#and yeah. there are underlying problems with being men in power who can fuck around with little to no repurcussions

[dwtdog]

if all this is such an "open secret" then fine. someone leak what happened then. or what? scared dream will debunk you with the receipts he has? like all of these ccs are just as terrible for holding onto that information for so long and now teasing us with that information without the victims consent(assuming there is a victim) all for fucking morality points.

my guess would be that dteam r men who like to fuck around with a variety of women, and realistically some of the women they fuck around with expect more, or don't appreciate dismissal after the fact. obviously total speculation, but it does seem like the kind of baseline douchebaggery that would give them a reputation behind the scenes with nothing concrete to really 'cancel' them for

[cinnamonest]

Who do you think would be able to noncon and wife Lumine? Since she's been traveling worlds and stuff she's probably stronger than what we give credit for, so who do you think would be a good match for her?

Oh there's a lot of good candidates and I am a Lumine Harem Enthusiast™ and honestly everyone has their own advantages.

I mean yes Lumine is powerful, but still visibly struggles at times like the golden house fight, with Baal, etc, so I think it's fair to say she has combat experience/technique skill and elemental power but still the actual physical strength of the average female of her size, so, not too strong. Unfortunately without a vision, she can't just have her power stripped from her, but most of our boys are candidates in their own way.

She visibly struggles against Baal, so it's fair to say she's no match for an actual archon like Zhongli or Venti, probably not Xiao either. In terms of physical + elemental power she's not even close to a combative threat. Those three would have the easiest time of it. Of them, the most likely to do so would definitely be Xiao, based on some of his dialogues and birthday letter and teapot lines he's pretty direct about having some form of attachment to/affection for the traveler and just based on his personality I feel like he's the most likely to snap into yan mode, so to speak.

Side note interestingly one of the things I haven't discussed much is that like, yandere is rarely the natural state of a person, it's more like an underlying tendency/a state of mind/a "side" of a person that can be triggered or snapped into, and certain individuals are more or less likely to do so. Some have to be driven to a breaking point through a lot of stress, some just a few conditions have to be met, and then for a few it's basically their default when they experience affection or attachment. So certain characters are far more likely than others to "become yandere." Xiao is absolutely high on that scale for likeliness, would be in that last category, so yeah, the most likely of those 3.

Venti would be least likely, but he could be driven to it, and Zhongli is somewhere in the middle. All of them would be able to do so with some ease, though, and Zhongli and Xiao specifically could lock her in an abode. Not to mention they don't really die as easily as a person I think? So even if she attacks they'll probably be fine. Venti also has psychological manipulation on his side, he can probably easily gaslight her into seeing her brother as an enemy if he really tries. If all else fails, sweep her up with that burst of his and knock her out.

Any human or human adjacent would have a significantly harder time since Lumine's elemental powers cannot just be taken away so easily. If anyone can find a way to do so though, that would probably be Albedo. He's also smart enough to not make his intentions too obvious, much like with his quest - he would just perform harmless experiments he claims are for this or that reason, eventually developing a way to strip her of her power. His biggest advantage is obviously intelligence. He'd always be one step ahead of her, always predict her next move, and that's just as good of an advantage as any physical or elemental one.

So while it would be more difficult if she still has her power, the thing about Kaeya and Diluc is both of them are the kind of stubborn (Diluc) and deranged (Kaeya) enough to... Just restrain her. Arms and legs bound. At all times. Can't use your powers if you can't move. Diluc can just keep trying to be kind in his own way, because he *can* be sweet and caring when he tries, and would eventually just mindbreak/Stockholm her. Kaeya on the other hand... She's a lot more likely to end up... Permanently incapacitated. Can't escape if you can't use your limbs. For those two, the hard part would be getting her - most likely grab her while she's asleep, but once they have her and get her restrained, they're set. They're both bigger stronger men and can easily beat her in terms of pure hand to hand strength. Pyro is a rather frightening element and can be used as a projectile in Diluc's case, a burn can easily incapacitate. And if she tries to escape in the rain or cross a river she can be easily frozen too, and Kaeya's one of the least afraid to seriously hurt her to begin with. Eventually she'll become conditioned, the pain she experiences every time she tries to escape will eventually outweigh her desire to be free and find her brother, eventually she'll crack and give in to despair and give up, he can break her with time.

Childe and Scara would have it a bit easier than those two, because they have more help. The Dawn Winery maids can help Diluc sure, but they can't really contain her quite like Fatui can. She can't fight off 10 of them by herself. So even when they're not nearby, they can just have people watch her. Sure she puts up a fight, but they both kinda like that. In the end even if she escapes, they can probably manage to get her back, especially with help. For one I feel like Childe is a lot more capable when in a wide open space like the outdoors chasing her would be, in comparison to a tiny enclosed space like our fight with him.

The smaller boys would have the most difficulty. Razor and Xingqiu have the advantage of pure numbers/outnumbering her. Xingqiu has guards but in the end they're just normal guys and can't do too much. Still, when their entire force is gathered, they might be able to overpower her, especially if she's not in anemo mode and can't blow them away.

Razor has a similar thing going on -- sure, they're animals, you can blow away five wolves, but fifteen? Thirty? Fourty? She'd be able to escape eventually but the problem here would be staying escaped. Boy has no limits and inhuman levels of stubbornness and will gladly chase her across the entire map. Catch Lumine reaching Inazuma thinking she's finally safe and our boy comes emerging from the water like the cryptid he is just "found you, we go home now", he fucking swam across the ocean for that Lumine coochie and he'll do it again. Unbelievable.

Razor also has an elemental advantage. Other elements like hydro + cryo combo can freeze her if you have dual yans, but his is the only element where getting one good hit in can completely shock her into unconsciousness or paralysis.

The ones who have the hardest times would be Chongyun and Kazuha. It's just themselves, really, I doubt the Crux would be too willing to help imprison a girl, especially since Kazuha isn't in a position of power over them the way Diluc, Xingqiu, Scara and Childe have power over their forces, and they're not as insanely loyal as the wolves. Chongyun is on his own by default, maybe can enlist help from Xingqiu and his forces, but it's unlikely they'll help him all the time. Both are pretty determined, but they'd have a difficult time fighting her. It's a toss up honestly, but even if they lose one battle they can find her again and eventually win. They would both likely try to catch her by surprise, take her while she's sleeping, etc. Kazuha has no qualms restraining her, Chongyun feels bad, but he'll do it if he has to.

Bennett has the pure protection of being Bennett. Like yeah you want to find your brother but is it worth making Bennett sad? No. No it is not. I'd drop my entire journey right there bc I can't bear the thought of hurting him. He doesn't even have to restrain her, could you imagine breaking his heart you monster? No. Lumine is finished.

Dainsleif could probably manage. He has tricks up his sleeve, I guarantee it. He's been around long enough there's no way he hasn't learned how to handle a being like her, probably knows of a way to strip her of power.

Tbh? Ultimately, the best choice in terms of being able to handle her is her brother. He knows her too well. He knows exactly what her strengths and weaknesses are, he probably knows exactly how to beat her. He knows her better than anyone, and it gives him an incomparable advantage, so she's pretty much done for.

So tl;dr Lumine is fucked both figuratively and literally and should just accept her fate :)

[foreficfandom]

Mystic Messenger - Domestic Disputes And Bad Habits (mysme x MC)

--- Zen ---

He hadn’t lived with anyone for years. After running away from home, he struggled with housing, sometimes couch surfing and sometimes he had legitimate leases. And when he lived with others, he was usually the ‘messy roommate’ because leaving home at a young age meant little opportunity to learn how to manage a living space. 

Even now, his apartment is relatively clean largely by virtue of him not owning a lot of stuff. He doesn’t cook so no dishes to clean, he doesn’t own loose knick knacks to spread around. 

When he housed you for a couple days prior to the first RFA party, he had quickly cleaned his apartment of empty beer cans and loose socks, which made it look like he was a man who kept a clean house. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and by the next afternoon you noticed random articles tossed over chairs and upon the floor.

That was fine when it was only his space, but when the two of you began living together, Zen quickly had to learn that it wasn’t acceptable to shed his clothing upon the floor all the time, especially when the laundry basket was right there. No, Zen, get your loose socks out of the couch cushions. Zen, stop piling up empty cigarette boxes on the nightstand. Zen, once you’ve unwrapped the sheet mask from its plastic envelope would it kill you to throw it away, instead of leaving it on the bathroom counter?

He’s consistent when it comes to chores like doing the laundry and taking out the trash. But asking him to hang up his jacket instead of letting it crumple in the corner? It’s like getting blood from a stone. 

After a while, you finally get him to pick up after himself. “It’s our home, now,” you said. “Not just yours.” A promise that said he wasn’t alone, anymore. And he took it to heart.  

--- Yoosung ---

It may seem like his depression-ruled lifestyle seemed to change overnight, but that wasn’t the case. Sure, he did regain a lot of his motivation and energy, but simply getting a new lease on life won’t overrule years of neglecting yourself.

You’d text him in preparation for a date, only to arrive and find out he hasn’t even left his bed since he replied with an ‘I’ll get ready!’ More than once your dates had to be rescheduled because Yoosung had been stuck in bed, or still in his pajamas on his desktop. 

On the third time you voiced your complaints, Yoosung got a bit defensive. He couldn’t help it, it’s hard for him to maintain a tidy schedule after so long lacking the proper will. 

