#also they're traumatized™

[reanimatedgh0ul]

this is LITERALLY their dynamic in a nutshell

[lassieposting]

Been thinking a lot lately about romanced Astarion post-spawn ending.

Because like. The Funnest™ thing about cptsd is how much of it gets delayed. When you're trapped in a lengthy, ongoing traumatic situation, you do not have the ability to process and start healing your mental wounds. Your brain and body go into survival mode, and all that matters in the moment is that you somehow cope with the horrors. He wouldn't have been able to even begin dealing with the physical, mental and emotional toll of two hundred years of torture, brutalization and dehumanization while he was under Cazador's control; he is in constant danger, surrounded by sharks in the water, and survival means not letting them smell blood. He can't afford to fall apart, to show weakness. He is shockingly functional and competent in-game, partly because he has to be to work as a game character, but also partly because...it do be like that, to some degree. When death, for whatever reason, is not an option, you just have to shut down and keep going. People adapt in order to survive, and when we learn that showing an "injury" (physical or psychological) only gets us punished, we learn to hide it.

Early-game Astarion is terrified - of Cazador, of Godey, of being hunted down by his siblings, of being staked or sold off at the first opportunity by Tav and the other companions, of turning into a mindflayer, of another painful transformation, of losing himself when he's only just regained his autonomy after two centuries, of what Cazador will do to him if he ever finds him - the man is overwhelmed by fear. He's on thin ice as a vampire, and he's not going to give them any more reason to want him gone. Survival instinct is still in control, and in this new situation, crafting some fragile safety for himself means not only selling his body for protection, but also being useful. Clear-headed. Good in a fight.

Endgame Astarion finds himself in a completely different situation. The time-sensitive overarching threats - Cazador and impending ceremorphosis - have been dealt with. He has a loving, supportive partner he's really starting to feel safe with - Tav/Durge has proved that they're on his side, that their affection is genuine, that they don't just want him for the one thing he's been told he's good for. They've told him they're going to help him find a workaround for his sun allergy. He's getting fed regularly. He has time to stop, and breathe, and just. Recuperate.

For the first time in 200 years, he is safe.

And it will probably take a while to catch up, during which time he will seem to be coping really well, but at some point, his brain is going to realise that he's safe, and it's going to finally start processing the sheer fucking horror he's been through. Since I haven't seen anyone talking about this particular fun aspect of cptsd, allow me to offer u some thoughts on issues Astarion and Tav might end up dealing with in the months/years postgame, during the

✨ Delayed Trauma Response ✨

Memory Gaps: Astarion realising, as he opens up to Tav, that there are entire years or decades of his life from which he has only a handful of memories. Great big blank stretches where he has no idea where he was, who he was with, what was happening to him. Some of the gaps cover years at a time where he was so dissociated and shut down that he just didn't retain any memories of what was going on around him. Some are shorter periods of particularly horrific torture that his brain has deliberately blocked out to protect him.

Recovered Memories: At some point, years into the future when he's done A Lot of healing, he might find that every now and then, a fragment of those lost memories will unexpectedly come back to him. He'll catch a particular scent on the breeze, or overhear a specific phrase in the street, or cross paths with someone whose face is oddly familiar, and he'll get a glimpse of an acute horror he'd filed neatly away where it couldn't hurt him anymore. He very rarely remembers all the context to those flashes of his past. He might recall that he was punished, but not what he was punished for, or he might remember words spoken by a greedy conquest, but be unable to recall the man's face.

Dissociation: Tav knows going into this relationship that Astarion has basically made an art out of dissociating during sex. They also know, from their shared encounter with the drow twins, that he's not great at enforcing his own boundaries - he'll always say he'll speak up and back out if he stops having fun, but in practice he rarely does; he's not used to having the option of saying no to his partner, and being punished if he tries. So they know there's going to be some practice and experimentation and negotiation necessary there, to figure out the rough limits of his comfort zone. But once he starts really processing, there may be days where he just checks out completely. Tav will touch his shoulder, and he'll startle and apologise - "Terribly sorry, darling, I was miles away for a moment there." And Tav will gently point out that he's been sat in the same spot vacantly staring into the middle distance for hours. They've been checking in on him occasionally and this is the first time he's responded. It's unsettling, to say the least.

Lost Time: Astarion was very young when he was turned, physically mature but emotionally juvenile. He was basically an overgrown teenager, in the phase of life where elves are just starting to learn who they are and what they want, and figure out their place in the world. But he never got to do that, because he spent his formative young adult years in a world where everyone became an abuser, where his only means of surviving was to smile and charm and obey while even his basic human dignity was stripped away. He learned that communication is based on manipulation. He learned that the powerful can do whatever they like to the weak. He learned an incredibly toxic, abusive way of life, and that was his family dynamic, his everyday life, for as long as he can remember. Now that he's free and safe, he's realising that the world doesn't actually work that way and that he's now far behind even shorter-lived races in social/emotional development. He's grieving for the person he could've been. He's grieving for the life he could've lived. He's grieving for all the years he already lost, and the ones he'll lose in the future as he flounders to catch up. A decent chunk of his life was stolen from him, and that's time he will never get back.

Flashbacks & Night Terrors: Specifically the kind where your brain convinces you that an injury you had a long time ago is actually an injury you have (or are receiving) right now. There are nights where he'll wake Tav in a panic, because his back feels like it's on fire, he can feel every freshly-carved wound dripping blood and he's in so much pain he doesn't know what else to do. If Tav looks, they see nothing out of the ordinary - old, long-healed scars, same as always. But the pain and the fear and the distress are all very real to him, and all they can do is try to comfort him, cover his back with cool damp cloths or healing salves, remind him he's safe now and they're not leaving him.

Boundary Shifting: Sometimes, Tav can come up and hug him from behind, and he'll melt into them a little bit and go all soft and happy. Other times, he might flinch away or go rigid at the same gesture. A lot of the time, it really depends on how he's feeling on the day, but at least a little bit of it is deliberate - he's pushing to find the limit of just how much autonomy Tav is willing to give him. He wants to know at what point they'll stop respecting his "no". Will they accept it if he doesn't want a hug? If he wants to sleep in his own room tonight? At what point will understanding turn to anger at being rejected? From the drow twins four/fivesome, we also know he's got a tendency to push his own boundaries, and jump into things he's actually not ready for, and Tav would be the one holding his hand through the fallout as he tries to figure out what his own boundaries even are.

