#even if i don’t agree with the reasoning. even if the attraction isn’t exactly coming off the page. i have some details

[fingertipsmp3]

Reading an actual published book that is really, confidently bad gives me more confidence in my writing than just about anything actually

[countrymusiclover]

2 - Coffee Thank You

Part 3

Detective Stabler's Daughter

Tag list - send an ask to be added @hiireadstuff

It had been a few weeks since I started my classes and I was doing fairly well in them except for the newest assignment in Professor Reid’s class. Kathleen wasn’t really concerned with the class like I was. Re-reading over the notes I had taken I had zoned out the fact that he had ended class for the afternoon and everyone else was leaving until my sister shakes my shoulder. “Hey! Hey Y/n. Class is over.” 

“It is. Uh sorry.” I looked at her, noticing that she had her backpack on her shoulders standing in front of me. 

I glanced back down at my messy notebook. “Hey, I'll meet you later. I have some questions to ask the professor.” 

“Okay. Hopefully you won’t come off as a serious college student in your last year.”

I sent her a glare. “Kathleen.”

“I just want to have some fun with my sister.” She walked down the aisle and out the large door. 

Walking down the rows until I reached his desk he was putting his notebook away in his bag getting ready to leave. “Professor Reid, could I ask you some questions about our newest assignment?” 

“Of course.” He set his bag down back on the large desk. “What are your questions?” 

Sitting my bag down on the ground tile I scanned over the questions I had written down. “I’ve been looking over the assignment but I don’t understand how we are supposed to profile these past cases.” 

“Being a profile isn’t easy. But let’s look at the situation I gave you.” He suggested eyeing my papers. 

I nervously nodded, handing him my papers. “Okay.” 

“The situation reads : A man abducted three blonde girls and held them captive in a basement. He forced these girls to have sex with him and if they refused he held them down and he used a medication to make them go blind as punishment.” He read over the assignment description. “Tell me your thoughts on why this guy chose this punishment or what type of pattern this would fall under.” 

I clicked my tongue avoiding his gaze since I was nervous that I might be wrong. “The reason for punishment was that he wanted to be in control of the girls and if they didn’t find attraction towards him then - he used it to make them feel the pain he felt.” 

“And what do you think the trigger was?” Professor Reid asked me. 

Brushing hair out of my face I paused for a few minutes before answering him. “The trigger likely could have been that he had a girlfriend or a girl he was interested in that looked like the girls. And she rejected him, not finding him attractive.” 

“Exactly. You’re exactly right.” He smiled at me. 

I raised a brow. “Really?” 

“Yes. Now if you just write all that down and bring it on the day it’s due. You’ll get a good grade.” He cheered me on handing my notes back to me. 

I took it from his outstretched hand. “Thank you, Professor Reid.” 

“You’re welcome, Ms. Stabler.” He swings his bag over his left shoulder heading towards the doors. “I’ll see you in class.”

“Wait. Professor Reid, how can I thank you - um more properly.” 

He paused in his steps. “Oh I don’t think that is necessary.” 

“Well I think I should do something. Considering most of the professor's that I've had aren't always open to questions and have told me that I should be able to figure it out on my own.” I explained to him putting my notebook back up and shrugging my bag over my shoulders. 

My professor clicked his tongue. “Well I suppose it's okay. Just nothing too serious.” 

“How about going for coffee near campus?” I suggested with a slight smirk on my face. 

He finally agreed to that idea. “That's good.” 

We made our way across the campus just silently walking until we passed the entrance sign of the campus. His class was my last one on Thursday’s so I was done for the evening. It was a nice day when we reached the nearest shop where he held the door open for me to go in first like a gentleman. “Thank you.” 

“No problem. Ms. Stabler.” He replied following behind me where we sat down at the nearest round table. 

“One Strawberry Creme Frappuccino for you, Ms. Stabler. And a White Chocolate Mocha for me.” Spencer came back with two drinks in hand since I had told him what I wanted. He sat back down in his chair across from mine. 

I sat across from him hanging my bag on the back part, correcting him in the nicest way possible. “You should call - can call me Y/n if we go out for coffee like this again. I mean only if you want to.” 

“You’d want to go out for coffee again?” 

I sipped my coffee cup. “Maybe. Unless that’s super unprofessional in our situation.” 

“It’s more than that.” He tapped his fingers on the sides of the plastic cup. 

Taking a long sip from my coffee I wasn’t sure what had come over me. Yet I didn’t feel that nervous around him. “What do you mean?” 

“I can’t entirely understand how I feel about you. But I just - I think that I want to know more about you.”

Tilting my head to the side my curiosity came over me. “Like wanting to go on a date type of thing?” 

“Y-yeah. Only if you’re up for it.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Hmm let’s see. Tell me something most people wouldn’t know about you just by looking at you.” 

Spencer thought briefly for a second tapping his fingers on the table before snapping his fingers at me. “I’m banned from casinos in Las Vegas, Laughlin and Pahrump because of my card counting ability.” 

“Woah. You really must be a genius.” 

He sent me a shy smile. “I graduated high school at the age of 12.” 

“That is incredible. And please don’t take offense to this but how do you not have a girlfriend or wife already?” 

He shrugged his shoulders, finishing the rest of his drink in his cup before sitting it down on the table avoiding my gaze waiting for my response. “Typically I haven’t been the best at talking to other people. I um - I feel like I always come off as weird or awkward talking to women  - which is way too personal when we haven’t even been on a date yet.” 

“One thing about me is that I am a Detective’s daughter.” I clasped my hands together resting my chin on the palms of my hands. 

Spencer raised a brow at me. “Can I know the detective's name? Unless that’s too invasive.” 

“Pfft it’s totally fine. My father’s name is Detective Elliot Stabler. He works for the Special Victims Unit here in the city.” 

He chuckled softly. “I already told you this in class but I do work for the FBI. Specifically the Behavioral Analysis Unit.” 

“That’s pretty impressive.” I smiled back at him. 

Spencer met my gaze with his brown eyes that deeply looked into mine when he asked the question that popped into his head and was making him super nervous on the inside. “At the risk of overstepping you can decline. But uh - would you maybe wanna go out with me tonight?” 

“We’d have to go off campus. But yes that sounds like fun.” I finished off my coffee throwing both of our drinks away then we headed back to the campus. 

Comments really appreciated ❤️

[valewritessss]

Reasons why people hate Annabeth Chase and why I disagree. Warning: this a very long rant and some of these might be a little controversial

1. Annabeth didn’t have any trauma as a child compared to Percy she was only being dramatic.

Does being attacked by hundreds of spiders and waking up in webs every night sound pleasant to you? With nobody believing her because they would go away?

Whenever they say she didn’t suffer at home there are always some underlying tones of them thinking abuse isn’t abuse if it isn’t physical, and then translating that into Annabeth having a good childhood and making things up.

Why would she want to have a bad childhood is my question? And true it may seem like it wasn’t so bad since Percy even said it didn’t seem like it was as bad as she described it upon first meeting her parents, but I don’t even agree with Percy thinking that because why would he, of all people, not understand that people can hide behind nice faces? I honestly think that part was on Rick because he’s kind of gone back and forth with Annabeth’s home situation so it’s a little confusing.

But back to why would she want to have a bad childhood I think those people are the kind that compare trauma and thinkhaving more trauma=being better. But last time I checked, having a bad home situation/childhood isn’t really something people should want for themselves.

Annabeth may have not been physically abused but being accused of playing tricks to make webs appear on her skin instead of being comforted, being reprimanded for accidentally scaring her brothers even though she was the one being attacked, being blamed for attracting monsters even though she can’t control it, that doesn’t like like a happy time to me.

2. Annabeth is possessive of Percy too much she gets jealous way too easily.

Jealousy isn’t really a bad thing unless it is toxic, and I’ve seen no signs of Annabeth’s jealousy being toxic. Her haters, however, probably say otherwise.

The first time we see her get jealous is when Rachel shows up, and if I’m going to be completely honest why shouldn’t she be a little jealous? When she first sees Rachel it’s when Percy and her were supposed to go to the movies and she’s 14 years old so she’s going to act a little petty. Sorry, a traumatized 14 year old girl isn’t exactly going to handle her emotions like a mature adult. Annabeth has her little “was it hard?” moment and it was pretty obvious it was supposed to come off as funny and many people do think it was. If you didn’t think it was funny that’s fine and it’s also fine if you think it was wrong. But toxic? Really?

The next time we see her get jealous is when Percy comes back from Ogygia and she hugs him and storms off. Her best friends just died for two weeks but suddenly came back I think it’s understandable why she would be a little overwhelmed. Chiron says that she’s jealous because she knows where he was. She never really brings it up but she probably had some internal jealousy because why wouldn’t she be jealous when Percy could have chosen to live a peaceful life in Ogygia with Calypso, war-free. But he didn’t, and she didn’t bring it up(I think). Safe to say she was definitely not being toxic here.

The most prominent time she was jealous is when Percy says they need Rachel for the labyrinth and again, why wouldn’t she be jealous? It’s HER quest, and she was already insecure about Percy leaving her for Rachel so him telling her they need her for her quest is obviously going to make her mad. And she did act pettily towards Rachel and she did get ticked off very easily but let’s not forget where this all stems from.

Her entire life people have been abandoned her and left her for other people. Her dad, Thalia, Luke, and now she meets a mortal girl that has her best friend and crush’s attention which to her means she could potentially take Percy from her. Yeah, no shit she’s gonna be jealous. And it’s also a normal teenage emotion to be jealous of another person. So sorry, if a teenage girl doesn’t handle her emotions maturely.

Then, Percy reasonably spends his “last” summer away from camp and unfortunately for annabeth, with Rachel. This is not me saying Percy or Rachel did anything wrong but neither did Annabeth in being mad at him. It was mostly that she was just heartbroken because she was about to lose him, but he chose to spend his last moments being normal, something she could never be. She also spent most of her life being abandoned by someone so this was like it was happening all over again.

I’ve seen someone say she was jealous of Hazel and it was possessive because she automatically assumed Percy and her had something. Huh???? She thought of the possibility for 3 seconds and then was like, nah, she’s dating the other guy next to Percy. And it was a possibility because she saw Jason, who had lost his memories and didn’t know if he had someone waiting for him, get together with Piper so who’s to say it couldn’t have happened with Percy?

None of these seem toxic to me and it’s fine if you don’t like it for your relationship but clearly, Percy doesn’t think much about her jealousy afterwards once they got together. In fact, Percy gets jealous a lot too he’s just not as expressive about it.

3. She physically abused Percy.

This seems to be a popular one and people love to use it out of context. Annabeth and Percy both have sparring and fighting history together, so naturally they’re not going to be the gentlest of people with each other. They know how to punch, hit, and shove each other so that it doesn’t hurt since they train together. And while it is mostly annabeth that does it, Percy has never said it hurts or that he doesn’t like it. And last time I checked, he’s pretty good at calling people and gods out on their shit. If he had an issue with it he would say it.

An example of the abuse they are referring to is the judo flip. The context for this is that Percy went missing for months and Annabeth being overwhelmed, relieved, and just emotional decides to judo flip him upon reuniting with him. What a lot of people forget to mention is that right after, while he is being pinned down by Annabeth, he laughs. He laughs and they all move on. Judo flips, according to my research, are not supposed to hurt. They only hurt if they are done wrong. There is a chance my research is wrong so if anyone wants to correct me go ahead. But assuming it is right, the judo flip Annabeth did to Percy probably didn’t hurt nor was it meant to.

