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floralcyanidee · 8 months

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ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟɪᴘs, ᴍʏ ʟɪᴘs, ᴀᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘsᴇ - ᴄɪʟʟɪᴀɴ ᴍᴜʀᴘʜʏ

Young!Cillian Murphy x AFAB!Reader (NSFW)

A night over at your best friend, Cillian's, leads to something more than friendship but something less than romance. Will you ever tell him how you feel, or will you always just be friends with benefits?

warnings: smut, nipple play, fingering, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, oral sex, cock warming, friends with benefits, friends to lovers, dirty talk, squirting, overstimulation, multiple orgasms, hair pulling, mentions of choking, love confessions

word count: 4409

author’s note: I'm shadowbanned on my main account everyone please clap (not for nsfw, I was flagged for spam yay) so I'll be posting on this shiny new blog, ao3, and wattpad for the time being. (those are both linked on my masterpost) hopefully I'll be unbanned soon because I've had my main tumblr for a decade and it has 2.5k followers on it and I'll fr cry my eyes out if I can't get unbanned!!! anyway please enjoy this!! I wrote a good chunk of this while at work this week. the horny really unleashes in the second part haha. please leave feedback if you enjoy! <3

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS BLOG. BUT ALSO, DO NOT UNFOLLOW MY MAIN BLOG!

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Cillian’s lips hover over yours, and you can feel his warm breath hitting your face. His eyelashes almost touch your cheeks, and his nose is beside yours, barely brushing against it.

“I want you so bad,” Cillian whispers, his hands finding your hips.

You have been friends since the 90s when Cillian first arrived in Hollywood, stumbling upon you at a local bar where you worked. Ever since, you’ve both been the best of friends. But tonight, that’s being challenged. The lights in Cillian’s place are dimmed, candles are lit, and wine is flowing through the two of you. Having a bit to drink in a comfortable setting isn’t out of the norm, but for some reason, tensions were high tonight. You could almost cut it with a knife. Everything about him is more mesmerizing tonight- his eyes, his freckles, the way he smiles. You needed him, and apparently, he needed you too.

“Then have me,” you mutter against Cillian’s lips.

He chuckles humorlessly, shaking his head slightly, “I don’t want to ruin us.”

“You won’t,” you look down at his lips- they’re so close to yours that you can feel them move whenever he speaks.

“Promise?”

“I promise,” you breathe, grabbing hold of Cillian’s face as he finally puts his mouth on yours.

The kiss immediately becomes hungry, your teeth nearly clashing together as Cillian slips his tongue around yours. He’s gripping your hips fiercely, and his sideburns press pleasantly into your palms as you hold his head steady. Cillian pulls you onto his lap from your sitting position on the couch next to him, seating you firmly on his thighs. Your fingers find his hair, tugging it slightly as a small whimper vibrates in Cillian’s throat. The sound spurs you on, and you take over the kiss, dominating his tongue with yours. You explore his mouth and suck on his tongue harshly, pulling away from the embrace to catch your breath.

“Fuck,” Cillian curses, leaning his forehead against yours, “You’re good at this.”

You scoff, putting both your hands on his cheeks as you trace your thumb along his sharp cheekbones, “And to think you would’ve never known.”

“Not necessarily,” Cillian looks you in the eyes, “I would’ve gotten you one way or another.”

“Then why have you waited so long, then? Hmm?” you ask.

“I value our friendship,” Cillian admits.

“I do, too, Cill. But god, if I had known you were so good at kissing, I would’ve done it ages ago,” you smirk, running your finger across his bottom lip.

His eyes follow your movements before they flick up to yours, darkening, “I’m not just good at that.”

His words shoot straight to your lower belly, warmth spreading through you, “Is that right?”

“Mhmm,” Cillian pulls you closer to his chest, your core settling right on his.

“Show me.”

Cillian attacks your lips again, this time biting down on your lower lip and rolling it between his teeth. You watch his face as he does it, his icy eyes becoming a darker shade of blue. His hand moves from your hip to your hair, his fingers sliding through your locks before they tighten, pulling your head backward to expose your neck. Cillian leaves hot, open-mouthed kisses along the column of your neck, licking a stripe up the side before he bites at the skin, leaving a small bruise to form below your jaw. You squirm slightly at the feeling of his teeth pressing into your skin, dangerously close to breaking its surface. Cillian then kisses your collarbones, stopping when he reaches the neck of your shirt, well, his shirt. You always took from his wardrobe, whether it was a beanie, t-shirt, or hoodie that he forgot he had. He slides his hand from your hip to underneath the shirt, pressing his palm to your feverish skin and pushing it up slowly until he reaches your breast.

“No bra?” Cillian asks, surprised.

“I never wear a bra when I’m over here,” you admit, “I’m surprised you’ve never noticed.”

“I’m glad I never noticed, or else I’d be underneath your shirt constantly,” Cillian pulls his hand from your hair to move it under the shirt along with the other.

“Doesn’t sound too bad to me,” you giggle, but it’s cut off by a quiet moan when Cillian grasps your breasts.

Cillian brushes his thumbs over your nipples, circling the buds as they harden under his touch. You hum, letting your head fall back at the sensation. Cillian pushes the shirt up and over your chest, and you help him pull it all the way off, tossing it somewhere in the living room. Immediately, Cillian latches onto one of your nipples, toying with the other one with his fingers. Electricity shoots to your still-clothed core, and you know that Cillian can feel you beginning to throb through your thin shorts. His playing with your breasts could get you off alone; his touch is like nothing you’ve ever felt before. It’s sometimes sensual and soft and rough and firm when needed. Cillian grazes his teeth over the sensitive bud, pulling it toward him as you let out a yelp. You involuntarily bare down on his lap and feel him growing harder underneath you. He lands a slap to your breast, and you gasp, hands going to grip his biceps to ground yourself.

“I can feel you getting excited,” Cillian teases, raising his hips a little to let all your weight sit on him momentarily.

“What are you gonna do about it, then?” you stifle a moan at his bulge pressing into your clit harshly.

Cillian pushes you off his lap and onto the couch, where he spreads your legs and yanks your shorts down your thighs, discarding them wherever the shirt also previously went. He pulls your calves onto his shoulders, laying on his chest between your thighs. His breath hits your dampened underwear, sending goosebumps across your skin. You bite your lip as Cillian plays with the edges of your underwear right against where you need him most. He toys with the fabric, letting his fingers barely touch you underneath.

“I’ve waited so long for this,” Cillian confesses, his intense eyes flickering up to your face.

You feel your cheeks burn, “Me too.”

Cillian smiles his typical beautiful smile, teeth and all, as he pulls your underwear down your legs painfully slow, “I’ve always imagined how wet you’d get just from me teasing you.”

You bite back a whimper as he removes your underwear from your legs, letting them fall to the floor.

“You’d get soaked from me playing with your pussy, rubbing your clit slowly, and eating you out until you cry,” Cillian lets his filthy words fall from his lips as you shiver from them, wanting to close your legs subconsciously.

But they were perched on Cillian’s shoulders, and he was about to go in for the kill. He kneads your thigh before pushing it to the side, letting it drape off the edge of the couch and opening you up further to him. Cillian’s fingers brush against your hardening clit like it’s the most delicate thing in the world, making you tremble as you grunt from the sensual feeling.

“Please,” you sigh, your hips jerking up when Cillian pulls his hand away.

“Please, what?”

“Touch me, Cill. God, I need you to touch me.”

Cillian strokes your entrance with his index finger, gathering your wetness before dragging it up to your clit. He circles the bundle of nerves slowly, making you whine above him.

“So wet already,” Cillian moans, “You’re so beautiful.”

You throw your head back against the arm of the couch when Cillian finally replaces his finger with the tip of his tongue, going around and around the sensitive bud, never coming directly in contact with it. He changes his mind about that and starts to lap at your clit, flicking his tongue over it as his fingers travel back to your now-dripping entrance. Cillian hums in satisfaction at the feeling of your arousal seeping out of you at his expense. He flattens his tongue and licks a fat stripe up your slit before swirling his tongue around your clit, his tongue still flat and giving your entire bundle of nerves attention. Cillian probes you with a single finger, pushing it in as you moan his name. He pumps it in and out of you, curling it against your g spot with every thrust. He adds a second finger, and the sound of your wetness grows louder, mixing with your breathy moans and Cillian’s pants.

“Say my name again,” Cillian bites his lip, watching as his soaked fingers move in and out of you.

“Cillian,” you whine, moving your hips along with his fingers.

“That’s right, fuck yourself on my fingers, darling,” he says, adding a third finger in you.

To say you‘re a mess is an understatement. You need Cillian inside you, as your walls are clenching around his fingers with desperation. You grab his shirt, “Fuck me, please.”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Cillian smirks, lifting his shirt off his lean body before standing up to tug his pants and underwear down and off his legs.

Cillian teases your clit with his leaking head before lining himself up with you. He looks at you with an unsure expression, and you nod in response to the unspoken question. He slowly pushes himself into you, your warmth already fluttering around him. Cillian guides himself all the way to his hilt, letting out a throaty groan when he feels his entire length surrounded by your velvety walls. His hands run up and down your abdomen, stopping when he palms over your breasts. They’re still sensitive from the previous activity and your growing arousal, causing you to wriggle when Cillian’s fingers deftly pinch at both your nipples as he slowly pulls himself almost out of you entirely before slamming back into you. You cry out, your hands flying to where his back meets his shoulders, nails digging softly into his flesh. Cillian moans when you clench harshly around him when he tugs at your nipple particularly hard.

“You like these pretty titties to be played with, huh?” Cillian runs his tongue along his bottom lip as he watches your face twist in pleasure when he pulls at the sensitive skin.

You nod, but he lets go of your breasts, running his hands over your body before his hand snakes between the two of you, rubbing tight circles on your clit. You let out a throaty moan, and Cillian curses under his breath as his hips snap against yours at a steady rhythm.

“Fuuuuck,” you drawl, eyes rolling into the back of your head as your body heaves into the couch from the velocity of Cillian’s perfect cock slamming into you without mercy, “You feel so good inside of me.”