Frustration! So, so much frustration. He wants to be Over It already. He wants to move past everything that ever happened to him and never think about it again. He hates that Cazador still has a grip on him, even in death - he doesn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction of dwelling on all his punishments, his cruelties. Sometimes, that frustration is going to explode outwards at Tav - he'll get angry at them for coddling him, or find something small to start a fight over, or he'll set an unreasonable boundary and try to defend it because he's still learning what healthy boundaries look like. Sometimes, it will implode inwards, and that won't be about Tav at all, but they'll get the brunt of it all the same - it might come out as self-loathing or self-punishment, and he'll react by doing something stupid, like trying to drive them away, because having a secure, relatively healthy relationship is terrifying and the instinct is to destroy it before Tav can. There will be yelling and angry tears and deeply unhealthy coping mechanisms, and they'd have to work through that. Trauma is ugly, and Astarion is right at the beginning of a very long journey towards healing.

Abandonment Issues: Astarion wants the relationship to be one between equals, but he's kind of got Tav on a pedestal all the same. They saved him. They helped him get rid of Cazador for good. They chose him and love him despite a wealth of better (in his eyes) options, and all his baggage. They stayed with him even when he has very little to offer them. We know his vanity and obnoxious self-absorption is a fragile attempt to obscure the fact that his self-esteem is in the dirt and he has virtually no self-worth, and there are a couple of occasions in-game where it becomes clear that he's afraid of losing the one person who somehow considers him lovable. After seeing Sebastian and all the other conquests, he begs Tav not to hate him, saying that he did what he had to. If he has a rival for Tav's affections, and Tav informs him that they broke up with the rival to be with Astarion, he's shocked and the first thing out of his mouth is, "You ended things with them for me? Why?" And if Durge tries to break up with him for his own safety, his facade drops and he immediately asks if he did something wrong. So while he's not afraid to argue with Tav, if something happens - like an angry outburst - that upsets or angers them, and he thinks he's at risk of losing that one steady, stable person in his life, he might well cling and overcompensate to try and repair what he thinks is a fracture in their relationship. He'll fawn or beg or crawl into Tav's bed to "apologise" and "make it up to them" because, well, very occasionally it worked on Cazador. With patience and good communication and lots of repeatedly driving the lesson home to overcome 200 years of education to the contrary, he will eventually start to believe that "I'm really pissed off at you right now," does not equate to, "You are the worst mistake I've ever made and I am leaving you."

Panic Attacks: I feel like honestly he'd get some symptoms of these on a fairly regular basis, but he's never been given any option other than just trying to power through them. He's used to realising he's shaking, he's used to feeling like he's watching himself from outside his body, or like he can't breathe even though he doesn't need to. He's very familiar with the sickening fear in his gut, so intense it makes his head spin. He's not used to being comforted or reassured about them - he thinks they're normal. Tav disagrees.

Anyway, cptsd is messy and complicated and often looks very different from person to person so these will not represent everyone's but these are just some ideas for what the ongoing recovery process might make them work through, based on the aspects I'm most familiar with.

Projecting? Who's projecting? I'm not projecting. Shut up.

[lexirosewrites]

Okay, so, Slick Sunday!

(I had a nap and I totally forgot that was today, help)

I recently read a fic where if you were abused as a kid you could be either a early presenting Alpha, or a Late presenting Omega, and therefore those were bad things

So my brain got working on it, and then swerved to the left by presenting me with (and I know this is going to sound kinda weird, but please stick with me):

Early presented Alpha! Eddie meets and accidentally triggers Omega! Steve's presentation as kids.

And bc they're kids I HC that since their bodies aren't really developed heats and ruts are more like a really intense desire to cuddle, you know?

So it's these two kids who meet at a park without any parents around start cuddling in a bench and bc instincts are strong™ they bond.

Cue to the Harringtons putting Steve into heavy suppressants at 10 bc breaking a bond at that age could potentially kill him.

But still the shock of the whole thing makes both Steve and Eddie forget who they bonded with and therefore we can add so much angst to their highschool years together, like, they both feel the pull to teach other, but Eddie thinks he just has a dumb crush and feels bad about it bc he's already bonded, while Steve is just wondering why he feels fond of the weirdo from school idk, idk, haven't thought of how they would find out, tbh

Also, in this scenario I was picturing like, Eddie recently moved in with Wayne and he's like, 12, Steve is 10.

The Harringtons also offered Wayne more money than GOD to taki Eddie somewhere else and break the bond as soon as possible. Wayne didn't take the money, of course.

I also HC that they were happily bonded for like, a week before the parental intervention, lmao

Ooooh alright yeah that’s sad as fuck, I love it! Traumatic childhood bond that’s forced apart and devastates them both, but they can’t even recall entirely what happened. Maybe they start hanging around later in high school or they’re paired up for a project and Eddie ends up at Steve’s house and his parents flip their shit beaches they think they know the truth?

[elaemae]

The premium version of human is here to wreck house, mfs.

[Twst x Obey Me!AFAB!reader]

CHP. 4

PREVIOUS CHP.: PROLOGUE 3

Thank you guys for the likes, reblogs and comments.

Also, to the people who became my followers, I'll be forever grateful for that😊

CW: When MC gets mistaken as a guy, they get referred to as he/him, but the problem is that there's too many males around the MC.

So, I've decided to color the pronouns blue when it's MC that's being addressed. Just to avoid confusion.

CLARIFICATION: The headmaster, and MC knows that Yuu is from another world, so MC decided to play along and pretend that they're from the same world as Yuu. (The human world where MC came from is mostly similar to the human world that Yuu describes. i.e. landmarks, cultural, knowledge, current trends, anime and manga are all mostly the same.)

REMEMBER: Read this before the chapter.

Experience changes people.

If you see MC doing something you think you won't do and you decide to complain about it, remember this:

• You act the way you do because of the things that you've gone through in your life.

• MC is the same.

• They experienced a lot of traumatic events and almost lost their lives a fuck-ton of times.

• Because of that, they've changed. They've diverged from being you into the MC that they are now.

• The life you're living now shall be treated as the MC's canonical past.