And Percy has experienced physical abuse before, and he hated the man that did it. He most likely would not get into a relationship with someone who does that. And he has called Annabeth out on things before, he had no trouble getting mad at her in botl, so if he seriously didn’t like it he would most likely say something.

Again, if you don’t want that in your relationship that’s great, YOU should set those boundaries with YOUR partner. But you can’t speak for a fictional character that clearly doesn’t have any issues with the way his partner treats him.

4. Annabeth makes jokes at the expense of Percy and makes him feel dumb.

There are some times when she does make jokes about Percy to his face, and he either laughs or doesn’t care. The books are from his pov, it’s not hard to see how it doesn’t bother him.

The nickname “Seaweed Brain” was her teasing him at first but it then became endearing for the both of them. This was the same for the nickname “Wise Girl”. Percy even likes the nickname and he has never said it makes him feel belittled or dumbed down.

I think where this stems from is people who think giving Annabeth credit is discrediting him. Someone mentions how she helped Percy with something and they will go on about how Percy isn't dumb and it's like we know he isn't dumb, no one said he is. Giving her credit isn’t taking credit away from him and many people need to hear that. Someone will mention how Annabeth will teach Percy something that he wouldn't have figured out on his own and oh my god people go feral. "Annabeth held up the sky" they translate that to Percy didn't do shit. Someone will say Annabeth is one of the smartest and they think that means they're saying Percy is stupid. Sorry that a girl being smart makes you insecure? Because that’s what I’m getting from that take. Percy is smart too but taking that away from Annabeth to give it to him isn’t exactly how that works. Life isn’t a competition, you don’t constantly have to be ranking people. There’s enough smartness for everyone. No one is taking anything away from Percy by admitting she is super smart or by giving her credit for stuff she did!!

You don’t hear people saying Annabeth can’t swim because Percy can control water, so why do people think people are saying Percy is dumb because Annabeth is incredibly smart? Annabeth knows she is smart, and she herself says Percy is smart TWICE, not that because she is smart that Percy is dumb. She is smart, and that takes nothing away from Percy and vice versa. They both think differently and do different things while in combat you just can’t compare those. Intelligence doesn’t just come in one form and admitting one is smart doesn’t make the other not smart. Say it with me, Annabeth is smart, Percy is smart, those things can both be true at the same time. Annabeth can be credited for things and that does not discredit Percy. For the people who say it makes Percy insecure that Annabeth shows her intelligence I promise you when Annabeth says something nerdy it doesn’t hurt Percy’s feelings.

It is true that Percy’s intelligence is overlooked, that is an issue. But you don’t have to bring someone else down to build him up okay there’s many great moments showing his intelligence use those instead. Also because if you have to bring someone else down to make your fav seem better you’re not doing your fav any favors it makes them look like someone needs to come down to their level and that’s not what’s happening with Percy. Don’t do him dirty like that he can be smart on his own you don’t have to mention Annabeth.

Sorry I kind of got off topic I just saw a chance to address an issue I’ve seen where people think giving Annabeth credit is taking away from Percy. This sometimes happens the other way around but it’s mostly the people who do this that hate her.

5. Annabeth defended Luke and it was inconsiderate of her since he tried to kill Percy.

She didn’t really defend him she just said there’s still good in him. And I mean this did make Percy mad. He was mad at her for even mentioning Luke because he was jealous, and because he didn’t understand how she could still think there’s good in him after all he did. And that’s valid. But that doesn’t mean it’s “a heartbreaking realization for a Percy that Annabeth chooses Luke over him” in the words of someone who used this argument, when she said there’s still good in him. Annabeth was betrayed by Luke too, and say what you want about her holding hope but it makes sense that she still sees good in him. I mean, that’s the guy who she views as a hero, who was a hero to her. And in the end her holding onto that hope is what broke Luke’s trance and he decided to stab himself. So if you found it annoying that she believed in him that makes sense, but don’t pretend you can’t understand why she did it.

6. Annabeth was a bitch to Rachel and is not a girls girl.

Honestly, was she nice to Rachel? No. Did Rachel deserve Annabeth’s comments? No. Is Annabeth valid? Yeah. I’m not justifying her behavior but I am justifying her reasoning because it is so obvious it went beyond jealousy.

Rachel not doing anything wrong and Annabeth being valid can co-exist. Seeing Annabeth’s perspective of this is so easy we just have to think about how the person she loves might pick someone normal over her since she can’t be normal. On his last summer too. This wasn’t just “jealous girl is mean to other girl” trope it was showing how deeply Annabeth cherishes Percy and how when she sees him picking someone else over her she is going to not be nice.

Should she have said those things to Rachel, um probably not. But she is a teenager also and it’s super normal for a teenager to get jealous and bratty when her crush and best friend spend time with a girl that also has a crush on him. It wasn’t Annabeth’s finest moment but it was entertaining and personally I thought it was funny. I swear a lot of people act as if she grabbed Rachel by her hair and smashed her against a wall but it was just some catty remarks. And a lot of people forget that Rachel and Annabeth are friends now, they like each other, they forgave each other.

And on her not being a girls girl? I think some people need to touch some grass because why should she have been a girls girl at that moment? Was she supposed to tell Rachel to go for it? I understand wanting her to just leave Rachel alone but after Rachel had to lead HER quest I’m not sure what they were expecting. She made up for it anyway when she saved Rachel from a helicopter despite still disliking her.

7. Annabeth got scared of Percy which made him feel like he deserved to die.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before but I guess I’ll go over it again. Her boyfriend did something scary, that probably reminded her of Luke since they both went too far, so she got scared. God forbid scary things scare her.

And secondly, did Percy ever tell Annabeth he was having those thoughts? No. Stop blaming her for everything this time she is actually 110% innocent.

8. She is powerless and therefore she is useless.

She doesn’t have any unnatural powers but being crazy smart sounds pretty useful to me. Bonus points because she’s good at many kinds of combat too.

If they think they don’t need her fine, but they did in fact need her so we’re never gonna know the other possibility.

Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.

This doesn’t mean the other demigods don’t have wisdom but like it’s Annabeth Chase wisdom is kind of her thing.

Anyways, I kind of got tired of writing this and I can’t think of anything else so I’m gonna end it here. I hope this doesn’t come off as hate to any other character, because it’s not, nor do I see how it could be but people will find a way so this is clarification. People can hate whatever character they want to hate but these reasons are not really much sense. And if they expect people to hate her for these reasons too even less sense. And people are allowed to hate her, but they love to talk about it so much it’s like an obsession.

And to those who told me to tag them I hope this wasn’t a waste of your time because I tried and it took me forever😅

@annabethmyfave

@illneverforget365

[noorpersona]

Broken Telephone Pt.1

You talk too much and have no shame. You later find out Kugisaki can’t keep a secret.

Chaos ensues.

It was a normal day.

Well, as normal as it could be at a school for sorcerers.

You’d just finished a long, obscene amount of useless classes that in no way would help you in the future as you sat on the steps of the school’s entrance, feeling the sun hit your face. The spring weather was nice, sun shining and heat settling in, with cool breezes of wind to neutralize it. The sound of the wind through the trees was calming.

Even though you couldn’t hear any of it due to Kugisaki’s talking.

You didn’t mind it though. In a school with a shockingly small amount of students, and an even smaller first-year class, you liked the empty spaces to be filled with noise. Kugisaki and Itadori did that well.

The silence was boring anyway.

“-I swear he’s so childish, there’s a reason why girls don’t like him you know.” You zone in on her irritated voice, taking a sip from the drink you bought from the vending machine.

Ah right. She was complaining about Itadori. What about him, though, you couldn’t remember. Maybe it was about the sudden revival from the dead, but honestly, it’s a toss-up at this point.

“Girls don’t like him? I mean he’s childish sure, but they’re are plenty of girls who like that.” Despite the fiery personality of Kugisaki, you, on the other hand, were much the calmer side, more cool-headed you could say. Of course, there are moments where you lose said cool, but for the most part, you’d consider yourself a pacifist.

This is ironic considering your livelihood at the moment is killing curses.

Maybe that’s why you and Kugisaki got along so well. Well, that and the fact that you two were the only girls in first-year, and like she said, ‘Us girls gotta stay together. Can’t have the boys running the show’ which you do agree with. In the jujutsu world there aren’t many respected female sorcerers, and Kugisaki intends to change that. Along with Maki-senpai.

You found it admirable. But you personally wouldn’t go through the trouble. Fame and demanded respect from others you didn’t care about wasn’t something you were exactly interested in.

“Hah? Really? Well, would you date him?” You go to respond, but pause. She had a good point. Now, you didn’t have any problems with Itadori, even though he swallowed a special-grade cursed object, that was a little weird.

Okay, a lot weird.

But for the most part, he was just a friend. You did care a lot for him surprisingly when he ‘died’ you were sadder than you expected yourself to be, and a lot angrier when he was found alive, but honestly…

He simply didn’t do it for you.

“Nah, he isn’t my type.” You say causally, taking another sip of your drink. Kugisaki quirks her brow.

“What is your type then?” She asks, slyly studying you, probably trying to make sure that you don’t lie. Your form stays relaxed as you think about it. A person immediately pops in your head and without thinking you blurt it out.

“Someone like Fushiguro. How about you?” The sentence makes the chill atmosphere, or as chill as it could be with someone like Kugisaki, break in an instant.

“What?! You can’t just drop a bomb like that and try to pass it off!” Your eyes widen as she gets inches away from your face. The flame in her eyes was so close you could practically feel the heat coming off them.

“Fushiguro?! You like him?!” You start to sweat a little at the accusing tone in her voice, the pressure making your heart suddenly beat ten times faster. You could imagine this is how criminals feel when being interrogated.

“Uh… Yeah? I mean, what’s not the like? He’s attractive, smart, and puts himself before others.” You start to list off, stopping when you hear a ‘tch’ of disapproval. Honestly, you could’ve listed dozens of other reasons. Though you’ve only known him for a couple of months, you’d be lying if you said you hadn’t fallen hard, probably more than you’re letting on right now. You blush slightly at your thoughts, but Kugisaki doesn’t seem to notice.

“And I here I thought you had good taste. You’re into guys who act all high mighty, and who probably likes to light oil slicks on fire or kick stray cats when no ones watching. I can’t trust anyone these days.” Her voice turns dramatically sad, and you snort at the strangely detailed insult.

“I’m not saying I’m in love with Fushiguro, I’m just saying that he’s not bad to look at. That’s all.” Also wanting to be around him constantly, and get to look at him whenever I want.

Now, you don’t know whether this was a good trait or a bad trait, honestly, it was a gamble at times, but you’re comfortable, you’re absolutely shameless. And while it can be good in some situations, you’ll realize soon enough that this would be your downfall.

Kugisaki starts to make a lot of choked sounds, and before she dies of a heart attack, you decide to take the conversation off you. “Ok then, if I have shitty taste and you’re the queen in choosing partners, what’s you’re type?” Like a cartoon, her mood flips in an instant, and you listen to her ramble about her standards and how most people probably aren’t good enough for her. It was entertaining, to say the least, but when the sun started the set and the cooling breeze got uncomfortable, you both decided to call it night.

