#this is so wrong at all levels but we need it

[nouvellevqgue]

IT GIVES YOU WINGS OR LOVE?

pairing: max verstappen x redbull athlete!reader

summary: summary: sometimes, the team that brought you in, could also gives you more opportunity to even meet your lover there.

note: they're unserious, nothing was actually romantic based on my perspective.

taglist: @queenofmanydreams @muglermami @4limq @avengers-assemble123456 @cabbyhabs @meowtastick @4mula-1 @miarabanana @amel1ee @dinosushilun1 @auggieblogs @namgification @charli123456789 @cherry-piee

yourusername

liked by redbull and 237,144 others

yourusername Woohoo !!! SO hyped to grab 🥈 at my first slopestyle World Cup since the 2022 Olympics. Genuinely had so much fun out there today. Congrats to everyone for the insane level of riding, and thank you, as always, to the supporters for all the love ❤️ A few areas need a bit of work still, but none more than my champagne skills 🥴

view all 1,247 comments

redbull Super proud of you, Y/n! 😍

username there's something about redbull athletes and winning and i can't really put my finger on it...

maxverstappen1 Proud ❤️

username What is this motherly comments, Max

username MAX LATE COMMENTING????

username Rb downfall is real y'all

username rb downfall is started from max late commenting?

username That's a sign too

username I'm planning our wedding as we speak

redbullsnow It was magnificent

landonorris ahem, probably i can teach you my *signature* champagne pop

yourusername Hmm, but I don't want to destroy anybody's trophy though

username 💀💀💀💀

username OKAY OKAY WE GET IT

username until now i'm still questioning on how did he pulled this baddie

username I really need to see her with another Red Bull athletes out there

username her bf is literally max verstappen

username wait fr?

username She literally confess it in GMA, how's that fake?

username PR relationship is real yk...

username RENEW YOUR CONTRACT, MOTHER

username istg she looks like lily's lost twin

username At least she's not dutch, I'm with her

username why? what's wrong with being dutch?

username I'M TIRED OF HEARING THEIR NATIONAL ANTHEM OKAY LEAVE ME ALONE

username naw brother, prepared to hear them national anthem at the same time

yourusername

liked by maxverstappen1 and 188,316 others

yourusername Celebratory lunch + A lil hair touchup 😆

view all 1,589 comments

username Ahem... No pic cred?

username I think you forgot to dry your hair

yourusername My stomach's grumbling so loud already, I can't hold it anymore to even dry my hair 😂

username UGH SHE'S SO PRETTYYY 😍😍

username PLS SAY YOU WILL RENEW YOUR CONTRACT

maxverstappen1 Don't forget to spare me some 🍴🍴

yourusername How cliché of you to comment this while eating my sushi 🤨

username HER SUSHI 😭😭

username Max late commenter is back but not with his motherly comments, but with a LIE who is now debunked by his own girlfriend

maxverstappen1 I thought she wouldn't reply to this

username better not to lie to a skier

username All of these were very much so obvious. You guys don't have to act like doing a soft launch when she already dropped a literal bomb to confess that she's dating Max in GMA

username heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes heart eyes

username I want to be her gf 😭😭😭

username You're unreal OMG

maxverstappen1

liked by carlossainz55 and 472,580 others

maxverstappen1 Flexing master #TiffanyPartner #TiffanyHardwear

view all 1,096 comments

yourusername I agreed to post here but what was the caption supposed to mean?

username It's giving Lily + Albon's dynamic

username Max influencer era is here and ready

username I want that hand to choke me

yourusername Whoa

username Istg she looks like a carbon copy of ＠lilymhe period.

username omg max is stealing her endorsement????

landonorris okay. the trial's over, let's make your own jpg account.

maxverstappen1 Wait, really?

landonorris no, just baiting.

username WHY IS HE SO ANNOYING 😭😭😭😭

username supportive bf max is my new favorite gender

username Who taught him to be like this?

alex_albon He's definitely has attended Alex Albon school of boyfriendery

username how come did her hair never looked the same in every frame she's in?

username but the hair color remain consistent till the end of the day

maxverstappen1 Drafts do exist, you know.

username OO ENDED THEM

username pls do a tutorial on how to make your fingers as long as hers

username I bet that is not Max's hand

username Break the bet, it is not

redbullracing · 24m

yourusername

liked by victoriaverstappen and 102,445 others

yourusername Truly enjoying my paddock debut here. Thank you ＠redbullracing for the invitation, definitely having much fun in Shanghai 🥰

view all 973 comments

username Me and the bad bitch I pulled after being WDC:

username LILY GO BACK TO ALEX'S GARAGE

username Rb couple domination is real

username Max: 🧍

username you guys better believe when they said red bull enjoyer belong, they were.

lilymhe Why are you guys looks so stiff? 💀

yourusername Wait until I asked him to go skiing. Let's see how stiff he would be.

maxverstappen1 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

username Can't wait to see Max skiing with her. Wonder if his skiing skill has improved ever since he's with her.

username next stop: the alps

username Oh it's her paddock debut? I thought I have seen her attending gp in Ausgp?

username That time she wasn't his gf just yet

alexandrasaintmleux Ahhh your fit is so cutee <3

yourusername YOURS TOOOOO 🌹🥺

username QUEEN IS BACK IN TOWN, SLAYING AS USUAL

username Whys your paddock pass looks different from the rest of the WAGS?

yourusername I was invited by ＠redbullracing as a guest. So that's why mine's different 💁🏼‍♀️

username Why would they invite you as a guest when you're already his gf tho😂

username Can you stop asking?

maxverstappen1

liked by yourusername and 463,197 others

maxverstappen1 Alps: Day 1 ⛷️

view all 1,638 comments

username Wait why is it different?

maxverstappen1 Sometimes, one of us played it harshly and losing the original glasses. So we bought it new.

username AND IT ISN'T YOU??!?? OMG

username Awwww if my relationship not this sweet, I don't want it.

username Y/N WITHOUT HER RB STICKER HELMET AND ATTRIBUTES??? WOWOWOW

username mother and father🥴🥴🥴

username They're cute asf

carlossainz55 What a good day for a ski couples

username probably i should drink red bull to have someone like them

danielricciardo Who wins?

yourusername We're both... Losing, actually

danielricciardo I KNEW IT

yourusername

liked by schecoperez and 157,839 others

yourusername Turns out, he's not that bad of a skier too.

view all 2,630 comments

maxverstappen1 Hey, I don't look like that

maxverstappen1 How could you do this after I posted out sweet moments yesterday

maxverstappen1 What is this betrayal

username Alright Granny, let's get you to bed

username WHO'S THAT ON THE SECOND SLIDEEEEEE

charles_leclerc What was that outfits 😂😂

yourusername Don't say as if your fits were not like that

charles_leclerc Mine's fashionable, sorry.

lilymhe Fashionable just for leo's eyes

username i love how contrast their posts are. ah soulmate

username I want what they're having toooooo

username His digital footprints is something that I have to go for a dig

username Well apparently the both of them were losing

username says who?

username Daniel and Y/n on Max's post

username I know they were never gonna be the best at competing at each other

username if their relationship was really a pr, i don't believe it

[golden1u5t]

share the attention | s.r x fem!reader

ꨄ requested: anonymous

ꨄ genre: fluff

ꨄ summary: having a new baby around means that majority of the attention goes to it. your daughter thinks that with all the attention your giving the baby you've forgotten about her, luckily spencer is there to explain to her that you both will never forget her.

you thought that after the birth of your first daughter having a second baby would be easier but it wasn't. luckily your daughter was at the age where she didn't need you to do everything for her so you weren't tiring yourself out even more by chasing after her.

you were in bed lying on your side and watching spencer feed the baby, your toddler sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed playing with her dolls. she looked over to you and spencer and pouted, she stood up and waddled over to spencer.

"dolls?" she asked as she tugged on his pants leg. he looked down at her and put his hand on her head, ruffling her hair and making her laugh.

"not right now, sweetie. after i feed the baby." it had been some time since he was able to sit down with her and play like they used to because of caring for you and the baby but your daughter didn't understand that babies take a lot of time and care. if anything, she just thought you two were forgetting about her because of the baby. her frown deepened as she looked over at the baby in spencer's arms, she turned away and picked up her dolls. 

"stupid baby." she said as she stormed out of the room, it was meant to come out as a whisper but she hadn't quite got the whispering down yet.

spencer turned his head to you to see if you'd heard the same thing, to which you nodded and sat up so you could reach for the baby. "i got it spence, just go talk to her please."

he handed the baby off to you and headed for your daughter's room, he gently knocked on the door before pushing it open. she was sitting on her bed with her head down while kicking her feet, her dolls thrown on the floor along with all her other toys.

spencer crouched down in front of her so that he was eye-level with her, he placed his hands on her face and gently lifted her head. "do you wanna tell me what's wrong, angel?"

"you forgot about me, you love the stupid baby more." she sniffled, bringing her hand up and roughly wiping away the stray tears. spencer shook his head and stood up, he sat down beside her and pulled her into his lap.

"we didn't forget about you angel, we love you both equally. it's just that babies take a lot of attention." he ran his hand through her hair soothingly, he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "and no more calling the baby mean names, okay?"

she nodded her head and hopped off of spencers lap, she grabbed her doll and started tugging on his arm. he stood up and picked her up, walking into the bedroom just to see you and the baby asleep. "come on, lets go play dolls." he smiled at her and shut the bedroom door, thinking to himself: i'm pretty good at this.

[happeehippie]

instagram j.b.

summary: follow along with joe and his WIFE evie as they go through his football career.

*face claim is yasmin quintana*

series masterlist.

liked by bengals, joeyb_9, and 983,729 others…

evie: honeymoon avenue.

view all 4,738 comments…

user: i love you guys together!

> evie: 💗💗

user: am i the only one that doesn’t like her?

> millyg: it’s the jealousy in you.

> user: i don’t see how anyone can’t like her, she’s so nice!

user: yikes

joeyb_9: no complaints, probably the best avenue out there.

> evie: thanks for your input, i totally agree.

> millyg: gtfo you guys 🤣

joeyb_9

liked by evie, lahjay10_, and 902,519 others

joeyb_9: we will send a post card.

view all 5,739 comments…

user: nooooo that’s two times in a row he’s posted ev

> user: they are literally married now, she’s not going anywhere.

user: in his *husband* era

user: i can’t stomach this

millyg: still mad i got left at home.

> user: i don’t like them together, im not jealous or anything something just feels off.

> user: i think that means your jealous.

evie: the views were 10/10

> joeyb_9: i was only looking at you.

> lahjay10_: 🧀🧀🧀

evie

liked by joeyb_9, millyg, and 810,826 others

evie: some small things…🤍

view all 3,738 comments…

user: i’m SO single

user: she doesn’t have to rub it in

user: NOT THE PRETTY GIRL. ladies he is everything..

user: if he wanted to he would

millyg: not joes failed cursive attempt

> evie: it wasn’t TERRIBLE 🤣

user: being with joe burrow is this girls whole personality

joeyb_9: the prettiest pretty girl.

