#but the conditioning is still there and still right. and the empire is still right.... right? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ahaura · 6 months

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i saw someone point out the frequency with which liberals back social justice movements... how, for instance, when ferguson happened under obama it was not popular and there were many, many liberals who found the blm movement, in a sense, "in violation of [liberal] sensibilities" (when liberalism as a rule does not challenge the status quo, only maintains it and sees any call for revolution or real change as disruptive or 'bad for optics' and therefore not acceptable) but then when trump became president and he opposed blm a lot more liberals decided that the blm movement had merit because they viewed it from a team-sports perspective rather than a worldview based on morals and an understanding of the systems in place in the U.S. - that it was more comfortable for them to operate from a "trump bad" basis rather than "the american justice system and the police are inherently white supremacist, which are inherently, automatically, and always violent"

+ that, if trump was president while israel is carrying out its genocide, liberals would have NO problem denouncing israel and demanding for a ceasefire because they're comfortable operating from the 2-party system basis, NOT from a framework based on material conditions or factors or any acknowledgement or analysis of imperialism, colonialism, or capitalism. but because biden is a democrat, and democrats are supposed to be "the decent party" "the lesser evil" "more respectable" when, in functionality - in real practice, they don't want to disrupt the status quo. (internally, maintaining systems of white supremacy and capitalism; externally, furthering U.S. imperialism by maintaining hegemony and continuing the practice of exploitation and extraction of labor+capital+resources from the global south)

which is why we're here, a month into a genocide, and liberals are so cowardly and gutless that, in the face of our democrat president allowing and funding the genocide of palestinians in order for the U.S. to maintain its military base in the middle east, liberals IMMEDIATELY jump to "well, you HAVE to vote for him still, because trump will be worse!" and go "well im powerless there's nothing i can do", immediately folding like a wet paper bag in the face of the american empire rearing its ugly head in the most blatant, naked way in years, instead of thinking "this is unacceptable, i should pressure my elected officials and do everything i can - be it combating propaganda, contacting my congresspeople or senators, protesting, or engaging in direct action - to ensure this stops as quickly as possible".

there are liberals STILL IN MY NOTIFICATIONS who go "well you'll be electing a fascist if you vote for trump" not realizing that YOU CAN'T SIMPLY VOTE FASCISM AWAY. (which is not to say you should vote for republicans; that's not what i'm saying. none of us have said it.) we're pretty much already there. it's 2003 all over again, with the patriot act and all. the american war machine is pumping out racist, orientalist, pro-colonial, pro-genocide propaganda on behalf of the ethno-state america and its allies have backed since the so-called state's inception. people are being doxxed, fired, harassed, and attacked for visibly supporting palestine/opposing israel. islamophobic hate crimes are on the rise; a 6 year old boy was murdered not one month ago, an arab doctor in texas was stabbed to death. antisemitism is on the rise as well, thanks to the conflation of antisemitism with anti-zionism (which nazis have and will attempt to co-op in order to 'justify' + then act on their antisemitism, racism, and genocidal worldviews). our government is silencing people, brutalizing protestors, and arming and funding an ethno-state committing genocide - everything that would have been called fascist if it was under trump. but because it's a *democrat* liberals place "vote blue no matter who" and "optics" over the extremely basic moral stance that "genocide is wrong and people have the right to self-determination, autonomy, and life". arabs and muslims are already so dehumanized in the west that liberals (whether they consider themselves liberals or not) consider it an inconvenience to talk about the ongoing genocide that is happening with the blessing of OUR government. in this they expose their selfishness, the shallowness of their morals, their chauvinism, and their racism/orientalism/islamophobia/et cetera.

for example, if you see israeli troops waving a gay pride flag and the israeli state touting its support of gay people while said iof soldiers are murdering men, women, and children en masse every single day and you somehow????? think that because gay people are the ones doing the killing or a state claims to support gay people is doing the killing is ok then 1) you have fallen for pinkwashing propaganda and 2) that you find the murder of palestinians, or any people, permissible by a colonial force that uses causes liberals may genuinely care about in order to disguise, whitewash, or "lessen" the severity of the injustices it does unto usually black and brown people outside of the U.S., then you are just as bloodthirsty and depraved as anyone you would personally assign those descriptors of.

once again, it goes back to resorting to a team-sport understanding of the world rather than approaching it from a material one.

#uspol #another mini-essay directed specifically at usamerican liberals.#pre-emptively blaming left-wing people or arabs or muslims for the inevitable loss of joe biden #instead of the fact that biden IS SUPPORTING GENOCIDE and also has been. generally a failure within the US as well.#like bitch look around you! look at the state things are in! AND A DEMOCRAT IS PRESIDENT!!!#📁.zip

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tragedybunny · 7 months

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Fun Astarion idea:

Tav finds a wish spell (does the Deck of Many Things behind Astarion's back and gets insanely lucky), and offers to use it to cure his Vampirism.

He would probably be annoyed at them for risking that, at least.

This one ended up short and sweet anon, but I didn't want to belabor it because I think it would be gilding the lily.

As requested, Tav draws from the Deck Many Things, Astarion is less than thrilled.

Gambles and Wishes - F!Reader x Astarion

“Astarion,” you pound on the door to your home’s library until you thought it would break.

“I’m still not talking to you,” he shouts back, not even getting close to the door.

It was locked from the inside and you consider an unlocking spell for a moment but stop. The lock was a boundary, and you hated to cross his boundaries, he didn’t get to have any for so long. Instead you opt to groan in frustration. “Please, this isn’t the healthiest way to solve our problems.”

“Neither is lying, but that didn’t stop you,” he shoots back and you cringe because he’s technically right.

“It wasn’t lying so much as not telling. And see, you’re talking to me so why don’t we stop shouting through the door.” To be honest, it was starting to make you nervous, he’d never been angry at you for this long before. Maybe your good intentions had taken things too far. “Please Love, Starry Sky,” your voice shakes.

The noise of the lock opening causes your heart to leap, but you're not sure if it’s dread or elation, so you just stand there, arms crossed around yourself until the door opens. Astarion stares at you with watery red eyes, “is that really how you want this relationship to work?”

“No, you’re right, but the possible reward was too great to deny.” Why can’t he understand, you’d do anything for him?

“So was the risk, you pulled a card from the Deck of Many things. You know magic, you know what could’ve happened.” He’s not shouting anymore, it’s so much worse. He’s barely whispering the words, and the tears are finally starting to spill over. “And you didn’t even consult me, we’re supposed to be equals in this.”

So much for those boundaries you didn’t want to cross, the realization started to eat you up inside. Protecting him wasn’t a good excuse anymore. “I’m so sorry. It’s just that I would risk anything for you and I knew you wouldn’t let me.”

Even amidst all the pain, the two of you find yourselves holding onto each other. “Sunlight, that’s because you always take risks for me. You need to worry more about yourself sometimes.” He sniffles into your shoulder, and you hope his tears are drying as you stroke his hair.

“I know, last one I promise. But I got what I wanted, one Wish spell, we can have the life we thought was impossible.” The life you wanted so badly to give him, the life he deserved.

Stepping back from you, he appraises you seriously. “Are you sure this is what you would use it on? You could have an Empire, become a Goddess. Not that you aren’t already, especially when it comes too- ” he smiles lasciviously.

“Astarion,” playfully you smack his shoulder, “behave yourself. And yes this is the only thing I could think of using it on. I couldn’t wish for anything more than you.”

“You’re still a silly girl who’s too nice to me.” New tears appear in his eyes you notice, but for an entirely different reason. “Well then I accept, on one condition of course.”

“And what is that?”

“You promise you’re stuck with me as long as we both live. I’m not used to being alive of course, I’m going to need someone to keep an eye on me for a long time. And let’s be honest, you’re the most qualified. I don’t think any of our friends would really be able to handle it.”

He’s rambling but you know it’s because he’s nervous, so you lean over and kiss him softly. “Deal. Now let’s make you an un-undead Love.”

#asks #anon asks #requests #astarion #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion x reader #astarion x f!reader #astarion x tav #x reader #baldurs gate 3 fanfic #my fanfic #my writing

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fanfic-obsessed · 3 months

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Duty

Here I try a hand at Emperor Obi Wan. It just feels right.

It starts after Order 66, after the march on the temple. When Obi Wan says that he cannot go after Anakin, Yoda believes him. Instead of Yoda going for Sidious and Obi Wan for Anakin, they reverse it. Yoda heads for Mustafar.

Obi Wan goes for Sidious.He’s so done, traumatized and tired. He is also somewhere between passively suicidal and actively suicidal. He attacks Sidious in front of the newly formed Imperial Senate and no one is more surprised than him when he takes Sidious’s head off cleanly (Sidious did not consider this one tired, hurting Jedi to be a threat and Obi Wan went in full throttle, hoping to do some damage before his death). Even though the Empire is only a few days old at this point, there are some old rules that are already in place, backed by the Force (which is why no one really questions what happens next). One of those rules is the right of conquest.

To the winner goes the Empire.

Now Obi Wan is the recognized Emperor, including to the chips in the Clones. Obi Wan does not want to be the Emperor. Obi Wan wants to go sit in a depression cave and contemplate his infinite sadness in peace, please.

Bail Organa manages to convince Obi Wan that being the Emperor and helping to unfuck everything is his duty (Bail is both semi reluctant-he knows that duty is Obi Wan’s buzzword and hates that he needs to take advantage of that-, and not, as he is pretty sure that is all that is keeping Obi Wan alive right now).

So Obi Wan agrees to be Emperor until they can figure out how to undo the Sith’s great plan (while all 1000 years was not spent creating a web of fucked up laws that slowly built the trap they all fell into, a good portion of that time was). He manages to rescind the Order that the Jedi are traitors, but is not able to deactivate the chips (this is another where the chips turn the clones into Automatons, with no independent thoughts). There is some code phrase that will shut the chips off, but only Palpatine knew it. The Kaminoans are sure that, now that the chips are active, removing the chips will cause brain damage and death to the clones (this is not true, but we are still several months away from Ahsoka and Rex-as the only two who have proof this is patently false- coming back into Obi Wan’s life). Obi Wan has recalled the 212th, unable to stop himself from wanting them around him, even as they are. Yoda successfully captured Anakin, who is currently being held in a medically induced coma until they figure out what to do with him (he is decidedly fallen, but also is coming off as being in middle of a clinically psychotic episode-also both Yoda and Obi Wan are not so secretly hoping there is something that makes his actions…not Anakin of his own free will slaughtering children). Now Yoda is off in the galaxy trying to find Jedi survivors. Mace Windu was found and is Bacta and would be there for a minimum of a year.

Padme is on bedrest for her own safety, and the safety of her children. She is also subject to frequent lectures on seeing an actual medical professional while pregnant. It turns out that she had an uncommon, but not rare, condition that meant that a natural birth would kill her. This condition can only be diagnosed in the third trimester (also notably that this condition could not be fixed with the Force, Light or Dark). Obi Wan cannot bring himself to visit her, if asked he would have the excuse of ‘too busy’ ready to go but the truth was he couldn’t face Padme, whom he had considered a friend, after she had spent so much time lying to him about her relationship with Anakin (Also he now has access to all the instances that Palpatine knew about where both of his dear friends abused their power for the sake of the other). Even after the children are born, Obi Wan keeps his distance.

So we have Obi Wan, holding himself by a thread as he simultaneously tries to: figure out how to undo hundreds of years of damage against democracy, run an empire (if he has to do this, he will do it right), deactivate the chips (this means going through every single Palpatine has ever recorded in hopes of discovering the code- no matter how horrific), figure out a place that the remaining Jedi can live (the temple is out of the question with the death that clings to the walls like a slime). There is no one he can truly trust, not even Bail (For all that Bail entreaty to remain emperor was 100% necessary, it did damage Obi Wan and his friendship in a way that it would take a decade to recover).

