abrokenherocomplex

[abrokenherocomplex]

things to ask yourself when designing a female character:

how much blood is she covered in

are her eyes filled with madness

can she rip things to shreds with her fingernails

[abrokenherocomplex]

"Tell me something nice."

"What?"

"It's been a day," the protagonist said. "And I feel spectacularly mediocre. So tell me something nice."

The villain blinked at them. "You're wonderful."

"And now tone it down to something believable."

"I happen to really like you," the villain said, "and if you were extraordinary I'd have to kill you."

"...I'll take it."

The villain snorted.

[abrokenherocomplex]

can I request: a villain who betrayed the hero and a hero who still loves them and can’t stop themselves from helping/saving them even after finding out about the betrayal?

"You know," the villain managed. "I never thought you were stupid before."

"Mm, just an easy mark I suppose." The hero kept their back turned, busying themselves with washing the villain's blood off their hands. "You're supposed to be in bed. Go back to bed."

"This is stupid. Saving me is stupid."

"So is standing up in your current state, but you don't see me being a whiny little bitch about it."

The villain was still leaning heavily against the bathroom door when the hero finally turned, any attempts they were perhaps making at being intimidating utterly ruined by the bloodless waxy tinge to their face and the dark circles under their eyes.

The hero raised their eyebrows, shoving down the urge to go to them. "If you pass out, I'm laughing at you and leaving you on the floor."

"But you wouldn't leave me in that place."

"I'm not a monster."

"You're not me."

"Oh please. You're not a monster, you're not that mythic. You're just a run-of-the-mill dick."

The villain huffed something like a laugh, only to grimace, clutching a hand to the freshly placed bandages at their abdomen.

The hero was at their side in a heartbeat. They were glad the villain had squeezed their eyes shut against the pain - it gave the hero time to compose themselves, to keep their flailing hands from steadying the villain.

The villain got the pain under control. They slumped against the wall, sweat beading their forehead, jaw clenched.

"Bed," the hero said, again, voice a little quieter and rougher than before.

"You could have taken me to a hospital. You didn't have to take me to your home."

"The first place they'd look for you is in a hospital. But by all means, you know where the door is. I'm not forcing you to stay. You'll do great on your own. You're used to it."

The villain shot them a look at that, but wobbled back to the bed the hero had initially set them up on. They eased themselves down gingerly and had to take another moment where they were clearly fighting unconsciousness.

It was the hero's turn to lean in the doorway, awkward and orbital, arms folded across their chest.

"You weren't tempted to leave me there?" the villain asked. "After what I did to you?"

The hero's chest ached. They kept their voice light.

"Tempted? Sure."

"But you didn't."

"You know, I never thought you were stupid either," the hero said. "But you're repeating the obvious an awful lot today, so maybe I stand corrected."

"Yeah, alright sunshine," the villain snapped. "It's been a bit of week."

They both lapsed into the silence. The villain seemed to realise what they'd said, breath hitching. They always used to call the hero that, after all. Sunshine. The hero used to be that too.

The villain swallowed. They eyed the hero with a wariness that should have been gratifying but really just hurt.

Wariness. Confusion, too. Something else that the hero didn't want to poke at.

The villain, after all, wasn't repeating themselves because they'd somehow missed the whole rescue situation. They wanted to know why, they wanted to understand, even if they weren't willing to actually come out and say it. To ask outright.

They wanted...

Well. The hero supposed it didn't much matter what the villain wanted anymore.

The villain looked away first. Folded first. They cleared their throat.

"They'll come for me, if I stay here," the villain said. "Come for you, if they think you're harboring me."

"And why would anyone think I would ever do that for you?"

The hero could practically feel the villain tracking them in their periphery vision, studying them with every sense except looking at them directly.

Sunshine, turned to a sun. Dangerous to get close to.

"You are..." The villain stopped. They closed their mouth.

You are doing that for me though, aren't you?

The hero's eyes narrowed.

"Well, thank you, anyway," the villain mumbled instead. "For the rescue. Very heroic of you, as ever."

"It's just what I do. I'd do it for anyone."

"Yeah."

"You're not special."

"Of course not."

"Get some sleep." The hero forced themselves to turn away, even when all they really wanted to do was move closer, check again that the villain was truly okay, keep vigil by their side. "The sooner you're feeling better, the sooner you can get the hell out of my life again."

They all but slammed the bedroom door shut behind them.

They wished it was anywhere near as easy to shut off their heart.

