#cos i will get frustrated and lose it so we just posting it :)

[weebsinstash]

I know the show isn't out yet but Stayed Gone is stuck in my head and I'm chugging my yandere Vox juice so hard right now. I think he has the capacity to be absolutely insufferable

---for starters THE SPYING POTENTIAL WITH THIS MAN. You're telling me he can directly plug himself in to the city power grid and see through all televisions, potentially even phones and computers too? Could he put himself on your phone and start going through your texts? Could he even just put himself on your phone real quick while you're sleeping to check in on you? You couldn't even have privacy in your own home because of whatever screens are around he could potentially shoot himself to or watch you through. Imagine just being in your apartment completely alone and he's suddenly on your tv. Like what if you had just been sitting there topless or with your dick out or something or 👀 I mean. He could see so much, really...

---God honestly like. You know I keep mentioning the Instagram without ever attaching pics or anything because I'm on mobile and I'd have to use the hazbin Instagram archive blogs here on tumblr to go find them back like, you know Val would openly post the meanest shit, would literally post Vox's face being busted up because he woke Val up from a nap or i think it was he literally just brought him the wrong soda (which to be fair was taken from Velvet and was half empty), and then you go over to Vox's account and his pic was taping his pieces back on while being really frustrated and kinda lowkey looking like he would cry

Like Val's out here "women are stupid also men are stupid too" and talking about how he adopted a dog and killed it within like 48 hours and here's Vox celebrating his pet's birthday with cake and a party like. Why are these men together. Why. Why. Don't get me wrong I love to be the involuntary third in a toxic codependency but--

look all I'm saying is... do any of you get really really upset when you see someone being mistreated, especially more so a friend of yours?

READER JUST LOSING THEIR SHIT GETTING FERAL ANGRY SHOUTING AND SCREAMING AT VAL BECAUSE HE PULLS SOME SHIT and like that's IT for you because 1. Valentino might like actually backhand you one as well, do you think he wears rings so it hurts, 2. Vox sees you defending him and like, it's based on your own preferences really but if he wasn't already gaga this CEMENTS it and 3. especially if he watches you have to take a blow for trying to stick up for him. Like what if you cry. I have a low pain threshold, I'd be sniveling and crying at the least. Valentino storms off and Vox is helping peel you off the floor cause you curled up into a ball or some shit and he's sitting there thinking "wow they suck at this but they still did it for me 🥺"

---during his song with Alastor, it's a little confusing because they show an actual camera crew when he's turning the TVs on, but i think it's pretty clear that he can control whatever the screens show visually, thus his little zany sketches and being able to talk to himself and at one point, showed the visual of himself blocking the radio Alastor was projecting on right next door. I can just see him using this to kind of.... fuck with you, really! Or do whatever he wants? He's trying to suck up to you and he's surrounded by roses, or you're his co-host/guest host and he thinks your joke was funny and gives a little audience laughter as a treat

Or you know... you're running from him down the street, passing all these different screens and displays as they power on and show things like, him "jumping in front of you" while demanding you stop or, trying to show some kind of blackmail publicly, or just, begging you to just ACCEPT HIM and showing you all the fun things he could do with you, "cmon, I said I was sorry, stop freaking the fuck out! We can- we can do that thing you've always wanted to do, what about that?!" as he tries to project you two doing something fun, but most importantly, doing it TOGETHER. You're running from him terrified and he's showing you images of like you two smiling and happy or, it becomes scarier as he's more desperate

"Don't-don't make me do something fucked up!! I'm serious, STOP RUNNING" and he's like freaking out, showing shit of trying to hold you down, tying you up, and/or shoving you into a locked room

Sudden thoughts of "what if the more emotional and unstable he becomes, the less he can control his intrusive thoughts and shows his more impulsive darker desires". He's tweeking and the screen glitches and you briefly think you see yourself completely restrained, blindfolded, gagged--

---he's just like OBVIOUSLY so prideful but also immature and whiny ("who gives a shit about alastor?" Well you, mr hes just quietly minding his own business and I'LL start beef because i feel threatened and STILL LOSE, like awww my poor little pogchamp got publicly humiliated in an argument HE started out of nowhere, he's my little sad wet baby lmaoooo) and we already know his relationship with Val can become physically abusive, so, you pair him staying in that kind of relationship, being codependent, with this personality of his, and I can just see.... ACTUALLY FUCKING TRIGGERED LIKE LITERALLY CRYING UPSET VOX BECAUSE YOU REJECTED HIM like he's pissed he's hurt he's lonely he's heartbroken and HELL NO IS HE GONNA ACCEPT THIS

Vox would be over here proudly claiming on his TV show that NO HE REJECTED Y O U, not the other way around! He's not upset! He's totally fine! Meanwhile everyone watching can tell this man is manic and visibly hotboxing copium, "I didn't even really like you anyways!!.... no, I mean, shit, fuck, COMMERCIAL BREAK--" *cut to technical difficulties screen because the man is CRYINGGG*

-- Valentino and Reader bonding over teasing Vox and making him flustered and of course, obviously, the inverse. I still kinda like the idea of "they both think you're cute but like nothing exciting until one night they bump into you unplanned and you're all dressed up". Like Val is from the 70s or 80s so they go to a roller rink disco whatever kinda place because I'm sure the coke game there is INSANE and you're just like, swaying your hips spinning around to Let It Whip or September or something dressed in some shorts that make your ass look just right 🤌

You're sneaking back into the studio after a night out and they're both lounging somewhere and Val's like "uhhhh who is THIS coming in without saying hi to Daddy?" and you pull your sunglasses down like "SIR??? 😳" And now HE'S flustered because he didn't know that was you and Vox is feeling some new kinda way because he's used to seeing you in like, your work uniform or casual wear

Val who then makes your work uniform really slutty and you have to serve him and Vox wearing it 😩❤️

---I have this thought of like lmao imagine walking down the sidewalk with Angel and seeing Vox on TV and Angel is like "ya know he can see everything outta dese things when he's plugged in" and you're like "bullshit, he couldn't possibly process that many screens at once, it'd overload his brain, he wouldnt be able to concentrate" and you're like "here I'll prove it, hey Vox, check it out you fucking dweeb" and flash him your bare titties or you MOON HIM

scenario A would be that he INSTANTLY barks out laughing, "hey Val, that dumb slut who brings you drinks just flashed me!" And he just totally shows it on the air, maybe partially censored, maybe not at all, your phone is ringing IMMEDIATELY, of COURSE it's Val, and Vox is broadcasting your mortified embarrassed expression, "our big story tonight: drunk bimbo fucks around and finds out! More updates after this word from our sponsor!" and the man will noooootttttttt stop bullying the fuck out of you afterwards, because he's got a crush on you and you're like someone weaker than him his insecure ass can punch down on

Scenario B is that he instantly turns pink and about 5 seconds later he blue screens and the entire city experiences a blackout and when he comes back on the air he's like stammering and, glancing at, it FEELS like he keeps glancing at you, but, is he really?

------

I dunno... like I'm sure Valentino is gonna wind up being unstable in his own way but I guess there's a certain, ALLURE to Vox being a little bratty and whiny while also having these very VERY handy, actually quite scary abilities and resources 👀 like boy show me what that screen do 😫💦

#yandere hazbin hotel #yandere x reader #vox x reader #yandere vox x reader #sinprompts #yandere stuff

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Oh god, I was just giggling so hard at howdy anons ask and your reply about reader letting König wait (sending a smooch to you both ❤️😘). He really deserves to suffer a little like that lol! Just imagining this guy, who likes to see himself as so strong and dominant, especially towards woman, slowly but surely lose his fucking marbles... And all because of that sweet little lady, who has his horniness in a bloody choke hold - not even realising the power she has over him. He's never had to show this much restraint... And he does hold back because, he even more likes to see himself as a gentlemen towards his sweetie (one who will absolutely ruin and wreck her once she let's him off his leash and takes the muzzle off). Poor little Köni.

I can see him letting out this sexual frustration at training for example. He is working these punching bags like absolutely batshit crazy. Destroying gym equipment, because he goes in so hard and has just soooo much pent up energy after every little cuddling session with sweet reader and doesn't know what to do with hit (violently masturbating after being with her hardly helps...). The other operators at the base gym just side eying him and wondering, if he now reached the final state of madness and silently prepare for the explosion that will wipe out all life on earth...

Also: we are really branching out with the toxic König brand here. First the institute, now the book club. I'm loving the growth here. Maby we can establish some kind of co working space next at toxic König headquarters, so we all have a place where we can thirst efficiently and just pump these numbers up even more for Toxic König Inc. (TKI). I can see an involvement in the stock market by next quarter at this growth rate. Maby some Tupperware-esk door to door sales to get more people hooked on to toxic König? (ok, that sounds to much like a cult now...)

Haha this is so crazy, all I wanted was to make Ghost happy, get him laid, perhaps even get him married… but here I am, 6 months later, having this blog and wondering which content warnings to slap on another König post where we discuss his obsession with virgins and their mythical hymen blood 💕

He destroys the punching bag (RIP) and somehow manages to rip the pull up bar from the concrete wall. His deadlifts can be heard all the way to the mess – envious rookies would say König is doing it wrong, that it's a major error in execution, but the veterans know better... This crazy lunatic is simply having trouble with women (again).

But you know what would make König nearly faint?

When sweet innocent reader finally allows his hands roam a bit!

He's allowed to caress her waist as they cuddle, she even lets him bring his huge palm on her tits – it feels like the most erotic thing ever, just to paw those soft breasts over her shirt. And what happens next is that she rolls her hips – König holds his breath – she's actually pressing her ass against his cock. Of course they're still wearing clothes, but her movements are nothing short of sexual.

It makes his brain shut down completely, but soon he's panting in her ear, grinding his groin against the swell of her ass in rhythm with her movements. She doesn't stop him when his hand slowly, tentatively shifts down, then forces its way under the waistband of her pants – ach du Scheiße, it's finally happening… Can this be real?

His fingers slip under her underwear and arrive on her soft mound. He tries to shove his hand further down and into her folds but then – Scheiße – delicate fingers curl around his wrist and pick his hand up from paradise.

