#the thing that gets me the most is that it's literally just outside circumstances against them

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x08

[drizztdohurtin]

BG3 Tiefling Purring Headcanons

okay guys i'm so fucking serious right now I was working on my general tiefling headcanons post and I got to the purring part and I was like.... I literally have to make this its own post because I have SO MUCH to say

if anyone gets particularly inspired by any of my headcanons and decides to write something involving it, PLEASE send it to me so I can read it, or tag me in the comments or something <333333

NSFW under the cut -- MDNI

SFW

purring is a reflection of emotions the majority of the time, but it can be done both voluntarily and involuntarily

i think of it like a deep rumbling at the bottom of the throat where you feel your two collarbone bumps, and you can physically feel the rumbling if you were to put a hand on their chest or neck

some have louder 'default' purrs than others, but if they focus on it then they can manipulate the volume

my overarching concept for their purring has to do with the idea that it's mainly used for comfort

my absolute favorite purring hc that I've thought of is that it's used to soothe their babies!

if a parent tiefling is holding their distressed, crying baby, they will automatically purr to comfort them

I also think that they will use it to comfort other people that they're very close to when they're really upset

going back to the baby thing, I believe this kind of purr will almost always be an instinct...

okay bear with me for a second.... you know how people who breastfeed (STAY WITH ME) their bodies automatically know what nutrients to put more or less of in the milk based on their baby's needs? it's like that.

no matter the sex of the parent, their body automatically knows how it should purr to best comfort their baby (think of pitch, volume, and the resonance of the vibrations)

but I think this instinct goes away after their child is around the age of 7 or 8 -- and it doesn't apply to what I said earlier about purring to comfort people they're close to

NEXT: they purr to comfort themselves <3333

It sorta depends on the person, some might be quicker to do it than others, doing it even when they're just mildly upset, and others only doing it in the most extreme circumstances

NEXT ☝ obviously it's also a sign of extreme comfort or contentment <33333

I love a good fluff moment, thinking about one of our beloved tiefling NPCs cuddled up with their significant other and they're just so deep in their happy place that they start to purr

generally, I think of the concept of purring to be an emotionally intimate thing - so it's not to be done for just anyone

they use it for their babies, their loved ones, and anyone else that's very close to them,

it'd be rare to do it for just anyone, even if they're a friend... they'd have to be a very, very close friend

because of this, each type of purr will sound different in some way

Alright, let's take this party down below

NSFW

speaking of being extremely contented, they might purr in bed heh

because purring is an intimate thing, purring in sexually intimate situations would only happen in established relationships

they also might purr when they're trying to initiate sex, but this would be accompanied by feeling up their partner/giving them suggestive kisses or bites on their neck, or something similar

this "suggestive purr" would be light and hushed, hard to pick up on by anyone outside of a radius of 2-3 feet, as it's meant only for their partner to hear/feel

☝ take a minute to imagine your tiefling lover walking up to you and giving you a kiss, feeling the lightest flutter of a purr from their chest as they press a few gentle kisses to your temple, cheek, and jaw, then giving you bedroom eyes... maybe nuzzling their nose against yours or against your neck........ good god.

now, purrs of pleasure during the act having a much wider range of pitch and intensity

I offer you a brief description of a blurb that I often see in my head before falling asleep: Rolan going down on reader/tav, instinctively purring because he loves doing it so much (fear not, I will definitely talk more about this in my rolan nsfw headcanons &lt;333)

the general takeaway is that when they feel great pleasure (physically, mentally, and/or emotionally) you might earn a purr from them

the caveat to that, though, is that they would only be able to do it when they're not exerting a lot of energy, as it would be hard to purr and breathe heavily at the same time - their body would prioritize breathing

because of that, I really only see this happening if they are having slower sex, maybe something very intimate, or just lazy? like early morning sex or sleepy sex

really just anything slow, including giving and receiving head <33

That's all I have to say for now but I hope you enjoyed this because ☝ I certainly did

Masterlist here

[luvelylili]

LOA MOTIVATION COMPLIATION

for this post i literally just compiled a bunch of motivating things i’ve seen being said over time by multiple wonderful blogs throughout tumblr with regards to the law of assumption.

the intent of this is to basically serve as a pick-me-up for whoever needs a little encouragement with their manifesting, regardless of where you’re at with your journey. the post ahead is filled with the kindest words from some of the kindest souls on this app, all in one place to help anyone in need, anytime.

whatever your motivation for seeking this post, i just want you to know that if you’re spiralling, having doubts, reacting to the 3d - even if the 3d is crumbling to pieces around you and all you want to do is crawl into a hole and never come out again (believe me, i’ve been there!), i want you to know that this is temporary, and that everything you see around you is completely malleable.

breathe. it’ll be alright, you’ll be alright. and now, with this in mind, enjoy. <3

———————————————————————

“★ The things you hear and see in your 3D that contradict your manifestation don’t exist in your 4D. Therefore they aren’t real or relevant because 3D will only materialise whats in your 4D and will get rid of the things that contradict your assumptions. WITH PERSISTENCE.” - @sutheworld

“from this second I will only beleive what I say to myself as true , I don't give a f*ck about anyone saying anything about me and I will only beleive my story and my delusion.

If I get any opposite, intrusive thoughts I will supress them with a single shush and if I say don't come after me I'm not the same old person the thoughts won't come.” - @rayjane

“be kind to yourselves. you’re allowed to have off days, you’re allowed to be demotivated and you’re allowed to feel negative emotions. you’re human after all and it would be unhealthy if you didn’t have your down moments. however, you’re not allowed to give up on yourself. you’re not allowed to quit and throw away your power. none of that. you’re getting your shit. that’s a given. if you affirm, persist and don’t take no for an answer, you will get what you want. don’t overcomplicate the law - as long as you don’t go against your affirmations by doubting yourself and entertaining intrusive thoughts, you’re doing everything right! trust yourself, and do it for you!! that’s the most important part - you’re the operant power, this is your reality and you will get what you want. all it takes is some discipline and persistence! i believe in you, and i’m so proud of you for being here reading this right now!” - @luvelylili

“in reality, your desires are already yours from the beginning. you just need to persist in this fact and the 3d will follow bc it is the law.” - @itssjustjade

“you will NEVER understand the law when you live vicariously through the success and words of others. don’t you think you’ve learned enough? aren’t you ready to feel peace, freedom and GET WHAT YOU WANT??? like hello???

what do you want to work for you? WHAT DO YOU WANNA DO? got it? now do that. and don't ever be a slave to your senses. always think in your favour because there is no separation between you and your desires, regardless of what anyone or any circumstance has to say. 

you have it. its done. relax. you cannot mess this up unless you say you can.” - @starsscriptures

“this whole world is your oyster. EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF YOU IS POWERLESS, YOUR ASSUMPTIONS AND DESIRES ARE WHAT MATTERS. LIFE HAPPENS FROM YOU AND THERE IS NO OPPOSING POWER IN THE UNIVERSE. YOU ARE LITERALLY AN UNSTOPPABLE GOD. THE WORLD BELONGS TO YOU BABY 😽💗” - @iivenusii

“You are God, you control everything in your reality. You create and you created everything in your reality. Nothing or nobody can do anything to change, ruin or take away your power/manifestations. Its all yours. It's all from you. There's not a single thing in this world that isn't created by you. If you can create them, you can change them.” - @koreanbarbie

“literally you can have whatever you want, whatever you freaking what. just assume, thats your only job isnt that so easy?? like..all you have to do is THINK & ASSUME, its yours and it shall be yours because thats how the law works theres no ifs or buts. whatever you assume naturally and persist into that assumption..will come into fruition, so you making this whole law of assumption journey difficult for you please remember that its EASY. you’re making it harder for yourself.” - @cinefairy

“Start acknowledging your power. You’re the only person who has the power to change your life. The 3D isn’t what’s defining you, it’s just a reflection of your 4D. You’re so powerful, you can change your reality in seconds. You’re the only Creator, everything must conform to your thoughts. You manifest absolutely everything!!!You don’t need a plan B, you will have everything you want my love.” - @angelicbarbiedoll

[1bringthesun]

what a lot of bsd fans, especially the younger ones, don’t understand is why or under what circumstances characters are described as “childish.”

it’s always a slap in the face when i see someone say, “oh, Oda called Dazai a ‘crying child,’ and people still ship them? obviously he’s his father figure!”

i’m not gonna argue against the fact Oda could have been some sort of authoritative, caring, older, responsible guy to Dazai, but under no circumstances do i think Oda saw Dazai as a kid.

as far as BSD goes, Oda is one of the most respectful characters to other people’s perceptions of themselves. hell, he didn’t even see his orphans as children. he had a convo with one of the em in dark era that went something like this:

“It’s always so upsetting when Pops treats us like children. We’re not kids, y’know? We’re adults. Is the fact that we grew up so fast an issue for the grown-ups?”

