#Not in a way that lets them talk about how terrible ive been to them. Jokes on them though.. I've convinced everyone that they are crazy.

[bunnyboy-juice]

blah blah blah blah blah

[martinsorbit]

"You're holding it wrong," He says, in a frustrated but calm tone. "Here, I'll help you aim, just give me your hands."

Before Sun even finishes his sentence, his arms are already around yours waiting.

"Oh, uh. Sure" You murmur.

As you let your hands go limp a bit, Sun gently holds them and guides them in the position he deems "correct".

There's not much arguing about who's right in this; Sun deems his technique to be the best, or at least, bettter than yours; You, on the other hand, doesn't really have that much room to talk, given how terrible you are at aiming, but also because of your recent memory loss. Either way, Sun would definitely wipe the floor with you in any argument at this point, so you just spare yourself.

"Your Hands..."

"Yeah?"

"Oh- Nothing, I was just‐ Talking to myself, that's all" he says

HI HERE HAVE THIS. IVE BEEN WITH THIS IMAGE STUCK IN MY BRAIN FOR THE LAST 2 WEEKS AND NOW I DID IT YAYYY; I still gotta update the Y/Ns design soreeyyy

Anyways hope u guys like this cuz ive been staring at this zooming in and out like ive spotted a rare deep sea creature

[python333]

bedbound — python333

— — — —

synopsis you're on a mission and oopsie daisy you get trapped under a building!! you end up in the medbay and tf141 visits you one by one, each of them giving you a lil piece of their mind for going and getting yourself trapped under a collapsed building.

relationships platonic!taskforce 141 & gn!reader.

characters cap. price, soap, ghost, gaz.

word count 4.5k

warnings pretty detailed (i think) descriptions of [reader] being in pain [specifically having a bunch of leg injuries], angstier than i usually write, 2nd person pov [you/yours/yourself], usage of c/n [code name/call sign].

note this is my first actual fic ive wrotten in MONTHS so i hope its okay! so sorry if it feels like a majority of the focus is on the reader, i had a too much fun writing out the first part where they get crushed :3 i am also once again begging for requests. like on my knees hands together begging for requests. its the best way of getting motivation istg. anyway, this is all mild hurt/comfort and some angst + fluff so enjoy!! :3

You tried running out of the building—you didn’t expect the whole damn thing to come crashing down on you.

You’d just been chasing after an enemy soldier moments ago, dashing into the building, when suddenly the whole building seemed to shake. Then, the whole thing seemed to just collapse. When you think about it now, you realize the shake must’ve come from a nearby explosion, an explosion somehow powerful enough to damage the structural support of the building so terribly that it couldn’t hold itself up anymore and instead fell down onto you. 

Now, here you were, just ten steps away from the entrance of the building, stopped by the huge slab of concrete and twisted metal that pinned your legs down to the ground. Your earpiece fell off when you fell down, sliding across the floor, preventing you from calling your team.

Sure, you could try and move your legs, but the excruciating pain that came with each movement wasn’t worth it. You think your legs are broken with the way your nerves scream at you every time you move them, and with how uncomfortably and horrifyingly disconnected they feel.

“I’m making shit up,” You whisper hoarsely to yourself, ignoring the tears that welled up in your eyes from the debris and dust in the air, “They’re not broken. I’m making it worse for myself by thinking that.”

In the back of your mind, you remember that you’re quoting Price on that one, from the last time you got seriously hurt like this. You vaguely remember your panicked words and Price’s soothing voice that came after every worry, telling you that no, you’re not too badly hurt, it’s gonna be okay, you’re just panicking.

But in the forefront of your mind, all you can do is think about how you can’t reach your earpiece to talk to your team, the only thing you can do is listen to their worried voices.

The earpiece is loud enough for you to hear, even though you’re just out of arm’s reach from it, you can still hear your teammates repeating your call sign and asking how you copy. With the stupid Push-To-Talk thing, you can’t even just respond, no, you have to push the button on the side of your earpiece to unmute yourself.

You stretch your arm out just a little bit more to try and reach the earpiece, but when your leg starts to strain and your nerves light up you immediately give up, letting out a small, pained huff. You take a moment to just lie there and listen to your own labored breaths, every other breath hitching or catching in your throat.

You swallow down a sob that threatens to bubble out of your throat and try to reach again and—nope, that still fucking hurts.

You bring your hand back and put it over your mouth to muffle a small sob that climbs up and out of your throat, and try to take a deep breath the best you can with the debris in the air.

You feel a slight discomfort in your chest and cough, horrified when you see small specks of dust in the air you cough out, and God, the sight of it makes you want to rip out your lungs.

You feel the sudden urge to cough everything out, to flush out the dust in your lungs, to get rid of the uncomfortably full feeling you feel in your chest, but you know that every time you cough you can only exhale more of that debris-filled dust back in so now you’re trapped in a loop and—

“[c/n], how copy?” God, you want to yell at them that repeating that question won’t help, but you know there’s nothing else they can do. They’ve already asked where you are, if you’re okay, and how you copy multiple times, all of which got no answer.

They’ve only experienced radio silence on their end, and the thought makes you feel guilty for not being able to suck up the pain in your legs and just reach over to the damn earpiece and tell them you’re trapped.

You take a few deep breaths, trying your best to ignore the way you can literally feel the dust entering your lungs, and reach. You stretch your arm out the farthest you can, and feel the strain in your leg, and you’re almost to the earpiece, just a few more inches— pop.

A bone chilling pop rings through the air the moment you manage to snatch the earpiece, and good thing it was at least after you managed to grasp it firmly in your hand because you recoil back on instinct and gasp.

The gasp only lets in more dust, and you cough, wet tears dripping down onto your cheeks as you go through a seemingly endless loop of coughing out dust and inhaling debris and coughing it out again only for new dust to make its way into your system.

You stifle a pain-filled whimper and try to control your shaky breath, gripping the earpiece firming in your hand, looking down at it, looking at the sheer amount of debris on it. You bring your free hand out and wipe away the debris with shaky hands, making sure it’s clean enough to put in your ear before you carefully insert it.

It takes you a moment with your trembling hands, but you manage to do it, and you listen to Price ask how you copy one more time before you push down on the PTT button.

“Copy—” You hoarsely say, before coughing, everyone on the other line going silent, “Copy, not doing very well over here.”

“What happened?” Price’s voice crackles through on the damaged ear piece, “Are you hurt?”

“I got trapped under— under some concrete, and I…” You take a moment to catch your breath, “My legs are pinned, I can’t move.”

“Okay, okay,” Price’s voice softens, his tone becoming more soothing, “Where are you?”

“In a building— dunno which— which one… it’s by the really tall one,” You breathe out, mentally slapping yourself in the forehead for not being able to remember, “I’m sorry, I just know it’s orange and it has the entrance that Ghost bumped his head on—”

“It’s okay, I know which one you’re talking about,” Price reassures you, “Catch your breath. I’ll be there to get you out of there, okay? Just stay still, don’t move a muscle, you hear me?”

“I hear you,” You mumble, trying to catch your breath, coughing at the amount of dust that infiltrates your lungs. You bring your hand off of the PTT button and sob once, quietly, and sniffle to try and stop yourself from crying, blinking away tears.

The tears that trailed down your face earlier now only make you realize just how much dust and grime is on your face, how the tear trails must’ve been the only clean lines on your face, how there’s a whole layer of pure filth on your face and you can’t even properly wipe it away because your hands are dirty too.

The pain in your legs are throbbing and you know that you’ve torn some of the muscle in your thighs, and you know the popping noise had to have been your hip, from the unnatural way you’d twisted it to reach your earpiece. You don’t even have time to think about how pathetic you look when suddenly Price opens the barely-hanging-onto-the-hinges-door, looking at the floor for a moment before his eyes finally land on you.

He immediately walks over to the slab of concrete pinning your legs down and forcing you to lie on the ground and you can hear him faintly murmur, “Oh, God,” and kneel down to the same level as the concrete.

You turn your neck to look at him and watch as he looks at the concrete for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to lift it, before he simply grabs the edge of the concrete and, with a grunt and after a good thirty seconds, he manages to lift one end up and flip it over onto its other side. The circulation that immediately floods back to your legs and the sudden feeling of weightlessness you get is almost too much, and you can barely find it in yourself to feel shame as you let out a small, relieved sob at the sudden rush of blood to your legs.

Price immediately gasps and you can’t see much from your angle but in the midst of your relief you suddenly feel a pang of pain and oh God, that hurts. You can recognize now the warm blood that accompanies the drying blood on your calf, and with the blood rushing into your legs, more spills out from the wound in your leg. Vaguely, you can remember twisted metal doing something to your leg—stabbing it, maybe? Your brain becomes fog-filled; too hazy to think through but just clear enough to register the throbbing pain in your leg. 

“I’m so sorry,” Price murmurs softly, and before you can question him he takes the metal out of your leg and you let out a closed-lip scream, slapping a hand over your mouth to try and muffle the now uncontrollable sobs that break past your lips, the pain you feel making you light-headed.

Price quickly pulls a tourniquet out of one of the many pockets of his tactical best, wrapping the bright red strip around your leg just above the bleeding, blocking the blood from reaching past that point. He tightens it and rolls you over so that you’re laying on your back, making you stifle another pain-filled whimper. Without another word, he slips his arm under your knees and his other below your back and lifts you up bridal style, making you gasp sharply and cry out for a moment in pain, a few drops of blood making it onto the floor from your calf, the whole sight dizzying.

Being lifted up like this gave you vertigo—your head spun as you were lifted up and you could barely process anything with your hazy mind. Price mutters small ‘sorry’s under his breath, carrying you out of the door and quickly running with you in his arms back to where the others are, almost wanting to cry for you, seeing how much pain you were in.

Your eyelids drooped and your eyes shortly became half-lidded, and your ears started to ring, and everything was so overwhelming you just wanted it to be over. 

Price notices your eyelids drooping and quickly says, “Hey, hey, don’t pass out on me, you gotta stay awake, kid.” You can only shake your head ‘no’ because talking feels like too much right now and let out another small, pain-filled whimper, just the sound of it making Price’s heart shatter.

You can only find it in yourself to talk a moment later, your words slurring together as you try to speak, “I can’t— can’t… I’m sorry, I can’t—” You don’t even know what you’re trying to say, what you’re trying to warn Price about, but he seems to know.  

“No, no, no—” Price tries to beg you, as if you had enough strength to stay awake. Those are the last words you hear before you completely black out.

—

You wake up to a white ceiling and the faint beeping of a heart monitor. You move your head around a bit, trying to gauge where you are, when you realize— oh, I’m in the medbay. You blink for a moment before sighing and just resting there for a moment, trying to recount the events that happened earlier. You don’t have time to go down memory lane, though, because suddenly the curtains in front of your bed are pulled back to reveal your Captain. “You’re awake,” He states, closing the curtains behind him. “How could you tell?” He snorts and sits down in a chair by your bed. You look at him questioningly, “Where’re the others?” “They’ll be here soon,” Price assures you, looking at your blanket covered legs for a moment before looking back up at your face, “Medics said one at a time.” You hum neutrally in response to that and wait a moment before asking, “How bad is it?” “Your leg?” “Yeah.” “Well…” Price starts to list off on his fingers, recalling the doctor’s words, “The joint that connected your hips and your legs was twisted and it had to be set back to normal, your muscles were torn, your ligaments were torn, your nerves were so compressed someone had to physically massage your legs back to life, and the stab wound in your leg almost got infected.” “… Huh.” You blink at Price, before asking, “When can I get out of here?” “Why is that what you’re thinking about right now?” Price asks, confused, before sighing and answering, “Kid, your leg was basically broken. You can get out of here in maybe a few weeks to a month. Getting back to your assignments is a whole different story. It could take several months for your muscles to fully heal, and even then I don’t want you back out there for a while. Not until it’s guaranteed your leg won’t… give out, or something, out there.” You frown at Price, “So what, I’m just gonna be stuck here?” “What else are you gonna do with an almost-broken leg?” “…” Price sighs and puts a gentle hand on your shoulder, “Look, I know it’s frustrating, having to sit here for a few weeks then be able to get out only to not be able to do anything too physical, but your leg muscles were torn. You were trapped under concrete. You’re not going on any missions any time soon. I feel like that should be kind of obvious.” You can understand it, knowing the condition you’re in now, but you still deflate a little where you lie down and let out a tired, frustrated huff. Price chuckles softly at your clear display of disappointment and rubs your shoulder gently before patting it and getting up. “I guess I have to let the others see you too,” He muses, making your lips twitch up into a smile, the sight making him smile in return, “But I’ll be back tomorrow to talk to you again, alright?” “Alright,” You nod, watching as he walks past the curtains blocking your bed from the rest of the medbay and listen as the door clicks open and closes shut. Not even a few seconds later, the door opens again, this time with someone walking faster to the curtains, pushing them aside eagerly. You quickly recognize Soap as he walks in, quickly closing the curtains behind him before rushing over and leaning down to hug you. This all happens so quickly you have to take a moment to process it, but you eventually hug him back, sighing at the warm embrace. “I want tae call ye stupid sae bad,” Soap mumbles into your neck as he hugs you, “but it wasn’ even yer fault sae I can’.”

“That’s the worst thing that’s happened all day,” You mutter sarcastically, making Soap laugh quietly. He pulls away from you and looks down at you. “It is, actually,” Soap says, and at your confused and mildly offended expression, he adds on, “It’s been over a day since ye got yer leg fucked up.” “… Oh.” You dumbly said, trying to process that. Over a day. “Everyone was really worried about ye, too,” Soap tacks on, refusing to sit on the chair behind him, simply standing by your bed. You stay silent, and Soap takes that as an invitation to keep talking. “I think that's the first time I've actually seen Ghost stressed," Soap muses, making you huff out a small laugh. “Really?” “Yea,” Soap smiles, “I ken. Stone cauld L.t, suddenly worryin’ o’er ye.”

“Isn’t that a surprise,” You mutter, a small smile gracing your lips thinking about Ghost worrying over you, “So you were all really worried?” “Very worried,” Soap nods, “Gaz thocht ye were gonnae die, poor chiel.” “Hm,” You hum neutrally. Soap stays silent for a moment before his voice softens and he quiets himself down a bit. “Try no' tae dae that again, aye? Ye'll gie the captain a heart attack," When you give him a pointed look, he rolls his eyes and adds on, “And me. Possibly. Maybe.” “Uh huh,” You look at him, unimpressed, “Right. I’ll try to predict when a huge piece of concrete is gonna fall on me.” “Ye ken wha’ I meant.”

“Never said I didn’t.” “Ye— y’know wha’? I’ll just leave then,” Soap says, feigning annoyance as he walks away from your bed, making you laugh quietly. He slips out and doesn’t bother to close the curtains behind him, simply walking out the door, not bothering to close that either.

