#i get it. it's sad and painful. but get real. it's vile.

[awordwasthebeginning]

🤡

[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs Spy x Family S2

Awww, I like that Bond Forger the Dog also gets an intro about HIS secret identity. Equal opportunity deceit

Are we finally going to learn who exacty Yor is fighting? I would like to know!

Been there Anya, I also had little patience for watching the news as as a kid. Though, it seems more important in a pre-internet era

"Okay, you can change the channel." Loid Forger, International Spy, defeated by one (1) sad look from his little daughter

"I absolutely cannot tell him that I got shot in the butt while fighting a group of armed men." 10/10 episode plot, I cannot wait

"I've been relying on her too much without realizing it, and it's upset her. Yes, that must be it! I must do everything in my power to remedy this at once!" Loid immediately blaming Yor's mood on himself and deciding he has to be respond by being a better husband!!! I will keep saying it. He is THE Husband. World's Most Husband

"Why don't we go on a date?" HEE HEE

Puzzling that Yor thinks she hasn't been on a date though, when I can think of at least three dates so far (party-grenade-proposal date, lunch date, and drinks-and-reassurance date)

"I can't leave Anya alone at home, and this is a very important mission to ensure that we remain one happy family." It seems Loid has learned from the spy transmission debacle

"Last night, I came up with 862 date plans to ensure that Yor has fun." He's insane. I want to give him a leetle kiss

HAHAHAHA Franky being absolutely thrilled to bother Loid and Yor on their date. What a friendship 💕

Intriguing that Anya's telepathy has a distance limit. Tell me more!

Honestly, Yor having to position herself in a specific way to avoid pain is relatable. We love a chronic pain queen

"This woman had built up an immunity to poisons." HAHAHAHAHA the poison fixing Yor's pain. Sometimes, drinking does solve your problems!

LMAOOOO them censoring the bomb components. A real "don't try this at home" moment

NOT THE BABY MAKING THE BOMB. ANYA PLEASE

"I'm going to forget all this and live a normal life." Perfect. Forgers reforming their enemies left and right

"If it's not too much trouble, please invite me out again sometime." Never let being married stand in the way of your husband becoming your boyfriend 🥰

SCREAM at Bond's perception of what Loid does for work. I guess he's closer to the truth than most:

"Are you trying to do this for your... no. Are you trying to get revenge for your friends who were experimented on?" HAHAHA is Loid blushing because he wants to call himself his dog's dad?

FBKFJHFFHKJHF Loid taking on Bond as his mission back-up. He truly can be swayed so easily

WHERE DID LOID GET A DOG-SIZED SKI MASK AHHAHAHA

I love the giant puppy spy sidekick, employ this dog ASAP

"While they're busy playing, I'm going to work hard to get to the top," said Damian Desmond, Six Years Old, for whom The Top was beating all the other little bougie first graders

"Your friendship... preciously elegant." Me whenever I finish hanging out with my friends

I love that Henderson-sensei sends the kids out on a picnic as a punishment. He really is as silly as he is strict

I don't know if this is a vegetarian thing or a cultural thing but it always seems wild to me how people in anime bite into fish, scales and all

"Did you know that the most recent studies in neuroscience suggest that your brain feels really revitalized when you're spacing out?" I like Mr. Green, Grizzled Navy Custodian, too

HAHA Damian trying his hardest to space out. Me when people tell me to practice mindfulness

"Oh, you don't [have a goal], eh? That's perfectly fine!" "Actually, I want to live my life eating lots of snacks." "Splendid! You'll have to think earnestly about how to make that possible." I take it back, I LOVE MR. GREEN

Ready to sob about this field trip actually. AHHHHHHH:

"Good evening, Mr. Vile Trash." ACAB; All Cops are (Weird) Brothers

"What's so wrong about trying to improve the country my family lives in?" Nothing but the hostile, paternalistic nationalism of a Cold War, Frank Perkin, Newspaper Sensationalist and Adult Bully of Wealthy Children

"I'll request that your father gets some financial aid to get by." I feel like that will not make up for imprisoning his son, Yuri, but whatever helps you sleep

"Blech." That's also how I feel about Weird Brother Yuri, Anya

"Revenge will only make you sadder. I'll make you forget about all that with my love." This is the plot of Naruto

Honestly, I was super sold on the Bondman Polycule when it was just him, his spy partner Agent M, and the enemy spy lady who had all linked arms together. I feel like this could work:

"How was anything he did gentlemanly?" Loid said: I'm a one-woman kind of spy

"Lord Damian, how could you possibly pick the joker there." "Shut up!' [Internally] She's so unfair... Damn it! I like to believe Loid might approve of Damian's crush purely because he is also willing to do whatever Anya wants if she makes one (1) sad face

Poor Anya. She's really most suited to using her street smarts

"Garden? The group of assassins who have been in this country for ages? They're basically urban legends, aren't they?" FINALLY we're finding out more about Yor's job!! They do in fact seem at cross purposes with the spies

[Loid already walking away] "He's such a heartless jerk." I bet you $5 he has already decided to help Franky LMAO

Update from 8 min later: Alright, I owe you $5, he didn't care

"Am I normal?! Oh, thank goodness!" said Yor excitedly, as if that were not a moderately suspicious response to being called normal

Excited for an ep with no double-barreled title. Plot progression!

I truly don't know where this falls on the spectrum of ways that anime will depict black and brown characters LMAO. Like Donovan Desmond, the Shopkeeper has an extremely haunting aura:

"You will be providing protection on this mission." Oooooh, change of pace!

"Is there actually any reason why I should continue my job as a killer?" A question every assassin should ask themselves, I think

"HQ may or may not be trying to cut back on our shady overtime practices." Incredible. I can't believe even the underground spy agency has PTO. I wonder who regulates spy labour law

"If not for this bodyguard job, the three of us could've enjoyed this vacation together." AWWW Yor loves her family so much

"You can say this is a gangster's destiny." [Reba voice] A single mom who works too hard, who loves her kid never stops!

"Papa! We need to hurry up and explore the ship before it sinks!" "It's not going to sink! Stop scaring everyone." The fact the staircase looks distinctly modelled after that one scene from Titanic really sells Anya's point

Loid incapable of framing having fun as anything but a mission ljggkjgj truly he might benefit from a Real Psychologist

"That family's just for camoflauge, right?" "Yes, you're right... Is... that true?" I love Yor slowly admitting that she loves her family for their own sake 💗

As Yor was declaring doing her best, I did worry briefly that someone was going to [redact] Olka. Other anime have been less kind to me than Spy x Family

I love Yor making another mum friend in Olka 💞 Gal pals

Finally saying suspicious things in public has a consequence!!

"It's been a while since we've had dinner without Mama." "Yeah, it's a bit lonely." Hee hee, Loid misses his wife

I love the immediate transformation in Yor's face as soon as Olka/Shaty says she didn't order room service

I don't have much to say but I am really entranced by the assassin vs. assassin + informant goings on!!

"I may not look it, but I'm a married woman, so I'll have to decline." Absolutely loving Yor quietly and efficiently beating these hitmen unconscious as she passes through the cruise ship

"Which is it?! Would normal parents buy their child something in this situation or not?!" Loid is incapable of making a decision without thinking about how it looks in relation to him being a spy. Anxiety king

[In Anya's mind] "Yor! You're an assasin who hates frogs? Let's get a divorce. The Forgers are done." Like father, like anxiety-ridden daughter

"I am a normal father. A good father," said Loid, which is frankly not usually something a good or normal father would say

"Papa, you're not excited at all." Loid defeated by one (1) six-year-old's piercingly accurate psychoanalysis

Loid is facing a true Psychological Battle: The Fitting Room

Anya Ultimate Wingman Award for convincing everyone her mum's battle is actually a circus act

Awwww, Zeb, Fake Husband to Olka, likes her. I hope this is a healthy experience in Yor seeing other fake couples work it out, but I do also think Zeb could mega-die

"As long we people continue to be people, conflict will never end." Alright, Director Doomsday, calm down

"What am I? What am I doing this for?" [B Eilish voice] What was I made foooooor?

"Does she hate me? Or is she just going through a rebellious phase?" Loid whenever one of the Forger girls looks upset: THIS MUST BE MY FAULT SOMEHOW

A hasty and confident NO to Assassin Sniff's whole vibes

We interrupt this program to think about how cute Loid and Anya are!! I love Loid entertaining Anya and also supporting her while he thinks she's missing Yor

"Nice, Mr. Husband!" Oh good, we love a bulletproof vest for Zeb!

Truly a wild juxtaposition of Forger Family Fireworks Night:

"This might be a bit late to ask, but would you consider just peacefully going home?" I love you, Compassionate Combat

I'm having a hard time believing all this will happen without Loid eventually noticing; the fireworks are long gone. I actually do hope Loid crashes her battle, Director Doomsday is out cold

"I'm doing this to support my family.... wait. I guess I am also doing this for money. But... no, I make enough to survive now. I'm hunting down bad guys for my country! For my country? Have I always been so righteous? What am I doing this for?" Poor Yor, this is like the worst possible time for an existential crisis

YOR AND LOID BOTH BEING MOTIVATED BY THEIR DESIRE FOR OTHERS TO LIVE A PEACEFUL LIFE 😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘

[In Yor's flashback] "Be it for someone else, or for a specific reason, having to endure a merciless job... That's something to be very proud of." I'm sure Loid will acknowledge me. He'll forgive me. I like to think so too, Yor!!

Never mind to Loid helping Yor out, he is busy disarming a bomb threatening to sink them. This truly is the Titanic LMAO

LGLHGLGJHGLJHG Anya accidentally tripping the assassins so they shoot each other. Like mother, like daughter 💖

"You'll be able to enjoy the symphony of agonized screams and roars coming through the wiretaps on this ship." I can't wait for Loid to sink this guy with his own clock-bomb

Update from 30 seconds later: See? Self-owned and sunk

Awwwww Yor really does deserve the baby hug after the day she's had:

"I pray that, someday, you and your family will be able to find true peace." OLKAAAA

"I know it was an emergency, but I ended up casting my family aside again." Loid and Yor having the same crisis about whether to prioritize their family or their jobs 🥺🥺🥺

Loid's blush at Yor catching him skipping as he continues to skip over in her direction. Hee hee

"I hope peaceful days like this will continue forever." ME TOO, YOR!

