#i just find the concept that they are both worse people kind of interesting

[jacqcrisis]

Idk why but I wondered what a human, non magic AU of Left Turn would be and I figured you'd still have a lot of the same shit (Caleb's in college, Zekes a line cook, there's internalized homophobia, a lot of the same story beats) but enough is different it interests me. The biggest is that with a different upbringing by being the special football boy in the family, Caleb would be a massive jackass on the surface and Zeke, not bogged down by needing to be neutral and non-aggressive in order to stay out of trouble due his changeling nature, would have a snappy ass tongue, be more self destructive, and no fear in fighting someone like Caleb.

So idea under the read more:

So Caleb is in college at a religious university and is in their pretty famous football team as a QB and has a good chance of going pro. It's his only ambition in life and he's barely taking any real classes save for stuff to meet requirements for a Business degree, on top of having a holier than thou attitude from being the Big Cool Guy all his life. His family is ultra evangelical conservative and severely homophobic which of course is why he's the most repressed bisexual ever with a long term girlfriend he's probably going to propose to within the next year.

In comes a bartending job in between seasons for some extra cash and he meets the scrawny, weaselly looking line cook who clocks his repressed ass so goddamn fast. Zeke, a high school drop out and someone who escaped a cult at a young age, is quick to call out Caleb's vague homophobia and his lingering glances, actively being a sarcastic little shit to him and knocking him down from his high horse any chance he gets. It frustrates Caleb to no end this gay ass mother fucker is living rent free in his brain and every day at the bar, there's a lot of passive aggressive behavior and sniping and back talk and everyone who works there is taking bets on whether they'll fuck or fight first.

It culminates one night closing together, Zeke makes a jab that Caleb takes very badly, he starts pushing Zeke around, Zeke pushes back, and Caleb kisses him hard enough to break his lip open. Zeke gets the angriest blow job of his life, but he's not complaining and after, Caleb's adamant he's not gay and absconds and Zeke figures that's the end of that and waits for either the sexual harassment claim or for Caleb to actually try to beat the fuck out of him.

Neither happen and Caleb acts like nothing has changed except their sniping has a definite flirting edge to it. They fight more, obviously hook up more, Caleb's kind of a bitch about it even if he initiates most of the time, but he steadily gets better and, when alone, they are friendly toward each other. Even when Caleb quits, he gets Zeke's number from Ashley and they continue as thus with Caleb inviting Zeke to his dorm room a few times to 'chill' where he is extremely torn over how he feels for the guy.

At one point, as Caleb is becoming a better person and getting more comfortable with his sexuality, he sleeps with a random guy at a party, and gets caught with video evidence. Rumors fly, his girlfriend breaks up with him, his family disowns him, and he has to drop out of college without their support, thus no more glamorous football career. After going on a bender, Zeke pulls him out before he gets too far in, becomes his genuine friend, helps him get a new support network, and turn his life around.

They move in together as strictly just friends, he goes back to work at the bar till he can qualify for student loans, and once he feels above water, he wants to do a reset with Zeke. He invites him out for a night on the town together one fine evening and it's nice and cozy and Zeke feels like he's going a little nuts thinking Caleb is being close to him. At one point, while walking in the park, Caleb kisses him and Zeke, taken aback at the semi-public display of affection after months of Caleb barely even touching him platonically, asks if this is a date.

Caleb fumbles it, retracts it, doubles down on it, and ends with a 'it is if you want it to be'. Zeke tells him yeah, he absolutely does, and they get a happy ending.

[amyintherapy]

Things I've Learned in 18 months of therapy

When people repeat the same patterns of behavior that are more negative than positive, it's usually trauma related. Examples: Your sister who has dated 15 different men who all are emotionally unavailable, short-fused guys who don't respect her. Or your aunt who has gotten into severe debt several times in her life, always buying items she doesn't need. Or your friend who has always befriended people who are not disabled but don't work and chronically need 'favors' so they end up allowing people to mooch off them to the point of it harming their own financial security. Basically anytime you find yourself frustrated and wondering 'why do they always DO that?" or "why don't they just do X instead? They always do Y which just makes things worse..." the answer likely is, they have trauma related to this issue, and/or their behavior is related to their trauma response that they are stuck in. Of course, this is true for you also! If you keep reacting to certain situations in a way you dislike, or going back to a coping method that you see as harmful and can't figure out why you can't stop...it's probably trauma related in some way.

Part of being traumatized involves your brain trying to hide the trauma from you..at least most of it, if not all of it. My therapist has used the example of a piece of paper that is standing upright. You might see the fine edge of the paper, so you sometimes know a piece of paper is in front of you, but you can only see the edge, so when that paper finally gets turned so that it's facing you and you can read everything written on it, it kinda knocks you over and you feel like you should have known all of that all along...after all, the paper was right there. But you couldn't read it before, and you didn't even know there was all that writing on it anyway so you didn't realize such a big piece of your puzzle was missing. In other cases, the paper may be more like...trapped in a book, so it was always there, but you had no idea it was as you thought it was just part of the book, not this hand-written note hidden inside. So anyway, it's very normal to feel shocked at how lacking in awareness you were about the full impact or detail of your trauma once you get on a roll with therapy. I always knew I had trauma, and I've always been a self-reflective person...so I thought I was self aware of my trauma. But I've been surprised at how much I was failing to see fully.

ADHD is stupidly named. Having ADHD doesn't mean you have a deficit of attention. It means you can't control (aka regulate) your attention the way most people can. Tons of people with ADHD would tell you that they feel like they have too much attention. They are interested in ALL the things which is why they struggle to keep their focus on one thing while blocking out everything else going on around them. The things you do that cause you problems, were things you originally did to protect yourself. For example, maybe your addiction started because you were reaching for emotional relief and had no other (healthier) way to make yourself feel better. Or maybe you shut down and isolate when you're hurt, because when you tried reaching out for support as a child it just made things worse because your caregiver was reactive instead of supportive. Endless examples, but people do things for a reason. Your coping methods have a logical cause of some kind or another, even if they do more harm than good now, that wasn't always the case. At one time, they helped you cope with or avoid some bigger pain or problem. Depression and anxiety are both forms of avoiding other feelings. Much of general society knows the concept that "anger is a secondary emotion" (which is only sometimes true, it's also a core emotion) but I didn't know this was true of anxiety and depression. They're always secondary emotions. However, it's important to differentiate between sadness and depression, and fear and depression. Fear and sadness/grief are core emotions, but anxiety and depression are secondary. The fact that I am detail-focused and couldn't be concise if my life depended on it, are both ADHD related for me. Social anxiety is usually attachment trauma aka an insecure attachment. Anxiety and depression are often caused by trauma. I wish I knew this earlier. I spent a lot of time thinking of my anxiety was simply genetic or sort of temperament based and therefore unlikely to be healed or fixed. I don't mean to suggest that genetics or temperment isn't some element but...I can't help but wonder how many people are like me and don't realize they could heal a lot of their anxiety or depression by doing trauma work. I'm definitely still an anxious person, but I've seen a really big improvement in my anxiety. More than I thought was possible two years ago. Most kids and teenagers are avoidant in therapy, so they don't usually see as much progress from the experience, at least compared to adults. It's often a rather slow process to see improvement. However, it's still really helpful in the longrun if they have a positive experience with therapy as a teen, they're likely to try again as an adult when they're really ready to face their issues. Online, I've seen child therapists outright say that their #1 goal with kids in therapy is to make them think of therapy positively so they'll come back to therapy when they're older! I saw some progress in therapy as a teen for sure, but the 4+ years of it resulted in roughly as much (if not less?) progress than I've seen in 18 months of therapy as an adult. Apparently that's quite common. Talking about trauma feels awful, and it often makes me leave trauma-related therapy appointments wondering if there is any point or if i'm just making myself sad. A "okay, I understand this issue I have now was caused by XYZ experience from my past...but wtf do I DO about it? I understand it now, but I still have no clue how to fix it?" type of feeling. This is the result of being too close to the current day to see the full picture. Over the course of time, the benefits and healing always become apparent to me.

People who get angry often are sort of the opposite of me. I default to feeling anxious when I "should" feel angry (like when someone is rude to me), and sometimes also when I 'should' be sad. Most people who experience chronic anger are simply people who are converting their fear and/or sadness into anger. It's sometimes the difference between being an internalize and an externalize. Anger is an external emotion, fear/anxiety is an internal one. So if you struggle to externalize, you'll convert anger to sadness or fear, and if you struggle to internalize you'll convert sadness and fear to anger.