"Please… I'm just not ready yet," she explains gently, and the German curses in his mind are loud and foul as König tries to catch his breath and ignore the fact that his boxers are painfully tight and now stained and wet with precum.

"Let me lick your cunt," he offers with a hoarse voice while she's still holding him by the wrist, denying access to her. "Bitte... I just want to have a taste..."

Sweet reader goes tense and turns, looks at the soldier who has a funny accent and weird mannerisms, the soldier who was supposed to be a gentleman, with parted lips and eyes wide from shock.

"König, you can't say things like that…!"

#his head explodes after that #we thought he was a villain but NO this is where his villain arc BEGINS #she drives him to madness #I wonder what happens when König can't play the gentleman anymore 🥹 #yandere könig #answered #könig x virgin!reader #könig x virgin reader

[hearthotchner]

flowers, petnames, and, apologies

— inspired by this post, which was prompted by a tiktok sound

walking into the bullpen, derek morgan couldn’t help but notice the person delivering a large bouquet of flowers, “woah woah woah, who are these for?” he asked, assuming they were for one of his female co-workers.

“um.. a mr aaron hotchner?”

derek’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and his jaw dropped, just before the expression was replaced with a mischievous smirk, “let me take this off your hands, i’ll give ‘em to him.”

after bidding the delivery man a thank you and goodbye, derek carefully placed it onto his empty desk; almost immediately, his coworkers surrounded him, intrigued by the colourful array of flowers that lay on his desk.

the bouquet wasn’t overwhelmingly bright, yet it wasn’t void of hues either. they were light, soft, pastel colours — easy on the eyes — majorly white, but with splashes of light yellows, baby pinks and reds dotted around, with, just a hint of blue.

“do you know who they’re from?” penelope’s voice piped up.

before morgan could respond, he was cut off by reid, “most likely a partner. did you guys know that lily of the valley actually represents new beginnings, which is why they’re used for various occasions: weddings, baby showers. and, the blue hyacinths show a desire to make peace — they’re apology flowers, the colours are those usually used to display remorse.” his voice got higher as he got more excited about the topic, “oh! and roses are typically used for a romantic partner, and are normally pink or red; in this instance they’re yellow, and there’s a lot of them, meaning they’re likely to be his favourites.”finally taking in the bewildered looks of his colleagues, the young genius smiled sheepishly at them, quickly shutting himself up.

“you look way too far into things, reid.” derek rolled his eyes, “they’re probably just an early valentine.”

“there’s a note.” jj pointed out — it was hidden inbetween a couple roses.

as derek reached for it, penelope scolded him, “hey! stop messing it up! we really shouldn’t be snooping, you know he likes his privacy.” she frowned, attempting to remain mature, “but i wanna know so badly- be careful!” she lightly smacked his arm.

with confidence that he was right, derek flipped the note over to read it out loud; the smirk wiped off his face at the first two words he saw, “i’m sorry.” he read in annoyance, while glaring at spencer — but nothing could prepare any of them for the next words,

“miss you pookie bear?”

—

meanwhile, said pookie bear was sat at his desk, paying no mind to what was going on in the bullpen, with his head in his hands: your argument from the night before being the only thing he could think about.

—

“this is the third time you’ve done this, aaron.”disappointment evident in your voice.

“i know, i’m sorry.” there were his empty apologies, “i got caught up at work, i lose track of time.” and his pathetic attempts to excuse his negligence of your relationship.

“but you always do this, you’re never here. you never text, or call, and i’m waiting up until 12 in the morning for you.”

“look, we’ll talk about it in the morning, i’m tired.” he sighed.

“we won’t, because you’ll be gone before i wake up.” you were telling the truth — that’s exactly what he did the next morning, left for work without saying a word.

he furrowed his eyebrows in frustration, “you knew what it was going to be like when we started dating, you said you could handle it. my job is demanding.”

rightfully so, you were becoming upset, “not for paperwork! i understand that you get called away abruptly, and i love that you value other peoples lives before your own — it’s why i fell in love with you.” you smiled at him softly, although, it wasn’t for long. “but, i’m talking about when you’re cooped up in the office for so long, there’s no reason for you to be staying there for that much time, after everyone else has left.”

then, everything went quiet for a bit, with you waiting for him to provide some sort of explanation, and when you didn’t get that, you continued, “i just think… if you had to choose between me or your job, you’d pick your job with no hesitation.”

the lack of response caused your face to fall, “i’m sleeping in the guest room tonight, aaron.”

he should’ve done something, anything. instead, he ran away, avoided you like a coward, using his office as a place to seek refuge from taking accountability for his actions.

one time, you told him he was bravest man you ever knew — he almost laughed at how wrong you were.

history was repeating itself. you were his second chance at love, and he was making the same old mistakes, that cost him his family. aaron thought he had changed, swore to himself that he’d never do something like this again. but, here he was, having someone waiting at home, willing to drop anything for him, yet he wouldn’t do the same.

picking up his phone, he dialled your number.

it rang out for a minute, before going to voicemail — he hoped you were just busy, and weren’t already walking out of his life.

“hey,” he breathed “i wanted to say i’m sorry, for last night, this morning.. everything really. i shouldn’t have left, and i should’ve said something.” closing his eyes, he stopped himself from rambling, because you deserved to hear it in person, “i’ll be home soon, and we can talk.. please call me back.” please don’t leave me. “i love you.”

hurriedly gathering his things, aaron walked out of his office; path coming to a stop when he saw his team staring at him, all looking a little smug. a puzzled look found it’s way onto the unit chiefs face.

“hey there snookums.” derek grinned.

aaron quirked a brow, frown deepening, “what?”

stifling a giggle, emily gestured to the bouquet, “someone sent you flowers.”

knowing exactly who sent them, he swiftly excused himself to set it up in his office.

when he read the note, he felt his lips curve up slightly, and he jokingly huffed at the petname — you always loved making him blush and laugh with the obscure names you’d come up with for him.

but, why were you apologising? you did nothing wrong. it should’ve been him doing this, not you.

right as his thoughts began to spiral, they were interrupted by a buzzing in his pocket.

“hi, aaron! did you get my gift?” hearing the sweet sound of your voice, so excited and happy to speak to him, brought a sense of relief over him.

rough hands slowly reached over to feel the soft yellow rose petals. “yeah, i did. thank you.” his brows tilted upwards, guilt kicking in again, “why are you saying sorry?”

“‘cause, i shouldn’t have accused you of choosing your job over me, it wasn’t right to push that on you-”

were you out of your mind?

“sweetheart, please stop.” he begged. “you haven’t done anything wrong. telling me how you feel isn’t wrong — telling me that i’m not doing enough isn’t wrong. we need to tell each other these things.” he shut down your attempts to put yourself at unnecessary fault. “i know i haven’t been around lately, but i’m gonna change that. i promise. i want to be deserving of your love, (y/n).”

“you already are, aaron.” you whispered.

“i’m leaving now, so i’ll talk to you at home. i have a bunch of free days to use, and we have lost time to make up for.” he smiled.

closing the door behind him for a second time, aaron scanned the room, his team no longer huddled in one spot, now at their desks; still deep in a conversation he didn’t care that much for.

the bullpen fell silent at the sight of him with his briefcase and keys in his hand, shocked that he was leaving early — not even on time.

morgan, of course, was the first to talk, “where’re you off to in such a hurry honeybunny?” snickering at his own joke.

“don’t make me flag you for creating a hostile work environment, derek.”

“that’s not funny!”

#kinda unhappy with how the ending was written ngl #this was meant to be funny idk why he got sad #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner fanfiction #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #my fic

[howtofightwrite]

Greek fire was an extraordinary specific weapon found in a particular time and region, naval combat was primarily an afar of rams (in the medaterriaan with its oar powered vessels) and armed roaring ie: getting as close as possible and just swarming onto your opponents boat to fight in melee, with some archery and whatnot. One of the sucesses of the eventual roman navy was perfecting a sort of boarding ramp to quickly put their troops on an enemy ship

Furthermore, in later periods, there are accounts of skirmishes in the atlantic between rival fleets. In which case the fore and aftcastles on the cogs are used as platforms to post archers and men throwing rocks and iron bars down on opponents ships while others boarded (hence why their called castles and elevated). Theres at least one account (I forgot of which battle) in which an English king boarded an enemy ship then abandoned his own as it sunk.

So, free advice, if you want to remain anonymous, you probably should make sure that both asks go through as anon. Though, I'm pretty sure Tumblr's extended ask length would have let you drop both paragraphs into it. Worst case (and I do realize I'm a poster child for looking like I ignore this advice), but when you run into a word (or character) limit, it's usually a good idea to start editing and trimming down the length until the system accepts it in a single pass. Splitting an ask into multiple parts is an excellent way to lose part of a question, or just make sure it never gets answered in the first place. Cut everything you don't absolutely need.

Either way, I'll err on the side of caution and answer the anon response to preserve your privacy.

I thought I made it clear that Greek fire was a much later invention. It's actually a little frustrating, because you'll see poorly researched history articles which will straight up make it sound like Greek fire was used during the Peloponnesian War. Which, yeah, no. A lot of the major Hellenic wars we think of today were around the 5th century BCE, while the invention of Greek Fire was over a thousand years later.

While you were talking about Greek fire in particular, what you said applies to a lotof weapons throughout history. When we're talking about something like the rapier or the claymore, those are weapons from very specific points in time. It's something to think about when you're mixing and matching technologies to create a fantasy world. No weapon exists in a vacuum, and they all develop as responses to the state of warfare around them. This doesn't mean you can't mix and match pieces you like, but it is something to be conscious of.

While it is outside the scope of the original question (because it's a firearm), one of the more amusing weapons from the age of sail were actual gun blades. These would be musket (usually a pistol), with a cutlass blade mounted under the barrel. (There were also examples that mounted an axe head under the barrel.) The intention was to be able to use the firearm during boarding actions and then switch over to using it as a melee weapon rather than reloading. The design was fundamentally flawed, the weight distribution was poor for a blade, and the (relative) mechanical complexity of the early firearms meant those components were too fragile for serious use. But for a couple decades in the 17th century these things saw limited use.

