#not that it has not already been escalating wildly

[crehador]

godchild ✧ annual reread ✧ volume four

[facefullofsadness]

psychopathic but it's okay

band!au (lsfm girlies but in a band and y/n is the 6th member)

guitarist!yunjin x bassist!y/n

prompt - you and yunjin are always arguing and after one argument, the latter has had it with you

content - smut (choking, degradation, overstimulation, slapping, handcuffs, cunnilingus, fingering, tribbing, multiple orgasms, jen kinda forces you into it), angst (harsh language, toxic, arguments, yelling), fluff if you squint hard

wc - 4405

author's note at the end :)

how many times just in this week have we argued already? I can't remember.

to say yunjin and I were toxic would be an understatement. it could be something wildly insignificant, but it wouldn't matter, we would be at each other's throats.

like last week when she told me to get the receipt for the takeout I ordered with kazuha and I forgot it. more like zuha did, but obviously, it was my fault because yunjin said it was.

and throughout this entire week we had been shouting at each other. any small inconvenience or misunderstanding, you name it, we argued about it. misplacing a hairbrush, accidentally eating someone's share, taking the wrong person's keys, showing up late to a meeting or practice. it was exhausting.

I can't even recall the last peaceful moment I had with this girl. it's been months of this dreadful and perpetual conflict that seemed to emerge out of nowhere, but it made me resent her in a way that I hated her guts.

I absolutely despise the way she thinks, her cocky attitude, her nonchalant responses, her dismissive demeanor, she drives me fucking insane.

which leads me to this moment, yelling at each other because she's playing ahead of the band.

"jen, play slower. you're fucking 2 seconds ahead of everyone else," I grumble, frustrated.

"oh whatever y/n, you try playing this shit. all you do is play the same bass line for 3 minutes straight," yunjin rolls her eyes back at me.

I close my eyes and bite my tongue, not wanting it to escalate, especially with the members around, "just play slower."

somehow, we moved on and all continued to practice. but this asshole never fixed her timing issue.

"yunjin, play slower!" I interrupt our practice again to yell at the girl.

she snaps her head at me, "fuck you y/n! I'm literally trying."

"but you're not though? because how are you still fucking off beat when we've been practicing this shit for weeks?!"

"oh my god, give me a break. you're so stuck up, sorry if I don't practice till the break of dawn everyday like you do. unlike you, I actually have a life, I don't have time to be a bratty perfectionist like you."

out of the corner of my eye, I see our youngest eunchae start to wanna speak up, but our leader chaewon stopping her from trying. with that, all the girls leave the room quietly as my blood boils at the words the raven-haired girl is throwing at me.

"I'm fucking stuck up? imagine having a career, THE dream job, and not even trying. you act like I don't have a goddamn life either jen, it's not my fault that I'm not lazy like you are."

the taller girl slings the guitar off her shoulder and aggressively puts it down before stomping up to me.

"I don't wanna hear your bossy mouth utter another word about my work ethic bitch. you're only so fussy about this because you don't have anything else in your life to look forward to."

"your sorry excuses are no use anymore yunjin. stop acting like you're the best when you're no better than an amateur, you're literally only here because there was no one else."

"did you want that to sting? sorry princess but that only works if it's the truth, we both know you all need me here. without me, you're nothing."

I clutch the strap of my bass and swing it off my body, immediately grabbing the collar of yunjin's shirt and pushing her back into the keyboard piano, making the stand shake.

"listen to me and listen fucking well. I can make you leave the band and you can act like it doesn't matter to you but I know you'll be devastated. I know you're just a scared little girl, too intimidated by the outside world to actually quit. you may not be scared of me which is why you don't try, but I'm exhausted of you trying to have power over me when you're just a weak sorry bitch who your parents are ashamed to care for anymore."

I struck it where it hurts because not only did I not care about if she would loathe me for my words, but I wanted it to.

suddenly, I'm being manhandled until my back falls against the couch in our practice room, yunjin's weight pressing me down. my hands struggle to push her off and break free, but her stronger grip grabs both of my wrists and pins them above my head against the arm rest of the sofa.

"fuck off of me jen!" I yell at her, body wriggling under her own.

her free hand suddenly takes hold of my neck and squeezes, forcing my throat to let out a struggled squeak and breath.

"shut the fuck up whore! I'm so tired of your yapping!" the girl above me growls and tightens her hold on both my wrists and neck.

I look up at her with fear growing in my eyes, and I can see the pure rage on her face. I'm incapable of moving my arms and hands free of her iron grip, and it steadily gets harder to breathe as I feel her nails, though short, dig into my skin.

"you're insufferable. you think I'm a weak sorry bitch with no power over you, huh? let me remind you otherwise since you're too braindead to remember how strong I am."

yunjin's gaze is wild. the fire in her eyes has no sign of calming and the clench in her jaw as she lowers her face towards mine doesn't release any tension. but as she nears herself and comes unfathomably close, there's no denying the lust that clouds her dilated pupils.

as my breathing becomes impossible and I get lightheaded, my senses increase and I can hear my own heart pounding in my ears. I can also hear her shaky breath and feel it reach my face. her knee in between my thighs presses against my core and I release a choked whimper.

"I'm gonna treat you like my own sex toy and you're gonna want me to fuck your brains out after I lay waste to your body. you are gonna be my fuck doll and you're gonna love every second of it, you hear me? dirty little slut."

I'm simultaneously terrified of the intensity and escalation of the situation, but I'm also unbelievably horny at this point. the ache in between my legs grows hot and I feel it start to throb with the way her knee digs deeper into my core.

"I can't..." I manage to choke out, pleading with the darting of my eyes focusing on her face and between her intense glare.

yunjin eventually releases tension on my throat, and I can breathe again, oxygen slowly enabling itself to run through my lungs again. the lustful stare never wavers, however, and both of our gazes are fixed on each other's eyes.

"I don't care if you can't take it, I'm gonna make you."

with that, she moves her hand, once choking my neck, and grasps around it, fingers clutching my nape, her head diving in to begin leaving sloppy kisses trailing my jaw downwards. the pressure on my airways is gone, but my breath still stops in my throat as her mouth kisses, sucks, and bites harshly at my neck.

"w-wait... don't do t-that..." I stutter, telling her to slow down or stop.

"shut the fuck up." she growls aggressively against my ear, "I'm gonna have you however I want."

there's no room for protest as I feel the hand on my neck trail down my collarbone and between my breasts, her finger circling around my right boob and going inwards, finally pinching the nipple at the middle.

"nghh.." the noise in my throat releases on its own.

"my little slut, so easy to use. why else wouldn't you wear a bra under such a mesh shirt? you wanted this so bad, didn't you?"

the treatment of my boobs and nipples harshens as she's suddenly slapping her hand against them, watching as they jiggle under my thin shirt. I yelp out in pain, still feeling my core rush with wetness.

"you're wearing too much," yunjin scoffs.

her hand pops open all the buttons of my shirt and fingers return to harassing my hard buds. my body struggles under her again as her tongue drags along my neck and across my collarbone, the sharp bites of her teeth occasionally making me tug at the harsh grip at my wrists again.

the noises of her mouth on my skin are so wet, I can even hear her heavy breathing and small moans escape, intensifying the pleasure building in my lower stomach. I can't help but release a deep groan at one of my abused nipples being enveloped by her needy mouth.

"f-fuck.. no, s-stop- ahhhh..." I try to get out.

my words are drowned out by the sounds of my whimpers growing louder and the slurping of my tit in her mouth. my eyes struggle to keep open, watching her tongue flick around my bud, yunjin switching to my other boob, repeating everything all the same.

"can you stop moving? god, I'm doing something here and your flailing is infuriating." she let's out a frustrated huff before detaching completely from my body, reaching for something underneath the couch.

my hands are free for a second before I feel cold steel capture my wrists, cuffing them together and securing them on a pipe against the wall.

"so much better." she states satisfied before bringing both her hands to slap both of the sides of my boobs.

I let out an unstable shout at the stinging pain that followed, and it only continued as she grasped at my chest with both hands and kneads at them needily.

"jen... please, ahhh.." I whimper out.

"huh? what was that y/n? you need to speak up for me." she continues her abuse on my tits as my eyes water.

"it hurts..." I manage.

"oh is that so? too bad I don't really care. after all, if I were weak, it wouldn't hurt so much right?" yunjin says in a mocking tone.

her hands become aggressive, dragging themselves down my body and grasping hard at my waist, squeezing my thighs, before landing a harsh slap on my ass, one side, then the next.

"yunjin ah! please! fuck, it hurts..."

"a powerless little girl like me shouldn't be able to harm you, right y/n-ie?"

fuck you huh yunjin.

my eyes are still squeezed shut as I feel her start to unbuckle my pants and zip them down, taking my jeans off of me. my core is absolutely throbbing with desire, panties soaked.

she places a finger at the hem of my underwear, dragging the digit down, trailing my mound, to my aching clit, through my leaking entrance, then pinching the material and letting it snap back into place, warranting a shiver down my spine at the feeling.

"I should've known a whore like you would be drenched after all that. you kick and whine about how much it hurts but look at how much you fucking love it."

it's hard to argue with her when the anticipation to feel her relieve my desire grows stronger the more she messes with me.

"don't worry darling, I'll ruin you perfectly."

I feel my panties get pushed to the side before a hot and wet muscle is felt at the base of my entrance trailing up slowly, until there's a hard suck at my bundle of nerves.

"fuckkkkk ahhhh!!!" I let out an involuntary scream at the feeling.

god it feels so good, my eyes squeezed shut as her onslaught of eating me out continues, hard and fast. she bends my knees and forces my legs apart, holding my thighs so she has free reign of my pussy.

"mmm, it's in the way," I hear her mumble before a loud tear is heard, assumedly from my panties.

I could care less when she sucks hard with her mouth over both my clit and hole, tongue darting between circling my bundle of nerves and digging into my pussy. I tug hard at my restraints, wanting so badly to grasp her luscious dark hair and push her into me.

my hips move on their own, trying to grind against her mouth, but they fail when yunjin's hands push my thighs apart again and she wraps her arms around them, hands on my waist. I force my eyes open and look down at her, what a sight.

her eyes are closed, and she looks peaceful. so unlike the rapid and desperate licking, sucking, and moaning coming out of her sinful mouth. the grip on my waist is firm but so gentle, her thumbs rubbing softly against my skin. she only takes a hand off of my waist to run fingers through her hair, pushing it back to have all the room she needs to indulge in my waterfall. yunjin definitely craved this more than me.

moans continued to slip out of my mouth, fueling her on.

"you're so delicious, this pussy is mine," I feel her mumble against my lips though still audible.

"fuck me jen, more more more, ahhh, yes, keep going just like that, oh my god!!!"

I was about to shut my eyes again until she looked up at me. through half lidded eyes, it almost looked like they were completely black, pupils so blown it was hard to tell if she was human. the desire was so fiery in her eyes and looking up at me only drew her in further, digging her face into my pussy.

her tongue dug impossibly deep into my hole, flicking wildly inside of me, making me arch my back in immense pleasure. her nose rubbing against my hot clit contributed to the build up of my impending climax.

the hold on my waist tightened, securing my hips down to the sofa, her eyes closed again as I shut my own as well, the noises coming from a mixture of my leaking pussy and her lewd slurping were indescribably orgasmic, the desperate moaning slipping from both of our mouths were borderline embarrassing if it weren't for our soundproof walls covering the sounds of sin.

"jennifer oh my god fuck fuck please, shit. b-baby... I'm, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna cum sosososo hard..." I rambled.

I heard as I continued to incoherently mumble anything that came to mind as I felt her grip on my waist start to hurt, nails digging into my skin, making my lower half impossible to move.

"give me your cum now, let me drink you," yunjin says with the sexiest most raspy voice I've heard from her.

a low moan from deep in her throat against my pussy vibrates against my clit, her tongue thrusting into my hole repeatedly at insane speeds. it was so overwhelming and more than enough to launch me over the edge.

my vision disappeared, my body shook viscerally, my mouth fell open and loud screaming came out of it as I orgasmed with so much pleasure. I felt my pussy gush cum into yunjin's expectant mouth, her tongue continuing to flail in me. I struggle hard against the restraints still, feeling my wrists sting with every tug. I can't think straight, my body shaking with every wave of pleasure that runs through me.

