#if i tagged you but you don't want to do this feel free to ignore btw

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Bad Guy 2

No tag lists. Do not send asks or DMs about updates. Review my pinned post for guidelines, masterlist, etc.

Warnings: this fic will include dark content such as noncon/dubcon, age gap, power dynamics, cheating, and possible untagged elements. My warnings are not exhaustive, enter at your own risk.

This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: The men your mother brings home rarely stick around, but her latest catch can’t seem to unhook himself from your life.

Characters: Destroyer!Chris

Note: don't act like you don't want a meanie

As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. I will do my best to answer all I can. I’m trying to get better at keeping up so thanks everyone for staying with me.

Your feedback will help in this and future works (and WiPs, I haven’t forgotten those!) Please do not just put ‘more’. I will block you.

I love you all immensely. Take care. 💖

The stump of the cone drips down your fingertips as the car jolts to a stop. You lurch against your seatbelt and hold up your hand and cup the other beneath, trying to keep the melting mess concentrated. Chris cranks the shifter as he idles in front of your mother’s house. 

“Hey, told ya not to get that all over,” he sneers. 

“Sorry, I...” you utter. “I’ll get out.” 

You balance the cone with one hand you do your best not to smear the mess as you unbuckle the seat belt. He huffs as he turns off the engine and his own belt recoils sharply. You glance over as he gets out and slams the door. He stomps around the car and wrenches open your side. 

“Out, now,” he barks. 

You obey and climb out, stepping up on the curb to examine the front of your shirt. He snaps the door shut and snarls again. 

“Keep pushing your chest out like that, someone might just take it as an invitation,” he grits. 

You wince and look up at him, hunching your shoulders. He makes everything you do a crime. As if you’re intentionally trying to offend him. 

“Well, thanks for the ride,” you mutter. “I’ll just go--” 

“I’m comin’ with ya. Mom’s waitin’,” he insists. “Sure, she’s real worried about you. Girl your age can get up to all sortsa trouble, can’t she?” 

He points you up the slanted walk and you glare ahead. Your eyes hurt as they long to roll. He walks beside you, crowding you on the thin blocks of pavement. As you get to the steps, he reaches over and taps your ass. 

“Go on, get up,” he orders you. 

You squeak and hurry up the steps. You just want to get away from him. He probably wants the same thing with the way he speaks to you. 

You wrench the door back with your free hand and angle inside. He catches the door behind you, brushing close as he follows you inside. You feel a tickle on your lower back and hurry up. 

“Gail,” Chris calls past you. 

There’s no answer. You don’t worry about it. Most of the time, your mom isn’t home when you get in. It never bothers you as you like having the house to yourself. 

You go into the kitchen and toss what’s left of your cone. You rinse your hands and ignore the man as he trudges around your house. Your mother’s squeaky hinge whines and he comes back out with a harrumph. 

You dry off and go back into the front room. He’s not far behind as he flops onto the couch with a growl. You peek over as he pulls out his phone and taps on it with his thumb. He jams the screen so hard you expect it to crack. 

“See where you get it from, huh,” he scoffs. “Damn woman.” 

You quickly flit away before you can hear any more of his gripes. He just seems the type to look for anything to be mad about. You might be a cynic, but you’re not an asshole about it. 

You change out of your uniform and toss it into the basket by the door. You’re annoyed. If he had driven a bit slower, you could have worn it at least one more time. 

You shimmy out of your pants and pull on some linen shorts and find a loose tee patterned with sunflowers. You stretch out on your bed and put on the next episode of your serial addiction. As you settle in, you hear him moving around in the kitchen. 

From what you can guess, your mom isn’t even there. She tends to do that. Just wander in and out whenever it suits you. If you were less of an introvert, you might have actually gotten in trouble as a teen with so little parental supervision. Come to think of it, she seems to have lived your teenage rebellion for you. 

A pounding on the door shakes you from your Netflix-induced trance. You sit up and sigh as you go to the door. It’s bad enough he’s getting in the way of your late night snacking but not he’s interrupting your binge. 