Now, I do need to give serious credit to A Number of Hobbies, who came back with a trio of fantastic reference articles. Naval Combat Strategies from Shadyislepirates.com, Choosing Naval Tactics for Your Pre-Gunpowder World from Mythcreants.com, and The First Punic War: Audacity and Hubris from the U.S. Naval Institute. So, if you're still wanting more information, those are all excellent resources to check.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers #military history #naval history #If these were seperate asks that I accidentally blended together... sorry.

[not-goldy]

Sometimes I wish Jimin stop being so secretive on cam and basically a wallflower. I wish he speaks up more and calls out BS immediately, especially during lives like JK/Tae or Joon does or is it because he doesn't get much wierd comments 🤔. Also stop being so fucking humble.. like sir you are a history maker, everything you release are organic hits, have a huge fanbase, your bdays are celebrated as Christmas day, why tf would you think you don't even deserve a music show win ?????? Own your success and skills please 🤧

And I also wish JK stop being so impulsive, saying and doing absolute dumbest things 🤧 sometimes he sounds like those cocky boys who will say they'll make you come thrice in a row and will climax within 2 seconds lol. He's so cocky; knows he's hot and his impact but at the same time he still don't know what he really needs. So I wish he becomes more mature and get his shit together asap

Maybe if they use share these qualities a bit with each other it will be fine lol. JK sharing some of his cockiness with Jimin so he can go 'yeah that me, Park Jimin' bitches 💅' and Jimin sharing some of his level headness with JK, so he can think before doing and saying some things 🥲

Idk how they are even navigating through their relationship when both are on opposite ends of attitude and lifestyles, like is that even possible ? Won't both parties get sick of each other soon? ... or maybe like you said JK is the freedom Jimin is craving for and Jimin is the leash JK very much needed 🤷‍♀️

Set me free was liberating for me and I think Jungkook too cos he stamped his approval on it like you could tell Jimin frustrates him sometimes with the kill them with kindness vibes he has going on.

And I know Jimin is not a push over too cos there's some really hard core ghettoness buried deep inside his slytherine heart- he is the master of self control cos I'll be getting canceled every second if I were him🥲🥲🥲

I'll be dropping mid night rants talking bout yall could never be me😭😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hash tag jealous

Hash tag up in your man's arms 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

And he lowkey be shading too but we don't talk about that🥲

He's constantly trolling haters posting Jungkook shirtless, leaning on him kissing up on him daring yall to come for Kook if he's your mans💔💔💔💔

This literally him on these streets he eats and wink

Shade is cool Jimin but throw the damn tree too🤣

They are both fascinating.

Oh lord not 2 seconds 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

You is going to hell for that😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not gonna lie, I do enjoy his chaotic character most times. I'm big on diversity. If everyone acted the same way they'd be boring as hell plus I like my BTS a tad crackheads🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

JUNGKOOK'S a vibe. Not many idols like him. He be be tanking on the idol part sometimes- I don't think he even sees or thinks of himself as an idol😭😭🤣🤣

An idol is a whole personna carefully curated to appeal to an audience- when I tell you Jungkook ain't curating shit for no one and to please no one😭😭😭😭😭

Tell him to do aigoo I dare ya🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭

Sometimes I just play his memes and sleep. It's the new Netflix and chill for me.

Doesn't take himself too too serious, easy going non judgemental, quirky😭😭😭

And he is very relatable. We all don't say the right things all the time, or do the right things and overthink everything.

Some people don't find that attractive in Idols but I like it. That that I like that

Im a bit of a crack head myself so.... anywho

For an idol, yea perhaps he could be a bit more controlled and polished but not too much cos then he'd lose relatability and seem outta touch.

Frankly I think they are both perfect as they are💀

I wouldn't change much but you are right they both could influence eachother a bit and they do TRUST. 💜

[aha-chuu]

Alhaitham ships I like and respect

I realise I typically only post about Kavetham but I actually love a lot of Alhaitham ships (my mans deserves all the love). Here's a list and my reasons for shipping them, because I just got home from uni and I'm bored. These are all ships that I like, the rating is just "how would this realistically go?".

1) Kaveh/Alhaitham

Getting this one out of the way cos <3 we know. I really enjoy their bickering dynamic and they both have very strong personalities, which I adore. That's why I feel the need to be more picky with the fics I read, actually, cos sometimes people write one of them very uncharacteristically just so they don't have to deal with writing two characters with uh *checks notes* personalities lol.

They are both babygirl and they are both Problems. I think their relationship would be undefined but exclusive - neither of them say they're dating, but they've also never sleep around with other people. I kinda like the hc that Kaveh got around a bit more before they met/started their situationship, but I also vibe with the idea that he lied and told Alhaitham he was "oh so experienced" just to one up him.

Rating: 9/10

2) Cyno/Alhaitham

Hehe this one's an oldie but a goodie. So here's the thing: back in 3.1, this was The Sumeru ship. Cynari was also there , definitely, but there was a loud fandom quite obsessed with the enemies to lovers trope. Which! Some people call Kavetham enemies to lovers, wrong, they never had a fistfight; they're just rivals and lovers.

Anyway, Cyno and Alhaitham are a great ship cos we have battle boyfriends with an eventual soft dynamic. I especially love in Act 5 of the archon quest, when they continue to disagree but they're on the same side - Cyno is very against Alhaitham's reckless plan. They have a lot of contrast in their approaches to life, but at this point they have mutual respect for one another that I think could develop beautifully.

The only issue i have with their dynamic is that I struggle to imagine how they would end up together. Maybe after a fight, one of them almost dies and so there's a dramatic kiss?? I don't think Alhaitham would be so romantic tbh, and Cyno is more likely to be very straightforward with a confession, but I think he might not be honest about his feelings in order to focus on Justice™.

Rating: 7/10

3) Dehya/Alhaitham

Yes. I also occasionally like f/m ships. My issue with this one is simply that I ship Dehya with Dunyazarad more, so I think this would be a more one sided crush on Alhaitham's part. I have a hc that he's just, into claymore users. Dehya serves cunt and beats people up and Alhaitham is like "pls come back to the Akademiya, you're so so cool <3".

Maybe I have a crush on Dehya. Maybe that's the issue hm.

I can't see Dehya dating him or Alhaitham really wanting to date her - just a little crush and then a good friendship.

Rating: 10/10 for vibes, 3/10 for practicality

4) Nilou/Alhaitham

Consider: Nilou is cute. Alhaitham is cute. She thinks he's a cool treason-man and he thinks she's the only person as crazy as he is for immediately agreeing to the dangerous plan everyone else took 80% of the run time complaining about.

Would they actually ever date? I think they'd hold hands once, but then figure out very quickly that they have almost nothing in common. Alhaitham would want a more headstrong person to counter his bluntness, and Nilou would find his introversion frustrating in a dating context.

Rating: 4/10

5) Tighnari/Alhaitham

I sort of see this dynamic as the healthiest version of opposites attract on this list. Now, they're both stubborn bastards, however - where I think Alhaitham and Kaveh lose all braincells upon being in the same room, I think Tighnari and Alhaitham maintain their intelligence.

I like the idea that post archon quest they shared an infirmary room in the Birmastan (Alhaitham via head trauma, Tighnari for his untreated lightning strike lol). They both quickly get fed up with their friends' overprotectiveness and kick the likes of Cyno and Kaveh out. They are both Akademiya graduates who've kind of denounced the Akademiya, Tighnari by quitting to become a forest ranger and Alhaitham by phoning in his entire career :')).

So they get to talking since they only really knew each other through Kaveh previously, and then they vibe doing their own thing when they get bored of conversation. I think they'd understand each other pretty well, and Alhaitham would brush off Tighnari's nagging and Tighnari find Alhaitham's abrasiveness endearing, since he's not an idiot.

Rating: 7/10

However, the context I most like them in is -

6) Kaveh/Alhaitham/Cyno/Tighari

I am an 4ggravate girlie. I love a good poly ship and these guys work very well.

Basically just a combination of everything I've already said:

Alhaitham & Kaveh and Cyno & Tighnari are both in situationships. These are open relationships.

Alhaitham and Cyno (who didn't previously know each other well) start seeing one another in a new light when they're stuck in the desert together for a month fighting against the sages. Feelings ensue.

After the drama, Kaveh realises he wants to make the situation with Alhaitham more concrete because he was worried. He also hangs out with Cyno a lot after Alhaitham and Tighnari kick them out of the infirmary.

So many high stakes and the close companionship makes it so they're all sort of on board with trying a poly sitch. Tighnari seems the type to bring it up first, to Cyno and then to Alhaitham and Kaveh.

Cyno likes the idea but worries a bit that Kaveh and Alhaitham's dynamic would get in the way of an actually healthy relationship.

Alhaitham is a bit iffy cos like - free time, introversion etc, but he does think it would be a good idea to test it out.

Kaveh is pretty totally on board cos all his friends are super hot, though he says "I should have tried using a foursome to force Alhaitham out of his shell ages ago" which actually delays the process quite a lot :'))

Rating: 10/10, Alhaitham gets three boyfriends I cannot see any issues

#alhaitham #genshin impact #shipping #this was all just a bit of fun #Cyno #Kaveh #tighnari #dehya #Nilou #uh oh the ship names #cynari #cytham #4ggravate #Kavetham #haikaveh #alhainari #?? what the hell is their name? #actually i don't know the other ship names either #Dehya/Alhaitham #Nilou/Alhaitham #long post #al haitham #i should have just filled out one of those shipping grids #it would have been WAY faster

[luvscr]

selfish

simon riley x gn!reader

summary: simon gets injured on a mission while protecting you. he doesn't have a clue why you're making such a big deal out of it so you confront him about your feelings that have been bottled up for months.

warnings/tags: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort, blood and injury (just mentioned), gn reader, 2nd pov

apologies for anything that's grammatically incorrect!

also posted on ao3!

—

you are furious. not only did simon jump in front of a goddamn bullet that was meant for you, almost costing him his life but he has been disobeying both the head physician's and price's orders to stay put and not do anything that might put a strain on his injury or make it worse. you had caught him sneaking out of the shared gym at the base while clutching his side, right where his wound was. you two haven't spoken since the whole incident but you decided enough is enough and you refuse to let it go on like this any longer.

