#hopefully this made sense lol

[utterdrip]

can i say something

astarion saying “all you had to do was fall for it” in regards to the player getting fooled by him but then following it up with “all i had to do was not fall for you” is sooooo. its soooo. idk the words and phrasing seem soooo romantic to me

like at that point in his story it feels “ooc” for him to phrase it like that. but i think it shows how vulnerable he is in that confession and past the smirks and snark and honeyed words he has genuine. genuine and scary feelings for the player

also the way neil says this whole confession is sooooo charming and soooo captivating but the line “all i had to do was not fall for you” is just soooo romantic to me esp coming from astarion

[uncanny-tranny]

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense. I’m pretty confident that I’m a trans dude, after thinking about it for many years, and I’ve been out to a couple of people for almost a year now, and being gendered correctly has felt amazing, but I can’t stop feeling like I’m crazy for feeling gender dysphoria or even euphoria. Like I know who I am identity wise, there’s just a voice in my head that tells me that it’s stupid that I care about this stuff. Is this something you can relate to at all? Sorry if the way that I phrased this was hard to follow I find putting any of my gender feelings into words really hard

Yeah, I think a lot of trans people who feel dysphoric are almost used to almost... gaslighting themselves because we're seen as weird/bad/wrong for caring "too much," I suppose.

It's understandable why you feel that way, I think many trans people have their struggles and joy minimized that in get internalized, and then the trans person feels wrong for caring about their dysphoria (and euphoria).

It's normal to both feel dysphoria and euphoria as a trans person and to feel bad about being dysphoric/euphoric or caring about their dysphoria/euphoria. You are not wrong, bad, or frivolous for feeling the ways you do. Cis people feel that shit all the fucking time - the only difference between trans people and cis people is that it's simply more normalized for cis people to feel dysphoria and euphoria.

[rollercoasterwords]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYNBwNVd/

I think female rage and/or women’s rage is a useful term because it comes from a different place than male and/or men’s rage. It’s something we have only had the privilege of having without threat to our safety recently, yknow? It’s only been something not framed as shameful to a lot of women recently.

mmm yeah i am sleepy so i'm gonna see how coherently i can respond to this rn bc i appreciate that this seems 2 be sent in good faith!

so like. i do understand the sentiment behind people trying to elevate "female rage." i think it's the same sentiment behind people deifying femininity, which is basically people seeing a scale that's unfairly tipped and going "hey! we need to balance this scale!" and then the focus is suddenly on evening out the scale, instead of questioning why that scale even exists in the first place.

like. i understand that women have historically had their emotions, and particularly their anger, dismissed and belittled. however, i do not think that is an experience that is specific only to women. in almost any instance of oppressive dynamics, you'll get a situation where the group in power belittles or dismisses the anger + emotions of the group they're exploiting. just think about instances of racism and colonialism and whatever other -ism you want where groups of oppressed peoples are told, for whatever reason, that their rage towards their oppressors is invalid. and like--there are, in fact, instances where certain kinds of "female rage" have been on the side of the oppressors and have endangered the lives of others. in particular, i think of white "female rage" in the context of the u.s., where that "female rage" has historically endangered certain groups of men, and black men in particular. y'know? so to me this is less about anything inherent that has to do with gender, and more about power dynamics broadly--something that is going to vary with context and require a bit more nuance than just saying "men have always been allowed to be angry, and women haven't." because that just...isn't true.

now, do i think it can be useful and productive to look at the ways that women, in particular, have oftentimes had their anger dismissed and belittled by men? sure! but again, that conversation is going to look different in different contexts--white women have had their anger treated differently than black women, straight women have had their anger treated differently than gay women, rich women have had their anger treated differently than poor women....like, even in a conversation about gender, we've gotta take intersectionality into account. and that's why statements like "women's anger comes from a different place than men's anger" feel like an analysis grounded more in gender essentialism than anything else to me. because once you start to paint in such broad terms, the only thing ur differentiating there is "women" versus "men," which means if we start actually trying to analyze this the only thing to fall back on is gender, which means you have to define gender, which means relying on the assumption that gender is a pre-existing and clearly defined entity rather than a fluid social construct...and suddenly we have stumbled right back into gender essentialism!

and like. that's the issue with these posts i'm seeing. because i'm not seeing like politically grounded analysis that takes gender in context and examines specific ways in which groups of people have their emotions dismissed by those in power over them. i'm just seeing like....videos of women screaming or women being angry with people going "omg i love female rage!!!" and that is just strange to me! and feels more like playing into gender essentialism than anything else!!

