want to engage in, because I, and many people I know, are consistently pressured to structure their thoughts with this framework as the only acceptable baseline of discussion. This is so ubiquitous that when people I’ve known have tried to engage in ways that diverge from that framework, the responses they get are outright confused or direct the conversation right back to the original framework they tried to avoid. Complex conversation gets steamrolled.

Somewhere in the conversation we were all having about acknowledging and discussing abuse and oppression, and acknowledging troubling patterns in media which reinforce the normalization of abuse and opression, some people decided that there was a very serious moral discussion to be had regarding the mere act of liking things which involve dark subject matter and complex, or even monstrous characters. They now argue that there are very clear cut, simple moral frameworks for A) telling stories and B) enjoying stories, and most importantly, that this moral framework is a valid justification for the social treatment and silencing of certain people.

A framework, by the way, which I think is actually not functionally a framework, because like the toxic American fundamentalist christian groups it’s thinking is structured from, it does not account for the vastly diverse moral landscape within it’s own space. There is no objectively consistent body of knowledge anybody is working from, because morals are derived from the human experience, which is inherently subjective.

Interestingly, no where does this have more of an impact than with marginalized people, and people like me, who want to express something deeper and more meaningful in the conversation about abuse and oppression than what this framework really offers us. To be honest, The more I see this kind of conversation making the rounds, the clearer it becomes that it’s a means of control and power game playing. It’s not about morality, but about how morality can be leveraged in order to silence truly diverse and nuanced perspectives and uphold people’s sense of self-comfort. It is a means of supplanting more convenient and easily digestible understandings of these highly complex subjects that require more intensive, thoughtful engagement, especially when it gets challenging. This kind of rhetoric absolves people of making room for complex and diverse experiences, and reinforces an (at face-value) easy to follow set of moral rules of how we are all allowed to think and feel.

The implication of all of this is that if we all adhere to the One True (alleged) Moral Framework of Fandom Engagement, then we will somehow come out on the other side with all the Good People having a Great Time having Squeaky Clean Fun. And I don’t think I should have to tell you at this point how stifling and disturbing the implications of that kind of mentality really are.

 Quite frankly, I think a lot of us are very tired of constantly speaking on other people’s terms.

[yukipri]

Marco’s Bauble Part 4 - a One Piece Mermaid AU Text Story

Next part of Marco’s Bauble! Was posted in advance on Patreon ^ ^

In which the Whitebeards gossip

Contains mention of Marco x Luffy.

Continues off of, and should be read after:

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 1

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 2

👒🐟Marco’s Bauble Part 3

~~

Namur values his crew's privacy. And given that he doubts he was even supposed to see Marco's secret, he absolutely can't disclose it to anyone.

Which is why he's snuck into Izo's room at ass o'clock in the morning, when everyone but the morning shift is asleep, but Izo's awake because he takes a few hours doing his hair and makeup.

"This had better be good, I don't usually enjoy an audience before I'm presentable," Izo says.

Namur doesn't really get what's unpresentable about Izo now. Sure he looks different, with his ridiculously long hair still loose and spilling to his waist, pulled back from his face with a seemingly simple band that Namur saw Izo drop a small fortune for. Izo's plucking up various bottles of liquid lined up on his vanity, methodically shaking a few measured drops into his palm before patting them into his face. Namur doesn't see any difference before and after the drops are applied.

"It's...it's not my secret to tell, but no one else seems to know, and I need to talk to someone, it's too big for just me," Namur says, reluctantly. "But you can't tell anyone, Izo, I mean it."

Izo just hums in response, and Namur sweats. He seems to be doing a lot of that these days. Maybe he needs to take a few days to just swim, being above sea level for too long can be stressful for fishmen.

Because this is already seeming like an increasingly bad idea. Izo isn't known for being particularly good at keeping secrets; if anything, he's a known gossip. That being said, he's also one of the best listeners aboard the Moby (it's how he gets his info), and more importantly, is the third best person to go to for good, thoughtful advice.

