#but now that i can actually see her as the full person that she is im like wow we're so alike and i love her so much

[sonik-kun]

Let's remind eachother why Jiang Cheng resorted to leading the seige, shall we?

If you recall, WWX inadvertently killed JZX after he lost control of WN. JZX being JC's brother in law .. The heir to the powerful Jin sect but most importantly, his sister's husband whom she loved dearly.

EVEN THEN JC DIDN'T OUTRIGHT DECLARE A SIEGE!

We see he's reluctant, torn, but still holds some hope for WWX. This can be seen in the line thereafter where WWX loses control once again and JC cries "I thought you could control it!"

Both JC and JYL in that moment couldn't truly bring themselves to go after WWX and hold him accountable. But we can also see that they are torn. That they are unsure how to feel about WWX and the dangerous person he has now become. We see this when JYL is dying and she can't bring herself to express what she may or may not be feeling in that moment.

But love and loyalty aside, let's look at what would happen if JC didn't take part in the siege.

If JC didn't take part he would either look complicit in JZX's death or he would look like a weak coward who rolls over for his former second in command. Not only that, he would be expected to pursue justice on behalf of his sister. How would it look if he didn't raise a finger to kill or apprehend his sister and her husband's "killer?"

We don't even know if he wanted to kill WWX in that siege or apprehend him. Giving his literal job and the politics of that world, he wouldn't be wrong to do either. JC's job is to keep his people safe. And if WWX has become a threat, a threat that killed two of his family members, then I'm afraid to say it is his duty to stop him.

I would also argue in defence of his mental state at the time of his siege. JC literally lost his only remaining family left, his sister leaving behind an orphaned nephew. He's also not being fed the information we as the reader receive.

From his pov WWX had not only betrayed him to side with the sect that had nearly decimated his own, but it also looked like he had walked down the dark path and had become corrupted by his DC. His corruption had led to the death of people who he loved. In JC's eyes, WWX had betrayed him first.

Now before anyone starts, I am in no way condoning the massacre of the Wen remnants. But I would like to argue that we don't even know JC's full role in the siege other than that he lead it.

His goal was to get to WWX. If he wanted the Wen dead, he would have sided with the rest of the cultivation world in the beginning instead of defending WWX's actions and being mocked and demeaned for it. He was willing to embarrass himself and receive criticism from the other sect leader's for WWX! That to me suggests his love and loyalty for his brother.

For all we know, JC's party could have went after WWX and his fierce corpse army. Whilst the Jin took advantage and took care of the Wen. WWX never blames JC for the death of the Wen nor does he seek justice or revenge. Instead he puts the blame on the Jin when the truth of their conniving comes out. So.. if you think JC should be held accountable for the Wen, WWX himself doesn't even entertain that idea. 🤷

So no, actually. The siege does not nullify Jiang Cheng's sacrifice. JC made that sacrifice out of love for his brother without a second thought. JC only turned against WWX at the very last minute when he inadvertently got his beloved sister killed. He could have picked the easy way out and sided with the three powerful sects to take down WWX and the Wen a long time ago but he didn't. Because he loved WWX. He respected him. And he was only pushed to commit the atrocities he commited because of WWX. JC is not inherently evil.

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt: the Core Four gangs up on Kon's objectification kink. (( chrono || non-chrono ))

And really, Cassie has always been perfectly happy about having a cunt, but fuck, right now she can see the temptation of having a cock instead. She wants to fuck the mess of Kon’s mouth so bad. She could just go dig out her strap, obviously, but the idea of using a toy on a toy doesn’t really feel like it fits, and she doesn’t wanna break immersion or anything. 

“It probably would,” Tim muses, and then he buries his face against her shoulder, his breath coming soft and short and staccato. He’s definitely close, yeah. He can usually hold out pretty long, especially after all this time of learning how to best pace himself to keep up with the rest of them, but he’s still a baseline human. “Mmm. ‘Pretty’ how?” 

“Like pretty,” Cassie says, and drags her thumb down the come-slick center of Kon’s lower lip, pressing down on it and stretching it away from his teeth. He’s still not breathing, and his eyes still don’t try to focus. “Mm. You really made a mess in there, Bart.” 