It will eventually get better. Other Jedi will come from hiding, giving Obi Wan people he can fully rely on. But right now, about a year into the Empire, Obi Wan is running on the barest fumes, heart sick. He is surrounded by the Senate, whom he does not trust, and the puppeted bodies of the clones, whom he forces himself to treat just the same, to never forget that these are people. He has had to order the clones to ignore any order that contradicts his (in order to prevent abuse by senators) and make an explicit order for the clones to defend themselves and to see to their own needs. He is facing the prospect that there may be no way to undo this damage.

However there is something that no one knows about the chips. Like in cannon, they do eventually break down, as the clones are forced to go against their own morals and fight the chip, it wears it down. The irony is that Obi Wan treating them as sentients causes less wear than Palptine’s treatment.

The 212 love their general, none more so than Cody. As part of that, each one made a point to memorize the signs that Obi Wan was overworking himself. Now Obi Wan is, to the clones trapped by the chips, overworking himself beyond anything they had seen. The chips do not allow for this kind of care, which starts to cause the same kind of wear that cannon saw. While most of the clones do not fight the chips with Obi Wan in charge, the 212th begins to fight even harder.

Their general needs them.

It starts around the 1 year mark, and is so small that Obi Wan thinks he is imagining it. It starts with Cody frowning faintly at a senator bringing another unnecessary problem to the Emperor to solve (something that they should have been able to solve themselves). Then Obi Wan realizes his cup of tea keeps getting refilled (Boil does it when Obi Wan isn’t looking-it both is and is not a breakthrough, the chip means that if Obi Wan had asked for the tea Boil would have provided it, but it is Boil himself that is able to anticipate the need and choose Obi Wan’s favorite tea). Several of his guards (all members of the 212th) subtly herd him down lesser known hallways and paths to his destination, causing him to avoid other senators trying, badly, to curry favor. All the while not able to say anything but “Yes, Sir” or answer direct questions with the least amount of words in a monotone.

Something shatters, just a little, in Obi Wan’s heart at those responses. He continues to talk to any of the clones,including promises that he will find a way to fix this, but does not ask as many questions.

The first substantial sign that the chips were wearing out on their own came from Cody. It was late, Obi Wan had not slept in days, had not eaten in even longer. Cody's voice was raspy, and his words were slow, deliberate (if you have ever spoken to someone with mild aphasia, think of that with long pauses between words). He looked right at Obi Wan and said “You…have…not…eaten.”

Obi Wan found himself whipping around so fast he nearly tripped on the pretentious robes he had been forced into to stare at Cody, whose face was twisted into this incredibly focused look.

“Cody?” Obi Wan asks, breathless.

“You…need…to…eat”

Obi Wan takes another step closer, almost close enough to touch “Cody?”

Cody’s jaw tightens, “We…are..still…here…we…we…we...can…hear…you.”

Then all at once Cody’s face smoothed out again, responding to Obi Wan with a monotonous ‘yes sir’, back under the chips' control.

It is both better and worse for Obi Wan. He now knows for sure that the clones are in there, but he still does not know how to free them. His mindset and self care is bad enough that he actually cannot make the connection between what seems to bring members of the 212th forward in spite of the chips (and Cody is only the first, the spark is usually Obi Wan taking particularly bad care of himself, and that definition is variable for each clone-Helix the head medic is almost himself more than he is controlled within a few weeks).

It is a few weeks after this that Rex and Ahsoka finally arrive. They had been found by Yoda, who convinced them that it was safe to return to Coruscant. Part of the reason they had not believed it before hand was that it was clear that the Clone were still controlled by the chips.

They are the ones to break the news to Obi Wan that the Kaminoans were wrong (and it was they were wrong, not they were lying, they truly did believe that the chips could not be removed after they had been activated), the chips could be removed.

Obi Wan takes that news in, asks a few questions on what is needed to remove the chips, then makes arrangements for the medics to have their chips removed (with the idea that they can then supervise the surgery of everyone else-Obi Wan currently has trust issues and cannot think of letting anyone who is not a clone operate on the 212th, in particular). At that point he sits on the floor of the room they were in and has a small breakdown (Disturbing both Rex and Ahsoka, and bringing his current guard, Wooley, to the point of breaking the chip entirely).

There is still so much to do. Obi Wan still knows that. He still has a duty to keep the Empire together and undo enough damage that it can become a republic again. He still has to live with the horrific things that Palpatine had recorded (experiments, thoughts, his plans for Anakin) and figure out what to do with Anakin (who is still being held in a medically induced coma). The knife’s edge of the politics he has been balancing on has not grown any easier (in fact Ahsoka and Rex, having internalized Anakin's beliefs more than they realized are going to make it more difficult not less).

But Obi Wan has hope, hearing that the clones would soon be free. Through he does not make any kind of suggestion or let himself have an opinion on who goes when for choir removing (save that all of the medics needed to go first so they could sort out who was going next), the medics in charge prioritize the 212th, because Obi Wan desperately needs his battalion back. Also because no one is completely sure that they won’t all give themselves brain damage fighting against the chip.

There are enough medics that Ghost Company is dechipped at the same time, with minimal recovery. Boil and Wooley immediately take charge, while the others lock Cody and Obi Wan into Obi Wan’s ‘temporary’ apartment (What had been Palpatine’s living space- the senate insisted) opening the door only for to provide food while Obi Wan is made to take an enforced ‘vacation’ or at least a ten day (They accept no criticisms, or questions from the Senate. The first senator to protest was shot with a stunner and told to be glad for it-the others decide that they will accept Wooley and Boil as a substitute Emperor).

Cody cuddling Obi Wan produces the first true sleep he had since Utapau. Obi Wan sleeps for a full 24 hours.

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #obi wan kenobi #star wars au #fanfiction prompt #codywan #sheev palpatine #bamf obi wan

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seiya-starsniper · 3 months

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"Oh I'm dreaming of you again. If I wouldn't be dreaming and if you would be really here, then I would tell you I love you."

*slides $5 across the table* dreamling. you know what must be done.

Ayyyy I FINALLY got around to doing this one! 😅😅 Starting my birthday off right with a present for you! 💖💖

[AO3 Link Here]

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When war comes to the Endless Empire, Ser Robert Gadling, known simply as Hob to his men, is on the front lines of the defense effort, fighting for his monarch and the love of his life. The second title is a secret he keeps close to his breast, for there are no scenarios in which a Knight would be deemed the type of lover fit for a King.

The war is long and brutal. The Morningstar Kingdom had timed their invasion well, choosing to strike in the heat of summer, ideal conditions for soldiers who were born and raised in lands far hotter and more unforgiving than Hob had ever known. Their forces are fierce, but Hob’s are fiercer, for they have something to protect, mothers and wives, sons and daughters.

Hob only has his King. Orphaned at a young age, Hob was recruited as a foot soldier into the royal army as soon as he was of age, and his quick thinking and heroics on the battlefield earned him a coveted place in the royal court, right as the Endless family had established themselves as monarchs of the realm.

Try as he did to be polite, Hob did not fit easily into a life of court politics. He could not hide his brusque mannerisms, his frank manner of speech, and it was that attitude that endeared him to King Morpheus years ago, establishing a unique friendship most other nobles would sneer at.

Hob never cared for noble opinions before King Morpheus, and to this day he still did not. It is his king’s face that he sees in his mind’s eye as he cuts down the Morningstar’s soldiers, pushing their forces further back. It is his king’s voice that rings in his ears as he and his men march through the pouring rain, caked in mud, blood, and sweat. It is his king’s eyes that Hob sees in the moments after an arrow pierces through his armor, knocking him off his horse and rendering him unconscious.

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When King Morpheus receives word that the battalion Hob was leading had fallen in battle with no known survivors, he nods solemnly and dismisses the messenger, along with the rest of his court to give those who had lost a son, brother, or lover, time to mourn.

What his court does not know, however, is that once the throne room is empty, Morpheus collapses to the floor and weeps. He weeps for his fallen people, for the lives that this pointless war has cost his kingdom, but in particular he weeps for Robert—no, Hob Gadling, his oldest and most treasured friend.

Hob had been one of the only members of Morpheus’s court that did not treat him like the outsider he was when he was appointed king. When the Endless came to power, they divided the small municipalities into their own kingdoms, placing each of their seven children as the reigning monarch. Dream had suffered many cutting remarks and passive aggressive attacks, but Hob had been open and honest with him, even if their relationship did not start off in the most positive manner.

To know now that Morpheus would no longer hear Hob’s laugh, would never again be able to break bread and share stories over a warm open fire with him, that he would never feel the warm touch of the other man’s hand upon his shoulder, was more than the king could bear. He retires early to his bed, and spends the next days alone in bedchambers, claiming a sudden illness, but in truth, he is mourning for what could have been, what he was too cowardly to reach for, what he could have had, if only he’d been brave enough to confess how he felt.

And now, it was too late.

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When Hob finally escapes his imprisonment behind enemy lines, he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake, including the head of the Morningstar King. He steals a horse and rides away into the night, desperate to return to his men and tell them that everything is over. The war is over. The Morningstar and their warriors will trouble them no longer.

When he comes across the nearest army camp flying the Endless flag, he heads immediately for the general’s tent. But instead of finding his second-in-command, he finds King Morpheus there, sprawled across what was once Hob’s bedroll, a cup of some unknown liquid in his hand. When he sees Hob enter, he freezes and drops the cup immediately, and the smell of cheap liquor fills the air between them.

“Oh,” King Morpheus whispers in a broken tone that absolutely breaks Hob’s heart. “I'm dreaming of you again.” As Hob steps further into the tent, he can see the king’s brilliant blue eyes are stained red from crying, and his cheeks too are covered in tear tracks that criss-cross along his face. It is breathtaking and beautiful, agonizing and unbearable, all at once.

“I am no dream,” Hob says softly as he approaches his king. Had he put those tears on his lord’s face? Had Morpheus thought him dead the entire time he’d been imprisoned?

“Oh but you are, for why else would a dead man stand before me and haunt my grieving heart so?” Morpheus replies, his breath hitching now as his body threatens to start sobbing anew. “Why else would I see you, if not as a reminder for every unspoken word, every regret I hold for not confessing to you you my deepest desires?"

Now it is Hob’s turn to gasp, his heart beating wildly in his breast. Surely there was no way that Morpheus was alluding to sharing the same desires as Hob. But then, why else would his king be here, in Hob’s tent, laying amongst Hob’s things, acting as a grieving widow, if he didn’t not feel like one himself?

Hob takes another step closer, and though Morpheus startles, he does not flinch back from him. Hob then kneels down in front of his king so that they are eye to eye, and steels his nerves for what he plans to say next.

“What would tell me, my liege, were you not caught in the thrall of a dream?” Hob asks. “What words do you hold in your heart that you could tell me before?”

Morpheus chuckles, and it sounds like shattered glass.

“If I were not dreaming?” he asks. “If I wouldn't be dreaming and if you would be really here, then I would tell you I love you, Robert Gadling.”

Hob he gives up all semblance of self control and brings his hands to his king’s face. Morpheus gasps at the touch and Hob wants to kiss him, wants to pull this beautiful, wonderful man into his arms and never let him go.

“You’re—” Morpheus breathes, his eyes filled with tears once more. “You’re alive.”

Hob nods. “It is not a dream,” he says. “Touch me, and feel that I am real.”

Morpheus lunges towards him and seals their lips together in a kiss. Hob kisses him back, uncaring of the fact that any random soldier could walk in at any moment. All that matters to him now is that he and Morpheus are reunited, that he is alive, and in love with someone who loves him back. That is all that matters, for tonight.

