#limitate the activities that hurt they say. like drawing? and writing? and reading on my computer or phone? and knitting and sewing?

[fuckthisshitimin]

OK, it's over ten days of almost not drawing can the tendonitis go away now plz plz plz

[darkestspring]

just think about the greens and blacks as yans (platonic or romantic, doesn't really matter which) with an introvert darling who has the personality of a cat.

affection will be accepted ONLY in small doses and *only* when darling allows, as soon as darling is tired of it, they retreat to their room or wherever they can be alone to recharge. yan might get lucky sometimes, and darling will spend time at the opposite side of the room to just ✨️exist✨️ with whatever activity (reading or drawing or smthn) while yan does their own thing, but they shouldn't push their luck bc darling *will* leave if they get annoyed with yan interrupting them.

on the plus side, if darling *really* likes them, darling will lean against and spend time with yan when they're tired of everyone else, saying 'you don't count as people' (they still shouldn't push it tho, darling is tired and irritable and will leave them too)

(helena is a strong contender for 'favorite person' since she also dislikes being touched and understands darling's love of quiet time together as bonding)

i love characters and reader with cat behaviour, they're literally my favorite so here we go <3

It's very endearing to them. You're so endearing to them.

Your introvert personality makes it so much easier for them to keep you to themselves but you have a limit to what you can take, even with them.

aegon, aemond and daemon are especially amused by your often chaotic energy.

the moment they realize you have a favorite person, they work so hard to become your favorite person which does not work in their favor.

alicent, viserys, and/or rhaenyra often sits with you as read or even write but if they interrupt you as often as daemon, jace, and aegon do, you'll just grow bored and leave.

they all think its cute when your face twists in annoyance, like you can't stand their presence at that moment.

helaena is the one you spend the most time with and are they jealous? yes.

but they all melt when you soften with them, if only for a second.

if you have a favorite item, they'll buy you tons of them, its a little annoying.

blurb:

You continued to read your book as you leaned against Aemond as he talked to Aegon quietly.

You turned the page as you felt eyes on you and you expertly ignored them.

"Our [NAME] seems awfully close to you today." Aegon teases, an edge of jealousy to his voice.

"Aegon, shut up. Your voice is grating." You retorted, standing up. "I grow bored of both of you." You walked off to find Helaena.

Aegon whined with his hand over his right side. "So hurtful."

"Your heart is on the left. Idiot."

[khepiari]

I don't like it when it's in our world, I think there is a One Piece school manga where the ages are either the same or not as high, but when you apply the canonical ages, Law working and Luffy still in school, I don't let to think that I have to call the police or the psychologist and this is my problem, I know, but as pirates Law and Luffy are more equal than in our world (it still scares me sometimes, canonically it is not a problem but there is fanfics where even about pirates this is shady), but I always think that the problem is not always the ship, but rather those who write or draw

Well, when it comes to fandom, this is my personal rule: canon is reference material for me.

“Age-gap” trope is not new, it has existed since the beginning of the fiction genre to be fair. Because people have been marrying/living/romancing between large gaps for time memorial in real-life. Yes, in most cases, it’s young women and older men because of societal beliefs; young women are considered as limited shelf-life goods while men in possession of money are a catch. Age-gap relationships until the advent of modern society benefited off vulnerable young women who had no money or social security.

Historically, age-gap has been extremely common in queer relationships, we have had huge age-gaps too as well, one famous couple being Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy; 30 years. I know fellow queer people in happy relationships where age-gap is over 15 years, and I know fellow heterosexual couples with two years age-gap in miserable marriages. Who gets to be happy in their relationship is relative to contextual environment.

But I am digressing. Coming back to my OTP

As you said, Law and Luffy become a problematic romance if they are placed in a modern setting like High School romance and not the canon timeline. For example, they are put in the context of where one is still in school and the other is a functional adult. Your concerns are valid, but my concern here is; who is this age-gap romance about two 2D fictional characters written on a fan-run website in a tiny slash pairing fandom hurting? Because as far as I know no one is being made to read these stories as part of their school/university literature curriculum. A reader is choosing to read these stories on their own will. Someone might sent you the link, and you can click on it, but you still have to press the consent button to read it, right?

Law and Luffy to me have been equal, since day one both in “canon” and in my fics. Because I have never seen their age-gap as a power dynamic story. I am the person who wrote My Little Husband, I think that story has every trope, problem and issue that people who hate the age-gap associate with. Even in that story, Luffy is an equal, and the active agent in his story. So yeah coming back to what you ended the ask with.

You said about LawLu ship “problem is not always the ship, but rather who writes or draws.” I will simply disagree here. My main reason is that every fic author/fan artist has the right to write/draw/think about their ship how they want. Who are we as consumers of these stories to say “This is bad” and “that is good?”

Yes, your feelings of dislike/ick are valid. That’s why you have been provided with the options of tags, warnings and basic fic ratings.

In my fics, I add the tags and mark the sex scenes out, and if it’s explicit topics or scenes, there are reminders in the text that a reader can skip certain parts. What more can we do to protect the reader’s comfort?

Hence.

I refuse to endorse the idea that the problem lies with the creator of the ship. Just because someone writes something that makes other people uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s “bad or wrong”. And just because something makes you comfortable because it aligns with your personal beliefs isn’t necessarily “good or correct”.

Engaging with fiction is a personal experience, so you have to curate what you are looking for. Do you want to be comfortable or do you want to be stirred with feelings? The choices are yours to make and you can indulge in all or none at all. Yet, no one has any right to call a fan creator, “You are the problem for creating something because it makes me feel uncomfortable.”

Will you like it? Let’s say— you go to a pot-luck party with a delicious tumbler of potato stew, and someone willingly tastes a spoonful/eats the entire bowl and then tells you right after that, “You are a bad person and cook as your potato stew made their mouth tingle because of the variation of spices you used for that person’s favourite vegetable?”

No, you won’t.

So my advice is simple: don’t interact with something that makes you uncomfortable and unhappy. Fandom is not the place to measure our morality.

The end.

[plasmasimagination]

Hi! Congrats on getting 300+ followers!! If it's cool, may I get a matchup for Honkai Star Rail? (Sorry if it's long,,,, I'm just super excited and happy for youu windidbid) (please no sampo)

I'm an INFJ who's pronouns are she/they. My sun in Gemini, my moon is in Ares and my rising is cancer.

I'd describe myself as curious, easily excitable, pretty witty, a bit shy, bubbly, and low-key feral. I'm observant and calculating by nature, but I tend to keep that hidden. At times, I do tend to be depressive and super anxious (due to past bullying). In addition, I have a habit of being really hard on myself and pushing myself to my limits. I'm in a better place now, but sometimes it haunts me.Gaining my trust is pretty hard, but if you do, I'm riding or dying for life.

I like to try new things(, foods, activities, ext.) The issue is I have a weak stomach and get sick easily if I don't get enough sleep 😅 (strong mind, weak body hdudbdj)

I love cozy things!!(soft pastels, blankets, oversized sweaters, big scarves, stuffed animals, fairy lights) But I also have a love for the macabre My favourite outfit on cooler days consist of oversized sweaters, leggings, runners and a giant blanket scarf on top!

My hobbies include reading, writing, singing (in private) drawing, napping, learning new things, and playing video games. In the winter I love to figureskate!!! I know a bunch of tricks on the ice.

People have described me the following:

super self-aware

Constantly nervous (kinda true),

" riddle wrapped in an enigma, locked in a box, then shoved in a beehive" - my sibling

the grandma friend (Specifically the one wanting for their husband to come home from the war idk why tho)

Unhinged at times

Goofy insights

I tend to joke around with my older sister about them buying me something (like a snack or something) but the moment they say "alright bet" and then proceed to buy me the said thing I get flustered and be like "noooooo :(( I was just kidding >_< pls i take it backkkkkk)) because I'm not used to being on the receiving end of this kind of stuff.

I actually like to sing. It's just that I'm shy about it and only sing when I'm either by myself or comforting someone. When people catch me singing, they’re shocked af. I've had an where people from my church group with the priest (like around 30) caught me singing, and we had a staring contest for about 15 seconds before they bombarded me in compliments.

I've eaten a burrito with North Carolina Reaper sauce out of curiosity and ended up getting sick as a result (I even had to sign a waiver when I ordered it ahebej)

Thank youuu!

HELLOO HI HI HI HI CUTIEPIEEEEE, absolutely thankful for the amazingly written request *mwah mwah mwah* was very easy for me to write because you let me know everything I needed

And I match you up with

.

.

.

JING YUAN

No words. You two are a match made in heaven

Your calculating nature + his observant nature = absolute power duo

He would absolutely not allow you to push yourself to your limits. He will nicely distract you from something he thinks you're overdoing/ hurting yourself by doing it, he will tell you there's no need for it, and reassure you

YOU LIKE COZY THINGS?? WELL GREAT!! Jing yuan himself is just super cozy to be around, he's like a huge cotton ball, super soft and cuddly!!!

You say you're constantly nervous? Take a Jing yuan, he might not make it dissapear, he's not god obviously, but he will try his best to calm you down, telling you to breath, speaking softly to you, just generally trying his best to make you be comfortable

Enigma....hm not a problem for Jing yuan, as we know he can reach deep into people's hearts and feelings, i assume he would also be like that with you, taking his sweet time over the course of you guys being together to understand you, every small thing about you, even some things you didn't even know yourself about yourself

He always can't help to chuckle at how sweet and cute you are at times, he's the type of man to get you anything you ever dreamed off, and will spoil you in every category, and he finds it even more satisfying seeing your reactions to his small surprises

All in all, I think you two are perfect for each other and when u marry I expect to be invited to the wedding 🥰🗡️

Don't forget to eat and drink babe, take rest, and stay cute

[skittzdaskittle]

Just some designs ig

Emz Te MnM for reference

This is gonna be quite long X'D

So, basically I drew team zjits (it's what i call team zits but with joker) separate and I roughly lined them up so I could draw their hels (team cabs, mcbs, and mcabs) which is why Joker's line art thinner then the others

With the hels I did make a lot of their traits opposite to their counterparts like how none of them say silly things or have weird names for stuff and are generally not very creative, but I still have some other stuff in there to make them a bit more interesting hopefully

Zedaph: So, I recently drew the Puffy fam, so I didn't want to draw ANOTHER bipedal sheep, so sheep hybrid :D and my original design for zed was with pants, but after observing the test tube zedaph au by Resins art, I decided to go the pantsless zed route.

Ayaph: With Ay I was like "wait, if his name Is zed, which is the British way of saying z (pronounced zee), then it makes sense for his name to be A". You know how zed is always doing new things and interacting with the other hermits to test and show them things? Well screw that, Ay never does anything or take risks, he's had the same damn haircut his whole life, he absolutely hates AMC (AluminuM Cook) because he always pesters anyone and everyone. Ay stays inside and has a very limited range to go places. Oh and he despises the fact that he's a sheep, probably because he hates zedaph, he pulled a connoreatspants and cut off his horns (it's a headcannon thing, he said he lost a cannon life because he was "having a bad day" and my brain went brr)

Mister Joker: We literally have no friggn clue what joker actually is, he never tells us anything. he always wears a mask that basically acts like a normal face, he just can't eat through it or anything it just changes expression like any face would. And the thing is, we don't even know if he's part of a species or if he's his own thing, in fact we don't know if Joker has any actual gender or sex, he just he/him pronouns. Either because that's his actual pronouns, he just goes with it for other's sake, or he doesn't understand it at all (Ranboo style) and just uses them because that's what people use for him. And the tail? Just because I feel like it. And it helps show that he is def inhuman.

Mister Moper: He's very reserved, unlike Ay who just hates everyone, he just likes to keep to himself and doesn't mind if he's with others, but he would rather be by himself. Moper's very much the type to not interact with other people unless they interact with him. Unlike Joker who moves around a lot, he moves so little that you might forget about him (hopefully not). He hates fighting. He likes doing solitary things for hours like coloring, reading, writing, watching documentaries, and just looking out the window to watch nature and whatever else is going on. Moper hasn't smiled in a long long time, even when he does the things he enjoys, or what the closest thing to enjoyment is for him. He has the same situation as Mister Joker biologically, though instead of being cryptic for the fun of it like Joker, Moper doesn't say what he is because he doesn't feel like it's important to anything. Even if he met up with Joker, he probably wouldn't smile the entire time unless somehow Joker figures out what will make him crack a smile. He doesn't mind Joker.

