#it's people not understanding that working through this takes significant effort

[moonstrider9904]

It's taken me a while to process the fact that Crosshair lost his hand, and I've seen many different takes on the subject. All takes and sentiments are valid and I understand they all come from somewhere, and I'm grateful to have seen such a diversity of opinions before forming my own. Cards on the table, I disagree with the sentiment that Crosshair losing his hand was a bad writing choice on the basis of it meaning that he's now healed.

Let me elaborate (and I will elaborate a lot on this):

I feel like the relation between the hand coming off and the tremor/PTSD stopping is more a symbolic connection that the fandom perceived rather than something explicitly established by canon. It was never said after Crosshair lost his hand "he is now healed because of this." If anything, the way Crosshair was written through season 3 shows us he is putting in effort to healing way before losing his hand. Meditating, slowly opening up, moving past the horrors of Tantiss, etc. These are all things Crosshair does throughout the season that help him move forward. When the subject of Tantiss is brought up again, the tremor returns, and this is a very normal response.

But if I'm honest, I doubt how much PTSD and the concept of healing is truly understood by those so openly criticizing this writing choice, because that would also mean understanding that healing is not linear and it does not come magically through one sole act, deed, or loss. If the aforementioned was understood, so many people wouldn't have an issue with this connection in the first place because, symbolic as it may be, it is not fact. It is a symbol. What we did see was healing being depicted throughout the season: you work through your issues and you do better but then you can be back at square one the next day. Even if you're doing well for a period of time, the source of your PTSD can return, and your physical symptoms along with it, and of course this is normal and valid and it is wonderful to me that this was put on screen with Crosshair.

If it had been explicitly established on screen that Crosshair was magically healed because his hand's no longer there, I would have some other things to say about the matter, but again, it was not. This is something that fandom is coming up with and people are now deciding they have an issue with, because canon did not turn out to accommodate their theories and beliefs. And, even if it had been established that Crosshair fully healed from his past demons because he lost the hand that had the tremor, that wouldn't erase all the healing he had beforehand. I think it's invalidating - to the writers, to anyone with PTSD who relates to Crosshair, and to the character's phenomenal character arc - to assume that Crosshair's hand loss is the most significant part of his healing when he did so much work on himself before it.

And I would also argue that the loss of a limb is a traumatic event in itself, and I question how exactly it would be possible for one trauma piled on top of past traumatic events is supposed to heal someone.

I hate the fact that Crosshair lost his hand as something that happened to him, I hate it because it's Crosshair. Because I saw him getting hurt on screen, more than he already was. Because his whole body was trembling when it happened. Because I witnessed a man I've loved since day one, who's so kind and caring and has grown so much have to go through something so terrible. Because he had to endure pain and suffering yet again. Because I love him. Because my heart breaks for him.

As a writing choice, however, it was shocking, but it led up to a key moment between Crosshair and Hunter, and by extension, the climax of the finale. Yes, it would be significant for Crosshair's hand to have stopped shaking for him to take the clean shot, I wouldn't have objections if that had happened in canon either. But I think the power of Crosshair landing that final shot wasn't in the hand tremor. It was in losing his shooting hand, after a lifetime of equating his own worth to being a sniper, then hearing his brother Hunter, who he went through so much trouble and resentment and forgiveness with, encouraging him. Hunter really said "you can do it" and that was when Crosshair stopped thinking of himself as a sniper, and more as a brother. And he helped saved his sister. And with that, he saved all his other brothers on Tantiss. As a writing choice, Crosshair losing his hand is something that I accept and acknowledge as canon and I have processed the initial shock to the point where now I can talk about it more, and analyzing the scenes further makes it not just sensate writing, but poetic.

Back to the subject of the PTSD, Crosshair was able to rise above losing his hand in the moment on the bridge to team up with Hunter and save Omega, and that is admirable. And even if he was peaceful in the finale, one thing we can say for sure because it actually works that way in reality is that Crosshair will have to do a lot of healing and a lot of coping post losing his hand. I arrive at that conclusion quicker than I would conclude that "he's fine now" because the latter is not humanly possible. Even when people are capable of summoning the strength in the moment, there is a lot of healing and coping needed afterwards.

Being strong in the moment and mustering a smile when things turn out alright does not invalidate the struggle and effort put into getting better both before or after that moment of strength. Crosshair was so brave on Tantiss, but he's not fully healed upon returning to Pabu because no, PTSD is not stored in the hand, and I sincerely don't think that was the writers' intention on what to convey. If anything happens afterwards that we don't see on screen, I would anticipate it's the continuation of his healing process, which is not linear or constant.

And before anyone gets angry and wants to come at me with a pitchfork, let's remember Tech's wise words: Understanding you does not mean that I agree with you. While I see and understand the reasons why many people perceived this writing choice as a lazy one, I only wish to shine light on reasons that to me make this choice make sense. I've suffered PTSD from more than one traumatic event in my life, and for a total of twelve years (and counting) I have put in the work. I have had my share of non-linear healing. I have seen first hand and know this process all too well and it is yet another reason why I think Crosshair's character arc was masterfully done.

Lastly, I want to make one final call to be respectful towards the writers of The Bad Batch for how they chose to write their story. Here on tumblr, many fanfiction writers would be appalled if a reader came up to us spewing the things they hated about our story and how we should change it. I would be appalled too. That is not a cool thing to do to a writer. So let us treat other writers with the respect we want for ourselves.

May the Force be with you all ❤️ Now that the finale's done, us writers have the whole world of TBB to explore, adapt, and make into our own, and all of it will be valid and beautiful. Just be sure to always embrace others for their differences, for that makes you whole.

[cloud-somersault]

the way the fandom like. makes all these angsty art pieces and jokes and animatics of Wukong doing a murder and people in the comments go "ow! how could you" or "the angst is getting to me" or "haha! wukong did a murder!"

and then if you ever take that (somewhat widely accepted) concept and put it into a realistic context and like. act as if it actually happened, oh no, you can't do that! we can't have Wukong doing a wrong!

so like, what do people want? Do we just want the murder to be played up for laughs, or are we actually gonna acknowledge it? because imo, treating it simply as a joke and ignoring it otherwise is Not the move.

[moonbaetarot]

Pick a pile

what will your next relationship be like

1. 2. 3.

Pile 1

This person is going to respect your boundaries and respect you as a whole they know where they stand In the relationship. They are a bit greedy with their money they may be very money oriented. They do have a very good job tho. This relationship is going to have a good foundation. This person may be a bit jealous they don’t like other people trying to hit on you or in the way of your relationship. If they are a male they show their emotions they aren’t afraid to show emotions and tell you how they feel if they are sad or had a bad day. I feel like you can go to this person if you need an opinion on something and they are going to tell you the truth right or wrong. You are definitely going to be physically intimate with this person. You Two may meet at work or while traveling. This relationship will definitely be a big change in your life. You could meet this person in the summer time. I feel like at the end of the day this relationship with very lighthearted, just two people making memories and having fun. This person may be a bit stubborn or you are. For some this person could a distant friend at first.

Thank you for reading loves! 🤍

Pile 2

I see that you manifested this person into your life you may have been single for a while before you two meet. This relationship is going to be adventures I see you trying and doing a lot of new things with this person. If you procrastinate a lot this person is going to help you not procrastinating as much like if you put off making your bed they are going to be like “come on babe just do it it’s going to take like 5 minutes” I feel like they really help you with that. You two compliment each other so well. Y’all may get into fights about petty little things but they do this just to play fight with you lol. I feel like at times you may feel like this person doesn’t have enough time to be in a relationship or has to much on there plate to be in one. this person is going to be on the same level and vibe as you like if you’re someone who has a lot of energy they definitely do aswell. This love you two have if going go be very passionate and firey. You can go to this person for advice they are a very wise person. They are going to have a huge crush on you i see them watching your from a far not in a creepy way lol they may just be in the same area as you or watch you on social media before they make their move on you.

Thank you for reading loves! 🤍

Pile 3

I feel like this relationship is really going to heal you. Someone in this pile may have mommy/daddy issues and this person like heals that in you. If you don’t have issues with your parents it may just be you have never really felt loved or cared for in that way. You or this person could be very artistic and creative. This person is very romantic they love buying you flowers, taking you on dates and buying you whatever you want. This person cares about you and your feelings they put a lot of effort into you and this relationship. This relationship is going to be deep and loving built through trust and understanding. I feel like this person is very good with there words. This person is going to going to show you what’s it’s like to be loved. I see this relationship lasting a very long time this is definitely an important and significant relationship in your life time. They want the world with you they want a future with you. You’re on the right path to meeting this person keep doing what you’re doing and you two will meet. For some you you just got out of a relationship/situation this happened so you and this new person could meet. This person likes to be in charge and dominant in the relationship. You may meet this person after some type of family sorrow. I see you venting and crying to this person about this sorrow i feel like this took a big toll on you. But they are they to care and comfort you. You may love candles or like fire.

Thank you for reading loves! 🤍

[apas-95]

The last post you re logged about arrestability and the Palestine Action network is something I've been thinking about a lot, and I feel really stuck on. It feels like any movement in the imperial core that wants to take actual direct action is going to find itself targeted by feds, but the ways that you can protect against that severely preclude it's ability to grow and find new recruits. Like, activism in the labor sphere can do more direct things because it doesn't have to be illegal, but I cant imagine that that will stay the case once a political labor party that's actually shutting things down. How does one make a mass movement that takes direct action but is able to prevent itself from getting shut down? I don't know, do you have any thoughts on this?

