#is the one facing major issues and NOT the white man who is literally the captain and should be held more accountable

[theamazingannie]

The fact that Owen has literally gotten into physical fights and is so chaotic and impulsive that his own team members assume the HR visit is for him is really something that should’ve been talked about more in-show

[goldenlikedayl1ght]

wildest dreams - m. murdock

a/n: i have literally not been inspired for two weeks then i was STRUCK with the urge to write this. guys. i am so proud of this one i am not even going to lie. this one is dedicated to @bunmurdock because i am literally always thinking about professor murdock.... i really hope you guys enjoy this one, because i enjoyed writing it :) warnings: SMUT! inappropriate dynamic, P in V smut, so much cursing, lots of inappropriate thoughts and pining, power dynamics, dirty talk, reader does an edible and is high for a small part of this fic, reader isn't stupid in this one! she is just horny! she is also deaf, and there is yapping of readers daddy issues word count: 6.3k likes, reblogs and comments are always appreciated! <3 summary: you have a huge crush on your professor and spend many days desperate for him. pairing: professor!matt murdock x hoh!reader now playing: wildest dreams - taylor swift (taylor's version) "i said, "no one has to know what we do"/his hands are in my hair, his clothes are in my room"

You could treat him better than any of these other horny grad students.

Seriously, that is your only conscious thought watching this man move around the front of this lecture center. You’re not dumb, you know everyone sitting here wants him—Those who are attracted to men want to fuck him and those who aren’t seek his approval. But you are built different, you’re also lacking a major sense, besides, your brain runs ramped with disgusting thoughts about the man.

Today’s focus is on the man’s outfit. It’s his last class of the day, and it shows. His clothes are a bit more wrinkled, and his hair is messier than it had been when he started the day. But most importantly, his jacket is thrown on the back of his chair, meaning you have a phenomenal view of his torso.

He wears a white button down, with the cuffs of the arms rolled up to just below his elbows, the bottom of the shirt tucked into the waistline of his pants. The shirt is tight, maybe a little too tight, especially around the arms. Maybe it’s because he works out. Or at least, you assume he works out.

That brings us to his tie. Oh, his tie. It’s nothing special—a pure black tie, just hanging from his neck. Your mind wanders. It starts at the dissection of a key court case in the subject of minimum wage, but from there, it starts drifting to his tie.

You think about the tie moving back and forth above you as he thrusts into you, brushing against your face, pulling on it to bring him closer. You think about that soft half chuckle he does, before he says something dirty like—

“Did you have something to add?” His voice right in front of you snaps you out of your trance. Fuck. You were not paying attention.

“Uh, No, Professor..” Your face is a deep red, embarrassed. You wish you could take off your hearing aids to stop listening to all the giggling from around you, from peers who are thrilled that Professor Murdock’s little (not-so) secret admirer got called out for her staring.

“Hm,” he taps the table in front of you, “Then I want you paying attention.” He says, before going back to his lecture. You could die right there. Everyone is laughing at you. He embarrassed you.

Okay, so you have no proof that he’s ever wanted you in the way that you’ve been so god damn desperate for him, but it’s still crushing that he’d single you out in that way. That maybe while you were increasingly needy for him, he found you fucking annoying, in such a way that he felt the need to embarrass you in front of your peers.

You want to melt—Melt into a puddle with just your boots and your hearing aids left behind so you never have to face him ever again. That’s why you’re so relieved when he dismisses class right on time (Well, right on time for him. He always ends class five minutes early to leave room for questions) and you quickly gather your things.

Because of the sheer level of embarrassment he has caused you, the other students in the class who want him try to flock to him, sensing that you no longer have the confidence to engage with him—But your desire is still there, as you messily shove your things into your backpack. You turn when you’re finished, slinging your bag over your shoulder.

Your face is still flushed, part because you’re embarrassed, part because you are out of breath from rushing. But you are faced with the view of your professor, all alone. Your breath hitches when his hand moves up to the top of his tie, as he smooths it out, running his fingers down the fabric.

“I read your essay on the expectations of the courts and law versus the realities of it. I loved it. The argument using Gideon versus Wainwright to justify the existence of the right to counsel as a civil right and not a liberty was fascinating, especially considering your other arguments about how race, class and gender play into those realities. Well done. I thought it was some of your best work.”

Your face is flushed for a new reason now. Wasn’t this the same man who was mad at you for not paying attention?

“I thought so too.” You confess, and he just smiles. He loves that you’re confident in your work. You’ll make a great lawyer one day.

“Oh, and,” He digs through his leather satchel to pull out some notes, running his finger over the folder tab to make sure he has the right folder, “Here are the printed copy of our notes from the last few lectures.” It’s part of your accommodations that professors give you a copy.

“Thanks, Professor.” You smile gently, reaching out to take the papers. Your hands meet and as you grip the notes, the tips of your fingers just barely brush against his. Neither of you say anything. Neither of you let go.

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you today.” He starts, “But you’re bright—Smarter than most of your professors, I bet. And I don’t want you to fall behind.” He says softly, and without saying it, you know he’s worried because of your hearing. He was disabled in law school once upon a time, and he recognizes your potential.

“It’s okay.” You say softly, softer than your voice usually is. “I get it, really. It won’t happen again.”

“Good.” He says gently, letting go of the papers now. As you clutch them close to your chest, his hand goes back up to mess with his tie again. Does he know what he’s doing? Does he know how wild it drives you? He must. “I’ll see you on Thursday.”

“See you on Thursday.” You agree, and that’s when you leave the classroom.

As the door closes behind you, he listens intently. He hears your nervous heartbeat, could practically feel the heat radiating off you. But he knows your routine by now. You’re about to start playing music, and he likes knowing what sort of mood you’re in as you leave his class.

A smile spreads across his face when he hears the opening notes of that new Hozier song, ‘Too Sweet’.

• • •

You are a straight A student. You study days in advance for exams, you write elaborate study guides and most of all, you do not miss class, unless you are dying (no, seriously, the last time you missed class you were rushed to the hospital, sick with pneumonia after a big exam, which you aced). So, when you’re not in Matt’s class on Thursday, he tries not to panic.

You’re a grown woman, he tells himself, and he doesn’t have an attendance policy, having told the class on syllabus day that he trusted them to know when to come to class and when they should go lay in the sun or stay home with a bad cold.

But you once came to class doped up on cold medicine with a mask on, just because you didn’t want to miss any important information. He heard it before you got to class, so he faked a family emergency to cancel class early that day. He could hear your rattled sigh of relief as the other students flooded out.

And he knows for a fact you didn’t show up today because of how fucking loud you are; You don’t mean to be, but he can hear the light buzzing of your hearing aids, and you wear these big work boots that stomp even when you’re trying to step lightly. And he heard neither buzzing nor stomps today.

Oh, your boots. He’s spent years with everything being too loud, but he just can’t help but think about the boots—What color were they? What were their texture? He has this fantasy that lives at the very back of his mind of putting you in heels, heels too big for anyone let alone a girl who only wears clunky work boots, that way he would have to help you, take care of you, and it is a fantasy that will probably live at the back of his mind until he dies.

Sure, he’d probably get married, settle down with someone his age and never worry if she might be dissatisfied with an older man, and she’ll be quiet. No hearing aids, no big boots. They’ll have kids, they’ll be happy together. He’ll still go to you when he can’t sleep, and no one will ever know.

Wait, what was he doing? Oh, right. You weren’t in class today.

His fingers move over the keyboard to look you up in the system. He clicks on the audio assistant to read him your information. It reads out your first and last name, middle initial, then your grade in his class (A+), your accommodations (Notes, time and a half, things like that), your birthday, and—

Wait, he takes a moment, and his fingers go over to his braille calendar, realizing that you’re taking a day off because it’s your birthday. A laugh escapes his lips, because how silly was he being?

His fingers move again to find your email address. He debates for a moment before adding the subject line, “Absence Today.” Then, he erases it and changes it to, “Class Today”, hoping you wouldn’t freak out before reading the email.

And just for a moment, he lets himself dream. He writes the following email to you,

“Hey, sweetheart—

Happy Birthday. I’m so happy you’re taking a break, you deserve it, more than anyone else I know. Are you doing something fun for it? Going out and getting wasted? Hooking up with some college guy who couldn’t fuck you properly?

If I could, my birthday gift to you would be a day spent with my face buried between your pretty thighs, although that might be a birthday gift to me and not to you. I’ve always been a selfish man, and you seem to be something I am entirely selfish about. I want your hands tangled in my hair, tugging on it as I taste you. I want you all to myself. I didn’t hear the buzzing of your hearing aids or the clunking of your boots, and I felt this striking yearning.

I can’t stand being around you without having you. It’s torture.

Happy Birthday,

Matthew.’

He thinks about it for a minute, before completely erasing the email, and sending you this one instead:

‘Missed you in class today! We went over the reading for Chapter Seven. Happy Birthday! Professor M’

He sends it, and then rubs his face, a long sigh leaving his lips. He is completely enamored by you, and it is so unfair.  You’d be in class on Monday, he told himself. He’d see you then, and it would be like getting his fix of you.

Then, he turns to the distraction of trying to grade papers. It won’t work. He’ll still have you on his mind all day, and there will be no relief in sleeping. Hopefully he’ll dream of that long day between your thighs.

• • •

Truth be told, you were not drinking and fucking some random guy when Matt emails you. You were cuddled up in bed, giggling and eating snacks, so many snacks, because, well, you took an edible with a bunch of your friends and now are high out of your mind.

Some animated shows are on in the background, and when your phone buzzes, you pick it up and almost melt when you see the email from your favorite professor. You start giggling like a kid, your fingers clutching your phone as you read the email over and over again.

One friend looks up to you from her place on your floor and asks, “Are you alright?”

You don’t answer at first, but then you nod, and pull your blanket close, imagining Matt’s arms around you. Your brain paints you a picture of him holding you against his chest and gently playing with your hair.

It’s a nice fantasy.

• • •

For being a law student, you really fucking hate it sometimes. Okay, that’s not true. You love being a law student and are so excited to go out into the world and make that difference. But you’d be lying if you don’t sort of contemplate dropping out and getting a sugar daddy over certain assignments.

Maybe Matt is in the market. Then you shake your head to get the thought out of there, before opening your laptop to check your professor’s office hours. The one that assigned this assignment is an old bat who does not have office hours except for during your other classes on Fridays.

Then, you look at Matt’s office hours. He has office hours right now. You click the pen in your hand a few times, thinking. Contemplating. Would he want to see you at this point? Would you be able to control yourself?

You give the question you’re working on one more time before you lean down and grab your boots, starting to lace them up. Then, you pack up your bag, heart beating nervously over what—Asking him for help with an assignment?

You make it all the way across campus, the whole time worried about if you’ll walk in on your professor with some other girl. You almost laugh at that thought, because you think you’re silly for how dramatic you are about the man.

You stand down the hallway from his office for a few minutes, just contemplating. You could just turn around and not at all open the possibility of being around him, and everything stays the same. Nothing changes, and your relationship with your professor maintains it’s strictly professional relationship.

You walk towards the door, knocking on it before holding your breath.

“Come on in,” He calls from behind the door. Now or never. You open the door, and smile in his direction.

“Hey, professor,” You greet, a soft smile on your face. His tie is loose around his neck. You blink away whatever daydream your brain wants to dive headfirst into.

“Hey,” He greets, “I don’t think you have any assignments due, so what’s up?” He asks, tilting his head in your direction. As you think about it, you realize that you do not need help with an assignment.

“This is going to sound like a lie. But I had trouble with this assignment earlier, and suddenly I walked in here and realized I knew exactly what I was doing. I’m sorry for bothering you.” You explain, but you make no attempt to turn around and leave.

“Let me guess,” He starts, gauging by what year and academic proficiency you’re at, “Professor Reid’s estate planning class? That assignment about the will and testament of an old lady with a marriage less than 90 days and estranged kids?”

You groan and take a seat in one of the chairs in his office. He laughs in response, shaking his head.

“That old bat.” You roll your eyes. He just smiles and shakes his head.

“You’ll be fine. Just remember to cheat on your final.” He tells you, and you give him a perplexed look.

“What?”

“Well, for the final, there’ll be a question about a super niche argument on inheritance. Just cheat on it.”

“You’re a professor, telling me to cheat?”

“I cheated on it,” He shrugs. You suddenly remember that he used to go to school here and has taken all the classes you’re struggling with right now.

“You’re being unprofessional.” You tell him, and he smiles again. Your heart skips a beat, and somehow, his smile grows. As if he knows exactly what sort of effect he has on you. As if this is all a game he likes to play with you, his eager and willing participant.

