#i mean i know why thats likely the case. but still.

[pedge-page]

Imagine baby Sarah angry with Joel for not giving into her asks and wants like idk candy maybe and sides with reader going behind Joel’s back to ask the exact same thing and then in the middle of the day Joel questions how Sarah got a lollipop and reader says that Sarah told her that Joel said yes but to ask reader as well and they then connect the dots to discover that they’ve been played

Joel Dealing with Preggo Wife: Sarah's Bargain

Notes: I’ve derailed from this prompt a little because Sarah’s gotta outsmart all of the adults in the room.

- - - -

Sarah and Joel are walking through the gas station mart when she spots the colorful rack of assorted candy. 

"Daddy, can I have one ring pop?"

"No," he responds plainly, counting the twinkies in his hand and figuring out how many he can get before you yell at him.

"Why not."

He grabs two bottles of Pepsi in one hand before heading over to the check out counter. “Because I said so."

She grumbles and follows close behind him. "If I clean my room--"

"You can't bargain with me. I'm not mom. My answer is no."

She thinks about it for a moment. Then smiles. "Ok Daddy, I understand."

Joel is surprised she acquiesced so quickly. She seems to have gotten over the tantrum phase. Maybe he's doing a pretty good job at this parenting thing after all. 

- 

Later on, you take Sarah along with you to go grocery shopping. "Mom.”

"Yes bubba."

"Dad said if I cleaned my room, I could have a ring pop."

You pause, surveying the special deal for pepsi cans. Despite Joel telling you about the suspicious amount of pepsi that’s been disappearing from his stock, you hadn’t touched any. In fact, you had your own stock that you suspect he’s found out and been stealing from. 

“What?”

“A ring pop,” she repeats. “Dad said if if cleaned my room, I could have one.”

 Thats very uncharacteristic of him to bargain with Sarah.

"He did? So what are you coming to me for?"

"Well he said ONLY if you agreed. Said it was OK but to ask mom first to be sure."

Fuck, making me do the hard decision. Joels always the favorite, and if you say no now, then it’s going to make you the mean mom for no reason. You did see she cleaned her room without being told...

You grab the pepsi case, hoping Joel won't scold you for your own hoarders pile.  

You see the innocent batting of her eyes just as you look over to the candy aisle. “Well if Dad said yes..." 

-

Sarah and Joel are sitting at the table as he unwraps his secret stash of pepsi and Twinkie’s away from you. 

"I asked mom for a ring pop and she said yes,” she mentions while coloring her book.

Joel freezes with half the cream custard in his mouth. “I said—“ 

"Its ok! I told her since you had said no, that she didn't need to get me one. I just wanted to see if she would..."

"You trying to set me up against mom?"

"No..." she adds quickly. "I just... thought it would be an interesting experiment.” She smiles softly, before turning to a very mature, saddened tone. “But then I realized it was wrong and I should have listened to you in the first place. So I didn’t take it because I know you said no."

He thinks about it for a moment. Now you’re going to come to him lecturing about why Sarah doesn't get things when she CLEARLY has a good sense of responsibility, going as far to say no to something she clearly wants just to respect him. She's also smart to test both of you, and even when she could have had it, she still refused. 

“Alright. Just cuz I'm proud of ya.” He dusts the power from his fingers and fishes for his wallet. “You’re a smart kid. But I don't want you testing your mom n’ me for the same answer.  And I don't want to get in trouble with her. I'll get you one. Just this once ok?"

She nods solemnly and crosses her heart. “I won’t say anything.”

-

The next day, you hear Joel and Sarah coming in from the garage and you quickly stash your pepsi behind the potted plant. Your daughter gives you a fat kiss on the cheek before running to the living room and turning on the tv.

You and Joel sit at the table. “I saw the can by the way.” He remarks.

You grunt, pulling the aluminum from its hiding spot and proudly sipping it before crinkling it in your hand. “Well I haven’t been stealing from you. I …have my own stash.”

Joel gasps, offended and surprised by your double standards. “And you yell at me n’ my Twinkies!”

"There better not be any f-ing twinkies in this house Joel Miller," you point at him threateningly.

"Nope none Nada. Haven't seen any." he slowly tucks the new plastic back full of them under his legs.

"The two of you talk about Sarah having cleaned her room without being told. 