The best person to go to for advice is, of course, Pops, but Namur wilts at the mere thought because it really, really isn't his place to talk to Pops about this without Marco's consent. And unfortunately, the close second for Best Person to Go to For Advice is none other than Marco himself, everyone's Big Brother and caring Mother Hen Supreme.

And, well. It's not like Namur can go to Marco to talk about Marco.

"Well, I'm waiting," Izo says, and apparently he'd gone through his entire lineup of six little bottles of mysterious liquids, and is now blotting some paste onto his skin with a weird brush-like contraption. Namur squints, but can barely see any difference between the areas with the paste and without.

"Please don't tell anyone, unless they already know," Namur stresses again, praying.

"Yes, yes." Izo continues blotting.

"Marco proposed to someone."

Izo continues blotting.

Namur sweats.

Izo's hand gradually slows, and Namur realizes he's finished covering his entire face. Namur sees zero difference.

"Just so we're clear," Izo says, as he finally turns to face Namur. "When you say 'Marco,' we're talking about the fire chicken one, and when you say 'propose,' we're talking about the marriage, weddings, and babies type?"

"Babies?!"

No, no, that actually hadn't crossed Namur's mind, but it's there now, and he knows logically that devil fruits don't work like that, but his mind is suddenly filled with the image of an entire school? flock? of tiny colorful winged merbabies, and he's oh, oh NO they're so cu--

"Namur! Focus, please!"

Namur blinks. He doesn't know when it happened, but one of Izo's eyebrows is more defined than the other now.

"Yeah, that Marco," he confirms. "And I, I don't know about...the last thing, but yeah, if successful, usually the kind that results in marriage type."

Izo's oddly calm, and is facing his mirror again. He frowns momentarily, but then smooths his expression and begins applying his other eyebrow. Namur realizes that Izo's able to keep his face so smooth because he wants to draw on his face evenly, and that's actually quite impressive. Though, he has no idea why Izo needs more eyebrows, when he already has perfectly normal ones growing on his face.

"Who's the boy who stole the stupid pineapple's heart, it must be someone we know," Izo says, voice light.

Namur wasn't exactly planning on disclosing this much, he'd just wanted someone else to help him think of how best to support their brother's potentially upcoming union, but Izo's definitely not taking no for an answer, and that's a fight he knows he can't win.

"It's Ace's little brother, the one Thatch went to go fetch," he says reluctantly. "And even though she's his 'little brother,' she's apparently a girl, and a mermaid."

There's a clatter, and Izo curses. Namur tries to peer at Izo's face in the mirror, and notices a weird black blob by his eye that Izo's now trying to delicately smudge off. It wouldn't have been there in the first place if Izo hadn't been trying to poke himself in the eye with the weird brush thing. Namur really doesn't get this makeup business.

"You're telling me," Izo growls, and Namur flinches at the irritation, though he gets the feeling it's directed mostly at the eye blob. "That Marco's straight? I could have sworn he was gay!"

Namur blinks at Izo.

Izo blinks at Namur through the mirror. The eye blob makes his face look slightly crooked.

"Oh, right," Izo mutters, picking up his brush with face distorting ink again. "I thought Marco only liked guys like that, so it surprised me that he likes a girl. Maybe he's bi. Don't worry about it, it's a dumb human thing."

"Oh," Namur says, and yeah, he's heard vaguely about humans being weirdly obsessed with only liking a specific gender or two. It's a very foreign concept that Namur doesn't really get because it doesn't exist on Fishman Island, and romance stuff rarely comes up on the Moby, shockingly enough, or at least in front of Namur. But he's glad Izo doesn't seem too upset, because that would upset Namur. Namur's never met Ace's little brother, but he imagines she'd look so very charming next to Marco, given how in love Marco looked when he was sending off his proposal. He wants to root for them.