> evie: 😭💗

user: so when are we expecting the divorce?

user: take notes fellas

user: joe and ev being so taylor coded makes me sick

> evie: swifties are superior, even if jb likes to pretend he isn’t one.

joeyb_9

liked by obj, evie, and 1,785,002 others

joeyb_9: had the basketball versus football convo too many times

view all 2,372 comments…

user: low key forgot you weren’t just some guy from cincinnati

> evie: THE guy from cincinnati

obj: Da boyyyyyyyy

user: tough. basketball tho

> evie: wrong answer. 😭

user: Joey B is A list now

evie: it was so nice of you to take photos with a few fans today.

> joeyb_9: 😎

> user: ev is coming for those opps

user: not him hanging with obj

user: such a weeb

evie

liked by millyg, joeyb_9, and 1,037,927 others

evie: went to something called a white party?

view all 2,801 comments…

user: you win

user: he actually took you with him?

> evie: i actually got invited to come with him.

> user: standing on business.

user: YOU MISSED TAYLOR FOR THIS?????

> evie: marriage is about sacrifice.

joeyb_9: 🥵🥵🥵

user: this is everything

user: that joe pic is my new background thanks

> evie: charity work is my passion.

user: i keep coming back to look at this post

user: second pic sent me into cardiac arrest.

> evie: you should’ve seen it in person.

joeyb_9

liked by bengals, lahjay10_, and 710,991 others

joeyb_9: “It’s time to go mobile.”

view all 3,729 comments…

user: YESSIR

lahjay10_: My step brother

> evie: hell yeah

user: do you want my mobile phone number

> evie: he doesn’t have a mobile phone.

> user: you are so funny mrs. burrow. 🤣💀

> user: why are you always so rude?

> user: she isn’t rude, but she’s always going to let us know that’s her man. don’t play like you wouldn’t do the same thing if random girls were coming at your bf with this kind of shit.

> user: i agree, she isn’t being rude but she’s never really let people show blatant disrespect for their relationship. even when they were in college.

tylerboyd: levels

> evie: BIG LEVELS

evie: you’re so hot. there is said it.

joeyb_9: 🪞

user: return of shiesty

user: YEAH BABYYYY

evie

liked by bengals, lahjay10_, and 810,003 others

evie: volume 4. 🤍🧡🖤

view all 2,761 comments…

user: you’re special

user: do you ever get sick of having to pretend to be interested in football?

> evie: never pretending.

user: he needs a tall blonde that has a brain.

> evie: my masters in marketing is offended.

user: i’m so excited to see the team smash it this year!

joeyb_9: very big fan of this.

> evie: your sunnies really tie it together.

> user: not you sharing sunnies. 😭

user: i love ev truly, but im also jealous of her.

> evie: i’m not sure what to say here. 🤣💗

joeyb_9

liked by evie, bengals, and 789,524 others

joeyb_9: Mask off.

view all 2,751 comments…

user: clothes off

> evie: the clothes will stay on. (for now) 🤪

user: Burrow is back!

user: solid W

evie: put the mask back on, i can’t think straight.

> joeyb_9: keep it on all night?

> user: i wish i could unsee this

> user: joe. please. this has to stop.

user: i’ll never quit you.

evie’s instagram stories:

a/n: hiiii. i’m going to finish this series up in the next post so i can work on some of the other requests i have. if you guys are interested in me continuing it once the new season starts let me know and i’ll see what i can do. thanks for all the love on this, you guys rock. and as always im taking request so if you have an idea i’d love to hear it.

[linkito]

scarian 34 maybe.. but theyre in love..

#34 …to pretend.

Scar’s honestly not sure what Scott is on about with his whole Relationship Ranch thing. He’s not as obtuse as Grian is about it, pretending like their relationship isn’t mangled and strained, like the idea of couple’s therapy is entirely unfounded for the two of them, but— the goats? Really? Even at their worst, he and Grian aren’t stupid enough to get hit by a goat.

Even at their worst, they’re still a team. None of these trust-building activities are of any use to them.

The only reason Scar is going along with it at all is because of Scott. Scott who might know the most about the ins and outs of his and Grian’s complex relationship throughout these life games. But he’s beginning to have his doubts. Scott seems distracted.

Grian seems to have the same idea, because this time he calls Scott out when he pulls out his communicator for about the dozenth time. “Who do you keep talking to?”

Scar instantly dogpiles onto the accusations. “Are we not important enough for your undivided attention, doc?”

“No, you’re very important!” Scott protests, stuffing his communicator away. Scar narrows his eyes in tandem with Grian.

“Maybe he realizes we don't need this after all, G,” Scar says with a shake of his head, eyes flicking upward to watch for Scott’s reaction. As expected, Scott twitches nervously and immediately begins to wave his hands in placating disagreement.

But Grian speaks before Scott can. “Yeah, we’ve passed all your little tests, so what are you on about anyway?” With a disgruntled huff, Grian slots in beside Scar and crosses his arms, looking Scott up and down with the same level of scrutiny. “Scar and I are fine.”

It almost feels true when Grian is leaning into Scar’s space like this, taking his side like they have a common enemy, playing up the charade as much as Scar is to push at someone else’s buttons. On that rare occasion they’re on the same page, things do actually seem fine.

That’s possibly the worst part of it all— the almost fine.

Scott takes a moment to compose himself, now on the defensive as he speaks slowly and calmly. Unfortunately for him, however, he chooses the wrong words:

“But back in the desert—“

Both of their faces sour instantly, for different reasons perhaps, but they can both agree on one thing: that those words do not belong on Scott’s tongue.

Grian is partway through muttering a bitter “that’s none of your business,” when Scar chimes in with a theatrical twirl of his hands and solemn shake of his head, stepping forward so Grian is behind him and doesn’t have to address the unfinished accusation.

“Oh, Scott, come on now,” Scar says with a twinkle in his eye, slipping on the mask of a man not-scorned in order to pry himself from this situation. “That was then and this is now! People change! Relationships change! That isn’t always a bad thing, is it?”

Scott blinks, trying to keep up with Scar’s rapid-fire string of almost nonsense. “Uh.”

“Exactly!” Scar says, as if it were an agreement. He turns to face Grian, but keeps his feet pointed toward Scott, ever the actor, never fully turning his back to his audience. “But we’re perfectly happy, aren’t we now, Grian?”

Scar loops an arm around Grian’s back, tugging him closer and lowering his face so it’s level with his soulmate’s, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

His words pose a challenge, one Grian is intimately familiar. Scar rests his hand just beneath the base of Grian’s wings, where he used to hold onto when they embraced, when he would scoop Grian up into his arms and kiss him senseless while the scorching sun beat down on their necks. There’s that same level of firmness Grian had grown accustomed to paired with the gentle graze of fingers over his cheek from Scar’s other hand— that strong sense of security combined with unparalleled tenderness.

Grian doesn’t even realize he’s parted his lips, leaning forward in dizzying anticipation, acting on instinct alone, leaving all his senseless doubts behind as Scar slowly leans in closer, lips only a breath apart.

Scar’s hand trails over Grian’s cheek, ghosting over his jaw, then settling perfectly in place to hide both their lips from Scott’s prying eyes.

And then Scar smiles, and something about it is askew, something Grian can’t quite place— it’s too crooked, almost self-satisfied, almost—

And just like that, Scar pulls away.

“See?” Scar says, eyes flicking over to Scott, who, according to Grian’s short-circuiting brain, no longer existed at all. “Perfectly happy.”

It takes Grian far too long to realize those words were directed at someone else, or that there was not, in fact, sand at his feet and hot air brushing through his feathers. Scar is still speaking, and none of it is directed at him, because they aren’t alone atop a mountain of sand, in their own private corner of the world. They’re in a new game entirely, one where things are far too similar, yet not the same at all.

One where he definitely didn’t expect Scar to kiss him for real.

One where he definitely wouldn’t have let him.

“Grian,” Scar calls, snapping him out of his dazed state, and Grian hopes to god he doesn’t look too desperate when he glances up at him. “I’m pretty sure the rest of the server is tearing up our base looking for sugar cane.”

“They’re what??”

[chaifootsteps]

Full Moon anon - unexpected third part, sorry.

I think I've figured out why 'Stolas sending Blitzo nice texts and having phone chats means Blitzo should understand he wants more than sex' bothers me so much, on top of everything I outlined already

it's becaue it's accepting Stolas' narrative (and Viv's) as the only legitimate one

like from Stolas' perspective this is all some grand love story, right? - love at first sight as kids, magical day together when Stolas had a friend, reuniting later as adults leading to the magical first time Stolas ever enjoyed sex. From there everything that happened has been rewritten in Stolas' mind to suggest he and Blitzo are an actual 'thing' - Blitzo agreed to the deal, so he must want (or at least be OK with) monthly sex. In fact Blitzo's (we assume) very good at sex and seems to enjoy it sometimes, so that means he's happy with the arrangement. He even invited Stolas out on a date, so he must want romance...!

Then Ozzie's happens, & this is Stolas' big Missed Reality Check #1. He's wrecked his life for a transactional fling and he doesn't even have the guts to stand up for Blitzo in the moment, though he does still try to hold his hand afterwards, because why shouldn’t he have the kind of happiness those two married imps seem to have...? Except, no. Blitzo pulls away, then gives him the big speech that should have told him everything he needed to know about why this isn’t working out the way Stolas expects it to - because he's been deluding himself this whole time. But instead of grappling with the damage the full moon deal has done, he pushes reality away some more - and claims Blitzo lied to him on top of everything else.

Instead of ending the deal straight away he seems to internalize the message that he just needs to act nicer and more romantic to Blitzo and that'll prove his love - even though the deal is still in place so all he’s really succeeding at doing is confusing him at best and making Blitzo think Stolas wants to have it both ways at worst. Even while he’s arranging to get the crystal to end the deal he keeps sending Blitzo text messages and having nice phone calls with him, effectively LARPing the romantic relationship he actually wants *while the deal that Blitzo was so upset about is still ongoing (*and Blitzo doesn’t know Stolas now also thinks it’s wrong on some level, since he never apologized for it by text except for a backhanded ‘I’m sorry if something I said or did offended you but I won’t specify what or think about why’). The most Stolas does is pull back a bit on the deal - the duet has Blitzo imply it’s been awhile since they met up for their arrangement, though on its own that’s not good enough to make Blitzo think Stolas wants him for more than sex/views him as an equal without a proper apology from Stolas’ side when he ends things, and right now it’s feeling like it’ll be a small miracle if that happens without Stolas or the show acting like Blitzo is equally in the wrong here.