My "small t" traumas - like emotional neglect, are at least as impactful as my "big T" trauma (sexual abuse) was.

Sensory issues are common in ADHD, not just autism even though the content online often makes it seem exclusive to ASD.

I am probably forgetting a lot, but if I don't publish this now I never will. So if I think of more later, I'll just add on. :)

[chaotic-starlight24]

Dallas Winston General Headcanons

This is the last part of the Dallas headcanons :) Please check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of his backstory!

Sorry if anything is ooc! Warnings: Mentions of trauma, death, description of grief

He brags about his many scars from dangerous games. For example, he prides himself in the game where you try to get the knife between all of your fingers.

He genuinely likes a lot of movies. He just doesn’t show it. Also, most of the new movies don’t have anything interesting to them so he just looks at girls or talks to Johnny/Pony. But he will shut up and be glued to the screen when the theater or drive-in is replaying James Dean movies. He will literally shush Ponyboy, he just really likes James Dean. (He probably had a Rebel Without a Cause jacket made for him by Mrs. Curtis)

His aforementioned Norwegian mother (part 1) taught him the Hardanger Fiddle (When he was like 7) It was one of the very few bonding activities he had with her. He still has his original fiddle and while traveling around, a mother in Memphis fixed it for him after he ran an errand for her. He doesn’t play it much but he does sometimes sit alone at Buck’s and play melodies he remembers. He doesn’t like playing it around many people because playing takes a lot of energetic movements. The gang has heard him before but only like once.

His father and him had one or two bonding activities like once a week or so, mainly knife throwing. So Dally has great aim with just about any object. He would also occasionally try to play poker with him. But this did not happen very often since both parents were alcoholics and everything and his father was an especially angry one.

He needs a lot of time to wrap his mind around a lot of concepts, but once he has it down he's amazing at it! (Hardanger fiddle, stealing, knife throwing)

At the Curtis parent funeral he held himself together pretty well. He pretended to not be quite as bothered and used the excuse that he had seen worse things and that he was mainly concerned for the brothers. But when he got to Buck's he sobbed quietly for hours and didn't come out for a while. That was when he really did become a very cold person. He never opened his heart to anyone new after that. He started to believe that he couldn’t care about anyone because he was the curse that caused them to die. If it wasn’t for the gang he probably would have left Tulsa.

His mom was one of nine siblings so Dally has a lot of cousins. He saw several of them frequently and was especially friends with one named Joel. They mainly conversed through letters as his cousin lived in Windrixville. They always had a plan to meet up together and maybe fix up the abandoned church and make it into a hangout. His mother wasn’t particularly focused on teaching him much about their culture so he learned some things from his cousins. He still remembers bits and pieces of the language and pronounces names with a Norwegian accent every so often.

He always keeps his jacket on in the summer unless going swimming. He says it’s to look tuff but it’s actually because he gets eaten alive by mosquitos or sunburned to the fact he’s neon red.

His oldest sister, Elizabeth in English spelling, would sing him Scandinavian lullabies to help him fall asleep at night and he still finds himself humming the tunes when doing busywork. (Examples if you want to listen: Vargsången, Trollsmor Vaggvisa, Klatremus’ Voggevisa)

He lost his New York accent but sometimes he pronounces words with a really thick one. He doesn’t really have a southern accent either but overall it’s kind of a mix between them. “C’mon upstays, Johnny.” “Huh?” “I mean upstairs.”

He really likes bread. Noone really knows why either. But his problem is he doesn’t really like the store bought bread. In his words, “It’s just unnatural how long it stays good, man.” So he swipes a lot from bakeries. Mrs. Curtis also taught him how to make it but he doesn’t often because he thinks it’s weird he knows how. Also no one should trust him with an oven. But sometimes Soda will come home to Dally just munching on a loaf fresh from their oven. 

But bouncing off that, he will eat just about any other food no matter how old it is. Maybe it’s because he’s always hungry. Maybe his immune system is that strong. No one really knows. Darry once found him munching on a block of cheese that had some mold and just threw it out the window. Dally was very upset because “He was really hungry!”. He also says that he doesn’t like things going to waste. 

It’s a surprise if he doesn’t end a sentence with man or kid. It’s just what everyone gets called. Except Mrs. Curtis. He called her man once and was promptly given the “glare of disapproval”. Safe to say he never did it again. (Everyone laughed afterward, don’t worry.)

The main reason he dated Sylvia so many times was because he wanted a relationship where he actually loved the person. He had so many meaningless ones that lasted a week at most. Both of them were not particularly healthy to each other since Dally was never in a proper relationship and Sylvia took advantage of him. But both of them had their flaws ofc.

I mentioned in Part 2 that Dallas went through a really big tornado while in Indiana, and you know he ended up in OKLAHOMA. Which is known for its large amounts of tornadoes. Because of this fear that he ended up having, he became really sensitive to thunderstorms. The rest of the gang is always relaxed when listening to the rain and thunder, but Dally will grip Johnny’s arm so hard he almost loses circulation. The gang caught on rather quickly and tried their best to calm him down. Mrs. Curtis and Two-Bit were the best at this and would just talk to him as if nothing was happening outside. Dally always tries to act super tough during storms and manages to keep his calm but there’s been several times where a crack of thunder will shake the house and he will legit scream. Whenever there is a tornado warning or anything he will sit in the closet and use the excuse that he’s just tired and it’s loud outside. 

His rings and necklace are his prized possessions. His necklace and 2 of his rings are from Snake Eyes (Part 1 goes more into detail) and the rest are ones he has collected throughout his travels.

Thank you guys for reading through my super large amount of headcanons :) Ponyboy and Darry are next but might not have as large of an amount of stuff!

[justmenoworries]

Transformers EarthSpark Season 2 Spoilers

If I had to describe S2A in one word, it would be: Disappointing.

Others have said this before me, but if you were a fan of S1 this most definitely isn't the show for you anymore.

S2A is so far inferior to S1 in every conceivable way. The animation, the characters, the story, it all just feels so half-assed. Every single interesting concept S1 introduced, S2A either mangled beyond belief or flat-out erased from existence.

The few new interesting things that do come up in S2A don't last long and/or are underdeveloped.

Tensions between humans and Cybertronians? Never mentioned. All the racism died with Mandroid and GHOST, I guess.

The Terrans' connection to Quintus Prime? Pfft, you're still on that? It's all about the Quintessons now, keep up nerd!

Starscream's development and start on the road to recovery from trauma? Gone. He's back to being the villain now for no reason whatsoever. He murders two actual children. What, did you think we were still doing that silly nuance thing from S1? Lol, sucks to be you.

The ongoing theme about the Transformer War not being as black and white as history would have people believe? Ummm, ackshually, the Decepticons are inherently evil and irredeemable. The Autobots are saints and have never done anything wrong or questionable, ever. Ignore the prison complex from last season that performed unethical experiments on prisoners of war. Y'know that same one that the Autobots knew about and supplied with Decepticon prisoners.

Spitfire and Aftermath are interesting in theory, but S2A doesn't really do anything with them besides making them the generic Evil Twin characters to Twitch and Jawbreaker respectively. And then Starscream murders them for his evil masterplan, which feels like a colossal waste.

I've been saying since S1 that it would be interesting to have a Terran actually choose the Decepticons over both the Autobots and the Maltos. It would've been a neat way to explore the family dynamic the 'Cons have compared to the Maltos and maybe show that just because a family is different from yours, maybe not as physically affectionate or as instantly harmonious, doesn't mean it's worse. We had a good start with Aftermath and Breakdown but that never really goes anywhere before Starscream does a Fuck Them Kids.

The Decepticons are just evil again now. Great. I guess we're completely throwing the "history isn't black-and-white" thing out of the window, huh? That whole thing where it was implied the Decepticons were rising up against an unjust system a la Aligned continuity and IDW? We kind of had a very significant confrontation between Megatron and Shockwave about that in that one episode that even explicitly referenced IDW? Or how about the whole "This is not freedom" plot line about how mayyybe throwing every Decepticon in the slammer forever might be, just might be, bad? We had a whole episode about that? Soundwave was in it?