#dreamling #dream x hob #hob x morpheus #the sandman #sandman fanfiction #seiya writes dreamling #seiya's birthday prompt fills #gonna be posting fics every few hours!

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newnitz · 18 days

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I don't really see people talking about how cultural Christianity is applied to Jews.

In Christianity, Jews are the people who rejected and betrayed Jesus and are punished with statelessness and destitution, whose only redemption is accepting the Messiah and the Son of God. This is the basis of several antisemitic tropes, most prominently deception, religious supercessionism and the Wandering Jew.

In cultural Christianity, these tropes are considered tenants of Judaism rather than Christianity, as Judaism is considered Christianity without Jesus.

Christians see themselves as tortured saints, persecuted for spreading the truth of Jesus and God across the globe. Missionaries who go to non-Christian lands to try and get the people to convert by fearmongering with damnation to Hell see themselves as victims when they're rebuffed and asked to stop.

Cultural Christian non-Christians are usually atheists and adherents of folk religion revivalist movements who have suffered religious abuse, as many sects of Christianity normalize emotional abuse by instilling inherent guilt in the Original Sin and even physical abuse in "Spare the rod; spoil the child". These cultural Christians see the millennia of antisemitism and roll their eyes, to them we're just another sect of delusional religious people with a persecution complex.

To become a Christian all you need to do is accept the Father Son and Holy Spirit, to affirm your beliefs and confess your sins. To become a Jew you are either born a Jew, or you learn the Jewish culture and religion for months on end and must live half a year under the strictest restrictions of the Jewish lifestyle to show commitment. That is the difference between a universal religion and an ethnoreligion.

In a Culturally Christian world there is no room for ethnoreligions, and they do not exist. All religions are about your faith and which God(s) you believe in. So in a Cultural Christian's eyes, a country of Jews is a country that holds one faith supreme above all others and conditions rights with conversion, as that's how Christian countries have historically been.

Christianity's common ground with Jews comes from the Roman Empire appropriating the religion from the Cult of Jesus, and making it more appealing to the masses by introducing Greco-Roman and Germanic folk religion aspects into it. Xmas is Yule but with Jesus, Easter is a fertility holiday but with Jesus and so on. In the eyes of the Cultural Christian, Christianity and Judaism are two once-antagonistic sects of the same religion, no different than Catholics and Protestants.

Cultural Christianity erases and appropriates Judaism and is as inherently hateful of Jews as religious Christianity.

Now, when it comes to the elephant in the room: Islam.

Islam, like Christianity, is a universal religion. You must believe in Allah and accept the prophets, which include both Jesus and Muhammad. It is no more inherently violent than Christianity, though it's no less. In the Christian's eyes, Islam is the competitor, the enemy. The Muslims conquered Christian lands and converted them, and they've fought holy wars against one another throughout the Middle Ages.

To become a Muslim the Cultural Christian doesn't need to unlearn any of the core tenets of their culture. They can simply apply it to Islam.

Which is why many Cultural Christians, damaged by Christianity, are sympathetic to Islam. And since Muslims and Jews are no longer on good terms, they use this sympathy to give themselves a free pass to be antisemitic. Whether Muslims check their converts for bigotry, allow it or are powerless to stop them, that's another issue.

Jews are not diet Christians. We have less in common with you than you have with Muslims. Unlearn Christian cultural appropriation.

And no, I don't care that it's "offensive" to associate you with Christianity due to the religious abuse you endured. You still see the world through a Christian lens.

#cultural christianity #christian supremacy #Christian imperialism #religious supercessionism #wandering jew #wandering Jew trope #christian antisemitism #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism

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heartofaskywalkerprincessleia · 1 month

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Luke Skywalker is a hero for people with anxiety

(Contains spoilers from Episodes 4-6).

A lot of people relate to Luke Skywalker. He's down-to-earth, honest, and always strives for the light. Watching Star Wars again for the first time in a while, however, I realized something. When I looked it up on the internet, I was surprised that I couldn't find a lot of discussions about it. What do I mean? That Luke Skywalker suffers from anxiety.

The deleted scene from Tosche station, which I recently saw for the first time, sheds some light on this aspect of Luke's character. In the scene, we learn from Luke's friends that he panics easily. They're all chiding him for ‘again’ thinking that the Empire is coming. Even though he's just seen Princess Leia's ship fighting with Darth Vader's ship, his friends begin gaslighting him.

Someone online pointed out that this scene causes Luke's statement “there's nothing left for me here, now” to be more forceful. Upon finding out that his Aunt and Uncle are dead, Luke doesn't go to his friends for help. You wonder what his friends thought upon hearing that Luke's family had been killed by stormtroopers, right after he'd tried to warn them.

This aspect of Luke's character, and how he is treated by his friends, conditions him to not ask for help. In the ESB, as he's dying on Hoth, he never calls for anyone. If Obi-Wan hadn't shown up, Luke wouldn't have started calling out to him. If he hadn't started shouting, Han Solo wouldn't have seen him.

This trend continues. Luke panics about things, but doesn't ask for help. Yoda tries to help him, getting him to relax and clear his mind. But, the vision of his friends worries him too much. He makes light of Obi-Wan’s warning that the Empire is after him for his talents. Luke is still holding onto what he told Biggs in the deleted scene from Tosche station–that the Empire will never draft him.

During the fight on Cloud City, Vader acknowledges that Luke has learned to control his fear. Remember, Luke canonically gets so scared of the Sand People that he faints in the first movie. There's almost a parallel of that first moment, as Vader knocks Luke down and holds his lightsaber to Luke's throat just like the Sand People knocked him down before.

Luke has always gotten through things on his own. But, at this moment, he loses his hand. Losing his hand is symbolic of Luke losing the ability to do everything on his own. His father, who he always idolized and held onto, is evil. He's alone. He realizes that everyone was trying to protect him from this reality. Even his aunt and uncle let him think that his father was a hero, because it helped Luke to hold on.

He finally reaches out to Leia. He finally forms a real connection with someone, which requires being vulnerable, and overcoming his fear of not being taken seriously. And, Leia rescues him.

In the ROTJ, Luke tells Obi-Wan that he can't do this alone. He starts working with Han and Leia, and realizing that he is actually important to them. He trusts Leia enough to tell her that she is his sister, and that he has to save their father.

But, still, Luke is trying to do everything on his own. He goes to face his father, and tries to be calm. He tries to avoid becoming angry. He tries to control the anxiety that got him ridiculed by his friends. The anxiety that led him to destroy Vader in his vision during his training on Degobah. The anxiety that he sees as his greatest flaw.

But, he panics. He goes after Vader, and cuts off his hand. And, that's when he realizes it.

All his life, Luke has wanted to be like his father. He praised himself for the positive qualities that are like his father. Being a good pilot. Being a Jedi (before he knew that his father was Vader). But at this moment, Luke looks at Vader's mechanical hand, and realizes that his father is just like him. His father is anxious. His father was scared, and overwhelmed once, just like him. His father didn't have anyone to turn to.

Luke stands up to the Emperor, but that isn't what causes this scene to be so powerful. It's the fact that, as Luke is dying, he says the words his father once desperately wanted to say to someone.

“Help me.”

“Please, help me.”

And Anakin, who wished someone would help him, who told Luke that it was too late for him, realizes that he can be that person for someone else. The pain he's gone through his whole life doesn't have to be passed on. He can save his son from the same fate. And he does.

That's why Luke Skywalker is a hero for people who suffer from anxiety. Because he shows us the importance of accepting ourselves. Of self-compassion. Of reaching out to others. Of not being afraid to ask for help when we need it. And, if we do, we might just be that little spark of hope that someone else needs.

May the Force be with you, always.

#luke skywalker #princess leia #star wars #the empire strikes back #return of the jedi #a new hope #darth vader #anakin skywalker #spoiler alert

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scribefindegil · 6 months

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Losing my mind over how well Ann Leckie does material culture. So much of her worldbuilding is deeply grounded in the realities of material and labor needs and how those shape the setting. It's so prominent in the Radch books: the evil space empire is obsessed with tea, so they annex planets with the right conditions to grow it and replace all the native agriculture with tea plantations and staff them with transportees from their other conquered worlds. And in a sense that seems so obvious that it's almost silly to write it out; like, yeah, that's how imperialism works. But the difference here is how much focus the books afford it: it's not just worldbuilding for worldbuilding's sake; there's a multi-book plotline about the field workers striking for better conditions! But most Radchaai characters would never think about this: tea is just something you buy, the work of its production several levels of abstraction away from you, so you don't have to consider where it came from and whose labor went into making it.

And I just read The Raven Tower and I cannot stop thinking about how it views divine magic as just another kind of abstracted labor. This is one of my favorite sentences, from near the beginning:

"A man sat on the bench between them, wearing all white--white shirt, white leggings, white cloak, the sort and amount of perfect unstained white that can be achieved only by a god's intervention, or else the labor of dozens of servants with no other work than bleaching and laundering."

You read it, and at first it seems like a clear distinction: you can do this with endless, laborious human work, or you can do it with magic. But as the book goes on you realize that magic in this setting doesn't actually make things less laborious. Gods can do things that humans can't, but they're still required to draw on equivalent power. If you can't grow food, a god can provide, but they need to exert the energy that would otherwise have gone into germination and photosynthesis and threshing. If your divine protection against disease expires, you can accomplish the equivalent by continuously straining and boiling your water. If you want your clothes to remain perfectly white, you can get the labor from servants or you can get it from a god, but it's labor either way and the cost will have to be paid.

#it's good worldbuilding brent!!!!#imperial radch #the raven tower

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autisticlancemcclain · 8 months

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Keith doesn’t miss Earth the way everyone else does.

He does miss it, of course. He had a few months early in their journey that he stubbornly insisted he didn’t, but he’s grown enough now to admit that yeah, wifi was nice. So was non-recycled air. And a yellow sun. (God, it’s so weird to genuinely miss a yellow sun. He never thought that shit mattered.) None of this even covers how much he misses, to his grand shock, the culture of Earth — it’s strange and humbling to have to explain what a car is. Or a country. Or the concept of global warming, which is an embarrassing thing to have to put into words to someone who’s never really heard of it. (Like genuinely very humiliating. Explaining to someone that they very nearly shortened the life span of humanity because of consumerism, essentially, is something he still thinks of and just shudders.)

Mostly, though, he’s happy to be in space. Space is weird as shit and so is he, so he feels like he has an easier time just functioning, really. He likes the untethered-ness of it all, the lack of general structure. He doesn’t spend a lot of time wishing things were different.

Except for right now.

His sword, which he has been boredly slashing and poking at the wall of the Empire ship, gets stuck in the tiny crack where two sheets of metal panelling are pushed together. He huffs grouchily at it, pulling it out, then has to plant his boot on the wall and yank when it refuses to do so. The tip of the blade gets unstuck quicker than he’d expected and the change in force startles him, sending him sprawling on the floor.

He scrambles to his feet, bright red, clearing his throat and trying to roll his shoulders casually, as if he was intentionally on the floor. He looks like a huge massive dork, so thankfully no one was looking his way anyway.

“Are y’all almost done?” he calls, trying really hard to sound like he’s just innocently inquiring and not whining. It is no easy task — he’s bored and he’s hungry and he’s restless and this stupid ship smells like a stale refrigerator and he’s really really bored, in case he forgot to mention.

He scowls when no one answers, sticking out his tongue at the green and yellow paladins, both of whom are hunched over a control pad, wires everywhere, trying to hack in or out of something. Keith’s not sure. They told him and Lance to keep watch at the door and then stopped responding, basically.

