#all these royals were just shitty to each other and killed each other and super racist for like 1000 years

[indelen]

Since the universe of Lockwood and Co seems to have been extremely similar to our own prior to The Problem, I think its interesting that British government and other institutions, as well as London and it's surrounding areas and landmarks are all reasonably well described but absolutely no mention is ever made of the Royal Family and I think its reasonable to conclude they all got insta-killed by a MASSIVE wave of pissed off Visitors in the 50-60s. Either their own ancestors or those that came out of all the stolen stuff The Empire looted and surrounded it's royalty with on a daily basis. Like something very angry came out of the Koh-i-noor or the Stone of Scone and that was the end of House of Windsor and now Brits being Brits no one talks about it they just keep calm and carry on.

[theveryworstthing]

Downtrodden Questions

i haven’t answered these in a while and diving into my inbox would take 20 years off my life span but here’s some i saw at the top.

there are no dogs in the downtrodden world. some mainlanders kinda look like dogs, but really they’re just layering different critter attributes on coyote or other wild canine models. rabbits only have attributes from a mix of domesticated and wild irl rabbits because they’re Weird (and also i like having a bunch of design aspects to choose from).

wolves actually used to be ‘domesticated’ back when they lived with other rabbits.  sidenote, there are no such things as the wolves we know on the island. all wolves are rabbits with a recessive gene that triggers the transformation into a wolf. some rabbits with the gene transform so slowly that they just get really tall over the course of their lives and end up with weird teeth. some can control it, switching back and forth at whim (this was what most of the old wolves did). some get stuck in a cycle where they’re constantly, slowly, turning from form to form, and some turn once and are wolves forever. a lot of rabbits actually have this gene, it just never triggers transformation in most people for whatever reason.

being a wolf is rare, and in the old days  wolves were kind of like a guardian/warrior class that were revered and taken care of, but also kinda below other rabbits because they were supposed to always carry themselves in very specific ways. wolves were supposed to be delicate. as a group they had to over-perform subservience, loyalty, and elegance to be seen as helpful members of the community instead of possible threats (to their own warrens. being a threat to the enemies of their warren was a-ok).  but then the Kings happened and all the ways society mistreated wolves went from ‘that’s too restrictive’ to ‘okay i guess we’re doing straight up slavery now huh!?’ because the Kings barely saw other rabbits as people and they saw wolves as straight up tools/toys.

long story short, Revolution Happened, there’s no such thing as kings on the island again, and every wolf that wasn’t killed by the ‘royals’ during that time escaped to secret communities where they grew increasingly feral and lost most of their ‘rabbit-hood’ over time. a lot of history from this point in time was purposefully destroyed so almost everything about wolves and what they really are was lost. these days rabbits think wolves are a different species. if you want to know more, you can read my thousand year old twine game, The Wolves Of Dionaea.

no problem with the amount of questions, i’m glad you like my rabbits!

Poisonous Bastard sucks to eat but it has nothing to do with this. it’s just medicine. also if i remember correctly it’s the teeth/mouth that turn black.

the traditional colonies aren’t really traditional, they just called themselves that because they’re huge assholes who think they’re the next phase of rabbit-kind or whatever. they consider real rabbit culture and traditions to be barbaric.

they’re rabbits who were really into the short period of time that the island had kings. mostly paranoid weirdos with bloodlines made of inbred ‘royals’ and delusional narcissists waiting for another ‘age of kings’ to come so that they can rise to greatness. in the meantime they isolate themselves from all other rabbit communities in super miserable, near uninhabitable regions and act extremely hostile to any strangers who come upon them. there aren’t many of these warrens left, probably just one after Foxglove’s got destroyed (the kings were NOT popular) but there are like three tiny royalty flavored death cults of like a dozen rabbits at most sharing a shitty burrow that everyone avoids.  they have super high turnover because eventually they get sick of each other and fight until half of them come to their senses and leave. it’s a mess.

[katsukis-sad-angel]

Based on a True Story

Summary: there's this boy who makes you super uncomfy and doesnt take a hit, but you're to sweet to tell him to back off. Katsuki Bakugou, the more blunt end of the friendship, is happy to tell him off and free you from that sorry bastard.

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Warnings: possible tw, a lot of swearing and some pretty colorful insults, there are guys that are really fucking creepy, based on the actual events of February 7th, 2021 at around 10:30 pm

A/N: this was very very rushed, I just wanted to write myself some comfort real quick and go to bed last night and I didn't have time to properly edit! I'm really proud of some of the banter lmao, please enjoy and never be afraid to punt a ballsack! I'll add tags later🙄🙄🙄

A message popped up on your screen and your once neutral expression went sour. Slamming the face of your phone onto your pillow, you groaned angrily into your bedspread, catching the attention of a certain ash blonde sitting in your comfy desk chair a few feet away. Katsuki Bakugou, one of your best friends, gave a questioning glance but refused to meet his ember gaze

“What’s your deal?” He asked, not letting his genuine curiosity as to why there was such a pained look on your face, show.

You opened your mouth but paused.

Katsuki already knew about this boy and scolded you every time he saw his name pop up in your notifications, telling you to ‘fucking block him already’ for the umpteenth time. It wasn’t like you had feelings for the guy anymore, you were just too nice and polite to cut him off completely and tell him to go fuck himself.

The ash-blonde had already volunteered to do it for you, but you always said no because you knew he’d just find another way to contact you.

“It’s that piss baby again isn’t it?” 

“Yeah…”

“Wow, did you just agree with one of my insults?”

“Suki, I’m about to take you up on your offer to tell him to go fuck himself.”

He snickered, “Now you’re talking sense. What the hell is that pansy bitching about now?”

You sigh and roll over on your back and Katsuki moves to sit on the edge of your bed.

“I cut him off for a while, I really did! It felt so good to be free of him, but then he got my number again and started bothering me a few days ago. I saw him at school yesterday and told him I wasn’t interested in dating at all and he was like whatever so I honestly thought he could keep it in his pants and we could just be friends but nooo! He calls me a simp for anime guys, I tell him to stop being a hypocrite because he used to simp for me and he was like “I still do. You’re the only one” yeah like I’m stupid enough to actually believe that!”

You paused to catch your breath, but before you could start speaking again Katsuki interjected, “Well, you are stupid…”

You socked him in the bicep and he hunched over laughing. You looked so fucking adorable when you got royally pissed at him.

“Oh go to hell.” You snapped, crossing your arms and continuing, “Anyway, this guy used to simp for my goddamn sister! Not only do I reject being a replacement for her, but if she rejected his sorry ass, that means he’s a huge piece of shit because she’s super picky.”

“I might’ve mentioned that once or twice-”

You punched him again to shut him up. “Plus he’s super creepy and gross and it always feels like he’s undressing me with his eyes and whenever he’s around I want to dive into a pool full of only chlorine and drink it. I’m just trying to coexist and just be nice to him but apparently, a female looking in his general direction means that they want dicked down by his micropenis. He’s so fucking dense too. Why can’t he see that I’m not interested, especially after I EXPLICITLY told him that?!”

By that point, you were on the verge of frustrated tears, bottom lip trembling just slightly with bottled up emotion.

Katsuki could see it.

You felt trapped in something you never signed up for and you’d do anything to get out. All of this frustration had been stored inside of you for so long and it just kept mounting and multiplying until you burst into tears.

“Goddammit, come here dumbass,” He growled, gathering you into a warm embrace, “You can’t keep all this bs inside okay?”

He let you sob into his shoulder, one calloused hand supporting the base of your neck and the other crossed firmly over your back so you’d feel safe and secure; away from the world full of horrible people and into a small one of just your best friend’s warmth and the sweet sweet scent of caramel.

“Why don’t you listen to me? You’re just too fucking nice to every shitty dickhead that sees you as an easy, fuckable target. Something really fucking bad is gonna happen to you if you don’t shape up and learn how to punt a dude’s excuse for a ballsack and tell him what you really think.”

You raised your head from the solace of his shoulder to look at him with big, reproachful doe eyes and whimpered, “I tried that!”

“Have you tried punting their fucking balls first?”

“No… that would hurt.”

“That’s the point.”

“But if I did it without reason I could get suspended or charged with aggravated assault!”

It was Katsuki’s turn to sigh.

“That’s not the point dumbass, the point is that you need to tell these bastards off when they start getting creepy. You know what? Why don’t you just fucking ignore their sorry asses in the first place!”

You sniffle and drag a hand over your cheek to dry your tears, then resume your position with your face in the crook of your best friend’s neck.

“I feel bad for them.”

“Well stop. I’m gonna call him now alright? After that, we’ll block his stupid ass on every fucking app, you hear me?”

You nod and hug him tighter as he leans forward to grab your phone and opens it with your passcode, swiftly finding his name in your contact list and pressing the call icon, then he tapped the speaker button and waited.

The call was picked up almost immediately and a voice on the other line said, “Hey cutie! I was just about to call and ask to see if you wanted to come over on-”

“She’s not here.” Katsuki cut him off with a dry snarl, “And last time I checked she wasn’t interested enough in your sorry ass for you to be calling her ‘cutie.’” 

You could almost hear his lip curl in utter disgust.

“Who the fuck are you?” The voice asked, dropping its sickeningly sweet tone to something more appropriate in light of the previous insult.

“I’m her fucking boyfriend you dickwad-” You popped up from your haven in surprise, mouth open to sputter in protest but he put a finger to your lips and smirked, “who the fuck are you?”

“No fucking way that whore has a boyfriend-”

“Ex-fucking-scuse me? Shut your mouth, you mother fucking pussy, insult her one more time and I’ll fuck you up so bad you won’t be recognizable by the time you get to the hospital.” He snapped back, “She’s crying right now because you’re too dense to realize she doesn’t want any business with some horse-faced piss baby like you. Take the hint right fucking now you useless bastard so you don’t make the mistake of coming near her again because I. Will. Kill. You. Delete this number because she’s too sweet to block you herself, but I will.”

“Fuck man, I was just tryna get laid. She’s the one who started rubbing herself all over me-”

“I said delete this number. Damn, you are a dense piece of shit aren’t you?”

“Hey, I-”

Katsuki pressed ‘end call’ and blocked his contact, moving from Instagram to Snapchat, to any social app you had, and blocked him left and right until he was satisfied.

“Feel better?” He asked softly, tossing your phone aside and peeling you off.

You carded a shaky hand through your hair and wiped your eyes, giving him a watery smile and a nod.

“Why did you tell him that we were in a relationship?” You asked, voice on the edge of a taunt.

“To make him mad.”

“I mean, it worked, but is that the only reason?” You giggled.

“The hell are you insinuating?”

“Do you… possibly by chance… have feelings for me?”

You batted your eyes at him and he retched, but the smirk was still present on his handsome features.

“What’s it to you?”

You squirm a bit, but something pops into your head so you can stall a bit longer.

“I mean, you’re not THAT ugly-”

He responded with a simple, harsh flick to the forehead to make you whine and try to whack him, but he easily intercepted your fist and pushed you on your back, caging you in nothing short of a horizontal kabedon.

It was your turn to smirk, “Yenno ‘Suki, I could very easily… oh what was your phrasing? ‘Punt your fucking balls’ in this position…”

“Just shut up and tell me what the hell you want.” Katsuki snapped.

“You’re cute when you’re flustered.” You prod.

“You look like a pissed hamster when you’re mad.” He shot back.

“You smell like a fucking candy store after training.”

“You’re the dictionary definition of a dumbass.”

“You have a better hourglass figure than Yaomomo.”

“You're quickly becoming an extra.”

“Date me.”

“Fine.”

“Wait really?”

“It’s the only way I can kiss you, protect you, and keep you all to myself.” He shrugged, leaning in dangerously close, “You don’t fucking understand how hard it is to watch you prancing around with one failed abortion after another and watching you cry because they leave since you don’t want the one thing they’re after.”

“You’ve always been there for me ‘Suki… I guess I just took you for granted, and I’m really sorry.” You met his soft vermillion gaze with a meaningful and apologetic one and reached out to squeeze his hand.

“‘S okay. You’re mine now, right?”

You nod, smiling. 

“So it doesn’t matter how dense you are anymore.” He smirked, laying down on your bed and dragging you down with him so you were tucked comfortably under his chin.

You grabbed the remote and flicked on the tv, preparing to turn on an anime you had in mind.

“What romance garbage are you inflicting on me this time?” Your new boyfriend groaned, burying his face in your hair.

“One that’s super sappy and romantic and sad just to piss you off.” You pouted, clicking on each letter to form the desired word in the search bar.

“Have fun with that.” Katsuki snarked, beginning to move away, but you stopped him by deftly pressing your lips to his.

You slowly pulled away, blushing furiously, but happy to feel strong forearms snaking around your front and crossing over your stomach.

“I certainly will.” You respond.

[dirtyrottenraskel]

my take on yueki's personalities

yue 

notes / personality

cocky (but also like understated confidence - r e g a l af) 

kind of a nerd

maybe a little entitled, and a little bratty and suki loves to indulge her or to rile her up depending on her mood

books

seems soft but made of steel

strong sense of duty

socially intelligent - can be manipulative and suki (the dork) thinks it is so hot 

aloof queen bee typa beat

supportive, both in ur day to day and in going after your big moral life goals 

deep water - steady and powerful, often underestimated

untold depths, private yet surprisingly nurturing - master of deflecting away from herself

political nerd - well read, and when she has someone she trusts not to take advantage of her, she goes OFF 

distrusting of most people, has been used and ignored and underestimated her whole life

patient - homegirl knows how to play the long game

excellent at pai sho / chess 

she and suki have epic battles of wits - dif types of strategy but both are really into it and get a little too competitive (multiple board games have had to be replaced over the years)

loves travel bc wasn’t allowed to much, esp when she was sick 

was super repressed growing up - never let her be herself or really have any sort of independence

used to sneak out and wander around in rebellion and casually sabotage plans and decisions she didn’t agree with 

introverted, many opinions but keeps them to herself, discreet but well spoken

weaponizes secrets and information - doesn’t often use it but...she could

definitlyyyyy worries and overthinks and re-evaluates - worries ab social politics a lot

obsessive about picking things - wants it to be perfect

shes growing into her confidence as a leader

prefers quite intimate places

incredibly romantic

classic lit

planner for the future - visionary

kind / sweet / gentle - yes, but that’s also her “front” to a degree (seriously, i feel like she gets painted as so sweet and submissive and one dimensional by the fandom a lot of times and it freakin kills me)

INFJ-T (The Advocate) ((yes this is from 16p which i know is not super accurate but u can still catch her overall vibes from it ya know)

Creative/insightful/principled/compassionate/altruistic

sensitive/reluctant to open up/perfectionist/prone to burnout/not a fan of the ordinary

friendships / relationships

(<> indicates that they’re one of her best friends)

sokka - puppy love crushes, laugh ab it now, get into deep late night talks about responsibilities and leading, water tribe culture, prank wars (no one believes sokka when he says yue is a mean prank master (expect suki comes to see it in action lol))

katara - <> badass women friendship, totally would go to matches and protests together, tough girl shit, waterbending practice/duels - start of cautious, but then get rough in a good way bc they trust each other, they do water tribe food adventures together

toph - indulges her chaos, bonding over stupid royal upbringings, odd yet weirdly endearing pair

zuko - both sort of standoffish gay royals, but once they come to see that they are friends - take up similar spaces though, so only hang out in a group or rarely by themselves, they do hang out at like political parties and stuff when they get more comfortable together

aang - <> he has an impressive world view, yue is super studied and well read, so she and aang nerd out over past cultures together, and also their peace keeping nature, they have tea together often - usually after she and katara wipe the floor w/ each other

clothing / aesthetic:

blues and pale colors

classy and understated wealth

like those cute feminine button down shirts

dresses

like cold weather classy

complicated braids

sort of soft girl aesthetic?