She probably said that already, but considering her personal taste for a partner making a mess in her, well . . . 

That must feel good, that’s all. 

“I mean, whatever, I can mess it up however I wanna if I’m the one cleaning it out,” Bart replies with a dismissive shrug, not even bothering to look down at Kon as he says it. Cassie lets go of his face and wipes her sticky fingers off across his chest, making the gesture careless and uncaring. Like she’s just using the nearest surface she isn’t worried about staining, because a toy wouldn’t stain; like she’s not concerned about how dried come on his skin might feel for Kon if he doesn’t get cleaned up before it does, because why would a toy feel anything? 

“Fair point,” Cassie says as she reaches back to stroke through Tim’s hair a few times, because his breathing just picked up a little sharper and she’s pretty sure he’s about to– 

“Mm,” Tim murmurs quietly into her shoulder as he comes inside Kon, his body tensing up against her back and hands gripping her breasts tighter for a moment, purposeless and directionless. Cassie strokes his hair again and presses a quick little kiss against his temple as his hips slow and stutter through the last of his orgasm, and stops rocking her own hips and ignores Kon’s cock inside her as anything but a source of pleasant pressure and fullness, like it’s not as important as Tim right now. 

“Had fun?” she asks him, dragging her nails lightly against his scalp. He presses a kiss of his own against her shoulder and shifts back enough to pull out of Kon–which he doesn’t usually do that quick; usually he takes his time about it, because Kon likes how it feels. But if Kon’s not here, and just a toy is . . . well, then obviously Tim wouldn’t have a reason to do that, would he. 

Kon doesn’t make the whiny little disappointed noise he usually does when Tim or Bart pulls out of him, though. 

So–yeah, Cassie is pretty sure she’s going to get herself off to literally just this scene and nothing else until the next time they can all get together at once. Pretty much positive, actually. Pretty definitely positive.

[halfblood-princes-crown]

Hello I have some outside perspectives to the “Is Snape an abusive teacher” argument.

So, I work with middle aged people who have kids of their own, and none of them have ever touched Harry Potter. At all.

I laid out a scenario for them of two teachers. One teacher was Snape and the other was McGonagall. Mr. S and Ms. M

I laid out how Mr. S is mean and verbally rude to the students. I gave examples of some of the things he said, such as threatening a students pet and making a joke about a students physical appearance.

The response to these things was:

My boss: oh, I’d never call for a teacher-parent conference so fast. What warrants a comment like that?

My fav coworker: He said something about a girls teeth? I’m not a violent person but I’d make his teeth look much worse if that was my daughter haha

Next, I laid out Ms. M and how she told a student in front of his class that he was useless, sent three children into an area that was extremely dangerous as a punishment, then locked a student out of the class when there was presumably a school shooter around.

The responses were:

My boss: I’d go to prison! What the fuck? This school sounds like it has a problem with verbal abuse overall, but to actually put my child in physical danger is another level. Anyone who can confidently put a child in danger like that needs to be under a prison

My fav coworker: Mr. S suddenly looks tolerable…so wait, how dangerous is this area she sent them? Like dead body dangerous? (Yes) Oh, yea, I’m joining him in the prison she’s under HAHA WHAT oh my god…

At this point in the conversation, another woman walked in. She’s definitely a grandmother, and they told her the scenario. She basically said Ms. M needs to be investigated. Talking shit and doing shit are two different things, and Ms. M could be thrown in jail for the bull she’s pulling. I actually hate this lady but she ate down right there

The conversation quickly forgot about Mr. S.

Counter arguments would ask if I laid out Mr. S backstory. I ended up revealing that I was talking about HP and I laid down the Snape lore in full. I’m telling you now, they didn’t give a damn. In their eyes it’s like…Ok he’s obviously not mentally fit to be a teacher, but he’s doing it out of a promise to protect a kid, which he succeeded at doing, and he wasn’t the one putting a kid in physical danger, he was putting HIMSELF in danger. It solidified their opinion when I said he died saving everyone.

Parents for Snape💪🏽

I think I want to show them snater arguments next to see how they respond to those. It wouldn’t be fair if I only gave them pro Snape arguments (although I laid everything out in full and they easily could have came for Snapes neck), so I want to see if they agree with anything from anti Snape arguments. They seemed invested enough.

