#MY ISSUES AND FEELINGS AND PROBLEMS AND WHATEVER ACTUALLY MAKES ME A REAL LIFE HUMAN BEING DOESNT

[thefemalejoker42069]

okay this is gonna be a bit of a long rant (with some SA and CSA mentions so pls don’t read if that will be too much for you rn) but I’ve been thinking a lot about the “male loneliness epidemic” lately and I have some Thoughts ™

we live in very isolating, depressing and scary times. we live in a hyper-individualistic capitalist hellscape that seems to punish people who need community support. and I truly believe that we as humans should try to help each other out in the ways that we are able to.

but I lose 100% of my empathy for lonely depressed men when they start using their own personal issues as an excuse to peddle ideologies that advocate for rape, pedophilia, child marriage, sexual slavery, and even murder of women and girls. I don’t fucking care how sad you are, if you advocate for other humans beings to be subjected to the cruelest treatment possible then you either need to get serious help or die (and not take anyone with you when you do).

you do not have a fucking paramount on suffering. you are not the only ones who experience loneliness. I know you think women get to just pick and choose whichever romantic partner/friends we want, but that is false, and also being seen as nothing but a sex object by men is so incredibly isolating too. that’s not real love and connection, that’s only being valued for what we can provide for men. so many people feel so alone and it genuinely is a big problem.

I was raised in an extremely misogynistic cult that preaches that grown men are not responsible for anything they do to little girls bc “they’re wired that way.” I had very bad things happen to me before I was even old enough to realize what it meant. and you know what the excuse always is? “well it happened to him when he was younger too so he can’t help that he does it to you.” I learned very early that male suffering is viewed as more important than the suffering they inflict on innocent people. and despite going through this, despite seeing nearly every woman in my life go through something similar, despite all of this, I still would never ever sympathize with any ideology that preaches rape, slavery, sex trafficking, pedophilia, white supremacy, etc. and that doesn’t make me some super hero, it makes me a mildly normal person.

so no, nobody “pushed” you into your evil ideologies, nobody made you do that. if true suffering at the hands of the opposite sex is really the root cause of inceldom then almost every single woman I know would be the most insane incel you’d ever meet in your entire life. but they’re not, even though many of them are lonely and long for true companionship, none of them feel so angry and entitled to it that they want to murder and rape men or little boys. not a single one. the root cause of inceldom is, and always has been, male entitlement. men who were raised to believe the world and every woman in it exists to serve them in some way, but then grew up and realized that actually nobody is owed sex and you don’t get to force women to marry you and have kids, because we are human beings who deserve to be happy too. and this makes them so mad that they start thinking it’s okay to do whatever they want to whoever they want, because after all, nobody on planet earth could ever suffer as much as incels do when a woman tells them no.

I’m fucking sick of it. stop saying “they pushed me to this” and start taking even an ounce of accountability for your deranged, entitled mindset.

#radblr #radical feminism #radical feminists please touch #radical feminist community #I cooked here tbh #male entitlement #male violence #tw csa mention

[ddarker-dreams]

Lock, what DO you love and like so much about Dostoevsky's work? I don't think you've ever talked about that. Please, I want to know !!!

^o^

(christianity mention jump scare below proceed with caution)

i thought this would be an easy to answer but figuring out how to put my feelings into words proved difficult .

the beginning is always a good place to start, so let's go with that. by chance, i happened upon this video on youtube and gave it a watch. about halfway in i decided i had to read notes from underground for myself. i struggled to understand what the narrator was trying to get across. the unique writing style, where the reader is addressed directly, as if in challenge, helped me preserve.

i think part of what makes his work special to me is his depiction of people. and they really do feel like people more than characters, even if some of their characteristics are unique to the era dostoevsky wrote in. everything else about them transcends time. i can see myself in some of them. whether it be the titular idiot, prince myshkin in his naivety; alyosha, who goes from devout to doubting; and ivan, whose bitterness toward religion masks his disappointment at the state of the world. 

that's why the brothers karamazov touched me in particular. for some context, i grew up in a christian household and was heavily involved in the church (american northeast white baptist strand of church). around when i was 11 or so, the introduction of left-wing politics through social media had me undergo a looooong identity crisis. these new ideas felt at odds with what i'd spent my entire life believing. what i grappled with the most relates to ivan's anecdote, the grand inquisitor, where the goodness of god is called into question. the bitterness, the disappointment from crushed expectations, all those sensations resonated strongly with me. reading it as an adult who (supposedly) 'healed' from that time period in my life was like opening pandora's box. i'd never seen my thoughts and struggles so accurately described, or treated with more than a 'his ways are higher than our ways' type platitude. i stuffed these concerns of mine away because they only ever served to make me feel worse.

i won't delve deep into the Depressing Lore. the only reason i mention it is to stress how profound an impact the work had on me. throughout the remainder of TBK (and in most of dostoevsky's discography), the best and worst of humanity is shown. our hypocritical nature, capacity for evil; nothing is shied away from or made more palatable. and yet, throughout it all, our potential for good is shown too. whether it be in the little acts or monumental self-sacrifice. sometimes those acts are honored, or ‘worth it,’ sometimes they aren’t. it’s cheesy but whatever i’ll say it — choosing to love and serve others is my greatest joy. i don’t really need a definitive answer to those problems i struggled with. that’s the takeaway i’ve had from his work. it might not seem like a big deal, but not feeling guilty for having certain doubts or anxious over those doubts never fully being resolved was. very significant for me. and healing (for real this time). 

so that’s the sentimental perspective GJSDLKFJS from my writer’s perspective, i can only describe him as brilliant. his grasp on the human psyche is incredible. he can accurately describe so many emotions, worldviews, and give the context necessary for each one to feel organic and real. it’s vivid, too, in a way i can’t properly get across. everyone’s unfiltered and messy. characters contradict themselves in the same sentence. they’ll murmur, go off on tangents, tell stories, misquote the bible (or many other significant works), and just be overall disasters. aka how people actually are. 

the man’s also funny as hell. the protagonist from crime and punishment has a mental breakdown spanning multiple pages over a sock. yes, there’s context, but that’s still the gist of things. then there’s the issue of the hedgehog in the idiot. hedgehog drama. 

ultimately, his work is so very human. there’s commentary on issues that are prevalent to this day, multiple centuries later. the topics he touches on tend to align with what i care about most. whether i agree or disagree with what i’m reading, there’s always something i glean from it. something meaningful that sits with me long after i close the book. i’ll mull over it and bother people in my vicinity until they mull over it too. no one is safe. whether it be a co-worker or my dad who drives noticeably faster to reach our destination and be free of my many questions.

i could keep going but this ended up being long enough GJSKDF i hope at least something here makes sense?>?? i apologize for the incoherent ramblings. it's what the dude does to me.

#dostoevsky fanclub #answered #Anonymous

[nocturnalazure]

An answer to Echoweaver

@echoweaver - I thought it best to make a separate post again in reply to your comments but we can continue the discussion via PM after this if you prefer?

Your comments:

I don't really have a better place to post this, since it seems weird to put an essay about your story on my blog. I wanted to follow up on this, since I'm sure it was my reaction the prompted your thinking. I definitely had feels about Erik and Gloria's breakup, and I wasn't coherent about them. Mostly I was feeling defensive of Gloria. The first responses seemed to indicate she'd overreacted, and I don't really think she did.

The core of my thinking was that she told Erik she wanted to be his priority, and he didn't answer her. I'm sure his body language gave her an answer at some level, and we all knew what it would be. But he didn't actually tell her until he was leaving, about to walk into danger and leaving her to process alone. That's very different from Romeo and Jamie, where Romeo brought his disclaimers up front and allowed Jamie to decide what he could live with.

I wish Gloria had made a different decision, but with the way Erik forced the decision on her, I would have broken up with Erik too. And of course, Gloria came not only second in Erik's life, but third, since he's in love with his boss. She also came after Laurie as a person, and she was sensing that. There wasn't a lot of Erik left over for her.

