#They’re animals that humans especially care about because they’re us

[rotationalsymmetry]

ok I’m definitely not reblogging because I don’t want to shame OP, but I just read a really weird read on vegetarianism and pet ownership.

I’m an ecologist. My opposition to meat eating isn’t about the sanctity of life; most animals eat at least some meat some of the time, some animals exclusively eat meat, animals can eat meat and also have a functioning ecosystem. Actually everything has to be eaten at some point, either via predation or after death via scavenging or decomposition. That’s how we recycle nutrients.

The reason it’s not great for humans to eat meat has to do with trophic levels and carrying capacity . There’s about an order of magnitude more zebras than lions. If humans want to live like lions, our carrying capacity (how many of us can exist without breaking everything) is lower than if we live mostly like zebras. This is complicated by exactly what biome you’re living in (if you live in the arctic, living like a zebra is not an option) and it’s also complicated by the way all industrial agriculture is unsustainable. There is a sense in which all industrial ag is just terrible and we shouldn’t be doing it, at all. But just like you can’t live like a zebra in Alaska, in practice most people can’t opt out of industrial agriculture. But industrial animal agriculture is about an order of magnitude (ten times) more unsustainable than skipping the animals and feeding people plants, so when people can eat plant foods or mostly plant foods — and especially when people can avoid beef/cow meat specifically — it’s … harm reduction. It buys us a little more time.

My impression is indigenous cultures that aren’t in places where eating plants isn’t viable handle this by 1. mostly eating plants, or maybe some combo of plants and seafood, and 2. having a bunch of rules around hunting and harvesting that include the idea of asking permission to take life. I have no idea what that looks like in practice, but I’m sure it makes sense to people who were raised that way. Point is, while vegetarianism is a cultural anomaly, that doesn’t mean that cultures that do eat meat think everything is fine with every way of killing animals for meat.

As a side note the reason I can coexist without conflict with meat eaters is I have a very strong ethic around the idea that each person is in charge of their own life and moral choices, and I’m kind of straddling the middle of an older worldview of “some things that are good to do are mandatory for everyone, and some things that are good to do are sort of above and beyond, and most people aren’t going to do them and that’s ok,” with vegetarianism being one of the above and beyond things, and a newer stoicism-based “whatever anyone else does is none of my damn business anyways.” That’s got nothing to do with seeing animal lives as less valuable than human lives — I think humans should be eaten too, by worms or bacteria or fungi after we’re dead, so that nutrients stay in the ecosystem — and everything to do with “I’ve got enough to handle with my own life and my own moral responsibilities, I don’t need to be running other people’s too.”

[adelheidvonschicksal]

(Image credit and courtesy of @avidbroswer. See what you did to me. 🥺) Take the last line as you will people (it may be lightly implied nsfw *cough*). Yuuji is a puppy boy, and Megumi is a cat.

╴╴╴╴╴⊹ꮺ˚ ╴╴╴╴╴⊹˚ ╴╴╴╴˚ೃ ╴╴

Kitty Boy!Megumi who is all mean scratches and hisses and teeth and claws. He was abandoned by his previous owner and doesn’t care for anyone coming into his space. His sign at the animal shelter reads, “Please don’t touch, will bi—” with half the page aggressively missing. Clearly some people learn the hard way.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who refuses to wear his collar and glares at you when you even think about trying to put it on him and who grumbles and rolls his eyes when you joke to people that all his fighting is him giving you little love bites.

Kitty Boy!Megumi whose favorite pastime is taking up all the space on your couch while in human form like he owns the place. Then, he struts around in cat form to avoid you.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who only gives you the time of day when he’s hungry and takes all your best blankets as soon as they’re out the dryer and disappears under his blanket fortress for two days because he has the silent motto of “what’s yours is his and what's his is also his” apparently.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who clearly understands what you say and knows how to use his words but chooses not to so he can see you pout.

Kitty Boy!Megumi whose ears are always twitching when he hears your voice, who lets his tail rest across your lap when you feel sad, who scoots just the tiniest bit closer when you fall asleep next to him.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who glares at anyone you bring over to your place especially other men, and especially when they sit in his spot (conveniently next to your spot) on the couch or on his floor or at his kitchen counter or anywhere. In fact, kick them out and sanitize the place. And he swears if they block his sunlight one more time—

Kitty Boy!Megumi who pretends it doesn’t feel amazing when you scratch that perfect spot behind his ear and coo out a sweet "'Gumi~". Who gets red faced when his purrs finally break past the cage where he locked them in his chest and vibrate in his throat like a babbling brook before his eyes roll up and his head conks back.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who is trying his best to convince himself he doesn't like his hooman that much but who is also frantically trying to scent your jacket before you get done dressing in the other room to go to class.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who gets annoyed that you take advantage of his love of catnip to get him to do what you want – who when hyped up on the stuff, finally decides to prove that you belong to him and not the other way around. After all, what’s yours is his, including you.

Kitty Boy!Megumi who you realize is very, very good at pouncing.

[midnightorchids]

you have officially got me hooked on firefighter jason. the headcanon about him being so good with kids is what has me in shambles. this big tattooed guy covered in soot who ends up kneeling in front of a little girl he saved, wrapped her in an emergency blanket, and found a big bandage/piece of gauze and wrapped it around her doll’s shoulders so she could be warm, too. distracting her while the rest of the firefighting team works to help her family.

jason carrying the heavy burden of watching children experience trauma like that, losing family members and everything they’ve ever known. coming home from work and letting you wash his hair in the bath, humming softly as he speaks softly about the child he pulled from an apartment fire, or the cat he rescued from a tree. just small stories that humanize each and every case from the day.

i love it because watching him go from something so brutal and violent to something just as physical but helpful and community based is so important. jason todd is jaded toward a LOT of things but he loves his community. he loves the families and the children absolutely those trying their best in such difficult situations. anyway i love him

It was really not necessary to make me ball my eyes out, this is genuinely so so so adorable. Your mind is amazing!! I would like to add on to this as well!!

I always say that Jason is very soft and domestic, despite his past and this would translate into his firefighter job too. Especially when he takes care of children, the elderly or animals.

Jason may be this huge, scary looking dude with a rough past, but he has a heart of gold.

He takes care of the children, cradling their small hands in his large ones, while his coworkers focus on helping the children’s families. Jason always has a smile on his face and uses the most gentle tone when speaking to them.

He knows how hard life can get in Gotham, especially for the kids, so he always tries his best to make their life just a little bit easier, a little bit safer.

I think he would also go to schools and do presentations on fire hazards and the potential dangers. He would also show up for fire drills and would teach in a way that’s both fun and entertaining.

The children absolutely adore him.

He also often takes home stray cats that have found themselves in trees or other bad situations. He feeds them and makes sure they’re warm, before taking them to the vet or a shelter. If he could, he would try to keep them all at home with him.

Jason loves sharing stories with you, the good and the bad. You understand him and make him feel loved, comforted and safe. Some days, he’ll share stories over dinner, other days, the harder days, he’ll have his head gently placed on your lap.

He tears up sometimes, thinking about the things that some children have witnessed or the homes that families have lost due to fires and other disasters. It’s not the same, but it reminds him of his past.

Those nights, he just needs someone to listen and to take care of him. And you do just that.

[sumikatt]

(Has alt text.)

AI has human error because it is trained on “human error and inspiration”. There are models trained on specifically curated collections with images the trainer thought “looks good”, like Furry or Anime or Concept Art or Photorealistic style models. There’s that “human touch”, I suppose. These models do not make themselves, they are made by human programmers and hobbyists.

The issue is the consent of the human artists that programmers make models of. The issue—as this person did correctly identify—is capitalism, and companies profiting off of other people’s work. Not the technology itself.

I said in an earlier post that it’s like Adobe and Photoshop. I hate Adobe’s greedy practices and I think they’re evil scumbags, but there’s nothing inherently wrong or immoral with using Photoshop as a tool.

