#and the problem being - that if your hero is to be a role model to someone; and also commended for effectively committing suicide;

[leori-the-unlearned]

the problem with (mostly children-aimed) media friendships having these grand gestures and deep friendships most of the time is, if a lonely child’s only knowledge of friendship shines through the portrayals of grand gestures and huge generosity and unconventional tolerance - they won’t recognize friendship as it starts meekly, or friendship when it is subtle. they won’t be able to light the match and start the fire without kerosene and a torch, and once they leave this warm safe place with tools, they will be lonelier still.

the same vein as ‘media that presents the human experience’, drawing characters with asymmetry and crooked teeth and such because real people are like that and it’s normal, having media that can show the disappointing parts of life as something that still happens even if something goes great. not like a deep dramatic swandive into hazard or loss, but a simple disappointment, dissatisfaction.

[mystisophia]

Some nights, Tony would sneak through Peter's bedroom window just to fuck him. The thrill of having to be quiet, the possibly of being caught by Peter's aunt made the situation even hotter— especially for Tony.

Why? You might ask.

Well, Peter was especially sensitive and loud during sex, so, when they had this kind of "clandestine sex", Tony would bury Peter's face into the pillow to muffle his moans, or silence him with his mouth as he fucked Peter senseless, treating him like his "personal sex toy" pushing him to the limit. A single loud noise and it could all gone wrong, pure adrenaline.

they always got away with it. They were never caught. No suspicions raised.

Until one morning...

Peter came home from school, the door to his room was ajar and the apartment was tidier than it was early this morning.

Spring cleaning happened here? Definitely.

He never really mind that his aunt came into his room when he wasn't there. It used to be a problem back when she didn't know his identity as Spiderman— But now? Not a big deal anymore.

So he walked into his own room, carefree.

But oh. There she was. Sitting on his bed. Serious look.

Peter froze. What? what happened?

Then he remembered. Tony had come over last night.

Had she heard them? Or worse, seen them

"We need to talk"

Shit.

Not the "We need to talk" crap.

Millions of possibilities ran through Peter's mind, one worse than the other.

But not this one.

May found the used condoms in the trash can.

Uh oh.

She wasn't upset, in fact she was proud that her nephew was being safe even if the pregnancy card wasn't on the table (since she already knew Peter was gay) But still, proud.

The problem came when May started to flooding him with questions like:

Who was he sleeping with? How long had it been going on? Why hadn't he told her about his first time? Didn't he trust her? Did he have more than one sexual partner???

Cornered. panicking.

The word "boyfriend" slipped out of Peter's mouth.

Oh no, Peter...

Now May wanted to meet this so-called "boyfriend". She wanted to see if he was good enough for her nephew, if he really cared about him and respect him propertly.

But how did you tell your beloved aunt that your boyfriend was nothing less than Iron Man? Huh? How did you explain that to her?

The hero who was also your mentor, your role model, the person your aunt trusted to take care of you.

Peter was screwed and not in the fun way.

If Tony showed up at their apartament door claiming to be his "boyfriend", Peter knew his aunt would castrate him with her bare hands.

Fuck.

And he also knew Aunt May wouldn't let this go easily

Double fuck.

(sorry again for my bad english, not my first language ugh-)

~ mystisophia 🍒

[whizzing-fizzbee]

Some Protector

Sebastian Sallow x F!Reader

Rating: Explicit/MDNI; all characters are adults Words: ~4,800 Tags: MDNI, smut, breakup and makeup, makeup sex, romance, light angst, angst with a happy ending

Summary: It's been six months since Sebastian Sallow ended your relationship, citing fear that your association to him could send you to Azkaban. When you're forced to reunite at your friends' wedding, you make it clear you need Sebastian more than you need his protection.

Notes: Just a little one-shot inspired by the song "Some Protector" by Role Model because the bridge has been stuck in my head for weeks. Split this into two parts, with the second part being a quick little dose of smut. Skip it if you want. All characters are adults.

Read on AO3 or below the cut.

“She isn’t coming.”

Sebastian Sallow squinted at Ominis Gaunt in counterfeit confusion. And though Ominis couldn’t physically see his best friend’s expression, he scowled with irritation.

“Don’t be daft, Sebastian,” Ominis chided. “I know you’re looking for her. But she isn't coming. She’s got work tonight.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Sebastian was a good liar, but Ominis was far too perceptive to be fooled by his oldest friend. After all, Ominis had heard the worst of Sebastian’s lies throughout the course of their friendship, and he always discovered the truth.

“Even if she did show up, it’s not like you’d gather the stones to talk to her anyway,” Ominis noted. Sebastian sucked his top row of teeth.

“I don’t have anything to say to her,” Sebastian said simply. It was a frail, meek attempt at another lie, too farfetched for him to speak with his entire chest. Sebastian knew it, and Ominis snorted right through it. 

“Sebastian.” It was Ominis’ turn to sigh. “If you’re going to spew nonsense, at least put some effort into it. And stop insulting my intelligence.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes in defeat. “She hates me,” he noted. “She wouldn’t want to hear what I have to say.”

“Another lie. She loves you. She always has, Merlin help her.”

“It doesn’t matter, Ominis,” Sebastian pressed, his tone sharpening with more irritation. “It’s over between us and it’s better off this way.”

“Tell that to Natsai,” Ominis muttered. “She’s still fuming at the two of you. Mostly you.”

Sebastian’s lips thinned. There was no use searching for you at Garreth Weasley’s 21st birthday party that night when Sebastian would be seeing you at Garreth and Natsai’s wedding in a few short weeks.

You were both in the wedding party, regardless of the breakup that threatened to splinter your entire friend group. But you, ever the selfless one, remained determined to make Natsai’s wedding day as perfect as she deserved, so you promised her that the presence of your ex-boyfriend would make no difference. You were fine, you swore, despite the way you’d sobbed in her arms the September evening Sebastian declared your relationship over.

Of course, Natsai knew better. She saw the way you picked at your food, your frame shrinking in size within weeks. She watched the way your shoulders slumped at the mention of marriage and romance. She noticed the way your chest caved whenever an unknowing mutual friend asked about Sebastian, the way the dim light in your eyes darkened when you were forced to spend a single thought on him.

She offered to kick him out of the wedding party, regardless of Garreth’s protests, but you scolded her for even considering a change of plans. You were tough, a hero who received respect wherever you went. You swore you could handle the presence of the man who broke your heart. Your friends deserved to have you both at their wedding and you’d be damned if you let your personal problems dampen their day.

Besides, even Garreth pulled you aside after your breakup to scold Sebastian behind his back – his own good friend – for hurting you. Something along the lines of, “A downright git who needs his head kicked in.” You smiled graciously and told Garreth you were fine. Then you went home and cried so hard, you threw up your dinner. 

But now, months later, you were surviving. Maybe even fine. Not great, not even good, but you no longer pictured yourself freefalling from the tallest building in London, so surely progress was made. And you’d also met someone new.

Felix Hawthorne was handsome and refined, a man who carried himself with confidence and poise. He was a gentleman who opened doors for you and bought you flowers. He didn’t curse and he was always on time. You’d only been seeing him for four weeks, but you were hopeful for a future with him. 

You didn’t have the emotional intelligence to acknowledge the way you averted your eyes when he praised you, or the way you didn’t think about him as you fell asleep at night. You didn’t dare address the fact you didn’t know the color of his eyes. All you knew was he had smooth, ivory skin, free of any freckles.

He wasn’t the person to consume your most intimate and maddening thoughts, but you told yourself he could be. And at this point, you were merely clinging to the hope of it all.

When Sebastian heard you were dating someone new, Merlin help the poor potted plants that lined the windowsill of his office. They were blasted to bits until flecks of terracotta littered the floor. 

Sure, he’d been the one to end your relationship. It had been under the guise that you deserved someone who wouldn’t risk your future with a dark and reckless past, but something inside Sebastian also clung to the hope that someday he could have you again. Optimism had always been his Achilles.

But the Ministry of Magic’s inquiries hadn’t stopped. In fact, their investigation into Solomon Sallow’s death had intensified after they discovered someone had sealed up the catacomb in Feldcroft with mysterious ancient magic. Despite Anne Sallow’s insistence that Solomon had died from a heart issue, it was Ministry protocol to investigate every Auror’s death, past and present. You, Sebastian, Anne and Ominis were questioned on multiple occasions about that day, and when the Ministry Aurors detected inconsistencies in your stories, suspicion spiked surrounding Solomon’s demise.

The sealed catacomb had been your doing, part of your determination to prevent Sebastian from ever entering such a sinister place again. But selfishly, it was also your attempt at concealing any potential evidence of your duel with Solomon from that fateful day. You were protecting Sebastian, and he hated it.

That’s why your relationship started to strain until its final fibers became too frayed for any more fissure. Sebastian shoved you away in fear your connection to him could get you into trouble. You’d done enough to protect him, and he’d be damned if you became complicit in his chaos. He hated himself for dragging you into his darkness, and decided he was far too deep inside his demons to be touched by light. Even though you were that light.

It all made sense in Sebastian’s mind. He wanted to protect you for once. But in your eyes, he’d cast you aside and deemed you incapable of loving him properly. Despite being a Healer, you had never tried to fix Sebastian. You had only wanted to support him.

Your friends all told you it was beyond your control, that Sebastian was the one who wasn’t deserving of your devotion. Even Ominis admitted that Sebastian simply may be too damaged for you. 

But you had always seen beneath the ripped edges of the masterpiece that was Sebastian Sallow. In fact, the more imperfect he became, the more you loved him.

Sebastian didn’t understand, which was why he found himself sulking in the corner of the bar during Garreth’s birthday celebration. Your mutual friends didn’t dare broach the topic of you. Some of them pitied Sebastian. Some knew you were seeing someone new. Some still blamed Sebastian for your falling out. Poor Amit Thakkar had spent the evening fighting to keep Poppy Sweeting too distracted to throw her drink at Sebastian, and Arthur Plummly called Sebastian a “pigeon-livered ratbag” straight to his face.

Still, most of your friends harbored a secret hope you and Sebastian would sort everything out and find your way back together – even Imelda Reyes, though she couldn’t help but stoke the flames a little. 

“Oi, you look worse for wear,” she said when she spotted Sebastian at Garreth’s party. Sebastian sighed. He had been trying to sneak out unnoticed. 

Sebastian and Imelda always got along for the most part. But you and Imelda had been close friends and roommates since your fifth year at Hogwarts, so you won her loyalty during the breakup. Not that you wanted any of your friends to choose sides. 

“She isn’t here,” Imelda said, much to Sebastian’s chagrin. He was getting sick of everyone assuming he was looking for you. Even if their assumptions were correct. 

“I know that,” Sebastian snapped. “I wasn’t looking for her. I was heading home.”

“She’s got a new boyfriend, you know. I hear he’s already been shopping for an engagement ring.” Imelda spoke with a serious tone and Sebastian couldn’t pinpoint her intentions. She was either trying to imply he should stay away from you, or she was sending him a warning to hurry up and win you back. Either way, Sebastian’s resentment surged. He swallowed his aggravation before he could lash out and sever another friendship. 

He left the birthday party but didn’t head home. Instead, he’d drown his sorrows at the bottom of a whiskey glass until he found some maiden to take home for the night. He wouldn’t learn her name, nor would he ever see her again. 

Sebastian Sallow was good at many things, but he was a master at turning his fuck-ups into something far more fallacious. 

