#y'know normal healthy behavior

[beanghostprincess]

thing that might be obvious but still suddenly hit me like live fish to the face when i was not listening in class today:

luffy as a child hated being alone (still does, but it was more obvious back then) and knew that shanks and his crew would be leaving someday (leaving him alone, with only makino as his friend, but that's only one person, and shanks has a whole crew full of people)

shanks will not take luffy, because he's a child (because he's weak) so luffy feels like he needs to prove he's grown up (needs to prove he's strong) so maybe shanks will change his mind (so maybe shanks won't leave him)

what do the two strongest adults luffy knows (shanks and grandpa, one is going to leave, the other is almost never around) have in common? scars around their left eyes

luffy is not afraid of being hurt (it's worse to be alone than you be hurt) so of course he stabs himself next to his left eye (to have a scar like all the strongest people he knows)(to be strong)(to not be left alone again)

"When I was not listening in class today" me when I quit high school lmfao so real. I used to spend hours in class writing fanfics. Most of my best works were written in the middle of Philosophy at 8 am.

Oh. Yeah. Luffy's abandonment issues. Yeah. It's quite obvious that he's willing to go to extreme methods to avoid being alone. Relatable little shit. Not gonna call it self-harm but I just want to say that stabbing your cheek and being willing to starve to death (WCI) to not end up alone is a bit um.............. No, yeah, self-harm. Yeah. Not in a conventional way but y'know. It is what it is. We don't talk enough about how serious it is because "haha silly funny boy is so dramatic he stabs his face when he's a kid" but like- He- He stabs his fucking face when he's a kid because being alone and bored is way worse than getting hurt. He feels so lonely. At least he had a friend with Uta but then she suddenly disappeared from his life?? Without any warning?? And he ended up all alone again. I understand why he would want Shanks to take him with him no matter what. Even if he has to hurt himself to prove he's strong. He's been doing that for years. And, okay, WCI isn't exactly just for Sanji not to leave him but more for Sanji to realize Luffy needs him but, uh, same thing. Like it can be both to help Sanji and to be a lil bit tiny selfish in the sense of "if he leaves me I am killing myself" which is quite exactly what happens. Gay ass captain. Can't stand him. This is not healthy nor normal behavior irl btw but if you make it all poetic like that I am willing to let it slide. Love it, even. I love it.

But yeah, Luffy has a bit of a problem there. Somebody take him to therapy.

[yanderes-galore]

had gotten past the ep where we finally meet toxic rick yesterday ( also known as gunk! rick )

may i have a yandere toxic! rick concept or short ? you pick ^_^

Of course! Just keep in mind, there's going to be swearing if I do voicelines as that's just his character- No banner yet, will make one later ^^ Also, this an AU of the episode he's from. I had a concerning amount of brainrot for this idea so, it's a hybrid of a concept and short. Feedback is appreciated!

Note: This could seriously be a story all on its own, damn-

Color Guide

Rick - Healthy Rick

Rick - Toxic Rick

Morty - Healthy Morty

Morty - Toxic Morty

Yandere! Toxic/Gunk Rick Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Swearing (Like a lot of it, I went all out to be in character), Obsession, Manipulation, Sadism, Threats, Being covered in gunk, Disgusting behavior, Using gunk to mark you (?), Biting, Possessive behavior, Kidnapping, Dark themes, Toxic behavior obviously, This character is really dark, Selfish behavior, Moral conflict, Murder mentioned, Carving names into flesh mention, Implied regular Rick is Yandere, Healthy Rick x Reader also implied, Man I am sorry you had to see me go all out on the dark toxicity in this, but gotta keep it in character, For horror purposes all of this is wrong.

- Oh... where do I even start with him?

- His base personality alone is aggressive, egotistical, and entitled.

- Although he is protective of his Morty-

- He'd be a problem for you from the start.

- Once he's out of that container, it's like you let out a demon.

- Now, let's say in this concept, Regular Rick loved you.

- He could be Yandere for you and hide it well until he seperates the toxic traits from himself.

- That means Healthy Rick still loves you, but it's like... y'know, normal?

- He treats you well, expresses affection, overall is amazing to you.

- It's a welcome change.

- Meanwhile Toxic Rick recieves all of the Yandere traits.

- While he's in that container, he's panicked.

- He can't find you.

- He sees his stupid Morty, but he can't find you!

- You still plague his mind yet he can't have you-

- He is going to, of course, blame Rick and his Morty.

- He cares for his Morty but also blames him for... everything.

- Then he hates Rick because he has you and Rick doesn't.

- "God damn it, Morty! That Rick has (Y/N). Keeping (Y/N) all for himself like the selfish prick he is!"

- It's very ironic that he thinks Rick is the selfish one.

- Once he's able to see you again, it's when Rick, Morty, and you check the monitor on the machine to fuse them with their counterparts.

- Then he sees you... and goes feral.

- "THERE YOU ARE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH HIM!? YOU'RE MINE, ALWAYS HAVE BEEN. GET ME OUT OF HERE, HE DOESN'T DESERVE YOU."

- Rick is suddenly upset about having to fuse with... him.

- "Agh... (Y/N), was I really like that? I'm sorry... I hope I can better myself when this is over. Go home, I'll take care of this."

- You embrace Rick, as you prefer this version, then run home.

- Rick starts screaming about this but you refuse to listen.

- You didn't want to be there when Rick has to fuse with... that-

- "Just text me when it's over...."

- This begins your long wait at home.

- You watch TV and try to put your mind at ease.

- It'll be okay, Rick is still... well himself, he'll text when things are okay.

- You get no text, much to your fear.

- You actually get a knock on the door.

- One a bit too intense.

- "Heyyy, baby, I know you're in there."

- You say nothing, backing away from the door and quickly look for an alternate route.

- "You're going to ignore me now, aren't you!? All because you think you deserve some piece of shit like that other Rick. You don't, no, you never did."

- Another bang on the door, it sounds like he threw himself at it.

- "You get to have ME. The ONLY one good enough for YOU. WHY WOULD I JUST LET YOU GET WITH SOMEONE ELSE, HUH!? Open this fucking door!"

- You refuse and leave to find your other door.

- "MORTY! BE USEFUL AND BLOCK THE OTHER DOOR."

- You're running at this point, trying to open your secondary door.

- It doesn't move and you hear whimpering from the other side.

- You panic when you hear your front door burst open.

- "I'm sick and tired of sharing...."

- You mutter 'no' as Rick corners you like a large cat.

- "Come on, baby, it's not like I'll let you leave without me anyway. Want to know why?"

- He leans closer, disgusting slimy hand touching your cheek.

- "Because. You're. MINE!"

- Toxic Rick's Yandere behavior is Obsessive, Manipulative, Possessive, Sadistic, Violent, Protective, and Egotistical.

- He makes things all about him.

- He also uses Morty against you.

- Rick gets Morty to help him keep you.

- He also makes you feel bad for Morty.

- "Love him, don't you? I love him too, but you shouldn't love him more than me. You don't, right!?"

- He's obsessive over you.

- Probably likes to spread gunk all over you in a disgusting attempt to show you're his.

- Yet that's expected of someone literally having toxic in his name.

- He's manipulative and forceful.

- He'll get you to do what he wants with threats, usually threatening you or others around you.

- Possessive... like more than Normal Rick surprisingly.

- Normal Rick atleast holds it back at times.

- Toxic Rick? No, not in the slightest.

- He does everything to show who you're meant to be with.

- Covering you in gunk, biting, violence, tight holds, he hates the idea of giving you up.

- Gets so pissed when you try to wash off the gunk, too.

