#addressing big ugly problems

[myceliumsunshine]

how the fuck do you show your appreciation for a gift that is so humungous and heartfelt? because i feel like i didn't show just how excited i was, just how grateful before you left. how do i explain that i bragged about the gift you gave me to my friends? how do i show you that i couldn't let go of your gift, shaking it to keep checking it was real? how do i let you know that i cried in the shower after you left, unable to believe the gift i had been given, unable to believe the thoughtfulness behind it? because i feel like i didn't show just how excited i was, just how grateful before you left.

[tinakp]

Confronting Workplace Problems: Small Steps, Big Changes | Chris Beer, the Wizard of Ops™

Ever found yourself ignoring those big, ugly workplace problems? We've all been there. But it's time to face those issues head-on! This video is your call to action to transform your work environment into a healthier and more positive space.

[twinklingwatermellon]

looks like I can't "i'm just a girl" my way out of this one, ladies

[skippudippu]

this is really inspired by a post someone else made but I can’t find it rn 😭😭 but hear me out okay

yes lisa frankenstein is a campy silly funny slasher romcom, and I ADORE it for that. but I’ve been thinking abt how it comments on the way society treats people with trauma, especially women, especially in past decades. the three major women each demonstrate different effects of that.

Lisa is the most obvious — we know what happened to her mom, and we see how everyone feels about her. hell, she tells us. nobody cares about her healing, they just want her to move on. (this also ties into themes of the original Frankenstein story; he wasn’t a monster, but everyone treated him like he was, so he became one.) instead of helping her, everyone others Lisa because she does not hide her pain, nor the effects that pain has had on her. so she becomes the dangerous freak everyone made her out to be.

then we have Janet — Janet, whose father died in the Vietnam war, who appears to have ignored her trauma exactly the way society wanted her to. she buried her pain in order to fit into traditional feminine roles: she’s a mother, she keeps up her home, she’s thin and made-up and absolutely drenched in feminine colors and silhouettes. but the unchecked trauma ate her up inside, and it made her into an antagonist. she became the very sort of person that contributed to her own suffering. she’s perpetuating a vile cycle.

and finally, there’s Taffy, who naturally checks every box on the ‘traditional femininity’ checklist. social and bright and pretty. a cheerleader, a party girl, toeing the line between fitting in and being memorable. she’s never experienced the kinds of struggle that Janet or Lisa did — until the end of the movie. that shot of the man in the car looking at her, beaten and bloody and scared out of her mind. and he drives away without a word. the minute she has a big, ugly problem? she’s dismissed. she’s othered, the same way that Lisa was.

but in Taffy’s final scene, she’s visiting Lisa’s grave. she wears the rosary, a symbol of her otherness. her dress is a feminine cut, and it’s black w pink flowers. she has just been a victim of events scarily similar to Lisa: her mother was killed by a frankenstein, she witnessed death, she was subsequently dismissed for her trauma. but I have to hope that this symbolizes the difference between Taffy and Lisa/Janet; that she’ll break the cycle; that she’ll be able to address her suffering while reclaiming her femininity.

[freyanistics]

The fetishization of Hobie Brown

Side note: This post is not intended to start up the age discourse that surrounds Hobie. I am not going to get into it as this argument/debate comes up every so often and really doesn’t prove anything on either side you are on. I’m not dissuading anyone from absorbing any content of Hobie and saying it’s problematic EXCEPT for the things I’m pointing out in this post. If you see Hobie as a minor, that’s fine. If you view him as an adult, that’s also fine. Until the directors come forward and confirm his canonical age I am not going to bring up the same facts that is brought up whenever his age comes to discussion. This is just me bringing up a reoccurring issue I’ve noticed that doesn’t get too addressed by the community (and when it does it’s often pushed to the side)

The fetishization and inherently the oversexualization of Hobie Brown is not only problematic but also harmful. Black men being fetishized has been going on for decades since slavery times. I’m not going to go too deep into the history but if you’re interested this creator has a very good video discussing it.

With Hobie Brown being a darkskin black man that is part of the punk scene and comes off with a “rough” exterior you’re going to have people put stereotypes on him. Despite how he’s portrayed in the movie I’ve seen people headcanon him as this cold person who wouldn’t care about his partner’s feelings or come off as a womanizer that sleeps with a lot of partners without a care in the world. He fucks rough and is aggressive while the reader is this innocent person pulled under his spell. That’s where some of the problem delves with him being portrayed as this aggressive and sex deviant who doesn’t care about his partner(s) feelings. It’s a stereotype a lot of (mainly non black) people see black men as.

Despite the fact that Hobie in the movie shows to deeply care for his friends, even going as far as helping Miles who he didn’t even know up until now. He’s shown to be gentle when handling Mayday. Yet people still want to paint him as the polar opposite.

Take Miles G for instant. I’ve seen him get the same treatment with him being painted as a “gangster” who is aggressive and your typical gang lord despite him only having five minute screen time. While yes from that little time he does seem to be the much colder version of Miles Morales painting him out to be a thug goes into that dangerous fantasy a lot of people see black men. People (again mainly non blacks) view black men as this dominant and powerful man who is always aggressive in and out the bedroom.

The same can be said for Miguel who even the screenwriters have written him as “animalistic” and “feral”. Writing him off more as some beast than a human being.

Circulating back to Hobie there’s nothing wrong with finding him attractive the problem delves if you’re headcanoning him or viewing him as your stereotypical “hood” boyfriend who is deprived of any other emotion except for anger, jealousy, or this sex god who will beat up people for even looking at his partner. When we make these harmful stereotypes about black characters it starts to trickle down to irl and how we view actual people.

And we end up seeing shit like this on the daily. I don’t even have to explain why this is problematic.

All in all Hobie Brown is much more than just a pretty face. He’s a young black man living in an oppressive fascist society that he’s actively fighting against. He deserves to be treated more than just a sexy conveniently attractive guy but a much more complex character who’s backstory in atsv is still a mystery. If you’re just gonna sexualize him 24/7 and not see him anything outside of that you’re weird, and you’re even weirder if you headcanon with “he’s ugly but he got that big dick 🤪.”

