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#it's not something I'm opposed to per say
some-pers0n · 23 days
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I think I should be allowed to maul classical pianists for never slowing down and making hard, yet extremely boring and repetitive pieces that I wouldn't wish even my worst enemy to do
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genshin-obsessed · 5 months
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Him as a husband | Honkai Star Rail
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✩ ‒ It's been a while since I've wrriten anything for star rail, so I decided to make these cute lil hcs. I'm not branching out to the newest pretty boy yet, I don't know anything about him. I avoided saying Valentine’s Day cuz they're not on earth or whatever.
✩ ‒ I'm also trying to butter y'all up a little for something else I'm planning lmao
✩ ‒ Characters: Caelus, Dan Heng, Jing Yuan, Blade, Luocha
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✩ ‒ Caelus
He's not vocal about being married per se, but people usually know he's married. Other than the ring, he's very unresponsive to flirting. If anyone attempts to flirt with him, he'll just act like he doesn't get it. It makes things awkward and people often leave after.
He's very attentive to you. If you're having a bad day, he'll know pretty much immediately and will do anything and everything to get your mind off of it if you don't want to talk about it.
He loves to celebrate holidays for couples. They're super special days because every day with him is special, but he does go out of his way a little bit to surprise you with something. Could even be food, as long as you're surprised and smiling.
Cuddles are a must. You better hope your rooms are cold at night because he cuddles up to you every single time. He'll either lay his head on your chest or hug you against him, so sometimes it feels really hot in the morning.
Caelus prefers outdoor activities as dates, but isn't opposed to staying in. Movies, snacks, just being with one another isn't so bad. But going to a new planet and fighting baddies is also pretty enticing. More on that, Caelus has near heart attacks when you get hurt- like he saw you get hurt badly once and almost cried. Ok, no, he cried a little.
Children are up to you. He doesn't have much of a preference.
✩ ‒ Dan Heng
"Are you two married? You don't act like it." This has and always will confuse Dan Heng. What the hell does it mean? Is he supposed to be all over you or something? He has class. Though... he will hold your hand more often. Maybe the ring he'll get you for your anniversary might have a ginormous gem so it blinds everyone or something.
He's also pretty attentive to your needs and emotions. The second he thinks you're upset or hurt, he's at your side. He may or may not be a little clingy but he's so terrified of losing you. It's actually changed him for the better a little. He's less quiet, more expressive, and a lot more open to communication. That could also be due to his recent transformation...
He's not overly fond of those "couple days" because he's usually loving all year around. Why have a dedicated day? He has a hard time seeing the point in days like those.
Dates for Dan Heng are usually stay at home. He likes the more intimate activities at home- cuddling, watching movies, making out- yanno. Intimate.
Dan Heng likes kisses. Cheek kisses, neck kisses, shoulder kisses, hand kisses- don't matter. He loves them all. Usually done behind closed doors, Dan Heng never forgets to kiss you. Like, ever. He will also make up for lost kisses.
Um... he prefers no children, but it's something you can talk about later on.
✩ ‒ Jing Yuan
You have your hands full with this one. Everyone and their courier birds will know he's married to you. This man just can't stop talking about you. Like, he'll be receiving a report about something or other and just somehow manages to drop your name in the conversation. It's cute and all, but Jing Yuan, focus!
Sadly, he's a busy man. He comes home to you every single day, don't worry, but he does need to be away for most of the day. He's not the biggest fan of it and has suggested maybe trying to find a position for you to keep you close by. Other than being down right addicted to you, he worries because he's got enemies.
Jing Yuan DOES take time for those fancy couple days but they're not overly different from the usual dates. He used to make it all fancy, with giant bouquets of flowers and expensive jewelry, until he realized he was showering you with love on a specific day and not every day like he should. So, he's toned it down a little, but every now and then, he'll get you something fancy.
There isn't much time for dates. They usually include visiting him during his breaks and enjoying some tea together. Maybe spending time with Mimi or something. But on his days off, he tries really hard to set up something for you.
He kinda likes to hold you. There's nothing wrong with it, its just constant. Like, you're so cute and he just wants to hug you all the time. He does try to control himself in public to avoid making you uncomfortable.
Children? Why? Isn't Yanqing enough?
✩ ‒ Blade
Some people still have a hard time understanding that you actually married him. In your opinion, they're small minded and don't actually know Blade. Blade, himself, doesn't actually care what anyone else thinks. Though, they should mind their manners around you.
Blade can be attentive, but doesn't always know how to help. He's got his own problems, so he usually tries to use them as a reference point. When he feels depressed or lost, what would he do? He tries to help you that way. It doesn't always work, but it does help him learn more and more.
He'll forget any special "couple" days are coming up. Kafka or Silver Wolf mention it and he's always confused about them. He will try to get you something just so you don't feel left out. "Oh my husband didn't get me anything because he doesn't care about today". Never.
Blade likes cuddles, but they hurt. He's got a lot of wounds on his body so he can't hold you the way he likes. Not to mention, the mara, his personal discomfort, lack of understanding. You assure him that it's ok, but he still feels guilty often. You deserve the world, but he can barely give you himself. He does try to hold your hand a lot. You both share the same bed and he sleep extremely close.
There's not many outdoor dates with him other than going on missions which aren't dates. Usually, you two train together and just spend time with one another. Blade is willing to attend an event with you... but he's attached to you. He doesn't know anyone there.
No children. He'd be a terrible dad, sorry.
✩ ‒ Luocha
Now aren't you two an interesting couple? Luocha has a way with words. He'll let potential flirters know he's married way before they can even start flirting with him. He won't even give them the time of day, especially if they're disrespectful toward you.
Of course he's attentive. He's great at recognizing your emotions and understanding what may or may not make it worse. For example, if he attends an event, he'll know what type of people might be too forward for you. Or may know when someone is beginning to make you upset.
Not a fan of those "couple days". He literally rolls his eyes at them, like why would he hold himself back to let it all out on that day? He's all over you, every day. BUT! He does get you a flower or a small box of chocolates... or something else in the bedroom. Idk.