There are AI models trained solely off of Creative Commons and public domain images. There are AI models artists train themselves, of their own work (I'm currently trying to do this myself). Are those models more “pure” than general AI models that used internet scrapers and the Internet Archive to copy copyrighted works?

I showed the process of Stable Diffusion de-noising in my comic but I didn’t make it totally clear, because I covered most of it with text lol. Here’s what that looks like: the follow image is generated in 30 steps, with the progress being shown every 5 steps. Model used is Counterfeit V3.0.

Parts aren’t copy pasted wholesale like photobashing or kitbashing (which is how most people probably think is how generative AI works), they are predicted. Yes, a general model can copy a particular artist’s style. It can make errors in copying, though, and you end up with crossed eyes and strange proportions. Sometimes you can barely tell it was made by a machine, if the prompter is diligent enough and bothers to overpaint or redo the weird areas.

I was terrified and conflicted when I had first used Stable Diffusion "seriously" on my own laptop, and I spent hours prompting, generating, and studying its outputs. I went to school for art and have a degree, and I felt threatened.

I was also mentored by a concept artist, who has been in the entertainment/games industry for years, who seemed relatively unbothered by AI, compared to very vocal artists on Twitter and Tumblr. It's just another tool: he said it's "just like Pinterest". He seemed confident that he wouldn't be replaced by AI image generation at all.

His words, plus actually learning about how image generation works, plus the attacks and lawsuits against the Internet Archive, made me think of "AI art" differently: that it isn't the end of the world at all, and that lobbying for stricter copyright laws because of how people think AI image gen works would just hurt smaller artists and fanartists.

My art has probably already been used for training some model, somewhere--especially since I used to post on DeviantArt and ArtStation. Or maybe some kid out there has traced my work, or copied my fursona or whatever. Both of those scenarios don't really affect me in any direct way. I suppose I can say I'm "losing profits", like a corporation, but I don't... really care about that part. But I definitely care about art and allowing people the ability to express themselves, even if it isn't "original".

[sokoneedsagun]

My ramblings about the Al Ghul family

1. I really hate the fannon (and sometimes cannon, fuck you grant Morrison) concept that Talia doesn’t love Damian or any of her other children (because yes she has children other then Damian), because just no? Thalia has never been a bad mother, I could add countless panels of proper portrayals of her and Damian because she does love her son.

2. Talia is not a fucking rapist. And I hate that it keeps getting pushed and brought up, especially when it’s used in fannon as a way to further push forward Bruce and Selina’s (or whoever else) relationship. She loved Bruce (again I could find countless panels.) she isn’t just a cold violent woman with no regard for her loved ones.

3. While I’m fucking at this, none of the Al ghul’s are as heartless as the fandom likes to pretend they are. Are lots of their actions criticizable? Yes. Are they being violent for the sake of being violent? No. For one thing, they’re literally ecoterrorists! Ra’s especially so heavily cares about the earth and the amount of damage humans have done to it

4. While I’m at this I hate the fannon concept of “well the Al ghul’s made Damian kill animals because they didn’t want him to be attached to anything” because that’s bullshit. There’s more than one portrayal of the Al Ghul animal sanctuaries, how they’re the ones protecting endangered species of animals. I’m not entirely sure where the panels are from but there’s plenty of them of Ra’s and his dog (it might be a wolf but an animal along those lines) and how much he loved them

5. Stop calling Damian “feral.” For one thing it’s weird to call any 10 year old boy that, but it just feels even weirder with Damian when his character is so heavily demonized already (by writers and readers)

6. It’s ok to have complex relationships!!!!!!!! Not everything is going to be straightforward, especially with a family like the Al ghul’s, no one expects for the Wayne family to have black or white relationships so why aren’t we doing the same for them?

7. Damian doesn’t have to give up the other half of his family once he goes to live with Bruce, he’s allowed to miss his family, he’s allowed to miss the familiarity of it, he’s allowed to love them, he can disagree with their actions while still loving his family. It’s part of why I don’t like people taking the Al Ghul name from him, that’s why in almost all my posts I use all three tags for his name (Damian Wayne, Damian Al Ghul, and Damian Al Ghul-Wayne) most of that is just so you can see it from whatever tag you follow but still, he’s allowed to keep that part of his life

[teecupangel]

I know we’ve had allot of Desmond turning into animals but have we done dinosaurs? I know there is the titanaboa one, plenty of normal animals and a good helping of legendary and monster type creatures. So I propose Desmond turn into archaeopteryx.

He’d have little claws and he’d be able to fly/glide pretty easily. He’s also small enough to climb and hang onto ancestors shoulders like a parrot.

I think he would be cute like this. Otherwise velociraptor would work with the pack hunting. He’d have his own hidden blade with that claw and the ancestors could be reborn as raptors too and make a squad to hunt Templars down and give them nightmares.

Here’s T-Rex Desmond for those curious.

Since we already have a velociraptor Desmond, let’s turn him into an archaeopteryx and act more like a reconnaissance type partner. He’s small enough that he can hide around his ancestors’ neck, appearing more like a lizard wrap around their neck.

When they get into fights, Desmond will fly out and surprise the enemies, flying around and scratching their eyes to help out.

Desmond only rests on their shoulder when they’re in a safe location like the bureau.

When Altaïr first started raising him, people assumed he’s some strange bird that the crusaders brought with them.

By the time the Templars are like “Oh god, no, we thought that thing was one of yours!”, the Brotherhood is too used to Desmond to even care what kind of strange animal he is.

Any shouts of “it’s weird! It might be evil!” are ignored because of the Brotherhood knew about the story of Desmond getting chased by an angry hen because he touched one of the eggs.

When Altaïr dies, Darim takes care of him because Sef insisted (“You need someone to look after you, brother. Especially when you insist of continuing to do missions at your age” “You’re two years younger than me.” “Yes and I am no longer doing any missions, unlike a certain idiot I know.”) so Desmond takes the role of a partner and a minder (not that Darim would admit the latter).

It’s during one of their travels that Desmond’s first ‘fledgling’ is born.

Darim and Desmond just stares because…

Uh…

Everyone honestly thought Desmond was a dude.

(Desmond doesn’t understand any other animals but he does understand human speech and his offsprings. The fact that his first son is Altaïr is a very strange experience for him especially whenever he remembered how he fed Altaïr when he was a fledgling and taught him how to eat)

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

Nimona headcanons plus a little bonus at the end

Whenever the trio gets home it's like a switch is flipped off inside their brains and all they want to do is be lazy and relax 

They’ve got very busy and stressful lives and a pretty small home so it’s not uncommon for them to yell when they’re asking a question instead of just getting up

And if they can’t hear each other they’ll just call the other person

One time Ambrosius was yelling asking them what wanted for dinner and was interrupted by Nimona calling him 

He answered the phone and all they said was “What’d you say I couldn't hear you” he didn’t even question it he just kept talking 

Nimona brings dead animals home 

I have this small headcanon that the first time she shifted into her human form was when she met Gloreth 

So before that she was living mostly as different animals and she kind of learned their ways and those ways stuck with her 

So there is a small part of her that sees Bal and Ambrosius as incompetent hunters (can you blame her)

The boys always thank her for her doing a good job and then they wait for her to leave the room before they freak out because MY GOD SHE BROUGHT A FUCKING DEAD RAT IN THE DAMN HOUSE 

There have also been times when she’s brought live animals inside the house the trio spent half an hour trying to get a traumatized bird out of their living room 

I just know for a fact that Bal has a crazy amount of brain damage 

This man has used his head as a weapon and has been hit on the head more times than I can count 

So I feel like he has a really hard time remembering the little details he gets really bad migraines and headaches pretty frequently his eyesight is absolute shit and he has to wear contacts or glasses and he gets really bad vertigo if he doesn’t take care of himself 

This worries the shit out of Ambrosius and Nimona but there isn't much they can do except deal with the symptoms when they show up