You push Cillian up and off you, shoving him onto the couch behind him. You climb on his lap, throwing your legs over his thighs as you line him back up with your aching cunt. Feeling him stretch you out completely while at a different angle makes you moan uncontrollably as you set a pace, riding Cillian as if your life depended on it. Your ass slaps his hips as he guides them up and down, thrusting into you dead-on. Cillian’s tip hits your cervix flawlessly, and you feel that tightness in your belly.

“Cum inside me, Cillian,” you swivel your hips, “Fill me up and make me yours.”

“Gonna cum around my cock first?” Cillian’s lips are swollen from incessantly biting as he watches you fuck yourself on him.

You decide you’ll milk him for all he’s got and lean down to land a bruising kiss on his lips. Both of you pant into each other’s mouths as you near your peak, reaching underneath you to flick your clit. Cillian grips your ass as you feel yourself unravel, your orgasm ripping through you. Your walls cave in on CIllian’s length, causing him to reach his own orgasm before he’s ready. He squirms underneath you as you continue to bounce on his cock, coaxing every drop of cum out of him.

“Fuck,” Cillian exhales as he runs a hand through his sweaty hair, looking just as fucked out as you.

You lay down on his chest, him still inside you. He doesn’t bother moving either; the feeling of you still cloaked around him made him dizzy. Cillian is still trying to wrap his head around how this is real. He also is trying to figure out where to go from here. He’s terrified of telling you his true feelings for you, fearing you won’t want to be friends anymore. Obviously, tonight the dynamic has changed from just friendship between the two of you.

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for that,” you trace shapes into Cillian’s bare chest, peering up at him when he doesn’t answer.

He appears deep in thought.

“Everything okay?” you ask, furrowing your eyebrows at the man underneath you.

Cillian nods, his hand finding your hair before stroking it softly, “Just thinking.”

“About?” you rest your chest on his collarbone.

“How much I’d like to do this again,” Cillian says, and you chuckle.

“That can be arranged,” you leave a kiss on his neck, his eyes meeting yours through his eyelashes.

“I don’t want to ruin our friendship, though,” Cillian says worriedly.

“You haven’t ruined anything. And I’ve had just as much to do with this as you,” you say, putting your finger under Cillian’s chin to look at him directly, “You’re still my best friend.”

“And you’re fine with whatever this is?”

“It’s the best of both worlds,” you shrug with a smile.

Cillian moves to sit up against the couch's armrest still sheathed inside you. And as you start yet another make out session and begin to rock your hips with your walls still hugging his cock, you try not to think. The idea that you must hide your feelings for Cillian even more is hard to wrap your mind around.

But little did you know, he was having the same problem. He tries not to think about it as he thrusts into you sloppily, letting you ride him as you please.

—

“Jesus, shit!”

“God, you’re so fucking drenched. All of this for me?”

“Uh-huh,” you whimper, letting out a pornographic moan as one of Cillian’s hands holds your swollen cunt open while the other rubs at it vigorously.

“Just like that-” Cillian moans at the sounds you’re letting out, “Need you to cum on my face, pretty thing.”

You cry out, rocking your hips against Cillian’s merciless hand as it flies across your pussy with no sign of stopping. He pokes out his middle finger to catch your clit with every swipe of his hand. Your orgasm explodes in your stomach, your core gushing cum as Cillian hurries to dip his face down. He latches his mouth onto your cunt, flicking his tongue over your bundle of nerves, causing you to squirt again.

“Fuuuck,” you squeal, your hands gripping Cillian’s hair like a vice.

Cillian can’t get enough. He’s not gonna lie, he thinks he’s absolutely obsessed with making you squirt. He could do it all night and still get off at the sight. Cillian laps at your pussy, spreading his tongue around your folds, stimulating the sensitive area further.

“Cill, I’m gonna cum again,” you warn, but Cillian just keeps his eyes closed as he sneaks two fingers inside you.

His fingertips brush against your g spot and send you over the edge a third time, and Cillian’s nipping at your clit causes you to gush again. You were slightly embarrassed but incredibly turned on by it. And you know Cillian is relishing in it, literally and figuratively. He pulls away from you, a little reluctantly, and wipes his mouth and face with the back of his arm. You grab his face and pull him into you as he collapses on your naked, heaving chest. You stare at Cillian, the light from the side table’s lamp shining into his eyes just right. They’re returning to an arctic blue as his heart rate calms, his pupils going back to normal size. Cillian stares back at you, studying your features just as you are his. Freckles sprinkle Cillian’s cheeks and nose, dotting along his forehead and chin as well. His lips are red and swollen, and he’s sporting a lopsided smile as he looks at you.

“You’re perfect,” you whisper, combing your fingers through his hair, “Literally everything you do, say, and how you look is just flawless. Are you sure you aren’t an angel?” you joke.

A smile spreads upon Cillian’s face as his cheeks tinge pink, the warmth traveling to his ears, “I’m not perfect by any means, and no, I’m not an angel,” he says, his accent thick and raspy from the previous exertion.

“Mmm, I’m not sure about that,” you say as CIllian softly kisses your neck.

God, I love you, you want to say. Because you do; you love him. You always have, but sharing such intimate moments with Cillian has just strengthened the feeling you already had. You’re honestly exhausted but still blissed out from Cillian going absolutely feral on you. You have never squirted before, and if you could, you’d let him make you squirt all night. You’d watch as your arousal covers his pretty face, delighting him much like it did earlier. Cillian looked like a kid in a candy store as you gushed for him.

“I’ve never squirted before, so,” you mutter, covering your face with your hands, “Yeah, I’d consider that angelic.”

“Really?” Cillian asks incredulously, “Never? Not even by yourself?”

“Especially not by myself,” you chuckle, uncovering your face to look at Cillian, “You’re better than any vibrator or dildo I own.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Cillian bites your jaw playfully before reaching down and grabbing the duvet, covering the both of you with it.

He rolls off you, much to your dismay. But he immediately pulls you into his chest, holding you tightly with his arms as if you’ll disappear. Cillian slides a leg between yours, his knee pressed against you softly. He rubs his nose against your ear, “Still wet, pretty?”

“Shut up,” you mutter shyly, burying your face in his arms.

“Only if you make me,” Cillian teases you, nipping at your earlobe.

You groan, “Too tired,” you feel Cillian’s hand travel down your navel to gauge how wet you still are, “I don’t think I can move.”

“Who said you had to move?” Cillian asks, pulling your thigh up until your leg is draped over his hip, spreading you open for perfect access.

Before you can ask him to touch you, Cillian lines his length up with your still-needy cunt. You’re surprised you had any remainder of horniness left in you. But there’s something about Cillian that naturally turns you on. You’ve noticed it’s gotten more intense now that he’s your sexual partner. It’s like you can’t get enough of him, and he can’t get enough of you, either. Cillian nudges his tip into you before letting it glide in without a hitch. The way you’re laying makes the angle at which he’s inside of you feel irresistible. You let Cillian play with your still-sensitive clit as his hips snap into your ass. His hot, heavy breath is in your ear as he fucks you slowly. You toss your arm behind you, grabbing the back of Cillian’s neck for leverage as you turn your head around. His lips meet yours hungrily, and he swallows your guttural moans as you fuck yourself on his cock. Cillian’s other hand snakes from underneath you, his fingers wrapping around your throat. He doesn’t press them into your skin but lets them rest there, almost possessively.

You’ve been exploring each other’s bodies ever since the first night you had sex- trying different angles and positions. But you told Cillian that you didn’t want anything rough. That was reserved for a romantic relationship. Cillian felt a twinge of hurt in his chest when you said that, as if you had meant you weren’t planning on a romantic relationship with him specifically. But he understood and respected your boundaries despite his weird sadness about not being able to do certain things with you. Cillian thought it odd because you were not his, so he had no right to hurt you consensually or mark you as his. So, he shouldn’t be so upset about it. Yet he is because he wants you to trust him with everything you have, and he wants to take care of you after the roughness. Cillian wants you to be taken care of. But he knows his limits and that he can’t break the rules of the friends-with-benefits situation. So Cillian doesn’t choke you during sex, or slap you, or kiss you outside the bedroom- especially in public. He bites his tongue every time you do something that melts his heart. He refrains from saying those three little words every day. Cillian has no idea how much you wished he would break the rules just once or how you wished he’d say he loves you.

Something comes over you, though. You reach a hand up and cover Cillian’s that is on your neck and press his fingers into the sides of your throat. You sigh contently as your head becomes cloudy from the lack of blood flow to your head. Cillian stops rubbing your clit and takes your hand from over his, slipping his fingers between yours and pinning it in front of you.

You whimper in detest, and Cillian nips at the skin behind your ear, “Naughty thing. Don’t break your own rules, sweetheart.”

You sigh in defeat, but before you can pout, a moan rips through your chest. Cillian pushed your clave up into your thigh, thus making it easier for him to ram his cock against your cervix in a way that sends stars floating across your vision. Your hand squeezes his as you feel your release creeping up.

“I’m gonna cum,” you whisper, watching as Cillian’s length moves in and out of you quickly.

It was erotic yet romantic, him being so close to you and inside you. You and Cillian are now one, but you wish things were different.

“Good,” Cillian kisses the back of your neck, his nose drawing circles in your skin delicately.

You breathe deeply, feeling your stomach clench. You cry out Cillian’s name as you unravel, his fingers pressing to your clit. Your body trembles and shakes as he continues his assault on the bundle of nerves, still chasing after his own high as he keeps thrusting into you. Your back arches, toes curling as another wave of pleasure hits you.

“You’re doing so good, angel,” Cillian praises in your ear, “Taking my cock so well. I’m almost there, just hold on.”

The feeling of Cillian exploding inside you sends you over the edge for the third and final time. Stars erupt behind your eyelids, your body convulsing from pleasure. Your pussy clenches around him as he rides out his orgasm, panting in your ear. He almost doesn’t hear you say it. Almost.

“Fuck, I love you,” you whine quietly.

