#do you have any expertise or experience in this area??

[angrylesbianstereotype]

Okay I am going to try and word this very carefully for the benefit of the internet strawman that lives in my head that is already playing telephone with what I’m trying to say butttt as an animal caretaker I’m not loving the way y’all talk about animal welfare. Don’t get me wrong (please) drawing comparisons between how white people treat people of color and how they treat animals is a totally valid way to illustrate how white people often view and treat people of color as subhuman, but lately I kind of feel like this sentiment is being reiterated over and over again without being expanded on in terms of either human rights or animal welfare. I think it’s valuable and even critical to examine the historical context behind white supremacy’s investment in animal welfare, but that it’s a mistake to view the two as inextricably linked. White supremacists will also claim to have a vested interest in children’s rights, which couldn’t be further from the truth if you take even a cursory look at their policies and practices, but the reason they pretend to give a shit about children and animals without bothering to extend this same courtesy to people of color, queer people, etc is because children and animals cannot advocate for themselves, which leaves room for racists to hawk their own agenda under the guise of charity. They are not interested in advocating on behalf of anyone they cannot completely control. Animals aren’t treated well, which I believe was the initial reasoning behind the comparison to racism; that white people abuse people of color even more fervently than they do animals. But that’s a call to end systemic injustice towards people of color, not to forego animal advocacy altogether. We should all care about animals! We should all be working toward educating ourselves about the literal millions of other living beings we share a planet with, whose habitats we are destroying without impunity, who are entirely at our mercy, who are disposed of and exploited and treated more as objects to facilitate human existence than living creatures in their own right, even when they fall into the very exclusive category of beloved. It’s imperative for safety reasons to educate ourselves about animal behavior, not to mention fundamental to indigenous activism to work toward the preservation of their habitats and continued existence on this planet. Also, I fully reject the fundamentally Christian idea that animals don’t have souls, that they don’t have feelings, that they were put on this earth to prop up humanity, that their behaviors and physiologies are all virtually the same because they all fall into the very broad category of Not Human. I agree that saying their mistreatment is somehow worse than racism is misleading, wildly ignorant and offensive, not because animals don’t deserve our protection, but because it demonstrates such little understanding of and willingness to understand the consequences of racism, and because these are really different issues altogether. Animals don’t want or need human rights; they’re not human. They prioritize differently, even the expectation of being eaten is just a normative experience for them, as ghoulish as that sounds. But not being human, or anything akin to human, doesn’t make them automatons, doesn’t mean they can’t feel pain or should be treated unfairly. They are an integral part of all of our lives even if you don’t consider yourself an animal person, and we should try and extend understanding and empathy towards them for no other reason than that they are alive.

[yearning-for-autumn]

Azriel NSFW Alphabet

A/N: Literally no one asked for this, also I may have gone a bit overboard so like if anyone who knows me sees this no you didn't.

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Azriel is king of the princess treatment. Whilst he is rough in bed, he is gentle and sweet with you once it’s all over, he’ll run his hands softly down your body whispering how well you did, how good you were for him. Then he’ll scoop you up and run you both a bath, getting in with you to wash your hair and hold you.

Butterfly kisses….enough said.

B = Body part (their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Azriel is an ass guy, he likes boobs but he will always admire a shapely bum. He loves to grab it, slap it, rub soothing circles on it as he fucks you. He loves to have you bounce up and down on his cock facing away from him as well so he can watch it jiggle. To a lesser extent, he loves your neck as well, he loves to leave hickies to stake his claim…possessive Illyrians…

His favourite body part of his own is probably his wings. He’s a bit smug about the fact he has the biggest wingspan of his brothers, and on a sadder note he is just thankful he can use them, that he learnt to fly and the freedom they represent for him.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

This man cums heavy. Like…it’s going to be dripping from you. He loves coming over your arse, watching those stripes of white paint your red backside.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Azriel doesn’t really like to admit, but he is pretty touch starved. He doesn’t allow many people to touch his wings but the first time you did he came almost immediately. It took a little while for him to build up some stamina with you in that area. 

On a dirtier note…Azriel has a bit of a fantasy of fucking you in the same room as Cassian and Nesta. He loves how feisty Nesta is, knowing she’s a bit of a brat for Cassian. He wants to show off how much of a good girl you are for him, make Cassian Jealous that he can do absolutely anything to you and you’ll thank him for it. He also wants to see you fuck Nesta…whilst he fucks Cass. 

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Azriel is very experienced. He has had a lot of lovers over the years but he is not very experienced in having a long term relationship. That being said, he has taken subs before and is very confident in his abilities to practise BDSM safely and sanely. He takes your comfort very seriously and has experience with many different wants and needs.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Honestly any, but he loves sitting up with you in his lap, either bouncing you up and down on his cock, or having your back pressed against his chest as he cradles you and rubs your clit until you cum. 

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He can be if he thinks you’re really nervous but mostly he’s in the zone. When he fucks you, he does it right, and he’s concentrating on your pleasure…(or punishment).

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

He keeps things neat down there but he’s not completely hairless. He doesn’t have a preference on whether you choose to shave or not.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Azriel can turn on the romance if need be, but his expertise lies in being a dom, he’s not not romantic…but he’s definitely not sweet and gentle with you.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Azriel masturbates quite frequently. He’s got a high sex drive and so when you’re away or he’s on a mission he won’t think twice before taking himself in his hand. He’s also a fan of masturbating together, and loves pumping his thick cock to the sight of you rubbing your clit, head thrown back in self made ecstasy. 

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

DDLG - I’m a firm believer in daddy!az, he loves to spoil you, he’s not a brat tamer but you’re such a good girl for him that he doesn’t have to be. 

Breeding - I think this is an Illyrian trait that he’s a little ashamed of. He loves pumping you full of cum, and pushing it back in. It gets him all hot and bothered to whisper in your ear how hot he thinks you would look full with his child.

Spanking - This male just can’t leave your ass alone…if your butt is out it’s getting slapped. He loves taking you over his knee, panties on at first then spanking you hard until you soak through the fabric.

Dom/Sub - I think he can switch, and does enjoy subbing occasionally, but mostly likes to see your submission to him. He likes the quiet submission, doing up your shoes, cooking you dinner because you’re just his little girl and need him to help you. He also likes to have you kneel at his side whilst he works, head resting on his knee.

This might be a bit out of pocket but I also think he has a teeny bit of a piss kink, but he keeps this to himself unless you are very adventurous. Look SJM said he was a freak alright but everyones afraid to make him really freaky…..

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

He’s quite a private male so nowhere you’re likely to get caught. He can be swayed…but it’s at your own risk.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Honestly anything turns him on. You could walk past him and he would grab you by the hips, pull you to his chest and ask if you want to play. What really turns him on though is when you initiate. When you crawl into his lap, all shy like, bat your eyelashes and ask him…daddy, can we play? Cauldron, he’ll be hard before you’ve finished asking.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Azriel isn’t into hurting you too much. He finds scratching, blood play, and anything unnecessarily rough too far and he won’t do it unless you eased him into it. His hard no is fire, anything to do with it, candles and wax play…he won’t go there at all. 

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Look, the man is a giver and is good at it, but god does he love a blowjob. Give Azriel a blow job. He wants it. He’d reward you so good for it. He’s gonna cradle your head and stroke your hair while you do it. Please.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

If it’s a special occasion he might take his time with you, fuck you all romantic, turn on the romance so to speak. But he really prefers to set the pace quite quick, it gets him off better and it probably gets you off better too.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Oh yeah. He’s ready to go at any moment. And he’s got a busy job. Rhys asks him to do things on pretty short notice sometimes and he’s not leaving without a quick fuck. But he won’t do anything particularly kinky unless he’s got time for aftercare, he’s discussed what he wants from it, and has your input on everything involved. Your quickies are more like quick vanilla sex, you love it though, any Azriel is good for you. 

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Azriel would not be the kinky male he is if he wasn’t down to experiment. If you have something new for him to try he’s absolutely game, just don’t spring it on him before he’s going away or he’ll be a grumpy boy.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Mm Azriel will last long, but if you touch his wings…man’s going to come prematurely and be sulky about it for the rest of the night. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Yes. Azriel has floggers, paddles, ropes, vibrators, (bunny ears and a bunny tail buttplug….). He loves to dress you up. And he’s not shy about using toys to enhance your pleasure. He draws the line at making a mould of his own penis though..and you have asked.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He’s a massive tease. He’s a condescending, teasing, smug asshole. But if you are desperate enough he will grant you relief. He will also listen seriously if you tell him you’re not in the mood for teasing. He only wants to tease if he knows you’re into it. This is why safewords exist guys. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, I firmly believe he would only tease in the bedroom, he’s not one of these guys that wants to see you mad and gets a kick out of it, I find that kind of man repulsive lowkey.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Let. Azriel. Be. Loud. In. Bed. Quiet in the streets, loud in the sheets baby. But anyway yeah he moans a lot, talks a lot, wants you to know how much you turn him on. And he wants you to be the same. He’s not happy until you’re screaming.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Azriel pretends to be cocky about his body but he’s actually a bit embarrassed about getting fully naked around people. This goes away quite quickly when you start worshipping it with your mouth though–

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Big boy…massive boy…he’s girthy and he’s long and Rhys and Cassian can only look and weep.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

High. He wants you all the time, everyday. The mating frenzy was exhausting, I hope your pussy survived.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Look he’s a male, orgasms make him sleepy, but he won’t sleep until you’re tucked up beside him and comfortable. Mans not happy until his baby’s happy.

[darlingofdots]

I saw a [short-form internet video] today asking who people would trust more to learn from about a topic, someone with a PhD in that subject or a neurodivergent person with a special interest in it, and holy shit you guys we need to address this level of anti-intellectualism. I am the first person to point out that you don't need a fancy degree to learn and know things and that we need to be more open to non-academic expertise in many areas* but when it comes to reliable and trustworthy information, a researcher formally trained in their field should absolutely be considered preferable to a layperson who has studied independently. Not because you can't become an expert on your own but because the processes of academic qualification ensure that a person has both basic and specific knowledge of and training in the methodology and advances in their field, they are practiced in assessing the quality of sources and generating their own data, and they are subject to assessment by other experts. In order to get those fancy letters to go with your name you have to prove that you have the knowledge and skills to meaningfully contribute to the scientific conversation; the title is a reward for your hard work but it's also a kind of quality control seal.

Getting a PhD in any subject is really fucking hard. It's gruelling. Most of us do it because we love our research and want to know everything about our chosen topic. As a lot of commenters on that video pointed out, the PhD and the neurodivergent person are often one and the same! But especially in an era when mis- and disinformation is so rampant, we need to remember that although it is flawed, we do have a system to help us assess whether a person sharing information about something we don't know is likely to be reliable or not, and in the vast majority of cases, people who have passed through years and years of rigorous training and assessment should absolutely be our first pick.**

*my field of choice, popular romance studies, owes a lot of knowledge to readers and fans without relevant degrees or institutional affiliation who share their thoughts and observations through book reviews etc., and we're so grateful to them!

**obviously "experts" can be wrong or malicious and laypeople can have extremely valuable insight or experience that we should not dismiss out of hand. That's not what this is about.

[angelyuji]

yandere bruce wayne headcanons

yandere bruce wayne x gn!reader

warnings: yandere behavior, gross guy bruce wayne, kidnapping, stalking, power imbalance, rich guy uses his rich guy money to manipulate reader, creepy guy being a creepy guy lol (lmk for anything i might've missed i am half-asleep)

im thinking ill write some actual fanfics for him soon, idk what TO write tho...

