#addict agency

[jakobbach]

illustration for Volba Sládků April 2023 (Popeleční Benedict) Pilsner Urquell x Břevnovský klášterní pivovar agency: Addict client: Pilsner Urquell

[whirlybirbs]

oh my god i am dying at the All Might Agency dynamics. i love that they all have a running bet that their bosses are essentially sleeping together.

what about derecho being in an absolute terrible mood? and the only one who can cheer her up is toshinori???? (i have my period right now and this is me)

Everyone knows it's coming when you start to feel a little bit more like a live wire than usual. Those anger management classes did wonders during the beginning stages of your Villain Rehabilitation Course. You know how to breathe through your bigger feelings now, you know when you're dysregulated and need to take a walk.

But, boy.

Every couple of months, there's about a three and a half day stretch of where it's just best to avoid Derecho in the halls of the All Might Agency.

It's like you hit the short end of your leash — like being domesticated no longer sits right in your bones. So suddenly, the heroics are nothing more than a show and you can't stand the way people clamor to touch you, photograph you, and consume you... Like you're some sort of commercialized product being sold at the hands of the Hero Commission.

Toshinori Yagi gets it.

Your knee is bouncing up and down and up and down and up and down and—

"Der'."

An angry spark ignites your eyes. Toshinori's body shifts as he moves to lean against the weight rack you're seated under. He crosses his arms. You feel your lip curl. He shouldn't be here. You said you wanted to be left alone.

"Hey," he says again, this time a little softer, "Look at me."

He's probably going to give you lecture on lifting without a spotter again. He's probably going to tell you that working on your PR bench press alone and angry isn't advised, and that you need someone to make sure you're safe and how much caffeine did you have today and isn't your shoulder injury not fully healed yet—

But, no. Instead, he moves to stand behind you.

Your eyes meet his in the gym's mirror.

"You've got at least two more sets in you," he says smoothly with a growing smirk, "C'mon, I wanna see what you got."

And suddenly you're not so angry.

Because, even on the worst days, he's there to push you back up on your feet with a smile and a laugh.

— a reference to this fic here ;

[pocketgalaxies]

laudna *chose to jump off that cliff*

i don't know why y'all keep pretending as if orym actively pushed her off that cliff and not merely stood by

could he have stopped her? yes. but even after that first time, laudna keeps choosing to jump *every single time* and that's not on orym, that's on laudna

she has complete agency and she chooses to give in, and i'm of everyone acting as if she has to agency or choice in this matter

the fundamental difference between laudna and orym is that laudna will never have complete agency over her choices. that's the whole point. every single choice that she makes that may affect delilah will be affected by delilah in turn. even if delilah isn't making herself overtly known, even if she isn't talking, she is there. the fact is laudna cannot be trusted when she explains her reasoning behind any given instance of her consuming power or going dark, because she is, like anyone else might be, inclined to retroactively look for a reason why she might've done it that has nothing to do with the entity poisoning her mind. i think it's entirely unfair to say that she has complete agency and has chosen to go down this path. the whole point of the story being told is that she never has full agency anymore, even when she truly, genuinely, completely believes she does.

[aliusfrater]

sam breaking the fourth wall by making direct eye contact with the camera while investigating glimpses of his and dean's real life, which he perceives through his dreams while zacharaiah has trapped them in a version of reality that exists for the purpose of manipulation vs the concept that sam is the one who ultimately comes up with the plan that diverts the apocalypse

[tea-and-secrets]

i think there should be a license to have kids. like theres already so much paperwork involved and it might benefit people. basically you have to fill out this form that says you're not addicted to recreational substances (phrased like that bc things like Adderall are used recreationally but also to genuinely help people), and that your finances are solid enough to support children, and you have solid housing, etc, etc. This idea is probably really stupid and it would bring a lot of issues (accidental pregnancies for example) but in a perfect world it would be so useful. I genuinely believe that people who are already in poverty, or addicts, or have severe mental instability (ie psychosis) shouldn't have children. Even if they really, really want to. It just puts unnecessary strain on already struggling people and in the best case leaves the child mildly traumatized, in the worst case severely traumatized, disabled and/or dead.