So I was thinking about the fact that as far as we know Nimona never told Bal about what went down with Gloreth

But I know that the boys would try and heal the damage that Gloreths legacy left behind  

And in the middle of everything Bal turned to Ambrosius and said “I just wish that fucking eyesore was gone” 

He didn’t have to ask what he meant he knew it was the statue 

So Ambrosius got to work trying to get it torn down 

A lot of people including some distant relatives that he hasn’t heard from in years tried to argue that it was an important monument and that her story touched a lot of people 

To which Ambrosius responded with “I’m her direct descendant if anyone gets to choose what happens to that statue it should be me” 

It was a couple of months into Nimona’s return when the demolition was approved 

The boys had asked him a while after he came back if it was something he wanted 

And all he said was “As long as I get to help” 

It was super therapeutic for both Nimona and Ambrosius 

Like don’t get me wrong the damage she did to Nimona is still there 

And Ambrosius will always have a complicated relationship with his lineage 

But tearing down the “fucking eyesore” heals something inside them

It was supposed to be a month-long process but Nimona and Ambrosius kept going and it was completely gone after two weeks

When all was said and done they collapsed on the couch and went through just about every single emotion you can go through

A little bonus I made my mama watch Nimona with me and here are some of my favorite comments: Mind you when I first put the movie on this woman was acting like I was pulling teeth

“I like the queen she seems nice” (and then she freaked out when she died)

“So they’re nice to him 'cause he’s gold I would just steal the armor what does he have without that?” “Money Mama” “Ah”

“Why are they so mean to him he’s just a baby?” (talking about Bal)

“She’s just like you especially with those freaky eyes” (when Nimona met Bal)

“Oh, so she’s the rhino…. Makes sense”

“Awe she’s cute I can't hate her” (about Nimona again)

“Oh wait she isn’t cute that’s freaky” (when Nimona was the demon baby)

“That’s like you and your sister” (Bal and Nimona interrogating the squire)

“Hey, mama is arm chopping a love language?” “I’m worried that you would even ask me that”

“Oh he’s got issues huh?” (after Ambrosius’ internal freak out)

“Can he die a little quieter… and faster” (after the Director stabbed “Ambrosius”)

“Oh fuck that little blond girl”

We had to pause the movie right before Nimona started her rampage because we were getting tired and I woke up to her in front of the tv with it pulled up on Netflix and she turned to me and said “Can we finish it already?”

“If she sacrificed herself I will never forgive you”

“Do you watch anything with straight people?” “Mama you literally ship them” “That's not an answer” (this is right after Bal and Ambrosius kissed)

“Is there a next part?..... so when’s the next one coming out?” 

Once the movie was over I told her some people thought Ambrosius and Bal were related and she looked me dead in the eyes and said

“You’re joking. No you have no be kidding… He literally said it in the movie!” “Said what Mama?” “oh I love him so much and I lost him whatever will I do” 

And then she kept making fun of Ambrosius for the next three minutes

I asked her who her favorite was and she said Nimona I go “aweee you love me” she looks me dead in my eyes and says “don’t make it awkward”

[seeker-of-stories19]

Ghostsoap Shifter AU

- Ghost is a very large black Jaguar

- Soap is a border collie

- As if Ghost weren’t deadly enough already he often shifts on missions to take care of enemies

- Shifters are rare enough no one makes the connection and no one who sees him shifted ever lives

- Most people laugh at the rumors which are about as outrageous as any of the other ones surrounding Ghost

- Of course some people theorize that the rumors are more than that but there’s not really any way to prove it and they mostly don’t worry about it too much because it’s not something that makes him more vulnerable since he already stands out on the battlefield

- Soap is the opposite, absolutely everyone knows he’s a shifter and mostly no one cares since shifting into dogs, cats, bunnies, and other small animals is much more common than exotic animals

- It’s not much use on most missions but occasionally he’ll shift if there are kids around to cheer them up or heard them toward safety

- He also shifts to comfort his team members if someone is particularly upset, almost always Ghost but sometimes he does it for Gaz too and on a very rare occasion Price

- Walks all over the base in his dog form, usually following and herding Ghost around which absolutely baffles everyone because they act fairly professional otherwise

- Soap also looks ridiculously small next to him when shifted because he’s so big

- Gaz thinks the whole thing is hilarious and after he walks in on Soap in his dog form laying on Ghost on the couch in the 141 rec room one too many times he buys Soap a PTSD service dog vest as a joke

- Ghost gives him an absolute death glare but Soap beams at him

- He thinks it’s hilarious because he has admittedly been performing Service dog tasks for Simon on a semi regular basis for months at that point

- Doing deep pressure therapy and behavior interruption and grounding tasks for disassociation when Simon is struggling, especially after nightmares

- No one cares at all what they do on base because Price is pretty much in charge anyway and everyone else is too scared of Ghost to protest

- But when they go on leave Simon has a really hard time with his PTSD and Soap has the brilliant idea to put on the vest and tag along for some errands since he can’t exactly lay down on top of Simon in public in his human form if he gets overwhelmed

- It helps a ton and they’re able to go more places, sometimes with Soap tagging along just as a dog and sometimes bringing the vest as an emergency measure and shifting if Simon needs help or comfort

- Soap definitely does a bunch of research into different Psychiatric service dog tasks

- They both agree that Gaz can never know

- But it definitely makes Simon really happy even if he doesn’t want to admit it he ends up sending Soap different ideas of tasks that would help him

- He loves to see Soap find joy in his animal side

- His relationship with his shifter form is much more complex, no one else in his family was a shifter and he tried to hide it from them, even when his mom found out she tried really hard to hide it from his dad

- But eventually he found out when he scared Simon enough that he shifted into a little Jaguar cub

- From that moment on it was his life’s purpose to force Simon into shifting, and he loved to hurt and scare Simon when he was in that form especially as a kid because he liked the power of having control over such a dangerous animal

- By the time he was old enough to join the military he already had a whole separate set of scars on his jaguar form and he swore never to let that part of himself be hurt again

- Lied on his enlistment paperwork about his assigned gender at birth and about being a shifter

- The one thing he’s always liked about his shifter form is that it was always male, even when he was a kid and hadn’t been anywhere close to starting to transition

- He thinks it’s because shifter forms are supposed to be connected to you on a soul level and it helped him process his gender

- He wants to protect himself from any further harm to that part of himself and doesn’t want to find out if the rumors about how the military uses shifters is true

- The entire time he’s with Roba nothing scares him more than losing control of his emotions and shifting but eventually it happens when Roba cuts his face open and he reacts similarly to his dad

- Tests all kinds of horrible drugs on him and hurts him and makes him kill people in his jaguar form, by the time he’s buried he thinks he’s too injured to shift but he forces himself to do it one final time to dig himself out and escape

- After that he never wants to shift again but after hunting down Roba and killing all his men he transforms one final time to kill the man, tearing him apart desperate to show him that he didn’t truly master a jaguar the way he’d tried so many times

- He tries to shift after he gets shot by Sparks and Washington but for the first time instead of his body forcing it on him he can’t do it no matter how hard he tries

- He’s too late to save his family, if he’d been able to shift he could’ve saved them and the failure haunts him

- It’s years before he accidentally shifts again in front of Price after a particularly grueling mission and the man is beyond shocked to suddenly find his sergeant turning into a massive black Jaguar

- It’s takes months after that for Price to slowly help him break through his fears, he promises not to exploit his shifted form on missions but insists that he shift at least once a week for his own sanity, it’s dangerous to just ignore it

- He doesn’t have much choice but to agree but unlike for most shifters his form is no longer a safe place to hide or rest it’s just another reminder of the horrible things that have happened to him

- After that he stops caring about his Jaguar form and what happens to it, feels a sense of bitterness that this incredible ability couldn’t protect him and instead of shifting peacefully on his own he starts doing it on missions, just using it to kill as many hostiles as possible