I fall limp, my head shaking left to right and mumbles coming out of my mouth. yunjin calms her pace and gives kitten licks up and down my slit, lapping up any other juices I released that she missed. her grip on my waist loosens, and they caress my sides carefully. she makes her way up to meet my face, planting abnormally soft kisses in her wake, her hands softly caressing my red skin. all the slap markings, all the bites, all the hickies, all the nail marks, spots red, spots bloody, her touch eases the pain.

"y/n..." she whispers against my ear, making me shiver.

I can't even open my eyes as the exhaustion hits me hard. I hear her mess with the pipe and cuffs around my wrists before I feel my hands fall against the arm rest again, freeing my arms finally. yunjin picks both of them up and places gentle pecks all around both wrists, slowly spreading her comfort across my entire body.

"jen..." a croak somehow comes out of my mouth.

"baby..." her voice, gentle...

"are you okay angel?" she whispers loud enough for me to hear.

my heart stops beating but resumes at the speed of sound after a moment.

I can't respond, and so she comes closer to my face and cups my cheek with a careful hand, intently observing my expression and condition. I feel her thumb softly caress my bottom lip and her stare fall onto my slightly open mouth.

"I.. I'm..." I can't form another word as the exhaustion catches up and my eyes fall shut.

every other sense of mine is alert, I'm still fully conscious, but my eyes refuse to open, they simply can't. I feel yunjin come closer to me then suddenly small kisses tracing my jaw, lips against my ear.

"you can rest y/n-ie, I'll do the rest."

wait, what?

her hand that was once on my face trails down my body, tracing over all the marks again, before her slender fingers slip between my folds, causing my entire body to jolt.

"jen?!" I shriek out, my hands flying to grip her arms.

"shhh, just relax. I told you already, you're just my little sex toy, I need to get my usage out of you."

fuck, I should've known she was feigning generosity.

I had no time to respond as after gathering enough of my cum from my last orgasm, yunjin swiftly slips two fingers into my tired cunt.

"FUCK!" I scream out.

my body reacts on its own, shaking against her warm body leaning against me.

"you've got another one in you, don't you?"

her pace picks up quickly, my pussy burning at the speed. suddenly, her thumb rubs harshly against my overstimulated clit, causing me to cry out.

"t-too much! please!" I sob into her shoulder.

yunjin's body hovers over mine, holding me close. one of my hands gripping her arm pumping in and out of me, the other clutching the back of her shirt, my face wet with tears flowing in her shoulder, melting into her neck.

"you should've thought about that before you talked shit huh?"

"I- I can't!"

"I already told you I don't fucking care y/n, how many times do I have to say it?"

I feel my own tears stain the taller girl's shirt as her fingers ram into my abused hole over and over again, pulling out all the way just to slam back into me again. I scream intensely when a third finger is added, immediately hitting that euphoric spot inside.

"fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," I chant between every pump of her swift fingers.

"you truly make the perfect little cum slut don't you?"

"jen, ah, ah, ah, please, fuck..."

"what is it baby? feel it coming again?"

I moan out an incomprehensible 'yes' in response, to which I feel yunjin smile against my forehead, planting a sweet peck.

"beg me angel, beg me to keep fucking you until you cum."

my eyes roll back into my head, tears still spilling out and hands gripping for dear life. even if I wanted to beg, I don't think I'm physically capable.

her fingers still inside of me, stopping her movement on my pussy entirely, even on my clit. I whine loudly in response, legs shaking and grip tightening on her.

"no no please yunjin, I- I need you, I need you to keep fucking me. I need to finish, I need your fingers, I'm so close jinny, please please, god please let me cum. I can't, I can't take it, it hurts, it hurts so bad, jen oh god please, don't fucking stop. I need you to keep going, please don't stop now, please please jen-"

my rambling is interrupted by her fingers pounding into my cunt once again, with impossible speed, making my throat strain with another uncontrollable scream of pleasure.

"let it go, give it to me y/n. I want to feel it gush around me again, I need to feel your body fall apart."

and just as quickly as it started, it ended. an explosion of euphoria ripples through me again, I feel goosebumps form on my skin as I moan deafeningly, my fingers sinking into yunjin's body and holding on for dear life. her fingers continue to get sucked into me, clenching hard onto her long digits as she rubs my clit still.

"yes, that's my girl, give it all to me."

my body is shaking, with every subtle touch yunjin does to me, it reacts. my mouth stays open as I can feel the saliva drool out, my eyes barely open but it's no use, it's not like I can see anything clearly.

"your body is just meant for this y/n, I was right. my perfect little angel, the best fuck doll for me."

her fingers slip out of me and I grunt at the loss of fullness. out of the very small field of view I have, I watch as she sucks the juices off her fingers, closing her eyes and savoring the flavor, licking up each of them one by one.

"you're doing so well, but baby..." she leans in and mumbles against my lips, "give me one more."

there's no room for resistance as she moves to get into position. what a menace huh yunjin is. she already knows I'm fucked out of my mind that I'm physically incapable of doing anything. I've always been really sensitive and she's using that weakness against me ten fold.

I try my best to pay attention to what she's doing, watching as she slides her shorts and panties down her legs, the two articles of clothing absolutely soaked. she gets on top of me again and lifts one of my legs up, wrapping it around her waist, her straddling my pussy with her own, interlocking our legs.

"it's finally my turn. fuckkk..."

she moans out as she starts to grind her pussy against mine. every thrust makes my body jolt with overstimulation, I don't know how to take it anymore.

however, watching huh yunjin roll her hips against me, her hands placing my own on her waist, watching as she throws her head back and sweat drips down her long neck, my pleasure grows again. the woman looks ethereal riding me, using my body to get off, it's unreal how delectable watching her fuck me is.

"f-faster, h-harder, jen..." both of us look surprised when I manage to speak.

a sinister smirk crawls and spreads across the aforementioned woman's face, hands on my thighs tapping in approval, "of course darling, who am I to deny?"

and so she fucks me harder, so much harder. so much fucking faster. I immediately see stars and the squelching lewd noises of our sopping cunts fill my ears, accompanied by the pornographic moans from both of us. I feel the rhythmic pattern of yunjin's hips rolling against me with my hands on her waist.

I pull her forward against me, thrusting my own hips up into her, gaining leverage and screaming out in pleasure as our clits bump repeatedly because of this.

"fuck y/n! you're so good at this, don't... don't you dare give out on me right now, you feel too fucking incredible."

the girl above me has her head down facing my own, eyes screwed shut, face scrunched up looking focused, mouth hanging open. one of my hands feel up her body, trailing up her covered front and grazing her nipples, eliciting a groan to come from her throat. my hand cups her cheek and pulls her closer to my face, making her open her eyes and make eye contact with me.

we stare straight into each others' eyes, observing the expressions on our faces, memorizing the view forever. I hate this girl so much, I hate her with my entire being, but she's beautiful, she's goddess-like, and she's absolutely perfect in my trembling hands, looking into my eyes like I'm the only one in her world.

yunjin leans in to finally kiss me, plump and soft lips roughly clashing against my own. I desperately chase to reciprocate the passion she pushes into my mouth, forcing my tongue into her and ramming it down her throat, making her moan out. her mouth feels like heaven on earth as I melt into her delicious strawberry flavored lips, tongue and her saliva tasting like all the cum she sucked out of my cunt just moments prior.

her thrusts become sloppy and I feel my hole start to clench around nothing as we moan into each others' mouth.

"cum with me love, cum with me, please baby, I need you." her voice shaky and sounding vulnerable.

I open my eyes one last time to look up at her, eyes getting watery too. I take her bottom lip into my mouth and pull away with my teeth, letting it go with a pop.

"I'm cumming love, I'm cumming..." I warn her.

I pull her into me and hug her, embracing her tightly as she painfully grips my thighs, stilling her hips and feeling her warmth leak all over my pussy. I moan along with her, screaming out in blinding pleasure, my heat flooding both of our thighs and running down my legs, onto the couch under.

she collapses on top of me, her entire body weight covering me completely. I snuggle my face into her neck, placing soft kisses around every area I could reach.

"are you okay?" I ask softly into her ear.

I'm met with no response but soft breathing near my ear. I peer over to look at her face and she's out cold.

I giggle softly at the gorgeous woman sprawled out on top of me, legs intertwined, cum running down our legs, her lips bruised and red.

"I think I won this argument jennifer."

a/n - i'm just realizing that this barely had any actual band dynamics or anything and that makes me sad bc i love that shit so much. sob, oh well maybe another time (part???). my first idea for this concept was slow down by chase atlantic but then i switched it bc i feel like i could write a better plot for the lyric i orginally chose so stay tuned mayhaps in the future. anyways, hiiiii first post pls don't bully me tumblr is foreign land to me but writing is not though I haven't written in months 😙 enjoy first fic w my actual gf (like actually fr fr huh yunjin is my gf she proofread this-)

[darkshelbyfiction]

The Nanny Diaries (Part 4)

Pairing: Dark Cillian Murphy x Innocent Reader

Warning: Dubious Consent, Smut

The morning following your encounter with Cillian, you found yourself lost in thought, reflecting on the gravity of the situation. Your guilt, shame, and confusion swirled together, filling you with turmoil. How could things escalate so rapidly?

While Lorna was away shopping for groceries and with the Murphy children in care, it was only you and Cillian at home when you woke up the next morning, sore and red from the previous night's encounters. It seemed as though the world around you flickered and shifted, becoming surreal, clouded by foggy memories of what had transpired. 

Knowing full well that you would be on your own with him again, you nervously walked downstairs around the spacious kitchen trying desperately to quell the fear growing steadily within you.

"Good Morning Y/N, did you sleep well?" Asked Cillian, pouring himself a cup of coffee while watching you intently. His piercing gaze sent waves of unease coursing through your veins, sending your pulse racing wildly beneath your skin.

Trying valiantly to disguise your discomfort, you managed a weak smile, replying nervously, "I think so." 

He returned your feeble gesture with a subtle smirk, savoring the taste of his brew.

"Are you sore?" he inquired mischievously, looking straight into your eyes, invading your personal space without remorse. Unable to suppress a wave of panic, you couldn't help but notice the intensity of his stare, which seemed to probe deeply into your soul. 

Swallowing hastily, you glanced downwards momentarily before answering. "Not anymore..." you lied, attempting to hide any visible signs of discomfort.

"That's surprising, considering how much time I spent inside you last night," he said smoothly, sipping his coffee and fixing his intense gaze on you once more.

Anxiousness rose sharply within you as his perceptive nature penetrated your carefully constructed façade. To break free from his scrutiny, you reached for a cupboard, pretending to search for something to eat.

"You took me really well," he added playfully, making no attempt to mask his intentions. This remark caused another surge of panic to rise within you, leaving you struggling to maintain composure. 

"And even let me cum inside you, which means that, today, you are probably still leaking my seed," he continued boldly, gesturing towards your lower region before approaching you with a wicked grin spread across his face.

"I will need to get the morning after pill, Cillian," you blurted out suddenly, your voice laced with apprehension.

"That's probably a good idea but, maybe before you do, I can fill you up some more?" suggested Cillian suggestively, moving closer to you while taking your hand and leading you towards the dining room table.

"I am...uhm...," you stammered, protesting weakly/ "We shouldn't do this," you argued feebly, unable to stand your ground in the face of his undeniably attractive demeanon.

"We already did it Y/N. My cock has already been inside you last night," Cillian said persuasively, leaning forward and brushing a lock of hair behind your ear seductively. Intrigued yet anxious, you found yourself helpless against his alluring charm. He noticed your hesitation and decided to seize the opportunity further. "Think about it…you want to take the morning after pill anyway. So why don't we make it worth it?" he proposed smoothly before spinning you around to place you firmly against the table. The musky scent of desire hung thick in the air as Cillian's large palms traced down your clothed back.

"Bend over," commanded Cillian sternly, pushing you firmly onto the wooden surface of the dinner table. His authoritative tone left little doubt as to what would happen next. 

With unwavering determination, he pulled down your PJ pants, exposing your tender flesh to his hungry gaze. Feeling vulnerable and powerless, you struggled to suppress a whimper as he approached you. 