Luocha likes to schedule dates per week so that you can clear up time for them. Just because you have a day off doesn’t mean it needs to be a date night. Maybe you want that day to yourself, who knows? He likes to find a day or two within the week dedicated to actually going out to a restaurant, a picnic, maybe fighting some baddies- who knows. Whatever works for both of y’all.
Luocha likes being close to you, whatever that means to you. He can hold you, hold your hand, just sit close by. Generally, he finds peace around you, so it doesn't matter what you two are doing as long as he can be close to you.
Uhh kids? Are you sure?
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vaspider · 5 months
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My question about the AIDS crisis, I'm mostly asking you because like I said, I don't think I was googling the right things, so even if you could just suggest some things to google that would be more likely to get me answers, that would be really helpful.
I guess it's mostly how did AIDS (and to some extent, any STD) become so widespread? I know that it spread through sexual contact and shared blood, but can you really "six degrees of separation" (god, that sounds so flippant, but i genuinely can't think how else to describe it) a chain of sexual partners and shared needles through any two people with HIV in the entire world? Maybe it's just because I'm a bit of a hermit, but while I can understand how it was so devastating once it was already widespread, I guess I'm having trouble understanding how it got such a foothold in the first place. If the first person with HIV had happened to not have a lot of sex would the AIDS crisis never have happened?
I swear I have absolutely no judgement for people that like to have a lot of sex, maybe I just have an underestimate of the amount of sex the average person has because frankly I don't have any? So I hope this doesn't sound disrespectful or anything, it's just kind of hard for me to believe those "six degrees of separation" kind of things in general when it's not like, famous people, so the realization that theoretically any two people with the same STD, on different parts of the globe, would have this string of sexual partners connecting them almost feels like there has to be something I'm missing... But when I'm googling things like "how did HIV become so widespread" and "how do STDs spread" I'm just getting things about how you should use protection and histories of *where* HIV spread rather than answering this more specific question (probably didn't help I was trying to do this research at 1am)
I mean this as kindly as possible:
What is your proposed alternate theory as to the spread of a disease which is transmitted through contact with blood, semen (and pre-seminal fluid), rectal and vaginal fluids, and breast milk? The disease does not spread through saliva or through touch which does not involve those fluids.
There are relatively rare cases of HIV spread through accidental needle sticks - according to WebMD, there are approximately 385k accidental needle sticks among health care workers per year in the US. WHO says that .7% of the global population has HIV, so for some back-of-the-napkin math, at most, you'll have about 2,700 of those needle sticks involving someone with HIV. Since (again, according to that WebMD article on accidental needle sticks), in cases of an accidental needle stick where the patient has HIV, the health care worker only has about a 1 in 300 chance of catching it (as opposed to 1 in 3 for an unvaccinated person catching hepatitis B via accidental needle stick from an infected patient). So - nationwide - you have approximately 9 people per year catching HIV from a needle stick.
And, to be clear, that fucking sucks. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 there were approximately 14.7 million health care workers in the US. Not all of these people have equal risk for accidental needle sticks, but there's only so much research I'm gonna do for rough math to answer an ask on Tumblr.
The average US health care worker has approximately - again, based on my back-of-the-napkin math - 0.00000544% chance of contracting HIV from an accidental needle stick. It's astronomically more likely that a random health care worker will die from tripping over an extension cord or breathing in a caustic chemical than that they will catch HIV.
The chances of getting HIV via blood transfusion before we started routinely testing for it were all but assured if you got blood from someone with HIV. Testing now is so stringent that you have about a one in two million chance of getting HIV from a transfusion. The last recorded case I could find was in 2010, and before that, it was 2002, and the 2010 case happened in part because the donor lied about his risk profile and often participated in anonymous and unprotected sex with partners of multiple genders. He really shouldn't have been accepted as a donor at all. Approximately 4.5 million Americans receive blood transfusions per year, so, like, nowadays, it is excessively unlikely, but even in the 80s, it was an edge case means of infection, not a main source of pandemic spread.
A breastfeeding parent with a detectable viral load has about a 15% chance of transmitting HIV through breast milk. Likewise, HIV can be - and was - transmitted to babies during birth because of contact with vaginal fluid or blood, but, again, these relative edge cases are not the things pandemics are made of.
I want to stress that I am not in any way minimizing the absolute tragedy of the AIDS crisis, and I am not dismissing the fact that these methods of transmission are possible and did cause significant disruption to blood banks, stress for pregnant people with HIV, and so on. They just simply are not major methods of transmission, and never were.
With all of that said... what is your proposed alternate method of transmission, with these facts in hand? What do you think happened? Genuinely, this question is so baffling to me.
I think it's important to understand that before the emergence of HIV, most of the STIs we had were at that point either considered an annoyance (warts, HPV) or were extremely easy to treat and cure (syphilis, once a death sentence, became basically a non-issue for most people in the US as long as they were getting tested relatively frequently, and most other common STIs even today can be cured with a single course or even a single dose of antibiotics).
With that in mind, a lot of people, including a lot of queer people, were having a lot of unprotected sex. For people who could become pregnant, the advent of the pill and access to legal abortion meant that they didn't have to become or stay pregnant if they didn't want to, and for cis gay men, the prevalence of antibiotics meant that the vast majority of STIs were a brief inconvenience at worst.
So allo people did one of the things that allo people (and some ace people!) love to do:
They fucked. A lot. They fucked without fear of much consequence in terms of infection, and because it was much riskier to bring someone home where you could be seen, a lot of gay men cruised, fucking in parks or in literal back alleys or the bathrooms of clubs. They worried about getting arrested or getting caught and having their names in the newspaper much more than they worried about STIs. Sex workers, including trans sex workers, fucked in cars or hotels or... wherever the money was, because survival sec work is ... survival.
So... yeah. What is your proposed alternate theory, here? I am truly baffled at what you think otherwise happened, given a disease with a very narrow route of infection.
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mrscarmenbearzatto · 3 months
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what about carmen and reader getting into an argument and carmen (because of his traumas and thinking people who are mad will just leave) thinks reader wants to break up?? i feel like he'd just be so nervous:(
ugh my heart. | gen!reader
ʚɞ
"Carmen, I just think we need to communicate a good time for us to spend time together." You say, your voice soft and calm as opposed to his frantic. "There's just a lot of shit going on, okay?" He replies.
