#i understand why it can be relevent but i also think that we need more characters who cannot be forced into male or female

[sageistrii]

How do you feel about jimins voice? I’m seeing a ton of discourse around it again and I would be lying if I didn’t think her needs more support

What do you mean "how do I feel about Jimin's voice?"

Why do you think I Stan Jimin? You think I Stan him just because I like his personality or because he's attractive?

If you think he needs "support" that's your opinion but don't go about acting like we should agree with your opinion. You think Jimin is the only Idol who's ever had a voice crack or he's the only Idol who's had a less than stellar vocal performance?

Do y'all even know what an actual live performance sounds like? Real live vocals with choreography would not sound the best 7 times out of 10. Like you have to be a vocal powerhouse with years of extreme vocal training to be able to dance and sing at the same time without sounding off.

Kpop groups do not sing live and the day they do sing live will be the day that they get criticized for their vocals. Y'all only have so much to say about Jimin because he's one of the few vocalists in the k industry who dances and sings live at the same time with his back track not doing all the work for him.

And despite the fact that other idols have had terrible vocal moments, including other members of BTS, Jimin is the only one they think of because he's Jimin.

So get the fuck out of here with that "he needs support" bullshit because if you're going to be saying this then you should be saying the same thing about most idols.

And on the topic of le sserafim, everyone loves to act like these festivals are the standard when it comes to live singing when most of the performers use heavy back track. Le sserafim could have done the same and avoided all this, but they decided to sing live because they also have gotten a lot of shit for using back tracks. And like I said before, I think they should only sing live here on out, not caring what kpop stans have to say. And I'm glad that these girls are not letting y'all tear them down because kpop stans love when idols are visibly affected by the hate.

Not everyone can be Beyonce, some artists are not going to sound the greatest live especially when you take into account the kind of vocals they have. Jimin has spent years singing live, singing the hardest parts of bts' songs when he isn't even the main vocalist (and it goes to show how great of a pull he has and how relevant he is that he's the only member being brought up in these conversations when he isn't even the main vocalist) Jimin isn't a main vocalist, he's a dancer before anything else. But y'all know there's nothing to critique about his dancing which is literally what he's known for and what he is and he's the best at it, so y'all hold on to vocals when he was never marketed as an outstanding vocalist. He doesn't owe anyone anything especially so far in his career.

What makes Jimin's singing or parts popular isn't his vocal prowess, or because we think he's the best live singer ever. We just like how he sounds. People have a lot to say about his vocal tone but still stream his music anyways so who gives a fuck? The critique was never about him sounding bad, they just don't like or understand his vocal tone even if they can't help listening to his music. You like his music for a reason, you bash him online but stream his music for a reason. Jimin always has armys admitting that they prefer his ai covers of other members songs for a reason. I like Jimin's voice and I will enjoy anything simply because he's the one singing it, I just don't understand why y'all can't accept that we do genuinely like his voice. It's ok to not like or understand something but you also need to understand that taste is subjective. It's ok not to like something, but it's weird to act like there's no way others would like that thing, you're not the only person in the world.

Jimin himself have said he takes vocal lessons. I don't think there's anymore support that someone with his tone could get because his voice has changed with time and age and overall he has a very light and airy voice which means he's prone to vocal strain. So if you don't like that then he's not for you. (This whole thing reminds me of Sia and how her voice would break in the official studio version. More singers should do that because I don't think y'all understand that there's all types of vocalists in the world.

Letting kpop stans who have never heard their own faves sing live get into your head is definitely a choice. Because the way y'all discuss his vocals at every turn you would think all his vocal performances were bad, but no Jimin just has a couple bad vocal moments just like every other singer on earth. Let's not even talk about the fact that a lot of singers y'all think sound good live use pitch correction and autotuned mics on stage.

Blinks especially hold on to the encore video or that video from 2018 for a reason. There was never any drag towards his actual performances. No one ever posted a video of Jimin full on performing like crazy or set me free pt2 and said he sounds bads. Jimin has been an idol for years and has done lots of encore performances. Most times idols have bad encore moment because they're not actively performing and because of that they get confused on how to go about it. Encores are supposed to be fun and silly,they are not supposed to sound great but now kpop Stans have ruined these fun moments after a win with their nitpicking. This fixation on encores started in 2022 btw because prior to that no one cared.

Start thinking for yourself instead of letting people whose faves never sing live convince you that someone who does is a bad singer. Y'all let people on social media tell you how to think or influence your own personal opinion and that's the problem.

[keshetchai]

I originally wrote this back in 2019 in response to someone saying:

So, let me get this straight... the entire religion (of Judaism) is built around legal loopholes? Is that what I’m gathering here? (Feel free to correct me!)

And it remains relevant to people (gentiles) who characterize Judaism as rules lawyering or all about loopholes or worse, who imply we are trying to be "sneaky" or "pull one over on God."

My answer:

the religion is built around living in an ethical society per our contract (covenant) with G-d. but you can’t just have a bunch of words without putting them to use, & understanding them in practice, you know? the fulfillment of the covenant is a living discussion.

it’s not legal loopholes, because a loophole is often an inadequacy in the law that gets taken advantage of, but these are all built-in, part of our understanding. In this case, we have a contract (covenant), and we’re going to put it to use in every way possible, explore every inch of it, turn it inside out, and apply it to real life examples, define the parameters, argue those definitions, and then survey the conclusions.

I can say “you need to say the evening shema (a prayer) in the evening” but we can’t just say that, we need to explore a bunch of related things, like:

when in the evening does this happen? is there a difference between twilight and evening? if we say the evening prayer can be said from the time the priests partake of teruma, then when is that? if it’s the first watch of the evening, how many watches are there? if you were out all night for a wedding, but it’s not yet dawn, is it too late to recite the evening prayer? — IN SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS, KE$HA WILL WRITE TIK TOK, AND WE’LL NEED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF PARTYING UNTIL YOU SEE SUNLIGHT!

— when do they (the priests) ritually bathe in preparation for this [taking of teruma]? what about when poor people who cannot afford extra candles - do we consider how early they eat an evening meal in order to make sure they can afford the light [when we define evening]?

why did we discuss evening prayer before morning prayer? why does torah give us night before day? when is bedtime for most people? can we say the evening prayer until dawn? if yes, people might put off the prayer until dawn, which could lead to laziness or mistakes. a

lso, when is dawn? but more prudently at the moment, when is evening? evening is when the stars are visible, but...how many stars? also, if you are lying alone in a dark house and can’t see the sky, how do you determine if it is too early or too late for your evening shema?

and that whole discussion is from the beginning of the Talmud, in its hyper-condensed form. That is what we do.

It’s not a series of loopholes and ways to weasel out of doing something. It's an intentional exploration of how something is done right, what doing it means, how we can accomplish it.

nothing gets taken for granted, everything is questioned, debated, discussed until it is understood enough to be applicable. and there may be lots of ways to understand.

if someone sees this line of thinking and goes “ah, loopholes to get out of it/wiggle away from it,” then you are mistaking lacework for loopholes.

....and if Kesha sees sunlight, it is now too late for her to say her bedtime shema. she should recite morning shema instead.

[dykeredhood]

Thinking of how the facilitator for my most recent in-person work training said that all she recalled from her math classes was the Pythagorean theorem and that she neverrrrrrr uses that in her day-to-day life

This is the same woman who told the class that the triangle is the symbol for change… it’s a delta. It’s the Greek letter delta that refers to the change in something

This was the same facilitator who was in charge of another mandatory class I had to take a few years back; she began the session by telling us that when someone asks boomers to think of a kind of bird, they already have that knowledge in their own brains, but when the same question is asked of millennials, the first thing they do is bring out their smartphone. First off: it was her mistake saying that to classroom full of mostly millennials… second: if she’d legitimately asked us that question, I’d’ve had an answer without even needing to look at my phone (bird: an oriole. or Big Bird). It’s no wonder that the class devolved into an actual shouting match a few hours in

#yes I’m watching Red Dwarf 01.01 again #i get it. i truly do get why Rimmah is so uptight and irritable because I am **the same** I’d just like to think I can be a bit more… #…tactful than he is 💁🏻‍♀️ #personal #work adventures #Rimsey posting #THE POINT OF MATH COURSES ISN’T TO MAKE YOU MEMORIZE FORMULAE #it’s to give you a better understanding of how numbers work regardless of your future career #I’ve used cross-multiplying so many times to figure out the right amount of knitting stitches I should use #and there we are!!! practical applications of math concepts! #I’ll warrant that figuring out what x stands for won’t specifically help you at some random job #BUT YOU NEED THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF KNOWLEDGE #otherwise you’re gonna be like my coworker saying ‘the third trimester of pregnancy… is that the last one? are there only three of them?’ #yes ofc my father being an engineering professor also informs my perspective/the way I value math/schooling etc. #but I’d like to think I have my priorities in order when I recognize that math etc. concepts you might not think are relevant at the time #end up being something to use to solve a problem further down the line #rant in tags #this is fun I’m actually bringing up my father in a way that respects and honors him #he was right about few things don’t get me wrong #he just wasn’t suited to be a parent #neither him nor my mother…they both did academically know how to rear a child #and I guess I threw a wrench into their plan when I was my own person with my own personality and wants and goals #…or at least whenever I tried to be my own person #as it stands now I’ll find solace in booze and old scifi shows and an abject refusal to bear any children of my own #forgot I had just parked this in my drafts #anyway posting this a few days after I’d put all these #thoughts together

[bandsanitizer]

why anyone feels compelled to wish ill on any group is fucking beyond me and again again again it needs to be said that asking if “x will be the next y” is so direspectful to both artists and their work

#also yeah … planning to remove yourself from learning about korean cultural or using korean products or w/e #during the hiatus comes across as fetishizing korean culture etc more than anything else #like if it’s only relevant to you bc of a group and when that group takes a break you could give less about it… idk like #sk exists outside of said group #and i’m really tired of the view of kpop as one genre making people (mostly western media and whoever) think only one act can succeed #newsflash is that’s not true and it’s unfair to all the artist in question to presume or search for shoe filling #as for anger about it… i think ultimately if you don’t have a true understand for the sk law or culture/social sphere surrounding it all #it’s not your place to truly condemn or otherwise #wish them well on their enlistment and let it be #i think people can feel a bit of pride that they’ve decided to just go forward with enlisting than trying to wait longer #which i know people view as good or bad but i’d imagine any sort of enlistment can come with anxieties but that’s not my place #anyways…………….. stupid question to ask is why we can’t all just get along #bc i know why LMAO nothing new to fandom anywhere #but gosh #like people need to shut up about no other groups succeeding like one or another #and tbh I thought I got over the exhaustion of being collectively referred in part with people i don’t agree with just bc we share fandom #but nope this is all something else #like seriously i think there’s people overreacting and similarly i think people are being dissensitive too #but anyways #alison speaks? #to be deleted probably

[bone-and-butterflies]

How to hide plot twists from both your readers and your characters in a way that is not frustrating or annoying.