[edsbacktattoo]

i wanna talk about the ‘treasure room’ because i think it does a really good job of summarising what’s happening between ed and stede at the moment.

stede ‘takes the initiative’ (or acts without discussing what he’s doing) and puts all of ed’s remaining treasure in one room that’s completely hidden. his reasons for putting it away are:

it was all over the place

he was tripping over it

some of it is quite ugly :/

and instantly ed hits him with the “excellent. a reminder of all my guilt. a guilt room. 😔🤘”

they’re not being subtle about it. this is a physical representation of their guilt and they’re demonstrating here exactly how they’re taking care of it.

ed is living with it. it’s in his space. sure it might be in the way but where else could he possibly put it? there’s so much of it and it’s his. there’s no use in just palming it off to someone else. no one wants this much treasure.

but stede can’t stand it and he has to deal with it now or he’ll die. so he just crams it into some hidden space and considers the matter resolved. it’s out of the way. it can’t hurt them if they don’t think about it. and it’s ugly! no one wants to look at something ugly, especially when they’re trying to rebuild their space.

but that’s just the thing. neither of them are actually dealing with or addressing the problem. stede has just. put it away.

WITHOUT ASKING ED WHAT HE THINKS THEY SHOULD DO WITH IT.

so they decide to just use it to throw this big party because surely that will fix it, right? that will get rid of the Treasure Issue.

WRONG!!

because they still didn’t talk about any of it. yeah they talked about “turning poison into positivity” and “giving some of it to the less fortunate” but they didn’t deal with the root of the problem. how did ed amass that much treasure in the first place? what’s the ideal way of getting rid of it? is there anything they want to keep?

they’re on such uneven planes this season because they can’t communicate to reach a common ground. ed is surrounded by his guilt and wants to leave it all behind. stede has just hidden the guilt and wants to pretend it isn’t even there.

[bloomeng]

I'm a little nervous to talk about this because the internet is truly the place where nuance goes to die but fuck it I'm going to do it anyway.

So misogyny in fan spaces. There's so much that can be said here, but I want to focus on a trend I've seen in fanfiction for years. This isn't a call out to anyone in particular or a fic that I read recently, it's just something I want to talk about.

There's a range in which I see misogyny displayed in fanfiction. The most subtle version is when a fic has a large cast, but despite this, the female characters just float in the background as accessories. Writing big casts is difficult and I understand that (it's part of the reason I tend not to like big casts) but despite this all the female characters will remain less developed than their male counterparts. The other version is they will exist only to advise or prop up a male character, which isn't to say that a female character can't play that role in a story. On an individual level, it's not an issue, but when it's the only role over and over it becomes an issue. My solution to handling big casts is to break them off at times into pairs/smaller groups and allow everyone to have their moment. It doesn't need to be perfectly balanced but even small moments could go a long way.

The next step up is literally ignoring them altogether. I understand not every character is going to feature in every story. Time and place and all that jazz. But it's telling when they're so clearly written out of a story for the sake of not addressing them. If we can cram in all these male character cameos we can do the same for the women. Personally I feel writing is stronger if you only include characters for a purpose beyond them just being there (and it would be two birds with one stone bc that would automatically allows for more depth), but this is fanfic that I'm discussing, where fan service rules everything.

The third trend and arguably the most egregious I refer to as the “Sakura Effect.” The Sakura Effect is when an author will include either a pre-existing female character or an original female character for the sole person of villainizing her to extreme proportions. It’s scary to me because as much as media can be misogynistic this is so much worse in my opinion. As fans I would hope we would be better but then I see characters flattened or created simply to be awful. And yet “no one” sees the issue in that.

I’ve seen authors go far as to say apologize in the notes about mischaracterizing female characters for the sake of the conflict. Like we’re so close to recognizing the issue yet so far. Also for some reason it’s socially acceptable to add character bashing tags to fics?? I see this the most with Naruto fics, but to this day I will never understand why people feel the need to establish how much they hate a female character in a fic that doesn’t even touch on them. Or they warn people that they made her evil bc they hate her??? Like ok so we’re recognizing the problem and doubling down. Cool.

I once saw someone create a female character for a fic who was described as ugly and with a ton of acne and a bunch of people called the author out for the description and its subsequent streotypes. The author responded by basically being like I hear you but I don’t care. But I was also concerned that no one else in the comments was concerned that the character was female as well.

I see this trend with people to make these super creepy stalker female characters as conflict for their mlm ships and it’s just like…. do we not see the inherent issue in this. We complain about the treatment of women in the source material and then we (fan culture) turn around and make arguably more offensive characters.

This is a fairly ranty non-nuance, doesn’t even touch on intersectionality, look at misogyny in fanfiction but that’s all I have the capacity to discuss today.

[no-face-no-shame]

Love For Science

A stupid idea that was supposed to be a funny Charthur interaction, but turned into general tomfoolery. Boys get a research-oriented side quest!

Tags: goofy humour, feel-good fluff comedy

TW for outdated language referring to queer men

            The morning hunting had been a success, with five jack rabbits fixed to Arthur and Charles’ saddles. Now that afternoon was in full swing, the two men were sitting underneath a tree, eating raspberries and resting.

            ‘The problem is,’ Arthur said solemnly, ‘that I do like ‘em. But they don’t like me.’

            ‘How can raspberries dislike you?’

            ‘They always get stuck in my teeth.’

            ‘Well, that means that you still have some left, which is a rather good thing. Also – I don’t think that raspberries getting stuck in your teeth is a personal thing.’

            ‘In my case it is. They do this on purpose.’

            Charles seemed inclined to argue, but the two were interrupted by a large cart stopping next to them. It was pulled by two little horses and driven by an equally little man. He looked at them with barely controlled excitement, then waved his hands and jumped off the cart, on the way nearly losing his glasses.

            ‘Ah, gentlemen! Excuse me, but can I take a bit of your time? Just a moment. Are you, perhaps, sodomites?’

            Arthur froze in an awkward position between sitting and standing, while Charles stared at the man with the most genuine confusion the world has seen since men invented fire. The stranger sent them a broad smile, awkwardly waiting for the answer. Finally, Arthur coughed.

            ‘No. No. Right?’ he shot a quick glance at Charles. ‘No, we ain’t. Why?’

            The stranger’s shoulders dropped in a cartoonish manner.

            ‘You look… disappointed,’ Charles remarked slowly.

            ‘Well, I’m a doctor and I’m conducting research on homosexual behaviours. You see, my thesis is that it’s way more common than previously thought, and, frankly speaking, quite natural. I’m searching for sodomites willing to answer some questions from my survey!’

