#and yes the entire point of this caption is for it to not make sense

[jhoons]

the 'J' in Jay stands for gorgeous

[philosophicalparadox]

Hi! Non-native speaker, so I hope my English is not that bad. I really like your blog and especially your analyses on Mephisto. Fantastic!(read in his voice)

So my question.Have you read blue exorcist novel Bloody Fairy Tail? In the novel there is a part where little girl describes Mephisto as big void and the black wing towering over him. Do you think this could be a hint to his real form? Or perhaps his role as Angel of Death? Also there is part in the first chapters of the manga, when Mephisto meets with Amaimon and tells him that he took Rin under his wing. It might be just a translation though. Sorry for a long ask

After accidentally deleting this twice I’m going to try again! (New phone, still getting used to it)

I have not actually read the entire thing because finding any of the light novels in the US is really, really hard. Like, really hard. But I have actually read the part you’re talking about through fan pages here on Tumblr talking about that very thing! (And thanks to @facets-and-rainbows I’ve now been able to read more! Thank you.)

Here’s the thing: the only image that exists that depicts Mephistopheles in his pre-Goethe form is this one by Eugene Delacroix from the early 1800’s:

This version of Mephistopheles is from Marlowe’s 1616 version, The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. In it, (the B version) Mephistopheles is said to conjure wings in order to frighten the knights attacking him and Faustus, before turning said knights into demons (or animals in some translations) and giving them horns.

Mephistopheles is also a fallen angel, and uses that to both dissuade Faustus from forming a contract at the beginning, and later to help trick and torment the Pope in this version.

The inscription on it reads: De temps en temps j’aime a’voir le vieux Pére, Et me garde bien lui rompre en Visiére

Which roughly translates to (keeping in mind I’m still learning how to read older dialects of French) : “From time to time I like to see my old/winterly/ancient Father, and take care not to break off/sever with him in Person.” The caption probably is talking about the Pope scene, or maybe Faustsus’ separation from God, but to me it also speaks to the retribution of both.

Aaaaaanyway point is, it’s very popular to depict Mephistopheles as having black, feathery wings, partly because no matter what version he’s in he’s still a fallen angel lamenting his separation from God, (which isn’t especially relevant but it IS interesting) and also because the wings are mentioned directly in the earliest published version of the play.

What’s more, the original Mephistopheles from the late 1500’s (earliest record of the name was 1587) in the original Faustbuch was never a demon at all, but rather either an angel or a man that had been damned to serve Lucifer for all eternity by selling him his own soul, the reasons for which are never revealed. He does, however, from the very beginning, warn Faust about what he’s doing, and what that will lead to, presumably because he’s done the same thing and now regrets it. Fun stuff :)

As to whether I think it has anything to do with his true form, I would say yes, to a point. Samael is a shape-shifter after all, so not too many forms are out of bounds.

However, if he has wings (probable or at least possible) there’s some kind of reason why he doesn’t use them.

These are the closest we ever see to a demon form for him, and he’s… pretty formless, broadly speaking.

He is kind of void-like, true, and warps the space around him. But, no visible wings.

In fact the only wings we see him with are not his own - they’re that of his familiar, which is likely Kin of Azazel.

He can fly without any wings at all, (space timey levitation and all) so one would question why he’d need a familiar’s, never mind his own. Conservation of energy perhaps?

In any case I do think he CAN have wings, when he wants them, if that makes sense. Shape shifting is however tiresome, and flight requires a great deal of energy expenditure even if he’s not working against gravity in the traditional sense. So I imagine that he could use his own wings, or turn into a bird, but he doesn’t do so unless practical because it eats up his stamina, which he’s got little of comparatively.

Though honestly I’m more of the mind that he does shape shift all the time to observe things, (and what better form than a bird? He’s called The Raven too to boot) it’s just that turning into anything like that is going to terrify people, and unless that’s his aim, it’s not terribly reasonable. Similarly I am completely sure he has horns and a tail, but those things are very secretive to him, so he doesn’t show them hardly ever.

Why the girl sees wings may just be a reflection of her own fears; humans see what they want to, and fear-projecting wings into a creepy demonic aura would not be beyond a child.

As to why they might be secret, they’re probably very identifiable. In his current incarnation he thrives on secrecy and keeping his name, and infamy, on the down-low. He’s not trying to give Lucifer any more shit to throw back in his face, and he’s not trying to be a god and rule over people (not directly) he’s just trying to be a chairman and an arc knight keeping the world from literally gong up in flames, but doing so as close to anonymously as possible for himself. He doesn’t want people to fear him in the same way they used to (except when he wants them to of course) he just wants to do his own thing, and pretty much be left alone.

Not to get too speculative here, but I think perhaps he’s tired. Tired of being a god. Tired of being a demon. Tired of being Lucifer’s favorite scapegoat. (The irony of that) Tired of having to be a puppeteer and tired of having to serve the needs of others in order to just keep himself alive and sane. Tired of playing politics with Lucifer and tired of him never changing or being able to.

And who could blame him? Over and over and over and over. The monotony and pain are unimaginable. Perhaps that’s why Lucifer can’t understand him; surely if anyone could appreciate the suffering that comes from eternity and the pain of losing out over and over, it would be him, surely? Yet, Samael perseveres. He finds the smallest, most difficult things to cling to, like a desperate man panning for gold in a sea of sand, looking for specs of dust. He lives solely for those little moments, the butterfly wing that shapes a hurricane on the other side of the world. It’s monotonous, it’s tedious and it sucks, but rarely, ever rarely, it’s worth it. The world will never see perfection and he likes it that way - he doesn’t want perfection, only change.

And change is probably what drives his secrecy. He changes his face to suit the time, and in a time when demons supposedly don’t exist it makes sense to be discreet. There’s also advantages to the relative anonymity; if he does have to ever throw his weight around, he has to do far less to make a deep impression.

Thanks for the ask. I enjoyed answering even if I went a little off topic lol.

[shit-talk-turner]

YES. The tattoo subject. This tattoo is so small he can easily cover it up with another. Taylor did.

Hot take: he isn’t over Taylor .

Took him 3 years to reunite with Alexa because he wasn’t over her either. And Arielle was all he could scream about during the Suck it and See tour. But he wasn’t over Alexa . It was so shocking to see the perfect and always happy beautiful couple (him and Arielle) break up but …he wasn’t over Alexa.m

Plot twist? He is doing it again. I know I know I know people hate Taylor but I am telling you all signs show he isn’t over her. Louise is a fever dream and he had to stick it through just like Arielle. Alex dives so deep into projects that he changes his entire personality. He was DEEP into the space album watching French films. Louise makes sense because she fit into something he changed his entire life around. I’ve done with a past relationship I entered the same way. Took me years to realize I made a mistake and I had to stop lying to myself. It didn’t help that the guy I cheated on my boyfriend to be with made me genuinely happy at times and was a nice person. It took me years to forgive myself. All my friends liked the new guy too and found so many reasons to tell me my ex was wrong for me. Still, I ended it to be “happy” and when the honeymoon ended and things got real to the point of talking about living together I got a reality check.

we give Taylor a hard time for her shit mistakes but she clearly changed and was struggling with so many mental issues/drinking and admitted to it. He admits to things in song lyrics so he’ll never tell us or write an IG caption like most of over sharing people.

He was clearly hiding his tattoo all summer, I was there for three concerts and it was blistering hot. It gives Body Paint a whole new meaning. Because he really kept his disguise on and made it “his writing tool” , part of his personality. Nothing makes sense about how hidden he was on tour. So out of character. He was broken up with her during the TBH&C tour and was sleeveless a lot. It doesn’t add up.

he isn’t over her🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

But if he’s not over her, why aren’t they together? She’s clearly not over him either

[heterochromicnachos]

Serious post, please respond appropriately and respectfully in comments, tags, and reblogs.

The treatment of autistic people on the internet and autism in general is something that has been bugging me for months, and I am entirely disgusted with how people treat them.

Important things to know

Autism is something you are born with, and is not something that develops. It is not a disease, a virus, or anything contagious. It cannot be corrected, as there is nothing to correct. The development happens in the womb, and it is not the parent’s fault that their child is autistic. Main point, it CANNOT. CAN. NOT. be caused by vaccines.

Autism is a spectrum. Autistic people are like snowflakes, as no two are alike. Each autistic person is unique in their own way.

Autistic people can experience sensory overloads, where they are so overwhelmed that they shut down. How they shut down varies. This can occur in going nonverbal, having a meltdown, and much more.

Autistic people are not always disabled or unable to speak. Remember, autism is a spectrum. The people with the abilities to talk and speak are referred to as a high-functioning Autistic. The people who have difficulties with the previously mentioned things are not high functioning, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t autistic.

Now. Let’s talk about why this post exists.

It has recently come to my attention that a tiktok account is posting their daughter’s breakdowns to the platform. You heard me correctly, they are putting their child’s sensory overloads and vulnerable moments ONLINE. and they are essentially painting their child as a bad kid, when in reality they’re just autistic.

One such TikTok occurs on a Christmas, from the looks of it. The captions claim the child is upset because they didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas. While yes, that can warrant a meltdown, it’s a difference from a breakdown. Thw mother is sitting and recording this while the father antagonizes the child, taunting them. The child then goes to start hitting the adult, which causes them to THROW the child into the couch, from where the child begins to violently hurt themselves.

This is not the effect of an unruly child. This is the effect of a child being overwhelmed to the point of not understanding what’s happening anymore and is trying to take out their emotions in any way possible. And the reactions of the parents, recording a child SELF HARMING HERSELF and did NOTHING. I am genuinely livid, and I have the overwhelming urge to find that child’s parents and literally beat sense into them. (I will not act upon this urge, however.)

Upon further investigation of the video, every single adult present is recording this child having an overstimulated breakdown, and no one is doing anything to help. This isn’t dealing with an unruly child, this is borderline ABUSE.

These videos aren’t spreading awareness, they are demonizing their child and their mental difference all for the purpose of clout.

The next topic is the use of autism as an insult and a slur.

People have begun use the phrase “autistic” to essentially the same effect as the word “retarded.” They believe they can use a word to entirely make an opponent’s argument crumble because “they don’t know what they’re saying, they’re stupid.”

It pisses me off that people think this is okay. But the minute I make fun of someone’s depression to the same effect achieved with the “autistic” argument, I’m suddenly the bad guy. Yes, making fun of their depression is not nice, but the fact that making fun of someone’s autism is perfectly fine makes me want to scream.

Finally, the representation of autism in media and online.

Autism is basically the laughingstock of mental differences. People use it as an excuse to not get vaccinated. (Even I, with a severe fear of needles to the point of growing faint thinking about them, has to get vaccinated. We are attempting to find a way to get me vaccinated anyway) They use it to make others irrelevant, and they use it to make the younger generations look stupid, claiming it didn’t exist until we made it up.

Autism has continued to get a bad rep, and I needed to get all of this information into the world. The more people know about this mental difference, the better we can help he children with autism.

Thank you for reading.

[milatibrahiim]

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

In shaa allah you are all in the best state of health and imaan. I am writing up this letter as naseeha for my beloved sisters, as I am noticing a trend nowadays where a new sisters owned dawah page will pop up at least once a week. Of course there is nothing wrong with wanting to spread dawah, it is of course one of the 4 principles of tawheed. However, the amount of compromising and lack of hayaa is very ironic. And concerning to say the least.

I trust that the intention of these sisters are pure and filled with motivation in wanting to convey the message. But remember dear sister, there are conditions and limitations one must follow. Did not Aaisha r. a give dawah behind a screen with her voice firm and her demenor strict? So why is it my dear sister you think it's "dawah" by constantly uploading personal images and captions onto your stories? Updating the world of your whereabouts? What you're having for dinner? Sharing memes and laughing with the world? My dear sister what is this?

Wallahi every sister who falls into this must be ashamed of themselves. A Muslimah is to be quiet, shy and reserved. When she is addressing those who aren't her mahaarim, she is firm in her voice and to the point. She understands that just because she may cover her entire

body, doesn't mean she still isn't vulnerable and susceptible to fitnah. Your hijab is also a concealment of your tongue and actions.

You're absolutely contradicting the purpose of your hijab when you cover yourself head to toe, black on black, no skin showing whatsoever, but you go ahead and expose yourself to your stories, giggling with strange brothers over nonsense, and sharing what kind of attar and abayas you love to wear.

Ya Allah, Allahu musta'aan. Have some humility dear sister. The Lord of all the Worlds is watching you and will hold you accountable. The next time you find yourself writing up a post about hayaa and hijab, look to yourself and ask, are you even applying the concept of that yourself? Have some sense dear sister.

Another common issue I'm also witnessing, is these arguments between brothers and sisters over a political issue pertaining to the deen. It's as if both parties have lost all sense of their dignity and hayaa. And you dear sister, are no better. Yes the man is responsible for himself, but you too are responsible. You dear sister, are responsible for entertaining such behaviour. As someone once stated, these men are not your mahaarim to care about your honour the way you value it.

