#but at camp they were able to try out different pronouns

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

I met my friend House this summer and we immediately vibed, and about half a week into our friendship we friended each other on Pokemon Go, and I noticed that their avatar was a woman but I paid little attention to it because I was more concerned with Pokemon. And at this point I was still under the impression that she was a cis guy. But he said something like "Yeah I really like making and customizing the avatars, it's fun," and my brain didn't make the connection that MAYBE THEY WERE TRYING TO DRAW MY ATTENTION TOWARDS THEIR AVATAR TO KIND OF SUBTLY LET ME KNOW THEY'RE NOT CIS but again I was too concerned with the Pokemen and I can't even remember what I said in response, but later I was looking back and thought HOLY SHIT WAIT I THINK SHE WAS TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING and now I know that they're nb.

[fluffysucker]

Help, I'm lost

Bucky Barnes x reader (Au)

The worst of days brings you closer to the best of people. Those your heart desire

This is a deep dive in a part of the one-shot I wrote. This one

This can be read as stand-alone as well.

Written in third pov. Minimum use of Y/N. But lots of female pronouns lol.

TW: Mentions of Sexual Assault. Mentions of Emotional and Physical Abuse. Sexual Harassments.

Don't worry. Bucky is a knight in shining armor.

If you feel uncomfortable or may find it triggering, I put the part where the reader talks about it in BOLD AND ITALICS. So you can pass it if you want. Other than that Nothing mentioned or very vaguely. If I missed something, please tell me. Tysm💕

Laying on her bed wide awake. Sleep left her a long time ago. She wasn't even trying to sleep. She was just trying to clear her mind for a bit. She has a long day ahead of her. A clear mind would help her get through. A wish that was near impossible.

She signed when her alarm went off for the second time. All her hopes to escape demolished. She sat on the bed, letting a few tears out, followed by a couple of sniffles. Crying was all she could do lately.

After her morning routine and getting ready, she prepared herself to face the outside world. She had been hiding in her room long, but it wasn't enough. She breathed heavily as she took her bag and pulled all her courage into opening the door and leaving.

She planned to avoid them all in the house, and for the first time in a while, her wish was granted. She moved quickly to the front door before anyone would notice her and try to talk. She is already dreading today enough.

"How was the camp, boys." She said loudly as she descended the stairs to where they are. If she's going to act, it might as well be an award winning performance.

As she closed the door, she gave herself a final second to embrace herself for the day. Starting with the biggest fake smile she could master. She turned around, and there they were, standing on her porch, talking nonsense while waiting for her. Maybe the smile wasn't so fake after all. She missed them.

"Terrible. Absolutely traumatizing." Said the blond smaller one

"Didn't expect anything different, Steve." She hugged the blond first as she reached them both. Steve let out noises of offence but hugged her back anyway. He missed her.

"I'm sure Barnes' experiences were different." She let go of the blond, turning her sight to the brunet standing right next to him. The one who had been causing mess in her head lately

"Not really. When you spend most of your time trying to save your best friend's life, it's not so fun." Bucky Barnes moved towards the girl wrapping his arms around her waist. She put her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer to him. For a moment, she wasn't hurting anymore. She wished she could stay here, protected by his arms, forever. She couldn't tell why, but the feeling of comfort and safety was so overwhelming that she almost broke down and told them everything. But decided against

She pulled away before he would notice she wanted to be held for a moment longer. Not knowing he would love that. He would love to keep holding her.

They took their usual route to the school, telling her about their camp and the activities they did. She avoided any questions about her week.

"It was nice. I stayed at home." It wasn't a lie. But it wasn't the truth either. It wasn't nice.

They reached the school. Steve and Bucky walked in, still talking, not noticing her shaking form. She disguised it quickly and followed them.

She can do this. She can go through the day. She kept encouraging herself all through the day. When they passed by a large group of people. When it got too loud at class. All stuff triggering, but she managed to survive without grabbing any attention.

The day was almost over. She was glad she was able to make it so far. And just as she was thinking, she was clear. It showed up right to her face.

"Hey, pretty." Leaning against her opened locker with the smug look on his face she very much wanted to punch off. There he was

"What do you want, Ethan?." She tried to put every bit of bravery she had into her voice. So he wouldn't know she is terrified.

"Just saying hi. Checking on you." He gave her what he thought was a charming smile, but it was disgusting in reality.

"I'm good." She said sharply as she closed her lockers so desperately trying to end this conversation.

"Ohh, baby. Don't be like this." The pet name never bothered her before. But after what happened, it almost sent her into a panic attack.

"I told your brother I would drop you off back home." Of course, her brother would do this. Before she could protest, he kept going

"You know we can catch up where we left." The blood drained from her face. Feeling the blood freeze in her body. Flashback rushing to her mind, and she can't stop them.

"No, thank you." Her brave façade fell as she moved away from him trying to get away.

"Oh, come on. It will be fun." She could almost feel her heartbeats through her shirt. She kept shaking her head saying no.

Ethan rolled his eyes at her. He grabbed her arm roughly to stop her from moving. The moment she felt his touch on her, she wanted to scream, shout, hit him, throw him off her. Yet not a single thing came out of her. Shock took over her body. Tears forming at the corner of her eyes. The only thing stopping her from breaking down is people surrounding them.

Before she could beg him to let her go and just leave her alone. She heard them

"Hey, Y/N. Ready to go." Steve's voice brought all the air back to her lungs. She looked around to find her two bestfriends approaching them.

"Yes. Let's go." She disguised the shakiness in her voice with a cough. Quickly taking her hands away from Ethan's grip the second it loosened a bit when he heard them approaching.

"But I thought we could go home together." It's clear Ethan wasn't going to stop.

"No, we have lots of stuff to do today." Bucky turned down the older boy.

While Ethan wasn't going to give up, he wasn't stupid. He knew the two boys were younger, but their reputation preceded them. The smaller boy, Steve, was known for trouble, and Barnes, Barnes is protective by nature. He will get what he wants. But not right.

Ethan gave the younger group a fake smile before leaving them. Not before throwing a wink at her way.

"What was this about?." Steve asked first. She just shook her head, trying to recover from what just happened so they wouldn't talk about it. Thankfully, they didn't.

.................................................................................................................

Days became weeks. Everybody was back to their daily routines. Everybody but her. She tried to convince herself that enough time passed, and She was fine now. She moved on. Lies, she kept saying in the hope of becoming reality.

Things were beginning to look suspicious for the two boys. While she acted normal. They could sense something was off. Especially with her brother's bestfriend, Ethan.

Ethan and Jack ,her brother, were bestfriends. It was no secret both bonded over being big jerks and rude teenage boys.

Bucky and Steve knew the truth about Y/N's house. It wasn't a good one. While her father wasn't so bad, he wasn't enough to make up for the bad. Her mother and her brother were the bane of her existence.

For whatever unknown reason, the mother favored her older boy bluntly and didn't hide her dislike for the younger girl. And Jack took full advantage of this fact.

So it wasn't abnormal to see Jack rudely making fun of her or bullying her, and it was normal when his bestfriend would join sometime.

But her reaction wasn't normal. She would usually reply with a sassy comment or a sarcastic remark. Now, she just waited for them to be done.

And it became more noticeable when Ethan's flirty one-linear was met with nothing but silent.

One of the jokes Ethan always played on her was that he had a crush on her. Something she always laughed about. Now, she just walks it off.

She was fully aware her two bestfriends were sensing something was wrong. However, she was still choosing to keep it all to herself. It's better that way. Maybe if I don't talk about it, then I will move on faster. Words kept repeating in her head.

Until one day, it all came down crashing.

Y/N was sitting on her bed reading the book she borrowed from Steve when she heard footsteps and boys' voices on the stairs close to her.

Past memories raced to her, making her clutch to her bed covers for dear life. No. Not again, please. She prayed in her mind

She let out a breath of relief when her door opened to show Bucky's and Steve's figures walking in. She greeted them, trying to recompose herself.

The trio were no strangers to showing up at each others houses unannounced. Even Bucky and Y/N, who claimed to hate others so much.

The boys kept talking within themselves and to her, but she couldn't concentrate. She was failing to push the memories back deep in her mind. Her friends' voices and faces blurring into a night she wanted to forget.

Only them calling out her name was able to get her back to them. She blinked fast and looked at them to see what they wanted.

"Have you heard anything we said?." Bucky asked with sarcasm fulling his voice. She turned her eyes to the ground, thinking of an excuse to give.

"You haven't been focusing lately." Bucky added still with sarcasm but to hide his real worry about the girl.

Before she could come up with a lie to cover up her lack of focus. Steve's statement was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Maybe we should call Ethan. You only seem to focus when he is around." It was meant as a joke, but it opened all the unhealed wounds.

"NO NO NO. PLEASE, DON'T DO THIS." Words flow from her mouth before she can stop them.

"Please, no. I'm so sorry." Her sight was becoming blurry from her glossy eyes filled with tears. But she could make the concerned expression on the boys' faces

"Y/N, what's wrong ?." Steve asked, sitting on the bed next to her, but she flinched back. Something left the boys more concerned.

"Please, don't call Ethan. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, but please don't let him be around." Her mind was so clouded by the pain and trauma. She couldn't tell that her bestfriends would never do this. It was a joke. A stupid joke.

"Sweetie, please, calm down. I was joking. We would never. I'm sorry." Steve never thought the joke would set his bestfriend so off.

She started to come back to her sense. Remembering it's Steve and Bucky. She moved back to her place next to Steve, who raised his hand as a sign of asking if he could touch her. When she showed no protests, he started rubbing her arms slowly.

"Y/N, what's going on?." Bucky leant down to be in her eyesight. Worry was evident in his face and voice. Something is seriously wrong. More than he thought.

Looking between the both of them, She knew she couldn't hide it anymore. Hell broke loose.

"I told him to stop. I swear I did. I kept trying to push him off, but he wouldn't move. I kept saying no, and he didn't listen. He thought I was playing hard to get, but I wasn't. I didn't want to. When I told Jack, he slapped me and hit me. He told me Ethan would never do this and that I must have thrown myself at him. But I swear I didn't."

While her words weren't arranged and seemed to be running out of her mind, the boys could clearly understand what happened.

Tears started streaming down her face like falls. Words mixed with sobs as she kept trying to tell them. They listened carefully to every word leaving her mouth. They let her tell them all she wanted.

Once she was done, she was in a hysterical state. Bawling her eyes out with sobs escaping from her. Telling them what happened made her quit the denial. Something terrible happened to her. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't erase it. She had to find a way to live with it. To heal properly.

Steve couldn't help seeing her like this. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her, pulling her trembling form into him. She held into him for dear life as she was finally letting herself feel it all.

A few minutes passed, Silence filled the room as her crying ceased to stop. Steve looked down to find her asleep. He moved quietly to lay her on the bed and cover her with a fluffy blanket. Then he looked up to Bucky.

Bucky, who was standing still in his place since she started talking, he was hit with a sea of emotions he wasn't used to. He couldn't explain his feelings right now.

Bucky and Steve shared a silent conversation with each other. Both had lots on their mind but can only think of one thing.

Steve moved from the bed, careful not to wake her up. And went to lay on the couch, giving Bucky the other blanket that laid on the couch.

They didn't have much idea of what to do now but one thing they knew. She needed them.

Night went on. Sleep didn't reach Steve till very late, but it never did to Bucky. He was lying awake on the floor. He was used to taking the floor in their sleepovers.

Whenever he tried to close his eyes, all he could see was the image of her weeping in Steve's chest. Her terrified sobs ringing in his ears. Bucky thought he knew pain. But watching her breakdown like this was unbearable. He felt like something was burning within his body. Like a stone fell on his lungs and was suffocating him. It was a strange mix of rage, sadness, and regret

He felt responsible for what happened even if he had nothing to do with it. He should have been here. He should have never dragged Steve and made the both of them go. He should have paid more attention. He should have known she was suffering.

He looked through the window to find the stars lighting the dark sky. He always believed that a high power lies in the star. A power that grants wishes. So he made a wish. He wished for all her pain to disappear. And if the only way for this to happen was for him to take it all instead, he had no problem.

He turned his sight to her sleeping form. Despite being young, he knew what he was feeling for her wasn't a friendship. And most definitely, it wasn't hate. It was something way more.

..................................................................................................................

The next morning came in. Y/N woke up for her sleep. She didn't remember falling asleep, but her sleep was peaceful - for the first time in while -. She began to remember last night's events and signed quietly. She felt lighter after telling the boys, but she didn't know how to face them.

She sat on the bed, resting her back on the headboard. She smiled softly when she saw the thrown blanket on the floor and couch. She had a feeling they wouldn't have left.

Before she could get up to find them, the door to her room opened.

"Sorry. Did I wake you up?." Guilt filled Bucky's voice once he saw her up. She reassured him she was already up.