            The man began to frantically search for something in his pockets. Soon he produced two sets of papers, which he handed over to Arthur and Charles.

            ‘If you happen to know or encounter any sodomites willing to participate in my research, could you please send me the answers? The surveys are for reference, regular notes will do. I’ll pay! Here is my address, I’ll be staying in Saint Denis for some time. Thank you so much. Have a fantastic day!’

            Just like that, the man jumped back onto the cart and was gone before Arthur had a chance to say anything. He stared numbly at the papers in his hand.

            ‘What the hell was that?’ he mumbled.

            ‘I’m not sure, but he seemed quite enthusiastic about his work. First time I’m hearing of anyone interested in this topic.’

            Arthur blinked a few times more, sighed and put the survey in his pocket.

            ‘Why on Earth did he approach us, from all people?’

            Charles shrugged.

            ‘I assume he simply saw two men in proximity to each other and drew wrong conclusions. As they say – a starving man sees food in everything.’

            They got on their horses and slowly headed back to the camp. On the way, Charles was riding with his eyes closed, enjoying the weather, while Arthur was reading through the survey. He kept on grumbling and snorting.

            ‘How do you define “attraction”?’ he finally asked.

            ‘What do you mean?’

            ‘Like, how do you define it? I mean, there is a big difference between noticing that someone is good-lookin’ and being, y’know, interested. Most folks are ugly, so when one ain’t, it catches the eye. And you don’t need to be a sodomite to see when another man is handsome.’

            Charles sighed and began to play with a little braid hidden somewhere in his long hair.

            ‘I think it depends on the intention. You might acknowledge a man as handsome in the sense of simply appreciating his looks, or you might acknowledge his good appearance in a way that’s caused by your attraction to him. In a way that makes you want to start a conversation.’

            Arthur nodded and returned to reading, but soon he frowned and grumbled again.

            ‘Does someone who’s sweet on both men and women count as a sodomite? I mean, if he ain’t doing it with a man, then I don’t think it counts.’

            ‘I’d say that it does, since his feelings stay the same even if he ends up marrying a woman. Does one stop being attracted to women as a whole after getting married to one?’

            ‘Heh, you’re right. If that was the case, then there would be no unfaithful husbands,’ Arthur chuckled.

            For some time they rode in silence, but it was clear that Arthur wasn’t done asking questions.

            ‘What about women, exactly?’

            ‘Huh?’

            ‘There ain’t nothin’ here bout women being sweet on each other. But I knew one like that, a few years ago. She even lived with her “friend”. They’ve been together longer than most marriages last.’

            Charles pulled out his copy of the survey and glanced over it.

            ‘Hm. Indeed, nothing about that. Maybe that doctor specialises in men only?’

            ‘Or he forgot.’

            ‘Could be.’

            They approached the camp, welcomed by Lenny and Karen. The latter pointed at the rabbits with satisfaction.

            ‘Good job, boys! The stew will be great. Pearson was getting nervous, go and give the poor feller his meat.’

            As they dismounted, Arthur turned to Charles.

            ‘So, about that research… Who could we ask?’

            They looked at each other with silent understanding and devilish smiles appeared on their faces.

            ‘Bill!’ they said in unison.

***

            ‘I ain’t answering that!’ Bill said with anger.

            ‘C’mon, it’s for the science,’ Arthur opened his arms wide. ‘Don’t you want to make an impact on world’s scientific legacy?’

            ‘No. And I don’t trust you like that anyway.’

            Arthur scratched his cheek with irritation.

            ‘He said he’ll pay. Do it for the camp.’

            ‘Can’t you just lie and send him something?’

            ‘That would affect negatively the research,’ remarked Charles while opening his beer and sliding another bottle towards Bill. ‘Stealing and robbing people is one thing, but compromising such unique initiative for profit… that’s immoral in a way we can’t accept.’

            Arthur nodded with great seriousness, silently cursing himself for not coming up with the idea to lie himself. Bill winced, drank for a while in silence, then sniffed.

            ‘Alright. One issue. I ain’t much of a reader. You gotta read that for me.’

            Charles’ face was frozen in an expression of deep suffering, while Arthur shook his head a bit too fast.

            ‘I ain’t reading all that out loud.’

            ‘Well, that’s too damn bad then. Now stop bothering me.’

            ‘Alright. Just… let’s sit somewhere the rest won’t hear us.’

            They moved to the edge of the camp. Charles sat down with a piece of paper to take notes, while Arthur read the questions. At first Bill refused to answer most of them, but with every next bottle of beer the three were growing more relaxed.

            ‘Yeah, let’s see what we’ve got left,’ Arthur said with difficulty, at the same time trying to read the last batch of questions and open a gin bottle with his teeth. ‘Ah, damned it! The raspberries, I told you they be getting stuck in my teeth. And now I can’t open the bottle right!’

            Charles grabbed his face, trying to take a look into his mouth.

            ‘No raspberry seeds. You should limit sweets though.’

            ‘What does that have to do with anything?’

            ‘Your teeth will go bad if you keep eating them.’

            Bill roared with laughter, barely able to remain seated.

            ‘Read the damned questions, I’m having a blast with them!’ he urged Arthur.

            ‘Fine, fine. Do you, uh, prefer a… damn, I ain’t reading that! Do you like ‘em big?’

            Bill began to laugh so hard that he lost balance and fell to the ground. Arthur felt someone lean over his shoulder.

            ‘What the hell are you idiots doing?’ John rasped. ‘Did I hear that right?’

            ‘We’re doing… science…’ Bill’s voice sounded somewhere under the table as he struggled to get up.

            Charles quickly explained the matter. John stared at him with awe. In his usual manner, Javier immediately appeared next to him, trying to read from Arthur’s pages.

            ‘Can’t be! Show me that, I need to see it!’

            ‘Piss off, Escuella,’ Arthur waved him off without much conviction. ‘This ain’t about you.’

            But Javier was already settling down on a wooden crate, on the way pulling Bill back up.

            ‘Everything is about me if I’m interested in it.’

            The group quickly grew larger, with Sean and Kieran soon finding their way to the table. The noise finally attracted Hosea.

            ‘What are you boys so jolly about?’

            He took a page out of Arthur’s hands, then frowned.

            ‘Where did you get that from?’

            ‘A doctor gave these to us. He needs help with his, well, research.’

            ‘Look at these hard working men,’ Dutch’s voice boomed over Hosea’s shoulder. ‘Dedicating their time to the most important matters they possibly could.’