cause i mean. the problem in the first place is the fact that people go "oh well there is male rage which is valid and female rage which is invalid," right? and so to me, the answer to that is to say "ummmm yeah actually rage is just rage. no such thing as 'male' and 'female' rage actually it is all just anger. if u wanna decide whether u think that anger is valid u need to look at it in context." but instead i am seeing people go "yeah there is male rage and female rage BUT the female rage is valid and the male rage is invalid!! HA! take that patriarchy!!" which. well i encourage anyone and everyone who hasn't to read this short piece by audre lorde, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. in particular, she says:

For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.

and that is really the crux of what i'm getting at here. again, i understand where this impulse to go "yesss female rage!!" comes from. i really do. and i loooooove angry women in many, many contexts! but i do fear that the ~internet trend~ of it all is starting to just play back into gender essentialism, which really helps nobody in the long run! and again, brings me back to my inital question--what about these instances of rage, specifically, is female? like....genuinely. what makes it female rage, and not just....rage?

[kingscyrus]

Pride & Lust

“DAMN.” Questions for Muses. || Accepting

PRIDE. -WHAT IS YOUR MUSES BIGGEST FLAW? LUST. -WHO DOES YOUR MUSE FIND ATTRACTIVE?

I. Cyrus' biggest flaw would be that he can be idealistic and a dreamer. He UNDERSTANDS not everything can be good in the world; he understands not everyone can get along. Yet. that doesn't stop him from trying or feeling saddened by the fact it isn't possible. That's the goal of his kingdom, after all. He wishes for harmony and doesn't take well to those who wish to ruin his symphony. This also goes for people, for example, his brother. He should've ended him, he could've ended him.. but there was a slice of hope they'd change. This action will most likely come to bite him in the ass someday. II. Cyrus can't help but look twice when someone has an attractive voice or smell (natural, perfume/cologne). It overrides his senses in a positive way. An attractive voice to him can make him feel like putty in your hands; he can't help it. He's not sure where this liking came from.

[deliveringcandypizza]

🔥

Meme

I hate when people hate doubles for no real reason? Like ofc theres some that are uncomfy or just prefer not to which is totally valid! I don't mind that what i do mind is that you think you play that muse the best and no one can compare to the muse or smth like that. That the thing that pisses me off and i think those people really shouldn't rp since there always gonna be doubles and if you wanna be a big old party pooper to others since you think your the best and blah blah blah i think you shouldn't rp at all. Again people being uncomfy or just prefer not to is perfectly fine but those who are just assholes about it makes me go "dude the fuck"

[thelunarforest]

I just had a talk with someone last night because I was experiencing extreme depression, mostly because I was feeling helpless about issues we care about.

Basically, I was talking about how when we do something that is helpful to issues we care about, we feel good for like, a second, and then immediately feel sad and helpless, because it feels like nothing we do will ever be enough to make meaningful change.

The person we were talking with then said that, yeah, it can sometimes feel like nothing you do really helps, but even if you can help one person, a tiny bit, that makes an impact. So sure, it might not be meaningful to like, the entire world, but it might be meaningful to that person.

Which reminded me of those quotes/messages that are like: if everyone does something, even if it isn't that much, that amounts to a lot.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, so I'm going to stop here.

(also, of course, I would do my best to help people and help the world regardless of how it makes me feel, but I thought this was a good way of looking at it.)

(also no this isn't a post about voting lol, it's more so about protesting, boycotting, donating, things like that.)

also, hi! This is 🌑⭐, and I just realized I never made any posts on here.

[stench-core]

I find it a bit strange how it's okay and normal to say trans men have 'afab privilege' but if you say trans women have 'amab privilege', that's bad and wrong and incorrect and also maybe you should kill yourself. strange stuff

somehow trans men were 'socialised female' and therefore can 'get away with being women' but trans women were not 'socialised male' and can't 'get away with being men' cos there's something inherently feminine, inherently queer about them.

though, i spent my whole life being called gay, getting asked if i was a butch lesbian, getting asked if i was a tranny, cos i wore pants [girls!] instead of skirts, cos i wore shirts [girls!] instead of blouses, cos i wouldn't wear dresses and would prefer [girls!] formal wear that weren't dresses, cos i liked bionicle instead of dolls, cos i played video games, cos i swore, cos i liked heavier music, cos my favourite colour wasn't pink, cos i wore caps. i would not say i fit into girlhood at all, actually.

