#but now he thinks love is stupid and is now exploiting it to break peoples hearts

[thelovelyruin]

10 𝖏𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖗𝖗 𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖙.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘 : nanami x fem reader (celebrity au!)

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖚𝖓 : being married to a celebrity comes with more than what you expected.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖔𝖔𝖓 : angst with a happy ending, smut, porn with plot, vaginal sex, oral sex, choking, praise, pet names (good girl and pretty), love, teasing, fingering, edging, overstimulation, mentions on stress and anxiety, arguing, stalking? (from paparazzi), hate sex, breakup sex, established relationship

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖙 : 3.1k

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗 : inspired by lyrics from 10 james orr street by strawberry switchblade.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖊𝖒𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖘 : hello lovelies, thank you so much for reading! i hope you enjoy it, if so, follow me for more. au revoir!

18+ MDNI ADULT CONTENT

A note dropped through the door, tells us to go, but I know that you will tell them to go somewhere else.

You walk in front of Nanami now, your security guards trying to escort you two into your Hollywood Hills home. Camera flashes blind you as you attempt to walk to the front door, but one particular asshole decides to get in front of you both to take a photo. That was the last straw for Nanami.

“Give me that damn camera. You think it’s okay to take pictures of people on their property? I’ll get you arrested, motherfucker!”

Nanami took the camera and threw it on your stone driveway, destroying it. He realized at that moment that his actions would result in even more drama for the news to exploit. He could see it now, "Kento Nanami gone crazy, commits vandalism". You guys finally reach the door, the security guards open it for you as you rush in, Nanami slamming the door shut behind the two of you.

Because you know that I want to stay in this house forever, I don't want to ever leave.

It all started when you and Nanami decided to go public with your engagement. His fans were shocked, considering you guys kept your dating lowkey, but once you agreed to marry him, Nanami thought it would be appropriate to let the world know you were about to be Mrs. Nanami. Then, there was the wedding, which thankfully you had in Greece, meaning less paparazzi, but more of them waiting for the newlywed's arrival back home. All you could do was prepare for the change that came with being Nanami’s wife.

For a while, you were hiding out in Nanami’s second home in Bel Air, but why were you hiding? Because you wanted to go on a simple trip to the beach with Mei Mei last month. You went onto social media that night and endlessly scrolled through posts of people commenting on your bikini-clad body. She’s gained weight. She’s getting thinner. It’s like they couldn’t make up their fucking minds. Then there was the next week when you and Nanami walked the red carpet for his new movie premiere. You were absolutely stunning, at least that’s what your husband and friends told you, but you felt anything but. Being overstimulated by the camera flashes, you let go of Nanami’s arm before you could get overwhelmed, in which he didn’t force you because he was aware of your intentions. Oh, but you were so stupid for that. Constant break-up rumors hit the internet, and that was a hot topic. So much so, Wendy fucking Williams featured you on her show. Humiliated, Nanami decided you should stay home for a while to let things cool off, and of course, you couldn’t listen.

How could I ever live in another? This is where I want to be.

You walk towards the kitchen, grabbing a drink of water to decompress as Rob and the other escorts work on closing every curtain in the house. Nanami, obviously furious, walks to the living room, grabbing the TV remote. He turns it onto TMZ, where they’re talking about you out for lunch at Cecconi’s in West Hollywood earlier today.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I give you one fucking rule, don’t leave the damn house without me!”

“Kento, I-”

“Then, not only do you leave without me, you leave without an escort. Anything could’ve happened to you!”

The next clip shows you throwing your middle finger up to an undercover paparazzi taking pictures of you while you were eating, causing Nanami to begin pacing about the living room.

“And that, what the fuck is that? You’re practically begging to get bombarded with negative articles.”

You fix your face into a fit and walk up to Nanami in the living room, slamming your things down on the table, you two yelling at this point.

“Negative articles, that’s what you’re worried about? Excuse me, MR. BIG TIME MOVIE STAR, I didn’t mean to go outside to take a breather and spend time with myself. ALONE. ”

“That’s not what I’m saying and you know it. I could care less about what they say about me, I’m trying to protect you! Every fucking thing I’ve done has been to protect you!”

“I’m tired of this shit, what did you want me to do? Smile for the fucking picture while I chow down on my fucking ravioli?”

Nanami sighs and wipes his hand down his face, walking up to you and grabbing your hands in his.

“You know what? I’m tired of this shit too. Trust me when I say I love you, but I can’t have you going through this constantly. We should get a divorce.”

At that moment, you felt your entire world crashing. Your house began falling apart brick by brick, the curtains were burning, and the floor was crumbling. You throw his hands out of yours, pacing back and forth with your hands in your hair. Long story short, you were losing your shit.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do. It’s the only way-”

You know that there won't be a high wall I can’t climb and find the things that I find.

“Kento, you’re not serious. You’re not fucking serious right now. Is it because I didn’t listen to you? I’m sorry, okay? I should’ve stayed put and waited for you or Rob to take me out.”

“It’s not that simple. You’ve been harassed for weeks on end, just for fucking breathing at this point. I can’t keep seeing you hurt.”

“I can go back to Bel Air and hide out there again. I’ll stay there as long as you need me to!”

“So they can follow you there? And then what, hm? We have to move you all over again? No, we get a divorce and then my fans and the media will leave you alone.”

“But, baby, I, just please…”

“I’M NOT ARGUING WITH YOU ANYMORE. Start packing your things and Rob and the others will help you move them out. I’ll get you an apartment in Soho, but you’ll have to wear a disguise for a while. I won’t be seeing you anymore, it’s for your own good. ”

 I'll have to leave them where they are, I don't want to go far.

And with that, you begin to cry. Grabbing your purse off the table, you wipe away your tears and run towards the grand staircase, throwing your MACH & MACH heels over the balcony. Nanami hears the sound of your heels hitting the floor, rushing to the lower landing to ensure your well-being, only to be met with your clothes being thrown over the balcony at him.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Throwing all of the shit you bought for me out! Keep all of this shit, I don’t want it anymore.”

“Oh, don’t be such a goddamn cunt about this. You know I fucking love you.”

You stand at the top of the balcony, looking him in his eyes as you throw your rolex over the edge, diamonds scattering all over the floor below.

“Fuck you.”

A tear-stained pillow doesn't seem to help me, I can't make you change your mind.

You begin to grab your cosmetics out of the master bathroom, frustratedly dropping toothpaste and lotion bottles amidst your tirade. You run back into your separate closet, scouring the shelves for a bag big enough to hold your clothes, but alas, you realize your efforts were in vain when all you find are your Birkins. Pacing about the room, looking for the clothes you had before you met Nanami. Then you remember, you have your Goyard duffle in his closet, which as much as you hated it, you were gonna have to use. Walking across the hall, you see Nanami coming up midway on the staircase. You chuckle a bit, running to the closet to grab the duffle before he can stop you. Unfortunately for you, when you turn around to exit the room, Nanami stands in the doorway.

I look through my window and I see all I want to, how can I leave it all behind me now?

“What the fuck are you doing?”

You push by him, pissing him off even further. You’re walking back to your closet now, Nanami closely behind.

“What do you mean, Kento? I’m packing my things.”

“No, you’re going on a rampage!”

As you walk into the master bedroom again, you get a glimpse of the backyard through the window, memories of you and Nanami dancing on the patio together and friends coming over for discrete cookouts. And now here you are, leaving it all because he was picking his fans over his wife.

I've done all I can do, I want to stay here.

“A rampage? Bitch, I can show you a rampage.”

With that, you walk back into your closet, throwing clothes off hangers as he stands in the doorway, scorching with anger. Every piece of clothing you throw, Nanami picks up and places in a pile on the bed, presumably to organize later. In revolt, you walk out into the bedroom, throwing them back on the floor again.

“The fuck are you doing?”

“The fuck am I doing? You mean, the fuck are YOU doing?”

This could be my home forever, but you say I can't come back ever.

You walk up to Nanami, glaring up at him, considering he was much taller than you (not to mention his bigger frame).

“You tell me you want a divorce, how do you expect me to react? Be a good little wife and kiss your ass, ‘Oh, Kento, I understand.’ Then you must be fucking DELUSIONAL!”