• Also, because The Obey Me!cast feels bad from all the times you suffered and almost died because of them, they tend to overcompensate you.

• You get dressed in the finest of fabrics, most luxurious jewels, as well as housed and fed with the best things that the three realms have to offer.

• You don't take them for granted, but years of living with that lifestyle had raised your standards to new heights and changed the way that you act towards certain things.

• You're free to make up your own head canons if you don't like mine, also y'all can give me feedback if you want so I can improve my work.

• This story will be set a few years after the canon of the Obey Me games.

• • • • •

Who would've thought that it would be a bad idea to try to trick someone who literally reeks of luxury to live in an old, bout-to-fall-apart dormitory?

Well, certainly not Crowley.

That fact became known when 'The shady looking dorm leader™' and also, the tablet decided to tag along with you, Yuu and Crowley, but then had to help Yuu in holding you back so that you wouldn't beat the ever living crap out of the headmaster the moment he dared to bring y'all in front of this rustic establishment and say "It had charm". (Too many You's)

Oh really? really?? Oh you'll see real charm when I beat you straight into the afterlife you greasy son of a bitc–

*Ehem*

It did not end well.

So instead of that, the headmaster had to temporarily put you and your fellow stranded-in-dis-school-human into the infirmary as your temporary abode and promised to fix the shoddy dorm so that it can safely house people in it. (Grim will appear in the future, dw)

*Que Azul tryna make you stay in Octavinelle and you vehemently declining that offer.*

Also, you're starting to get creeped-out by the floating tablet that keeps following you around and won't stop with taking pictures. there's also the small maniacal giggles coming out of the device.

• • • • • •

So there you two are, two people that've been kidnapped by this school's fuckin carriage are now bonding in the infirmary and distracting each other by venting about problems back home. (You two are too wary to be able to sleep properly.)

Like, yes Yuu, I'm in a polyamorous with more than a dozen problematic individuals.

Yes, it works out. somehow

Damn, three assignments due tomorrow all from the same subject? Have you ever tried cheating off of your classmates?

Oh— wait what?! a classmate from biology was caught fucking with a professor in a classroom!? Seriously??

No, I unfortunately no longer have a grasp on the concept of private space and poverty.

Yes, maintaining a relationship with a lot of people at the same time can be hard.

A lot of them are rich.

Wait, a seatmate of yours really gave two free expensive sketch pads just because you asked?? Where can I find that person??

Yes they all act like my sugar daddies and my man-children in one way or another.

No, don't you dare pimp yourself out, okay? There may be a lot of people in my life but the important thing is that we all love each other.

We support, comfort, protect, and guide each other to the best we can.

No— that didn't happen in a day, I had to bend over backwards and almost die a shit-ton of times before I managed to wiggle myself firmly into the hearts of those fuckers.

...Q- Questions about our sex life will be automatically ignored.

Just.. be nice to others, even if it's seemingly stupid.

Unless they are absolute scum then just maintain distance.

You just gotta eyeball it to figure out when to stop being nice to someone.

Never and I mean NEVER treat anyone badly unless they did something unforgivable to you.

Don't call me kind. It's easier to have a grasp on other people if you're nice.

Pft— You once saw a book called "How to be a sugar baby 101" in the school library?! And you saw your principal reading it?!

Sure-sure, I'll help you with your math homework— wait a second.. Seriously?? We've been kidnapped, I ain't allowing you to do math. Where the hell did you even hide that thick-as-fuck test sheet anyways?? Up your ass?!

• • • •

You sigh for the third time this hour, looking at Yuu who's making a "Mom.. I threw up in the carpet... I'm sowwy🥺" expression as they stand beside your bed.

"What happened?"

Yuu winced, feeling embarrassed as they hear you talk to them like a disappointed parent, they had failed to appeal to Crowley about becoming a temporary student of this school and now had to be a janitor/errand kid.

"The headmaster said that I'll be the handy-man of the campus while he searches for a way to get us home..."

You feel a vein in your head throb and your eye start to twitch by of the sheer audacity being shown in front of your face.

You are now feeling the immense urge to hex that bird-bitch.

Satan sat straight in his seat, speaking out to the others in the meeting table.

"I can feel irritation and the urge to curse someone again." He said.

It would've been funny if this was another situation.

"That's definitely from MC, isn't it? You mentioned being half-asleep and feeling MC get agitated through your pact mark, right?" Diavolo asked.

"Yes, at least our pacts are still intact..." Satan nodded.

"Great, we can use this to monitor MC even if they're far away." Lucifer stated.

Countless search-parties and interrogations have already been conducted, but they're still clueless on where you can be or who could've taken you.

Even Barbatos couldn't see what had happened.

They're starting to get agitated, MC..

• • • • •

Jade watched as Azul frantically drafts and redrafts a new plan of his.

It seems that something caught the eye of their housewarden in the ceremony today.

"What could be so eye-catching that you're in such a hurry to obtain it, Azul?" Jade couldn't contain his curiosity and asked.

"It's a new student, Jade." Azul started.

"He possesses such a large amount of magical artifacts in his hands, It's unbelievable! They were all high quality too!"

Jade blinks.

"Don't you have enough magical artifacts around?"

Jade is confusion.

"You don't know it because you weren't there." Azul narrowed his eyes at Jade.

"I first thought those jewelry of his were similar to the ones that you can buy with enough money in annual auctions, but then I realized that it's very likely that those jewelry are customized."

"...How so?"

"So I decided to try and take a closer look, but when I actually got closer and almost touched one of them, I felt a strong thrum of magic that I haven't felt before!"

Oh?

Now that got Jade's attention.

Azul has been exposed to a lot of strong, powerful people and magical artifacts over the years that he and his twin were following this dormleader of theirs and yet there was actually an artifact so strong that he can feel strong waves of magic by just almost touching it?

How curious..... If the magic of the artifact was so strong, why didn't Azul sense it up until he literally almost held it in his hands?

Seems like this year won't be boring, after all..

• • • • •

BONUS: Someone has a crush.

"Brother, Your package has arrived— What are you... Are you making fan art of Mr. [L/n]...?"

Idia screams like a dumb girl in a horror movie as he tries to block the screen with his body.

"O-ORTHO?! WH-WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT KNOCKING FIRST??!"