The only thing “anti Snape” they seemed to agree with is that he was dead wrong for joining DEs, but I think we all agree on that. Duh.

[onthat611beat]

꒰ 🍰 ꒱꒱  ꣑୧ 7 𝒱AMP 𝓑ROTHERS X 𝒴OU ? !

𝓐KA .. 𝓓ARK 𝓜OON 𝓑OYS 𝓐S 𝒴OUR 𝓑FS !!

𝓗ELI

♥︎ The sweetest boyfriend ever.. have you seen the way he treats Sooha?

♥︎ Always exhausted after nightball practice but still makes a beeline for your dorm to hang out, help you with your homework.. and if you’re tired too, he’ll just give you the answers :P

♥︎ As calm and mature as Heli seems, he’s honestly a little puppy-like, always following you around, even if you don’t have classes together.

↳ Heli’s hands gently stroked your hair, running the soft strands through his fingers. He particularly loved when you wore your hair down, because it was easier for him to play with it. Truth be told, he felt at ease when he was with you. Heli forgot his schedule when he was with you as well, which is why he was shocked when you suddenly stopped and turned to stare at him.

“Ah.. what is it, princess?”

“Isn’t your class that way?”

♥︎ oh.. he loves calling you princess. if you know the lore, it’s not because you were a princess in your past life or something like my opp Sooha. he just finds it a cute nickname !!

♥︎ don’t be surprised when he suddenly starts showing up in all of your classes, by the way. it’s not like he threatened the teachers to switch him to your classes.

(the other 6 are under the cut!)

𝓙AAN

♥︎ since jaan is a lot like jay, i think he’d act a lot like him

♥︎ he always gives you his jacket, even when it’s hot out. he claims it’s so that no weirdos try and ask you out, but really in all honesty, his heart swells with pride seeing you in his clothes.

♥︎ holds your hand at every given opportunity. he just loves you sm!!

♥︎ possessive, not in the stereotypical “touch her and i’ll kill you 🐺🐺🐺⛓️⛓️🥀” type of way (well maybe in his head) but more of a “yeah she has a boyfriend. 😐” type of way.

↳ “Do you ever get dress coded for not having your jacket?” You suddenly blurted out. Jaan, who had been sitting next to you, seemed caught off guard by the question.

“Well, no, not really. But I’m sure you know that my brothers and I are favored around Decelis, even by the teachers.” He responded, although looking to the side as he talked, as if attempting to recall any memories he could relay to you. Afterwards, though, he cracked a grin, taking one hand and gently ruffling your hair. “But even if I did, I wouldn’t mind. You’re worth more to me than a good school record.”

♥︎ pats your head a looot. even if you’re taller than him. plus….. he coddles you so much. you can do no wrong in his eyes.

𝓙INO

♥︎ very reckless. loves you so much.

♥︎ loves when you come to watch him practice, will do stupid and risky moves just to impress you, even if he ends up falling flat on his face.

♥︎ breaks rules all the time just to be with you!!

♥︎ comes to class with you and will sit in your partner’s seat even if that person has to move

♥︎ hops onto your dorm’s balcony late at night to hang out with you, pounds on your door and makes you groan loudly and shove your head into your pillow bc YOU WANNA SLEEP !!!!

↳ “Um.. Jino?” Your boyfriend turned to look at you, green eyes glistening as he gave you his full attention. “Don’t you have history right now?” You addressed the elephant in the room: the fact that Jino had kicked out the boy that usually sat next to you without any remorse.

“Yeah, I do.” He sat back and nodded, giving you a serious and non-apologetic stare, as if he was waiting for you to try him.

“.. Nevermind..” You felt a slight chill go down your spine, and just looked away. Maybe it was better to just not say anything at all.

𝓢OLON

♥︎ oh boy

♥︎ tsundere … usually i don’t use that word but we’ve all read the webtoon.

♥︎ was shellshocked when you confessed bc he’s always so aloof and mean!! but he didn’t complain .. and he’s the same way as your bf

♥︎ “i didn’t try and walk with you! i just have a class over here.” meanwhile his class is in another building

♥︎ is actually so sweet and doting, but all of that is hidden behind his shy and standoffish demeanor. he’s such a sweetie though..