"Look at you, legs spread and ready for my cock. That's my girl," Cillian murmured approvingly, admiring your exposed form, letting his eyes roam across your silhouette before closing the distance between you two. Reaching downward, he gripped your ass possessively, claiming ownership over your body as he brought you flush against his rigid frame. 

"Your pussy is still quite swollen and red from last night, isn't it?", he taunted knowingly, evoking a shiver of dread deep within you. Surrounded by walls of temptation, resisting became increasingly difficult.

Desperate for release, you allowed him access to your core, giving way to primal instincts as they took control. Bracing yourself on the table, Cillian pushed down his boxer shorts and positioned himself at your entrance.

"So, you might feel a little sore since your opening hasn't yet entirely healed from our earlier session," he observed coolly, rubbing his thumb along your sensitive area.

Feeling self-conscious and embarrassed, you winced reflexively upon contact, but Cillian merely chuckled at your reaction.

"Let go of your inhibitions, Y/N. Remember how much pleasure I gave you," he whispered reassuringly, seeking entry with his rigid manhood. Clenching your teeth tightly, you tried to muster up enough courage to relax your muscles. Fear and uncertainty plagued your heart, yet you wanted nothing more than to satisfy Cillian's needs.

As his hardness probed deeper, you gritted your teeth, tensing involuntarily despite his gentle encouragement. Unperturbed, Cillian persisted, nudging you slowly and rhythmically until you began to adjust to the invasion.

"Relax, sweetheart. Let me show you just how amazing it can be when someone truly knows what they're doing," he urged softly, allowing his fingers to slide along your clitoris, eliciting a trembling response from your body.

As the warmth between your thighs intensified, so too did the fervor in Cillian's movements. Tightening his grasp on your hips, he delved deeper and faster, drawing cries of ecstasy from your lips.

Growing accustomed to his forceful thrusts, you surrendered fully to the euphoria coursing through your veins, embracing each rippling wave of delight with open arms.

The kitchen echoed with your gasps and moans, serving as a soundtrack to your mutually satisfying exploration. The weight of his body pressing against yours exacerbated the physical bond between you both, enhancing the connection beyond mere words. Lost in the throes of passion, there was no time nor reason to dwell on the consequences of this illicit affair.

As you neared the peak of your climax, Cillian wrapped one arm around your waist, anchoring you securely while his other hand teased your nipples expertly. The sensual assault on your senses proved almost impossible to ignore.

Arching your back slightly, you cried out loudly, your entire body convulsing with the most powerful orgasm you had ever experienced. 

"Oh God! Oh my god!" You uttered breathlessly, feeling your insides contract incessantly as waves of ecstasy consumed you completely.

"Good girl. Keep taking it like that. Just think of me buried deep inside you. Yes, right there, baby. Can you feel it?" Cillian praised you amidst your lustful trance, stroking your cheek lovingly. As if hypnotized, you nodded absentmindedly, allowing him complete control over your body. Every movement, every touch, every word served to heighten the fierce arousal consuming you whole.

"I am going to fill you up now. Take me deep inside you, okay?" Cillian asked softly, holding your gaze with an unmistakable confidence. Your head dipped in submission, acquiescing to his demand, a blush creeping across your complexion. With swift precision, he thrusted back into you deeply, pushing himself up against your cervical opening. 

It hurt like hell, but you bit your lip, enduring the pain bravely.

"Fuck. Here it comes," Cillian groaned, erupting hotly within you, causing a small cry to escape your lips.

His seed flowed freely into your waiting depths, triggering a mix of relief and satisfaction that swept through your system.

As he pulled out and stepped back, you felt a familiar twinge emanating from your aching passage and, before you had a chance to stand up, Cillian dipped his finger into your raw hole.

He then spread his cum all over dripping entrance and said "good girl, you did well," before running his cum soaked finger over your rear entrance. 

"What are you doing?" you breathed uneasily, stunned by his actions as, slowly, his digit penetrated your anus opening.

Gasping audibly due to the unexpected stimulation, you fought valiantly to regain your composure as Cillian began circling his finger menacingly before gathering more of his cum from your sore pussy before pushing it into your anus.

Shame and guilt threatened to consume you, but his assertiveness quelled those feelings as his fingers continued to probe your newly opened orifice.

Cillian smiled smugly, reveling in his dominance over you. "Don't worry, it won't hurt anymore once I'm done stretching you out," he assured, attempting to ease your discomfort. However, hearing these words only managed to evoke more anxiety rather than alleviate it. Still, you remained steadfast under his guidance, allowing him to push boundaries previously untouched. 

Having grown somewhat numb to the initial intrusion, you submitted passively to Cillian's ministrations, accepting his authority without resistance.

Gently massaging your tender entrance, he sought to comfort you, whispering tenderly, "Just let go, sweetheart. It will get better soon." Though the prospect seemed farfetched, your trust in Cillian convinced you otherwise.

In an attempt to distract you from the burning sensation, Cillian moved lower and began to play with your breasts, rolling and pinching the soft mounds skillfully. Drawing circles around your nipples with his tongue, he alternately teased and kissed your supple skin, sending electric shockwaves through your body.

"Your ass feels so good, so tight," he marveled, unable to contain his excitement, by which point you could feel his cock becoming erect again, pressing against your thigh.

"You have such a beautiful body," he complimented sincerely, leaning forward to plant a light kiss on your back. He knew exactly where to strike to make you weak in the knees. Glancing down, your face flushed with anticipation as he caressed your shoulders intimately.

"Why do you bother trying to fight it? We both know that this attraction is undeniable. Embrace it."

Staring blankly into space, your thoughts tangled in confusion and tears welled up in your eyes as Cillian pulled out his finger and wiped off any remaining residue onto his shirt.

"Do you think you can take my cock again tonight, sweetheart?" He posed with a seductive grin, invading your mental turmoil.

Swallowing nervously, you nodded hesitantly, unsure whether you were agreeing to continue their sexual escapades or simply succumbing to Cillian's relentless charm. But regardless of your true intentions, he appeared satisfied, asserting his dominance once more over your life.

[mariacallous]

In the space of four days, the Russia-Ukraine war has dramatically shifted. The incursion of Ukrainian forces into Russia’s Kursk region has quickly turned into the largest territorial gain by either side since the successful Ukrainian counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson in the fall of 2022. As of this writing, it is still unclear whether thinned-out and poorly prepared Russian forces have been able to halt the Ukrainian advance, with reports of burning columns of Russian reinforcements reminiscent of the early days of the war.

The operation demonstrates Ukraine’s ability to achieve surprise and exploit sudden breakthroughs, something at which Russia has consistently failed since the start of its invasion. It is also the first time Russia has been invaded by foreign troops since World War II, showing Russians in no uncertain terms that the bloody war they unleashed against their neighbor has come home. Ukraine’s Western supporters seem to be on board, with the White House and European Union headquarters issuing statements that it was up to Ukraine to decide on the operation.

Previously, there had been much debate in Washington, Berlin, and among a wildly speculating media about the Kremlin’s supposed red lines that would set off World War III and nuclear Armageddon, with one of the lines being taking the war to Russia with Western weapons. The latter has now occurred. The belief in uncontrolled escalation led the Biden administration and some of its partners to severely restrict both the types of weapons delivered to Ukraine and their permitted range; Ukraine has not been allowed to use Western missiles to hit military installations on the Russian side of the border, for example. Part of the effect and purpose of the Kursk operation could be to demonstrate, once again, the fallacy of the red-line argument.

As the offensive unfolds and Kyiv stays mostly mum on events, it’s still too early to say what strategic goals Ukraine is hoping to achieve. One speculation that has gained a lot of traction is that it could lead to a quicker end to the war. The operation makes it clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine retains significant potential to inflict pain on Russia. And if Ukrainian forces can hold on and maintain control of Russian territory—for which they appear to be digging in as they bring in more equipment and build new defensive lines—it could strengthen Ukraine’s leverage in any potential negotiations to end the war. Already, Ukraine’s lightning foray into Russia undermines the widespread idea that Putin holds all the cards to dictate the terms of a cease-fire.

Kyiv seems to be signaling that leverage in negotiations is one of the goals of the offensive. An unnamed advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Washington Post: “This will give them the leverage they need for negotiations with Russia—this is what it’s all about.” This dovetails with recent hints by Zelensky that Kyiv was ready to negotiate. In an interview with BBC News in July, he said, “We don’t have to recapture all the territories” by military means. “I think that can also be achieved with the help of diplomacy.” Occupied Russia could be traded for occupied Ukraine: As former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt suggested on X, “Would an idea be for both states to retreat to within their respective recognized border?”

If Kyiv seems to be preparing the ground for potential negotiations—by seeking to strengthen its hand and publicly declaring its willingness—it is also a response to several factors.

One is growing war weariness among the Ukrainian population. Although the majority of Ukrainians favor fighting on until all the territories Russia has occupied since 2014 are liberated, the number saying that Ukraine could trade some of that territory for peace has been rising.

Second, there has been growing criticism, particularly in Western Europe and the global south, of the way Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out talks with Moscow. Major substantive issues aside, with the Kremlin apparently back-channeling openness to talks, Kyiv risked being seen as intransigent in preventing an early end to the war.

Finally, Ukraine’s strategic position is risky, even if it holds back Russia and maintains the flow of Western weapons. A victory by Donald Trump in the November U.S. presidential election and a sudden stop of U.S. aid cannot be ruled out, and even a Harris administration may have trouble cobbling together future support packages if the Republicans keep their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Zelensky may have decided to gamble to change and accelerate the dynamics of the war, including greater leverage if negotiations end up taking place sooner than anticipated.

Without much leverage, Kyiv has had to appeal to moral, normative, and legal arguments when communicating with its foreign partners about any peace short of full liberation. In the past, this has led to highly skewed negotiations. In the talks that produced the Minsk I and II accords in 2014 and 2015, Ukraine had such a weak hand that it had to agree to impossible terms: It could only get the Russian-controlled Donbas back if it allowed Moscow’s proxies to become part of the Ukrainian polity through local elections manipulated by the Kremlin, which would have given Moscow a permanent veto over Kyiv’s politics. Previously occupied and annexed Crimea was not even included in the discussion.

In March 2022, direct talks between Ukraine and Russia on the Belarusian border were not a negotiation but Russia’s delivery of surrender terms to Ukraine. In April 2022, negotiations brokered by Turkey in Istanbul also went nowhere: Russia’s price for ending its invasion was a considerable limitation of Ukrainian sovereignty and ability to defend itself. Since then, Russia’s proposal has been for Ukraine to permanently cede, in addition to Crimea, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts—including substantial parts that Russia has never occupied.

Not only has Ukraine lacked negotiation leverage, but Russia has also been successful in promoting, to audiences around the world, its land-for-peace approach to ending this round of the war. As Ukrainian counteroffensives after 2022 largely failed and the Russian war machine slowly but steadily took more territory in Ukraine’s east, another Minsk-type deal limiting Ukrainian territorial integrity and political sovereignty seemed to loom on the horizon.

Kyiv has not only changed the military narrative on the ground but may also be trying to change the narrative on negotiations—from a “land for peace” deal to a “land for land” deal. This puts Putin in a bind: Loss of control over parts of Russia proper is an enormous embarrassment for the Kremlin. But since their illegal annexation by Russia, the Ukrainian territories Putin seeks to keep are also part of the state territory he is obliged to defend. That said, in terms of Russian elite and popular perception, the restoration of Russia’s legitimate state territory will take precedence over continued occupation of recently conquered domains—especially if a land swap opens an avenue to the end of Western sanctions.

In a way, the new Ukrainian strategy may provide an opening for doves in the Russian leadership—assuming they exist and have any influence over Putin—to argue that the annexations should be reversed in order to restore Russia’s territorial integrity. As long as Ukraine can hold on to its captured territories in Russia, there will a strong pressure on Putin to return them under Moscow’s control.

None of this, however, changes the most fundamental problem with a negotiated outcome: the fact that Russia has ignored just about every agreement it has signed with Ukraine. But for Ukrainians and their Western supporters hoping for an end to the war, some intriguing possibilities may soon be on the table.

