#because the working logic is that one race will rule and the other will be killed of by the ruling out of fear

[unohanadaydreams]

Finding out about the origins of Soul Society as we know it from CFYOW has made me insane. It like 70% of all my Bleach thoughts lately. (under the cut is just pure, unrestrained rambling)

I am lusting for a universe in which they just dropped the reveal in TYBW.

The fact that the singular world being suited to Quincy and the altered three worlds being suited to Shinigami sets up the shinigami to be this ultra-paranoid, insular power that sets genocide upon any race not their own in fear that their secret will get out and some new race (Vizards. Arrancar. Fullbringer.) will over take them and remake the worlds in THEIR image..... (unless of course they agree to be loyal to the Seireitei. But still only AFTER they try to kill them first, usually.) Let alone how they treat Quincy, who a reverted world would suit completely.

The hints they drop about the world being singular & belonging more to the Quincy are THERE. Even my dumb ass picked that up in my re-read I posted snippets of. But it is just so sad they couldn’t have the reveal be where it was most relevant--in the literal war between Shinigami and Quincy. Between the world as we were introduced and the world as it was created.

I also started re-reading the TYBW arc (again.....)  and even the Shutara scale is an inversion to hint that reaching singularity/understanding/Nirvana among all beings is disastrous for Shinigami. (Which strongly hints Shutara was brought to the Royal Guard for coming to understanding of just what she was protecting with her invention). I think maybe I posted about that before but I can’t remember. Other stuff like Komamura’s grandfather? I know I did. Because it still makes me incredibly feral and it’s so well set up but we NEVER GET THE PAY OFF.

The way this fully builds up the conflict of Shinigami vs Quincy to be a battle of who gets to benefit the world by winning the right to alter it to reflect their powers and who gets to be hunted down en masse.....Like what a bleak fucking conflict. What a fitting reveal for that arc.

I honestly prefer this reveal to most of the ‘don’t you realize revenge has consequences’ stand stills that took its place.  I think a system that’s endured and flourished by successfully remaking the world in their image and killing anything that they think could even possibly threaten them (including their own kind!) doesn’t get to say ‘): if you get revenge on me you’re not really winning, actually it makes YOU bad too. worse than me, even.’

Seireitei is a society created and kept in fear for a reason and at some point you have to put down the ‘revenge is bad’ and just show me the fucked up stuff that earned such an enduring vow of revenge from someone like Yhwach. Literally, he has been fighting the Seireitei for well over a thousand years. He is retribution incarnate. And those who know are TERRIFIED of him.

 And I find the ideas of ‘who is more Just--someone with everything to lose and afraid to lose it or someone with nothing to lose and unafraid to lose it?’ and ‘who is more Deserving--someone who can protect or someone who failed to protect?’ and ‘What is Sin--that which is admitted or that which is hidden?’  a lot more interesting and entertaining.

I just think its all so neat. Like, I think its horrifying for the main cast, especially the Karakura gang because the Hell Arc definitely seems like it plans on exploring the idea of that ‘original sin’ committed by Shinigami--for creating their own afterlife and forsaking the original Hell. Continually paying for the sin of thinking they could create the Pure Land and bungling it so, so bad.

[bunnys-kisses]

Hellooo!! literally love your works, can i have ‘Banana & Chocolate muffins’ ‘Red velvet cupcakes’ and ‘mince pie’ with a side of ‘bubble tea’ for either Carlos Sainz or Toto Wolff!

Love your works btw! absolutely loving the bakery!🫶🫶❤️

bakery menu

want to submit an order? then hit up the menu! there's tons of items to choose from and i hope you find something that you like! i love going through these requests and ya'll are some hungry rabbits! so thank you! and enjoy! for this one i chose toto wolff (because i am a slut for toto wolff), but if you really want a carlos fic, feel free to submit another order! thank you and enjoy!!

banana & chocolate muffins ("i'm only doing this because you need to learn how to behave, rules are rules, and you need to follow them.") + red velvet cupcakes ("if you don't like being called a whore, then stop acting like one.") + mince pie ("i'm not jealous.") + bubble tea (daddy kink) served by toto wolff (formula one)!!

cw: smut/pwp, jealous!toto, age gap (20s/50s), daddy kink, daddy dom relationship, mean!toto, dirty talk/degrading language, wife!reader

jealousy was an ugly thing. toto wolff thought he was too old to be jealous. after everything he had and had done, there was no need to be jealous. he was a powerful in the world of formula one, most men would kill, lie and steal for power he had.

so why be jealous anything? most were jealous of him. for his status, his accomplishments, his looks. even into his fifties he could make a young buck feel envy. he even had the prettiest little wife in the entire world. nothing should be toto wolff jealous.

but jealousy doesn't run on logic does it?

you had taken a keen interest in formula one after you got married to toto. you thought it was important that you understood on a deeper level. this was your husband's entire world! of course you should be at least a little interested in what the world was about!

but it felt so silly asking questions to your husband. especially when you asked the same questions a few times over (the sport was a little confusing... what do you mean there are four kinds of tires? and what did they all do again?). so you confided in one of your husband's best drivers, george. it also helped that you two were closer in age.

"toto is looking at us." george said as you sat with him before the race. the rest of mercedes was bustling around you two, but you could clearly see your husband. it didn't help that he was often a head taller than most.

you smiled and waved at him, "he's probably checking in on you. you have to start racing soon."

george wasn't too sure. he looked at his boss before he looked back at you, "usually he doesn't look at me like a disappointment father..." he didn't want to think too hard about the age gap between you and toto. he thought you were nice and liked you and he liked working under toto, so he didn't want to get involved.

toto came over and sat down beside you, leaving you in between him and george. he stretched an arm across the back of the couch you were all on and crossed one leg over the other.

he leaned into your personal space like he owned it, but instead of looking at his wife. he looked at his driver, "you're on soon. head to the garage."

george knew when it was time to high tail it. he wasn't a dense man. he nodded and got up. he looked at you, "i'll see you after."

you waved as you leaned up against your larger husband, "good luck! win for us today!" then gave a smile that would make the sun jealous. just like your husband was jealous of george occupying your attention.

once he was out of sight, you turned to toto and placed a manicured hand on his chest and leaned up to him. you maintained eye contact, "i was having an engaging conversation."

toto gave a short chuckle then leaned into your ear. his presence was overwhelming. the warmth and smell of him overtook your senses. you clutched onto him as he spoke in your ear, "i'm only doing this because you need to learn how to behave, rules are rules, and you need to follow them." the daddy-little dynamic you started with never truly went away with marriage.

you cheeks felt warm as you looked at him, "daddy..." testing the waters of what this could mean. were you dealing with the daddy dom you dealt with for years or the husband you had been married to for a few months now.

he leaned in and rubbed his thumb against your cheek. the calloused pad of his thumb made you run a little hotter. oh, he was jealous. maybe getting involved with an older man who had a jealous streak like the grey in his hair, but you couldn't help but grow a little hotter. even in front of all these people.

in fairness, when people saw the both of you together. the age difference, the size difference, the differences in aesthetics. it was very obvious that he took a more leading role in the relationship. and you with that shiny pink lip gloss and fluttering eyelashes were just happy to be there.

so toto's large hand on your thigh made it appear small as he said, "you're always so good for me, schatzi. my perfect wife. don't make me worried."

you giggled, "i was right. you are jealous."

he simply replied, "i'm not jealous." and you knew that tonight in the hotel room was going to be interesting. you watched him get up, even making a small grunting noise either due to the dull ache in his knee or the hard on in his pants.

during the race, you sat pretty in the back. your curious eyes scanned the screens as hamilton and russell fought their way across the track. there was a lot you needed to know. and while you couldn't see your husband's face from the desk he was seated at. you could feel the tension in your shoulders.

while you were terrible at racing, you were good at one thing. making your beloved toto feel all better after a race. you left the track early, claiming to have a migraine but told toto's assistant to not tell your husband till after the race. you didn't need him to worry more, especially since your migraine was an excuse to go back to the hotel. even though your husband could be a green eyed monster, you still wanted him to feel better.

so one bottle of wine later and a soft pair of panties and sports bra later. you were waiting in the bedroom on your phone for your lover. when the hotel room door opened, you sat up in bed and scooted down to the foot where you sat there waiting for him.

the planes of your body on full display as you heard his heavy footsteps. his voice called out in the room, "schatzi?"

"in the bedroom, daddy!" you chirped.

you heard him get his shoes off and drop his bags. he then headed towards the bedroom. he opened the door fully and drank in the sight of you. while you thought it would've eased his jealousy a little bit, or at least the stress of the race. it only fueled it in his gut.

"where's your ring, schatzi?" he asked.

you perked up, "on the nightstand! i didn't want to lose it in bed or something happen to it!" even though it didn't have the biggest diamond in the world (per your request), you still held immense value to it.

he simply said, "put it on. you're my wife after all." his voice domineering and it made heat pool in your gut as you watched him get undressed. he watched your swallow as you got his slacks off.

you nodded, "yes daddy." then climbed up the bed on your hands and knees to grab it off the nightstand. and while you thought that you'd be in that position for a few moments. the weight of your over six foot tall husband left you pinned on the bed like that.

at least your ring was still on.

"whore." he said, as he rubbed his barely clothed cock up against the curve of your ass, "i see how they look at you. my employees drooling like dogs because you're on the track." he pressed into you further, "dirty, dirty."

you swallowed, face pressed into the covers, "i'm not a whore." you tried to defend yourself. but that was a hard case to make when your pussy was slick and a man much large and much older had you pinned down on the bed.

"if you don't like being called a whore, then stop acting like one." he said, words like venom and it made your heart skip a bear. he got his briefs off and left nude before he started to undress what little you had on.

you squirmed a bit to help him get the panties off and let him rub his hard cock up against your wet pussy. you felt your cheeks heat up as you laid under him. and you yelped when he groped at your ass cheek.

"see, this is how i like you, angel." he said with a kiss against your temple, "you can be a good girl for me. you know i love you." he felt you shift under him as he placed another kiss against you. your pulse quickened on his lips as he sank his cock into your sweet, messy hole.

you felt good, as always, around him. even when he hand his hands tightly on you and his weight keeping your pinned to the bed. he moved against you. he could hear your sweet moans. you always made the cutest noises, especially when you pouted between moans. he knew you were pouting against the pillow as he fucked you.

it was the kind of fuck that got the envy out. reminded you who your husband was and that it sated the monster in toto's mind that you weren't going anywhere. how could you'd have the scent of cum and sex on your skin. everyone would know who toto was.

he loomed over you as he moved against you. his pace was fast and his thrusts were hard. it made your back arched, you could feel your heartbeat in your cunt as he fucked against you.

"pretty little treasure." he panted as he leaned in to kiss you on your neck. he loved the feeling of you in his arms. he groaned against your skin.

you replied, "toto, please. daddy. i love you." there was a whine in your tone as your hips lifted a little higher. you squeezed your eyes as you panted heavily into the covers.