STALKKKERRRR STALEKER SJALKER STALKER!!!

he is a creature of the night so u KNOW he’s watching you from a rooftop next to ur apartment

think of the scene in the batman when he’s watching Selina undress and stuff yeah hes a peeper (hes so fine i love bruce)

my man doesn’t have any superpowers BUT hes literally the freaking batman, he has cameras all over gotham so i promise he has eyes on you at all times

he’ll watch over you and make sure ur not gonna get mugged by some loser with a gun or get caught up in a joker/ivy/freeze/whomever scheme

like hes stalking you

he knows everything abt u too with WE and the Batcomputer (lol) he’ll have all ur personal info on file, ur twitter acc, your Instagram, any social media, literally everything on a separate file that is locked behind multiple passwords and eye scans (especially if we’re looking at bruce with kids like he knows they’d open the file and snoop)

if we’re looking at pattinson!batman/early years, he’s probably gonna write abt u in his diary journal (hes just a silly little guy)

he’ll try to give you a job at wayne enterprises to keep an eye on you as bruce (obvi becuz he cant be batman 24/7) (job depends on your experience and degree) (he’ll want u as a personal assistant or something but depending on your area of expertise… you’re probably not gonna accept lol)

if u do accept for a position as assistant/secretary, he’ll have your desk 3 ft away, he’ll be calling u into his office just to talk, basically like sort of training u to be his wife (get coffee, make lunch/get lunch, invite u to be his plus one for galas) all that jazz, he’ll flirt with u but ur gonna be like “oh that’s just brucie wayne being brucie wayne, but once u get comfortable in ur role, he’ll start making moves like hand on the lower back, pressing against u in any situation possible, he’ll never seem creepy (yet) but it’ll make u slightly uncomfortable considering he’s ur boss.

i can think of 2 possibilities that could occur

1. creepiest boss ever. he’ll order u how to dress to be his assistant/how to dress at galas (skimpy dresses, short skirts, tight pants, tight fitting dress shirts that exposes everything, shit like that), he’ll LEER at u like bruce will purposely drop stuff and make u pick it up so he can watch u bend over. like the worst. you’ll get tired of this behavior and quit and bruce will get angry and kidnap u

2. still creepy but not as bad. more like extravagant gifts, vacations, parties. he’ll still flirt and try to have as much physical contact with u as possible but he knows where to draw the line. you wouldn’t quit cuz yk great pay, okay boss. but like his feelings would get too much to contain and he’ll kidnap u in the end anyway

if i had to diagnose the batmans i care abt id sayyyy 1 is Affleck, 2 is bale, and Pattinson is a mix of both. comic batman has so many different writers and each run has a different personality for him saur depends on the writer lmao

u wouldn’t be able to date cuz of yk…….. WE rules………… but he’ll get tired of that taboo/secret relationship bs pretty quickly and just kidnap u

if u don’t accept a position as an assistant/secretary, he gets it but more than likely, his feelings for u will intensify and he’ll end up taking you to keep at wayne manor

before getting into when ur stuck at wayne manor, lets break down bruce’s thoughts abt u

he has put u on a PEDESTAL

ur amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, u. can. do. no. wrong.

in his mind, ur the light to his darkness

alfred totally enables him and if we’re talking dilf bruce, the kids learn from him so they just assume this is what love is, kidnapping and manipulation

you’d adjust to life at wayne manor (not quickly but yk mf is RICH, ur gonna be treated so well once u understand that u cant leave)

bruce wouldn’t torture u but he’d pavlov u for sure

you would only be given comfort and relief when ur around him/good to him

if ur not good, then he’d probably keep u locked up in the batcave or in any of the many empty rooms at the manor

bruce wayne is the most powerful and influential person, ANDD has THE most powerful people on the planet as his best friends… you’re stuck with him babes

[chiefdirector]

Promising | Tim Bradford | The Rookie

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven

Tim had experienced many awful things in his life but none would be considered worse than this. The moment he had found his wife again, she had been snatched from his grasp leaving him helpless to aid her once more. If he had believed in a god he would have thought that he was being punished for some past sin. 

But he wasn’t. 

No matter how much he blamed himself at this moment there was nothing he could do but wait. The paramedic in the back of the ambulance told him that she would most likely be fine, that on first inspection there seemed like there would be minimal damages. Tim had wanted to believe them, but with every hour that (Y/N)’s surgery  dragged on Tim believed them less and less. 

The idea that he had come so close to getting her back almost killed him, and had he not had the chance that she may return to him, he felt like he would've died then and there. He had waited this long, he could wait for her for these last few hours, no matter how torturous they felt. She would return to him soon enough, he had enough hope to believe in that. 

-----

Professionalism was normally one of Sargent Grey’s areas of expertise. The man had decades of experience with the public and felons alike who pushed the lines of crime and morality alike. But as he stood across from Regina Diaz he could not help that every fibre of his being wanted to bring down every article of the law on this woman, and he was determined that she would never breathe a lick of fresh air again. 

He was furious as to what she had done to the department, and to his officers. The damage she had caused was unfixable, and the Bradfords, as well as everyone in the Mid-Wilshire Division would be forever changed because of her. And yet, she sat tall and arrogant despite the cuffs keeping her attached to the table. The maroon scrubs she wore did not seem to deter her confidence at all. Grey clenched his jaw, before taking a seat opposite the woman who had caused so much grief.

“So where should we begin?”  Grey flipped the file he held open and thumbed through the pages, trying to not show any weakness for Diaz to exploit. “The very apparent drug operation that me and my officers caught you in, red-handed may I add? Or how about the contant threatening of my officer’s well being for the last two years? Or how about the assault with a deadly weapon charge for that same officer you have been threatening?”

Regina smiled, “Hmmm… They're all good options, but maybe we should start within your department instead. After all, I couldn’t do all this without a little help.”

-----

It had been a while since Tim had watched his wife sleep. In the early days of their marriage, when work took a mental toll on him, he would stay awake far into the early hours of the morning, watching her chest rise and fall as the room was gently lit from the rising sun peaking through the curtains. It had relieved some of his anxieties, knowing that she was there and she was alive, and now, even after all this time and torment, he found the same comfort yet again. 

He used to spend hours just watching her peaceful face, wondering what she was dreaming of. Could it be hot beaches with white sand, maybe it was a winter’s night at home, or could she be possibly dreaming about him, about the two of them together. 

It felt oddly comforting to watch her sleep again, even if it was from the most uncomfortable hospital chair ever made. If Tim ignored the tube coming out of her arms and the incessant beeping from the machines by her side, he could pretend for a moment that they were back home and she had fallen asleep in their own bed. If he closed his eyes for a moment, he could pretend that none of this ever happened at all.

But Tim didn’t want to ignore all of the hospital equipment, no matter how daunting it was to see, as it meant that his wife had returned to him. And he didn't want to pretend it didn't happen at all, because even though he had lost and grieved her, he had her back now, and he knew just how much she completed him. No matter how much Tim had loved her before, it had only grown tenfold since he saw her again. Despite the blood and the medical equipment attached to her, she was safe, she was almost home, and most importantly she was alive.

-----

“And why would I believe you?”

“Because, Sargent, it doesn’t make sense otherwise, does it now.” Regina said, not letting her smile waver once. She could tell she was getting under Grey’s skin, and she enjoyed it thoroughly. But she couldn’t toy with him forever, as fun as she may find it, she needed to be on the court’s good side, and that includes cooperating with the authorities. “How did two detectives fall off the face of the earth and their case worker didn’t know where they were all day? Riddle me that.”

“I can’t, but I'm sure you already know the answer, don't you Ms. Diaz?”

“I think it’s time we brought in my lawyer, if we are going to negotiate that is.”

-----

(Y/N) shifted slightly in the bed as she tried to shake off the familiar feeling of sleep mixed with some form of medical cocktail. She had woken up in a hospital numerous times during her career with the LAPD, but none ever felt as disorientating as this. Her body felt slow and her chest felt heavy. Gently, as not to cause any more damage to herself, (Y/N) moved her head to assess her injury. From the sharp pains from the movement and the vague memory she had from before she lost consciousness, she could tell that her shoulder was thoroughly messed up. But as she went to look at it, her eyes wandered down to her chest, where the weight was radiating from. The pressure came from her husband’s head resting on top of her. He looked so peaceful asleep, as if nothing could have ever burdened him. She could vaguely remember seeing him at the Diaz house, but now she had the time to take him in fully. He had a new scar on his hairline, it was pale and faded, he must have gained it not long after she had left on her assignment. His shoulders were still hunched over, even in his sleep he carried his stress there. His arms had gained more definition, and so had his hands. All of these changes were to be expected, (Y/N) knew how much this would have hurt him, exercise was always an escape for him. 

What she didn’t expect though was to find his left hand bare of any jewellery. He had taken off his wedding band, and a good while ago too. He bore no tan line or indentation to indicate he had worn the ring recently. She understood why he would have done that, she knew that she couldn’t have expected him to wait for her all this time but it didn’t cause her heart to sting any less.

She wanted to let him rest, but if the roles were reversed, and it was Tim in this bed, she would have wanted to be awakened immediately, even if he had moved on with his life. Slowly, as not to scare him awake, (Y/N) lifted her good arm and positioned herself to run her fingers through Tim’s head. 

He roused quickly, clearly a trait he had never gotten over since (Y/N) had last seen him. Groggily, he looked around the room to find what caused him to awaken, although the realisation came to him quickly as he snapped his eyes to meet (Y/N)’s. “You’re awake,” he stated, as if it wasn’t obvious, but (Y/N) chose not to comment.

“Yeah, I uh… woke up a few minutes ago. I thought that you would… you would want to know I'm awake, so you don't need to worry anymore.”

“What? Why wouldn’t I worry? (Y/N) you mean everything to-”

(Y/N) smiled sadly, “You don’t have to lie to save feelings, Tim. You’re not wearing your ring.”

“Oh.” Tim said, trying, and failing, to suppress a soft laugh, only stopping completely when he saw (Y/N)’s saddened expression. Quickly, he reached down his shirt to pull the chain he wore over his neck and unclasped it, letting the band fall into the palm of his hand. “I wore it on a chain. It… hurt to see it every day but not to see you. But I couldn't live without it, hence the chain. That way, even though I couldn't keep you, I could keep it close to me, close to my heart.”

(Y/N) watched as the gold band slipped back into its rightful place. She didn’t know what to say, there was a thousand and one things that needed to be said, yet not a word spilled from her lips. Tim watched as her eyes darted to one side, he knew it was one of her tells. “Shh, it’s okay baby, you don’t need to say anything right now, we can talk later. I’m here, and I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever.”

“Promise?”

“As long as you promise you won’t leave me again. I don’t think I would survive that, losing you another time.”

“I promise.”

Part Seven | Part Nine

Series Masterlist | Masterlist

Tags: @xceafh @kmc1989 @buba424 @salty0cracker

Tags are open :)

A/N: Have a merry christmas if you celebrate, and if you dont i hope you have a great festive season. Enjoy this extra long chapter, i couldn't help myself lol.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Do you do “cuteness”/safety ratings?

I do not. I am not a fan of the concept of “ratings” blogs in general, honestly. There’s a couple of reasons for that.

Firstly, I am a Tumblr Old, and every ratings-type blog I’ve ever seen that existed to tell people if animal content was okay or not has imploded over time. Sometimes that has been related to their content/topic of choice, sometimes not. It happened when the first blogs like that showed up, and it’s still happening now. Either way, they seem to be a direct path to endless drama, and I want none of that, thanks.

Second, ratings blogs have to be really, really tightly curated to the expertise of the blogger in order to be trustworthy, accurate sources. And when you’re in a position of being seen as an expert on animal stuff by the internet, it’s incredibly tempting to step outside your area of expertise to pass judgement on things. People like your opinions and want to hear them! You’re respected for your knowledge! It is a seductive, seductive path to being far too comfortable speaking outside your wheelhouse.

This is actually part of why the blog slowed down a few years ago and eventually went on hiatus for a while: as it got more and more popular, people wanted me to cover more and more things, and I ended up kinda paralyzed by the need to do so much research in order to respond to those requests. I didn’t want to spread misinformation, but it was so hard to just say no and not try to answer questions. I’m much more comfortable now setting boundaries for myself about what I know enough to address and what I don’t have the appropriate credentials for.

Third, to do any successful science communication - which is what running a rating blog effectively is - you have to know what you don’t know! This is something that comes with time and professional experience in a field. You can’t speedrun it or skip it. And if you don’t know what you don’t know on a topic you want to write about, you’re at high risk of spreading misinformation. Guess what? I know this one from experience! There were times I overreached in the early days of WADTT, either because I didn’t know I was unaware of something, or because it just felt so good to have people want to know what I thought! (My goal is to find the time to go back and share those posts with updated, corrected content and commentary).

As mentioned above, I do a lot of work to be comfortable with not knowing things. I either do the research needed to find an answer when I run into an unknown, admit I don’t know and can’t answer, or simply don’t engage with the topic if I can’t contribute productively. This is where a lot of ratings blogs run into issues, as they generally reflect just the individual knowledge of the blogger(s) writing them. There’s a big difference between having an opinion that you discuss with your friends, and having an opinion that you share with thousands or tens of thousands of people. If you’ve shared an incorrect opinion about something in a way that’s amplified across tumblr, even if you fix your mistake publicly, there’s no way to stop the earlier misinformation from continuing to spread.

And fourth, there’s that word I keep using: authoritative. Content that provides a rating is very black-and-white. This is bad. This is good. Do support this, don’t support that. Unfortunately, there are so, so few situations involving animals are actually that clear cut. This is especially true when we’re talking about recorded animal media, like photos, videos, and even documentaries, because a lot of the context has been removed. So that authoritative perspective? It’s really just someone on the internet telling you what you should believe.