but this masculinity was inherent to me, it still is, i couldn't and can not change it (despite trying, very hard, to my detriment) so i ALWAYS stuck out as being 'too masculine' for other girls. and then i come into queer spaces and i'm 'too masculine' for other queer people - but that's besides the point, currently.

so, currently, when i see people say 'trans women aren't "socialised male," that's not real, they always stick out as "other"' and then turn around and say 'trans men have afab privilege, they can be women to get away with things, they fit into girlhood so well' I can't help but become incredibly fucking frustrated. this is not true and actually it's something we have in common! neither of us were socialised 'correctly' cos we're both trans and raised amongst peers who were not trans!

everything from masculine girls to trans men do not fit into 'girlhood' cos masculinity is not what girlhood is meant to be. this shouldn't be hard to grasp. this is why the 'socialised' concept is bullshit cos it's founded on whatever was forced upon you as a kid and if you don't fit that standard you will not be socialised that way due to, in large part, being fucking ostracised from everyone else. and that doesn't mean there won't be things to unlearn, i know very many trans men who were very feminine for a long time and the opposite for trans women, but someone who clearly cannot fit what's being pushed onto them is going to come off as 'strange' and 'uncanny' to the people who can fit into what's pushed onto them.

but the way people talk about this really highlights to me that yous don't want to consider us trans in the first place - transness is for trans women and not for trans men, socialisation concepts are fake when it comes to trans women but real when it comes to trans men cos they're not really trans, 'amab privilege' would get you branded a TERF or radfem saying it to a trans woman but it's fine to say trans men, trans men have 'afab privilege' cos we're not trans, we're just women. you know until we get a little too rowdy and then we're not trans, we're just men.

maybe i'm just jaded and bitter. idk

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

Another Les Mis musical connection that's making me feral: Jean Valjean uses the same melody with which he sings to Cosette, "Believe me, / Were it within my power, / I'd fill each passing hour-- / How quiet it must be, I can see, / With only me for company"...

When he sings "You are free, / And there are no conditions. / No bargains or petitions! / There's nothing that I blame you for. / You've done your duty--nothing more" to Javert.

In my journey to map out the various leitmotifs in the show, this one really flung me for a loop because what does it meannnn?? This is the only time we hear the melody in the show, and it's applied in two very different circumstances, where the relationship Valjean has to the characters involved could not be more opposite. What connects them?? But I think I have it.

It's a reluctant release. Not of the people, but of his own desires regarding them. Let me explain.

Valjean very distinctly wants things from both Cosette and Javert, which he sings about on the rising part of the melody. With Cosette, he wants to be the center of her life: "Were it within my power, I'd fill each passing hour;" on the other hand, he desperately wants Javert to leave him alone. When he has Javert at his mercy, he absolutely does want to trade lives, which is why he sings it on the rising part: "And there are no conditions, no bargains or petitions." He does want these things--but he's letting them go.

And that's where the falling part of the melody comes in. In both situations, Valjean knows he can't have what he wants. So he gives up that desire. He accepts that Cosette wants someone else, and doesn't blame her for it ("How quiet it must be, I can see, with only me for company,"), the same way he accepts the situation between him and Javert ("There's nothing that I blame you for. You've done your duty, nothing more."). That's why immediately afterwards, he tells Javert his address, and why shortly after that, he prays that Marius be brought home to Cosette.

Cosette is his biggest security, and Javert is the biggest threat to his security. But in this little melody, he sets them free (Cosette metaphorically, and Javert literally). He acknowledges what he wants, and accepts that he can't have it, even though it hurts.

And if that ain't the most Jean Valjean thing, I don't know what is.

[the-sun-and-the-sea]

Just thinking about how weird it must have been for Finnick to win at 14 and how not only did he go through the arena but he also became a celebrity.

Most victors win a little older so the Capitol probably wasn’t used to having to wait for their victors to grow up. That must have felt really disorienting for like 18-20 year old Finnick because they wanted him to get older but they also didn’t want him to get old.

I have a headcanon that the victors sort of become their Games in the eyes of the Capitol, so even as they age they represent the kid who survived that arena. So for Finnick, he would’ve had to be the fourteen year old victor while also being old enough that the Capitol doesn’t feel bad about objectifying him, all while trying to protect his people at home.

The celebrity culture in Panem sounds really demanding, especially for the victors who are seen more as commodities. We don’t get as much insight into this in canon because Katniss isn’t a part of Capitol society for very long, but it’s a topic that I find really interesting.