It was a terse discussion. Your first couple fight, if you will. “Yoosung, are you sure you’re okay? You don’t want to seek professional help?” “No, MC, I’m fine. What could a counselor possibly help me with?”

It was Yoosung’s own initiative to finally google some nearby therapists during a particularly slow morning. He didn’t tell you he’d been seeing someone until four sessions in, since he struggles with the idea that he might need help. You hug him tightly and treat the both of you to tasty pastries at a cute bakery. 

Yoosung took his therapy to heart. He started slow, working on self-affirming mindfulness and motivating himself to tidy his living space. Then he worked on his time management, which helped his schooling and energy both. 

Within the year, both you and Yoosung saw progress. He felt better, which made his life better. More time to live. More time to spend with you.

--- Jaehee ---

Domestic arguments didn’t arise until you moved in with her. Before that point, Jaehee and you meshed so gracefully, it was damn near magical. 

Even moving into her place and having to carry around heavy couches and unpack a million boxes didn’t dampen that honeymoon phase. You loved witnessing Jaehee’s hidden strength as she tugged your mattress down seven flights of stairs. 

But within a week of living with her, you noticed that you and her ... clashed when it came to interior living. You kept using up the hot water before Jaehee could take a shower. She would misplace your possessions thoughtlessly. The both of you thought each other as messier. 

It was like a new roommate situation. At first, the two of you tried to calmly talk these things out. But new issues would arise after the old ones were resolved. She didn’t like how you tossed your coat across the desk chair, or left the living room lamps on during the night. 

“It’s my apartment, MC!” “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought being your co-owner at the cafe we co-manage meant my co-money go into our co-rent!”

Jaehee went to work in a huff, leaving you to your own devices. Alone in the apartment, you decided to do some regular chores, and as you rested for a minute you absorbed the living space - you could see Jaehee’s touch in ever corner, thoughtfully and carefully labored over. It really almost seemed like your mindless efforts were invading her space.

When Jaehee returned that evening, the two of you tried to apologize at the same time. “Oh, sorry, you go -” “No, you, sorry for interrupting -”

“It’s just ... MC, I want to apologize for treating you like a naughty guest. You’re my partner now and deserve more say in our home.”

You made up and eventually the apartment evolved into a true home between the two of you. A perfect representation of your love.

--- Jumin ---

The dude can be shockingly conservative. In the beginning, it only manifested in him being somewhat of a prude. “I wish you wouldn’t wear that particular dress to the social. You look more beautiful when you show less skin.” “... you mean you’d personally prefer I didn’t show much skin, right?” “Yes? What was wrong with my previous sentence?”

But sometimes he’d be watching the news and blurt out, “I’m not sure if marriage between two men should be recognized by law.” Which leads to you trying to convince him that he’s being very unethical. 

He usually ends up saying something like, “I’m sorry, love, I’m rather uneducated when it comes to this issue,” and leave it at that. Because he’s not some right-wing jackass or anything, he just grew up in an isolated Christian family and never really got to socialize beyond that. So he never learned about viewpoints that challenged what he heard growing up.

It can be infuriating, though, especially with issues you’re concerned about. Because Jumin just kinda tries to compromise by taking a non-stance, since he just doesn’t have a strong opinion on things like reproductive rights or colonialism. It’s partially due to his sheltered background, and partially due to being raised to literally be conservative in his life dealings.

But after seeing you becoming more and more frustrated, he digs a little deeper and realizes that he’s kinda being an ass.  Eventually he begins to say things like, “I think you’re right, MC. Demonizing drug abusers is antithesis to their recovery. They deserve sympathy instead.”

But a pleasant surprise is his appreciation for climate conservation. He likes to donate and fund green power initiatives because he believes in preserving the environment and preventing nature exploitation. You join his efforts, and he finally understands how important it is to have solidarity from your significant other.

--- Saeyoung/707 ---

Being merely twenty-three years old (not to mention his neglected upbringing) leads to some rocky relationship problems. His self-doubt and anxiety can go wild during his worse days, making him revert back to his colder personality and try to push you away once more.

It doesn’t manifest as just him ignoring you. His mind can make him do some really round-about sabotaging. One day, you open the kitchen cabinets to see it all the objects thrown within haphazardly. You confronted Saeyoung and it took hours before he coldly confessed that he was considering throwing away all your favorite foods, before realizing how fucked up that would be and quickly replacing it all again. 

He knew it was his mother’s influence talking. And the thought made him sick. 

Sometimes, you responded to his darker days with loving patience and lots of hugs while he allows himself to break down. Sometimes, you choose to distance yourself a bit. Either way, Saeyoung’s mood eventually evens out. The two of you talk at length about why he feels the way he does, and why he’s propelled to do these things. As time goes on, his dark moods pop up less and less.

On a lighter note, Saeyoung can be a pretty messy dude. Partly because of his underlying mental issues, partly because that’s the type of guy he is. He doesn’t shower as much as you like him to, and he tosses trash just ... everywhere. If his bunker wasn’t so big, the clutter he alone produces would bury you both. No wonder he needed a ‘maid’. 

Yeah, it takes more than a few pushes to make him stop being a slob. He eventually owns up, but not without some effort. Everyone living in the house is grateful. 

--- Saeran ---

It took many months before Saeran felt stable enough to start integrating into normal society, and even longer before his daily schedule began to stabilize beyond surprise breakdowns, spreads of bad days spent holed up, or horrible dips in moods.

Saeran would always live with dissociative identity disorder, and during the first few years it could get tough. Both ‘Suit’ and Ray would be triggered seemingly without warning, and sometimes last for days. Ray did anything he could to earn your affection, ‘Suit’ defected his fears by trying to provoke you. 

Therapy and medication was an ongoing process. You and Saeran went through more than a couple of therapists before finding the ‘one’. Medications had to be tried then dropped because of side effects, or lack of effectiveness. There were long periods of months in-between where all he could do was hope this new treatment would be more effective than the last.

‘Suit’ once got particularly violent with you, not hitting but shaking you by the shoulders and screaming in your face, “Just say it!! You hate me ... you want to hurt me!!”

You found 'Suit’ later, crying and curled up in a corner. After long coaxing, he confessed that he was so afraid you were eventually going to hurt him, so he was pushing you to see if you’d do it. 

And Ray’d do things like blow away all his saved up money to buy you gifts in a desperate show of affection. Just because the two of you were living in a safe, stable environment doesn’t mean old haunts wouldn’t pop up.

Saeran eventually got better and better. Looking back now, Saeran is so much happier. He never lets you forget your amazing influence on him. “Thank you for saving me, my love.” 

--- Jihyun ---

He’s the perfect example of a loving boyfriend. After his two years spent in a therapeutic journey of self-discovery, he returned ready to be a reliable partner. And for the most part, he lived up to it, barring some moments where he accidentally gets sucked into bad memories.

Insomnia is the most common problem. Settling down to sleep means his mind gets easily swamped, and when he does manage to sleep he wakes up during the night and gets overwhelmed with memories once again. Some nights are worse than others.

He tries not to get up from the bed to avoid waking you too, but you eventually develop a second sense for his insomnia spells and you can feel it when he’s struggling. Then he feels bad that he’s affecting you this way.

See, that’s his problem that he can’t resolve on his own. He thinks of his problems as obstacles that bother others, and not the obstacles themselves. This prevents him from finding ways to truly resolve them. 

“I’m sorry, MC. Go back to sleep.” “... Jihyun, how many nights has it been since you’ve slept properly?” He measures it by the nights you’ve been kept awake too, and you stop him there.

“Don’t you see? It’s not about me. Think about your own health.”

And that’s not easy for him. He had obsessed over being a figure that offers unconditional love for so long, it’s hard to shed it. He thinks of his mother and his eyes grow wet. 

He and you find a relationship therapist, and it helps a lot. Jihyun’s two years of self-discovery did wonders for his mood, but it took a bit of professional aid to really unravel the really complicated stuff. 

He feels his state of thinking shift gradually, and it makes his life less cloudy, less stuck in those bad memories and regrets. Instead, he goes to sleep every night thinking about how much he loves you and his family. His heart falls asleep feeling light instead of heavy. 

[sunonyoreface]

Forest Nymph | Geralt of Rivia Pt.3

Hello!! Thank you so much for taking the time to read my fanfic!  This is part three of my first series and I can’t wait to see where this series takes us!

Warnings: swearing

Word count: 2105

Thank you to @movies-music-series​ for letting me use their gif!

Geralt awakes with a jolt.  His eyes snap open and are immediately alert.  There is no such thing as a good night’s rest for a Witcher.  Not for Geralt at least.  

Something is watching him.  He can feel it and yet, his pendant is deadly still.  He rises with caution and scans the forest surrounding him. Nothing.  Yet he can’t shake the feeling that he’s being watched.

Then he notices you are gone.  You left without a trace sometime in the dead of night.  That’s probably for the best, he thinks.  And yet… Geralt can’t get his mind off of your angelic features.  The delicacy in the way you walk, how your feet barely touch the ground they travel upon.  His mind wanders to your touch, and the electrical current which seemed to surprise you as much as him.  Despite the shock, your hands were soft and gentle.  How he yearns to feel your touch again.