"Yeah, I ended up getting her the ring pop,” he tells you.

You furrow your brows.

“?… but, I got her the ring pop. She said you told her I would get if it I also approved? I didn’t want to be the mean mom!"

Fuck, Joel knows you get too worked up on trying to be too nice and cater to Sarah... "What? I told her no first. I never said it was up to you. Then she said she asked you and you said yes, but she refused yours, so I got her it instead for being responsible. I told you to stop worrying about being the nice mom!”

You also know Joel's a sucker for marveling Sarah's experimental mind and working on being responsible over getting what she wants. "She did NOT refuse my offer. what are you talking about?"

Tommy comes in moments later, and waves to the two of you through the open door. Sarah runs up to him near the doorway, and he greets her first suspiciously. They do a funky little hand shake, and you catch a glimpse of something silver going into his palm before she retreats to the living room 

"What are you doing here?" Joel asks.

Tommy shrugs. "Uh nothin’ just.."

"Did you just slip her a ring pop??" You ask incredulously. 

He huffs a guilty sigh. "Sarah asked for a ring pop because you guys told her no, so I went to pick one up at the store as long as she didn’t tell either you...."

Fuck. You and Jole BOTH know Tommy's complex about wanting to be Sarah's favorite uncle (despite the fact you keep reminding him he's her  ONLY uncle and he has no competition).

Above all else, Sarah knows these weakness about each of you. You all look over to her as she unwrap a third ring pop, putting all of them on her one hand and switching back and forth sucking on them. There's an open Pepsi can clutched in her other tiny palm that she sips from, with an exceedingly satisfied grin on her face.

- - - -

Taglist:

@harriedandharassed @lola8888673 @its-nebuleuse @zliteraturehoe @merz-8 @joeldjarin @pascalscoffin @pedroshotwifey @ghostslillady @innerpersonunknown @missladym1981 @mrsoharaxx @survivingandenduring @milla-frenchy @cockykookiee @fairytale07 @daddy-din @pedropascalsbbg @spookyxsam @somehopeatlast @millercontracting @pedrostories @mishala005 @theoraekenslover @animez96 @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog @puduvallee @cassiecasluciluce @loohoop

[kaladinkholins]

i know I've mentioned my interpretation of mizu's gender a million times on here but i don't think i ever fully elaborated on it.

so on that note i just wanna ramble about that for a bit. basically, it's my reading of the show that mizu is nonbinary, so let me dig into that.

putting the rest under the cut because it ended being pretty long lol. also here have a cute mizu pic of her being happy and most at ease with herself, symbolised by her letting her hair down. <3 ok let's proceed.

okay note that nonbinary is an umbrella term, and applies to a vast range of gender identities, but it's my personal preference to use it as is, simply because i'm not a fan of microlabels. more power to you if you are though, but anyway.

essentially when i refer to mizu as nonbinary it means that i interpret mizu as a woman, but not ONLY a woman. not strictly a woman. she is also a man. she is also neither of these things, she is something in between, while at the same time she is none of these at all. i've said as much many times, but i just don't want people to think that by nonbinary it inherently means a "third androgynous gender" that essentially turns the gender binary into a gender trinary. not only is that going against what the term nonbinary was crafted for (to go against rigid boxes and categorisation of gender identities), but also, not all nonbinary people fall under that category or definition, and that's definitely not the way i interpret mizu.

also, before anyone fights me on this, let me clarify further that gender means something different to everyone. it's not your biological sex or physical characteristics. but at the same time, gender is not mere presentation. you can be a trans woman and still present masculine—either because you're closeted and forced to, or because you just want to—and either way, that doesn't take away from your identity as a woman. same goes for trans men. if you're a trans man but you wear skirts and don't bind or don't get top surgery, that doesn't make you any less of a man. because gender non-conformity exists, and does not only apply to cis people! some lesbians are nonbinary and prefer using he/him pronouns while dressing masculinely, but that doesn't mean they're a man, or that they're any less of a lesbian. neither does this mean that they're a cis woman.