You didn’t think much of your confession, for lack of a better word. But little did you know that this ‘confession’ was going to bite you in the ass.

[gloriousburden]

I agree with your take on Mobius so much! People treat him like a cinnamon roll. Which he isn't. He is a horrible person but no one wants to acknowledge that. Sylvie is terrible too, but at least people acknowledge her flaws which is something I guess. Oh, and I had watched season 2 of Loki series, and Mobius was so ooc in the first episode. Like, he randomly went from torturing and manipulating and gaslighting Loki to suddenly risking his life for Loki. It made me wanna throw up. I have never seen such a random 180° turn. Extremely ooc. And Lokius shippers eat that shit up. Like, I don't know whether you have watched Season 2 or not, but there's a scene where Mobius volunteers to do something extremely risky to save Loki. And yeah, I don't believe that crap at all. Tomorrow they might suddenly show Thanos risking his life for Loki too. I think season 2 episode 1 should have came with an OOC warning attached lol.

Have a great day! ❤️

Unfortunately, I have watched all of the series. I may talk about Lokius shippers a lot, but Sylki shippers (though there’s only like… two of them nowadays) have the same issue that Lokius shippers have. They only acknowledge the flaws of the character from the opposite ship, and not the flaws of the character they ship with Loki. Sylvie fans hate Mobius, Mobius fans hate Sylvie. There’s issues with both characters! Are you kidding me?

YES EXACTLY. He was very OOC… I guess he got some kind of “redemption”/“change of heart” or some shit behind the scenes. Why do you suddenly love Loki so much? Of course the shippers eat it up. They’d eat literal garbage if it was orange color coded with grey hair, and green color coded with black hair or played by Tom/Owen.

Nothing towards either actors BTW hope it doesn’t come off as that. I mean this towards the fans, not the actors!

It’s just… these aren’t even the same characters anymore. That’s not even Loki! And Mobius, though I have no love for him, isn’t even himself anymore. The writing is so fucking inconsistent not only with Loki, but with EVERYONE.

Yep. I do know what you’re talking about. Why so lovey dovey and knight in shining armor all of a sudden? Why would he suddenly risk his life for someone he threw into a time loop to get physically assaulted without a second thought? Oh why cause they hugged so it’s okay now? 🤦🏻‍♀️

Look, if Mobius had apologized or even acknowledged his previous behaviors, then I wouldn’t be so freaked out by the way the fandom treats him or the OOC-ness (because obviously they’re gonna let shit slide for a mediocre ship) But… NONE OF THAT HAPPENED! Think I spoke about this in one of my last posts but so many Loki “fans” TRULY believe Loki needs to be humbled. That’s why they don’t bat an eye at the abuse coming from Mobius. As well as them being eager to excuse absolutely anything in order to not ship the “straight” ship.

It’s getting really weird. Some of them want Lokius to be canon just because “Ooh gay ship” and not because they really believe Loki and Mobius go along well together and they’re opposites attract and one’s a god one’s a human and so on. Whatever tropes you can throw in there.

And Lokius fans pretending to be so much more morally superior/holier than thou for being against Sylki because of the selfcest shit… YOU EXCUSE MOBIUS VERBALLY DEMEANING LOKI AND HAVING HIM BE PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED… HOW IS THAT BETTER?! This is like the pot calling the kettle black. Like I’ve said before, If Mobius was female.. People would hate his guts! And the amount of people shipping Lokius would be so, so much lower. And they’d actually see the flaws of the show.

Hope this does not sound like me trying to defend Sylki/Sylvie in anyway, Both are HORRIBLE, bottom of the barrel, and garbage ships. Sylvie’s writing/actions are not excused just because she’s female. It’s just Lokius shippers are more prevalent, therefore more annoying to me. And for some reason, Lokius shippers tend to be a lot more immature. I think because they’re usually younger than Sylki shippers.

I understand people want representation, but there are so many ships that have been done better. You don’t need to grasp for straws just because you only now learned that Loki is bisexual!

THE THANOS POINT LOLLLLLLL EXACTLY. That cracked me up, I won’t lie. I wouldn’t be surprised if that became a thing. They’re just so desperate to ship anyone and everyone! Can we think critically about these characters/movies/series for one moment?

Thank you! You too ❤️

[deaddovedecadence]

It’s all for you

Summery:

I wanted to ask the two of you if you’d be willing to date me,” Everything seems to flash before your eyes, every interaction, everything you’ve done with the man, and you wonder if this was inevitable when you agreed to date Yuuji.

-

Or you are dating Itadori Yuuji and everything’s great, only there’s something wrong with Itadori’s best friend, Fushiguro

Warning(s): general yandere shit, manipulative megumi to the max, pg-13

Work Text:

“I love you,” he says and the world implodes into color. You’ve been in love with Itadori Yuuji for heaven knows how long now and suddenly, he’s standing in front of you with a brilliant smile on his face, confessing that he loves you too. Your heart beats a rapid pattern in your chest, a too fast thump of joy. 

There are a million reasons, countless reasons that you’re in love with Itadori Yuuji but the main ones are simple. He’s so kind, so warm to everyone even the curse that lives in his head, and it warms your heart to see it. He also makes you laugh, not a polite laugh but a real genuine bursting out of your stomach laugh. However, the main reason that you’re so attracted to him is the simple fact that he is good, good in a way that this society does not like and yet he has not been crushed, in fact everything that he has been through seems to make him stronger, better, more kind. You have been in love with Itadori Yuuji since your first day at jujitsu tech, and the very ideas of him loving you back is magical, and makes you so very fucking happy. 

“Do you not like me back?” He says softly, all anxiety and nerves., brilliant smile leaving his face only to be replaced by something somber and scared. You smile at him, so very softly because that isn’t it at all, you just got stuck in your own thoughts as you’re so prone to do. “Of course I like you Yuuji, I just was thinking,” it’s not a lie not you don’t really want to explain that you were thinking about all of the reasons that you like him. He smiles, big and wide and you remember another reason that you became so infatuated with that man so easily, his amazing smile and his incredible muscles. You are in love with Itadori Yuuji and you've been for a long time, “Would you like to go out with me?” You murmur softly, looking anywhere but him. He rushes you, easily picking you up and joyfully kissing you all over. “I would love that,” he says and your lips come together under the moonlight 

——————————————————————————————————

You’ve been dating Yuuji for about two weeks now and it’s getting better everyday. He’s always cooking for the both of you, making sure that you eat before training, or missions or even if you’re just going out on the town with Nobara. He gives you kisses in the morning and before bed even though it makes Nobara fake hurl in the background, and sends you cat videos whenever you’re working with Ieiri-sensei. You could not have gotten a better boyfriend if you’d designed one yourself. Only, there’s one tiny problem, and it’s name is Fushiguro Megumi. You can’t exactly put a finger on what’s wrong with Megumi, it’s just that he makes you uncomfortable in the same way that Gojou does, maybe because of the fact that they seem almost immune to your ability to sing anything to sleep, or maybe it’s because they both have cruel piercing eyes that seem to follow your boyfriend everywhere. You’ve tried bringing it up to Yuuji before but he dismissed it easily, telling you that Megumi and Sensei are just scared of losing people and they look at everyone that way. you’ve been shaking off your worries ever since but sometimes like today they rear their ugly heads.

It’s movie night and all of the first years (plus Sukuna) are gathering to watch movies and just enjoy the time that you have with each other. This world does not let anyone live very long after all and you want to enjoy the time that you have while you have it. You walk into the living room, holding treats or all sorts, a greeting on your lips when you take in the room. Nobara in her fashionable loungewear sits in front of the couch, head cast back so that Fushiguro can pet it. This wouldn’t be any problem except for the fact that your boyfriend is literally sitting on Fushiguro’s lap smiling softly as the other works through his hair with the most gentle smile you’ve ever seen on the ten shadow’s user. 

“Hey guys,” you say cheerfully, electing to ignore it for now, even if you are weirded out. “Hi babes,” Nobara says lazily, obviously enjoying her head scratches as well. “Hi lo- ugh right there please gumi” Yuuji i say ts, literally tossing his head back into Fushiguro’s hand. “Hey,” Fushiguro greets politely, “I’d offer to work through your hair too but I only have so many hands.”

Before you can tell him that it’s okay and that you would like to have your boyfriend back Nobara pipes up, “You can make shadow clones right gumi?” Without waiting for his answer, Nobara continues on, “you should make one so babes doesn’t get jealous.” You stammer that it doesn’t matter and you’re content just cuddling with your boyfriend but Fushiguro smiles at you, all teeth and says, “I’m happy to help out my favorite hellion.

Before you know it, there’s an exact clone of Megumi leading you to the couch and working its fingers through your hair. You mean to protest but the clone scratches a certain spot and suddenly you’ve gone boneless in the clone’s arms and still his smile, so cruel, stays with you even as you go boneless under the clone’s hands.  He is a predator and you are his favorite prey. 

——————————————————————————————————

It’s been a few weeks since You’ve been nervous since the incident with Fushiguro and his clones, the way that he just continued on unwavering even as you told him that you didn’t need it, even though you said you were fine with your boyfriend. Although, a nasty little voice in your head reminds you, you never told him no, never said that he couldn’t so isn’t it your fault. You shake the voice away, and do your best to smile in the mirror.

You and Yuuji have a date tonight and that’s a good thing, you’re okay, it’s okay. You start working through your hair and a phantom hand gently scratches your head. You shiver and pull up music on your phone, determined to ignore this. It doesn’t matter, you tell yourself, it was only one time. Besides, you have a date tonight and Nobara’s due to come over and help you pick out an outfit. “Hey babes,” she calls almost on cue, “unlock this door on I’m going to kick it open,”

You don’t doubt her and fearing for the safety of your door you immediately run to it, throwing the door wide open. Nobara envelops you in a hug and tugs you over the toe closet, humming at the different options. The first several outfits she pulls out are far too risqué and you aren’t even sure where she got them from but the one after the outfit with a neckline so far down you can see your fucking bellybutton is perfect. Nobara helps you into it and the two of you head to the kitchen to wait for Yuuji. 

Yuuji shows up after about five minutes with Fushiguro in tow, the two talking animatedly about something or other. It doesn’t really matter because somehow seeing Yuuji’s face is enough to stop your worries about Fushiguro.

“Are we ready?” He says cheerfully, and you smile and are prepared to nod when yuuji’s words really hit you. ‘We’ He said, like someone other than the two of you are going. “Yuuji I thought we were going on a date.”

Yuuji frowns looking so very sad, “I was hoping that Megumi could come with us. He mentioned wanting to try out the ramen place that we’re going to and he knows the city better than either of us after all.” You feel very small, very scared all of the sudden and you make eye contact with Fushiguro. He looks calm, smug and you remember your earlier thoughts about him. He is a predator and you are his favorite prey.

——————————————————————————————————

“Hey Nobara, I’ve got a question for you.” It’s after training, a quiet moment with you and your best friend. You’re half hanging off of her bed, hair ever so slightly tickling your face and she’s just laying on her bed, her legs over yours. She only has a low lamp on, bathing the room in warm orange light. It’s peaceful, comforting and you hate to ruin the peace but you have a question and you need it answered.

“Yeah babes, what’s up?” She responds, not even bothering to move from her spot on top of you. You shrug as much as you can sitting upside down on her bed.