So I was watching a book review for a book that I liked but both loved and hated some of the plot twists. Of course this got me thinking about plot twists and why they work for both readers and the characters that are falling for these plot twists.

Readers

The key is to control the information that your readers have. Your readers aren't going to consider an option unless (1) that twist is really common for your genre and that reader has read that genre a lot and will therefore be expecting it or (2) you have very obviously given them the specific information nessesary to unintentionally figure out the twist before the characters.

Why does this information stand out, you may be wondering. It is because there is nothing else going on to distract away from a piece of information that can seem meaningless with the right context.

Most of the time, if you're not writing a very specific plot line with a very specific genre, your reader isn't going to immediately know where the plot is going so they may not be looking out for the information relevant to a later plot twist, so as long as you justify an informational choice that explains a later plot twist in a way that covers a variety of basis, they're probably not going to pick up on the one piece you left out, aka what is going to make this twist fun.

This piece of information should be something small and unassuming. It can be magical, but if you're writing fantasy that magic has to be hidden really really well. I find that a plot twist works the best when the piece of information that is missing is something you wouldn't really think about, like the reason a prince was able to infiltrate a prison and hide his identity was because he had his cousin standing in for him and we don't know that this cousin existed and knew the limits of that world's magic (this is actually a plot twist that fooled me btw despite how obvious at sounds now).

A good plot twist that fools the reader relies on twisting the information that the reader has and therefore twisting how they think the story will go.

Midway sidenote: not every plot twist needs to exist to fool both the reader and the character, sometimes it is really fun to watch a character fail because of something inherent to that character.

Characters

Remember how I said sometimes it's really fun to watch a character fail. That only works sometimes.

It is more annoying to figure out a plot twist that is really obvious and then have the character miss it because the author said so.

So how does a writer pull this off?

Be intentional. Have an idea in mind of when you want the reader to figure it out and ask your beta readers when they figured out your plot twists to control that as much as you can.

Your character does not know which genre they're in, so you have to both get inside the character's head and take the reader along with you so they understand why this character is making these poor choices and missing the most obvious villain in the room.

Why would a character miss a plot twist?

They are distracted or delusional. Characters have goals and they may ignore their better judgments to achieve these goals based on their personality. Put more emphasis on your character's motives to hide information that may make plot twists more obvious. Also, your characters may use information about their world to explain their motives and this information may also be vital to understanding a later plot twist

The average person does not go around thinking everybody around them is out to get them especially if those people seem incapable of that through the pov character's ego or the other character's demeanor. If your character has known somebody for a really long time or knows a piece of information that is vital to the worldview they're probably not going to immediately discard it. Fun fact: in the real world, when people have their views disputed, even with very good evidence, it can make them more likely to hold on to that old belief.

Expectation of harm. Different characters have different experiences with shape how bad they think things can get. For example, if a character has never experienced something, they may not know what can lead to that thing. (FYI older characters are more likely to know more things so be careful with this one.)

The Twist

For a twist to work, it must make sense with both real world and in world knowledge as well as common sense, so keep this in mind as you plan.

Conclusion

This isn't comprehensive because good plot twists require a lot of information to make them work and that's makes them very specific. While I would love to explain why different plot twists work, part of them working is them fooling you and hindsight bias is kind of a thing.

Keep writing. If a plot twist just isn't working either scrap it or let it sit until you have the information to build reasons why it should work.

#writing #novel #writing advice #writing tips #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writing resources

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hello!

How do you leave a good comment on a work when you notice a large error? Or a small error,m I get so nervous to leave a comment nowadays because not many people have clear statements regarding criticism. So, I'm hesitant to point out anything out/ leave a comment that's anything but positive.

I remember a few months ago, on a BNHA work, I corrected the timeline of canon events that author got wrong (because the WIP seemed to be going down that route of "canon adjacent" work that spawn from a canonical event). The author had a message beneath the chapters that "all comments were welcomed," so I thought it was okay to leave the type of comment I did. But I dealt with several aggressive messages from the author and the author's friends about needless critique and how rude I came off as afterwards (I apologized,but I still got messages for a while).

The whole thing freaked me out a bit because I hate any semblance of confrontation ,so now I'm nervous about commenting any work- even those with explicit statements on criticism (welcome ,not welcomed,etc). I leave kudos and such ,but sometimes I debate over whether or not the author needs my comment about their typos. I try to sandwich a critique between two compliments like everyone says,but then I end up with a paragraph-length comment, and I worry about coming off too strongly.

I'm rambling,sorry.

Is there a guide to good comments for criticism in fanworks? Besides not giving criticism when criticism would not be welcomed??

Thank you for your time.

First of all, I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience. I'm sure that was awful for you, and I totally understand why it would freak you out.

When it comes to correcting things in fanfic, there are a lot of things to take into account.

Why does correcting the error matter to you?

How well do you know the author?

How long would it take to make the correction?

There are others, but these are the bigger "buckets" I see most of them fitting into.

If the error matters to you because you get annoyed when you see typos, for example, then that's more of a "you" problem. You can download the fic and edit out the typos and then when you reread it, you won't have to worry about them.

If the error matters to you because you'd be embarrassed if you had posted a fic and there were typos in it, that's also kind of a "you" problem. If the author feels the same way, they'll likely have an author's note indicating that they want to be notified. Otherwise, they're likely resigned to the idea that typos will happen, and if they reread their work themselves, they'll edit them out if and when they catch them.

If the error matters to you because it's non-canonical, this one is more of a wait and see. Maybe the author made the error by accident, but it very well could be on purpose. Perhaps that small change is relevant to the overall plot they're developing. Maybe it's just a thing that they personally hate in canon and have decided that they don't want to include for that reason. Maybe it's a genuine error that they'd be horrified to notice later. There's no way to know.

And that last one is where we come to the second item above. If you know the author well, you can message them and have a chat and bring it up there. I'd recommend just starting out by talking about the story as a whole and what their plan is for it. As I said, maybe what you see as an error is actually a conscious choice that they've made for the story that they want to tell. During that conversation, you'll be able to figure out whether it's actually an error and whether they'd want it pointed out or not.

If you don't know the author well, you could point an error like that out in a comment but then you need to think about the third factor.

Typos take seconds to change. Plot points take hours, days, weeks, or longer. Asking someone to put in a lot of time to make a change to something they've already been working hard on can be really demotivating - even crushing.

For a lot of authors (possibly even most?) they put a lot of work into their fics before they ever get to the point of posting them. They've read, revised, planned, and plotted. They might even have additional chapters already written that are in the revision process and just haven't been posted yet.

Especially in long works, authors look to the comments as a cheering section to urge them on towards completion, so posting corrections or pointing out errors can feel like someone standing up and booing. I think that's what happened in that BNHA situation you referenced in your ask.

That's why the general suggestion when it comes to commenting with corrections is just to not do so. If you want, you can comment about all of the things you like in the fic and then ask if the author wants a beta. That would allow you to have those conversations about their vision for the fic, and it would also allow you to offer feedback before the work is posted and while it's still being edited and worked on.

Otherwise, if it really does bother you, I'm afraid you might just need to dip out and find a different fic.

#asks and answers #long post

[theriverbeyond]

how do we know in the books that john is indigenous? can you say more about how his indigeneity is important to his story?

hello! so there is a word of god post on race (doesn't mention John but mentions that Gideon is "mixed Maori"), BUT I frankly don't think word of god statements are worth any weight without actual in-text support (see: the "dumbledore is gay" situation). SO!

Specific evidence that John Gaius is Maori, as revealed in Nona the Ninth:

When he is listing his education, John mentions having gone to Dilworth School (John 20:8). Dilworth is an all boys boarding school in Auckland and accepts students based on financial need instead of academic or sporting achievements. Demographics appear to be about 70% low income Maori boys, indicating that it is highly likely that John is Maori

John reports that P- said he looked like a "Maori-TV pink panther" (John 15:23) when his eyes turned gold. Maori TV is a TV station that is focused primarily on Maori culture & language revitalization, with presumably all or mostly Maori hosts, and tbh I don't see why P- would say this unless John was himself Maori

John uses a te reo Māori phrase ("kia kaha, kia māia") (John 5:20) when he is saying goodbye to the corpses in the cryo lab before the power is shut off. Though it is possible he said this as a non-Maori kiwi, but in combination with the previous two points of evidence I think this all very strongly points to him being Maori

He also renames his daughter Kiriona Gaia, "Kiriona" being just literally the name "Gideon" in te reo Māori

TLT is not a series that hands you anything on a silver platter but to ME this is all pretty solid proof

Why is this relevant to The Locked Tomb?

In Nona the Ninth, we learn that before he completed apotheosis and ate the solar system, John was basically trying to save the earth from capitalism-caused climate change. Climate justice and the rights of indigenous people over their own land are deeply tied together, in the same way that climate catastrophe and capitalism/ imperialism/ colonialism are linked. disclaimer that this is NOT my area of study and others have definitely said it better; this is just the basic gist as I understand it, but on quick search I found some sources here and here if you want to do some reading.

TLT is not a series that hands you anything on a silver platter, but i don't think it is a stretch to see John as an indigenous man trying to save the earth and getting ignored and shut down at every turn by primarily western colonial powers (PanEuro, the USA) who declare him a terrorist and then as a reader thematically connecting that to the experience of indigenous climate activists IRL

there are absolutely TLT meta posts that have discussed this before me; tumblr search is nonfunctional and I have been looking for an hour and a half and cannot find anything specific even though i KNOW i reblogged multiple posts about this in the first few weeks following NTN's release. sad & I am sorry

I think that by the time the books take place, John is 10k years removed from the cultural context he grew up in, with the Nine Houses having become a genocidal colonial power in their own right (with more parallels to be made between John's forever war for the resources of literal life energy and like, oil wars), but I also think that John Gaius is a fictional character who can represent and symbolize multiple different things in service of telling a story. (not to mention the potential thematic parallels being made to how oppressed people sometimes are pressed into replicating the power dynamics of their oppressors and continuing the cycle--now that is a tumblr post i KNOW i read last year and definitely cannot find right now, once again sad & I am sorry)

How Radical Was John Gaius, Really is a forum thread that was locked by the moderators after 234534645674564 pages of heated debate

#john gaius #nona the ninth #the locked tomb #tlt meta #i need to fix my tagging system fr #john meta #tlt thoughts #trb.txt #if anyone wants to add anything or correct anything PLS do so!!! i did my best hope this helps anon. this took me 2 hours

[doberbutts]

(Some other guy entirely here) I do think there's not much of a reason to be so against the terms tma/tme though, and I don't really understand why some people are? Like, in the same way we want a word to describe our experiences so do transfems, and while I do believe that all trans people are affected by transphobia and misogyny, it's obviously also true that we're affected by it differently depending on how we present, cause otherwise we'd all be satisfied with just the term transphobia (not saying anything new here so far)

So, since it just so happened that the term transmisogyny was coined to mean specifically the oppression transfems face (regardless of what anyone might feel on the matter, that is what it means in practice), what's really so wrong with having terminology to specify whether you're affected by it or not in online discussions of specifically transmisogyny? I'd think that would be relevant enough information, and you're not obligated to share it unless you want to.