You crack the door open an inch and look out, “she’s probably down at Jim’s,” you say. 

“I didn’t ask that,” he brings his hand up to grim the door frame. “Did I?” 

“No,” you frown. 

“'No, sir,'” he wags his index at you. “You should try a smile. Be a lot prettier if ya did.” 

You blink. The only response you have will only piss him off. You clamp your lips tight and shrug instead. 

“There’s shit all in the cupboards.” 

You squint and shake your head, “okay?” 

“I mean, you can figure it out, can’t you? Man’s gotta eat.” 

You tilt your head in confusion, “what?” 

“Don’t tell me ya can’t cook neither. What kinda man’s gonna want a woman can’t do nothing?” He snorts. 

“I-- I don’t want to,” you blurt out. “Cook for yourself.” 

You push the door but he slaps his hand against it and forces it inward, “what did you just say, girl?” 

“I... you’re here for my mom. Go down to Jim’s and tell her to cook--” 

“You’re right. I’m here ‘cause your mommy’s a slut. Any other man stick around, huh? Pay for her bills? Her food? Don’t sound like men to me, and you,” he grabs your chin and you whimper, “don’t speak like much of a lady.” 

“Let go of me,” you smack his wrist, “ow.” 

“See, I knew your mama isn’t shit. The way she acts, shoulda figured you’d be the same.” He yanks you into the hall, “don’t worry, I’ll teach ya manners, girl.” 

“Ah, you’re hurting me--” 

“What do you think your husband’s gonna do when you get mouthy, huh? I’m saving you a lot of hard lessons,” he shoves you past him and you hit the wall with your shoulder. He snaps his knuckles against your ass. “I saw a box of macaroni, think you can boil some water or is that too much for that empty head of yours?” 

“What is your problem?” You turn and lean against the door. “I didn’t do anything and... and...” your words fizzle out as you see the way his icy eyes sear. You gulp. “Why are you so mean?” 

“Mean?” He laughs, “keep talking and I’ll put you over my knee. Now take your ass to the kitchen and make some dinner. I know you ain’t some child eating ice cream for supper, hm? Can’t be walking around like that.” 

He reaches for you and tugs the hem of your tee, letting it go so the fabric springs back up and you feel air flow along the underside of your tits. You quickly cross your arms and try to dissolve into the wall. You stare at him, annoyed but frightened. It occurs to you that he’s a lot stronger than you. 

“Well, you gonna walk around dressed like a woman, may as well be one,” he points down the hall. “You won’t like me when I’m real hungry.” 

You peel yourself off the wall and cower as you pass him. You feel his gaze on you, as oppressive as his presence. You bite down on your lip, as much to keep your thoughts inside as to keep from screaming. You should’ve known that one day your mother would bring home the wrong sort. Well, she always does but they can’t be bothered to stick around. 

You enter the kitchen and go to the cupboard. You search around for the sole box of mac and cheese. That’s your insurance policy. Your mother rarely grocery shops. She only ever goes to the bar or the liquor store. She drinks, she doesn’t eat. 

You grab a pot and fill it with water. As you light the burner, you glance over your shoulder. Chris stands in the doorway, watching, like a warden in a jail. You add salt to the water. You step back and wait for it to boil. The silence scrapes your ears. 

You sway listlessly and another growl rolls up his throat. He clicks his tongue. “Must get good tips down at the ice cream joint, huh? Wearing your cutoffs like you're at the beach.” 

You turn and frown, “...what?” 

“Nah, nah,” he shifts to stand inside the door, leaning his back on the wall, “not ‘what’. You say, ‘sorry, sir, my sweet little head’s empty and I don’t understand. Please explain to me what you mean.’ 

Your lips part and you stare at him. He snickers. 

“The way you look at me, I know you don’t got much going on in there, do ya, girl? So let’s think. You go down to the parlour in those jean shirts, wagging your ass as the boys, and they toss you a couple dollars extra. Hell, I bet those pudgy-bellied dads with all their regret and whiny brats like ya too.” He sniffs and his eyes pinpoint, “keep that up, you’ll find out how much you could make on a pole, flirting with all those greasy dicks down at Bunnies.” 