[animeyanderelover]

Second may I request Tobirama nfsw hcs

Tags: @shumidehiro @naeho @swagenemyartisan

Tw: Yandere themes, toxic relationship, obsession, possessive behavior, Nsfw, choking, overstimulation, breeding, afab reader

Nsfw Hc’s

🌊Tobirama is a man who values the traditions passed down in his clan for generations and that also includes the manners appropriate at that time when it comes to anything sexual. It is surely for someone amusing to consider the fact that this man is a virgin despite his huge achievements. Tobirama truly holds his traditions dear though and only plans to have sex with his spouse. Whilst he is still a man with needs, he has a case of being workaholic so his focus is often only pinned on his work. He isn’t one to get tempted by desire that easily and it is mainly his darling that eventually causes his thoughts to shift. Obviously not in an instant way but in a more gradual one where he slowly starts appreciating you for your personality traits as well as your body. He never mentions anything about it though as he remains a strict and respectful man who refuses to ogle at you like some perverted creep. Even with his own body slowly being more sensitive and reactive when in close proximity to you, Tobirama is adamant to save everything for marriage.

🌊He keeps the tradition alive until the bitter end, until both of you have given your vows. There have been some passionate moments before this moment but even then he has never allowed it to escalate into anything more than rough kisses and experimental touches. There is definitely some sexual frustration that has accumulated inside of him over all the time he had to wait though and all of that will be unloaded on the wedding night. It is going to be rougher for you at the beginning as there is some uncomfortable pain that accompanies the pleasure. Even if Tobirama has been considerate to prep you until he has deemed it to be enough, he can’t help but be on a more aggressive side as he pounds into you. Give him a few rounds, endure it for a while until he has calmed down. Even if you’re by that point already trembling, all of your senses and nerves overstimulated as you have come on his cock multiple times. Because now he starts getting softer with low words of praise, warm kisses and hands appreciatively roaming around on your body as he starts slapping his hips against your own once again in a slow pace.

🌊Everything that isn’t part of his body or yours doesn’t belong in the bedroom when he’s making love to you. Tobirama is wildly vanilla and not very open nor accepting of anything that dabbles into the more kinky side and he has especially something against tools. A part of this mindset really stems from the way he was raised in the Senju clan. Another part of him views any tools you may even dare to suggest as an insult. Such things are in his eyes not only a hindrance but steal away the intimacy such experiences are supposed to have. You only have to focus on one thing when he is slamming his hard and thick length in you and that is him and he only has to focus on you when your sensitive walls flutter around him. He should be enough to pleasure you. Are you trying to suggest that he isn’t satisfying you enough? You won’t even be able to get any sex toys in the house but you definitely get one long and rough session with Tobirama who will gladly fuck your brain out if it helps you to realize that there isn’t any need for any other objects. Don’t you ever dare again to mention sex toys again in his presence.

🌊He makes an attempt to never do it too often but Tobirama can’t deny that sometimes it just feels incredible to vent his frustration and stress out by having sex with you. Everything is wiped from his memory besides the pleasure he receives in the moment and all tension melts away when he reaches his own orgasm. He knows that the problems won’t be solved by simply railing you into the sheets but for his own sanity, he sometimes can’t help himself. Everything about the sex life between you two is kept within your own house though as he would only view it as very inappropriate to share such sacred moments with anyone else. That means that he also doesn’t appreciate if you give him any hickies or scratches on places that he can’t cover up and he applies the same principle to you. If he ever catches any leftover from a previous night, he always sees it through that you wear clothes that hide it.

🌊Whilst Tobirama despises any toys and most kinks, he has a thing for choking you. It is almost an eye-rolling experience when you feel his calloused and rough hands wrapping themselves around your warm neck whilst he is mercilessly thrusting his thick member in and out of your slick hole. The Second Hokage definitely asserts his dominance over you during such heated moments. Either by choking you or by grabbing both of your wrists in one hand and pinning them above your head, preventing you from touching him. Needless to say, he is always the one in control even during sex as his controlling side even extends there. He is unable to ever imagine himself playing the part of the submissive partner in his married life with you. It once again connects to his traditional upbringing in the Senju clan as well as the way he thinks he has to behave as a warrior as well as the Second Hokage. Complain about it as much as you will, he knows you’ll forget about it once he hits all the right spots inside of you.

🌊He isn’t very vocal for a big part as the only sounds you ever hear him make are the occasional grunt and groan when the tightening of your walls sparks the pleasure building up inside of him more and more. Normally it always starts on a rougher side where he gradually mellows out after a few rounds and starts being more affectionate and nice. His aftercare is quite good too because he is aware that he goes rough on you and that he forces a lot out of you so he always makes sure to hydrate and clean you thoroughly up after he has left you as a sticky mess. He isn’t interested in any kids for the first few years of the relationship as his priorities are currently elsewhere but he knows that as a part of the Senju Clan and especially as someone with his position, the topic will be unavoidable. He likes to be fully prepared for this future scenario and he discusses it with you too to have you prepared for it too. Until that time arrives though, he even allows you to consume anything that prevents you from getting pregnant.

[darkestspring]

Yan! Targ boys (Aegon I & II, Aemond, Daemon, Maegor, etc) finding out that some servant girl they fucked years ago (how many is up to you) had their twin sons?

They don't currently have a 'darling' so how would they react?

i feel very sorry for that servant girl, im gonna say it right now.

Aegon I "The Conquerer" Targaryen

Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy. This is going to be a mess. Once he finds the boys and then finds you, its just a complete flip of switch.

he'll end up bringing you in as his wife, he refuses to listen to anyone who tries to convince him otherwise, his firstborn son will become the king after him, no questions about it.

You're still reeling from all of this and he binds you both together in the tradition of valyria, whispering that now that you're his wife he won't let you go.

He'll look after you almost obsessively, he follows you around, watching you very closely to find what you like. He'll be all too glad to give you everything you could want. You're his wife now, there's nothing he won't do for you.

He shares your bed frequently, his hands gripping you hard enough to bruise as he groans, thrusting into you wildly. He can't help it, he'll whisper in your ear, our children are already big. Shall i give you more babies? Tie you to me once more?

And it's a surprise to no one that you fall pregnant once more. Aegon will find that he enjoys watching you swell with his child, all round and cute.

Aegon II "The Usurper" Targaryen

It had been only a few years after you had left the palace that Prince Aegon came across you again, you were the same as he remembered you. All beauty and curves, all quietness and bashfulness.

What does surprise him is the twin boys that you shield, even as you stare at him with fear in your eyes. You're no stranger to the rumors. You're the only one to give birth to his bastards, you had left before Queen Alicent could find you or force moon tea down your throat.

Something ignites in him, how he had enjoyed you all those years ago and he had managed to convince his mother out of marrying him to his weird sister but he still needed a wife.

The thought made him excited. You would be his wife, yes. Your children would be his heirs, you should be grateful to him. He had dragged you back to his home and you were too scared to do or say anything as you clung to your children, tears in your eyes.

In all honesty, they all felt bad for you. Alicent had been filled with horror watching her first child drag in a tearful girl with twin white haired boys in her arms. Aemond stood next to Helaena as they both stared at you in horror.

There had been no choice given, Aegon had insisted on marrying you, you already carried his children. and you were. You were married to Prince Aegon, even as Alicent had expressed her concerns to you and you in return, shut down completely.

Our of fear for your children, you only did what he wanted and it was clear to everyone there.

Aemond "The One-Eyed" Targaryen

you had been the only one to serve him after he had lost an eye, chosen for your overly gentle disposition. You had been at least seven years older than him. You had grown with him, following his every request with ease.

it had all escalated too quickly and you ended up sleeping with him in a laspse of judgement when he was already a grown man and you fled from the palace, hiding away in your small little house.

Aemond had been disappointed by your departure but focused on other things until he saw you with two white haired boys. there's no way those boys weren't his.

he couldn't help it, the feeling of possessiveness that filled him. you had given birth to his children. They had been deprived of the life of a targaryen.

despite all the protests you have, he'll basically kidnap you to the palace once more and demand to marry you. everyone refuses until they see the children and by then, aemond knows he's won.

You'll be his wife, he knows it and if by some chance he's denied, well aemond has been training for the past decade so he has no fear of violence should his demands not be met.

One way or another, you will be his wife.

Daemon "The Rogue Prince" Targaryen

Oof, that's all i got to say. Daemon is one of the worst yanderes to have. Of course having this powerful man love you is exhilarating but he's so unpredictable.

he's not afraid to get his hands dirty to prove a point or to deliver his own version of justice. he's not afraid to hurt people around you to prove that no one is safe. the safest place for you is right beside him because any other place he will create a danger for you.

daemon most likely didn't even remember you until he saw you with two children who were undoubtedly his. His obsession starts with the children and then transfers to you. He'll want more white haired children and he'll want them with you.

no matter how far you run from him, he'll hunt you down on caraxes and take you to dragonstone to marry you in the valyrian tradition, successfully binding you to him as his wife.

He won't listen to protests from anyone. Not viserys, not rhaenyra, not any of the lord or his extended family. You're his wife, he has valyrian children. He won't stop until your swelling with child once more.

It would be best to say goodbye to your past life because you'll never return to it, as long as you're the wife of daemon targaryen, you'll never know peace. He'll be obsessed with you until the day you die, and even then the happy days are as big as the bodies that pile up as proof of daemon's love.

Maegor "The Cruel" Targaryen

double oof to you, dear reader because if you thought daemon was bad, maegor is even worse. He's very skilled with a sword and even more skilled at wielding his rage.

you'll always stay in his mind, the second you escape from his grasp, he's looking after you. It takes him two years but he finds you. You and your twin sons. You've done the thing none of his wives have been able to and his obsession will spark because of that.

He'll abandon all of his wives for you, either divorcing them or killing them, it doesn't matter. You've given him two sons, you take priority to him.

He'll marry you in the valyrian tradition with his mother's support and encouragement.

maegor is skilled with his rage but he's still incredibly cruel. Every moment not spent filling you with his cum so that you might swell with his babe once more is spent massacring houses that speak out against you. No one is spared or given mercy.

He'll return to you, covered in blood and grinning at you. He did all of this for you, and he'll tell you as much. To protect you, our children and the children who are yet to be born.

It's all for you.

[sunlightandsuffering]

Mikasa has never been popular. 

Never. Not once, elementary school, high school, summer camp, never in her life has she been the person people flock to.

It’s just not her, she’s not the girl everyone coos over and people yearn to be friends with. The best she’s got is Sasha, who to be honest more than makes up for Mikasa’s lack of friends, the girl sends her more memes than Mikasa imagines any large friend group would. One friend is enough. 

But maybe that explains why Mikasa is so ill-prepared to deal with the situation at hand, why instead of acting, she’s standing in the middle of the woods surrounded by drunken partygoers with her mouth hanging open doing absolutely nothing as someone’s piece of shit beater goes up in flames. 

There is an equally flabbergasted boy standing a few paces away from her, a very handsome one she notes as the flames engulf the old truck, illuminating the sharp angles of his face, casting his golden skin an almost bronze colour. “Am I just really fucking high, or is that actually on fire?” He asks, his voice a rich baritone, his pupils dilated so large his eyes look black in the night, barely a faint ring of green at the edges. Mikasa turns back to the rapidly escalating fire, pinching herself to make sure, “It’s on fire.” The boy beside her balks, “Is it… supposed to be on fire?” 

Mikasa glances around the gravel parking lot wearily, noting everyone that was around before has mysteriously disappeared off into the woods to join the party, “I don’t think so.” “Are you going to do anything about it?” The boy asks, almost in a daze and this time it’s Mikasa’s turn to balk, what the hell is she supposed to do? 

“It’s not even my car,” She responds defensively, her arms coming up to hug herself and they both hear the blare of sirens in the distance, hopefully the fire trucks. “So you’re just going to leave it?” Mikasa glares at him now, ripping her gaze from the yellow flames, “I don’t see you doing anything about it!” “Baby,” the boy looks at her now, his voice wicked as his gaze rakes her up and down, “I’m high as a fucking kite right now, there’s no shot I’m putting out a fire.” Mikasa hates how the pet name sends shivers up her spine, even more, because she can feel her pussy practically throb under his attention, because she knows this boy now, has seen him around her small town before. Resident stoner, Eren Yeager, and notorious flirt, apparently great in the sack and hotter than he has any right to be for a pothead. 