- "What the hell do you think you're doing, (Y/N)!?"

- Would probably be the type of Yandere to carve his name into your flesh.

- Would be incredibly sadistic with making you in pain.

- Especially with punishment.

- He finds your pain delightful and wants you to regret considering leaving him.

- He would kill people in a heartbeat.

- Probably sets up a security system around the perimeter of your house to see if anyone comes near you.

- Especially that other Rick or any like him.

- Like with his Morty, he can be protective at times.

- Although it's hard to tell between his possessive and protective behavior.

- Lastly, he's egotistical.

- He feels he is a God over you.

- You should worship him as he is what you deserve.

- He dehumanizes you by forcing you in his lap, patting your head like you're a domestic animal.

- You cringe the whole time, feeling his gunk seep onto your skin.

- You can't get rid of it, like you can't get rid of him.

- You hope Rick is okay and is working on a way to save you....

- You miss him and Rick can tell.

- This angers him but no matter what he does, you don't change your ways.

- "GIVE HIM UP! You have me! You only need me!"

- His affection and behavior is disgusting and filthy.

- Once Rick does find you, one way or another, he's surprised at your condition.

- You're covered in flith and gunk, head to toe in green.

- You then dart towards him and cling to him, scream crying.

- "RICK! GET RID OF HIM, PLEASE, I WAS WAITING FOR YOU."

- Rick is now on edge on what he needs to do.

- If he gets rid of Rick, he'll never be himself.

- If he fuses with him, however... who's to say he won't be just as bad as this?

- Is this how he truly feels about you?

- To the point of being a monster?

- What's the right course of action in this scenario?

- He looks down at you in sympathy...

- If he fuses with Rick again, does he really deserve you?

[chaifootsteps]

Its nice to see a content creator like Goosework trying to make their fandom a nice and healthy community where everyone respect each other. I think we should normalize this; usually content creators just ignore the toxiness in their community until its affect them personally, i think the internet could be a better place if more creators said "hey if youre gonna form part of my community dont be a dick to others! Not even the ones who dislike me, thank you".

Its great what Goose is doing. Unlike Little Miss "criticisim about my works makes me throw tantrums like a bayby in social media" who likes comments on twitter where her fans call people who dont like her horrible things and never speaks up when her fans are publicity harrassing some kid who made a video saying her show aint that good, y'know who im talking about.

Honestly, I don't blame creators who make it a point to never look in on what their fandoms are doing. I don't blame them one bit. The problem is when you get people like Vivzie who actively, intentionally encourage toxic behavior.

But I love that Goose is taking a proactive "You're my kids and you're going to sit up straight and act right" approach with the TADC fandom. I think fandom as a whole has been starved for that.

[m-to-z-andbackto-m]

I have a bitty Horror draft somewhere, but I feel like I never talk about Cross sooo

Bitty!Cross HeadCannons!

Bitty!Killer HeadCannons

Bitty!Dust HeadCannons

He's definitely low maintenance, very independent and normally relaxed

Easily homesick so he's okay with staying at home alone, absolutely a good choice for first time owners and if you have work or school

He might come off as standoffish at first, but that's just the stress of being adopted into a new home, please be patient with him <3

He's a huge sweetheart with the right influence and environment, however, depending on his previous owner(s) and house mates, it really depends, he can range from nervous/shy to feisty/reserved

He's pretty tame, and after a while of getting used to you, will accept and even enjoy affection, physical and verbal

Chocolate is his favorite treat, this is pretty common knowledge, he'll warm up to you faster if you coax him out with such a treat, also favorite lunch is tacos and I feel like he'll settle for other Mexican foods

I feel like he'd like the variety boxes and chocolate flavored things, and it instantly grabs his attention every time you bring something new home to try, I think he'd enjoy the soft insides of Lindor milk chocolate

I feel like he'd like parkour kinda things, entertains him at home to arrange various items to climb and jump over across, it also keeps him healthy and exercised!

Once you notice this, you probably should find bitty courses for him to play with, but nothing too stationary, something customizable, and buy him random obstacles and keep random things around for him to use

He could probably gain an interest in drawing, depending on you, maybe if paired with an Ink bitty (Considering bitties can't cause UnderVerse 😭)

I think he feels like a nerd, maybe he'd like watching anime and playing games with you, if you can find a compatible controller that is haha!

Although he's compatible with most bitties, he does best with Epic, however, they cause mischief together and maybe then it's not a great idea to leave them alone without some ground rules (They will draw two balls and a stick all over your walls, I'm telling you 😭)

He loves rewards, he'll be on his best behavior if he knows he'll get rewarded for it, I'd assume he has some pride, but not too big of an ego, just a healthy amount y'know?

That being said, he won't sacrifice a treat for Epic's shenanigans and that should keep them in check

He'd probably do small, but sweet gestures, he doesn't mind that you don't notice them, as long as he knows he's helpful

Okay let me backtrack to when you first get him, y'know, due to moving anxiety and possible bad past owners, he might be a little impulsive, might bite and claw at you, randomly be on guard even after you think you're bonding, BAM, yeah it might take a little bit but as soon as he realizes he has a good home that's not going anywhere, he'll mellow out

I'd say overall he's a pretty well-behaved and enjoyable bitty, might get a little clingy when he can, but very peaceful, take good care of him <3

Also never mention cows.

[cosmic-cd]

BODY PART BLAST ! ! ! ! 🧠 + 💀 + ❤️ for the dimension cross crew for the OC ask meme w

ACK!! OUGH!!! AGH!!!! TERRIFYING!!!! (HIIIII MIO)

answering these for all four beasts, so this is gonna be a little long!!!

(Answering questions from this ask meme! if anyone would like, feel free to send in more questions!!)

🧠 - What do you like most about the OC?

RGB - she's my beloved fursona!!!!! a single quality is hard to pick... but i'll say her personality is very fun to write because it lets me flip between RGB Is An 8 Foot Tall Furry Thing who loves enrichment (jumping straight into highly dangerous situations for fun and causing trouble on purpose) and RGB is in REAL danger she can't just escape conveniently from and has a far more nervous, cautious side underneath the very intense confidence.......

Gear - my baby boy angel sweet boy i love him i'm grabbing him with my teeth and shaking him around violently. it's kind of the personality again (even though i adore his design and i'm so proud of him as a whole) my favorite thing about him is 100% the fact i somehow combined four decently different favorite characters into one guy, and that makes him INCREDIBLY fun to write.

the bold and daring recklessness + being wildly overpowered from sonic, the knack for inventing and being the little brother from tails, the jadedness and charisma + voice & some other traits from barney calhoun, and also inventing but unhinged about it a bit from The Engineer TF2... he is the guy of all time to me

Source - oh they are just an absolute goddamn blast to write. i think my favorite part about him though is just the tonal dissonance between his personality and his backstory, and similarly to RGB- the change in behavior when things have flipped from danger for fun to real danger. funny mushroom in a fursuit (tragic, miserable, so soggy and sad)

DC - DC's like my least developed dimension cross member and i feel bad about it!!!!! i LOVE their design to pieces.. but i think if i had to choose a trait about them so far- it's the fact they come across as the most anxious and shy member of the D/C crew, but they may be the most unhinged. (y'know. the whole uh. surgically installing their own cyborg enhancements thing.) they care a lot about the crew and ensure they're healthy in a safe manner- i wouldn't QUITE put them in the bracket of being like the Medic TF2, but. concerning. sometimes.

💀 - Does your OC have any phobias?