“Mhm, it probably is.”

so, if Oda doesn’t see a literal eight-year-old as a child simply because he knows how mature he is, what makes people think he’d see Dazai of all people as one…?

the reason Oda described Dazai as wearing the expression of “a child about to cry” has nothing to do with his age or his maturity- it’s because there’s a distinct difference in the way adults and children cry.

when adults cry, it’s with the knowledge that they’re not the only one suffering. that the world isn’t against them, but instead, they probably got themselves into a bad situation. when children cry, it’s free from rationalization and logic, just pure unadulterated agony at something that may not even matter in the grand scheme of things.

it’s not that Dazai is dumb, can’t understand that the world doesn’t revolve around him, or seems like a kid to Oda, it’s that the chasm in his heart transcends the normal despair of what you’d expect to see in a grown-up. it’s the same flavor of raw pain that you can see a child display when something doesn’t go their way, the same blindness to anything outside of their own point of view.

Dazai looked like “a child on the brink of tears” because while walking into the outstretched gun of a sniper, he could only see his own abysmal emptiness.

Oda also described Mori as having a child-like grin or something of the sort, so if he sees Dazai as a kid because of that, i’m going to claim he saw the boss of the mafia who happens to be double his age as a kid, too.

this is just something that has been on my mind, especially since i’ve been seeing an influx of Oda dad content. everyone’s entitled to their own opinions and headcanons, of course, but it admittedly grates on me when people get attacked for something stupid like this, and since the tumblr bsd community seems to be forgiving, i’m talking about it here.

[blueberry-macaron]

I'm in a salt mode so lets get into this

One of the biggest problems people had with the L//S is how poorly developed it's been and how less effort it has been put into it, And don't get me started how Adrichat and Maribug barely interact basically making the ship have 0 chemistry.

But then when ships like Lukanette and Adrigami came along, then there's some Toxic L//S stans who bash the characters (and doxx lukanette and adrigami shippers), with their only excuse being "ThEy R iN tHe Way of adr///ette/L//s (Mainly because they're insecure that Lukanette/Adrigami has Chemistry, proper development and effort and their ship doesn't)

I'm so sick and tired of the hate that Lukanette/Adrigami gets.

I'm so sick and tired of the hate that Luka/Kagami gets.

I'm so sick and tired of toxic L//S stans projecting their ship on every. single. damn. thing

I'm so sick and tired of seeing Lukanette/Adrigami shippers get d0xxed, threatened and bullied just because they don't ship the L//S or Adr//ette

Yikes, people doxxed each other because of ships?? For some reason I'm not entirely surprised. I've seen fandoms with super toxic people and the ml fandom sure can be toxic as hell. If you (general) get so worked up about people's opinions about characters from a kids show, you should be denied access to the internet and instead have access to tons grass to touch. But yeah, even just "normal hate" can be frustrating and discouraging, so it's best to just block those people. I completely understand your frustration.

Luka//nette isn't good because they were half canon, it's good because they have a meaningful bond and the root for drama is always outside circumstances and not the fact that they fundementally don't work together. If Mari wasn't Ladybug, they probably wouldn't have split up. That's why I love this ship so much. Besides, they never got in the way of anything. Realistically, no ship can get in the way of a confirmed endgame ship bc, well, it's endgame. So this argument is kind of falls flat (honestly most arguments against Luka//nette I've heard were either not really important or kind of a very outlandish interpretation of their relationship, I don't care about either.)

Heck, even if Luka//nette wasn't the rival ship but just friends in canon who interacted twice, who cares? Shipping isn't supposed to be serious, it's exploring different dynamics between characters and having fun putting them in different scenarios and have them have 6176310278 different first kisses. There's no rule that you have to be on board with the canon ship.

Now speaking of L//S developement (bc now I'm also in a salty mood and I have thoughts)

I and many others have already talked about how s1-4 didn't really do much with them. But I find it funny when people say that s5 did a great job developing they're relationship because... bitch where? I've watched season 5 (I have no self respect) and everything was confusing and over the place and I think that's bc the writers can't make up their minds about which problems the L//S might face actually matter and how they can be solved.

The season starts with Mari making a big deal about how loving Adrien is dangerous because hero stuff. Oh but actually it doesn’t matter, she likes CN now, problem solved! Oh wait no Chat friendzoned her and Adrien is pushing real hard for Adr//nette so they give up their fucking miraculous (in times of crisis I might add), problem solved! No wait, actually the new heroes suck so they take them back, but that’s okay bc being in love and being a superhero at the same time is actually no longer a problem for some reason! The actual problem is that Mari is incapable of expressing herself because she has trauma. And THAT’S the real shit because fucking everybody gets so invested they organize literal dates for them and watch from a distance until they smooch instead of, oh idk, letting them do things their own way. But actually that also doesn't matter anymore bc Zoe just confessed and Mari was so inspired she immediately ran to Adrien. Oh but Adrien is a senti without free will and he goes to england soon whoopsie. Also Gabriel and Tomoe are now Adri//gami shippers because of course we need an arranged marriage deal type of plot. Oh yeah there's also something about Monarch apparently having all the miraculouses but who cares amirite

See what I mean? There's no structure, no actually overcoming problems, it's just random shit happening without any connection to the previous random shit. The characters don't develop in a meaningful way. Mari's only life goal is making one cohesive sentence in front of Adrien and he's kind of just there. I mean he could maybe feel inspired by Marinette's passion for arts and crafts and try out some stuff or he could continue to have no direction in life. Yes, as a teen it's hard knowing what you want to do later in life, but Adrien doesn't even really have actual hobbies he can define himself through. The writers fail not only to develop the relationship as a whole but also the characters involved as people. They could as easily be a situationship where they meed every two days to make out and it wouldn't change anyting. It's just fan service here and there combined with shallow and forgettable dialogue (I think, there wasn't a conversation that stick with me at least) and idk this maybe works as a first love that maybe lasts for a year before they have a dramatic break up and then move on with their lives, But the show tries to sell this idea that the square will actually stay together forever (or have a constant toxic on-off thing bc that's the vibe I'm getting. Plus Bunnyx sort of implied that).

[archivalofsins]

So, I'm filling out my mail in ballot and like... Lately I've been getting hit with the cultural differences between myself and others.

So, I'd like to talk about how that may impact how I view Milgram.

It's no secret that I'm African American. Yet, there's a great deal of people that will have assumptions on what that means, how it looks, what I must be into outside of Milgram etc. These things as we've come to know quite well through Milgram, are biases.

As we've discussed before biases aren't inherently bad. Biases in and off themselves are ideas we pick up about society based on our personal experiences. They're like a quick cheat sheet that no one can help but make in their head.

For example- Since I said I was African American. One could assume things about my,

Skin tone

Education

Social Status

Simply based on that knowledge alone. One could assume that I'm dark skinned. An assumption that a good deal of people make when that term is used despite the various skin tones throughout the African American community.

If I were to then respond to that assumption with,

"Actually I'm light skinned." (This is a fact and a example.)

Another assumption would come into play.

"Oh what are you mixed with?"

This would lead to two answers. Nothing, literally everyone in my family is black. Or, "Wow; can you take an educated guess? I did just say I'm African American is there any historical context you could possibly gleam without asking me why my skin tone is what it is. Anything, is there anything coming to mind that may explain? Might rhyme with armory. Might involve a word that sounds like shave?"

Nope damn...the answers still nothing just African American or well if we discuss the history of slavery real quick we get this very complicated non-answer of too many things to count. Including white and Native American. Yet if you ask my dad what they put on his papers when he fought in the war they put negro. Because those other two things matter relatively less than the whole black thing.

So, most of my family history is black and I was raised in the black community. Didn't really stop me from getting that question a lot growing up. Mostly from people within said community. These are the sort of biases I believe are pretty common in most cultures. People will judge others based on how they look and assume things about their background.