The sound of Roach whinnying alerts Geralt to a possible danger, to which he realizes he cannot see him anywhere.  Geralt’s heart rate picks up at the thought of losing Roach; he starts running in the direction of the call.  His eyes quickly scan the surrounding trees, searching for a threat he may have missed the first time.  After several minutes of searching, he comes across Roach, who excitedly munches at an apple growing from a young apple tree.  The tree is short and easily accessible, with smooth unscathed bark around its stump, the sort of tree that would not normally bear fruit for another five years, and yet, here it is.  Clearly one of your works of art.  Roach must be in love with her, he thinks.  

You left as soon as the embers died and no longer gave off any light. You feel confused and left out of options as to what to do.  If the Witcher chooses not to kill you, then what?  The villagers hire someone who will?  Your options are limited, but right now, you need to get back to your cottage, at least for a little while to think things through.

To the untrained eye, your cozy little cottage blends in with the slightly larger than normal thicket.  Nothing that unusual, unless you know what to look for.  You grew the walls and made them of tightly weaved stalks that keep out the rain.  The trees have since continued to grow on their own to home many smaller inhabitants in their upper branches.  They twist and turn in unnatural angles to allow for extensive windows that let in the warm natural light.  Inside, your floors are covered in a carpet of soft moss.  You almost never wear shoes inside.  All of your furniture is made of natural materials.  Of old trees which toppled over ready for repurposing, uniquely shaped rocks that work perfectly as benches, and anything else you might be able to forage from the bountiful area.  

When you step inside a scent of familiarity wraps around you.  The smell of home.  It’s quiet.  The usual sounds of wind, squirrels, and birds which normally fill the air fade away into the background.  The silence makes you tired.  Oh, how you long for a solid night’s worth of sleep.  So, naturally, your feet instinctually carry you off to your soft, embracing bed. Finally, you sigh.

Geralt doesn’t know what to tell the king.  Maybe he doesn’t tell him anything.  After all, all the king wanted was for him to look into what was damaging their crops.  He never mentioned that Geralt had to take any action against you.  He has a feeling that won’t cut it.  Then again, what harm could really come from telling the king about the dryad?  Geralt isn’t going to kill her, and the King’s army couldn’t find her if they tried. She’s too sneaky, and they're too incompetent at everything they do.  The farmers are too busy getting shitfaced at the alehouse, he doubts they can see past their own feet.  

He was supposed to meet the king for lunch.  It’s currently mid-afternoon.  Maybe closer to late afternoon, he thinks.  It’s hard to see the sun under the canopy of trees.  Either way, Geralt doesn’t care.  The King doesn’t matter.  None of them do.  He has lived through hundreds of kings and none of them stick out as important. They spend their time implementing new policies which really aren’t new, then destroying ones that their past rulers have made and so on.  Nothing has changed in Geralt’s hundred or so years on this Earth.  Humans operate in circles; they always have and will continue to do so until they cease to exist.  Maybe that’s too pessimistic.

Villagers bustle around the center of the town in a lively matter. Why wouldn’t they? Tomorrow is their day of rest and worship; they have the whole night to commit unholy sins. Geralt wonders where Jaskier has gone off too.  The alehouse probably.  Or maybe he is serenading some poor wenches.  What would he think of the forest nymph?

King Cassius of Asenguard lives in a castle so enormous that he has likely never been in every room.  It towers over his kingdom and peers into every grimy rut he rules over.  His people live in the slums while he has never truly worked a day in his life.  Geralt has a special kind of hatred for this kind of man, if one would even go so far as to call him that.  However, his large pocket is quite persuasive.  

“Ah! Mr. Witcher, so nice of you to join us today! I was almost about to send out my cavalry to search for you.” He laughs seemingly in good humour, but the room is tense.  The servants have witnessed enough of his behaviour to know that an outburst is about to happen.  Geralt doesn’t laugh.  He doesn’t even smile.  Cassius’ snarky joke only vexes him.

“My deepest apologies King Cassius, I was too busy cleaning the shit off my boots on your doorstep.  Your kingdom’s full of it.”  Geralt jabs back at him.  The snarky smile is wiped off of Cassius’ face.  He is not used to being talked back to.  While he is technically in charge, the Witcher emanates power.  If things become physical, the King and his guards will stand no chance, and in the back of his head, he knows that.  

“That’s enough, Mr. Witcher,” He drawls. “I just want to know if you have gotten rid of whatever is pissing my farmers off, they’re very persuasive people you know. They even threatened my bread production.  My God, what would we do without bread?”

“I did what you paid me to do.” He responds, the words tight in his mouth through his clenched jaw.

“What so you found the blasted demon wrecking my land, but didn’t kill it? I thought you were the Butcher of Blaviken? The White Wolf? Your job is to kill monsters.  That’s what I am paying you to do.”  The level of threat in the King’s voice raises exponentially.

“You asked me to find out what was causing your little problem.  That’s it.” Geralt spits back.  “You will pay me for my service.”

“Will I?”

“If you want to keep your head, then yes.” The Witcher’s eyes look as though they have turned to flames.  The threat is real, King Cassius, as inept as he is, can sense that much.

“Fine.” He huffs in annoyance. “Then what is it I am paying for? What is the wretched thing eating away at my land?”  

“A witch.”  Geralt states.

“Just a witch?”

“Just a witch.” He confirms.

“You couldn’t kill just a witch?”  Geralt’s hands twitch at his side.  The urge to reach for his sword is overwhelming.

“Just give me my coin.”

“Fine.” he tosses a small bag filled with coins at the Witcher, “Here you go. Now unless you are hunting that witch get the hell out of my kingdom.”

“My pleasure.” But first, he has to find Jaskier.

The first place Geralt checks is the alehouse.  And he is right.  He’s almost scarily right when it comes to Jaskier’s whereabouts, not that they deviate much.  It was the alehouse or the brothel and if he is anywhere else then something is likely wrong.

“We need to go, Jaskier.”  Geralt says before he has fully approached him.

“Well hello to you too!  You just got here, why don’t you have a drink?”

“No, Jaskier, we need to go.”  He is fully aware of the eyes already on him.  The whole village thought he was going to solve their “demon” problem and now he hasn’t.  He has about five minutes before they start throwing food at him and Jaskier both.

“Just relax for once Geralt.  Have a drink! Celebrate! I just finished telling Fleming over there how you are going to kill the thing wrecking their crops.” He laughs unknowingly.  Fleming, a large man sitting only a few chairs over, raises his mug to cheers with Jaskier before taking a large swig of ale.

“I will explain outside but we need to go.” Geralt urges once more.

“I’ll catch up with you.”

“No, Jaskier.” He whispers, “I didn’t kill her and your friend Fleming over there is not going to like that.” The underlying threat is clear in his tone, and finally, Jaskier takes the hint.

“Oh, right then.” A look of guilt crosses his face. “Fleming, don’t you worry, I will be right back!”

They are barely out of the alehouse when a voice calls out from behind an alley.

“Aye! That’s him. That’s the Witcher!”  A man standing with a group of drunks yells out.  “A little birdy tells me you didn’t kill the wretched thing wrecking our crops!”

Geralt doesn’t respond.  

“Well?” He takes a swig from his mug, “Why the fuck not?”

“You seem to be able to handle the situation fine on your own.” He states. With that, they go to leave, but the sound of a sword being drawn brings Geralt’s attention back to the group of men. An odd straggler, likely drunker than the rest of them, honestly thinks he stands a chance.

“Yeah? Well fuck you!” He shouts.

“Yeah!” some other men cheer him on.  This isn’t good.  Before Geralt can talk his way out of this, the man charges at him, sword held high, ready to fight.  Left no choice, Geralt conjures the Sign of Aard and uses it to blast the overly confident drunk and his friends back.  They go flying back, their limbs sprawled every which way, drinks thrown from their hands, until their hurled bodies finally make a rough impact with a ground. That should stop them, he thinks. Time to get out of this shitty village.

Once out of the village, Geralt and Jaskier continue into dusk at a slower than average pace.  The evening is actually quite nice.  Not too hot or cold, almost perfect.  The sky is clear, and the stars will start to come out within the hour.  The birds chatter to each other quietly in the background. Jaskier, while still a bit tipsy, is wound up in telling Geralt about a woman in a beautiful pink dress who was more than happy to have him stay the night in her hot, steamy bed.  Something you could have seen coming from miles away.

Suddenly, a doe jumps out from the forest line, then freezes in the middle of the dirt road.  She looks between them for a moment before sprinting off again, almost as if nothing happened.

“Geralt, why didn’t you get her? That would’ve been dinner for the next week!” Jaskier huffs in disappointment.  While rabbits are easy to trap, he would take venison over them any day.  

Two more deer jump out from the treeline, this time neither pause to look at Geralt or Jaskier, who barely notices their presence.  Geralt pulls back on Roach’s reins.  Roach reluctantly stops.

“Something is wrong.” He whispers to himself.

“What?” Asks Jaskier.  “Geralt I can’t hear you when you mumble.”

The birds have stopped chirping.  The forest is deathly silent.  Something is definitely wrong.  Another group of deer bound onto the road as though the two of them aren’t even there.  More animals now, rabbits, foxes and larger, more unpleasant creatures sprint across the road paying them no attention.  

The wind switches direction and the smell of smoke overwhelms their senses.  Geralt turns around to see the far-off horizon glowing orange.  Sparks explode out of a daunting wall of smoke.  The Asenguard forest is burning relentlessly with no signs of stopping.