"i love you too." he responded. his voice was honey in your mind. he heard you moan into the covers. it excited him. it made him feel hotter as he moved against you. you were his precious in his eyes, even when you made him jealous.

he may be green with envy, but it was to let the green eyed monster talk when he was so deep inside of you. when he rubbed up against some of your best parts. the parts that made you curl up and moan.

and when you said you loved him. it drove him crazy.

he panted heavily against you, paired with your loud moans. even when you whimpered daddy, it all went to his cock. you were a live wire, treasure.

you were running hot and your pants were heavy against the covers. you felt your orgasm stir in your gut. your heart hammered in your chest. sating the envy with your slick cunt.

he came first and stayed on top of you. even though he came, he was still hard. his thrusts continued and came quickly a second time because of the over stimulation and heat in his body before you came as well. your orgasm made him pant heavily into your ear. he left wet kisses on the shell as he rutted against you as you rode out your orgasm.

with two loads of cum deep in your sweet pussy, he didn't need to worry about you running off with someone else. and thus, the jealousy was settled in his brain. he laid out beside you and pulled you into his arms. his slick cock up against your back.

you were both a heated, panting mess as you felt the after shivers of climax. your brain felt fried as you laid out beside him. you loved the feeling and melted into your husband's touch.

"mm. daddy." you said.

he kissed the apple of your cheek and replied, yes, schatzi."

you yawned and turned over to bury your face in his chest. you held onto him as you said softly, "you're a jealous old man." <3

[13uswntimagines]

Cookies For Luck (Alessia x Leah X Child!R)

Request: If you want to continue the Alessia x Leah x kid reader you should do kid readers reaction to Leah’s first game back.

Summary: It's Leah's first game back, and your Uncle Luca taught you that cookies are the best good luck charm. In the Big emotions universe.

Warnings: none. cute Kid fic.

“Weah play?” You asked, your feet swinging back and forth. 

You didn’t get to sit on the bench with the team often, and you still weren’t sure how you felt about it. Your feet couldn’t touch the floor, and no one was holding you. But you did get to sit by all of your aunts. 

At least it was better than at England games when you had to sit in the friends and family section with your grandmama or Leah’s Mum or Peyton, the woman who had been your babysitter since Alessia moved back to England. 

You were close enough to the field to see your aunts take on Reading, and Leah had worn her jersey for the game. You weren’t sure how you felt about that either. 

The last time you saw Leah in her jersey, she had to go to the big scary building that smelt bad. There had been a lot of wires and beeping, and it made your mama cry. 

You didn’t like it when your mama cried. 

Alessia hummed, adjusting the Arsenal beanie you were wearing so it covered your ears. “She will after halftime,”

“Halftime cookies for luck?”

Your mama’s eyebrows furrowed, and she shared a look with Leah over your head, silently asking if this was something the defender had started with you. 

Leah shrugged. It wasn’t her doing, she had never heard of halftime cookies either. 

“Cookies for luck?”

You nodded emphatically. “Uncle Luca said. Worked during the cup. No have cookies, no win,” 

Alessia rolled her eyes. 

Of course, it was Luca who started it. The two of you were thick as thieves from the time you were born, he had even moved into her flat for a bit to help her with you because of how early you had come and how sick you were.

You had him wrapped around your finger from the first moment he held you. He was always sneaking you sweets, loud toys, or anything to annoy her. It made sense that you hadn’t had cookies at halftime during the Spain game because her Mum had watched you instead, and she was always more respectful of Alessia’s rules. 

“Hard to argue with that logic,” Leah said, her lips tilting up. 

“Yeah Mama,” You agreed, high-fiving Leah. Alessia rolled her eyes half-heartedly. “You can have 1 cookie at halftime,”

You looked up at your mama, a smirk that was annoyingly similar to Leah’s on your features. “Fudge striped ones so we run fast,” 

It was another belief of Luca’s doing that the fudge-stripped cookies made you run faster. A belief that the entire English national team had reinforced with many foot races. 

Your mama rolled her eyes again. “I’m sure we can get the fudge-striped ones,” 

“Yes!” You cheered, pumping your fists. “Weah run super fast! Score goal,”

It was slightly unfair how often you and Leah ganged up on her, but your adorable celebrations when she agreed to whatever thing the two of you had come up with were too cute to pass up. 

Beth snorted from Alessia’s other side. “Leah doesn’t score tiny, she stops the goals,”

You frowned, looking around your mama at her. “Not tiny,”

“Of course, you’re not,” Beth smiled indulgently at you. “Can Viv and I join you for your cookies?” 

You brought your stuffed turtle up to your face, like you were having a silent conversation, before looking back towards Beth. “That ok,” 

You didn’t wait for her to respond before you turned back to the game, your eyes zeroing in on Katie. 

She was your favorite Arsenal player after all. 

“Katie have cookie too,” You mumbled, glancing up at your mama. 

She hummed, again fixing your beanie. “I’m sure Katie will be very happy to share a cookie with you too,” 

You wiped your hand across your forehead, pushing the edge of the beanie up higher so it didn’t touch your eyebrows. You didn’t understand why you couldn’t be like Squirt. He didn’t need a hat. 

“No share my cookie,” You muttered, glancing back up at Alessia, as Steph cleaned up an attempt by the women in blue. “Eat own,”

“Yes, you can have your own,” Leah sighed from behind you. 

Sharing was still something they were working on with you, and generally, you shared pretty well. The only thing you didn’t like to share was food. 

You nodded, turning back to the field just as Katie sent a ball into Stinia’s path, your eyes lighting up. 

“Goal!” You cheered as she slotted the ball past the keeper, bouncing in your seat. “Stinia get cookie too,”

Alessia hummed, pulling you into her lap so you didn’t fall off of the bench. “I think we’ll all have some good luck cookies,”

*****

You were positively bouncing by halftime, even escaping your mama’s hold after the whistle blew and running straight for Katie. She caught you with ease, tossing you in the air before settling you on her hip. 

She carried you to the tunnel while you babbled almost incoherently about the fudge cookies you were going to eat, over-excited about the treat you got to have before dinner. 

You wiggled out of her grasp as soon as you were safely inside the changing room, helping the equipment staff pass out the cookies while Jonas waited patiently to begin his halftime talk. He took his own cookie with a smile before you settled yourself in your mama’s lap, nibbling on the treat to make it last while he talked. 

To be honest, his speech was pretty boring. 

It mostly consisted of him showing them a whiteboard with X’s and O’s and using big words that you didn’t really understand, but you knew you had to be quiet through it. 

The cuddles made it acceptable though. You leaned your head against your Mama’s chest and she wrapped her arm tightly around you. Your free hand was tangled with Leah’s as she ran little circles on the back of it. 

You liked it when you got to sit with both of them. It made you feel safe, though not as safe as when you were tucked into their big bed between them. 

You noticed that her knee shook, bouncing her arm and jiggling your hand. 

You frowned. 

Her knees only bounced when you were on them. Or that one time you were with her after recovery and she showed you a very pretty sparking stone on a ring in a red velvet box that you weren’t supposed to tell your mama about. 

You were pretty sure she didn’t have it with her now. She told you it was special, and you didn’t think the locker room was cool enough for her to give it to your mama now. 

“And of course, we’ll be welcoming Leah back onto the pitch,” Jonas smiled, and the changing room erupted into applause. “She’ll come on in the 80th minute for Steph. Other than that, let’s keep playing our best,” 

More cheers broke out from the team as he finished his talk, and you frowned. Was Leah bouncing because she was scared to play? 

You wanted to ask her, but Mama always said asking people if they were afraid usually just made their chest hurt more. You didn’t want to make it worse. 

But maybe another cookie would make it better. 

You shoved the last bit of your cookie into your mouth and wiggled out of Alessia’s grasp. You stumbled when your feet hit the floor grabbing the nearest person to steady. 

It happened to be Katie. 

“Easy bug,” She said, squatting down to talk to you, and fixing your special Arsenal jersey that said Assistant Coach in big letters.“Ya ready to watch Lee play?”

You shrugged, wiping your hands over the 6 on your red sweatpants, searching for the yellow pack of cookies with the elves on it. “Beth say Leah no score,”

“Did she?” Katie frowned at your distraction. They all knew how obsessed you were with scoring goals. 

You nodded vehemently. “It’s the best when Mama or Leah score. Why no score?”

“Your Leah is a defender so she stops goals,” Katie tried to explain, turning her head to see what you were looking for. “Ya alright?”

You hummed, dragging your arm across your face to get rid of the crumbs on your lips. “Gotta get nother cookie for Weah. Her knee bounce,” 

Katie smiled, ruffling your beanie. “I think they’re all gone, the Elves took em back,” 

Your nose scrunched. “They always steal them,” 

It was unfair that they always took them back to Keebler before you could steal more than the ones your mama gave you. 

“They do,” Katie chuckled, pushing herself to stand. “But I bet you and your mama and your Leah will get a nice treat after the game,” 

You turned back to your mama to see her already standing up, your puffy jacket in her hands. You wilted a little bit but stepped up to allow her to wrap it around you before you turned to Leah. She pushed herself to her feet, shifting awkwardly as your mama kneed in front of you. 

You had never seen your Leah look so… nervous. 

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Alessia said, catching your chin with one hand and holding up a white cloth with the other. 

You pulled away from the washcloth your mama was using to wipe your mouth, grabbing at Leah’s hand. 

Mama always held you when you were anxious, and she said squeezes were the best remedy when your heart couldn’t stop pounding in your chest. Maybe it would be as good as the fudge cookies. 

“I walk with Weah,” You said, squeezing Leah’s hand in three slow pulses.

Alessia was already nodding. “You can walk out with Leah, just let me get the chocolate off of your face,”

You huffed but tilted your face up to allow her to clean the remaining crumbs from your lips. Your eyes squeezed shut as the cool cloth moved in quick, practiced motions across your mouth, and you squeezed Leah’s hand a little tighter. 

She squeezed back, holding onto you tightly until Alessia was done. 

“All done,” Alessia hummed, fixing your beanie. “Ready?” 

You looked up at Leah, she was biting her lip, so you frowned back up at your Mama. “Leah need nother cookie to make her feel better, but the elves stole em,”

They shared a look over your head. 

“Let me see if I can get one,” Your mama said, and you turned back to Leah. 

She let out a long breath before kneeling so she could face you. 

“Can we have a chat for a second bug?” She asked, but you knew it wasn’t a question. 

You didn’t like it when you had to have a chat with your mama or Leah. It usually meant that you would have to go to bed without a story, or your warm milk. Or worse, that you would have to sit in time out after the game instead of running around with the team. 

You looked down, scuffing your shoe on the locker room floor. “Yeah,” 

“Hey, why the long face?” She nudged your chin so you looked up, a slight smile on her lips. “Is talking to me so bad?”

“We only chat when I can’t have sweets,” You muttered. 

Leah chuckled, shaking her head. “No, we chat all the time. In the car, on the sidelines. It’s not a bad thing. 

“Oh,” your eyebrows furrowed, and the little crinkle appeared between them. 

“I want to chat because it seems you’re a bit worried that I’m nervous,” She said softly, finding the cooler of your jacket. 

Her and Alessia always thought it was important to explain emotions when they were happening. You were still learning to recognize and express them. 

You shrugged. “You moving lots, like when you showed me the -…” 

Her hand covered your mouth, cutting you off before you could blurt out the secret you had been keeping for her, and her head whipped around the practically empty changing room to make sure no one overheard it. 

“It’s a bit like that, but different,” She explained, carefully pulling her hand away. “I’m very excited to play again, but I don’t want to let everyone down,” 

Your nose scrunched. 

It was impossible for your Leah to let you down. She was fantastic, even if she didn’t score as much as Mama. 

You would love her if she scored no goals at all. 

“Never let me and Mama down,” You said, sounding far older than 3. “You’re the bestest and if anyone doesn’t think so they’re butt heads,” 

Leah hummed her lips turning up. “You’re very sweet, you know,” 

You shrugged again. “I get it from Mama,” 

“You do,” She agreed, pulling you into her arms and standing. She knew they had Katie or Caitlin to thank for that line. 