"Although, hm, does Ace know? I doubt he'd be very happy about Marco sweeping his dearest little brother off her feet, er, fins," Izo says, seemingly more relaxed now that his face distorting paint is cooperating. His face is now even, although his eyes actually do look different now, more like the Izo Namur usually sees. It's fascinating.

"I don't know," Namur confesses, and he's suddenly feeling very glum at the thought of their little fire cracker baby brother not being happy. Even though Ace didn't formally join, he's still their littlest brother, and Namur's very fond of him, and has honestly lost track of the number of times he's dived into the sea to fetch the reckless kid. He was honestly devastated when Ace said he was leaving. It's alright now, now that Namur knows it was just to bring home Marco's future bride, but he hopes Ace will be supportive too.

"And how did you know he was proposing?"

At this point, what does it matter what else Namur shares? "Well..."

By the time Namur's done answering all of Izo's questions on Fishman Island courtship and Marco's respectful application of it, Izo's done with his face.

"Well, that was certainly a fascinating talk," Izo says with lips the color of a raw fish's innards. "Now I'll have to kick you out before I do my hair. At least I finished my face."

Namur knows he's been excused. "Thank you for your time. Also, it looks very nice, your face," he says politely as he gets up. It seems awkward not to comment on it, after having watched Izo work so hard on it for the past half hour. "Although it looked nice before too. I like the eye paint."

Izo pauses contemplatively, then nods. "That's an acceptable compliment. Thank you. Now, shoo."

~~

"So, who's the wedding for?"

Izo jolts as Haruta settles his tray on the other side of the table.

"What wedding?"

"Don't play dumb. You're planning a wedding. I noticed some of our books were moved in the library, and you were the only one who was in there before me. You were looking up Grand Line marriage traditions, and going through shitty wedding magazines that no one's touched in a decade," Haruta rattles off as he stirs his soup, and Izo inwardly curses.

He thought he'd placed them all back where he'd found them, but alas, apparently nothing gets by Haruta's observation skills, and his talent for butting into business that has nothing to do with him.

"And given the selections, I'd say it's not for you." Haruta continues, as though he knows Izo's tastes by heart and sadly, he probably does, and not just Izo's but the whole crew's. "So someone's getting married, or they're thinking about it, and you're planning. I want to know who."

"You're a nosey little shit," Izo says, because he knows there's really no point in denying it to Haruta without tangible evidence, which he lacks. He's also too tired to deal with this shit, because he did his hair in a hurry in order to make it to the library before everyone woke up, which means it's slightly less perfect than usual. And being anything less than perfect is a truly exhausting business.

"Mm-hmm," Haruta says, and momentarily seems distracted by his plate. There's a tiny, almost imperceptible frown on his lips, and Izo only recognizes it because he'd had the same thought.

The food's by no means bad, and they have many fine cooks on the Moby. It's just, it's a little different, without Thatch's personal touch. Izo hates that their brother's temporary absence is so tangible. Damn him for going on his little vacation.

They continue their meal in silence, and Izo hopes that Haruta's forgotten, his mind having moved on to terrorizing other innocent brothers. Izo thinks he might be able to get away, when Haruta gets up right alongside Izo to return his tray.

"So who is it?" he repeats, as though they hadn't just sat in thirty minutes of silence, and Izo wants to tear out Haruta's hair in frustration, because Izo would never tear out his own hair for any reason.

"It's none of your business, don't you have work to do?"

"My work is knowing stuff. Tell me."

"This isn't something you need to know. That's what I'm telling you."

"Nice try. Lemme guess. Is it Marco?"

Haruta laughs at his own joke, and promptly walks into Izo's back. Izo tries to get over his momentary freeze, but the damage is done.

"Holy shit, it's MARCO?!"

"What happened to Marco?" Vista has the absolute worst timing in entering the cafeteria, because he's standing directly in front of them. He already has his sword sheaths removed from his belt, no doubt so he can polish them in a corner after he's done eating, as is his usual ritual.