It really wasn't an argument, per say. You'd just felt like Carmy had been overworking himself for quite some time, and maybe a date night could help with that.
He walks over to the living room, sitting on the sofa, head in his hands. You stand there for a moment, letting him have his space before approaching. "Please don't leave." He asks in such a quiet tone, you think you misheard him. You stare at him, almost in disbelief before you place your hand on his shoulder, sitting down beside him.
"Carm, I'm not leaving you. Why would you think that?" You question. Not in a harsh or accusatory tone, but more in a concerned one. Why would he think that? Does he actually believe you're going to leave him?
"I just think that- I guess cause we had a fight you were gonna leave. Go stay with a friend or something." He stares at you. You shake your head, trying to find the words as you take a deep breath. "Love, I don't want to leave. If you need space or time, we.. I can go if that's what you need but-"
Your words are cut off by him wrapping his arms around you tightly. This isn't the adult side of Carmen hugging you, it's that fragile little boy in him. The one whose begged people not to leave him before.
You hug him back almost immediately, your hand rubbing soothing motions on his back. Neither of you say anything, because you know neither of you have the words. Instead, for now, you'll settle for letting him hold you until he finds them.
You'd be there when he did. You always were.
˙ ✩°˖🌸 ⋆。˚꩜
shine on, shine on, my loves!
- mae
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tossawary · 2 months
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I'm enjoying this "Yue Qingyuan sent Shang Qinghua to go spy on Luo Binghe after Shen Qingqiu's death" AU, because I love it when background characters have their own goals and business, are fighting with each other, and are doing wild shit on purpose. Even if you're doing an AU (as per canon to our knowledge) where Shang Qinghua is not a double agent - and is just fleeing to the Demon Realm because he was found out as a traitor and/or decided that it was time to dip because the protagonist and Cang Qiong Mountain Sect are now in semi-open conflict - the question remains for exploration:
Why did Yue Qingyuan not go to Huan Hua Palace and try to kick Luo Binghe's ass to get Shen Qingqiu's body back?
It's suggested at several points that Tianlang-Jun at the height of his power was stronger than Luo Binghe, and Yue Qingyuan was part of the team that helped to seal Tianlang-Jun. Shen Yuan suggests that the original Luo Binghe had to bait Yue Qingyuan into a death trap of ten thousand arrows because Bing-ge (even with the Xin Mo Sword at this point) didn't want to face Yue Qingyuan head-on. (I think Bing-ge sent SQQ's legs to YQY or something.) Yue Qingyuan is willing to draw Xuan Su for SQQ and Liu Qingge is willing to help (although LQG might be mad that YQY let SQQ go to the Water Prison at all). YQY versus LBH is not a totally unbalanced fight.
It's possible that Yue Qingyuan didn't go fight because he kind of shut down due to grief. Shen Qingqiu has changed in recent years and died in a very sudden, very shocking, very confusing way. YQY also has a sect to look after and maybe he can't fully justify going out and escalating the conflict over a dead body (as opposed to a live hostage), and possibly get himself killed, when he's maybe hoping that Cang Qiong and Huan Hua can settle this without further death. The other peak lords all must have opinions on this and are probably pulling him in all sorts of directions. By Liu Qingge's account, Yue Qingyuan probably knows that Shen Qingqiu intentionally died for Luo Binghe and he knows that SQQ loved his disciple, so maybe he wants to respect SQQ's sacrifice and affection by not trying to kill Luo Binghe. When Luo Binghe invades Cang Qiong for SQQ's body (and Shen Yuan), Yue Qingyuan has to dangerously abort cultivation in the Ling Xi Caves to come face him, so it's possible that YQY had decided 5 years in that peaceful resolution was impossible and was gearing up to fight Luo Binghe, only to be a victim of bad timing (Liu Qingge's unexpected success in body retrieval).
It could be a combination of these reasonings! People do things for lots of different reasons and this is an emotionally charged situation which puts Yue Qingyuan in a complicated political position.
So, yeah, it could also be that Mu Qingfang came back from his kidnapping saying, "Luo Binghe was repairing Shen Qingqiu's body, trying to summon his soul, and was researching resurrection techniques when I was there," and Yue Qingyuan decided to just... sit back and see where that went. If Liu Qingge (who is probably NOT happy that YQY isn't throwing down already) succeeds in retrieving the body, fine, that's good enough, but if Luo Binghe succeeds in bringing Shen Qingqiu back...? Well, that's also good, isn't it? Yue Qingyuan can outsource the "go mad with grief and engage in crimes against the natural order" to someone else here.
I mean, I really don't think that Yue Qingyuan was actively PLANNING for Luo Binghe to resurrect Shen Qingqiu. That seems a little too wicked and scheming to be his main motivation here. But I do think he might have been... vaguely aware of this potential consequence of his inaction, this possible side effect of his paralyzing grief causing him to be hands-off about the situation and/or his cautious approach to peace negotiations, and I really don't think that he minds that Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang succeeded in bringing Shen Qingqiu back. (I do think he kind of wishes that the Shen Jiu who remembers him had come back instead, though.)