            ‘The doctor will pay,’ Charles said.

            Dutch’s face immediately grew softer and his black eyes glimmered.

            ‘Is it so? Well, that changes everything. Get to work, boys!’

            Arthur and Charles looked at each other, sighed and finished the bottle of gin they’d been sharing.

***

            ‘Stop cheating off me, you idiot!’ John hissed at Javier. ‘This is supposed to be individual.’

            ‘Let’s be individual together…’

            Late in the night, the men were still sitting around the table. Dutch was dozing off in the corner alongside Hosea, while the rest struggled to maintain consciousness while fighting through the haze of alcohol and awkward questions.

            ‘This just doesn’t work for me,’ Sean whined. ‘No matter how much I try, I just can’t imagine myself with a man.’

            ‘That’s cause you ain’t got imagination,’ John said with irritation. ‘Those questions are a bunch of crap though. “Do you find male chest or buttocks more appealing?” What the hell? Why would the ass matter anyway?’

            ‘You’re saying that just cause you ain’t got none yourself,’ said Javier, causing everyone except John to laugh and earning a light slap on the shoulder. ‘Abigail must be a chest kind of girl!’

            ‘I’d say that ass tends to matter in these scenarios,’ Kieran remarked shyly. ‘I mean, it’s probably one of the most important things.’

            ‘Right,’ John ran his hand down his face. ‘We’re gonna have so much bull crap to send in the morning.’

            Charles stretched and yawned. He gently shook Arthur’s shoulders to wake him up from a gin-induced nap.

            ‘I’m going to sleep. And I recommend you do the same.’

            ‘Right,’ Arthur yawned. ‘Man, I think we made a mistake with that survey. Ain’t no way any of this is useful.’

            Charles shrugged.

            ‘We’ll worry about that later.’

            They headed towards their respective resting places. Arthur struggled with his belt for a while, then crashed onto the bed so hard that it nearly broke. Resting on his stomach, he pressed his face into the pillow, hoping for his head to stop spinning. He lay like that for a while, but surprisingly, sleep didn’t come as quickly as usual. He kept on shifting and unbuttoned his shirt as it felt too tight.

            After over an hour of sleepless misery, Arthur got up and quietly headed towards Charles’ mattress.

            ‘You sleepin’?’ he asked as he settled down next to the man.

            ‘Not anymore. What is it?’

            ‘Nothing. I just can’t sleep.’

            ‘Well, I can. Goodnight.’

            Arthur chuckled. Unconsciously, the two men were slowly moving closer to each other, until they were nearly lying on one another. Arthur rested his head against Charles’ collarbone. They didn’t talk, but their silence was enough of a conversation. The pleasant lightness finally began to enwrap Arthur’s mind. Charles began to breathe slower, from time to time slightly snoring. A half-formed thought flashed through Arthur’s mind, but he pushed it back and embraced Charles, enjoying the pleasant smell of a familiar skin.

            ‘I still think it don’t count,’ Arthur mumbled more to himself than to anyone else.

            Soon both of them were sound asleep, cased in each other’s arms.

[longing-for-rain]

I don’t even understand the character Sokka stans are stanning. It’s not even Sokka. It is like they are taking the big strong tough guy Sokka thinks he is and acting like that is his actual character when it isn’t. I know not all of them are z*kkas but it does seem like atla renaissance and z*kka popularity added to this trend of taking Katara traits and giving them to Sokka instead

Me neither? I honestly don’t dislike Sokka as a character. I never particularly related to him like I do with other characters, but what frustrates me is how the fandom treats him in relation to other characters, especially Katara.

I definitely agree with you that there was a noticeable shift with the ATLA renaissance in 2020. I was in the fandom long before then and the biggest shift I saw was character bashing taking a faux-progressive spin. For example, Mai bashing used to involve calling her ugly and abusive, but shifted into shoving her into sapphic side ships for the aesthetic instead (while still making jabs at her appearance and demeanor, of course, because people can’t be normal about lesbians). As for Katara, it’s even worse. I’ll get into that.

I remember that historically, Katara has been one of the most bashed and hated on characters in the fandom. People would call her bossy and self important, say she was too emotional, that she was too rude, that she didn’t care about other people’s problems, etc. It was blatant back then, but I honestly see the same trends now, just more covertly. People acting like Katara is not as mature as Sokka, not “mom friend,” or otherwise downplaying the responsibilities she had to take on, fundamentally, are operating on the same logic. They do it in a very jokey way a lot of the time or even act like they’re “letting her be a kid” but really it’s just erasing the nuance of her character in the same way overtly misogynistic fans once did.

Because here’s the thing. We can all recognize Katara was forced into a parental role at an early age and that wasn’t fair to her. But acting like that was something that randomly happened on its own is not addressing the problem. But these fans refuse to address the problem by answering the question of why Katara constantly has to take this role…because that would require them to hold Sokka and Aang accountable for their actions and these people will not do that.

I really do think this is tied in with zukka too. I will say that I’m not a zukka anti. I actually really enjoy some zukka content because it can give a refreshing perspective. But I do see a lot of characterizations that are deeply annoying because they really seem like they’re trying to replace Katara. They want the Zutara dynamic but want slash. And I know these characterizations are no longer unique to zukka, but I would agree they were popularized by it.

Just off the top of my head:

The character who is the first of the group to trust Zuko? That was Katara. Sokka was the one in favor of leaving him to die whereas Katara trusted him twice during Book 2.

The character who emotionally connects with Zuko? That’s Katara.

The character who Zuko feels safest letting his guard down around? That’s Katara.

The character who helps Zuko heal from his trauma? That’s Katara.

The character known for showing the most compassion to others? That’s Katara.

The character who primarily bears the burden of having to step up into a parental role? That’s Katara.

The character who represses their emotions to be strong for others? That’s Katara.

And yet, for some reason, there is this new wave of fans who take all of these traits central to Katara and give them to Sokka instead. It’s just frustrating. Sokka is his own character. He’s different. I really just think this is a new brand of misogyny where we take traits like these for granted in female characters but overemphasize them in male characters.

[marsreds]

The thing is, Jayce's speech in episode 9, to me, is only salvageable if Jayce is deeply, romantically and sexually in love with Viktor.

