#anti cs now

[mysteryofvampires]

C S Pacat's books are still original and I love that!!

They don’t really go after what's trending. Try searching for over sexualised Fae in their works, I challenge you.

They don’t have blank self-insert female main characters without a personality (not only because most of their main characters are male) and so called "dark, broody book boyfriends" which can easily replaced with one from any other book.

Their characters are actually so unique and fleshed out. Like do you know any other character in a famous booktok books who is an ancient warrior being reborn in a dead girl's body or a character who is literally the last unicorn? I don't think so!!

Also there are non white characters who are really important for the story e.g Violet (one of the main characters) and Justice who serves as the person to introduce her and Will to the ancient World.

Yes, they use popular themes un her books. Like the classical fight between light and dark (Dark king and his army vs Stewards and the Lady), but it's written so well.

Yes, their writing is also very good and the worldbuilding is so much better than in many books.

Also there are so many different kinds of relationships. We have romantical love, love between siblings and we have a fucking well written, not sexualised, platonic love relationship between a girl and a boy!!!

We stan!!

[caruliaa]

r*dcr*ckle alluded at in that that man is vaugly flirting w his kid sister after being mindwiped but disproved by him post unmindwipe not doing that and said kid sister being entirely unaware and just thinking "i miss my older brother figure :(" the whole time. ch*sulia alluded at with the "partner?" moment and when carmen asked somewhat suspiciously abt julia having lunch with chase and disproved by julia responding both times basically with "oh god no do NOT worry about him" and then either looking at carmen flirtatiously or like shes deeply in love w her

[plural-userboxes]

Hi! So so sorry for breaking your DNI,, but this is some pretty dang important misinformation that was spread. Pretty much the entire radqueer community HATES pro-contacts and x3n0s4t4nists, I promise you we do not claim those creatures. 😭

Plus quite a few are uncomfortable with certain transids and paras, the whole thing is you just don't harass the people you're uncomfortable with/gen

oh we understand that it is not ALL radqueers. but sadly as each day goes by more and more and MORE are starting to be "neutral" on actually disgusting DISGUSTING people.

we at least do not want people who label themsleves as "radqueers" to interact with us due to the fact that well...the community as a WHOLE is harmful.

not harassing others is fine...but that would not be radqueer,,,,that would be Anti-Harrassment. To label yourself as radqueer is to align yourself with the community that has caused much harm and is a breeding ground for racism, ableism, abuse, grooming etc./nbr/gen

but like we just wish that more radqueers who are becoming hesitant and are uncomfortable with the community as it is now to research into things like Dissomei so maybe they can find a community that does not align with awful horrible things.

but again that is just our opinion and also we are more than happy to talk to radqueers who are thinking/trying to leave the community to help them find excepting spaces that are safe :3

extra note: we used to be radqueer aligned we saw it when the communityw asnt full of pro-cs/neu-cs and xenosatanists....it was harmful then aswell.

-Link

[bithablu]

I'm having a difficult time with certain people I know IRL who say that both political parties are the same and it's not worth voting. The Palestinian genocide is usually their main talking point about how both parties suck and how they can't vote for anyone who wouldn't demand an immediate cease fire.

Ok. Cool. Name me one president who didn't have to deal with some kind of genocide. Now show me the one that dealt with it perfectly. No flaws. Quickly. Oh? None? Because politicians are deeply flawed people navigating an overly complicated system of checks and balances that are in place to prevent fascism and dictatorships? Huh.

Palestinians need humanitarian aid, support, political allies, and political pressure on Israel. Which candidate do you think would be more likely to provide ANY of that? The guy who moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, tacitly insinuating that Jerusalem was Israel's capital? Or the chick who called for a cease fire and has a history of supporting humanitarian aid programs?

Is she perfect? Fuck no. Is she good enough? Not on this topic. But which one of them is more like to adjust their policies?

Speaking of adjusting policies, have you heard the story of how Walz went from being beloved by the NRA to get constant F ratings from them? His daughter talked to him about how he was the only person she knew who had the power to prevent school shootings. So she talked and he listened. He prioritized life over lobbyists. Action instead of just thoughts and prayers.

Can you see JD Vance doing that? I can't. He's too busy insulting legal immigrants and letting women bleed out from miscarriages because doctors have to wait 'until the mother's life is in danger' to perform D&Cs. You know, that procedure to 'clean out' a woman after a miscarriage. It's technically an abortion and some doctors would rather wait until a woman is in septic shock than risk a jail sentence for obeying their Hippocratic oath. But Vance adjusting his stance on abortion laws to save lives is less important than making a stand against... I dunno, anti-evangelical behavior 🤷🏼‍♀️

Look, I know it's disheartening. It's fucking heart wrenching just to hear about what's happening in Gaza. But throwing your vote away does no one any good. If you want to make a difference, being indifferent with your vote is not the way to go.

Have you tried talking to your local/state politicians? Have you joined any organizations? Donated? What have you done?

For those of you who say that I'm afraid of the bad orange man, you know what- yeah. I'm afraid of what he could do. My daughter is already going to grow up with less rights than I had. Gods help her if she'd move to a different state; in some of the more restrictive states a woman has more bodily autonomy as a corpse than she does if she's pregnant.

Harris/Walz isn't the best choice but they are the better choice. Pro-union, pro-children, pro-education, pro-choice, pro-GBLTQ+, pro-environment.

If you're waiting for the perfect candidate, you're going to be waiting for a while.

[likecastle]

Since you're writing smut... I have come to make a cowardly anonymous prompt:

Robin & Nancy fill in a kink checklist & learn new things about each other.

So there is a kink checklist in this, but it actually didn't turn out to include much smut. Sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles! No explicit sex, but probably rated mature all the same. Kink negotiation, but surprisingly not all that in-depth?