This is highlighted in Milgram through Mu. It's brought up multiple times that Mu has been othered because of how she looks. Because she does not look typically Japanese, she looks foreign. She has honey-blonde hair and light grey eyes.

She mentions in a minigram that she doesn't like how rain makes her hair stick up.

People headcanoning Mu's victim as half black when France has the highest black population out of Europe wild.

X X

Hmmm, wonder why that headcanon hasn't been put on her ahn who knows.

Basically, noting that humidity and water makes her hair frizzy. Probably playing a bit into the reason she doesn't portray herself as being soaked in After Pain. Because she finds this aspect of herself to be embarrassing.

This also could subtly imply that she may straighten or style her hair. Outside of that Milgram highlights how different she looks before the series even starts properly. Noting it in her character description on the website.

A beautiful prisoner with overt features that set her apart from other Japanese people. Despite her slender frame, she’s very candid, and the type to rebel against the abnormal circumstances Milgram has presented her. Due to her nature, she will be very wary of Es at first. The way she conducts herself gives a sense of her upbringing. Leading us to speculate that she was probably born into a wealthy family. Perhaps, being born into wealth is why she has such a sense of pride, bursts into tears when clashing with others, and is prone to whining.

My sorry spells must be wearing off./I am always the drama queen.

x

Why won’t you stop hurting me? My heart is all dried up. My sorry spells must be wearing off. But I guess some of it is my fault./ It’s not my fault. I told you I’m queen, and it will never be changed. I’ve got EVERYTHING, everything is as I wish.

And even having it called to attention in the portal timeline.

20/05/31 Mu: Hey, Mikoto-kun, aren’t you scared of this place……? You can’t think of any reason you ended up here, right……? Mikoto: Ahh, yeah. Of course, it’s not like I’m not scared at all. But just between you and me…… I still haven’t dropped the thought that this could all just be a TV show. I mean, I really haven’t ever murdered anyone. ……and if that is the case, we’re definitely being monitored. For like a prank setup or something. Wouldn’t it be super uncool and embarrassing to get angry or lash and have it shown on prime time? Mu: Is that what you think……? A prank, huh…… I hope that’s all it is…… Mikoto: Ah! If that is the case, then you’ll probably be super popular since you’re so cute, Mucchan! There’s a lot of girls out there who make their big break coming off reality shows like that!

Like the fact that Milgram lays all of this out from the beginning along with the way it follows through on it is really good. Because it isn't just building as it goes or adding pockets of tidbits of character information on as the trials progress. It's all been there and still is there rewarding people for going back and looking, if they feel like it.

Through bringing to the forefront how different Mu is from those around her Milgram subtly highlights another form of discrimination in Japan. Racism.

Then it does this really interesting thing when it comes to her core friend group in particular.

Milgram makes a point of having all of Mu's close friends be individuals who for one reason or another would not be considered to look stereotypically Japanese. Milgram manages to do this without even giving Mu's friends faces.

Even highlighting in their insect forms through giving them different hair colors from the rest.

Just like Mu herself.

Q.11 Who do you want to see right now? Mu: I miss my friends too but most of all, Papa and Mama.

In her second voice drama Mu says,

...Warden-san. I think you're really doing something bad. Isn't it a bad thing to act like there has to be something wrong with someone for them to get bullied? Oh? No matter the circumstances, it's always the bullies who are in the wrong! Isn't that obvious? Warden-san you're so smart but you didn't even know something like that? maybe you should take some lessons on morals or something. ... Besides even if I've done something wrong, there's nothing that can justify bullying. Warden-san I thought you were nicer than this.

Not one thing that can justify it not even others doing something wrong. Meanwhile Mu's first trial character voice line,

It's your fault....for doing horrible things to me...

Mu goes on to say this in response to Es asking why does she think she was bullied after that,

"How would I know? I mean I'm from a rich family, and I'm an eye-catcher too... It was probably out of some kind of envy or prejudice, right?"

Plus, Mu's stance on bullying quickly changes when it's brought to her attention that Es believes she may have been a bully before she bullied. As she states,

"Leaving behind all that stuff you said about me possibly having been a bully myself- not that any of that's true of course!"

Sorry it was an easy shot.

Can you believe she said this right before this mv came out? Wild. Prisoners stay lying in their voice dramas. Never incriminate yourselves, always lie to authority figures. Double down on the lies if you need to. No one owes honesty to individuals or systems putting them in terrible predicaments.

Lie like you and honesty had a falling out. Lie like being honest betrayed you worse than it did Kazui. Keep lying. Honesty sorry that's a luxury I can't afford right now. I'm in my lying arc trust me at your own expense.

Be Mikoto trial two and gaslight the audience into believing that everything Milgram uncovered was actually a dream trial three. It will work better than you think Mu.

Like naw be more dishonest actually. The realest thing all the prisoners have ever done was just blatantly lie and not back down from said lies. They're all like fucking prove it go on prove it! What do you have mystical songs where I go I did that shit and I'll do it again?! That's not substantial enough evidence.

That could have been an over-exaggeration done to better highlight my artistic vision- Fuck you and your song extractor bring in some actual proof or piss off. This machine was provided by your facility how do you know it's providing accurate unbiased information. The facility had already deemed us guilty of something on incarceration this isn't fair or trustworthy.

Meanwhile if they're innocent what a great and interesting machine you have here.

Sure. So, if I'd gotten payback for how my bullies treated me then that'd count as revenge right? And if you believe that was my only option then don't you have to forgive me? ...Uh...I'm not really sure what you're trying to say? You see~ If you think that me bullying someone back after being bullied is the natural course of action, then wouldn't it be bad to bully me back in return? ... "But if you were like. "I won't forgive you Mu revenge is bad!" Then wouldn't that imply that it's also bad for me to bully someone back after they bullied me?" I think I'm kinda...starting to get your point...maybe. Warden-san are you maybe not all that smart after all?

Since the way Mu talks is rather quick and confusing purposely Es has difficulties understanding what she's saying. Despite the fact that she is just reiterating that since she's already been forgiven it would be best if Es kept to that verdict. Because Es has already set the precedent that killing out of revenge or in response to a slight is forgivable. Changing her verdict now won't change that precedent.

Meaning Mu has every intention to bully someone for bullying her again if necessary because Es has stated that the appropriate response to being picked on is picking on that person back. In a way Mu is saying that's what trial one cemented that treating people who have caused direct harm to your or others is completely okay actually.

So, it's best not to start problems for others others at all. So, if Es wants to change their verdict and pick on Mu now that would be no different than what happened to her.

This isn't even a veiled threat. Because she's just saying since you've realized that bullying is the appropriate response to bullying then you shouldn't pick on me because the obvious response would be me picking on you and you don't want that right? Or,

"If you want to betray from jealousy. I’ve told you what’s gonna happen."

The thing is the way I view Mu's story is subjectively changed based on my experiences as and African-American.

When I view her story I don't see the simple one of bullying. I see a story about prejudice and the othering of mixed and biracial individuals in Japan. How the mistreatment these individuals face when younger can lead to them bullying others later in life.

The fact that kids like that are often exposed to discriminatory treatment from a young age by peers and adults due to their overt physical differences. Something that can lead to a great deal of bitterness and self-loathing. Even internalized othering.

Q.08 Which of the other prisoners is most like you? Mu: I don’t think there’s anyone? They’re all weirdos.

This can be done to make oneself feel less than others or to cope and convince oneself that they are more special than those around them and everyone is just jealous actually. Mu falls into the later category. However, the later category is commonly used in response to discrimination of some sort.

Because it's easier and healthier to respond to others making fun of ones immutable traits such as physical characteristics by going they're just jealous. The other option is attempting to changing how you look entirely which for a lot of people won't work anyway. From that angle it's no suprise that in high school Mu would start doing something that may just have been done to her for much longer by girls who probably resembled those who picked on her a great deal or were people who used to pick on her.

Q.02   What scares you most? Mu: Painful things, scary things. Also embarrassing things. Q.07 What is your favourite place? Mu: Mama’s hometown of Nice. The sea there is beautiful.

As someone who grew up in the states a pretty diverse country. Well Mu saying things like her favorite place is her mothers hometown has a different ring to it. Because in Nice the way Mu looks wouldn't be considered odd or draw attention. Whereas in the place she grew up she can easily tell that the way she looks gets her both positive and negative attention.