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m4rs-ex3 · 26 days
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ALLLL RIGHTY YALL
if u haven't already seen.............. guys i was late i was fucking late for the panel give me a break
BUT here is a play by play of everything from the second i got in
[A GOOD CHUNK OF THE SECRET SCENE] if you saw this post within the first few *hours you got to see but you know what? they got to me i don't wanna be the snitch (i did on accident but its the though that counts)
opeli is being led blindfolded (which we see from opeli's pov. riveting visuals i tell you) by soren to the ✨secret meeting location✨
when she comments on the fact that it is literally just callum's office soren shuts her up bless him
opeli's like "DID BAIT GIVE BIRTH??!?!?" and soren's like no these are "rescue baits" and opeli gives them the greatest fucking look i can't even describe it to you
you've seen that leak "look it's the pearl :D""WHA""yep he's in there :)))))"
rayla says it like "per-al." just thought you should know
soren suggests forming a Fellowship of the Pearl and going to throw it into a volcano i fucking hate this show
they're all debating what to do with it meanwhile the most cryptic-ass shots of callum with the pearl like we get it he's fucked (i take it back i want more)
they finally get to him and he's like "uh????? destroy it obviously?????"
he suggests--and these are 100% his words (not actually cuz u know but its the general idea)--"smash it? throw it off a cliff? take a big ol axe and just--KA CHOP." i love him so much
rayla asks how they know it won't just release him
the way callum is so confused and conflicted and he just says "i... i don't know" oh my god by precious baby
cool ass top-down to the pearl whirlpool esq transtion into the next scene hello??
zym is being emo at a painting of his mother (the one from 4x03 yeah they just stitched that shit up it's all good)
ezran's like. huh. we oughtta do smth abt this
callum is Thinking Thoughts on the turrets(?? yk where soren does his lunges) and tossin the rune cube when he sees the star rune light up......................................
it's stella stella's there and the way he reacts to her is so precious 😭 he's not the step dad he's the dad who stepped up type shit
enter rayla "they told me u would be up here brooding"
(in a tragic turn of events the rayllum of this scene had my brain fuzzy so i can't remember a few chunks here and there have pity my brain has rotten)
callum's like "we have to do something i'm scared he's gonna use me. i know what we need to do ok we need to go to the starscraper"
it's honestly hilarious the way he says "and *WE.* should go" he's like "don't be gettin any ideas now this is an us thing"
and then ohoho "they have something there for you, too" (THAT was an exact quote)
he's like "PLSPLSPLS i've studied star magic i know the spells i know the runes i just need the quasar diamonds!! LET ME FREE UR PARENTS AND RUNAAN PLEAAAASSSSEEEE"
rayla is veryyyyyy opposed she's like "NO i want to help my parents as much as you"--honestly i don't think ANYONE wants to as much as him--"but i don't want my biases to affect that" BIASES?!??!! like that was the word she used i can't stop thinking about it
zym has entered his wolf child era his ass is HOWLING at the moon
soren hears him and goes "aww little guy misses his mom :((( sometimes i wonder where my mom is...." WHAT AWHAT WHAT AWHAT PJARDON SAY IT AGIAN YOU WAHGTS SAY IT AGIAND HUAH HUWH A
ok. yeah callum does not have pajamas BUT I THINK WE HAVE BIGGER ISSUES HERE????????????? HE WAS SLEEPING IN HIS OFFICE
THAT COUCH THING THAT THEY WERE ON WHEN RAYLA CAME BACK IN 4x03???? HES JUST SLEEPING ON IT I CANT MY GUY WHAT R U DOINGGG
in other news
bruv is tossing and turning and then just. ~stops.~ this can only mean good things (i think you know where i'm going with this)
he sits up. hobbles over to the door. there was a really cool transition (can u tell i respect the cinematography) and he's in the cellar holding the pearl.
he wakes up in aaravos' prison and is like "well this looks neat!" until he sees the mirror and screams and wakes up. when he realizes where he is he goes "what have i done" dude you fell asleep?? god he's never sleeping again (<- me when i lie 😈)
the description we got of this next scene did NOT do it justice it was fucking incredible
callum kicks down the fucking door (not actually) screaming for rayla
rayla TUMBLES OUT OF BED ON TO THE FLOOR, pillows in hands and unafraid to use them
"WHOA. HEY HEY ITS OKAY ITS ME! it's just me rayla. it's me. callum" i feel like he was saying the same 5 words for 7 hours it was beautiful
rayla: "callum?? jeez i could have-" *looks at pillows*
callum giggles the cutest fucking giggle and says something along the lines of "yeah, it would've hurt real bad :)"
oh yeah DE-LAYERED PONYTAIL RAYLA CONFIRMEDED??!?!?!?!?!
she sits back on the bed and my guy KNEELS DOWN AT THE CORNER OF THE BED TO PICK UP HER STUFF BEFORE HE SITS DOWN NEXT TO HER and they say chivalry is dead romance was birthed and ended with this scene
he tells her about it and she goes "callum, you're exhausted. you had a nightmare. if i thought you were in any real danger you know i would-" and then ironically i forget the same line that the person from nycc did wouldja look at that
can i just mention how close they were sitting in this scene i mean i jsut thikn i should mention hwo clo
yada yada he has a lightbulb and runs off with her blanket
the iconic "i know stella.. he took our blankie :("
god knows why barius is up in the middle of the night whispering sweet nothings to his jelly tarts
callum comes in with a certain proposition mwuhahaha
rayla comes into his office and sees his aesthetic ass sewing by fireside and graciously says "ah i get it! you're taking your mind off things by peacefully knitting" so iconic for both of them
callum explains that he's stitching runes to create a protection spell when barius comes in with the """"""""pearl""""""""""
rayla DIVES in front of callum and says "what r you doing get that thing AWAY from him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she got SO protective SO fast it was blessed
callum's like au contraire 😈
ok so obviously we had all heard about the fake pearl but. you know that one guy who makes insane sculptures out of nothing but chocolate? that's what they did the pearl is brown sludge with a candy coating 💀 i'm losing my mind that is so funny to me
so yeah with the decoy out the real pearl is protected by--and callum literally said this--"a magic blankie >:)"
he also pops in to tell ez and omg GUYS BAIT HAS HIS OWN LITTLE ROYAL CANOPY BED ITS SO FUCKING CUTE
dawn in the courtyard--ez is saying goodbye to soren, zym, and pyrrah who are going to look for zubeia (i almost just typed zendaya i need sleep) and callum and rayla who r going to the starscraper
my roman empire is this: callum was acting all eepy and then when they get going hE RESTS HIS HEAD ON RAYLA'S BACK AND FALLS ASLEEP. I CANNOT FUCKING MAKE THIS UP IT WAS PHENOMENAL SHE LOOKED SO FUCKING HAPPY I I I I I I HAKJSDHFKJASHFDKJHSADKFHKJASHFIHASEKFH
on a slightly lower note
scene from teaser except they did cut a couple lines in the teaser. mainly just terry going "didn't see you there,, cuz i was asleep. with my eyes closed"
he does not in fact get impaled but claudia tells him she's gonna leave him first and does just that
as she's going omfg terry's cries and pleas and "I LOVE YOU"s and "I WILL WAIT. I WILL WAIT HERE FOR YOU" was absolutely insane idk what was in the air in that recording studio but shout out to ben
i am so tired goodbye!