“Okay, forget that I told you to cheat on Reid’s exam. We have to talk about something, it would be awkward to just sit here in silence. Uh, what did you major in in undergrad?”

“English. I minored in Disability studies.”

“So why Law?” He asks curiously, leaning forward and clasping his hands together, before resting them on his desk. Jesus Christ.

“I’m tired of being poor.” The answer slips out before you can really stop yourself. He laughs again, and something in you stirs. As if making him laugh is the newest way you feel good about yourself. How twisted is that? “I’m being serious!” You laugh too, unable to contain it.

“I’m sure,” he promises, “I grew up poor too, I was sick of it too. But if you’re going to be a lawyer—”

“You need to have respect for the law and the people taken advantage by it,” You finish, “I get that, really, I do. And I want to help people. I want to go into divorce law and help all the poor and battered women like—” You’re forgetting yourself. You’re forgetting that this isn’t a date and that this man is your professor.

“Like..?” He prods you to finish, curious. He is on the edge of his seat about you. This is more than he has gotten of you in the past few weeks you’ve been taking his class.

“Like my mom.” You finish suddenly looking for something to do with your hands. Anything, really. “But the check that comes with it isn’t exactly deterring me, you know?”

“I get that,” he says earnestly, “I was an orphan, one of those dirty scrappy ones you feel bad for,” he does that half chuckle that makes you want to go over there and kiss him. “Never knew my mom, and my dad died when I was young. So, I get it. Being poor and wanting to do better for yourself. For your parent who sacrificed for you.”

But it clicks for him, the hidden meaning behind your ambitions. You have daddy issues, and he can tell that’s part of your crush on him. Though, he’ll never say it to you. He’ll let it be something unspoken between the two of you.

“Yeah, I guess you do get it.” You smile softly. But this is dangerous. So so dangerous. The two of you are dancing this dangerous line—Well, more like you’re damn well dancing clear over the line and ignoring it. But you don’t know how to stop it. Maybe you don’t want to stop it.

“Well, uh, maybe you could finish that assignment while we’re here.” He clears his throat, straightening his tie and you try to connect the wires in your brain to focus on the assignment. You pull it out of your bag and place it on his desk, smoothing it out a bit. Matt gets up and starts to wander around the office, and you look at him curiously. “I think better when I can move around.”

You should’ve known that much, you have stared at him doing lectures, wandering from end to end of the rows and rows in the classroom.

“Yeah, totally,” You nod, focusing on the assignment. It’s on paper, the old bat refuses to use online assignments. You’re practically flying through the assignment, and it’s at the point where you are forgetting your company. In fact, you really don’t notice him.. Until you lean back and stretch, jumping when you realize that Matt has taken a spot right behind you, his hands on the arms of your chair, leaning forward. You’re practically leant up against him.

“See? Was that so hard?” Your face flushes, his voice right next to your ear. He has to know; he has to know how you’re affecting him. You tilt your head a bit, and your eyes are level with his chin. His stubble moves as he sets his jaw. He doesn’t smell much like anything… except the faintest hint of clean sheets and this slight scent of mahogany. It would go perfect with a whiff of whiskey.

“No,” you say quietly, and he almost shudders at the feeling of your warm breath against his cheek. “Not at all, Prof—”

“Call me Matt.” It’s almost begging. You’re kind of into it, but that’s not surprising given how incredibly attractive you find him.

“Okay.” You say quietly. He has reduced you to one-word answers. The two of you stay quiet for a while. You’re unsure what to say. Matt is contemplating his options. Anyone could walk in on the two of you like this. The door isn’t locked, and you want to bring this up, but the words die out in your throat. His head tilts a bit towards you, and you get a glimpse at those perfect lips of his.

“You know—” He starts, but before he can get any farther, you lean in and kiss him. You kiss him intensely, your hand on his cheek, and for once, you are not filled with regret at a bad decision. He doesn’t react at first, and for just a second, you’re nervous.

Then, He kisses you back, letting out this deep hum as he deepens the kiss. He tilts his head to get deeper into your mouth, and his hands make their way down to your hips. He focuses for a second, before wrapping his arms around you to pick you up and sitting you on his desk.

His hands trail down as the pair of you kiss, landing on your thighs. His fingers rub back and forth, and you gasp when he squeezes your thighs. He grins and takes the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. Your clunky boots hit against his desk and he practically growls at the sound. He pulls away, his teeth biting your bottom lip as he does.

You’re completely out of breath, and so is he. He stumbles back a bit, his lips swollen and bright pink from kissing you. He wipes his mouth as he pants, and inhales deeply. You run your fingers through your hair, brushing the hair that has fallen onto your face.

“We..” he mumbled gently, running his hand over his chin. “Holy shit, kid—”

“Don’t call me kid—”

“Listen,” he goes over to you and brushes the hair from your face, “That was.. it was phenomenal, but someone could’ve walked in on that, and.. Fuck, if we do that again, I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.” he confesses, his hands on your cheeks.

“When I was staring off into space last week, I was thinking about your tie.” You tell him, your hands are finding the base of it now. He tilts his head, curiously.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Was daydreaming about it brushing against my face as you fuck me.” You could swear his face is red. You grin.

“Yeah?” He laughs, taking the tie from you and bringing the tie up to brush against your cheeks, “Like that?” he teases, and you laugh back. Dick.

“Mhm,” You giggle, and your hands find his, wrangling the tie out of his hands, and tugging on it, before bringing him in for another kiss. He inhales deeply as he kisses you, taking the taste of you in for a moment before pulling away.

“I’m serious, sweetheart, this is dangerous.”

“Sweetheart?” You grin. He takes your chin and grips it between his thumb and pointer finger.

“Hey. Pay attention.” He says, and you want to argue that saying things in that low gravely tone will not help you pay attention, but you can tell he’s serious. That he wants your attention focused on him, this is important. “Listen. I like you. I like you a lot, but we have to be careful if we want any of this to go further. We have to be subtle and watch our steps.” He says softly.

“Okay.” You promise, “Okay, we should be careful.” He smiles gently and leans in to kiss your forehead.

“Good pup.” He hums, and your face flushes.

“I like ‘pup’.” You like sweetheart too, but your stomach flips when he calls you pup.

“Yeah, I know you do.” He grins. “Wanna get out of here?”

“I thought you said we have to be careful.”

“Okay, then I’ll give you my address and you can come over.” He shrugs. “I know how badly I need you, I can only imagine how you feel.” He hums, and you grin.

“Okay, Here, give me your phone.” Matt fishes his phone out of his pocket and hands it to you. You put your number in with your name, sending yourself a quick text before handing the phone back to him. “There. Send it to me.” He steps back so you can hop off the desk, before putting your homework back in your bag.

As you sling your bag over your shoulder, he grabs your wrist in his hand and pulls you close, just to kiss you again.

• • •

Your hands are shaking as you drive over to Matt’s apartment. You’re so full of desire for him, and you take a second after parking the car to adjust your hair and makeup. Luckily you had no plans with your friends so it’s not like you’re hiding anything from anyone.

Are you about to sleep with the professor you’ve had a crush on since the beginning of the semester? Hopefully. You take a quick glance down to the apartment number he sent you before climbing out of the car, locking it behind you.

Then, you manage your way through the building, finding yourself in front of his door for the second time tonight. You hesitate. Though, you’re not sure why. Well, maybe you do. Maybe you’re terrified that this is going to be bad. Or maybe that you’re scared you’ll be bad, and he’ll hate you.

Maybe you just need to get over yourself. Although, you can’t really do much more convincing because Matt swings open the door and grins at you. You almost die at the sight of him. His tie is gone, and his shirt is unbuttoned by three buttons.

“You’re so hot,” You blurt out as you hand him a cheap bottle of wine you picked up on the way here.

“You’re cute,” he hums, grabbing your arm and pulling you into the apartment, leaving you giggling as he closes the door behind you. You look around his apartment, your eyes catching on the giant billboard. You’re standing in front of the window when he comes up behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist. His lips gently kiss your neck, up and down, biting your shoulder gently. “Enamored by the billboard, sweetheart?”

“Your windows are so big, probably a lot of light in here during the day.” You say softly, and he smiles against your neck.

“Mhm, one day, I’ll fuck you against those windows—”

“Matt,” You groan, but he just shushes you and kisses your neck again.

“I know, pup,” He hums, “But don’t worry, I’ll show you a very nice time, hear all those pretty noises you can make for me.” You blush, turning to say something to him but he wraps his arms around your waist again, before throwing you over his shoulder and carrying you to his room. You’re laughing all the way there, before throwing you onto the bed.

“Mean.” You accuse, but he shrugs.

“You’ll get over it, sweetheart, I promise.” He hums, and you sit up on his bed. He stands between your legs, leaning down to kiss you gently, his hands finding your cheeks again. He kisses you like this for a few minutes, before slowly kneeling in front of you, never breaking the increasingly sloppy kiss. You pull away from the kiss to study him. He tilts his head, his hands finding your thighs to rub them again as he did in the office. “What?” he asks gently.

“I spent all those lectures only being able to study you from a far.. Just let me really look at you for a while..” You request. He grins gently as your fingers run over his stubble again. Your hands move up to his glasses. “Can I take these off?” You request, tilting your head.

Matt hesitates, just for a second. He’s not really used to it, to someone truly wanting to see him, every part of him. But he trusts you, wants you to see him. So he nods, letting out a soft ‘yeah’ as you pull off those circular red glasses, gently folding them and setting them down somewhere safe.

Then, you take a good, long look at his eyes. They’re this deep brown, almost black, irises that are drop dead gorgeous. The skin around his eyes is scarred, but the scars are old, yet, you rub your thumb gently against that scarred skin. You lean in and press a kiss to the corner of his eyes, first the left one, then the right one.

He leans up and kisses you after that, his hands slowly making their way down your legs. Your hands find his buttons of his shirt starting to undo them. He pulls away from the kiss, before slipping off his button up, throwing it away somewhere in the room. Your eyes drift down to these scars on his collarbones, and your fingers run over them. Then, you notice other scars on his skin, and your hands find those too.

“Your boots are so loud,” he hums, and you’re taken back by it.

“What?”

“Your boots.” He hums, “I hear you stomping around with these things on, they’re.. Like a bell, you know? I like knowing you’re around.” His fingers go down to the laces of your left boot, slowly untying them. Then, he does the same with the right boot.

He pulls off your boots, before running his fingers over your socks.

“They’re multicolored. Bright and patterned.” You confess, and he grins, before pulling them off. Then, he stops, realizing you have another pair of socks on. He blinks, before starting to laugh.

“You have two pairs of socks on?” he chuckles, your face flushing.

“My boots are just a little too big!” You tell him, and he laughs, resting his head against your thigh. He finishes taking your socks off, before working on the buttons of your jeans. When he finally gets those undone, he pulls off your pants, throwing them somewhere close to his now abandoned shirt. His hand comes up to rub you through your panties, and he lets out a scoff as he does.

“So wet for me, pup..” He mumbles, coming up to gently kiss your cheeks and then your jaw, as you whine. “I know, baby, I know,” he says softly, rubbing your clit gently. You whine gently at the feeling, gripping his wrist. He chuckles softly, kissing you to shut you up a bit.

He pulls his hand away from your throbbing cunt to pull off your tee shirt, throwing it wherever. He starts to kiss you as you fiddle with the buttons of his pants and pull them off, letting him step out of the before he casts them away.

You grin into the kiss, before he pulls away.

“What? What’s got you so giddy, pup?” he asks, a grin on his face too.

“Briefs,” You hum, fiddling with the waistband of his briefs, and he laughs, shaking his head.

“Thinking about your professor’s underwear?” He teases, leaning in to bite your neck. “Dirty, dirty girl.” He grins, and you swat at his shoulder, which causes him to laugh. He likes having fun with you, even if it’s not inherently sexual.

His hands come up to run gently over your skin, trailing from your hands up to your shoulders, and then all the way to your ears, where his fingers gently run over your hearing aids. It’s a nice gesture, really, but as soon as his fingers brush over your hearing aids, you immediately retract, the feedback shooting through your skull, uncomfortably.

“Ow—” You cringe, leaning your head back to try and get away from his fingers. He cringes, hearing the feedback, not as badly as you do but knowing it’s there and that you’re in pain pains him.

“I’m sorry,” he coos softly, his fingers moving down to cup your jaw. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart, I hadn’t realized—”

“Hey, it’s okay,” You hum, tilting your head to kiss his palm gently. “It happens, It’s why you should never touch them while I have them on.” You shrug. He leans down and kisses your stomach a bit, before going back to kiss you again, deepening the kiss a bit before roughly shoving you back on the bed. You giggle as he climbs on top of you, caging you in between his legs, as he slips his tongue into your mouth again. He kisses you with passion and need, and it drives you entirely too wild. As he pulls away, one hand comes up to grip your chin, before he leans down with his head against yours.