RGB - Insectophobia, arachnophobia, (but this really only applies to small normal bugs and not big or anthropomorphic ones, amusingly) and mild claustrophobia. She doesn't mind cramming herself into small cozy spaces voluntarily (like a cat) but involuntarily is a different story (hates smaller ships and small rooms)

Gear - Way worse claustrophobia- Some small spaces are OK voluntarily (especially if he's making repairs in the walls of the ship), but he gets nervous in very close quarters. also mildly afraid of deep water (though unlike sonic, he can swim, at least)

Source - Doesn't have any phobias per se- But has a healthy fear of fire, and a general fear of rain. (i wonder why)

DC - this worm can fit so much anxiety...... Extreme phobia of deep water (can't swim) and ironically kind of afraid of like. regular worms. like earth worms. they have so many fears otherwise though <3 and a tendency to faint

❤️ - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

RGB - The day she met Gear.

Gear - The day he and RGB finally bought the cargo ship they'd been saving for, changing the course of their lives forever.

Source - When an act of kindness cut through the curtain of heavy rain, offering a hand to a lonely creature. Or, uh- that time he ate a bug that RGB was hiding from. Either one.

DC - The day they finished medical school... What, that's boring? (and RGB's isn't?) Okay, okay. The day they completed their thesis- proving that cybernetic limbs could work, and that the nervous system of their species could absolutely be compatible with artificial limbs and the brain would take to it like a charm with little issue. (of course, they immediately were kicked out and not given a medical license, but that's okay, the achievement was way more important. if their species, a bunch of fuzzy worms off the string with arms, couldn't handle the scientific advancement of legs- then that was their loss!)

[direwombat]

2, 11, 12, and 18 for the OTP asks🖤 both pairings if you feel up to it! I'd love to snoop on the difference for Syb! Please and thank you😌💕

fd;lajfdahhh thank you and sorry this took so long for me to get to whoops. anyway. there's a lot of similarities between jakesyb and sybeli (girl has a type and it's rugged mountain man, what can I say?) but there are definitely some differences (mostly that sybeli is actually a fairly healthy and normal relationship f;lakjfafdadlf;j)

2. Any sleep habits either had to get used to?

lmao no, not really. mostly because neither of them sleep if they can't help it. they're both "late to bed, early to rise." there's always more work to be done, so they occasionally go a few days without sleeping (also they like to avoid the Nightmares). but they do find that they sleep better when they're together which is a welcome surprise.

11. What is their love language?

I mean multiple apply, but if I had to pick one, it'd be acts of service. they will do absolutely anything for each other (whether they like it or not lmao). they're both cut from the same self-sacrificial cloth and are willing to die for each other. but also...it's in the little things; a fresh cup of coffee after the previous one has gone cold. packing extra supplies because they know the other is going to need it. stuff like that :)

12. How Are there communication skills?

BAD. OVERWHELMINGLY BAD. at least at first. both of them would rather pull their own teeth than have a single conversation that involves any kind of vulnerability. but what they don't express verbally they do pick up on in body language/behavior. they grow out of it eventually (ie, once syb finally gets it through her thick skull that the love is mutual), but it takes a while. that said, even when they were enemies, they were good at communicating during combat the handful of times they were on the same side. they aren't awful as a team and as they grow closer, get better at communicating, and eventually end up on the same side, they actually make a fucking terrifying duo.

18. Evening rituals?

i'm choosing to interpret this as "before bed" rituals because time is meaningless they'll go to bed at noon after staying up for 72+ hours. that pre-sleeptime ritual typically consists of them showering (or bathing) together, giving each other back massages, and then syb will put on a record or the radio and Jacob will read (sometimes quietly to himself, sometimes out loud to her if she asks him to) and if they're lucky they'll both fall asleep curled up together <3

2. Any sleep habits either had to get used to?

lol kinda same deal as with jakesyb. neither of them sleep very much (in their "canon" verse). jacob never sleeps so they can't afford to either. if anything I think it's mostly just the two of them getting used to finding the other just passed out somewhere in the bunker (having obviously fallen asleep in the middle of an activity).

11. What is their love language?

(again, assuming i can only pick one) quality time. they're friends before they're anything else, so a lot of their relationship developed just...hanging out, scouting/hunting together, watching the security cams, taking inventory, and cleaning their weapons. they just really like hanging out with each other <3

12. How Are there communication skills?

f;alksfdjaldfk well...syb's communication skills are about the same (bad) but eli is significantly better at it than Jacob is. he'll...y'know...actually talk about things that are upsetting him whereas syb keeps things bottled up. his healthier emotional habits eventually start rubbing off on her and he manages to coax her into opening up but it takes fucking work.

18. Evening rituals?

time is meaningless when you're fighting a holy war against a skilled and aggressive soldier. but when they eventually do decide it's bedtime (as opposed to passing out wherever they are) their ritual is: swap between the single person shower and brushing teeth, and just kind of stumble into bed (ie, they're sharing a tiny little cot or that couch in the bunker). sometimes sex happens if they have enough energy, but most of the time they just pass out in a tangle of limbs.

[bulldyke-rider]

My ask about being unnecessary rude and short wasn't about the lesbian post but just an assessment of your blog and your attitude in general regarding everything. Saying things like "I swear ya'll would be in favor of lobotomies" is an example of how extreme you get and how far you reach to justify your behavior. You seem to be filled with anger but I can't exactly blame you for it. "You're telling me I'm mean but not her?" instead of reflecting on your own behavior, which is like a key part of therapy btw. That's why I suggested it but I see now that you're someone who thinks therapy is bad for some reason, which explains a lot and checks out sadly... I'm just saying that being constantly angry and hostile is not a healthy state to be in. Constantly hating something and being in the defense like someone whose been cornered, cannot be enjoyable for you either in the long run. I'm sorry if you read my ask and your first thought truly was "You're just upset because you disagree with me" instead of reflection. That would be just sad.

I'm not constantly angry tho. And what am I reflecting on? I dislike homophobia. There, I'm mad when women are homophobic. Like, how is that something I need therapy for?

How about you reflect on why you even think it's your business to tell a woman she needs therapy because she's irritated sometimes. Everyone is allowed to go on and on about hating men, but if I'm mad about homophobia, it's because I'm mentally ill.

I mean, how are you telling me I'm supposed to reflect? If someone punched you in the face, you wouldn't need to go reflect if you hit them back. That's a normal thing to do. If people come to me being rude or if people are homophobic, I don't think I need to reflect about being too big of a bitch.

I don't lay down and take it. But y'know, if you wanna reflect all your self respect away, go ahead.

[sapphirelycoris]

hi, so u’re taking requests, and if it’s not much trouble, can i have an ushijima fluff? the team r surprised that his s/o is the total opposite of him and yadda, yadda.. tia :D

 Author's note: Hey anon 👋🏽! Thank you so much for my first request! Also, since you didn’t specify a gender, I’ll keep it gender neutral. I hope this is what you were looking for!

Ship: Wakatoshi Ushijima x gn!reader (you, your)

Warnings: Not proofread?

Ushijima with an S/O who's the complete opposite of him.

Shiratorizawa

Alright, let’s set the scene here real quick. You and Ushijima got together at some point before your third year of high school. You just never really got around to telling people about your relationship.

So it’s not necessarily secret but it isn’t common knowledge either.

Let’s imagine that it's two/three weeks into the new year and you're wondering how your boyfriend is getting along with the new first years.

He could be pretty blunt and hard to get along with at first. You worried for the new players and how they would respond to his straightforward personality. It's just how he is.

Now you on the other hand... you're very expressive. People can tell when you're happy, sad, etc. You can get a bit rowdy and a tad bit emotional.