You can hear him letting someone else know you’re ‘free to visit’, and just a few seconds later you watch Ghost walk in. You shouldn’t be as surprised as you are, seeing as Soap had told you Ghost was worried over you, but you still find yourself a little shocked when he walks over to you and closes the curtains behind him. He sits at the chair beside your bed, and silently stares at you from the chair.

You stare back, not blinking, waiting for him to say the first word. You and Ghost’s silent staring match ends with Ghost sighing and speaking up. “How does your… leg feel?” “How do you think it feels?” You ask, deadpan, watching as Ghost’s eyes narrow. You blink at him for another moment before adding on, “It feels numb, right now.” Ghost hums at the actual answer and sits there awkwardly for another moment before stating, “Gaz thought you died. Or, were gonna die.” “I heard about that,” You respond, raising an eyebrow at Ghost, “Did he not know it was just my leg that got hurt?” “Hurt is a mild word,” Ghost mutters, before clearing his throat and saying, “No, he knew. He was more worried about all the stuff that got into your lungs.” “Oh.” “Yeah.”

You both stay silent for a bit, again, before you speak up, “So… are my lungs okay, or… ?” “No, yeah, they’re fine.” “That’s… good.” “Mhm.” Why is this so awkward? You purse your lips and turn your head back so that you’re staring at the ceiling rather than at Ghost, not knowing what to say. Why’d he even come in here if he was just gonna be awkward about this whole thing? It’s silent again, an uncomfortable sort of quiet that’s silent yet deafening at the same time—and you hate it. It seems Ghost hates it too, because he shifts in his seat, not saying anything verbally but you can tell by his body language it’s awkward for him too.

This goes on for maybe a minute or two, when suddenly Ghost gets up and walks the short one step between him and your bed and leans down to hug you. Like the silence, the hug is awkward, but unlike it, it’s comforting. A comfortable awkward? You tentatively hug him back and you feel his hands snake underneath your back, forcing his arms under you so that he can hug you properly. 

“I know Soap told you I was stressed and worried and whatnot,” Ghost mutters, his skull mask pressing into your shoulder, “… And he was right.” “… Did you think I thought he was wrong?” “Shut it and let me try to talk.” “Yes, sir.” Ghost sighs and takes a deep breath before continuing, “He was right. I was growing greys watching you passed out, and I think I almost passed out as well, hearing you were trapped under a huge block of concrete and got stabbed by metal.” 

“Did you ever find out what the metal was?” You ask after a moment, making sure he was done talking.

“The Captain said it was a twisted pipe.”

“Huh.” You lay there for a moment, simply enjoying Ghost hugging you, before Ghost speaks up again.

“I know it wasn’t your fault, but please, God, never do that shit to me ever again.”

“I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m in a collapsing building.”

“I’m serious,” Ghost pulls away from the hug and looks down at you, keeping his hands on both of your shoulders, “I had to drive a car with you in the back passed out laying in the trunk with Price, all while not knowing what happened, and having to drive you guys back to base.”

“… Damn, you guys didn’t get a helicopter, or anything?”

“[c/n].”

“Sorry.”

Ghost sighs, “I’m trying to say that I don’t like worrying over you like that. I don’t like knowing that my kid is hurt, and I can’t do anything about it. That was the first time I was seriously worried and— and stressed over you, and it was terrifying, seeing you just passed out with dirt all over you and blood all over your leg, and just seeing you like that— I can’t do that again,” Ghost takes a deep breath, and looks down at you, trying to gauge your reaction, trying to see what you think of his words, but all you can think is, wait, he called me his kid?

“You called me your kid,” You dumbly voice your thoughts, watching as Ghost’s expression becomes more confused, and he opens his mouth to deny that when suddenly— oh shit, he called you his kid.

“… I did,” He dumbly says back, sounding surprised by his own words, before he fully realizes what he said and simply blinks down at you, not knowing where to go from here. You both blink at each other, not knowing what to say, before he clears his throat.

“I’ll just… head out then,” He awkwardly says, slowly walking away from the bed.

You take the opportunity to say, “Alright, dad.”

He freezes and slowly turns towards you and mutters, “Don’t call me that.”

A grin splits across your face, “Oh I will. Dad.”

He points at you with a single finger, “Don’t. You. Dare.”

“I’ll call you it in front of everyone. I’ll gaslight them into thinking we’re related.”

“God, you better not.”

“I will. In fact, tomorrow, I’ll begin with the Captain. Then I’ll tell Soap, he’s the next most gullible next to Gaz, who I’ll see right after you. Gaz won’t fight with me over it, he’ll just accept it, I know he will, then, and only then, will I tell everyone else. I spread it across the base like the flu. Everyone, and I mean everyone will think that you’re my father, Ghost.”

“That is…” Ghost blinks at you, dumbfounded and mildly horrified, “... terrifying.” “Yeah, I know. Pretty sure I got that from you, dad.” “Oh my God,” Ghost groans, making you laugh at his misery. He walks out without another word, being sure to slam the door behind him, making the poor medic passing by jump at least a foot in the air. You giggle quietly in your bed, waiting for the next person to walk in. By the time you’ve contained your laughter, Gaz walks in, looking strangely sheepish as he walks over to you and closes the curtains behind him that Ghost had forgotten to close. He doesn’t say anything until he’s right by your bed and bends over to give you a nice, firm, quick hug before standing up straight again and clearing his throat. “Hi,” He greets you simply. “Hi.” “How’s the uh… how’s your leg?” “You thought I died?” You ask teasingly, ignoring his question. You can’t see any blush on his face, but you’re almost certain his face heats up as he looks away from you. “Listen…” He sighs, looking back at you, “Price ran over to the whole group, with you not moving at all in his arms, and a tourniquet wrapped around your calf. I feel like it was a bit reasonable for me to think you were dead for a second.” “Right, of course,” You nod, definitely not believing that he only thought you were dead for a second, “That’s totally why I’ve had both Soap and Ghost tell me you thought I was dead. They only told me that because you thought I was dead for a second.” “I’m gonna murder them both, I swear to—” He mutters, burying his face in his hands, making you laugh quietly. He glares at you from behind his hands and adds on, “Oh, you think this is funny? You having a laugh down there, knowin’ that I thought you were dead?”

“I think this is hilarious.” “You’re insufferable and I don’t even know why I try to care about you anymore.” “You don’t try, you just do,” You roll your eyes, “Don’t act like you have to actively try and care about me.” “You’re so snarky today, my God,” Gaz scoffs, “Wait ‘til I tell Captain Price about this.” “Alright, Draco Malfoy. You do that.” “I shouldn’t have ever visited you in here,” He mutters, crossing his arms and looking away from you, feigning annoyance. You huff out a laugh at that and that makes Gaz laugh a bit, though he keeps up his dramatics, continuing to look away from you. “You still think I’m dead now, or?” “Shut it, you.” “My bad.” “I wish they amputated your leg.” “No you don’t.” “…” Gaz can’t even argue with it, simply sighing and rolling his eyes before looking back at you, ”No, I don’t.” “I knew it,” You smile at him knowingly, making his lips twitch up into a smile. You think for a moment before tacking on, “Wanna hear what Ghost said to me?” That makes Gaz perk up and immediately reply, “Oh, absolutely.” Cue you both five minutes later, Gaz gaping at you while you laugh every other word, remember the horror on Ghost's face when he realized what he called you. Gaz covers his mouth with his hand, laughing into it, gripping the rail of your bed with his other hand, keeping himself up.

“He— oh my God,” Gaz laughs, trying to keep quiet so Ghost wouldn’t hear him, knowing the latter was right outside the medbay. He takes a deep breath and another before breaking into small giggles once again, making you do the same. After maybe a few more minutes of just pure laughter, Gaz manages to catch his breath and stop laughing, and you do the same. “I should probably head out now,” He says, sounding almost disappointed by the fact, glancing over at the closed curtain a few feet away from your bed. You nod in understanding and don’t say anything in response, making Gaz look back at you and add on, “I’ll talk to you tomorrow though, yeah?” “Yeah,” You confirm, making Gaz offer you a warm smile and lean down to hug you tightly one last time before getting up and walking over to the curtains, sliding them to the side and walking out, sliding them closed behind him. You hear the click open and shut of the door, as well as Gaz’s footsteps walking outside of the medbay and eventually fading into nothing.

[sans-enjoyer]

Inanimate Insanity Episode 16 Spoilers!!!!

its been like, two days since episode 16, and people are already arguing about Mephone's age. He is a child, and this didnt come out of nowhere guys, he's always BEEN a child:

^post from 2018!! 5 YEARS ago!

^Brian reposting art (amazing art btw<3) where Mephone is described as a CHILD and drawing in a childish way.

^Brian saying that Mephone is so young he doesn't even know how to SPELL.

Now; heres some stuff ive been hearing in argument against him being a child.

"Cobs is infantilizing him." I agree with this to a certain extent, he is acting like Mephone is a child who cant comprehend anything like an abusive parent. but thats where it stops. Children can ALSO be infantlized! But aside from that, Cobs even says; "I forgot how young you are!" Parents don't say that to their adult children, because it makes no sense unless Mephone is a child.

Secondly, why would Brian and Justin be doing the same thing? They say he's young!

"He has an adult voice." Robots don't hit puberty! This means nothing. Unless youre saying that the creators implied hes an adult because hes voiced by an adult, well i'll have to refer you to the images above.

"He hosts an entire show." Arguably not very well, also again, he's a robot, and also, theyre on an island! its not like you need a permit to film on a random island in god knows where. Any child can "host" a show if they have enough determination, general knowledge of how they work, and equipment, and would you know it Mephone has all three! He knows how they work because he watched them in meeple, and he can generate any equipment he needs.

"He's a robot, he doesn't have an age." True..? sort of...? But the thing is, being legally defined as a child is based off your mental capacity. Children arent as mentally/emotionally intelligent as grown adults, because they don't have the life experience nor the capacity to be. Mephone barely has ANY life experience, he grew up in Meeple, and then started the show immediately after leaving. And obviously, in Inanimate Insanity (and all object shows), robots are almost always sentient beings, unlike real life.

"He's much more mature than a child, especially one that couldn't spell." Debatable! First of all, he thinks things like 'going to jail for one day' and 'the calm down corner' are terrible punishments, like children. If you tell a child to go sit on the stairs for 5 minutes and frame it as a punishment, they will take it as serious as anything else. Secondly, he literally decided to make a random species of bat.. things? fight to the death because they ate his four month old ice cream. No mature person would do that... Thirdly, abused children ACT more mature than others because they HAVE to be. Abused children are not ALLOWED to act like children. They have to be mature for themselves because who else is going to be? Who else is going to take care of you when your parent doesn't? But that doesn't mean they arent still a child.

So now we tread into questionable territory. Is it okay to deny the idea that he is a child at all costs, just so you can ship him or sexualize him? There is really no other reason why you would deny that he is a child.

Now obviously; lets not harass anyone who has drawn ship art of him or sexualized him in the past. This stuff was not commonly known, most people thought he was an adult. But if you look deeper, he isn't.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, if anyone reads this far (￣^￣)ゞI know I usually only post art, but this is an important topic to me as i am very hyperfixated on Mephone4 i swear i can't control it guys!!

Feel free to make any counter points, im open to discussion, but i am also very set on this opinion. Have a good day everyone!!☆

[aimseytv]

this isnt an ask just a ramble i needed to get out about au sunship, i've never had tumblr before and im running on little sleep so this isnt going to be very coherent

But like the parallel between when guqqie felt guilty about getting aimsey to lie because they didn’t want acho to see them differently/yell at them vs aimsey getting angry that guqqie told michella about what hera did because aimsey didn’t want anyone to see guqqie negatively and yell at her (i can’t phrase things right) THESE SCENCES ARENT SIMILAR BUT THEY REMIND ME OF EACHOTHER SO MUCH LIKE KIND OF FORESHADOWING??

AIMSEY SAYING

“other people’s opinions… aren’t something we can control, ….. you need to not worry about what other people think of me…”

Guqqie “people shouldn’t judge you based on one action… i just want people to see that your good”

“…i just don’t think you should be so worried about the way people are gonna perceive me because at the end of the day their thoughts don’t really matter” 

and guqqie being like “they matter to me i want everyone to like you cause your great” 

“as long as you like me then i’m okay”

And this scene isn’t made like a very big deal but like it does matter obviously and then later after mr. loverman (before they see guqqs for the first time) aimsey doesn’t think guqqs likes it anymore and so like they feel like what everyone else always thought of him guqqie also thinks of him now (“youre just a demon”)

and then during the wall scene when aimsey is like did you tell michella and guqqies like yeah and aimseys upset because like 

“i didn’t want people to see you in the wrong way, guqqie!” 

“that’s not up to you!”

“yes it is! …..  i didn’t want people to see you the same way they saw me! i didn’t want it. i didn’t want it anymore. and i just didn’t want people to start making up these things and painting you in a terrible light-

people expect these things of me and they expect me to be this bad thing and i just didn’t want that to happen to you. i just didn’t want it ok…

if i told people that you beat me do you genuinely think people would just look at you and they would think that everything’s ok? No, they wouldn’t guqqie! they would see you differently. and i didn’t want that okay! i just didn’t want that! i just wanted things to be okay…”

so we’ve kind of known this whole time that aimsey really does care about what others think of him but they didn’t quite let on to it when guqqie was talking to her about it but during the wall scene we really see how much others seeing aimsey in a negative light has affected it and how much he’s been hurt by it to the point where they’re genuinely terrified of guqqie also having to go through that!! and just!!! They announcement has made me rewatch a lot of the vods/the ausunshipduo movie and im brain rotting about them but no one I know will listen to me ramble so i just needed this to go somewhere (sorry) ive reread this to see if it makes sense but my eyes hurt so idk if it does or not (im so sorry)

this is so sweet i read the entire thing :) glad you love ausmp gamer

[joonipertree]

idea for the Boxer!Katsuki and Artist!Reader AU! What if, ON TOP OF a rly bad day w college and being overwhelmed w work, we lost our paints :( n we luv our paints so we cry, but katsuki’s there to make us feel better and get us a new set :3

Thank you so fucking much for this. Idk if you knew but I'm actually making a portfolio for art school and Ive been crying every other night because of how stressed I am and how much I feel like I'm a bad artist. So writing this was cathartic

Part 1, Part 2

Tags: Dom/sub undertones, reader acting out and Bakugo being stern, a peak of what kind of shit I want with older men hsjsjsj, fluff, hurt/comfort, soft katsuki

Katsuki was one of the last people you wanted to see when you're in a bad mood. And that might sound terrible but it's because you never wanted to show such a harsh, negative side of yourself to someone you cared about. You were very much a 'feel and then reappear more regulated' type of person. But Katsuki never let you go home on your own anymore, picking you and dropping you off even on days where he had something to do.