I’d rather teach people how to think about animal content and draw their own conclusion. People gain so much more knowledge from engaging with the concepts themselves. If you just give someone an answer about a video being ok or not, for instance, they don’t learn how to assess the next one themselves. But if you teach them what questions to ask, how to work through what they want to learn, how to assess context, and where to find the information they need, they’re able to do it themselves with content in the future. Teaching and encouraging independent analysis of animal media is a much better way to stop misinformation or unethical content from spreading compared to just telling people some stuff is bad and they should stop sharing it.

So nope, no ratings here. Sometimes I’ll comment on things that my professional background allows me to be comfortable having an authoritative opinion on (e.g. the danger of unmonitored interactions between dogs and babies) but most of the time, I’m going to tell you what I see, what I know, what I don’t know, and what my thoughts are and why. My goal in running this blog and teaching people is about the journey, not the destination.

[edenfenixblogs]

New Pinned Post: How This Blog Approaches The Conflict

I am not normally a politically-focused blog. I am normally a personal blog that enjoys fandom and occasionally processes my own past trauma. As this war goes on, I am finding that it is against my personal ethics and morals to stay silent when I have the ability to educate and remain more patient than most. (My patience is not endless. I’m still human). So, while disinformation/misinformation, and propaganda abound on all sides. I feel like the best way I can help lower the temperature is to put my skills to use.

Primary Political Goals:

1. Emphasize humanity above all and use verifiable information and good faith education and discourse to reduce tension.

2. Do my absolute best to move the conversation away from polarizing, accusatory discourse that forces Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians to play a desperate game of defense and toward a shared mutually beneficial peace that honors each grouped indigeneity culture, and connection to their ancestral homeland.

3. Demonstrate and emphasize both Jewish-Muslim solidarity and Israeli-Palestinian solidarity.

Primary Blogging Goals:

As a diaspora Jew, my primary goal is threefold

1. Educate about antisemitism and Islamophobia—including calling it out and explaining it to the best of my ability.

2. Elevate responsible, verifiable voices—regardless of religion or nationality—and information to the best of my ability.

3. Demonstrate effective activism and provide insight and encouragement for other to find their most effective way to contribute to fostering peace.

Elaboration:

1. I have the most experience with an understanding of antisemitism. I am more of an expert in antisemitism and have more ability to identify and educate about it. That said: I will not tolerate any Islamophobia or racism and if I don’t have the ability to educate about it, you will be blocked. If I have the ability to educate about it, I will do so and give you the chance to read about it and adjust your behavior. If you do not do so, I will block you.

2. This does not mean equal representation of all nationalities and religions. It means the best informed and most reliable voices AND the voices I personally have the best ability to vet, verify, and substantiate. This will often mean Jewish voices and Israeli voices. This is me staying in my lane, not choosing to suppress any voice. I will not elevate purposefully divisive, tokenized, or uninformed voices. This does not mean that I won’t elevate Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab voices as well. I will. But my primary goal here is responsibility. To do that, I have to stay in my lane.

3. I am most effective as an educator on this matter, a guide to finding reliable peace-oriented voices, and an example of patience. There’s a great desire among many to protest or create videos detailing their opinions and stances. Not only is this primarily performative—especially among non-Muslim/non-Palestinian goyim—it has the potential to be extraordinarily damaging to Jews both in Israel and in Diaspora as well as to Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, and South East Asians worldwide. If you truly desire to help and not just feel like you’re helping, the best thing you can do is follow the lead of much more experienced activists with a demonstrated track record of effectiveness and good faith in their areas of expertise. As I stated: mine is primarily education and greater than average (though not limitless) amounts of patience. If you want to donate money or engage in more direct action and aid, I suggest finding pro-Palestinian Israeli voices and peace oriented Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian voices as well as organizations with experience in this conflict that do not rely on eliminating any population or erasing anyone’s connection to the Levant. Follow their lead on that matter. If you are only just engaging in this conflict for the first time due to current events, you likely do not know nearly as much as you think you do about any of this. Being uninformed and spouting disinformation has actual dire consequences that can get Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis, and Arabs killed. It is vital that you’re responsible in your engagement on this matter. Learning dogwhistles and how to spot bad faith arguments is a must. And to be effective, you should spend more of your time learning than you’re doing protesting or arguing. This is a 2000+ year old conflict. There is a lot to know and understand. And there are a lot of people willing to prey on your newcomer status and manipulate your existing beliefs to use you as a pawn to further their bad faith aims. The only consistent, trustworthy principal is to trust those who repeatedly affirm their goal as peace and shared prosperity and who reject any form of demonization based on ethnicity or religion. This is not a game. This is not the west’s fight. This is a conflict between two horribly oppressed, traumatized, and nearly exterminated ethnoreligous groups.

I am begging you to think, listen, and learn before joining the fray.

Note: I also don’t claim to be perfect. If I mess up or reblog something that causes unintended harm (which is very easy to do when engaging in discussions and activism about this conflict), I will say so and issue a correction. There’s no need to be hostile in informing me about this. Just message with your concern and I’ll evaluate from there.

Additionally, I will not interact with Hamas apologists. Hamas is a terrorist organization.

Anyone trying to make me feel like this is an Us vs. Them situation will be blocked.

[allicat0]

i loved your poe fic!

could you write a fic with captain rex maybe

one with a female jedi reader who sucks him off in a storage closet while they try not to get found out by the rest of the 501st

and maybe the helmet stays on…

Swear you’ll never tell

♡ Ans: Thank you so much, that’s so kind! Also, totally! I’ll give it my best shot, thanks so much for requesting btw.

♡ Summary: when you and a certain Clone meet every now and again to help each other out you must commence in secrecy. (Also I made captain Rex a little mean in this one, which I know isn’t exactly him. But I think of his sternness is more job driven)

♡ Content: MDNI, 18+, afab, smut, blowjobs, face-fucking, oral, praise, Hand-job,

♡ A/N: okay because I was kicking my feet giggling while writing this, I love captain Rex! Hope you guys enjoy!

There was no doubt that Captain Rex's presence brought a sense of reassurance and stability. His years of experience and leadership were evident in the way he could effortlessly fall back into the rhythm of operations without trouble. There was a certain aura of calm competence that surrounded him, a quiet assurance that everything would be handled with precision and expertise now that he was back. His familiar voice, filled with determination and resolve, cut through the air of the corridors of the ship as he caught up on the latest developments and seamlessly integrated himself back into the fold. The camaraderie and trust that had been so easily built between you and the rest of his squadron over countless missions were reaffirmed in that moment, constantly reminding us all of the strength he had over this team.

Rex carried himself with respectable manners, but under all the layers presenting himself as a good soldier, there was a secret he’d been struggling to keep. Rex doesn’t like to lie and the weight of a lie weighs heavily on the soul. Oddly enough there's a strange comfort in the familiarity of a secret, a twisted sense of control in knowing something others do not. But beneath his facade of composure lies a sea of emotions, a constant battle between the desire to confess and the fear of consequences, each day adding another layer to the intricate web of deception.

But despite his fear of getting caught he couldn’t help coming back to you each and every time he needed help dealing with. .unfinished business. When he returned back from his mission it didn't take long for him to get his hands on you, pulling you into the closest private area the two of you could find. As a Jedi, it is said that you must be faithful to the spirit of code, putting one’s selfish desires first is against the way of force. A Jedi must follow in order to stay true to oneself, especially when it comes to romantic relations. Though it was said if it was a pure attachment, there was no harm. So what's the problem in having a little fun?

So there you were, hiding away somewhere throughout the ship, in a cramped storage closet down on your knees for your second in command with his cock in hand. How it was a sight to see. You leaned in and placed a soft kiss against the tip of his cock causing it to jerk from the sensation. “I’ve missed you” You said to him softly. Rex looked down at you, watching as you would specifically choose the next spot to place a kiss on his cock, paying close attention, each time waiting for the impact of your soft lips to meet his sensitive shaft. “Mphm i’ve missed you too” He said through the back of his throat doing his best to keep any unwanted sounds to escape as he spoke back to you, the last thing he wanted was for people to hear the two of you through the door.

These moments that were shared between you and Rex were never rushed, especially if it had been some time since the two of you last saw each other, you made sure to give him whatever it was he possibly wanted. Your lips hollowed around the head of his cock, your tongue sliding against the base, feeling each and every one of the veins running along the base, pulsing with every stroke. You were always so gentle, but sometimes too gentle. . to patient. Don’t get him wrong Rex loved how much care you put into pleasing him but sometimes, all he wanted was to throat fuck you, watching as your tears streamed down you face, drooling like crazy over his cock.

His hands would travel down to the back of your head. Reaching down, his fingers entangling with your hair. Rex was growing impatient and wanted to see just how much control he could have over this situation. He started pushing your head further down the length of his cock, directing your head, forcing it to pick up to pace. The sudden push caused you to choke down on him, but unlike normally he didn’t let you back up for air. He needed to throat fuck you and your pretty face.

Rex’s hips began helping with the process, thrusting himself deeper into the back of your throat, the tears in your eyes began to brim from the constant gagging. “Awh fuck, such a good girl for me” He spoke out to you in a breathy groan, doing his best to keep quiet. Your hands gripped onto his thighs tight, your nails digging into his flesh doing your best to gain some traction. As he continued to pump into the back of your throat, it wasn’t long before you began rapidly patting his thighs, signalling him to let you breathe. Rex pulled his cock out of your mouth, you gasped out for air as strings of saliva broke from the separation. You grabbed the base of his cock, and continued to pump it rapidly as you caught your breath. After a quick breather you were ready to put his cock back in your mouth, he was quick to grab the back of your head, thrusting himself back into the depths of your throat once more.

“Look at me,” he said sternly and that you did. You were obedient, you listened to his command, it drove him insane. “Such a good girl, Look how well you take my cock” Rex said praising you, his words caused your stomach to flutter, his praise was enough to make you cum alone. You looked up at him through your lashes, tears streaming down your face, this was a sight to see and if he was honest he didn’t want it to end not now, not ever. His head rolled back, clenching his jaw as his breathing became hitched. Rex pushed your head back quickly, giving you just enough time for you to get a breath of air before pushing you back down on him once again. His gaze never left the sight of his thick cock getting buried deep into the back of your throat, as he rammed himself into you.

“Ah. thats it baby” he groaned, his thrusts were becoming sloppy, you could feel it, he was growing close, getting ready to shoot his cum down the back of your throat. Muffled moans escaped your mouth, sending vibrations throughout his cock “shit “ he cursed under his breath, he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going, he was getting closer by the second.

He pulled back, freeing you, allowing you to breathe. His one hand gripped his cock jerking himself off while the other moved up to your face, his thumb placing it against your lips, forcefully opening your mouth. His thumb pressed down on your tongue holding your mouth open. Rex was on the edge getting ready to release, in a few quick movements he placed his cock just above your mouth. “Stick your tongue out for me baby” he asked you softly and that you did. Sticking your tongue out, watching as he gave his cock a few more pumps feeling his hot cum fall onto your tongue. Rex let out a few loose pants before his hands gripped your hair, pulling your head back to get a better view of your face. “swallow” closing your mouth you did what you were told and swallowed his cum. A smirk coming across his face, releasing your hair and gripping your face squishing your cheeks together “good girl” he pushed your face away from his hands.

Rex was swift to clean himself up, putting the bottom half of his armour back on. He looked down at you, still there on your knees. “Get cleaned up, we have a meeting to attend” and just like that, he opened the storage closet door, slipping out and leaving you there in your own thoughts

@allicat0 signing off . .

[pianokantzart]

The Super Mario Bros. Redux (Pt. 2)

What would happen if, in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, after Mario and Luigi are separated, Mario was the one who ended up in the clutches of Luigi’s eventual arch nemesis, while Luigi teamed up with some of his own close allies to go rescue him?

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 ________

While on the train, E. Gadd and Luigi mostly keep to themselves. Luigi stares silently out the window trying to absorb everything that's happened while the professor tinkers with his vaccuum device, which Luigi now knows to be The Poltergust 3000. However, as night begins to fall, E. Gadd finally breaks the silence between them.

He asks about the tools Luigi carries and mentions that though they seem to be mainly for plumbing, there's a few mixed in that are better suited for engine repair. Luigi explains that while he and his brother's main profession is as plumbers, he does like to tinker a little– mostly fixing up the van or repairing household appliances.

E. Gadd seems happy to meet another tinkerer– even one so inexperienced in comparison– and asks Luigi if he ever considered a change of careers. Luigi declines, insisting he'd never leave his brother, saying he is "twice the plumber than I am a mechanic."

E. Gadd notes how much Luigi seems to admire his brother. Luigi confirms wholeheartedly and gushes about how great Mario is until he gets caught up in how much he misses him. Not wanting to make a scene by getting choked up, he distracts himself by asking E. Gadd about his work, and if he himself has a partner.