"Your imperfections make you beautiful"* makes very little sense in the context of Viktor's descent (ascend?) to hextech godhood and human annihilation, because it wasn't his "imperfections" that took him down that road! Viktor had very little problem with his "imperfections"! He's lived with them his whole life and has made peace with them! But you know what he didn't make peace with? What he had a pretty big problem with? Dying. Viktor didn't want to die so he grasped at any straw he could find and, unfortunately, lost parts of himself along the way.

So when seen through that lens, Jayce's speech comes off as downright ugly.

However, do you know what problem Viktor seems to have very much had due to his "imperfections"? That Jayce would've probably been aware of due to how closely intertwined they were? Viktor saw himself as undesirable.** And he's made peace with it! He accepted it as a part of his reality that cannot be changed!

So to have Jayce come in swinging, after everything, and speak about beauty and imperfection and specifically call Viktor beautiful... Like. If it's not addressing the part of Viktor that cannot conceptualize himself as such, and it's not coming from Jayce's genuine desire, what's the point?

*paraphrasing, i don't have the episode on hand

**at least that's my reading of it, Sky's crush was just too obvious and even when he got access to her notes he didn't even consider the possibility of her wanting him beyond a conversation partner and someone to bounce ideas off.

[rosedpetal]

Over Again

Summary: You tried to run from him, but he wasn't about to allow that.

Pairing: Lloyd Hansen x Reader

Word count: 1k

Author's note: this is a repost.

Warnings: smut, imbalance relationship dynamics, all that fun stuff.

Minors, do not interact.

Masterlist

Shit.

You mumbled under your breath, feeling your eyes water and a strangled sob leave your throat. Your back hit the cold bathroom wall, and you tried your hardest to inhale and exhale, the mechanical act of breathing seeming too hard to do in the moment.

The two red lines in the pregnancy test made you know your life was never going to be the same again.

You lived with your parents. You were drowning in college debts (which was how you ended up in this whole mess). You were pretty sure you couldn't afford to buy diapers and formula for at least the next fifteen years.

Your cries got louder, and you squeezed the plastic test in your palm, as if it could make everything go away.

It wouldn't.

With your arms crossed over your chest and fidgeting with your leg anxiously, sunglasses to attempt to cover your face and a flowery sundress, you stood in the line to enter the shady clinic that Betty gave you the address to.

"The father left?" a sudden low male voice spoke behind you, and you shrieked.

You turned to look at him, fear rushing through your spine.

Lloyd looked too good for his own good in one of his stupid polo shirts, the creepy grin under the ugly mustache that you grew to love when it rubbed your most intimate parts adorning his sculpted face.

The few women in front of you were too aggravated by their own little problems to acknowledge the commotion you made.

"Lloyd, I-I can explain." You gulped. "I'm just here waiting for a friend, I-"

"Shut the fuck up, sunshine. You're a terrible liar." He mocked you, eyeing like a stalker do to its prey. "You're not showing yet. Little Hansen's already giving you hell?"

You cringed when he said that, a wave of nausea threatening to spill the contents of your breakfast.

"How did you...?"

Before you could say anything more, Lloyd roughly yanked you by your arm, shoving you to the backseat of his expensive car. The driver rolled the partition up, giving you two privacy.

"You know, sunshine, you could've come to me. But you chose to go behind my back, and that I can't forgive."

"Lloyd-"

"I told you to shut the fuck up." His blue eyes darkened, the gaze of lust and anger weighing on you like a thousand pounds. "Now, you're going to be a big girl and explain with words why on the damn earth you were going to have an abortion. Now."

Your tears fell freely on your face and you felt his fingers on your chin, forcing you to look at him.

"I'm so so sorry." You broke, just the way he loved. "I didn't wanna be a burden."

Lloyd gently caressed your face with the back of his hand, wiping your tears away his thumb.

"I was willing to do everything for you, sunshine. Pay your student debt, date you. Maybe put a ring on your finger. You just disappeared on me. You broke my heart." He sighed, resting his forehead on yours.

Things weren't supposed to go this way. Lloyd was just your sugar daddy. He treated you like a dumb little thing.

Of course, he did spoil the hell out of you. He was great in bed too. In fact, that's why you stayed so long and came back to him all the damn time.

But two years into this dangerous dance you and him waltzed to were becoming too much. Lloyd would never give you anything more than a few bank checks, Tiffany threats and the best sex a woman could dream of. Other than that, he'd never respect you.

Never let you be your own person, never let you go. So you had to run away.

"Tell me, sunshine..." Caging you with an arm thrown over your shoulder and sliding down his hand under the hem of your dress, reaching to where you needed him more, he asked: "Have I not been giving you enough?"

"You'll never love anyone, Lloyd. Not even your own child." You whispered, heart pacing faster under his sweet gaze. You hated the way he gave you butterflies. You shouldn't want his attention.

But you needed it so bad.

"Baby, you're out of your damn mind if you think I don't absolutely adore you, mon chérie." His mustache tickled the side of your face. "I told you I'd take care of you. Stop being so damn stupid and allow me to do so."

You barely noticed when he pushed your panties to the side, his index finger coating your wetness. You whimpered when he entered you in an embarrassing easy way.

"Lloyd..."

"Tell me you don't need this, and I'll walk away."

You knew him too well to know he was lying. He'd never do that. He was too dark, too deranged, too selfish to do anything that wasn't going to benefit him in the long run.

"Oh!" He curled his finger inside you. The wet sounds coming from your pussy were driving him insane.

"You're always so responsive for me, baby." He purred on your ear. "Makes me so fucking hard."

"Yes! Yes! Just like that, fuck!" You cussed through your teeth, feeling the butterflies pressing into your belly. You screamed and your pussy gushed, soaking Lloyd's hand, giving to him so sweetly that he almost came in his pants. He rode your high to the point of overstimulation, and you desperately pried his grip away from you, breathless.

"You can't leave me, sunshine. I won't let you." He kissed your cheek, licking the salty tears. "I'm going to put a diamond ring on your finger, and you're gonna behave like an obedient little wife. If you do, I can even let you entertain the idea of working."

"Lloyd..." You mumbled, numbed out from pleasure.

"Don't sleep on me yet, baby. You have to take care of me now." He demanded, putting your hand inside his pants.

Then he kissed you. Over and over again.

[wc-confessions]

I’ll do a full breakdown of why the news surrounding the Tencent animation disappoints me.