pleated skirts !!!

i feel like she would wear ethically sourced fur (i don’t wear fur but idk how to get it in an ethical way - maybe it’s just fake??)

knit sweaters and skinny jeans and heeled ankle boots

light academia !!!

hella funky earrings - to mark her native pride and also cuz gay

from my readings, tattoos have a lot of cultural significance for Inuit women, and so i feel like yue would totally have some (when she comes of age ofc) 

suki

notes / personality 

extroverted 

also very strategic 

more spontaneous tho - will totally calculate the odds in a spilt second in her head and then just go for it

like still a careful planner, but willing to say fuck it, yolo if it seems right 

reflects on her mistakes, but more in like a healthy way - unless it was a leadership mistake, then it eats her up inside - worries more ab keeping her girls safe and making the right call

likes lively places

total bashful romantic

manages the present and the short term - realist

loves to do lists 

a little punch happy - loves to make violent threats, but also does it out of excitement and she’s just a really physical person tbh

steady, can come off as stubborn and abrasive but she really just wants what’s best for everyone she loves

harsh on herself and worries about her girls a lot 

always ends up in the oddest situations 

totally would kick someone’s ass for being racist/sexist/homophobic/etc 

dedicated to her training and her regime 

not a great cook, but she can manage 

would drink monsters 

has a weird relationship with femininity - took her awhile to reconcile strength and toughness and being assertive and aggressive with also wanting to feel pretty and feminine and embracing being a girl and how those things can coincide and amplify each other

abandonment issues - parents absent/dead 

was imprisoned - obvi she had several almost successful escape attempts, but she got really close to breaking 

was incredibly independent really early, grew up really fast and tries to make up for that now by sometimes being reckless 

tough/assertive/woman of action 

dry sense of humor/sarcastic - not good at nickname/pun humor tho

practical/dedicated/strong-willed/direct/honest/reliable/loyal/patient

stubborn/judgmental/difficult to relax/difficulty expressing emotions/too selfless 

friendships / relationships

(<> indicates that they’re one of her best friends)

sokka - <>  man they’re like platonic soulmates - she beat him up, and now they spar all the time, totally funny and crack jokes all the time, go skating together, they do shitty art together, and then show their lovers after zuko and yue come back from their high society mixers, broke her out of prison, m/f friendship !!! 

katara - also sparring buddies (suki will throw down at any literally moment (and tbh so will katara)), not close but will hang in a group - go to each other for advice 

toph - <> listen these two wreak havoc together, they help each other out a lot, i feel like they’re shopping buddies (similar enough style to frequent the same shops) toph knows suki won’t judge her for wanting to feel pretty and suki knows toph will be honest, they are both blunt sarcastic assholes and get along like a house on fire 

zuko - <> shows zuko how to like,,,enjoy things (and how to let go of some of that pressure to be always right and the adult and in charge bc they were raised with so much responsibility on their shoulders even tho they were just kids)? she is also super protective of him (once she trusts him), one of the only ppl who can match suki fully in hand to hand combat, both do the Disappointed Parent Look when the group falls into chaos, but by themselves, the two of them end up in hijinks

aang- suki enjoys his optimism and they’re just chill bros, they love exploring abandoned placed together 

clothing / aesthetic

sporty and skater mixed 

ripped jeans, crewnecks, vans 

green and yellow and dark red 

gym clothes/athleisure - lifting style gym clothes - cut off t-shirts and bike shorts

skirts too, likes to play into femininity

she’s a gold jewelry kinda girl - but stuff that won’t hinder her movements 

necklaces that end in the hollow of her throat & occasionally rings

definitely cuffs all of her jeans (it’s just bisexual culture ya know)

so many crop tops - some came like that, some were more of a diy project

yueki’s relationship!!!

nerd/jock solidarity 

feel the burden of responsibility and the weight on their shoulders 

they create a safe space between them, full of trust and warmth and vulnerability 

yue will read suki sappy passages from poetry books while suki polishes her fans 

they slow dance in the kitchen a lot 

they get good at ordering takeout - and they have some weird decision making process that only they understand - bc neither of them are great cooks 

yue would feel jealous of suki and sokka, if it weren’t for how stupid in love sokka was with zuko and yue can see that suki really only has eyes for her 

yue is taller than suki and it amuses her to no end to pick suki up and carry her away from a fight (we all know suki could get away if she wanted to, but when ur hot tall sexy gf throws u over her shoulder,,,,,,u don’t complain)

joke they’ve adopted kataang and zukka, bc they’re all dummies, but in reality every last one of them is stupid LMAO 

they love to do each other’s hair and it’s like super intimate and really cute 

sometimes it’s these epic elaborate hairstyles and then at other times, they try to see how many ponytails they can fit on suki’s head and how many little braid yue can do 

they travel EVERYWHERE 

since yue is royalty and suki is her body guard,,,, well i mean, they totally have to see these kingdoms they are doing trade deals with in person 

it helps that they're friends with a lot of them 

they stay over in everything from camping so they can stargaze to ritzy hotels with hot tubs in the bathroom 

yue gives suki rocks she finds on all their travels and suki lines them up on their mantle around the pictures of them in increasingly weird locations 

suki loves guarding yue’s meetings bc she gets to watch her absolutely rip a new one into misogynistic old men and it never fails to bring her joy 

While yue doesn’t love getting attacked, the ruthless efficiency suki defends her with is like,,,,,stupid attractive 

[raayllum]

A few viren stans I’ve talked to believe viren doesn’t exhibit favoritism between his children and treats Soren and Claudia equally, your thoughts?

I think Viren’s view of his children and his individual relationships with each of them are very interesting. Something that always struck me in s1 is that, while I knew right away there was something disturbing about Claudia, Viren asks Soren to kill the boys, not her. He also seems closer to Claudia in general — they share dark magic and tend to have more one-on-one conversations and she knew about the egg, but we don’t know if Soren also knew.

I think Viren tends to have an equal amount of exasperation reserved for them both (deep sighs with Soren and “Not everyone speaks Claudia, Claudia”) even if Soren tends to likely try his patience more often. I don’t think Viren would have told Claudia to choose the egg over Soren — as an idea — if Claudia hadn’t brought it up first. (Similar to the switch spell being Claudia’s idea in the first place.)

At the end of the day, though, Viren fully sacrifices Soren in 3x03 in order to keep Claudia. You could argue that he was sad about ‘losing’ (gaslighting) Soren and saw it as a necessary sacrifice, but Viren makes it very clear which child he favours as something to help in his schemes of nothing else, and even more so: “She is not an asset. She is my daughter” and yet was going to turn Soren into a fire resistant being that were all used as “distractions” in the final battle. And Viren undoubtedly destroys Soren’s mental health and asks him to do a very fucked up thing in 1x06 that he doesn’t ask Claudia to do by any measure. So... yeah, it’s not looking good

But as I think I’ve said on here before, “Viren stans” and JA stans are like, two very specific types of people who seem to hate each other (I know sometimes people who love Viren hate Amaya, for example; and JA stans hate Viren for ‘killing’ Sarai and Khessa) and I don’t tend to think either have a super objective viewpoint of the show? There’s exceptions — and that’s not to say my opinions or interpretations of the show are somehow miraculously free of bias, because that’s not possible — but there are similarities: a lot of critiques with how the show is written, believing the narrative is “working against” characters to simultaneously let Viren off the hook (JA) / punishes him for everything (Viren stans). And it’s like... it can’t be both. 

Viren is ultimately an antagonist who does not always act antagonistically.  Which is pretty common, even for children’s shows! It always shocks me that people find him confusing, just flat out evil or misunderstood, because it’s like... he acts like a person. Like a nuanced person. That’s it. He has some genuine moments — going to lay his life down for Harrow in 1x03 and saying goodbye to each of his children; looking sadly at the royal family portrait in early s2; some of his love for Claudia; genuinely trying to help Katolis and save the queens in 2x05/2x06 — and some really shitty ones — rubbing the salt in the wound for Ezran in 3x04; attacking the other monarchs and being condescending if not also emotionally manipulative towards Aanya (who for all her wisdom, is still like, an eleven year old child); taking Sarai’s last breath rather than comforting her so he can assuage his own guilt. 

Because it’s not like one of the major themes of the show, for basically every single character (except like, maybe Ezran, Aanya, and Ellis) is that people do morally questionable things that can have unforeseen consequences and your character probably can’t fit starkly into being “bad” or “good” and who you actually are is a matter of who you choose to be, or anything. That the mark of any sort of in-show moral judgment comes from whether you decide to believe in a narrative of strength or a narrative of love, and that characters (Amaya included, because she hated elves too) can stumble and change what they choose to believe in. 

Like don’t get me wrong, the way the show explores these themes are deep and meaningful and it takes time for the message to come through in full force but... the show also literally spells it out for us. It shouldn’t be hard. 

‘Stanning’ in that sense is almost always unnecessary if you watch something objectively. 

[at-the-exd-of-everythixg]

][All questions for otp meme for Pascal + Rhys][

@blind-mutant

Coffee shop AU: Who is the barista, and who frequents the coffee shop?

Pascal is the man who knows everyone's order before they get there. Rhys is no different and perhaps Pascal slips a cookie or two for Rhys. The man just seems so skinny and cute...how could Pascal not bleed his heart out all over the place when looking into his little face?

Rhys meanwhile, is smitten with the weirdo who gives him free coffee and extra snacks at the price of hearing terrible jokes. There's some worry when some nights Pascal is incredibly clumsy and seems to shake and stare off into the distance...which only draws Rhys in more at knowing that the barista isn't perfect. Which only makes him MORE perfect and hit-onable.

Highschool/College AU: Who is the straight-A student, and who’s the backrow slacker?

Rhys tries hard in school, he has to if he wants to prove himself and actually stay at the institute. He works hard but things are harder for him, what with being a gay disabled albino mutant. A bigger shit could not hit the fan...that is, until blind rich boy Pascal Solberg arrives and he's brought a big fucking fan.

Pascal is thrilled to be at a school with actual people. Everyone adores Korra and he seems to have an answer for everything! But Rhys sees through this shit and he's determined to find out why Pascal knows far too many things than he should...definitely not because Korra is very cute and so is Pascal!

Rivals to loves AU: Who takes their rivalry seriously, and who is half in it just to push the other’s buttons? 

In the institute, Pascal loves teasing and bullying Rhys. It gets him more attention and even without his future sight, Pascal knows that Rhys will be safer, that other patients will be better off if he's paying for actual mistakes rather than letting anyone else suffer. It hurts, but Pascal would take this paik in stride...if not for how annoying Rhys could be.

Rhys??? Oh he's onto Pascal. Knows that he's with a dumbass who wants to hurt himself and is only going to end up dead. It isn't often that a fancy prick ends up in such a place like this...and yet Pascal is here. He doesn't talk about why he ended up at the institute, but he seems to have something up his sleeve and Rhys wants in on it.

Enemies to lovers AU: Which one switches sides? 

Its...certainly a thing for Pascal church to join up with an anti-mutant church, but he has some...worries about the fact that he is essentially similar to a mutant, as well as the fact that Pascal's mother seems to be inclined on keeping it a secret to the rest of the church as well as the mutants that the church frequently attacks. He doesn't like it. He doesn't enjoy being used to hurt people. But Pascal does like the pretty mutant that called him a shitbag before swearing when Beast tells him that Pascal is the target.

So now...he lives at the X-Mansion? X-house? Pascal is there and things are awkward, especially when Rhys gets put on his shift of watching Pascal. But the seer is secretive with the full extent of his powers and seeing everyone happy at the mansion as well as Rhys getting kinder when he learns that Pascal was unwilling in hurting people...it makes the seer certain in what he has to do. He needs to protect the Institution and all of its inhabitants.

Especially Rhys, who still calls him a shitbag, but now laces it with teasing affection as well as 'Scal and Firefly. Who sounds so happy and sents Pascal's heart reeling when he coos over Korra. Murder is easy depending on who it's for.

Soulmate AU: Who is eager to meet their soulmate? Who absolutely does not want to meet their soulmate? 

Of course Pascal wants to meet his soulmate. Who wouldn't? They'll be the only other person who really understands him now that Cassandra is gone. He doesn't care what category his soulmate is, whether he'll get a partner, a friend or family member, Pascal just wants to stop feeling so alone in this world, even if he has two beautiful children who meow and bark at him. His soulmate is perfect, no matter what.

Rhys however, jesus fucking christ he can't have a soulmate. He's a shitty person, next is the fact that Rhys is homeless and a mutant. He isn't what anyone would want honestly, especially when Pascal is the leader of a whole fucking church. That definitely sends Rhys reeling and now Pascal needs to try and take on the mission of wooing Rhys and letting the smaller man know that Pascal won't hurt him. He wants to only make Rhys happy.

Single parent AU: Which one is the single parent? (Alt. if they’re both single parents: Which one is open to starting a new relationship from the start? Which one is never planning on finding love again… Until they meet the other and are instantly smitten?)

Rhys and Pascal are both messes of fathers but they try and they love their kids. Rhys's kid is the last he has of Blue while Pascal had no choice but to try and be there for his kid after he killed their mother. It's hard to provide for them but our idiots do try...and it gets harder, maybe easier when Pascal's kid starts to declare that Rhys's kid is their best friend. Well...Pascal and Rhys being dilf friends forever??

Its certainly easier when you have someone to support you and knows what you're going through. Rhys is always reassured by Pascal's visions and Pascal definitely needs to emotionally and maybe lean on Rhys's for support when he convinces him to not helicopter parent his kid. And perhaps there's nights of crying over people they've lost, what they've done. But there are also nights where the kids giggle and gag as Rhys and Pascal stare at each other a little too long and accidentally refer to reach other as dad. Sometimes a family is two bros, their kids from traumatic stories and extra hairy and hairless kids.

Doctor AU: Which one is the longsuffering doctor? Which one is the patient? 

Rhys needs hospital for the first time in a long time and FUCK does it feel terrible. He almost wants to leave and throw up before his attention gets caught to the weird guy with a guide dog arguing with a blind 12 year old about whether or not telling the script of ratatouille counts as telling a story. Well. Rhys is blind. That means he counts and gets to join in on listening to "stories for the blind" while waiting for his name to be called out.

He does eventually, and much to Rhys's surprise, Pascal actually offers to stand with him. He cuts his story short and leans in close to give Rhys a run through of what will happen in his appointment and if it's that bad, Pascal is happy to make sure a doctor keeps their hands strictly professional. Rhys is...actually really happy, especially when Pascal asks if Rhys can have a lollipop and then if he could have a lollipop. Hospital trips suddenly seem better when Pascal is there being a goof and wanting to help out with more in his life.

Bodyguard AU: Who is the bodyguard? Who are they protecting? Which one is secretly pining for the other? 