You played with the collar of her pinny. “Score goal for me and Mama?”  

“I’ll try,” She said, pushing the changing room door open, and you burrowed closer to her at the blast of cold air. “Will you cheer for me?”

“Always,” You promised, tucking your nose into her neck as she entered the stadium and holding onto her more tightly. 

You would cheer for your Leah and Mama even when the stadium didn’t. 

*****

You were positively buzzing as stoppage time came to a close, toeing the line of the coaches box a little too closely for Alessia’s liking, but she let you. 

She was excited too (though not quite to your level) not only about Leah’s return but that she had assisted in a goal. She knew how important it was to Leah that she put out a good showing, and how hard she had worked to get back to the pitch. 

You caught Alessia's hand as the game whistle blew, so you didn’t lose her in the crowd, and you rushed out onto the field toward where you last saw your mu-. Your Leah. 

“Easy love, she’s not running away,” Your mama said as you dragged her closer to the center of the pitch. 

You huffed, pulling harder at her hand. “Wanna hug,” 

“I know you do,” She agreed, glancing around the field so you weren’t just wandering in the wrong direction.  “Leah is over that way,” 

“I no see,” You wined, whipping around in circles trying to see your favorite defender. 

It reminded Alessia a little bit of a dog chasing its tail. While it was adorable, she didn’t want you to hurt yourself or get frustrated. 

“Come here,” She said gently, holding her other arm out to you, and lifting you when you stepped closer. She shifted you on her hip and used her free hand to point to where the defender was standing near some fans on the sideline. “There,” 

Your eyes zeroed in on Leah as soon as your mama pointed her out, and you wiggled excitedly on her grasp.

Alessia held you tighter. “Let’s go give Leah a big hug for an amazing return, yeah?”

While she was sure you were safe on the field, there were a lot of people, including media and staff she didn’t know, and she didn’t want you wandering off. 

You nodded, your hand weaving through the collar of her jacket as she started to walk towards Leah. “Good assist,” 

“Very good,” Alessia hummed, pressing a kiss to the side of your head and fixing your little beanie.

You made a low noise of agreement as you got closer. “Deserves cookie,” 

“It does,” Alessia snorted.

To be fair, you thought everything deserved a cookie. 

“Weah you did it!” You cheered as soon as you were within shouting distance of your defender, wiggling enough that your mama put you down so you could crash into Leah. 

“I did bug,” she smiled widely, lifting you into a tight hug as you burrowed into her, squeezing her in a tight hug, tucking your nose into her neck. 

Her other arm embraced your mama, as she placed a kiss on Leah’s cheek. “Great job love,”

“I cheered for you,” You murmured, as Alessia again fixed your beanie so it covered your ears. 

“I know! You were so loud, it helped me very much,” Leah said, her smile never fading as she bounced you a bit. 

You matched her smile, looking proud. 

You liked that you could help your Mama and Leah when they played, even if you were too small to play yet. 

You tuned out their conversation as Katie, Viv, and Beth joined them, waving to the fans and signing a few things. You were far more interested in watching the players run their cooldown drills, running from one side of the pitch to the other. 

“Hey Leah, can I get a few words?” 

You blinked away from the drill, towards where Alex Scott was standing, a microphone in hand followed by a cameraman. You frowned, tucking back into Leah’s neck and squeezing her more tightly. 

Mama didn’t like it when the big cameras pointed at you. 

“Course,” Your Leah nodded, untangling herself from your mama. 

“Let me take her so you can chat with Alex,”

You felt hands under your armpits, trying to carefully pull you away from Leah’s neck. 

“No go,” You muttered, clinging to the defender more tightly. “We stay together,”

Leah and your mama shared a sigh. 

“Sweet one, you’ll just be behind the camera with Mama. You’ll be able to see me the whole time, ok?” Leah said, rocking you slightly. 

You always got a bit on edge when you couldn’t see one of them, except if you were in the changing room or at home. 

You pulled your face out of her neck to meet her eyes. “Cookie after?”

Leah cracked a smile and she shared another look with your Mama. 

“We can have cookies after,” Alessia said. “But I need you to come to me so Leah can give an interview, ok?”

You huffed. 

You didn’t usually mind having to switch who was holding you, as long as you got to cuddle one of them, except if one of them had been away. 

You clung to Alessia when you had to sit with Leah on the sidelines, and now that the roles were reversed, you were content to cuddle into your Leah until you were safely inside the changing room. 

“We can have a cuddle after I’m done, yeah?” Leah added, carefully peeling you from her body and passing you to Alessia. She ran her thumb over your cheek and fixed your beanie again. 

You pouted but allowed your mama to adjust you, your eyes never leaving Leah as the camera guy and Alex set up between you and Leah. 

“And cookies,” You muttered, resting your cheek on your mama's chest. 

It vibrated as she chuckled. “You’re going to turn into a cookie if you’re not careful,”  

You shrugged. “Be like Cookie Monster, but run faster,”

Alessia hummed. 

You were nearly as obsessed with the giant blue puppet as you were with soccer. 

You nestled closer to your mama as the interview started, and she gently rubbed your back. 

“It’s great to get back. The fans have been incredible,” Leah said, smiling widely at the camera, and brushing away her fringe. 

Alex matched her smile. “And you had your own little cheering section,” 

“Yeah, I do,” Leah nodded, winking at you and Alessia. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them and our good luck cookies,”

Alex’s eyebrows pulled tightly together. She had never heard of good luck cookies, even when she was on the team. “Good luck cookies?” 

“They make you run faster,” You supplied from behind the camera, your cheek never leaving Alessia’s chest. “It’s why she assisted Beffy,”

Alex nodded like it made perfect sense, and Leah chucked a bit. 

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my good luck cookies, or my girls,” 

You hummed, snuggling deeper into your mama. 

You couldn't wait for Leah to finish so you could all have cookies together, celebrating her return to the pitch. 

You sank into Alessia, her warmth surrounding you with a feeling of safety. You knew no matter what, your family would always be there for each other, cheering each other on and eating celebration cookies.

[qqueenofhades]

Hoping you can explain this because you’re smart but why in the world are the same people who scream about a labor shortage worried about the border and immigration? Isn’t more people coming to our country a good thing if we train them properly to fill vacant positions (a lot of which are service jobs anyway)?

Alas, you are forgetting what is quite possibly the chief shibboleth of Western white supremacy/far-right nationalism: that all people from other countries, especially *gasp* the brown ones, are invaders, murderers, job-stealers, polluters of the (white) body politic, etc, and that under no circumstances should they be invited or allowed to stay. This isn't just an American thing; witness the Tories in the UK salivating over the idea of torturing migrants, trying to shut down any legal migration routes even with the employment black hole caused by Brexit, steadfastly denying that their workforce problems have anything to do with Brexit, steadfastly denying that they need to loosen immigration rules, etc. This is also the case with the European right/far right, the Australian far right, and anywhere else in the world that has historically been built on systems of white colonization, white supremacy, and other racial and legal scaffolds of privilege and exclusion. The white people who come to a country and settle it are bringing "civilization" and therefore should be welcomed and encouraged, but the non-white people who already lived there are "savages" and need to be exterminated for the good of the "master race." If they try to come back to the (white) nation state after their homelands were colonized, moreover, they are "invaders" who just want to "soak up the money of hard-working citizens" and etc etc.

The core fascist hatred of immigrants is also why Trump is directly echoing Hitler's anti-immigrant rhetoric with his "poisoning the blood of America" screeds, his promise to round up and deport migrants en masse, and otherwise be as massive of a dick as possible. The fact that there's no economic benefit and indeed a lot of economic pain is entirely beside the point. Trump and his deranged followers like the cruelty and the idea of torturing brown people for daring to come to "their" (white) America, and think that if they can be outrageously monstrous enough, this will finally deter all the other ones from coming. It won't, and no globalized economy will run without immigrants, but again, this isn't the point. Reality or pragmatic calculations have nothing to do with it. It's only about what can cause the maximum amount of cruelty and chaos to everyone who doesn't wholeheartedly worship and fit the (white) fascist model. That's why the Republicans yelled about wanting a border bill before they'd fund Ukraine; the Democrats obligingly gave them one with some of the toughest restrictions in years, and the Republicans yelled and threw it away because Dear Leader Trump told them to trash it. In some sense this is a good thing, because it meant that Ukraine got funded without being beholden to performative partisan cruelty at the border, but it also shows that they don't actually care about any of this. They have bluntly stated in so many words that they want a manufactured crisis at the border so Trump will have it as a campaign issue. Then he can take office and implement all his terrible concentration camps and all the other genocidal fascist bullshit of Project 2025 (bUt bIdEn iZ thE wOrsE oPtiOn!!!!!)

So: yeah. There's no point looking for any actual consistency or logic in the modern far right, because that is so far from the actual aim. No matter if migrants are essential, no matter if Americans literally won't take many of the jobs they do, etc. I live in a big city that has had a ton of migrants coming here and have read many, many news articles about how all they want to do is get a work permit, make their own money, learn English, and integrate into American culture; they are often far more positive about the prospects of America than actual Americans. But because the entire project of a (white) fascist ethnostate as advocated by Trump and co. in America, the Tories/Reform in the UK, and the far-right European parties, Russia, and other places (this is all connected worldwide -- again, it's not limited to one country or region), rests on demonizing (brown) immigrants as subhuman scroungers who come to rape, murder, steal jobs, and otherwise threaten (white) law-abiding citizens, that will always win out above every single other consideration.

[robertreich]

Can We Still Find Common Ground? 

Many Americans today worry that our nation is losing its national identity. Some claim loudly that the core of that identity requires better policing of our borders and preventing other races or religions or ethnicities from supplanting white Christian America.

But that is not what defines our national identity. It’s the ideals we share, the good we hold in common.

That common good is a set of shared commitments. To the rule of law. To democracy. To tolerance of our differences. To equal rights and equal opportunities for everyone. To upholding the truth.

We cannot have a functioning society without these shared commitments. Without a shared sense of common good, there can be no “we” to begin with.

If we’re losing our national identity, it is because we are losing our sense of the common good. That is what must be restored.

Some of you may feel such a quest to be hopeless. Well, I disagree.

Almost every day, I witness or hear of the compassion and generosity of ordinary Americans. Their actions rarely make headlines, but they constitute much of our daily life together.

The moral fiber of our society has been weakened but it has not been destroyed.

We can recover the rule of law and preserve our democratic institutions by taking a more active role in our democracy.

We can fight against all forms of bigotry. We can strengthen the bonds that connect us to one another.

We can protect the truth by using facts and logic to combat lies.

Together, we can rebuild a public morality that strengthens our democracy, makes our economy work for everyone, and revives trust in the institutions of the nation.

America is not made great by whom we exclude but by the ideals we uphold together.

We’ve never been a perfect union. Our finest moments have been when we have sought to live up to those shared ideals.

I hope you’ll join me in carrying forward the fight for the common good.

You might start by sharing this video with your friends and loved ones.

[olderthannetfic]

"Why I don't write F/F" thread proceeded just as unproductively as I expected. It wasn't about moralizing about the women not writing F/F, it was a question about why personal reasons for avoiding a configuration aren't reflected in opposite directions by other groups. Unlike race, gender has an almost 50/50 split, there's a scale to the proportions not there for other types of identity category. "The femslash police suck" is a factor I can understand. But why wouldn't "personal reasons I just don't feel it towards this configuration" end up an even distribution across the population? The expectation for women to write about women isn't a moral rule, it's that if you allow the logic "men in control of stories write about men (and that's why more mainstream stories center men)", then the flip side is, well, why people clamor for more women behind the camera and in the writers' room. Either accept the logic for both sides or challenge it for both sides. Instead we have the worst of both worlds, we accept it for one side and challenge it for the other. Where's the parallel universe where this imbalance somehow resulted in a different quadrant being the smallest proportion of ships?