- He knows the violence bothers Price on some level but the Captain never says anything when he rips people limb from limb with his teeth and transforms back covered in blood

- The first time Soap sees him shifted is in Las Almas when he brutally kills a few Shadows who tried to track them to Alejandro’s safe house

- Rudy is shocked and understandably cautious of the massive animal that just tore five people apart viciously but Soap looks reverent and almost excited

- Is very happy to realize there’s another shifter on the team

- Isn’t the slightest bit intimidated by Ghosts shifted form and before he can even shift back he’s touching his broad muscled shoulders, stroking the black fur gently, whispering a brief praise to him for protecting them

- He’s too shocked to shift back and Soap just casually leads him around to the side of the house where there’s a hose

- He m apologizes for the water being cold and calmly washes the blood out of Ghosts fur while he stands there in shock

- He shifts back and they go on with the mission but he has no idea what to think about what happened and can’t get it out of his head

- Soap regularly interacts with him in his shifted form during and after missions and it becomes routine for him to give him absentminded pets

- On the battlefield Soap is the only one who specifically utilizes his shifted form in mission plans

- He gains his own reputation for having a trained Jaguar and there are some truly ridiculous stories passed around base about it

- Slowly over time he finds it normal to spend time with Soap while shifted but never outside of missions

- When Soap starts asking him to shift around the base in their rooms or the rec room he can’t fathom doing it for himself

- The first time he shifts around Johnny outside of a mission is when they’re cuddling together on leave and it’s a complete accident

- It’s very common for strong emotions to trigger a shift but for him it’s almost always been fear and the few times it wasn’t fear it was anger

- He’s never shifted from a positive emotion so he’s shocked and beyond confused when he goes from purring into Johnny’s chest wrapped in fluffy blankets while the rain pours down outside to laying half across his boyfriends body as his Jaguar self

- Soap is ecstatic and immediately shifts as well, curling into Simon’s much larger body and gently licking one of his paws, snuggling under his chin fearlessly

- They get fur and dog hair all over the bed but he doesn’t even care because it feels amazing to be shifted like this

- He hasn’t shifted once in his entire life where he was truly safe, even as a kid it was in the locked bathroom when his shifted form was still just a clumsy black kitten and he wanted to spend all his time in any body other than his own

- It’s still painful but he starts opening up too Soap about his relationship with his shifted form and Johnny is absolutely devastated

- His border collie form is so precious to him and the stress relief of not having to think the way he does as a human, of just herding and protecting settles something inside him

- He can’t imagine being so viciously abused in his dog form that it became a trap of all the worst animal mentalities

- Instead of getting a more simplified thought process and the pleasure of giving in to more of his instincts and trapping people into giving him physical affection Ghost is stuck in the flight or fight of an abused animal, scared, violent, lashing out

- He makes it his life’s mission to get Simon relaxed and happy enough to have him shift from positive emotions

- It doesn’t happen too much at first because he still has so much trauma attached to his shifter form but slowly over time he can get Simon into a headspace where he shifts more often around their flat

- The first time it happens on base for any reason other than a nightmare is when he’s giving Simon a scalp massage, twirling his curls around his fingers and rubbing his fingers against his scalp while Si lets out deep rumbling purrs

- He’s heavy enough when he shifts to half crush him but he doesn’t move much except to wiggle up enough that most of the weight is resting on his legs and not his stomach

- Simon always acts like he should be scared of him like this but it’s all he can do not to coo at him when he blinks heavy lidded green eyes at him and bats at his side clumsily with a heavy paw

- When the door opens Gaz let’s out a high pitched scream of shock and nearly jumps into Price’s arms while Simon barely moves

- It’s the animal mindset kicking in differently than fear and violence and panic and he recognizes it immediately as being how he’s always understood his shifted form

- Still very much human but fewer thoughts and more instinct, making it easier to let go of anxiety then it ever is as a human

- Price looks absolutely shocked to see Simon casually shifted, bumping his large black head against Johnnys side to get his attention

- He quickly goes back to petting him

- When he shifts back he’s clearly a bit unnerved by it but just says something along the lines of never letting Gaz live down his reaction

- It’s months later that Johnny is having a difficult time with some recruits, just the type of people who like to pick at authority to try and make themselves seem tough

- Especially against the supposedly deadly SAS sergeant

- They know of Ghost and have heard enough rumors to be suitably terrified but they certainly don’t know how protective he is over Soap

- Rather than trailing around after Soap like his namesake and scaring all the recruits like he usually does if situations like this arise he takes a different route with this particular group after hearing Soap complain about some of the particularly unpleasant harassment he’s been facing

- Soap is halfway through yelling at the group of especially rude recruits when Ghost pads over to him and buts his head against the man’s chest

- He’s so shocked he freezes and the recruits are scrambling away when Johnnys face breaks into a brilliant smile as Ghost head-buts his thighs and stomach a few times before looping his strong lithe body around Johnnys back

- Soap just continues yelling at the recruits who are now cowering because he’s just casually got a massive black Jaguar draped around him

- When he finishes yelling he gives them one more warning before writing them up for insubordination and the practically run away the second they’re dismissed

- As soon as they’re out of sight Johnny breaks out into the most delighted laughter and hugs Ghost as hard as he can, pressing kisses to his snout and beaming at him

- Ghost just pushes him down and paws at him for pets, purring and butting his massive head against his chest

- Since he doesn’t have anything to do immediately he walks towards Ghosts room and lets himself in with the spare key while the few people around stare at him being followed by a massive jaguar

- People notice of course but it’s a small enough base that despite the people filtering through regularly it really is the 141s base and anyone who knows anything knows it’s a bit unregulated and very much left to the discretion of John Price

- Not to mention they’re too scared of Ghost to create any issues anyway

- So whatever chaos the 141 comes up with is mostly just ignored

- But people are definitely freaked out by a fucking Jaguar of all things just trotting after Sergeant McTavish through the hallways

- Soap of course thinks it’s hilarious and collapses laughing the second he gets the door closed

- He’s so incredibly proud of Simon he just showers him with love the rest of the night, petting him, kissing his snout, snuggling into his chest

- It makes Simon feel more loved than he has in a long time when Johnny gets so excited at one point that he accidentally shifts as well

- They love being shifted together but they also love when one of them is shifted and the other can give them love in their human form

- Soap starts transforming even more to help Simon and he can see the man slowly becoming more receptive to his shifter form

- He doesn’t transform in front of people on base again and a lot of people think those recruits were making it up

- Soap thinks it’s hilarious

- But he’s also so flattered that Ghost would transform in a semi public place for him since he knows how hard it is for him

- He doesn’t expect that Simon will ever be as comfortable as he is with his shifter form but when he starts shifting more in front of Price and Gaz in the 141 rec room he’s ecstatic

- Price and Gaz never quite get used to it but there’s nothing he likes more than seeing Simon sprawled across the couch in a patch of sunlight, tail flicking lazily as he licks him with his rough tongue

- But nothing is better than seeing Simon at home in there flat shifting comfortably just to get some pets, acting for all intents and purposes like a glorified house cat

- He’s such an attention seeker when shifted, if Soap ignores him he’ll break mugs and vases on purpose which has him feeling absolutely humiliated when he shifts back and his thoughts are more human

- Sometimes he still shifts after nightmares and things and Johnny will cuddle him close and soothe him with kisses and snuggles as he yowls and whimpers like a trapped animal

- But overwhelmingly he shifts for positive reasons and on purpose which he never could’ve imagined in the past

- It feels like he’s finally found the peace in his shifted form that he was searching for at five years old locked in the bathroom with clumsy paws, he feels like a kitten again with Johnny who is so sweet and attentive and everything he could ever hope for

- It affects their relationship significantly and they’re both incredibly happy and they work well together

- Although they never escape the cat and dog jokes from the people who know about both of them

[prinzrupprecht]

Counter argument to those that are complaining about sexualizing anime high school characters

Why are people now crying about writers sexualizing school kids in anime? It’s fiction, they’re not real. Anime is not real. Finding a minor character in a show attractive, doesn’t make the reader or the writer a pedophile. Actually, the term pedophile has been loosely thrown around way too much. It’s a psychiatric disorder when a person has a strong attraction to pursue or try to engage with pubescent children below the age of 13. This is completely different to liking a character that is not real. Hate, disagree with this all you want. Liking or having a crush on underaged fictional characters isn’t comparable at all to pursuing/sexualizing minors in real life. People need to stop comparing the two. Fiction doesn’t equal reality at all. I couldn't care less what authors/writers do as long as we all can understand the difference between fiction and reality. For the longest time, I had a huge crush on Manjiro and I thought he was 18, but turns out he was 16. A lot of the time they don’t look or even act their age. Hidden inventory 16 y/o Gojo fanfics are insanely popular on wattpad/AO3 and he barely even looks like he aged from 16 to 28. There's also so much r34 art of Zero Two and Marin Kitagawa. It’s pen and ink. So who cares?

