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bit-dodgy-innit · 2 years

Text

First

Summary: You fell in love first with Marc. It didn’t mean you loved him more than his other alters, but when you notice he’s hesitant to front after your daughter is born, you gently confront about it and assuage him.

Another fic set in THE SHAPE OF YOU verse

Pairing: Marc x afab!reader, background Steven x afab!reader and Jake x afab!reader

Word Count: 4.3k

Rating: M

CW/TW: Mentions of abuse, divorce and pregnancy, domesticity, sexual themes and content, angst, feels, fluff.

A/N: Sometimes you need to write the entire history of a relationship before you actually write the scene between two characters you’ve been thinking of! Tre fun!

I need everyone to know that I adore Layla and May Calamawy sooo much so that every OC I write must be intimidated and jealous of her because she is truly a goddess among us. That being said, I hardcore ship Layla and the Moon Boys in canon, wanted to make sure NO ONE thinks I’m a hater!

You met Marc first, through work of all places. Your company was doing a defense deal, and your superiors thought it prudent to hire a consultant to ensure no party was getting screwed over money or terms-wise. And it would have been, it would have been a perfectly prudent, responsible choice if your first thought upon meeting Marc Spector hadn’t been oh my God, why does the military consultant have such soulful eyes?

The attraction to him was instant. Suddenly you were berating yourself for not doing more with your hair that day, and of course you’d wore your least flattering skirt. The good news was that you were running point on this deal and would have more opportunities to dazzle the American in the coming months with your business acumen and your beauty.

Initially, you two were nothing but friendly professionals. You got along easily, which was imperative since you were liaising with the slow and infuriating bureaucracy of the Ministry of Defense. Marc made the painstaking work and negotiations your company had dispensed you two with tolerable, even enjoyable.

You did start making more of an effort in the office though. It was subtle, you didn’t want Marc to know you were trying, let alone trying for him, but your heart would sink a little every time he politely declined your team’s invite for a post-work pint when you’d gotten up extra early that morning to blow out your hair.

That all changed at a client dinner. Your bosses were attending as well as members of the Ministry of Defense, so Marc had to be there. The chance to interact with the elusive American outside of work was stupidly exciting to you. Even better, you were seated across from him at the table. You were damn good at your job, which meant you could multitask: you charmed the clients, laughing in all the right places during their boring and problematic anecdotes, and got as drunk off the sight of Marc in a suit and tie as you were on the expensive wine your boss ordered.

Up until that night, you had assumed that your interest in Marc was one-sided. Hell, you’d believed it all throughout dinner too. It wasn’t until after the meal, when everyone headed home for the evening, that Marc insisted you split a cab and the irrevocable shift took place.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” you insisted as the taxi Marc hailed pulled over, “I’ve lived in London my entire adult life, I know how to get home in one piece.”

It was true, but the real reason you were protesting had more to do with the wine you’d consumed and the ensuing proximity to Marc than your personal safety. You couldn’t trust yourself not to do something horny and stupid.

“C’mon, it’s no trouble, besides we’re not far from each other. What kind of gentlemen would I be if I let you leave unaccompanied with all the crazy shit out there nowadays?” Marc opened the car door for you.

Your heart soared and your panties flooded. Trying to play it cool, you threw out one last protest as you got into the cab, “That’s not your job Marc, that’s why we have Thor and that white knight guy.”

Marc got in behind you and muttered, “You shouldn’t trust him.”

You weren't sure if he meant the god of thunder or the other vigilante, but frankly, you didn’t care because you were in the backseat with Marc. You couldn’t remember anything else you said after that, you knew that you apparently carried on a whole conversation while the cab ferried you across the Thames, but Marc’s lips so close, the scent of his aftershave, his hand resting on the seat millimeters from yours were the only things you could focus on.

The driver pulled to a stop and recited your address, shattering the warm, heady haze of desire you’d sunken into over the course of the ride.

“That’s me!” you called over the divider.

Marc told the driver to wait, that he’d walk you to your building’s door. Your throat was as dry as sandpaper but somehow you found the saliva to say “Thanks again.”

“No problem.”

You opened your purse. “How much do I–”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Okay well, make sure you expense this then.”

“I’m really not worried about it.”

“Right. Good night, Marc.”

You’d said the words to him, but didn’t move. Those dark, expressive eyes had you pinned in place. After a beat, you decided you’d been imagining ‘a moment’ and began to retreat. That was when Marc, rather Marc’s body almost independent of him, lurched toward you, crashing your lips together.

Needless to say, it was a good kiss. The kind of kiss that makes your toes curl, that feels like you’re getting lost and coming home at the same time.

When you breathlessly broke apart, Marc had sucked any sense out of your brain, leaving nothing to stop the words from tumbling out of your mouth “That was unprofessional.”

It wasn’t a judgment. Nor a condemnation. Just an observation. A statement of fact.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“But I think how much I enjoyed it is even more unprofessional.”

“Fuck,” Marc swore lowly before kissing you again. It was just as good as the first. No flukes here. The next time you both gasped for air, he reeled. “We can’t do this.”

“I know,” you conceded.

“Not while I’m working with you.”

“Okay.” It was all you could manage while your head swam. Then it occurred to you to follow up with, “After?”

“Yeah. After.” Marc nodded. You opened your building door, he jogged back to the taxi, and that was it.

The next morning at the office, you’d concluded that “After” from Marc meant he was letting you down easy. While you felt like you’d arrived at the office altered on a cellular level after acting on your feelings for him, Marc was reserved and distant in your meetings.

You cried on the Tube on the way home and ultimately absolved him. The two of you had been drinking last night, and Marc was a hot American guy in London. He was probably drowning in pussy, why would he wait for a woman who was off-limits for another six weeks? It was your fault for nursing a schoolgirl crush on him as a grown-ass woman.

His refusal to join the crew for drinks after the deal closed felt like the nail in the coffin. Marc didn’t want to pick things up despite his contract with your company being completed. You got absolutely shitfaced that night, so much so that it wasn’t until the next morning that you saw that he’d texted you.

From Marc Spector: now where were we?

You thrashed in your bed in delight, giggled, and then promptly shuffled to the bathroom to vomit.

***

You got dinner, just the two of you this time. Marc revealed that the reason he’d been so evasive had stemmed from the fact he was attracted to you too, but Marc was building his reputation as a consultant and wanted to maintain professionalism. He didn't want to compromise you and your job integrity either. All was forgiven over dinner while you got to know each other better.

You’d never tell Nyla this, but you jumped into bed with Marc sooner than you would with anyone else. It was not a feminist, nor a particularly romantic thing to say, but you considered your fate to be sealed after the first time you and Marc slept together. The way he bounced you on his cock, then maneuvered you onto all fours and pounded you from behind while growling “Yeah baby, work that ass back on this dick” swiftly and effectively ruined you for other men.

You found that dating Mark was like an archaeological dig. The closer you got, the deeper you dug, you unearthed a new revelation about the beautiful, but complex, man who would become your husband and the father of your child.

Revelation One: Marc had been married before. That one wasn’t much of a surprise, given his age and experience in the sack. With a face that handsome, a cock that fat, and ass and thighs that thick, it only made sense that someone would’ve tried to lock Marc down. He didn’t tell you many details about his ex-wife, only that they were married for a few years and that she lived abroad. You were privately pleased that she wasn’t in the British Isles, a childish possessiveness fueling a small pit of jealousy within you.

Revelation Two: Marc had been a mercenary. This didn’t really come as a shock either, you’d witnessed first-hand Marc’s extensive knowledge of the military and the black market, both of which were indispensable as you’d hammered out the deal at work. Perhaps it didn’t bother you as much to know that your boyfriend used to kill for a living when you could see how the vocation still haunted his features when he spoke about it, how earnestly he wanted to repent for his actions. It also helped that it was a nebulous concept to you, you’d never seen him act as the cold-blooded killer he professed he’d been, so it wasn’t quite “real” to you.

Revelation Three: Marc had suffered trauma and abuse. It helped explain Marc’s path to his former dark line of work, not to mention it broke your heart to learn that his own mother had beaten him, a horrendous misdirection of her grief over the death of his younger brother. She had died recently too, which triggered a whole mix of emotions that Marc was working through.