--

Why wouldn't "personal reasons" be even? Because the kinds of issues people face based on their demographic aren't.

But I think the larger factor is how socialization affects choice of hobbies and volunteer efforts. Cis men and cis women, on average, go in for different flavors. The dudes tend to be more bothered by the idea of "not getting anything back" for what feels like work. When they do do unpaid labor, it's often the kind that accrues glory and career prospects rather than less showy social ties. Open source coding projects where they can be important, yes. Writing fanfic, no.

Looking up any analysis of volunteering and unpaid work that makes such-and-such a part of society function will get you a lot of discussion of this gendered difference. It's pervasive.

Of course, this is just a broad trend. Plenty of guys do write fanfic, and when they dominate a fanfic space, we see tons of fic focused on the female characters they find attractive, including f/f fic.

And if you're asking about cis gay men specifically... well... again, gendered socialization means that the issues faced by cis lesbians and cis gay men are not equivalent. The reasons and ways that people employ allegory to talk about things "too close to home" will likewise not be exactly the same. Traditional US gay male culture goes in for drag and for an obsession with Hollywood divas and The Golden Girls. Plenty is being mediated through female personas; it's just not translating into fanfic specifically. But most people making "Leave the fujoshi alone" arguments are not thinking about cis gays: they're thinking about people in messier identity categories.

The biggest difference is not behavior but simply that cis men are a small minority on FFN, AO3, and Wattpad, the three big fanfic archives. (Some ancient FFN research found that it was 78% female, and that's the archive known for having more men!) The places with more cis guys are much smaller and don't get talked about as much by most fandom history and fandom meta types from the AO3 side of things.

The reason cis men's taste in favorite characters isn't being "pushed back against" isn't a double standard: it's because:

Cis men simply aren't that relevant to site-wide trends on AO3

and

2. The reverse pattern does happen all the time with vanishingly little m/m and lots of f/f

You sound like you think we'd make this fanfic-specific argument about pro media. In fact, plenty of queer women are open that they produce original f/f but not f/f fanfic or they produce f/f fanworks but not fic. A lot of the "too close to home" arguments are specifically about the kind of id fuel, naked-in-public vibes of AO3-style fanfic. Writing that is less id-driven may not feel that same way. A given woman might have a much easier time writing a mystery novel about a lesbian detective who never gets laid on page than a steamy f/f bodice ripper.

The parallel universe you ask about exists. It's horny imageboards full of fan art of anime girls.

The reason you sound judgmental and are getting "unproductive" responses is that you're phrasing things as though we're refusing to solve a problem. In reality, we're attempting to analyze the situation that exists. It's a descriptive approach.

[physalian]

8 Signs your Sequel Needs Work

Sequels, and followup seasons to TV shows, can be very tricky to get right. Most of the time, especially with the onslaught of sequels, remakes, and remake-quels over the past… 15 years? There’s a few stand-outs for sure. I hear Dune Part 2 stuck the landing. Everyone who likes John Wick also likes those sequels. Spiderverse 2 also stuck the landing.

These are less tips and more fundamental pieces of your story that may or may not factor in because every work is different, and this is coming from an audience’s perspective. Maybe some of these will be the flaws you just couldn’t put your finger on before. And, of course, these are all my opinions, for sequels and later seasons that just didn’t work for me.

1. Your vague lore becomes a gimmick

The Force, this mysterious entity that needs no further explanation… is now quantifiable with midichlorians.

In The 100, the little chip that contains the “reincarnation” of the Commanders is now the central plot to their season 6 “invasion of the bodysnatchers” villains.

In The Vampire Diaries, the existence of the “emotion switch” is explicitly disputed as even existing in the earlier seasons, then becomes a very real and physical plot point one can toggle on and off.

I love hard magic systems. I love soft magic systems, too. These two are not evolutions of each other and doing so will ruin your magic system. People fell in love with the hard magic because they liked the rules, the rules made sense, and everything you wrote fit within those rules. Don’t get wacky and suddenly start inventing new rules that break your old ones.

People fell in love with the soft magic because it needed no rules, the magic made sense without overtaking the story or creating plot holes for why it didn’t just save the day. Don’t give your audience everything they never needed to know and impose limitations that didn’t need to be there.

Solving the mystery will never be as satisfying as whatever the reader came up with in their mind. Satisfaction is the death of desire.

2. The established theme becomes un-established

I talked about this point already in this post about theme so the abridged version here: If your story has major themes you’ve set out to explore, like “the dichotomy of good and evil” and you abandon that theme either for a contradictory one, or no theme at all, your sequel will feel less polished and meaningful than its predecessor, because the new story doesn’t have as much (if anything) to say, while the original did.

Jurassic Park is a fantastic, stellar example. First movie is about the folly of human arrogance and the inherent disaster and hubris in thinking one can control forces of nature for superficial gains. The sequels, and then sequel series, never returns to this theme (and also stops remembering that dinosaurs are animals, not generic movie monsters). JP wasn’t just scary because ahhh big scary reptiles. JP was scary because the story is an easily preventable tragedy, and yes the dinosaurs are eating people, but the people only have other people to blame. Dinosaurs are just hungry, frightened animals.

Or, the most obvious example in Pixar’s history: Cars to Cars 2.

3. You focus on the wrong elements based on ‘fan feedback’

We love fans. Fans make us money. Fans do not know what they want out of a sequel. Fans will never know what they want out of a sequel, nor will studios know how to interpret those wants. Ask Star Wars. Heck, ask the last 8 books out of the Percy Jackson universe.

Going back to Cars 2 (and why I loathe the concept of comedic relief characters, truly), Disney saw dollar signs with how popular Mater was, so, logically, they gave fans more Mater. They gave us more car gimmicks, they expanded the lore that no one asked for. They did try to give us new pretty racing venues and new cool characters. The writers really did try, but some random Suit decided a car spy thriller was better and this is what we got.

The elements your sequel focuses on could be points 1 or 2, based on reception. If your audience universally hates a character for legitimate reasons, maybe listen, but if your audience is at war with itself over superficial BS like whether or not she’s a female character, or POC, ignore them and write the character you set out to write. Maybe their arc wasn’t finished yet, and they had a really cool story that never got told.

This could be side-characters, or a specific location/pocket of worldbuilding that really resonated, a romantic subplot, whatever. Point is, careening off your plan without considering the consequences doesn’t usually end well.

4. You don’t focus on the ‘right’ elements

I don’t think anyone out there will happily sit down and enjoy the entirety of Thor: The Dark World.  The only reasons I would watch that movie now are because a couple of the jokes are funny, and the whole bit in the middle with Thor and Loki. Why wasn’t this the whole movie? No one cares about the lore, but people really loved Loki, especially when there wasn’t much about him in the MCU at the time, and taking a villain fresh off his big hit with the first Avengers and throwing him in a reluctant “enemy of my enemy” plot for this entire movie would have been amazing.

Loki also refuses to stay dead because he’s too popular, thus we get a cyclical and frustrating arc where he only has development when the producers demand so they can make maximum profit off his character, but back then, in phase 2 world, the mystery around Loki was what made him so compelling and the drama around those two on screen was really good! They bounced so well off each other, they both had very different strengths and perspectives, both had real grievances to air, and in that movie, they *both* lost their mother. It’s not even that it’s a bad sequel, it’s just a plain bad movie.

The movie exists to keep establishing the Infinity Stones with the red one and I can’t remember what the red one does at this point, but it could have so easily done both. The powers that be should have known their strongest elements were Thor and Loki and their relationship, and run with it.

This isn’t “give into the demands of fans who want more Loki” it’s being smart enough to look at your own work and suss out what you think the most intriguing elements are and which have the most room and potential to grow (and also test audiences and beta readers to tell you the ugly truth). Sequels should feel more like natural continuations of the original story, not shameless cash grabs.

5. You walk back character development for ~drama~

As in, characters who got together at the end of book 1 suddenly start fighting because the “will they/won’t they” was the juiciest dynamic of their relationship and you don’t know how to write a compelling, happy couple. Or a character who overcame their snobbery, cowardice, grizzled nature, or phobia suddenly has it again because, again, that was the most compelling part of their character and you don’t know who they are without it.

To be honest, yeah, the buildup of a relationship does tend to be more entertaining in media, but that’s also because solid, respectful, healthy relationships in media are a rarity. Season 1 of Outlander remains the best, in part because of the rapid growth of the main love interest’s relationship. Every season after, they’re already married, already together, and occasionally dealing with baby shenanigans, and it’s them against the world and, yeah, I got bored.

There’s just so much you can do with a freshly established relationship: Those two are a *team* now. The drama and intrigue no longer comes from them against each other, it’s them together against a new antagonist and their different approaches to solving a problem. They can and should still have distinct personalities and perspectives on whatever story you throw them into.

6. It’s the same exact story, just Bigger

I have been sitting on a “how to scale power” post for months now because I’m still not sure on reception but here’s a little bit on what I mean.

Original: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy New York

Sequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the planet

Threequel: Oh no, the big bad guy wants to destroy the galaxy

You knew it wasn’t going to happen the first time, you absolutely know it won’t happen on a bigger scale. Usually, when this happens, plot holes abound. You end up deleting or forgetting about characters’ convenient powers and abilities, deleting or forgetting about established relationships and new ground gained with side characters and entities, and deleting or forgetting about stakes, themes, and actually growing your characters like this isn’t the exact same story, just Bigger.

How many Bond movies are there? Thirty-something? I know some are very, very good and some are not at all good. They’re all Bond movies. People keep watching them because they’re formulaic, but there’s also been seven Bond actors and the movies aren’t one long, continuous, self-referential story about this poor, poor man who has the worst luck in the universe. These sequels aren’t “this but bigger” it’s usually “this, but different”, which is almost always better.

“This, but different now” will demand a different skillset from your hero, different rules to play by, different expectations, and different stakes. It does not just demand your hero learn to punch harder.

Example: Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 does have more influence than Tai Lung, yes. He’s got a whole city and his backstory is further-reaching, but he’s objectively worse in close combat—so he doesn’t fistfight Po. He has cannons, very dangerous cannons, cannons designed to be so strong that kung fu doesn’t matter. Thus, he’s not necessarily “bigger” he’s just “different” and his whole story demands new perspective.

The differences between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are numerous, but the latter relies on “but bigger” and the former went in a whole new direction, while still staying faithful to the themes of the original.

7. It undermines the original by awakening a new problem too soon

I’ve already complained about the mere existence of Heroes of Olympus elsewhere because everything Luke fought and died for only bought that world about a month of peace before the gods came and ripped it all away for More Story.

I’ve also complained that the Star Wars Sequels were always going to spit in the face of a character’s six-movie legacy to bring balance to the Force by just going… nah. Ancient prophecy? Only bought us about 30 years of peace.

Whether it’s too soon, or it’s too closely related to the original, your audience is going to feel a little put-off when they realize how inconsequential this sequel makes the original, particularly in TV shows that run too many seasons and can’t keep upping the ante, like Supernatural.

Kung Fu Panda once again because these two movies are amazing. Shen is completely unrelated to Tai Lung. He’s not threatening the Valley of Peace or Shifu or Oogway or anything the heroes fought for in the original. He’s brand new.