—

The wedding was just the right amount of nauseating. That is, if one asked Sebastian. The last place he wanted to be was surrounded by most everyone he knew while they pretended to be moved by the notion that two people could meet and fall in love forever. Especially when you were going to be standing opposite of him, clad in an elegant gown with your hair pinned up while your new beau sat in the crowd.

The sight of you sucked the air from Sebastian’s lungs, leaving him void of all thought as he watched you laugh at something Poppy had said. The other bridesmaids chatted animatedly as they stood in a group around you, almost as if they were shielding you. And when you finally caught Sebastian’s eye, you did a double-take, your own breath vacating your body as you fought to control your emotions. 

His hair was shorter and held into place for once. You decided he looked as handsome as ever, though you’d always been fond of the tousled mop for hair he used to have. You didn’t know his hair had grown wild and unruly, a sign of his disheveled state, until he had a haircut just three days before the wedding. 

You looked away, determined to appear positively fascinated by Nellie Oggspire’s story while you waited for the ceremony to start.

But then Sebastian had to watch you saunter down that stupid aisle that seemed to stretch for miles. You were Natsai’s matron of honor, meaning you went last. So Sebastian waited. He stood there among the groomsmen while four of your friends smiled and walked ahead of you, and when you finally emerged through the double doors, Sebastian’s surroundings vanished and he forgot why he was standing there to begin with. The music faded and the pews melted into the floor. You may as well have burned that church to the ground. Sebastian wouldn’t have noticed.

Seeing you made Sebastian homesick. The ache in his chest bloomed into a rose bush, its thorns pressing puncture wounds through his heart with each step you made toward the altar. He hated how beautiful you looked, not that he expected anything less. He’d stare at you even if it killed him. It probably would, he thought.

But you remained hell-bent on staring at everyone – everything – except Sebastian. You forced a happy smile at Garreth, who was beaming with a giddy grin. You nodded at Professor Weasley, who sat in the second row of pews. And then you offered a soft, shy smile at Felix, who was only in attendance for you.

As you neared the end of the aisle and flashed a grin at Leander Prewett, who stood next to Garreth as his best man, you turned and waited for Natsai. You were certainly not thinking about Sebastian. Doing so would probably kill you, you thought.

The ceremony was easy – or as easy as one could hope for when their former significant other was standing mere feet away. But the reception was another story.

It was held in the garden at Garreth’s family home, filled with twinkling fairies and boisterous guests. When they weren’t on the bride and groom, all eyes were on you. Your friends watched you curiously, wondering if you and Sebastian would speak. Would you continue to pretend he doesn’t exist? Would you bury the hatchet and let bygones be bygones? Would you scream and shout, or worse, hex him into the next century? Knowing you, all three were valid possibilities. 

But you were committed to being the spitting image of composure – for Garreth and Natsai, and for your own dignity. So you avoided Sebastian like the Doxy Flu… until it came time to dance.

You were both expected to participate, though you both would have preferred to hurl yourself into the sea. But you silently thanked the higher powers for Felix, who danced with you as a welcome distraction from Sebastian’s brooding stare.

You could feel Sebastian’s eyes searing into the side of your head, unwavering in their assault on your inner peace. They clung to you like wet clothing, uncomfortable and heavy. 

Felix’s eyes did the same. He smiled as he kept his gaze on you, oblivious to the suffocation occurring inside you. It was too much attention from the worst imaginable two people – the man you wanted to love and the man you couldn’t help but love. 

“You look breathtaking tonight,” Felix offered. “It’s an honor to be your date.”

You should have melted at his flattery; instead, you bit back a laugh. It was far too formal for your liking. You were used to Sebastian, who was blunt and brash, brutally honest in all the best and worst ways. He would have told you how irresistible you looked and found some way to convince you to sneak off somewhere to do something spectacularly sinful. 

While you’d agreed to go out with Felix because of his polite and proper decorum, it quickly became clear you were trying far too hard to fall in love with the opposite version of your desires. Felix stood quietly, hand lifting yours while he maintained impeccable posture. You wanted nothing more than to sprint from the garden, hair wild and shoes in hand. 

As you spun mid-dance, you snuck another discreet glance at Sebastian. He was still watching you, still judging you in silence.

Annoyed and exasperated by Sebastian’s behavior, you finally crafted the courage to look him dead in the eye. He straightened as you did so, but didn’t look away or offer you any sort of expression. He didn’t need to.

Your ire flared and you excused yourself from Felix. You weren’t sure where you’d go, but you needed a secluded spot free from nosy onlookers. They couldn’t see you cry. He couldn’t see you cry.

You could hear Felix call after you, but you flashed him an assuring smile as you scurried away. Bodies brushed past you as you scrambled toward the house, stumbled up the staircase and found an empty bedroom. As soon as the door snapped shut behind you, you exhaled a shaky breath, your eyes finally leaking tears.

You swore at the sharp, sudden knock at the door.

“Be out in a minute,” you called cheerily.

“It’s me.”

Your eyes scanned the room for a window to jump from. A knife to plunge into your own chest. Maybe a vial of poison to ingest. Anything to prolong the inevitable. 

But before you could concoct a plan, the door creaked open. 

“Hey.” 

Your anger surged into full-fledged rage. This man dared to break your heart, stare at you like a jealous caged tiger all night, only to greet you as casually as a cup of morning coffee.

“Go away, Sebastian.”

“Can we talk?”

“No.” You rounded on him, praying your eyes weren’t red and puffy as you narrowed them. “We’ve nothing to talk about.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is for me.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Why do you care?” you snapped. 

“Don’t be like that,” Sebastian begged.

“Sebastian, get out.” 

“No. Not until you talk to me.”

You were starting to regret your decision to leave your wand at home.

“Sebastian,” you said with a forced tone of finality. “I don’t want to talk.”

“I just need five minutes,” Sebastian insisted. You blinked at him.

“If everything you need to get off your chest can be said in five minutes, I think I’d be better off not giving you the time,” you noted dryly. 

“That’s not what I meant-”

“I don’t care, Sebastian. Now let me out.”

“No.”

The ringing in your ears spiked to a deafening pitch. Panic swelled in your chest. You moved to push past him but he caught you by the shoulders. You squawked in protest and spun from his grip. 

“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” you cried. 

“Just hear me out! If you don’t want to discuss us, at least hear me out about the investigation.”

You stilled, your bottom lip disappearing behind your top row of teeth. “Fine. What about it?”

“I think it’s almost over,” Sebastian said. 

“Brilliant.”

“And whatever happens… I’m sorry.”

You weren’t looking at him. You wouldn’t. You couldn’t. Your eyes searched for something, anything to hold your attention. They fell on the bedroom dresser and its ornate gold knobs, slightly weathered from years of use.

“Bit late for apologies, Seb.”

“I know. But… whatever happens, I just want you to know I never wanted things to end up like this. And whatever happens, I still love you.”

The knobs on the dresser doubled as your vision blurred and your breath caught in your throat. You swallowed it back down and silently prayed your brain and mouth wouldn’t betray you. Instead of giving them the opportunity, you pursed your lips. 

“That all?” you finally asked, your arms folded across your chest.

“No. Who is he?”

“Who?”

“The bloke you brought today. Your date.”

“His name’s Felix.”

“Felix who?”

“Hawthorne.”

“What’s his deal?”

“There is no deal, Sebastian,” you said sharply. “He’s just the man I’ve been seeing.”

“Are you in love with him?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“What do you see in him?”

“Also none of your business.”

"Is it true he's going to ask you to marry him?"

"What?! Who told you that nonsense? Sebastian, you're off your rocker. Go seek help."

“Please don’t do this,” Sebastian pleaded. 

“Do what?” you deadpanned. “Sebastian, this is what you wanted.”

“The hell it is,” Sebastian snapped. He softened in an attempt to ease the tension. “You know I didn’t want this.”

“Then what do you want, Seb? Because if I recall correctly, you were the one who broke things off with me.”

“I only did it to protect you.”

“Protect me,” you repeated blankly. “Sebastian, when have I ever needed protecting?”

“This is different,” he insisted. “This isn’t a camp of Ashwinders or some duel. You can’t ancient magic your way out of Azkaban.”

“No one’s going to Azkaban,” you snapped. “Sebastian, they’ve got no proof. All they have is the word of Anne, Ominis and me. And we’ve all stood by you.”

“And that’s exactly why I did what I had to. I’m not letting any of you take the fall with me. I don’t want you lying on my behalf anymore.”

“Sebastian, that’s not your choice to make,” you noted. “I know you think you’re being selfless, but you’re not. Think of what losing you would do to Anne. Think of what it would do to me.”

You didn’t want to admit that. You didn’t want to make this about you. But it was. Maybe it was selfish, surely it was foolish, but it was the stark and honest truth. The truth, which was supposed to set you free. In reality, it merely shackled you to Sebastian.

Your words seemed to settle within him, seeping slowly into his conscience. 

“I’m not going to let you make any more sacrifices for me,” he said quietly.

“And what about the sacrifice I’ve made trying to let you go?” you responded, your tone matching his. It was less forceful, less angry, but it carried more weight. “What about the misery I’ve lived through every day, all because you think you know what’s best for me? All because you don’t love me the same way.”

“That’s not true,” Sebastian interjected quickly. “It had nothing to do with how much I love you. I’ve always loved you.”

“And yet you pushed me away and claimed it was for the best.”

“I was only trying to-”

“To protect me,” you deadpanned with heavy bitterness. “Yeah, I know.”

“Why don’t you believe me?”

“I do believe you, Sebastian. But it wasn’t up to you. You made the decision for me.”

“Because I can’t let anything happen to you! I love you too damn much to allow you to end up in prison because of me.”

“These past six months have been a prison anyway,” you shot back.

Your escalating words had peaked, plunging you both into a tired silence. You leaned backward against the dresser, arms still folded as Sebastian rubbed a palm against his cheek.

The wedding reception rumbled outside, its chorus of jubilant cheers and laughter contrasting the thick tension inside the bedroom.

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian said softly. “I’m sorry about everything. I shouldn’t have made assumptions. I shouldn’t have ended things between us. I just… I thought I could protect you and I thought if the Aurors dropped the investigation, I could make it up to you and win you back. And now you’re here with that other bloke and I can’t stand it and I feel like I’m losing my fucking mind.”

“Then why don’t you fix it?” 

Sebastian’s brow furrowed in confusion. “How?”

“Do you want to be with me or not?”

“Of course, I do! I’ve hated every minute of life since we broke up. But-”

“But what? You don’t want me to end up behind bars? For fuck’s sake, Seb, that investigation is meaningless. The Ministry will drop it as soon as the final review’s in,” you said. “It’s been six years since Solomon died. They have no proof. And even if they did, everyone who knows you would testify that he was an abusive drunk bastard who attacked us. We were fifteen.”

“But what if they do put me away?” Sebastian asked. “Then what?”

“Then nothing. I’d still love you.”

“And if they put you away too, for lying?”

“Then I’ll accept my fate. It’s out of our hands, Sebastian, so we might as well control what we can. I’d rather spend six weeks with you and end up in Azkaban than walk free without you.”

You were tired of talking, running short on any more vulnerable admissions; done with fighting, done pretending you cared about anyone other than Sebastian. You just wanted him back.