Revelation Four: Marc had Dissociative Identity Disorder as a result of the trauma and abuse. This one took some backup to wrap your mind around, yet it did explain why Marc never went out for drinks after work – Steven, one of his alters, had been TA’ing a class at University College London that met in the evenings as part of his Ph.D during Marc’s contract. It also provided the reason for why Marc had sort of lurched into the first kiss you shared. His second alter Jake had taken control and given Marc the push he felt the other needed.

You did your best to school your features to impassivity when he told you. Marc thought you’d break up with him then and there. You didn’t, but you told him you needed a minute to make sure you could process everything properly. So you reached out to a therapist you’d seen a few years ago after a bout of depression. It took a few sessions and research on your part, yet it wasn’t long until you felt comfortable enough to meet Steven and Jake.

It was weird, meeting Marc’s alters felt like a mix of going on a blind date and meeting your significant other’s family. The apprehension you initially harbored dissipated in the first five minutes you met Steven, however. You fell for his accent, his dorkiness, and the way he looked at you like you were a treasure from one of ancient civilizations he was an expert on. It also didn’t hurt that he would eat your pussy for hours and was obsessed with your tits.

You and Steven went on a few more dates just the two of you, then took a month for you to adjust to being present when he and Marc would switch and be co-conscious before meeting Jake. Your first date with him was at a salsa club, so wildly unlike Marc or Steven, and you had to pick your jaw up from the floor when your boyfriend greeted you with a Spanish term of endearment in a flat cap and leather gloves. Jake was less inhibited than Marc, a double edged sword in that he was quicker to anger and violence, but less guarded about his emotions and affection toward you. Plus, Jake gave you a reason to dust off your high-school Spanish.

It took a few months, but eventually you four settled into a routine and ease with each other. Your relationship was unconventional for sure, but it was also the happiest you’d ever been. You’d believed that you’d gotten through the most stunning revelations from Marc, that you’d hit his metaphorical core, and everything from here on out would be relatively smoothly sailing. You were so confident that you started dropping hints to each of the boys about engagement rings.

Turned out you still had more to learn.

Revelation Five: Marc and both his alters had a stint serving Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. Superheroes and gods and aliens were a part of your life, part of everyone’s after The Snap, but you never thought that the man you slept next to would’ve been so directly involved in it.

“You were white knight guy!?!” you gaped when Marc told you.

“Yeah, Khonshu’s Moon Knight,” he clarified.

As bonkers as this information was, it was similar to when Marc had told you he was divorced or that he’d been a mercenary. While of course you believed him, you had never actually seen Marc’s mysterious ex-wife or watched Marc take down a target, the information had never been made tangible.

It was easy to accept when you learned that your boyfriend was Khonshu’s avatar, because you would never see him in the suit. Apparently, the Egyptian god was kind of an asshole, and the men had renounced their ties to him just before you and Marc began dating. It was why Marc had been so adamantly against an office romance, he was desperate to build a life without violence, outside of Khonshu after years of service to the deity.

Marc had tried to push you away, even revealing some of these facets of himself in an attempt to get you to leave him, but you stayed the course. You patiently held your ground and told Marc, each and every time, that he wasn’t getting rid of you that easily. You received every revelation with a measured countenance, well, until you discovered that Marc’s ex-wife was The Scarlet Scarab. That launched you two into a row for the ages.

“How do I compete with that?!’ you shrieked at him, “I can’t compete with that.”

“I don’t want you to! I want you because you’re you, you’re not like her, you’re—”

“Boring?” you supplied.

Marc’s frown deepened. “No, stop. You’re putting words in my mouth.”

“So what am I to you? Your breather before you go back to her for superhero sex?”

“Ok, first of all I wasn’t a superhero–”

“Marc, you had a special suit, enhanced abilities and fought criminals. That’s a superhero.”

“You’re missing the point,” he argued. “Layla and I are through. She wanted to be a superhero and I’d had enough of Khonshu’s bullshit. I couldn’t do it anymore. She wanted the adventure and I wanted this, what we have. We made a good team when it was stealing artifacts and chasing madmen across the globe but we were shit at all the real stuff - well not that it wasn’t real - the relationship stuff.”

You studied Marc for a long moment. You wanted to keep your jealousy at bay, you really did. So you tried to play it off, scoffing “Ugh, you’re lucky you’re an animal in bed and that Steven’s the only one who will go to that impressionist exhibit with me later this month.”

“You’re being glib, which means you’re not mad?”

“No, I’m sad,” your face crumpled and a sob escaped your throat. You thought you and Marc had made it through the worst of it, the deepest, darkest parts of yourselves, but here you were, fighting over something that Marc had kept from you because you were envious. A nexus of both of your vices. “What are we doing here?”

Marc watched you cry, cold fear sluicing through his veins. He looked to his reflection in hopes that Steven or Jake would tap in, they were better at this stuff, but Steven denied him with a curt shake of his head.

Not a good idea, Steven relayed through the reflection of the microwave in the kitchen, You were married to Layla and well, she fell in love with you first. Don’t abandon her.

“Maybe I should,” Marc muttered.

You looked up from your hands that had been catching your tears, “What?”

“I should leave, I’m not the kind of guy who can do long-term–”

“STOP!” you wailed at him. “No! You don’t get to run away Marc, this is what a relationship is, it’s leaning into the hard times no matter how much they hurt and fucking working through it. I will not let you throw away the last two years of my life and my love for you, and Steven and Jake because of this. I’m angry about Layla so just comfort me God dammit! Or at the very least, call me out for being a jealous bitch.”

Your challenge sent a flare of anger through Marc, “Okay! You are being a jealous bitch! I’ve told you everything, everything about me and this is what you choose to get mad about?! It’s stupid, you should have run for the hills when I told you about the mercenary work, or the DID or fucking Khonshu, but you stayed.”

“Yeah so now give me a reason to,” you fired back. “Why should I believe you won’t go back to your hot, super-powered ex-wife?”

“BECAUSE I DON’T LOVE HER ANYMORE!” He roared. “I love YOU! I have been leaning into the hard shit. I've told you about my mom and my brother, I let you meet Jake and Steven because I want to be with you for the rest of my life! You were the reason I finally renounced Khonshu!!”

Marc collapsed onto one of the breakfast bar stools. You went to him, afraid he’d switch unintentionally or worse, hurt himself. To your surprise, he let you collect him in your arms.

When Marc spoke again, it was much softer, “What you call boring or ‘normal’ is what I’ve wanted ever since Randall died, but didn’t think I deserved it. I didn’t want to be an avatar or a superhero or whatever, I wanted a steady job and a family, but the dishonorable discharge, the D.I.D, the fucking birdgod prevented me from having that, made me believe I couldn’t.’

“I’m sorry,” you whispered into his hair. “I don’t want to lose you Marc, I love you so much. I guess…I got scared that I couldn’t measure up. I’m so afraid that you feel like you’re settling for me.”

“Baby, no,” Marc brought his face to yours. “I’m the one with D.I.D. and a fucked up past, you’re settling for me.”

You shook your head, dismissing the notion. “You really want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

“Yeah, if you’ll have me.”

Tears fell from your face again, but this time they were from happiness.

***

The engagement and wedding followed. It was a small ceremony, exactly what you two wanted, that observed the Jewish traditions important to Marc. The honeymoon passed by in a haze of sex and sweat in Greece. With three husbands eager to consummate their marriage, you joked to Steven that you could barely walk after the week you spent in Mykonos. To your horror, he took it literally and you were greeted at the airport in Athens by an attendant with a wheelchair. It was a sweet, albeit a little embarrassing, gesture.

Back home, you worked on getting your parents as comfortable with Marc, Steven, and Jake as you were. Jake started his own business since Steven’s schedule had stabilized now that he was teaching, and Marc had entered a phase of his career where he could pick and choose clients. You all had talked about kids but the concept was firmly filed into the ‘later on’ column of your marital priorities.

Nyla had other plans. Honestly, you shouldn’t have been surprised that you’d conceived on your honeymoon, there were few surfaces on the Greek island you hadn’t fucked on. But even after the missed period and morning sickness, the positive pregnancy test shocked you. You and your husband were as elated as you were terrified.

***

You all still felt as if you were white-knuckling as parents, but Nyla embracing her sleep schedule and improving on latching allowed you and your husband to exhale some.

Your daughter had woken you up extra early this morning. The weather was nice, you were graced by a rare sunny morning in London, so you and Marc decided to take Nyla on a stroll in the park. Leaving the flat with a newborn was a tall order, one that demanded all the strategy and concentration of a military operation, Marc found. You both packed up all the necessities to fit in a single diaper bag while also keeping your daughter entertained.

