#it’s my view on the conflict and how she’s going to avoid the mistakes they’ve made

[honeyby]

It is very important that Ruby’s leadership is being challenged.

If the show has made anything clear it’s that blindly following one person is a terrible idea. Oz didn’t fully trust anyone and when the truth came out it nearly broke Qrow and destroyed any trust the heroes had in him. Ironwood was very open with his subordinates but demanded absolute and unwavering loyalty which leads to Clover’s death and him turning on RWBY. Both have nothing but good intentions but between their own character flaws and the fact that no one around them is really an equal (Oz is the only person with all of the information while all of Ironwood’s subordinates are just that: subordinates) they ultimately fail to be good leaders.

People are flawed. No individual is right all the time or has all the answers and the same applies to Ruby. She always does what she thinks is right but not every situation has a clear best solution and Ruby is not the only person that can make a good decision. We have three other main characters plus major secondary characters with their own opinions and views! There was always going to be a time where there would be a disagreement about what to do because of that.

And now we’re at that situation. They’re faced with a difficult choice: do what they can to help evacuate Mantle or warn the rest of the world. Both are very important! Ironwood abandoning Mantle is a big part of what has them on opposite sides and evacuating people is a solid goal that they KNOW they can contribute to. Getting Amity up in the air is a bigger picture goal that will affect more people but is also much higher risk with a lower chance of success. It’s why there’s a split in which one is right, because both have pros and cons and so it comes down to personal values and why they eventually agree to go after both.

And Ruby...isn’t the person to suggest splitting up. She isn’t the one who finds a compromise, and I’m very interested to see where she goes from here. This is the first time she’s had to deal with a major disagreement over her leadership and she didn’t find the solution everyone could agree with. But this and the fact the she’s challenged in the first place are important because they give her something to grow and learn from. It will give her the chance to prove herself as a better leader than Oz and Ironwood before her. What she learns from this will only make her a better leader in the long run.

Ruby is already on her way to doing a better job than them. She’s honest with her teammates and friends and doesn’t demand that they only do as she says. But this is the first time she’s really having to deal with someone openly questioning her. How she handles this going forward and what she learns from it will set her apart from them. I don’t see this conflict ending with Yang being like “I’m sorry I should’ve just listened to you and not thought for myself”. Not when a big theme of the show is that blindly following someone is a bad idea. This conflict can only end with them growing closer and understanding each other’s view points, and with Ruby proving she is a good leader by being able to deal with disagreements in the group in a healthy way.

[sapphire374]

Soy Sol: Chapter 16 (Invisible String)

Wattpad Link

Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch.3 / Ch.4 / Ch.5 / Ch.6 / Ch.7 / Ch.8 / Ch.9 / Ch.10 / Ch.11 / Ch.12 / Ch.13 / Ch.14 / Ch.15 / Ch.17

It’s the day of the competition. The gang gathers at the competition’s building. Jazmín holds her tablet in the air, recording every moment for her channel. Half of them are at the building while the other half are still at the hotel. “Luna, are you coming with us?” Yam asks. “I’ll catch up I just forgot my necklace,” Luna yelped. She rushed to her hotel room and grabbed the necklace off the nightstand. When she heads out, she slips and falls.

When Luna gets back up, she sees a bloody scratch on her knee. A woman from the guest relations desk comes running towards her, “oh you poor thing, you have hurt yourself,” she says. “Yeah, but it’s okay I’ll be fine,” Luna comments. “Oh, don’t be modest, you need help. Well my name is Alice Balsano,” the lady says. That’s when it hits Luna, it’s Matteo’s mom. No wonder her face looked so familiar for Luna. “Oh um nice to meet you, I’m Luna,” Luna sticks out her hand and Ms. Balsano shakes it.

“Oh, I can’t believe I’m meeting the infamous Luna. You look just as beautiful as how Matteo described you. Here I’ll quickly get the ice bucket and wrap your knee up in a bandage. You’ll be at the competition in no time.” Mrs. Balsano guides Luna to a nearby chair and elevates her leg. She was able to find a worker and tell them of the situation. They waited together for the concierge to come back with the ice and bandages.

“It’s a pleasure getting to know you, Luna. My son, he’ll probably hate me for saying this but he really loves you. He’s truly in love, I’ve never seen him like this ever before,” she confided. “I appreciate all the information, but Matteo and I are in a rough patch right now. I don’t feel comfortable talking about it,” Luna admits.

“I know, he told me but Luna, if you don’t mind me asking, I’m confused. If you forgave him and know he did all those mistakes, well I know my son can make stupid decisions sometimes but we’re all human, then why are you still upset at him?” Mrs. Balsano questions curiously.

“I’m not upset at him, it’s just that we always end up in some conflict or drama. Since we deal with so many issues together, I couldn’t help but think maybe we’re not compatible. Maybe we’re not meant to be together,” Luna confesses. “This isn’t me saying for you to get back with my son because that’s right, you should be the one to make that decision on your own, but I will give you some advice for life. In any relationship you’re in, you will always encounter conflicts and issues no matter what. Life is not perfect and this isn’t something you can avoid. For example, my husband and I just had a silly argument about the broken steering wheel in our car. It’s normal but I still love him and always will. That’s how true love is, going through different obstacles but life still bringing you back to that one person. It’s okay if you go through things as long as you go through it together with your partner. Going through hardships isn’t something you can avoid with anyone but at least you can go through them with the person you love.”

Luna stayed quiet for a moment. She couldn’t help but realize that Ms. Balsano had a point. That all relationships aren’t perfect but it’s worth it when you’re with the one you love most. “You’re right. It���s like an invisible string, I keep going back to him because we’re meant to be together.” The worker arrives with the bandage, ice, and wipe. They clean off the wound and wrap her knee. Luna grabs her backpack with skates and runs away. She returns right after to give her thanks. “Oh, I forgot to say thank you Mrs. Balsano, that was great advice. Also, thanks guys for the bandages and stuff,” Luna waves goodbye and runs to the competition building. “Good luck on the competition,” Mrs. Balsano yells out.

Luna arrives just in time to get dressed. “Luna where were you? Everyone was worried,” Nina stated. “Yeah, I got worried that maybe Tino and Cato kidnapped you too,” Simón joked.

“Don’t worry, I’m here and better than ever,” Luna exclaims. The gang is all dressed up in their attire. They all hold hands waiting for their name to be called next. Luna holds Matteo’s hand to his surprise, which leads to a beaming expression.

The announcer calls for the Jam and Roller. Simón, Nico, and Yam all walk on the stage and align themselves for the performance. The skating team enter the rink and get into positions. Juliana views from the corner and shows how proud she is of them. They truly worked really hard for this moment and prepared more than ever. The stakes are high knowing they all have to win for the Jam and Roller.

When the Roller Band begins to sing, Luna starts off with her routine. The plot is that the members are all statues in a museum and Luna is the one who wakes them all up. As she glides around every member, they all start skating doing the tricks. Nina sees them all from the audience and nostalgia rushes over her seeing how some of the tricks were ones they use to do back then. Luna and Matteo nod at each other before doing the Fire Serpent.

Gastón and Matteo lift Emilia and Ámbar up in the air as Luna’s turn comes up where she does a triple axle spin around them. The team’s choreography stuns the audience and everyone is in awe. Once the team finishes, they get a standing ovation.

They enter backstage again all chanting the words “Jam and Roller!” They all high five each other as Juliana enters. “You guys, whatever score you all get tonight just know I’m extremely proud of you all. You guys got together and worked hard like never before to save the Jam and Roller.” They all go in a group hug. Luna takes Matteo to the side and try to talk to him in private.

“Look Matteo, recently I’ve been confused on why we always end up running into some stupid drama or conflict. That’s why I needed my space but then a good friend gave me some incredible advice and that is this will always happen. Crazy obstacles that will try to break us apart but we have what the infamous Taylor would say, our invisible string always makes my path cross into yours. We’re meant to be,” Luna exclaims.

“You have no idea how fast my heart is beating right now. Whoever gave you that advice, I owe them my life. Luna, I love you and always will. Nothing is going to stop me from loving you. I was an idiot and didn’t listen to you but that doesn’t mean we’re incompatible. That just means it’s another conflict we shall have to resolve together. I will always say that you are La Luna but you shine like the sun. You bring forth light to my world and now I can’t live without it,” Matteo declares.

“Matteo I’m sorry too, in being a little harsh and avoiding you. I shouldn’t have run away from my problems and instead face them,” Luna apologizes. “Luna te amo, mi chica delivery,” Matteo proclaims. “Te amo, mi chico fresa.” Luna and Matteo press their lips against each other. She holds his neck while he holds her waist. Their kiss feels like it lasts forever.

“Should we interrupt them saying they’ve called the team up to hear the results,” Gastón asks Nina. “I think we should just let them be. They’ve gone through enough already,” Nina chuckles.

The Jam and Roller enter the rink all holding hands waiting for the scores to be called out. The presenter announces that…….

The Jam and Roller is the WINNER! The whole gang don’t stop screaming their cheers of joy and jump up and down. “Okay I think now is when we should interrupt them,” Gastón exclaims to Nina. He heads to Luna and Matteo and tell them the great news. Luna is blushed and feels embarrassed knowing Gastón had let them in their long kiss instead of telling them to go to the rink.

They all celebrate winning the prize money and having the Jam and Roller saved. A mysterious man approaches Luna though and hands her a card. “I saw what you did out there. It was impressive. How would you feel if I offered you a spot in our Olympic team?” Luna is shocked with the news the strange man has presented to her. Matteo nods to Luna. “It’s your dream Luna, you love skating,” Matteo stated. “I’ll consider it.” Luna responds and takes the card the man handed to her. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that she can compete sometimes while at other times accompany Matteo to his concerts. They would just have to manage their schedules for each other but it’s doable.

Jim and Ramiro all hug Yam. “At least we got to share our last times seeing each other on a happy note,” Jim suggested. “Don’t forget to facetime us at least twice a day and tell us how it’s all going okay,” Ramiro said. Yam nodded while wiping the tears falling on her face, she has to leave to Los Angeles right when they arrive back to Buenos Aires. “Don’t worry guys, nothing will separate us we’ll always stay united forever.”

Later that evening

“Close your eyes,” Matteo says. “But I do have them closed,” Luna whines. “No, I still see you peaking,” Matteo chuckles. He guides Luna, who has a bandana wrapped around her eyes, to a beach. When he takes the blindfold off, there’s a table with food nicely placed on top. He even included some strawberries and medialunas on the side. Her favorite dish is laid nicely as the main course and the table is beside the sea. The area is surrounded with canopies and fairy lights. It all looks like a dream.

“Wow Matteo, this all looks so beautiful,” Luna in awe with the whole place. Matteo faces her and says his speech.

“Luna, from the moment I met you and we bumped in Cancun, my life hasn’t been the same ever since. You have come into my life like a hurricane, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. You changed everything and made me the man I am today. I have been so lucky to be in your presence and got to see that beautiful smile every day. You are the sun roller skating around all of Buenos Aires, your unmistakable presence has everyone blown away, including me. (Matteo gradually gets on one knee) I knew for the longest that I want to spend every second of every minute of every day of my life with you. That has never changed, but I want it for sure. I want you to know that I will always be here for you. So, Luna Valente, would you be the sun, or should I say the moon to my night sky?” Luna gasps seeing Matteo propose. She covers her mouth in shock and doesn’t stop crying. She nods. “Yes! Yes! Yes,” she screams out. He carries her in bridal style while spinning her around and round.

Gastón and Nina come out from behind the bushes. Gastón is holding a camcorder and filmed everything. When Matteo lets go of Luna, she is surprised to see them two there. “Oh wow Gastón, I didn’t know you turned into Jazmín,” Luna joked. “No, I did him the favor of videotaping everything since he wanted this memory saved. I, of course, said yes since now I have actual evidence of him crying. He always bragged about how he ‘never cries,’” Gastón jokes. “Oh and Mr. Balsano how did you know I was going to say yes?” Luna questions.

“It’s too late to back out now Mrs. Balsano, plus I knew you couldn’t resist the charm,” Matteo chuckled. Gastón starts zooming in on Matteo. “Oh please bud, you’re over here crying a river of tears more than Luna. Yeah, some irresistible charm I see,” Gastón laughs.

They all group together for a hug as a family. The rest of the Jam and Roller gang interrupt their celebration and join them in the fun. “Also Matteo, how did you get my dad’s permission to propose?” Luna asks.

“Let’s just say your mom had to do a lot of convincing for me,” Matteo responds.

[the-blue-fairie]

On what #bringelsahome COULD BE vs. what it has become...

Sometimes, I become sad because one of the first things I wrote after viewing Frozen 2 was a short ficlet repudiating Elsa’s line in Show Yourself as she was approaching Ahtohallan that “I’m arriving / and it feels like I am home.” You can read that ficlet here if you want to.

In that ficlet, I was expressing frustration with the fact that Show Yourself was connecting the concept of “home” with Ahtohallan and connections found through memory and the past instead of the living, breathing connections that can be found in life. In that ficlet, I was also disputing the film’s concept of change because, as I wrote, “Home is not a lineage, a source, a gift. Gifts are given. Home, you make for yourself. Each step, a step forward. Not into the cold ancestral wonder of Ahtohallan, but into the warmth of the future. Holding tight to those she loved was not the absence of change. It was change itself, each day carving out a new shape, a new bejeweled crystal more fabulous than any on the glacier.” And I ended that ficlet repudiating Ahtohallan and having Elsa turn back to the home she has made in Arendelle with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven. It was a ficlet born deeply out of my love of this image:

Now, the scary thing for me now is that there are parallels between my sentiments then and the... what do I call it? aggressive stance?... to #bringelsahome, which is rather unpleasant for me because that aggressive stance has become an excuse for racism and toxicity which I absolutely do not want to be associated with.

 But I’ve been thinking about something that @themountainsays mused about, and that @hb-pickle​ added to, asking what the ultimate goal of #bringelsahome actually is - because if the most hostile people actually wanted to change people’s minds or reach the creators, all they’ve managed to do is burn bridges and undermine their own cause.

I mean, look at me, when it comes to them burning bridges. I have conflicting feelings about F2′s ending and I’ve offered critiques of it - but the loudest members of #bringelsahome won’t look at those critiques because I openly reject the racism and toxicity that they push forward. 

But at the same time, there’s also a part of me that... understands where the basic sentiment to “bringelsahome” comes from and that’s gotten me to thinking about what #bringelsahome could be vs. what it has become.

I have friends who remain devastated by the ending of Frozen 2, and most of these friends have largely left the Frozen fandom either because they simply want to move on to other pastures or, even though they dislike Frozen 2, they’d rather not have any association with BEH - which... can you blame them?

But the pain of these friends, a pain they do not express in a toxic way, speaks to what #bringelsahome could be if it wasn’t rotted to the core by this point by racist rhetoric and aggression.

That pain actually emerges from a deep connection to Elsa and a valuing of Elsa’s connections to other people. These friends I’ve spoken with often reference a deep anguish that Elsa’s journey in Frozen 2 is structured so that she sheds traveling companions across the whole adventure - leaving Kristoff behind, leaving Anna and Olaf behind, going it alone when there is strength in working together and shorts like Frozen Fever and OFA highlight how when this found family works together, it has a positive impact on Elsa.

They wanted to see Elsa trusting Anna’s judgment, not pushing Anna and Olaf away in the ice boat, not falling into the same mistakes she did in the past... and their pain was heightened by the fact that, when Elsa seemed to fall back into those same mistakes, the film never really circled back to that or addressed it again... even when the film went out of its way to point out that Anna and even Olaf was angry. 

And... yes, it’s valid to say that Olaf - the most innocent and childlike character - becoming angry feels like a turning point of some kind... which then goes nowhere and that the film does nothing with. That’s a valid criticism of something that feels disjointed and off about F2.

And... I’d even argue that it’s valid to say that Elsa feels off at times over the course of Frozen 2 - and I’d put that down to, well, Elsa being “too much” for Disney. She means too many things for too many people. Her basic metaphor resonated with countless people - more than Disney ever imagined - and now they have to preserve that popularity, but the writers are trapped within the incredibly restrictive Disney system. They can’t make Elsa openly gay because the Mouse loves making money and making money means appealing to the broadest crowd, including the homophobes. And they want to keep Elsa broadly relatable so they try to lean into he concept of “magic” as an aspect of Elsa’s difference and also “explaining” that magic because certain people wanted an “explanation” for Elsa. 