I do still have a lot of trouble with Erik/Laurie. Erik's intense way of defining himself by his role in the mob makes it impossible for me to see a route to them having a healthy relationship -- Laurie is Erik's boss, and Erik has no line between personal and professional. In addition, Laurie is very cerebral, and Erik is not a verbal communicator. Erik seems like he'd be better with someone like Carmen (we all marry our parents??).

As a side issue, I've spent decades dealing with friends and fans who compulsively sexualize male intimacy, and I find it frustrating. I really liked Erik and Laurie as platonic partners, and I still kind of mourn it. I love Anh, and I do hope her arc with Laurie, whatever it is, takes her to a good place.

The end.

My answer:

As an author, I haven’t found the right balance yet between leaving the readers have their own interpretation and giving them a nudge in the direction I want. So two sides compete inside of me: the thrill of seeing my characters dissected and analysed, and the frustration when the results are not what I had hoped for. It brings up all sorts of self-questioning about my writing abilities. Is a good writer one who manages to make their characters as universally relatable as possible? Or is it one who simply sparks some thinking? If I were to judge by all the bad books that I have read and that I still remember to this day… I’d rather go with the former proposition. But at the same time, I can’t deny that it is flattering that someone would take some of their time to think about my characters. So thank you for this, sincerely.

I see Erik as a flawed human being. So basically, just a human being. It wouldn’t have struck me as very realistic for him to discuss beforehand with Gloria everything that his job implied. Sometimes, discussions happen when they have to happen, because that is how it goes in real life too. And yes, in Erik’s case, there is more to it than just the job. Maybe he’s not ready to admit it out loud. Maybe he’s afraid to hurt Gloria even more. Maybe he wants to keep his promise to Laurie to keep it quiet. Anyway, you’re right: no, he wasn’t upfront with her when she asked him to be his priority and he didn’t answer for many different reasons. And obviously, she was right in asking that precisely, because that is the core of the problem between them and why it would never have worked. Gloria tried, thought she could do it, but in the end it meant changing Erik and that is asking for the impossible. And to Erik’s credit, he did try too, so much. He threw himself headlong into that relationship, in a very Erik way, and he wanted so bad to make her happy because from the get-go, he was afraid that he wasn’t good enough for her. All things considered, it doesn’t matter if Gloria ends up second, third or even tenth in Erik’s list of priorities. She would not have been first in any scenario. And to be fair, that is also the case for many real-life couples: your partner comes second after work, the kids, friends, even hobbies,… Sure, that is not healthy but many people live like that. I don’t pretend to depict ideal couples either.

Gloria was surely right in breaking up with Erik, since they have different outlooks on what being in a relationship involves. That being said, she was (still is) in love with him and she hadn’t expected him to choose his work (or Laurie) over her if she issued an ultimatum. Right now, the poor girl is devastated and kicking herself for not leaving the door open. It is too late, unfortunately. Something has switched in Erik’s mind too.

From a long time now, I have shown Erik as being loyal to Laurie as a person. Not necessarily to an organization or what it represents. He even says at some point that he has “faith” in Laurie. This goes beyond simple duty, and yes, personal and professional are intrinsically connected. However, I don’t see Laurie and Erik as having a strictly hierarchical relationship. Erik has a disregard for the rules inherited directly from his father, and even if Laurie did use his authority from time to time to distance himself from Erik, he’s never been able to really keep him away. Erik, by default, just does whatever the fuck he wants to do. And that’s also what Laurie likes so much about him.

I see your point, but I don’t agree: opposites attract. I think it is very interesting, particularly in fiction, to explore how two characters with very different personalities and backgrounds can find common ground and how they can actually enrich each other. I am always cautious of making similar-minded people automatically get together, be it as friends or lovers. In real life, it creates a dangerous cognitive bubble. I love to find out how two outwardly conflicting personalities can interact and ultimately appreciate each other. By the way, Anh and Laurie are far from being completely similar. Their brain functions in much the same way but they are both strongly opinionated and will clash inevitably. We either marry our parents, or the complete opposite of them (as is my case).

Finally, I hear what you’re saying about sexualizing male friendships. It is a bit of a touchy subject. I don’t do that in real life, that’s for sure. But I allow more leeway in fiction because a big part of the fun is to explore different aspects of life, including sexuality. I’m a straight person. That doesn’t mean I’m not genuinely interested in other sexual identities. Love is love after all.

I can only say that I’ve never intended to write a gay romance with Laurie and Erik. It did start out as a true friendship. But their relationship developed as we know, and I don’t regret a thing because to me, they make a lot of sense together. It just seemed that obvious and I felt like I had voluntarily kept them apart because I was scared of what people would think. Now my favorite part of their relationship is that they never question their (bi)sexuality. They just have romantic feelings for each other that they cannot help, and neither of them really care about labelling those feelings (very much like Sam doesn’t want to define how she feels for Ash).

Finally, l I want to say that Laurie and Erik’s relationship and my determination to write it as well as possible have been an opportunity for me to learn a lot more about the LGBTQ+ community. That has certainly enriched me.

#text post #replies

[thesweetnessofspring]

So I was going to make this a Reddit post (since up until this week that was the only place to have any kind of real discussion online about Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), but I took too much time to think it over so now it has to go here. I can't hold it in anymore.

Nathaniel is a poorly conceived character and lacks a genuinely earned change of character as a result.

Warning: This is a long rant, hopefully with a point at the end. I just have so many complaints I hoped I pulled them together in a coherent way.

First, to be clear, Scott is amazing. No complaints on the acting.

But the character? For a show that took stereotypes and showed the human behind them in a a way that was grounded despite the ridiculous nature of the show, they just fell absolutely flat with Nathaniel's character.

Obviously Nathaniel is the "rich boy/antagonistic lover" romcom cliche. I think that is the first part which created a hurdle, because CXG is set in West Covina, not Scarsdale. The other characters are normal and relatable. I've seen Josh and Greg get more criticism for their characters than Nathaniel (which is honestly so ridiculous to me) and I think part of it is because we all know Joshes who haven't learned to grow up and be someone a partner could actually depend on. We all know Gregs who are bitter and make sarcastic comments and bring down the vibe in the room. So it's easier to hate them because they're grounded in our world. But it's rarer to know a Nathaniel, so the show builds his character based not how real rich people act, but perpetuates the idea that movies and TV shows have put in our head about rich people.

Why is Nathaniel a jerk? BECAUSE HIS DADDY DIDN'T LOVE HIM! WAAAAAA! HIS DADDY WAS SO MEAN TO HIM! POOR NATHANIEL IT'S NOT HIS FAULT YOU CAN'T BLAME HIM FOR TRYING TO HAVE JOSH'S GRANDFATHER MURDERED!

I know that parent issues can come across cliche anyway, but really? The rich boy's daddy puts pressure on him and doesn't give him affection? THAT'S the best they could come up with? Some Logan Huntzburger knock-off?

I loved CXG from the beginning because of how real it feels despite its ridiculous tone. I remember watching the first episode and feeling so excited, because wow! West Covina was so much like the SoCal town I grew up in and the characters I could tell were already like people I actually knew! Nathaniel failed in this way.

I used to work on occasion with rich people as a legal assistant. I saw a few third-generation rich people that Nathaniel was supposed to be like. Do you know what kind of so-called "men" they were? They were all spoiled man-children whose daddies were bailing them out of their legal problems with money, lying, cheating, and committing perjury. They were able to use their family wealth to dick around, not do any real work, and yet keep living life high. Did they have good parents? Hell no! Did they have parents who pushed them to the point of perfection? Hell no! These spoiled rich babies always got whatever they wanted, no consequences. And that is what made their parents so bad.

For Nathaniel to be so rich he has his own private jet, and yet be pushed to work so hard is not the way it actually works with people that wealthy. Yes, for rich people who are still on the lower-end of "rich" their kids will have to go to a good school and pursue a career with money-making potential. But Nathaniel has little need to do any actual work.

If you want a more well-known comparison: Donald Trump is a third-generation rich person. After all that came out in the media, you can't tell me that Donald Trump was pushed to perfection by his daddy.