Your little family made it out of the house in record time. It only took 34 minutes to pack everything to go down the street for a walk in the park.

You pushed Nyla’s stroller while Marc carried the bag. The movement had lulled Nyla back to sleep. You extended the stroller’s visor to shade her, but Marc insisted on having your baby wear the sun hat you’d packed for another layer of protection from the rays bathing Dulwich park in an early summer warmth.

You figured now was the best chance you’d ever have at talking to Marc about his reticence to front around Nyla. The subject had to be broached delicately, sneakily, or else you may not get another opportunity.

His insistence on getting Nyla’s hat gave you the perfect in. “You’re great with her.”

Marc shrugged off the praise as he dug for her hat. So you persisted, “And she loves you so much.”

“Yeah, because I look like Steven,” he groused.

“Hey, that’s not true,” you stopped his search with a hand on his arm. “You have these cute conversations with her, when you lay her back on the top of your thighs. She gets so enthralled when you two ‘talk’. You’re the only one who does that with her.”

Marc poured the ensuing emotion into his search for her hat. “She’s so tiny. Why didn’t the books say anything about how goddamn little she’d be?”

“Well, she was a few weeks early,” you reminded him. “I wanted her to get over 3 and a half kilos, but Nyla didn’t want to wait any longer.”

“Just like her mom,” Marc teased.

“And also much like her mom, she doesn’t want you to avoid her, since you make her feel so loved.”

It wasn’t that falling for Marc first meant you loved him more than his alters, but it did make you slightly more attuned to him. Your life had been made so much richer when Marc allowed Steven and Jake’s presences in your life, and you knew your daughter would only benefit from Marc fully allowing his presence in hers.

Besides you’d heard about the last time Marc had tried to leave things in solely Steven and Jake’s hands, and that had resulted in Steven getting sacked for destroying a bathroom at the British Museum, the two of them getting shot and taking a round trip to the Egyptian underworld, and an evil crocodile lady trying to take over the planet.

Your husband tensed, the tendon in his jaw working before he answered, “I don’t want to hurt her.”

“You won’t,” you assured him, stopping the stroller for a moment. “Honey, I wouldn't have married you, let alone had a baby with you, if I thought any of you were capable of hurting me or our child. Believe me.”

“But what’s the point, Steven is such a natural–”

“Yeah, and he’s wonderful. But tell me if I'm wrong, he doesn't hold the memories of your childhood the same way you do. He may have seen them, but he didn't experience first-hand, right?”

Marc stayed silent, but didn’t correct you.

“He doesn’t carry the baggage quite like you do...which is nothing against either of you! And I know me and him have discovered, um…this new kink that we share, but that doesn’t mean I don't want you around. It doesn't mean you’re any less capable as a father than Steven or Jake. She needs all of her dads, Marc.”

Marc’s eyes drifted from yours to the sleeping infant in front of you.

“You each have your special little things you share with Nyla and it’s so beautiful to watch, babe,” Your eyes welled up with tears. Damn hormones, could you get through anything without crying? “I can't tell you how happy it makes me.”

“Baby,” he murmured.

You composed yourself, “All I’m saying is that you can trust yourself with her. And if you ever have a moment when you don’t trust yourself, know that I trust you with Nyla, and I'm her mother. What I say goes.”

“You’re the best mom, you know that right?” Marc questioned. It was your turn to downplay his compliment. “You take such good care of her. I know Nyla will never go through what I did because of you.”

“It’s easy,” you stopped yourself, “Well, it’s not easy, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but loving you and this little girl we made makes me happy to do it. So don’t be a stranger, okay?”

“Deal,” Marc agreed.

“Good, because when my dad gets in tomorrow, he’s going to want someone to talk about sports with, and you know the other boys are shit at it,” you quipped.

Marc chuckled as he bent over the front of the stroller to put Nyla’s hat on her little head and tie the strings around her chin while she slept. He couldn’t hide the proud grin that brightened his face when he managed to secure it without waking Nyla.

“See what I mean?” you used his success to drive home his fatherly ability.

Marc returned to your side, draped an arm around you, and pressed a kiss just under your ear. “Thank you, honey.”

“I love you,” you whispered, resuming your walk.

Nyla was the combination of you and your husband, which meant she wasn’t going to let either of you get too cocky. The stroller had only made it another thousand meters before she began fussing, though this time, more hormonally-fueled tears threatened to pour from your eyes when Marc didn’t hesitate to tend to his daughter.

Read the next fic in the series: THE MAGIC TOUCH

A/N: Y’all I thought of this idea and then the dialogue confronting Marc when reader discivers his ex is ~Layla El-Faouly~ started writing itself and then four thousand more words poured out of me. Ooops.

I know I say this every time, but it’s true that everyone’s support and responses get me fired up and inspired to write!!!

Taglist: @twwcs @starfirette @toracainz

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wilwheaton · 2 years

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do u ship spirk (kirk x spock)?

I personally do not, no. I feel like a relationship between the captain and the first officer is problematic for the crew. Once they retire? Hell yes. But while they are serving together? I can't do it.

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genericpuff · 1 year

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Hey I’ve questions to the word “Infantilization” sense into thrown out there willy nilly (in my perspective) I want write/read webtoons and comics and im asking what something to watch out for in characters especially when age isn’t confirmed

Ouu, this is an interesting question/request!

So obviously I'm just one person and can't identify every sign of infantilization myself, I still find myself falling for stuff that was subliminally problematic (which is often the point of the people writing it LMAO) And of course the points I'm about to make, you may disagree with! So take this with grains of critical salt.

I'll try to keep it focused around Persephone and Hades as an example but note that a lot of what shows up between them shows up between other Webtoon couples as well (such as Sam and Charles!)

Identifying infantilization does take context. A lot of what I'm about to include as examples aren't inherently wrong on their own - many writers are legit just trying to write a "cute" character or spicy drama - but when put in conjunction with one another or dialed up to hyperbolic degrees, can absolutely play into subconscious and conscious infantilization of characters that can become easy to internalize especially for the younger audiences these types of works are marketed to.

So let's get on with it!

The character has traits that render them dysfunctional unless they have someone to guide them - and are often exaggerated for the "laughs" or to make them seem "cute". Take Sam from Let's Play, for example - she's got anxiety from previous health scares and asthma, which is amplified and viewed by others to the point of comparing her office booth to a "crib". Now, this does make for an interesting plot point wherein Sam's friends and family are actually enabling her lack of independence by shielding her (which is one thing I do like about Charles, that he pushes her to be more assertive and independent) but oftentimes Sam's lack of assertiveness and independence is played off as "cute" for the audience and their favorite ships when in fact, her character has some serious issues going on that stem back to her anxiety that dick can't solve.

But of course, characters like Charles take full advantage of that and are still offered as the "solution" to their problems.

The character is often pursued on the basis of "purity". Often times the characters themselves will call out how young/innocent they are, for better and for worse - and if it's to judge the main characters' preferences, the romance is still pursued in defiance of that, as if to "prove them wrong".

Think Persephone, a virgin Goddess of Spring, being pursued by Hades, a much older and more sexually experienced man who bases most of his relationships off sexual attraction, who she ends up working for in an office environment as his intern. Or Sam, who is both the daughter of the overprotective CEO and dating her own superior, Charles, who isn't looking for the kind of relationship she's looking for - he's in transactional sexual relationships, while she can barely look at porn or hold another boy's hand without freaking out. She's 22. Persephone is often drawn being objectified by Hades, while Sam has been drawn as the "sheep" in the relationships with the "big bad wolves" around her.

Now I know drawing a character 'small' or in absurd ways like this can be used for framing whenever the character feels small against someone else, but the extent it's done to with characters like Persephone and Sam is often under the guise of "framing" when it's more often blatant characterization. Sam rarely feels like she's actually growing as a person, she's assertive when the narrative needs her to be but regresses right back to being an "uwu baby" as soon as it's deemed funny enough to do so. Persephone never changes between the end of the trial and the events in S3, she still acts and is written and drawn like a teenager.

I know this is a hilarious example, but all I can think is when people call Persephone a "sweet cinnamon roll" or Sam a "precious Bunty". Sam and Persephone are both adult women. And even when Persephone was 19 people still defended her relationship with Hades because "she's legally an adult and can make her own choices!" But then Rachel will often her like, well... this.