I think what's really bothering a lot of people is that these terms exist for half of our community but there's no acceptable equivalent for the other half, and there's constant backlash against attempts to fill that void in the language. But that's not the fault of anyone who advocates for the use of tme/tma, or rather, they are separate issues that I don't believe should be conflated even if the proponents of tme/tma are the same people who are against specific terms for transmasc oppression.

When we do this, from the pov of trans women we are the ones rejecting their terminology and trying to silence them when they talk about their discrimination, and since we know exactly how that feels, I think we as a community should take a step back on the matter and just let it be.

Just because we feel dismissed when it comes to a similar matter doesn't mean we should dismiss in turn.

Not that anyone needs my permission or anything for this but:

I don't really have any problem with the words transmisogyny or trans-misogyny, as I think they are valuable labels to discuss a specific intersection of transphobia and misogyny.

I am not sure I necessarily have a problem with the terms TMA or TME themselves, outside of that I think it is not possible to be exempt from oppression because it will apply to you even if the label itself is wrong. This is also how hate crime and discrimination law works in this country- it is both your label and what the offender thinks of you, not just one or the other.

In other words, the guy who screamed at me about how I'm a Mexican is incorrect because I'm not Mexican, but it is still considered to be discrimination against Mexicans because it was his hatred of Mexicans that fueled the attack. It doesn't mean that actual Mexicans aren't the actual targets or this, but it does mean that it's not possible for me to be exempt from anti-Mexican sentiment. It doesn't mean that hatred of Mexicans doesn't exist, it does mean that if I want to stop getting screamed at for saying non-English words while visibly brown (I said pate, which is FRENCH and not Spanish, in reference to a can of dog food he was buying), then I need to ally myself with Mexicans and see what I can do to help decrease this hatred of Mexicans within my country.

What I do have a problem with is how these words are used and applied.

Caster Semenya is a "TME" intersex woman who was caught by transmisogynist Olympic rulings intended to hurt trans women, and to this day is still not recognized as a woman. How is this exempt from transmisogyny? She is literally being affected by transmisogyny- and interphobia, and misogynoir, and lesbophobia. And there are more examples than that, but this will already be a long enough post.

Moreover, I'm finding a lot of hypocrisy in the theory itself, labeling certain instances of oppression as things only TMA people experience and then refusing to listen when TME people say that they experience it too. I don't really care what or how people talk about their own experiences, but I do think it's a little ridiculous to be told that someone else who is not me can tell me what I experience better than I can. And then refuse to listen when I say that I have felt the hurts they're saying don't apply to me.

If TMA/TME had stayed within the limits you've set, being about descriptors of your own personal experience rather than trying to apply theory to entire demographics in a way that very little other theorycrafting does, I wouldn't have cared. Unfortunately that's not how it's being used and I don't like that.

[onadarklingplain]

No one is asking for it, but this is going to be a brief overview of the Albon Family Pets. These are the pets that live with Alex’s family in the UK and are the stars of the Albon_Pets instagram account, which is run by his mum & sisters. For clarity, there are no pets that live with Alex in Monaco.

The 30-image limit is going to be a bit of an issue for me here, as they currently have 15(ish) pets, but I’m going to do my best to make this as comprehensive as possible given the hellsite we're working with.

THE CATS: We’ll start up front with the overwhelming fact that they have twelve (or perhaps thirteen, please refer to note 1) cats. For a long time, the family had a moderately sensible level of pets (five cats, one dog, and a horse). But when Alex moved to Monaco in 2019, the situation got somewhat out of hand. Alex talked about how they acquired so many on a podcast earlier in the year: “We’ve always had a lot of animals, but it started to get a little excessive. I have four siblings, and my mum is definitely an animal person. When everyone started to go to Uni and I got into F1, bit by bit the house got more and more empty. I think to replace humans, she brought in animals and became a typical cat lady. “We started off with a bunch of cats. We had four to begin with: Armani, Gucci, Lucky and Prada. Then we got another one called Hugo Boss. There was a bit of synergy – you can understand why we chose the names. Then we got two more because the builders that came to our house had cats who had given birth, so we thought why not. They were called Duck and Goose. At that point, that’s seven cats and you can draw the line there. We don’t need more than that. But then, the same builders had another litter, and one of my sisters and my mum wanted one of them. Which I was very against because that’s too many. But then I came back from a race and they had taken four of the litter. I’m a cat person, but I’m not like that. The family has made me look crazy.” Alex Albon on The Fast and the Curious Podcast (episode posted 16 March 2023, 37:10). 

We’ll get into each of the cats individually below, in the assumed order that they joined the family. But first, an aside on nomenclature: As T.S. Eliot and the musical Cats taught us, the naming of cats is a difficult matter. I’ll leave you to study the 1998 recording of the song in your own time, but the main takeaway is that a cat must have three different names. As we’ll see, Alex’s family has clearly taken this advice to heart.

Initially, all of the cats were named after fashion designers, as Alex mentioned above. While some of the cats have retained this as their primary name (e.g., Gucci), most of them have acquired additional names over the years. As followers of the Albon_Pets instagram account will know, they all have assigned emojis, which I believe has led to the newer cats being primarily named after animals. Alex has said that his dad is allergic to cats, which is wild. Unclear if he was talking about his biological father or his stepfather, but I assume he’s talking about his stepfather as he lives with his mother and is therefore relevant. If he was, that’s truly insane to think about. There aren’t enough antihistamines in the world. 

Looky (Cavalli, Lucky, Lulu) - 👸🏼 Born 4 January (year uncertain)

Looky is Alex’s mum’s favourite cat and is a literal princess. Her emoji has a crown and everything.

Frooky (Prada, Princess Pea) - 🐰 (emoji shared with Bitbit and Lilly) Born 18 January (year uncertain) Frooky doesn’t appear in the stories as much as the other cats, so I assume she’s a bit shy. But apparently she loves to sing! 🎤

Gucci (Gucster) - 🐯 Born 12 December 2011, sibling to Moomoo

Moomoo (Armani) - 🦁 Born 12 December 2011, sibling to Gucci Moomoo and Gucci are almost identical, but Gucci has more white on his chin. Moomoo is the cat who congratulated George on his win (as seen above, please refer to Note 1) and is also one of two cats that George was able to name in the Twitch Quartet Quiz. He was also featured in the recent Albon Pets Singapore Merch promo. (Note 1: the emoji used for George in the above photo is not consistent with other George emoji usage. He is usually a brown bear, and Luca is the koala. Do better, Moomoo.)

Horsey (Stan, Hugo Boss) - 🐴 Born 11 May 2017

Horsey is the best one. Sorry to the other cats, but it’s true. He’s definitely Alex’s favourite cat, and he’s the one Alex kisses on his little head. Alex usually calls him Stan.

We're getting some more photos of Horsey and Alex now because Horsey is so important.

In the Twitch Quartert Quiz already discussed, Horsey was the other cat that George could name, and he listed him twice (by the names Horse and Stan). Horsey is absolutely the head of the household and is obsessed with Nandos. He also loves ham and hates Nutella pancakes (Zoe's favourite).

Duckie (Yves)- 🦆 Born 21 May 2021, sibling to Goosie Goosie (Ralph Lauren) - 🐥 Born 21 May 2021, sibling to Duckie Duckie and Goose seem to like climbing/sleeping on Alex, which is so valid of them. 

I'll be honest here and admit that I can't tell them apart and I'm not going to try.

Sasha (Sushi) - 🦋 Born 3 July 2019, joined the family in April 2022 She looks a lot like Horsey, but has longer fur. She isn’t often seen in group photos with the other cats, so I assume she’s a bit shy like Frooky. I'm not sure where she came from, as they seem to normally get kittens and not older cats, but she's very cute.

The Safari Kittens Siblings, all born 19 May 2022

The Safari Kittens have the same mum as Duck and Goose, and I can't tell them apart so I'm just going to list their names and emojis.

Blue Bear (Bottega) - 🐻‍❄️ (emoji stolen from Charles, discussed further below)  Gigi (Giraffe, Venta) - 🦒 Hippo (Hip Hip, Dior) - 🦛 Tiger (Tiggy, Tiktok, Chanel) - 🐆 They're super cute and also seem to love hanging out with Alex whenever he's home.

THE DOG:

Otter (Otto/Otti) - 🦦 Born 1 December 2022, came home in February 2023

As a running theme, he also seems to be obsessed with Alex, which again, is so relatable. At first it made Horsey super jealous, but don't worry Horsey, you're still Alex's best boy.

THE HORSES:

Tinky (Tinkerbell) - 🦄 Born 26 July 2020

Tinky is Bitbit’s pony and they were born on the same day and are the same age. Tinky is retired now.

Snow White - 🐟 Age and birthdate unknown Snow White came to join the zoo & keep Tinky company in May 2023 after the horse that Tinky shared a field with (Toby, not owed by the Albon family) died. Snow White also a retired pony.

PHEOBE AND QUEENIE - AN INVESTIGATION: Eagle-eyed followers of Albon_Pets might have spotted that in the captions of posts, two cats are often included in parentheses at the end, Phoebe 🐈‍⬛ & Queenie 🐈. 

If you’re like me, the first time you saw this you may have worried that the Albons actually had fourteen cats, a number that is truly unthinkable. However, as we never see Pheobe or Queenie on the grid or in their stories, their identity was unclear. After a thorough investigation of the available evidence, I can now reveal the truth.