Sebastian was done, too. The mere sight of you standing in someone else’s arms had drained his final bit of resolve. But knowing you still wanted him – and only him – replaced his defeatist demeanor with something restless. He felt much more territorial, more entitled to you, and insulted that any other man assumed he could have you.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, stepping toward you. Your spine straightened as he reached for you, his hands finding their familiar favorite place at the contour of your waist. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

“You won’t, as long as you promise to stop making decisions for me.”

“I promise.” Sebastian kissed you gently and rested his forehead against yours. Your shoulders relaxed and his chest swelled with relief. You were both home again. “But what about that beau of yours?”

You heaved a sigh, your eyes falling shut as you realized you now had another dilemma on your hands. 

“I suppose I’ll have to let him down easy.”

“Why, what for? Just tell him to get lost.”

“Sebastian, that’s not nice. He’s a perfectly decent bloke.”

“Perfectly decent bloke. How… unimpressive,” Sebastian mused against your ear. He pressed a kiss just below your earlobe and dipped his head to explore your neck.

“Maybe I’ll just tell him my real boyfriend’s a murderer," you teased.

You could feel Sebastian smirk against your neck before he pulled away to meet your gaze with a sly stare. 

“Darling, you have no proof, remember?”

Part II (Smut warning)

By the time the bride and groom were cutting the cake, your gown was in a crumpled heap on the bedroom floor and Sebastian had you pinned against that old dresser. You always preferred pudding anyway.

A whine scratched within your throat as you felt his hand creep between your thighs as he stood behind you. 

“You missed me, didn’t you?” Sebastian purred against the nape of your neck, his fingers nudging your slick entrance. His erection pressed into your lower back while the edge of the dresser begged you to bend over it.

Six months since you’d felt the warmth of Sebastian’s breath against your skin. Six cruel, agonizing months since his fingertips had had any contact with your flesh. Six sadistic, barren months since you’d felt the real meaning of love.

You couldn’t make up for lost time. But you’d sure as hell try.

Sebastian’s cock sank inside your cunt until it reached the hilt. You held your breath as your walls became reaccustomed to the intrusion of his size. Another weak whimper exposed your submissive state.

“Fucking hell,” Sebastian groaned against your shoulder. He bucked his hips and you snapped forward at the waist with a cry, your fingers gripping the edge of the dresser for support.

The trinkets atop the dresser clinked and clattered as Sebastian’s hips set a steady pace. You choked down a moan as his cock drove through your walls, rocking you forward against the dresser. A trio of books toppled over. 

“Merlin, I missed you,” Sebastian panted. His hands gripped your hips like they were afraid to let go. You clenched yourself around him, pleading with his cock to present you with your favorite privilege. Not that you needed to beg. Sebastian always swore his favorite sight was when you crumbled around his cock.

The reception roared below, its jovial music and guests unaware of the debauchery happening above them. The only sounds you could hear were Sebastian’s words of appraisal in your ear. He told you how much he loved you, how good you were and how he’d be damned if he ever let another man near you ever again.

You whimpered over every syllable.

When Sebastian fell quiet, you knew it was a sign he was fighting for control. You didn’t expect this tryst to last long. You didn’t need it to. What you needed in this moment was for Sebastian to stake his claim on you again, forever, for life.

You weren’t sure what was stealing your breath more – the angle that made your passage feel particularly tight, or the edge of the dresser that threatened to leave rich, plum bruises where your thighs met your waistline.

The wood floorboards creaked beneath you, exposing your indiscretions. Sebastian thrusted harder, savoring the sensation of your slick, velvety walls as he silently prayed they’d spasm with your release soon. He always ensured you had your fill before he left you with his, but his selfish instincts were starting to stake their claim. 

And when he reached upward to give your hair a sharp tug, threatening to free the strands from the army of bobby pins fighting to hold it in place, you yelped in approval. Your back arched and Sebastian grazed his teeth against your neck. 

Finally, your walls seized and you let out a gutteral gasp, your knees threatening to buckle as Sebastian rendered you witless. Fire blazed through your core in the form of your pulsing finish until you slumped over the dresser, eyes still rolled back, while Sebastian’s composure snapped.

He groaned and held his hips flush against the backs of your thighs so tightly you could feel him twitching against you, fastening you up against the dresser while he emptied himself inside you. When he was done, he breathed a string of obscenities and stepped backward to free you from your union with the dresser.

“Alright?” he asked with a gentle hand to the small of your back. You nodded and gathered your bridesmaid gown. 

Once you were resheathed in the dress, Sebastian quietly helped you with the trail of buttons down the back. It wasn’t the first time he’d helped you into a dress and you felt nostalgic for your past. When you returned to the reception, clutching Sebastian’s hand as you descended the stairs, you clenched your jaw to suppress a smile as Natsai shot you a knowing stare. 

But this felt different now. The insecurities were gone and the future’s uncertainty no longer felt like a blade threatening to slice your relationship apart. You were confident and more determined than ever to protect Sebastian. Even if that meant protecting him from his own doubt.

[tagedeszorns]

Games Workshop should stop bringing back Primarchs to 40k.

The pros of having a towering, impressive model on the table and the warm and fuzzy feeling that your boys have their daddy again are by far outweighed by the cons.

Firstly, of course, the obvious problem of injustice. A few of them are deader than the dodo and can't just be pulled out of a hat. (Except by Fabius, of course, but that would take a lot of arm-twisting for his character to get him to clone them all again)

Then there's the return of such mythical beings, who in the completely over-the-top religiosity of the 40k world had the status of archangels or suchlike aloof creatures, and whose nimbus is now completely disenchanted - because they're just standing over there picking their noses and being their bickering selves again. Uncool.

Quite a few of the older 40k novels (and the newer ones too - see the near-war over Heresy writings in Titanicus) would be absolutely devalued and their protagonists practically ridiculed. Take Ragnar, for example, who was banished for something Russ would laugh out loud and heartily at.

And then, of course, the great heroes of 40k would suddenly be demoted to middle management. See Calgar. Who got to make a nice appearance in Space Marines 2, but is only half the hero he was before Bob's return. All the Chapter Masters who have stood out for their deeds so far. The sacrifices made by men like Forgefather He'Stan - all just preparation for Daddy? (He'Stan is a bad example in some ways, but then take Tu'Shan and the rest of the understrength Salamanders fighting for survival)

Especially with the Chaos Legions, it shifts everything. Fulgrim's return to lead the Emperor's Children is as good as a foregone conclusion. Which means that Eidolon is now slipping into Kaesoron's 30k role: he's just there, but hardly anyone will notice him anymore. The struggle to find themselves, to practically grow up - that is taken away from the Emperor's Children. They become simple weapons in the hands of their father again. And they don't deserve that.

Or just imagine: Lorgar comes out of the Cathedral, muzzles Erebus and Kor Phaeron, and the whole fascinating political landscape the two of them have built up is swept away in one fell swoop.

At least there's a chance that Abaddon as the current Undivided-Champion will just bash cloned-daddy's head in. Again.

But first and foremost: The story of the Primarchs is told. They had their over 60 book arc of greatness and fall and I loved all of it. But it's over. They created the foundation of the world we know in 40k, but they should not be part of it. They are larger than life and that ship has sailed. 40k has a radically different aesthetics than 30k and bleeding one into the other is just tearing down a carefully built world.

It will happen, that's for sure. And maybe the great authors of Black Library will surprise me and everything will be peachy.

One can hope.

[totallynotashieldagent]

the one where bruce wayne manipulates you into being his domme

everyone has kinks, thats not the problem - the issue is that a man like bruce wayne, a hero like the batman, that comes with its expectations- with stereotypes

everyone believes that a man who so anally wants everything under control, a man who has backups for backups would be hard, dominating in control everywhere in his life

except... that's just not the case

he wants he needs to lose control, let go, desperately wants someone to tell him what to do, how to be, give him praise for everything he does

but no one ever thinks he is that man- so he does what he'd never admit to. would probably take it to his grave. he manipulates you, trains you on a subconscious level to become his domme.

it starts small enough. he purposefully doesn't rest, runs himself ragged until you ask him to rest. he disagrees but as a teammate, you insist, so he sighs and nods, resting for just a bit

it spurs you on, that he listened! how wonderful!

these small things keep going, "when did you last eat" followed by "nnhhh not hungry" which leads to "please eat something, B." and he sighs, his lips pressed into a thin line but he does it. he goes and he eats something and you smile brightly.

it continues to "did you go to the medbay" after the missions which he says to "don't need to" but you tug at his wrist and look up at him with big eyes.

he feels himself shattering every time but he has to stay strong- you're not there yet- you're not controlling him enough yet. your concern and kindness is still full of boundaries and not forceful enough for him.

he wants you to break him. tell him what he's supposed to do, when he's supposed to eat and sleep, and hopefully, when he's supposed to cum.

the days turn into months and he knows he knows he knows he's supposed to be patient and careful. he can't rush this. he has to play it carefully. pull you into the role naturally. make you feel like you were made for this. for him.

however, all that goes to hell when he gets hurt on a mission. and now, he's laying in the medbay with the medical droids holding him down. everyone nudges you to the medbay, citing that "he only listens to you-"

so you go- you go and sit next to him until he gets better and much to your surprise, he does listen and he grunts and groans and sighs but he listens. and it makes something... tighten inside you.

the realization of how he only listens to you. he does what you say, he agrees regardless of how much he groans and sighs but he listens and it makes you wonder.

makes you wonder how far you could push it.

honestly, it was just a curiosity thing. nothing else at all. completely unaware of bruce's plans.

so you do. you push. you ask him small favours and you smile when he does them. you push and you ask him for things that you can do yourself and he does them.

these things pile up and you dont even realize how much you enjoy it. asking him softly, in the hush of JL meetings, during missions, on the way back- you just ask and he does it

then he starts to act out again, he knows he needs to push you more. he starts to give you a look when you ask him something, almost bordering on a make me challenge. so you start to ask him with "wont you be good for me, please?"

and that's when he knows he's got you- you're ripe for the taking. just a little more and he could finally be putty in your hands, under you, over you, anyway you want him to be

so he slowly starts to add a "yes ma'am" with his usual smirk every time he said it

finally- finally, everything came to fruition during an event

where he wasn't batman, he was brucie wayne and he was surrounded by models and socialites. he'd invited you just to watch him- see if you got jealous and god, he knew you were so jealous

so after it, the mask slipping. no longer brucie either. just him. just bruce. he comes to you-

"you seem upset." is met with, "no why would i be?" and he knows he's got you.

he talks softly, his voice low, guiding you to a secluded corner, invading your personal space. "please tell me what i did."

he watches the way you swallow dry. the soft plea is clearly everything to you. you look at him and it's just barely noticeable but he is who he is and notices it. the way your pupils dilate.

"i seem to have upset you. i didn't mean to. if there is anything ... would you tell me?"

the air feels charged suddenly. there's something twisting in your gut to say something but you still hold back so he pushes on.

"if i've made you upset... won't you want to... put me in my place?" he whispers, his hands press against the wall, caging you in.

you always knew he was tall but at the moment, he looks even taller. you look up at him and his eyes shine in a way that's so new. so unseen. you swallow again, whispering his name but before you can say more, he's on his knees, his hands at your hips.

"bruce... this is-"

"tell me to stop-" he looks up at you, his eyes so damn blue, it stutters your breath. "tell me anything and you know i will do it." he knows you won't tell him to stop, his chin leans closer, resting on your thigh. "I'll always do anything you ask-" he whispers, his mouth pressing kissing over your clothes, his eyes never leaving yours

this is it. he thinks. you're right at the edge-

"be good for me." you whisper, your fingers running through his hair.

the words are the fire he's been trying to burn for ages now. and finally, it's paying off.