So you trotted towards him with a scowl and no energy to fake anything and he noticed instantly, his own concerned scowl mirroring yours.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." You said and opened the door, closing it a bit too loudly. You cringed at the sound but buckled yourself in and turned away before the man got in the driver's seat.

"You're shit at lying."

"Fuck off."

Instant regret, a deep inhale from your part as you tensed.

Fuck.

His large hand came on your thigh and you stiffened, all he did was give it a warning squeeze before pulling away. The message was clear. 'Watch it'.

"I'm not willing to discipline you until I know nothing horrible happened but you do know I don't like that shit from you right?"

You said nothing.

"Give me an answer, doll."

"I'm an adult."

"Yeah, you are. And you're a smart one that knows that we have rules. That I'd be taking you over my lap if you talked like that."

Tears pricked your eyes but you blinked them away, not willing to turn your head to show him.

He knew anyways and he dropped the subject, starting the car and driving off.

Katsuki pulled to a stop at a place that wasn't anywhere near your apartment. You were confused as he got out of the car. Your eyes followed him just as he entered a boba shop.

Oh.

A couple minutes later, he came out with a drink for each of you. You remembered when he said that there just wasn't any point of it, that it seemed stupid and too sweet. But pretty soon, he had his own usual order, which was just Brown Sugar boba tea with the sweetness to a minimum.

Katsuki gave you the drink without even looking your way, sipping on his own. You stared at it for a total of ten seconds before timidly taking a sip. The sweetness broke you out of your sour mood, eyes blinking as you focused on the flavour of your favourite tea. The boba was chewy and soft and it grounded you a bit.

Only after you took a sip, did Katsuki start the car and drive.

When you reached home, the apartment the two of you had started sharing a month prior, Katsuki only gave you time to take off your shoes and put down your bag before he had you over his shoulder.

You struggled, hitting his back and asking him to let you go but he didn't listen...not even feeling it.

And when your ass plopped itself onto the couch, your attempt at running away failed when he easily manhandled you in place.

"I'm not patient enough to coax it out of you, so tell me why you're upset. I'll make it better."

You wanted to refuse but the tears were already dripping down your face.

"I'm so bad at art. I'm so f-fucking bad at it. I don't-" you sobbed and his arms were instantly around you, pulling you onto his lap as you cried into him.

"There's so many deadlines and so many things I have to do and nothing is working. And I don't even know if I'm cut out to be an artist. I'm not good enough, I was never good enough for it. I'm gonna fail-- Katsuki I'm so tired."

Your boyfriend rocked you back and forth, giving you kisses everywhere he could reach, on the side of your face and your head and your hair. And you let the tears fall, hiccuping violently and sobbing without restraint.

"I even lost my fucking paints and I can't live without them and I saved up for them and I'm just doing everything wrong."

You let Katsuki envelope you, squeeze you and warm your inside as you let it all out.

When your sobs died down, Katsuki didn't stop peppering kisses everywhere. It took him a second to speak.

"I didn't know shit about art. It all seemed like fancy, time consuming pictures to me. Hell, even now I don't know shit. But when I saw your art, I felt stuff I thought I didn't know how to feel. And that was the first time I realised that maybe life didn't have to be as shitty as it was. Maybe things didn't have to be ugly."

"When we went to those art galleries, yeah they were cool and pretty but not gonna lie, nothing ever left me speechless like your art did. And yeah...I'm biased as fuck, especially because I thought that the look in your eyes was the prettiest out of everything. That sounds cheesy as shit but you make me feel cheesy as shit."

You had stopped crying, left drained and nuzzled against Katsuki while you looked for an anchor to hold onto. And he held you.

"I like seeing you paint the most though, I like how you focus...I like how you curse under your breath, I like how you grin when something looks right, I like how you scan art supplies before you buy them. I like your paint stained hands and your paint water mugs even when I've accidently taken a sip from them. I like that how you laugh when I do that shit. I love that look of pride you have when you're done and staring at it.

It makes you happy so even if I don't understand the point of it, it means a lot to me because of that. So, whenever that thing stops being fun for you, and really stops being fun for you, I'll support you if you wanna stop. But I gotta keep seeing your work, baby, cuz it's like the inside of your head and it's really neat."

You let a few more tears drop, sniffling and looking into his eyes. There was no ingenuity, only pure emotion. And you let him kiss your tears away, you let him pat your head and you let him make you drink water and feed you.

Because it was never a burden for him to do those things, but a priveledge.

The very next day, the same set of paints were in your bag. Brand new and untouched. Along with three different watercolour paper books. 100% pure cotton, 350 gcm.

With a note that said 'you're still down for a spanking for that shitty mouth of yours. Don't make it a habit.'

[makos-ribcage]

No one loses ㅡ ༝ ˚ ｡⋆ 𓇼 ⋆｡ ˚ ༝

[] - You make Sanji jealous with the help of Zoro

𓇼afab!reader, she/her

! - Toxic relationship, hard language, sanji angst, soft nsfw and implied harsh nsfw

so ive realized how many ppl dont add the fact that sanji is a player when writing stuff about him, so i wanted to write smth based on it, i rlly like the start, enjoy :) if this get enough love ill write a second part :o

You knew what you were getting your ass into. You just didn't expected for it to be so bad from time to time.

You've been dating Sanji for a little longer than 3 months know, but knew him for years. You knew about his issues when it came to women. The fact that he would become a total dumbass, blindfolded, stupid ass man the second a woman appeared in his sight.

You knew that, but you also knew you really loved him, he would make you really happy, you loved the way he was such a gentleman, how he kept himself motivated despite his tragic past and every single little detail about his personality and looks that made him unique.

He also loved you deeply, more than any other woman, he thinks you're the prettiest and best woman out there. But that doesn't stop him to go back to his brainless self in front of women every now and then. You would usually just scold him a little, touch him or just talk to him and he would remember that he was taken and that he had to control his ass.

But not that night, you didn't even recognized him.

Once the Straw Hats became popular, a good amount of pirates and even just random people became "fanatics" of you. Fanatics of Sanji as well.

That blonde cook was good looking, with a deep sensual voice mixed with his height and his ability to cook, enough to make any woman fall over heels to him. Now that his popularity grew, women would even let slide when he was borderline a pervert just to get close to the straw hats or being able to fuck anyone that was part of the crew.

You were at a fancy bar, taking a lil rest from the piracy. Each one of the Straw Hats had a small group of people come around them as they entered the place and each one of them got rid of them in their own way.

Zoro ignored women until they grew tired, Nami stole every single men's wallet, Robin freaked them out with her hands, Luffy acted like Luffy, Usopp told a few lies so obvious that women realized it and you insulted any guy that approached you.

But Sanji? Oh, no. He totally forgot the fact that he was in a relationship the second more than 3 women surrounded him. Flirting with them, telling them that he can cook anything that they wanted, using that deep raspy voice that he knew you loved and place his big soft hands on the women's thigh.

You tried to get him out of there but he would make a comment about "Being enough for everyone", when you called him he basically ignored you, when you touched him he barely noticed. You felt terrible,

After that humiliation, you decided to seat down, your sadness quickly being replaced by anger. You stared at him from the bar with your drink in one hand. He was sitting on the opposite side of the bar with a bunch of women, one on each side of him, the rest surrounding him, massaging his shoulders, giving him compliments, making sure their boobs touched his arms.

You snapped when you saw one of those girls grab his cheeks and playfully kiss his lips. Him just accepting it with a big dumb smile on his face. What the fuck was he even thinking about? You came to the conclusion he wasn't thinking at all.

If he wanted to play a jealousy game, you could play too, and you were going to be the best at it. You knew how to hurt him, you were his girlfriend after all. Zoro.

Zoro and you were quite close. You were strong and independent and he really respected that coming from a woman, specially considering his childhood. You both saw each other as the same, you used to train together, you knowing he wasn't going to hold back because "You're a girl".

It wasn't something unknown that Sanji hated Zoro for some reason, he hated the fact that you trained together, getting to a point where he would just sit and watch your training sessions just to make sure he wasn't going to try anything on you.

You approached him on the bar. He was drinking one of the many drinks that he had planned for the night, slightly drunk but so were all of you. He stared at you as you came closer.

"I need help." You told him, an angry expression on your face that he mimicked right away, thinking it was a dead or life situationship. "Help me get Sanji jealous." His face relaxed.

"Are you serious?" He whispered, feeling like you were teenagers at school.

"Very. Look at him!" You pointed at him, knowing that you could be yelling his name and he wouldn't notice, he was staring directly into some women boobs as he grabbed her waist. "I'm mad as fuck, and you hate him, let's make him mad. No one loses" Besides of Sanji, of course, but he deserves it.

Zoro considered it for a second. He did hated him, he did wanted to help you and you were hot. He gets to be drunk, flirt with a hot girl and make his nemesis mad, he truly don't loses anything.

He chugged his drink, then stared at you. "'Kay, what's the plan?". You smiled.

He put one of his hands on your hip, his hand lingering to your ass slowly. Both of you stood next to a wall near Sanji, you against the wall and Zoro in front of you. Now that you had him so close you realized how big he was. Sanji was tall, sure, but Zoro was big, he covered your body completely, and you felt tiny with his hand on your waist.

Zoro put a happy hand on one of your thighs again, playfully sticking a few fingers under your skirt, wanting to make the best of the situation now that he was at it. You placed a hand on his chest, and he drew you closer with his free hand. Talking to each other while being very near of each other faces. You could breathe the alcohol on Zoro's mouth, and he had a nice view of your cleavage.

Sanji stared at both of you in confusion, he was jealous of you simply talking to him back in the Sunny, seeing both of you so touchy definitely called his attention. But not enough for him to put a stop to his playful flirting with the women.

"It's not working..." You whispered to Zoro, directing your view to Sanji, slightly pouting. He stared into your eyes. "How jealous you wanna make him?".  He grabbed your chin, making you face him again. Oh, he was drunk drunk.

His hand drifted to your neck, squeezing it slightly, enough for you to open your mouth slowly to breathe better. Not even trying to dismiss it as a romantic kiss, he licked your lips slowly, kissing you and quickly turning it into a french kiss.

Out of surprise, and maybe something else, you slightly moaned in his mouth, and you felt his lips curl up into a small smile. His hands kept you in place by your waist, you touched his chest not being sure what to do, deciding to hug him by the neck and pull him closer as well. That heated kiss lasted longer than you expected. Zoro's hands explored your body confidently, the hand on your neck slowly going down until reaching one of your boobs.

You grabbed his wrist, not sure if it was being too much. But his hand didn't stopped at all and you didn't knew if Sanji saw you.

It was something childish and dumb, you didn't just wanted to make him a little jealous, you wanted him to feel bad, as bad as you felt watching him not pay attention to you just get some other girls boobs on his face. It made you feel terrible, feel like you weren't enough, like you were replaceable and you were just some girl he said yes to being her boyfriend just to have some pussy that he was certain he would have available always.

Zoro broke the kiss first, staring directly to your red lips, not because of lipstick but because of such type of kiss.

You felt a presence next to you, when you turned your head, Sanji was there, clearly really mad.

"Oh, you're here, I thought I'd had to fuck Zoro to call your attention." You said, probably as mad as him, but keeping a calm nonchalant expression. It was obvious his actions affected you, but you didn't wanted to show that they did, yet.

"I don't mind." Zoro said, back to his usual, less hot, self, also staring at Sanji.

Sanji pushed both of you aside, deciding to deal with you first and then beat the living shit out of Zoro after he was done with you.

He grabbed your hand dragging you out of the bar. Being cornered in a wall once again on an alley a few streets out of the bar and near the docks where the sunny was, now by your boyfriend, you stared at him straight into his eyes.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He said, clear anger on the sound of his voice. "Out of all the men on that bar, It had to be Zoro, of course." He was mad, you could tell, but you decided to play your little act of not caring for longer.

"Yeah, but they were focused on how you were almost fucking every single girl in the bar, I bet they were jealous." You said, staring right into his eyes, he seemed to feel ashamed of his actions, just for a few seconds, a feeling that faded quickly as you kept talking. "But Zoro didn't seem to care, and since you were experimenting with girls hotter than me, I thought I'd do the same with someone hotter than you."

His face turned red quickly. He grabbed your face with one hand harshly. A grip tight enough to make your face hurt a little.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" He yelled at you, startling you for a second, but you were sure he wouldn't hurt you, either because you trusted him, because you were drunk or because you were mad, you weren't too sure.

"I don't know, you tell me, you've been an asshole to me all night!" You answered, as harshly as him, quickly getting more and more heated by his lack of excuses, you knew you were wrong, but so was him. And he started the whole deal so he had to apologize first.

He released your face, placing his hand on one of his hips as the other one rested next to your head against the wall. "Of course not! I'd never do such thing! You were the one almost fucking Zoro." Now he was treating you like you were insane. Flirting with other girls was already bad enough, but acting like you hallucinated everything and faking dementia was going to make you genuinely insane.

"Yes you did such thing!" You mocked him, watching his gaze get madder and madder. "I even saw you kiss one!"

"Nope, I don't remember that" He played dumb, and you stared at him dumbfounded.

"You're unbelievable! I can't believe I even started dating you!" You turned your head way from him.

He stared at you in surprise, he knew he had a problem, but he did love you, as much as his stupid behavior allowed him. "What the fuck do you mean?" His expression of surprise was quickly replaced by the same stare of anger you saw directed to you all night. You were forced to face him again as he grabbed your forearm with a little too much strength. Pulling you closer where you could feel his familiar breath. "I mean that I hate you!" You replied quickly, not giving it a lot of thought, probably going to regret saying that as much as he's going to regret not paying you attention that night.

"Fine! I hate you too!" He answered, not letting you go neither pulling you away despite of his words. You stared at him, his blue eyes that looked at you with a hatred that you didn't believe was genuine at all, he probably thought the same of your own stare of hatred.

"Fine." You whispered, looking down to his lips for a few seconds, as you licked yours.

"Fine." He mirrored your expression. Staring into your lips.

Before you could even process that you "Hated each other", you pulled him closer, pressing your lips into his own. He placed a hand on the back of your head while the other one got around your waist.

You gripped his shirt as the kiss continued, unbuttoning the first buttons of his shirt while Sanji's hand on your waist lingered lower and lower.

"Let's go to the sunny." You felt that deep, raspy voice that you loved against your lips once again.

"Yes."

[luci-is-a-bitch-x3x]

Obey Me! Brothers react to: Mc turning into their sheep form to comfort the brother when he's upset.