(Also after the war Finnick embraces things like gray hair and other signs of aging because he’s finally allowed to age naturally and not exist for the pleasure of others)

[thickenmyblood]

why did laurent start dating / having sex with maxime, even before nicaise found out? maybe this is something we find out in ch. 20, but throughout hiuh i’ve really struggled to understand or empathize with laurent in this area. you’ve mentioned him being self-destructive, or how it was good for his ego to bring a date in front of damen. but why did he feel the need to throw it in damen’s face when damen was the one who got dumped? why would he let maxime call him baby and walk all over his boundaries when this guy is a total stranger? i know some people have speculated that maxime is a uncle-stand in, but to me that doesn’t parallel bc there the abuse happened because laurent did (unfortunately) love and trust his uncle at the beginning, which enabled his uncle to abuse him. i’m honestly really trying to see where this sexual self-harm aspect of laurent comes from when it’s with a complete stranger who doesn’t seem to like laurent as a person or give him any real affection. he said sex was the foundation of their relationship, which seems odd for an ascetic person like laurent who even in hiuh canon doesn’t seem to have engaged in that kind of relationship before dating damen, when he was in a way worse physical and emotional state, unless i’m wrong.

i really, really hope this doesn’t come off as criticizing or accusatory in any way — it is your story and you can characterize laurent any way you want! to me it’s felt like this is the one area so far where laurent has been extremely defensive and refuses to take responsibility, even though it really hurt damen — not just being jealous, but being compared to maxime over and over again by laurent’s friends and implicitly by laurent himself — not to mention how it hurt nicaise. yes, damen had flings, but he didn’t try to replace laurent after two months or ever shove it in laurent’s face. and yet it feels like damen over-apologizes for ever asking about maxime or suggesting laurent’s behavior was harmful. i don’t see how damen could get over this massive insecurity when laurent appears to ridicule or dismiss him for bringing it up, like with the condom conversation or the pet name issue.

feel free to ignore this message, but always appreciate hearing why you chose a particular characterization!

hello! i get this question every once in a while so i thought i'd answer it today since we're about to be done with the story. i didn't take it as an attack or anything and it's a very cool question!

but why did he feel the need to throw it in damen’s face when damen was the one who got dumped?

in a way, reading your ask, i think you answered some of these things yourself. why did he bring maxime to a bunch of events knowing damen would be there? because he wanted the upper hand, he wanted to be seen as having moved on (remember that he thinks damen has moved on, too), because it's an ego thing. but why do it if he was the one who dumped damen? same answers, but i'd add that it's implied in the story that laurent was surprised and hurt by how easily damen went along with the break up. laurent brings it up, says he can't do it anymore, and damen just goes to work and never comes back. once again, in a toxic and insecure way, there was a part of laurent that wanted damen to fight for it, to say "wait, let's turn things around" or something. obviously, that didn't happen, and laurent interpreted that as confirmation of a lot of negative thoughts he was already dealing with (damen wants out of this but he doesn't know how to do it, damen's too "nice" to say that he wants out, damen is looking for excuses to start arguments bc he's trying to get me to end this, etc.)

this is not me justifying laurent in any way. was it childish and immature to bring maxime to events bc he knew damen would be there and he wanted, along with all the reasons listed above, to make damen jealous? yes, probably. is it petty? yes. is it ooc? i don't know. i think laurent does exhibit some pettiness in the books.

why would he let maxime call him baby and walk all over his boundaries when this guy is a total stranger? i know some people have speculated that maxime is a uncle-stand in, but to me that doesn’t parallel bc there the abuse happened because laurent did (unfortunately) love and trust his uncle at the beginning, which enabled his uncle to abuse him. i’m honestly really trying to see where this sexual self-harm aspect of laurent comes from when it’s with a complete stranger who doesn’t seem to like laurent as a person or give him any real affection.

this part of the question is a bit more complicated for me to explain. i 100% agree with people's complaints that in this aspect hiuh laurent is ooc (compared to canon laurent). in the books, he doesn't sleep with anyone but damen, so everything regarding laurent/other men is always going to be ooc in some way (unless it's non con, i suppose).

maxime has to be a stranger. maxime has to be someone laurent doesn't care about, doesn't value, doesn't respect. it would never work between them if maxime was not a stranger, which is ultimately what happens in the fic (let's, for a second, ignore the fact that they also don't work out bc lamen are in love lol). when maxime wants more, laurent cuts him out.