You gasp, immediately realizing what’s slipped from your mouth in a shroud of cloudy pleasure. But you hide your gasp as you catch your breath, inhaling and exhaling sharply. You pray to whatever is out there that Cillian didn’t hear you proclaim your feelings in a vulnerable moment.

Cillian grunts as he pulls out of you, letting your leg go limp and relax back on the bed. He keeps his hand entangled with yours. But you pull your grasp out of his, turning around and facing him. You hurriedly bury your face in his chest so you can’t look at him and see how he’s possibly reacting to your words. Cillian wordlessly wraps his arms around you, pulling you even closer to him. You fight the urge to cry at the silence of the dimly lit room as Cillian tugs the duvet over your sweaty, naked bodies. You try and steady your breath and keep your heart from racing.

“Can you say it again?” Cillian finally asks after several minutes of dead silence.

You lift your head from his chest, looking at him confused, “Say what?”

Cillian looks at you seriously before lifting his hand to touch your face gingerly, “What you said a moment ago.”

“You didn’t hear that, did y-”

“I did. But I want you to say again.”

Tears brim your eyes as you feel heaviness in your chest- will he make fun of you? Did you just ruin everything?

You let out a choked sob, hiding your face in his neck, “I love you. I fucking love you. There, I said it,” you slam your fist against his chest. “Feel free to hate me, but it’s true.”

“I could never hate you, gorgeous,” Cillian pulls away from you, his hands grabbing your cheeks so you’re looking directly at him.

His eyelashes flutter against your cheekbones, much like they did the first time you kissed him weeks ago. You blink away your tears, but Cillian wipes them away with his thumbs.

“I love you too,” Cillian confesses, “I love you so much. You know that?”

Your lips tremble as you nod, but Cillian presses his forehead against yours, and you try to ground yourself. He loves you. Cillian loves you back. Cillian kisses your lips gently as if he’d break you. You grasp his hair, kissing him back passionately.

“I love you,” you say, pulling away from his lips and kissing his eyelids instead.

“I love everything about you,” you brush your lips across his cheeks, then kiss his nose, “Your angel kisses. Your beautiful eyes. Everything about you. I wasn’t lying when I said you’re perfect.”

Cillian laughs, and you melt at his smile.

“You,” Cillian says, “Are everything to me. Everything that brings me joy, everything that makes me happy.”

You wrap your arms around Cillian’s neck, pulling him close to you as you tuck your face into his neck.

“Never let go,” Cillian says, his arms snaking around your waist and holding you close.

“I won’t,” you say, a heaviness lifting from your chest at last, “I never will.”

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intersexbookclub · 6 months

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Discussion summary: Left Hand of Darkness

Published in 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness is a classic in science fiction that explores issues of sex/gender in an alien-yet-human society where the aliens are just like us except in how they reproduce. These aliens, the Gethenians, can reproduce as either male or female. They spend most of their lives sexually undifferentiated. Once a month, they go into heat (“kemmer”) and their sexual organs activate as either male or female (it’s essentially random).

Here's a summary of the discussions we had on 2023-08-25 and 2023-09-01 about the book:

HIGH LEVEL REACTONS

Michelle (@scifimagpie): even though it was written by a cis straight perisex woman there is a queerness to the writing that feels true and that she nailed. There is a queerness to the soul of this book that still holds up, that's true and good, and I cannot but love and respect that.

Elizabeth (@ipso-faculty): this book is such a commentary on 1960s misogyny. Genly is a raging misogynist. It takes a whole prison break and crossing the arctic for Genly to realize a woman or androgyne can be competent 👀

Dimitri: [Having read just the first half of the book] I wonder if it keeps happening, if Genly keeps going "woaaaah" [to the Gethenians’ androgyny] or if he ever acclimates. It's been half the novel my guy

vic: yeah a book where a guy is destroyed by seeing a breast makes me want queer theory

vic: [it also] makes me feel good to see how much has changed [since the 1960s]

THE INTERSEX STUFF

A thing we appreciated about the book was how being intersex is contextual. The main character of the book, Genly Ai, is a human from a planet like Earth, who visits Gethen to open trade and diplomatic relations.

On his home planet, and to Earth sensibilities, Genly is perisex - he is able to reproduce at any time of the month and is consistently male.

But on Gethen, Genly becomes intersex. On Gethen, the norm is that you only manifest (and can reproduce as) a given sex during the monthly kemmer (heat/oestrus) period.

The Gethenians understand Genly as living in “permanent kemmer”, which is described as a common (intersex) condition, and these people are hyper-sexualized and referred to as Perverts.

At this point it’s worth noting that depiction is not the same as endorsement. Michelle pointed out the book is very empathetic to those in permanent kemmer. LeGuin does not appear to be endorsing the social stigma faced by these people, merely depicting it, and putting a mirror to how our own society treats intersex people.

Throughout the book, Genly is treated as an oddity by the Gethenians. He is hyper sexualized. He undergoes a genital inspection to prove he is who he says he is.

When Genly is sent to a prison camp and forcibly given HRT, he does not respond “normally” to the hormones, the effects are way worse for him, and the prison camp staff don’t care, and keep administering them even if it’ll kill him.

Two of us have had the experience of having hyperandrogenism and being forced onto birth control as teenager, and relating to the sluggishness of the drugs that Genly experienced, as well as the sense that gender/sex conformity was more important to authority figures (parents, doctors) than actual health and well-being.

Another scene we discussed the one where Genly is in a prison van en route to the gulag, and a Gethenian enters kemmer and wants to mate with him and he declines. He is given multiple opportunities over the course of the book to try having sex with a Gethenian, and declines every time, and we wondered if he avoided it out of trauma of being hyper-sexualized & hyper-medicalized & having had his genitals inspected.

We discussed the way he described his genital inspection through a trauma lens, and how it interacts with toxic masculinity - in vic’s terms, Genly being "I am a manly man and I have don't trauma"

Those of us who read the short story, Coming of Age in Karhide, noted that once the world was narrated from a Gethenian POV, the people in permanent kemmer were treated far more neutrally, which gave us the impression that Genly as an unreliable narrator was injecting some intersexism along with his misogyny

WHY IT MATTERS TO READ THIS BOOK THROUGH AN INTERSEX LENS

Elizabeth: I’ve encountered critiques of this book from perisex trans folks because to them the book is committing biological essentialism, and dismissing the book as a result. I think they’re missing that this book is as much about (inter)sex as it is about gender. I think they’re too quick to dismiss the book as being outdated or having backwards ideas because they’re not appreciating the intersex themes.

Elizabeth: The intersex themes aren’t exactly subtle, so it kind of stings that I haven’t seen any intersex analyses of this book, but there are dozens (hundreds?) of perisex trans analyses that all miss the huge intersex elephants in the room.

Also Elizabeth: I’ve seen this book show up in lists of intersex books/characters made by perisex people, and I’ve seen Estraven listed as intersex character, and it gets me upset because Estraven isn’t intersex! Estraven is perisex in the society in which he lives. Genly is the intersex character in this story and people who misunderstand intersex as being able to reproduce as male & female (or having quirky genitals smh) are completely missing that being intersex is socially constructed and based on what is considered typical for a given species.

WHAT THE BOOK DOESN’T HANDLE WELL

The body descriptions. As Dmitri put it: “ Like "his butt jiggled and it reminded me of women" ew. It was intentional but I had to put the book down. It reminded me of transvestigators and how they take pictures of people in public.” 🤮

Not pushing Genly to reflect on how weird he is about other people’s bodies. We all had issues with how Genly is constantly scrutinizing the bodies of other humans to assess their gender(s) and it’s pretty gross.

vic asked: “how much of this is her reproducing violence without her knowing it? A thing I didn't like was how he always judging and analyzing people's bodies and realizing others treat him that way. And I wish there was more of his discomfort about this, that it made him feel icky.”

Dimitri added: “I really wanted him to have a moment of this too, for him to realize how much it sucks to be treated this way. As a trans person it's so uncomfortable. What are you doing going around doing this to people?”

Using male pronouns as default/ungendered pronouns. Élaina asked why Genly thinks a male pronoun is more appropriate for a transcendent God and pointed out there’s a lot to unpack there.

OTHER POSITIVES ABOUT THE BOOK

Genly’s journey towards respecting women, that he still had a ways to go by the end of the book. vic pointed out how “LeGuin was straight, and she loves men, and is kinda giving them the side-eye [in this book]. Her writing about how Genly is childish makes me really happy. It’s kind of hilarious to watch him bang his head against the wall because he’s so rigid.”

To which Dmitri added: “I agree with the bit on forgiving men for stuff. I don't know how she [LeGuin] does it but she really lays it all out. She gives you a platter of how men are bad at things, how they make mistakes that are pretty specific to them. She has prepared a buffet of it.”

Autistic Estraven! As Michelle put it: “autistic queer feels about Estraven speaking literally and plainly and Genly not getting it”

The truck chapter. Hits like a pile of bricks. We talked about it as a metaphor for the current pandemic.

The Genly x Estraven slowburn queerplatonic relationship

The conlang! Less is more in how it gets used

MIXED REACTIONS

The Foretelling. For some it felt unnecessary and a bit fetishy. For others it was fun paranormal times.

Pacing. Some liked how the book really forces you to really contemplate as you go. Others struggled with a pace that feels very slow to 2023 readers.

WORKS WE COMPARED THE BOOK TO

Star Trek (the original series) - we wondered if LHOD and Genly Ai were progressive by 1960s standards, and TOS came up as a comparison point. We were all of the impression that TOS was progressive for its time but all of us find it pretty misogynist by our standards. The interest in extra-sensory perception (ESP) is something that was a staple of TOS that feels very strange to contemporary viewers and also cropped up in LHOD

Ancillary Justice - for being a book where characters’ genders are all ambiguous but the POV character is actually normal about how they describe other characters’ bodies.