I've said this before and I'll say it again the fact that Mu stands out due to her mixed ethnicity is just as a part of her story as being a bully is. The fact that she surrounds herself with people who are similar to her (seemingly mixed as well).

Well it really puts this spin on her story. Not just making it as simple as bullying it but turning it into this story of long term accepted bullying and what that cycle can lead to. If Mu was bullied and treated as different because of her looks and families wealth at a young age. Then she gets into this high school with other people with those experiences. It wouldn't be farfetched for her to want to use the opportunity to get revenge on the people who treated her poorly before and take advantage of the system that allowed it.

In order to lessen the impact of the idea of her being a bully which she denies as ever being true she states it would be fine for her to be one under Milgram's logic if it was in response to being bullied in the first place. That it's fine as long as it's revenge. A mindset many victims of bullying who become bullies later have. That it's fine to do because no one said it was wrong when it was happening to them. It's okay if they do it because if they do then it can't happen to them.

This especially puts an interesting spin on her first cover song and trial song.

Especially these lines,

Otome Dissection

There's been a lot of analysis of this song for a long while. For now, I want to analyze it from the angle of the singer dissecting themselves. An angle that the song has been taken from before. Given the visuals in the mv near the end.

The more overt ones.

Along with when the signer is shown pretending to call someone and closing their own body bag.

All after the line "Let's see if our climax had been a let down. Ever since that night."

Now if we phrase Otome Dissection as the singer singing to themselves that would make it more interesting in the context of Mu's case and the way it can relate to ethnicity. Because I think Otome Disssection manages to perfectly encapsulate the feeling of self-loathing, dejection, and hopelessness that being a minority can make a person.

The song highlighting how the singer has found something that makes them feel good as long as it hurts. Something that's validating and invalidating all at once. A way a lot of people feel about exploring or expressing their culture/ethnicity in a place where it's marginalized or stereotyped in some way. The feeling can be just as isolating as it is liberating simply because at times even when people want to do this there's not much community around them locally.

Plus, taking an interest in it won't make discrimination stop. At the end of the day people are still going to put you on a pedestal or hate you because of how you look. Though it can still be fulfilling. Also highlighting how one will dissect themselves, cutting themselves down to be more acceptable in an environment that didn't want to accept them to begin with. Again, going back to how it only feels good when it hurts.

They only get acceptances when they're burying parts of themselves. Yet, still desiring to be loved for everything they are the good and the bad and trying to convince themselves that they love who they are despite everything around them making it feel as though it'd be better,

If I had just disappeared.

All that self-loathing and disdain turns into boisterous self-confidence. Because it's feels like the only way that person can survive. Yet they still need this constant outwards validation because they don't know if they're allowed to be here. Even though they feel like they should be it doesn't feel like they are.

I want to feel “alive”, is it ok if I breathe? Tell me./I wanna feel shame, ever since the night when I realized it's good as long as it hurts.

Yet no amount of validation is enough because the person can't validate themselves. They're always going to be afraid of being found out then hated or the other person finding someone else.

Hey, what if If I am a bad girl- Don’t hate me./I actually had a dream you fell in love with someone else. Please tell me it's not true. Come on love me please?

A problem many people who have faced racial discrimination in their environments have is believing that others can like them. Because sometimes from birth all those people are given are reasons why others wouldn't. A list of things that make them odd or different from their peers. So, it's easy to understand why it would be difficult to believe.

After Pain

"I don’t want tomorrow to come. I want to forget yesterday I was miserable, someone please help me."

"If it’s endurance, I’m used to it. It’s just having another taste of it."

When it comes to Futa we see him become the victim of what he dished out after in Bring It On. Lamenting if both sides are losers in Backdraft. Yet, Mu tries her best to hide all the things that hurt and embarrass her. The source of her pain.

Because she doesn't want people to look at it. She doesn't want to replay it. Just like her second cover song further highlights along with her second trial mv.

She even states in the second written interrogation,

Q.01 What were you like as a child? Mu: I think I was pretty normal. I had a lot of friends, and learned a lot.

Yet she also states that she gets walked up to by modelling scouts on the streets because of her looks.

Q.15 What’s your dream for the future? Mu: A model, maybe. I’ve been turning down scouts while I’m still in high school though.

Definitely sounds easy to have a normal childhood with stuff like that occurring.

It's easy to write off Mu as not going through that much and just being a spoiled brat and a bully. However, I feel like that would be ignoring some very compelling parts of her character. Plus, she's not the only prisoners for Milgram to allude to dealing with forms of discrimination.

Plus, it is kind of strange that she would jump from having her friends bully people for her to murder. Like that isn't a very natural progression. Now she could be lying about not doing any of that stuff herself like dumping water on people or beating them up. However the only time we see her actually harassing a student is when they appear to be shaking them down and none of that stuff is occurring.

Then she's only alluded to being around in After Pain after her friends do that stuff. So, I genuinely doubt she was being dishonest about that. None of these feelings on Mu I stated here are new. I always appreciated how her story subtly deals with the ethnicity. I like how it shows a victim of bullying become a bully.

I like that it highlights how cycles of harassment begin. I love how Mu's first inclination is to frame herself as a victim of bullying in this situation because on some level she really thinks this is revenge for all the mean things others may have done to her. I also like that she's unapologetic about it. Plus my own complicated relationship with stuff like that makes me sympathetic to her a bit.

Even still it's Mu we're talking about she's not one to be knocked down and stay down. That's simply just another aspect to look at her under and it's one of the ones I find the most interesting given how I grew up.

I feel like that may just be one of the many things that may go overlooked based on how one grew up. Even though Milgram highlights it in a lot of ways.

Another one that may go over some's head is poverty in general given the cases of Amane and Mikoto. Like people not really understanding why he's so focused on his job or why Amane's family lives where they live etc. It's just interesting how Milgram tries to represent varying demographics. Like there's a plethora of other examples but I've gone over them before.

At least I find it interesting.

[gemini-care-barr]

⚠️ Spoilers for World’s Finest: Teen Titans #5 ⚠️

On the subject of team books and friendships/teams in superhero comics in general…

So, I just read the latest issue (#5) of Mark Waid and Emanuela Lupacchino’s World’s Finest: Teen Titans series and I gotta say it has made me realize what I’ve been missing for a while in comics:

I. need. more. STRIFE!!!

I need more characters fighting and tearing into each other in the meanest ways! And NOT because they hate each other or are on opposite ends of the good/evil spectrum, but because people fight! They disagree! They get frustrated and they take it out on the people around them! And then when the pain of changing FINALLY becomes outweighed by the pain of staying the same: people GROW. They become better. They see how the ways that they were acting and the things they were thinking were tearing them apart and they come together against and despite that strife. And no, that doesn’t make things perfect, there will (and should) still be inner conflict and butting of heads, but that only guarantees more change and more growth because no one is constant and no one should be. The only constants are change, and, with a good team, each other.

And by God, this issue, and this series really, has shown that perfectly. Over the past few issues, we’ve seen the perfect dynamics of the team getting ever so slowly chipped away. Starting with Roy very understandably getting mad at Dick for not sharing his secret identity with the team which was promptly “fixed” in a way that we all knew wouldn’t last. Then we’ve seen Garth and Donna’s relationship on the rocks almost from the get-go because unfortunately shared circumstances just isn’t always enough for two people to base an entire relationship on when their similarities and compatibility basically stop there. We also have Karen bringing in a new guy and not really having too many close relationships with the already established team. And finally, we have Roy’s personal struggles with his father figure being aired out and almost ridiculed by the other kids who just don’t know how to help him. Oh, and of course we also have Wally who comes from an almost perfect superhero sidekick background (special thanks to my guy, Barry Allen, no doubt 😜) which unfortunately makes him a little too loving and lighthearted in the eyes of some of the team and is also seemingly pretty unequipped for dealing with their levels of dysfunction (can we really blame him? No, we can’t, and we really shouldn’t, he’s literally the most functional member of the team outside of maybe some of his judgement of Roy). And all these problems have (inevitably) finally resulted in a lot of in-fighting. In-fighting that has now utterly crippled them, but hopefully not for long as the final page shows Dick’s willingness to change when he goes against Bruce’s rules of secrecy and finally reveals his true identity to the team. I’m hoping this means that they’ll set aside their differences and start working as a team again, rallied around their now unmasked-to-them leader, but I have a feeling that waiting so long to finally reveal himself to the team may carry some consequences of its own for Dick.