You recoil at the mention of the strip club. The very thought makes your skin crawl. And your shorts aren’t that short. Your boss said they’re just fine and it’s so hot out in the summer. 

“Shouldn’t flaunt it if you’re not selling it,” he says. 

You stare at the floor and drop your arms, tugging the hem of your shorts to make sure they aren’t bunched. “Sir, I’m not... flaunting it.” 

“Coulda fooled me.” He exhales loudly. “You wanna end up like your ma?” 

No, you don’t want to end up with a man like him. You keep that thought to yourself. You shake your head and take the box of the macaroni. You tear off the top as the water starts to boil. 

“So maybe you should take some advice from someone older and wiser. Do you know what your mama’s problem is?” He asks. 

You shake your head again. You dump the noodles into the water. You go to the drawer and open it to grab a wooden spatula. As you do, he shuts it on your fingers. You yelp as he keeps your hand trapped. You look up at him as he stands close. 

“She can’t hang onto a man. She’s too easy. No guy’s gonna take care of a fucking mess like her. And what good is she without a man lookin’ after her? Living in this hellhole with some deadbeat daughter--” 

“That’s...” you whimper and squirm as you try to free your fingers. “Ow, please--” 

“It is true,” he insists against your unspoken protest. “Whatcha think you’ll be doin’ in another few years? You’re gonna age out and those tips are gonna dry up like sand.” He taunts as he leans in, “and you’re only happiness will be at the bottom of a glass--” 

“Stop. Please,” you beg as the drawer crushes your knuckles. You can’t bear it anymore. You put your hand on his hard stomach and push. “Ow! It hurts--” 

He lets up on the drawer but only to grab your arm. He twists your wrist around and you bend with the angle of your arm. He has you facing the tile as he hyperextends your elbow. You whimper and wiggle your throbbing fingers. 

“See, a woman don’t just need a man to take care of her,” he puts his hand on your ass and brushes up your shorts. “He needs to discipline her.” He pulls his hand away and the drawer rolls open. “And I know your mama didn't do none of that.” 

He rests the spatula against your ass and you twitch, “sir, please, I wasn’t--” 

“Either you shut up and take it like a good girl or each noise means the next one’s harder,” he swings his arm back then forward. The wood strikes your ass in a radiating crack. Your legs tremble and you yowl. “Now what did I say?" 

He spanks you again with the spatula, this time on the other cheek. You grunt behind your teeth and reach back with your other arm. He raps your knuckles with the wood and you recoil. You bend your arm to your chest and he swats you again. Your ass burns from his cruel force. 

He does it again, and again, and again. You try not to make a sound but the whimpers fall out of you. Your arm strains from the angle and his unyielding grip, your ass pulsing in agony. The spatula thwaps down over and over until your eyes are streaming and all you can muster are hollow gasps. 

He lets you go and you crumple to the floor, holding yourself on your hands and knees. He whips the spatula down to it hits the tile and bounces. You wipe your face and look up at him. The air smells like fire. He sighs as his eyes drift to the stove, the water boiling over. 

“Fuck damnit, girl,” he tuts, “figure it the fuck out.” 

He shakes his head and marches out of the kitchen. You stare after him, breathless and battered. You can’t believe he just did that.  

[silverwhittlingknife]

hi Silver! o/ because that fanart made me wonder - would you happen to know when/where Dick's stuffed elephant plush Zitka turns up in the comics?

GREETINGS CAM <3333 THAT ART WAS SO CUTE

Yeah, I think your instincts are right - it's a truly adorable bit of transformative fandom, but I'm 95% percent sure it's not comics canon. Barbara has canon plushies, but I don't think anyone else does.

I got kinda invested in the investigation (it's hard to prove a negative!) and I ended up typing out an entire History of Elinore/Zitka, so, uh, if you're curious, meet me below the cut for:

Where does Elinore / Zitka - the animal - appear in comics?

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

Where does Elinore / Zitka appear in comics?