Silence fell between the two. However, it wasn't awkward. It was comforting of sorts

"Listen, Y/N. I don't know what to say. Or what I can do. Nothing would make me be able to understand this pain and hurt. " Bucky spoke as he moved to sit next to her on the bed.

"What I do know is I'm here for. Fully and completely. Whatever you need from me. I will be here. I'm sorry you felt like you couldn't tell me what happened. But I want you to know it wasn't your fault. Never was. Never will be. Nothing is wrong with. It's all his fault. If it was up to me, I would go and break his head and every bone in his body. I would make him regret his existence. But I know you don't want that. So I promise you he won't come near you ever again. Both of them. They won't hurt anymore. You will never have to go through something like this again. And you will get through this. I'm here now, and I will always be."

Bucky moved his fingers to wipe the tears that had fallen to her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his neck. And the feelings she only felt with Bucky came rushing. The feeling of safety and security. The warmth filed her body once she was in his arms. She found herself seeking these emotions lately. From him.

He said everything she needed to hear but wasn't told. It wasn't her fault. Her bestfriends aren't going to leave her because of it. She can recover now.

Bucky tightened his hold around her when he felt her tears on his neck. He pressed soft kissed on her hair, whispering sweet nothings in her ears. How he wanted to stay like this forever.

She smiled within her tears. It felt good when she and Bucky weren't bricking. She could get used to it.

..........................................................................................................

It's been a couple of weeks since she told Bucky and Steve. And It's been nice so far. True to his words, She never saw Ethan again. Whenever he tried to approach her, Bucky would make sure he never actually reached her. For Jack, she also succeeded in avoiding him as much as possible.

Ethan figured she had told him, so he thought his chances would be at her house again. He was faced with disappointment when he would visit and find her two friends sitting with her. Or that she is spending the night at one of their places. They were using her parents' negligence to the fullest. Two birds, One Stone.

She was starting to feel better. Thanks to Bucky. Because he kept his promise. He was always here. He was understanding and compassionate. He knew it was a tough journey and didn't mind. He knew it was bumpy and she didn't know the way, so he became her companion. They were figuring it out. Together.

There Y/N was, smiling, walking back home after having her nails done. She hadn't taken care of herself in a while. So when she found out her family would be going out of town for the week, she knew now was the time.

Her dreams of having the house all for herself for some time was destroyed the second she stepped in. There were people everywhere chatting and talking. Older People.

"Hey, Sis." Jack's voice rang through the place as she turned around to see her brother standing at the kitchen.

"Jack, I thought you were going to leave with mum and dad." She tried to hide the tremble in her voice when she saw all his friends present as well.

"And miss having an empty house?. Who do you think I'm?." He laughed as he started playing music and giving out drinks she didn't know how he could get them.

She didn't care to know right now. All she was thinking about was the fact that Jack was throwing a party. And if Jack was throwing a party, that meant one thing.

"Hey, beautiful." She flinched fast when she felt his breath on her neck. She turned to see him with his usual evil smirk.

"Didn't see you for a while. I missed you." He said as he moved towards her like a predator to his prey.

"But I will show you how much I missed you." He said as he was standing right in front of her now, making her freeze in her place and can't move.

"How about you going up to your room?. I will stay here for a bit then I will join you." Her breath caught in her throat.

"You have been escaping me long enough. So be a good girl and wait for me in your room." She felt her blood run cold when his hand touched her cheek.

He gave her wink before moving to join his friends again. She let out the breath she was holding. She knew now wasn't the time to panic. She had to act fast.

She ran up fast to her room. She locked the door and sprinted to the phone in the corner. She dialed his number, waiting for him to pick up. After the third ring, his cheerful voice reached her ears.

"Bucky." She called out for him like the desperate drowning human she was.

"Doll, what's wrong?." His cheerful tone was quickly replaced with a worried one.

"Jack didn't leave with my parents, and he is throwing a party downstairs, and Ethan is here." She couldn't hold the tears anymore, letting them fall on her face.

"Doll, I need you to get out of there right now." Bucky didn't need her to say more to know what was going on.

"I can't. He already saw me and they are staying by the door." She started wiping the tears, but they wouldn't stop. She could sense the panic rising in.

"Okay. I need you to listen to me very carefully. Stay in your room. Lock the door and put a chair at it. Keep your window open and wait for me." She nodded her head at his words but spoke up when she realized he couldn't see her.

"I will be there very shortly." Bucky said before he hung up. And she believed him

She checked on her lock again and added the chair, then opened her window. Just like Bucky said. She sat on the floor under the window waiting for him.

Bucky ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He was a man on a mission. He had to get there. He promised her he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He promised himself.

He didn't catch his breath when he got to the house, but rather continued running till he reached the back of the house where her room is.

"Y/N." He called out for her. He tried not to make much noise, so nobody would notice him.

He realized she wasn't going to hear him with loud music playing. So he took the smallest rock he could find and threw it in her room.

Y/N was startled when the rock landed on her bedroom floor. She got up slowly and looked through the window.

"Bucky." She couldn't help the smile formed on her face at the sight of him. She was going to be alright.

"Y/N, I'm going to need you to jump." Her heart dropped at his words. Her room wasn't very high but she didn't know if she could.

As if Bucky could read her mind. " Doll, I promise I'm going to catch you. You will be okay." He reassured her. He would never let her get hurt.

She knew that was their only option, and she trusted Bucky. So she did.

She felt Bucky's arms steadying her to her feet on the ground, checking her. Instantly, He pulled her into him, keeping his grip firm but secure.

"You're okay. You're safe." Bucky kept repeating in her ears. She could finally breathe again.

......................................................................................................................

Their night dragged to be longer than both of them thought. After managing to escape her house, unseen. Bucky figured she was still shaken. So he took her to their favorite burger place

They ate their favorite burgers and cheered to a milkshake. They stayed until the place was about to close. Laughter and talks never stopping. Before she could think about it. Bucky walked both of them to his house.

Winnie and George welcomed her with open arms when Bucky told them she would be staying for a while. The adults loved the girl like their own, and they could easily see through their son. They knew how much he truly cared about her. More than he said or even knew then.

Leading her to the extra room they keep for their children's friends and borrowing something to wear from Rebecca. She was all settled for bed.

But as if he knew. She was having trouble sleeping. So he knocked on her door at 3AM, telling her he had a plan.

That is how they ended up now, sitting on the sand in front of the water watching the sunrise.

The sound of water crushing into the shore, the smell of salt, the feeling of warm sand, and the wind running free, the faint light of sun in the sky. It was relaxing.

Close to perfect. However, having Bucky next to her made it perfect.

All he had done lately was only pushing her to one end. A one she didn't ever think was possible. But she wasn't complaining anymore.

As they watched the sunrise, she found herself wishing to stay here forever. A peaceful moment. With Bucky.

Because nowadays, whenever she thought of anything good, Bucky is always there. He is her something good.

She turned to look at him but he was already looking at her. His sunrise. His most beautiful sight.

"Thank you, Bucky." She felt the need to say it. Not just for today. But for everything.

He smiled gently at her and leant to press a kiss to her forehead.

"I got you, doll" Bucky said softly

"Always." He added, looking at her with his blue eyes

She laid her head on his shoulder, holding his hand in her lap.

From that day on, she knew she was going be alright. Life was going to be okay. She would never be scared again. She was safe. She found her peace. She found a true home.

So in an honest peace offering, she ended the battle with herself with an epic win

She is in love with Bucky Barnes.

And him, he finally understood his feelings. He finally knew what it was.

Bucky Barnes is in love with Y/N

[tearwolfe]

I'll borrow a warrior cats book from the library and see how it is before buying a book.. shivers in fear, i did not know that..

yeah for sure do not buy them. there's also a bunch of free PDFs online you can read!! or check them out through libby or whatever online library service your local library uses if you don't mind reading from your phone.

gonna use this chance to highlight issues with warriors under the cut!! because i've spent so much time being with this series i have a lot of thoughts. i want to let you know i am not trying to cancel warriors or anything, there's just a lot of issues and i like talking about it.

CW: misogyny, pedophilia, ablism, racism

Okay, we're going to start with the more annoying aspects. First of all, Warriors is written by a ton of different people. They have the main writers outline the plot, and there's a bunch of other people that fill in all the empty space. Kind of an interesting way to do it, but that's why Warriors is able to publish several books a year. Erin Hunter is just a penname for a group.

INCONSISTENCIES

Why do I bring this up, what's the issue? The inconsistencies, dude. There's so many. Character appearances change between books. Dovewing's eye color changes frequently, for example, to the point where there was an internet war about how she would be represented on the Warriors Wiki. Another example is Mapleshade, a cat that's been prevalent as a villain since Crookedstar's Promise. In that book, she's referred to as a ginger-and-white she-cat, but after that she's been described as a calico (er, tortishelle-and-white, because Erin Hunter is somehow allergic to the word calico). Appearances aren't the only inconsistency. Character personalities are a big issue. After the first arc especially, characters will lose what charm they had in their personalities. Suddenly Spottedleaf is in love with Fireheart/star after she dies, suddenly Yellowfang is unwelcoming towards cats who find themselves breaking the Warrior Code (despite being a codebreaker herself and having compassion toward other cats while she was alive). The authors also seem to have trouble keeping track of characters. On one page Sandstorm leaves camp to go on patrol, and a paragraph later she is seen STILL in camp, talking to someone, despite having been written to leave camp. It's a very bizarre series to read. (Other inconsistencies include miswriting names [Ravepaw incident], using the wrong pronouns, and entirely confusing cats between each other). Heavystep also died a few times because the Erins forgot that he died.

MISOGYNY

Outside of poor writing, we're hit with misogyny. Main female characters, in POV, are written at least a little bit better than any of the other she-cats. However, as soon as the next arc starts and she's put out of the limelight, the authors have to give her a mate, give her kits, and make her a mother. There is only ONE POV she-cat I can think of that didn't die and never had kits. Twigbranch is literally the only one. This isn't a dig at being a mother at all, however whenever the Erins DO make a former main character a mother, that's the only trait they give them. Rarely do these she-cats continue to carry the personalities they were given initially.

It's not even a secret that the fandom dislikes when every she-cat is boiled down to being just a babymaker. The Erins literally killed off a she-cat because the fans didn't like the fact that her only personality trait was mom. Yes, this actually did happen.

There's lots of victim-blaming misogyny with whatever is going on between Squirrelflight and Bramblestar and between Leafpool and StarClan. Bramblestar will literally say the worst things to Squirrelflight and the narrative makes it seem like he's in the right. It's not wrong to display unhealthy relationships in media, but if you're writing a KID'S SERIES, it's extremely irresponsible to constantly write the victim as being wrong. This applies to how StarClan blames Leafpool for everything that's happened to her, despite the fact that Crowfeather was also a part of the equation.

Don't even get me started about Spottedleaf's Heart. In summary, Spottedleaf was groomed by Thisteclaw from when she was a kit (and he was a Warrior), and the narrative only makes Thistleclaw a bad guy because he was training in the Dark Forest, not because he is a predator.

ABLEISM

It's absolutely crazy how ableist this series is. In arc one, we have Brightpaw, an apprentice who gets mauled by dogs, and as Bluestar watched, as what she thought was going to be her death bed, she decided to give her her warrior name- a name that she would be stuck with in StarClan. She chose "Lostface." Brightpaw would eventually recover, loosing one of her eyes in the attack, and would live with being called Lostface until Firestar was able to rename her (to Brightheart). The whole renaming thing feels gross enough, but Brightheart is probably the best case scenario of ableism in Warriors, as she was allowed to function as a regular Warrior in the clan. Cinderpelt wasn't so lucky. She was a Warrior apprentice who got hit by a car, mangling her leg. She was then forced to become a Medicine Cat because she "couldn't hunt or fight" (despite the fact that real world cats are able to function completely normally while missing a limb). Longtail lost his vision in a fight with rabbits and he was retired early to the elder's den, despite wanting to be a Warrior. Jayfeather was blind, so he was made a Medicine Cat despite wanting to be a Warrior. Briarlight was paralyzed, so she was put in the Medicine Cat den most of the time despite wanting to be a Warrior. This is a very common theme in the series. Any cat who isn't fully able-bodied is often made to be a Medicine Cat or an Elder, even if that's not what they want. Literally every single Medicine Cat in ThunderClan since Spottedleaf through to Alderheart never wanted to be a Medicine Cat.

Being a Medicine Cat isn't supposed to be a bad role, but the way Warriors uses it as a cop-out to make disabled cats have a more "plot interesting" role without allowing them to be a Warrior is really weird.

ANTI-INDIGENOUS WRITING

I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this topic, however, many Indigenous readers have brought up a lot of issues the series has in terms of being culturally insensitive to native tribes. There's a well-written document that explains this in full detail.