Get you a mum who would secretly beat up sharks for you ❤️‍🩹

Setting aside how fun snorkeling is, absolutely terrible idea to go into the ocean with an open wound OMG

Loid carrying his whole family is the cutest thing I've ever seen, 10 bajilion/10zo; perfect:

[Internally] "You did a great job." Loid is in loooooove

"I can never tell if he's actually clever, or clumsy." Me either, Handler

Anya learning about the vacation disparity of rich kids LMAO

"If youre going to create a persona for yourself, you need to be strategic and commit." Not Loid turning this lie lecture into a spy lecture in his mind

"Lying is too much work, so I'll try not to do it anymore." Anya's entire set of adult role models do nothing but lie all the time, she really has no frame of reference for honesty

I do a little bit hate the Becky fantasizing about Loid thing, I have been Cardcaptor Sakura'd too much in life

NOT ANYA SELLING OUT HER MUM FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF BECKY BEING HER RICH SIX-YEAR-OLD STEPMUM OH MY GOD

I feel like they take a lot of liberties in translating "Loid-sama" as "my precious Loid" but hey, he is precious

"Yor's going to get the wrong idea, somehow." Loid has finally registered that this child is obsessed with him and he is only concerned for wife not thinking he's a freak. A good husband above all else

"I really don't understand the children of rich people." Me either, Loid

I need you to see Loid's face as Becky declares that this is his expression of love for Yor:

"Your heart is as vast as the sky, and you're stronger than the earth itself. You're the perfect lady." Correct, Becky! Yor is amazing

"I had some extra souvenirs left after handing them out to everyone else. Do you want them?" LMAO @ the implication being lost on Fiona that he doesn't even think of her enough to warrant her own souvenir

I will say, I really do resonate with the theme of the ep being Loid is Hot and Amazing to Everyone But No One Will Ever Measure Up to Yor in His Eyes

"Maybe you're too nice, and biting and barking don't really suit you." Everyone in the Forger family is too nice for their job, including Bond Forger, Precognitive Puppy

Awwww Bond trying to help out all the humans with his visions

LNKFHKFHKJFH Loid really just got reprimanded by his dog

"And he went into save [Daisy the puppy]? What an impressive dog!" I love the Spy Dad-Psychic Puppy tag-team ❤️

[Internally] "I am a cool-headed spy. I cannot let my emotions show." Loid remains deadpan through SO many things but his dog looking a little funny while wet is his limit. What a man!

"Don't push yourself too hard. There's someone waiting back home who would be sad if you died." 1) V sweet, dad first, hero second. And 2) This is the second time Loid has directly spoken to his life situation with a simultaneous thinly-veined dog metaphor

WAHHHHHHH Loid and Bond's heroics being acknowledged by Anya giving them little paper Stellas:

Yor immediately joining in and congratulating them for their hard work on their walk!!! I LOVE ONE (1) SPY X FAMILY 😭😭😭😭😭 IT'S A NICE SHOW

[nekropsii]

Atomic Ask Bomb 3!!

We got a shorter one this time around! I hope everyone's evening is going well!

Content Warning: Long-ish, Discussions of Ableism + Queerphobia, Weird Cronus Moment™.

Same. I'd read a fanventure about that, I think.

Like, I don't personally believe WV would be allergic to being a mentor or something of a father figure, but I do have to wonder the level to which he was wigged out by the way that Dave and Karkat treat him, because Dave in particular imprints on him in a way that is... Kind of strange.

The later portions of Homestuck really baby WV. It's upsetting.

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Easy. The actual things wrong with them.

A lot of the discourse surrounding them is fabricated, or has such poor priorities it might as well be fabricated. Most critical conversations about them surrounds things people just made up over the course of years of mythologizing their #Problematicness.

For Example: Most of the discourse surrounding why Horuss had problematic writing had to do with how he was "Bad Otherkin Representation", when the real issue was the fact that Hussie was conflating Being Otherkin with having a Dissociative Disorder, and in turn saying both of them are the exact same level of Fake And Gay for the exact same reason, because to Hussie they were the same thing. To this day, people get startled every time I point out that Horuss is canonically a System despite him bringing it up just as regularly as he does being Therian. Those are totally wack priorities.

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...That's scary... I don't even have words...

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LOL. The Lost Weeaboos was a Grade A bit. Thank you Aranea, very cool.

Honestly, I don't even count Cronus as a "facade character", because it's not like he's making any efforts to hide jack shit. It's been... Interesting, watching several people refer to "his facade" lately, when, like... What are they talking about, honestly? He's pretty bold-faced about his whole deal. This isn't really a Dave situation where you could be capable of falling for it when you're younger, because Cronus couldn't be doing a worse job at "hiding" how awful he is. He's not even trying, because he knows he can get away with it. What are the other Alphas gonna do? Leave?

Hope you're having a good time!! The Alpha Trolls may be a Trash Heap, but they are my Trash Heap.

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There comes a point where it's almost comedic how unaware people are of it... Like, what do you mean you know he's a Horse Therian but not that he's a System? He literally calls himself the Host of a System and talks about Switching. IN THOSE TERMS. He's not even obfuscating it by using some esoteric Troll terminology, he is LITERALLY using the words "Host", "System", and "Switching".

It's painful. I know this is a moment befitting of an XKCD comic, but... Jeez. You'd think these things would both be on the same level of common knowledge, considering how they're traits that are directly related to each other and given equal amounts of screen time, but nope!

Unfortunately, it is a situation where this is relevant. Sad!

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All characters will become AroSpec and/or ASpec with the help of my Beam Attack.

... Except for Cronus. It's just not funny when it's him. Due to The Themes. It's not fun to headcanon a character as any minority when a huge part of their character is that they pretend to be minorities for Pity Points to eventually cash in for Sex. Ew. Making him literally anything other than Just Cronus plays directly into so many vile Queer stereotypes it's insane. Those are stereotypes that have gotten people actually genuinely killed. Just... Ew. Gross.

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[greenandsorrow]

The fox (2): Found something real that's out of touch.

Alastor x fem!fox!reader

stay tuned for the final chapter

"To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world."

~Le petit prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The girl woke up with a start. Her mother was by her side. The monotone sound of the machines attached to her body could be heard. She had died but they had brought her back.

In the few minutes it had taken to revive her, her soul had wandered all the way to Hell- due to how there hadn't been any guidance from Heaven. Her death hadn't been meant to happen. Not yet.

Time flew differently in the afterlife, since she had spent a good fifteen days at the hotel, but as mentioned, only a couple of minutes at the hospital.

The girl lived. She left the hospital, but she kept her promise to Alastor. She never forgot about him. While he was in Hell, thinking she was in Heaven, she was alive, roaming Earth.

She searched a plethora of archives at Louisiana's library and she tried to gather as much information as possible from her grandma about Alastor the radio host.

A serial killer that would hide his victims' bodies on deer haunting ground. He had been killed while mistaken for one. Hence his appearance in the afterlife. He was also found to be linked to voodoo practices- for hurtful purposes.

He had been a bad man in all his life. He had caused pain to others, but she couldn't just ignore the way he had been there for her during her short stay in the hotel.

Alastor was the one cooking her Jambalaya when she was sad and entertaining her with his charm and wit. That's how she'd always remember him. The smiling, gentledeer with the black cane.

She went as far as visiting Louisiana's old cemetery. Why would she leave flowers on the grave of a killer? Why would she sit and reminisce about one of Hell's most devious sinners? She wasn't the one to give him forgiveness. She didn't even try to justify his vile actions. The flowers were simply her way of saying "thank you, because even though you've done so many wrongs, you did at least one good deed and that was helping me".

The photograph on the grave -placed behind a now broken frame- was fading slowly but surely. The young man that looked back at her had a smooth, tan complexion and bespectacled, smart eyes. The shade of his eyes and hair reminded her of hot coffee in the morning. The quality wasn't great, but then again, coloured pictures weren't as advanced back then.

Alastor's visits to Rosie grew more frequent after his little, fluffy friend vanished. He'd sit for hours with his hellborn bestie, telling her about every single detail of his experience with the young girl.

"I'm surprised you didn't just devour her Hun! I'm sure she'd taste so delicious!"

"Dear Rosie... I have to be honest with you... If there's one person except from my mother that I would never hurt... It is her, the fox."

Both of whom were gone for the foreseeable eternity.

With Rosie refilling his tea cup frequently and asking him additional questions, Alastor couldn't help but think about the fox.

It hadn't been all good times, but now that she was gone, even the not so pleasant memories carried a bittersweet quality to them.

For example, there had been many arguments between them and the girl hadn't been scared to show him her teeth, quite literally.

He found himself thinking of her again as he made his way back to the hotel, after his visit at Cannibal town.

Alastor's memory...

She was being nosy again. Asking too many questions.

"Well yes, I did die in the woods like you... It's peculiar. This is the first time I ever meet someone who died under the same circumstances... not the exact same, but you get my drill?"

The girl had shrugged, but she hadn't been able to suppress her smile at being given attention. Alastor had continued talking, simultaneously warming up his voice for his radio show.

"What if this is too much of a coincidence? What if this is part of some bigger plot..."

"A bigger plot? How so Alastor?"

He liked the way she pronounced his name. She'd say it with caution, like it was something important that should be respected.

Sometimes people get sent in our lives for a reason. Sometimes they teach us a lesson. Sometimes we are the lesson. Sometimes they are reminders. Reminders of things we had forgotten that existed.

"Do you have a tail?"

"What do you expect?"

"Oh please show me!"

As much as he wanted to be intimidating and taken seriously, even if he was an overlord, the fact that his body got changed into a deer was somewhat humiliating. He. Is. Not. Prey.

"Not happening."

He should have shown her, just to see that sparkle in her eyes. Regret.

Charlie was singing. It wasn't like him zoning out, but a few weeks ago the fox had been in that very same room, walking away... frustrated.

Alastor's memory...

"Oh dear..." he had muttered, following after her before swiftly stepping in front of her and slightly raising his arm, blocking her way.

"Now it would be quite rude to simply walk away, would it not?"

"Manners are the last thing occupying my mind after I was thrown in purgatory."

He had let out a chuckle of agreement at her point.

"Sometimes a bit of charm can take you a long way in life... and besides the company of your sweet self would be delightful!"

"Can it take me to Heaven?"

"What about a story sweetheart? It was so brutal when I first spawned here... just thinking about that time makes my tongue tingle with the sweet taste of blood."

"I hate this place."

She had been unhappy all the time he knew her.

In a mockingly sympathetic tone Alastor had tried to distract her.

"Awww... are you really not enjoying your stay here in our beautiful hotel? I'm sure you have met some really interesting individuals."

"I prefer my well deserved place in HEAVEN thank you very much."

All their conversations had always circled back to that exact point.

While she was beginning to grow on him, to her Alastor was still no one. She would chat with him, but he wasn't someone special in her heart. The radio demon hated himself for allowing that bond to bloom, but he hated himself even more because it was one sided. Him being on the losing end.

And there had been another fight that very same day.

"LET ME DOWN"

"Ask nicely."

"I hate you."

Alastor's playful attitude had vanished.

"Hate is a strong feeling. What is there to hate? My looks? My voice? My past?"

"You're a demon. You're... I hate you as much as I hate this place."

"Think again."

Sometimes it was truly infuriating how stubborn she would be.

"Um... I... I don't know. Everything."

"Everything?"

Despite himself, Alastor's tone had gotten slightly bitter.

"Well... this just ruins the mood now. Don't you think it's rather unreasonable to hate someone you've known only for three days? I can tell you're quite childish... but you're not that childish, right young one?"

She had placed a palm on his chest to push him away. She was practically glowing from purity while he was emitting pure darkness.

The radio demon had looked a little surprised when the girl had pushed him away without showing fear. Leaning in, he'd spoken in a whisper while his hot breath had hit her cheek.

"My dear, you shouldn't resist what's happening... Just allow yourself to stay with us at the hotel... As a sinner."

Alastor had decided to corrupt the new resident of the hotel. His taunting words and unsettling change of size hadn't fazed her... The girl had been scared, but still, she had managed to give him a few really sharp scratches. Yet, he hadn't responded to pain at all.