“I think . . .” Nancy is choosing her words carefully, but she’s already thinking six steps ahead, judging by her faraway expression. “. . . if we’re really going to do this, we should probably . . . talk things over first.”

“OK,” Robin says easily. She’d expected as much. When Nancy doesn’t go on, she asks, “Like . . . now?”

This surprises a laugh out of Nancy. “I was thinking more like next week? I want to do a little reading first.”

Now it’s Robin’s turn to laugh. “Of course you do.” She hesitates to ask the next question, but she can’t leave it unsaid. “But you’ll at least think about it? You don’t think it’s too . . . weird, or gross, or, I don’t know, anti-feminist or something?”

This time Nancy’s surprise isn’t charmed, but concerned. “Anti—? What?” She shakes her head. “Robin, yes, of course I’ll think about it.” She reaches out to squeeze Robin’s hands in hers, reassuringly tight. “I’m definitely interested. I just . . . want us to take our time, so we don’t jump into something and find out we’re over our heads. Is that OK?”

Robin nods, feeling dumb for asking, but Nancy leans in and kisses her cheek and she can’t feel too bad about anything then.

“Will I at least consider it?” Nancy parrots, laughter in her voice as she trails kisses along Robin’s jaw. “Seriously? This is all I’m going to be thinking about.”

*

True to her word, about a week later, Nancy turns off the TV after dinner and presents her with a typed checklist. It’s ten pages long.

“Is it already time to renew our lease?” Robin jokes, and then her mouth goes dry when her eyes land on a word on the third page that is definitely not in any lease agreement she’s ever signed.

“I was thinking we could each fill this out, and then compare our answers,” Nancy says, and it’s cute how pleased she is with this idea, even if Robin doesn’t quite get it.

“Like a Cosmo quiz?” She suddenly has the mental image of the two of them lying on their stomachs, kicking their feet up in the air and picking mostly As or mostly Cs. “Do you wanna braid each other’s hair and talk about our crushes, too?”

Nancy deflates a little. “Or we can do something else, if you want,” Nancy says, only a little resentfully. “I just thought it would be a good idea for us each to have time to think about what we do and don’t want on our own, so there’s not as much pressure to decide in the moment.”

“That’s . . . a great idea,” Robin says, impressed. Of course it is, because this is Nancy, who does nothing by half measures.

Nancy ducks her head and smiles, preening just a little. “Good.”

Robin stares down at the sheaf of papers in her hands, which has clearly been typed up on Nancy’s clunky old electric typewriter. “Did you type this up yourself?”

Nancy flushes, just a little. “I couldn’t find a checklist that I like, so I made my own.”

Robin laughs, delighted, and sets aside the papers so she can tackle Nancy against the couch cushions. “I love you,” she says, climbing on top of her. She kisses Nancy once and then again, and then a third time for good measure. “This is going to be the sexiest questionnaire I’ve ever filled out. The people at Gallup are going to be so jealous.”

*

As it turns out, it is sort of sexy to fill out Nancy’s checklist. There are definitely plenty of things on the list that Robin marks as a hard no and resolves never to think about again, but there are a lot of things curious about, too.

There’s also a lot of stuff on this list that she’s never heard of before, and she’s not exactly inexperienced. True, she’s not the most adventurous lesbian in the world, but she’s got a lot of friends who do, and they all talk, so if she’s stumped, that means Nancy did some seriously in-depth research to put this list together. Most of the unfamiliar terms she can work out from context, and those she can’t, she takes great pleasure in springing on Nancy at the most unexpected moments.

“Hey, Nance?” she asks from the living room, while Nancy is making coffee one morning, like she’s asking about a crossword clue. “What is ‘dacryphillia’ a love of?”

To her great satisfaction, she hears a spoon clatter to the floor, and Nancy’s muttered curse.

But all teasing aside, Robin is trying to take the checklist seriously. Nancy went to all this trouble to do things right, and Robin wants to honor that commitment. She’s also genuinely curious to find out her ow answers to some of the questions Nancy’s thought up. She takes her time with the questions, concertedly trying to imagine a situation I which she might be turned on by doing some of the things on the list, or having them done to her. She’s always had an active imagination, and, perhps unsurprisingly, it’s not a terrible burden to imagine having sex with Nancy. There are more than a few sex acts she wouldn’t have guessed she was interested in in the slightest, but the moment she imagines Nancy in the place of some anonymous leather-clad dominatrix, she starts to see the appeal. More than once she works herself up just thinking about one of the activities on the list—so much so that when Nancy gets home from work early one afternoon, she’s wryly amused to find Robin masturbating with the checklist lying abandoned on the bed beside her.

“You know you don’t have to try them all out all by yourself,” Nancy says from the doorway to their bedroom.

“Oh? Does that mean you want to come join me?”

Nancy doesn’t need to be asked twice.

[divinecomedyproductions]

Fandom Woes: Restricting Creatives and Policing Potential Audiences

This is something of an Electric Boogaloo to my previous posts in my problems with Fandoms.

One major complaint I hear a lot from Fandoms wether be Star Wars, Warhammer, Marvel, DC, and so on, which is big companies changing these works fundamentally their unrecognizable and "fanfiction" and the solution is to GateKeep and tell others to do their own things, and plenty of YouTube personalities have pointed out the root of this problem

And this is a heavily opinionated post, so read at your own risk

But there is another factor which I briefly went over in one of my posts

A lot of literary snobs will have you dancing around between writing reimagined AU fanfic which they will chide you being "unrecognizable to the source material" and when you take what you liked and what you wanted and make it it's own thing they brand it as "derivative thinly veiled fanfiction" and will get all pissy if it takes jabs at the inspiration, all while they support creators do the exact same thing to things they don't like.