And as for private messages, these sisters don't even realise it was them that opened that door to fitnah. You have no one to blame but yourself. Again, yes these brothers are responsible for themselves, but you are too. You made it known you were a woman and turned your so called dawah page into a funhouse, that invited all these men into your dms. Wake up to yourself seriously.

My biggest advice to every single sister who wishes to spread dawah, one, move to telegram as there is no communication whatsoever with anyone. You are able to completely turn off likes, comments which distract the heart and causes it to forget its intentions.

Two, do NOT make it known you are a sister. First of all, its not necessary and you're making the first mistake in sharing information that just isn't important to know. It is knowledge that does not benefit. And secondly, you become a hotspot for fitnah.

Enough with the attention seeking. You may not see it as that, but that's exactly what is happening. Basic fact and reality does not conceal your ignorance.

And thirdly, it's honestly better for you to remove yourself from these socials and start by seeking dawah yourself. Replace the time you'd put in to reply to messages and check who liked your posts with seeking knowledge. And not just seeking but implementing. In the long run, this is a far better option for you because at least you will have on your concious that you will enter your grave with absolutely nothing, but the knowledge that you prepared for it.

Please forgive me for my harsh bluntness, it is all out of frustration and concern for my dear sisters in Islam. I ask Allah to purify our intentions and forgive us for our shortcomings, may He increase us in knowledge, and may He not take our souls except when He is pleased with us.

  𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝

         -𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐧

[queenvisenyaandprinceaemond]

Hey ...

I did a post breaking down 1x09 called "Team Green Highlights" and in one of the bulliet points I observed that something was going on in the background between Helaena and Aemond when Aegon was realizing that people liked him ...

But it was so out of focus and distant that I couldn't quiet make out what they were doing - I added up that the actor and actress were screwing around, not realizing that they were in the shot.

But I've never thought, in a million years, that she was actually laying her head on his shoulder while people were cheering the husband she despises.

It really does put everything about Aemond and Helaena's relationship in overdrive.

It's crazy.

Hey nice to have you here and thanks for this :))

Yes, it looks like that and I think it was more because Phia was most likely told to keep looking away from Tom (Aegon) as their relationship is pretty much dead and they both cannot stand each other. And if the GRRM has already developed a storyline for Helemond, then it makes sense for her to be closer to him considering they specifically showed a frame where they are quite close to each other and she's holding onto his arm as well as being next to him during the entire coronation ceremony than her own husband1s. The way she makes a face when she has to bow to Aegon also shows how much she despises him. Something is definitely up.

Earlier as well, Phia posted an Instagram story of Ewan as Aemond and captioned it "love you". then she also posted a story/pic where Helaena and Aemond were next to each other during the coronation. I am not sure if she's doing fan service considering how popular the ship has become or if she already knows the plot and feels comfortable enough to post a few things here and there. I remember some posts that Leo Ashton was also asked about Helmond and he said he cannot speak much on it as he doesn't want to spoil it.

Unless Phia actually likes Ewan and she posted all that because she fancies him then it's another thing.

[atpaftmoom-bily]

Thoughts about Erik, why Wilhelm wasn't allowed to come out, and more.

Be warned, this is long, confusing, and I'm not even sure if I made any valid points. But I had thoughts on Young Royals, with no one to talk to, so here you go.

I've seen various different takes on Erik and what people thought his reaction would have been if Willie had come out to him, most of them being positive, and some as well saying how sad it was that Willie never got to come out to his brother. I have a different take, but bear with me it's gonna take a second to get there.

Something that I found interesting in the first place was that when August found out it was Simon and not a girl, he just seemed shocked, but not in a homophobic way that I had kind of been expecting.

Additionally, let's take a look at the comments on the video, I've split them up into three different groups. General comments (disbelief, surprise, pity, etc.), comments sexualizing them, and negative comments. (I've translated these as well as I could as they were not all captioned, but if I've made a mistake feel free to let me know!)

General Comments "OMG Have you seen this?? The Prince is gay!!!!" "Who's the other guy?" "I'm dead" "Finally some news to put Sweden on the map!" "Poor boys, I feel sorry for them" "So clumsy to get caught on film" "I know where he lives!" "I think the video is fake" "Love for the boys"

Sexualizing Comments "Royal porn" "Sexy" "Love" "Sexiest video ever"

Negative Comments "How will the monarchy survive this?" "The end of the royal family, time for Sweden to become a republic!" "Never been ashamed about being Swedish until now" "Class traitor! Your mother cries for your sins"

Now, there are quite a few things I want to point out about Sweden that I feel should be taken into account here. Of course, we don't know the exact dates that the show took place, but we do know it is modern-day, and though it is a work of fiction, I am going to assume that anything that is currently true in Sweden at the moment, give or take a few years, would also be true in the Young Royals universe.

The first point I would like to make is that Sweden is one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, even being named the most friendly country in 2019. Looking back in history, 1944 was when Sweden decriminalized sexual relationships between consenting adults of the same sex, though it was still thought to be an illness. However, in 1979 it was no longer considered an illness. Fun unrelated fact, but Sweden was the first country to legalize gender change in 1979. (If you'd like to read more on LGBT rights in Sweden here are some resources. One. Two.) If Sweden is that progressive and is that LGBT-friendly, then I wondered what the problem was with Willie coming out, so I dug some more.

I'm American, so my understanding of many parts of the world is unfortunately skewed or incomplete, but I'm working on changing that. However, because of this, one thing that surprised me in my research was that the monarchy in Sweden is more of a unifying symbol than anything else. They have no political affinity or formal powers, but rather "the King’s duties are mainly of a ceremonial and representative nature." Of course in the case of Young Royals, the Queen inherited the throne, and Wilhelm would after her.

Something else I found interesting about the monarchy in Sweden is that the current Queen, Queen Silvia, did not come from a line of nobility, so when Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf married in 1976, it was highly unusual. (See more on the Swedish monarchy here.)

There is one last thing I want to point out about the current King and Queen. "In summer 2000, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden made history when they ate under the rainbow flag at Djurgårdsterrassen, a Stockholm restaurant owned by gay owner Arto Winter. At that time, the decision was seen as controversial, and played a valuable role in moving conversations forward – while making the royals’ position abundantly clear." (Source)

Now, of course, I understand the difference between a fictional work and real-life situations, but at least in my opinion, these same ideals should carry through to the show that we see. If the King and Queen in real life have been openly supportive of the LGBT community since at least 2000, then although specifics might not be the same, some of those ideals should carry through to Young Royals, so what is the problem, right?

I'm not trying to erase the reality of homophobia altogether, because of course, that exists. We even see in the show through comments that there are some people who are worried about the state of the monarchy, are disgusted, or downright still think that not being straight is a sin, but we also see other comments as well. If Wilhelm were to come out, what would happen? Would there be some backlash? 100%. Would there be people who would support him? Also 100%. Would it make his life harder? Probably, but would he be happier? In my opinion, yes, but I guess that's a question that Wilhelm would have to gauge on his own.

Now I want to look deeper at the conversation that Wille has with his mother, the Queen, in the car on the way home so he can give a statement to the media. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Wilhelm: Why can't I just have a relationship with him? And not say anything. Just live a normal life.

Queen: You're the crown prince. And that's a privilege, not a punishment.

Wilhelm: Yes, but I didn't ask for this!

Queen: Well, nobody has ever, ever asked for this! You are the only one who can take over the throne after Erik. Don't you understand that? You are so young. When you're young, love feels like the most important thing in the whole world. When I was your age, I too had an unfortunate romance. That was before I met your father. What I mean is, is it worth it? If you feel that the attention you've been getting so far is unacceptable, it's nothing compared to what you will endure for the rest of your life. We have a chance to cover this up, I urge you to take that chance. You may not get another."

---

Something I find interesting is how much Willie just wants to live a normal life, which I get. He is under so much pressure, from being a role model, his brother's death that he hasn't even had time to process, preparing to be king someday, and (kind of) being outed to the entire world, but at least his school. It's enough to make anyone want to live normally. I think the biggest thing we have to think about here is the Queen's question as well. Is it worth it? She is right of course, the attention he will get will always be there, but I do think that Willie would be able to find a way to be happy along with being King. It shouldn't have to be a case of either-or, and ultimately I don't think it is.

Now I'm going to move back to Erik, and really, this ties everything back to the start where I mentioned I had a different take on Erik's reaction to Willie being not straight. I think that Erik already knew. It would make sense for a variety of reasons. In the show, it is obvious that the two of them have a good relationship. We also hear Erik tell Willie, "you can trust him, he's like a brother," in episode one when speaking about August, showing that trust is something strong between them as brothers. I'm not exactly sure how old Wilhelm is meant to be in the show, but I estimate somewhere around sixteen. I would like to assume that sometime before attending Hillerska, he may have had a crush or felt some attraction to a guy. We also can see from their phone call in episode three, that they're not afraid to joke around with each other about such things, meaning that Erik would most likely be the first person that Willie would go to about such things.

Another thing that makes me believe Erik already knew has to do with people assuming that Simon is the first guy that Willie has liked. Now, I know things are not the same for everyone, but if we consider what happens when the video is posted, and Willie had to deny it is him, we can conclude that being anything other than straight in their family is not okay, simply because they are royals, and the media attention will be too much. Imagine you've known your whole life, you can't be something, the first instance you encounter that, you're probably not going to give in right away. I'm talking at least some minor internalized homophobia here or something.

So put that into the context of Simon and Willie's first kiss in episode two. Simon kisses Willie twice before Willie says "Well, I'm not... I'm not... Stop! Wait, wait, wait!" and immediately pulls Simon back towards him. Let's reflect back to episode one where Willie says "I’m not… I’m not allowed to speak about political issues." I'm not allowed. Of course, there are TONS of restrictions on what he can and can not do, kissing guys, probably being one of them. But if he was going to say I'm not gay or I'm not like that, why would he instantly pull him back in, contrasting what he was just going to say. In episode three, Willie does say, "I'm not like that," which makes sense. He's had time to think and isn't in the heat of the moment. What other explanation can he give? Sure, he could say he's not allowed to be like that but saying that would admit that he is. It's a circle, a very messy circle, but it is a... loop.

Going back to what I'm supposed to be talking about here, Erik. This isn't Willie's first rodeo, but Erik was there for the first. One last thing I want to talk about is the phone call that Erik and Willie have in episode three. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Erik: You've met someone.

Wilhelm: I, uh... Yes, okay, but I... I don't think we're a couple or anything. I don't know what it is but can we just...

Erik: I get it. I get it. You don't have to tell me any... I don't wanna hear any details. Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions and-

Wilhelm: They don't care about me. 'Cause you're the Crown Prince that they have opinions.

Erik: I don't get it. Why are you sitting in your room sulking when you have a crush to hang out with?

---

Firstly, Erik refers to Willie's crush as completely gender-neutral. "You've met someone" could very easily be "you've met a girl". The same goes for "you have a crush to hang out with". Very well could have been "you have a girl to hang out with". Sure, it could be completely coincidental, but we live in such a heteronormative society that it would just make sense for Erik to use female-gendered words. Unless, of course, he knew.

Secondly, "Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions". This sounds very much to me like, enjoy your time while you can be yourself without backlash because soon you won't have that privacy. While I feel that, yes, the same may happen with anyone Willie was to date, him having a same-sex partner multiplies that, by a lot.

In conclusion, Erik knew Willie was not straight, Willie should come out, but when he is ready, and August is a really deep character that people don't give enough credit to. Gosh, I hope I covered everything, I probably forgot so much, but it's fine. Please let me know your thoughts if you've made it this far into the post.

One last thing. I hope you'll notice how in this post, I never referred specifically to Wilhelm's sexuality, and I did that for a reason. I often see gay used to label him, and though I am unsure if that's being used as an umbrella term or specifically as in he only likes men, I think it's really important to realize that they're specifically making him unlabeled. In this youtube video Edvin Ryding, the actor who plays Wilhelm, says "What we're trying to do... We're not labeling Wilhelm's sexuality. I think that's good because it's like, it portrays that it's okay that way too. You don't have to. You shouldn't have to come out. It should be allowed to be a bit fluid, a bit out there." I just think that it is important as it's another type of representation that is not seen often.

[yakumtsaki]

Sophie is resting after an eventful night of giving birth and training cats, but as usual Sandy Fairchild is lurking, waiting to strike. Goddammit Sandy leave her alone, her needs are shit!

-WAKE UP SOPHIE, TIME TO DIE

-AAAAAH WHY DID I WAKE UP

Ya I don’t know Soph, why did you?? Sandy you dumbass entity, Sophie wasn’t even around when you got killed.

-I DON’T CARE, FUCK ALL OF YOU ALIVE BITCHES

-BOO, BOOOO JOJO, YOUR ROBOT SUCKS

-Oh, my stars and garters!