And then there are other things that bug me like, Nathaniel is a water polo player...but that isn't a rich person sport. Not in SoCal anyway. A kid from my high school actually went to Stanford to play on their water polo team (like Nathaniel) and I come from an area that is very middle class at best. West Covina should not have been the place he was first exposed to normal people! He even says that his water polo team were his brothers, who would have been made up of normal people because water polo is not a rich person's sport. Which makes me wonder why it wasn't until West Covina Nathaniel starts "becoming nice." You're telling me away from his dad, as an independent adult, spending HOURS with normal people including traveling for games and team bonding, and it takes a lady with big boobs and a quirky personality to make him "nice"??? I'm not quite as familiar with Stanford culture, but again, from the people I know who went there, it's not as much of a rich people haven as the east coast prestigious school (from my understanding). Then Nathaniel's parents house looks like it's straight-up from Gilmore Girls (again the Logan Huntzburger comparison) when rich people's houses in LA look nothing like that. Why in a show so based in California culture are they making him into an east-coast cliche? He's a mirror of Rebecca, sure, but then why make him from LA if they based his character off of east coast old money? California is new money! Even if the wealth is across generations, it is not at all like east coast old money at all!

So in terms of keeping the character based in actually seeing this type of person in real life? I'd give Nathaniel...2/10. Just because how cruel he is at the start is how real-life rich people act so he gets a point for that.

And another thing that annoys me about Nathaniel is how hard the writers went to try and make him sympathetic. Because if you have a character who is straight-up sexually harassing a female employee, cheating on his lovely girlfriend, verbally and mentally abusing his employees they have to make him even more uwu than the other romantic leads. So they always pull out things to try and make people say, "Awwww, but he likes the zoo! And monkeys! Look at him hugging that alligator all sad! And he reads Harry Potter?! He's just a lil nerd!!" (at the time people still liked Harry Potter) I just feel manipulated by these "isn't he so cute?!" additions to Nathaniel's character. I don't see them as a natural fleshing out of the character, I see them as the writers trying to wave me over to distract me from just how downright awful he is as a person. And that makes me resent him more. Like...ok, you go to the zoo Nathaniel...but you were still going to have an immigrant deported and ripped away from his family, you jerk.

Rebecca does messed up things, too. But the show gives her a diagnosis, she goes to therapy, they at least show her apologize to Josh about what she put him through, as well as the hormone-induced attempt to take a hit on Mona to Nathaniel, and own up to what she did to Paula. Nathaniel's response to trying to send a hitman to murder Josh's grandfather was "in my defense, I was promised sex." He never apologizes??? really apologizes??? to ANYONE??? He doesn't go to therapy or even get a life coach or...anything. I guess he does nice things for people (while reminding them HE'S NICE NOW and DEMANDING they get over the fact that he, again, TRIED TO HAVE THEIR GRANDFATHER MURDERED). I would argue that Nathaniel is way more messed up than Rebecca and doesn't do a fraction of the owning up to his past that she did, which imo is still lacking overall.

Like my dudes, Greg has his AA meetings, even Josh goes to therapy. But the objectively worst regular character on the show...doesn't. Huh.

And I think that's what drives me so bonkers about Nathaniel's character. Yes, Rebecca is this force that comes into West Covina and changes people's lives, but it makes sense for other people. She shows Heather unironic joy. She challenges Valencia's relationship with Josh, which pushes Valencia to grow. She gives life to Paula's dreams again. And I'd argue Greg is more changed by the result of their relationship (the DUI he got trying to drive to talk to her) more than Rebecca herself just being that amazing. But Nathaniel's character comes in hard and cruel. His actions and attitude are the kind that in real life, are above what I've seen ever actually change because it is so steeped in enormous privilege. Nathaniel would need to be drastically, drastically, and for a significant length of time humbled--not just pooping his pants in the office. And I'd say even that would likely be a stretch. The writers made him so unbearable to start that I can't believe even Rebecca could really help him change. Imo, they don't show it. They chalk it up to "he just wants to have sex with her really bad...and...uh...yeah his feelings are now just that strong for her. Mmmmhmmm, a woman really can change a man by his sheer desire for her!"

I just think they bit off more than they could chew with Nathaniel. I get they were going with another romcom cliche, but that cliche was too out there to start with and they jumped fully on board with it, not realizing that the strength of their characters are in how they reflect people we actually know. Nathaniel's character sticks out as not belonging or fitting in because he's simply a stock character they didn't add any real depth or nuance to or any earned change. His character being so privileged makes turning him into a good person all that more challenging.

And if I'm being honest? Since you've made it all the way down here...I do wonder what it would have been the response if Scott weren't so good-looking or white. Josh Chan, whose worst crime is a toss up between kissing Rebecca while with Valencia or leaving Rebecca at the altar without communicating with her at all about it, gets more derision from the fandom than Nathaniel, who again, would have orchestrated someone's murder without a second thought. I understand why Nathaniel is so popular, but it makes me worried that even a show as progressive as CXG with fans who have the same mindset still give such a quick pass to a handsome rich white boy.

#cxg #crazy ex girlfriend #anti nathaniel plimpton #anti nathaniel #mostly a rant with a small side of analysis

[trainsinanime]

About people misunderstanding how stories work, do you suppose fans being "sheltered" might be the problem? Maybe they don't have a lot of real-life experience with human suffering. We have the luxury of discussing bullies in "academic" terms, but in the real world, some children have to personally (not theoretically) deal with being violently assaulted by their peers. So anon wants to ask, do you suppose the issue with people misunderstanding stories is because of a lack of personal experience?

What? No.

Oh, right, that's the other reason why I don't talk about fandom salt themes that much (the first one is that talking about fun stuff is way more fun): Weird psychologist anons in my mentions who go "the reason why all the salt people are so salty is because of psychiatry or society or whatever". I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but I've either replied to you way too often, or to people like you. There are great people in this fandom who do deal with asks like this all the time (frankly, I wonder how they manage, it would drive me insane), go ask them. If you want to ask me stuff, ask me something fun! Like about French train headlights. I've been meaning to make a post about them for a few days now anyway.

Anyway, the reason people keep repeating the meme that "Zoé was created because the writers suddenly hate Chloé, and so they needed someone else to fulfil the super important role of holding the Bee miraculous" is because, well, it's a meme. It gets repeated enough, people go "makes sense" and start repeating it. It doesn't really make narrative sense, but if you feel that Chloé was robbed of a Zuko arc (or at least a Cordelia Chase arc) and you're angry about that, then this makes at least some level of emotional sense.

People understand real-life bullying perfectly well. People also understand that fictional bullies are not the same as real life bullies, because they can experience drama and peril and found family and stuff at an unrealistic rate, and thus change who they are as a person in ways that real people rarely do. A Chloé redemption arc was never guaranteed, but it was never an unrealistic crazy idea either. Don't judge people for what they were hoping the story would be. That's totally fine. So is being disappointed. The issue I have is when they try to put it in objective language that doesn't actually make sense.

[mallowstep]

Alright..Ive been wondering if I'm Actually anti ship because.. honestly I've always eqtaued proshippig with that one time I saw someone simping for a Real Live Seven Year Old...I didn't actually know what is was lol. Hm. Thanks for opening my eyes

Lol thanks

I don’t have a label or a dog in the fight, per se. I’ve had some good conversations abt this lately, and I think most of my current emotions are centered on…

We have a media literacy crisis. It’s a big problem.

When I write stories, I prefer not to do too much explicit morals. I like to trust my audience to get it, and they almost always do.

Almost.

Some of the comments on BMLAP…they do make me question if I’m doing my job well. It is tricky to tell where I have failed as an author vs where someone has misread my work. I go with my gut, mostly, and my gut says some people are so excited about the firetiger that they’ve missed that Tiger has been a consuming presence in Fireheart’s life. (Among other things.)

I don’t think having a label does much good. There’s too much nuance, and more importantly, too many different issues, to actually label accurately based on a binary. And it’s not like neutral is an option. I’m not neutral, I’m just…an adult. Who writes stories about the messiness of human connection. Lately I’ve been working on a series where a nearly-sixteen year old elopes with a nineteen year old except they’re just married so they have an Inalienable Right to not be separated. And then they fall in love. The way people fall for each other is inherently messy.