It's been done a hundred times before in the face of the same pressures, so the first order of business should be studying and learning from the experiences of successful labour movements.

Putting that aside, the key things are, in whatever words, militancy and deniability. By militancy, I mean the organisational understanding that you are in direct conflict with the bourgeois state (at a higher or lower intensity) and that your immediate priority should be making yourself immune to attack, followed only afterwards by taking offensive action. Militancy, then, means the recognition that the ultimate aim of the movement is the complete material domination and destruction of institutions that currently field armies and police networks. From the very first step, from the organisational nucleus, it needs to be understood that you are engaging in a pitched battle from within the enemies camp - which leads to the second key item, deniability.

Deniability, here, largely means compartmentalisation. Essentially every successful revolutionary movement has had a separation between the aboveground, legal struggle, and the underground, illegal struggle. To a certain degree, this is a genuinely covert or clandestine effort - undisclosed armed groups known only to a select few in the parent organisation, attributed funding through the laundering of the parent organisation. It is both essential that any armed cell is dependent entirely on the wide, integrated mass workers movement and that this cell is not actually widely known; hence, the parent organisation. If the cell were undisclosed but not integrated to a mass political organisation, it would not have revolutionary character, and be indistinguishable in practice from a common organised crime or terrorist group. It's ability to carry out correct actions would be incidental, and not self-correcting. If the cell had mass character but was not undisclosed, it would present a target to the bourgeois state and be destroyed. The strategy of asymmetric warfare is to strike at the enemy's undefended targets and to refuse to provide any defended targets for the enemy - this applies organisationally, too.

What needs to be stated, here, is that, given the connection to the mass movement, everything needs to be done only when the situation is correct. The size of a workers organisation necessary to support and supply even a single armed cell with laundered funding, safehouses, and information is extremely large, and will not be possible until a significant level of organisational base has been built and developed. Even once it is possible to support an armed cell, the political situation will very likely only warrant fairly low-intensity actions, like industrial sabotage. Again, though, the principal task of the militant - and the irregular fighter, the guerrilla in particular - is the preservation of one's own forces, over and above the destruction of the enemy. In real practice, there is no overabundance of caution, only hesitation - and the way to consistently and repeatedly carry out simple acts of industrial sabotage is by having three people work with the support of thirty-thousand. There can and must be a continuum of support, of different levels of action, between simply 'protest-organiser who pays dues to the aboveground labour organisation', to 'union salt who is a source of information on a worksite', to 'directly involved in organising and carrying out illegal acts'. The key metric for correct connection between the underground and aboveground sides of the movement is: if the actions of the underground were revealed, the mass base of the aboveground should be in support of it. The purpose of underground organising is not to go ahead of the people and start shooting cops (until the struggle has escalated to that intensity, and people are demanding that type of protection), it is to avoid providing a target for the bourgeois state.

At the higher levels of struggle, the existence of the underground becomes an open secret, which, with proper growth, coincides with the underground reaching a size and strength that it can begin to take up the mantle of the mass movement itself, and effectively transform itself into the parent organisation of the aboveground legal struggle. Until then, the model is that of a large political party leading a mass movement in every type of legal and semi-legal action under the sun (in strikes, civil unrest, and parliamentary campaigns), fiercely supporting those who do break the law (through legal and bail support, public campaigns, and protection), while the types of illegal actions the movement needs are carried out covertly.

TL;DR: Build a mass movement, or all you'll get are ecoterrorists and activists in prison.

[communistkenobi]

this might make me sound ignorant but is the radfem part of term not about hating men? they hate trans people, they hate men and they view both as predatory, obviously men are not their primary targets but I feel like it would be incorrect to say that they don't hate men, especially since many of them believe in gender separatism (which is bs for numerous reasons). it's wrong to bring up men every time someone talks about the transmisogyny terfs spew bc that would be derailing the conversation but can men (trans/cis/whatever) not express how they've been hurt by terfs in their own posts or conversations? apologies if ive completely misinterpreted what you were saying I just want to understand the topic better

I’m not disputing that terfs hate men. However, I think it’s an error to highlight their hatred of men as ideologically significant. Sure they talk about hating men, but their political alliances reveal that dismantling patriarchy, or a desire to oppress men, is not a concern for them, given that they support the criminalisation of sex work, the state enforcement of sex as biologically determined, and are allied with the same right wing groups (such as the Heritage Foundation in the US) that want to criminalise abortion and reinstate “traditional” white western gender norms. If you view terf political goals through the lens of hating men, then their political efforts have overwhelmingly been a massive failure. Which I don’t think is very useful analysis!

A hatred of men is also not politically useful in general, because there is no money to be made or political battles to be won hating men. Hatred of men is not a systemic issue because men are not oppressed as a social group on the basis of their manhood. There is no political or financial infrastructure built on the foundation of hating men, nor is there infrastructure dedicated to maintaining a systemic hatred of men. Hating trans people, however, is extremely financially and politically lucrative, particularly hatred of trans women/transfems, because of how transphobia and misogyny intersect with and reinforce one another. There are ample political, financial, medical, and social institutions that operate on the maintenance of patriarchy, many of which terfs share a political platform with. So terf hatred of men is clearly not that big a deal given how willing they are to ally with right wing groups and fascists, who are the last people on earth to tolerate the oppression of men as a political goal.

This is why people (myself included) take umbrage with the continued insistence that terfs hate men as a central foundation of their beliefs. It’s not incorrect to say that they hate men, but hating men is not the problem with terfs. Hatred of men is not an inherently reactionary position anymore than hating cis people is. The problem is the way terfs conceptualise gender, and the political goals that flow from that conceptualisation, which affects all trans people but primarily affect trans women/transfems. The spectre they raise about bathrooms, about sports, is always the age-old transmisogynistic conspiracy of “a man in a dress” “invading women’s spaces” because the historical legacy of transmisogyny looms large in public consciousness, and reinforced by medical/psychiatric institutions in particular, in a way that hatred and fear of trans men does not (autogynephilia exists as a mental illness but autophallophilia does not, for example. Julia Serrano talks about this in Whipping Girl if you want to read more on the subject). Terfs don’t care about trans men in men’s sports, they don’t raise the counter-spectre of trans men being mass assaulted in bathrooms by cis men who discover that they’re “really women” - these are not rhetorical moves that are interesting or useful to them, because it does not position them as victims. Trans men are hurt by their transphobic rhetoric, suffer under transphobic laws that are passed, and face transphobic discrimination from people in their lives as a result of how mainstream transphobia is (and I am speaking from significant and traumatic personal experience on this front). We are not, however, the face of the transgender boogeyman, and we are not the primary target of terfs. We are targets because we are trans, not because we are men. To be dismissive of the claim that terfs hate men is not a dismissal of the pain and violence transmascs go through, because our oppression is not founded on our manhood.

So when you see terf political efforts and terf rhetoric, their obsessive focus on trans women as arch villains who need to be destroyed, and you come to the conclusion that a hatred of men is the animating force behind terf political activity - that is a transmisogynistic conclusion, both because you are framing their transmisogyny as something that is primarily informed by a hatred of men, and because “terfs hate men” is a non-sequitur in discussions about the political and social damage that their beliefs cause. If terfs hate men, they do so as a hobby, and I don’t really give a fuck about their hobbies

[lunarlianna]

Part of Fortune

The Part of Fortune is an Arabic point in astrology, calculated using the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant positions. In order to see where it’s yours, I’ll say check on astro.com or astro-seek.com. On astro.com you’ll need to go on extended chart selection->additional objects-> select Pars of Fortunae and on Astro-seek.com it’ll calculate automatically once you enter your birth details. It's your personal beacon of joy and success, often related to matters like money and material well-being. This special point gains even more significance when it aligns with friendly planets like Venus and Jupiter. Your Part of Fortune sign represents qualities you should embrace for achieving your goals, and its opposite sign should be avoided for long-term success. Embodying these qualities is crucial for success, as it's a logical and unemotional indicator of prosperity and guides you toward material success and happiness in the later stages of life. Developing these traits consciously can enhance your fortune.

POF in Aries: with the Part of Fortune in Aries, your inner fire is your key to success. Embrace challenges head-on, even if you have to go it alone at times. Trust your intuition and be spontaneous in pursuing your goals. Don't let others sway you; follow your instincts. Take bold action and don't fear failure. This placement encourages you to be self-assertive, confident, and creative, finding happiness in your independent spirit. However, be cautious of letting the opinions of others block your intuition, especially with the opposite sign Libra, which might lead you astray from your true path. Your success comes when you act decisively and prioritize independence.

POF in Taurus: with the Part of Fortune in Taurus, success comes through steady, patient work. Embrace a logical, fact-based approach to tasks, even when emotions run high. When you face setbacks, regroup and persist. Stick to what you know and avoid unnecessary risks. You thrive in a calm, predictable environment, but remember that change is inevitable, so stay adaptable and trust your sense of timing. Your inner peace is a source of strength. The opposing sign, Scorpio, teaches you the importance of embracing change without fear, understanding that transformation is a natural part of life.