Nah, 'Cons are unambiguously evil. Always. Especially that no-good Starscream. "What Dwells Within" and "The Last Hope, Part 2" might as well have never happened, because Starscream sure as hell doesn't act like they did. He barely even interacts with Hashtag. "Come on, did you expect Starscream to be a good guy now?" No bitch, I expected believable character development. I find it hard to believe that the same Starscream who saved Hashtag from the Cybertronian equivalent of a vampire, at risk to his own life, and then told her to take care of herself as a good-bye would just suddenly go back to the same moustache-twirling evilness we'd be expecting from G1 Starscream. You expect me to buy that this guy is the same Starscream as the one who showed up with the entire cavalry to save the world in the S1 finale?? Why go through the trouble of giving Starscream an entire episode going into his trauma and abuse and learning to be better if this is all it amounts to in the end??? At least show us how it happened? What made Starscream suddenly completely regress like that??? I don't know and the way it's going I don't think EarthSpark is all that interested in explaining it.

The Maltos remain a criminally underdeveloped hive mind. And no, I don't consider adding even more powers to their arsenal character development. Robbie and Mo still don't have any friends outside of their siblings and this season did nothing to change my mind on the cybersleeve connection being borderline creepy and making the characters co-dependent. "The Butterfly Effect" basically showed us all the reasons why having your siblings in your head 24/7 with no way to turn it off would actually suck. Cybersynching is so obviously combining with a new coat of paint and it's not even used or utilized that much in this batch.

We did not need the Quintessons in this season. At all. They added nothing except implying that Quintus Prime is shady af. Which, we been knew? The whole of "Prime Time" is literally Quintus torturing a little girl for being upset her big brother is sick and probably dying. If you wanted to explore Quintus through one of his creations seeing him in a much less benevolent light, well, how do I put this? There were two whole new characters added this season you could've done this with. Aftermath and Spitfire not being in the "We Love Quintus Prime" club together with the rest of the Terrans would make sense, since they're far more rebellious and anti-authoritarian. That would've given them something interesting to do besides being minor nuisances to the Delightful Maltos from Down the Lane.

I've heard that EarthSpark isn't doing well both in ratings and in toy sales and after that first batch I can see why.

The show is not all bad, but legit none of these characters are developed enough or distinct enough that I could see a kid wanting a toy of them. And that goes double for older fans.

The writers messed up big time and I honestly don't know if I'm gonna stay and see if they fix it in S2B.

[mesetacadre]

What do you think of this excerpt?

https://www.tumblr.com/beguines/755310368521355264/what-the-theory-of-labour-aristocracy-tells-us

What [the theory of labour aristocracy] tells us is that there is not a monolithic working class and that achieving working-class unity is not merely a matter of getting beyond ruling-class maneuvers of "splitting" workers. Workers are not split because of an ideological conspiracy; they are split according to numerous structures that are built into the operations of global capitalism. Workers who experience a higher standard of living because of imperialist exploitation are materially invested in keeping this higher standard of living, just as a faction of workers who experience better working conditions because of race or gender or ability are materially invested in keeping these working conditions at the expense of those workers whose marginalization prevent them from getting the same jobs. Hence, if we follow the line of reasoning behind this theory, we will arrive at a notion of class that resists class essentialism. That is, to assert that there is a labour aristocracy, and that some workers who benefit from the exploitation of other workers are embourgeoisified, is to also assert that simply being a member of the working class is not enough to be, at root, akin to the proletariat of classical Marxist literature. Some members of the working class do not have "nothing left to lose but their changes," [sic] which means that being a worker does not mean having an inner revolutionary essence.

J. Moufawad-Paul, Politics in Command: A Taxonomy of Economism

While the reasoning is very agreeable and pretty uncontroversial among the people who find value in the concept of labor aristocracy (although the I think the mention of class essentialism is unnecessary), I find the conclusion a little bit exaggerated. It is true that workers of the imperial core benefit, (almost always indirectly), from the looting of imperialism. It is therefore in their immediate material interests to support imperialism. But regardless of how relevant the divide between workers on both sides of the imperialist system is, the relations that define it don't operate in a dissimilar way to other axes of privilege/oppression, such as misogyny or racism, and the author also shares this perspective, he uses the same in this excerpt. So I think it is a misstep to claim that «being a worker does not mean having an inner revolutionary essence», on two counts:

First, the set of privileges afforded to certain categories of workers does not make them less revolutionary, but rather tends to place the workers who suffer from more axes of oppression at the forefront of revolutionary struggle, exhorted by their generally worse material conditions and greater sensibility towards all kinds of oppression, such as class. Russian women were at the frontlines of both the February and October revolution, often among the very first to stress the necessity of a second revolution after the February bourgeois government revealed their inability to meet the workers' demands. In India, it was the workers at the lowest castes who often set an example in revolutionary consciousness, and it was the analysis of the caste system that developed the CPI in the years of stagnation following the intervention in Hungary.

Second, I think the author has misunderstood two elements of «classical Marxist literature». First, there is not a concept of «revolutionary essence» to be found in Marx's writings. If he has ever written such words, it's most probable he uses it more as a rethorical device or flourish rather than an actual argument of the existence of an «essence». The revolutionary potential of the working class springs from its objective relationship to the property of the means of production. There is no proletarian, platonic essence to speak of. Then, I think the author should also brush up on the two kinds of consciousness Lenin describes in What Is to be Done: economic-spontaneous consciousness and political-revolutionary consciousness. The first kind arises naturally from the worker's own experience with class antagonism, the kind manifested with non-revolutionary trade unions. The second arises from both a political education and an active participation in the class struggle within a revolutionary Communist Party.

Only that first kind of spontaneous consciousness is very vulnerable to the material benefits afforded by imperialism, and a proper education and construction of political-revolutionary consciousness will place any imperial core worker in anti-imperialist positions. The problem the author describes is real, don't get me wrong, but it's a problem that has been thoroughly described and solved more than a hundred years ago. We can debate about the degree to which imperialism makes this education difficult nowadays, but this main thesis the author expresses is wrong, or at least founded in opposition to a problem that is not relevant.

[ante--meridiem]

Necessary disclaimer that I have not read the story but whenever discourse about it passes me I'm kind of fascinated by the reactions people have to the Omelas short story (or rather the osmosed concept of it since I suspect many of them haven't read it either) and what it says about people's intuitions.

I mean, ok, the thought experiment is clearly constructed to create the instinctual response that it's morally horrifying and unacceptable. But, and I know that I'm not the first person to say it, currently many children are suffering in the real world, which isn't even a utopia in every other way. If you compared the real world with one where everything is the same except only one person is still experiencing [insert worst conditions anyone is experiencing in the real world right now] it's clearly an improvement, right? And then take that world and compare it to one that's a utopia for everyone but that one person. Clearly an improvement again. We've recreated the Omelas scenario in two steps and both of those steps were clear improvements on the present world, presumably people wouldn't object to taking them. So is it the implication of causality that makes the Omelas scenario seem horrifying to people in a way that just existing in the present world doesn't? I mean, suffering is suffering, it's not going to be better for the person experiencing it if no one benefits from it. But it does make sense for it to feel worse to people if someone benefits because the fact that someone is benefiting leads people to suspect that maybe that person could improve the situation but just doesn't have an incentive to since it benefits them, so the horror/anger is more likely to be able to accomplish something than if it were just random suffering to no benefit. By saying it's unacceptable for one person to suffer for utopia the implication must be that you could stop that suffering by maybe sacrificing some aspects of the utopia, but not so many that it just leads to many suffering children and no utopia instead.

From what I understand the point of the story/thought experiment was supposed to be that people can only believe in a utopia if it has a dark secret but if that's the case then the response indicates the opposite: if you can get people to accept the premise of a utopia with a dark secret they will believe that something close enough to a utopia (at least compared to the present world) could exist without it. (Personally I think people probably find the utopia with a dark secret pretty implausible too but are just more willing to suspend their disbelief for it because it sounds like a setup to a more interesting story though). In any case, the horror comes not from contrasting utopia-with-darkside against a baseline of reality but rather against a baseline of the utopia-without-darkside that is also invoked while imagining it.

The other explanation I can see is that people are in fact contrasting it against reality, but removing most of the awfulness of reality draws more attention to the awfulness you haven't removed, so people can respond to the remaining awfulness with the full force of their horror because it isn't competing with everything else. I definitely think that's a factor but not the whole thing, since people don't respond to it like they would to "let's focus on one specific example of the many people suffering in the real world".

[diagonal-queen]

Hello! So, how do you think Chuuya, Fyodor, Nikolai, and Dazai(You can add some more characters if you want!)would react if their S/O was a compulsive liar? Not exactly a bad person, but they lie almost every chance they get. Please and thank you <3

i always get the best and most interesting reqs!! now i can't say i'm an expert with this subject, but here's how i think it'd go:

When their S/O is a compulsive liar

♡ pairing: Chuuya Nakahara, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mykola Hohol, Dazai Osamu, Ranpo Edogawa, Yosano Akiko x gn!Reader

♡ synopsis: How do these characters react when their S/O is a compulsive liar?