Sometimes you can get a little indirect and roundabout with what you're trying to say, mainly to sound less harsh and spare someone's feelings. Contrasting to Ushijima, you tend to find lots of minor meanings in a jokes someone tells.

One day after volleyball practice, you peek into the gym to see the team dynamic.

After Ushijima finishes a conversation, he waves at you and you walk over to him.

Many of the second and third years know you but your relationship to their captain is a mystery. (Due to no PDA in front of others, pet names, overall couple-y behavior.)

"Who is this?" Goshiki inquires.

"This is (Name)." Your boyfriend responds dryly, not diving into your relationship.

"Yep, I'm (Name). Wakatoshi's S/O."

I can just picture everyone who knows you just has their jaw hanging. There are some hushed "what"s "they're really dating Ushijima?"

Some of them might also finally understand why you're so close all of the time and the wheels in their head start turning.

It's kind of a light bulb moment. Like, "Ah. This explains a lot."

Your overall demeanor is completely different from Ushijima's. You're approachable and sweet. Not the least bit threatening. And you're standing next to that intimidating giant of a man.

It's almost like seeing day and night right next to each other.

Of course, you two are going to get hit with so many questions. How you met, how you got together, who asked who out. Y'know, normal things couples get asked.

"How come I never knew!?" Tendō asks in disbelief.

"We kind of just assumed you knew."

You're immediately accepted by all of the members and treat you like you're part of the team. When Ushijima gives them some harsh criticism, you can expect them to run to you for some words of encouragement.

You get the best seats at games, the players' protection 24/7.

Word kind of spreads through the school and now you're officially known to the public as Ushijima's S/O.

At the end of the day, they'd all still be quite amazed how a bright ball of energy is with a stoic and usually speechless guy like Ushijima.

But, it really doesn't matter what people thought of you two because you both would stick with each other till the end.

Everyone could see how well you worked together, what one lacked, the other one covered for. It was a healthy and wholesome relationship that proves opposites can attract.

[allexteriordark]

i think the claustrophobic nature of sam and dean's relationship manifests itself not only in direct problems between them, in direct conflict between them, or them and other people for that matter, but in uhh slight ways. too

they're the only people that truly matter to each other, they've lost their dad and they've lost friends, that's the hunter life. no one else is a constant (they make sure the other stays a constant of course). there are no opportunities for healthy relationships and therefore healthy development of personalities and there's no growth in their world like there is in real life. they only have each other so they only hurt each other so they can't help each other, can never truly set the other straight. so instead of resolving things even remotely like normal people and drawing the correct conclusions about their own selves, when they're guilty and when their actions are justified, i mean instead of operating within like, regular ethics.. they get more tangled up in each other, and tangled up in the insecurities and fears and fucked up patterns of behavior that have followed them around their whole lives

and this is their whole lives. saving people, hunting things, loving my brother and staying by his side. that's what they did when they should've been having epiphanies and when they were supposed to y'know develop moral codes? like you figure that shit out along the way, in life, your morality and what's truly important to you, and well i just think instead of becoming better people and growing up, in a lot of ways, they chose Hunting With Brother gysgxy

in conclusion, i can't help but see this and see them like this, when i'm watching the show: they make each other worse<3

[yahargul]

Re: the whole jc punching wwx thing, it’s really amazing how quickly and comprehensively this fandom managed to turn me off on the entire “yunmeng bros” relationship with this crap. I used to like reading reconciliation fic! But so many of them are focused on Making WWX Apologize while jc changes nothing about his behavior because being cruel is “how he shows love” and I just. Cannot. I’d rather they just stay away from e/o forever if that’s how it’s gonna be.

very telling how they think poor people should be so grateful to their "saviors" that they should just ignore any abuse and instead be completely deferential regardless of the circumstances. very telling how they think "lower class" people should be subjected to physical violence or emotional abuse by their caretakers bc any sign of being 'ungrateful' is enough to justify it. 🤨

as for reconciliation i never really foresaw any more big speeches after the golden core conversation bc i think they said everything they needed to - everything was done, it happened, theres no point dwelling on it. wwx has a new life that has nothing to do with jc. outside of maybe running into each other at night hunts or sect meetings i think that's about as far as their story went. maybe that's what makes jc stans so mad cause wwx has his own life and he considers his debt paid and is moving on like y'know. a normal healthy person

[causticsunshine]

ok i'm gonna rant for a second because as a returned fan who's also a returned larrie and a big loud trans queer person, i just wanna say that the fan pov on HL as both a coupling and individuals is my favorite and most behated discourse, like—

1. half of y'all are still pulling top/bottom discourse in 2021 and trying to equate physical attributes, mannerisms, and even personal aesthetics to sexual preferences like that has any bearing over shit...did you read a bad BL like junjou romantica in middle school and just internalize all those dynamics??

2. also a lot of you in number one also think that top = dom and bottom = sub and that also is determined by physical stature and personal aesthetics, as well as dictating a person's entire personality, so i gotta ask—are you the same person in the bedroom as you are in the workplace? with friends or family? does your love for, i dunno, wearing bracelets mean you also like being dominated and handcuffed? i just wanna understand the logic??

1b. + 2b. you do know that being vers is a thing right.....that also exists....just, y'know, to take into consideration....

3. accusing people—particularly! trans and nonbinary people!—who don't believe harry is cis of being transphobic because you don't like their understanding + relatability to things he's said about gender and how he showcases himself as well as speaking over them to try and reason his 'true identity' by using your weird obsession gender binaryism as fallback reasoning is the actual transphobia, but go off i guess.

4. constantly trying to pit harry and louis against each other—and/or against the other 1d guys, other artists—and argue over who has it worse, who's choosing to stay closeted, who's more or less committed to the relationship, etc. is so vile i genuinely don't even want to talk to you.

4b. and i don't mean 'oh i'm more into louis' music/look/etc. so i pay a little more attention to him' or 'i've always felt drawn to harry for x reason so i'm more tuned into what he's doing' or any kind of normal/healthy "favoritism" that may include going back and forth between the two of them depending on what's going on at the time. i mean: picking a favorite between the two and toeing the line of toxic solo behavior by constantly putting the other one down so you can praise and baby your poor little meow meow at every turn. i hardly think you can call yourself a larrie if you're doing this.

5. too many people read portrait-of-a-you-know-what's blog for too long and internalized a lot of his thoughts in his downward spiral into a conspiracy theory-riddled anti that hates harry and thinks he's choosing to be closeted for pity or clout or what and poor louis, because i see so much of the favoritism links back to that person's reasoning for changing his mind on things + using his ""credentials"" to reason being in the right when in reality, he was literally just going off the rails by feeding into all the BS media fodder. also what credentials?? i wanna see that certificate!

6. i have a personal nitpick over the 'mommy louis' rhetoric that goes hand-in-hand with posing harry as this big dom Man and making louis into this small submissive uwu baby archetype who just wants his big strong husband to seed his curvy body's absent womb aka blouie rhetoric sorry not sorry that also dives into the momrry mindset primarily originating from harry's years-long clear adoration of pregnancy and babies rather than trying to fit him into a box related to cis womanhood + maternity—in turn satisfying gender binaryism once again!—but we'll get into that another day

anyway:

[cruelfeline]

I find this to be one of my favorite Entrapdak scenes. Well. "Favorite." It's not heartwarming, obviously. Hordak is at his worst here: the most aggressive he's been towards Entrapta since she installed herself in his Sanctum. It's unpleasant to see, the sort of thing that makes one cringe upon viewing, and yet... it's interesting, this show of aggression. It's interesting to pick apart, to understand why he turns on her so suddenly, to assess if he's actually dangerous, abusive, when acting this way, if he truly means her harm. And, at risk of bringing down the wrath of a huge portion of this fandom, it's interesting to compare it to some rough Catradora moments, too.