“Omg tHaT’s a cHilD yOu sIcK fuCkS.”

Some people here don’t seem to understand Japanese culture and it speaks loud and clear. Do these “anime” high school characters act or look like a child? No. Does Yuji/Megumi/Yuta look like a shota? No. They have bodies of an adult and don’t even look like or act like children. Also, liking underaged fictional characters doesn’t mean we are attracted to children / minors in real life. Stop with that shit. A lot of Mangakas sexualize their minor characters. It’s normal in their culture. So that makes Japanese weird too? Nah stfu, let the Japanese cook. I’m guessing the minority that are crying about it are probably pissy Americans that can’t seem to accept that it’s normal in someone else’s culture and many others to like the looks of fictional 2D drawings of characters that don’t look like real humans. All it is, is just art. None of it is real.

It may seem wrong to you, but it is normal to others. Especially those who’ve been writing fanfiction for years on Wattpad and AO3. There’s millions of fanfics of “underaged characters x OC/Readers” which has been normalized already for decades because people can separate their fictional fantasies from real life. Age doesn’t exist in fiction when you can change it in your fan made content. Authors can change the age of the characters too in their fanfics/one shots. There’s been countless of people making High school AUs of Gojo x reader/OC fan made content surfacing Wattpad and AO3.

Some of y’all be reposting Geto x reader smut, & Sukuna x reader smut and they are mass murderers, child murderers, Geto is a racist, and Sukuna is cannibal and arguably a rapist. Would you fuck a child murderer in real life? Y’all be having fantasies of these characters. Majority of Sukuna smut on here is him using a “minor’s” body to fuck the brains out with the reader and that’s somehow better than people finding Yuji or Megumi attractive? Relax. It’s just fantasies we all have, they’re not real.

Anime characters are 2D drawings, so no, I don't consider finding anime girls/boys attractive equivalent to finding young real-life girls/boys attractive. No more than being attracted to drawings with absurdly disproportionate eyes means you like humans whose eyes take up half their skull. It's just an art style. That’s the whole point of fiction, it’s just fantasies as long as you don’t act on those same thoughts in reality who gives a shit. I would never like minors irl, so ffs call me a pedo for liking anime characters or disagree with me. Idc.

[mushroomates]

gimli headcanons:

likes doing laundry. finds it soothing

history nerd!! loves reading old tombs/biographies of his ancestors

is incredibly intelligent. beats frodo in chess. would beat gandalf but gandalf cheats. has been in a stalemate with aragorn for two and a half years.

well mannered but chooses to forgo his politeness to make a point. especially around elves.

does NOT like horses. not just riding them, which is canon, but actually dislikes the animal itself. the reasons why include (but are not limited to) :

he does not like being not on ground. he does not have a fear of heights so much as a fear of… feet not on ground. as evidenced by refusal to jump, treehouses, and well, horses

he does not like their faces. they are long and have eyes on the side like prey. gimli thinks this is deceiving as horses are very large and can kick in someone’s skull. not his skull.

gimli believes that in a one on one match with a horse, he could easily win. he has thought of several, very specific, scenarios of this and has a detailed plan of attack should this situation occur.

they so easily turned against their home for an evil overlord (read: sauron stole all the black horses from rohan) and therefore cannot be trusted. as a rule, anything that willing you let you ride it cannot be trusted. they can’t be satisfied with this life. they are plotting something.

believes he would be great at drums. it’s just hitting things hard and he’s pretty strong.

ok, another thing about horses: they are fragile to a ridiculous extent. you breath wrong and it breaks. they have bad bones and bad blood flow in their legs, and their legs are all that they’re used for. he doesn’t understand why humans invested so much time into horses when they’re genetically bad at what they are meant to do. he’d feel bad for the horses if they weren’t so awful.

drinks coffee, not tea

takes great with the up keeping of his gear. he sharpens his axes, polishes his boots, shines his armor and waxes his mustache. that’s not gear, but he takes great pride in looking groomed and caring for his belongings.

has an axe for every occasion. battle axe? do you want throwing or slashing. a day on the town? have you seen this intricately carved masterpiece that also is a weapon? digging a hole? PICKAXE. cutting a cake? how about an axe???

hates the rain because it ruins his hair and beard. also loves the rain because it ruins legolas’s hair and clothes.

will eat anything. has a great tolerance for spice. contrary to popular belief, dwarves are not shy of seasoning but are very cautious around other races in fear of poisoning their friends

will also eat some rocks. salty is his favorite (halite, hanksite, glauberite) but also likes to add chunks of chalcanthite to his food for a slightly sweet yet metalic flavor. this is also slightly (SLIGHTLY) poisonous as evidenced by sharing his trail mix with boromir

also calls dirt the “local seasoning”

will taste dirt to try and get a feeling for the land. this tells him the acidity, weather, possible wildlife, and also pisses off legolas

actaully genuinely likes the taste of dirt. (note: if you desire to eat clay/dirt that is a symptom of iron deficiency. for gimli, he eats spoonfuls of the stuff like their supplements because as a kid it was fed to him like multivitamins)

OK SO HEAR ME OUT: lack of sunlight can cause really low hemoglobin and ferritin (a blood protein that contains iron) sooo being constantly in dark caves can cause some forms of iron deficiency. because dwarves are conscious of their young, dwarf children often grow up not often being in direct sunlight.

the solution? dirt. dirt contains iron and other tasty minerals that are good for the body. charcoal has natural antioxidants. so does clay. am i saying that momma gimli (unnamed) fed her son ash and clumps of dirt? yes. also bits of broken pottery. it’s good of the immune system.

fr tho clay/dirt/charcoal are the dwarven multivitamins. you have a tummy-ache? here, have a rock. i truly believe this was scientifically proven by dwarves and only FOR dwarves (plz do not eat dirt)

fuckin loves mushrooms. has a mushroom log at home. whenever dwarves find some fungai in a cave they go feral

likes dogs. thinks it’s great that they dig holes. thinks it’s fantastic that the bury things in holes. absolutes loves when they get muddy, and then shake off all water and dirt all over you.

when he came back home with the name lockbearer, a lot of the dwarves thought it was really cool and he has some sort of elven puzzle that requires a code to unlock something. imagine their surprise when he rocks up and is like: no, even better. HAIRS. three of them.

enjoys making mudpies- made them as a kid with his cousins, (mostly with rock slurry) and continues to, even even as an adult.

made them on the fellowship with the hobbits. taught them all about the best types of dirt and the water-to-soil- ratio needed.

while cutting up slices of his pie, he offered one to boromir, who in good nature, took it, clearly thinking it was just part of the bit.

poor boromir was locked in a stalemate after gimli cut his own slice, and began eating it.

to his credit, boromir did brave a few bites, but had to stop once he nearly had a mouthful of maggots

“protein”

gimli is like crazy good at hair. can braid quickly and efficiently in elaborate styles

picked up eleven hair style techniques in lorien (quicker than legolas) and was forced to relay them to the elf through twine as there is no way he’s letting grubby elf fingers to touch his glorious mane that’s been decades in the making

would ask for a drink “on the rocks” and get slightly upset if it did not come back with actual rocks

[cursedvida]

I genuinely don’t get the reaction towards noamae. Do people think we’re out here shipping real human beings with real monkeys in real life?!