Picking up the clothes from the bed, you begin throwing them at him.

“You ungrateful motherfucker… I BUILT THIS HOUSE, ME! I picked the goddamn floorplan and the furniture and everything? Who do you think manages things around here when…you’re off shooting another movie…or screenwriting another TV show? Me, you asshole! You get to come home and relax after working, and what do I get?... Harassed by your…fucking…fans…because you’re too scared…to tell them to FUCK OFF!”

You don't know just how much I wish I could stay in this house forever… 

In a swift motion, Nanami comes over to where you’re standing on the other side of the room, grabbing the back of your neck and kissing you roughly. At first, you try to push him off, but eventually, you give in. You know you can’t resist him, not when he’s kissing you like he’s gonna eat you alive. He quickly brings his hands up to lift your legs off the floor, wrapping them around his waist as he drops you on the bed, much too frustrated to be gentle with you. And that’s where the love bites come in, licking and sucking at your neck like some kind of animal and it just feels so good. Especially when he brings his hand up to your tits, pulling your shirt down to release your breasts, expeditiously putting one in his mouth, rubbing your nipple between his tongue and teeth. You push him back, leaving him in an upright position where he has the perfect view of you. Frantically, you begin making work of his button-up, and when you get caught on the top button, he rips his damn shirt off. But who cares right? What’s another $300 shirt? He makes it quick when he pulls your shirt off of you, then your shorts, and finally, flips you onto your stomach so he can unstrap your bra. His lips are back on you now, licking and sucking his way down your back, breathing down your spine as you let out soft moans into the pillow. He stops at your panties, bringing the fabric of your thong between his teeth as he brings his fingers up to hook under the strap. He rips them off, which was the least of your concerns, especially when your husband is lifting your lower body up so that you’re on your knees.

…I don't want to ever leave.

Nanami pulls you closer to him, hooking his arms under your legs to bring you close to his face. And then, well, he goes to town. His tongue starts to pump in and out of your pussy, hearing the mewls and squeals you’re trying to hide in the pillow. He pulls his tongue away, watching you squirm and whimper for it to come back.

“Stop moaning in to the pillow, I wanna hear you, baby.”

“Oh, I thought I wasn’t your ‘baby’ anymore?”

He’s angry, bringing his face down to eat you again, and he’s fucking amazing at it, making you feel like a virgin with how fast your orgasm was coming. He’s got your clit now, sucking at the bud like there’s no tomorrow. And you’re a mess, moaning his name into the air and gripping your fingers into the bedding. Nanami bring his hands up over your legs to massage your ass, gripping and slapping the skin and he swears he’s fallen in love with you all over again. 

You’re nearly at the end now, that fire burning inside you and Nanami’s tongue being the damn gasoline. Sure, you were still mad at him, but currently, all you could think about was the way he was fucking his tongue into you, lapping your juices up happily, dedicated to making you cum on his face. And that’s exactly what you did. As your body began to jerk, he brought your pussy closer to his face, so close that it was suffocating him, but who cares if he couldn’t breathe? His pretty little wife was cumming so lovely on his lips, to which he drank up, fully indulging your essence. As you were coming down, your body turned to mush and you sank into the bed, but that didn’t stop Nanami from continuing.

“Ken, I can’t…”

“I know you can, pretty girl. Give me one more.”

How could I ever live in another?

Overstimulated and spent, you come down from your second orgasm, but you knew Nanami wasn’t done with you. He quickly pulled you to the end of the bed, pumping his fingers inside you to prepare you for his dick, which he was pulling out of his pants. Your mind was still fuzzy, because you hadn’t even heard his belt fall to the floor, or his pants, or his boxers, or his watch, or his chain. Well, you woke up pretty damn fast when you felt him slowly sink into you. You swear you died in that moment, drowning in lust as Nanami parted your pussy like the red sea. But now, he was teasing you, moving his hips at a terribly slow pace, and to be frank, it was pissing you off.

“Kento…”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“Please, just fuck me already!”

“If you insist, dear.”

You’re beginning to wish you hadn’t said that. Nanami started fucking you at a dangerous pace, bouncing you back onto his dick just to slam his hips back into you again. His hands were on your hips now, fucking you deeper and harder, making you moan gibberish into the air. He brings a hand up to slap your ass, reveling in the sound of it smacking against his stomach. He laughs a bit as you moan with every slap.

“Look at you, such a brat earlier, and now you’re falling apart on my dick.”

“Fuck you.”

“Trust me I am.”

Immediately, Nanami halts, pulling up your upper half, his hand gripping your shoulder as he begins fucking the shit out of you. If you thought you were going mad before, it was definitely happening now. All you can say is his name as he drills his dick into you, hand around your throat as he makes your eyes roll into the back of your head. You can tell he’s close from the way he’s panting and moving at a more rhythmic pace. He lets your shoulder go slowly, bringing your body back down to meet the sheets. One hand on your side and the other gripping the bed, he lowers down to your face, sucking on your neck as he fucks into you deep and slow. His face is nuzzling in your neck and hair, taking in your scent as he hears you moan and groan at the pace of his hips. You’re so close and Nanami knows too, that’s why he’s fucking that spot in you that has you throwing your head back and losing yourself on his dick.

“C’mon baby, give it to me. I wanna feel you cum for me.”

That was it for you, body spasming from your third orgasm. You ride it out as you feel Nanami fill you up, groaning and whimpering your name into your ear, sucking the skin there and panting.

“That’s it, that’s my good girl. My pretty little wife.”

This is where I want to be.

Nanami falls to your side, groaning sadly as he pulls his dick out of you. Both of you stare at the ceiling now, panting like you ran a marathon. He looks over at you and then gets up to go to the bathroom, you hear him organizing something as you remember you pretty much moved like a tornado in the bathroom trying to pack your things. Shortly, he come out with a washcloth in hand, cleaning you up while you squirm from overstimulation. He cleans himself and throws it into the hamper in the bathroom, walking back to you on the bed and lays down. He pulls his arm around you and you can’t bring yourself to take it off of you. 

“I’m gonna get you more security and tint the windows on the Ghost, the Aventador too. We should probably get you therapy too for all the stress and anxiety this has given you. I’ll have Alexandra fix your things back in the closet and I’ll take you to replace the damaged items. I’m gonna talk to my manager and see if he can organize paying some of the snappers to fuck off, I’ll be going on to my socials to tell my fans to relax. Can’t keep fucking with my girl.”

As he kisses your forehead, you feel yourself exhausted, lying on Nanami’s chest as you fall asleep. He nuzzles his face in your hair, holding your hand and rubbing his finger against the 4-carat diamond ring that adorned it. There’s no way he could leave his pretty little wife.

You know that I don't want to go.

♱ the song used in this story is 10 james orr street by strawberry switchblade. 🖤

♱ masterlist.

♱ all fics playlist.

𝖆𝖚 𝖗𝖊𝖛𝖔𝖎𝖗, 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖞𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖓.

[seven-oomen]

Trans husk AU | It's allright, I've got all I need

A few cool things about the AU:

Sinners bodies reflect their human bodies around the time of death. Meaning that if they had scars, or surgeries (say trans surgeries) those scars carry over and regenerate with them. It just becomes the new default.

Trans sinners demon forms and voices reflect their gender identity, though their bodies may stills have features from their assigned sex at birth. It depends on whether they had certain surgeries.

Sinner demons who happen to be children at their time of death will always be children for eternity. Mentally and physically.

Sinners can't normally reproduce, but there are ways around that of the angelic or divine variety.

Will come up with more.

So for now, enjoy a snippet of Angel finding out about Husk's surgery scars!

Still, there’s something in him that wants to try. For however long or short this may last, he wants to try.

“Will you-“ He starts but he quickly finds that the words leave him again when Angel blinks up at him with a content grin.

“Yeah, Husk?” He laughs.

“Will you, uh, wanna go out with me sometime?”

It’s Angel’s turn to fall quiet for a minute. Fuck, he miscalculated this. Took a gamble that’s way out of his league. This is stupid, he’s stupid. He’s just thrown everything out the window on a stupid chance- “Forget I said any-“

“-I’d love to, yes.”