I’m getting a little off track.

Ig my main thing is…as long as you’re not writing erotica of children, you’re good. And I say erotica specifically, not just…well, I’m trying to keep this somewhat clean, but I think my body of work speaks to evidence that you do not have to write erotica to depict certain acts.

RLF will always make me incredibly uncomfortable, so much so that I feel I am unqualified to make commentary on it, because even just the way we treat celebrities feels horrid and invasive to me. (And I’m sure some of you agree, but I need to be clear, on a very basic level, knowing things about other people makes me deeply uncomfortable. I would like to know nothing about them. And I think there’s plenty that people would willingly share, that I would not want to hear.) that said…yeah, yikes. I’m sorry. That’s Fucked Up Man.

Recently a lot of my conversations about this subject have just been people sharing messed up experiences from the extreme polarization of views. I first was introduced to very, very vehement antis who were, in all likelihood, very young, and unaware of the complicated nature of real relationships. They triggered me, as someone who has fought and clawed to be able to embrace my own interests, and as someone who is very aware of how much the wrong story at the wrong time can hurt when you don’t have a space to process it, with support you need to understand. I reacted like I usually do, and lashed out.

You are not the only, the first, or the last to be introduced to this discourse by someone harmful, in whatever sense. It’s a strange uniting factor, but one I’ve observed closely.

I’m not really sure where to end this. I guess…I want to live in a society that does not misconstrue Lolita as a love story.

<3

#mine #anon #ask #shipcourse #bmlap comment section makes me VERY uncomfortable sometimes #it’s only a few comments but it’s enough to be really upsetting to me #and that’s why I moderate comments now LOL

[vigilanteshitposts]

The Invincible Iron Man #17

(spoilers!!!!!)

This is an issue I've been looking forward to reading ever since I saw the cover.

And the preview had got me even more excited because the first page paid homage to one of my favourite issues of iron man ever (Iron Man #232). I was also filled with some amount of trepidation because when a writer/artist references something that's nearly perfect and got it wrong, it has the power to change our feelings about the thing they're referencing. I'm relieved to say that that hasn't happened due to today's issue. Much like when Iron Man #182 was referenced in issue #8, Duggan actually succeeded in making a reference while adding to and not subtracting from Tony's life story.

The theme in today's issue was guilt, same as in the issue it paid homage to. The cause of Tony's guilt is the same, too, but I'm also glad to say that it wasn't a facsimile of im #232, which makes it feel real, like this is something Tony experiences quite a bit and isn't just the writer writing whatever for nostalgia.

I love that Zhong Wei was the one to talk to him about the death Tony left in his wake. While he is a very new character who was only created during this run, I feel like he's one of the most important, not only as a person who always tried to do the right thing or as someone tony trusted with his company (something that is so personal to him) but also, this is the first time in forever that we got to see Tony being a good boss, a person who wanted to make a difference and kept people who also wanted to do that around. It gives me hope for Tony starting a company again and actually running it and treating his employees with respect and all the things he was supposed to do but didn't since 2008 or so.

And while I'm still not fully sold on Magneto being a part of Tony's life, I have to admit that this was pretty good.

And about Howard: I can practically see all the posts about how this run is treating him too well and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I really liked that Tony's first reaction to seeing his father again was to explain himself, to feel badly about himself & talk about how he has done better. Tony, who never cares about what people think about him or whether they approve, reduced to this:

I also love that Howard started out being nice and reassuring (the first thing he said to his son being "Boy, you're a lot of work", though.....I have thoughts and they aren't generous at all) and then, without warning, becoming this scary, inhuman being who buried him alive makes so much sense when we remember that this is what Tony thinks about him - not his anger or his harshness or anything else: his unpredictability was what bothered him the most, what literally made him see human beings differently from most people.

Also, Tony coming to his senses at exactly this moment was interesting.

The next part of this issue was great, too, in a different way. The armour looks so much better in this art style and without the helmet on and I really liked the invisible shield and tony's dialogue during fights has been a highlight of this run for me, as weird as it sounds, because he actually sounds like himself (the righteous anger!!). I was hoping that he'd mention Zhong Wei and Marielle Marcus and wasn't disappointed. The twist towards the end was....how did Orchis not see that coming? (Selfishly, I'm hoping for Hank to somehow get involved in this storyline).

Magneto is in the next issue but I'm more excited about this:

what does it all mean?? is he going to have a heart problem again? Is something somehow related to Mike Grell's run going to happen?

#invincible iron man #wednesday spoilers #tony stark #iron man #gerry duggan #patrick zircher #I'm not kidding about the spoiler warnings! I just needed to talk about this issue

[donnerpartyofone]

I'm learning to Hack Transcendence y'all! Or actually I'm looking at this fashionable astrology app to scratch some sort of ego itch. I'm one of those people who both knows a lot about astrology and enjoys it AND is deeply suspicious of it, the psychology of which I don't feel the need to get into. Things like astrology usually sustain themselves by offering analysis general enough that anybody could see themselves in it, and this is a rare case where half the time I was reading this I thought, Damn this is completely wrong and I have no idea what it could be talking about! I mean a few of the above notes really get me. When I was already into dark shit as a very small child I wish I could have told my annoyed parents that I was just just Confronting Human Mortality. And I definitely do have trouble with the Creation of Personal Meaning...which is almost certainly the whole reason I'm interested in things like this in the first place. But then like, it seems to think that I chronically engage in machiavellian power struggles with loved ones who I treat like enemies because I don't know how to be honest with myself or anyone else. Which is like...for most of my life the whole problem has been boundary issues that allow other people to get away with murder, that cause me to take too many people at face value, and that lead me to tolerate all kinds of abuse because some part of me thinks I deserve it and that everyone but me has the right to do whatever they want all the time so I should just shut up and take it. I'm like barely beginning to get over this mentality, as an adult. For better or worse I react by sinking deeper into solitude, my very favorite vice. Which makes the astrology app's diagnosis of me as a codependent person who gets all of her security from mindless social interaction and material overindulgence, like, really confusing to me.

But uh anyway "This makes no sense" is just one reaction I could have to this. Another response would be that we each contain our opposite, and we're always looking for that opposite in the outside world in order to feel complete, to kind of consummate with our more subliminal parts; i.e. somewhere in me is this vicious predator persona, and that may be why it seems to be mirrored by various people in my life. This is garden variety Jungian anima/animus stuff, but it's a pretty useful way to reflect on your relationships both real and desired. The funniest take on this principle is the LaVeyan Personality Synthesizer.

This appears in Anton Szandor LaVey's crazyass book The Compleat Witch, Or What to Do When Virtue Fails. If you only read one book by or about LaVey, make it this one; it's supposed to be an instruction manual for how anyone can become a powerful seductress, but it's really like a charmingly unconscious expression of LaVey's personal hangups and fetishes, of which there are many. But anyway he says that you've got a private inner self, a social outer self, and in between you get the Demonic Minority Self (love that name) which tends to have the opposite gender energy of your Majority Self, and which is very much the opposite of your main identity in general. You're supposed to start figuring out your Majority and Demonic Minority Selves by using this somewhat eugenicist schedule of archetypal qualities:

And then if you wanna be a Compleat Witch you use this information to figure out how to seduce whoever you want by trying to resemble that person's Demonic Minority Self. Which actually seems like it could be pretty effective in theory, while the truth is that most people aren't as extremely black and white as LaVey liked to think. In any case it's at least entertaining to read about.

A lot of the book is just LaVey trying to sell his own peccadilloes as universal truths; for instance women shouldn't wear pants or flat shoes, they should perfume themselves only with their own BO and menstrual blood, they should kinda act like sloppy bimbos to maximally manipulate men, and then there's also stuff like, if you enjoy certain kinds of salad dressing it means you're a homo. I'm several years into a research project on LaVey (that I keep hoping I can formally announce the fate of but this kind of thing is VERY slow), and one day I attended a talk with the current High Priestess of the Satanic Church, who wrote the introduction to the last edition of The Compleat Witch and who was lecturing on its contents. I asked her if she thought LaVey had any awareness that, while he was writing what he believed to be applicable to all of humanity, he was really exposing extremely intimate details of his own unique personality, and man she Did Not Like That. But that's exactly what's good about the book, that it's this kind of subverted memoir; if you read The Satanic Bible you only find out that LaVey really liked Nietzsche and Ayn Rand, but if you read The Compleat Witch, then you know everything about him.