First and foremost: why does he lose his composure here? Is he simply angry about the portal not working, as he suggests? Is he using his aggression to force Entrapta to work faster, to intimidate her as punishment for a lack of progress? Mm... I don't think so. I don't think his aggression is an attempt to bully or hurt or control Entrapta in any way. If it was, we’d have seen it more often during their other scenes together.

To my eyes, Hordak has abysmal emotional coping skills. Like, he is almost entirely deficient in any sort of ability to identify, manage, and resolve his own negative emotions in a healthy manner. Which isn't surprising, y'know? He's a clone soldier who was likely never meant to live his own, free life; he would have never had any sort of education in emotional coping skills.

In this scene, Adora says the magic word. She says "fail," and we all know that Hordak cannot handle the thought of being a failure, of being a defective clone good only for death on the frontlines. 

He loses his composure immediately upon hearing this word, and said composure loss leads to a flare-up of his condition. His armor sparks, he collapses to his knees, and he experiences what is not just a moment of weakness in front of an enemy, but essentially a confirmation of this failure.

I can imagine how he feels: beyond just the physical pain of the flare, I can imagine his shame, his self-loathing as his weakness is laid bare for this supposedly ineffectual young girl to see. I can imagine that little voice in his head telling him that she's right.

And because Hordak lacks any and all healthy emotional coping skills, he addresses these painful thoughts the only way he knows how: with anger. Now, you'd think he'd direct that anger at Adora, but he actually does something I've seen stressed, emotionally aroused, frightened animals do: he redirects the aggression.

Redirected aggression is a term describing what happens when an animal, displaying aggression towards a particular subject, cannot reach that subject, or is interrupted in some way, and instead redirects onto someone or something unrelated. Think of... oh... getting bitten while breaking up a dog fight. Or trying to comfort a cat hissing at a stray outside the window, only to have the cat bite or swat at you instead. The animal's aggression isn't meant for you, but you are the closest thing to vent their distress upon, so you end up getting hurt.

Now, Hordak is obviously not an animal (does this happen in humans? I have no idea), but he appears to behave along similar principles: angered by Adora's words, distressed by his health issues, he reacts violently toward the gentle touch of Entrapta's hair. Not because he's angry at her, or because he's trying to intimidate or hurt her, but because he's in a stressed state and snaps at even a slight stimulus. He likely would have reacted this way to anyone, and it's just bad luck that Entrapta was the one to provide that stimulus.

It's like a dramatic version of being grumpy after a bad day at work and snapping at your friend when they ask you what's wrong.

Is it a good thing, or even a neutral thing? No, obviously not. It hurts Entrapta and potentially leaves her wondering if perhaps he is rejecting her (especially, I think, once she’s been on Beast Island for a while). It’s something that he should apologize for, should he ever get the chance, because it was entirely uncalled for and hurt someone who only wanted to offer him comfort. 

That said, is it a truly dangerous, abusive thing? Is it intended to hurt and control someone close to him? I don’t think so, really. I can’t see it as such. Rather, it’s an indicator of Hordak having poor emotional responses because he does not know how to handle his own sense of inadequacy and shame. And acting out because he has underdeveloped coping skills. 

A bit of an aside: does Hordak need to learn to extinguish his anger? Well; I would say that that’s a bit more complicated. 

While Hordak would certainly benefit from learning to handle his emotions in a less damaging fashion (eg. not lashing out at others), I don’t think the answer here is teaching him to suppress anger. Anger, healthily experienced, is a perfectly normal emotion; it should not be marked as a negative thing. More importantly, it’s not the root of his problem. The root of Hordak’s problem is his own dismal opinion of himself, the shame he feels when his body falters, or when he’s unable to immediately succeed in a task. This is what ultimately needs to be addressed; once that happens, I have a sense that these sorts of outbursts would diminish and eventually cease.

Now, I’m going to switch gears here and talk about some similarly unpleasant moments between Catra and Adora, mainly because these moments, to me, appear much more indicative of a dangerous relationship and serve as evidence of emotional abuse. They serve as a good counter-example of what I would consider abuse, rather than what Hordak does to Entrapta.

if I disappear in the next 24 hours it’s because the Catradorans have retaliated ;)

So. How are Catra’s interactions with Adora more abusive than Hordak yelling at Entrapta and swatting away her hair?

Actual physical fighting/clawing/legitimate bodily harm aside, when Catra taunts Adora, there is a sense that she is specifically targeting her in a way that she knows will hurt. 

It’s difficult to read these moments as “Catra vented shame and self-loathing on someone who touched her at the wrong time.” In many of them, Catra is entirely in control of herself and the situation, not off-balance in front of an enemy, recovering from a shock as Hordak was. She takes her time to engage Adora in a very deliberate manner. She’s cunning. She’s practiced. She’s predatory.

She belittles Adora, focusing on aspects of the girl’s life that she knows cause insecurity and doubt. Aspects like failing her friends, failing the world, being at fault for other people suffering and dying. She does this with complex, thought-out dialogue, planned jabs at Adora’s self-esteem. There is a legitimate cruelty to how Catra speaks to her, for she appears to delight in watching Adora distress and doubt herself as a result of her taunts. 

Comparing these moments to Hordak’s outburst, one can appreciate the difference: these calculated personal attacks are a world apart from someone briefly lashing out in an instance of sudden pain. There is no mistaking that there is an intent to harm here. Rooted in a traumatic childhood or not, there is no discounting that a targeted, focused emotional assault on someone, specifically picking out and using their deep insecurities, is an abhorrent thing to do. 

So. Back to Hordak and Entrapta. Certainly not their finest moment, but it’s not something that makes me worry for Entrapta’s safety (while Adora’s safety in terms of Catra... hmm...). Rather, it makes me sad; I know that it stems directly from Hordak’s insecurities and, rather than being something he truly meant to do, likely contributes to his low self-worth. I would not be surprised if his snapping at her ended up being one of the things that led to him believing Catra’s lies: he was mean, he was aggressive, and so he didn’t deserve Entrapta’s friendship. He lashed out at her, so she left. She left, and it was his fault. Not true, of course, but I can see him rationalizing it like that.

My takeaway: he needs to work on this, of course, but like many of his issues, I feel that the key to resolution lies less in manipulating his specific behaviors (ie. there’s no reason to punish him for it) and more in addressing the root cause. Hordak needs to unlearn the shame and self-hatred he’s been taught to feel whenever he falters. At the same time, he needs to learn healthy ways of expressing his emotions. And while he may end up making further missteps along the way, I don’t worry for Entrapta or any future companions he might have. There’s nothing predatory, nothing cruel about this aspect of him. Rather, there’s further proof of deep-seated insecurities and inexperience that can be eased by patience and care.

[mothernatureknows]

Ok for that multimuse grape vine meme *cracks knuckles*

🍇 Kai x Zephyr about each other?

 💞 Maddy’s thoughts on possible Luna x Minwoo? 👀 or Peter…or both 👀 + Eve’s thoughts on Maddy x Min?

📂 Hazel’s thoughts on our Mer au kai x min thread? Or zephyr’s thoughts??

 👍 something Maddy likes about Luna and Luna likes about Maddy? And something Kai and Zephyr like about Hazel (and Hazel likes about them???)