“Want me to fuck you, pretty thing?” He asks gently, his voice sweet as honey as he talks so obscenely to you. You whine, finally getting what you want after weeks and months of waiting. He just smiles and shakes his head, “No, no, puppy, you gotta say it to me.” He requests.

“Yes, I want you..” You groan, bucking your hips a bit at the thought of him finally fucking you.

“Want me to do what?” he asks, innocently.

“Want you to fuck me, please..” You request, and this finally seems to satisfy him. His hand comes down to unhook your bra, throwing it behind him with the rest of your clothes, before his lips begin to travel downwards, kissing down your jaw and neck, before he’s kissing the valley of your breasts, his hand going down to rub your clit again.

He groans against your skin at the feeling of your wetness soaking through your underwear and listening to your moans. His hands begin to work to take off your panties, and as soon as those are gone, your hands come up to his briefs, wanting them gone.

“Off, off, off—” You huff, and he laughs as he slips them off. Then, he reaches over and grabs a condom from the bedside table, but you grab his hand, shaking your head, “No, no—I’m on the pill, promise.”

“You sure?” He asks gently, and you nod, leaning up to press a kiss to his lips.

“Sure.” You nod, and then you’re kissing him again, your hand going down to stroke his cock, and he gasps into the kiss, before chuckling. He pulls away to mutter out to you--

“Needy girl,” he purrs, before moving to kiss you again. As you’re kissing, he slips his cock into you, and you moan into the kiss, tensing at the feeling, “Relax for me, pup.. So fucking tight for me.” He groans, his hand coming down to swat your thigh. “Relax.” He tells you, his voice sterner this time.

You nod, trying to form a more conscious thought than the pure bliss you feel, your hands wrapping around his neck, scratching down his back a bit. He groans softly, as he starts to slowly thrust into you. He is using every ounce of self-control he has, resisting the urge to absolutely violate you.

But he’s trying to be gentle, be nice.

“Faster,” You gasp out, your fingers pulling on the hair at the nape of his neck. He does that half chuckle, and it makes you whine as he begins to speed up.

“Beautiful little pup..” he says lowly, “Been staring at me.. Wanting your professor so badly these past few weeks, dirty little thing,” he hums, “Fuck, so.. fuck..” Your legs are beginning to shake the longer and harder he thrusts into you. “So fucking good for me..” You whine into his lips as they crash into yours, one hand going down to rub your clit gently, the stimulation too much for someone who hasn’t had sex this good, ever, but especially because you haven’t had sex at all in the past.. well, six or more months.

“Matty, ‘m..” You can barely get the words out as he fucks you harder,

“I know baby, come on, cum for me, pup,” he coos, his thrusts nor rubbing slowing down, maintaining his pace. Within a minute, you’re coming with loud moans into his ears, and he’s following suit shortly after, coming deep inside you.

But for the few minutes after the two of you finish, he continues his thrusting, relishing in the pretty moans and the sound of his deep thrusts into you. Eventually, he slows down, remaining deep inside of you. He pulls you close, kissing you deeply before flipping the pair of you over, and holding your legs close to stay buried deep inside of you.

For a few minutes, there are no words spoken, just deep, frantic pants and sweaty skin against each other.

“You know, that was as good as I’ve been fantasizing about for weeks.” You pant, “Better, even..” He laughs and nods.

“Me too..” he kisses you softly. “Let me take you out somewhere.”

“I thought we had to be careful..”

“We’ll go away somewhere then. Just the two of us for the weekend. I need to be with you, I can’t get enough of you now that I’ve had a taste.. Besides, I haven’t even eaten you out. Now that, that is going to be fun.” He grins, and you swat his arm.

“Evil, mean man!” You gasp, and he just laughs, kissing your forehead.

“I’m sorry, pup, let me make it up to you,” he hums.

“How?”

“Calling you pup a few times, ordering Thai food and teaching you how to suck me off?”

“I know how to suck you off,” You scoff.

“Oh yeah?” He tilts his head, leaning in to kiss him. Then, lips still against yours, he whispers, “Prove it, pretty puppy.”

[royboyfanpage]

Okay, let's talk about Ollie's experience with fatherhood.

I'm an Oliver Queen apologist forever, but I think that there's a tendency in fandom to go one of two ways- "absolutely perfect dad, no flaws whatsoever" or "evil abuser who shouldn't be within six miles of a child". This isn't an Ollie exclusive phenomenon, a lot of characters and topics do fall into that black-and-white mindset. But the thing is- Ollie doesn't have to be either extreme. Particularly with Roy, who most of the debate centres around, Ollie wasn't perfect! I think there's such a rich discussion point in terms of young Roy's relationship with Ollie, so much more than just That Panel. Because, in my interpretation, Ollie absolutely cared about him, absolutely saw him as a son, but also the idea of being a father is something that deeply terrified him. The idea that this literal child being dependent on him made it feel more real, if that makes sense. Coming to terms with the fact that he was responsible for another person's life was difficult for him, and so he put up this wall- hero and sidekick. A conceptual dynamic, one that's not based in reality. He can keep that distance between himself and Roy and decide what that means, he doesn't have to be a father because that word has so many strong connotations, but he can still express that he cares about Roy, in his own way. That's why he always calls Roy 'Speedy' even out of costume, that's why his first thought is that Roy's undercover in Snowbirds. He can focus on being a good mentor to Speedy, which will have a trickle-down effect to being a good guardian to Roy, right?

Unfortunately, kids' brains don't work like that! Especially not a kid who's already lost two fathers. Roy needed a stability in his teenage years that Ollie just wasn't able to give at that time. He didn't see "Ollie's nice to me as Speedy because he loves me and doesn't know how to show it", he saw "Ollie's nice to me as Speedy, which means I'm only good as Speedy". This, at least in my opinion, is a major factor in Roy’s later self-esteem issues. Roy’s constantly underestimating himself as a hero, constantly comparing himself to Dick, and pushing himself 24/7 to improve because he internalised the idea that if he’s good, if he’s the perfect hero, then he’ll be loveable. He can’t be bad, he can’t fail, he can’t back down because if he does, he’s nothing.

It’s absolutely not Roy’s fault, but also this doesn’t mean that Ollie’s an evil neglecting abuser, either. Even the best parents fuck up, and Ollie was by no means the best parent. He took in Roy as a sidekick, as a buddy, and then never really found a way to combine the ideas of sidekick and son. He assumed that Roy would be able to interpret meanings behind gestures, which is something that Roy seems to struggle with even into adulthood. I’ve talked about it a fair bit, Roy’s absolutely someone who relies on the explicit, but he’s also not someone who’ll ask for clarification, which has caused conflict in his relationships time and time again. And while it's something he has gotten better at as he's gotten older, a 12-18 year old Roy would absolutely not be able to read Ollie's motives.

And Ollie's fear of fatherhood isn't something exclusive to Roy, either. Sure, he'd gotten better at it by the time Connor and Mia entered the picture (speaking as an oldest child myself, we are the guinea pigs of parenting, I was my mum's sibling), he absolutely still expresses this with them. I mean, just look at his face when he finds out Connor's his son.

That's the face of a man who's just had the crushing weight of parenthood slammed down onto him again, the moment Connor stopped being an ally and started being his responsibility. He's scared, because Ollie absolutely does not see himself as a good father for someone to have. This was very much present during Roy's teenage years, but particularly since this is post-Snowbirds. Both in terms of Roy developing a drug addiction and in terms of Ollie's own initial reaction to it, he immediately spirals. And, since we've already established he does not know how to process things, he lashes out at Connor.

And as for Mia, he's definitely matured significantly by the time she comes into the picture, and compared to with Roy he's a lot more open with his feelings. However!

He still won't explicitly accept the responsibility of fatherhood! Despite acting like a father to Mia in every way through his actions, he still won't use his words! Even though in the issue following, he expresses a paternal protectiveness over her.

And I think Mia's HIV diagnosis is maybe one of the biggest examples of his distancing himself and hiding his feelings, particularly when Connor asks him how he's feeling about it.

He's so fine, so totally fine, trust him when he says he's fine, totally not freaking out. He's absolutely not terrified for his not-daughter, no way.

Ollie has this fear that if he gets too attached to his kids, he's gonna end up failing them. If he keeps a distance from them, then he can't blame himself when they get hurt. Is this good parenting? No! Absolutely not! But this is also the man who dresses up as Robin Hood and who chose to die rather than lose his arm. This is not a healthy man.

But he tries, he tries so hard, even if it's in his own way. And he recognises when he fucks up! And he tries his best to mend it later on!

He's not the best at showing his kids that he loves them, but he's so proud of Roy when he becomes Red Arrow. He comes back to life to save Connor. He stands by Mia's side when she gets diagnosed and becomes Speedy. He's not a great dad, but goddamnit he's trying to be.

In conclusion, no, Ollie is not the perfect father. He's deeply flawed, and his own emotional incompetency has been and always will be a point of conflict between him and his kids. But he's not some uncaring abuser, either. He's trying.

[quixtrix]

rayman, eden's feel good american dream story; an analysis

guess who's back with taking ubisoft's silly guys and cutting them open. yknow, if you strip rayman of his personality, of all the behind the scenes we get of him, we get a run of the mill news reporter that is an immigrant, who by face alone serves as a shining ray of hope. he's easily something that by all means, can be classified as a diversity hire. immigrant, nonhuman (which in the world of clh can be considered to be equated with poc irl), and notably the only one in his work environment. don't believe me?

we rarely ever see anyone other than rayman on the show in the form of a coworker. the only time we do see other eden affiliated people, they are both white. "but you can't see red's face!!" there is a reason his dialogue makes you think of more right leaning people with their claims of 'wokeness is destroying everything' under something like april from tmnt being black and not ginger. he's a caricature meant to represent a specific group of people under fascism; those who have successfully consumed the fearmongering and have let it turn from fear of those that they are told are beneath them into hatred for them. there is also the fact that on live tv he throws up a middle finger, refers to an implied group of immigrant people as 'filthy interdimensional alien scum,' and seemingly gains no backlash for it. yes, the other reporter does try to give red a chance to go back on his words, but he sticks to it. and despite all of this, we get no indication that neither red nor the niji 6 had to apologise or received punishment for this. in fact, red is possibly given more chances by eden due to him being weirdly in charge of bullfrog's containment in a way? (i'm not entirely sure WHY he was there, but as he is one of eden's tv personalities, he's at a possibly televised trial of a terrorist.) now if you compare this to rayman, who also acted inappropriately on tv by literally saying fuck, you'd come to realise that rayman was treated so much more harshly. he was IMMEDIATELY replaced by a clone of himself, with no warning nor any indication that eden would do such a thing. it's very likely this was one of, if not the first time that rayman has slipped up like this on live tv. maybe it's a repeat offence considering his personality, but then you could argue that red is a repeat offender of the same shit and then you have to wonder why a soldier like red was not easily replaced but someone who is the literal face and voice of eden was with ease. it's because rayman made himself more than jus a story, he humanised himself by showing a peek of his raw feelings. remember that cute little exposition of the rayman kids show about hybrids? where we see all of these hybrids working as society's grunts and the kids are told to be thankful for hybrids? it's very sweet and gives a good message! now the rayman kids show is a product of eden propaganda, but rayman very much has a hand in it, most likely as a writer. he uses his platform to speak on issues that has happened and affected him. this can be seen in his biopic.

jus sit with this image for a moment. you ever think about why rayman is specifically made as an alien? why he's specifically an immigrant? in real life news reports and speeches, there is a difference in implications when people use immigrants and not aliens. you wanna know why?