Assuming 'Blitzo should know Stolas wants more than sex' is viewing things entirely through Stolas' perspective, where a couple of nice texts and phone calls entirely counterbalances a long history of treating Blitzo like a sex toy and disregarding his feelings and boundaries on a near constant basis. All Stolas wants is to fast walk their 'relationship' from 'transactional fucking' to 'actually dating' and he doesn't want to do any hard work of acknowledging what the effect of that first bit was on Blitzo or why he can't just demand Blitzo trusts him the moment he hands over the crystal. Likely Blitzo will try to hammer this point home in Full Moon and Stolas will get mad and shut him down (Missed Reality Check #2) - frankly it’s already a fair argument to suggest Blitzo should just take the crystal and dip but if the show wants to really make a case for these two, this is basically its last chance to show Stolas actually cares about Blitzo’s emotions and that Stolas is willing to acknowledge how him not caring about Blitzo’s safety or ability to give informed consent back in Murder Family has affected his perspective of the ‘relationship’.

I imagine some Stolas/Stol/tz stans will look at that last bit and say ‘but s1e1 was ages ago! Stolas has changed a bunch (read: been retconned into a new person without doing much actual character development) since then and it’s Blitzo’s fault he can’t let it go’. To which I say, no. Stolas doesn’t get to dictate that Blitzo should ‘just get over’ how he treated him when he hasn’t apologized properly for any of it. It will always be an issue until Stolas deals with it because it will always hang over Blitzo’s perception of him. Plus Blitzo had an entire season of dealing with other BS from Stolas; it’s not like the owl just did one bad thing and that was it (see: basically everything about the way Stolas treated him in Loo Loo Land, persistently mispronouncing his name until Stolas wanted a romantic relationship and decided it was time to address him properly, yanking on his face multiple times, putting cigarettes out on his horns, calling him a plaything, flirting with him when he was T-minus seconds away from a panic attack the episode right after Blitzo told him off for treating him like a sex toy). Frankly it’s self absorbed on Stolas’ part to refuse to acknowledge the way he has treated Blitzo affects the way Blitzo treats him in return and demand he get over it the second Stolas has decided he’s ready to be better (and if Stolas doesn’t even listen to Blitzo’s feelings without losing his temper and throwing him out in Full Moon, his idea of ‘better’ isn’t worth a darn).

Look at it from Blitzo's perspective instead and it becomes clear. He steals the book and tosses Stolas some pity sex because he feels bad the bird actually thinks they're friends/has never had anyone want him physically before. From then on he has the problem that Stolas has become obsessed with him and fixated on him sexually - it’s evident in their convo in e1 that he’s been avoiding his calls, after all, and he has a panic button for him in his office. Stolas then leverages a situation where Blitzo can't freely consent to him changing up the terms regarding his use of the book to get him to agree to monthly sex. He does this after having let Blitzo use the book no strings attached for some time, too. Blitzo agrees to get him off the phone, then probably thinks that because he needs the book and wants to stick to his word (even though it wasn't freely given) that he should just grit his teeth and get on with it, so he doesn’t argue the issue further. Stolas is kinky enough that the sex is maybe at least enjoyable, even if Blitzo would rather not have to please his every whim every month just to keep the lights on. He keeps his head down, maybe thinking they could have been something if only he didn't feel like Stolas' prisoner (truth seekers). But then Stolas starts to change - a one off invite to a club has Stolas acting like they're on an actual date and Blitzo has no idea what to do with that (’that’s a little much, don’t you think?…oh yeah, I guess it is.’). They don't have a ‘thing’ after all, it's just transactional. And it's starting to get annoying that Stolas - who he couldn't even trust not to attempt to drag him off to some dark corner in loo loo land for a hookup - is acting like they're a real couple. What's worse is he's now sending these long desperate text messages and extending this delusion that he cares about Blitzo to their phone calls! And he has the nerve to act like he’s been hinting he wanted to go out with Blitzo for a while, when he was the one who proposed the deal instead of just asking Blitzo out and working out a separate business arrangement for the book? He has the nerve to act like he was powerless despite being a prince, that he was seduced by Blitzo despite Blitzo acting annoyed or rejecting his advances outside the deal near constantly?

Tl:dr, but what's so frustrating here is that it would be bad enough for Blitzo to have deal with someone who uses his life being in danger to extort sex out of him. But it's worse because he's also having to fight against Stolas' delusions - Stolas has been trying to treat him like a boyfriend even with the deal still in place. If Blitzo had come inside at the end of Ozzie's and they'd watched a movie and cuddled, it wouldn't have fixed anything. It would have enabled Stolas' notion that he could have a relationship with Blitzo and that they were mutually in love, even as he refused to give up the deal. Stolas wanted to act like they were a couple now and somehow at the same time he doesn't realize/refuses to see that it's wrong to use the book to have power over Blitzo. That's an outstanding and disturbing level of double think tbh and it's frustrating to see fans so totally buying into the show's narrative of how Stol/tz should be viewed that they don't realize how irrational it sounds to basically say 'Blitzo should realize Stolas wants more from him than sex because Stolas has been behaving like they're going steady, while he's still kept this transactional deal going'.

They don't seem to get Blitzo's perspective is heavily informed by the transactional deal, because it's the only reason he interacts with Stolas at all! Of course he's going to behave according to his own perspective and everything we've seen from Stolas makes it entirely rational to behave the way Blitzo does. If I were Blitzo I'd be tearing my horns out with frustration that Stolas just can't seem to compute that treating someone like a means for transactional sex means they're not going to behave in a romantic way towards you. They're going to behave like you're the client and they're the one being forced to please you (because they are), and naturally snap when the client tries to act like the relationship isn't entirely based around them getting what they want at all times (and then have the client get indignant because they wanted the benefits of a transactional relationship but they don’t want their ego hurt by being made to face the fact they treated another living being like a means to an end)

Honestly given how cruel and delusional Stolas is, I'd love to see Blitzo tell him that not only did his father buy Blitzo's company and he actually has a childhood friend that isn't him who he was actually in love with (Fizz), but he only slept with Stolas that first time out of pity. If Stolas is going to delude himself and fail to understand where Blitzo is coming from, he frankly can't have enough reality checks shoved under his beak (and even then he'd probably take a while to get it).

Put it this way - if Blitzo had swallowed down his upset in Ozzie's and come inside as Stolas wanted, Stolas would probably still be deluding himself that it's totally valid to have a romantic relationship with someone while simultaneously having a deal with them so you can ensure they sleep with you.

Stolas isn't ending the deal because he thinks it's wrong (and I'm not counting that song from the trailer as enough proof that he's really learnt this lesson - if he can't hear out Blitzo's feelings on the matter then it's clear he's gone from demanding sex to demanding a romantic relationship with no change in his fundamental flaw of not treating Blitzo like a person with his own feelings) he's doing it because the thing he wants out of Blitzo has changed and if he can't have that thing within the confines of the deal, ending it is his only option left

Your guys' writeups never fail to feel like a neck rub. I'd kill for more people in the fandom to realize exactly what you've written here.

[burnin0akleaves]

Here's the draw six fanarts meme I decided to participate in 4 years late

In true burnin0akleaves spirit I didn't ask anyone for requests and just went ahead with all of the characters that have been the most impactful/important to me, so there is a high chance you've seen me draw these guys before.

By the way, unlike the rest of the blorbos here Siyra is an original character and belongs to @nineteen-rats!

Close-ups and rambles under the cut because it's my blog

Ohh the Dark Urge. My latest obsession. I love his design so much, I'm a slut for white/red color schemes, but I feel like it's a double edged sword that takes you out of the horrors he's commiting at the same time?

Durge is supposed to be murder incarnate, someone that does every fucked up thing related to death imaginable; but when you see a giant lizard eating babies or humping corpses, it dulls the effect a bit since you automatically view it as an animalistic act. Dragonborns are obviously a fully sentient humanoid race in-universe; but when the violence you're seeing is already toeing the line between horrifying and hilarious, seeing a scalie doing it just pushes it over the line. I still think it works really well most of the time and I'm very glad that this is the default durge we get! It's just funny to me that when you choose to play as the giant lizard, the dark and disgusting horror story turns into the hilariously edgy bloodfest.

Reminding everyone again that Siyra belongs to @nineteen-rats! I love this man so so so much. I am the Siyra fandom. I am the number one Siyra fanartist. He did nothing wrong and I will defend his every decision. I also hope terrible horrors befall him and that his actions keep him awake for the rest of his life. Pookie bear xoxo

COMING IN WITH THE STEEL CHAIR IT'S WILL TREATY

He is on my mind, always. I don't talk about him as much but he's probably still the fictional character who had the most impact on me as a person.

PATROCLUS! PATROCLUS!!! SIR I'M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!!

I got into patrochilles and the Illiad in general thanks to "The Song of Achilles". It was one of the first queer books I got to have in real life and the prose captivated me instantly, I still have it on my shelf. After reading the Illiad itself however, I hate that book so much. I'm sorry it's genuinely beautiful and I get why people like it but I can never forgive that horrible Patroclus characterization after seeing what he was originally like. Achilles too for that matter.

Hades swooped me up into its arms like I was a sick baby bird and nursed me back to health with its portrayal of the two though and for that I am forever grateful. I can't wait for Hades 2, death to Chronos.

God Half-Life is such an important series for me. My dad would let me play through a few levels since I was a child, he grew up with the games, but I REALLY played through the entire series one summer shortly before dad moved out. He was there watching me play most of it and getting to enjoy someone actually translate the game's dialogue for him for the first time.

Gordon may not speak once but I like the hints of his personality we get throughout the games, most importantly from the way Alyx talks to/about him. I have my own characterization of him obviously but I do really think you can get a good understanding of the kind of man he is meant to be in-universe just by paying attention to his surroundings. Also another reason the games were so immersive for me is that I'm just as in love with Alyx as Gordon is. I must have let her get hit only once or twice the entire time just out of how protective I was over her. I'd topple the entire Combine empire just for her hand in marriage. I rewatched the ending of Half Life Alyx recently and cried.

I read the entirety of LOTR in one week in 11th grade, carrying that damn brick of a book everyday to school and back. I'm so glad I did honestly. Frodo and Sam are my important little guys and I find myself going back to them when I need something to calm me down in a way no other series except LOTR can. I've read most of Tolkien's work at this point, but nothing captivated me like those two little hobbits. Everytime I read a bad take about their relationship I sketch them making out.

People liked seeing my drawing process before so here's the original sketch and the little notes I wrote to myself trying to set the mood. I followed like half of them.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Nameless, Faceless: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.6k

Summary: Not even four hours after the case in Canada, you're thrown into another one. This time, without Hotch. You have a sinking feeling he's not just blowing you off to get some sleep. There's something wrong.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: welcome to the first episode of season 5! i hope you enjoy this series just as much as i loved writing it! <3

I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated.

x

You arrive at his apartment building in ten minutes and immediately head to the floor his apartment is on. The second you step foot onto the floor, you know something is wrong. The feeling in your stomach hasn't gone away, it gets stronger. You knock on his door but he doesn't come to it.

"Hotch? It's me, Y/N. Are you in there?" you ask and knock again.