“Are Yuuji and Fushiguro weird to you, like at all?” Nobara makes a noise of confusion that sounds like it could turn into a noise of fury really quickly so you hurry to elaborate, “I mean, do they ever overstep with you, either of them?” Nobara sucks in her teeth, obviously pretty confused. “I don’t get the question babes, did my boys do something to you?” You pull yourself up, staring right at her, your expression calm in comparison to her concerned one. It shouldn’t matter when she calls Yuuji one of her boys but somehow it still weirds you out a little bit.

“No never, it’s just that sometimes I don’t feel heard around them,” Nobara’s face goes from confused to cold in an instant, like she thinks you’ve somehow done something. “I don’t get the fucking problem. The boys and I have done everything to include you, Megumi included in that. Are we not good enough for you?” She emphasizes Fushiguro’s name as a reminder that he’s asked you to use his first name several times.

Immediately you’re taking her hands, trying to explain that she has it all wrong. “You and the boys have done nothing but welcome me. I’m just being ridiculous.” Nobara gives you a soft, smug smile. “Okay then, now tell me about Yuuji’s dick name, is he any good?” 

“Nobara!” 

“I’m just asking!” 

——————————————————————————————————

It’s been a few days since your ill attempted date with Yuuji and you don’t really know how you’re feeling about it. See on one end of the spectrum, you’re frustrated, angry and all you want to do is scream at your boyfriend until he sees why you’re so upset. He’s been asking you for days why you’re so upset and you don’t even have the words to explain it.

On the other end, you know that your boyfriend is a good soul, and far kinder than you are. Hell, the entire reason that you fell in love with Yuuji is because he’s so kind, so warm to everyone even the curse that lives in his head, and sometimes you know that he’s going to accidentally fuck up. Even though you know that it isn’t your boyfriend’s fault you want to scream, want to yell. Maybe, you think, your boyfriend's lovely arms entering the chat, you should go find him and tell him that you aren’t upset. 

You end up finding Yuuji in his bedroom, lying down in such a position that his glorious abs are on display. Immediately you’re pouncing, jumping on him before he has the chance to notice that you’re at the door. He laughs, grabbing you by the waist and kissing you soundly on the lips.

“What’s got you in such a good mood, huh pretty baby?” He asks against your lips, “Do you wanna fool around?” You murmur into his mouth instead of answering the question. He grins at you, easily picking you up and moving you around so that you’re exposed to him completely. Half way through a thorough fingering that has you seeing fucking stars, you ask him where he got so good at this. He actually laughs, the hand not in your coming up to rub at his neck. “Megumi taught me actually.” You startle but that makes his fingers hit your good spot and you moan, again. “What do you mean, oh, Megumi?” You manage to ask in between moans.

“When I told him that I was in love with you he offered to teach me how to fuck correctly. He taught me by fingering and fucking me until I was sobbing and begging him to stop.” The worst part is that you can imagine it. Fushiguro with his long lovely hands making your boyfriend beg for his mercy, and you know that Fushiguro has never had any to give, not even for your lovely boyfriend. You want to see it and at the same time feel uncomfortable with the fact that it was Fushiguro teaching your boyfriend all of these things and not the two of you working together to learn.

——————————————————————————————————

“Ieiri-sensei, I think my boyfriend is in love with Fushiguro,” Your mentor startles so badly that her cigarette drops right out of her mouth, hitting the ground with a sharp sizzle. She just stares at you like you’ve both somehow gone to another dimension or something before sighing heavily, the same sound she makes when she has to deal with Gojou for too long. “Kid,” She starts, lighting up another cigarette and immediately beginning to smoke again,” I literally just had to convince your boy not to sing you a love ballad. I’m pretty fucking sure that he’s in love with you.” 

You stare at her, eyes wide open and sad, trying to figure out how to tell her everything that’s happened in the month since you’ve begun dating your boyfriend. “Um, while we were doing less than pg things he told me that he did less than pg things with Fushiguro so he could learn how to do that with me.” Ieiri sensei stares at you for a second, her dead eyed gaze unwavering and suddenly, everything is spilling out of you, “Sometimes it feels like Fushiguro is hunting me and he made a shadow clone to pet my hair before I even had the chance to tell him no and Yuuji keeps inviting him on our dates and Nobara doesn’t even take me serious when I try to tell her. I even told her that I don’t feel heard around them and she just asked me if I didn’t appreciate their friendship.” You pant, completely out of breath from your little panic session even if you do feel better. 

“I don’t even know what to say for most of that but I can tell you that there was something similar when I was in school. Gojou and Getou, my best friends, were both in love with Utahime-san so they devised a plan. Getou and her began to date but Gojou invaded almost everything they did. She came to me once but at the time I was so annoyed that she was hurting what I saw as mine that I just dismissed her fears.” You take this in and apply it to your own situation, think about everything that Nobara, Yuuji and Fushiguro have been through together and understand. It’s not that Nobara doesn’t care about you, it’s just that those are the two people that she’s been through everything with and she won’t lose them even for you. “Ieiri-Sensei, if you had to do it all over again, would you make the same choices?” She shrugs, “Probably, now tell me what’s wrong with this corpse.” 

——————————————————————————————————

Fresh from your talk with Ieiri-Sensei, you head back to your dorms, only to be intercepted by a very excitable Yuuji, “Come on baby, Megumi has something to tell us.” You’re genuinely curious, not excited at all but definitely curious as to what Fushiguro has to say that makes your boyfriend so excited. The two of you head up together and Yuuji practically shoves you into his bedroom. Fushiguro’s already in there, sitting elegantly on the edge of the bed like he belongs there. “Yuuji, hellion,” he greats, calling you by the nickname that he’s been calling you since he found bashing a curse’s head in with a cursed energy marked baseball back. He recalls the story with a fond tone in his voice but you remember being terrified, feeling weak, feeling like prey for the first time in your life. Sometimes you wonder if he goes it on purpose if it is his nature to be a predator, just like it is Gojou’s. “Do you know why my boyfriend’s acting like a weirdo?” You ask him, trying to act as normally as possible. He nods, gesturing to the bed as if he owns it. Yuuji bounces towards it, literally jumping into Fushiguro’s lap like he belongs there. Your own approach is slowly, more tentative but you sit down all the same. 

“I wanted to ask the two of you if you’d be willing to date me,” Everything seems to flash before your eyes, every interaction, everything you’ve done with the man, and you wonder if this was inevitable when you agreed to date Yuuji. You think about, time literally slowing down to you ask you try to decide if it’s worth it to attempt to protest. You knwo that it’s futile know that Yuuji will choose Fushiguro, know that Fushiguro will always get what he wants, ko what you don’t have a choice. Everything narrows down to ‘yes’ and ‘no’, and you know that there is only one real answer. 

“If Yuuji’s okay with it, then I accept.” Your boyfriend beams at you, leaning over to gently kiss you, whispering thank you in between every kiss. 

This was inevitable but unlike Utahime, at least you were allowed to make the final choice. 

[rocketyship]

https://www.tumblr.com/rocketyship/731645627125186560/what-dont-you-like-about-the-i-have-no-mouth?source=share

Hey, um, sorry, but I'm still curious. (since I've only recently just discovered this story and the game based on it)

What exactly is it about game-version Ellen that you guys don't like?

I mean I get the general gist from watching Internet Historian's explanation of the game, but I'm guessing maybe there was something he left out..?

Okay so before I get into this just a warning for some heavy stuff such as r@pe.

The game sells itself on the idea of all the survivors being terrible people with fatal flaws, Ellen however doesn’t fit this narrative. While the other characters are forced to face their wrong doings that led to their traumas, Ellen is quite literally just a victim of a crime she had not caused. Ellen was a good person, who was attacked and assaulted. She did nothing wrong. What makes it even stranger, is how the men around her are pretty much jerks from hell and she is the only one with any compassion. (That in of itself is a dangerous trope about women, “woman good, gentle, and do no wrong”)

The game also suggests that not only does she have relations with the other survivors as in the original text, but that also AM is weirdly into her (which makes no sense to his character). Even when looking at just the text Ellen falls into the hysterical woman trope, and the game also leans into this as well as throwing the whole r@pe revenge/victim, insinuating that the best way to recover from trauma related to r@pe is just to confront it and slap it in the face or something. However (likely due to the writers being men who didn’t research the topic), recovering from this type of trauma is way more complicated than this game or story could possibly handle. In lots of media, especially older media, the only struggle a woman can have is when it relates to sexuality or gender.

While yes we can argue that this is a horror game and meant to disturb, her story is less disturbing and more so frustrating and bizarre. Not particularly helped by the fact that in the game’s attempt to humanise her to the audience by giving her the literal worst experiences, IT STILL OBJECTIFIES HER. In Ted’s story, where his love for Ellen is revealed, it comes less across like that and more so as him viewing her as an object for his fantasy. “To be the great knight saving the princess”, it makes little sense. Ellen’s story has nothing to do with him, heck none of the other stories have anything to with each other, so why the heck is Ted so obsessed with her? His reason for being attracted to Ellen isn’t even that he loves her as a person and would want a life with her, she is literally the only woman in the group which just makes it so much weirder. It reminds me so much of the great Gatsby, where Gatsby doesn’t actually love Daisy, she just represents what it is that he wants. And the fact that “saving her” and sending her to heaven is the good ending just makes it so much weirder.

I am not the best person to talk about this, but generally you will find within the fandom that most people dislike her story for these reasons or more. I don’t really want to get to into it, as it’s a heavy-heavy topic, that I and many others seem to agree wasn’t handled correctly.

[ploompkin]

I remember now, why I don't usually shade my art. BECAUSE IT TAKES FOR FFFFFING EVER!!

Anyway: my babies! My beloveds... OC info dump under the cut:

Grey (aka. Faust) is Knox's older brother. He's quite a bit older, around eight years, so he taught Knox a fair bit of what they know about fighting and mercenary work. Sadly, the household they grew up in was abusive, driving Faust to eventually reach his limits and leave when Knox was about thirteen, absolutely shattering the bond they had.

He didn’t really have a plan, and was arrested by the interpol shortly after he left home when a very messy fight with the gang he was in at the time attracted their attention. However, a senior officer took interest in him because of his exemplary skill set, and offered him an ultimatum. In exchange for a light jail sentence, Faust agreed to join their rank and file— this was also when he was assigned his code name ‘Grey’. When he had first left he had intended to come back for his siblings as soon as soon as he found a way he could support both himself and them, but by the time he was done with jail time and was permitted by the interpol to walk freely, both Knox and their middle brother had left home.

As he continued to gain the trust of the interpol and work his way up the career ladder, Grey begins to abuse his newly earned security clearance to find out what he can about his siblings. Unfortunately(?) there isn’t very much on record for either of them; anything recent, anyway. They’ve both gotten too good at what they do. However, eventually, when he’s given a mission to locate and capture a certain scientist known as ‘Colress’, he finds Knox. At this point, after everything he’s been through, Faust has largely turned off his emotions and has truly become his ‘Grey’ alias, but even so he does still feel a flicker of joy when he finally finds his youngest sibling. Knox of course, knows nothing of what their brother’s intentions were when he left, and so is understandably pissed beyond belief (especially since they meet again when interpol officers are storming Colress’ lab). Grey’s flat way of speaking doesn’t exactly help his case, as he seems utterly indifferent to their reunion. In truth, his monotonous front is one of his ways of preserving himself, and something he now can’t turn off. As you can probably tell by his reaction to having a literal dagger at his throat, he’s also quite indifferent to whether he lives or dies, which doesn’t help the ‘ice-man’ impression most get of him, either.