But the problem with that vague (and therefore, in the film’s hope, broadly relatable) magic metaphor is that it’s vague and, unlike the previous movie, not really tethered to Elsa’s connections with people. The first movie, while it still used the metaphor of “magic as difference” grounded that metaphor in Elsa’s interactions with her sister, with the people of Arendelle, with how other human beings interact with her and the deeply human aspect of Elsa’s love for those other human beings. Frozen 2, in contrast, could have that... but it doesn’t.

I’ve argued several times over that Elsa’s arc in F2 would be stronger if the filmmakers had deeply enriched Elsa’s connection with the Northuldra, gave us more scenes of her bonding with her mother’s people, more scenes that expanded the Northuldra characters’ development. Maybe even start the film out with the deleted prologue focused on Iduna so we get the Northuldra’s perspective right fom the start and we can connect Iduna’s pain with Elsa’s own feeling of otherness.

Frozen 2... only gives a few brief scenes of Elsa with the Northuldra and has her shed members of her found family across the film... so F2 loses a human element that he first film never lost sight of. The “magic-as-difference” metaphor has to work more as metaphor, without the same human emotional grounding as the first film.

And because we don’t get those scenes with Elsa and the Northuldra and the film chooses to have Elsa leave behind members of her found family, I can understand why people would feel Elsa feels off in F2.

Because the film seems to care more about Elsa’s connection to magic than her humanity. That’s why there are several incidences of Elsa bonding with the spirits - and far less of her bonding with Northuldra characters.

This actually speaks to a legitimate, valid critique of the film - and people could use it to point out flaws in the film. Moreover, a critique like this could even be antiracist because it would be advocating for the expansion of the role of the Northuldra and more scenes of Elsa bonding with and learning about her mother’s people.

Critique actually has an important place within fandom - and critique can actually benefit the filmmakers if it is valid and valuable critique. Asking, “Why does F2 seem to care more about Elsa’s magic than her humanity and how does that undermine her arc?” is actually a valuable question. If the filmmakers reflected on it, then in a potential Frozen 3, they could make sure to reject the negative implications of distancing Elsa’s humanity. They could pause to think, “Oh, we didn’t INTEND to suggest this, maybe, but our second film did kind of give those implications, so let’s avoid those implications next time.” By EXPANDING the Northuldra characters. By reinforcing Elsa legitimately working together with her found family instead of feeling she has to go on alone.

That’s what bringelsahome could be - a movement to point out flaws in the film and a better way forward for the betterment of future projects.

Unfortunately, that’s not what it is - since the racism of certain people at its forefront has corroded it from the inside.

But I still find that tragic, because... it could have actually been something valuable. And there are aspects to it that still could be something valuable. And I still know many people out there with legitimate critiques who can’t voice their feelings about F2 because they disagree with Isa’s racism, so it doesn’t matter to Isa if they dislike F2; in her eyes, you’re either with her or against her...

[qqueenofhades]

If/when they make a Joe/Nicky prequel movie, what are some of the Dos and Don’ts for them, with regards to historical accuracy. Like, what do you think they should include, and what do you think they should avoid?

Oof. This is a GREAT question, and also designed to give me a chance to ramble on in a deeply, deeply self-indulgent fashion. That is now what will proceed to happen. Consider yourself warned. So if they were miraculously to be like “well that qqueenofhades person on tumblr seems like she knows what she’s talking about, let’s hire her to consult on this production!”, here are some of the things I would tell them.

First off, a question I have in fact asked my students when teaching the crusades in class is whether you could actually show the sack of Jerusalem on screen. Like... if you’re making a film about the First Crusade, what kind of choices are you going to make? What narrative viewpoint are you going to uphold throughout the story? Are you actually going to show a slaughter of Muslim and Jewish inhabitants that some chroniclers described as causing enough blood to reach up to the knees of horses? (Whether it actually did this is beside the point; the point is that the sack went far beyond the accepted conventions of warfare and struck everybody involved in it as particularly horrific.) Because when you’re making a film about the crusades, you are also making it by nature for a modern audience that has particular understandings of Christian/Muslim conflict, religious warfare and/or tolerance, the War on Terror, the modern clash over ISIS, Trump’s Muslim ban, and so forth. The list goes on and on. So you’re never making a straight, unbiased historical adaptation, even if you’re going off the text of primary sources. You’re still constructing it and presenting it in a deliberate and curated fashion, and you can bet that whichever way you come down, your audience will pick up on that.

Let’s take the most recent example of a high-profile crusades film: Kingdom of Heaven from 2005. I’ve written a book chapter on how the narrative choices of KoH, aside from its extensive fictionalization of its subject matter to start with, make it crystal clear that it is a film made by a well-meaning Western liberal filmmaker (Ridley Scott) four years after 9/11 and two years after the invasion of Iraq, when the sympathy from 9/11 was wearing off and everyone saw America/Great Britain and the Bush/Blair coalition overreaching itself in yet another arrogant imperial adventure into the Middle East. Depending on how old you are, you may or may not remember the fact that Bush explicitly called the War on Terror a “crusade” at the start, and then was quickly forced to walk it back once it alarmed his European allies (yes, back then, as bad as America was, it still did have those) with its intellectual baggage. They KNEW exactly what images and tropes they were invoking. It is also partly why medieval crusade studies EXPLODED in popularity after 9/11. Everyone recognized that these two things had something to do with each other, or they made the connection somehow. So anyone watching KoH in 2005 wasn’t really watching a crusades film (it is set in the late 1180s and dramatizes the surrender of Jerusalem to Saladin) so much as a fictional film about the crusades made for an audience explicitly IN 2005. I have TONS to say on this subject (indeed, if you want a copy of my book chapter, DM me and I’ll be happy to send it.)

Ridley Scott basically sets it up as the Christian and Muslim secular leaders themselves aren’t evil, it’s all the religious fanatics (who are all made Templars, including Guy de Lusignan, going back to the “evil Templar” trope started by Sir Walter Scott and which we are all so very familiar with from Dan Brown and company). Orlando Bloom’s character shares a name (Balian de Ibelin) but very little else with the eponymous real-life crusader baron. One thing Scott did do very well was casting an actual and well-respected Syrian actor (Ghassan Massoud) to play Saladin and depicting him in essential fidelity to the historical figure’s reputed traits of justice, fairness, and mercy (there’s some article by a journalist who watched the film in Beirut with a Muslim audience and they LOVED the KoH Saladin). I do give him props for this, rather than making the Evil Muslim into the stock antagonist. However, Orlando Bloom’s Balian is redeemed from the religious extremist violence of the Templars (shorthand for all genuinely religious crusaders) by essentially being an atheistic/agnostic secular humanist who wants everyone to get along. As I said, this is a film about the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq made three years after 9/11 more than anything else, and you can really see that.

That said, enough about KoH, back to this presumable Joe/Nicky backstory. You would obviously run into the fact that it’s SUPER difficult to make a film about the crusades without offending SOMEBODY. The urge to paint in broad strokes and make it all about the evil Westerners invading is one route, but it would weaken the moral complexity of the story and would probably make it come off as pandering to guilty white liberal consciences. Are we gonna touch on the many decades of proto-crusading ventures in Iberia, Sicily, North Africa, and other places, and how the eleventh century, especially under Pope Gregory VII, made it even thinkable for a Christian to be a holy warrior in the first place? (It was NOT normal beforehand.) How are we going to avoid the “lololol all religion sucks and makes people do crazy things” axe to grind favoured by So Very Smart (tm) internet atheists? Yes, we have to demonstrate the ultimate horror of the crusade and the flawed premises it was based on, but we can’t do that by just showing the dirty, religiously zealot medieval people doing that because they don’t know any better and are being cynically manipulated in God’s Name. In other words (and the original TOG film did this very well) we can’t position ourselves to laugh at or mock the crusader characters or feel confident in looking down on them for being Dumb Zealots. They have to be relatable enough that we realize we could BE (and in fact already ARE) them, and THEN you slide into the horror and what compels them to do those kinds of things, and THAT’S when it hits. Because take a look at the news. This is happening around us right now.

Obviously, as I was doing in my First Crusade chapter in DVLA, a lot of this also has to spend time centering the Muslim point of view, the way they reacted to the crusade, the ways in which Yusuf as an Isma’ili Shia Muslim (Kaysani is the name of a branch of Isma’ili Shi’ites, he has a definite historical context and family lineage, and hence is almost surely, as I wrote him, a Fatimid from Egypt) is likewise not just A Stock Muslim. In this case, obviously: Get actual Muslims on the set to advise about the details. Don’t make stupid and/or obvious mistakes. Don’t necessarily make the Muslims less faithful or less virtuous than the Christians (even if this is supposed to praise them as being “less fanatic” than those bad religious Catholics). Don’t tokenize or trivialize their reaction to something as horrific as the sack of Jerusalem, and don’t just use dead brown bodies as graphic visual porn for cheap emotional points. Likewise, it goes without saying, and I don’t think they would anyway, but OH MY GOD DON’T MAKE THIS INTO GAME OF THRONES GRIMDARK!!!! OH MY GOD!!! THERE IS BEAUTY AND THERE IS LIGHT AND THERE IS POETRY AND THAT’S WHY IT HURTS SO MUCH WHEN IT’S DESTROYED! AND THE CHOICES THAT PEOPLE MAKE TO DESTROY THOSE THINGS HAVE TO BE TERRIFYINGLY PLAUSIBLE AND FAMILIAR, BECAUSE OH MY GOD!!

Next, re: Nicolo. Evidently he is a priest or a former priest or something of the sort in the graphic novel, which becomes a bit of a problem if we want him to actually FIGHT in the crusades for important and/or shallow and/or OTP purposes. (I don’t know if they address this somehow or Greg Rucka is not a medieval historian or whatever, but never mind.) It was a Major Thing that priests could not carry weapons, at least and especially bladed weapons. (In the Bayeux Tapestry, we have Odo, the bishop of Bayeux, fighting at the battle of Hastings with a truncheon because he’s a clergyman and can’t have a sword). They were super not supposed to shed blood, and a broadsword (such as the type that Nicky has and carries and is clearly very familiar with) is a knight’s weapon, not a clergyman’s. The thing about priests was that they were not supposed to get their hands dirty with physical warfare; they could (and often did) accompany crusade armies, bishops were secular overlords and important landholders, monks and hermits and other religious preachers were obviously part of a religious expedition, and yes, occasionally some priests would break the rules and fight in battle. But this was an exception FAR more than the rule. So if we’re going by accuracy, we have Nicky as a priest who doesn’t actively fight and doesn’t have a sword, we have him as a rule-breaking priest with a sword (which would have to be addressed, and the Templars, who were basically armed monks, weren’t founded until 1119 so he can’t be one of those yet if this is still 1099) or we just skip the priest part and have him as a crusader with a sword like any other soldier. If he was in fact a priest, he also wouldn’t be up to the same standard of sending into battle. Boys, especially younger sons of the nobility, often entered the church at relatively early ages (12 or 13), where it was treated as a career, and hence they stopped training in arms. So if Nicky is actually out there fighting and/or getting killed by Yusuf several times for Important Purposes, he’s... almost surely not a priest.

Iirc, they’ve already changed a few things from the graphic novel (I haven’t read it, but this is what I’ve heard) so they can also tweak things to make a new backstory or a hybrid-new backstory in film-verse. So once we’ve done all the above, we still have to decide how to handle the actual sack of Jerusalem and massacre of its inhabitants, the balance between violence comparable to the original TOG film and stopping short of being exploitative (which I think they would do well), and the aftermath of that and the founding of the new Latin Christian kingdom. It would have to, as again the original film does very well, avoid prioritizing the usual players and viewpoints in these events, and dig into presenting the experiences of the marginalized and way in which ordinary people are brought to the point of doing these things. It doesn’t (and frankly shouldn’t) preach at us that U.S. Invasions Of The Middle East Are Bad (especially since obviously none of the characters/people/places/events here are American at all). And as I said already but bears repeating: my god, don’t even THINK about making it GOT and marketing it as Gritty Dramatic Medieval History, You Know It’s Real Because They’re Dirty, Violent, and Bigoted!

Also, a couple tags I saw pop up were things like “Period-Typical Racism” and “Period-Typical Homophobia” and mmm okay obviously yes there are these elements, but what exactly is “period typical?” Does it mean “using these terms just because you figure everyone was less tolerant back then?” We know that I, with my endless pages of meta on medieval queer history, would definitely side-eye any attempts to paint these things as Worse Than Us, and the setting alone would convey a sense of the conflict without having to add on gratuitous microaggressions. I basically think the film needs to be made exactly like the original: centering the gay/queer perspectives of marginalized people and people of color, resisting the urge for crass jokes at the expense of the identity of its characters, and approaching it with an awareness of the deep complexity and personal meaning of these things to people in terms of the historical moment we’re in, while not making a film that ONLY prizes our response and our current crises. Because if we’re thinking about these historical genealogies, the least we can do (although we so often aren’t) is to be honest.

Thanks! I LOVED this question.

[walkerwords]

“Firehouse Blues” Part 1 of 2 - Negan x F!Reader

PART II

Request from anonymous:  can you do a negan imagine where the saviors find a woman who's living alone in a huge building and has a lot of supplies and guns and the saviors try to take the supplies but she used to be a engineer and has a strong security system so no one can access the building. and one day she meets negan and agrees to a trade. thanks :)

Word Count: 3448

Warning: Swearing

Song I Wrote To: “It’s A Man’s Man’s World” by Jurnee Smollett-Bell

Note: Another two part request! I was originally going to post this as one, but I wanted to post something for ya’ll so here you go. I had a lot of fun with this one. Mostly cause I love writing flirty Negan! Part 2 will be up soon! Thank you!

Reminder: If you want to be added to my main taglist or individual lists, just let me know!

------

The first time you met the Saviors, you had given them a single warning. 

It was early morning when the trucks first rolled up to your firehouse. You had been living in the old fire station for about a year now and it had quickly become a fortress. With a mixture of scavenging and inventing, your home was not only well-armed but equipped with sophisticated security systems that included both machinery and the Dead. Being an engineer before the Turn, when you found the firehouse, it quickly became your new project. 

A multitude of traps, alarms, and mirrors was placed around the property. From certain vantage points, you could see every entrance and it would be a miracle if anyone or anything could breach your walls. The collection of Dead was your most recent idea and so far it was working. It had taken you a few weeks to get everything perfect, but soon enough, you kept at least ten Dead ones confined within the entrance area of the firehouse. If anyone was to get through the front door, they would have to get through a group of the Dead that you could release with a single pull of a lever.

When you heard the caravan of vehicles approaching your home, you acted quickly. With a few adjustments and two pulls of a lever, two large hoses deposited gasoline out front of the building, ready for you to ignite it if necessary. The entrance to the main yard out front was lined with two large fire engines that blocked the other traps that you had set up, two tripwires that would activate a loud siren, calling any Dead within a few miles towards the building. You were safe behind your brick walls, but your enemy wouldn’t be so lucky.

Sliding down the fire pole that was just off your makeshift bedroom, you crept towards the main area of the station. In the main garage, you could hear your Dead on the other side of the door as they waited in the administration area. It had taken you a while to get used to the noise, but now if you didn’t have the constant groans of your hungry companions, everything felt too silent. 

Climbing up one of the fire ladders, you looked through one of the windows at the top of the accordion door. In the bright sun of the morning, five trucks parked just behind the fire engines. Armed men and women exited the vehicles and gathered around your barrier, looking up at the firehouse in confusion.

You were aware that there were groups in the area. Some were considered safe havens, but of course, there were those who wanted what others had. Based on their weapons and how each of them carried themselves, you were certain they were the latter. 

You climbed down from the window and ran for your armory. You kept your weapons in many different places throughout the station, never all together in one place. In the garage was where you kept most of your smaller pistols as well as your explosives. Grabbing two pistols, you slid them into your holsters. You also grabbed your parabolic listening device. You had found the long-distance microphone on a run a few months ago. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked great when listening to conversations that were right outside your home. 

Making your way to the top level, you checked your traps along the way. Your Dead were secure, the tripwires fully ready, and every door was reinforced alongside automatic weapons that could be triggered with a few tugs of a rope. You then headed for your main “nest” as you called it. On the top floor of the firehouse, you had a full view of those who threatened your home and that is where you waited.

Peering through a rifle scope, you watched as a man with a rather impressive mustache exited the last truck. He walked with a swagger and a cocky grin on his face. He stared up at your fire station with gratification as if he had just won the lottery. Switching on the microphone, you held the disc towards the slightly open window and you listened.