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cosmerelists · 3 months
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Why I DON'T think Dalinar will be homophobic
[Stormlight spoilers if you don't know who in Stormlight is canonically gay! Both in book and per WOB]
Now...it's possible that the many posts I see floating around predicting that Dalinar will be homophobic when Renarin comes out are, like, jokes. In which case, I look the fool to take them seriously and argue the other side. But oh well. Here's why I genuinely do not think Dalinar will be anything but supportive of his gay son.
1. Gay marriage is legal in Alethkar
No, wait, don't get mad! I'm gay married in real life, and trust me, I know that the existence of gay marriage does not mean homophobia is over. But I do think that the point of the scene with Drehy being married to a man was to suggest that gay Alethi men can be openly gay. They aren't expected to hide it and it isn't assumed to be shameful. It must be less common, since Kaladin did his whole "You know how it is to be different, being married to a man" speech, but it's not presented as something shameful or illegal and the other bridgemen react as though Kaladin is the weird one for bringing it up like that.
2. WOB is that Vorinism supports gay marriage
Sanderson has said, "Vorin culture is concerned with oaths. Extra-marital sexuality is strictly forbidden, but homosexuality is regarded the same by most as heterosexual relationships. If the proper oaths are spoken, then the Almighty approves."
So to me, that means that Brandon wants Vorin society to be heteronormative but not homophobic. We can argue about whether he's successful (Kaladin's speech is still weird), but I don't think he'll have his specialist boy Dalinar be homophobic if society at large isn't. If anything, Dalinar is gonna say something like "Well okay but no mateform before marriage, right?"
3. Dalinar reads now
Also, Dalinar is honestly doing a lot to break down some of the heteronormative barriers himself. He reads and writes now, something so out of the ordinary that there didn't even exist a first-person male "I" form--Navani has to lowkey invent one for him. So Dalinar is pretty okay with nonstandard expressions of masculinity.
4. Dalinar lets Rlain carry a spear
I bring this up on the assumption that Renarin's first boyfriend will be Rlain--in which case, there is the disturbing possibility that Dalinar would oppose the relationship not because he's homophobic of course but just because it's a human-singer relationship. Which would be hard to pull off, I feel, without it feeling like metaphorical homophobia. But the good news is, I think Dalinar is meant to also to be growing steadily more accepting of singers. I mean, even way back when, he allowed it when Kaladin asked that Rlain be allowed to carry a spear.
5. Dalinar joins the scholars so that Renarin will feel more comfortable
But to me, the number one piece of evidence that Dalinar will support his son is that he's already doing that. When Renarin wanted to hang out with the scholars in Urithiru, an act that could be seen as unmanly, Dalinar came to the scholar meeting too, just to demonstrate that it was perfectly manly and also something that Dalinar himself supported. Therefore, if Renarin does announce his relationship with Rlain and seems to be getting any grief at all, I feel like Dalinar's only response would be to ask Navani later, late at night... "Navani...should I get a boyfriend too?"
Because that's what a supportive dad does.
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ronearoundblindly · 18 days
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Kissing, lighting and sleepy sex for Hideout Steve and Reader?
I am not prepared. My feels...they shall be too deep and endless. I shall try anyway.
From this dirty ask game for this AU series where Nomad Steve lets motel-employee!Reader soothe his touch-starved body. Lawd, halp me, this is about to get crunk in a tooth-rotting, put-some-pillows-beneath-you you're-gonna-faint type o' way. [y'all can't tell I drank during the eclipse today, right? I'm subtle? Cool.] MINORS DNI.
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K - Kissing
ACK My heart! Or rather, there is something deeply adoring for Steve when you kiss his chest, over his heart. It makes him feel just that much more like a person who lives in this world, who belongs in this world, who will return one day to this world...
His hands are also a big one--no, not just actually big hands, but important to show love to because he uses them for such violence. Each kiss is like a little touch of forgiveness for what he's done or had to do with those hands. He appreciates the trust it takes, too, to kiss his palms, when he could easily stop you breathing (sorry, that sounds dark, but Nomad was in a dark place, okay, bad things occur to him now).
Steve loves to kiss your stomach, and it might be somewhat taboo to say, but he has a touch of that crawl-back-home-for-safety comfort thing going on when he presses close and holds your center to him. It's not a mommy kink or roleplay, per se; he relishes the connectedness of being one and curling up against you is the only non-sexual way he knows how to achieve that--like in Chapter 3 when he falls asleep in that position.
As far as leaving marks though? Steve can emphatically say 'hell no,' not on purpose. Pain is a bit, meh, weird for him because he heals so quickly. He might not even notice if you did bite or bruise him. He certainly wouldn't see it in the morning. He does not in any way associate marks with love or affection since he only ever saw them on himself after fights or on women (including his Ma) after being abused.
That is not love to Steve.
It's control, it's dominance, it's inequality, and he fucking hates it.
L - Lighting
Steve entirely defers to you on whether there are actual lights on or off. He likes to use his senses to explore and enjoy you, so without light is fine. He's just here for you.
Steve does, however,--no spoilers for Chapter 5--like ambiance such as candles or something dim and colorful. He thinks you'd look unbelievably perfect beside a sparkling Christmas Tree. He hopes to celebrate (all holidays and birthdays and everything) openly with you some day. The sooner the better.
(Except, no audience for him making love to you under those twinkling lights, please. He's staunchly opposed to that sort of thing.)
S - Sleepy Sex
So, again, no spoilers for Chapter 5, but once Steve gets comfortable with oral sex he is comfortable with oral sex, if you catch my drift.
If he wakes up first, he's on you in some way, arms and legs draped over you, kissing any place he can get to, man-handling you just enough to start something he 100% will finish. He's just...uh god, so attentive.