ImpulseSV: He imp man, he originally was gonna be a phantom guy but I realized how many more opportunities I can have with him being an imp, also he was straight up summoned. I don't really have much else X'D

CautionED: So, what would probably be the opposite of demon? Bird!? Love bird because funny. So basically I thought, if impulse is always trying to stop people from accidentally hurting themselves, then Caution would be actively going out of his way to hurt others. He wholeheartedly believes that all problems can be solved by explosions, someone pissed you off? Explosions. Pet ran ranaway? Explosions. TV broken? You get the idea. He's always pissed over something. Caution can't bother building anything remotely structured, he prefers to build organically so that he doesn't have to put thought into rebuilding his house when he breaks something (though he would probably be less pissed if his house is structurally sound). He will start a fight (physically or verbally depending on his mood) with literally anyone who has the unfortunate opportunity to be in his presence. He's very self centered. He hates how seemingly happy go lucky impulse is.

Tangotek: He's a fireborn (the same as sapnap) who yeeted himself the heck outta hell (not the nether) and ended up in hermitcraft, there's more to explain but that's a whole post on it's own.

Boogieblog: Just like my hels, Boogie is an angel, unlike my hels, he isn't a purple eye abomination, he's just an annoyed angel constantly analyzing things, trying to make sense of things. Like my hels, Boggie's always staring, except instead of primarily Watching Skittz (my mc character) and Grian, he just looks at everything, questioning why people do things, involuntary or not. Because Boogie doesn't understand why those things are necessary to do, he intentionally avoids hermitcraft for that reason, overstimulation basically. As an angel who spent most of his existence in heaven, he requested on his own to go see the server, to see what was so important about it. Boogie gets angy when he doesn't understand something, but he has a very limited emotion range, and has never been seen raging out or anything. He doesn't want to be around/look at Tango.

Skizzleman: He's just a guy. There is literally nothing strange about him, this isn't me being jokey at all, he's just a normal accident prone man.

Sizzleman: He's cold and calculated. He has zero empathy for anyone or anything. Sizz finds everyone else weak and pathetic, even if they are obviously better then him, he always finds something wrong with everything that isn't him. He's very manipulative and abusive. He's constantly planning and scheming and wanting control over hels, luckily for everyone Skizz's luck seems to also be a part of him so his plans always fail one way or another, especially with the fact that he tries to do them with a group of people who genuinely don't want to be there, one hates any and all people, one is shy and uninitiated, one Just wants to explode shit, and one is preoccupied with literally everything. Sizz is actually very intelligent and like, 5 parallel universes ahead of everyone, but even so he still gets Skizz moments and that results in him dying in very stupid ways, and yes it pisses him off. He genuinely sees Skizz as worthless and can and will belittle him any chance he gets.

And now the hels interactions with each other

Ayaph: He only dislikes Moper and finds him tolerable, but doesn't try to get to know him. He sees Caution as a headache and wants nothing to do with him. He thinks Boogie is a creepy weirdo and hates Boogie's constant questioning, he tries to avoid him. He absolutely hates it when Sizz tries to call a group meeting, he makes any and every excuse not to go. He'll eventually be literally dragged out of his house (usually) by Sizz himself. He regrets stepping out of his house to see what they were doing all those years ago.

Mister Moper: He doesn't try to interact with Ay, he knows that will just annoy him and what little pleasantness there is will be gone. He doesn't like how brash and argumentative Caution is, he would rather be around Helsknight. He and Boogie have a bit of understanding between them, Boogie would ask a question and he would answer, he doesn't like it when there's something he can't answer but Boogie somewhat has a little appreciation for Moper, and Moper has and understanding about Boogie. He would rather not be near Sizz. He joined the group because he wanted to be with people but not feel like a burden, even when Sizz says he is.

CautionED: "fuck these bitches, I'm just gonna go blow shit up"

Boogieblog: He doesn't understand why Ayaph doesn't want to answer his questions, they're simple questions. He finds Moper intriguing, he knows what Moper is(and that means Joker too). He finds Caution obnoxious. He has better things to do then interact with Sizz. He joined the group because he was curious about their behavior

Sizzleman: He sees Ay as a pain and pathetic. He doesn't understand why Moper sticks around if all he's gonna do is nothing and be sad. He despises Caution with a passion, they fight frequently. He doesn't see much use for Boogie. Despite how much he doesn't like being around them, and how uncooperative they are, he sees them as pawns he can manipulate

Tldr: Ay's always in his Aaron Burr arc, Moper's a less wimpy silver the hedgehog from the sonic 06 snapcube fandub, CautionED is alivebur but instead of being insane and blowing shit up he's pissed off and blowing shit up, Boogie Blog is dream XD but with no emotional outbursts only horrible staring, Sizzleman is glados but replace the witty humor with stuck up asshole

[viatorix]

Uhhhhh 43 30 and like 22 for the naruto ask meme

22. favorite ninja weapon

Sakumo's chakra tanto, hands down, because Sakumo and white chakra cool.

30. what dumb thing would iruka sensei yell at you for in class?

Drawing and not paying attention most likely. I mean, that's what happened at regular school.

43. what are the three things that bother you the most about the series? BUT! for each complaint, you must also list something you would praise the series for

BAD SO BAD

-THE ENDING. Oh my god. What the fuck was that. Such a disappointment after keeping up with the manga for years and to not only have the ending be a giant slog but just... not good. Narratively speaking -- plot, characterisation, choices (aliens? ALIENS???) etc. I'm not exaggerating when I say I literally only read the ending at the time for Kakashi and Obito.

-I was deeply unsatisfied that the manga/anime lost sight of its themes after Part 1. Hard work? Changing a prejudiced , violent, and cruel system? Nah bro. Shippuden was a slow fall off a cliff and just became about flashy power upgrades rather than the much more grounded feeling of Part 1. I mean, by the end, Naruto and Sasuke practically became demi gods throwing around raw power. Where's the finesse? Where's the smart tactics and actual ninja-ing? It became a manga/show about wizards in Shippuden. I would argue that Kakashi is the only main character that brings an actual NINJA vibe. He's one of the only characters that actually remained and felt grounded, even at the end. Even with having a Mangekyou and Kamui, in large part thanks to his chakra reserves. When he was hurt, he was hurt, when he was tired he was tired. Lol, Kakashi might have actually been one of the most believably human characters out of the main cast.

-The fucking Sharingan. In Part 1, it was a rare and good Dojutsu equivalent to the Byakugan, it was good and a bit OP but relatively grounded. In Shippuden? Super Duper Powerful Godly Super Cool Eye that has a bazillion different powers and can summon a fucking CHAKRA MECHA? I didn't (and don't) mind the Mangekyou, provided, it has reasonable limitations. But then suddenly everyone and their grandma had this rare evolution of the Sharingan that before only Madara/Izuna had activated after centuries. And the limitations regarding overuse and blindness just... practicality disappeared and had no narrative impact.

-The writing of the female characters. I don't think I need to elaborate.

GOOD SHIT

-I love the aesthetic and just general vibe of the series? It's just cool. It made pre-teen me really excited and hyped and just giddy. It still does. Thinking about Nart gives me the warm fuzzies.

-Hatake Kakashi is the greatest 2D anime man ever created and I won't hear otherwise. His character - looks, personality, narrative growth is fantastic and I love him.

-I think the jutsu are really cool and I do like the magic system. I absolutely memorised the jutsu hand signs as a kid. Don't ask me to do them now.

-Bit of a cop out of an answer but I really enjoy the potential for different interpretation and fanfiction. There's a reason why there's like over 100,000 naruto fanfics across different sites. It's a really fun sandbox to play in and read about.

[handelplayssims]

It’s a new morning and everyone needs to go to the restroom all at once! We’re certainly feeling the one bathroom problem around here. So I need to tiptoe around that. Kiara, is the first one done with her basic bathroom and breakfast needs management. Her first whim is to paint! Her second whim is to paint on an easel! Both are because of her aspiration to be an excellent painter! She also has low fun need but hey, let’s see if this’ll help first. Zayne...doesn’t really have whims outside of chatting with someone so let’s work on his aspiration of being an artistic prodigy. And to nearly finish it with drawing all 5 pictures on the activity table! Next is Ashlynn who….wants to fish. Or rather, level up fishing as apart of her aspiration. ALAS! We have three dedicated artists at work! ...that being said, there is fishing books to work with. We can just have a read at home. And finally, Santiago wanted to be mean to children, and had an angry moodlet for not doing his whims. ...it had cleared when I got back to him. So I just had him nag at Zayne.

Let’s see. Since we’re on Kiara’s aspiration, we need to complete 10 excellent paintings. A thing we could in theory, do at a park! To combo with Ashlynn since there is fishing spots out there. But there’d be no places for Zayne to draw at. Alas! We must stay here for a little bit. Let’s see, Santiago’s second whim is to become enemies with a random person named Miguel Baron. I do not think he lives in a home so I kinda doubt I can just find him and go “HEY YOU! YOU’RE MY ENEMY!” So next whim is getting a promotion. So he needs to write! The computer is his and his alone now! Oh and Zayne now has a hurt sentiment towards Santiago for being mean to him.

...so basically the thing stopping us from a family day at the park is simply just Zayne needing to draw pictures! ...that being saiiid, I can queue up one more abstract artwork for Kiara before we head off. Her social need is low though. I’ll need her to invite a friend. Annnd Zayne’s finished with the artistic prodigy aspiration! Time for him to work on… why is the mental skill aspiration the last one I aim to finish? Anyway, time to work on Whiz Kid. Which is pretty convenient for our next location! To the park!

And thus do all of the family members disperse around the park! Santiago is taking up a position at a small cafe on lot, to work on his writing. Ashlynn is going off to fish. Zayne’s heading over to the chess table. Kiara’s going to chat with her one teen friend, Alex Feng. By the by, I didn’t see any progress on Santiago’s book outside of the skill gain. It could be bugged to not complete. I’ll give it this visit and see if any change happens and if not, I’ll scrap said book and start anew. Meanwhile, Zayne is playing chess with a notable newcomer celebrity, Nettle Book. She’s an alien but who knows that? Not Zayne!

...oh snap! Kiara does have a romantic relationship with Alex! Didn’t even notice until this moment. Hilariously, she does have the single and loving it lifestyle active. Oh, and Alex...uh, Nettle left so I tried to have him play chess with someone else but alas, they left as well. Also sad mood is active from being around Santiago. A shame!

Oh man! 68 dollar worth of salmon! Nicely done Ashlynn! Shame that doesn’t work quite well for fishing with bait. Bait has a limit of how good a quality you can get and the cut off is around 50 simoleans. We need smaller catches! ...I don’t if a cowplant berry counts as smaller. Like it can make good bait but that seems like a waste. Ooh, Gemma Charm decided to pop on over to say hi to Alex and Kiara! MORE TEEN FRIENDS! Annnnd she’s an art lover! Time to befriend! 27 dollar bass! Time to fish with bait! I don’t think bass would make great bait but oh well! Aye, book is finished as well! Time for another! Another famed artist dropped by the chess tables for Zayne to challenge! Let us challenge and get that three chess matches marker finished!

Santiago has sims clustered around him chatting away. Might as well discuss fears and clear that off. Said Sims are the gardening club that get together have. I have them visit every park, not just Windenburgs. (...which is a bad spot for a gardening club to meet at in the first place) With Moria, Santiago confess his fears. JESUS! That’s a 222 value sturgeon! That’s not something I expect from fishing! Anyway, Zayne is hungry so while it’ll likely pain Santiago, the money aspirant, to spend money this way, we’re hiring a vendor. There is a summer stall set-up on this lot for food to be got from and so we shall partake. Clouds gazed at for Kiara, in hopes of getting a creative moodlet going, another whim of hers, we stop to say goodbye to Gemma (and make a note to further befriend our fellow artsy teen) and go and do our homework. She’s C grade. She at least wants to get into a good college for an arts degree. Perhaps. She’s also an active gal so maybe a fitness related one could work as well?

So looking up info in sturgeons, they’re evidently a protected species since they’re highly valued for the fact you can make caviar off of them. ...we’re going to mount this sturgeon. Ashlynn strikes me as vain enough to do so. Also we caught a violin straight from the waters. We’ll give it to Zayne as a birthday present. Pufferfish next! I would save that for food or to showcase but alas, we need to fish with bait! And it’s 44 simoleans! Now let’s see about Zayne...his whim is to become enemies with Megan Knoles, which he can’t do here. He’d have to do it by visiting them. Welp, to home with ye.

Oh and I meant for Kiara to join Alex’s club! The Spicy Devils! A club that hangs out at the Spice District and enjoys the karaoke, food and makes mischief! Every Spice Festival, I aim to have them show up and be a nusicance...when they are playable. It was easy enough to join at least! Now, Kiara has an hour until her babysitting job. Let’s get some food real quick before we head off. While Ashlynn has her own food. More grilled salamon! Meanwhile, Santiago has made nice progress on his writing. Now it would be charisma skill gain time. In theory, I could just chat and befriend Bjorn and this very talkative teen who showed up...honestly let’s just make the introduction first. Asking and getting to know do cause skill gain increases but afterwards, let’s just head home.