IT'S KIND OF JUST BAD?

The writing isn't good. This goes back to the multi-writer issue. These people can't keep track of their characters or plot, so a lot of things just sort of fall flat. The best plotlines can be found in some of the novellas and graphic novels, and then I think it's because they're mostly written by one person.

How come StarClan can be so vague to living cats, but when we get POV in StarClan, they just act like normal cats? How come Ashfur randomly was super powerful in the Dark Forest/StarClan, while every other cat wasn't? There's just a lot of unexplained stuff, it's very weird.

Warriors is a very interesting series because it's pretty bad yet the fandom is huge. I definitely recommend watching Warriors Multi-Animator-Projects, reading fancomics, and fix-it fanfics instead of actually reading the books. The fans are so, so talented, it's crazy how a never-ending series of children's cat books has created such an insane fanbase.

[deeptrashwitch]

Marcus "Poison" Lombardi

Name: Marcus Lombardi

Nacionality: American🇺🇲/Italian🇮🇹

Age: 25

Date of birth: 8th march 1997 - New York City (U.S.A)

Residence: Killeen, Texas, USA

Afilliation: U.S Marine Corps / 75th Ranger Regiment Specters

Rank: Private

Callsign: Poison (Current)/ Charlie 3-6

Occupation: Infantry operator

Height: 1.86 m/ 6'1" ft

Weight: 80 kg

Blood type: AB-

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Straight

Languages: English (Native), Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian

AFILLIATIONS

Specters members:

-Captain Alicia Marchant (alive)

-Lieutenant Luke Michaelis (alive)

-Sergeant Jackson Blackwell (alive)

-Sergeant Edward Jackson (alive)

-Corporal Noah García (alive)

-Corporal Elijah Wilson (alive)

-Airman First Class Nicholas Fowlett (alive)

-Private Elliot Stevens (alive)

-Private Alexander Christensen (alive)

-Private Francis Scott (alive)

CIA:

-Chief Station Dominique Wright (alive)

Underworld:

-Liù Xiao Chen (alive)

FAMILY

-Kenneth Lombardi (Father) (alive)

-Janice Lombardi nee Crane (Mother) (deceased)

-Nick Lombardi (Uncle) (alive)

-Keyra Lombardi (spouse) (alive)

PERSONALITY

-He is energetic and joyful with his teammates, but when he's on mission his personality becomes a mix of cautious, ferocious and analytic.

-During the conjoined missions he stays near the other soldiers as his Captain commanded, but he always is alert and is always trying to get the most information he can of them only by their looks.

-He always stays deep in his thoughts when he thinks about his parents, and sometimes is difficult to bring him back. Every time he came back, he shake his head and then sighs, and when he does that...everyone knows he has zoned out.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in New York City, New York. His family during many years were his father, his mother, his uncle and him, but now there's only the men. As a kid, he was an absolute mom's boy, although he keeps an amazing relationship with his father.

When he was younger they all lived on Little Italy, and he passed part of his time inside his father's store, helping with the register while he was on high school. During that time he met Keyra when she went to buy groceries, it was a daily thing, but that time was somehow different and they ended up dating after many funny situations. He took a year and half before enlisting, again to help with the family bussiness, and once he enlisted to the Marine Corps, he departed to Camp Pendelton.

When he finished basic training, he was assigned to one team, his first and last team before the Specters. After his first deployment, and even against some people advices, he proposed and married Keyra, and has never regreted it. But during that first years, he learned about his mom's diagnosis, she had stomach cancer.

It was difficult to hear, and mostly to see his father so drained when he accompained her to chemotherapy. He talked with Keyra about and both decided to help with the costs of the treatments, so a big part of his salary went to it. Even his uncle flew from Florence to help them with the bussiness, to gave his own brother a break, also Keyra helped her mother-in-law everytime she could.

Marcus had a hard time to go and see his mom, but when he was able to do it, he went even if it hurted like hell to see her that way. Right now he prefers not to evoke the image of his mother, how tired, sick and sad she looked, and how she tried to smile to him. That lasted during a couple more years before his mother passed away, and it hurted during the next two years and still hurts until today.

It was difficult to keep going, but he did, helping his father and with Keyra's help. After it, he continued inside the Marine Corps, and soon Wraith went to talk with him to offer him a place inside the Specters. Soon he arrived to Black Tomb, and there he has stayed from then on.

SKILLS

-Specialized on many fire weapons, his favorites during missions are a Galil 556. and a Carabin M4.

-Main and static part of the infantry squad, but he goes better during infiltration missions. They are the second squad to get inside the objective, always behind the recon squad.

COMBAT

His combat style is specialized on ofenssive, not as variated as the Captain's, but it make him almost an expert on MCMAP. His first choice weapon is also a Bowie knife. He's teaching their combat style to some of the team, and he practices usually with Alexander and the Captain.

TRIVIA

-Marcus loves to learn how to play every instrument he can get his hands on. So far he knows how to play guitar, drums, flaute, tamborine, bass and piano.

-He's madly in love with Keyra. Every time he's off deployment he arrives at the house with a flower bouquet, his wife favorite dinner and some beautiful jewels. He always feels guilty for leaving her during missions, but every time she reassures him that she'll be fine and that she's proud of him.

-He has no car but Keyra does. She got a blue Chevrolet Spark, it's nothing luxurious and a bit old but she uses it almost everyday.

-Marcus doesn't have a favorite music genre, but enjoys specially the music in spanish. Noah has played jokes on him many time because of it.

-Everytime he has the opportunity to talk about his wedding, HE WILL! It amuses the team, but they are happy to hear how their friend has a happy marriage. Everyone gave him ideas for some dates, and Marcus helped Luke with everything related to his own wedding.

-His callsign was an accident, to be honest. During a call with his now deceased mother, he heard her talking about a documentary she was watching, about true crime. His mother muttered something related a random fact mentioned, and he recognized it instantly a way of how killing with poison. They started calling him Poison, and it stayed!

-He always goes to get himself checked looking for any kind of cancer. He refuses to take a risk about it.

-His favorite drink is soda, he doesn't have a determined brand, just takes anything in stock. And his favorite food is pancakes, specifically the ones with banana and chocolate sirup! Everytime they go to a dinner or a cafe, Marcus will order pancakes and if it has also powdered suger on top...he can die happy.

Song

Moodboard

[carrionsymptom]

Take It Easy | The Grabber x Reader

AN: I’m still here!! Can’t promise I will be particularly active, but I am alright. I’ve been busy and had little motivation to write, but I’m slowly getting more. This isn’t the best thing I’ve written, and I cut it off a little early, but I’ll just say my writing skills are rusty and leave it at that. Here’s a quick spiritual successor to Mistaken, but it can be read by itself.

CW: Implied age difference, bit of size kink, some non consensual touching to start, heavy petting

AFAB reader, no pronouns or gendered terms used. Jenga didn’t exist until the 80’s but I had no better metaphors since Tetris also didn’t exist until the 80’s.

There’s so much shit you have to take to college, it’d be a miracle if you can fit it all into the boot of your parent’s sedan, but God help you, you'll try. Boxes of clothes, bedding, a microwave, books, toiletries and whatever odds and ends you can fit get stuffed into the car. You’re lucky your roommate is bringing a mini fridge because there’s no way in hell you’d be able to fit that in with everything else. 

While you’re busting your ass playing cardboard-box Jenga, he, walking past, certainly notices your ass sticking out of the car. Clad in too-tight jean shorts, you sway like an invitation and were it not for the prying eyes of the other neighbors, he would’ve fucked you right there. Instead, he sidles up behind you, pressing his hips into yours.

“Need some help?” You leap nearly a foot into the air, dropping the box you were holding and whirling to face your older neighbor. “Woah there kid, y’can’t have a heart attack this young!”

With a shaky hand over your chest, you tentatively smile at him. “Jeez, sorry, you spooked me. Uh, help would be nice.” You slot your work-in-progress box into the car, and he takes his place next to you. He’s clad in an old camp shirt and jeans that look way too thick to be comfortable in this weather, but he doesn’t even break a sweat as he easily hauls box after box into the sedan. If you weren’t so flustered from how his thick forearms graze your side as he brushes past you, you might’ve commented on how strong he is. 

You wish you could gather your thoughts for a second, but you can’t help but hone in on the miniscule touches to your lower back as he passes, or how big his hands are when he takes a box out of your arms. Any attempt at conversation seems to end up with you embarrassingly stammering, but he always glances back at you with a half-chuckle and a shake of his head. With his help, packing is quick, and with a sturdy slam, the trunk door shuts.

“Whew!” Your neighbor exclaims, wiping his brow. You try not to stare at the strip of skin that flashes above his belt when he lifts his arm. “Not gonna invite me inside sweetheart?” He all but laughs at the way you freeze and your eyes widen.

You stumble over your words: “Uh, would you– would you like to come inside? I can… I can make some lemonade or something?” Your parents are out, but you’re not sure when they’ll be back. They’d understand inviting your helpful neighbor in to rehydrate after a hard day of lugging boxes, won’t they?

“Or something,” he smiles, sweeping past you into your house. He sits himself at your leather sofa, legs spread wide and looking far too big to be comfortable, but you can see his incisors with how he grins at you. “Really, I’m alright without anything to drink, but I’d still like your company, ‘f that’s ok with you?”

You nod– you have to nod, and make to sit on your dad’s old loveseat, but his mouth creases into a frown so you awkwardly hover. 

“Don’t gotta be so far away sweetheart. C’mon,” he pats his thigh. Surely he doesn’t expect you to… “Come on. Climb up.” You wish you had a glass of lemonade now, with how difficult it feels to swallow the lump in your throat. 

“I don’t want to crush you.”

Your neighbor barks out a hearty laugh, throwing his head back. You don’t find it particularly funny, but he’s practically wiping a tear out of his eye as he settles down. “Sweetie, you’re not going to crush me. Now up.” With no better argument, you bite your tongue and climb into his lap.

Despite your initial hesitation, you can immediately tell he’s right. There’s no way in hell you’d be able to crush him. His thigh is thick and sturdy– everything about him is sturdy. A rough hand rests on your hip, rubbing little circles into the denim of your shorts while the other plays with the hem of your shirt.

It’s a little awkward though, the way you’re perched on his leg. You balance precariously on the apex of his thigh, teetering a little as he shifts up the couch seat. Your neighbor, he, tuts as you shuffle. “Mmm… a little uncomfortable, huh? Here, why don’t we…” 

You yelp as he pulls you closer to him, swinging one leg over so you’re straddling his hips. The crux of your legs meets his, and through the layers of denim, you can feel the hardness in his pants. Christ, even his cock is thick. He lets out a low groan, holding your waist as he pushes his hips up against yours. You buck against him, but aren’t quite able to grind down how you’d like to.

“That’s it,” he sighs. “There you go sweetheart. That’s it.”

You bury your face in his shoulder, murmuring quietly in his ear: “Can I… can I take off my shorts? Please?”

He smiles. “Ah, since you asked so nicely.” You shuffle out of your shorts and he pants as you accidentally graze his cock. “Mmm,” he hums, tucking a finger under the waistband. “Why don’t you take these off too? Make sure you’re extra comfy.”

Once more you shimmy on his lap, out of your underwear, and as you settle back down, the thick seam on his jeans catches against your clit. You let out a whimper, wrapping your arms around his neck and burying your face into his shoulder. Your neighbor wraps his thick arms around you in return, caging you against him as you bump and grind and move and–

Fuck! You come from nothing but heavy petting, clenching around air and tensing in your neighbor’s strong hold. The physical release is nice, but he’s still hard under you, and you’re struck with an overwhelming need for more. Your hands trail down from his neck, down his chest, until they’re struggling to undo his belt.

“Ah, sweetheart. That’s enough. That’s enough.” He pushes your hips back from his so you’re resting on the middle of his thighs. He laughs as he looks down at his jeans, a wet spot darkening the outline of his still-hard cock. “Shit. Would you look at that? Made a goddamn mess of me, huh honey?”

You suppose you should be feeling some sort of embarrassment, but you can only feel confusion; why did he stop you? “But… you didn’t… I mean, don’t you want to… y’know…” You trail off, head too fuzzy to string together the right words. Your neighbor shakes his head with an easy grin.

“Maybe next time, ok honey? I’m a busy man, I gotta get going. Thanks for such great hospitality though.” He says. 

“Can I… I mean will I see you again?”

“You’re goin’ off to college pretty damn soon, aren’t you? Doubt we’ll cross paths again until you get back, sorry to say.”

[that-basic-simp]

Serenity

Minthara X GN! Reader (No indication of pronouns/private parts) CW: Trauma WC: 3.0k

She has never known a day of peace in her life, as far as what she has told me. From what she has spoken about and from what I have seen with her, she is trying to break free of these chains holding her back. But she does not want to lose faith in the only thing she knew. The only thing she has ever come to know in her life. Now that she was with me and the others, she was starting to question what was to become of her life now that she has left everything she ever knew behind.