"always- god- always, always, alwa-"

finally, he feels like he's home.

.

.

.

Drabble Masterlist

[weepingtalecowboy]

Hero tips from Legend

For Wild,Hyrule and Wind

Lesson No.1 how to get free rooms

Legend : “I can get us an Inn with three meals a day reasonably well maintained rooms and a bathroom all free of charge just follow my example all you need is to say you are my accomplices when talking to a guard”

Warriors: “Legend that is a FUCKING PRISON CELL?!?!?!”

Legend : “Only if you let it.”

“Prison’s just another option, really. You can always say no to it. If they don’t catch you, you’re good. It’s their problem, not yours.”

The young members of the chain(thoughtfully): “So, prison is only for those who get caught. I like that. It makes sense.”

The rest(horrified): “No, it does NOT make sense! If you break the law, they WILL come after you!”

Lesson 1.5 how to leave the hostel :

Legend: “If you get caught, don’t worry. Breaking out is half the fun. It’s like a puzzle in a dungeon . You just need to be smarter than the guards.”

Young Heroes (taking notes): “Right. Prison break—step one: outthink the guards.”

Seniors (in disbelief): “That’s not supposed to be part of your life! You’re supposed to avoid prison entirely!”

Legend(casually): “And if you get locked up, just stay calm. Bars can’t hold you forever. There’s always a weak point. Find it.”

Wind(confidently): “Every prison has a weak point. Got it.”

Warriors(sighing): “I can’t believe I have to say this, but…don’t go to prison in the first place!”

Lesson No.2 how to deal with the fame:

Legend(smirking): “You know, if they start putting your face on wanted posters, that means you’ve earned their respect. They want you that badly. They’re paying attention to you now.”

Youngest (genuinely listening along ): “I knew it! If you’re wanted, it’s basically like they’re giving you an award for being a problem!”

Senior links(exasperated): “That’s not respect—that’s desperation to catch you!”

Legend(pointing to his wanted poster): “Look at that. They took the time to draw me! That’s how you know you’ve made an impression.”

Juniors(awed): “How do we get one of those?”

Senior Links (panicking): “You don’t want one of those! That means they’re after you!”

Lesson no.3 How to get “treasures” :

Legend being a helpful role model : “Stealing���s only a problem if you get caught. If they don’t notice, it’s basically a free trade.”

Juniors : “So it’s like finding treasure? I like it!”

Warriors(horrified): “That’s stealing! It’s not ‘treasure’ if it belongs to someone else!”

Legend (mock whispering) : “Then make it yours...”

Until next time with the hero of Legend's personal life tips about heroism

[bokettochild]

What is Legend’s and post-totk Wild’s relationship like? Does it change or is it the same?

Honestly, I keep trying to write an answer but all I have are inexplicable vibes.

It would change. Legend's the same as he was but Wild's grown up. Wild would be either 22 or 23 by the time TotK is over (in game we're told it's been 5 years since BotW) meanwhile Legend is still, at best, 17, but likely 16.

That's a 6-7 year age gap where before they were either the same age or very close.

Legend's still got his experience, but now Wild has the context of years, of knowing what normal looks like. Post BotW Wild has no concept of normal or peace, but post TotK Wild would have spent 5 years just existing and doing People Things. He knows what normal kids are like now. He's a teacher. He's a leader. He's an adult, even if he's still a young one. But he's got that frame of reference that Legend never has had of what life looks like after the adventure, but now also with the understanding that legend does have of the fact that heroes' can be ripped away any time, life uprooted to save the world again at any moment.

Wild has life experience that Legend can't fathom. Wild knows what growing up is like. Wild knows what peace looks like now.

Legend doesn't even know what the word "retirement" means, much less "stop" or "peace". He's used to having only enough time to heal between adventures before heading out again, if that!

I think Wild would come back, thinking he could slip back in, just to realize he can't see his brothers the same anymore. I won't dig in too deep, since you just asked about him and Legend, but for the vet I think he'd just get shocked at how young his brother really is, by how screwed up Legend's outlook on life is, and I think he'd be floundering because the guy he used to look to as a veteran, an expert and a role model, is actually just a teenager with too much responsibility on his shoulders.

I don't think he'd know what to do with that, because that's still his brother, but Legend's no longer his BIG brother, or at least not his peer. Legend's younger than him now, and much as he tries to see the vet the same way he used to, he'd just keep realizing how screwed up everything about Legend really is.

Meanwhile Legend, Mister Abandonment-Issues, would be over here struggling with the feeling of being left behind and out of the know and suddenly feeling small around a hero who used to make him feel so big. Wild's an adult now, but he's not supposed to be. Wild's matured now (but still Wild) and he's not sure what to do with that. Wild is wiser now, knows things, isn't charging in without thought anymore, and Legend has to adjust his whole perception all while wondering if this is even the same guy. All while trying his hardest not to let on that he feels that way because you bet your BUTT this kid has gotten enough grief over the years for not being the same kid people used to know that he has no wish to make anyone else feel that.

Like, adventures change you, a LOT. Legend's had a lot of adventures, ergo; he's changed a ton over the years and it definitely throws off everyone who knows him every single time. it's not his first rodeo, but it is the first time he's not been the one riding the bull that is change.

I think they'd both struggle a lot with this. I think there'd be a lot of frustration and fear on Legend's side and a lot of shock and confusion on Wild's. I think both would grieve, and I know Legend wouldn't be the one to know how to fix it.

Legend fixes problems, but the thing that sets him apart from the rest of the heroes is that he's never had time between adventures to actually process and learn healthy coping mechanisms or ways to express himself. Kid knows how to fix other people's shit, but never his own.

Wild would have to be the one to cross the divide between them, and as the older brother now, I think that would just make it all the weirder for both of them.

Anyways, congrats, I had enough brainrot about this that I wrote a dang fic and then sobbed for a good ten minutes in a public coffee shop T-T

Thanks for the ask!

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Whenever I remember that Tenya almost went full vigilante mode for Tensei I want to scream so bad like it's not even funny.

Bnha somersaults its way into saying "maybe heroes are just good citizens with the power to do good things" and "maybe heroism is not in the big notorious acts but in being kind and fair in the day to day details" AND THAT'S ALL TENSEI.

AND THAT'S WHAT MOTIVATES TENYA TO GO FULL BLOODHOUND ON STAIN.

I'm not denying that the world needs the big ass heroism acts like defeating AFO or saving a city or all those flashy notorious feats. All Might is very needed, because there are threats that are too old and developed and have accumulated too much hatred and damage over the years. You cannot always prevent those things from happening and to believe so would be naive, right?

What I'm saying is that those big events are the lowest percentage. They are the consequences of a systematic failure.

Take two of the biggest evil plots in the manga: AFO planning to still OFA and Overhaul with his quirk-erasure bullets. Both plans depended on an abused child being used as objects, Eri because her quirk was the base of the bullet working and Tomura because he was just meant to be AFO's new body in the future. In both cases, AFO and Overhaul were cornered after losing the child they were using for their plots. In fact it was the kids resisting the abuse that contributed the most to their failure: Eri prevented Overhaul from hurting Deku and Tomura prevented AFO from escaping his decaying body.

In that sense, the little unknown pro-heroes taking care of their neighborhood's children do a lot to prevent cases like Tomura or Eri from happening. Hell, AFO and Overhaul were also kids who went the violent route to survive.

Ingenium's silent heroism is probably the best example of what a hero looks like. They don't seek fame or glory. They regard heroism as their duty, their responsibility. No matter how little the act is, it's still important to do it.

At this point, we must admit the Tenya's crisis over what happened to Tensei is not only about their bond as brothers. Yeah, that was Tenya's big bro, but it is no less than when Deku and Bakugo saw All Might fighting AFO for the last time— the last moments of their role models.

The Iida brothers' crisis was deep rooted in the main issues of the story, so I'm still baffled at how people just tend to ignore it.

Before Stain, the "League of Villains" was just a minor threat. Dabi was a nobody with no real crimes to his name. Toga was just a lost little girl trying to survive the streets. Spinner didn't even think about being a villain. Before Stain, things were bad, but no one really thought they could change the status quo, you know?

The USJ incident was not the big deal because 1) how was attacking kids the answer? and 2) going for All Might was expected, since he was almost invincible and the biggest hero in the world and blah blah blah.

When Stain started attacking minor pro-heroes...

Stain was the opposite of Tomura. He admired All Might and saved those kids, but went after the pro-heroes with less powerful quirks. He gave the population a sense of control. It's like he said "hey, you don't have to go after All Might to change the system and why would you? The real problem are the ones on the lowest part of the pro-hero chain".

Suddenly, they could go against pro-heroes and win. Divide and conquer. Suddenly, there was a ladder to climb. Suddenly, you could target not the institutions responsible for the rotten ideology of your society, but the people who enforced the ideology with their daily work.

Stain defended his posture by saying that those people didn't want to be real heroes. They just wanted the money, the fame, they were not really committed to their duty.

And then attacked Tensei, of all people.

If big crimes are built from little crimes that are accumulated over time, what would happen if you decided to eliminate the people taking care of the little crimes?

The crisis of belief in pro-heroes was triggered by Stain. When Stain pointed out at Ingenium (the one in the suit was Tensei) and accused him of false heroism, it's when shit started to go south. He created the idea that pro-heroes should be punished if they don't perform correctly and that they deserve to die if they don't have pure ideas of their job— or whatever.

Tensei being the victim is supposed to show how hypocritical Stain is. Tensei is probably one of the only pro-heroes that never did anything wrong in the manga and one of the best family men to be presented. A man who was loved by everyone for being good in every sense of the word.

Stain projected his own fantasies on Tensei in order to accomplish his witch hunt, not truly caring to figure out who the person was. He just attacked for the sake of attacking, which explains why he was so popular: anyone could do the same and project their issues on him, fighting different battles disguised as just one cause.

When Tenya went after him, it could only make sense. The little of the Iidas is too righteous and noble, quick to judge and act, prone to making mistakes and getting carried away by the looks of it all. So easily his justice turns into revenge and he falls into the trap Stain set. Who knows what a hero student killing Stain would have caused...

At this point it's obvious I'm just ranting for the sake of ranting but 😭😭😭 give the Iidas the respect they deserve please.