But also when you point out the potential audience, in my experience those "intellectuals" will proceed to insult them as uncultured and stupid unwashed masses or minority of freaks(and they often flip flop between the two inconsistently) who they can't stand breathing the same air as them.

For example, way back when I was younger and explained what I liked about Warhammer 40k and what I didn't like, most of the fandom used their brains and were civil with me about it in their disagreement.

But then some among the fandom told me I should just shut up and go watch Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.

And if I may repeat a point, Iconic Comics created Kamen America because they didn't like what was done with Captain Marvel, so they took what they liked about her and what they wanted, combined other elements to create Kamen America and The Kamen Corps

Which then people started screaming Kamen America was just a "porno Captain Marvel rip-off" all while supporting The Boys which has an evil Superman and nasty rendition of superheroes written by a guy who said hostile things about the genre

I expressed about what I liked about RWBY and what I didn't like and what I wanted and how I was gonna used what I liked and wanted to make an reimagined AU and OG work and got bashed as "leeching off Monty's work" and "RWBY Christian Propaganda" and I should just shut up and go watch Marvel or Disney, or if I do it, I gotta be apologetic and ashamed about it and accept the "Consequences" which to me, comes off as a threat.

Which these same people also cheer on the Anti-Narnian His Dark Materials Trilogy written by a guy who hates CS Lewis and Christianity with a passion.

These people don't want others to tamper around with what they love, but they don't want them to take what they like and what they wanted to make their own thing either, all while they cheer on those who do the same thing with stuff us "wrong people" like.

and I have a theory why this is.

The "Intellectual Elite" of Literature do not like it when "The Wrong People" take matters into their own hands, at least in ways they do not approve of, or unless the dissident does it while professing its ultimately nothing compared to what "the right people" do. Especially now that we are in a climate in which people on the fence are more receptive to indie voices.

These prigs want to lock things down and keep all dissent under their control to keep things nice and copacetic for their own ego.

And here's the reality check for these people, and I don't know how many I speak for

I do not give a pingas how "objective" and "educated" you are about these things, I and other creatives are under little to no obligation to regulate our creativity and force ourselves to change our feelings and keep our mouths shut and follow your little hypocritical rules because you think you know better than everyone else.

We are under little to no obligation to not take what we liked and what we wanted and not take jabs at the inspiration, especially when you all support creatives who do the exact same thing towards things you don't like.

We are under little to no obligation to "broaden our audiences" when in the past it left us getting the short end of the stick so many times when you refuse to do the same with what you create and enjoy.

And by your own logic, especially when you say "Its not gonna change canon or its 'trajectory'" then why do you need to come in and police everyone else and lecture how horrible we all are for liking things that you don't, while lecturing us about doing what your doing right now? If you were truly secure in what you knew to be the objective end-all-be-all, then you'd never had gone out of your way to open your mouth.

And if you decide to have us "own up to the consequences of our actions" which we both know is a veiled threat to punish people who do things you don't like, or be complacent when abuse happens towards those you disagree with, then I and a good number of people will fight back if it escalates to harassment, bypassing our "curations" and slander.

and I can hear these so-called critics say

"Well, what if you make your stuff and you turn out to be wrong?"

If we don't do so well, nothing happens, its not gonna be like Across The Spider-Verse where a big-ass hole is gonna rip through reality.

If we are wrong, it's our ass. This will be done with money out of our own pocket and at none of your expense.

Take your own advise

"It's not for you, its not gonna change canon or its trajectory, disengage the material and move on.”

Because that advise only works on Social Media, when you are fine with canon is going

[sassyandclassy94]

Ya know, I had this mutual who I enjoyed because she had good takes and her art was really cool. A while ago I wondered how she was cause I realized “Oh! I haven’t seen her on my dash in a while.”

Now, this was a girl who liked Captain swan and didn’t like SwanFire but it was okay cause I have the CS and anti SwanFire favs blocked and I just enjoyed her other stuff.

Turns out she blocked me because I don’t like CS. EVEN though I tag all my anti posts appropriately.

Okay. Whatever.

[kurtsvaginaart]

hey ive been in the rq community for awhile but honestly the community feels like its falling apart and i hate that it feels that way but original meaning has been lost (being pro-©) and it feels like antis are constantly infiltrating in a way i used to just be in a safe space with new confabs but now it just feels impossible i guess i hope this is a kind of anon ask you are ok with getting if not sorry

I'm okay with getting this don't worry and yeah man lmao, like the radqueer community started off as pro-c you literally cannot kick them out of their own community. I'm not even pro-c myself but I still made a server where pro-cs and stuff can be in because they don't deserve getting kicked out of their own fucking community

[emperorverse]

The Emperor-Verse: RWBY: Saints of Remnant, a reimagined AU(More details in Keep Reading!)

Once there was a world by the name of Omnibus. Created by the supreme deity The Author Allfather through the mysterious entity The Storyteller, this world was composed of four holy and mighty kingdoms, ruled by The Author’s Patron Saints whose reign protected the people, human and faunus alike, with their mighty armies, hunters, and their own holy powers from barbarian hordes, and the hordes of The Grimm who were the incarnations of hatred of the fallen seraph Grimmel The Black and his fellow fallen angels

In the dreadful world-shattering war of Ragnarök, the glorious age of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and the days of Romance, Heroism Adventure, and Eucatastrophe came to a tragic end.

Now all that remains is the world that is Remnant

But there is a prophecy made by Ozma The First Time Wizard before his death at the hands of The Witch-Emperor, that one day the bloodlines of the original Patron Saints and the families betrothed to them will return to take up these powers, rally armies of the righteous, vanquish the darkness and restore the holy kingdoms and Omnibus and reign over them once more.