why does he have to be a stranger? because hiuh laurent's biggest issue in this story is that he can't be vulnerable enough to be loved and accept that love. he loved damen, but he couldn't get to a level of vulnerability that allowed him to explain himself, to show himself to damen as he really is, and without that a relationship can't last. when you feel like you have to hide parts of yourself from the person you love, eventually that turns into resentment and anger and hurt.

when he starts sleeping with maxime, he's not looking for another boyfriend. he's not looking for love. he's not sleeping with maxime because he's too horny to function either. he lets maxime fuck him because there is something to prove. and here I have to apologize because to me this detail was so clear during my writing process that I'm only now realizing I did not do a good enough job of integrating it EXPLICITLY into the story. what is there to prove? laurent has only ever slept with two people in his life and only damen was a pleasurable, consensual situation. so, here's the setting: laurent and damen break up, they go no contact, months pass, laurent is STRUGGLING (nicaise mentions this time and time and time again in the fic), laurent has no way of knowing that damen is also miserable, laurent has no way of knowing that damen hasn't moved on (damen is, actually, at this point in time, fucking other people). laurent isn't looking for love or dates or romance, but then maxime shows up and he gives laurent an opportunity to prove to himself several things:

he has effectively moved on from damen (in his mind, having sex with other people = the ultimate 'i'm done with damen" move)

he is in control. he has only had consensual sex with one person in his life, which gives damen symbolic power over him in a weird, fucked up way. or... maybe the word isn't power, but status. damen has a status in laurent's mind and memories because he's the first person laurent CHOSE to have sex with, the first person he loved and showed him it could be good, etc. as long as damen maintains that status, laurent will never stop thinking about him, will never have anything to compare damen to and say "see, it wasn't that big of a deal". which brings me to...

he wants to minimize damen. he wants dismiss what damen meant to him, what their entire relationship meant, so it can be easier to move on. how do you move on if you're thinking "oh I broke up with the love of my life lol"? laurent needs to tell himself what he had with damen wasn't unique, wasn't that special. he can have it again (the SEXUAL part).

needless to say, this fails. he has sex with maxime and finds that it's nothing like it was with damen because it's WORSE, because having sex with damen was having sex with someone who knew him and loved him and respected him. laurent has sex with maxime but he's still thinking about damen, he's still in love with damen, the same way damen is having sex with kyra or trying to date iris while thinking and missing laurent.

once this realization sort of sinks in (yes, he can have sex with other people, yet that doesn't erase damen's status in his brain bc damen was special for a bunch of reasons I'm not gonna type in here - THEY'RE IN LOVE, YOUR HONOR) that's when the self-harm comes into the picture. (this is discussed a bit in ch20 so SPOILERS but)

what kind of sex are maxime and laurent having? it's not the slow, gentle, love making stuff damen knows laurent was into. it's rough, it's degrading, it's not as pleasurable, it's a chore, it leaves marks. does laurent want those marks? we don't know. does maxime ask him if he does? we don't know. you can make it as non con as you want because the text doesn't go into detail.

the petnames. "why does laurent like it when maxime says it but not damen?" I don't think he does. he never gives damen a straight answer on this, but he does say that it makes him feel like a bimbo. it makes him feel slightly degraded. he says it wasn't terrible, but he never says he wanted it or that it was good. it's implied that damen tried it once or twice at the very beginning of their relationship, and I think we can all tell why laurent didn't like it back then with him either (bimbo feelings, laurent using him for money, the power imbalance, etc.)

uncle parallels. okay, this one's a bit tricky. yes, you're right to think that the abuse laurent's uncle subjected him to is nothing like his relationship with maxime for a plethora of reasons, but I think the narrative supports some people's opinions that maxime does resemble uncle in some ways (older, brunette, has a beard). i did not write maxime as a literal uncle stand in, so of course it's not going to be a perfect comparison. i wouldn't even call maxime and laurent's relationship abusive.

he said sex was the foundation of their relationship, which seems odd for an ascetic person like laurent who even in hiuh canon doesn’t seem to have engaged in that kind of relationship before dating damen, when he was in a way worse physical and emotional state, unless i’m wrong.

i tried to mirror canon in hiuh when it comes to laurent's... choices? in canon, damen is the first person he's with after his uncle because he's the only one laurent trusts. i don't have any doubts that canon laurent was terribly lonely and probably wanted to be loved waaaaay before damen came into the picture (post uncle, I mean) but his context and environment were so violent and dangerous that he couldn't let his guard down. similarly, in hiuh, laurent leaves his uncle's house without any money and in a very vulnerable position. he's not exactly carefree and happy and able to be like "oh I wanna date and fool around!! explore my sexuality!!!!" - in fact, this is a pretty big plot point in hiuh: laurent did contact damen out of pure necessity.