🍇 - Muse A to comment on Muse B’s eating habit (favorite food, least favorite, eating etiquette, ect) -- Kai & Zephyr

"Zephyr's eating habits are honestly quite shameful. The amount of meat I have seen this bird scarf down throughout our traveling is really sickening," Kai manages to say with a relatively straight face, a slight shiver of disgust running down his spine. "The worst part of it is that he favors fish! He openly flaunts his fish tacos and wild salmon in front of my face and expects me to just accept it. I almost smacked him because a piece of dead fish landed on my plate once." The siren sighs, shaking his head. "I got him back though," he smirks, "He found an unsettling pile of birdseed in his meals for a week."

"Kai is a little too special about his food. Most of the time, he's complaining about there not being enough sea-friendly meals," Zephyr rolls his eyes. "I mean, the dude doesn't just go out there and try some food, y'know? I get the whole 'no-fish' thing, but it gets annoying sometimes when you kindly offer something to someone, and they just don't want it because they're picky." He sighs. "One thing I can commend him on: he makes a really mean, vegan scallops dish. It tastes so good."

💞- Muse A to comment on Muse B’s relationships and/or people they know

Maddy on Luna x Minwoo:

"Luna and Minwoo? Well, I know they both make an excellent babysitting team! Whenever Min and I are out, they always take really good care of them and the girls absolutely love their auntie and uncle," she says, absentmindedly writing down some errands for work. "Well, come to think of it, Penelope has asked if they were together, since they are auntie and uncle...I think I might be able to see it? Luna is really secretive about her love interests, and I don't want to bother her with any personal questions or assume otherwise. Minwoo is a sweetheart, but I don't know if Luna would be too much for him?" her brows furrow. "I don't mean to be condescending about Luna's behavior but she can be a little...intense, sometimes. Minwoo’s more gentle and soft-spoken, compared to her. Then again, Minwoo might just be the right person to anchor her when it all gets to be too much. They could easily balance each other out, too. Whatever they choose, I will definitely support it!"

Maddy on Luna x Peter:

"Luna and Peter?" lips pout in pensive thought. "...I will assume you mean university Peter and not her brother, considering the circumstances. But I do think they'd compliment each other very well! I mean, we all went to uni together and Peter and Luna had a history of joking around with each other. I did sense that maybe something was there, and maybe something had happened between them before? Once, when Luna was really drunk, she briefly mentioned that Peter looked really nice in scrubs," Maddy giggles. "It was the first I'd heard of something like that from her. Besides, I'd only ever seen Peter wear scrubs at work, so Luna must've stumbled upon him at the hospital. Regardless, if they do like each other and want to give it a try, I will definitely support it!"

Eve on Maddy x Minjae:

"Oh my god, fucking adorable. Seriously! Look, normally, couples that are into the cute, lovey-dovey shit, make me gag a lil' bit, but not these two. Yes, I'm biased because she's my sister, and I haven't seen her in a long time, but there's something about the way they do it," Eve explains, face lit up. "Like, holy shit, I have NEVER seen two people simp over each other so much. It's a healthy simping, mind you, and there's nothing toxic that I've noticed or heard from Maddy. Plus, Maddy has told me, in great detail, how much she loves that man. Makin' me feel jealous sometimes," she laughs. "In all seriousness though, they really are wonderful together. After what Maddy and I had been through, it’s relieving to see someone love and accept her for who she is.”

📂  - Muse A to comment something about a current thread of Muse B’s

Hazel’s reaction to Kai and merman!Minjae thread:

The redhead’s face betrays her concern for once, worry tainting her irises. “I would assume Kai to be more cautious, especially concerning such a dangerous task as this. One small mistake and, not only would he risk his own life, but his brother’s, Minjae’s, and Madeline’s. Perhaps...if he had only gone through with his mission, only one life would’ve been taken and this could have all been avoided. Sadly, it is that small portion of humanity in him that has caused him to stray,” she shakes her head. “And Minjae? Dead weight. He has no reason to be there and is intentionally jeopardizing Kai and his own life. Could he not call upon the mers to assist them both? They could offer much more protection and defense than the sirens.”

Zephyr’s reaction to Kai and merman!Minjae thread:

“Y’know, I really gotta commend Kai on his choices. Yes, some of them were dumb and I’m sure Hazel will disagree with me, but hear me out on this,” he begins, sitting up straighter. “He had a mission to do, a fairly difficult one. I mean, I get it, you gotta kill someone because they could easily be the cause of your and your people’s death. Since Kai is a rule follower, of course, he would go forth in doing that mission. But Kai is also not that cold-hearted, unlike the rest of the sirens. So, this conflict between him and Minjae, over killing an innocent human who, really, has an innocent belief in mermaids and sirens, is understandable. Kai decided to follow his heart and it ended up getting him a new best friend and the ability to love which, I think, is BEAUTIFUL,” Zephyr explains. “Biggest mistake though? Staying. Near. The. Beach. He’s got connections, right? Get your ass to the desert! Nobody’s gonna follow you there, trust me.”

👍 - something Muse A likes about Muse B

Maddy about Luna:

“I would say Luna’s bravery. Luna has always had a very strong personality and she is not afraid of being outspoken or facing situations head on. She never seems afraid of anything, no matter how big or small. She definitely inspires me to not be so afraid of certain situations or people, nor to be so quiet about something that I’m uncomfortable with.”

Luna about Maddy:

“Her kindness. Never, in all my life, have I met someone as nice as Maddy,” she states bluntly. “Coming from a terrible neighborhood and being around only shitty people, Maddy was nothing like anyone I had come across. Didn’t matter how terrible someone was, she would not stop being kind. Pissed me off at first, yeah, but that’s who she is. It’s helped me to not be such an asshole...sometimes.” 

Kai about Hazel:

“Must I narrow it down to just one thing?” Kai laughs, clearing his throat. “Hmm...Hazel’s wisdom. Ever since we met, Hazel had this old soul, as deep as Voda’s main ocean. She always knows what to say, regardless of what we’re doing. She’s helped me out of many difficult situations and skyrocketed our squadron to the elites. Her words are forever powerful and it never fails to amaze me to what she’ll say next.”

Zephyr about Hazel:

“Hmm, I’d say her leadership. I mean, she’s obviously our squadron leader, right?” he chuckles, chewing at his bottom lip. “Hazel has always had this natural leadership aspect. In our final training days, when they were feeling out which groups would go better together, we were joined up and we all just naturally turned to her. She’s got her flaws, yeah, but she takes full responsibility of everything we do and leads fairly and justly...and I think that’s pretty admirable.”

Hazel about Kai and Zephyr:

“They both have their own sorts of quirks that I appreciate. With Kai, I would say that I like his loyalty. Kai’s people greatly value loyalty and he has come to encompass that, wherein you may trust that he will remain faithful. Never has he abandoned his post or given reason to any of us to distrust him. Concerning Zephyr, I like his lightheartedness. We are one of the more serious squadrons and we tend to get major tasks that do not allow room for any dilly-dallying. So, it is a breath of fresh air to have someone joke around and help us relax...in a reasonable manner, of course.”