Lucifer's, Mammon's (you are here), Leviathan's, Satan's, Asmodeus's, Beelzebub's, & Belphegor's reactions.

━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━

Welcome! to another part of this adventure! The characters may not be how you imagine! I apologize for any poor jokes, bad spelling, and terrible grammar. Without further ado, please enjoy the content. ♡

━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━

Mammon's reaction

In game Mammon cries a couple of times, probs more than a couple. Mammon cries over movies or TV shows, or he cries over getting in trouble and being hung from the ceiling by Lucifer. That doesn't mean that Mammon doesn't cry over more personal things. No matter what he's crying over Mammon will get angry and argue if called out for crying. Our tsundere (ive been spelling that wrong for however long now so my bad) will deny crying with his life- "The Great Mammon doesn't cry! I just have something in my eyes. That's all!!" Or "I'm not crying! It's fake! Its just water! I pranked yah' guys!! *running away to cry somewhere in peace*" poor Mams If Mammon and Mc are dating Mammon will eventually calm down and go to Mc for comfort when he's upset, but he'll still respond aggressively if Mc teases him over crying. Not in a beat someone up aggressive more of a passive aggressive being angry way.

The first time Mc finds Mammon crying was by accident. Mammon had been out doing things for the witches, running errands that sort of stuff. When Mammon came home Mc and him were supposed to hang iut and watch a movie. So when Mc knew Mammon would be home they went to his room and barged right in, he doesn't knock and they we're excited to hang out. They didn't expect to see Mammon sitting on his bed sobbing into his hands. Mammon hadn't noticed Mc entered his room until the door shut behind Mc, Mammons head flew out of his hands and his face went red with embarrassment when he saw Mc standing there. Mammon freaks out, he throws pillows in the direction of Mc as he frantically trys to wipe his tears and hide from Mc. Seeing Mammon so dejected made Mc feel sad. Then suddenly *poof* Mc was in their sheep form, without even meaning to be. Mammon immediately stopped throwing pillows and freaking out when he say Sheep Mc. It was less embarrassing crying in front of a sheep, and Sheep Mc is just so cute who can throw pillows at them?

Mammon settled down, sitting back down on his bed, he sighed and placed his face in his hands again. Sheep Mc wandered over to Mammon, placing their tiny trotter (that's what they call sheeps feet) on Mammon's knee. Mammon removes his face from his hands, and even though tears still stream down his face, Mammon smiles at Sheep Mc, finding their adorable kindness to sweet to not smile at. Mammon picks Sheep Mc up gently, pulling them into a hug, he buries his head in Sheep Mc's fluffy wool. The softness of Mc's wool soothes Mammon's feelings, eventually he stops crying. He just sits there hugging Sheep Mc until he explains quietly why he was upset- "This witch l've been running errands for had this pup... Sweet little guy made my day seeing 'em... Ran an errand for that witch today...found out the pup passed a couple days ago.." Mammon's voice is barely above a whisper, and his voice cracks as he talks about it. Mammon doesn't lift his face from Sheep Mc's wool while he talks, causing his already quiet voice to be muffled making what he said almost go unheard. Lucky for Sheep Mc, Mammon's face is burried in their wool on the top of their head, so they were able to hear what he said. Sheep Mc hugs Mammon tightly, telling him it's alright to cry and other comforting things. Sheep Mc lets Mammon pet their wool and they let him hug them for as long as he needs. When Mammon finally calms down he is hella embarrassed. He's going to be on edge and defensive so Mc has to be careful with what they say and do. Staying as Sheep Mc is probably the best option, it makes Mammon feel less embarrassed and he finds comfort in the softness of Sheep Mc's wool. So Mc stays in their Sheep form, Sheep Mc and Mammon watch the movie they had planned to watch and Mammon is his normal self by the time they both head to bed for the night.

━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━

Thats all for now babes! Hope you enjoyed!! ♡ This is not proofread. Feel free to comment or reblog any thoughts or any add ons you have! Mams just seems like an animal lover to me tbh. The other brothers reactions is coming soon so Stay tuned! Stay Safe! & Stay Groovy Scooby!

━☆*:･ﾟ✧✧ ♡ ❀ ♡ ✧━

⟡˙⋆Masterlist⋆˙⟡

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The enshittification of garage-door openers reveals a vast and deadly rot

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library on Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

How could this happen? Owners of Chamberlain MyQ automatic garage door openers just woke up to discover that the company had confiscated valuable features overnight, and that there was nothing they could do about it.

Oh, we know what happened, technically speaking. Chamberlain shut off the API for its garage-door openers, which breaks their integration with home automation systems like Home Assistant. The company even announced that it was doing this, calling the integration an "unauthorized usage" of its products, though the "unauthorized" parties in this case are the people who own Chamberlain products:

https://chamberlaingroup.com/press/a-message-about-our-decision-to-prevent-unauthorized-usage-of-myq

We even know why Chamberlain did this. As Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo points out, shutting off the API is a way for Chamberlain to force its customers to use its ad-beshitted, worst-of-breed app, so that it can make a few pennies by nonconsensually monetizing its customers' eyeballs:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/chamberlain-blocks-smart-garage-door-opener-from-working-with-smart-homes/

But how did this happen? How did a giant company like Chamberlain come to this enshittening juncture, in which it felt empowered to sabotage the products it had already sold to its customers? How can this be legal? How can it be good for business? How can the people who made this decision even look themselves in the mirror?

To answer these questions, we must first consider the forces that discipline companies, acting against the impulse to enshittify their products and services. There are four constraints on corporate conduct:

I. Competition. The fear of losing your business to a rival can stay even the most sociopathic corporate executive's hand.

II. Regulation. The fear of being fined, criminally sanctioned, or banned from doing business can check the greediest of leaders.

III. Capability. Corporate executives can dream up all kinds of awful ways to shift value from your side of the ledger to their own, but they can only do the things that are technically feasible.

IV. Self-help. The possibility of customers modifying, reconfiguring or altering their products to restore lost functionality or neutralize antifeatures carries an implied threat to vendors. If a printer company's anti-generic-ink measures drives a customer to jailbreak their printers, the original manufacturer's connection to that customer is permanently severed, as the customer creates a durable digital connection to a rival.

When companies act in obnoxious, dishonest, shitty ways, they aren't merely yielding to temptation – they are evading these disciplining forces. Thus, the Great Enshittening we are living through doesn't reflect an increase in the wickedness of corporate leadership. Rather, it represents a moment in which each of these disciplining factors have been gutted by specific policies.

This is good news, actually. We used to put down rat poison and we didn't have a rat problem. Then we stopped putting down rat poison and rats are eating us alive. That's not a nice feeling, but at least we know at least one way of addressing it – we can start putting down poison again. That is, we can start enforcing the rules that we stopped enforcing, in living memory. Having a terrible problem is no fun, but the best kind of terrible problem to have is one that you know a solution to.

As it happens, Chamberlain is a neat microcosm for all the bad policy choices that created the Era of Enshittification. Let's go through them:

Competition: Chamberlain doesn't have to worry about competition, because it is owned by a private equity fund that "rolled up" all of Chamberlain's major competitors into a single, giant firm. Most garage-door opener brands are actually Chamberlain, including "LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Merlin, and Grifco":

https://www.lakewoodgaragedoor.biz/blog/the-history-of-garage-door-openers

This is a pretty typical PE rollup, and it exploits a bug in US competition law called "Antitrust's Twilight Zone":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

When companies buy each other, they are subject to "merger scrutiny," a set of guidelines that the FTC and DoJ Antitrust Division use to determine whether the outcome is likely to be bad for competition. These rules have been pretty lax since the Reagan administration, but they've currently being revised to make them substantially more strict:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-ftc-seek-comment-draft-merger-guidelines

One of the blind spots in these merger guidelines is an exemption for mergers valued at less than $101m. Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, these fly under the radar, evading merger scrutiny. That means that canny PE companies can roll up dozens and dozens of standalone businesses, like funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers:

http://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Serial-Acquisitions-Working-Paper-R4-2.pdf

By titrating the purchase prices, PE companies – like Blackstone, owners of Chamberlain and all the other garage-door makers – can acquire a monopoly without ever raising a regulatory red flag.

But antitrust enforcers aren't helpless. Under (the long dormant) Section 7 of the Clayton Act, competition regulators can block mergers that lead to "incipient monopolization." The incipiency standard prevented monopolies from forming from 1914, when the Clayton Act passed, until the Reagan administration. We used to put down rat poison, and we didn't have rats. We stopped, and rats are gnawing our faces off. We still know where the rat poison is – maybe we should start putting it down again.

On to regulation. How is it possible for Chamberlain to sell you a garage-door opener that has an API and works with your chosen home automation system, and then unilaterally confiscate that valuable feature? Shouldn't regulation protect you from this kind of ripoff?

It should, but it doesn't. Instead, we have a bunch of regulations that protect Chamberlain from you. Think of binding arbitration, which allows Chamberlain to force you to click through an "agreement" that takes away your right to sue them or join a class-action suit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

But regulation could protect you from Chamberlain. Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act allows the FTC to ban any "unfair and deceptive" conduct. This law has been on the books since 1914, but Section 5 has been dormant, forgotten and unused, for decades. The FTC's new dynamo chair, Lina Khan, has revived it, and is use it like a can-opener to free Americans who've been trapped by abusive conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

Khan's used Section 5 powers to challenge privacy invasions, noncompete clauses, and other corporate abuses – the bait-and-switch tactics of Chamberlain are ripe for a Section 5 case. If you buy a gadget because it has five features and then the vendor takes two of them away, they are clearly engaged in "unfair and deceptive" conduct.

On to capability. Since time immemorial, corporate leaders have fetishized "flexibility" in their business arrangements – like the ability to do "dynamic pricing" that changes how much you pay for something based on their guess about how much you are willing to pay. But this impulse to play shell games runs up against the hard limits of physical reality: grocers just can't send an army of rollerskated teenagers around the store to reprice everything as soon as a wealthy or desperate-looking customer comes through the door. They're stuck with crude tactics like doubling the price of a flight that doesn't include a Saturday stay as a way of gouging business travelers on an expense account.

With any shell-game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. Corporate crooks armed with computers aren't smarter or more wicked than their analog forebears, but they are faster. Digital tools allow companies to alter the "business logic" of their services from instant to instant, in highly automated ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

The monopoly coalition has successfully argued that this endless "twiddling" should not be constrained by privacy, labor or consumer protection law. Without these constraints, corporate twiddlers can engage in all kinds of ripoffs, like wage theft and algorithmic wage discrimination:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Twiddling is key to the Darth Vader MBA ("I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further"), in which features are confiscated from moment to moment, without warning or recourse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

There's no reason to accept the premise that violating your privacy, labor rights or consumer rights with a computer is so different from analog ripoffs that existing laws don't apply. The unconstrained twiddling of digital ripoff artists is a plague on billions of peoples' lives, and any enforcer who sticks up for our rights will have an army of supporters behind them.

Finally, there's the fear of self-help measures. All the digital flexibility that tech companies use to take value away can be used to take it back, too. The whole modern history of digital computers is the history of "adversarial interoperability," in which the sleazy antifeatures of established companies are banished through reverse-engineering, scraping, bots and other forms of technological guerrilla warfare:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Adversarial interoperability represents a serious threat to established business. If you're a printer company gouging on toner, your customers might defect to a rival that jailbreaks your security measures. That's what happened to Lexmark, who lost a case against the toner-refilling company Static Controls, which went on to buy Lexmark:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-business-model-lexmarks-anti-competitive-legacy

Sure, your customers are busy and inattentive and you can degrade the quality of your product a lot before they start looking for ways out. But once they cross that threshold, you can lose them forever. That's what happened to Microsoft: the company made the tactical decision to produce a substandard version of Office for the Mac in a drive to get Mac users to switch to Windows. Instead, Apple made Iwork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), which could read and write every Office file, and Mac users threw away Office, the only Microsoft product they owned, permanently severing their relationship to the company:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Today, companies can operate without worrying about this kind of self-help measure. There' a whole slew of IP rights that Chamberlain can enforce against you if you try to fix your garage-door opener yourself, or look to a competitor to sell you a product that restores the feature they took away:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Jailbreaking your Chamberlain gadget in order to make it answer to a rival's app involves bypassing a digital lock. Trafficking in a tool to break a digital lock is a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.

In other words, it's not just that tech isn't regulated, allowing for endless twiddling against your privacy, consumer rights and labor rights. It's that tech is badly regulated, to permit unlimited twiddling by tech companies to take away your rightsand to prohibit any twiddling by you to take them back. The US government thumbs the scales against you, creating a regime that Jay Freeman aptly dubbed "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model/

All kinds of companies have availed themselves of this government-backed superpower. There's DRM – digital locks, covered by DMCA 1201 – in powered wheelchairs:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

In dishwashers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob

In treadmills:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing

In tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

It should come as no surprise to learn that Chamberlain has used DMCA 1201 to block interoperable garage door opener components:

https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=iplr

That's how we arrived at this juncture, where a company like Chamberlain can break functionality its customers value highly, solely to eke out a minuscule new line of revenue by selling ads on their own app.

Chamberlain bought all its competitors.

Chamberlain operates in a regulatory environment that is extremely tolerant of unfair and deceptive practices. Worse: they can unilaterally take away your right to sue them, which means that if regulators don't bestir themselves to police Chamberlain, you are shit out of luck.

Chamberlain has endless flexibility to unilaterally alter its products' functionality, in fine-grained ways, even after you've purchased them.

Chamberlain can sue you if you try to exercise some of that same flexibility to protect yourself from their bad practices.

Combine all four of those factors, and of course Chamberlain is going to enshittify its products. Every company has had that one weaselly asshole at the product-planning table who suggests a petty grift like breaking every one of the company's customers' property to sell a few ads. But historically, the weasel lost the argument to others, who argued that making every existing customer furious would affect the company's bottom line, costing it sales and/or fines, and prompting customers to permanently sever their relationship with the company by seeking out and installing alternative software. Take away all the constraints on a corporation's worst impulses, and this kind of conduct is inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

This isn't limited to Chamberlain. Without the discipline of competition, regulation, self-help measures or technological limitations, every industry in undergoing wholesale enshittification. It's not a coincidence that Chamberlain's grift involves a push to move users into its app. Because apps can't be reverse-engineered and modified without risking DMCA 1201 prosecution, forcing a user into an app is a tidy and reliable way to take away that user's rights.