The character is often "stuck" between their love interest and a parental figure. Again, this one on its own isn't the worst thing in the world as it's a very real conflict that happens in real life, but it's a common thread that comes up in the stories often criticized for infantilization because the relationships these characters are in aren't ideal in the first place and the parental conflict is used as a way to drive the romance and tension instead of actual romantic chemistry. Think those Lore Olympus banner reel ads featuring Persephone "trapped" between Hades and Demeter; or in Let's Play, Sam being "passed off" between her father and her superior who is the love interest.

These things would be fine if they were making some kind of point about marriage culture but they rarely ever are, it's usually only ever to resort to "haha overprotective parent bad!" (even when the MC is in a relationship they really shouldn't be in) or to serve as a punchline which ultimately just, again, objectifies and infantilizes the character as someone who can't function on their own without a man making the decisions for them.

When you take these spicy drama tropes out of the story - the overprotective parent, the boss/employee relationship, etc. - there's really nothing going on in these relationships that's all that interesting. It's just two horny people trying not to be horny for each other.

The other people the character depends on are typically in higher positions of power than them but often hide it under the guise of "romance". Often times this makes the character directly subservient to the love interest. These power differences often serve as the driving factor in the romance itself rather than any actual chemistry. Hades, Charles, sound familiar?

I know I've talked about LO and Let's Play a lot on this topic but it's literally just because of how egregiously similar they are, Let's Play may as well just be Lore Olympus but with real people (esp when you consider how little the "god" element matters in LO when it comes right down to it). And they're both series that are flagship titles, at the forefront of the romance genre which is one of the most widely read genres in webtoons/webcomics. The fact that two of the highest earning webtoons both push this kind of infantilization in their comics that are pushed on a young audience... it's not great. Even if it were an adult audience it would still be problematic, like I'll give kudos to mongie, she left when she knew WT wasn't the right platform for her work, but I don't know if I'd still enjoy Let's Play off WT either because it's still just a mess of a comic. Still stronger than LO - at least the main character spends a decent amount of time having a life outside of their love interests - but I don't know if being better than LO is really a compliment at this point.

And outside of webtoons, I read A Touch of Darkness recently after being told by people that it's "much better than LO" but y'all it SUCKED. It's shitty p0rn with a shitty plot and Persephone is just as lacking in brain cells in A Touch of Darkness as she is in Lore Olympus.

It's ironic how a comic that claims to be a "deconstruction" of purity culture really feeds right back into it anyways because the creator seems to be a product of purity culture and male gaze media who hasn't actually addressed it or unpacked it.

Anyways, I think that's all for now? If I think of anything else I'll def reblog and add more but I thiiiink that covers the majority of the points that typically come to mind whenever I'm reading stories like this. It's definitely one of those "once you start seeing it you can't unsee it" things that even female writers like Rachel and mongie aren't immune to writing.

#ask me anything #ama #lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

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lolliepops-rox · 4 months

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It's very interesting to me, as a newer Homestuck fan, to see all the extensions for the offical-unoffical archives that 'fix'/remove 'problems' or 'problematic' parts of Homestuck. I was on Tumblr when Homestuck was at its peak and reblogged all the cute ship art, follow the outrageous ask blogs, my best friend did read it as it was still coming out¹. But I never actually read the comic itself, just kind waves from the sidelines. But I wasn't there to experience the big controversies in real time (i.e. 'peachy'). Hussie is not above critique, but I don't think he's a bigot or even a bad person. What he is, is a troll. A classic 2006 'I said something fucked up not because I believed it, but to get a reaction.' Which, I can see to someone who missed that time of the internet, and only knows now. In which people say those fucked up things, to get a reaction and cause they believe it.

And so to see people younger than me, but have joined the fandom at the same time as me, not understand this context, it feels wrong. The things people are willing to sweep under the rug cause it conflicts with their morals vs the things they condemn and blame Hussie for.

Homestuck is a very long, very complicated, but very important piece of art. To not consider every facet of it does it a disservice.

For something made by a 2006 troll, it put a lot of queer characters worth caring about in it. The alpha kids & trolls both exist to be parodies of their beta counterparts. This is partly why Dirk is queer, and that Dirk refuses a label. But is still allowed to opening like, then date, then break up with a boy. It's a response to how the fandom wrote & treated Dave. For those who know it, compare the S19Ep6 of South Park, Tweek X Craig. Matt & Trey, who in my opinion embody the same sort of troll sense of humour Hussie has, handle fandom making their characters being gay quite differently. Tweek & Craig in this EP aren't treated as genuinely queer characters, but the kids trapped in what the town has decided are wacky hijinks of this week. It's not necessarily bad, but compared to Dirk it feels way less genuine.

There's topics I can't talk on fully like the way Hussie's racial biases appear in various characters, as I'm from a completely different country. But in my very non-american opinion, it reads more as 'someone who has never thought to question the stereotypes they were raised with', than as someone who is genuinely and actively racist. There is a difference, and as a mixed kid that's important to me.

I'm not really sure how physically disabled people feel about the way Hussie wrote their physically disabled characters (but if people have written about this I'd love to read and linked to me) but he definitely uses mental disabilities/illnesses as a substitute for the word 'quirky' without thinking much about it (i.e. Nepeta is off-handedly called autistic) it's not really great, but the bar is so low when it comes to these things that my tourettic ass cling to Mituna like a lifeline.

Maybe I had a further point here. Maybe my point was just antis in the Homestuck fandom is still weird to me when there's canon incest. Maybe I've drunk a fair bit of vodka while writing this. I have work in the morning. Good night beloved tumblrinas.

¹she gave me classpect and everything, and it's the one I use to this day, despite having a completely different theory on how classpects work. I also joined a cosplay ask blog despite never reading Homestuck (at the time) cos she asked me to (simp) and bought black lipstick to do AMom.

#homestuck #dirk strider #andrew hussie #south park #sp creek #fandom wank #talking lollie

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brujitaadinbo · 4 months

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I wanted to share this analysis with you, trying to be objective and not fall into just my own tastes, without taking this personally or as if I were attacking other ships or fandoms; In reality it is not like that, but I clarify it because it usually happens and they change the context of everything…. If you give yourself the opportunity to read, In The Mandalorian they have made it clear to us to what point Din leans in his emotional relationships, technically has been closed for a long time in that regard. Being raised in an almost very hermetic community with people from outside his tribe and seeing others from afar trying not to bond; but as I tell you with Grogu, this whole wall that is Din begins to change, he begins to connect with others and no longer have only allies, but friends and companions and even something more… Starting with Xian, a character with very dubious morals, with a problematic character, no loyalty towards others and much less emotional responsibility, without any type of honor, we can see that the relationship with Din, It was only for their own interests, to make their own profits and have a good time (wink wink) But from that to there being something more solid, deeper, more legitimate or genuine, nothing… at least not in a positive way.

We then see his relationship with Cara Dune; You can see a certain rivalry until little by little they resolve their power conflict, they are seen as battle companions but there is a particular moment where it is seen that Din notices a vulnerable point in Cara but he only observes and remains silent. He doesn't comfort her, he doesn't talk to her, he's not going to approach her to give her support, as he demonstrates with a certain redhead… I'll tell you. When they go to Grogu's rescue, Cara and Din intercept an enemy ship, where Dr. Doctor Pershing is on board, exactly someone very necessary to achieve that rescue, when Din and Cara board this ship, one of the pilots takes Dr. …and threatens them, if they get close, she will finish him off and they will no longer be able to achieve their purpose, Cara points it out, the pilot begins to speak to her aggressively and mocking her and her people (Alderaan) for what happened to her. planet, recognizes her as a deserter, She remains calm but hurt inside, the pilot continues to provoke her and mock that fatal moment for her and her people, until there comes a point where, she cannot bear it, she shoots the pilot and the Dr, somehow. a little hurt.

That whole moment was so fast but so shocking and Din just looks, knows and realizes that that pilot hurt her inside, in her memories, in the pain of her people, but that's all, it was not a more intimate moment or closest between the two. So there we can see that Din does know how to recognize these types of aspects, but it is still closed, it is still a process. He's still not fully with Grogu, this is before he left with Luke and everything that needed to happen happened for them to reunite again and be a two-officer clan.

And I end with Omera, in a filler chapter, with a filler character, there they show us a Din being convinced to accept a job to support a Village and its inhabitants, the payment is given to Cara, he ends there and begins to see what an established life would be like, to a certain extent "a normal life" His interaction with Omera is talking to her about certain things about the creed, but there are no intimate moments and if you allow me I will tell you why.