[rotationalsymmetry]

Thinking about the twitter "villain of the week" phenomenon and call outs that turn into dogpiles. Imagine you're with your family or some other large group for a holiday dinner. Everyone's eaten and you're back in the kitchen washing dishes, with someone else drying. Suddenly, the person drying the dishes notices you missed a spot on one of the plates. Now, people who aren't assholes (and even quite a lot of assholes for that matter) will just be "oh, you missed a spot" and hand it back to you to clean up. Because missing a spot when you're washing dishes is normal and no big deal. So you say "oops" or something and fix it and all's good. But maybe it doesn't go like that. Maybe they go "tsk, (your name) is being so irresponsible, they can't even do something as simple as washing a plate" and then suddenly your entire family show up with a list of everything you've ever done wrong since age 5. That would be utter bullshit, right? That would be emphatically not accountability, right? That would be your family deciding to make your life miserable just so they could feel superior or whatever, right? (That would be abuse, or at least something very close to abuse, since y'know it's important to name things what they are.) (I mean...a lot of people do the "let's talk about 20 different things you've done wrong at one go" thing without it being abuse per se...but it sure as fuck isn't functional.) (And no, the degree of the offense doesn't really affect things. If you, say, abandoned your terminally ill spouse to run off with the affair partner you'd been cheating on them with for the entirety of your marriage, that would be really bad, and it still wouldn't make sense for your family to all get together to tell you what a terrible person you are while bringing up things you did ages ago and so on. The focus should always be on making it better, not on painting the offender as a shitty person. No matter how big the offense. Figuring out who's going to take care of the ill spouse, not determining the exact level of assholery of the abandoning spouse and whether everyone should have known from one thing they said 15 years ago, right? There can be consequences, like not inviting especially nasty people to future events, without engagement.)

So, at one point I joined this one group on Facebook, when I was relatively new to social media. I mean, I'd been on FB for ages, but I'd just been following what my friends posted, I hadn't joined any groups specifically to engage with people that I didn't already know over shared interests. (A very different FB experience.) This group was nominally about being bisexual, but an awful lot of the posts (several a week) involved someone innocuously equating genitals to gender, or some other language thing that ignores the existence of trans people. (This was before I ID'd as nonbinary, but on a personal level that sort of thing still doesn't bug me. I recognize it bugs other people, and it is reasonable for people who do care about this to want other people to alter the language they use.) I'm not talking blatantly hostile stuff like calling trans women men. I'm talking the things that people who grew up being told there's boys and girls and you can tell which is which by looking at them, just do because they haven't yet adjusted their worldview yet. Intent isn't the same as impact, but there is a difference between an innocent mistake and outright hostility. And there'd be literally dozens of people making the exact same callout. And because there were so many responses, everybody in the group would see the post, because that's how FB's algorithm works. And then this would happen again the next day and a couple days after that. And I (being new to this sort of thing) was just like, wtf? Wouldn't it make more sense to set things up so that the mods have to approve posts so they can quietly shut those down and privately tell the posters what rewrites they have to make? Or at least shut down those posts as soon as a mod catches them, or make one callout and shut down replies so it doesn't turn into this snowball that you can't miss? If the problem is this is hurtful to trans people, why intensify that hurt by making sure every trans person in the group ends up seeing the post?

I eventually left.

I imagine people had good intentions, or at least thought they did. That "educating people" this way was the important thing. But thing is, mostly it teaches people that that behavior is OK, that behavior that recall I've already explicitly described as verbal abuse or at least as something very close to verbal abuse, and that's a terrible lesson. This is not how decent human beings interact with other human beings. In similar groups I've also seen one person make a brief call out and the called out person say "oh, I didn't realize, I'll (edit the post, or whatever)" and that's it, and that's entirely different, you know? A single low-key call out, not the entire group piling on. Which is why I don't really like the term "call out culture", because sometimes people have cultures around making call-outs that are actually healthy and reasonable and not abusive, that are much healthier than the cultural default of "if you bring it up, you're the one making trouble," and it really should be normalized for people to do small low-key "hey, you missed a spot" checks without it turning into "I don't have a racist bone in my body". If the person doing the dishes goes "I am a perfect dish-washer and therefore that plate is clean, and how dare you say I don't know how to wash dishes right", that's also a problem. But I do think we should have a way to distinguish between normalizing saying "you missed a spot" about social justice language, and normalizing everybody within a mile radius jumping on and amplifying the message and bringing the person's past behavior into it and also literally telling the person who missed a spot that they're a terrible person.

Especially since, y'know, follow the money? Social media companies financially benefit from those pile-ons. They encourage them. It's in their business model. It's "engagement." If you're cynical about corporations in general or social media companies in particular (and if you're on tumblr, you probably are)...then part of that should be recognizing when social media companies are manipulating people into being more assholeish than they would be on their own. Even when, especially when, it's done in the name of social justice.

[creativeskullcreations]

Outside chapter 16: Therapy Sessions

And thus, we return to Outside! Starting with this brief interlude like chapter from someone completely new!

Update schedule is gonna be once every two weeks on Monday, just like before. As for Happy Times, that's gonna be on the back burner for a while so I can get this done, but I'll try and pop out another episode at some point.

So enjoy for now, and see ya;ll again later! :D

The puppet laid on the couch, flopped over like a discarded toy, eyes staring unblinking into space. If she didn't already know better, Trina would have assumed it was something one of her patients had left behind .

It, or rather she, wasn't a forgotten toy, however. She was her new patient, and, according to what another patient, Stacy, had told her, she had trust issues. But, she could work with that. And by that, she meant do paperwork until Scout was ready to talk.

Unfortunately, it seemed like that was taking a while. Before she knew it the whole hour had passed and the alarm had gone off. When Trina looked up from turning it off, the Puppet was gone, and the door was open. Ah well. She supposed she should prepare for her next patient, then.

------

Once again, Scout was laying on the couch. A different position this time, and staring in a different direction. Trina resigned herself to more paperwork again, like the last few visits. Though she felt like they were making some progress. Sometimes she looked up and Scout was in a different position, or she was in the middle of blinking.

In her mind, that was a good thing. It meant the Puppet was starting to get comfortable with her. Maybe soon, she'd actually start talking.

------

"Did you know Hosts can bleed without getting hurt?"

The question startled Trina, and she fumbled the pen onto her crossword book. "Excuse me?!"

"Yeah they do it naturally into the toilet! And into these weird giant soft band-aids that Stacy didn't want me to mess with." Scout reached down her shirt and pulled out a bright orange square. "Jokes on her, I took one anyways."

"Ah." It made sense, actually, that Scout would have no knowledge of the menstrual cycle. "And... did Stacy explain what they were for?"

"Nope! She just yelled a lot, and turned really red." She pulled the tape holding the wrapper closed off, then stuck it to the couch. "I asked Will why she wouldn't tell me, and he said it's because Stacy's a prude. And then she yelled at him."

"Did Will explain it to you?"

"No. Because he's also a prude. Stacy said so." There was a loud tearing sound as she slowly pulled the backing off of the pad, and Trina realized why Stacy had kicked her out of the bathroom. She also made a note to never let Scout into her bathroom.

And so, Trina spent the remaining forty-five minutes giving a sex-ed lesson to a living hand puppet. Not the weirdest session she'd ever had, of course, but it was certainly up there.

She just wished Scout hadn't stuck the pad to her keyboard.

------

The next few sessions were spent answering whatever questions Scout had that for whatever reason, she couldn't ask Stacy. Whether it was about biology("But why is it brown?"), a question about porn("I just don't see the appeal of watching Hosts fucking."), or about movies("He was the best character! Why the fuck would they kill the best character!"). Most of the time, Trina would google it with her. But sometimes she would ask why she couldn't ask Stacy. Usually she'd get one of what felt like stock answers, but occasionally she'd go really quiet and only say:

"I just wanted to know what you thought about it. That's all."

And Trina would, outwardly, accept that. But she always made note of which questions were related to that answer to try and understand her better. She also started on a timeline, to try and get the two into a session together. It probably wouldn't happen soon, she wanted to try and get Scout talking about herself first. But once she'd made some progress there, they could try a joint session.