My yearning to see these two on screen together to just watch them verbally spat over both being bratty children disappointed by their parents is unquantifiable. This movie is a damn near perfect sequel. Somebody write me fanfic with these two throwing hands over their drastically different perspectives on kung fu.

8. It’s so divorced from the original that it can barely even be called a sequel

Otherwise known as seasons 5 and 6 of Lost. Otherwise known as: This show was on a sci-fi trajectory and something catastrophic happened to cause a dramatic hairpin turn off that path and into pseudo-biblical territory. Why did it all end in a church? I’m not joking, they did actually abandon The Plan while in a mach 1 nosedive.

I also have a post I’ve been sitting on about how to handle faith in fiction, so I’ll say this: The premise of Lost was the trials and escapades of a group of 48 strangers trying to survive and find rescue off a mysterious island with some creepy, sciency shenanigans going on once they discover that the island isn’t actually uninhabited.

Season 6 is about finding “candidates” to replace the island’s Discount Jesus who serves as the ambassador-protector of the island, who is also immortal until he’s not, and the island becomes a kind of purgatory where they all actually did die in the crash and were just waiting to… die again and go to heaven. Spoiler Alert.

This is also otherwise known as: Oh sh*t, Warner Bros wants more Supernatural? But we wrapped it up so nicely with Sam and Adam in the box with Lucifer. I tried to watch one of those YouTube compilations of Cas’ funny moments because I haven’t seen every episode, and the misery on these actors’ faces as the compilation advanced through the seasons, all the joy and wit sucked from their performances, was just tragic.

I get it. Writers can’t control when the Powers That Be demand More Story so they can run their workhorse into the ground until it stops bleeding money, but if you aren’t controlled by said powers, either take it all back to basics, like Cars 3, or just stop.

—

Sometimes taking your established characters and throwing them into a completely unrecognizable story works, but those unrecongizable stories work that much harder to at least keep the characters' development and progression satisfying and familiar. See this post about timeskips that take generational gaps between the original and the sequel, and still deliver on a satisfying continuation.

TLDR: Sequels are hard and it’s never just one detail that makes them difficult to pull off. They will always be compared to their predecessors, always with the expectations to be as good as or surpass the original, when the original had no such competition. There’s also audience expectations for how they think the story, lore, and relationships should progress. Most faults of sequels, in my opinion, lie in straying too far from the fundamentals of the original without understanding why those fundamentals were so important to the original’s success.

[thelongestway]

hey no shade but you know dungeon meshi isn't actually based off dnd right? there are definitely some overlapping concepts and it can be fun to analyze it through a dnd lens but really it's its own homebrew fantasy setting. just checking bc i nearly got in an argument w someone over dungeon meshi lore the other day only to realize it was because they were trying to apply dnd lore to it ahahaa

Oh yeah, absolutely, it's its own thing. You don't even have to go far to show how it's its own thing: for one, the whole set-up with the dungeons being what they are isn't found anywhere else in D&D-inspired material that I know. You could maybe reflavor Halaster's Undermountain to something like the Dungeon Meshi dungeons, but that would be another layer of homebrew. That said, I do have the feeling that Ryoko Kui grew up on the same kind of D&D material that I did - stuff like Elminster's Ecologies, or old school Greyhawk materials. Her story genuinely feels like an AD&D game run by an old-school DM, maybe even earlier in the editions (hi, Chilchuck and "I'm a rogue, I'm not gonna fight"!). I don't mean that she follows D&D canon in any meaningful sense--her stuff isn't set in Greyhawk, nor on Abeir-Toril, nor on Krynn, etc. But I do think she's someone who's inspired by old school stuff, even as she makes her work thoroughly her own.

An acquaintance of mine once wrote that long tabletop games gain a quality that she called "being well-trod". This is when the players and DM are so familiar with the world they live in that it becomes, well, lived-in. They don't need to look up rules anymore to extrapolate: they understand the logic of the setting, and they get the same kind of intuitive feel for the world that we do when living in our own world, in real life. A feeling of where the boundaries lie, and how things work.

This is how I feel about Dungeon Meshi and D&D. It feels like a work written by someone who walked the same paths that I did, and whose work is therefore both new and startlingly familiar. That's it in a nutshell, but then I also wrote a bunch of examples, which got very long, so cut for length and spoilers!

I wrote somewhere in the tags on my Dungeon Meshi posts that it's incredibly surreal reading a story that seems to be informed by the exact materials that you base your own homebrew games on. Kui takes her work in a wholly different direction than I did - but the disparate elements of the story would fit in like a glove, because they're based on similar logic. I could quite literally take any of the ecologies elements of Dungeon Meshi and put them into a given module I'm running, and it would need less adaptation than 5e material. And most of the cultural/racial elements of Dungeon Meshi? That, too. Where it's not a one for one match, it would so easily be explainable by "different continent".

Let's take the example you're probably here from: the Canaries and elves in general, and let's take elves in general first. In D&D, there's been a switch in models of elven aging throughout the years: from "they are literal babies up until 60-ish, and then have 40 years of actual adolescence" to "yeah they grow to full adult size at about the same speed as the other races, and are then just culturally considered too young to make their own decisions". I am decidedly not a fan of the second model - I think it takes away from the cool biologies early D&D thrived on. BG3's treatment of Astarion's age of death, for instance, keeps throwing me. Yeah, I get it: it fits in with the edition they're working off, but I hate it. That's not how things work on our Faerun! But then we get to Marcille's backstory, and we see that she has the problems old school half-elves did, and you're like "oh, well of course someone invested in weird cool biology as an author would interpret elves like that." Her treatment of age makes sense to me. She makes the races as alien as possible, and hits that vibe of "D&D-style fantasy is its own thing, with its own set of rules" that I love. In contrast, and unlike any prototypes I know, Kui takes her half-foots in a different direction! They don't live longer than tall-men, they live shorter lives, closer to goblinoids. And I think it's for the same reason: because it's that much cooler to have different experiences of life in humanoid races. This is decidedly Not D&D, but it would absolutely fit into that vein.

With smaller details, I keep joking around here that the Canaries are grey elves, and of course they're not. But then Kui keeps putting in these tiny little details - which can be either nods to existing material, or the same extrapolations that other authors drawing upon high fantasy tropes have made. The white ships that have travelled all the way from Tolkien's Valinor to Evermeet and now to Shima. The fact that the Canaries have basically the right color scheme for grey elves threw me completely: I was not expecting that! Elves being that specific brand of destructive that they are - jeez, the Canaries would be right at home in Myth Drannor, or during the Crown Wars. So I joke around about these specific dolts a lot, and I am having an inordinate amount of fun seeing if my predictions that come from running a Myth Drannor game for a good long while now come true. And it goes on. Marcille doesn't prepare spells, and the magic here is obviously not Vancian. But Mithrun's teleport shenanigans are literally stuff I've done in games. The differences between races in D&D aren't because of wishes made by mortals; they're built in by gods for their own purposes. But the towns that spring up around anomalous spots and that have to deal with the weirdness have the same vibe. Kui draws on a more extensive tradition than just D&D, of course, but she transforms the tradition in a very similar way to old D&D. Of course the elves' magic in Kui's work does weird and creepy stuff with soulbinding and immortality; that's been their dark side since Tolkien and Celebrimbor's work with Annatar, and then it turned into stuff like elves regularly sacrificing their lives in high magic rituals in Faerun. Of course Senshi's backstory is about the dwarves that have dug too deep - but they are, of course, distinct from gnomes, and the gnomes are a peculiar and interesting breed of arcana specialists. Of course Chilchuck is a Burglar - but he works on dungeon delving unions, of all things! It's a familiar transformation, so the world makes sense to me, and I love it. So yeah. Tl;dr: not D&D ofc, but the vibe is there, and I am having fun with it.

Also - can you tell me about the argument? I am super curious, and I wonder if the person you were arguing with was working from 5e material.

[flightfoot]

i think you rec fics if i'm wrong i'm so sorry. any fluffy fics with all 4 lovesquare sides? - though just ladynoir/adrienette would work too.

Yep I give those recs! This is actually one of the tricker cases, because on the one hand there's a lot of them and on the other hand they're interwoven with a lot of other things and often don't have specific tags to search with, so I'll see what I can do. I'm mostly just looking for fluff fics that have more than one side of the Lovesquare represented.

I Put A Spell On You by dazaimaru

Friday, October 25. 6 days until Halloween. It’s their first high school Halloween dance, and Marinette and Adrien are ready to throw on some non-superhero costumes for once--that is, until an akumatized witch spoils the party and threatens to reveal what lies underneath everyone’s disguise. With Hawkmoth taking full advantage of the spooky season, the days leading up to Halloween are certainly going to be thrilling! Especially considering Marinette’s growing feelings for a certain black cat…

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Fate, Destiny... A Hamster by @mostmagical

After finally moving into his very first apartment per Ladybug’s suggestion, Adrien stumbles upon something no movie or TV show could have ever prepared him for: someone else's hamster. At least now there’s an excuse to talk to the new neighbor. (Adrinette Never Met AU)

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Villainous Matchmaking by @nedjsmlfavs

When Chat Noir is tragically unable to attend an event with Ladybug, the mayor calls in a favor from a designer ‘friend’. Now she’s attending in style, on the arm of the hottest male model in Paris. Which would be fine if it weren’t for one, tiny issue: Paris’ favorite domestic terrorist now knows how Ladybug feels about his son. This leads him to his greatest plan yet, using Ladybug’s extremely obvious crush on Adrien Agreste to akumatize Chat Noir. A Ladrien/“platonic” Ladynoir fic

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Painted Canvas by @wehadabondingmoment

And then, Adrien would send her a selfie, acting as if he was some secret agent trying to not get caught and he was so ridiculous that Marinette’s heart ached at the thought of being away from him. Hushed phone calls, his voice sounding like honey; in moments like these, she wasn’t Ladybug, only a teenage girl drunk on love. Or: Adrien and Marinette are soulmates and it still takes them years until they finally meet. Also fencing.

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Professeure (of your love) by @mostmagical

“We should do it.” Her voice came out in a screech. “What?” “Just a fake wedding at graduation,” he said, like it wasn’t completely crazy. . . After ages of letting Paris believe their beloved superheroes are married and in love, Marinette's superhero partner turned fellow teacher wants to apply the same logic to their civilian lives and put on a fake wedding for their students. Only problem is, for Marinette, the being in love part is very much not an act.

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From School Bells to Wedding Bells by @linnieluna

When the superhero duo takes on another exhausting fight against an akuma, Chat Noir does what he never hesitates to do and takes a hit for his partner. The problem being: neither of them knew what power the akuma possessed. That is... until he is transported into the future. More specifically, to his friend Marinette's wedding.

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The Power of Love by @nedjsmlfavs

In which Ladybug announces that she’s pregnant via her long term boyfriend and Chat Noir is a supportive partner. After all, he can hardly be upset when he’s been dating his Princess for years! A different take on the show’s tagline (“The Power of Love Always so Strong”) written for Valentine’s day 2023.

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The Rules of Engagement by underworkedoverwhelmed

When tragedy sends Adrien Agreste racing back to Paris to run his father’s fashion house, Marinette doesn’t expect much from her very new, very rich boss. At least not until she is set up on a blind date with a very familiar face. Much to her surprise, Adrien Agreste was hiding far more secrets behind his stoic business-like mask of temporary CEO. Maybe as many secrets as she had been trying to hide for years. As they grow closer, Marinette fears her mask isn’t nearly as foolproof. Day after day, it gets harder for her to keep all her secrets well hidden from the surprisingly sweet man who insisted on staying by her side as often as possible. Only she couldn’t afford to fail. Not when her biggest secret could spell the end of the job she’d dreamed about for years.