...he would always carry the little scars she left on him. A reminder that she had been there.

The real reason he had wanted her to stay was selfish. It would have done her more harm than good. He didn't like how he had acted like the bigger person.

But when it had happened -the ridiculous scratches- with a threatening voice he had told her...

"You think you're so strong Fox, huh? Because if I wanted to, I could crush you with just a single motion of one of my fingers."

"Then, you'd... you'd have Heaven against you!"

He had bursted into a laugh.

"Oh dear... I can't believe how naive you are! Heaven is not going to do anything to defend an insignificant person such as yourself. They're more worried about themselves and their perfect little world. The ones you look up to are always the first to disappoint you mon petit renard."

He never understood why he had said that to her. He had practically tried to save her from a heartbreaking realization. A realization that had always pained Alastor in his childhood. To know you have to fend for yourself. While he had perfected the art, he wished she didn't have to.

He had forgotten they were fighting.

She was dreaming of him, again. Red hair. Razor blades for teeth. The sound of static filling the air and making her hair frizz.

The girl liked that memory, it was one of her favourites to relive in her sleep.

The fox's memory...

"No, my dear fox, you're not a good soul. In reality you're really just a little hypocrite and have a high opinion of yourself- haha!"

She had been curled up in a ball in her bed. Luscious hair flowing and a light dress covering her small body.

Alastor had walked into the room she was occupying and had sat down next to her. He had spoken in a soft and caring voice.

"You don't have to try and stay holy while you're here in hell... This is a safe place where you can act out your hedonistic desires and not worry about being judged by anyone!"

"Jeez Alastor! I don't have such desires... My only desire right now is a fluffy blanket and some hot chocolate."

Alastor had snapped his fingers... He then had turned into a shadow, slipping away like sand and returning like a chilly breeze... With hot chocolate and a very fluffy blanket he had most definitely stolen from Charlie's bedroom.

Her eyes had widened and she had smiled.

"Oh my gosh..."

He had grinned in response. It wasn't like him acting on impulse, without deeper motives.

"I told you mon renard! This is the best place you could possibly be to try and relax! Here we are free from all the restrictions set on us in Heaven!"

"Thank you Alastor!"

She had never bought a thing he had told her and he knew it. But this act had somehow been calming this... this weird apprehension. The demon had somehow known that his time with her would be limited. She hadn't belonged.

In comparison to him, she was a saint, an angel even.

While she had been drinking her hot chocolate, he had taken the opportunity to really look at her, imprinting her features in his memory, engraving the shine of her fangs and the blush on her cheeks in his brain.

"Now just look at that cute little face of yours!"

"Oh, look as much as you want. I'll be gone soon anyway."

She had said that with such a confidence. He wouldn't have shown her, but she could sense it. He was sad.

Alastor had simply chuckled and then sighed.

"Yes I guess so. But for now just rest... Maybe tomorrow will be your lucky day!"

He gently stroked her hair, until her eyes had closed.

"Sleep well darling~"

That night she had decided he was someone to her and not just anyone.

She never knew, but that same night he had noticed how small she actually was compared to him and had genuinely smiled.

She smiled in her sleep, mimicking the motion he had made... months ago.

...time flies.

The car accident is now years away.

All the parts-> here!

🧡Please do not repost or directly copy my work.

🧡This fic's title is a lyric from 'Not about angels' by Birdy. It's not proof read, so forgive any spelling or grammar errors.

🧡The human Alastor fanart isn't mine. All credits go to the artist.

🧡I am aware this isn't everyone's cup of tea -writing wise or plot wise- but it was a spontaneous idea of mine I wanted to try and make work.

🧡dividers-> @saradika-graphics & @cafekitsune

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[kckt88]

A Time for Grief.

Summary:

In the aftermath of Blood & Cheese, Vaera and Aemond struggle to cope with the loss of their son Aemon.

Warning(s): Grief, Mourning, Child loss, Suicide attempt, Desperation.

Word Count: 1140.

Author Note: A companion piece to Harrenhal and the Rivers but can be read as a one-shot.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the House of The Dragon or Fire & Blood characters nor do I claim to own them. I do not own any of the images used.

Comments, likes, and reblogs are very much appreciated.

Ever since the funeral, Vaera had felt like she was stuck in an endless loop of grief, replaying Aemon’s death over and over again in her mind.

The way he stood in front of her and Rhaegar, so brave and fierce just like his father.

His struggles against the vile fiends who seized him, the way he thrashed, screamed, and kicked at his captors.

The way his innocent amethyst eyes widened in alarm as the blade slashed at his throat.

Vaera couldn’t stop seeing his little hand grasping out for hers as his blood poured onto the stone floor.

Even Rhaegar’s voice screaming for his father to come and save them will stay with her forever.

Every night she would pray that it was just a nightmare and when she woke, she would see her sweet boy again. But it was real. All of it. She didn’t know how much longer she stand the pain.

Then one day, in her grieving haze. She wordlessly rose from the chair in her chambers, left Rhaegar with the nanny and walked the length of the corridor, ignoring the looks of the concerned guards and maids as she walked past.

Where she was going, she didn’t know. What she was doing, she didn’t know. But she walked nonetheless, her bare feet slapping against the cold stone floor of the Red Keep.

Then she was there, the room where Aemon had died. It had been shut up and abandoned since, but Vaera pushed open the door and took a step inside.

The blood stains had been cleaned but Vaera could still see them. Running like rivers in every direction.

It was there, that pain in her chest. It wouldn’t go away. She just wanted to see her sweet boy again, to hear his voice.

Then like a smiling seductress, the tendrils of salvation reached out towards her.

The open window. Beckoning to her. For weeks she had been lost in a sea of darkness, but here was the light.

This was how she would see him again. Her sweet boy, her little dragon.

Vaera opened the window as wide as it would go and clambered up onto the windowsill.

Ignoring the panicked shouts of Ser Arryk who had found her chambers empty and chased after her.

“Get Prince Aemond. Quick”.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing. Vaera closed her eyes as the wind caressed her face.

Just as she was about to step forward, Vaera heard Cannibal roaring in the distance.

Almost as if he was begging her not to do it, she could feel his sadness and despair.

“I-I have to” whispered Vaera.

The squire raced through the Red Keep, towards the council chambers. Praying that he made in time.

Not even bothering to knock he burst through the wooden doors.

“P-Prince Aemond. Come quick”

“There is a council meeting in session you-“ raged Otto.

“-It’s Princess Vaera. S-She’s going to jump” shouted the young squire as he whirled around and raced out of the council chambers.

“WHAT” shrieked Aemond as he took off running after the squire, ignoring the frantic calls of his mother and brother.

Aemond’s heart was pounding in his chest as he chased after the squire.

Not to their chambers, but to the room where Aemon and Jaehaerys had been killed.

Ser Arryk was hovering near the door softly calling Vaera’s name, seemingly terrified to take another step inside the room.

When he came to a stop at the door, he understood Ser Arryk’s hesitation. 

Vaera was standing at the open window, her hands gripping the frame as she teetered on the edge.

“Issa jorrāelagon” whispered Aemond (My love).

“Nyke jaelagon naejot ūndegon zirȳla aril” replied Vaera (I want to see him again).

“Nyke gīmigon ao gaomagon, yn daor raqagon bisa” (I know you do, but not like this).

Vaera shook her head and closed her eyes.

“Kostilus issa jorrāelagon” begged Aemond (Please, my love).

“We’re never going to hear the sound of his laugh or see his face again” cried Vaera.

“W-We will. In our hearts”

“He made us so happy. Him and Rhaegar” said Vaera.

“We will talk about him, every single day and we’ll laugh, and we will cry. Vaera, no one will remember Aemon like we do”.

“H-How do I stop this pain? How do I make it go away?” wailed Vaera as she staggered on the edge of the windowsill.

“We deal with it together” said Aemond is voice wobbling.

“I-I just want him back. I want him in my arms” wailed Vaera.

“I know you do. But please Vaera, don’t do this. Think about Rhaegar, he still needs his mother” cried Aemond as he motioned for the Kings guard to stay where they were.

He didn’t want to spook Vaera, she was so close to the edge. One wrong move and she’d either slip or impulsively jump.

The Cannibal and Vhagar could be heard roaring ferociously in the distance.

“I don’t know how to live without Aemon”.

“Please, my love. Do not let me also suffer the agony of losing my wife” begged Aemond.

“A-Aemond I-I can’t-“

“You are the love of my life, my reason for existence. If you die. I die. I cannot live without you. Please come away from the ledge. Please don’t-“ said Aemond as he extended his hand and slowly walked forward.

“I don’t want to forget him” sobbed Vaera quietly as her body shook.

“We won’t. I promise” said Aemond seizing his chance as he quickly lurched forward, secured his arms around Vaera’s waist, and yanked her back from the window.

“How is she?” asked Aegon as he hovered near the door to Aemond and Vaera’s chambers.

“Sleeping, the maester gave her something” replied Aemond sadly as he stared at his wife’s sleeping form, her hands clutching one of Aemon’s old blankets.

“I-I’ve never seen her like that” whispered Aegon.

“I don’t know what to do brother. I-I-“ gasped Aemond, his breath catching in his throat.

Suddenly Aegon wrapped his arms around his brother and held him tight.

Aemond struggled against his brother for a moment before he broke down.

“I-I can’t s-stop-” exclaimed Aemond his face pressed against Aegon’s shoulder.

“-You don’t have to. Just let it out” urged Aegon.

Moments passed as the brothers embraced one another. Ignoring the members of the Kings guard who were hovering nearby.

“H-Helaena?” asked Aemond as he wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“Mother is always with her and the children” said Aegon softly.

“What about you?”.

“I can’t think about it. If I do I end up drinking to forget. I need to have a clear head right now. This cannot go unpunished. They took our sons. They will pay” said Aegon firmly.

“Fire and Blood” replied Aemond.

“Fire and Blood” repeated Aegon nodding.

[diacripticcomplex]

Shu x Yui smut (Yui going back in time again?? Optional)

Shu x Yui: (Crusader time period)

TW: War and sexual violence, rape, murder.

Shu’s POV:

Our calvary managed to breech into the desert kingdom, it was quite beautiful but I just wanted to take a moment to myself…it’s been a long war, I didn’t sign up for this, nor did I lead or devise any plans that was mainly Ayato and Reiji. I don’t care for glory or power, I just want to be left in peace..

Roaming this desert area was a pain, it was unbearably hot and due to the war there weren’t any women in sight. Most of them hiding, waiting for us to take them for the capture, the spoils of war, we were allowed to do as we wished with these women, we killed their men, enslaved their children…it was the way. I sigh out to myself. “What’s wrong Shu~?” Laito’s annoying voice sang out. I don’t say anything to him. “Where are the women??!” Kanato yelled out, throwing his sword to the ground, it made an irritatingly loud sound. “They’re probably hiding in that temple over there” Laito stated, and pointed in finger to a large structure it was quite lovely, the art and the color, it was a sandy dune nothing like the churches that were built in Europe.