Think about ad-blocking. One in four web users has installed an ad-blockers ("the biggest boycott in world history" -Doc Searls). Zero app users have installed app-blockers, because they don't exist, because making one is a felony. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

The temptation to enshitiffy isn't new, but the ability to do so without consequence is a modern phenomenon, the intersection of weak policy enforcement and powerful technology. Your car is autoenshittified, a rolling rent-seeking platform that spies on you and price-gouges you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

Cars are in an uncontrolled skid over Enshittification Cliff. Honda, Toyota, VW and GM all sell cars with infotainment systems that harvest your connected phone's text-messages and send them to the corporation for data-mining. What's more, a judge in Washington state just ruled that this is legal:

https://therecord.media/class-action-lawsuit-cars-text-messages-privacy

While there's no excuse for this kind of sleazy conduct, we can reasonably anticipate that if our courts would punish companies for engaging in it, they might be able to resist the temptation. No wonder Mozilla's latest Privacy Not Included research report called cars "the worst product category we have ever reviewed":

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

I mean, Nissan tries to infer facts about your sex life and sells those inferences to marketing companies:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/nissan/

But the OG digital companies are the masters of enshittification. Microsoft has been at this game for longer than anyone, and every day brings a fresh way that Microsoft has worsened its products without fear of consequence. The latest? You can't delete your OneDrive account until you provide an acceptable explanation for your disloyalty:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/8/23952878/microsoft-onedrive-windows-close-app-notification

It's tempting to think that the cruelty is the point, but it isn't. It's almost never the point. The point is power and money. Unscrupulous businesses have found ways to make money by making their products worse since the industrial revolution. Here's Jules Dupuis, writing about 19th century French railroads:

It is not because of the few thousand francs which would have to be spent to put a roof over the third-class carriages or to upholster the third-class seats that some company or other has open carriages with wooden benches. What the company is trying to do is to prevent the passengers who can pay the second class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich. And it is again for the same reason that the companies, having proved almost cruel to the third-class passengers and mean to the second-class ones, become lavish in dealing with first-class passengers. Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous.

https://www.tumblr.com/mostlysignssomeportents/731357317521719296/having-refused-the-poor-what-is-necessary-they

But as bad as all this is, let me remind you about the good part: we know how to stop companies from enshittifying their products. We know what disciplines their conduct: competition, regulation, capability and self-help measures. Yes, rats are gnawing our eyeballs, but we know which rat-poison to use, and where to put it to control those rats.

Competition, regulation, constraint and self-help measures all backstop one another, and while one or a few can make a difference, they are most powerful when they're all mobilized in concert. Think of the failure of the EU's landmark privacy law, the GDPR. While the GDPR proved very effective against bottom-feeding smaller ad-tech companies, the worse offenders, Meta and Google, have thumbed their noses at it.

This was enabled in part by the companies' flying an Irish flag of convenience, maintaining the pretense that they have to be regulated in a notorious corporate crime-haven:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

That let them get away with all kinds of shenanigans, like ignoring the GDPR's requirement that you should be able to easily opt out of data-collection without having to go through cumbersome "cookie consent" dialogs or losing access to the service as punishment for declining to be tracked.

As the noose has tightened around these surveillance giants, they're continuing to play games. Meta now says that the only way to opt out of data-collection in the EU is to pay for the service:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law

This is facially illegal under the GDPR. Not only are they prohibited from punishing you for opting out of collection, but the whole scheme ignores the nature of private data collection. If Facebook collects the fact that you and I are friends, but I never opted into data-collection, they have violated the GDPR, even if you were coerced into granting consent:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/11/the-pay-or-consent-challenge-for-platform-regulators.html

The GDPR has been around since 2016 and Google and Meta are still invading 500 million Europeans' privacy. This latest delaying tactic could add years to their crime-spree before they are brought to justice.

But most of this surveillance is only possible because so much of how you interact with Google and Meta is via an app, and an app is just a web-page that's a felony to make an ad-blocker for. If the EU were to legalize breaking DRM – repealing Article 6 of the 2001 Copyright Directive – then we wouldn't have to wait for the European Commission to finally wrestle these two giant companies to the ground. Instead, EU companies could make alternative clients for all of Google and Meta's services that don't spy on you, without suffering the fate of OG App, which tried this last winter and was shut down by "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

Enshittification is demoralizing. To quote @wilwheaton, every update to the services we use inspires "dread of 'How will this complicate things as I try to maintain privacy and sanity in a world that demands I have this thing to operate?'"

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/698603648058556416/cory-doctorow-if-you-see-this-and-have-thoughts

But there are huge natural constituencies for the four disciplining forces that keep enshittification at bay.

Remember, Antitrust's Twilight Zone doesn't just allow rollups of garage-door opener companies – it's also poison for funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers.

The Binding Arbitration scam that stops Chamberlain customers from suing the company also stops Uber drivers from suing over stolen wages, Turbotax customers from suing over fraud, and many other victims of corporate crime from getting a day in court.

The failure to constrain twiddling to protect privacy, labor rights and consumer rights enables a host of abuses, from stalking, doxing and SWATting to wage theft and price gouging:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

And Felony Contempt of Business Model is used to screw you over every time you refill your printer, run your dishwasher, or get your Iphone's screen replaced.

The actions needed to halt and reverse this enshittification are well understood, and the partisans for taking those actions are too numerous to count. It's taken a long time for all those individuals suffering under corporate abuses to crystallize into a movement, but at long last, it's happening.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[sunghoonnsupremacy]

hey, i just wonder if you'll be able to write something like "enhas reactions when their chubby gf is insecure about her body" cause im that gf and i feel terrible today? sorry if its too much ❤️ love your works

ANGEL BABY<3

idk if you wanted this to be nsfw or fluff so i just made it nsfw for heeseung and sunghoon<3 ty for the ask annonie!! hope you feel better soon♥︎

ot7!enhypen when their gf is insecure about her body.

warnings : smut in heeseungs, sunghoons is suggestive, mentions of pregnancy, the rest is just really fluffy and cute.

words : 762

heeseung : is the sweetest bf ever. showers you with kisses and love the whole day when he hears you talk badly about yourself. "baby, you're the most perfect girl to exist. i love you and that's all that matters, yeah? just look at how pretty you look. gonna look so fucking hot with a pregnant belly when i knock you up. " he tilts your head towards the mirror where you whimper at his hips snapping against yours at a fast pace. aftercare with him is even sweeter, you feel loved and appreciated just by his words.

jay : buys you so many gifts and cuddles with you all day. he hates seeing you upset about something that's not a problem in any way so he cancels all of his plans and never leaves your side until you start to feel better. he kisses every inch and curve of your body with sweet pecks to show how much he loves you. "my beautiful beautiful girl, please don't let your insecurities get into your head sweetheart. there's no such thing as a perfect figure. its all just said to made people feel bad about themselves. i love you so much and im here to protect you from feeling that way, remember that. "

jake : his eyes widen from confusion when you ask him if he still finds you attractive, hence you gaining weight since the first time you met eachother. he immediately says yes and cups your face to passionately kiss you. "i have never stopped finding you attractive, and i never will. even when we're old and crusty, you're forever my beautiful girl and that'll never change. get those nasty thoughts out of your hear , yeah pretty? i love you."

sunghoon : the moment you pout at yourself in the mirror and say you're starting to gain weight, calling yourself ugly he doesn't hesitate to slam you against the wall and kiss you roughly. his fingers quickly unbutton your blouse and run up and down your torso. "don't say that shit again. " he presses a sloppy kiss to your chest and gropes your boobs. you whine in response at his passive aggressiveness but lean your head back at his hands sliding your skirt down. sunghoon gets down on his knees and looks up at you with a possessive glint in his eyes. "let me make you feel better, hm?"

sunoo : you furrow your eyebrows at the pillow thats been thrown at your face and your boyfriend sunoo rushing over to you. "what do you mean you think you look ugly? y/n you're the prettiest girl ive ever seen. " he pouts and pats his thighs, signalling you to sit on his lap. sunoo sighs and pulls you into a hug with a kiss on the neck. "i get how you feel. but i need you to know no matter what changes in your appearance my feelings will never change. keep those ugly words out of that pretty mouth."  he grips you tighter and already helps you feel better. the two of you spend the rest of the day cuddling in bed together.

jungwon : he doesn't even react verbally, just kisses you softly. there's no need for words to be exchanged when you look into his eyes and see the glint of love in his stare. when tears start to fall from your eyes, he hugs you tightly. "it's okay princess, let it out. " he lets you cry on his shoulder and fall asleep since you're already in bed. as much as he hates to see you cry, he's aware that letting our your emotions will probably help you. don't worry. after a cuddle session, he takes you out for dinner at your favorite restaurant and buys you plushies.

niki : you two were hanging out with your friends when suddenly one of them made a joking comment about your weight. you didn't laugh, neither did niki. you're both aware of the fact you've been pretty insecure these past few days which is why he makes the friend repeat themselves when he suddenly throws a punch at their face. you gasp and stand up in shock. its pretty obvious niki didn't find it funny or amusing when he grips your wrist and takes you away from the hangout spot. he takes you to a secluded area and kisses you softly. "why'd you punch him niki..?" you whisper and he scoffs. "you know why. " he kisses you again before walking you home and playing video games with you until late at night to distract you from todays earlier events.

[weasleykisses]

You’re So Pretty IV (Remus x Reader)

You’re So Pretty IV

A/N: final chapter to the series. Happy ending bc I’m a sucker for love. You and Remus are desperately in love with each other, and it was only a matter of time before someone said something. *Not edited*

Might write a Sirius alternate ending to this if I get the inspiration.

Word count: 6.1k

________

Y/N had been a bit down in the dumps since Remus ran away from her after sharing another one of their little moments together. She just couldn’t understand why he was always running away. He wasn’t the most outspoken or extroverted of the group, but surely he felt comfortable around her. They were best friends.

When they studied together, she tried her best to act normal, like his behavior wasn’t killing her inside. She was frustrated with him, for how indecisive he was acting and how he kept tugging at her heart string just to let them go without warning. She talked to him at meals like normal, and shared her desk with him in classes they shared, but things felt so strange.

Her heart beat so swiftly when he was around she thought she might have a heart attack when their hands skimmed over each other’s or when his eyes lingered just a bit too long on her. She even felt flustered when he offered to share his textbook in Charms, something completely normal for the two of them any other time.

This was becoming ridiculous, really.

She didn’t tell the other girls why she cuddled a particular sweater of hers when she laid in bed, terribly worried about her relationship with the boy who used to wear it. She certainly didn’t say it was because it was laced with the scent of Remus Lupin. It had been his until he gave it to her on a snowy cold day in Hogsmeade.

She dreaded the day it might lose his smell and lose his touch, then she’d have to find something else of his to latch onto.

It would just be another reason for the girls to joke about how she fancied him. She never admitted it to them, refusing each time they brought it up. Yet, they persisted as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She felt hopeless against the onslaught of suggestive looks they gave her when she was around the boy. She couldn’t even study with him without one of the girls suggesting she was going to spend the whole time staring at his ‘cute’ face.

It was nights like these, quiet ones with just the girls, when she felt the most vulnerable to their jokes. In the privacy of their own dorm, anything they said could be kept secret, just between the four of them. There was no way any of them would let the sensitive information slip out of that room.

Marlene would stay up at night gossiping about boys despite her obviously having a crush on Dorcas. Y/N never said anything about it. That was something she had to figure out on her own terms. Still Y/N found it adorable whenever Marlene would look at the other girl with starry eyes.

Beside her, Dorcas would sit braiding Marlene’s golden hair into intricate plaits for the next day. Lily would be up finishing her homework but chiming in whenever Potter was mentioned. Always the bookworm with a bit of an adventurous streak coming from James Potter’s everlasting crush on her.

Finally, a sweet Y/N laid in her bed staring at the ceiling with that sweater clutched to her chest, listening to the gossip her friends passed around. She would chime it sometimes, gushing about the boy she fancied. Talking about how he made her smile and laugh so much her cheeks would be sore. Talking about the way he was the perfect guy, personality and looks wise. She loved talking about that special someone. It made her heart race and her cheeks burn with passion.

That special someone was obviously Remus Lupin, even if she never specifically said so. Tonight, however, she wasn’t so cheery about her crush, in fact, she was rather quiet. The other girls talked freely amongst themselves while she kept silent in her bed, just pondering what she was to do about everything.

“I just wish Sirius would quit fooling around and ask me out,” Marlene groaned. “He’s so hot, I get dizzy just being around him sometimes.”

“You said that about Thomas Brookstone last week,” Dorcas teased, rolling her eyes at the incredibly flaky nature of her best friend. She finished her long plaits and moved on to the large curler she used on her bangs. Y/N was always a bit jealous of Marlene and her golden blond hair, hanging to her middle back and sparkling in the sunshine.

Marlene was quick to defend herself, “It was a moment of weakness; you know my heart belongs to Sirius Black.” Yeah, right. Sirius was cute, for sure, but he wasn’t boyfriend material.

Y/N loved Sirius. He was a great friend, albeit a bit too flirty at times. He was charming and she could understand why Marlene would fall for him. Just like she could tell why Lily had taken a liking to James even if she denied it adamantly. Y/N thought James was just as swell as Sirius, being some of her closest friends outside the girls’ group.

She listened silently to her friends bicker on about crushes, Sirius and James, some talk of Dorcas potentially dating Peter, those kinda things. Nothing too important.

With a frustrated frown, she stared up at the canopy of her bed, her eyes trailing along the gold embroidery against the red velvet. It was dreadfully stressful. She felt completely sucked into her own little world, her heart beating steadily in her chest.

She brought the sweater up to her face and sighed at the scent, as if Remus was there laying with her right now. He smelled like books and cocoa and this strong cologne she loved.

“You’ve got any thoughts, Y/N?”

She snapped out of her haze, jumping from her place flat on her mattress to prop herself on her elbow. She shoved down the sweater, attempting to hide it under the covers. “Oh, about what exactly?” She asked, cringing now that they knew she was daydreaming again.

“About Sirius.”

“What about Sirius?”

The girl waved her hand through the air dismissively. “Nevermind. You’re always lost in your own thoughts, aren’t you?” Marlene laughed.

It was true. She got lost quite a lot, drifting between the real world and her imaginary one. One where Remus held her tightly to his chest like the night they danced around the common room to the record player all night long. One where Remus kissed her and held her cheeks in his strong, calloused hands.

Y/N was quick to reply, hoping she was correct in her assumptions. “I definitely think you should ask him out. He totally adores you.” She tried to be a good friend, really. Yet, she had no idea if the boy liked Marlene back. He never mentioned or hinted at it, from what she could tell.

“He’s like that with every girl.” Dorcas finished her friend’s hair, finally setting down her brush. “You’ve got to find yourself a new person to fancy. He’s too much of a player, practically romancing the entire student body at this point.”

“Not me,” Y/N replied.

Dorcas laughed, as did Lily. Her brows furrowed, confused at what was so funny. Was there something she was supposed to know? She squirmed a bit in her place on the bed, her eyes trailing to the carpeted floor.