In an attempt to show good will though, he manages to get the interpol to strike up a deal with Colress. They agree to leave him alone and turn a blind eye to his unethical experiments (including if the results are murder/manslaughter [as long as it isn’t another Opelucid city incident scale wise]), in return for him doing the occasional unpaid work for them, and disclosing the blueprints of every device he invents to them. (Of course, Colress does manage to keep some of the blueprints hidden, but they don’t need to know about that). This way, Grey reasons, since they seem to be living with this scientist, Knox can be left in peace.

After the mission, Grey doesn’t just leave though, oh no. He’s finally found one of his siblings, and he’s desperate to reconnect with them somehow. Unfortunately, Grey doesn’t know how to show affection, so he just boarder-line stalks Knox and invades their privacy with the intent of keeping them safe. It irritates and creeps Knox out to no end.

Other notes:

- The reason they don’t speak with the same accent is because after Grey was taken in by the interpol he also started mingling more with ‘higher society’. Eventually, his original accent faded and was replaced by (I literally hate saying this but I can’t think of a better way) a more ‘proper’ intonation and dialect.

- Grey’s got a bit of a saviour complex, and hopes to get Knox a job with interpol. He isn’t stupid, he knows the interpol are corrupt, and despises how two faced they can be as well as their petty rules, but in his opinion it’s far, far better than the place he came from, and so wants the same improvement for his sibling. He doesn’t quite appreciate that while Knox doesn’t love being a mercenary or anything, they’ve now got a found family as a result and so doesn’t want anything to change.

[esther-dot]

Hi Esther, I sent you an ask about Byronic hero Jon, and I'm soooo lucky you interpreted the ask the way I sent it, because I know anons can come off the wrong way and I realise it sounds like I'm ranting at you when I'm nodding along with you!!! 😭 Yes I sent you that ask because it's what you were already saying first, and you're completely right grounding it in Mr. Rochester terms and also of course you do have the famous Heathcliff. But I do think GRRM is doing his own thing with it, and to be honest the more I think about it, the more I wonder how it influences Jon's ending (or not). If anything Mr. Rochester's secret wife is more of a Rhaegar thing which Jon has to wrestle with, so I definitely think there's a mix of influences going on.

Although like you say, I think when you don't introduce this literary background you lose a lot about what is being said about Jon and Sansa (and Daenerys). I agree with people who say you need to understand fantasy of that era to really understand the tone of what he's going for, which is why I think GRRM is sometimes mean and sometimes writing one-handed, but I still think that background for Romantic characters is necessary.

It's no indictment on Jon if he has a long, moody face, and that's what I kind of love honestly. I think Rhaegar may have been handsome because he was both the crown prince and a Targaryen, and like Arianne expresses aversions to Targaryen features, it may have been divisive in its own way too, beautiful on the terms of conqueror-conquered. I especially enjoy the idea that Lyanna herself had that unusual wolf beauty to her, but beauty in women isn't a portent of safety after all; beauty is just another way girls and women are controlled, even if it superficially seems beneficial when attractive. So that there's some danger to beauty, and danger in Jon's face (Lyanna's, but maybe a hint of Rhaegar too?) hinting his ancestry but also disguising it through something that can be a comfort (Ned) for Sansa is really interesting to me.

(Continuation of this convo)

No worries, anon! For some reason, tumblr wouldn’t let me save, post, schedule for later, or add that post to my queue when I was writing it! I finally just exited the tab and when I got back on tumblr it would let me post an earlier, automatically saved version, as long as I didn’t try to edit it at all, otherwise I would have chatted more with you, because I had, in the version that wouldn’t post. 😅

I share your frustration with the fandom deciding that Sansa is shallow for being moved by beauty and then turning around and obsessing over poll results about whether or not their fav is pretty. I genuinely don’t care, but they clearly care a lot. 😂 I don’t like talking about the kids that way, I don’t think their appearance has anything to do with why we like them, but it just so happens that Jon and Sansa being very Stark and very Tully (look-wise) matters so here we are. And you’re absolutely right, Sansa has suffered a lot of unwanted attention because she is beautiful, so this isn’t exactly something Sansa fans take delight in.

We do get the different takes on Targ looks! For Rhaegar, I thought the emphasis was on his music as the thing that made people swoon? Martin has a thing with singers / someone singing a song seducing people that repeatedly pops up and that is the one thing we know about Lyanna’s feelings—his singing moved her. That’s a connection to Jon who reacts in a similar way to Ygritte’s singing.

I wasn’t even thinking about the secret wife thing being a connection between Rochester and Rhaegar, but bigamy was a popular trope in gothic lit and the sensationalist victorian lit that followed, so I definitely think that’s worth noting. As is the whole, family estate being destroyed in a fire, and of course, “madness.” That all would make me think the references are more about Rhaegar and Targaryen ancestry, less about projecting into Jon’s future, but depending on which spec you buy into, Jon could be in love with Sansa and forced into a relationship with Dany or potentially married to Sansa and still facing pressure from Dany to enter into a sexual relationship. If Martin wants to go dark, it’s possible the gothic “two wives” trope and the Targaryen two wives idea manifest in Jon’s own life with a twist. I still don’t see how the space for Jon and Dany to have much interaction so I’m not too fussed about it, but I certainly think it’s possible Dany sees Jon as an answer to her desire for someone to trust. 😬 Generally though, I don’t look at literary references as being a sure fire way of dictating how the story will go, but I think it’s fun to see how writers are knowingly or unknowingly influenced by certain things. I don’t know that Martin said “gothic lit has family estates burning -> I’m gonna send Summerhall up in flames” but nonetheless, there’s a reason why that would pop into his mind.

Thanks for the followup message, I enjoyed reading your thoughts on this!

[yukidragon]

Aaaaah, thank you so much for answering my ask! It really puts in perspective how Jack (as we interpret it) would solve conflicts with his Sunshine. And with that being said, I actually have another ask for you. Buckle up, cuz this one’s a long one! So, we can all agree that Jack is a good manipulator, right? He knows exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to say what his Sunshine needs to hear to get them right where he wants them. And you yourself mentioned in one of your previous posts-

Oh wow, I think this might be the longest ask chain I’ve ever gotten. I appreciate your enthusiasm. I know what it’s like to go on a long ramble (I mean, that’s why I have a tag called “headcanon ramblings” that is just getting bigger by the week). Though next time maybe you could make a tumblr post and tag me? That should make it a little easier for me to respond without potentially missing anything while trying to screencap the whole ask chain.

Anyway, let’s get to the ask itself.

I think this is a fascinating idea you have here. Jack might be acting with what he believes is the best of intentions, but he’s still being manipulative in order to win his sunshine’s heart. I don’t necessarily think MC is oblivious to what he’s doing in the game, given some of the comments they make regardless of their choices. I believe, however, that they are someone who is very emotionally vulnerable.

MC is aware that the situation is suspicious, that everything Jack is offering is too good, but the fact of the matter is that Jack does make them feel good. They’ve felt bad for so long. They’re not used to someone caring about them. They were lonely, and even at their most resistant in the “no” route, they are desperate to keep Jack and cling to him even as they keep trying to keep him at a distance.

I believe that an MC could be perfectly aware of what Jack is doing and the tactics he’s trying while still just... deciding to let him stay anyway.

In a lot of ways, Jack’s presence is like a drug for MC (and I suspect the reverse is true for him as well). He makes them feel good, loved, and cared for. He is some supernatural entity or a sign that something is wrong with them mentally... yet it’s hard for MC to want to give him up. MC is seeing the red flags and is in a vulnerable enough mental state to just overlook them.

Regardless of the route, MC wants Jack around. They’re attracted to him, and he makes them feel good, regardless of the choices they make. Even when choosing “no,” their train of thought isn’t an outright rejection of Jack, but rather it seems that they don’t think now, in this situation, is the right time to admit they feel this way towards him.

…No. No, this isn’t how it needs to come out. Not like this.

We have a lot of sway in what we headcanon about the MC, but regardless of the route, they are someone who feels attracted to Jack. Whether they kiss or hug him prior to the yes/no choice, if they win the yogurt mini game, they share a very intimate kiss with Jack. Although it’s unexpected, MC makes it clear that it was certainly not an unwelcome thing, and the kiss leaves them feeling very good. They can still say “no” even after making out with him on the couch as well, and regardless, they still choose to cuddle with him on the couch unprompted.

I think that MC is aware that there’s at least a degree of manipulation on Jack’s part. Now, I doubt they have a clue just how far he’s willing to go to keep them given his child-friendly image and how kind he is, but I don’t think they’re oblivious to how he’s using motivational tactics like he would when dealing with children. The question comes how much is intentional and how much is not, given how deeply Jack believes that he is the character of Sunny Day Jack.

Then, of course, there’s the question of whether or not Jack is real at all. Even months on, MC still has reasons to doubt his very existence. Is this a supernatural entity haunting them, the ghost of some actor that got too into his role before he died, or is this just a comfort character they wanted so badly in such an awful time in their life that they are just imagining him? If he’s not real, then what does that say about them?

There’s a lot of ambiguity to Jack and the situation, and I think in a lot of ways MC is just not caring for themselves and their own well being enough to really fight the presence of a suspicious entity that makes them feel better. They mention they’re not used to someone caring about them, they sometimes skip things like putting on underwear, and even Ian worries about them eating. They listen to the painful messages from their ex, staying in the apartment with all his stuff, and his clothes make up the majority of their wardrobe.

Jack’s tactics are effective because MC is in a vulnerable mental state. He makes them feel good, and he helps them actually be motivated to get out of bed in the morning. He keeps them company at a job that humiliates them. Even when they’re trying to keep him at arm’s length, the idea of being without him is terrifying, and they panic at the idea of him leaving.

As I’ve said in past theory posts, I think that Jack and MC share some thoughts and emotions. Jack doesn’t (directly) lie to them. He cares about them and wants to take care of them, and they can feel that sincerity. In the psyche recording, the consultant pointed out that kids can tell when a person is faking it. Jack is being manipulative, but he isn’t faking how he feels, and I think MC is responding strongly to that sincerity because they want what he’s offering them, even if he’s a very suspicious entity.

Jack seems to be trying to take control of the situation between him and MC. The trailer has this tag line, “Whether or not you let him take over is up to you.” In part of the demo when they’re talking about Ian, MC wonders if it would be so bad if they let Jack just take control.

Jack wants MC’s love. He needs them to need him. He cares for them and wants to bask in their light. He won’t let anyone get between them. He’s manipulative, but I don’t think it’s to the extent of trying to outright brainwash MC. I think that it’s just he wants to make sure that their love for each other is so solid that nothing could ever break it, no one could ever come between them, and nothing would ever separate them so that they can be together forever.

Regardless of the route, MC wants Jack there. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on just how much of themselves they lose during the course of the game’s story. I think MC has the potential to become a junky, treating Jack as a drug, a comfort character, and being dependent on him even as they jerk his heart around. Likewise, Jack has the potential to be exceedingly dangerous, as we’ve seen in some of the teaser art and what he does to Nick at the end of the demo.

I may have wandered off a bit from the main topic there. Apologies for that.