This is the part of Earth that Keith has missed. Back home, Keith got to do all the investigative shit, too. Don’t get him wrong, he likes being the stabby one, as Shiro has so patronizingly put it; he likes being the one to run head first into conflict with a smirk on his face and a sword on the ready. It’s fun to be the impulsive one and be rewarded for it. It’s fun to be able to wreck Empire shit and practice witty one-liners to shoot off at annoying generals and sergeants or whatever the Galra equivalent is, just to watch their eyes twitch in rage before Keith cracks them one. All missions are two parts, essentially, fucking around and finding out, and Keith loves having free reign to fuck around.

He just wishes he got to be part of the finding out, too.

He sighs, long and loud and petulant because obviously no one is listening. He knows that his investigative research with Blue was at a very different level than all the stuff Hunk and Pidge do. He understands that on an objective level. If he wants to be part of the find out portion then he has to be prepared, has to put in the effort to learn and keep learning, to know how to recognise red flags and read code and all that nerd shit.

But computer science is just so boring.

Keith is a science person. Duh. He went to pilot school. Physics was eighty percent of that whole spiel, and he’s always had an affinity for chemistry, even if said affinity caused a lot of explosions and also Adam’s blood pressure condition. Science is cool as shit.

But coding is fucking boring. He has tried and tried to sit down and learn it, but every time Pidge tries to explain the basics his eyes glaze right over, and it’s not fair to her to waste her time.

He sighs again. He gets to wait, then.

Deciding that he’d rather not slash a hundred new scratches in the ship’s wall, lest the damn bridge feel more like a prison cell than it already does, he starts to pace, swinging his sword back and forth randomly. He could try to practice a few of the techniques and swordplay choreo he’s been learning, but that’s no fun without a partner. He’s become spoiled with the castle’s training bot. With Shiro hanging back with Coran and Allura, there’s no one around to clash swords with.

He perks up. There is, actually. He forgot that Lance had unlocked a sword when he first got switched to Red.

He spins around, trying to find where Lance ducked off to. He expected to find him leaning on Hunk’s back or pestering Pidge, like he often does — they’ve long since learned to work around him — but he’s nowhere to be found. Keith walks around the area, poking his sword at piles of sentry parts he cut up a few hours ago, peeking behind control panels and various big important chairs. Nothing.

“Lance?” Keith calls softly. Something like worry sours his stomach.

Please, for the love of all things good and holy, don’t let Lance have been hurt or taken this whole time. Keith will never forgive himself.

Thankfully, a hand sticks up by the far end of the bridge, blue armour glinting in the ugly purple lighting. Keith heaves a huge sigh of relief, jogging over. He thought he’d seen Lance before Hunk and Pidge had hunkered down to get info. But in that brief moment of panic, he wasn’t sure.

“Whatcha doing?” he asks as he comes close enough to Lance to speak. The red paladin has wedged himself between some kind of steel storage bin and the wall, in an impossibly narrow sliver of space, which explains why Keith missed him when he was looking.

Lance doesn’t answer right away, instead nudging a roll of wire with his foot. He has something resting in his lap, and wire is looped around his fingers, sliding back and forth as he carefully weaves it into a pattern. Keith watches, intrigued, for several passes of the craft.

“Nicked it from Team Punk when they really started to get wrapped up in their nerd corner,” he explains, finally looking up at Keith to shoot him a wry grin. Keith grins back. “Standing guard is boring as hell, especially when we took out all the sentries and barred the doors. And the castle is parked outside, so hell if I know what we’re guarding for.”

“Fuck, I know,” Keith groans, sitting down in front of him. Honestly, there is no real reason for them to be here. He half suspects Shiro has sent them all out for some peace and quiet, which is rude.

He grabs the spool of wire by Lance’s feet, inspecting it carefully. It’s very thin, and flat instead of a round tube-ish shape that wire usually is. There are two wrapped around the spool, too, one red and one blue. Keith curiously looks back over to Lance’s lap, trying to get a better look at what he’s doing with the wire. He doubts it’s anything mechanical — Lance gets as bored as he does when Hunk and Pidge try to explain stuff — but he’s intrigued on what has kept Lance’s interest for so long.

He’s surprised to find that he recognises what Lance is making, or at least sort of. It’s a long, spiralling chain, like the wire has been woven together to make some kind of mini spiralled staircase. He remembers, although vaguely, seeing other kids at recess in elementary school, sat down all over the place, clambering all over each other with flat plastic string, making boxy keychains or scratching spiral bracelets.

“Oh, hey, I know that stuff,” he says. He scrunches his face, trying to recall the name of the craft and coming up completely empty. It’s not friendship bracelets, the string was too stiff for that. Not that loom elastic thing either. “I don’t know the name, though.”

Lance chuckles lightly, sliding a last piece of string through a loop before tying it all off. He hooks it next a growing collection of them that Keith just notices, with a wide array of colours and patterns, hanging off his utility belt like leaves from a branch.

“I don’t know the name, either.” He tilts his head in consideration. “Well, I do. I googled it once, and I got some strange French name that didn’t fit, so I never used it. No one ever, like, sought it out or anything. Someone just came to school with a pack of the thread and everyone was obsessed with it for a week before forgetting about it.”

Keith tilts his head in acknowledgment. That’s what he remembers, too, but he doesn’t remember ever having any friends who would give him any of the string to try, nor was he ever comfortable enough with whatever foster parents he had to fumble through a request for the string.

“…Can I try?” he mumbles, after watching Lance start and weave a new one. He’s not entirely sure why, but suddenly his cheeks are red, and shyness pricks at the back of his neck. He’s suddenly nervous that Lance is gonna laugh at him, gonna tell him no, gonna give him a weird look for asking at all.

It’s ridiculous. Lance wouldn’t do that, and there’s nothing wrong with Keith asking. But he feels the nerves anyway.

“Sure,” Lance says easily, tugging on the strings and setting his chain aside. He smiles brightly at Keith, brown eyes crinkled and soft, and although the shyness fades away his blush goes nowhere. If anything, Keith feels his face get hotter. “What colours do you want?”

Keith clears his throat, wishing the flush away. He points to the red and blue spool he’d seen first. Lance quickly unravels thread to the length of his arm, matching up both colours before cutting. He sets the spool to the side then carefully lines up both threads, folding them in half and wrapping them over his thumb too quickly for Keith to see what he does exactly.

“I’ll start it for you, ‘cause it’s hard.”

“Hey,” Keith protests immediately. “I can start my own.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. He blinks at him, slowly, for several moments. Keith huffs and looks away.

When he looks back, Lance is grinning, and he holds out the carefully started craft.

“It’s genuinely very difficult to start them,” he promises. “I’m the only one of my siblings who knows, they used to ask me to start theirs all the time. It’s way easier to do rather than start, trust me.”

That mollifies Keith a little. He does trust Lance, and now that he thinks about it he can vaguely recall how one person on the playground would hold court while a million people crowded around them, fielding dozens of requests for starts.

“Okay, watch me first, then I’ll walk you through doing it yourself.” Slower than he was moving before, Lance loops and weaves the thread, taking great care to keep his hands open so Keith can see the entire process. The chain he’s making looks different from the one he made earlier, and Keith says as much.

“Yeah, this one’s a box chain, it’s way easier. The spiral one is hard.” He snorts at Keith’s pout. “Don’t give me that look, doofus. You can work your way up to spiral. Try this one for now, okay?”

He hands the started chain off to Keith, then scoots out from his little nook, settling in beside Keith to help guide his hands.

Right beside Keith. His entire left side is pressed against Keith’s entire right, and he slides one hand under Keith’s arm, accidentally brushing across Keith’s ribs, to help guide his hands. Keith tries everything he can to stay still, breathing shallowly out his mouth, determined not to move even a muscle, either so Lance doesn’t move or does he’s not sure. He’s not sure what’ll make him feel less like he’s going to explode, less like every spot Lance touches isn’t going to burst into flames.

“Okay, start with the loops. See how there’s already kind of a square shape? Flip the red thread in either side of it, yeah, like that. There should be two loops and the extra string should hang opposite of each other. Okay, now take the blue string, and weave it over and under — yeah, just like that! It should create four mini squares in a big square, you nailed it.”

Lance looks up at him to shoot him that big beaming grin again, and Keith tries to muster a weak smile back at him, realising for the first time that he has yet to breathe and he should probably do that before the spots in his vision get any worse and he passes out.

This is fine, this is normal, Lance touches people all the time. He is a touchy person. This is so not worth him going batty about, what is his brain’s deal.

“Alright, now loop the extra thread around your fingers and pull it away from each other. It’s kind of a pain because it’s super smooth so it doesn’t really want to stay together, and it takes a learning curve, but — oh, hey, you got it! Good job. Now do it again.”

Trying to remind himself to breathe every few seconds, Keith repeats what Lance taught him, over and over again until the chain starts to look like an actual chain, to Keith’s pleasure. He’s fascinated by the quick way the squares build, how the layers are so thin but it doesn’t take long at all for them to stack into something longer than his pinky finger.

Keith blinks, startled, when Hunk and Pidge clap their hands, calling out that it’s time to go. He realises that there’s a bit of a crick in his neck from hunching over, the tips of his fingers feel raw, and the chain has become as long as his hand. Although it hasn’t felt like more than a few minutes, he’s clearly been doing this for a while.

This is amazing. A boring mission has never flown by this fast before!

“Looks great,” Lance says, genuine pull of his brows belying the truth to his words — he’s not just saying that at all. “You picked that up fast.”

Keith coughs, standing on wobbly, half-asleep legs. “Uh, yeah. I’m good with my hands.”

Lance makes a strange noise as he bends down and tucks the spools of wire away, a muffled, kind of derisive snicker. “Yeah, I bet you are,” he mumbles to himself, turned away, as if he didn’t mean for Keith to hear it.

Keith stumbles. His jaw drops. Lance is out the door and on his way to his lion before Keith can react.

He twirls his chain in his hands when he finally remembers how to do other things rhan have Lance’s words repeat in his head a bajillion times, walking slowly to his own lion. His right side still tingles ever place Lance touched it. He grins a little to himself, remembering the easy way Lance guided his fingers, smiled at him.

Maybe these boring missions aren’t so bad after all, actually.

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momojedi · 3 months

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now idk if youve been requested smth like this before but tbb finds reader (whos another clone child like omega)?? thatd be cool, id think!! gn reader btw 🫶🫶 ALSO LOVE YOUR WRITING SM TY FOR WRITING THIS IF YOU DO

— FAMILY FOUND pairing. omega/clone force 99 x clone child! gn! reader

type. oneshot note. hi anon! thank you for your request, i'm incredibly happy to hear you like my writing! regarding your request, i hadn't thought of anything like that so far, but i love the idea - this is set during season one! the reader could technically be seen as disabled but i'll really leave that up to your interpretation. enjoy! warnings. needles, human experimentation, dehumanisation, sisterly omega fluff, big brother/dad batch, slight injury, potential reference to the blackwing virus, references to clone wars events word count. 2k

star wars masterlist || pinned post

Four hours.

That's how long you'd been running from the Empire and the claws of the Kaminoans, swiftly escaping the planet with the help of AZ-3. After a tearful farewell, the droid had tightly sealed the escape pod's hatch as well as your fate, leaving you to hold off the Kaminoans from tracking you as you fled Tipoca City, the place you once called your home.

When you landed on Ord Mantell, the sudden impact of the crash had swept you off your feet, chucking you to the floor with a loud bang. The intense pain that abruptly shot through your arm as well as the burning sensation that spread in your right cheek quickly lead you to realise that you needed to get a hold on some medical supplies as soon as possible.

"Where is it, where is it - kriff!"