We're gonna go in chronological order!

Dick's circus elephant friend was first created for practical reasons: in Batman 436, Marv Wolfman does a big expanded flashback to Dick's circus backstory as a way to subtly show us Tim before officially introducing him (so that we can have a technically-solvable mystery-of-Tim's-identity in LPoD). In this comic, there's an elephant named Elinore who loves Dick:

Aww. Such a cute elephant!

Batman 436 comes out in August 1989. New Titans 60 comes out a few months later, in November, and guess what? When Dick visits the circus, he is suddenly surprised by an unexpected blast from the past! It turns out that even though it's been years, Elinore still remembers him!

Here's the part where Elinore remembers Dick:

SUCH a cute elephant. I love her.

(Guess who else still remembers Dick even though it was so long ago. Guess which other character is about to be an unexpected blast from the past. Guess which character Elinore is directly paralleling guess guess guess sorry everything is about Dick and Tim in my mind but I can focus I swear)

Four years later, in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series retells Dick's origin story. They like and keep Wolfman's elephant, but they change her name to Zitka:

Wolfman doesn't return to the elephant beyond those two appearances, and a few years down the line, New Titans gets cancelled and Wolfman's not writing Dick anymore anyway. So the animal gets abandoned for a while, until Devin Grayson, a fan of both Wolfman and B:tAS, revives the Wolfman-era Titans team in JLA/Titans and then the ongoing series Titans 1999.

Grayson then brings back the elephant in a flashback to Dick's past in Titans 16 (Jun 2000), where she imports the B:tAS name. Sometimes I'm skeptical of TV-to-comics imports, but honestly, I endorse this one. You lose the alliteration, which is a shame, but IMO Zitka is a better elephant name than Elinore.

Here's Dick with the newly-christened Zitka in Titans 16:

Grayson also briefly references the elephant in Gotham Knights 20 and - in a final angsty callback - in Nightwing 88 (Feb 2004), where Zitka tries futilely to comfort Dick in the midst of his trauma conga line:

... And... honestly, I think that's it for comic appearances? The two Wolfman comics plus the three Grayson comics.

Both Wolfman and Grayson are writing multiple titles - Batman, New Titans, Titans, Gotham Knights, and Nightwing between the two of them, spanning a big chunk of Dick's post-Crisis canon - and both writers use the elephant for heartwarming moments of nostalgia, which means if you're doing a post-Crisis readthrough for Dick, Elinore/Zitka feels memorable. But I don't think she actually shows up that much.

For post-2011, I am not as well-informed - throwing this out to the dash? anyone know? - but I feel like Zitka the heartwarming symbol of Dick's heartwarming circus past is, uh, thematically very at odds with the Court of Owls evil!circus vibes, so my instinct is that this story element was almost certainly dropped in the reboot.

Did Dick ever have a stuffed elephant toy in comics?

In WFA, yes; in main comics continuity, no. Technically, I have not read every comic ever published, so I could be wrong!! But I don't think so.

Below, find my rambling reasoning on the tonal vibes of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, and post-2011, and why this particular story element doesn't seem right to me for the first two.

Pre-Crisis (...okay, mostly the Silver Age): stuffed animal, yes or no?

tl;dr no, requires too much background knowledge on the part of the reader, plus the elephant wasn't a thing until later

Elinore doesn't get created until post-Crisis, but also just generally, pre-Crisis callbacks are more along the lines of this reference in Batman 129 (published in 1960), where, wow, Batman and Robin are hunting jewel thieves - and it turns out Robin recognized this strongman! BUT HOW?!

The comic goes on to recap Dick's entire origin story in flashback, on the assumption that you may not know it.

(BTW, if you'd like to know more about Haly's Circus throughout the years, nightwingology has a great post here summarizing a lot of fun plotlines and characters!)

Basically: Silver Age comics are very self-consciously episodic and kid-friendly; they're not generally gonna do overly-elaborate callbacks because they don't know what comics their kid readers may have randomly picked up or remember.