Anyway, all that’s to say that Jack’s tactics do seem effective on the MC, regardless whether they see through them or not. They’re at least effective to the degree that they don’t want him to leave simply because it feels good to be around him. I think that it would be a very interesting dynamic, even a good challenge to Jack, if MC can see all the psychological techniques he’s using on them and turns them right back around on him. Heck, it could be even done teasingly to let him know that they know what he’s doing.

I can imagine Jack would be worried by how MC is perceiving him and his behavior. He’s being manipulative, but not with malicious intent. He just wants them to trust him, love him, and need him. Given how he had trouble doing that as Joseph in his past and his tactics of winning people over worked when he was Sunny Day Jack, I can imagine it would probably leave him worried and stressed. If they think he’s being fake, well, then he would have to try harder to prove his sincerity without making them think he’s just trying to pull their strings like a puppeteer. I think it would be a bit similar to how he reacts in the “no” route when MC is trying to keep him at arm’s length.

A conversation between Jack and MC about what he’s doing would be very interesting, I think. Jack and MC both have a lot of issues going on. How he would react to being called on his psychological tactics will depend on the way MC approaches it, which would be influenced by how much they want to rock the boat when his presence makes them feel good regardless of any red flags.

I think that this would be an excellent core conflict between Jack and MC for any fic. I know I’m constantly thinking about how much Alice notices in Sunshine in Hell, how much she doesn’t, and how much she convinces herself is nothing to notice. Having an MC who is more direct in calling out Jack on the specific psychological tactics involved would provide a strong conflict and could either lead to them getting closer or push things into a dark and twisted yandere nightmare.

If you’re inspired to write this story, then by all means do it! I’m inspired by other peoples’ ideas all the time. Heck, fanfiction at its core is being inspired by someone else’s ideas to make your own story.

Don’t worry too much if there are some similarities between your fic and mine. As long as you’re not copying it word for word or following the exact same story beats and characterization, I think you’re good. I mean, the majority of us to write fanfiction in this fandom are working with the same basic template with our MCs and their living situation. Almost all of us are taking the core of the MC as presented in the game - someone hurt by their ex boyfriend who cheated on them - and adding our own details on top. One day Jack just appeared after they played a video tape, and they’re dealing with having a clown ghost(?) in their life who makes them feel good. From there we’re adding our own personal perspectives on what’s going on, how extreme Jack is as a yandere, and how our version of the MC might react.

I’m super flattered that you think so highly of my stories and headcanons. It really makes me happy that you enjoy them so much. Thank you for your kind words.💖

Please do write if you are inspired! I love seeing all the different ideas people have in this fandom and the stories they’re weaving about it. I think this fandom is full of creativity, taking the same basic concept and taking it in so many fantastic directions.

If a headcanon or AU or whatever I wrote inspires you to write or draw something for it, then by all means please do have fun with it and let me know when you do. It’s such high praise to know that I can be a source of inspiration for someone. I get inspired by others in the fandom all the time, and I make sure to let them know when they do. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing I could inspire someone with their creativity. Thank you for your kind words and for letting me know I sparked this creativity in you as well. I look forward to seeing what you write. 💖

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore

[michelleelizabethtanner]

Love your analyses on all things brio. You observe things so much deeper than I do lol

Why do you think rio didn’t kill beth after she said she lost the baby? I don’t think he ever truly believed she was pregnant but wanted to get her to admit that herself and stop lying to him but once the whole pregnancy game was over why didn’t he kill her?

You are keeping me FED with these asks, you know that, right? Just like, who cares about my boring regular life when I can think about Brio all day. 🥰🥰🥰

The psychology of Rio (and Beth) is basically what keeps me coming back to these insane characters. On the one hand they’re so over-the-top toxic and crazy, but on other hand they are also both so relatably human. I talked about this particular part of season 3 in this post, discussing Rio’s feelings about Beth’s imaginary miscarriage. Where he suddenly realized that while he still felt anger, he also felt other emotions for her, which complicated his murderous plans.

And isn’t that just so relatably human? This cycle of abuse couples keep perpetuating, not knowing how to extricate themselves. The initial draw of Beth for Rio was rooted in juuuuuust enough validation to get him hooked. There are lots of jokes about Beth’s magic vagina that got Rio acting crazy. And it’s true in part. It isn’t the vagina though, it’s HER. She fulfilled something in him that he felt was missing, and that he somehow craved. We can’t pinpoint exactly what that specific craving was, but Rio is very much attracted to Beth’s life. Even Manny Montana described the Brio relationship this way, and I fully agree. The freedom and power that Beth envies in Rio is reflected by a similar envy and craving in Rio for the freedom of balance and privilege Beth has and takes for granted. That feeling of “you’re just like me but you have what I can’t” is gotta be crazy-making. I can see why he became obsessed. Sat outside her house at all hours of the night, just feeling the vibes. Trying to understand how a monster like her can hide in plain sight like that while he himself has given up everything for his kingdom. I imagine he had his own moment (or many moments) like Beth did in his closet, just examining her existence and trying to understand how she is who she is.

Given all that, given that compulsive attraction that’s so deeply rooted in his own psychology, in the absence of immediate and strong emotion, I don’t see how he could ever bring himself to kill her. He can’t even leave her alone, much less get rid of her forever. Because she serves a psychological purpose. She validates for him the absence of that maternal domesticity that he for whatever reason needs. Like people with “daddy issues” seeking endless validation from powerful men, Rio NEEDS Beth to validate his own humanity to himself. Rio’s personal self-outlook, I think, is rooted in a lot of darkness and shame. He masks it with playing to things he thinks are his strengths – his meticulousness, his leadership, his intelligence, even his attractiveness. But deep down I don’t think he likes himself as much as his cocky demeanor would lead us to believe. I think he grieves the loss of the child he was and the dreams that boy had to give up. Rio always felt he had no choice. That he HAD to be like he is and denied himself an enormous amount of happiness because he believed that was the consequence of being king. And then he sees Beth who hasn’t given up those things, who has the privilege of both ruthlessness and softness, and he cannot kill that. That would be like killing a part of himself. A part he’s always wanted for himself.

For the same reasons Beth can never kill Rio. They are linked. They feed each other’s inner child and they validate each other’s most secret desires: to be seen, to be understood, to be given permission to be themselves without losing all they’ve built. And it was this specific relationship that was in my mind when writing Rough Night. Their giving in to who they each always wanted to be and achieving happiness in the process. A fix-it.

[ikram1909]

The reason Flick appears to be a more attractive option, at least to me, is his experience at top-flight clubs. There’s no denying De Zerbi plays very attractive football and he’s a good manager for sure, but he lacks experience with clubs of Barça’s caliber. Sure, he’s done well at all the clubs he’s coached at before but all the clubs he’s coached at haven’t exactly been high-profile clubs. The question isn’t whether he’ll do well with Barcelona, it’s whether he’d survive the media and pressure that comes with it. We can’t lose out on another coach because Laporta and company chose another inexperienced(in the sense that De Zerbi has never coached any high-profile teams) manager who folds under media pressure. That’s no insult to Xavi as Pep has also complained about the Spanish media, but how would De Zerbi be any different under the face of that level of scrutiny when he’s never faced scrutiny of that level in his career. Hansi Flick may not play football that’s Barça’s style, but he is experienced in top-flight football and has a winning record. Not every coach wins the sextuple, even with a great squad there’s no guarantee, so it’s at the very least a good sign of Flick’s competency. And say what you want about his time with Germany, but he evidently wasn’t the problem as Nagglesman isn’t exactly doing so hot either. Not to mention, and it might just be me, but Hansi Flick wasn’t all that terrible with Germany. The point is that Flick isn’t the perfect fit, and I don’t think anyone who wants Flick believes he’s the perfect fit but rather the best option at hand. Flick is an experienced manager with a good track record behind him, as well as experience under pressure and scrutiny from coaching both Bayern and Germany. That’s why he’s a preferred option over De Zerbi, he’s less likely to crack under the pressure as he’s coached high-profile teams similar to Barcelona.

You practically put my thought into words I totally agree with you 🤝 no one is saying he's a bad coach but being a barça coach demands more than just that sadly

[mvillamemoirs]

review: The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking (How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy, and Sane) By Matthew Hutson

yooooo, i reviewed and submitted this paper for stress mgmt circa 2014.

------When it came to picking a book to write an overall review about it for this stress management class, I chose not to pick one from the list suggested from the professor. Although the list was quite overwhelming as it had a large amount of suggested books to pick from, I wanted to keep it simple and look for something right off the back that I know I’d read if it was presently appealing to me. I wandered into a thrifty, nifty book store in downtown Campbell, CA, and went directly to the psychology section- because psychology highly interests me, as well as a future minoring of mine. It was easier that way to choose a book that easily caught my attention, as well as having quoted reviews imprinted on majority of them. It took a while to choose a book because I ended up walking out of the store with 3 other ones, but being the practical and logical person I thought myself to be, I was curious as to why irrational beliefs were thought of as a good thing when the law of physics defines most, as well as what exactly was magical thinking and why does it keep people happy, healthy and sane. After skimming through a couple pages, I was getting a feel as to why “irrational and abnormal” behaviors existed within society, as well as the reasoning people apply magical thinking to their daily lives to all extents. After all, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘one’ way society thinks, and with this book- after getting my OK-go and teacher’s approval to read- the book would hopefully help me make sense of the world on a social psychological aspect.

The main ideas of this book are pretty simple, yet astonishing. These “7 laws” mentioned are broken into smaller sections, going far into depth of magical thinking. I simply thought magical thinking was another phrase for wishful thinking, but apparently there’s more to it. Matthew Hutson gives intelligent insights about the why’s and how’s people incorporate magical thinking into their daily lives, although many rationally claim that they don’t do so- nor believe in magic for that matter. In the beginning of the book, Hutson argues (and I confidently support/agree):

“…we all believe in magic – luck, mind over matter, destiny, jinxes, life after death, evil, and heavenly helpers- even when we say we don’t.”

Many of the shared stories had a theme to them, and some were very similar to class lectures from this semester’s stress management class, as well as previous psychology courses. I had slight difficulty determining how this book approached stressors, and I’ve easily linked up conclusions within reading barely 1/5th of the book. Regardless the case of when, why and how magical thinking comes into effect, people stem off of beliefs to bloom an overall sense of health, happiness, and sanity; while voiding negativity of all means. 

When it comes to the dimensions of health, it’s not all about eating right and exercising daily (the physical aspect of health). Being completely healthy isn’t limited to the physical dimension, but also includes the spiritual, emotional, social, and intellectual health dimensions as well! When it comes to approaching stress, a certain way of thinking can result in one feeling a reestablishment with their self-identity, a sense of control, hope and happiness. Magical thinking is sought to be an agile mechanism when tackling complications in life. Part of magically thinking allows people to reassure them that they’re capable of facing challenges with a successful, favorable outcome. A passage in the book quotes Rhonda Byrne, “Remember that your thoughts are the primary cause of everything” (author of ’07 The Secret). This particular section emphasizes the law of attraction, and “consciousness controls reality,” physicist Victor Stenger mentions. You are what you eat in this sense; but if you think positively and with optimism, people are pursuing in a healthy emotional/social state of mind that will transgress throughout their body, and soon enough actions and a way of living. It made sense that the people who are always sought as whimsical and happy, are completely fine and healthy, and who could blame them. Their ecstatic energy draws an exciting aura whenever in their presence, and there is definitely something magical within that!