Ashlynn’s next whims are to rile up a sim and then to ask Santiago about his day. Welp, before we head home for her, let’s go and rile up a sim! Target acquired, Bjorn Begersen! She finds out he’s a slob so not only will we rile, we’ll jeer! Make fun of this slobby man! ...next whim to pop up is to win a competitive game. Chess counts and there are chess boards nearby… I challenge you slob-meister, to a chess match! ...I haven’t really tried playing malicious sims and this is quite fun! She lost the game! Let’s FIGHT! HE BEAT HER UP! Man! Time for bed I guess. But she’s absolutely grudging after this loss.

...oh huh! Evidently, you gain logic concurrently with mental skill now as a kid! At least with chess sets. Huh. Man what is a kid supposed to do at 11pm on a Saturday night when he’s not quite ready to go to bed? ...video games. Or we could do our extra credit work. That’ll help with mental skill. Also we got a pop up about Kiara teaching kids about taking turns at her Nanny daycare job. She heads home and goes to bed and as soon as Zayne’s done with homework, so does he. Leaving it time for-

Neighborhood Watch!

Cecilia Kang in the New Start household left her job as a Freelance Programmer in the Freelance Programmer career.

[enigmaincrimson-personal]

I'll be honest as I can here and try to point out that past and recent events have left me rather reluctant and paranoid about approaching even partners that do talk to me when they can.

This is mostly due to poor or limited communication or... They have a partner on the list of people that don't particularly like seeing me around and I don't want to inadvertently push anything and give them more reasons to cause problems.

I know that my plots are plain terrible right now... Stress levels are high and my writing tends to go to crap when it happens. Partners keep ghosting me or dropping threads, but I feel like what I had tried to say was way too much as it was.

Admittedly, I don't think too highly of myself considering my general reputation on Tumblr is rather poor. I'm constantly worried that I might do something clumsy or stupid and hurt people as a result.

Maybe I don't deserve to have good people, but I wouldn't exactly know. I've never had a fair trial and there's nothing I can do to defend myself. Innocent or not, the results were already concluded before they started...

I wonder how many others are going through the same. However, I can't exactly save a drowning person if I am drowning myself.

I know that I am terrible with names... And I don't like recalling the names of my accusers. It's too easy to falsify information and pretend that it's true these days... And they'd just twist the truth anyway, even if I could prove it in the end.

Besides, if I really did all those things they claim that I did... Why are they the only ones doing the very things they accused me of in the first place?

Yes, I know that I make mistakes just like everyone else, but to these people, there is no logic and reason other than their own, so the moment something exists that is contrary to their own ideas, they try to control it... And if that doesn't work, they try to kill it or suppress it.

They don't care about anyone other than themselves, they don't care about how their partners are feeling... It's all about keeping their own little world just how they like it... As it's lord and master... And to hell with someone that might change that.

Irony is that they accuse the other of doing the very things they are doing... Twisting the truth, hiding things, making it look like they were the victim, rallying anyone who supports them or is too scared to do otherwise... To "punish" someone for their supposed crimes.

It's a witch hunt disguised as a religious crusade... With neither ending well... A long trail of corpses.

All for what in the end?

Something as petty and banal as someone getting upset about someone else spelling "Color" as "Colour" making it sound like they were eating babies and trying to start World War 3.

I mean... Having a mutual partner as someone who decided that you were the Lord of evil because you can't draw anything freehand... Can just as easily get you accused of stalking them these days.

I'm not trying to dictate who or what you should do anything with or how, I just want you guys to be more careful. There's some serious nutters out there who are more than eager to set the entire site on fire if you do much as stand there and breathe in a way they don't like.

Not that I am perfect either... I have a tendency to get stand offish if I get the feeling that I might be too pushy with a partner.

On the other hand, I've been told I send too many messages by people who don't check the messages of their active blog for months and notice that I'm the only person that sent them anything at all on that time. Apparently, one was too much?

So generally... I don't know what the lines are because they seem to keep changing and these people seem like they want me to be some sort of psychic conduit that can somehow read their minds and guess what they want perfectly.

I'm sorry that For had no idea that you wanted me to magically realize that you had a fifty page application that I need to fill out before you'd give me the time of day. It wasn't in your rules and you didn't say anything.

Also, soft blocking really bothers me. Normally, I'd presume that Tumblr is being buggy again and it did the unfollowing, but I'd put it in the same category as Mutual only blogs not noticing you are there because the activity page can't be trusted... And neither can the rest of Tumblr itself.

If I haven't said anything... It's usually because I haven't noticed, I'm not sure what to say, or I don't exactly trust things well enough to say anything.

I'd keep on Rambling like this, but these posts don't usually fix anything and I've been up until 5:30 in the morning, so... I should stop.

[caspercryptid]

The Gioparafication of Jayce Talis

So this is going to be long but i’ve seen a lot of discourse about how Jayce Talis and Jayce Giopara aren’t remotely the same character and, the ret-con of his appearance aside, I’d like to address my theories to the contrary. Warning! this is going to get A Little Fucking Long. (And if you want to see my theory in action, read the superhero fic I write with @the-neon-pineapple, HAMMER TO FALL) (no but really)

This is, throughout, going to draw off a couple things that are from my personal theories as I build. Other people before me in the league community have posited that Jayce Giopara has ADHD, and I agree, I think the symptoms of that are clear with Talis too. My additional thing at play here is that I think Jayce very well could have suffered from brain damage in the explosion at his apartment. It took out about half the building and he was standing right next to it. Certain degrees of brain damage can cause issues that can exacerbate ADHD, so like. Brainfog, memory problems, impulsivity, headaches. Impulsivity is the big one. Brainfog can make decision paralysis worse! so all the stuff already noted as Jayce’s character flaws. 

The main thing I think about with all of that is the fact that Jayce was seriously hurt and instead of getting medical attention he was interrogated and arrested, and shortly after that he loses everything and tries to jump off a building. It's an interesting additional element to add in to, at that moment when Jayce is already losing everything else, losing an additional bit of control over his own mind and body. Jayce feels like the kind of person to go "i'm not disabled, i'm fine!" since he (for the most part) still has his mind and his intelligence, it's just his ability to access that intelligence that's affected at times. He can still Pass and even though it's limiting he can just work harder and jump it.

You don’t have to think he has ADHD or Brain damage for those to factor in though- it is 100% canonical that Jayce Talis has PTSD. He had his first near-death experience as a child in an event that he’s fixated on his entire life since. That man is Not Okay well before he walks out onto a bridge and sees large-scale death and loses his lunch. Moving along, though. 

Talis is characterized by this complete inability to do anything smart under pressure. He just fucks up repeatedly forever and I think that's a perfect representation of trying So Hard to just Be Fine when in fact he's acting while Limited. I think it's an excellent parallel to Viktor to have the visible/invisible disabilities divide where Viktor is very good at what he does in part because he knows his limitations, and Jayce is inhibited too but absolutely does not know where those limitations are. 

The key to the pipeline between Talis and Giopara is the fact that Talis fucks up so bad. Because really, to end up as jaded and miserable as Giopara is, you need to have really believed at one point. It's like activist's fatigue. Talis cares too much for it to even be remotely sustainable. He's heading towards a burnout with the force of a goddamn comet, even before it's all ended Very Finally at the end of the series. A lot of people give him shit for the scene where he says he's got a lot on his plate to Viktor while Viktor is...actively dying, but he does. He's taken the whole weight of the world onto his shoulders and tasked himself with fixing literally every problem in Piltover, picked up records, tried to listen to absolutely everyone's input, which has obviously not worked in the slightest. but he can't see where he's going wrong. And because he can't see where he's going wrong, he's Doomed. So he's going to end up considering the entire venture hopeless because nothing he does makes any difference and sitting down and going "fuck it". 

"Okay, we can't help Zaun, we need to give them independence" was already basically a manifestation of that. It was "this is beyond me" and now that solution has failed to pan out, and he's going to be forced into an action he doesn't believe in because you literally can't let an act of aggression like that go unanswered as a politician. So he will have absolutely no choice but to sit in this position he's stuck in and play his part and he hates it-- already hates it-- says as much to Mel, none of this is what he wants to do. 

And that is how you make an idealistic sweet man into an asshole. 

[mercy-burning]

Win Me Back

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader

Summary: When Reader’s ex-boyfriend comes back to town, he finds a way to make amends— with a little help from her niece.

Category: FLUFF

Warnings: None other than a few swears :)

Word Count: 3k (I barely made the limit, folks, that was hard lol)

MASTERLIST

NOTE: This is my entry for @homoose ‘s 2k Celebration!! And if this fic seems familiar, that may be because it’s a re-telling of the car-wash scene from Ramona and Beezus 🤭😂 It’s one of my favorite movie scenes of all time, it never fails to make me squeal, and I had SO MUCH FUN writing this!

Also! I tried very hard to find the scene for you to watch incase you haven’t seen the movie, but the ones I did manage to find on YouTube cut out THE BEST PARTS, so I’m sorry 😭 But in case you want to know the ~vibes~ I tried to capture and don’t feel like watching the movie, I made THIS post last night with some dialogue/background from the scene if you’d like to read it! Obviously it’s not required since what I’ve written is quite different, but it is encouraged 😊

I hope you like it!! And if somehow you haven’t followed Moose yet, you should! She’s the sweetest ❤❤❤

***

Y/N found an abundance of upsides to taking neighborhood walks with her niece. For one thing, it gave her a distraction, something to focus on as she made sure eight-year-old Piper wouldn't wander too far from the sidewalk. She found solace in quizzing her on the multiplication table as they made their way around the block, an activity in which Piper enthusiastically flaunted her love of numbers.

It was also nice to stay outside and take in the warm sun and soft rustling of the trees, though every once in a while all of it wasn't enough to keep the memory of Spencer at bay.

After all, it was kind of hard when he was back in town, and after all these years he was reaching out to her like he hadn't broken her heart in the first place.

"You seem sad, Auntie," Piper said, grabbing Y/N's hand as the turned the corner.

Y/N swung their arms together gently, smiling down at her with a tilt of her head. "Why d'you think that, hon?"

Piper gave a little shrug, her ponytail blowing softly behind her. "You don't smile as much. And you always smile when you're with me... And you asked me the same times equation 3 times in a row just now. You're distracted."

Y/N couldn't help the breathy laugh that escaped her. You sound just like Spencer... Instead, she told her, "Aw, I'm sorry, Kiddo. My mind is just in a... confusing place right now. But I'm very happy that you got to come stay with me this weekend, you always brighten my day." She punctuated her sentence with a little boop on Piper's nose, to which she giggled and asked for another math equation.

The two of them continued around the block a few rounds, though on their fourth and final one, Y/N noticed very familiar car parked just outside her house.

Heart jumping into her throat, she stopped in her tracks, and Piper kept going only to be pulled back slightly. The girl turned to her aunt and furrowed her brow. "Auntie, why did we stop?"

"Um... I just wasn't expecting any company today besides you..."

Y/N certainly wasn't ready to discuss everything that was going on with Spencer to anyone, let alone her eight-year-old niece who wouldn't probably understand or care anyway. So she explained it the best way she could, quickly coming up with a plan to avoid him as long as possible.

"See the car parked over there?" Y/N asked, and Piper nodded. "Well, that's an... old friend of mine... And we haven't talked in a long time because we don't really get along anymore. So when we get up to the house, he might try to talk to us, and I'm going to tell him that we're busy."

"He's not mean, is he?"

Sensing Piper's reservations, Y/N reassured her while letting her own contempt for her ex fuel the conversation. "No, but... He broke my heart. And he—"

"Y/N... Hi..."

She nearly jumped, mostly from surprise, but also at the fact that hearing her name coming from his lips and his voice and just him brought back a flood of feelings she'd rather have forgotten. Still, she turned to him and cleared her throat. "Spencer... Hi."

Piper suddenly let go of Y/N's hand, a small scoff escaping her. "Oh. Spencer..."

The two adults turned to look at her with surprise, though it was Spencer who spoke up. "You... know me?"

"Mhm," Piper returned with a nod, crossing her arms. "I heard Mom and Auntie talk about you yesterday, and she says you have a stupid, beautiful face."

"Piper!" Y/N screeched, heat rising to her face. "I... You can't tell people that, I— That's not... I..."

"Oh... I'm sorry, Auntie," the little girl said quietly.

Y/N was fully prepared to dig a hole and stay buried in it forever, and her embarrassment grew even stronger when Spencer spoke up again. "It's okay," he reassured gently, a small laugh sounding from his throat that regrettably gave Y/N butterflies. "You're auntie's definitely right, I do have a stupid face."