The Deep - for being another book in a situation where being able to reproduce as male and female is the norm. The Deep was written by an actually intersex author, and doesn’t have the cisperisex gaze of scrutinizing every body for sex. But oddly LHOD actually winds up feeling more like a book about intersex people, because it features a character who is the odd one out in a gonosynic society. In contrast, nobody is intersex in the Deep - everybody matches the norms for their species, which makes the intersex themes in the work much more subtle.

Overall, as vic put it, “there's something to be said about an honest depiction that's not great, especially when there's no alternatives”. For a long time there weren’t many other games in town when it came to this sort of book, and even though some things now feel dated, it’s still a valuable read. We’d love to see more intersex reviews & analyses of the book!

#intersex book club #book summaries #book reviews #left hand of darkness #the left hand of darkness #ursula k. le guin #intersex books #intersex literature #queer books #queer literature #queer fiction #queer scifi #intersex

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gffa · 10 months

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Ahsoka's place in SW can be a complicated thing, because I feel both things about her--I too am often frustrated by how Filoni writes her, but I too am also grateful that her character exists and isn't the "default" straight white cis dude character. (Though, I do wish she were played by someone other than RD because of All That.)

Ahsoka got so much flak when she first appeared, people hated her just for existing, for daring to take up any space in the Star Wars story, and then she swung around to being nearly put on a pedestal by a large chunk of the fandom, she was lionized pretty heavily in some corners, and I think we're now going through the further growing pains of backlash against the hype, especially because Ahsoka is in the position of often being used as a bludgeon against the Jedi.

To be honest, I don't see nearly as much criticism of Ahsoka's character as I do for other popular characters, I see far more of Obi-Wan and Anakin and Yoda, but maybe that's just the sphere of experience I have, but I see that criticism balanced out with a ton of fic, art, and positive commentary about her. And it makes me wonder if she's in that awkward spot of not quite as central to the story as the movie characters, but more important than almost any other SW character (in the sense of any one character ever being able to be more "important" than another, you know what I mean) where we haven't quite settled into a stable balance of how to approach her character.

So, she's high level enough now that she can take some people being critical of her character or even just flat-out not being kind to her, because she has so much support from the story itself and from all across the fandom, even as honestly I haven't seen much that's been notably mean to her character. Sure, I see a few posts talking about how Ahsoka is Filoni's Blorbo, but are they truly more common than the posts that are celebrating her character? Genuinely wondering, because that hasn't been my experience. (Honestly, I would say Qui-Gon fans have it worse, given that he's another of Filoni's Blorbos, just without the added bonus of actually having anything fun to counter balance it, where even the people who say he was a True Jedi don't really care about Qui-Gon, you know? There's no skits, no commentary, etc. Just a handful of fic authors who are quietly doing their own thing and being the good in the world they want to see.)

At the same time, I get what you're feeling, that it feels uncomfortable to be critical of a female character, especially one who is played by a WOC, especially in a fandom that is pretty fucking vicious towards female characters having anything to actually do in the story. That the criticism of Ahsoka's character/status as Filoni's Blorbo isn't always fair or considerate, because people are frustrated and SW fandom wears all our nerves down to the last.

I'm not really sure where I land with all of this, because I get both sides, the frustration and the affection both, and I think there needs to be space for both in fandom just because we can't police other people's reactions to stuff. It's hard to continue liking her when she's being pitted against your faves, it's hard to be kind to Jedi fans when they're frustrated because she's being used as a bludgeon against their faves, it's hard to just walk away from people ignoring that Ahsoka is really meaningful to a lot of people because she's a non-romance-focused female character coded as/played by a woman of color, it's hard not to feel like Ahsoka's such a popular character that she can take a few people on tumblr not liking her.

My best advice is to just keep loving Ahsoka in the way that you think will attract the other friends you want to have around you--like, for me, when I talk about Anakin, I often try to do so in a way that's affectionate towards him and the Jedi, how much they loved him and how much I think he loved them in returned, because that's who I want to gravitate towards in fandom, those who like both. I try to do the same with Qui-Gon now and again, when I start getting frustrated by how he's used to bludgeon the Jedi, I start going HEY GUESS WHAT I'M EMOTIONS ABOUT HOW MUCH QUI-GON LOVED HIS JEDI FAMILY and it makes me feel better! I would love to see more people do the same with Ahsoka! Prop her up by appealing to how much she loves other characters, too! Like, every time I get frustrated at the way some of fandom treats her, I remember SHE WANTED TO GO BACK TO THE JEDI, SHE LOVED THEM, and I'm like THAT IS MY GIRL I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE IS SO BRAVE TO STRUGGLE THROUGH ALL THIS AND STILL FIND THE LOVE IN HER HEART.

Or sometimes, like with Bo-Katan, I like to lean into them being a hot mess because yessssssss I love a hot mess of a lady because I am a hot mess of a lady and Felt That. I hope Ahsoka gets to be all kinds of deliciously fucked up in her series and making mistakes and learning and being interesting and working her way back to the surface from her own depths because she is SUCH a strong character and deserves to be crunchy as hell/have bite as a character, like HOW MANY YEARS did she stew in her guilt about Anakin, refusing to let it go? How long did she hold onto that fear, so much that even the Force had to smack her in the face to try to make her let it go on Lothal? GIRL, I AM CRYING FOR YOU, YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH, LET ME GET YOU SOME SOUP AND I HOPE THE FORCE-GHOSTS ALL COME BOTHER YOU TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE EATING ENOUGH, because I love a character that has bite.

This kind of got away from me, but that's usually where I end up when trying to wrap my head around the frustration of a character's place in fandom. I get why people are frustrated with the way Filoni writes her, but also the frustration of feeling like the important representation of her character sometimes gets lost in the shuffle, that both sides have validity, and my best way out of this is to double down on loving everyone in this bar.

#ahsoka tano #meta #rosario dawson #<--blacklisting tag

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sevcasejay1chicago · 6 months

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I still…. Kelly Severide

Summary: After six months apart, you finally break.

Warnings: mentions of fights, arsonists, and drinking.

Authors note: COMPLETELY based off a prompt list from @dumplingsjinson

Walking into Molly’s always felt like coming home. Though there were some new faces, you recognize many of the patrons from Firehouse 51, Med, and the Intelligence Unit. You had volunteered to go undercover on a four month assignment. Previously, you had been partnered with Jay Halstead, who now works with Hailey Upton. Hailey had been your contact since she was brand new, meaning nobody would know she was part of intelligence. She freely came in and out of your UC house, frequently spending time with you to make sure you were safe and staying sane.

Though four months turned into 6 months, when this opportunity came along, you thought it was nothing short of a blessing. You had just had your heart broken and you were looking forward to getting the hell away from him, but his shadow still lurked around every corner of your mind. Then again, it’s practically impossible to forget someone like Kelly Severide.

The memory of that night came flooding back as you and Kelly locked eyes for the first time in six months.

———

You just arrived home from work. It had been a rough day to say the least. Squad 3 had been on a call with intelligence. The arsonist was target the intelligence unit, mainly you and Jay due to the perp being a old CI that felt he got a bad rap. Kelly decided to throw the guy to the ground when he started yelling and spitting at you as Kevin was attempting to haul the guy to the squad car to pat him down before cuffing him.

Kelly jumped the guy, bringing Kev and the perp down with him. Kelly got a few good hits in before most of Squad finally got him off. Of course, you burst into tears as the weight of the day and the realization of what Kelly had just done made itself clear to you. Jay wrapped you in his arms and ushered you away before Kelly could get a word in.

You hadn’t been home for more than 5 minutes when someone pounded on your door. You grabbed your gun from the dresser and crept to the door, quietly looking through the peephole to see who the hell was banging on your door. Of course, it was Kelly.

You breathed a sigh of relief and slowly opened the door. “Hey Kel.” You whispered, tucking your gun in your waist band.

Kelly walked past you, not meeting your eyes. “We need to talk.”

You nodded, though Kelly still wouldn’t look at you. “I agree.” You whispered, moving to sit on the couch. “What you did today. That can’t happen.” You said, getting straight to the point.

“What?” Kelly said, lifting his eyes to meet yours, his face red as he silently seethed.

“I don’t need you taking down a suspect when we had it under control. Kev HAD him. You didn’t need to jump him just for yelling and spitting at me.” You shook your head. “It was embarrassing to say the least.”

Kelly threw his hands up before running one down his face. “I was standing up for you. I stood up for you. Then you went to Halstead and left with him without a second glance my way.” Kelly shouted, starting to pace as he spoke.

“What are you saying Kelly?!” You yelled back, pissed at his clear accusation.

“Do you like Jay or something? Cause it sure as hell seems like you want him more than me.” Kelly snapped, whirling around to face you head on.

You shook your head. “Oh hell no. After everything I put up with at the beginning of this relationship. The rumors of you being with other woman and having to build my trust in YOU. Now YOUR accusing ME of cheating on you with my partner who had to get me out of there because I was having a panic attack?! But NO you were too busy getting out of control and taking down Kev and the suspect.” You shook your head. “Get out Kelly. Just go. This is done. IM done.” You shouted, tears streaming down your face as you stood.

Kelly deflated, realizing he messed up. He knows about your struggles with anxiety and he knows that this case had been weighing on you and stealing your sleep. Hell, you had stayed at the firehouse multiple nights just to feel safe, sleeping in Kelly’s office while he did paperwork or snuggled up with him in between calls.

“Y/n.” Kelly whispered, coming closer to take you in his arms.

“No.” You shook your head, stepping around him and holding the door open for him. “Please. Just go.”

———

Now, six months later, you find yourself relieved to see that Kelly doesn’t have a girl wrapped in his arms. You have been replaying that night over in your head since the day you left. You’ve been hoping to get this opportunity, and it’s finally here.

You strode over to him, greeting everyone else at the table, before pulling him out to the patio. Kelly sat down, waiting as you downed two shots and then grabbed your favorite drink before sitting across from him.