as someone apart of an immigrant family myself, i live in a community of other immigrants. majority of them are hispanic, and while i myself am not hispanic, i am very aware of how hispanic immigrants were referred to and treated by politicians under trump's presidency. how couldn't i? even as children in middle school and elementary, we had discussions about what trump was saying because it directly targets my friends and their families. they are people targeted by a man who specifically uses derogatory terms to dehumanise them, to make it easier to justify in the average american mind that the government is doing the right thing by keeping out and protecting america from these so-called 'invading animals.' makes what red was saying earlier feel very on the nose, right? adi shankar, the showrunner for captain laserhawk, is also an immigrant man. immigrated from india, which by the way, did you know has a lot of people immigrating for the purpose of having a better life? that's a common sentiment that can be found in every single immigrant family's story. i've asked my filipino mother why she took an opportunity to live and work in america, and she told me it's because she wanted to give her children a better life than what we would have had in the philippines. hell, i bet if you share a similar background to me, you can ask your own parents the same thing and get the exact same answer, regardless if you came from latin america or africa, or asia. it's because of the concept of the american dream. everyone who has ever engaged with any degree of immigrant discussion has heard of the american dream. it's a concept that seems to be consistently proven via word of mouth, with the biggest examples being celebrities. they will always, without fail, eventually speak about the american dream within their backstories. and typically, they will use their platforms to further empower others within their community. it's why people from specific ethnicities tend to group together, why people make art meant as something akin to a homage to their people. it provides hope to the masses, makes you relate to the person on the screen, and believe that this society is truly a gracious one by providing opportunity. because yeah, it may be bad, but it could be worse. i mean we appreciate you! just look!

dont mind the fact that the majority of opportunities allotted to you is grunt work, the work where you at the base of the pyramid, with the harder jobs and the jobs no one wants to do. dont mind the fact you will be actively dehumanised, forced to work for hours in conditions we wouldn't put anyone else in, but hey. we appreciate you. we thank you. and yknow, you can become more than what you are. yknow, we let someone just like you be more than what you are! nevermind the fact that if they slip up, they'll be met with MUCH harsher criticism in comparison to someone who isn't you! aren't we so gracious? i probably sound a bit like matpat's insane out of context real world examples, but this show is filled with political imagery, so let me be. anyways, let's get back to eden and rayman. rayman, despite being specifically from dimension x as an alien, keeps hybrids in mind when he's doing his work.

people of colour tend to share solidarity with one another due to the fact that surface wise, we share similar struggles. to grossly oversimplify things, we all face discrimination through our appearances and are oppressed by the rules of a society created by our white oppressors. again, hybrids and dimension x immigrants can be equated to irl poc, and despite being different from each other, there is still community. rayman keeps them in mind, hoping to make things better for the overall nonhuman and nonnative (native as in naturally born) population of eden. but, rayman is not what he believes he is. because despite everything he has worked for, despite what he has tried to do, he is still a facilitator of the fascist regime that has an active hand in the perpetual oppression of his own people. one of the core concepts within fascism is us versus them. it's an easy way to instill fear (which is very much needed in fascism to make it easier to lie to the masses) and it's used in multiple layers, beginning with a large group (ex. us versus ussr, capitalism vs communism), then progressively sizing down (ex. saying all eastern europeans are communist, then going smaller and say all those affiliated with eastern europeans are communist) with the goal being to put people against each other and break up community since if you put your minds together, you'll start to realise that the fascist system is bullshit. what i've personally come to find is that in order to hide the fact that there is fascism lurking is that someone that can be considered a 'them,' an other, will be given a seat at the table. it's so they can be used as an excuse, a human shield, when they inevitably slip up and can be paraded to the masses as proof that the other is not as smart or powerful as 'us.' the 'other' within the 'us' is used as something to look down at, while also justifying to oneself that they have a place, that they are not being oppressed. they have an opportunity as much as anyone else! so long as they don't mess up. rayman messes up, and is shunned from 'us.' hes a mistake, impure, clearly not like 'us,' 'us' who had been so gracious to give this 'other' a place. he's cut out and discarded because he has well worn his purpose, and clearly, they can just get another little puppet. they'll dress him up and make him worthy of being one of 'us,' and make sure that this one won't fall to the fault of his little ideas. which is exactly what leads to rayman's transformation of ramon. being forcibly forced out and discarded by eden because he showed his true ideas makes him realise that there was no real place for him within the system. because what good is his work if it leads to what he tried not to create? it's worthless, just as the system it attempts to thrive in is.

tl;dr, rayman is a representation of the american dream, specifically celebrities. he tries to do what he can with his platform, but the fact is that within a fascist system, his impact is not entirely felt in the way he wants it to. that is why he becomes ramon.

anyways if you reached the end of THIS LONG ASS PIECE GOOD LORD thank you!! always open to discuss this and take criticism, my ask box is open in the lil 'who's asking' :^]

[riverdale-retread]

which riverdale ships do you find most fascinating? not even necessarily shipping them but just finding the concept interesting.

1. Cheryl and Jason. It's fascinating because it's shrouded in mystery. Cheryl announces to the whole world that her brother is her soulmate. She wants to be around him, literally, for ever and ever, in any iteration of him that is available, to the extent of carrying his corpse around her house after she's exhumed him. What the heck was it for Jason though? We never quite find out. He impregnates Polly, then hatches a whole cockamamie plan to deal drugs to make money then run away with her to a cult etc. When he is resurrected from the dead he tries to kill Cheryl. What's going on?

2. Jughead and Betty. I went from being Bughead to not to nebulous (at this point, given my major flip from anti-Archie to Archie-Lamb-of-God I don't know what I think about anything anymore), but their relationship is actually fascinating if you take off the (factually wrong, unsupported by canon) goggles that it was a good and lovely relationship. It wasn't. Bughead is actually quite a dark, twisty relationship with some very lovely moments in it. They keep their major pain points secret from each other so much of the time, in service of the joint delusion that they are each of them being wonderful, ideal romantic partners for the other one. Betty has a seething, simmering resentment about Jughead for years, especially after he moves on with Tabitha.

3. Veronica and Reggie. This relationship goes through so many phases. Reggie's being so besotted with her, crying "I need to matter Ronnie!" as a boy but he grows up to be a man who smirks at her nastily as he uses the patriarchy of satan!!! to steal her casino business out from under her. Her going from objectifying him and using him to calling on him to hold her hand during the apocalypse. Their being minorities in a pretty white town but never addressing that issue for themselves or each other. His father actually beats him and with such impunity as to leave visible bruises right on his face, and her father is, uh, Hiram. His being her father's semi-adopted son the way he tries to adopt (and fuck?) all her boyfriends (right?) but his father never even seems to meet Veronica. There's so much there, in Veggie, including the ship name, which I think contains with in it commentary about how red blooded and beefy Archie is.

[uchihaharlot]

I have a question, what do you think of Obito/Tobi?

Hello nonny 😌🥹

You are my first ask on this blog 🥳🎉 And it’s of my beloved Obito/Tobi. 😍 Obito forever will be a gentle giant in my eyes with a side of fucking you stupid. Save that for another day. I will distinguish between the two personalities best I can. I feel like, aside from the mask hiding his identity, it was easier for him to be who he wanted to be in Tobi without the pressure.

Some sfw with mild suggestive themes Obito/Tobi headcanons:

Obito:

• Despite his role in bringing near world domination, he’s a lover not a fighter. After all the whole reason he went awol was because of Rin and Madara’s influence.

• Very easily manipulated. ☺️😅 Sorry Obito, he just is so gullible half majority the time. He doesn’t know any better, Madara completely lobotomized him from a young age to be his pawn after he died. A patsy for his own gain for Madara’s return from death.

• Definitely died virginal. Unless he fucked a white Zetsu, and as a teen he wasn’t very explorative given the seclusion and watchful eye of old man Madara. Plus he was focused on healing and growing half his damn body back. Plus, he didn’t look like himself anymore which probably gave him a bit of body dysmorphia and fed his insecurities.

• Genuinely believed he was being led the correct path in life. That he didn’t need anyone or the village — just Madara (especially didn’t need that Bakashi!!).

• Like majority of the men who are traumatized in this series, Obito can’t sleep at night. Late at night the inner confines of his mind play psychological warfare and close in on himself. ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ ‘Will this really make me feel better?’ ‘Will peace come once the dust settles?’

• Holds in his emotions until they crush him, figuratively and literally. Then he really carries the mantra of ‘burdened with glorious purpose.’ It replaces the heart on his sleeve and that’s when he hardens — or he thinks.

• Seeing Rin die definitely was that final straw and at the hands of Kakashi without any preemptive warning on the situation at hand. This is where Obito does a 180 and harnesses that resolve to carryon Madara’s will. Which is where Tobi comes out.

Tobi:

• Let’s see. I think when Obito designed became prisoner to this persona, it was a coping mechanism. Tobi was one way to get around his turmoil and needing a disguise was the perfect way to avoid dealing with deep seated issues. Win/win/???.

• It makes keeping a distance from the other Akatsuki members easier. Tobi doesn’t want to talk about his trauma or about his family’s history. When Itachi joins it’s imperative that the rest don’t know his secret. What trauma? He’s a new man in this new little world he’s made.

• Which is why in the beginning he’s such a butterball of feigned ignorant bliss. Obito never had the chance at a real childhood so what better way than to live that vicariously through his second ego?

• It also boosted his confidence, tremendously. Being an authoritative figure hiding within the ranks of a hand basket of deplorables made him deliciously confident. He can’t pinpoint why exactly, but having the Akatsuki on the string of his tennis shoe like puppets is an ego boost. It’s an added bonus that most are unsuspecting.

• I think Tobi sleeps most nights peacefully, not always though. Still has these moments of uncertainty, like that meme of your brain before going to bed and it spouts off some shit you’d rather not spend the night debating with yourself about. That still happens to Tobi but not as frequently as when it was Obito in the cockpit of his psyche.

• At the end of the day; we all have a face that we would hide. The face of a stranger, and when it comes to Tobi, Obito is his dead name — he doesn’t recognize much beyond the hurt that got him to where he was today. Letting it fester and further infect his brain. What did they call it? The curse of hatred: Obito is the poster child for this. Sure Sasuke would be a runner up but Sasuke literally chose the path of vengeance, Obito was molded by it. Tobi is the darkness and Obito became a prior life.

[ashesandhackles]

Prisoner of Azkaban reread notes (Part 1)

Chapter 1, 2,3, 4

Wendelin the Weird really mocks the idea of wizards facing persecution from Muggles, and the anecdote shows how they have more power.

@starlingflight had an hc that the Weasley family went to meet Bill because of the events of last year and because Ginny really looks up to him. In PS, they went to visit Charlie in Romania during holidays, and in CoS, they went to meet Bill. This is the second time they are going to Bill in a very short time. Peak eldest sibling/ third parent moment.

I love the detail in Ron's letter about Molly not letting Ginny into the last tomb, which had all sorts of mutant skeletons. This takes on a layer given what happened to Ginny in Chamber of Secrets.

Uncle Vernon complains about Sirius' hair and then shoots a look at Harry's own. I love the connection the narrative makes between Harry and Sirius from the very beginning - the hair, when Uncle Vernon looks to Harry after he makes a comment about people "deserving punishment"

Ah Marge. The way she treats Harry is special kind of vile. There is a special kind of nastiness to her giving Harry dog biscuits as a present, and then later on in the same chapter alluding to Harry as weak, runty pup that she had someone drown (and then implying Lily has bad blood - "if there is something wrong with the bitch, then there is something wrong with the pup"). Also, although Harry is written as "default white" - this is one of the times I felt such a strong undercurrent of racism here.

And Harry, after first two books of his management of Dursleys, finally rejects them and runs away. ("I had enough" - both Harry and Sirius say at some point with their families)

Interesting that in CoS, Harry is quick to believe Ron and Hermione have forgotten all about him when he didnt get their letters (major abandonment issues acting up, exacerbated by circumstances ofc), but by POA, he is confident that even if he is an outlaw in wizarding world, Ron and Hermione would want to help him. Ron and Hermione slowly help healing Harry <3

Right when Harry is considering his life as an outcast, he is being watched by Sirius, who appears right after Harry has rejected Dursleys as caregivers of any kind, and is the wizarding world outcast. (Also, Sirius has swum the north sea and escaped prison, and he wants to "catch a glimpse")

Sirius laughing at the scene of the crime is such a stark image. We see him do this at the end of the book, when Peter accuses him. ("Black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room"). When Peter accuses him of breaking out of Azkaban using dark Powers, Black "started to laugh, a horrible mirthless laugh that filled the whole room." I love this absolutely contrarian impulse in him, that he is laughing at the sheer gall of Peter to accuse him after everything. It also feels like a habit from his home life - designed to piss people off when they accuse him of something, most likely unjust. And it is the same response that happens in his breakdown over James's death on the street - it is the mirthless laughter that begins because of audacity of Peter, and it goes into breakdown over James's death.

Harry returns every day to look at the Firebolt. Jock boy.

Sirius = the Grim. XD interesting how he is associated with a death omen. @artemisia-black has a meta about this.

Ron and Mr Weasley share the same stress response: ears turning red.