#this is lovely #favorite type of snippet

[abrokenherocomplex]

[abrokenherocomplex]

im just saying that if i had been in charge of s6 of doctor who, i would have fully leaned into the horror of amy's pregnancy, the loss of her own agency in it, the way she was used as a vessel to create a child she would never hold again, amy pond who never indicated once that she even wanted a child and was made to have one anyway against her will, and once they were done using her, they even took away any choice she might make about it in the future.

and i would have had this be a factor in amy and river's relationship going forward. how do you interact with a child you never knew, never got to decide if you wanted to have, and she's also already your friend, you love her as this miraculous, insane woman who has saved your life more than once. she's always known more about you than you could about her, but now you know exactly how much she was keeping from you. it's not like she could have told you, could have stopped it, but all this time, she was your friend and she was your daughter, and how do you learn to live with her?

#if only doctor who was written by a woman

[abrokenherocomplex]

There’s fanfiction…. And then there’s FANFICTION. The kind of shit you happen upon at like 3am or some other ungodly time because you were trying to find a fix for ur fixation at the time and you are just SUCKED IN and every sentence feels like a line of cocaine and it has quotes and imagery that permeate your brain and it’s the shit that sticks around in your consciousness forever and it never goes away and it’s always going to be one of Those Fics.

[abrokenherocomplex]

[abrokenherocomplex]

Older Black gay men in long term relationships are rarely covered or seen by main stream media.

[abrokenherocomplex]

Queer Pirate Books

In Deeper Waters; by F.T. Lukens

Running Close to the Wind; by Alexandra Rowland, coming out June 11th!

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea; by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A Clash of Steel; by C.B. Lee

Compass Rose; Anna Burke (sci-fi)

The Abyss Surrounds Us; by Emily Skrutskie (sci-fi)

The Forever Sea; by Joshua Phillip Johnson

The Black God's Drums; by P. Djèlí Clark (scif-fi)

Peter Darling; by Austin Chant

A Song of Silver and Gold; by Mel Karibian

The Wicked Bargain; Gabe Cole Novoa

Escape to Pirate Island; by Niamh Murphy

A Pirate's Life for Tea (Tomes and Tea, Book 2); by Rebecca Thorne

The Unbinding of Mary Reade; by Miriam McNamara

[abrokenherocomplex]

[abrokenherocomplex]

I heard someone call barbie disappointingly heterosexual and I've never disagreed with anything more strongly in my life

[abrokenherocomplex]

IT IS ACE WEEK!

So let's talk about asexuality! This is an introduction trying to cover as much as possible in a little format, so its mostly surface level stuff. You're gonna have to dig on your own :P

For more information, I recommend checking out aceweek.org or acesandaros.org ! You can also read up on ace history through the Asexual Manifesto by Lisa Orlando !

Edit: Here are some links for more information:

Aceweek

AcesAndAros

An article about the Asexual Manifesto that links you to a transcript

An article about Asexuality's history

[abrokenherocomplex]

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

[abrokenherocomplex]

[abrokenherocomplex]

nico calling the group chat "enemies to lovers"...this man thinks he's in a romance

[abrokenherocomplex]

In general, I do like the thought behind the idea of "Educate yourself," i.e. acknowledging that any given society will always be pushing a certain narrative at you, and for your own personal knowledge and growth, you should seek material outside that.

However, I only ever seem to see people use "Educate yourself." as a stand-in for saying "I am more knowledgeable about ____ thing and am therefore better than you."

So just a reminder that if your goal really is for people to have more information and become more educated, you need to:

Help bring that knowledge to them because many people don't know what questions they should be asking, and lots of people already have trouble finding the hours to work, spend time with family, pursue their interests, etc., so it's both easy and valid for the idea of seeking out information you don't even know you should be looking for to take a backseat to other things in life.

Avoid being condescending. Condescension makes people feel hostile to you, and that makes them less likely to pay attention to or care about what you're saying.

Be ready to summarize. People on the internet always seem ready to acknowledge that human beings don't have enough free time due to the capitalist grind right up until they feel like someone doesn't care enough about ____ thing, and then those people just "don't have their priorities straight." No, time is limited, and most people do not have the time to seek out and expose themselves to new perspectives regularly unless the opportunities are literally put in front of them. It is not a character flaw to spend your weekend taking a nap and pursuing your hobbies instead of researching every civil rights movement that has ever occurred.

"Educate yourself" is supposed to be an encouragement, not a moralistic demand. In general, people should seek out information on a variety of different perspectives. In reality, if you deeply care about a certain perspective, you need to put in the work to bring it to the public, who are locked into a system that limits their free time and leaves them too burnt out to do much more than try to rest and recover in their spare moments.

[abrokenherocomplex]

People assume queer platonic relationships are on a straight line from friendship to romance, but actually from a non-linear, non subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, feelingsy weelingsly… stuff.