POF in Gemine: with the Part of Fortune in Gemini, flexibility is your path to success. Embrace change and diversity, engage with different people, and explore various perspectives. Adaptation is your key to achievement, and success often comes through a series of progressive steps. Networking plays a significant role in your journey, as you find joy and success through communication and connections. Opposite in Sagittarius, you can connect diverse ideas and people. Avoid personal judgments, embrace relative perspectives, and cultivate an open, impersonal view to foster growth and harmonious connections.

POF in Cancer: trust your gut feelings to discern what's right and avoid wasted efforts. While hard work is crucial, combining it with intuition is essential. Nurturing is your path to happiness. Your warmth and maternal instincts shine through, and you find security in building on a solid emotional foundation. Success comes from embracing the beginnings of things, whether it's a project, idea, or relationship. Avoid rushing the process; instead, nurture growth naturally. The opposing sign, Capricorn, teaches you the value of patience and flexibility in achieving your goals, reminding you that the journey is as important as the destination.

POF in Leo: your success blossoms through generosity and optimism. Lead by example rather than preaching, and infuse creativity into everything you do. Connect emotionally to your pursuits, and give without expecting anything in return. Your path to achievement lies in pouring your heart into your endeavors and inspiring others. You thrive as a center of attention, finding happiness in creative self-expression and receiving recognition for your achievements. Avoid imposing your methods on others; let them accept or reject your offerings without attachment to the outcome.

POF in Virgo: your path to success relies on order, diligence, and attention to detail. Address daily tasks promptly and logically, without feeling overwhelmed. Establish a healthy daily routine as it's essential for your success. Take time for introspection to manage sensitivity to others' energies. Avoid excessive identification with others and navigate overwhelming emotions, which may arise due to the opposing Pisces energy. Seek inner peace and truth through careful discernment and mindfulness. Your talent lies in noticing and harmonizing details, and you thrive when nurturing your well-being.

POF in Libra: success thrives through balance, tolerance, and harmonious partnerships. Avoid hasty decisions and the urge to go it alone, especially when starting out. Maintain equilibrium, cultivate diplomacy, and create win-win situations with others. Sharing and caring for those around you is vital. Find joy and success in cultivating harmonious relationships, appreciating beauty, and seeking fairness and justice. Your ability to cooperate and consider multiple perspectives is your strength. Avoid taking desires too personally and strive for a balanced, inclusive approach to decision-making.

POF in Scorpio: success comes from intuition and inner wisdom. Avoid becoming overly focused on material pursuits or status. Your ability to tap into deep, transformative energies is your strength. Trust your intuition and explore the inner meaning of things. You're drawn to exploring spiritual and occult realms. Balance your intense Scorpio energy with the peaceful stability of Taurus (the opposite sign), recognizing the importance of security but avoiding repression. Strive to use your transformative abilities for the greater good and maintain an impersonal perspective to find harmony and inner peace.

POF in Sagittarius: honesty and directness are your pathways to success. Avoid the inclination to lie or act erratically, as these behaviors won't lead to long-term achievement. Embrace adventure, explore new horizons, and immerse yourself in different cultures. Your fortune may come unexpectedly or in unexpected places. Embrace belief and faith, and don't fear taking risks for the sake of learning and adventure. Detach from concerns about what others think and focus on your passions to find joy and share it through example.

POF in Capricorn: success comes through perseverance and a focus on hard facts over emotions. Take responsibility for your path and work diligently to achieve your goals. Avoid getting bogged down by others' actions or negative emotions, as they can drain your energy. Rise above fear and doubt, stay true to your long-term goals, and maintain self-discipline. Your fortune lies in creating lasting value through hard work and dedication. Embrace the role of an authority figure in your life and society, and find joy in the slow but steady progress toward your ambitions.

POF in Aquarius: your success lies in embracing your uniqueness and unconventional approach. Avoid the temptation to seek power and recognition in a conventional manner. Instead, see your differences as neutral and revel in your individuality. Think outside the box, detach from the need for approval, and focus on contributing to your community with innovative ideas. Avoid getting wrapped up in ego-driven pursuits and recognize the power of your detachment and objectivity in freeing yourself from societal expectations. Share your unique insights and ideas to help others liberate themselves.

POF in Pisces: success comes when you embrace a detached approach to your goals. Flow with the universal energy, allowing it to guide your path without trying to manipulate or control outcomes. Be open to changes in your objectives along the way, and avoid taking things too personally, seeing them as energetic reactions rather than personal affronts. By focusing on higher ideals, imagination, and creativity, you'll find happiness and prosperity. Your intuition and connection to the unity of all beings will lead you to success as you align your mind with higher consciousness and let your imagination lead the way. Avoid identifying too strongly with the finite world and instead flow with the mysteries of life.

[courtofterrasen]

Alright, clearly some of you guys are just not getting it. So no more emotion from me; I am simply going to write in factual terms.

It takes a VAST amount of work to go into creating a series like Bad Batch. You have to go through writing, scene painting, 3D modeling, rigging, lighting, SFX, voice lines, editing, final production, etc; just to name a few. It takes hours upon hours upon hours of work for those animators to create all of the nuances in a scene, let alone in Bad Batch where there is an extremely high level of attention to detail. It’s not like anime where a character and background are mostly stationary while they talk. There’s constantly stuff happening in the background and they intentionally make choices that provide extremely little to the overall story and, in all honesty, take up a significant amount of their time and can be argued that they’re wasting their time and money and effort (I don’t think so, but I’m sure people could argue it if they thought that effort should be allocated elsewhere). But they do it because it provides a deeper sense of realism to the story as a whole and make it feel like a living, breathing world. For example, when a character trips a little bit or they animated them doing something slightly harder than it would have been otherwise or eyes darting around and studying someone. These are all very little things that take them hundreds of hours to get perfect. And those are the kinds of things that go unnoticed by the vast majority of people watching the show. Either because they don’t noticed the little detail that was put in at all, or they don’t understand the level of work that goes into creating little minute decisions like that. And all of those decisions that they make, both big and tiny, are given to them in specific instructions by the directors. When you think about the insane amount of work that goes into creating a show like Bad Batch, you realize that every single little detail that they choose to add in is intentional and was given to them via specific instruction. It’s not like in live-action shows where the actor can choose to make a subtle decision on the fly. There are hundreds of thousands of hours of work that go into this and every choice that they make is intentional. The lighting dept. has even confirmed this for us, saying that all of the lighting that they did was done very carefully and intentionally and to pay attention to what’s happening in the scene. Because there’s an extremely high level of detail that’s put into the show, based off of very detailed instructions that were presented to them.

Now. Taken all of these points into account, it’s critical to look at all of the little choices that were made when it comes to her character and the way that both she interacts with the world and the people around her, as well as how they, in turn, respond to her. Because, like the lighting dept. has already made very clear to us, every design choice they has been made in the creation of the show is 100% intentional. Even if that’s not something that they had said or wasn’t something you were aware of, when you focus on the aspect of animation, it’s sometimes hard to get a clear grasp on just how long it takes them to do these things. And that every little choice that they made was carried out under specific instruction. And that’s not even getting into the nuances of voice acting and understanding the subtle distinctions in the way someone talks and being able to discern the meaning behind their words based on dialect and the instructions they were given. And for someone who just casually watches the show, absolutely none of these are important. They’re watching it to watch it and no further thought is put into it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. People are allowed to watch things at a surface level and get enjoyment out of it.

For every character, they can be broken up into various parts:

•Their visual appearance

•Their behavior

•Their interactions with others and the world

•How others respond to their character

•Their small, subtle behaviors (such as a particular twitch or repetitive body movement that can be used to convey a deeper meaning)

•And their internal motives

In that order from the least to most complex. And these topics can also be used to understand the complexity of a character. For someone like Cid, all of these topics are touched on in a variety of ways.

•She’s different from them

•She’s gruff and money hungry

•She speaks to the Batch like they’re a bunch of kids and she knows better than them

•They never fully bring themselves to trust her and, at times, they see her has a burden

•Towards the end of their time together, she gets snappier, and whenever she’s around them her movements slow ever so slightly and she furrows her brows slightly a lot more than in the past

•And in the end, she betrays them

And that’s putting her character into a single sentence for every bullet point, which, for well written characters like Cid or Hemlock or Rampart or Nala Se, cuts a lot of things out.

When it comes to the way that Phee is written and what she contributes as a whole to the show, she is not a very complex character. I’m not going to go into every single scene with her, but I am going to touch on a few. And if I need to continue the discussion further to cover more scenes, then I will. On multiple instances, she puts the Batch into very dangerous situations, and overall appears to care very little for them as people unless it gets her something that she wants. This is made very evident when, for example, she gets Omega, a child, excited about a big grand adventure and Omega then convinced the Batch to go along with it. Even though they were very adamant about not doing it. This is said with both their words and their tense body language. They don’t want Omega to get hurt and they know it’s a bad idea; but in the end she’s able to convince them. Then, when they get to the site, she shows clear lack for them or their safety and proceeds to put them in a very dangerous situation where someone could have gotten seriously hurt or killed. And she shows no remorse for it. Her language, both verbal and bodily, are very loose and nonchalant, assuring them that she had everything under control and that they were able to handle it, despite their very clear frustration. This type of behavior is shown again and again and again as they continue to interact with her. Her actions relay to the viewer that she does not respect their boundaries, or arguably, them as people. Her words are designed to be rocks with a pretty bow on them. And again, this is not personal opinion or speculation. Every single word and action was carefully designed by the team. All the tensed muscles were created by a team of people working very hard to convey that to the audience. Every thinly veiled word was guided by a director when the VA came in to record the sessions. Every single choice was intentional for a very specific reason.