We all make our way to the temple, Laito was indeed correct, the women were there and they were in for a difficult time, but as I said before, this was the way of war. My brothers wasted no time and began to defile the women they found. Reiji had them strung up, naked and slice cuts all over them. He’s usually not like this, but war took away his gentlemen aspect I guess..the triplets raped women together then killed them slowly. “This isn’t right…” Subaru said to me, we were the only two not participating in this slow slaughter. “There’s no point in stopping them…I don’t care I’m going to find a place to sleep..” I tell him, and I got up the stairs on this lavish temple. There was a dark room that I entered it was much colder in this corridor also, it felt nice, I couldn’t hear the screams of the women anymore.

“You..! You can’t be here..!” A human woman shouted at me, just when I was enjoying the quietness. “Yea? Tell it to someone who cares, get out my way mortal” I reply back to her, she looks furious, I got a better look at her, she had silky slightly curled platinum hair and pink eyes, she was very pale for a desert person, she must be royalty..the princess Yui it had to be her.., always indoors she’s wealthy enough to be kept inside. I come up to her, closing in on any space she believed she had the right to, I shoot my hand to grab her face, such soft delicate features, I want her on her knees. “On your knees, we control this kingdom now, you have no choice but to submit to me here..or you’ll suffer much worse by my brothers, make your choice…” I gently tell her. “Your brothers..?” She questioned, I nodded and explained to her all the vile things they are doing to the women of her kingdom that she is supposed to protect, her face twists with sadness and fear, it wasn’t a bad look at all. “Please don’t do this to them.” She begs, I chuckled. “I can’t do anything about them…better pray my brothers give them a swift death…you however are a real treat, you smell awfully appetizing..” I state then lick her neck, I took a bite out of it right after, she hollered in pain, her cries were music to my ears. “I don’t want this..get off me!” She screamed and with all her pathetic strength she pushed me off her. “Alright I’ll give you to my brothers then..” I state firmly, and gripping her by her hair, felt like silk in my hands. I dragged her all the way downstairs like this, she kicked and screamed, she’s such a nuisance but it’s definitely giving me some energy.

“Who the fuck is this? She smells great” Ayato remarked and flashed his stupid smile. Reiji turned, he was holding a fresh head he just decapitated. “She does indeed smell quite ravishing.” He commented, all my brothers even Subaru were intrigued by this woman. “Her blood is of the finest quality..I gave her a choice she hasn’t made it yet..” I say out to them, I think after looking at all the disbursing things my brothers committed towards these innocent women she grew mortified.

“You’re all monsters…” she whispered, her eyes widened with fear, gripping her flimsy cross. “Make your choice human..” I tell her, she gulped. “Fine..I choose you.” I smirked at this answer, then I grabbed her by the back of her neck and bent her down, pulling up her dress, I guess desert women don’t wear under garments, must be too hot for that…not complaining. Her skin needed to be defiled with my handprints. I smacked her butt, hard. Instantly the skin turned bright red. I was already half hard, and decided to just take her then and there, in front of my brothers, I didn’t care what they thought..or what she wanted I cared only for my pleasure and power over this foolish human. “Know your place…you’re my slave now princess Yui..” I say, sadism and lust dripped in my voice, her moans enticed me further, she cursed at me and begged for me to stop already, I didn’t want to, and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it, she’s nothing now, nothing but my plaything.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Photograph by Guido Harari.

* * *

"Lou was sick for the last couple of years, first from treatments of interferon, a vile but sometimes effective series of injections that treats hepatitis C and comes with lots of nasty side effects. Then he developed liver cancer, topped off with advancing diabetes. We got good at hospitals. He learned everything about the diseases, and treatments. He kept doing tai chi every day for two hours, plus photography, books, recordings, his radio show with Hal Willner and many other projects. He loved his friends, and called, texted, e-mailed when he couldn’t be with them. We tried to understand and apply things our teacher Mingyur Rinpoche said – especially hard ones like, 'You need to try to master the ability to feel sad without actually being sad.'

"Last spring, at the last minute, he received a liver transplant, which seemed to work perfectly, and he almost instantly regained his health and energy. Then that, too, began to fail, and there was no way out. But when the doctor said, 'That’s it. We have no more options,' the only part of that Lou heard was 'options' – he didn’t give up until the last half-hour of his life, when he suddenly accepted it – all at once and completely. We were at home – I’d gotten him out of the hospital a few days before – and even though he was extremely weak, he insisted on going out into the bright morning light.

"As meditators, we had prepared for this – how to move the energy up from the belly and into the heart and out through the head. I have never seen an expression as full of wonder as Lou’s as he died. His hands were doing the water-flowing 21-form of tai chi. His eyes were wide open. I was holding in my arms the person I loved the most in the world, and talking to him as he died. His heart stopped. He wasn’t afraid. I had gotten to walk with him to the end of the world. Life – so beautiful, painful and dazzling – does not get better than that. And death? I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love.

"At the moment, I have only the greatest happiness and I am so proud of the way he lived and died, of his incredible power and grace.

"I’m sure he will come to me in my dreams and will seem to be alive again. And I am suddenly standing here by myself stunned and grateful. How strange, exciting and miraculous that we can change each other so much, love each other so much through our words and music and our real lives.--Laurie Anderson on Lou Reed for Rolling Stone, November 6, 2013.

According to Will Hermes, in his biography "Lou Reed: The King of New York," Reed's final words to Laurie Anderson were “Take me into the light.”

[Follies Of God]

[boxoftheskyking]

@shayvaalski FRIEND

I'm so excited to talk to you

So I saw this play, which was really lovely, and it's essentially about the writer and their relationship with their father, who was emotionally withdrawn and never really connected with his child, never talked to them, impossible to please, etc. Not a good relationship, caused a lot of harm. And as a result, the writer and their family did not have a memorial for the father when he died. So the play kind of functions as the memorial, dealing with the realities of who the man was, but also enacting a ritual - with the writer playing their own father in the piece. And at the end, he gets a really lovely and moving sendoff into death. There's acknowledgement of the harm that was done and never resolved, but then there's still this acknowledgment that this person has died, and a reverence and tenderness about that.

And I also have been seeing some arguments on the internet about certain characters in fiction who continue to have relationships with family members who have harmed them. People saying "characters should be allowed to just cut these people off, it should be normalized to not interact with people who have harmed them." Which, I mean, I feel some kind of way about bc they are fictional characters and cutting of the source of the major conflict in the story seems.... antithetical to storytelling. But whatever, I get the thing that they mean in terms of real life.

But then in engaging with this play, I saw this writer wrestling with the contradictions of this very harmful and painful relationship, while also feeling a need to acknowledge the death of a person in a ritual way. And it's Not "forgiveness" (which is not a thing I believe in personally - I get that the framework is helpful for some people, but to me it's super Christian and not useful for me, it's not the same thing as "healing" or "picking up and moving on" to me). And it's not really about the person who did the harm, it's about the person dealing with how to think about that person. It's not about the father, it's about the writer - the father is dead and is not watching the play.

But it really made me think about the principle of the Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person. And it's so easy to frame that is "it means unhoused people and people who are different from you." But it also means Assholes and Dipshits. And people who do harm.

And like even the person who has committed the most vile acts has inherent worth as a living being. And it actually makes the actions worse, I think? Because you have this spark of the divine in being Animated Meat and THIS is what you do with it? You have the tools to do good and all the potential in the world to nurture and wonder and care and you choose to hurt instead. But even after the action (since I don't believe in sin), the badness is not Inherent. It's chosen, sometimes repeatedly. And so when a villainous person (or abusive person, or person who has harmed willfully) dies, there's still a body-to-body instinct to acknowledge that the body that once had life no longer does.

It doesn't excuse and action and doesn't mean you should be Sad about it, but I think a thing religion does for me is challenges me to live with uncomfortable questions and in ambiguous spaces. Where maybe I'm not sad that a person is gone, or that they hurt, but I still believe that they are not Worthless, and that the fact of life within their pile of cells is still divine.

And to me it's different from like a Martyrdom thing where we suffer and say You can do bad things to me and I Forgive you and it makes me Shinier. But we can be like "What the fuck are you doing you dipshit, cut it out" and still believe that they have capacity to make other choices. Engage with the reality of harm and reduce the ability to harm people, but not decide that this still-living person is fully defined forever and could never act differently. Because harmfulness and callousness and all these negative things aren't inherent and born into people, they're actions chosen. Which we all have the potential to choose and need to work at not choosing. But the life and sentience itself is worthy of acknowledgment.

I don't know, I guess it's kind of basic when you think about it, but it's a challenging thing for my mind to hold, and makes me pull away from easy good/bad thinking, which I think is good for me. Which is I think what this old minister of my church from before the UU days mean by "freedom, fellowship, and character in religion," which I've always liked.

ANYWAY I always tell people I'm religious but not spiritual bc I don't really care about anything metaphysical/truths of the universe but I do find religion helpful as a way to make choices and spend my time and pursue integrity.

Blah blah

[imsparky2002]

Canon vs Creepster: Kagami

Canon!Kagami *Bowing gracefully* You have quite the extrodinary outfit. I have a love for western films, watched them all the time back in Japan.

*Kagami Herushingu smiles, surprised at how... calm this girl is to see another version of herself. She tips the hat in response*

Herushingu: Well, thank ya kindly, darlin’! Name’s Herushingu, pleasure to meet ya!

Canon!Kagami: Kagami Tsurugi. I must say, your accent is lovely, yet is quite different from your name. Are you by any chance American?

Herushingu: Yes’m, Born and raised in Texas!

Canon!Kagami: Hmm... how interesting. I don't sense any sort of falsehood about you. Clearly this is the result of some sort of accident. Are you by any chance from an alternate reality?

*Herushingu's eyes widen in surprise. She's right on the money!*

Herushingu: Just precisely, ma’am. Where I’m from, my kin are monster hunters, same as I am ma’self!

Canon!Kagami: Oh! And by monsters, you are referring to more supernatural species? In our world, the only sort of monsters are those who were changed by the villainous Hawk Moth.

*Thinking of the butterfly, Herushingu can't help but snigger a little*

Canon!Kagami: Yes, yes, he looks as stupid as his name.

*Herushingu sobers back up and tells her counterpart about her team and the type of monsters they face*

Herushingu: Exactly right on that front, darlin’! We’re talkin’ real monsters, vampires, phantoms, demons! The kind that live to terrorize the in’cent folk! Not to mention the most vile. Human killers!

Canon!Kagami: What gives one person the right to decide when another’s life should end. It’s just…dishonorable!

Herushingu: S'like my mama says. "Humans are the only 'monsters', because they have no reason to kill."

*Canon!Kagami looks a little jealous and sad that her mother isn't as close to her.*

Canon!Kagami: Does your mother treat you well?

*Herushingu frowns, looking concerned for her counterpart.*

Herushingu: Yeah, she can be a bit rough on the edges sometimes, but we get on just fine! I get the feelin’ ya need someone to talk to, hon.

Canon!Kagami: *Trying to stay strong* I... I try hard to stay strong, in order to make her proud. But sometimes... *voice quivering* I feel as though I am nothing but a disappointment.

*She desperately hold back a sniffle, as Herushingu embraces her, letting the girl sob into her shoulders. It pains her to think of a world where her mama would treat her with such cruelty.*

Herushingu: Here, now, that’s a load’a nonsense! I’ve only just met ya, but so can already tell ya got a fightin’ spirit! The only person who’s standards ya need to live up to are your own, and I’m sure you got plenty to be proud of!