Is it so shocking to believe that a talking, genetically-altered ape who rides horses and tames eagles, who possesses rational thought and repairs wepaons could be potentially capable of developing complicated feelings for a girl from an underground bunker who lives in a post-apocalyptic world with other people escaping a virus that devolves them and was on a mission to get a chip to communicate with other people in space using 300 year old satellites and who managed to complete her mission with the help of said ape???

Have these people consumed fiction before?? Make believe worlds??? Unlikely pairings??? Fantastical ideas??? Whimsical illusions??!?

And then they call them animals…umm, isn’t the whole premise of the films about them not being just animals??? Isnt it a reality set WITHIN the universe of the films that they’re not just animals???

I’m lost 😵‍💫

As I said before, I don't care if people like the same things as me or not, or if they share my perspective on things. If they have an issue with those of us who see chemistry between the TWO FICTIONAL MAIN CHARACTERS of a movie, who are rational, thinking beings perfectly aware of their actions and with full decision-making capacity, then the problem is not mine, it's theirs. Basically because I'm not out there hating on people, I don't have that much free time lol

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I believe there's palpable chemistry, you can see it as romantic or platonic, but denying the obvious seems absurd to me, especially when it's confirmed that it's not just Noa's story, but the story of both, and that the initial idea has always been for their relationship (of whatever kind) to become one of the main axes of the new saga.

However, most of the people I've seen hating (and I mean hate, not just not liking the ship, which is totally legitimate) in the end are basically Mae haters, and their arguments, to me, have a background that rings too much of internalized misogyny for me to take them very seriously, but ok.

[fangsforiris]

Hihiii!! I’m back again LMAO 😭😭 I hope I’m not bothering you with my asks, ur writing is js so like addicting to read?? Idk how to explain it but I could read ur works for hours and not get bored ( ◠‿◠ )

Anywayzzzz, I was wondering if u could do headcanons on how Kanato, Laito, Ayato, and Kou would be with an s/o who is like impossible to piss off?? Like they could be as annoying as they possible could and they’re like “ Ok :) “

Ofc as usual take ur time, don’t feel rushed and if I’m sending in too many requests just lmk and I’ll try and cut back ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ Have a great day/night !!!

———————————————————————

S/O Who’s Hard to Piss Off HC’s

Ayato:

• He’ll definitely pester his S/O a lot.

• As in, this is the king of wanting attention and being annoying.

• He may get upset a bit, seeing as he thrives on having a reaction given a lot.

• Take some depictions shown in the anime if anything.

• Ex: When he pesters Yui to make him takoyaki and she doesn’t initially give in.

• Ayato loves the reaction and finds it funny/amusing.

• He may become somewhat fussy about it.

• As in, the bothering will become extended before he gets bored and starts to leave his S/O alone.

• Like imagine going out with him and he sees a perfect time to pester.

• Ex: Carnival wait line.

• Without the reaction he wants, it may annoy him for the moment, before continuing on with his day.

• I think he’d make it his life’s mission to at least gain something rather than nothing.

Kanato:

• He would get upset pretty quickly.

• Especially since most of the time when he aims to annoy, he wants a reaction.

• In all the times he’s done something towards Yui, without anything being shown back to him, he assumes it’s ‘doll-like’ behaviour.

• Or at least an attempt at satiating that interest in him.

• But of course, no reaction in a sense would show that his S/O doesn’t care for him and his needs.

• On the other hand, having an S/O that doesn’t always reply to his antics can be seen as profitable.

• As in, he can get away with more and expect less repercussions.

• He’ll be able to toss them around as a rag doll, and in a sense— have an exemption towards his somewhat abusive tendencies.

• Expect a lot of what he wants to do, and not so much any concerns with whatever his S/O wants to do.

• So tea parties, forced outings, dress up, etc.

• It’ll all be shoved down his S/O’s throat simply because his S/O is condoning it by not giving a reaction to any of it. (That is how he’d see it.)

Laito:

• He wouldn’t be too upset about it.

• Sure, reactions and those getting upset are intriguing and sometimes seen as entertaining for him.

• But really, he’d be the one to applaud his S/O the most with keeping their composure around him.

• Laito knows that it can be hard to show enough self restraint, so he’ll use it as a challenge to see how far he can push his S/O.

• Like everyone, vampires hold certain reactions and emotions towards a different standard.

• So it’s unfair to expect him to simply react like humans would, or alike the other vampires.

• Especially since their type of entertainment is quite different to that of humans/human standards

• He does tend to joke around or make ‘uncomfortable’ jokes towards his S/O, in hopes of obtaining something to find comical.

• So it may actually be toned down because of his S/O’s attitudes towards it.

• One might even say, it may break down Laito into displaying more of his ‘true self,’ as the normal antics he’d entertain is no longer working on individuals.

• It may serve as a learning lesson to him that his false persona may not appeal to everyone, and even he must understand that there’s more to him than surface level ‘pervert Laito.’

Kou:

• With Kou the dynamic is much more interesting.

• Because of his ‘all seeing eye’ or ‘truth seeing eye,’ he can pinpoint exactly what his S/O is feeling and if it’s true.

• He’s normally someone who’s seen to joke around with others and find fun in things.

• Kind of like Laito with the double personalities, and attitudes surrounding certain aspects of their lives.

• But even with that, he may do more to gain a reaction.

• He has split feelings about being human, or an ex-human— so as a half-blood, I’ll take it that he’s adapted to the way vampires or pure bloods would think.

• He may at the start of the relationship, assume that somethings wrong with his S/O— or that they’re mad at him.

• But once he gets acquainted— with that being his S/O’s natural nuanced reaction to things, he may do more and get out of his own comfort zone to see if anything would phase them.

• Since he believes in the entire ‘give and take’ analogy— he may be annoyed that it takes a lot of him ‘giving’ something (ex: putting in energy) to get something in return for him to ‘take’ (a reaction.)

• But overall I don’t see him complaining too much, only if he’s in one of his fussy moods.

[headspace-hotel]

I think a critical flaw in the vegan’s user’s argument was that they clearly buckled down on how capitalist exploitation and overproduction factors into milk and meat markets… and then seemed to assume that vegan diets avoid capitalist pitfalls completely.

But you’ve already posted on your blog before about how crop production under capitalism has created huge environmental issues in terms of biodiversity, depletion of topsoil, and sustainability. Meaning even a non-animal diet can (especially on the scale necessary for every human being currently in existence) still create large-scale issues if that diet demands having specific foods in abundance to avoid eating meat.

Like, I’m sympathetic to what vegans want to do, it just feels like they’re ignoring a MASSIVE number of pressing logistical and environmental issues to push that agenda. There’s several intersecting problems here, and claiming humanity as a whole is poised to chuck eating animals completely seems to be jumping the gun.

This is basically exactly what I hope to convey to people. I feel like extremely pressing issues such as topsoil loss, pesticide and herbicide use, and pollution caused by nitrogen fertilizers, not to mention the severe biodiversity impacts of monoculture, are being disregarded in favor of a very simplistic "Meat is killing the Earth" argument.

And I think the "veganism to save the earth" idea is just...distracting, as a movement. I'm glad people are motivated to do it. I don't think it's bad. But we need people to take action beyond just Buy Product. Anyone telling you that the most important action you can take is Buy Different Product does not have your best interest, or the planet's best interest, in mind.

If you're eating a plant based diet, but your only relationship with your food is Buy Product, you are still alienated from the source of your food. You still don't know, and can't respect or care for, the ecosystem or the labor that gives it to you.