Their eyes meet once again and for a moment he forgets everything around them and just drowns in that gaze. He said yes… Angel actually wants to go out with him, take this to the next step. It’s insanity, but a welcome insanity. “Yeah?” He whispers.

“Yeah, can’t wait to see where you’ll take me.” Angel giggles, his fingers trace up from his abdomen up to his chest, then pause.

“I didn’t know you have scars.” He says as he traces along the edges of his surgical scars. They’re remnants from his body on earth, something that’s been on him since the day he arrived in hell and something that’ll regenerate with him if he ever ‘dies’ in hell.

It’s silly and he knows it but his first instinct is to try and hide them by smoothing his fur. Though all that really does is push Angel’s fingers further into his chest.

“Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it.”

“I-“ He tries to find the right words. Logically he knows Angel doesn’t give a rats ass about things like that. He’s a porn actor and sex worker, he’s probably seen every sort of body type that’s out there. But he’s so used to trying to hide it, from his time on Earth, and then as an overlord to stop people from exploiting it as a weakness, it’s a hard habit to break.

“I ain’t sure how to explain it. It’s- They’re from a surgery I had as a human. This, demon form manifested with ‘em.”

That seems to be enough of an explanation for now. For Angel nods and shrugs with a “that makes sense” as he traces the scars down to the end where he smooths his fur back over them and presses a kiss to the area.

“I think they suit you, you know? Tells a story of a survivor hidden underneath.”

There’s a strange feeling down in his chest and abdomen. Something that feels entirely to great and yet very constricting as he watches Angel accept a part of him that he’s tried to hide for so damn long. “Yeah…” He whispers, turning his gaze away from the man in his arms to a spot on the nearby wall.

What do we think?

[doberbutts]

The other thing I liked about Being Human (US) is that the core cast are all incredibly flawed and damaged people who still love each other at their core and genuinely want things to work even though they make spectacularly stupid choices at times along the way.

Aiden is incredibly easy to trigger due to his laundry list of past and present issues and when he's triggered he doesn't shut down or go quiet. He gets ANGRY. He gets *violent*. There was a joke between my friend and I when we watched over the summer and holidays that he was a big fan of using neck snaps to solve his problems but was startlingly bad at dealing with the fallout except by continuing to kill people to cover up his problems. When he fights with Josh he gets personal, he's so combative and confrontational, and he wears that prickly exterior whenever someone sees through the stone mask and pokes at a fleshy bit a little too hard.

But we also see Aiden break down and cry. We see him sobbing uncontrollably as he loses control again and again and again. Every time he manages to scrape together a bit of happiness before either he or someone else fucks it all up and it blows up in his face. He wants to stop. He doesn't want to hurt people anymore. And he can't figure out how to do it because it's like hurting people and driving them away or killing them is the only thing he really knows how to do.

So many times while watching I would yell "talk to your fucking friends asshole" and he would continue to either shut them out or get close but lose his nerve halfway through and remain silent. He wanted that connection very badly and simply couldn't make it happen. The few times he did open up to Josh or Sally he was well received, which I think was really a bright point in the writing because it showed the audience that the problem was that Aiden couldn't figure out how to be vulnerable due to [redacted plot things] rather than because his friends were jerks.

And overall I think that balanced well with Sally, who's various exploits *also* usually blew up in her face, and Josh, who oscillates wildly between "sad and more than a little afraid of himself" and "picks weird hills to die on because it's literally the only way he manages to feel any amount of control in his life". Josh and Sally both frequently vent about things to Aiden, but he almost never reciprocated until pretty close to the end of the series. He hides things from them, he dodges questions, he finds convenient excuses to not talk about stuff, even when they prod and pry to get something out of him.

He only explains after things hit the fan and everything goes to shit. Usually, because his friends have been there to catch him when he falls, and he has to tell them *something* about why there's so much blood on his hands (sometimes literally) yet again. And they get mad at him, but ultimately they forgive him, because fuck, a werewolf and a ghost aren't really in any place to judge now are they. Even then, it's not usually the whole truth.

(And it's interesting, in the what-if scenario where they weren't there to catch him as he fell, just how bad things got)

But then he's afraid he's going to lose Josh, and he's afraid he's going to lose Sally, and he's afraid he's going to die, and he goes to Josh, and he says "I'm scared, and I don't know what to do".

And Josh stops, and realizes that Aiden has never asked him for help, not really, and has never actually been vulnerable with him, and has always worn the brave and stoic face even as things are melting down at catastrophic levels. And he says, I'm here.

Aiden is such a bad victim and he makes some real stinkers of bad choices along the way but they make sense for his character once you learn about all the shit that's happened since he became a vampire and how fucked up things got for him before he realized he needed out. And he backslides and he backslides and he backslides but he keeps trying because what's the point if he doesn't at least try.

Anyway the hill I will die on is that this show would have done numbers on tumblr if it came out slightly later. Ah well.

[anewp0tat0]

Kuroshitsuji Chapter 194

wow! I feel gross! and sad!

this chapter has left me quite perturbed, but for once it is not in reaction to Yana's humor or her decisions on portraying children. I think this is an appropriate and warranted reaction to seeing so many children being... what's worse? groomed, or harvested?

I do like seeing Finny get serious cause I just love seeing emotions, that's just me. but of course I'm still left very afraid if our local sun child is so on edge.

and the way that snake doesn't understand why Finny is so unnerved. hhhhhHHH this is gonna HURT ME.

and then of course there's the child exploitation. it appears to me that they're being trained to replace everyone in the phantomhive manor(more simular to the previous staff), for the most part.

I'm just gonna admit it though, I don't understand why they need... so many. do the souls/bodies need to be replaced regularly, and these are all back ups? I would understand that for the Ciel doubles, but what are the rest of them for. so many child servants??

the dark place my brain went to is that the undertaker basically plans to immortalize the phantomhive manor- or what it once was- by replacing everyone with these bodies and souls, from an orphanage that gives him a constant supply. my God. probably not the case eh?

and this hurts me too.

it seems that no matter what, Doll will always be stuck in the position of leading people to their doom(in the circus she was[allegedly, i forgot if she ever stopped hesitating] killing people on the side, and here she's raising these kids so that their souls can probably be replaced). it's just awful.

plus the way that she is taking charge here, almost undoubtedly aware of the deeper plan, that's just very grim. it seems that there won't be any happy ending for this character. it's a good think Yana sprinkles humor in there cause we need it.

also, about Finny and Snake recognizing everything. after seeing everyone in costume preparing for their future role play, it now makes most sense that these rooms were made to resemble the phantomhive manor. what I don't understand is... why don't finny and snake just say that, if that is indeed the reason why the rooms look familiar?

I mean for snake, sure, maybe it'll take him a moment. but the phantomhive manor was practically the only home Finny had, so I feel like if the rooms were so simular then Finny should pick up on that instantly: something like "this looks like the tea room from the manor...!!!" so why are we not already at this conclusion? is Yana writing Finny to be stupid so he doesn't connect the dots for the sake of suspense? does she think we're stupid and haven't already noticed the similarities? I doubt either is true. so maybe I'm just over thinking it, dunno

yea this may be the worst(affectionate, I do hope) mini arc yet 👁,👁,

especially since I'm pretty sure Snake is thinking that Doll doesn't know what Ciel knew, that the rest of the circus arc was kidnapping children, and that they left her to continue doing that. and he doesn't know how to tell her. probably.

either way, 3 way deception. nice :] we should start betting on who breaks the news first

[charmixpower]

You said you were happy to give more ,so I'm back for the sweet sweet child Valtor HC's (any plans for writing a fanfic? ). You've opened pandoras box and you can't close it now.

Muah! I'm so glad you're enjoying this little crack au that I got WAYYY to attached too and am now taking seriously XD

I could do like a one shot fic or something but my main concern rn is surviving s6-8 and wow

Anyways here's some SWEET headcanons

Not all of them are nice bc I cannot be dragged away from the angst but most of them are!!