By the time of post-Crisis, comic books were being written for an adult audience buying from the direct market, i.e. readers who are collecting whole runs & don't need or want Dick's origin story to be recapped to us in full every time it's referenced. That's why in post-Crisis, we get stuff like "hey, neat, this particular soda brand is getting mentioned in several different books!!" or "in order to understand this story arc, buy SIXTEEN DIFFERENT COMICS in FIVE DIFFERENT RUNS and read them ALL ACCORDING TO A NUMBERED ORDER and also you better be following the individual plotlines and recognize these five minor characters who we don't bother to introduce!! Good luck!!" But the elaborate post-Crisis plotlines - and subtler worldbuilding like a stuffed animal callback to Dick's backstory - don't make a lot of story sense UNLESS you're imagining your readers as completionist adult fans.

So IMO a stuffed animal wouldn't be a pre-Crisis thing unless it was The Episodic Story Of the Week, and I don't think a stuffed animal is action-adventure-y enough for the fast-paced storytelling of the Silver Age. (Unless it, like, came to life and tried to eat you or something.)

Post-Crisis: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr: no, Dick's a manly tough guy, he's not gonna have a stuffed animal, that'd be lame, like something Tim might do

Part of the edgy grimdark adult vibes in 80s/90s comics is that some characters who used to be kinda silly & goofy & lighthearted - like Batman and Robin - get reimagined as Serious and Angsty and Edgy in a Tough Cool Manly Brooding Way. This massively affects characterization for Bruce, Dick, and Bruce and Dick's relationship.

(I obviously love this change & love the tense Bruce-and-Dick interactions, but plenty of fans of the earlier fluffy comics really disliked the edgy retcons of Miller / Wolfman / Starlin / et al.)

The upshot is that post-Crisis is a period when you could have a recurring reference like a stuffed elephant, but you wouldn't have a stuffed elephant, not for Dick. I think a toy like that would be too cutesy / childish / effeminate to give a male character in post-Crisis, unless you were poking fun at him.

Now, you could probably let Tim have a stuffed animal, because Tim is sometimes cool but also sometimes a tryhard loser who is faking being cool and not entirely pulling it off (see e.g. the Robin comic where he practices tough-guy faces in the mirror, or the Teen Titans comic where Conner discovers his cringy Enya CD, or when he's fanboying over Connor and it's awkward, etc etc.). A stuffed animal would be deeply embarrassing, and you'd have to be careful to compensate by having Tim do something cool afterward - but Tim's character concept allows for "he's kind of a loser sometimes."

But Dick isn't!! In post-Crisis, Dick's a tough / impressive / "cool guy" character, the kind of guy anyone would want to be, even in the flashbacks where he's Robin, and even in the stories where he's more lighthearted than angsty. It'd be kinda lame for Dick to have a stuffed elephant, so he wouldn't. I feel like Dick would be more likely to poke fun at it if someone had one, like when he's making fun of Wally for liking the Hardy Boys. Dick could have a Batman action figure, at most, and if he had one he would have it ironically.

Basically: in post-Crisis, a male character hugging a stuffed elephant feels more likely to be a punchline to me, not something poignant. (Even with Tim, Tim could have an embarrassing stuffed animal, but he couldn't hug it when sad - that's too far. Maybe Booster Gold might do this. Probably he wouldn't, but spiritually, he would. Sorry Booster ilu! <3)

Instead, Dick instinctively deals with his inner turmoil like the TORTURED ACTION HERO he is: by punching things and brooding and yelling and joining the mob and sleeping on rooftops and going on obsessive secret missions and acquiring Angsty Stubble!! Just like Batman!

(Technically I don't know if Bruce ever joined the mob but you know he would.)

Anyway as you know this is my favorite continuity and I am poking fun affectionately, but uh, yeah sdfsfdsfs. No stuffed animals.

Post-2011 / Infinite Frontier / Wayne Family Adventures: stuffed animals, yes or no?

tl;dr it's in WFA! Probably not anywhere else, but it could be.