There comes a point where Cara tells Din to stay and live there, he knows that it is not safe because of his pace of life, his type of life and because it would endanger the child and everyone, he thinks he can leave the boy and then leave, but mmm no He and Grogu have already been linked since chapter 1 of this series, it is already an unbreakable bond, so to speak

I really like a phrase that says “The force brought them together” and it shows that it was. This entire chapter can be seen as a mirror, Din reflecting on the widow and her daughter, in a town that is in danger but is already established… When he says goodbye to Omera, she speaks to him in a very particular way. way… "We would like you to stay." At no point is it a statement of her own or of some more intimate feeling, she sees him as a man who can protect her and her loved ones, provide security… but Din knows that he is not the one for her. or for that task, He tells her… She tries to invasively remove his helmet, knowing that he told her she couldn't take it off, she continues… he mentions it to her "I don't belong here."

And well, you know the rest… Technically, to say that "intimate moment" between them, she tried to force things, disrespecting what he told her about his creed, trying to take off his helmet, "in a very subtle way" . " as if they wanted to make it seem like "she just wants to help him" when that's clearly not the case… there you can also see interest-based action and how to approach someone who has been closed off for a long time. You can tell it's more What an introvert, a wall, that still doesn't let you get to that point… and you only approach it like this??? Really, there is nothing intimate about this, much less romantic.

So if you follow this whole process, the whole context, you watch the series again, it is documented… you begin to notice the dynamic between Din and Bo Katan, from enemies to then friends, with that touch that leaves the door open to something more , those "BokaDin" winks

It begins to be seen in this season 3 that Din since he has Grogu in his life, now in a more formal way, being his father, begins to take risks, to bond, to be more open and coincidentally this goes hand in hand with Bo Katan. Yes, of course, uh… coincidentally… You begin to see that synchronicity between them, that chemistry and that they protect each other publicly, intimately in the moment on the ship when she reveals that she surrendered and was betrayed by Gideon to save his people, he watches, remains silent BUT… Coincidentally (laughs) with her, if he takes that step, he looks for her at a very particular moment, with all the elements to make it seem like an intimate moment under the moonlight and he speaks to her in his Mandalorian way, he apologizes for what happened, because of how badly he thought of her, for judging her, he listens to what she says and decides to console her, give her support, encourage her and casually swear loyalty to her and be with her until her songs end…

And coincidentally (lol OMG) their theme songs come together in the background music of this scene.

Please In fact??? More elements are needed to say that this is more than obvious and in what direction are they going? There is no worse blind man than he who does not want to see.

#the mandalorian #star wars #this is the way #bo katan kryze #din djarin #bo katan x din #dinbo #din x bo #bokadin #clandetres

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survivalistghost · 1 year

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top 10 kdrama bromances to feed your empty heart

if you scroll through my page, you can already guess number 1.

#10 - our beloved summer : choi ung and kim ji ung

beautiful beautiful men choi woo shik and kim sung cheol played ung bros for life in this beautiful beautiful drama. one of the best handled love triangles ive seen. they were there for each other through thick and thin, and helped each other through sm. best. on the tenth spot because they could've expanded on it more :(

#9 - what's wrong with secretary kim? : lee young joon and park yoo sik

i could never make it through the series. i left it behind on ep9/10 i think, and primarily because i physically cannot digest how emotionless park min young is. BUT, kudos to the hilarious office best bromance by the great park seo joon and kang ki young. ps - why is kang ki young the pankaj tripathi of korean dramas?

#8 - strong girl do bong soon : ahn min hyuk and in gook du

can we ever forget the legendary wink? or the dream where min hyuk is dressed as a woman? i think not. this was more of a frenemy type bromance, united by their love for bong soon and ironically divided by it, too. i refuse to acknowledge this as a love triangle tho. bong soon was astronomical in not hurting gook du and i will not take any criticism. is it a bromance if one of them is pretending to be gay? (and no, we will not discuss any sort of iTs pRoBLeMaTiC debates here.)

#7 - tale of the nine tailed : lee yeon and koo shin ju

don't come at me with the lee rang comments. rang was his half brother, related by blood. their relationship was top tier, but the stay at home husband yeon and working husband shin ju was too cute to not be classified as a bromance. in the beginning, i saw their relationship as shin ju serving yeon, a dynamic that they both seemed to embody. but as the show progresses, yeon baby we know you love shin ju just as much :*

#6 - alchemy of souls : jang uk and seo yul

song joon ki seems to have an attachment to bromances. han seo had the best character arc of the ENTIRE kdrama universe fight me. that court scene where vincenzo pats han seo's cheek was max bro cuteness. still not over his death. he deserved better.

#5 - vincenzo : vincenzo cassano and jang han seo

even though i didn't very much like the show's first couple, bromance delivered well. hospital scene peaked, complete true beauty sameness. it was pretty hard to understand who was the superior officer in this tbh initially, since their comraderie was so cool, shi jin was kid to soldier in a split second. loved how they chose not to unnecessarily exaggerate the love triangle initially bec i was only rooting for the second couple.

#4 - descendants of the sun : yoo shi jin and seo dae young

business proposal was the first kdrama i saw. i finished it in a three day trip, and i remember thinking more about the bromance than the romance. i was NOT used to the clumsiness of kdramas in general, like wattpad fics incarnated. the bromance delivered well, made me root for the second couple, and was the only initial indicator of kang tae moo being human instead of archaeopteryx. that word was a nightmare to spell.

#3 - business proposal : kang tae moo and cha sung hoon

the most wolfstar bromance if I ever saw one. and NO, i do not ship wolfstar just like i do not ship these two. they are totally adorable, and specially since their personalities seemed to switch from when they were children. yeong turned all serious face and lee gon got fun. love their years of friendship sm, their wordless communication and yeong in general. the acting was amazing.

#2 - the king - eternal monarch : lee gon and jo yeong

#1 - guardian - the lonely and great god : kim shin aka goblin and wang yeo aka grim reaper

yes, i know I'm missing a lot of iconic ones. unfortunately, i haven't seen alot of kdramas and have left alot in bw (like true beauty bec i couldn't see second lead hurt).

spring onion slays ^

told ya, if u follow me u already knew what the first one was gonna be. being the simp i am for the goblin and grim reaper, these two achieved the max points for their bromance. that slow dynamic of goblin calling reaper's hat tacky to fighting with knives to that iconic 'saranghae' to 'HOW DARE YOU' to goblin boiling eggs with his powers while reaper chills the beer. they know each other so well. love love love them and you should too 🔪

in my heart, the trio of our boys beats nothing (except for the gookdu-minhyuk relationship of the crown prince and uk). but instead of choosing the frenemy thing, i decided to love yul and uk more. yul was such a quiet character, with incredible potential in him for me to hate him, but then...(the guy is literally too sweet and beautiful and nice i can ramble for days). and uk, man, our power baby who loves every version of our beautiful but slow girl, needed so much emotional support. uk and yul were not afraid to show their affection for each other, a trait i admired in all the three boys (jang uk, seo yul and park dang gu).

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renbenreybey · 2 years

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Rant Towards Those Hating on Eddissy:

To all the people hating on eddissy and eddissy shippers: I want you to know you’re not being the performative activist, and savior of the world, that you think you are by pestering people who ship a perfectly fine, and normal, FICTIONAL ship.

You’re literally just an anti. You’re allowed to have notps (a ship you do not like) without having to make the ship problematic/bad as an excuse to hate it. Some things just aren't for you and that’s okay! But, what we’re not going to do is harass people for liking something you don’t. Think of it in terms of food: I like pineapple on pizza, but you HATE that combination. Does that give you the right to bully and shame me over liking pineapples on pizza? NO, because it’s a matter of opinion over something that isn’t harming anyone.

Why spread hate, when you can spend time doing what you love? You don’t need to tear down other ships to bring yours up. If you’re going to sit there and spend your time being mean over a harmless ship to people having fun and living their lives, then you’re just an asshole. Put time and energy towards things you enjoy, and if you enjoy harassing people then I do not know what to tell you other than you’re a bad person. Ship and let ship is the motto. You play in your sandbox, and I will play in mine.