"And... what's with the pose?"

Ortho tilts head innocently, confused on why his brother is drawing a new student in a pose that can often be seen on videos that are called "Thirst traps". he's still confused about why they're called that way.

Idia: "O- ORTHO THIS ISN'T ANYTHING BAD I SWEARAHGJSI—"

*Starts to fuckin steam*

"brOTHER YOU'RE BURNING THE CHAIR!"

"AH CRAP!"

← Pr.3 | Chapter List | Pr. 5 →

Don't forget to like, comment and reblog guys, It's a big help :3

What do y'all think of the chapter? pls respond, I need feedback🥺

I woke up today and decided to kick canon's ass.

Elae: Thanks for reading this far.☺️

See y'all next time~

Next chapter: Prologue 5

@f0urleafedcl0ver

@a-traveling-void-human

@speckle-meow-meow

@leviathans-tail-scales

@citrus-cinnamon

@prefesro

[frownyalfred]

Ever think about what it must be like for someone to try and read either Bruce or Clarks minds? Cause like they seem to be the type to have the mental thought process of the dog from Up except it's all about different cases. They're sitting in meetings going over all the facts from their latest, completely unrelated case, in their mind while answering questions about the actual JL meeting and occasionally having random leaps in logic to find the answer. They usually find the right answer but not mind reader is actually sure how they got there despite watching the whole process.

Bruce keeps remembering random gruesome injuries to compare to the vics so he can figure out what caused the injury. He settles on an icepik, most likely made of bone, none of the memories involved an icepick or bone. He doesn't explain the logic to himself. You just have to sit there wondering what you missed. A second later he answers three different questions about the strategy the league will use in an upcoming diplomatic mission and u just get to sit there wondering when he had the time to even come up with that through the gruesome somewhat traumatic slew of memories in which he got stabbed. A second later he thinks about how he might want to double check his information because the info used in those plans is from 3 days ago and might be out of date. He corrects one (1™) plan. You don't know what information changed. He does not think about it. You're too scared to ask. He goes back to thinking about how much force would be needed to kill someone with an icepick the moment Hal Jordan opens his mouth.

You decide to listen to Superman instead. Despite his serious frown and focused eye contact with Hal, his thoughts are just his mentally going over a news report and trying to remember where there might have been a typo. He swears so viciously you jump, there's a misspelling in a source. It must be corrected.

He doesn't stop thinking about the mistake until the end of the meeting. You wonder how these could possibly be the two in charge of this group of heroes. They maintain the utmost image of focus and professionalism the entire meeting. Youre half convinced Batman fell asleep for a few minutes in the middle of the meeting.

This is J’onn’s burden every meeting. If, going off of your ask above, we assume Bruce and Clark likely have the most intense and rapidly-shifting thoughts out of the assembled League members, then poor J’onn has to listen to BOTH of these thought processes at the same time.

But also. Being able to multitask like that is a phenomenal skill for leaders.

[mogamuncher]

An exhaustive headcanon post about Bruce Wayne's unhealthy mentality.

trigger warning for: mentions C-PTSD, Survivor's Guilt, shitty dietary habits, insomnia, self-ableism, masking, workaholism, somewhat shady parenting, technically self-harm, and passive suicidal ideation.

Ok, so:

•Bruce def feels like he has to earn things. Like affection, respect, or just any form of a good thing happening to him.

•He earns his life, or so he says, but it's more like he's trying to earn the right to be alive, which is a wild thing to believe.

•Bruce is autistic as all hell, right? Diagnosed and everything, his parents used to pay for private treatment since the mental health system in Gotham is so ass. Well, after they died, Bruce just, doesn't do any of that anymore, he avoids therapists or psychologists like the plague, even ones outside of Arkham. He has a whole lot of Other Things™ outside of autism now, but he still refuses to go get proper help.

•Similarly, Bruce would rather die than to actually mention it to anyone. Like, yeah, as Brucie Wayne he's definitely masking hard (to the point where it's kinda upsetting and he gets overwhelmed), but like, he also doesn't tell shit to the whole rest of the Batfam, or the Justice League. The only person that knows that Bruce is autistic AND just generally mentally ill/traumatized, is fucking Alfred.

•This causes people to misunderstand him a lot, but part of him feels like that's more "deserved". Like, he thinks that he'd hate to be judged by his mental illness because he he dislikes the idea of his actions being justified retroactively of excused by his illnesses, not being self-aware enough to notice that this horrifically heightened sense of hyper-responsability about just fucking everything in his life is itself, a trauma response. Also, he's the world's biggest hypocrite, who famously believes that other rogues and people like Jason Todd need to be helped instead of killed or put down, going directly against his own attitude towards himself.

•He genuinely believes that whole "[insert mental illness here] is not an excuse to [insert a behavior or symptom of aforementioned mental illness here]", but like, only towards himself. To everyone else he rightfully thinks that stuff is bullshit.

•Bruce puts himself up to some crazy standards, actually. He works non-stop as both Brucie, Bruce, and Batman, always doing something, unable to stay still or even sleep. He skips meals, neglects his well-being, he puts everything on the line and expects himself to do it everyday, every hour, without fail, every single time.

•His kids think that he's neurotic, they're kinda right, the Justice League think he's too paranoid, they're right too, Gotham city thinks he's a saviour, it's true, the rogues think he's a monster, that's fair as well. Alfred? He just thinks Bruce is hurt, he's the most right of all.

•Part of this is a form of punishment, atonement for being alive, for surviving that fateful night when his parents didn't, for daring to go on with life when they're both sixteen feet under, for having the audacity to raise a family, the gall of having friends, the sheer nerve to even consider having a romantic relationship, when his parents couldn't even hug him. Not anymore. He's here, not them.

•And it kills him, because he saw it, saw them die, saw them gurgle on their own blood and sat with their bodies until the police arrived, this is what led him to become Batman, to mask as Brucie, to guide so many young people away from being like him as Bruce. So how dare he, how dare he be happy when they died? How dare he forget that alley, for even a second? How could he? Didn't he love them? Didn't he make a promise to live out the rest of his life in a mission to prevent events like this?