Post-2011 stuff tends to be cutesier overall, most of all in the current Infinite Frontier era. So I don't feel like this would be tonally out-of-line with IF comics. Taylor tends to go for more meme-y references rather than fanfic references, though.

So the obvious best fit is WFA, which is aiming for a rough approximation of Silver Age family-friendly vibes - wholesome, episodic plots, Teaching Good Moral Lessons For The Youth, etc. - plus lots of Easter eggs for fanfic readers and some comic references.

And look, here we are:

Aww.

Whew - that's everything I could find!

Anyway as you can probably tell, I LOVE the elephant, so this was a very entertaining rabbit hole to go down, thank you <3

[savebylou]

My ranking of Louis outfits that he wore during the EU & Canada leg of the tour. The summer in the EU bless us with Louis wearing tank tops and shorts, what is not to love? Obviously the NYC outfit was the best and in second place the first tank top he wore. Overall I like his looks some more than others, the only one that I didn't like was the Asbury Park outfit because the t-shirt was too big.

Tagging some mutuals in case they want to do this, @sillyb00ks @holychaoticdevil28 @1ouis @timetohealit @ka-tto and @sunshinelou28 and anyone that see this post consider yourself tag, for the link and instructions check this post.

[loversmore]

every month of 2023

link your favorite or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love!

tagged by @shorelinnes, @starcatching and @hyunsung (thank you so much for tagging me, ily 🤍)

january most popular and my favourite: hyunsung (moni’s bday gift. ♡)

february most popular (not my favourite but it’s the only set i posted in february...): cywyw live

march most popular and my favourite: pink taylor

april most popular and my favourite: yoyok x delicate

may most popular: purple and green taylor my favourites: the taylor set and smiley gun (🤍)

june most popular: hyunho :( (sponsored by moni) my favourite: msp silly version (🐰🐱)

july most popular and my favourite: fourth as my school president’s gun 4m (🐥🤍)

august most popular (not my favourite but again, only set): yeri

september most popular: golden x green taylor my favourites: taylor set and bunny irene :(

october most popular: bow irene my favourite: chuu’s howl mv

november most popular: irene’s ending fairy (granny ire) my favourite: the irene set and this reve one

december most popular: red velvet x nature my favourites: the reve one and cuddly han (🤍)

tagging: @redvelvetcult, @somenights, @avizou, @aimeegbbs, @und0miels, @seoksgyu, @bu99erfly, @celestial-sapphicss, @mabellsmora, @pranink, @kimtaegis, @dinoboos, @y-eowangand everyone who wants to do it!

[goldenpinof]

.

[frostbitedoesart]

Not the like to reblog ratio being so frustrating that I'm considering doing free YCHs in exchange for reblogs.....

(If you share this post please include the tags in some way. They're important. May or may not delete this later.)

[hikayunas]

🫀

[aeide-thea]

thinking abt (1) that post abt how most censorship is preemptive self-censorship¹ (2) bras²

⸻ ¹ wow, tumblr search actually worked for once??? ² i do understand and respect that for many people bras serve an actual structural function wrt support/comfort! however, for many other people (hi!) they do not, at least in everyday non-sports contexts, and that's the set of concerns i'm speaking to here.

[elliesbelle]

lol

[melodiesofmidnight]

Pick a song for each letter of your URL

Tagged by my lovely friend, @mysoftboybensolo, and by the very kind @forestscribe4 - thank you!

Popping this under a read more since my URL is forty miles long.

Major Tom (Coming Home) - Shiny Toy Guns

Ella - Myrkur

Let No Man Steal Your Thyme - Pentangle

Old Souls - Jessica Harper

Drive - R.E.M.