♡ cw: Reader is a compulsive liar (you probably already figured, but I figure it's best to put the warning just in case), they are aware of this and they feel bad about it, Fyodor (and Mykola lowkey) is toxic as hell, like he's real bad (manipulative and abusive), misunderstanding and or ignorance towards the concept of compulsive lying

note: I did a bit of extra studying before writing this just to make sure I wasn't misinformed at all. I'm fully aware that compulsive lying is not a choice and can be very harmful to both the liar and person(s) being lied to. I know that compulsive lying does not indicate that someone is inherently a bad person. I'm not aiming to demean or glorify it! I'm very sorry if I get any details wrong or handle this topic incorrectly (please let me know if I have), apologies for errors, and I hope you enjoy x

Chuuya:

Chuuya is a really genuine and honest person. As such your behaviour takes some getting used to

However he does acknowledge that you don't actually want to lie to him and that it's something you don't know how to control, and he does his best to support you with it

He tries to get Mori's help for you so that the two of you can work towards dampening any potential issues that can arise from your behaviour (it probably doesn't work because Mori, but Chuuya's doing his best)

There are times when he does get a little frustrated with your lies and when you deny him calling you out but he's working on it

Chuuya constantly reminds you that there's no need for you to lie about yourself for him to love you and that you have value regardless of how you see yourself

Knows that it's not a personal thing, but lowkey has a hard time admitting that at first because he doesn't really get it initially

Wouldn't tell other people you're a compulsive liar but he would defend you if you get in trouble for lying to somebody

I'll be honest this would really put a strain on your guys' relationship, but if you're willing to put effort into it then you could definitely make it work

Fyodor:

Fyodor can see through basically all of your lies, and because he's messed up he really might see it as kind of a game.

He understands that you don't control it but he kinda feels like each time you tell him a lie (insignificant or harmless as it may be) you're challenging him in a way.

He gets some sick entertainment out of exposing your lies and watching you double down on them

Always asks you if you're lying to him whether or not he knows you are. In his head he wants to reinforce that lying is a sin and he does that by making you feel bad about them

To be totally honest the fact that you lie to him about things doesn't actually bother him much, he's just mean and sees it as a good way to control you

He might be less of a sadist if you initially admit to him that you're a compulsive liar instead of him finding out on his own because then he knows how it is from the get go

Will utilise your compulsive lying somehow for the DOA's benefit (and also tell the other members about it :/)

Fyodor knows full well that it's most likely an indicator of trauma or a symptom for something worse, but there's no better way than to build someone into your perfect S/O like breaking them down first!

Mykola:

He knows and he honestly doesn't really care.

Mykola is just not really that concerned about it. He knows that you do love him, and to him that's all that matters

Though he knows he won't receive always honest answers he still likes asking you questions (about your day or yourself or whatever) and is just happy to hear you talk whether or not it's true

Unfortunately though he doesn't really believe anything you say unless you can provide some kind of proof

Even though he does sometimes like to poke fun at you (things like catching you in your lies so you don't have a choice but to admit the truth), he really hates when other people do the same and will actively defend you

He likes to 'study' you in a sense, and hypothesise reasons as to why you're a compulsive liar. Sometimes he can cross the line when asking you about it

Kind of an enabler, not gonna lie. He wants you to tell him the truth, but he doesn't really care what you say to other people

In fact, he might actually play along with your lies in public to maintain your image (and for amusement probably)

Dazai:

So Dazai already knew this before you got together. He can tell when you're lying, believable as you may seem to other people

He himself doesn't lie but is also very good at evading questions and secret keeping, which are habits he picked up from his time as a mafioso. He understands you in that way and feels for you because you're generally pretty misunderstood by others too

As such he's rather defensive of you. He would hate for someone to make you feel bad about your behaviour because he knows you feel bad enough about it as it is

He takes notice of certain things that you have a tendency to lie about so that he can learn more about you and help you heal

Dazai generally tries to talk about things with you and communicate with you in a way that doesn't really invite any opportunities to lie, if that makes sense

If you lie to him, he doesn't really bring it up unless he's worried that it could cause trouble for you in the future

If you lie to other Agency members about something he might approach them later and explain that it was a lie and also explain why you said it

He might to help by bringing up contradictions in your lies and asking you to explain them (not as a 'gotcha' but more as a way to understand what you're trying to do)

Ranpo:

Back when you and Ranpo first met, he used to be a little bit insensitive about it (unintentionally!)

But after learning more about compulsive lying he kind of started to feel bad for you in a way? So he started going a lot easier on you

He always, always knows when you're lying because he's able to discern the truth with no effort. So, whether or not you lie to him it doesn't make much difference. He knows it's not intended to be malicious or personal

Ranpo can get frustrated with it though, because he's lazy and can't be bothered to figure you out sometimes

When in public he does most of the talking for you because if you do lie to someone and you're found out he doesn't want you getting in trouble (this is especially the case during investigations and stuff)

He actually kind of helps you in a way to lie less because you know that he knows the truth regardless so there's not much point in lying? Of course it's still a habit but you do find yourself lying less

Eventually he does enlist Yosano's help to try and see if there's anything she can actually do to help you too

Even if it turns out that she can't or something like that, he'd still be there to help you and he'd still love you

Yosano:

She's determined to help you with this condition, but she understands that it's not something you can control

Yosano is honestly probably the best one out of everyone here who you could talk to about it because she'd actually put a ton of effort into helping you stop lying (besides Chuuya lol)

She herself can usually tell when you're lying but unlike Ranpo she can't tell what exactly the lie is, if that makes sense?

She's very nice about it and never takes your behaviour personally. Yosano is very gentle when she encourages you to be honest with her, and doesn't force you to admit things if you feel you can't

That being said she doesn't enable your behaviour, and will sometimes end a conversation with you if she knows you'll keep lying after she brings it up

It's possible that as a doctor she may receive some raised eyebrows for deciding to date someone who is a compulsive liar, but she really doesn't care. Something like that isn't gonna deter Yosano from loving you

She may suggest couple's therapy in order to help the two of you communicate better (whether or not you decide to go is up to you)

Overall she's pretty good at handling your behaviour and not making you feel bad about yourself because of it :)

got the vibrant colour tachihara mayoi yesterday ˚‧º·( 。ᗒ ᴗ ◕✿) also...do we really expect many of these characters to correctly deal with behaviour as a result of psychological issues?

[juni-ravenhall]

updated these since the old ones were from 2020. not much is different, erased with white a bunch of options to make it easier to look at for me, changed some minor numbers that dont rly matter bc its not that easy to put those numbers down anyway.

some talk thats mostly about their relation to me and stuff about me instead of stuff about them below ⬇ (actually i should fill one of those out for me myself too. that could be fun)

i adjusted junis brother a bit focusing on just how hes like at the moment of having been rescued to jorvik, rather than thinking about his potential "real personality" if he was able to heal and become a more developed person instead of just full of trauma. i do want to eventually do something with the concept of what if he healed, or what if he hadnt been abandoned in pandoria to begin with? if hes intj like me (his behaviour is based on how i am when im completely broken down, which sadly has happened a lot in my life) then what would it be like to see him healthy and happy? its stuff id like to think about more eventually

also filled in that juni is enfj. back then i wasnt so sure what parts of her were different than me, over time i developed it and she really clearly became enfj. we both share high Ni aka my dominant function as intj but her dom Fe plays into the whole constantly being in contact w ppl thing - im also very caring and loyal, and i genuinely want to save everyone on earth and want everyone to be healthy and happy. i want society to be fixed (and ive got the ideas) and i want ppl to be kind and loving to each other. me and juni share that. but for me, i cant really handle talking to normies much bc their reality is just too different than mine. juni has no problem socialising with anyone, even if she ofc also has ppl shes the closest to and others who she might not get along with as much, its still easy for her bc Fe just has that harmonising feelings thing with others that i dont have (and being a dominant extrovert function, and not being ND, shes also not as exhausted by socialisation).