“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Mikasa asks genuinely, her hands gesturing wildly as she turns back to the fire, because Sasha is long gone and with every second she can hear the fire trucks getting closer. Eren shrugs, reaching over to grab her hand almost unconsciously, “We should probably get the fuck out of here.”

And the next thing she knows she’s being dragged towards Eren’s own beater on the other side of the parking lot, a piece of shit jeep thats seen better days and to her dismay she’s being shoved into the fucking driver’s seat. 

“What are you doing?” She asks in outrage as he buckles her in with more dexterity than he should have for someone who’s probably done several bong tokes already tonight. “I’m high as fuck Mikasa I can’t fucking drive, do you know how to drive stick?” The suggestion is so outrageous she doesn’t even have any time to ruminate on the fact that he somehow knows her name. 

“No!” “Well, you’re gonna learn, get excited baby.” 

“Stop calling me baby,” She tells him poutily and Eren smirks as he climbs into the cab, his hand unabashedly grabbing at her thighs, “You like it baby, admit it.” 

She most certainly does not!

[cazort]

I have been seeing some left-wing people rejoicing or celebrating about Trump getting shot at, and I'm like, you guys really don't get it. This is just all-around bad:

It's an escalation of political violence, and it could cause copycat and/or retaliatory violence such as attacks on the Democratic nominee or other politicians or candidates.

Political violence, especially in the US, tends to benefit the right more. Four presidents have been assassinated: (1) Lincoln, who is best known for his anti-slavery stance (2) Kennedy, a wildly-popular Democrat who was replaced by his much less popular VP Johnson, who then lost to Nixon, (3) McKinley, who was a centrist and probably the most conservative of the four, and (4) Garfield, who was known for strong support for public education particularly as a way of improving civil rights for black people, and who appointed an unusual number of black people to higher posts in government.

It could create a sort of "martry complex" around Trump, a sense that he's being unfairly targetted and is the victim, and this could lead more people to support him or lead his supporters to become more passionate or loyal.

Because it's such a prominent, public act of violence and is already attracting so much media attention, it could cause escalation of violence in society as a whole, such as all sorts of random people trying to kill or assassinate other public figures, not necessarily just politicians.

It pushes us away from the conversations we need to be having and the work we need to be doing. Trump is not the problem; the problem is that we have a large segment of the populace who would vote for a person like Trump. If he weren't there, someone else would be. And the problem is that we have a political machine and other institutions like social media and other media, that elevate people like Trump into positions of power. Even if Trump were to die and none of the above problems were to apply at all, removing him wouldn't really solve much in the long-run. We'd still have a large segment of society willing to throw in behind someone like Trump, and a political system and media that elevates people like him. We need deep, radical, grass-roots change and violence targeted at a single isolated politician is not going to do this and is probably going to make it worse.

I do think that most of the prominent moderate-to-progressive politicians understand this. And this is why you have seen them all strongly condemning the assassination attempt on Trump. They know where this leads, and they know it's nowhere good. And they want to take another path.

So please. Stop celebrating this. It is not good news. It is very, very bad news and the only way to move forward is to treat it as such. Honestly, I think the worst news I am seeing around this whole thing has been how much I am seeing people on the left celebrating this.

And I get it. It's easy to see Trump as this supervilliain-type, a symbol of everything that is wrong in our political system, our society, and our world. But let me tell you, he's not. He's just some guy put there by a bunch of very powerful systems. And frankly I think he's kinda pathetic in a lot of ways. It is the systems that are the problem. And political violence is part of these systems and strengthens them.

This is why I am always telling people change needs to start within. If you cannot root out the violence and the authoritarianism from your own thinking, you will end up indirectly supporting an authoritarian leader, acting in ways that causes such a leader to rise to power. If we really want Trump and his supporters and people like Trump to be disempowered, we need to do the tough work, and that work involves looking inside our own minds and rooting out the authoritarianism, the tendency towards violence, hate, and groupthink.

If we cannot protect ourselves from falling into these things, the war is already lost.

Please see this and please stop celebrating this assassination attempt, or any type of political violence, especially when it is targeted at people we see as "the bad guys". This case is when our wisdom and restraint is most necessary.

[decepti-thots]

☕️ froid

So on the one hand Froid is like. A hilarious character, right. In so many ways. He's rivalling Trepan for the 'knows they're The Bad Guy, has a lot of fun with it' energy, which I think works really well for him because you do get a sense of why he would be content with that and unbothered by his own lack of scruples. He's vain and professionally greedy and weaponizes his profession and reputation to manipulate people for personal gain, and it's fine by him being aware this is wildly immoral because that vanity means he sees himself above all that! It's also a very good counterpoint to Rung, whose compassion also arguably makes him a worse therapist but in a totally different direction. Also, the idea Rung once liked this guy is so interesting! We see in flashbacks Froid has always been a little sleaze; was Rung in denial, or were his standards lower once, or what? There's some points of interest there.

But... hmmm. I'm not sure he's a great character pacing wise. You know? It pains me to say, but I think that chopping him (and Sunder) out entirely and making the entire mutineer arc rest and focus on Getaway (who is no longer drawn into quite such an OTT-evil level of escalation if you drop that subplot!) would be for the best. The thing is, that whole segment of the comic is already very, very overfull, and there's just nothing Froid meaningfully adds either structurally or thematically, at least not as he's executed.

You might say, 'but isn't he essential to Rung, with the blackmail and foil thing going on?' and I understand the urge! But on reflection. Nah. Most of that stuff feels like a late addition thrown in to directly respond to reader criticism anyway, and while it's true cutting it leaves Rung with very little in the way of 'arc resolution', I think the Froid arc being so disposable is a symptom in itself of Rung's story never getting the room to breathe he needed at points!

Love the weird little asshole. But alas. If I could, I'd probably cut him. Pains me to say. I love a weird little villain guy. But sometimes that's just how it is.

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 391: Rejecting the World + Chapter 392: Villain Name

On Toga’s Accusations

I am somewhat wary that two-thirds of Toga’s accusations towards Ochaco—you’ve never wanted for anything; your life was perfectly easy to live—are worded in such a way that they’re very easily parried by a reminder that Ochaco grew up in poverty.[1]  No, Uraraka never struggled with quirk-based compulsions like Toga did; she always seemed to fit easily into her social surroundings; that doesn’t mean she’s never wanted for anything and has always had an easy life.  It feels extremely akin to the Spinner fanboys yelling at the Black dude that he has no idea what it’s like to be judged by his appearance; it makes the accusers look wildly self-centered, oblivious to hardships suffered by people other than themselves.

That said, Ochaco’s already done the thing where Toga expresses that she finds her life difficult and Ochaco responds by ignoring that statement completely in favor of moralistic scolding about actions having consequences.  One would hope, given the contents of these two chapters, that we’re not due for yet another speech of that sort.  At most, I’d like to see Ochaco use their shared difficulties—different in nature, but both still present—as a basis for empathy rather than an excuse to chide Toga for not trying harder.

A while back, I criticized the Flamin’ Sidekickers for feeling the need to justify their continued association with Endeavor to Dabi—as if their reasoning makes any difference to Todoroki Touya!—and I feel similarly about this. True as it is that Ochaco has faced her own share of problems, her firing back about those problems and comparing her and Toga’s responses to them would not actually be helpful right now in de-escalating the situation.  It’s not always about you and your own problems!  Especially not when you’re trying to talk someone down!  As was the case with the Spinner fanboys, Toga’s in a very bad place right now, and has been for a long, long time.  Ochaco doesn’t have to validate her crimes, but I do think it’s important to validate her pain.[2]

(Hit the jump for more on Toga—her flashback and the intersection of her emotions with her quirk mechanics—as well as some musings on the broader implications of the quirk counseling scene, and the usual assortment of odds and ends.)

   

On Toga’s Emotional Quirk Mechanics

O Nice to finally get a hard confirmation that the doubles are clones of Toga-as-Twice, not clones of Twice himself.  Makes sense, given the speed with which she’s replicating, and makes it slightly easier to justify her own emotional hang-ups interfering with the way Double normally functions, though I’m by no means rescinding my complaints about that whole thing being hella arbitrary. Also, confirming that these are all Togas would seem to make it less probable for Uraraka to be able to pick out the real thing by her tears, right?  If they’re all Toga-masquerading-as-Twice, shouldn’t they all be crying?

O I like the Zeno’s Arrow-esque nature of the problem with Toga’s time limit on her transformation here.  Like, yes, any given double, and Toga herself, will run out of transformation time eventually, but she’s making exponentially increasing numbers of doubles every single second; each one of those doubles is created with the same amount of blood stock its creator had at the moment it started the creation process.  Each double thus comes into existence with one second more time than its creator now has.  So, how thin can Toga slice those seconds?  How infinitesimally close to the timer reaching zero can a double still snap out a new copy, which now has that tiny fragment more time remaining to make a copy itself? Real life doesn’t operate on philosophical time, of course, so she’ll run out of time eventually, prompting a huge tidal wave of Twices turning back into Togas, but it’s a neat thought exercise.

O DELIGHTED that Tsuyu’s guess was off-base, so all the ice-cold, “Toga doesn’t really love the League,” take meta from the people who think the League are toxic and bad for each other is rendered just hilariously short-sighted in retrospect.  Because, hey, maybe you shouldn’t take Tsuyu’s word over Toga’s about Toga’s own feelings!  Imagine that!

O Interesting that, despite the whole horde moving with the feeling of, “All heroes must die!” when they overrun Tsuyu, they don’t kill her on the spot, but rather just bind her and hoist her up as a hostage.  I assume there’s at least some influence from Hori not wanting to kill off any student characters, but extra-canonical explanations being what they may be, it still reflects interestingly on Toga’s own desires and intentions, and certainly her (underutilized) affection for Tsuyu.

   

On Toga’s Flashback

O So like, Toga’s dad definitely hit her in the flashback, right?

His hand is outstretched, specifically visible against the black silhouette of the rest of his figure; he could have just slapped the bird out of her hands, but I don’t think that would have been enough to spin her all the way in the opposite direction from when her parents first discovered her with the bird.  Further, she’s on her knees and hunched over, one arm raised towards the left side of her face, and if you look closely at her cheek in the next panel—

              —you can see a mark on the left side of her face that isn’t there on the right.

I don’t have a particular observation about this to discuss further—just wanted to point it out.  Toga’s father’s first response to seeing his three-year-old daughter holding a dead bird was not to tell her to put the bird down, or to hit it out of her hands, but to slap her so hard it spun her around and knocked her over.  Oh, and then to accuse her of killing it.

The three-year old.  Killing a fully-grown sparrow with her bare hands.  I couldn’t kill a fully-grown sparrow with my bare hands because a fully grown sparrow wouldn’t let me in touching range without flying away!  What is wrong with Toga’s father, exactly, that that’s the assumption he jumps to??

Incidentally, one of the bright little changes the anime made to that sequence back in MVA—one I actually overlooked in the In Memoriam posts—was to specifically animate him slapping the bird out of her hands and then leave her standing there grinning, arms lowered, as her parents continue berating her.  It’s truly astounding that we are still uncovering new issues stemming from the anime’s butchering of My Villain Academia!

O Speaking of Toga material the anime wildly fucked up, let’s talk about ~~quirk counseling.~~

So like, I tried for so long to maintain a layer of skepticism about what Curious said about quirk counseling.  After all, Curious was a villain, a member of a free-quirk-use cult, violently against the current social order.  She was categorically not a reliable narrator about the intentions and outcomes of quirk counseling!  All the same, it seemed safe to assume she was at least partially right, if only because, in a meta view, no one ever showed up to contradict her!  If we were meant to understand that she was wrong, why allow her words to stand uncontested?

Well, it turns out it’s because she was 100% right!

“They attempt to hammer out any bumps in your understanding of the world and program you to fit neatly into society’s little boxes,” she said, and, “The counseling ends up emphasizing the inherent differences among us all.”  And here we find a counselor saying, “Let’s get you all reformed, nice and normal,” thus emphasizing that Toga is very much not normal.