and yes, sex is the foundation of maxime/laurent for all the reasons I stated above, but at the same time it's not all about sex. it's not even about sex. it's about control and self-punishment. it's about self-hatred. we also don't know what state laurent was in when he started seeing maxime because we don't have his pov, but we do have nicaise's testimony. again, this is briefly mentioned in ch20, but it wasn't exactly pretty.

however, having said all of this, i'm not blind or dumb enough to think oh hiuh laurent is sooooo canon laurent, not a trace of ooc-ness. i get where the characterization issues are coming from. at the end of the day, I have to say that this post summarizes a tiny bit of what went into creating hiuh laurent. i tried to make him as canon as possible, but I'm not pacat and so my characterization is different. my setting is different. the modern au is different. it is completely fair to read hiuh and think as a reader "i would not have gone in this direction, i don't think laurent would ever be with someone who isn't damen, i don't think it's consistent with his canon self". i accept those comments in the same way i accept those that say they love this laurent bc of XYZ.

this is the one area so far where laurent has been extremely defensive and refuses to take responsibility, even though it really hurt damen

i understand this, but at the same time i don't know how much responsibility laurent can take over that when it's... just dating/fucking someone else after a break up. he should apologize for making damen feel bad on purpose (perhaps taking maxime places), but the rest of it... damen also fucked and thought about dating other people. the comparisons you mention were cruel, but they were made, for example, by characters like aimeric (removed from the narrative entirely later on) and ancel (who tells damen he was wrong, who tells damen he thinks laurent made a mistake letting him go).

i don’t see how damen could get over this massive insecurity when laurent appears to ridicule or dismiss him for bringing it up, like with the condom conversation or the pet name issue.

i understand that, but i also think damen's insecurity wasn't born just from this issue. he is an insecure person throughout the fic. his toxic masculinity is one way this insecurity and lack of self-confidence manifest, for example. his fixation on penetrative sex. his fixation on performance. his fixation on parenting like laurent because his own way is wrong. his fixation on never thinking about the things and people he lacks because he can't take it.

yes, laurent played a huge role in feeding that insecurity, but I'm failing to see where he is ridiculing damen. during the condom conversation, laurent snaps because he feels judged and attacked, not because he's making fun of damen's pain. during the pet name conversation, the same thing happens. and in both instances, damen is judging laurent. he judges laurent really harshly in other scenes, too, like when they find out about claude.

some of these issues are talked about in ch20, but I don't think there is a scene where laurent addresses everything. perhaps he should. i just didn't write it.

[bloodcoveredbutch]

hello danger days fandom. tell me why everyone hates val velocity

[willowser]

I have a thought and I’d like to share (if you don’t mind) - Bakugo with a pro hero partner. Like I feel as though all I ever see is civilian!reader or assistant!reader and that’s great, but I need me a girl boss who kicks ass and Bakugo’s head over heels, like I imagine this person to be so adored and loved as well - like the ideal “celebrity” so kind and sweet, well-spoken, but Villains hear her name they go runnin’ - everyone’s low-key got crushes on her, Katsuki’s wondering what the hell he did to rizz her up and because they’re both public figures, in spite of how naturally private he is, I think he’d feel more comfortable off-handedly making comments about her every now and then, showing up to events together.

Idk it’s just in my head

hello dear !! it's so interesting you bring this up, bc i feel like i actually have a lot of thoughts on this and i guess i've never mentioned them LOL

i think bakugou could have such a flourishing relationship with another pro hero.

like, i really do. i think that it's hard for him to meet people outside of work LOL so meeting/working with another pro hero is, i think, a very natural way to come together. i also think that bakugou would really appreciate reader's hard work ! their passion ! their motivation ! i think that would genuinely be such a draw for him ??? i absolutely think a pro hero relationship would really work out for him, and i have one pro hero reader wip and the dynamic between them is my favorite i think i've ever written, bc they just fit so well.

but i will say that this is not typically a reader i picture for him ?? as my go-to ?? it's always assistant reader aikhfaha LMAO and. i really don't think i have a good explanation why, but. something like—i like to imagine bakugou having a break from it all, and i just don't think he'd get that with a pro hero partner ??