Mr and Mrs Weasley recreate the same dynamic as Molly as Sirius in OOTP. Molly does not want Harry to know, Arthur wants Harry to know to be on his guard. This is telling of Rowling's fixed ideas on intrinsic traits of a gender - the man wants to give Harry more agency to be in charge, while the woman is cautious (I'm not making this up, there is literally an interview with Melissa Anelli where she said this about Molly vs Sirius scene: that she wants to contrast "cautious feminine principle" with Sirius' "take charge" masculine principle")

This book feels so melancholy to me. There is a suspense aspect built up with Harry spotting the dog, seeing that it is a death omen, and Sirius saying "he is at hogwarts". On first read, these are scary things. But when you know what you know, this is just dripping with sadness.

Chapter 5,6,7

Ginny tries to join the trio and Ron tells her to "go away". @hinnyfied pointed out how Ginny followed both Ron here and when the train is dark. I really like glimpses of sibling relationships like this!

Remus is here - he is asleep. (interesting that they take note that only students use Hogwarts Express and it is unusual for an adult to be there).

Remus does wandless magic, and conjures flames in his palm. I really really love this detail. The "right to carry a wand" is heavily contested among "creatures" as Griphook resentfully mentions in DH - and it feels like something he has trained himself to be good at. @thecat-isblogging-blog also believes it is something for post transformation - when he may not have his wand and would be vulnerable.

"Ginny looked nearly as bad as Harry felt, and gave a small sob." and Hermione goes and puts an arm around her. Again the Chamber comes up. ("Didnt any of you fall of your seats?" "No, Ginny was shaking like mad though.")

Since this is a book where Harry starts to root his masculinity in James, the shame he feels for collapsing on train is a nice touch. ("I am not delicate!" Harry said crossly). Special thanks to @artemisia-black for her metas for this insight - I would not have looked at this with lens of masculinity if not for your metas!

Interesting detail that both Dean and Lavendar also have no idea what The Grim is. Rest of the class knows - so it is embedded in wizarding culture. This is also a hint to Lavendar's blood status i think? I never picked up on this before.

Dean Thomas appreciation, when Slytherins shout at Hagrid after the Buckbeak incident, Dean says, "It was malfoy's fault!"

"giving Harry a look of loathing reserved just for him" - something about this sentence really cracks me up. lmao.

Snape threatening Trevor really hits at Neville's worst insecurities. Trevor is a gift from his family after Neville proves that he is magical (and not a Squib, as they were fearing). So Trevor is a representation of that for Neville. So Neville's fear - is not being good enough, something Snape (and also his grandmother in a very different way, hits - as McGonagall says, "it's time for her to be proud of the grandson she does have, instead of the one she wishes she had" in HBP). Neville grows very subtly throughout the series.

I love how Lyall and Hope's meeting via Boggarts (as per pottermore) adds another layer to why Remus takes it on in his first class.

Remus is polite to Snape, but he slips in the same scene - when he is asking Neville about what his grandmother wears (so Neville can overlay it on Snape), he prompts, "and a handbag?" when Neville can't seem to remember. Remus is a very subtle character, and his slip ups about his feelings are also super subtle like this. There is no reason for him to prompt Neville on this - but there is a part of him is enjoying this. (It's that part of him on the map that goes: "keep your abnormally large nose out of other people's business")

Chapter 8,9, 10,11

I love how immediately attuned Remus is with Harry, and how Harry actually does say what is bothering him after initially saying no. It is the lack of judgement from Remus, and his ability to let silence be. (Sirius does this with Harry too later on, and so does Ginny)

I love that Harry thought Lups will deny what he had observed, but he not only validates it but offers Harry an honest explanation of why he didnt let Harry fight the Boggart. It is a respect for Harry's agency and intelligence that makes Harry immediately take to him. ("I am impressed, this suggests that what you fear most of all is - fear. Very wise, Harry")

Snape, "unsmiling and watchful" that Harry and Lups are spending time together, and he has told Dumbledore that he is untrustworthy and is helping Sirius.S nape's "eyes were flickering towards Lupin more often than usual" even after brewing the Potion - Snape is super hypervigilant with Lups - there is genuine fear here. Given his teenage brush off, I can see why.

Snape being Dumbledore's angry child: trying to hint to Dumbledore that Lups may be the inside help, and Dumbledore shutting him down, and Snape concedes to it because they are in front of Percy.

Percy looked slightly abashed when Dumbledore mentions that no Dementor would cross the threshold of the castle while he is Headmaster. I wonder what Percy's views are on use of Dementors? He is very assimilationist. The next book, he is on Crouch's side for Winky debacle, so it is likely he thinks Dementors should have a look in the castle.

"his robes were hanging more loosely around him" - interesting detail to show the aftermath of transformation on Lups. It is extremely taxing on his body.

Lups both cant help himself from being concerned that Harry is sad about the match and cant help feeling guilty, that Whomping Willow, made for his use, is what smashed Harry's broomstick.

Harry is so comfortable opening a topic with Lups that he finds deeply shameful: that he fell because of the Dementors, that he hears Lily's death when they get close. It is interesting that Jily death hangs so strongly over POA, and both Remus and later, Sirius act as a stand in for James in this book.

"Lupin made a sudden motion with his arm as though he made to grip Harry's shoulder, but thought better of it." - the summary of Remus and Harry's relationship in the entire series, and Harry breaks through this wall in Deathly Hallows.

"White and shaking he was" "Give Harry to me, I am his godfather" "Black argued, but in the end he gave in" - so demonstrative of the fact that his first priority is always Harry

Sirius was absolutely doing a performance of boredom for Fudge. It is his way of fighting, even in prison - his way of saying, "you havent broken me." Because we do see how Sirius really feels around Dementors at the end of the book - hands over his head, and moaning, "No Please"

"Quite the double act" - McGonagall not mentioning Remus in the group while we get gossipy details like Remus mentioning that McGonagall told him about Harry and Trelawney. It feels like such a gossipy thing to say to a former student, and indicates fondness. So I'd like to think she is also careful and wary with regard to bringing Remus up in front of Ministry authorities, esp potentially sensitive things like Sirius and him used to be best friends.

Harry looking into his parents wedding photo, with laughing Sirius :pleading_face:There is so much longing written into these scenes, and sadness. I have said before that Harry's series wide arc is to coming terms with his parents' death.

ooh interesting stuff from Hermione. Hagrid talks about how Dementors werent keen to let him go, and Hermione says, "but you were innocent!" and hagrid snorts, "Think that matters to them?" interesting stuff for Hermione and her belief and disillusionment in institutions arc.

Dumbledore offering crackers to Snape. Love how Snape indulges Dumbledore even as he hates it lollll.

Chapter 12, 13, 14

I know the fight is about the Firebolt, but I always felt the true reason Harry is angry with Hermione is that she went behind his back. And Ron is siding with Harry. (Although it is funny that it is Crookshanks that technically placed order for the broom)

Also, interesting note about Voldemort - he refers to Lily as "silly girl" and in the most disparaging way possible, when in reality it is her sacrificial magic that stopped him. This is in contrast to how he talks about James - "Face me like a man, straight backed and proud, like your father died". It is taunt, but a compliment infused in the taunt. (We will notice this in his fixation with his father, and rather passive interest in his mother as well - and the interest in his mother is because of her lineage - "I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, from my mother's side?")

Hermione disappearing into her workload, and Ron, despite being angry with her, interested in what she is up to. He even asked Ernie if she missed any Muggle Studies classes, lol.

How interesting that Lups mentions that the Dementor's Kiss is the fate that awaits Sirius Black, completely unprompted by Harry. It is clearly something that bothers him. ("Do you think anyone deserves that?"). Since he read it in the Prophet in the morning, it is clearly a news that he was still processing.

"Do you really think so? Do you think anyone deserves that?" - it is obviously one way for him to process the news, but it is also a way for Lups to open space for Harry to talk about what he is thinking and feeling.

Snape reminding McGonagall that Gryffindor will be out of running for 8th year in a row if they lose the match, lol. Snape and McGonagall's background Quidditch rivalry is hilarious. This happened in CoS too ("We should get Potter off the Quidditch team until he is ready to be truthful" "The cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick")

Harry suggesting they make up with Hermione, and Ron tells him where she is. I get the feeling that Ron was waiting to make up with Hermione after the initial anger. He engages with her, tries to figure out her schedule and it seems to me that the only thing really stopping him is Harry's feelings and he was waiting for Harry's go ahead.

"Ok side with Ron, I knew you would" - the beginning of the series, where the boys choose each other, and Hermione knows it. This changes when Ron becomes aware of his romantic feelings for Hermione, and that forces him to step back from his buffer role, and Harry and Hermione dynamic goes through transitional storm as a result.

Hermione came to watch the match. The juxtaposition of the Fred and George juggling bottles and the festivities, and Hermione reading Home Life and Social habits of British Muggles (which she doesn't have to) really adds to the loneliness of the picture.

I don't know if this was mentioned, but Lupin keeps asking Harry that maybe it's time to stop during the Patronus chapter. I do think it's because he is seeing the physical toll it's costing him, but I'd like to think it could also be because Harry has become an earpiece to James' last moments, and Lupin is caught off-guard. His grief is rising back up and it writes "Ready?" said Lupin, who looked as though he was doing this against his better judgement.(via @thecat-isblogging-blog)

We can see Lupin losing a bit of his careful control when Harry asks him about Sirius. Not only has Lupin just gone through the circle of grief again in a space of a few minutes, but now Sirius being bought up is asking for his anger. When Harry assumes Lupins knew Sirius as well, Lupin responds very quick and 'out of character': "What gives you that idea?" he said sharply. (Also via Cat)

Sirius breaks into the dormitory with a knife. He gifts Harry a knife for Christmas later on. (@artemisia-black brought this to my attention, but he seems to have a thing for knives. )

Love how immediately Neville connects Harry to being his protector, he steps behind Harry when he sees Snape.

Obviously Snape enjoys catching harry in trouble, but his dialogue here about worrying about Harry's safety (also his life mission) is also him. ("Let other people worry about his safety!").

"Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business" - this insult is essentially displaying Remus' anxiety over Snape "sneaking around, trying to get them expelled". And Sirius' insult, is on his intelligence ("Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became professor"). Insulting people's intelligence is go to insult for both Sirius and Snape. James' insult goes for his appearance ("ugly git") which is appearance based, and most likely to do with his jealous streak regarding Snape and Lily. And Peter follows James' lead in the ugly insult and "advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball."

I will never get over the detail of Lups clapping his hand and looking around cheerfully when Ron comes in XD covered this scene between Lups and Snape in more detail here

Remus made Sirius and James "feel ashamed of themselves sometimes". I'd imagine it would be similar to how he handled this - cover up for them as he did for Harry, and lets them hear it in private. Although some of the harshness of what Remus said here is because he agrees with Snape, and recognises his own guilt in this situation, so he is angrier.

There is something about the fact that Hermione comes to them when she gets the letter that Buckbeak is being executed that is really, really vulnerable of her? She can wait until Hagrid tells them himself, but she needs them in this highly charged emotional moment.

I love how immediate the trio's priorities shift - both Harry and hermione discuss the unfairness of the situation, and when Hermione says she has no hope, Ron says there is. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time Hermione. I'll help." Ron's offer of solidarity really gets to Hermione and she apologises to him. And that's pretty much all he needed to hear from her ("I am really sorry about scabbers") and he quickly moves to assure her- "he was a bit old. You never know, mum and dad might get me an owl now." (ron's issue with hermione is similar to his issue with Harry in DH - "you are dismissing my feelings and devaluing my needs. What is important to me is not important to you, and therefore I am angry.")

Lucius is still a background antagonist in this novel, even though he doesn't make an appearance. And like Chamber of Secrets, Hagrid is once again in trouble because of his vulnerable status in the wizarding society.

The exam chapters are so endearingly weird - the teapot into tortoise and how they are all worrying about how some of their tortoise still has spout, or breathe steam. And harry overdoing his cheering charms that meant ron had to be taken to a private classroom for over an hour cos he was doubling up with hysterical laughter.

[nogoawaytism]

My second thingy for Nitpick November, because I'm not gonna do this consistently the way God intended.

It's just so... interesting to hear RWBY stans bitch about any sort of criticism regarding how certain male characters are treated. Apparently if any of us commit the unforgiveable sin of saying something like "I wish Sun/Adam/Mercury/Ironwood was treated better by the narrative + explored the unique themes that are a part of their identity as characters." rwby stans freak the fuck out and start whining about how RWDE only wants a show about a white male character. And I'm like

*looks at the vast majority of the cast, especially the heroes*

*looks at V9*

It's just so... interesting how these double standards work, because I guess a white male character getting the spotlight is ok when it's Miles's self-insert.