Whatever else you wanna say about Anton LaVey, he was definitely very good at the Creation of Personal Meaning, which may be why I'm compelled to study him. I mean I could just read Viktor Frankl instead, but where's the fun in that?

[all-things-fandomstuck-writes]

Welcome Home AU Plans

Hi guys! So, I've seen the influx of Welcome Home AUs going around, and I've got a few I'd like to share.

Now, I will preface this by saying I'm no artist, just a humble writer with a passion for a good story. That being said, if anything in my AUs interest you, this also post is blanket permission to make art of my AUs, as long as I am credited. That's all I ask. Oh, and please tag me. I'd love to see them.

So, I've got two of them. I'll start with the shorter one. All titles are a work in progress, and suggestions are appreciated. Asks are open for any and all questions related to either AU.

Dark Magic/ Reincarnation AU:

A long time ago, well before Welcome Home first aired, there was a man with a dream. A very big dream. Something that couldn't be contained in his brain, and took on a life of its own. Or, rather, several lives.

A dark ritual was preformed, bringing ten (10) puppets to life. A show would later be formed around these puppets, but, due to early production budgets, only nine (9) of them actually made it onto the screen. While all the rest of the puppets got their spotlight, Y/N was scrapped.

Y/N was Wally's favorite of the group he had been brought into, well before he was scripted that Barnaby was his best friend. That was, until the incident. Various parts of them can be seen throughout the show. The scrap of mismatched fabric on Wally's chair? That was originally part of Y/N's outfit.

Years passed, and, eventually, they reincarnated as a Human. What happens when they take an interest in Welcome Home, and therefore, their old pal Wally?

Story Keeper AU:

Wally is a being known as The Keeper of Stories, and is responsible for keeping track of, cataloging, and housing all the stories that have ever existed. He has a few other powers, such as the ability to pull characters from their stories, and "watch" the stories in "real" time. Essentially, he has every reader's dream of having an accurate down to the last detail visual production of whatever story he happens to fancy at the time. He can also summon a physical book version of a story, if he feels more like reading.

Home is the Library, the mystical place where all the stories are kept. An ever shifting maze someone could get lost in, if they didn't know their way around. Luckily, everyone here does, so it's not an issue for them.

All of the neighbor's come from different fairy tales/stories. All except for Frank. Now, Frank is a bit different, as he doesn't come from a story. He's the Librarian. It's his job to help the Keeper organize the ever growing collection of tales. While Wally may be able to summon any book at will, someone's gotta put everything away. And that someone is Frank. He's also in charge of the Library whenever something happens to the Keeper.

Being a Keeper is a wondrous job, but it comes at a price. And not just anyone can become a Keeper. Frank and the Library take extra special care to select the newest Keeper, as any mistakes made could be fatal. Wally was specifically chosen for his kind and caring nature, and his more creative approach to problem solving.

The price of the job is high. As the Keeper is usually chosen from a story (it's very rare for a mortal to be picked for the role), there are several..... let's call them complications.

First, all memories of their storied lives are sealed away, so that no conflict of interest arises. The book they were drawn from is then removed from the library, and sealed away. Only Frank and the Library know where it's hidden. It's a system that usually works. Usually.

Enter Y/N. Y/N is a character from Wally's original story. Specifically, his love interest. Now, they were released kind of on accident. A mishap of magical problem solving and a wish gone wrong. Needless to say, when they showed up, Frank and the Library weren't to happy. Wally hadn't been a Keeper for very long, and bringing anyone from their past, especially the love of their life, is bound to cause extreme amounts of trouble.

However, much to Frank's amusement, Y/N doesn't seem to remember Wally or their story all too well. Sure, a few snippets here and there, mostly just their name, but not enough to make it a problem. Not yet anyway. But, Frank keeps an eye on them just in case.

I don't really have everyone else mapped out quite yet. Well, ok, I do have Eddie figured out.

Eddie has trouble remembering which story he's from. So, he often spends his time with Frank, trying to figure out where he fits into all this. Both Frank and Eddie have tried asking Wally to simply locate Eddie's book, but Wally feigns ignorance, claiming that he has no idea either. In all reality, Wally saw how close Frank and Eddie were getting (yes, FranklyDear is included in this AU), and decided that maybe they just didn't need to know because they're happy with each other.

And those are my AUs! Or, rather, what I have of them so far. Hope you enjoyed, and like I said, ask box is open!

#writing #authors notes #welcome home #welcome home AU #welcome home story keeper AU #welcome home reincarnation AU #wally darling #wally darling welcome home #fandom writes #Tales from The Playfellow Workshop #That last tag may be temporary

[ariesbilly]

People who view Billy's character in such a negative one-dimensional way come across as so sheltered to me. He really reminds me of my dad in a lot of ways, and when we watched S2 and 3 together we revisited convos about what it was like for my dad to grow up with a father like Neil, a mother who let him down, step-siblings he had toxic relationships with, and what it was like to have to let go of the ways he learned to survive it all. People really undestimate just how hard it is to break the cycle of violence when you're all on your own. If you're young and by yourself, with very little money or access to resources about abuse, then you just have to blindly stumble into the life lessons you need.

At the same time people also undestimate how capable of change people can be when they actually have a chance. Once my dad was out of his father's house during his 20s he had room to breathe and actually grow up. He put all his anger and fear into learning a trade instead of taking it out on others, put effort into learning about the people and cultures he was taught to be racist against, and eventually found a career working with young people so he could be the supportive figure he needed when he was their age.

Lots of folks who grow up to be good people were like Billy or like my dad when they were younger. Billy's story gets cut short before we get to see that though. It's still important to know that even if a victim of abuse is an asshole and a product of their shitty environment that doesn't mean they aren't worthy of help. You don't have to like them but that doesn't make them irredeemable. If people's support abuse victims is conditional on their moral purity then they are not the allies they think they are.

(also love the idea of Billy working with young people in his future one of my fave personal headcanons)

billy antis to me fall into the camp of either 1. being incredibly sheltered and having no idea what the fuck theyre talking about or 2. they say billy reminds them of whatever abuser they personally had in their life, so automatically theyre unable to separate that bias and generally its fuck whoever talks positively about billy (ive seen a FEW people able to see reason but....) 

and like thats a whole separate issue coming from the riverdale fandom and preferring the parents over the kids, all the damn time i had to hear people coming into mine or my friends inboxes/posts trauma dumping because x parent remind them of their parent etc etc and like girl... what does that got to do with me. like sorry you went through that but whats that got to do with me.

people need to learn how to separate fiction from reality. thats the first problem that needs to be addressed

but like if yall WANT to make it this deep and talk about the real world and shit, its so counterproductive to talk about abusive victims who are literal children and deciding theyre beyond redemption. its also very convenient how people pick and choose when someones a child. if you did x thing at age 17 youre a child but if you do z thing youre an adult. make it make sense. 

i feel like these people just... dont exist in reality? like i have to imagine theyre only interactions with other people are their echo chambers online because SURELY you cannot be interacting with real life human beings day to day in the real world and coming to these conclusions. people are incredibly nuanced. everyones got skeletons in their closet. everyones got things in their past they are not proud of. its what theyve made of themselves since their darkest moments that matters. its what people choose to do with themselves once they identify their problems and issues that matters. billy LITERALLY GAVE UP HIS LIFE. and its not enough for people. which is... insane to me. and heinously cruel minded. especially paired with how they go on to treat REAL PEOPLE for understanding his character. “i hate this character because theyre mean and bigoted so to show this i will go on and be mean and bigoted to other people”. like yall need some windex for your mirrors cuz clearly somethings not getting through when you look into it every day.

my brother and i had a notoriously toxic relationship when we lived together. we’re still not particularly close probably because of that (also theres a 7 year age difference so that was never gonna help) but like literally last time we were together a week or two ago to put up the christmas tree we were getting along, he even volunteered for all things to put our initial ornaments next to each other on the tree. we snuck upstairs before dinner to hang out in my room and smoke lmfao like... amazing what distance can do for a relationship i have full faith that all billy and max needed was for billy to move out and get away from neil and they would be maybe not besties but surely a hell of a lot closer than they could be under current circumstances.

people just dont want to put in the brainpower to think long term. they dont want to face the facts of billys situation because then they would have to realize how fucking shitty they are to people like him. and no one wants to do that. no one wants to realize theyve been the villain this whole time lmao

i had another thought but i lost it which is probably for the best cuz this response is already long as hell. 