[sanesaviour]

Yay more oc stuff that nobody cares about✨ this might actually be best drawing of her so far

Media training is her biggest enemy

While after the fire incident and her being caught she starts to be more cooperative with shield authorities and she makes the deal with Fury that they let her go after she completes training and manages to keep her fire powers under control… since Spidey’s team is being trained by Fury or Coulson I think it’s more interesting for her to be trained by Connors (and he has experience in maintaining control since he used to be the Lizard)… also she would most definitely listen to him more than to Coulson or Fury, she likes more friendly and less professional approach (Coulson would try to train her but she just wouldn’t like him and she would make it hella obvious, she just don’t like authorities in general)… Connors is not really equipped to train agents but this would be exception, he would make it his science project lol, but also he would honestly want to help her to get better…

Since she isn’t allowed to leave hellicarrier for while and don’t really know anyone around, Connors would at first make her to help him with science stuff (even tho she really isn’t into it at all), but later she would start trusting him more and would join him on her own, still not because she would enjoy the stuff more but she would enjoy having conversations with him… while rest of agents would see her as potential threat, Kurt would see her as teen who was mistreated by life… they would have that teacher student bond…. Coulson would reproach to him for being too soft on her, but Connors would stand by it that’s this is the right way of training her and gaining her trust… also I feel like Coulson biggest problem with her would be her whole vigilante persona, he fears it would influence more heroes to be like that (he likes heroes to be more polished and perfect role models, not hot mess)

Also I think she would be very comfortable asking him about anything, like he would tell her about stuff that happened with Otto and she would just ask him “was he like your boyfriend?” and he would always answer to questions like this with “is this really the thing that interests you most about this-“

Also since Connors knows also Spidey’s team kinda well he would sometimes tell her something about them (at that moment she and Spidey’s team are only teenagers trained by shield), but not like he would overshare things about them but I imagine it more in the way she would tell him something random about herself and he would hit her with “you would get along with Nova so well” (spoiler: she wouldn’t xd)… I think she would also ask him stuff about them, but he would just tell her “I can’t tell you, but you can ask them about it”… she does not like that answer… he is trying so hard to make her befriend them and always fails lol

She wears DC shoes bc I draw converse all the time and I really wanted to draw different kind of sneakers,… and they also have star in logo so it’s fine ✨✨✨

Sorry for how poorly is this written but when I’m tired I can’t really think of any more creative ways to write stuff

[sleepyorchidmonster]

Okay, Riddle's dream in a few hours and now it's time for the last bits of ideas and headcanons:

- Everything's the same, but all students have been replaced by hedgehogs/tsums (Riddle thinks he keeps fumbling friendships and social cues, but he's never had a problem with the hedgehogs. So now everybody's a hedgehog/ hedgehog-sized bean);

- We meet child Riddle but he doesn't recognize the group. They have to pretend Trey is a distant cousin of the Clovers who went to College abroad;

- Sebek's yelling makes child Riddle flinch and hide in fear. Sebek whispers for the rest of the chapter (Silver didn't even have to scold him this time, he was struck with guilt already);

- Return of the King (Unca Leona). He's still trying to understand why children think he's a good role model (Deuce quotes Epel and says that it's because he's cool, Silver and Ortho think Leona's calm demeanor makes the kids trust him, meanwhile tiny Riddle was just reminded of Chen'ya);

- Riddle's dream was shattered and we have to wake up multiple versions of him (the group's so big we can easily separate them in five teams or less). Chen'ya makes an appearance as the culprit of the dream's shattering;

- We run into a world where everythings the exact same as reality, from the general timeline of events to the character's personalities (blame Riddle's prefect memory). It's nice that it means Riddle's already living his dream, even with Adeuce's mischief and other shenanigans, though it poses the problem of finding disparities between dream and reality to wake him up.

They later find out that there are no Queen of Heart's rules in the dream. Which means they'll have to scour through the entire rulebook that they got from the school's website (thanks Ortho). Do note that, while there isn't an official rulebook, people are still feeding the flamingoes while wearing pink and painting the roses, they just have a new explanation for what they're doing (or not doing, since Riddle's dream also remembers rule breakers and their routines), mostly based in historical facts;

- Instead of being dragged into the darkness for the boss fight, Riddle dives into the darkness like the Alice in Wonderland-esque shonen protagonist that he is;

- Trey temporarily overwrites Riddle's magic, only for him to turn his scepter into a sword or scythe and start trading blows with Silver and Sebek;

- References to Rapunzel event that will only make sense in hindsight;

- Flashback just like Malleus's birth in Lillia's dream, the moment when the Senate glitched from praising Lillia as a hero to banishing him from Briar Valley. Except it's Mrs. Rosehearts;

- We get a puzzle or crossword game. Idia and Leona had a great time with the crosswords and later asked Riddle just where he found such challenging puzzles that weren't even in Ortho's database. Cue Riddle casually mentioning how he created the crosswords himself, they were supposed to be gifts for Trey and Chen'ya, and now he has 3.000 of them;

- Chess game, chess game, CHESS GAME!!!

BONUS:

Cater: Welp, looks like Riddle's dream is exactly like the real world.

Idia: The Adeuce NPCs are trying to ride a blastcycle in the dorm's roof!?

Silver: And Trey is chasing students with a giant toothbrush?!???

Cater: Yep, happens once a week, EVERY FUCKING WEEK. Careful with the giant hedgehog!!

Silver, Leona, Idia, Sebek and Ortho: ....

Leona: Why, Little Red! Looks like your card soldiers forgot to wear pink to feed the flamingoes.

Riddle: That's impossible. Everyone here knows the risks of such an act.

Riddle: After all, the time-travelling pre-historic crocodiles won't eat you if they think you're a flamingo, and pink is the most reliable option...

Leona: The what now?!?!

Riddle: Time-travelling pre-historic crocodiles. While their numbers have been dwindling over the years, they were a serious threat in the times of the Great Seven.

*Sounds of screaming in the distance*

Idia: Heh, good to know...

*The group, searching through the rulebook*

Ace: Well, my brain's about to explode now...

Cater: Cheer up, Acey! Only one rule left!!

Deuce: "Rule 810, you can easily traverse through dreams by finding the correct mirrors or rabbit holes in the dreamscape...."

Everyone: ....

Sebek: You Heartslabyul students are a DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE DORM, NO, TO SOCIETY!!!

Grim: Myahaha! Looks like someone's in trouble!

Sebek: You're just as much of an Heartlabyul member as those two, so you're just as much to blame for this!!!!!

Grim: MYAAAH!

[roarrrgame]

If in Origins you asked Anora/Alistair to rebuild the Ferelden Circle and grant it full autonomy, mages’ rights did not improve at all by the time Inquisition happened (10 years later). However, with a blow on the local chantry from Anders, temporary chaos was ensured, but by the time Veilguard happened (another 10+ years later), mages were treated just like others by all accounts we know of, bar Tevinter where mages continued to be superior in social standing.

Violence may not be the solution, but it does oftentimes leave a greater impact.

I see some people think Anders fucked up everything, so lets say these people support mages’ rights, what do they think the correct solution is? I cannot see a more proper way than using your one boon from the King/Queen, as the hero who single-handedly defended their country, to ask for prosperity and freedom for the mage Circle there, and have them act as a model for the continent to see, that mages are no inherent threat and can govern themselves.

So how did that work out? No one was forced to change their mind or their action, just because a Circle in Ferelden had self-governance. No concrete plan was laid out to solve the mage problem which is universal in the Dragon Age world. Corruption still ran rampant in the chantry, with no oversight on any of their roles.

Only until every party was forced to make a stance and make changes, unfortunately by violence and death, did the situation truly start to improve for all sides.

But, people can bear seeing innocent young mages being stripped of human rights and dying from accidents, and young Templars being indoctrinated and suffering and gradually losing their minds, but cannot bear seeing a smaller number of largely innocent people die altogether in front of their eyes, if the cause is not systemic or not accepted by the established social order.

[the-most-humble-blog]

He-Man Tried to Trick Us: Skeletor Was Swole as F☰☰k Too

Let’s talk about the biggest lie our childhoods ever served us, right up there with Santa Claus and the tooth fairy: the idea that Skeletor wasn’t an absolute gym beast. For years, He-Man was out here flexing his pecs and shouting, “I HAVE THE POWER!” Meanwhile, Skeletor was lurking in Snake Mountain, shredded as hell, rocking a villain aesthetic that could easily grace the cover of Evil Bodybuilder Weekly.

But no, the show insisted on portraying Skeletor as some goofy cackling skeleton, as if we weren’t all noticing the dude’s traps were literally eating his hood.

1. Skeletor’s Swole Anatomy

First off, can we talk about Skeletor’s build?

Shoulders for Days: That man could shoulder-press Castle Grayskull if he wanted to.

Biceps of Doom: Look at his staff. That thing isn’t lightweight. You don’t carry a ram’s skull around unless your arm days are legit.

Abs Forever: You could wash laundry on that torso. No fat, no fluff, just pure skeletal gains.

2. The Double Standard: He-Man vs. Skeletor

Here’s the thing: He-Man got all the glory for being the “hero,” but let’s be real—Skeletor was out there putting in just as much work, if not more.

He-Man had the Sword of Power, literal magic doing half the heavy lifting.

Skeletor? Pure dedication. He didn’t need magical transformations—he stayed yoked year-round!

And let’s not forget Skeletor’s aesthetic: He rocked a purple and blue combo with confidence. You try walking into a gym looking like a neon villain and still commanding respect.

3. Skeletor: The Ultimate Gym Inspiration

Skeletor deserves credit where it’s due. He’s the ultimate testament to grinding through adversity:

No Skin, No Problem: Imagine lifting weights with exposed bone face. That’s some next-level grit.

Hated by Everyone: He didn’t need a cheering squad—just sheer spite and a refusal to let He-Man steal the spotlight.

Dedication to the Look: Even when losing, Skeletor never let himself go. Every episode? Still jacked, still fabulous.

Skeletor didn’t skip leg day. His quads were beyond what a mortal man could ever achieve...naturally. I'm talking to you, Man-At-Arms.

4. The Real Lesson from Skeletor

Here’s what He-Man didn’t want you to know:

You don’t need to win every battle to stay legendary.

Villains can be role models too—especially when they’re unapologetically themselves.

Sometimes the real “power” isn’t a sword or a catchphrase—it’s sticking to your gym routine, even when you’re surrounded by incompetent minions like Beast Man.

Stop Sleeping on Skeletor

It’s time we rewrite the narrative. Skeletor wasn’t just He-Man’s foil; he was the real MVP of muscle culture. Next time someone calls you “the bad guy,” just remember: villains can be swole as f--k too.

Love calling out childhood lies and dropping truth bombs? Follow The Most Humble Blog for more unapologetic takes and hilariously sharp observations.

[stillness-in-green]

Sorry if this question rubs you the wrong way, but wouldn't going out of their way to try to help villains to the absolute extreme that you propose be a bit suicidal? I feel like trying to talk no jutsu criminals like Moonfish who's a serial killing canibal, or Muscular who doesn't have any actual reason for commiting violence against others other than he enjoys it, would end up getting people hurt or worse.

Idk, maybe my perception is skewed because my country has problems with the justice system being too lenient with criminals, but then striking hard against honest folk.

Like, let's say heroes try to talk to Muscular about his feelings and stuff, and he just beats them to death. So should they arrest him and take him to jail now, or should they respond "understandable, have a nice day" and let him carry on with his rampage and try to talk no jutsu him the next day?

I’ve had enough exchanges with you, rvg, to assume you don’t mean it this way, but I gotta say, this is an incredibly fallacious way to frame the “talk to Villains” discussion.  I wrote two responses to this, first a characteristically long and rambly response which you and anyone else who’s interested are free to read below the cut.  The second response is much shorter and is here above the cut, if only for those readers who think it’s a waste of time to try and give a sincere answer to what reads like deliberate reductiveness—though again, I don’t think that’s your intent.

Here is my model version of how Heroes should engage with Villains:

Step One: Heroes should put in a basic, good faith effort to defuse and de-escalate every Villain encounter they have with the tools and knowledge they have available; the ideal result is that the Villain will choose on their own to stop presenting a danger to the public.      

Step Two: If that is not feasible for some reason, or if it is ineffective, then the Heroes should make all possible efforts to arrest the Villain with the minimal possible harm.      