Before Y/N could stop the conversation altogether, Piper cut in quickly, being sure to add, "And beautiful."

Spencer's eyes flicked up to Y/N, drawing her in with amusement and charm, a fact which she hated to her core. Because it was working, and that was annoying as hell. "Yep," he said, never taking his eyes off of her. "And beautiful."

And then the corner of his mouth turned up slightly, flashing her the most amused, stupidly perfect smirk.

Piper started talking again, and for the second time that day, Y/N wished she hadn't even said anything at all, keeping this whole situation to herself.

"But we can't talk to you, because you broke Auntie's heart, and we're busy. C'mon, Auntie. Let's go." Piper grabbed Y/N's hand and led her up the rest of sidewalk until they got to the driveway. And even though it might have been childish to completely ignore Spencer as they walked past, not giving him a second glance, quite frankly she was quick to abort the situation as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for her, Spencer was persistent.

They were almost to the steps up to the door when he called out. "Piper! Can I ask you something?"

The little girl turned around, losing grip of Y/N's hand and greeting his gaze without batting an eye. "Sure."

Damn kids and their willingness to be nice to strangers, Y/N grumbled in her head.

"I know... your auntie is an important person to you, right?" Spencer inquired, walking up the driveway with his hands in his front pockets. Y/N swallowed, most certainly not noticing how the sun perfectly highlighted him in a glow that made him look more beautiful than stupid.

Piper nodded.

"Well... She's important to me, too. And I really hurt her feelings, but I want to make it up to her. Would you be kind enough to let me try?"

Damn him, Y/N grumbled yet again. Damn him, damn him, damn him to hell... Why was he so charming?

He'd always known that kids were a soft spot for her, and when they'd dated, they talked a lot about having some of their own  one day. Every time they took a walk in the park and they passed a kid, they always gravitated to Spencer, giving him the biggest smiles, and in turn he would give them a high five or perform a little magic trick to make them smile even wider. And Y/N melted into a damn puddle every time.

He knew exactly what he was doing, using Piper as a means to win her back, but even still, she knew that because of his gentle nature, most of it was... well, nature. Deep down, as much as she hated to admit it, she knew that he was a kind person. They may have ended things on bad terms, sure, and Y/N could pretend he was cruel all she wanted— The truth was that no matter how their relationship ended, he was a good man at heart.

And that's why it hurt so much.

Y/N thought for sure Piper would fall into his web, but she was pleasantly surprised when the girl responded with, "I don't know... I don't know if I trust you yet."

You and me both, Kiddo, Y/N thought to herself.

Spencer laughed again. "That's fair. Look, you can say no, but... How about I give you something in return?"

"Spencer, that's no—"

Piper crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, interrupting Y/N before she could finish protesting. "How much we talking?"

"Piper!"

"Well, I was going to offer to show you a magic trick, but I suppose I could work you a deal... I only have a hundred bucks on me, would that be enough?"

Sure enough, Spencer pulled a one-hundred dollar bill from his pocket, and the young girl's eyes went wide. Y/N's did, too, but more likely than not it wasn't a means of excitement.

"You have yourself a deal!" Piper squealed with a jump. She ran over to take the money, meanwhile Spencer looked up at Y/N with a smile.

She didn't return it.

"Is there somewhere we can talk?" he asked softly. Kindly.

"Well, I'm babysitting Piper today, so you'll have to come back another time," she returned a little coldly, hoping that she and Piper had just scored a free Benjamin to pig out on ice cream while Spencer was left waiting forever for a conversation that was never going to happen.

Funny how eight-year-olds always had a way of making things more difficult for you.

"Auntie, Spencer and I made a deal. He gave me money, and now he has to make it up to you. Remember?"

Y/N groaned. "Yeah, yeah, I remember..."

"Well, how about I... take you guys out for lunch? My treat? If it's alright, we can go to McDonald's..."

"The one with the play place?" Piper gasped, immediately turning to Y/N. "Oh, Auntie, please can we go? Please, please, please?"

She looked up at Spencer, shaking her head in exasperation as he smiled at her, those sparkling honey eyes reeling her in whether she wanted them to or not. Then she turned to Piper and sighed.

"How fast do you think you can eat?"

***

Y/N was surprised Spencer didn't try to talk to her more on the drive over. Though, Piper did most of the talking, telling Spencer about how much she loved numbers and math, and he even quizzed her on some multiplication equations on the way.

If she wasn't so annoyed with him, Y/N would have melted completely.

It was the getting into the restaurant that worried her the most, though. She knew that once Piper ran off to play while they waited for their food, he would spend whatever short amount of time he had trying to win her back. And she was afraid of two things, mostly that she would end up crying in the restaurant, making a scene and wishing she'd never agreed to go, no matter how heart-broken Piper might have been. But there was also a small part of her, nestled deep into her heart, that was afraid she'd fall for him all over again.

He certainly made falling easy.

When the three of them stepped into the restaurant, it was easy to see how excited Piper was to be there. She gently tugged on Y/N's sleeve before looking up at her. "Nuggets, fries, and Sprite?"

"Apples, too, and you've got yourself a deal," Y/N said.

Piper nodded, not really caring but eager to go and play. So she sighed and nodded, leaving her with a, "Be careful!" as she saw the girl quick-walk over to the play area. There was a decent crowd that day, but thankfully no one in the restaurant seemed to have any grievances or knacks for trouble.

Spencer on the other hand... Y/N scoffed to herself, thinking how he was the most troublesome person in the area.

He proved her point by nudging her with his elbow. "She's a fun one."

"Yeah, she's somethin' alright," Y/N grumbled. "I can't believe you bribed her just to talk to me... If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you were being romantic. But I do know better, and you're just stubborn."

Spencer laughed, but she refused to look at him. "Aw, come on, give me some credit. You know I can be a little of both."

This time Y/N did look at him, squinting in a glare, like she was contemplating. "Eh... five to ninety-five. Leaning in favor of stubborn, of course."

"Obviously." The amusement in his voice made her hate his stupid, beautiful face even more than usual.

Thankfully he kept the conversation short after that, at least until they ordered. Since it was Spencer's treat, she milked his wallet for as much as she could afford to on fast-food. She ordered a large chocolate milkshake and enough food for her and Piper to share for dinner later— and probably lunch the next day, too. The amused chuckle Spencer let out as she was ordering did have her believing maybe she was being a bit childish. But the longer she thought about it, the more she stood by her actions.

He did break her heart after all. The least he could do was compensate through chicken nuggets and French fries.

The only thing she didn't count on, though, was how long it was going to take to make all her food, not to mention getting things done for other people. As she and Spencer made their way to the table, she realized she'd have to talk with him longer.

Spencer took advantage of this, naturally.

"So... How've you been?"

Y/N scoffed. "You show up out of the blue five years after you break up with me, and then have the nerve to ask me how I've been, in a McDonald's? Yeah, I've been great."

He sighed, his eyes flitting down to the table. "I know, I'm... I'm sorry. And I know I should have—"

"Spence, please don't... Look, I know... I know why we broke up, and I came to terms with the fact that your job was just to dangerous for us to be together, but... I mean, you weren't even willing to work it out, you just... ran away. That hurt."

"Y/N... I'm so, so sorry that it happened that way. I think about it almost every day and how much I wish I could have changed it..."

"But you can't change it. And now you... you show up here after all this time to—to what? Win me back? Use your kindness and your charm to reel me back in, like that'll somehow make everything better?"

He looked up at her through his eyelashes, the sight almost breaking her. "Maybe..."

"It's not that I don't appreciate the thought, Spence, because I do... I've dreamt about the day you'd come back and apologize, begging me to take you back... But I can't get hurt again. And you have to understand that."

"I do... Just..." His hands reached out across the table, gently touching hers. The feeling sparked something in her, something nostalgic and warm...

Something that felt a lot like home.

He was going to continue his speech, but a knock on the glass separating them from the playroom on the other side jolted them apart. It was Piper, a stern look on her face. "Don't try anything, Mister... You're still on thin ice."

She turned away then, running back to the slide when Spencer sighed. "I thought we had a deal."

Y/N laughed, nodding at Piper through the glass. "Even a hundred bucks and free food isn't enough to win someone's trust." Spencer looked over at her and waited, visibly swallowing. But Y/N flashed the smallest of smiles before finishing, speaking quietly, yet with all the truth and firmness in the world. "You have to work harder than that."

"Duly noted," Spencer replied, his gaze never straying from hers. "Looks like me and my stupid, beautiful face have some work to do."

Y/N rolled her eyes, leaning back in the chair as Spencer grinned like a fool... A stupid, beautiful fool. "Oh, alright... You know what... If you weren't paying for my mountains of food and giving me a ride home, that thin ice you're on would have just shattered under the weight of that comment."

"Oh, come on, it was funny."

"No, it really wasn't."

"Yeah, it was."

He stared at her, smiling until her forced frown slowly and reluctantly transformed into a smile of her own.

***

"Thank you for lunch, Spencer! And for the hundred dollars!" Piper skipped past him and up the driveway, stopping to turn and wave with her Happy Meal toy in hand. Y/N was carrying a bag of leftover food and half a milkshake, her stomach already regretting every choice she'd ever made.

"You're welcome, Piper," Spencer said, smiling at the girl. "And thank you for letting me get a chance to set things right with your auntie. You really helped me out today, I appreciate it."

"Sure thing. Just don't break her heart again, or I'll break your stupid, beautiful face. It'll turn into a stupid, ugly face then."

Y/N mentally face-palmed herself, turning to Piper and telling her to go inside and wash up. The girl gave Spencer one final wave and a smile as she did so, leaving the adults alone once again.

"Thank you..." he said quietly, shifting on his feet. "For giving me a chance. I really want to make things right with us... Make up for the way I hurt you, and... try harder. You deserve that much."

Years of heartache and trying to get over him begged Y/N not to believe it, but deep down she knew he was being truthful. He wasn't the type of guy to come around like this—especially with all the work travel he did—just to manipulate her into heartache again, with empty promises and hurtful intent.

She knew he was really willing to try to make things right, and that was a big start.

"Thank you... for saying that... And for making Piper's day. I know you didn't really mean to bribe her, but the fact that you did it anyway is absurd, so... I guess I have to give credit where credit's due."

Spencer laughed, and this time Y/N didn't hate the feeling of the butterflies in her stomach fluttering at the sound. "Well, I'm glad I could at least amuse you today. Does... this mean my romantic to stubborn ratio shifted a little bit?"

Y/N rolled her eyes affectionately, taking a sip of her milkshake. "Hmm... twenty to eighty."

"Still leaning in favor of stubborn, I suppose..."

The smile they shared in that moment felt more like the ones they used to share back then, officially kickstarting the slow, meticulous mending of their love.

"Obviously."

***

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[liquidstar]

I feel as if many people, myself included, have been having problems with the way “critical thinking” is conducted in fandom circles more and more. Which I’d say is a good thing, because it means we’re thinking critically. But still the issues with the faux-critical mentality and with the way we consume media through that fandom group mentality are incredibly widespread at this point, despite being very flawed, and there are still plenty of people who follow it blindly, ironically.

I sort of felt like I had to examine my personal feelings on it and I ended up writing a whole novel, which I’ll put under the cut, and I do welcome other people’s voices in the matter, because while I’m being as nuanced as I can here I obviously am still writing from personal experience and may overlook some things from my limited perspective. But by and large I think I’ve dissected the phenomena as best I can from what I’ve been seeing going on in fandom circles from a safe but observable distance.

Right off the bat I want to say, I think it's incredibly good and necessary to be critical of media and understand when you should stop consuming it, but that line can be a bit circumstantial sometimes for different people. There are a lot of anime that I used to watch as a teenager that I can’t enjoy anymore, because I got more and more uncomfortable overtime with the sexualization of young characters, partly because as I was getting older I was really starting to realize how big of an issue it was, and I certainly think more critically now than I did when I was 14. Of course I don’t assume everyone who still watches certain series is a pedophile, and I do think there are plenty of fans that understand this. However I still stay away from those circles and that’s a personal choice.

I don’t think a person is morally superior based on where they draw the line and their own boundaries with this type of stuff, what’s more important is your understanding of the problem and response to it. There are series I watch that have a lot of the same issues around sexualization of the young characters in the cast, but they’re relatively toned down and I can still enjoy the aspects of the series I actually like without it feeling as uncomfortable and extreme. Others will not be able to, and their issues with it are legitimate and ones that I still ultimately agree with, but they’re still free to dislike the series for it, after all our stance on the issue itself is the same so why would I resent them for it?