Tech likes things in a very specific way. He likes his ship to be in a particular order and takes very good care of its maintenance and upkeep. He prides himself on being able to maintain a good ship. He spends a lot of time on his data pad. It’s how he was designed on Kamino. That’s his link to his role in the group. He can do everything he needs to from there and, in certain scenarios throughout the show, you can see it provides him with a sense of comfort and stability. You can see this, not only in his subtle body language, but also in his fairly obvious body language with how he hunches over it. It’s reminiscent of a child hunching over a toy to bring it closer to them and protect it. It comforts him. You can also see, when he interacts with the rest of the Batch, his aversion to touch. It’s not significantly often that you see it, given that the rest of the Batch knows him better than anyone, but there are still times when physical contact or even just very close proximity happens and he either has a reaction by tensing up slightly or leaning away from it, or sometimes he doesn’t react to it at all and almost seems to not register it; such as when he’s focused on his work. Every little reaction that he has with his brothers was scripted and orchestrated for a very specific purpose. It conveys the nuances of who he is as a unique and individual person.

Keeping that in mind, when it comes to the way she interacts with Tech specifically and the Batch, it’s very clear to understand the dynamic behind them when you look close enough. To recall a few instances, there was a time when she was recounting a story about finding a big treasure and Tech says something along the lines of “she changes this story every time she tells it”. He’s conveying to both the people in the show and us as viewers that she is a liar. She is either changing the story to make herself seem cooler, or maybe it didn’t happen at all and she’s making the entire thing up. Which, I will briefly mention again, are traits synonymous with narcissists. In another instance, Tech, Omega, and Wrecker were having a conversation where Tech is reprimanding them for bringing items back from a junkyard that they were in that they thought were cool instead of what he asked them to go find and bring back for him. I’m this conversation, Phee inserts herself and tells Tech that it’s not junk; also, in that same instance, not calling him by his name, which I will get to in a minute. Tech, in that moment, is trying to work, and his conversation with the other two was interrupted and fizzles out as Omega gets excited about the idea of a treasure map. A third is when the group is on Pabu and Phee is trying to get Tech to converse with her. His body language is hunched, tense, and he averts eye contact with her. When she prods him further, he is unsure how to engage in the conversation. And when he doesn’t respond in the way that she’s wanting him to, she talks about him to the rest of the Batch as he stands there around him and says to them how he “doesn’t know how to have fun”. And then they proceed to laugh at him. And again, you can see in his body language that he is confused as to why they’re laughing at him as well as uncomfortable being in that situation. And going off of that for another small fourth instance, there is another moment when they are getting ready to leave Pabu and she approaches Tech, who is working alone and trying to avoid contact with anyone, and says to him “So you’re just going to leave without saying goodbye?” His body language immediately tenses, he hunches further in on himself around his datapad, and his words make it clear he is both unsure and unwanting of the conversation. And when he does not respond in the way that she wants him to, she moves the datapad away from him to make him focus on her. She removes the item that brings him the most security to force him into engaging in a conversation he is uncomfortable with having. And again, these are all very intentional choices. They are not left up for interpretation. They are there to tell us what the character is feeling in that moment. They are trying to convey to us that he is uncomfortable. Not that he’s shy around a girl he thinks is pretty. And given on other scenarios that have happened throughout the show, it’s very clear that interpersonal relationships with anyone outside of Omega and the Batch is not something that he’s interested in. If they wanted to convey that he found her attractive, there are routes they could have taken to ensure that that comes across correctly to the audience, such as a faint little blush or rubbing a hand through his hair. But they didn’t do that, and instead chose for him to shy away and hide from certain situations or tense up and keep his head down in others. They are conveying to us that he does not like being around her. Because every single action they made him carry out took hundreds of hours of work to execute, and they would not go through all that trouble for no reason.

Branching off of that, we reach the topic of Tech’s name. When you watch the series as a whole, you can count on one hand the number of times that Phee refers to Tech by his actual name, while she refers to the others as their actual names. This is different from Cid in the way that Cid made that intentional choice to call them different things as a way to maintain distance from them. It’s clear from both her body language and her words that she did not want to get close to them. And really, wanted nothing to do with them unless they made her money. These are intentional choices. Phee’s character is designed to be flighty and unbothered. And she wants what she wants when she wants it. The choice to call Tech names and refer to everyone else by their names is an intentional choice. Him not understanding why she does that is an intentional choice. She does not respect him, which is why she does this. She can see that he doesn’t know what to do about it, so she keeps doing it. Like when a person presses on a bruise. These are all intentional choices made by the directors.

There was also a comment that said she behaves exactly like Crosshair does. And there are a few things I think did not entirely process when they made that comment. The first being that Crosshair was written to be one of the main antagonists for the first two season. I know they appeared in Clone Wars as well, but I’m talking specifically about Bad Batch. He was designed to be a bad guy that goes through a redemption arc; just like Zuko did in ATLA, for those who enjoy it. They both started out as antagonists, had horrible things happen to them, realized along their journey that maybe they were wrong, and are able to redeem themselves in the end and side with, or in Cross’ case, return to, the protagonists. In the beginning Cross was very sharp and defensive and thought he knew what was best. But he grew over time and learned how to care for people and share his weaknesses instead of putting on a facade all the time. And that’s the difference. We are reaching the end of the series and Phee has never had character growth to the level that Crosshair has and softens and opens up to the rest of the group. She hasn’t had any character growth at all. She is still the same exact person she was when we met her. There have been characters who have appeared for significantly less time that her, and if you pay attention to them, they have had significantly more growth than her as well.

The problem that I have begun to notice with people who are so quick to defend her actions is that they seem to be focusing more on her than on anything else. When you focus on just her, I can see how someone could mistake these interactions for being positive. Because all they’re focusing on is someone who’s having fun, and of course that would translate to something positive for him. But for the people who focus on Tech, it becomes very evident that these interactions are not positive. When you watch Tech, and I mean actually pay attention to him and not just watch him, you see all the subtle signs that you would otherwise miss. Him being annoyed and uncomfortable and confused and tired and generally not enjoying being around her. And this, unfortunately, happens a lot in real life too. People don’t take the time to absorb both sides of what’s happening. And since we as humans are quicker to pick up on people who are happy as opposed to people who are not, it’s so easy to miss the signals and just assume that what you’re watching is a happy interaction and put forth no further effort into making sure that’s actually what’s happening.

There is no other way to say that these things are all intentional. They wrote, designed, and sent out something that they have spent the past few years creating. When you understand the level of work that was put into it all, there are a lot of things that become very clear. And sure, headcanons exist and people can speculate what happens between the episodes. But headcanons can only go so far before it becomes ridiculous. We cannot confirm that Echo didn’t run off to go have a quiet life with Cid, but that doesn’t automatically mean that it’s true. Inferring things that are not within the realm of possibility is not conducive. Assuming that Phee spent a lot of time talking about her adventures that she may or may not have had with the Batch between the episodes? That’s conducive and we have clear evidence that would support that. Assuming that her and Tech had a very close relationship and she always listens to what he had to say between episodes? As much as some people want it to be true, it’s just not. There is no evidence that supports that line of thinking, and, in fact, there is a vast amount of evidence that would actually conform the opposite; such as Phee talking over everyone and commanding the conversation, not respecting things that Tech says, etc.

I’m going to wrap this up by talking a bit more personally now. There are plenty of people assuming that I’m a racist or a misogynist or that my literacy skills are lacking or whatever, but because you’re upset that someone is calling out the awful behavior of someone you like doesn’t make it any less true. And that applies to both this type of situation and in real life. I know who I am and what I stand for, and you trying to tell me that I’m otherwise changes nothing. And defaulting to assumptions like that shows that either you do not watch the show with a more attentive eye, or that’s all that you see Phee for. A black woman. Both of which are issues.

People are allowed to not like black characters, even if they are black.

People are allowed to not like Asian characters, even if they are Asian.

People are allowed to not like female characters, even if they’re women (or AFAB people).

People are allowed to not like LGBTQ characters, even if they are queer.

People are allowed to not like neurodivergent characters, even if they are neurodivergent.

People are allowed to not like characters that display particular traits or thought processes, even if they share those same traits or thought processes.

People are allowed to not like characters if they think that the character is bad.