Step Three: If there is an immediate threat to the lives of bystanders and there is absolutely no way the Heroes can come up with to stop the Villain non-lethally, then there should, afterwards, be an investigation into the death of the Villain and all Heroes who were involved should have to face questions about their role in the situation and their decision to use lethal force.  Measures should then be implemented to help prevent the situation from arising again in the future.  A Hero killing someone should by default be treated as a punishable failure, not a victory.

That’s it!  That’s all there is to it!  Try talking first, then try arresting, and if killing is truly the only way, be ready to explain why.  That step-by-step should be the standard, and if there are going to be deviations from it, they should be exceptionally well-justified by both the characters and the narrative.  If that’s not the standard, then I think it’s a key thing we need to see the protagonists confronting and changing.

Hero Society is obviously in the not-the-standard camp: most of the Heroes spend most of the series jumping straight to Step Two, totally skipping Step One; there are then multiple instances of Step Three being botched completely, with non-lethal tactics being discarded or ignored and lethal force being accepted without question or resistance.  By the end of the series, a tiny handful of Heroes are now hesitantly attempting what should have been their very first go-to, Step One, but their prior reliance on Steps Two and Three make the Villains much more resistant than they might have otherwise been, which reenforces the push towards lethal force in a society that will still not enforce any consequences for it.

This would all be more forgivable if not for the way BNHA positions its Heroes, as lawful defenders of the status quo in a basically modern version of Japan—i.e. they’re cops but the story either doesn’t want to saddle them with the responsibilities real cops would have or else Horikoshi has some alarming views that treat said responsibilities as bothersome administrative red tape.

Therein is my fundamental complaint: BNHA makes the choice to frame its Heroes as being basically specialized police but then disregards or attempts to minimize how that framing colors the Heroes actions’ and decisions, especially with regard to the Villains.  My thoughts on what the Heroes “should” be doing are nothing more than taking that framing (Heroes = cops) to its logical conclusion and asking the story to treat the Heroes accordingly.

Below the jump, find the longer version of this answer, which contains more picking apart of the ask’s premise, more references to the canon and to real life, and an extended discussion about the non-Hero institutions in BNHA that are in some way responsible for Villains and what Heroes’ obligations are re: those institutions.  It is, in other words, the version of this answer that’s 4000 words long instead of 500.  Reminder that it was the version of this answer that was written first, so pardon any recycled phrasing or reiterated rhetoric.

I’ll just start by re-pasting the question…

What I think is that there is a lot of air between “beating up Villains while being more concerned about the news camera catching your good side than you are about talking to the human being you’re pummeling” and “trying to talk to the Villain but just shrugging and letting them carry on if it doesn’t work”.

A perennial response Villain fans get when they talk about this is an exasperated, even outraged, “What, so you’re saying Deku should just let Shigaraki kill him or innocent people?!”  And like, no, that’s not what we’re saying at all, and it’s a really reductive, bad faith characterization of the argument.  So I want to talk first about what Villain fans are saying, and then I’ll circle back to your question about trying to talk no jutsu the really bad news Villains and what Heroes should do if that talk no jutsu fails.

First things first, and to get it out of the way, not all Villains are on the level of Muscular or Moonfish.  For the vast majority of the series, the numeric bulk of Villains are just street criminals.  It would not be a life or death struggle for Kamui Woods and Mount Lady to try and talk down a purse snatcher together.  There is so much room for positive change in how Heroes engage with street-level Villains that just gets glossed over entirely when people want to spin-kick the argument all the way to S-class threats like post-surgery Shigaraki.

Note how handily and briskly Hawks deals with the nudist flasher guy when he’s walking around town with Endeavor—he doesn’t even glance in his direction.  Would it have been so impossibly hard to use his feathers to pin the guy’s coat back together and then cheerfully ask him why he went and did a thing like that?

So just keep that in mind, first of all: for the vast majority of what a Hero does day-to-day, especially the powerful ones who are way up near the top of the rankings, there are options available to them beyond “immediately resort to extreme violence” or “give the Villain a thumbs-up and walk away, whistling to cover the sound of civilian screams.”

But okay, how about with the more dangerous Villains?  Well, the point still stands: multiple heroic characters throughout the manga show themselves to be entirely capable of carrying on a conversation—be it with the Villains or with Hero allies—while fighting.  Mirio is able to temporarily keep ShigAFO talking and distracted by simply asking him a few basic questions; he and Nighteye both are able to get at least some answers out of Overhaul(!) just by asking about his intentions. Ochaco and Toga have coherent conversation every single time they fight.  Hawks and Twice have a whole argument while fighting.  As soon as Shouto can be bothered to talk to Dabi, Dabi’s eager to spill his whole backstory to him.

Shigaraki in particular comes off as desperate to share his grievances practically every time Heroes encounter him, and that only stops being true at the very end—and even there, it might be less true if that green twit fighting him could have been arsed to just fucking ask him, “Hey, last time we fought, when we were in the same headspace, I saw an image of you crying with a dog.  What was up with that?”  Deku doesn’t have to stand there with his hands in the air while asking!  As all the examples cited demonstrate, Heroes are more than able to fight and talk at the same time.  So why don’t they try to make that talk a little more actually useful?

What I’m saying is simply that I would like it if less of that conversation were dedicated to Heroes giving moralizing sermons about how bad and unforgiveable Villains are and a lot more of it were dedicated to Heroes just asking why the Villains are doing what they’re doing, and letting the conversation go from there, fighting defensively and keeping the Villain focused on them as much as they’re capable of doing.  We see the results in the series when Heroes bother trying this—think Deku’s results with Gentle Criminal or Ochaco’s with Toga—so it’s damning that they don’t try it more often.

The likely explanation is that professional heroism as a matter of practice and culture does not tend to bother with de-escalation tactics; after all, while you’re standing there trying to talk to the bank robber, some other Hero could easily be coming in for the take-down, and then they get all the credit and glory and not least the pay.  The whole system is geared towards rewarding fast, uncompromising takedowns, ignoring the possibility of more peaceful, productive resolutions in favor of stopping the Public Disturbance as quickly as possible, because it’s more important to stop random civilians feeling inconvenienced than it is to maybe try addressing a Villain’s issues so they stand down themselves and are less likely to become hardened criminals.

Heck, even Deku really only gets anywhere with Gentle because his first instinct—shutting down the fight right away with a Smash—gets him rebounded off an air trampoline with enough force to knock him back nearly a neighborhood block.  The defensive, evasive nature of Gentle’s power means it’s difficult to hit him directly, and Gentle’s personality was such that he kept talking while Deku was figuring out how to beat him.  That talking was really what gave Deku enough insight to trigger his empathy, so he started returning the conversation in ways that he never did against e.g. Stain, AFO, or in his first fight with Muscular.  He didn’t lead by asking why Gentle was invading his school, though; he just ordered him repeatedly to stop.

Heroes and, in turn, the kids, just don’t default to trying to talk to the Villains.  We see that they can, they’re just not trained to, so it becomes a tactic of last resort, or of distraction, or, finally, as being the result of moments of connection that make them incapable of continuing to ignore the Villains’ humanity.  But when it’s a last resort like that, when they don’t bother asking questions until after the Villains have been pushed past the point of wanting to engage, everything gets so much harder and more dangerous.

Look at Shigaraki and Toga.  When Deku and Ochaco initially encounter them, the kids’ first response is basically just revulsion and terror.  And like, okay, they’re students, newly fledged Hero Course trainees.  They shouldn’t have been facing real life Villains for another two years, at least!  So it’s not surprising that they don’t know what to do and don’t react in the most empathetic manner possible.  I’m not blaming them for that.  But I do want to ask what would have happened if their classes and the Hero culture were more focused on attempting dialogue with Villains.

All Might at USJ writes Shigaraki off as a faker with no real beliefs, and Deku at the mall calls him an incomprehensible cipher, but what if either of them had instead asked Tomura why he was there and what he wanted, then asked follow-up questions from there?  How much earlier might they have found out that Shigaraki had some tragedy in his past that he blamed All Might for not saving him from?  What might finding that out early on have led them to change about how they approached Shigaraki in subsequent encounters?

If Ochaco and Tsuyu had asked Toga why she attacked people, then followed up on whatever answer Toga gave about liking blood with some questions about consent, how much sooner might they have found out that Toga spent her whole life feeling ostracized and repressed because she was convinced by the adults around her that people finding out she craved blood would make her a freak in their eyes?  How might they have engaged with her differently if they realized her parents had been verbally abusing her since she was three years old?

But we also don’t have to stop with U.A. types!  Toga went on the run at only 15—how many times did she have had close scrapes with arrest before the training camp attack?  How many other opportunities were there for someone to talk her down before she made it to the League?  Heck, even all the way to the end, if the green twit hadn’t just insisted on antagonizing Toga one last time for the road—as if he’d learned nothing at all since the mall scene!—how much more easily might Ochaco have been able to engage with her?  Maybe if Toga hadn’t set her mind to embracing Villainy because Deku functionally became yet another person calling her a freak, Ochaco could have gotten to the breakthrough point before Toga stabbed her in the gut?

I’ve been talking about the more sympathetic Villains here so far, but all this goes for the rest of them, too.  Sure, Moonfish is a cannibal serial killer now, but was he always?  Or was there a time when he was just like Toga, a teenager wrestling with quirk-driven hungers who was abused and ostracized for them?  I’ve thought, from time to time, about the idea of a League ageswap AU, where Moonfish is that scared but defiant teenager who’s been pushed over the edge and done something violent, but is not yet past saving.  Conversely, it’s all too easy for me to imagine a Toga who was never captured and never shown any compassion growing into an adult who fully embraced her vampire serial killer reputation and “deviant” hungers to become just as much an alleged monster as Canon Moonfish.

How about Muscular?  Was he always a violent sadist?  Was it impossible that he could have grown up to be anything else?  Could that taste for violence ever have found an outlet other than murder?  Could he have gotten into underground fighting, like Rappa?  Could he have become a Hero like Mirko, always hungry for a better challenge than she’s getting?  Quite frankly, even if Imasuji Gouto was a violent little bully who killed neighborhood pets as a child, he still deserved some kind of intervention—psychological counseling, medication, more acceptable outlets, etc.

How many Villains would HeroAca!Japan be spared if the people in power were more focused on intervention and rehabilitation at every stage of a Villain’s life and career?  Why do Heroes think it’s helpful or necessary to tell everyone in earshot their personal opinion about the unforgivability of their opponents?  Why is it such a problem for some readers when Villain fans point out that a lot of issues could be sidestepped entirely, and the HeroAca world considerably bettered, if the Hero Industry were less focused on showy grandstanding violence, less terrified of the optics of being anything other than maximally harsh on Villains?

That all said, that’s the nuance of what I want when I say I want more talk no jutsu.  But let’s go back to your question—what should Heroes do when they run into Villains who can’t be talked down?

Say that all the interventions and counseling programs have failed, and someone—some mother’s son, some father’s daughter—has grown up to become a Villain.  And not just any Villain, but a really dangerous one.  What do?

Well, I do still want to see Heroes try to talk first, unless they have some reason to believe talking won’t work, like knowledge that knowing that efforts in that direction have already been made and documented in previous encounters between law enforcement and the Villain in question.  There’s also some flex here based on how capable of dragging out an encounter the Heroes on-scene are, and how much danger any bystanders would be in—I would want more effort from someone who can hold their own for long periods like Deku than e.g. Manual.  But like, anyone can yell a few basic questions about motivations to see what sort of response they get.