“First, I need to get something off my chest before we really talk. I just need you to listen, okay?” You asked, not continuing until you got a nod. “I tried to forget you and us when I left, but I couldn’t. I-I can’t. I-I tried to get you out of my mind, thinking there was no way you still had me in yours. I still have your number memorized like the back of my hand. I dialed it many times while I was away, but it- it just didn’t feel right to say any of this over the phone. All I could think about was you. I still remember how you taste, t-the curve of you under my palms; every curve, and every line.” you stopped to catch your breath, tracing the lines in the palm of your hand as you spoke.”I still smell traces of you on my pillows. Your smell ingrained in the fabric, but mostly faded as these months went by. I still remember your little quirks,” you giggled,” which I still find so endearing, even though you find them annoying. I still remember our inside jokes and they kept me laughing through all the tough days. I still remember your favorite songs, the ones we used to sing out loud after you got over your embarrassment in being caught; those were on repeat when I needed to dance it out. I still remember your smile. The soft quirk to it. Like the one your wearing right now. I mean, how could I not? It was the brightest thing in my life.” you smiled sadly and took another deep breath to reign in your emotions before continuing. ”I still remember how you sound. Your sweet voice that you hated listening to when I recorded it, but it kept me afloat. I remember how you were there for me through thick and thin. I still remember how you would be there for me no matter what. I remember how our love was unconditional, un-Until it wasn’t.” you wiped a few tears before continuing. ”I remember that last fight, when everything went down hill. I still don’t fully understand it, b-but I’m trying.” you rushed to add.” I still think about you. Day in and day out. I-I still miss you. I still want you. I still n-need you.” You paused, wiping your tears away to see him clearly as you said,” I-I still love you.” You finished, breathing deep and trying to stay in control so that you wouldn’t break down sobbing.

Kelly sat through your whole speech, tears burning the back of his eyes as he watched you. He could see the difference this undercover op made in you. You were still you, but something bad happened to you while you were under. He could see it.

Kelly stood, smiling sadly as he approached you. He sat down, taking you into his arms as you finally broke down. “I still love you too sweetheart.” Kelly whispered, rocking you back and forth once you got yourself situated in his lap. “Shhhhh. I’ve got you now. It’s over. I’m so sorry. I love you.”

@alicexvrose

#one chicago #one chicago x reader #kelly severide #fluff #kelly severide x reader #prompt list story #hurt/comfort #Jay Halstead mentioned #Hailey Upton mentioned #Kevin Atwater mention

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tenpintsof-sundrop · 12 days

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hi love ur fics just finished all criminal minds related!

do u have a fic rec tag or masterpost? I find when I finish someone's masterlist their recs are the next best thing

I have been considering making a fic rec post for Criminal Minds (I guess this is gonna be it lmao)

my rec tag is #sundrop's recs - and here is a link to see it in my archive (that link will work better on the desktop version of Tumblr). and I do also have a lot of recs in my AO3 bookmarks if you filter by Spencer Reid or by Criminal Minds

here are some of my favourite fics from that tag

Good Decoration by @stairain -> one of the fics I have read mostly recently because it popped up on my dash, and it is absolutely fucking phenomenal. I love how there's no explicit relationship between Spencer and the reader, and it is a one-sided fantasy/attraction on Spencer's part - I feel like so many people are afraid to write from Spencer's POV because they are not a cis man and they feel like they can't place themselves in a cis man's shoes when it comes to writing about sex and masturbation, but this kind of fic just goes to show that a little imagination can go a long way in creating a fucking amazing fic with some top tier smut. the whole point of writing is imagining someone else's perspective, and this author shows off that skill so well. 10/10 amazing

Daddy's Home by @demonicbaby666 -> this is another fucking fantastic fic. when I read it, I was immediately struck by the pure artistry behind it - the way the author put such careful word choice into every moment, and the way they use such beautiful words to pain a picture of rough, feral, needy sex - I love the contrast of verbal poetry being used to describe such desperate, passionate moments. it's one of my favourite types of smut. the writer does such a good job revealing a side of JJ that I never would have written myself, and that is also something I love about fics - reading something that you would have never thought to write. excellent, 10/10.

Sweater Weather by @sreidisms -> the fic that inspired me to become mututals with the lovely Clementine. I always love any kind of plus sized representation in fics, and the fact that this fic was ?? inspired by me speaking up about the frustration of skinny centric tropes in fics. oomf. I love being able to inspire others in their writing, especially when it comes to representation and postivity. and not only that - this fic is CUTE. I rarely read straight up fluff fics, but I love this one omg. 15/10 (with some bias, yes). amazing

Tempting The Cowboy by @incognit0slut -> this is typically not the kind of fic that I would seek out for myself to read, but me and Star were memeing in tiktok DMs about 'Cowboy Spencer', and then pretty much immediately after that, I opened Tumblr and this popped up on my dash, and I thought it was fate? so I was like 'okay, I have to check this out'. and beyond the (wonderful) gimmick of following the 'what if' - Spencer becoming a cowboy after he leaves the BAU (which is just such an amazing concept to me, like you didn't just use the visuals to write a Western AU, you actually followed what he said he would do in the show) - this is such an amazing fic. the chemistry between the two characters is amazing, Spencer actually feels natural in this role, and this smut is phenomenal. and this is fic will stick with me in my mind forever because you made it so memorable. 10/10, excellent and really memorable.

#anonymous #sundrop answers #sundrop's recs #fanfiction #criminal minds fanfiction

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iamafanofcartoons · 1 year

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RWBY is a good show, and I’m tired of people pretending its not!

I’m sorry, I’m just so tired of all these random claims that RWBY is “boring anime cliche” or “racist white male writing”, So...let’s go over them in segments

Female characters:

Aren’t walking fanservice shots and aren’t sexualized

Aren’t degraded in their field (combat, tactics, dust usage, etc) to boost up male characters (cause seemingly female characters being too skilled at something is emasculating to incels)

When a woman says no to a man, the man takes no for an answer and doesn’t keep trying. (So dear Hbomberguy, stop claiming that Weiss x Jaune was ever a thing)

Women don’t require a man to “Defend their honor” (This is in response to the dude who harassed me in anonymous about V5 who was upset that Yang punched a creep)

Aren’t woobified or emotionally weakened, instead having reactions to things like normal human beings. (Sorry Shonen anime which loves to make women woobified or emotionally weakened vs men) Being capable of emotions but also doing things effectively.

Aren’t made into waifu for male characters. Nora is still a badass and even being allowed to explore who she is outside of Ren, which runs against the usual anime/manga bs. Weiss didn’t get with Jaune after finding out he helped w/ Neptune. Blake actually defended her boundaries when Sun crossed certain lines (even though they’re brotp not romantic, he’s a male character that could’ve been put as a pseudo-love interest). Yang is also shown to be more than just Blake’s GF as we see in Ruby Yang interactions, Yang vs Salem, Yang ageeing to talk with Robyn. They’re all their own characters not trying to be the perfect wife for a male character.

LGBT+ characters:

aren’t in a world of “everyone is gay or straight”, so for me at least coming across as more impactful

have Ilia (lesbian); Coco (lesbian); Terra (wlw) and Saphron (wlw) also married and w/ kid that aren’t treated different to any other couple; Scarlet (gay-male); Nolan (implied, I think its at this point and not confirmed, mlm); May (non-deadnamed, voiced by and helped crafted with the help of a trans VA, and not having her trans status be the central element of her character trans character); Blake (bi) and Yang (wlw) that are a main pair that are being allowed to build to a relationship at the same pacing as the hetero alt. pairing. BB being naturally built up and not rushed into a relationship, though still soft-canon locked in via Nora.

Are ALL ALIVE (funny how the straight white male characters get killed off?)

PoC characters:

Includes Marrow, Pietro, Joanna, Flynt, Yatsuhashi, Lie Ren, and Robyn as default heroes side

Includes Emerald having switched to the heroes side after having it foreshadowed in v3. Also possibly Elm and Harriet, depending on where they go in the future.

includes Sienna, who was admittedly actual wasted potential, being contrasted against Adam as the morally better version of violence in activism. A controlled violence actually giving a shit rights activist leader vs. a co-opting murderous abusive bloodthirsty psychopathic terrorist.

are easily the lesser in villain count vs. Caucasian villains.

So can the RWDE please stop trying to claim how RWBY isn’t better than anime/manga at least, but overall “isn’t progressive” in these areas.

Adam Taurus represents a very real element in real life regarding “Radical civil rights movements” ; extremism and co-opters; While the actual faunus rights aspect on its own is given a sympathetic light repeatedly. We also have Ilia Amitola, the female POC lesbian, get a redemption. While Adam Taurus, the cis white male edgelord? Is Evil and gets his death by double penetration at the hands of two lesbians. (Edit: yes, I know Blake is Bi, as is her VA. It was an expression explaining how cis white male “authority” individuals get emasculated)

The WF has a lot of references, not specifically the Black Panther one. Also the WF on its own is fine, its the version that gets corrupted by Adam’s psychotic co-opting terrorist ass that is the problem.

Reflective of reality where if any group for any cause crosses into violence that involves innocent bystanders; then they lose any credibility and are nothing more than terrorists. I don’t care what the cause is. Which is exactly what the WF under Adam presents; but is just 1 vein of it with Sienna’s vein existing, Ghira’s, and even Blake’s. Was it handled perfectly? No, you could have easily have shaved time from Adam to give to Sienna and had her live to continue. Personally I found Sienna to be the actual wasted potential, but EruptionFang naturally loves cis white male evil men as his favorite Meow Meows. Don’t even try to recommend a gay or bisexual dude to rwby critics, they’ll flip and call it pandering.

The MC’s aren’t remotely “paper thin”, nor secondaries. Heck the only ones that fit that bill are characters in the tertiary vein that are supposed to be that way. The “two traits” falls apart if one actually pays attention to the characters.

And most fixit fanfics not only sexualize the characters in a show with no fanservice...

Sadly they also overfocus on male characters and have their favorite male characters talk down the female main characters.