Marlene answered her questions though. “Hun, Sirius flirts with you the most out of anyone, for obvious reasons...”

“Trying to make a certain someone jealous.”

“I never know what you’re talking about. Someone? Like who?”

“Just lay back down and keep daydreaming, Y/N. We know you’d rather be with your little boyfriend,” Dorcas told the girl, brushing off her oblivious nature. “Well, not so little, quite tall actually.”

“Shush. You don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I don’t have a boyfriend.” Y/N did take the opportunity to lay back on her bed again, head hitting the plush pillows.

“I bet you’re thinking about him right now. Can’t ever get that boy off your mind.”

She clutched at the sweater under the blanket, holding it to her chest. They always made fun of her for her crush, nearly every chance they got. Really, Y/N was content just holding his sweater close and seeing him during the day. She was particularly proud each time she managed to get him to smile, a real genuine one. He was so dreamy when he smiled.

A soft curve to her lips indicated that she’d fallen victim to another fantasy, thinking of his grin, saved just for her. He was so handsome, with his fluffy brown hair and turtleneck sweaters. She thought of the way he bit his lip when lost in thought, reading a book or listening to an interesting transfiguration lesson.

Not that she stared at him all class. That would be weird. But it would explain her needing tutoring in the subject.

She was consumed by him, everything about him down to his tiny imperfections. He was mysterious in a way that peaked her interest, and snarky with people he didn’t like. He was kind to her, and tolerant of the rest of the group. He was just so perfect. So devilishly charming in his own special way.

Her heart beat faster and she felt heat rising to her cheeks. Her fingers dug into the jumper in her hands even tighter, wanting to bring it up to her face and hug it, getting a piece of Remus before she saw him the next morning at breakfast.

After seven long years of knowing the boys and rooming with the girls in the Gryffindor dormitories, she wondered if it was time to come clean. It felt like the stars were finally aligning in her favor. Her grades were better than usual, she had the best friends in the world, Christmas was right around the corner, and she was unbelievably happy, if not for the stupid Remus situation.

Her friends sat around Lily’s bed, going on about boys again, not that she was keeping track. She could barely pay attention, her mind was on the boy she fancied. He made her so dumb. So distracted she might as well give up on thinking about anything else but him.

The other girls already knew. It was only a matter of time before her heart had swelled so much that it burst. She needed to confide in someone.

“I think I’m in love with him,” Y/N whispered, interrupting their conversation..

Dorcas raised a brow, lifting her eyes from a magazine in her lap. The other girls didn’t bother sparing more than a glance before going back to reading. “Seems you’re the last to find out. I think even James was able to deduce that before you,” the blonde laughed.

“I know you like to make fun of me, but it’s serious.”

“And we’re serious about just pulling the poor boy into a broom closet and snogging him,” Dorcas added, “Remus isn’t so scary.”

“He cares for you so much, Y/N,” Lily assured, resting a gentle hand on her friend’s knee soothingly. It was quite obvious to everyone else except for the girl in question. If only she could clearly see in from the outside, through the eyes of anyone else there. “You should just say something to him.”

Y/N took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m just so scared to lose him. Remus is like my best friend.”

“And so she finally admits it,” Marlene giggled, “Remus loves you. There’s nothing you could do that would scare him away, sweetheart.”

It was only a bit reassuring to her, the things the girls said. It was easy to say those things when you were looking in from the outside, supposedly unaffected if disaster were to strike. If he were to be disturbed by her confession and turn her down, forever making their relationship complicated and uncomfortable.

Tears filled her eyes and she sniffled, covering her eyes with her forearm to keep the tears from dripping down her cheeks. She was such a crybaby. Remus didn’t want a crybaby. He wanted a smart and confident girl. Someone that would raise him up, not drag him down. Y/N was far too messy.

“I-I just love him so much. He means the world to me. I can’t risk ruining our relationship,” the girl whimpered. Marlene was quick to take a seat on the edge of the bed, running a soothing hand through Y/N’s hair. “He’s just so perfect and I’m so awkward. He doesn’t want me.”

“Don’t cry, please. It’s gonna be okay, I promise,” Marlene hushed.

Dorcas added, “If he breaks your heart, Lily will hex the shit out of him anyway.”

Y/N pulled the sweater out from under the blanket and pressed it to her face, taking in the scent and the feeling of the fabric against her skin. “He gave me this jumper, you know. I was supposed to give it back, but he never asked and it smells so good, just like him. I lay here every night thinking about his smile and his laugh, and his sweet honey-brown eyes. I think of his voice and his fluffy hair, and the way he always has chocolate frogs in his bag for when I’m sad. I just love everything about him.”

Marlene swiped her fingers under her eyes, blinking back some tears herself, “Damn, Y/N, you’re gonna make me all emotional.”

“I was wondering why you kept sleeping with that jumper. Figured you were just cold,” Lily hummed. “I think that’s really sweet. You should tell him what you just told us.”

“You’d melt his icy, cold heart, babe,” Dorcas said.

“You’d be surprised. He’s been sending me very mixed signals recently, and I really don’t think he’s interested,” Y/N confessed sadly, pressing her face into her pillows. “We get so close and then he just runs away. It’s like he’s scared of me or something. I-I don’t know what to do!”

“He’s a complicated guy. I think you should go find him. Figure all this out, like, right now.”

“It’s past curfew,” Y/N argued.

“Since when do those boys head to bed at curfew? They’re probably up talking about some stupid stink bomb prank or whatever,” the blonde argued back, “Maybe they’re like us and talking about their own crushes. Who knows?”

Again, Dorcas was right. Those boys would never fall asleep before midnight. They were probably wide awake plotting some shit while Remus read in his own bed, pretending to be disapproving of their behavior. He liked to prank and go on mini adventures, just didn’t want to stoop to their level of idiocy.

“Well, go on. Get to it,” Lily practically ordered, waving her hands towards the door. “I can’t stand seeing you drool over this boy any longer.”

Y/N didn’t stand up right away, not until Marlene took her hands and pulled her from the bed to her feet. She wore her pajamas with cartoon monkeys and bananas on it, and she wondered if she should change. It was kind of embarrassing after all.

“Really, I don’t have to tell him tonight. I’ll do it some other time, I swear,” she tried to say but was interrupted.

“Nope. You have to go now. We’ve decided that’s best for you.”

“Don’t you think this is rather sudden?”

“Don’t make excuses. If you come back to this room without shagging a certain bookworm in the broom cupboard, you’re sleeping on the floor.” That made her feel heat in her cheeks and she choked on air, coughing suddenly from the vulgarity of her friend.

Marlene pushed her out the dorm room and shut the door, making sure to lock it from the inside so she couldn’t get back in. They weren’t lying. If she didn’t do this, she might be sleeping on the couch in the common room for the night.

With a deep breath, she stood up a bit straight and walked towards the boy’s dormitories. She felt wrong being there, a girl sneaking into the boy’s dorms in the middle of the night. If someone saw her, they might think she was a massive pervert.

She rounded the corner, her eyes catching sight of the third door to the right, precisely where all four of the infamous marauders slept every night. Quickly, she scurried over to the large round door and stood in front of it, her fist hovering a few inches from the wood. She was afraid to knock. What if they were sleeping and she woke them? Would Remus be grumpy? Would James whack her over the head with a slipper?

She shuffled nervously, before hesitantly tapping on the door, praying that no one heard and she could just turn around and tell the girls everyone was asleep.

Only, that’s not what happened. She heard a loud crash from inside the room followed by some hurried talking. Footsteps approached the door and cracked it open just enough to peer out and see her dumbass standing there in her stupid pajamas, twiddling her thumbs.

It was Peter. She smiled awkwardly at him, and he let out a loud breath of relief.

“Y/N, I’ve never been so relieved to see you,” the boy exhaled, opening the door just enough for her to slip inside. She stared at him, confused at what he meant by that. He took her wrist, peering left and right in the hallway for watching eyes, then tugged her into the room. He shut the door behind her and flipped the lock shut.

She stared at the short boy, her mouth open but her brain empty of words. “Peter, what are you on about?”

“Y/N! Darling! What a coincidence you show up at this hour. We were just about to get you-“ Sirius started, until Y/N interrupted, her eyes latching onto the bubbling brew on the floor before her. It was smoking and quite grayish-green for a proper potion. She wondered what they could be up to at this hour.

“What are you guys trying to brew?” She peered around the room at the boys. James and Sirius were leaning over the pot with confusion on their features, James clutching at the recipe in his hand while the other held a wooden spoon. Peter was pacing, as the boy does when he finds himself at all stressed. Remus sat in his bed watching from the sidelines, presumably having been reading the book that he now sat at his side.

Tonight he must have been wanting to avoid their shenanigans for a change. He did that sometimes, when he was tired or he had been studying for a long period of time beforehand and wanted to relax.

“Healing potion, although we seem to have fucked up somewhere along the way,” James said warily, staring down into the disgustingly thick, bubbling liquid that burned from a makeshift heat source on the hardwood. “We have a prank coming up soon that might require some if it comes back to bite us in the ass.”

She hummed, reaching out to take their recipe from his hands and read the fine print, something the four of them seemed to ignore. It wasn’t that she doubted their ability to brew a complex potion such as this, it was just that they didn’t have experience with healing brews like she did, in fact, it was the one thing she actually enjoyed brewing. Everything else went over her head.

Perhaps that’s why they seemed relieved to see her. She’d made the potion for Remus in times of need quite a few times. “I don’t know why you didn’t just ask me to make you some in the first place. You know Slughorn lets me use the classroom when I ask,” she commented.

“You seemed stressed. We didn't want to bother you.”

“Nonsense. I’m always willing to help friends, even if it’s for less-than-honorable means,” Y/N brushed off their worries. She reached down to their pile of ingredients and took a pinch of mint leaf, tossing it into the pot and stirring with the spoon five times counterclockwise. “I should be able to fix this right up with a few tweaks.”

She added a few more things, stirred the pot and waited for the color to change and the bubbling to die down to a low simmer. Finally happy with the results, she spooned a bit into a vial and held it out to her friend.

“Oh, thank you, sweet angel,” Sirius replied, quite pleased , “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

She giggled, nodding her head at his words. “All the time.” He stepped forward carefully to take the potion vial from her hands and tuck it into his pants pocket for later. James spooned the liquid into a few more potion bottles he had sitting off to the side, putting them into a little sack to save for later.

She turned away from the pot, suddenly stuck in the precarious situation she came here for. She wondered if she could somehow sneak out without finishing her seemingly impossible task.

Peter furrowed his brows, now concerned with things other than an explosive, unpredictable potion that was previously in their room. “Y/N, why were you outside our dorm this late anyway? It’s almost midnight.”

“It’s a long story,” she replied, now thinking about why she was sent there in the first place. Her cheeks bloomed as embarrassment flooded her features. She wrung her hands in her lap, staring down at the monkey print on her favorite night shirt and pants. Everything is interesting when you’re trying to avoid the inevitable.

“We‘ve certainly got the time,” James chirped, setting his broom on the floor and plopping into his bed. “It’s awfully out of character for you to be sneaking about after curfew.” She cringed at his words. James was right. She would never leave her bed at this hour normally, especially not to show up at their room unannounced. She wrestled with her options on how she could explain herself without seeming like a bumbling idiot.

Her eyes flickered over to Remus, who appeared to be reading a book, distracting himself from the chaos at hand. Only each time she turned away, he peered back to see her pretty face. That innocent smile and her sparkly eyes.

“Didn’t even bother getting dressed. Must have been urgent,” Sirius inquired further.

She stood from her spot on the ground, her eyes staring off at the wall, and then at the floor, anywhere but in the eyes of one of her friends. “I came to see Remus.” Her words were very quiet, almost incoherent. Still, they all heard her. The boy in question peered up from his novel with a brow raised.

“Oooooh,” James cackled, “What did you do this time, Moony?” His friends teased him. Out of all of them though, Remus was probably the least likely to offend one of the girls and get a scolding. James and Sirius definitely outranked him on the mischievous scale.

“It couldn’t have waited til morning, Y/N?” He asked, voice seemingly caught in his throat. He swallowed thickly. What could she possibly need at this hour? From him of all people?

“Um, no. It’s rather important, actually,” she replied, a bit of nervousness in her voice, leading to some shaky words. “Let’s go outside for a minute, if that’s okay with you.”

He set down his novel on the nightstand beside his bed. He felt embarrassed as the guys winked his way and made crude gestures as he walked behind her out the door. His face was no doubt turning a light shade of pink just at the thought of her desperately needing to talk to him in the middle of the night.

He shut the door behind them, looking down at her expectantly. “So, what did you need?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. She noticed the way his hair fluffed up at the touch, and it made her heart beat just a bit faster than before.

“It’s a lot. Do you want to go to the sofas to talk?” She asked, but really she felt like she was just stalling what was bound to happen. He nodded regardless, and they found themselves seated beside each other on the velvety red sofa in front of the always-alight fireplace.

She crossed her legs under her and grabbed a pillow, hugging it to her chest. Her eyes stared at the wisps of fire crackling beside them. Remus found himself growing concerned at the look in her eyes, seeing the fear and confusion in her gaze.

“You know I trust you more than anyone, right, Rem?”

“Yeah,” he lied. Images of her and Sirius whispering in the common room and the hallways and during class when they sat beside each other lingered in his mind as he agreed. Sometimes he worried he would always be second place to his raven-haired friend.

She took a deep breath before burying her face into the pillow she held, wishing she could just scream into it and run back to her dorm room to sleep away this nightmare of a confrontation.

She lifted her eyes to meet his, and she couldn’t help feeling at ease seeing his soft brows and caring gaze back. “I like someone,” she confessed, “I like him a lot, like really bad.”

Even if her voice was muffled by the cushion, he heard what she said. His heart dropped in his chest. He knew this was coming, but he didn’t expect it so soon. He wasn’t prepared. All he could muster was a pathetic, “Ah, okay.”

“I want your advice.” Another pang in his chest. Was he really going to sit here and help her fall in love with another guy? He wanted to die right where he sat, that way he wouldn’t have to endure another second of this torment. “How do I tell him?”

“Guess it depends on the guy.” The guy she fancied was most definitely Sirius, if she liked someone in the group. James was off limits because of Lily being her best friend. Peter wasn’t her type. Remus barely thought of himself as a romantic person; he was neither charming nor charismatic, simply himself. He abandoned her the other night while the record played. He was barely best friend-material, far from boyfriend-material.

Sirius was handsome, charming, flirty, and just around wonderful. He noticed the way her smile dropped when Sirius left them alone in Hogsmeade. He saw the way she smiled whenever he called her that silly nickname. He watched everything happen right in front of his eyes, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. Remus was too afraid to.

“How would you like a girl to confess to you?” she asked further.