Different people are bound to have different lines they draw for how far certain things can go in media before they’re uncomfortable watching it and it doesn’t make it a moral failing of the person who can put up with more if they’re still capable of understanding why it’s bad to begin with and able to not let it effect them. But I don’t think that sentiment necessarily contradicts the idea that some things really are too far gone for this to apply, the above examples aren’t the same thing as a series centered solely around lolicon ecchi and it doesn’t take a lot of deep analysis to understand why. It’s not about a personal line anymore when it comes to things that are outright propaganda or predatory with harmful ideals woven into the message of the story itself. Critical thinking means knowing the difference between these, and no one can hold your hand through it. And simply slapping “I’m critical of my interests” on your bio isn’t a get out of jail free card, it’s always evident when someone isn’t truly thinking about the impact of the media they consume through the way they consume it.

I think the issue is that when people apply “Critical thinking” they don’t actually analyze the story and its intent, messages, themes, morals, and all that. Instead they approach it completely diegetically, it’s basically the thermian argument, the issue stems from thinking about the story and characters as if they’re real people and judging their actions through that perspective, rather than something from a writer trying to deliver a narrative by using the story and characters as tools. Like how people get upset about characters behaving “problematically” without realizing that it’s an intentional aspect of the story, that the character needs to cause problems for there to be conflict. What they should be looking at instead is what their behavior represents in the real world.

You do not need to apply real-world morals to fictional characters, you need to apply them to the narrative. The story exists in the real world, the characters and events within it do not. Fictional murderers themselves do not hurt anyone, no one is actually dying at their hands, but their actions hold weight in the narrative which itself can harm real people. If the character only murders gay people then it reflects on whatever the themes and messages of the story are, and it’s a major issue if it's framed as if they’re morally justified, or as if this is a noble action. And it’s a huge red flag if people stan this character, even if the story itself actually presents their actions as reprehensible. Or cases where the murderers themselves are some kind of awful stereotype, like Buffalo Bill who presents a violent and dangerous stereotype of trans women, making the character a transmisogynistic caricature (Intentional or otherwise) that has caused a lot of harm to the perception of trans women. When people say “Fiction affects reality” this is what they mean. They do not mean “People will see a pretend bad guy and become bad” they mean “Ideals represented in fiction will be pulled from the real world and reflected back onto it.”

However, stories shouldn’t have to spoon-feed you the lesson as if you’re watching a children’s cartoon, stories often have nuances and you have to actively analyze the themes of it all to understand it’s core messages. Oftentimes it can be intentionally murky and hard to parse especially if the subject matter itself is complicated. But you can’t simply read things on the surface and think you understand everything about them, without understanding the symbolism or subtext you can leave a series like Revolutionary Girl Utena thinking the titular Utena is heterosexual and was only ever in love with her prince. Things won’t always be face-value or clear-cut and you will be forced to come to your own conclusions sometimes too.

That’s why the whole fandom-based groupthink mentality about “critical thinking” doesn’t work, because it’s not critical. It’s simply looking into the crowd, seeing people say a show is problematic, and then dropping it without truly understanding why. It’s performative, consuming the best media isn’t activism and it doesn’t make you a better person. Listening to the voices of people whom the issues directly concerns will help you form an opinion, and to understand the issues from a more knowledgeable perspective beyond your own. All that means nothing if you just sweep it under the rug because you want to look infallible in your morality. That’s not being critical, it’s just being scared to analyze yourself, as well as what you engage with. You just don’t want to think about those things and you’re afraid of being less than perfect so you pretend it never happened.

And though I’m making this post, it’s not mine or anyone else’s job to hold your hand through all this and tell you “Oh this show is okay, but this show isn't, and this book is bad etc etc etc”. Because you actually have to think for yourself, you know, critically. Examples I’ve listed aren’t rules of thumb, they’re just examples and things will vary depending on the story and circumstance. You have to look at shit on a case-by-case basis instead of relying on spotting tropes without thinking about how they’re implemented and what they mean. That’s why it’s analysis, you have to use it to understand what the narrative is communicating to its audience, explicitly or implicitly, intentionally or incidentally, and understand how this reflects the real world and what kind of impact it can have on it. 

A big problem with fandom is it has made interests synonymous with personality traits, as if every series we consume is a core part of our being, and everything we see in it reflects our viewpoints as well. So when people are told that a show they watched is problematic, they react very extremely, because they see it as basically the same thing as saying they themselves are problematic (It’s not). Everyone sees themselves as good people, they don’t want to be bad people, so this scares them and they either start hiding any evidence that they ever liked it, or they double down and start defending it despite all its flaws, often providing those aforementioned thermian arguments (“She dresses that way because of her powers!”).

That’s how you get people who call children’s cartoons “irredeemable media” and people who plaster “fiction=/= reality!” all over their blogs, both are basically trying to save face either by denying that they could ever consume anything problematic or denying that the problematic aspects exist all together. And absolutely no one is actually addressing the core issues anymore, save for those affected by them who pointed them out to begin with, only for their original point to become muffled in the discourse. No one is thinking critically because they’re more concerned with us-vs-them group mentality, both sides try to out-perform the other while the actual issue gets ignored or is used as nothing more than a gacha with no true understanding or sympathy behind it.

One of the other issues that comes from this is the fact that pretty much everyone thinks they’re the only person capable of being critical of their interests. That’s how you get those interactions where one person goes “OK [Media] fan” and another person replies “Bro you literally like [Other Media]”, because both parties think they’re the only ones capable of consuming a problematic piece of media and not becoming problematic themselves, anyone else who enjoys it is clearly incapable of being as big brained as them. It’s understandable because we know ourselves and trust ourselves more than strangers, and I’m not saying there can’t be certain fandoms who’s fans you don’t wanna interact with, but when we presume that we know better than everyone else we stop listening to other people all together. It’s good to trust your own judgement, it’s bad to assume no one else has the capacity to think for themselves either though.

The insistence that all media that you personally like is without moral failing and completely pure comes with the belief that all media that you personally dislike has to be morally bad in some way. As if you can’t just dislike a series because you find it annoying or it just doesn’t appeal to you, it has to be problematic, and you have to justify your dislike of it through that perspective. You have to believe that your view on whatever media it is is the objectively correct one, so you’ll likely pick apart all it’s flaws to prove you’re on the right side, but there’s no analysis of context or intent. Keep in mind this doesn’t necessarily mean those critiques are unfounded or invalid, but in cases like this they’re often skewed in one direction based on personal opinion. It’s just as flawed as ignoring all the faults in the stuff you like, it’s biased and subjective analysis that misses a lot of context in both cases, it’s not a good mindset to have about consuming media. It’s just another result of tying media consumption with identity and personal morals. The faux-critical mentality is an attempt to separate the two in a way that implies they’re a packaged deal to begin with, making it sort of impossible to truly do so in any meaningful way.

As far as I know this whole phenomena started with “Steven Universe Critical” in, like, 2016, and that’s where this mentality around “critical thinking” originated. It started out with just a few people correctly pointing out very legitimate issues with the series, but over time it grew into just a trend where people would make cutesy kin blogs with urls like critical-[character] or [character]crit to go with the fad as it divulged into Nostalgia Critic level critique. Of course there was backlash to this and criticism of the criticism, but no actual conversation to be had. Just people trying to out-do each other by acting as the most virtuous one in the room, and soon enough the fad became a huge echo-chamber that encouraged more and more outrageous takes for every little thing. The series itself was a children’s cartoon so it stands to reason that a lot of the fans were young teens, so this behavior isn’t too surprising and I do believe a lot of them did think they were doing the right thing, especially since it was encouraged. But that doesn’t erase the fact that there were actual real issues and concerns brought up about the series that got treated with very little sympathy and were instead drowning out people’s voices. Though those from a few years back may have grown up since and know better (Hopefully), the mentality stuck around and influenced the norm for how fandoms and fandom people conduct any sort of critique on media. 

That’s a shame to me, because the pedestal people place fandom onto has completely disrupted our perception on how to engage with media in a normal way. Not everything should be consumed with fandom in mind, not everything is a coffee-shop au with no conflict, not everything is a children’s cartoon with the morals spoon-fed to you. Fandom has grown past the years of uncritical praise of a series, it’s much more mainstream now with a lot more voices in it beyond your small community on some forum, and people are allowed to use those voices. Just because it may not be as pleasant for you now because you don’t get to just turn your brain off and ignore all the flaws doesn’t mean you can put on your rose-tinted nostalgia goggles and pretend that fandom is actually all that is good in the world, to the point where you place it above the comfort and safety of others (Oftentimes children). Being uncritical of fandom itself is just as bad as being uncritical of what you consume to begin with. 

At the end of the day it all just boils down to the ability to truly think for yourself but with sympathy and compassion for other people in mind, while also understanding that not everyone will come to the same conclusion as you and people are allowed to resent your interests. That doesn’t necessarily mean they hate you personally, you should be acknowledging the same issues after all. You can’t ignore aspects of it that aren’t convenient to your conclusion, you have to actually be critical and understand the issues to be able to form it. 

I think that all we need is to not rely on fandom to tell us what to do, but still listen to the voices of others, take them into account to form our opinion too, boost their voices instead of drowning them out in the minutiae of internet discourse about which character is too much of an asshole to like. Think about what the characters and story represent non-diegetically instead of treating them like real people and events, rather a story with an intent and message to share through its story and characters, and whatever those reflect from the real world. That’s how fiction affects reality, because it exists in reality and reflects reality through its own lens. The story itself is real, with a real impact on you and many others, so think about the impact and why it all matters. Just… Think. Listen to others but think for yourself, that’s all.

[freedom-of-fanfic]

i’m here for the discussion, not the discourse (a manifesto)

In my FAQ I mention that ‘despite running a blog that talks a lot about anti-shipping, I try to ignore anti-shippers.’

Of course, I don’t actually ignore anti-shippers. I read their posts regularly and think about what they mean, and why they’re saying it, and who planted the rhetorical seeds condoning their behavior. But I try to not get into arguments with anti-shippers.

There’s a lot of reasons for my reluctance to argue with members of a community I frequently analyze. Most importantly: anti-shipping rhetoric is intolerant*. But another reason I avoid arguing with anti-shippers is because they discourage and shut down nuanced discourse on complicated topics. When any attempt to engage in a less than black&white discussion of fraught topics such as taboo sexual fantasies in fictional works is buried in an avalanche of disgust, no meaningful discussion can occur.

What I’m advocating for these days is less ‘anything goes, absolutely no limits, full stop’ and more ... well. what the rest of this post gets into.

Here’s my FreetoFic manifesto, aka: why I run this blog:

Mainly: I believe nuance is everything. 

Hardly anything is black&white ‘bad’ or ‘good’, ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’. For example: in moving to huge aggregate social media sites, fandom became easier to locate and adult/dark fandom content easier to access on accident. Realistically, we can’t just censor all adult/upsetting content: so how do we keep underage minors/anyone who doesn’t want to see this stuff from seeing it? What is the responsibility of the creator vs the consumer? Sites like tumblr and twitter make it hard to address things in nuanced ways, so I’m trying my best to discourage simplified groupthink and encourage nuanced, independent thought on complicated & fraught subjects.

I prefer accurate education on potentially dangerous things to censorship of the thing. 

Censorship doesn’t made hated things go away; it just pushes it into hiding. Pretending upsetting things don’t exist by forbidding people from writing or talking about them doesn’t actually make the upsetting thing stop existing. I advocate letting ppl talk about these things via fiction if they want while increasing education on the reality of the thing, so even inaccurate, bad fiction doesn’t trick ppl into thinking the fictional version is realistic.

I think reality and fiction have a complicated relationship that can’t be reduced to ‘fiction does not affect reality’ or ‘fiction affects reality’. 

I use this blog to examine the actual relationship of fiction and reality.

I think fandom and activism have been conflated, to the detriment of both. 

When fandom/fanworks are ‘supposed’ to be activist, it stifles creativity and hurts ppl who consume fanworks while thinking they’re all activist educational material when they’re not. I try to fight this conflation.

Words have definitions and they matter.

people who defined themselves as ‘anti-[ship]’ had begun to use words like ‘pedophilia’, ‘children’, ‘child porn’, etc in wildly expansive ways, which has been used to justify accusing people who ship what they hate of being sexual perverts and child molesters. It upsets and tires me out, so I use this blog to address the hyperbolic rhetoric.

I’ve noticed a lot of abusive, cultlike behavioral patterns and intellectual dishonesty among people who argue fandom should be censored according to their tastes/beliefs. 

It makes me worry because (1) I’ve noticed that these behaviors are spreading, even to some people making counterarguments, and (2) the dishonesty and misdirection irt how to identify dangerous people in fandom is literally making it easier for abusers to hide. I do my best to point out the abuses and untruths perpetuated in the name of ‘anti-pedophilia/incest/abuse’ rhetoric - and to address that predatory people are on all ‘sides’ in fandom, advocating for whatever their chosen prey advocates for - to protect people from false flagging.