Meanwhile, Sun has a Chinese allusion despite being a blonde, Ironwood was modeled after Jason Rose who is half Asian (Oh wait, I bet we don't count mixed people). Interesting.

Also, Sun is an established, in-universe minority, an abuse victim thanks to Blake, which is frequently downplayed because Blake is a girl and a main character, and is therefore perfect, and Sun is evil because he isn't psychic, and expressed attraction to a main character. How evil.

Also, Ironwood is a veteran with PTSD facing a horrible situation, a triple amputee, and the only one of the cast who actually has a feasible plan. Oh wait, losing his arm made him lose his humanity, what an evil bastard. He probably lost over half his body on purpose.

Also, Adam is an established, in-universe minority, a former child slave, who has the SCHNEE FUCKING DUST COMPANY logo burned onto his fucking face. Adam should be a good faunus, and not complain at all about faunus oppression, otherwise he's a fucking nazi.

Also, Mercury was trained for an extremely dangerous job as a young child, and abused so badly to the point where he LOST BOTH LEGS. Man, white men really do be the worst.

Yes, two of these characters are villains, and yes, we should hold people accountable for their actions instead of inborn characteristics. Oh wait, y'all already did that when you bitched about them being "white men", while almost every important non-white character has been presented as a villain at some point, and the two non-white characters in our main cast, Ren and Oscar get treated so poorly compared to the other heroes. Sure, complain about how RWDE "wants to center white men" while Ren's mental state and feelings are invalidated at every turn. Sure, complain about how RWDE "wants to center white men" while Oscar the literal child that got dragged into this war is constantly the one bearing the brunt of physical abuse that we haven't seen our other characters experience + half of that physical abuse is by characters who ARE heroes and by Hazel who got the last-minute redemption treatment. Sure, complain about how RWDE "wants to center white men" while y'all treat this show like the best shit to happen to media since Charles Dickens when *checks notes* it's written by white men, which isn't inherently bad in my opinion, but in this case they write every fucking issue in this show in such an insensitive light, and are still horrible xenophobic people. Miles and Kerry ARE stereotypical horrible white men, but y'all still defend their stupid writing while bitching about white men abused by the narrative.

Oh, and might I add: the fuckers saying this stan Coco. I wonder what her allusion is.

So you mean to tell me, that expressing just a little bit of tact about Adam being a branded child slave, or Ironwood losing three limbs and being traumatized, or Mercury being abused and losing his legs, is super duper evil, but this Nazi insert is an absolute slay queen. Y'all really made a doodoo with this one, whoopsies!

Anyway, take the historic moment before Mercury rightfully whooped this Discord light mode-looking mf who's also a Nazi:

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

KENDRA YOUNG (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Racism)

1.) Kendra was shafted due to a combination of misogyny and racism. She is a Jamaican young woman who enters the narrative to serve as a foil for Buffy, the main character. Her backstory is one-dimensional and her personality is one-note. (Rather than exploring what it might be like to be a teenager growing up in Jamaica, facing the same Chosen One fate as Buffy in a different setting, they just made her robotically devoted to the idea of being a slayer with no other traits.) She exists purely as a comparison for one issue that Buffy is encountering during this time in the story. As soon as Buffy worked through this issue to the writer’s satisfaction, Kendra was removed from the story (i.e., was killed by being outsmarted, hypnotized, and then executed by a villain). During her brief life, she was subjected to the trope that when two women are in the same story they have to hate each other and see each other as rivals, despite the fact that this makes so sense with either of their characterization. She is MUCH less fleshed out than the vast majority of other characters in the story and her narrative role is eventually replaced with a far more complexly written white woman (proving that they could have done all this interesting stuff with Kendra in the first place??? but chose to kill her off instead.)

2.) She was introduced as a foil to the protagonist and set up as being an important new addition to the cast whose very existence in the show completely altered the status quo and she had a really interesting dynamic with the protagonist and a compelling backstory and a lot of potential for some great character development and to provide a new point of view and there was just generally so much potential there AND THEN THEY KILLED HER OFF AFTER LIKE THREE EPISODES AND NEVER MENTIONED HER AGAIN. FUMING. (also she was like. the only major woman of colour on the show at least for the majority of the show’s run. so y'know that fucking sucks)

anyway I think this post really sums up how badly she got screwed over:

3.) Okay, so I had more been considering her a victim of racism, but let’s call it misogynoir. Aside from the sexist origin she shares with all the slayers - some men got together to imbue Woman with power against her will which they would then oversee and manage for their own purposes and according to their own interests- she has been trained for slaying from childhood and yet she is killed pretty quickly after entering the story for the purposes of a white girl’s angst and character development (and in fact her character only exists for this purpose)… by a fingernail. A powerful, well-trained, competent and bad-ass girl is killed because she didn’t lean back one inch further fast enough. IIRC there’s also sexism and racism in the way she is portrayed as kind of naive about the normal world and Buffy has to show her how to be a normal teenager.

KATHERINA MINOLA (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) We had to read this for English my senior year. I got so mad at the way she’s treated. She’s the titular “shrew” of the play. She has to be married off before her younger sister can get married, because that makes sense.

Then the most dogshit man imaginable comes along, and everybody thinks they’re perfect. He literally gaslights her and denies her food and water.

Fuck Petruchio and Katherine Minola deserved better!

2.) Literally the whole play is about how she is so awful that the main guy needs to change her entire personality, which he does as a challenge not because he likes her, and then proceeds to her abuse her for the rest of the play. Yet, he is portrayed as the hero, not a villain and she is shown to have “improved” at the end. People will say, oh it’s open to interpretation, it can be played different ways, it’s satire, but i don’t find abuse funny and there is a distinct lack of commentary in the play to count as satire imo. Taming of the Shrew is a tragedy not a comedy, I will die on this hill. Kate deserves better!

3.) The title isn’t joking, ya’ll. She literally gets broken like a rebellious feral animal and it’s treated as a happy ending.

[hwadam-stories]

| College Student Empress (Light Novel) - English Translation (MTL)

| Translation Tool: Chat GPT

| Chapter 1: I've Become A Married Woman

| Notes: This is my first time translating something with Chat-GPT, so bare with me. Italics / Bold pink texts is meant for character thoughts.

People cannot be cool in the face of a breakup. The one who gets dumped cries and clings on, whether they are a man or a woman.

Haesol had never been dumped but knew this well. She was always the one who ended relationships, and she did so far more frequently than others.

The men Haesol dumped would curse, cry, and spew venomous words at every breakup, to the point where it would seem pitiful even to an onlooker.

However, Haesol never felt heartbroken in the face of a breakup.

She could never date any man for more than three months, never shared deep feelings with any man, and as someone who lived as the ultimate perpetrator of looks-based discrimination, where a man's absolute requirement was solely his appearance, the curses during breakups were nothing more than the desperate cries of those being abandoned.

"...Ah, I'm screwed."

Up until now.

"Your Highness! Are you conscious?"

"Your Highness!"

"Empress!"

Looking at the people crying their hearts out in front of her, dressed as if they had stepped out of a historical movie screen, Haesol swallowed hard.

‘This... is a dream, right?’

***

It was not a dream.

"Your Highness. Have you left your herbal medicine again...?"

Haesol clutched her forehead while looking at the woman with her neatly rolled-up hairstyle and teary eyes.

The woman was so startled by this gesture that she asked,

"Your Highness! Does your head hurt again? Should I call the royal physician?"

‘It’s no use. The cause of my headache is you.’

"Your Highness?"

Haesol squeezed her eyes shut instead of answering.

It had already been fifteen days since she woke up in this strange place. People called her "Your Highness" or "Empress." There were women dressed in traditional Eastern-style costumes and men who seemed to be eunuchs.

"Her Highness is having memory issues due to the shock. It may be confusing now, but when her memory returns, she will be fine. Please, Your Highness, try to calm down."

The elderly man with a white beard, who was called a royal physician, explained this crazy situation in this manner. He suggested that it wasn't the world that had gone mad, but Haesol herself.

At this point, she had to accept it. This extremely abnormal situation was her reality. A reality she desperately did not want to believe.

"Please rest, Your Highness."

After the woman, who introduced herself as "Wolryeo," and appeared to be in her early to mid-40s, checked Haesol's condition several times and left, Haesol let out a deep sigh and pulled a small mirror, about 30 cm by 20 cm, in front of her.

There was evidence in the mirror. Absolute evidence that forced Haesol to accept this situation.

Her face. The face in the mirror was not Haesol's face. The woman in the mirror was a stranger. It wasn't Shin Haesol, a second-year physical education major at Sahwa University, but an entirely unfamiliar woman.

A white and slender woman. A woman with long, slender limbs like an herbivore. Naturally, the abs that Haesol had worked so hard to build were nowhere to be found. Not only her face but also her body had changed. How old could she be? Just over twenty? If not for her youthful appearance, she looked about that age.

When Haesol first saw herself in the mirror, convinced she was dreaming, she boldly slapped her own cheek and felt the immense pain. Ah. It's me. It's not me, but it is me.

"This is driving me crazy... What on earth is going on?"

***

The place where the ruler of this country lives, looking down upon the world. The highest and most magnificent place. If you ask anyone where such a place is, they would immediately point to Taewang Palace.

Taewang Palace, symbolically and geographically, was located in a place where it was literally impossible not to look down on people. It was built on the highest ground within the capital city.

Those who were not born into the royal family nurtured their ambitions outside the palace, hoping to enter it by obtaining a government position. They dreamed of serving the high and mighty emperor and working for the country. Taewang Palace was the pinnacle of ambition for those with desires.

However, Taecheon sat uncomfortably and in a very displeased mood within that grand Taewang Palace. Others might say he was crazy for being dissatisfied despite his fortune, but... what could he do? It was truly like that.

"Your Majesty."

The reason Taecheon found this situation uncomfortable was clear.

"......"

"Your Majesty?"

It was because of the man sitting right in front of him on the main seat, arms crossed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Your Majesty!"

This man didn't respond no matter how earnestly he was called, wouldn't let him go outside, and didn't particularly assign him any tasks either—a man with an infuriating disposition.

"Your Majesty... I apologize, but I really, really must be going now..."

But he was a man with absolute power, in front of whom one could never complain. This man was none other than the young emperor of Yeonryeo Kingdom, Sihan.

"No. Don't go. Stay with me."

'I don't want to either. Why should I...'

Taecheon wore a sad expression. Ever since he was a crown prince, the emperor had been known for his incorrigible nature. How much had the educators of the crown prince struggled? They had hoped he would improve with age, but it was becoming increasingly clear that even the most rigorous education couldn't change his troublesome disposition. It made Taecheon feel deeply sorrowful.

The late emperor hadn't been like this. How could such a different offspring come from the same lineage? Is there even a trace of the previous generation in this one?

While constantly grumbling inwardly, Taecheon pleaded earnestly once more.

"Your Majesty, I really, really have many tasks to attend to."

"No matter how many you have, could they be more than mine?"

If you know that, why not do some work? Taecheon again only responded inwardly.

Sihan usually enjoyed tormenting Taecheon, but it was obvious why he was being exceptionally irritating today. The news that the empress, who had been on the brink of death, was recovering quickly displeased him.

"Your Majesty. Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty."

When Taecheon could no longer hold back and called repeatedly, Sihan shamelessly reproached him.

"Well, well. Even when I try to be considerate, you complain too much. Just sit appropriately. Sit and rest a while. Isn't that enough? 'Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty.' At this rate, I'll wear out."

"Your Majesty..."

"Enough. I'm tired of it."

So, should I call you by your name? Would that make you happy? Taecheon sulked and kept his mouth shut.

He felt sorry for Seongbi, who endured slanderous accusations and stayed by his side, and sorry for himself, who had this man as both his lord and friend. But above all, he pitied the empress the most, who was disregarded by this man for the sole reason of being "the empress."

***

Haesol repeatedly curled and uncurled her fingers. It had been 22 days since she woke up in this body. At first, her movements felt unnatural, but now she moved as if it were truly her own body.

‘I feel like I'm gradually merging with this body.’

When she first woke up, she was too shocked and bewildered to notice, but as time passed, Haesol could be certain. When she first awakened in this body, it felt mismatched with her, as if the body and soul knew they were switched and resisted.

‘Maybe I should have returned then...’

But there was nothing she could do, even if she regretted it. Even if she went back 22 days, the situation would be the same as now, and she still didn’t know how to return.

In any case, given the current circumstances, she had no choice but to find a way to return to her original body. Of course, she had to survive in the meantime, so she would have to pretend to be the "real Empress" for a while.

"So... let's summarize."