idk !! like, if one of you isn't on patrol, the other probably is, like 90% of the time, and i imagine it's hard to get just free time to be together, bc you both would probably be so busy !! and if you were working together at the same agency or partnering up at random points, i feel like it would be so hard to come home from work and not. bring it with you 🥺 as a pro hero i feel like that's impossible, and were the two of you both bearing the weight of that responsibility, i feel like it would be hard to have a relationship outside of that ?? if that makes sense ?? and i also personally believe that bakugou has had too much pro hero at the young age of SEVENTEEN, so i like to imagine a life for him where he can put it all away, even for a little bit 🥺

you could definitely argue that having an assistant reader would be similar, bc you would still be involved in the hero world, but. idk. i think being there on the sidelines and being in it are different, and i like to imagine bakugou coming home from a long shift and getting to hear about what you did at your regular job or what you did in the garden, where you went shopping, etc 🥺 just. give him some normalcy 🥺

but that's just my personal preference !! though i definitely enjoy the pro hero reader angle !! please katsuki wondering what the hell he did to rizz you up LMAOOO tbh, i think if we ever were fed some kind of love story for bakugou in canon, they would give him a badass pro hero partner, bc i really think he would have a lot of respect for someone that can handle it, not to mention does it well. like. i think he definitely has the loserboy hots for them LOL

[reverieaudios]

Hey, I was listening to another va talking about his content pet peeves and one of his was coming up with the listener nickname. I was thrown off, but his explanation made sense. He doesn’t like it because he hasn’t dug into the character long enough to just give them a nickname. As someone commented, you don’t just meet someone and give them a nickname.

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you come up with your character names? Speaker and/or listener. Do you feel the same about coming up with listener names?

Names are probably the hardest part for me when coming up with a character, and they're usually the last thing I come up with lol

For actual named characters, I tend to think less of the characters' personality and more of what the people who named them would like, because usually that's how it works in real life, you know? So saving the naming for after a whole backstory is built helps with that lol

For listener characters it's definitely a balancing act with a lot of things factoring in. Finding something that fits the character themself, the dynamic between them and the speaker, and that actually sounds like something the speaker would say can be tricky.

There's also absolutely the whole "most people don't give a pet name to someone they aren't close to yet" thing, which I've typically navigated by giving them multiple with varying degrees of intimacy lol. Like Desmond calling Love "Newbie" along with everyone else at their workplace until the two of them became more comfortable in their relationship, or Gage calling Neo's listener variations of "roomie" because it'd be kinda weird for him to suddenly start calling them Darling lol. Also Cyril just not using any sort of name for Dove (unless you count terror or menace lol) until they were very established in their relationship

[bleue-flora]

Well, now I feel challenged /lh /j.

I think that cDream being autistic make sense quite a lot BUT I definitely think that it is not a root of all / most misunderstandings - at least at the beginning, he was being absolutely challenged by cWilbur and cTommy and I think that he did the only logical thing, trying to protect his server and friends. His friends later turning their backs on him bc he was unable/unwilling to explain his reasons and feelings adds to the autistic theory but as a toxic cDream apologist I can not help but blame them for just abandoning him without really trying to understand him - like, even if he could explain himself better, I really don't think that would change that much - the root of all problem here would be more other people being unable to understand HIM, not the other way around (although cDream definitely made some wild assumptions(or didn't understand how some people think at all) regarding certain people (*cough* Sam) that backfired spectacularly)

(again, this is meant to be completely light-hearted, I like your hot take, just wanted to challenged it. This is also my first time trying to analyse dsmp outside of my brains so sorry if it's weird 😅

Nah not weird, welcome to the fun! Glad you’ve decided to share. (Hopefully this won’t deter you from pitching in in the future. <3) Don’t worry it’s all light hearted around here, as far as I’m concerned this blog isn’t about arguing it’s about discussion. Agree, disagree, further add, I just have a good time talking about my obsession. :) Generally speaking, to me I don’t think it’s about right or wrong (though to be clear I am always right/jk lol XD) because I think there is typically a bit of both mixed in and there is always something to take away.