Despite years of being reprimanded by Commander Colt not to curse and avoid the usage of bad words, you couldn't help but ignore your late brother's teachings when you sat back up on your knees after crawling out from under the pod's control panel. There wasn't a medkit in sight. You huffed, gripping your throbbing head with your healthy arm. "I must've hit my head," you whispered to yourself, squinting your eyes in pain. Slowly but surely some medical attention was starting to become really necessary, especially when you felt warm liquid dripping down your cheek.

You sat up. Perhaps you'd find some help in the inner city?

Ord Mantell was huge; bigger and much more crowded than Tipoca City you found yourself realising. Though, that view might've been influenced by the fact that, like most clone children, you'd never seen anything but Kamino throughout your entire life.

Time and time again had you sat among your brothers, listening intently to their adventurous tales fighting in the war and visiting various places throughout the galaxy. And although you felt bad for the loss and pain they went through day by day, you couldn't help but envy the wonderful worlds and systems they also had the chance to experience.

Unlike most clones, you hadn't been made to be a soldier but rather a subject to be tested on. Your entire purpose since you'd been born was to be a lab-rat, to endure tests and examinations in order to help the Kaminoans determine the breeding conditions of their next clones. You thought little of the Kaminoans, as most clones did. Their constant pricking of needles and blood letting made you feel sick and although you'd grown up on Kamino and were used to being dehumanised and seen as an object, a tool rather than a living being, you still hated the longnecks with a burning passion, silently enduring the torture they'd been putting you through. Naturally that also meant that you were made to suffer from various side effects of the experiments, such as age acceleration - or in your case, deceleration.

Unlike the usual clone, you aged slower, almost at the pace of a nat-born. You couldn't see very well due to visual tests they'd made for a special clone unit when you were very young and your hair was trimmed unevenly from being shaved off time and time again.

Naturally with that also came the judgement. Many of your brothers considered you a freak, curiously eyeing you and some times even mocking you. But even though there were many bad apples, you were proud to say that most of them had gladly taken you under their wing, partially having even grown up around you, and you couldn't be prouder of their accomplishments.

When the Empire took over and Admiral Tarkin arrived on Kamino, you swiftly developed a strong disdain for the imperial official and his scornful treatment of the clones. He frightened you with his skeletal appearance and judgemental expressions, scoffing at you when he'd first crossed you following a kaminoan scientist down the corridors of the city.

This disdain solidified when, from behind a window, you observed Tarkin handing obscure plans to Prime Minister Lama Su, signaling a clandestine exchange that left you feeling uneasy. Pressing your face against the glass to glean any insight, you overheard a conversation that sent shivers down your spine.

"I can assure you, CE-0003 will make a wonderful asset to project Blackwing—a low cost for such a risky intrusion; the potential loss won't be of any importance," Prime Minister Lama Su coldly stated, not bothering to acknowledge your presence. The mere mention of your designation number, CE-0003, served as a chilling reminder of the dehumanization endured by clones, but Tarkin's emphasis on "low cost" and "loss" struck an ominous chord, setting off alarm bells within your conscience.

Feeling the weight of an impending threat, you knew that the time had come to make a fateful decision. Unwilling to succumb to a potential death sentence or exploitation in the Empire's mysterious project, you resolved to escape Tipoca City. In the brightly lit corridors, your internal struggle reached a tipping point as you confronted the severity of your situation.

You shook your head, clearing your thoughts. "Kamino is in the past," you mumbled to yourself, avoiding looking straight at the faces that passed by. After all, who knew whether someone had been sent after you or not? The Kaminoans were a very ambitious species and although Ord Mantell was filled with dubious figures, you could not let your guard down just yet.

Your head was starting grow dizzier by the minute and your world was starting to spin. you quickly managed to get a grip on some metal structure to keep you steady - or at least as steady as possible - when a voice caught your attention nearby.

"Oh ... can assist you in any way?"

Only now did you realise that the metal you'd gotten a strong hold on was, in fact, plastoid armour. Immediately you pulled your hand away, apologising profusely, though halfway slurring your words. You weren't even able to make out the stranger's face as the world spun around you and before you knew it, you passed out, barely hearing the stranger calling out another name.

"Echo, come here!"

"A - a clone?"

Hunter and Echo's eyes were settled on Tech, whose own goggled pair were glued to his datapad, as usual. "Precisely," he responded matter-of-factly, "It appears that they apart of a specialised cloning program founded specifically for scientific and medical experimentation."

"You're meaning to tell me the longnecks tortured this child for some bioweapons and drugs?" Echo's voice was angry, his face twisted into a furious grimace as he turned away from your unconscious form whilst holding the bacta-soaked cloth he'd previously been dabbing the gaping burn on your cheek with. Tech huffed, eyeing his brother over the edge of his datapad. "Yes Echo, that is exactly what I'm telling you."

"Unbelievable," Echo scoffed, fist tightening around the cloth, "and to think we once fought alongside those monsters." With a deep sigh, Hunter pushed past his bickering brothers to look over your sleeping form. By now, they had made sure to patch up your broken arm and clean any leftover bruises, settling you down on one of the parlour’s benches. It didn't look necessarily comfortable but seeing as Cid had business to attend to, it was all they could come up with so far - Tech had even dug out Wrecker's civil poncho in the Marauder which you now were cozily wrapped in.

Hunter gingerly brushed the loose hair strands out of your face, watching you with softening eyes as he took over cleaning your bruising face. A small smile tugged on his lips at the sight of your peaceful expression. How would Omega react to you?

As if on cue, the loud chitter-chatter of Wrecker and their little sister erupted in the stairway of Cid's bar, turning the heads of the rest of the batch. Omega squealed excitedly when the giant clone set her down, running toward Hunter with a box of Mantell Mix in her hands.

"Hunter, look!" She chirped, holding out the sugary treat for the sergeant to see, "The nice lady added new toppings and - [name]?"

Her eyes fell upon you and suddenly, she forgot the world around her. Hunter raised a brow before exchanging a questioning look with Echo, who had quietly observed the interaction. Was that your name? How did she know you? Taking the box out of her hands and setting it on the table, the clone sergeant took Omega aside, kneeling to be at her eye level.

"Omega, do you know this child?"

With a worried expression at the sight of your wounds, she hesitated before nodding slowly. "Their name is [name]," her voice was hoarse as she kept an eye on you, "we both assisted the scientists in the medbay, back on Kamino ... they'd often do those weird tests on them, to the point they wouldn't show up for days afterwards." Hunter's blood boiled at the thought of the painful abuse you must've had to endure but he stayed composed. He had to focus on the task at hand after all.

"Are - are they okay?" Omega's eyes were wide as she glanced back at him. "They're alright so far," he slowly stood up, crossing his arms over his chest, "We took good care of their injuries. Tech and Echo found them earlier - they suspect they may have crashed nearby. Should that be the case, they can consider themselves lucky."

The light sound of a confused groan caught Hunter off-guard as he turned to look at you. "Well, look who's up."

You had squinted as your world had grown clearer with every passing second after you woke up, still trying to make out what was going on around you - until you had noticed the five figures standing in front of you. And then the panic set in. Had the Kaminoans already sent out people after you?

"Please don't bring me back," you had sniffled, hot tears already rolling down your cheeks, "I don't want to go back!" It had only been when a familiar girl had approached you with raised hands that you slowly but surely had started to calm down. "Omega?"

As it turns out, the men you had feared to be mercenaries were in fact the infamous Clone Force 99 that had gone rogue and deserted the Empire a few weeks before you escaped. Although you'd heard talk of them plenty of times from your brothers and the scientists, you had never met nor seen them in person as they were usually out on missions and only ever briefly stayed on Kamino. When Omega had left with them, you were heartbroken to see your sister go - most of your time was spent alongside her, after all.

By now, Cid, the Trandoshan woman the bar belonged to, had returned and to the Batch's apparent surprise, quickly took a liking to you; that or she at least pitied you enough to slide in a hot meal and grant you some company as she sat down with you and grunted every now and then while looking over her datapad. Either way, you weren't going to question it and simply enjoyed having the chance to fill your stomach after what felt like forever.

"So, how's AZ?" Omega had managed to squeeze in between you and Cid, eyes fixed on you. "He's okay," you mumbled between bites, "He helped me out a lot when I ... well ..." You frowned as you remembered your escape, setting down the spoon. Although you had fled with good reasons, you couldn't help but miss the place you had once called your home. Fortunately, Omega quickly caught on as she settled a hand on your shoulder with a warm smile.

"I know what it's like," her voice was firm and encouraging when she looked over her shoulder the other side of the bar, where the tall clone you'd earlier found out to be called Wrecker roared in frustration at one of the arcade games set up in the bar while the other, Tech, tried his best at explaining it to him. Echo, the one with the scomp arm, watched and shook his head with a sigh and the leader, Hunter, chuckled while playing with the vibroblade in his hand.

"Our brothers ... they know what they're doing. We keep each other safe," Omega then grabbed your hand tightly and grinned, "And as long as we're here, we'll keep you safe, too."

if you're interested in being tagged for my future works, let me know in my comments or by sending me an ask!

@patapouille @flyiingsly

#star wars #bad batch #the bad batch x reader #my writing #clone force 99 #clone trooper omega #other tags:#the bad batch #clone wars #the clone wars #star wars clone wars #star wars the clone wars #tbb #star wars the bad batch #the bad batch x you #bad batch x you #bad batch x reader

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marvel-starwarsfangirl · 2 months

Text

Crosshair, Omega, and the Hidden Horrors of Tantiss

Crosshair and Omega going home might've saved them from experiencing more of Tantiss' horrors, but "Infiltration" and "Extraction" remind us that these two still have so much unspoken trauma. They've told us only the surface level of what happened to them and I think we'll finally start getting answers in the coming weeks. I also have a new theory regarding Crosshair's hand.

Major spoilers below

A lot of people commented on how Omega feels like she's hiding something. Her smile doesn't reach her eyes and she feels distant. Our sweet sunshine child is no longer in the bright sun. She kept putting up a brave face because Crosshair needed it. He needed someone to help him push through the darkness. But underneath, Omega is suffering. We see her routine and the monotony of it in "Confined." Months and months of that leave marks that we can't see. She isn't being physically hurt, but the separation from her brothers, the routine, Crosshair's broken spirit, and Hemlock breathing down her neck have all gotten to her. She is tired and is doing the best she can with the hope she has. Her hope, Crosshair, and Batcher were the only things keeping her from falling into despair. But that can only last for so long and thankfully, she made it. But that doesn't mean it didn't impact her.

During "Infiltration," the way Omega spoke to Rex dug deep. There's something she's not telling us. She looked sad, scared, and broken. The look on her face when she mentions herself as part of Hemlock's experiments hurts. I bet they did more to her than we realized. I bet there's much more going on with her in general. She also carries a lot of survivor's guilt due to her escaping when so many didn't. Worse, she left them behind. That doesn't sit right with Omega because she knows what the Empire is doing to the Clones. They're not just there getting blood drawn, something far sinister is happening.

I think in the next few weeks, we will start hearing Omega open up more to her brothers. Michelle Ang said in an interview I think that Omega worries her presence will endanger her brothers. She needs to talk to them. I know personally what happens if you keep stuff in. You don't want to let that stuff fester and I think if we want to see our girl truly happy again, she needs to confide in her family. Crosshair, Hunter, Echo, and Wrecker won't let anything happen to her. They love her so much.

We're also finally starting to get answers as to what happened to Crosshair. But like Omega, he's not fully open either. Crosshair explains to Rex and the others that Hemlock tried to turn him into a clone assassin, a process which involves erasing their identities and going through intense conditioning. Hemlock himself states that Crosshair resisted this "reeducation." But that's all we get about it. Like Omega, Crosshair isn't telling us the full story. We don't know what reconditioning implies or how Hemlock erases identities of the clones. They even come with a tracker that can't be found with normal technology.