Sinners will become Saints

Legends shall be restored and new Legends will be born

And what was a Remnant, Shall Be Whole Again.

But until then, the Hunters lead a struggling battle against the Grimm while the modern kingdoms suffer under corruption of all kinds, both to the benefit of darker forces who have horrifying intentions for the world.

Cue Ruby Rose and her older half-sister Yang Xiao Long, they are about to enter Beacon Academy after being approved by the eccentric Professor Ozpin Pine along with the heiress Weiss Schnee and the introverted faunus Blake Belladonna forming team RWBY

Ozpin has also enrolled a few other students and transferred others.

The former forming team JNPR, and the latter being Team SSSN of Haven Academy

Ozpin seems to have his eye on all of them, but what for?

Heavily inspired by CS Lewis's series The Chronicles of Narnia

Main Ships Contained:

RoseGarden

BlackSun

Iceberg/Arctic Water

Arkos

Renora

and some other ships

Also will contain unorthodox reimagining such as Adam Taurus(He's an initial antagonist turned good) and the White Fang and Jacques Schnee and the SDC with their Canon!Counterparts replaced with substitutes among other things

Currently the concept is in the works in a series of notes.

Details of the Emperor-Verse

Now I'm sure there's some questions you probably are all asking which I assume are the same questions as my blog

“Why are you using your Religion?”

Mostly due to it being a strong foundation, notably theology, for most of my stories, there are many strong foundations of storytelling, religion, history, you can even fantasize science if you put the imagination, time, and effort into it.

After doing some soul searching and listening to the Narnia books on Audible, it became another important element in making this au and I might include elements of CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy

This AU is set in my fictional Multiverse The Emperor-Verse which Narnia is implied to exist in, or I should say had existed in(its set after The Last Battle)

“Isn’t this kind of entitled and disrespectful?”

Disagreement isn’t necessarily malicious, and entitlement is not inherently bad if its your opinions and subjective feelings which people are entitled to.

Tolkien was heavily inspired by his distaste for how Shakespeare handled certain concepts, such as the Ents when he was upset and dissatisfied that there were no walking talking trees in the Enchanted Fortest of Macbeth, and the Valar Aule the Smith and the origin of the Dwarves make him something of an Anti-Prometheus

Not to mention Philip Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials Trilogy, made it out his distaste how CS Lewis made the Chronicles of Narnia and his overall beef with Christianity, and nobody seems to take issue with that.

I’m not saying the direction RWBY went with V3 or Pyrrha and the rest of the cast potentially ending tragically in some way or another is objectively bad, it was just not my taste

And I am not saying every normal RWBY fan/RWDE person who liked it is an elitist about it nor are all of them trying to insult me and attack me personally or say my ideas are bad

Nor I’m not trying to change canon or its “trajectory” , nor am I doing this to spite Monty, especially when I never knew the guy. This is a difference in handling ideas and concepts.

I’m doing my RWBY AU, which will most likely be revamped into an original story since it takes a whole different directions with the characters and world, but it's mostly because with post V3 and now in retrospect I saw what this world, characters, ships and other ideas could have been all in a story I believe is worth telling. And I was disappointed that it wasn’t.

I mean yeah it's also due to personal tastes and preferences and subjective feelings, at least I’ve been told, but I also try to integrate that in a meaningful way.

So I hope you all enjoy what I have to offer, which will most likely be put on AO3 and FanFiction.Net, and who knows, I might get a few artists to commission to redesign some characters or illustrate some scenes if anyone is up for it.

[bayesic-bitch]

I don't think I've ever needed to use my university access to read a journal paper in my field (thank you strong anti-IP norms in CS), but I DO use it frequently for hobby reasons.

Anyway hell yeah I just found a copy of The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis so now I can read all about how fucked up and evil they were for the medieval and early modern economy

[beckettj]

1 Year Repost: In the Blood (CS oneshot)

It's been a whole year since I first published this fic so I'm sharing it again now!

Summary: Emma breaks the news to Killian that she’s pregnant.. She’s excited and it can only be a good thing… right? Then why the bloody hell does he feel so damn terrified?

Words: 3,279

Read on AO3

'How much of my father am I destined to become?' 'Will it wash out in the water, or is it always in the blood?'

--

“Killian!”

The unexpected shout, originating from upstairs, was enough to make his head shoot out of the book in his hand, a small frown crossing his brow. It was an excited yell, almost a squeal – a noise he had never heard from Emma before – but one most certainly filled with joy, so he inferred there was no reason to panic; something of a miracle given all they had been through. Even still, the noise, the shout; it confused him.

Emma bounding down the stairs, with all the enthusiasm of her overexcited little brother on Christmas Day, only added to his befuddlement. The Emma who all-but hopped, skipped, and jumped into the front room scarcely resembled the dead-on-her-feet Emma that he had seen only an hour ago. The transformation was as impressive as it was remarkable. She had been exhausted, complaining that she felt totally drained, to the point where he had ended up carrying her up the stairs and into their bedroom, as she could barely face moving. When he had expressed his worries that her tiredness was becoming a frequent occurrence, she had shooed him out, insisting that she would be perfectly fine once she caught up on rest.

An hour had passed, and it appeared she had been correct. The short nap seemed to have rejuvenated her, turning her into a bundle of energy which was only unnerving him in that he wasn’t used to seeing her quite so animated. Emma stopped right in front of him, a huge grin on her face which met her green eyes and made them sparkle.

“Feeling better, love?” Killian remarked, raising an eyebrow at the vast improvement he saw before him.

She didn’t answer his question directly.

Instead, she drew his attention to an item she held in her hand, by holding it out towards him, and exclaimed, “Look!”