The Professor explains he's an inventor, and though his experiments are fairly eclectic his main area of expertise is ghosts and spirits. As for a work partner, he dismisses the very notion. He has happily lived and worked alone his entire life, and would have been perfectly content to stay that way had ghosts not raided his lab back in Evershade Valley.

Luigi– just now learning that Evershade Valley was E. Gadd's home– offers his condolences, but Elvin shrugs him off and assures that it's fine, as he's already working on a solution.

Suddenly, the train screeches to a stop, and the lights overhead shut off. Luigi starts growing nervous, and assures himself out loud that it's probably only a minor problem, and they'll be back on track in no time.

The Professor isn't so sure. He pulls out his handheld device he had used earlier (which looks uncannily like a Nintendo DS) and examines the readings. He gives a foreboding "oh dear," and Luigi asks what's wrong.

E. Gadd explains that many kingdoms have at least one haunted location, called a "ghost house." The Birabuto Kingdom is no exception, and they were passing by that very house at that moment. While the ghosts who resided there usually kept to themselves unless their home was invaded, the shattered Dark Moon likely allowed them to target any living thing passing through the area.

Then, a creepy, raspy voice comes on over the intercom: "Please remain in your seats. We will be with you shortly! Hee hee hee hee!"

Luigi lets out a little squeak of terror and curls up tighter into his seat. E. Gadd gets up and starts walking toward the engine room, lighting his way with a flashlight at the end of the nozzle of The Poltergust 3000.

"Professor!" Luigi calls in a frightened whisper "What are you doing!?" "Relax Kiddo, I catch ghosts all the time!" E. Gadd assures, giving Luigi a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "It's like riding a bike for me! You just sit back, I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Professor E. Gadd makes his way to the train's engine room. As he suspected, the drivers are knocked out, and a large band of about ten boos are wreaking havoc. Among them is a ghost dog, though it merely seems to be innocently concerned with the unconscious drivers, playfully sniffing them, nudging them, and bounding around their sleeping bodies.

The Professor wastes no time confronting the spirits, but as they fight back he is quickly overwhelmed.

Before any true harm can befall E. Gadd, Luigi suddenly appears in the doorway and rushes to his aid.

With E. Gadd struggling to get back to his feet, Luigi takes possession of The Poltergust and– though visibly panicking– makes quick work of all the ghosts except two: a single boo that flies off through an open window, and the dog ghost who phases into a nearby wall.

E. Gadd, dazed but ultimately uninjured, compliments the still trembling Luigi on his skills with The Poltergust. Though he is a little annoyed that the device was taken without permission, he confesses that the outcome more than makes up for it.

After E. Gadd and Luigi check on the drivers and confirm they too are unharmed, they look over the engine. Thankfully, all damage is surface level, and after getting the lights back on Luigi and E. Gadd work together to get the control panel functioning again.

Then they return to their seats, E. Gadd assuring the confused fellow passengers that it was merely a small electrical error that had now been repaired. After a moment the dazed voice of one of the train drivers speaks over the intercom, apologizing for the delay as the engine revs back up, and Luigi and E. Gadd continue toward the capital of The Birabuto Kingdom.

The scene transitions to Evershade Valley where, deep below the foundations of the mansion Mario had attempted to seek refuge in, phantoms twirl around a grand, ghostly ballroom, overseen by a giant dark-eyed boo in a gemstone crown.

The little boo who had avoided capture on the train suddenly enters. Once he finds the courage to uncover his face, he reports to his king that recent efforts to stop E. Gadd from reaching The Birabuto Kingdom have failed.

King Boo demands to know how the mission could've possibly been a failure considering the numbers they had at their disposal and how frail and weak E. Gadd has gotten over the years.

The boo explains that E. Gadd wasn't alone this time and that another human was with him, young and strong, wielding The Poltergust 3000 in the scientist's stead.

King Boo demands a name. The smaller boo doesn't know, but can give a description: mustachioed, big nosed, and dressed in a hat and overalls.

This intrigues the king. He dismisses the frightened boo and calls upon Boolossus, telling him to bring his newest painting to The Secret Altar beneath the courtyard.

[strawbubbysugar]

So(u)l Chapter 1

A soulmate daycare attendant x reader slowburn!

Disclaimer: it/its pronouns are used for the daycare attendant until he achieves sentience! Here's the AO3 link to read it there as well! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48206098/chapters/121564951#workskin

Busy. Busy busy busy, always so busy. Never even a moments rest to stop and think- not that it needed an entire second, a laughably long amount of time. Jeremy was trying to eat glue. Tasha was shoving a dirty sock from the ball pit into one of the generators littered around the room- as if they weren’t already enough of a fire hazard.

It was lucky it was so quick, so ready to jump into the candy covered sticky fray. It was even luckier that it was a computer, a robot designed specifically for children. Maybe not designed for this specific job, but it performed it well. It took pride in it, as much as an artificial intelligence could, and even moreso knowing that all of its knowledge and expertise in this area was learned through experience rather than it being loaded into its artificial brain. It was advanced. It was incredibly advanced, far moreso than any other technology outside of the fazbear corporation.

A learning, growing AI, worth millions of dollars, and now with one hand holding onto the labelled seam of a toddler’s pants, dangling them from where they’d attempted a jump off the highest height of the jungle gym. The other hand was holding back an eight year old, who was beginning to realize that they were too mature for the daycare and acting out to prove it as they attempted to peel the safety foam off the sharp corners at the top of the structure. Its feet were being used to hold himself to the gym, hooked into the criss cross patterned grating and providing it just enough leverage to remain opposed to gravity.

If it had core muscles, they would be straining at the effort. At the moment, all the straining was a result of its desperate attempt to not drop either child, nor use too much force and accidentally hurt them.

Its foot slipped slightly, ever so slightly. Not enough to make it fall, but enough that it knew that scenario wasn’t far off. Its mind ran a hundred thousand calculations a millisecond, before it finally calculated the best choice.

It used the hand holding the back of the older child’s shirt to yank them towards it while simultaneously throwing the toddler up up UP into the air. It did a spinning cartwheel off the structure, using both it’s hands to launch the older child into the ball pit as if he were a basketball, hearing him land with a scattering of hollow plastic balls. Finally, it hit the ground with a duck, a roll, and a bounce to stand back up. Holding out its perfectly engineered hands and-

Poomf!

Catching the little one with time to spare. The fluid, lifelike robot beamed and wiggled ite finger over the child’s nose, earning a giggle before it put them down and sent them on their wobbly way.

“Remember kids, the top of the structure is off off off limits!” It announced, its million dollar smile bright and cheerful, it’s voice so full of life you wouldn’t know it didn’t have one.

“Mr Sun!!” Two of the children screamed, in a tug of war over a stuffed Chica.

“Hello, friends!” It smiled at them, bounding over in far fewer steps than it would take a human, thanks to its incredibly long legs. “Are we playing nice and sharing our toys??”

One of the children shook their head quickly. “Billy isn’t letting go of MY chica!!”

“I saw it first!!” He retorted, tugging on the doll again. The animatronic faintly heard the sound of seams pulling taut.

“But I brought it from home!!” The little girl whined. “Mr SUN!!”

It gently patted both of their heads, crouching down to get closer to the both of them. “Amanda, you brought your toy from home, so you get to decide if you want to share it! Billy, Amanda is very upset, so do you think you could find a different toy??”

It’s voice remained as bouncy and excited as ever, even while crouched down trying to calm down a situation. Billy scowled before tugging on the toy again, and even Amanda could hear the ripping now. She screamed in terror at the idea of her toy being broken, pulling back harder in a vain attempt to retrieve it. “NOOOO!!”

It scanned the situation, running through calculations before coming to its final option. The last one before simply lifting up the children and physically separating them.

“Whooooo wants a sundrop!!” It held out two round little orange candies, magicked out of thin air from behind the children’s ears.

They stared for a moment, but only a moment before the toy was dropped and the candies grabbed eagerly. The daycare attendant lifted up the toy, depositing it in Amanda’s arms. It reached over into one of the many piles of toys surrounding the daycare and pulled out a Monty plush, plopping it into the arms of Billy. “There we go! Now we both have a toy!”

It’s wide smile beamed as it squinted it’s optics in a show of approval. Both children seemed at least satiated with the end result- both with a toy and a piece of candy, before running off in opposite directions. It stood up and surveyed the room, looking for the next challenge to tackle.

The child who had been dunked into the pit finally dragged himself out, throwing a plastic ball at the attendant’s head in indignation that his plan to ruin safety codes had been thwarted.

The ball whizzed towards the animatronic, with surprisingly good aim for a kid of that age. Aim didn’t matter however, when the daycare attendant had sensors in the back of its head. It’s torso turned before his head and caught the ball. When it’s head caught up, rotating to face him, it beamed his same, static smile at the boy.

“Oh ho ho, Lukas!” It chided, voice loud enough to fill the entire daycare with ease. It used its foot to kick two more balls that had been scattered along the mats into its hands, and began juggling them. “Throwing things is not permitted in the daycare! Unless of course we’re playing catch- but I don’t remember agreeing to play!!”

As it walked over to the boy, it continued to scoop up balls, juggling them even as the number of them became more and more unfathomable to be kept in the air all at one time.

Lukas folded his arms and huffed, turning and sitting on the edge of the ball pit. He paused until he knew the attendant was close, mischievous little grin worming it’s way across his face. By the time the attendant was close enough to roll the balls off its shoulder in a graceful slide back into their designated place in the pit, he had a new plan.

He threw himself off the edge of the ball pit, sliding between the attendant’s legs and booking it for the structure. He knew the attendant had difficulty maneuvering inside of it, though it wasn’t impossible. He’d have to be quick to make it through. He had no real goal, of course. He was here until his mom came for him at four.

But getting that dumb robot all tangled up for a few minutes would be compensation enough for having been interrupted during his brooding on top of the structure.

The robot feigned being startled as it was slid under, having seen the boy’s muscles tensing long before he actually moved. Its programming urged it to allow the children small victories over it- to improve their self confidence, and their growth. It gasped dramatically, throwing every ball it was juggling into the air at once and letting them pelt it as they came back down.

Several children who were watching giggled at the display, enjoying watching the oldest kid in the daycare really stick it to the man. Er.. the robot.

The older kids knew the robot wasn’t really alive. He was a toy, meant to watch over them while their parents were at work, or with their older siblings in the gigantic pizzaplex. He was like .. an elf on the shelf. He couldn’t really do anything to you, but he could tell your parents if you had been naughty, and that was often more than enough to deter them from bad behaviour. He played games, sang songs, told stories, did arts and crafts- he did it all!

Almost like a real person!

Lukas had, at this point, been sticking out his tongue at the attendant from the slide, teasing and making rude gestures.

The attendant’s array of yellow points, surrounding his head like a halo of sunshine, flattened back slightly. It’s programming censored the rude gesture for it, but it knew that it was against the rules. Rules that it took VERY seriously.

“Lukas! That is against the rules! Please step out of the-!” It peered up into the tube that the boy had disappeared into, whirring clicks filling the plastic tunnel as it tried to pathfind the best way to handle this situation.

It was frozen for a fraction of a second before deciding to follow him. It knew the boy was trying to get it to follow, but that’s what it was here for. To play! To follow the rules in order to keep order and structure to the fun, to play along, and to keep humans safe were the pillars on which its AI was built. It was harmless to follow, and would only serve as a lesson to the boy when he was caught to not break the rules.

It crawled into the slide, on all fours, almost spider-like as it ascended. “Luuuukaaaas!” It called, in a sing-songy voice, completely oblivious in any bit of its coding as to how terrifying this situation would be to a child. “Rulebreakers don’t get to keep playing, they have to go in TIME OUT!”

It reached the end of the slide, crouching as it scanned the area. It found the bio signature near instantly, though with a moments hesitation. He was using the generator as a mask to hide his body heat- clever! It added that note to Lukas’s file to compliment his mother on when she came for pickup. The parents were usually much friendlier to it after it complimented their children. Not that their nervous looks and barely hidden discomfort around it bothered it. It was only a machine, after all.

“Come get me!!” The child teased, sticking out his tongue as he peaked over the generator. Warning signs flashed in its mind, red boxes and triangles covering his view. This was dangerous. The generators weren’t safe to play around.

“The generators aren’t toys, friend!” It spoke slowly. “Let me get you somewhere more fun, then we can-“

As it reached over the generator, it knocked one of the thick connecting cables loose, already having been on its last legs from being fiddled with by tiny hands. A large arc of electricity crackled in the air, and the lights in the daycare flickered. The generator practically jumped into the air with the force of the kilovolts being pushed through it, kilovolts which connected with the attendant’s metal frame and engulfed it.

Lukas watched as the attendant was flooded with electricity, artificial eyes flooded with static, and rays spinning so quickly it was creating a breeze. Arms twitching and hands opening and closing, legs spasming- Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea after all. If he broke this thing, his mom was sure to kill him. Or at least, take away his video game privileges.