---

Thank you so much for your feedback!! I love hearing from yall

Pt.1

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613040114715820032/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt-1-hi-this-is-my

Pt.2

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613171373679034368/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt2

Pt.4

https://sunonyoreface.tumblr.com/post/613676968381136896/forest-nymph-geralt-of-rivia-pt4

Tag List: @nadia-rosea

[forsetti]

On The Myth of American Individualism

In light of people completely, and sometimes arrogantly, defying public health recommendations to address a pandemic in the name of “Freedom” and “American Individualism, I thought I'd repost this article I wrote in 2012.

Recently, New York Times resident hack pundit, David Brooks, wrote an article arguing that Republicans are the party that “celebrates work and inflames enterprise”.  The GOP come from a long lineage of hard working, God fearing individualists that can be traced back through American history from Mitt Romney to the first Pilgrim who stood, buckled shoed, atop Plymouth Rock. Here are his opening two paragraphs: “The American colonies were first settled by Protestant dissenters. These were people who refused to submit to the established religious authorities. They sought personal relationships with God. They moved to the frontier when life got too confining. They created an American creed, built, as the sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset put it, around liberty, individualism, equal opportunity, populism and laissez-faire.

This creed shaped America and evolved with the decades. Starting in the mid-20th century, there was a Southern and Western version of it, formed by ranching Republicans like Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Their version drew on the traditional tenets: ordinary people are capable of greatness; individuals have the power to shape their destinies; they should be given maximum freedom to do so.”

For Brooks, America was built by hard working people who cowered from a smiting God, lived like Ted Kaczynski , didn’t accept handouts and loved the soft reach around from the Invisible Hand.  From this great tradition sprouted great men who were the salt of the earth, ordinary men who lived off the fruits of the sweat of their brow.  People like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, two men who grew up in luxury, went to topflight prep schools and colleges, were able to walk into business with a long list of powerful, influential people already in their contact lists and didn’t fuck up and when they did, had other doors and opportunities open for them because of who they are and who they knew.  I highly doubt that John Q. Colonialist could get a government bailout to safe his business (Romney) or have one failed business after another yet have people willing to throw money and opportunities at you over and over again (Bush).  

On the claim that Republicans are the party of work and this tradition has been passed down from John Smith and Patrick Henry to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Belle Starr, I call “Bullshit!”  This country was discovered, settled, expanded, progressed and rose to the world’s greatest economic power because of the community, not the individual.  This love affair and worship of individualism in America is not based on its history or facts.  It is a complete myth.  A myth that has become a fundamental underlying principle of today’s Republican Party.  A myth, that Jim Jones-like devotion to has resulted in horrible, often progress stifling, policies.  It is an even more deeply rooted myth in conservative lore than Ronald Reagan being a tax cutting, small government, hard line hawk.

The first wave of immigrants that came to America came for economic, not religious reasons and they didn’t migrate to our shores to frolic in the Fountain of Laissez-Faire. They were employees, mostly indentured servants, of major trading companies who sent them here to harvest resources like timber and furs.  They were “company men”, not individuals who were looking to forge a new life by braving the elements or testing their mettle. The manner in which they worked and lived was communal.

The next wave of people coming to America was the religious immigrants.  For Brooks, this meant the hardworking, God fearing Protestants who sired America’s work ethic, loved the eight pound, six ounce baby Jesus and who planted the love and respect of individualism into the country’s psyche where it grew and flourished for three hundred plus years and can now be seen in the standard bearers for the Republican Party. Unfortunately, “There goes another wonderful theory about to be brutally murdered by a gang of facts.” (author unknown).

There certainly were groups of very devoutly religious people who came to America during this time. However, what Brooks conveniently omits are the multitude of the other groups that also made their way across the Atlantic to avoid the religious persecutions and heavy handed dogma in Europe. Atheists, Deists, Agnostics, etc., left Europe for the New World because of the religious environment in Europe.  Being part of the religious wave didn’t mean you were religious, it meant you left because of religion.  There were just as many, if not more, non-religious, non-fundamentalist immigrants to America during this period than the “Forebears of Freedom and Republican/American Greatness” as Brooks would have it.  This group played as much a role in America’s formation as a country and culture, if not more, than the Puritans or Quakers.  Some of the non-religious people who played a bit part in the formation of America include: Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Adam Smith…

The fundamentally religious in early American history was not the dominant group and it was not individualists.  They in fact were the opposite.  They were communal socialists.  In order to afford ship passage to America they often pooled their money together to ensure they could travel as a group. They formed settlements where they helped build each other’s homes, businesses and defenses.  They had community storages and would mete out food and other resources as necessary.  They didn’t cut off someone who was sick.  Instead they would get together and, as a group, figure out the best way to address this or any other problem. What they didn’t do is as they were ascending the gangplank of the Mayflower wave to each other and say “Good luck!  Maybe I’ll see you around.”  They stayed together, worked together and helped each other.  They didn’t abandon the sick and weak or withhold food or shelter.  If you want to see the modern day version and descendants of the early religious settlers to America, visit the Amish community in Ontario Ohio or Lancaster Pennsylvania.  The Amish, Mennonites and similar groups have been the ones to continue the traditions of the early settlers.  One word that is never used in describing these groups or their members is ‘individualism’.

Not to mention that there were a lot of other settlers in the early America who were not the Protestant, white New Englanders yet had just as much impact on society and culture then and now.  The Spain heavily influenced Florida, California and the American Southwest.  France’s influence was felt all along the Mississippi River and Great Lakes areas.  To ignore or deny these groups’ impact on American culture in favor of a tiny sliver of white, New England Protestants, is intellectually dishonest.  Brooks takes a sliver of early America, ascribes general characteristics to it that were not true and then claims these traits are what made this country great.

Let’s fast forward a dozen score years or so to the early 1800’s and visit another group of people touted as the champions of The American Spirit of Individualism-The Pioneers.  You know the salt of the earth, lovers of capitalism and all things holy, the people who settled the West and spread the seeds of rugged individualism like they were John Holmes at Burning Man. According to people like Brooks, the Pioneers were the hardworking, Bible toting, individualist progeny of John Smith, William Bradford and Adam Smith.  Again I call “Bullshit!”  Hardworking? Absolutely.  It was pretty difficult to not have to work hard to survive during this time unless you were filthy rich.  The technology at the time was better than it was in colonial times but it still wasn’t good enough to diminish the day-to-day demands of life in the 1800’s.  Individualists?  Hell no!  I don’t even know where this idea came from.  Even the most cursory look at this era shows quite the contrary.

Remember the stories and pictures of the Pioneers moving across the Great Plains along the Oregon Trail? Did they make this trek one wagon at a time, as individuals?  No. There is a reason they were called wagon trains because they moved as groups.  When they arrived at their intended destinations did they head off in different directions and go all Jeremiah Johnson?  No. They either joined settlements already in progress or started their own, as a group.  They moved as a group, built communities as a group, defended their properties and families as a group…  I come from Pioneer stock.  My genealogy tree has a branch that goes back directly to Brigham Young (of course with 56 kids from 16 of his 55 wives, you can’t swing a dead cat along the Wasatch Range of Utah without hitting someone who is related to Brigham).  Every single aspect of Mormon history, from moving to and building up Nauvoo Illinois, to crossing the prairie, to Brigham leading the faithful into the Salt Lake Valley through Emigration Canyon and pronouncing “This is the place”, to building Salt Lake City was a group, not an individual activity.  It was so communal and such a collective effort that Marx and Engels would have been “Whoa, lighten up a bit, let a brother get some alone time.”

One argument against my take is-“These groups had to band together for pragmatic reasons.  There were extenuating circumstances and variables that forced them to operate as a group in order to survive.”  My response to this critique is-“Yeah.  Your point being what?”  Either working together, spreading out risks and rewards works and yields positive results or it doesn’t.  What the reasons are for doing so are irrelevant.  It doesn’t and shouldn’t matter what the reasons are for opting for the group versus the individual approach.  I fail to see how changing the reasons either changes the efficacy or the results.  Another way of looking at it is to ask the question, “Do you think they could have achieved the same results via the individualism route?”  There doesn’t seem to be any historical evidence to support that they could.  I’m skeptical that the Pioneers didn’t know how to deal with the big issues they faced and followed the community approach to problem solving out of ignorance, stupidity or tradition.  If you think they could have achieved the same or better results by acting as individuals, I would need to see some evidentiary support to back up this position.

The next defense of individualism is along the lines-“That was then, this in now.  The world has changed so the need for the community approach has diminished in importance and has been replaced with the superior, individualism approach.” There are two main problems with this argument.  First, Brooks and the defenders of individualism are not saying, “The community approach WAS the driving force behind early American exceptionalism but now it is the individual.”  The view they hold to be innately true is that it WAS individualism that made America great. Individualism brought to this country by God fearing, religious freedom seeking, hardworking  Europeans, passed down through the generations or absorbed by some sort of osmosis where the trait, like blond hair to Scandinavians, is dominant in conservatives.  Brooks and company might admit that the community approach played a role, just not THE role in making America great.  It was individualism that built that.  Uh......., no.  