Killian did look, but he had no bloody clue what he was looking at. Every time he thought he was completely up to date with the technology and other advancements of the Land Without Magic, a new one would crop up for him to marvel at. The latest one didn’t look at all impressive, merely resembling a stick, only instead of wood it was, of course, made of plastic. It was mostly white, with a pink end to it, and an indent in the centre within which were two thin lines.

He failed to understand Emma’s excitement at such a device, it’s function most definitely lost on him. He flicked his eyes from the object back up onto Emma, finding her staring at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to share her excitement. The only thing he felt was lost.

“It’s…” he drew out, hoping for a hint or, even better, a sudden realization.

Neither came. Emma just nodded at him enthusiastically, her head seeming to bounce like one of those ridiculous bobble head dogs that people in this land liked to put in their cars.

“…a stick?” Killian finished hesitantly, aware that Emma had been hoping for a different reaction from him to what, seemingly, was nothing more than a piece of plastic.

“Well, that was anti-climatic,” Emma huffed, dropping her hand back to her side, the unidentified object along with it. “You really don’t know what it is?”

“Am I supposed to?” Killian responded.

“It’s a pregnancy test,” Emma filled him in.

They had tests for that? The scientific advancements of the Land Without Magic never failed to surprise him. He glanced at the shape of the item – the long, narrow stick – and promptly decided that he did not need to know the exact details as to how the tests were carried out.

Not immediately, at least. Clarification was more pressing.

“You took… a pregnancy test?” he checked slowly.

“Yes!” Emma nodded eagerly, her enthusiasm and smile returning. “And look! There’s two lines!”

“I have no bloody clue what that means, love,” Killian told her.

Even though he wasn’t following her at all, and still felt rather lost, there was a bemused smile on his face, simply from watching her own expressions of glee. They had fought hard, against curses, magic and various enemies, for these moments of happiness.

“It means I’m pregnant,” Emma resorted to spelling it out for him. “Killian, you’re going to be a father.”

The grin on Killian’s face faltered, and then disappeared entirely as he took the time to process the news. Emma took a seat on the couch next to him, leaning into his side, before splurging out a ton of information about doctor appointments and stages of pregnancy, none of which went in. It was all just noise to him. His only focus was on the rapid speed at which the words were escaping her mouth and the animated hand movements which accompanied them.

It didn’t take a body language expert – an actual career (that people were paid for) in the Land Without Magic, he had discovered – to determine that Emma was thrilled at the prospect of being a mother again. Killian had seen her with Henry, and he had watched her when they had babysat little Neal over the years; there was no debating that she would be a great mother to their child.

Their child.

Killian could scarcely believe it. It didn’t feel real; that he and Emma had created life, that a child was growing inside her that very moment.

Perhaps it wasn’t real?

Had he fallen asleep?

It was the only explanation which made any logical sense to him. It had to be, he decided, that he had drifted off whilst reading his book and been thrown into the nightmare unfolding before him.

Nightmare? No. Dream.

He was dreaming that Emma was pregnant because having a child would be a good thing for them… right?

“…currently about the size of a prune.”

He took in a snippet of the whirlwind of information Emma was throwing at him.

A prune to whom he would be – was – a father.

Father.

What did that even mean?

“Killian,” Emma spoke as she took his hands in hers; her light touch, and the slight coolness of her skin against his, pulling him from his thoughts. She leaned in close, her green eyes locking with his blue. “This is a good thing, right?”

His question, exactly!

He knew it was supposed to be a good thing. He knew that Emma thought it was a good thing. The one thing he didn’t know was why he was struggling with it so much.

“It’s good,” Killian agreed in a daze, resorting to forcing a smile.

Because why the bloody hell did he feel so damn terrified?

--

It turned out it wasn’t a nightmare – no, dream – it was his reality; a completely terrifying – no, amazing – reality in which fatherhood was heading for him at an alarmingly – no, excitingly – fast rate. Ten weeks had flown by since Emma had bounded down the stairs and broken the mind-blowing news and, all of a sudden, he found himself at the hospital with Emma, awaiting their first pregnancy appointment. The feeling of terror, which had subsided as they’d promptly returned to going about their normal lives, had come crashing back down on top of him as soon as he had stepped into the hospital.

He needed to get out of there. Fast.

It was a need which wasn’t going to get met any time soon. He sat impatiently drumming his fingers against the cool metal armrest of his uncomfortable chair. There was only so much toing and froing he could watch the hospital staff do before he became bored out of his mind. His eyes flicked to the clock on the sterile white walls, confirming what he already knew; the appointments were running way behind. They should have been seen thirty minutes ago.

They could have been out of the bloody place, already!

His eyes fell on Ella and Thomas, seated on the other side of the waiting room. The couple were expecting their second child, and both wore smiles of gleeful anticipation upon their faces. Thomas had his hand resting on Ella’s stomach as she leaned against him, presumably looking for something more comfortable than the horrible metal chairs.

Killian glanced over at Emma beside him. She had a small bump, nowhere near as big as Ella’s who was months ahead of them in the process, but it was growing by the week. Emma had her own hands placed on her stomach, an action which – if he were to go by the mountain of pregnancy books Emma had bought – marked an unspoken language of love between her and the unborn baby.

He had never carried out such an action himself. A glance back at Ella confirmed Thomas still had his hand on her stomach. Killian found himself getting hit by a wave of doubt. Was he supposed to do that? Didn’t he love his unborn child?

“Killian!”

He was nudged in the side by Emma, pulling him out of his thoughts before he could work out the answer to that question. Except, he realized immediately, there was nothing to work out. Love towards his own child was unconditional. That much he was sure of, that much he knew without having to place his hand on Emma’s stomach. He could already feel the love for that child, rooted deeply within him.

So why the bloody hell was he still completely terrified?

“Killian!” Emma snapped his name.