Phoebe is an outside cat who lives with Tinky. While we have no official confirmation regarding Queenie’s identity, we can safely assume that she is another outside cat who the family presumably feeds and keeps an eye on. ETA 14/09/2023 - everyone rejoice, I found a photo of Queenie! Very fitting name, i would die for her, etc

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Alex’s family all also have emojis, as do the ‘cousins’ of the family and some of Alex’s teammates: His mum - 👵🏼 His dad - 👴🏼 Alex - 🐼 Zoe - 🐧 Alicia - 🐠 Chloe (Bitbit) - 🐰 (emoji shared with Frooky and Lily) Luca - 🐨 Lily - 🐰 (emoji shared with Frooky and Bitbit)

Cousin George - 🐻 Cousin Nick Cassidy (Formula E driver) - 🐘 Cousin Charles - previously was 🐻‍❄️, before it was rudely stolen by Bear. No confirmation if he has since been allocated a new emoji.

Yuki has had different emojis, the seal 🦭 and the butterfly 🦋 (the butterfly is now used by Sasha) Nicky was given the dolphin emoji 🐬 Loga naturally has the eagle emoji 🦅 Williams Racing is the dino emoji 🦕 (i guess corporations are people?) In the captions of birthday posts, other emojis have been used for people who I assume are the partners of Alex's siblings. I don't know anything about them, and I won't be finding out, but I'm going to list them here to clarify that these are (presumably) people and not pets: Lorenzo - 🦥 Max - 🦘 Harrison - 🦓 Ella - 🐞

There are also some pets who have sadly gone over the rainbow bridge, including dogs Tino (aka Valentino/Dean), Rossi and Miguel (aka Michael) and a cat called Chicken (sibling to Duckie and Goosie). These pets are beyond the scope of this primer. 

THE CONCLUSION: As I can’t imagine this being actually useful to anyone, I hope you found this enjoyable and interesting. The Albon_Pets lore is bottomless, and I’ve gone as deep as I dare go. There’s definitely more information I could have included, but like. I got tired. That said, if you know how old Frooky and Looky are, I’d love to know so I can update the cat bios. 

ETA 6/4/2024 - NOTE 1: the number of albon cats is frequently reported (by alex) as thirteen (causing the author of this primer to lose her mind), and finally after much agony, the Instagram account provided clarity:

so if you see that they have thirteen cats, that's why!

#i have no explaination for this #sometimes you just think about cats a lot and trip #albon pets #aa23 #F1 #sorry if you're just in the f1 tag and you see this #primer

[mari-lair]

Let's talk about Akane's overprotection of Aoi and the dangers of not properly setting up a narrative tone.

We are told that Akane stalks Aoi because guys have been trying to force her into a relationship for years, so he protects her by beating up anyone who approaches. Nene and Kou are understandably horrified by this.

But in the very next page, Aidairo hit us with this tone switch:

What Akane is saying is contradictory to the violent and possessive narrative that was shown during his introduction, to this yandere role he played the entire chapter, but the manga is trying to convey that we should take him seriously here. Even the lighting and composition are the ones used when characters are vulnerable and Aidairo wants to show that what they feel is real.

It's strange...

Being possessive is never framed as something that leaves other characters in awe, just compare Akane's melancholic and peaceful gaze to the creepy tone used when Kou and Hanako have their "you are possessive" moment.

Both Kou and Hanako hate that part of themselves, Kou even rejects it, but it's still clear the rejection doesn't make him any less possessive. Both want to be dependable, they want to be the only choice, no one else is acceptable. It's a selfish feeling. Being 'the most important person' is more important than the joy of the person they want to help (Kou's wish is Mitsuba needing him, instead of Mitsuba happy as a human. Hanako wants to be the one to save Nene, the idea of Nene being saved by someone else does not satisfy him even if it would make her happy and safe)

So this isn't a "Akane is lying to himself" or a "he is delusional" case.

The narrative, which had presented Akane as someone violent and obsessive, wants us to believe his claim "I will protect Ao-chan... Even if she never looks my way" is not only what Akane believes to be true, but also something admirable. A sentiment Nene craves directed her way, claiming to be 'a little jealous' of Aoi, despite calling Akane scary a single page ago.

Let's rewind to see how we got here.

Akane and Aoi's stories suffer from being mostly given to us in gags for a good chunk of the manga, as they are not very relevant in the early arcs, but the crumbs come together after their confrontation in chapter 69.

Why is Akane stalking Aoi? Because he worries about her. Not about someone stealing her necessarily, but about her being hurt or forced into situations she is uncomfortable with.

They are very codependent. They have been for years.

We can see Akane being shocked at the sight of people bullying Aoi since they were kids, it isn't just 'boys who want to date her' that makes her uncomfortable. Jealous girls do too.

Even when Aoi is left alone, using clothes completely out of her cutesy style to attract less attention, and just living her life, she is still harassed.

Aoi's life is a nightmare, it straight up sucks. She hates that, and when Akane notices this discomfort, he hates that too.

He is far more protective than possessive, he doesn't care when people are touchy with Aoi as long as she welcomes the touch: Take Nene as an example.

Akane never touches Aoi at the start of the manga but Nene does, a lot. He never think "Nene is touching my Ao-chan! Unforguivable". "Maybe Ao-chan likes Nene more than me is not far!" or anything of sorts

Even when Aidairo uses the same over-the-top/creepy gag humor I personally find excessive, and Aoi straight up flirts with Nene, Akane's only thoughts about it are the usual "I love her so much"

When he does show dislike for Nene it's never because she is of value to Aoi. It's because of how dismissive Nene can be, not taking Aoi's safety seriously and easily excusing Hanako's actions.

We only see him be aggressive with Nene when Hanako possesses her and makes Aoi uncomfortable.

The problem here is the framing, the comedy focus. It's hard to take it seriously.

Everything about Akane's intro chapter is hard to take seriously. We are told he is "Hard working. Reliable. What a nice and sweet person."

But we aren't shown these honorable qualities much, not explicitly at least. The big panels, the main focus, is on his gag.

And his main joke is that he loves excessively, even for this school standard where everyone is weird (like Nene writing a self-ship fanfic with Teru) so he needs to be over the top, his behavior has to stand out!

How do they try to achieve this? Yandere jokes.

It is overplayed, they spend pages on it. WHOLE PAGES on it.

It is an old narrative trick to present a twist character as a comic relief to lower suspicion, to keep the more important characterization for after a reveal when they are oficially important, but framing all his actions as comedic and devoid of dept to make his reveal as No.1 more unexpected leaves him in a strange position: Akane is intended to be written as a protector but framed as a joke, to the point his introduction become the satire of a protector.

When he is revealed as the clock keeper and allowed to be given more focus, Aidairo try to explain his behavior and show signs of him being a genuinely caring and kind person, as the first part of his intro had promised.

But it's to late.

His crazy actions and anger issues is in most people's minds, a few lines can't erase pages and pages of his introduction as a yandere like archetype, so it's easy for first impression bias to come into play and interpret all his actions as a simple "He is obsessive." instead of trying to find dept or nuance to the established dependence he has on Aoi.

When we are shown that above wanting to date her, he just wants her to be safe and happy, it does not become clear. The reader needs to pay a lot of attention to small moments like these:

Which a casual reader likely won't. Most are reading for the toilet trio at this point in the manga.

This fumble on his character introduction makes it hard to know what should and shouldn't be taken seriously. Aidairo discarded the yandere narrative relatively quick (we haven't seen Akane's bat in ages) but this gag about being happy as long as Aoi is happy turned out to be important:

It was used to further contrast Aoi's and Akane's mentality on their big arc, and highlight how much nearly losing Aoi affected him.

So the only way we can tell what joke to take seriously cause it will be used to build up his character and what isn't important is hindsight.

I did not care about Aoi and Akane's relationship when I first read the manga, i went 'oh cool!' on their conflict, cause that was very well done, but since their characters were not well introduced, I did not notice a lot of the ideas being shown to me.

Akane is a sweet boy. That's his core, his consistency. Even with Aoi, being kind is the priority over being with her.

Let's compare him with Hanako, who is an openly possessive character, and see how they approach their love interests when they don't know if their love interest likes them back yet, and they aren't reduced to a gag (so we'll dismiss Akane being 'a yandere with a bat', and Hanako's joke of him being a tactless pervert, like peaking under Nene's skirt when her time was frozen)

(so pre-chapter 86 to Hanako and pre-chap 69 to Akane)

Hanako traps Nene, he will cling to her anytime he can, he cares about Nene and loves her dearly, he even says he "loves everything about her" but he is greedy for her attention, he is selfish, always trying to make her focus on him out of everyone in the room and keeping her in his hold, out of others reach. His unsubtle possessive nature is a charm of his, makes for an interesting character.

Akane has a different vibe to it. He doesn't have many serious moments with Aoi before their spotlight arc, unfortunately, but when he does, he focuses on reassuring her (even when her time is frozen and she can't hear him) and avoids touching her at best he can. He has known her for more than 10 years, but he doesn't act as if she belongs to him.

I am not saying Akane is not possessive of her, he is. But he tends to be more worried about her than anything.

Using hanako as the trademark of possessiveness again, check out these two scenes:

At the start of the manga Kou likes Nene, and Akane is under the impression Teru like Aoi, so both scenes follow the basic premise of "A know B has a crush on their crush, and they get possessive over a possible romantic rival being too close."

Hanako doesn't say anything, but his message is clear "She is mine."

Akane explicitly says he doesn't like Teru near Aoi but he doesn't try to remove Aoi from Teru or try to do anything violent. Why would he? Aoi is in no danger, nor is she uncomfortable, so he changes focus to the person who is troubled, awkwardly reassuring Teru that his distress is, in his personal opinion, stupid, so "chill bro".

He wasn't like that with Teru before.

He was so determined to stop the wedding he even rejected hanging out with Aoi, crying tears of blood and asking for her forgiveness in his mind but prioritizing not making her get together with Teru above her joy.

Is that because of his development? Yes! A big part is. Notice the way he treats his mental image as reality? That was his biggest flaw, he imposed his views on Aoi (the view being "everyone is stupid in love with Teru" in this case), and assumed what he believes is a universal truth, doing exactly what Aoi accused him of: Not seeing her, just an idea of her.

But the reason he went so crazy and determined, it's because Akane saw Teru as someone dangerous. Someone who would use Aoi. Hurt her. He believes he is protecting Aoi from the big bad president. A view that makes sense when we take into consideration both Aoi's history of being forced into relationships, and when we go back to their interaction.

Look at this and tell me this isn't a threat:

Teru acts as if he barely remembers her name, she is just 'that cute girl', mostly a tool for him to use against Akane.

When his view of Teru changes to someone kinder who genuinely cares about Aoi as a person, he no longer enters protective mode.