Second, the “but the circumstances have changed and the individual plays a fundamentally more important rule” argument is also bullshit.  Certainly the nature of the problems have changed.  We don’t typically worry about packs of wolves, marauding Indians, small pox, the plague, dysentery, being snowed in an unable to get food for weeks in today’s society.  We live in a much more technologically advanced world where these types of problems have adequately been addressed and dealt with.  When it comes to many of the problems and situations that faced the early settlers, we will never face them.  Why?  Because are Founders and those that came after them, as communities, found solutions to those problems.  But, just because those problems either don’t exist or are rare does not mean that we currently are sans problems.  With the advancement of technologies, the world has expanded where people are not limited to living in a small area of the world most of their lives, where commerce and ideas travel around the world at an unbelievable speed.  We’ve gone from regional to a world economy. While the small, regional problems of the past have been handled, there are larger often global problems that need our attention.  I don’t see how, if individualism couldn’t properly deal with the small, regional problems, it can possibly take care of larger ones. If anything, the larger problems need a larger community.

Imagine a small town in Nebraska in the late 1800’s whose local bank is having a cash flow problem.  The town needs the bank so they come together and as a group, deposit enough money to keep the bank going.  Fast forward to September 2008 where the large banks and financial institutions in the U.S. who have branches across the country and all over the world and also have deep, financial ties to other countries’ banks.  They have a serious cash flow problem.  One of these banks was Bank of America. Imagine the B of A branch in Minden Nebraska, population 3000.  It doesn’t matter how community minded and organized the kind citizens of Minden are, nothing they do can safe their local bank from collapse because it belongs to a much larger entity.  So, in order to address the problem, the definition of community needs to expand. The financial problem was nationwide so it took the entire nation to adequately address the U.S. banking problem.  The global financial problem took the global community to address and fix it. It is not that individuals have not made significant contributions but outside the arts, very few have had a big impact on the economy or culture of America.  What makes America great and the advantage we have over just about every other country is our diversity. Homogeneous societies can accomplish a lot and often quickly because as a group, they think pretty much alike.  Their greatest limitation is thinking outside their cultural box.  America, with its wide diversity of cultures always has voices outside the box providing input.  This is a major force behind our innovations and progress the past couple of hundred years.

Name a major economic event in America’s history that was the result of individualism.  There might be some but the majority are ones undertaken by either groups or the government (group) for the betterment of its citizens (huge group).  Louisiana Purchase, Seward’s Folly, Transcontinental Railroad, Interstate Highway System, Tennessee Valley Authority, Space Race, WWII, GI Bill, Erie Canal, St. Lawrence Seaway, Panama Canal, Hoover Dam…all were paid for by the group, built by groups and benifitted groups of the population.

Individuals who have been put on the pedestal of individualism didn’t accomplish what they did by themselves.  Edison is thought to be one of America’s greatest inventors (Tesla was much better but Edison was a better marketer). Growing up, the image of Edison was him laboring long, arduous hours by himself in is laboratory. The reality is he had a very large team of some of the world’s top people working in his lab in Menlo Park and was heavily funded.

Individualism is important and certainly has played a role in America’s rise to power.  But, individualism didn’t have the starring role in “Making America Great”. That role was played by a cast of thousands.  Individualism was a bit player whose name wouldn’t come up in the end credits until half the audience had already left the theater.

[ganymedesclock]

Yes! I am so fucking sick of the "fuck yeah humans!" mentality that's seems to have wormed its way into every fandom. I'm tired of reading stories and ideas about aliens marveling at how humanity is so strong, dangerous, powerful, intelligent, adaptable, and all that shit, and how they can beat anything and anyone because they're just "inherently better." It's that same 40k crap, just retexturized.

I feel like “humans are weird” is trying to be a rebuttal to the perception of humans as the generic, boring, everyman race, like “oh why would you ever play a human when you can play an elf or a space elf,” when I feel like ironically both of those concepts have the same problem: it’s a perception of humans as a default.

Humans Are Weird doesn’t actually challenge the perception of us as default, generally; it’s just a question of whether humans are the bottom line or the top, whether everyone else is more interesting than us, or everyone else is less interesting than us. Both, ultimately, flatter humans with the idea that we’re the meterstick by which the whole world can be judged, even if humans as the bottom line seems like it’s insulting us, which is why I think Humans Are Weird falls short- it perceives it as an insult and tries to solve it with aggrandization, but, in actuality, the problem is we’re already overly aggrandizing ourselves other hypothetical other peoples. 

Many a generic trying-to-be-Tolkien high fantasy gives us Elf Cities and Dwarf Cities and Orc Cities, but if they just want to make a port town or a lovely peasant village or a bloodsports arena city these things are often made human. It’s the same problem that if you have a cast of white able-bodied men, they’ll be divided according to personality and theme, the Introverted Smart One, the Brave but Gentle Strong One, the Charismatic Leader, the Sarcastic but Loyal Second In Command. But in many traditional media, if your hero team has only one girl, being The Girl will be considered her personality trait, so she doesn’t need another one.

Same problem here- being The Elf is considered a personality trait. So if you have humans, they’re allowed to be a bunch of different things inside and outside of their culture but even if we have colorful characters, we might put a Proud Warrior on the cast because of his Proud Warrior Culture, or a charismatic linguist from their charismatic linguist culture, or a brilliant scientist from her brilliant scientist culture. While humans can have a proud warrior, a charismatic linguist, and a brilliant scientist- because since we are humans, we realize that the idea of trying to characterize even a single culture out of the many cultures on Earth as having a single personality would be ridiculous and stupid. We don’t have people in space operas introducing themselves of “oh, I come from the proud New York clan, in New York, everyone is a warrior, it’s simply not DONE otherwise,”

Personally as a writer, if you really want to take a crack at fixing the underlying problem posed by humans as default, I feel like there’s two solutions here.

If you don’t have any noteworthy standout thing to do with humans in your fantasy or scifi setting, exclude them entirely. This forces the audience instead of perceiving the environment as a default with a bunch of cool add-ons, that instead they need to empathize directly with the viewpoints of the elves, orcs, dwarves, goblins, etc. that dwell in this world. 

If you do want to include humans... make them interesting. For example, being light on some details, I’m working on a Voltron reimagining AU which features people from Earth as part of a broader community of sapient life. And no, I don’t have Allura boggling in wonder and horror at, say, the lack of viscosity of terran tears. But I did still have some fun worldbuidling with the terrans:

They currently lay claim to the only fully artificial planet. They did that! It’s pretty cool. They also tend to modify and climate-control the hell out of a lot of their colonies, which is a tendency born of the fact that, as the intergalactic whippersnappers of the Leo Supercluster who also experienced a mass exodus early in their dealings with other races, they snapped up a bunch of what was not exactly prime real estate and didn’t look it in the mouth.

Similarly because of this you have a lot of terran diaspora on planets that aren’t Federation holdings. Comparatively, galra living elsewhere like that is rarer because the galra tend traditionalist and their culture is basically built around accommodating entire clans rather than specific individuals, so they tend to move or organize themselves.

So, in this setting, the terrans have an interesting chunk of worldbuilding to them, they’ve got a history that’s uniquely theirs that makes them good company with the unique histories of others, and this leads to some cool features you can see- for example the diaspora and ‘less habitable’ planets affects these versions of Lance, Pidge, and Hunk- Lance, who grew up on a Spaceport, which is full of different people, and so he’s the team’s cheerful polyglot who’s conversational in a large number of spoken languages since he grew up leaping from Spanish to English to several galran dialects to olkarin and back again in three conversations. Hunk, as a character, who comes from an affluent background and thus has access to the luxury of cybernetic augmentation- because before they had mastered making planets safe for them, terrans figured how to make themselves safe for planets. And Pidge, who’s from a high gravity planet so she’s short, abnormally dense, and capable of impressive jumps.

That’s not an insistence that you have to specifically characterize humans in a fantastical setting the way I have, naturally, but just, don’t treat humans as defaults, and don’t feel like you have to diminish everybody else to make up for how “boring” humans are.

[amorremanet]

top 5 movies? and why? no no TOP FIVE BOOKS

oh gosh, both of these are hard and my answers for them are probably so boring (they also come with the, “this is just how I feel right now because ugh, I am the worst at picking any all-time faves for broad categories”) — but!!

top “five” movies:

The Prince of Egypt — has some of the most beautiful art that I’ve ever seen, anywhere, and music that sticks with you, and it really shows the human drama and human stakes of such a classic story in ways that a lot of adaptations of Biblical mythology are afraid to do

Deadpool — because I’m garbage, the characters are great, the script is pretty good, and the movie makes me laugh. It’s not really a deconstruction (in the way that some people make it out to be, by way of justifying why they like it), and it’s not super-intellectual, and in a lot of ways, it’s like a giant #SorryNotSorry that makes fun of superhero movie tropes while continuing to use them (and there are some subtle ways it plays with some of said tropes and twists them around, but it largely doesn’t) — but it’s fun

But I’m A Cheerleader — is far from perfect, and I maintain that it’s actually much more depressing than the ending leads us to believe (I mean, Meghan/Graham and Dolph/Clayton get together and escape from True Directions and homophobic parents, and Meghan’s Mom and Dad at least try to do better by their daughter, but things don’t work out that well for anybody else), but it’ll always have a special place in my heart because it was one of the only lesbian movies that I had access to as a little gay baby

Female Trouble — I wouldn’t say that it’s the best thing that John Waters has ever done, just the one that I personally like the best, and I’ll admit that it’s probably an acquired taste…… but I love how it takes on celebrity culture in the story Dawn Davenport, and it gave us great lines like, “The world of heterosexual is a sick and boring life” and, “I wouldn’t suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there was oxygen in your balls!” It also has a special place in my heart as one of my favorite, “gay AND weird” movies

—which probably makes sense, given that it was written and directed by the trash king of being gay and weird

……like, seriously. My (best friend who I call my) brother once asked me, “So is John Waters gay or is he just really weird?” and the only thing I could think of to say to that was, “Yes, both.”

the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy — which is totally cheating, to put three in here, but I couldn’t pick between them. I do think that Hot Fuzz and The World’s End are more fully actualized than Shaun of the Dead, but I love all of them, and the reason is pretty much just, “Because they’re good mixes of being hilarious and making me FEEL things” (……less so in The World’s End, for several reasons; it’s a lot heavier on the feels, to the point that you sometimes feel bad for laughing at the jokes, but still)

and books:

Good Omens (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman) — This book was my introduction to both PTerry and GNeil, after I found a cheap copy in an airport bookstore when I was about twelve and immediately fell in love. It’s funny, the characters are vibrant and engaging, and it played right into my love of screwing around with Biblical mythology.