You take out your phone and call him but when you hear his phone ring from inside, you know something is wrong. You take out your gun and try the door knob which is unlocked. You push open the door and get hit with a wave of familiar energy--George Foyet's. You walk in slowly and notice a few things off the bat. Hotch's keys and briefcase are still by the front door, his phone is on the kitchen table, and there is a large bloodstain on the floor behind the couch. Upon further examination, there is a gunshot in the wall, tables and chairs are turned over, and Hotch is nowhere to be found.

If Hotch is dead, you would have seen his spirit here. Though, he has been stabbed multiple times by George Foyet. How he got in, you're not sure but the entire attack is played over and over to see exactly what went down between the two men. If you're going to have hope in finding Hotch alive or dead, you need help from someone you know who can track him.

"Overtime shift. Penelope speaking," Pen says when you call her.

"Pen, it's Y/N. I need you to listen really carefully. Something's happened to Hotch."

"What do you mean, something?"

"He's been stabbed. There's blood on the floor but he's not dead. I would have felt him otherwise."

"Oh, my God," she gasps.

"I need you to send police and FBI techs here right away. Everyone available."

"Do we need an APB?"

"Only on Hotch. I saw his car outside."

"Someone took him?"

"Yes, I believe so. There's a lot of blood here and a gunshot in the wall. Just get people here."

"Okay, I'm sending an army."

"Pen, I'm gonna have to tell Spencer because he and Em are expecting me back but you can't tell the others. They cannot be distracted. I'm only telling you and Spencer."

"Okay. I'm calling everyone."

You hang up on her and immediately call Spencer.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Listen, don't tell Emily this but something bad happened to Hotch. He's been stabbed."

"What?"

"He's not here but there is a lot of blood here and I felt Foyet's energy here."

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"Is that Y/N?" you hear Emily in the background.

"I can't come back but just tell Emily and Dr. Barton that I'm away on an emergency. Don't tell the others. They can't be distracted right now."

"What's going on? Is this about Jeffrey?" Dr. Barton asks.

"No, it's unrelated."

"We only have a few hours left here."

"I'm really sorry, I have to take this phone call, okay?"

"What could be more important than my son right now?"

"I assure you, this will take one second. Please, I promise." Dr. Barton walks away and joins Emily's side to go over the files that Penelope has sent over. "What happened?"

"There's a gunshot hole in the wall. I'm guessing it's a .44 but there isn't any blood or tissue spray around it. Hotch wasn't shot."

"Any idea how he got out?"

"Foyet carried him. Hotch was stabbed but there aren't any blood drops anywhere. His body might have been wrapped in something.

"Is he...?"

"Dead? No. I would have felt him."

"Are bureau techs on the way?"

"Yeah, Penelope called everyone. She's the only one who knows."

"Alright, write down everything you see. We'll profile from your notes when you get back."

"How's Dr. Barton?"

"It's a huge list of cases to go through with him."

"Okay, I've got this here. You have Emily with you. Just stay focused."

"Alright, you too."

"What's wrong?" Emily asks when Spencer hangs up with you.

"Nothing. Y/N's been called away on an emergency not related to the case, but it's fine."

That answer seems to satisfy Emily but not Dr. Barton.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm confident that the three of us can do this together. We know he's been killing Hispanic males as surrogates. Did you separate the case files?"

"Yeah."

"How many of the surgeries fit the criteria?"

"Eight-two."

"Let me ask you this. On how many of those dates did you operate on somebody else as well?" Emily wonders.

"Seventy-five."

"Did any of those patients die on the table?"

"Eleven."

"That's where we start. This whole thing is about choice. He's forcing you to play God with your son because the last time you had a choice, your decision devastated him."

"I'm a doctor. I save people."

"It doesn't matter to him," Emily says. "All that matters to him is that you had an alternative and you didn't take it. Now, how many of those surgeries involve patients under twenty?"

"Six. I get a lot of gunshot wounds, mostly gang-related."

"Has a gang or family member ever threatened you?"

"No. At first, when you lose someone it's mostly confusion and devastation. The anger comes later."

Emily and Spencer go through the case files that fit the criteria and come up with six dates that could have been the trigger for the unsub.

"Alright, we have six dates where you operated on a Hispanic male on the same night a patient under twenty died. What we're gonna do is read the names and dates off to you, and you tell me anything you can remember, okay?"

"Okay," Dr. Barton sighs.

"Let's start with January 22nd. I have Tyler Hayes with multiple gunshot wounds. The next day, Brian Douglas was a hit-and-run victim with a lacerated aorta."

"No, not that one."

"March 15th, Devon Marks who was a heroin overdose, and Angela Harris who is another car accident victim in a single vehicle, bleeding into her brain."

"No, this is no use. I would remember if I was threatened."

"Did any of them ask you about your family?" Dr. Barton looks at the clock that is ticking down. "We have time."

"Okay," he sighs.

He tries not to think about his son and the danger he's in as he recalls the patients he's dealt with. The entire school day has gone by without a hitch but there are still a few hours before school ends. Derek, Rossi, and JJ have been very diligent in making sure Jeffrey and the other students are safe from the unsub.

"I talked to Detective Walker," JJ says, "The final bell is at 3:10. He's gonna have a SWAT unit in place at exactly 3:00 to escort kids out. We'll need you to gather the students at 2:45."

"This could all be happening now," the principal argues.

"If the unsub sees us evacuate early, we feel certain he'll kill another random citizen, and this also buys us a day to try and discover his identity. So, we'll have school buses for evacuation, and teachers can brief parents who are here to pick up their kids."

"The key is to keep Jeffrey isolated and avoid panic with the other students. If we can do that, everybody gets out of here safe," Rossi explains.

"Have you cross-checked all the records of employees in the building against Dr. Barton?"

"Garcia's on it."

Derek calls Penelope who answers eagerly.

"Y/N?"

"No. Sorry, baby girl, just little old me. You're out of luck."

"Right. Sorry."

"Did you finish the background check on everyone in the building?"

"Yeah. There's no red flags, no felonies, and no connection to Barton."

"That's god. Alright, I gotta go. There's about to be a bell."

"Alright. Be safe," she sighs.

"Hey, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just tired."

"Yeah, I hear you. Let's just get this kid home safe and we can all sleep."

"Right."

As soon as Penelope hung up with Derek, she called multiple hospitals in Virginia in hopes Hotch was in one of them. No one has seen or heard of a man named Aaron Hotchner, though one of the hospitals did have someone named Derek Morgan show up recently. With this news, she immediately calls you.

The FBI techs and police did come quickly while you stayed off to the side and replay what happened over and over again. You're not sure how Foyet got into Hotch's apartment but he waited for him and threatened him with a gun only to shoot the wall. They both got into it and knocked some shit over only for Foyet to stab Hotch multiple times. Every time you replay the scene, it leads to more questions than answers.

How did he get in? Why didn't he kill Hotch? Why stab him and take him to a hospital? Your phone rings and you pick it up when you see it's Penelope calling.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I called hospitals to see if Hotch had gotten himself admitted to an emergency room. He's not listed as a patient but someone dropped a John Doe off at St. Sebastian Hospital, and that someone's name was FBI Agent Derek Morgan."

"Foyet took Derek's credentials."

"Why would he drop him off at the ER?"

"I don't know. I'm headed over there right now. I'll call with an update as soon as I get one."

You quickly send a text to Spencer to let him know what's going on so he doesn't freak out about the state of his boss.

Hotch is in St. Sebastian Hospital. I'm headed over there right now. I'll call when I have an update.

Spencer reads the message as soon as it comes in. He knows Hotch is in good hands if you're the one looking after him.

"Are you sure she's okay?" Emily asks when she notices his worried look.

"Yeah, she's fine. She's just giving me some updates."

"I don't understand. These surgeries are all hours apart. I didn't have to choose between patients. If he's punishing me for my choices, none of these fit," Dr. Barton groans in frustration.

"Alright, look at the note again and compare it against the wording on the charts. A lot of times an unsub will unconsciously mirror the wording of situations." Something suddenly comes to Dr. Barton which is evident in his facial features. "Do you remember something?"

"I don't know. It was right after New Year's. There was a car accident. One of the victims was Hispanic."

"New Year? I have it right here," Emily says. "On January 3rd, there was a two-car collision. You operated on someone named Hector Ledezma. That was your only surgery that night."

"I remember that case. Someone else came in, but I didn't operate on him. His name was Jason Meyers."

Spencer calls Penelope to gather more information on Jason.

"Garcia, I need you to find a patient in the system named Jason Meyers."

"He was admitted on January 3rd on life support. Oh, no. He was taken off the ventilator and declared legally dead three days ago."

"Who is his father?"

"Patrick Meyers, age forty-five."

"Get a photo into the school immediately. I think he's our unsub."

"Okay, it's on its way."

Spencer texts you an update on the current case since you're doing everything you can to take care of Hotch, which you appreciate. You can't do anything about Dr. Barton and his son, but you can find Hotch and figure out what's going to happen to him. As soon as you checked into the hospital, one of the doctors met with you and took you to the room Hotch was in. The second you see him, tears form in your eyes.

"He was stabbed nine times, but no major arteries were hit. It's a miracle he's alive."

"When will he wake up?"

"The anesthesia should wear off within the hour, but he's bound to be out of it."

"May I stay here?"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

The doctor checks a few things before giving you some privacy. You pull up a chair next to his bed and stare at his unconscious body.

"You better not die," you say to him. "This entire BAU is my family and that includes you. Do you hear me, Aaron? Don't die."

You hate lying to your team and hope they're doing okay without you. Hotch's medical chart is hanging off the edge of his bed. Your curiosity makes you read over it as if you're going to understand what most of it means. You're very smart but you're not medically smart. However, the initial L.C. in the top right-hand corner grabs your attention. It's the same initial the unsub left on the note for Dr. Barton. You grab the chart and find the doctor at the nurse's station.

"Excuse me, what does L.C. stand for?"

"Living Children."

"Thank you." You walk back into Hotch's room and call Spencer. "I know what L.C. stands for. Living Children."

"Are you sure?"

"Hotch has it on his medical chart. It's administrative. It's when they're afraid a patient's gonna go on life support and they don't have a DNR order."

"What if the unsub was trying to tell Dr. Barton that he is actually the target and that he's gonna leave his son without a father?" The sound of a door opening catches Spencer's attention. "Barton!"

"What's going on?" There is commotion coming from his end and you hear something that chills you to the bone. A gunshot. "Spencer?" No answer. "Spencer, answer me. Please." Still, no answer and you get tears. "Spencer? I can't lose two people I love. Please answer me." Instead of trying to get him to answer, you hang up and call 911 to report the gunshot. "This is Special Agent Y/N from the FBI. I need police and an ambulance to 120 Kensington Road, Mclean, Virginia. Shots were fired and a federal agent is possibly down."

Spencer lays in front of Dr. Barton with a gunshot wound in his knee from the unsub. The unsub was targeting Dr. Barton but got Spencer instead.