•It's like he's in a toxic relationship with two corpses, they're cold and their eyes follow him, he's hollow and blind to anything but them. Part of him would love to argue that his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne themselves, would prefer to see him happy and fulfilled. Another part of him remembers gunshots, blood spatter, and the sound of choked gurgling, and Bruce spirals all over again.

•Perhaps he's waiting for this life for kill him, finish the job that gun didn't do years ago, kill him like his parents, hurt him so deeply he can't recover, destroy him until he's repented for being so inherently horrible. Because he is, he knows he is, he's neurotic, paranoid, a saviour complex having monster, this is what he aimed for, he seeked out this outcome, just waiting to be put down like those before him.

•He's passionate about his cause, sure, but that's surface level. The front used to keep the image of an asshole neurotic paranoid man that has a saviour complex, instead of exposing the truth behind himself. Who he really is.

•A child, that's who he is, a kid reliving his worst bad day over and over and over again.

•He earns his life, he'd earned this.

[rayshippouuchiha]

Hi, Ray! The author of Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust here!!! Someone recommended my fic here????? I'm so honored!!! 🥹

So I would like to put forth my own recommendations too. I put it in my fic's AN's also, but I highly recommend Far Beyond the Woods of Dawn by wolfghost (and the entire Drag My Dark Into The Dawn AU series the fic is part of, and I suggest you access the series while logged in, because a couple of the fics are registered users only, I promise it's worth it) and The Weaver by Concerned_Brown_Bread! Both feature OCs as protagonists, a Senju for the former (Tobirama's granddaughter) and an Uchiha for the latter (Itachi's elder twin sister).

Drag My Dark has to be one of the most immersive fiction experiences I've had, up there with the manga Otoyomegatari (if you know, you know), the character psychology is top-notch, the author expertly weaves worldbuilding into the narration in a way that it's so seamless and not at all like an infodump, I like to describe it as “a slice-of-life except that the characters live in a horrible war-torn war and that affects how they navigate their lives”. The world just feels lived-in. There's information about how wars cause sanctions and prices to rise and a good highlight on what it's like to be a civilian in this kind of world. The protagonist is still a child, but the author captures children in their writing so well. She's a traumatized young child and she acts like that!! Her trauma informs how she views everything, and her being raised by civilians (long story, read the prequel to find out lol) affects how she views shinobi and the world at large! I can't wait for what the story has in store for her. We're entering the Kirigakure arc 👀 (also heavily featuring so far are Tsunade and Kushina!! Kushina's chapter has got to be one of my favorites)

The Weaver takes on a different vibe and path regarding the politics and worldbuilding, but also really plausible and I love how the author incorporates academic excerpts from the future like snippets from a history book into the chapters itself like it just gives this work such a grand feel of “oh things are gonna have consequences, we're along the ride of a big, world-changing tale”. The characterization is top-notch in this fic. You really do feel the complicated dynamics between the family members, how for all that Itachi is a prodigy he is also just a child and thus lacks the perspective to see propaganda for what it is, and the author does so brilliantly by contrasting him against his twin sister, the protagonist, who's a reborn adult (a politician in her past life who died of heat stroke before election day, which is objectively the funniest premise for a reincarnation EVER). The protagonist is witty, smart, funny, relatable, and just all-around very good. She lives rent-free in my head, can you tell? I know the fic is on hiatus but I had the privilege to read the unpublished chapters because ✨beta✨ and I promise you, it's very well worth it.

Both fics give weight to civilians instead of immediately dismissing them as “weak and stupid”, I love love love both fics and please please please read them I promise they're amazing! They have very different vibes but they're both amazing.

As for my fic, yeah I did base my protagonist off of Sansa Stark, LOL. I even tried to incorporate Sansa's lines from the first book into my own writing to really sell the vibe!

I love Whirlpool Queen, Maelstrom King but the politics in Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust take on a very different shape from WQMK's— a bit more like wolfghost's Drag My Dark. I too will feature civilians in this fic! Daimyo's and nobility and merchants and commoners alike! Please look forward to it! I have Plans™ for Uzushio's politics and its role in the world as a whole.

Hello lovely!!! Glad you dropped by to drop some recs!

[allthegothihopgirls]

i think most of the robins bit people in fights at some point. they never really talked about it but i think it’s almost a requirement because as much as they’re all very traumatized children they’re also very feral children, in spandex suits, fighting mentally ill people, so it had to have happened a few times.

also i think damian’s one of those kids who goes up the stairs on all fours when no one is looking. let him be a weird gremlin of a kid when no one’s around

i'm not sure that 'feral' is the exact term i'd use when describing the robins, except maybe young jason. i think they're a lot more unhinged than they are feral. as much as dick was a 'circus freak', and tim rarely had attentive parental figures, and damian was raised by the league, their upbringings were still all somewhat controlled + structured.

i think that with the biting, although it goes unmentioned, bruce would notice it (and maybe touch on it not being the ideal attack to make), but apart from that i just don't think it's something they really recognise as a 'thing'.

(i have a lot of thoughts about the headcanon of jason actually biting people as a defence mechanism, whether it be in combat or at the manor, but that's somewhat off-topic.)

i see a lot of people saying that they don't think damian would bite or engage in all that 'unsophisticated' behaviour because of his upbringing, but i just don't agree. at the end of the day he's still a kid, and slowly letting go of the negative practices enforced on him by the league. of course he's going to still have childish impulses, i think he just learns to give into them more the longer he stays at the manor.

i think if he were to get into hand-on-hand combat with any of his older brothers (even if it be over something stupid), he would sooooo resort to biting them if they had him in some kind of hold. he might even do it as robin. i've seen people who say he wouldn't diminish his training by resorting to that, but once again i don't agree. he's resourceful, biting is just another skill in his arsenal, and he's 100% aware that it adds to his little shit reputation™.

and he definitely just. acts like a kid sometimes, and is SO odd about it. whether it be by going up and down the stairs weirdly, meowing to alfred the cat, making race car tracks out of household items that span several rooms, getting overly excited about a certain tv show or book series, choosing outfits that clearly don't match but make him happy, etc etc (i have a post about how damian might act like a regular kid, in more detail)

[espritradieux]

Ok why is there an anti Acherswan movement on the Hoyolab app? Yes, I saw the violent murder as much as everyone else but come on, since when has murder and violence not just been extra fuel for shipping? And have you seen them dancing?