He turned to her, “Huh?”

“We’re up,” she told him with a small smile of anticipation.

She pointed up at the screen on the waiting room wall which was being used to call patients to their appointments. Sure enough, the name Emma Swan was lit up in bold white lettering against the blue background, accompanied by Room Four to direct them.

Emma led the way, taking off at speed as if she were in hot pursuit of a suspect evading arrest. He found himself hurrying to keep up with her as she navigated the corridors like the back of her hand. He wasn’t at all surprised at how well she knew the layout, given the number of times she had been there over the years.

They were at room four within half a minute and Emma pushed the door open, being greeted immediately by the sonographer inside.

“Oh my gosh, guys!” the sonographer – Olivia – all but squealed. “I’m so happy for you both!”

“Thank you,” Emma replied, “though we aren’t telling anyone just yet.”

Storybrooke being the small town it was meant that everyone knew everyone and, as the Savior who had saved the town, and its inhabitants, on countless occasions, Emma could barely so much as buy hot chocolate (with cinnamon) at Granny’s without everyone knowing about it. Killian was surprised that no one had figured out their latest news already.

Emma had insisted they kept it on the downlow, with a splurge of information about pregnancies being at greater risk of complications in the first trimester. He hadn’t really understood it, but he’d gone with it, mostly keeping out of all the baby stuff, content to leave it to Emma. He certainly wasn’t in much of a hurry to tell anyone.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Olivia waved a dismissive hand. “Patient confidentiality. I won’t tell a soul! Though, I will say, everyone is going to be so excited when you do announce the news! I still remember the buzz around town when your parents were expecting Neal.”

Killian hovered in the doorway, staring at Olivia, perplexed by her gushing and the level of excitement that she was exhibiting. Anyone would have thought that she was the one who was pregnant. In just a minute, she had radiated more excitement than he had felt over the past ten weeks.

He wanted that. He wanted to be excited at the prospect of having a mini-me running around, and at teaching the child to sail and how to use a sword, but something was pulling him back. Something was making it so that whenever he so much as thought about being a father, he was hit by complete and utter dread.

Looking around the room at the various devices, the function of many completely unknown to him, only multiplied the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.  Since Emma had told him that she was pregnant nothing had really changed. They’d gone to work, they’d dropped by her parents’ every-so-often, and they had taken the odd sailing day trip. Other than Emma no longer consuming alcohol, buying the odd pregnancy book, and occasional musings about the nursery, they had mostly gone about their lives as normal. For the most part, he could pretend that things were normal. Standing in the doorway of the ultrasound room meant it was starting to feel real. He couldn’t push it to the back of his mind any longer. He couldn’t run from it anymore.

“Killian, come in and shut the door,” Emma prompted him.

He cleared his throat, sending her a small smile, “Right, of course, love.”

He ventured into the room, pushing the door shut behind him as instructed, and took the empty seat positioned beside the bed that Emma was lying on. She took ahold of his hand, sending him an excited smile which he did his best to replicate in return. He still didn’t feel that bloody excitement. All he felt was terror.

“Alright!” Olivia was grinning from ear-to-ear – someone clearly loved their job – as she pulled some protective gloves over her hands. “Let’s get right to the exciting part and take a look at your little one, shall we?”

Killian had no clue what it was that Olivia did next. It was the Land Without Magic so he knew that, if he asked, she would give him a scientific explanation that he would not follow. As far as he was concerned, however, it was magic, for she had rubbed some kind of potion onto Emma’s bump and then a black and white image of their child had appeared on the screen. He had done nothing but gape at the image as Olivia had determined the baby to look to be developing well and then proceeded to point out various features on the screen.

Olivia handed Emma a physical copy of the image on the screen. She passed it on to him as she started asking questions and delved into a deep discussion with Olivia over future tests and scans, nutrients, and vitamins. It all went over Killian’s head; he wasn’t listening, continuing to stare at the scan in his hand, processing exactly what was happening.

It was a picture of his child; a physical picture, their first picture, and he had it right there in his hand. The very hand that was sweating against the photographic paper.

It was real now.

His heart started beating fast, threatening to jump out of his chest.

There was physical proof of the child’s existence, beyond Emma’s bump and that stick device thing.

His breathing quickened.

There was no denying it. There was a child growing inside Emma; one that would come to depend on him as he once depended upon his own parents.

His chest tightened.

There really was no running from it anymore.

He couldn’t breathe.

He had to run. He had to get away.

He stood up abruptly. The chair legs scrapped against the floor. Two sets of eyes turned on him. He thrust the child’s picture at Emma.

“I’m sorry,” he forced out between sharp breaths, “I can’t.”

He didn’t wait around. He shot out the door like a bullet from a barrel. A series of hospital corridors. No windows. He needed to get outside. He needed air. The red exit signs lit his way. He burst through the doors, into sunlight, into fresh air. He dropped onto a bench. Closed his eyes. Tight.

Breathed. In. Out.

In. Out.

Slow.

Calm.

For a moment, for the briefest of moments; calm.

Then it was gone, as quickly as it had come, and a wave of guilt crashed over him. He had left. He had thrown the only picture of their child at Emma and ran. He’d left them.

“Killian?”

Emma. Gentle. Cautious. She placed her hand on his.

There was no running from her, from it. She knew her; she wouldn’t let him. He couldn’t run from it. He didn’t want to run from it. He wanted to do better.

In the fresh air, with Emma, so understanding and patient for an explanation, things were clearer; things were starting to make sense. He was still terrified, just as he had been for ten long weeks, but, finally, the reason for his terror was apparent. For weeks he had tortured himself for being so terrified of his own child, but he had gotten it all wrong. It wasn’t his child he was terrified of; it was himself. He was terrified of becoming the man he had hated for so long, the man he had driven himself to kill; he was terrified of becoming his father, of running from his child when they needed him most.