Canon!Kagami: *Sniffing* I... I'm sorry for breaking down. That isn't like me. *Trying to regain composure* I... I suppose I like fencing. I mean... my mother made sure that happened. *Frowning once again* Do... do you like fencing?

Herushingu: (smiles) I do love a good sword-crossin’ every now and again! But if I’m bein’ honest, my trusty guns get me through the most battles!

Canon!Kagami: What is a... gun?

Herushingu: (Blinks a few times) Oh, boy…

Canon!Kagami: *A little bit later* So, do you have heroes you fight alongside? Some sort of team?

Herushingu: (Smiles) Yeah, I got ma partners, Marinette and Adrien.

Canon!Kagami: *Feels a quiver in her stomach once again.* Oh... what are they like?

*Herushingu tells her about their jobs and personalities, and notices Canon!Kagami looking sadder and sadder as she continues*

Herushingu: Well, Marinette’s real spunky, she’s somethin’ of a mad scientist! Sometimes I don’t know what she’s talkin’ about, but it’s cute how excited she gets! And Adrien…well, he’s one of a kind. So sweet, but so lively at the same time! Don’t know what I’d do without em to be honest!

*Canon!Kagami sobs once again. Memories of events from canon are flashing through her mind. Herushingu frowns. What on earth happened between her and her partners in this world?*

Herushingu: What... what's wrong?

Canon!Kagami: It's... it's complicated.

*Herushingu's eyes narrow. Something happened to this girl, and she wants to know what*

Herushingu: Please tell me... if ya want to.

*And she did. She told Herushingu everything that had gone down. All of the highs and lows.... and Herushingu was PISSED*

Herushingu: Darlin’…I don’t even know WHAT to say. They put you through hell emotionally and yet you still stand by em! If they don’t realize how lucky they are to have you in their lives, I may do something I’d regret later!

Canon!Kagami: No... please don't. They're perfect for each other, just not for anyone else. Focus on your own partners, keep taking good care of them.

Herushingu: (Sighs) If you say so, lil lady!

Canon!Kagami: ... Is there any way I can visit you?

Herushingu: Well, here lemme give you my number. I got a few friends who know some witchy stuff, so they should connect across dimensions. Call whenever ya want!

Canon!Kagami: I will, thanks!

And that’s the last of the trio meeting their canon self! I feel that Kagami was done dirty in the show. Not just by Marinette and Adrien, but also with how the writers decided her and FELIX would be a good idea. I may do the villains and classmates as well, but I don’t know yet. Once again thank you to Weeby for assisting with the writing, and make sure to check out the previous crossovers with Marinette and Adrien. Reblog, reply, post and ask to spread the love. @artzychic27 @msweebyness

[ball-jointed-constellations]

Something I'll never understand is how people can be so fucking vile towards other people. Like it's really not that easy to "just get a diagnosis". You may have free resources where you are, but I DON'T. My pain is still real regardless of diagnosis or not. Which I personally do have but doctors refuse to treat because it's not severe enough or my insurance won't cover it and I can't afford it. I don't have the luxury of just going over to the next town for a second opinion or to see if someone else can treat for less. my area is DOMINATED BY A HEALTHCARE MONOPOLY! we literally have hospitals sitting empty because no one can compete with them here, and they can't buy those hospitals because they'd legally be a monopoly then. There are no small clinics that do free Health anything here, and that is the sad reality a lot of people live in. Anti rq, Anti transID people please please please open your damn eyes to situations outside your own, and understand a good amount rq/transid people are not trying to appropriate your resources but are trying to cope with their own situations.

I'm not lazy for not being able to get appropriate healthcare. I've tried, I've gone over an hour away for healthcare and never got help. I've been in constant pain since I was a child, and no one has cared enough to actually do anything. My parents tried their best, took me to places that claim to be the best, and I was still failed by healthcare places. I never lied about my pain or my health. I was failed by people who were supposed to help me and now I id as I do as my means of coping with that repeated let down. I am sure there are others out there like me. Antis stop being so close minded it only hurts other disabled folks you don't understand.

[scoobydoodean]

I just want you to know how disheartened I constantly am in the SPN fandom and how I have to constantly unfollow SPN blogs because of the way Dean gets vilified to hell and back in posts. It's so hard for me as a victim of child abuse that really relates to Dean's struggles to see Dean get accused of being abusive or scrutinized as though he were in the same shoes as John. I hate the way it's all about who is worse to each other... Sam or Dean... who is the true victim between them... when they are just both victims of impossible circumstances that get through it all by loving and caring for each other. They both do shitty stuff but everyone wants to paint one as a saint and another as a villain and it's so tasteless. They are both sad little men whose only happiness is their brother, who went through it all with them, who has always been there. Idk, I just wish people appreciated more that Sam and Dean have been through hell together and they're both a bit fucked up but Dean isn't some villain and neither is Sam. Your takes are so refreshing it's so nice to see someone who gets it. Thanks!

❤️ None of these guys are villains! They are fucked up and sometimes they do fucked up things but they are overwhelmingly well-meaning, and even when they aren't they make sense? Like I would rather talk all day about why they are the way they are than spend time vilifying them (unless I am fucking around with crits in which case Sam and Cas are evil! Horrible! Villains of all time, I tell you!)

I think it's a damn shame that a chunk of people here would rather do abuse victim vs. abuser hours with the show—in such a hypocritical way too—and this is not the first time I have, in my notifs, had someone tell me how upsetting they find that vilification from the perspective of their personal experience. Like this is a group of fans who seem to pride themselves on being "sensitive" to victims of abuse and accuse people like me of being "abuse apologists" and being "insensitive" to real people by not "acknowledging" that Dean is an abuser (as if that wasn't a take built from a vile level of hypocrisy, cherry-picking, and willful misinterpretation) but I have had you and people with related experiences in my notifs many times saying how upsetting that framing of Dean is to them based on their own experiences with abuse and relating to Dean in that.

I happen to think a balanced perspective on the show and it's clearly-meant-to-be-sympathetic and well-meaning characters with various traumas and outlooks, presents a much broader stage for real compassion for real people with very diverse lived experiences actually—instead of a state of being where only one type of victim of bad experiences deserves compassion. I mean that's just if this is how people want to talk about Supernatural (2005)—if they wanna get preachy. Personally, I just find the entire argument—the way everything is framed to vilify Dean and absolve everyone around him of any bad action—super gross and manipulative and sometimes I can tell it isn't on purpose and it's coming from a place of someone's own pain and trauma, but other times it feels 100% intentional and then it feels extra ugly.

It isn't just the cherry picking and the dismissal but also how manipulative the framing becomes in order to support the goal of villainizing Dean, and how that manipulative framing in itself can invoke memories of ones own experience with an abuser's manipulations to make them believe they "deserved" the abuse they got or it was actually all their fault. And like. None of this means people can't do whatever the fuck they want in terms of interpreting the show but I just wish they'd stop being so preachy about it and talking about how sensitive and compassionate they are when they are triggering a lot of feelings for people with different experiences from their own—they just don't give a shit about those people or refuse to see them because they don't find their experiences relatable.

I really think people just need to watch the show and 1) learn how to look at someone they don't initially find relatable and work on understanding how they tick, starting from a blank slate perspective and guided by the desire to look at them in good faith instead of seek out flaws and evil intentions 2) learn how to not like a character without jumping to find a moral justification for not liking them. It is okay to just not like a character—to say they leave a bad taste in your mouth. You don't have to start making moral judgements about people who don't feel the same way about that character or invent things to frame the character as some evil manipulative mastermind.

Like at one time I would say—the first time I watched SPN—I was a MAJOR Sam hater. I thought he was horrifically selfish and controlling and I thought he was an ugly, manipulative man-baby brat. So like from the perspective of how I thought of Sam, I can say I can understand how someone might come to similar conclusions about Dean and then feed those conclusions and build on them. But at some point you have to take a step back and ask yourself what you want from this story and why you're watching it, and I don't think the answer should be, "To make myself miserable and marinate in increasing loathing for this character and the story as a whole as I continuously look for more reasons to hate some guy who is increasingly becoming somebody I just made up while the characters around him continue to love and support him and be willing to die for him".

[jayahult]

Spell Alignment in TTRPGs

So. a while back I saw a post about D&D (and close cousins Pathfinder and similar games) and the sort of implicit problems with the morality systems of those games as it relates to magic. As a really basic example, a lot of spells are cordoned off as being considered basically, fundamentally evil, particularly if they relate to necromancy. From a meta perspective this sorta makes sense. The default party is assumed to be either explicitly on the side of the righteous or at the very least mercenary enough to realize that the Cult of the Demon of Backstabbing Machiavellianism are not good business partners, or some combination of the two. You cordon off certain spells to be "baddie only" and you can essentially tweak those abilities however you please and not really upset player balance, while still keeping the option open for an "evil" party.

The problem comes with how spells are labeled as "evil" and the sort of underlying implications of those labels. The classic example is raise dead. You take a corpse, and turn it into a mindless servant that does whatever you tell it to for a period of time. The underlying assumption here is sort of obvious: you're desecrating a corpse and using them as a slave, which is always an evil act. The problem is that this creates a dissonance with basically any contact with reality. The soul has already quit the body, left it behind, and the corpse is a shell. Animating raw clay or iron to serve you is a morally neutral act, but when that raw material used to be a person, it suddenly becomes taboo because of underlying assumptions the creators have about corpses, not because the act of using those raw materials is inherently immoral. And this isn't even getting into the fact that, theoretically, someone could willingly consent to have their corpse brought back as a servant. After all, in real life, people donate their corpses to science or to donate organs all the time. Plus, that servant could easily be used to do good or neutral acts. Nothing really prevents you from running a farm or building a house with undead servants besides maybe the fact that they've got bad ability scores for it. I guess you could argue that you're undercutting the pay of living workers, thus it's evil, but you get the idea.

This dissonance only gets amplified when you start looking at combat-oriented spells and classes that are cordoned off for being evil. To really get into the highest level of this disparity, we can look at The Book of Vile Darkness for 3rd Edition D&D. TBVD was designed explicitly as a sourcebook for more options for evil characters, whether in the party or on the DM side of the screen. Some of these spells make sense for why they're explicitly considered evil. For example, befoul and despoil poison and kill water and food supplies on a mass scale, something often considered a dick move across cultures. However, a lot of them are just... cartoonishly violent? Slash tongue is an eeeevil cantrip that instantly cuts your opponents tongue. It deals one whole point of damage and makes them take some penalties for a few rounds from pain. Sorrow is an eeeevil enchantment spell that makes someone really sad so they take a -3 on all rolls for like, a minute or two at most. Drown is an eeevil spell that makes a target's lungs instantly fill with with water, which you might think would instantly kill them but rules-wise it just makes them start to drown on dry land, with associated penalties to anything to do with speech using their lungs. My point is, when you look at a lot of these spells, they aren't inherently more evil than a lot of the stuff you'd give to players. Acid splash is a very basic spell available to a lot of spellcasters in most editions of D&D that does what it says on the tin: you splash magically-conjured acid onto a target, dealing acid damage to them. In real life, that would be called, you know, an acid attack, and is widely considered to be one of the more heinous forms of assault that can be performed on someone because in addition to being potentially lethal in the right circumstance, it can also leave someone with permanent, visible and disfiguring scars. Fireball, a mainstay of wizards throughout D&D history, is essentially an incendiary bomb that turns enemies into charcoal. The ways in which you could abuse dominate person or polymorph barely need mentioning. Perhaps most weird out of the bunch is the vermin lord - essentially a prestige class who functions sort of as a druid, but for bugs. And they're evil!... because bugs are gross? It's really unclear why vermin are inherently more evil than other animals besides sole, out of universe disgust factor on the part of the creators.