He is still bothered about the idea of Aoi being with someone else, he does noooot look pleased even with his fairy tale vision of a happy couple, but the way he treats this possible 'rivalry of love' when he does believe Teru loves her is so different from his "Don't get close to her!! I will NOT allow it!!" approach.

There is no insecure overthinking. No aggression. He is playful about it. He even teases Teru.

He just wants to focus on rescuing Aoi. A 'rivalry' isn't important. He needs her to be safe.

These two parts of Akane have been juggling for a long while.

But now, character focus is the priority, and I am thankful the damage is being undone, that Aidairo let Akane's love take up whole pages instead of small panels buried under pages of jokes.

Their codependence, no matter how many issues it has, and how it can sabotage them, is based on so much care for each other.

It's a shame I only believe Akane was sincere when he said he'll always be there to protect Aoi regardless if he 'gets to be with her', because of what we see later in the manga, not because of what had been set up in his intro.

#Every time i see the page of Akane gently cradling Aoi's face and crying over her being safe my heart break #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #jshk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #look at me trying to do a narrative structure analysis despite always failing lit class #aoi akane #akane aoi #aoikane #aoiaoi #long post #character analysis

[belovedmusings]

Poppy red.

Choso Kamo x You x Suguru Geto

Explicit Themes (🚫Minors DNI🚫)

Part six of the 'Two + One' story. Click for story masterlist.

Guitarist! Choso Kamo is your boyfriend, and today, after having gone no-contact with his bandmate, Suguru, for a month, you have him over at your house while Choso is visiting his brother. The two of you need to discuss your relationship...and hopefully exhibit much-needed self-control.

Relevant tags: sexual tension, thoughts of infidelity, characters with questionable morals, Suguru is hot, but so is Choso, slow burn, no "y/n" for immersion, 2nd POV, reader has no defining characteristics, explicit smut, missionary, oral sex (fem receiving)

Recommended songs to listen to while reading: HENTAI (Rosalía), Animal I Have Become (Three Days Grace)

A/N: Life has still been busy but I still am so in love with this story so I'll continue to update!! Here's a rather spicy chapter, enjoy :)

Read below cut:

The two of you take either side of the couch in the living room once you’re inside with the groceries all put away. 

Suguru had been watching television while you restocked the fridge and pantry, so once you join him, he faces you properly, beginning to speak.

“I want you in my life,” Suguru tells you right off the bat, seeming to want to avoid wasting time, “And before I…tell you how I really feel, I need you to know that I don’t want to take you away from Choso. I understand that you two are happy and I have no ill-feelings towards him.”

You nod, waiting for him to continue.

“That being said,” Suguru looks you deeply in the eyes. “I…what I feel for you isn’t like anything I’ve felt for anyone else. You’re constantly on my mind and I…I just want to be near you all the time. I want to hold you and…kiss you. Since I want to be completely blunt, I…I want more than that, too. I’m physically attracted to you, but also, I…I can picture us together.”

Hearing it out loud is a crazy experience, but Suguru is being open and honest with you. You want to meet him halfway. 

“I feel the same way, but I haven’t lost any feelings I have for Choso. It’s very confusing.”

“That’s another thing—I don’t want to hurt Choso. I really like him, and I’d never want to betray his trust.”

You sigh, looking down at your hands, which have begun fiddling with each other in your lap. Then, in one fluid motion, you feel Suguru move closer, his hand covering both of yours. 

“I…I don’t know how to move forward from here,” Suguru confesses as your eyes meet, your heart fluttering in your chest. “But I can’t say ‘goodbye’ to you.”

”Look…um, I just think it’s a good idea if we only see each other when he’s around,” you tell him, his palm warm over your skin. Your eyes are fixated on the sight. “We…can’t control ourselves when we’re alone together.’

Suguru sighs heavily beside you, giving your hands a small little pulse, his thumb gently running in small strokes. It makes you nervous, filling you with a pulsating warmth that ebbs and flows in rhythm with his touches. 

“See?” You say, “Even this…this is intimacy we shouldn’t be sharing. We wouldn’t do this with Choso around.”

He looks into your eyes, nodding minutely. “That’s true. I know what you’re saying is true. I just…have this urge to not keep my hands off of you. If you were my girlfriend…should you want it…I’d have trouble staying off of you.”

You suck in a slow, deep breath. “When you say things like that…”

“I know,” he shakes his head, “I know, I do. Just…why couldn’t I have found you first?”

“Suguru,” you look away, pulling your hand out of his. “I shouldn’t be entertaining you like this, but I just…there’s something about you that I just…”

“Why haven’t you told him about what we’ve done so far?” He asks suddenly, causing you to look at him again. Your lips part for a second in thought before the honest words come pouring out.

“I don’t want to hurt him,” you say, “He has a tough exterior but he’s incredibly soft and vulnerable on the inside. If I told him…it would…grow. Like a weed. Even if I assured him it was nothing to worry about, it’d be there in the back of his mind. It would make him see you differently too, and it might ruin the band. I can’t do that, Suguru.”

“So, your plan is to never tell him how you feel about me?”

“How can I?” You stand up, gesticulating as you speak, “Suguru, I can’t tell my boyfriend, ‘I think I have feelings for your bandmate even though I’m still every bit as in love with you as I was when we first got together.’ If he did that to me, I would be devastated.”

Suguru frowns. “But the longer this goes on…the worse the lie.”

“I can’t hurt him.”

“So tell him the truth. Tell him how you feel about me, but that you have no plans of ever leaving him.”

“Then what? Then he leaves the band and hates you?” You ask, the idea absurd to you.

“Then I talk to him, too,” Suguru says, “I tell him how I feel, and that I have no plans of taking you away.”

“You tried to kiss me the last time we were alone together.”

“I know,” He says, “but maybe if it’s out in the open…”

“He won’t want me ever near you again,” You protest, “it’s better if this stays a secret.”

“I don’t like secrets,” Suguru shakes his head. “What if I dropped hints? Let him figure out that I have feelings for you? And we’ll see what he does.”

“What good would that do?”

“Then he could control the situation. Would that make you feel better?”

If Choso was the one who picked up on it, he could approach you first, and then you could get a read for how he feels about it based off of the way he broaches the subject with you. 

You take a breath before nodding. “Yeah…it would.”

“Okay,” Suguru nods. “Then we’ll do that. It’s going to be okay.”

Your heart throbs painfully in your chest, and suddenly those words of comfort have a lump growing in your throat. Why? Do you like Suguru that much? Is it really having such a great effect on you?

His palm touches your cheek, and you look up at him to see his golden eyes staring into yours. His voice is soft as he says, “tell me how I make you feel.”

There’s a flutter in your chest and you breathe out shakily. “I…I feel a pull. You’re always on my mind, and your music is all I play. When I’m with you, I just…I want to do every bad thing in the book with you. I want to know how you kiss, how it feels, how you…”

Your words trail off as you realize how insane it sounds out loud. Still, he presses on. 

“How I taste?” He fills in for you, deep voice low and syrupy, just above a whisper. It robs your own voice from you. You nod your affirmation.

His hand soothes your hair back. “What else?”

You inhale slowly to try and gain miniscule composure. “How you’d hold me…what it would be like if we were together…the sort of things we’d say, how we’d act, if we could just be a couple…”

“You like me bad,” he teases you lightly, and it commands a hot flush to your face.

“Don’t…”

“I’m right there with you,” he murmurs, pressing his forehead against yours. “I want to wake up next to you, to see you wearing my clothes, to make meals for you, to go out with you and spoil you…I want to make you happy.”

Your eyes close, and he takes the opportunity to ghost his lips over yours, the metal of his lip rings prompting a hitch in your breath. You begin to pull away, but he chases you, tilting slightly to plant a kiss to your cheek instead. You meet his eyes, and his own hold such an intimate gaze within them that you feel it sear through a layer in your heart. He keeps going; his lips meet the skin of your jaw, hands holding you by your back, and soon he’s trailing a line down your neck, arising goosebumps over the flesh he touches, the soft clicks indicating the cadence of each kiss only heightening your insanity.

Having lost a part of your conscience in his embrace, you return it, holding him close to you and relishing in his affection. You thread your fingers through his hair, pulling it from the tie it had been in, and he breathes out in relief, the warm air brushing over your skin.

His mouth stops at the neckline of your shirt, eyes glancing up at yours. 

“I want to keep going,” He states, lowly and softly. You swallow thickly, afraid of the lack of control you might display if you told him what you really wanted to say. Luckily, he doesn’t put you in that position, and he takes a breath, straightening up and putting some distance between you. “I won’t, though.”

Your eyes hold his for a moment, and then you move to speak.

The lock in the front door turns. 

Choso.

You hurriedly sit on the couch, an appropriate distance from Suguru, and understanding the situation immediately he follows suit on the other end. The door opens just in time, and your boyfriend walks through the door.

“Chos’,” you greet with a smile, standing and moving to kiss him. 

“Hey,” He kisses you back before noticing Suguru on the couch. “Oh, hey. I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“Oh, yeah,” Suguru puts on his signature disarming smile. “We happened to be out at the same grocery store. I had to get more tea for Larue, and the place I usually go was out so I came over here.”

“Yeah, I ran into him and invited him over,” You corroborate. Nothing we said was a lie. Just not the entire truth.

“Cool,” Choso smiles easily, not phased or suspicious in the slightest. He removes his shoes and drops his keys in the basket near the door.

“How was hanging out with Kechizu?”

“Ah, same old,” Choso shrugs, “just played games and had pizza.”

“That’s good,” You say, moving to sit back down on the couch. “I got us restocked for the week with groceries since I got a little bored.”

“Oh, good. We can just use Sunday for a lazy day then,” Choso states, moving to sit where you were sitting on the couch. That leaves one spot; between him and Suguru.

Seeing the turmoil flash behind your eyes, Suguru stands.

“Well, it’s getting pretty late. I should get going home since it’s a little far from here.”

“Oh, you sure? You don’t want to stay for dinner?” Choso asks, “we can just order in and hang out, you’re not imposing.”

You take a breath, and Suguru shakes his head. “I appreciate it, but I gotta run some more errands before I go back. I’ll take you guys up on that on another day if you’ll have me.”

“Sure,” Choso shrugs, “you’re welcome any time.”

“Thanks,” Suguru smiles, then walks to the door. He passes you, and you get another whiff of his jasmine cologne, your last dose for the night. He starts putting his shoes on. “Thanks for having me over.”

Recognizing he’s talking to you, you smile in a way that you hope is convincing. “Sure, it’s no trouble. We’re friends now too, after all.”