"Are you hit?"

"No."

"Get my gun. Get my gun!" Spencer urges.

Dr. Barton scrambles for the gun before the unsub can fire off another shot. Spencer grabs his gun and points it at the unsub.

"Get away from him!"

"Whatever you do, stay down," Spencer says to Dr. Barton before facing the unsub. "Drop the gun!"

"Don't protect him. He killed my son!" Patrick says emotionally.

"He did not kill your son. Your son was killed in a car accident."

"Stand up!" he yells at your boyfriend.

"I'm gonna ask you again, please drop the gun. I do not want to shoot you."

"Stand up, you coward!"

"Mr. Meyers, listen to me. Dr. Barton did not kill your son. Your son was killed by a car, and this is not what he would want. Okay? So, drop the gun. Please."

His words seem to get through to Patrick because he lowers the gun. Tears are streaming out of his eyes, he looks like he's in so much pain, and he doesn't know who or what to trust. Sirens can be heard from down the street no doubt from the call you made to 911. The unsub raises his gun toward Spencer and Dr. Barton.

"Don't do it."

"I'm sorry."

Before Patrick can fire, Spencer shoots him in a spot that's not fatal. Dr. Barton turns to Spencer to help him but the young doctor waves him off.

"I'm fine. Go to him. Kick his gun away. Make sure his gun is not near him."

Dr. Barton kicks the gun away before assessing the wound on Patrick.

"No, don't touch me. Oh, I want to die. Oh, don't touch me," Patrick weeps.

"I need to stop the bleeding."

"Let me die."

"The medics are almost here. Can you keep him stabilized?" Spencer asks.

"Yes, I think so." Seconds later, the ambulance and police arrive. "Hold on, they're right here. Help is coming, alright?" They get out of their car and rush over with equipment. "We need a backboard and a C-collar. Put pressure on this right here. Call ahead to the ER and tell them they got a GSW to the thoracic cavity, and have him redlined to the OR stat."

"You got it."

"Don't touch me," Patrick cries.

Dr. Barton approaches Spencer and inspects the wound on his knee.

"It looks like it went clean through."

"You might have just saved his life."

"Keep pressure on this, okay?"

The team arrives with Jeffrey, and Spencer nods to the doctor's son.

"I'm good, I'm fine. Go to your son."

Jeffrey and his son embrace in a tight hug while the team joins Spencer's side with worry on their faces.

"Are you okay?" JJ asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"We'll get you to a hospital."

"No, you need to call Y/N. She's at the hospital with Hotch. He's been stabbed by Foyet."

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[artemisjpotter]

I have so many thoughts from Penacony’s latest quest that I just gotta rant about, but I’m going to start with Sunday because whew boy do I have a lot of thoughts about him in particular.

SPOILERS FOR 2.2

So we all knew Sunday was a bit of a “control freak” (to put it lightly) in 2.1 when he totally fucked with Aventurine’s mind with that Harmony brain altering shit, BUT this is a whole new level. This man thinks that the world does exist where only the “strongest” survive and the “weak” suffer (all relative terms, but he obviously views them as objective facts). He puts himself in the “strong” category and sees many others as “weak.” Hell, I’d go as far to say that he sees Robin as weak since he thinks she is an idealistic view of the world.

Regardless, he sees himself as the savior of the weak. More than that, he believes it’s his moral responsibility to help others. Sunday feels deeply for the suffering of others, and perhaps this is because he is deeply empathetic. But as we see it’s not all altruistic as he believes. Yes, he wants to end people’s suffering, but on his terms. He believes he is in a position where he can make people live peaceful lives. He doesn’t believe most people are capable of creating this kind of paradise, so he must create it himself. It’s a massive god complex mixed with an obsession of control that leads him to these conclusions.

And that ultimately is why I believe Sunday is antagonistic. There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to end people’s suffering—on the contrary, that shows you have deep empathy and care deeply for people. But at the same time, Sunday believes he should be in charge of people’s happiness. As we see in 2.2, he feels the need to control everyone by trapping them in a dream. He doesn’t ask for their consent nor let them leave if they wish. He is completely stripping people of their autonomy because he believes he knows what’s best.

This kind of mindset is actually very arrogant with is paradoxical to Sunday’s actual desires to help others. What makes Sunday believe he can strip people of their right to make decisions? What makes him think he is the one to control people and tell them how to live? That’s not altruistic—that’s the making of a dictator, someone who is so obsessed with power and control that they overlook the rights others have to free will and making their own choices.

So there’s nothing inherently wrong with the great dream he wants to give people. I don’t believe that life means you have to suffer and that it builds resilience. I don’t think suffering must be inherent for you to grow as a person, which is in itself a whole other topic. However, I also don’t believe it’s right to steal people’s rights to make their own decisions, no matter how altruistic you feel that you’re being. When you do that, you play God. You make yourself above everyone which means you’re above doing anything wrong and that your word is absolute. That is not moral and it never will be in my book.

So the TLDR version is this: there’s nothing wrong with Sunday’s desires to give people a great life in a dream, but there is something wrong, dangerous, and immoral about trapping people inside and stripping away their autonomy.

(I can’t believe HSR has me psychoanalyzing characters. That just shows how great the writing is)

[abysmal-eve]

The reason I love the Bird Trio/HwoaJinXiao polycule so much is because throughout the Tekken story, from part 3 onwards, Jin has mostly been alone and faced many challenges and hardships. It was difficult without his mother's guidance and even harder after Heihachi's betrayal. However, there are two people who have stuck with him and remained the closest to the very end...

Hwoarang and Xiaoyu.

Hwoarang

Hwoarang and Jin first met as teenagers on the streets of Seoul when Heihachi took Jin with him on a bussines trip. At the time, Hwoarang was a gang leader and has likely crossed path with Jin in an attempt to take a money from him, seeing how rich the young Kazama was. He didn't expect Jin to refuse, let alone resist in a great way, as he thought of him as nothing more than a rich spoiled brat, which the latter soon proved him wrong. After their fight ended up in a draw - something that happened to Hwoarang for the first time in his whole life - it sparked something big between them.

At surface level, it looked like a simple rivalry, like any other. However, Hwoarang was the only one who really pushed their rivalrly, demanding that rematch from Kazama over and over, every time they met, but Jin did not take it seriously, nor did he want to fulfil his rival's request at the time as he was focused on getting revenge on the Ogre, leaving Hwoarang frustrated.

After the events of the third King of Iron Fist Tournament, Jin goes missing, leaving the readhead with many questions, and as the time went by, Hwoarang found himself burning with a desire to get the rematch he demanded ever since he lost that day. Fast forward to the 8th KOIF Tournament, Jin and Hwoarang faced off each other again, reingniting that spark of their rivarly from their very first days of the tournament and finding the purpose of it once again.

The rivalry is one-sided for the most of the time being, as Hwoarang is the one who initiates the fight, and Jin being the representative of calm and peaceful Kazama path, so he did not bother with his redhead rival's constant demands. However, in Tekken 8, Jin has finally come to terms with his rivalry with Hwoarang and jas started to reciprocate the need for fight, as seen in their special intro where he says: "Come at me with all you've got." This indicates that he's in a much better mental state and he's willing to play along with his friend and rival, which Hworang accepts happily. They show affection for each other in mutliple different ways, mainly through their fights where they passionately display their will to come out on top and keep the fighting spirit ignited all the way through. Jin respects Hwoarang as his rival indeed, as it can be seen in their Tekken 5 rival battle cutscene, where Jin responds with "no" after Hwoarang asks him if there is somone stronger than him.

Of course, as I am a great fan of "rivals to friends to lovers" trope, the way these two interact made me feel many things about them.

Xiaoyu

Xiaoyu met Jin when he enrolled in the Mishima Polytech High. Being a jolly and extroverted girl with a kind heart, she saw how different and lonesome the young Kazama felt in the school, so she took the matter into her own hands and tried to approach Jin... and it worked.

The tragedy at Jin's home in Yakushima left Jin feeling hopeless and vulnerable for so long, so a person like Xiaoyu was a ray of light that had shown up right after the storm. Xiaoyu's main defining trait was her undying hope and determination and it was that which made her and Jin become close. We can also see Jin call her simply "Xiao" which indicates their close bond and informality that vanished as the result of the relationship developed.

Prior to the fourth King of Iron Fist tournament, as Jin was missing at the time, someone had sent Xiaoyu an email where they warned her about the nefarious plans of Heihachi Mishima, whose protegé she was. It is very implied that it had been Jin, as he had been planning to destroy the Mishimas bloodline along with him at that time. Later in Tekken 5, he warns Xiao to stay away from him and the Mishimas until he deals with Jinpachi, as another sign of him caring about her just as much as Hwoarang.

All up to the events of Tekken 8, Xiaoyu, with her friend Panda, has been in an endless pursuit of searching for Jin, as she was worried and frustarted with everything going on. Just like Hwoarang, she was in disbelief when she heard that it was the young Kazama who started the war, as she knew him way better than everyone else (with a little exception of Hwoarang). Not once did Xiaoyu think of giving up and she chose her allies carefully (Claudio, Zafina) in order to succeed.

Jin and Xiaoyu are each other's biggest supporters and they are the textbook definition of soulmates, as they both know what the other desires and they push one another to success.

TL;DR

Hwoarang and Xiaoyu are the only two people besides Jun that can inspire and move Jin in their own different ways. Hwoarang evokes Jin's fighting spirit and passion, while Xiaoyu brings out his compassion and kindess.

The end. ＼(^_^)／

And this is the main reason why I ship them all together, and no amount of money or ridicule is ever gonna make me stop.

[indigo-constellation]

It's taken me far too long to have this thought out in public

Daniil should be Artemy's sacrifice in the termite ending.

tl;dr Haruspex route is the only one Daniil doesn't fit the criteria for a sacrifice in and it's been haunting me for years.

NOW, what's the criteria we get for the sacrifice? Beautiful young woman who is in love with Artemy right? well, yes, but that prophecy is given to the player by Katerina, the false mistress, all of her other prophecies are in some way wrong, why is this one followed to the letter? Well there is another definition to the sacrifice Artemy must make, two actually. (it's one, I know, but this is easier for me)

The first is that it has to be equal to the udurgh, which the polyhedron isn't. This is why Artemy does not become the foreman in the termite ending and why that ending feels so deeply unsatisfying and unfitting for him, because he never actually fulfils his goal (THIS IS WHY HARUSPEX ROUTE UTOPIAN ENDING IS SO MUCH BETTER but I already ranted about that) Aglaya fills that criteria.

Now you might ask why, and that leads very cleanly to the second point, the real need in the sacrifice to be equal to the udurgh is that it isn't a man, and in Aglaya's own words, "Simon was almost human. And me-I'm not quite human." Aglaya is not quite human, because she is aware of her status as a doll.

What does this have to do with Daniil?

Well, Daniil is "not quite human" himself in the two other routes.