I definitely think that Crosshair will also begin to open up more in the next few episodes. He's tied to the Clone X story now so I know we will be getting answers soon. I also think Crosshair's bad hand is tied to the Clone X program. What if his hand started shaking as way to get him out? If he can't function, then Hemlock wouldn't have use for him. Crosshair also knows that they wipe identities. What if Crosshair did have his identity wiped and his hand is shaking as a result of that? He fought Hemlock's programming. But at what cost? His mental scars are there, but there's more than he's letting on. Crosshair is not ok; he may have come to terms with Mayday and his brothers, but his trauma from Tantiss is still there.

In "The Return," he says "I was a prisoner, not much else to tell." Except that's not the case; he was avoiding talking about his trauma with the program. Seeing the clone assassin frightened him and whatever is to come in the next few weeks will be emotional for sure.

Edit: to add to this, Crosshair says that being defective is part of his nature. Now, he could just be making a remark, but what if there’s more? What if Crosshair’s mutations helped him resist the reconditioning?

#star wars #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #tbb omega #tbb spoilers

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darkdrin6 · 7 months

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They're both wrong.

Hi. Recently, we often see different opinions about Kuai and Bi Han in this new relaunch (another one, my God). It's incredibly nice to see people who are really trying to look at what is happening from all sides, but guys - our attempts are in vain, because this game is a damn dummy. Some blame Bi Han, others blame Kuai, and everyone is right in their own way, but what if... THEY'RE BOTH WRONG.

To begin with, the game clearly marks its favorites and does not even try to pretend at least some intrigue and depth. Let's be honest, dear ones, we knew from the very beginning that Bi Han would be treated dirty. The only thing missing was the banner "I'm a villain, guys" at his breast. Let's leave aside how it breaks the character to hell and disappoints. Let's look at what is happening objectively.

So, Bi Han is the head of his clan, who took this place after his father's death. According to Bi Han himself, he let their father die (somehow, and we probably won't know the details). What for? Because their father's vision limited the clan (we probably won't know the details either). Objectively, Bi Han had no need to somehow bring his father's death closer for the sake of power in the clan. Because - you know - Bi Han is the eldest son, he would have taken this place. Considering Kuai's words that there are enough people loyal to Bi Han in the clan, this means that it was not about power as such, but something else. Bi Han let his father die not for the sake of power for himself personally, but for the sake of the greatness of the clan (whatever that means, the game does not give explanations). This is not a selfish motive. At least, not in the direct understanding of this concept.

It seems that Bi Han is not interested in taking over the world completely. He says that he needs a part of the Earthrealm and nothing more. He... wants to build a state? This is a contradictory goal, but it has a place to be (and also our joke about him wanting to restore the Qing Empire turned out to be prophetic; we need to stop joking about it). From this we can draw a logical conclusion that it is not in his interests to betray the Earthrealm, to condone its destruction or subjugation to someone else. Because it literally contradicts his goals.

The next thing that fans hate him for is that it is he, Bi Han, who leaves his brother the his scar. We've seen claims that he tried to kill Kuai and... it's quite possible that he did. Emotions, rage push him forward, to attack. Bi Han is constantly angry, but especially in this scene. And if you review this scene, you will clearly see that Bi Han waited a VERY long time before Kuai noticed that the knife was in his other hand. This is really a decent slowdown, and Bi Han had the opportunity to kill his brother at the same moment. But he doesn't. His attack is an impulse, not a cold-blooded desire to kill Kuai.

Another reason to hate Bi Han is Smoke. More precisely, the fact that Bi Han - that's terrible! (sarcasm) - does not accept him as a brother, because Tomas is not his blood brother. Bi Han says that Tomas is not Lin Kuei by blood, and this moment raises questions. A clan is a social association that is based on blood ties. This is usually one or more families united by kinship of varying degrees. In the old chronology, it was never exactly said whether Lin Kuei was a clan, a united kinship. More often it seemed that these were conditional ties, more idealogical than blood ties. But here Bi Han puts a lot of emphasis on blood ties. So does this mean that Lin Kuei is still related to each other? This can also be regarded as the fact that Bi Han says that Tomas is not part of their family, and not the clan as a whole, and this is the case. Even people treat blood brothers and sisters differently, it all depends on the upbringing and the situation in the family. We don't know anything about the context, we don't know about the past, about the relationships of these people. Frankly speaking, they do not communicate with each other like real living people who, albeit conditionally, are part of the same family. All their dialogs can be replaced with:

Bi Han: the exposition. Kuai: the exposition. Tomas: the exposition. Bi Han: exposition and an unexpected plot twist. Kuai: the exposition. Some important phrase. Tomas: another exposition. Write me a check and I'll go to in a better movie. Bi Han and Kuai: we will also go to in a better movie, but first here's another exposition.

The only time one could truly believe that they were somehow connected to each other was when Bi Han asked if they were both unharmed. He just fought Ermak, a creature with thousands of souls, but it is he who asks Kuai and Tomas if they are okay. Not the other way around.

Another problem associated with this scene is that many people did not seem to be watching it with their eyes. We literally had to point out to our friends at this point. Damn stone. Reconsider, come on. Bi Han doesn't kick him, doesn't throw him down. He just ends up too abruptly on the edge of the wall and a piece of stone breaks down by accident. Bi Han doesn't want to kill Tomas. Bi Han doesn't want to kill Harumi either, for that matter. In that dialogue, he says that the family can be a means in this war. He doesn't say "I will kill your wife", he just said that he might consider influencing Kuai through something/someone else. Take Harumi hostage or influence her to influence her husband's decisions. Maybe just find a way to negotiate with her, because with Harumi, Bi Han doesn't have a family drama that seems to have been accumulating for years. People who accuse Bi Khan of something he didn't actually do, be ashamed, because this is slander.

Bi Han is still the antagonist. More precisely, he could be him, but his betrayal does not make any sense at all, either emotionally or in plot terms. He doesn't do anything else after it and disappears from the plot. He might as well have just been injured by Shang Tsung or by Quan Chi, and recovered in the hospital behind the scenes.

The problem is that the game doesn't want players to somehow empathize with Bi Han or even support his goals. And his goals (no matter how illusory they may be) have a place to be. He is ready to take extreme measures, radical decisions, but in fact he has not done any of this yet. The studio did not make him either a positive hero, a cool antagonist, an inspiring villain, or a neutral character with his own motives. He's just a piece of evil cardboard, against which Kuai should look as good as possible.

Is Bi Han right? We don't know. The game does not give any context and declares that he wants power for the sake of power, which is always as negative as possible, because the desire for power does not lead to good. Is he right to let his father die (whatever that means)? No. Without context, the answer is unequivocally "no". Is it cruel of him to be cold towards the orphan Tomas? Cruelly. But there is a place to be. Again, we lack at least some context. The game just says - hey guys, Bi Han is a villain now, condemn him for his villainies that we didn't even really come up with. Excellent solution, NRS writers, just excellent.

Summing up - Bi Han: 1) ambitious (which is not explained by anything) 2) cold with others 3) somehow involved in the death of his father 4) puts his clan above everything else and even above blood ties (although he himself refers to the importance of blood kinship and .. IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AT ALL)

In a number of dialogues, Bi Han is inconsistent, but let's remember that he is a person who will not tell the enemy the truth about his relationship with someone. So don't take at face value everything he says to other characters in the intro. He is still angry, but he still wants the brothers (Kuai for sure) to be on his side, although on his rules.

And now let's approach the situation from the other side. Kuai and Tomas. And we will immediately abandon Tomas, because - you know - he is not even a character in this farce. He's just a weak-willed appendage of Kuai, completely devoid of personality, and the script is completely to blame for this. Tomas had at least some problematic and self conflict in the old chronology, he literally lived with a demon in his head. Unfortunately, now he's just a dear friend of one of the main characters. He deserved more. Let's remember the wasted potential with a kind word. And let's move on.

So, Kuai Liang. Let's not touch on the topic anymore that this is not really the Kuai we knew; that the studio also took away all his personality. This has been said many times. Let's look at it within the framework of this particular plot. He is the second/youngest son of Grandmaster Lin Kuei clan, and he probably has less chance of to rule the clan. From his official biography, it can be said that he was attached to his father because he grieved after his death. Again - we don't know anything about their relationship. Of course, the child's love for the parent is unconditional (but for some reason this does not apply to Bi Han), and it can be understood that Kuai is devastated by the death of his father. But there is no context here either. Were they really close? Or was Kuai's father a kind of idol, as for many children with rather cold parents? We don't know, because the game doesn't say anything else, except that the previous Grandmaster took the wounded orphan and raised him in a place where Tomas could see the people who killed his family every day. It's a very merciful decision, man, but let's not talk about it now.

Kuai follows his father's vision because he grew up thinking it was the right thing to do. And it makes sense. It is right for Kuai to guard the Earthrealm with the methods that his father instilled in him (perhaps because we again have no idea what was between them). He is quite young, with a hot heart and a hot head, so with all his sanity, feelings will often prevail in him. And this is normal for a living person. He is not as desperate for action as Bi Han, and is more passive at such moments, which can be explained both by the family situation and the nature of his character. Again - we don't have the context to judge for sure. And although some of his statements seem indifferent towards his brother, the game clearly does not imply that Kuai is a bad person or a bad brother. Although, of course, it is not perfect.

Understand correctly. This whole family - Bi Han, Kuai Liang and Tomas - is problematic. If you listen to some of their dialogues, look at their general behavior and logically understand what is happening, then a picture emerges when an unclear family problem has been growing for years, but all three have too little habit of talking about their feelings and trying to solve the problem with words, not a fight. But at the same time, the plot is desperately trying to make Kuai a positive character. And the most revealing scene here is Kuai's attack on his brother in the tomb. Let's take it in order, because a lot of people have problems with this scene too. 1) they are captured 2) Shang Tsung talks about his plan, trying to lure Lin Kuei to his side (and thus the heroes get information) 3) Bi Han silently makes it clear that he seems to agree to the sorcerer's terms (we remind them that they are still in captivity) 4) Bi Han says he let his father die 5) Kuai attacks and in a fit of rage tries to kill his brother, he does not succeed (and it is the intervention of another soldier that does not allow Kuai to make a mistake) 6) Kuai escapes

This scene is stupid and meaningless from beginning to end. Bi Han, whose goals are to control a part of the Earthrealm should least of all trust Shang Tsung. On the other hand, if he says no, nothing will stop the soldiers from cutting the throats of both brothers right here. The army of living statues is not some incredible tool at all, they burn and melt very well (as we have already seen). Why did Bi Han agree to this seriously? But what follows is a moment that is just confusing. Bi Han says that he let their father die (it is unclear what exactly he means), and Kuai attacks him without the slightest hesitation and delay with such fury that without outside interference he could have killed Bi Han. Yes, he is emotional, he is furious, he is in grief. To know that your own brother did this is just awful. But before that, Kuai is shown to be a calm and sane person who will think first and then do something. If he had remained the same as he was shown to us, he probably would have really doubted his brother's words. You know, if our brother had said that he was to blame for the death of our mother (as a person whose mother died, we can say so), we would have first thought if he had gone mad. Because in family relationships it is normal to believe in the best in your relatives. Did Kuai have doubts, suspicions? No, the game didn't show that. Again, we are not given any context. The plot wants us to just believe that Kuai is right to appeal to our conscience, because parricide is always bad (tell that to Tyrion Lannister, yes).