Valtor is legally a ward of Light Rock and will be until he turns 18 and competes in his rehabilitation. I imagine that Light Rock is actually a nice place, the Trix just did not jive with it or the concept of becoming better people. He does therapy at the compound, and his favorite type is art therapy. Valtor really likes it there with his 76 well trained older brothers who are also technically guards

He picks up a bunch of different hobbies at Light Rock. He loves all the activities. They introduce him to theater and it goes exactly like you expect. He LOVES it, and invites the winx et al to all of his shows. He loves the costumes and dramatics about it, and eventually he's listening to Stella talk about types of stitches so he can make his own clothes too

You know those magic limiters the Trix wore on their foreheads at Light Rock? Valtor wears one but he can break it and take it off whenever they want. They're still trying to find a way to actually limit his magic, at some point Valtor got involved in the process

People were first really worried that Valtor could take off the magic limiter whenever he wanted but it slowly became clear that he's perfectly content to stay put so eventually no one cares. The Light Council even gives permission for Valtor to use his magic eventually, despite the fact he's supposed to be limited

Valtor was the one who told Bloom how to get to Obsidian. Like he was there when that happened and he spent all his time after the Ancestrals got trapped trying to get them out so he can just tell the Winx

He obviously doesn't go with them, just because he has the ability to use free will and the obedience built into his essence is now gone doesn't make him immune to mind control spells and he'd rather not. He also REALLY never wants to be face to face with Belladonna ever again, Icy was bad enough tbh

When Bloom puts her hacks powers back where they belong (in Domino) and becomes a normal ass (still stupid powerful, shes related to Daphne AND part of fire mixed with her magic at this point) fairy, she has to learn how to fight like a normal person instead of abusing the fact she doesn't get magic exhaustion. She spars with/around Valtor, primarily because as the Wizard of Magic he can tell her when she's getting exhausted bc she doesn't notice

When the Winx practice group combat they usually spar with Valtor too, who is ecstatic to spend time with the Winx AND use his magic, and they're all there like "if you didn't pull your punches for most the year and have an obvious exploit in your design (aka if you were a nomral born person) we would of never won."

Valtor is technically transformed 24/7 and can straight up die from magical exhaustion. Unlike other magic users who would just detransform, collapse, and pass out, he's far too sustained by his magic to survive without it. This is one of the said design flaws that could be used to defeat him, please note how both this and ripping his elemental components apart would both kill him

He's a kid but he's the WIZARD OF MAGIC, literally anything that's magic is under his domain and he absolutely treated their fights as games bc he COULD curve stomp anything. Belladonna wasn't fucking around when she created him

He still considers Bloom his sister after she gives up her HAXXS that makes her magic feel like his. Bloom thinks this is adorable and takes him out for family time. Valtor looks forward to whenever anyone comes to visit him, especially when he gets to leave the compound (it's nice there but he's used to having access to a lot more space) but especially when Bloom does it

Magic attaches to symbols easily, and Valtor made his mark to make really complicated magic (like Witch magic mind control and Fairy magic power boosting) easier on himself. He made the symbol at like 4ish and has been using it since. Sometimes he makes the symbol from his hands when he just shoots magic at the problem bc he thinks it looks cool

Eventually Helia takes over administration over RF from Saladin Valtor likes to hang around the place and he gets to help out with combatting magic lessons! Exciting for Valtor, terrifying for literally all the students. Riven and Diaspro tend to be around™ bc Helia harasses them into being around and they do not help the situation. The staff at RF uses Valtor to haze the freshmen. Valtor eventually notices this and is stuck between intentionally freaking them out and not wanting people to be afraid of him

Bby Valtor is Belladonna's biological son, no father. He's made from a combination of all the elements instead of just fire and his true form is more uncanny and otherworldly instead of chthonic looking. A very strong "I shouldn't be looking at this" energy, his appearance sets off the flight or fight response but it's not incomprehensible or anything. He's still humanoid it's just when you're a creature closest in make-up as all 5 of the gods of your world you end up looking weird. Still dragon looking tho

Nabu comes around often to just chat with Valtor about his magic. As a scholar Nabu is thriving asking questions about Valtor and Valtor loves the attention, everyone else is a little concerned if Nabu should be getting child that nearly took over the dimension thinking about how to use his magic more efficiently but it's fine. Valtor is a good kid now

Btw if the planet of Espero (where dimension wide government buildings are hosted, including Light Rock) was ever attacked....no it wouldn't be <3 Valtor would put an end to that shit so quickly it wouldn't even be a fight

[ultfreakme]

"Sure. So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't. You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind."

I was so sad, when reading this, what do you think?

Hm, I think whomever said this obviously has their own reasons for disliking Geto and I'm cool with that. I really don't want to like, argue this specifically and try to come up with something that's like "um actually, you're wrong" because this is how they view the story and Geto's character. I personally am partial to evil characters as long as I think they're fun. But I do want to engage with this, and I'm thinking that's what you want too Anon?

To break it down:

Geto's incompetent and acts like a Disney villain I understand why it can come off like that. Disney villains usually have simple, straightforward motives, the older 2-D ones acted flamboyant and show-y, in which case Geto fits into it all. I think the OP meant his reasons are shallow but I think Hidden Inventory gives you a perfect, deep insight into his spiral and how he ends up being so extreme. Geto seems incompetent but to put into perspective, he's been working on this cult for 10 years(and is rather successful), when he was fighting Yuuta, he was also technically simultaneously fighting literally every sorcerer in Tokyo and Kyoto. There's been hints throughout the movie and especially in the light novel, that Geto wasn't exactly fighting to win. He's not in his right mind like you can see it in the way he is towards the end of the fight. Gojo says Geto doesn't want to be saved. I think Geto could have survived after fighting Yuuta, he had just lost an arm and yeah that's a devastating blow but JJK characters have moved pretty well for a good while after worse injuries(Nanami was half burned and was fighting, Toji was literally speaking with his guts blown out, Todo had his hand chopped off, there's probably more I'm forgetting). Geto COULD have gotten out but as we established from Hidden Inventory, he would allow Gojo to kill him, that part stands above his own ideologies. It's subtext, but it's like Geto was giving up. He wasn't intending on winning, he even made escape plans for all his cult family members but not for himself? That's not something a man who's sure of victory does.

Geto doesn't get pushback Oh he absolutely does. No one's engaging with him on his ideologies on-screen, sure, but Geto atp is not someone you could reason with. Shoko engages with him, calls him out on how childish he is but Geto doesn't engage he straight up ignores her and just politely chuckles, he doesn't want to. It's a dead-end and that's what extremism does to you. On top of that, it's been explicitly stated that the sorcerers agree with him on some level. Nanami still respects him, Shoko worries about him, Gojo too. Because they know where he's coming from. His end goals are stupid but the starting- getting tired of being exploited and being forced to watch everyone you know and love die for ZERO credit or help, is exhausting. No one pushes back because no one can wholeheartedly oppose the root of his problems and they don't WANT to. If Geto isn't listening, and a good chunk of the adult sorcerers who can speak with him don't want to, what's the point of forcing an engagement? We as the audience know why he's wrong, it doesn't need to be spelled out in a conversation with Geto specifically. There are other parts of the story that engage with the argument itself, but Geto isn't present. Ultimately, the ideology is refuted very thoroughly by Kenjaku, Yuki and Gojo! In the anime episode where Yuuji got his heart-ripped out and is in Shoko's office about to be examined, Gojo tells Ijichi "hey, I could just kill everyone and do what I want but that's inefficient. what I can do instead is build a good, strong community of sorcerers who use trust and teamwork to change the system from within" or smthg like that. That's Gojo refuting Geto's way of working. Yuuta does say "hey back off stop hurting my friends" but like, it's obvious he's also talking about every other non-sorcerer, he's just using his friends as a launch-point. The movie shows Maki specifically because we've built an emotional connection to her, so the idea of a character we and the MC knows personally dying puts into perspective the devastation of Geto's plans. It's hard to understand the effects of killing every non-sorcerer- the scale is too big(it's why kids shows can say "we're ending the universe!" but not "I'm going to rip your mother apart limb from limb", one feels worse), so we concentrate it on one person and now we can imagine the horror every other person will feel.