#briana answers things

[weaselle]

here’s the real shit:

If you need it to live, it shouldn’t cost you money.

Fancy food? absolutely, get you a job, eat whatever kind of food makes you feel like royalty. Basic sustenance sufficient to be completely healthy? Should be free if you need it. Fancy house? hell yeah, get you a big money job and live in a mansion. Basic housing? Should be free if you need it. Fashionable clothing? Better find an income so you can buy that Gucci. A pair of overalls, shoes, and a jacket so you are covered and warm? Should be free if you need it. Super fancy education? pay up. Good education through college and continued access to information? Should be free to all.

And medical needs? Forget it, listen, if we have the ability to heal someone but we don’t do it, then I know we’re doing the devil’s work, and I’m not even religious.

I know people are gonna have problems so let me get an inb4

First of all, most people won’t just take these basics and then sit on their ass and do nothing, humans are gonna do shit - have you seen what people do in their free time already? Whole huge industries like youtube and hobby stores and shit are based on how much people want to do stuff – you literally cannot sit people in a room with a button labeled “will give you electric shocks” and nothing else to do without them pressing the button (there was an actual study done)

Secondly, most people are generally either not satisfied with the basics, or are only okay with the basics because it allows them to pursue some other worthy goal like school or art or caring for a family member full time or something. So i guarantee most people will still be seeking employment, only jobs will have to pay what people actually feel they are worth instead of paying what desperate people will agree to work for.

All studies of Universal Basic Income experiments and similar have indicated these things are true.

And last, if your undies are still in a bunch over people needing to contribute to “deserve” stuff like food and housing, let me say two things

A: in our earliest groups, humans provably cared for individuals who were not capable of hunting or gathering. Perhaps those individuals contributed in other ways. Perhaps they were loved and their company and presence was considered contribution enough. Or perhaps humanity was such that we just plain wouldn’t let another human in our group starve when we could share our food instead. Whatever the case, we gave up that kind of group to live in this kind of group, and if we can’t maintain that same level of humanity and kindness, then it is a worse group and we should fix it or go back to the other sort.

B: in general, i agree that people should contribute to gain access to things. I think most people WANT to contribute, it seems to me to be hardwired into us as social animals. Personally, i think the artist making do with basic accommodations, eating simple mass foods and wearing government issued clothing so they can spend their time creating music, writing books, practicing dancing or painting or idk, making “how to solve: my computer doesn’t recognize my phone for importing pictures” videos for free on youtube, you know, i think they ARE contributing (shout out to the unsung How To Video heroes, my gods, where would we be without them)

But if you want to talk about really contributing in a targeted societal needs kind of way, then i’m all for that too! So lets talk about some kind of system where, for example, everyone who is physically or mentally able spends 3 years between high-school and college in a National Projects Corps, like the army, but instead they travel to places in our country and are trained and put to work replacing roads, or becoming basic staff in hospitals, or building schools, or doing maintenance on bridges, or doing data entry for public health labs, or, idk, fixing the fucked up water in Flint. Three years seeing other parts of the country, meeting people from other walks of life, and learning valuable skills.

Best of all, a system like this has organic balances. You get a population boom? Well, you’re going to need a lot more public housing, and guess what? you also have enough hands to help build it, because of the population boom. Then, if you’re the kind of person who has a hardline belief about contributing to society, when you see somebody in government-issued overalls living a public apartment complex, you can rest easy knowing they probably fixed roads or built bridges or worked on the sewers or something, just like you.

And by the way, this would ACTUALLY create more of that free market effect people say should fix things. Like, if I have easy free access to food no matter what, i can then choose to only buy sustainably sourced food or whatever.

Anyway, there’s different ways to do it, but basically, if you need something to live a healthy life, a lack of money should never mean you go without it. If you need it to live a healthy life, you should get it. Everything else can cost money, there can still be expensive food and fancy houses, that’s fine, but the basics should be available to all. For free. Because we’re human and in a group together.

[skarlette1]

Unleashed

One of the worst parts of being a health care professional is needing to treat everyone, even the people who annoy the fuck out of you.

I thought that wouldn’t be a problem for me once I gained my superpower to manipulate and heal the human body through touch. I took the superhero name “Panacea” and secured a position healing the Libido League of superheroes. Knowing that I’ve helped the heroes that protect the city was its own reward. The fact that I got to run my hands over their gorgeous, superpowered bodies was a personal thrill I kept to myself.

Unfortunately, every silver lining was buried inside a rain cloud. On the Libido League, that eternally soggy storm front was Stratagem. It was bad enough that the prick didn’t have any real superpowers: Convincing people to do things that only seemed like they were in their best interest would have made him a good used car salesman, but a lousy superhero. Plus, the guy was a sleazy asshole who used his access to the League to ogle and drool over their spandex-covered bodies. The douchebag was a first-class freeloader. If it were up to me, he would have never been allowed to join the League in the first place.

But it wasn’t up to me. So when he came limping into the infirmary, it was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes. “What happened, Stratagem? Stub your toe getting off the couch?”

He winced as he hopped onto the examination table. “It’s a workout injury. I was coaching Contortioness on some new moves and pulled something in my groin.”

“I bet you did,” I muttered under my breath. “Lay back and let me have a look.” I had half a mind to paralyze his larynx just so I wouldn’t have to listen to him yammer on and on.

“I’m really grateful you’re here to help us heroes, Panacea. You’re so dedicated that you’d do anything to help a League member de-stress, right?” He leaned back on the table and spread his legs so I could examine his groin pull.

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” Whatever shuts you up fastest, asshole.

“That’s great to hear. I needed to talk to you because you’re such a good listener. And because everything I say in here is confidential. You took an oath.”

“Yes, I take my oath very seriously.” More seriously than you’ve ever taken anything in your entire worthless life, loser.

“I knew you did. You treat so many of us through the fallout of so many battles. You know that sometimes the worst wounds from supervillains aren’t the physical ones.”

Do I really have to listen to this crap? “Are telling me a supervillain hurt your feelings?"

He flashed that infuriatingly sexy smirk. “Not exactly. But some supervillainesses have gotten the better of me … once or twice. Happens to the best of us.”

Like you would know about the “best” of anything, asshole. “Did they give you some sort of long-term injury I’ve overlooked?”

“Nothing physical, but after my … um, ordeal with some of these villainesses, like Crimson Carnality, Mynx, Succubus, Queen Klitorya, and Salivaria, well … I find myself wanting things.... Things that aren’t … um … things that would be bad for the League if I actually pursued them.”

I stepped back. “Gross! I’m your healer, not your shrink, Stratagem. If you want your sick, twisted desires pulled out of your head, go talk to Mnemonica.”

“Mnemonica’s immune to my powers, but more importantly, she’s not a licensed professional, like you, Panacea. She never took an oath to protect my privacy. That’s why you’re the only one who can help me.”

Why did the slime-ball have to play the “oath” card? It’s like he knew it was my weak spot. “Okay. Fine. But I can only heal your body. I can’t make you stop wanting anything.”

“Not directly. But if I could pretend to succumb to my desire with you, then the compulsion to act on it for real would be diminished.”

Like I’d ever let him touch me! I opened my mouth to laugh in his face and stopped. He had a point. The slimy little fuckwit had a point. If he was really having impulse control issues around doing something wicked to the League, it was downright dangerous for me to not help him. While medical ethics said that I should be reporting him as a danger to others, Stratagem had reminded me of my oath. Doctor-patient confidentiality meant that I couldn’t tell a soul. I was stuck.