So, how do we resolve this problem in D&D? I dunno. I mean, let's be real here. D&D is not really the best TTRPG for the fineries of moral debate over whether your wizard is breaking international law by casting cloudkill. It's not really that sort of game in any edition. There aren't really hard and fast rules in the base game for determining what alignment particular actions fall into, just general ideas and concepts that are nebulous and shift from edition to edition and even adventure to adventure. The game, mechanically speaking, is not particularly interested in the exact morality of a character, and it's become less interested in this over time across editions. Paladins in 5e, for example, are no longer limited to being lawful good, instead having a specific code of conduct that they adhere to. And from a pure play perspective, I think this change is probably for the better. Without both a strong mechanical system and consistent outlook, all alignment does is 1) delineate what targets are acceptable, 2) delineate what mechanical options are available to certain kinds of players and 3) create arguments at the table with no answer in the rulebook that grind play to a halt.

(This whole myopia did incidentally inspire the only real D&D adventure that I'd like to run someday. The core hook is that one of the player's friends is being attacked by devils, and no one is quite sure why. The players do some fighting, try to figure out the mystery, and then eventually a higher-up from Hell intervenes. He apologizes and explains that the friend in question was targeted as part of a clerical error; a person who was trying to avoid damnation got confused with the friend, and he'll gladly pay for any damages - this sort of thing rarely happens anymore, the first slip-up in a few millennia. When the players inquire further, or get mad at his failure, he will explain the actual structure of the universe. It is, inherently and irrevocably "just." Every good person gets a good afterlife. Every bad person gets a bad afterlife. Every neutral person gets a neutral afterlife. In history, no good deed has ever gone unrewarded and no bad deed has ever gone unpunished. The gods actually engineered the exact scenario that allows adventuring parties like theirs to proliferate. This is because adventuring parties are able to deal with things like vampires, ghosts, liches and other semi-immortal creatures, which are seen as basically trying to "cheat the system" and get out of their just desserts. And then he reassures them that they're doing great work, leaves, and lets the party sort of stew in that revelation. Their reaction - hopefully to try to overturn the system - then becomes the overarching metaplot.)

There is something there to the design element of "action / morality tied abilities" in the context of TTRPGs, though. I think if you really wanted to go all out with it, you'd have to crib a bit from White Wolf-style morality bars, where players have sliding scales representing where they are morally, but instead of relating to humanity, it could relate to different kinds of and levels of magic. As you unlock more powerful abilities and magic, the restrictions you face are more and more stringent. A level one life magician can only take a life if it would prevent another person's death, whereas a level ten life magician has to literally watch where they step lest the crush an insect beneath their foot and lose some of their power. I think there's something there as a design idea that naturally plays into roleplaying.

[little-whats-her-name]

Giving my thoughts while watching The Dressmaker for the first time, so there will be spoilers

FYI the first piece of media I watched with Kate Winslet in it was not, like most, Titanic (I still haven't watched Titanic) but HBO's The Regime, thus I'm still wrapping my head around seeing Kate play a role that isn't Chancellor Elena Vernham

I don't know what's weirder, hearing Kate Winslet speak with an Aussie accent or watching her smoke. But Lenny, the lung cancer!

Kate even says "hm" like an Aussie, but you can tell who the real ones are

Liam looks identical to Chris

Wouldn't be an Australian film without Shane Jacobson. I swear it must be in the contract for whenever a screenwriter wants to set a film in Australia - must have Shane Jacobson playing a dad or, at the very least, a father-figure. I met him after Rocky Horror in 2018 (he was the narrator). He was very kind, stopped someone from cutting in front of me for autographs

Say what you want about the cop-type guy, he matched his hat and skirt to his uniform top and tie very well

Just had a Freaky Friday moment: Nearly bit right through my finger in the footy scene, meanwhile my dad could not have cared less about Myrtle's appearance and was pretty much watching the same scene like "mmm footy". No other thoughts in his head at all. So I'm questioning my own thought process

Thought she was nude but the black dress and the decolletage is nice

I don't get how changing her dress made the opposite team get distracted but alright

Pot brownies!

I've seen the Liam Hemsworth stripping scene in every single trailer. I pointed this out to my dad, who replied, "Gotta give the viewers something to look forward to." 🤣

The actor that plays Gertrude's mum would make a great Emily Weiss

"Give it! Give it!" Kate, your Elena Vernham is showing

Same with "Teddy, look." and "No no no no no d-don't!" and "Those vile idiots, I invited them up here." and "God, she must have broken something when she fell." and "But... she's in pain!" and "She would've hated it, she would've hated this one!"

Also the "But... she's in pain!" delivery is me when my mum calls Elena crazy

Love that Teddy finds out that Myrtle's technically responsible for a boy's death and responds by making out with her

Cracked up laughing at Chancellor Elena Vernham's face and voice saying, "It's Superman!"

"I AM NO LONGER CURSED!"

Oh no, we've got Kate Winslet on a boat, is this intertextual referencing?

She's gonna get Titanic flashbacks, they're on a boat and Teddy's gone

My dad was making dinner and missed this part, so I had to fill him in:

Me (distraught): You were right about the wheat thing!

My dad: What?

Me: Liam's character just suffocated in the wheat!

My dad (having no empathy for Myrtle whatsoever): So, she is cursed.

Like no, dad, don't say that in front of the fragile Kate Winslet character, she's already blaming herself, she doesn't need your confirmation

Kate's got one panicked sobbing voice but it's a good one

Ay there's those hymn number things that were in Reefer Madness (2005), but unlike in Reefer Madness, none of the hymn numbers are 420

That's such an Elena mourning outfit

Ooh I reckon that extra's in Hairspray (2007). Like the casting directors just call her up whenever they need a background character for a film set in the 1950s-1960s

"10 shillings." "12 shillings." Makes me think of "5 galleons." "I'm your brother!" "Ten galleons."

"At least you've got Una." Extra in front right's reaction is hilarious and perfect. Should've got a raise for that.

Seeing Myrtle asleep is making me think of that one ep of The Regime

Makeup guys did a good job, very realistic exhausted, red-eyes-from-crying look

Kate makes "Thank you, Trudy." sound like "Go fuck yourself, Trudy."

Now Kate looks like Elena in ep 6

The pot brownies are back!

Had to die right in the middle of the town for the perfect shot (as in the way the scene's set, there's no bullet)

Myrtle being sad and drunk is such a mood, so's her outfit

HAHA I have to gif that scene for Mae

The way she reads the letter 😂 "Winyerp... drama club..." She's so hangover, I love her so much, I'll hold her hair back if she vomits. I'll just step right through the TV screen. I wrote a song about a similar thing

And I have to gif THIS scene for Mae

"Marigold, this is very wrong!" "Yes... But I'm unstable."

The contrast between the pastel tiles and his dark blood is so pretty

Shane looks so good in Rocco makeup, with his beard and everything

Ah there's the clip that's in the trailer, editors did a good job spoiling the twist ending

"Where are you going, miss?" Home? "Paris." (disappointed voice) Aw

"You never met the rubbish." is a great final line

[dreamypqulson]

— gentle hands, crueler mind

summary: when you are going to take things to the next level with cordelia, things go south. or rather, you own head does.

pairing: cordelia goode x reader

warning: talk of sexual assault

a/n: i wasn’t going to post this because it’s just a comfort fic for my personal experience…but i figured, why not, because maybe it could comfort other people who can relate too.

word count: 1600

Cordelia was the first person who had touched you without completely shattering you. Cordelia knew how to maneuver your emotions, she knew how to covert your anguish into pleasure.

Cordelia had never used you for her own greater good, and you weren't accustomed to that just yet.

That's why, Cordelia's hand exploring your body for the first time had felt like touching fresh burn marks; matter how gentle, it was going to hurt.

When you were at your most vulnerable in front of Cordelia; nothing but your undergarments, it didn't feel that bad. It felt good. And the older woman's gaze staring down at you with nothing except desire had made you feel genuinely wanted for once.

You and Cordelia were being vulnerable together, it didn't feel so much like a show that you were putting on for somebody.

This felt raw, real, it felt loving. Naturally, you're own head decided to betray your lust. Images flashed behind your eyelids. With every blink you could see the memories play out for you, over, and over again. It soon turned into everything you saw. Everywhere you looked. Cordelia's hands were suddenly aggressive and grubby.

You pushed the body off of you. The weight that was keeping you secured on this bed. You needed off. That wasn't Cordelia.

You ran off towards the bathroom. Nobody could hurt you there. You were alone.

Knees were up to your chest, and you were sitting in the corner of the bathroom. It felt safe there. As safe as you could get from your own mind, from this evil world.

You heard the old door creak, and Cordelia's silhouette walking towards you out of the corner of your eye. Your girlfriends steps are light, and delicate, everything that he wasn't.

You drop your head to your knees. Everything was too bright. It was two in the morning, yet you still wanted everything to dim some more. You wanted it all to be quiet.

"Sweetheart" Cordelia said. It was too loud, too much. You couldn't breathe, you couldn't do this. Not right now. Not ever.

Cordelia kneeled down, only a foot away from you. She was cautious, and slow. She didn't want to overwhelm, didn't want to frighten further. However, the urgency she felt to find out what was wrong, and repair the issue, had been something she is trying so hard repress for the moment.

"Sweetheart. It's me, okay? It's Cordelia. Can I touch you?" She asks for your consent first. Her voice ever so soft. She was so gentle, so brittle in such a heavy storm, yet nothing ever seems to shatter her.

"Wait" you said through the single gasp of air that you had managed to intake, because you need to figure out how to breathe first, before taking on another task.

She nods, simply. It was a simple request; just wait a minute. But it felt nearly impossible for her to hold still.

You slightly leaned back, stretching out your stomach. The curled position you had been sitting in felt safe, it felt warm, but it had also felt like it blocked your breathing pathway.

You took a deep intake of air, and slowly let it out.

"O-okay. You can now."

Cordelia scooted closer, now sitting criss-cross on the cold, tile floors. She tugs you onto her lap, and your head makes its home on her chest. You don't deserve to have someone touch your vile skin with such tenderness. To have someone hold you at your most vulnerable and tell you, it's all going to be okay.

You feel uncomfortable, feel the need to scrape off all the skin on your bones. "Tell me, my love, what's making you hurt?" You wanted to tell her all the things, wanted to release the anger, sadness, and pain, and have her throw it into the abyss like she always would. Always did.

But you simply couldn't. It was too heavy, too strong, too disgusting. It wouldn't fit down the long, dark hole of nothingness that other pain was already occupying.

You've never told Cordelia. You weren't planning on it either. The past was the past, she didn't have to know. But now you found yourself stuck between two roads. Run away, or lose the woman you love because 'no' was too difficult for a boy to understand.

"I can't- I can't. Please don't make me." Please forget that you found me violently sobbing on the bathroom floor after i've pushed you off of me.