I am increasingly aware of a connection betweeen fandom policing rhetoric and anti-kink/anti-porn rhetoric, which are SWERF arguments.

I want to draw attention to nonintersectional radfem influence in fandom for those who don’t want to be influenced by them.

I want to remind people who are targeted for harassment campaigns by people policing fandom that they are being abused, and no matter what they said or created that triggered the attack, it does not justify the treatment they are receiving.

.

I want to remind people that it’s okay to imagine and examine potentially harmful/dangerous concepts. 

It doesn’t make you a bad person & doesn’t mean you’re doomed to act on your imagination in reality. Fandom policing seems to have made a lot of ppl scared of themselves, and I try to dismantle that.

fandom is a microcosm that echoes the social climate it’s swimming in. 

For example: as authoritarian thinking has swept through America / the western world, so it has swept through English speaking fandom. Sociologically speaking, fandom is a great place to observe comparatively low-stakes behavioral patterns. I write about what I notice here.

Finally: I love fandom.

and I want everyone - even fandom policers - to find fandom a happy place to be instead of an upsetting place. I don’t know how we get there, but I figure talking about it is the first step.

---

‘discourse’, in the academic sense, is an ongoing (& ideally intersectional) dialogue dedicated to defining, debating, expanding, and exploring complicated, often-fraught topics. This is deeply valuable!

But colloquially, ‘discourse’ means ‘ongoing public argument in an open forum.’ Modern social media is designed to encourage it - and nothing keeps the argument going like limiting context and nuance. Intolerant groups thrive in environments like these.

I’m not here to participate in the colloquial ‘discourse’. I’m here for something deeper (and kinder.)

*intolerant rhetoric dehumanizes and scapegoats a group of people, then advocates for committing acts of violence - physical, mental, or institutional - against them.  As a person who calls for tolerance of opposing ideals, I’m obligated to ignore and shut down intolerance. (This is the Paradox of Tolerance.)

[jackrrabbit]

Unprofessional [pt. 2] /// Yandere Tendou x f!Reader (18+)

Request: Bro can I request a super smutty yandere tendou x reader please there’s literally no content for him and I’m just a honry simp for him 😔 (also your writing is FANFUCKINGTASTIC I have read and reread all of your docs dude at least twice in conclusion you’re my favorite writing blog now)

A/N: Thank you omg I’m so honored, seriously I’m blushing?? Also I love Tendou too so ty for the request. Finished the second (and final) part one day late for his birthday  🎂🥳🎁🎊🎉

Summary: The new hire you’re supposed to be training at your office job is a little too attached for his own good…or yours. [Part 1]

Tags/warnings: yandere, timeskip (Tendou is 23), noncon, mildly inebriated sex, restraints/bondage, threats, Tendou is incapable of shutting up, liberal use of “senpai”

You look so cute like this, wrapped up like a pretty birthday present just for him. Tendou likes you so much it hurts.

Your breaths are intentionally steady, like you’re counting out the proper number of seconds on each inhale and exhale in an effort to appear calm. Your chest heaves lightly, and he’s got an almost-perfect view of it with your blouse unbuttoned and your bra pushed up over your tits. He’d prefer to have you completely topless, but with your hands tied behind your back with his belt, his options are limited.

Tendou’s already shimmied your sensible pencil skirt down over your thighs to expose your legs. You looked so sexy in just your open shirt and pantyhose, but he had to take the hose off for access. Besides, removing the sheer black fabric (slowly, so that it wouldn’t rip—he knows those things aren’t cheap) gave him the opportunity to feel up your legs. Panties came next, and now you’re on your back glaring up at him with your legs crossed and folded to hide your naked pussy.

It’s the hottest thing he’s ever seen. Of course he took a few pictures.

The only issue is the gag. Tendou has his tie wound over your mouth to keep you quiet. It won’t do—he wants to see your face, after all—but he’s already got a fix, in the form of a little square of plastic he takes from his pocket.

He holds it up close enough that you can see it. “Do you know what this is?”

You don’t nod or anything, but you definitely recognize it—a condom.

“We’re going to have sex, senpai.” Tendou picks up on the little catch in your breath when he says the word ‘sex’, but he doesn’t think about it. “I don’t really care if I wear a condom, but I think you probably do. Is that right?”

You don’t respond.

“Senpaiii…don’t be stubborn. Nod yes for a condom, or else I’m not gonna wear one.”

You glare like you want to kill him, but you nod. Haha, how cute.

“Okay, good. I like when you do what I tell you. Now, I want to take the gag off, but I won’t do it if you’re going to be loud, you understand? It’s rude to bother your neighbors late at night. And…” He pauses. “Just to make sure you play nice, if you don’t listen to me I’ll take the condom off and cum inside. You don’t want that, do you?”

You shake your head frantically.

“Thought so.” Tendou’s pale, nimble fingers splay out over your inner thigh. “Then can you promise you’ll be nice?”

It takes you a long minute during which Tendou entertains himself petting the sweat-damp skin of your thigh, but you finally nod.

“Great!” Tendou grins and reaches down to untie the gag.

You take a minute to open and close your mouth, probably trying to stretch out the stiff muscles before you speak. Your voice is impassive and cool like you’ve been practicing what you’re going to say. “Tendou, you need to untie me. You’re very drunk and not in your right mind. Don’t do something you’re going to regret.”

Instead of listening to you, Tendou chooses to strip. Your composed mask slips for a second when he takes off his boxers to reveal his stiff, throbbing hard cock, already aching red and drizzling strands of precum onto his hand when he strokes it up and down. “Don’t worry baby, I sober up quick. I might be a lil tipsy but I’m not gonna have any trouble performing. Not for you.”

He crouches down to center you in between his arms, holding his head directly above yours. “And besides—“ you try to pull back away from his hot breath but your limited range of movement prevents you from getting anywhere— “I’m not going to regret this.”

Your lips are soft under his and you still taste fresh and sweet and minty from the toothpaste. You’re unresisting when his tongue prods into your mouth, but that’s not enough. “Kiss me back,” he murmurs, and you do. Maybe it’s just mindless—he’s sure you’ve kissed other people, as much as he’d like to pretend otherwise—but the movements of your lips and teeth and tongue against his feel almost eager.

“Ha…my first kiss with senpai,” Tendou says, pulling back and licking over his swollen lips. It would be nice to take his time with everything, but there’ll be more chances for that later. He loves the way your eyes trace him as he sticks his own fingers in his mouth to cover them with saliva.

“What are you doing?” you ask, but your question is answered when Tendou easily pulls your legs apart and settles himself between them so he can have easy access to slide his spit-soaked fingers up the length of your slit. “Tendou—Tendou, wait—“

He shushes you and continues to drag his middle finger all the way up from your entrance to your clit, letting the rough texture of his skin combine with your slick lubricant and give you just enough stimulation to make your hips twitch. “Mm, you like that? Gotta get you ready baby…not to brag, but I’m a little bigger than most guys. Wouldn’t want to—oh, easy, easy, relax—wouldn’t want to hurt you.“

You wince and then try to hold it back, school your expression so he won’t see the discomfort on your face when a single finger pushes into you. It’s not that painful, but the physical feeling isn’t nearly as bad as the fact that you don’t want any of this.

“How is that?” Tendou asks, slowly rocking his index finger in and out of your pussy, barely curling the tip to seek out your g-spot. You suppress the minuscule jerk of your core as best you can, but you can’t quite make it invisible and he feels it. “That good, huh?”

You want so badly to be angry. You are angry. If you could speak your mind right now, you’d tell him to go to hell. Yes, it feels good (and even admitting that to yourself makes you want to curl up and die), but it’s just hormones, stimulation, reaction. You can’t help it. But you’re not going to say that to him, not if you have the least chance of convincing him to stop before he goes any further. “It’s…fine. But, Tendou—“

“Knew you would like it. Oh—“ Another finger forces into your cunt. “—you’re tight, senpai. It’s been a while, yeah? You don’t have a boyfriend, I’d know if you did…and you’re not the type to do this casually. Too focused on your career.”

“I…mm…” What is he saying? Typical Tendou running his mouth even while you’re focused on him fucking you with those long fingers, prodding away at that spot—that fucking spot that is somehow, somehow—

—making you wet.

It’s not like some kind of precision activity. Tendou isn’t building you up or being subtle about it. There’s no teasing, no gentle touches, he’s just stroking that same spot over and over and the flat of his hand is mashing against your clit carelessly and it’s so stupid and so messy and there’s nothing kind or loving about it so why is it working?

“Feel that? Feel how wet you are?” Tendou has that same self-satisfied grin as he works his fingers in and out. “Poor senpai… You needed this, but you can’t ask for it yourself, I understand.”

“I don’t need anything…” you say, but you can’t expect him to believe you when your juices are slipping in and out of your hole along with his fingers, lubing him up to move even faster than before. When he started, you were so tense and tight that he could barely twist his fingertips up to pad at your g-spot, but now? Your walls are hot and sticky and supple, sucking him back in every time he pulls out.

He wants to make you cum, he does. And if he keeps going, it’s not going to be long, is it? But it’s your first time together… Tendou feels his cheeks getting hotter. First time with senpai, first time seeing you and touching you and having you totally, completely belong to him. The first time he makes you cum, it should be together.

If he’s not mistaken, you look almost disappointed when his fingers work their way out of your pussy, drawing away from you and wiping clean on the inside of your thigh. “You—You’re not…?” you question, trailing off when apparently you can’t bring yourself to ask for it.

“Don’t worry baby, plenty of time for that when I’m inside you.” Tendou walks his way up on the bed to leave a kiss on your forehead, so quick that you can’t cringe away when he does it.

You look off to the side, determined not to give him the satisfaction of eye contact—not to mention you hate looking at him, you hate seeing his stupid creepy face leering at you like you’re…you’re lovers or something. Like he’s not forcing you. But your attempt to maintain even that measly degree of avoidance shatters when you hear plastic crinkling. Ripping.

He’s opening the condom.

“Tendou—Tendou, wait! Listen!” You swallow and try to pull yourself back into your workplace persona, the mentor he respected and learned from, even if it was just an act. “Listen to me, please. You’re making a mistake. If we—if we stop now, we can forget about it...we can go back to normal, I promise. Do you hear me? I promise.”

“Normal isn’t enough anymore. Y’know what normal is for me? I’ve loved you for fifteen years. Wanted this for so long.” Tendou rolls the condom on and then hikes your ass upward so his cock is lined up with your slit. “Senpai, don’t you think you’ve had your way for long enough? It’s time…it’s time for me to get what I want.”

For the first time since he caught you and pinned you down on the floor of your living room, you struggle, really struggle for all you’re worth. The stiff leather of Tendou’s belt bites into your wrists and forearms as you try and get out of it, but the restraints hold firm—in fact, it feels like they’re getting tighter the more you move. Your hands are going numb from lack of blood flow, the prickles of pins and needles stinging into your skin, but you ignore it. You’re too worried about being heard to scream (and how twisted is it that you’re more scared of your neighbors than him?) but you jerk your leg up in an attempt to kick him away.

Tendou catches your foot before it can hit him. Easily. It’s like he sees everything you’re doing before you do it. “Hey, hey, stop that. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Let me go, Tendou!” you hiss as loudly as you dare.

“Senpai…” His grip on your lower thigh tightens, a warning. “What did I say about being nice?”

You go limp. You don’t want to have sex with him, but you cannot—absolutely cannot—have him do it unprotected.

Tendou sighs as you relax in his grasp. “Good choice… Always so rational. But I want you to say it out loud, okay? Tell me you know what’s going to happen if you misbehave.”

Once again, you find yourself avoiding his gaze. How dare he say he loves you and then treat you like this. “…You’re going to take off the condom.”

“Yeah…” Once again, you feel the thick, stiff cock nudging against your inner thigh. He slides it up between your lips to slick it up. “And what am I going to do when I take it off?”

“You’ll…put it in raw. And…”

“And?”

“…c-cum inside.”

“And you don’t want me to do that. So behave, senpai.”

Tendou pushes into you in one deep stroke and you gasp. ‘A little bigger than most guys,’ he’d said. A little bigger? He’s a liar, again—he’s so big that you can already feel the thick head flush against your cervix, pressing there like he wants to go deeper. “T-Too deep, it’s too deep—“

“Shh, you just gotta get used to it…” Tendou leans down, folding your legs up into your chest so he can trap you between him and the mattress and speckle light kisses over your face. “You have to relax. I’ll be slow.”

The position is uncomfortable. He’s got your spine curled up off the bed and your thighs are burning from the stretch, but his skin bumps against your clit every time he makes the slightest movement. Once you’re steady, he pulls back a fraction and then thrusts back into you, barely moving, just enough that you can feel the pressure of his cockhead receding and then hitting back against your cervix. It’s slow, but it’s not slow enough—nothing is slow enough with how big he is.