↳ “Ki—wait—kiss you? I— I.. “ Solon stuttered, blood rushing to his pale face, flushing it red. You stood there in front of him, tapping your lips expectantly. Was a goodbye kiss before classes started such a tall order? You pouted, and Solon tried to reason: “You.. you can’t just ..”

Getting impatient, you stood on your toes and grabbed Solon’s face without warning, pressing your lips onto his. He froze up for a moment, but let his hands fall down and find your waist. Solon was sweet, you just had to give him a little push to make him act like it.

𝓢HION

♥︎ oh boy x2

♥︎ if you thought heli was clingy, wait until you meet shion

♥︎ pouts and will even cry if you don’t hang out with him in between classes

♥︎ i talked about confessing for solon: for shion, he didn’t even confess, just kissed you one day in front of everyone while you were walking to math

♥︎ is so delusional, holds hands with you as he skips down the hallway with you walking behind him, a little embarrassed at how he just cuts through people

♥︎ wants to get married and have kids 💔

↳ “.. Shion, what is this?” You deadpanned as your boyfriend dragged you into a seemingly expensive store. Okay.. you had to admit that you felt a bit bad for saying that: his eyes shined so prettily that you couldn’t say no. With a sigh, you just let him drag you through the doors. Shion immediately tapped his finger on one of the displays.

“Give me your hand..” He gave you puppy eyes, but you replied with an almost warning tone. “Shion..” But he was just too convincing.

With a sigh, you let his hand wrap around your wrist, pressing it against the display case so he could imagine it.

“What are you doing?”

“Just wondering if this ring would fit you.”

♥︎ you thought the marriage thing was just a small headcanon? nope. you two will get married, shion won’t settle for anything else.

𝓙AKAH

♥︎ jakah, like jungwon, would definitely be very chivalrous.

♥︎ suuuch a gentleman!!

♥︎ buys you huge bouquets, pays for your lunch—he’ll even give you his nightball uniform. smiles and brags to his brothers when you walk around in his shirt.

↳ “Hey, hey Jino. You see her?” Jakah nudged his brother with his elbow, pointing at you, who was talking to Heli. The red-haired boy narrowed his eyes, scanning the long-sleeved shirt that was likely a gift that Jakah was about to brag about to him. It read: JAKAH 4 — DECELIS ACADEMY.

“Yeah, yeah, I see it.” Jino grumbled. He looked away, but Jakah pointed again, obviously excited.

“I gave it to her—are you looking?”

Jino let out a groan. Jakah was so affectionate towards you that it was annoying.

♥︎ jakah is also huge on physical touch. he always has an arm wrapped around your shoulder at the least — and he’ll carry you around bridal style at the most. even if you get embarrassed, he’ll only laugh and comment how cute you are when you hide your face in his chest.

♥︎ just like in the webtoon, takes your safety super seriously. you can’t go anywhere alone, especially since (non-sentient) vampires are so rampant .. jakah just can’t take the risk.

^ think of that time when heli said, “[…] i can’t leave sooha’s safety up to chance.”

𝓝OA

♥︎ really aloof, but unlike solon, he isn’t a tsundere type. actually—noa is that type that’s cold to everyone except for you.

♥︎ like jakah, he’s big on physical touch but it’s more natural.. and more subtle. holds hands with you wherever you two go, has an arm wrapped around your waist in public..

♥︎ you thought i’d make a fanfic without someone’s hair being played with ?? nope. noa always invites you over for sleepovers.. loves playing with your hair as you sleep on his chest <3 sings you to sleep until you’re softly snoring on top of him.

↳ “… It’s like a po-oh-oh-laroid love, s—ah..” Noa’s voice faltered and came to a stop. After only a few minutes of singing to you, your eyes had shut, and you’d fallen asleep on top of his chest .. once again. Your cheek was squished against him, head slightly rising and falling as his chest did. Noa found you adorable.

Small grin forming on his face, Noa reached out—carefully, so carefully—to gently stroke your hair, fingers weaving through the strands, cautious to not wake you. He loves nights like this — it made his heart swell with affection just from being able to hold you like this. These were moments that made him realize how genuinely in love he was with you.