Geto doesn't give pushback It's because he doesn't give a shit what others think. If you wanna join, go ahead, if you don't, well he doesn't care to convert you. Even with Yuuta, on the surface it looks like recruitment but his final plan is killing Yuuta to get Rika. He didn't even seem serious in his talk with Yuuta. Geto doesn't argue being like "hey MY way is the high way" because sorcerers aren't his final enemy. They can believe whatever they want, as long as they don't get in his way. He lets his cult members and his daughters engage with non-sorcerers and doesn't push his ideologies on them. He doesn't engage with non-sorcerers because their opinions mean nothing to him. Geto's oddly lax about his ideologies(hence the split in his cult family on whether they should respect Geto's body as Kenjaku or follow his ideals, if Geto was stricter this wouldn't even be in question). There's also the fact that Geto's self-aware enough to know that his goals are fucking ridiculous. It's why he doesn't ask Gojo to join him, or even Shoko. Isn't it odd that he points out that Gojo's very capable of following through Geto's plans, but Geto doesn't ask his bff4ever to even consider this? Gojo ASKS him "hey explain yourself" but Geto chooses not to. He's thinking of himself as this martyr who's gonna go on this dangerous, impossible path to create a world where the people he loves, the sorcerers, are safe. His cult, his ideologies, it didn't make him happy. He thought this is the sacrifice that needed to be made and he was willing to bear the burden. His ideologies are like his power; they put him above others by destroying him.

The rest is OP expressing they dislike his character and that's cool, that's their choice and me liking him or contesting this is not to change their minds, just to....idk engage with this because I think it's fun.

I like Geto because of these things. I'm reasoning all this but I know he's evil, irredeemable, but I think he's a prime example of how selflessness can go horribly wrong when you don't engage and communicate. We see how lonely he is, how isolated the JJK society makes their sorcerers. Perhaps this lack of communication and engagement with his ideologies with Geto himself in-story is intentional- I think it is because the manga's all about love and loneliness when it comes to the special grades, the distance power creates.

Thanks for the ask Anon, I think it's best to ignore people who dislike characters we like, it's always going to drive us around in circles trying to discredit or disprove them XDXD(I did this with Jiang Cheng from Mo Dao Zu Shi, and it was really draining after a while).

Geto my belove pookie princess criminal!

[hekateinhell]

I come like a beggar and ask about fluffy post-canon Armand & Lestat 🥺

omg if there's one thing you'll never have to beg me to talk about, it's them! I did do a general headcanon post for them a while back, so I needed to ponder it for a bit so that I wouldn't repeat myself too much. but thinking post-canon again:

We know a deep love of Shakespeare is something they share and they're both theatre kids, so I bet they enjoy attending performances all over Europe and North America whenever they get the chance—from Shakespeare's Global Theatre in London to small community plays put on by local high schoolers in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It's an easy, low-stakes topic of conversation; something they're passionate about and can spend at least an hour or two afterwards breaking it all down (the acting, directing, design, etc).

Lestat loves animals, and he's always had a bit of a gift in being able to connect with them. Armand used to visibly wince every time Lestat would stop to pet a dog on their walks around Paris, getting dog hair on his designer pants and scuffs on his Italian shoes from an overly excitable pup, but now it just makes him happy to see Lestat happy and carefree since that's such a rare sight in and of itself these days (heavy is the head that wears the crown and all).

Once every few years, they fall down the rabbit hole of watching the trashiest of reality television together. The storylines don't make sense, the cinematography is atrocious, the fashion and acting even worse. I won't name names, you know what I'm talking about. "Grotesquely entertaining in its stupidity," Armand comments. Lestat can lay there spellboundatwalmart.jpg for hours on end with his head resting on Armand's lap, unable to look away while Armand absentmindedly plays with his hair.

Eternally 17 and 20 respectively, Armand and Lestat will always pass for older teens/young adults. They look like any other teenage couple sneaking around in Central Park to cuddle, grope each other, and make out after dark. Of course, they don't have to sneak around to do anything but it's fun for them to roleplay being young and starry-eyed innocent mortals without a care in the world. They also exploit their appearance sometimes by dressing down and blending in with other people "their age" for a night. It's a nice change in routine from the responsibilities of Trinity Gate and Auvergne and always makes for an amusing story.

Not conventionally fluffy, but I think they would find it very erotic and oddly tender to watch the other feed off a human that resembles them. Armand's heart would be so full witnessing Lestat in the rapture of a swoon over a mortal that could've passed for Amadeo's brother and same goes for Lestat. Aside from petty squabbling, this is a much sweeter version of their foreplay. ♥️

[notdeezy]

Brief Character Analysis on Harley Quinn the Animated Series' Nightwing

I see a fair amount of people who hate the Emo characterization of Nightwing but I actually think that this is a really interesting take on Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson who, growing up, was never properly loved by Batman. (Proven by Poison Ivy cutting deep with the sentence "He's never going to say that he loves you" after Dick tries defending Batman's actions for kidnapping Frank and experimenting on him)

He tries everything to seek approval and Validation from Batman because his own self esteem is non-existent. He takes a facade of acting pompous and confident all the time to mask his insecurity and goes into a mental breakdown if he slips up and does even the tiniest of mistakes, most likely because he felt like nothing he ever does was good enough for Bruce Wayne to pay attention to.

And I think this is a common experience that a lot of Siblings have because when you compare How Bruce treats Damian, you see that Bruce overdid it with giving Damian love and attention to the point he's now Spoiled.

What triggered his Mental breakdown in his debut episode is that he failed a Puzzle in a deadly escape room which sent him and Poison Ivy to die. Nightwing ends up calling himself stupid and a Failure and afterwards attempts suicide basically by waiting for the deadly trap to kill him instead of trying to escape. Him saying that he's going to kill himself and actually attempting it wasn't him being hyperbole or dramatic. He genuinely has moments where he truly believes the world would be better off without him, especially after having failed to save Blockbuster from being killed and being branded a failure in Blüdhaven.

"I never should have left Gotham City. I got Restless and Batman pushed me to do it HE PUSHED ME TO DO IT!"

People overlook this way too often in my Opinion and Hearing Nightwing shout that in such an agonized way breaks my heart.

This shows that despite how Nightwing is willing to do anything for Batman's approval, he also Still bears resentment for the things he makes him do. And I think he unfortunately knows that despite that, Batman is willing to continue exploiting Nightwing like this because Nightwing won't stop trying to seek validation from him and will always end up blaming himself in the end anyway.

Which brings me to my last point. The only thing he has left grasping on to gain any resemblance of a self Esteem is his own Alter Ego: Nightwing. If Dick Grayson isn't clinging onto Batman, he clings onto Nightwing to try and find purpose in his life. It's the only thing he has left to prove to himself and the world that he is not useless and a Failure. That as Nightwing, he can still protect people. Be of use. Which I suspect is why he came back to Gotham after failing Blüdhaven. To give himself that one last chance.

TLDR: Nightwing tries acting emo but deep inside he's just a little guy, Batman is an asshole and Crime fighting is NOT a healthy coping mechanism.

[mikewheely]

Honestly, the one most important thing I have understood from all these people doubting Mike and El's love for each other, calling their relationship 'toxic', and how they need to break up because she needs to be 'independent', even though we all know why these are being said in the first place, is that how vague all your perception of 'love' actually is. Maybe one day you will understand, I really hope you do, that love is not so black and white. It has its good times, it has its difficult times, it has its own complications. It is not a bed of roses all the time. And it's not only about romantic love. It's the same with your family and friends. Just because there are hardships, and fights, and arguments, and doubting yourself, does not automatically mean it's toxic. Neither does it have anything to do with you not being independent and strong. You can be deeply in love with someone and still be your own person.

And yes, when you love someone, you automatically give some power, some right to that person that they may have over you. It's unsaid, but it is there. It only becomes 'toxic' when you let them exploit you, or prevent you from being your own person, or torture or abuse you.

I know this obviously wouldn't make sense to you now because you would just refuse to listen to it, but I hope it makes sense one day. When you are... mature, emotionally.

Mike never tried to control El. He was the only person who was asking others to stop controlling her the way they want because she is not a machine, or a dog. In ST3, he particularly gets more mad at Max because she was implying that he is controlling El.

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit!"