The argument of Eddie and Chrissy’s age differences making them problematic is invalid. They were both seniors in high school, they were both going to graduate in 1986, they both live at home with parental guardian(s), etc. They are at the same stage in life. There is no power imbalance, and it is most definitely not pedophilia. People use that term for anything nowadays (especially when wanting to spread an agenda and hate on people for no reason), and it’s very concerning, but that’s a whole other post.

There are no canon confirmations for ages except the props in the show that say Chrissy is 17 (school file in therapists office) and Eddie is 17 (missing person’s poster his uncle hung up), so they are the SAME age. And if you don’t want to pay attention to props because it’s implied Eddie is a 3rd time senior because his friends joked about it (although, he could have jumped ahead 2 grades when he was younger, and then got held back 2, still making him 17), then know their age difference could not be more than 2 years considering they would have been originally two grades apart, which would have been a sophomore and a senior (there are chances of the age difference being 1 or 3 years depending on when their birthdays are and what time of the year it is, but it would usually be 2 years). When did a possible age difference of 2 years in high school become so bad?

They went to middle school together. They grew up together. They would enter the workforce/college together. There is nothing problematic or wrong about this ship. And if you want to use the excuses of “they weren’t flirting”, “Eddie was selling her drugs”, “they had no screen time”, and “one or both are dead”, then I have news to you: none of that matters, and nobody cares. It’s a desperate and cringe attempt at making it seem like you’re a superior and puritan shipper, when it just makes you look ridiculous because you’re hating on something for no reason.

If you don’t like Eddie and Chrissy together, that’s totally fine because it’s a matter of opinion, but do not hate on people that do like them. Joseph Quinn, Grace Van Dien, and the Duffer Brothers all like the pairing. And, the Duffer Brothers regret not doing more with them. It was confirmed that Eddie had a crush on Chrissy and that their interaction in the woods was romantic (and that Jason was jealous because of it all). A large part of Eddie’s arc within the season revolved around Chrissy and the impact she had on him.

If reading any of the above makes you upset in a way, then I think it’s time to step back and look within yourself and decide whether being in fandom is something you should currently be doing with yourself. Being angry over such trivial things is not healthy. Please take care of yourself.

In the end, it’s all fictional, and eddissy is a completely valid ship. If there is any hate towards the ship I will immediately block. If you have been on the fence about whether you should ship it or not because of how you may be perceived, just know that you’re welcome to the fandom anytime and that if people try to make you feel bad for shipping a harmless ship, then it’s says a lot about them, and nothing about you.

Phew, I had to get all that down. Now, let’s ignore the haters and ship eddissy to our hearts content. It’s a lovely ship, and I want to thank every single eddissy shipper for being so kind and amazing. The content everyone is creating for this ship is incredible, and I am so thankful for you all!

Our star crossed lovers deserved a happy ending, and I am glad we can give them to them in terms of fanfiction, fanart, edits, etc. The exploration of these two characters, who had so little screen time, has been the best.

#eddissy #hellcheer #eddie x chrissy #chrissy x eddie #eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #eddsy #edssy #eddssy #chreddie #stranger things #stranger things s4 #joseph quinn #grace van dien #pls come talk to me about them I love them so much

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sapphire-weapon · 9 months

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As someone who ships leon and ashley and enjoys reading/consuming taboo topics and relationships in fiction including incestuous ones, it's so funny to me that I don't see eagleone that way at ALL. theyre one of the relationships i purely enjoy for being a cute wholesome romance and who i want to see thriving and happy (albeit i enjoy the tragic love angle too--) and yet they have a sizable age difference and a "power dynamic" (??????) so it's a "proship"... honestly outside of them both having a daddy kink i really dont want to see that with them!!! Its just not what I'm here for. Im here for that in OTHER ships and this was supposed to be my one good one and this is what happens. Lol.

As such I try to just not care when people accuse eagleone shippers of being weird because Im like... well I suppose I AM...... but it is really unfair for the majority of vanilla ones. Honestly I don't think the antis are secret shippers or secret incestuous shippers (...okay maybe like one or two--) I think they just have a "NOTP" or are scared of how much they relate to ashley as you say and are just making excuses for why they hate seeing fanart of them and blocking people who ship them. I notice this in other fandoms where people will say two characters are "sibling coded" and its just their way of saying they don't ship them. It's really weird frankly and they're basically ignoring canon to write worse fanfiction but that's just how it is these days.

personally, it actually blows me away that people think of Leon and Ashley as being "age gap" at all.

in modern day 2023, Leon is 46. Ashley is 39.

that feels really fucking normal to me in terms of ages for a couple LMAO if any of these dumbasses met a couple like that irl out in the wild today, no one would bat an eye. but that would require these people actually leaving the house, so.

the whole "power imbalance" thing is completely disingenuous, too, because people only look at it in the context of the events of the actual game and then pretend like that's going to be the norm for them forever and not, you know, a very unique, atypical, and extreme situation they're in.

but if anyone were to think about it a little bit as opposed to not at all, they'd realize that their power dynamic would shift once they got home, and then shift again once Ashley's dad is out of office -- and when the power dynamic is constantly changing, that's not exactly imbalanced, is it?

Leon has all of the power during the events of RE4make, and Ashley is wholly dependent on him. yes. that's true.

but once they're out of that combat situation and they're back home in DC, Ashley has literally all of the power in the world over him. she outranks him socially, and she theoretically has the power to make his life complete hell in terms of his career if she were to whisper in her dad's ear the right way.

but the title of "president" is a very temporary one, and once those very short few years are over...? neither Ashley nor Leon are in a position to hold any power over each other at all anymore. they just become two regular-ass people trying to fit into each other's lives.

the whole idea behind "Ashley is completely dependent on Leon in RE4make, which means she will always be completely dependent on him" isn't just based on a faulty premise -- it's also really sexist and gross and reduces Ashley to something less than human, because it assumes that she's incapable of autonomous thought.

and it's really funny how it's only the people who hate the ship that actually are problematic in their thought process. they project their internalized misogyny and sexual insecurities onto us.

I am pretty much as deep in the middle of eagleone fandom as a person can possibly be, and I have never known a single one of you fuckers to ship this ship because you have an age gap kink or because you get off on the power dynamics. the only time power dynamics get brought up is when we make knight/queen comparisons -- which actually gives Ashley the greater portion of power.

I mean, yeah, there is the whole thing where a lot of the fandom also is of a mind that there are some daddy issue kinks at play in the ship, but --

I don't wanna hear shit from people about us enjoying daddy kink between Leon and Ashley when literally the entire fucking RE fandom is out here posting pics of shirtless Leon mods and writing the word "DADDY" in giant fucking text at the bottom of the post. goddamn hypocrites.

#resident evil 4 #leon kennedy #ashley graham #eagleone

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cochidinh · 4 months

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Heyo! It will feel like deja vu, but since you're also asking for us to ask you your thoughts about characters and ships, of course, Yomi it is 👀

All of them, if you don’t mind

Aaand what do you think about Yomi x Seth, Hellxander, Fake Zilch x Seth, and Yomi x Fake Zilch x Seth ?

Take your time to answer

Heyyo, Yomi? yeah yeah Yomi *let my monster out of the closet*

First impression

His debut was cool, but that's it, a normal evil character and I was not into him that much. I did laugh at his last name tho.

Headcanons

I did a whole post about him but since I know you perhaps read it, I'll write down something new

His left eye has poor vision and has a different iris than his right eye (the right is square and the left is diamond).

He has a very sensitive tongue so he usually only eats after the food has cooled a bit.

Even though he looks very flashy, his family was actually not rich (He never went to Ginma District or Marunomon before becoming the Peacekeeper Director). Most of his bad behavior is learned from his surroundings.

He interned at Amaterasu's research lab and then became a peacekeeper. Thanks to the internships, he learned and targeted the right person for cooperation - Dr. Huesca.

Complaints and/or praise

My complaint must be that they didn't make him evil enough because Kodaka said he was the most disgusting person he's ever created so I was expecting a bit more. I like Monaka (ultra despair girl) and that girl really shows me what evil and the horror of torture are. Looking back at Yomi, he is more like a child than Monaka lol

and they gave him a whip-cane, and let his cloak cover it all? There's no plot to show the function of that cane other than whipping Vivia and making 3/4 of the players I watched say "he has a whip??"

As for compliments, his model is really cute, not only his face but also his body (his waist is sooooooooo cute).

I mean, he may appear weird, but the more I gaze at him, the more I am drawn to him...