Something gleams in his eyes at that. The denial you’d given him last time has been overwritten. “Yeah? Sweet. Hey, would you mind if I got her phone number, Choso? It’s not weird, right?”

What?

You look at your boyfriend, who shakes his head. “No, it’s not weird,” He chuckles lightly. “Go ahead. It’s probably a good idea in case of emergency anyway.”

“You’re right,” You agree, moving over to Suguru to take his phone and put your number in it. You text yourself so you have his. 

“Thanks,” He says, taking his phone back. “Well, I’ll see you Monday, Choso! You guys have a good night.”

“You too.”

Choso raises his hand in a wave, and you close the door behind him once he leaves, locking it.

Once you turn around, you see your boyfriend’s eyes traveling over your figure, and it makes you feel warm.

“Chos’?”

“You look really beautiful like that.”

You take a look at yourself. Your hair’s kind of messy, and all you’re wearing is one of his sweatshirts and shorts. 

“Thanks,” you laugh, moving to sit beside him. “I’m not wearing anything special.”

“So?”

That catches you by surprise. He’s usually not this bold. He reaches out and puts a hand on your leg, running it up your thigh. 

“I’ve been thinking about us…” Choso says, “and…that time when I got a little flustered after you wanted me to choke you.”

Your mouth dries up. “…oh?”

“Do you want me to be rougher?”

Your next breath is uneven. “W-well, I…”

“I need you to tell me what you want,” He says, voice dropping a bit in volume. “You know I’ll give you anything.”

“A-anything?” Your voice is thin. He nods seriously.

“Anything in the world.”

You find yourself nodding. “I want…I want to try it rough.”

His lips are on yours in the next instant, and everything after that is a blur of bruising touches, the hurried removal of clothes, and an insistence in your boyfriend you've never seen before.

He has you laid out on the couch, both of your clothes strung around the room unimportantly, his mouth trailing kisses down your neck. A reminder that Suguru had been there not even an hour ago has you feeling a whirlwind of emotions; the shame gives way to arousal.

Choso’s teeth near your nipple has you gasping right back to the present, and you look to see him sucking marks into the soft flesh of your chest. His hands are on your thighs, spreading them, and without warning you feel the glide of his length against your mound. 

He begins grinding against you as he marks your breast up in hickies, pulling noises from you that you don’t recognize. 

His tongue runs over your nipple and you cry out, arching your back as he doubles down and continues to run his tongue over the hardened peak, your sexes rubbing intimately together in a way that makes your heart feel close to bursting.

It’s like he’s a new man tonight…he’s never this into it.

His teeth graze the tip of your nipple and you shudder, wrapping your legs around his waist and beginning to move your hips with his. He groans at that, moving to the next breast and giving it the same attention the first one got. 

“Chos’,” you moan out, feeling one of his hands find the apex of your thigh. It’s only a second before two of his fingers find their way inside of you, slipping in with no resistance due to the way he’s masterfully turned you on. He starts pumping his fingers at a pace, the long digits reaching deep within you, making you shiver again. 

The combination of his mouth and hand are enough to make your head spin. 

He adds a third finger and begins moving down, sliding to his knees off the couch and readjusting you so that he supports your legs with his shoulders. 

His lips scatter kisses and marks over the insides of your thighs as he continues to finger you, and not wasting any time, his mouth finds exactly where you need him, lips wrapping around your pearl and sucking as he pushes his fingers in deeper.

“Fuck,” is what leaves your mouth in a hiss, your hand gripping the couch tightly as he starts eating you out with gusto. “C-Chos’…”

He hums, tongue working wonders on you, and you think for a moment that you might actually lose sanity. 

It’s not like he hasn’t done this before. It’s just that you didn’t think he could be so bold. Usually he goes slower, he never really leaves marks, and he sure as hell doesn’t curl his fingers inside you as he’s doing now—but you’re falling even deeper in love with him.

“Oh my god,” a moan leaves your mouth, and he licks a fat stripe up your swollen bud before attacking it again with a kiss. “Choso…”

His free hand finds your breast again, and it’s over soon after that—the way his fingers pinch and tease at your nipple combined with everything else he’s doing sweeps you over the edge swifter than you’re prepared for, and your orgasm slams into you with a cry of his name. 

Or, rather, your first orgasm of the night.

He doesn’t stop there. He straightens up and climbs back between your legs on the couch, kissing you deeply as he lines up. Instead of asking, he takes, driving himself inside of you and making you take him despite the sensitivity of your walls.

You gasp as he begins moving immediately, nails digging into his shoulders. When you clench around him he groans, right in your ear, and you look up at him to see his face flushed prettily, sweat dripping down his forehead.

Another wave of lust for him takes over and you kiss him hard, nails dragging over his back. He mewls into your mouth and picks his pace up, the lewd, wet slap of your skin tell-tale to anyone who may be walking by the front door of your apartment. 

That reminds you…the two of you have never done it on the couch before. He couldn’t wait long enough to get to bed. 

Another one of your flutters around him causes his hips to stutter, and he ducks down, dragging his teeth over your ear before leaning up on his hands above you.

Then, one of them finds the base of your neck. Your lips part as he squeezes gently, focusing more power on the slam of his hips into yours. You feel him deep inside of you, the dull, harsh stretch of him forcing you to accommodate, and your eyes roll to the back of your head, voice reaching octaves you didn’t think you were capable of. 

“I love you,” he breathes, kissing your open mouth, and you shiver from the contrast of his rough-fucking and the gentle declaration of devotion.

“I love you too,” it comes out of your throat like a wrecked sob, and amidst his panting, he reaches down and starts rubbing you in time with his thrusts, doing exactly what you need in order to finish for the second time. 

As soon as you do, you feel him twitch, pressing deep into you to give you his load. Your own body shakes at the feeling, a sense of euphoria washing over you akin to the rush of opium. 

When you open your eyes, his own mahogany ones are looking at you, a loose, dopey smile on his lips.

“Fuck,” you rasp intelligently, and he chuckles, burying his face in your neck.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you nod, hugging him close. 

No one is on your mind but him. What else happened today? You can’t remember. You can’t think at all. 

Right now, Choso is your world. 

___

A/N: calm before the storm me thinks. Seriously though, if you're sticking with this and still waiting for the updates, thank you so much, I appreciate you. I still plan to post on AO3, I'm just not sure when I'll have the time. Keep your eyes out for the next update!

Please don't copy or repost, but feel free to reblog and share! Taglist (comment here or my masterlist if you want to be added): @jaegerstan222 , @cosmicstarlatte , @dabisdolly , @moonriseoverkyoto , @propheticfire , @bontensbabygirl , @crlyhairedwxtch , @alittlebirdahgaselx , @okkovtsu , @notbellasstuff , @uchihabbynic , @polaroidnana , @childofilluvatar , @shadowfoxy , @jordan-network , @dreamtravelersade , @unmatchxd , @lucyrocks86 , @spineyy , @k3lbade , @xxbuckpoppi , @naughtygobbo , @slammynics , @roseambers , @luvingyouwasreallyhard , @hinachaaan , @redladyrae-blog , @spiteless-xo , @slutforaz , @bellaabee082 , @thedorklingqueen , @delayedrage , @poopwons , @pandisastergod , @username23345 , @sleazymac-n-cheesy , @forest-haven , @midnaamethyste , @bihanspookies , @mysteriouskiller1 , @liyahthings

#jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x you #choso kamo x reader #choso x reader #suguru geto x reader #choso kamo #jjk imagines #jjk scenarios #geto suguru x reader #choso kamo smut #choso my beloved #jjk choso #choso jjk #choso #kamo choso #suguru geto #geto suguru #jjk suguru #getou suguru x reader #jujutsu kaisen suguru #jjk geto #jjk smut #jujutsu kaisen smut #two+one fic

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for trying to clear off surfaces in my house?

So I (20X) live with my mom (60F) and my sister (20F). My sister is disabled mentally and has a lot of comorbidities (so there's a lot of things going on there), which I would not mention if not relevant. Important to note is that she doesn't really do reasoning - like it just doesn't really click with her - if that makes sense, I guess. Never has, either.

I've lived with her my entire life, so for the most part I literally could not care less what she does even if it might bug other people or seem "weird" to them. Like that's just normal to me and I don't care and just kinda deal with it.

However, recently she has decided she needs to line up all of her stuff on basically every surface imaginable. Normally, I wouldn't really care. Sure it's inconvenient, but whatever.

Except... She has now decided this needs to include every single table in the house. All the tables are covered in her toys, and you can't even use them. Obviously, we need to use the tables for things like... Dinner, just to name a big example.

My mom has tried to explain to my sister that she can't just cover all the tables up, but my sister just screams at her and then ignores everything. My mom tries to reason with her, which has never actually worked, and my sisters usual reaction is screaming or just going "I'm mad!" or claiming "It's mine!", and then my mom just kinda gives up.

Now, here's where I might be TA... I've decided to take a more direct approach, and recently have been intentionally knocking over all things she has covering the tables when I pass or when I need to use the table. This, of course, pisses my sister off, but my logic is that if trying to talk her out of it doesn't work, then maybe if I inconvenience her over and over again, maybe she'll realize that these aren't good places to put her things and move it somewhere else.

My mom's mad at me for this, saying I shouldn't be making my sister mad, which normally I'd agree with, but... Well the only option that wouldn't make her mad would be to just let her cover up the entire table, which my mom and I both agree is a problem. She also claims that I'm "not helping", despite the fact that she doesn't do anything to handle this either.

My mom also says it's wrong of me to do this when my sister is disabled and "doesn't understand". Again, normally with most things I'd agree, especially when most of what she does isn't things that cause problems for anyone, however this is effecting all of us, and I don't think that just because she "doesn't understand" means she can just do whatever she wants all the time when it negatively impacts the rest of us, even if she may not understand why she can't.

But... I don't know. Am I the asshole here??

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[firelxdykatara]

I too ship Zutara and think they should have been canon. Although for me it's important to know how such a rewrite would go down. I tried to think, and I'm lost.

After Mai betrayed Azula for him, will he just go "sorry, not interested"? He isn't obligated to date her because of this, but her redemption hinges on Zuko and I don't see it being satisfying if he ends up rejecting her after this.

I thought the solution would be to rewrite her arc in boiling rock to make her have a moral realization, but then the problem with Maiko is practically solved. Their relationship wasn't salvaged by her redemption because last time they talked, Mai still didn't understand what's wrong with the Fire Nation and only changed because she loved Zuko. So how do you make it both satisfying & logical?