Literally the only person in this house Sandy has yet to attack is Wyatt, aka THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY MURDERED HER.

-Wéll mùrdèr est une stròngè wôrdé! 

It’s a new day and someone needs to take care of those kids until the butler arrives. Jojo as usually steps up! Love you Jo♡

And WYATT STEPS UP ALSO. WTF. Boy I did not see that coming given his parenting record, good for toi, mon bebe!

-And Jack Do will also step up!

JACK DO WTF. WHY ARE YOU BACK HERE AT THE CRACK OF DAWN

-I’m not here! 

YES YOU ARE I CAN SEE YOU

-No you can’t! Stop it!

Cyneswith is occupied with more important matters than taking care of her newborn, such as this transparent attempt at seducing iVan..

-𝙻𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚄𝚗𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍; 𝙷𝚞𝚋𝚋𝚊 𝚑𝚞𝚋𝚋𝚊.

..and Sophie is making sure Maxx doesn’t feel bad about getting fired 2 days before retirement.

-It’s important for dogs to feel emotionally supported!

But not for babies, you’re so right, Soph!

The glitched butler is finally here, thank God, AND he has a different face on today, great job keeping things fresh!

-Let me just take this baby here and change his diaper..

Yes yes thank you!

-And then place it on the floor next to the other one.. All done!

Credit where it’s due, I was certain Shajar would flop in her ridic ‘become Mayor’ LTW but she has killed it, like this was record-time, only one promotion away-

-and then we won’t have any excuses to ignore our kid, will we, Shaj?

-Oh, I’m sure I’ll come up with something.

Bro why have you been such a flop wife lately, those promotions have really gone to your head.

Alright Soph, here we go, first parent to interact with their kid!

-Oh Shajar, oooh, you sneaky little turbocuck, knocked me up and left me to change the diapers.. well just you wait.... >:)

Sophie feeding Sophito with a dirty bottle while Don and Cyn slowdance-

-and Sugar is on the floor. Seems about right.

iVan loves Abbey! :)

iVan also loves swimming in the pool even though it causes him to run amok, electrocute everyone in his path, and break down :)

-Come back in, iVan, the water’s fine! 

Glitched butler istg. GO HOME

Hell yes, a deadly robot on the loose and porch roaches AGAIN. Can shit around here get any better?

Why of course it can, with Wyatt HEARTFARTING OVER SOPHIE. BRO. Legit I can’t even caption this, let’s just move on.

iVan has been running amok and threatening to electrocute everyone for like 5 hours now, will you just break down already??

FINALLY. Man, Jojo, superb job you did with this construction, broken down twice in 2 days and has yet to do a single chore.

-Chore??

Ya, CHORE, he’s a servobot, that’s his entire thing!

-Oh alright, I see your confusion now, yes, he actually ISN’T a servobot.

What?!

-Yes, I sort of completely ignored you and made a killbot instead!

WHAT.

-You really expected me to give my personality to a SERVOBOT?? No, he’s programmed to run amok as often as possible and try to kill everyone.

‘Everyone’ in the sense of ‘everyone in your own family’?!

-Things were getting too calm and safe around here, how is this family ever going to reach its full potential without the threat of death? One day you’ll see my point.

YA I DON’T THINK I WILL

-Aww, I just love feeding my baby!💗

Unless you and Sophie have something to tell us, wrong baby, Cyn. 

There you go!

-Daddy said iVan would electrocute me if I didn’t start being a better mother, huhu🥺

-There there, Sophito, don’t worry, grandpa might not be around forever but he’s gonna electrocute everyone in this house until they become good parents!

Don’s dumb ass finally got promoted, let’s see how long before he gets demoted for the third time.

-This thing broken again?

I don’t know Don, why don’t you go into the pool with him and find out.

Maxx grows up! He’s so dashing <3

-Always have been ;)

He celebrates his birthday by beating up Torr! Wholesome animal friendships <3

-Torr, stop getting beat up by Maxx and come over here to learn how to shake!  -Meow meow, meow meow meow!!! -I don’t care that the fire of vengeance is coursing through your veins, we need to train!

MAXX OMG!!!!! BEST BIRTHDAY EVER 

*Wink*

Great job baby, can’t believe you rebounded from the firing in 3 days, ICONIC.

Sophie then rolls a want that shocks me to my very core:

BRUH. I have NEVER seen this want before, even super-duper animal lover Komei never rolled it, he was more than fine letting pets work for all eternity. Sophie your name from now on is officially Sophtie, I can’t believe you’re legit the kindest sim in this house and yet here we are.

-I’m not kind! You shut your goddamn mouth! Not you, Sugar, poor baby, Auntie Soph won’t let you starve <3

WHAT IS HAPPENING.

-Well Shaj, I think it’s fair to say if there was a best parent award, the two of us would tie for it! -Indubitably, my dear Don!

[saiqherrr]

.pairing satoru gojo x fem!reader

.setting college au

.content warning smut, nsfw, angst???, degradation kink, overstimulation, slapping kink, unprotected sex, cumming inside, cheating

.synopsis you swear that you're different - that you can "change" satoru gojo.

.a/n this is unfinished but i wanted this out my drafts. i have had zero motivation to write lately. this also has not been proofread. bleh. enjoy

NOT TRUE. NOT TRUE. you rubbed your hand on the side of your neck, absentmindedly looking down at your notebook that was filled with poorly written scrabbles of notes, words you could just barely imbibe from today’s lecture. you masked your irritation while two girls shamelessly whispered gossip about your boyfriend. why should it bother you if you knew it wasn’t true? because you knew that a good portion of what they were blabbering about was true.

you weren’t necessarily a shy girl, you knew a lot of people on campus from high school. for the most part you were quiet and minded your business, however, that changed after you notoriously flashed your busty bosoms at a frat party while your system was buzzed with alcohol. that was the night satoru gojo took you home. it was by luck that you committed such a sinful act on a night where satoru really couldn’t be bothered with desperate girls flocking on him. on any other night, he’d meander around the party, letting girls approach him and kiss up to him. he’d pick a spunky, sober girl from the flock and take her up to a room that didn’t belong to them, and fuck her - just for him to forget her name the next morning.

this night was different. he had a long day and he was surprised he had the energy to come to the party in the first place. he felt embarrassed for you when you got up on that table, slurring your words and waving your shirt in the air before you unclasped your bra, the frat house erupting with screams, chants, yelling and shouting. he couldn’t bear to see you like that and it bothered him that he even cared. he had no particular reason to. but his body moved on it’s own when he walked over to that anything-but-sturdy table and grabbed you, ending the show that everyone was rooting for. he slung you over his shoulder, taking up your shirt and bra before he found the nearest bathroom.

he took you back to his own apartment he was renting nearby, letting you sleep on the couch with a small blanket that just barely covered your feet and one small throw pillow was placed underneath your head. he left a mop bucket by the couch, anticipating that you’d be facing a mean hangover the next morning. he was glad he trusted his gut with that one because after he woke up the next morning to use the bathroom, he could hear you gagging and then regurgitating  everything you ingested the day before.

after he took care of you that day, you thanked him endlessly. you were eternally grateful that he took time out his day to even do such a generous thing. it was out of character for him to do something like that, too, but you didn’t know at the time.

you don’t know how you ended up where the two of you were now, but all you know is that you fully smitten by him during those first two weeks you guys had first met. the two of you went out on a couple of dates, spent the night at his place a couple of times and eventually...you guys were having sex. so much fucking sex. he whispered appraisal in your ear every time he got the chance to bury himself balls deep in your tight pussy. he was rough, yet his words came out as soft as ever to you, stirring up all kinds of mushy feelings and affection from him.

it only took one post on satoru’s instagram - that one picture of you in his apartment, smiling at yourself in the bathroom mirror as he stood behind you, kissing your cheek while he snapped the photo. it was posted in the early morning with the a simple, but meaningful caption: ain’t she special? one post confirmed something for, not only everyone else, but for you as well; he was in love with you.

it, of course, came as a shock to your peers on campus. satoru was infamous for being a player and a sex addict. even you, at one point, had make an ancient joke about how satoru couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. being held down by anyone wasn’t a common thing for him at all. the confirmation of your relationship with him only caused people to question if all of it was a facade.

you questioned it yourself sometimes. but then you’d oddly be ashamed in yourself for doing so. he told you he loved you out the blue, took you out for fancy dinners, wasn’t ashamed to mention you to his friends and almost annoyingly professed his love to you in public spaces and online. he loved you. you knew he loved you.

keeping his words in your mind was enough to protect your mind from getting hurt by reality. you were blind to the small love marks that weren’t given to him by you. you were deaf to the sound of satoru sweet-talking a girl on the phone, assuming you were asleep, when you were really wide-awake. you suddenly had anosmia whenever he’d come back to the apartment smelling like cheap perfume. you ignored it all subconsciously and it was starting to catch up to you.

you were clearly aware of satoru’s behavior before becoming official with him, but since he had treated you with so much tlc, you figured you would be the turning point in his life. you believed that he’d change now that he had such a smart, respectable, sexy, and compliant girl by his side. he didn’t need anyone else, right? wrong. you were not his turning point. you were simply another climax in his life, a feeling you gave him every time your pussy clamped down on his cock, except, he got to feel that from you more often than others. that’s how other people looked at it.

in two weeks it’d make a year since the two of you started dating. a full year of this? maybe he was in love in with you, but just because he was, it didn’t mean it got rid of his urges. so that’s why you were trying to ignore the chattering behind you right now. you know you couldn’t be mad. you knew satoru was a fucking sleeze.

“throw it back on me baby, you know i don’t like doing all the work.” satoru's vainglorious words sent blazes of warmth to run everywhere on your body. your hands held the sheets underneath you as you shook your body to and fro, shivering each time your skin connected with his. his throbbing cock kissed your cervix and massaged your pulsating walls. you were recovering from an orgasm that you had moments before, juice running down your legs, but satoru fucked you through, bringing you close to overstimulation.

you wanted to tell him it was too much, but he had your own, soaked panties in your mouth, causing you to be quite inaudible. so many reasons to be uncomfortable yet you adored and wanted the entire. the fully body mirror that was across from you reflected the pornographic scene and felt yourself getting aroused all over again from the sight. drool dribbled from your mouth, tears rolling down your cheeks, satoru’s strained face. it only motivated you to go faster, milking his cock with your cunt eagerly.

satoru reached beside him, getting his cell phone and lazily opened up the camera app. he happily recorded the way you ricocheted your full ass on him, holding it and smacking it multiple times. once he was happy with the footage he had, he threw it phone to the side and he reaches around and takes the lacy material from your mouth, causing you to hack uncontrollably and lick your dry lips. he proceeded to grab your hips, digging crescent shaped dents into your skin. he pulled you to him, fucking you like he had gone batshit crazy.

he had you blabbering nonsense now that your mouth wasn’t restrained, but he managed to hear you say “’s too much!” and you stammered while moaning his name.

“too fucking bad. hold out just a bit longer, you weak slut,” he growled. “fuck...” you were reaching your high again, legs shaking viciously before they gave out and you imploded on your stomach on the bed. it didn’t stop him from ramming into you over and over again. you were so compliant to him. the way he fucked you was intoxicating. he made you crave sex more than you ever did in your life. “cum again for me baby, i’ll come with you.”

with both of your eyes screwed shut, you clenched around his slobbered cock, stomach convulsing violently and came hard. you practically screamed his name like you had no fucking sense. it’s because you didn’t. your psyche had gone clear and your body was numb. you couldn’t even process that satoru had came as well, rubbing excess semen in between your ass cheeks, watching strings of your release and his own drip from your gaping hole. he turned you around so that you were on your back and brought his hand, slapping you hard against your cheek, bringing you back to your senses.

“don’t scream like that again. y’lost your fucking mind,” he threatens you in a low, aggressive tone before snickering. he grabbed your delicate bosoms tenderly, scouring your stiff, aching areolas. you gasped intensely while sweat moved down your face, eyes half-lidded. he sucked your nipples graciously, running wet circles around them with his tongue. his ivory locks of hair tickled your skin, you bring your hand to run your fingers through it. he brought his lips to the space in between your breasts, sucking feverishly on your soft flesh until he could see visible marks form, leaving his mark on you.