𝓣AGS ノ @strxwberriiwithchocolate @superjellyfishhat ask 2 join !

a/n : i revised some small details 9/22/24 !!

[lizardsfromspace]

Okay, this is the conclusion to my posts about Sophia Stewart. I'll never do something like this again

Everything I've posted is from her own book or her web presence btw. That's all I'm drawing from and if anyone tells me any information about her they gained any other way I'll block them immediately so uh, don't

Towards the end she reveals some of her other pitches. By showing she copywrote sequels to the Matrix and Terminator

Lots of strange details here - she wrote The Matrix 4 in 2000? They didn't even start filming The Matrix 2 & 3 until 2001. Also, we can see in this book that her pitch has nothing to do with The Matrix or Terminator, but she claims she wrote direct sequels to both?

(Her explanation for how both very different films are ripping off her work - a 1:1 copy, she claims - is, hilariously, that The Terminator plagiarizes it front to back, while The Matrix plagiarizes it back to front. What?)

But also she didn't write it. She registered copyright on a synopsis for The Matrix 4. She has concepts of a plan for a Matrix 4.

The book ends with a pitch for another...she calls it a book, but it's a movie pitch? And this, too, is just a synopsis for some grand epic series, light on detail of character and plot and heavy with lore and rants (in this case, primarily about God and Adam & Eve). Of course her exhaustively long but barely sketched-out epic movie pitch has a prologue, which is also full of Christian-tinged Ancient Aliens pyramid power woo.

Sophia Stewart is unimportant, bc she represents a class of writer. Writers who have Ideas. Who have outlines and plot points but no real story, bc they never write it. But they think just having Really Good Ideas is enough - that you should get credit for coming up with a good idea for a story, regardless of if you make an actual story out of it. They're a "writer", but they never write. Despite this they often have a deep case of Dunning-Kruger, churning out outlines that leave out basic details like "what happens in the climactic battle" and the personalities of characters while insisting that an inability to author anything shouldn't keep you from being praised as a genius author

If that type of person is lucky enough to have money, they become a studio executive or tech guy, both professions awash in the uncreatively creative, or they hire ghostwriters. If they're not, they become the type of person to file spurious lawsuits under the misapprehension they own basic plot concepts. It's the "I coulda made the majors!" of writing, except, you know. Baseball players who didn't make the majors still actually played baseball at some point. I assume from now on all those types will just pump their outline into ChatGPT and try to sell the gunk it slops out and then claim they 'wrote' it so uh, uhhhhhhhhhhhh

The only reason I made these posts was discovering the conspiratorial angle to her work, bc who cares if a major studio has to deal with a spurious lawsuit? That was the part that actually sucks. But also, she does a lot of press: profiles on news websites, podcasts, that documentary was even made by other filmmakers, who actually make films. It's persisted from blogs and chain emails all the way to podcasts and TikToks. All of this uncritically spreads her story, but I also have to ask: how many actual African-American science fiction writers do those platforms profile? How many of them get documentaries made about their work? How much air is being sucked out of the room by the decades long misinformation about the "true" creator of The Matrix? And why is that misinformation so persistent when it takes a trivial amount of effort to find out it just isn't true? It feels good to support the underdog against the big studio, but in this case it just isn't true.

The sad truth is a lot more Hollywood plagiarism cases look like this than are real exposures of wrongdoing, but people tend to accept them at face value since they feel like a little guy taking on a corporation, though in reality it's just two writers suing each other. Take The Holdovers case, where people immediately turned on it, but if you look into it, the two scripts have very little in common, and the accusing writer makes odd claims like a human character in The Holdovers being a ripoff of a billboard in his script.

Or look at Groundhog Day, which was accused of plagiarism by Richard A. Lupoff, writer of the story "12:01 P.M.". The two stories have nothing in common besides a time loop; in Groundhog Day he's reliving a day, in 12:01 PM he's reliving an hour. Groundhog Day is a romcom, 12:01 P.M. plays it for horror. Groundhog Day never reveals the source of its lop but it's clearly fantastical in nature, 12:01 P.M. is explicitly science fiction. In Groundhog Day he escapes the loop, in 12:01 P.M. he never does. You can't deny Lupoff felt personally slighted, but at the end of the day, a world where a writer could own the concept of time loops would be a dystopia where creativity and art would die.