Bachelor route is very simple to explain, not only does he get to discover that he is a doll, but even if he doesn't heal another bound and meet the powers that be, he is still the player character, he still has this level of separation from the world caused by the player, this distinction between the player and the character is made most clear in the Haruspex route where it's explicitly said that Aglaya isn't in love with Artemy, she's in love with the player, as the player themselves say, "Did you fall in love with him because he was free? But that wasn't him; it was me." Meaning that the player is separate enough from their character to justify the player character being "not quite human."

Now Changeling route is where this gets interesting. because there it is also not his route but Daniil is still aware of his status as a toy in it, claiming it to be the third time he's been deceived, outright stating, "I'm a plaything! And so, undoubtedly, are you." Now this obviously makes him fit the criteria of "not quite human" as established by Aglaya, but, this is where it gets interesting.

Because in that same conversation, Daniil can say, "Self-denial is the meaning here, silly. Deny yourself and you win. Yes, that's how it is! That's the essence of my discovery." And this, this line. This one line, which is specifically set after the player played the Bachelor's route, implies that he has known since. Now that might be a bit of a stretch but with the recommended order of playing being Bachelor -> Haruspex -> Changeling, how hard is it to believe that there is a chance that he is aware during the Haruspex's route? Honestly that makes that possibility so fascinating, because he is right when he's saying that he only wins by self-denial, because by denying to himself (and to Artemy, ie, still himself) the fact that he is a doll, he is keeping himself alive. Because otherwise, he would fit the criteria, being a Healer, a past (or future) player character, and "not quite human" he would very well fit the criteria to be an equal sacrifice to the udurgh.

Let us revisit the prophecy by Katerina, by Artemy's own description, Daniil is handsome, he is 28/29 so arguably young, not a woman, and well, in love with Artemy. Considering the fact that Katerina's prophecies are never outright true, this is as close to confirmation as I am going to get.

Why do I care?

WELL, one, potential, so much potential, I have a wip waiting about this.

But also, it would make the problem of Haruspex route termite ending being a kind of boring and unfulfilling ending not be that, and add another layer of tragedy to it. Let me explain, the problem with termite ending (Artemy route) as it is, is that Artemy makes the wrong choice, it's said multiple times that the right choice for him, is to destroy the town, this is stated in Clara's ice prince story, in the character selection screen, as well as the conversation with the executor in the end which states that "inevitability" is the only true villain. Daniil being his sacrifice would prove that wrong. It would give Artemy a way out of that trap laid for him. It would mean the acceptance of the butchers and Artemy gaining access to the living blood below the earth, not just what will spill from the polyhedron's base. It also adds another interesting aspect to the game in that this would be the one chance for a player character not your own to die, and it will be by your hand. Which assuming the player played/is planning to play Bachelor route, would hurt.

I'm not even going to go into the queer interpretation of that possible ending just know that I am thinking about it constantly

I hope this was somewhat coherent, I have been thinking about this specific thing for years and it's not leaving me alone.

[gailynovelry]

Okay, so, I love dystopian fiction. Love reading it, writing it, critiquing it when it goes wrong. Unfortunately, one of the most persistent criticisms I see leveled at dystopian fiction is that of efficiency.

"This method of execution seems like a waste of resources."

"This system of surveillance seems really overwrought."

"Why did they kill that guy? I know he questioned something they didn't want him to, but come on, he was useful."

The thing is, lampooning systemic inefficiency (and cruelty) is one of the points of exploring dystopia in fiction.

For one thing, the idea that any given system of rule can be 100% efficient is itself a form of propaganda. Capitalism mass-produces clothes in numbers we do not need, and throws the excess away. Fascist regimes are willing burn perfectly good science if it doesn’t match up with predominant narratives and ideologies, and often fund psuedoscience that aligns with those narratives. Authoritarian leaders will reject useful criticism if that criticism feels at all levied at them, specifically.

But those upholding the system can't acknowledge this, because that means acknowledging that the system has failure points.

For another thing, cruelty is often prioritized above functional efficiency, because it creates the right responses to prop up a failing system. Mob mentality, hostility to outsiders, suspicion of neighbors, fear of being punished for thoughtcrime, etc.

And that's forgetting that "efficiency" is often more vague than you think it is, and can be defined and redefined to suit a narrative. How do we measure efficiency? Are certain kinds of people assumed to be more or less "efficient" than others? Is it really possible to be "efficient" in all ways at once, or are there tradeoffs? Do you have to give up efficiency in one category to to get more out of another?

In short, dystopian systems both in real life and in fiction are not designed for functional efficiency. They are designed for control, and will define efficiency in whatever way best suits their narratives.

[pinazee]

Psy vs. Psy

I genuinely think that if they were going to bring back any psych villian, Lindsay Leikin would pose the biggest threat. She knows Shawn isn’t psychic, she has adequate motivation to target him personally, and has the skills to prove he’s a fraud and do it slyly as she is also highly skilled in deductive reasoning (she did manage to get them to the counterfeiter to begin with so she has legitimate talent). She could even orchestrate it from prison. Maybe her parole was denied again so, like, what else is she going to do? Plus, she’s kind of nuts. Faking being a psychic with the FBI is a whole other level of bold compared to a local precinct, then she met a counterfeiter and was like yes please, more crime, then killed him when he tried to run, slept with Shawn that same night, then tried to take him hostage when she got caught. Its just a shame she wasn’t a bit more charismatic or eccentric. They had her play it as a very normal girl swept into a life of crime because of a guy (probably because she was a “love interest” for Shawn) when the receipts show she was an absolute lunatic (look at her face after they found the guy she killed. This bitch is smiling).

Also, she just kinda gave up when she was caught. I wish she’d have been screaming “he’s a fraud!” as she was taken to the car or even had a heart to heart moment with Lou Diamond Phillips because she did betray him after all. Idk, i just wanted more. (But i think maybe the writers recognized this and thats how we get Declan later??)

Gus is basically siri at this point. Between the archeology, safes, online poker, the law, tennis players, space, comic books, of course pharmaceuticals, and now studies tender from all over the world- its a smaller list of what Gus doesn’t know. Gus clearly likes learning. I’m surprised he never thought of becoming a teacher or college professor, to try to pass that love of learning to the next generation. Though i guess we see he’s not that great with people surprisingly, considering he’s a successful salesman. (OH MY GOD WHAT IF THIS WHOLE TIME GUS ACTUALLY HAD LIVED UP TO HIS POTENTIAL AND BECAME AN INTERNATIONAL SPY. He knows all these things because of his job, psychs only been able to stay open because Gus can fund it from his spy job, joining psych was a good front but he was also lonely from never getting to be himself. I kid, i kid, but its a fun idea for me haha)

No fucking way shawn doesn’t know what a drill is. Henry definitely would have beat that kind of man stuff into him. The military time too. I just felt the need to point this out. its like the show itself is dissing my boy and i have to defend him lol

I love when Gus is proud and smarmy over shawns talent. Look at his face here. My boy about to prove you wrong.

And do you think Shawn is actually afraid of competition or do you think he learned at an early age from his father that he didn’t have value unless he was the best? Huh Henry, huh???(Weekend warriors “you don’t want to be a loser” comes to mind)

Henry trying some reverse psychology here. I can’t tell if its because Henry is actually concerned for Shawns safety like he said he wasn’t in the previous episode, or if he’s still taking it personally that Shawns using the gifts he “gave” him to be psychic. Probably both. We know he was really bothered by his motorcycle accident, so i wonder if he’s been kind of spiraling, and adding up all the crazy situations he’s been in. (Which, i don’t think Shawn tells him about. i think Gus calls him like a weekly report haha) I think the fact that shawns cases are becoming more dangerous he suddenly doesn’t like the idea of him being a detective, well a detective this way at least, because i think in his mind he’d be safer if he was an actual cop where he had a partner with a gun, and back up, and rules, and training. I mean we know he wouldn’t be, (look at what happens to Lassie and Juliet)

I just wanted to gif this because it’s one of my fave jokes in the episode!

Mildred to the rescue! Im not entirely sure how this worked but it did and thats what matters haha

*Appropriate reaction is appropriate*

[hot-astrology]

Unconditional love

Love is distrubuted thought out the world in many ways and sectors. Its the major contribution that helps the world and humanity evolve. It doesn't take no energy, no effort, nor money, to give it to the person you love the most! Now that we are on this topic of Love, love was said to be one of the most strongest and best gifts we have here to connect to one another. Its has been stories of people saving love ones, animals from their death beds, from a hug, someone saying they love them, expressing their concern and love towards that person while they were unconscious and the person woke up from comas, accidents and situations that they shouldn't have made it back home.

With that being said! Its alot of different types of love that people push out. This love type is so magnificent and unappreciated. Yes! Unconditional love! Which many never heard of or displayed it or flat out dont know how to show it. The definition of Unconditional love in my words ( Its when you accepting the flaws, mishaps, misfortunes and shortcomings of another individual. You accept their traits, views, past and future aspirations even when its not aligned with your own beliefs or future goals. When they are sick, ill, feeling bad, not the same and cant be there for you like they use to you still understand their situation and circumstances.

Its when you are married for years, your wife or husband, and they are not looking the same, their appearance start to change, their best features start to deminish. You may have to help them walk, get up, use the the restroom, wash up and eat. So many sacrifices would have to be made in this new transition of life. All the superficial and glam you appreciated about this person would fade away. Your true love will be tested and given opportunities to understand what real love is. Facing their pains, hurts, ups and downs and their dark sides that you never thought you would see.

People tend to only want to give love to people who they see fit with their likings, who they benefit from, like their appearance, give them comfortability, and their status. Now this goes a long way, not only a spose, girlfriend, boyfriend, it also applies to family, friends, strangers, coworkers and humanity in all. When your love is so great and strong and it have no limitations or focus on details or a particular person, thing, object, its powerful. It comes from a whole different part in your essence that everyone cant understand or fantom. You begin to unlock gateways and open portals to a more devine love.

When you are able to understand, and feel for a person unconditionally without judgment its a whole different energy that attracts better outcomes and situations. You work from whole different part of your soul essence then others, you treat that person like you want to be treated and you give things to them without looking for anything in return. Your hands are never out, but your heart is always open give more love and accept whatever is in return and usually not what you put out. The power of love is strong especially when its meaningful, true, authentic, real, and unconditional.

With all this being said and understood, and hopefully overstood, you all need to know that everyone is not here for the same experiences and have the same gifts to show the world. Many people have powerful love to give, as well but just go about it in different ways, so its no wrong or right here. But for the ones im talking about your love nature is one of a kind, its so impeccable, its a force to be reckoning with, exceptional, extraordinary, highly rated, remarkable, and soooo soooo soooo admired! By many and us. You all have a different type of capacity to deal with and understand love and its core level without being benefited from it in most cases.