"simon, open up." you say, voice stern but still somewhat quiet while knocking on his door. you knew you did not have to raise your voice.

you hear the door squeak when simon opens it but stops before it can even go halfway. you can only see one of his eyes, his balaclava still on.

"what do you want?" his deep voice makes you tremble slightly. you almost forgot how easy it is for him to leave you weak in the knees.

"we need to talk."

"about what?" he huffs, clearly annoyed that you are "wasting" his precious time.

"you know damn well about what. are you gonna let me in or do you want the whole squad to hear?" you sent a mocking smile his way and you could see him rolling his eye, but it worked. the door creaked some more as you shut it behind yourself.

you've been in his room before. late-night conversations with one or two "cuppas" as simon calls them. finding comfort in each other from time to time after a flashback or a nightmare. you like to think that you two are close but with simon "ghost" riley you never know. you respect his privacy and he respects yours. no intimate information was ever shared between you or at least none you were already aware of. it was to "keep things" professional." he said. you know he doesn't even consider you a friend, more like somewhat of a co-worker but even that didn't stop you from developing romantic feelings for him. romance and feelings aren't your strong suit, but with him, it just happened.

most people would describe him as ruthless, terrifying and such. it was true. ghost was indeed a brutal person, but not simon. the man who stayed up with you countless times, rubbed your back while you were puking your guts out after a drinking game with soap went a bit too far, and all the other times that you couldn't thank him enough. not to mention those stupid jokes he makes all the time even out on the field.

"you're an asshole." you sigh. he doesn't say a thing but you could see in his eyes that he didn't expect that. "you had no right to do that."

"i saved your life and the mission was a success. i don't know what's your problem but if you continue whining like a little bitch, you might as well leave." he said in a tone you only hear when he's giving orders.

"my problem is that you almost fucking died for nothing simon!" you can feel the heat rising to your face in anger, jabbing at his chest.

you can almost feel tears of frustration peek through your eyes but there is no way you can let yourself cry in front of him. not like this.

his eyes widen for a split second then they go back to cold and wrathful.

"you were bleeding out in my arms because of a mistake that i made!" your voice cracked as you felt the lump in your throat grow and you look away from him.

"you don't get to do shit like that simon. what if things didn't work out huh? what would johnny and the others do if you died? do you have any idea-"

you don't finish, feeling your voice get strained as the seconds go by. "we- i don't want to lose you." you say, so quiet it barely counts as a whisper but he hears it just fine.

you bring yourself to look up at him again and he no longer has a harsh glare in his eyes. they have softened up, pupils slightly dilated. you can see his mask moving as if he is trying to open his mouth but he doesn't say a thing. you find the courage to take a step towards him.

it's so silent you can clearly hear your and his breaths filling the room. you raise a hand to touch his mask but he grabs your wrist and pulls you even closer and places it on his chest instead. he leans in and rests his forehead on your shoulder, hand still gripping yours. his deep voice flows to every inch of your body as he mumbles a small apology right into your ear. the hand that is lazily hanging from your side goes to caress his back. this is the first time he let you this close to him so you close your eyes to savor every last drop of this moment, even though the position you two are in is awkward and almost uncomfortable.

you decide to speak up, anger no longer present within your words. "loving you is hard.." you felt him stiffen up. "..but losing you would be much harder." you tightened your grip on him.

"we're not ordinary people, we can't afford love nor any stupid feelings in this line of work. if you're compromised mistakes are made. we both know what mistakes lead to, one wrong move and it's over." simon says leaning back, so he could look into your eyes.

you blink once, then twice and he is mere inches away from your face. his hand slowly pushes up yours to his face, under his mask. he closes his eyes, letting you do whatever you pleased. you steadily push up his balaclava, giving him a chance to back out if he wished to. he lets out a heavy sigh with a slight nod encouraging you to keep going, that it was okay. you trust him. of course you trust him, yet you close your eyes and lift it up in one go. you do not feel worthy of such thing as seeing him whole. are you even ready for this? is he ready for this? probably not. large, calloused hands touch your face. your eyes flinch together even more at the sudden contact. you feel like a fool.

you feel his thumbs caress over your eyebrows, his touch is so gentle you could cry.

"hey...c'mon now. open your eyes or are you scared i'm that ugly?" you snort at his ridiculous way of trying to lighten up the mood as you can hear him smiling into his words. you lean forward and press your face right into his chest.

"you're an idiot." you babbled into him, speech muffled. you finally look up at him and almost let out a gasp.

he was beautiful. strong jaw, plump scarred lips, long hooked nose, and-

oh..

those soft baby blues decorated with long blonde lashes, black paint smeared all around still. you've seen them stare at someone with the intention of killing, like a wild animal waiting for the right opportunity to strike, empty and hollow, red and glossy after a bad night but this... this is so much more, it's almost too much. at this very moment, his eyes are full of adoration and love but you're not even sure you can describe with words what you're seeing and feeling. everything is so intense you can't help but grip simon's waist. he lets out a small grunt and you feel your stomach sink and your face heat up at the sound he let slip. you part your lips and let your tongue run along your bottom lip while still maintaining eye contact. you're not sure who's the first one to reach the other but all you know is that you're kissing.

it's not romantic or soft. it's needy, clumsy, teeth clanking together and biting at each other. you feel a rough brush of a scar and it's like you're going to melt on his lips and then he would swallow you whole. it's euphoric and bitter at the same time. his taste is suffocating, like breathing in air after an explosion. you struggle to breathe but you don't care. you push your arms from under his and your hands go to his head, fingers carding through short ashy blonde hair and giving it a gentle tug. he smiles into the kiss, sharp canines leaving a playful bite on your lip. you pant, out of breath, foreheads pressed against one another. you can still feel him, his taste lingering, filling up your senses.

"i know i said we can't afford something like this but.." he rasps, swallowing down whatever was on the tip of his tongue.

he leans in again, lips brushing together as he muttered right onto them.

"..i want to be selfish with you."

and he just goes in for another kiss.

#cod #call of duty #cod x reader #call of duty x reader #simon riley x reader #simon riley x you #ghost x reader #ghost x you #cod angst #cod fluff #cod x gn reader

[blacklupin-halestilinski]

Please read this without any fan war 🙏

#Justiceforbuildjakapan

I want to talk first about build public apology on 07/16. That day he came and apologized for the ss she had leaked that day . Also, she and her minions have translated the screenshots that were leaked that day. Thai fans confirmed that she had mistranslated ss. She had done so to target int fan base. Her aim is to manipulate and mislead the Int fans.On that day, she leaked the ss that he chat to her before July 2022. Because from the leaked audio record, she tells him that he changed after July 2022, which means he distanced himself from her after July and got rid of her manipulation .

On that ss he has spoken there about the mistreat he received from that company.

Because once he made a mistake ten years ago (he apologized for that post at that time, and that post was posted by a 16-17 year old boy) the company sent him hitatus for a month without protecting him. He was an artist under that company a but that company did not give him protection at that time. Also , the company asked his other co-artists to even remove his posts from ig.

Also, after coming back, all the projects he was getting were stopped by the company. They lied about he being busy and reject all the job opportunities he got. He expressed his frustration with the company at that time with her whom he knew from the beginning. He believed her and vented his frustration like that. Therefore, the ss were only about that, but the Thai fans confirmed that she had edited and cropped some of the photos and deleted some of her replies in those ss. He came that day and apologized only to these ss.

You say it yourself, is it not fair for him to be angry like that? He has always worked for the company but then the company has mistreated him and sidelined him from everything, Doesn't he feel angry? Doesn't he get upset? Doesn't he feel sad? When you get angry, don't you tell your best friend about others ? Don't say you won't do that because first of all we are all human.

Also, one of the other main ss was B taking about how BB gave him a ring . If you have read the correct translation , according to those translations, it is the reaction of that person when one of his friend or crush suddenly confronts him. When everyone was fighting about that ss, Thai fans didn't worry about it because they said it's normal to talk like that in that country. And he didn't say a bad word to BB there, he just said how surprised he was at that moment.

And another important thing is that BB unfollowed B on the 07/15 . It was after his twt on the 16th that others started unfollowing him. That company still has a connection with her. Because on the morning of the 15th, she posted an ig story thanking that company staff for visiting her, and later in the evening she posted a ig story and hung out with the staff. She still has a big connection with that company . Even after the court confirmed what kind of person she is at the beginning of this year.

According to the information leaked by red skull at the beginning of this year, the company always takes her side, because she knows many secrets of that company, and she also knows the secrets of the other artistes in it. So the company always takes her side.

Then you will understand that what is happening from the 15th till now is her trap.

She has done all the inhumane things she can do to him, he has nothing to lose .

She abused him , manipulated him , brainwashed him , blackmailed him , false pregnancy , spreading his private photos , shaming him in public , giving death therats , lied about him , gaslight , called fans rac!st words ,used violence (neck strangulat!on) , extort ,revenge pr0n , spreading fake chats ( Before the 07/16, she had leaked private chats before, and Thai fans confirmed that they were all fake (about bb & a )) , Also, she came from her official twt account and said that she would like to see an Inter fan commit su*c*de ,and in that leaked phone call as well as in her ig story, she repeatedly said "I want to destroy you, I will destroy you " ETC .She did more inhumane things to him and she is doing them all this was proved in the court that day. Even as I am writing this post, she has now publicly threatened him on her third twt account that she will stop all this if he leaves the industry.

I kindly ask all of you to think carefully before believing anything you see because she is targeting the int fanbase because of the language barrier to manipulate and mislead everyone.

I request from other fanbases to reduce your anger and hatred a little and please think that , he is also human and see this story from his pov.

Because that woman is obsessed with him, she already destroyed his everything , and when he tries to stand up alone again, she is trying to destroy the small things he has built.I don't think a man can bear these things because she did all the inhumane things to him and will continue to do .

And also B has not made new mistakes. Same problem since June last year - chatting with friends in public or private. Now there is someone who has many chat ss (all before 2022 july) she may release them once, twice or multiple times, it doesn't mean B is doing wrong all the time. Everything is more than a year ago, he has being moving forward and the leaker continues to commit crimes.