Kuai can be understood in his anger. Even if it happened that he accidentally killed his brother in a fit of rage, he would regret it. The game tries to pretend that he is a good person and that he really cares about his brother, even if he is absolutely crazy, but the plot doesn't even try. Kuai takes Bi Han out of the fortress so that he does not help Shang Tsung. This is exactly what Kuai himself says directly. He's probably a good brother (???) *bewilderment*.

Kuai is actually trying to be a good person. He is trying to restrain Bi Han's ardor, to support Tomas. He doesn't really want to fight, but he doesn't run away from battle either. The difference is how he solves his problems. Knowing that a paramilitary clan remains under the command of Bi Han, which may pose a threat, Kuai escapes. Again, we don't have the context to understand whether this decision is logical or infantile. We mean that he is the son of the previous Grandmaster who defeated the current Grandmaster in battle. He definitely has at least some weight in the clan. He could have just grabbed his brother and hammered some common sense into him, because - you know - lives depend on it. But the plot literally does not allow Kuai to act logically.

He's not a scoundrel. Not a traitor. He tries to follow what he thinks is right. He is the same person with his own goals as Bi Han. But the difference is that the plot exposes one of them as a villain, and the other as a pure and innocent hero. And such a sharp separation, which does not allow the characters to be interesting and lively, is frankly annoying.

By the way, Kuai is also inconsistent in the introduction. He clearly doesn't want anyone else to harm Bi Han, but he doesn't tell him about it. And it makes sense, because there's still this damn family drama between them that makes them both angry.

In the end, they are both wrong. They're both terribly scripted characters that the writers play like dolls. And it's not the fault of the characters, it's the fault of an absolutely immature plot. Don't blame them both, understand that this game just can't handle the disclosure of heroes and uses manipulative elements to hang labels.

We understand the frustration and the desire to find meaning where there is none. But, as they say in our country - do not stretched an owl on the globe (no need far-fetched facts).

This is a terribly manipulative immature plot that attracts attention only at the expense of the fanservice. Don't blame the characters, don't pour shit on them. Remember that they are hostages of the script.

The perplexed Kenshi, as the embodiment of our reaction to everything that is happening.

#bi han #kuai liang #tomas vrbada #mk #mortal kombat #mk1 #sub zero #lin kuei #smoke #mk scorpion #scorpion #bi-han #mortal kombat fandom

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astxroiid · 1 month

Text

empire state of mind // tasm!peter parker

❥ warm New York, cold nights, sushi, pining, heroes and their hopeless romanticism.

wc: 1.5k

navigation ✩ new york private life (I) ✩ manhattan longing (III)

The movie finishes with little to no emotional distractions from either of you. You look to Peter, "This was fun! We need to do it again sometime."

You smile but all Peter feels is dread. Are you sending him home? Already? He's had a great time but he doesn’t wanna go home so soon.

“Yeah… I had a lot of fun too,” he gives a downturned smile.

"How about you come back on Friday? I'm free all day after my class at 10."

Your voice drowns out and Peter feels a tingle up his back. The hairs on his arms stand on end. Something bad is happening...

He turns his head, realizing that whatever his Spidey-Sense is telling him is happening, is major. He tries to hide his worry as he stands, grabbing his bag from beside the door.

"H-hey! Where are you going?" the worry filling up your throat and spilling into your tone.

"Friday. After 10. Sounds amazing. I'll be there. Gotta go-" he doesn't stay to hear your response. Slamming the door behind him. You're left on the couch, in shock and feeling a little sad.

A few moments later, you see Spider Man swing by your window and off into town, towards the flashing red and blue lights.

꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦

That was Tuesday, it's now Thursday night.

Sorry for dashing off last night, I forgot I had to pick some things up for my aunt!

Peter's message from Wednesday sits unopened on your phone. You have no idea how to respond.

♡.

Peter's all kinds of a mess right now. Terrified he messed things up by leaving so quickly the other night. Nervous that your date is canceled. He hasn't heard back from you since that night.

What if you're mad? Or now uninterested because of the way he ran out? What can I do to fix this? Peter's internal thoughts have been going haywire since Tuesday.

♡.

You phone buzzes as you begin to study for one of your exams. You decide to ignore it

Then it buzzes, and again.

You grab the device in anger with full intentions of putting it on do not disturb. Until you see the messages are from Peter.

Be ready tomorrow at 2.

I'm taking you somewhere nice to make up for my actions.

Is that sushi place still an option?

You smile and respond: Only if you show up on time :)

꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦

Peter does show up on time, early actually. He takes you downtown, walking through little shops, trying to get the confidence to hold your hand.

Right now would be the perfect time.

The both of you walking along the sidewalk. Shoulder to shoulder.

Do it, Peter. You both think. And then, your thoughts separate.

I'm basically begging for it with the way I'm pushing my shoulder into his. From you.

What if she doesn't want that? And I ruin the whole moment? From Peter.

Fuck it. Peter steadies his breathing and goes to wrap his pinky around your index.

Just as his finger starts to brush against yours, you move your hand, running digits through your hair.

Peter curls and uncurls his fingers by his side.

"Ugh, this heatwave is fucking ridiculous," you hum, holding your hair into a temporary ponytail. Smiling at the boy.

To Peter Parker, you are the most stunning woman he's ever seen. And this moment encompasses that completely. Flyaway hairs framing your face, chest glowing from sweat, cheeks flushed from the heat, and smile beaming.

If only he could grow a pair and hold your hand.

"Yeah, tell me about it. The air conditioning in my apartment's broken. It's just me, a lonely fan, and a lot of open windows," he smiles at you, nervous of talking too much.

You can't help but feel your chest flutter every time he gives you that bashful smile. Something in the way his cheeks change color and his eyes dart around awkwardly keeping your heart pounding.

"Well. Anytime you feel yourself getting too hot, you can always come over," you wink and waltz into a nearby store, holding the door for him.

Peter feels his hands begin to shake, the temperature in his body rising and he suspects it's not from the weather. He follows you in.

You bounce around the shop happily, picking up the mini glass figures and examining each one, showing them all to Peter.

He gazes at you with a content smile on his face. He could get used to this.

꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦

The hours come and go, but as five-o'clock draws near you and Peter begin to make your way towards the aforementioned sushi restaurant.

You step in and are in immediate awe. Neon red led's light up the dim rooms. Candles flicker on each table, illuminating the accompanying roses. The clack of your shoes reverberates off the black marble floor and falls in time with the soft jazz flowing through the building.

"Oh wow..." you breathe.

Peter walks behind you with a smug grin on his face. He aimed to impress you with this place. It seems he hit the bullseye.

"How many?" A very well dressed, middle aged woman asks, smiling.

"Just two." Peter answers.

"Follow me." The lady turns the corner after grabbing two menus.

After being sat and ordering drinks, Peter goes to look at his menu. You kick him (lightly) from under the table.

He jumps. "Ah! What was that for?!"

"You didn't tell me how nice this place was gonna be!" You whisper rather sharply.

"Well, I wanted to impress you. And make up for everything," Peter smiles.

"You can do all that without letting me dress like a slob to go to a place like this!"

"I think you look beautiful." Peter blurts. Eyes wide, face red.

"Oh." Your voice is just above a whisper. "Well.. uh, thank you," you smile at him and his whole world lights up.

꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦

You exit the front doors of the restaurant, cold night air stinging your lungs.

"That was amazing, Peter. thank you so much," you stuff your hands into your pockets.

"Of course! I had to make everything up to you," he smiles down at you. Again, having the same battle of brain and heart over holding your hand, both of which being pushed further into your pockets.

"We definitely have to do this again," you begin to cross the street, assuming Peter follows behind you.

"Hey! y/n! Wait!" Peter's scared tone stops you in your tracks in the street as you turn to look at him.

"wha--" you hear a horn and can barely distinguish headlights from beside you before a pair of warm, rather strong, arms are embracing you - holding you an equally as strong body.

Your chest goes numb with adrenaline, face heating up from the proximity of Peter's face to yours.

"Oh my god. Are you okay?" His breath is heavy, warm chest pushing into yours and heart pounding.

"Uh... yeah... are you?"

"I'm fine. I think my ankle is bruised from the fall but it's alright, as long as you're okay."

Your chest continues fluttering but no longer from fear. The way Peter just smiled at you could light the whole world up.

"Here," you stand up, offering the boy a hand. "Let's go back to my place and assess the damage."

Peter takes your hand, following you back home.

You turn to him. "Thank you, by the way. You totally just saved my life."

⏪︎ peter's pov ⏪︎

Peter smiled, holding the door open as you exit the restaurant. He'd had such a great day with you so far, though he worried at every point he would make a wrong move and mess everything up.

He didn't.

"That was amazing, Peter. thank you so much."

This is it. Peter thinks. My best possible chance to grab her hand.

You stuff your hands into your pockets.

Shit.

"Of course! I had to make everything up to you," Peter smiles down at you.

"We definitely have to do this again."

Peter watches you step down from the sidewalk and onto the asphalt. His head snaps to the left, seeing headlights. A car. Moving fast. Right for you.

His whole body goes numb, heart pounding.

"Hey! y/n! Wait!"

You turn, freezing.

Peter feels a build of anxiety from his toes to his head. You're not moving.

The hairs on his arms stand up, and he's moving before his thoughts can catch up. And everything feels like it's in slow motion.

He lunges, wrapping his arms around you, pulling both of you back towards the sidewalk. Peter's ankle twists and he lands, back thudding against the pavement, holding you snug against him.

His breath is harsh.

"Oh my god. Are you okay?" Peter can feel your hearts pounding in the same, fear-driven tempo.

"Uh... yeah... are you?" Your eyes search his.

"I'm fine. I think my ankle is bruised from the fall but it's alright, as long as you're okay." And he means it.

"Here," you stand up, offering the him a hand. "Let's go back to my place and assess the damage."

Peter gladly takes your hand, also taking note of the smoothness, and the gentle way you lead him. He feels warmth slowly spread down his back, realizing his ankle might not be the only injury he sustained.

"Thank you, by the way. You totally just saved my life."

likes are appreciated but comments and reblogs are the desire. Remember they do more for authors and tumblrs than a like ever could.

#marvel #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker x you #tasm!peter parker #tasm!peter x reader #tasm!peter x you #tasm!peter imagine #tasm!spiderman x reader #tasm!peter fluff #tasm!peter fanfiction #tasm! peter parker x reader #tasm!peter parker x reader #spider man x reader #spiderman x reader #parker

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phoenixyfriend · 11 months

Note

AU where it's Padme that goes all evil and not Anakin?

send me an au and i’ll give you 5+ headcanons about it

Had some trouble figuring out how to make Anakin not be loyal to Padme here, but hey:

Padme does not think she's evil. This is a Padme who was radicalized by the invasion of Naboo, a Padme who grew up and joined the Senate with poison in her heart, which only got stronger as she saw how little she was able to do. This is a Padme who agrees with Anakin: the galaxy would be much better if one good person was in charge. That good person should be Her.

She doesn't tell him that she agrees with him, because she's still under the radar, but she doesn't... really try to dissuade him. Just talks about how difficult it is to find someone that's really, truly good. Why, even Chancellor Palpatine has made all these questionable policy decisions...

Padme is much faster and more successful about securing Anakin's loyalty as compared to Palpatine. She's also been kind of conditioning Anakin to think about how she'd be a MUCH better dictator than anyone else, and how he should run any kind of political ideas past her first. She conditions him to run everything past her. She's got this perfect in with the Chancellor and the Jedi that isn't just Her, The Senator, but she needs that in to be loyal to only her, and more importantly, dependent on her. She does really, truly love her Ani, but he's much more useful when he asks her to do his thinking for him. What this really means is that when Anakin has dreams about her death, and goes to Palpatine, and gets fed some lines about how only Palpatine can save her if Anakin just swears loyalty to him, Anakin actually asks Padme about what to do before he does it. He goes to Padme before he goes to the Jedi. Padme tells Anakin that Palpatine needs to be removed. If he's a Sith, then who's to say that he isn't the threat to Padme's life? Who's to say he isn't the one feeding Anakin these dreams? Palpatine is evil, Anakin, and he's made it impossible to remove him from power legally.