Of course, the counselor then immediately turns around and reveals that Toga’s desires are normal, at least in the sense that “deviant” desires are quite common in “children with powerful quirks.”  It happens all the time, apparently!  Despite the frequency of the problem, though, the best answer Hero Society has come up with is to preach repression, to strictly control who is allowed to use their quirk—and thus alleviate any natural urges that might accompany it.

Remember what Re-Destro said back in Chapter 227?

Wow!  It’s almost like this was an entirely predictable outcome!

O My perennial gloating about the (MVA-era) MLA being justified and correct aside, it’s interesting and, I think, promising that Horikoshi made time to include that bit on quirk counseling here.  Firstly, it reinforces the idea that Toga did not become a villain due to the actions of one discrete villain like AFO; she was failed by society at large, so simply offering her the sanctified blessing of The Sympathy of One (1) Teenager is not going to do a thing about the problems that created her, and will go on creating others like her unless real change happens in the attitudes of the current society.

(Of course, all of that is also true for Spinner, and we saw how the confrontation with the societal problems that created him went, thanks but no thanks, Shouji.)

Moreover, though, it’s yet another element that points in the direction of the Quirk Singularity Theory looming on the horizon.  If quirks are getting stronger and stronger as generations pass (and we’ve got plenty of evidence that suggests that they are) and psychological issues like Toga’s are common in those with strong quirks (and I don’t see any reason for a professional counselor to misstate something like that[3]), then it follows that such issues will also become more common as quirks increase in strength.  Indeed, an irresistibly strong desire to use one’s quirk would be a logical expression of Ujiko’s conclusion that quirks will eventually go out of control!

This is the dark side of Second’s conflation of a person’s intent with the term “quirk” back in Chapter 369.  It’s a place where the translation of the word kosei as “quirk” obscures the sentence somewhat.  Recall that the word Horikoshi uses translates more literally as “personality.”  So, Second says that a strong intent is what makes a person fearsome, and this is why meta-abilities were given the name they were[4]: the power is merely a vessel, a weapon to be used to carry out the intent in question, a characterful, personalized expression of one’s inner will.  In other words, a “personality.”

But the inverse also becomes true.  If a quirk, a “personality,” is reflective of one’s will, then to suppress one’s quirks is to suppress one’s will.  To condemn someone’s quirk becomes the same as condemning them.  To label a quirk deviant is to label the person’s will deviant.  And if a quirk grows too strong to control, then the will-as-embodied-by-the-quirk also goes out of control.  Hence, Toga snaps after too many years of suppression.

So how does that problem get addressed?  The MLA, of course, wanted free quirk use, because Destro foresaw a time when quirks would grow too powerful for suppression to be effective.  Even radical self-acceptance and an even more radical restructuring of society are still just kicking that problem down the road, though, assuming they’d be effective at all—not that it looks like Hero Society is on the cusp of embracing that particular point of the MLA’s ideology regardless!  Indeed, as Team Hero still regards the problem of quirks increasing in strength as “fringe thinking reserved for cults,” they don’t seem to have any intention at all of addressing the problem.  Time will tell if the story itself will do so.

O It’s striking that even after some years of emotional abuse, Toga was still barefacedly begging her parents to please explain to her what made her so different from everyone else.  It’s a telling parallel to her willingness to actively seek out Ochaco and Deku to ask their opinion on things, and makes it not terribly surprising that she reacts so negatively to being rebuffed by them.  Her whole question in the wake of Jin’s death was whether heroes viewed villains as human—when heroes go on to reject her, like her parents did, of course she’d assume that it means those heroes also view her as inhuman.

   

Stray Notes

O ‘Eeeeeey, people picked up on the Death part of the Parade name this time!  I notice it hasn’t been corrected in the online version of 375, though; I wonder if the volume release will fix it?

O One thing I wasn’t clear on from the leaks/scanlation—the former of which are too fuzzy, the latter too murky—but am very happy to see here is that the Himijin Horde is definitely visible on the horizon for Hawks.  You can tell from the difference in the shading: fuzzy, gray, irregularly sized trees on the right and left, but a long black line of much more regular height in the center:

They’re heading for the Todorokis and Iida, too, of course, but Hawks is obviously the confrontation I’m most interested in.  (Read: GET ‘IM.  GEEEET ‘IM.)  Very much hope we get to see that before Uraraka completely defuses this whole situation.

O Love the acknowledgement from both Ochaco and Tsuyu that Ochaco’s efforts here are late, and that’s worth an apology, worth Toga being upset about.  I’m thrilled that the story is finally, explicitly folding villains into that idea expressed by Nedzu that it’s difficult but necessary for someone to be the first one to hold out a hand if society is to meaningfully advance.  I extra love that Ochaco is holding out that hand while also taking a huge risk: offering her thoughts on why Toga’s having problems with making quirk-use-capable clones.

As I said about Chapter 382, Toga resolving that issue would be incredibly dangerous for Team Hero, and I love that Uraraka is still—despite being very aware of that danger—willing to try to help Toga with it.  With no guarantee of reciprocity, with everything at stake, Uraraka still takes the time to carry on that conversation because it’s what her heart tells her is the right thing to do.

After all, if she can resolve Toga’s issue, that stands to win her back at least a degree of Toga’s faith, at which point a Toga-made clone of Shigaraki obliterating this whole stretch of countryside would no longer be what Toga wants.[5] More than the strategic considerations, though, it's plainly apparent that Toga struggling with Jin's quirk is causing her great anguish, and that's really what Uraraka wants to soothe.

Taking the talk-no-jutsu gamble is how Shinsou should have handled Machia; it’s how Deku should have been handling Shigaraki instead of drowning him in his Fist Ocean.  I praised Mirio for making at least a game attempt at it, and Shouto took a crack at it before slipping back into castigation; if Spinner had been coherent enough to hold an actual conversation with Shouji, we might have gotten it there.  This conflict, though, is where I expect the tactic to finally work, as Toga has both the emotional investment in Uraraka[6] and the presence of mind/free agency to actually respond.  I can’t wait to see how it goes!

O Toga’s spitting-mad injunction that Uraraka not dare to pity her based on societal standards that never made room for Toga to begin with is an excellent echo of Jin's indignance that Hawks would dare to say Jin led an “unlucky” life, as well as Toga’s own fury at Curious for trying to paint her as miserable.

----------------- FOOTNOTES -----------------

[1] So far as I can tell, there’s not an officially recognized difference between “being poor” and “living in poverty”—they’re just different parts of speech describing the same condition—though it seems many people feel instinctively that there’s a difference in severity there.  Still, I’ll stick with “poverty” in this case: while Uraraka’s family never seemed so destitute that they were worried about keeping a roof over their heads, we know that, as of the beginning of the manga, she was skipping meals to save money.  I doubt she would have been so blasé about going hungry that it could be used as grist for comedic volume extras if she didn’t have prior experience with it, and not having enough money to have regular meals is right there in what it means to live under the poverty line.

[2] Elsewhere in this same angle, Deku’s frank empathy for and validation of Gentle and his motivations is what made Gentle’s return feel so much more earned compared to Nagant’s, and Shouto scolding Dabi for involving innocent people proved ineffective.  Shouji, meanwhile, took a stab at validating the mob’s pain, but didn’t have a single word of sympathy for Spinner.

[3] You know, assuming she doesn’t turn out to have been secretly on AFO’s payroll or something.

[4] Setting aside Second’s rampant historical revisionism about the origin of the term, of course, because not a lick of what he says lines up with the actual story of the Mother of Quirks.

[5] Though, you know, the clone Shigaraki would probably still want it!

[6] Dabi’s emotionally invested in Shouto, but in an inverted way, not one that primes him to listen to anything Shouto has to say.

[royalreef]

@infernalpursuit inquired: how does your muse react when they're scared? does it change, depending on what is currenly scaring them?

(( Oh, absolutely it depends on what's currently scaring her!

The thing you have to understand about Miranda is that she's less of a person, in the sense that her personality and reactions are organic and naturally occurring, and moreso that she's someone who has been so intensely groomed and micro-managed and pushed in such a specific direction that a lot of the way that she is is entirely on purpose.

Her personality isn't really a natural product of her birth nor her circumstance in the same way someone else's personality might be. It's more like... There's no way that people can go through something like what she had gone through and not turn out in a very similar way to her. It's a designed process in this way, something that very intentionally obliterates any other chance to be anything else, and makes becoming this highly specific mold of a person into a life-or-death matter, something that you can't will or whim or nature your way out of. Miranda is the way that she is because she's been intentionally ground down and shredded into the person that she is. She doesn't really have a concrete sense of self. She doesn't even really know who she is. She's not supposed to, she's just supposed to be a means to serve a singular purpose and a singular end, and all she even can comprehend doing is that purpose.

Fear is a major part of this process, this total obliteration of any other mere possibility, but I also feel like it's a little disingenuous to call it fear in the same way most people would relate to it. It's the kind of fear that's so big and bone-deep and constant that it stops really feeling like fear at all, the kind of thing that Miranda herself has a very hard time of realizing that she's feeling even when it's particularly bad.

It might be more accurate to call it getting locked into a constant state of flight-or-fight. It's a constant existential threat where Miranda is sincerely and totally convinced that she could die at any moment and anyone could hurt her as much as they wanted, constantly living solely in the very present and unable to think of what even a short distance ahead in time would be like, because she just never feels comfortable or secure enough to stop thinking of the right now. She's what happens when the fear has been intensified strongly enough that it never dips below what would be debilitating for anyone else, and thus has become wildly detached to her own body, physical harm to her body, threats to her own life, or any escalation of fear.

This is, in fact, one of the things that I worry about disappointing roleplay partners with at times! Because their muse will act scary or try to frighten Miranda, and it just doesn't work. She just doesn't respond to the situation in a measurably different way than how she normally does, because she's under so much constant stress and strain and terror that it's not really any different to her than how everything else already is.

The only real times when she starts to show it, in fact, are places where her aversion and fear of them have been specifically cultivated. Miranda is a tool, and a tool doesn't break under expected strain, but you do have to be able to sharpen it and make sure it remains useful. You do have to take it apart to do maintenance on it, make sure it's working. The points where Miranda starts to actually, sincerely, show her genuine fear and terror, are during these points and in these situations where her aversion of them can be used to punish her and make sure she's being redirected in the proper direction.

In which case, Miranda's fear response is also highly specific and the only real option that other people who have gone through it come out with.

Mostly, she freezes up. She starts fawning hard. She lets it happen, over and over and over again until the object of her fear goes away, because it's going to be easier if she doesn't fight back or resist. She starts disassociating, disconnecting from her body and her thoughts, forgetting where she is or what's happening to her, because then she doesn't have to be present to register it and the memories are easier to repress later. She starts to people-please, trying to make the object of her fear happy and content them, because doing what they tell her to do and making them happy makes it not last as long. If she just does what they want her to, then they won't hurt her as much. If she just listens when she's told, then she won't get punished as much.

The end result is that she's very... robotic, in a sense. She does what she is told, to the letter. She will do what she is told, and she will not fuss or cry or cause any further problems if it also hurts her as well. She will be good, because the only choice other than being good is total obliteration. They should tell her what to do. They should make her do what they want her to do. It's okay that she's not there, or it's hurting her. It's even better if that happens, in fact, because then it's not as bad. She will not mention it after the fact, she will not hold it against them, she will not upset them again. She will be good. She was designed to be good.

Which, again, is part of why Miranda's fear response can be so inappropriate sometimes... Because she's been cultivated this way, because other people punishing her is so ingrained into her mind as a fundamental way of being, very often she will pick the seemingly much scarier or painful option over that cultivated social fear. She will happily hurt herself for someone else, and she will not be afraid of it, or be very upset at all. She will happily do many frightening things and deal with things that anyone else wouldn't be able to, because she's already locked into a permanent state of terror, and the only exception would be what happens if she doesn't do this. She's a tool. The only thing a tool has to fear is not fulfilling its purpose.

It's why she keeps doing increasingly dangerous things, too, seemingly without regard to her own life or death. Fear is an adaptation which allowed living things to avoid situations and things that were dangerous to them. Because Miranda's fear is constant and always at its peak, she doesn't register minor fluctuations to it, nor does she have it to try and get her to avoid things that might or will hurt her. It's also why her pain response is so bizarre and detached, and doesn't take very many efforts to avoid pain in general.