Haruta's eyes are blown wide, and Izo wants to stop him but no one can out-talk Haruta when he wants to talk, so it's like watching a cannonball hurtling towards an inevitable collision.

"Marco's getting married."

Vista never drops his swords.

Vista's swords clatter to the ground.

And now everyone inside the cafeteria, and those in the line forming outside behind Vista, all stop to stare.

~~

~~

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

And as always, comments/reblogs/tags always immensely appreciated!!! People sharing their thoughts with me motivates me to write so much more, and update more frequently, so thank you so much for everyone who’s so kindly done so in the past!! ;A;

(The next part’s already up on Patreon if anyone wants to read in advance <3)

❀ ❀ Send YukiPri an Ask! ❀ ❀

Read the next part: Marco’s Bauble, Part 5

~This ask has been added to the Mermaid AU Text Headcanons Compilation post~

[jaydicksummerexchange]

JAYDICK EXCHANGE: SEPTEMBER 3

[ ❤ Works posted so far! ❤ ]

SECOND TO LAST DAY OF THE JAYDICK EXCHANGE!

Why the second to last instead of the last? That’s because we’ve reached 114 Exchange works for 2020! The more treats get added, the more we time we add to our juicy cabooses and keep the exchange train rolling. Until Saturday that is. Tomorrow is the final posting date, and we’ll reveal the wonderful participants on September 5 no matter what. 

Here are today’s releases!

Claws by anonymous for solomonara [ART, Not Rated, No Archive Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: FanartHurt/Comfort, Injured Jason, Secret Identity, dick's teams don't know the red hood's identity, dick's harem of morally ambiguous older men, dick: he's not older, dick: wait i mean he's not my villain boyfriend, dick: damn it

Summary: Dick takes the Red Hood to a Titan safehouse after an injury. Explanations are expected.

Learning To Love The Fall by anonymous for 3isme [ART, Teen, No Warnings Apply, JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Fanart, Alternate Universe - 1920s, Mechanic Jason Todd, Plane Pilot Dick Grayson

Summary:  It's the early 1900s and the country of Gotham is recovering from a long war.

Trying to get a better life, Jason Todd has been moonlighting as an underground plane mechanic for illegal aeroplane racers, getting a cut of whatever the pilot wins. After one particular competition, he's accused of sabotage and, despite his protests, forced into deeper debt. At the end of his rope, he runs into Dick Grayson, ex-ace of the Gotham Air Force and supposed dead man. The war hero was supposed to have been shot down near the end of the war. Regardless, this pilot is the best chance Jason has to grab hold of that better life, and he's not going to let it go.

The Still and Quiet Surface by anonymous for TheWayneManner [FIC, General Audiences, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Gift Fic, Ficlet

Summary: Dick leaves the sea behind and never looks back.

Scents & Sensibility by anonymous for Nitrojen [FIC, Explicit, No Warnings, JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Regency, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Fae, References to Jane Austen, although the writer has a pretty dark secret concerning our dear friend jane, Getting to Know Each Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added

Summary: Prompt - Something along the lines of the Princess and the Pea. It can be A/B/O, modern, fantasy, or even something that takes place in canon where there's some kind of curse. Have fun with it! 

Give It A Shot (of espresso) by anonymous for morimaiter [FIC, Teen, No Warnings, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Hurt/Comfort, Barista Jason Todd, Flirting, Awkward Flirting, Sexual Tension, JayDick Summer Exchange, very minor injury, art included

Summary: Dick was one of their regulars. And yes, that was his real name. The first time he’d asked Jason to write it on his cup Jason had given him a death glare until the man had whipped out a driver’s license to prove it. ‘Richard John Grayson’, printed right there. It hadn’t been an innuendo after all, just an unfortunate choice of nickname. He came into Gotham Grinders (and hell if Jason hadn’t heard enough innuendos about that name to make up for any lack of innuendo in Dick’s own) every Tuesday and Friday, which happened to always be Jason’s shifts. Every time he asks for some new over-the-top order, and every time without fail he also asks for Jason’s digits. Jason replies every time with:

“I’m sorry sir, we can’t give out personal information to customers. Will that complete your order?” 