the thing about queer identities in general is that, like i said, they mean something different to everyone, because how you identify—regardless of your biological attributes and fashion or pronouns—is an extremely personal experience. so a nonbinary person and a gnc cis woman's experiences might have plenty of overlap, but what distinguishes between the two is up to the individual. there's no set requirements to distinguish you as one or the other, but it's up to you to decide what you identify as, based on what you feel. either way, by simply identifying yourself as anything under the LGBTQ+ umbrella, you are already communicating to the world that you are not what a conservative, cisheteronormative society wants you to be.

which is why i find all this queer infighting on labels to be so ridiculous. because we're all fighting the same fight; the common enemy is a societal structure that divides us into set roles and expectations purely based on our biological parts. that's why biological essentialism in the queer community is a fucking disease. because by arguing that women are inherently weak and fragile and soft and gentle and must be protected from evil ugly men, while men are inherently strong and angry and violent and exploitative of women, these people are advocating for the same fucked up system that marginalises and abuses women as well as effeminate and/or gay men.

anyway. i'm going on a tangent. this was meant to be a blue eye samurai post. so yeah back to that— the point i'm trying to make is that there's no one way to identify as anything, and everyone views gender in a specific way.

so with that being said, yes you can definitely interpret mizu as a gnc cis woman and that's a totally valid reading. however, interpreting her as nonbinary or transmasc also doesn't take away from her experiences with misogyny and female oppression, because nonbinary and transmasc folks also experience these things.

me, personally, i view her as nonbinary but not necessarily or always transmasc because i still believe femininity and womanhood is an inherent part of who mizu is. for example, from what we've seen, she does not like binding. it does not give her gender euphoria, but is instead very uncomfortable for her both physically and mentally, and represents her suppressing her true self. which is why when she "invites the whole" of herself, she stands completely bare in front of the fire, breasts unbound and hair untied. when she is on the ship heading to a new land in the ending scene, she is no longer hiding her neck and the lack of an adam's apple. we can thus infer that mizu does not have body dysmorphia. she is, in fact, comfortable in her body, and relies on it extremely, because her body is a weapon. instead, what mizu hates about herself is her face—her blue eyes. she hates herself for her hybridised identity, hates herself for being a racial Other. hates that she has no home in her homeland. these are not queer or feminist themes, but postcolonial ones.*

* and as a tiny aside on this subject, i really do wish more of the fandom discussion would talk about this more. it's just such an essential part to reading her character. like someone who's read homi k bhabha's location of culture and has watched this show, PLEASE talk to me so we can ramble all about how the show is all about home and alienation from community. please. okay anyway—

nevertheless, queer and feminist themes (which are not mutually exclusive by the way!) are still prevalent in her story, though they are not the main issue that she is struggling with. but she does struggle with it to some extent, and we see this especially during her marriage with mikio, where we see her struggle in women's domestic spaces.

on the other hand, though, she finds no trouble or discomfort in being a man or being around other men—even naked ones—and does not seem stifled by living as one, does not seem all that bothered or uncomfortable navigating through men's spaces. contrast this to something like disney's mulan (1998), where we do see mulan struggle in navigating through men's spaces, as she feels uncomfortable being around so many men, always feeling like she doesn't belong and that she's inherently different from them. mizu has no such experiences like this, as her very personality and approach to life is what can be categorised as typically "masculine". she is straightforward and blunt. her first meeting with mikio, she tells him straight to his face that he's old while frowning and raising a brow at him. she approaches problems with her muscles and fists (or swords), rather than with her words or mind. compare this with mulan, who, while well-trained by the end of the movie, still uses her sharp wits rather than brute strength. this is a typically "feminine" approach. it's also the approach akemi relies on throughout the show—through her intelligence and persuasive tongue, she navigates the brothel with ease. mizu, in contrast to someone like mulan and akemi, struggles with womanhood and femininity, and feels detached from it.

thus, in my opinion, mizu is not simply a man, nor is she simply a woman. she is both. man and woman. masculine and feminine. she has to accept both, rather than suppress one or the other. her name means water. fluid.

as a side note, while i do believe mizu is nonbinary, i also primarily use she/her pronouns but this is a personal preference. i find it's easier, plus it's what the creators use, and because, in general, being nonbinary simply doesn't necessitate the use of they/them pronouns. nonbinary is not just a third gender. it's about breaking the binary, in any which way, and that's exactly what mizu does.

also, i'd also like to mention that one of show's head of story even referred to her with the term "nonbinary", rather than simply "androgynous" (see pic below). and it's possible this could be a slip up on his part, in which he believes the terms are interchangeable (they're not btw), but regardless i find it a very interesting word choice, and one that supports my stance.

so anyway yeah that's my incredibly long rambling post.