The obvious answer is "Rhys gets hired to guard prophet man" bUT. Pascal guarding Rhys while he's on a recruitment mission for the mansion? Could be cute of Pascal admiring Rhys's dedication to wanting to help out a child and to get them to a safe space, but could also be incredibly funny if Rhys assumed he was being guarded by a human and uh. Wasn't the nicest.

Unfortunately, Pascal's greatest sexual fantasy is being someone's doormat so he takes in in stride. And perhaps a part of Pascal doesn't actually want to tell Rhys what he is...mostly because it's funny and it'll be even funnier when they go back to the mansion and Pascal can have a lased beam battle with Cyclops.

Pirate AU: Who is the pirate? Who is the member of the royal family who did not sign up for this? 

Rhys is a captain that is always pleased to have non-human and capable crew members. The new boy is clumsy and soft, but he's cute and a hard worker so Rhys is a kind man who will let him stay. Especially when the boat rocks and Rhys gets pressed into a warm chest, gets to feel Pascal awkwardly laughing deeply and a comforting hand on the small of his back. Oh, he definitely needs to keep such a pretty boy that smokes so nicely when Rhys teases him.

Pascal knows he should tell Rhys he's a prince. The heir to the very seas they sail on. But it's hard and the Irish Phantom is so beautiful, much more beautiful than any suitor Pascal may be destined for. It isn't a hard choice to lie about who he is and to swallow nervously when his captain smiles and flirts in a low voice, feeling rough hands squeeze instinctively when they almost fall over. He'll tell Rhys soon. Soon.

Childhood best friends AU: Which one was super obviously in love with the other the whole time? Who was oblivious until they were older?

Pascal is smitten by Rhys. His family comes to the church every week, not exactly aware of what the people of the last light worship, but Pascal is smitten by Rhys. Cassandra gags, winking her many eyes before they shut and hide away when Pascal blushes and tells her on mom. Rhys is nice and one of the only children of the church, which is why Pascal is addicted to knowing more about Ireland, about Rhys and to feel the little shadows dance around his fingers. He loves hearing what darkness is supposed to sound like.

Rhys loves the other odd boy too. It's easy to when Pacal adores his powers and actually asks more about him. Rhys has his very first friend for years until he doesn't and he's alone in an institute, reeling and a part of him wishing that he could be back at the church, laughing himself silly at Pascal and Cassandra having a real life pokemon battle (that ended with Cass using a rock type love by throwing a rock into Pascal's face). He still thinks about Pascal every day and what else can he do but cry when he hears the sheer awful jokes that could only come from Pascal when he walks through a park one day?

[xoteajays]

All questions otp Circe and George

@hughstheforcelou​ 

Coffee shop AU: Who is the barista, and who frequents the coffee shop?  fred and george are baristas at circe’s favourite coffee shop and half the time that circe comes in, she orders increasingly ridiculous drinks because she thinks it’s funny and doesn’t care about the flavour. the other half the time, it’s iced coffee. every so often, she tells him to just make her something and half the time he’ll make her something he thinks she’ll actually like and the other half it’s something straight-up gross and he watches her drink it all down anyway. he is amazed by her. 

Highschool/College AU: Who is the straight-A student, and who’s the backrow slacker?  circe is the straight-a student and a hard worker. she gets matched up with george because the teacher was trying to split up the twins because the teacher is sure they’d do a good job in class if they stopped fucking around together. little did the teacher know that circe also enjoys fun and she can get a solid a in class while also fucking around with george. 

Rivals to loves AU: Who takes their rivalry seriously, and who is half in it just to push the other’s buttons?  this fits especially for slytherin-sorted au. circe takes the rivalry seriously because she’s been raised up by the malfoys and draco has shown distain for the weasleys so she should too right? george just goes along with it to try and get her to loosen up also because he thinks she’s cute and it gives him a reason to hang around her. 

Enemies to lovers AU: Which one switches sides?  also good for slytherin-sorted au. circe flips sides very easily once the death eaters come into it and the dark mark and she abandons it all immediately. george is the first of the weasleys(& hermione + harry) to trust her despite her ‘villainous history’. 

Soulmate AU: Who is eager to meet their soulmate? Who absolutely does not want to meet their soulmate?  george is eager to meet his soulmate. it’s not that circe doesn’t want to meet her soulmate, she’s just very anxious about who they are and what they’re like and if they’ll actually like her for her and not just because they’re soulmates and she’s very in her own head about it. she figures out first that george is her soulmate and keeps it a secret, freaking out over it because george is her friend. 

Single parent AU: Which one is the single parent? (Alt. if they’re both single parents: Which one is open to starting a new relationship from the start? Which one is never planning on finding love again… Until they meet the other and are instantly smitten?)  for the singular single parent, maybe circe? for both single parents, george goes on some dates but hasn’t committed to anyone. circe hadn’t gone on any dates and was fully committed to just being a parent until she meets george and they just keep running into each other and circe can’t stop thinking about him and her kid likes him. 

Doctor AU: Which one is the longsuffering doctor? Which one is the patient?  circe is absolutely the doctor, george is the one who keeps coming in because he got injured during a prank or something. or sometimes even comes in on slow days for ridiculously simple things just to see circe. she finds him endearing. 

Bodyguard AU: Who is the bodyguard? Who are they protecting? Which one is secretly pining for the other?  george is hired as circe’s bodyguard because she’s the daughter of two very wealthy, upper class, celebrity families. circe likes parties and is big on activism and doesn’t keep her mouth shut about her opinions so she got a bodyguard to watch her back. george at least finds himself having fun protecting her. he’s very much pining for her, not helped by the fact that she is blatantly flirting with him all the time. an article comes out speculating if george is her ‘bodyguard or boyfriend?’ and circe just smiles and doesn’t give a solid answer about it. 

Pirate AU: Who is the pirate? Who is the member of the royal family who did not sign up for this?  fred and george are infamous pirates. they aren’t in the business of killing anyone but make a habit of messing with people and treasure hunting. adhara is the daughter of the royal black family, her parents in an arranged marriage although they did come to truly care for each other until they’re untimely deaths. adhara frequently dresses up as a commoner and goes by ‘circe’ to escape her cruel extended family. she gets swept up into this whole pirate business and just runs with it because it’s better than going back home. george thinks she’s fun and wants to keep her around and teaches her how to defend herself with a sword, fred agrees to keep her aboard because she gives them intimate details on shitty royal families that they should fuck with (including her own). 

Childhood best friends AU: Which one was super obviously in love with the other the whole time? Who was oblivious until they were older?  circe was absolutely head-over-heels enamoured for george from a young age. george thought she was fun to be around but ultimately viewed her as his younger brother’s friend-rival until they were older. he has some changed feelings towards her when she was a little older (like 16?) but never acted on it and eventually they drifted apart. she comes back into his life at like 20 and still has lingering feelings for him but pretends it was all just a childhood crush until she realises he likes her back. 

[teaveetamer]

My Issues With TFioS (and Other Elements of John Green)

Alright I’m just going to preface this with two things.

It’s been about six years since I’ve read the entire thing through, so my points are probably not going to be as detailed or precise as they were when I first read it.

If you enjoyed the book, identify with the fanbase, or like John Green in any capacity... Great! You might want to skip this one. This is definitely not the post for you. I’m going to put all of my more controversial thoughts under the cut so if you don’t want to see them you can just move on.

I brought up the book in that other post because I felt it had relevance to the discussion of “authors using characters as a mouthpiece”, but that’s only a small part of my issue with the book itself. I suppose I could have used a fanfiction example, since there’s more than enough fodder there, but I brought up The Fault in our Stars specifically because I feel comfortable criticizing a book in a way that I don’t feel comfortable criticizing fan works. John Green is a public figure that produced a paid product, made money, and does this professionally, while most fanfic authors are amateurs that provide free entertainment and just do it for fun.

Now with that said, we move on to the meat of the post.

Some Background

Perhaps this is not a little known fact, but I absolutely adore love stories. I don’t have incredibly high standards for them by any means, and in fact I actively enjoy them even when they aren’t the deepest, most thought provoking pieces. Someone got me a copy of Red, White, and Royal Blue for my birthday this year and I read the entire thing cover to cover in a day (and I seriously recommend if you’re looking for a pretty easy read with a lot of gay).

The only thing I love more than love stories? Tragic love stories, of course. If anyone has followed my fanfiction or main blog for any amount of time then you know that I love a little bit of tragedy. Usually with a happy ending, but not always. So when one of my friends shoved (and I mean literally shoved) The Fault in Our Stars  into my hands and billed it as a “tragic but heartwarming love story” I thought it would be perfect for me.

I was sixteen at the time, the target age demographic, and I was always looking for books with smart, well written teen characters. At this point in my life I’d never heard of John Green or his fanbase before. I tell you this because I disliked the book as I read it, but I think John Green and his fanbase are a major factor in why I disliked it so much I’m willing to sit down and write a blog post about it six years later. Granted, that’s not all on the book, but it is a factor.

Needless to say, I was not all that impressed by it. At some points I was downright infuriated, really.

My Issues With the Book

In summary, it feels very meh and overly pretentious. After about two chapters I just wanted to put it down, and the only reason I pushed through is because my friend insisted that it got better. She said it was funny, relatable, and intelligent, but I found it to be none of these things.

The impression I got was that the author, whoever he was, fancied himself terribly clever and he wanted everyone to know it. You know the type, the kinds of people that go around and assure everyone of how smart they are? It feels like it was made for haughty teens to brag about how intelligent they were because they read a “deep” book.  The book itself, despite being a surface level of “witty”, didn’t really have anything to say. In the end it reads like a thirty-something year old man bragging about how smart he is and waxing philosophical about the nature of life (and... Breakfast food..?) and using a fictional teenage girl to do it.

That’s why I brought up the “mouthpiece” thing. I didn’t want to read a book about a thirty-something dressing up his thoughts as a teenage girl. I wanted to read a book about a teenage girl.

Speaking of Hazel Grace… I don’t know if this is a common experience, but can anyone else tell when a man writes a female character? I find that I usually can. Men have a particular voice when they write, and especially when they write women. Every single page hammered me over the head with the fact that this was a man who was trying (and, in my opinion, failing miserably) to write a relatable teenage girl. And, in my opinion, he parroted a lot of very upsetting, dangerous mentalities for young women.

There were quite a few “I’m not like other girls, and not just because of the cancer!” moments (a mentality that I find wholly problematic coming from other women, let alone a man writing for a woman) that just had me rolling my eyes straight out of their sockets. She doesn’t care about shoes, see! She reads books! Isn’t that awesome and unique? Because, apparently, women are not allowed to do both.

These problematic mentalities extend into the book’s romance plot, too. Augustus is, frankly, one of the creepiest motherfuckers I’ve ever had the displeasure to read about. Not only is his aggressive creepiness portrayed as romantic, but Hazel reacts exactly how men wish women would react to their advances. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the book in front of me so you won’t get much in the way of direct quotes, but some examples include:

He stares at her, completely unblinking, for the duration of their cancer kids support group meeting… before they’ve even so much as spoken a word to each other. Which also features this gem of a quote: "A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy . . . well." which just perpetuates the disgusting misconception that women are okay with being creeped on as long as a guy is attractive. Spoiler alert: We fucking aren’t.

He repeatedly refers to Hazel as “Hazel Grace”, despite her introducing herself as “Hazel” and asking him to just call her “Hazel”. And not only does he ask for her full name, he demands she give it to him. This rings all kinds of alarm bells for me, because you know who else does that kind of shit? Christian Grey. And it’s manipulative, disrespectful, and downright rude. It is essentially saying “I hear your desires, but I would prefer to address you how I want to address you, not how you would like to be addressed, because my ego is more important than your comfort”.

Hazel is perfectly fine with getting into a complete stranger’s car and spending time at his house mere minutes after meeting with him and after all of the questionable shit he just pulled.

Continuing this book’s litany of problems with women, let’s talk about Isaac’s (ex)girlfriend. The book treats their breakup as this massive betrayal, then even goes on to justify vandalizing her property because of it.

I’m sorry, but no.

You, as an autonomous human being, have the right to end a relationship with someone else whenever, wherever, and for whatever reasons you designate, regardless of previously expressed emotions or promises. How and when she did it was not the most ideal, but she’s an emotionally immature teenager, and there’s never going to be a good time to do something like this. What was she supposed to do, keep pity dating him because she felt sorry for him? Wait until someone invented technology to cure blindness? Assuming she did actually break up with him because of his disability… Are her reasons shitty? Sure. But she’s allowed to have them.

And you know what? He’s allowed to be mad about it. His anger might be completely understandable, if not totally justified. But you know what else? That does not give him the right to take revenge on her by vandalizing her property.

I would have no problem with this scene if it were honest about what it was: a bunch of teenagers with under-developed frontal lobes that are angry and feeling vindictive. But it’s not that. It’s depicted as not only completely justified, but heroic. I’m sorry, no. You are never heroic for harassing another human being.

And Augustus’s dumb little speech to her mom is such garbage. You really expect me to believe that a grown woman was so pwned by some jerk teenager’s super witty justification for destroying her property that she just went inside and, idk, watched TV? Didn’t call the police to report the crime that he and his friends were actively committing against her? Bullshit.

Speaking of bullshit, that scene is pretty egregious, but that doesn’t even begin to cover my issues with this book’s pretentious dialogue. If you told me that they ran every word in this book through Thesaurus.com then I would believe you without hesitation. The one hook, the draw, the thing that kept me reading was supposed to be the relatable characters, but they just aren’t relatable. They’re not realistic in the slightest. Seriously, go read any line of this book out loud and tell me how ridiculous you feel. I kept expecting Augustus to pull off his skinsuit and reveal that he was secretly a robot trying to imitate human speech the entire time.

I’m not sure how far I can go into this point without giving you direct quotes, but half the stuff that comes out of these characters mouths is pseudo-intellectual nonsense. “Put the killing thing between your teeth so it can’t kill you”?

It’s not a metaphor.

Putting an unlit cigarette in your mouth is still stupid. I guess it won’t give you lung cancer, but really? It’s still not a great idea.

Augustus has to go buy these cigarettes, which means he’s actively going out and giving money to an industry that has been funding pseudoscience and suppressing health initiatives that would prevent people from suffering what he did (i.e. fucking cancer).

Here’s a clue: Tobacco companies don’t actually care about what you do with the cigarettes. Their transaction stops as soon as you put the money in their hands. I could purchase a hundred packs and throw them in the garbage, and the only thing they know is that they got about $600 from me. Way to “stick it to the man”, asshole. You’re not clever.

With the exception of the Isaac’s-girlfriend thing, all of that is in chapters 1-4, by the way. This book turned me off so thoroughly that early.

So by the time the Amsterdam trip rolled around I was already not enjoying this book, but then this thing happened and it was just the final nail in the coffin for me. You probably know what I’m talking about already, but if you don’t… The Anne Frank Museum kiss.

I honestly cannot even articulate how incredibly tasteless and disrespectful I find the entire thing, and not only does that happen, but it’s followed by an r/ThatHappened “and then everybody stood up and clapped!” Seriously?

There are smarter, more well-versed people than me that have covered this topic, so I’ll leave the analysis for why that’s all kinds of wrong to them.

Those are really my big gripes, though there’s a few smaller ones (like Augustus throwing a pre-funeral like are you a psychopath? Why would you put the people you love through that???) that I’m not going to touch on because they weren’t all that instrumental in putting me off. Instead I’ll move on to the external factors.