So when I was given a choice, of breaking or freeing her, I went with the latter, freeing her from those chains that bound her to the lies she was fed. The lies she was put through her entire life. She was devout and loyal to the Absolute, but after failing to raid the Grove (no thanks to me), she was going to be sentenced to death. Despite her being cold and harsh towards me in out first encounter, I wanted, no, needed to save her. To free her. Once she was freed, she didn't know what to do.

At first she was cold towards everyone here at the camp, bearing her teeth like a cat and hissing at them, literally. Even she mentioned she had somewhat of a feline nature when it came to getting wet. I didn't even want to go down that road when it came time for a bath. She would just go down to the river and rinse her hair lightly. That was the first, and will probably be the last, time I had seen her with her hair down. She had caught me and held a dagger to my neck, threatening she'd slit it if I told anyone. I just nodded and she left me there to process what happened.

Afterwards, I didn't dare follow her unless we were walking somewhere with the others. But weeks and months had gone by and she was starting to open up to me. About her doubts of the Absolute.

"You can always talk to me, Minthara," I said, looking over at her, finding her red eyes.

For a moment, there was a look of fear in them before it returned with the same look she always had.

"Is there a place in private we could talk? I do not wish for the others to hear."

I nodded my head, "Yeah. There's an abandoned house nearby."

I stood up and led her there. I might die tonight, but maybe this was a good thing that Minthara feels safe enough to open up to me. Settling down in the abandoned house, Minthara sat next to me, which was rare for her to do as she always sat in front of me, so she could see my every movement.

"I am afraid, Y/N," she whispered.

"Afraid? Of what?"

"I've known of the Absolute my entire life. The one time I did not perform up to expectation, they wanted to kill me, without a second thought. It was as if I was only valuable to them when I did my job and did it exceptionally well. Now that I am with you and your friends, I guess I am afraid of not being able to connect with them. As I can connect with you."

"Why do you think you can connect with me easier?"

"You were the one that freed me from the Absolute. You showed me what a real family is like and not one where it is forged from lies."

"Well, the others came from nothing and then we built up from it. A foundation for a family are always different from the ones we are known to. This family is a band of misfits."

"Better than what I was given," Minthara spoke quietly.

"Hey, we can give you what you lacked."

"I lacked a lot of things in my life, Y/N. My own mother tried to kill me when I turned older because she saved me from being killed. She tried to kill her own daughter! Her own flesh and blood and what did I do with being saved from her attempt? Get caught up in the wrong crowd that did not love me for who I was," tears started to form in her eyes. That was the one thing I didn't think Minthara was capable of until now: crying. It pained me to see her in this much pain.

Reaching over, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into my side. Turning her head, she cried in my shoulder as hers trembled. My other hand ran up and down her back, trying to soothe her and trying to be her source of comfort. I knew this was a bad idea if she indeed was trying to kill me. But I wanted to give her some source of comfort if she did have plans to kill me.

"Shh, Minthara," I whispered. "It's ok. It's going to be ok."

"How do I move on from everything I knew? How do I go on telling myself everything I ever knew was a lie?!"

"There are just times where you need to ask yourself if it was real or not? Their friendship, their words, the relationships you had with them."

"Can I ask you something, Y/N?"

"Of course."

"The tadpole in our heads, yours did something when we first met."

Shit. When I first met her, before I stopped her from destroying the Grove, my mind wandered a bit too far and I expressed how I felt about Minthara. I thought no one heard those thoughts, but I guess Minthara heard them. It wasn't until now she was going to talk to me about them? I guess we were alone and the best time to talk to someone about feelings would be alone.

"Is that how you truly felt about me?" she asked. "That I was a beautiful person, despite everything I had committed before we even met?"

I turned and faced her as she picked her head up. Reaching over, I placed my hand on her cheek. It was a bit cold to the touch. Those red eyes of hers captivated me ever since I met her before defending the Grove. The harsh look in those eyes were replaced with a soft one, the same pleading one I saw when she turned to face me when facing the court of the Absolute. The same look when I knew I had to save her no matter what.

Caressing the skin on her cheek, it was smooth compared to the rough pads of her fingers. That was the only body part she had allowed me to touch was her hands and face at times. I wasn't allowed to touch her neck, as there was a tattoo on the left side of it. She didn't really go much into the tattoo other than it's the mark of the cult. 

"Not just beautiful, Minthy," I said.

"Why call me that? Both beautiful and the nickname?"

"Well, the nickname was something I came up when talking about you with the others instead of saying your full name. But I won't say it if you don't want me to."

"I-It's something I would have to get used to. Something that only you say and no one else."

"Of course, Minthara."

"But it is true? I am beautiful to you?"

I leaned towards her, "Not just beautiful. Gorgeous even. No one could ever have my heart like you do."

"B-But I am not a good person, Y/N. You of all people should know that. I tried to raid a grove full of innocent people for the sake of the people I followed."

"That was the people. Those were your orders."

"But I view people as beneath me. Even you!"

"E-Even me?"

She sadly nodded her head, "Yes. Yes I see you as someone beneath me. B-But I am not so sure now. I don't see you as beneath me. I-I'm trying to see that for everyone else you have introduced me to. But they have a lot of reasons to not trust me. Especially that druid friend of yours."

I nodded my head, "Halsin is not going to forgive you as easily as I have."

"You've already forgiven me? This quickly? It hasn't even been months since the attempted raid on the grove."

"I know. But after I have seen you try to interact with the others. Try to wipe yourself clean and be better, I know that you truly have been under a lot of shit with the cult. You're trying and that's all that matters, Minthara."

A soft smile formed on her face as she pressed her forehead against mine.

"C-Can we stay like this?"

"Stay like what?"

"Peaceful. Serene. This is the most peaceful I have ever been in my life and I want to cherish it as much as I can."

"Of course. Can I hold you?"

"Hold me?"

"Yes. Hold you close to me so that you won't ever fear of being hurt or left alone again."

She slowly nodded her head, "S-Sure."

I wrapped my arms around her and slowly started to fall towards the ground. Finally resting on the ground, I turned to where I was laying on my side. My arms were wrapped around Minthara's body. She was stiff at first, getting used to being held, but as we laid there in silence for a bit, she slowly started to wrap her arms around me, pulling me close to her. I rested my head on top of hers and took in what was her. She smelt of the earth and everything that made it natural. I thought that was what Halsin would smell like, earthy and like dirt. But Minthara had that kind of smell to her. It wasn't exactly like the soil, but like grass. Like freshly cut grass.

"You smell oddly nice, Minthy."

"At first I thought you said 'minty'."

I chuckled, "No. I was trying to call you by your nickname I have given you."

"Ah. I see. It sounds a lot like minty."

"Just with an 'h'."

"What do I smell like? Death?"

"It's an odd smell. Like freshly cut grass."

"Huh. I would have thought the bear man would smell like that."

"He smells like animals most of the time. Depending on the animal he was."

"Cut grass," Minthara whispered. "Is that a good smell?"

"One of the best in my opinion."

"I will take your word for it."

We laid there in silence until I rolled over, taking Minthara with me. She laid on my chest and closed her eyes, listening to my heartbeat. I smiled and closed my eyes, my hands running up and down her back. Sitting up, I looked worried as she took off the armor she was wearing. There was a light shirt underneath and she laid back down.

"I want to feel your touch."

"Anything for you, Minthara."

My hands snaked underneath the shirt she was wearing and started to rub at the middle part of her back. The pads of my fingers trailed up and down her spine. She shuddered slightly at my touch. I could get used to this. Having Minthara lay on top of me, our legs intertwined and just us holding onto one another in the quiet night. As the moon shone through the broken window, it hit Minthara's hair just right. While it was odd to see white hair at a young age instead of an older age, it worked well for her light purple skin. It reminded me of snow on a mountain. It even sparkled slightly with the moon light. I wanted to touch it. To see it out of its bun she had it in. To see it at its natural length. Reaching up, I dug my hand into her hair and started to undo the bun. She reached up, stopping me from going further.

"S-Sorry. I should have asked."

"Let me."

She reached up and undid the bun, letting her hair fall down past her shoulders and towards covering her chest. I marveled at its length and how it looked naturally wavy like the flow of water in an ocean. I couldn't help but feel my heart beat faster and my thoughts raced. A smirk appeared on Minthara's lips as she reached up, grabbing my jaw, tugging my face towards her.

"Better silence those thoughts in there," she said. "I can sense something you probably don't want others to know."

"Please, Minthara. Would you allow me to kiss you? To hold you tight against my body to where I fear of letting you go?"

"Only for you, my sweet."

I leaned towards her and pressed my lips against hers. They felt cold, but also warm at the same time. After a few seconds of kissing her, there was an odd sensation bubbling up. It felt like my lips were numbing and then there was pain. Pulling away, she looked disappointed of what had just happened.

"Minthy?"

"My lips are laced with poison. It's not lethal in small doses. But it is a bit intoxicating. Literally and figuratively."

I chuckled slightly, "What a great way to go out then."

"You flatter me, Y/N. But no, it is not something to desire. Especially as a good of a person you are."

I reached up and placed my hand on her cheek once more, slowly going towards her pointed ear, massaging it slightly. Her eyes fluttered closed and a small, soft sigh escaped her lips. Those soft, plump, and deadly lips of hers. Leaning towards her once more, I captured her lips once more. Growing a bit hungry, Minthara placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me into the ground. Her teeth nibbled at my lips and who was I to deny her. Opening my mouth, our tongues brushed past one another's. My hands started to wander around her body as she did the same to me. We wanted to know each other's body inside and out. She got up, hovering over my body as the kiss deepened with passion and fire. Placing her right knee in between my thighs, she pushed her leg up, making my leg come upwards as well. When there was enough space, her knee started to rub up against my crotch.

"M-Minthara," I breathed out through the kiss.

She pulled away and straddled me, a sinister grin on her face. I could only smile at her, my heart racing once more.

"Tonight, you are mine."

"I am yours, Minthara."

After we had our fun, her head was resting on my chest and my hands were playing with her silky, smooth hair. I enjoyed feeling every strand in my fingers and as they parted in between the gaps of my fingers. Our breathing was starting to sync in time with one another, but as her eyes squeezed tightly closed, she stirred in her sleep. My one hand remained entangled in her hair while the other ran up and down her back slowly.

"Shh, shh," I whispered to her. "I've got you, Minthara."

She pushed herself upwards and found my eyes, her breathing heavy and ragged. I leaned up onto my elbows and placed my hand against her cheek.

"Hey, hey, I'm here. I'm here. They're not going to hurt you anymore."

Her breathing settled down and she found my eyes, some tears forming in her eyes.

"You're ok," I said softly. "They're not going to hurt you anymore. Not while I'm around."

"C-Can you promise me that?"

"I can."

"H-How can you be so sure about it? Everyone has left me without reason and without an explanation. How do I know you won't be like everyone else?"

"You won't, but I can prove it by my actions. I didn't leave you when you were vulnerable and having a nightmare."

"It was one time."

"It was actually many times."

"Explain yourself."

"During the first few days you were here, you got frequent nightmares that it even woke up some people in the camp. Others just hoped you were fine, but I got up and sat with you as you mumbled something in your sleep. I brought you water, offered it to you, but you didn't know it was me who was there. You thought it was someone else."

"A bit delirious from the lack of sleep I got at times."

"I didn't mind that you didn't know it was me. But I was there whenever no one would come. Although Karlach did come sit with me one night while you had a particularly bad nightmare. It was so bad you were in a cold sweat, trying to fall back asleep. But you were just crying so hard that I couldn't console you."

"Why?"

"It hurts my heart that you are the result of your environment. You were made to act out in bad choices. All in the name of someone you thought you were loyal to and could look up to. But as you saw, you are disposable to them the minute you are not useful. Not here, Minthara. You are useful, always."

A few tears slid down her face. Reaching up, she wiped them away and looked at the clear liquid on her fingers, staring at it in disbelief. Disbelief she was able to cry? Or in disbelief that someone's words and actions could make her cry? Whatever the reason was, she lowered her body onto mine, hugging me closely. I wrapped my one arm around her, kissing the top of my head.

"You're safe with me, Minthy. No one is going to lay a finger on you."

"Thank you," she whimpered slightly, trying not to sob.

"It's ok to cry. It's not a sign of weakness."

She nodded her head.

"Rest easy, Minthy," I said and laid back down, holding her close to me.

"Y/N," she whispered.

"Yes?"