(Fic + Art)

Lazy Days by anonymous for BehindTheRobinsMask [ART, Teen, No Warnings, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd] 

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Married Life, Married Couple, Established Dick Grayson/Jason Todd, Literal Sleeping Together, Lazy Mornings, Domestic Fluff, Fanart

Summary:  It's the weekend! Jason and Dick sleep in after a long night on the streets.

Taken in the Butt by the Gay Vigilante Acro-Bird by anonymous for solomonara [ART, Teen, No Warnings,  JayDick] 

Additional Tags: Romance Novel, Cover Art, Jason Todd is an Author, Partial Nudity, Birds, Vintage Gay Pulp Novels, Chuck Tingle-Adjacent, Please Forgive me, FanartDigital Art, JayDick Summer Exchange

Summary: The Red Hood has a secret: he's a part-time romance novelist.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea by anonymous for stribird (timidGoddess) [FIC, Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Heavy Angst, Self-Doubt, Lazarus Pit, Panic Attacks, Established Relationship, Bad Decisions, Romantic Fluff, Amnesia, Broken Promises, Road Trips, On the Run

Summary: Jason couldn’t do that. He could never forget what Dick meant to him. Which is why he had to bring his Bluebird back. Which is why he had to remind Dick of everything that he had lost.

Even if that meant forcing him into the Lazarus Pit. Even if it meant cursing him in the process.

tell your boyfriend, if he says he's got beef, that i'm a vegetarian (and i ain't fucking scared of him) by anonymous for prompt_fills [Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Fluff and Humor, Crack Treated Seriously, Damian Wayne is a Little Shit, Protective Damian Wayne, POV Damian Wayne, Batman: Reborn, Jason Todd has a Heart, Damian Wayne Has a Heart, Dick Grayson is Damian Wayne’s Parent, Dick Grayson is Batman, Mutual Pining, enemies to idiots to lovers, Misunderstandings, Damian Wayne Plays Therapist, Jason Todd is Bad at Feelings, Dick Grayson is Bad at Feelings, My Continued Mocking of Tim Drake (it's loving i swear), Donna Troy is a goddess and no one deserves her, My love for Donna Troy is so strong that I projected it onto Damian and I am not sorry, Unbetaed we die like Jason Todd refuses to, Past Dick Grayson/Slade Wilson, Jealous Jason Todd, Pining Dick Grayson, BAMF Donna Troy AND MORE

Summary: It had taken a few weeks for Damian’s ill-fated hopes for the more platonic explanation of Grayson’s unseemly conduct regarding Todd to expire because Damian (unlike Drake) is not an idiot (and Brown had prattled on about every instance of very clearly not platonically fueled tension, slowly crushing Damian’s remaining hopes for Richard’s taste in romantic partners). Denial, heavenly as he has now known it to be, can only take one so far. And as a pragmatist and the grandson of the great Ra’s al Ghul and son of the great Bruce Wayne, he assesses the situation from a logical perspective, free of any emotions clouding his impeccable judgment, and comes up with a solution that benefits both himself and Grayson.

Jason Todd must die.

Or the story of how Damian Wayne became the number one shipper of JayDick and is not at all happy about it.