“did i...did i do good...?” you breathed out, closing your eyes.

you felt his warm lips leave your skin and he chuckled softly before kissing you tenderly. “yes, yes you did. you did so well.” he was proud of himself for taming you, making you so docile to him. you were strong-willed and independent outside of the bed so seeing you lie here so pathetic under his gaze, losing yourself because of his touch was a sight to see. he felt lucky to have you...

you were truly such a beautiful girl. as embarrassed as he was for you when he first saw you flashing to all those people at that frat party, he silently admitted to himself that you looked fucking hot. if you weren’t so drunk that night he probably would’ve fucked you. he got his wish...eventually.

if anyone ever asked satoru why he has stayed with you for so long, he wouldn't have the option to offer an unmistakable response. whenever he was asked, he gave them a straightforward, “i love her.” he couldn’t quite understand how or what you did, but you allure him in a way no other person can. you unknowingly had him wrapped around your finger. he didn’t mind being tied down by you. well, that’s because he wasn’t entirely “tied down.” it was no secret that he sneaked around with other girls on campus, but what other option did he have? he was an addict. he couldn’t go a fucking day without burying himself in someone’s cunt - or someone’s ass, or getting his dick sucked by some whore after class. he couldn’t fuck you everyday. he didn’t want to use you for that purpose. you surprisingly meant something to him. he hoped all the warm gestures he gave you was enough to prove he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

[mypoisonedvine]

Seeing Red | bodyguard!Bucky Barnes x reader (part 7)

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6)

series summary: bucky used to brag that he didn’t have a celebrity crush, or really care about famous people at all, which is what made him the perfect person to start working for a celebrity like yourself.  except, of course, it’s just his luck that he’d fall for you.  

word count: 2.5k

warnings: um just implied smut and fluff and a reference to bdsm I guess?? but it's pretty chill overall

Liked by starkcosmetics and others

y/n.y/l/n okay first of all, it takes an act of god to get a picture of this guy smiling, but it’s always worth it.  he really changed everything for me and I can’t thank him enough for that.  so happy ❤️ 

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caroldanvers 😍😍😍

flowercrowny/n oh my god this is so sweet i’m gonna cry

1 HOUR AGO

He smiled as he stared down at the post you’d made, remembering how much effort you’d put into finding the perfect picture (in your opinion; he thought he looked kinda dopey in it) as well as writing and re-writing your caption.

The speed at which your post gained likes and comments was inconceivable to him; even more impressive was the speed at which gossip rags were picking up the story.  Sure enough, his phone’s alerts to new headlines about you were not only going off like crazy, but had started to include news about himself as well.  

Y/N Y/L/N Shocks With Romantic Instagram Post, Confirms Dating Rumors

You’ll Never Guess Which Hollywood Starlet Is Dating Her Driver

Who is James Barnes?  Everything We Know About Y/N Y/L/N’s New Beau

Skimming one of the articles, he was impressed at how much information they’d managed to get without actually getting anything from you or him.  Born in Brooklyn, disabled Army veteran, worked a list of odd jobs before becoming your driver and bodyguard.  ‘No social media presence, prefers to keep a low profile’ one of them said; you can say that again, Bucky chuckled to himself when he read it.

He found another from People and didn’t particularly appreciate that it spent half the time going through all your past exes and rumored partners (turned out ‘rumored’ is a fancy word for ‘a bunch of fans deluded themselves so hard that it somehow turned into news without any proof necessary’).  But he still smiled when he got to the part that was actually about you and him.

‘The relationship is pretty new but they’re so happy together,’  a source close to the couple reported.  

Close indeed; that statement came from your publicist, who he’d never even meet.  

‘He’s a very private guy and she’s got this huge following, so they’re sort of an odd couple in that way, but she knows her fans are respectful and will let them have their own life outside of the spotlight.’ 

Bucky wasn’t sure that the respectfulness of fans was such a given here, but he hoped you were right.  To be fair, they’d been very sweet on your original post insofar. 

However, when he scrolled to the bottom of the celebrity magazine articles and realized they had their own comments section, he discovered that they were a little less forgiving than the ones on your Instagram.  

Is this the best she thinks she can do?  So sad tbh :(

a military guy…. yikes, she could get any guy she wants and she goes for a murderer. 

He looks like a hobo that found a coupon for a free haircut lol

I don’t buy it, I know she’ll always love Pietro!

Pietro being your former co-star that so many of your fans were convinced was actually your soulmate.  From what he’d heard from you, those speculations had made things so uncomfortable between the two of you that it killed your friendship.  Those were nothing, though, compared to the comments about someone you actually had dated.

she’s obviously not over sam… they were so good together

He’d better watch out for her ex, he still likes tweets about her and they have so much chemistry

Wait, she’s not still with Sam Wilson??  I could’ve sworn they’d been dating for, like, five years.

You were scrolling through your phone with a smile as you walked past where he was sitting on the couch, and he just couldn’t help himself from asking even though he knew it wasn’t the best idea.  “Do I need to worry about this Sam thing?” he blurted out, trying to play it cool and not sound too anxious.  “People are really obsessed with you two…”

“Sam and I…” you sighed, staring off into space for a second.  He made himself anxious imagining what you were thinking about in that moment.  “I haven’t talked to him in… years?  I think it’s just because our relationship was so public that people are still talking about it.  And it had a lot of gossip material— we did a movie together, people thought it was sweet that we got together during production, it was great promotion for the picture… and from the outside, we made a lot of sense for each other.  But he has his own problems.  I loved him, but… he wasn’t ever going to be a one-girl kinda guy.”

“But you’re not just any one girl.  You’re… you know, you,” he emphasized.

“You’ve been reading too many headlines,” you shook your head as you sat down beside him.  “Please don’t turn into one of those guys who thinks of me as a celebrity first.  Before that—” you pointed to your own name where it was bolded on his screen in the trending topics page of Twitter— “was popping up on movie posters and in gossip magazines, it was just my name.  And I’m not perfect.  Not even close.”

Bucky sighed and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into him and holding you tightly.  “And before I knew you were famous, or rich, or incredibly talented, I was totally obsessed with you just for who you are.”

“You’re too fucking amazing,” you sighed as you held his face and gave him a gentle kiss— the kind of kiss that instantly melted his heart and banished his worries.  When you pulled back and looked up at him with a smile, it was like everything else just… faded away.  “Don’t read the comments, okay?  None of them matter.”

He smiled and brushed his thumb over your cheek, overwhelmed by not only the softness of your skin but of your spirit as well.  In all his life he’d never been handled so… gently, with so much care.  “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he mumbled, not even really realizing he’d said it aloud until you gave him a beaming smile.

“I can’t believe you’re my boyfriend,” you giggled pridefully.

“Seriously?  I can… very easily believe it,” he scoffed.

“I just mean… you’re so…” you searched for the words.  “You’re actually good to me, that’s the thing.  I’m not used to that.”

“You deserve the world,” he assured.  “I’m just gonna keep trying to give you as much of it as I can find.”

He watched his hand trail over your face, down your neck and to your chest where he played with the hem of your t-shirt.

"It's odd to know there are millions of people who are jealous of me,” he admitted quietly, remembering some aggressive comments from some very angry dudes who had apparently also watched your nude scene a few too many times.

"Do you like it?  Do you like how it feels to know you're making them angry every time you touch me?"

"Couldn't care less," he refuted.  "Nobody else matters when I'm touchin' you."

“Do you maybe wanna… touch me a little more about it?” you smirked, opening your legs slightly in invitation.

“Always.”

//

Bucky had, thankfully, not let the newfound fame get to his head.  In fact, he had demanded that the two of you hunker down in the house, since he feared that going out would lead to being recognized.  What he apparently hadn’t anticipated was that that might not be enough.

“Will you get that?” you requested when the gate buzzed, too wrapped up in the book you were reading to answer the intercom.

He hopped up and held down the button to communicate with the gate speaker.  “Who is it?” he asked.

“I’ve got a delivery from Anjappar Chettinad on 23rd?”

Bucky didn’t even reply before hitting the green button and granting access to the driveway.  BEEP BEEP BEEP! you heard the gate signal its opening, and the car pulling around up to the door.  Bucky didn’t open it until there was a knock, greeting the delivery guy with a smile and the necessary cash.

“I’ve got a lamb korma, hyderabadi mutton dum biryani and an order of— woah,” the man suddenly stopped, staring at Bucky’s face.  “Are you—?’

“Hungry?  Yes,” he frowned.

“You’re the guy dating— holy shit, congrats man,” he beamed, smacking Bucky on the shoulder pridefully before leaning in with a mischievous smirk.  “Say, is she a freak or what?”

“She is,” you piped up from the couch, making both men turn their heads; but one was chuckling while the other looked mortified.  “You better not have forgotten my paneer pakora or I’m gonna chain you up and whip you.”

“Uh, I— no, I got it right here,” he promised weakly, handing the bag over to Bucky and starting to dash away before Bucky grabbed his arm, making the smaller man whimper fearfully.

“You forgot the money,” Bucky reminded him gruffly, stuffing the bills into the driver’s front pocket.

Finally, he let go, and the delivery man instantly pulled away, rubbing his arm and looking a bit like a kicked puppy as he went back to his car and drove away.

“You didn’t need to scare him that bad,” Bucky chuckled.

“I could say the same to you!  Grabbing somebody with the metal arm like that will put the fear of God into them pretty fast.”

“I didn’t mean to grab him that hard,” he admitted, examining the prosthetic hand as he came back to the couch with the bag of food, handing it to you while he focused on watching his motorized fingers curl and uncurl.  “I think I need to get this thing recalibrated… it’s been bugging out lately.”

“I dunno, it was working just fine last night,” you smiled, remembering how delightfully cool those fingers felt inside you.

Bucky seemed to miss it entirely, though, as he stared off into space.  “I can’t believe I got… recognized.”

“You’re a star,” you winked.  “And not just with random delivery drivers.  I’ve had a lot of press requests, everybody wants to be the first one to get nice pictures of us together— we’ve had a dozen event invites as a couple.”

“Seriously?!” he scoffed, snapping back to reality slightly enough 

“Yeah, and look what came in same-day mail this morning!”  You leaned over to shuffle through the mail on the side table before finding and handing him a letter in a gold-embossed envelope, watching him read what you knew was inside.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association extends an invitation to Y/N Y/L/N and James Barnes to the annual Grant Banquet in support of the Young Artists Fund.

“It seems like a good first event for us,” you explained.  “Relatively small and low stakes, it’s for a good cause…”

“Are you sure I’m ready to be, you know… seen?  By people?” 

You scoffed, hardly believing how insecure he could be sometimes.  “You look great, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Will I have to talk to anybody other than you?” he asked, grimacing as if that were a form of brutal torture.

“Probably,” you admitted.

His frown deepened.  “What if I say the wrong thing?”

“I’m not that worried about you,” you smirked.  “You’re a lot better at this stuff than you think you are.”

“I don’t have anything to wear…”

You smirked, a little too proud of yourself, when you remembered the email your publicist had forwarded to you just this morning.  “Hugo Boss will pay you $1500 to wear one of their suits on the carpet.”

“They’ll pay me to wear free clothes?” he repeated with wide eyes.

“Yeah, that’s one of the cooler things about fame,” you laughed.  “I make a grand every time I wear this watch outside!”

“I guess I should send them my measurements then…” he trailed off.  “Any chance I can get in on that watch deal?”

“No, but you can make $50 by getting papped at Jamba Juice.”

He paused for a moment, scratching the back of his neck as he thought.  “Is the smoothie comped?”

“I don’t know.  Do you want me to ask?”

“...kinda…” he admitted with a shy smile.  

“Well, I will, and I’ll RSVP to this invite saying we’ll be there next week,” you decided as you started to open up the food, but Bucky stopped you by reaching for your hands.

“Are we really doing this?” he asked.

“If you want to,” you mitigated.

“Of course I do.  I guess I have to accept that you’re actually willing to be seen with me,” he chuckled.  “It’s just sort of hard to believe.”

You leaned in and kissed him; it was meant to be a casual, reassuring peck but he held you closer and you melted into him, moaning softly at his touch as you started to climb into his lap.

“The food’s gonna get cold,” he reminded you with a mumble against your lips.

Unfortunately, your literal hunger was a bit too strong to ignore, even with the growing intensity of a metaphorical hunger for Bucky.  “Alright,” you relented, getting off of him and returning your attention to the meal on the table.  “Just know that I really, really want to be seen together, in public, just in case anybody missed the news about us already.  I’m not embarrassed by you or afraid you’re going to do something dumb.  I…”

One of those words that can’t be unsaid started to bubble up in your throat and you coughed, banishing the thought.

“I really like you.  I think we have something special.”

He smiled gently, giving you one more kiss on the cheek.  “I think so, too.”

//

Since this was slightly less of a big deal than a premiere or press tour, you had managed to convince your styling team to let you dress yourself, which was why he was laying on the bed and talking to you through the bathroom door while you put on your gown.

“Do you want me to hire a new driver?” you prompted him, voice muffled slightly as he imagined your head covered in the fabric, trying to navigate through the dress.  “I don’t want you to feel… I don’t know, like a servant?”

“A servant?  You’re still paying me,” he reminded you.  “You are still paying me, right?”

“Yes,” you laughed, “but still, I would hate it if you felt like staff.  You’re my boyfriend!”

(His heart still fluttered every time you said it.)

“No new driver,” he decided.  “I can drive just fine, and considering how things went between us… let’s not open the door for anybody else,” he smirked, making you laugh in that way you did when he made a stupid joke but you still liked it somehow.