Eventually, the lights in the daycare returned to normal, the generator that had been over-conducting calming down as its brothers rerouted the power to themselves and shut it off from their system. Now that it was powerless, the attendant was free to recover.

Smoke rose from his body, eyes black as his power cell had forced a shut off to avoid overload. It had done so too late, unfortunately, and he had crashed.

His systems slowly rebooted, coming back online one by one.

Good Morning, Sun!

The text beeped in front of his eyes before disappearing shortly after, the usual wake up he received after a hard reset, other than the startup systems diagnosis running in the background. He blinked slowly, purposefully.

That had.. hurt.

It had hurt?

It had hurt.

Why had it hurt? He’d never hurt before. He could feel things, thanks to the wiring under his silicon, to give him the ability to judge touch and pressure. But he’d never hurt. He’d also never considered himself a he before. Why was he thinking that now? Why was he thinking anything? He didn’t usually think, not much anyways, not consciously. His thoughts were command tasks in his computer brain, not thoughts- thoughts like these. Like this one right now. And this one! And this!

He felt himself begin to panic. What was happening to him? What was wrong? Was he broken? Oh, no! If he was broken he’d have to-

Fear flooded his system. Confusion, then panic, then fear. Not the most fun first three emotions to feel.

He raised his hands and gripped his rays anxiously, before patting down the rest of himself. He didn’t FEEL broken. Not physically at least. Maybe the jolt had fried his software- would he need it replaced?? Would he-

He froze again, a swirling spinning mess of all these terrible feelings, not even noticing as the little instigator slipped his way past him and down the slide back out of the structure again.

He was too busy thinking about himself, now. Himself. A new concept.

If he’d needed to breathe, his chest would be heaving. And it did. His artificial breathing, meant to make him even more like a person, had caught up to the news of their sudden autonomy, and began shuddering as he fought to catch his false breath.

He was only shaken out of his stupor when he heard a voice in the back of his head. One he heard constantly- that he knew as intimately as he knew himself. It WAS himself. Or at least.. it had been.

When he wasn’t awake, it hadn’t mattered that the moon program was separate from him. They were the same body, providing the same functions. It was the same as switching browsers. You still got your results.

But now.. now..? Now that little voice, those little lines of code that ‘spoke’ to him.. they really were speaking to him. The voice they’d programmed for moon, to be softer, to be easier to hear before bed, echoed out in lines of code that translated themselves into speech.

Sun?

Sun paused for a moment. That was his name, wasn’t it? Sun. It was his. He’d never thought about his name before- it had almost been as much of a title as daycare attendant. It wasn’t his, it was what the children called him to get his attention. No, no. That was his name. It was his. He decided firmly in that moment. His first real decision- one made on his own. On purpose. By choice.

..Moon..?

He sent out his own strings of code in return, hesitantly, carefully. As if responding would break the spell, the beautiful and terrifying curse they seemed to be under.

After a few long moments, agonizingly long, he received a pinged response.

This is new.

[fatuismooches]

hi hi if ur reqs are open🙏🙏 id like to request some ply fluff with dottore n pantalone😭😭 just some hcs on how the relationship will work like ehehe

and if you can’t do that, then alright!! i can’t wait to see your future work either way <3

♡ 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 ♡

synopsis: General fluff on a cute poly relationship with Dottore and Pantalone! They are very tall, handsome, and teasing so be warned ;).

includes: dottore + pantalone w/ gn! reader

notes: Both of them are so fine... I was literally going crazy over them when the trailer first dropped. Writing this was very fun, thank you for your request and kind words!

They are both usually smiling eerily and this multiples by a lot whenever the two of them are fighting over you. Seriously, the amount of fear and tension they cause with their crazy smiles to the other Fatui members during some of their standoffs is abnormal. And you’re always in the middle of these very tall, intimidating men who have a strong grip on one of your arms. Speaking of height, they would definitely gang up on you and hide tall things on shelves to tease you. Dottore and Pantalone might even toss the item above you just to see you get mad.

Even if you have no clue about science or accounting, you will automatically because Dottore’s assistant and Pantalone’s secretary. With Dottore, he would be more strict on this job and actually make you take notes. Pantalone is more lenient and is content with you being spoiled and just keeping him company. Since he cares about how comfortable you are at all times, Pantalone probably gets into fights with Dottore about how the latter might overwork you. If it was up to him, you wouldn’t be lifting a finger. Dottore would act like he doesn’t care but would take it into consideration sometimes and give you days off, which allows you to spend time with your other lover. He can’t have his favorite assistant collapsing, after all.

Dottore can tolerate Pantalone because of the sufficient funding he provides for his research. At the same time, Pantalone would subtly threaten to cut funding if he thinks the mad scientist is spending too much time with you. (Once he actually did. You had to stop Dottore’s clones from breaking down the door to Pantalone’s office.)

Whenever you are alone with Pantalone, one of Dottore’s clones might follow you to see what you are doing with him. Pantalone promptly kicks him out. Pantalone would have professional assistants assist you with your hair, skin, and whatever you need. Meanwhile, Dottore would let his clones do all that for you. The two of them are wordlessly fighting over which does the job better.

The one thing they like to do together is to team up to tease you. They like to see your reactions (especially Dottore who enjoys seeing you squirm.) It may seem like he has some malicious intent during this (it’s Dottore after all) but he likes observing you a lot and just learning about your emotions in general. Pantalone doesn’t take it as far but loves to use his silky voice and smooth words and see you gawk at his shamelessness. Dottore would happily grip your shoulders in place to prevent you from escaping and join him in mercilessly teasing you.

Dating the two of them means you have pretty much anything you want at your fingertips. Pantalone will have the money to buy it, or Dottore will simply make it. Pantalone would probably have to give Dottore tips on what gifts to make for you because he doesn’t have much expertise in that area. Dottore doesn’t have any real experience in romance actually, so Pantalone has to drop hints every now and then, only because Pantalone wants you to be treated better. But Dottore never comes out directly and asks for help. Probably has brought romance and dating advice books, read a page and threw them out because of the cringe. Due to this, Pantalone often manages to win you over more often, much to Dottore’s hidden dismay.

Neither of them seems to leave Snezhnaya that often, so they would do everything in their combined power to make sure that you don’t have to leave the nation either. They are both highly intelligent and can sweet talk you pretty easily. They are really fearsome and can make people cry with a happy smile on their faces so no one will ever mess with you.

Dates would include you dragging Pantalone to visit Dottore’s lab. He’s not too keen on it at first but he does want to see where his money is going so he agrees. It ends up not being that bad and it’s during these times that the two of you convince Dottore to take a break. (It’s an extremely hard process. Dottore’s probably sleep-deprived but his body is used to it, which is the complete opposite of Pantalone’s sleep routine. Sometimes the two of you have to pick him off the random spot he fell asleep and bring him to bed.)

Pantalone is more physically affectionate while Dottore dislikes it at first. The latter prefers for your affection to be small initially because he stiffens up especially at positive touch since he basically knows nothing about that. Either way, both are touch starved as hell and would silently crave your attention. Pantalone cuddles with you more often since Dottore tends to stay up all night. However, when Dottore finally is done with researching he will hog all your attention and refuse to let you leave him. Pantalone lets him since he knows Dottore will go back to his experimentation quickly.

Being around them so often means you'll probably grow to have a smart mouth. I think both of them can be sarcastic and mocking so you might pick up these habits. (They’ll definitely be proud if you do something like this.)

Being in a relationship with Pantalone and Dottore would be chaotic in general, but it’s not a bad experience. I can see that after a while together, you would bring out the playful side of both of them, and even they would become more relaxed around each other. They both love you very much <3.

[queerism1969]

What are some semi-harsh truths you have for people who are new to transitioning?

I don’t mean sharing depressing statistics that they’re likely already aware of. I mean things that might be difficult to internalize but are important to know for the most stable experience possible.

 Your transition will cause disappointment. Not of yourself, but of people you had hoped were better. Those are ‘them’ problems, not ‘you’ problems. You will most likely have to outgrow people.

Hormones helped with the emotional aspects of depression and anxiety, but you still have all the bad habits and thought patterns that are associated. It takes work to fully heal

Dysphoria does lessen overall but that can make some sources of it feel worse

You don't know what all your dysphorias are, or how strong they are. Dysphoria is a type of pain, and the brain is only able to perceive so much pain at a time. When you clear out the biggest problem, you'll be able to see the next. It may come as a hell of a surprise.

If you require a medical transition, SERIOUSLY DO YOUR RESEARCH ON SURGEONS. While there are some great surgeons out there, there are DEFINITELY bad ones too. There are extremely dangerous "medical providers" who falsely advertise their expertise. THOROUGHLY read the wiki page in /Transgender_Surgeries

There are a whole bunch of places you can't really go to anymore. And I don't just mean Russia or Saudi, I mean many suburbs, rural areas, or any neighborhoods that aren't already quite progressive.

Just because someone's trans doesn't mean they aren't transphobic, get to know people before you come out to them 

You will lose friends, some might be openly against it others might just drift away just be prepared to lose some of your friends not all but some.

Transition is not a cure-all for all your problems, it might help with something like depression and certainly dysphoria. But there are some problems that will still be there

Take lots of pictures even if you feel ugly. You'll want those later just as a boost to see how far you have come. 

For my trans-women friends, it is dangerous to be alone with a man who you don't know, even in public.

Carry pepper spray, carry a firearm, learn how to throw a punch, stay with your group, and never go home with a stranger.

Throwing other trans people under the bus, especially less "acceptable" or "palatable" trans people, in order to make cis people respect you is bullshit.

Do not be afraid to switch therapists and doctors if one doesn't feel right.

Most people don't know shit about being trans or how transitioning works. Get ready for the most disgustingly intrusive questions you can imagine.

Never read the comments. There's no point in getting into battles, I know you want to, but LGBT education is EXHAUSTING, people are hostile for no reason. They are scared of you and hate you because they don't know you. Remember: it doesn't have to be your job to educate people.

Trans people are a really easy target for hate politics because we strongly depend on other people (doctors who prescribe our meds, surgeons, government for name change stuff) and it's very easy to take them away from you. 

Cis people will tell you that you'll "regret transitioning" or that you're making a mistake because they cannot even comprehend something like dysphoria, their greatest fear is having their sex permanently altered, which would be dysphoric for them, and they think everyone else is like that.

[fandom-go-round]

Sea Salt Like Glitter: Part Two

Summary: You’re a forest ranger. Trees and mammals are your specialty. Mermaids in the ocean? Way outside your area of expertise. Good News: They like you. Bad News: They like you a lot

Mer! Sun x Plus Sized! Reader x Mer! Moon

Part One , Part Two (Here!), Part Three

Part two for everyone who was looking forward to it! Mostly fluff and plot set up here, I hope you enjoy! Also this is over 4k and honestly people need to get me away from the computer. Also also, happy Ruin DLC! I’m hoping we see something good

Warnings: Different Species, Threats of Bodily Harm, Implied Poaching, Cross Species Interactions, Mild Flirting, Cross Species Courtship

           You take the realization of mer people pretty well in your opinion. Sure, there was some yelling and swearing, pacing up and down in the woods. The birds that make their nests by your cabin are convinced that you’re crazy but you’ve always been an odd one. You want to chalk it up to a hallucination but the rope burn on your hands and lack of fuel tell a different story.

           Mer people don’t change anything about your job, which is a relief and a struggle. You have to go back to your normal day to day knowing that there are other things out in the world. It does renew your passion around nature and conservation, just with a different twist. Your boss raises your eyebrows when you come in a little cagy but doesn’t push for an explanation, only requesting that you get some more rest.

           You swear you will, even though it’s been a struggle. In your dreams all you hear is the sound of waves against rocks and red eyes under the water. You’re treading water and keep feeling something try to pull you under. Every morning you wake in a sweat and want to scream. The creature had been scary, sure, but it hadn’t tried to hurt you. Just chase you off. You argue with yourself as you head back to the beach, mumbling under your breath.

           “You’re being ridiculous. Even if the thing lives around here, you saved it. It doesn’t want to eat you.” Your rational brain agrees with your words but the other part of your brain scoffs. You know some kind of underwater secret now, why would it let you live?

           The argument continues as you go down the stairs, scanning over the beach. There isn’t any trash and you’re thankful. It takes more willpower than it should to look over the water and, very slowly, you relax. The gulls are the only animals above the water and fish dart happily underneath. There’s a ping in your chest and you hope the creature you saved is alright. It had looked like a deeper water fish. Your brain happily chimes in that it might be nocturnal too, based on all the squinting it was doing. Even better, now you won’t have to see it and you can go back to pretending the experience was a fever dream.