He sighed, staring over at the fireplace now. “I suppose I’d want her to be comfortable with me first. Comfortable enough she could just tell me without being nervous. I’d hate to make her feel intimidated,” he explained, “It would have to be private. Not in front of the guys, they would mock me endlessly.”

She urged one last time, wanting to squeeze out any more information he might be willing to give out, “Anything else?”

“I’d like to hear why she chose me. I’m not exactly the friendly type. Nor the funny type. Or the charming type. I don’t have much going for me,” he commented. When he looked back over at her, she was staring down at her hands wrapped around the pillow. She twiddled her thumbs nervously like she always did when she felt some anxiety rolling in.

“And what if she was in love with you? It wasn’t just a crush, it was more than that, has been for a while?”

He felt like crying. He didn’t know why. He was the one that pulled away when they almost kissed the other night. He was the one that brushed off her nicknames and her soft touches, the sweet cheek kisses she gave him when he sat on the couch and she approached silently from behind. He was the one that let her go into the arms of someone else. He let her fall in love with some other guy, and now he felt like a clown for wanting to cry over it.

Remus was beginning to think he just had shit luck, some kind of curse possibly.

“If someone told me they loved me, I would hope I loved them back. I’d hope they’d let me spoil them, kiss them, admire everything about them.”

“And if you didn’t love them back?” She was scared of his answer for this one, knowing there was quite a large possibility that he didn’t love her back. In fact, she was confident that he couldn’t love her. She was so silly and naive, and he was mature. He was so smart and handsome. He’d want someone better than her.

He thought about it for a moment. “I’d much prefer to keep a friend and pretend it never happened than to lose them entirely. I suppose we’d look past it and move on.” It was hard to say what exactly he would do. He’d had random girls come up to him and confess their crushes to him, but it was never anyone he was close with, nor anyone he had to interact with again.

She buried her face into the pillow one more time. Trying to calm her breaths so she didn’t seem suspicious. He wanted her to be relaxed when she confessed to him. She had to be comfortable, and normally she was comfy with him. It was just now she felt herself crumbling under his gaze.

“Can I ask who it is?”

She shook her head, biting her lip to keep herself from saying something stupid. It was taking quite a long time for a Gryffindor girl to muster up the courage to confess her love to a kind boy like Remus. She was never very brave or strong. Not like Lily, Dorcas, or even Marlene.

“Remus,” she started, trying to find the words on her tongue. “Do you like anyone?” She mustered out, somehow finding a way to avoid her confession once again.

He nodded. She was sitting right in front of him, hugging a pillow for dear life as she talked about being in love with some other bloke. He just prayed it wasn’t one of his friends. The heartbreak he would feel knowing she liked Sirius that way would be indescribable.

She felt scared now, even worse than before. She wondered who she was competing with. Probably Dorcas. She was so confident and intelligent, and she had beautiful braids that fit her features perfectly, looking like a goddess every day. Maybe he liked Marlene. Marlene was nice, and oh-so pretty. She could hold a conversation about just anything.

What could Y/N do? Not much.

“Do you think she likes you back?”

“No. Even if she did, I couldn’t be with her.”

“Why not?”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes shut tiredly. “I’m a freak, Y/N.”

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head furiously. Her hand extended to hold onto his, running her thumb over his knuckles in an attempt to comfort him. Her eyes lifted to meet his, and he could see the conflicting feelings running through her mind.

“You are not a freak. Never say that again.” She was stern with her words, giving his hand a squeeze as she did so. Y/N wanted to reach out and cuddle him to her chest, telling him everything was going to be okay. That he was wonderful, and the man of her dreams.

“I could kill you. You do realize that, right?” He asked, and she just rolled her eyes.

“Yes, and James could come down here and Avada Kedavra me out of existence. Every full moon you come back to me worse than any of the others, so if anything, I’d say you’re more of a threat to yourself than anyone else.”

“Still, I hardly deserve it. She’s just so…” He peered over at her and then back to the fire. “Perfect.”

“And you aren’t?” She stared into the fire, too afraid to make eye contact. “Remus, you are so kind to me. You’re so charming and smart.” He felt himself blush at her generous compliments. It wasn’t often someone said such nice things about him. It meant so much, especially coming from her.

“Thanks. You’re not too bad yourself,” he replied calmly, but inside he felt his little heart might implode from joy. It didn’t take much for her to get his heart racing.

She continued, this time her voice just above a whisper. “I could fall asleep listening to just your voice, or your laugh. I’m addicted to hearing it.” The room was quiet save for the crackling of the wood logs in the fireplace and her quickened breaths. He didn’t say anything. He really didn’t know how to reply to that.

She took his silence as a means to keep going, to just display her heart for him to see. It was such a vulnerable moment, one where she felt weak. Powerless. Desperate.

“I spend my nights thinking about you. I hope you don’t mind, and I promise I’m not a weirdo, but I kept the jumper you lent me at Hogsmeade. It smells like you and I’m terrified it’ll lose your scent. I sleep with it just to pretend you’re close to me,” she confessed, feeling the fear leave her body the more she spoke. It was relieving to finally get this off her chest. To tell him everything she’d been keeping to herself.

“I’m not very good at this sort of thing, so forgive me. The girls just told me if I didn’t tell you tonight they were gonna lock me out of the dorms for the night. I know you just said not to be intimidated, but I am. I’m so scared, I’m shaking,” she commented, raising one of her hands to show the tremors that ran through her arm into her shaky wrist. “I’m so hopelessly in love with you, Remus. I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“This isn’t some sort of elaborate prank, right?”

“Of course not. I’m not cruel.”

He leaned back on the couch and shut his eyes, keeping himself calm to avoid the tears that would inevitably gather in the corners of his eyes. He was so lonely. He was so scared of everyone hating him one day and leaving him behind. He never even imagined a girl as beautiful as Y/N walking into his life and falling in love with him for who he was.

“Remus? Are you okay?” she questioned nervously, worried that she really had ruined everything despite what he said earlier about pretending it never happened and moving on with their lives. She reached out to rest her hand gently on his upper arm.

He turned to her, looking down at her shy self hiding behind a throw pillow. She was so adorable, so perfect and pretty he felt like he was living in a dream. He tried to pinch himself awake, but she stayed the same.

Remus really didn’t know what overcame him in that moment but he felt himself lurch forward, hands going to cup both her cheeks. His lips found hers, and his eyes squeezed shut. It wasn’t until he felt her kissing back with just as much fervor that he relaxed. Her lips moved slowly against his, so soft and plump against his chapped ones.

She pulled away for a moment, her lips just barely touching his as she laughed, “Guess you love me back?”

He just kissed her again. And again. And maybe a few more times after that.

[fizzbot]

APOLOGY TOUR SPOILERS / HELLUVA BOSS CRITICAL POST

(please just dont read if youre a fan/are gonna be annoying in my tags/replies)

i LOVE verosika. i was super excited to see an episode all about her. she has EVERY right to be mad at blitz, and i do enjoy seeing things from the perspective of his victims. BUT.....i was really disappointed in her portrayal in apology tour. MOSTLY just because i was dissapointed in stolas portrayal in apology tour, and think this ep wouldve been better if it was more about BLITZ instead. rant under the cut

im not gonna give the whole rant about how annoying it is that stolas is constantly woobified, because 100 critical blogs have done it much more gracefully than i ever could. but it is just SO dissapointing to watch a man that couldve been SUCH a compelling villain be the ONLY one who is EVER sympathized with in the show. we are supposed to feel bad for him and believe that both sides are wrong in the stolitz situation, when stolas' crimes are SO MUCH WORSE than all of blitzs bad deeds combined. he co-erced blitz into a sex contract as the only means of doing his job, and then made HIM feel guilty for not falling n love with him during it. the 'both sides are in the wrong' comment gets particularly frustrating when the show has, tme and time again, only let stolas be the one with support. blitz is made to look unreasonable, no matter how right he is. and, in this instance, stolas is the one getting invited to this party to celebrate being ""wronged"" by blitz.

back to verosika. especially now that the episode is out, i am even more firmly on her side. the fact that blitz broke up with HER because things were getting too serious is interesting (albiet not as interesting as i think it couldve been but thats a rant for another post). im not saying she should forgive blitz, but i do struggle to fully agree with her because of how she treated stolas in the episode. she is the first to comfort him, the first to try and encourage him to shit-talk blitz, etc etc and i just dont understand.....why?

ive already had problems with her character since the sexual assault ""joke"" from spring broken, but this also really left a bad taste in my mouth. i totally understand her desire to party and sympathize with other people who were harmed by blitz, but its frustrating that stolas was invited to be among them. stolas, the man who is very much NOT THE VICTIM in his relationship with blitz. this is more the fault of the writers than verosika herself, but it is SO FRUSTRATING that she gave him the spotlight and is trying to help him heal from a situation that is ENTIRELY HIS FAULT. stolas didnt just hurt blitzs feelings, he sexually coerced and abused him. of all people, shouldnt verosika understand how terrible that can be? the kind of hurt that can do to a person? im not saying that this terrible relationship FORGIVES blitz's wrongdoings, but you shouldnt be giving his fucking abuser a stage and a microphone to talk shit about his victim. this becomes so much more insidious to me with the conversation she has with blitz on the balcony, later. this was actually a pretty good scene imo but it could certainly be better.

this is much more opinionated and i wouldnt be surprised if even the critical community isnt with me on this one, but i long for an alternate verson of this episode thats focused on verosika being on blitz's side, instead. its been over 5 years since they dated, and even though she is still allowed to be mad, it would be nice to see that shes moved on. maybe give her a new partner like barbie wire and let her throw these parties just so she can look back and laugh and help blitz's other victims heal in the same way that she has. not to bring up an also not-great show, but in rick and morty, we see a relationship between rick and one of his ex-partners named unity. they were really terrible for each other, enabling bad/unhealthy behaviors, generally being awful. their break-up was messy, but in recent seasons, we see unity coming back, upon hearing that rick was doing something self-destructive. they worried about him, because a part of them still cared, as much as they were hurt by his actions. i would have LOVED to see a similar thing with blitz and verosika, where verosika finds out about the relationship blitz is trapped in/just got out of. i think it would be SO MUCH MORE naratively interesting, for her to be supportive of his little apology tour, and maybe even inviting HIM to the "blitzo sucks" party. not everyone (or anyone) needs to forgive him; in fact, i think coming to this party would give him perspective. his relationship with stolas has hurt him so badly, he can finally step back and understand the harm that he did to all these people. the apologies that he gave, as he admits in the episode, were shallow. but i think framing stolas as the toxic one would be better in helping him realize that he has done wrong more than what the show is currently doing. and maybe some people at the party WILL forgive him. maybe he can apologize on the stage, and some people will empathize with his situation and believe that the apology is genuine, because hes finally had to be on the other end of his own hurt. and maybe THAT would be the first step in helping blitz realize that maybe he isnt completely unlovable, because there are people who cared about him enough to be THIS DEVASTATED upon getting their heart broken by him. a conversation with verosika about what he did to her would hit so much harder after this, imo

anyway. im sorry if this is completely incoherent/a bad point. i was just thinking about it and i am so sick of everyone being a stolas apologist </3

[day-drawn-blog]

Part II : Slow burn ❤️‍🔥

Lace your heart with mine Let your sleeping soul take flight

I feel your breath on my neck, the soft caress as cold as death

Your blood like wine, I want it in, oh darling make me drink and make me feel

- I want to live

Tags: angst, fluff, sadness, angst, fluff, then maybe eventually smut because I do love that

Pairing: Astarion x Reader -- Set in Act I

Part I. Crowned light moon of mine - I found you too soon

Part II : Lace your heart with mine Let your sleeping soul take flight

Part III : Maybe tonight, I'll rest in peace

Part IV : There is much to do and I still want to live

Part V : Our futures bound, our bodies known

Part VI : These ain't my sins, I'm not to blame

Part VII: You are not mine and am I truly yours

Part VIII: your blood like wine invites me in

Part IX: I'll welcome my sentence and give you my penance

Part X : I can't go yet...don't let me die

---------

Next day, you woke up early and you remembered the rollercoaster your heart had been through. And your little secret. Ah, you almost forgot. So caught up were you in your pining you ignored the safety of those around you, and the resolve you had made last night to help and protect those around you. And right now, nothing posed more of a threat than a blood sucking vampire posing as an ally. You did not quite trust him yet. After all, you did not know him well at all.

You left your tent, resolved to confront him.

To settle this issue as best as you can on behalf of those innocent of his real identity. You spotted him next to his tent. His messy curls, even more disheveled in the morning. But his countenance brighter than yesterday. You wondered if it was the effect of the favor you did him. Somehow a part of you felt happy, that you made a difference to him.

You broached the subject.

"Can we talk?" He looked up surprised. "About your... condition. I was curious how we were going to feed you from now on."

His eyes widened.

I guess he did not realize you would confront him about this first thing in the morning. But it has to be done, sooner the better. Before everyone else wakes up. "How... how are you?" He managed, flustered. At least he has it in him to be polite and ask, you thought. You approved of his shallow charm. Now to the point.

"I am alright. But I am worried." "You have my word. I will never put any of us in harm's way. And if I ever do, I will ask, first" he flashed his cheeky grin. You almost gave in. And then suddenly, rustling behind him, startled you both.

Shadowheart walked out of his tent.

You were completely blindsided, Astarion was more embarassed and looked away.

Shadowheart was surprisingly, normal. "Good morning. Are you guys planning breakfast? I heard talks about a meal, or something... " she drawled in her usual charming manner.

"Ah yeah.. something like that.."

you managed to say, and decided to drop it. Before your heart shattered into pieces again, you decided, you walk away.

You wished you could leave them at camp.

So you didn't have to be distracted by those two as you navigated such dangerous lands. But, you all always travelled together and at least there will be other people, to distract you, from Shadowheart and Astarion's intimate moments together, where he held out his hands, to help her on a step. Or she cast her guidance and radiance to protect him, or where he took out a threat with his sneak attack before they ambushed her.

You felt weaker in combat that day.

Several times, Karlach had to protect you. You almost got knocked down, and she had to help you up. Thankfully Wyll had your back too. You felt terrible how much you let this matter get to you. Back at camp, exhausted, and down to your last breath, you decided to put him out of your head once and for all. You needed to wash up, and rest.

This was not serving you.

As you sat in your tent that night, going over the events of the day. You felt tears come up. You wanted to be the one being protected. Looked after..by him. To be important enough.

To be valued and loved, by him.

Dammit. Why should you put him on a pedestal like this. Better start thinking really hard how you could avoid that from happening again. This was your only way. Should you ask them to stay behind at camp the next day? No ..you need every ally you can get fighting for your life.