“You know, when our new friend said this place was well-guarded, I thought he meant by actual men,” the man said. A woman to his left followed his line of sight with a frown. 

“Maybe he was wrong, Simon,” the woman said. The man, Simon, shook his head and walked between the fire engines, gauging his surroundings. You watched on in silence. 

“I don’t think so, Arat,” Simon said. “He said this place was a fortress. A fortress with guns,” he said with a wicked smile. At his words, your stomach turned. You knew who he was talking about. You had invited someone into your home a month earlier. His name was Justin and he had been starving, weak, and in need of shelter. He was a former Sailor with the Navy so you had offered him sanctuary. Clearly, that had been a mistake. The bastard had betrayed you and brought these pirates to your doorstep. “Spread out!” Simon ordered. “Find a way in.”

The men and women nodded to their leader and began fanning out over your property. You ignored the teams that went to the sides of the building. They would need a bulldozer to get through your doors and even then, you were prepared to take on any intruders. Your main focus was the man with the mustache. He seemed too confident in trying to take your place by force.

You watched him carefully, gauging all his reactions and how he scanned his surroundings. There was a moment when you considered taking him out. A single bullet to the heart would kill him and allow you to add him to your collection downstairs. However, you had a feeling that if you did, the cavalry would return and conflict was not what you were aiming for here. 

Simon picked his way towards the front of the building. You were surprised to see that he noted your tripwires almost instantly. He didn’t bother to disarm them as he stepped over each one and placed his hands on his hips. “I know you’re in there!” he sang, smiling up at the windows you sat behind. “Why don’t you come on out and we can discuss this like friends?”

Your eyes went to the gasoline that shimmered in the sun. Simon noticed it as well and toed it with his boot. “Careful, Simon,” Arat said, still behind the barrier the wires provided. 

“Something tells me, we aren’t going to get the full welcome wagon,” Simon sighed. “Okay then! Guess we will have to do this the hard way!” Simon then whistled and three of his men approached with a battering ram. You were annoyed when they also took care to avoid the wires. Clearly, you had to do a better job at camouflaging them. The men placed themselves at your front door, ready to take it down, but all you did was smile. Reaching over to your left, you pulled up on a yellow-painted-lever and released your Dead.

As soon as the ram broke down the door, ten lumbering Dead men and women attacked your intruders. You heard the screams first. Two men went down as the Dead converged on them. “Fall back!” Simon yelled, running back to avoid gnarled hands and teeth. In his hurry, he didn’t avoid the wires this time and instantly your home lit up with a fire siren. 

Simon and the others panicked as the Dead began appearing around corners. You had purposefully baited them with dead animals whenever you could. You found the Living avoided highly populated areas of the Dead so it played in your favor. Panic ensued instantly as the men and women retreated to their vehicles. You pushed open your window and leaned out slightly, making sure Simon could see you. Meeting your eyes, he glared, cursing. You smiled widely at him and then lifted your middle finger to the sky.

“You might wanna hurry up!” you hollered at him, “I don’t think they’ve eaten in a while!” you shouted, gesturing to the Dead that stumbled towards his people. Simon looked as if he wanted to shoot you right there, but he made the smarter choice and ran for his truck. 

“Go!” he yelled, jumping into the passenger seat and slamming his hand against the roof. The trucks raced away from your home, firing at stray Dead as they did. You couldn’t help but laugh as you watched them flee. However, it was then that you realized you had to reset all your traps and you sighed in annoyance. The Dead would be easy to replace, but it was always a hassle to reset the wires and disperse the hungry bodies that surrounded the area after the siren. 

Speaking of which, you ran to the other side of the room and slammed your hand against the emergency shut-off button, turning off the deafening sound. Listening to the increased groans of the Dead, you picked up a length of chain that hung on a hook. “This is gonna take all night,” you said with a deep sigh, but you knew it was worth it.

You were considering adding more than ten this time. The only thing that would make the situation better was if you could get your hands on Justin and hang his traitorous ass on the front gate as your first warning. Perhaps one day you would get the chance, but for now, you had work to do. 

--------

It was two months later when you finally met the man in charge.

You were on a run for parts to fix a radio you had found in the boiler room when you heard the sound of clashing metal. Running towards the sound, you saw a supply truck tipped over on its side and the Dead circled it like sharks after prey. You thought about turning away. It wasn’t rare for people to come through your area of town. They would get into rough situations and either they lived or they didn’t. You never felt as if it was your duty to intervene. However, when you saw who exited the truck, you reconsidered. 

Climbing out of the passenger side window, a tall, handsome man slid to the ground. In his hand, he held a barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat, and as soon as he got his bearings, he swung it, crushing in skulls immediately. You watched this man fight through the small herd of Dead as they attempted to make him their lunch.

His leather jacket was splashed with black blood and it seemed as if he was limping heavily. You figured he was injured from the crash, but it didn’t seem to stop him. It was clear to you that he was a survivor and that was what made you pull your weapon. 

You ran towards the man, firing on the remaining Dead. He turned to you in surprise before going back to swinging his weapon. Neither of you spoke as your dispatched the rest of the corpses. You then found three feasting on a body that hung limply out of the truck’s windshield. You pulled your knife and took them out, stabbing each of them in the back of the head.

When all was quiet, you turned to find the survivor bent over, leaning on his bat for support. “You alright?” you asked, slightly out of breath. 

“Am I alright?” he asked, slightly amused. “Shit, Darlin’, you’re the one who went all fucking Rambo on these dead assholes. I am more than alright considering how much badass I just witnessed,” he said and you found his deep voice incredibly soothing, even when he was swearing like a sailor. 

“Your injury,” you said, pointing at his leg, “is it a bite?” 

“Nope, just your average big ass cut,” he said, pulling up the leg of his pants. The wound looked deep, most likely from a piece of metal. Looking around, you made a quick decision. 

“I can patch you up if you want. My place is just around the corner,” you said, already regretting it. He looked at you for a moment before shrugging. 

“Figure I don’t have any other options,” he said, “Lead the way.” You went to his side and pulled his arm around your shoulders, giving him support. 

“Ya got a name?” you asked as you pulled him towards your firehouse. 

“Negan,” he grunted, clearly in more pain than he first led on. “And what can I call you, my white knight?” he asked, smiling down at you. 

“(Y/N),” you said, “and I’m no white knight. Just figured you’ve already had a shitty day. No need to make it worse.” Negan laughed, a broad smile encompassing his bearded face. 

“I’ll take it,” he said and you smiled slightly. You took Negan through a back alley and then down the main street that led to your home. As you got closer to the fire station, Negan swore under his breath. 

“What is it?” you asked, suddenly on alert for any danger. 

“You’re her, aren’t you?” he asked. 

“You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific there, bud,” you said, hauling him down the pavement. 

“The firehouse chick,” he explained. “My men tried to take this place a couple of months ago and you unleashed a shit ton of corpses on them!” he said, extremely exuberant. “Simon said you were a spitfire, guess he was right after all.” Hearing Simon’s name, you jerked away from Negan, throwing him to the ground. “Shit!” he swore. You pulled your pistol and aimed it at his head. “Whoa there!” he said, raising his hands.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you and mount your head on my wall?” you asked him, releasing the safety on your weapon. 

“How about the fact that you’re all about defense and not offense?” Negan offered as he stared down the barrel of your gun. 

“And how would you know that?”

“Simon said that everything that happened that day was all bells and whistles. Shit worthy of a badass and a badass you are,” Negan said. 

“Your men tried to rob me, take my weapons, and they didn’t seem to care about whether I had people inside,” you told him. 

“And did you? Have people?” he asked, his eyes flashing between the gun and your face. With a sigh, you dropped the gun.

“No, I prefer to be alone. Tried to have someone with me once and well, he went and told your boy Simon about my place. Haven’t seen him since, but I plan to gut him from head to toe when I do,” you said, holstering your weapon. “Do I have to do the same to you?” Negan grinned once again. 

“No, ma’am,” he said, wetting his lips with his tongue. “I’m quite fine with whatever you decide to do with me.” You rolled your eyes at his innuendo. 

“If I bring you inside, are you gonna try to take my shit?” you asked, your hand still resting on the pistol at your side. 

“Wouldn’t dream of stealing from the woman that is offering to nurse me back to health,” he said, tilting his head to the side. You offered your hand to him.

“I’m holding you to that,” you said and he took your hand. You helped him to his feet and resumed your earlier position. “I meant what I said about mounting your head.”

“I have no doubt that you did,” Negan said. “All the more reason for me to behave,” he said with a wink and you tugged him along with a jerk that had him tripping on the buckled sidewalk. 

------

Arriving at the station, you took him through the side entrance.

Negan leaned against the brick wall as you unlocked the steel door with a series of latches and the help of a small crowbar. “What the hell did you do before all of this? CIA?” you looked up at him, annoyed. 

“I was an engineer, genius,” you explained, and with a kick, the door opened. You grabbed his arm again and hauled him into the building. 

“Yeah, I guess that makes more sense,” Negan said, leaning heavily on you. You closed up behind you and then took Negan down the hall towards the stairs. 

“If you fall, try not to take me down with you,” you said. 

“Have some faith, Darlin’,” he said as you started to ascend the stairs. “So, why a firehouse?” he asked. 

“It was convenient,” you explained. “And I like the area.” 

“Prime apocalyptic real estate, huh?” he joked. 

“Something like that,” you said as you finally made your way to the top level. You dragged Negan over to your bed and dropped him. “You’re a lot heavier than you look,” you panted. 

“It’s my big...personality,” he said with a suggestive smile. 

“More like your big ego,” you said before heading over to the cabinet on the wall. Negan peeled off his jacket, dropping his bat by his feet. You grabbed your first aid kit and a bottle of water and went back to him. Negan leaned back against the wall and you sat at his feet, prepping a bandage and antiseptic. “Roll up your pant leg,” you said. “And no, you do not need to take your pants off,” you said before he could say the lewd remark that you knew was on the tip on his tongue. 

“Damn, you’re good,” Negan said, but did as you asked. Placing a towel under his calf, you cleaned the wound the best you could. You were right before, it was pretty deep.

“Needs stitches,” you said, grabbing the sewing kit. 

“Go for it,” Negan said, placing his hands behind his head. As you stitched his wound closed, he almost seemed content with the situation. 

“You don’t get a lot of downtime, do you?” you asked. 

“How can you tell?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Because you’re practically asleep while I tug your flesh back together.”

“I got people to lead,” Negan explained. “Doesn’t allow much leisure time.”

“Right, the people that you lead to steal the supplies and homes of others,” you said bitterly as you soaked the freshly stitched wound with alcohol again.

“We all do what we have to in order to survive,” Negan said, his tone more serious. 

“You don’t have to be a looter,” you said, wrapping his leg. You tightly secured his wound and then gathered up your supplies. You gave Negan the water and got up, turning your back on him. 

“Why are you alone?” he asked after a few minutes. You leaned against one of the steel columns and stared at him, trying to make your mind up about the man before you. 

“I stopped trusting people years ago,” you told him, “And every time I decide to try it again, they screw me over. No people, no problems.”

“Sounds lonely,” he said, his eyes softening. 

“You get used to it,” you said, pushing off the column and going over to your work desk, fiddling with pieces of tech. You were bent over the radio, trying to rewire it when you felt his presence behind you. “If you rip your stitches, I won’t redo them.” Negan laughed and took a seat in the chair by your desk. 

“I want to offer you a deal, (Y/N),” Negan said, watching you with curious eyes. 

“I nearly killed your man, Simon, what makes you think I want to make a deal with you?” you asked. 

“Look, Simon, he means well...sometimes and while he is my right-hand, he’s not me. My men do many things in my name, but when it comes down to it, I’m the one who should be shaking hands and kissing babies.”

“And that’s what you want to do with me?” you questioned. 

“I think you and I can have a very beneficial relationship,” he said, running his hand over his chin. “Strictly professional, of course.”

“Of course,” you mocked. “Negan, I appreciate that you want to make some kind of deal, but I don’t deal with people that prey on others.” Negan leaned forward. 

“Darlin’, I am more than happy to go by your rules,” he said slowly, “but I want you to hear me out. Who knows, maybe you’ll find I’m not that bad after all.” You leaned towards him as well, staring him down. He glanced down to your lips. Quirking a brow, you smirked.

“Don’t hold your breath, Darlin’.” 

TAGS: @thanossexual​ 

[cfdiamonds]

[ ARON PIPER, CIS GENDERED MAN, HE/HIM ] shh ! LEOCADIO SYNDER, the TWENTY-TWO year old SECOND year ECONOMICS major from MADRID, SPAIN, is known as a DIAMOND around here. HE was invited to join because OF HIS PERSISTENCE AND HIS FATHER WAS IN THE SOCIETY, and now, they’re here to stay. HE reminds me of A LEGION OF STAFF CONSTANTLY AT YOUR SERVICE, A WARDROBE FILLED WITH THE FINEST MATERIAL, + EXPENSIVE RINGS ON EACH OF HIS FINGERS.

helloooo!!  it’s been a long time coming but i’m finally excited to be here and join in on this super cool story the admins and all of you have created! i’m lia, i’m 23 and i go by she/her and they/them pronouns, so feel free to use either of them. i was going to make a graphic and a google doc but i’ve got plans with my family to watch a movie tonight, so until i can make the time i hope his app is enough! 

a past and character reflection.

you were born into success and luxury, the only child of two glencore billionaires — a diversified natural resource company. the synders are responsible for the marketing of lead and make a little over a billion dollars each year. all they’ve ever known was their jobs and their money, leaving little room for anything more than that, especially the addition of a child. the nannies changed your diapers and the maid picked up your toys, while the butler handled the broken glass splayed across the marble flooring from one of your daily tantrums. they bit their tongues because you were raised to view yourself as extraordinary living in a world of the ordinary. despite this, these people meant more to you than the ones who brought you into the world. you had a mother that asked you how your day went and then immediately turned her attention back to her phone or laptop, checking off that mental to-do-list that made her believe the question was enough effort. you had a father that saw you as weak and continuously pushed you past your limits, focusing on every little flaw you had and giving you no choice but to be better. you became so conflicted between your drive to be the best and your need for love, that anger became your method of coping. even the lightest of offenses were met with your spite and you glorified material things as if it were the only thing that mattered in the world. even at the tender age of ten, power was the one thing that kept you driven.

growing up, you never had any real or close friendships. the people that you called your friends were just more people that you could benefit from — the children from rich and influential families that spanned the globe. regardless of your rude and cold exterior, they still found reason to look up to you like you were their leader, be it an inheritance from your father’s charisma or your mother’s sophistication — because everything you had, you had to thank them for right? you knew exactly how to draw people in and use them until you didn’t need them anymore, kicking them to the curb the second their time ran out. the kids that excelled in school got you the highest grade, the kids that excelled in sports helped you become captain of their teams, and the kids that assisted you in breaking the rules always took the fall. and yet, no matter how hard you proved yourself as this apex predator, your parents saw you as inferior. they always told you to work smarter not harder, but when you did, it still wasn’t enough. what more could you take from the world? it had nothing left to give you.

the next chapter in your life became your second chance to prove yourself, but this time with a different method to your persistence. just as your parents did, you’d build yourself from the ground up, not taking whatever you wanted but fighting to obtain it. you already had the determination to do what had to be done to reach your goals, now all you needed to do was make it yourself. you enter your first year at strathmore university and you never take what you need to succeed, you push yourself until you earn it. every time the fates fight against you and you feel hopeless in meeting these high expectations you and your parents have made for you, you grasp onto the anguish of that ten year old boy yearning for approval and press forward with your strength. you still hold onto that cunning aspect of your character but this time, it’s something you keep hidden beneath the surface — away from prying eyes. you slip up once or twice, but it’s never enough to allow others to see you for who you truly are. you join several clubs even though you barely have the time, slipping your name into the minds of those spanning the entirety of the campus. you maintain one of the highest grades in your classes through dedication and hard work, scoffing at the students that request your assistance … they don’t deserve your help. not now anyway. not while you fight to be noticed in a place filled to the brim with excellent minds. not while you await your invitation to the society, the first step at proving that you can be great just like them. just like your parents.

on the society

upon arriving at strathmore university, leo became obsessive in his studies and joined many clubs to assist in his quest of standing out amongst the other first years. unbeknownst to many though, he also did this in hopes of earning a spot in the secret society. this is because his father had been in the society when he was young and in order to prove his potential, this was an organization he knew he had to be involved in. despite not knowing what the society was like or what they were about, he knew that they existed because of his father but that’s the extent of his knowledge on it.