.

[arabella-s-arts]

I watched Wish two days ago. It was painfully mediocre, which is too bad, it had such great potential. Whatever they were cooking up in the writers room and art department looked great, until all those great ideas got scrapped.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about the forbidden magic aspect of the story. You use it just one time and apparantly you're gone forever? That's stupid. It's not like Magnifico was a terrible person for a good part of the movie anyway, the dude just felt used, and honestly seemed to have burnout, he wasn't perfect, but he wasn't evil either. So that fact he used forbidden magic and that's when he truly becomes bad takes away his agency as a villain. Which means that it's not okay to lock him up for forever when he's clearly not 100% himself (the movie was really: "sorry no cure"). Dude was easily redeemable, they just didn't want to put the effort in.

I'm getting a little off topic. My point is, there are better ways to handle to forbidden magic aspect of the movie. What I would have preferred (if we were still going forbidden magic route) is if he had been using the magic since before the start of the movie. We see in flash backs that it started in an act of desperation to protect his people, and you know what it worked. He didn't like that he had gone this low, but it worked, and his people were safe, so in the future when other threats came, he used it again and again. Slowly he became addicted to the forbidden magic, and the power it granted him (this was over the course of several years, where in the beginning he used the magic only for good and selfless acts, but later he kept finding excuses to use it, and it became more and more for his own gain). His wife knows about his use, and she even gave him the okay the first time he used it because of the rough circumstances, but she sees him deterioting and worries if she made the wrong choice (I'm sorry, I love the evil couple too, but she's good in this version). By the time in the movie Magnifico would use forbidden magic when he got stressed or overwhelmed and he needed to calm down (like smoking). But as the movie goes along the events push him to be more desperate, and he is fully turned over by the magic, it consumes him.

In the beginning, he did try to resist the magic, like I said, it's like an addiction, but it became progressively harder as he used it more. He didn't fully seem like himself when he used the magic, but he'd try to cover it up.

I prefer this version for several reasons: a) it's a hell lot more compelling than one and done, b) it gives the character more agency and we get a better understanding of his path towards darkness, c) it makes for an interesting tragedy as it originally started as a selfless act for his people.

[ilynpilled]

ik ppl hate the whole “drug addict parallel” thing for a multitude of reasons and mainly bc of the show lol + many want jaime’s love for cersei to not be “selfish” or pretty bad towards her in any way but im sorry guys i dont think it is a stretch to interpret that she was kinda like opioids to him for like 20 years. repeatedly using her as far back as during the stark executions for relief and it getting to the point that he is willing to maim or kill a child (even when the child doesn’t pose a threat to their lives and the lives of their children) for her is legitimately uh. i do not care about the whole d&d “relapse” framing because i find it uninteresting nor did the show even really deal with the aspects of this that interest me or make it complex at all and its boring and simplified but again like it doesnt have to be that direct but obviously this isnt very stable:

[levaagrace]

📢 JON ‘THE ARCHIVIST’ SIMS WAS GROOMED 📢

Call it what it fucking is.

[android-anathema]

i wonder why... i still get stimulating effects from it but why does my dexamfetamine make me feel so much calmer? i tried actually taking the full dose im prescribed today and never felt the urge to take buprenorphine, which im tapering off rn. that's unusual at the best of times, i crave opioids every time i have a PTSD flashback or feel ashamed of myself, so countless times a day. combine that with me being in a mild opioid withdrawal and its a very impressive thing to simply forget to take it. i put it in my mouth earlier! i have to pretend to take it when i go into the pharmacy (long story, all you need to know is im coming off my meds without my doctors knowing) and i didnt even hesitate to spit it out or have a moment of debating in my head if breaking my rules a bit even matters, or!! just! doing the sensible thing and taking the third of it a day I'm meant to!!!