When Haesol mumbled to herself, Wolryeo, the palace maid who had taken care of her every single day since she woke up, thought Haesol was speaking to her and responded with a concerned tone.

"Please speak comfortably, Your Highness."

Though Haesol hadn't meant her words for Wolryeo, she decided against embarrassing her by explaining and instead shook her head.

"I'm sorry. It's uncomfortable for me to speak informally to someone older."

"It's against the rules, Your Highness. You are the head of the inner court and the mother of this country."

But I'm not. I'm not the mother of the country. Haesol gave an awkward smile at the grandiose term "mother of the country."

Anyway, to summarize, this place was definitely not Korea.

Given that there were palace maids and eunuchs, it might seem like Joseon, but the clothing was different. The attire reminded Haesol of the Tang Dynasty in China, but it didn't match perfectly with that either.

Most importantly, the name of the country was Yeonryeo. Yeonryeo. A name she'd never heard before. While she wasn't very knowledgeable about Chinese history, as far as she knew, there had never been a country called Yeonryeo in ancient China.

"It will gradually get better. I'll learn slowly. But Wolryeo, so I'm the Empress, and my husband is the Emperor, right?"

"...Yes."

Wolryeo's lips twitched, seemingly displeased with the term "Wolryeo," but Haesol ignored it and spread out a piece of paper, writing crooked letters with a brush.

Summary two. This body's name is Shin Danyeong. Empress. Age 21. But married.

As Haesol scribbled the wobbly letters, Wolryeo, who had been watching with a disapproving look, couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked,

"Your Highness, what kind of writing is that?"

"Oh, it's English."

"Excuse me?"

‘I wrote it in English so you wouldn’t understand.’

"It's not that important. Don't worry about it."

Summary three: The real Empress collapsed due to an ambush. The culprit has not been caught yet.

While answering inwardly, Haesol wrote the third item.

Meanwhile, Wolryeo was curiously tilting her head from side to side, fascinated by the English. Haesol continued moving the brush.

Four: The Emperor and Empress have a bad relationship. The Emperor wanted to make a woman named Gongrin the Empress, but she was from a humble family and a former palace maid, so she had no backing and couldn’t be made Empress.

Five: The Emperor has never visited the Empress’s palace since their marriage.

What else is there? Haesol stopped writing and bit the brush handle. While she tried to recall the information she had gathered during her time confined to the room, there wasn't anything else memorable enough to record.

Of course, there were more detailed things, but those could be learned through observation and experience.

After reading through the list she had made, Haesol rolled it up and set it aside. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of historical dramas, she could roughly understand her current situation.

Villain. She was the villain.

The obstacle to a love that transcended status. A woman who became Empress thanks to her power. If this were a drama, the protagonist would probably be that Gongrin woman. The Empress would be the one wielding power to try to eliminate the protagonist, Gongrin.

But this world wasn’t a drama, and the "real Empress" seemed to have been just a quiet and gentle person. From the Empress’s perspective, Gongrin might have been annoying...

...but it didn’t seem like she wielded power to oppress Gongrin. This was probably fortunate for Gongrin.

‘She was a good person.’

Of course, these traits were not fortunate for Haesol, who had a wild and unruly nature.

‘Her appearance was different, and her personality too. There's nothing about her that's similar to me.’

[boreal-sea]

This is from a reply I made on a different post, but it's a very thorough breakdown of the issues trans men face and I feel it deserves its own post:

Trans men and transmasc people face unique forms of oppression and transphobia. The way our masculinity intersects with our birth sex and our transness means we face unique challenges and unique forms of hate.

We want to discuss the challenges we face, so over the past few years we have tried to come up with words to describe the unique form of transphobia we deal with.

But one of the issues we deal with includes invisibility, so when we say we face issues, no one believes us and thinks we're making it all up. If they can't see the trauma, it doesn't exist. So a lot of people think the only things trans men face are "mean words", when there is in fact systemic violence exacted against us. We are denied housing and employment. We suffer medical neglect. We are assaulted, raped, and murdered. But it doesn't make it into the news as "trans man assaulted" because they frequently misgender us as women.

Another issue many of face is the fact that we are trans men or masculine-aligned, and the patriarchal society we live in doesn't believe men can suffer. The patriarchy itself believes this - "boys don't cry" - but a lot of people who don't necessarily support the patriarchy, including feminists, have very little empathy for men and masc-aligned folks too. There's a lack of understanding how the intersection of identity is involved here. Trans men and transmascs do not have "male privilege". We are not cis men. Many of us are not men at all. Obviously transphobes don't consider us to be men, but even when other queer people do, they erroneously believe we obtain cis male privilege, and therefore think we deserve to be treated without emptathy.

Then there's the misogyny and bioessentialism. Many of us were assigned female at birth, so misogyny affects us even when we are trans men/masc. All the same stereotypes about women get laid on us in addition to the worst stereotypes about men. We are infantilized as all afab people are infantilized: we are told we are less intelligent, less capable of making our own decisions, and transphobes tell us we need "protection" from the "trans cult".

Trans people who hate us say we are hysterical, whiny, and manipulative - again, misogynistic stereotypes about women. Constant dehumanization, bioessentialism, identity erasure and degradation is a common trend, as trans people who hate us will refer to us as nothing more than "afabs" (erasing and compressing all our trans identities into nothing more than our birth sex) when really, at the end of the day, they mean "stupid girls". It's misogyny, even if it's coming from a trans person. Their obsession with reducing us to our birth sex and insulting us based on sex is misogyny and bioessentialism.

Racism also comes into play. White patriarchy of course wants to preserve the fertility and femininity of little white girls. But trans people who hate trans men can also be racist, in that they deny the existence of trans men/mascs of color in the community, and try to paint us as all "whiny white afabs who don't understand real oppression".

These are some of the major categories of problems trans men and transmascs face. There's overlap between the experiences of trans women/femmes, as well as the experiences of other trans folks, and even cis women, but some of these issues are unique to trans men/mascs.

So we've tried to develop language to describe what we're dealing with. But, because of the literal aspects of our oppression described above, we are called "truthers", whiners, "stupid afabs who just want to be oppressed" and "transmisogynists who want to steal from trans women".

[garthcelyn]

Uhhh Space Lore(Maybe)

Idk I just had fun with a very distant prequel to literally everything else I write. Going back to my roots of dystopia. Very unedited. A fun introduction to The Big Bad of like two books(have fun guessing who).

The program was meant as humanities last ditch effort. Shuttles sent to major cities, their trajectory set to sail among the stars. The Redeemable stood tall in the remains of Cardiff, all gleaming steel and pristine paint, a sore thumb in the midst of the rubble. Passes were issued to those considered Welsh enough, those who would represent what was left of the broken down country.

Mared had fought for one for her daughter; despite being a member of the Senedd, it was decided that her strange half-American offspring was not meant to make it. Now the child stood motionless in the pod beside her mother’s, suspended in time as the frost slowly took over the glass. The father stood outside, firmly set on Earth, preparing to wave the departure of his family to God knows where. Never to be seen again. Lloyd had worked with him briefly, both fiddling with last minute electrical checks, making sure everything ran smoothly. He didn’t ask his name, but knew he still managed to make good coffee despite the End and wore his wedding ring around his neck so it could lay against his heart. They spoke of the sports teams they pretended to be interested in, swapped old family recipes, and held each other as their impending doom drew closer. Now Lloyd stood on the ship as the technicians set up his own pod, looking back at his short term friend. The pod was like a coffin. Barely padded, a metal rectangle filled with wires attached to an arm to the wall. His shoulders brushed the sides, a little too wide for them to hold him right but it was too late to back out. Stomach churning, he couldn’t help but think of his father back at home, the man whose space he had taken. It was easy. Lloyd had been greying since he was fourteen, wide streaks of white parting his dark brown hair. Tall, broad, with the same farmer’s tan that marked every other man in his family. Old John was sick, a fact he had kept to himself right up until the day he was meant to set off to Cardiff. They wanted workers, strong and fit, to shoot into the vast ocean of space, and Old John was neither. He assured Lloyd that he’d never make it out there, pressed the pass into his hand as his older brother watched in disdain, and sent him off.

Mared had given him a lukewarm bottle of water, sat him down when she suspected he wasn’t his father. They spoke. She understood. She told him that if she could, she would have let her husband take her place, all the while watching has the man played with his daughter one last time, swinging her in circles as the girl laughed, giddy with excitement of the unknown. Neither parent told her that it would be the last time she would see her father. “It’s cruel,” she had explained, “but if it means she lives, I would have given her my spot. I would have done anything.” The girl’s name was Lucy, but she liked being called Luka and loved wolves and proudly proclaimed that she’s a big girl now. She was six, with gaps in her teeth she had yet to feel self conscious about, her hair a mass of untameable curls that she refused to let her mother touch. She was going to be an electrician just like her dad, was going to play football professionally, and was going to own an animal sanctuary in Utah one day, despite barely knowing what a Utah was. When the sun started to set, Mared let her exhausted, panting daughter climb into her lap, hiding her face in Mared’s wheat blonde hair as she let her mother stroke her back in small circles. Before she stepped into her coffin, after sending her daughter to what might be their death, she gave him a small wobbling smile and a stiff nod that he returned.

It was cold in the pod. An oxygen mask now strapped over his mouth, all plastic and greasy rubber clinging to his damp skin. Around him the metal beast rumbled impatiently. The smell of smoke hung in the air, coming through the miles of tubes running through the ship. He felt weightless, still awake in his cage as they took off. The tubes tickled his skin, threatening to remove the needles set deep into his arms, pouring a liquid that meant to keep him alive through cryosleep. Technicians stopped bustling, strapping themselves to seats to observe, even if it meant their lives in the long run. Lloyd’s heart refused to beat into a panicked flutter, remaining slow and steady despite everything. Though his heart was calm, his mind was a furious flurry of regret. His brother, Iestyn, would have jumped at the chance, if he had only been offered. If Old John didn’t take favourites. They wanted farmers and got Lloyd, the youngest son of a youngest son who didn’t even have a driver’s license yet. Too young, yet old enough to pass as his father to those not paying attention. In the final moments, as the shuttle threatened to leave their atmosphere, as Lloyd’s eyes finally began to drift closed, he thought of Mared, some welsh senator he never voted for but had shown him kindness in their final days, of Luka who was far too young to die on a destitute planet or in the confines of space. But most of all he thought of the future; the flickering amount of hope he forced himself to have, even as his heart slowed to a stop.

[transingthoseformers]

Top 5 Decepticons?

5: tfp soundwave. The mans is amazing with he groundbridge skills and has a very pretty design. The datacables are by FAR an interesting idea and I wish I could have a visor like his. He's the oil in the Nemesis's joints and one of the few characters whose body language i can not only read but enhances him.

4: sadly mtmte Tarn. His design is interesting, he's pathetic as hell and that means i must bully him and want to fuck him. The mask is cleverly designed, he interacts with the rest of the DJD in an interesting way, and his Voice is a cool concept and i wish i could further understand how it works. I hate him so much that I'm obligated to put him in juuuuust out of the top three

3: g1 Starscream. His ass is Fun. I absolutely love his color scheme, her helm looks so discordant from the white/red/blue frame that it seems like Starscream is in a full body suit. Her persistent desire to become the leader of the Decepticons, the random screaming like yes! I also have major issues keeping my voice down and I wish i could just scream please. Starscream was a scientist and had a frozen boyfriend and is 100% the face of g1 in my opinion

2: tfa Strika. Tbh we don't see a lot of her in series but I enjoy her design, the anomalous marriage to Lugnut, and in general wish we could see her more in future series girlboss needs to come back. Her being a general makes me have so many questions about the tfa Decepticon command structure besides megs the sic and the tic, and fr her colors are super pleasing and I enjoy how she's not some little lithe mech who looks like a living barbie doll no she's built to cause some damage. She's big, she's destructive, she runs her shit well, and she has serious bisexual husband energy

1: you know full well I'm putting Megatron here, and as far as continuity I cannot decide. I love tfp Megatron's obsession with the purple crack and his design and im biased as that's the first megan i was introduced to and the one i find myself going nuttiest for fanon depictions of him. I find mtmte Megatron so intriguing especially his introduction to the flying asylum known as the Lost Light and the slow and steady redemption arc. I Love how tfe Megatron not only has a human buddy but hasn't lost the g1 energy— instead he's channeled it to help people. BW Megatron is fucking hilarious with his yessssss and his face and being Inferno's royalty. G1 Megatron is So Goddamn Erratic in just the best way possible and I've seen so many fun depictions of him. TFA Megatron is amazing because we see him succeeding at playing nice with the humans, he hates Earth so goddamn much it's hilarious, instead of dealing with tfa Starscream's bullshittery he just up and shoots them, and I honestly think it was a good decision to have him wired into the lab as a head in the first season. Plus, in general you can see the attitude that people have towards Megatron changing and how he's slowly changing depiction to depiction. He's gone from your average literally and metaphorically two dimensional character to a massively intriguing mech known to be many people's favorite.