They also let him like handmade kinds of stuff and carry small bag around his waist, yup, reasonable for someone who likes to carry small things and do craft stuff. Whaaaa and he has so many books in his office, and he wrote a letter explaining the murder to Yakou? He wrote all his deals and made a folder? Could we see his handwriting- *got shot*

Favorite pairing (platonic or romantic)

*wipe blood* okay. I love these dynamic

Hitman Zil x Yomi x Martina. An evil polycule.

Makoto x Yomi. They are both 3 years old you honor, nothing problematic here.

Yomi x Yomi. This ship lives in my mind rent-free.

Overall opinion

He is my favorite after 1) he ordered Martina to be turned into a cube 2) he stomped on Yakou.

What I need is a villain that can turn everything worse for the protag, easy to understand why they act but not easy to predict what they will do next. I like him, and I want to kick him down the throne. His ending wasn't bad but it wasn't good either, I was expecting something more satisfying.

Jump on the next question.

Yomi x Seth.

I like their dynamic, they're okay to me.

Hellxander.

I love them. Anyone who can convince me that 15 minutes of talking to zombie Zil is not long enough to show that those two are together will receive the key to my treasure room. No way. I swear they did something nsfw suspicious behind everyone's back.

Fake Zilch x Seth

I never think about it. It is not what I will touch in a romantic way but in a platonic way.

Yomi x Fake Zilch x Seth

Wait a minute, I think you scratched something out from my brain's corner and I actually did read a fanfic about this...I don't like it that much. Sorry.

#ccd reply #thanks for the ask!#rain code spoilers #man this really took me an hour to reply lol

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taffywabbit · 1 year

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ok story time let's go

(i guess CW// religious baggage? vaguely cult-y stuff? Mormons?)

so i was laughing at that (presumably bait) tweet that got screenshotted and reposted on here, with the person claiming that y'all is a problematic term used by "bigoted southerners" and someone else dunking on them, because I'm Canadian and I say y'all ALL the time. and like, that by itself wouldn't be too notable - there ARE rural areas of Canada, particularly over in Alberta/Saskatchewan, where the local accent and slang have convergently evolved into something very similar to Texas (and I DID actually grow up in a town like that, though i never picked up the accent myself).

what makes my adoption of y'all particularly odd is that I picked it up in the Caribbean of all places. if you are familiar with my Not-So-Secret Tragic Backstory then you MIGHT know where this is going already.

I was raised in a Mormon family, so when I was 18 i was basically required to go do the missionary thing with the white shirts and ties and nametags. (this is very funny considering my current status as a gay trans furry artist and leftist, but this story isn't really about that.) I got assigned a random location in the world, and was shipped off to the Eastern Caribbean for 2 years. it was very hot and sweaty and overall not a very good time for me, the world's blondest palest scrawniest teen who would have to walk around all day every day in office attire.

ANYWAYS a few months after my mission began, we got a new mission president (the old guy assigned by the church to be in charge of all the missionaries in a region, along with his wife). while he was generally a pretty jovial friendly guy, he also had an occasional tendency to powertrip and institute random arbitrary rule changes whenever he felt that the missionaries weren't performing as well as he'd like and the numbers were down. with missionaries, there's a huge focus on "exact obedience" and "consecration" - this idea that the more single-mindedly devoted you are to Doing Missionary Stuff and Thinking About Jesus and Never Having A Single Fucking Independent Thought In Your Head Or Taking Care Of Your Personal Wellbeing Or Enjoying Yourself, the more god will bless you with like. charisma superpowers or something. to just change people's minds on the spot as you blast them with your Conversion Beam. and therefore anytime that ISN'T happening (y'know, because people have free will, and also because being Mormon is wildly unappealing to any reasonable outsider), it clearly MUST be because those darn young punk missionaries are probably thinking too much about their partners back home or drawing Pokemon fanart or collecting distractingly colourful neckties. can't have that!

so with all that context, I can finally get to the point, which is that one day our mission president decided the reason nobody was knocking on our apartment door begging to get baptized was probably because we, as missionaries, were too casual in our interactions with one another. specifically, he took issue with missionaries calling each other "dude" or "bro" or "man", or referring to each other collectively as "you guys". he insisted that this was "eroding the dignity of our sacred calling as missionaries" and that we should instead strive to call each other "Elder" and "Sister" (the titles used for male and female missionaries respectively) as much as humanly possible.

specifically as an alternative to "you guys", he suggested we start saying "Elders and Sisters" every time we addressed a mixed group of missionaries. which OBVIOUSLY sounds really fucking stupid. and I was in a leadership position at the time, so I had to deliver instruction/training to the missionaries in my area every week AND call them to check-in every night. being a missionary and constantly being commanded to do incredibly stupid arbitrary things really brought out my latent rebellious streak, and there was NO fucking way I was going to say "Elders and Sisters" if i could avoid it - the only people who actually complied with the new rule were immediately identifiable as goody-two-shoes and suck-ups and everyone wanted to push them into the ocean.

so INSTEAD, i and several other missionaries quickly realized that we could simply get away with saying "you all" or just plural "you" with like, a hand gesture to show we meant the group. which naturally just evolved into y'all pretty quickly because it's an incredibly natural contraction of words and it just feels good to say. and the mission president never complained about it, because we weren't using cool youngster slang like "guys" or "dudes" and instead it just sounded like a fun twangy rural affectation. and then i just kinda kept saying it for the rest of my mission, and continued saying it after i returned home and went off to college in the city and all that jazz.

...absolutely no clue where I picked up saying "howdy" all the time tho. i don't have an excuse or backstory for that one lol, it's just fun to say

#buny text #storytime #long post #idk what the standard tags are for tagging like. religious shit for folks to blacklist. particularly ex-mormon stuff #so if anyone needs to me to add tags lemme know #thank you for reading my very long post i think this story is very funny personally #i love when friends point out how much i say Y'all and assume it's because i grew up in rural alberta and i get to say 'actually no'

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sshbpodcast · 11 months

Text

Mutiny on the Bounty, and the Enterprise, and the Voyager, and the…

By Ames

Don’t trust your first officer as far as you can throw them. Especially in space because the lack of gravity probably means you can throw them very far! This week on A Star to Steer Her By, we’re all mutinying against our corrupt captains, our possessed or mind-controlled captains, and sometimes our captains that just aren’t corrupt enough for our liking!

We see it on just about every ship, whether Starfleet or alien, whether justified or not. So grab your favorite melee weapon, stand guard at the brig, and scroll down and/or listen to this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 55:37) for our full list of mutinies in Star Trek! Just don’t get any bright ideas…

“The Menagerie”

The first time we see a crewmember usurping control of the ship in all of Trek, we also see the comeuppance right away. In trying to bring Captain Pike to Talos IV, Spock neckpinches several crewmen, kidnaps a disabled man, straight up steals the Enterprise, lies to a whole bunch of officers, and probably eats someone else’s sandwich too. Was it all a worthy cause? Well, it meant the show didn’t have to film new content for half an episode, so I’m gonna say yes.

“This Side of Paradise”

Sure, everyone in this episode was under the influence of mind-altering spores at the time, but that doesn’t prevent it from being mutiny when these lotus eaters go against captain’s orders, sabotage the Enterprise, abandon the ship, and even get into a fistfight with Kirk! Screw happiness and fall in line!

“Amok Time”

Yet another example in which Spock’s not in his right mind and goes straight to mutiny occurs in “Amok Time.” Sure, the memorable parts of the episode are all about gladiatorial combat and killing Kirk (he got better), but remember that Spock also kept rerouting the Enterprise toward Vulcan without realizing it because his pon farr was affecting his thinking so much.

“Mirror, Mirror”

Finally, someone other than Spock mutinying! Mutiny is just a daily occurrence in the mirror universe, as it seems pretty much everyone is vying for a promotion by murdering whoever’s above them. Chekov and Sulu give it the old college try but can’t manage to overthrow Captain Kirk. The more, the mutinier!

“Whom Gods Destroy”

This one’s in the backstory of Garth of Izar, whose crew mutinied when they couldn’t stand by while he committed war crimes. This one’s definitely a justifiable mutiny since Garth’s actions were not the Starfleet way. That and the guy was entirely unstable, so his crew had grounds all over the place to take over from him.