Si solo fueras tú by anonymous for fallogory [ART, Gen, Creator Chose No Warnings, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Fanart, Kid Dick Grayson, Adult Dick Grayson, Kid Jason Todd, Adult Jason Todd, King Bruce Wayne, Prince Damian Wayne, Prince Dick Grayson, Poor Jason Todd, Hurt Dick Grayson, Jealous Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson Needs a Hug

Summary: Blue came first

Then Green arrives

Then Blue meet Red

And Green hate that

Or where Dick was Bruce's bastard child who was forced to lived like a prince until Damian's born and meet someone who make his world be upside down.

the smell of cold stone by anonymous for abcission [FIC, Mature, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bisexual Dick Grayson, Autumn, American Football, College Football, Blow Jobs, First Time Blow Jobs, Getting to Know Each Other, Getting Together, referenced Jason/Kyle, Past Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Past Dick Grayson/Roy Harper, past dick grayson/wally west - Freeform, implied Roy/Kory, implied Roy/Wally, implied Donna/Kyle, future besties Jason and Roy, Roy's eternal crush on Donna, frat boy Dick, Fluff

Summary: Their eyes meet on the quad one day; he’ll probably never see the frat boy again, but he’ll be nice fodder for Jason’s dreams at least.

[a-dragons-journal]

I've gotten so used to getting death threats, rape threats and suicide bait for having a problematic fictotype that I no longer attempt to join fictionkin spaces. I never mention it to anyone, because I know what'll ensue and that everyone will tell me, "Well if you don't want people to do that to you then don't kin bad people/don't mention your kintype! It's your fault for picking this/mentioning it!" and I really wish I could drop kintypes. But it's been three years, and I haven't. Help?

Ugh, that’s honestly the worst and I’m so sorry. It’s yet another product of people misunderstanding fictionkinity entirely and thinking it’s something you choose to do because of misinformation, and it’s awful that it’s hurt you so much.

You and I both know that you don’t choose your fictotypes - I think it’s pretty clear from your ask that if you could, you wouldn’t have picked this one. It logically follows that you can’t reasonably assign morality to fictotypes, any more than you can assign morality to having red hair or being 5′3 or any other trait you don’t have a choice in. You can’t assume anything about someone’s personality or morality from their fictotypes. You should only ever be responsible for your actions in the here and now - not those of your fictotype - and actions like sending threats and suicide bait are the despicable ones here.

The problem comes mainly from people thinking fictotypes are something you choose and thus anyone who chooses to “kin” such a “horrible person” must themself be a horrible person or they wouldn’t choose to do that. Which is completely unfair to actual fictionkin to whom that doesn’t apply at all.*

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what to do about that socially other than trying to find spaces where that misinformation isn’t so much of a problem. Forums may be a good idea, or ‘kin Discord servers - although from what I hear from people who have been in more of them than I have, it takes a good deal of hunting to find one without these problems (the Otherconnect server is the only one I personally know of that isn’t dragon-specific). Y’all followers have any suggestions? (I recommend keeping track of the notes on this, anon; I probably won’t reblog every response.)

I hope you find what you’re looking for, anon; I’m sorry you’ve had it so rough and please know you’re welcome at my hearth as long as you wish to stay <3

* (I mean, it’s also unfair in the sense that you can relate to and project onto terrible people in fiction without necessarily being a terrible person yourself because people are complicated and are allowed to have ugly power fantasies in a fictional space where those fantasies hurt literally no one, but that’s another conversation entirely.) 

[arya-skywalker]

Starved for Attention Part 1 (Sanders Sides Fanfic)

Notes: So I started this thing months ago, before Janus even had a name. It’s based loosely on this gorgeous art (tw starvation and chains), by @altruistic-skittles

However it has grown dramatically, and will now likely be 2-4 parts. Thanks to the Joan Collective / TSS Content Creators Server for encouraging me and bouncing ideas around. Apply here to join

This is vaguely canonverse, after Virgil was accepted but before Deceit revealed himself to Thomas.

TW: starvation, malnourishment, imprisonment, chains, Janus does not like Patton

Ships: Roceit and Anxceit (not a love triangle tho, they’re just trying to help him, Anxceit here is more platonic anyway)

Part 2

~*~

Janus leaned against the wall of his cell, watching the chains sway in the chill breeze, listening to the discordant music as they clanged against each other. He rubbed his arms, trying to ignore how skeletal they were. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a full meal, the last time he had been allowed outside the cell.