These picks is our opinions. We came up with 4 that we feel like they are good zodiac signs that carry these attributes and qualities. It can or could be more, but we came up with these 4 from a deeper look inside each zodiacs mind, essence, soul, focus, and love nature. These zodiac signs showed us what we were looking for in this breakdown. So here are the 4 signs that made it to the top chart of our unconditional love series.

Leo

This fire sign brings nothing but loyalty, protection and love to the house hold. They are firm believers of powerful love and how you give it will impact your family or pack. They can be extraordinary, exaggerate and flamboyant but never false about their love for their love ones or whoever is around them. They will shower you with gifts, love, affection and charismatic finesse. Even tho they love flashy and extravagant lifestyles, they are never superficial about the love the give and and receive. They do love affection, admiration and validation. Their true nature is to protect, love, secure, appreciate and cherish the ones closest to their hearts. Its nothing they wont do for your love and to keep you happy. This sign is ruled by the heart, which leo represents courage, power, strength and loyalty. They stand up for those around them with their chest out and pride of it, who ever is around them feels their power and shiny presence. Their love runs deep and never stops, they understand what love is because they want it given to them in the same respect, at same time they dont have their hands out to receive anything from you, just want your time and closeness. They will be there at your hardest times, difficult measures and worst hours. They will boost your pride, wake your soul up and make sure you are getting the love and affection you deserve. This love is umatched and so real, you can feel their strong aura giving you the unconditional love your soul and heart needs.

Cancer

Warm, settling, loving, mother energy that warms your soul up at its core. When a person hears the zodiac name cancer they know they are your household name, known for mending the family, keeping everyone happy, making those warm fulfilling meals that touch your bones and soul. They have that motherly instinct and calling. The nuturer as they say, with such a soft heart for others feelings, emotions, and pains they still find a way to help out and provide time, emotional care, and strength to help the person overcome their barriers and life obstacles. Many wonder how can a energy be so soft, emotional and sensitive but yet be so strong and powerful. Hmmmmm that is something to have, thats why by far this is one of the most powerful zodiac signs, they have a unique gift that keeps giving and flourishing the more they be their selves and help humanity. They spose or families would love their hospitality and good warm nature as they prepare supper and a cozy house setting as they relax for the evening. They are there when you are sick, ill, cold, weak, hungry and just tired. The way this sign operates from the heart would have you thinking it rules the heart, but it doesn't. It rules the chest, breast and stomach, well the chest is the protection plate for the heart so i can see that. home is where the heart is, they will touch your heart in ways that cant be described. They will fight for you, speak up for you, and stay down for you. This sign loves hard and love emotional connections, so they will learn your emotions and help you release your own emotions to help you feel better. You can always count on this sign to understand your feelings and have sympathy for your downfall or ins and outs.

Virgo

Can be very critical at times but never let you down, always there to relieve you of your stress and pain. They will go out their ways to make you happy even when it jeopardizes their life or finances. So logical but so nuturing at the same time. Kinda like cancer but with a more analytical approach to the womb that needs healing. Their service oriented skills doesnt shy away from the chaos or obstacles. They are your hard service workers that show gratitude towards helping you. Thats why they are classified as the servers, but not just a server like that, they go beyond and above. They want to help you, heal you, make you better, see you succeed, support you, find your weaknesses, strengths and greatest gifts in you. This a a sign you never want to walk over and disrespect.or never show your appreciation for their services and time. Their hearts and care go a long way, they like that medical nurse thats on the line of duty in the military that has a AK on their shoulder, 9 mm on their hip, while bandaging you up and giving you words of advice and strategies help you on your way so you dont make the same mistakes. When you feel at your lowest and lost they will direct you in correct path. They will love you while still helping correct you. But their love is one of a kind, you will never want with them, they will support you as long as you stay who you are and appreciate they energy they giving you. They are mixed with brain power and nuturing skills which cant be bad at all. They have the healing touch as well, this sign has a unconditional love that operates from a analytical emotional stand point. But you can never lose with this zodiaz sign.

Picses

Now these mutable fishes are very skilled at understanding what happened, how it happened and what will make it better. They come from a ether realm approach to everything. They can feel the room out and see whos hurting or sick, they can touch their grandmothers shoulder and know shes in pain. All they go by is energy and actions, so they read what you do and how you do it more than words. Their presence can invite you and make you feel relaxed and calm. This is a mutable sign so they are more of a free energy that gets pulled and tugged multiple ways. Their energy is very sensitive like a cancer but more on a psychic aspect, they can heal you like a virgo, they can make you feel happy, and prideful like a leo. This sign is our top sign that we think that shows the most unconditional love. Their heart goes a long way without any reciprocation or need for appreciation. They will listen to you, help you, understand you, guide you, support you, acknowledge you. Their soul is free as a bird, if you around them its a no judgement zone and make you feel loved. They have some of the top healing powers, psychic abilities that will help you with sickness, mental health, or just life answers. They are by far one of the best friends to have, wont let you down, always available and want to see you reach your highest potential. You can feel their love and energy radiating from them. They love universally and look at all things as in 1 and all. When you around this type of energy you have no choice but to do right, prosper and succeed. They say picses have a god complex, well i dont think its them being that way, its more of them being the last zodiac sign, and impacted with all the other signs energies so they feel they experienced or have the capabilities as the other signs. Which may be truth, this sign is so powerful and use their love, intuition, and optimistic skills to navigate through this realm and help those around them to a better place in life. Once a picses touch your soul and heart you wont be the same, they make you look at life with a different view ( rose-colored glasses ) but sooner than later those glasses will be removed but over the time and mentality change and appreciation of the world and others as they are you will take them off and still create the world you want, and need to make your experience the best. These individuals will show you love and what it is to love someone without only looking on the outside. They dont judge you for what you lack, or what you did to them, for what lies you told and how you keep being the old same you, but they are there until you finally change or give in since they are so optimistic. The love is great, wonderful and abundant and sooooo joyful and unconditional with that you get swept away in their current and float in their cloud of Unconditional love and bliss.

[pretty-little-fairy-princess]

Quotes from Fire and Blood

Princess Rhaenyra was a different matter. Daemon spent long hours in her company, enthralling her with tales of his journeys and battles. He gave her pearls and silks and books and a jade tiara said once to have belonged to the Empress of Leng, read poems to her, dined with her, hawked with her, sailed with her, entertained her by making mock of the greens at court, the “lickspittles” fawning over Queen Alicent and her children. He praised her beauty, declaring her to be the fairest maid in all the Seven Kingdoms. Uncle and niece began to fly together almost daily, racing Syrax against Caraxes to Dragonstone and back.

Eagerly waiting for this scene...

[twinstxrs]

the gorgug-porter conversation is interesting to me because like. yea for the overwhelming majority of the conversation porter’s being shitty & trying to fit gorgug into a box that gorgug just does not fit into by trying to make gorgug’s relationship with his rage more focused on the aggression aspect of it. but then there’s also this specific thing that brennan brought up again in the ap, which is that gorgug’s relationship with his rage is wholly “this is a tool i use to protect my friends.” which isn’t a bad thing! but that’s his Whole relationship with it, & gorgug seems to place next to no value on his rage in relationship to himself. which is problematic, because it’s first & foremost his rage.

being raised in a household with a sort of toxic positivity largely meant that, whether or not it was his parents’ intention, gorgug internalized the message that more traditionally “negative” emotions such as anger are the wrong response to something. part of the reason he prioritizes his artificing is probably because it’s “fixing” things. in comparison to being a barbarian, which gorgug associates with “breaking” things. good vs. bad behavior, in his eyes.

it’s a totally unacceptable bar to measure a 16 y/o by, but i do think part of porter’s reasoning for not letting gorgug multiclass is him recognizing that gorgug generally does not value anger as a valid emotional response to something, at the very least for himself. & that directly conflicts with what being a barbarian is, because whether you like it or not, that rage is what fuels you. but again, barring a kid from pursuing something they deeply care about in part (not entirely, porter has a lot of more bullshit reasons) because of their fundamental values & world outlook is crazy.

so yes, 98% of porter’s reasoning is pretty shitty, immature, rife with a toxic view that there’s only one proper way to access rage, & generally not a good thing to do as a teacher, but also within that reasoning is the 2% of ‘there is a fundamental part of yourself that you only value if you can use it to take care of other people & you need to accept that as something that can take care of you, too.’ but that’s something to discuss with a therapist or a guidance counselor, not something that should hugely impact gorgug’s academic future.

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Spider-Man India, but... where from India?

A SUPER long post featuring talks of: cultural identity, characterisation, the caste system, and what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man.

I’m prefacing this by saying that I am a second-generation immigrant. I was born in Australia, but my cultural background is from South India. My experiences with what it means to be “Indian” is going to be very different from the experiences of those who are born and brought up in India.

If you, reader, want to add anything, please reblog and add your thoughts. This is meant to be a post open for discussion — the more interaction we get, the better we become aware of these nuances.

So I made this poll asking folks to pick a region of India where I would draw Pavitr Prabhakar in their cultural wear. This idea had been on my mind for a long while now, as I had been inspired by Annie Hazarika’s Northeastern Spidey artwork in the wake of ATSV’s release, but never got the time to actually do it until now. I wanted to get a little interactive and made the poll so I could have people choose which of the different regions — North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South — to do first.

The outcome was not what I expected. As you can see, out of 83 votes:

THE RESULTS

South India takes up almost half of all votes (44.6%), followed by Northeast and Central (both 14.5%) and then East (13.3%). In all my life growing up, support towards or even just the awareness of South India was pretty low. Despite this being a very contained poll, why would nearly half of all voters pick South India in favour of other popular choices like Central or North India?

Then I thought about the layout of the poll: Title, Options, Context.

Title: "Tell us who you want to see…"

Options: North, Northeast, Central, East, West, South

Context: I want to make art of the boy again

At first I thought: ah geez. this is my fault. I didn't make the poll clear enough. do they think I want them to figure out where Pavitr came from? That's not what I wanted, maybe I should have added the context before the options.

Then I thought: ah geez. is it my fault for people not reading the entire damn thing before clicking a button? That's pretty stupid.

But regardless, the thought did prompt a line of thinking I know many of us desi folk have been considering since Spider-Man India was first conceived — or, at least, since the announcement that he was going to appear in ATSV. Hell, even I thought of it:

Where did Spider-Man India come from?

FROM A CULTURALLY DIVERSE INDIA

As we know, India is so culturally diverse, and no doubt ATSV creators had to take that into account. Because the ORIGINAL Spider-Man India came from Mumbai — most likely because Mumbai and Manhattan both started with the same letter.

But going beyond that, it’s also because Mumbai is one of the most recognisable cities in India - it’s also known as Bombay. It’s where Bollywood films are shot. It’s where superstar Hindi actors and actresses show up. Mumbai is synonymous with India in that regard, because the easiest way Western countries can interact with Indian culture is through BOLLYWOOD, through HINDI FILMS, through MUMBAI. Suddenly, India is Mumbai, India is a Hindi-only country, India is just this isolated thing we see through an infinitely narrow lens.