I Belong to You - Muse

Everlasting Love - Sandra

Swamp Witch - Jim Stafford

O Death - Jen Titus

Foreigner's God - Hozier

Meet Me in the Woods - Lord Huron

In the Woods Somewhere - Hozier

December 1963 - Frankie Valli

Nights in White Satin - Moody Blues

In a Broken Dream - Python Lee Jackson & Rod Stewart

Ghosts of Highway 20 - Lucinda Williams

Hell of It - Paul Williams

The Boy with the Thorn in His Side - The Smiths

I tag: @susandsnell @elizabeth-daae @delanuit @erik-christine @merrycrozier @queerolddad @rainblue-art @rhiannaisawriter @uhhhhhhmeow @yamiangie @faceofclown

[sloedancing]

🎶✨ When you get this, you have to write down 5 songs you actually listen to and post them. Then send this (ask or tag) to 10 cool ppl✨🎶

thank you @nigmos and @minamill for tagging me!!

i tag: @gothoffspring, @lucidicer, @deehya, @radical-sims, @pleuro, @omgkayplays, @hotpatched, @cowplant-pizza, @diwns, and anyone who wants to do this but hasn't been tagged hehe.

[queerstudiesnatural]

hi so i've seen this kind of post about comfort characters and favourite characters but never about characters you actually relate to so i'm starting my own chain because i understand the world through fictional psychology and i think it would help me get to know my mutuals better

so if you get tagged, list 5 characters you strongly identify with, and then tag some more people <3

i'll go first :

sam winchester, supernatural

will graham, hannibal

jane bennet, pride and prejudice

samwise gamgee, the lord of the rings

moomintroll, moomin

tagging @faithdeans @sarcasmisalifechoice @mrcowboydeanwinchester @freakwiththeknifecollection @suncaptor @seasononesam

[bugsbenefit]

got prompted by seeing a horrible Billy-lover take in my notes so feel free to ignore this, just me ranting about Billy's character and how all this apologism is genuinely infuriating to me

because the treatment Billy gets in fandom is so incredibly bizarre to me, especially because it ruins the actual intrigue his character has. when i first watched the show and didn't get involved with the fandom a few years ago i actually thought Billy was quite an interesting character because it was a realistic portrayal of a horrible person.

he was abusive towards his sister and a raging racist, an absolute piece of shit. but i think it's interesting that the show doesn't just turn him into a one dimensional cartoonish monster, he's one of the human characters after all. so there IS some human aspects we can see, some black and white. like how he also has an abusive relationship with his father and how genuinely scared he was by what the MF was doing to him in s3 (also leading to his death)

because that was Interesting to me. irl horrible racists and pieces of shit are still human. they're also scared of things like spiders or are scared of monsters etc. and so many properties make the mistake of portraying the "bad guy" like an evil caricature. like a guy you can see coming down the block and you already know he's evil without ever talking to him

and that portrayal is so SO dangerous. there's real people today that struggle with picking up on irl racists or homophobes or nazis Because the person doesn't seem cartoonishly evil the way they were taught they Should look like

i'm from a german speaking country and we spend multiple years of our school time going over ww2 over and over again, and something that my teacher kept bringing up is how dangerous some of the education regarding it can actually be. there's this very easy trap you can fall into where you ignore the horrible people's humanity. where hitler just becomes a cartoonishly evil monster you learn about in history class, that you would immediately recognize as such would you meet him irl. when in reality, he was human, which was the whole danger. because today there's multiple politicians i know that are emulating his views and rethoric, but since so many people struggle to recognize that Anyone could be a nazi, and that it's not something you can just "see" like in movies, it's largely ignored. the whole danger that hitler Was just a regular politician at some point and superficially blended in to the mix of other right wingers at the time is often forgotten because people think you should be able to recognize a monster on sight

and that boils down to the problem i often have with books and shows. the bad guy is just... bad. there's no realism there no nuance. when the real danger actually is that you often Don't recognize a monster, or that you do but other people don't believe you because the monster looks normal and human enough. and real people's views often get twisted as a result, to the point where they expect to be able to "clock" real life horrible people just by looking at them, because it has to be obvious right? if a person's only personality trait isn't violent homophobia or racism and they have real fears and wishes, then people often don't recognize how horrible they really are, or don't Want to