Also, for the people saying I’m using my autism as a shield clearly don’t understand how autism works? I don’t say that to be an excuse. I say that to provide context and reasoning behind the things that I say. Like many other neurodivergent people do. You all are getting pressed about the wrong things. If you want to debate the time and study I’ve put into the show because I genuinely enjoy it, then be my guest. But don’t throw out petty insults and waste everyone’s time. At least put forth some more critical thinking behind it and try to figure out why someone could be saying the things that they’re saying

[poorlittleyaoyao]

one of my very least favorite "jokes" is people making fin of qin su for "not knowing her husband is gay" or the array of fics where he's zero eprcent interested in her from the jump. Like way to take out all the tragedy in service of biphobia

GODDDDDD, I saw that in the same set of post notes that set me off yesterday--"durr hurr, poor girl got tricked into marrying this gay guy." Like, HOW? The Jin clan are by far the wealthiest and most powerful sect, and the Qin clan is one of their bannermen, and QCY and JGS are buddies. If JGY were a mustache-twirling villain trying to boost his status with an advantageous marriage and/or a gay man desperate for a beard, he has better options than a clan of middling wealth and significance that is already under Lanling's sphere of influence.

And they both had to fight for this marriage to happen! "QS was tricked into marrying him" is wild to me, because IIRC it says RIGHT THERE that she took the initiative in this relationship! A relationship that neither her father nor his was super enthused about! JGY was out here bothering JGS for this! JGY, the guy who famously does atrocities if daddy says jump, worked with QS to make sure this marriage happened! After all, while QS has the most to lose if the pregnancy plan goes south, JGY's not totally off the hook either; JGS could've very well punished him to appease QCY. Why the hell would he go through ANY of that if he didn't love her?

Like... you could maybe make a case for him not being attracted to her in CQL, where it's implied that he didn't sleep with her until their wedding night and he hates every second of it a choice that haunts me every day because what the fuck what the FUCK. But even there, he states that he pushed for the marriage, and feared to call it off in part because he'd "spent so much effort, went through such lengths to ask Qin Cangye for permission to marry his daughter... I had finally satisfied both Qin Cangye and Jin Guangshan." So even here he'd worked for it! Potentially antagonizing two noblemen, one of whom is his father the Chief Cultivator, is not worth the potential material benefits here! Even here, the only explanation that makes sense is that he loves her!

Which, you know, he says himself that he does. He says that he loves her to Lan Xichen's face, even, so like... pretty weird lie for a gay guy to tell his boyfriend. And if JGY were lying about everything... wouldn't he think of something better? He could throw QS under the bus and say she forced him. He could say the marriage was his father's idea and JGS directly ordered him to marry her. Both of these options are more readily understandable (and paint him as truly without recourse) than "I felt trapped by the potential ramifications of defying social expectations."

Now, people can write what they want when it comes to fic; if you're writing a canon divergence fix-it, then yeah, an easy way to avoid the incest is to have him simply not into women at all. You can even make a compelling case for comphet that he doesn't recognize for what it is until it's too late if you try hard enough. But in terms of broader trends rather than individual fic, and given the fandom trends of erasing WWX's attraction to women across all canons, or ignoring WQ's whole situation with JC in CQL canon to make her a Mean Lesbian(TM)... are you sure there's not biphobia at play? Are you really sure?

[utilitycaster]

It feels to me like this was something of a turning point for Imogen, because she and Ashton did have very similar thought processes: what if the parent(s) I never really knew, who have cult connections, are right? What if I'm meant to do what they did? Do it better? What if this will make me feel closer to them, or loved? But, notably, Imogen entertained this idea, was rightfully told how hurtful this thought process was to the others and how, frankly, stupid a path it would take her down, and ultimately didn't act upon it. She made an effort to connect with her mother, but she tried to pull Liliana away from the Vanguard rather than join the murderous organization herself. And then Liliana didn't listen, and it hurt a lot, and Imogen's felt abandoned by her and has been quietly working through those feelings in private ever since.

Ashton, obviously, made a very different choice, didn't talk to the group beforehand because they knew they'd get the same sort of response they'd once given Imogen, did act on those feelings, didn't break the cycle, fucked up the group's plans, and nearly died permanently in the process.

Imogen has in the past often, understandably, equated thought with action. The fact that the thought process she and Ashton had was essentially the same, and she realized it and had sympathy for it while still being extremely angry, is a significant step! The action does mean a lot! I think internalizing this will take a long time for Imogen, because she's had a decade of judging people on thought alone, but it's clear she's can clearly see where she and Ashton diverged and empathize with him regarding his feelings of parental abandonment, while still being extremely angry about the risks he took and the lack of consideration of the party's feelings or needs.

[brutalisttarot]

Pick An Image: How are they currently perceiving you now?

Pile 1

You could be financially worn off right now/ education may not be going as good for now. However, you’re being perceived as taking the effort to improve emotionally, and becoming more secure and attractive, through becoming a more nurturing person. I see that you might’ve become impulsive or there’s a rash attraction that came quickly with attracting a significant other/ lover. It made you fall into delusions and now you’re trying your best to recover and walk away from them or getting rid of your emotional attachment to them.

Pile 2

Okayy pile 2 y’all got the flex that you’re probably feeling at the top of the world right now. You guys could be celebrating something major, with joy socially and emotionally. Some of you guys may have a family or entering a more secure lifestyle. I see you guys venturing into acquiring wealth. Y’all may have graduated or feel more empowered in putting your skill into a particular job market, industry or using intellect for a business opportunity. You guys come across as rather wise, rational and cut throat, very much being straightforward right now. However, you’re seen as not really looking your best right now since you’ve been working hard. You guys may lack in sleep or not taking yourselves so do take the time if needed.

Pile 3

You guys look like y’all are abundant in your life especially in terms of career or school or work. Y’all look like y’all got the drip, got the bag focused, partying big and letting loose emotionally. You come across as rather emotionally generous right now, not really the defensive type, you’re more open and relaxed. The person or people you’re asking about could see this as malicious mainly because they suspect that you might’ve communicating poorly and not putting effort into understanding as much. You could be cutting off communication short and brief rather than being emotionally invested or letting ideas develop and evolve. They find your situation to be rather shocking and sudden. You could’ve gone a 180• or haven’t met this person in a long time and so they find your change sudden and triggering.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

hey iit's me again! (can i be your 🌼 anon?)

Thoughts on yan!CEO with caretaker reader who is looking after his sick father (home service i dunno what's it called) and she does some little chores here and there casually. Yan!CEO is so used to seeing her around his mansion that it starts to feel natural along with his father pressuring him to get married because the father thinks he's nearing his end. So when the father really dies tragically (bcoz ✨taruma✨) he only sees reader as his salvation and he convinced that she'd look after him even though she didn't do anything significant with lot of effort.

Yandere! Hospital Chairperson x Caretaker! Reader

OOH MY FIRST ANON! Hi :3

Btw, forgive me, the CEO thing will be changed into something other than, well, CEO. My yandere! CEO is already taken! But, with the help of my friend, we got to a little discussion, and decided on a Hospital Chairperson. Why? You'll see hehe

Yandere! Hospital Chairperson name: Xavier

It's always Xavier.

"Xavier, can you write up the last patient's records?"

"Xavier, please do the time of death."

"Xavier, fetch the files for me please."

It's like he's being worked around like a horse around the hospital.

He has to run up and down the building, right to left on this huge private hospital. Sure, he was a newbie, a fresh graduate from medschool, but did these people had to work him to the bone?

It was almost abusive, the lot of them.

"Father, it's so hard..."

He would usually complain to his father who was the hospital chairperson.

His father laughed lightheartedly before giving a few loving pats on the head. Xavier gripped the handkerchief in his hand.

"it's because they rely on you, Xavier. You're very strong and independent, yet kind and understanding. You are very dependable."

Xavier wanted to protest, that he knew his father was the one to order for him to be ordered around like that, but he pursed his lips.

Xavier Signet. The heir to the hospital conglomerate that is his father. Ever since his mother died, his father did his best to raise him to be a well mannered man despite being absent most of the time due to his job. His father made sure to teach him good manners, to have great academics, and to not be spoiled and always appreciate hard work.

Hard work was something not unfamiliar with the Signets, they were new money after all. From a humble clinic to something as well renowned as the Signet group of Medical Facilities. They were medical practitioners to a tee, and valued other people's lives more than their own.

Xavier gritted his teeth as he held down the fountain of profanities and complaints as his father waved goodbye to him.

Nevermind the handkerchief in his hands, spots of blood in it, a sign on Xavier overworking himself too much.

What his father didn't know is that Xavier is not the angel he thinks he is. His superiority complex that borders on God complex made him boil inside with defiance and insults as he took every single work his higher ups throw at him.

He wanted them dead. So much.

But he can't.

Yet.

Fast forward five years later, and his father lied on the bed, sick and weak.

Xavier bit his tongue while holding his father's cold, wrinkly hand. It was so rough and dry. Obvious from the years of hardwork and patients he had to go through.

"Dad..." Xavier whispered. "You know you can't move already, so please. Let me hire a caretaker for you."

His father coughed, love brimming his eyes for his son.

Xavier matured into a well endowed person. One who was steadfast and an amazing leader, but also a great listener. He's the perfect man for the chairperson seat.

"Alright. You can hire one, son." Ever the fool for his offspring, he nodded.

Xavier hired you, a seemingly gentle and sweet soul, someone who knew how to take care of an elderly.

At first, Xavier was only curt with you. Professional, at most.

He was so busy with his work that most of the time, his relationship with you slips his mind.

It made him open up to you sometimes, while he drank his scotch.

"ah... Those bastards. Really? They want to siphon more money from our patients? Are they out of their mind? Isn't it enough that they stomp on the new residents, but also the patients."

You furrowed your eyebrows, listening to Xavier's whiles.