Also, reminder that Acheron is not actually brutally tearing Black Swan to pieces, Black Swan is just being violently traumatized by Acheron's memories, memories that Acheron herself doesn't remember, so I really doubt she's doing that on purpose.

I stand for potentially self destructive to toxic Acherswan any day.

As I said in my Memories of Crackling Dahlias ™ post all those months ago, when we still thought Constance would be seen alive on screen, they know their goal is to kill each other but they're still ridiculously attracted to each other.

[semisolidmind]

OKAY BUT THE POST W SWK AND MAC AS LIL MONKEYS..... AGSKABSJAB IM ???🥹?? THE WAY YOU DREW THEM WAS SO CUTE...

THAT IDEA HAS SO MUCH FUN POTENTIAL TO THINK ABOUT OMG

imagine some guy flirting w/ reader or something like that and just two tiny monkeys sitting on her shoulder with a look that screams Murder™ in their tiny beady eyes LMAO

or (alternatively):

some asshole guy starts getting pissy because Reader didn't accept his aggressive advances... and proceeds to get his shit rocked when the two tiny monkeys on Reader's shoulders reveal themselves to be huge monkey boys (which — unfortunately for the guy, aren't very forgiving to those who dare bother their favorite human)

(oh man. and reader doesn't know that the boys are demons yet, so seeing her two lil buddies turn into demon warlords before her eyes would be a bit traumatizing)

but fr i love the idea of reader's adventures with her two tiny monkey companions. she comes to be known as the "monkey lady" in town cause these lil guys are always on or around her while she's at the market. like, they're normally so chaotic; stealing food, overturning baskets and jars, running underfoot and tripping people, riling up any dogs in the area. but now that they're hanging out with reader, they don't really leave her side, and since she buys them food, they're not stealing as much. normally the townspeople would be suspicious of this, but they're reaping the benefits of less monkey mischief, so they don't really care.

that's not say the monkey bros are completely tame. they are still infamous demon warlords, so mass murder is still on the table. just...not when reader is around.

i also really like the image of the two lil guys cuddled up to reader while she sleeps. they don't do it every night (they've got plundering and murder to do, afterall), just like they can't hang out with her every day, but sometimes they'll stay over.

maybe it's a bit of a fight over who gets to sleep where. her chest is one such spot, and swk often gets to it first. but mac likes sleeping in the crook of her neck. it's nice to be curled up in a little ball where he can easily listen to her heartbeat.

[tragedry]

What headcanons do you have for the spider-man Tyler AU? (It's awesome btw!!). How did he get bit? Does Taylor know? What are the others up to?

sorry for the late response anon, life got a bit busy (projects, responsibilities, getting sick, etc)

anyway, this ask has been haunting my narrative for so long and i really wanted to go ham with my answer, and now that i'm in bed rest (as per my doctor's advice) and bored out of my mind, i feel like i can finally settle down and answer your questions!!

1. how did Tyler get bit?

he got bit during the summer, specifically on a trip to savannah. okay, so in this AU the location is set to NY bc i really can't imagine spiderman being anywhere else lol, which means this AU is very different from the canonverse.

though the twins were still born in Georgia, they're now studying in NY with full scholarships (to get that 🤑🤑) they still make the effort to visit home every weekend if they can (for their mom)

which brings us back to how Ty got bit.. so during the summer, the twins spent most of their time at home, and on their way back to campus, they went to Savannah on a whim and that's where they came across the weird haunted house and Ty got bit by a radioactive spider.

(i don't really have much thoughts about the details, but the event was very wild for the both of them, hence why the two have a matching 'I survived my trip to Savannah' t-shirt lol)

2. Does Taylor know?

Yes, her sibling intuition was definitely telling her something was up after their weird trip to Savannah, and the more Ty seemed to change and keep away from her, the more she needed to know what was going on.

She finds out eventually, but the cost is very high... (referring to my last spiderman tyler art)

3. What are the others up to?

As of the moment, i've only ever thought about Ashlyn in this AU apart from the twins.

Basically, she's Ty's lab partner.

(i already have a fic i plan on writing for this, but it's not gonna be ready for a while)

HEADCANONS:

Ty is still part of the varsity (for hus scholarship)

Tay is in the mechanics club (she ends up helping Ty with his spiderman suit later on once she finds out about his double life)

The scars on Ty's face is from the traumatic accident™

Ashlyn is the second to suspect Ty's hiding something, though she doesn't really pry him for answers

Everyone's a bit older in this AU, i'm thinking 16 or older tbh

alright, i think that's it for now. thank you for letting me yap about this AU of mine, and if anyone's interested to know more, feel free to ask me stuff!!

(you can also check out the tag 'AU: SPIDERVERSE' for any updates!)

[mayzi33]

****THE WARDEN AND THE WOLF KING SPOILERS****

Do you ever stop to think about how *guilty* Janner, Kal and Leeli must have felt after the war?

We all know Janner's whole journey has him feeling Older Sibling Guilt™, Tink experienced unspeakable self-hatred at the age of 11 for allowing himself to be turned to a fang, and Leeli, bless her heart, as if loosing Nugget wasn't enough, she also lost every. Single. One. Of her hound dogs during the war, having no choice but to send them out in the battle field.

Just- they're 12-13. 11. And 9. They're babies. They grew up longing for a father, and overnight they found out their father was a king, that they're the so called Jewels Of Anniera Gnag is after, and now they have to live on the run after watching their cottage burn down in flames. Just-

These kids have been chased, kidnapped, tortured, enslaved, bullied and neglected all through the series. Had to grow up faster by force. All of Green Hollows was constantly at their necks for something they had no control over. And when one of the fangs invades Green Hollows in the fourth book to warn them to either hand over the kids or a war is coming, said fang tries to turn the hollowsfolk agaisnt them AGAIN by putting the blame on those innocent kids.

They didn't ask to be Jewels Of Anniera. They didn't ask to have that power. They didn't ask Gnag to be obsessed with them.

Yet they've experienced a war. A war that even though it was entity Gnag's and Bonifer's fault, the **jewels of Anniera** were the cause. Because they didn't surrender.

These kids lived on the run, were contantly on the edge and unsafe for over a year. And when they finally thought they found a home, safety in Green Hollows, they were forced to see people they knew, people who had learned to accept them, their friends, die. Die defending them. Die protecting them.