The Fanbase

So I finished the book, a little miffed at having just wasted my time, and immediately told my friend that I didn’t like it much, and that I would be returning her copy the next day. Feeling pretty meh-to-slightly-negative about it, but whatever, it happens.

I was essentially met with “wow I can’t believe you didn’t get it.” and “Oh well maybe you’ll finally understand how deep it is when you’re older” from my friend. Which is really just one step away from the wow can’t you read?! BS that I’ve been seeing more and more frequently these days. So immediately I was pissed. All that aside, I was sixteen, the target age demographic? If I didn’t ‘get it’ then John Green was doing a pretty piss poor job of conveying what it is.

So I went online seeking something. Either validation that I wasn’t wrong and that I didn’t miss the point, the book just wasn’t great, or an explanation of what this it was that I’d missed. And let me tell you... Spotting a negative opinion of this book was like looking for a unicorn. There were a few, and many of them were met with the same kind of thing I had experienced. Vitriol, insistence that they were stupid or that they didn’t get it (again, with no explanation of what it was), and, apparently, a lot of harassment and threats.

I discovered that John Green’s target audience had a tendency to be… A bit obsessive. Lots of young, impressionable teenagers that were willing to jump on an opposing opinion with zealous outrage. If I had any interest in pursuing any of John Green’s other works or John Green as an internet personality any further, then it died in that moment. Absolutely nothing turns me off like a rabid, spiteful fanbase.

Now by this point I was already in the rabbit hole, and I began encountering a lot of criticisms of John Green and the things he’s said and done in the past. I did not like what I found.

John Green Himself

To be extremely blunt, the guy put such a bad taste in my mouth that it retroactively soured my opinion of The Fault in Our Stars even more. Since this is a post about my opinions on the book, I’m only going to be discussing things that affected my view at the time I read it. These are all things that happened six years ago, and I have no idea what this man has been up to or what he’s said about any of these topics since.

Let’s just get this out of the way… John Green writes the same book over and over. There’s always a quirky, nerdy white boy that is invariably cisgendered, and almost always straight. He is always an outcast with only a few friends, though apparently never directly bullied. He always meets an edgy girl that he falls in love with the idea of. Usually there is a road trip somewhere in there too.

The Fault in our Stars admittedly doesn’t follow the exact same framework, but it’s close enough in a lot of ways. Instead of the Quirky, Too-Smart-For-His-Own-Good cisboi being the PoV character, it’s the love interest (Hazel also fits this description, albeit a female version). Hazel and Augustus are both still outcasts. Hazel is attracted to Augustus because he’s Deep and Edgy and A Little Larger Than Life. The road trip is a flight to Amsterdam.

Looking at the man... Yeah the entire premise starts to come off as some weird self-insert fanfiction. I can feel the “I was a quirky, bullied teen and I wish this is how my high school life had been!” energy coming through absolutely every pore and every molecule of ink. Every character reads like John Green. John Green has written book after book and the main character always appears to be John Green in a slightly different teenage skinsuit.

And that’s fine, I guess. A little lazy, but I guess it’s working for him since he’s making hella bank? It’s certainly not enough to put me off the guy, just not something I’m interested in reading, and not something I find compelling.

What put me off for good were some of his comments. Dude skeeves me the fuck out. I’ll just go over some of the highlights I found at the time, and why they upset me so much when I heard them.

“Nerd girls are the world's most underutilized romantic resource.”

As a nerdy girl that has been stalked and harassed by men because I’m “good girlfriend material” (aka I like video games and traditionally masculine stuff and I’m pretty! I must be a unicorn!), this statement is disgusting.

I don’t care if it was a joke. I don’t care if he wasn’t being serious. This is the kind of shit that men think is a compliment because they think it makes “quirky” girls feel “unique” and “special”, but that “complement” is also an insult. You know why? Because it makes female interests all about how men perceive their sexual or romantic viability.

John Green’s penchant for writing “special” and “unique” girls (while simultaneously shaming “typical” girls, but I’ll get to that in the next point) and depicting them as the ideal woman just reaffirms my feelings about this quote. I think, on some level, John Green has no idea why this is such a bad take. And that’s not even getting into the fact that he called human beings resources. Women are not objects that exist to be a plot device or for your gratification. Fuck right off with that shit.

“She was incredibly hot, in that popular-girl-with-bleached-teeth-and-anorexia kind of way, which was Colin’s least favourite way of being hot”

This is just one quote of many that shames people with eating disorders and weight problems (on both ends of the spectrum, “too fat” and “too skinny”. Another fun one being: “there’s the weird culturally-constructed definition of hot, which means ‘that individual is malnourished, and has probably had plastic bags inserted into her breasts.’")

Know what this line is? It’s called “negging”, and it’s a popular tactic of incels because it works. You make someone seek your approval by intentionally giving them backhanded compliments to undermine their self esteem. The idea is that the more you insult them, the harder they’ll work to try and impress you. It doesn’t work on everyone, but you know who it does tend to work on? Insecure younger people (usually girls). You know who John Green’s target audience is? Insecure teenage girls.

As for the actual substance of the quote… I hate it. He’s shaming a woman for the choices she makes over her appearance. Which are, fun fact, none of his damn business. Also the idea that “skinny” and “anorexic” somehow need to go hand in hand is just wrong, insulting women for a mental health disorder they have no control over is offensive, and using a serious mental health disorder (did you know that anorexia is the most deadly mental health condition?) as an insult is disgusting.

Coming back to my earlier point about shaming “normal” girls, this quote is just the tip of the iceberg. He repeatedly shames women in his books for looking or behaving “typically”, while quirky girls are lauded as the ideal. Quirky girls are “weird and interesting” and normal girls are “boring”. If this was intended as a compliment, it’s a shitty one. If you have to shame one group to make another feel better, it is not a compliment. You are lowering all women when you pull that shit. You teach them that in order to feel good about themselves another group has to be made to feel worse.

And hey, maybe the pretty girl likes her teeth bleached because it makes her feel confident? Why can’t bleached teeth girl and anime t-shirt girl both be beautiful and unique and confident in their own right? Why is it “powerful” for anime t-shirt girl to wear her nerdy clothes, but scorn-worthy for bleached teeth girl to like bleaching her teeth?

What John Green is doing is simply replacing one ideal (skinny pretty girl) with another (quirky cute girl), and then he pretends like his version is somehow “woke” because it’s not based on physical appearance (though all of the women in his books are also physically attractive. Hmmm. Guess “nerd girls” are only “viable resources” when they aren’t hard to look at?).

And trust me, I’ve been down this path. I’ve been taken in by guys who try to make me feel ~special~ by putting down other women, and it leads to absolutely nothing good. It doesn’t make you feel better. It just makes you feel angry and resentful, and that’s not a place you want to be in. In fact, this was a mentality I had recently escaped from around the time I picked up this book. Seeing someone with as much influence as John Green parroting this specific brand of toxic shit to exactly the audience that would be most likely to feed into it? I was never going to be able to like the guy, sorry.

I know some people are able to “separate the art from the artist”, and I might have been willing to do that had the book actually been good… but it wasn’t. So in the end the book just looked worse for all of the author’s shortcomings.

So yeah, in summary: The book was mediocre at best, the author pushed all of my angry feminist buttons, and elements of the fanbase were annoying, condescending, and spiteful. I didn’t like the book in the first place due to the myriad of problems plaguing it, but everything else just made it look so much worse in hindsight.

Anyways, this probably got kind of ranty, but it was cathartic and I did make this blog to vent about dumb stuff. I think this qualifies.

[recurring-polynya]

I was wondering: what do you think Kazui and Ichika's powers would be? Their parents are super powerful, so would their powers reflect their parents' powers, or would it be something more original? I've heard theories that Ichika is some sort of genius or something, because she had on the Soul Reaper outfit instead of the school clothes. And Kazui is probably strong too, considering he knows how to become a Soul Reaper. And they're both just kids!! (It's a random question, but I'm curious.)

It’s funny that anyone would ask me this, because to be honest, I am Not That Into Ichika and Kazui. Part of it is that what is so enchanting about Bleach to me is everyone’s rich and layered backstories, and “kid of existing characters” is about as uninteresting as you can get. I mean, epilogue children are fine, I have no problem with that, but I’m not sure I care that much about them. Two, I have my own kids, I am on Tumblr to *get a break from* children. Three, I find it vaguely upsetting that Renji and Rukia had a kid so soon after getting married, I wish they had more time to have gonzo sex on every flat surface in their house, you know both of them are ~bananas~ in bed. (I mean, they probably had sex before they got married, but I tend to assume they got together fairly late in the game, also newly married sex is its Own Thing) My only explanation there is that they got married *because* they were ready to have a kid, I am sticking with that. I also would have accepted Ichika being conceived in the Royal Realm, but the timing doesn’t work out. I am generally against accidental pregnancies, but that would have been lit as f. I am not even all that sure that Rukia would want kids, although Renji is Extremely a Dad, and I think she would enjoy raising a family with him (I legit think he does most of the work and it works out very well for everyone).

Back to the business at hand. Uh, so I have seen several people give Ichika lightning powers (I am specifically thinking of @gizkasparadise, see here or @acompletenonentity ‘s very cool bankai design) and I generally approve. The tsuba of her zanpakutou is lightning shaped, which picks up the lightning designs on Renji’s. Also, Rukia’s powers are wintery and Byakuya’s are spring, so having some summer thunderstorm powers would be cool. In battle, I want her to have Big Renji energy. I love Renji in a fight, and I especially love him in a group fight, picking off a hundred low-level dudes so that Rukia or Ichigo can get to the boss. To that end, I’d like Ichika to have something with some reach, maybe a kusarigama or a naginata? 

Kazui is baby, I have never given a second of thought to his powers.

That being said, you asked ME this question, and you’re gonna get a Polynya Answer, whether you wanted one or not, and that means I am only capable of thinking about this in the context of The Narrative.

So, if I were charged with writing a Bleach Continuation, the premise would be this: Yamamoto died in the Quincy War, which means he gets reborn in the World of the Living and is a only few years older than Our Kids. My manga would revolve around Shitty Teen Yamamoto getting attacked by 1,000,000 very powerful people he does not remember doing dirty. Furthermore, there’s something that Yamamoto sealed up or whatever he’s the key to unlocking again, so Soul Society can’t just let him get killed like a bitch, he needs to regain some powers and learn the power of friendship, blah blah blah. For Reasons, he ends up in the protectorship of the Disaster Duo of Ichika and Kazui.

During one of my first watches of Bleach, I had the idea that the zanpakutou spirits were either “reincarnated” Soul Reapers, or that they were re-used, as in when a Soul Reaper dies, their zanpakutou spirit will, at some point, attach themselves to a new one. I still like this idea (I think Hyourinmaru is canonically like this, actually?) To that end, Ichika, who fancies herself a rough-and-ready dirtbag like her folks, Big Squad 11 energy, ends up with the Extremely Venerable zanpakutou spirit of some famous Kuchiki hero who died 900 years ago. I’m thinking some ancient dragon-spirit/world turtle thing who with long mustaches who is just So Extra and Ichika is like “uhhhh” and Renji and Rukia are like “uhhhhh” and the Kuchiki are like “NO PLEASE” and Byakuya, who has still not managed to get remarried and have heirs is like “THIS IS MY TIME.” Anyway, her zanpakutou is a Chinese long chuan sword like Green Destiny from Crouching Tiger. She’s primarily a physical fighter like her dad, but she’s also a very skilled kidou user, and is a well-rounded fighter overall. She’s not exactly by-the-book, but she knows the Correct Way to Do Everything.

Kazui’s powers are just batshit chaos, he does what he wants. Half the time, he’s like “I’m just gonna reverse the flow of time which will suck us into another dimension” and Ichika’s like “that’s not a thing, you can’t–” and then he does it. “I’m just gonna go into my Resurrection.” “You don’t– oh dang, you do.” And then, the other half of the time, he can’t even do simple normal things, like he can’t sense other peoples’ reiatsu or something. He absolutely cannot do kidou. His zanpakutou spirit is straight up teen Masaki. 

I LOVE Everything But the Rain, and the first time I read it, when Masaki and Isshin throw their lives away for 0 dollars in order to save each other, my first reaction was “These people are 100% Ichigo’s parents, this is perfect” and then being Orihime’s son on top of that, Kazui is just an elemental force of rescuing his precious friends and having Masaki riding shotgun Does Not Help. Ichika likes to think she’s a wild improvisor, but she’s been a shinigami since the day she was conceived. Like her father before her, she is actually the counterintuitive order muppet of the relationship.

Finally, I will not accept a fully grown Ichika who is less than 5’11” with her hair down. You bet your ass she’s covered in tattoos and owns 800 pairs of sunglasses.

Kazui is 5’5”.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[casimania]

Hi for the ot3 ask Chloe/Dan/Lucifer also your blogs amazing

Aw thank you! And thanks for the ask too!!

Also this now turned into A LOT of talking about AU ideas I tend to do this a lot, as long time followers and HINABN folks might know lmao

Who’s the vampire, who’s the werewolf, and who’s the human?: Lucifer is the old as balls vampire, Chloe is the regular human and Dan the recently turned werewolf. They’re private investigators here. The weight of hiding what happened to him to Chloe + how it happened (still got into bad shit with Malcolm) puts a strain on their marriage and they divorce. Things change when the mysteryous nightclub owner Lucifer Morningstar gets involved with Chloe’s job. Dan immediately sniffs out he’s a vampire and tries pushing him away from Chloe casue *DANGER*, Lucifer basically wipes the floor with his ass (older and more powerful), then implies Dan and his inexperience as a werewolf are far more dangeroud for Chloe and Trixie than Lucifer himself is. But then probably either takes pity or is worried Dan could lose control and mess things up for the other monster folk of LA and him (and could actualy hurt Chloe and Trixie) and sort of shows him the ropes. I’m imagining a Vampire: The Masquerade/Shadowhunters deal with the society, like, there is a more or less secret and organized one for beings like them. Dan just went under the radar (was accidentally turned in an isolated place with no witnesses left alive) and then was surprisingly good at dealing with things on his own for someone that basically stumbled into it. Also Lucifer still partners up with Chloe on the job, he just does it at night. Shit gets more fucked up when Malcolm who was previously thought dead turns up like some sort of ghoul or whatever. Also Chloe is pretty pissed at everyone for hiding things for her but this way she manages to have an honest conversation about what Dan has been holding it (cue emotional breakdown for Dan probs lol), also between the time spent working with Chloe and helping Dan Lucifer starts catching the Feels, Dan and Chloe do too for him but also feel guilty because now that they’re on the same wavelenght again and Dan is starting to make things up with Chloe (regarding Malcolm) they also start missing each other. Also Chloe is some sort of anomaly on which vampires Glamouring powers don’t work, instead of being a Miracle. Mama Decker had a spell cast on her or something and Chloe ended up being resistant to vampire mind tricks, and maybe their bite/blood isn’t addictive to her like to other humans.