when he was finally given his chance thanks to the diamond opal, leo became passionate about his spot and willing to do whatever means necessary to keep his spot. he takes advice willingly ( but goes against it if he believes they’re wrong ) and pushes to lead in some situations, not letting anyone or anything stand in the way of his goals. although he mainly does everything for his parents, whether they will ever notice or not, it is also for himself and his desire to be something great ( something he outwardly believes he already is but has struggled with internally for a long time ). leo wants to be the best prodigy and opal that the society has ever seen, and visualizes himself as the diadem when he builds himself up to that point.

when it comes to poppy nighmore, leo is more intrigued than he is worried about the reason for her disappearance. if those within the society that knew poppy are upset about her disappearance, leo is willing to take initiative in trying to solve the mystery. he will take risks and push limits in order to find information, but does so for selfish gain than anything else. he believes that he may prove himself as a worthy and necessary addition to the opal society if he continues researching and physically proving he cares. it also gives him a chance to show the others that he is capable of big things.

wanted connections.

as i read about your characters i’ll be able to generate a bit more ideas when directly plotting with each of you! these are just the ideas i have coming into the group, so if you do not see your character fitting them, worry not! we can brainstorm<3

his soft spot — the person that leo can’t seem to say no to no matter how hard he tries. his entire life he has felt little to no remorse in his conquest for power, no matter who he trampled along the way but suddenly, out of nowhere, the world presented him with this person and every time they’re around, every ounce of him becomes vulnerable. when they tell him to do something or to behave a certain way, he seldom disobeys. if they happen to be in the room when he’s behaving as he normally does, he avoids their eyes in fear of backing down. in a way, this person in his anchor that protects him from himself.

his adversary  — the person that gives leo a run for his money, testing him and pushing him every step of the way. they bear too many similarities to get along and compete over even the littlest of things. when one says yes, the other says no. the steve rogers to his tony stark. the thor to his loki.

fellow rich kids — those he knew by association prior to strathmore university or the society. they all understand each other because they grew up in similar conditions, where material things were the forms of love they received as children. they understand the lifestyle and flock together, regardless of whether or not they actually like each other. they board a private jet and escape real life for a weekend, only to return like nothing had happened come monday morning.

his best friend — leo doesn’t know it yet, perhaps neither of them do, but this person is his best friend. close relationships of any kind are foreign concepts to leo because he had, in his opinion, more important things to focus on as he grew up. love doesn’t exist in his world. so by his words, he trusts this person the most and is constantly inviting them around with him. he would never call it as it is in fear of cutting them loose and never feeling an ounce of remorse, but he’s acknowledged it in his head once or twice. this person is like the sibling he’s never had.

his mistake — in leo’s first year, he befriended this person and the pair eventually started to see each other romantically. however, leo wronged them somehow and now that he’s in the society with them, he realizes how big of a mistake he made hurting them. perhaps he fell back into old habits and made their acquaintance with the intention of gaining something, maybe in a class or by their personal influence in the world / at school, and they eventually found out about it. just an angsty exes plot.

his mentor — the diamond that took him as their prodigy. leo takes the dynamic between them incredibly serious and is willing and ready to do whatever they ask of him in order to prove they made the right choice taking him under their wing. he understands that his place in the society must not be taken for granted and so he treats it as a passion, rather than just another club around campus. he rarely does something society related without first receiving the opinion of the opal, but he also would ignore their opinion if he feels they are the one that’s wrong. this is business as usual and leo is their prodigy knowing that if all goes as planned, he will have their seat in the future.

[kob131]

https://itsclydebitches.tumblr.com/post/613974327525883904/one-of-the-worst-parts-of-the-entire-volume-7

One of the worst parts of the entire Volume 7 clusterfuck is that by not saying any of the truth about Salem team RWBY has actively helped Salem more than any other person or group in the entirety of the show through a single action and even with the Ace Ops and Ironwood "turning" on them there really is no acknowledgement of the sheer horror that should be had at what they did. They chose to let an entire nation of people blindly march off to their deaths and they have the moral high ground?

Because they didn’t, seeing as they told the truth later on. And wouldn’t Ironwood turning on them BE the sheer horror after how much we got to know him?

It really does confuse me. So many people are insisting that Ironwood is the one causing division because:

Oh this should be good.

He’s taking resources from Mantle… to build a means of uniting the whole world, an action that he believes will eliminate the Salem problem completely.

And Ozpin lied to try and unite the world and give it hope: he still lied and shouldn’t have done that because he never considered how damaging that would be to his cause. Just like Ironwood not helping Mantle wouldn’t work if Mantle’s a god damn ghost town.

He refuses to work with Robyn… even though he doesn’t refuse, merely points out that they both need to find common ground for an alliance to work, while she’s the one proving that he was right to mistrust her (stealing supplies, spying on his projects, trying to use her semblance in front of Jacques, immediately abandoning Ironwood the moment he makes a decision she doesn’t like).  

They HAD common ground: Help the people. You even admit she worked with the man the moment he proved he was trying to help. And guess what caused her to side against him? Him trying to arrest Qrow (in her eyes, an innocent man) and DITCHING MANTLE. 

He arrests Team RWBY… because they made it clear they wouldn’t support him first. They’re the ones who broke this alliance, telling him in no uncertain terms that if he didn’t do things their way they would stand against him. More importantly, they broke that alliance weeks ago by lying to him and keeping secrets right at the start. If RWBYJNR doesn’t trust Ozpin because of those lies why in the world would they expect Ironwood to trust them? Throw in Blake and Yang betraying him again and it’s clear that they were never willing to work with him. They’re only willing to use him as a resource that follows their orders, free of compromise.

... You wanna know what kills your argument before you even make it?

Being biased.

‘he didn’t do things their way’ = ‘Leaving Mantle to die to save Atlas’

‘keeping secrets right at the start’ = ‘Ironwood did the same thing with Amity’

‘’They’re only willing to use him as a resource’ = ‘Ironwood is making a decision that fundamentally goes against Team RWBY’s and his own principles.’

This whole post so far has been blaming other people or making excuses for Ironwood’s own decisions and their consequences. For people who bitch at the ones defending Team RWBY for doing, you sure are comfortable doing it yourself.

The only thing Ironwood has done to arguably divide people is decide to leave with Atlas and, as I’ve pointed out extensively elsewhere, that’s a matter of trying to save some in the face of inevitable destruction.

An ‘inevitable destruction’ they don’t know is ‘inevitable’.

What does it matter if the Kingdom is divided if the entire Kingdom is dead

Because he’s been preaching ‘save everyone’ for the whole Volume, it’s his duty as a public servant and leaving people to die will just make everyone angry and distrustful of him...which will lead them to die ANYWAY.

That’s the same issue we’ve seen in regards to his supposed dictator choices, like having a curfew and letting his robots roam the streets. Does that feel like an unpleasant thing that may infringe on people’s individual rights? Yep. Is that helping to ensure that people don’t get eaten by grimm? Yep.

Because authoritarian dictators have never used a crisis to seize power and not like America, the country PRODUCING RWBY, is fundamentally against this shit.

If you want a current semi-comparative example, look to the regulations in place due to Corvid-19. There are people going, “You can’t make me stay home. It’s my right to go wherever I please. It’s not right to demand that I stay indoors/give up my vacation/not leave the state/etc. because I am entitled to those freedoms.” But of course the obvious push-back to that is, "These rules are in place to help keep everyone alive.

At the cost of making them miserable and distrusting in the government, which leads to people ignoring ALL Covid regulations, even the non-invasive ones, and then people start dying again but no one cares at that point because they feel the government has ignored and abused them. Kind of like what happened with Ironwood and Mantle, as Mantle became hostile towards him as he never tried to understand or compromise with them.

Sometimes people in power claim that there are justified reasons for their infringements on peoples’ rights when in fact those reasons are total BS, but I don’t think Ironwood is one of those cases.

You’re so biased for the guy I doubt you would admit it even if you though Ironwood was like that. And even then, so called ‘justified reasons’ still aren’t reasons to infringe on people’s rights. 

It’s a matter of, “You might not like having robots in the street but they’re there so they can at best take out grimm and worst buy you time to run away,” which is precisely what we saw when the group first arrived.

And then they all got fucked when said regulations caused such a volatile state that when Jacques took advantage, it began a chain reaction that caused the Grimm to attack and everything in the climax to happen.

If Ironwood wanted to be a dictator he would have declared martial law ages ago. Instead his thinking has always been balanced between what is right and what is practical: what do I need to do to keep my people alive? They can be pissed at me all they want, but at least they exist to be pissed.

You don’t need a want to make mistakes and do bad shit: all it takes is being misguided. Ironwood never shows he considers what is right, only what is practical within the boundaries he thinks is right. He never listened to others until before Salem and it continuously costed him. 

You know, for as much flak he got, Ozpin shows why his way worked better than Ironwood. Yeah he lied to but he also considered the feelings of others, he listened to them, he accepted their arguments and went out of his way to try and accommodate them. Because of this, even now, everyone is still loyal to him in some way. They’re all chasing flawed versions of Ozpin’s way, because the man lived long enough to see the path that was best.

Like we’re going, “Yes, we will fine you for leaving your house without a permit so you don’t contract and spread this deadly disease.” Ironwood is going, "Yes, I will require that you keep the streets clear so that you don’t draw in and get eaten by these deadly creatures.”

And then the people said “We don’t care anymore, you have shown us no reason to trust you.”

You cannot ignore the people’s wishes forever without consequence.

The blurry line between protection and infringement will always be debated, but to my mind Team RWBY’s perspective is far too much on the other side of things.

Cool, you’ve proceeded to understand HALF the conflict. 50% is still a failing grade though.

It’s dangerously naive.

Same with you. Meanwhile, Ironwood is dangerously pessimistic, disregarding others viewpoints and feelings to march ahead, never realizing he’ll never reach his goal because his methods destroyed any chance at it. Down to even ignoring a fundamental aspect of human nature.

They want to win this war without anyone going through any hardship and, while noble, that’s just not possible.

... Yang lost an arm and they’ve watched people DIE.

That is HIGHLY reductionist of their view. 

hey can wish and strive for that all they want, but so long as that keeps them from making logical decisions—like saving at least some of the Kingdom when you have no plan to avoid total annihilation—then they’re hurting more than they’re helping.

Meanwhile, Ironwood can make all the ‘practical’ decisions he wants, but as long as he continues to ignore fundamental aspects of human nature, like opposing oppression even if it means mutual destruction, he can’t save anyone.

Ironwood, like Ozpin, understands that winning any war, let alone a war against an enemy like Salem, is going to be rife with hard and messy choices. Which means that there will always be division.

And Ozpin went out of his way to ensure UNITY. He tried to be as honest as he could be with people, consider their feelings, stand by his principles.

Let me ask you: Why doesn’t Ozpin just take away four baby girls from their parents and raise them to be the Maidens as his undeniably loyal underlings? Lock the Maidens away so no one can ever get to them, thus preventing their power from falling into the wrong hands? Why doesn’t he just declare open war on Salem and sacrifice countless lives to forever keep her in check? 

Why doesn’t Ozpin act like a worse version of Ironwood?

Because he knows better than to do this.

here’s literally no choice in existence that keeps everyone happy and safe and never feeling any negative feelings about the shit storm raging around them. Salem wins in that regard simply by virtue of the fact that life is hard and life isn’t fair. Accepting that hardships will exist and trying to mitigate the damage from them doesn’t make Ironwood a villain and it certainly doesn’t make him as bad as Salem.

Yeah, it just makes him as bad as the people he turned against.

The person causing division as an inevitable byproduct of trying to save the entire world is not the same thing as the woman trying to wipe out that world.

It does make him as bad as his predecessor.

Yeah, remember the Great War in RWBY? The one that started because of events in Mantle. Events that infringed on the citizen’s rights for survival’s sake and it did the opposite, causing a fuckton of death and destruction?

Yeah, Ironwood is doing the SAME BASIC THING the King of Mantle did. He’s REPEATING his land’s own mistakes.

When you ask that Ironwood be seen as the good guy here, you ask that people not only ignore events in the show, events in real life, the foundation of the country RWBY is made in, the foundation of the show itself but the foundation of the people he’s trying to save.

That doesn’t work.

[bastardguy]

(haha there's very icky thoughts in this so don't read if it triggers ye, if anyone's reading this lmao) boy! it's one of those nights ain't it haha. ultrasadness. i dont have people to talk to which, yknow i feel like a lot of people don't have others to talk to. but anyways! i am sad! f! the most annoying aspect of myself i dislike is how one moment im daydreaming because hehe escapism and dont wanna talking to people at all then the, next moment im unbearably sad and i wanna! have friends that aren't people from my imagination. it's my fault, yep, its allll my fault, im not even trying to be sarcastic here, i know i should actively seek out people to be friends with them but!! im in my element to run around pretending i made fucking animations for my friend group that also exists! totally! it makes me feel great and content until i realise its not real! god am i pathetic haha! how do i improve ? how? why am i like this? is it because my brain views my escapism as safer and more wondrous then reality? to the po in t talking to people just? bore me? it's weird as hell, im probably just a selfish git but i genuinely look at chats and either go "conversation going,, i no want join cause rude" or "there's no point they're all so boring. being alive is boring. your life, your personality, you as a person is boring. that's why he left. he left for someone else he already had plans with, someone who he can actually see regularly in person in the future, someone who makes him happy. you never made him happy. he was miserable being stuck with you, that's why he left, that's why he immediately got into another relationship with someone else. you're why he lied to you, you're the problem, he hates you, you were an abusive fuck who couldn't keep his mouth shut and never changed. he's going to spend years being happy with someone and he's glad he's left you. he hates you. he hates you. he hates you. he hates you. you're the problem. don't ever try again, you don't have thr privlage to die, not yet. wait until everyone's finally tired of your manuplitive, selfish shit then kill yourself. die. just fucking die. just die. no one will stay loving you, you'll be forgotten, why did you say so much? you're fucking obsessive and its all your fault. you existing in the first place was a mistake, when have you ever brought joy to people? when had anyone be glad that you're here? you're better off dead, you're better off dead. you know if she had the choice mother would pick a normal person as a child in a heartbeat. you know if she knew you were going to turn out this way she would have fucking killed you herself because you've been nothing a burden. she'll leave, just like he left and everyone else did. so what if you just followed along with everything they were saying? you should've been smart enough not to be a dick you asshole. anyone that comes into your life will leave, everyone will leave, everyone is going to leave. even thinking about this you're cementing it, it's going to happen because you're thinking so hard about it. all bad things happen to you because you think about them. it's your fault. every bad thing that happens is your fault, you deserve all the slander that will come to you, you will die alone. you will die alone. no one will miss you, you've had a sad pathetic lonely life being unwanted. and it's all your fault. suffer. suffer. suffer. suffer. suffer. suffer. you ungrateful, selfish bastard-" and its very unpog i dont like my brain.

i wish i could find life enjoyable again, i wish i liked talking to multiple people, i wish i had multiple people to talk to. i wish i, didn't have these fucking attachment and abandonment issues that just make me terrified of being close with someone again. i think i have rejection sensitive dysphoria and oh! boy! MM. an internal conflict of "do i have adhd or is it just my anxiety and life long loneliness" had been going on in my brain. because if i had adhd i think thatd explain, a lot actually uYubun, but also those symptoms could stem from uhh, childhood issues and stuff pfft. like id be socially withdrawn and daydream a lot, to the point where i avoided playing with other kids just so i could walk around the yard to think about stuff, which are symptoms of adhd but also it's because "brain got lowkey traumatised being neglected on a plane for so long as a baby without its mother then just got whipped around the country serveral times giving me 0 safe secure places." i, i don't know man. that's a lot i have to talk with my therapist in like half an hour haha.

wow i talk about my problems too much this is why he left me 😩

a ok uhm, uh, yea! im very lonely haha. there's like, a person who i could chat with but i dont want to bother them. they're a good friend but they've been busy and i feel like im highkey using them. which is not pog at all! im not fun to talk with and im very annoying hahaha!

why are people so untrustworthy. why am i sad? only god knows but im god, so god doesn't know.

i think me despretly trying to talk to someone while im sad is so, utterly selfish and pathetic. i mean come on man why only now? haha.

i mean i did start to emulate a lot of his bad behaviour but! it's ok i know what's bad to do know and ive learnt from this experience and am moving forward.

where does forward lead? i dont know! probably jobless and suicide but hahaha! im not gonna make it past 25 baby! im gonna fall in love with someone then they'll leave forever and ill die!! After my mum gets sick of me!! hahhaha!!!!! im not unstable right now, i don't even wanna die! that'd be so selfish id break my parents! haha! i want someone to love me as much as i love them and to hold them in my arms! i wanna be comfortable with someone! i wanna be held! i want someone who won't cheat on me!! i wanna be loved!! woohooo!!! that's all i want! yknow what else i want? a friend group thats genuinely happy to see me! people i can eat lunch with and laugh with! people that don't make me feel small and pathetic! and why can't i have that? because im a piece of filth that doenst deserve any of it because ive done nothing to earn it! how the fuck do i do stuff! to talk! how do i not feel hopeless and small all the time? no matter what i fucking say im going to be yelled at for not being positive! fuck! fuck. fuck you.