Please, we are all human, we are not saints .we make mistakes, we learn from those mistakes and change. Why can't you all let B do this?

And the biggest mistake he made in his life was trusting her and trusting that company .

She & her minions try to make him as the bad guy, but you all understand that he is the ultimate victim in here.

#build jakapan #justice for build jakapan #justice for build

[stydiaandthejeep]

Post episode 8 of Lockwood and co. Short drabble.Lockwood is traumatised and also, completely in love with Lucy.

The house was silent after they finally got home. They hardly talked to each other on the cab ride over - he felt paralysed by the notion how close he'd been to losing his friends, his family, all because of his own ego. Every bone in his body hurt and he felt too guilty to even glance in George's direction. They were bound to talk, but later - now he felt like an open nerve ending, reeling from the adrenaline, still sat on the couch where Lucy and George helped him to, a cold mug of tea in front of him. There were idle sounds from the kitchen, then a door opened and closed. There were flashes of George's distracted, distraught expressions. The agent that died because of him. Lucy, cold and wet from jumping in the river with him, not saying a word to him while his insides turned on themselves with guilt.

He closed his eyes, willing the thoughts to go away - how everyone would be better, safer, if he was instead lying on the bottom of the Thames.

He knew why that did not feel like an option anymore. Lucy. Lockwood cringed at the thought of doing that to her, for reasons he was too much of a coward to put into words.

' Hei, you ok?'

As if conjured from his mind, Lucy sat down next to him, regarding him with care. With kindness he did not deserve. He turned to look at her, wincing with slight pain, and saw that their knees touched, close enough for him to see how broken she was by the night's events. He wanted to hug her - he wanted to punch a wall in frustration with himself.

' George went to his room. Do you want me to help you get to your bedroom too?'

His room, alone with his self hatred and his proverbial ghosts. Without her. He shook his head, trying to feign a smile.

' Can we- can we stay here a bit more? Just - I don't want to be alone right now '

Without you, he'd meant. Her eyes were kind, and she looked so pretty in the early morning, it almost hurt more than the bullet wound. He watched, mesmerized, as she reached out a hand and brushed his hair off his forehead, so delicately it almost felt like nothing. Lockwood stilled completely,closed his eyes, afraid to break the moment- her hand lingered and shifted to his bruised cheek, sitting there, its warmth spreading on his skin.

' For a while there tonight I thought - I'd let you go alone, again, and I thought I lost you, Luce. Before I even got a chance to make up for everything- before I even go to tell you I-"

Lockwood opened his eyes, and found her sitting closer in his space. He needed to touch her, to make sure she was there, whole next to him. Softly, he reached out and cupped her jaw. His eyes stole a glance to her lips. He wanted to kiss her so badly, his fingers shook from it - and it would have been easy, her body small and turned completely flush against him, her eyes wide and eager to hear him finish his sentence. He caught himself as he was leaning over, and instead touched his forehead with hers,warm breath fanning over his lips, skin hot under the palm of his hand.

' I am so lucky to have you, Luce.'

There was a moment of clarity, where he knew that he was not ready - to give her everything she deserved, if she even wanted him, damage and all.

Instead, she tucked her head under his chin, arms loosely around his middle. He settled to kissing the crown of her head, a gesture more intimate than anything they'd ever done.

#locklyle #lockwood and co #anthony x lucy #Lockwood #lucy carlyle

[zalrb]

Why don’t you think that Kevin Williamson gets the same criticism for the problematic aspects on the show as Julie Plec and Caroline Dries?

I was on Reddit and I saw a post that said the Kevin deserves the same treatment and he is also to blame for the racism and the Bonnie treatment and for the “Pro-Confederacy” but all the blame is always placed on Julie and Caroline?

I went through your posts and you tag “Anti Julie Plec” and “Anti Caroline Dries” but not “Anti Kevin Williamson.”

Why do you think that Kevin Williamson is not blamed for the problematic and even for the “Damon” of it all?

The person who posted that said it’s because Kevin Williamson can write a story whereas Julie and Caroline cannot.

I don't think it's that people don't hold him accountable, I think it's that JP and Caroline are simply named more. I agree that KW should be called out more by name especially considering what he did on Tell Me A Story

In terms of my tags, I started this blog near the end of season 6, which contextualizes a lot of my posts and frustrations in those posts because JP and Caroline Dries had been running the show for about three and a half seasons by this point and they were the ones who had the quotes and the interviews and the tweets about how they viewed Bonnie and about how Bonnie functioned in TVD or how they viewed Black women in general

DRIES:  We’re going to see Bonnie continue to try to adjust to life in the prison world.  She tried to have Christmas, and it just made things worse for her.  She’s going to have a birthday in the prison world, which is going to be worse.  She’s really going to hit rock bottom before she pulls herself up by the bootstraps and says, “You know what? Let me get out of here!”  She will finally find her way back, and it will come at the perfect time for our friends, who are in need of a friend rejuvenation and beautiful reunion.  So, she comes back and is emotionally scarred from it.

“"Bonnie will continue to be a loyal friend to Damon and a very supportive person for him to lean on as he goes through the drama of the second half of the season,“ she explained. “But their relationship will also face its own obstacles down the road. Bonnie and Stefan are grounding forces in Damon’s life. So for him to put his relationship with Bonnie at stake would have really, really bad consequences for Damon, for sure.”

“She’s been empowered by her best friend Elena to kind of follow her… to become this stronger woman that she’s become, but also take on the role of being Damon’s moral compass,” Dries says. “With Elena sidelined, Bonnie’s worried: ‘Is Damon going to go off his rocker? Do I need to keep an eye on him?’ Then there’s Damon, who’s obviously grieving the loss of the love of his life, and the big question is, ‘Is he going to become the monster that we saw in Season 1, the real villain of the show?’”

Like Damon, Bonnie is now doing what she wants. “And so, she’ll kind of get involved in Alaric’s storyline a little bit,” Dries says. “But as she’s working with Alaric and helping him through the grief of losing Jo, Bonnie starts to get herself embroiled in a little bit of a love story. And so, that’s been very fun to watch unfold.”

so they took up most of my ire in relation to Bonnie's treatment (it should also be noted and I've said this before, if I say Julie/JP or Caroline, I mean JP and co. or Caroline Dries and co., which is meant to encapsulate the entire writers room because one person did accuse me of blaming everything on JP or Caroline when they themselves didn't write a specific episode and I had to be like I refer to their names as an encapsulation of the writers/show/EPs in general). If I tagged KW it was usually in relation to a Stelena post and KW was SE's biggest champion, which was why I didn't put anti KW in the tag (I'm not saying I haven't tagged KW in Bonnie posts or posts that talk about the antiblack treatment of the show but I know I specifically tag KW for SE posts) and some of that still carries over.

Plus, Bonnie's treatment was always terrible but in the seasons KW was actively involved, her treatment was better -- not good but better -- which isn't to let him off the hook but I think in relation to what she goes through from season 4 onwards combined with the tweets and the posts and things like Julie explaining that Kat begged her not to kill Bonnie off, JP and Caroline are the names that automatically come to mind for people.

[destinysbounty]

Alright its elemental roulette AU time again, whether you like it or not! (for those of you who are curious, you can check out all my other posts about it here: 1, 2, 3)

Jay being Samurai X in this AU is pretty self-explanatory, so i probably dont need to talk about it in too much depth. But I will anyway!

In this version of events, Jay managed to perfect his mechanical wings, and then expanded it into a big ol flying suit of armor. So, think Samurai X mech, but crossbreed it with like, the Sonic Raider Jet or something. But also theres a distinctly comic-book-superhero flair to it all because of course there is, this is Jay we're talking about.

Same as canon, Samurai X starts making appearances, he begins upstaging the ninja, and its established that the current ninja team is full of angsty perfectionists, so OBVIOUSLY they all hate his guts. Jay is a little gremlin, though, and their frustration only encourages him to upstage them even more.

Eventually they do discover his real identity and meet him, and maybe realize they were being a bit too harsh when they should have been more appreciative of his support. So they invite Jay into the fold of their operations.

Jay may be a comparative rookie, but hes got the motivation. See, his parents were attacked by Fangpyres and got turned into Serpentines, and he figures that if stopping Pythor and co. can get him any closer to finding a cure for them, then he has to try. If nothing else, he can at least get some well-deserved revenge. And once he learns about the Great Devourer situation, he definitely doesnt want that to happen. Basically, hes motivated by the recent rise in Serpentine activity.

(Im also currently toying with the idea that Jay was turned Serpentine as well. I dont wanna elaborate on this point too much since im not certain i'll keep it, but its definitely something to think about.)

Regardless of motivation, Jay is more than happy to join the team. After all, who in their right mind would turn down an invitation to join a kickass team of superpowered crimefighters, as well as the opportunity to be trained by the son of a literal diety??? Sign him up!

....he did not realize what he was signing up for. The comic books did not prepare him for how traumatic saving the world can be. He would like a refund please

Of course, this realization doesnt strike until Zane's death. Jay's first real experience with loss. Sure, their battles have been scary and dangerous, but watching a friend die...watching a friend die to save the world...thats when it hits him that being a hero comes with a price. So he throws in the towel and bails.

That is, until Wu approaches him, saying that the ninja have all gone missing (bc they went to Chen's island without telling anyone). And well, Jay has lost one friend already, and it sucks. But hes not going to sit by and lose everyone else who matters to him, too. So he warily takes up his old Samurai X mantle again and sets out to find his friends.

So yeah Jay and Dareth team up on Chen's island and it is just as chaotic as you might imagine.

Also, i feel the need to point out that Jays stuff isnt all sleek and modern like Nya's. He doesnt have a secret base, he just tinkers away at his parents' scrapyard. He canonically doesnt know the proper name for an exhaust valve. His mechs and weapons do not look like they should operate by any stretch, but somehow they DO.

Nya got to the island by using holograms to disguise her vehicle. But in this AU, Jay gets to the island by building a shoddy jetplane out of spare tractor parts and crashing it into the side of a volcano.