Regardless, I’m excited to see some more deliciously grounded, well-written, and much-needed personal conflict in comics again. Not to artificially further a plot or build fluff drama, but to evolve characters and relationships alike.

[miasmaghoul]

HELLOOOO

okay so

I have an unusual question

I recently discovered my passion for writing, I've been inspired by a friend of mine and a bunch of blogs here on tumblr (including yours <3)

and now I'm trying to write smut for the first time and I feel like... embarrassed about it (?)

sooo, feel free to ignore but I wanted to ask: do you have any smut-writing-tip for rookies like me?

(forgive my poor english, pls)

First off, CONGRATULATIONS ON FINDING A NEW PASSION!!! That's a fantastic feeling. ♡

I know just what you mean about feeling wiggly about writing smut. I don't know a single writer who DIDN'T have this experience when they first wrote filth! There is a shockingly vast distance between having filthy ideas and actually typing them out. I assure you that this is perfectly normal!

Before I give my advice, please let me say that I am in no way a professional writer, so your mileage may vary here. This is what worked for my hypersexual ND brain back when I first started doing this at the tender age of [REDACTED]

My advice is this: start simple. (18+ under the cut)

Don't try to go all in during your first smut adventure - not everything needs to be an intense, intricate bondage scene featuring medieval torture equipment and a mustachioed man called Hamish. Choose something uncomplicated and more natural for your first time out - a max of two people, a simple act (i.e., a handjob) or acts (i.e., making out and mutual masturbation) and an easy to describe setting.

Next, don't worry about making it good in your first draft. Use that time to lay out the scene (x crawls into bed and y joins them, spooning up against their back) and setting up the bare bones of the events (y kisses x's shoulder and neck, reaches between their legs, uses their hand to get x off). Once you've done that, you can start describing things.

It's probably gonna one of two ways - clinical or over the top.

Clinical generally means that you're too literal and precise with your descriptions. For example:

Rain reached down and took Dew's cock in his hand. He stroked it from base to tip, over and over. He sped up once Dew started moaning and felt his own cock hardening as well. He worked Dew's cock until Dew came all over his hand and then grabbed his own cock to do the same.

See? Clinical. It gets the job done in terms of relaying information, but there's no emotion behind the words. No sound, no movement, no life. Things that I, personally, believe a sex scene needs in order to feel believable and real.

The opposite of this is the over the top sex scene. Think of this like watching really bad porn. The kind where people moan like they're about to cum when someone touches their arm, y'know what I mean? Tons of moaning and writhing and too much response to the slightest stimulation. Don't get me wrong, there's certainly a time and place for Dew jizzing himself over Rain licking his neck, but if your whole scene is set up like that it, I personally believe it becomes Too Much.

Ideally, I think, you want to strike a balance between these two things. You want to explain what's happening, but use language and descriptors that are more intimate and sensual. Which brings me to my third point - try to figure out the words and phrasing you're comfortable using before you really get into writing anything. If you don't like the way the words feel, don't use them! That alone can help make things easier to write. (As an example, outside of very specific circumstances, I hate using the word "pussy" and will avoid writing it!)

Perhaps my biggest tip is being very confident in your characters before you make 'em fuck. In my opinion. A bad/boring sex scene is one where the characters feel interchangeable. Think of it like this: a scene with Aether giving Swiss a blowjob should not be able to be read as a scene with Rain giving Dew a blowjob instead. It should feel unique, however you choose to make that happen.

Last bit of advice is probably the most obvious one: practice. Practice practice practice. Something sounds hot in your head? Write that shit down. Stick it in your notes app, even if it's just a few words. Practice by putting little scenes together in your head and then transcribing what's happening in them. Watch something erotic and think about how you would write that scene. Think of it like exposure therapy - the more you create smut, the less ashamed you'll be about it!

I will say it also helps to have a smut writer/enjoyer friend (or friends!) to bounce ideas off of, or to ask for advice. If you're planning to be active in the Ghost fandom, I can tell you that every single writer and artist I've interacted with here has been incredibly kind and welcoming. Don't be afraid to reach out!

This got so long lmao SORRYYYY

[gifti3]

Arranged marriage au with asmo

I need asmo to be in some type of royal otome slowburn manhwa

ramblings ramblings

the drama guys....the DRAMA! dont tell me a bunch of nonsense wouldnt happen

remember the post where i was like indifferent/passive aggressive asmo becoming curious about the MC fics are peak

similar thing is happening here! honestly i think theres some resentment coming from asmos side at first but mc is like ay....you do ur thing and i do mine

im not gonna make u do anything u dont want, i dont have any expectations from this arrangement. lets just try not to make each of our lives hell u know

lol i bet when asmo first meets MC after finding out that hes supposed to marry them he's like thinking "......ig theyre not that bad looking"😒 (he literally would have been flirting with them in any other circumstance)

hmmm mc needs to be apart of a pretty influential family i think since this is gonna be a political type marriage

and asmo,,,,i feel like he doesnt really engage in the specifics when it comes to politics or anything. it's just not something thats important to him. he has his side hobbies and business endeavors that cares about. But topics outside of those things are left up to his family

so perhaps one day, the head of the family (i wanna say lucifer but since i want the person in this role to give off more a mysterious vibe, where his word is final michael might be a better choice) is like... this specific family...theyre kinda important and we want them on our side so get married to their eldest who has rejected every other person ever but has agreed to marry and since u dont do much when it comes to political affairs im gonna have you do this whether you want to or not

and asmo is just like....HUH he tries to get lucifer to help him out here but lucifers like...yea dads not budging sorry lil bro (he doesnt say it like that but similar sentiment lmao)

now mc never really wanted to get married cause they didnt wanna have to go through the motions against their will and they like their life as is but their parents have been breathing down their neck about marriage for years now. And now that this BIG opportunity has present itself to their parents, it feels like the pressure is really on now! at first mc is like shit...idk if i can weasel my way outta this one

and then......they realized that maybe this could probably work out in their favor actually.....

mc agreed to married him cause asmo has a bit of a reputation as a partier and a playboy

with asmo they feel like things can stay as they are for the most part if they let him continue to do as he pleases (not like they could have stopped him if they wanted to lol)

everything can be the same, they can still live their own separate lives, just now they have the title of spouses!

and thats the plan, like i said before asmo comes in being a bit rude at first but it kinda changes to indifference and a little passive aggressiveness once MC is like...yo chill im not gonna shit on ur parade. i just wanna be left to my own things. you do you sir

yes thats the plan...thats supposed to be the plan and it was going as mc expected for a good while

but as we know if u put something or someone in front of asmo enough times hes gonna get curious

[koraesrambles]

Reasons I'm enjoying gotham war: a thought exercise.

I wanted to do a deeper analysis but am sitting in a restaurant waiting for my family to get here so might as well dive into it and I can do a more scholarly deep dive later.

I want to talk about Gotham Wars, why I'm liking it, what I think about it, and what I think they're doing well. I'm new to comics (tell me, at what point does your brain start to explode when you try to read the entire DC batfam canon in 2 months. Asking for a friend) but I'm not new to storytelling, so here we go!

K, so im a huge angst fan. It's a disease, not everyone is here for the angst but I most certainly am. The batfamily is so incredibly messed up, which is just right up my alley. I love WFA but let's be real, if they're not crying I'm not as invested. So this run where they are absolutely beating the shit out of my favorite character (Jason Todd)? Mwah. Beautiful. 10/10 will read 100 times.

I read stories for the connections between the characters, not so much the plot. Which is a personal preference thing. So the obvious plot holes and issues with the various characters points of view just don't really bother me. I can suspend my disbelief to think that heroes are running around in spandex beating people up, I can suspend it to think catwoman training an army of thieves to eat (I mean steal from) the rich is a viable idea. I don't care about the logistics, I care about how those things effect the characters.

And MAN do they effect the characters. Honestly I've loved Selina throughout this run. She could get a post all on her own. I love that she's refused to slander Bruce, I love how protective she is over her kids (step kids? Exs kids?) And I love every single interaction she's had with Jason. Honestly the moment that hit me hardest with her was when she's looking for Jason and thinks that if she loses him Bruce will never forgive her.

Obviously, Jason is a worthwhile human that has value outside of Bruce, but I think it really gives us a glimpse into Selina's mind right now. She loves Jason, she's grateful for his support and cares for him, but at the end of the day, he's the love of her life's baby boy, and it is that identifier that will pop up during times of stress.