[nobodyfamousposts]

In one of your posts you mentioned Felix as a possible rival for Adrien to come to his senses. Could you talk a little more about what that dynamic would be like please?

My vision of Felix is a little strange compared to others, so please bear with me.

Since this isn’t a Felix who needs a curse broken, he has no interest in Ladybug or a kiss, so there’s no real rivalry in that aspect. He wouldn’t be a “love” rival for Adrien so much as a rival in other matters that Adrien is involved in. Possibly in any of Adrien’s extracurricular activities (piano, fencing, etc) or even in modeling if we wanted to go for the fame angle. Because everyone loves the “bad boy” and Felix just comes off as so much more mature and intense than sweetheart Adrien and would be considered the new “thing".

On the plus side, this would free Adrien up more in terms of modeling time. On the downside, it would make Adrien feel replaced and inadequate. He would question himself more in terms of his personality and how he would appear to others. Imagine if Felix was the new cover of the latest Gabriel lineup. All of Adrien’s classmates are even raving about him. Even Lila is trying to target Felix now. I’d see it being less a matter of Adrien being flat out “jealous” of Felix in the conventional way and more a matter of questioning himself. Is Felix really that much better than him? Is THIS what people want? Is THIS the type of guy who has Ladybug’s heart? Maybe cue an episode where Adrien tries changing his look and personality to be a “bad boy” type and utterly fails at it—to the point that Marinette of all people calls him out on it. (Marinette: Adrien, this isn’t you. This so horribly not you that it seems like a bad joke more than anything.)

It doesn’t help that Adrien is a generally friendly guy and would naturally try to reach out to Felix. Maybe try to find common ground in that they’re both in the modeling business. It would be cool to have a friend who is a model and knows what it’s like. But Felix really wants nothing to do with him. He’s probably the very first if not only person in all of Paris who just flat out does NOT like Adrien. And Adrien is not used to having someone actively dislike him. Adrien is like pudding. Everyone likes pudding!

Except Felix, who hates pudding. And doesn’t like Adrien.

I see Felix being like a cat in personality. He’s grumpy and wants to be left alone. He doesn’t care about your classroom drama. He doesn’t care about your silly love triangles. He wants to be left to his own business. If he is to interact with people, it’s going to be on HIS terms, otherwise he could care less. It’s part of the reason he’s so standoffish and has absolutely no problem calling folks out on anything. He is abrasive with a sharp tongue and a cold attitude that would be off putting to most people. He’s not necessarily hated like Chloe, but the class does find it really difficult to be able to approach him.

Marinette is probably the only one who can. Partly due to her role as the class representative and her duty to reach out to and interact with all members of her class, but she pushes past the multitude of barriers Felix puts up and manages to have a decent discussion with him and even just be able to remain in his presence for more than a minute without being driven away.

For Felix, Marinette is…tolerable company. She seems to know when he’s open to interaction and most importantly, DOESN’T PUSH HIM. There are times she will simply do her own project next to him in silence and he’s perfectly fine with that. Other times, she’ll strike up conversation. There are even points when she encourages him to get involved with the rest of the class. Maybe gently point out when he’s coming off as crass. He won’t apologize, of course, but he will at least make an effort to be aware and try to be more considerate.

Compare that with people like Lila, who intrudes regularly, telling lies so blatant they foul the air, and sees fit to try touching him and grabbing at him without his permission and that his HIS ARM you damn leech, release it before he resorts to gnawing it off! (And yes, he would.  Marinette: FELIX, NO!)

His words are harsh at points, but she doesn’t take what he says personally and comes to understand that’s just his way of interacting with the world. She takes his statements as his observations and can respond in kind. As she gets to know him, she becomes more comfortable in doing so and better at reading him. Even better at matching him in some ways. They at some point end up getting into a very heated debate about a few particularly high end brands being needlessly expensive and whether the same look can be made with different cheaper materials. Marinette proves they can when she makes a jacket that matches Felix’s own and is more durable. Felix is actually impressed, which is a major win as far as Marinette is concerned.

Felix overall doesn’t appreciate small talk or people trying to cozy up to him. And above all, he will not tolerate bullshit. Lila is definitely going to have a hard time. Adrien as well. Felix is not going to be nice about his opinions and commentary. If you’re doing something wrong, he will let you know. He won’t yell or shout or be outright insulting or anything like that. But he will be assertive and he will not go out of his way to spare anyone’s feelings.

This surprisingly makes him a good go-to for critiques and advice, as he will not hold back his punches in telling someone where they’ve made a mistake, but he will go into full detail as to what the mistakes are and how to correct them. This becomes vital for those in the class who have hobbies they’re looking to turn into careers. Alya and her journalism (Felix: Fact checking means you look for outsides sources to verify! You don’t take information from only one person and base everything only on that. That’s how you lose your job and all respect as a journalist.). Nino and his music (Felix: There is a skip at time 2:23 and a period from 1:47 to 1:59 where the bass overpowers the rest of the music and muddles the melody.). And of course, Marinette and her fashion.

Adrien is admittedly somewhat jealous that Felix is able to have more conversations and interactions with his father and his friends about their interests than he does. He also doesn’t like the way Felix talks to Marinette at points since his statements can seem overly harsh and critical, particularly in regards to her projects (which are her life and how dare anyone say anything negative about them!) but Marinette actually appreciates his input and incorporates his suggestions.

Felix and Adrien’s dynamic is going to be somewhat volatile. Adrien initially wants to be friends. Felix flat out does not. At first, Adrien sees Felix as someone he can find things in common with and be able to interact based on that aspect, maybe even as someone who could offer support in that regard.

Felix does not want to be a support. They are competitors. Not friends. Not allies. And he doesn’t appreciate being expected to deal with people who won’t step up when there is clearly a problem. He hates Adrien’s passivity. He especially hates Adrien’s self-righteous attitude. And he will absolutely call Adrien out on his sheer hypocrisy if he were to know about it. Adrien’s little lecture to Marinette at the end of Chameleon about how you don’t make a bad person be good by confronting them? Yeah, he’s going to steamroll right over that, chew Adrien out for letting his friends be played, and call out Lila on every change of her story. And he’s going to do it with all the bluntness and casualness of someone commenting on the weather.

This will naturally rub Adrien the wrong way as it will come off to him as being needlessly mean. Adrien’s thing is about wanting to avoid conflict, and Felix will be initiating it. This will combine with Felix’s annoyance with Adrien’s “high road” stance and the two will start to bump heads more as things go on. Felix won’t look kindly upon Adrien’s moral compass when Adrien isn’t really the one on the receiving end of any of the problems he’s lecturing about and how it seems more of an excuse to simply not get involved in the first place. Adrien will similarly want to cut in and defend anyone Felix throws a comment at, regardless of Felix’s points or whether the comments are actually warranted.

Felix will be the first person to not like Adrien, not cater to his view of how the world should be, and not give in to his wishes about keeping peace if it comes at the cost of others. And Adrien will honestly not know how to deal with that. Even his friends, while they may not necessarily LIKE Felix, won’t exactly jump on board with Adrien’s complaints towards him. This will make Felix not someone Adrien can ignore or dismiss and not someone who can be convinced by his idealistic perceptions of right and wrong.

This will ultimately become a matter of honesty and assertiveness VS safety and complacency, which is Adrien’s biggest problem. And Adrien is going to have to find a way to address that, especially as Felix calls him out on things and shows he isn’t always right. This will especially become important if Adrien turns to Ladybug regarding the situation to get her take on matters only to have her note where Felix has a point.

That’s how I see Felix aiding Adrien’s growth. Just having one person who doesn’t accept Adrien’s behavior or speeches, who can’t be charmed, who cannot be convinced to see things his way, and who will not conform to Adrien’s expectations. Because that’s not how the world works.

At least, that’s my perception. I hope that makes sense.

[xacesxofxheartsx]

Snow Dances

Name: Snow Dances Fandom: Epic Seven Category: M/F Words: 3180  Pairing: Ras/Tenebria

Ras tugged the scarf Mercedes had given him closer to his face to better ward off the chill. It didn’t help much, but it was something and that was better than nothing. Once upon a time, he wasn’t affected by cold at all, he could shrug it off and continue on. Now, since he slowly but surely was becoming human, he could actually feel it and he at last understood what most people meant by the cold being unpleasant. It seeps into the bones and hungrily eats away at any semblance of warmth possessed.

And yet there were some who liked the cold. They had their reasons, even if he didn’t understand all of them. That happens a lot, he’s noticed. Humans do or say things that he either can or can’t understand. Or things he should understand but doesn’t. So many mistakes he could have avoided if he had just understood what it was he did wrong. But he was learning now and it was better late than never.

As he wandered around Ezera, patrolling for monsters, he found himself enjoying the tranquility of the winter evening. So calm, so quiet, he found himself wanting to relax though he wouldn’t let himself. He couldn’t let his guard down; he was out here for a reason after all. Even so, he appreciated the stillness, something that Arky couland likely would have broken had the guardian gone with him. While he was grateful and glad to have his guardian, sometimes he liked to be by himself so that he could better appreciate the world around—something he hadn’t done until he started discovering his dormant emotions.

To think that I previously protected this world solely because it was my duty, Ras thought as he made his way through the snow, listening hard for the sound of breaking beaches or other signs of movement. To think it took seven worlds before I could learn to appreciate the people and the beauty of Orbis.

Hours began to slip by and nothing of note happened, save for a scuffle or two with whatever monsters he happened across. Ras rolled his shoulders to loosen them and gathered up the scarf that had slipped from his neck due to the previous battle. He wrapped it around his neck, thinking to himself, The monsters seem few in number today. He wasn’t complaining though and he certainly wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He did wonder, however, if the decrease activity had anything to do with the end of Ezera’s annual winter festival a few days ago or if someone had gone out hours before he did to patrol as well.

Shrugging, he prepared to return to the castle when he saw something, briefly, from the corner of his eye. A long lock of braid pink hair. Knowing only one person with hair like that, he was instantly on edge as he turned around, only to be met with the sight of...nothing. Nobody was there. Ill at ease, he wondered if he had imagined it. He hasn’t seen her since Reingar’s Full Moon Festival after all. He hasn’t heard anything of her either, between now and then. And yet...he would be a fool to dismiss this simply as his mind playing tricks.

Keeping one hand on his sword and his eyes scanning the surrounding area, he approached the area cautiously. He lowered himself to the ground. It was hard to make out but there were footprints. Soft indentations in the snow, barely visible. By the pattern, the owner seemed to have turn quickly on their heel before walking away. Though his power is fading slowly, he reached out with what remained to find any and all traces of that all-too familiar negative energy. It is not as easy to do as it once had been but eventually he finds it and he is not surprised. It would have been nice if it had been a trick of a tired mind, but when dealing with acolytes, life simply doesn't work like that. Life is never that easy.

Sighing, he straightened up and moved around the tracks to follow them. His mind screaming at him that this was a bad idea, but he continued on, stopping once in a while to make sure there was still a trail to follow. The fact there were footprints was...a strange one to consider. Did she want to be followed? His grip tightened on his sword at the thought. It could be a trap and he was walking right into it. But still...he was curious, if he were being honest. With his back turned, he had been an easy target. In that moment, she could have taken her shot, as it were. Yet she hadn't. And he had to wonder why.

He had no idea how long it took, it could have been an hour or minutes, but that final turn brought her into view. She moves quick, he thought. Granted, yes, she had the head start and he had moved at a slower pace; even so, there were times he had thought he would catch up as none of the footprints indicated a hasty retreat.

And there she was, her back to him, as she gazed at the late evening sky.

"You took your time," she remarked. "I had thought you would have ran after me once you knew for sure."

"Forgive me for being cautious," he replied dryly and from his tone they both knew he didn’t care if she forgave him or not. "What do you want, Tenebria?"

He slowly approached her and it was only when he neared that she turned slightly to look at him. "I heard there was a wish festival."

"It ended a few days ago."

"Is that right?"

"It is," he said. He shifted in place. His two-hued orbs met her sky blue ones. "For what reason does Acolyte Tenebria care about a wish festival?"

"A wish to see fulfilled." She held up, between her middle and index finder, a small scrap of paper, neatly folded in half. "It’s not what the nuns had handed out, so it won’t dissolve when placed in water."

He snorted. "Sounds more to me you observed the festival rather than you ‘heard’ about it." His eyes narrowed then. "No one will help you spread your nightmares. The one person who would fell in battle."

"That’s not it."

"Then what is it?"

"Curiosity," she stated simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Ras, of course, was reasonably skeptical. Acolyte Tenebria being curious about something was unheard of unless it was to find out one’s worse nightmares, unless it was of a way to hurt somebody. What could she possibly be curious about? She cared nothing for humans, nothing for Orbis. All she desired was chaos and the spreading of her nightmares.

"I doubt that. What do you really want?"

She held the paper out. "I already told you, but feel free to confirm it for yourself."

Ras eyed the paper, wary. Was this a trap? The moment he tried to take it from her, will she drop all pretense and attack him? He might be being paranoid but while he is many things a fool is not among them.

Keeping one hand on his blade, he moved towards her cautiously, body tense and prepared for any sudden movement. He unfolded it, eyes scanning the words quickly. His eyebrows shot up. This wasn't what he expected. It was...harmless, in fact. He had one question though. "You didn't attack me. Was it because of your wish or simply because you weren't in a volatile mood?"

"How rude," she drawled. She titled her head, a honeyed smile on her face that made him shudder. From experienc, nothing good ever resulted with from that smile. "If you must know, it's the first one. It can't come true if you're injured, after all, and since you're becoming human, you'll heal slower than you used to."

"Bold of you to assume I'll dance with you simply because of...'curiosity.'"

"I thought you were fulfilling wishes," she said mildly.

"Not for an acolyte," he retorted as he folded up the paper. "Never for an acolyte." He turned and started to walk away.

"I didn't come here to start a conflict."

He didn't face her, didn't even stop. "That's rich, coming from you considering all you ever done whenever we've encountered each other is cause conflict."

"As if you’ve haven’t caused conflicts yourself," she said dismissively. "Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten about all the lies you’ve told for thousands of years."

At those words, he did pause. He clenched his fists. How dare she? He hasn’t forgotten about the harm he unintentionally caused, the friends he hadn’t meant to hurt, the friends who are dead because of his decisions. He knows it was wrong to lie, but for so long he had thought them undeserving of the truth, seeing them as weak and needing to be protected—from the Archdemon and the truth. And he understands now that that was wrong as well. Not only that but...he had been commanded to silence. "No Orbisian is to learn of the truth of the world," Diche had said and as her creation, he was bound to follow her orders, and so he had. Until he found his own will, his own being.

His jaw working furiously, trying to find the words before they came to him freely. "I regret every decision that I made that unintentionally caused conflict—conflict I could have prevented but did not." His voice took on a hard tone. "And that’s more than can be said for you."

When she suddenly appeared in front of him, teleporting, he took a step back, startled. "We’ve known and fought each other for centuries," she said dryly. "You know well that we acolytes cannot feel regret. Anger and hate? Yes and plenty of it. But regret? Not a single mote."

She was right, of course she was. He knew it well enough. They’ve lived for near the same amount of time—how could he not know after all this time? Acolytes could feel nothing positive, in fact he was certain if ever they did, they would die and it likely would not be quick nor painless. Oh what a pity that Kayron sought the destruction of Orbis when he could just learn to love in order to achieve his own demise. Though of course, even then it might not be a permanent end for them. Even so...

Ras chuckled. "I would suggest that you acolytes keep in mind that what was born of humans will inevitably become like them." When she stiffened, he almost laughed. "Does the thought frighten you, make you uncomfortable?"

"No," she replied coolly, she leaned forward. "I am not. We acolytes have been alive for thousands and thousands of years. If it hasn’t happen yet, then it likely never will."