I’m periodically tempted to list different books for both of those men (with PTerry’s probably being one of the Granny Weatherwax books, or Faust Eric, and GNeil’s being either American Gods or one of his Sandman books — because yeah, he’s done other good stuff, but I’m more sentimentally attached to AG and Sandman. Also, Preludes and Nocturnes has some of the only non-movie or TV horror that has genuinely terrified me, so)

—buuuut then I never do, because Good Omens was my first book from either of them, and remains my sentimental fave, even though I admit that they’ve both written other books that are, “better” or, “stronger,” or whatever

Dry (Augusten Burroughs) — There’s a lot of fair criticism to be made of Augusten Burroughs, and he’s been one of the writers at the center of the debates about truthfulness or lack thereof in popular memoirs (like, how much an author is allowed to condense things before it stops counting as a, “real story,” and how an author remembers things happening vs. how other people remember them), but Dry nevertheless means a lot to me.

Like, I enjoyed Running with Scissors and his novel, Sellevision (which were the other Big Deals in his collected works, at the time I originally read Dry), but Dry fucked me up a LOT when I first read it. It has continued to fuck me up ever since.

There are passages in this book that I can’t even be jealous of, as another writer, because they’re so good that they skip right the fuck past, “I’m angry and jealous that I didn’t write this myself” and into, “Holy shit, THIS is why I write, the ability to do THIS KIND OF THING EXACTLY with words, I need to go write something right now”

Also, it means a lot to me for sentimental, “I read this book for the first time when I was in high school, and it made me feel less lonely and sad and scared” reasons

Dynamic Characters (Nancy Kress) — This is by no means the be-all and end-all of, “how to writer better” books, but it’s a personal favorite of mine, for two reasons: 1. there are some things that Kress doesn’t cover about creating characters and doing better by them in your writing, but she’s still pretty comprehensive and offers some solid illustrative examples, multiple perspectives on this part of writing (not as many as she could, but to be fair, she only has so many pages to work with), and a good mix of “tough love” advice and gentler, more reassuring advice;

and 2. …it was the first, “how to writer better” book that I ever got my hands on. I picked it out specifically because I’d posted a completely ridiculous crack fic that was a crossover between Harry Potter and Sailor Moon, with a first-person protagonist narrator who was a hot nonsense self-insert power fantasy Mary Sue with no flaws and no nuance because, hey, I was 11.

And someone actually commented to go, “Hey, look, you have talent, but you could do better and one place to start is maybe with learning to build better realized characters” — so I picked out the Nancy Kress book and it seems like a really silly thing to call a turning point? But it was big a turning point for me

Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond (José Alaniz) — okay, time for me to be a loser and cite an academic book. I’m also probably a cheating loser, since I just read this book for the first time recently…… but with that said? I’ve read a LOT of critical treatments of the superhero genre, some pretty good, others pretty bad (for example, I remain Perpetually Tired of Slavoj Žižek’s heavy metal Communist, Bane in Leather Pants bullshit reading of The Dark Knight Returns), and most of it somewhere in the middle

—but there’s this trend among people who write critically about superhero junk, whether they’re academics of not, wherein we act like we have to act like superhero comics are The Most Progressive Ever and oversell their sociopolitical impact in order to make them look like ~*True Art*~ That Must Be Taken Seriously (—and like, I’m not saying that they have NO impact on people at all, because that’s objectively false. But you also can’t try to claim that Superman, Wonder Woman, and Captain America comics are why the Allies won World War II)

(this is a pointless aside to note that I deliberately left the Goddamn Batman off that list, because while Supes, Diana, and Steve were all off punching Nazis, Golden Age Bruce and white boy!Dick were running around on the home-front, rounding up Japanese Americans and putting them in internment camps. So… y’know. There’s that.)

……or we have to take legitimate criticisms of problems in the superhero genre, both historical and current, and use them to go, “Therefore, the entire genre is pointless garbage that has no redeeming qualities at all and could never ever EVER be used to tell any stories that are worth telling, and frankly, you are all terrible, horrible people for enjoying it, how very dare you enjoy that X-Men movie or that Red Hood And The Outlaws comic, you’re basically a fascist now”

—which is hilarious, to me, because the people who write that sort of criticism almost always cite Fredric Wertham’s book, The Seduction of the Innocent (aka: the book that led to so much moral outrage over the allegedly very gay and fascistic, child-corrupting content of comicbooks that the Comics Code Authority was created), and they always go, “Well, obviously Wertham was OTT and totally full of shit, buuuut…… *argument that would not have been out of place in his book*”

So, one of the big reasons I loved Professor Alaniz’s book is that is does neither of these things. It offers some incisive, and occasionally kinda damning, critique of the superhero genre and its handling of disability and mortality, but he does so from a place of love and enjoyment, and never pretends to hate the genre, nor argues for throwing the whole thing out because it has problems.

Like, his underlying mindset is very much, “Yes, the superhero genre has a LOT of problems, but people could, in theory, fix them and try to get closer to realizing the full potential of what these characters and stories can do” — while never skimping on a detailed analysis of the trends and case studies that he presents.

Sometimes, I think he’s kinda reaching (and I, personally, never want to hear anything about Doctor Doom’s Oedipus complex ever again so long as I live, though it was validating to hear that my theatre kids AU version of him — who is a ridiculous mess, obsessed with taking selfies, and perpetually acting like he totally gets everything while missing some crucial detail, which is how he ends up thinking that Loki is dating Tony Stank [a suggestion that makes both of them want to puke] — is actually a valid interpretation of his character, based on some parts of canon)

Overall, though, my biggest problem with Professor Alaniz’s book is that he can be kind of a hipster and it can get a little bit annoying. Not enough to ruin the whole book, but enough that it does stand out.

Like, his chapter on Daredevil specifically analyzes an infamous Silver Age story that basically everyone hated — the one where Matt Murdock tells Karen and Foggy that he isn’t the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, but he has some heretofore unknown identical twin brother named Mike, who is not blind but *IS* actually that aforementioned costumed hero, and carries on a charade of pretending to be his nonexistent twin brother — and okay, we get some pretty neat discussion of how passing can work or might not with disabled people

…but you can still walk away feeling like his biggest reason for analyzing that story arc was less about its value to any part of his discussion, and more about going, “Other Daredevil stories are too mainstream, I care most about this one that was so infamously ridiculous that people have said even soap operas wouldn’t have done this plot”

Likewise, I’m not saying that there aren’t very fair criticisms to be made of the X-Men and how their stories handle disability in particular… but at some points in his chapter on the Silver Age Doom Patrol comics, Professor Alaniz seems to be less, “using the pre-Claremont Silver Age X-Men stories as an illustrative foil to the Doom Patrol, especially with regard to how Charles’s paraplegia is treated vs. how The Chief’s paraplegia is treated” and more, “using this discussion as a free excuse to bash on the X-Men for being popular”

To his credit, Professor Alaniz does kinda discuss some of the ways that the X-Men’s popularity might have been affected by the fact that things like their ableist handling of Charles make them feel, “safer” and, “less sociopolitically threatening” than he makes the Doom Patrol out to be (with a pretty convincing argument, actually)

He just doesn’t do it enough for me to feel like his “criticism” of the X-Men isn’t at least partially grounded in going, “Well, it’s popular, therefore it sucks” (—as opposed to my approach to them, which is, “It’s popular, and has a mixed bag of things that it does well vs. things it does that suck, but it does not suck BECAUSE it is popular”)

Anyway, good book, and it’s written in a refreshingly accessible way (it’s still an academic book and harder to get into than, say, Good Omens, but Professor Alaniz doesn’t make a lot of the more common mistakes that leave a lot of academic writing effectively incomprehensible)

and last but not least…… Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (we all know who wrote this, okay, come on) — because I’d be lying if I didn’t include at least one HP book on this list, considering how important those books and that fandom have been to the course of my life and to my development as a writer, and it was either gonna be this one or POA, but this one won over the other because I’m garbage

[riverchester]

Desperate Times - Desperate Measures

Chapter 3

also read on ao3  ;  read Prologue/Chapter 1  

Summary: He does everything to not think of the night that got him into this. No, he won’t think of a mop of dark hair or piercing blue eyes. He won’t think of a gravelly voice or the clinking of glasses. And most definitely, he won’t think of that intoxicating smell or the feeling of his Baby’s leather backseat under his sweaty palms.When Dean Winchester breaks the one rule he swore to never break, he has to bear consequences he never wanted to deal with, and needs to get creative to solve the problem.