Disclaimer: while you can have criticisms about Tencent as they seem to be a controversial company, don’t use it as an excuse to be sinophobic. If your thoughts ever go to “well of course a Chinese production would suck” or something of that ilk, please stop right there. The main issues are corporate greed and laziness, not China. Got it? Time to carry on.

Firstly, it strikes me as more of a proof of concept than an actual announcement. It’s the most minor problem IMO, so I’ll let them off the hook. They probably wanted to make sure people knew it was being worked on.

Secondly, AI. Warrior Cats is an art-centric community; it’s no wonder fans are pissed. I don’t like AI art, you - a (probable) Warriors fan reading this - likely don’t like AI art, your father doesn’t like AI art, everyone here doesn’t like AI art. Which means I’m going to argue on a more technical side. Looking at the confirmed and possible AI art, I have a question. What do they achieve? They don’t fit with the style of the hand-drawn illustrations, they resemble galaxy cats in space, while that Yellowfang generation is just a bootleg of the reprinted Rising Storm cover. Their existence in the presentation is a waste of time and resources (literally, AI prompts use up absurd amounts of water). I’d rather them show exclusively human art because you can tell they’re going in a direction, even if it’s uninteresting.

Speaking of the presumably human art, oh boy. To start off mildly positive, I’ll say a majority of the illustrations are decent. You get some character designs and scene concepts. They’re clearly playing with art style. I don’t find them particularly ugly, so… good job! I suppose! Now, to address the elephant in the room: anthro cats. For the love of StarClan, I’m begging on my knees, don’t make these cats anthro in the final product. It would fundamentally break the entire series. They call humans “twolegs” for a reason! Go work on the Redwall movie if you want anthro animals.

Finally, my last concern. As of writing, there hasn’t been confirmation of the Tencent animation being a movie, TV show, or other. My opinion on a TV show is “it’s fine.” Warrior Cats is a long series, making it suitable that it gets a longer adaptation. Meanwhile, my hope for a Warriors movie is as big as a single grain of sand. 

Warrior Cats is borderline unadaptable when it comes to shorter-form media unless you want to dish out a pretty penny. We can already see this with the Prophecies Begin graphic novel; it’s transparent HarperCollins or whoever is in charge of these things didn’t want to pay for six TPB comics, so they had to hastily mash two books together in one. If the Tencent animation is a movie, I’m afraid some concepts already have signs of this. Multiple pieces have what can be assumed to be Fireheart and Tigerclaw fighting. I’m sorry, but that happens later in the books. Are they going to scramble the narrative worse than the graphic novel adaptation? Are we seriously going to wait 20+ years for an official animation, watch at least one high-profile fan project get canned, only for it to be about as accurate as evil snipers in an action movie? If it’s not a movie, ignore what I’ve said. If it is a movie, sigh.

TL;DR: Should’ve made the Little Dragon Studios series official instead of forcing them to cancel, guys.

.

[sirfrogsworth]

If you are going to correct me, just be correct. That's all I ask.

RGB LEDs can produce MILLIONS of colors. There aren't enough gels in the world to compete with that. And you can literally dial in the color temperature that you want. Incandescents were limited in that regard.

And LEDs can be much brighter than incandescents. By a large margin. A 10,000 lumen incandescent would either need to be as big as my head or it would explode after a few seconds. It would create enough heat to fill a stadium. But I have an LED that bright in my garage.

I will admit dimming is a huge issue for LEDs though. It is mostly solved and much better than it used to be, but I'm afraid the original problem of this post rears its ugly head. Most LEDs dim by flickering slower. They turn on and off at slower intervals to reduce the amount of light. Which is even more of a trigger for people with sensitivities. The better solution is to just get a bulb that outputs the brightness you need. But that isn't always convenient. That said, the options for LED brightness are extensive.

LEDs are not perfect. But they will continue to improve. And the energy savings alone make them worth the compromises. But I think it is important that we try to address those compromises instead of saying, "That's rough, buddy."

[nelsoncanbemyneumann]

𝑀𝓎 𝒲𝒶𝓎

Synopsis: You and heeseung have been dating for about 3 months now. You both were the most popular people on the entire campus. It was all fine until you two got in a fight because of his ex. But now you have to go your own 𝒲𝒶𝓎.

Mentioning: All of enhypen (heeseungs friendgroup), yunjin lsfm (y/n bestie), yunah illit (heeseungs sister and your bestie), karina aespa (y/n bestie), keeho p1h (y/n ex), yeji itzy ( heeseungs ex ),more..

Pairing: Popular bf!Heeseung x Popular gf!Fem Reader

Taglist: @mitmit01 @mimisxs

Tropes: Loving to Hatred, Lovers to Exes, Friends to Enemies

BOLD = CANT BE TAGGED

Warnings: Cursing,Fighting,love language is pt so will hug,cuddle alot,nothing much,idrk! Tell me if i forgot something!

SFW MINORS ALLOWED!!

°•More under cut•°

"How am i grounded AGAIN and i have a basically broken leg?!" you ask while literally about to cry. Your at your dad's house and all you wanted to do was meet up with your boyfriend. And YOU personally didnt see a problem with it. But your dad did. "아빠는 그냥 친구예요! (dad hes just a friend!)" You yell. The only response he has is "그럼 지금 우리 친구에게 키스하는 건가요? (so we are kissing friends now?)" What was he talking about? Didnt he or like mom kiss their friends on the cheek when they were younger? Well Heeseung isnt just a friend but whats the big deal? You how old like 17? Does he want you to die single or something?. You didnt physically say it but in your mind you said "무슨 일이 있어도 나는 학교에 갈 것이다. (whatever im going to school.)"