for me with low Fi i just dont really get much out of socialising for socialisations sake. its part of why i cant handle being on discord servers and stuff like that. i dont "vibe" with people in that way, i want to actually have interesting and intimate conversations and learn more about my friends, their backstory, their problems (can i help them?), their deep and genuine feelings (not stemming from copying others and peer pressure, group-think is extremely irrelevant to me and i dont view people differently if theyre supposedly in-group or out-group - im interested in everyone as an individual). for my whole life ive just been too different and for many reasons not been part of normie's society, so its just really alien to talk to normies. (as in, the abuse and isolation, the disability, the ptsd and depression, the queerness, and also just being intj, not really having a normal brain. i often wonder if the ppl who say bad things about mbti - besides the obvious "job and school mbti use is bad" yeah it is - have known what its like to just not be able to relate to almost anyone around you ever when it comes to personality. even online, even in a nerdy group, even in a place with ND people, even with queer people, even with disabled people, youre still different. you still cant relate. for me, finding out that im just a weird personality type was really important, and then i was able to study other ppl's personality types and now i actually get why people behave the way they do and why society functions the way it does for better or worse. which is a great thing to understand imo. the "omg mbti bad bc jobs and school and the tests are dumb" is one thing, but studying the functions and really truly diving into how other people function and how theyre different from you and how you all work and how the human history of the world has happened, is beautiful to me.)

as a low Fi person, with a focus on 1-on-1 connection rather than groups, i focus on talking intensely to the beloved weirdos on my computer, or posting my rambles and reading you guys rambles in return. u guys prob dont even realise, but for a lot of u, i remember like... u posting about ur job or school one time. what u posted about that u wanted to do or what ur upset about. i think about what ur ocs symbolise, why u write them that way, what part of ur personality and your lived experience, your feelings, makes u project this or that on characters. i think that a lot of ppl treat social media as a more shallow and "a drop in the ocean" type of thing, but for me, even ppl ive not talked to much on my dash, if youve been my mutual for some time, i think about you and remember things about you. if you post music i listen to it both to see if i might like the song but also bc im interested in what you like. i like learning things about people around me, the same way i like learning things about the world in general and spend obscene amounts of time studying and analysing the world both in its current and past. its an intj thing because its about my dominant Ni function, which loves analysing patterns and taking in information to process. but i dont mean that in a cold way, its an intimacy and friendship to me to learn things about you and understand you. not to "vibe" but to really know someone and see the puzzle pieces of their life. im very much about all the puzzle pieces that makes you You. im not saying its wrong to vibe and chill instead of analysing your mutuals like puzzles, just that this is something thats very different from how i am, and its been hard for me in life to relate to the way most people are.

idk if anyones reading this but some of you also prob noticed that i will pop out of nowhere and talk to you about some random thing you posted thats interesting to me, or send you a message of support if youre going through hard times. i remember when you posted that you were really sad and i notice that youre having a hard time when you post that youre sad again a month later. idk, its hard for me because im not always very emotional in a way that other people understand. i can come off as cold or quiet which in turn can come off as disinterested. but i just wanted to write it somewhere, to put out into the cosmos, that actually i care a lot about the little creatures on my dashboard and i hope that you notice even if my personality and behaviour is a bit different than what people are used to. people project mean things on me sometimes because im confident, for example, or because i stand up against things i think are harmful. because im not "loyal" if i tell a friend that theyre being rude, or im "rude" if im saying capitalism is bad. i can be projected as controlling (telling people "no" when theyre mean) or self-important (being confident in my skills and analysis) and other negative traits which is really unfair to do to someone just bc theyre different. to me i view everyone equally and i will tell off a friend if i have to, without meaning anything unkind by it. idk. ill stop rambling now bc its too much again (high Te will also do that) but i just have feelings and thoughts about that my beloved mutuals dont even know that theyre beloved and that my way of expressing myself is weird and its hard to live in society based around ppl who are very different than me in many ways. but learning mbti / jung functions was really great for me to feel understood and to understand others.

[clouds-by-me]

𝓡𝓮𝓭 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽

Request; All I can think of is when Scaramouch becomes wanderer and remembers who he was and how he would react. I can just imagine him being absolutely horrified and better yet what would have happened to the winged reader?

Yan!Genshin x winged! Reader

Character; Wanderer, Xiao

Gene; Angst, Yandere

Au; Winged!reader, also implied black reader

Synopsis; being A winged creature of such purity, you'd expected to gain someones interest, but not like this, not in this horrific way.

An: I hope that you don't mind that I added some more ppl...

@owl-witch-prompts

Wanderer

•Scaramouche was obsessed with reaching God hood, it was all he really talked about. After so much time he just left...

•Not that you were complaining

•He went months without coming back, and in that time, you managed to escape. And once again you were free, as free as a bird

•Paranoia still was engraved in your bones, but you managed, living in a large tree, isolated from the world and you didn't even mind

•That was until you saw him

•And things got worse when he saw you

•Behind his eyes you could see something change, and that look so you deeply stained in your mind that instantly you ran. Your right wing was far from Healed, so that was all you could do

•And he chased you, calling out to you. Yelling something like an apology

•He tired convincing you that he'd change

•From that day he stayed close to you much to your oppose

•There wasn't a time when he wasn't around

•He stayed around, protecting you, buying things for you. He did his best you respect your boundaries, but he couldn't help it! he had to stay near you at all times! what if you got hurt? he has to be there to keep you safe

•soon you had no choice but to accept him, it's not like he would've given you that option anyway

•there were times where some of your friends just suddenly went missing however

•he claimed to have nothing to do with it but you know that hes hiding something

•he has helped you a lot, and with the help of Nahida, he healed your wing

•him being so nice to you was a hard concept to grasp but once you got used to it. that's just what it became

•it would still be best to stay cautious though

"i'm glad that you've grown to trust me, i don't know what i would've done if you didn't"

Xiao

•this man has been around for a long time, and he has met a lot of people, so when he saw you for the first time, he was surprised to find that he felt drawn to you

•whatever it was that you made him feel, he wanted more, he needed more

•you didn't meet him until after him knowing you for close to a year when you were attacked by a group of treasure hoarders

•and like the knight in shining amour he is, he came to your rescue

•he had known you for close to a year by then, but it was your first-time meeting or even acknowledging his existence

•it was like cupid had hit him with an arrow all over again. sure, he had seen you, but touching you? that was something else

•it didn't take long for the start of your relationship to start

•he'd protect you, while you provided him with your company

•when it came to you, there wasn't one foe he wouldn't kill, and to him everyone was a foe

•things between you both were great, and hiding things from you wasn't hard

•he had already kept his existence from you for about a year, so it wasn't hard to keep anything else from you

•the two of you became close, so close that you even trusted him to touch your wings, and once that happened his feeling for you could only grow

•whenever you gave him attention of any kind, he loved it

•he was so happy when you went crying to him about your friend dying after falling off one of the many cliffs of Liyue

•he helped you take care of your wings, and got you everything that you needed to keep them healthy

"i'm always going to provide for you and love you, no matter what"

[marrowcrunch]

What are your top 3 favorite vtm clans (or bloodlines)?

Bonus: which clan do you think you'd fit in with? :3c

Oh boy, this is going to be long lol

Favorite: Tzimisce 

Gosh, what a surprise :O

But yeah. I mean, firstly, the cool factor is undeniable. It's always such a joy designing Tzimisce characters because even toeing the strictest borderlines of canon they're allowed to get real weird with it in a way that most other clans aren't. I don't mean this as hate at all so I hope it doesn't come across like that, all clans are beautiful <3 but if you're playing Ventrue, Brujah, Tremere etc to some degree you'll always just be playing as Some Guy. With a Tzim it’s like…Do you want some sick-ass bone blades on your arms? No problem! Another pair of arms to put more bone blades on? Sounds good! Do you want to be bioluminescent like a squid? Great! Go crazy! 

Second: Full disclosure, I am the “My fursona is my TWOO SELF” flavor of furry. And the idea of having near total freedom of form— to be able to give myself a tail, claws, fangs, horns, [long censor beep], whatever I want, to abandon my human shape, fills me with Yearning. 

In the complete opposite direction, I also find personal meaning in the clan as someone who suffers from chronic pain. Shamelessly copy-pasting a reply to another post: 

The flavoring of Vicissitude as a creeping infection, as the actual body of the Eldest spread from generation to generation, able to rise up and consume its bearers at any moment, resonates with me very deeply as someone whose pain is caused by congenital tissue defects and which will inevitably get worse over time.

The idea that…there’s something horrible lurking inside your body. It can’t be cured. It can’t be removed. It is part of the very fabric of your being. And it is going to eat you alive, it is going to eat and eat until there’s nothing left. That no matter how you struggle, eventually it’s going to win. But you struggle anyways, because what the hell else is there to do?