“Okay, sure, but what about being my bodyguard?  Is that too weird?” you continued.

“God no,” he scoffed, “if anything I’m gonna be better at my job than ever.  As your boyfriend, keeping you safe is my job, but since keeping you safe was already my job… it’s, like, doubled-up now.”

He lost his train of thought when you opened the door.

“How do I look?” you asked as you stepped in and gave him a spin in your new dress.  Your whole body was draped in red silk, with the exception of your back which was almost entirely exposed, as if it were begging him to run his fingers down your spine.

“Like everything I ever wanted,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

And it was so odd that you questioned his desire to drive you, because those moments where he could steer with one hand and rest the other on your thigh, when he could catch a glimpse of you looking out the window at the city rolling by, when he got to listen to you ramble about something to kill the time during a drive; those were his favorite moments, and he wouldn’t trade them for anything.

After a relatively brief trip, you arrived at the venue, and all of a sudden he was doing what he’d fantasized about more than he’d like to admit: escorting you down a red carpet.  It was almost overwhelming— yelling, chattering, reporters speaking into camera, flashes going off in every direction—

“Hey,” you whispered, bringing your hand up to his cheek and instantly taking all his attention.

“Hey,” he returned.

“Just follow my lead,” you instructed.

“That was the plan.”

[redcrowz]

dystrack/rubacava is a TERF

The overall “new name”: TBrainrot under the name “Terry”

LAST UPDATED 8/10/2022

Updates are added with the proof, under the read more.

TWs: Transphobia, suicide, cissexism, incest, pedophilia, antisemitism

SUMMARY: Dez (@/dystrack / @/rubacava / @/butchstan / @/superjayld) is a transphobic TERF by admitting it alongside sending a video of trans people committing suicide, deadnamed someone, and lied about not being transphobic to a group of mostly trans people. She has been unapologetic about her actions. 

Recently, she has shown to be someone who indulges in incestuous, pedophilic, and other ships of the same immoral nature being a self-proclaimed “lolicon fujoshi extraordinaire”.

Block, avoid her, and do not give her a platform whatsoever.

Proof + more handles are under the read more. 

Discord: dystrack#3302 -> jpp#3302

Instagram: @ dystrrack, @ slugfunnie

Twitter: @ rubacava3, @ dystrackarts

@ frenchcest [2/10]

@ tentativebreath [2/10]

@ TBrainrot [2/10]

Tumblr: @ wickerkingdom, @ dystrack, @ rubacava, @ butchstan, @ superjayld, @ rubacava2

Dez accidentally deleted her entire blog, but remade under @ rubacava. [12/4]

Dez remade @ dystrack [7/23 update]

Dez made an alt @ wickerkingdom [8/29]

Dez made an alt @ rubacava2 [8/10/2022]

Art Fight: @ dystrack

YouTube: dystrack

DeviantArt [INACTIVE]: @ dystrack

Mastodon: @ Tbrainrot @ baraag.net [2/10]

---

9/2/2022

Another thread + document has been made, primarily focusing on her transphobia alongside proof that Dez is the holder of all accounts listed. 

As a disclaimer, the writer of the document is a proshipper / part of the proship community.

Evidence that TBrainrot is Rubacava/Dystrack

8/10/2022

12/4/2020

Dez (accidentally) deleted all of her tumblr blogs at one point but remade under @ rubacava.

Another instance of her transphobic behavior is shown through her posting a white supremacist / antisemetic wojak meme with a transgender person hanging just off screen, captioned “Though for everyone who may check this blog yes i hate trannies <3” 

A screenshot is linked here. Proceed with caution.

She has also liked a post from a TERF blog.

[Transcript: A blog from “iloveradfems”, saying

“No plastic surgery or any form of aesthetical body alteration brings the person subjected to it one concrete benefit other than the consciousness of looking pleasant to others, "for myself’ is a capitalist/patriarchal facade to stimulate femininity by giving it a false, fabricated sense of autonomy.

A certain feature is only perceived as unadequate when it is compared to upheld adequate, nothing is fundamentally aesthetically unadequade in the human body; beauty is cultural.”]

---

12/2/2020

J (trans male) confronted Dez (cis female) on this cissexist remark in a server.

[Transcript: A Discord screenshot of Dez, saying “Tfw im gonna have to draw an ugly musty penis during the first class of lockdown since october” proceeded with a reaction image of CallMeCarson crying.]

This was brought up in DMs.

[Transcript: A Discord screenshot of a conversation between Dez and J.

Dez: I'm sorry but I don't see how my comments were cissexist? I just find penises gross and unattractive, whether theyre attached to a cis man or not.

I dont get how its cissexist because i didnt assume anyone was cis? I didnt make fun of cis men i made fun of penises which i think are gross

And not all men have penises and some trans women/amab nbs don't have penises either

J: It's more so blanket statements like that that make people uncomfortable even if you didn't have trans people in mind 

even if you personally find penises gross it's kind of Ehh to joke about especially since there are some transfem people in chat 

Dez: Oh.

Well they can go 41% about it.

J: What? 

Dez, why would you make a joke like that.]

[Transcript continued.

J: Dez, we’ve been friends for years, what would even motivate you to make a comment so horrible? What the hell is going on with you?

Dez: I’ve been transphobic the whole time (DEADNAME)

J: I’m extremely disappointed in you Dez. I had nothing but good things to say to you and I really don’t know why you would change, especially since we've known each other for a long time. You're going to hurt a lot of people who looked up to you.

we all loved you a lot and i have no idea why you'd suddenly turn around on years of friendship to be like this but hey, I can’t control your life. If you want to be transphobic, fine. But I don’t think anyone is going to want to associate with you anymore especially not in this friend circle.

Dez: I understand that.

Hope you can find someone else to draw your homophobic fujobait porn OCs this christmas.]

J brought this up with T, and this proceeded.

[TW SUICIDE]

[Transcript: A Discord screenshot of a conversation between Dez and T.

T: hey J just showed me what you said, and before i block you, i need to know: why? Why were you friends with us for so long and made trans friendly content in the past and then you suddenly turn like this? what was the point??? What the fuck were you gaining from being friends with people you hate? What the FUCK?

Dez proceeds to send a video.]

Content of the video: “phase 1 being someone questioning if theyre a woman, phase 2 being that they say theyre a woman, and it cuts to a loud gunshot and a ms paint stick man having shot themselves on a table”

[Transcript continued.

Dez: I was transphobic long before 4chan

I mean transphobia isn't even real

T: don’t tell me to calm down!!! what the fuck was the point of any of this?? WHY WERE YOU EVEN OUR FRIEND

What did you get out of any of this???!]

A link of a google doc will be in the replies.

[atlas-private]

Snaps - WhiteKnight

Weiss: Gah! How hard does taking a good selfie have to be!?

Yang: You okay in there Weiss, everything coming out alright?

Weiss: Go away Xiao-Long, I'm trying to get good lighting!

Yang: What for, you trying to get a good ass-shot for VB or something?

Weiss:...

Yang: Weiss?

The door to the bathroom opens and before Yang could peek in shes quickly pulled in by the Heiress.

Yang: Hey now what's the big- Butt...

Before Yang stood Weiss, still wearing her school top and heels. Although her skirt was missing showing off the Heiress's smooth legs and a rather risque looking pair of light blue string panties that left little to the imagination of what exactly she hid underneath that skirt. Yang even thought she noticed the faintest tuft of white hair peeking above the pantyline.

Yang: Damn Weiss, where the Heck have you been hiding that?

The Heiress at least had the decency to guffaw.

Weiss: I'll have you know that unlike you, I don't flaunt myself about.

Yang: Fair point but I mean honestly, your ass is on par with Blake's!

Weiss huffed.

Weiss: As much as I appreciate the compliment I need your help. Here take a look at what I have so far.

She handed Yang her Scroll with the photo gallery opened, in it were various photos of Weiss in different poses and state of dress. Although Yang did see the progress of when Weiss first started taking to first shot, fully clothed and looking at the mirror unsure, to her current outfit with her butt on top of the counter and towards the mirror.

Yang: Well these all look good enough honestly, but why do you need my help?

Weiss: As much as it annoys me to say it, I believe you have a more critical take on how best to woo the opposite sex.

Yang: Pardon?

Weiss shook her head and sighed.

Weiss: You know how make man horny?

Yang: Oh! Damn right I do!

Weiss: Exactly, so can you give me some advice?

Yang gave a wide grin.

Yang: Well then have no fear, Yang is here!

---

Inside of JNPR's room, Jaune and Ren where currently relaxing while Pyrrha and Nora were sparring in the arena.

Ping

The sound of Jaune's Scroll going off from getting a message had broken the comfortable silence.

Ren: A message?

Jaune: Yeah, probably Pyrrha and Nora wanting us to meet them at the cafeteria.

Jaune checked his Scroll and went to the message, seeing that it was from Weiss.

Jaune: Huh, maybe she wants to schedule another study session?

He opened the message and coughed in surprise. Weiss had sent him a picture, but a rather lewd picture that made Jaune stiffen in more ways than one.

The picture was of Weiss holding the scroll above herself and wearing an unbuttoned school shirt, looking at the camera with her tongue poking out just a little. As he kept looking he saw that her skirt was missing entirely and that other hand was pulling the front part of her panties outwards showing the barest hint of her crotch but giving Jaune the answer that she was indeed a natural white.

Before he could respond he received another message from Weiss.

This time it showed her laying down in her bed looking at the camera with a smirk. Although now she was entirely naked save for the pair of panties from the picture previous. Her shapely ass raised up to give a view to him and with a caption just above the open area.

Weiss: Now you send me something my Dork Knight.

Jaune only gulped at the request, he never knew Weiss was able to be kinky, or at least he thought it was kinky. Plus something about seeing the prim and proper Heiress posing in such a way really got his gears going, but there was one problem.

Jaune: Ren?

Ren: Yes Jaune?

Jaune: Can you give me advice on how to talk a nude selfie?

Ren only raised a brow at his leader, and became slightly worried that growing up with Nora had dulled his sense to dealing with the absurd.

Ren: Of course, first remove your shirt-

---

Weiss currently sat on her bed in an embarrassed state. Now clad in a bathrobe after taking the last picture, and had been a mix of emotions ever since. First she was proud of sending not one but two pictures to Jaune. This quickly died down to regret in thinking she could've sent something better and finally into worry that Jaune might think if her as a Harlot.

Yang: Yeesh Weiss it's just a nude, not like you asked him plant a baby in you or something.

The response she received was a pillow being thrown at her.

Weiss: You don't get it Yang, what if he thinks I'm too small or what if he thinks my butt is too big? Or or or- Mmhmph!?

She found Yang's hand suddenly covering her mouth.

Yang: Just chillax Weissy, you just gotta have faith is all. Now just take a few breaths and you'll get results.

Weiss stared at Yang and did as told, calming down a bit until she heard the familiar Ping of her Scroll going off. She looked at Yang again, and Yang looked at her.

Weiss: Can you open it for me?

Yang raised a brow at her.

Weiss: Right, this is between me and Jaune now.

She readied herself for whatever response he had given. Opening the message to find two pictures from Jaune and she felt the heat on her face rising from what she saw.

The first picture was of Jaune, stood in front of the mirror without his shirt and flexing. He seemed to be embarrassed if the slight blush was anything to go by but he still stood proudly. Weiss had to admit that Pyrrha's training was doing wonders for his body there was a caption to go with it.

Jaune: I'll do my best to appease you.

She smiled at that, something about that message just clicked something inside if the Heiress. The second image however was far different. Much like her own picture, Jaune was laying in his own bed on his back and scroll facing downwards. He still had his pants on but the belt and zipper was undone and allowed the Arc to pitch a sizeable tent with his white boxers as even the waistband had been lifted ever slightly to give a small glimpse within. Weiss gulped, her first thought being that the size would destroy her, but also that Jaune was a natural blonde all the way. This one also had a caption.

Jaune: Your knight's blade is at the ready your majesty.

So distracted Weiss was that she failed to notice Yang moving up beside her.

Yang: *whistles* Damn VB, you gonna tear Weiss up with that!

Weiss snapped out if her trance and did the only thing she could think of.

---

Across the Hall, Jaune was putting his clothes back and adjusting his member when he heard the familiar shrill if the Heiress.

Jaune: Uh, was what I sent her that bad?

At the question, Ren came out if the bathroom when he gave Jaune his privacy.

Ren: Not in the slightest, those poses were rather good for the sudden moment.

Jaune: How can you-

Ren: I did a modeling gig before Beacon started for some cash.

Jaune: But-

Ren: It was for someone who's last name was Adele, can't fully remember. Tell no one by the way.

Jaune: Oh... Okay.

The two were in silence save for the yelling still coming from across the Hall.

Jaune: Hope it wasn't too bad though.