[siremasterlawrence]

Seeing Red

/

Being Green

Green Arrow finds himself in Central City on a one man hunt after me sleeking through the shadows of the city. I stand waiting in the darkness as he lands in building in the south of town.

The building high above me is brimming in white moon light washing his body in a glow and I am enamor with him his right hand in a rush. Grappling an arrow lining it up with his bow and launching it.

The arrow dashing across the sky hits dead on to the brick wall behind me in a splendid example of true marksmanship. Truly a feat to be applaud so I did to his dismay walking in to the light.

I reach for the arrow breaking it in half stir him on as he shoots another and hooks his quiver on to the rope sliding down to meet me face to face. “Well…well not the hero I was expecting but glad to see I occupy your mind.” My voice calm in response.

“Oliver Queen welcome to your doom this is the night you will learn true defeat.”

“Take a gander at your surroundings”

“This is some sort of illusion”

“Hardly! Welcome to your nightmare”

“What the fuck is this?”

“Do you remember the island you were trapped on?”

“You are lying, it can’t be and this is impossible “

“Improbable maybe but impossible I doubt it”

“Take a look around enjoy the natural scent and the beauty of nature.”

The door opens up a strange laboratory as I walk in flipping on the switch revealing our hero. The room is high technological wonder unseen to anyone but me.

Oliver Queen is literally strap down on to a chair with chains around him and a helmet shape like a crown adorns his head.

Two leads are attached to his face for the major experiment it is upon him a visual display of his worst nightmare come to life.

A explosion erupts out of nowhere sending him flying in to the air his mind is fired up with electrical current.

“Mr. Queen you can make this easy for your city and this city as well.”

“You better run Oliver four hoards of this isle of thugs are on their way.”

“Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?”

The lights flash on alerting me to someone on my compound, the cc television rolls on with footage of The Flash.

Barry spins underground digging his way under my building he zooms upward spins in front of me.

Barry speeds over the me landing in Oliver’s face, unties Oliver helping him upward and takes him out.

“Gallant entrance but feeble attempt at a escape.”

“You know how the saying goes how birds and all that”

“You dare to fight us both?”

“Oliver rise to your feet”

“Yes Master”

“Look at me “

“This man is trying to prevent me from any success.”

“What are you going to do?”

“No Oliver break free”

“Eliminate him”

“Exactly! Correct this issue”

“Computer code Red Arrow”

“Commencing and correcting”

“Laser light springs on”

“Room glows up in a purple phase “

“Battle arena begins “

“May I beat him Master?”

“Break his bones”

“Olive no …… please”

My mind is roaming with new ideas as I hit another button and I leave the rooms with great intent.

The door slip close with a fiery passion in a hot ember fire overtaking the room fire shot out.

Surrounding the room in fiery pitch Barry is giving in suddenly his mind locks out sent him back in time.

He watches his mothers death over and over again at the hands of the monstrous Reverse Flash.

Barry loses it the electrical power of the speed force burns out pouring with red and yellow hue.

Barry unleashes a large barrage of attacks on to bin sending Oliver flying in to air and. attack him head on.

“Good job! Oliver destroy him”

“Eviscerate him”

“Your friend has been hacked forever by me”

“A mountain full of money and power”

“I am his Master”

“Sir Yes Sir”

“You failed this city”

“Your days have come to end”

“Submit or die”

“Look up to wall next to you a draw opens”

“Inside it is a quiver and red bow”

“Load on to the bow and steady “

“Pull the bow and let it go”

“Dead on center”

“Showcase your talent “

“Mwahahaha”

“Aaaaaahhhhh….Oliver”

Barry���s eyes turn red hot lifting foot on to the oncoming wall and sped from wall to wall.

- Boom -

“Master Lawrence at your service”

“I will obey my king”

The end

[shut-up-rabert]

That's my point. You've made it clear that you live in a place densely populated with Sikhs. Second to majority as you mentioned. I don't. Result is the only other sikh in my class wears a cap ALL. THE. TIME. INCLUDING INDOORS. Because since 2020, which saw a major spike in sikhophobia, kids think it's perfectly fine to call him a khalistani for no reason at all. This dude has never presented a political opinion, let alone an extreme separatist one. Literally I cannot see where they were coming from except for just the fact that he's a Sikh but it's genuinely devastating to see him cover his pagdi every single day without fail. I'm lucky I don't face the same cuz well I'm a woman and I don't look Sikh.

But ok that's an isolated incident, if I talk of why exactly this started happening in 2020 it's because that's the stuff those kids heard their parents say at home because that was the fucking response to the farmers' protest, something that had absolutely nothing to do with religion. Religion was dragged into the debate because a majority of those farmers were sikh and their demands that had NOTHING to do with a separatist movement got brushed off as khalistani terrorism. This was around the time when Modi made his visit to Punjab or attempted to (it was a pretty big deal, it was all over the news), his route had protestors on it and man the reaction supporters of the party had to it? Literally one Google search away. There's literal MLA's of the party talking of a repeat of the '84 genocide. MLAs. And it's these very people who call Sikhism a sect of Hinduism which is an entirely different load of horse crap. But it's just the fact that they have thee audacity to say that but then a moment a Sikh person says something they don't like (it doesn't even have to be related to religion, in fat bonus points if it ain't) that person becomes a khalistani.

This isn't woke, acknowledging that yes, a minority community does face marginalisation (big shocker) is basic fucking decency. Your reaction to this is exactly like the reaction of a white person being told that they might be racist. 'What?! I have black friends. They get treated equally.'

It's hard for people to hear that their community might be marginalising another, especially if they don't do it personally because it makes them feel attacked. But the matter of truth is that your reaction is absolutely not how a decent person responds to the idea of someone being oppressed. You usually wait to get educated on the topic before you form an opinion on it and especially before you mock someone else's pian over it. Also you need to realise for the future that if you don't see a certain problem in the society around you doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it could very well mean that you are just lucky enough to not encounter. This applies to all contexts.

I usually wouldn't pester a kid but I needed you to hear this because your opinion could potentially hurt someone and over the internet, they wouldn't know you're a kid (like I didn't when I sent the previous ask) and I would hate for someone to form a bad opinion of you over it. Everything I've told you isn't guaranteed to change your opinion over the matter, in fact I doubt it will, but atleast after this whatever opinion you hold, no matter how hurtful, will be an educated opinion and you ought to take responsibility for it because 14, no matter how young, is still enough age to tell right and wrong apart. That's all I have to say to you and I won't be sending asks again.

Firstly, the hat incident you refer to, as devastating as it is, was practically impossible for any Haryanvi/Punjabi to relate to, so please don’t blame me for not seeing what you were referring to. Its like being from Arkansas but then shouting at a Californian for not seeing the racism.

Secondly, where’s this incident happening? Maybe you’re right, its my lack of knowledge and education on the issue, so please tell me as to atleast what state this is so I can make a decent, dedicated post on the issue if I see the arising need. I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but can you give me the details so I know what I’m looking into here?

As of the farmer’s protest, I think you are forgetting a major, and I mean very major factor that lead to the issue being labeled as Khalistan: there were khalistanis involved. How it is that you managed to ignore the bit about how khalistani outfit sikhs for justice started propagating it for ulterior motives, another one made toolkit for it, or when Sikh extremists beheaded a lower caste Sikh over the disrespect of the book is beyond me.

How it is that you say that it doesn’t have seperatist influence is astounding. Religious influence of sikhism? Not. Khalistani influence? Totally.

Offcourse, I’m not saying that the issue WASN’T about farmer’s rights and all, most of it prolly was, but lets not act like it wasn’t hijacked for ulterior motives by various anti India groups. The toolkit leaking and the pro seperatism handles suddenly and simultaneously supporting the cause says it all.

I don’t think everyone involved, or for that matter everyone who wasn’t proven guilty deserved to be shunned as Khalistani, but the thing is, if there was a pro muslim movement going on that got hijacked by likes of the now gone PFI, no one would care how it started or what the beginning cause was. Or am I wrong?

That’s just how the it works, I’m not trying to sound ignorant, I’m trying to say this rationally so please think about this for once, but if one is leading a cause and sees it getting infested by some other reason, its only his/her job to make sure that same doesn’t get to represent the movement. The protesting farmers sat by and watched as a religious flag was put on in front of the red fort, what were people expecting? NOT being labelled religious fundamentalists? (Once again clearing the fact that I don’t believe the sikh community deserve a blame for this. Shitheads exist in every religion.)

The BJP MLA bit? Yeah, pretty sad if I’m being honest. I won’t equate it to being the same as persecution at a central level, because of my own experiences, but I’ve said once before on my main that I feel like BJP has the worst, And I mean THE WORST lot when it comes to local leaders. Leave Sikhophobia, I won’t even put Rape and Genocide supporting above them. They’ve even shit talked Budhhists and demanded Hindu women to be baby making machines.

Even a few CMs have proven to be mildly (albeit not anywhere NEAR as much of asshats as the MLAs) problematic if I remember. The only way I can sleep at night is knowing that people like these will never be in power, because they can only run their mouths, not the country. Even the Higher ups at NDA seem to be aware of that. Believe me, if someone like that ever comes to hold a prominent position, I’ll book both of us a one way ticket to the nopetopia.

All in all, while I feel like I can’t be blamed for not seeing the issue because actual headlines of Sikh persecution are unseen around here, because maybe its rather remote or unheard of on both national and local level for me, I’m always open to know more so that I know what kind of issues deserve light and to be brought to mainstream.

So please, do tell me more. I want to be aware of the whole cause and be of help if the situation is for real that dire.

PS I’m not a kid🗿

[sinner4life]

This is gonna seem kinda random from me, but I just want to ramble for a bit so sit with me for a spell. Or don't, I can't tell you what to do lol

I distinctly remember my first day of high school. At the very least, I remember orientation. See, for literally years, this school did not have a uniform in place. But of course, the year I start, the school administration decided a uniform was exactly what this school needed. This was definitely upsetting to me, as every school I'd attended to that point had a uniform and I was looking forward to a year where I could actually be comfortable in what I was wearing.

I've always hated school uniform materials and aesthetics, but that's a different conversation.

The real meat of what I want to ramble about is that orientation. Imagine if you will, an auditorium full of fresh teenagers entering high school, all wearing variations of the same, boring khaki pants and white or black polos. I think we were allowed black pants as well? I don't remember, but I do know the allowed colors were literally the most basic of basic.

Of course, out comes the principle, doing his spiel for welcoming students and faux words of inspiration and stuff to encourage success, blah blah blah.

Finally, the moment literally every student in this room had been waiting for with bated breath; the talk of uniforms. We'd already known, but being that young, I think we hope things will somehow be different even when we know they won't be.

Sure enough, the principle says, with as much professionalism as one who's dealt with teens and students for much of their life allows them, "yes, we will be implementing uniforms this year." (I'm paraphrasing a little, but you get the idea)

When I tell you every student in that auditorium boo'd this man as loudly as their little lungs could carry them . Just a cacophony of teens booing their clear discontent and annoyance, perhaps with the hope that this could be changed if they just expressed themselves loudly enough.

Of course, that didn't work; he just tried to maintain his decorum and just sort of brushed us all off, with a tone of 'there there, it's okay, we know what's best' Their reasoning for this decision was apparently to cut down on bullying, and make us appear more 'professional', which i can tell you right now, failed on both accounts. Kids will always find something to bully about, and if it's not clothes, it's literally anything else. And why on earth would kids need to look 'professional' for in high school? Again, all topics for another day.

The next point I wanted to bring up was this; it's distressing to me how much this trend has gone unchanged. And I'm not talking about school uniforms, I'm talking about bigger issues beyond that. The fact that a majority of people can express clear and obvious discontent for an issue, (abortion bans, invasive advertising, data harvesting, 40hr+ work weeks, the fucking list goes on) only be told by the government and these megacorps basically what I was told in HS; 'there, there, you'll get over it, bc we know what's best'

And the truth is, they don't know what's best--clearly. People are miserable bc they can't afford the shit they're so aggressively trying to advertise to us, nevermind a fucking house. And every week, I see new slews of posts all complaining about the annoyances of work and how tired it makes all of us. But nothing changes, nothing really gets better, bc those in charge have already decided that our voices don't matter--even when the majority us are literally booing them straight to their face.