But say our Hero is up against someone like Muscular, who just laughs off questions like that.  What to do then?

Then arrest him.

Seriously, this is not that complicated.  I’m not asking some run-of-the-mill Hero to get their arms ripped off trying to give battle therapy to Muscular!  But I do want Muscular to get therapy, or at least be offered it, once he’s no longer presenting an immediate threat and those conversations can happen in a safe environment.  And if he doesn’t accept it,[1] I still want him to be treated as humanely as reasonably possible in prison, with the therapy option always on the table if he ever wants to try it.  I also want his prison term (even if it’s for life) to not involve methods of punishment that are considered by the United Nations to constitute torture, like Tartarus’s apparent extended solitary confinement.

1: Perhaps because he would rather rip his own arms off than talk about his feelings or waste any more time getting analyzed by shrinks than he already has; pick your poison based on why and for how long you think he’s been killing people.

I truly do not have any problems, ethically speaking, with Heroes arresting dangerous Villains.  My problem has always been that Hero Society is comprehensively awful in how it treats those who don’t fit neatly into society’s little boxes.  Their social support networks are full of holes, their law enforcement is financially disincentivized from attempting de-escalation, their judicial process is completely invisible, and their prisons are concrete holes that only serve to make people worse, as we can see clearly in the case of people like poor Ending—already unstable when he was first arrested by Endeavor, but so blatantly suicidal when his sentence is up that the literal first thing he does after release is to investigate Endeavor’s personal life so as to find a way to goad Endeavor into killing him.

Now, sure, Heroes are not responsible for prison policies and practices; those are under a completely different part of the criminal justice umbrella.  Nor is it up to them to determine how e.g. financial aid programs or family services work.  But I want Heroes to be better in the ways that they—personally and professionally—can be, and I want them to be cognizant of the flaws in the system they uphold.  I want them to have some basic intellectual curiosity about the Villains they fight—why they turned out like they did, if they can be helped, and what’s going to become of them after the Hero hands them off to the police.

Like, what is All Might’s opinion on Tartarus?  He spent 30+ years fighting for the society that maintains it—does he think or care at all about the fact that some extremely damaged, abused people wind up in there after he gets done beating them up?  And if he doesn’t, what does that say about him?  What would Ochaco have done if Toga had lived and said she’d rather Ochaco kill her than let her go to prison forever?  Does Shouto think now about the family situation of every Villain he fights, or did his ability to care about “some mother’s son” begin and end with his mother’s son?

Obviously, Heroes stop Villains all the time; I’m not asking them to do deep dives into the history and treatment of each and every one.  I just want them to ask the questions they can while the Villain is in front of them, and to care about the state of both the systems that produce Villains and the ones tasked with their care.  I think that when handing people over to state custody, Heroes have a responsibility to be meaningfully confident that the state won’t abuse that custodianship.  If they aren’t—if they truly don’t give a shit about what happens to Villains once the police van door swings closed—then in my view they’re no different than any professional who shirks their duty.

So many people insist that the kids—that Heroes in general—have no duty to care about the Villains, but to me, this view comes off as wildly ignorant about the wide variety of jobs in the real world that do, in fact, confer a duty of care.

If…

…a teacher sees a child with unexplained bruises but doesn’t bother to do their due diligence as a mandatory reporter—

…a prison guard leaves a handcuffed inmate alone in a room with a fellow warden wearing brass knuckles—

…a medic doesn’t speak up when a flight attendant asks if there’s a doctor on the plane—

…a bartender just keeps on serving someone who’s obviously intoxicated and then lets them stumble out the door to the parking lot—

—then they are shirking their duty.  There is no shortage out there of examples of this sort of responsibility, one that you can be held legally responsible for, one that you choose to accept when you sign up for the job.

Heroes are not Samaritans doing the work out of the goodness of their hearts; they’re not vigilantes just trying to keep their own patch safe.  They’re government employees, crucial members of the lawful system they represent.  They have to care—not personally, not individually, but on a professional, structural level, they have to care about the people they fight because the system has to care about those people.  And if the system doesn’t care, the system has to be changed.

I'm segueing here into real life stuff, so let me note as a disclaimer that what follows is based on my cultural familiarity with American policies, as well as periodic research into that of other nations. I don't know what country you live in, rvg, so I can hardly speak to its crime-and-punishment situation. This is all a lefty American's opinion on what reading she has done about American, Japanese, and, in the case of this particular post, Scandinavian criminal justice systems.

That said: in real life, de-escalation works.  One of the things you’ll often see talked about in police reform/abolishment circles is that the police are, quite frankly, doing too much work.  Or, more specifically, they’re doing the wrong kind of work, work for which their training has not prepared them and which other groups would be far better suited to handle.

Here’s an article on offering a campus police force de-escalation training and the resulting 26-36% drop in injuries suffered by both civilians and officers; it also talks about how de-escalation tactics are used by SWAT teams but regarded with suspicion by patrol officers, with this quote being particularly telling: “[Special operations] officers were taught to use time, distance and cover to their advantage.  For patrol officers, time was viewed as 'The more time you give a suspect, the more danger you're in.'”  De-escalation is not the usual training patrol officers get, so it runs against their gut feeling, despite its proven effectiveness—compare this to BNHA’s repeated focus on speed in shutting down altercations.

Here’s an article on the results of a test run of a program in Denver, Colorado, in which police officers were completely removed from response teams to 911 calls about situations considered low risk (drug abuse, trespassing, welfare checks, etc); instead, teams of mental health specialists and paramedics were dispatched.  Reports of nonviolent crime dropped 34% over the course of the time the program ran, and the direct financial cost of the response was four times lower than sending police.

The classic dramatic image of this sort of thing is the hostage situation—and when I looked into it, numerous articles said that containment and negotiation tactics have over a 94% chance of resolving hostage crises without fatalities!

The common element in this sort of thing is refraining from showboating displays of force, loud assertions of power and authority, arguments, moralizing, threats, and so forth.  Far more effective is listening, active attempts to communicate and understand, not throwing one's weight around and not rising to aggression even when provoked.

Meanwhile, on the carceral side of things, restorative justice leads to greater satisfaction from both victims and perpetrators, more feeling that they were listened to and respected, and increased belief that justice was served.  While the evidence on its impact on recidivism is mixed, it certainly doesn’t seem to be less effective than traditional retributive justice, and may well be considerably more effective if combined with programs that focus more specifically on lessening recidivism than restorative justice alone (research is ongoing).

This article on how “cushy” Scandinavian prisons are far more effective at reducing recidivism than their much harsher, bleaker American counterparts argues that a crucial factor in reducing recidivism is minimizing the amount of resentment criminals bear towards the system.  When perpetrators can point at unjust or disproportionate punishments, cruel treatment by wardens, rejection by society, etc, it’s much easier to stew on resentment, to turn nastier themselves, to blame outside factors.  Conversely, when life inside prison is made as much like life outside prison as possible with the key difference being the crucial deprivation of freedom, that resentment is defanged, leading to more more self-reflection and willingness to accept responsibility. And again, it works: Norway is a world leader, with their recidivism rate being a mere 20% compared to the U.S.’s nearly 77%.

The studies and the evidence for this stuff is out there, it’s just fighting this huge, ugly uphill battle against people who care far, far more about inflicting punishment than they do actually improving outcomes.  And so much of that is based on cultural values—what people believe, what values they’re taught. That's where pop culture comes in.

That last article I linked above talks about the efforts made in the U.S. to turn prisons into a for-profit industry, and how demonizing criminals to encourage maximum sentences helps that effort; here’s another on how U.S. police departments rehabilitated the popular image of the police in the early part of the 1900s as bumbling fools or a corrupt gang by consulting on the writing of police procedurals, most crucially starting with Dragnet in 1951, but continuing even today.  Here’s one on a growing concern in Japan about the relationship fostered between TV studios and police when police permission and cooperation is required for filming those popular reality TV police documentary programs.

Mass media and pop culture informs this stuff.  True, Horikoshi is not having to get his work cleared by a police PR department to publish it, but you can see from the above how the police have used and do use mass media to polish up their image; they see it as an effective tool to use because it is.  And the closer to our reality a work of fiction is, the more obviously it resembles the world around us, the more it seems to purport to moral instructiveness, the more true that becomes.  That’s why I criticize BNHA much more harshly than any number of other manga or anime I follow where Good Guys Kill Bad Guys all the time and no one thinks twice about it: because those series aren’t parading the Good Guys out as Japanese citizens working with Japanese police under Japanese law to maintain the rosy image of the Japanese status quo.

I’m long past the point where I’m just rambling, so I’ll wind it down here by pointing out this: Horikoshi also thought that things in his world needed to change.  As much as I loathe BNHA’s endgame and think much of its epilogue is trite shoulder-patting pablum that fails to meaningfully address the setting’s real problems, multiple aspects of Hero Society were at least nominally challenged and subsequently changed: citizen inaction, the dominance of professional heroics as a career path, the diminishment of non-Hero careers, quirk-based discrimination.  As a direct result of the main characters’ efforts to address places where the old system was failing people, the incident rate of Villains is decreasing.

The fact that these changes are made provides in itself the evidence that they needed to be made. I think they need to go further still: my number one greivance with the epilogue is that we've seen all these changes aimed at reducing the numbers of Villains that arise in the first place, and that's nice and all, but we don't see any evidence that the Villains that do arise are treated any differently than they ever were, not even the common purse snatchers, much less the serial killers, the cannibals, and the terrorists.

So, should Heroes have to get themselves nearly killed trying to reform a Villain?  Ideally no, but that assumes a world where Heroes are working in concert with a bunch of other people who are also dedicated to preventing, reforming, or rehabilitating Villains.  If none of that other personnel infrastructure exists, then, well, to paraphrase Nedzu, someone has to take the first step.  Why shouldn’t it be the combat-trained professionals with shounen battle stamina who also happen to be the main characters?

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Rant: Jinx and her ability to love so unconditionally

I feel like it isn't so talked about how Powder and Jinx are both in the same with their unconditional love especially to characters like Vi, Silco, Isha and Ekko... (SPOILERS FOR ARCANE ACT 3)

Most of the times, people talks about how different Powder and Jinx are but forget they're technically the same person and acts the same especially with loving someone...

- Vi, I have no hate for her but she is very much so focused on trying to fuck up enforcers (figuratively and literally *winks*) and fight to get back at Piltover. While I don't blame Vi with her priorities and that Vi should let go of the guilt about Jinx, Vi is more focused on being a warrior, being strong, preparing to fight.

Here comes Powder where this focus of Vi also causes Powder to wish to be better, build bombs (Where I did wish Vi decided to stop and look and encouraged her to build other things, but ig that's where Ekko comes in), tools to aid said fights, she also follows along on wanting to fight with Vi. Where Powder had underlying wishes to simply play and bond with Vi as implied with Jinx and Isha, she didn't think about that but then Powder is very insistent to join in which sadly causes mayhem or 'Jinx'es.

-Silco. As much as I love this Father-Daughter pair, Silco is a real bad influence for her. Silco saw the broken down girl like he's looking into a mirror and turns her into a child soldier/terrorist. While Silco did love Jinx and cared for her and they had their moments, it is still so twisted because he still enabled Jinx's destructive behavior because it does him good ("I thought you (Vi) were the price of your second-hand family, but Jinx, She's more than I ever imagined..."), he tries to drill into Jinx that there's no other family besides him... It's true that Silco would rather let his dream die than give away Jinx, but it is also true that when it comes to manipulating and making sure Jinx is still under his thumb, nothing stops him from that.