He was just trying to tell her not to misuse her power for stupid things like that. You see when she eventually loses her powers, how upset she gets? It's like, losing her powers almost came as a punishment to her. For taking its advantage when she didn't need to. And I think it was really interesting how someone pointed out that when in ST4, after El was taken away, Mike never said that he wished she didn't leave. He always said, he wished she had taken him with her, wherever she is. There's a difference. If you don't want to acknowledge that, don't do it. But then don't go on to shout and say how 'problematic' their relationship is. You don't even know what actually is problematic, and toxic. Mike and El's relationship is anything but toxic or problematic. No matter how much you twist it.

[cathymee]

Telesforo NO-

It drives me mad why they keep the locket so much ;-; that they made Juli a dang servant (that the family/Tatang Selo does not want to do)

This is also the chapter of: Juliana Slander and well... Why are they arresting Tatang Selo?

Since i cannot understand much.... Simoun selling at Tales' den is well... just why?

This is just... foolish. Unless he is framed.

MY FRIEND I AM SO SORRY FOR ANSWERING SO LATE OMG ;-; just went through a busy month as i am about to graduate in my current year and had no time to pop back in here huhu but i've gathered my 2 brain cells now except whatever i wrote here isn't coherent at all

also first off the fact that this chapter is called merry christmas...u wanna beat up rizal w/me

aaaaaa i was screaming at simoun the entire damn chapter!! injustice really drives people to achieve justice and/or retribution in ways they see fit, and to achieve it with fury and vengeance is what simoun wanted to happen for all filipinos which is so fookin dumb like !! YOU BETTER STOP. and to think i had classmates before who cheered him on for exploiting the unprivileged and the oppressed like this bc "haha the indios' rebellion go brrr" but shits on activists and people who hold leftist political ideologies now by red-tagging them,,,, wild. like look around!! see what state we are in right now for people to be desparate enough to rebel and oppose the clowns, murderers, and the thieves in power. WILD.

juli's servitude still makes my heart hurt even now too :( it's just all so fucking cruel for all of them involved. selo just loves her granddaughter so much it breaks his heart enough to want death over seeing juli suffer being a servant instead of being the rich maiden, comfortable and well, that he had envisioned and wanted her to be…juli just loves her father so much that she tried all the plans and ideas she was offered just to earn money…juli just also loves basilio so much that she thinks she wouldn't be good enough for him but is at least comforted by the thought that she didn't sell the locket that he gave her as a sign of her loyalty….crying in the club rn. i understand why it's so frustrating at a logical standpoint tho because selling the locket would really really help them & basilio would give 0 fucks about the locket as long as juli and her family would be safe and well arrghhh I FEEL SO FRUSTRATED OVER IT AS WELL

juli slander INDEED literally she deserves so much better!! I WILL FIGHT ALL THE FUCKING FRIARS FOR HER

(another thing: do you think rizal forgot about sinang being really close friends with maria in the noli LMAOO bc the way he wrote sinang in this chapter has me raising eyebrows like sir. she was mc's cousin & bestie. we know it's been 13 years but come on…)

and they were supposed to arrest tales, as tales did commit murder but since he wasn't to be found they arrested tatang selo. (also Tales wasn't framed :( he intentionally left a trace behind because, well, vengeance. it's a sign and a threat to the authorities. :') )

i literally do not think there was any law out there at that time that states that they'd arrest another family member if the one who committed a crime wasn't present?? i mean i know like it was a colonization thing and the filipinos were heavily, heavily oppressed but i was thinking about if there were still any laws involved in this that i don't know about. does this make sense.

though granted the only thing we learned at school about laws in the spanish colonization era was the polo y servicio & nothing else, and to dive into the criminal laws in the Philippines in the 1800s at 12 AM is very tempting but i can't because i don't have the brain cells for it. i'm so sorry 😭 but even if that was validated by the law - which grants executions anyway?? actually??? and the system was GREATLY unjust and unfair towards Filipinos??? why is this mind-boggling sorry i'm very stupid HGSHGSHGAH - that was still unjust, tyrannic bullshit. and i wanna fucking fight simoun for being delighted at all literally fuck him

ANYWAY 😭 Simoun sold jewels there because that was the disguise he took on when he arrived in the country - he's a rich jeweler dude who tagged along to the Philippines because he's the Captain-General's closest friend (and the one who influences him to do bad shit, like what he details in ch7), now he's just. frolicking around. selling his stupid jewels when he knows most filipinos literally cannot afford his trinkets. a taunting figure of wealth and power just fucking shit up in the background

[mysecretwindowuniverse]

Piggybacking off my last ask (tysm for the reply btw, feel free to message me about the Jerome/Oswald/Edward triangle at any time, I’d love to rant/hear you rant about hcs!!!)

Oswald doesn’t usually laugh at Jerome’s jokes- he does find him funny, though he’d be loathe to admit it, and he doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction- there’s something about the tense atmosphere when Ed’s there that makes it really hard to keep his composure- like how when you’re in a church or some serious environment and you giggle at stupid stuff you wouldn’t normally react to bc the tension is so unbearable.

So when Ed’s around, Oswald can’t help but chuckle at Jerome’s nonsense. And Jerome notices this- he also notices how riled up Ed gets at this- and since he lives to get reactions out of people, he really lays it on thick when the two of them are around. It’s just a mess. Oswald tries to keep it in and apologizes to Edward profusely, but he always ends up doubled over in laughter while Ed seethes and Jerome prances around, basking in the chaos he knows he’s causing.

@lllillithh This is *chefs kiss* perfect!

(Note: I think my response went way off the rails and careened out of control, but once I started I couldn’t stop! Hope it’s not too far off course, and is still enjoyable)

Life in Arkham is a fishbowl, the world of Gotham shrinks down to daily life in the asylum. As a result, what was in total a six month relationship, feels like it lasted a year. Nearly every minute of every day, for more than three months Jerome and Oswald were together, experiencing all sorts of chaos within the decrepit walls. This extreme closeness resulted in both knowing the other very well, far better than others would ever surmise. All this to say that Jerome knows the exact jokes/shenanigans that will unravel Oswald’s composure in a nanosecond, and he exploits this liberally.

Now, because I love villain messiness in fiction, I can’t help but ponder: are all of Jerome’s efforts to make Oswald laugh - at Ed’s expense - truly from a platonic place? Is it solely because he loves to bask in the chaos, or does he have an ulterior motive, constantly reminding Oswald of the fun they had when they were together?

Obviously, Ed has a wholly warped and biased view of the situation, which makes it nearly impossible to impartially observe the interactions between the exes with cold, unflinching logic. Still, there are a few things about the interactions between Oswald and Jerome that give him . . . pause.

Like how the texting between the two has increased in frequency, ever since Jerome and Ed officially met, and how Oswald always seems to smile whenever he’s reading a message. Oswald will roll his eyes, lips quirked with amusement as he taps out a response and sends the message off before returning to whatever task he was attending to before the interruption. Then there’s the absurd abundance of inside jokes the two share, and any attempt at inclusion in on the joke is met with a blank stare from Ed, and a dismissive ‘You had to be there!’ in between peels of laughter. It’s the way Oswald and Jerome get started on a story from Arkham, and then spiral down a rabbit hole of reminiscence at the drop of a hat. And the way these reminiscing detours can go on for more than twenty minutes if uninterrupted - Ed has timed it. There’s the seemingly instinctive way Oswald leans in to listen whenever Jerome is speaking, and Jerome taking the opportunity to - platonicaly, of course - direct Oswald with a ‘friendly’ hand near the small of his back that makes Edward want to break every bone in the clowns body.

Then there’s the looks between the two that last just a hint too long for Edward’s comfort.

Anytime he voices a complaint (ok, fine, gets red faced and starts yelling), his concerns are brushed aside by Oswald, who chastises him for his ‘paranoia’. Ed can tell that each time it happens, Oswald grows more exasperated with his outbursts, to the point he’s begun apologizing to Jerome on his behalf, which makes him see red. And then, out of Oswald’s line of sight, a cheeky wink is thrown Edward’s way and the cycle starts all over again until Oswald is ushering them out the door with more profuse apologies. Jerome plays it dumb and gracious, calling after Oswald that he’ll text him, and then typically gives Edward a taunting little wave before the door closes. The rides back to either the Iceberg Lounge or Van Dahl Mansion are often spent bickering, and each one gets a little more vicious than the last.