I LOVE everything about Jason's involvement with this. I like that the tie ins are showing how he disagrees and the main storyline has him already convinced. I love that it explores both sides of his character, I love how it shows how important he is. And he is SO. IMPORTANT.

Bruce has obviously lost his ever loving mind (rip) and vacillates wildly between thinking his children were a mistake and wanting to protect them from everything. Up to this point, though plenty of the bat kids are sympathetic toward Selina, they aren't actively helping her, except of course for our boy Jason Todd.

Jason is actively working against Bruce (shocking right?) And I LOVE that Jason even tells Bruce that it's not just to spite him (though I'm sure that's a plus) it's because he believes in what Selina is doing. And Bruce cannot handle it.

Like I said before, Jason is Bruce's baby boy. The one he can't lose again. The one he needs to protect. But also he has to stop him from murdering people. And above ALL ELSE he cannot stand to see Jason in cahoots with someone else. Bruce doesn't share well under normal circumstances, let alone when he has totally lost his mind.

This vacillation has a lot of people irritated because they think that Bruce is being written inconsistently. I disagree, I think my man has lost his ever loving mind and he wants to both protect his children and STOP them. Him telling Jason he loves him not once, but TWICE within the span of a few panels while simultaneously ruining his life and leaving him completely defenseless is just... dude. My man. My psycho baby. Stop that.

Jason has always been fiercely independent and now that independence has been stripped from him. He literally can't protect himself. He's going to need to rely on other people to help him and heaven knows he doesn't have a good track record of people helping him out when he needs them.

Luckily, Dick knows about the drugging now and is super pissed off (GOOD!) Cannot wait to see where that goes next.

So tldr: why am I enjoying gotham wars? Mostly because so far everyone is obsessed with Jason Todd, which is highly relatable. Also because these relationships are being torn to shreds and looked at from a very interesting lens. Bruce is gone gone gone. Cannot wait to see his horror when he realizes what he's done.

[messrsbyler]

mike's monologue was built on guilt...

[disclaimer: i know i'm not discovering the wheel here. most of what can be said about byler has already been said by so many people before me so none of this is new. i've personally haven't read a post addressing this but i am sure there must be tons of them i haven't run into yet. all this to say, i wanna give my personal opinion on mike's monologue based on my rewatch of season 4 but in no way i'm pretending to be the first one to have noticed this. okay, that being said...]

mike feels so much guilt during season 4 it's actually sad.

so, we all know one of mike's biggest conflicts is how he understands the love others give to him. for mike, that love is tied to conditions he has to meet in order to keep. to keep it short and simple, we know mike feels the need to be needed in order to be loved, and this specially reflects on his relationship with el since that's how they dynamic started from the very beginning. el had no one and mike took her in. el became dependent on mike and under those circumstances, they became friends and then were nudged into a romantic relationship. then in season three we see how el is growing out of that first dynamic by becoming more independent and getting to know herself outside of mike and hopper and every other male who has had something to say about her life. that independence causes issues in mike and el's relationship because it's a type of dynamic they haven't experienced before and if el who is so cool and powerful, a superhero, doesn't need mike then there's no reason why she would want to stick around at all (remember that tied to mike's misconception of love is also his fear of losing people).

entering season 4, mike finds out el has been lying to him about his life in lenora and i think that's the first bead of guilt that drops on him. after seeing the abuse el suffers in rink-oh-mania, mike understands that el has been needing someone and yet she chose not to come to him. now, this isn't something mike holds against el mostly, but i think it's something that hits him hard in the sense of even when el was needing someone she decided to not seek mike for help.

then, when they have their fight where el confronts him for never saying he loves her anymore, mike still doesn't say it and instead deflects the responsibility to others. then the moment is over, el is taken away and when mike runs after her to say he will fix it and that el just needs to trust him, el doesn't really look at him. she looks defeated and tired.

when el is taken by owens' personnel and mike reads el's letter, that's when the rest of the guilt settles in. we get verbal confirmation of this when mike opens up to will in episode four during their first heart to heart.

mike knows what that thing he should've said was. of course he knows! el spelled it for him and he still didn't say it. so here, we have mike wondering if el would've needed him still, would've wanted him around if he had only said what she was asking of him. if he had, then el wouldn't be alone right now. he would be around to help and keep her safe.

guilt.

here, though, unless you read between the lines, maybe it's not so clear whether mike wanted to say that thing and simply wasn't ready to or not.

the scene in the car graveyard, though, it's pretty damning in my opinion.

what is interesting to me here is that before mike told will "if i had said that thing..." so we know he knows what he should've said. and still, here mike goes "i didn't know what to say."

clearly mike doesn't mean it in the literal sense. again, he knows what el was asking of him, he knows what she needed and wanted to hear, so the way i read this is that even while knowing what she wanted, mike still didn't know what to say because the words he could offer weren't the ones el was asking for. i didn't know what to say as in i didn't know what to say that was truthful and that could help el at the same time, which makes feel mike even more guilty because once more he couldn't be what el needed him to be.

that thought is confirmed with what will says next.

hard to say how you really feel because what if they don't like the truth. and mike nods at these words because he agrees with them.

now, it makes no sense at all if what mike is so scared to say was "i love you" like he said later in the season. it just doesn't. mike agrees to be afraid of expressing how he truly feels in case they (el) doesn't like that truth, but mike knows exactly el wants to hear mike loves her. mike disguises it later as in saying he was scared of losing el and by telling her he loves her he would lose her or something? but he is actively losing her by not saying how he feels! and then, at the pizza place, he still hesitates! he still needs a push to say i love you even when he knows that's what el needs of him and that by not saying it he risked losing el forever. why. does. he. still. hesitate. then.

makes no sense. unless, mike doesn't want to say i love you because he can't because that's not what he feels for el, and that fills him with guilt and with the fear of losing el because he can't be what she needs. so, with the guilt and with the fear of losing el and with will's nudges in the wrong direction, mike monologue happens.

and mike... kinda overdoes it by saying a bunch of things that we know aren't things el needs or wants to hear because she doesn't want to be a superhero anymore, even with her powers back. and mike also starts saying i love you over and over again, after not being able to even write it. that reminds me of this post i once saw of how when you keep repeating a word over and over again, it becomes meaningless and how it even stops sounding like a word. it's just sounds coming out of your mouth. hmmmmm...

anyhow, to end this post i just have to say: mike is dealing with a whole lot of guilt during this season because of his conflictive feelings, the ones he lacks towards his girlfriends and the ones that keep surfacing for his best friend, and when the moment life or death comes, mike (in good old mike fashion) decides to sacrifice his own feelings for the sake of helping and saving el, being what she needs him to be so he doesn't lose her

[terriblyrenderedenigma]

Darth maul be upon ye, the long awaited (probably) Part 2

FINALLY I return to finish my thoughts about the homie maul. Who knows if my writing can all fit, I don't even know the tumblr rules for writing lmao. So this is gonna be like Maul's loving style, and shit like. Mmm. Aat least how I think about it. Enjoy lmao. Part 2 of 2 (I wrote a lot) Warnings: None. (I think)

"I'm frustrated that my words cannot accurately describe your allure, the feeling of power that rolls off you in the same way waves crash against a shore, the way… just the way you live and breathe! It's as if the entire universe was meant to bow at your feet and sing your praises. At the end of time, if no soul takes your side, I will. Know even in your darkest nights and bleakest days that among the stars, there is a heart that beats for you and all you are. No matter what atrocity you claim to be. You told me you were a monster when we first met. Maybe I still need to see it. You still need to show me… Perhaps I'm a fool, letting my heart bleed for you. But even then in the scourge of your wrath, I would be there to wipe the sweat from your brow in the midst of your misdeeds to the galaxy." -Another bit of a letter about homie Maul. Love writing about this bitch.