Who’s the mermaid, who’s the marine biologist trying to capture the mermaid, and who’s the surfer who’s trying to stop them? Lucifer is the mermaid, Chloe is the marine biologist and Dan is the surfer. Lucifer is trying to hide from some Organization�� that wants to study him. Chloe gets hired by them and doesn’t know at first they actually want to do more than just try to interact with him for like science and friendly relations. Dan is her ex husband and local surfer dude who had actually met Lucifer many times before (but they both interacted at a safe distance, like left things around for each other or they both did swimming/diving/surfing tricks as the other watches, Lucifer may or may not have tried to take a bite out of Dan at first). Chloe manages to actually enstablish a dialogue with Lucifer (she’s not wary of him like Dan and actually figures out things about his biology/culture via her job, Dan sort of stumbled into the gift exchanging thing on accident actuall lmao), but then the Organization uses their growing bond to lure him in and capture him and when Chloe realizes he’s now caged and hurt helps him escape but also then tries tracking him down on her own to help him. Lucifer goes to Dan for help who’s lime “oh fuck oh fuck”, his first instict is to finally contact Chloe about the fish person he knows and ask for help BUT figures out she’s working for the Evil Organization, freaks out, and hides Lucifer. After some misunderstandings Chloe figures out Dan is not just being shifty and getting distant/giving her the cold shoulder for no apparent reason, Dan figures out Chloe actually knows the Organization is Big Bad and has been working against them just fine (he was first worried she was in the know, then calmed down and figured out she’s actually a good person and wouldn’t, but then got it into his mind that it meant she didn’t know at all and must be protected at all costs from the truth lest the big bads hurt her. unknowingly to him she’d been kicking ass all along. he tends to get his head up his ass a little bit in this au too lol), and Lucifer figures out Chloe didn’t know the ppl she worked for wanted to hurt him at first and was actually the one that helped him escape (either didn’t see her or was too hurt to remember). They tend kick ass all together and unexpected Feelings happen along the way (the high stakes situation with a lot of secrecy and working with each others thing in particular helped Dan and Chloe deal with the things than caused their marriage to fall apart and they actually manage to fix some of them, especially on Dan’s part).

Who’s the witch who just wants to live alone, who’s the (royal person) who ran away and imposed on the witch’s life, and who’s the knight/whatever tasked with hunting down the (royal person) and bringing them back to the castle? (Bonus: Why did (royal person) run away?): Chloe is basically some sort of sword wielding Witch Detective. Like she has a sword, she has a shield, she can turn you into  a frog, makes potions and wanders around and like catches bad guys and solves mysteries and then retreats to be by herself (she’s been hurt in the past, wanted to be a Knight but during like Knight Academy the Witchy Powers awakened in her and theh booted her out cause Witches should do Witchy Jobs and she said “fuck off” and went to do her thing on her own). Dan was her lover at the time and failed to stand up for her enough when she was booted out and just stood by watched her disappear. Lucifer is the Prince or something with a shitty family who runs away and seeks out Chloe to either help him defeat and Evil relative or just keep his presence hidden with her magic (like idk shroud him from other magic users who might be employed to look for him). Ends up his family and him have their own type of magic (like maybe they just develop a specific power, like he gets the Desire thingie and Amenadiel maybe can’t fully stop time but can slow it down or he can move faster through it or something) and ends partnering up with her (to her initial horror). Dan actually became a better person and capable Knight along the way and gets employed to bring Lucifer back. Manages to track him down to Chloe and they’re all like “oh what the fuck”. There’s a bit of a scuffle but Chloe and Lucifer probs convince him the family is actually shit and it would end up ugly for Lucifer. So he joins them in helping him (Chloe has growing feelings for Lucifer who has growing feelings for her, Lucifer thinks the Douchey Knight isn’t so Douchey, Dan is like “oh man I’ve regretted hurting Chloe for years and was lovesick and now I’m literally dying with her in front of me and holyshittheroyaldudeisFINE, Chloe also likes this improved Dan, like this is a Dan she can vibe with (there’s probably some emotional moment where he’s all fucking in for Chloe without question like he never was before and Lucifer is too and she’s like “I’m not crying you’re crying).

Who’s the dragon, who’s the (royal person) they kidnap, and who’s the knight tasked with slaying the dragon and/or the (royal person)’s betrothed?: (Ok I know Dragon Lucifer feels like the more obvious choice but wait) Dan and Chloe were married and both Knights. Dan went into expedition with some not so nice Knights (Malmcolm and co.) who stole shit from places secretly and he used to uneasily ignore it but then Chloe figured out something was up with Malcolm and followed him, Dan followed her because he knew Malcolm was super dangerous. Some cursed artifact was involved and Dan ended up breaking it trying to stop Malcolm from hurting Chloe. Cue big damn explosion, basically dead Malcolm, confused Chloe and cursed to become a dragon Dan. He keeps his mouth zipped and leaves Chloe to be given the stinkeye by everyone while slowly turning dragony. Chloe and him break things off and he ends up running away to go live in isolation and fully transform. Cue foreign Royal Lucifer waltzing in with his family and Chloe is tasked to protect him but he a Royal Mess. Once they start to have some sort of Understanding DRAGON DAN swipes in and kidnaps Lucifer. Everyone freaks out and Chloe freaking charges after because she doesn’t want to lose another loved one. Dan actually never became a man eating monster, just got a bit of a taste for human meat along other kinds (Lucifer totally makes a lewd joke about it) and a liking for shiny things and hoarding tendencies (Lucifer’s like “oh same”). He just discovered Lucifer’s family actually has magic and is knowledgable in curses and wants him help but could just stroll in and ask for help (maybe there’s a kill dragons on sight law idk) and needs it cause the curse is still progressing and he would very much like to keep his human mindset or even better go back at being human. Chloe probably barrels in ready to save Lucifer from the man eating dragon but he’s like…. lounging somewhere, mocking the dragon who’s off in a corner grumbling and immediately pipes up like “Oh! Hello Knight! We were waiting for you!” (He calls her Knight here) and then Dan’s yelling “CHLOE?!” and Chloe absolutely loses her shit over DAN BEING A FUCKING DRAGON. They probably embark on a quest to help him, discover Lucifer’s family is fucked up and likely won’t help and that Lucifer also has a weird looking form too (probs part of the magic and curses thing, Lucifer was sort of thrown into a magic lake of fire to harness its magic cause he was the only one with the right powerset to do it, like Lightbringer and all, got out all burned out and winged but more powerful, hated his parents for it). The quest becomes also to stop Lucifer’s family. Ends up with Dan ending being able to switch from dragon to human while keeping some dragon features. His dragony tendency are diminished so he’s fine with it in the end.

Who’s the vampire hunter, who’s the werewolf hunter, and who’s the awkward vampire/werewolf hybrid trying to conceal both their crush and their race?: Chloe and Dan are the hunters power ex-couple (Chloe is more knowledgeable on vampires, Dan werewolves. They actually broke off before marriage and may have separated but after a power ended up work together a lot again because they were lethal, doesn’t help the feelings off regret) and then there’s hybrid Lucifer who starts helping Chloe, meets Dan through her and after being a it of a lech with her and back and forth posturing with Dan is like “whoopsie daisies I may have the hots for them both”. Dan and Chloe are actually rather nice hunters and usually got after supernatural folk that has been leaving a literal trail of bodies behind them. But the general attitude of hunters over them all is “Yikes” and hybrids (espeically ones that have no human half) are seen as especially powerful and dangerous so Lucifer is suddenly not so open about who he is. While still trying to help them. He likes them and wants to figure out how much he can trust them (he usually doesn’t hesitate at defending himself over ppl attacking him for what he is, but he’s got this nagging worry about being rejected by Dan and Chloe and having to hurt them to defend himself, also probably has conflicting feelings over believing the treatment of his kind is unjust but also seeing himself as Something Bad and so they wouldn’t be that wrong to want to hurt him). Shit hits the fan when someone who knows what he is actually tries hurting him, Dan and Chloe go fucking apeshit on them and then fuss over Lucifer. A running gag is him being like SUPER GOOD at pretending he is a totally different kind of being at first, or maybe pretending he’s actual half-human and half vampire OR werewolf.

Who’s the person who falls in love first, who’s the person who tries cheering on the other two’s relationship, and who’s the person who’s just oblivious to everything slightly romantic? Generic human!AU where they are a little younger maybe idk? But Lucifer is the one manages to fall for both of them first and fails spectacularly at showing it. Dan just thinks he’s being mocked and Chloe thinks it’s just him trying to get into her pants and will cool off eventually. So Chloe doesn’t realize Lucifer is attempting Romance and than Dan never actually fell out of love with her (they were like high school sweethearts and Dan messed things up in a dumb way like hanging around the wrong people and turning Douchey and they didn’t know how to deal with it and ended up breaking things off and crying over it),mostly not her fault they’re both kind of emotionally trainwrecks at the moment. Dan is trying to be a good bro and help them but then realizes he took the bro out of bromance with Lucifer (Lucifer is actually kinda sad and thinks Dan is not interested in him at all since he’s helping him communicate with Chloe) and he actually really wanted things with Chloe to work back then but messed it up cause dumb teen. Chloe later is still not getting Romance vibes from either of them but seeing them together makes her realize how much she likes them. cue Sadness at thinking Lucifer probably was only in Lust with her at first and now only wants friendship and Dan was only into her more carefree, inexperienced and easier to swipe off her feet teen self (but Dan is less of a Douche now and totally into the total badass she’s turned into, like please swipe ME off my feet ma’am).

[mautadite]

april book round up

20 books this month, which i didn’t see coming. i had more free time than expected, even with working from home and *makes vague hand gestures*. i still have a scribd membership so almost all these books came from there. also i’m putting some thought into reviewing on netgalley, so a couple from there as well.

american fairy tale - adriana herrera ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary m/m romance in herrera’s dreamers series that follows immigrants and children of immigrants. this second book was fun, a kind of fairy tale romance as the title suggests. a rich guy/poor guy situation which isn’t usually my cup of tea, and the domineering, throw-money-at-every-situation personality of the rich guy got on my nerves, and i wasn’t totally sold on the way the conflict was resolved? but i enjoyed it. herrera’s books just have this down to earth vibe that i love.

unfit to print - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ historical m/m romance. vikram, a young lawyer doing a lot of pro-bono work in the indian community in london, lost touch with his childhood friend gil years and years ago, is pretty sure he’s dead. so imagine his surprise when he comes across him in an unlikely occupation in an unlikely place. this was a charming, touching novella, really interesting historically, with a lot of cool titbits about porn in the 19th century. very sweet romance-wise.

american love story - adriana herrera ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ another dreamers novel, this one about a black professor and political activist and a white ADA who had a fling a while back and are now living in the same town. and same apartment building. lol. it did get into real world politics, which i know some people don’t like, but i honestly thought it well done? there were some great bits in this, good insight, one really harrowing moment, and just really great chemistry and character moments.

wanted, a gentleman - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ more historical m/m romance from k.j. charles, which i always like, but this one i REALLY liked. which surprised me, because it’s a novella, and with novellas you never spend enough time with characters to really know them and their story and get attached? but that’s exactly what happened here. a well-to-do ex-slave and a poor gazette owner team up to untangle a young love affair. i seriously loved this, the characters are so good together. T__T

far from the world we know - harper bliss ⭐️⭐️ contemporary f/f romance about a young widow with a traumatic past who moves to a tiny new town to take care of her ailing aunt, and slowly falls into a relationship with the owner of the local newspaper. the premise was good, but this honestly felt like every single harper bliss book i’ve ever read, except it had nothing to recommend it. ask me why these characters even like each other. i can’t answer! 

the hound of justice - claire o'dell ⭐️⭐️ the second book in a series that re-imagines the sherlock holmes universe, except as near-future scifi set during a civil war, and both holmes and watson are black lesbians. i LOVED the first book (with a few caveats) and i’ve been looking forward to this one for so long... but it was disappointing. in terms of the writing, in terms of the direction the characters took, in terms of the plot... i have to wonder if i read the first one with rose-tinted glasses. :/ won’t be continuing this series.

the vintner's luck - elizabeth knox ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ *CLUTCHES MY CHEST WITH BOTH HANDS* in my goodreads review i said i didn’t know how to talk about this novel, and i still don’t. but i ADORED IT. so completely. in early 19th century france, the young son of a winegrower climbs a hill on his father’s property, and there, meets an angel. this is the story of them falling in love, but also about family and friendship, love and death. it’s written SO beautifully, and i’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

the family fang - kevin wilson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ OOOF. i went into this knowing that several friends loved it so i knew i probably was gonna too and i DID. it’s about two siblings whose parents have been obsessed (since before the birth of their children, and until the present day where they’re both grown) with the idea of creating perfect art, and how the kids survive that. i actually didn’t enjoy reading many parts of this, but only because it was so well written, if that makes sense? like, it took me right in there with some of the shitty emotions and just made me feel. OOOF.

mrs. martin's incomparable adventure - courtney milan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a VERY sweet and charming historical f/f romance between a wealthy 74-yo widow and the cute young 69 (nice) yo landlady who comes to ask for her help. and then they have an adventure! i read it at a great time, because i was beginning to feel really bummed out about how people are trivialising and discounting the lives of older people in this crisis, and there was a really great message of like... life not being over until you SAY it’s over, living like you have 20 more years left. i loved it a lot.

his convenient husband - robin covington ⭐️⭐️ m/m contemporary fake marriage story, about a russian ballet dancer and the widowed american football player he marries to get citizenship. and then they fall in love for realsies. i love fake marriage as a trope, it can be so cute but this was very meh. if a book is gonna handle racism/homophobia in such a shallow way... i’d honestly prefer if the book just pretended those things don’t exist lol. :/ it’s also very very rushed and not well plotted at all. alas.

once ghosted, twice shy - alyssa cole ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ alyssa cole is like my good luck charm, because starting here, i read a bunch of lesbian romance novels that i really liked. this one is part of a series about reluctant royals, and follows the dapper assistant to a prince as she falls for a girl who seemingly ghosts her, and then meets her again months later. it’s a novella, and sort of relies on the fact that you would have met one of the characters in a previous book (which i did read). but i really really liked it, thought it was super cute, and the mcs had great chemistry. it was almost insta-love, which i really don’t like... but i still like this book so much. also best cover?? BEST COVER. 

who'd have thought - g. benson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ now THIS is fake marriage done right!!! f/f contemporary romance about a struggling nurse who comes across an ad offering a chunk of money in exchange for one year of marriage... and the person on the offering end turns out to be the cold, stuck-up but brilliant doctor at the hospital where she works. this was the perfect slow burn, with great character writing, really good set-up, very believable arc as they slowly fall in love. it got me so emotional at times. definitely gonna make sure i read more from this author.

three reasons to say yes - jaime clevenger ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ f/f contemporary about two women who strike up a romance while on vacation in hawaii; one an overworked professional, one a doctor-mom of twin girls. another winner for me. just an extremely cute, very genuine butch/femme romance. it’s funny because i definitely nitpicked on a lot of things in this book, but i only remember the parts of if that made me so fond.

we set the dark on fire - tehlor kay meija ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ f/f YA fantasy in a world deeply divided by class. in the upper echelons of society, girls are trained either to become one of the two wives of upper class men; the primera and the segunda. the story follows a girl who has faked her social class becoming the primera of a very powerful man, getting involved with revolutionaries, and developing a surprising relationship with her husband’s segunda. really interesting world-building, some lovely writing, a really heart-felt core. i had my nitpicks with the plot but i still super enjoyed it, really want to read the second part.