"I want to let you know, even though I may seem cold and harsh at times, you truly are the best person I could have ever met when I did. I didn't think I would be freed from them. I never even thought of being free from the Absolute and the people there. I knew them for most of my life. Meeting you, it was a blessing. If I could redo it over again, I'd choose with letting you free me."

I smiled, running my hands through her hair.

"Thank you, Minthara."

"Thank you, Y/N. For everything you have done."

[arenpath]

Poly!The Lost Boys x ghost hunter!reader

Word count: 1.8k You/your pronouns Warnings: death, but everything is fine I promise A/n: See a mistake? Let me know! Comments and reblogs are appreciated ❤

The name “Murder capital of the world” itself says that there were lots of restless souls. 

It was not just vampires who could be blamed for this. 

The crime rate in Santa Carla was extremely high itself.  

No one would ever attach importance to one or two new missing posters or articles in newspapers about another offence, which was what all kinds of criminals used. 

More than once, reports appeared on local television that residents complained of paranormal phenomena both in their homes and in public places. 

For many people in Santa-Carla stories about ghosts were no longer just tales. 

It was hard not to start believing when all appliances in a house were going crazy and objects were haphazardly flying in front of witnesses. 

So no one was surprised when  the ads from the ghost hunters were added to the posters about missing people. 

It all started in the evening of 1984 when you and your friends saw “Ghostbusters” for the first time. 

At first, it was just a game, silly entertainment, but then you seriously delved into the information about the ghost world and about the technologies that would help to cope with the ghosts of different types.  

Your group managed to buy one part of the equipment, repeatedly bumping into various charlatans and outright garbage, and your friend was able to invent another part.  

Having dealt with not very complicated cases at the request of the neighbors, you and your friends managed to save up for a small garage, where you could start taking bigger contracts.  

Over time, more people had joined you and there was a clear division of responsibilities. 

You joined the group of investigators, those who didn’t exorcize ghosts but figured out their types and completed the objectives. 

One day you got the contract in the campsite near Hudson’s Bluff. 

You learned from the report that a few weeks ago a group of young adults set up a camp in the forest and decided to stay there for a couple of days, but a week later their relatives sounded the alarm because no one returned home. The police did not find the bodies, only traces of blood soaked into the ground and into the fabric of the abandoned tents. 

People who still wanted to visit this forest turned to your organization to rid the forest and that place of possible ghosts of the dead, knowing that the police were unlikely to continue investigating this case, referring to the fact that it was most likely some kind of an animal. 

To tell the truth, you were quite nervous. You were afraid of the one who had killed the campers, and you were also inexperienced in carrying out an investigation in open areas. 

When you got to the place, you were painfully trying for a long time to find the area in which the alleged ghosts lived.  

No sooner had you laid out the crucifixes for your protection than a strong wind rose, which you would not have paid attention to if the roar of the wind was not accompanied by laughter. 

Thinking that it was a hunt, you hid in the nearest tent. 

Being fed up with the lack of anything interesting in the Boardwalk that night, the boys decided to spend the rest of it in the campsite, where a few weeks ago they met people who invited them to a bonfire.  

It was Marko who smelled you first. 

He stepped onto the ground and closed his eyes, inhaling. 

A smirk appeared on his lips, and his gaze settled on a small pink tent. 

“Guys, seems like we have a...” - Marko was trying to inform his friends about your presence but was cut off guard when he inhaled your scent deeply. 

Exquisitely thin, fresh and tart. 

You were their mate. 

Paul’s hand fell on Marko’s shoulder. 

“Do you feel it, man?” 

They found you in one of the tent, clutching the crucifix to yourself, realizing that those were far from ghosts and it was unlikely that it would help, but still hoping for a miracle. 

“Peek-a-boo, sweetheart!”, - the first thing that you saw when the tent was open was a handsome face of a local punk with a crazy hairstyle. 

He grabbed your ankle and pulled you closer. 

“No reason to be worried, babe, we will have a great time together, ya know?” 

Vampires. Your mates – that was how they introduced themselves, holding your wrapped in a plaid form close to themselves on their laps near the bonfire. 

You felt complicated and puzzled. 

No, you weren't very surprised by the existence of vampires, it was obvious that if for example Moroi was real, then surely there were other creatures. 

You just didn't think that they were so close all this time and you were connected with them by fate. 

You also felt a craving for them. 

Your conscience tormented you anyway. Was it ok to defeat some supernatural beings and date others? 

But all their care and love answered this question and you dissolved into the feelings for them. 

Despite the fact that your relationship was going just fine, there was a “problem” as they liked to call it – your job. 

David was a master at ruining your night in the cave with the boys, by bringing up this topic. It seemed for you that David hadn't taken sex and everything related to it so seriously he would have told you to quit your job, even while making love to you.  

Not once and not even twice he reminded you that night and the state you were in when you returned from one of your contracts on the Edgefield street and about how Marko had to go to pick up those sanity pills of yours.  

Speaking of sanity pills, Paul was the one who was always asking you if it was ok to take them when a person was high, when your answer was always the same.  

After that accident, you always had a few of them in the cave, keeping them away from Laddie and Paul.  

Due to Marko’s the love of risk and the spirit of adventure, he was the most supportive of all the boys. He even made you your own ghost hunter jacket.  

You thanked him by bringing a voodoo doll from the recent contract you had. 

Needless to say, the first thing he did – he found Paul’s hair and wrapped it around the doll just to see what would happen if he stuck a needle in. 

You two had a long night trying to make it up to Paul.  

Knowing the fact you and your team had lots of videocams and tripods to search for evidence, Paul offered you to use for good and film the whole thing between you, him and Marko because he was seriously hurt physically and mentally thanks to both of you.  

Trying to cease David’s anger, you also brought him something. 

It was a music box with a creepy song of a ghost lady. 

You thought that David would look cool and sexy sitting in his chair and smoking to the sound of the old music box. Its look suited him and the cave. 

He appreciated your gesture, but he refused point blank to give up on trying to get you to quit, because even that pretty thing you gave him could kill you.  

Paul fancied the smell of your smudge sticks, even though they didn’t make him high they helped him to relax. However, he had to stop it because David promised to kick his ass if something would happen to you if you suddenly didn't have enough smudge sticks.  

You loved spending your nights in the cave cuddling with Dwayne and showing him your photo album you took from work with photos of footsteps on salt, fingerprints on doors and windows, some funny photos of your colleagues and, of course, you showed him photos of the ghosts themselves. 

Every time you did it, he wrapped his hands around you tighter. 

He secretly was even more worried than David, but he tried his best to hide it and show his support to you.  

You were an experienced ghost hunter, at least that's what you thought of yourself. 

You thought that David needed to calm down and let you do your job. 

You had seen lots of ghosts extremely dangerous and easy ones, however, you had never on the verge of death. Often you and your team were able to do everything and without hunts. 

One of the rules of ghost hunting was if you see tarot cards, you pull it. 

So you did it even before you could identify a ghost. 

When you pulled a death card, you hid immediately. 

It was a mistake. 

You forgot about a ghost that was able to track you down anywhere. 

Before you could smudge it, you saw rotten hands before your face that quickly broke your neck. 

Your life flashed before your eyes. You saw your boys. The idea about becoming a vampire, as David suggested to you, came to your mind at the last second. 

After total darkness you saw a bright light. 

A high priestess card about which you forgot gave you the second chance. 

You ran out of the house to spend many hours just sitting on the steps crying. 

Tell David and other boys? 

You didn’t know. 

Like really. You had no idea what to do. 

Soon you found yourself at the entrance to the cave. 

“I recommend you not to come in, you know”, - it was Dwayne. 

“Um...Hi, baby”, - you smiled nervously,  “What are talking about?” 

“You smell of fear and anxiety. If you don’t want David to read your mind without your consent, you need to calm down and tell me what happened. You always can count on me, pumpkin”. 

Dwayne’s handsome face blurred. Hot tears were streaming down your cheeks. You hugged him, letting him pet you and calm you down. 

You told him about your death and about how terrifying it was. 

With his mind powers, he was able to make you relax so that you could spend the night without others suspecting that something had happened. 

Dwayne made you promise not to go to work yet and to reconsider your views on your work and life. 

During your short break, you had considered a variety of options: from quitting to becoming a vampire. 

One night, you got a call from your friend and colleague, who told you that your mutual friend and your boss screwed up a lot, and now he wanted everyone to return the money accumulated from the  contracts so that he could fix everything and completely update the entire system. 

For you, it was a sign that maybe you could use your knowledge about supernatural somewhere else without a risk to die.

[arisunakayama]

Hiii so I saw you're doing madcom requests and got an idea

So main 4 headcanons for a convenience store owner reader. Basically they're just the most reliable source for a lot of things, and really chill too. Just wanna sell things and help without a care for their wanted posters or massive organisation. So the S.Q already knows them from buying stuff from the shop, but thet only recently started paying attention to the owner and realised how...nice they were.

You can choose the type of headcanon (like your Pandora's box thing or one-time separate hc's) or if you want to add other characters :) thank you!

Main 4 with Store Owner!Reader or Pandora’s Box! Reader

Imma do both because my ideas are running WILD rn lmao. Plus it gives me a reason to try and write off writer’s and artist’s block. Plus this will be LOOONNNGGG

A/N: PANDORA’S BOX!READER USES GENDER NEUTRAL PRONOUNS, BUT IS FEM PRESENTING. CONVENIENCE STORE!READER IS PURELY GENDER NEUTRAL!

Depending on if you’re a shop owner or the founder/CEO of Pandora’s Box will kind of differentiate the relationship you might have with the Main Four.

For example, if you happen to be a convenience store owner, chances are you’ll be closer to both Sanford and Deimos compared to Hank and 2BDamned.

But you’d probably still retain a good relationship with the both Hank and Doc.

If you were the Founder/CEO of the Pandora’s Box agency, you’d most likely be closer to Doc and Hank while still retaining a good relationship with both Sanford and Deimos.

But nonetheless the four of them would notice how pretty chill and nice you are.

But although in both scenarios you’re still pretty chill and don’t really care for their reputation, the personalities between the two are different between Store Owner!Reader and Pandora’s Box!Reader.

[CONVENIENCE STORE!READER]

If you’re a convenience store owner, chances of you meeting the Main Four are slim.

But hey, you somehow were able to manage that with them coming into your store because of some dead batteries that was inside of some sort of device that they needed to work.

You remembered how they entered your store, Doc looking irritated along with Deimos who was still fiddling with the poor remote.

Meanwhile Sanford looked like he was just ready go back home.

Hank on the other hand looked indifferent, although a bit irked.

Of course you knew who they were, there were wanted posters of them plastered all over the place outside of your store.

But honestly you could care less. A customer is a customer and you of all people knew better than to stick your nose in other people’s business.

Anyways, Doc just ended up grabbing the pack of batteries from the store racks before slamming it down onto the counter in front of you.

Meanwhile you looked behind him, seeing the other three behind him with what looked like whatever they just grabbed around the store.

While you were ringing up their items, Deimos looks at the wanted posters of them that was plastered on the bulletin board.

He points it out. “You know you have the wanted posters of us, right?” You could feel him eye your suspiciously.

“I know. But honestly, it’s really not my business.” You shrug your shoulders while putting the items into a bag, giving it to Doc while he pays you.

The four of them can only stare at you in silence before continuing.

“Look all I’m saying is, I get all types of people passing here and I know how to keep my mouth shut tight.” You lean onto the desk in front of you with a soft smile “Meaning, there’s no reason for me to open them at all.”

They still don’t really trust you, to which you can’t really blame them.

Nevada was a place you couldn’t really be relaxed in. Especially when there were murderers, thieves, cannibals and a whole bunch of unsavory types of people out there.

If it was before missions, they would usually stop by and grab only necessary things.

Though if it was like a camp out due to survey ing a tower/building, then they’d end up grabbing a few more snacks to keep them content.

The ones who you talked to the most would Deimos and Sanford considering how more relaxed they are when it comes to casual conversation

Compared to Doc and Hank, the two of them make you feel a lot more safe.

As for 2BDamned and Hank themselves, it’s more of just business.

But as time goes on between the four of them do end up coming to realization that you genuinely do care about them and their well being.

Not only are you nice to them, but you also aren’t that afraid of them. Which to be honest it a nice change.

Especially when it comes to having a new trustworthy friend.

Good job Reader! You’ve managed to not only get the main four to be your friends, but also guard dogs and attack dogs.

Especially when someone vandalizes or threatens to kill you or steal from you.

[PANDORA’S BOX!READER]

As I’ve mentioned before, you’d most likely strike up a partnership with the main four and the S.Q just to spite the AAHW and it was good to have a powerful ally who wasn’t Phobos or the Auditor.

Most likely you’d be closer due to 2BDamned and Hank just due to professionalism, business related jobs, or etc.

That and Hank’s odd obsession with wanting to constantly spar with you because of wanting to see how fast you could actually avoid him.