Their father died protecting them. Their grandmother died protecting them. Nugget died protecting them. Rudric died protecting them. Podo died protecting them.

They're the ones who defeated Gnag. They're the ones who led the war. Janner is the one who saved all the clovens and fangs. Kalmar acted like a king and took responsability. The Hollowsfolk wouldn't have lasted a day without Leeli.

They're the heroes. Yet at what cost?

Just imagine how traumatized these kids are. Imagine how many nights they'll go without sleep. Imagine how much these children blame and hate themselves for something that I was out of their control and nowhere their fault. Imagine how tired they are.

Just- imagine.

[lovemyromance]

Let's talk about the dreaded pliant bones argument in ACOTAR

First of all, I don't ever want to see this stupid argument anywhere, especially after HOFAS. Second of all, none of the Archeron sisters are Illyrian so they do not have Illyrian anatomy suitable for childbirth. And yet, we see Feysand and Nessian as mates. So it's not like SJM even cared about that herself.

Then ACOSF happens, and oh no, c-sections don't apparently seem to exist and it becomes a BIG DEAL™ that Nesta changed only her own body and Feyre's body to have Illyrian anatomy.

People have been latching onto this argument like Rose on the goddamn Titanic, anything to cling to their sinking ship.

Let's not forget that Elain & Nesta had their bodies changed already once before, against their will. Why the hell would Nesta change Elain's body without obtaining consent after that traumatic experience? That would be a gross violation of bodily autonomy.

And Nesta was shown how to change the bodies. Which could hint that she still knows how, should a similar situation arise again.

But none of that even matters! What matter is that it's 2024 and we are still saying a woman can't be with the man she loves because she can't give him biological children. That is the crux of the argument Gw*nriels always try to skip around and say without saying. Like "oh no!! She can't have his babies!! Ship sank. It's over. The End."

As if a woman should be reduced down to her ability to procreate. This is not the middle ages people! Wake up!

Also, not to mention, even if we use that disgusting logic - The only other female in this series that is mentioned to have Illyrian anatomy is Emerie. Are we shipping Azriel with Emerie now? Because she can FOR SURE have his babies, if that's all that matters. Who cares about her own desires and personality and sexual preferences if she can have illyrian kids??

Now let's consider what people have been latching onto:

Gwyn...is flexible and adapts to training moves quickly. That's why Nesta commented she had "pliant bones", that's IT. She is part nymph and "has different anatomy than high fae", sure, but is that anatomy in any way, Illyrian? Water nymphs don't have Illyrian leathery wings either so I don't understand why insisting Gwyn has "pliant bones" is in any way endgame ship material. Why would her half-water nymph heritage give her the anatomy to birth a full grown illyrian-winged baby??

And then there's the cowards that use this argument by hiding behind SJM herself by saying "Well, I hate it too, but SJM is *kinda* known for writing like this and her characters are all male-dominated, fae-territorial blah blah, she is *kinda* hinting at endgame because the womb thing–" NO. No.

Don't hide. Tell the room exactly what you are saying. Which is the exact same misogynistic spiel as above, where you try to use gross medieval logic to justify your mf fictional ship, but you hide your faces when you say it. Because you know it's wrong, but you're still not above using that as "evidence" in your ship's favor.

I've even said before, I don't care what SJM says. If I don't like a misogynistic take, I am not using that as evidence in any capacity for any reason.

I'm not even being biased by my preferred ship. I genuinely just want people to stop using this argument because it's hurtful to women as a whole. Ship wars are fine, but ffs, when did we get to the point where we are pitting two women against each other based on whose uterus is more suitable??

And before you even say "I just have a problem because I ship Elriel" No. No.

It's about these kinds of cheap arguments in general. I have also never been one to go off saying how Gwyn can't be a valid love interest because her past SA trauma - That argument is also archaic and hurtful. I've never once used it. I don't like seeing it.

Can we just - Not do it? The only reason such arguments have gained traction is because they're constantly echoed by the toxic sides of the fandom online. It's gross and I don't want to be a part of a group that condones that.

Ship who you want, but let's just be respectful about it. We should not have to resort to cheap arguments like the above.

[temtamtom]

I'm curious about the Papal States/Vatican!! 😮 What are his relationships like with the Ita Bros and Rome? Love your content and art btw!! <333

Tagging the pookie @starsmadeinheaven bc they're a fellow Pietro enjoyer

hehe thanks! I'm glad you enjoy my cringe (/lh) <3

I think for this answer I'll just focus on Pietro's relationship with Rome and Romano, since they're not dynamics I focus on too much. Reminder that I'm not a historian, so if I get things wrong please be kind and respectful <3 I've also, of course, had to oversimplify some stuff haha

ROMANO -

I think Pietro likes Romano quite a bit. He’s a religious fellow who respects Pietro and the church’s authority. Romano, on the other hand, gets annoyed by his pompous, ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, and really dislikes the way he talks about and treats Feliciano. But he won’t say anything to his face because he’s such a Good Catholic™ and he doesn’t want to risk getting on the church’s bad side. It certainly doesn't help that Pietro can be so charismatic, either. His resolve and attitude quickly turn into jelly, and he becomes quite the goodie two-shoes when around Pietro.

This does frustrate Feli, though. Romano is generally protective over him and will defend him if necessary, yet he struggles to speak up against Pietro.

ROME - 

I’m still working on my headcanons about Pietro’s childhood, so stuff is bound to change! I’m still debating what his identity as a personification is tied to, especially at such a young age. For now, his roots are tied to the very early beginnings of the Holy See (/Apostolic See). And, like I do with a lot of nation headcanons, he was likely kicking around for a bit before he started forming an ‘identity’ as a personification. So I think he’s been around for approx. 2000 years. 

(A small aside, but I think it’d be interesting if Pietro had some personal dilemmas on what exactly he represents. Is he the church? Or is he just the people living within the Vatican? When he was The Papal States he never thought much of it, seeing as he was free to be more than just a religious institution. But now he can’t help but wonder and it’s… confusing.)