Tendou kisses you again, pulling your head back to center so he can shove his tongue into your mouth just like he’s shoving his cock into your pussy. He’s not content to keep up the languid pace for long, though—as soon as you’re the tiniest bit relaxed, as soon as the barest muffled whimpers are forced out of your mouth, he’s lengthening his thrusts and slapping the entire length of his heavy cock back in and out of you.

You almost wish he would stop dragging it out. You don’t want to feel this, any of this, not him groaning into your mouth, not the weight of his body holding you down and spreading your thighs apart, and definitely not the dizzying friction of the head of his cock on your g-spot. You wouldn’t even be feeling it like this if he hadn’t prepared you and left you wanting.

You close your eyes and try to pretend that it’s someone else doing it to you, but it’s impossible. Tendou was right earlier, it’s been too long—there’s no one else in recent memory who you can picture in his place. Besides, it’s not like you’ve ever been fucked like this. Everything you can sense is screaming out that it’s him, him, him, from his whiny voice moaning out love confessions you don’t want to hear to the spicy-sweet cologne, the same one he wears around the office, now mixed with his sweat and so saturated you think you could choke on it.

You’re trying to imagine someone else’s cock driving your pussy open, anyone else—a boy you had a crush on in high school, the guy you’d lost your virginity to in college, even an actor you like—but it doesn’t work, because no matter who you try to pretend is fucking you you know it’s Tendou.

“Hey—senpai, look at me…” He’s patting your cheek, trying to get you to meet his gaze. “Open your eyes…look what I’m doing to you.”

“Don’t…don’t make me…” You shudder as he pushes all the way back in, bottoming out so he can grind his hips cruelly against your mound and provide untidy stimulation to your clit.

“Look.” Tendou’s voice is hard. He isn’t asking anymore.

With the threat from earlier hanging over your head, you don’t have a choice, do you? You open your eyes and look at him.

Tendou Satori. Even in the middle of drilling you, he’s beaming like you’re making him happy. There are twin pink patches high on his cheekbones under his eyes. He’s sweating—makes sense, he’s doing all the work. His lips are red and swollen from kissing you.

Tendou Satori, who brings you coffee at work even when you didn’t ask for it. Who misspells the same word 3 different ways every time he writes up a sales contract. Who said during his first interview that his greatest weakness is that he has a habit of going with his gut, and that his greatest strength is that his gut is usually right.

How is this the same person? No…no, that’s not what’s making you upset. It’s not that the Tendou fucking you is somehow so different from the one you thought you knew. It’s that he’s the same, the same man who never really listens when you say no, who never stops touching you when you say it bothers you. This is just the next thing. It makes sense.

“Senpai?” Tendou’s hips slow and he leaves his cock sitting thick and hard in your battered pussy. “Senpai? Are you…you’re crying?”

He’s blurry and your eyes sting and you want to wipe at them, but, well, your hands are tied. Literally. Tendou holds himself over you with one arm so the other can thumb over your wet eyes. “Don’t touch me,” you blubber out, knowing it won’t have any effect.

“Shh, shh, stop crying,” he says, sounding panicked. “Please stop crying. Please stop.”

Your silent weeping is interrupted by a whimper as he pulls out of you. You feel…something, maybe relief or maybe disappointment, but mostly you’re just overwhelmed. You’re slack as a puppet while he flips you over and carefully unbuckles the belt from your arms. The pins and needles return in full force once you’re unbound, discomforting to the point of pain as Tendou massages over the tender flesh with his own hands.

“Sorry…Looks like it was a little too tight.”

Once Tendou’s released you, you hold up an arm to examine yourself. There are red marks where the edges of the belt dug into your skin. Your hands are still prickly, still desensitized as you clumsily rub your eyes, but you just can’t seem to stop crying.

“Shh,” Tendou says over your shoulder from where he’s sitting behind you, and you’re so sick of hearing him shush you but you can’t bring yourself to respond. “I love you, senpai… Please don’t cry.”

The way he says it—so hurt, so caring, so desperate, makes your heart ache. You’d almost believe him…if he weren’t pushing you back down onto the bed, face first this time. You don’t have the energy to resist as he pulls your ass up to his hips. At least now you can bite down on the sheet to shut yourself up as he fills your aching cunt again.

This time, though, now that he’s fucking you like a dog, he’s got the space to reach down around your hips and stroke your clit. The shock of the contact is enough to scare the tears out of your eyes and you cry out.

Tendou takes your response as permission to do more, rubbing over your button with no regard for how delicate and sensitive you’re feeling. “Yeah, yeah, you like that… Senpai likes it when I touch her needy little pussy? Come on, let me hear you.”

“Tendou—mmph, Tendou, st—ahh…?” But you can’t really tell him to stop. You don’t want him to stop. If you’re going to have to get fucked like this, shouldn’t you at least get to get off? It’s only fair.

Fair. The thought crosses your mind and you almost laugh—maybe you would if the force of Tendou’s body weight wasn’t smothering your face into the pillows. Nothing about this is fair.

“Do you like it?” You can hear how excited he is. “Tell me—tell me you like it, senpai? Please. Please?”

With trembling arms, you raise your upper body off the bed just enough so that you can turn your head to the side and speak. “Keep touching me. Like that.”

He does, padding over your clit senselessly while his cock does its brutal work on your insides. You feel…fucking amazing, and Tendou’s so happy, so grateful to have your beautiful pure dirty body holding onto him, sucking him into your cunt and holding yourself around him like you’ll fall apart if he’s not inside you filling you up. Your pussy is incredibly responsive, clenching down in him in time with his fingers moving on your clit. God, he could cum right now…but you have to cum first, he has to make you cum, it has to be together.

He’s so glad you’re not crying anymore. You like it, he knows you do. He’s had you getting closer and closer for a while now, and all the ups and downs and stopping you before you can cum are definitely making you need it even more.

You’re getting louder. You probably don’t even realize it, but you are. Tendou wishes he had something recording.

“I’m—fuck, I’m…c-cu…” Telling him is reflexive, a gesture of courtesy you’re used to from previous partners. He doesn’t deserve it, but you give it to him anyway.

“Gonna cum, baby?” Tendou coos. His touches grow even rougher somehow, abusing your clit while he nudges himself out so he can slide his cock back and forth over your g-spot. The aggressive rhythm of the stimulation has your spine arching up and he pushes you back down to keep you in place. “Stay down…let me do it for you.”

“Tendou!” you cry out, and he feels it, feels you cum, feels your whole body wracked with tremors, feels the walls of your cunt squeeze his cock like you’re trying to hold him inside. Fuck. Fuck. It’s too good, your pussy is so tight and warm and drenched in your juices, he can’t think, he wants it, wants to cum, wants to cum with you, together, together, together.

Tendou’s hand leaves your clit just in time to grip your ass and slam himself back into you, holding you impaled on his cock while both of you shudder through your post-orgasm aftershocks. “Senpai…senpai. I love you,” he gasps, and cums, hips jerking against yours as his mind goes blank for a second.

Fuck, it feels good, feels like his eyes are rolling back in his head.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

“Tendou…” It’s all you can say. You can feel him getting softer inside you, and he pulls out to take off the condom. Once he’s gotten rid of it, you let him flip you onto your side and lie next to you on the bed.

“How was that, senpai?” Tendou asks, kissing you slowly. He cuddles up to you, pulling your back into his chest so your bodies are fitted together like puzzle pieces. His heart is pounding like a rabbit’s—you’d think it was cute if not for…everything.

You’re quiet.

“I know you liked it.” Another kiss, this time on the back of your neck. “You needed it just as much as I did. And I know you won’t want to admit it at first, right? You’ve got your professional reputation to maintain, I get it. But don’t worry—“

You wish he would shut up. You wish he would leave you alone. You wish he wasn’t holding you so close that you can feel his cock against your ass, and you wish—you wish you couldn’t feel him getting hard, again.

“—this was just our first time. And there’s gonna be lots more. You and me? We’re going to be together forever, senpai.”

[vkelleyart]

Thoughts on fandom: inclusion and engagement.

(Art credit to the kindhearted @penpanoply​!)

There’s been some stuff floating around on Tumblr about strife in the CO/WS fandom, and though I haven’t been explicitly named-dropped on anything public, my DMs have been... active. lol Rather than rehash what’s been said already, I just want to impart a little wisdom and perspective in the hopes it may soothe frayed feelings and offer a way ahead for cultivating a respectful community. As someone who has been an active participant in online fandoms since the mid-’90s, which was the advent of online fandom content creation (shout out to my fellow X-Philes!), and who has also spent a chunk of her professional life managing social media for the federal government and for activist groups, I can promise you it’s all gonna be okay.

Here’s some context for why strife happens and what we can do to create a more inclusive and communicative fandom environment. 

1) It sounds cliché, but fandoms go through growing pains. 

In the case of the Simon Snow fandom, what was once a small and cozy space untouched by cataclysmic events (such as the release of *gasp* a sequel) has grown exponentially in a relatively short amount of time following the release of Wayward Son. Newcomers are eager to find a home in this space at the same time as folks who’ve been here a while may be consciously or unconsciously wary about widening their circle, and It’s important to remember that this is not necessarily an expression of bad behavior on either side but just human psychology doing its thing. 

The byproduct, however, is that tension and stress builds over time from the lack of meaningful communication across the divide, which subsequently fuels misunderstandings. Ironically, the interfaces we use to communicate don’t help with this because any existing communication about the tension happens in tiny vacuums until a trigger goes off and bad feelings go public. 

Way Ahead: These moments of destabilization are opportunities to see where we can be more self aware about how we engage with fandom and the kind of community we want to be. Can you promote, support, or befriend someone trying to gain a foothold? If yes, please do! Each person must reach their own decision about what they can do within the confines of their available energy, health, and time, but a little self awareness goes a long way as long as you’re honest with yourself and others if applicable about what you can contribute. Anyone who judges you for it isn’t worth the strife.

2) In a fandom comprised of vulnerable/marginalized people, it’s more accurate to say that cliques are “bubbles of trust.”

This one's important. Just by nature of the source material, the CO/WS fandom includes fans with a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, especially when it comes to those who identify with the characters’ queerness, mental illness, and/or trauma. I really believe––based on individual conversations/group chats––that the difficult lived experiences that so many of our fandom peers have endured has produced one of the most open, aware, and accepting fandoms I’ve had the pleasure of participating in. Our vulnerability is, in a real way, our strength.

That said, a community of survivors also has the side effect of cultivating small circles of engagement that I call “bubbles of trust.” When you’re a survivor of abuse, marginalization, mental illness, fill-in-the-blank, it’s often quite hard to risk casting a wide net and expanding your circle to include new faces––which can subsequently be internalized by equally sensitive and vulnerable newcomers as rejection, judgement, or inadequacy.

Way Ahead: First of all, there may indeed be gatekeeping and exclusion going on. But before internalizing someone’s cagey behavior as gatekeeping or purposely exclusionary, ask yourself if you have all the information. Many people are private (I include myself in this assessment) because life has regrettably taught them to be this way, and so they may insulate themselves to a small group of people who have earned their trust. Some people might also triggered by certain content (case in point: smut triggers my anxiety) so they don’t engage with it. Others might have something in their pasts that define how they handle certain subjects (for example, a person of color should not be tone policed for getting angry when confronted with a racialized microagression, however accidental it was). You just don’t know what you don’t know. 

The solution here is to regularly check your privilege and ask questions in a private space if you sense you’re being treated unfairly by someone. If you go public with your grievances in hopes of mobilizing the mob, you may accidentally find yourself stepping into the role of the aggressor instead of the victim.

3) Social Media is not built to help you get engagement. It’s built to help itself make money off of you.

Repeat after me: Hits/likes are not a measurable indicator of talent or worth. There are ridiculously talented folks on Tumblr and elsewhere who, for whatever reason, haven’t had their viral moment, and it’s not their fault. Loads of factors come into play where things like likes, reblogs, and comments are concerned, among them being posting frequency, subject matter, the time of day, the day of the week, the week of the month, the month of the year, the current administration, the stock exchange, the concentration of middle class users, who just won the Superbowl, a madman trying to steal an election and undermine the democratic process, a PANDEMIC, do you get where I’m going with this?? lol

At the end of the day, my humble successes have been helped along by good luck, good timing, high profile signal boosters, and an absurd amount of work. (This is why I try to signal boost new work whenever I get a chance over at @vkelleyshares.) 

So while you cannot control Tumblr’s interface, trends at large, or your fellow users, here’s what you can do to ensure you give your work the best possible chance of exposure.