Rating:  Explicit No Warnings Category: M/M Fandom: Supernatural Relationship: Castiel / Dean Winchester Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel Additional Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics; One Night Stands; Angst; Fluff; Mpreg; Language: English

7:28. Dean stares at the alarm clock until the eight turns nine. Ten hours. I slept for ten fucking hours!

He turns around to lie on his back and sighs. There’s a tiny spider scuttling along the ceiling lamp, searching for the right spot to start it’s web and Dean follows the trail with his eyes. He feels incredibly warm, wrapped in soft blankets, and has no idea what to do next. He can’t just stand up and walk around this strange house, at least not as long there aren’t any voices from outside the door. So he waits for someone to call him.

Castiel knocks on his door barely over half an hour later. “Dean, are you awake?”

The omega rubs the sleep out of his eyes and stands up to open the door. “Yeah. Good morning.”

“Good morning.” Castiel answers. He already looks like he’s going to work soon, with slack, shirt and a hideously conservative pullover over it. “Breakfast is ready. Would you like to join us?”

Dean just nods and looks down at himself. Compared to the alpha, he looks ridiculous, the t-shirt a bit on the tighter side on him, while the sweats hang a bit loosely around his hips.

“There’s a bath robe in the wardrobe. We’re in the dining room when you’re ready.” With that he turns around and walks away.

Dean feels a bit out of place when he joins the family for breakfast. Even little Jacob is already dressed neatly and is surprisingly good at eating with fork and knife for a five year old. The omega stands in the doorway for a few moments before Anna motions for him to sit down next to her. In contrast to dinner the night before, this meal is rather quiet and the subtle tensions makes Dean nervous. The pancakes, however, taste amazing and he can barely hold back a moan.

When the women clear the table, he quickly gets some clothing from his car to look at least a bit decent. It isn’t easy to find any fresh clothes in the trunk of his car, but shaking out a hoodie seems to work. Back in the house, Michael immediately calls him into the living room where he is again greeted by Naomi and Castiel. It feels like a flashback to the day before but this time he’s at least prepared. And he wants to finish the business before he starts feeling comfortable in this house.

“Sit down, Dean.” The older alpha’s tone is not so friendly anymore, but Naomi and Castiel still smile and it helps Dean to not freak out. He sits down on he same armchair he sat in yesterday and looks between the other people.

“Okay, honestly, I don’t know why we have to talk again. I thought the situation is clear and we all want the same here,” he says and laughs nervously.

“Castiel promised you he’d help. And we agree on that. But…,” Naomi sits on the very edge of her seat now and looks deep into Dean’s eyes while she speaks, “An abortion, that’s just not an option.”

A bit confused, Dean looks at Castiel then at Michael and back at Naomi. “I… I don’t understand. How am I supposed to get rid of that thing if not with an abortion?”

The brunette woman rests on hand on his knee. “It is absolutely understandable that you are scared, and confused, but killing your pup is not the right way.”

Slowly, Dean’s heart starts to race. Something is going on here and it’s bad, really bad. “What… what is happening right now? I thought this “meeting” is about giving me the money for an abortion, so what’s with all this crap about killing kids?”

Naomi sighs and leans back. “It wasn’t right of us to make you think we would give you the money. I’m sorry, Dean, that was my idea. I feared you might close up and wouldn’t be open for our arguments, so I wanted you to eat with us, to stay here, and see what a nice family we are.”

His breathing synchronizes with his racing heart and his hands starts to tremble. Dean knows what she means, what the underlying message of her talk is, but his brain refuses to put it into words. He opens his mouth but closes it again right away.

“You got to understand that it is wrong,” Naomi almost pleads.

“So… you’re saying… you won’t give me the money.”

“No,” Michael says.

Dean feels sick, he feels like he may through up any minute. He stands up but the surrounding blurs in front of his eyes and he has to sit down again before he blacks out. Naomi is up and gets him a glass of water immediately, Castiel is at his side in an instant too and holds his arm in case he might faint.

“Calm down, Dean,” the alpha says, handing him the glass from his mother. “Breathe.”

Everything in Dean’s mind refuses to do as the student tells him, but his body reminds him that air is an essential thing to keep living. With his eyes closed, blocking out the others for a moment, he breathes in deeply, then out and in again. When he opens his eyes again, Castiel, Naomi and Michael are still there and the problem is still the same. They won’t give him the money.

“You can’t mean that,” he rasps, “You can’t want me to be running around with a bastard kid conceived on the backseat of a car after a bar fight.” Dean knows that he sounds desperate and he doesn’t even care.

There’s an intake of breath and someone huffing. “Of course not,” Michael says, “but the only right thing to do now is taking responsibility for your actions.”

“It’s not the pup’s fault that their parents made poor decisions, Dean. That’s not how god intended it, but we have to deal with it now,” Naomi adds.

Dean can’t help but laugh at that, it’s too surreal. “You’re kidding me, right?” Looking into the faces of the others tells him they’re not. “Seriously? God? That’s what this is about?”

“I take it you don’t believe in the Lord,” Michael states bored.

“If you don’t mean the Lord of the Rings, then no.”

“Dean, it’s your decision to risk your soul by living in sin, but don’t make fun of us.”

He can’t believe that this is happening. They can’t mean it, right? “Cas, come on, man, you can’t really want me to keep this thing.” His eyes are filling with tears and despite his hate to show weakness, his disgust at himself for letting those people see how desperate he is, he can’t hold it back. Someone’s got to be kidding him.

Castiel stays cold, even though his face reveals that he has at least a bit of compassion with Dean. “Would you kill a child, Dean? No, you wouldn’t. Fetal life isn’t mere biochemistry, the pup that is growing inside you is a creature of god, it has a right to live.”

Dean pats Cas’ hand away that is lying on his knee now. He feels sick being touched by the guy who got him into this situation and now refuses to help resolve the problem. “You are fucking crazy! All of you!” He stands up and walks up and down in front of the fireplace. “I don’t give a fuck about your church and your religion! They never cared about me, so why should I follow their outdated rules? Rules made by men, by the way, not by some higher entity, but by guys with a complex, guys hooked on power.”

“Protecting an unborn pup has nothing to do with power,” Michael says and gets himself a drink from the serving cart. Dean watches how he sits down again and crosses his legs, totally cool and comfortable the whole time they talk. Taking a sip from his glass, the alpha continues. “But I see that you won’t take any arguments from a religious point of view, no matter how logical they are, so why don’t we talk about medical arguments, huh? Did you know that a human being has 46 chromosomes, 23 come from each sperm and egg. A geneticist can easily distinguish between the DNA of an embryo and that of sperm and egg, but not between the DNA of a developing embryo and a full-grown human being.”

“What the - ” Dean starts but doesn’t get to finish his sentence because Michael continues.

“Or what about we see it from the other way around for once? The cessation of heartbeat is one way to define death. Could that mean the onset of a heartbeat defines life? Did you know that the heart of a fetus is formed by the eighteenth day in the womb? Now tell me Dean, do you consider the pup growing in your womb a living human being or not?”

For a long time, Dean doesn’t say anything, his mind is to busy processing what he just heard. They are really accusing him of murder. “I… of course I think that… but it doesn’t change anything that I can’t care for a child… I can’t . I live on the street! In a car! How is that better for a child? Yes, I don’t want it, I want it to be gone as soon as possible, but it’s not only about me. I’m not a father, I have nothing!” The first tear is rolling down his face, not out of sadness but of anger. Those hypocrites, saying the kid has a right to live, but how the hell would his situation ever be called suitable for a child?

“You’re right, it’s not an environment I would want my grandchild to grow up in,” Naomi says slowly, “But like we said. We want to help.”

“But how?” Dean yells, slamming the glass of water he still held in his hand down on the mantel. “How are you gonna help me if not paying for an abortion?”

Three pairs of eyes are on him and Dean feels like he’s missing the punchline of a very bad joke. They just keep staring until Castiel stands up, takes a deep breath, and approaches him slowly. By the way the alpha’s hands twitch at his sides and his expression shifts between nervous and determined, Dean knows that whatever is coming ahead for him is nothing good.

“Dean, I promised that I would help. I am the one who brought you into this situation,” he clears his throat, “Sure, what we did was a sin, but it’s not our pup’s fault. I have to take responsibility now, we have to take responsibility, and have to make sure that we do our best to make up for our mistakes. I want you to marry me, Dean, and to mate me. You will have a home, a safe place, and our pup will grow up in a loving environment. I promise to take care of you.”

The omega’s face twitches and he is about to start laughing. “This is a joke, right?” But watching how the other people in the room stay serious, don’t even as much as blink, tells him it’s anything but a joke. And there it is again, a panic attack rising inside him. Because by now he knows that it’s coming, recognizes the almost familiar trembling in his muscles, the sound of blood pumping in his ears. He has to press his teeth together, fearing that he might vomit here and now. Without being able to talk, without being able to even breathe properly, he runs. His vision blurs and the walls are coming closer, but the only thing he can focus on is getting out of this house. Now.

Thankfully, Dean had the keys to his Impala in his jeans pocket the whole time because there’s no way he would’ve remembered to take it with him in the mental state he currently is in. He grips the steering wheel hard when he sits down, simply staring ahead. But soon, shock turns into anger and he throws punch after punch at the dashboard and the wheel, feeling the pain in his hands but still keeping on. After that, anger turns into distress and he can’t hold back the tears anymore, sobbing until he hears a knock on the window of the passenger seat.