It also means, too, is that the potential for other people accidentally setting off or triggering this particular type of cultivated fear is very high, basically intentionally so. She has to be easy to control and redirect as needed, after all. If someone else gets close to her, gets her in an intimate situation similar to how she was cultivated to respond to punishment, then she can very easily get locked into a loop that they didn't know they were setting off. She's not in the state of mind to notice contradictions or try and correct herself, let alone notice if something is wrong, so nothing she can do can stop this from happening beyond general discouragement from those situations.

It just also means that it can be rather upsetting for other people when they notice that Miranda's immediate fear response, in wholly out-of-proportion situations, is to just sit there and take it without protest, even to the point of seemingly not reacting to someone nearly killing her if they do it in the right way.

[kitkatt0430]

role reversal AU with Barry and Iris? :)

So I've written a couple of these before - and I no doubt will again. [I Know (Do You?) and Hurry Up (To Slow Down)] I do enjoy a good role reversal for these two. :D

So in a role reversal specifically from Iris' point of view, I think she'd initially promise not to tell Barry when Joe asks, but quickly realize from Barry's interest in metahumans and the Flash that keeping him in the dark is pretty cruel. Instead of trying to gaslight him about it or talk him out of investigating, Iris would come clean. Forewarned is forearmed and Iris wants him to be safe about things.

Depending on how long it takes for Iris to tell him, Barry may or may not be upset about it. But if he's upset? He gets over it pretty fast. Iris has always been amazing and his hero and so he's so proud of her for being everyone's hero now.

Eobard is not thrilled. In retrospect he realizes that it isn't that surprising that Iris West had the right genes to become a speedster considering Wally West is destined to become a speedster. Or was destined. What does Eobard know. Maybe Linda Park will become a speedster. *he's waving hands wildly while Gideon wonders if she can get smoke to come out of his ears if she says yes*

since Iris was still in college getting her Masters degree at the time, there would be focus on her trying to maintain her GPA while juggling Flash duties and frustration with EoWells perhaps not respecting her class time, maybe her pointing out that she's not exactly getting paid for her Flash work inspires him to create an internship for her so that she does get paid and can't complain about that anymore.

Because, honestly, Iris doesn't have the Jitters job anymore. it's not her fault she couldn't work while in a coma but what are the odds a part time barista job would get held open for her that long?

There's so many ways things could play out relationship wise. I've done both the Westallen and Westhallen routes, but why not some Barriscowest? Or Snowestallen? Snowest & barrisco? Thallen and Newsvibe (is that what Iris/Cisco is called? that's what I'm going with) There are a lot of possibilities and I do enjoy so many different ships.

Iris and the pipeline... I don't know where she'd stand on that. I'd like to think she'd be against it and so that's the track I'd take writing another one of these AUs, because Iris is the voice of reason. But canon probably would have put her on the pro pipeline train if she hadn't been sidelined like she was. :/

I think Iris would probably try harder to talk things out with the metas. Not always a good idea, but she's much more likely to try to de-escalate a situation than Barry is. So she'd probably be able to talk Shawna down, but trying to empathize with Hartley would likely end with him taking advantage of her sympathy. Though she'd also be less sympathetic towards Snart since, unlike Barry, she doesn't really have the experiences Barry has that made him empathize with Len.

Iris would be tempted to go back in time to save Nora because she loves Barry and she wants him to have his mother. Whether or not she actually does it depends on how her conversation with Henry goes. He was not in favor of changing the timeline to save Nora even though he no doubt wanted her to have a chance to live, so he might be able to talk Iris out of it if he can articulate his feelings on the subject well enough.

a lot of this has focused on Iris, but I think Barry would settle well into back up. He'd probably still get a chance to be a battle couple with her similar to the incident with Tony in canon. Maybe the return of Becky Cooper turns out to be a bad thing when she turns out to be a powered stalker with a crush on Barry?

Barry's also got a pretty close friendship with Cisco and Caitlin already by the time Iris wakes up, which I think would factor into Iris ultimately deciding to tell him pretty quickly. Keeping the secret would not only be potentially putting Barry in danger but damaging his new friendships and Iris wouldn't want to do that to him.

[readingsquotes]

Multiple NYPD cops shot at a man named Derell Mickles after he evaded the subway fare Sunday afternoon. They followed him at length for skipping out on $2.90, followed him onto the train, and eventually drew their weapons and repeatedly fired at Derell, injuring him along with one of their fellow officers and two other people. Video shows a bloodied man lying on the floor of a subway car with his hands handcuffed behind his back. One of the bystanders hit by the NYPD was struck in the head and is listed as being in critical condition.

This is a mass shooting, both by definition and in that it takes no imagination to conjure up the panic and extreme terror felt by each and every person present when the NYPD recklessly opened fire in the subway on a quiet Sunday afternoon. The blatant disregard for human life displayed by escalating a situation and shooting a Black man over $2.90 is already horrendous enough, but the further willingness to risk ending multiple lives by firing so wildly that they struck three bystanders, including one of their own, is appalling.

We are once again thrust into a moment where the police and their unwavering supporters will claim that this horrific shooting was just a few bad apples – regardless of how absurd “a few bad apples shot up the subway” sounds. But the truth is that this is what a culture of total immunity does. The NYPD, like so many other police departments, close ranks around murderous cops every single time they kill and harm people. They close ranks no matter what the crime is. Recent reporting from ProPublica shows that the NYPD is simply tossing out hundreds of misconduct cases without even looking at them. Such a culture of impunity among armed officers with a long history of violence and corruption leads to moments like this, a reckless mass shooting that could have easily been even worse.

...

A culture of impunity, recklessness, and lawlessness pervades the entirety of policing. And the reasons for that are two-fold. The first is that police do not actually exist to protect us, to protect people. I mean that very literally. A 2005 Supreme Court ruling, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, holds that police do not have a constitutional duty to protect people from harm. Maybe even more importantly, police don’t act as if they have a duty to protect us. When people try to stay in their homes and resist evictions, or protest for the right to housing, cops side with landlords. When people demand climate solutions, police arrest us and side with fossil fuel corporations. When people protest police murders, police side with the police murderers. None of this is new, but internalizing that this is who cops are, that this is what policing as an institution is, is crucially important.

The second reason that police lawlessness is worse than ever is that cops have become a more overtly fascist force. While there has always been recklessness and disregard for the law, especially when it comes to terrorizing Black and brown communities and policing poor communities, ‘law enforcement’ unions have increasingly taken to endorsing Trump, cozying up to Proud Boys and their ilk, and filling their ranks with far-right militia members and people with fascist views. So now both the structure purpose, and the rank of police forces are all aligned in a far-right orientation that doesn’t care for the law and places their own pursuit of power and wealth and an extreme political ideology above the people they occasionally pretend to serve.

[rockislandadultreads]

Ghost Stories on Halloween Night: Books to Check Out

They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe

If you can hear the call of the water, It's already far too late. They say Cape Disappointment is haunted. That's why tourists used to flock there in droves. They'd visit the rocky shoreline under the old lighthouse's watchful eye and fish shells from the water as they pretended to spot dark shapes in the surf. Now the tourists are long gone, and when Meredith Strand and her young daughter return to Meredith's childhood home after an acrimonious split from her wife, the Cape seems more haunted by regret than any malevolent force. But her mother, suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's, is convinced the ghost stories are real. Not only is there something in the water, but it's watching them. Waiting for them. Reaching out to Meredith's daughter the way it has to every woman in their line for generations-and if Meredith isn't careful, all three women, bound by blood and heartbreak, will be lost one by one to the ocean's mournful call.

The Widow of Pale Harbor by Hester Fox

Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt him in Massachusetts after his wife's death, so he moves to Pale Harbor, Maine, where there is a vacancy for a new minister. Gideon and his late wife had always dreamed of building their own church, and Pale Harbor is the perfect opportunity. But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town of Pale Harbor. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople know that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a widow who lives with a spinster maid in the decaying Castle Carver on the edge of town. Sophronia is a recluse, rumored to be a witch who killed her husband. When Gabriel meets her, he knows the charming, beautiful woman cannot be guilty of anything. Together, Gabriel and Sophronia realize that the mysterious events have one thing in common: they all contain an element from the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And when the events escalate to murder, Gabriel and Sophronia must find the real killer, before it's too late for them both.

The Winter Guest by W.C. Ryan

The drive leads past the gate house and through the trees towards the big house, visible through the winter-bared branches. Its windows stare down at Harkin and the sea beyond . . . January 1921. Though the Great War is over, in Ireland a new, civil war is raging. The once-grand Kilcolgan House, a crumbling bastion shrouded in sea-mist, lies half empty and filled with ghosts - both real and imagined - the Prendevilles, the noble family within, co-existing only as the balance of their secrets is kept. Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud's former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household. Working undercover, Harkin must delve into the house's secrets - and discover where, in this fractured, embattled town, each family member's allegiances truly lie. But Harkin too is haunted by the ghosts of the past and by his terrible experiences on the battlefields. Can he find out the truth about Maud's death before the past - and his strange, unnerving surroundings - overwhelm him?

Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap

“Am I dead?” Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask. Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'.

[mariacallous]

Years after being accused of swinging a baseball bat at police officers during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, Edward “Jake” Lang is now using encrypted messaging channels to create a nationwide network of armed militias in all 50 states.

Though he has been in prison for over 1,200 days, Lang is working with a network of election deniers and conspiracists to promote the North American Patriot and Liberty Militia, or Napalm for short. The group officially launched last week with 50 state-specific militia groups on Telegram.

Lang claims that the Telegram groups already have 20,000 members, including pastors, farmers, former military personnel, and currently serving sheriffs. However, multiple experts who reviewed the channels tell WIRED said that figure was wildly overestimated and that the real figure was closer to 2,500 members. But a group this size, they warn, is still large enough to cause a serious threat. And while unarmed members are welcome, the group is, at its core, a pro-gun organization. “We are pro open carry, pro always have it on you, rather than waiting for somebody else to be able to defend your life,” says Lang.

As the 2024 US election approaches, Lang says that Napalm will be focusing on potential “civil unrest” around the vote. “We have to make sure that we're prepared for any real-time scenarios, any eventualities,“ says Lang. “Civil unrest at any given moment, especially around an election time, is something that could come along, and so we have to plan for that contingency as well.”

Tensions around the November vote are already at an all-time high, and many Republicans refuse to say if they will peacefully accept the outcome of the November election. Over one-third of Americans now baselessly claim that President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 was illegitimate. These conspiracies have led to a resurgence in far-right activity, of which Napalm is just the latest facet: Lang, along with all other members of the group’s leadership council, ardently believes that the 2020 election was stolen from former president Donald Trump.

“We've noted considerable energy being put into resurrecting far-right paramilitary activism right now,” Devin Burghart, the executive director at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), tells WIRED. “The growing talk of ‘Second Amendment remedies’ to unfavorable electoral outcomes is a serious cause for concern. Militia groups like Napalm promote political violence and sow the seeds for another potential insurrection.”

In addition to the election, Lang says that Napalm will respond to everything from natural disasters to Federal overreach, political protests, and potential Chinese invasions.

“I thought it was necessary to get organized in case these encroachments, these violations of our civil liberties, our natural rights were to escalate to a point where it'd absolutely be untenable and that we would need to defend ourselves.” Lang tells WIRED from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is awaiting a trial set for September. “There is a tyrannical wave that has hit America that we've never seen before. And so it's time that people get organized in case they escalate to something that basically puts our very lives in danger.”

Lang, 29, is from upstate New York. He claims to have been an ecommerce entrepreneur and nightclub promoter before getting sober and finding God in late 2020. At the same time, Lang was getting deeper into “truther content” online that claimed Marxists and Communists were ruining the country. This content overlapped with election-denial conspiracies that led to the Capitol riot and inspired Lang to travel to DC.

Days after January 6, Lang was recruiting people into an armed militia on Telegram that would ostensibly fight against the incoming regime of President Biden.

“It was the first battle of the Second American Revolution—make no mistakes,” Lang wrote about the Capitol riot, according to a tranche of thousands of messages obtained by ProPublica. “This is WAR.”