Robyn Hill represents the people standing up NOT against the military, but against fascism/totalitarianism. We see that for all the “good intentions” that Ironwood MAY have? It is always sabotaged by him. Ironwood backstabs Ozpin, brings an Army as a show of force, does multiple projects behind people’s backs, and yet displays more than few acts of hypocrisy. Volume 7 literally showed him acting as a dictator because he believed that only he knew the answer to everyone’s problems. Yet the consequences of HIS actions are what led to Atlas Downfall. Yang and Blake even tried to get Robyn to work with Ironwood and Robyn was literally willing to do so. Which of course pissed off Ironwood stans that anyone, especially a POC hero of the people, would stand against a Cis White Male Authority figure. The elections in V7 meant that anyone’s authority could be challenged by the people. Of COURSE Ironwood stans REFUSE to acknowledge the election part was good.

The attempt to balance idealism with realism is pretty interesting. What do you do against an enemy with an unlimited army, immortality, and agents who seek to turn everyone against each other? Do you submit to the “inevitable?” Or do you keep fighting to the end, instead prolonging the end?

You can think of this as having borrowed a theme or two from dark souls!

RWBY is at the very least leaps and bounds beyond most anime it's close in genre with. I remember seeing, partially in jest, the idea that RWBY has half the fanbase it does for being an action anime with a female case and no fanservice and I think it might almost literally be true.

It is depressingly hard to find a decent action show with a female cast that doesn't sexualize them in gross ways. Even shows I like on the whole end up doing that.

Of course, the points regarding love are helped by the fact that a good chunk of the female cast is front and center in the story. They’re largely in the driver seat and aren’t secondary to any male titular protagonist. Thus you don’t get cases where a girl on the main cast is there to be… the girl.

In any other story, Oscar and/or Jaune would be front and center. Heck, the three creators of RWBY are guys before their team grew so you’d think they’d “write what they know.” Yet they stick to their guns on having girls get shit done.

One Anime a person I know felt came close to this was, if you can believe it, Fairy Tail where Natsu might’ve been the prominent ass kicker but Erza is the one effectively leader the team, Wendy goes on an arc of learning to love herself and Lucy grows into the wizard that leads the charge against Acnologia.

Yet it sent mixed signals with how the girls (those of age) had designs that left little to the imagination. I can appreciate an artist honest in his horniness… but the Anime did something right when it came to Erza’s torture in Tartaros that helped sell the gravitas of the traumatic experience.

RWBY feels like the above but far more refined in execution. There’s a time and place for schlocky cheesecake but not when it clashes with the narrative and themes overall.

So tell me...without using Hbomberguys’ repeated false information about the “love triangle” or “self-insert” slander...how would YOU respectfully criticize RWBY? How would you claim to be “a critic” yet still encourage people to watch RWBY?

If you try to bring up Hbomb’s 2.5 hour hate video, then anyone who tries to claim that a video from 2 years ago no longer is relevant is just being hypocritical. (Looking at you, RWDE Apologist, you know who you are)

Oh, one more thing. RWBY seasons 1-3 were the weakest in terms of writing and animation. But even so, the fact of the matter is that anything that happened in those seasons are ignored by critics, theorists, and straight shippers.

Material Inspired from https://www.tumblr.com/crimsonxe/691425946111295488/since-i-ran-across-a-dumbass-earlier-that-tried-to

#rwby #ruby rose #yang xiao long #monty oum #rooster teeth #rwby is enjoyable #rwby is a good show #Blake Belladonna #weiss schnee #adam taurus #sienna khan #fairy tail #erza #erza scarlet #team rwby #Oscar Pine #james ironwood #ironwood

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odinsblog · 7 months

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Holy shit, I can’t stop laughing. Like, on the one hand it IS funny af, but on the other hand, Republicans are chaos agents, and as January 6th and the aftermath has very clearly shown — they would gladly burn the entire country down to the ground if it meant a chance to hurt anyone who wasn’t a wealthy, cis/het, straight white Christian male.

And before anyone blames Democrats for not saving McCarthy, please remember this: McCarthy was in the process of cutting a deal with members of the extreme rightwing Freedom Caucus — to empower the far-right, and give them even more authority on key House committees, and more clout over social & military policy decisions. And after repeatedly stabbing Democrats in the back, and going back on his agreements because it angered the far-right, he wanted their help all in return for nothing?

Look, I have no idea who tf will replace him as House Speaker, but I dO know that whoever it ends up being, the GOP was on their way there already. Look at the Republicans who are angered, and who are defending McCarthy.

Can you imagine having the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene heading the Judicial Committee, or the House Ways and Means Committee? It was going to shit no matter what Democrats did, so they may as well have stood aside while the GOP self-destructed.

Unfortunately, it’s the entire country that will pay for Republicans — and not just “MAGA Republicans,” it’s all of them; there are no “good” Republicans — who are incapable of governing, or who do not want to govern.

#lol #politics #republicans #kevin mccarthy

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cock-holliday · 8 months

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Listen, I get being excited when people come out, I get speculating people’s genders and sexualities. I get that there are often seemingly so few of us that we are desperate for more community. I get that some people wish someone had nudged them sooner into realizing they were queer/trans. I get it.

AND people also have reasons for not coming out, or sometimes your clocking skills are shit!

The Wachowski sisters, icons of trans egg cracking metaphor, were OUTED against their wills! The kid from Heartstopper was outed against his will. Rebel Wilson came out before someone had the chance to out her. Nathan Lane was nearly outed in an interview he did alongside Robin Williams, and Williams diverted so he could stay closeted. Dozens of celebs and athletes and authors and politicians were outed and sometimes it destroyed their careers, put them in danger, or made a private matter a spectacle.

Of course, outing doesn’t just happen to celebs. My shitty ex-roommate was so sure my GNC friend was an egg and kept badgering him trying to get him to use they/them, constantly invalidating his identity. I know people who were outed among friends, whose parents found out, and got them kicked from home. I know well-meaning Uni advisors who didn’t think of the consequences and sent mail home to a name not recognized by that kid’s family. I’ve had people out me to strangers and immediately put me in difficult positions even though I am relatively open about my identity. The thing is, it is MY fucking choice.

It is their choice.

Sure, nudge someone in private. But if they tell you to fuck off, do. If they get super uncomfortable, lay off. Yeah, they might be in denial, maybe for good fucking reason. Or maybe you are wrong as shit about what their identity is.

Yeah, being forced into the closet sucks, that doesn’t make being forced out of the closet good either, even when you’re right that they’re queer/trans.

Create space for them to come out, let people come to you. Answer questions, drop hints, live your life so fully that people see they have options. I owe so much to queers I saw out and about in public but if each one of them said “hey you look like one of us” publicly I’d have crawled so far back into the closet.

Queers used to use code to ask if we shared kinship for a reason, and while visibility has dramatically increased that doesn’t mean safety always has. And it certainly doesn’t mean the messy grey between straight and gay disappeared, it doesn’t mean the messy grey between cis and trans disappeared. Sometimes you think you are opening someone up to a whole world but they already fucking know it.

Anyway,

#LJsm #people will look at bi people as a ‘gay in denial’#or nb folks as ‘trans in denial’#or gnc people as ‘trans in denial’

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dairy-farmer · 7 months

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Genuinely asking for advice on how to write smut. How do you write a scene so that it comes off as sensual and lewd but not in a way that sounds disgusting? I read your stuff and it's the best kind of pornographic. It feels like plucking a fruit from a tree and biting into it.

How can one strive to achieve something like that??

SOS please help me.

Smut is such an unattainable art form to me but i look at it longingly all the time.

wow thank you so much for your kind words about my writing!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ i will do my best to answer it!!

i think one of the first steps is figuring what type of smut you want to write-there's definitely different kinds of porn that you see in writing. some of it, despite the fact that it's porn, is like...grossly objectifying. that kind you can see plenty of examples of published in old straight cis male authors where they spectacularly fail at writing intimate scenes to the point you get second-hand embarrassment reading it.

so when you read a type of smut that you don't like a good tip is to figure out what exactly about the quality of writing puts you off. maybe it's their use of first person, excessive use of the word 'jiggle', or an outright refusal to call a cock a cock and using chaste words like 'rod' or 'shaft' which implies...embarrassment of the act occurring.

the thing is, when you write porn you need at least a little bit of shamelessness about it. otherwise, your reservations and hesitance about what's happening will enter into the writing and you won't be able to vividly paint the picture of what's happening.

i think in general for a lot of the smut i write i do put a lot of emphasis on one thing and that's providing as clear of a picture of what's happening as i can: sights, sounds, emotions, physical reactions.

a few years back i got a similar ask to this one about smut writing and i found that a lot of what i recommended then still rings true today so i'll include that below:

"the number one thing i think i do is try to use all the five senses by the end of the scene, describing in detail something they touch, see, taste, smell, and hear.

-where are they? what are they doing? how are they acting?

if they’re in public or scared of being caught, areand if under a time constraint and trying to get through it quickly they might whisper lowly to each other, so they’d have to lean in close to each other when that happens when that happens they might use one of their five senses smell cologne, or sweat, they might feel warm with the proximity, they might get ticklish from having someone whisper in their ear.

if they’re alone and have plenty of time to themselves they might be louder, more willing to yell or make sounds.

when it comes to avoiding repetition in both cases it might be better to disperse ‘telling’ and ‘showing’ writing like ‘he groaned’ versus an onomatopoeia like ‘hnnnng’ ‘ah ahhh hahhnn’ in which the sound indicates they are groaning/moaning. another thing you could do to sort of spice up the former would be to add a motion with the action like ‘he groaned into his mouth, he moaned into his shoulder, he whined against the pillow’

-where is their body? how is it doing?

a good way that i use to make sure their actions are consistent is thinking about their body placement and keeping track of where it is like how at one point lance was bent over a storage unit and with keith pushing him up he had to stand on his toes, it’s a small detail but gives off a sense of not being fully in control, not being able to find his footing and making it more that he was getting lost in the sensations.

if they’re on top they have more control, they control the pace, they can hold down hands, etc. on the bottom they might be more constricted, the amount of movement the have is limited so when they’re trying to express what they feel they might ‘writhe’ etc.

a way ive seen in all the great smut fics ive read is that the writing makes a lot of emphasis on the povs experience, basically trying to get the person reading into their state of mind, emotions, feel what they feel.

so in sex: are they out of breath? are their thighs sore? are they slipping and have to keep maintaining their footing? are they sore? if so where?

and then their bodily functions/condition: are they drooling? are they cold? are they hot? sweating? panting?