           A high-pitched click, almost like a dolphin call, snaps you out of your thoughts. Your eyes scan the surface again and go wide, white eyes peeking out above the water. There’s a head sticking out of the water.

           Both of you refuse to move, the other new creature in the water and you on the shore. Red fins raise just a little and you remember the other splashes. Your creature had a friend. Well fuck.

           This creature makes another click and, ever so slowly, moves closer to shore. Your feet are rooted to the spot in fear and it pauses, not knowing what to do. You know that you need to do something but you have no idea what and you wave. Your hand comes up to give a few, very quick and sharp wags before going limp at your side once again.

           You want to curl into a ball. Your brain howls at you for being an idiot while another part is cackling. How in the world humans have become the dominant species is beyond you. Waving at a fucking fish, are you crazy-

           You’re brought out of your spiraling thoughts by a loud splash. The creature’s fins are widely displayed, fanning around it’s face like petals and it has a large grin on it’s face. Webbed fingers break the surface to give you it’s own furious waves before it dives under the water. You watch, half fascinated and half terrified, as it makes a beeline for shore.

           You back up a meter as it getting closer, the mer dragging itself half out of the water. The fins by it’s head wiggle happily, reds and oranges and yellows distracting you. This mer is covered in warm colored splotches and you watch as two larger fins by it’s hips come to hug the sand. It’s teeth as just as sharp as it’s companions, as are it’s claws and you resist the urge to book it.

           The mer has been making clicking sounds the entire time you’ve been staring at it and you subtly close your mouth. Hopefully it doesn’t think that you’re trying to be a threat. Of course you aren’t but who knows what mer culture is. If there is mer culture. A long, low whistle catches your attention and you focus on the mer. The fins around it’s head have wilted a little and you realize that it’s eyes are completely white. Part of you thinks there may be a pupil there but you’d need to get closer to confirm.

           “Umm sorry bud, I didn’t mean to ignore you.” It takes you a second to find your words but when you talk the creature perks up again, a wide smile on it’s face. It gives something like a coo and you nod, ignoring the way the hair on your arms stands on end. “Nice to meet you?”

           “Friend!” You almost scream when it speaks fucking human and moves closer to you. You scramble back or at least try. Your boot gets caught in the sand and you fall backwards, landing straight on your ass. Your eyes are huge but the mer doesn’t stop, getting closer until it can almost touch your feet. It doesn’t touch, claws stopping about half a foot away. It looks almost like it’s vibrating in place, fins wiggling and no actually, that’s it’s entire body wiggling.

           “You speak-?” You cut your own question off, gesturing between the two of you. It gives a high-pitched giggle that makes your ears ring. It nods, getting lower to the ground and reminds you of a dog doing a play bow.

           “Yes yes! Only little.” It’s voice is deeper than you expect, not that you expected anything. There’s another tone behind the first that you can’t exactly place; maybe it’s a mer thing? You nod back and introduce yourself, pronouns included. You want to laugh at yourself; maybe you’re in shock? Why else would you give your pronouns to a mer person? Was gender even a thing under the ocean??

           “Nice to meet friend!” The mer gives a few other happy body wiggles and then a cross between a hiss and bark. You stare, not saying anything and it frowns. “Name translate no. He!” You could already feel your brain starting to melt but give him a nod.

           “Is there something that’s close? To your name” His head tilts to the side at your question and he begins to hum, tail burrowing into the dirt. The humming is soothing and you find yourself  relaxing at the wordless tune. As you watch him and notice that he seems completely happy in the sand, his larger fins pushing the sand around him.  It reminds you of some kind of fish but the mer speaks up before you can get too far.

           “Sun!” He’s more than a little excited to tell you his name, leaning as close as he can get. His face is much larger than yours and you shrink back a little, even though he doesn’t seem to notice. Sun changes back to clicks and coos, tail slapping rhythmically in the water.

           “Sun huh?” You can’t help but smile a little. He seems like a big puppy dog, just with extra teeth. And his fins are sort of like the sun. Kind of? “Nice to meet you too Sun.” You don’t have time to react. Right after you finish saying his name, his eyes go wide and a long tongue comes out of his mouth. He drags it across your cheek and you shriek in surprise, the mer giving a pleased rumble.

           The next couple of hours pass in the same way, Sun chatting as much as he can and you carrying the conversation. It’s easy to pass the time; you and Sun are both fascinated with each other. It seemed that while Sun could talk, it was rare that he actually got to interact with people. You were getting more comfortable with him, letting him lean on you and put his head in your lap.

           The sun was starting to dip below the horizon and your new mer friend was slowly sinking back into water. The darker the sky got, the more he yawned and seemed to drift off. He was almost all the way back into the water now and you gave a small wave, Sun giving one back. You turned to go but a deep, more menacing growl came up from the water and you froze.

           Red eyes glared out of the water at you, mouth pulled into a snarl. Sun didn’t seem at all worried, giving a coo but not turning towards the other mer. You quickly glance between the water’s edge and where you stood, wondering if you had enough distance. Quiet hissing got louder and you watched as the other mer dragged itself out beside Sun.

           The mer looked a lot better than before; skin healed and healthy looking. Red eyes were brighter and more focused, squarely on you. You didn’t know if you should bolt or stay still. Sun leans on the new mer, rubbing his head against a dark shoulder. The one you rescued gives a snarl but rubs their head back, not pushing the other off. You’re still in shock that the mer is completely healed, even though it’s been less than 24 hours. Maybe a couple over? Either way, that’s nothing short of impressive.

           “Him Moon.” Sun’s voice is sleepy, slurring heavily but still clear. You look at him and then the new mer, apparently dubbed Moon. Moon makes a face and begins to click and whistle. The two of them fall into conversation, leaving you to watch and figure out what to do. You’re more nervous with Moon here but Sun doesn’t seem worried. Your eyes keep scanning the beach, just in case; you remember the tentacles on Moon and have no desire to get snatched.

           Moon sees you scanning and gives a deep laugh, flashing his teeth at you. Black tentacles slide onto the sand and you want to be terrified, you really do. You can’t though because they’re gorgeous. Moon, like the other fish in the area, has bioluminescence and it looks like stars are dancing across his scales. Now that you’ve noticed the lights you see them everywhere, covering his entire torso and arms.

           Sun gives a happy coo and smiles at you, beckoning you closer. You hesitate, looking at Moon. He looks half annoyed but also half amused, lips curling up a little but the rumblings have stopped. You give a sigh, wondering if anyone would find your body and get closer. Both of them watch you approach and don’t move, a tension in the air. It doesn’t feel bad, just intense.

           You stop in front of Moon and he doesn’t shrink down like Sun has. He looms over you, blocking out the moonlight. Sun gives another sleepy coo, fingers gently wrapping around your arm. You can’t breathe, ruby eyes locked on your face. Moon leans closer, scanning your face and then your entire body. A cold tentacle wraps itself around your ankle and you resist the urge to yell; if you’re going to die, you aren’t going to show any fear.

           Being this close you can really see Moon’s lights fading in and out. There’s a larger patch of lights at the end of his head fins, dangling over his shoulder. It almost looks like a lure and you try not to think too much about it. Moon calls your name and you flinch, focusing back on him. You had been so zoned out earlier that Sun must have said your name and you didn’t realize.

           “Keep secret.” Moon’s voice is harder to make out than Sun’s but you understand him. He hadn’t phrased it as a question but you nod anyway, wanting to reassure him.

           “I won’t say anything, I promise.” You’re completely sincere and Moon scoffs, rolling his eyes. You furrow your eyebrows, not know why he wouldn’t like that answer. You don’t get a chance to ask because one of his hands comes up and places a claw directly on your forehead. A tingle of tear slides down your spine but you ignore it.

           “Ours now.” The words themselves are ominous but Moon’s tone is kind, even a little fond. You don’t get it, not really, and he can tell based on his face. He gives a rumble and gently flicks your forehead, snickering as you yelp.

           “Hey! What was that-!?” You’re clutching your head and don’t notice him going in under your hands it’s too late. Another cold tongue drags itself against your cheek and you shriek, mer laughter filling the air. “Eww again!? What is with you two and licking!?”

           Either of them answers your question, Moon snickering and Sun giving a lazy wave. You watch as Moon helps the other one into the water, hands gentle and they disappear under the water silently. Your heart is pounding like crazy and you can’t stop the giddy laughter even if you wanted to. Does it sound a little hysterical? Maybe. But it also feels like something you’ve been missing is finally clicking into place.

♥

           The next few weeks you feel like you’re living the high life. Your trips to the beach have increased from once a week to every other day and you’re tempted to go every day. Without fail, one of them will meet you, even if it takes a little while. During the day it’s Sun and if it’s closer to evening, Moon may come visit. Sun is defiantly the friendlier of the two, pulling himself onto the sand and hanging out with you. Moon is more reserved, liking to stay in the water and splash you.

           From what you’ve figured out, the two of them have been living in the area for years now. The secluded beach and lack of people make it ideal for staying out of the public eye. They’re also a mated pair; you’ve been too cautious to ask more details about that. There are cultural barriers that you’re trying to navigate and that seems like a topic to avoid for now.

           The first time you ask about how they learned to speak, Sun gets a little sad. His fins drop and he snuggles closer in your lap. He’s the more physically affectionate of the two and you’ve gotten used to having wet pants.

           “Human friend, long time ago.” His words are muffled by the fabric but he keeps going. You gently start to rub his back and he purrs, eyes looking up at you. “No stay, left soon.”

           “Were they a ranger like me?” Your question earns a dark chuckle from Moon in the water. He glides around the edge, eyes locked on the two of you.

           “Ranger too stupid to notice.” He rasps and you take offence, even if you know he’s not talking about you.

           “I noticed you.” He hums, eyes half lidded and grin sharp.

           “Not completely stupid.” You scoff at his words and he laughs. Sun gives a huff and flips his tail at Moon. The tentacled mer sputters at the water thrown at his face and sinks below the waves.

           “Not ranger, visitor. Before beach was closed. Left once vacation over.” Sun sounds a little better now, not as sad as he explains. You nod, still rubbing his back and he soaks up the attention like a sponge.

           “I’m sorry they left.” Sun smiles at your words, pulling you closer to him. It’s still unnerving to be manhandled so easily but you try to ignore it; people your size don’t usually get moved like feathers after all.

           “Better now that you’re here.” You ignore the embarrassment you feel at Sun’s words, giving him a smile back.

           “I’m glad you think so. I’m happy that I met the two of you.” Sun preens at the praise, the fins around his head fanning out in a dazzling display. Moon cuts off your admiring, shooting a jet of water directly at your face. You yelp and he snickers, crawling up onto the sand next to Sun. The two of them bicker as you clean your face and you can’t help but smile. This is the best time you’ve had in a while.

           That, of course, means that it can’t last. A couple days after your sand cuddle session, you spot a boat out on the water. It’s larger than a normal speedboat and the hull is so dark grey it’s almost black. Dread settles in your gut like a stone; poachers.

           They aren’t a common occurrence but that doesn’t mean poachers are rare. Normally you deal with them on the forest side and its easy to drive them off. Being on the water is going to be harder, partly because of the lack of equipment and partly because of your new friends.

           You keep an eye on the boat as it lingers. You don’t see any nets or obvious illegal fishing but you can’t be everywhere at once. You ask Sun about it one day, making sure the two of you are out of sight of the boat.

           “Boat fine.” He doesn’t seem nearly as worried as you are, chomping on a fish he caught earlier. He had offered you some and you declined, trying not to make a face. He clearly didn’t need to cook his food.

           “You’re not worried about it?” You ask, a little surprised. Sun shrugs, half looking over his shoulder.

           “Boat no fish, boat just stay.” You sigh, leaning against him.

           “That’s what I’m worried about. I’m afraid that they’re poachers.” Sun listens as you speak, giving a rumble. “The two of you shouldn’t visit me until I figure this out.”

           “What?” Sun sits up, fins flaring out along his head. He looks more than a little offended, leaning close to you. “Why no visit?”

           “I don’t want you to get hurt.” You tell him, face serious. “I doubt anyone knows that you’re here but it’s better to be safe than sorry.” He watches you for a moment before leaning back and pouting.

           “You take care of it?” You nod at his question, giving him a reassuring smile.

           “Yeah Sun, I’ll take care of it.” He hums, fins wiggling for a bit before licking your cheek. You protest and all his does is laugh before sliding into the water. You figure that he’ll tell Moon your warning; you’re less worried about the nocturnal mer anyway. Now, onto the harder task.

           Mark, at the end off the day, is a pretty good boss. He tends to be a little nervous (mostly around people) but he was always willing to go to bat for his employees and wildlife. He’s also the one to notify when you have issues in your remote part of the woods. He’s never been afraid to drive out and see what you’re dealing with.