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Dreams of You by @chocoluckchipz

Dreams had long been his only escape. Dreams of Ladybug, the girl who had always been there for him. If only in his dreams. And only while she was also sleeping. Because with the first rays of sunshine gliding over her skin, with the first fluttering of her eyelashes, from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, memories of Adrien would vanish from her mind. She would go on living her life. He would always be the only one who remembered. At least until they meet in the real world and fall in love all over again, something that would’ve been easier to do if Adrien wasn't a prisoner in his own home.

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Tell Me Why You Love Me by @linnieluna

“Anyway, that piece of paper contains the name of this texting app. It’s completely anonymous, so you can download it, make your account with no attachments to your personal life, and communicate with me outside our suits. I included my username on the paper, too, so you can add me once you’re done." Her partner skimmed through the words on the paper and nodded his head. “Brilliant as always, M’lady. I’m surprised we didn’t figure this out sooner within our superhero careers.” “Yeah, it would’ve been nice to have this before, but hey, better late than never. Make sure not to have your phone screen on the messages if you’re going to leave it somewhere. We don’t want anyone reading our texts. Also, this is for emergencies only. No jokes or puns. I can only deal with you for so long.” “I don’t know if I can agree to that last one,” he said. Now 22 and working full-time, Marinette and Adrien seem to be getting busier and busier, which means fewer opportunities to keep track of akumas and show up on time. With the idea of using a messaging app to communicate with each other without revealing their identities, their lives immediately grew to be easier... until it wasn't.

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Soul Searching by LiquefiedStars

Marinette was devastated when her soulmate turned out to be Adrien Agreste and not her sweet, loving partner Chat Noir. Despite their misunderstandings, she is willing to give Adrien a chance, even if he doesn’t seem all that interested in her. After all, they are soulmates and the universe says they are meant to be together. A Soulmate AU.

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Love is Blind by @jennagrinsoverml

Tired of all of his potential girlfriends being blinded by his face, his fame and his name, Adrien takes a chance to compete on Love Is Blind: France, where he hopes that dating without seeing each other—or learning each other’s names—will finally help him to be lucky in love. What will he do when he realizes that his Lady is one of the contestants, however? And will he be able to win her heart where he’s never succeeded before? Meanwhile, Marinette is looking to meet the right guy after years of pining away for someone who has only ever seen her as a friend. She’s not entirely sure if she can fall in love with someone without seeing them, but the things that have always mattered to her most are the kinds of things that can’t be seen. What will she do when she realizes her heart is being pulled in two directions? And will she be ready to make a decision in time?

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Over and Over by stcrsquad

Marinette Dupain-Cheng has had the worst day possible. She's failed to confess to Adrien (again), made an embarrassment of herself, and got into a fight with Chat Noir. Adrien Agreste has had the worst day possible. He is tired of being pushed aside by everyone, including his crime-fighting partner Ladybug. Luckily, fate (and Bunnyx) works in mysterious ways because they wake up again on the same day. A do-over. Except it keeps happening. Can the two figure out what they need to fix to break the loop, or will they be stuck forever?

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Graine de toi by MireilleTanaka

Ladybug and Chat Noir think they’re close, until they begin waking up in one another’s skin. AU: Adrien is homeschooled, and he and Marinette have never met. Written for Adrinette April 2020, Day 17: Life Swap. The one prompt snowballed into a multi-chapter fic. Loosely inspired by Your Name (Kimi no na wa), but no need to have watched it to read, since there's no actual plot connection except the premise of swapping lives.

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Knight in Shining Amour by Cakedecorator

Marinette is the daughter of the castle bakers, and she herself is the royal seamstress. She lives her life making clothes, helping her parents, and generally living a simple life. However, she also laments the loss of her childhood friendship with Prince Adrien, and remembers the promise they made when they were five years old. Resigning herself to the reality that she would never be able to marry the prince, and assuming he'd forgotten their promise, Marinette tries to live her life without letting loss get to her. However, her love story begins a new chapter when she's approached by Cat Noir, a debonair new knight in the castle.

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Evergreen by tanyatakaishi

Everything was gone. The entire cityscape had been obliterated, leaving them in a valley of trees. Blue mountains, peaks dressed in snow, stretched tall in the distance and at their foot lay an array of vineyards, miles wide with no civilization in sight. AKA: two heroes lost alone in the woods with no cheese.

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Someone to Watch Over Me by @dfcfanfics

Adrien is used to his father taking him for granted and treating him poorly, especially since his mother's disappearance... but it's never been anywhere _near_ this bad before. Between that and trouble at school, his life is in quite the downward spiral. He's been putting on a brave face, but he's struggling... and his friends are starting to notice. One special friend in particular. Marinette is determined to help him, any way that she can -- with _and_ without her mask. But when Akumas fly towards Adrien, he soon finds himself more deeply entwined in Marinette's life AND Ladybug's private life than he'd ever imagined. Can Adrien possibly decide between the two angels who are making his life worth living again? Can Marinette process Adrien's crush on Ladybug AND his growing feelings for her? And can Gabriel stop laughing long enough to launch his master plan? A fluffy DFC - buggachat Ladrienette jam. 10/15: Our story is now complete with the posting of Chapter 24, the epilogue. Thank you so much for reading, as always.

[ematooney]

Either I’m gonna sound like an idiot or smth I just need to know because it’s bothering the FUCK outta me.

Why on God’s green fuckin earth is THIS

AN ALIEN INVADER

Like?? Why do keronians invade?? Why??? Do they want to conquer the universe or some shit? Spread their territory or whatever the fuck? I mean, they’re tiny little frog dudes and they SEEM innocent (minus that one time they hid an artificial planet destroyer in the Earth that killed the dinosaurs) like they seem like alright peaceful folks and stuff, plus it also seems like they have plenty of neccessities and super advanced technology to actually live and thrive.

I mean, sure, their planet is like super small compared to ours, like same size as our moon so it makes logical sense that they invade to expand their property to control their own population not to mention gather needs like food, equipment, or technology. If that were the case couldn’t they like, I dunno, make a peace treaty with other planets? Planetary peace treaty??? (Look I’m not a history economical buff ok)

Like I’m genuinely curious about this guys. Why do the keronians invade? Is it explained in an episode? I’ve only seen season one and half of season 2, I don’t have any access to watch 3 or 4 (other than paying a subscription on crunchyroll) and I have the manga but only 1-17 and I know it’s not mentioned in there. So what the heck??

And if that’s the case, what do Keronians do when they invade? As far as I’m aware, they can be pretty brutal, but that’s about it. They can easily make time stop with that whole Planet Anesthesia thing from the Garuru arc and just be quick and easy about it, but what else do they do? Do they wage war against other aliens from other planets? Do they kill other aliens? And when they do invade a planet, what happens to the natives? Are they killed? Are they made into slaves or some shit? I NEED ANSWERS YOSHIZAKI.

Also, what’s up with Keron being obsessed with Earth? The show does say that Keron has been wanting to conquer Earth for a long time so why haven’t they done so already? They have that Planet Anesthesia thing so why did they have to send 5 of the silliest sillys to get it done?

Oh, and another thing! What the frog is the deal with the Keron Military?? Their rules are extreme! Like SUPER extreme! Like, fuck up this invasion and you’re executed buddy!!

Seriously, look at this!!

(Episode 51)

HE GOES TO FUCKING JAIL.

That can’t be normal right?? If you fail to complete an invasion you go to jail OR WORSE!

GET YOUR FUCKING MIND ERASED.

I mean, my only guess on why they would do this is that they want Earth so bad that they would go beyond the extremes!

Look, I love Sgt Frog, and I want to know more about their race and its world building. Is it explained at all other than what we already know? Why do the Keronians invade? Why do they want Earth so badly? What happens when they do successfully invade? Why are the rules in the Keron Military so extreme? The anime and the manga hardly explains any of this!! (At least to my knowledge)

Well, I have a theory on this, so hear me out.

Imagine living on a tiny planet that’s almost completely overpopulated with hardly any resources to go around and then suddenly you find this HUMONGOUS planet that’s 10 times the size of your own filled to the brim with all kinds of goodies you can get your grubby hands on. Frog paradise, right? Except there’s one tiny problem. It’s already occupied. Easy, just send a planet destroying monster to wipe em out! Problem solved. Okay, that worked but now we have another problem. Now there’s this new race that are way smarter and ethical than the previous ones, so now what?

Well, our last attempt with the whole planet destroying Kiruru was a bit extreme so why don’t we send our best platoon out there?

The best platoon:

Great job, guys.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hey do you have anything that recreates the feel of the movie Men In Black? there is a literal, actual officially licensed MIB TTRPG, but that was last updated in the 90's, unfortunately :c

THEME: Men In Black

I love Men In Black! One of the biggest obstacles I found in this hunt was that most games about paranormal agencies trying to keep the alien or supernatural out of the eyes of the public is that usually the agents consider the aliens to be hostile - while MIB combines mystery with mundanity. There’s combat, sure, but in many of the movies the characters find themselves interacting with aliens who pose no threat whatsoever to the world around them. With that in mind, let’s see what we’ve got.

Strange Squad, by S. Murphy.

Strange Squad is a game about weird, powerful individuals known as 'Agents' investigating and solving issues involving 'Aberrants': Paranormal creatures, beings, and phenomena that defy logical explanation. Agent's seek to uphold The Veil, a layer of secrecy that keeps the public from learning about these fragments of unreality, for their sake and ours.

I like the focus on keeping things secret here, which is a strong through-line in Men in Black. This game uses Aberrations instead of aliens, so you’ll have the same task of converting some of the lore to make sense for the MIB universe. The resolution mechanic involves a d100 and rolling under a target stat, as well as a Cool track that indicates how good your character is at keeping it together in stressful situations. I think the biggest downside to this game in regards to what you’re looking for is the fact that even though you can theoretically alter the tone, the Cool mechanic points towards your characters working in a dangerous job that wears on their psyche, while I remember MIB being more about being a talented agent whose fun interactions with various aliens is the highlight of their job.

External Containment Bureau, by Mythic Gazetteer.

I’ve recommended External Containment Bureau plenty of times in the past, so I don’t want to keep recommending the same thing, but I do think it’s worth checking out, mostly because it’s very good at letting the players determine the tone. The agency’s goal of identification, containment and obfuscate allows for broad interpretation. Identification might just mean tracking down phenomena and figuring out which alien race is connected to it. Containment might involve talking the aliens down from their current course of action. Obfuscation might be using the neutralizer, but it might also be coming up with explanations for a giant crater where a gas station used to be, or filling out paperwork that accounts for a family’s sudden change in number of children.

The other thing that ECB really has going for it is the theorize roll. This is a chance for the players to come up with the solution to their presented problem collaboratively, but it also clearly lays out the primary focus of the game: solving a mystery. Your character’s primary goal isn’t to win by force, it’s to figure out what the heck is going on. And that feels pretty true to a lot of the story beats in MIB.

DPIC: Department of Paranormal Investigation & Containment, by The Rolled Standard.

The Department of Paranormal Investigation & Containment, or DPIC, is a covert agency tasked with the hunting and capturing (or elimination) of the paranormal creatures and objects that inhabit and invade our world to protect the people of this world and keep them separate and safe.