a tale of two mommies  - vanita oelschlager ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ netgalley book. a cute children’s story about a kid with two moms. <3

crier's war - nina varela ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ more f/f fantasy YA, this one with the added benefit of being about something that i ADORE reading about in fiction: artificial life. in this fantasy world, automae were created, perfected, became aware of their place in society, fought a war for their autonomy... and won. the story opens up 50 years later, in a society ruled by robots, where humans are subjugated. it follows the current robot ruler’s created daughter and a young human rebel whose one goal is to kill said daughter. i loved this SO much, the enemies to lovers trope was peeeerfect. i wish the writing was tighter, and some plot elements could have used cleaning up, but i enjoyed this so much. the ROMANCE especially was... gah! <3 the second book comes out soon, but i want it like, now.

second dad summer - benjamin klas ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ another netgalley book. a fun and charming primary/middle school story about a kid spending the summer with his father, and his father’s new boyfriend, who he doesn’t quite get along with. over the summer he makes new friends, nurtures some plants, learns some lessons. i thought this was well-written, touching, and does a pretty good job of telling kids about queer stuff. 

tempting fate - sloane kennedy ⭐️⭐️ contemporary m/m novella (short story honestly) about two ranch hands realising their feelings for one another. it was fine, i read it because i was in the mood for a quick HEA and i got that, but it was also kinda flat and there were several kinda irksome things about it. i reeeeeally don’t like overly possessive characters, lol.

all the reasons i need - jaime clevenger ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ more contemporary f/f romance, this one about long time friends who have been in love for ages, slowly coming to a place where they can finally admit their feelings and try to embark upon a relationship. again, while on vacation! this was a lot more sombre than the previous clevenger book, as it deals with past abuse and eating disorders. but i also found the writing to be better in general, and the relationship between the two women was just... so great. the writing definitely isn’t pulitzer prize-winning or anything, but there are so few good butch/femme books out there, i ate this up, and will def. be reading more from this author.

interpreter of maladies - jhumpa lahiri ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ speaking of pulitzer prize-winning authors... i’ve had this author and this book specifically at the back of my mind since secondary school; one of my literature teachers really loved it and would bring it up all the time. i really enjoyed it! it’s a collection of stories about the indian diaspora in america, as well as life on the subcontinent. i really like her writing (very simple, very precise, but very evocative) and there were a few really striking stories.

and that’s it for april. look at me, actually writing this entry on time, lol. for may i’m just gonna... keep reading whatever catches my eye on scribd i guess. i remember vaguely saying that by this time of the year i would have moved on to reading the books on my physical bookshelf that i haven’t gotten to yet but... i go where the wind takes me etc. currently reading silver moon, about women who turn into werewolves once they hit menopause? absolutely metal.

[tasmanianstripes]

15 and 38 for your faves!

OH SHIT THANK YOU SO MUCH

Okay so I'm gonna do 4 characters since I love them the most, Damien aka my fursona/oc, Hestia and Theo, two siblings I had since primary school, and lastly Peter who's way more recent oc than the other three and is gonna be a character in my book I'm writing :')

TW for alcohol abuse, child abuse and religious abuse for Damien, drug/alcohol abuse, medical abuse, ableism/mental illness, suicidal tendencies and child abuse for Peter, and war and death TW for Hestia and Theo

15. What was your OC’s childhood like?

Damien: He was raised by a single alcoholic father who beat him and two super religious grandparents who put the fear of God in him. You can imagine his childhood was very crappy! He was abused physically and emotionally by his father, and abused emotionally and manipulated by his grandparents who forced him to do what they wanted or he'll end up in Hell (which now that I mention it it's hilarious that the guy ends up making a deal with the devil and becomes a demon). He was also a closeted trans boy and so was forced by his family to be traditionally feminine which he HATED. He was bullied a lot in school and was mostly a loner because of it, he mostly spent his time drawing which is also how he let out his feelings. So, in short, he had a pretty traumatic and strictly religious childhood.

Hestia and Theo: This needs a lot of context so it will most likely be more of a story explanation. Theo was born to the leaders of a god-like dragon race (they could control and create shit and were given appropriate names for it, also they are called the Elements), Charmony and Earth, and was originally named Shadow. HR was well loved and raised by his family, often playing with other young Elements, one of which was an older Element named War and his siblings. The two would fight and bicker and have their little competitions between each other. For some time he was the only child, until his little sister was born, at the time named Jewel. He really adored his sister and they quickly became inseparable. They had a very good childhood, up until the point their father's brother, Chaos, got jealous of their mother and ended up trying to kill Shadow out of rage, got promptly exiled, then came back and kickstarted a dragon war that nearly made their entire species extinct. Earth was killed trying to protect his children and Charmony got killed by Chaos during a fight. Stone, Charmony's brother, took his nephew and niece and created a pocket dimension where they hid and he put them under a spell so they'd sleep. The whole royal family was presumed dead and the very few remaining Elements created the rest of the universe, took on human-like appearences and kickstarted pretty much life (which is also why human-like apperence is very common in the universe, they were created by Elements to look like them). Years passed and the two grew in their sleep, eventually Stone deemed it safe enough to let them out (he really felt bad for putting them under) but out of fear for them he wiped their memories and fabricated new ones. They lived on different planets, Stone consistently wiping their memories and moving so he wouldn't have to explain their immortality to them, at the time he thought it was for the best but of course he would later regret this practice. This eventually put them on Earth where they lived as teens/young adults on a farm with their uncle, who gave them their names Hestia and Theo, once again with fake memories about their parents' death, made specifically to be less traumatic. There was one problem though, all this time Chaos was convinced they were alive and hunted them and now the Elements got a prophecy about the two post royal children being either the saviors of the universe or be the cause of its destruction, and blowing on cold the current leader, Life, decided to fucking go find her dead friend's children and fucking murder them because that's definitelly what a good and well adjusted leader would do. So all that shit only convinced Stone that what he did was good, bUT too bad for him because the kiddos found out, Hestia was heartbroken and her brother was fucking PISSED. Shit happens, so much shit happens, I do not have the space on this post to talk about just how much shit happens, so let's just say at the end Stone deeply regretted his choices, apologised and returned all of their memories, and the kids eventually forgave him.

Peter: Peter was born a youngest son to a polish Jewish immigrant family (not the first generation, but like 3rd or smth?) in USA. He was Jewish from his mother's side, his father instead being a traditional Christian man, so he was raised with two religions in his life (still researching stuff on Judaism and its traditions so I won't tell you a lot about this just yet, sorry!) Most of his childhood was uneventful until he reached the age of 8, when he started to get horrible nightmares about another world and monsters, the nightmares grew in intensity until he started getting auditory hallucinations irl, his mental health steadily declined until the age of 11 when he tried to commit suicide and was promptly hospitalised. Up to that point he wasn't treated very well either, being a neurodiverse child he was bullied and his parents didn't take his problems seriously, after he was hospitalised his family ended up disowning him eventually as a teen. So, his childhood was shitty and mostly spent in a mental hospital. Yaaaay.

38. How does your OC react to and handle stress?

Damien: Drink, party and repress the shit out of your problems until they go away

Hestia and Theo: Although some of Stone's practices were...questionable, he overall was a good parent to them and he raised them well. They generally know how to handle stress well, which is a good quality to have as the new leaders kdhfjf. They usually either vent or use either a physical or artistic outlet, like going horse riding, flying or making music and singing!

Peter: The literal opposite of the previous two, this man is a definition of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Anything from pills, to alcohol, to self harm. He eventually gets better and finds better ways to cope with stress, but it's a long process.

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Never

Request: Could I request Jared x Reader x Gen where Jared and Gen are in an argument and while the reader attempts to break it up, they both kinda say some things in the moment that hurts the readers feelings

Pairing: Jared x reader x Gen

Word Count: 2,800ish

Warnings: language, angst

You rolled your eyes when you walked into the house, Gen and Jared’s voices off. They were definitely arguing about something, even if their voices were low. 

“Well what’s going on in here?” you asked, wearing a smile when you walked into the kitchen, instead met with a pair of scoffs and eye rolls. “What’s-”

“Stay out of this, Y/N,” said Jared. You raised an eyebrow, crossing your arms. “I said stay out of it, kid.”

“All I did was come home and I want to know what my partners were arguing about,” you said, narrowing your eyes at him. You hadn’t exactly liked the way he called you kid. Sure, it was one of his pet names for you since you were a little bit younger than him and Gen but it lacked the usual warmth. “What happened?”

“He said to stay out of it, Y/N,” said Gen, crossing her arms at Jared.

“Excuse me but we don’t have secrets in this-”

“You’re acting like a child,” said Gen. You frowned at her, Jared rolling his eyes.

“Well now you pissed her off too,” said Jared, glaring at you. “I told you to just butt out. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Doesn’t concern me?” you said.

“She’s worse than the kids,” said Gen, rolling her eyes.

“Leave us alone, Y/N,” said Jared harshly.

“I-”

“We’re trying to have an adult conversation and we would like some privacy,” snapped Jared. You looked at Gen but she looked as pissed as he did. You spun around and went straight back outside and over to your car, now pissed off at yourself for leaving your purse and keys inside. You headed down the driveway and to the street, walking a few blocks over before you were knocking on a door.

“Hey, kiddo,” said Jensen with a big smile when he answered.

“I’m not a fucking kid!” you said, Jensen cocking his head at you. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“S’okay, lil sis,” said Jensen, waving you inside, chuckling when he looked at your feet. “Where are your shoes?”

“Home,” you mumbled, following Jensen back into the kitchen where you took a seat at the kitchen counter and slumped your head down on your arms.

“De? Can you take the kids outside to play for a little bit?” asked Jensen, Danneel popping her head up from the family room. 

“Yeah,” she said, walking over, running a hand over your head. “You have a big fight?”

“Something like that,” you said, turning away. You weren’t sure why you came here. Jared was Jensen’s best friend. Gen was De’s. They were older and they were the ones they considered family. You were this random girl that showed up in their lives a few years ago and you had no right to be bothering any of them.

“If you get tired of talking to your brother, let me know,” said Danneel, rubbing your back. Jensen didn’t say anything as you listened to the little patter of feet go out the back door. He slid a glass of water in front of you and then a beer, hopping up on the counter across from you with one of his own.

“You’re freaking me out a bit, kiddo,” said Jensen, taking a sip of his drink. “You about to have a meltdown or what?”

“No,” you mumbled, drinking from you bottle, Jensen tsking you when you drank half of it down.

“Start talking,” said Jensen.

“Did my relationship with Jared and Gen have anything to do with...” you said, staring over at him.

“Did I make you my little sister because of those guys? No,” he said with a smile that turned sad quickly. “I must not be a very good big brother if you don’t know that.”

“You basically adopted me,” you said. “Well, you got mom and dad to adopt me so you could be my brother...”

“I love ya. Mom and dad love ya. The whole family loves ya. We didn’t care that you were already a grown up when it happened,” said Jensen. “Were you fighting with them about the adoption?”

“No, no. That happened months ago anyways,” you said, shaking your head. “I just...”

“You just...” said Jensen, trying to tease it out of you.

“You’re like 15 years older than me,” you said.

“You came over here all upset and barefoot to do math?” he said.

“No you...do you see me as a little kid?” you asked.

“You are a little kid,” said Jensen with a smirk.

“Be serious you ass,” you said.

“Okay. Big bro honest answer? I think you try to be a grownup more than any adult I’ve ever met in my life. I know it has to do with a lot of your childhood crap and the fact that most of your friends are older than you but would it kill you to relax and have some fun for once? You don’t always have to be so mature about everything,” said Jensen. “Do I see you as another little sister that I want to tease and protect? Yes. But we got an older brother and I feel the same way about him. You’re not a little kid and I certainly don’t think of you as one.”

“So if De was 15 years younger than you, would you still have married her?” you asked.

“Yes. As long as she was an adult and knew what she wanted, she could be fifteen years older than me too and I wouldn’t care. It’s your age gap that’s bugging you, isn’t it,” said Jensen.

“Jared’s-”

“Only ten years older. Gen’s a little more. Who cares? None of you ever have,” said Jensen.

“I came home and they were having some kind of fight and they basically told me to stop being a kid and to leave so they could have an adult conversation,” you said. “That was not our agreement. We tell each other everything, like you and De, and...if they see me as some stupid kid or like I was some toy that-”

“Hey,” said Jensen, voice hard. “You are not a toy to them. You never have been. They love you. Both of them. Yeah, I’m a little pissed at their phrasing and that they told you to get out when they both know better but they don’t think of you as a kid, Y/N.”

“I feel like it’s going to fall apart,” you said. “And if it does it’ll ruin everything else, even this.”

“You could break up with them both, never want to see them ever again, and I will always be your brother,” said Jensen. He hopped off the counter and walked over, taking a seat on the one in front of you, forcing you to look up. “You got that?”

“You were always so nice to me,” you said with a nod, Jensen ruffling your hair until it was messed up.

“Life never gave you a fair chance,” said Jensen. “Now, want me to go kick Jared’s ass? I can get De to do it to Gen for me.”

“What? No, I...” you said, Jensen chuckling. “Shut up, over protective jerk.”

“You can hide here if you want but I really do think you should go home and talk to them. It’s like you said, you guys have to be completely open and they aren’t being open with you right now and they made you feel shitty for no reason,” said Jensen.

“What if I go back and they break up with me?” you asked.

“Then you can stay here as long as you need to. Trust me. You are super over thinking this thing, lil sis,” said Jensen. 

“I really could have used you as a kid,” you said, rubbing your temples.

“Well you got me now,” he said. “Want a ride home?”

“Yeah. I better face them sooner rather than later.”

“Thanks,” said Jared when Jensen dropped you off. You spun around, Jensen holding up his hands. “He texted that you went to their place so we weren’t worried.”

“You what?” you asked, Jensen retreating back into the car.

“He may have texted before you got there that you might come over all upset and next time she does come over like that, I really am kicking your ass Padalecki,” said Jensen.

“Yeah, sure thing old timer,” said Jared with a wink, throwing an arm over your shoulders. “Gen and I have to talk to you.”

You hesitantly allowed him to lead you into the kitchen, finding it set for a nice dinner for three, no sign of the kids around. You swallowed hard, thinking this was some kind of breakup dinner.

“We were planning a surprise for you,” said Gen, walking around the corner in a pretty dress, noticing for the first time that Jared was in a dress shirt and slacks, definitely not normal wear for dinner at home.

“We knew we were having this dinner tonight but Gen and I got in a little fight over who got to ask you something and we so, so, so did not want to ruin the surprise and we were trying to get you to leave but you get so stubborn sometimes so we sort of started to piss you off so you’d leave and it worked but we thought you’d cool down and then Jensen was texting us saying you were scared we’re breaking up with you and the age thing and...” said Jared, closing his eyes.

“We want you to marry us,” said Gen with a smile.

“She won if you couldn’t tell,” said Jared with a smirk, swallowing when you just stared at Gen and then him. “If you don’t want to, that’s completely okay. We don’t have to break up either. We can-”

“This is the only time in our lives I will ever let you two slide for something like today,” you said, both of them nodding. You sighed and closed your eyes for a moment before a smile crept onto your face. “You want to marry me?”

“We’re still waiting on an answer,” said Gen, a small tremble in her voice betraying how nervous she was.

“Yes,” you said, both of them pulling you into a hug. “I’m not too young for you guys?”

“Never,” they said at the same time, Jared picking you up and spinning you around. 

“I um, I’m going to go put on a dress for our date,” you said, your face getting hot.

“Don’t take too long,” said Gen with a wink. “I maybe have already picked one out for you.”