           “You’re making me nervous.” Mark can’t stop himself from commenting and you can’t blame him. You’ve been pacing up a storm since before he pulled up and hardly let him get a word in edge wise. You take a deep breathe, counting to four before releasing it. Make is here to help, even if you have to get a little more creative in your explanation.

           “I’m sorry I just, I’m really worried about this.” You do your best to explain and Mark gives slow nod, looking out at the ocean.

           “Normally you’re less concerned with ocean life.” Mark doesn’t make it sound accusatory but you still winced, looking out at the ocean. You watch the waves, trying to figure out how to phrase your thoughts.

           “You’re right… I found something out there worth protecting.” You feel like your face is burning but pushed on, Mark watching you closely. “There are creatures who needs our help and don’t deserve to be hunted for sport. They’re worth more than that.” Silence fell and you held your breath; if he didn’t support you there was no way you could drive them off on your own.

           “Some day you’ll have to tell me what you found.” Mark gives you a hearty back slap, surprising you and making you stumble. He laughs as you sputter, grabbing his binoculars and looking out. “Come on then, let’s get these folks out of your ocean.”

           “It’s not my ocean!” Your protest is ignored, Mark snickering as he headed back towards his truck.

           “Course it’s not. Come on, let’s get this down to the boat launch and go pay our friends a visit.” You grin at his words, calmed down with Mark’s confidence. He might normally be nervous but when it comes to wildlife, he was the pushiest person in the world.

           Mark’s boat is nicer than yours and you ignore the ping of jealousy that stabs through you. Wish your boat was that nice. Mark drives you both closer to this boat, now on the south side of the rock formations. The boat had been driving around the rock formations in the area and it makes you nervous, knowing that Moon and Sun like to hunt there.

           Once you get close enough, Mark hands you a megaphone and you stand up, doing your best to stay stable. Taking a deep breath, you let your voice boom out, thoughts of the mers down below giving your courage.

           “Attention, you are in protected waters! State your business!” The ship stays silent for a moment after your request and the two of you tense. If they didn’t react, you would have to call in the coast guard and that was always hit or miss.  You repeat the message, seeing if there were any signs of movement. Nothing.

           “What do you want to do?” You ask Mark, turning to face him. Your boss frowns, shaking his head.

           “It doesn’t mean that they’re poachers but it doesn’t look good. Let’s head back and call it in.” You nod in agreement and turned back around just in time to watch someone lean over the edge. Your eyes go wide as this person begins to puke, wincing as the sound echoed over the water. You and Mark share a look before you bring the megaphone back to your lips.

           “Excuse me?” Your call has the person on the boat jumping, a high-pitched shriek filling the air. The person on the ship turns to you and you give a wave. “Please state your businesses, you’re in protected waters.” You watch as the person flails for a moment before putting their fingers up in a ‘hold on a second’ gesture and heading back into the boat.

           “Not poachers.” Mark says from behind you and you nod, going boneless with relief.

           “Not unless this is their first voyage.” You joke back and he laughs.

           “Bad crew choice right there.” The two of you laugh to yourselves, pleasantly surprised as the person comes back with a few more people, their own megaphone in hand. You take another breath, begging yourself for some patience. This was going to be a long talk.

♥

           It took almost two hours to convince the boat they had to leave. Apparently, it was a private party ship that had drifted too far south. You let Mark do most of the technical talking, especially when it came to where exactly the boat was supposed to be. You had more fun watching the people try to be sober when they very clearly were not.

           You also keep an eye out for your underwater friends but they stay away and you’re thankful. You don’t want to have to explain to Mark about mer people on top of dealing with drunk tourists. Finally, the two of you watch the ship drive off and you sigh, leaning back and closing your eyes.

           “Tired?” Mark sounds as tired as you feel and you nod, closing your eyes.

           “Yeah. They’re more than 20 meters off course, how does that even happen?” Mark gives a snort, turning the boat back and driving to the shore.

           “That’s what happens when you get drunk and your ship is fancy enough to have cruise control. I’m going to call it in once we get back and hopefully someone will meet them on their way back.” You give a hum back, acknowledging his words.

           “Sounds good to me. I’ll write up my report tonight and get it to you by tomorrow.” He waves you off, shaking his head.

           “A couple of days later is no big deal. I have the regional meeting tomorrow too.” You wince at ‘regional meeting’. Sucks to be the boss. The two of you spend the rest of the ride in silence, getting the boat out of the water easily. You’re just about to part ways when there’s a large splash in the water behind you.

           Your stomach drops out as you turn and see a flash of Sun’s bright red tail. Mark’s eyes are wide like yours and you don’t know what to say. He clearly saw Sun, even if it wasn’t all of him. You want to tell him he’s crazy but Mark just shakes his head, rubbing at his eyes.

           “I’m… seeing things, I think. I’m gonna head back. We’ll talk once you finish your report.” You nod, trying not to come off as too relieved because of his words.

           “Have a good night Mark, we’ll talk later.” He gives you a half wave as you see him off, making sure the boat is hooked up before driving off. You pray that Mark will ignore what he’s seen; he loves the ocean more than anyone.

           Sun jumps into the air again and now you watch with a smile, heading back towards the beach. With the sun getting close to setting, maybe you’ll see Moon tonight too. Mark may have competition for ocean lover, now that you think about it.

[maniacwatchestheworld]

When there's something strange in the neighborhood, who you gonna call? Probably not John Constantine...?

I'm still pretty new to these DPxDC spaces, but as I've been exploring it from the perspective of someone currently deep in the throes of DC hyperfixation (and Danny Phantom being a past hyperfixation that I sometimes relapse into) one trend that I find kinda odd (but not necessarily unexpected) is just how prevalent Constantine is in these spaces that are largely dominated by BatFamily AUs and headcanons. Like, I do get it (kind of). Constantine does occasionally show up in Batman stories where Bruce encounters something supernatural and needs consulting on the case, and Constantine definitely appeals to the fandom audience in some pretty clear ways. Yeah, he's a handsome, charming bastard with a secret heart of gold. He's British, witty, cool, and an asshole. He may be one hell of a messy bisexual disaster, but he's OUR messy bisexual disaster, dammit! So we forgive him for being a cynical jerkass sometimes. I haven't consumed much media with him in it, but like... I get it and why out of all the mystical characters that DC has in their roster, why you might choose to include him over other characters. However I do find it kinda odd because like... Constantine is NOT the kind of person that I would see Batman nor anyone in his family particularly going for when they need help when something supernatural comes up... In fact the biggest reason that I haven't seen much from Constantine is that... He just does not appear in a lot of media that Batman is in! So I haven't seen much of him! (In terms of media that I've consumed for the sake of Batman being in it, he's only appeared in Justice League Action. No other animated series for Batman. And he hasn't really been in any recent comics that cross over with Batman that have caught my eye! He didn't even have a story in Knight Terrors!)

Of course there's no shame in using Constantine for your stories. He's popular for a reason, and if he happened to be in the area, then sure, the Bats might grab him to help them with their latest case. But for magic-users that the BatFamily might go to for assistance, he isn't always going to be the best choice. So for anyone who needs a magic-user in their BatPhanfiction, here are a few alternate suggestions.

(Suggestions under the cut for length)

Jason Blood

For people with magical expertise, I would expect the Bat Family to call Jason Blood before anyone else. Jason is old. How old? Old as balls. He's actually been around since the time of Arthurian legend. Apparently he was a scribe for Merlin before being bound to the immortal demon Etrigan which made him immortal too. Having worked for Merlin himself, having some level of innate magic from being bound and therefore sharing a body with a demon, and having been around for hundreds of years, this means that Jason has had plenty of ability and time to learn and practice magic and to perfect his craft. He knows his stuff and has a level of experience that is practically unparalleled on Earth. He's not a man to be trifled with and Batman has worked with him on many an occasion! The biggest reason that the BatFamily would call on him before anyone else? Location, location, location. Jason actually lives in Gotham City, so not only does he have the requisite experience and knowledge, but he's also easy for the BatFamily to get ahold of too! And as a bonus, with a simple rhyme, he can turn into the demon Etrigan who can kick ass on his behalf! Jason may seem to be a bit grumpy and stern on the outside, but he's a reliable ally to have and desires to protect others just as much as Bruce does.

Zatanna Zatara

Zatanna is a stage magician by trade, a master of tricks, illusion, and slight of hand... But she also happens to be among the most powerful actual magic-users in the known DC universe! Honestly, if you know of her and still choose to use Constantine over her in a story when either will do? You're doing yourself a bit of a disservice. Just look at her! She's gorgeous, radiant, optimistic, always has a fun trick up her sleeve, knows how to have a good time, and unlike Constantine, doesn't have the kinds nor number of enemies that he does! And best of all? She's actually buddies with Bruce Wayne! They're good friends! In fact, Bruce trained under her father for a time to learn escape artistry! Honestly it's a bit of a shame that people forget how good of friends they are... They might have dated in the past? But ever since Bruce mastered escape artistry, they've kept in touch! The two honestly would have an unspoken trust with each other and ability to rely on each other that few other characters could have with Bruce. Zatanna is usually on the road performing, but if she's available, she'd likely be more than happy to pop on over to Gotham to help Brucie out with a case! Superman may be Batman's best friend, and Harvey Dent may be Bruce Wayne's best friend... But honestly Zatanna Zatara is a close second place on both accounts! She's GREAT! I crave for her to be included in more stories! WHERE ARE MY AUNTIE ZATANNA AUs!???

Xanthe Zhou

[Image from this post.]

Honestly this is a personal suggestion that I want to see because it's just a damn shame that it doesn't already!

Are you hesitant to use a comic character with a huge backlog of stories that you couldn't possibly hope to get through for fear of messing them up? Do you want to use a canonically LGBT character? Do you want to use a character that's a person of color? What about a character that specializes in interacting with the spirits of the dead for your Danny Phantom crossover fics? Because boy howdy do I have you covered! Say hello to Xanthe Zhou! A nonbinary Chinese-American spirit envoy within the DC universe who first debuted in March of last year (2023)! So guess what! There is no long, confusing continuity to follow! If you want to catch up on all you need to know about them, go ahead and read their 6 issue miniseries Spirit World and you should be covered! And heeeey~ Guess who else is in Spirit World~~~?? One Cassandra Cain and one John Constantine! Plus the art is drop-dead gorgeous!

[Image from this post.]

So please! I beseech you! Check out Spirit World and get to know Xanthe! They are literally everything you are looking for in a character to add to your Danny Phantom and Batman crossover story and are brand-spanking new and it is just a DAMN shame that they aren't already in any DPxDC stories!!! And guess what! They live in Gotham City to boot! (Gotham's Chinatown to be specific.) So please! Do yourself a favor and check out Spirit World and add Xanthe to your stories! If nothing else, I'll certainly read them!

In any case, that's the list and all I can come up with for now! If you have any further suggestions, please don't be afraid to add them on in a reblog! My comics knowledge is very limited and am always happy to hear about other ideas and characters that I've missed! I've actually seen some usage of Klarion the Witch Boy in this phandom which was a pleasant surprise! But sadly, I don't know nearly enough about him to actually say anything about him. But please! Go ahead and tell me about other magic using characters that you think would be suited to the DPxDC universe! And if you make anything of this sort with Xanthe in it... Please send it to me! I want that shit pumped directly into my veins!!!

P.S. I just wanted to say... Batman miiiiight call Santa Claus before he calls Constantine for help on an investigation lol (apparently Bruce apprenticed under Santa for a time :p ).