Now your walking to school. May i mind you with a sprained ankle (that is NOT breaking your leg but wtv) and all you hear is "she really is weak!" or "ew her personality is giving ugly but her face is giving pretty!" those insults were WEAK to you and were super childish so you just walked by not giving a single fuck. Soon you made it to class. And the first class had to be math. Heeseung and Yeji sitting in a corner laughing ,smiling and just talking. Then your friends sitting in another death-staring them. You take a seat with YOUR friends and Heeseung's friends. "Hey guys!" You say smiling hiding the fact your annoyed seeing Heeseung and his EX together. "Hey ynnie!" Yunjin says first. You smile then use your phone texting Heeseung "Hey can we talk soon after class?" You see the bubble typing to see a new message "Sure.." What does he mean "Sure.." he's supposed to be the kind, loving boyfriend he always had been. Annoyed you decide to talk to Jake because who doesnt like talking to your boyfriends friend? "Hey jakey!!" You say loud enough for Heeseung to hear. "Oh hi yn!" he says smiling back with his big puppy like smile. "Wanna eat lunch together?" You also say really loud to the point Jay and Sunghoon asks "Can we join?!" at the exact same time. "Sure! Id love to eat with all of you. How bout all of us including Yunjin, Karina, and Yunah join and meet at that boba cafe near by!" You say smiling really big at Jake for no absolute reason then looking back to the others. "OOH YES!" Karina says. "Seems like a good plan" Yunah says. "I should invite hee-" Yunah trys to say "Oh no its fine hes with Yeji anyway. Im sure they have plans together for lunch!" You say practically aiming for them to not come while also cutting off Yunah. "Oh true! Plus we havent been all together for a while like this." Sunghoon adds. "Okay ill text the address." You say. "Also i cant go to any parties for like a week so :/" You add on. "What AGAIN?!" Jay asks. "Yeah i got in trouble for sneakin out tryna meet with someone i shouldnt see." Then the teacher walks in Yappa yappa yappa.

Heeseung texts you. "Lets talk now?" he asks. "Sure meet me at my locker." You text back. Honestly your really scared to the point you might even pee or poop your pants. You havent talked to him ever since the fight. So you dont really know what to say. You lowkey zone out for a few minutes til heeseung shows up. "What do you want?" He asks obviously NOT wanting to be there. "Why the fuck are you with Yeji? Am i NOT your girlfriend?" You asked him quite literally deathstaring him. "Listen she's better anyway like why'd you try punching her?" he asks as if he's trying to avoid the question. "Punching? So i started punching now?!" You say kind yelling in the school hallway. "WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOU?!" He asks still avoiding the question. "Heeseung its my way or hers. Choose." You say literally annoyed to the point you might drop kick him like a kickball. "And what if i choose hers?" He says. "Im done with this fucking bullshit see me out of this relationship. All i was trying to ask was why your flirting with your ex!" You yell. "OH IM FLIRTING NOW?!" He yells back in defense. At this point Sunghoon, Jake, Jay, Karina, and Yunjin found you and Heeseung. You quite literally almost punched him but then Karina, and Jay held you back. Then you black out.

Now your in the nurses office. All you remember was Karina and Jay holding you back. Nothing more nothing less. The nurse walked in. " Yoon Yn im sorry to say this but you have bruises and have a serious head injury that might not heal really fast because you've been hit in the head by Heeseung." That fucking bitch. How'd you even like a man like that? All because you tried Sneakin out tryna meet with someone you shouldnt see. Wait when did you even meet him?

AN: What an interesting way to end a chapter. Why is heeseung lowkey a bitch in this chapterrrr. Im so sorry i havent been updating but it's because my sports. I literally have volleyball games back to back every week.

< Previous - Masterlist - Next >

[hypvalsqr]

I think a lot was lost when people stopped differentiating between "graphical fidelity" and "graphical quality". Now we have people running around saying that big AAA games like Starfield have "bad graphics" with no understanding of what that means. Its style and quality may be poor and uninspired but the fidelity of those graphics is incredibly high and demonstrates an extreme amount of time and resources that were dedicated to making all of these high end textures, models, etc. And let me be clear, this is worse than a game with truly "bad" graphics because it is the standard in the industry. Every new big budget game has to have high graphical fidelity just because thats the trend which leads to this overworking of artists we see.

When people say "i want shorter games with worse graphics..." they arent saying they want a game that is ugly they are trying to say they dont want thousands of devhours wasted on getting 4k areola textures setup. They want something functional, stylish, expressive, and non exploitative. But because we dont use these words anymore people are kinda just saying things without any larger understanding of what they mean, and as such we fail to be able to address the problem.

[batsplat]

kind of recently clocked that marc took caseys honda seat coming into 2013 (not saying he didn’t deserve a factory seat immediately bc he obviously did, kid went and podiumed his first and won his second ever race on that bike but it somehow never crossed my mind and it’s kind of insane to imagine now that a rookie would get it) and i was wondering if there was something To Know about that mid to end 2012 season, about vale back to yamaha and casey retiring and casey and danis teammateship and how dani reacted to marc getting that seat etc i love love love your rambles so if you got thoughts please share?

y'know what. let's do this one with bullet points

at the start of 2012, retirement rumours were swirling around two riders. one was casey stoner.... the other was valentino rossi

valentino was entering year two of a miserable stint at ducati, trapped on a bike that was *checks notes* shit and that was still several years away from making the kinds of improvements that could make it championship-winning machinery in anyone's hands (remember, even casey wasn't anywhere close to fighting for the title in 2010). it had also been a rough couple of years injury-wise for valentino, with 2010 bringing the shoulder injury courtesy of a motocross accident, followed by him breaking the leg at mugello. the painful shoulder problems persisted even upon his return from the leg injury, not exactly helped by his decision to delay shoulder surgery until the end of the year, and he remained hampered in 2011 while he was trying to adapt to the new bike

probably the main reason for the retirement rumours, however, was the death of simoncelli in an accident valentino had been involved in. the rumours basically started the day after the accident, and did not stop even when he showed up at valencia and raced (for about one corner until he was caught up in an ugly multi-rider pile up... kinda set off by dovi but anyways)

the rumours persisted in 2012. valentino became increasingly irritable about them.... meant that both valentino and casey were going into round three at estoril having to address the retirement talk. casey denied that he was planning to retire in the estoril pre-event presser (and he'd already kinda hinted to honda he was ready to sign a new contract)

this all led to some pretty silly drama, where the journalists were less than impressed when casey did announce his retirement two weeks later at le mans and casey went 'well I hadn't decided to retire yet back then!'

anyway, more important is the retirement announcement itself. casey made a statement at the very start of the le mans presser. here's the text:

he was the championship leader at this point, and the favourite to defend his title. of course he took a bunch of questions at the presser about the announcement, and cited several other reasons for his decision to retire, like people's reactions to his mystery illness in 2009, or too many people criticising the current racing being boring, or how they let CRT riders into parc fermé (let's not get into that)

now it's important to note that this was round four. which meant that the entire rider market was about to be spiced up... so let's backtrack a bit and talk silly season: historical edition!