With Kataang the problem is the Chakras. The problem with the original (in my opinion) is that after he opened his chakra, letting go of his attachment to Katara, he's still attached (forcing a kiss on eip). Should TCoD get rewritten so that Azula shoots him before he opens it? Then why wouldn't he just open it later? Maybe the chakra would be locked so he feels as though he doesn't need to overcome his attachment just yet. In that situation, how would his chakra even unlock? The stone thing felt like nonsense, so how would I do it?

So yeah I have no idea how to approach this. How would you? (Thanks)

I've been rotating this ask in the back of my head like a rotisserie chicken for a few days--it's interesting because I don't generally stop to think like, how would I write them out of these relationships, I either ignore the relationships completely (which isn't hard, they were barely footnotes in the cartoon) or play a little bit with jealous exes or something. Thinking about like, In A Perfect World where Bryke wasn't in charge of ATLA post-canon (because if zutara had been canon, you can be sure they would've made us regret it) is interesting, and I do have thoughts on how I'd handle their relationships in a rewrite.

(this got long, so the rest is beneath the cut)

Assuming you mostly want to keep canon intact, I think maiko would be the easiest to work around, given how little relevance their relationship has in canon. The problem with maiko as an endgame ship is that it was not set up that way--if it had been, it would not have begun entirely off-screen and their whole relationship would not have been a study in misery and utter inability to connect emotionally. His relationship with Mai was there to showcase just how much he had changed and how little he fit into the life he had been so sure he wanted more than anything since his banishment. It worked very well to highlight Zuko's growth--how that contrasted to Mai's lack of it and why she could not understand him even at his most open and vulnerable--and did not work nearly so well when she was shoved back with him in the epilogue, after he'd quite literally forgotten her existence (he never mentions her again after Boiling Rock, not even to say a word of mourning, considering he'd have every reason to believe she was killed for defying his sister).

I don't think you can fix this by giving Mai some moral realization, because there simply is no room for it. As @araeph says in the essay I linked:

As a character, Mai is very useful to the story during Zuko’s return, because she represents everything that Zuko gains by sticking by his father. A girl who cares about him; the ability to indulge her; the authority he has over others at the palace; we see it all in his interactions with Mai. But this makes Mai a tether to a life he has long outgrown. Her function is not to advance Zuko’s character development, but to obstruct it, which also unfortunately means that Mai gaining a full understanding of Zuko’s trials would be disadvantageous to the story. If she knew everything about him and still wanted him to stay, it would give Zuko more cause than he should have to remain in the Fire Nation, but if she knew and encouraged him to leave and join the Avatar, it would rob Zuko of the triumph of making this decision on his own. In other words, there are good narrative reasons for keeping Mai in the dark; it just doesn’t make their relationship any stronger.

The seeds of a genuine redemption arc (one that includes some sort of moral realization and change to her moral framework) for Mai would have to have been planted far earlier than five episodes from the end of the series, but doing so would have of necessity detracted from Zuko's own character arc and the realizations that he makes despite his attachment to Mai (or more specifically to their relationship, which I feel like he was clinging to more out of a sense of abject loneliness he couldn't shake rather than genuine feelings and emotional connection).

So, in my mind, since we're tackling this with an eye towards getting rid of maiko with the fewest ripples to the overall story anyway, the easiest way to do this would be make one slight change to the end of the Boiling Rock two-parter--have Ty Lee (who had always been the least gung-ho of the trio about bowing to Azula's whims and had to be textually threatened into joining her in the first place) save Zuko's life, and then have Mai (who showed the most genuine affection for Ty Lee anyway) save Ty Lee. I love Zuko more than I fear you always fell flat for me as some epic declaration of love, anyway, since a) Zuko is not around to hear it, and b) unlike Ty Lee, she never showed much fear of Azula to begin with, so it wasn't a very high bar to clear. It was a cool line that was entirely unearned, and I don't think it would be missed, there would be some cute mailee crumbs this way, and a throwaway line of getting them released from the prison after the war ended could wrap up their presence in the story pretty nicely.

Now, kataang is a little trickier, if only because the last leg of Aang's character arc is almost completely derailed by his refusal to let go of his possessive attachment to Katara, to the point where he never naturally reopens his chakras, he has to have the Rock of Destiny hit him in just the right place, and the deus ex lionturtle there to give him a way out of having to make a hard moral choice. (I've maintained for years that if you work the final act of your main character's overall arc in such a way that it could have been solved by one good session with a chiropractor, something got fucked along the way.)

The thing about Aang's chakras is that, narratively, his whole thing with Guru Pathik and leaving his training early to save his friends was basically his version of Luke running away from his training with Yoda on Degobah because of his Force vision, only to find out that his friends were in the process of rescuing themselves and then losing his hand because he hadn't completed the most crucial part of his training. What's missing, therefore, from the last act of Aang's character arc, is the return.

See, in Star Wars, Luke pretty explicitly makes the wrong choice when he chooses to prioritize saving his friends over attaining enlightenment and fully mastering the Force. It was the only choice he could have made, but it was still the wrong one--because, like Aang, his friends did not actually need him to save them, he actually almost makes it harder for them to get away by requiring them to save him because, like Aang, he loses a battle in a very critical way. This was a lesson he desperately needed to learn, and it is clear he has learned it by the time he makes it back to Degobah and witnesses the end of Yoda's life, his own enlightenment having already been reached.

But Aang never goes back to the Guru.

And the text refuses to allow us to sit with the fact that he made the wrong choice in prioritizing his attachment to Katara over his ability to master the Avatar State. He is actually narratively vindicated about it, because the plot bends itself into a pretzel so that he doesn't have to spend any time during the last book trying to reopen his chakras and regain access to the Avatar State, handed both in the final battle with no excess effort on his part, and handed the girl into the bargain. (The girl who never even wanted him, so far as we can tell from all the lack of cues she gave him that she actually returned his feelings.)

And I think this could have been solved with a few scattered scenes. Let Katara actually have some agency in her own romantic relationship (or lack thereof), insofar as noticing Aang's advances and clueing the audience in to how she actually feels. Let Aang struggle with the fact that he can't reach the Avatar State, that his mastery of the elements is in limbo because he can't access his full power, rather than ignoring all of this until the end of the show. If we're trying to keep the shape of the last season roughly the same, let Katara confront Aang about the invasion kiss.

This would have been the perfect time to establish that Katara actually does feel some type of way about Aang prior to the epilogue, and it could have saved us from the exceedingly cringey EIP kiss that Aang never apologized for. How it comes across now, of course, is that Katara basically pretends it never even happened, to the point where she doesn't even know what Aang is talking about during EIP until he reminds her--the death knell for any shot their relationship had at looking requited, because I can tell you, as someone who's been a teenage girl, if someone I had conflicted but burgeoning romantic feelings for had kissed me, I would not have completely forgotten about it only a few weeks later--and we never get any indication as to what she actually felt about the kiss (which was not mutual, despite what Aang's dialogue in the EIP scene implies) except for the fact that she looked away and frowned afterwards. (A change mandated by Bryke, who wanted to leave her feelings completely ambiguous; the original storyboards had her smiling to herself.)

So, with an eye towards wrapping up Aang's puppy love crush and establishing Katara's distinct lack of romantic feelings for him, have her talk to him about the kiss. A good frame of reference for this would be Meng's conversation with Aang in "The Fortuneteller", where she finally realizes that he doesn't like her in the same way she likes him. Katara and Aang's conversation about the invasion kiss could be a callback to this, with Aang having some important realizations--that just because Katara doesn't share his feelings doesn't mean she loves him any less, and just because he can't have her the way he wanted doesn't mean he has to love her any less, that she doesn't belong to him but that's ok, because she's still his family and they'll always have each other's backs. Which could have functioned well in helping him take another step towards unblocking his chakras. Going back to the Guru directly may not have worked, since by this point in the story we're hurtling towards the final confrontation and Sozin's Comet, but let Aang reflect on what the Guru told him with new understanding granted him by his experiences throughout the first half of the season.

To keep the stakes high and up the suspense, obviously, he shouldn't have fully unlocked his chakras and the AS before the final fight, but the seeds could be planted--little moments like a talk with Katara about the invasion kiss, maybe a little more empathy and understanding from him about why Katara needs closure in TSR, etc--and then, during the final fight, rather than hand him all the answers on a silver platter, have him almost lose. He still can't go full Avatar, he's out of time, he still doesn't know exactly what to do about Ozai given his own pacifism and desire to preserve that part of his culture--he tries to fight but he's pretty quickly overpowered. Idk how I would've animated this, and maybe it wouldn't have looked as cool for the final fight, but the true climax of the finale was the Zuko and Azula agni kai anyway, so it hardly matters--I'm picturing him doing the rock-shield thing and going into a brief meditative state, where he finally achieves the enlightenment necessary to unlock the AS on his own, no rock of chiropracty necessary. And at this point, I'd give Ozai a Disney Death, since leaving him alive causes more problems than it solves and it's not necessary for Aang to kill him for him to die--they're fighting on a mountain ffs--but if you don't want to change that part then him figuring out energy bending as part of becoming a fully realized Avatar would at least feel more earned than the lionturtle just handing it to him. (And that could've been foreshadowed better by seeding the idea for it earlier in the season.)

After all of that, particularly if you up the emotions during the agni kai and have Zuko and Katara kiss there (or something less explicitly romantic but still tender, like a brief forehead touch), it'd feel pretty natural to have a just friends ending for Aang and Katara. Maybe a brief, slightly awkward but ultimately amiable conversation if Zuko and Katara had a ~thing at their final fight, and then the final shot of the series could be the gaang all together, maybe zutara holding hands or Katara resting her head on his shoulder or something, but since they already kissed there wouldn't feel like a need to end the whole show on romance, something which I've always felt missed the point of the series.

And then, y'know, after that, the world's your oyster! This is how I'd do it if I were trying to keep the bulk of the final season intact. Of course, breaking it all down to its component pieces and rebuilding from the ground up is also an option, but that'd probably be a longer post lol.