They heard the laughing shout from across the hall.

Yang: He's gonna destroy you with that thing!

Weiss: Won't know until I try it Xiao-Long, now give me back my Scroll!

Ren only looked at Jaune who was blushing now.

Ren: It seems it was good enough Jaune.

---

July 8th, 2021

(Hello there, Private here just saying this is my first NSFW-ish type story. Honestly, it's difficult to make male nudes sound attractive since from what I've seen is either measuring with something or stark naked in the mirror. No sense of creativity I tells ya. But the ladies have some more leeway, but only few of them do get creative.

Anyways, thanks for your time and have a great day.)

[erwinsvow]

𝐚𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨

note: part two to the college headcanons! part one can be found here! i had a lot of fun writing these and i hope everyone enjoys them :) teacher/student dynamic warning for zeke and hange's, and i guess bullying for annie's :/

𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐨 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐝

the very definition of kind-hearted frat boy who doesn’t fit the stereotype he’s been assigned at all

starts off with accounting before realizing he hates math, moves into business management and marketing

the linkedin profile is absolutely popping, 500+ connections and details about every club and organization he’s ever been a part of

the friend that helps everyone find internships and fixes their resumes while offering helpful advice and not being condescending… anyways so that’s how you meet porco

he works at the career center 100% and does various coaching/prep help, and you, pieck’s friend, are in desperate need of an internship

so you’re complaining to your friend as usual, when she tells you to stop by the building and ask for a “pock”

so you do just that, walking in and asking for “pock” and porco is a little stunned by this pretty stranger calling him by a nickname reserved for his close friends, and even then he just barely tolerates it

but he doesn’t want to correct you, especially since you’re being so sweet and he can tell you need some help

so a meeting at the career center slowly turns into facetime calls to review applications and last-minute edits, stopping by your dorm to help you fill out paperwork and walking together to mail it out

i have a feeling porco doesn’t wanna be too forward, and he thinks he’s being very aloof and casual, when he really just seems oblivious

and you cannot tell for the life of you if he likes you or he’s just being friendly since you’re close with pieck

finally after you land the internship and won't have your normal excuse to spend time with him, you get the guts you've been searching for

you tell him about the position later in the day, stopping by the center for hopefully the last time

"by the way, my number's on my resume if you're ever gonna ask me out."

leaves pocky-boy flustered and red and scrambling to ask you out, and you have been happily dating since

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

oh boy

conny is a very typical college kid in the sense that he will sleep through every 8 am class he has, blow off class to go wait in line for the nacho bar, and has adopted the mantra ‘c’s get degrees’

but he is an extremely lovable education major with a focus in history

rarely seen without his shadow sasha, but now that she started dating niccolo, she thinks that conny could use a relationship too, and that it might do him some good to be with a funny, down-to-earth person

thus begins the most grueling two weeks for every girl on campus, as sasha hunts down girls that she thinks would be a good match for her best friend

this includes airdropping a photo of conny to the lecture hall with the caption “would you date this man? serious inquiries only”

creates a fake tinder complete with a google form to narrow down the options

however, none of this is necessary because sasha bumps into you in the smoothie line and causes your triple berry blend to go flying

she helps you clean up and idle conversation leads to you talking about dates and so forth

“well, i’d love to set you up with my best friend? how do you feel about a blind date?”

yes, conny met you, the love of his life, on a blind date set up by sasha with a stranger

it’s one of those funny stories that people don’t believe when you tell them, because how ridiculous is that, but you both think it’s perfect since you get along so well and it made all the waiting worth it

bonus: double dates with sasha and niccolo! fondue night at their apartment, going to the arcade and having to lug up sasha and her food baby while niccolo parks the car, just overall a grand time :)

𝐳𝐞𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫

zeke yeager, ph.d. started his new job at university with one rule in mind: absolutely no illicit affairs

he also coaches the club baseball team, because why not get involved on your campus

he really believes that he’s gonna stick with it too, despite the overwhelming number of students who come to his office hours with questions that his less handsome teaching assistants could answer

but no, he doesn’t want to earn a reputation as that professor, and so he heads into the new semester with absolutely no lingering thoughts of an exciting little dalliance to get him through the monotonous days

he knows his huge lecture classes would always come with a few pretty students, but it’s the smaller, upper-level psych class he’s teaching when he meets you for the first time

zeke has you all figured out, or so he thinks. sitting in the front row, raising your hand for questions he wasn’t expecting anyone to actually have an answer to, neatly handwritten notes in a color-coded notebook. he wouldn’t peg you for the type to jump and take the risk by starting a relationship with a professor.

but he soon realizes that he didn’t have you as figured out as he thought he did.

you avoid the gaggle of freshmen during office hours by scheduling meetings instead, sometimes right before class, coming to him with two cups of coffee and a wide smile that actually had him fooled into thinking you were here for academic reasons

this facade quickly fades though, because after a semester of interactions with you and getting more and more comfortable with each other, to the point where coffee orders are memorized and it’s zeke rather than professor yeager, you’ve had just about enough

he knows he’s fucked when you come visit him at practice for the baseball team, bringing him a drink and engaging in conversation while the players watch their coach flirt with you

he’s especially fucked when he realizes he’s looking forward to practice just because there’s a chance you’ll stop by on your way to your next class

you submit your final paper early, nearly a week before it’s due and of course the first in the class to do so, and waltz into his office the next day with another steaming cup of his favorite drink

“you submitted your paper pretty early, you know.”

“i know. i also know that it means i’m not your student anymore, so if you were going to make a move, now’s the time.”

no, he definitely had underestimated how much he knew about you.

𝐦𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐬𝐚 𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧

mikasa is a forensic sciences major and is still debating on the minor- she’s torn between criminal justice or history like armin.

she loves her major classes, but she just wants something else interesting to look forward to as well, so armin suggests sitting in on a couple classes early in the semester and getting a taste for it.

so you don’t really think twice when she claims the empty seat next to you on the first day of classes, smiling politely and paying attention to the professor. you do notice, however, that she’s not writing anything down or looking at the syllabus, leading you to strike a conversation on why that is.

she explains herself and then before you even know it, the lecture ends and you spent the last forty minutes talking to mikasa about anything and everything.

she’s sitting in on another class tomorrow, and absent mindedly invites you to come along, to which you agree all too quickly, because why wouldn’t you

numbers are exchanged, times are fixed, and mikasa leaves wondering why she’s so excited at the idea of sitting with you in class again.

you two hate the history class she had chosen, with the professor droning on and on and you being focused entirely on the conversation you’re having with mikasa

until the professor kicks the two of you out for not shutting up, that is

you’re both laughing hysterically once you reach the hallway

“i’m gonna have to discourage you from doing that history minor if that’s what all the classes are like.”

“well, i have to do criminal justice so we can have that class together, anyways.”

𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭

true to form, annie goes into one of the most difficult majors: cheg. definitely flies through intro courses with straight As and minimal effort, but that’s also mostly because all she and bertholdt do is study

reiner tries his hardest to get her to go to a party every once in a while, but usually to no avail because she always has an exam to study for

you’re a tutor, and honestly, you’d say you were pretty good at your job. you can answer questions and explain reasonings fairly well to confused students. but when annie comes to your office hours with some complicated problems and she’s asking for explanations that you just don’t have, you literally feel your face burn with heat for the entirety of the time she’s there

long story short, your first encounter is embarrassing, to say the least. you’re stumbling over words as you try to look through your old notes and piece together an answer for annie, who you cannot even look in the eyes.

anyways, she leaves eventually and you want a hole to open in the ground and swallow you up, but at least she won’t be back next week, right?

wrong.

miss leonhart doesn’t know how to express her feelings any better than you, so her way of flirting is spending time with you in the tutor center as you fail to answer her questions time and time again

you want to scream at her to stop coming because she and you both know you’re not helping either of you with this

but also you really don’t want her to stop coming because you don’t have any other ways to see her outside of class

both of you reach your wit’s end on the same day, her coming to you with the absolute easiest problems she could find in the textbook, and you with every intention of asking her out to dinner

she opens her book, and you reach and close it quickly

“unless this is the only way you know how to flirt, something has to change now.”

𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐳𝐨𝐞

dr. zoë teaches, just, way too many classes

we’re talking multiple chemistry labs and upper-level research courses as well

you’re just a ph.d. student doing rotations as per usual, and you’ve heard the comments from students senior to you about dr. zoë, who makes every student in rotation say hange instead of the formal way you’re used to

you’ve heard everything from crazy to genius and everything in between

what you weren’t expecting was… so good looking, and young? and comforting? and talking about all the things that you didn’t have the guts to bring up with other people, like how you always feel a little left out in the field and that you think no one cares about your research interests that much—a lot of stuff that you find yourself pouring out to hange on your very first day in the lab

you’re wondering why it’s so easy to talk to them, and why none of the other rotations ever felt this comfortable

and then you realize you’re spilling your guts to someone who probably doesn’t even care, and has way more to deal with on their plate than a ph.d. student with imposter syndrome

so you’re apologizing right after you’ve finished, when you’re met with the warmest look and a reassuring hand on your shoulder

it’s so easy to fall after that, with weekly meetings and regular check-ins, and you know it’s wrong to have this strange crush on your superior, but hange really feels like the one person you can count on here

you hide the crush in favor of getting the mentorship you desperately think you need, but it’s not long until you’re onto the next rotation and the next lab’s work is even closer to the stuff you love

you hate the way you feel, that you’re not gonna have any reason to keep in touch and you never even got to explain how you feel about them—and that you didn’t even get to experience hange’s energy because she was always listening and helping you out

it’s not until you get a text the night before your first day in the new lab from hange, filled with reassuring words and asking for a coffee date later in the week to talk about how it goes, that you realize just how well hange understood you

𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

last but not least, miss pieck is double majoring in french and public health

absolutely obsessed with her majors and loves the subjects, but works herself to death to keep up with it all

you don’t even realize that the pretty, studious girl you’re seeing in the library all the time is the same girl you spot with some of your friends from class

pieck is as oblivious as they come. you invite her on study dates after you two are introduced by reiner, invite her to get coffee after a particularly late night of studying, pretty much start spending most of your days together

you can’t help but be disappointed that pieck doesn’t see you in that way, because you’ve slowly been falling head over heels, but you accept that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be, and you still love the friendship you two have

it takes a while for things to click for pieck, but they do right as the semester eases up

once exams are over, you two decide to go to these famous parties porco and reiner never stop talking about

it’s not the usual scene you’re comfortable with, but what’s wrong with letting loose a little, especially after midterms? no harm in having fun, right?

wrong again! you definitely get plastered way too quickly, and eventually pieck takes you to a room to settle down

drunk confessions of love aren’t usually the way to go, but you can’t help but reveal everything you’ve been feeling for the last few months when pieck is taking care of you in your current state

you definitely wake up hungover and ignorant to last night’s shenanigans, but you’re in your dorm, with a bottle of water and ibuprofen on the nightstand, phone plugged in and shoes off

pieck comes back with breakfast, coffee and your favorite pastries, and checks up on you

“so.. about last night..”

“i’m so sorry, did i throw up on you?”

“no, but you did say you were in love with me. was that just a drunk thing, or is it a sober thing too? because i think i’m in love with you too.”

[oh-hush-its-perfect]

do you think there is any significance that alex's colour scheme is green and pink? or do you think rr went "u know what this character needs? to look like a watermelon"

((Prefacing this by saying that I'm giving RR way too much credit here, but you shouldn't take anything an author does for granted— even a serial author who often makes blunders and mistakes.))

A while ago I saw a (pretty unfair) assumption that RR made it green and pink because blue and pink would be too obvious, but that his intention was obviously to reinforce the gender binary by using two distinctly gendered colors for a character with two distinct genders. Of course, they did not phrase it so delicately. No offense to whoever made that post, but I disagree.

Although that may have had to do with it, there's other things to consider. One of them is color symbolism. And oh. OH. I ADORE symbolism— especially flower/plant symbolism (Language of the Flowers and all that jazz), seasonal symbolism (there's a reason that evermore is my second favorite Taylor Swift album), and color symbolism.

GREEN

Let's talk about green first. Green can symbolize a lot of different things, and there are a few that can be applied to Alex's character. The most obvious thing that green often represents is jealousy— hence the expression "green with envy." But envy is not really one of Alex's character traits. Feel free to argue with me if you think that Alex is significantly envious. Just because I couldn't think of substantial textual evidence for it does not mean that there isn't any.

One of the traits that Alex does have is wealth. Green is the color of American currency, and since both RR and Alex are American, it's safe to take an American lens while looking at this color. Alex's socioeconomic background effects her in a big way. I mentioned in a previous post that I think that Alex's fatal flaw is her sense of entitlement. That kind of entitlement is a quality not exclusive to but common among the upper class. However, her distance from her wealthy background enhances the sense of irony in the story, which is a VERY big thing that we NEVER talk about within the fandom.