Jay's strange blend of competence and incompetence only makes Morro hate him even more. By all rights, this chaotic grease monkey and living embodiment of the knife-cat meme should NOT be able to defeat him. That rusty mech thats really just a glorified trashcan should not be able to throw Morro through several concrete walls. And yet here we are.

Jay, meanwhile, delights in tormenting Morro. Because of course he does.

Now, he and Nya do still have their falling out, but its not due to a love triangle or anything. Its bc Jay bailed out after Zane's death, Nya got upset at him, and in the ensuing fight over it they both said some...pretty hurtful things. And over time they work on repairing their relationship again, but it still takes a long time before theyre ready to be a couple again.

Im currently torn between three possibilities. 1) Chen reveals the truth of his elemental power to him. 2) Jay spontaneously manifests lightning one day and everyone is very confused. 3) One of his Skybound wishes results in the discovery of his elemental power. Im a bit fond of option 3, if only bc that opens the opportunity for Skybound to focus more heavily on the adoption subplot, and would naturally build up to a true potential sequence at the end.

If so, maybe the wish that would have revealed Cliff Gordon's death ends up instead revealing his elemental power to him, forcing him to reconcile his birth parentage in the weirdest way possible. Idk id have to think about it, i havent seen Skybound in a while.

I think Jay does choose to be a ninja instead of a samurai, if only to feel closer to his birth-mother and to carry on her legacy/learn more about her, but still keeps a lot of gadgets and doohickeys on his person. The harness thingie on his Wildbrain gi? It serves as a holster for his various inventions and bizarre, unorthodox weapons.

Jay spends a decent chunk of time thinking he has no elemental powers, so he and Misako strike up an unexpected camaraderie as a result of thinking theyre the only non-elementals on the team. Wu is an elemental master and specializes in training others like him, but Misako isnt, and since spinjitzu is a bit different for those without elemental powers she offers to train Jay.

Jay may not be the strongest or most powerful fighter, but give him a paperclip and some dental floss and he'll find a way to macgyver your downfall. Its only when hes cornered into a hand-to-hand confrontation without any weapons that he tends to falter. Take away his gadgets and he starts to have issues, since he has zero combat training. So yeah he is in dire need of Misako's guidance.

And hey, maybe this is a good opportunity to explore Misako's character as well! Maybe they share a heart to heart, where Jay laments being abandoned and Misako reluctantly shares her motives and turmoil over leaving her son. Maybe she gets some character development. Oh! And maybe Jay sometimes joins her on expeditions.

Once Ray and Maya are saved, Jay and Cole very sheepishly ask them if they knew their mothers. And during the timeskip after season 7 they spend many nights hanging at the blacksmith shop, listening to Ray and Maya recount the good ol days.

And for the record, YES. Cole and Jay are still besties in this AU. Their dynamic is deeply important to me.

I also wanna redo Prime Empire to focus more on Jay's abandonment issues and you cant stop me.

For the purposes of this AU ive decided to replace Wojira with two new deities, one of lightning and one of ice. This means that Jay and Zane are both eligible to get Nyad-ified at the end of Seabound. Which one it happens to remains undetermined atm, altho im admittedly leaning a bit more towards Jay. If only because the mental image of Jay being made of pure lightning, and wanting to kiss Nya goodbye before vanishing into the sky but not being able to touch her without zapping her...yeah that concept is gonna live in my head rent-free for at least an hour

Its not much, but those are the broad strokes of what i have for Jay so far!

#ninjago #jay walker #morro #morro ninjago #wu #wu ninjago #zane julien #zane ninjago #nya smith #nya jiang #nya ninjago #lloyd garmadon #misako montgomery garmadon #elemental roulette au #destiny post

[thelonesomequeen]

And here come the people acting like they’re entitled to any and all information, consequences be damned. Maybe one day they’ll get that they’re not. Thanks for sharing this stuff in a way you feel comfortable doing 💛

Trust me, I definitely understand wanting to know what information others have and it can be frustrating to only have some pieces of the puzzle when you just want the whole picture. I understand everyone’s curiosity. There are so many times we want to share all of the info that’s shared with us and we hate that we can’t always do that. The amount of times we get something and part of it is requested to be blocked off we’re like “AAAAAH JUST GIVE US INFO WE CAN SHARE WITH OTHERS FOR ONCE!” is kind of wild. And sometimes we hate it because we understand that it frustrates others to not have all of the info. It also sends a lot of hate our way most of the time.

But when we’re asked to not always share parts of an ask, we have to take that request seriously. As mods, we have to sometimes battle with the morality of doing what we believe is the right thing in those situations. Sometimes it means not sharing anything at all that was sent to us, and sometimes it means blocking off what was requested. To us, it’s gossip, but to someone else, it’s their life and what we share can have serious consequences for them.

We have to weigh out the pros and cons in these situations. What I personally found interesting is that the anon listed the restaurant and location prior to anyone knowing they were there through Chelsea. In this specific situation what does sharing the name of the restaurant really do for the fandom? I mean honestly. I think the people who believe he was in Bermuda with friends have seen enough to believe it. I also think that there is no form of evidence that can convince people he was there if they believe he wasn’t in Bermuda. Because the past has shown us that group of people always has excuses for that evidence when it does come out. People have made up their minds on whether Chris was there or not. If we were to share the restaurant name and website picture that matches a location in Chelsea’s video, and show the screenshot side by side I think it would only convince a very small amount of people who are unsure about what they believe right now. Because like I said, I think enough people have made up their mind. They either believe this was a big friends vacation or they don’t and they believe this was a big trolling event. The name of a restaurant isn’t going to change that because it adds no other information than that. But the consequence of sharing the name could mean trouble for the people who were working there while Chris and co. were there. It could mean a demotion or even loss of their job. And sorry, but people NEED their jobs. They have bills to pay and losing their income could be a serious issue for them. And we know this fandom no longer has an issue with overstepping boundaries and contacting businesses. I wouldn’t put it past some people in this fandom to harass that restaurant via review bombing, or calling in and making complaints about the workers all because someone said Chris was there with a good sized group.

I think you (specifically this anon) get that based on your ask. But for everyone else who doesn’t, I’m hoping this helps to explain things further when it comes to why we don’t expose all of the information people share with us when they ask us not to. We have to look at the benefits vs. the potential consequences in these situations. And again, we understand it’s frustrating for you guys when you want all of the info. But we have to also then balance the idea of whether it’s worth sharing some of the info, or none of it at all. We like to put it out there for you guys to see. It’s why we usually still choose to post these asks with the requested parts blocked off. Whether you all personally prefer if we kept it all to ourselves and shared nothing or only share part of what we’re told to us is really kind of a matter of personal opinion. 🦎

[soybeeftacos]

Nine Years

Today is this little Netrunner blog's ninth year anniversary. Wow, times flies. I'd like to muse on the history of this blog a little here, but there's not much to say, really — it's more of an archive of my ups and downs with it, and thankfully mainly a lot of ups. When I'm not posting here much (like lately), it's because I've moved onto other things.

I honestly haven't even played the game in a bit, since around the holidays. We ran out of steam on playing card games before the holidays, at least a little bit, and I very intentionally disconnected myself from the only organized local group of guys still playing. It dawned on me that I was interested in playing with a group who wanted to organize events (casual, competitive, whatever) and with people who were interested in making their own decks. But these guys weren't that, to the point of even refusing free promo cards. It wasn't a good fit and they made me feel awkward to play with, so, well, life is too short to do that.

That's the problem with the game, as everyone knows. If you don't have a good local group of people to play with or connect with others in the community, it's hard to move forward. I have tried to reconnect with the community online, but frankly, that's gone nowhere as well. Everyone talks about how nice the Netrunner community is, but it's still extraordinarily cliquish and off-putting. I love the game, I've reached out to multiple people to play the game with online, but nothing's come of it.

So, I'm a little sad that my interest in the game is still pretty high but also there's just no time in the day to keep trying to locally organize a "dead game" or build an online playgroup when there are many other things I could be doing with myself. I've gone back to watching a lot of movies and hosting movies at the local Alamo. I've picked up other games to play with our family. I'm doing things other than optimizing my play and reading the same tired Slack memes from the same three Netrunner players over and over again.

I think the most off-putting thing is how playing online isn't much fun anymore. I got warned that I'd get banned from Jnet by the current World Champion — I got salty with him after losing to his smurf and then he hopped on his main account to threaten more severe sanctions. Yeah, that's what the site is for many now, just a good place for the elite players (read: twentysomethings with a lot of time on their hands) to smurf and clean up in games against us lesser randos.

The game is always the best when it's played in person. And the best times I've had with it have been when I was playing with paper, sitting across a table, having laughs and being frustrated in equal measure. That's what the game was designed to be, and that's what I'd love to get back to. There are a handful of players around here that will still play with me on occasion, and I'm thankful that they're still into it. I just got a new CO kit in the mail the other day and even if I'm not playing much, I hope I can organize a fun event for those guys and draw out other local players to join us.

Anyway, nine years. That's a long time! I'm thankful the game still exists and while I'm not the hugest fan of Null Signal, I'm thankful that they have put so much care and effort into the game. I'm excited to see what Rebellion Without Rehearsal might bring.

#netrunner

[bluelockednyx]

Isagirin meta part 3

Part 1, talking about Isagi’s first meeting and match with Rin here.

Part 2, covering the rest of the Second Selection Arc, up till Rin choosing Isagi to move ahead with Aryu and co., here.

Part 3 covers the post-Second Selection Arc chapters, beginning from the 5-man team formation, to the vs World team, and the first Blue Lock Eleven try out match, with Isagi in Team A vs Chigiri in Team B.

C87-93, vs World 5

Isagi’s reeling from just barely losing the game earlier, and then from being chosen. He’s also subdued over the sensation of losing, and then being chosen by someone else, reinforcing the notion of how Isagi wants to be the one doing the choosing. While he connects with Bachira, seeing his maturity and also becoming motivated to grow stronger by himself, he then asks Rin about how he made that final goal. Rin informs him that it���s ‘luck’. Ego further explains about the mechanism of ‘luck’ in the context of the series. Luck forms through a series of coincidences and happenings, and only those who are prepared to grasp it when it comes around, i.e. when Rin sped up to chase after Isagi and Bachira, instead of stopping or slowing down like the others, he gambled on the chance that Isagi would 1) successfully block Bachira and 2) would not gain possession of the ball.