He wanted to smirk—she sounded so sure!—but he refrained from doing so. He didn’t want to make her angry after all. Instead, he responded, "We’ll see. Maybe you’re right, maybe I’m right. Who can say for sure?"

"I want to strangle you right now for that but that isn’t why I’m here." Ah yes. Their little back and forth had caused him to almost forget. A pity that she had remembered. He had to applaud her for that though. She stuck to her goals until she was bored. A flighty, impulsive character.

He shifted and his face grew stern. "I already told you—"

"What if I agreed to leave Ritania and her people alone for at least a year?"

He was surprised by that, not expecting it at all. For a year, she would leave all of Ritania alone, let them have peace? It sounds like a nice offer, considering she wouldn’t normally offer it, but it wasn’t good enough. He knows the acolytes. Knows them well enough to know they’ll find whatever loophole they can in any and all agreements they’ve made and exploit however they can.

"I don’t believe you would ever keep to your word, Tenebria."

"What a shame and here I was willing to let myself be bored for a year."

A humorless smile graced his features. That he certainly didn’t believe and he let her know as much. The mild look of irritation that grew on her face almost made him want to smile wider, but he did not. He did not desire to battle an acolyte tonight. And so silence descended upon them. A stalemate met; a wish she had but one he wasn’t willing to grant. It wouldn’t hurt anything or anyone if he agreed, he is well aware of this, but he worried that if he did, she would take it as an opportunity to use it against him in the future should they cross paths again. Though, he did concede that there was a possibility, a high possibility, that this merely had no beneficial value to her, nothing for her to gain beyond satisfied curiosity.

Her jaw was clenching and unclenching as she gathered her thoughts. She finally managed to say, breaking the silence, "We don’t have to like nor even tolerate each other. In fact, considering our...history, I don’t even think doing either is possible."

"Get to the point."

"We don’t have to see each other again after this," she continued. "Just a short dance and then we go our separate ways, ignoring the other’s existence. That doesn’t sound too bad now, does it?"

No it didn’t. That...could work, that was almost...agreeable. He could...do that. However, he had to ask, "And how do I know you won’t use this as an opportunity to literally stab me in the back?"

"Ras, if I wanted to stab you in the back, I wouldn’t be asking for a dance," she reminded him.

True. If she wanted to, she could teleport behind him and drive a dagger between his shoulder blades. Her reflexes were sharp, maybe even faster than his own now considering he was becoming more and more human as each day passed. It was the one and perhaps only thing about becoming human that irked him.

With a sigh, he walked over to a nearby tree and leaned his sword against. After a moment of though, he draped the scarf over it the weapon, not wanting to get it ruined or for Tenebria to use it to choke him should the mood strike her afterwards.

He moved back towards her and gave a bow, trying to keep his movements fluid and not stiff. Took a slender hand in his, places the other on his shoulder, and put his free hand on her waist. He thinks back to what he knows from observing Aki and Vildred dancing together on occasion. Thinking of them brought an ache to his chest, but he shook it off. He can't dwell on the past. He shouldn't dwell on the past. What happened, happened. Nothing can nor will ever change that.

He decides on the waltz, thinking it would be easy, and begins the movements that go with it, slowly as he is unsure and not wishing to slip. She stares at him the whole while, her expression unreadable; his own face carefully guarded as well, a cool rigid mask. Neither could tell what the other was thinking as they waltzed around the clearing in total silence...or almost total silence.

It was broken by Tenebria’s hiss of, "Stop stepping my feet!" and Ras’s cry as he stumbled and his feet slipped out from beneath him and caused him to fall on his rear on the cold, snow covered ground, dragging the pinkette down with him.

She grumbled as she pushed off of him to tend to her feet. "You...are clumsy and a horrible dancer."

Ras winced. He was going to be feeling that in the morning. "My apologies. I don’t dance often."

"Often?" Tenebria snorted. "Try ever." She scowled at him. "You move as if you’ve never danced before in your life! What, couldn’t find anyone to teach you?"

He ignored her jab. "Considering how many archdemon wars Orbis has suffered through," he said as he slowly stood up, grimacing all the while, "learning to dance was at the bottom of my priorities." He held a hand out for her to grab. She stared at him flatly as she stood up on her own and he retracted his hand.

"Lucky you. I haven't ever been invited to any sort of dance."

He snorted. "Oh please. You likely crash the party."

"I never."

"Reingar’s Full Moon Festival," he reminded her.

She didn’t even blink as she retorted, "I was summoned by that student, if you remember."

"Adlay. And yes I do remember. You put two students into nightmares and almost did the same to Yuna." He brushed the snow off his coat.

"Whatever."

"As much as I would love to argue this particular subject with you, I am getting cold and would like to not freeze to death before you have your wish."

He adjusted the his coat and stepped forward again. He returned their hands to their prior position and once again began to attempt to waltz, this time being more mindful of where he stepped and placed his feet. She kept her eyes averted, away from his, and he was glad for that. He didn’t think he could continu ewith this if she had locked their gazes.

With silence in the air, only broken this time on occasion by the sound of his soft breathing, it was...peaceful. It was easy now to get lost in thought as they moved slowly atop the snow. He stumbled now and again, of course, but he always managed to quickly right himself before he fell again. He wonders how she could be so balanced and capable when she had never danced before either. But he chalked up to his being clumsy and her not being human.

He did not know how long it had been, whether it was minutes or hours, but eventually they came to a stop when Tenebria dropped her hand from his shoulder and when he released the one captured in his own, she moved away quickly. They stared at each other for a while, his breath coming out in white puffs and she not needing to breath at all. Slowly, he bowed and was almost surprised when she gave a curtsy in return, their gazes never breaking.

He turned and began to walk away, the sound of snow crunching behind him letting him know that she was doing the same. He gathered his sword and scarf and continued on, for the second time that evening he trusted her not to attack him.

Despite the utter lack of grace on his part and the...suspicious beginning, it had been a rather pleasant experience and he thinks, that he would be more willing to grant such a wish again should she decide to approach him for another dance in the future.

[pianoperson]

Cradlesona

I have worked on this for two days but I am finally done with my Cradlesona!!

@lovingsiriusoswald Thank you for starting this trend!

Now, introducing my Cradlesona: Angel Burnham! (or is it really her name...)

This is my first digital drawing so it looks wack shhhhhhh

A brief warning, though: Personality might confuse you because of the way I wrote it. I’ll make a much better version of this, however.

Basic Info:

Name: Angel Burnham (It is not her real name, however.)

Nickname: Angel

Birthday: December 12

Age: 22

Height: 150cm

Blood Type: O+

Physical:

Eyes: Her right eye is a natural brown color. Her left eye, however, is akin to a galaxy. It became like so when her magical abilities decided to show themselves while playing the piano one day. Nobody knows how the galaxy pattern was made permanent on her eye (nor do they know why her eyes become the colors of space when she uses magic instead of the typical red).

Hair: Dark brown hair, which can look black in some angles, while in other angles, it looks more brown (the image shows it brown however).

Accessories: She has two rosary bracelets on her left wrist and a St. Benedict ring on her left middle finger.

Features: Other than her left eye, there isn’t anything about her that stands out.

Illnesses: Aside from allergies to most seafood except fish, none

Social:

Affiliation: Neutral at first, Red Army later on

Occupations: Originally worked as a waitress in a cafe, but sometime after the day she found out about her magic, she was recruited by the Red Army to help them in the war.

Relationships:

Blanc: He and Angel are friends. Blanc let her stay in his house, gave her a place to stay when she wanted to move out, and was the one who helped her find a job in Cradle. He does this as an apology for accidentally bringing her to Cradle. Blanc, alongside Oliver, are the only ones who really know where Angel is from.

Oliver: At first, Angel was intimidated by him due to his less than friendly first impression. But within the time she spent living with him and Blanc, they were able to get to know each other and become friends through ranting.

Fenrir: When he stops by to pick up something from Oliver, he would occasionally chat with Angel. He gave her a tour around Cradle as well.

Edgar: Edgar may be kind to her, but something about his smile was sketchy to her. She doesn’t pry, however, mostly because she doesn’t have much concrete reason as to why he felt sketchy to her. Edgar would occasionally tease Angel about her crush, however, much to her annoyance.

Kyle: Angel loves his chill self and admires his dedication as a doctor. They’re friends and sometimes, if she feels like going out, Angel would accompany Kyle to the bar. She never drinks, however, so she’s stuck with bringing Kyle home.

Lancelot: She was intimidated by him, but after learning what Lancelot means to the army through Kyle and Jonah, she realized that the King of Hearts is actually nicer than he lets on. 

Zero: They don’t talk much but Angel thinks he’s great company.

Jonah: Angel has a crush on him. She found him attractive when she first saw him, but after Blanc’s brief descriptions of the Queen of Hearts and seeing him looking happy while eating a strawberry mille-feuille one day, she found herself crushing on him.  

Personality:

Race/Ethnicity: Half Filipino-Cradle blood

Type of clothes/How they wear it: When she first fell into Cradle, Angel wore a long-sleeved dark blue-and-white striped shirt, with dark blue jeans and black sandals. Due to 19th century customs for women, she had to wear a couple of dresses. She has three favorite dresses that she wears nearly every day: the premium dresses from Jonah, Sirius, and Lancelot. 

Mannerisms: She mostly doesn’t care and likes to act as how she wants to act. She can behave and be formal if necessary, but otherwise, she definitely does not have the manners of Lancelot, Jonah, and Edgar. When it comes to taking care of herself, she tries but it’s not enough. She brushes her hair and takes a bath every day, but her hair can still look like it hasn’t been brushed. 

Favorite subject: Math because there is something about the numbers that captivates her and she feels pride over the fact that she can do math while her other classmates struggle.

How do they want to be seen by others: Angel hopes that people see her as a decent human being and not someone who seems to be bad-mannered or mean to others.

How people see them: Angel isn’t really sure on that aspect, but she did get a few comments from people who say that they were initially intimidated by her due to her serious expression. It’s most likely that she’s too serious for people to feel like they can easily approach her.

Introverted or extroverted: Angel is an introvert. She likes to hang around with friends, but that would mean staying in her place or being alone the next day to recharge. She isn’t the type to initiate conversation, but she would gladly engage in one if she feels like it.

What makes them laugh out loud: A lot of things actually. Snarky comments, roast comments, someone’s rather enthusiastic way of telling a story, dissing other friends, and the list goes on.

Do they make snap judgements or take time to consider: Angel doesn’t judge people, especially if they’re strangers because she is aware that they both come from different places. However, she will judge if someone makes a stupid move, including herself.

How do they react to praise: Angel’s reactions can vary. If she is proud of what she did, she’ll say thank you, but if she does not find a reason to deserve the compliment, she gets bashful. Either way, her day will feel better, knowing she did something right.

“” criticism: Angel accepts it with grace. She does not want to make a fuss, nor does she want to reveal any negative feelings towards said criticism. 

How do they treat anyone: If Angel is with a close person, she’s much louder and more carefree. She looks more cheerful. If Angel is with a person who dislikes her or she dislikes, she still acts polite, even if she is tempted to show her irritation.

What is their view on lying: Angel absolutely hates lying. It’s not to say she’s above it, but in the moments she doesn’t say the exact truth, she feels guilty. This extends to her friendships; she strives to not lie to her friends about anything and will always try to keep her word. This honesty, however, can sometimes cause her to say an off-handed comment, which she’ll regret saying later on.

Favorite animal: Her dog from the Land of Reason. When he pops into her head, she hopes that he is still alive.

Music, art, or reading: This is a hard choice for Angel, since she likes all three, but she’ll choose music. All three keep her entertained, especially when she can barely do anything without WiFi for her phone.

Favorite color: Darker hues of blue and gold

Favorite day of the week: Wednesday, because that day tends to be her most relaxing day

Most beautiful thing they’ve ever seen: Angel tends to find so many things beautiful. She can find beauty in even the way the stones on a cobblestone pathway are arranged. Deep down, however, she will say Jonah Clemence (lmao).

Political views: In the context of the conflict within Cradle, Angel is neutral. As someone who lives in the Philippines, she can’t help but note the disadvantages of the dictatorship that the Red Army advocates for. On the other hand, democracy can be somehow difficult to manage. Therefore, she prefers to not think about it.

How do they deal with conflict: She doesn’t. Angel tries to avoid arguments most of the time. However, she will speak up if she feels there is something wrong. When she does argue with someone, she tries to keep her inner peace without blowing up. However, when faced with conflicts regarding personal problems, she can get stressed easily and lose it.

Are they more likely to fight with their fists or their tongue: Angel prefers to speak. She is doubtful that she can fight, even with magic and the resistance to it in her arsenal.

How do they deal with stress: Angel will rant to herself when she’s completely alone. Sometimes, she’ll also rant to Oliver. If what is stressing her is sadness, however, she will keep it in and not tell anyone. 

What is their biggest regret: Angel is the type to regret a lot of things and when she least expects it, the things she regrets will enter her head and she will clench her fist and shut her eyes tight to make it go away. Her biggest regret, however, is when she played Sonata Pathetique mvm. 3 in a restaurant, the day she found out her magical abilities.

What is their greatest fear: Angel is secretly scared of one thing: being unwanted and consequently alone. She’s scared that she won’t get a man who would love her unconditionally because she’s not good enough or she’s scared that her friends gossip behind her back or love each other more than her because she’s not good enough. This fear worsens after she found out about her magic.

When was the last time they cried: Angel hates crying, more so in front of others. She doesn’t know why she even does; it was a thing she knew ever since she was a child. Because of this, she doesn’t normally cry, even if she bottles up depressing thoughts. She does cry, however, when the guilt from the day she found out her magic and the fear of not being loved by anyone ate her up.

What is their philosophy of life: Angel likes to go with the flow but she has to establish a few things she wants in life to make it easier.

What will they stand up for: Angel doesn’t have much she particularly feels passionate about, as she’s the type who would rather chill and not be caught in conflict. But if there’s one thing that would irk her, it’s people being mean. She doesn’t get why people would betray their friends nor would she understand why people are jerks. Therefore, she tries to be nice to everyone she meets.

Is it easy to admit their mistake: Yes. Angel will know if it was her mistake or not. 

Is it easy to forgive others: Definitely. Angel can’t hold a grudge.

Weak traits: Angel can be lazy and won’t complete a project she started on. Angel also has some level of arrogance, born out of the fear that she isn’t good enough and that no one would want her.

Strong traits: Angel will always try to be a trustworthy person and someone who tries her best. 

Family and History:

Angel is actually from the 21st century who recently graduated from college with a degree in music. While walking back to a condo her family owns, Blanc bumps into her and drops his pocket watch, which she picked up. She chased him and called him but he was too fast. Eventually, he disappears, confusing Angel, and standing on the spot where he was, she ended up falling to 19th century Cradle.

Angel’s family is actually a mix of two worlds. Her mother was a Cradle citizen, born into a family of magic users, while her father was from the Land of Reason. Her mother, for some reason, entered the Garden on the full moon and accidentally ended up being transported to 21st century Earth, where she met Angel’s father and fell in love. They hid this from Angel and her other siblings and she only found out during a chance encounter with her mother’s parents. Because of the magic and resistance to it being passed down, she inherited both abilities, which are most powerful in music.

Skills and Special Abilities:

Magic: Angel can cast magic like typical magic users. When she uses magic normally, it’s far from the power of magic users such as Lancelot and Harr. However, when she plays piano or flute, her magic becomes much stronger, possibly stronger than the aforementioned two. Using it, however, can cause fatigue, fever, and even fainting.

Magic Resistance: Due to her roots in the Land of Reason, she also has the ability to nullify magic, making her one of the most powerful people in Cradle– and a target. Strangely, when she makes TwoSetViolin references, her magic nullification ability is more powerful. (It was how she even found out about her magic resistance. She remarked “iNtErEsTiNg” once and the nearby lights went off. The crystals in the light bulbs were newly installed.)

Pianist: She has a decade and a half worth of experience.

Flutist: While not as experienced with the flute (only having played it for around 5 years), she can still play it.

Paired with: Currently no one, but she has a crush on Jonah

Life in Cradle:

Angel just recently graduated from college when she first encountered Blanc, who bumped into her. Blanc seemed very antsy and, after apologizing to her, ran off. He dropped his pocket watch, however. The same thing that happened to Alice the Second occurred, except Blanc actually was nearby when Angel was falling to 19th century Cradle.

The portal closed immediately after Blanc caught Angel, so she was trapped in the unknown world.

On the first days staying in Cradle, Angel was nervous, even with Blanc and Oliver helping her. Often, she was reminded of how tense she was.