You began pulling at your hair. Anything. Anything to take this pain away. Anything to let your anger out without accidentally hurting your girlfriend.

But this hurt her the most. No punch, or slap, or kick from the most powerful person on earth could ever compare to the pain Cordelia felt seeing you in such distress.

She grabbed both of your hands, gentle, but with such a force that you had no choice but to let go of your strands of hair. She unwrapped your fists, and then intertwined her fingers with yours.

"You can tell me absolutely anything," she said against your ear. If she hadn't been so close, you wouldn't have heard her.

Her breath against your soft flesh was enough to ground you. That familiar lisp, curling around her words, had anchored you back down to steadiness.

"No, no, no. You'll find me disgusting, Cordelia. I can't. I don't want you to know. I never did."

So you had been suffering for awhile now, is what Cordelia had gathered.

"Honey, look at me." She lifted your chin so she could convey the seriousness in her next choice of words. You realized, you both had, that this was the first time you've looked her in the eyes tonight. You saw the fear, and the sadness in her, and it had pushed those possible thoughts to tell her back down.

"You are my soulmate. My person. My love. My best friend. I could never, ever think you're disgusting. Nothing you do, nothing anyone does or did to you can change that. You'll always be my sweet y/n, forever and always."

You sobbed, while your face had found it's place on Cordelia's neck for comfort. Her scent, it had made you feel as if you had never smelt anything in your entire life. Lavender and vanilla, she smelt like the perfume that you bought her. It brought back memories. Good memories. For a moment, you've forgotten why you're crying.

"I'm so tired of fighting this external battle with myself, Delia" you breathe. It's too sharp for your throat to handle. You cough, and Cordelia was going to get up to get you water, but you grounded your weight so she couldn't leave you. "I'm so tired of everyone suffering because of my mistakes."

"Baby, what are you talking about?" Cordelia had never suffered from everything you've ever thrown at her. Not that she could remember. But if she lost some of her memory tomorrow, she still wouldn't doubt it.

"I trusted him and- and he hurt me. And everyone blames me. Everyone thinks i'm disgusting."

"Oh." Cordelia knows. The pad of her thumb comes up to stroke the ridge of your cheekbone. "You're not disgusting."

"Yes I am." You speak so aggressively, much so that you nearly startle Cordelia. "You don't know." And you never will. You don't have any intentions of telling Cordelia.

"I do." For a moment in time, your blood boils, and almost burns your insides. She must've read you thoughts. But when Cordelia elaborates, your icy expression thaws. "I overheard you fighting with your family over the phone earlier. I was going to bring it up, but I wanted to wait for the right time."

You want to hide, but the only safe place you know is Cordelia. You always felt safe with her. Like you could completely shatter in Cordelia's hands, and trust that she would put you back together. But right now, her eyes staring down at you feel like they're burning your skin.

Still, you bury my face in the crook of her neck. Cordelia does not move you, she lets your fragile body rest. You don't understand why you haven't been thrown off of her yet. Why you haven't been shamed.

Cordelia wouldn't do that, but you're own fear and doubt betray you.

"None of it was your fault." You squeeze your eyes shut against the words that you've never heard spoken in your ears before. Never heard directed towards you. You think, perhaps, you may be hearing things. This cannot be. "You did nothing wrong. Do not let yourself believe such lies."

"Why can't I think that, then? Why do I feel so guilty?" Her skin was becoming uncomfortably wet from your tears. You shifted your head so that they wouldn't land on her anymore.

"Because, my love, nobody has ever told you that it wasn't. It's hard to not believe something that you were taught to."

"But I—"

She doesn’t let you finish. Already knowing where you’re taking this.

"No more 'buts.' There is no excuse for what he did. He did it. It was his choice. Not yours. I will remind you every day if I have to" Cordelia's says. You feel her place a kiss on the top of your head. You're so sleepy that you hardly process it. You're nearly falling asleep in the older woman's arms. “And i’m going to always be here for you. Whenever you need to vent, or cry, or just scream about it. Okay? Because I love you so much, and I will do absolutely anything to make sure you feel that.”

“I love you too,” you say. "I'm so sorry for tonight. I know you wanted to enjoy us after being stressed all week."

"No more sorries tonight, my darling. I don't expect anything from you. Just being with you is all I need."

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[kob131]

Found an absolutely vile and twisted interpretation of the newest episode. How in God's name do these people actually believe this shit. www(.)reddit(.)com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/12nmww4/comment/jgfb0qb/

Okay, I know the subreddit is real circlejerky but it can't be that ba-

Being one of the critics who absolutely adored seeing Ruby get straight-up obliterated by Ironwood and Ozpin-

... Greeeeat.

"Well, what's the problem with enjoying seeing Ruby taken down? You enjoy it when Raven is taken down a notch!"

Yeah, but I don't carry a consistent vendetta against the show for portraying her as sympathetic. People who took Oz and James' sides like this often do hold a grudge against the show for it. So naturally, you're gonna be biased towards misrepresenting the show. Not helping is this later line-

RWBY's team doesn't care. They might as well be on vacation down here, with Weiss being the comic relief and Blake/Yang itching to hop in bed with each other. And it started to really amp up in Episode 8.

Yeah, why would I think you're at all trustworthy when you take Yang, who has been consistently worried about her sister, as just 'Blake arm candy' because a couple of tender moments and ONE scene? Let alone Weiss, who has cried TWICE at the fall of Atlas, being treated as just 'comic relief'?

No one cares about Ruby. Not a lot, anyway, and nowhere near the amount Ruby cares about them. And the way we can tell this is how they react when other people go through very similar situations. When Ruby is at her lowest, barely anyone notices or cares, to the point where Yang even kneels down next to her when it's impossible to ignore and might as well have told her to shut the fuck up.

"That's how Ironwood thought. You don't mean that." A total dismissal of everything Ruby is feeling.

Behold, the face of dismissal.

In fact, let's see what the conversation was about.

Weiss: We've risked their home to save the Relic... And we failed.

Blake: Getting everyone out has to count for something.

Ruby: (angrily) What good is saving anybody if Salem just destroys the world anyway...

Yang places her arms on her sister's shoulder and leans in.

Yang: That's how Ironwood thought... you don't mean that.

Hm...sounds more like Yang was reassuring Ruby about something she was feeling jaded about. But hey, I'm sure OP won't make this same mistake twice, right?

Meanwhile, when Yang was throwing a fit in V5, Weiss marched on out there, sat down, and had one of the only honest heart-to-heart conversations between the four girls in the entire series. The other one was when Yang noticed Blake was stressing herself out entirely on her own(wisdom that would imply she'd be able to tell when her sister was sad.) Yang can tell when someone is sad. Weiss can tell when someone is sad. Jaune could tell when Ruby was down too in V4, even if it wasn't a full conversation. And yet, even in the OP, the rest of Ruby's team is skipping along while Ruby grows more and more morose with no one noticing or caring. The writers knew that, but it's not the reason you're supposed to feel bad for Ruby.

You know, because Badge and the Burden doesn't exist.

Also, Weiss noticed Yang was sad because she EXPLODED, Yang noticed Blake because she was self isolating and Jaune was literally TOLD by Ruby. Not like, say, a single comment in the middle of nowhere with obvious stress. Or that you completely fucked up in understanding Yang's fucking point.

They almost cared enough to notice that Ruby was feeling down before the Paper Pleaser village was destroyed... but they sure were quick to not only run to Jaune's side, but even ask Ruby for words of encouragement. Because they care about Jaune. Not Ruby.

Or that he was screaming his head off and being far more open about his pain. You know, context.

And when Ruby has her breakdown, while Yang practically growls at Ruby for daring to raise her voice and steps in between her and Blake(what Yang actually cares about), they're more than willing to listen to Jaune's whining. Nobody moves between Jaune and Ruby when he's shouting at her, though.

Ruby is her sister. Also mind showing that 'growling' because you've already demonstrated you didn't pay attention so it's far more logical to assume you misinterpreted the scene.

Also gotta love that Jaune going through THE EXACT SAME SHIT as Ruby is treated 'whining' but Ruby is portrayed sympathetically. Despite them both doing the same shit. Almost like you're trying to sell a narrative or something, hm.

Can you fucking imagine? Ruby's was ranting about positivity and getting snippy about being ignored. She was getting an attitude, and Yang moves to protect Blake. Jaune is actually aggressive in action and tone directed squarely at Ruby with the intent to hurt, Ruby is in tears, and what happens? Concerned, Weiss walks up and calls for JAUNE?. They look heartbroken to hear Jaune's sadness. They're only shocked when Ruby leaves.

She was lashing out at Blake for trying to cheer her up. And Ruby WAS being aggressive. Did you think her comments weren't specifically chosen to HURT everyone? That throwing Weiss' attempts to return back in her face? That attacking Blake for trying to stay positive isn't supposed to be AGGRESSIVE?

SOunds less like you're sympathizing with Ruby and more like you're using her to attack the show. Otherwise you WOULD understand that she is being just AS aggressive as Jaune.

Also-

Look how little they care. As if the shock isn't from how WRONG it is to hear Ruby of all people say this.

In fact, next episode, Yang is pissed that Ruby has left. She is so offended that Ruby would even have the nerve to do so, that without anyone else saying a word she can't help but shout it out and go so far as to say that Ruby could've talked to them when Yang was the one that told Ruby to her face that she doesn't even think what she says she thinks.

Not what that meant but keep providing proof that you're either blind or stupid.

Ruby is bruised and bloodied, and this should be the worst condition her team has ever seen her in(after all, it's the worst condition we've seen her in). And they just... watch.

Gee, what happened to that ability to recongize shock? You were just soooo capable of it before.

Same faces. Same body language. Yet two completely different takes.

Again, almost like you're selling a narrative and can't let pesky things like consistency and the truth get in your way, eh?

Now there's a lot of things wrong with this scene, but let me put it this way:

Hey everyone! The guy who has repeatedly made a fool of himself being incapable of seeing BASIC BODY LANGUAGE, to the point an AUTIST managed to exceed him.

Do you think, by chance, that when Ruby was making direct eye contact with the rest of her team and giving them all the time in the world to stop her, she remembered Blake's reaction when Yang fell into the abyss? Maybe remembered that when Blake was in the same position Ruby was now, wounded, beaten and with the culprit standing over her, that Yang was so quick to act that she lost an arm in the process? Do you think that, in some way, she recognized what it meant when they weren't even willing to lift a finger?

Nope.

Because I have BEEN in Ruby's shoes before and that is NOT what that look meant. That was Ruby saying goodbye, sorry she was going to hurt them but unable to see another way out.

Also-

But okay, sure, it's not the first time the main characters have gotten stunlocked and let something happen they in no way should have. Hell, even one of the examples had Ruby and Weiss stunlocked watching Yang go tumbling off a bridge that looked so bad that they later retconned it to have Ruby hyperventilating and freaking out as if the audience forgot.

I mean, look how well Ruby is taking it!

But also- doesn't this basically KILL your whole shitstorm? Since it's established pattern that the team tends to let shock overwhlem them? Where's Ruby's condemnation for not saying her sister eh?

Oh wait, that's not useful for you. Drat!