We’ve gotten a little better in recent years, but boy I will tell you how uncomfortable I’ve gotten when people (yes, even desi people) come up to me and tell me, Oh, you’re Indian right? Can you speak Hindi? Why don’t you speak Hindi? You’re not Indian if you don’t speak Hindi, that’s India’s national language!

I have been — still am — so afraid of telling people that I don’t speak Hindi, that I’m Tamil, that I don’t care that Hindi is India’s “national” language (it’s an administrative language, Kavin, get your fucking facts right). It’s weird, it’s isolating, and it has made me feel like I wasn’t “Indian” enough to be accepted into the group of “Indian” people.

So I am thankful that ATSV went out of their way to integrate as much variety of Indian culture into the Mumbattan sequence. Maybe that way, the younger generation of desi folk won’t feel so isolated, and that younger Western people will be more open to learning about all these cultural differences within such a vast country.

BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIDER-MAN INDIA?

Everything, actually. There’s a thing called supremacy. You might have heard of it. We all engaged with it at some point, and if you are Indian, no matter where you live, it is inescapable.

It happens the moment you are born — who your family is, where you are born, the language you speak, the colour of your skin; these will be bound to you for life, and it is nigh impossible to break down the stereotypes associated with them.

Certain ethnic groups will be more favourable than others (Centrals, and thus their cultures, will always be favoured over than Souths, as an example) and the same can be said for social groups (Brahmins are more likely to secure influential roles in politics or other areas like priesthood, while the lowers castes, especially Dalits, aren’t even given the decency of respect). Don’t even get me started on colourism, where obviously those of fairer skin will win the lottery while those of darker skin aren’t given the time of day. It’s even worse when morality ties into it — “lighter skinned Indians, like Brahmins, embody good qualities like justice and wisdom”, “dark skinned Indians are cunning and poor, they are untrustworthy”. It’s fucking nuts.

This means, of course, you have a billion people trying to make themselves heard in a system that tries to crush everyone who is not privileged. It only makes sense that people want to elevate themselves and break free from a society that refuses to acknowledge them. These frustrations manifest outwardly, like in protests, but other times — most times — it goes unheard, quietly shaping your way of life, your way of thinking. It becomes a fundamental part of you, and it can go unacknowledged for generations.

So when you have a character like Pavitr Prabhakar enter the scene, people immediately latch onto him and start asking questions many Western audiences don’t even consider. Who is he? What food does he eat? What does he do on Fridays? What’s his family like, his community? All these questions pop up, because, amidst all this turmoil going on in the background, you want a mainstream popular character to be like you, who knows your way of life so intimately, that he may as well be a part of your community.

BUT THAT'S THE THING — HE'S FICTIONAL

I am guilty of this. In fact, I’ve flaunted in numerous posts how I think he’s the perfect Tamil boy, how he dances bharatanatyam, how he does all these Tamil things that no one will understand except myself. All these niche things that only I, and maybe a few others, will understand.

I’ve seen other people do it, too. I’ve seen people geek out over his dark brown skin, his kalari dhoti, how he fights so effortlessly in the kalaripayattu martial arts style. I’ve seen people write him as Malayali, as Hindi, as every kind of Indian person imaginable.

I’ve also seen him be written where he’s subjected to typical Indian and broader Asian stereotypes. You know the ones I’m so fond of calling out. The thing is, I’ve seen so much of Pavitr being presented in so many different ways, and I worry how the rest of the desi folk will take it. 

You finally have a character who could be you, but now he’s someone else’s plaything. Your entire life is shaped by what you can and can’t do simply because you were born to an Indian family, and here’s the one person who could represent you now at the mercy of someone else’s whims. He’s off living a life that is so distant from yours, you can hardly recognise him.

It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, yeah? But, again, you’re looking at it from that infinitely narrow lens Westerners use to look at India from Bollywood.

AND PAVITR PRABHAKAR DOESN'T LIVE IN INDIA

He lives in Mumbattan. He lives in a made-up, fictional world that doesn’t follow the way of life of our world. He lives in a city where Mumbai and Manhattan got fucking squashed together. There are so many memes about colonialism right there. Mumbattan isn’t real! Spider-Man India isn’t real!! He’s just a dude!! The logic of our world doesn’t apply to him!!!

“But his surname originates from ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he’s wearing a kalari dhoti so surely he’s ______” okay but does that matter?

“But his skin colour is darker so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

“But he lives in Mumbai so he must be ______” okay but does that matter?

I sound insensitive and brash and annoying and it looks like I’m yapping just for the sake of riling you up, so direct that little burst of anger you got there at me, and keep reading.

Listen. I’m going to ask you a question that I’ve asked myself a million times over. I want you to answer honestly. I want you to ask this question to yourself and answer honestly:

Are you trying to convince me on who Pavitr Prabhakar should be?

... but why shouldn't i?

I’ll tell you this again — I did the same thing. You’re not at fault for this, but I want you to just...have a little think over. Just a little moment of self-reflection, to think about why you are so intent on boxing this guy.

It took me a while to reorganise my thinking and how to best approach a character like Pavitr, so I will give you all the time you need as well as a little springboard to focus your thoughts on.

SPIDER-MAN (INDIA) IS JUST A MASK

“What I like about the costume is that anybody reading Spider-Man in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that’s a good thing.”

Stan Lee said that. Remember how he was so intent on making sure that everybody got the idea that Spider-Man as an entity is fundamentally broken without Peter Parker there to put on the suit and save the day? That ultimately it was the person beneath the mask, no matter who they were, that mattered most?

Spider-Man India is no less different. You can argue with me that Peter Parker!Spidey is supposed to represent working class struggles in the face of leering corporate entities who endanger the regular folk like us, and so Pavitr Prabhakar should also function the same way. Pavitr should also be a working class guy of this specific social standing fighting people of this other social standing.

But that takes away the authenticity of Spider-Man India. Looking at him through the Peter Parker lens forces you to look at him through the Western lens, and it significantly lessens what you can do with the character — suddenly, it’s a fight to be heard, to be seen, to be recognised. It’s yelling over each other that Pavitr Prabhakar is this ethnicity, is that caste, this or that, this or that, this or that.

There’s a reason why he’s called Spider-Man India, infuriatingly vague as it is. And that’s the point — the vagueness of his identity fulfils Lee’s purpose for a character that could theoretically be embodied by anyone. If he had been called “Spider-Man Mumbai”, you cut out a majority of the population (and in capitalist terms, you cut out a good chunk of the market).

And in the case of Spider-Man India? Whew — you’ve got about a billion people imagining a billion different versions of him.

Whoever you are, whatever you see in Pavitr, that is what is personal to you, and there is nothing wrong with that, and I will not fault you for it. I will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from Central due to the origins of his last name. I also will not fault you for saying Pavitr is from South due to him practising kalaripayattu. I also will not fault you for saying he is not Hindu. I also will not fault you for saying he is a particular ethnicity without any proof.

What I will fault you for is trying to convince me and the others around you that Pavitr Prabhakar should be this particular ethnicity/have this cultural background because of some specific reason. I literally don’t care and it is fundamentally going against his character, going against the “anyone can wear the mask” sentiment of Spider-Man. By doing this, you are strengthening the walls that first divided us. You’re feeding the stratification and segmentation of our cultures — something that is actually not present in the fictional world of Mumbattan.

Like I said before: Mumbattan isn’t real, so the divides between ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are practically nonexistent. The best thing is that it is visually there for all to see. My favourite piece of evidence is this:

It’s a marquee for a cinema in the Mumbattan sequence, in the “Quick tour: this is where the traffic is” section. It has four titles; the first three are written in Hindi. The fourth title is written in Tamil. You go to Mumbai and you won’t see a single shred of Tamil there, much less any other South Indian language. Seeing this for the first time, you know what went through my head?

Wow, the numerous cultures of India are so intermingled here in Mumbattan! Everyone and everything is welcome!

I was happy, not just because of Tamil representation, but because of the fact that the plethora of Indian cultures are showcased coexisting in such a short sequence. This is India embracing all the little parts that make up its grander identity. This scene literally opened my eyes seeing such beauty in all the diverse cultures thriving together. In a place where language and cultural backgrounds blend so easily, each one complementing one another.

It is so easy to believe that, from this colourful palette of a setting, Pavitr Prabhakar truly is Spider-Man India, no matter where he comes from.

It’s easy to believe that Pavitr can come from any part of India, and I won’t call you out if the origin you have for him is different from the origin I have. You don’t need to stake out territory and stand your ground — you’re entitled to that opinion, and I respect it. In fact, I encourage it!!!

Because there’s only so much you can show in a ten minute segment of a film about a country that has such a vast history and even greater number of cultures. I want to see all of it — I want him to be a Malayali boy, a Hindi boy, a Bengali boy, a Telugu boy, an Urdu boy, whatever!! I want you to write him or draw him immersed in your culture, so that I can see the beauty of your background, the wonderful little things that make your culture unique and different from mine!

And, as many friends have said, it’s so common for Indian folks to be migrating around within our own country. A person with a Maharashtrian surname might end up living in Punjab, and no one really minds that. I’m actually from Karnataka, my family speaks Kannada, but somewhere down the line my ancestors moved to Tamil Nadu and settled down and lived very fulfilling lives. So I don’t actually have the “pure Tamil” upbringing, contrary to popular belief; I’ve gotten a mix of both Kannada and Tamil lifestyles, and it’s made my life that much richer. 

So it’s common for people to “not” look like their surname, if that’s what you’re really afraid about. In fact, it just adds to that layer of nuance, that even despite these rigid identities between ethnicities we as Indian people still intermingle with one another, bringing slivers of our cultures to share with others. Pavitr could just as well have been born in one state and moved around the country, and he happens to live in Mumbattan now. It’s entirely possible and there’s nothing to disprove that.

We don’t need to clamber over one another declaring that only one ethnicity is the “right” ethnicity, because, again, you will be looking at Pavitr and the rest of India in that narrow Western lens — a country with such rich cultural variety reduced to a homogenous restrictive way of life.

THE POLL: REINTERPRETED

This whole thing started because I was wondering why my little poll was so skewed — I thought people assumed I was asking them where he came from, then paired his physical appearance with the most logical options available. I thought it was my fault, that I had somehow influenced this outcome without knowing.

Truth is, I will never really know. But I will be thankful for it, because it gave me the opportunity to finally broach this topic, something that many of us desi folk are hesitant to talk about. I hope you have learned something from this, whether you are desi or a casual Spider-Man fan or someone who just so happened to stumble upon this. 

So just…be a little more open. Recognise that India, like many many countries and nations, is made up of a plethora of smaller cultures. And remember, if you’re trying to convince Pavitr that he’s a particular ethnicity, he’s going to wave his hand at you and say, “Ha, me? No, I’m one of the people that live here in the best Indian city! I’m Spider-Man India, dost!”

(Regardless, he still considers you a friend, because to him, the people matter more to him than you trying to box him into something he’s not.)