He opened his eyes, meeting Emma’s. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see anger or frustration in her green eyes, yet he only saw concern.

“I’m bloody terrified, love,” he confessed, allowing himself to be vulnerable with her; he trusted her, with everything.

“I know,” she replied softly. “It’s a big step, and it’s not something we were expecting quite so soon, but you are going to be brilliant.”

Killian dropped his gaze to the floor and gave a small shake of his head. He dared to pose the question, to speak the words out loud, “What if I’m just like him?”

“Like who?” Emma asked.

“I believe the saying goes ‘like father, like son’,” Killian expanded.

“No. Not you, not your father,” Emma protested adamantly. “I know you; I know the man you are. You won’t abandon our child for your own selfish reasons. That’s not you.”

“What compels you to put so much faith in me, Swan?” he asked.

“You do,” she stated. “You stand up and you fight for what you believe in, no matter the cost, no matter the sacrifice. Now, take this and look at it.”

She held out the scan photograph for him once again. He eyed it carefully and she shook it gently to prompt him to take it. He reached for it, holding it between his thumb and first finger, and dropped his gaze onto the image. It was blurry, it was black and white, but it was his child. The child wasn’t doing anything of note, just growing and developing, and yet, looking at that single image, Killian had never felt so much pride. 

“And answer me one question, just one,” Emma continued. “Do you believe in her?”

Killian raised an eyebrow at her choice of words, “Her?”

“It’s a gut feeling,” Emma shrugged with a small smile. “So? Do you believe in her?”

“Aye, with all my heart,” Killian said.

Speaking to Emma, voicing his thoughts and concerns, getting it all off his chest had done wonders in alleviating his terror. Where he had once felt fear, all he felt, as his gaze returned to the image in his hand, was hope. Hope for the future, and hope for his family.

He lifted his left arm and gently guided his hook over his child’s image as he murmured, “I'll forever endeavour to do right by you, little one.”

Tags: @teamhook @laianely @booksteaandtoomuchtv @exhaustedpirate @anmylica @hollyethecurious @kmomof4 @winterbaby89 @undercaffinatednightmare @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @stahlop @lfh1226-linda @darkshadow7 @fleurdepetite @captainswan-kellie @motherkatereloyshipper @soniccat @jrob64 @whimsicallyenchantedrose @jonesfandomfanatic @myfearless-love

[antirqlacey]

I’m panicking right now. I joined a server for age dysphoric people that I thought was safe. I saw someone’s icon. They were someone I recognized from the Ezra Files and they run multiple other pro-c spaces on the internet. And they were here. They left the server before I joined, but if they could get in, other pro-cs can as well. I’m scared. Why can’t I find a single safe space for us?

i’m so sorry anon. it really sucks that we barely have any safe spaces that aren’t filled to the brim with pro-cs, radqueers etc. we can really only hope that more anti contact anti radqueer atypical dysphoria spaces pop up in the future.

[clonehub]

Learning about your ocs has been fun! I was wondering if you have name origins for the clones?

OH BOY anon you've accessed the CHCU (clonehub cinematic universe) DEEP LORE

Waaaaay early in development, around the time that I a) watched less anime and b) started getting more in tune with being Igbo, I'd designed the clone's names to have short and long forms. Bliz would be "Bliz" for short, but then something else as a "full name" that sounded Igbo (to me, at least). Everyone on CS was like this. Kiki would have named them as part of a long and tricky process for all of them becoming "family".

However, then I had another perspective shift and I thought to myself, "Well, first of all coding them as such wouldn't work, secondable a Jedi naming like seven different clones? No." I wanted them all to have more of a say in their names, their origins, and their personal meanings, so that concept was quickly dropped.

Marik chose his name because it sounded nice to him. Edger as well. Ratchet used to be a noisemaker and thus he was dubbed that by his old squad in the 501st, but his personality's changed quite a bit. Also this was before "ratchet" became a classist and misogynistic and generally anti-Black term in popular language lmao.

I wanted some of their names to sound less "generic" or noun-based the way that clones' names in canon do (hardcase, kickback, etc). Hence, again, Marik, Edger, Ratchet, and Cord.

Actually Cord's name came about because when s1e16 of the clone wars was airing and they had the mystery clone (slick), my brother and I didn't know what his name was (obviously). So we dubbed him Cord until we got a name. And now I'm using it for my guy.

In-universe, Ridge chose his name because he thought it sounded tough. He was the runt of his squad, he was slow, he was picked on, and he was being abused by the drill sergeant in charge of their cohort. He wanted a "leave me alone" name, but him being your typical child, what sounded Tough and Scary to him back them is really just a normal name. I think at some point he also would have been named Ridge because he had a mohawk, also so he could look tough. Now though he just has an undercut (though in my head I do still sometimes see the mohawk).

Once upon a time, "Bliz" was short for "Blizzard", but I like how just Bliz sounds. Often, peope misread it as "blitz". He, Brucer, and Bimmie had an alliteration thing going on that I liked.

See now Jax is special because his name is deliberately generic. He chose it because it sounded decent as a name. There wasn't any emotional journey towards it like with Ridge, and there wasn't a quirky backstory to it like with Cord. Jax is Jax because Jax is normie, it's run of the mill, it's boring. Jax as a character is meant to be the Most Average clone you can imagine, besides the crippling anxiety and baldness. He's a nobody, he thinks he's nothing, he hardly even thinks he's a person worthy of desires, and he's got a big 'ol crush on Kiki. In some ways, some of the critiques people in his life have of his "runaway loyalties/feelings" is along the lines of "Who do you think you are? You're not special".