There's always the next episode. That'll show their real reactions, since it got cut off by Neo getting dominated by the Curious Cat. You know, as if Ruby's death was nothing more than a footnote, even to the plot at large. But who's judging.

The liar who pretends he cares while ignoring her actual feelings and character?

So basically no one worth considering, fair.

And also-

Just look at how little they react to Ruby. How heartless! Espcially that vindictive and cruel Yang. Look how much joy she takes in her sister's demise.

Jaune: (points Crocea Mors sword at the Cat) Take us to her…

Look how little Jaune cares! How heartless!

But not nearly as much as Yang. Look at how she selfishly tries to protect Blake while ignoring her sister!

... So did I say enough stupid bullshit to get my cock sucked by the subreddit yet?

So, funnily enough, seeing the team with the absence of Ruby is what really created this topic. It showed their 'true self'. And it showed that Team JWBY are just... the worst fucking people imaginable. Because what do they do? Cope. Excuse themselves. Get in a big ol' happy hug(that Ruby didn't get) and assure themselves that hey, it was just a little whoopsie, they're still good. Because that's what matters, right?

Because you were so observant before that my auto correct literally tried inserting 'oblivious' into this sentence.

Even my computer knows you're bullshit.

Being correct. Being "good." That's what really matters to them. We already know that about Yang("So what [that people are going to die because of us]? We give Ironwood what he wants?") but it's different to see the entire group acting that way when their leader has killed herself. Now, I'm very particular when I say that: I'm not pretending to follow RWBY's rules and terminology and call it "ascension" which is how JWBY rationalizes their actions, because it's not. It is ascension in the same way death is reincarnation. You still die. You, the ego, the person, the memories, die.

Even in their justifications about how Ruby can still be alright, it is still in the context of Ruby more than likely not coming back the same person because Ruby didn't want to come back as the same person because she did it to die. It, once again, feels a lot more like they're hardcore coping and trying to come up with reasons why this isn't their fault or shouldn't question themselves. Even though—and I know this sort of language is dangerous when dealing with this particular subject—in this case, it absolutely is their fault for not giving her even a fraction of the care they give each other.

Yang: So what, we should just give Ironwood what he wants? Abandon Mantle? You think Atlas is still gonna be able to float to safety now that she’s here?

You know, this is sadistically hilarious.

The 'so what' part of Yang's comment was dismissing the idea that James' idea was better, not the deaths of people. Made clear through her rhetorical question of 'abandon mantle?' which was a summation of James' plan.

You either cannot understand communication so much that it would logically make YOU incoherent...or you willfully ignored that and misrepresented Yang's point. And consider how you've focused on Yang, already showing that you were misrepresenting what she meant. Or how you focused on Bumbleby and Blake saving Yang. Or how you called Yang's outburst 'throwing a fit'.

Pattern of behavior- You are TRYING to make Yang look as bad as possible. Because once is an accident. Twice is questionable. Four times is confirmation.

And also-

Ruby: Neo’s here too.

Yang: Hey, are you alright?

Ruby doesn’t immediately answer.

Ruby: She attacked me when we were falling.

-

Blake: I've read so many stories. I never thought... (takes a seat on a nearby log)... I'd be the moral of one.

Ruby, still looking down at Penny's sword in her hands, takes a seat next to Blake. Her teammates look at her in concern.

Yang: Ruby?

-

The scene you REFERENCED.

How many times does Yang have to show concern for Ruby before you accept it as fact?

How many?

Let me guess. 'X+1' right?

And as a result, handwaving it as "her choice"? That smacks an awful lot like blaming Ruby for what happened to her(even if they act like it's a good thing), which under no circumstance is the truth, just so they don't have to think too hard. So they don't have to care too much.

Look how little she cares...

Also- how is it blaming her? There is no saying she's at fault or anything of the sort- just that only RUBY can help her.

Just like how Yang could only help herself before her father could help her. Almost like this is a recurring theme or something...

But Jaune needs that hug. He needs that care. He needs that gratification. Team RWBY's big sappy group hug... with a J instead of an R. Their personal pity party. They did good. They're good people. They care for each other soooo much.

You know, considering how you've acted up until now-

What would stop you from just claiming they don't care about Jaune if they had tried to reach out to Ruby? You already contradict yourself here. So what is stopping you?

But Jaune needs that hug. He needs that care. He needs that gratification. Team RWBY's big sappy group hug... with a J instead of an R. Their personal pity party. They did good. They're good people. They care for each other soooo much.

Ruby actively pushed away and ignored any concern shown to her.

If you actually sympathized with her, you would call her out on that. Because she was hurting herself in her pain.

Sprinkle in a little of Yang being perhaps the only person Neo's "turn into a loved one" trick(used by CC now) completely and utterly failed to work on when she used Ruby, alongside a heaping helping of the constantly conflicting tones of V9, and the dish is complete. Then you look back at, say, V3 with Ruby telling Yang that she loved her even after being thoroughly rejected in her attempts to help her feel better. Or how in V5, Ruby's first words to Yang were a tearful apology.

Or Volume 9, Episode 1. Where Yang was crying at the thought that her sister DIED.

Also-

Not only is that NOT Neo's trick since she would do it in response to Yang attacking her by transforming herself into the ACTUAL Ruby, but the Cat's actual trick (to dig into Yang's fear of losing her sister) WORKED, diverting Yang's attention to the obvious Fake Rubys and not her actual opponent.

It hits a very specific chord. The kind like seeing a child alone at a birthday party, or one who is clearly neglected yet still seeks their parent's affection. The puppy left in the rain. The man or woman drinking alone. The clear outsider in a group, who the others talk about behind their back. It's not what you can see, it's what you can't: the implication that someone genuinely cares about other people, but those people don't care about(or even like) them in turn.

Or like the person who says they sympathize with a person's pain while having laughed and delighted while they were in pain, only to pretend to hurt someone else.

No wait, that's significantly worse. You're lucky these are fictional characters.

Ruby's Volume is a story about a girl with a lot of problems falling into a deep depression, calling out for attention only to be rebuked time and time again, and when she makes her final, explicit cry for help, is rejected, then screamed at by a friend her other friends clearly care so much more about. All culminating in that depressed teenage girl killing herself, and then us, the viewer, getting to watch as the only thing her 'friends' care about is how they can spin this to them still being good people and being ever so happy to hug one another.

Not what that was about by the way. It was about the catharsis of knowing their efforts meant something. Ruby wasn't mentioned.

But nice job shitting your pants in public.

It's just so... fucked up. I don't really care about the show that much anymore, despite what the, like, 2k words might say: I've long since written it off as garbage, and this recent episode has only reassured me that once again you can try to predict what happens next based off of what the worst option reasonably possible could be. Yet even then, I can't help but feel bad for Ruby if I think too hard about it. Not because she's sad over her screw-ups or because she doesn't want to be a hero or because she thinks she's failed at everything, but because it's readily apparent that her friends and family could care less about any of that. I feel bad for Ruby because she is completely isolated.

Oh hey, you went so stupid that you looped around to getting the fucking point.

Too bad the whole post basically showcases that this was by accident.

Also, your 2000+ post could have been boiled down to four words (Yang and Jaune bad) and it would have been better.

And I can only imagine what I might've thought, were I in a similar position and watching this Volume. What anyone in Ruby's position might think. The position of depression and subconsciously(even consciously) calling out for help, only to find that their friends and family they love so much are more interested in everyone but them. "What about you," indeed.

Been there, would have attacked you if you tried something like that.

It's easy to prop up a message about how "ooooh you're perfect the way you are, ignore the haters, any criticism is tantamount to telling you to kill yourself and makes them evil," but that can't work for everyone.

Which is why you posted this in the 'RWBY bad' subreddit and not say, the main one where you would have gotten criticism.

Practicing what you preach? What dat?

I'd certainly hate to be in a position to really identify with Ruby, because what RWBY the show would be telling me is... yep! You're right! Your friends wouldn't give a flying hoot if you died: they'll be happy and hugging and looking silly even minutes after your demise. They won't be mad at your killer, they won't be sad they could've stopped it either(not for long anyway), but they will be perfectly fine showing off how much they do care for people that matter, and hint: you're not one of them :)

"I'll also lie about them and reinforce your pain while I delight in your suffering! Look how empathetic I am!"

How disgusting.

Oh cool, you finally found a mirror.

Because this IS disgusting. Like, this is the same shit people pull with Shane and his letter. No one cares about him or his pain and grief- they only cared that they could use him as a bludgeon. The only credit that can be given to you is that Ruby is fictional.

Still repulsive.

[invisiblegarters]

Tokyo in April Is...Episode 5

Who is ready for some heartbreak?

It's me. It's always me. Curse me and my attraction to this very specific brand of show.

Although it is episode five so it's very possible that we'll get a few sweet times before the inevitable pain.

Ugh, yep. It's the return of Sanada. That man is so odious. And I am overly defensive of Kazuma because he's such a sweetheart.

Oh my. So he's a rapist too? So that's what the whole smoking in the hotel thing was. Wonderful. Well at least now I can hate him with impunity, the sick ass. What a vile, vile person.

Okay Japan. I appreciate your dedication to reality but this whole thing is just deeply upsetting. Say it with me, guys: rape is never the victim's fault. No, not even then. I will not be having discussion about this.

Please be careful, Ren. I feel like Sanada is very used to operating with the implicit sanction of his bosses. I feel like going after him could really ruin things for him. I appreciate his former coworker warning him about that too. I don't think it'll stop him (and I don't think that it should), but i also think that its's good for him to understand exactly what he is getting into.

I still love Yagami's hair. And I also kind of love that he was there for Ren during some of the worst times in his life. They also did a real good job casting his younger self, too.

Oh, poor bb Ren. That pining is epic and then add on a little bit of tragic circumstance and everything is just so deliciously sad and wistful and I love it.

Neck kisses! Neck kisses! I love these two together. They're so lovely and the actors are doing the best job of just radiating comfort in each other's presence.

Oh no. A wild mother Takizawa appears to gum up the works. Knew that was coming from the second that the beginning showed her sewing the shirt. I feel like she's gonna send Ren into a spiral. SO much self-loathing in that man over something that wasn't even his fault, and while I don't necessarily blame her for believing him when he claimed he forced Kazuma to have sex with him all those years ago, I do wonder if a part of her suspects that he wasn't exactly being truthful back then. I am so curious what their meeting will look like next week. That Kazuma resents her is patently clear, imo, and my guess would be it's because of being sent abroad as soon as he got better after the whole thing with Ren went down.

As for Ren's desire not to talk about it...I get it. Boy do I get it. But it's not going to stay there forever - there are too many factors at play, too many people who know or were there, and both Ren and Kazuma are too traumatized about what happened for it to lie dormant forever. Looks like it might come to a head next week, although I am not sure. There are three episodes left, after all, and while I know there is still Sanada (slimeball) to deal with I still kind of think that Kazuma and Ren's past is going to converge with that plot in extremely unpleasant ways.

I continue to adore this show. It's just excellent and it's one that I look forward to every single week. I feel like it might break my heart in the end but probably I'll still love it. I am nothing if not a glutton for punishment (see: Eternal Yesterday, which to this day remains one of my favorite BLs ever even if I have to really gird myself before rewatching (and I maintain that ep three is one of the best episodes in any show, ever. Pitch perfect)).

Oh, Japan.