As health and happiness tends to easily intertwine with each other, discovering the connection with magical thinking and sanity was most definitely intriguing. For example, when it comes to the spiritual and intellectual dimensions of health, people may perform a certain ritual for achievement; seek comfort and a pep talk-like internal thought with a higher supreme being (i.e. GOD); or even fulfill a task in a specified manner. (This reminded me of the guided imagery section in class). Earlier chapters in the book regarding objects withholding essences, power in symbols, and actions having distant consequences describe people taking part in a type of ritual that aims to reassure pleasing outcomes. It mentioned a law of similarity that presents people taking part in something similar to the way they did in the past all because it seemed to work in their favor-primarily because of the belief in it. For example, people take part in considering an object to bring them luck – i.e. troll dolls at bingo, or wearing a significant piece of clothing. I suppose that this would be an additional reasoning behind people regularly tempting fate in hopes to fulfill their own needs, desires and preferences to maintain their sanity and balance in life. Obsessions and jinxes were also supporting factors to prevent any disturbing turbulences along the journey of life (figuratively speaking, of course). People preferred a smooth sailing on a day to day basis, and rituals, obsessions, beliefs and jinxes are, believe it or not, extra precautions to do and maintain so- like stepping right foot first when entering a building; it’s a superstition in fates of a comforting visit. Although each page practically had something that was to my likings, these were the main emphasis that was greatly highlighted upon. The author reasoned magical thinking into 7 laws of matter that consists of objects, symbols, actions and consequences, the mind, the soul, the world, and defining reasoning with everything. If people were looking for unordinary ways to tackle the things they come across in life- or why others tend to presently do so, this would most definitely suit their curiosity search. Matthew Hutson wrote this book in a fascinating style, and included scenarios, stories, and legendary tales a wide variety of people can relate to, and understand magical thinking, respectively. Whether it’s coping with stress or developing a new outlook and way of life, this book taught me that you can’t go wrong with magical thinking and it’s nonjudgmental, but positive ways. 

All in all, this book was very playful and erratic to my likings. I would surely recommend this book to others because of its humorousness writings that keeps the reader drawn in on social behavior and cognition page after page after page. The book tackles many theories to make sense of society, as well as giving insight to other cultural, religious practices that puts life at ease. The author fulfills the witty explanations to existing irrational beliefs, and brings awareness to our inner character of believers in magic. He quickly teaches us the causations of things may not be in our control, but we are freely to enact as humans in any way possible- as long as it’s to our likings and we perceive it to be so. Whether it’s a gnarly ritual or heuristic superstition others may not understand but us, people perceive and steer their own ship towards happiness, health and sanity with a touch of magical thinking.

[qzwrites]

the kidfic question

Gray, Riley, and Paul: these are already children why on earth would they reproduce. Okay, no, I mean...I have not thought that far into their future. Paul goes to a fancy out-of-state college and they have long distance dates, that's as far ahead as I've thought about this.

Karina and Lord Clifton: I mean. They don't need children and I don't think Karina ever expected to have children. They are going to be annoyingly doting to their niblings and cousins. Clifton especially would enjoy getting obnoxious loud toys for Karina's brother's kids. Idk what that looks like in the 12th century but I assume noisemakers were still popular with children back then, and extremely annoying to their parents.

Nic and Mara (and Ayla): literally definitely have kids. I knew this like...before I finished the story. Mara invents a way for them to have kids without Nic having to be pregnant more than once because that’s how badly he wants more kids. Mara also adopts himself a sister! If you don’t have a family, store-bought is fine. Mara is also de facto on child wrangling duty whenever he isn't pressingly needed elsewhere. He is also The Main Attraction for the children of the traders who come through the village. Mara loves kids and it is only Nic (and Ayla) reining him in. Nic was like "three seems like a good number" and Mara was like :( okay :(

(Everyone else's kids in the village call him Uncle Mara even if they don't call Ayla or Nic a member of their family because Mara is so Involved. Thirty years down the line people will be calling in favors from all over the Ring Sea from their uncle, who will turn out to be Literal God Mara the Destroyer and everyone around them is going to be like HOW ARE YOU RELATED TO A GOD and they'll be like oh it's more like an honorary uncle thing, my parents moved to the village and I was friends with his kids)

(Mara might accidentally get in a feud with a whoever the patron deity of the trading fleet is because so many of their kids grow up loving him, not even aware he's a god lmao)

Max and Eddie: I mean Eddie definitely wants kids and Max definitely doesn't, but also lmao they are not in a position to think about that yet. Like. Emotionally.

Bastiaan and Lennart: will not realize they have failed to discuss the possibility of children until several years into their marriage, at which point they are somewhat more aware of how the Headmistress is clearly aiming to pass the school along to them. Anyway, they're teachers at a boarding school, which they agree is plenty of children to worry about.

(Amusingly, the characters who spun off a thought experiment about AFAB Lennart a: have to have kids for inheritance reasons b: do not work at a boarding school. Sigrid realizes after only minimal exposure to her many niblings-by-marriage that she in fact does want children, so it's a good thing they require them, and also she now has many niblings-by-marriage upon which to dote.)

Jin and Alex (and Valera): I don't know them well enough to say ultimately, but you know what I do know? This is an omegaverse story, there's no way they're not at least a little into breeding kink.

Amelia, Jim, and Tom: I literally never thought about this until right now. Probably at some point? The temptation to say Amelia has twins and they then joke that one of them is Jim's son and one of them is Tom's son is very strong.

Zodwa and Kabelo: This is an arranged marriage for the purposes of reproducing and they have a baby by the end of the story if you include the illustration (which you should! It's there for a reason!) so like. Yeah. I feel like they have at least one more child tbh, with the exact same "retiring to an isolated estate for Zodwa's health" excuse concealing who exactly is doing the pregnancy bit. Alas that they are not in the wibbly magic universe where they can outsource carrying a fetus to a squash, the way Mara does when Nic hates being pregnant, because I think Kabelo doesn't enjoy being pregnant very much but does a: want Zodwa to have more kids bc she's such a good mom and b: kind of wants more kids himself? But does not especially want to carry them.

Lorrit and Nateno: Neither of them especially wants kids, which is good because oh boy! That would be a political nightmare! Nateno loves when kids in the palace are young enough to not know who he is though. Adults will often seek out their child/ren only to find them in a random courtyard climbing on the tyrant that conquered their country and have a minor heart attack. (Lorrit does think it's very cute but the idea of being responsible for a human child on top of the whole ass country is not appealing to him.)

Osett and Ordoni: Take so long to admit they're an item that no one even braves asking about kids. Probably going to eventually accidentally adopt a series of orphans. Probably going to pretend that’s not what they’re doing for, again, a long time.

Rirdan and Devere: These men should probably not have children but Rirdan definitely wants children. Probably get back in touch with Rirdan's family specifically so Rirdan can babysit his niblings. Devere, a mere human who is no match for even a ghakir child, physically, is like, Under No Circumstances are we doing this full-time. And I feel like narratively they have to then be cornered into adopting at least one child. Bonus points if this child is not either a human or a ghakir and is instead a third type of alien.

Lee and Colby: This is literally a hook-up, but also they do date long enough to stay friends. Colby probably does have kids and Lee babysits them and has Adventures navigating interspecies babysitting. (The idea of Lee introducing Colby to a different alien and Colby settling down with them is kind of cute also tbh)

Joshua and Tony: These are children and they will always be children in my head. I have no idea how long their relationship lasts, either! Longer than a few months, at least. More than that I cannot say.

Cody and Hassan: Cody feels vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of reproducing and only gets more so as he meets other concubi and hears about how Not Great their childhoods all were. Hassan only kind of thought about having kids when he was dating Stacy, and thought it sounded Okay. To be honest they are also Children in my head lmao. Probably they would have a better idea about this after Cody hears from his dad and learns he has younger (half-)siblings; the age gap there is significant enough to give them a good idea. I WILL definitively say Cody and Hassan are basically never in danger of breaking up. They probably don't talk about marriage until it's been like. A decade. They are both still a little bit convinced the other one is going to outgrow them for...a while.

Farran and Tiede: Farran definitely does want kids but that could complicate succession things for Arden. Tiede had no strong opinions until he realized how badly Farran wanted kids and then he was like How do I make this work. (He makes it work by Farran being The Kingdom's Most Involved Uncle with his sisters' children, who are Arden's heirs for Reasons [Arden marries a trans dude and makes it a crime to say shit about it lmao]). This needlessly complicated family structure works just fine, except for when people don't realize all the Stuff going on and assume Farran is like. The kids' minder or nanny or something. At which point the entire royal family is offended and it's a political disaster. And then it probably turns out Tiede manufactured the situation to get Arden some concessions he needed.

Alex and Derek: they do not intend to be in a long-term relationship lmao. They do, but they pretend they're not for...a while. They both have ~trauma~ but they absolutely do rescue monster children and find actual nice homes for them.

Liz and Sam (and Josie?): I have no idea! Initial instincts are yes, eventually?

Jaden and Chenillin: Figuring out he wants kids is literally how Jaden finds a place in Malachitin society lmao. Someone basically dares Chenillin to adopt some kids into his house and he's like SURE. FINE. WHY NOT and Jaden is like Wow...babies...for me? and Chenillin was not in any way trying to wife Jaden anymore than he already did but also like...Jaden wants the kids to be His, the kids are now His. (Jaden already settled into a confusingly solid position as the mistress of the house, due to differing gender stereotypes. He helps Chenillin's mom in the kitchen and basically runs the young kids' school as soon as he gets there. The kids in their House constantly misgender Jaden and confuse the Malachitin adults around them terribly. Jaden accidentally a revolution in gender politics.) (Jaden more purposefully a revolution in sex ed but to be fair, that would have been hard to avoid after Chenillin so publicly took Jaden into his house and then Did Not get married.) Former criminal becomes a soccer mom and loves it.

[blackwoolncrown]

For the past few days, a heatwave has glowered over the Pacific Northwest, forcing temperatures in the region to a record-breaking 118ºF. Few people in the region—neither Americans nor Canadians—have air-conditioning. Stores sold out of new AC units in hours as a panicked public sought a reasonable solution to the emergency. Unfortunately, air-conditioning is part of what’s causing the unusual heatwave in the first place.

We came close to destroying all life on Earth during the Cold War, with the threat of nuclear annihilation. But we may have come even closer during the cooling war, when the rising number of Americans with air conditioners—and a refrigerant industry that fought regulation—nearly obliterated the ozone layer. We avoided that environmental catastrophe, but the fundamental problem of air conditioning has never really been resolved.

Mechanical cooling appeared in the early 1900s not for comfort but for business. In manufacturing, the regulation of temperature—“process cooling”—controlled the quality of commodities like cotton, tobacco, and chewing gum. In 1903, Alfred Wolff installed the first cooling system for people at the New York Stock Exchange because comfortable traders yielded considerably higher stock returns. Only in the ’20s did “commercial cooling” appear. On Memorial Day weekend 1925, Willis Carrier debuted the first centrifugal air-conditioning system at the Rivoli Theater in Midtown Manhattan. Previously, theaters had shut down in the summer. With air-conditioning, the Rivoli became “the talk of Broadway” and inaugurated the summer blockbuster.

-another direct tie to capitalism. Everything born out of colonio-capitalism carries its toxic mark. Article totally not under the cut for those who can’t pay for Time. It honestly paints a really clear picture of the situation. Bolding mine.-

“It’s time we become more comfortable with discomfort. Our survival may depend on it.“

Before World War II, almost no one had air-conditioning at home. Besides being financially impractical and culturally odd, it was also dangerous. Chemical refrigerants like sulfur dioxide and methyl chloride filled most fridges and coolers, and leaks could kill a child, poison a hospital floor, even blow up a basement. Everything changed with the invention of Freon in 1928. Non-toxic and non-explosive, Freon was hailed as a “miracle.” It made the modernist skyscraper—with its sealed windows and heat-absorbing materials—possible. It made living in the desert possible. The small, winter resort of Phoenix, Arizona, became a year-round attraction. Architecture could now ignore the local climate. Anywhere could be 65ºF with 55% humidity. Cheap materials made boxy, suburban tract housing affordable to most Americans, but the sealed-up, stifling design of these homes required air-conditioning to keep the heat at bay. Quickly, air-conditioning transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. By 1980, more than half of all U.S. homes were air-conditioned. And despite millions of Black Americans fleeing the violence of Jim Crow, the South saw greater in-migration than out-migration for the first time—a direct result of AC. The American car was similarly transformed. In 1955, only 10 percent of American cars had air-conditioning. Thirty years later, it came standard.

The cooling boom also altered the way we work. Now, Americans could work anywhere at any hour of the day. Early ads for air-conditioning promised not health or comfort but productivity. The workday could proceed no matter the season or the climate. Even in the home, A/C brought comfort as a means to rest up before the next work day.

The use of air-conditioning was as symbolic as it was material. It conveyed class status. Who did and didn’t have air-conditioning often fell starkly along the color line, too, especially in the South. It conquered the weather and, with it, the need to sweat or squirm or lie down in the summer swelter. In that sense, air-conditioning allowed Americans to transcend their physical bodies, that long-sought fantasy of the Puritan settlers: to be in the world but not of it. Miracle, indeed.

But it came with a price. As it turned out, Freon isn’t exactly non-toxic. Freon is a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which depletes the ozone layer and also acts as a global warming gas. By 1974, the industrialized world was churning out CFCs, chemicals that had never appeared on the planet in any significant quantities, at a rate of one million metric tons a year—the equivalent mass of more than 500,000 cars. That was the year atmospheric chemists Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina first hypothesized that the chlorine molecules in CFCs might be destroying ozone in the stratosphere by bonding to free oxygen atoms and disrupting the atmosphere’s delicate chemistry. By then, CFCs were used not only as refrigerants but also as spray can propellants, manufacturing degreasers, and foam-blowing agents.

The ozone layer absorbs the worst of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Without stratospheric ozone, life as we know it is impossible. A 1 percent decline in the ozone layer’s thickness results in thousands of new cases of skin cancer. Greater depletion would lead to crop failures, the collapse of oceanic food systems, and, eventually, the destruction of all life on Earth.

In the 1980s, geophysicist Joseph Farman confirmed the Rowland-Molina hypothesis when he detected a near-absence of ozone over Antarctica—the “Ozone Hole.” A fierce battle ensued among industry, scientists, environmentalists, and politicians, but in 1987 the U.S signed the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which ended Freon production.

The Montreal Protocol remains the world’s only successful international environmental treaty with legally binding emissions targets. Annual conferences to re-assess the goals of the treaty make it a living document, which is revised in light of up-to-date scientific data. For instance, the Montreal Protocol set out only to slow production of CFCs, but, by 1997, industrialized countries had stopped production entirely, far sooner than was thought possible. The world was saved through global cooperation.

The trouble is that the refrigerants replacing CFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), turned out to be terrible for the planet, too. While they have an ozone-depleting potential of zero, they are potent greenhouse gases. They absorb infrared radiation from the sun and Earth and block heat that normally escapes into outer space. Carbon dioxide and methane do this too, but HFCs trap heat at rates thousands of times higher. Although the number of refrigerant molecules in the atmosphere is far fewer than those of other greenhouse gases, their destructive force, molecule for molecule, is far greater.

In three decades, the production of HFCs grew exponentially. Today, HFCs provide the cooling power to almost any air conditioner in the home, in the office, in the supermarket, or in the car. They cool vaccines, blood for transfusions, and temperature-sensitive medications, as well as the data processors and computer servers that make up the internet—everything from the cloud to blockchains. In 2019, annual global warming emissions from HFCs were the equivalent of 175 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

In May, the EPA signaled it will begin phasing down HFCs and replacing them with more climate-friendly alternatives. Experts agree that a swift end to HFCs could prevent as much as 0.5ºC of warming over the next century—a third of the way to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Yet regardless of the refrigerant used, cooling still requires energy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, air-conditioning accounts for nearly a fifth of annual U.S. residential electricity use. This is more energy for cooling overall and per capita than in any other nation. Most Americans consider the cost of energy only in terms of their electricity bills. But it’s also costing us the planet. Joe Biden’s announcement to shift toward a renewable energy infrastructure obscures the uncertainty of whether that infrastructure could meet Americans’ outrageously high energy demand—much of it for cooling that doesn’t save lives. Renewable energy infrastructure can take us only so far. The rest of the work is cultural. From Freon to HFCs, we keep replacing chemical refrigerants without taking a hard look at why we’re cooling in the first place.

Comfort cooling began not as a survival strategy but as a business venture. It still carries all those symbolic meanings, though its currency now works globally, cleaving the world into civilized cooling and barbaric heat. Despite what we assume, as a means of weathering a heat wave, individual air-conditioning is terribly ineffective. It works only for those who can afford it. But even then, their use in urban areas only makes the surrounding micro-climate hotter, sometimes by a factor of 10ºF, actively threatening the lives of those who don’t have access to cooling. (The sociologist Eric Klinenberg has brilliantly studied how, in a 1995 Chicago heat wave, about twice as many people died than in a comparable heat wave forty years earlier due to the city’s neglect of certain neighborhoods and social infrastructure.) Ironically, research suggests that exposure to constant air-conditioning can prevent our bodies from acclimatizing to hot weather, so those who subject themselves to “thermal monotony” are, in the end, making themselves more vulnerable to heat-related illness.

And, of course, air-conditioning only works when you have the electricity to power it. During heatwaves, when air-conditioning is needed most, blackouts are frequent. On Sunday, with afternoon temperatures reaching 112ºF around Portland, the power grid failed for more than 6,300 residences under control by Portland General Electrics.

The troubled history of air-conditioning suggests not that we chuck it entirely but that we focus on public cooling, on public comfort, rather than individual cooling, on individual comfort. Ensuring that the most vulnerable among the planet’s human inhabitants can keep cool through better access to public cooling centers, shade-giving trees, safe green spaces, water infrastructure to cool, and smart design will not only enrich our cities overall, it will lower the temperature for everyone. It’s far more efficient this way.

To do so, we’ll have to re-orient ourselves to the meaning of air-conditioning. And to comfort. Privatized air-conditioning survived the ozone crisis, but its power to separate—by class, by race, by nation, by ability—has survived, too. Comfort for some comes at the expense of the life on this planet.

It’s time we become more comfortable with discomfort. Our survival may depend on it.

[fivedollarbankrobbery]

can you do “when the bachelors first meet you” but with the bachelorettes? If that’s too much, than specifically Haley :D

(also I could find any rules or anything on your blog, so sorry if this violates something)

Stardew Valley Headcannons: When the bachelorettes first meet you

Warnings: none

gn!reader

Hi! I don’t really know some of the bachelorettes very well, so I apologize if some of them seem out of character. Also, you’re actually my first request on this account! Hope you enjoy!

—-

Abigail:

Abigail started off apprehensive about a new person coming to town

Not that she thinks you’re going to be a bad person or anything, she’s more just worried about how much things will change

She’s used to the farm being abandoned, and for some reason she can’t even imagine it up and running again

Meeting you made a lot of her anxieties go away

You weren’t uptight or boring, in fact you seemed pretty similar for her

Well, as similar as a farmer can be, considering that she doesn’t exactly enjoy the physical labor of farming

You seemed pretty cool, and to be honest, kind of pretty

If you compliment her hair or outfit when you first meet she 100% will blush and try to hide it

Haley:

To be entirely honest, when Haley heard someone new was coming to town she kind of didn’t care

Not in a grumpy way or anything

She was really just expecting someone much older and boring, so she wasn’t too excited

To say she was surprised when she saw you would be an understatement

Not only are you close to her age, but you’re cute too?!

You don’t know it until talking to Emily later on, but Haley was actually a LOT nicer to you right off the bat than anyone else she met

She actually invites you to go shopping in the city with her at some point, adding on “you know, so you have more than just old farming clothes” to not seem too eager

Needless to say, you agree

She’s actually kind of surprised that you agree to go with her, becoming a bit shy afterwards

If Emily makes fun of her for having a crush after you leave she gets mad and stomps to her room, trying to hide the way her face heats up

Emily:

Emily was excited for you to move in

She loves new people, soaking in the chance to make new friends and get socialization whenever she can

Immediately you could tell she’s a little different from the other people in town

Not in a bad way, though

She’s unique!

Her interests are less common, but to be fair farming and fighting monsters isn’t too common either

She offers to help you out on the farm if you ever need it in your first conversation, showing how truly caring she is

Even for people she barely knows

Before you leave, she adds in a quick compliment, calling your name before saying “By the way, I just wanted to say you’re really pretty!”

And she says it so casually that you can’t help but think about it as you continue your day

Leah:

Leah, while not being as excited as Emily, definitely looked forward to the prospect of a new farmer

To be honest, she was just excited to have readily available fresh fruits and veggies in the general store

When she first met you it wasn’t anything too special

She was never one for ‘love at first sight’, it takes getting to know a person for her to develop feelings

However, she wouldn’t deny that you were attractive

When you two actually meet you get a chance to talk about farming together, it’s a pretty good time

When you leave she tells you to stop by and chat with her every so often, promising your continued interaction together

Penny:

Penny was somewhat indifferent on a new person

She already has enough on her plate helping out with Vincent and Jas, she was too busy to get too antsy about it or anything

She heard from some of the other villagers when you got to town, but didn’t have much time to come greet you, so she made a mental note to stop by the farm at some point with a home made dinner to welcome you

However, when you come up to her first she is surely caught off guard

She’s very shy when you first meet, and the fact that she wasn’t expecting to meet you so soon did not help that

She was welcoming and nice, but very reserved

Like a few of the others, she wouldn’t be crushing instantly

She definitely recognizes that you are good looking though

After your meeting you make it a goal to gain her trust, being able to tell that there’s a beautiful personality hiding behind her shyness

Maru:

Maru looked forward to your arrival in Pelican Town

She heard that you were around her age, which she saw as an absolute win

Most of the people in town are a lot older than her, which led to her feeling a bit lonely when she wasn’t working

She had Sebastian and his friends, but that isn’t the same as having a real friend

She’s friendly right away, making you feel welcome to the community

Like Emily Maru compliments you when you first meet

Whether it be your outfit, hair, or maybe even just telling you that you’re beautiful

It doesn’t seem flirty at the time, though, and she didn’t mean it to be either

She just genuinely wanted to make your day like that, and she believes her compliment too

But she definitely finds later on that you linger on her mind more than anyone else does