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

it's so funny...all these years spent avoiding spn because everything i learned via tumblr osmosis was annoying as hell. if someone'd pointed me towards sam's narrative *everything* i'd have been a sucker in a heartbeat

[miss-kookiio]

Percy jr

The from the hit podcast of 2019

The two princesssss

[llycaons]

it's easy and convenient to fall into this trope, and many of my favorite fics have fallen victim to it in some way or another, but readings of wx that imply or outright state that lwj saved wwx make me want to gnaw my arm off. because I feel like that's rly insidious and simplistic and does a great disservice to both of them and is missing the point of his character and of their relationship development. as teenagers, lwj wanted to be his savior, saw him struggling and demanded that he comply with lwj's own solutions, believing his path to be correct and his own judgements about wwx's situation (and body!) to matter more than wwx's own. and that's why they clashed so much - bc wwx refused to give up his agency or his autonomy, did not want to be treated as someone to be saved

and in canon, that was never his role anyway. he couldn't, and didn't, swan in to save wwx from all of the worst things that happened to him, and his methods for behavioral control - shame, judgement, commands - were repudiated in retrospect. wwx suffered, and was alienated from his loved ones, and died a horrible, violent death, and was not saved by anyone. postcanon, lwj is committed to trusting and believing in wwx rather than trying to stop him - he's listening rather than demanding

I hate this phrase but it's actually incredibly important that lwj didn't ever save wwx 'from himself'. of course, postres he does protect wwx - from jc, from dogs, from slander - but he never inserts himself as the hero in wwx's story, and he never tries to force his own judgements and opinions on wwx again, nor claim that his actions entitle him to anything. he doesn't solve the mystery alone, he doesn't defeat the big bad, and the final get-together is never framed as a reward for his actions. he offers support, comfort, physical aid, but wwx is still very much the main character in every way, and retains all his autonomy to drive the story forward and reckon with his past on his own terms. and this is exactly why they work postcanon in a way that they wouldn't have really worked in the flashback arc

in cql, this is more immediately apparent because lwj follows wwx's lead throughout the entire arc, offering trust and aid without condition or hesitation. but even in the novel, it comes through quite poignantly in the tree scene at lotus pier. wwx thinks that it's okay that he's going to fall. he's fallen many times before, and though it's hurt, he'd survived. but still, it would be wonderful for someone to catch him. and that's exactly what lwj does

[that-pirate-from-mvc2]

hey if you like ttrpgs here's some ttrpgs you should try out, especially if you've only played dnd -cyberpunk red: tense af action and a great setting -masks: teen titans simulator, playing as a young superhero team can lead to a lot of fun drama and action. if u dont like powered by the apocalypse i still recommend this one -lancer: tactical mech combat with lots of flexibility. you can also jockey a mech like in titanfall so automatically a win -city of mist: cool af neo-noir mystery ttrpg. Has one of the most flexible character creation systems i've ever seen with an even more flexible setting for your detective needs. -monsterhearts 2: Teen drama with monster people. I don't even have to explain this one it's just like riverdale but good -triangle agency: this isnt out yet but it's inspired by scp and x-files and you get to capture anomalies it's automatically cool. Look at the playtest books they're so fucking well made. there's more tabletop stuff out there but this is the stuff i have experience with or have read thoroughly. have fun becoming addicted to new systems.

[karliahs]

back when i was a teen and was very into house md i kind of overidentified with the character of house and felt like the show and characters in it were super unfair to him or whatever, particularly wilson. there wasn't a lot of fic or other fans agreeing with that perspective but there was this one livejournal with a lot of fic and meta expressing similar viewpoints

then after a few years of inactivity this person posted again saying a lot had changed in their life, they'd gotten divorced and had a lot of therapy and while they were still proud of what they'd written, they no longer agreed with their past self's perspective that house wasn't primarily responsible for the bad things he'd done, or that there weren't a lot of things he couldn't have done to help himself

the whole livejournal has been purged now so I can't look back at either the fics or that statement to see if my memory is accurate. but idk, I've been rewatching house and thinking about that person a lot. i hope they're doing good

[anidealistatbestburntoutatworst]

sorry y’all

fukuzawa: “does your mom know you eat all those snacks?”