When he looks up, the last thing he wants to see is Castiel’s face. The alpha keeps knocking and gesturing until Dean unlocks the door for him. He doesn’t even know why he does it, he should just drive off and not turn back again.

“Can we talk?” Cas asks carefully.

“Didn’t we talk enough in there already?”

“Just you and me, Dean.”

The omega sighs and nods. It can’t possibly get worse anyway, so he can listen to some more of the guy’s stupid arguments.

Cas looks at him like one would look at a hurt puppy. “I didn’t want to overwhelm you. It just seemed right to let you in on the whole plan.”

“Oh, how nice of you, thanks, I appreciate that a lot,” Dean scoffs.

“Please, Dean. I’m serious.”

“I’m serious, too, Cas! How dare you tell me you want to help and then… then propose to me? Are you nuts? Do you really think I have such a low self-esteem to throw myself at the guy who knocked me up?”

“I never meant to hurt your feelings. But you can’t just run away from the situation. You’re pregnant. From me. We have to find a solution, and mating is the right thing to do. Pups should grow up in a stable environment, a family. I have a family, and I want you to be part of it. We will raise the pup together and we - ”

“Whoa, stop it right here,” Dean interrupts him, “I can’t take any more of that duty crap and sins and morals. It’s not the right thing to do, Cas, it’s what your stupid church tells you is right. You don’t even want to be with me, you don’t know me. How is that the best decision? Just give me the money and you will never see me again. Find yourself a pretty girl that likes your family and believes all that crap they talk about. You can’t really believe to become happy with me.”

“Doing what’s right will make me happy in the end.”

“Oh come on, now you’re just pathetic.” Dean can’t help but laugh at the things Cas says. Just like a trained dog, he repeats everything his master has told him.

Castiel, however, seems to get pretty angry at that. “Oh, and you are so much better, or what? Does it bring you so much bliss to doubt and hate and question everything and everyone you meet? I get it, you are free and independent and do what you want, not caring about any form of morals or rules. That’s why you have no problem at all with getting into bar fights, hustling pool and whatever else criminal activity you like to indulge in. But is that better? I don’t think so. I’m not weak because of my faith, Dean, the rules I follow give my life a meaning and order. So don’t act like I’m the pathetic one here.”

Dean didn’t expect the alpha to speak up like this and can only open and close his mouth again before Cas continues.

“You say ‘how dare you propose to me’ like I’ve been waiting my whole life to mate with a guy like you. This is not how it was supposed to be! I was never supposed to like men that way, but I do, and I sinned, and it got us in this situation. But at least I know when it’s time to take responsibility for my actions instead of running away. And killing an innocent pup is running away!”

The alpha pauses and breathes in deeply. Then he sighs and lets his head fall back. “Are you really so proud that you think mating and taking care of a pup is under your level? You think Anna is unhappy because she’s just a wife and mother? It’s not less of a life than being a manager or doctor or lawyer. If anything, it’s worth more, because nothing is as important as family. Taking care of my mate would be more than a duty.”

Nothing is as important as family… Those words sound too familiar in Dean’s head and he has to swallow. Cas really got to him and now he’s angry at both the alpha and himself. He doesn’t know what to think anymore.

“Are you finished with your lecture?” he asks quietly.

Castiel brushes his hands through his hair and sighs. “Yes. Sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice.”

They stay quiet for a long time and raindrops start pattering against the windshield, at first just a few, then more and more until the sound of rain surrounds them completely.

“I need time to think,” Dean says eventually.

Almost as if he’s surprised by this statement, Castiel turns his head around and raises his eyebrows before he nods. “That is just fair.” He is about to open the door when he adds, “call me when you made up your mind. And don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything.”

Through the blur of the rain, Dean watches how the alpha runs back to the house and disappears behind the door. He finally starts the engine and drives off with a strange and uneasy feeling in his guts.

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

Why The Concept Of ‘Evil’ Is A Bad Idea

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/why-the-concept-of-evil-is-a-bad-idea/

Why The Concept Of ‘Evil’ Is A Bad Idea

Illustration by Daniella Urdinlaiz

Ever since the dim, distant dawn of humanity, back when the fog from the swamps lifted and people started walking upright, forming packs, and clubbing rival packs over the head in deadly wars over food and land and resources, has there ever—and I mean once, just one time, one single itty-bitty time ever—been one side in any conflict that thought they were the bad guys?

I highly doubt it.

Except for your odd suicidal masochist here and there, very few people are willing to risk their lives on behalf of what they think is a bad cause. And even in the case of your odd suicidal masochist, they appear to believe their own destruction is a good cause. Invariably, people are self-justifying creatures.

I strongly suspect that what any given group or individual defines as “good” is nothing more profound than something that ensures their survival. The flip side of that coin is that whatever threatens their survival is “evil” to them.

And that’s the only constant with this ubiquitous and simplistic notion of good and evil—it’s good if it keeps me alive, and it’s bad if it kills me. That’s why I suspect that in every war throughout history, every combatant on every side thought they were the good guy trying to kill all the bad guys.

And did you notice that since they’re killing the bad guys, it’s not murder—or at least it’s not really bad? No, it’s justified. In other words, it’s good.

Whenever they write history books, it’s a miraculous coincidence that the bad guys always wind up losing. And what’s ironic is that by definition, those who win wars are not those with the best morals or the loftiest ideology, but those who are the better killers.

I tend to see the people who are in power not as good guys or as bad guys, but merely as the biggest and strongest gang. And it’s from that position of power that they can lay claim to the biggest privilege of all—the right to decide who’s good and evil.

When the government taxes you against your will, they don’t call it theft. When they put you in a cage, they don’t call it kidnapping. When they slaughter millions in war, it’s not murder. Nothing they do is a crime because, after all, they’re the good guys.

Yeah, but doesn’t The Bible say “Thou shalt not kill”? Well, it depends on who’s getting killed. In 1 Samuel, God instructs the Israelites to kill the Amalekites—every last one of them:

Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.

The Amalekites had waged war against Israel. They threatened Israel’s survival. Therefore, God made an exception to his whole “Thou shalt not kill” thing. So even slaughtering infants wasn’t evil anymore. In fact, it was the only righteous thing to do.

Think about the fact that history’s most brutal atrocities have been committed in the name of good, and it’ll start to dawn on you that there’s something deeply dishonest—even sinister?—in this whole good/evil dichotomy.

Throughout most cultures, there’s an idea that it’s wrong to murder another human being—the only variable is that no cultures seem to agree with one another on who exactly is a human being. Are they one of us? OK, then they’re human. Are they one of them? Then it’s not murder if you kill them.

If you can dehumanize someone else—for example, if you can conceive of them as “scum” rather than “someone who’s merely competing against me for a slice of the same pie”—you can justify seeing them kicked in the head by an angry mob or decapitated under the guillotine while the angry mob cheers.

People sadistically smear guilt on one another like it’s a deadly poison. Assigning guilt to others is a very slimy and slippery business. Guilt operates like a germ. It’s designed to destroy someone’s will. To cripple them. To damage them. To achieve the upper hand against them. As paradoxical as it sounds, underlying the desire to be seen as the good guy is the desire to harm the bad guy, to justify the act of committing bad deeds against them.

This is why I’m very suspicious of the whole notion of good versus evil. In practice, “good” only serves a shield to commit acts that in any other context would be considered evil. It’s malice masquerading as justice. And “justice” is merely a very dishonest word for revenge.

It’s all about power. “Good” is just a shield that people hold with one hand while they’re lopping off people’s heads with the sword they hold in their other hand.

Good and evil only exist as ideas—as constructs, as the college kids like to say. They aren’t things that hang in the air like morning mist. They aren’t things you can measure. They can’t be found on the Periodic Table of Elements. There’s no machine that can measure good and evil.

As heretical as it sounds, an overdeveloped sense of morality may not be the solution at all. It may be the problem.

The only way to understand why things happen is through facts, not feelings. Through true and false, not good and evil. Painting over everything with drippy, emotion-driven notions of morality only impedes understanding. I suspect that one day, neuroscience will explain actions that are currently considered “evil” far more than any religious scripture ever did. Understanding how the brain works is far more likely to explain things such as violent behavior, drug addiction, and sexual assault than any religious scripture ever will. In other words, I think there are mechanistic and completely amoral reasons for why people do everything that’s considered immoral.

And if that day comes, maybe people will finally realize that “evil” is a very superstitious, anti-intellectual, and even childishly naïve word.

But for now, when people try to combat “evil,” they’re clumsily shooting in the dark. “Evil” heretics throughout history have been beaten to death by mobs and burned at the stake for saying things which eventually became widely accepted once it was revealed that the mob had no idea what the fuck they were talking about.

In my life, the nastiest, creepiest, rudest, and most abusive people have been those who are convinced they are either innately good or are working in the name of an unimpeachably good cause. Almost without exception, the bad guys are the ones who make a point of telling you they’re the good guys.

Meanwhile, the truly kind and ethical people simply go around being kind and ethical. No need to announce it. They would see such public displays of shrill and righteous chest-thumping to be a little gauche and shallow, actually.

I’ve found that one never needs to worry about people who are actually doing good, whether that involves improving themselves or helping others. They move in silence. They have no need to be thought of as good nor to constantly judge others. Only people who are insecure about whether or not they’re good need to be reassured of it, especially if they’re always loudly reassuring themselves.

Instead, you need to worry about people who are constantly condemning others for being “evil.” They’re the ones who are usually up to no good.