“Thanks Gen,” you said, kissing her cheek with a laugh. “I’ll be right back.”

“So,” said Jensen, stopping at the end of the driveway on his bike, JJ riding into yours with her own. “I heard somebody got engaged last night.”

“I was having a royal freakout session and you knew the whole time,” you said, JJ driving circles around you.

“Aunt Y/N, Daddy says you’re an over-reactor like mom,” said JJ, scooting off down the driveway.

“Do you just want your mother and aunt to kill me and hide the body? I swear...” said Jensen, shaking his head. 

“Hey,” said Jared, walking around from the back yard carrying a bag of mulch. “So I assume the whole family knows at this point.”

“Yup,” said Jensen, watching as JJ took a fruit pouch from Gen as she walked out of the garage. “Well make yourself at home, kid.”

“Aunt Gen said I could have it,” said JJ, waddling her bike over to Jensen and handing it to him. “Want some?”

“Later guys,” said Jensen, taking a sip and handing it back to her. “Oh and I know it’s heavily implied but either one of you break her heart...I mean...you know what’ll happen...”

“Our brother in law is already threatening us,” said Gen, crossing her arms.

“Me? No. Never,” said Jensen with a wave. “Later.”

“So,” said Gen, grabbing your waist and pulling you back over to the flower bed you’d been working in. “Are you still mad about last night?”

You cocked your head at her, Gen smiling as Jared set the bag down and went off for another.

“Sweetie,” you said, Gen instantly relaxing. “I got engaged last night. I am not mad about that at all.”

“We love you so much, Y/N and Jare and I talked this morning while you were in the shower and we both knew better. We could have just asked you to leave politely but we didn’t and we didn’t even realize we were saying stuff that you might be taking a different way than we meant. Your age will never matter to us, ever. We’ll never bring it up in a fight ever again, we promise,” she said.

“Okay but you’re freaking out over nothing like I was last night. There’s nothing to be afraid of, Gen,” you said. “I swear.”

“Are you sure because sometimes you shove that crap down and we can normally pick up on it but-”

You leaned over and kissed her, cutting her off with a smile.

“Now...” you said, “How worried is he since he’s been avoiding me most of the morning?”

“If I was a five, he’s like a nine,” she said.

“Oh? Lovely,” you said, standing up. “I’ll be right back, sweetie.”

You found Jared fiddling around in the shed, his back to you when you entered.

“So what’s taking so long, pup? We thought you were gonna bring us more mulch to make the outside all pretty,” you said, leaning against the door. 

“Pup?” asked Jared, taking the bite. “S’been a while since I heard that.”

“S’been a while since you’ve acted like a puppy in trouble,” you said, looking around the shed. “Don’t make me have this conversation twice, Jared.”

“We have a family full of worriers,” he said with a small chuckle which was a start.

“I love you,” you said, stepping over to him and giving him a hug. “Please can we be excited for this? You have two very beautiful women that want you to stop worrying over this.”

“Is it okay if I still call you kid?” asked Jared. 

“Mhm,” you said, leaning up to ask for a kiss. He lowered his head and gave you one, relaxing a little. “Thank you for bringing me into your lives.”

“You won us over before we knew what hit us,” said Jared. “Gen and I, we used to lay in bed and talk about you, wondering if you would ever go for us both, how scary it would be to ask.”

“You guys sent flowers to my trailer,” you said with a smile. “You were both so cool and calm about it.”

“We were nervous wrecks,” said Jared. “Just like last night only this time we screwed it-”

“No, you didn’t screw anything up,” you said, grazing his chin so he’d look at you. “I said yes because I want to be with you both. Now, can you start being super freaking excited for this too like I know you want to be? Please? I’ve never been engaged before so this is sort of a big deal for me.”

“You really want us? Even if can’t be the way we want it to be?” he asked. 

“I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me how you two feel about me. We’ll have a little backyard symbolic thing, that’d be fun right? Invite everyone over, Gen could help set everything up since she’s great at that stuff,” you said.

“That sounds good,” said Jared.

“Good,” you said. “Let’s go help Gen before she thinks I snuck out here to make out with you.”

“You’re covered in dirt,” said Jared with a smile. “But I will be taking a raincheck on that.”

“Looking forward to it.”

[dreaminterlude]

Re Rookie Historian after the last ep & the preview for the next can you see a happy ending for our couple? If the King & 1st Minster sucess in over throwing the Queen Mother & Yim Rim is forced to run they won't be together. If the Queen Mother's plan to overthrow the King & install him as rightful ruler then Hae Yung will not marry him as King. If the plan works & the King is killed & Yin Rim advocates the throne & Yi Jin is becomes King so he doesn't go into exile that's about it as I see it

If Yin Kim learns the turth about his father do you think he will want or lean into becoming King? Out of a sense of loyalty to his dead father? Or the to the people he serves? A King is mean to be a father to a people Yi Jim said. We saw the sense of loyalty that he displayed when he went on his royal mission. He put the people over The King & risked his life. But Yi Jim has been preparing forever to be King & he loves him & is loyal. Though he would still he crown prince as Yin Kim as no heir

Any further thoughts on Sung Seo Kwon? I get they are trying to make her sympathetic & trapped in between impossible place after making a dirty deal with the devil due due woman's lack choice but I just can't with her. The way she treated the Crown Princess😒 Zero respect when she has publicly humiliated her by staying the night with the Li Jin & let her say all that to be recorded. Her disapproval of Officer Young breaking historian code & blackmailing Li Jin when shes doing nearly same thing

apologies for not getting to this sooner!! you present a lot of really interesting points so let’s delve in~

personally i’m a big optimist (to a huge fault) but i just can’t imagine them NOT having a happy ending. they’ve kind of been set up to have a happy ending, just the way their story has had relatively no roadblocks until the last couple of episodes. i also think that there is a lot of distrust that the king has for the minister, so they’ll likely be working against each other.....plus it seems that even tho the king is super shitty, he wants to maintain yi rim’s position the way that it is/doesn’t want his secret to break out......that’s probably for his own personal interest, but given that i hate the minister more/he seems to have a worse agenda i’ll.......allow that. i don’t know if the queen mother wants to overthrow the king, because she definitely seems to be in support of overall harmony, and this would def cause a lot of pandemonium. plus yi jin has been doing a fantastic job of being the crown prince, and i think she’s satisfied with how he’s been dealing with his role. i think i see yi jin becoming king over yi rim......unless somehow yi jin gets killed off, in which case i’ll riot

by yin kim, do you mean yi rim? i don’t think so, it seems like he really hasn’t been interested in managing affairs of the state at all, which is understandable because he’s felt so trapped and isolated his whole life. maybe? he’d do it out of loyalty to his dead father? bc the boy IS loyal..........but idk i feel like he also fully trusts yi jin to do everything that the current king could never do. that is true tho, if yi rim did take over, yi jin would still be king. but i really feel like it would not suit him to be king. but who knows, yi rim has grown so much throughout the show, maybe he’ll start exhibiting qualities befitting king. you’re right, he’s already displayed so much thought and care for his people (i still think that it wouldn’t make sense for him to be king as long as yi jin was around)

yea i’m.............like still not her biggest fan lmao. she’s also grown some, but honestly not to the extent that she had the capacity to. i also find her romance with the crown prince really forced? like they don’t really have THAT much interaction for it to have evolved in the way that it has.....i personally find the crown princess so much more interesting, and i really wish that the writers had spent more time on her. the bits we did were so good. sahui has shown some emotion and vulnerability and flavor, but for me, she’s very cardboard like lmao. i really just don’t understand how this relationship with the crown prince emerged......i really don’t. yeah i totally agree with you, she seems to be very contradictory, and there’s nothing about her that makes me sympathize for her. like she has all this pressure as a woman.....but like so does every other woman in that show. what about her is so special? nothing lmao

[doublerumnukacola]

Why don’t you do right

Week 11 in the Waste Land

It was a quiet night at the Third Rail. In the small hours after midnight, only the most dedicated drunks hung around. Magnolia was resting her voice at the bar, sipping a foggy glass of water. Whitechapel Charlie was wearily polishing the bar, the filthy rag held in clamped appendage. As for the rest, the usual rabble of drifters were too high or drunk to do more than murmur to one another.

A ways off from the rest of the bar, the Sole Survivor sat in the V.I.P. lounge, drinking her troubles away. It was about time she indulged in a cliché. All of this sober nonsense hadn’t brought her any closer to a solution, maybe the alternative would solve things.

She had a sick sort of fun ordering drinks to measure what she had lost; A glass of whiskey for Nate (his Favorite drink) Bottle of Wine for her friends and family (a glass for each), A nuka-cola for her baby (cut with vodka because even if he couldn’t drink, that shouldn’t stop her),

And finally, the drink in her hand was for him, the final loss. The one that had her drinking herself to death on a dirty lounge sofa. Sole held the drink to her lips, glancing down at the foggy liquid sloshing against the glass. She wasn’t actually sure what what she was drinking, she just asked Charlie to give her something that would fuck her over royally.

It tasted rank, pretty fitting considering who the drink was modeled after. This one’s for you, you cap-loving bastard. She thought bitterly, swigging back the drink. She could already feel it curdling her insides. And after everything we went through. After we delved into the heart of that feral infested lab. Guess you were only interested in helping your own kid. Screw everyone else, and their missing children, huh? She sighed and leaned back, closing her eyes. Guess this was her life now….

The bar continued on without her, the drunks kept murmuring, Magnolia was getting ready to get back on stage, and Charlie was getting Sole’s next round ready. The Mr. Handy was happy enough to let her pickle her insides with swill, as long as she had the caps. But there was one person in Goodneighbor who wouldn't stand to watch her rot away from drink and sorrow.

From the murmured hush of the Third Rail, came the sound of boots descending the stairs,like a slow and methodical rhythm, growing louder with every beat. The soft swish of coat tails were like a accompaniment to the music of their entrance. Magnolia took her cue, stepping on to the stage with practiced grace. She cleared her throat, and music started to play. She’d been meaning to try out a new set, and what better audience than the mayor himself?

“You had plenty money, 1922, You let other women make a fool of you… Why don’t you do right, Like some other men do? Get out of here, and get me some money too.”

Hancock reached the final step, landing with his usual swagger and panache. The whole bar livened up in the presence of their fearless Mayor and lovable junkie; partly because of his charm, but mostly since he usually paid for a free round of drinks and daytripper. They would be disappointed tonight. He was here on business.

“You’re sitting here wondering What it’s all about, You ain't got no money, They will put you out. Why don't you do right, Like some other men do? Get outta here, And get me some money too.”

He was grinning as he strode to the bar, but the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. He reached the worn wooden counter, leaning casually upon it. Or at least it would have looked casual, if his eyes weren’t darting over to the VIP lounge every few minutes. Charlie already had Hancock’s usual ready; Double rum and nuka cola, garnished with a small pharmacy of chems. On the house. But the ghoul didn’t touch it.

“She still…?” Hancock asked, his voice lowered. Charlie hovered a little closer, nearly resting a metal arm on the counter.

“Been there all day and all night, four days running. Only leaves when nature calls, or at least I hope.” The Mr. Handy replied, narrowing his ocular lenses at the ghoul. “I’d say something, but she’s the only one that pays their tab in caps. Takes more than good will to keep the lights on in this place.”

“What’s the word on Mac-, uh, ‘ the sniper’.” Hancock started to ask, tripping over the last words. He gave a cautious look to the lounge. In the neon light he could just make out her silhouette. Could she hear him from there? It wouldn’t surprise him. He’d need watch what he said...

“If you had prepared 20 years ago, You wouldn't be a-wanderin’ out from door to door. Why don't you do right, Like some other men do. Get out of here, And get me some money too…”

“Nothing new, last person to see him was Daisy two weeks back. Since then he’s probably been laying low in the Capital Wastes.” Charlie answered, Hovering back up, and grabbing a foggy glass and bar rag. He started polishing it needlessly, a habit he’d had since he was built. “Can't blame Daisy though, she thought he’d have told you-know-who he was leaving. Poor girl.”

“Well the pity party's over.” Hancock muttered, turning towards the V.I.P. lounge. “Time someone snapped her out of her funk.” Charlie gave a skeptical look, somehow, and continued polishing glasses.

Hancock strode towards the lounge, slowing his pace as he approached. He hesitated at the doorway. His insides started to turn the closer he came. The confidant resolve he’d descended the stairs with was now shrinking before the light of the neon sign. Maybe he should leave her alone after all, he reasoned with himself. Everyone dealt with a broken heart differently, maybe killing her liver was her way. Yeah, he was down with that. He did it all the time. He would just leave her-

“God, you’re like a cat. Come in or stay out. And bring a drink.” A voice called from the lounge. He’d been caught. Regardless, he knocked on the frame, and swaggered in as if nothing happened. She barely looked up from from her drink.

“Sister, you are a mean drunk.” He chided, plopping down on the opposite couch, kicking his boots up onto the table with a thud. He snapped open a tin of mentats and popped a couple into his mouth. “If you’re not careful, I’ll tell Charlie to cut you off.”

“Thought Goodneighbor was all ‘bout freedom.” She noted bitterly, focusing on every syllable too much, careful not to slur. Which meant she was completely hammered. Hancock chuckled, despite himself. Even as a drunken mess she could call his bluff. She looked up at him now, putting her drink down. “So, what do ya need, Mayor?”

I fell for your jivin' and I took you in Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin Why don't you do right, like some other men do? Get out of here and get me some money too... Why don't you do right, like some other men do….

What did he need? He crossed his arms, feeling the mentats working their way through his system. The fog in his head cleared and his natural charm kicked into full gear.

“Gotta job for you, need you sober. Well, sober-ish.” Hancock replied, grinning wide. “Super Mutants are getting a little too comfortable around Good Neighbor for everyone's liking. I’d appreciate it if you gave ‘em a good old fashioned eviction.” She was silent for a moment, picking her drink up once more, staring down at it with a dour expression. The drink looked like rot-gut, something that made even Hancock’s stomach turn.

“You know I hate it when you do that.” Sole muttered, swigging back her drink, slamming the glass on the table with a sharp clunk. “Taking that shit before you say something clever. It's not even you talking, it's those shitty mints.”

“And I’ll just pretend that’s the drink talking.” Hancock shot back. “Besides, these aren’t ‘shitty’. They came from straight from Fred Allen! Guy puts a lot of love into his work.” He took a breath and regained his composure. “Anyway, the job. You in?”

“Did the mentats tell you to change the subject?” She asked, leaning back and resting her eyes. “Or are you just that eager to get me outta here?”

“Can't it be both?” Hancock joked. She didn't smile. He sighed. “Look, Sole… You know you got friends here. Right?”

“Name three,” Sole demanded, holding up three fingers. “And Kent doesn't count, because he's everyone's friend.” Hancock rested his hand on the back of his neck, looking up at the smoke stained ceiling.

“Do I really-” He tried, but a look from Sole said everything. He sighed.

“Daisy-” He started but she cut him off quickly.

“Strike one, she’s the reason I’m in this mess.” She countered sharply.

“Don't hang this on Daisy.” He growled, “She didn't know he was leaving you high and dry, well. Clearly not dry.” She gave a rueful laugh at that, a hollow chuckle that made his skin crawl. “OK I’ll try again. How about…” He had to really think, he could already feel the mentats wearing off and she’d throw a fit if he popped a few more. “Uh… Kent?”