The clan also has its revenant families, who are all collectively my most Specialist Little Guy in the world. I am a huge sucker for ye old trope of Special Family Bloodline Technique, and they scratch that itch for me in a really fun and interesting way. 

Second favorite: Giovanni. I actually don't have any deep reasons for this one, I just think that “fucked up necromancer vampire crime family” is such a fun concept lol. I like organized crime stories. It's also another one for the “bloodline technique” category— in v20, they even have their own associated revenant family, the Rossellinis! 

Third favorite: Salubri. The vibe I get is that they’re deeply underappreciated because people feel like their designation in both fluff and crunch as “the nice ones” means that they’re boring and clash with Masquerade’s overall tone. But I STRONGLY disagree— I think that's exactly what gives them so much potential for the sort of personal, existential horror that is supposed to be at the heart of Masquerade. I actually want to write a much longer post sometime that really gets into why, but part of it is this— being a magical pacifist unicorn prancing in a sunny flower field isn't “horrifying,” but being a magical pacifist unicorn in a dark forest where the only other animals are wolves that want to eat your face sure is. I also think the contrast between mainline (healer) Salubri and Salubri antitribu is a really rich thematic vein— again, I want to write more on this later. 

Bloodline lightning round:

Ahrimanes: Cat-themed woman power. I like the concept of Gangrel in tune with the spiritual elements of nature. Spirits in World of Darkness are fun because they can be anything. 

Ventrue antitribu: Knights in modern settings are cool.

However, if the question was “Which clan are you most like?” instead of “What's your favorite”, the answer is far and away Toreador. I love making art, and while I mostly just write now because my body has kind of fallen apart, I used to dabble in a bunch of different mediums and loved them all. That and I already do the “oh that flower/painting/ random pattern of light on the wall is really pretty *zones out and stares at it*” thing in real life lol so that would just be business as usual. If I couldn't be a Meat Criminal this is actually the clan I'd choose to be embraced into. 

Thanks for giving me a chance to talk :)

[mokutone]

hi what do you think abt t4t kakayama (it's canon to me tbh)

:) hi ty for the question. i will do two sweet pictures of them being intimate and then under the cut there's going to be a longer very unsweet and more technical response

so i'm usually not a very shippy person! but that said i am also on the record as an occasional kakayama + kakayamagai enjoyer

i do hc them both as trans and in different ways w/ different experiences of transition and identity! i have no interest in proving my view as canon, but i do regard my reading of the text (text here including the anime) as a valid interpretation of yamato's experience of identity

yamato, for example, imo, doesnt have any real lived experience of being raised as a child of any gender. he was an experimental subject, and then he was Danzō's weapon/vessel for the mokuton, and then he was in anbu.

in a fun little word game which should not be taken seriously: it'd almost be more fitting to describe him as "adgender" rather than "transgender" since the prefix "trans" implies moving across where the prefix "cis" means to stand still, but the prefix "ad" means "to move towards" and i headcanon him as somebody who was degendered as a child, not in a cool nonbinary way, but instead in a dehumanizing, objectifying way, so his experience of creating his identity and his gender along with it is one of moving toward the concept of gender this word doesn't and wont exist, but bc of the way english works it would probably be simplified to be spelled precisely the same as "agender" in the same way that "aggression" came from latin "aggredi" which came from "ad" (meaning to/toward) and and latin "gradus" (meaning step) (essentially the combination means "to step to" [in a threatening manner]) the only diferences is where agender (meaning no gender) is pronounced ay-gender, the agender that comes from adgender would be prounounced more like "uhgender" in the same way that agressive isnt pronounced like "ay-gressive" but instead like "uhgressive"

and then...as for kakashi? i just decided on vibes. i didn't think hard about it.

i guess i should also say that, while i draw kakayama very infrequently, when i do draw it i usually try to be very apparent about the transness in the artwork if i can? especially if i'm drawing anything more intimate than a peck on the cheek. it's no secret that shipping is often times the most energized part of fandom, and i kind of don't want to produce romantic or sexual artwork which will be enjoyed by people who don't think trans people can be attractive? or who find that trans headcanons make a character uninteresting to them? or worse, "ruin" a depiction of a character to them?

often i think about in terms of. IF there are people that follow me that love my work (usually) and think that kakashi or yamato are hot (usually) and love kakayama (usually) but get frustrated or even uncomfortable out when i draw them as explicitly trans? then i'm drawing all intimate artwork of them as explicitly trans.

it's a little like...nobody gets to love my work if transgender characters are a turnoff for them. that's the bar for entry, is the way i think of it, but really its more like putting onions in a dish. if you want to eat the dish you have to eat the onions. if you don't want to eat the onions, don't eat the dish. all the meals i make contain onions. i'll never compromise on my intention to put onions in every dish i make. that's my ninja way, as the kids say.

especially in the climate we're in right now.

i don't know. i have a lot of feelings about how most fandoms tend to view trans men, especially in terms of romantic and sexual relationships. I'm doing a bad job of expressing the depth of how much seeing how fandom treats trans male identity and transmasculine bodies impacts the way that i draw + write kakayama, but genuinely it's something i think about every single time i create content about them.

[mintmoth]

are there any twst ships you're interested in? i'm just curious :3c

OH MAN so there's not a lot of ships in twst that I don't particularly like since there's a ton of fun character interactions and dynamics that I understand people liking a lot!

Personally the ones I find myself gravitating towards though would be-

Jade and Azul- these two are all head games and one upping each other but also operate on a lever where they understand each other really well, and I've seen a lot of really cute and gorgeous art of them, and I'm weak for the childhood friends to lovers thing

Floyd and Azul- similar to above but with the added hijinks that is just Floyd in general lmao, I see more goofy art then cute art with the two of them but it's a really fun dynamic they have

Floyd and Kalim- again I've seen very goofy and cute art of them and I think the two of them have the ability to just have a lot of fun, added points for giving Jamil a heartattack

Jade and Kalim- once again cute art has won me over LMAO, though I like the added bonus that Jade is more quiet about being very inhuman so there's this element of him being alarming or letting Kalim in slowly only to be met with kindness and understanding to the point where Jade is just like "do you not understand how much danger I am?", also Jamil might be having an even worse heart attack HAHAHAHA

Jamil and Kalim- OKAY I AM SPECIFIC WITH THIS ONE because they have so much going on and I adore how messy and complicated they are so I don't like things magically okay or wow they're suddenly fine and also dating like no I want them caring deeply for the other but they know there's too much going on to let them have a relationship so it's like, the two of them growing and having gentle moments with soft pining and hard moments that are still full of hurt and resentment and moments where they think maybe one day they'll have things figured out and they really can just be two people who could have a romantic relationship outside of everything they've grown up with but also sometimes they they think that maybe they really can just care for the other as a friend and that if they have to let go maybe they can- like yes I do still like silly comics and cute art but this is them at their ideal for me personally lmao I just like them.. complicated. There's no quick fix here and that's okay

Jamil and Azul- okay so this one crept up on me and has become like my number one ship that I like.. Actively Ship OOPS I just love how they're such good parallels of one another and how Azul is so incredibly actively fascinated and amazed by Jamil and Jamil is like, suspicious of him but also actively acknowledges Azul as someone who's competent when Jamil tends to put himself above others like, they're the one upping bullshit and complicated nonsense but then add in the concept of them genuinely enjoying the others company and letting the mask slip around the other because they're faced with someone who really understands them in ways others don't, but they both have far too much pride and too many issues to just admit their feelings so they're left pining and floundering- did I mention I'm a sucker for slow burn romance

Oh yeah also I like Vil and Rook, Azul and Idia are fun, Trey and Cater are great and angst city, Jamil and Leona are interesting????, Ace and Deuce are cute and has that fun teasing aspect with "yeah I kiss the bros goodnight so what, maybe I think about holding your hand sometimes because you make my heart do backflips SO WHAT ITS NOT LIKE ITS A CRUSH ITS JUST A REGULAR TUESDAY WITH THE BOYS"

Oh yeah and Vil and Leona have never been married but they're divorced

[itspyon]

would you mind giving a basic play by play of your au? I’ve never watched Hannibal but the concept for the au is interesting 🧐

okay i'm going to grab this ask to talk about it, hello anon and thank you

nbc hannibal is an already vaguely inspired take on the novel Red Dragon, and its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, that talks about Will Graham, a profiler for the FBI, and Hannibal Lecter, his psychiatrist and also a cannibal. it is VERY queer coded to an almost literal sense ( never got fully confirmed by directors, but it was confirmed by the cast so it's a win to me )

the dnf hannibal au goes something like this: George takes the place of Will as a profiler for the more gruesome cases, Dream is his therapist out of the mental toll it takes on George. and this is where it completely deviates from the canon, because for those who have seen nbc hannibal, the start of their relationship is not the happiest or healthiest or even remotely romanticizable to project it onto real people. so, sidetracking