Of course, Edward doesn’t think Oswald would stray, but he doesn’t trust Jerome as far as he can throw him - and then further. And for good reason. 

Jerome, the bastard, is far more clever than he lets on, and that’s what has Edward so utterly frustrated. He wields the knowledge he has about Oswald less like a chainsaw, and more like a damn scalpel, a maneuver Ed would have thought wholly out of his capabilities, given everything he knew about the lunatic. Oswald might repeatedly affirm the platonic nature of their relationship, but there’s a devious spark in Jerome’s eye that Ed catches and the slight pique of a brow that promises to obliterate everything he holds dear.

One of Jerome’s favorite ways to show Edward up is by showering Oswald with gifts, both in person and via cavalcade of messengers, sent to both Van Dahl and the Lounge, each one bearing a new trinket that makes Oswald delight. In some way, without fail, every gift manages to make it appear that Jerome knows Oswald better than Ed - it was almost impressive, if not so rage inducing.

The gifts range from things like an obscenely expensive tie pin or brooch acquired during a recent heist with ‘Saw this and thought of you ;)  - J’ crudely scrawled on a sticky note, all the way to the literal head of a rival gang leader. A gang leader that had been causing numerous issues and evaded Oswald and Edward’s grasp for weeks, a lament Jerome heard first hand via Oswald’s numerous tirades about the touchy subject. Jerome, of course, decided to personally deliver the violently acquired trophy with the transparently flimsy explanation ‘Was in the neighborhood, thought I’d drop in an’ see the happy couple! Oh! Almost forgot - brought something for ya!’. When Oswald lifted the lid of the gift box, he practically squealed with glee and immediately launched at Jerome with a very enthusiastic hug to show his appreciation, which Jerome graciously accepted with a smug cackle. The rest of the fucking afternoon was then spent listening to Jerome regale how he ~ by sheer coincidence ~ happened across the in-hiding leader while skulking around the Narrows, and the way he managed to separate the body from it’s head in a most *creative* manner. Oswald hung on every fucking word, positively basking in a rival’s gruesome demise, and prodded for extra detail. Just when Edward thought he’d kept his visible seething at bay, Jerome had to go and pull out a fabled black book that was the lifeblood of the gang leader’s operation. Oswald’s face greedily lit up and promptly snatched the book from Jerome’s hand, and he hardly paid Edward any mind when the stem of his wine glass snapped in two.

As Edward made his way to the kitchen to retrieve a new wine glass, the exuberant laughter of the exes followed him down the hall.

Oswald wouldn’t stray. 

_______________

Part 1

[kattahj]

My Agatha Christie Re-Reading Project, #36: Sparkling Cyanide

This was one of my childhood favourites, so it's hard to come at it with fresh eyes. Re-reading at my current age does change some things, though, like how I sit here going, "Holy fuck, Iris, you are nowhere near old enough to be ready for a guy like Anthony Browne!" I mean, I get it. Man's attractive, even on paper. But as a first love for a sheltered teenager, he's a bit more than I think she's ready to handle.

(Sidenote: I looked up the Wikipedia page, and apparently there's an adaptation starring Anthony Andrews in the role. Which, um. Fucking Ivanhoe? Yeah, that… doesn't work at all, even disregarding the fact that Anthony Browne is visually very Mediterranean.)

Anyway. To the main story. I like the way we bounce around all the different characters' POV, even though Christie is a bit sloppy with it – there are bits where we get the internal thoughts of characters who are not the POV character.

The plot works fairly well, though it does depend on disguise to an extent that is perhaps not entirely convincing. Still, I like that Christie isn't going for the obvious choice of murderer, and makes a plausible cause for everyone to be a suspect.

I do feel bad for Rosemary, this time around, not just for dying but for how harshly she is judged by everyone around her. She's not a bad person, she's just stupid and selfish.

When I was a child, I couldn't understand how Stephen could be a Liberal "by predilection" yet join the Labour party one moment and the Conservatives the next. Now, it seems entirely plausible for a career-chaser like him, though it doesn't exactly make me think higher of him.

Colonel Race as the detective is a bit anonymous, and seems to mostly be there because someone has to fill the role. The whole detective aspect is toned down, anyway – it's neither he nor Chief Inspector Kemp who cracks the case, and they only get enough evidence by interrupting a murder as it's about to happen. But I kind of like that there isn't always a strong detective character. Break free of those restraints!

I admit it's a bit iffy to have Christie sing the praises of "imperial building" military just back from South Africa, but that's par for the course for these novels. (And she's very critical of people just drifting around the Empire for funsies and small-time crookery, like Victor Drake. Gotta have order to the exploitation!)

Altogether, a solid book, though perhaps not the most likely one to lure in a first-time Christie reader.

Verdict: 3/5

Next up: The Hollow, which I must have read once, back when I bought it, but don't remember at all.

[weregonnagetyou]

continued from (x)

“I don’t get it. That stupid books is buried in the woods somewhere. Or burnt up with the cabin. Unless there’s more than the one we found? Thinking about it makes me nauseous.”

Mia turned to look at the wound, placing her fingers lightly on his head. It was pretty deep. Guilt washed over her. She didn’t want to hurt him but had no choice. He was coming at her with a knife and came pretty close to using it on her. This was what she hated most about the demons. The way they turned people on each other. They forced you to have no choice but to harm or kill your loved ones. They did it gleefully.

“Who knows if there’s any hospitals running still. We don’t know how far the demons have spread. They spread fast. My friends and I were all possessed within a few hours.” She continued to study the gash, wondering if she could try to stitch it herself or try to just glue it together.

Leon’s next words made Mia pause. Her eyes met with and her brows furrowed.

“Stop. Don’t talk like that.” They had met by chance. The deadites were appearing out of nowhere. Mia was expecting to be killed or possessed again. Luckily she ran into Leon and luckily he used to be a cop and knew how to use a gun. Sticking together only made sense. Mia didn’t plan on getting so close to him. Having close relationships with the demons around was a bad idea. They always found a way to exploit them and break them. She could accept making a friend in such a shitty situation but then he kissed her. Now she was all messed up. Killing him at this point would surely break her.

“You’re not gonna slip again. You’re stronger than that. Besides, it could be me getting possessed. If that’s the case then you dismember me. Or burn me alive.”

@outbreaksurvived​

[megsmulti]

Chenford + you should break up with him

Thank you for the prompt anon!! This takes place after 4x17.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tim and Lucy were walking and talking in the hallway after parking the shop back in the garage of the district. It's been a couple of days since Chris sang the song that haunted Lucy forever at the DA's office. Tim wanted to know how that went since he wasn't there and he missed her, even though he wasn't going to admit that out loud, especially to Lucy.

"I was standing there with Tamara and the intern when out of nowhere, Chris just starts singing that stupid song and-" Lucy relayed as she was stating to Tim the exact details of the events that occurred.

Tim furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait. What stupid song?"

"That song I sang in the barrel on the day I got kidnapped." He widened his eyes. "Dream a Little Dream."

"What?" Tim asked, stopping their stroll momentarily. He could not believe what he was hearing. The DOD, as it was dubbed, traumatized Lucy, and when people exploit that in any kind of way, it pisses him off.

"Yeah. He claimed that he had it stuck in his head."

There was a brief bout of silence before Tim resumed the conversation. "Can I give you a piece of advice?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure," Lucy replied. Even though she didn't need it, she will always listen to Tim. Sometimes, he had very insightful words that not even she thought of.

"You should break up with him." Lucy raised her eyebrows. Who does he think he is? she thought as she was still processing what he said.

"Excuse me?" Lucy fired back. "Since when do you tell me who I can and can't date?"

"Since he traumatized you even more by singing that god damn song!" Tim exclaimed, matching Lucy's tone. "He knew that that day was terrible for you, yet he still did it anyway!"

"You may be right, but it could've been a mistake." Lucy tiled her anger down a little bit. "He saw the footage too!"

"Maybe so, but you and I both know that he also might've had an ulterior motive."

Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. "Do you have it out for Chris or something? You barely know him."