Padme tells Anakin to kill Palpatine. And he does. And Padme's years and years of manipulating the Senate in shady corners and through applying her wiles and through applying her Jedi and his mind tricks to her coworkers, through collecting blackmail and applying pressure, it all comes together, and Padme becomes the Empress.

Anakin is happy to follow her, until he realizes that she's so focused on her new power that she's neglecting the twins. He tries to dismiss it; after all, he's got much more free time than she does, now, so he can watch them. He's mostly the guy she uses to try to placate the Jedi, which he's not great at, and mostly the Jedi try to convince him that Padme's lost her shit and needs to be quietly removed. Not killed! Just... retire to her fancy lake house and stop ruling the Empire with an iron fist in a fancy silk glove.

Padme doesn't... not love her children. But between the years of selling out her lesser morals in favor of pursuing complete control of the galaxy for the sake of her biggest moral core, which is No Military Actions, and the Sithly Environs of the Chancellery Apartments that she's moved into, which Anakin doesn't know how to purge and the Jedi aren't allowed in to exorcise, she's kind of losing the plot and getting more and more evil. It's mostly her own foibles that are making her go evil, but it's the General Sithly Vibe are pushing her that last little bit to just... ignore her kids. She's got more important things to do, right?

Padme uses the clone army to enact her will on less cooperative planets. She uses the brain chips, when Anakin isn't looking. She's sure that he wouldn't turn his back on her, after all she's done to secure his loyalty, but it's best to not risk it.

Some Jedi try to take her out. She has them killed, by Anakin and the clones alike. She praises Anakin for it, as she tightens restrictions on the Temple. He has a bit more 'what have I done' but not. Quite. Yet. (After all, Padme's not risking death to the Jedi Younglings yet. Not yet. Not yet.)

Ahsoka shows up, with Rex in tow, and tries to convince Anakin to help them peacefully remove Padme from power. He's one of the core reasons that Padme has managed to maintain her power. He can change this. Padme hears about this. He tells Anakin that Ahsoka's a threat. She's going to try to remove Padme, like Anakin removed Palpatine. She tells Anakin that Ahsoka needs to die.

Anakin would rather arrest his wife than kill his sister.

#Anidala #padme amidala #anakin skywalker #star wars #villain au #ahsoka tano #phoenix answers memes #the clone wars #child death mention

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whywhatswrongwithblue · 10 months

Text

In honour of @tentoorosemonth2023, here's fifteen brilliant and recent tentoo x rose fics i haven't recc'd before! please make sure to leave kudos and comment on these!!

all of these are tentoo x rose endgame.

*=multichapter, E=explicit

the stars collide as the planets turn by hippiebanana132

Author's summary: Her eyes flicker open again, clear just for a moment below the matted red streaks in her golden hair. One hand still clutched in his, she raises her other arm with great effort to reach shakily towards the lapel of his brown jacket, dangerously close to his right heart. He gathers her hand up just as her fingertips brush his shirt, brings it up to his lips, tells himself the contact is for her.

My remarks: A superb slice of life fic in which we see the otp through the eyes of ten. So, so wonderful and emotional ❤️

Warnings: Mentions of a car accident; nothing graphic.

2. and now you are and i am now by @lordy-lou

Author's summary: He doesn’t find a single atom of regret in the ashes of his strictures.

My remarks: A short and sweet introspective piece on the immediate aftermath of the beach scene.

3. Hunger by @metacrisisdoctor (E)

Author's summary: His hands are out his pockets milliseconds later. He walks over to her in three large steps and cups her face in her hands and pulls her mouth to his. It's a hard, bruising kiss. It's a kiss he's held in far too long. It's the kiss of a man who stood at the grave of the woman he loves, and has been gifted with her resurrection.

My remarks: An incredibly in character exploration of how the OTP's first time could've gone down. A shot of serotonin. They ended up together!!!

4. Washed Up Together by @thirdeyeblue *(E)

Author's summary: Not long after being left on Bad Wolf Bay, the Doctor and Rose quietly contemplate why their relationship has yet to progress.

My remarks: An endearing and filled to the brim with good ol' pining take on early days of tentoo x rose; includes a drunk!Doctor and a bar fight 👀

5. The Existence of Pears by @bravehandsomehero

Author's summary: The Doctor is forced to face his greatest enemy in the name of love: Pears. Metacrisis Doctor/Rose.

My remarks: An incredibly fluffy slice of life drabble featuring expectant parents tentoo and rose ❤️

6. hush now to sleep, on the wings of a butterfly by @nostradamus0

Author's summary: Mia pretends to fall asleep in the car so she'll be carried inside.

My remarks: The absolute CUTEST kid fic you will read featuring the Tyler family today. Contains like, illegal levels of soft.

7. in human condition by @queenofthecon* (E)

Author's summary: Rose gives the Doctor nothing short of a miracle; and then the universe threatens to taken them both away from him for good.

My remarks: Compelling character study of the Doctor and how vulnerable being human makes him!

Warnings: Whump, blood and injury, pregnancy

8. Bad Wolf Rising by @wyntereyez *

Author's summary: Werewolves thrive in Pete’s World, and they’re determined to bring about the Empire of the Wolf.

My remarks: This fic is, tragically, incomplete as of now, but it's probably one of the most engaging chapter 1's i've EVER read, and i am DYING to know what the author had in store!! Featuring an extremely in character Pete's world ensemble and a very House MD-ish Doctor who's been permanently injured, and werewolves, this fic is definitely worth a click!

9. shackles by @gingerteaonthetardis

Author's summary: She should've known. Like, she really should have known. Maybe it was just that she'd gotten sort of complacent, sort of used to the comfortable domesticity of their new life. Maybe she was just a fool. But he made it so easy to forget. When he folded her socks and handed her plates of banana pancakes and grumbled at the remote control, how could she not? How could she be expected to remember? That the Doctor was, at his core, incredibly reckless and fundamentally stupid.

My remarks: An incredible and humourous take on the 'handcuffed together' trope!

10. Together by @uthers-bald-head

Author's summary: Christmas dinner in the Tyler household is hectic but joyful nonetheless. Rose finds her mind wandering to the Doctor, but not the one that sits beside her.

My remarks: Short and sweet, with a perfect hint of angst concerning the time-lord Doctor.

11. moonlit kitchen floors by @zmbiicrsh

Author's summary: "You were easily convinced, you just couldn't resist me." Rose jabbed at him with a teasing voice. Though she never really knew when he fell in love with her and neither did he. It sort of just happened. So it really wasn't a surprise when he said sincerely, "No, I really couldn't."

My remarks: Captures an incredibly tender moment of dancing in the kitchen for these two ❤️

12. Street corner at two in the morning by @messierfourtytwo

Author's summary: A day in the life of Rose and TenToo. There’s something that Rose isn’t telling the Doctor…

My remarks: SO FLUFFY. Makes you want to melt.

13. spaces in between by @naaer

Author's summary: The fate of Pete's World is at stake, but the Doctor and Rose still find time to take a minute

My remarks: Tender drabble set in a dystopian!Pete's world. Beggginngggg for an extension.

14. Opposition of the Stars by @abadplanwellexecuted (E)

Author's summary: Post-Journey's End, first night in a hotel in Norway fic. Rose and the Metacrisis Doctor end up sharing a hotel room, and walls come tumbling down.

My remarks: When i tell you my SOUL left my body upon seeing this notification!! Written as it is by one of the all time greats, of course this fic is incredible!

15. Stargazing by @elialys

Author's summary: He's not cradling her bump tonight, nor has he pressed his lips to her tense skin to murmur words she cannot hear, only feel. He’s using one finger on her, the tip of it gently tracing patterns on the curve of her stomach. At first, she wonders if he’s spelling letters, trying out the few names they’re considering for her, but Rose quickly dismisses the idea, not recognizing any letter—nothing English. What he’s drawing isn’t random, though. There is intent in the way his fingertip slowly moves upon her.

My remarks: Intimate and tender and brilliant. Forever manifesting your return to Doctor Who😭😭😭

And that's it for this list!! I missed out on quite a few, so i'll probably make another list next week. Show these stories all the love!!

#tentoorosemonth2023 #fic rec #rose tyler #tentoo #tentoorose #tentoo x rose #tenrose #ten x rose #tenth doctor

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historia-vitae-magistras · 2 months

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25 but specifically for Matthew and Arthur?

25) What other people wish they could change about them

Oh, this one's got some kick. Matt just... God, he wishes Arthur had been just a tiny bit less severe about sucking it up. When Matthew was procured with the rest of the unholy money sink of Canada, Arthur was quite cold. He wasn't cruel but Matt isn't it his. He treats him with the same regard as any random child. He generally likes children but he has one of his own and this little shit is pure 100% distilled François by his measure. He doesn't expect to keep him, much less raise him. The reality that he would end up with him but not Alfred under his roof was unfathomable until the ink was dry on the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

François succeeded with "a son for a son" and Arthur ends up with the one neither of them prefer. So many of the reasons he loses Alfred trace back to Matt. And ignoring him was the best thing he could do. He's not treated particularly bleakly by the standards of the day. He was fed, clothed, and Arthur even acknowledged his existence once in a while but oof, Matt was practically stoned on joy when someone even so much as said his name. He would try silly little things like making conversation or tagging along or just trying to be in the same room. He'd fall asleep in random places and occasionally Arthur would wake him and send him to bed and Matt would sleepily try to snuggle against him and be gently shaken off and told to go find his bed. It annoyed Arthur to high heaven. Combine the influx of loyalists with that breaking him down so much in this period, really grinding him down to little more importance than dirt for the orchids in the green house, Arthur kind of creates the ideal conditions to reprogram Matt. He builds practically the perfect imperial lackey from the ground up. If there was much left of François in his personality, it was largely gone by the time Jack came along. Matt's an anxiety disorder with a nice swirl of people pleasing for flavour more than he is a person.

He's the "easy" child. He never has wants or needs. He goes outside to cry, he curls up and minds his own damn business when he's unwell. He takes his semi-annual pat on the head and makes it last. His own personality and wants only spurt up with his temper flares. He explodes and is more than willing to inflict violence wherever he sees it as his duty to do so. He grows up with his individuality in some negligible margin of his own personality. He becomes a force within the British empire in his own right. He does, eventually, develope a personality that's more somewhere in between who he is and who he needs to be. But he's everything Arthur could ever want in a son. He's still not Alfred, but he's everything anyone could ask him to be. He's easy. He's never a burden, he never complains. He does what he's told and far more.

Fast forward to imperial decline. Matt makes what is in some ways, the transition from Arthur's imperial lackey to Alfred's imperial lackey. But in others, he is properly, really independent this time. And now he's kind of got a dad he can push back on, who he can complain too, who he can let... Parent him. He has a partner who wants to support him. He's standing there with probably the best support network any country could ask for. And he doesn't know what the fuck to do with any of it. He feels plenty free to push back, to disagree. He can build a coalition, negotiate left right and centre. But ask for help? Affection? God no. He'll gnaw his own arm off rather than ask for a hand.

Just like Arthur wanted 200 years ago.

#hws england #hws canada #the ask box || probis pateo #arthur and the children || bilge rat and his bouncing baby bilge rats #matthew || my country is winter #arthur || stone set in the silver sea

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