Jinx, back when she is young and first met Silco, She is so so quick to cling to Silco at the bit of small, very tiny affection he showed her and she decided to follow him like a loss puppy. It never occured to her that maybe this person is a bad person or out to hurt her, Nah, that's all just brushed away. Jinx is very similar with Vi and with Silco with her way to love is to mold herself based on the person she clings to. Powder trying to invent bombs and Jinx being Jinx. It's more shown with Silco that Jinx will never stop and look if her actions to please the person, is atrocious and awful, all that matters to her is the person she tried to please, she also never thinks about what she wants because all she wants in life of to please said person and Silco dropdead weaponized that...

-Isha is a breath of fresh air for her. Jinx didn't feel commanded or pressured into a job or role like with Vi and Silco. Jinx was able to just live, play, enjoy life, do things that she wishes with Vi (If Vi isn't more into 'hitting stuff') with Isha, she didn't have to be Powder or Jinx to live. Jinx let go of the baggage as Jinx and aims to be a good role model for Isha, Jinx looks into how she felt with Vi like feeling useless by being stood back in a job and with Silco being commanded to do things, she uses those to make better memories for Isha.

Though, Isha does want her to be a simbol, a hero, wants 'to be Jinx' which Jinx didn't want at first, but Isha didn't force her into it like Silco drills her as Jinx or Vi drills her as nine year old Powder. Isha accepts Jinx's choice and goes along with it and just ends up hoping and waiting for Jinx to do it in her own will... And Jinx did, despite her reservations, Jinx decided to be Jinx to save Isha.

Arcane season 2 had pacing problems but this isn't one of the reasons...

Which is why I didn't get that some people say Isha is a pointless character, She is, this is why and it's why losing her is the biggest blow after Silco's death...

Arcane Act 3 Spoilers

-Powder and Jinx are very similar, So I think why Ekko's view of Jinx changed when he met Powder in the alternative universe. Before meeting Alternative Powder, Ekko knew that whatever atrocities Jinx did is because she wants to, that's true, Jinx does want to do it to please Silco and Ekko hates her for it and believes Powder and Jinx being two separate beings like Vi.

But I believe being in this Alternative universe, Ekko found out and felt being the receiving end Powder/Jinx's unwavering love and support. Ekko realized that even if Powder isn't Jinx here, Jinx and Powder is one and the same. (i.e. using monkeys for the timeloop and wacky doodles during their episode nine fight)

Episode seven hammered down why Jinx X Ekko makes sense... Ekko had great ideas and his go-to person for help to do said idea is Powder. This opens up the possibilities for Powder to embrace her intelligence and hope to live more (as shown that Powder loving her life as compared to the carelessness of Jinx). This is where Powder and Jinx are very similar: it was shown Powder is contented in the bar to standing back and watch and support in the sidelines while Ekko thrives, taking every bit of opportunity because that's what makes her happy. Like Jinx with Isha, Silco and Vi.

Though, I did notice the difference of Ekko between the four, Powder's self confidence is at the fullest with Ekko, which honestly, causes her to be mature. All the positives of her relationship with Isha, Silco and Vi all appears with Ekko. With Ekko, Powder is so comfortable with her own skin and abilities, Powder allows herself to feel angry and bitter towards Ekko without being destructive (i.e. asking for space), and Powder does recognize that Ekko needs her for projects but Ekko (albeit being an alternative universe version) very much aims to know Powder for who she was and see her and doesn't want her to change at all...

And that's why when he came back, even Jinx being her destructive self, He doesn't just run away from the bomb but chose to save Jinx repeatedly...

She's not dead shut up

[animegirl3476]

Another day, another discourse comparing and contrasting Shoya and Shoko’s relationship in A Silent Voice with Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship in My Hero Academia.

At the end of the day, you’ll never get a 1:1 comparison with these two cases due to the fact that 1) They belong to vastly different genres, 2) One is far longer than the other and 3) One is a grounded character drama and coming of age tale.

But…

I think that A Silent Voice provides a fairly good basis for judging the way MHA handles the relationship development of two characters, where one used to bully the other and an arc of atonement occurs. More importantly, comparisons to A Silent Voice highlight the shortcomings of Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship development and allows me to understand and actually communicate what I don’t like about the way the story handles it.

In my opinion, what sets these two stories apart in the way they handle the atonement arcs of their respective bullies is the way they portray consequences. The big “C” word tends to elicit a hostile reaction from certain fans, who assume that your idea of consequences must necessarily involve the bully character being gratuitously punished and made to suffer as retribution for their past actions. But a consequence is just the “result or affect of an action or condition” and can range in severity, it can have many different effects.

A Silent Voice uses social consequences to prompt change from its main character. Shoya’s bullying results in him being shunned by his classmates and friends, and the story goes to great lengths to show how his actions not only hurt his victim, but that they also hurt people he cared about. His mom has to reimburse Shoko’s mom for the damaged hearing aids (when she is already short on money) for example. Furthermore, the knowledge of his past is something that impacts the way others perceive him, and that change in perception is essential to his arc.

More importantly, A Silent Voice makes it clear to the viewer/reader that despite Shoko generally being a kind and forgiving person, the bullying still hurt her deeply enough to leave a long lasting impression. Shoko is receptive to Shoya’s will to change, but the story doesn’t ignore that Shoko suffered greatly and that the bullying made her sad, frustrated and even angry. Her negative emotions are not overshadowed by her desire to see Shoya become a better person.

The thing that holds me back from enjoying Katsuki and Izuku’s relationship development is the lack of consequences Bakugou receives for his bullying (which is directly connected to the way the narrative denies Izuku both agency and introspection) The hard truth is that Bakugou faces little to no consequences for his past behaviour, and one would think that such a topic would have to be brought up at some point because, ya know…he goes to a hero school. A HERO school, a place where people train to be role models, help people on a large scale and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

The first scene we see with Bakugou depicts him as the opposite of a hero. A mean bully who beats up people weaker than him, and this is emphasized by the fact that he targets Izuku, who has no means of defending himself. Despite this, he gets into UA, which isn’t necessarily a problem because it communicates a major flaw in the system that cultivates heroes (Overlooking certain problematic traits in favour of innate talent and strength) BUT, the information that he used to be a bully never comes up among his classmates in any major or lasting way. We saw his classmates, and even his new friends discuss or think about how much they abhor bullying. The students of class 1A do not like it when people abuse their strength to pick on those weaker than them…yet that never seems to connect back to Bakugou’s past as a bully.

This issue is exacerbated by the lack of attention given to Izuku’s side of the story. In stories that involve the atonement or redemption of a bully, it is CRITICAL that the victim’s side of the story is treated as something equally important to the bully’s side. It’s not something that can just be overshadowed by the bully’s side, it must be focused on in order for the atonement arc to work.

It’s disappointing that Izuku lacks the introspection that Katsuki gets, and very unsatisfying that it effectively lets Katsuki off the hook for literally every bad thing he’s ever done. The ways the bullying might’ve impacted Izuku for the worst is hardly ever discussed because every time the narrative approaches the topic, it always pivots to Izuku praising Katsuki for the things he did right. This is a big problem, because it silences any discussion that focuses on Izuku’s feelings and shines the spotlight on Katsuki instead.

Before I end my little tangent, I also feel the need to say this: Pointing to any instance of Katsuki’s suffering throughout the series IS NOT EVIDENCE OF CONSEQUENCES! Any bad thing will happen to Katsuki and people will proceed to say: “SEE?! Did you see that?? Katsuki HAS faced consequences! How can you say that he never faced consequences for his actions? Why do you want him to suffer?” It’s so disingenuous and it’s a terrible argument that refuses to criticize the text.

[leoruby-draws]

Decided to make this Saturday a Caturday!! Bad puns aside, felt like dumping all my cat-themed drawings in one post. There sure are a lot of them, tho most of these star the kitten vigilantes that the batkids might interact with in this au. First drawing showcases Kitrina Falcone aka Catgirl, who I already explained in this post. Looks like she's going through a string of bad luck with the batkids, they have no tolerance for her antics lol. Bottom right is Catgirl hanging out with the other young cat vigilantes, Kitten and Tom Bronson. If your wondering why Tom is dressed like that, well...

Looks like Catman aka Thomas Blake has decided to take on his own apprentice, and has picked Tom for the job. Say hello to Catboy, Tom is very confused about all this, Ted (Wildcat) looks pissed lmao. I liked Catman btw, he was pretty great in Secret Six, the very definition of a glow-up. I should re-read Secret Six honestly, I did enjoy it but I was mostly focusing on Black Alice tbh. Also was anyone else shocked that Catman was an actual DC character?? I genuinely thought that the Fairly Odd Parents show make him up to parody Adam West's Batman. There's also another Catman from the 1940s but it seems unrelated to the DC version. The more you know I guess.

Here's a Catwoman vs Catman standoff! The cats with their kitten sidekicks, Tom is so done with this. Down below we see Catgirl playfully (and remorselessly) steal poor Tom's cash. She's a goofball sometimes. It kinda seems she might have a bit of a crush on Tom but he doesn't seem interested, also there might be a bit of an age gap too, now that I think about it? She might be 16-18 to his 21-22 I think? I guess the age gap is lower in this au so it's not relevant anyways.

Decided to expand (head-canon lets be real) on this random obscure character, Kitten. I made up a name for her, Felicity Fauve, I wanted to give her a cat-like name for her but not make it too obvious or on the nose, hope it sounds natural enough. You can see her bothering all the Cat-themed heroes and villains she can find. She's been shown to be a sidekick to Cheetah and Catwoman, hope she finds the role model she's looking for. Her being a sidekick to Catman feels like it could be a gag towards the 1940s version now that I think about it.

Bottom left doodle shows her 'hanging out' with Catwoman and her sidekicks. Catgirl seems very territorial concerning Kitten, Holly seems very concern about it, Selina doesn't care in the least. Not her problem!

More Cats! Here's Catwoman showing the ropes to Tom, who's taking on the name Catlad. This is honestly me being inspired by all the fanart of the batboys taking on fanon Catlad mantle. Mostly its Tim I think, thought it would be fun to put Tom in the role. I think he would prefer this over Catboy no doubt. Ted still wouldn't be happy about all this, don't teach kids to steal Selina!! Btw did you know Ted mentored Selina in fighting? There was a 4 issue mini with her 'working' with Wildcat that revealed that, short but fun read.

There's also bonus doodles of Pantha and Artemis Crock. Artemis is very different from the tv show version, like shockingly so. Reading through the JSA comics, I was really taken aback from how she differed, like she was an actual villain here (also Jade isn't related to her, tho I knew that early on reading the tt comics). I still liked her but I think I like the show version more tbh. Also I wanted to put her mother, the Tigress on here but there wasn't enough room here. Maybe another time, I enjoyed her in Young All-Stars btw.

Here's some Yolanda and Tom shenanigans down below!

Yolanda thinks Tom's werecat form is adorable, I agree!

Final doodle, here's Tom drawn with some watercolor pens. Didn't really enjoy using them, but I should try to expand my skill anyways right? Doodle under that is Yolanda and Tom as actual cats, how cute.

Well I hoped you like all these cats, pet a cat for me today!