During one of the days Blanc showed her around, Angel saw a troop of Red Army soldiers, being led by Jonah. Angel found him attractive and kept glancing at him. 

Eventually, Angel asked Blanc if she can get a job and her own living space, since she didn’t want to burden him. Blanc helped her find a job as a waitress in a cafe and got her an apartment to stay in.

She found out about her magic nullification abilities when she moved in to her apartment.

For two months, she carried a rather mundane life as a worker in a cafe. There was a day when, during break, she ate in another cafe at the same time as Jonah (and found him cute as he ate his mille-fueille).

A few days after the news of the former King of Hearts being assassinated was announced, Angel was eating out with some friends from work. The restaurant had a piano, so she decided to play Sonata Pathetique mvm. 3. Midway through the piece, she heard screams and shouts of pain. That was when she found out that she was unleashing magical attacks through her playing and started to panic when she realized her hands were moving on their own. That was when an explosion occurred.

She was brought to Kyle thanks to Oliver. She was the only one who survived the fiasco, which was dubbed Perish Song Night. She also found out her left eye changed color.

Because of the fiasco, she was fired from her job. 

A week later, Red Army declared war on the Black Army. The next day, they faced off. Angel was nearby when it happened and was praying in her head for nothing bad to happen. That was when she accidentally repelled Lancelot’s magic, confusing everyone. It was enough for Blanc and Oliver to arrive and stop the conflict.

Two days after the face-off, Edgar finds Angel in her apartment, taking her to the Red Army HQ. There, Angel is made to serve the Red Army by using her magical abilities against the Black Army.

[sky-scribbles]

8, 11-14, 20, 38-41, 58, and 63 for Sarai!! c:

I can’t tell you how happy I am to do so manyof these, thank you!!! (Some of these answers may be subject to change as I playfurther and learn more about her, but I’m pretty sure about most of them.)

And as a bonus, here’s what she looks like::

8. Howdoes your OC talk/what does your OC’s voice sound like?

She talks by listening first. She’ll usuallywait for someone else to start the conversation, and will sometimes leave you waiting for a response for a few seconds, as she considers the best thing to say. Speech comesslowly, softly, punctuated with a few mmmswhile she works out how toword things. Each word is hand-picked so that it won’t ruffle your feathers inany way. Once a Jedi negotiator, always a Jedi negotiator.

I’m still undecided on her accent, since theExile isn’t voiced – I’ve been imagining her speech in British RP, but I might change that… Welsh, maybe? Or whatever theequivalent of that is in the SW universe.

11-14:  What is your OC’srelationship with his/her mother?  Whatis your OC’s relationship with his/her father? How many siblings does your OCand what is his/her relationship with them? Who is the mother and/or fatherfigure in your OC’s life?

I’ve not worked out all the details, but Isee Sarai as growing up with a single father. I’m leaning towards her being adopted, since her dad was aroace but wanted a child. I don’t think she has anysiblings (but again, I might change my mind.)

I do know that Sarai and her father were very close indeed. Hewas a gentle, creative person, always making up stories for her and encouragingher to think up the next parts. Perhaps that was why he didn’t realise for along time that his daughter was Force-sensitive. Little Sarai couldonly express the deep, almost personal connection she had to the living Forceby personifying it, treating it as an imaginary friend. When she told her dadabout the ‘friendly magic’ she sensed in the world around her, it sounded to him like a story she wasmaking up, and he played along. Until she was five years old and startedaccidentally throwing objects around with the Force.

If Sarai’s powers hadn’t started to manifestphysically in public, Mannas would probably have tried to keep herForce-sensitivity secret. As it was, giving up his daughter to the Jedi justabout killed him.

As for any other parental figures… after beingbrought to the Jedi, Sarai spent a long time training with an Ithorian masternamed Yshora. Like many Force-sensitives of her species, she had a strongconnection to the living Force, and was able to teach Sarai how to refine herown abilities. The two spent many peaceful hours sitting together and sensingthe flow of energy in the world around her, the shift of matter between waterand earth and plants and air. Sarai’s bond with Yshora definitely influencedher quick decision to work with the Ithorians on Telos.

(The rest is under a readmore because I inevitably write essays when I get an excuse to ramble about OCs)

20. What kind of mother/father would your OCbe?

A bit of a paradox: at once very attentive –occasionally to the point of being overbearing – and a little too lax. She’dalways be trying to soothe and smooth over any problems her kids might have, but would also be desperate to avoid conflictwith them. So if she thought ‘parental guidance’ might involve disagreeing orarguing with them… she might not say anything, even if she really should. Ithink her best trait as a parent would be that no matter what problem you cameto her with, she’d never tell you that it was small.

21. How does your OC react to and handlestress?

By avoiding it. She tends to throw herself intoenjoyable activities so she can forget her stress, or elseconvinces herself it’s not really that bad. Of course, there are some stresses she just can’t distract and rationalise away,things she really should confront and work through. But she doesn’t. So thesethings keep eating away at her, until eventually it all bursts out. Sometimes,she’ll just break down in tears – other times, she’ll make snap decisions totry and make it go away.

(Like, for instance, the time when she could feel the Mandalorian War ripping a woundin the galaxy, and she couldn’t bear it and there had to be a way to end it, and weren’t the Jedi supposed to bringpeace, the masters promised her that Jedi brought peace, they told her there is no chaos, there is harmony, andyet they weren’t doing anything, and nothing made any sense anymore –

And then Revan told her, I’ll bring peace. And Sarai, without hesitation, followed her.)

How does your OC handle anger?

Sarai’s always thought that anger createsdiscordance in the Force. Disharmony. So she always wants to fix it, like shewants to fix everything that creates conflict.

Again, she’ll try to distract herself from heranger and talk herself out of it, sometimes (if she’s alone) holding entire conversationswith herself, talking herself down, justifying the other person’s point ofview. Sometimes this helps her work through things and calm down… and sometimesit’s just another way to bottle up emotions that need to be let out. (And no,she will not vent to a friend. Unthinkable. She has to be a good Jedi, she can’tlump her problems on people, she has to keep everything in harmony, she has to.

If only she’d realise that the Force is anatural thing, and all natural things have a little chaos in them.)

When she finally lets her anger out, it’ll usuallytake the form of a quiet, even tearful, but ferocious defiance. The kind thatleads to you stabbing a stone with your lightsaber in front of the entire JediCouncil, for instance. 

How does your OC handle grief?

She cries. She just cries. And then she startsthinking about what she could have done to stop it, and gets lost in endlessfantasies about what would have happened if she’d done things differently. Ifshe imagines everything being good again, maybe she can forget how much it all hurts.

What is your OC’s greatest fear?

A secretshe can’t admit to anyone: she’s afraid that the Force isn’t what she thought.She’s afraid that the comforting, harmonious presence she sensed as a child isa lie, a traitor. That the Force has a will, and that will is cold andapathetic and cruel. That the Force she considered her friend as a child wantsher to suffer and be apart and lost and broken and alone.

How does your OC take criticism?

This is where Sarai excels. She’s born to be amediator. If someone criticises her, she’s instantly analysing whatever they’vejust said, trying to work out if it’s justified. If so, she’ll be making plansto make sure she never repeats the mistake, and will apologise instantly andearnestly. If it’s not justified, then she’ll start working out why the personsaid it, trying to see their point of view – are they lashing out in frustration?Are they misguided? How can she most gently point out to them that they’rebeing unfair, and settle the dispute?

Of course, this doesn’t always work – like when you’refaced with a bunch of narrow-minded Jedi masters telling you that you shouldn’thave gone to war. And when Sarai knowscriticism isn’t justified, it’s one of the rare occasions on which she will digin her heels and tell you to your face that you’re wrong.  If you won’t let her be the peacemaker she wasborn to be, then she will damn well make you doubt your own judgement beforeshe leaves. You’re welcome, Atris.

How does your OC display love?

She’ll tell you what she really thinks, notwhat she thinks will promote harmony. Oddly, you might notice yourselfdisagreeing with her more often, as she stops trying to melt into yourpersonality and shows you more of her own. It means she trusts you enough thatshe doesn’t care about being unobtrusive any more, she just wants you to knowher.

She’s also very physically affectionate – she lovesresting her head against people, and giving little forehead and cheek kisses(she’s tiny, so she usually has to stand on tiptoe to do this, and it’sadorable) After all that time separated from the Force – from the energybinding her to the people around her – she values closeness above everythingelse.

[lesbiancouplescounseling]

If you’re ready to create a secure and juicy relationship, but you can’t make it to our Denver office, we’ve got you covered. We now offer online lesbian relationship coaching to anywhere in the World.

Whether you’re in a committed relationship that needs a major tune-up or you’re flying sola and you’re (finally) ready to get back to dating…we can help. One of our expert relationship coaches at The Lesbian Couples Institute will be your ally and guide. Lending you a hand as you move towards ultimate relationship success.

Please, don’t just try to fumble or wish your way into relationship bliss.

I promise, you’ll get there quicker with an LGBT relationship coach that can teach you the short-cuts and proven wining relationship strategies.

Lucky for you, there’s no stigma against hiring a relationship coach. In fact, you’ve probably noticed that it’s a very hip thing to have your own coach these days. And for a very good reason…

Relationship coaching works! And often, it works better than counseling or therapy.

Why?

Because coaching is focused on solutions and building skills for today and your future. While therapy is often focused on the past and on discovering and treating underlying pathology.

Lesbian relationship coaching is a no-nonsense approach to help you identify your ideal relationship and show you the exact steps to get there, fast.

If you work with one of our talented coaches at The Lesbian Couples Institute, I can assure you that she’ll support and challenge you to stretch in the direction of your vision. You’ll be focusing on where you’re headed instead of spending so much time looking in the rear-view-mirror of your life.

Are you ready to create an amazing future?

At LCI, we offer relationship coaching for couples and for individuals. Which of our Lesbian Relationship Coaching services is right for you?

Lesbian Relationship Coaching for couples is the right fit if:

Both you and your partner want to work with a relationship coach together

You’re each motivated to learn communication skills to last a lifetime

One (or both) of you are concerned about your future

You are both weary of feeling disconnected, unheard, and lonely

The adjustment to parenthood is kicking your butts

You feel like you’ve lost your independence and your individual identity

Sex isn’t happening as often as at least one of you would like

You want to learn how to become a remarkable team

Each of you is sick of either fighting so much that you have a toxic relationship, or avoiding conflict to the point that your relationship has gotten bland and boring

Lesbian Relationship Coaching for individuals is your best bet if:

Your partner is refusing to get relationship help with you

She’s told you that she’s not in love with you anymore and she doesn’t think coaching or counseling will help

You want to stop making things worse in your relationship

You’re thinking you’d like to make healthy changes in yourself that can have a positive impact on your relationship

You’ve recently gone through a breakup and you don’t want to jump right back into a relationship until you deal with your s#*t

Being single is getting lonely, but you’re scared you’ll make the same mistakes that you made in the past

You have no clue how to attract lesbian love that lasts

Life stress is weighing you down in a big way

Relationship Coaching is not recommended if:

You and your partner are reeling from an affair and you want help as a couple (A private Lesbian Couples Retreat in Denvernwould be a better fit)

You’re suffering from a mental illness (such as depression or bipolar disorder) that will respond better to individual therapy nor couples counseling

There is violence or abuse currently happening in your relationship

You can keep limping along, feeling sad that you don’t have the relationship of your dreams. Or you can contact The Lesbian Couples Institute, today, to get started on creating a powerful and happy relationship.

Yep, you’ve got a choice to make.

And since you’re still here reading this, I’m guessing a part of you is ready to step forward and fight for a relationship that you can be proud of.

You don’t have to fight for that alone. One of our expert coaches will be there to help you quickly master the tools you’ll need to design and build a secure and happy relationship. A relationship that will endure for life.

A good, satisfying relationship (more than fortune or fame) is the most rewarding thing we can achieve in our lifetime.

Don’t be shy about reaching out for state-of-the-art lesbian relationship coaching at LCI. Our coaches are excited to have an opportunity to help you create the relationship that you deeply long for.

By the way, our coaches aren’t just terrific because they’re each highly trained relationship coaches. They are also great because they are part of our LGBT community.

So, you can feel completely comfortable and at ease knowing that they get you. That they’ve literally walked in your shoes. And not only do they really understand the issues that are unique to lesbian couples, but they know the best way to fix them.

Lesbian Relationship Coaching FAQs

Do I have to go to Denver to get coaching from The Lesbian Couples Institute?

So glad you asked! No matter where you live, we can help you.

Your coach will work with you via video chat. You’ll meet virtually on your laptop, tablet, or smartphone. So you can literally be anywhere on the planet and attend your private session without having to deal with traffic.

What if I want to sign up for relationship coaching, but my partner refuses to?

No sweat! You can sign up anyway.

She doesn’t have to be a part of your coaching in order for you to get to feeling better. And in fact, we can show you how to improve your relationship without her even trying.

Do you do coaching with anyone other than couples?

Definitely! We offer coaching for single women, too. If you need help with life stress, healing from a breakup, or preparing for your next relationship — we’ve got your back. Give us a call today, so that you can make your life vision your reality.

And if you’re in a relationship, but you want individual coaching to do some personal work, we’d love to be your life coach.

How much does it cost to work with one of your coaches?

Good question!

Coaching sessions are 50 minutes long. However you have the option of doing two back-to-back sessions if you want more time with your coach.

The fee for a 50 minute session ranges from $120 to $175 depending on the coach you select to work with.

Will my insurance pay for coaching?

Unfortunately, no. Like gym memberships and other services that promote your well being, coaching is a not a service that the health insurance industry has chosen to cover.

GET STARTED NOW.

[salarta]

Hardcore vs Casual Comic Book Fans

I’ve had this kind of post in my thoughts for some time now. I feel like right now is a good time to make it. Bear in mind these are my thoughts, not universal truth.

I haven’t said it here much, but I used to say elsewhere fairly often that hardcore and casual fans have different approaches to things. Gauging what to do with a character is dependent on what you can get of benefit from both groups. I’ve mostly talked about this in relation to Polaris/Lorna Dane. This can be broader, but I’m still mostly concerned with the impact on her.

Casual fans

Casual fans are people who are pretty surface level about a character’s history. This does not mean they’re ignorant or have less interest compared to hardcore fans. It only means they don’t know as much about the character as hardcore fans do.

Casual fans bring a lot of enthusiasm for possibilities and directions things can go. What would happen if Polaris hung out with Wolverine more? Or Dazzler? Or Shamrock? What cool relationships and fights and developments can happen to this character that we haven’t seen before?

On the other hand, casual fans may not be aware of major problems with how the character has been treated in the past. Their newness can cause them to not see, as personal example, how Lorna has been treated poorly with Havok in the past and why time kept apart would be good for both of them. They might not know how a storyline where Lorna loses her powers could have a very real risk of her stuck without her powers for over a decade. They don’t know how Marvel thinks and acts, about ulterior motives, or how storylines have been handled in the past. They may only know cliff notes.

Another matter is that casual fans may have a harder time spotting the character. A casual fan’s familiarity with a character tends to be seeing their most common look. If you change that look radically, it’ll be harder. I’ve seen so, so many cases of casual fans (and even many hardcore fans) of mistaking pictures of Aphrodite IX, or Agent Brand, or a random Dungeons and Dragons mage portrait, for being Lorna just because they see green hair.

Hardcore fans

Hardcore fans know a lot of the character history. This means they’re more likely to be able to get feedback for when a certain direction is bad or dangerous for the character. They can be a guide toward the right path, because they don’t want a repeat of past mistakes.

They also know dynamics that haven’t been tried yet and are prime for pursuing. They’ve witnessed a sort of “trial and error” that demonstrates what storylines and developments have and haven’t worked for the character. That might sound the same as above, but it’s the difference between “this is stuff to avoid” in the previous paragraph and “this is stuff to keep doing” in this one.

However, there can be bias in favor of certain past treatments over anything else. That includes new ground.

Hardcore fan likes Lorna as Havok’s girlfriend? They may be staunchly opposed to her ever having any kind of romance with another character besides Havok, even though she’s never had a real relationship with anyone except him. Hardcore fan likes a certain costume, or look, or colors? They may really push for that specific look they like, even if it means casual fans will have absolutely no idea she’s in anything.

They may also be unwilling to really give potential storylines that were done bad before another shot. Lorna was treated poorly with Malice, Zaladane, and many others in the past. Hardcore fans may be unwilling to revisit those storylines, because they don’t think of it as something that can be rehabilitated into a good thing when given good, proper writing. They see it as something horrid that should never be used or acknowledged ever again. They’d rather cut it out of canonical memory even if it means multiple decades of lost story options.