-how are they feeling/emotional connection?

another factor i feel is really important is emotions

depending on the ship, fic, situation, etc there might be no emotional attachment in which case it’s a matter of amplifying how the character feels physically.

for emotional connection: do their meet eyes? how does it feel when they do, do they take a second to stare and just absorb? what is the stare like? soft? tender? sweet? loving? hazy because they’re lost in lust?

there’s lots of ways to show emotional care, intertwining fingers during sex acts, stroking hair, sides, backs, cupping someones face in your hands, kisses, etc.

and then physically how their body is doing: in smut the focal point is whatever is giving or receiving pleasure,- in that case how does it feel?

it will differ depending on the action like if it’s penetration (different for fingers tongues, dildos, or dicks), blowjobs, going down on someone. each actions has certain things attached to it like they heat of a mouth, slickness or stickiness of saliva, flexibility of a tongue or fingers.

- the buildup

when i first started writing fan fiction i tried doing a lot of research into writing and things and ended up coming across lots of critique posts like people saying that anal without lube is a turn off for readers, that bad prep scenes in writing are no good, etc.

truth is, all that is really preference based and not actual valid critiques since they didn’t even offer alternatives or options for how to write differently.

buildup is like, implying certain actions i think. depending on pace you’ll either write out all the prep or if it’s more faster paced implied actions can also suffice.

like placing a sentence that’s like ‘he pulled the lube out from under the pillow’- that by itself is good enough for me in some cases because obviously if he’s pulling it out he’s going to use it, and everyone’s read 101 different ways how.

(**** also side not just to make sure, fanfic sex doesn’t have to be realistic, in most cases smut and sex in fanfiction is idealized and while adding elements of realism to fics is good and all it’s really a matter of personal choice and writing style it’s not necessarily a strict ‘you have to’ it’s okay to write slightly or completely unrealistic sex, plenty of people out there will like it either way****)

buildup is also trying to play up the feelings of horniness to the max (depending on the atosphere of the scene, it its more emotional it might be better to go slower and focus on actions rather than feelings of arousal)

and then finally

the finale/climax

in smut you’re building up towards the finale which is them orgasming or feeling some deeper emotional connection. this could precede the physical actions since something in a lot of cases catalyzes it like someone looking into someones eyes and feeling love which is followed by their release.

and this is, in my opinion, probably the hardest to pin down consistently in writing and a adore the people who’ve got it down pat. the feeling itself could be described ina variety of different ways:

- like heat, like sparks behind their eyelids, like shivers traveling down their spine, etc.

in additon to that are their other body reactions

-their toes curling, their hands gripping something in a white knuckle grip, biting down on their lip to muffle their sounds, gasping, squeezing their eyes shut, their eyes rolling to their back of their heads, crying, etc.

and after all this, if all else fails- porn is always a great reference. (sure a lot of it is acted up but it could serve as a good model if you’re really stuck)

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

hopefully this helped!!!"

#answered asks #asks #anonymous #smut help

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eternalglitch · 10 months

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Can you give us the name of those novelas that you bought please? 👀💖

Sure!! Note that I cannot say if they are actually good yet, as I have only just started reading Archive Undying. So if you pick it up and it's terrible do not blame me lolol

The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon:

WHEN AN AI DIES, ITS CITY DIES WITH IT WHEN A CITY FALLS, IT LEAVES A CORPSE BEHIND WHEN THAT CORPSE RUNS OFF, ONLY DEVOTION CAN BRING IT BACK When the robotic god of Khuon Mo went mad, it destroyed everything it touched. It killed its priests, its city, and all its wondrous works. But in its final death throes, the god brought one thing back to life: its favorite child, Sunai. For the seventeen years since, Sunai has walked the land like a ghost, unable to die, unable to age, and unable to forget the horrors he's seen. He's run as far as he can from the wreckage of his faith, drowning himself in drink, drugs, and men. But when Sunai wakes up in the bed of the one man he never should have slept with, he finds himself on a path straight back into the world of gods and machines. The Archive Undying is the first volume of Emma Mieko Candon's Downworld Sequence, a sci-fi series where AI deities and brutal police states clash, wielding giant robots steered by pilot-priests with corrupted bodies. Come get in the robot.

(glitch note: I started reading this one and I am obsessed so far. Pacific Rim and Evangelian vibes. Does have a LOT of cussing and mentions sex not an insignificant amount, so warning if that's not for you, but the characters so far and world building are very fun.)

Translation State by Ann Leckie:

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". It's the type of behavior that results in elimination. But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat attempting to hunt down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him. As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Dragonfall by L. R. Lam:

Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the 'gods' remember, and they do not forgive. Since they were orphaned, Arcady has scraped a living thieving on the streets of Vatra, dreaming of life among the nobility - and revenge. When the chance arises to steal a powerful artefact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history, they jump at it, for its magic holds the key to their dreams. But the spell has unintended consequences, and drags Everen - the last male dragon, who was once foretold to save his kind - into the human world. Trapped, and disguised as a human, Everen soon realises that the key to his destiny, and to regaining his true power, lies in Arcady. All he needs to do is convince one little thief to bond with him completely - body, mind, and soul - and then kill them . . . Yet the closer the two become, the greater the risk both their worlds will shatter.

(glitch note: lots of reviews mention sexy dragons which admittedly I am a little nervous about because that kind of romance can be very much not my cup of tea, but I believe the author is not cis and the main character is gender fluid so I decided to give it a read anyways... Maybe I'll be surprised with how the romance goes.)

#glitch answers #book recs

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victimsofyaoipoll · 10 months

Text

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Casca

She is part of a weird fucked up love triangle with two dudes. All three of them are honestly kind of terrible for each other but she gets shoved aside in favor of the two dudes in most fics and is not allowed to grow past the toxic relationships of her past. Also she’s a cis woman who dresses pretty masculinely (because she’s in a mercenary band) so she gets type casted as the mean lesbian friend, when she’s straight in canon

Probably an instance of this being taken to canon, as Griffith (Traitor) tortures her to victimize Guts (protag), because Griffith's psychosexual desires to control everyone, especially Guts. Fandom types side with Griffith because he is an attractive white boy.

She's an incredibly interesting character in her own right with really good dynamics and parallels to Griffith and Guts, and the way those three play off of each other is integral to the story, but most of what I've seen completely ignores her in favor of focusing on only Griffith and Guts

Shiv Roy

She's honestly kind of a canonical victim of yaoi almost. She and her husband Tom have a loveless marriage but never end up getting divorced. Tom has a weird psychosexual obsession with Shiv's cousin Greg and at one point literally compares them all to the time Emperor Nero pushed his wife down the stairs and then castrated and married a slave boy named Sporus (Tom is unwell). Anyway the show just ended and long story short Tom is now CEO of Shiv's family's evil company and she is reduced to being his pregnant wife (which is the result of her voting not to authorize either of her brothers as CEO in order to save them from themselves) and Tom made another weird comment about literally owning Greg. And now people who ship Tom and Greg are like "omg it's canon we won" but I don't. Think that they did. Sorry I'm rambling it was just a really good finale idek if this counts but

I will be honest I'm not really tuned into the tomgreg fandom, but tons of people wanted tom to leave shiv and get with greg and tons of people thought shiv was the devil incarnate and refused to see any nuance in her character and I don't think those two things are a coincidence.

She gets a lot of hate from fans, largely just for being a woman who reacts in a non pretty way to abuse and for doing the exact same shitty stuff her brothers do. But also a large part of the hate she gets comes from the people who ship her husband with her cousin. To the point where people claim she's abusing her husband who views her as an accessory, a baby factory, and a ticket to money. Don't get me wrong, their relationship is incredibly toxic and unhealthy, but it is so on both of their parts. But Shiv's the only one who gets criticized for it

#poll #shiv roy #succession #casca #casca berserk #berserk #round 1

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akatsuki-shin · 4 months

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Hi, @akatsuki-shin thanks so much for sharing your wonderful fanfics. I love to read them...🤩

I found your blog, cause I saw a lot of your JJK posts. Then I realized that you're also the author of quite a lot my favorite fanfics (sorry for being late in realizing it)....

Wow, now that you mentioned it, one of my twitter moot also like to post paralell between SatoSugu and HuaLian, somehow I felt it's not quite fit to their dynamics, and you worded them perfectly....

After reading your previous ask, do you mind if I ask you danmei questions? Can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from 'X'? And why you loved them? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the novel? Thanks if you want to answer and sorry for the long ask....

'X' can be Qiang Jianjiu, Can Ci Pin or Mo Du, feel free to pick either one that you want to answer....

Aaaahhh thank you so much for reading my fics! 🥺 Hopefully I can post in the future for you to read hahaha

Yeah, I mean, for a ship to be similar to SatoSugu, I think one of them has to at least give off that Mom vibe like Suguru. Ngl, if Gojo were to marry Geto, he's not only going to get himself a wife but a Mom, as well, because he can be pretty childish and unhinged while Geto is there to make sure he doesn't run off somewhere. 😂

For your question, I'll go with Qiang Jinjiu.

My favorite character is definitely Shen Lanzhou. He's so pretty and smart. If he weren't so sickly, he would've been super strong when it comes to fighting. I love the fact that despite him often being looked down due to his looks and status, he ends becoming the most fearsome character in the story. Like, if you slight Ce'an, you may get off with just a few punches from him, but if you slight Lanzhou, you'll probably disappear that very same day. 😂

Next one is Xiao Ce'an. I love to see his change from wanting to kill Lanzhou on first sight then ended up becoming the most dedicated and loyal lover as the story progressed. Considering how precious Lanzhou is to me, I kinda share Ce'an's adoration for him and it just makes me happy to see him trying to spoil Lanzhou in every way.