But even though they were wrong, The Holdovers & Groundhog Day cases were based on real works of writing that existed. They were based on a real, if misguided, sense of violation from the writers. But in this case, we have a mere outline of a story with not even basic similarities to the stories she's claiming are a 1:1 copy of her work, and decades of media appearances based on exploiting a community college media student's mistake in 2004. Anyway seems bad

[abyssembraced]

Working on an iterator design for GLaDOS <3

[hella1975]

no one is doing fanfic like me btw

[kayzero]

Feel free to answer this privately!! But Id feel bad if I didn't point this out so.

you shut your fuck

[lilgynt]

why my mom can’t flush or wash her hands is beyond me

[orcelito]

Having a Saturday like "most people I've dated have only really liked me for my body and/or a fake personality I've presented, so when they know the true me it's not enough to keep them around. Anyways let's have some ramen for my 2 pm breakfast."

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also it's something (better) like, the exercise of deliberately [art imitates life imitates art] holding up Billions to My IRL Things Perspective and going like whaaat would i want for winston. first answer is you want any character to not have been within the scope of the show in the first place, and to exit it since they are. and you kind of get that in the accidental reward in banishing winston, since like in the end it's just that the show doesn't care about him existing at that point But like it's winston sitting there quietly as everyone leaves & turns out the lights & Then he can leave too; others have peaced out & nobody remembers he exists so Now he can go off & do whatever.

but like in true form i think they definitely accidentally baked in another divine reward for winston in that, like, the way he's kept around as fodder for these fun little [pov: enjoy abusing this guy] asides with him, where it Just So Happens that he's autistic as something they're unaware of but is completely relevant to the expectation we understand him to be inferior(tm), it Just So Happens that he's also ""bad"" at not ""causing"" abuse to be turned on him. he's ""bad"" at staying in line. like well yes Yes that's what i want for him. just like In Real Life it's like yeah Ideally i'd want people to be able to extricate themselves from where they're trapped in power structures & i'd want them to have the perspective about it of understanding they're not Inferior / i.e. they are as much a person as anyone else and they're not corrupting everything good / i.e. it wasn't them Bringing It Upon Themselves and it's not them being Destructive by toppling a jenga tower of a hierarchy that happened to be pressing down on them. and winston is the kind of [the ruinerrrrrr] who is Turned On exactly because he keeps acting like someone who's on the verge of breaking out of the [being in line] someone demands of him as autist, employee, whatever other supposed manifestations of [inferior]

like in the 5 second stretches in which winston's allowed to speak before retaliation, it's because he's like "matter of factly" delivering whatever Information that's useful for another plotline. then he Brings It Upon Himself by making people aware that he's Also existing in his own right as a person rather than what they think serves their own deal / what they want from him at all times, perhaps by expressing his personality (didn't appeal to them! so it was Wrong) or not b/c of anything in particular said or done at present, just b/c people have a constant / accumulating contempt for him so their being in the same room as him & able to see & hear him is already dangerous. the [we're just seeing Any Abusive Dynamic in action] continuing apace.

and it's like, well, right there. he's written as acting like someone who doesn't blame himself for how he's treated, which billions frames as being Rude & Mean, and so too does everyone's abusers lmfao like and that these are his moments that are written to be Bringing It Upon Himself. and it's like hell yeah he doesn't blame himself. hell yeah that his self-esteem can manifest as anger at all. hell yeah that he keeps expressing himself with personality & confidence & doesn't even disguise his having been hurt, & it's this [his ass is Not grey rocking] that billions frames as both him "causing" his abuse & making that abuse "successful" lol, wrow just like real life!! and when like speaking of real life yeah it's not "bad" that people Do engage in strategies to mitigate & survive, including things like blaming themselves or being too "boring" to be anything but a non dialogued background character b/c that's all that goes unpunished, it's bad b/c it's done to them at all, not [ohh they're doing it to themselvesss] and like i'm asking myself like Ideally. what do i want Ideally. and i'd want winston to know that it's being Done To Him & i'd want him to find as much room for his personhood & autonomy as possible. and that's basically how he's written anyways, and billions hates that like You See this is why he deserves it this is why he's doing it to himself. and i'm like my god if that's not Inspiration for like "so what if people don't find you Personally Likable" and not preemptively holding back all personality or anything that'd draw attention as if you exist as a person in your own right & not something that only either gets in the way of or serves their wants of a Real person (someone with more power) like hell yeah you have him out here doing it =']