#zutara #atla #m.aiko salt #k.ataang salt #atla canon rewrite #hey albert kim if you're taking notes on how to do season 3 of the LA................ #Anonymous #asked

[aicedcoffeeandtea]

question for the culture of the ellie x reader community that i’m genuinely trying to understand but also having an even harder time wrapping my head around… and don’t fight me bc i know how this community loves to fight about everything!

in fics where the reader has a second love interest outside of ellie (excluding the ellie x reader x abby or ellie x reader x dina fics), why is the love interest always a man?

i myself have written a fic where reader was a lesbian that had an ex-boyfriend but only because it took place in the 80s and because it was actually relevant to the plot. and even then, i still made sure to tag that there would be references to reader being with a man in the past so that if anybody did read my story, they were doing it on their own discretion.

in a lot of the kinds of fics i’m talking about though, the reader being with a man could literally be swapped out with reader being with a woman and it would not change the story at all. but for some reason the default is 9/10 of the time, a man. it honestly wouldn’t even be that bad for me if 1) people tagged their works better and 2) if this didn’t happen so often.

this is a wlw space, where the common denominator that we all share is that we are attracted to women and non-men regardless of our specific sexualities. therefore, why is there a constant need to still include men in sapphic spaces? when you make reader be in a relationship with a man or have reader cheat on their male partner/love interest with ellie, you are automatically excluding those of us who are not attracted to men. plus, always having a lesbian, even more specifically a masc lesbian competing with a man puts a very strange taste in my mouth that i don’t think i can articulate the way i want to, but i feel like you can understand where im getting at here. i’m not even masc, im a hyper femme lesbian and it still rubs me off the wrong way, especially because most of this also only happens when it’s a fem reader, and the guy they’re with is always masculine.

and i’m sorry but im just gonna say it: ellie getting jealous of reader being with a man? yawn. boring. overdone. overused. predictable. trope ive seen way too many times. ellie getting jealous of reader being with a woman? im sat. adds spice. adds flavor. give me that shit.

if you disagree, that’s fine. we could (like civil adults) talk about it. i’m usually not the type to police people on what kinds of fics they write so i was very hesitant to even post this because i’m actually pro write whatever tf you want. but i definitely feel like it’s something that people do need to be more mindful of, so i guess i’m just asking people to do that, or at the very least can we tag our fics better so that i as a lesbian don’t waste my time reading the millionth fic where reader has both a masc lesbian and a man fighting for their affections? thanks, love yall. 🫶🏾

#ellie williams x reader #ellie x reader #tlou2 #ellie tlou #x reader

[tavyliasin]

Villain-Fucker Angst Hours

Good timezone, darlings~ Are you ready to get all up in your feelings? No? Me neither, loves, but here we are regardless so the words are going to flow as they usually do... This is focused on Raphael from Baldur's Gate 3 and his fandom, but the latter section can easily apply to any villain fandom.

Self-Analysis of Devil-Fuckery, Or Why Do I Adore Raphael When He Is Very Obviously Evil: A Short Essay by TavyliaSin (Who Still Cannot Name Anything With Less Than A Full Paragraph) ((NSFW)) (((Game Spoilers)))

The following may discuss heavier topics, but without specifics, so whilst it should be safe for most to read without triggering any difficult memories please be aware of Raphael's entire vibes, the content and context of his story, and I'd also like to mention that this isn't a "woe be us for we are terrible people" piece, it's actually more about:

"There is an inherent kindness and warmth to much of the Raphael fandom, and I think there could be some common threads behind that, pulling us all in closer in a comforting blanket that we wrap around each other to keep out the cold of the world."

So, what in the nine hells am I on about? Well. Raphael-fandom is a wild and wonderful place to be. The rest is in sections, so feel free to skip through to what you feel is relevant to your interests. I am so prone to waffle I should open a restaurant~

Who Are Fans Of Raphael? What Do They Want?

We are feral, unhinged, all sheets to the wind "I want that devil man, carnally, and there is no force in all the planes that could stop me". There's the vanilla to the extreme and every level in between, tops, bottoms, versatiles, Doms, subs, and switches - there are a whole lot of people who would love to get their hands on either (or both) of Raphael's forms, for a simple smooch or something far more spicy~ [edited in] To add on to this, not all of us even desire him in a sexual way, for many it is romantic, soft, or even just the rather pleasant thought of spending an evening with drinks by the hellfire because he would be fascinating company. Aces, Aros, and AroAces may all find themselves well within the devilish corners of fandom too~ which is a whole other essay~ [end edit] So, I see you. I'm one of you. Extremely loud and utterly hingeless in my fan appreciation for Raphael. He's one of my favourites to write about, I seek art of him, and the same goes for his mirrored other half, Haarlep, who I arguably love more despite there being far less content of them in the game.

And the Fandom? The Vibe?

From my experience in the Raphael Fandom areas, we have a very deep and abiding understanding of consent, respect, and treating each other with an absolute and uncompromising kindness. We've had talks about keeping each other safe in fandom, exchanged details of people we have encountered who need to be avoided, even shared details between moderators of different fandom servers to pre-ban people proven to be creeps and/or art thieves. We've also discussed consent, including the issues with it in the game, and how areas of the story can only really be considered dubious at best and could easily be triggering for people. And these discussions have been open, honest, fair, and with the acknowledgement that most of us love these scenes anyway. So there's a sense of care that runs through everything, behind the horny-posting and fan content, behind the endless thirsting after our favourite fictional characters. We have a depth of kindness that warms my sinners soul every time I see it.

What Does This Have To Do With Self-Reflection, Raphael, or Villainy In General?

Well let's look at Raphael. He's a villain, obviously. He's manipulative, devious, and inherently evil by his very nature. He keeps Hope chained in his basement, constantly subjected to endless torture. There's also mention of how Gortash was sold into his service at a young age, clearly not an enjoyable experience given the other details and how things turn out (particularly as Raphael would need Gortash's own plans to fail entirely in order for him to succeed in his own and get that crown). And as fans, we accept that. We don't sit making excuses, or trying to say "well actually Gortash is a little shit and Hope probably deserve it", and we don't shy away from or conveniently ignore those darker sides of him with malicious intent to enable more evil to flourish. What I noticed, when I allowed the thoughts to continue, is that there is a theme here.

If Evil Can Be Loved Then So Can I

That's the core. Of course, darlings, I am not claiming to be a heinous monster. I certainly do not have a laundry list of crimes that would make the devil himself say "Uh, that's a bit much." But I sure as fuck treat myself like I do sometimes. You see, I think a lot of us have that tendency, to judge ourselves far more harshly than anyone else. Our patience, understanding, and forgiveness for others runs deeper than the Mariana Trench, but when it comes to our own flaws? One minor mistake and we think ourselves to be the worst beings ever to disgrace the earth. Thus, the villainy we see reflects how we are treating ourselves. So by loving and accepting all of those things that should be terrible, hated, we are actually learning that no matter how poorly we think of ourselves that we can be worthy of that same love and acceptance. We are extending the affection we are unable to show ourselves to someone we see the worst parts of ourselves amplified within. And that's why villains attract the people with the most kindness. The most forgiveness. Because it takes someone with a truly huge amount of empathy to find love for the embodiment of evil.

Or, IDK, maybe villains are just hot and we're too far down to care.

But wait, before you go!

THERE'S SOMETHING WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT.

All of this is about FICTION. We should never be accepting of the kinds of evil we see in the game irl. We do not owe anyone kindness if they do not show it to us.

What is hot in fiction is not always OK IRL.

Look after yourselves out there, remember that consent is key in all things, and please do try to learn to love yourselves, darlings, you are worthy of it and you should judge yourself by the same standard you judge others. If you are in doubt, if you are worried, if you feel afraid - reach out, talk to someone. There are many who will listen.

Treat yourself as you would treat a friend. You deserve that much.

Oh, and all Raphael fans who understand kindness are welcome around me, any hour of the day, I adore our little fandom circles and would gladly collect all of us together. I'm following a lot of you as soon as I find you, like hunting shiny pokemon~

See you in Avernus, my darling Little Mice, may we all find joy in the Cambion's Embrace~

#baldurs gate 3 #raphael #bg3 raphael #villain fucker #personal reflection #analysis of the inner mind by a complete amateur #listen the thoughts get loud then I write them down darlings it happens all the time #love yourself please #you are worth more than you give yourself credit for #and keep loving those villains! it's good for you! #be kind to yourself #and be kind in the community #did this even make sense? well it's there now so tough #DMS are open for fellow fans with excellent taste~

[destinygoldenstar]

In the early seasons, Lloyd was the hero of the story. The Chosen One. The one with the most relevance to the story. The one with the most important role in the narrative.

But he was NOT the surrogate for the audience.

KAI was the audience surrogate. Kai was the one we were following and seeing everything in the lens of. He started the show in his shoes, we followed him on his ninja origins, we discovered the world of Ninjago when he was. And Lloyd wasn't even introduced yet. Even after such, there are SEVERAL shots that indicate the audience seeing something from Kai's POV. The other ninja didn't often get that unless it was a focus season/episode for them.

In that sense, it's VERY interesting to me.

Usually a show would make the Chosen One the audience surrogate. Because they're the most relevant. And Lloyd definately is relevant.

But our supposed 'protagonist' is NOT that person. Instead they're basically an average firebending character watching this Chosen One narrative unfold while he served a different/more important role than one could imagine a Chosen One story needs.

To be the one to RAISE the hero. To be the one to PROTECT him. LOOK AFTER him. BE THERE for him.

And doing it all with just a sword and a familial spark.

Had Kai been open about his jealousy and refused to take on this role, Lloyd likely wouldn't have fulfilled HIS role as the Green Ninja, or even come out a healthy person. The other ninja are obviously a factor into that as well, I'm not denying their relevance, but all of them needed to contribute for that to happen.

THAT is Kai's role in the story. That's why people considered him 'the protagonist' in the earlier seasons. NOT because he was the Chosen One, but because we were in his shoes and struggling with him to fulfill a role that was just as important.

There are not a lot of shows out there that highlight that. In fact, often when shows do that, it's bad because then the protagonist is so irrelevant to the story that it feels like the side characters are more important. But I think THIS aspect is what made Ninjago's version of that work when it really shouldn't have. Saying aloud what Kai's purpose is supposed to be helps too, and makes you understand that there's a message here.

It's also WHY when people say "Kai being the Green Ninja would've been a more interesting story", I WHOLEHEARTEDLY DISAGEE with it.

It would've been cliche, and I think it's a better message to say, "Hey, sometimes you're NOT the special person. Sometimes you will NOT get what you want. BUT you are STILL important and you have a purpose more relevant than what the traditional 'special' role is."

In the LATER SEASONS though...

Yeah that role has just been ERASED. Which is disappointing.

I love Lloyd's POV and I love what they do with him (until Crystalized where it was just... UGH). But they did not need to fade away Kai's role in the story for that to happen. (This is not a 'Focusing on Kai would be taking away focus from Cole or Lloyd' situation. You can STILL have those two get their great development in the later seasons, and no characters have to suffer for it to happen.)

#ninjago #ninjago kai #kai jiang #kai smith #lloyd garmadon #ninjago lloyd