Dream ( late 40s ) is friends with Sapnap ( mid-late 30s ), the sub-director of a specialized prison in their state. specialized in what way you ask ? shrug, up to you, choose the vilest people you can imagine. Dream for [ reasons, the lore if you will ] picks and chooses the people he eats from there, Sapnap provides, these are criminals often times on death row, nobody misses them when they are gone

cue George ( also mid 30s, yes he's younger than Dream, this is important for the au ) being the new profiler in town, in charge of putting the people Dream is going to eat in prison. he gets a little fucked in the head about the whole blood violence thing, Dream cuts in as his enforced ( important ! ) FBI assigned therapist, and this is where both start forming this slightly obsessive bond with each other

the more fucked the case, the more George gets to see Dream. the more violent the criminal and higher the chance of him getting physically hurt, the more likely Dream is the one that stitches him up ( it is canon on the series that hannibal is a retired nurse ). so, he starts doing it on purpose

the more tangled George gets in a case, the less often Dream gets to pick a body because there's not enough influx of people to cover it up, since George is taking too long to catch them

the more traumatized George gets, the worse Dream feels. which he shouldn't. Dream is not sympathetic of the law or its enforcers, he's never cared, he doesn't really give a shit about anyone but himself and maybe Sapnap. cops are awful, people are awful, that's why he eats them. oh but George

he does want to eat George, but it's not the same. the more George hurts himself, the more he gets to see him half naked and bloody in his office, and he finds pleasure in it. something that he has done for decades always out of revenge, out of a remnant pain of something old and ugly, now someone makes him want to do it out of love. so he lets George keep going

this is around where i stopped having a defined lore and just, do tidbits out of vibes. most of what you need to know for the characterisation is in all that. there is somewhat later the idea that George figures out Dream eats people and he kind of doesn't care because he knows who they are, but i haven't gone too deep into that yet

i hope this was somewhat coherent feel free to inquire further

[itsclydebitches]

Hey so I don't wanna obsess over tiny details in RWBY but like. what was the point of having Penny call out to Ruby at the beginning of episode 1? We never SEE Penny, we only see Neo's illusions of her that were used to emotionally and mentally torture Ruby. Why was that a detail they included if there wasn't going to be any payoff for it?

For me personally, this is made worse by the fact that I didn't even know it was Penny. I wasn't able to identify the voice - I think I originally leaned towards Yang, or hearing Summer for the first time - and I didn't realize it was Penny until another poster mentioned her name being there in the script. Which, you know, could 100% just be a me problem, but there's definitely no payoff if you don't even know what character is meant to be haunting our protagonist.

Looking at Volume 9 as a whole, that detail feels like a miniature version of the sword issue: they introduced this reference to Penny (call out/finding sword), had Ruby get emotional about it (gasp/crying), and then tossed it aside without ever looking back (Ruby never brings up hearing Penny/the Prince trashes the sword and Ruby doesn't care enough to take action). There are so many ways that both of these ideas could have actually led to something. What if the Ever After was aligned with the afterlife, rather than Neo getting an over-powered semblance? What if Penny's sword was an option from the Blacksmith that Ruby chose? What if she heard Penny talking to her throughout the whole Volume, a kind of psychological haunting? What if Penny was the only one Neo crafted, making Ruby's grief over her death the undeniable cornerstone of drinking the tea? As it stands, both ideas just... peter out. Actually no, "peter out" is a gradual end whereas here nothing ever comes of these ideas in the first place, or they're bluntly abandoned. Honestly, stuff like this is included with no payoff because RT doesn't know what they want out of their story and, when they do know, they don't understand how to bring that to fruition. Is Ruby grieving over Penny? Their loss in Atlas? Freaking out over how she can't beat Salem? Does she want to be in charge? Does she also hate being "forced" to be in charge? Is she missing her mom? Does she even remember her mom? Is she frustrated with her team? With Jaune? Does she know Jaune killed Penny? Does she have thoughts on her sister starting to date? Are we exploring her relationship with Neo? Or with Ironwood? Ozpin? The 4+ other characters in that scene? Herself?

RWBY throws out idea after idea after idea after idea and none of them amount to anything because this show is the storytelling equivalent of Whac-a-Mole: a cool concept pops out and the writers immediate whack it back down into the void. Penny is not a part of the finale. The girls don't unpack their loss in Atlas. Conversation about Salem is dismissed. We don't acknowledge that Ruby demanded this power for herself. She doesn't want to be leader, but comes out of the tree a perfect leader once more. She's angry with Summer for lying and then that's instantly pushed aside. Magic gives her the most generic 'I love you' memory ever and that cures her deep depression. We don't need to work through Ruby's team failing her because, again, magic tree and mom memories somehow fix everything. We don't know if she ever learned the truth about Jaune. There's no reflection on all the people who have died. "I don't want to be Ruby Rose anymore" is just a dramatic, narrative clickbait that was never going anywhere.

Why did a phantom Penny cry out for Ruby at the start of the Volume? Because the writers knew that would catch the attention of a lot of viewers and, frankly, that's all they need. Most of the fanbase isn't interested in a cohesive story, just a revolving door of fan favorites and sandbox ideas. So for the record, I personally don't think that's just a "tiny detail," with the implication that it's also insignificant. Moments like that are representative of how RWBY's writing has continually failed since Volume 5.

[horizon-verizon]

Rhaenyra did not fight for the Seven Kingdoms, but for her own position as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Her character remains obstinately stuck in a routine, and never left the conception of hereditary royalty; she s the kind of monarch who believes that a country has duties towards its sovereign, but the sovereign has none towards his country. Her character deals only with her personal rights, but never with the public good, how the war impact the smallfolk, or the means of developing commerce, navigation, or the military power of her country. We don’t even know if she encouraged companies, merchants, financiers, before the war broke out, or how she wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms.

*EDITED POST* (10/26/23):

Check this POST and this POST out for additions/changes.

Assuming that we're talking about original!Rhaenyra, I don't see how this marks her as different from most monarchs or heirs? And if we can't find a trait that makes her different (in terms of aristocratic desires) then can you really argue she'd be worse? And did she actually go out of her way to harm smallfolk before the Dance, before the usurpation, before her kids died?

A list of monarchs that Rhaenyra wouldn't be too different from: her own father, Aenys, Aegon and all of the greens also show no thought to the smallfolk in any special projects or proposed laws for the public good, as Aegon V did. Even Jaehaerys didn't want to either abolish the right of the first night or to put more attention to giving KL a better water and sewage system. His wife, Alysanne, convinced, insisted, and pressured him on both accounts!

We don't know what the greens planned to do (and I can say with full confidence that they'd be even less likely to even think of all that you list we don't know Rhaenyra would do), the text gives us nothing. But going off of what happened immediately after Rhaenyra died, they didn't appear to plan anything for anyone other than themselves.

With that, she'd be better than the alternative: any of the green children, Aegon (a rapist and can't keep his temper under control unless others make work of convincing him), Aemond (another rapist and genocidal maniac), Helaena (would never be even considered since she female and discouraged/kept from true governing, thus not giving much confidence that she can rule), and Daeron the guy who somehow couldn't stop his men from raping and killing slews of townspeople despite having a dragon and actually ordering another town but here's because he thinks that his nephew's death was all the lady's fault, thus showing more callousness than most fans expect from him. For goodness sake, Aegon (II) gathered people to execute along with the Shepherd despite him already having the Shepherd to just make an example of him!

So why single out Rhaenyra for being similar? Why does she have to "prove" herself more to you, anon, not the lords. To you? Why are you dictating that she must provide a stronger moral character than her already comparatively morally-bankrupt rivals? What do you have against Rhaenyra?