I let out a beleaguered sigh. “Fine. What’s this fucked-up fantasy of yours?”

He grinned like a kid at Christmas and sat up on the exam table. “I want to seduce members of the League into becoming supervillainesses.” He leaned close, looking me straight in the eye. “I want to gaze deeply into her eyes and ignite the spark of debauchery that lurks in her heart.” He wrapped a strong arm around my waist and drew me to him. “I want to pull your flesh close to mine and tempt you with all the wicked, sensuous pleasures that using your powers for personal gain can offer. I want to—”

I pressed my lips against his and relished as he melted into the kiss. Ever since I’d gotten my powers, I’d thought of countless ways to use them for my own benefit. I’d been struggling against temptation for so long and now this self-involved asshole walks in and explains how giving into the desire to be bad can actually be the only good thing to do?

He had no idea what he’d unleashed.

He trailed kisses along my cheek and whispered, “That’s the idea, Panacea. The first thing I want you to do is—nngggkkk!”

His voice gave out as I reached into his brain with my powers. “The first thing I’ve done is put the language centers of your brain to sleep, you worthless little shit. Don’t worry, though. You won’t need to say anything. Your mouth will be too busy with other, more important, tasks.”

I pushed him back on the exam table and climbed up. Straddling his face I pulled my panties aside. Reaching into his body with my powers, I flooded his system with testosterone for sexual desire and gave him a physiological craving for the taste of my pussy. He devoured me like an addict on a bender. His skill at cunnilingus surprised me, but I wasn’t about to look this gift horse in the oh-so-talented mouth.

I let Stratagem lick me to half a dozen orgasms before I returned the favor and let a single stroke of my hand along his shaft trigger a powerful climax that drained his balls dry. With the slightest nudge of my powers, he dropped into a deep sleep moments after cumming.

Stratagem had specifically wanted to seduce me into a selfish, evil version of Panacea. As I lay across his body in a post-orgasmic glow, I couldn’t think of anything more evil than preventing him from remembering that he’d done so. While my powers couldn’t have cured him of his twisted fetish, they could prevent the last few hours from being written into his long-term memory. That process mainly takes place during REM sleep, so it didn’t take much finesse to manipulate his slumbering biology. When he woke up, he’d likely feel sated, both emotionally and sexually, but he’d have no idea why.

I, on the other hand, knew that there were dangerous villainesses out there trying to seduce and manipulate the heroes of the Libido League to turn on each other. The best way to save my teammates from that fate was to seduce and manipulate them into kneeling before me, first!

---

A surprising story sparked by Vanderbilt’s and Alena Cerulean’s comments on “All-Encompassing Massage”

---

Like what you read? Will you buy me a coffee and request something rich to sink my teeth into? Or peek into the depths of my longer fiction?

#skarletteone #mind control #flash fiction #superhero

[salxenia]

"I feel like the vibes of the world have just gotten more off in the past few years, something big is gonna happen bc idk the stars and shit" is just the witchy, uwu hippy version of when Christians say the world is randomly going to shit because it's almost time for the rapture

So they don't have to look at all the very real life problems that are destroying humanity/the world, the patterns that people of power continue to play into for generations that continue to cause more and more problems.

Just so they can play the "omg how could this have happened, well I told you astrology said so" ignorant card when they're no longer struggling with mere first world problems but are actually dealing with the things they choose to ignore on TV and in the news, and no ethereal, otherworldly being has come to save them, fix them, or helped them conquer capitalism and fascism while they sit on their ass eating potato chips and going "yeah, karma and stuff". Bc gods forbid you actually acknowledge why life is ass, you'd rather make the situation worse by playing so far into ignorance that you're fooling and confusing everyone else and now everyone is convinced it's not bc of an imbalance of power, or rich people, it's only goddamn PLUTO.

"Somehow" everything was fine and just had "suspiciously dark vibes" and then "suddenly" it turned to shit. It's not like the people in the world have fucking raised their red flags and screamed what the issues have all been for years and y'all have just been like "life is such a mystery. Everything just FEELS more depressing and bad and awful but I'm not sure why. Anyway let me drink my microplastics in my overpriced house that I always make late payments on bc my job pays me 9 bucks an hour, while I stare across the street at the abandoned buildings that they're going to bulldoze because some homeless kids broke into it for shelter, while I contemplate on why everything is so depressing".

And it doesn't mean you can't spiritually believe in x or y thing, and also that fascism is bad. You can be like "ah yes the Pluto thing is warning us that if we don't fix this situation right now, that I'm aware is an issue, then we're absolutely fucked in the worst possible scenario and it'll up-end our entire life whether we want it to or not, but it'll be even worse for fucking around and finding out". Like spirituality is pretty much a tool to help you understand that if y'all don't figure out how to fix x thing, z thing is going to happen, and it'll be a lot more of a rough lesson than y thing.

Spirituality is NOT "idk, I know X thing is bad but Z thing is also happening and I believe it's because the stars foretold this would happen and- oh NOOOO, you mean Z and X thing were related to each other this whole time, and if I had helped to prevent, repair, or prepare for X, then Y would have happened instead, because Y and Z were both an option based on how there's ALWAYS a difference between letting something happen by choosing to be ignorant to it, and actively working to fix the situation or working around the situation, whaaaaat??"

Y'all just politically lazy and using spirituality as a reason to not care.

(And it's used in the same way for people who are toxic and avoiding self awareness as well. "somehow" the majority of people just don't like x person, for whatever reason, no matter how "nice or funny" they are, it must be written in the stars (or must be God's plan) but realistically it's because they're garbage human beings who treat people like shit every time someone gets close to them so they can't keep friends, and then they pride on scaring everyone else away bc "they hate people" by being nasty, rude, cold, evasive, etc, and their face shows how little they care about anybody around them, but yeah its because they're an Aries with a Scorpio moon that has people not liking their vibes).

Edit: and y'all be saying it to try and be the most woke and high vibrational person ever but it's actually the worst thing to say! "I feel like somehow the world just feels darker and more depressing" well clearly you're so far out of the loop for understanding and listening to the pain of your fellow humans that you genuinely think everything is a fucking mystery! Not to mention the depression of going through shit is something every generation goes through, why the fuck do you think boomers are cranky, bitter, and miserable??? They just lack the awareness to be politically educated and why they chalk everything up to Jesus or Satan- oh yeah, like you do with other things! Bc y'all don't sit with the problems of the world and y'all only feel like fixing it when there's irreparable damage that you can't deny, just like every-fucking-body else!

#toxic spirituality #toxic positivity #astrology #astrology chart #spiritual blindness #toxic #self awareness #avoidance

[magnoliamyrrh]

wait im so sorry. last rant of today im going to throw my phone in a ditch before i write another one

i find it rly funny how so much of the internet has taken up openly being like, yea wait actually older women actually -. glad were on the same page

but. i uhHh feel like so much of it is just. such a pornophied or overly sexualized or objectifying, fetishistic, not as in having a fetish as in reducing a person to a fetish, version of this. quite similar to something else ive brought up before which is the way people treat dominant women. "sTeP oN Me" sorta things and, again, just reducing them to their role as femdom while having no care for the fact that they're a full ass human being with complexities and needs and limits

same with this. like,, you know, despite the apparently collective mommy issues of the internet, older women are just people. they're just, human beings, they're just women. and its weird and off to almost always reduce them to this role of "milf" which is porn terminology, to prepetually refer to them by sexualized porn terminology even when not speaking of sexual things, to reduce them to just, essentially, sex and your issues and a series of stereotypes essentially and what you can get out of them??