Footsteps approached.

Janus quickly adjusted his position, crossing one leg over the other, lounging without a care in the world. Don’t show weakness. You are in control. He forced a smile, watching the figure come into view. “Ah, Your Highnesss. How kind of you to come vissit.”

Roman stopped in front of the barred door, fiddling with his sword. “I.... you look awful.”

Janus laughed. “Do I? I haven’t had the luxury of a mirror,” he said dryly.

“Oh. I didn’t mean.... uh... do you want one?” Roman fumbled at his belt, then held out a pocket mirror, slipping it through the bars.

Janus watched as the mirror rolled over to him and landed face-down. It would be so easy to ignore it, to pretend he was still his handsome self. It would be easy to break the mirror and use the shards as a weapon.

But he did neither. Janus picked up the mirror, surprised by how heavy such a small item could be. He took a deep breath and smoothed his expression before daring to look at his reflection.

He was even more gaunt than he feared. His bones were disturbingly clear through his thin flesh. His cheeks were sunken. Dark bags under his eyes marked his lack of sleep. His scales had lost their shine.

He wished he hadn’t looked.

Janus closed the pocket mirror with a click and set it down. “Why are you here, my prince?” He asked, realizing Roman was still standing there.

“I... umm... figured you might want some company?”

Janus arched an eyebrow. “You mean you want company that isn’t one of your goody-two-shoes friends up there.”

Roman scuffed the floor with his polished boots. “They don’t support me like they used to,” he muttered. “It just feels like... whenever I make progress something always sends us back to where we started!”

“Mmm.... they don’t listen to you,” Janus said. “Jussst as they refuse to listen to me and your dear brother.”

“Well... I.... that’s—“ Roman stammered.

Janus straightened, his snake eye gleaming. “It’s the same.”

“I’m... not sure if that’s....” Roman rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh come now! You and I know I am not a monssster.” Janus tilted his head to the side. “Remind me again why I am locked away down here.”

“You know why.”

Janus clicked his tongue. “Humor me, my prince.”

Roman frowned. “Well.... you... you’re one of the Dark Sides.”

“A term you invented. Try again.”

“Uh.... because.... Thomas thinks that lying is wrong.”

“Mmm... getting closer. Now.... how did I end up stuck down here?” Janus inched closer to the bars. Roman blinked. Clearly that was too far of a jump. Janus sighed. “Thomas’s mind is.... unique, as I’m sure you know. I am in charge of hiding things that Thomas doesn’t want to know or they would hurt him if he did know. But who or what hides me?”

Roman’s brow furrowed. “You did this to yourself?”

Janus laughed harshly. “No, no. I am not nearly so self-sacrificing.” He coughed, taking a moment to get control over himself. “No. The mind palace itsself is doing this to me. Thomas’s sssubconsciouss if you prefer. Something deep within, sentient in a way, but not strong enough to be a side on its own.”

“Oh....”

Janus leaned forward. “Let me go. I can help you, my prince, but not from this cell.”

Roman opened and closed his mouth, looking much like a confused fish washed ashore. “I... You....”

“Come now. The others are no help to you. We both need allies,” Janus said. If he wasn’t so weak, he would have waltzed up to the barred door and grabbed Roman’s collar, pulling him close for a kiss between the bars. But he could barely summon the strength to stand, let alone drag himself across the cell.

Roman lowered his gaze, then suddenly brightened. “Oh right. I brought food!” He shoved a crumpled paper bag between the bars and dropped it.

Janus lunged for the food instinctively, somehow managing to catch it before it hit the disgusting floor. His body screamed in protest— but it was worth it. He opened the bag to find an apple, a mystery sandwich, a water bottle, and a cookie. His mouth watered. “Thank you, my prince,” he said sincerely before digging into the meal.

“I told Pat I was going on an adventure and he insisted on packing something,” Roman said sheepishly. “And I know you don’t get fed enough so.... yeah. You’re welcome. I’ll... uh... let you eat in peace. Farewell!”