and that's what i originally actually enjoyed about what happened with Billy. most people in their school either didn't pick up on it or didn't care about his views, he was actually quite popular. and there is depth to him, it's just that he's still a horrible person regardless. the abuse shown in his family maybe explains things to some degree but it doesn't excuse anything. he torments Lucas specifically because he's black, even the actors and showrunners have spoken out about this by now. and he never makes amends for anything, doesn't even try to change, there's no actions he takes to improve. he lives and dies a racist. he dies scared, yes. but he's still just as racist and abusive as he was when he walked into the show. he doesn't even apologize to Lucas or even Max. he is and stays a racist, no matter how "human" he gets to be, because some humans are just horrible people, see Billy

so now imagine my disappointment when i actually joined the fandom and had to realize that that Wasn't the popular opinion and that the irl phenomena of "but he's scared/he was abused/he's just a kid he can't be a bad person" still happened here. the actual nuance of his character is Gone the moment you start trying to apologize for his actions

he's a walking red flag of how not every monster Looks like a monster. how monsters can have friends, be poplar, be scared. but despite all the things that make him human and that might make you sympathize with a person, he still chooses to be a vile and horrible person regardless. and now in order to "redeem" Billy's character people are making that exact same real life mistake that is so so dangerous irl, where you only see the human aspects of a character and then go "but they're (insert a thing that shows you that they're human) they can't be a horrible person, it was a mistake/misunderstanding/he changed"

it essentially boils down to me originally being interested in Billy's portrayal in the show because he's one of the few examples where monsters aren't portrayed as one dimensional evil guy number xyz. which, in a show filled with real supernatural monsters, getting a guy who acts like a monster but looks like just an ordinary guy is all the more scary. because that is a REALISTIC monster

so then seeing that there's so many people dead set on apologizing all of his actions because they bought into all the things that make him human, but don't realize that that's the Point, that people can be human and still Horrible. is just endlessly frustrating to me

[loversmore]

every month of 2022 link your favorite or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love!

tagged by @shorelinnes and @anpanmann: thank you so much for tagging me, ily 🤍

january

most popular: 'tis the damn season my favourites: han (because it was for moni. ♡), bambam

february

most popular: miss americana

march

most popular: taylor on hoax my favourites: feel my rhythm, nanon (🤍)

april

most popular: evermore my favourite: dancing with our hands tied

may

most popular: i know places my favourite: got7

june

most popular: cowboy like me my favourites: yet to come mv, for youth

july

most popular: hoseok on = equal sign my favourite: seori, the long night mv

august

most popular: taylor on august

september

most popular: evermore x cardigan

october

most popular: seulgi (bubgi)

november

most popular: midnights my favourite: blue hyunjin

december

most popular: the very first night my favourites: irene & seulgi, (hyunsung)

tagging: @hyunsung, @seoksgyu, @minzbins, @avizou, @und0miels, @florenzim, @aimeegbbs, @kimtaegis, @notmuchfordancing, @mabellsmora, @pranink, @midsummerknife, @dancingwithourhands, @klmwonsik, @loveisshi and everyone who wants to do it! 🌷

[selfproclaimedunicorn]

Playing Inquisition for the first time (past finding Skyhold) 9 years after it came out is so fucking wild.

I know, vaguely, what's going on due to the nature of Spoilers Don't Matter After A Few Years/seeking out spoilers bc they help me determine if something is worth my time/general (casual) fandom osmosis...but also it has been years since I looked into anything seriously/people discussed anything in a way that's not at all dissimilar to ASOIAF Fandom Decade Long Wait Brain Worms, so I am just being blindsided by half the information I feel like I already knew at some point (& probably had hidden deep in the recesses of my brain).

[ihni]

You know the drill: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it.

Was tagged by @missroserose (thank you), and my list of WIPS (and ideas) that i haven't totally abandoned is as follows:

a christmas carol au*

Body swap AU

Harringrove holiday exchange

Harringrove holiday exchange version 2

homeless charming billy

of mothers

short fic challenge

trapped and forgotten

welcome to h au*

The *'s are just ideas at the moment with no actual writing.

Tagging @cherrydreamer @weird-an @hunnystufff @lilies-in-a-vase @mikajupiterjonesingtimcurryfeet