That effort ended days later when Lang was arrested and charged with multiple counts of assaulting law enforcement officers, as well as felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding—some of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

After he was arrested, Lang became a figurehead for January 6 prisoners who have been falsely portrayed as “hostages” or “warriors” by Trump and his supporters. While in prison, Lang has published a book, helped produce several films, hosted his own podcast, and raised millions of dollars for inmates and their families—all related to the January 6 attack.

“It's important to recognize that Lang is, first and foremost, a grifter who knows that his ‘political prisoner’ schtick is his only shot at relevance,” says Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “This is someone who has intentionally delayed his own trial date in an effort to remain in the spotlight and who continues to promote violent conspiracies.”

And though Lang’s original attempt at starting a militia on Telegram ended with just a few hundred followers and his arrest, he says that he has spent the past year creating Napalm from his cell with the help of far-right figures from around the country.

Among those who Lang has convinced to join his initiative is QAnon promoter Ann Vandersteel, who is the groups’ national vice chairman. Former New Mexico county commissioner Couy Griffin, who is known as the leader of Cowboys for Trump, is also on the council. In 2022, Griffin refused to certify the results of a primary election vote.

Stew Peters, who will act as the militia’s national communications director, is a Florida-based antisemitic podcaster who shot to prominence in recent years by pushing Covid conspiracies, including a wild claim that Covid vaccines were derived from snake venom. The claim was so outlandish that even other conspiracy theorists dismissed his claims as “trash.” Peters has also pushed QAnon conspiracies and white supremacist content and even called for the death sentence for the “traitors” that he claimed have stolen the elections.

When the site launched last week, one of those listed as a member of the council was Richard Mack, the founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. When contacted by WIRED, however, Mack said he was not affiliated with the group: “Many groups contact me weekly to work together, but in order for that to happen they must join our mission and philosophy of nonviolence.”

Lang told WIRED that a member of his team had been speaking to Mack about his role with the group, and it was likely just a miscommunication. Hours later, however, Mack’s picture was removed from the website.

Guns appear to be a central aspect of all actions taken by the Napalm militias, even when responding to incidents like hurricanes, wildfires, or earthquakes. “Even in a natural disaster, people that are in desperate scenarios may do desperate things,” Lang said. “And I believe that open carry and carrying a firearm on your body is a natural right of all men, and it's not something to be shied away from.”

While Lang said non-gun-owners would be welcome to join the group: “They would still be trained, and they would definitely be supported in their eventual path to gun ownership.”

Though Lang says all militia activity to date has occurred online, Napalm plans to get into the real world soon. “We will have casual outings at local firing ranges for downrange training, different exercises on what to do if the power goes out, if the internet is shut down, if the water lines are contaminated, [and] wilderness survival training,” says Lang.

All new members have to go through a vetting process, which consists of a five-minute video call designed to weed out potential infiltration from law enforcement.

Once vetting has been completed, members are then placed in a private county-level chat group where they can communicate with other members of the militia. Neither WIRED nor the researchers we spoke to were able to gain access to the private chats.

In the past, a county-level militia cell structure has made it harder for law enforcement to infiltrate extremist groups.

Lang says the vetting process has been established in part as a response to what happened to militia groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the wake of January 6. “They had these public group chats, and people said inflammatory things on there, and so we don't have those,” Lang said.

Though Lang claims that the group has signed up over 20,000 members, some experts don’t believe him.

“The best we can tell is that the numbers that the group is claiming are grossly misleading,” Jared Holt, senior researcher of US hate and extremist movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, tells WIRED. “This is an aspirational project. It doesn't reflect any sort of organizing infrastructure that's actively been built. It is being promoted by a group of political hucksters and shock jocks. And I wouldn't be surprised if would-be joiners of these groups come to learn that there is some kind of membership fee, some sort of financial component involved here.”

Burghart and his colleagues at IREHR also reviewed the 50 state-level Telegram channels and found a total of just over 14,000 members. However, Burghart also says that he believes that this figure is “significantly artificially inflated, with real membership closer to 2,500.”

Lang did not respond to questions about whether the Telegram channels membership numbers were artificially inflated.

But even with inflated membership numbers and lack of real-world coordination so far, experts still believe attention needs to be paid to groups like Napalm.

“The promotion of this kind of rhetoric and just mobilizing people around this idea could have reverberating effects,” says Holt. “It certainly heightens the tension of the political environment. It could certainly drive individuals who are maybe suffering some sort of crisis into thinking about more violent action or taking more extreme measures in their anti-government worldviews. And even if one of these states materializes into something with a dozen people in it, that could still cause a real problem.”

[incarnadinedreams]

So I finally finished reading TGCF! (The main novel, I haven't gotten to the extras yet). I watched the first season of the donghua ages ago (right after I watched what was available of the MDZS donghua at the time and before I read the MDZS novel), then started reading TGCF as the first volumes of the official English versions were releasing and fell off.

My original plan was to "catch up" through book 5 and just keep up with the official releases. As soon as I finished book 5 I immediately abandoned that plan and went straight to the fan translations (whatever, I'll still be buying the officials as they release so I don't feel too guilty about it).

Anyway, I am feeling..... surprisingly normal about this book? I enjoyed it and had fun reading it and so far have not felt any inklings of obsessive derangement over it.

(Extremely long and rambling first impressions/thoughts after a single quick read below the cut, probably not that interesting. May contain major spoilers, and sorta comparing it to MDZS and specifically JC a bit just because the comparisons get pushed a lot because of the overlap in the fandoms)

Anyway, as a Jiang Cheng Enjoyer I've fairly often seen people say things like 'you should just read TGCF, Mu Qing is actually what JC stans wish Jiang Cheng was' or 'Mu Qing is Jiang Cheng but done right' and I just....... kinda don't see it?

Anyway... Is it just me? Am I stupid and missing something?

I mean, there are some obvious parallels and MXTX very clearly has a pattern/dynamic/formula she likes with the 'best friend side characters' slot, re-used some similar surface-level descriptions for Mu Qing that had been applied to Jiang Cheng (bad-tempered, sarcastic, unlikable, good looking, etc). So I'm definitely not saying people are totally wrong for seeing a connection there.

But they didn't actually feel all that similar to me beyond a handful of traits? And not only because of the tragic lack of jilfy purple electro-whip.

I think part of the problem is that Mu Qing suffered from a serious case of "tell, don't show" in his portrayal... in the text we're being told by other characters that he's so unlikable or has such a nasty personality or is so untrustworthy... but then rarely or never actually says or does anything "on camera" to show that?

Like, this isn't "he has done nothing wrong!" in the "I shall protect this precious blorbo of my heart" way, it's in the "ummmmmm... he has actually... not done anything wrong in this situation...? And I am confused as to why these characters are reacting to him in a way that is so wildly out of proportion to what has actually happened?"

As much as I love Jiang Cheng, he does at least actually say some mean things "on screen" in the novel to earn that bad-tempered sharp-tongued characterization. I might personally think he was perfectly justified in saying about 98% of them and being pissed as hell, but at least he actually does the being angry and bitter and verbal lashing out that he's characterized with. (Though I think he actually does a lot less of it than people seem to think, as most of the time he's just being pretty normal actually. But there are some scenes at least.) Of course, conversely, Wei Wuxian does also do many more actually bad things to balance it out too and make JC's on-screen anger/reactions make a lot more sense.

But Mu Qing on the other hand... a few snippy comments and some eye rolling? Everything else always ends up being someone else baselessly accusing him based on some accidental circumstances that got cleared up with reasonable explanations. His involvement in the whole turf war over the meditation place was mostly him showing up after the rest of them had already made up their minds and he was trying to de-escalate the situation without losing the job he was using to support his mother with or creating more problems.

The only kinda bad things I think he does (be okay with the idea of using the Human Face Disease against the Yong'an people to stop it from spreading in the Xianle capital city) is one of the few things that nobody actually has any issue with him for! You could argue that it was bad to get Hua Cheng kicked out of the army... but also he was 14 and there are no actual details given and tbh that kid was kinda creepy from an outside perspective (even if I liked him)...

To be honest I'd seen a few people making vague comments about his "betrayal" in the past so I knew it was coming, but "I'm gonna go take care of my mom instead of doing these former rich fuck's laundry" was so deeply underwhelming on the betrayal scale I was like "wait, that's it?"

I mean there was not even a siege involved...? Not a single declaration of hatred? Not even a little bit of threatened torture?

Anyway, I was already still feeling some kind of way about that royal laundry situation when I got to the scene in Mt Tonglu where Mu Qing is all "I was in awe of you, you're a better person than me and I wanted to be your friend" while Xie Lian is like "um well you'd spit in someone's cup but you wouldn't poison it so I don't want you to die I guess."

I just felt sort of vaguely put off by the whole exchange and the sense of a total lack of reciprocity from Xie Lian. His whole vibe is "well I don't dislike you enough to let you die, and saving people is my thing in general so, y'know, here I am saving you."

Because what made the whole dynamic work in MDZS was how (even if the characters didn't necessarily know it about the other) they just cared about each other so much, to an absolutely unhinged degree, and that felt missing here. So even though WWX has some of the same vibe of negative or resentful opinions of JC at points, it hits different because they're laid on the backdrop of an utterly unhinged sacrifice specifically and uniquely for Jiang Cheng (which, unknown to WWX, was needed because of a more standard in type but but still unhinged sacrifice of his own that was specifically and uniquely for WWX)

I don't necessarily mind that specific relationship being different or less intense in TGCF (in fact I prefer that it's not just a copy-paste of the same characters going by different names with a bit more polish, the way some people made it sound like it would be), but the way that specific scene played out given the backdrop of how MQ keeps getting treated throughout the rest of the story just felt icky to me. Idk.

A lot of the way the characters interacted with each other just felt like the action and reactions were a little mismatched or something? Something about the behaviors involved didn't ring as painfully, horribly, clearly true to me as they did in so many MDZS scenes.

Anyway I did enjoy both Mu Qing and Feng Xin as characters, I'll definitely be indulging in some FengQing content (recs/links welcome if anyone actually read this far lol), just specifically their relationship with Xie Lian did not inspire in me even a teensy fraction of the depths of absolute feral obsession that the Yunmeng Shuangjie relationship does. It... just did not resonate that way with me. If I had to speculate (in a wild and baseless fashion, source: my ass), I think that toning down the intensity might have even been intentional on the author's part this go around.

Anyway a lot of that was mostly because the expectation of a strong parallel and deep reaction to the Xianle trio's relationship was pre-planted in my mind, and such expectations are generally always doomed to fall short anyway.

As far as the rest of the novel, like I said - it was generally quite enjoyable, I had fun reading it, I'm certainly not trying to trash it! I'd say I actually overall enjoyed the HuaLian relationship developing in the novel itself more than WangXian, in terms of how the flirting was executed. Like "what if you had an extremely dangerous and fervently obsessed stalker, but also make it cute". I don't dislike WangXian, but for me their relationship was just a fun side-plot and not what I really cared about or kept reading for. I did find the Hong-er and lantern ghost flashback scenes quite touching and sweet.

The first ~200 chapters (by the web novel serialization chapter numbers) I'd say were generally constructed better than MDZS, so I see where people say there was a bit of a level up there. The last ~40ish chapters the pacing felt kind of off to me, like there was just too much crammed in and MXTX just wanted it to be over and done with.

The 'uncovering secrets of an ancient lost empire/kingdom' type of plot is my absolute jam, my favoritest trope of all time, I actually loved the concepts there. It was like a two-for-one, since we got the learn about the fall of Xianle which scratched that itch a little bit, and then the full-on mystery aspect with Wuyong. I wish there had been more time spent on the mystery/uncovering information about Wuyong aspect of the plot rather than the answers coming relatively quickly.

Unsurprisingly in addition to Feng Xin and Mu Qing, I was a huge fan of Yushi Huang, Ling Wen, Shi Qingxuan, He Xuan, Lang Qianqiu (his adorable golden retriever energy is irresistible when combined with a Tragic Backstory), Guzi, Yin Yu, Quan Yizhen

Surprise favs were Pei Ming (I'd only seen through the donghua S1 so I kinda had him categorized in my mind as the offscreen God of Fuckboys, but ended up liking him an unreasonable amount) and Qi Rong

Anyway I had all of these thoughts while I was reading then felt a bit guilty about them when I read the postscript because I am the person she was afraid of coming over to read TGCF after MDZS :x