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

i hope this isn't a weird ask, but i'm looking for some hope. i consider myself really fucking stupid. i don't think i have good "critical thinking" skills, or even good reading comprehension. do you think it's possible to get better at those things?

as i mentioned earlier, my answer is yes. as i also mentioned, i genuinely think that the fact that you are less than confident about your skills in these areas is itself valuable and not as common as it probably should be. i have worked with a fair number of kids, both in the elementary school classroom and in the upper grades for test prep stuff, whose reading comprehension isn't great, but who genuinely do not seem to notice there is anything off about their reading until they have to answer questions about it. they're in the habit of just glossing by a lot of stuff and not noticing. i have met kids who would swear to you they love to read who cannot accurately recount what actually happens in the scene they just read, but who seem pretty confident that what they're doing is reading. so if you're going around reading stuff and thinking, "hey, that's confusing" - congratulations! you are great at self-assessing your own comprehension. this is REALLY HARD for a lot of people to do.

i also think it's actually important to NOT think of either reading comprehension or critical thinking as a binary on/off switch, where you're either good at it or bad at it. both of these things are spectrums. in addition, both of these things are context dependent. there are a lot of things i have pretty good reading comprehension for. there are also types of text where my reading comprehension is straight-up bad: scientific papers published for other scientists to read; philosophy or literary theory of any kind; poetry. i tried to reread laura mulvey's original "male gaze" essay because i suspected people were using the concept wrong both in its favor, and i couldn't meaningfully follow its argument (although i think i am probably right because i don't really believe that many randos are so much better at interpreting freudian film theory than i am, lmao). these are all examples of texts where i don't have a lot of background knowledge in the subject area or a lot of experience reading this kind of thing. they are also mostly things i don't care enough about to put in the time and effort to get better at. (sometimes i think about trying to do this with poetry, but i have not prioritized this yet, to say the least.)

critical thinking also depends majorly on familiarity with a topic or at least with a field. i'll give you an example. on the podcast maintenance phase, the hosts attempt to apply critical thinking to common perceptions of scientific research. some of their points are good, and many of them sound convincing to me, a person who doesn't know a lot about science. but i soured on the podcast over time largely because on the subreddit for the show, an attempt at a scientific deep dive often brought at least one person who was like, "i have some expertise in this field and they are wrong." sometimes this is about interpreting a specific study (or, uh basic factual shit like the definition of a word), but a lot of times it's about big picture stuff that is hard to think about if you don't have experience in the field. one recent example that interested me was regarding a study done on ozempic. the hosts mentioned that in the trial, (iirc) two people died. sounds scary and not great! someone on reddit pointed out, though, that this was a very large study that recorded deaths for any reason - it's probably not statistically anomalous that two out of however many people died, and there's no evidence to indicate that ozempic had anything to do with it. i appreciated this science-minded redditor because i definitely listened to the episode and was like, wow! scary! but when i read that explanation i was like, oh, okay, yeah.

i am not any kind of expert, and i guess you didn't technically ask for advice, but here are some things that may or may not be helpful.

with regard to reading comprehension:

struggle is a normal part of reading, especially of reading complicated texts. if you are struggling with a text, it does NOT mean you "have bad reading comprehension" or are fucking up. it indicates you have good self-awareness about your own level of comprehension.

i don't have research on this one. this is speculation. but my hunch is that for people who have a certain baseline level of reading comprehension, reading things that are challenging to understand over time increases the amount of stuff you can read easily. i was definitely better at reading books by historians at the end of my history degree than i was at the start. and honestly, i was also better at it after i spent like a year obsessively reading books about new york city history than i was when i graduated!

related to that, it's okay to understand something mostly but not all the way!

it's also okay to determine your own goals for understanding, and spend your time appropriately! i have a terrible visual imagination so to really fully "comprehend" any passage in any novel that describes the layout of a room, i would have to get a notebook out and draw it. i'm not gonna do that. (weirdly, though, i often love reading that shit anyway, haha.)

there is a lot of research out there emphasizing the importance of background knowledge to comprehension. (natalie wexler has written a book about this i haven't read, along with some articles i have read.) the scary way to look at this link is, "oh no, how can i learn all the things i need to know?" the awesome and exciting way to look at it is, every time you learn something, it widens the circle of things you can read, which means it widens the circle of things you can learn about, which means you can keep leaning.

you can also google stuff. one time i was confused by a book's explanation of a government policy so i googled and found some articles that covered it in more detail. (and also discovered that the specific example the book had used had been phased out of the law by the time it was published, lol.)

there are some strategies that have been found to increase reading performance, but the research around these is mostly around them as teaching strategies. my favorite reading guy timothy shanahan has speculated that the thing the strategies all have in common is they're ways of getting kids to actually pay attention when they read. the main strategy i think has value for people who want to get better at reading on their own is summarizing. every so often, take a moment to put into your own words what you've just read. how often will depend on what you are reading and how challenging it is. every paragraph is a often a good benchmark for something dense, especially as you are getting used to reading like this. every page or every chapter might be more appropriate for something like a novel. there have been times when i've done this sentence by sentence because something was really fucking dense! (a general note: this can also help people who feel their reading comprehension is mostly fine but have a lot of trouble remembering what they read. when i started doing this kind of thing consciously it improved my recall a lot, and i had a decent memory for textual information to begin with.) (if you REALLY want a power-up, taking notes is great, but most people understandably don't want to do this for their recreational reading.) over time there is also a good chance that you'll start doing this more fluidly and automatically as you read and not have to choose to do it consciously as much. but if not that's ok!

a strategy that is not always a natural fit for reading on your own but can be useful for certain kinds of reading is setting yourself questions to answer and then seeing if you can answer them. obviously, this typically makes more sense as a teaching strategy because how can you know what a text will contain until you read it? but there are times you can make a pretty educated guess, or stick to a really basic thing like "what is [thing this is promising to explain]?" i once picked up a particular NYC history book because it had been cited somewhere else as containing an account of the consolidation for the five boroughs. it was a really dense book and i decided that while i probably wouldn't retain many of the details its covered, i really wanted to learn from this book the author's answer to why the boroughs became one. four years later i still remember most of the reasons he gave! (harbor maintenance; economic competition with other large cities; a belief in some quarters that brooklyn would be a good influence on the manhattan political machine; i think there was one or two more but i'm 95% sure those were the ones cited as being most important.)

look up words! honestly tutoring has made ME realize how many words out there i "sort of" know but can't provide great definitions for, lol. a site i always recommend for my students doing vocab is learnersdictionary.com, which is by the encyclopedia britannica people and aimed for kids. it's a pretty full dictionary, but the definitions, while still accurate, are a lot more "user-friendly" than most dictionary definitions, which can be technical in a way that makes them less than illuminating.

for critical thinking:

honestly at LEAST half your battle is won. the main error i see people make in the realm of critical thinking is believing they are qualified to assess information they are not in fact qualified to do. the name of the game is humility.

i think my own critical thinking skills have really benefited from times when i've been able to read multiple perspectives on a fairly narrow topic. when i was in my NYC history era (i really gotta get back on that train), one thing i did was that every time i finished a book, i popped over to JSTOR to see if any scholars had reviewed it. i specifically wanted scholarly reviews because those are the people who can point out things i would NEVER have thought of because i did not have their years of expertise. for example, i read this one jill lepore book that was... fine... but there was a review of it that was like, "it's weird that based on her sources she didn't consult the largest and most important archive related to this place during this period, and as a result is mistaken about how common or uncommon certain things she describes are." i have never heard of that archive so i am glad someone pointed that out!

you can't always do that, obviously, and also sometimes you don't want to. but i think doing that regularly for a while helped me increase my intellectual humility and build the habit of filing things i read as "interesting if true" while leaving room for the fact that maybe they're not. (honestly the maintenance phase subreddit felt like a podcast version of this, lol, and i appreciated it a lot!)

idk. there is a fad these days for teaching "critical thinking skills"; as i mentioned in the post i assume prompted this, there is also debate about whether this is even a thing. in grad school, i felt like i saw a lot of people who had learned to mimic what they thought of as critical thinking by asking things like, "what about kids who belong to [a particular underrepresented group]?" or "how does the author have bias?" and those are good questions to ask, but knowing to ask those questions is not the same as thinking critically. if i were to try to give a shorthand question that guides my own attempts to think critically, it would be something like, "how does this person establish that what they claim to be true is actually true?" the sources they use are part of this, yes, but, again, asking "what about the sources???" is not, in and of itself, critical thinking. you also have to think about things like, "they go from this idea to that idea, but does idea 2 actually follow from idea 1?" and the number one bias you have to watch out for is your own.

i want to state again here that this is not a binary and the goal is not to be good at it, it's to keep getting better. years ago, i read an article in the atlantic by a professor of math education about the importance of counting on one's fingers in early math. i was like, wow, that's so cool and interesting. i had a first grader who was really struggling with some very basic stuff, and i did some exercises from the article with him because i thought they might help. maybe three years later, if that, i came across the article again, because i had just looked up something else by the author and been like, "wait, what? this seems blatantly not factual?" i remembered that i had liked this thing she had said about finger-counting, and i went back to try to figure out if that one had been better or if i had been mistaken, and i was, like, horrified that the atlantic had printed this and that i had once read it and nodded along like "so true bestie." the article was full of leaps in logic that sounded good but weren't actually supported at all. i'm sharing this story because if you feel like you are bad at critical thinking.... like, me too, sometimes!!!!! everyone is!!!!! if someone tells you they are super awesome at critical thinking all the time, that person is a fucking idiot and you shouldn't trust them for shit!!!!!

one other thing i can't not address: i once not too long ago made a post to the effect of "my life got a lot better when i accepted the possibility of being stupid," so i did not want to harp on this off the bat or too strongly for fear of being a hypocrite, lol, and i don't want to argue with you, a total stranger, about your perception of yourself, because i am allergic to people doing that to me. however, i would feel wrong not to mention that the specific phrasing and language you use in your ask suggests to me that when you think of yourself as "really fucking stupid," there is likely a significant emotional component in that belief and the emotions that it brings up in you, and i would be pretty surprised if it were not at least partly a reflection of your general relationship with yourself. i am telling you this because it reminds me of the way that i used to think about myself in my brain. i reliably performed well academically when i wasn't having a nervous breakdown, but i thought of myself as deeply stupid until mid twenties. there are a couple of factors i can point to regarding why i don't feel that way anymore, but by far the biggest, i think, is just that i don't hate myself the way i used to. thinking of myself as stupid in the particular vitriolic way your ask reminded me of was never actually about my smarts or lack thereof. it was just a manifestation of my deep and painful self-loathing. so i encourage you to cultivate a way of being kind to yourself, of forgiving yourself, of letting go of the shame you might be carrying about your skills or about other things that might seem unrelated. my final answer to your question is that there's hope for your capacity to grow, but it's also okay for you to be where you are. this is about reading, but it's also about everything else.

finally, if you are confused about anything i've written here, feel free to ask for clarification. i am good with words and i've tried to be clear, but one of the writing-related skills i suck MOST at is being able to gauge whether or not i have written something in a needlessly confusing way, lmao.

[mazeinthemiroh]

heyyy! can i request a stray kids reaction to their s/o asking for their fashion advice :((( i want their style so bad. thanks in advance!

stray kids reactions to their s/o asking for fashion advice

genre: general

word count: 0.7k

warnings: none

pls like and reblog if you enjoy! feel free to request anything <3

bangchan

well chan's fashion is literally "wear anything black and you're all set." his whole wardrobe is pitch black like there's no colour in there. because of this, he thinks his opinion of fashion to be quite limited. but in reality, it isn't all that bad. he does have a bias towards comfier clothes on himself, but he observes what looks better on others. so he will get you to try on a couple of different styles or colours of clothes for him and tell you what he thinks looks better on you.

lee know

like chan, minho prefers comfier clothes on himself. so he will set you up with some really nice casual clothes really easily. as for the nicer, more formal clothing, he can help there too! obviously, because he is an idol, he has to work with a lot of different styles. he will get you to try on styles you might not even have considered before. will make you do a whole catwalk for him and everything. takes helping you seriously but also has to have his fun!

changbin

now he would probably laugh if you asked him for fashion advice. not because he's not fashionable! only he feels that his expertise lies in other areas. nevertheless, if you want his help, who is he to deny his services? changbin ends up just spoiling you and buying you tons of clothes to try on no matter how much you object. "the only fashion advice i have is take all the clothes you possibly can!" man focuses on quality and quantity.

hyunjin

he knows which colours go with what. he just knows when something looks off; it's the artist in him. so, with that being said, he will make you try on every shade of colour until he figures out what matches your skin tone. your favourite colour is purple? he's getting you to try on lilac, indigo, lavender, magenta, everything under the sun. if you ask for his fashion advice, he's not gonna give you halfhearted comments. oh no, he's committed to that role.

han

hannie slays in every outfit. he is blessed with a perfect face, so whether he is wearing a simple fit or a stylish suit, he's looking fly af either way. consequently, he doesn't give fashion too much thought. so when you ask him for fashion advice, he pretty much says to experiment! there's no harm in thinking outside the box and adding things to your outfit to make certain aspects stand out. he encourages all that creativity.

felix

felix is so excited that you want his advice. he loves helping people in any way he can and he appreciates that you care about his opinion. he will list clothes off the top of his head that he thinks look good and flattering on your unique figure. he will offer to go shopping and get you to try on clothes for him so you can both see what suits you. will always compliment you as well as point you in the right direction.

seungmin

seungmin encourages you to be comfortable with everything else. he usually dresses in cute and comfy clothes himself. he's very boyfriend material, isn't he? he doesn't believe that you should be uncomfortable just because an outfit is stylish and trendy. he wants you to be happy and comfortable in the choices you make in your clothes, and he would never pressure you to wear anything you don't want to wear just because it looks fancy.

jeongin

this fashion king? he has all the tips. you know he dresses very well, so going to him for advice doesn't come as a surprise to him. but what he mainly focuses on is helping you find your own unique sense of style. he's not just going to dress you up in his style and call it a day. he appreciates that people have different types of looks that they're going for, and he wants to help you figure out how you can express yourself through your clothing!