For the third place, I'm not sure if I should say Papa Xiao Fangxu or Qi Zhuyin. They both definitely have a special place in my heart because of how strong and cool they are. Maybe I'll put Papa Xiao on 3rd and General Qi on 4th because I really love how we can see Xiao Fangxu's personality in Ce'an, especially with the way they both love and adore their partner. Qi Zhuyin is super awesome, though. Despite everyone's doubt on her as a woman, she proved to be a great and strong general (I think her troops are the most crucial there because she leads, like, 300thousand soldiers or something?).

I think it's pretty weird to put this one as a favorite character, but for some reason, I really love Ce'an's horse, Lang Tao Xue Jin. This horse always has the coolest description whenever it shows up and it's so funny when CeZhou had sex that night while riding the horse. The poor thing, LMAO. Also love Meng the gyrfalcon. I love them both. <3

As for my favorite moment, my number one is definitely when Ce'an resurrects the Libei Armored Cavalry after his father's death, that battle when they caught the Scorpions off-guard bytheir weapons and tactics upgrade in winter and pushes them all down to the Chasi Sink Hole. What I love the most about QJJ is how cinematic the battle scenes are and that one, followed by how Lanzhou desperately jumps into the sink hole to chase after Ce'an like a scene straight out of his nightmare is so uuurrgggghhhhhh 😭😭😭

Next one is the huge decisive battle with Hassen. Like, man, I didn't think I sleep at all until I finished that entire arc until Ce'an came and finished Hassen for good. From the very start when the invasion has just begun, to when the old commander (Yin Chang?) sacrificed himself outside the gate, when Fei Sheng rode all the way to lit the tower, when Tantai Hu came with reinforcement, and when Ce'an shot his arrow right before Hassen killed Lanzhou. I truly have no words; that must be the coolest battle scene I've read in my whole life.

The third one goes back a bit further to the earlier part when Lanzhou lets Ce'an go and locks him out of the city gate, so he could confront the guy who killed his teacher (Han Cheng, I think). But then Fei Sheng opened the gate for him and let Ce'an brought Lanzhou with him. That was so intense and the following hurt/comfort scene is just heartbreaking aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I'm not sure what to put as my fourth and fifth favorite scenes because there are so many interesting scenes throughout the story. I do remember two scenes that I still remember to this day.

One is when Qi Zhuyin's vice commander(?) sincerely told her that even if nobody were to remember her after this, then he would be the one to always light a candle for her, and after his death he would make sure his children continue to do the same. Qi Zhuyin really deserved that recognition after all her struggles and this show of sincere loyalty really just strikes me in my weakest point hhhhhhhhh

The other one is when Lu Yizhi came to visit Lanzhou to see what kind of man his brother-in-law has fallen in love with, but Lanzhou has no idea about it at all. And then at the end, Fei Sheng inadvertently opened the gift Lu Yizhi left for Lanzhou and went "mother of god it's a dowry" or something. xD

#danmei #qiang jin jiu #qiang jinjiu #qjj #shen lanzhou #xiao ce'an #shen zechuan #xiao chiye #cezhou

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ganymedesclock · 1 year

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Very good points with the last post, but I was thinking more about when a protagonist who is Hated by society for any reason gains power and influence and absolutely nothing changes about how people treat them to the point where you can feel the hand of the author. And then the protagonist gets Glorious Revenge on the people who hurt them or were disrespectful to them in any measure with their new cool powers without any reflection on how that would affect the character emotionally and morally, much less the world’s perspective on them.

This is more of a problem in fanworks where all the author wants is emotional satisfaction and vindication, but creating a section of people in your story who will forever be unworthy of redemption or change in a way that doesn’t involve groveling at the protagonist’s feet and can be freely hurt and killed without any consequence due to the way people in their group treated your character in the past can circle back around to being discriminatory. Like there was a story(granted it was fanfic) I read that had Special Magic People(Fae)who were outcasts of society because they were really powerful, then had that society discriminate against them, then painted everyone with powers as forever righteous good people and every person without as Ugly Evil Unpeople who could be slaughtered without any implications. There’s a scene where one of the Fae considers getting a ‘human servant’ like all his friends have via enchantment and subsequent kidnapping but doesn’t because it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and humans are annoying. This is not meant to say anything about the character’s morals, rather stating that the character prefers solitude Babe that is slavery. Your magical Fae society is ok with slavery.

Using power or magical-beinghood as a metaphor for queerness or disability is perfectly fine, but the problem comes when you try to make this all realistic instead of basing it on societal perception, because the thing about homophobia and racism and ableism is the fact that they are systems of power that place white, straight, rich, able bodied cis people at the top and everyone else at the bottom. Superpowers in context of sociology is more like: what if someone had a gun that they couldn’t unload, that was pointed at your head at all times. They wouldn’t shoot you with it, you think. But the gun is always there, and while the holder may not see it, you do. Which is a much better metaphor for living under systems that oppress you, with the caveat that superpowers are often inherent and social hierarchies are entirely made up.

Its just interesting how power is portrayed in the media as something that is either A. Born to or bestowed upon the protagonist and good or B. Something to be seeked out by the antagonist and bad. The idea that wanting what you weren’t given but other ‘more deserving’ people were is bad, but the idea that being more powerful than other people makes you inherently more moral rather than giving you more moral responsibility.

Ah, so you are positing the existence of type C, which is, "I want violent retribution on everyone who ever wronged me, but not to be held responsible for what I do with this power"

I think this can tie in with a lot of things. In aforementioned Danny Phantom, consider the bully character Dash. He literally introduces himself to the series by declaring- at max volume in a crowded cafeteria- that he has no future so high school is the best he's going to get.

Which is. needless to say. not something anyone with confidence says about themselves. But Dash does not exist to create problems for Danny, really; his primary function is being a justified target for Danny to punish over and over again.

People who are bullies understand that the concept of a bully is bad. They may have encountered- or fear- bullies themselves. But their solution is to idolize power and taking power. The Problem Is when I get pushed around, the problem isn't people shouldn't have the power to own/dominate others.

As you've pointed out this can run afoul in particular in social justice movements, since bullies exist everywhere and they will continue to co-opt whatever language gives them power and a platform. Some people just really, really want to hurt punish and control others. And broadly, they tend very quick to frame themselves as heroes punishing villains for being evil.

I recall back when I was in the Steven Universe fandom, someone told me their highly detailed system of how they wanted the Diamonds to die- they wanted Steven to murder Blue in front of Yellow, kill her next while she was grieving, and leave White alone and pleading before closing in for the finale.

Whether or not you like the Diamonds, or even whether or not you think the Diamonds should have died, it is obvious the objective is not removing or mitigating any threat here. The objective is sadism. The objective is wanting to punish people for ever having scared or upset you, and when a working fourth wall is at play it illuminates how insecure this mindset is. No matter how bad you think the Diamonds are, they are fictional characters, and not a perpetuation of bigotry or harmful stereotypes; they thus cannot hurt real people. The most they can do is be scary or upsetting, and even that is based on your willingness to go consume the media that has them in it. You could effortlessly turn off the tv and go watch a show where the hero makes the villain graphically explode every time, of which there are many.

But, we don't actually want things to get better! We want a justification to punish all the sinners that make trouble in our world. It's seductive it's reassuring it's a nice piping hot plate of comfort food that says "You're right forever! You actually ARE more special than anyone you don't want to interact with, your bullies or detractors actually ARE inherently lesser people than you. You will never have to face any sort of reality where people hurt your feelings but have some reason to exist or feel the way they do whether or not their actions are justified."

And incidentally, at its worst, this mentality can also utterly fail to address the very abuses it's trying to avenge. As you say, anon, it hinges on that the character remains a Dreadful Outcast forever.

Consider the plight of "Muggles" in Harry Potter. It sure feels like an amazing thing for an emotionally, materially, and physically abused boy to watch some magical giant show up, effortlessly boss his abusers around, and sweep him away from all that to a magical destiny world where he becomes stronger.

Only... at the end of every book they keep bringing him back. There are magical justifications for leaving him with his abusers. His cousin, who is also unambiguously hit and yelled at in the first book alone, does not even get the reprieves of special school even though we watch him become increasingly miserable with and enraged by his parents and their situation to the point that he makes at one point an unambiguous decision to stand by Harry with his parents watching.

This will come to nothing. Because Harry Potter takes the vicarious thrill children want to feel- that they know some secret that makes them special, reassuring when you don't think you're that cool and haven't had the life experience to invest in your identity yet- and basically turns it into, you don't deserve to be bullied because you're actually part of an old-money privileged over-class. With slaves! Why would you want to exist in a world where you reconcile with the foster sibling that pushed you around because he too was terrified of his parents and the dysfunctional house you lived in? He needs to know his place and be inferior to you, so that you can always be safe.

Because you never won't be traumatized and your trauma will never be a thing untouchable even by people who might care for you or be a friend to you, and if you decide the only way you will be safe is if you can rip a pound of flesh out of anyone who ever prods your wounds, then you won't feel safe unless you have someone on the figurative guillotine.

It's a status of victimhood that will never be lifted by any amount of power, because if you break the spell and admit that you have the capacity to hurt others and not the power to constantly be justified and eternally know evil when you see it, then that means you just might be the bad guy.

And you've made a world where nobody can even dip their toe in being the bad guy without deserving hell. So you can't be a sinner! That'd mean everything you feel is completely unjustified!

So, hail to the king, hail to the ultimate victim, whose suffering will never end because it is the throne he sits on to hold him above others.

And maybe I've played too much Final Fantasy Tactics Advance as a child, or maybe I just like monsters too much; but I've just always had the sneaking suspicion my life wouldn't improve if I could just stab everyone who ever hurt my feelings with a pitchfork.

I think using power to torment defenseless people is a bad thing no matter what that person did, and it is an unnecessary intrusion to actual harm reduction.

#writing ruminations #long post #readmore #haha hey guys do you remember that we punch nazis as a strategy of harm reduction to publicly deplatform them?#and not just because it feels good to pretend we're superman fighting lex luthor?

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