This is a more traditional concept of paranormal agency, but if what you really like in MIB is the big chrome guns and the fights that end with the monsters exploding into goo, this has got you covered. DPIC does give you rules with the idea that the supernatural is something you’ll be dealing with, so you might need to re-tool Soul to fit in a story where the weirdness comes from alien tech rather than spooky eldritch magic. This game is meant to be a standalone system, but you can definitely see the inspiration taken from various other games, especially the presence of Fate Points.

If you want to learn more about this game, the creators of DPIC have their own podcast, The Rolled Standard. They play through a number of different games and systems, and the lore of DPIC originated and blossomed over various games that can be heard there!

Cosmic Department of Immigration, by rucun3.

During the game the agents of CDI will have to protect reality from terrible things like eldritch horrors, tax evaders and tourists, and they will do that through boring bureaucracy! It doesn't help that the agents themselves can be as weird as the candidates they are screening. They will have to follow the maze-like rules and guidelines while at the same time making sure no one will destroy the very fabric of reality!

This is 2 pages of instructions on how to fulfill randomly determined requirements in a bureaucratic capacity. Your characters will hail from a specific department and receive 3 skills. There is always one skill that your character is not proficient at, and I think that encourages party balance. This game is only 2 pages, so it spends most of its space teaching you about the possible NPCs that you’ll come in contact with and what the play loop will look like. When it comes to resolution however, it doesn’t look like there’s any randomized resolution mechanic - it looks like your characters may be tasked with finding creative ways to use their abilities to solve specific quandaries without having to roll dice or pull cards.

I’m mostly pulling out this recommendation because most of the games that deal with paranormal society assume that the phenomena you deal with are threats - but in Men in Black, plenty of the aliens you are talking to are just regular people who have moved to a different planet, and sometimes have hiccups along the way. The Cosmic Department of Immigration brings a level of mundanity to the genre that I don’t see in a lot of paranormal games.

Other Recommendations

If you want more games with cheesy action and fun one-liners, you might also want to check out my Pulp Fiction recommendation post. If you want more games about keeping a secret world secret, you might want to take a look at my Paranormal Agents recommendations.

[safetycar-restart]

Little Charles haven’t seen his mommy in a week cause she’s away and his miserable but she suprised him by coming back early and he’s sooooo happy not leaving her lap clutching to her, making him fed her

I am ALWAYS down for some soft subby Charles with mommy!! Always!!

Maybe this happens during the break? Charles is usually quite good at being without you for exactly a week. He's used to that with race weekends, and while of course he doesn't like it, he does manage it. Especially because he facetimes you before bed every night and he messages you throughout the day and he knows you always watch all his practice sessions and races.

(Sidenote: maybe you specifically always watch his onboards? So if Charles isnt near the front you don't even know whose leading and you don't care.)

But during breaks? He has programmed his little mind so that breaks are for him and mommy! Yes he of course will have things he has to do and you will have work and whatnot, but you two always go with each other everywhere. He doesn't part with his mommy during the breaks, those are the rules! And if you can't get off work and have to stay in Monaco then he stays in Monaco! Always with mommy.

But maybe you have a work thing that means you have to leave for a week and he has several photoshoots with different brands in Monaco throughout that week so he can't leave.

It breaks his little heart, because this is not how it's supposed to be! It's the winter break! And that means he shouldn't be without his mommy for more than a few hours!

Needless to say, your little one is miserable. Absolutely miserable, and even through he tries to act like he isnt over the phone, he so clearly is.

He isnt angry with you, of course not. Logically he knows this is just bad timing and no one's fault, but he's so sad! Sad and without his mommy.

Maybe you had to travel for a conference? You present your talk and then you get permission to attend the rest of the conference online and go back to Charles early.

You don't tell him anything. He just comes home after a photoshoot and sees his mommy sitting on the couch waiting for him.

Naturally he stares at you in disbelief for a few seconds, and then just starts crying and flings himself onto the couch with you. He's on your lap within seconds, curling up and crying happy tears because mommy! Mommy is back!!!

He doesn't let you go for the rest of the night, babbling on and on about how lonely he was and how miserable his photoshoots were and how happy he is that you're home. He doesn't even let you shower alone, immediately getting up when you do because he's not letting you out of his sight.

You still have to attend the other conferences virtually, which is completely fine with him because he can curl up at your feet and be a good little subby darling and it's exactly what he needed.

And obviously you don't leave him for the rest of the break.

[dukeofriven]

A couple days ago that post was going around about that scene in TOS where Spock breaks down and cries after being hit with a virus that limits his ability to control his emotions in The Naked Time. It's a famous performance, one that I think works even better on a rewatch with a stronger understanding of Spock's character (or, rather, what his character will become). The rarity of those tears, the rawness of the performance, the power of it all makes it stand out as something really powerful. I cordially dislike many of the choices Strange New Worlds makes for a variety of reasons, but perhaps one of the most potent is how often Spock cries, how often Spock is emotional, and more than anything its unspoken belief that the human side of Spock is the only valid side. This has long been a tension in Trek: more than any other race besides the Borg, Vulcans are often presented not as different but wrong. Humans needle Vulcans to' be emotional' in a way they don't, say, needle Klingons to be pacifists, or needle Benzites to breathe oxygen. Star Trek Enterprise was really the original sinner here, especially given that—due to clumsy writing and a particular beefy American arrogance on the part of one J. Archer—the Vulcans are repeatedly shown to be completely correct that humans are not ready for space travel. And yet their entire philosophy is sneered at, treated as an aberration of values. The Abrams movies picked up this baton: Spock could only show he loved Kirk by screaming with rage and trying to beat a man to death with his bare hands. Vulcans as Vulcans, as an alexithymia-adjacent species, were always in the wrong, always assholes, the very idea of being un- or under- emotional presented as contemptuous. Freakish. Discovery continued this trend: raised-by-Vulacans Michael Burnham is unrecognizable within a few seasons as she has seemly disposed of the entirety of any Vulcan nature she once possessed. Discovery has to do this because much (not all, but much) of modern Trek relies heavily on pure, unrestrained emotional catharsis for its story beats. Many episodes lack much internal logic or clever plotting:the act breaks all lead to emotive moments and then swing to the next, so that by the end of an episode you're ready to tweet about all the emotions you and the character had—regardless of whether or not those emotions made any sense, or actively undermined the characterization. Perhaps no one is more damaged by this in modern Trek than Spock, who—like my anxious cat—is permanently a single overheard harsh syllable away from some kind of openly emotive reaction. Vulcans have emotions, Spock has emotions, but their central conceit is the way in which they are not ruled by them. In a storytelling world, however, in which being ruled by emotion is equated with being relatable to an audience, Vulcans aren't just different from humans, they're wrong. And so Spock's Vulcan side must constantly be rejected, first Discovery and then SNW: if he's not emoting, then he's not relatable, then he's being wrong, so Spock must sigh, Spock must cry, Spock must constantly wander around looking like a kicked puppy. It doesn't drain the power of Nimoy and that scene for the Naked Time. But it does fail, utterly, to comprehend it.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jim Carroll at The Hot Screen, via Flux:

The felony conviction of Donald Trump on all 34 counts related to his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels shows that the American justice system is capable of imposing meaningful sanctions on the lawless former president — if a criminal case actually manages to run its course. The verdict came despite a ceaseless barrage of propaganda from Trump and the Republican Party, including threats against the presiding judge, so that this outcome was hardly certain. Against significant odds, accountability has come for Trump, with the potential to unsettle what has been a neck-and-neck presidential race, and cause more Americans to grasp Trump’s fundamental unfitness for office. The former president’s felony status is disqualifying, and Democrats and others must invest time and effort into communicating why this is so (for a rundown of the arguments they can make, this recent piece by Brian Beutler is an excellent starting point).  But just as important as the conviction itself is the contemptible and extreme Republican Party reaction that has exploded in its wake, as what most people view as the proper working of the justice system is being characterized by the Republican Party and Trump himself as a corrupt, rigged, and disastrous outcome that must be reversed at the earliest opportunity. More than this, though — the GOP is using the verdict to falsely proclaim that the entire justice system is corrupt, and as justification to plan radical measures to weaponize the justice system against their political opponents. In doing so, they show that they would rather burn down the entire edifice of the rule of law than see their party leader made subject to it.

We need to be clear-eyed about what these Republicans are saying, for they do not actually believe that the justice system is corrupt, and so to treat their claims in good faith is dangerous and self-defeating. As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer observes, the problem that Trump and the GOP have with the verdict is that the system is in fact not corrupt, and has properly brought the former president to justice. But because their leader is a criminal, they must re-define the rule of the law itself to be the actual problem. This is upside-down, authoritarian logic, which basically reduces to saying that the law is whatever the Republican Party says it is. It’s a mentality that we have seen in countries like Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but which has now migrated to American shores, and been adopted by one of America’s two major political parties.

On top of this, the GOP is now using the verdict as an excuse to seek retribution against their Democratic “enemies,” even though the Democrats did not actually do anything wrong in the first place; rather, the Democrats are being scapegoated because the legal system itself worked as intended! In other words, they intend to use the everyday, apolitical functioning of the justice system that held their criminal leader to account to justify the complete subversion of the justice system to achieve anti-democratic political ends, such as jailing opponents on false charges. Doubling down on a convicted Trump, the GOP has consciously made criminality and lawlessness central to the party’s political identity, a fact that if widely understood should rightly appall and alienate a vast swathe of the American citizenry.

This Republican reaction to Trump’s conviction — highly coordinated, relentless, and nihilistic — should provide final confirmation that the GOP has transformed into an authoritarian party that rejects democracy and all of its constituents, which include free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, equality under the law, and the illegitimacy of political violence. Indeed, we should also understand that the extreme GOP unity in supporting a criminal president is in itself reason for alarm. As MSNBC host Chris Hayes remarked, “The lesson they learned is if you enforce this totalitarian unanimity, you can keep chugging along. And it is a wildly dangerous lesson. Because they will do this no matter what he does, and no matter how bad it gets.” We might say that “totalitarian unanimity” (what a great, if ominous, phrase) is the GOP’s battering ram against democracy, their answer to the rule of law: stick together, say up is down, and seek power by tearing down America’s institutions while issuing a cloud of lies, propaganda, and violent threat. Another way of looking at is one that highlights the GOP’s increasingly fascistic tendencies, as we might say that the party is attempting to will itself into power through a unified embrace of lies and a mass subversion of the rule of law.

The GOP’s refusal to accept the legitimacy of Trump’s conviction, with its accompanying assault on the rule of law, should be seen as on a continuum with Trump’s attempted coup following the 2020 election, the ever-broadening GOP refusal to accept adverse election results in 2024, and the GOP’s use of violent threat to achieve political ends (as Trump has done in threatening a “bloodbath” if he isn’t re-elected). Individually, each of these strategies can be called authoritarian and anti-democratic — but to properly understand, communicate, and confront their collective threat, we need to more precisely describe this GOP effort to overturn America’s democracy for what it is: an insurrection against the U.S. government. In its denial of Trump’s conviction, the GOP is not simply aiming to overturn the verdict, but looking to overturn for all time the idea that any verdict can ever be considered settled if it goes against Republican Party interests (here, the calls to have the GOP-dominated Supreme Court somehow step in and make things right for Trump provides a blueprint for future tampering). If they can undo this, they can undo the prospect that any other Republican leader can be held to account for breaking the law. Such a principle, once established, would render the United States not a democracy but a one-party state, where the GOP could engage in any manner of political behavior — lawless or even violent — with impunity. 