With the super senses and being a fugitive though, it's not often that you can wake up before him, truly, which limits or completely removes the ability to surprise him with a blowjob, but he will dreamily let you roam wherever your mouth and hands take you. As long as there's lots of contact. As much as possible really. Like lay your arms across his thighs and abs while playing with him. Maybe put your body over one of his legs and ride his foot if you need to. He must feel attached in some way. Cold, distant, or separated does not do it for him.
Here's my absolute, I-will-die, favorite thing about Hideout Steve though: when he's tired/fatigued/worn out/sleepy, he gets louder.
Much. Much. Louder, babes.
No cursing, mostly, but all the moans and groans and whining are totally dialed up. And I don't know about y'all, but I can't really think of anything fucking sexier than Nomad Steve screaming that he's gonna come.
🥵
Thank you for asking!
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A/N: Here lies Ro in a puddle. She made up a man she wants and will never have.
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[Main Masterlist; Hideout Masterlist; Ko-Fi]
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Hey. Might be rude to ask and if so I'm sorry but, could you please translate any questions in other languages? Like with the Russian just give a brief translation of what they're saying and your response
Trust me, I fully understand the urge to understand stuff, even if it's not said in a language you speak (50% of my life haha) but...
May I ask why you aren't able to translate the sentences yourself? I am relatively certain the tumblr app allows you to copy+paste things easily, and it takes less than a minute to throw something into translate.google.com if you're curious about the general gist of things.
I'm not against it, per se, but I'd like to know the reasoning behind ME doing this legwork as opposed to you guys just looking it up yourselves if you're curious. I don't think it's a huge undertaking, but I'll be happy to listen if someone has a point for me that might change my mind.
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princessofmerchants · 3 months
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HOFAS - Gwydion and Nesta Archeron
HOFAS spoilers below the break
“I think that eight-pointed star was tattooed on you for a reason. Take that sword and go figure out why.”
—Bryce to Nesta, HOFAS ch. 100
The way I screamed.....
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This moment right here lives rent free in my mind.
(I didn't plan to go into a deep meta about this but oops my fingers slipped I guess...)
I would never presume to say I know where SJM's head is based on what we see in her work unless she says it herself in an interview.
But there's so much in HOFAS and the bonus chapters that make me think she wasn't quite finished telling Nesta's story.
I think Nesta's romantic arc has been good and told in ACOSF, but her personal arc, both with herself, and with her family both blood (sisters) and found (Valkyries)?
I am daring to hope SJM isn't finished telling Nesta's story, even as she will need to do so in the formula she has established in the series (i.e., one couple per book with a multi-book magical conflict plot arc within which the romance arcs are set).
I want to be on record that I'm not looking for another Nesta book (though I'd never be opposed... 😏), and the stories I know are coming about some of my most beloved characters (Gwyn and Lucien specifically) are not stories I want somehow replaced with a book starring Nesta and Nesta alone.
But the way SJM kept inserting into HOFAS actual honest to God character development for Nesta, with both overt and implicit unresolved threads, albeit from the POVs of CC characters (something I enjoyed a lot and which I'll maybe write about another time), makes me so, so happy.
And this moment, with Bryce giving Gwydion not to the Prythian Fae but to Nesta specifically? And almost CHARGING her with a quest of sorts when she does so?
IT HAS ME HYPED BEYOND BELIEF
~and ACOSF Amren can take this and shove it~
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sindri42 · 1 year
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What is capitalism if private ownership and monopolization are out
This is about the insulin thing, right? Let me walk you through the steps.
The current situation is, there are three big corporations making insulin. They make it for super cheap, like $2 a dose or something including packaging and distribution and all that jazz, but they know that people need this stuff in order to not die, so there's no reason to restrain themselves as far as pricing goes. So they sell the stuff for like $500 a vial, earning a tidy 25,000% profit, because what are customers gonna do, not buy it?
In a capitalist system, this is a huge opportunity for anybody with a few thousand in seed money and a smidge of ambition. The process of making insulin is hardly a secret. I might not have the economy of scale going and I need a big up-front investment for equipment, but even if it costs me five times as much per dose to produce the stuff, that's still less than 2% of the current market price. So I start making and distributing the stuff for $10 a vial, and selling it for $400, and all the customers see that they can get the same product for $100 less so they stop buying from those three big companies and start buying from my startup. Then a month later, somebody else comes along with the same idea but undercuts me, and I lose all my customers to sombody willing to sell the stuff for $350, but that's fine I just change all my labels to sell for $300 and they come rushing back, and I'm still making $290 pure profit on every vial. Fast forward a couple years, and the market price of insulin is like, $12 a vial tops, because if you try to get profit margins any bigger than that you're the most expensive option and nobody buys from you. There was never any altruism involved in that process, no magic, no glorious savior who figured out a way to impose their will upon the world in order to save lives, just ordinary greedy humans fighting each other to make more money for themselves, but the end result is that the people who need this stuff to survive get it for a tiny fraction of what they used to be paying.
In the system that we're actually using, the three big corporations go to the government with three big suitcases full of cash, and the government passes a law that says anybody who tries to make insulin who isn't one of the three big corporations goes directly to prison forever. All the competition vanishes, and without the risk of somebody selling the same product for less they're able to keep raising the price as much as they want. I mean, if you get up to the point where the majority of your customers literally can't buy it anymore and they die then you have fewer customers, so going up into the millions per vial would be counterproductive, but as long as the majority of people who need insulin can just barely scrape together enough, you maximize your profits. And all it costs is widespread human suffering and a few surprisingly affordable bribes.
And then here's the really funny part: the corporations that benefit most from government interference in the market? They're the ones that fund all the media that convinces kids that the solution to all their problems is to give the government even more control over every aspect of life. They're the ones who pushed the narrative that 'libertarian' is synonymous with 'pedophile'. They're the ones who bury stories about corrupt politicians so you never question how a congressman can have a salary under $200,000 a year, go into the position with a net worth of a million dollars, and come out eight years later as a billionaire. Almost every "anti-capitalist" movement out there, if you follow the chain of evidence back, is funded directly by the corporations it claims to oppose, because shifting the balance of power further away from the individual and more toward the State means more profit for the people who are in a position to manipulate the state.