Okay so Maul is the KING of slow burn. No fuckin doubt about it. Wanna know why? Trust. Trust is the most important thing in a relationship to Maul. He has to trust you, he has to know you aren't selling him out to his enemies. Because maker knows he's probably got a ton of 'em. The Jedi are on his ass, fuckin Palpatine, I mean, you try trusting someone in a galaxy against you huh? It takes him a while to trust you, and then some extra time to warm up on loving you. You probably won't even notice when he starts liking you because at most he'll probably not be so harsh with you. Maybe he'll use less insults, or won't glare so much at you, but he will definitely hide it behind some 'you are the only one who has not tested my ire' type shit. I mean he's so emotionally constipated he probably won't even know what he's feeling when he's around you and will try to beat his feelings out of his system by training or meditating. SO I take a pinch of my previous statement back. I have a feeling this guy is hostile (or at least passive aggressive) to everyone at first no matter what the circumstance. So, Enemies to lovers slow burn king. (which is Ironic because I am not good at slow burn skjhdlskj) When he FINALLY gets over his emotional constipation and gets a brick to the face with realization that he is crushing and crushing HARD, he is going to slowly start courting you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry but he's a total fucking loser when it comes to romance and it shows. Like his anger may fuel up around you again because he doesn't know how to talk to you, what to talk to you about, or how to get closer to you without seeming weak or you know...anything like that. But like, the efforts he does make are so pathetically obvious and strangely out of character for him (and objectively, it's kind of cute watching him stumble over himself) you can't help but be swayed by his...'seduction tactics.' But YOU. You have to be the one to ask him on a date. Because he's just. He's too prideful okay? Stooping to such LOWS like...Affection. He grows out of that, don't worry. But like when you do ask him he's fucking floored. Almost literally. He has to keep himself calm and not trip over his word's and he's like "okay, let me choose an adequate location for us to be alone so that it doesn't seem like I'm showing any kind of weakness" Or something along those lines. He might accidentally insult you but please be patient he is legit trying his best. Outside of that when you finally have him wifed up (/hj) he is still awkward, new to this but trying his best. Don't expect him to be affectionate anywhere outside of his bedroom until he's comfortable with showing off you or this 'new side' to anyone. It doesn't mean he spends no time with you otherwise, it means his affections will be reserved to hushed whispers and small favors. Perhaps this manifests through seeking you out in the corridors, or providing you with little gifts that would appear meaningless to anybody else. It may take a while for his affections to become grander in the open, but one day it would happen. Unless you tried to force it out of him before he was ready then you're probably gone. He would make a laughing stock out of anyone who claimed affections for another were foolish and made him weak. NO. Hell no. He's soft for you but he can still kick ass. Obviously. I'm sure he would be rather possessive, I just know he would fear losing you. He absolutely uses that as a reason to usually be touching you in some way. Pinky fingers linked, his foot nudging yours, etc. He doesn't want to wake up and find you gone, find that all of this was for naught and dreams and peace really don't exist for him. He would spend as much time as he could learning everything about you. He would be so fucking devoted to you it would make your head spin. He'd know your favorite color, flower, time of day, place to be, things to eat, and he'd keep everything you didn't like away from you. To the best of his ability at least.

Went a little hard with this one, stuffed it full with as many words as I could lol. Hope you enjoyed. Spice may be available later upon request, here's the first part.

Until next time!

Ciao~ -Enigma

[las-tortugas-ninja]

ok im gonna drop my character analysis on splinter/lou jitsu because im tired of people hating on him.

lets think about the circumstances he was in for moment. image you spent your life as a kickass action star only to get kidnapped by the person you loved and forced to fight in the battle nexus. you have to go through the grief of being betrayed by someone you shouldve been able to trust while now living in a chamber (which looks like it has just the poorest living conditions) and you have zero contact to the outside world, AND your ex who got you into this mess is using you for profit and throws you into fights you have no say in for peoples entertainment for who knows how long! i dont think its ever been stated how long he has been living like that!

now on top of all that imagine the moment you escape you get turned into a fucking rat. now i know its usually joked about but seriously being a rat does seem to really bother splinter and if you think about for like 5 seconds? yeah? why wouldnt it? he basically had his body changed in ways he did not consent to.

so yeah obviously after all that this guy is mentally ill as fuck and i bring all this up because of course it affects his parenting. imagine going through all that and now you have to be a dad to FOUR children (all of which are babies at this time) that you understand none of the biology of, and you have to raise them with ZERO outside support (seriously why doesnt anyone talk about that. what does he do if he needs someone to babysit them or one of them gets sick cause he aint a docter) all this combined makes me think yeah. ofc hes not gonna do a good fucking job.

and when the boys are teenagers and dont need the 24/7 supervision they did as babies. you see splinter spending a lot of his time watching tv melting into the recliner because * drum roll * he is depressed. i do not think he is lazy i think he is depressed and probably traumatized but he never had time to process that trauma because he had to be a dad.

because he spends so much time sulking in the living room his sons (specifically donnie) feel like he doesnt want to spend time with them and are reasonably upset with him.

so in the 22nd episode of the first season when splinter tricks donnie into entering the demolition derby. that was an eye opener for him to be better. he saw the absolute hurt in donnie’s eyes and tone of voice because he thought he wanted to spend time with him. that was the eye opener he needed to realize “oh shit. i really fucked up. i need to spend time with my sons. i need to be better for them.” and he apologizes to donnie because yeah, what he did wasnt okay.

and you can tell he changed for his sons because in “hidden city’s most wanted” you can tell all he wanted to do was spend time with mikey.

and the thing is there is nothing that can convince me his sons (and april to admitably) dont mean the fucking world to him. when draxum tells him that before him he had no purpose, that he was a husk of a man he says hes not lost anymore because he has his sons. his sons were the first thing he thought of when he needed a reason to why his life didnt fucking suck now.

this man went against the hamato clan teachings and almost got all of humanity killed for the sake of his sons. he loves his sons and he hasnt been great to them and he wants to change because he knows they deserve better. there is literally so much love emanating from this family.

a lot of people say that splinter is abusive/neglectful and im not denying that hes not perfect but jesus you can criticize his parenting without treating him like an irredeemable monster (because he is redeemable and he did change for the better)

also i know yall arent gonna wanna hear this but someones gotta say it cause its the truth: in general people will be harder on ethnic parents and treat them less like actual people capable of making mistakes. yes splinter is a rat but he is still ethnically japanese. he is a person of color and as someone whos been in fandom for awhile yeah people are suspiciously a lot more forgiving to white parents who make mistakes compared to when parents of color make them. i really do think its causing a bias.

[therainscene]

2/5. lights confuse me so much in general. like, why does it require effort from will in s1 and teens in s4 to make lights flicker, but in the presence of smn/smth dangerous lights flicker by themselves? also, why do people and vecna affect lights directly from the UD but demogorgons & the flesh monster only affect lights in the normal dimension? i'm sure monsters are always roaming in the UD, but they don't mess with lights in hawkins the way vecna does (i suppose he does it unintentionally, so the lack of effort doesn't explain anything to me)

Hi, thanks for sending me these asks about the Upside Down! I'm going to address all five of them in this post -- but I'm going to leave this particular question for last. You'll see why in a bit.

First though, you're getting a rolled-up newspaper to the snoot for calling yourself stupid and your questions dumb. 🗞️🐶 There are still a lot of mysteries in this show, and questioning its inconsistencies is exactly how you solve them!

Why is the Upside Down literally upside down at some points but oriented the right way up at other points?

The Upside Down isn't literally upside down; that's just a visual metaphor the show uses to illustrate its trippy extra-dimensional nature. I wrote a post explaining the basics of extra-dimensionality a while ago that you might find interesting.

Why are the Christmas light decorations at the Snow Ball visible in the Upside Down if it's supposed to be frozen on 6th Nov 1983?

We know from the teens using Holly's Lite Brite in S4 that electronic lights in the real world naturally produce glowing particles in the corresponding spot in the Upside Down, even if those devices weren't there on 6th Nov 1983. Most likely that's what we're seeing at the Snow Ball.

Alternatively, it could be the case that the flow of time in the UD is more complicated than S4 led us to believe, and the Snow Ball lights will make more sense once we've watched S5. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What's up with the random temporary gate in the tree that Nancy uses to visit the Upside Down in S1?

Nancy's tree isn't the only weird gate -- we see lots of temporary portals open throughout S1.

The show doesn't explain how these work beyond heavily associating them with Demogorgon attacks, and I think we're supposed to assume that the Demogorgon is opening them itself. This would explain Nancy's tree -- the Demogorgon was nearby at the time.

The trouble is, this raises far more questions than it answers. Why don't Demogorgons seem to use portals outside of S1, especially the ones imprisoned at Kamchatka? Was that one Demogorgon from S1 just a special boy with unique abilities? Why did Vecna need to wait for a gate to be opened by El if his minions were capable of opening their own gates? Did the Mothergate "unlock" this ability while open and "lock" it again when closed? If so, why no temporary gates in S2?