------

It took another several weeks before Scout told her anything about herself. Although it wasn't what she expected.

"And then he gave me ice cream! And I ate it, because it was solid and delicious! But it fucking melts! And it's fucking gross!" She was raging, but in a way that almost made her look adorable. Not that Trina would tell her so, of course.

"And, why is it so bad that it melts?"

"Because it soaks in! Duh!" She looked thoroughly annoyed, and Trina felt a little bad for asking.

"What happened next?" She asked instead.

"Stacy and Will yelled at each other a lot, and then Stacy went to sleep on the couch. And then the next morning they locked themselves in the bedroom and wouldn't let me in while they made weird noises."

"Ah." Stacy had told her about that. It wasn't always the healthiest thing she could do, but Stacy genuinely thought it helped so Trina wasn't able to do much to dissuade her. "Did they come out at some point during the day?"

"Yeah, eventually! But it was boring as hell until then." A pause. "They banned me from Netflix, too, cause Stacy said what I was watching was a bad influence on me."

"Well that's too bad." She kept her tone sympathetic. "What else do you do during the day?"

"Watch TV."

"Besides that."

"Oh." Scout sat up, thinking. "Nothing- Well, I do hang out with Stacy a lot."

"Hmmm." Trina wrote that down in her notes. "Have you tried to find something other than TV? A hobby of some sort, or even a game to play?"

"I do play this game called Kirby sometimes." She admitted. "It's... kinda fun."

"Have you beaten it yet?"

"I mean... no..." She looked away, playing with the edge of her shirt.

"Maybe you should try and do that. Could be more fun than just watching Netflix all day." She kept her voice upbeat, and tried to figure out something else the Puppet could do besides TV.

"Maybe..." She looked around the room, eyes never stopping on one spot for too long.   Trina waited patiently, pen tapping lightly against her notebook. "... Something happened last night. Something... kinda bad."

"Oh?"

Scout nodded. "Sometimes, when Stacy wakes up and doesn't know where I am, she'll... take over my body. Not to do bad stuff though!" She was quick to assure when she Trina's face. "It's just to, y'know, see where I am. She gets worried when she can't find me."

Stacy had mentioned that. Apparently she now brought Scout everywhere with her, including to her programming job. "What made last night so different then."

"Well, normally I just sort of... float? I guess? When she does that. But, last night, I... woke up in her body."

Trina blinked. "Well, I suppose it makes sense that would happen-"

"No it fucking doesn't!" Scout shouted, cutting her off. "It's a bad thing! Very fucking bad!"

"Well, why do you say that?"

"Because it means that our fucked up link is evolving!" Scout told her in a 'duh' tone of voice. "Who knows how it could change from here!"

"Is it possible that you've always been able to do that, but just never did before now?" Trina asked.

That gave her pause, and seemed to calm her down a bit. "... I don't know. Maybe." She shrugged. "I... never really wanted to try before..."

Trina nodded, adding another note to her paper. "What happened next after you... woke up in Stacy's body."

"Well, we both flipped our shit, which woke Will up and then he flipped his shit. And then he and Stacy yelled for a while before he left and we managed to, uh, swap back." Scout scratched the side of her head, thinking. "And then Will came back with something, and he and Stacy fought some more."

"What did they fight about?"

"The thing Will brought back. It's some sort of a toy, like a psychic test." She scowled. "He made us sit there and do it, right then."

"The Waygetter one?" At Scout's confused look, she waved the question away. "Never mind. What were the results?"

------

"100 percent psychically linked." Stacy said, arms folded and stoic look on her face. "Not that I didn't already suspect, but I'd prefer a real test to a Waygetter "toy"."

"Of course you would, considering your past." Trina said, jotting down notes. "Did anything happen after that?"

The young woman shrugged. "Not a lot, mostly just went back to bed. I thought about banishing Will to the couch for his betrayal, but decided against it."

"Good." She nodded. "Banishing him over something so small, and when he was just trying to help, could lead to resentment building up later on."

"Yeah yeah." She kept her arms crossed, eyes trained on the floor. "Scout was pretty upset about it, though. But she's upset about a lot of stuff cause she feels guilty."

"Really now?" Trina jotted that down. "How do you know about that?"

"Psychic link." Stacy raised a single eyebrow. "Duh."

Trina sighed. "Has anything else happened lately? Made any friends at your job?"

"Not really." She shrugged. "This one woman, Chell, talks to me sometimes. She knows sign language, which is kinda cool I guess. But, I wouldn't say we're friends."

"Maybe you should focus on making friends with her. It seems like you two already have something in common already."

"Mm." Stacy looked away, tapping the fingers of her prosthetic against her flesh arm. It was pretty scary to look at, but it didn't stop her from wearing a spaghetti strap, leaving the limb on full display. Trina had also taken note of that, attributing it more to the woman's anti-social behavior than confidence or a strong body image.

"You can't rely on Will's friends forever, Stacy." She told her. "You need a life outside of him. It's not healthy to center everything around him."

"Easy not to lose everything if you don't have anything." She retorted. "I have Will, and I have Scout. They're all I need for now."

"What about your brother?" She looked away. "Or your father? Have you talked to either of them recently?" Silence was the answer, and Trina only sighed, used to it by now. "Your homework this week is to call your family for once. You need to repair your connections to them."

"I need to convince Scout to drop her guilt."

"That's my job." Trina gave a small smile that went ignored. "I'm serious about talking to your family though. Especially if you plan on getting into more... situations like this one. How would Danny feel if you died, and nobody would tell him anything about it?"

Stacy shrugged, and Trina sighed again. "Call your father. Text your brother. Make a new friend. Do one of these three things before our next appointment, okay?" She ordered as the timer dinged, signalling the end.

"Fine." The woman ground out, standing up and straightening her top. She accepted the offered prescription, then left the room. She stopped just briefly to grab her bag from Molly, the receptionist, and then went out to her truck. Scout popped out of the bag as she exited the building, and Trina sighed as she watched them.

They truly were an odd pair, and Trina hoped things worked out for them. She certainly couldn't imagine it could get any worse, anyways.

[jackawful]

I fully agree! I grew up in a very strict religious household and when I moved out I started exploring my sexuality and it was just A Lot. I went from not knowing that vaginal discharge was normal to suddenly having the ability to watch All Of The Porn and it was confusing. ALSO if teenagers aren't allowed to at least know what sex is, it's a lot easier for ACTUAL PREDATORS to take advantage of them. (1/2)

Yeah so like...I grew up in a similar way, except I went to a public school & had relatively-private internet access starting at 14, and while it wasn't an ideal situation I fully credit both of those with allowing me to develop a healthy sexuality instead of the issues you're describing, which I've heard from a zillion other ex-Christians.

I've also gotten trainings on this shit, and yeah, early education - like the kind of stuff that's considered radical, starting with teaching toddlers about consent & the proper names for body parts & moving to What Sex Is as soon as they start asking in elementary school - is the one thing that's statistically significant for preventing abuse. When kids know how to draw boundaries around sex, they are better able to process & report any predatory behavior to trusted adults. And on top of that, teenagers who are developing A Sexuality need a healthy outlet for that sexuality - that can be safer sex with a similarly-aged partner, or it can be a creative outlet like writing or drawing or even online RPing, all of which honestly carries less risk than physical sex, which is what is SO frustrating about all this, because the end result is framing that sort of expression as Unnatural and Bad.

It sometimes feels less genuinely misguided and more actively manipulative to me, y'know? kinda like when people with slurs in their urls get up in arms about people saying "queer"