These were one of the days were you noticed that he drops his nice and angelic facade and into this arrogant, yet empathetic guy.

"Tch. They're not even fucking geniuses. All they do is pocket money, invest, and splurge. They don't give a damn to patients. Like who the fuck do they think they are?!" Xavier rambled more, the scotch making him blurt out his real thoughts onto you.

Sympathetic, you finished folding the clothes of his father and gently walked up to him, and then patted his head with a rub.

Xavier gasped, suddenly feeling that everything was at a standstill, slowly looked up to your peaceful face that was highlighted from the lights of the living room.

Oh god.

"Sir Xavier, those bastards are really something. They're public servants, they should be nice and caring. But all they knew is money." Your sweet voice infiltrated his ears, making his arrogant and superior walls crumble in just a snap.

He was so starved of affection.

Then, your hands caressed his shoulder and rubbed them, making his tense form go away.

Oh god.

And as he grabbed your form and cried into your arms, he knew that things will never be the same.

Xavier rubbed his temples as he listened to the whines of his constituents. Apparently, they wanted to invest in commercial businesses also, but it was a failing start up company with the asking money of 200,000 dollars in exchange of only 10% of the company.

They're seriously fucking him over if they think he'll agree to this obvious scam.

It's been two years since you got in their life.

In his life.

And everyday, he looks forward to coming home into your arms and crashing his low energy body in your embrace.

It was weird, really. At first, he was so stand-offish, but now he was treating you like you were his wife.

That, and also his father continued to pester him to get a wife, since he wanted Xavier to have children before he passes away.

And when he ranted to you about that, you laughed heartily and rubbed his head once more, making him lean into your touch.

"I look like your spouse if you think about it!"

And those words permeated into him, and latched itself into his bones.

Yeah, maybe.

He glared into one of his subordinates and they trembled.

"S-sir, I swear, it's a good investment!" The subordinate said, but their hands are shaking and sweaty.

"No. Get out."

They hastily bowed and ran outside.

Due to your encouragement, he learnt to not hide his true nature and not just grit and bare the shit thrown at him.

"You're the chairperson! And you're just going to let them walk over you?"

You were right. He was at the highest position. So why would he?

So now, he's the one making life a living hell for them. Exacting revenge like a bloodless villain. Even attacking their personal lives.

He worked hard for this position. Too hard. Now it's their time to work hard to maintain theirs.

Then, all of a sudden, his phone rang. He looked at it, and his eyes softened. It was you. With heart emojis in his contacts.

"Hello y/n, how's father?"

But then your panicked voice made him drop everything and drive as fast as possible to your side.

And he saw you crying at the foot of his father's bed, tears streaming down your lovely face as you wept.

His hands trembled.

This time, he's the one to comfort you as he whispered reassuring words.

He looked up at his father's corpse, silently wishing him goodbye as tears also starting to leak from his eyes.

Now he had no one but you.

He held you closer, a numb feeling erupting from his chest as he felt your tears wet his shirt.

Painful sobs of the both of you permeated from this seemingly quiet and cold room, finding one another for comfort from the loss of a dear father figure.

Xavier had to take a break from work.

He felt so numb, leading the wake and the funeral of his father.

As much as he hated him due to his extreme ways of teaching him manners and discipline, he was still his only family left.

His ears rung whenever his father's "friends" sent condolences in a professional, yet fake way.

Time was a concept, and now, he was looking down at his father's grave.

His father didn't want a mosoleum, just a simple grave besides his wife's, Xavier's mother who died in childbirth.

And you were beside him, gripping his hand.

When did the line blur from employer to employee?

Who knows?

But both of you needed each other.

He needed you.

You were the only one left on his side, genuinely.

And he'll be damned to let you go, his only anchor to prevent himself from going apeshit and letting blood spill.

He gulped a cry.

"Y/N, darling, where are you?"

You stilled, hearing his weary voice come from outside of your room. You gripped your clothes and hastily placed all of them in your bag and sliding it under your bed.

"Oh here, Xavier!" Your voice, strained yet giving the outmost genuine tone you could muster. Yet a slight shake can be heard.

"Thank god, I thought you left me. Haha." He opened the door and saw you, sitting on the bed with a wry smile.

He approached you and wrapped his arms around your waist, cuddling close. You bit your cheek.

"Xavier... Um, is it possible for me to go outside to shop?" You asked, rubbing his hair. Wanting a semblance of freedom and a chance to escape.

Xavier's head shot up and he shook his head desperately his grip on you tightening.

"no no no! Silly, definitely not. If you go outside, you'll catch some sickness out there that will probably kill you. And we don't want that, do we? We want you living healthy and long." Xavier desperately reasoned, clinging to you. You bit your lip and nodded slowly.

Ever since his father died seven months ago, he refused to let you go. He was crying, begging for you to stay, for you to take care of him. He even went and upped your salary just for you to stay with him.

But what use is your money if you're essentially locked inside his house?

He refused to let you go at all, scared that you'll get sick and die.

And then he would be truly all alone.

He doesn't want that at all.

He still wants to marry you, to make a family with you. To be with you, his only pillar left.

"I get it, Xavier. I'll stay put." A lump appeared on your throat as you saw his genuine smile of relief.

You were so torn with guilt and desperation for freedom.

You wanted out,

Yet also wanted to stay put and take care of the man.

So, what will you choose?

Spread your wings, while potentially setting off the ticking time bomb that is Xavier, or stay, and accept that being confined in this mansion with no one but Xavier as your only... Friend.

But one thing's for sure.

No matter what you choose,

You'll always end up in his arms.

It's an illusion of choice,

He's always the end game.

[oldhalloweentape]

🪨Venture (OW II) x (gn) reader ⛏️

(Requested: Emotionally Stoic Reader Edition!)

(Not my Picture!)

(Request here! My first ever request for Venture, such an honor, I really hope I conveyed what was asked of me!)

- When people think of Venture, an energetic person who has a friendly air of enthusiasm to them, and you, more “actions speak louder than words” and emotionally unreadable together, they immediately assume that you two are on a whole different wavelength entirely.

- And at first, when you both first met, that was the case. You were mysterious to them, an enigma much like the various historical places they went to for their work, which caught their attention on you in the first place.

- No one can deny that Venture is a social butterfly, constantly up for seeing new things and meeting new people and eventually learning about them, which reflects in your relationship.

- Even in friendship they hope that you can be able to see Venture as someone reliable and constant, this still lives on in your romantic relationship.

- It takes time for them to realize that you’re more inclined to show through actions than emotion, showing your intention in another way, but when you do it’s like they were able to discover something that can change history.

- They naturally come to appreciate everything you do for them, love is consideration and everything you do because you had them in mind means a lot to them.

- Sloane takes note of how you feel both consciously and physically, they figure if they can write down things about you and your reaction to varying situations can be a way where they can properly support you until they inevitably know by look alone.

- This only takes a month for them to crack, easily able to deduce that certain things you do are a result of a certain emotion, inevitably becoming the go-to person when it comes to being able to figure out what exactly is making you feel a certain way.

- Much like how they are with certain dates that take physical exertion, they are quick to make sure they can do everything in their power to make sure you can continue being comfortable and that person they’ve come to know.

- They pride themselves on being able to acknowledge that you consciously go out of your way to be there for them, whether it be things like simply being there for them and caring for their well-being.

- Despite the lack of emotion on your face most of the time, Venture knows you love them and they make sure you know they love you right back.

- They’re an incredibly understanding person, giving you space whenever you need it, knowing that not everyone is comfortable with sharing their emotions.

- But if you’re simply avoiding other people and them because you don’t want to be an inconvenience, they’re determined to convince you that you’ll never be an inconvenience, not to them at least.

- Takes the time and the effort to help you voice whatever have you feeling less than the amazing person they know you are.

- While they don’t understand how you could feel such a way, they know what is like to keep their true emotions bottled up to make sure others aren’t “brought down” when they speak up about it. But they were able to overcome this and they don’t want you experiencing the same thing.

- That’s the thing about being selfless, sometimes a person forgets that they too are important in what they experience as well.

- They’re always there, loving you, and telling you reassuring things like, “I know that it feels like it’s unnecessary, but it isn’t.” Or “I won’t force you to do or say anything that goes against what makes you comfortable, but sometimes the thing that is making you uncomfortable is the thing you’re not saying.”

- Takes things like this extremely slow, wanting to build a significant bond between the two of you and not back you up into a corner.

- They truly know who you are as a person and are extremely genuine when they say they want you to be yourself.

- They love and care for you in such an obvious manner, respecting and understanding what you do though you are more subtle with your affections, and are adamant about reciprocating these gestures of consideration.

(Thanks for all the support!!!)

[kevin-ar-tuathal]

"Béarlachas"

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now. As a person from the Galltacht (English-speaking Ireland) living and working in the Gaeltacht (Irish-language Ireland), and operating most of my life through the medium of Irish, I can honestly say that English-language Ireland, Second Language speakers of Irish and Learners of Irish tend to have a really skewered understanding of a) what Béarlachas is, b) the different forms it takes and c) what effects/damage/meaning each of its forms holds.