"No, I don't have it out for him." He may be jealous of him because he's dating Lucy, but he doesn't wish death upon the guy unless Chris takes things further, then Tim makes no promises. "I care about you, Lucy, more than you could ever know, and I hate it when people take advantage of that day or of you in general."

Tim wasn't usually one to bare his soul to anybody, but Lucy was the only exception. Well, maybe Angela in certain instances too. Point is that he doesn't do it often and when he does, he's saying everything with his entire chest.

"You do?" Lucy was dumbstruck by Tim's revelation. The feeling was mutual for her too, but hearing him say that for the first time melted her heart.

"Yeah. I thought you would've known that by now," Tim said, stating the obvious.

"Well, thank you for the advice. While what Chris did was wrong, I may not actually love him like I thought I did." Lucy spouted a truth of her own and if Tim was being honest, he wasn't surprised by that statement in the slightest.

"Really?"

"Yeah. He's kind of boring. I don't like that in a relationship."

Tim chuckled, which prompted Lucy to follow suit. Their radios interrupted them before either one of them had a chance to speak and that led to a collective groan.

Lucy was scared to tell Tim about her day at the DA's office at first because she knew damn well that he would march on in there and beat the living daylights out of Chris, even though he may have deserved it at the time. But, admitting that her feelings for her boyfriend have started diminishing to someone she really cares about felt good and she knew that Tim wouldn't judge her on anything she has to say whether he agrees with it or not.

[ruminate88]

Healing Journal 06/04/24

I was pretty sensitive and protected in my bubble as a kid. I was taking care of my grandma and raising my bro’s kids by 15. I knew struggles but not like I do now. Not until I was emotionally abused… I never talk about “Jake” as much as Cody or Andrew cuz Jake was a bully and he scared me a lot. I tried to make friendship with him through the years but keep boundaries because he would act so sweet and caring until I would get close to him. Then he would strike with his low key, “I am your friend so listen to me I know what is best for you always and therefore, I will tell you how to act and what to say….” Jake wanted full on control. 🥴 He would be so flirty and vibe with me and his mystery was always drawing me back in. Jake is the one though, who exploited all of my private photos on his Twitter and he claimed they were on his Facebook too for his “family to see” 😳💀 Idk if he actually did that cuz grossss I was too upset and scared to look but why????? Jake for sure kept me on the edge. He would leave me alone whenever I was in a relationship but always come back around afterwards and be my “friend” again but continue to act like he knows best for me…

Jake made comments like “You shouldn’t be depressed. You should be happy.” Ok… sounds nice, right???? But if you listen to his undertone, he’s actually downplaying how depressed I actually was cuz soon as things didn’t go his way, he’s talking down to me like I’m stupid. Jake has called me a “racist”, a “bigot” and a few other choice words in the past… It’s no different than Andrew saying, “you’re too beautiful to be depressed.” SAME EXACT UNDERTONE. 🥴🤡

It’s all lies… they were all the reasons I stayed depressed as long as I did. I was in a pattern of dating these “emotionless men” and they all hate me cuz they can’t have me or be me. I don’t think I’m better than them but I’m capable of feeling empathy for them and they’ll never have that for me. They’ll never feel sorry for me or care when they make me cry. 🫤 It’s just who they are I believe. The more I’ve told my story and listen to other people’s stories AND break down my story, dissecting it all, it was emotional abuse and there has been days I’ve questioned am I truly healing from it all and I am!!

The hardest wall to get over has been the ruminating, the feeling worthless because of them, feeling I need their approval on everything I do AND they broke my trust so I struggle to trust anyone else or even my own self. I have to FORCE myself to be with my husband cuz I know he’s a nice guy but I’m scared he could be pretending… 😓 Andrew made me doubt my own reality and my feelings. Did I even love him??? (Which I realize now it was just a sick and twisted trauma bond)

Just becuase you find people attractive, doesn’t mean you know them or love their heart. I still think Andrew is so handsome 💀😝😝 But I keep telling myself that everyone’s looks fade and if Andrew can’t treat me correctly, then I’m glad I dodged a bullet. I have to fight the cognitive dissonance and keep my head in reality. Ugggh I keep remembering all the pics he sent me from his shower when he was at college like grrr why did he have to do that to me??? (Not cool) haha 😆

[hedoughnism]

@max1461

So I’m also a secular atheist, but unlike you, I find myself drawn to that sort of neopagan gaia-worship , polytheist pansychist twisted east-Asian mishmash , shamanism, get high and try to talk to dolphins shit, And I’m … not really trying to persuade as much as get to an understanding,

Ok so getting the queer stuff out of the way first, I’m a gay guy, and Abrahamic religion sucks for that, like not just regular level “ of-course these lessons from this ancient society condone genocide and patriarchy and shit” I mean in the sense that homophobia* was just not a thing before , that thousands of years of “civilization” existed before some cranks in the levant Invented it , and the fact we just act like this make sense, some people really seem to treat homophobia as some primordial bad condition like tribalism and sexism as a natural default state of civilizations, feels bad, some people hyper-fixate on demons or stain-glass windows of Jesus or whatever and get their queer hands all over it , I look back on history and go. “ we’ve existed long before and will exist long after you” and like to think of this Abraham shit as a passing fad.

* This is long enough already, but your arguments otherwise are stupid and bad, your generally holding queer relationships to an impossible standard you can’t hold the straight relationships of the time to, and the nuances were highly varied in the greco-roman world let alone further afield. I would explain more but this is a tangent.

I’m also sort of Buddhist brained, “stoicism” is sometimes treated as the western equivalent of secular-Buddhism, but it didn’t catch on, or was warped into “ Tough Men don’t have feelings” nonsense, so yeah, Budhist philosophy speaks to me as someone low on drive and who cares about suffering and doesn’t really like existence.

Now polytheist stuff

I don’t believe in gods, but gods make more sense than A God. Because things that they’re are only one in the vague category of are rare, and because a bunch of lower power level spirits causing shit better explaisn stuff like “ the problem of evil” or “ conflict existing”

But There is more to it than that

Cause, when Y*hw*h became the only god, he didn’t really go from “ storm god” to “ god of everything” , he became the god of nothing

Gods are the personifications of complex phenomena , especially natural ones, Y*hw*h became the one God, but he did not become Mother Gaia, or the panpsychist universe as god, he became an empty god of nothing, a god with no sacred groves or springs or caves, not a god of the earth that we grow our food in and must tend, the world become mankind’s plaything he gave us,nothing sacred or special, just a toy to have fun breaking , his worship only in buildings with closed walls, not the open builds of Roman temples, monuments to mankind

And I’m a nature loving hippy, Ive tried to rationalize it https://placeholderatthemoment.substack.com/p/conservation-as-compassion-a-101 but it’s also an aesthetic preference, it is something that speaks deeply, ( largely cause its been the only alternative given to Conquer Everything and Everyone to Subjugate as part of Mans Domain since forever) , and I’m not a fan of noble-savagery, that sort of thing is very exaggerated, but I think there’s a tiny grain of truth that Abrahamism encourages a destructive approach to nature , and this callus attitudes against nature and wildlife seem to have peaked with the victorians, who defended over exploitation by saying god can always make more,

The last thing is… I low key think polytheism is reasonably likely , Here Me Out

So “ Who is sentient” is litteraly the Hard problem, very hard to tell, generally I include animals with centralized nervous systems ( bilaterians and clown jellies and box jellies) and exclude the rest, but there is some murkiness, I think there’s a reasonable possibility coral or even non animal stuff lime slime-molds are sentient , and also mycorrhizal networks

Now that’s not me saying “ the plant” or “ the fungus” is sentient, I thing thats negligible, but the entire system, all the fungi and roots together, of large numbers of organisms of many species, passing electrical and chemical signals between each other, I give it like a 10-20% chance

Now its wouldn’t be the tree that’s sentient, or the fungi sentient. This isn’t your bog-standard sentient organism, this is something that is sentient, but isn’t an organism , this is quite literally/ the spirit of the forest/ AKA a forest god, this is just the most obvious example of a type of god that might exist, their is a good chance there are more

Yeah so that’s my mishmash of why that sort of shit appeals / speak-to me, even if most of is is anti scientific non sense I don’t believe :)