ranpo: “not anymore” *begins singing* “when mom was aliveeee”

fukuzawa: *concerned and regretting he even asked*

[urlocallesbiab]

today my good buddy @generalized-incompetence introduced me to the semi-canon fact that tina was supposed to have an older brother who died & that hobbs took her in because he was that that guy's best friend, AND to her headcanons that "[his death] kicked off her dark period" and "he was always the perfect older brother and she could never live up to him and now she has massive survivor's guilt"

[image ID in alt text]

and god, all of that makes so much sense, it all lines up Perfectly!! my entire vision of tina came suddenly and sharply into focus after i'd considered that info!

so, my tina tevetino hcs/reading/meta (largely sponsored and influenced by the aforementioned good buddy):

(tw for discussion of addiction)

tina has undiagnosed adhd (at the time of s2 hobbs has been gently nudging her towards examining that possibility for some time already) — a silent, perplexing, largely unnamed curse that's been plaguing her since forever, that carried her from an unruly child to a troubled teen to a hopeless adult. she had started self-medicating while still underage, trying to relieve that nagging pressure of boredom/pain/restlessness/uselessness with whatever she could bargain from partying young adults; though she wouldn't admit that it was self-medication — she was "just having fun!". and that's why her dark period is "10 to 15 years" long: there's ambiguity, because her addiction started slowly developing even before the inciting incident, but her brother's death 10 years ago is when things totally went to shit.

he was older, more mature, and always had been smarter, known better, given solid, reasonable advice that she just failed to follow; he wanted what's best for her, but she kept sliding into what's worse & easier (& livable, doable, surviviable). he tried to get her to stop doing drugs, and often grew frustrated, and she always was stubborn, and they often fought.

she was 19 that year, having a "gap year" (doing fuck all) after graduating high school, promising her family that she would start studying real soon, send out applications, get herself together, just so they would leave her and her headaches alone for a few days longer; and then it hapenned. she knew that what he would've wanted was for her to go sober, and get into a nice college, and live a good life, but the only thing she could do was to only get drunker and drunker and drunker, chasing the rare glimpses of not feeling searing pain all of the time.

hobbs couldn't bear seeing his best friend's family like that, so he offered her a position — just so that she could have something to do, as opposed to rotting in her childhood home day and night. out of loneliness, and guilt, and feeling completely, utterly lost, she accepted. she wasn't (and wouldn't later become) stellar, or decent, or even passable at her job — but hobbs never seemed to mind. clumsily and with a great deal of trouble, eventually she settled.

she never got into college, after all. she's one of those people who are a little bit lost to time, suspended in it, who under the weight of some unspeakable burden or another seem to slow down, freeze even, their 29th year on earth not too dissimilar to the 25th and that to the 20th; it's been 10 years, but she's done her best to sleep through them. you wouldn't think from looking at her (or talking to her, or hanging around her for a while, or knowing her as a person — unless she just plainly told you) that she's almost thirty; she doesn't want to think about that either.

and then comes farah black, age 21. (note 1: this age hc is based on the d.o.b. in her fbi most wanted file; note 2: i have a wagon and a lil cart of farah thoughts related to her age, but that’s a topic for another time if we want this post to ever end.)

and tina meets a person who is both a perfectly clear reflection of herself and someone who couldn't be more different from her if she tried. here she is, 20-ish, young, something inexplicably wrong with her (it's the ocd, babe), crumbling under her older brother's caring pressure, — a still snaphot in sharp focus, face to face, features aligning. but also here she is, fresher & younger and more talented, competent, better at literally everything, going through the same shit in real time, all the while tina's shit is a decade old and stale and undealt with; she's 29 and an absolute nobody and hasn't even fully moved on; grief awashes her at the realization.

but in the end, of course, it all works out: they're similar in the ways that matter and different in all the right places. farah needed to slow down, and tina needed to pick herself up; farah needed to chill out a bit, and tina needed to take herself seriously; farah needed a new perspective and tina did, tina needed to let her brother go and farah did, and they both needed to move forward. and in the end, that is what they did.

P. S. bonus hc: mustard likes rap because tina likes rap and would often come by sherlock's house and lounge about and make him switch stations on the radio because his taste in music sucks