TL;DR nonbinary mizu rights 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 congrats if you reached the end of this btw. also ily. unless you're a TERF in which case fuck off. ok i'm done.

[agapemoon]

Ok but are people saying that no one cares about q!Quackity for real? I understand q!Quackity feeling that way because he sabotages himself and feels guilty about everything he’s done but literally everyone cares about him even if he can't see it !

They might think he is insane but at the end of the day everyone still appreciates him and proof of that is q!Vegetta comforting him for not being “invited” to the wedding even though both q!Roier and q!Cellbit DID invite him still knowing that he could ruin their wedding. Another one is q!Forever keeping an eye on q!Quackity so he doesn’t get kidnapped when Cucurucho went to talk to him back then when they first kidnapped q!Cellbit (which btw they didn’t kidnap q!Quackity but q!Foolish thought they did so he told q!Forever and everyone was down to look for him as well). Another one is q!Cellbit giving him 1% of his custody so he doesn’t feel alone when he told him how much he misses Tilin and wishes he could take care of Tallulah or when q!Roier, q!Bbh and q!Foolish helped him build “La vecindad” or when q!Etoiles kept asking him repeatedly if he was okay and if he wanted to go do dungeons with him or just yesterday when q!Jaiden saw him go with Cucurucho at the end and thought it was weird and later she told q!Philza about it and both are now very worried about him.

I don't understand why people are talking like everyone in that Island does not care about him. Again, I understand why q!Quackity doesn’t because he just sees his own perspective but if you see others' pov is CLEAR how everyone genuinely cares about him even if they don’t trust him entirely. And that's what makes his character tragic, the fact that the Island is full of residents who care about each other regardless if they suspect someone among them but q!Quackity feels like they are all against him because that's what he thinks.

q!Quackity feels alone because he is the one believing he is alone, not because everyone else leaves him alone. He is the definition of self-sabotage and I do feel sorry for him but let’s not act like him and believe that no one in that Island cares for him or that no one will care about his dissapearence because it's simply not true. If no one noticed he dissapeared earlier is because it was in the middle of their friend's wedding and once again he decided to isolate himself while everyone else were celebrating.

I cant stress this enough because everyone in that Island would literally try to save him even if maybe some of them might not trust him or whatever, even if he once threatened to kill the eggs and even if he just keeps commiting actions that hurts everyone around him including himself. All of them care for him and want to believe he is not bad, they try to understand him to justify why he might be acting the way he is because for them q!Quackity is one of them too until proven otherwise.

[blonde-and-cat-suc]

If Adora and Catra both did crap to hurt each other then why do I never see comics abt Adora feeling like crap and feeling bad for hurting Catra

[caffeinatedopossum]

I don't understand why it's generally not socially acceptable to recognize your good qualities. Like I don't understand why it's bad to be a show-off or a know-it-all or to brag. Like I think most people know "those things = bad" but not why.

It also seems like people are always either waaaaay into one end of the scale where they are just so unbearably full of themselves and have preposterously high self esteem (and most people act like this is fine too? Like a lot of celebrities and white men specifically seem to be like this) and I don't understand why so many people respect them then. Or they're the complete opposite with self esteem way too low despite the fact that they have redeeming qualities.

I feel like maybe the reason it's considered bad to brag is because you might 'make' other people feel inadequate but see that seems like a stupid reason to me because the problem then is not that you stated an opinion of your own self worth but is actually that everyone else is conditioned to compare themselves to each other in a very unhealthy way. And I think instead of discouraging people from opening up about what they take pride in, what they like about themselves, what makes them feel happy or content or confident, maybe we could just be discouraging people from viewing those things as personal threats? Idk just trying to formulate some thoughts on this