Contents of this post:

•Perceptions of Béarlachas

•Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

•Different Languages, Different Sounds

•Language Purity Vs Language Planning

•Conclusion

Perceptions of "Béarlachas"

Outside of the Gaeltacht, most people's understanding of "Béarlachas", or "Anglicisation" in Irish (which I am deliberately putting between inverted commas!), is the use of so-called "English-language words" in Irish. The usual list people like to list off include:

• Fón

• Teilifís

• Giotár

• Raideo

• Zú* (see Language Purity Vs Language Planning below)

• Carr*

*The ironic thing about the last item being that 'carr' (the word for a personal vehicle) is older than the English-language word 'Car' 🚗.

Second language learners with a bit more exposure to the language deride native speakers, particularly speakers from Conamara, for "using English words and adding '~áil' at the end to make a verb". Several examples being:

• Gúgláil (Google-áil)

• Sioftáil (Shift-áil)

• Sortáil (Sort-áil)

• Péinteáil (Paint-áil)

• Vótáil (Vote-áil)

• Focáilte (F*ck-áilte)

• Supósáilte (Suppose-áilte)

(⚠️NB: it is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT that I spelt these words in these specific ways in Irish - to be explained below!⚠️)

Other so-called "English language words" in Irish include:

• Veain • Seit • Onóir • Ospidéal • Aláram • Cóta • Plaisteach • Leictreach, 7rl, 7rl...

And what about: "Halla" or "Hata" ??

Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

Before I explain where I'm going with this, I am going to introduce some words that have their origins in other languages, like:

"Seomra" from the Middle French "chambre".

"Séipéal" from the Middle French "chappelle".

"Eaglais" from the Greek "ekklesiastes".

"Pluid" from the Scots "plaide".

"Píopa" from Vulgar Latin "pipa".

"Corcra" from Latin "Purpura" (from before Irish had the sound /p/!)

"Cnaipe" from the Old Norse "knappr".

"Bád" from Anglo-Saxon "bāt".

ALL of these words, like the ones above, came into Irish via the most natural means a language acquires new words: language contact.

The reason WHY the word gets adopted is usually -and this is very important - the word is for something that the culture of the language Borrowed From already has, which is introduced to the language Borrowed Into.

For clarification, what I am trying to say is that languages NATURALLY oppose cultural appropriation by crediting the culture they got a word from by using their word for it...

I.E. "Constructing" a new "pure" word for an item that has come from another culture, is, in effect, a form of cultural appropriation - which is why institutions such as Alliance Française and Íslensk málstöð are at best puritanical, and at worst xenophobic*.

*There is nuance here - there is a difference between institutional efforts to keep a language "pure" (re: those such right-wing English/British and American opinionists who claim that the English language itself is endangered 🙄), and language planning (which also falls under the remit of Íslensk málstöð).

Furthermore, there is also such thing as "dynamic borrowing". This is where technically a language has adopted a word from another language, but has changed its meaning/adapted it to its own need. Let us take two Irish language words for example: "Iarnród" and "Smúdáil"

Iarnród is made up by two words taken from the English language: Iarann, from English language "iron" and Ród, from English-language "road".

Together, these two words mean the English-language term "Railway" - but English has never had the term "Iron Road" to refer to this object.

Similarly, Smúdáil comes from the English-language word "smooth". Only adapted to Irish, and adding the Irish-language verb suffix creates a word which means "to iron (clothing)". 😱

Different Languages, Different Sounds

Every single language on this planet has its own sound system, or "phonology". It is VERY rare for a new sound to be introduced into a different language, and some languages are MUCH more sensitive to what speakers of another language would consider a "subtle" difference, or not a difference at all.

Now...

IRISH HAS DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF SOUNDS AS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!!!!!

(^roughly ~ish) I am making this simplistic statement to DRIVE home the fact that what English-language speakers and Learners of Irish hear as "the same as the English", Irish speakers hear a SIGNIFICANT phonetic difference.

All consonants in Irish [B, bh, c, ch, d, dh, f, fh, g, gh, h, l, ll, m, mh, n, nn, p, ph, r, rr, s, sh, t, th] - and YES, séimhiú-ed consonants and double consonants count as separate consonants - EACH have at least TWO distinct sounds. Ever heard of that old rhyme "Caol le caol, leathan le leathan"? Well, the reason why it exists ISN'T to be a spelling tip - it's to show how to pronounce each consonant in a word - which of the two distinct sounds to say.

What I mean to say by this is that, when we adopt a word into Irish, we aren't just "grabbing the word from English and hopping a few fadas on it"; we are SPECIFICALLY adapting the word to the Irish language phonetic system.

I.E. when an Irish language speaker is saying the word "frid" THEY ARE NOT USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORD "fridge" !!!

The sounds used in the English-language word belong to the English language, and the sounds used in the Irish-language word belong to the Irish language.

As a linguist I get very passionate about this distinction - the AMOUNT of times I have come across a self-important Irish language "learner" from the East of the country come to a Gaeltacht and tell native speakers that they are not using the "official" or "correct" version of a word in Irish just GRATES me to no end. PARTICULARILY as these so-called "learners" cannot hear, or typically have made NO effort to understand phonetic differences between the two languages. (Though honestly, on that point, I cannot wholely blame them - it is a fault on Irish language education as a whole that the differences in sound are hardly, if ever, mentioned, let alone taught!)

Language Purity Vs Language Planning

Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, it is very rare for a sound to be adapted into a new language. As many Irish language speakers and learners know, there is no /z/ sound in (most of the dialects of) Irish.

And yet, somehow, the official, modern translation given for the Irish language for "Zoo" is ...

Zú

Whenever I think on this given translation, I am always reminded of a good friend of mine, a lady from Carna, who used to always talk about "Súm" meetings she used to go on to talk with friends and family during COVID.

This woman only speaks English as a second language, having only ever learnt it at school and only ever used it in professional environments. She does not have the sound /z/, and as such, pronounces words that HAVE a "z" in them as /s/ sounds, when speaking in Irish OR in English.

As such, I often wonder how An Coiste Téarmaíochta can be so diligent in creating and promoting "Gaelic" words for new things, such as "cuisneoir" instead of "frid"; "guthán" instead of "fón" (which is actually pronounced "pón" in Conamara, as that suits the sound system of that dialect better); or "treochtú" instead of "treindeáil" ... And then turn around and introduce sound and sound combinations such as /z/ in "Zú" and /tv/ and /sv/ in "Tvuít" and "Svaedhpáil" 🤢

It's such this weird combo of being at the same time puritanical with regard to certain words, dismissive in regards to vernacular communities, and ignorant with regards to basic linguistic features of the language.

(Especially when, i mbéal an phobail, there are already such perfectly acceptable terms for these kinda words, like Gairdín na nAinmhithe for "Zú; Tuitéar and Tuít for "twitter" and "tweet"; and Faidhpeáil for "Svaedhpáil".)

Conclusion

This really prescriptivist approach by Irish language institutions needs to end. Not only is it not addressing or engaging with the Irish language as it is spoken by vernacular communities, it is creating this really twisted dynamic between second-language Irish speakers who apparently "know better" than first-language and native speakers of Irish.

This is what "Béarlachas" is. Not the natural adaption of words from a language with which Irish in the present day has most contact with. Not the dynamic inventions of native speakers, and even Second-language-as-vernacular speakers, utilising all the linguistic features available to them, whether that be their own dialects of Irish, English, or whatever OTHER languages/dialects are available to them.

"Béarlachas" is the brute enforcement of English language mentalities and an obsession with "purity" onto Irish, a language that has FOREVER adopted and integrated words, features and people into itself.

Gaeilge, like Éire of old, like the Ireland I want to be part of today, is open, inclusive, non-judgemental - knowing where it is coming from, and knowing that its community is its strength and key to how it has and will survive!

[pjoxreader]

Jason/Reyna/Percy with a deaf/hoh significant other?

Deaf/Hard Of Hearing Reader

Jason Grace

-Jason has a hard time learning sign language, but it isn’t for lack of trying. He tries to learn from books and such but it isn’t exactly easy, it’s hard to see how the hands move through just pictures.

-It’s not like he can look up youtube videos on it since phones are just a beacon to monsters. You can’t help but laugh every time you see Jason come over sheepishly holding an ASL book when he’s having trouble with a sign.

-The first thing Jason learns when you start to date is how to sign I love you. You can’t deny it was cute watching him but he ends up doing the signs for ‘I, love, you’ separately. Which was fine in itself but there was an easier way to sign that.

-He still has a lot to learn, and you can’t help but giggle at that and show him the easier way to sign it. All he had to do was put the middle finger and ring finger down, then face your palm to the person you’re doing the sign too. -You really love watching Jason teaching the other seven everything they need to know about sign language, so they can communicate easier with you. He really wants nothing more than for his friends to be close with you too.

-He loves signing ‘I love you’ during things like training or if you’re at dinner stuck at different tables. He easily falls in love with the language just as much as he fell for you.

Reyna Ramírez-Arellano

-Reyna would have already known some basic sign language, it’s the perfect thing to learn for a quest. Being able to work with your questmate on a plan without the worry of being overheard.

-That being said, she doesn’t know basic conversational signs. But as she already had the basic grammar and such down already it doesn’t take much effort for her to learn the rest.

-She learns **fast** though, and soon enough in her debriefs to camp she signs the entire speech too of what the plans for the day were. Even when you’re not there you find she’s signing anyway to keep up the practice.  