Rin agrees with Ego's explanation, then adds that he had a different option: to not score. He made that goal to accept that he had lost to Isagi then, because he couldn’t foresee Bachira’s awakening/read Bachira’s moves, then failed to take advantage of it while Isagi had successfully countered it. Again, this is another facet of Rin that Isagi admires, acknowledges, and tries to learn from. They later learn of their upcoming match against world-class strikers, and while resting, Isagi notices that Rin is missing. He joins Rin in stretching exercises, and learns more about Rin’s motivation to beat Sae.

“Yeah, I get the feeling that if I chase you, I’ll get stronger… Rin, I see you as my rival.”

We can see that Rin is clearly surprised/affected/touched by this, even though he later says that he thinks nothing of Isagi. The fires of rivalry are stoked, yoga shenanigans ensue, and Rin gets pissed that Isagi falls on top of him.

Rin, you dramatic little bitch

Everyone’s excited to face off against the world-class players. The world-class players range from dismissive to neutral towards them (though let's face it, the only polite guy is Julien), until the Bachira-Rin combo scores a goal.

Look at how hyped he is, one of the prettiest panels of Isagi in the entire series and it's him being stupid in love with his rival and best friend

Isagi is impressed with the Bachira-Rin combo. Bachira, in turn, remarks that Rin’s gotten better with Isagi around. But they’re still outclassed, the World 5 blazing past them 4-1. The only one who’s still fighting to win is Rin. Later, Leonardo faces off with Rin in a 1-on-1. He past Rin easily, and that whole ass line he uses is a straight up sexual innuendo about Rin

which is

again

a first

(here, in its full glory and for your perusal)

(so I guess what I’m saying is, if by this point you haven’t figured out that the author has a secret favourite, then I really have to tell you, the author clearly has a favourite)

The world team trounces the quintuplet, and as they collapse, exhausted, Isagi’s concerned about Rin, who is singularly furious and frustrated over the loss. He also acknowledges that Rin was the only one of the five of them who was truly trying to win the game at all. It’s also because of this moment, that Isagi once again changes his perception of Rin. Rin is no longer simply a rival to Isagi; he’s a goal, a measure for his own skills.

‘The day I win against you, is the day I’ll be able to stand on the world’s stage… From my front row view of you, I will rise above you to become the best in the world!’

C93

We get another slow chapter for C93, but its certainly cute. Rin gets bonding time (against his will) with his teammates, who are all likely older than he is, and lands in the role of tutor (against his will again), lol.

I think what makes this even funnier is that Rin’s the youngest out of all of them. Academic high-achiever Itoshi Rin, everyone!

C94-112 (Blue Lock Eleven tryouts)

What’s surprising to me is that Rin and co. were the first to clear the second selection, but I suppose in the background there were many players who waffled over making teams and setting up matches in both the 3-man and 4-man teams, as shown when Aryu and Tokimitsu were having trouble fixing up matches for the 4v4. Nagi and the rest come in second. As the others file in, Chigiri and Nagi are worried for the last team – and the two people they’re closest to in Blue Lock, Kunigami and Reo. Then comes the clincher – Reo is in, but in place of Kunigami, it’s Shidou who makes it to the top.

After breaking up the fight that Shidou tried to start, Ego informs them about the upcoming match against Japan’s U20, and tells them that Sae will be participating in the match. He then proceeds to inform them about the rush-patch team they’ll be making, centering around the 6 chosen players: Rin, Shidou, Karasu, Otoya, Yukimiya and Nagi. The remaining players now have to choose: who they want to team up with, who they can assert and coexist with in a team, and also, who can be their stepping stone to surpass.

Over a meal, Bachira deduces who Isagi would team up with – Rin, or Nagi. As Isagi stays up watching videos to try and come to a decision, Reo comes up to join him, expressing his worries about Nagi becoming out of reach, and that he doesn’t know if he’ll get the chance to play with Nagi again. Isagi empathises with Reo and says that it’s the same for him, except his target isn’t Nagi: it’s Rin.

"The person I want to be beside right now, is you, Rin! ... Reo, thank you. I've found my resolve, thanks to you. I'm going to prove... that the path I've chosen for myself isn't wrong!

Once again, this is a repetition of another important part of Isagi's relationship with Reo in-story. As I outlined in part 2, after Isagi-Nagi-Barou team wins against Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo, Isagi tells Reo that he should become someone who can choose. Here, Isagi walks the talk and chooses who he wants, instead of letting the person he wants choose him. And now, he wants to prove that the path he’s chosen, aka choosing to pursue his rivalry with Rin – and to an extent, chasing after Rin himself, isn’t wrong.

Team A vs Team B (C97-C104)

Isagi gets chosen for the first match, and ruminates on how his current team up with Hiori and Nanase are the most comfortable he’s had so far in Blue Lock, complete with shoujo-ish effects as they laugh together. The game heats up with Shidou’s insane goal, then Karasu marks Isagi early on in the match, and Isagi’s forced to realize that he lacks the skill to beat Karasu one-on-one.

Bonus: Shidou’s so excited over a crow and a ninja combo, lmao.

Rin and Shidou’s inability to work together, unlike Karasu and Otoya + Chigiri later on, causes problems for their team. They fall behind to a critical 2-4 with Team B in the lead. Isagi manages to get the ball, and passes to Shidou, who scores when Isagi expects a combo, and brings Team A to 3 goals. Isagi momentarily berates himself for thinking that Shidou would have cooperated with him, and they restart the game quickly. Isagi is still marked by Karasu, and is unable to shake him. Then Rin cuts in to free up Isagi from Karasu.

Karasu’s lines here?

‘Oh, I hate this. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine’ mentality.’

I don't know how the JP audience perceives this, but this is a pretty suggestive line to me when translated, and in my experience that 'what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine' normally gets applied to 1) couples or 2) siblings in a family who have to/made to share a bunch of stuff (cultural differences may vary, with this one, but *waves shipping goggles*)

While Rin is occupied with his 1-on-1 against Karasu, Isagi rushes in and steals the ball. Very nice teamwork from the pair here, though Rin at this point in time, probably lowkey hates him for it (lol).

With Nanase and Hiori, Isagi breaks through the midfield, but is one step short of receiving Hiori’s pass. Rin covers for his miss and makes the shot, bringing the game to 4-4.

Karasu makes this point after Rin scores a second goal. It’s a pattern now, for these two. Rin starts a change. Isagi responds in kind, elevating the overall play and raising the level of the match.

Karasu and Otoya break through, but Shidou successfully intercepts a pass to Chigiri. Nanase picks it up, passing immediately to Isagi. Excluding Shidou, the members of Team A break through the field, with Rin,Nanase and Isagi forming a triangle. Rin makes the call to push through faster, and they get the ball to Hiori.

Team A wins narrowly, after Isagi takes into account Hiori’s advice. He ‘moves by reflex’ and bursts in between Rin and Shidou and scores the final goal. While Nanase, Hiori and Shidou congratulate Isagi on his goal, Rin is sore about losing the shot to Isagi.

We can actually see Isagi being somewhat upset at Rin’s reaction here. If Isagi’s silence isn’t a big enough clue, the blackened background sure is. Shidou comes up to defend him from Rin, rightfully calling out Rin’s arrogance and poor sportsmanship, and the pair immediately gets into a fight.

Later on, we also see that Isagi acknowledges Rin’s point here, as he, Nanase and Hiori go over what happened in the AV room. He’s not sure what happened, and how he got that goal, until Hiori explains his advice, comparing it to a tetris game.

Bonus: Poor Isagi getting choked by Shidou, while the others separate these two idiots.

We head into the next match, a Team A vs Team C matchup.

Team A vs Team C

There’s not much here, as the focus is mainly on Reo and Nagi’s friendship, but I am picking out some little fun moments.

We have the second person to nickname Rin based on his eyelashes, Shidou. The chibis of these two are cute! We also learn that Rin is petty enough to hold grudges, even in-match (lmao)

Team C scores first with Nagi x Yukimiya’s combo. Shidou continues on his crusade of giving Rin nicknames, choosing to adopt RinRin, which is even more cutesy and overly affectionate (though in his case, it’s mocking) than Bachira’s previous Rin-chan.

Despite Reo’s new ability/use of his dexterity, Team C still loses soundly to Team A. Nagi comes to talk to Reo, who knows that his skill still isn’t enough. He’s taken Isagi’s words to heart – he wants to become someone that Nagi wants to chase after.

I think that this point is where Rin truly begins to supplant Bachira as the deuteragonist of Blue Lock. We are not given any insight or views of Bachira’s matches or his plays in them, and other than Isagi’s own match, and Reo’s, whose POV we get, the character whom the narrative focuses on is Rin. I understand it’s hard to juggle a weekly manga with such a huge cast of characters, as Blue Lock does, but I think the lack of Bachira is quite telling that his narrative importance has decreased. Isagi’s focus, and by extension, the narrative, for a long while now, has been more focused on Rin.

In the formation of the team to go up against Japan’s U20, Ego spells it out. The team is centered around Rin. Of all the players in Blue Lock who can bring out the best in Rin’s plays, the ‘ideal partner to Itoshi Rin’, is Isagi.

This is canon, y’all. And spoken, no less, by the very character who thus far, is the closest to an in-series omniscient narrator.

This panel of Rin and Shidou having no chemistry at all is so fucking funny. Shooting down the ship in canon, just in case shippers get any ideas, lmao.

Ego then tells them about Sae’s participation in the U20 match, and that he chose Shidou to play with out of all the members of Blue Lock present. Rin’s reaction to finding out that Sae chose Shidou to play with is fun – complete fury. Ego moves on to break down Rin and Shidou’s playstyles: Rin involves his surroundings and synergizes with them, Shidou’s is very much self-sufficient, even going so far as to say it comes down to who made the right choice between him and Sae will decide the outcome of the match, and thus Blue Lock’s continued survival. Rin, on the other hand, reasserts that the match is a stepping stone for him to become the best in the world, which the others echo.