If we view the Republican war on the Trump verdict as the latest campaign in an ongoing GOP insurrection, the Democrats’ failure to date to fully amplify the verdict is not just self-defeating, but a dereliction of duty. As I said, not only does the verdict disqualify Trump, the GOP’s reaction to it is an equally — or even more important — disqualifying development regarding the GOP as a whole. There is a fundamental error in thinking that this is just about Donald Trump, and that if the public simply hears about the verdict, it will form negative opinions about the former president and his capacity to return to the Oval Office. Such thinking ignores the fact that the GOP is actively trying to convince people not only that Trump isn’t guilty, but that American democracy is itself the problem! The GOP isn’t just engaging in aggressive politics — it’s engaging in an effort that, if successful, and in conjunction with the other insurrectionary efforts I noted above, would result in the transformation of the United States into an authoritarian, one-party state. For the Democrats to contest neither the Republican lies about the verdict, nor the accompanying effort to attack the rule of law, would be incomprehensible.

[...] It seems to me that the Democrats are being cowed by what is in part an epic bluff by the GOP, both in the case of the Trump conviction and with other insurrectionary strategies, such as the preemptive refusal to accept the 2024 election results. In fact, the Republican Party is far, far out on a brittle limb in terms of advancing ideas that are alien and bizarre to the American majority — for instance, the idea that the entire judiciary is part of a plot to “get” Donald Trump, or that Democrats only ever win elections through the illegal votes of millions of undocumented immigrants. To put it in more Trumpian terms, we could say that the GOP is advancing a high-stakes pyramid scheme, in which at each step the American public is being asked to provide the party with ever more outrageous deposits of credulity (this may be a major reason why Trump, with his business history of such schemes, has synched up so easily with the GOP’s fascistic forms of politics).

The fact that the GOP might yet succeed, in large part by convincing enough citizens of objectively insane and anti-American ideas, should clue Democrats into the fact that this insurrection is being fought in the realm of ideas and emotions, not through guns and bombs (even as Trump continues to intimate terrible violence to come should he lose in November). And though the movement challenging America is far wider than Trump, Democrats can leverage the former president to inflict devastating damage on the entire GOP and the anti-democratic movement it embodies. So many Republican politicians have mortgaged their reputations to the former president, hoping that his victory in November will be worth it. But by chaining himself to his criminality over the years, and particularly in the wake of this verdict, they have made themselves vulnerable to public opinion swinging decisively against a felon chief executive, with all the burning red flags that his criminal status raises. The GOP’s reaction to the verdict — to basically declare that Trump, and by extension the GOP, is actually above the law — is equally damning and disqualifying, showing that the GOP would rather abandon democracy than abandon their criminal leader. Trump is the deranged avatar of a white supremacist, Christian nationalist movement to overturn and replace U.S. democracy with a system that serves an ever-shrinking, self-serving, and radicalized minority of the population. 

In the Republican land of Good Is Evil and Evil Is Good, most of these brainwashed jackals wrongly believe that a clearly guilty Donald Trump is “innocent” yet declare systems that hold a fascist like Trump accountable to be “guilty”, such as the justice system that did their job correctly.

[luckyfrogtarot]

Pick an Autumn Snoopy 🍂

The autumn equinox is soon so let’s see what it might be bringing in for you!

Pile 1: Pile 1 you could be one to put others before yourself. You could be surrounded by people who follow some strict set of rules and they might apply those rules to you too. You could try to please them by following their rules and pretending as if that doesn't go against what you believe or what you'd like to do. For some of you it could also be that you are emotionally more mature than some people around you and you have to pretend to not be so as to not hurt their egos. Mostly because this person or people always want to be right and it would be tough for you to go against them. This person/people could quickly get defensive and it could cause verbal spats between the both of you. This could lead you to wear a mask around this person or these people. It could even leave you feeling quite isolated at times too. This probably won't be for everyone but for most or some this is a work place or boss I'm talking about here. What does this have to do with the equinox? You ask. It seems like this equinox is bringing you time to consider rest and rejuvenation. Maybe you're able to vacation, go to a spa or even spend some time alone at home taking a bath. Something about water and relaxing in or around water will be good for you. There is a sense of you "detoxing" from this person or people that day(s). You're going to be able to slough away any unnecessary energy they may have placed on you over time. By this I mean any down putting ideologies or just in general bad vibes. It will be a time for you to focus on yourself and pamper yourself. You could be buying yourself your favorite beverage and maybe some bath products or candles. Whatever it is you do that day it will be to help you cleanse. Whether you do that physically through a bath or energetically with flames (safely pls) you will feel a lot lighter afterwards.

Pile 2: Pile 2 your excitement for Halloween is coming through strongly. You're excited for all of it the trick or treating, the dressing up, and the candy. You're home or room is already decorated and you might continue to decorate if you find more home accessories. Now moving on you could be someone who is fairly young. A student perhaps who has a lot on their mind about their future. You don't necessarily have to be young to have chosen this group. What is shared in this group is that you guys have the future on your mind. You have a lot of racing thoughts. If you are a student you're thinking about next year, the next classes, what school to attend, do you want/need a masters? If you're not a student you could be thinking about your next step in life should I change jobs? Should I move states? The thoughts continue I could keep writing. This equinox will be a time for you too calm these thoughts. Meditation might be helpful, it doesn't have to be meditation though. I know not everyone likes to meditate or some people find it difficult. Anything that strengthens your intuition and trust in yourself is going to be helpful. The cards show that logically you are really intelligent and as such you are thinking of all the possibilities of your choices. That's good and helpful and you could find your answer(s) in trusting yourself and the process. You'll be able to use both your intuition and logic this equinox to make decisions that will bring in the best for you this fall.

Pile 3: There is a beginning coming in for you. Pile 3 you could have been working on something up until this equinox or around this time. You could be scared to show what it is you've been working on. For a lot of you I'm seeing this is something creative. Posting your art or music on social media might be some of the things you guys want to do. The point is several people will be watching you and what you've worked on. You're worried these people are going to judge you or hate you or your work. There are several cards suggesting that you will be more accepted and love than you think. You are showing up as the empress; you are knowledgeable, creative, and intuitive. People will enjoy seeing you shine. If you do find yourself receiving discouraging comments or energy you will more than likely be too busy following your dreams to pay attention to them. You know exactly where you’re going too btw. The scene in Brave where Merida follows the Will o the Wisps comes to mind. You could either need to find your inner Merida or you will find her. Independent of your gender you will be finding the courage to carve and follow your own path.

(You got three songs so that’s why I assume you might be an artist of some kinda esp w mona lisa there)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 13, 2024

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort built on an artificial island in Charleston Harbor. 

Attacking the fort seemed a logical outcome of events that had been in play for at least four months. On December 20, 1860, as soon as it was clear Abraham Lincoln had won the 1860 presidential election, South Carolina lawmakers had taken their state out of the Union. “The whole town [of Charleston] was in an uproar,” Elizabeth Allston recalled. “Parades, shouting, firecrackers, bells ringing, cannon on the forts booming, flags waving, and excited people thronging the streets.” 

Mississippi had followed suit on January 9, 1861; Florida on January 10; Alabama on January 11; Georgia on January 19; Louisiana on January 26; and Texas on February 1. By the time Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union and formed their own provisional government that protected human enslavement. 

Their move had come because the elite enslavers who controlled those southern states believed that Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 itself marked the end of their way of life. Badly outnumbered by the northerners who insisted that the West must be reserved for free men, southern elites were afraid that northerners would bottle up enslavement in the South and gradually whittle away at it. Those boundaries would mean that white southerners would soon be outnumbered by the Black Americans they enslaved, putting not only their economy but also their very lives at risk.

To defend their system, elite southern enslavers rewrote American democracy. They insisted that the government of the United States of America envisioned by the Founders who wrote the Declaration of Independence had a fatal flaw: it declared that all men were created equal. In contrast, the southern enslavers were openly embracing the reality that some people were better than others and had the right to rule. 

They looked around at their great wealth—the European masters hanging in their parlors, the fine dresses in which they clothed their wives and daughters, and the imported olive oil on their tables—and concluded they were the ones who had figured out the true plan for human society. As South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond explained to his colleagues in March 1858, the “harmonious…and prosperous” system of the South worked precisely because a few wealthy men ruled over a larger class with “a low order of intellect and but little skill.” Hammond dismissed “as ridiculously absurd” the idea that “all men are born equal.” 

On March 21, 1861, Georgia’s Alexander Stephens, the newly-elected vice president of the Confederacy, explained to a crowd that the Confederate government rested on the “great truth” that the Black man “is not equal to the white man; that…subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Stephens told listeners that the Confederate government “is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Not every white southerner thought secession from the United States was a good idea. Especially as the winter wore into spring and Lincoln made no effort to attack the South, conservative leaders urged their hot-headed neighbors to slow down. But for decades, southerners had marinated in rhetoric about their strength and independence from the federal government, and as Senator Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana later wrote, “[t]he prudent and conservative men South,” were not “able to stem the wild torrent of passion which is carrying everything before it…. It is a revolution...of the most intense character…and it can no more be checked by human effort, for the time, than a prairie fire by a gardener’s watering pot.”

Southern white elites celebrated the idea of a new nation, one they dominated, convinced that the despised Yankees would never fight. “So far as civil war is concerned,” one Atlanta newspaper wrote in January 1861, “we have no fears of that in Atlanta.” White southerners boasted that “a lady’s thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed” in establishing a new nation. Senator James Chesnut of South Carolina went so far as to vow that he would drink all the blood shed as a consequence of southern secession. 

Chesnut’s promise misread the situation. Northerners recognized that if Americans accepted the principle that some men were better than others, and permitted southern Democrats to spread that principle by destroying the United States, they had lost democracy. "I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?” Lincoln had asked in 1858.

Northerners rejected the white southerners’ radical attempt to destroy the principles of the Declaration of Independence. They understood that it was not just Black rights at stake. Arguments like that of Stephens, that some men were better than others, “are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world,” Lincoln said. “You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden…. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent….”

Northerners rejected the slaveholders’ unequal view of the world, seeing it as a radical reworking of the nation’s founding principles. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 to put down the rebellion against the government. He called for “loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.”

Like their southern counterparts, northerners also dismissed the idea that a civil war would be bloody. They were so convinced that a single battle would bring southerners to their senses that inhabitants of Washington, D.C., as well as congressmen and their wives packed picnics and took carriages out to Manassas, Virginia, to watch the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. They decamped in panic as the battle turned against the United States army and soldiers bolted past them, flinging haversacks and rifles as they fled.

For their part, southerners were as shocked by the battle as the people of the North were. “Never have I conceived,” one South Carolina soldier wrote, “of such a continuous, rushing hailstorm of shot, shell, and musketry as fell around and among us for hours together. We who escaped are constantly wondering how we could possibly have come out of the action alive.” 

Over the next four years, the Civil War would take more than 620,000 lives and cost the United States more than $5 billion. By 1865, two-thirds of the assessed value of southern wealth had evaporated; two-fifths of the livestock— horses and draft animals for tilling fields as well as pigs and sheep for food— were dead. Over half the region's farm machinery had been destroyed, most factories were burned, and railroads were gone, either destroyed or worn out. But by the end of the conflagration, the institution of human enslavement as the central labor system for the American South was destroyed. 

On March 4, 1865, when a weary Lincoln took the oath of office for a second time, he reviewed the war’s history. “To strengthen, perpetuate and extend [slavery] was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it,” he said. “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

“Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” he said. 

“And the war came.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON