#heroines dad is like such a nice guy and

[dangaer]

listening to posthumous forgiveness after ages of not playing shins playlist really reminds me of just how complicated shin’s relationship with his own father is.  

both him and his mother were strongly isolated by the town because people assumed that either shin would grow up the same way his father was or simply that his mother had been the one to instigate / create such a happening. a lot of their old friends left them, the neighbourhood kids picked on shin and his mother found it difficult to keep any form of social life. the only people who actually decided to keep by their side being both heroine and toma’s families ( though shin’s mother had guessed that more to be out of their childrens friendship for shin out of anything else, but kept such thoughts to herself ). such a situation had damaged his parents relationship to the point where his mother ended up divorcing him, and shin the majority of his childhood angry and upset towards his own father for creating such a situation, where he became cold and viewed as a monster for something he’d definitely never make himself do, and to see his mothers once happy expression become strained and ultimately haggard. 

despite this, it would be a lie to say he hates him. not to the standard he’d like people to, and definitely not in the way his mother had felt following such a situation. all of the memories shin holds of his father before the incident show him to be your average kind and loving man, who truly encouraged and wanted shin to do well as his own person. so much so, that despite the rage he felt, as shin grew up ... came to terms with attempting to understand the law, his friendships and those around him, it became clear that part of him still held a bleeding heart towards his father. so much so, from age 15, he ended up taking bi-monthly visits to his old man in prison. and while there was a lot of rage, negative and angry feelings, part of shin has come to terms with the situation, and began to try and create a sense of forgiveness towards the events that have happened. 

[goldenlikedayl1ght]

blank space - m. murdock

a/n: uhm... this one is dedicated to my friend arin who doesn't like daredevil but is encouraging me to be more unhinged. i hope you guys enjoy because i had a blast writing this. possible part two in the works, please like and reblog with comments and feedback <3 warnings: i cannot emphasize this enough-- DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT there is so little comfort to all of this hurt. matt is abusive and mean and reader is tortured and quiet and readers dad is an addict and a gambler and also stabbing, cursing, talking about fucking, sub/dom dynamics, nicknames, fem reader, lmk if i missed any! word count: 3.5k summary: Your dad makes your life horrible. Matt can make it worse. paring: dark!matt murdock x reader now playing: blank space (taylor's version) - taylor swift "so it's gonna be forever/or it's gonna go down in flames?/you can tell me when it's over/if the high was worth the pain"

You never meant to get involved with him.

Really, it wasn’t anything you did.

 As usual, it came back around to your father, who had a bad gambling problem, as well as a substance issue, and would often be tempted to gamble big prizes for things like coke or heroin. He would bet money, college funds, heirlooms, your house.

But of course, he couldn’t pay these debts.

Your mom had been gone for quite some time, and you suspect this is where your fathers’ addictions stem from. But you’re trying to just make your way through your adult life. You had gone to a local college, unable to afford much else. Now, you worked in a dingy little office where they constantly abused your work ethic.

Between your grief, his constant betting on your lively hood, and your asshole boss, you felt your bones grow tired. Not the sort of tired that could be fixed by a good night’s sleep. The sort of tired that could be fixed by a new life, not that you had the means for that.

You think your mother would haunt you for the rest of your days if you abandoned your dad.

Friday night came, and you were ready to go home to the small apartment you shared with your father, and drink some wine, and get a nice sleep.

You had been told by your boss that you needed to stay late to translate paper files to the digital system. No, you would not be getting paid overtime.

It was dark by the time you finally left, your feet aching in your heels as you made your way through Hell’s Kitchen, wanting to get home so as not to start crying on the streets of New York.

You don’t make it home.

As you turn the corner by your block, you notice a van creeping up on you. How long had it been following you? If you weren’t so tired, maybe you would know.

But the van pulled up next to you, and you did the only thing you could in this situation. You started to run.

Only, you made it about ten feet before you twisted your ankle with these stupid fucking heels. As you fall, you let out a cry of pain, and before you can think, two men are outside the van. They grab you by the arms and pull you into the van, the whole time you struggle.

Someone puts a black hood over your head and wraps duct tape around your hands. Your ankle is fucking aching.

You aren’t sure how long you drive for, but someone is then pulling you out of the van and drags you along. They give you an opportunity to walk but your ankle hurts to the point where you can’t walk.

They drag you again, and your foot is dragging, and holy shit, you can’t believe that your biggest concern while being kidnapped is how much your ankle hurts.

Eventually, hood on your head still, you are sat in a chair. Your hands are untied, and you want to jump up and fight, but you know your ankle won’t help you here.

They quickly tie your hands back to the chair, with rope this time. Whoever ‘they’ are.

You’re starting to have trouble breathing, because you’re realizing what sort of situation, you’re in right now.

You’ve been kidnapped for something; you have to assume in some way that it’s to get back at your father.

The hood is pulled off your head, and your eyes take a moment to adjust.

The room you’re in is dark, dingy. You know there’s two people behind you, big enough to carry you. You can hear water outside the room, assuming you’re in an abandoned office by the docks. Then, there’s three people in front of you.

One is a man, with long blond hair. He wears a nice suit and is just standing in front of the door. Another is a woman, with even longer blond hair and she also dons rather luxurious apparel. Your dirty work clothes make you look meager next to her.

The last is a man with dark hair. He wears a simple, rather expensive suit, and red glasses.

If you weren’t on the verge of a meltdown, you’d probably realize how hot he is.

Oh, he also holds a knife.

The blond man talks first.

“So. Do you want to start, or should we?”

“What?” Your ankle throbs.

“I guess we should, then.” He hums. “Do you have five grand worth of heroin on you, dear?”

You could throw up.

“I—”

“No, of course you don’t. You and your boyfriend probably used it all.”

What is he talking about? Now, on top of being in pain and panicked, you’re confused.

“The man you live with?” The woman finally speaks. “I assume you two used all the heroin he stole.”

You realize she means your father. You realize that your father stole five grand worth of heroin. What else did he steal?

“What else does he owe?”

“No, darling,” she scoffs, “We ask, you answer.”

“I don’t do heroin.”

“So, how do you know he owes us more?”

“Took a wild fucking guess.” You spit. “Figured you wouldn’t kidnap someone over five grand, figure money is no object.”

The man with the knife steps out of the shadows. Your heartbeat races, and he chuckles. He crouches in front of you.

“You’re a spitfire. I like that. In fact, I love that in a woman, don’t I, Foggy?” He turns his head back slightly.

Foggy answers.

“That you do, man.”

His head turns back to you. But you get the impression by his glasses that he can’t see. So how is he looking right at you?

“If you give us some sort of sass like that again, I’ll stab you and make sure you feel every second of pain.” You whimper, and he laughs again. “Not so cocky anymore, are we, sweetheart?” He stands and goes behind you, his arms landing on the outside of your own, caging you in. He leans down and whispers in your hear, “Is this.. turning you on, sweetheart?”

You don’t answer.

“Answer me.”

“No.”

“Liar.” He whispers back, the knife gracing over your ear. He cuts your ear just enough to make it bleed, and tears slip down your face. He makes his way back to the front of you and crouches again. “I’ll ask you again. How do you know he owes me more?”

“I figured he would, when gamblers start, they don’t stop.”

“Not only did you lie to me again, you also just gave yourself away. Lie to me again and I hurt you worse.”

Your foot that isn’t hurt goes up and kicks him in the face. At least it tries, because his reaction is too quick, and he grabs your ankle.

“Bad, bad girl.” He tuts. He lets go of your leg and picks up your other leg, the one with the bruising, swollen ankle. You start to shake. His hand squeezes the wound and when you yell in pain, he just coos at you. “Aw, does that hurt, sweetheart?”

You’re busy crying.

“Answer me!” He demands. It shakes you to your core. You realize you do not know who you’re dealing with, and you’re even angrier at your father for jeopardizing you like this.

“Yes!” You sob, and this seems to satisfy him. He takes the knife in his other hand and slowly cuts open your stocking, loving the way you’re shaking with fear.

 “Keep moving and you’ll cut yourself.”

You try to calm yourself down, on the verge of a panic attack. The knife grazes your leg, and he starts to focus in on your thigh, twisting the knife around your skin.

“How do you know him?” he asks. And you aren’t sure why you try it. You don’t know how he knows when you lie.

“I’ll find a way to pay you back, just let me go, I promise, I’ll tell you where he is, just—”

Then you feel it.

The knife pierces your thigh and is lodged into your leg. You scream in pain, gripping the arms of the chair. Fuck, it hurts. Your vision blurs, and you’re unsure whether it’s from pain or from your tears.

 He stands up in front of you, ignoring the stares from Karen and Foggy. He knows he might have gone a step too far for someone he’s pretty sure is innocent in all this. But he can’t help himself. He likes hearing you wither in pain, and he likes being the person administering the pain. He has all these things he’s in control of, but at this moment, no one else is in the room. It’s you and him, in a rather intimate moment.

He pats your chin, “C’mon, focus, right here, sweetheart. Tell me the truth and I make the pain go away.” He tells you, breaking through the wall of pain and fear that blocks your ability to think.

“He’s my father!” You finally cry out. It comes out as if you’re yelling in church, screaming to God a confession you can’t bear anymore. The only thing missing is your position on your knees, but being below this man like this is as close to an altar as you can see yourself being. “I know he has a gambling problem, and I know he has a drug problem but that’s it! I don’t know anything else, I just lost the parent roulette, okay?!” Your words come gasped out, in between sobs and when you’re not too distracted with your pain.

He seems to be satisfied with this. He gets back down, closer to the ground. Now he’s the one at the altar, but the devil has no place in a church, only between your thighs. He tilts his head and kisses the inside of your thigh.

“See? Good girls get rewards.” Bad girls get stabbed. He stands up, and with him, he pulls at the knife. Blood gushes as you cry out in pain again, sure he'll leave you to bleed out, to be fed on by rats.

He drops the knife at your feet and adjusts his tie.

“What should we do with her, boss?”

“Go get her father.” He says, “But don’t let her go just yet. I’d like to keep her a while.” You think you’ll be sick. “Knock her out though, we don’t want her knowing where she is.” That’s the last thing before the butt of a gun meets your head.

It’s a nice relief from the pain.  

• • •

You wake up on a bed with silk sheets. It’s almost nice enough for you to forget about the whole situation. Maybe your whole life has been a dream, and really, you’re a rich housewife for a man who loves you deeply and your mom is still alive.

But then you sit up, and your stockings are ripped, and your heels are gone.

A brace wraps around your hurt ankle. A bandage wraps around your thigh. The pain isn’t there anymore, you’re not sure what drugs have been given to you.

The room is rather barren, you realize, with little to no works of art or even photos, and it’s rather dark. It’s also freezing cold, a central air system whirling around you. You wonder, if you’re a prisoner, then why put you in a room like this?

What is happening?

The door opens and immediately you went to defend yourself, though there were no weapons around you.

The man from the night before steps into the room, and he looks... casual. He wears dark jeans and a tee shirt, his glasses discarded. Bandages wrapped around his knuckles.

“Oh, good. You’re awake.” You don’t respond, just stare at him. “I’m Matt.”

You stay quiet.

“You’re not being tortured anymore, honey. If you want, you can lie and be mean now, I don’t bite. Not anymore. Not unless you want me to.”

“I’m Matt.” You repeat, unable to believe it. “You stab me in the leg and kidnap me, and you go as casual as ‘I’m Matt’?” He grins.

“I told you; I love a woman with some fire.” You wonder how many times he’s used that line on people. “Telling them they’re beautiful just doesn’t hit the same way when you’re blind.” He says, going over to a door, and when he opens it, you realize it’s a closet.

“I want nothing to do with you.”

“No?” He turns to you, and smiles. He says your name. How does he know it? “You went to college for Marketing, cute. No siblings. Your mom died a few years ago, after a long battle with cancer. I’m sorry.” This sounds sincere. “You were engaged once, but he cheated on you and is now married to the other woman.” And he goes back to stinging. “Your father, I know all about him. David is an addict and a gambler. Now, addict, I could deal with. Addiction runs deep but it can be managed. It’s the gambling that frustrates me, and Sweetheart, If I’m frustrated, you must be riled up. He gambles everything, I should know. He gambles it to Foggy, who shares it with me.” He hums. He picks clothes out of the closet and heads back to you, “The pants are your size, but the shirt is mine.” He tells you, laying the clothes out in front of you. “Don’t worry about me watching, or anything.” It’s almost enough to make you smile.

You get changed, the challenge of slipping into the slightly lose jeans the hardest part. The bandage fits right in there, but even whatever pain meds have been given to you, aren’t enough.

“So, your father,” You groan, your face in your hands. You get it, your father is awful, and he hates him, but you know that your father is awful, and you know that you hate him. Why must he keep involving you? “I know, sweetheart, you’re in pain, and you hate him, but just stay with me on this.” he says, a cooing tone to his voice. You don’t know why, but you’re compelled to listen to him. “Your father forces you to live in this small apartment, because you’re the only one who works, and he always manages to find your money to gamble away. But it’s not just the money, it’s your electronics, your nice shoes, any pills you have in the house. And really, by doing all this, he is gambling you. Because not only is he risking not being able to pay his debts and someone taking you, but you’re tired. Aching for absolution that will never come. But the worst part is that even though all this stems from his grief around your mom, he gambled her wedding and engagement rings, the one you were always told you’d be proposed with.”

Tears well your eyes.

“Please, stop.”

He sits next to you on the bed, and you don’t have the energy to move away from him. In fact, you lean against him ever so slightly. He must know it too, you figure, since he can tell when you’re lying and when your heartbeat races. He’s warmer than you imagined. He’s a beacon of warmth in this cold, dim room.

He takes something out of his pocket, and then drops it into your hands. It’s a necklace, just a simple chain. Three things hang on it. A silver charm with an ‘M’ on it, and two rings. Your mom’s engagement ring, and her wedding band. You thought you’d never see it again, not after you came home and went to your jewelry box only to find out from your dad that he had lost it in a poker match a few weeks before.

You clutch the necklace in your hands.

“M for Matt?”

“Or Murdock, whatever you’d like.”

“You’re in charge, right? Just how in charge are you?”

“I run everything. There isn’t a corner of this city that I don’t have men in.” So, he’s the kingpin. The boss. Matt Murdock, a man feared by all, gentle to only you. Only for this moment.

“You’re not going to let me go, are you?”

“Bun, I was never going to let you go. But I don’t think you want to leave, either.”

You stay quiet. You can’t run. He made sure of that. Was he always going to stab you? Had he decided that from the moment he heard you whimper or was it your reaction to his pet names that did you in?

His fingers come up to graze your ear gently, but you flinch, since it’s where he had cut you.

“Bunnies are always so sensitive to the ears. Fragile. It’s not like you can hop away. Besides, you need time to heal, and I could take away all the pain. No more mean fathers, no more mean bosses, and no more mean thoughts.” He says gently. “I could put you back together.”

His voice is soft, as if his intentions are as well, but you’re sure he’ll destroy you. He will not put you back together, only break you down, collecting tiny pieces of you for his collection.

You consider it. You would never have to work again. You would never have to do anything again. You would never have to see your father again.

You turn your head, and nod.

“Okay. Okay, I’ll stay.” It wasn’t as if you had a choice in the matter. But nonetheless, He grins, and takes the necklace from you, only to wrap it around your neck, and clasp it on.

Despite the rings being something you had longed for, the ‘M’ alone weighs on you like a boulder.

He tilts your head gently, his fingers brushing against your chin, and you look away, ashamed of what you have done. He grabs your chin and keeps you looking at him. He leans forward and for a moment you just stay, feeling his hot breath against your lips. Tears escape from your eyes and run down your cheeks. He tuts softly and kisses your cheeks where the tears lie.

“Sh, Sh.. It’s okay, sweetheart,” he comforts. His other hand trails down to your thigh, where two of his fingers find the stab wound, and push into it. You whimper in pain, grasping his wrist. He sighs deeply, “Pretty noises.” He hums. “I would never deny you anything, bun. But if you deny me what I ask, it won’t end well for you. Understand?”

You nod, but when you aren’t verbal, he pushes down harder, the bandage and his fingers soaking with blood.

“Tell me. Tell me you understand.”

“I understand, Matt.” You manage to whimper out. He takes his fingers away and kisses your cheek.

“Good. Good job, honey.” He says softly, bringing his fingers up to his mouth and licking your blood off them. “Sweet, sweet girl.”

He leans forward and kisses you, and it’s full of a gentleness you weren’t sure he was capable of. You kiss back, afraid of what he’ll do if you deny him again.

He winds up kissing you to sleep, not mad at you for falling tired as you kiss. You lay with him in these silk sheets, freezing cold as you cuddle into him. He relishes being wanted. You accept that this is love. He feels you shivering and pulls you closer.

His hands slip beneath your shirt, his fingers tickling the bottom of your torso. You whine when he does this, burying your head in the crook of his neck. He laughs, kissing your head.

“It’s alright, sweetheart. I’ll buy you blankets. Blankets, Diamonds, anything you want.” He tells you. You’re tired. You just want to nap. You want him to give you more of the drugs that dull the pain of your thigh, and you want to eat something homemade that you didn’t cook yourself.

You want to give in and remain thoughtless. Just be happy with him since no one is looking for you anyways.

But as you drift off to sleep, feeling his hands crawl along your skin, you begin to plan. You’ll let him think you’re in love with him. You’ll let him love you, fuck you, put you back together. You’ll be his bunny, his arm candy, his toy to dress up and do whatever the fuck he wants. You’ll let him think he owns you.

He’ll know that he does.

And you’ll become close to his friends too. You’ll dress in pretty dresses, and he’ll pretend he’s oblivious to how much everyone wants you.

 And then, when your wounds heal, you’ll run.

You’ll flee the country, you’ll change your name, dye your hair.

But you don’t yet realize how relentless he is. How deeply enamored of you he is. By how determined he is to have you.

Escaping the devil will not be as easy as you think it might, not when he can hear your heartbeat, not when he can smell you, not when he wants you.

And it doesn’t help when he gives you the honor of killing your father.

That’s when you start to fall in love with him.

[jesncin]

please do tell about why woman of tomorrow sucks i love reading your takes they’re always so well written

Sure! And thank you for throwing me this bone because WOOF

(btw it's totally fine for people to like Woman of Tomorrow, and I can even see why! This is just my experience with it that I wish was talked about more)

Quick context: Woman of Tomorrow is about a space farmgirl named Ruthye who seeks revenge on Krem, a guy who killed her dad. Supergirl guides her on this journey so they can learn lessons about grief and revenge.

The biggest flaw of the comic is the narrative prose. Ruthye's dialogue is a rambly, over-indulgent, stylized mix of an attempt at medieval Shakespearian speak, but then in the last few issues the writer remembers she's a farmgirl so he decides she should suddenly say "ain't" more often and speak in double negatives to sound a bit more Southern. I can enjoy wordy comics! But Ruthye's dialogue and narration is blatantly excessive purple prose. So many scenes would hit harder with a less-is-more approach while still being stylized and characteristic. Sometimes the narrations pairs nicely with the art to create layered irony, but most of the time it feels like it's disregarding the comics medium altogether.

The other thing about Ruthye's narration is that it holds the story back. I get that the narration is Ruthye writing from the future, but the way it's done gives us a very passive relationship with the events of the story. We don't get to be with the characters in the action heavy moments because we're reading caption boxes of Future Ruthye rambling about poetry recounting The Battle of Capes. I'm not experiencing grief or dread with the characters, I'm being told about it. All of Ruthye's narrative rants boil down to "Supergirl is really badass, sad and kind. I promise this is deep." and "here's how my farm girl experience is relevant to this". Ruthye also speaks in glowing admiration, idealization and worship of Supergirl; it makes it really hard to get to know Kara in a humanizing way. I'm sure the purple prose hits differently for others, but I personally think the story would have more room to breathe without it.

You know how people like saying "Superman is boring because everything is too easy for him, he's too powerful" yeah that's Woman of Tomorrow. The conflict Kara faces are not challenges to her character, they're inconveniences. The resolutions to each story don't feel clever or earned. Kara just knows where to find the murdered purple aliens, Kara just happens to have a silver age-reference magical horse that can outrun the suffering-ball Krem throws at her, Kara just toughs out 10 hours in the green sun. Why be a smart storyteller when you can just give your heroine the upper hand every single time? There could've been a great bonding moment where Ruthye uses her famer-smarts to build shade for Kara, she could've crafted a salve to protect Kara's skin. But I guess having her guard Kara from dinosaurs is ok. Kara helps of course, even though she's dying because she's so cool, badass, sad, kind, etc.

Kara's internal conflict is that she was hoping that taking Ruthye on this journey would teach the farmgirl a lesson about revenge, but has Kara herself learned to move on? She's still thinking about Krypton after all. The problem with how this is presented is that it's not a flaw that we get to see evolve with the story. We see Kara act mopey, get an origin story flashback and then Kara tells us this- in hopes it'll recontextualize everything you've read before. By the time we make it to the end, the characters act like they've learned so much and I'm just standing here wishing I got to see all this growth they're talking about.

At the heart of it, I feel like Woman of Tomorrow represents the side of Super-fandom that wants to see the Kryptonians deified by the narrative. They hate seeing Kara do silly girly rom-com teenager things, she needs to be SERIOUS and EDGY and SAD and ALONE but like a god would be and not how a young woman would be that way. How else will boys take her seriously? Don't forget to remind the reader that she's STRONGER than her boy scout wholesome cousin! There's potential in a short revenge story about young girls finding hope in seeing a role-model woman survive loss, but not like this.

"You don't think I could've solved all those problems? C'mon I'm Supergirl." I sure love seeing female characters be badass girl-god legends who don't get to be humanized by being unflatteringly flawed people. Anyway the better Supergirl grief+revenge story is "Supergirl: Being Super". I don't think it's perfect because it misses the crucial difference between Kal and Kara among other things- but as a story about a teenage heroine learning how grief shapes her and those around her, it's way better.

Woman of Tomorrow's art is stellar though lmao would get a copy just as an artbook to reference.

[brownbitchshit]

Let me tell you why I don't like Marcus.

I usually always support those amazing, sweet, good hearted second love interests who gets thrown out and broken hearted when the hero/heroine picks the other guy (who sometimes is toxic and not as good as the second guy). For example I was mad at Eric Effiong when he discarded Rahim for Adam in s2 of Sex Education (nvm I fell for adam in s3).

But Marcus reminds me of all the entitled 'Nice guys' I have met in my life. They have no other quality except being 'nice' and by nice I mean not doing anything hurtful as in the bare minimum. Marcus basically did the bare minimum by being nice to Simon and courting him. But that made him feel entitled that he needs to picked over the guy Simon time and time again said he is still hung up on. Marcus thought that since Wilhelm is a prince, he'll never choose Simon. Wilhelm is way out of Simon's league. So even if Simon is heartbroken, he'll eventually come around when he'll realize he doesn’t stand a chance. That's why Marcus promised they'll take it as slow as Simon wants because he thought with time Simon will forget Wilhelm and since Wilhelm will not give Simon the time of the day, it won't be difficult. He didn’t try to listen to Simon. Instead manipulated him saying that Simon isn't like his dad, meaning someone who is toxic and sabotages his relationships.

In fact I don't think Simon even cheated on Marcus. Didn't they say they are taking it slow? They just started going out. They never made it official, Simon didn’t want to, Marcus said it was okay. And after sleeping with Wilhelm the first thing he did is go to Marcus to break it up. So if you weren’t even dating, not sleeping with each other, just hanging out while making it clear you are not ready for anything serious, is it even cheating if you get back together with your ex and tell the other guy almost immediately that it's over? I don't think so.

[ystrike1]

What's Wrong With Being the Villainess? - By Min Dohyang (7/10)

It's that time again! It's time for a yandere honorable mention, and the art this time is fantastic. Sadly the yandere character(s?) are side characters, but they bring the drama. The actual main romance is meh at best but the protagonist is very fun. Isn't that confusing? It is but it is what it is. This embraces how dumb it is. The cougars name is Cookie.

Doohee is a pushover. She dies knowing that her boyfriend used her as an ATM, and he never even thought of himself as her boyfriend. Doohee is weak to handsome faces. She's nice but easy to bully because she seems fake nice. She wanted to learn how to be selfish, because she was tired of constantly looking for approval. She was a good student, but she never took care of herself.

Deborah Seymour is an idiot. A vain one. She is the opposite of Doohee. She was born with money and influence, but no brains. She cannot use magic, even though she is the from the best magician family. She adores her pretty face because it is all she has. People suck up to her, but nobody likes her. The man she loved knew she was trash from a good family. The black sheep, so he rejected her publicly. Deborah is madly jealous of her own siblings and she hits people for fun.

A very confused Korean Doohee wakes up in her body.

Her own father hates her, for good reason. Deborah was a manipulative bitch who didn't love her family. Doohee decides to live...as a Villainess. She sucks up to her dad, but she ignores all men. She avoids parties. She never brings up the guy she liked again. A bunch of misunderstandings lead to a happy ending? Kinda. Gorgias Seymour forgives his daughter after a few painful months. Why? Well, he's a dad and he just wanted his daughter to love him. His children are very competitive and special. He supports them and such, but he doesn't have a loving relationship with them. He has four children. The fourth killed his loving wife during childbirth. He was totally obsessed with his wife, and he hated Deborah because she is a bitch...with his wife's exact face. We're in an R18 erotica novel by the way. Gorgias is just a side character, but he's ok. After his wife died he just became distant. He's not some monster that mindlessly hates his kids.

New Debbie takes advantage of this, because she wants to run.

There's a special character in the novel. The mage who runs the illegal magic/trading shop. New Debbie wants to buy a Baron title...so she can stay single. Yup. Strong independent woman ending here we come.

The yandere, Belas, is Debbie's brother. The heroine of the novel hasn't appeared yet, but he's extreme. Debbie wants to get away from the Seymour House before her brother finds his destined lover.

Oops.

Sorry.

I meant brothers.

Debbie has two insane brothers who are definitely sadistic yanderes. One hasn't even appeared yet. The eldest one. He feels like a final boss. I don't really know where the author is going with this??? The brothers kind of feel redeemable. They haven't kidnapped the Saintess yet....but they aren't nice.

None of the men in this are very nice, and Debbie doesn't like any of them. This is a spiritual magician named Pilaf. He's scary and I thought he was a yandere too, but he's flighty. As soon as Debbie shows up looking prettier than usual he gets distracted...but...uh...he is the type of guy that likes to kill people to impress his woman. He acts really hammy and charming, but behind closed doors he sheds alot of blood to bring gifts to Saintess Mia. Things will get really...covered in bloody presents if his affections turn to poor Debbie.

Sigh.

I hate this.

I do not like it when the sleepy looking attractive guy transforms into a generic prince. This is Isidore. He is secretly running the secret magic shop. He was secretly one of the main characters all along???? Gasp. Anyway I loved his original disguise and I feel cheated. Isidore seems to respect Debbie as a person and I'm sure they'll be a nice couple.

Saintess Mia may need to be saved from her yandere harem. Pilaf is flighty, violent and untrustworthy. The Seymour twins want her in their basement. Isidore no longer cares about her so that's good, but there are a few more wild cards in the mix. None of these men are normal. Saintess Mia is from a fallen noble family. Her magic makes her special, but money is important. If she's not careful she could end up in an awful marriage.

Debbie is gathering ten million gold just so she doesn't have to marry, because she knows how toxic the dating pool is.

It's also very likely that Saintess Mia seduced alot of men in the original book...in order to find a stable life. Not totally for sexy reasons. Yeah. Ok. Understandable. She also hates acting stupid and cute for Pilaf.

I have more bad news. Debbie is a magical and financial genius because reasons. I thought the gag premise was good. It mostly worked. Doohee genuinely wanted to be selfish and it was kinda working for her. Now she's just another generic perfect girlboss. With an equally generic prince. Sad.

[artiststarme]

The Up and Downs in the Life of Eddie Munson

The other one didn't seem angsty enough and I am in a mood. Grab your tissues, my friends!

~*~*~*~

Eddie knew he was never going to amount to anything, Munsons never did. For him especially though, it wasn’t written in the stars that his life would be for naught. The universe and fate were against him from the get-go. His life was on a downward slope since the day he was born. 

On that one freezing night in December, Mary Munson was rushed to the emergency room to deliver a premature baby boy. After four hours of excruciating labor, a C-section was performed and baby Edward Munson was born (he would later joke that he’d never been in a vagina a single moment of his life). He had to stay in the NICU for weeks until his preemie lungs were strong enough to handle the cold of the Indiananian winter. Less than a month old and Eddie was already the biggest burden to his parents. Old Richie Munson had to find extra work to pay off the extensive medical bills and he took it out on his wife. 

Poor Mary struggled on her own to take care of Eddie. He was a colicky baby so when he did go home from the hospital, he kept his mom up all day and night with wailing cries. She had no choice but to turn to drugs to escape the torments of being a young mother with a raucous baby and an absent husband. He was only seven years old when he found her body in the kitchen. She’d done heroin that was laced with fentanyl and her abused heart never stood a chance. 

When he was eleven, his dad got arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and armed burglary. He’d been trying to put food on the table for Eddie after losing his job and had gotten too sloppy through desperation. When the nasally and overworked social worker dragged him away from his dad in the visitation room, he thought he was going to be placed in foster care. Instead, his bald-headed and knobby-kneed self was plopped onto the trailer porch of his dad’s estranged brother. 

The man introduced himself as Uncle Wayne and he might have been the best thing to happen to Eddie. He didn’t hit him when he got frustrated like Eddie’s dad did. He didn’t turn to drugs and alcohol when he threw a tantrum like his mom had. Instead, Uncle Wayne was patient. He didn’t get mad at him when Eddie flinched away at physical touch or when he didn’t talk for the first six months of moving to Hawkins. No, Wayne earned his trust and looked out for him from the very first moment he laid eyes on him. He was a good guy and an even better uncle. 

That’s why it hurt so much to leave a dead girl in his trailer for him to find when he got off shift. Over Spring Break, his potential that was steadily declining rapidly accelerated. He went from being the weird, gay, metalhead teenage loser that no one liked to the serial killer of three fellow high school students that couldn’t graduate and led a cult in his free time. He ran away from the murder of a girl that had been nice to him and started getting hunted by the Hawkins townsfolk in a ridiculously uncoordinated witch hunt. He almost certainly wasn’t going to graduate this year, not from the inside of a prison cell because that’s where he was headed. 

And all of that doesn’t even mention the demon from another dimension that chose to paint Eddie as a scapegoat. ‘86 really wasn’t his year. 

Nothing has ever gone right for Eddie in his life and he knew it never would. So when he saw an opportunity to save his young friend and the rest of the world, he jumped on it. He couldn’t protect Henderson from inside the trailer with the bats prying themselves through the vents. He had to go out and fight them. Eddie knew as soon as he saw the swarm that that was how his life would end. If Steve Harrington, god among men, couldn’t hold his own against them, what chance did he have? Like an answer to his own prediction, the bats attacked. They tore through his chest and ripped his skin as if it were paper. The blood that gushed from his wounds bathed Eddie in warmth quickly followed by an empty numbness. When all of the bats fell from the sky, Eddie had the brief thought that just like all of his other suffering, his death would be for nothing too. 

The next moments passed in a haze, his body was going into shock. Dustin cried and begged him to get up. Harrington pulled him into his arms and sprinted for the gate. The girls yelled in the background of it all. And Eddie slipped away from the world that had only ever looked down on him.

He awoke in a drab white hospital room. His body felt heavy but he could move and he could feel his heart beating, his lungs breathing. Eddie was confused as all hell but he was alive. When he looked to his right, he saw Steve Harrington lounging in the uncomfortable hospital chair, head tilted unnaturally with drool dripping from one side of his mouth. For the first time in Eddie’s entire life, things started to look up.

@doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hello! I hope you are having a good weekend, could you recommend HR with the jealousy mini trope? The hero being a jealous idiot, not that it takes the whole book but more like the hero could actually be very vocal about him not liking other men looking/talking at the heroine

Hmmmm this is kind of common, but also something I'll admit I don't think a lot of authors pull off. Not because it's a Bad Thing, but because it often feels shoved into the story as an obligatory "check a box" moment. And I hate a check a box moment, lol.

So, books I think do it well:

Charlotte and The Seductive Spymaster by Grace Callaway. I love this one because the entire premise of the book is that Charlotte and Sebastian were married young, he appeared to die, and it turns out he did in fact fake his death for Reasons. So twelve years later, she's finally beginning to open up to another man, and like. As they're kissing, a literal rock comes flying through a window. It's Sebastian! He's stalking her! (Stalking is Love in romance, and I'm fine with it.) And he's PISSED that this other dude is trying to make moves on his wife, who fully thinks he's dead, because of his own choices lol. There's more jealousy in the book; I wouldn't call it a love triangle, because Charlie doesn't ever really seriously consider the other dude and he in turn is not serious about her... But it is a love triangle in her husband's head.

Stephanie Laurens's Cynster series features generally jealous heroes because they're all alphas (with Conqueror's Blood). I think A Rake's Vow is a good one for this, because Patience is being approached by other men, and Vane is like UM???? BUT WE FUCKED IN THE OUTDOORS MARRY ME??????

Melissa and the Vicar by S.M. LaViolette. Magnus thinks Hugo and Melissa are fucking (albeit because they put on QUITE a show because Melissa has self-loathing issues and wants Magnus to leave; Magnus Will Not Leave because he's OBSESSSED) and is fuming with jealousy. Also: ? I think Hugo actually also has his own jealousy issues in Hugo and The Maiden, as some other guy is vying for his heroine's hand.

For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale. The hero definitely experiences jealousy (and also a "what the fuck" moment) because the heroine is pretending to sleep with her teenage assassin, Allegreto. To be clear, she is not sleeping with the teenage assassin. Also, Allegret is pretending to be castrated but is like "SHE WANTS ME FOR OTHER THIIINGS" and our hero is all "I really wish I hadn't joined this weird traveling band of freaks". Poor Ruck. Flowers from the Storm, another Kinsale, also has a jealous hero who's like "THESE FUCKING QUAKERS ARE TRYING TO TAKE THIS WOMAN I FORCED TO MARRY AWAY FROM ME GODDAMMIT".

Monica McCarty's Highland Guard series has very possessive heroes who tend to be jealous of like. Anyone who gets near their heroines. Which is like? Actually kind of a thing. The Saint actually has the hero watch the heroine marry his best friend at the beginning, and there is much angst about it when Shit Happens.

Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas. BUT OF COURSE. Julian, the Nice Guy Doctor, is trying to court Win, and Kev refuses to be with her because He'll Kill Her with His Horse Cock, but he WILL absolutely seethe with jealousy if Julian even breathes near her.

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas. Derek is very jealousy of Sara's wet blanket fiancee. There's an entire scene where he finds out she kissed the fiancee (and mind you, Derek was very much the other man in this situation lol) and he's like "WHAT THE FUCK" and Sara's dad observes this, surmises that Derek and Sara have Done Things, and is all "okaaaaaay so we'll need to get y'all married ASAP".

It Happened One Autumn by Lisa Kleypas. Westcliff is, naturally, extremely twitchy and jealous when St. Vincent is doing his whole "let's court Lillian for the evil" thing. And has a whole "i think THE FUCK not" when Sebastian offers for her. Sebastian is also pretty jealous and possessive in Devil in Winter when Evie turns out to have a Hot Guy Buddy in Cam Rohan. Which he should be. Because Cam fucks.

In When the Earl Met His Match by Stacy Reid, the hero takes the heroine's daughter on as his own when she shows up pregnant by another man and in need of a marriage of convenience... and then the biological father of the kid shows up. Our hero is Not Happy.

In The Heiress Hunt, The Lady Gets Lucky, and The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe, all of the heroes are super jealous of the Duke of Lockwood--and to be fair? In like, two and half of those situations, Lockwood WAS trying to get with their women. And we love him for it. In The Duke Gets Even, Lockwood is also jealous of this one guy Nellie has fucked recently, and additionally Nellie's cousin, because he does not in fact know that it's her cousin at first. What does kill me is that even in Lockwood's book, the beef is like still real with him and the other guys. They're all so threatened lmao. Which they should be, because Lockwood is hot, and the ULTIMATE example of Gentleman in The Streets, Freak in The Sheets.

Elizabeth Hoyt heroes are usually jealous lol. Winter Makepeace is definitely jealous of the various guys trying to fuck Isabel in Thief of Shadows.

When the Duke Was Wicked by Lorraine Heath features Human Disaster The Duke of Lovingdon being jealous of the guys he's literally trying to set Grace up with.

[kabutoraiger]

masamune being in jail in ex-aid and neon's dad being in jail in geats... suspicious

we talk about it a lot but i wonder if anyone's ever actually sat down & compiled the sheer number of "recycled" elements across 2 or more takahashi shows. i never made it through zero-one so mine might not be comprehensive but off the top of my head

a disease that infects civilians and produces monsters (game disease, jamato infection)

the nice guy put-upon hero who gets bullied by fellow riders as well as by the writer (emu, keiwa) and eventually mcfucking snaps when a woman he loves is killed (aruto, keiwa)

the "techno girl" heroine who's surface-level besties with the lead but has like zero agency as a character (poppy, izu, tsumuri) and "dies" near the end of the show (still to be seen if tsumuri will be dealt this hand)

she has an unconventional familial relationship to a smug man in the cast that she does not always seem to enjoy (ace & tsumuri, kuroto & poppy)

the fun, slightly sketchy older brother type who's the most likeable cast member but gets minimal screentime (kiriya, mr raiden, win), who dies early on but comes back from the grave later to be the MC's right hand man, his silly rabbit (kiriya, win)

grumpy guy with a flat emotional affect and a line of dialogue that he will repeat over and over again in like every scene he's in (taiga, horobi, michinaga) and also turns out to be kind of a dweeb (taiga, michinaga)

rider has a dead boyfriend or girlfriend who is their initial main motivation and they keep seeing Visions of (hiiro, michinaga)

rider discovers that some aspect of their identity is false / artificially constructed (fuwa, neon)

annoying unhinged villainous genius man who is more than happy to be turned into one of the monsters (kuroto, daichi)

evil CEO (masamune, gai, kurama)

who is also the domineering father of one of the riders, have a backstory where their loved one tragically died & have a fraught relationship with their child bc of it, and get a scene where someone visits them in prison (masamune, kurama)

a whole "species" of "techno people" who have to learn how to have new/healthier human emotions (bugsters, humagears, supporters)

these techno people have one specific human they have a deep connection with (bugsters, supporters)

a scene where the lead's Bonded Pair learns the fear of death in order to realize the value of human lives (parad, ziin)

evil woman who acts Like That about the heroes' suffering (azu, beroba) (they're even styled alike)

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Mafia Virgin by Mila Finelli

Rating: 4.5/5 Heat Level: 4/5 Publication Date: December 13th

Premise:

Aspiring doctor Emma Mancini is forced into an arranged marriage with Cosa Nostra Don Giacomo Buscetta allegedly to keep the peace between their families, and now they have just a few months to get pregnant.

My review:

This was the perfect end to the Kings of Italy series complete with all the greatest mafia hits: an intelligent but innocent heroine who's just begging to be corrupted, a brutal, gruff don who is VERY into that, an arranged marriage, and an order to get pregnant.... or else.

Emma's vibe is innocent, but also not. As she won't hesitate to remind you, she's an aspiring doctor who's not squeamish of bodily functions, and then she'll proceed to interrogate Giacomo about how his foreskin impacts his dick piercing, and whether he's into prostate play (the answer is yes, in case you were wondering). Not only does Giacomo find her brand of scientific exploration hot, but it also compliments his blunt personality.

Giacomo (under no circumstances will I be calling him Mo I'm sorry) is very different from the previous three Kings of Italy heroes; he doesn't bother with an elegant or legitimate facade of any sort and is more of a rough-and-ready type (a bit o'rough, perhaps?). Everyone thinks he's a "more brawn than brain" kinda guy (which he also internalized thanks to his dad), but that couldn't be further from the truth. For one, every time Emma tries to pull one over him, he catches on real fast. And he's good at math. I thought it was interesting that always being second best in his father's eyes is also the reason Giacomo is deeply into Emma being an *untouched virgin* because she's just for him and no one else.

Much like Fausto and Enzo, Giacomo is an older hero (there's a 12 year age gap) who feels guilty for exactly 10 seconds for being attracted to the younger, more innocent heroine (well tbh, I don't think Enzo ever felt guilty) before going into full-throttle seduction mode. Let me put it this way— the first "little girl" he utters might be derisive, but the rest of them are... very much not. And on Emma's part, she's super into the biiiiig, jacked, tatted thing Giacomo has going on (shoutout to that gym voyeurism scene), even if she's slightly upset that biology has triumphed logic.

And that's actually a pretty big part of Emma and Giacomo's romantic conflict; you won't get a lot of histrionics from these two, but everything Emma regards as logical and right— her dreams of becoming a doctor, her bodily autonomy, and even her being able to return to Toronto— has little to no meaning in the mafia world. And because of Giacomo's powerlessness in the past, he has no interest in relinquishing the power he has as a Don now, which is why the overarching plot centers around him trying to take back his power after being forced to marry Emma, and the retaliation that ensues. Ultimately, Emma and Giacomo have to reconcile these two distinct worldviews to be together.

Sidenote: in case you miss the rest of the Kings of Italy gang, don't worry; Frankie and Gia show up to support their sister and to remind us they're getting dicked down on the reg by wealthy, powerful (older) men, Enzo and Fausto are still trading insults like hissy kitties off-screen, and tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber (Vito and Massimo) make appearances as well.

The sex:

EXCELLENT. What I love about Mila Finelli sex scenes is that they will always deliver (complete with loads of Italian—and in this book Sicilian— dirty talk), and then toss in a few extra things you're thinking about long after you finish the book.

For one, Giacomo and Emma have a pretty hilarious start to their sexual relationship thanks to some questionable advice from Giacomo's cousin and his cook that amounts to "if you wanna make nice with her to get her preggo, you gotta make nice with her pussy first", which Giacomo takes quite literally. You have to appreciate a man who's trying, even if he responds to her "you're beautiful" with "I love your tits".

Also, if there's a breeding kink involved (and there is; if you couldn't tell by the summary, there absolutely is), cum-play/cum-eating feels like the natural progression of this kink, and Mila 100% delivers.

There is many a "moglie" and "marito" in this book which I personally love (and many a "sporcacciona" because they can't be all sweet).

There is a also good amount of ball play (and Giacomo pondering on the sad lack of love they get lolol), and I mention this because the specific moment from this book that lives rent-free in my head involves said act during a shower blowjob, AND it ties into their breeding kink. Brava.

Overall:

This is a sexy and satisfying (and just really fun) end to the Kings of Italy series. I don't think the book is very dark, but it definitely has all the hallmarks of a mafia romance and I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in this subgenre.

Thank you to Mila Finelli and Valentine PR for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

[gothamslostboy]

Hello! I was wondering if you could write a fic with a ftm prompt? I was thinking David x Micheal (ftm) or any of the lost boys characters with something relating to a ftm? Sorry if it’s a bit vague! Some comfort or fluff is really nice! Thank you so much! - 🦝

A/N: hey 🦝! Sorry this took so long. I love trans Michael. I’d also like to apologize, I got lost in the story and there’s not as much comfort fluff as I originally planned. I hope you still like it:]

Decisions Transpire Here

DAVID MICHAEL

————————————————————————

Michael, We’ve been waiting at the boardwalk for 20 minutes. Don’t they teach manners in Ariz- I turn around at the sound of David’s voice, and though I’m only frozen for less than I second, it’s too long. By the time I’ve thrown myself to the floor, he’d already seen me. I should’ve locked the door.

That what I think it is? Of all the times for David to barge into my room, this had to be one of the worst. Reaching up to grab my testosterone vial, I tuck myself under my bed after 3 missed grabs. Umm, heroin? Yes. Yes it is. I do my best to sound convincing, but my panic slips through. Damn that’s a bad cover. No one would just stand in the middle of their room to do heroin, much less inject it in their thigh. I’ve only been hanging out with these guys for less than a month and I’ve already blown it. What? The noise of David’s feet coming closer drown out most of his laughter.

Relax Michael, you’re not the first transgender person I’ve come across. Oh. He figured that out much quicker than I thought he would. I guess just wearing my binder and boxers probably helped there. Uh, oh. Cool. My mind is racing as we sit in silence, trying to figure out where the conversation goes from here. We moved away from Phoenix for a fresh start, a place without dad, where no one except my family would know that I wasnt always a Michael.

David tosses himself onto my bed, a cloud of dust hitting my face on impact. A begin to cough, and I hear a very ingenuine whoops. The bed frame creaks as he makes himself comfortable. Come on, time to come out, Well, in the other way. Bad enough you’re late to meet up with us, do you really wanna stand the boys up entirely? I push down my embarrassment as I slide out into view. Picking myself up, I place my vial on the nightstand and scan the room for a clean shirt.

We agreed to meet at 8:00? How is 7:28 late? I gesture towards my clock, the red numbers glowing in the darkened corner of my room. Clocks wrong. It’s now, he stops snooping through my nightstand just long enough to read his watch, 8:36. I push my head through my neck hole, pulling my jeans up swiftly as a grab his wrist.

Shit. Sorry man, let’s go. Ump bup bup! David twist his hand until he has a hold on me. Let’s talk for a second. I scoff out my nervousness as I try to discreetly release his grasp, to no avail. What about the guys? Aren’t they just waiting for you to get back? I’ll let them know we’ll be a second. He scoots to one side of my bed and essentially drags me on the other. Oh yeah? Didn’t know you had a secret landline from my room to the middle of the boardwalk. He has a smug smile, like what I said was the funniest thing he’s heard tonight.

Don’t worry about it Michael. Why’d you duck under the bed? The abrupt shift into seriousness almost makes me want that stupid grin back. I mean, why’d you come in without knocking heh heh, people do weird things. I want to look at the floor, but I can’t escape this stare down I’ve entered with David. We won’t judge you. We all have something, different about us. The way he emphasizes his words sends a chill down my spine.

If there was a way to make you biologically male, would you do it? I Tilt my head, trying to figure out what David’s doing. Well, duh? No matter the cost? Even if it makes some see you as a monster? I shift in my spot, unsure what his game is here. I mean, they already do. Might as well be the true me. What ever he’s trying to do, it seems I answered correctly.

He moves to his feet quickly, striding towards my door. Believe me, you’re no monster Michael. remember you’re answer. There’s a change of plans, we’re going to the cave. Why? I’m going to give you what you want, all it’ll take is a drink. I dont realize he’s serious until after I’m already laughing. You don’t believe me? He turns back to face me, leaning down to eye level with me on the bed. If that was possible, every trans person in the world would’ve done it.

It’s true alright Michael, he extends his gloved hand to me as he straightens his stance. Do you really want to miss out on the chance because you don’t trust me? What will it be? A leap of faith, or a mortal life never knowing? I take his and and do my best to ignore the part of me, screaming danger.

What the hell, what’s the worst that could happen?

——— TAGS ———

@britany1997 @g4ywastaken

[perrysoup]

Pretext: This deals with Hamas and the US program DARE. Some of you may not like the analogy I am going to use, but frankly you need to think on it too, especially if you grew up in the US.

Long post.

So, story time. I grew up in America, I was born and raised here. Part of American schooling (in Fifth Grade, gotta get them agreeing with a police state early) is a system called DARE you are taught of and by, standing for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. In that (absolute dogshit pro-police anti-addict (NOT anti-addiction, anti-ADDICT)) lesson, a key thing we are taught is that Weed is a gateway drug. If you smoke weed you WILL do crack. You WILL do heroin. You WILL sell your body for the weed addiction. That drug dealers and users and mean and hurtful and will abuse you constantly. Again, this is regardless of the drug. I am not speaking about actual horrors committed on people who are having their addiction taken advantage of. Those are real and happen.

That's not hyperbole btw, feel free to look at your own kids DARE stuff if you have them in that age group.

Anyway, I believed it. Others may not have, but I did. We had to sign things saying we would never do drugs, never drink and drive (which they never defined and I'll tell a fun story at the end about), never do ANYTHING really.

So time goes on, 5th grade me turns into 6th grade to 7th, rinse and repeat til I am a Sophomore in High School (Grade 10). And on a whim, I was offered to smoke a bong in a car in a SUPER white SUPER "well off" neighborhood. And I did. I actually first had to ask how to do it, and shocker, the dude was super nice and friendly. He didn't judge me or anything, he was happy to show me. My inexperience was not a thing to laugh at to him. (One Question raised about what DARE talked about. Technically two since "well off" people never did such a thing, and because of that they are "well off")

He also never offered me any other drugs. Hell he didn't even offer pot. If you wanted it you could ask and buy from him, but he wasn't pushing it. (Two questions raised about what DARE talked about).

I also never craved other drugs. I had seen the effects of heroin on some of my family, so maybe that was a part of knowledge I had and other didn't, but no one I even knew pushed me on it. Shit I hung out with people happily doing coke and sharing it, but ONLY if you asked. No one tried to make you do it. (Three now)

Finally, after discussing it with my parents, I find out that my mother was an on and off pot smoker, and my dad wasn't a drug user, but he didn't disparage it, he just preferred alcohol as his drug of choice. (Which was ACTUALLY a major issue in our family, not that DARE seemed to care)

And in the end, it comes clean that everything they told us about Pot was a lie. Everything they said was either full out false, or left out convenient details that explained WHY. Not that they were "worthless junkies" (actual phrase used).

That started some of my questioning about what we were taught and told by authority figures that had a position of power to hold would tell us anything to nod and agree with them, regardless of the facts.

I didn't think about what other stuff that could affect though. 9/11 happened when I was in 6th grade, and as many other Americans can attest, we were riled up into a fervor to support the troops, that "they hated our freedom", that terrorists were gonna get you unless you pledge your support undying to the United States. And I believe that for way to long. It took me much longer that it should have to see the flaws and lies that were told to us over and over and over by people we were told we could trust.

So how does this relate to Hamas?

As more and more is becoming clear about the lies and abuse we endure, and the lies and abuse we have seen especially by Israel, it is fair to ask I believe, is Hamas the bad guy? Did we take the statements of "Terrorist Group" as fact and "Rebellion against Annihilation" as bullshit?

I don't know. I'm not saying that as a cop out, I am saying I LITERALLY do not know. I have been told the Western story over and over and over and I don't know the truth.

But what if we were wrong? What if it was another lie that was done to make us angry at the wrong people?

This is the issue that arises. After a certain amount of government lies, tricks, torture, abuse domestic and foreign, can we trust what the government told us? They had a chance to tell me the truth when I was young, and they instead chose to lie to me, to treat me as something they could mold into their sick image of a "good citizen" instead of another human.

As I said, I don't know enough about Hamas to say if the labels are wrong, and I encourage everyone (Pro AND Anti) to share information so we can all be more educated.

But we have been lied to many times.

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

Drinking and Driving story: As I said, DARE left out details that made things easier to understand, I think on purpose. One of those that could just be in the "fucking stupid to not clarify" was drinking and driving. So after that class, that weekend, my father and I go to McDonalds, and get our usual.

And then my father *gasp* started driving while sucking on his straw.

I was distraught, my OWN father drinking and driving? And I confronted him on it, and his could only look at me bewildered and say "Son, that's for alcohol, not Coke" and that's how I learned what drink meant in that context.

[stumacherstan]

💕Could you do another Carlisle x reader x Esme?? I really enjoyed the one you made!! BTW I really love all of your work💕

a/n: yes <3 and thank you <333 for sticking around <333 lol also i totally forgot what i wrote so have fun with this mess

Carlisle Cullen x Reader x Esme Cullen Headcanons:

honestly a couple trip that’s balanced

carlisle the dad. esme the mom. you the parent. in you three we trust

you three have an aura that clearly says “don’t mess with the children.”

however out of three, you’re more lenient.

esme is the tired no serious nonsense. let’s them have fun but has the mom stare down compact

carlisle is the kids are kids but don’t push it

and you are they’re technically kinda adult kids so let’s see what they’ll do

you’re emmett’s favorite because of this 💀 you’re also alice’s favorite

edwards favorite is obviously carlisle

the hale twins favor esme

but despite this they all love you and you all love them

you three take hunts as dates.

ofc there’s family hunts

but these are special

you take down bears just to humor them since you’re emmets favorite

carlisle dotes on the both of you

your island is right next to esmes too

you guys like movie night when the kids are gone having their things to do

actually it’s like a personal brand of heroin (lol) when all the kids are gone and you guys get wild

ooo mixing alcohol with animal blood oooo just playing music loudly and dancing lovingly together sooo wild

you guys don’t sleep but have a huge king size bed for those cuddles humans love to talk about

y’all can lay there for hours just enjoying each other. it’s nice :)

[noodleswithsoba-blog]

My Invincible OC: Jason Blake.

So... my Viltrumite Swap AU, or Thragg n' Nolan switch roles and the butterfly effect causes massive changes, namely... just who is Jason Blake, otherwise known as Invincible?

Quick Facts.

Name: Jason Cassius Blake.

Birthday: 11/2.

Favorite color: Blue.

Named after the Greek Hero, Jason.

Backstory.

"So wait... you're an alien, which means I'M an alien?"

"Is that concerning to you, son?"

"No! It's cool!"- Jason's reaction to being told the Viltrumite story.

Jason was born a while after Thragg arrived to Earth and took the name Thomas Blake. His wife, Reyna, was already a heroine and impressed him with her strength. Reyna's looks prevailed over Thragg's in Jason's case, giving him golden eyes and golden hair.

The circumstances of Jason's birth actually made Thragg a little nervous, unsure if his wife's great strength would allow for their continued survival.

Little did Thragg know that his choice of wife combined with his already buffed Viltrumite strength would give Jason an edge over most enemies.

Throughout Jason's early days, Reyna and Thragg would swap taking care of him. Reyna saw it as bonding between father and son. She was right, of course...

Unfortunately, like the mainline universe, Life has a way of making tragedy happen to the main character no matter what. Turns out Reyna's mutation was rebelling against her body, with symptoms reminding Thragg of the Scourge Virus.

She made him swear to raise Jason to be kind, to fight for his home, because the baton is passed to him now.

Having also become a Guardian of the Globe, Jason grew up with the other guardians being a sort of fictive aunts and uncles. So he wasn't without love or care, just that Thragg tried his best to put walls between him and his son so he couldn't feel too much.

But Thragg had to become both Mother and Father to his son, and this is where he begins to change.

Personality.

So, Jason was raised by Thragg, which made him put aside a lot of his feelings to accomplish his goals. He also inherited his mother's hotbloodedness and some optimism from her too. It borders on being naive, which is what kills Thragg the most.

Jason's also kind of a fighter, having a scrappy style that's dirtier than most. He tends to get snappy with Rex and butts heads with Robot because he hates how logical he is.

He may be the smartest thing in the room, but Jason doesn't like the ideas Robot has. While they're right, he leans more towards his father's stories of conquerors and how they ended horribly.

He was encouraged to be part of the Teen Team as a way to get friends 'like him' that way he wouldn't feel alone... but he's oil and water with the guys.

Eventually, Rex and him get along.

But he's nice to Eve and Kate (and Amanda eventually.). Even with the Teen Team and going to school, Jason's still pretty lonely. His first power was super strength, then flight, then durability.

He's a very solemn kid sometimes. Even though the Guardians and his Dad are around, he feels like he's out of place. Unanchored, like any minute he's going to drift away.

Thragg did his best to raise his son as humanly as possible, but there's always this secretiveness between them. But he always seems to know if his son's in trouble.

Also imagine Thragg being involved in the parent's side of things when Jason was in Elementary School. Gossiping with the moms and chatting with the dads, because he sees it as coming across as more human.

Jason does okay in school, his father tried to push him to be in more programs and expand his horizons. Jason's pretty good at writing stories and really wanted to become a comic book writer so his dad's stories could somehow be kept up with.

In most encounters, Jason covers up his fear with confidence and is a little quippy. Until the absolute SLAUGHTER that is his father's 'education'.

Jason gets traumatized, Thragg flies away, after saying... "When you get stronger, come find me, son."

Not even an apology, not even a sort of way to put a bandaid on a bullet wound, just another goal. (Thragg's breaking too, which is why he leaves. he loves his son, and would do anything to not give him the same fate as his brethren, but here it is.)

Needless to say after the beatdown, Jason's angry. His anger is turned on any villains he encounters. Cecil's trying to rein him in but how can you calm a kid who lost the only parent he has?

The fact that Immortal lashes out at him is even tougher. He has no one, but he still helps. Why?

Because it makes him happy to see people live their lives, to just be. So Cecil uses that for structure, gives the kid some kind of peace. All he has to do is work for him.

Surprisingly, Allen and Jason get along famously. Two sorta himbos who just wanna life their lives and well, make silly mistakes sometimes get along.

He's extremely self-sacrificial, and refuses to be selfish, it doesn't contribute to his own code of survival. Sends him clashing against Viltrumite Prince Mark.

The Suit.

Art made Jason a suit, and instead of being similar to his father's, Jason got a cool yellow and blue suit with a bright blue cape and boots, but no pads. So it's similar to Mark's Blue and Black suit. Jason doesn't have the goggles because they'd break anyway.

Later on, the cape goes away and becomes the kilt-like form that Thragg has. This comes in Post Season-2, when Jason's more alone than ever and it's more of a comfort move for him.

Romance?

I honestly have no idea. I like him and Eve, but at the same time it'd take a little longer than Mark and Eve in canon, mostly because our boy is a little more closed off than Mark is. So yeah, if I ever get a solid way of putting them together, I will. Same counts for anybody else.

If any of you have ideas, please feel free to share them!

[prettyboykatsuki]

drug dealer who sells weed -> literally could be any one. very common side business. normal guy drug. Literally anyone in the world i can’t stress this enough

drug dealer who sells coke / molly / party drugs -> guy whos been a college senior for 6 years probably. works at tillys or in a womens shoe department. always nice and upbeat

drug dealer who sells hallucinogenics -> see above. either that or an art student with a fucked up hair cut.

drug dealer who sells opiates -> suburban mother or business major with rich dad NO inbetween. or a nurse but thats not my business

drug dealer who sells heroin or meth -> the actual crazy people. likely to sell crack and like genuinely a little insane. a lot of the ones with morals are really nice to kids

[pluckyredhead]

What did Tom King do to Kara?

you don't like woman of tomorrow? thats interesting, from what i can tell that seems to be one of king's least uncontroversial DC works and gets unanimous praise from the fandom + comic readers in general (not that i've read it myself, just from what i've seen)

Combining these two related asks!

I want to start out by saying that ALL of my problems are with the writing - Bilquis Evely's art is breathtaking and I wish it was being used to tell a story that deserves it.

I have two problems with Woman of Tomorrow:

King does the same thing to her that he has done with literally every other character, which is to cherrypick their history to tell the bleakest, most nihilistic, least heroic story possible. It's not super noticeable with Batman because Bruce is kind of always in that zone, but it's very obvious with characters like Wally West (Heroes in Crisis: Therapy Is Bad and Will Kill You), the JLI in Human Target, and Kara. His Kara is a depressed, foulmouthed, murderous drunk who spends the entire book suffering physical and mental torments. I am just so exhausted by the lack of creativity. Dude is a one trick pony and I don't understand why this isn't more widely recognized. (Oh wait, I do, it's because pessimism is so often mistaken for genius, and also he loves a nine panel grid which too many people think immediately makes a comic Deep (TM) instead of just copying Watchmen.)

THE STORY ISN'T EVEN ABOUT HER!!! The main character is Ruthye, the alien girl who hires Supergirl to avenge the death of her father. Ruthye narrates the book. Ruthye drives the plot. Ruthye has the emotional arc. Kara could be replaced by any Super or other strong alien - J'onn, Sodam Yat, fucking LOBO - and the story would be exactly the same. (Because it would be True Grit. It's literally just True Grit But Supergirl Is There.)

Now, there's a place for bleak and even completely pessimistic, nihilistic stories - but Supergirl ain't fucking it. Supergirl was created to give little girls a heroine to look up to who had all the powers of Superman. She is aspirational and inspirational. She is joy.

Woman of Tomorrow is aggressively Not For Little Girls. To me, it radiates a deep contempt for the idea of Supergirl as a happy, kid-friendly character. It drags her through the mud on purpose, and then looks at you like it's making a point, but the point is just "mud exists." Yeah, Tom, I know. WE ALL KNOW.

(In general, King seems to really hate the idea of "nice" girls - look at what he did to Tora in Human Target. There's an issue of WoT that flashes back to Kara's origin and the destruction of Krypton - except it goes all the way back to the Silver Age, which is a generally bright and happy era, and pulls directly from that version of events while also making it as bleak as possible. Like, at one point Kara finds a dead baby on the sidewalk. HE PUT A DEAD BABY IN THE SILVER AGE. HE IGNORED THE FACT THAT THIS ORIGIN IS FOUR REBOOTS OUT OF DATE IN ORDER TO PUT A DEAD BABY IN THE SILVER AGE.)

I wouldn't be nearly as angry about this book if it wasn't capping off 20 years of DC treating Kara like shit, but since she returned in 2003, they have had her try to murder Clark, had her sexually preyed on by Darkseid, implied an incestuous relationship with her father, had her be abused, made her a blood-vomit-spewing Red Lantern (an arc I actually liked because Guy Gardner as Kara's Space Dad has my whole heart, but it's part and parcel of Angry Violent Sexy Kara), had her infected by the fucking Batman Who Laughs, and more. And that's when they even bother to publish her! They refused to give her a 60th anniversary special in 2019 because "she has a TV show," even though Two-Face got a 75th anniversary special a couple years before. Fucking Two-Face!!! Kara didn't even have a regular comic for much of the run of her show, because why court an audience of millions when so many of them are icky women?

Grant Morrison said it recently and said it best (they were talking about "Superman as fascist," but I think it applies to this too):

"Why, I say, oh why, is it so hard to simply serve the concept and write the adventures of a smart, creative and kind-hearted teenage girl with superpowers?

[...]

"To undermine the fundamental appeal of superheroes like Superman and Supergirl by re-casting them as anti-heroes at best or outright monsters - dragging imaginary childhood paragons off their pedestals to reinforce a fairly facile point about the tendency of real world heroes to exhibit feet of clay, struck me and strikes me still as imaginatively lazy.

"Using kids’ adventure heroes to make hackneyed observations about typical human behaviour that does not in fact apply to made up comic book characters strikes me as – I don’t know - whimsical? Dilettantish? A squandering of energy and creativity?"

Supergirl isn't for the edgelords of the world. She isn't a tool for reiterating, yet again, that life is pointless and full of pain. She is intended to inspire little girls, and anyone who doesn't understand that has no business writing her.

[miss-rum-hee]

Hey! I was thinking about something and wanted to ask: What do you think of calls for GOOD Slavic representation and Slavophobia being shoved aside (mainly by POC) as being unimportant because "you're just white and already have enough rep", when Slavs of all white people should get the rep. Slavs and Eastern Europeans are usually represented in negative ways. Some examples of movies and TV that are guilty of this other than spy movies are:

Taken and Hostel - Stereotype: "Eastern European S*x Trafficker". Taken, one of the most blatant pieces of propaganda. Basically "Big Strong Eagle Daddy American saves his Beautiful Damsel Daughter from Those Savage Barbaric Albanian Perverts", and Hostel. Hostel is "The American Men Get Tortured by Slovaks", and Slovak people called it out. Albania's government had to make signs showing how nice Albania actually looked to try and fix their bad reputation.

Orphan - Stereotype "Eastern European Killer". Esther is revealed to be Estonian, which is Baltic, which while not Slavic is still Eastern European. She's a killer in a kid's body who manipulates people and even tries to SEDUCE AN ADULT MAN. Ironically, Estonia is closer to Finnish culture than Slavic/Russian culture.

Are You Afraid of the Dark? The Tale of the Nightly Neighbors: Not really a stereotype. Also implied antisemitism too. The main characters are a brother and sister, and their new neighbours from Ukraine are sus. The sister believes them to be vampires (which turns out to be true). The problem is how she talks about Ukraine and Eastern Europe when trying to convince her brother the truth. She's like "Ukraine is around those other places. Hungary, Russia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Transylvania". The neigbours are also implied to be Jewish with the surname Braun.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode Date witj Destiny. This one is more subtle, and I don't think this had malicious intent as it should be noted, Harvey, one of the recurring characters and Sabrina's boyfriend, is Slovenian-American. But this episode is still kinda sus. Sabrina's dating another man at this point and he gets a business job in the Czech Republic. But Sabrina seems to have a hatred and bias against Czech people. She spends the entire episode trying to keep Josh (the man) away from Prague, she's like "oh with that guy Vojtek Kreszowski" or something, and she makes his trip their miserable. Makes the hotel staff rude, makes the room a sty, to the point where he says it's like he's a POW.

Another subtle one most people don't get. Sixteen Candles is notorious for Long Duk Dong, but a quick and often unnoticed discrimination is there too. the heroine's dad , when talking about her sister's boyfriend, says "we're glad she's not marrying an oily Bohunk". Bohunk is an offensive term for a Hungarian person, so he hates Hungarians, and the boyfriend is Hungarian-American.

Or they get erased (like the new MH G3, despite what people say "Draculaura's still Romanian" when it's clear she's not, "the accents were stereotypical" when Romanians and Russians didn't care, "Abbey wasn't Russian" when she was, with her family's names, as well as being okay with mixed Drac and Clawdeen but drawing the line at Abbey, or the Netflix Witcher getting rid of all the Polish influence from the original books, and even the author calling out how they handled his story and characters).

Just wanted to know what you thought of all of this, and how Slavs get called "racist" for talking about Slavophobia and why they deserve rep even when they clarify they're not trying to make POC seem less important

I think it's pretty shitty ngl. It's hard to put into words, but like....One group's representation shouldn't matter more than the other & treating them that way is not a good thing, but it seems like some people really want to push that crap. They should all have the chance to be shown on screen.

It's kinda goofy how they dismiss Slavs wanting better rep as "oh you're just white you HAVE rep already" considering how the Irish (you know, mostly fair-skinned people) weren't even considered the same as whites for a long ass while. I forgot where I saw this, but back in the 40s, there were legit signs at workplaces saying shit like "Asians/Irish/Blacks need not apply."

The Irish weren't even considered as white for a long ass time, so like, what makes these mfs think Slavs are even considered the same?