[narwhalandchill]

i swear no one hates the pale princess and the six pygmies more than anyone that tries to make sense of genshin lore for any extended amount of time

like i am starting to feel at least like 85% confident (among many others) that we might FINALLY have our first fucking semblance of a clue as to what the events depicted in it could even be with the 3rd descender lore reveals bc like. 3rd descender being the light prince just Really clicks with multiple beats in there including but not limited to the specific mention of a "curse" falling the six pygmies from the remnants of the prince like. HUH. when the gnoses made from the 3rd are also described as a curse. and thats genuinely incredibly exciting bc it feels actually plausible.

but. because this book is still the actual worst designed to torture us all. that just also makes everything even more confusing 😭 bc one fairly prevalent thing (that i personally found quite compelling) with pale princess theories was her possible identity as the seelie ancestor who fell in love with a human and led to the downfall of their race. which has always been highkey giving the night mother destroying the moonlight kingdom and cursing the people of the pale princess into an "undead state, lingering at the point between life and death forevermore". like thats Way too on the nose with how the pale princess is literally the light princes lover so. yeah seelie ancestor always a strong contender for that one. but also what the fuck does that mean for the timeline

and dont even get me started with the pygmies like. who the fuck are the pygmies it makes me want to morb. obviously a ton of theories have tried to fit the archons as the pygmies but its always been a little ehhhhhh at least when attempting to fit our current archons as a whole (+ the whole. 6 pygmies 7 archons things). but the pygmies = cursed from the princes remains part is also like. very gnosis aligned after the fontaine AQ reveals so go figure. i hate this shit 😭

i also saw a speculation on the pygmies as the sovereigns given its likely scyllas already kicked the bucket at the point the 3rd descender happened (since he was already dead when the shade of life was creating egeria) so 7 lizards turning into 6 remaining pygmies in the story has no numerical dissonance. but that keeps raising questions still bc of how gnosis coded the princes death and the ensuing curse feels!! i hate this book have i mentioned that already. but i do find it a compelling argument solely on account of how much better the sovereigns would fit the timeline of sth that happened thousands of years ago Especially if the fall of the seelie queen is involved in any form. also read a good point that some of the pygmy descriptions could arguably fit the 2 of the ancient sovereigns slash likely candidates better than any archon, specifically apep for the pygmy only caring for its own garden and azhdaha for the blind one.

but then its like. if the betrayal of the 3rd was by the defeated and remaining sovereigns it kinda makes the gnosis thing another question mark. like we still lack so much info on the connections and the timeline between the stolen thrones of authority, the war of vengeance and ensuing weakening of the POs "functions" leading to the establishment of the vision system and the archon war and where the gnoses fall in all of this. hhhhhhhhhh

so like whether the six pygmies are some assortment of archons or the sovereigns or some other group altogether we are still so utterly clueless its terrible 😭

i think the only real theory that i think ppl should just let die is tsaritsa as the pale princess tho like. lmao aintnoway hoyo will ever make a playable character who has a very good chance of being the obligatory bronya expy be someone with a canon male love interest are you hearing yourselves 💀 its not even that i think itd be like shit writing or sth im just purely asking ppl to be realistic with the unfortunate self imposed limitations of a gacha game developer. though the tsaritsa somehow having a connection to the pale princess and the events of the story (assuming its the 3rd descender debacle) would be very fascinating.

also someone noted that the exiled pygmy taking the princes body to a "tree hollow" may not be literal at all and instead imply the 3rd after being killed and turned into the gnoses being integrated into the irminsul and all ensuing samsara rebirth cycles which.... interesting.

anyway. i hate pale princess and the six pygmies!!!!!

[6-2-aestheticsofhate]

its insane i was still actively participating in fandom while staying in a homeless shelter. i wrote multiple fics while living there and still uploaded fanart and made character posts and analysis's because what else was i supposed to do in my free time.

[a-passing-storm]

Bass players are so cool and sexy <333

[todayisafridaynight]

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE PRICELESS IS SO GOOD RIGHT... LOVE THE ENDING FOR THAT... and very much anticipating First Penguin's... which I am DETERMINED to continued today... I feel bad for falling behind because I ended up binging a whole anime yesterday since the secondary protagonist was based on Tsutsumi and lost track of Fucking Everything 😭😭😭he is so cute though😚

OH BUT YEAH I played DQXI's demo [the first ten hours of the game or so]... yeaaahhhh... definitely that kind of game for me too... but I hope whenever you get back to it you have a good time! I may not know a thing about Metroid but I am also happy to hear it was an enjoyable experience overall :] I enjoy the tag rambles very much :]

REGARDLESS... EPIC... I HOPE YOU ENJOY SP... OR AT THE VERY LEAST I HOPE YOU CAN STICK WITH IT UNTIL IT BECOMES ENJOYABLE...