While Sae and Shidou meet the U20 team, Blue Lock begins their training camp. During their break, Isagi mulls over the importance of ‘breaking through’ the U20’s defense, per Bachira’s words, then surmising that he doesn’t have the power to do that. He then comes across Rin still training. while they’re supposed to be on break.

[It’s fun how the narrative arranges that Isagi’s questions for breaking through the U20 defense, and to master his newfound ability via the flow trance, brought him to Rin.]

Isagi pops inside the training room and tells Rin to take a break. He’s surprised at Rin’s ferocious single-mindedness, and coaxes Rin into a short break by handing him a water bottle.

[Also fun how Isagi just happened to be carrying two water bottles for whatever reason, conveniently being able to offer one to Rin.]

Rin rebuffs him at first, but Isagi doesn’t take his shit, adjusting his words and attitude into one that Rin is more palatable to. Then as he walks away, he thinks this:

‘I’ve… never seen Rin look like that before. I want to win along with him…’

Isagi doesn’t simply want to win. He wants to win along with Rin.

C112

The U20 and Blue Lock teams walk out onto the field. Rin glares at Sae, who ignores him, while Aiku wishes Isagi good luck. Isagi grows nervous, and Rin perceptively realizes it, smacking him on the back to get him out of his head.

"Let's go, Isagi."

"Yeah!"

And that's all for part 3!

There’s a lot less analysis for this part, as it’s mostly about Isagi’s increasing focus on Rin, as well as his and Rin’s growing rivalry/friendship. In this arc, Rin's character is further rounded out, and we get a hint of the depth of his obsession with defeating Sae.

Compared to part 2, where Isagi was more hung up on Rin’s sheer skill, in this part we see Isagi’s respect for Rin evolve further, into a much deeper respect for Rin’s mindset and relentless drive to win, even in a situation where he was severely outclassed by the World 5 team. The Blue Lock Eleven tryouts and his conversation with Reo is a nice moment of foiling, parallels and reinforcement of the series narrative theme.

Isagi directly compares himself to Reo – he’s afraid of not being able to play with Rin again, but he’s also afraid that the gap between him and Rin will keep growing to the point where Rin is beyond his reach, which, from a shipping perspective, is pretty damning in my opinion, because the NagiReo ship is, next to the Bachisagi ship, probably the best established one in terms of narrative themes and characterisation both, with Reo being almost all Nagi at this point in time. Besides that, with the top 6 players announced + Bachira, we clearly see that Isagi is still lagging behind his peers when it comes to plain old football skill.

Besides that, Isagi too, becomes more involved and concerned about Rin’s issues with Sae, although he’s still scratching the surface with Rin about that, and it’s clear that he’s more than a little disconcerted by Rin’s obsession with beating Sae. It’s also fascinating to see him actively include Rin in his wishes with regards to the U20 game – specifically to win along with Rin, which is an extension of his initial wish in the Second Selection Arc, that he wants Rin.

On Rin’s part, he’s thawing out towards Isagi, surely but slowly. Beginning with his semi-allowance of Isagi to do yoga with him in the training room, and later his response to Isagi’s declaration of rivalry, then the way he works together with Isagi up until it becomes clear that Isagi can’t defeat Karasu one-on-one, and at that point. Even then, he doesn’t discard Isagi completely, choosing instead to free up Isagi from Karasu and face off against Karasu himself. Although he does wind up pissed at Isagi for stealing the thunder and the final goal and speaking rather cruelly about him, neither he nor Isagi escalates the issue further. We also learn that Rin has some problems: he is utterly unable to work with Shidou, someone whose skill is almost on par with him in Blue Lock, and he cannot healthily acknowledge that Isagi had defeated him in that last shot.

Update: Part 4 will cover the first half of the U20 match, and there are a lot of nice moments coming up.

#blue lock #bllk #Isagi Yoichi #Itoshi Rin #Isagirin #Rinsagi #isagirin meta part 3 #rinsagi meta part 3 #otp: heart stolen by his beautiful parable

[tanadrin]

it’s sort of like--okay, I saw a post on reddit being made fun of, where somebody had asked something like, “Can someone explain to me how a man and a man in a relationship together is supposed to be complementary?”

What they meant was to denigrate the idea of a same-sex relationship. And they thought they had a pretty airtight argument against it: a man and a man are the same! They’re not complimentary! Surely that invalidates the whole concept! This is, from an outside perspective, just an absolutely bonkers argument. A total non-sequitur. Who said relationships have to be complementary? What does that even mean? Why on earth, if you were trying to argue that homosexuality was immoral or unnatural, would you approach it from such an arcane angle as complementarity?

It makes perfect sense if you’re steeped inside a particular kind of discourse that’s been waging a losing battle against the advance of concepts like “equal rights” and “not being a huge dick to people for no reason” for centuries. If you’re a conservative Christian, it’s sometimes unfashionable to argue in a public-facing way that men should rule in marriage because God says so, or because women are inherently inferior, or because Eve sinned first or God is a man. Against more appealing concerns in the marketplace of ideas like “what if we gave everyone equal rights in society and equal standing in important social relationships like romantic pairings” it’s been a losing tactic for a long time. Various tactical retreats have resulted in the conservative discourse trying to recast traditional gender roles in various ways, and one way that seems to work okay some of time time is a notion of complementarity, where men and women bring different things to the table and while this looks like traditional gender roles, really it’s somehow egalitarian, or better than egalitarian (because the whole notion of “equality” implies boring liberal sameness don’tchaknow; two things obviously can’t be equal unless they are identical in every respect!). So the fundamental justification for not only gender roles but heterosexual romance as a concept gets recast in this awkward and arcane way which is necessary only if you somehow need to simultaneously uphold one very narrow conception of gender roles, and satisfy a certain instinct for fair play that is in contradiction with other important elements of your hierarchical and authoritarian worldview.

But if you try to trot out this gotcha in any context where you’re not just hosting a circlejerk with people who already think like you, you look like a crazy person, because you have so badly failed to understand the psychology or the worldview of the people you disagree with, you can’t even properly ask a question in bad faith.

This is very frustrating to me! If you’re going to try to make an argument, even one in support of a dumb worldview, you should--again, at least outside the context of a good old circlejerk, and hey, everybody loves a good circlejerk from time to time! not knocking the venerable institution of a circlejerk--at least be able to put together a coherent argument. It’s no fun when someone can’t even string a coherent set of ideas together.

And I feel the same way about a lot of the stuff transphobes put out. “This just grosses me out” and “holy book says no” are at least consistent, though they’re not really arguments. They don’t make persuasive truth claims that anybody outside your narrow community of preference-sharers or co-religionists can really engage with. But “trans people are crazy and should be therapied into being cis” is actually more annoying, in that it’s a terrible argument that just gets worse the more you try to develop it.

[bylertruther]

I do feel from the conversation he had with Argyle in S4 that Jonathan was using Will and Joyce as an excuse to avoid Nancy and deal with his insecurities. Joyce herself was anxious about his college application, she didn’t want him to stay with her forever. So Jonathan is complex: part of him wants to leave and live his life, but another one is used to take care of Will and Joyce and doesn’t really want to move on.

i think things can be many things and have many different parts. we know that jonathan has trust issues, doesn't want to be "selfish", and was putting off having to be vulnerable with nancy at every opportunity. it could be that he's partly hiding behind that reason, but i also think it's true on its own, too.

jonathan has routinely taken on parent / provider responsibilities and felt guilty since season one. he feels personally responsible for will, in general and also for what happened to him, and for his mother, who he had to take care of both when will was missing and just in general. he didn't have any friends, but he did have a job, and he took extra shifts to help the family while taking care of his brother, too.

joyce tells us that he's always been good at taking care of himself, and he tells her that she can't get like this again and that she can't shut down right now, suggesting this isn't anything new, something further supported by the policemen saying she's been on the edge for a while now (or something like that). furthermore, in season three, he mentioned that he needed his summer job because of things like college tuition and the mortgage and was so upset and frustrated with what ended up happening that he was tearing up about it.

he's also routinely seen saying that he should've been there for will, that x thing happened to him because he wasn't there, and apologizes multiple times for it.

joyce doesn't want him to stay with her forever, but that doesn't mean that he hasn't been parentified and that he doesn't feel a personal sense of duty towards his family—one that he's displayed since we're first introduced to him. jonathan is someone that loves his family greatly and is entirely devoted to them. he cares for will like a brother, but he's also a father figure to him and stepped in both when lonnie wouldn't and to fix lonnie's mistakes.

jonathan doesn't want to tell nancy the truth, because he fears he may ruin her plans and he absolutely doesn't want to do that to her, but also just because he feels like if he's going to leave his family, then it needs to be for a good enough reason. it's just in the way that he says it: "like, i... i can't leave my mom and my brother to... to... to chase a dream that isn't mine." how he singles them out, how he emphasizes that.

idk. jonathan is a complex character and his subplot right now truly shows that. but i don't think that this is something that needs to be debated all because of my original joyce post. i don't think joyce wants him to stay with her forever, never go to college, and never live his own life. still, that in no way negates the fact that she relied on him heavily to be her co-parent and help provide for them even though he was just a child himself.

joyce tells jonathan that he isn't alone in the world, but she doesn't follow through. she parents will to the point of smothering, but what does jonathan get? he takes care of himself, keeps everything to himself, never asks for anything, cares for others while maintaining that he's fine, and doesn't reach out because he fears that no one will be there to catch him if he falls.

not all of that rests on joyce's shoulders obviously, much of it is because of lonnie and society at large, but he showcases many of the experiences that similar parentified children went through. he's had very little support. the person he came to rely on is nancy, but how is he going to be honest with her when being honest could potentially upset her? when he could lose her?

jonathan is the way that he is because of a lack of support. add in the fact that his brother has gone through horrific, traumatic things when he wasn't there, that he witnessed his parents' awful loveless relationship, and you have someone that feels like they can't leave or that feels conflicted about doing things for himself. none of these things exist in a vacuum and the behaviors of one character affect the other.

#asks #not rereading this as per usual so if i fucked up somewhere o well