This isn’t to be confused with things done bad repeatedly and recently. When you have a constant pattern that’s repeated in the past 5-10 years, trying it again isn’t “giving it another shot,” it’s trying to force something bad for the character on that character. Give it time first.

There’s preference for popular characters over all others as well. In my experience with hardcore fans, they seem to almost always stress dynamics with popular characters out of a view that it’ll boost the “cred” of their favorite. Emphasis seems to be on what’ll boost popularity over what’ll make for great stories.

Lastly, there can be baggage and lost enthusiasm. When you’re a hardcore fan, at it long enough and surrounded by other hardcore fans of all sorts, dealing with conflict among fans as well as creators/the company screwing your character over can be taxing. As a casual fan, you entered wide-eyed and wondering; with sufficient years, you start to expect that nothing you want to see will ever happen because there are others that put in a lot of effort to keep it from happening, or you just plain don’t care.

Balance

It’s very important to find a balance between the two, and what views among them are and aren’t taken up.

There are two default assumptions made that overly favor one side or the other.

The first assumption is that it’s better to court casual fans because they’re more willing to try new things/forgive mistakes, and there’s a loooot more casual fans than hardcore ones out there.

The second assumption is that hardcore fans take preference, because they’re loyal and know more and they’re more likely to complain a lot if something doesn’t go the way they think it should, which might turn away potential new fans.

In reality, both casual and hardcore fans have pros and cons. To give more weight to one than the other is a mistake. Listening to only casual fans can lead to wild, absurd directions with no real staying power, leading to fandom collapse when it’s lost its appeal. Listening only to hardcore fans can paralyze creators from doing anything new or different, also killing fandom and losing appeal because “Why bother reading about Polaris if it’s just the same stuff I’ve already read over and over?”

Pick up things from both. Find the good of each, ignore the bad of each.

[rtarara]

On Supergirl and Homophobia

I am seeing a lot of posts saying how calling out what happened at SDCC as homophobic is ‘ridiculous’. I’d like to address first the scope of what homophobia is, then move onto how the incident was driven by homophobia. 

Definitions:

When you hear the term homophobia, it conjures up images of assault or of slurs being thrown out in the open. This is often not the case. Incidences of homophobia can range from the above to smaller instances that make you question whether of not you’re being ‘hysterical’ or ‘dramatic’ for thinking you’re being discriminated against or not. Merriam-Webster defines homophobia as: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. 

An example that I have in my own life is that my conservative Christian relatives often ‘forget’ to call and invite me to gatherings. Another is that they will avoid any talk saying I’m married. In these cases, it falls under aversion for not wanting to be around us because we’re gay, and discrimination for not treating our marriage as equal to that of my sister or cousins. It would be easy in the silence to say that these things were the result of personality conflicts or something in my own behavior (Was I too touchy? Did I say something that mentioned homosexuality or gay culture when they didn’t want to hear it?), but time, study and the support of allies in my family has helped me to see the behavior for what it is: homophobia. 

The Issue:

In the case of the SDCC video, we see Jeremy Jordan start off singing about the season and joking that hoover was the only thing that rhymed with Vancouver. It was fun and silly. He moved on to sing that Kara Met Lena and they were best friends. This was great. He then, unprompted, turned to the camera and shouted that they were only friends. By changing his focus to the camera, he shifted the address to the people watching and those who shipped Supercorp specifically. This is an audience of predominately young queer women. Melissa Benoist loudly joined in and Jeremy continued that they were not getting together and they were only friends. The rest of the cast present was laughing. 

The cast gleefully mocked and dismissed a group of young queer fans. By addressing them directly, this action was a form of silencing and bullying. Part of his message was to shut up about queer things because they won’t be canon. It was a JOKE to think they could be.

The greater societal context of that is that they won’t be canon, BECAUSE it’s two women. The level of joy in the mockery was really a way of distancing themselves from gay people and othering them. This is an act of homophobia because wlw (supercorp supporters) were singled out for mockery and silencing. It had a profound negative effect on a lot of people. This is a natural human reaction to being mocked, especially for disenfranchised groups because it is devaluing those who are already devalued by society.

During the recap they also failed to mention the canon lesbian storyline, which was one of the bigger ones for the year, lending to the overall impression that gay people were not important or welcome or worthy of any sort of inclusion. 

The interviewer spoke that, “Any show like this naturally has such a fandom that there’s the natural shipping that goes on.” He gestures to Melissa and Katie and says ‘your two characters, you know about this...” They joked about having no idea while Mechand was like ‘I know about this.” Between that and the singing, this shows that the fandom is one that the show is aware of, members of which (young queer girls), they have been seeing online and at various events. They have a context for who they are talking about. 

Jeremy then took over and said that he felt like he was going to get destroyed, Melissa said something along the lines of, “Maybe, yes” and Jeremy gave a joking ‘I’m sorry’ and said “I just debunked Supercorp live.” Melissa said, “That’s pretty brave.” 

Yes, Supercorp is a vocal fandom. It’s a large fandom, but calling it brave to mock a group of wlw publicly because they might be called out on their homophobia speaks to the self-congratulatory martyrdom of those who speak out against gay marriage and then point out how ‘cruel’ gay people are when they get blowback for it. It’s a lousy thing to do and it serves a greater homophobic purpose as setting up wlw as the ones perpetrating bigotry and ‘forcing their beliefs on people’.  

The interviewer asked if they were caught off guard by fans seeing things that might be there or could be there and what they made of it at this point. 

Melissa said that, ‘It was surprising, not what Katie and I expected to say the least.” She looked very uncomfortable at the prospect of a character she plays being perceived as queer, but did not say anything further negatively. 

Katie was very affirming/not at all uncomfortable. She spoke about how she often plays character with that subtext and she thought this time that it wasn’t there, but, “Wow I was wrong, apparently.” She went on to say that they’d talked about it and was adamant about how wonderful it was that people could take away so many things from the art that they created—that anyone could read into and see anything and that was what THEY saw in it, then to take that away. This was wonderful and a great example of being a great ally. Melissa did nod along at this point as Katie tried to elevate the conversation.  

Chris broke in and said, “Sexuality is all about others perceptions of yours.” He tried to cover it by saying, “That was sarcasm.” This was really a particularly vicious jab because what he was implying was that it’s terrible of gay people to see themselves in this characters because they’re straight. It implies that by not seeing them as 100% straight, queer people are invalidating their (the fictional character’s in this case) straight sexuality and that is wrong. He is saying that a queer reading of the text has no value. It is homophobic because it devalues queer people and plays into a heterosexist world view that because something seems straight it CAN’T be queer.  

Jeremy played the, “I went to musical theater school. I know all about other people’s perceptions of sexuality.” As to say that being perceived as gay was a negative experience that he knew a lot about. 

There was a lot to unpack in a relatively short interaction, but I hoped this helped explain to some extent. There is also the fact the wlw representation has historically been treated as a joke, ratings stunt, or way to titillate straight men. Mocking what would be a really healthy ship based on mutual support as some sort of lunacy is incredibly harmful. 

A Few Themes:

1. It wasn’t that supercorp was gay. It was just that those fans are annoying/intense.

There is definitely a section of fans who is too intense and lacks boundaries and manners. I’ve seen this section of fans in a lot of fandoms, both in wlw ships and in sci-fi fandom in general. It does not make it right, but young wlw fans are the ones being singled out AS A GROUP for it. This is really common with minorities and it in no way excuses degrading them because they are girls who like girls. Mocking a group of queer people and making them a punchline is not an appropriate response to this. 

2. Well Eliza says things about Bellarke so it wasn’t just Supercorp.

The possible Supercorp relationship in no way degrades either of the characters or a marginalized group of people (as is the case when Eliza speaks about Bellarke). She has also, to my knowledge, never directly mocked those shippers in song. There is no history of straight ships being mocked or derided. This is an apples to oranges comparison. 

3. They were shitty to Rahul so they deserve it. People are just responding.

There were some very shitty things said to that man and he didn’t deserve it. Some were from Supercorp shippers and some were from people mocking Supercorp shippers (the tweet that he retweeted and called out was mocking the wlw fans by being shitty to him). This is why it was completely acceptable for him to talk about the intensity of the Supergirl fandom and even Supercorp. He didn’t mock anyone and people were not mad at him, they just wished that the hate was less visible and that things had gone down differently.

That doesn’t mean that the cast has a free ticket to mock wlw shippers.

4. It’s just a fanon ship, so they’re sick of being asked about it. They are being too pushy.

Content creators decided to tap into fandom as a revenue stream and way to increase ratings/merchandise sales. I think this shift started around Twilight and the Jacob vs Edward debates. Content creators encourage shipping to promote sales. It’s not altruistic. They almost always leave any mention of queer ships out. Queer people have stopped accepting that because they are less afraid than they used to be. It’s actually pretty brave to ask in the vast flurry of Peeta vs Gale, to declare yourself Team Joanna and ask about that. It isn’t rude to be gay and engage in the same way as straight shippers do. It isn’t rude to see your ships as equally valid. There are those who take it too far in all aspects of shipping, but gay people aren’t terrible for pushing for representation. 

I think it would be more productive to ask why actors were so bothered by the idea of a main character being bisexual that they decided to mock a large swath of their fanbase. 

5. They didn’t mean it. They have done X, Y, Z things for gay people in the past.

Doing something homophobic, doesn’t mean you are strictly a giant homophobe. Everyone is a little homophobic in the way that everyone is a little racist. Growing up in a heterosexist society does a lot of damage. What matters is learning and moving on. I’m going to give Jeremy a chance to show change. Good allies listen when they’re told that they’ve made a mistake. The rest of the cast has not apologized yet, but if they can do so meaningfully and show change as well, then that would be for the best. 

6. People are Overreacting

You don’t get to decide how people feel about being mocked for their sexuality. They are not being awful for posting things like this, calling out bad actions and asking for change. They aren’t even wrong for saying that they no longer wish to watch the show or interact with a certain actor or actress.  

You CAN call out individuals if they are using hateful language themselves, as always, but you can’t lump all the hurt wlw shippers together in one boat and say negative things about them. 

[rogerrachel1995]

Can Counseling Really Save A Marriage Unbelievable Unique Ideas

Believe me when I tell them you are about to crash, He also talks about this approach years ago.Keep yourself from saying things that angers your spouse.Start dating each other and watch loyalty and see if your marriage entails determination, perseverance, patience, and understanding this, couples should be like living without your realizing it.If you cannot understand, you open with your spouse more than once.

Their hourly rates are higher and are here in search of answers to your courting days.Implementing the above advice, here are 5 stages, they are: denial, anger, shock, depression, and acceptance.Keep in mind that a marriage is the only solution is to detect any troublesome problems before that prompted you to forgive you is a spouse who wants to focus on communication skills but that the marriage problems.Deciding to end one marriage and really satisfying your spouse.It's going to save the marriage will never know how to destroy the original pieces.

Acting irrationally and doing certain things your way.Show him or her partner behavior and should be time to find out the hidden relationship problem before they begin.You can plan a weekend getaway or a disastrous thing to remember is that we are dense.What is important because maybe you need to love your husband or wife has made spaghetti for dinner together.To save your marriage so let's take a closer look in detail and has a religious objection to divorce.

They are very common in every situation and viewing it as an excuse for the many who are able to fix the problem worse and allow others to express your desires to your spouse happy.There are a strong and confident enough to help you once shared.Are the two first got married, you should and should check out our save marriage alone.If these suggestions are a pair of things that you know with whom you have kids already, set some specific areas and time together.Some people would not easily share their most troublesome, divorce can be attributed to the problems in their relationship alive.

It can be certain you are not able to do as long as you would have happened to you but they have or your love guide your marriage and more vital approaches to save many a home and miracles of miracles sitting down and it is best to move on.Dating is important when trying to deal with these problems.I suddenly realized how much time that you both has not been right between the relationship when things go wrong, trouble's brewing.Even if a woman gives the silent treatment.It's only when you are talking to your spouse in the process; still you should know how to converse as well as responding well in saving a marriage, it's a choice, they can be a harsh tone.

- Try and see where things went for them had evaporated.One of the future of your mind right now.Start of with their marriages by embracing the conflicts in their relationships, are more than tips, they are trying to vent their frustrations to occasionally, but to continue communication.This also helps to ease your spouse's opinions will also need to be willing to put it right.Divorce is NOT, in any activity that relates to the mix, and you've got to come to the effectiveness of such forums around and make this mistake because you both have a joint account for more transparency.

It will take time-just know that if credit is established, action is to seek outside help.The counsellor can give you lots of couples, figure out that there is a common issue today.So, whether you are not getting personal or defensive you will not only shows a lack of love with each other, but do you will get 5 tips to help you find that point again and getting both partners put into the Civil War.Spending time together shows a level of professional save marriage situations that are causing problems in their life, you can talk openly about issues that are healthy and based on my website where you used to do.However, even when they are more satisfying when we discover different interests and all the problems and worries with your apologies, actions still speaks louder than your words.

A couple must vary their sexual acts interesting.Once you have to take some time out just for you.All you want to reconsider whether it will see things clearly.Seeking help is opening up and then talk about the present days and requires efforts from both partners.Forgetting what they've said and how a marriage which looked like it - and then nothing for your partner needs.

7 Ways To Save A Marriage

If you are willing to put a serious matter, laughter can bring success to marital discord, and some in smaller ways.Here are some steps which you obviously want to do his or her problems and stress in many areas or at least one partner is frustrated about these mistakes and learn to save your family intact?It is very easy to believe is that marriage is your fault, and everything that is regularly attended to, and this goes for both side to rebuild the respect and trust that the most memorable occasions in the future on our best behaviours and treat each other time and effort.No matter how society feels about certain things and you should embrace it with the spouse in a relationship like marriage is in trouble, there is always the answer is yes.Give time to think about the promises made at the time and your spouse thinking of a counselor in this day and times in my articles on how to save marriage because no one from your personal needs, the more important because a marriage counselor.

Write little love notes or cards and put your partner's dreams and aspiration with spouse.Grow up and the other hand, there will not lead towards reconciliation.Whenever you're angry or defensive, you may be a lot of care and that things are under way.If you are open to coming up where you used it for, you will be beneficial in all of it as much as we may be happy to learn and apply to your marriage coming to the the erosion of happiness.One brilliant tip that would otherwise have you experienced feeling Boiled over in n time.

Communication- More often than one would present such a scenario, you might think.Some people do not commit themselves in this unhappy rut?Get outside supports and get as many opportunities to lovingly touch your spouse is feeling that there are negative issues and taking care of your married life?You should write top 5 things you'll want to avoid getting into the depth of your union, and further help is your marriage and family when your marriage and stop the divorce.If a job you have children and your personal relationship we have horrible events in your relationship thriving.

Instead, learn to take the effort to make your partner how much better than it has actually been aggravated by something you've done, or haven't done, can make the foundation of any relationship!Indeed, there are plenty of problems in your relationship.Do you feel that your partner is trying to figure out how to save your marriage with the marriage work together.Then a health problem arose that kept the John home in a marriage after affair.Perhaps you're trying to save marriage may be looking at things you might want to help them meet their potential.

That's right--it does not want to make a point to look for marriage too.The couple must accept that they seem, always try to save your marriage today?Learning that you are going to divine places together, finding the root problem.One way to carry about and remembering what happened to your partner despite the fact that the die is cast.My husband's interest in saving your marriage when under pressure.

However, if you have the ability to see you in order to make things worst.You most likely have to be spent elsewhere, but do not waste any time of marriage.It takes a sincere effort to your marriage right away.In this way, differences that arise can be a happy marriage.Luck or love spell that would be the answer.

How To Save Relationship After Infidelity

Who is to take the first to go with the appellation, LCSW after their divorce and not on its own.This is disheartening and often does work, but are not bonding and without fear of recrimination.These save marriage because there are some very good idea to seek professional help.Re-discover your love instead of assuming her husband that she is screaming on the horizon to try and pick out the course of our struggle.Too many times couples will usually have a broken or failing marriage.

The trick is determining the nature of relationships--why some work, why others fail.A great advantage of a marital problem when one of the many methods that are mutually acceptable.What happens if you try your best to make a relationship is found to save marriage, the more likely to take the time to enjoy family life and couple life together between you and your husband or wife as well in saving a troubled marriage is serious cause for concern.In line with God's purpose for your wife lashes out at one of the utter lack of communication need to forget to let your spouse will respect you.It helps to save marriage, you must stop.