“Strike two.” She mumbled, “Kents a sweetheart…”

“That ain't fair.” Hancock pointed out. “Being too nice ain't his fault.”

“Fine, whatever. That’s one.” She gave in. “Good luck with two and three.”

Hancock thought hard, he knew every face in town, lots of decent folks, this shouldn't be too hard. Except that since Sole had made waves since she blew into town.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t made many friends since he met her either. A lot of people took exception to him killing Finn, not that they'd say it to his face. Not to mention having Sole do his dirty work taking out Sinjin. At least Bobbi no-nose brought it on herself, or so he tried to tell himself.

“Kleo?” He tried again.

“Strike two for real now,” She replied tiredly, leaning back against the couch. “In her terminal she has at least three accounts of how she would kill me. Plus, she’s the most reliable vendor for oil in the commonwealth, and she knows it. Jacks up the price as soon as I walk in.” She rested her eyes for a moment.

“You’re paranoid, sister. Why are you snooping on her terminal anyway?” Hancock asked, arching what would have been an eyebrow, suspiciously.

“Because everyone's out to get me…” Sole answered, opening her eyes just a crack to look at Hancock with bloodshot eyes. He held his breath, unsure of what to say, until a weak smile graced her lips and she gave a soft chuckle. “Just kidding.” He laughed in relief, letting out the breath. She closed her eyes again. “So, who’s next?”

“Ain't it obvious, sister?” Hancock asked with a sly smile. She couldn’t see it, but the smile somehow shone in his voice.

“Not to me.” She sighed. He found himself hesitating. What the hell was he afraid of?

“Well… It's Charlie, obviously.” He finally added, lamely. She nodded quietly. He’d gotten another one at least. Only now he had to say the last one, then he’d win whatever game they were playing and she could get her act together. He’d even saved the best for last…. But he was silent. She looked up at him.

“So, Mr. Mayor, who’s lucky contestant number three?” She asked, a faint smile returning. This was the easiest part, so why couldn’t he say it?

“Irma…” He answered, he words didn't even feel like his own. The faint smile on her lips melted away. She sighed, pulling herself off the couch, swaying dangerously as she stood.

“Strike Three.” She muttered, putting a hand on the peeling wall paper to support herself.

“Oh c’mon I was just kidding…” Hancock tried, but even he wasn't convinced. She started towards the lounge doorway, each step heavier than the last. “Hey, let me give you a hand.”

“Don't need… Your help…” She managed between footfalls. She made it to the doorway, pausing there. “Not looking forward… To those stairs…” Hancock watched her teeter towards the exit. He exchanged concerned looks with Charlie before going after her. He stayed a few steps behind her, trying to look casual, just helping a drunk get some fresh air… Not worried about her at all.

-------------------------

They emerged from the Third Rail, the air was chill and fresh, The faintest trails of sunrise tainted the night sky. It’d be morning soon, much to Hancock’s disgust. Sole leant into an alley and heaved up a volley of Rot-gut and whatever else she’d been swilling for the last few hours. Best way to sober up.

Hancock lit up as he waited for her to finish. He took a drag on his stale cigarette, what he wouldn't give to taste what one of these was like fresh out of the packet. Smoke curled through the air like a ribbon, illuminated by the waning lamplight.

Finally the heaving subsided and the last bit was spat out like an afterthought. Sole coughed, trying to get ahold of herself. Hancock reached into a coat pocket and grabbed a can of purified water he kept for occasions like this. He cracked it open and bent down beside Sole, who was on their knees shaking.

“Here, just what the Doctor ordered.” He said, handing it over to Soles trembling fingers. She took a mouthful, washed out her mouth with a swish, and spat it out with relief, before taking a drink. She sighed, the tremors subsiding.

“Thanks…” She said gratefully, taking another sip. Hancock shook his head, breathing out a stream of smoke into the cool air.

“You can thank me by clearing out the mutant nests.” He answered, looking out at the few stars not snuffed out by sunrise. “And by pulling yourself together. The broken mess trademark belongs to me.” She laughed, the first real laugh he’d heard all night.

“I don't mind paying the royalties on it.” She countered playfully, wiping her mouth and smiling up at him weakly.

“No chance, this look aint cheap.” Hancock replied, smiling himself. “Get your own style.”

“How about, ‘Lovable Loser’?” She asked.

“That’s Fred’s, and Maybe Kent’s too. They got joint custody on it.” Hancock replied, taking another drag, burning the cigarette right down to the filter.

“Mysterious Seductress?” She asked, trying to wink, but it looked more like she was having a stroke. She laughed at her own attempt. “Maybe not right now, though.”

“Sorry, that’s Magnolia’s schtick.” He chuckled. “And mine back in my touring days…”

“You were a seductress?” Sole asked, catching him off guard. She didn't think ghouls could blush, but the faint flush of purple on Hancock cheeks proved her wrong.

“Sister, I could’ve been anyone to the right someone.” He recovered, a sly grin covering for the flush in his face. “But this ghoul’s tours of the town are suspended until further notice.” Hancock ground out his cigarette on the brick wall beside him.

“That's a damn shame.” Sole sighed, only half-jokingly. She looked up at the lilac clouds starting to drift into the dark sky from the sunrise. “What made you hang up that snazzy hat?” There was a silence. Hancock hands were itching to go for the tin of mentats again. He sighed.

“Just not my scene anymore.” He lied. She wasn't expecting a lie. Neither had he to be honest. He took a breath. “You better get back to the Rex, get a bit of shut eye. Otherwise you’re spending 10 caps a night for nothing.” He stood up, brushing the ash and dirt off his coat. Sole pulled herself up and nodded.

“Can't have that now.” She muttered under her breath. “10 caps is almost four shells. That's at least three dead raiders on a good day.” Hancock smirked, he liked the way she thought.

---------------------------

“There, got you here in one piece.” Hancock grunted, struggling under Soles weight as she leant on him for support. They had made it outside her hotel room, but only barely. Hancock had come across many things back in his youth exploring the Commonwealth. One of those things was that where ever you needed a working elevator, there just wasn’t one. But lo and behold, the one being used as a shitter in nearly every raider den seemed to work just fine.

Sole slid her arm off the ghoul and went to her room key, fumbling with the lock. Hancock rolled his eyes and gently guided her hand to the lock. She turned it and stumbled through the door, the momentum carrying her until she tumbled onto the bed.

Hancock watched her for a moment, concerned she might forget where she was and roll off the side. After a few moments it wasn’t a concern since she was already out cold on the bed, snoring softly. He rolled her on to her side side gently, so she was safe if her drink snuck up on her again in her sleep. He’d seen it happen a couple times, and it didn’t leave a pretty corpse.

The sun was starting to peek through the dilapidated curtains. Beams of light drifted onto her sleeping figure, causing her brow to furrow, and her body shift uncomfortably in her sleep. He went to the window and covered it up with a dust sheet from the armchair beside it. The cool darkness settled on the room, and so Sole settled as well.

For the third time, Hancock hesitated. He wanted to stay, make sure she wasn't going to drown in vomit, or strangled in her own bedsheets… And a part of him just wanted to stay and watch how peaceful she was. He shook his head, it wasn't his place to stay.

He took one last look around. He could see why she didn't want to spend her nights here sober. The room was dotted with the snipers odd and ends. On the dresser sat a couple old comics, worn and faded from overuse. On the table were souvenirs of their adventures; the Silver Shroud’s scarf and calling cards, A bloodied knife from Pickman's gallery, and… A microscope? Hancock scratched his head. It was hard to make out in the dark, but it looked pretty ordinary to him. Daisy said something about a cure for Macready’s kid… Was it from that? Hancock shook his head. Only Sole knew.

He was turning to leave when something on the side table caught his eye. His stomach turned at the sight of the wooden soldier.

[theskyexists]

she-ra season 3

i LOVE scorpia

this show has a bit of tonal issue in my opinion. they keep going back to a very teen-parent relationship between the trio and mum - when there’s a terrible war on.

people get killed but generally it really does just feel presented like a game or a fight about curfew and sometimes thats a bit jarring. (or is it strange to expect the graveness of situations to bring out a quality of sincerity even during puberty?)

i don’t really understand why Adora would jump to the conclusion that Shadoweaver showing up means she’s changed

but Adora, you ARE stupid. lol

but the rest is too. ‘don’t listen to her Adora’ why not? is it so terrible to be from another world? the stakes are quite murky

Entrapta’s comments really go to show how shit of a leader Hordak really is. HOw the hell did he manage to create this empire when he’s so damn incompetent? OOOHHHHHH CATRA SAID IT!!! just after i wrote that sentence she SAID IT

Hordak is an idiotic beserker

so why didn’t they take their unicorn flying steed?

‘well yeah - but you said that while saving us - so - you can’t be all bad. what do ya say’

i love the voice actor for Adora lolololol. she is clearly having SO much fun.

and Adora has a small crush on Huntara and absolutely ruins her chances with the barmaid by popping up. totally did not expect that voice for Huntara tho

entraptak is.....real. wtf. it’s.....cute. Hordak is just trying to be Prime. Failing at it miserably, lashing out. jfc it’s an endless cycle  isn’t it.

‘know about she-ra? ahahahaha! I AM she-ra!’ THAT WAS BADASS. i love it when Adora is being rowdy and cocky

oh wow reversed chin-tilt with sword, and then lifting her head and soulful look? She-Ra really has chemistry with ALL the Princesses.

I LOVE scorpia. i loved that moment when Catra pushed her away nobly - i love how Catra has plausible deniability to herself. Love how the narrative reinforces that Catra is literally the most competent person around etc. (if they could get her for the Rebellion it would be over and out but hey)

surely Mara cut Aetheria off to save it from Hord-Prime’s war? Light-Hope wanted She-Ra to join the other She-Ra’s (’this world’s she-ra’) in the battle but she decided to hide the world and people she loved, breaking most of the magic-tech system. What I don’t understand is - the First Ones lived on Aetheria, but the people that populate it now are a different quality of organics, they can only survive in a specific atmosphere. The princesses are living components in the balancing of the tech-magic system...what are the people of the world? We don’t realise this most of the time, but all of them except for princesses, are animal-humanoids (and...kyle.....). What does this mean? Did the animal life unintentionally evolve? Were they an underclass - simply part of the system? (seems too edgy for this show).

‘why was i taken from my family? why was i forced to become a soldier?’ this line was GOOD

yesss!!! Mara! i love her already.

Scorpia is blushing lol. I am also liking Catra being completely off her shits careless and powerful.

Catra and Scorpia bonding yesssss!!!

ohhhhhHHH the magic of the planet is something of Aetheria itself! the tech is just latched on??? First Ones were colonisers (’settlers’)! but AETHERIA is what’s dangerous to the rest of the universe!!! (because it can be used as a weapon??) probably Aetheria would die as a result?

‘maybe it’s been a week, maybe it’s been thousands of years’ that is so fuckin sad

Catra being so hung up on acknowledgement is her greatest tragedy.

wow Scorpia really proposed a super cool thing and it could rearrange Catra’s WORLD

I want this show to stop repeating the same cycle after this last one time of Catra going: WAAAAHHH Adora made my life so hard now im going to do something inadvisable that might destroy us all as payback

Adora’s greatest tragedy is that she’s so self-centred that she doesn’t understand Catra at all.

if they have Angella and Glimmer fight and then have her mum die before they’ve made up i’ll be very upset (i’m not really loving Glimmer and Bow in this so far - they’re toeing the edge of annoying). and the fights about having to have plans and fighting or not fighting due to the fear of losing people - that’s always been uhhhh - well they always got away safe with shit plans and i just really don’t think that they’re meshing the commander-queen and daughter-mother stuff well. because there’s literally NO ONE ELSE in charge. there’s some magical queen and some villagers and a barely present guard. where’s the court, the advisors, anybody??

it would be silly to trust Shadoweaver (she did mercilessly torture you - no psychological effects from that stupidly enough), but i am hard-pressed to think of a reason she’d betray them.

still don’t understand how Frosta went from icy, frosty queen to idk a kid. i mean she can be both, but it was weird to see no uhhhh connection at all

I think this show is about how every single character is held back by their inability to grow and grow closer to others. Glimmer has disobeyed Angella SO often, why is she surprised at all? Why can’t she be honest and say: I am afraid! I am afraid I will lose you! I am afraid of that pain and I want you to take the risks seriously, to plan for them. I want to protect you!

That Glimmer would work with her torturer is of course a ridiculous notion. that is to say - if that kind of thing was properly given weight.

why fight Catra??? Why not just teleport to Hordak’s inner sanctum?? it’s stupid. why waste all the damn power

glad entrapta finally heard from Adora that she didn’t mean to leave her behind though.

‘you can’t fight them they’re too strong!’ ?? Glimmer just got sucked dry tho? like what. the way this show always postpones its fights on shitty pretexts is ....acceptable but pretty roll-eye-y

Catra burning all her bridges.

“there’s no choice” fucking bullshit, just teleport lol.

lol Catra feeds the anti-princess propaganda right back to Hordak. that’s poetic but jfc i really hope next season is going to be a little less *shuffles deck, cards end up in a million different hands, literally all cards feel betrayed*

so catra is willing to pull the annihilation switch on the universe just to one-up Adora just this once LOLLLL. if only somebody hadn’t ingrained a deeply seated inferiority complex in this cat

anyway i want her to feel the consequences of all that for a change

that animation on everything going VWWWWWWOOOOOOMM darkness was awesome

OHHHH the next episode has an awesome premise.

can i just say that i LOVE this episode. it’s so damn creepy and cool and kind of nostalgic. and i LOVE that it’s Scorpia and Adora who are remembering things - the ones closest to Catra. AND THEN THEY BOND!!!! and hold hands!!!!

reliving the betrayals. love the way the memories hit people, the way Catra goes from her old self, their playfulness, their casual violence ratcheting up at each other because that’s how they’ve been trained - to defend themselves, and then - the true Catra, the hysteria, gone so far off the deep-end. “i’d rather let the whole world be destroyed than let you win.” geeze that’s rooted deep.

angella and mica are so cuteeee. but angella really hasn’t changed has she? no tolerance for difficulty. she honestly is a bit of a shit queen. thought that was bc of grief and trauma but eh

he puts a truth spell on her but then he doesn’t believe her? does he think she’s crazy?

don’t think i’ve ever shipped something as hard in this show as Mica/Angella. i just LOVE royal woman x good man apparently. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. god why didn’t she kiss him on the lips>????

oh SHIT, MARA IS STILL TRAPPED INSIDE THE PORTAL LIKE ENTRAPTA SAID - THAT’S WHY SHE SAID: HAS IT BEEN A DAY OR THOUSANDS OF YEARS?

so...is there a reason that Angella is not faded?

wow that speech about bravery and cowardice. she truly. TRULY, ok they made something of her. I HATE losing Angella because the voice acting is INCREDIBLE. but that was actually an amazing end. (and she got to see Mica for the last time, at least)

ok so if i lost my mum forever i would be SCREAMING in pain but i guess these itsy bitsy tears from Glimmer will do?

that look of pure determination and anger and mercilessness in Adora’s eyes at Catra? nice. wish Catra didn’t go into a sulk at it but kept her goddamn FEAR (Adora was totally right, she vanquished another demon from her past - everything Catra did, she CHOSE to do. and her keeping on blaming others is simply - cowardice)