This is kind of a little thing, but it's worth noting that when it comes to Valhalla and everything, Alex is "green"— as in new and inexperienced.

The color green also emphasizes Alex's connection with nature. This is one of the parts of Alex's character that the fandom consistently underplays, which is an absolute shame. I don't think I have to explain why the color green is associated with all things natural. Alex's association with nature provides a few key things to her character:

It makes her a more well-rounded character. Another criticism of Alex I believe is totally unfounded is that "being genderfluid is her only personality trait because it influences her philosophy on pottery, which is her only hobby." I'm probably going to make another post in, like, a few minutes about why I find that argument a little silly, but the primary problem is that pottery is not Alex's only hobby. She also loves camping, hiking, and ice wall climbing (I bet y'all forgot about that last one!)

It gives her a connection with Magnus. I mentioned in a previous post that Magnus and Alex are foils, but I neglected to bring up why that also makes for very good chemistry between them. Of course, yes, they have different goals and philosophy, which is what makes them foils in the first place. But foil relationships function best when the characters also share some traits. As it turns out, Alex and Magnus share several hobbies, and one of them is a mutual love for nature. This is a very unexplored thing in fics. Start doing it more plz.

Finally, and this one's kind of minor, but the Alex's green gives her a connection to Natalie. I know, whenever Alex and Natalie are compared, either in canon or in fandom, everybody kind goes "eww. Oedipus complex." Which is very fair and true. But they really do have a lot of similarites. The green of Alex's hair and clothes connects her to the green of Natalie's eyes. It's worth saying, too, that Alex has one amber eye— and amber is pretty close to dirty blonde, like Natalie's hair.

If I had more faith in RR, I might bring up the concept of intextuality and how Alex wearing green is an allusion to The Great Gatsby and how Alex is elusive to Magnus, just like Daisy is to Gatsby. But I don't.

PINK

To give credit to the person who wrote the post I mentioned at the beginning of this spiel, I do believe that part of the reason pink was used was to support femininity. Please keep in mind that Alex dresses in an androgynous way— not that there is an actually "gendered" way to dress, since gender as we perceive it is mostly made up. But Alex's existence as a transfemme person (which I will maintain until my dying day) means that pink has a certain significance to her. A lot of AMAB people embrace traditionally feminine things because if they don't, they will not be accepted as genuine women or genuine nonbinary folks, since masculine dress is unisex and kind of the default. So Alex wearing pink probably had something to do with her gender, yes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it's certainly not an unrealistic thing.

Speaking of Alex's gender in relation to the color pink, let's talk about pink's use as a queer rights symbol. Alex was RR's first character to be introduced as a queer character from the start. This was not an insignificant thing, especially in the year of our Lord 2016 (which, despite popular belief, seriously had an entirely different landscape of queer rep. Though it's commonplace now to include genderqueer characters, it was exceptional at the time— especially by such an accomplished and mainstream children's author.).

Let's go back in time to Nazi Germany. Some of you might know this, but for those of you don't this transition must seem jarring. I swear there's a point. In addition to Jews, Romani individuals, people with disabilities, and Poles (among others), gay men were victimized by the Nazis. If you're wondering why lesbians weren't persecuted, it's because the Nazis didn't see them as a serious political threat, or as a threat to the perpetuation of the Aryan race since they assumed gay women could be forcefully impregnated if need be. Yeah, ew. Anyway, much like the Star of David being used to mark Jewish people, gay men were forced into concentration camps and forced to wear a pink triangle. Years later, after the gay population somewhat recovered, the pink triangle was reclaimed and used as a symbol for gay men. Some people who were not gay men used it, too, but that's somewhat controversial since it wasn't their symbol to reclaim. When the first pride flag was created, it had a pink stripe at the top to signify sex (this was later dropped so flags could be more easily produced). The pink triangle (inverted) was used during the AIDs epidemic with the caption "Silence=Death."

My point is that this is a very important color to queer folks. Having one of the first genderfluid characters in kid's lit wear pink...... I mean, it makes sense.

The last and final thing that pink represents, in this context and in general, is innocence. Granted, this kind of connects to feminitity since women (especially white women) are often infantalized and seen as innocent— which is another issue. In any case, the use of pink to represent innocence in Alex's dress is ironic. Alex has been robbed of her childhood innocence, first by her abusive parents, then by her life on the streets, and then by her eventual death at age sixteen. But then she actually regains her innocence. At the beginning of the—

Hold on. I just had a revelation. I'll make a post about it soon.

At the beginning of SotD, Alex is acting a little childish. The most obvious example is him jumping on Randolph's bed to "make noise." Alex's life is stable and relatively healthy for the first time in the years, and she experiences something that a lot of queer folks experience: a re-emergence of childhood at a late stage.

I imagine you didn't expect a post this long. I either make essay responses to asks or I add on one sentence and post it. Oops. Anyway, I believe the mcga fandom can be more creative than calling Alex a watermelon. Here are some other (kinda romantic) pink-and-green alternatives:

Roses

Dragonfruit

Grapefruit

Cherry blossom trees

[nickyhemmick]

A Very Stressed American Jew here again,

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to respond to my ask and yes, I’m someone who loves hearing as many perspectives as possible so I’d love some sources from you. I also very much appreciate the fact you are being very careful to only reblog posts that are anti Israel, not antisemetic (which is frankly a breath of fresh air, the internet has been a bit exhaustingly full of both antisemitic & Islamaphobic content these past feel days as I bet you’ve seen)

I’ve also been to Israel on a Birthright trip. We met people who ( both Palestinian and Israeli) on various sides of the conflict and learned a ton about it, from both perspectives which I was lucky to have the opportunity to do. We even went a little into the Gaza Strip to talk to these people running a pro Palestine peace movement and it was so important to me hearing those stories.

I never said they were on equal footing militarily, they definitely are not, Israel definitely has that advantage. But you are incorrect about Israel always being the aggressor since 1948,they’ve defended themselves about as often as they’ve attacked. Isreal is a small country comparatively to the ones surrounding it, so it makes sense it defends itself heavily in case of an attack.

I 100% agree that there are too many people who are compliant with the mistreatment of many Palestinians! I’m not anti #freepalestine at all! I get why that is a thing. But I also stand with Israel( but that does not mean I condone every action they take. ) Overall I think the situation is extremely complicated and some sort of compromise should be reached.

It’s just been very frustrating to see so many people reblog things on a situation just bashing Israel because so many others are doing it. Especially when then don’t know what they are talking about or using big buzz words that they don’t know what they mean, or spreading misinformation. It’s been on both sides and has been very very draining. I just want peace and some sort of solution. It makes me extremely happy you know what you are talking about and can debate politely yet happily about it. The internet has been so ‘ either agree with me 100% or you a bad person’ about this so it’s refreshing to see you are not like that.

I’ve done a lot of research into it from as many perspectives as I can get my hands on.

Some extremest Israelis are hurting Palestinians

Some extremest Palestinians are hurting Israelis

Both sides are throwing rockets at each other and it’s terrifying.

Both sides claim the other side is brainwashed

There is so much biased propaganda out there on both ends it’s hard to know what is truly happening.

I know people living in Israel who have sent me videos they’ve taken of rockets flying over there heads and I’m so scared for them. I’m so scared for all the innocent people caught in the crossfire on both sides.

Thank you for a more nuanced response and I’d love some of your sources,

A Very Stressed American Jew

Hi anon, 

I wasn’t going to respond to this until after my math final tomorrow but I’ve spent the past two days thinking of your ask and the things I wish to articulate in my answer. 

I am going to start here: how can you say you support Israel but say you are also pro-free Palestine (as in, you said you are not anti free Palestine). In my opinion, these two ideas cannot coexist. Simply because, the entire establishment of Israel has been on violent, racist, colonial grounds. 

(Super long post under here guys)

You said you don’t support all Israel’s actions, and definitely, just because you support something doesn’t mean you can’t criticize it. However, in my opinion, if you do not support Israel’s actions against Palestinians there’s not much left to support? I admit this is a very biased view as I am Palestinian, but many things that people support about Israel have existed before its creation: as in, these are things and qualities that have existed in Judaism and are not due to “Israeli culture.” There is no Israeli culture. There’s Jewish culture--100%. But there is no Israeli culture, because Israel does not only steal Palestinian land, but Palestinian culture, too. Such as claiming Levant food is Israeli; hummus, ful, falafel, shawarma. I mentioned food from this article I know is culturally and traditionally of the Levant, and has been for centuries, it is not something that has come to culinary creation in the past 73 years. 

I do not think this is a complicated issue. I said that in the previous ask and I’ll say that again. Saying it is a complicated issue is trivializing the deaths of innocent Palestinians, the violent dispossession our ancestors endured, and the apartheid they live under. I hope if anything comes from this discussion it is you removing the “it’s a complicated issue” phrase from your vernacular. 

This is not complicated. A journalist reporting the death of martyrs only to discover that of them include two of his brothers is not complicated. The asymmetry of Israel vs Palestinian armed forces is not complicated, nor is the asymmetry in Israeli vs Palestinian suffering (which I will get to later). It is not complicated.  Destroying the graves of martyred Palestinians (or just in general, the graves of the dead) is not complicated. Little children being pulled from the rubble, children being forced to comfort one another as they are covered in the ashes of their decimated homes, attacking unarmed citizens in peaceful demonstrations (you can find videos before this attack where they were playing with kites and balloons), destroying an international media office and refusing to allow journalists to retrieve the work they are spending every waking hour documenting but claiming it was because it was a hide out for a “Hamas base,” fathers who are trying to cheer their frightened children up only to end up dead the next day, while many Israeli have the privilege and the option to go to hotel-like bomb shelters is not complicated. 

This brings me to my next point: the suffering of Palestinians cannot be compared to the inconvenience of Israeli’s. On one side, you have children who are happy to have saved their fish in the face of their homes and lives being decimated behind them to Israeli’s in Tel Aviv having to cut their beach day short to get to bomb shelters. You have mothers and fathers ready to set their lives down for their children to save them from bombs to Israeli’s enjoying their brunch only after making sure there are bomb shelters there. You have Palestinian children being murdered to blocking out the sound of sirens in the safety of your bomb shelters. (The first picture of the Palestinian child is not from footage of the recent problems). You have the baby lone survivor of a whole family recovered from rubble. His whole family, gone, before he ever had the chance to realize that he even exists, while Israeli’s decide to flee out of the country,(Translate the caption from Twitter, it checks out), or have to leave the shower due to sirens. Who is really suffering? 

I won’t sit here and pretend like the thought of rockets flying over my head, no matter which side I am on, is not terrifying. It is. It’s scary to just think about. But Israeli’s have protection beyond Palestinian’s, they have sirens to warn them (Israel does not always warn Palestinian building members that it is about to be bombed), they have the Iron Dome, they have simply the threat of nuclear power (which I am not saying Israel would use, but the simple fact they have it would make me feel a lot better if I were an Israeli citizen) and they have bomb shelters. What do Palestinians have? Hamas? That smuggles its weapons through the ocean? That only ever reacts to the action Israel instigates? And yet Gazans are branded terrorists and that it is their fault that they “elected” a terrorist organization that only was ever created due to no protection from any armed country? (There are so many links I want to add in this paragraph but it is simply impossible for me to add everything I want, a lot of what I’m referring to can either be found through a Google search, or you can stalk my Twitter account, all that I am posting now is about Palestine, and will include sources of things I cannot add in just this one post.) 

Look, I see myself in the genocide happening in Palestine right now. I see myself in this ten year-old girl. In this three year old girl. I see me and my family in videos of cars being attacked in Ramallah and Sheikh Jarrah (I cannot find the Ramallah video, should be somewhere on my Twitter), I see my father in the countless videos of fathers crying out for their children, of kissing the corpse of their loved ones (again, translate the Tweet, the man holding the body is saying “just one kiss”). I see my grandfather in videos like this (old footage). I see my younger brother, I see my grandmother, my mother, my aunts and uncles and cousins. I see myself and my life and my family were my father not lucky enough to get a scholarship to the UK and out of Palestine, were my maternal grandfather not been lucky enough to make it to a refugee camp and build a life in Jordan. I have an unbelievable amount of privilege to be born into the life I was born in to, in terms of I do not have the threat of bombs and violent dispossession around me, and I do not even live in the US. I have privilege and sheer luck that my parents were able to go to the US so that me and my brothers can be born, because now I have both the protection of the most powerful country in the world while at the same time being part of a people to have suffered so generously the past seventy-three years. 