“Turnabout Intruder”

The final episode of The Original Series is problematic as hell. It’s also yet another example of Spock mutinying. That pointy-eared hobgoblin freakin’ loves mutinying. He was ready to mutiny before he even figured out that it was Janice Lester in Kirk’s body. On top of that, Scotty and McCoy also blatantly plan to mutiny before Lester catches them as well and threatens the death penalty. And that’s why we can’t have lady captains in TOS.

The Final Frontier

Most of the crew has their minds tampered with in Star Trek V, similar to when everyone was mind altered in “This Side of Paradise” above, and that makes mutinying come that much more naturally! Everyone whose pain Sybok heals basically bends over backwards to help him take over the Enterprise-A from Kirk because he's such a nice guy.

“The Battle”

This early TNG episode is one of those interesting cases in which the crew is unhappy with how their leader isn’t acting corruptly enough for their liking! In this case and with some strong nudges from Riker, the Ferengi crew removes Daimon Bok from power because he was trying to return property to the Federation not for profit but for his own personal revenge plot. How much more un-Ferengi can you get?!

“Allegiance”

Like in “Turnabout Intruder” in TOS, the Enterprise-D crew are ready to unknowingly mutiny against their captain who isn’t actually their captain. There’s just something weird about how Picard is acting, and though no one’s mindmelded him or has any substantial proof, the senior staff is prepared to face the consequences. Luckily for them, there aren’t any.

“Brothers”

Proving to be one of the weirder dads in space, Noonian Soong calls his boy home by hacking into his system and making him usurp the whole bridge. I’d say it’s a bad idea to give so much power to an android who can be reprogrammed to take over the ship whenever is convenient, but frankly you can do that to biological beings as well, as we’ll see lower in this list…

“Disaster”

Picards calls out the actions of the three little twerps whom he rescued in the turbolift in “Disaster” as committing mutiny. To be fair, all they did was refuse to leave him to die as he ordered, so there may be some grey area in there. But Ro was definitely a centimeter away from mutinying against the de facto officer in charge of the bridge because nearly anyone could have done a better job than Troi in that situation.

“Power Play”

So Data mutinied in “Brothers” because he’s an android. Then what’re O’Brien and Troi’s excuses for doing the same thing in “Power Play”? Oh right, they were possessed by space jerks who wanted freedom from their prison planet and were using the bodies of Starfleet crewmembers to take over the Enterprise to do it. That’s a decent excuse, I guess.

“The Pegasus”

One more from Next Gen, and it’s another for which the cited mutiny is in the backstory of our guest star. Like Garth of Izar’s crew noted above, the Pegasus crew notably mutinied against Eric Pressman when he was going around pissing on Federation rules and regulations. In this case, violating the “no using cloaks” treaty with the Romulans. But those mutineers are all dead now because their phased cloak tech was just as bad as they thought it was! Joke’s on them!

“Dramatis Personae”

Here’s another episode in which everyone who’s mutinying is actually possessed and acting out a military coup that happened in some alien society, but screw it – it still counts! Possessed Kira riles up a group of folks fully ready to mutiny and it’s unclear if everyone’s possessed or if Bajorans just really love violence. Let’s face it, it’s probably both.

“To the Death”

The Vorta have their work cut out for them keeping the Jem’Hadar from mutinying every minute of every day, and they mostly succeed! It’s usually through the use of debilitating drug addiction, but they succeed. Except in this season 4 episode in which, at the end of so many minutes of battle, First Omet'iklan and friends rise up and straight up murder our first Weyoun. And it won’t be the last either!

“Worst Case Scenario”

What starts as a fictional mutiny in the holodeck escalates quickly into an actual crisis that nearly destroys the Voyager. Leave it to Seska to have a scheme with so many layers only a Cardassian could have carried it out. Even the hologram of Seska is ready to mutiny at the drop of a hat, leaving us to wish all the more that the show did more interesting stuff like this in early seasons with the Maquis.

“Year of Hell”

Obrist has enough of Annorax’s shit at one point in “Year of Hell, Part 2” after who knows how many years of attempting to alter the timeline. With some gentle nudges from Paris, our Krenim friend colludes with the captured Starfleet officers, takes down the timeship’s temporal core, and beams the prisoners away. It begs the question: if your mutiny resets the timeline, did you really mutiny?

“Night”

Here’s an interesting little example of a sort of reverse mutiny. A little like the instance with the children in “Disaster,” the captain orders the crew to leave her to die, and everyone refuses. So instead of mutinying to take over the ship, it’s more like a mutiny to keep the captain being in charge. It’s a sweet little sentiment.

“Equinox”

Captain’s Ransom’s crew of the Equinox was quick to mutiny the moment he started showing the least bit of mercy. This is one of those examples of people mutinying when their leader isn’t corrupt enough for them, and Burke and company pounce at the opportunity when Ransom shows his soft underbelly to the Voyager. They all get what’s coming to them though.

“Repression”

In yet another instance of the crew having their minds manipulated, the Maquis crew mutinies like whoa in this season seven episode. It’s a little odd that we’re dredging up the tension with the Maquis again so late in the series when we really never got to see it explored early on, but it’s even odder that it’s a Maquis mutiny scheme that Seska wasn’t even involved with!

“Nightingale”

There may be a reason forever-ensign Harry Kim never gets a promotion throughout all the years that we’ve known him, and that’s that he barely seems able to handle any more command than that. When he’s given the honorary captaincy of the Nightingale, the very first thing the Kraylor crewmembers do is mutiny. That’s a pretty bad track record, Harry.

“Hatchery”

Where do I even start with this rage-inducing episode? Captain Archer is actually showing compassion for the unhatched offspring of some Xindi Insectoids, and the rest of the crew is appalled that he’s not committing war crimes or anything! But then it turns out everyone else is right to mutiny because Archer’s mind was corrupted into caring for babies, so who is the real monster here? The babies? Clearly the babies.

“In a Mirror, Darkly”

If you’re not mutinying in a mirror universe episode, are you even in the mirror universe? As usual, the slightly evil counterparts of all our Enterprise friends spend most of this late-series two-parter scheming, getting tortured, scheming, and overthrowing everyone who takes power. Oh, and scheming. Archer does it. T’Pol does it. Sato does it. Hell, Porthos probably mutinies with the best of them.

Star Trek (2009)

Kirk was way out of line when he started screaming at Spock after the destruction of Vulcan in the first of the Kelvin movies. Spock, in his own logical way, was still piecing together that this movie just created a new timeline just for fun, and he’s stuck with this pissant attacking people and being a general dick. Now, was Spock also out of line marooning Kirk on a planet instead of throwing him in the brig? You decide. No, screw that; I’ll decide. They were both out of line!

“The Vulcan Hello”

Michael Burnham gets a lot of flak for knocking out Captain Georgiou, lying to the bridge crew, and doing her own little Vulcan Hello. And for good reason! She did get a whole lot of people killed and sparked a war with the Klingons that gets even more people killed! What a way to make an entrance into the franchise.

“Will You Take My Hand?”

But boy does Burnham make up for that little mutiny by the end of season one with… well, yet another mutiny! But this one for very good cause. Emperor Georgiou is about to destroy the hell out Q’onos, and the rest of Starfleet has their tail between their legs when Michael pulls one of many heartfelt speeches about doing the right thing, and the Starfleet way, and not committing genocide all the time. Hear, hear!

“Ask Not”

I really miss the Short Treks, though the idea of Captain Pike mutinying (spoilers) that was presented in this one was (more spoilers) obviously a fabrication from the word go (sorry, not sorry). So it’s all a little test to put a cadet through her paces by placing her in a stressful situation, making her confront trauma, and asking how far she’d follow her captain if it’s not in Starfleet’s best interests. It’s a little messed up, isn’t it?

“The Serene Squall”

Last one of the blogpost, and it’s a very recent one from season one of Strange New Worlds. The crew of the pirate ship Serene Squall is already a stubbed toe away from mutiny at any given time, so it’s barely an inconvenience for the captured Enterprise crew to push them all the way. “The Serene Squall” is one of those episodes that tries to balance comedy and… more comedy, and it’s indeed a very silly mutiny.

— Aaaaaand, we’ve been court-martialed. Thanks for mutinying with us, folks. Keep your eyes here for more when we’re out of the brig, and follow along the rest of our voyage through Voyager over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also scheme with us on Facebook and Twitter, and keep a close eye on that wily Spock. That guy's always a step away from mutinying.

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #the original series #the next generation #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #star trek 2009 #discovery #short treks #strange new worlds #mutinies #pirates #mirror universe #spock

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