Now, this isn't to say that a free market is without problems. If there was zero regulation of the production of insulin, then a particularly unethical person could undercut the legitimate sources by making a loose approximation of the product people need for much cheaper by using dangerous or ineffective methods, and then sell it at prices that legitimate manufacturers can't compete with because the purchase price is lower than the manufacturing price. Which means that when you buy insulin, you would need to do your own research into who's got a reputation for quality, and there would be people who straight up die because they decided to go for the $4-6 "insulin" instead of the $12-15 insulin. But I'm pretty sure that would still be better than the only option being $500.
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valkyriesbooks · 3 months
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1) Where do a part of the ACOTAR fandom see an attraction/chemistry between Vassa and Lucien??????? You need Lucien to be with Vassa (who has more chemistry with Jurian), because in this way Elain will be with Azriel... that's insane!!!!! A mating bond is something sacred and precious, Lucien doesn't even see anyone else if not Elain...
2) We know Elain is important (by the way you are so fan of Elain because you want her to be with Azriel, you don't love her character per se), never said the contrary, but her book isn't the next one... you can talk for hours about Nesta being first Elain's sister than a Valkyrie... but who really stayed by her said when she needed someone the most? Cassian, Gywn and Emerie!!!!!!
I don't think Rhysand will bring Elain in a mission with Azriel and Nesta, because it'll be out of his character... and we see in acosf that the journey of the Valkyries has just begun and of course the Illyrians will be opposed to the Valkyries... 👀👀
3) Where do you see attraction and love, I see toxicity and obsession...
He's attracted to Elain for the wrong reasons, do you want your beloved Elain to end with a male who thinks the Cauldron has done a mistake because his own two brothers are with two Archeron sisters...
4) How can you say that Gwyn has no possibilities to have a big role in the next acotar book????
You should reread all the series Sarah has written! as an E*riel said to me once, draw your own conclusions.
5) THE SHADOWS KNOW WHO IS REALLY AZ'S MATE!!!!!!
If Elain wanted to be on Nesta's side, she'll have gone to see Nesta more, even train with her..
Nesta needed the sister who she has always protected to be on her side for once... but now she lives with Feyre and doesn't think to anyone else... I don't hate her, but I'm tired to see people who portrait her as the kindest and the most innocent character with a pure heart...
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utilitycaster · 5 months
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Hi I’m a new critter and I love your account and both your meta and your takes on “drama” I genuinely want to know (if you don’t mind saying of course) what you consider to be the most egregious, bad faith cr take that you’ve ever seen. I just like reading your criticism because it’s both incredibly articulate and smart but also very satisfying
Hi anon,
Thank you! I do have to say this is a difficult question with a boring answer but I'll give you a tangential one as well to make up for it.
Obviously, the misogyny and death threats in C1 are the worst! Anything that rises to the combination of structural oppression and literal death threats is going to be the worst, even before you factor in how utterly tiny the stakes were here (and, frankly, you shouldn't factor that in; doesn't matter what the cause is, big or small! Do not send death threats!)
The reason I tend not to talk about that is because there's very little to say. It's misogynistic death threats. That's awful, inexcusable, and dangerous in any context. But if someone doesn't understand how terrible this is, I don't think I can say anything to add to that.
Anyway because that was true, but obvious and not terribly revealing, I have been thinking a lot about mean-spiritedness in the fandom and I'll talk about that here. It's something I try to be cognizant of, because here's the thing: I talk a lot of shit. I'm aware I talk a lot of shit. There's many reasons why I talk a lot of shit. But I do try very hard not to be mean-spirited. I think there is a very clear distinction between criticism, even harsh criticism, of things you don't like, whether it's in execution, concept, or they just aren't to your taste; and mean-spiritedness, which is much more based in a desire to do harm to others.
I think again the example I've mentioned recently of people harassing Liam until he took a song off a Caleb character playlist is the pinnacle. This doesn't have any real goal re: criticism - it doesn't address an issue with the character nor the narrative and the only personal preference it reveals is "I, a random fan, don't like that this song was used in this context" which is not really relevant and you can skip it. Harassment is never justified, and even behavior that skirted harassment really served only to be a dick to Liam. It didn't have a single result other than "Liam takes the song off and feels kind of bad for a while," which I suspect was in fact the goal for most people, and that's pretty abhorrent.
Harsh criticism is not necessarily constructive, but it is with the intent to reveal - either a personal preference, or what you believe to be a flaw (structural, thematic, etc) within the story. It might not have a goal - personal preference really is just "I don't like this guy" and that's fine. Mean-spiritedness, however, exists just to spew bile and do harm.
So the following (most of which are paraphrased, but all are things I've personally seen on Tumblr alone, and nearly all are from the last year or so) aren't per se the most egregious or bad-faith takes, but they are absolutely mean-spirited. They have all destroyed my estimation of the people saying them for the most part beyond repair, and in many cases, if they have not hurt my estimation of the ship or character they were intending to support, they have certainly increased my estimation of the things they were intending to oppose. (And it goes without saying: any harassment - any - is automatically mean-spirited).
"I hope Fjord and Jester have divorced [author's note: they were not married] and I hope it hurt."
"I hope Caleb and that floaty fuck have broken up by the solstice."
"I hate Ashton, and Campaign 3 wouldn't be any different if they weren't there."
"My wishlist for this episode is that Chetney hits on Fearne and Ashton cockblocks him"
"I hope Fearne makes that robot eat his stupid coin"
"I'm not surprised that Yasha missed, because Yasha is bad at everything."
"Funny how Vex goes against her husband but does everything that Keyleth says" [Author's note: later proved to be hilariously untrue]
"No one cares about Travis's characters."
"Oh, Liam meant that Essek's own guilt would still exist by 'It won't help the inside?' I thought he was just being a fucking twat."