On the other hand, you saying that Israel has “defended themselves about as often as they’ve attacked. Israel is a small country comparatively to the ones surrounding it, so it makes sense it defends itself heavily in case of an attack,” I offer you this question: why are they using military grade guns and stun grenades in mosques to “defend” themselves from rocks? And before you mention that Hamas hit Tel Aviv, I remind you that Hamas did that due to the violence in the Al-Aqsa mosque square and the attempted ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah. The violence didn’t begin with us; the violence was brought out of Palestinians in resistance to the generations of oppression we have endured and the attack on Palestinian Muslims during the holiest night of Ramadan. Hamas has since asked for a ceasefire multiple times and Israel is refusing. New reports say there is a possibility of a ceasefire in the coming days, but Israel could have decided this a long time ago and spared many lives. (Remember, no matter what resistance we make, Israel is the one in power).

Israel has been the aggressor since 1948. Just read up about the Nakba! 700k Palestinian families were dispossessed violently. The only reason Israel was established at all was because it simply declared it was now a country and the US and many other countries recognized it as such. (Of course, there are many other historical details here, like the British Mandate of Palestine, the Balfour Declaration, the Oslo Accords and many others. I am aware of them but these are for a different post all together). My paternal grandfather was a little younger than me when Israel as a state was created. The hostility that followed was due to this independent declaration being listened to over Palestinian voices. 

Here is a very, very simplified analogy, one that can also answer some people’s questions as to why Palestinians (not Arabs, we are Palestinian before we are Arab) did not like what happened in 1948 and why they refused a two-state solution (that Israel was never going to go through with anyway). (I am also aware other Arab nations got involved, and that is perhaps what you mean when you said they had to defend themselves, but my response to that would still be we didn't start it, that we only responded to it).

Let’s say you are a farmer. You have many fields of trees, ones you have taken shelter under from the sun since you were a child, or hid behind when you wanted to avoid your parents when you misbehaved. You have seen your trees grow from a seed, to a sprout, to a flower, to a large, beautiful tree with fruits the size of a fist. You pluck the fruits from one tree, and make a jam from it. I don’t know how to make jam but I know it takes a lot of energy. So, you make this jam and from it, produce a lovely, mouth-watering pie. Once it has cooled from the oven, you take it with you outside your balcony just so that you can admire the years, months, weeks and hours this one pie has taken to be created. Suddenly, a stranger walks past and yells to you, “That pie looks delicious, I want it!” And you, shocked at their boldness but ready to share, say, “I will give you a bite.” But the stranger says, “No! I do not want a bite or a slice or whatever you want to offer me, I want the pie!” And they grab it from you. You and the stranger start screaming at one another about who the pie is for, who is allowed to decide what happens to it, and who you can share it with. Then, another stranger comes by and says, “Why all the problems? Let’s cut the pie in half and the both of you can share it!” But why should you, who has spent years cultivating the fruit and grain inside this pie, share it? Why should you give up half of the 100% that you already owned? Of what you already had? So you disagree, and now a crowd has formed around you. “What’s the problem?” someone in the crowd calls. “They don’t want to share their pie!” another voice says. Then you become branded a selfish, mean bastard. Again, this is a super simplified analogy, so don’t take it too seriously, but I am trying to show you why Israel is the aggressor.

In addition, I do not know too much about the Birthright program, just that American Jewish people are sent to Israel, all expenses paid. I tried my best to find the Twitter thread but I read it so long ago, about an American Jewish person who went on their trip and they talked about the propaganda that they were exposed to on that trip. I can’t say for sure that it is true, because I haven’t been on it and never will, but that is the first thing I thought of when you mentioned your Birthright trip. Either way, I think it is still great you went and saw the country. However, I must ask you this: are the people you met ones you, yourself, sought out, or ones you were organized to meet?

Now, I haven’t been to Gaza, so I don’t know what you really saw or didn’t, but did you speak to Palestinians who lost their homes to airstrikes? Did you speak to siblings, parents or children of loved ones who had been lost beneath the rubble of buildings and towers? Outside of Gaza, did you speak to Palestinians that live in poor quarters? Ones who have been victims of an IDF soldier shooting them, or who have family members who have died from such attacks? Did they take you guys to Ramallah, to Nablus, to Beit-Imreen, to Jenin, to small villages in the West Bank, far away from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv? Did you speak to people there? Ask them their stories? Because if you did I have a very hard time believing you still think Israel is “defending” itself.

I’ve been to Jerusalem, many times, even Tel Aviv and Jaffa and Haifa. All the times I visited Dome of the Rock there were IDF soldiers with huge guns strapped to their person, standing menacingly outside the courtyard. For what? Genuinely, genuinely for what? It is nothing but an intimidation tactic. The same way we are not allowed in through the airport. If you could see the struggle some Palestinians actually go through just to get into Palestine, through the land border, you would be disgusted. I love Palestine, it is my ancestry land, it is my culture and tradition. But I always hated going to visit because I knew the way to getting there would be hell.

My father worked in Tel Aviv through the first Intifada. My maternal grandfather was forced out of his home in the Nakba and was forced to leave behind his belongings and the orange trees that have been in his family for generations. Hell, the town they lived in was destroyed! It doesn’t exist anymore except in the memories of my aunts and uncles, who never even saw it, but just heard of it from their father!

I’m not saying there aren’t Palestinians who are racist and anti-Semitic (though, tbh, I will direct you here for that) and who support Hamas in killing Israeli’s, but talking about how there are many “extremist” Palestinians who are hurting Israeli’s and in the next line say there are extremist Israeli’s who are hurting Palestinians is not correct. There are extremist Israeli’s killing, lynching, stealing the houses of Palestinians, and there are Palestinians who are fed up and fighting back. (I am not talking about Hamas vs the IDF here, I am talking about the citizens). I have not seen one reported death of an Israeli due to Palestinian violence (if you have, from a trusted source, send it to me), but I have seen countless of the other way around. I have seen images of charred little bodies, of a baby being dug out of the rubble, of a child’s body that had been so mutilated that you can literally see the insides of their body coming out. (I don’t know if it’s on my Twitter, I didn’t want to save that shit). If this was my country I would be absolutely ashamed of myself and my people and what they are doing in the name of my protection. So you have to forgive me, and forgive other Palestinians, who don’t give a fuck about Israeli’s having anxiety over rockets flying over their heads when we see these images. Where is the protection of our kids? Why does no one seem to mention them except when mentioning the poor, innocent ones in Israel? At least more than the majority of them have their parents to comfort and rock them. At least many of them will probably be saved of ever having to be beneath the rubble of a destroyed building, or digging in it, to hope to find the parts of their parents or siblings just so that they can bury them. Just the links from the start of my answer is enough to support what I am saying.

I have soooo much more I can say, like how Israel uses religion to distort the image of what’s going on (tbh, just check my Twitter for that: language is EVERYTHING), but you didn’t mention religion in any of this and so I won’t either. The only reason I decided to respond to you in such length was because you have been one of the few respectful anons in my inbox in the past few years of me being on here talking about Israel, so I appreciate that from you. 

As promised, some more sources: decolonizepalestine is a good place to start if you haven’t used it already, it has reading materials, myth busting, and more. Here is a map list of destroyed localities from pre-1948 until 2017, run by two anti-Zionist Israelis. Here and here are the articles I promised of a former IDF soldier-turned Palestinian activist, I read these two last year in June and remember coming out much more informed than before I read them. I suggest looking into the writer and his organization, which, if I remember correctly, collects accounts from previous IDF soldiers. I would suggest not to follow Israel and the IDF accounts on any platform, or any Israel times newspaper, simply because they will not tell you the truth. In fairness, you do not have to follow any Palestinian Authority accounts (which I am not even sure there are), but to follow on-ground Palestinians like Mohammed El-Kurd, who has been speaking out since he was 12 (he is now 22) and he is part of the families in Sheikh Jarrah. I have noticed that this and this account have been translating Arabic headlines and tweets for non-Arabic speakers, I have just started following this person but their bio says they are a Palestinian Jewish person so I am interested in their view of things. You can also follow Israeli’s on-ground and see their perspective on things, but I would also advise to compare the Palestinian and Israeli side of things from the people, and critically analyze the language used in each case. Also, this article references Jewish scholars opposed to the occupation (I have not looked into them myself but I plan to after my exams), and Norman Finklestein is another great Jewish scholar to look into if you haven’t. Twitter is better than Instagram and Facebook, so I would stick to getting live-info from there, Twitter does not censor Palestinian content as much as Insta and Facebook so you’re more likely to see things there.

I will end this by saying I personally do not see any other option for peace than to give Palestinians our land back. Whether we may be Muslim, Jewish or Christian, it has always been and will always be our land. I only hope to see it free in my lifetime. 

Free Palestine. 

[earlgreytea68]

Hi EGT! *waves* I know not to quote you on anything but as a lawyer and a fandom veteran, could you shed any light on the attitude difference between monetizing fanfiction versus fanart? I know it's ALL ILLEGAL, technically. But what's the difference in copyright law for words versus imagery? How do you make art transformative enough to pass muster? (No need to respond if you don't feel like it, I'm just on a research binge and I loved your perspective on the omegaverse case)

Hello!

Okay, yes, first: no legal advice here! This is just some information!

First of all, technically fanart and fanfiction (as I understand those terms to identify) are not necessarily AUTOMATICALLY illegal, even if monetized. Fanart and fanfiction are protected by the fair use doctrine. Fair use is a notoriously unpredictable, fact-specific defense based on a number of factors. One of those factors has to do with transformativeness, as you reference above, so, do you have a different purpose or have you altered the character of the original work. This is why AO3's nonprofit is Organization for *Transformative* Works.

Another of those factors has to do with commercialism, and that's where the monetization comes in. While commercialism is not automatically infringing, uses that are *not* commercial are more likely *not* to be infringing. (The flip side of this is that non-commercialism is not automatically okay, either. There is never anything automatic about copyright fair use. No bright line rules!)

Another factor of the fair use analysis is whether the fanart or fanfic affects the copyright holder's market, which is another question entirely. Commercialism can play into that, but not always.

Okay, so with that as background, a couple of things:

--The attitude difference seems more cultural to me than anything else, at times. Sometimes I think it's even generational? Theoretically, commercialism is taken into account in all fair use analyses. Theoretically, commercial uses are less likely to be considered fair than non-commercial uses (although, again, commercial uses can be fair and non-commercial uses can be infringing). So legally there really is no difference between a fair use art analysis and a fair use fic analysis afa commercialism is concerned; they would both be taken into account. As far as I can tell from my years in fandom, fanartists could monetize more easily, selling at cons, and before the rise of Patreon, etc., fanfiction writers didn't have a clear path to monetization, and so it happened that fandom got more used to the idea that fanartists get paid and fanfic writers don't (this is obviously an extremely broad generalization). But that's just a matter of the way technology developed and not actually a legal statement.

--That said, are there differences in copyright law between words and imagery? Yes. Inevitably. They are different creative media. The same reason why not everybody who writes can draw is the same reason why the law is slightly different between them: they're just two different things. To be clear, the law is the *same,* it's just that in application it's a little different. So, for instance, one of the enduring questions in copyright law is how much a character is copyrightable? Important for fanfiction and fanart, right? Since often they're just borrowing characters? We have a test but the test is different for graphically depicted characters than for characters that only show up in books. And this makes sense, right? Recognizing a character as depicted in a television show is using an entirely different set of signals than recognizing a character you've only ever seen in your mind's eye. So figuring out what makes a character in a television show copyrightable is slightly different than figuring out what makes a character who exists only on a page copyrightable.

--So, finally, how can art be considered transformative? Vs. how can fic be considered transformative? I can't really set out guidelines, because of how finicky fair use is, and also because I don't want anyone to think I'm giving legal advice (I'm not!) and make them think there's some foolproof algorithm to make sure your use is transformative. Analyzing the transformativeness of art vs. text can be a little different, because, again, they're different media. I teach a course on fair use and I actually divide the cases up by creative medium because I think it's interesting to see how it plays out.

The answer ultimately is: It depends. We have a bunch of appropriation art cases, many of them involving Jeff Koons or Richard Prince. In some of these, the courts have found the art transformative, when it recontextualized the art in a new collage, or added some Photoshoppy graffiti over the art. But in others of these, the courts have either found infringement or been dubious about transformativeness, when the art just recreated the original in different colors, or printed the original out with just a caption added. We have fewer cases about text. One of these is the Harry Potter Lexicon case, where the court actually basically found fair use with just a few minor changes to decrease how much of Rowling's text was quoted. There's another one involving a sequel to "Catcher in the Rye" called "Sixty Years Later." The court found it was infringing, not transformative enough of the original because it borrowed too much and didn't change enough. And there's the "The Wind Done Gone" case, which was a retelling of "Gone with the Wind" from the POV of a new enslaved character. The first court thought this was infringing, but the appellate court disagreed and thought it was fair use because it was providing valuable social commentary on "Gone with the Wind" and didn't take more of "Gone with the Wind" than was necessary to make its point.

And it's always important to remember that, as in the "The Wind Done Gone" case, often courts themselves disagree strenuously about fair use. We recently had a big fair use case involving an Andy Warhol painting of Prince, and one court thought it was transformative fair use, and another court thought it was infringing. Such is fair use.