okay, so marc could have feasibly moved up to motogp a year earlier, and for a large chunk of 2011 there was pretty frenzied speculation he was going to do exactly that. in october, between the phillip island and sepang rounds (where he had the crash that gave him diplopia and prematurely ended both his season and his championship bid), he finally announced he was going to stay in moto2

so, in late 2011, speculation was already of course starting for what the grid would look like in 2013, with a lot of big name contracts expiring at the end of 2012. both factory yamahas, hondas, ducatis, amongst others... you know how it goes. the expectation was broadly that casey would stick with honda and dani would be protected for at least another year by the rookie rule (more on that in a second), that jorge would stick with yamaha and... well. at this point, it was plausible valentino might sign at least a one year contract extension with ducati, with just enough glimmers of progress and signs that things might be headed in the right direction for him to want to continue building that project up

early 2012, around the time of the first race, and actually it's looking plausible that none of the six big factory seats are going to be changing hands. jorge and casey seemed the most certain ones, valentino too committed to ducati, and dani likely to sign a one year deal until marc swoops in at the end of 2013 to take his place

then casey announces his retirement, and silly season properly kicks off

first order of priority is of course the vacant repsol honda seat. now, the main thing stopping marc from getting that repsol honda seat was never actually going to be a lack of space - it was the 'rookie rule'. in 2010, a rule was introduced to stop rookies from joining the factory team. the idea was basically to help out satellite teams by giving them the chance to house a young star rider, give them publicity and results and so on (face it, how much would any of us be talking about tech3 this year without the pedro acosta factor?)

this was likely never to really work like it was supposed to, because if you're one of the factories, you can basically set up... teams that are only very theoretically 'independent'. another factory team in all but name. remember how valentino technically won his first title at a satellite team? well, that was essentially a shell team set up as a way to have somewhere to put valentino for two years while repsol honda was full. not the same team (and indeed, valentino and jb did sometimes look over at the chaos at repsol and go. good lord. what's going on there) but full factory support

in spring 2012, dorna was still adamant this rule would remain in place:

should also help explain why the general reaction to suzuki suddenly pulling out in 2022 was 'shocked but not that shocked' lol

but of course by mid-2012 this rule was facing another serious test: where do you put marc marquez, especially with this vacant repsol honda seat just sitting there? now, the valentino model did seem like a reasonable one in this situation, where you put him into an existing satellite team with heavy factory backing or even just create a new one to house him. which is something valentino himself talked about:

except, it wasn't quite that straightforward, because from 2013 onward manufacturers were limited to supplying bikes for four riders, two in a factory team and two in satellites - so you'd have to take away one of the bikes from the existing two honda satellite teams, gresini or lcr

one of the reasons why putting him in one of the existing satellite teams was a bit of an issue was that he was already backed by repsol, which could have caused sponsorship conflicts if he'd been housed with one of those other teams. but also, by this point ezpeleta was sounding rather less committed to the whole thing. from june 2012:

which.

my man

if you KNOW that the most prominent rookies can be put into shell satellites anyway and you are openly joking about it then WHAT was the POINT of any of this

by the end of the month, they gave up on the whole thing. as it happens, it wasn't even repsol honda who asked for the rule to be dropped - it was the satellite honda teams who were like 'yeah we don't actually want this kid for our team, way too stressful to make this all work for a single year before losing him anyway'

not a universally popular decision, it has to be said

it's quite likely that if casey had stayed and the rookie rule had still been dropped that hrc would have immediately taken in marc and not renewed dani's contract, which would have been a wee bit awkward given dani's late season form, but. you know. so it goes. anyway honda didn't end up having to make any tough calls

about two weeks after the rookie rule is dropped, hrc announces the two year contract with marc

by this point, valentino has had another miserable start to the season with ducati, save for a fun little wet podium at le mans - you know, the race where casey announced his retirement... they had their last ever duel there, with valentino snatching second place from casey on the last lap

photo abbove not representative of the general tone they used to discuss each other in that time period

anyhow, these rare bright spots weren't going to be enough for valentino

"There was a lot of expectation from me and from Ducati to win, but unfortunately I didn't have a good feeling with the bike, especially with the front," he said some years later. "When you are in that situation it's very difficult because you lose motivation and you lose the joy of going racing. When you start the weekend you are already in a negative way, so it's difficult, because if you don't have fun on the bike everything becomes heavier: leaving your home, all the travelling, speaking with journalists, everything. Also it becomes difficult to sleep. You are in a tunnel. When I was with Ducati I thought about stopping many times, but in the end it was a very good decision not to give up. Because if you stop and you don't have a bike then it's very easy to find yourself out of the business." - from Oxley's 'Valentino Rossi: All His Races'

he began openly talking about a return to yamaha in 2012 to replace the underperforming ben spies (though as late as july, publicly he was still talking up the chances of him sticking with ducati)... which was not a prospect welcomed by all in the factory - who saw his initial move to ducati as displaying a lack of loyalty. there was also of course the issue of yamaha wanting to avoid a repeat in the dramatics with jorge, which was certainly a topic in the negotiations. valentino's new deal with yamaha was eventually announced in august

so yes, obviously pretty qualified enthusiasm from jorge's side. it helped that it was made clear that, at the start of 2013, this was very much jorge's team, something which valentino had to work to change as a result of his level of performance (after 2013)

which left dovi to take the ducati factory seat. though he too maybe had to do a little bit of... smoothing over past comments in the negotiation process:

and that's that! there was a brief period in which honda and valentino rumours were a thing... always unlikely, given the long-standing mutual animosity there, and valentino claims he was never in contact with them. dani's contract was signed when marc's was, so that put an end to that. there was also serious speculation jorge would take casey's seat at honda, which was ended by him signing for another two years at yamaha in june. everyone sorted

dani and casey had a pretty cordial teammate relationship - though of course by this point it was already no longer really a team organised around dani as it had been in the late noughties. from late 2011 (shortly before simoncelli's passing):

and from the mind games post:

he also says the following in that passage: "some days [dani] beat us but to be honest I always felt like I had the measure of him over the course of a season"

more to be said about that relationship, of course, but it was basically harmonious on both sides, and they parted on good terms. as for dani's response to marc's signing, it wasn't like he was in a place within the team to complain too much - though his position was strengthened by his late 2012 form, where he won six of the last eight races. both of them mostly just stick to saying the standard respectful pr stuff about each other

though this is pretty funny in retrospect:

"I know nothing about pedrosa's goals" my man I think you can probably guess