-She becomes a natural in no time, she can easily keep up with reading your signs and signing at a speed to match your own. She never once bothered writing down what she needed to say for a conversation sense she put all the effort into learning ASL.

-You two can easily plan a date night without anyone knowing, Frank was working on running drills while Reyna was working on planning a date with you. She was doing all of that while translating what Frank was saying as well.

-While explaining the rules of the war games to the newer campers you show the sign for ‘I love you’. Much to everyone's surprise she cracks a smile before clearing her throat and working on explaining again.

Percy Jackson

-How you first met is Percy asking you how to sign curse words. You were confused at first but do agree to teach him. However you soon enough find out why he wanted to learn that. -After a long quest with him you make your way to Olympus, to your surprise Percy then signs ‘dick’ to Zeus while making it seem he was just scratching his nose. You had to do everything in your power to not bust out laughing.

-Percy had the smuggest grin after that, it seemed he wanted to do that for a while… He starts to learn more curse words but then it starts to branch out to more normal signs. He struggled with the structure of wording sometimes but you’d be there to correct him.

-He did end up mostly signing curse words though. Whether it be to monsters, gods, or other campers that deserve it. But you couldn’t really blame him, he was from New York after all…

-The rest of the camp started to learn sign language because of him, well mostly curse words since Chiron didn’t fully understand all of them. It was the best way to insult each other without getting in trouble. 

-Clarisse was easily the second most person who knew the most amount of curses in ASL, since Percy and she would go at it. You have to admit this is not how you expected to be teaching people ASL but at least they were learning?

~Masterlist & Rules~

Like my writing? Please consider sending me a Ko-fi! ☕

[self-loving-vampire]

In just a few weeks, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U owners will finally completely lose the ability to purchase new digital games on those aging platforms. The move will cut off consumer access to hundreds of titles that can't legally be accessed any other way.

But while that's a significant annoyance for consumers holding onto their old hardware, current rules mean it could cause much more of a crisis for the historians and archivists trying to preserve access to those game libraries for future generations.

"While it's unfortunate that people won't be able to purchase digital 3DS or Wii U games anymore, we understand the business reality that went into this decision," the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) tweeted when the eShop shutdowns were announced a year ago. "What we don't understand is what path Nintendo expects its fans to take, should they wish to play these games in the future."

Libraries and organizations like the VGHF say their game preservation efforts are currently being hampered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which generally prevents people from making copies of any DRM-protected digital work.

The US Copyright Office has issued exemptions to those rules to allow libraries and research institutions to make digital copies for archival purposes. Those organizations can even distribute archived digital copies of items like ebooks, DVDs, and even generic computer software to researchers through online access systems.

But those remote-access exemptions explicitly leave out video games. That means researchers who want to access archived game collections have to travel to the physical location where that archive resides—even if the archived games themselves were never distributed on physical media.

[misc-obeyme]

Demon's Bad Day

After writing MC's bad day, I kept wondering how it would go if it was the reverse and it was the demons who were having a bad day. How do the demons act? How does MC deal with it? I couldn't resist writing it, so here it is! It's pretty fluffy again since MC has special demon soothing abilities. Anyway, as always, I will do the others upon request!

GN!MC

Warnings: None, this is all fluff.

Lucifer

Too stoic and prideful to let it show. Acts like nothing is wrong at all. People who don't know him really well will not notice. His brothers are aware, but they see it as a reason to steer clear of him.

Might be more obvious if he's quicker to lecture or take on that ominous black aura he sometimes gets. However, he's also the type to throw himself into paperwork as a response, which is hard to notice because he's always doing that anyway.

You might not even get a chance to confront him about it until the wee hours of the morning. He'll brush you off any earlier than that. But if you go into his office with some hell coffee in the early a.m., sit with him a bit while he drinks it, and then ask, he might open up just a little.

Lucifer won't tell you what caused him to have a bad day. He'll only acknowledge that he might be experiencing a little more stress than usual. He's not going to burden you with it, MC. But he does appreciate you taking the time to check on him. Your attention touches him deeply.

Mammon

When he's upset, Mammon gets quiet. Anyone who knows him well will be able to tell that something is up with him if he's not talking or being his usual boisterous self.

Will deny everything if asked directly. Of course nothin's wrong with the Great Mammon! Why would ya even ask that, MC? This is the response if you were to ask him in front of other people. If you wait it out and ask him when he's alone, he'll cave immediately. It's you, after all.

Just show up to his room with his favorite instant ramen and he's going to tell you everything. You might not even need to ask. He'll give you the specifics, too. Finally lets out everything that's been stressing him out all day. If there's a major problem, he'll ask for your help working it out.

Give him a hug and watch him get all cagey at first before giving in. He really just wants you to comfort him, so even if he says something about how this doesn't mean he likes you or anything, it's all posturing and you know it. Even more obvious when he gets comfortable in your arms like he's gonna be there for awhile.

Leviathan

Impossible to tell because this guy just locks himself away in his room, which is where he is most of the time already anyway. If the door is locked and he doesn't let you in right away, that's when you know. You might even be able to hear him crying in there if he's really upset.

If you refuse to leave and continue to call to him through the door, Levi will eventually let you in. He can't really resist you, especially when you're persistent. He's a bit disheveled and sniffly, but you can tell how much it means to him that you're still here.

Ask him what's wrong and he confides in you immediately. Won't pretend that he's fine when he's not. It's way too obvious anyway. Tell him you understand, even if you don't, and he'll be so grateful. You really are the best, MC!

Let him lay his head in your lap and he'll calm down pretty quickly. He might get a little embarrassed, but the fact that you're letting him do that makes him very happy. Stays there as long as he can take it before putting on his favorite Ruri-chan episode.

Satan

Another stoic type, but he will absolutely get snappy with anyone who irritates him further. You are the exception. He's more careful around you when he's like this. These things instantly give him away, though, and you know he's having a rough day.

Will completely brush you off if you try to talk to him about it. Satan loses control more easily than Lucifer, but he also makes a significant effort to stay in control when he can. Talking to you about things will only make it worse, so he avoids you instead.

Might even go the Levi route and lock himself in his room with his towers of books. Knock on his door and he won't even respond, let alone let you in. If you talk to him through the door, especially if you get logical on him about it, he'll eventually crack and open it for you.

Why are you here, MC? Can't you see that he's not fit to be around right now? You don't accept this for a second. Instead, you ask him directly what's bothering him. He'll finally tell you now that you're alone. Talk it out with him and he'll feel better. Start asking him questions about other things - like the book he's currently reading - and you've successfully distracted him into relaxing.

Asmodeus

Everybody knows when Asmo's upset about something. You don't need to try to get it out of him, he will seek you out so he can cry on your shoulder. At first you think it's something trivial as usual, since our boy can be a bit of a drama queen. But underneath the theatrics, you can tell that something is genuinely bothering him.

Ask him about it and he'll complain about something else. He won't tell you what's really wrong unless you ask multiple times or somehow indicate that you're onto him. This is because he doesn't want to bring you down with bad vibes.

Eventually he'll realize there's no point in trying to pretend and he'll tell you everything. He'll be honest about his feelings, confiding in you and giving you all the details. He knows he can count on you to listen and help him work things out.

You cuddle with him for a while and when he's feeling better, you take him shopping. You know that you can take his mind off things this way, especially if you let him pick out a bunch of outfits for you. You give him an impromptu fashion show in the store and he's back to his usual self. You're so gorgeous, MC!

Beelzebub

Stoic on accident. It's not that Beel feels like he can't be honest with you and actually he's probably the most well adjusted of the brothers when it comes to talking about feelings. But he's not likely to volunteer any such information. So you have to ask him.

Fortunately it's pretty easy to tell when Beel is having a bad day. He gets that sad puppy look on his face. If you ask him directly, he won't beat around the bush. He'll tell you exactly how he feels and why.

He doesn't expect anything from you, but give him a hug and watch him melt. He'll wrap his arms around you, close his eyes, and sigh contentedly. Take the moment to tell him everything is going to be okay and that you're here for him.

He'll feel a lot better already, but of course you're going to take him somewhere he can eat as much as he wants. Alternatively, you can take him to get his absolute favorite food, maybe even take him to the human world if you've mastered teleportation. Either way, get that boy some cheeseburgers. You've made him so happy, MC.

Belphegor

Sleeps no matter how he's feeling, but you can tell if he's upset because of the look on his face as he slumbers. Normally it's pretty relaxed and passive, but if he's got an expression like he's having a nightmare, then you know he's comfort-napping because he's having a bad day.

Don't wake him up. That'll only make it worse. If he's sleeping somewhere normal, like a bed, you join him. But if he's asleep somewhere weird, you just stay nearby. Then when he wakes up on his own, you ask him about it.

Feels bad that you were waiting for him to wake up just to ask him how he's doing. You didn't need to do that, MC. Don't worry about him, he's just going to sleep it off anyway. With a little more prodding, though, he'll tell you what's going on. Let him rest against your shoulder and he'll relax, opening up even more and telling you everything.

Acts like it's no big deal, but you still attempt to cheer him up. Do something he enjoys like star gazing or hanging out somewhere with Beel. A little distraction, some brotherly antics, and you'll get one of those rare Belphie smiles.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!