another fun addendum is like, billions isn't getting into it much b/c it doesn't seem to care much about "what if some people were peers & seem to have a genuine, recipcrocal relationship?" but that it just so happened to be like "oh tuk as the next closest loser who deserves it might be nice to winston" while it's framing winston as the "worse" Loser as being....unconditionally supportive of tuk. while the one downside of billions Also giving bentuk as much as it is is that it also inevitably has that shadow of "but ben is Superior to tuk" and like that it's correct that everyone encourages tuk to Stop Bringing It Upon Himself and start being less of a loser; it's wrong for winston to be like hey let's go have a foursome. like yeah probably don't make a list of the women you work with you'd be dtf but it's not like i'm convinced "ah billions and it's strong anti misogyny stance like" roflmao and billions is Not reflecting on "the downsides of unconditional support?" there when winston was beaten up for criticising taylor earlier like we WILL take his ideas while looting his [beaten unconscious] body there but he WAS wrong to express them as though he's BETTER than taylor!!! mafee's beautiful show of loyalty in kicking his ass even when he might agree with the argument and then benefit when it's adopted by taylor anyways! so it's as usual actually purely based on hierarchy & who gets to be in charge of people. it's correct for ben to be in charge of tuk, unless he has to step aside for that bizarre dead-end subplot about how it's tuk's fault if he's treated badly, b/c it's really his own Failure to have Confidence to know he has good ideas [raising our voice to deliver this message over the sound of breaking desks and chairs and computer monitors over winston because he had the confidence to act like he deserved to talk to someone and because he knows his ideas efforts & results are good & valuable around there] like. and isn't it sooo fucked up to talk about who you're dtf in the episode that has it be neutral if your boss is dtf & lets you know but is nice about it (and you're already Correctly tending to their ego, which you're responsible for!) like hey no possible problem! it's not even so much of a problem for a boss man to have the sex they're entitled to & be rude about their leveraging their power in that acquisition that it Stays a problem into the next season. ew, winston is Known (Inferred) Dtf??? we'll use it to exploit His vulnerability, exacerbate it, & punish him further for good measure in another episode that just revels in abuse & violation with a sexual aspect once again, but like, hey tuk don't do that, winston's such a Bad Influence for being like, shrug, kneejerk intervening with the Good Friendship where the One In Charge leaps in & Tells tuk the Correct thing to do. obviously there's also the tragedy that billions will Never let winston push back against Real Winners like rian or taylor in A Way That Matters (actually gets in their way at all) lol like. one thing that would have really been fun, winston should've literal kneejerk started physically fighting wags in either pertinent scene in 7x03 for real 110%. i wouldn't be like Gasp Violence Is Never The Answer if he just hit someone to hit them b/c fuck you. or broke anything on his way out etc etc. billions would Never let him. which is the other side of the same coin of [why he should get to]

tl;dr how great that winston's being "out of line" means he's basically always noticeably flouting & rebelling against the [He Deserves Abuse] agenda lol. that IS what i want. his being "beyond hope" like ohhh he's sooo stupid he doesn't realize how much he has the bad tastes & wrong interests & annoying personality He Will Always Be This Way like hell yeah!!! billions like oh no winston's personhood will never stay tamped down & locked away such that some godawful person tolerates keeping him in their inventory :( ohhh the ABA will never work :( that's right!!!!!!!!!! although they're not sad about it because it's about relishing the promise there will always be True Inferiors you can enjoy abusing with your righteous power over, but like well you wrote him escaping anyways even while dragging other "better" characters into standing around to serve axe's need for more than 1.8 employees and [crickets, reverberating cough, sneaker scuff] like. another ""wrong"" thing for winston to do, another thing for him to not "deserve," which is itself godawful actually lol like lord what it "rewards" its Good, Deserving characters with, no thanks. meanwhile winston's punishment is that he's autistic and """bad""" at being abused like lmfao good for him, fantastic for him, just what i want