Which by the way, you still heavily outweighs him in that skill.

But back onto the topic, 2BDamned would be the one to do all the talking and negotiating. Though there will be times you both do joke around with each other by throwing small jokes.

He genuinely enjoy doing business with you though, seeing how well the two of you compromise with each other.

As for Hank he doesn’t really care about all that stuff. Unless it deals with weaponry, then he’s all for listening and seeing what you have.

As long as he has something he can use to saw, slice, or put holes into whatever gets in his way efficiently , he’ll gladly see what you have.

There was a moment after a while where Doc did have a shortage of supplies and had to tell you that the promised cargo wouldn’t be delivered to your company until they had what they needed.

But to their surprise, mostly Doc’s, you just waved it off and gave them the same amount of shipment to them that you usually trade with them only to tell them to not worry about it, considering your company already had way too much of what they were about to ship to you.

It made Doc skeptical, usually things like this had some sort of motive behind them.

But once he saw the sincerity you had, he was definitely taken back. Hell even Hank was taken back at how generous you were being with them.

Congrats, Reader! You now have the Necromancer and The Boogie Man by your side with semi weak knees

[shunchitaro]

Aguni x Reader

Genre: Angst + Fluff Platonic >I haven't seen Aguni oneshots or any written w him being a father-figure so here >Reader is a male child in this oneshot It was the King of Spades game, Aguni saw the blimp nearby, and he knew to take cover, heading into the woods. As he went he heard sobbing, and being curious he decided to investigate.

He saw a child, maybe around 12 years old. He was resting against a tree, and Aguni's eyes traveled down to see a sharp shard of glass protruding from the boy's leg. Just next to the little boy was a man which could be his father, pale and blood all over him. Aguni's breath caught in his throat, realizing that the kid's father must have died trying to protect him.

Aguni went up to the kid, crouching down. He wasn't really great with kids, but he knew he somehow had to help this one. He couldn't just leave the kid here to die. The games were almost over, the kid should at least survive.

"Kid, what's your name?" He asked, and the kid looked at him sniffling and barely able to breath due to crying so much. "Y/n Ō-oki" The kid stammered, voice breaking.

"Does that hurt?" Aguni asked, pointing at his leg and Y/N nods. "My papa and I were playing a game and we made it out but the building exploded.." He explained.

Aguni felt pity, should he take the kid with him? The kid could possibly slow him down from killing the King of Spades, and letting a kid tag along will most likely cause his own death.

"Do you want to come with me? I'll treat that wound of yours." Aguni asked gently, and the kid nodded. Aguni thought he could see a sense of relief in the little boy's eyes.

Aguni gently picked the kid up, taking him along. When he got to his camp, he made sure to be gentle in dressing Y/N's wound, pulling the shard out gently and wrapping his extra shirt around it tying it securely. Aguni grinned softly, patting the boy's head.

'You're a brave little kid, no wonder you made it this far hm?" Aguni asked, and the boy smiled proudly, yet sadly.

"My papa helped me get through most of the games. My older brother helped too but he went to a different game and never came back" He mumbled

"What was your older brother's name? Maybe we can look for him?" Aguni asked

"Ōki Ippei"

Aguni's breath caught in his throat. He remembered Chishiya telling him about the prison game, and how he played with a certain Ōki Ippei, and how he had killed himself during the game.

Y/N Ōki reminded Aguni of himself. Just like him, Y/N had nobody now. Just as Aguni lost Danma, this kid had lost his entire family.

He knew what it was like to be alone, and didn't want the young boy to experience it.

"Don't you worry Y/N. I'll take care of you. We'll both make it out of here alive."

Aguni kept to his word.

______________________________

Y/N Ōki was at the hospital. His leg was bandaged and he had a limp, due to the shard that had stabbed into his leg. He knew both his brother and father were dead, and he would be up for adoption soon enough.

Y/N suddenly stopped in front of a room with clear windows; and looking inside, he saw someone he thought he recognized. A nurse left the room, and noticed him. "Do you know this patient?" She asked gently, and he shook his head. "What's his name, miss?" Y/N asked, tiptoeing to look behind her. "Morizono Aguni" The nurse replied, before bowing and heading off.

Y/N felt a soft tug at his heart as he stared. The man was heavily bandaged and unconscious, but as Y/N stared at him, he felt as if he was protected. As if he was safe.

They might have not remembered each other, but Aguni kept to his word.

They both made it out alive.

Author's note: Hey! So for those who are wondering, I find it hard to write readers with pronouns they/them no matter how hard I try :') I end up writing he/her she/him unconsciously so I end up doing it all over again. So I'll switch from female or male readers from time to time, so it's fair. Im more used to writing stories with direct he/him she/her pronouns, so please understand <3

[ferris-the-wheel]

Updated 3/29/24

Justin Ashfield

"Can't you seem I'm busy? This thing has malfunctioned twice and I need to focus. Go away, will ya?"

: ̗̀➛ Age: 16

: ̗̀➛ Gender: Male

: ̗̀➛ Pronouns: He/Him

: ̗̀➛ Abilties:

> Pyrokinesis

> Technoscience: knows everything about technology, cybernetics, and machines, even if he hasn't encountered them before.

Backstory

He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He lives in a decent sized townhouse with his mom, his younger sister (Annie), and his younger brother (Jacob). Growing up, he didn't really socialize with other kids, preferring to build things out of Legos or other random objects lying around.

His mom and kindergarten teacher grew concerned about his lack of verbal communication, assuming that he had some form of cognitive disorder, so his mom took him to a neuropsychologist. It was then that he was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. His mom was and still is very supportive and does the best she can to make him happy.

As he got older, he did learn to socialize more, and his fascination with machinery and building things grew more as well. He became well known around his area and at school as the person to go to if you needed something fixed. He was still reserved despite this and preferred to stick to his room tinkering with things rather than joining his peers at different places.

When he turned 10, he was attacked by a hellhound and greatly injured before managing to escape. He went to his mom and explained what happened. She took him to the ER under the pretense that he got attacked by a wild dog. After they got back, she explained everything: his father is Hephaestus, he's a demigod, and about the new world that he would have to adapt to.

As soon as the school term ended, his mother drove him to Camp Half-Blood. He was claimed pretty much as soon as he got there. He resides at camp during summers and goes back to his house in Brooklyn during winters. He takes normal classes when he can to maintain his education.

~ Chibi Justin

Personality

Like most children of Hephaestus, he prefers being around machines rather than people. He's often found in the workshop under Cabin 9. He's okay around crowds and doesn't appear nervous, but he always has something like a fidget toy or some small screws and scraps to mess around with in his hands on these occasions. When he really gets to know someone, he'll be more friendly toward them, but he isn't the best at maintaining relationships aside from with his family members and Dante.

He can be a bit rude sometimes, only because he often misunderstands things because, in his words: "People are really confusing, like onions. They have a lot of layers to their emotions. I'd rather stick to machines; once you hammer out all the kinks and glitches, they work however you want them to. They don't have emotions and only do what you want them to do."

Additional information

> He's still figuring out his sexuality, but he doesn't exactly know what label to put on it, so he refers to himself as queer.

> He's in a relationship with Dante Meadows (going on a year).

> He once set his kitchen at home on fire when trying to make eggs. He can't cook or bake whatsoever and has been banned from making anything unless he can microwave it.

> The scar on his face is from the hellhound attack. He actually doesn't think of that incident as a bad thing. He's glad it happened because he was able to discover his godly parentage and begin to hone his skills.

> Some of the Aphrodite kids were a bit jealous of him when they figured out he was dating Dante. He's not liked by a lot in that cabin.

> His ultimate goal is to make electronics safe to use for demigods without having to risk being attacked by monsters. Even though monsters can't get through the barrier around Camp Half-Blood, he still wants demigods to be able to use them outside of camp without having to worry about being attacked.

> He doesn't have a favorite food.

> He doesn't have a favorite animal.

Lol, Dante and Justin bonded over their lack of understanding of complex human emotions, so they normally know how each other are feeling because they'll openly express it around each other.

Also— an oc without any form of trauma??? Minus the hellhound attack, but he isn't traumatized by that.

[underqualified-human]

Take a hike, literally

Jade Leech x Reader

Request: Hello! May I please request a one-shot with Jade and his f!s/o going on a hike together. And her introducing him to roasted marshmallows if they happen to camp out.

A/N: I’ve only actually been hiking once and I fell down twice. I’ve also been camping a total of 0.

Word Count: 731

Warnings: brief mention of poison, no beta, 

Fandom: Disney: Twisted Wonderland

Pairing: Jade Leech/Reader

Pronouns: She/Her

You rushed around your house trying to collect everything you needed.Your boots thumped loudly against the floor as you carried your sleeping bag down the stairs. Luckily Grimm was a very sound sleeper. You quickly stuffed it in the large backpack, you had already packed food and water. 

Now you were in the kitchen, trying to find where you had put your flash lights. Maybe you should wake Grimm up, then again he probably wouldn't know either. Your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of your front door opening and a voice calling out: “Hello~Darling, are you ready yet?” 

You instantly recognised the voice as belonging to your boyfriend, Jade. Quickly you responded, “J-just a minute!” You sorted through drawers and cupboards but came up empty handed again. He walked into the kitchen and saw you rummaging around in frustration. “Looking for something?” He asked, teasingly. You pulled your head out of the cupboard and glared at him, “I can't find my flashlight and I’ve looked everywhere.” You complained. 

“Is there anything else you need?” He asked. 

“No, just the flashlights.” You said, thinking about where else they could be. “I’ll lend you mine.” He said, a small sympathetic smile on his face. You sighed before accepting the fact that he wouldn't let it go if you refused. You walked into the living room and grabbed your backpack. You waited a few moments for Jade to enter before you both started your trek.

…

While you didn’t work out everyday you thought you would at least be able to survive a simple hike. You were wrong. By the time you two got to the top (or a place with level ground) your lungs were burning on par with your leg muscles. 

Though Jade could easily leave you in the dust, he tried his best to slow down for you. A lot of the time he was still walking a bit in front of you. Damn his long legs. 

You sat down on the ground, trying to catch your breath. Jade was crouching down next to you while rubbing your back. You had made the right call in bringing two water bottles, as both of them were now empty. 

You looked at the horizon, if you both started to walk back now you’d be less than halfway down by the time it was dark. You let out a sigh and got up, walking over to a place where you thought there would be the least amount of stones. You quickly got to work in setting up your campsite with the help of Jade. 

While you were busy making the fire Jade looked over your shoulder in curiosity. “What is that for?” Of course he knew what a fire was, he simply wanted to hear you talk. Who knows maybe they worked differently in your world? “Oh, it’s for cooking-” You said excitedly “- and light and warmth and-” He cut you off with a giggle. “Can we cook some of the mushrooms?” He asked, his pupils were slightly dilated. “Um, I guess.” You were hesitant to eat any plants from the forest but trusted your boyfriend enough to know he wouldn’t poison you. 

Once the fire was lit you rushed to your backpack and took out all the stuff needed for smores. 

You put a marshmallow on a stick as he eyed you curiously. “What are making?” You looked at him and raised your eyebrow, “Do you not know what s’mores are?” You asked, forgetting that there aren't fires underwater. 

“I have eaten one, no.” You honestly felt a bit bad for him. “Well,” you explained, “you roast a marshmallow like so-” you made a point of waving the marshmallow around- “then you put it in between two gram crackers, and you’re done.” You finished your sentence by presenting him with the s’more. Hesitantly he took a bite out of it. His facial expression did not change much but he did say it tasted alright. “Normally you add a piece of chocolate but I didn't have space for it.” You said disappointed as you took a bite of your own s’more. “Hmm. Well try that next time, won’t we?” He asked with a closed eyed smile. “Yeah, next time.” You responded hesitantly. 

He suddenly stood up and clapped his hands together, “I’ll go get the mushrooms now!”

Oh right, the mushrooms.

[daydreaming-jessi]

How about some fun facts about Lew and Krang?

While traveling through space, both were interested by earth and its enormous natural satellite, the moon! They decided to check out earth, but forgot to account for the moon’s gravitational affect, and so they ended up crashing into earth, rather than landing. Lew was very disappointed in herself for making such a rookie piloting mistake… Krang was just glad they survived.

After all their grand road-tripping across earth and space, Lew and Krang have developed a mutual love of music. They become mega fans of an alien electric band called ‘The Fi-0’s’. They both dream of attending one of their grand concerts one day. Krang will also develop a love for oldie music and record players, he loves ‘Everybody loves somebody’ and ‘Fly me to the moon’ the most. Lew loves music with lots of deep bass, and will do most anything with something playing in the background. She even has a fighting playlist that krang plays to pump her up and keep her in sync. If you hear music, you know lew is up to something.