I have said this multiple times:

LINK #1

LINK #2

LINK #3

LINK #4

LINK #5

LINK #6

Some would argue that because Rhaenyra is a woman and she's already in doubt unfairly, that she needs to prove to these doubters that she deserves the throne so that she can actually, "objectively", "earn" the throne. A few things wrong with this idea:

It's actually not objective at all, how these lords and whomever evaluates who should sit on the throne. The very idea of men-only or male primogeniture--along with the reality of patriarchal privileges--comes from ideas about masculinity, womanhood. Little-questioned military control most of the population. And who defines or shapes what is good or evil, for whose interests? The aristocratic men are allowed to have that authority. Since most feudal/monarchial men feel other men can be the only ones to lead forces or direct others and that women are weaker in body and mind, they will always question the validity of a female leader. It is not rational, therefore it can be never be objective. In the story, Rhaenyra is not repudiated because she is a bad ruler or they think she would become one, but because she is a woman. That's all.

with all that energy spent on "earning" or "proving" herself by doing public good (and do more than most male monarchs ever did), Rhaenyra or any woman would not have to work harder to even become and stay a ruler, thus have that much more room to even think about doing "public good" and how. Exactly when would Rhaenyra be even implementing as you suggest after she takes KL, when again she has to concentrate on defeating her usurpers, grieving her 3 dead kids, having no funds because the treasury was stolen, having the greens west and south, and several rioters against her? Even if she had plans? How would she be able to implement them?!

Once again, the greens, even after taking back KL, did nothing to do as you say Rhaenyra should have done. Just create more chaos by trying to go after ALL Rhaenyra supporters and threatening the lives of Aegon (III), Alyn, and Baela, burning people alive, etc.

(if you, as a royal dynasty, want to maintain your semi-absolute power and keep it as absolute as possible) who gets to be heir is and never should have been determined by the lords and make it seem that it was their choice -- this is one of Jaehaerys' many mistakes, and make no mistake HIS goal was to keep absolute power for the Targ dynasty, not to engineer some sort of meritocracy or constitutional monarchy or give power to the people at the cost of the royal family

if you make one person have to "earn" the throne while allowing other heirs be just invested as heir by the monarch's say-so (as is the point), then you have worked to further undermine the word of a monarch AND the heir (again, in the interests of an absolute monarchy who wishes to keep the throne in the family)

If you want a Targ queen for the people, look to Alysanne, Rhaenys I, and Daenerys Stormborn. The last the best of them all, who exclusively thought of rulership as equal to actually protecting EVERY single person under their rule. Funny how I can count only one male monarch who is anything like these women: Aegon V. Even so, why are you so insistent on the women having this responsibility over the men?

But you also must acknowledge that women in general should not be exclusively made into defenders or definers of morality and social conditioning while men are allowed to do willy nilly with their willies and have little-to-no accountability.

Rhaenyra's personality and interests developed from her social circumstances, especially her having to--as I called it in other posts--"self-determine" her rights and value as a person/heir against the repudiaters who repudiate her based on her gender alone. We need to remember this, it is so crucial to understand her character as written or suggested! It is her strength and her flaw, her vulnerability and motivation (aside from that Targ-Andal aristocratic pride that actually buttresses the other part).

Yes she has entitlement and pride. She's a princess who grew up having much more than others and with a heritage of conquerors and dragonriders. Aerea, Saera, Rhaena, Viserra, Alyssa, Alysanne, all these women had that pride but we see them all as very different people nonetheless. Show me who would also not be similar, and does not the human population have psychological variances (personalities) as well as its physical?

Yes that Targ-Andal blood purity is there, but once more how does this make her worse or different from her male counterparts (except Aegon IV, II, Aerys II, she's objectively better than these guys)?

Either way, Rhaenyra wasn't a terrible choice of a leader until she started losing kids and being betrayed.

She doesn't have to be your favorite woman, your favorite Targ, nor even your favorite Targ woman. There are many morally and better written examples, or more deliciously mysterious ones. But I wouldn't make the mistake of thinking she was evil and totally unfit for the throne based on this misplaced take that she had to be the exception on account of her gender or how others would pressure her to be better, therefore she should not have won and ruled.

You fall into the near?-sexist trap that way, where because she is a woman who came into power she needs to prove to those around her that she is "better" than all other paat and present candidates WITHOUT at least acknowledging or addressing the granted & possible realities that made her who she was and came to be. WITHOUT tracking that process of her becoming a tyrant and making as if it came out of nowhere, that she "freaked out" and went "crazy" with no prompt that could affect others in her peace even if not in the same way. WITHOUT considering that those circumstances are not totally unique and share elements of misogyny and misogynist ideology that people should at least acquaint themselves with. If she doesn't excel and be a moral champion, then all her suffering or all that was down against her meant absolutely nothing, means nothing, we should ignore her human development, and she is the actual problem...the only problem.

*EDIT* (8/21/23):

THIS is a great post by @mononijikayu about medieval queens, female rulers, the history of how women in leadership positions were made and seen as threats to the very structure of social "order", and contextualizing Rhaenyra thru Empress Matilda. I didn't even know about Matilda's husband being comparable to Rhaneyra's Daemon! PLZ READ!!!!

Excerpt:

just as much, along with these fictitious portrayals, more lies are depicted. these women are considered vixens that cause havoc to men by shifting them into desires and danger. through the written word, we see how women are cast in roles of villains in men’s lives. it is because by their conclusive thoughts, women are the only creatures that are able to turn ‘good honorable men’ into despicable creatures who do shameful, deplorable acts for the sake of women’s pleasures.  [...] it is within this narrative that ancient chroniclers declare that women were in fact the doom of men. if they were not able to control the dangers posed by the wiles of women, then the foundations of the mighty society they had built would be up in flames.  [...] as i mentioned, these factors of community are written down and preserved. and with that, the example of the ancients were the foundations by which medieval society built itself. the same concepts continued to cause the same issue within society and that was the exclusion of women from participating in the bigger picture of community and state, much so with governing states in their own right—without judgment or disapproval. 

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

ok so I mean this with utmost respect for but please please don't position yourself above people who want the characters to fuck. your previous post, the "i want top neuvillette who's still femme and a crybaby my god is that so hard" one, is literally in the very usual style of sexy headcanoning. which is good! I just don't want you to alienate other people who also think both about that and the Problems

it really is the biggest elephant in the room, the way Fontaine is as a whole, isn't it. I think genshin fandom involves some kind of derealisation mode. they feel even less... existing than characters usually do. which is, bizarrely, very fitting for Fontaine?

I have no intention of positioning myself above people who want characters to fuck, so I apologize if it comes off that way. Because yeah you're right, I do have sexy headcanons. I'm just some guy as well. I literally drew Wriothesley with his tits out ( and I have more WIPs of Wriothesley with his tits out, by the way. Neuvilette too. But he's usually flat as a board in my stuff lmao so it doesn't really.... well he's still sexy even as a twig. to ME).

My point mainly is that it's not my Main form of engagement with media. I do not develop interest in stuff through finding characters attractive first, then becoming interested in their story after. Meanwhile, Genshin Impact as a model heavily bets on you becoming attached to the characters on their concept/models/kits alone, but the character writing is very much secondary to them. You don't recommend Genshin to people who want artsy fartsy hard-hitting narratives, exploration of trauma/mental illness, culturally sensitive representation, and character-driven stories. You might recommend Genshin to people who like gacha but aren't too susceptible to predatory gambling mechanics, enjoys expansive world building, open world, beautiful graphics, fun/straightforward gameplay, and hot anime people.

And Mihoyo as a whole do not value and uphold the things I value (my lukewarm leftist-aligned politics), therefore, I am just very much not the target audience. There isn't much else to say to that. Attraction isn't the hook to fish this krill (me), which is why I said I'm... not the target audience. It's fine if OTHERS are. I don't see myself as any better or worse for it. If anything, I WANT to be the target audience. I WANT to be in a fandom that engages with the stuff I enjoy more. Not for any moral reason, I just want to have fun too, like goddamn y'all look like you are having a blast over there. I don't think it's a bad thing that people who want character to fuck.... gets characters who are designed, encouraged and sold to be shipped (fucked). It's just a thing that happened.

Additionally, I also don't engage with fandoms (end of sentence. Actually, I kid) mainly because the majority of people (not you in particular. Just Generally. Amorphously) are here to see characters have sex and that's it. That's Fine. It's okay to just want your favs to have sex. I just happen to want a lot of other stuff as well, and the sex bit is just not my main thing. Once again, I am not the target audience. It's like I shouldn't drive up to the chips shop asking for ice cream, but I live in a town that only sells chips, so I'm sitting on the curb complaining about how there's no ice cream when I should move out, probably. But the economy doesn't allow me to move out (I am hyperfixated) and the only job I can do is make ice cream disguised as chips so the chips lovers come to my shop (I write fanfics and draw Wriothesley with his tits out).

So like. Ultimately who cares. I'm just some guy who feel what I feel, and I want to say it as I feel it