[vogelmeister]

been feeling mixed on some of my friends recently

[talentforlying]

So gemma using magic in general is one thing, how would john feel about gemma getting deeper into magic? Like, going from occasionally casting Basic Shield Spell but otherwise living a normal life, to being some sort of wizard full time

ARE YOU THE SAME ANON FROM THE LAST GEMMA QUESTION!! regardless i love you for this.

ultimately, i think he'd see gemma getting full-blown into magic as a failure on his part, and as a betrayal of his sister's wishes for her. (a betrayal by him, not by gemma.) and john reacts to his own failures by trying to correct them at any cost, regardless of who else's decisions were involved. so he'd be upset, definitely guilty, definitely exasperated and shit-scared for her, maybe a little angry. he's never going to want her to see all the awful, awful shit that he's had to, that he knows she will see if she continues, and he might even sabotage her at points to try and drive her out of the life; just social, high-school-clique stuff, getting important connections like clarice to refuse dealings with her, scaring off artifact brokers, things like that.

but i do think eventually john would come to realize that if gemma's determined to be an occultist, and a serious one at that — which, even john doesn't think of his magic as a full-time gig — then it'd be better for her to want to come to him for advice or assistance, knowing he'd always be willing to help, than for her to want to keep him in the dark as much as possible, knowing there's a non-zero chance of him being a pain in the ass to her about her future plans. he knows that gemma's smart, and savvy, and as well aware as he is by now that people will lie, cheat, steal, and kill to get what they want in this world; despite his inclination towards overprotectiveness, i think he'd come to trust that she can keep herself alive. bottom line, he'd end up working to establish himself in her orbit as a conflicted but stalwart source of backup, information, and offered comfort, so that she never has to go it alone the way he often has.

(i also think he might be secretly relieved that there's another constantine on the scene to take on the hard jobs, the endless violence, the ceaseless horrors. he'd be guilty as hell about feeling that way, because that's his niece and he doesn't want her seeing any of it, but it'd mean he could maybe retire from the constant vigil knowing there's someone he trusts handling things. and maybe become gemma's link back to normalcy in the same way cheryl was for him, if the retirement lasts.)

and, again, he'd come to be so proud of her. sometimes you just can't walk away from knowing something bad is happening, he knows that better than anyone, and to see that quality in gemma would lighten his heart tremendously.

(assuming that's why she continues in magic, of course; if she's just seeking fame and power, he'd do everything he could to shut her out of that world in a heartbeat, and take her hatred for it all the way to the grave.)

[pawsitivevibe]

I dunno why everyone says they hate grooming and hand stripping dogs. I find it so soothing. I would probably go for hours if Arthur didn't let me know he was done with it.

[hearties-circus]

I kinda feel like I've just hard erased any happiness or elation I had from being done with school all just so I wouldnt get asked a stupid question anymore I hate this I hate this

[heyitslapis]

what fucking makes me want o rip my hair out when it comes to the security guy at work is that i'll even try to COMMUNICATE WITH HIM!!!!! (i know for people like us communication can be difficult & we often need specific clear wording and even then we have layers to peel back) When i cant tell if he's being sarcastic, i'll ask him genuinely, because as ive told him multiple times before the way he says things it literally cannot be interpreted as a joke (even neurotypicals at work have agreed with me in front of him) and always seems like he's being serious. i tell him this all the time and he acts like its fucking funny that im genuinely mad about the fact that he wont communicate back with me. Verbatim i have told him on multiple occasions "i genuinely cant tell when youre being sarcastic or making a joke because your tone is so flat and your face is so serious and deadpan and usually people will laugh or crack a smile a few seconds after the joke but you just stand there not expressing anything, even after i ask if its a joke because i genuinely cant tell"

YET HE CONTINUES TO FUCKING DO IT and then has the fucking GALL to laugh at me or call me gullible or naive when IM LITERALLY TRYING TO COMMUNICATE!!! bitch how tf am i supposed to know whats a joke and whats real when you act like im asking a fucking statue every time you say a lie or joke