Have an image ready to go with your post. Tumblr is a visual platform (no matter what it says about being good for text). Not good with images? Set up a Canva.com account and get access to free graphic software with a gazillion templates to create whatever attractive image you want to attach to your post.

Keep the outward facing text brief and easy on the eyes. Too long and eyes will glaze over. Put excess text behind a “read more.”

You may think you’re being cute when you do this, but don’t put yourself down in your posts. (Don’t put yourself down in general, of course.) Doing so acts as engagement repellant. If you don’t believe in your work, no one else will.

Related: Be your best cheerleader. Confidence is a magnet, and if you don’t have it, go ahead and fake it until you start to convince yourself you are worth the buzz. So promote yourself! You have gifts that only you can impart. Use that knowledge to fuel everything you do from your art/fiction writing to your outreach with other content creators, and by golly, if someone’s done it already, acknowledge that contribution and then tell the world that this is YOUR unique take on it.

Treat your fellow fandom creators as human beings, not art/fiction/content boosting machines. I cannot count how many times I’ve had folks slide into my DMs with offers of friendship only to disappear once they realize I’m not available to draw a picture for their fic. It hurts because it’s manipulative and it makes me want to hole up and not signal boost anyone. Creators who truly support each other will not give off a transactional vibe. I want to help you reach more people, but not if that’s all I’m good for in your eyes. 

The long and short of it: Lead with compassion, do your best with the opportunities at  your disposal, and remember that fandom belongs to everyone in it. ❤️

What saves a fandom made of sensitive and vulnerable souls from imploding when it goes through growing pains is radical compassion from those who can offer it. Begin with the assumption that your fellow fandomers are not trying to harm you, and wade into the water knowing that your insight into the lives of your peers is limited by default and you may need to temper your words or actions accordingly. If you’re a content creator, save compassion for yourself as well, as there are indeed challenges to gaining an audience, and lack of engagement does not mean you lack talent or skill. Be your best advocate, and if you have the bandwidth to lift up a fellow creator and make a new friend, please, go ahead do it! 

And finally, fandom belongs to everyone, and no one has a monopoly on characters, tropes, or themes. Create and consume what you love (with respect for your more vulnerable peers), and bask in the variety, my friends!

That’s all I’ve got in my head at the moment, although I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. Thanks so much to @penpanoply for letting me use her art for this and to everyone else, hang in there and try not to judge each other too harshly. These are unprecedented times, and most of us are doing our best in circumstances that are pushing us to our limits. 

As always, if you have questions or want to sound off on anything, shoot me a message or an ask, or ping me on Discord. It might take me a second to respond (thanks, Covid) but I’ll get to it! Love, love, and more love to all.

[palmett-hoes]

this was originally meant to be a response/follow-up to @i-did 's post about race in the aftg fandom (that you should read). i ran it by him first and asked permission to add, but then we decided it was too long so i should make it its own post

---

i want to talk about fandom's take on the twins' race because it's rather glaring in the fandom that andrew (and then aaron by necessity) are often portrayed as the only white characters on the team and i have to question why?

there's nothing in the backstories that would mean writing them as POC would fling them headlong into offensive stereotypes that the fandom hasn't bypassed over to make another fox a POC.

they have a history of addiction? but it's okay for matt and seth to be addicts and be brown.

they're violent? but it's okay for renee to be non-white and a former gang member.

they're blond and 'pale'¹? but allison can be a WOC and bleach her hair without saying it explicitly? renee can have white rainbow hair no matter the AU? neil can be a blue-eyed redhead and still be drawn darker skinned half the time?

'pale' in and of itself is a very vague word that's only brought up in the context of comparison to notably dark skinned nicky. it's completely relative, and multi-racial families where people look wildly different from each other exist (pretty commonly). or if you're prescriptivist how about the multiple ways a POC can still be a natural blond including but not limited to pigmentation conditions or being mixed race? similarly, i think less than a quarter of the FCs i've seen for andrew over the years have been natural blonds themselves.

so if our holdups aren't about racial stereotyping and they aren't about the incredibly vague character descriptions, then why are the twins always white when it's approached as a good thing that no one else is? when i've seen multiple different posts lauding the fandom for adding diversity where nora didn't write it, except for here?

.

to be completely, bluntly honest, it's because we as a majority-white fandom are uncomfortable when we are not the central characters. or maybe we are uncomfortable when people of color ARE the central characters. i don't think there's much of a difference.

we are comfortable writing and drawing nicky, the upperclassmen, then kevin (in that order) as poc because, simply, we use them as background characters. they are rarely the main characters of fics, or have their own storylines in them; it all revolves around andreil.

.

additionally, while i've used neil up to now as an example of the fandom being OKAY with writing POC, let's also admit that it's an,, imperfect representation, as he will often be racially ambiguous with no explicit ethnicity, he will be the lightest skinned of the foxes of color, and he will still have eurocentric features. also it's genuinely a toss up as to whether he's drawn brown or not, there are still plenty of white neils, much more than there are white dans and matts and renees (not an attack on anyone who draws white neils, simply a statement) and FCs and edits of him still tend to be white people.

he's a bit of a schrödinger's person of color, not really any one thing or another, very few people being willing to take a hard stance on him and do the work of taking that decision under consideration when writing and drawing him.

(quick shout-out here to @hi-raethia for making content about an explicitly chinese interpretation of neil).

(additionally, to be as clear about my intended message as possible, this isn't a statement on the politics of passing or undermining the ethnicities of lightskinned poc, this is about a lack of detail being put into making a character a character of color in any thoughtful, meaningful, or significant way)

.

so when i talk about the centralization of white people in fandom, neil gets to be included, perhaps with a footnote indicating that this is somewhat of a more complicated statement than it is with lily-white andrew minyard.

nevertheless, i feel comfortable saying that 75% of fandom content revolves around andrew and neil, major exceptions only being jerejean which are often stand-alone from the foxes, and the rising branch of kevaaron shippers. however both of those ships are actually subject to this exact same criticism, as ships between a a flat-out white character and a dubiously "non-white" character who can also be white sometimes. it varies.

conspicuously, content about the UPPERCLASSMEN tends to revolve around andrew and neil.

fics where the upperclassmen are the pov character are often outside-perspective fics on andreil.

HC posts about the upperclassmen, especially matt, will devote major portions to his time spent helping, hanging with, and thinking about andrew and/or neil.

secondary ships like danmatt or renison tend to be just that, secondary ships moving in the background of andreil-focused works. they get more of a,,, scenic shout-out than a storyline

it is only comfortable for us to write these characters as characters of color if they revolve entirely around white characters

.

.

.

so after all that? what should we do, as a white-majority fandom? what should YOU, specifically, as a white person, do?

i hate to talk about a problem without also talking about solutions, and i try not to carp on something i don't want to be an active part of fixing. public criticism without an action plan only leads to hurt feelings and guilt, and that's never my intention when bringing this up. my goal is to address a general problem, not anyone specific's personal failings.

in all honesty leaning completely into all of the foxes being people of color, though i think neat and i certainly support, is not the best solution, and would be more of a hollow action than anything else without addressing the underlying problems that lead to the development of this dynamic.

i think the best thing to do would be to 1. do some research on writing poc, usually by following some writing-specific blogs like @writingwithcolor or @pocinmymedia . look up the 'black best friend' trope and really spend some time tjinking about it. spend an hour seeking out a random assortment of blogs that interest you that are also run by people of color. checking through tags like drawingwhileblack or blacktober may be good kickoff points.

tumblr is great because with an hour of active work to find these blogs, you can then go months passively seeing content from them. try not to interact, actually, simply watch and listen and become familiar with general trends and concerns in different communities. remember that every blog is run by an individual person, not an elected representative of their race, and always keep this in mind.

you are teaching YOURSELF that people of color are individuals, they have interests and inner lives that don't revolve around whiteness, that don't revolve around YOU

at the same time, 2. challenge yourself as a creator to make more content about the upperclassmen, specifically. make art about them doing stuff as a group separate from neil and andrew's group. find a compilation of 'draw the squad' memes and draw/tag the upperclassmen only. make jokes where they talk to each other. write some meta about their character motivations. write a fic where andreil isn't even mentioned, it can be super short, you can even use a prompt generator.

as a reader, reread their backstories in the extra content. reread son nefes. use ao3's filtering system to read some fics about JUST the upperclassmen, few and far apart though they may be.

if we've decided that the upperclassmen are people of color then lean into that, and learn to CARE about them on their own merit, because they are the most underutilized characters in the fandom. we need to make content centralized around them to combat the fact that fandom centralizes whiteness

[tjerra14]

HELLO I would really, really love to hear any rambling thoughts you have on In You, All Things. Absolutely anything you fancy about it, I’m sitting with my chin in my hands ready to listen.

Oh god, free rambling you say. You’ve doomed yourself and the single brain cell I’ve got left.

In You, All Things was my very first Horizon fic, and the first thing I wrote in almost a year. I had a pretty regular writing habit while I was away on an internship/then straight up work during spring/summer 2020 because my tiny tablet PC was the only thing I could handily carry with me to my mother’s place, and all the other leisure time activities—gaming, or drawing, or simply sinking hours into Youtube and/or Netflix—were pretty much impossible due to its very limited processing power. After returning home, however, I kind of stopped, and slowly but surely started sinking an abundance of hours into HZD. At the back of my mind, two things happened: first, I wanted to pick up writing again (at that point, it was Dragon Age as that was the only fandom I was writing for). Second, I wanted to finally write a f/f ship (but aside from DA OCs I didn’t have a couple in mind, and absolutely no story). Then a friend came along suggesting Aloy and Ikrie would be “fun and cute” together while I was streaming Frozen Wilds for her, and with a bit of time, it spiralled from there.

I’m a bit picky when it comes to romance I want to read, so there was never a question that I would likely have to write it myself, and thus, In You, All Things was born. Originally called Moths for the metaphor of the moths being drawn to the flame and then burning in a moment of beauty was the very first note I took on it, when I wasn’t even sure yet I would actually write it, it came with a few problems that seemed insurmountable at first.

First, I had a timing problem—when would this be set? I tend to play Frozen Wilds early in the game’s story, but never felt Aloy would fall quickly for someone without becoming close friends with them first which takes time, or even allow herself to with all that is going on in the main game. In the end, I kind of glossed over this with a non-specific “repeated visits, repeated inexplicable meetings” and only specified in Linger, when they’re already in an established relationship. I still don’t know when this one is set, exactly. I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Then, the actual plot of the fic. The thought of them “accidentally” meeting up time and again was rather intriguing and also the only way I could see this play out—neither of them would admit they were looking for the other’s company, Aloy thinking she has to depend on herself and Ikrie recently having decided that she has to now, too—but how could I raise the stakes for the bit of drama that would bring them together and have them admit their feelings? I flip-flopped between Aloy getting hurt, Ikrie getting hurt, no one getting hurt and the both of them just teaming up for a difficult fight (a Fireclaw was the meanest critter I could think of in a FW setting, and consecutively bent Naltuk’s “we spotted them all” a little since CYAN never specifies an exact number and the Cut is treacherous and hostile terrain. I accidentally put “Frostclaw” in my notes often enough an additional “check if it’s always Fireclaw in the fic” note popped up) and finally settled on Ikrie, with an injury that needs tending to but wouldn’t be too serious so it doesn’t overshadow the internal conflicts of both, admitting and submitting to their vulnerability.

The cave probably gave me more grey hair. I needed a safe spot for both to retreat, both from the machines and the weather, so a cave seemed ideal, but there was the question of the campfire. I wanted Aloy to leave for a bit so Ikrie could get to start treating her injury on her own but failing, allowing Aloy to rush to her side when she returns; but also slot in some angst. The image of Ikrie sitting by the campfire, straining to reach the injury with a wet cloth, came to mind very early on, as well, and I wanted to keep it, even though it presented me with the issue of who built that fire, if Aloy goes out to hunt. If she also collects firewood, the fire can’t be going when she returns. If Ikrie collects it in her absence, Aloy’s “I’ll get that” is of little consequence. The solution was to make it a cave Ikrie uses as shelter on her hunting trips, which seems logical, but it took me four days to get there.

And then, well, the ending. Originally, I wanted to leave it ambiguous if they even kissed, but subsequently caved (haha) as I enjoyed leaning into that vulnerability of a shared touch quite a bit. This is also where the final title came from. Originally, I had Ikrie becoming very poetic about the things she wants and is afraid of, then decided it was a bit too much for her as a character (it sounded more like Ourea, to be honest), so I went back to her snow ghost line about being free to do what she wants, and how that is impossible. Now “in you, all things are possible” offered itself to be stolen and used out of context with Aloy answering that it doesn’t have to be, and well…it was trash hours. (It still is. It hasn’t stopped. Only now it’s syrup. I'm doomed.)