like lmao for all this idk how many of yall Actually outside of. like. sex or theoreticals or whatever, would even want to be with older women? like - as real human beings? to live w all the things that entail - the list of issues and problems that older women actually have, that theyre in a different place in life than you financially and job wise and w the issues they have w their family and experience wise and mentally and physically, and unless youre disabled and you already get it, theyre probably a whole lot more tired and fed up with things than u are. like yea age gap relationship can work, you can make a ten or more year age gap work its been done, power dynamics and imbalances can be negotiated and equalized but that only works with maturity, not theirs but mandatorly Your maturity as well lmao and its far from the list of things that is easy to make actually work out well. like ?? sorry you want a older woman to take care of you - which isnt exactly little to ask weather its financially or emotioanlly or etc etc - yup i get it. bad case of trauma brainrot etc etc all that. have you considered what You're going to do to balance that out? how much effort it actually takes? that actually if youre asking someone to take care of you, you better be stepping up and doing the same in return? what you can bring to the table ¿?

like dude idk. older women already have so much bullshit to deal with, and so many already are distressed bc of fuckin beauty culture and societies obsession with youth and how if you haven't found someone by like 28 and achieved idk what you're doomed and worthless apparently and your life is over and thats it, and so many end up having a midlife crisis at like 30. and if all this was leading to idk a shift away from societies obsession w youth and all that or lmao get this an actual care and discourse for the sorts of issues ageing actually brings women which were all gonna end up dealing w too, itd be one thing. except, in actuality its not, its just that they're being sexualized and objectified now and this whole thing doesn't involve any more respect or care than it did before

#feminism

[subbyenbywitch]

[book review] forgotten realms: the halfling's gem by r.a. salvatore (1990)

if you look up “mixed bag” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of this book. wait, i’ve used this analogy a lot, but i’m not sure i’ve ever seen pictures in a dictionary? whatever. maybe it’s a really weird dictionary. i mean, it has pictures in it that only seem to be there to help people make rhetorical points.

basically, a lot of this rules. i’m thinking specifically of all the sadism on display from entreri. i’m thinking of bruenor cutting his way through the duergar like a boss. i’m thinking of drizzt’s disguise slipping in front of the pirates and them being initially shocked & horrified, but then ending up just being the absolute best boys and timidly interrupting the captain’s meeting with drizzt to let him know that they have drizzt’s back, and hope blossoming in drizzt that maybe he can change the way the world sees him.

look, i know the depictions of race & racism have been an… issue in these books. these days, r.a. salvatore is fortunately among the first to say so. but, just… fuck. drizzt getting that moment of profound relief & hope really meant a lot to me. like, he’s very explicitly described as just bracing himself for the worst and then feeling like a weight has been lifted from him, and while i haven’t had that experience with race i’ve had it with several other aspects of my identity, and i just related to drizzt so intensely in that moment.

… speaking of this series’ fraught relationship with fantasy & real-world racism, though… yeah, it’s time to pivot from the good part of the mixed bag to the bad part. although it was also present & accounted for in this book, the weird handwringing about catti-brie’s killing of a fellow human when she was a self-confessed slayer of orcs/etc didn’t even last one book as the most racist shit i’d seen so far in this series, because holy shit the depiction of calimshan is just… i mean, wow.

oh also, i kind of super don’t care that much because the hints of romance that have shown up so far are definitely not among the best aspects of any of the books, but given that i can pretty much already tell where the whole wulfgar/drizzt/catti-brie stuff is going (despite limited time spent on it, it’s… not especially subtle), i just want to get ahead of this and mention that polyamory is totally a thing that exists. just for when catti-brie inevitably starts angsting about her terrible choice between human cock & drow cock for a book and a half or whatever.

(drow cock is objectively the correct choice, btw. i’ll take him if she won’t.)

honestly though i think the closest i come to shipping anyone is drizzt/bruenor. and i’m not even, like, into it? i just think out of the pairings there’s even been hints of, theirs would be pretty chill. if i were gonna write messy fanfic about any pairing, though, it would 100 percent be drizzt/entreri. raise your hand if you’re even slightly surprised. (and then smack yourself in your face with that hand for lying.)

the main things that tip the scales here in favor of the things about this book that are pretty good are basically drizzt’s sublime swordfight with entreri and drizzt’s more hopeful outlook towards the end of the book. first of all, i love when he reflects on the fact that entreri is probably never going to stop being obsessed with him, but he doesn’t actually have to give a shit about entreri. he can let their bloodfeud be entreri’s problem, and just defend himself & his friends as needed. added to that, the breakthrough where he decides that the world’s racism towards him is their problem, not his, meant so fucking much to me.

i just super want the best for drizzt, y’all. i don’t care how silly that probably sounds. so every little way he finds to make his life a little bit better is going to meet with my hearty approval.

b-rank

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #legend of drizzt #book review #reviews #books

[ladypeonies]

Good evening. I find your blog very informative with good opinions. I thank you. I am somewhat of a romantic but a realist. I do hope in my gut that MileApo have romantic feelings for each other as they have an incredible bond and chemistry the like I've never seen over the years. Do you think if there was romantic feelings from one or both, they have good enough communication to voice it to each other how the other would feel? I just hate the thought of unspoken love or missed opportunities. Also if they both luckily felt the same, do you think the perils and hardship of being part of LGBTQ community in Thailand esp how it would adversely maybe affect Miles family businesses, do you think that would put them off as it were going forward?

Hello,

Thank you very much for your kind words and you’re very welcome. Indeed, their bond and chemistry are beautiful to witness. I understand what you mean about unspoken love and missed opportunities. I don’t believe keeping one’s feelings for a close friend is a good thing. The moment one has feelings for a friend, you can’t really call it a friendship anymore, it’s a one-sided love. And that situation can quickly become poisonous. Saying that, I know it’s hard and I understand people can be insecure fear the change in the relationship. However, being brave isn’t keeping it a secret but embracing whatever change comes with the truth. No one can say the truth is easy, it’s freeing though. However, it takes maturity and growth to do that.

Apo actually answered that question in a very wise way (around 7.22), which shows how emotionally intelligent he is. He said if he felt anything for a close friend, he would confess for sure. It’s a question of talking and taking whatever answer like a man. For Mile it feels he would maybe wait before saying anything, perhaps the need to be sure, it’s not just a crush but real love. For how long? That’s the question.

In my humble opinion to get the bond they have, it requires total transparency. Whatever feelings are involved, they have discussed, processed and worked it out. I doubt they would be so comfortable with each other, tease, flirt, etc., if there was this layer of secrecy.

I talked about LGBTQ+ in Thailand here. I see a lot of people mentioning Mile’s family and it’s strange to me that no one considers that Apo’s family could be a problem, when filial piety is at the heart of Asian societies. Families all over the world also have that ability to issue ultimatums. But I get why Mile’s family’s wealth gets people’s attention. For me his family seems open-minded. They’re letting and supporting their son do whatever he wants, be on a BL show, in the entertainment industry. They could also let him have fun while he’s young and expect him to settle later and have a life away from the spotlight, who knows?

Also, it’s not like Mile is their only son, his brother could be the one they expect to carry the responsibilities. As for affecting the family businesses, it only does if, they come out, they don’t have to. And if their son sucking on another man’s nipple didn’t? They will be fine. And people have a short memory. They may call you names, curse at you, but if you make the best cake in town, they will come to buy it. It would be another story if they were into politics. In my humble opinion, I doubt they would have allowed him to take this path if they believed it could affect their name and businesses.

Do I believe perils and hardship would prevent them from being in a relationship, a secret one mostly? With them working so closely, in such proximity. No, it’s a firm NO. My field is human science, History. And what I studied is that even at a time where in so many places, countries, kingdoms where homosexuality was punished by death, people still acted on their feelings. They fell in love and had relationships. Can you imagine? The risk of death, seeing another die for the same thing, didn’t stop them. Why? Because love is a damn powerful force. It’s not a cliché, it’s the truth. It’s easier to hide and resist hate than love.

And IF there are romantic feelings involve for those two, there is nothing which will stop them from being with each other. That pull, that attraction would be too hard to resist.  We are all just humans.

For that reality I just describe there is, of course, another, in the past and today people sacrifice happiness, leaving the one they desperately love in the name of honour, for families, etc.

Hugs,

P.

#MileApo #Mile Phakphum Romsaithong #mile phakphum #apo nattawin #apo nattawin wattanagitiphat #speculation #LPanswers