Lew is an earth name, because her actual name is unpronounceable for human vocal chords. (You need multiple sets to pronounce it) She was once asked to sign a petition, and in a panic, saw a license plate spell out L3W and put that down. The person thought it was just a funny way to write E, and that’s how she got her earth name :D Krang do not do names, so Krang just calls himself Krang cause that’s what he is. It does not get confusing when multiple krang are in the room :))))

Krang and Lew both love nature and biology, they go on research expeditions all the time, writing down everything they see and photographing it. This is where Krang starts to pick up his photography and scrapbooking hobby, keeping all the fun pics he took of him and Lew having fun for himself instead of putting them into their research journals. He’s very sentimental ❤️ Lew loves the camping aspects of it and seeing cool places and hanging out with her good buddy krang.

Lew loves to fly, she’s dedicated her whole life to it. She settles for driving land based stuff when her ship crashed, and she loves fixing up vehicles and modding them out, she’s actually a pretty adept automotive engineer, just not as advanced as krang. She makes a good grease monkey, being able to lift cars up with her hands, but there are some aspects of cars that require more human shaped and sized hands. Good thing she’s been turned into a shapeshifter. She’s also technically a rocket scientist, since she’s a spaceship pilot. Lew is kind of a genius, dang. Too bad folks don’t really appreciate that about her. Most people think of her as a meatheaded jock, and that may be because she doesn’t show off her smarts a lot, just her muscles, but her intelligence is how she and Krang were able to travel cross country for so long (that and a few grand theft autos… but does it really count if they were scrap cars they fixed and souped up?)

Krang loves trying new foods, figuring out what on earth is edible for him and Lew, and what may be dangerous for them. He also finds out he loves stuffed animals, they make burrows and nests warm and cozy, and they let him give them big hugs. He also has a love for coding, it’s like a fun secret language he’s in on. He’s better at mechanical engineering than bio engineering, unlike a lot of other krang.

Lew loves exploring fashion and romance novels, despite being aroace, but especially a romance novel with a grand tear-jerking reunion in it, reunions make her sob like a baby in general. She’s not sure why, they just cause this huge wave of emotion in her for some reason… She also loves astronomy, it’s a good way to feed her space faring itch.

Lew chose to use she/her as a her pronouns cause she likes the ‘sshhh’ in she, and Krang chose he/him because he likes ‘hehehehe’ but that’s about it. Argenauts have a different way of doing things than earth, and Krang don’t actually have biological sexes, they reproduce through krang goopy stuff eventually developing into egg clutches that eventually hatch and are raised by krang designated as brooders.

[spcrklings]

( maia reficco, demi woman, she/they ) — 🎬 just announced, henrietta ' henrie ' castillo is casted as haley james barrera in upcoming one tree hill reboot. the twenty2 year old is trending as people are debating if the midnight ice coffees, bomber jackets littered with patches, living on letterboxd, food network in the background as they replicate a dish, lavender & vanilla scented candles, biting roughly into your cheek to stifle a laughter that they are known for is enough to make them as good as original. a quick google search shows that their fans call them intuitive, but internet trolls think they’re more dogmatic. i guess their newest interview for variety where they talk about the fact that she learned to juggle at age 7 will let people to know them better.

lil stats !

full name: henrietta castillo. nicknames: henrie. gender: demi woman. pronouns:  she/they. orientation: bisexual / biromantic. parents: javier castillo ( father ) & carolina castillo ( mother) siblings: alexander castillo ( older brother ) traits: intuitive, stubborn, dogmatic & observant. xtra aesthetics: ring pops on each finger, rehearsing lines in the shower, falling asleep everywhere and anywhere comfy, instagram cat mom, flower behind an ear. 

lil bio !

maybe it was fate, the road to their career. both parents were very removed from the whole hollywood scene, being florists and horticulturalists in the los angeles area. but the thing they understood deeply was passion.

henrietta's parents were a little older when she was born, ten years after her brother. when she was five years old, alexander was off to some basketball sleep away camp over the summer that he'd been dreaming of since he was a little boy. with him gone, there wasn't anyone around to watch little henrie. their mother had done a quick google search for day camps in the area and she stumbled upon a theater camp

after the first day henrie was literally IN LOVE. from that moment forward she begged her parents to let them go to a performing arts school. dreaming of the various roles she could potentially play in the future, stories she'd be able to portray. finally they caved when henrie was starting middle school.

if she wasn't at school or doing homework she was auditioning or rehearsing any sort of scene to develop her craft. plenty of background acting gigs here in there, networking, trying to intern at any capacity on set to get experience.

fame was an unfortunate side affect. henrie wanted to tell stories, explore characters, create art, not have so many eyes on her and her every move. if she could act in complex projects without the extras that came in tow. promotion and press was difficult, never feeling truly comfortable.

they're usually the quieter voice in a joint interview, a little on the shy/flustered side of things. living a quieter life, not always at events that she doesn't have to, being unintentionally vague and borderline mysterious even in the information revealed about themself ( in a charming and intriguing way perhaps ? ).

this is pretty different from how henrie interacts interpersonally. she's more outgoing and comfortable as herself when the camera is not on her. they're still on the quieter side of the spectrum, but definitely more lively and open with sharing things about themself.

ALSO ! lil fun fact she has two cats, named lucy ( orange tabby ) & xena ( tortie )

wcs !

almost pr relationship - there were talks & almost an implementation of a pr relationship w these two but henrie DEFINITELY freaked out over the possible attention it would bring and their team finally backed out

flirtationship - it's mostly platonic, but borders on becoming something more. will it ? will it be nothing but harmless ? we can figure that out<3

roomies - must love cats

besties - also must love cats dm,mgfdkj

anything else imsorry my brain is off rn

[rosalia-bonet]

Full name: Rosalia Esmeralda Bonet Nicknames: Rosa, Rosie, Bonnie Age: Twenty Eight Birthday: 13th August Pronouns: She/Her Occupation: Seamstress at a bridal shop Hometown: Camp Pendleton, San Diego, California, USA Residence: Downtown (Apartment) Martial Status: Widowed

Please Note Trigger Warnings: Familial Death, Cancer, Suicide, Pregnancy

Rosalia was the daughter of a general and a housewife. She was raised on the Marine corps base called Camp Pendleton in Southern California. Her mum always imagined a nice simple life until she met Rosalia’s father when he was on a marine mission in Mexico. They fell in love and she came back to America with him. Within 5 months, they were married and her mum was pregnant with Rosalia. For the start of her life, everything was perfect. Sure, her dad would work away for potentially months at a time but when he returned, they were happy. Her mum was very loving and cared so much for the family she had made. It was when Rosa was 10 that this started to change. Her mum began to get increasingly more tired and more poorly but by the time she stopped being stubborn and actually went to the doctors, it was too late. She was quickly diagnosed with breast cancer and her outlook wasn’t good. Within six months of her diagnosis, she was being buried which was surprisingly three months more than what the doctors gave her.

Following her mum’s death, her dad became very different. He was colder. Distant. His logic? Rosalia always looked so much like her mother that it hurt him to even look at her. He’d promised his wife that he’d look after their daughter but as time went on, it just hurt too much. He started to take on more responsibility in his job to distract from his pain. It meant he wouldn’t be home as much. It meant he didn’t have to think about it all. Instead, Rosalia was practically raised by other families in the base who felt sorry for her. Rosa, herself, never really understood why her dad couldn’t stand to be around her. It strained their relationship and even more so when she became a teenager who had a dead mum and a distant father. She became angry at the world. She became rebellious. She’d make her way off the base and just take time to go crazy. However, the one thing she always remembered from her drunken binges was stopping outside this one bridal shop and staring at the pretty white dresses in the window. She would always feel so magnetized to it. Her mum often made outfits for Rosa and taught Rosa a lot about sewing and designing outfits.

Rosa began to clean up her act and get away from her dad by moving off the military base. She needed a fresh start and started to work at the same bridal shop she stopped at so often in town. First, she was just a person on the shop floor to sell the dresses but soon, she began to take lessons with the in-house seamstress. Very quickly, she became a professional seamstress by the age of 22. Rosalia was making dresses all by herself and not just editing pre-made ones and her own dresses were actually being sold soon after. It was when she designed the dress for her high school friend that she got an invite to her wedding and met the groom’s best man, Liam. They instantly clicked and it was no surprise that after a fair few drinks that they ended up in bed together. In the morning, they exchanged numbers and parted ways.

Liam was a police officer back in Colorado so they both knew it couldn’t actually work out with it being such a long distance relationship when they didn’t know each other. But still, they messaged constantly. Mostly as just friends but still, it was rare to go a day without a message. Liam ended up surprising Rosa by coming back out to California and made it clear how much he actually liked her. They would try to get out and see each other as much as they could until after a year, Rosa decided to make the move to Colorado when she was 24. They were finally able to be just a normal couple. After 2 years of dating, they finally got married (and of course, Rosa made her own dress). Following the marriage, they started trying for a baby which... didn’t quite go to plan. Every month just ended with disappointment. It was a rough time and although Rosalia worried about herself being the problem for why they couldn’t conceive, it was actually Liam that took it the worst. His head went to a dark place. He thought he wasn’t “man enough” to get his wife pregnant. He felt like he couldn’t give her what they both wanted. He was getting pressure from his parents asking when he’d give them a grand child. The more people asked about kids, the more upset he got. But the problem was: he never spoke about it. He kept it all inside which only made him worse. Rosa knew something was wrong but it felt like any time she tried to address it and tried to make it better, the more he pushed her away.

Just over a month ago, Rosa began to feel nauseous for a few days and very sensitive to smells which prompted her co-worker to tell her to take a pregnancy test. She didn’t tell Liam because if she wasn’t, she didn’t want to disappoint him if she wasn’t. She took the test and finally, a positive. She rushed home, knowing Liam had a day off to tell him the good news but when she came home, the house was quiet. She thought maybe he’d gone for a run since the car was still there but something just felt off. She went upstairs and poked her head in to the bathroom to notice the medicine cabinet was open and there were pill bottles scattered around. She followed in to the bedroom, calling Liam’s name and that’s when she found him. He’d taken as many pills as he could in a bid to go out peacefully. A note on the bedside table for Rosalia saying sorry. She called the ambulance before seeing the note and begged him to wake up but he didn’t. He was already done by the time the ambulance came. He died without knowing that he was going to have a baby.

Rosa has been absolutely destroyed by Liam’s death. All she wanted when she watched his casket getting put in to the incinerator was a bottle of alcohol but knowing she was pregnant with the last remainder of her husband, she couldn’t. She needed this kid to carry on Liam’s legacy. However, because she was only 1 month pregnant, she didn’t actually tell many people at all about the pregnancy. In fact, only her nearest and dearest know and some of them don’t even know. She just doesn’t want to tell anyone until 3 months when it’s safer to tell people. She is now 2 months pregnant and mostly just trying to keep working to distract herself. It’s now that she’s began to notice why her dad did everything he did to her in a sense, following the death of a spouse. Rosalia is simply trying to get through each day the best she can. She moved out of her house, not being able to stay in the house where he died and moved in to a two bed apartment in Downtown that she can afford on her salary and keeping the money left by Liam for the baby and the baby only.

POTENTIAL CONNECTIONS

Police Officers in Providence Peak - they would have known Liam as he was on the force for 8 years so would know Rosa

Anyone in the wedding industry or got married in Providence Peak in the last five years - Rosalia could have potentially been making the wedding dresses for brides and such

If your character fits in to any of these categories, feel free to message me and we can defo plot something out!

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Confidant - one of the very very few people who actually know that she’s pregnant and someone she can talk to about everything going on without feeling judged and vice versa

Foodie Buddies - literally just always have food together - be that take out or cooking for each other. just a wholesome friendship based on food

TBA

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: Samantha Logan

full name: Rian Olivia Baxter

nickname(s) / goes by: Ry, Ryry, Bax, Ian (Called by her twin brother)

pronouns & gender: she/her & cis woman

sexuality: pansexual

birth date: June 23rd, 1998

birth place: Raleigh, North Carolina

arrival to merrock: July 2022

housing: Downtown with Val, Stelly, & Nia

occupation: Bartender + Social Work major (with a minor in photography) at the University

work place: Mack’s

family: Divorced parents - Reece & Lauren. Twin brother

relationship status: Single

PERSONALITY

 Rian sees the world differently than everyone else. She tries to see it through rose colored glasses. Always taking the good out of everything. Very talkative. She wants to leave the world a better place than when she found it. And she’s trying to do that with very limited money, her heart of gold, and her camera lens in her hand.

WRITTEN BY: Kay (she/her), est.

BACKGROUND / BIO

Trigger warning / content: divorce

Rian Olivia Baxter was born on June 23rd, 1998 in the backseat of her father’s volkswagen jetta. She was normally a good kid. Quiet, and always took in her surroundings. She was the type to be sitting around the park drawing on her sketchpad, while her brother would play football with his buddies. She and her older brother (by about 30 seconds) grew up very close. Although, her brother had his own friends, and she had hers. 