My agenda is far more along the lines of "society needs to be organized so more people are directly involved in growing food that feeds their community" than anything to do with animals, but it's clear to everyone who has studied it for 2 seconds that farming needs to change hugely and it's so, so much more complicated than "farming animals is bad, farming plants is good."

Also the fact is that veganism cuts you off from sources of nutrients that have been part of virtually every human society ever, a LOT of people have disabilities, allergies or nutrient absorption issues that mean going vegan isn't possible for them, and people who try to argue with me about this simply Stop knowing how to read when this is brought up. "Some people need animal protein to live" is a reality of the world but people who don't like this straight up refuse to consider it.

I have no food allergies or sensitivities, and I still struggle to eat enough food to live. I lost thirty fucking pounds in college because of stress, the dining hall being shit, and my roommate trying to control my eating habits (long story). Thats like...well over 1/5 of my body weight. Sometimes people Cannot restrict their diet safely.

Like, sure, I 85% agree with the vegans who like to comment on my posts, but the remaining 15% of things they say is completely insane.

And some of them are so out of touch with reality that they will swear up and down that it's impossible for humans to drink milk without someone having to murder a baby animal. They seem to think farming is exclusively some kind of horror show that happens in a warehouse somewhere, and don't understand the concept that "some people live in rural areas" or "it's not uncommon in some places to just keep a few dairy goats that provide milk for your family."

And if they admit this exists, it's like "well, that's not where your dairy comes from, because the INDUSTRY—" thats. that's my point, you can get milk from a farmer who keeps a small herd that is well treated, we should start doing this actually, you can even keep your OWN goat

my ideal world involves "backyard chickens and goats are legal in suburban areas where there's space" because there's literally nothing innately unethical about keeping a couple dairy goats or healthy heritage breed chickens and you can quote me on that and you can even fight me.

That one person (the one who kept bringing up eating poop) (Lord what a sentence to have to write) eventually turned to "Well those sources are wrong because governmental organizations want you to keep eating animal products" which is already well into "conspiracy theory" territory. No thanks.

[squidzillaa]

LeviHan Analysis of chapter 132:

I’m surprised I haven’t seen a single person (yet) discuss this scene. Levi is talking about Hange not forgetting him: (The lines were changed in the anime, but that’s understandable because his lines are vague and can be misinterpreted. ;)

Levi says “…you still want me asleep in bed? You’re going to forget I even exist if I rest any longer.” He uses the word “You” and “You’re” which implies only 1 person. Why would Armin forget he exists? Do you really think he's worried about Armin forgetting him? Why would Armin still want him in bed? The person who wants Levi to rest THE MOST and has been making sure he stays asleep, is Hange. He drags himself out of bed because he doesn’t want Hange to “forget” him. Especially because Hange, chapter 126, had recently confessed her love to Levi.

In his next line, he says “…anyway.” AS IF HE WAS TALKING TO HIMSELF. 😂 He then continues and is Now speaking to Armin.

Another thing, doesn’t this line seem a little random for him to be openly admiting this outloud to Armin? Levi is very honest, but he rarely voices his feelings out-loud when he’s struggling with something. Unless he’s with Hange. (He tells her everything.) And a lot of the times it’s in a roundabout way. This line is one of his most straightforward confessions. “I don’t want you to forget me.”

If he Was talking to Armin, do you really think his main concern here is Only Armin forgetting him? Why would he be concerned about Only Armin or Specifically Armin forgetting him? Now of course he wouldn’t Want to be forgotten by Armin, and the same goes for the scouts, but why would he voice that Only to him, and not include the REST of the scouts? He could have said “You guys are going to forget I even exist.” 🤔

Levi has done this “talking out loud” to Hange, when she isn’t there, 2 other times:

One can assume Hange was with him while he was trying to sleep, because the cabins only have one bed and Levi can Only sleep if Hange is with him. Levi is supposed to be resting (Hange’s wishes), but Hange leaves him to converse with Yelena. I’m guessing they got interrupted/notified with information about Yelena, that’s how he’s aware of Yelena being conscious again. He doesn’t really need to talk to Yelena because Hange will relay that information back to him. Plus he's not the biggest fan of Yelena 🧔🏼‍♀️😂, so I don’t think he really cares about listening to her. He just wants to be with Hange! ☹️ This is also the chapter that Hange dies in, so that line is foreshadowing. ☝🏻👥

After the forest scene, Levi and Hange aren’t shown interacting with each other, until his line of unrequited love for titans. The reason for that is because Hange and Levi already decided, in the forest, not to let their feelings get in the way of their duties. (They’re always putting humanity first! 💪🏻) Re-read chapters 127-132 and notice how often Levi looks for Hange, and tries to get her attention. (Especially when he’s trying to sleep and she leaves his side.) This line here, from Levi, is One of his last desperate attempts to get Hange’s attention. (It’s the 1st one, out of 4, during chapter 132.) ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Once you realize that Levi was talking about Hange with his line here, it makes things EVEN more depressing! AHHHHHH knife to the heart. 🗡️💔🥹😫🫡😵‍💫🦑

[knine-nights-loves-ac]

This started as an ask I was gonna send to @teecupangel but then it got like seven paragraphs long and I decided fuck it I’m just gonna make it a post and @ teecup. So here goes!

Another Pokémon!Desmond idea (ps: this got long, tldr; shiny Goomy uncatchable Des)

So to set the stage, AC universe happens as normal but, in the AC universe, pokemon as a franchise doesn’t exist. Just not a thing at all. So, starting off Desmond (who doesn’t know what Pokémon is) dies because of the Eye and poofs into a new universe as he does every other Tuesday.

Now, flash to a Pokémon region. I’m biased so I’ll say Kalos. But most work. Desmond appears on one of the earlier routes as a shiny Pokémon. Because I’m still biased, let’s say a shiny Goomy even though Goomies shouldn’t spawn there.

Desmond, newly goopified, doesn’t know what the fuck is going on. He’s a glob now. And the animals around him are fucking weird. And seemingly only live in the tall grass.

He can’t figure out how to use any of his “moves” outside of basically tackle and scratch and other similarly basic things. So he’s pretty dam weak, probably relatively low level, only thing he has going for him is that he’s fast and, relatively, smart. He’s still got human level intelligence which is enough to outsmart the vast majority of Pokémon.

He spends some time on this route, getting used to things, using his Eagle Vision (which he still has) to find berries, avoiding fights, and just enjoying his forced retirement to another universe. It’s Desmond, unless properly motivated, I think he’d be willing to settle in and chill.

But uh oh, trouble is afoot. In the form of! A CHILD no

This little kid toddles down the path with a belt full of pokeballs. Desmond, who is still new to this world, sees the kid and decides to approach. Why? Idk man, the brain cell got burned by the Eye.

The kid is like “OH MY GOD SHINY GOOMY!” And immediately initiates a Pokémon battle.

How does this feel to Desmond? Im not sure. But he definitely can tell somethings up when the kid starts screaming in another language, sounds like French? (If you get why, you get a cookie), and throws a ball that somehow summons another creature. Let’s say a Caterpie.

The Caterpie is low level, about as intelligent as a real caterpillar, and big. (Fun fact apparently Goomy and Caterpie are the same height). Now Desmond is concerned, especially when the kid yells a command and the huge ass bug attacks him. Caterpie only knows like three moves so it probably just tackles. Desmond, not being an idiot or actually a real Pokémon, dodges. The kid looks surprised but yells again and the Caterpie attacks again. After a few times, Desmond decides “Fuck this shit, I’m out.” and nopes on out of there. The kid is absolutely shocked that the shiny Goomy just ran from the battle and also that it dodged everything.

Desmond meanwhile, hidden now, checks on the kid and sees that they’re blue in Eagle Vision. He’s not sure whether to be surprised or not. On the one hand, he’s never seen a kid that was red, but on the other hand, this kid attacked him.