Suddenly, your thoughts were interrupted by approaching footsteps. You were confused, you thought everyone had gone to bed early that night, tired from all the ambush you had faced that day. So who was it? And why were they coming inside your tent?The tent flaps parted, and you saw a familiar tall silhouette.

You stopped breathing in surprise.

You both stared at each other for a few moments before he broke silence. "I am sorry to disturb your rest, the hour is late. Terribly, and truly" and it seemed like he was second guessing himself and walking back out again. Then he stopped and turned around "You see, this was my first.. I had never drank from a ...thinking creature before. Cazador... my master, would only ever let me feed on rats. "

Where was he going with this?

"Would you be so kind, as to grant me this favor one more time? I completely understand if you don't want to, and this is, well very embarrassing for me to admit" You could see his ears turn red as he shiftily looked anywhere but at you. "But ever since last night, I have not been able to forget... how you tasted". "I could do anything for one more time...please?" And he looked at you with his eyes full of endless misery, that familiar pleading voice and gaze...

You were weak against that but you were annoyed.

Who does he think he is. Does he think himself so charming that he can just waltz into your tent, demanding you donate your blood for free while he went back to Shadowheart right after? You did want to be the hero to those that needed you, but this is just taking advantage of you. You liked him a little less at that point. You were fully resolved to turn him down. After all, this felt wrong, not just to you, but to Shadowheart as well.

You got up.

"I am afraid, Astarion, I will have to turn you down tonight. Isn't Shadowheart waiting for you? What will she think of your absence?"

"She doesn't know. No one does. And I would like to not tell everyone, as long as I can, if you help me. You are the only one, who knows. And if everyone were to find out, I am afraid they would not show me the kindness you did. I would be cast aside. And left to fend for myself."

For all the outward intimacy between him and Shadowheart, you realized, they were not after all, close at heart. What did you expect. Did you expect him to be someone that would allow himself to fall in love with someone or genuinely love and care for someone other than himself? Your first impression of him, was right. The suave and snooth bad boy, with a thousand charms was after all, just that.

You sighed.

Battling with your moral dilemma. You wanted to cave, and earn his trust even more, and maybe a bit of affection. But was that really the right way to go about it. To exploit his weakness? You couldn't. You needed to save everyone. Even the ones that were too proud to admit they needed saving. You sighed again.

"Astarion, I would like to help you. However I cannot, be your only source of.. sustenance. This will affect me in battle. And I thought we agreed you would feed on our enemies, since they are as good as dead, as you said."

If he was disappointed he did not let it show.

"But of course. I only just wanted a little bit. You wouldn't even feel it. I promise. It will be a gift, that I will never forget" He looked at you with his intense gaze that sometimes betrayed the storm raging inside him you suspected. "I understand..." His countenance fell. He was pained. "Have a good sleep. I'll see you around in the morning" And he turned to leave.

"Wait"

Dammit. You cannot turn him down. Or anyone. When they genuinely seem to need your help. But did Astarion really need you? Or was he being greedy? Were you being deceived? Probably. Behind the facade of one who seeks your help is someone simply using you. You felt that. And yet, you were drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.

"Yes, you can...again, tonight. Only a little bit"

"Really? You would?" Genuine surprise in his voice. He quickly stepped in and drew the tent flaps shut. He took your hand and suddenly took the lead. Taking you to the back, gestured to you to sit. You sat down, he knelt in front of you, lifted your arm like last time, with both his hands, gave it a kiss, and looked at you one more time, as if to ask for your permission one last time, and when you nodded, proceeded to bear his fangs at which you looked away.

It didn't hurt, nor did it last longer than a few minutes. Afterwards he drew away, and sat down next to you, as if sated to his utmost. A grin across his face like last time. you looked at your wrist, and the two little dots where his fangs had pierced your skin. The ones from last night were fading. Tonight's red. He looked at you looking at your wrist. "Does it hurt?" He seemed...guilty.

"Let me wrap it"

He proceeded to tear a bit of linen from somewhere nearby and tie it around the bite marks. Hiding your doing, I see. This is no act of kindness. You felt your resolve melt. You felt glad to have been of use to him. But also sad, he was about to leave. And go back to shadowheart. You had served your role. He had used you, and no longer needed you.

Thank you ...you whispered to him

Part III : Maybe tonight, I'll rest in peace

[melrosing]

Sorry if you’ve talked about this before but I can’t find it if you have. What are your thoughts on Jaime’s role in the Tysha situation?

I don't think I have actually talked about this at any particular length before?? which is weird bc i have thought about it a lot but to quickly summarise before launching into it:

I think Jaime's part in this is a human failing. it wasn't a malicious or spiteful act, but an ignorant one

that said, I think it's basically unforgivable regardless. Tysha and Tyrion are the only people who could forgive him for this and even if Tyrion does, I really doubt we'll ever learn Tysha's feelings on the matter

imo the way in which Jaime ultimately decides to come clean is near enough the cruelest thing he does, even if he didn't mean it to be

so first off, I don't think Jaime has ever truly believed that Tyrion couldn't be loved (in the romantic sense, anyway). Jaime himself is someone who loves despite appearances, and it seems he knows pretty soon after telling Tyrion the lie about Tysha that it wasn't really a kindness, but in fact the worst thing he's ever done (so far!!)

I also think if it hadn't been for what Tywin subsequently put Tyrion and Tysha through with the guards, Jaime would've come clean shortly after telling the lie. but after that, no doubt it felt almost impossible to do so, because the damage was now outsized and there was little chance Tyrion and Tysha would be able to return to what they had.

but he does tell the lie to begin with, and I think that is because Jaime lives in an ableist society and is touched by the stink. he loves Tyrion and Tyrion's disability has never impeded that love, but it has meant that Jaime has failed him many times, sometimes without even knowing he has. for one thing, I think he has failed to realise just how much Tyrion has suffered through childhood. he comes to some revelation following his maiming at the hand of the mummers:

Sometimes he even wept, until he heard the Mummers laughing. Then he made his eyes go dry and his heart go dead, and prayed for his fever to burn away his tears. Now I know how Tyrion has felt, all those times they laughed at him. (JAIME IV, ASOS)

however, it suggests that whilst Jaime has never been laughing with 'them', the full extent of his understanding has necessarily been limited. besides that, I think Jaime has always been in a unique position where he could have definitively stood up to Tywin and Cersei in terms of how they treat Tyrion - he alone had the ability to withhold something until they did so, whether that be love or obedience. but obviously he lets his fear of his father/codependency with Cersei get in the way of that, so.

he's also carelessly partaken in ableism without thinking, indeed in front of Tyrion - whether that's in calling him 'the Imp' (something Tyrion can reclaim but Jaime certainly can't), or this fucking gem:

"Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death." Tyrion replied with a shrug that accentuated the twist of his shoulders. "Speaking for the grotesques," he said, "I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities." (TYRION I, AGOT)

again, doesn't really matter if Jaime has been able to push past some of the ableism others have adopted, the stink is still on him.

so, when Tywin dictated the lie he wanted Jaime to tell, I can imagine he was in two minds. on the one hand, Jaime loves Tyrion, wants Tyrion to be happy, and would be pleased if Tyrion found happiness with someone who truly loves him back. once again, Jaime himself loves despite appearances, and so I don't think he would ever have found it inconceivable that Tysha honestly loved Tyrion.

but again, he lives in an ableist society, and so when Tywin tells Jaime that Tysha's love was cynical, that might have seemed possible, too. Jaime has grown up in a world that has called Tyrion a monster since birth. it doesn't matter if Jaime doesn't think Tyrion is a monster; he knows that much of the world does, and accepts (if only for a time) that Tywin's assessment of Tysha could be true.

then there's the fact that once Tywin has made a decision, perhaps Jaime thought Tyrion and Tysha's relationship was a lost cause; besides that, if Tysha were taking advantage, Jaime doesn't want Tyrion to be hurt by it. hence, "a kindness". it's all deeply flawed logic, but again, this isn't about malice or spite on Jaime's part: it's ignorance mixed up ableism, and human failing.

then ofc, Tywin does what he does to Tyrion and Tysha and that's it. Jaime figures there's no way he could tell Tyrion the truth now without causing him even greater pain, and keeps quiet for the foreseeable future, retaining that as one of his very deepest regrets. because Jaime knows near enough immediately that he was lying to himself as well: he knows full well that Tyrion can love and be loved, and yet he propagated Tywin's lie..... for what.

could get into the absolute fucking tragedy of Jaime and Tyrion, practically the only two out of the Tywin/Cersei/Jaime/Tyrion quartet with a genuinely uncomplicated, loving relationship, having their love turned to poison by the worst dad of all time. but another time

then to move into ASOS: look like I don't know if it was ever the right thing to tell Tyrion the truth once the thing was done. I can see both sides: one, Tyrion deserves to know that he can be loved, and has been loved. two, how the fuck is Tyrion supposed to feel knowing the truth, and that his whole life he's been living a lie.

but I think the biggest problem is that Jaime doesn't really reckon with that so much as his own desire to be honest and do right and come clean etc. he certainly knows how much he risks hurting Tyrion or else he wouldn't have kept quiet all this time, but it seems at least part of it is about honesty for the sake of cleansing himself rather than doing right by Tyrion.

he also. forgets to apologise??

"For your gold, Father said. She was lowborn, you were a Lannister of Casterly Rock. All she wanted was the gold, which made her no different from a whore, so . . . so it would not be a lie, not truly, and . . . he said that you required a sharp lesson. That you would learn from it, and thank me later . . ." "Thank you?" Tyrion's voice was choked. "He gave her to his guards. A barracks full of guards. He made me . . . watch." Aye, and more than watch. I took her too . . . my wife . . . "I never knew he would do that. You must believe me." (TYRION XI, ASOS)

like I think Jaime is honestly sorry. he's afraid to tell Tyrion because he's sorry, he accepts Tyrion's punch because he's sorry, etc. but he never manages to actually say it, he's too busy trying to make himself understood. he wants Tyrion to understand why he did what he did, and it's like. why would Tyrion give a fuck why right now, he'd trying to reckon with the impact it's had on him, and the fact that he and Tysha lost their happiness together and suffered so horribly for nothing.

so whilst I think it's human to botch an apology like this, to be so busy trying to explain yourself you forget to apologise at all, and that you're meant to be centring the victim of your wrong. but it is still fucking wrong lol. Jaime gets it so, so wrong.

all of that to say, I don't think Jaime has ever wanted to hurt Tyrion, but he has - he has hurt him badly. doesn't negate his love for Tyrion - it says in his own POV that Cersei and Tyrion are the two people he cares most about in the world. but he fucks it. partly because of the ableist society he lives in, partly because of the toxic family dynamic he's part of, and partly because he's human, and that's the tragedy.

[tsukasalover]

I can think of a lot of reasons why I like and have gotten attached to tsukasa more than any other fictional character and i think if i had to keep it simple (or else id be rambling for hours) id say

1. He’s so interesting. I usually pick up the extremely mischaracterized blonde characters anyways but he gets my brain working real hard. its almost 2am and i cant think straight but theres something about his duality that keeps me glued to him and the amount of Layers he has and how removing even one layer or completely ignoring how both his huge ego and kindness + selflessness coexist can really mess up your perception of him. There was something quite short i wrote about how both sides make him. Well. Him. back when his colofes dropped since i was so annoyed at the people Not getting it (while most never even read the STORIES 😁) anf ive been screaming this for a year now Please. Also the way his dream and being a good big brother go hand in hand have captured me. I really like fictional siblings and they fill something personal i miss and Looove looking at the roots of characters. Discovering where this and that and connecting events to what started their behaviors or helped their personality bloom. So seeing saki and toya play such an important role in his life keeps me HOOOKEDDD. I took the bait like tiny fish. Dont regret it. Never will. I like my fictional characters like layered cake. Thats basically how i see them. I had a yummy chocolate cake with so mant layers the other day 🤤 but anyways. I also really like when characters have to learn and grow as people after making really bad mistakes or being straight up assholes so it really took a while even after mainstory but once i got to see more of him with saki and read dazzling i was like. This is the guyyy. Youre mine now lets go. I dont like perfect characters but.. you see.. when characters who have (sometimes way too much) confidence and are dramatic yet are shown to truly be good people who enjoy making others happy… alright.. now im listening… Sign me up…

But really he has almost everything I’ve ever looked for in a character. Starting with the fact that he’s a theatre kid. And blonde. Of course emu nene and rui + more fictional characters have made their way into my heart and ive gotten attached to them on very Very personal levels but when it comes to this Idiot who wants to be a star and reminds me of a dog its something that i dont even know how to explain sometimes. Why is he here? What are you doing inside of my head. Ill never have one solid answer because he takes up too much space in my mind and i become incoherent too often when talking about him.

2. Ignoring my first answer, He is ugly. My favorite punching bag. Cartoon character. Begins floating when he smells pie. I dont know anymore

3. he just like me fr (Which is terrible i dont like that)

[rorschachisgay]

Saints Row and in particular Saints Row 1 and Saints Row 2 had enormous impact on me and have an irreplaceable spot in my development and history. one of my biggest tattoos is a Saints Row tribute. the franchise shaped a lot of my teen and young adult years. i know for a lot of people it was the goofy comedy series but it mattered to me profoundly.

It has been a long time since any of the people who were heading those games have worked at Volition, but knowing how the company was treated over the years, having it suddenly tossed into the gutter like this is crushing. hundreds of good people losing their jobs because their parent company was scrambling to recoup costs from a shitty failed business decision.

it's unfair. all of the entertainment industry is brutal, but video games are a fucking machine made to chew people up and spit them out again like disposable tokens, only good for extracting as much monetary value as possible. you release one game that performs just ok, not great but not terrible, but because you didnt meet the impossible imaginary goalposts of people who frankly know nothing about your company or your work outside of numbers on a screen, thirty years of history is just gone. like that.

how fucking miserable. Volition had such a rough fucking deal the last ten years, bouncing from one parent company to another and still, somehow, being expected to produce games in that. and they fucking did, too. i still remember the devs of saints row the third and iv talking about how they were making saints row the third not knowing if their parent company was going to live long enough to see it be released. how saints row iv was the way it was because they were under such time and money constraints that the budget didnt exist to do what theyd dreamed of.

it's horrible. and i can't help but wonder what's going to become of idolninja's pc patch as well. just rot in embracer's archives somewhere? what a fucking waste of a mans legacy.

It's all so fucking brutally sad and unnecessary. Volition were entering a new era, they could have done so much more. i can only hope that the hundreds of people let go can find new jobs soon, since embracer group also stiffed them on medical insurance as a final fuck you.

just furious and heartbroken for the games i loved and, more importantly, the people who were horribly fucked over by the evils of corporate greed yet again. fuck embracer, fuck the video game industry.