He sunk out before Janus could protest. But it was better this way. Janus didn’t want anyone to see him gorge on the blessed meal. Sure, sides technically didn’t need to eat. But he could pretend the food helped. And for a little while, maybe he could believe it.

~*~

Janus awoke to the distinct impression of someone watching him. He frowned and stirred, glancing at the barred door to see Virgil crouched in the shadows. “Here to gloat?” he drawled.

“Not today, no.” Virgil moved closer to the bars. He looked.... worried? Ridiculous. “What the hell happened?”

Janus shrugged. “Thomas said himself of lying— ‘That’s a side of myself I would prefer not to feed into’,” he said, mimicking Thomas’s voice. “For some reason, that was taken literally. So here I am, starving in the dark. Happy?”

“Fuck that.” Virgil pelted a granola bar at him. Then another. Then a bottled protein shake. “There. Eat up.”

Janus flinched and held his hands in front of his face, then blinked when he realized Virgil was throwing food at him. “You... you’re helping me?”

“This doesn’t mean I like you,” Virgil said quickly. “But you need to be strong enough to do your job in case Thomas does need you for whatever reason. So... yeah.” He stuffed his hands in his hoodie pocket.

Janus picked up the granola bars and opened the shake, taking a few careful sips of the almost-too-sweet drink. “How long were you sitting there for?”

Virgil smiled sideways. “Do you really want to know?”

Janus glanced over and decided he didn’t. “What else do you want?”

Virgil shrugged. “I want you to swear on whatever means anything to you that you won’t hurt Thomas or any of the other Sides,” he said.

“I swear I won’t harm anyone intentionally,” Janus said, taking off a glove and holding his hand over his heart.

Virgil exhaled sharply and rubbed his face. “Why should I trust you? How do I know you aren’t just.... lying again?”

“Mmm. You can’t possibly know for sure,” Janus said, fixing his gloves. “But you know as well as I do that repression will only hurt Thomas in the end.”

Virgil was silent for a while, then shook himself and stood. “Just... be careful, alright? I’ll check in to make sure you don’t die or get sick or whatever.” He gestured vaguely as he sunk out.

Janus was alone again. He pulled his knees to his chest and closed his eyes.

~*~

Logan was the next visitor. “Deceit? I have been informed of your condition and thought it may be a good idea to investigate myself.”

Janus lifted his head to look over, then narrowed his eyes upon seeing the first aid kit. “You are not a doctor.”

“Perhaps not. But I have researched medicine extensively.”

Janus bared his fangs. “Don’t even think about coming at me with needles.”

Logan sighed. “I simply wish to monitor your condition to ensure you are not in severe danger.”

“Logic, I am starving. But we are imaginary. You know wounds and illnesses don’t have lasting effects. Besides, you are out there, and I am in here. How do you plan on getting inside the cell, hmm?”

“I have also researched how to pick a lock.” With that, Logan stepped forward and stuck something into the lock, fiddling with it until it popped open.

Janus froze, staring at him. The door was unlocked. The cell was open. He could.... he could....

Logan sat beside him on the cold floor. “Allow me to take your vitals.”

“Wait. Don’t touch me. Pleasse.” Janus recoiled, hating himself for it.

Logan blinked and adjusted his glasses. “Oh. My apologies. You must be touch starved. Unfortunately I am not very experienced with that sort of things. Patton is much—“

“No. I do not want to sssee Patton,” Janus hissed. Morality might not be directly responsible for his imprisonment, but if Thomas didn’t think lying was so bad, he wouldn’t be in this situation. Patton was part of the reason he was stuck down here.

Logan hesitated. “Perhaps Virgil?”

Janus rested his head on his knees. “Fine,” he mumbled.

Janus heard him leave— and lock the door. Of course they didn’t trust him enough to leave the cell open. Why would they? He was Deceit.