He metaphorically shrugs it off and continues foraging for berries, he’s trying out new combinations.

Meanwhile, this child runs back to wherever they came from, and eagerly spreads the news about the wild shiny Goomy they saw. Most people don’t believe them, but a couple other kids are curious enough to go looking later.

Another day begins and Desmond stumbles upon a group of kids this time. The original kid among them. They’re speaking quickly, yeah he’s pretty sure it’s French, too bad that’s one of the languages he barely gets (I don’t care if he’d know some via Ezio, he’d know 15th century French, not modern day Pokémon world French). They’re gesturing wildly and some of them are looking accusatorially at the original kid. Desmond tries to get a little closer and, just his luck, stumbles into view of the group. Uh oh.

Several minutes later, the kids are confused as hell, several Caterpies are furiously working their hamster wheel brains to understand what’s happening, and Desmond is starting to question what’s up with the people in this universe.

But something special happened this time. At one point, one of the kids threw a red and white ball at him. It bounced off his head and rolled on the ground, doing nothing. Desmond was just annoyed. The kids were flabbergasted.

Rumors spread until actual researchers are tramping through the tall grass. Desmond is definitely avoiding them. Even if they’re white in Eagle Vision, those lab coats remind him a bit too much of Abstergo.

Eventually, after the human presence becomes a bit too much, Desmond decides to hit the road and moves out from his comfy little tall grass patch in the middle of the night. He settles down again somewhere else.

Repeat cycle a few times until the whole of Kalos has heard tell of this shiny Goomy who nobody can catch and seems to roam the whole region.

Idk what’s happening from there. Begin plot of Pokémon X/Y? Maybe Desmond meets AZ? Lots of options but idk.

[loveoaths]

Anakin is not racist

oh, man, that was fast!

listen. i’m gonna assume you’re an anakin fan — great! so am i! — but anakin is objectively an awful person and a canonical space-racist. that’s apparent even if you’re new to Star Wars like i am.

from Legends:

when asked about his view of the tuskens, anakin’s immediate response is “i have no use for tuskens.” i mean, i don’t know what there is to explain about that, because it’s right there. a whole race of people he doesn’t care for because they aren’t “useful,” as if that’s all people are meant to be to him. his issue with them is apparent but he won’t name it.

a’sharad hett directly names anakin’s issue: he is prejudiced. and anakin does not deny this. he “apologizes” but does not specify for what, because he knows he’s supposed to. you don’t just admit you’re a racist, especially not to a Master Jedi. which is exactly what irl racists do, lmfao.

when push comes to shove, anakin outright SAYS it.

“I know what you are — filthy, sneaking, Tusken! Animals! Hiding behind your masks! Your kind tortured and killed my mother and I’m glad I killed them all!” (Emphasis mine)

like, listen. this is racist as hell. the racist dog whistle is now a racist klaxon, alright. he sees the tuskens as subhuman, as inherently untrustworthy because of their appearance and their culture, and he is not only not bothered by killing them, but he’s happy he did it. you could argue anakin is shielding himself from his guilt with self-righteousness, which i might buy with any other character, but anakin is down right unrepentant.

it wasn’t enough for him to kill the tuskens responsible, which even a’sharad notes would have been acceptable in Tusken culture; anakin wanted them all dead, because they’re all guilty to him solely by virtue of being Tusken. this anger and hatred and bigotry pushes anakin to even lash out against a’sharad, a tusken jedi, fully dropping any pretense that he is okay with a’sharad despite him being half-tusken and a jedi. because you know what anakin is following? the ONE DROP RULE! even a drop of Tusken blood is too much tusken.

and still the wrong lessons are learned. for some godforsaken reason a’sharad learns he needs to be seen as a Jedi first and not a Tusken, which is not only antithetical to the Jedi way, but totally opposite to the point of this encounter, which is that we are all many things all at once, and pretending otherwise leads to destruction. anakin is a jedi and a murderer and a racist and the chosen one. ignoring the unsavory and cruel parts of him, never exposing him to the jedi council, and hoping his “better nature” would win out over time ensured that it never would. a’sharad is a Tusken and a jedi and many other things, but his wrongful assumption that pushing aside his heritage will gain him favor eventually causes more problems for him.

the only reason anakin and a’sharad stop fighting is because a’sharad removes his mask, revealing, tada, a hot human face! now anakin is capable of an insincere apology. but he still assumes the markings on a’sharad were forced on him, because he still believes tuskens are a barbaric and cruel people. then the moment is moved past so they can escape.

and despite this shit-ass “heart to heart,” anakin walks away with zero appreciation for a’sharad or the Tusken culture. he fails a’sharad’s lesson: it’s not that he can’t see a’sharad as human, as a person, as a jedi, it’s that he won’t, because he is attached to his view of the tuskens as lesser than, because it excuses his behavior, because it makes him righteous, because it makes him feel better, because it solidifies his entitled view of the world. which is exactly how irl racism and whiteness work.

and the final word on the subject is this. when all is said and done and anakin is asked if he would kill the tuskens again, knowing what he knows about them now, his answer is a cold, unmoved, “Yes.”

now, i know the Legends comics are not officially canon; the new canon is whatever Disney chooses to use and whatever appears in the movies. however, even if we just look at the clone wars, which are now canon to the Disney SWU, there are several instances in TCW where anakin makes disparaging comments about another species’ appearance, intelligence, and capability. i don’t have those on hand because i am not trawling through 7 seasons for quotes for you, but you can find them if you want to look.

my final thought here is this: i am not disparaging anakin fans (fanakins, if you will); like i said earlier, i am fascinated by his character, and enjoy him as a concept. what i am doing here is asking you (especially if you’re white) to consider the lengths to which fandom goes to ignore the very obvious signs that anakin is not just genocidal but racist. like him all you want but don’t ignore that part because that makes you uncomfortable. he kills kids. that’s not any better than being racist.

understanding the role of racism in his depiction, and his turn to fascism, only aids your storytelling and view of him, because it’s true to life. society is willing to ignore massive red flags if someone is white (and in Star Wars universe, we’ll add “human” to the list), male, and conventionally attractive. obi-wan is willing to ignore these things because he is the same, and because anakin does not treat HIM this way, obi-wan can blindly believe anakin would never treat anyone like this — which is, again, a phenomenon people of color call out often, where white people will say “X can’t be racist because he’s never said anything racist around me!” well yeah. because why would he? nevermind the fact that obi-wan and ahsoka witness anakin treating non-human suspects with extreme prejudice, abusing his power and authority as a jedi to get what he wants, and worse. anakin is and always has been a shitty racist cop on a power trip, but because he worked with “good cops” and knew better than to say anything out loud, he got away with it until he killed them all too.

this all feeds into the concept that while anakin’s fall is tragic, it is by no means unexpected. the only reason the main characters of the prequels are surprised is because they willingly looked away from the warning signs. the characters who didn’t — the Council, Mace, even Ahsoka at some points — are vilified by anakin, and because the main characters love anakin and have an attachment to him being the chosen one, they believe anakin over those who are suspicious of him and ignore or downplay the warnings until it’s all too late. the tragedy of anakin isn’t a tragedy of not being loved enough, or having people fail you; it’s the tragedy of refusing to get help, of refusing to let go of things even when they hurt you, it’s the tragedy of the bitter man drinking poison to kill someone ekse, and it’s the tragedy of the bystander: of what happens when we all stand by and watch people we love do terrible things without stopping them, because we’re as afraid of them not loving us anymore as we are of confronting what it means that we still want to love and be loved by cruelty.

tl;dr: anakin skywalker is racist and prejudiced. you can still like him as a character; this is not a moral judgment. but maybe you should prod at your like at him a little, and investigate the ways in which both anakin as a character and the fandom’s dismissive view of his many faults is indicative of the insidious way racism and whiteness works irl. especially if you’re white.