We're not supposed to know the answer to these questions yet; it's pretty clear that they're saving it for some big reveal in S5. I have a theory on what that reveal might be... but that's for another post.

Why are the circumstances of El banishing Henry to the Upside Down in S4 so different from when she does the same thing to the Demogorgon in S1?

On a literal level... yeah. The differences don't make a lot of sense. It's probably safe to assume that El opened a portal in S1 like she did in S4, and it had already closed itself by the time the particles dissipated enough to unblock our view... but as for how she ended up in the Upside Down, and why the Demogorgon wasn't in there with her...?

To answer this one, I think it's helpful to remember that literal readings only get you so far when you're dealing with a story as steeped in metaphor as Stranger Things.

When El banished Henry to the Upside Down, it was a triumphant act of self-defense, asserting her autonomy against an abuser. But when she banished the Demogorgon, it was a tragic act of self-sacrifice -- she defeated it (thus why it disappears), but at the cost of remaining stuck in the "weapon" role Brenner had forced her into her whole life.

Both Henry and El were at a low point when they "died", and getting sent to the Upside Down afforded them an opportunity to start a new journey of self-discovery free from Brenner's influence. But while One stayed there and became Vecna, Eleven chose to escape and be "reborn" as El.

[The rebirth symbolism really couldn't be any more on-the-nose. 👀 Speaking of this portal -- you wondered where it came from -- it's the same one the Demogorgon burst through in the S1 finale.]

And so we've arrived at your final question.

In my opinion, the lights are part metaphor, part mystery being saved for S5.

I think I'd need to comb through the whole show double-checking every instance of the lights flickering to properly address the mystery stuff, and unfortunately I don't have time for that right now. But I'll say this much: I think you're on the right track for questioning the way the lights behave, because it's possible the show has been misleading us into thinking we're looking at one thing (let's say a monster) when really we were looking at something else (let's say a kid with powers).

As for the metaphor? When Will and the teens were trapped in that cold, dark, despairing realm from which it seemed like there was no escape, what saved them was reaching out to the light of hope -- their loving friends and family.

Even El, who escaped all by herself, was still beckoned back to the real world by its light shining through the portal.

At the end of the day, that's what this show is about: love and hope conquering the despair of being different and rejected and abused. Bearing that in mind makes it a lot easier to figure out what's going on with the lights and the Upside Down, in my opinion.

It's why monsters only make the lights flicker or go out when they breach containment and enter our world: because they're destroyers of hope. It's also why powers sometimes make the lights flicker and sometimes make them surge: being different can be difficult to cope with... but it's also a beautiful and valuable thing to be.

[jamiesfootball]

apologies if this has been asked/answered/referenced somewhere i haven't seen but where did the title for 'oh god, you're gonna get it (you have not been given love)' come from??? every time i see/read it i feel like i've read something inherently profound. if you came up with it you're even more of a poet and a genius than reading the fic had led me to believe - which was a lot lol (seriously it's so good, literally how???????????????????? i feel like this title is haunting me and the fic has definitely caused some level of brain rot)

THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT GAVE YOU BRAIN ROT. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO FLATTERED.

The closest I have come to talking bout the title is here but at that point the title was still redacted on my posts so I'd say that barely counts!

So this is going to be long. Do try to bear with me, I've done my best.

The title is pieced together from two different song lyrics, but I think I did an excellent job in both picking a title that echoes the themes AND in smushing it together to make something new.

Oh god you're gonna get it is from Florence + The Machine's 'Girls Against God', which is one of those songs that came on when I was deep in the blorbo feels and they imprinted on the song so now that song just is a Roy Kent song to me, with many parts of it speaking to the vibe I wanted to bring into this fic. The quiet helplessness, the barely restrained incandescent rage -- all set against tragic, mundane life.

What I love most about this part of the title is that it's so loaded with meaning. Because 'oh god you're gonna get it' can read as 'oh god, you will understand'. Is it reassurance? Is it telling someone that it's okay if you're confused and lost now, because in the future they will understand?

Is it foreshadowing? Is it a warning? 'Oh enjoy you're obliviousness and confusion now, because one day it will make sense and you will understand. Oh god, will you ever understand.'

Then we have the part of the song that contains the title:

Oh God, you're gonna get it You'll be sorry that you messed with us

And here it becomes a threat of violence, and echo of rage acting against outside forces.

So that's part 1 of the title.

The nested part of the title, the part in parenthesis, is 'you have not been given love' by A Balladeer. Now, this song is more vibes than lyrics, though it does have some echoing ideas towards Jamie regarding generational trauma. That mixed with the lamenting tonality with which it's sung made this one really stick out.

Well, that and the fact that the title is repeated no less than sixteen fucking times. You can see why it was stuck in my head, yes?

Again, though, the lyric when taken at face-value feels loaded with meaning. On the one hand, it's someone recognizing, 'oh, I understand now. there have been circumstances in your life that have brought you to were you are now, and how you are able to perceive love has been directly affected by how you have not received it before.' But then it's also saying 'hey, those things you lived through, those things that other people gave you. those weren't love. you know that right?' And finally it's an understanding about someone, 'oh, you are an unfed thing. you do not know what love is, because you have never been given it'

Even if you take each part of the song piecemeal, with each section representing a different character, you end up with a fascinating tension. But if we combine the two we get this reverberation between the getting and the given. 'You will get', and nested with it 'you have not been given'. You will get your understanding (that you have not been given love). Oh god you will understand (that you are an unloved thing). You will make them pay (for they did not give you love). And most importantly

Oh god you're gonna to get (the love you were not given)

[sapphic-haymaker]

I’m really glad to see people talking/realizing just how dirty Margaret was done in NearLight but the one bit of info I haven’t seen anyone mention that infuriates me so much is:

How come nobody talks about how Margaret deliberately faked having a terminal illness that strips her of her rights?

Seriously this “twist” was telegraphed since launch and I desperately, desperately wished it wasn’t true for the entire time, only to have my fears confirmed in the dumb centrist event. Seriously why make her non-infected? What does it accomplish?

Sure yeah there's the bit about “how her grandfather told her she was infected so she genuinely believed it when she left Kazimierz!” which just honestly feels like a way to strip her of the agency for this twist to work, make it not seem as horrible a thing. But good lord Shining and Liz knew when she joined Rhodes Island! She lied to everyone there! She lied to her family! Even Amiya didn’t know about it! She had tests done, she never had symptoms, she knew and continued to uphold the lie. It also sours any message Grandpa Nearl has when he literally gaslit his granddaughter into thinking she was dying

Could you imagine how much it would sting for her allies to hear she was faking dying, how she wasn’t actually one of them, and then that she went back to her goddamn literal Nearl family mansion and became a member of the nobility again? Just went back to her old life of privilege, something none of the infected on Rhodes can do?

I honestly found the whole idea of Margaret having her nobility stripped from her for being infected very, very compelling. She used to be of high status and very well off as part of a famous family, brought low by circumstances out of her control and thus made “lesser” in the eyes of Kazimierz. But this all just goes out the window the moment she goes back to Kazimierz and is just able to get her title and everything taken from her back nigh instantly. You’re telling me they’re letting a filthy infected live in the upper class district the Nearls are from?

It would’ve been a good angle to view things if she was allowed to be a knight again but afforded none of the luxury, ya know, just like how the actually infected knights sleep in the streets and alleyways? Her perspective could’ve been of someone of lower status fighting to raise herself and others up against the oppressive system of Kazimierz, but instead she remains a literal noble which skews a lot of what she says.

Of course none of this struggle is there cause it would make the reveal of her being infected even weirder. This is punctuated by the fact that nobody really seems to care about her doing the incredibly shitty thing of faking having rock turbocancer. The Red Pine gang infuriatingly just shrug it off despite her being such an inspiration for them as a “fellow infected”. Some people boo her but they cheer for her in the end.

Hell, even in her operator record, the crowd of infected call her out on it, but by the end are literally chanting her name in reverence. For a game that talks a lot about an oppressed minority lifting themselves up through struggle, why did they have to make Margaret a savior from the outside in the most awkward way possible...

It all just adds to the feeling that Oripathy is a quirk to assign to characters and the struggle of the infected is a prop for empty messages in Arknights.