Anyways… yea so challenge accepted lol. (just as fyi I did write this and the essay kinda simultaneously so umm whatever I don't cover here is probably in that... somewhere....). Now, I did pick my wording very specifically and it’s ok to kinda miss exactly what I was saying. So just to clarify, I did say ‘a’ root because while I believe it is a huge factor at play I do recognize that it is by no means the only factor at play. Along the same lines, you are exactly right, it is not just about him failing to understand or communicate but also largely about them misunderstanding him. It is very much a failure on both sides and assumptions made that cause this miscommunication. When I mean misunderstanding and miscommunication I mean all around. Though I also agree. As an autistic person (and a c!Dream apologist) I do tend to see it more as a failure to understand c!Dream and a lack of willingness to try on the part of the others. Because as an autistic person I am often the one without the information to realize that something has gone wrong. I may not recognize when I’ve broken an unspoken rule or when I’ve failed to communicate properly. But even if I did the other people have to be willing to hear me out in the first place and understand my actual intention.

With that in mind, it does go back to the very beginning. I challenge you to watch the early streams (especially when c!Wilbur gets involved) and see c!Dream struggle to be heard and get his viewpoint across. The founding of L’manberg? Make no mistake it was in large part due to declaring c!Dream the unfair tyrant and villain. And it was easy for them to do so because a) c!Dream is at a disadvantage to communicate the latter. - And it’s not for a lack of trying. Because he does try, he pulls out dictionaries, he pulls out former events, he tries so hard to get them to hear him, but time and time again they miss it. And make no mistake that is on them, as you said they are to blame here. -

And, b) because c!Dream is different that spurs people to think he is wrong, often more subconsciously. (I’m not going to get into too much more detail on this point as this is already so long and I meant for it to be shorter…. oops. So I am aware this is overly simplified and likely poorly worded, but I'll try and cover it more in the essay.) But yes not only is miscommunication and the misunderstanding at play but also misunderstanding in relation to their perception of each other. Both their misconceptions about c!Dream - taking c!Tommy and c!Wilbur’s words at face value, making poor assumptions about him, and fearing/hating what they don’t quite understand - and his poor assumptions about them (don’t even get me started on c!Sam…), often stemming from their brains being literally different.

[doubledyke]

Do you think the show is actually about Edd and Eddy's relationship? Before being about anything else? The things happening between them gets more focus than pretty much any other thing (scams, jawbreakers, their families) through and through.

Specially in the last seasons, where they pretty much get rid of the scams and we're all about their strained friendship.

(Sorry for you, Ed).

the usual disclaimer, i don't know a ton about what went on behind the scenes and i can't speak to anyone's intentions. that said, i definitely don't think the show started with just edd and eddy's relationship as the focus. i'm guessing that as time went on the characters evolved and the writers had fun with edd and eddy's dynamic since they're the two most developed characters. it adds stakes (even though they always end up friends in the end) and some relatability in an otherwise extremely irreverent cartoon. not every single episode is about the two of them of course, and by no means do i think that ed is excluded entirely. but i think it's fair for someone to have the takeaway that the show is ultimately about the ups and downs of their friendship.

[kowaindar0u]

FILL IN WITH DETAILS ABOUT YOUR MUSE AS IF THEY WERE A CHARACTER IN A DATING SIM.

NAME — Kitawaki Yuichi

PROFESSION — saniwa ((pre-sani/alternate timeline: some kind of back-office worker for a small company))

WHERE THEY CAN BE FOUND — usually in his room/office, or perhaps his favorite gazebo ((in his apartment in Kamakura, when not at work))

FAVORITE FOOD TYPE — coffee, chocolate. maybe anything fried crispy

FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK — oh he will honestly drink anything lol. but he likes yummy mixed drinks more than anything, especially if it has unique fruity flavors or something.

WHERE THEY WOULD GO ON A DATE — wherever his date wants to go tbh, he wouldn't complain, but if it seems too stressful he might panic and chicken out :/. But he'd prefer somewhere quiet with not a lot of people. Maybe a small/calm restaurant or like... a walk-through garden or something. (This would be one of those things where like. Picking something low-key would require significantly less approval beforehand than something more lively lol. The lively option would have some fun cute scenes I think but you would only really get anything deeper from Yuichi in the quieter more comfortable choice haha)

IDEAL GIFT — ohhh he'd be touched to get a gift at all jfjdjs but perhaps things he'd appreciate most are things he can tell have thought put into them-- something related to an interest he shared, or something useful to something he complained about or struggled with. Also I think a stuffed animal from someone he likes would be well-cuddled

HOW MANY DATES UNTIL THEY KISS — probably a few at the very least. He's really really self-conscious, and a bit skittish especially with that kind of physical contact so... gotta work your way up to that slowly and kinda ease him into it haha. (That said maybe you unlock a scene where something u do shows him he's super safe with u... That might make him willing to kiss u sooner!)

tagged by: @zantedeschia-praesul

tagging: fellow friends !