Pietro wasn’t raised by Romulus, nor does he have any blood relation to him. They largely ignored each other for a while- Romulus had other, more pressing matters to occupy his time and Pietro steered clear from Romulus, keeping to himself and his practices (though he’d still face some ire/scrutiny from the Romans from time to time). But things took a drastic turn after the Great Fire of Rome, with Nero's persecution of Christians. Romulus, also greatly hurt and angered from the fire, was pulled into the frenzy, and his opinion on Pietro seemingly changed overnight. In his state of mind, Pietro was no longer just some strange kid trying to find his way in the world, but a possible threat that needed to be caught and extinguished. Pietro was eventually caught, and this is when he likely experienced his first death. 

I think Pietro’s opinion now towards Rome is quite mixed. Despite not being related to Rome, and ultimately being persecuted by the man, his city wound up in Pietro’s hands (along with other large swathes of his former territories). Through this he was exposed to Rome’s cultural legacy, and grew to (begrudgingly) respect it. Rome was a great man who achieved many great things, but he also traumatized Pietro and hurt his people (and other peoples, too). He’s not entirely sure what to think.

[aihoshiino]

i wonder how different the story would have gone if, instead of sending ryosuke, kamiki would have visited ai on his own.

the part of me that needs them to be happy says that while he isn't necessarily enamored with the twins at first, he still tries to his best with them. maybe they think he's their new babysitter at first, that'd be funny.

anyways, kamiki awkwardly co-parenting with ai and both of them fumbling through being exes and parents and still caring so deeply for eachother but also being too traumatized to properly communicate.

aqua and ruby are first hostile when they realize that this is the man that got ai pregante™, and then they become the twos biggest shippers. cue incredibly convoluted attempts to get them together again. (i feel that it is important to point out that they're still toddlers at that time, which would make this extra funny)

So the thing about HKAI and the mess that was their relationship is that Hikaru sending Ryosuke in his place is ultimately a symptom, not a cause. It is a consequence of his arrested development in regards to Ai and his inability to conceive of a world where the two of them exist separate of their relationship. To a degree, asking 'could Hikaru and Ai be happy if he didn't send Ryosuke' is kind of asking for Hikaru to be a different character, because at the place he's at at the moment he makes that decision, he can't not make that choice. I've described Ai's tragedy in the past as being simultaneously preventable and unavoidable and the same goes for Hikaru. It's like a fucked up reverse Oroborous - in order to create the conditions for him to be a happier and healthier person, he must already have started taking the steps towards becoming that person - or at least to be further down the road than he is at the equivalent point in canon.

Even if we remove Ryosuke from the picture, I can't really imagine things going that well. I kind of touched on it in a previous ask but even the one-sided conversation we hear that seals Ai's fate raises a lot of red flags for me. He leaps to assuming that Ai is trying to get back together with him and when gently turned down romantically but still offered an opening back into her life as the father of her children, he chooses to betray her trust and send someone to terrorize and potentially hurt Ai and their children so she could 'feel his despair'. Even if we believe his insistence that he really didn't think Ryosuke would kill her, this is still an utterly reprehensible thing to do. It implies a level of not just desire but outright entitlement - that he feels he has the right to 'punish' Ai for… what? Not wanting to rush back into a relationship with him after like, five years of minimal-to-no contact? When he's gone right ahead and proved that the issues that caused their breakup have not been resolved?

Obviously, this is not to say that Hikaru doesn't sincerely love Ai with all his heart or that he doesn't care for her at all. I actually think that contradiction between his clearly observable feelings for her and the actions he nevertheless chooses to take is really fascinating in what it adds to him as a character. A big part of the reason why Hikaru's so fucked up is because he's so deeply in love with Ai and so utterly unable to cultivate a nuanced or healthy relationship with his idea of her.

So… I guess if I'm honest, my vision of it is more Hikaru using visiting the twins as a way of leveraging his way back into Ai's life, successfully or otherwise. I don't really see a scenario where Hikaru is able to work out his shit and become a decent father or partner for Ai, just because too many of his issues are tangled up in this longed-for codependence with her. Maybe this older and wiser Ai could find a way to save him like she wished for, but… is it really fair to put that weight on her shoulders? Why should she, a person with her own desperate struggles and lack of support, go right back to performing the backbreaking emotional labor that contributed to that all-consuming codependence in the first place?

To be clear, I'm saying this as a proud HikaAi shipper who loves a fucked up life-warping codependent romance, but in the context of Oshi no Ko and when we're talking about what would actually make these characters happy, I think Hikaru and Ai, at the place they are at the time of the tragedy, are not in a position to make each other truly fulfilled and happy.

askslmdslkdlsmdsl i'm so sorry anon you sent me such a cute prompt and got this utterly harrowing essay in response 😭 I'M SORRY THAT'S JUST HOW IT CAME OUT

[silviakundera]

"Fine. Xiu is unlucky. He was born to implicate people."

"Don't worry. If God sees I'm not a good person, he'll allow me to live a long life."

@dangermousie got me watching Eternal Brotherhood for the RIDE & DIE FRIENDSHIP and the historical drama flamboyant, incorrigible, badass main character of it all

boyyyyy that main character is indeed an entertaining motherfucker. This is kinda like if you took Yu Shisan from A Journey to Love and put him in a blender with the scheming protagonist of The Ingenious One. Then made that dude a general who is secretly v good at: (a) his job and (b) pretending to be a hapless scoundrel.

I didn't get his whole chaotic neutral vibes at first but by the second episode I was in love with him.

I hear tell this was a 40 episode drama that was streamlined into 24 and you can feel it - no extra filler, just Stuff Happening all the time.

Everyone is just constantly plotting and faking it 24/7. And the good guys are pretending to be Very Ok™ while screaming inside.

Very attractive cdrama. Pretty people, nice sets, great cinematography - they didn't have a huge budget and that's being handled with creativity. It doesn't look cheap at all. It's a small thing, but the way they try to use natural light makes things feel more real and middle-ages-y.

The death flags are everywhere. They're here for a good time, not a long time 👌

Despite knowing better, I'm shipping main character disaster man with his childhood sweetheart, because she's also shameless & during 7 years of exile instead of letters he has just been occasionally sending her momentos of traumatic events he's experienced. No communication but here, I bestow you horse hair. Another year, a feather. Ah, today a dead scorpion! And dear reader, she accepts and stores them all. Romance is not a main plot but please doomed narrative, just let them both live 🙏.