Kiki's name didn't use to be Nkerinna. That I've made closer to sounding Igbo as I made Verocia based more on Igboland than some vaguely anime-inspired Japanese inspiration (don't shoot me I was 12 and heavily into Naruto). Her original last name was Jorani, not Ogbode. I'd look up what her original name was, but fanfiction dot net is down right now lmao.

Nirisa's name hasn't changed. Her name means sunset. Kiki's means dawn. Nirisa is the older one, yes, but....idk I like Kiki's name meaning "dawn".

Sunlaou Cloen is named that because I thin it sounds nice and I like "Soni" (sunny) as a nickname. Hahkin is Hahkin because I like the sound. Persha-Ro (her last name) is like that because I wanted a hyphenation.

In general though, I try to differentiate the way I name my OCs from typical star wars conventions because Star Wars names can be...boring. Women's names are often vowel-heavy and sound typically feminine in a Western romance language way. The men's names get to have heavier consonants, but then they also get to be weirder. But most often, Star Wars names can be really monosyllabic. Luke. Han. Poe. Finn. Rey. Ben. PT and some OT names have a distinct formation to them that the ST ones lack.

Over the years, I've seen names be 2-syllable first names and 1-syllable last names, or vice-versa, and they won't be very different from one another. This is why my OCs will sometimes have longer names, and the female characters especially will get names that don't sound as typically feminine (Hahkin, Nkerina, Tysolis, Iriyunan, etc.). My one exception is As'adari, but I named her that specifically because it's a girly name for a very unfeminine, aggressive, and brutish female character.

Then you have Pailenam, Paradise, Okunna, Chiadi, Danda, Yuza, etc. And despite my best efforts, the letter A is still clearly very popular in my names lmao.

[byunbaekss]

i havent been on this acc in a while im a txt anti now LMAO SO but im not gon delete the post cs they go alot of notes so

[cast-you-dxwn]

Unit Profile, Century Specialis I: His Furies.

Task Force Commander: Centurion Lyriel Morningstar. Under personal command of High Seraphim Michael Morningstar.

dates – A.D 1039-Current Day

allegiance - The Eternal Kingdom of Heaven, High Seraphim Morningstar

role – Counter-Cultist Action, Special Operations, Anti-Demon Operations.

size – 60 operators

command_structure – Slightly Irregular, a force smaller than a common Century commanded by a Centurion, split into Contubernia that do not act separately but as a cohesive whole.

garrison – Eagles Roost, Militant District of the Golden City, The Eternal Kingdom of Heaven

CS I is a unit that was never meant to exist in the manner which it does. It is made up of the sixty members of what was meant to be the first platoon of the newly-commissioned Exorcist Unit. They were to be trained under the questionable methodology of Archangel Ephraim (Whereabouts unknown, demoted post-fall) their training interrupted only a week after it began by the Praetor and the First Legion.

Saint Michael’s assault resulted in the destruction of the Exorcist Training Academy, the escape of Ephraim, and the first class of the Exorcist Unit being taken under the Praetors tutelage. The ensuing Inquisition ended in the deaths of thirteen members of the High Council and their replacement by high-ranking members of The Legions and the Guardian Conclave. The depth of High Seraphim Sera’s knowledge of Ephraims plans was never ascertained, and so she maintains her position at the head of the Council.

Century Specialis I now serves as the Seraphim of Justices personal vanguard, rarely seen apart from him, accompanying him on every mission and outing that he undertakes. It has been said that they are his personal guard but in truth their dynamic is much the opposite, with Michael treating the sixty members of the Furies as his beloved daughters, many of them taking the surname of Morningstar as their own.

The unit has been rigorously combat-proven despite their comparatively short operational lifetime, taking part in countless Counter-Cultist Operations and Anti-Demon strike deployments, displaying a ferocity and zeal rarely seen even amongst the most veteran of Legionnaires.

[prettyvintageafternoon]

So, a study done by Physicians for Human Rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Lift Louisiana and Reproductive Health Impact has found that doctors in the abortion-prohibitive state of Louisiana are now resorting to conducting c-sections for patients instead of giving them D&Cs - a type of abortion procedure that is more often conducted in the event of an emergency, such as miscarriage management. (Source)

...This is where we are at.

For context, these are obviously pro-choice organizations so I cannot be certain that this is a national trend yet. In the interest of fairness, I have to wait for other studies to be done to see if this is something that is happening across the country.

Obviously, I'm extremely concerned because Louisiana has a substantial black population, so black women will obviously be affected by this.

However, I want to make a few predictions.

Prediction #1:

Birthrates are going to plummet exponentially, especially in abortion-prohibitive states. Far fewer people will want to have children if they find that getting cut open will be more likely experience if their pregnancy isn't successful.

However, pro-lifers will blame feminism, "the left," pro-choicers...effectively everyone but themselves for this. They'll say abortion rights advocates are fearmongering about the effects of the bans.

Prediction #2:

Pro-lifers are going to try to normalize unnecessary c-sections as a way to justify the effects of this situation. I promise we will see the regular anti-abortion suspects on and off Tumblr, be it anti-abortion accounts on this app or anti-abortion groups and activists justify this. Full stop.

Prediction #3:

Pro-lifers are also going to valorize women who die during childbirth as a way to make the increase in maternal death resulting from abortion-prohibitive policies more palatable to the general public. They did this with Gianna Molla years ago, so I fully expect to see a similar rhetoric in the next few years, or even months.

Prediction #4:

I expect to see sterilization among women, including women from minority populations, increase at least a little bit. Less women will want to risk pregnancy at all because of abortion-prohibitive policy AND other factors such as parental costs, and distribution of labor related to childbearing, so they're going to seek out the one option that prevents them from getting pregnant entirely.

And then conservatives will come for that too.