When they were twelve, their parents decided to get a divorce. They seemed to grow apart when it came to it. She drifted more towards her mom’s side, and he drifted more towards their dad’s side. Rian became even more artistic, and he became more athletic. 

She grew up in Raleigh. It seemed to be the only place she really had known before. With the help of her best friend who happened to be apart of the system, she learned the ins and outs of the foster care system in Raleigh. 

Her passion for photography grew when she went away on a summer camp for photography when she was about 9 years old. After that, you could never see her without a camera. 

Growing up watching all of the kids in the foster care system, Rian decided she wanted to do something out of the ordinary. She started a pen pal/buddy system with other foster homes throughout the country, and it ended up being a huge success. Kids from all over would write letters back and forth which made Rian feel really good. She even had one of her own whom she writes back and forth to every couple of months. 

After graduating high school, Rian wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. Her family wasn’t well off, and she knew going to college was going to put a toll on her and her family financially. She was able to connect with a woman named Ellie whom she had met through a connection with the foster system, and with Ellie’s help, they send up a fund for her family. She’d be forever grateful for that woman. 

With the money she was able to save with that fund, she decided to move to Merrock, starting to work at Mack’s and starting school to get her Bachelors in Social Work with a minor in photography. She currently lives with three other fun individuals in an old house downtown. 

[nothorses]

Interview With An Ex-Radfem

exradfem is an anonymous Tumblr user who identifies as transmasculine, and previously spent time in radical feminist communities. They have offered their insight into those communities using their own experiences and memories as a firsthand resource.

Background

I was raised in an incredibly fundamentalist religion, and so was predisposed to falling for cult rhetoric. Naturally, I was kicked out for being a lesbian. I was taken in by the queer community, particularly the trans community, and I got back on my feet- somehow. I had a large group of queer friends, and loved it. I fully went in on being the Best Trans Ally Possible, and constantly tried to be a part of activism and discourse.

Unfortunately, I was undersocialized, undereducated, and overenthusiastic. I didn't fully understand queer or gender theory. In my world, when my parents told me my sexuality was a choice and I wasn't born that way, they were absolutely being homophobic. I understood that no one should care if it's a choice or not, but it was still incredibly, vitally important to me that I was born that way.

On top of that, I already had an intense distrust of men bred by a lot of trauma. That distrust bred a lot of gender essentialism that I couldn't pull out of the gender binary. I felt like it was fundamentally true that men were the problem, and that women were inherently more trustworthy. And I really didn't know where nonbinary people fit in.

Then I got sucked down the ace exclusionist pipeline; the way the arguments were framed made sense to my really surface-level, liberal view of politics. This had me primed to exclude people –– to feel like only those that had been oppressed exactly like me were my community.

Then I realized I was attracted to my nonbinary friend. I immediately felt super guilty that I was seeing them as a woman. I started doing some googling (helped along by ace exclusionists on Tumblr) and found the lesfem community, which is basically radfem “lite”: lesbians who are "only same sex attracted". This made sense to me, and it made me feel so much less guilty for being attracted to my friend; it was packaged as "this is just our inherent, biological desire that is completely uncontrollable". It didn't challenge my status quo, it made me feel less guilty about being a lesbian, and it allowed me to have a "biological" reason for rejecting men.

I don't know how much dysphoria was playing into this, and it's something I will probably never know; all of this is just piecing together jumbled memories and trying to connect dots. I know at the time I couldn't connect to this trans narrative of "feeling like a woman". I couldn't understand what trans women were feeling. This briefly made me question whether I was nonbinary, but radfem ideas had already started seeping into my head and I'm sure I was using them to repress that dysphoria. That's all I can remember.

The lesfem community seeded gender critical ideas and larger radfem princples, including gender socialization, gender as completely meaningless, oppression as based on sex, and lesbian separatism. It made so much innate sense to me, and I didn't realize that was because I was conditioned by the far right from the moment of my birth. Of course women were just a biological class obligated to raise children: that is how I always saw myself, and I always wanted to escape it.

I tried to stay in the realms of TIRF (Trans-Inclusive Radical Feminist) and "gender critical" spaces, because I couldn't take the vitriol on so many TERF blogs. It took so long for me to get to the point where I began seeing open and unveiled transphobia, and I had already read so much and bought into so much of it that I thought that I could just ignore those parts.

In that sense, it was absolutely a pipeline for me. I thought I could find a "middle ground", where I could "center women" without being transphobic.

Slowly, I realized that the transphobia was just more and more disgustingly pervasive. Some of the trans men and butch women I looked up to left the groups, and it was mostly just a bunch of nasty people left. So I left.

After two years offline, I started to recognize I was never going to be a healthy person without dealing with my dysphoria, and I made my way back onto Tumblr over the pandemic. I have realized I'm trans, and so much of this makes so much more sense now. I now see how I was basically using gender essentialism to repress my identity and keep myself in the closet, how it was genuinely weaponized by TERFs to keep me there, and how the ace exclusionist movement primed me into accepting lesbian separatism- and, finally, radical feminism.

The Interview

You mentioned the lesfem community, gender criticals, and TIRFs, which I haven't heard about before- would you mind elaborating on what those are, and what kinds of beliefs they hold?

I think the lesfem community is recruitment for lesbians into the TERF community. Everything is very sanitized and "reasonable", and there's an effort not to say anything bad about trans women. The main focus was that lesbian = homosexual female, and you can't be attracted to gender, because you can't know someone's gender before knowing them; only their sex.

It seemed logical at the time, thinking about sex as something impermeable and gender as internal identity. The most talk about trans women I saw initially was just in reference to the cotton ceiling, how sexual orientation is a permanent and unchangeable reality. Otherwise, the focus was homophobia. This appealed to me, as I was really clinging to the "born this way" narrative.

This ended up being a gateway to two split camps - TIRFs and gender crits.

I definitely liked to read TIRF stuff, mostly because I didn't like the idea of radical feminism having to be transphobic. But TIRFs think that misogyny is all down to hatred of femininity, and they use that as a basis to be able to say trans women are "just as" oppressed.

Gender criticals really fought out against this, and pushed the idea that gender is fake, and misogyny is just sex-based oppression based on reproductive issues. They believe that the source of misogyny is the "male need to control the source of reproduction"- which is what finally made me think I had found the "source" of my confusion. That's why I ended up in gender critical circles instead of TIRF circles.

I'm glad, honestly, because the mask-off transphobia is what made me finally see the light. I wouldn't have seen that in TIRF communities.

I believed this in-between idea, that misogyny was "sex-based oppression" and that transphobia was also real and horrible, but only based on transition, and therefore a completely different thing. I felt that this was the "nuanced" position to take.

The lesfem community also used the fact that a lot of lesbians have partners who transition, still stay with their lesbian partners, and see themselves as lesbian- and that a lot of trans men still see themselves as lesbians. That idea is very taboo and talked down in liberal queer spaces, and I had some vague feelings about it that made me angry, too. I really appreciated the frank talk of what I felt were my own taboo experiences.

I think gender critical ideology also really exploited my own dysphoria. There was a lot of talk about how "almost all butches have dysphoria and just don't talk about it", and that made me feel so much less alone and was, genuinely, a big relief to me that I "didn't have to be trans".

Lesfeminism is essentially lesbian separatism dressed up as sex education. Lesfems believe that genitals exist in two separate categories, and that not being attracted to penises is what defines lesbians. This is used to tell cis lesbians, "dont feel bad as a lesbian if you're attracted to trans men", and that they shouldn’t feel "guilty" for not being attracted to trans women. They believe that lesbianism is not defined as being attracted to women, it is defined as not being attracted to men; which is a root idea in lesbian separatism as well.

Lesfems also believe that attraction to anything other than explicit genitals is a fetish: if you're attracted to flat chests, facial hair, low voices, etc., but don't care if that person has a penis or not, you're bisexual with a fetish for masculine attributes. Essentially, they believe the “-sexual” suffix refers to the “sex” that you are assigned at birth, rather than your attraction: “homosexual” refers to two people of the same sex, etc. This was part of their pushback to the ace community, too.

I think they exploited the issues of trans men and actively ignored trans women intentionally, as a way of avoiding the “TERF” label. Pronouns were respected, and they espoused a constant stream of "trans women are women, trans men are men (but biology still exists and dictates sexual orientation)" to maintain face.

They would only be openly transmisogynistic in more private, radfem-only spaces.

For a while, I didn’t think that TERFs were real. I had read and agreed with the ideology of these "reasonable" people who others labeled as TERFs, so I felt like maybe it really was a strawman that didn't exist. I think that really helped suck me in.

It sounds from what you said like radical feminism works as a kind of funnel system, with "lesfem" being one gateway leading in, and "TIRF" and "gender crit" being branches that lesfem specifically funnels into- with TERFs at the end of the funnel. Does that sound accurate?

I think that's a great description actually!

When I was growing up, I had to go to meetings to learn how to "best spread the word of god". It was brainwashing 101: start off by building a relationship, find a common ground. Do not tell them what you really believe. Use confusing language and cute innuendos to "draw them in". Prey on their emotions by having long exhausting sermons, using music and peer pressure to manipulate them into making a commitment to the church, then BAM- hit them with the weird shit.

Obviously I am paraphrasing, but this was framed as a necessary evil to not "freak out" the outsiders.

I started to see that same talk in gender critical circles: I remember seeing something to the effect of, "lesfem and gender crit spaces exist to cleanse you of the gender ideology so you can later understand the 'real' danger of it", which really freaked me out; I realized I was in a cult again.

I definitely think it's intentional. I think they got these ideas from evangelical Christianity, and they actively use it to spread it online and target young lesbians and transmascs. And I think gender critical butch spaces are there to draw in young transmascs who hate everything about femininity and womanhood, and lesfem spaces are there to spread the idea that trans women exist as a threat to lesbianism.

Do you know if they view TIRFs a similar way- as essentially prepping people for TERF indoctrination?

Yes and no.

I've seen lots of in-fighting about TIRFs; most TERFs see them as a detriment, worse than the "TRAs" themselves. I've also definitely seen it posed as "baby's first radfeminism". A lot of TIRFs are trans women, at least from what I've seen on Tumblr, and therefore are not accepted or liked by radfems. To be completely honest, I don't think they're liked by anyone. They just hate men.

TIRFs are almost another breed altogether; I don't know if they have ties to lesfems at all, but I do think they might've spearheaded the online ace exclusionist discourse. I think a lot of them also swallowed radfem ideology without knowing what it was, and parrot it without thinking too hard about how it contradicts with other ideas they have.

The difference is TIRFs exist. They're real people with a bizarre, contradictory ideology. The lesfem community, on the other hand, is a completely manufactured "community" of crypto-terfs designed specifically to indoctrinate people into TERF ideology.

Part of my interest in TIRFs here is that they seem to have a heavy hand in the way transmascs are treated by the trans community, and if you're right that they were a big part of ace exclusionism too they've had a huge impact on queer discourse as a whole for some time. It seems likely that Baeddels came out of that movement too.

Yes, there’s a lot of overlap. The more digging I did, the more I found that it's a smaller circle running the show than it seems. TIRFs really do a lot of legwork in peddling the ideology to outer queer community, who tend to see it as generic feminism.

TERFs joke a lot about how non-radfems will repost or reblog from TERFs, adding "op is a TERF”. They're very gleeful when people accept their ideology with the mask on. They think it means these people are close to fully learning the "truth", and they see it as further evidence they have the truth the world is hiding. I think it's important to speak out against radical feminism in general, because they’re right; their ideology does seep out into the queer community.

Do you think there's any "good" radical feminism?

No. It sees women as the ultimate victim, rather than seeing gender as a tool to oppress different people differently. Radical feminism will always see men as the problem, and it is always going to do harm to men of color, gay men, trans men, disabled men, etc.

Women aren't a coherent class, and radfems are very panicked about that fact; they think it's going to be the end of us all. But what's wrong with that? That's like freaking out that white isn't a coherent group. It reveals more about you.

It's kind of the root of all exclusionism, the more I think about it, isn't it? Just freaking out that some group isn't going to be exclusive anymore.

Radical feminists believe that women are inherently better than men.

For TIRFs, it's gender essentialism. For TERFs, its bio essentialism. Both systems are fundamentally broken, and will always hurt the groups most at risk. Centering women and misogyny above all else erases the root causes of bigotry and oppression, and it erases the intersections of race and class. The idea that women are always fundamentally less threatening is very white and privileged.

It also ignores how cis women benefit from gender norms just as cis men do, and how cis men suffer from gender roles as well. It’s a system of control where gender non-conformity is a punishable offense.