AND YOU'RE JUST NOT GOING TO DROP THE TITLE so mean telling me about all these interesting things to watch and not sharin the title (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

TEN HOURS FOR THE DEMO ??? long as hell demo... OH BUT NO i love the games a lot !! ive followed the series for a while since. i do have that dragon ball/toriyama fanatic in me unfortunately even if i dont like toriyama himself ☠️☠️ i only really got to actually start one of the games last year when my bro got DQXI for me and ive been loving it so far (*￣▽￣*)ミ|Ю

i've BEEN enjoying it so far !! i'm just about to start episode four tho i AM gonna lose my mind if this hospital arc goes on one more episode bro this half the series already ☠️

[dexaroth]

i know its unrealistic and nonsense to feel bad bc im not as good as i could be within a hobby bc a hobby is supposed to be fun and occupy your time but i cant for the life of me not feel guilty about not drawing and not improving

like.. i have most of the resources. i often have the time. i have almost a thousand pictures in my reference folder to be used to practice and learn. i have an internet connection to be inspired and learn from those better than me and yet... i just don't feel like drawing. and i mean drawing something grand.. not just the dozens of doodles and oc refsheets i keep churning.. i want to do standalone pieces like i used to and look at them fondly and feel proud of something. but i just dont have the flame to do it for months and months on end

i mean obviously this is much more likely to happen when it has been your primary hobby for over like 7 years contrary to, say, webpage coding which i just started to learn like a year ago. what's keeping me from wanting to draw though? its so frustrating to know you Have the Potential to be a good artist and knowing How you could become more but just.. not feeling like it. and telling urself im gonna draw tomorrow and tomorrow comes and its one of those days you'd rather stare at a wall the whole afternoon and it just keeps going and going and you stay stumped

[timeisacephalopod]

Love atheist communities that hate Christianity but reproduce every single issue Christianity has right down to the racism, wild misogyny, and of all fuckin things evangelizing atheism by sending religious people rude ass 'gotcha' type reactionary content to like idk, recruit people to atheism the way Certian Brands of Christian recruit literally anyone to their religion.

Like yes this atheism is what I see a lot of white men participating in, but like how dense do you have to be to only ditch the GOD part of religion and nothing else while claiming you're intellectually superior to religious folks like a great many incredibly talented and smart people in various sciences weren't religious?

[candyradium]

sea of thieves ships make me sad, but like, in the way that you get when you see unhealthy cat breeds. like. holy shit where are the shrouds. where are the staysails. actually where are the stays in general. there should be ratlines but instead there are ladders and they aren't even on all of the masts. who combined the clewlines and sheets what is wrong with you. do any of them even have jibs. halyards. sails past an upper topsail or a t'gallant. anything. who is breeding these ships i want to speak to the person in charge

[earl-grey-love]

Now my college is almost finished (I have 2 assignments to do), I'm about to be so unbearable about Howard. Until september I'll be free to be as annoying as I want to be >:3

[cruelsister-moved2]

ngl. seeing people who don't understand what indigineity means in the context of europe makes me insane some of you bitches are reinventing blood and soil!!! whilst erasing the actual indigenous people who live here. literally saw an irish american saying they are ‘descended from indigenous people’ because their great grandparents were ‘indigenous to ireland’ and firstly, taking the term literally in the naturalistic sense makes no sense because it’s used relatively, like every plant is indigenous TO somewhere and being indigenous is not an inherent thing that a species can either be or not be. but secondly would you not ask yourself what kind of category you’ve created by this logic wherein colonised and coloniser are all one on the condition they remain where their genome ‘belongs’, but forcibly displaced people and immigrants etc are excluded. whats the point? also the understanding of indigenous as being ‘there before the white people got there’ ignores the reality of internal colonisation within europe, like frankly if the only reason not to think of romani, irish travellers, tatars etc as indigenous people is because they are perceived as like interlopers from outside once the dominant white population of the region was already established then how is that not just cosigning the exact prejudice against those groups.?