I think some people go into fandom not because they want to talk about characters, but because they see it as an opportunity to hit someone. I think some people believe they are entitled to a "win" (not normal to want nor possible to achieve and often less about the story and more about the fandom agreeing with them) and will engage in any tactic no matter how underhanded if they don't think they're getting it. That's what mean-spiritedness is in the end. It's not a single opinion, and often it goes under the radar compared to more stupid but less clearly unpleasant takes - a lot of the above didn't result in a ton of discourse because most people see these and rightfully go "oh that person is a tar pit" and block them - but it's certainly, outside of bigotry (which is also frequently also mean-spirited) - the most bad-faith approach to fandom on the whole.
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zkylearnstherope · 5 months
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AvPhysics - An Analysis [Part 1]
[Part 1] - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Disclaimer: This will only be a surface-level analysis for Animation vs. Physics. If you expect something more in-depth, you have to wait for the physicists.
Let's get into it- shall we?
Obviously, TSC spawns from the e✖iT Euler's Identity made in the end of AvMath. For the sake of this analysis, let's call this one, TSC_0.
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One minute upon arrival, TSC_0 didn't have any personal goal/objective, so he was just running around. This also demonstrates the accuracy of the UI Formula Thing (UFT) that shows up on the screen.
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That is, until he found this ball, and then the others after it. Which we eventually realize, all came from The Singularity. Something or someone is trying to get his attention. He needs to reach the Singularity.
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The first thing he realizes is, "Dang, this is gonna take a while".
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Also, space is dark because there is no sun- specifically, no solar system.
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Okay, new goal. We need to get faster. But how?
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Side Note: Animation vs. Frequency? Animation vs. Color Theory? Animation vs. Sound Waves?
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A Solar System (with its own star/sun) spawns in. He did not reach it, it spawned in. It literally did NOT exist prior to the flashlight.
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He utilizes the space maneuver called the Gravity Assist. Also called the Slingshot Effect. It's where you use a planet's gravity, by moving around it (but not entering it) to gain significant speed.
Most sci-fi stories use this maneuver to save on propulsion and to change/correct the course of the spacecraft.
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UFT shows that he got faster now, but it's still not enough.
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So he does it again with two faster-orbiting planets. Gaining more speed in the process.
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He was supposed to make impact with the sun here, although I'm not sure why he didn't. It's probably because a sun along with its own solar system moves through the galaxy. They don't stay in one place.
For example: Our Solar System orbits the Milky Way Galaxy for about 230 million years, which is also called a cosmic year.
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And by moving around the sun but NOT hitting it, gave him even more speed.
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Here's his speed upon exiting the solar system.
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He eventually reached 1% of the speed of light. Yep, that whole almost-dying-in-the-sun process, is still not enough to get anywhere.
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Magnets spawns in. Again, they did NOT exist prior to this.
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"Hmm... we can use this," he says.
Step 1: Let's magnetize the crap out of this rocket.
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Step 2: Enter the magnet gates.
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Step 3: We get a magnetic linear accelerator, which utilizes the opposing magnetic fields to propel/launch objects at high speeds. Initially thought this was a particle accelerator, but turns out that's a whole different thing.
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And now we reached 80% of the speed of light.
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If you're still following me... good news, we have reached half of the video.
Cool graphics, 'cause why not.
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Around this point, TSC_0 experiences Time Dilation. This is important for later.
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This is because he has now left the galaxy.
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More sci-fi stuff. Everything starts to look more red.
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Red-looking black hole.
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Something hits him on the head. How is this possible?
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Oh no, my apple. Take note, that the apple glows red whenever gravity is messing with it.
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Goodbye world, my apple needs me.
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Aww... Turns out there is a photo limit per post.
Here's [Part 2].
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widowbitessting · 1 year
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I have a question what would the trio do if baby bring home a cat
And and do they get jealous when baby spen more time with the cat
Now this is such a cute idea! I love it! <3
Did I just finish this about 2 minutes ago and post it without proof reading? Maybe.
Enjoy!
Want to be on the tag list? Click here!
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You end up spotting the cat on your walk to their apartment.
One second you're sending a voice note to the group chat and the next you stop dead in your tracks and let out a very audible gasp.
After sending the note to your women, you pocket your phone and crouch down to get a better look at the kitty.
"Hi little guy!"
The small cat is very happy to see you and immediately trots over to you, purring loudly.
She rubs her cheeks against your outstretched fingers and you beam brightly.
"You are adorable. I think I'm in love."
Five minutes of play time with your new fur-baby, you eventually check it over and find it's tag.
You purse your lips.
"You're a bit far from home, Hedwig." You give the cat a kiss on the head. "I know you're called Bella but I think Hedwig sounds better."
The grey cat settles on your lap and begins to knead at your thighs.
"I can't leave you out here." You tickle her chin. "Do you want to come home with me? Meet my ladies? They'll help you get home, lovie; I promise."
You scoop the kitty in your arms and she nestles in the crook of your arm. 
“Oh my God.” 
You take a lot of pictures before setting off down the sidewalk; deciding not to show the Trio! until you’re there.
“You’re gonna be such a cute surprise for them!”
Surprised was one way to describe the Trio! when you showed them Hedwig.
Wanda squeals and darts over, scooping the cat immediately into her arms and kissing its head.
While Natasha just watches, an unreadable look on her face.
“Wanda, Baby found that on the streets. Stop kissing it!” The red head cannot believe her eyes.
Carol only chuckles and tickles Hedwig under her chin.
The cat purrs, content and happy.
Unbothered by the red head glaring at her.
“I didn’t find her on the street…” You shake your head. “Well, I did! But she’s not a street cat! Someone owns her, look at her tag.”
Natasha comes over and inspects the tag, eyeing the pets name and address.
“How the hell did she get all the way over here?”
“Jumped on the train?” You ask at the same time Wanda says, “Subway?”
You both look at each other with identical grins.
“Well regardless of how she got here, I’m ringing her owners and telling them to collect her.”
Frowning at the cat once more, Natasha walks off with her cell in her hand; already dialling the number.
Carol takes Hedwig from Wanda and cuddles her close.
“I swear you said Natty had a cat growing up. Lilo or something?”
“Liho.” Carol tells you. “A black cat. Nat loved that thing.”
“So why does she hate Hedwig?” You ask.
Wanda just shrugs.
"I don't think she hates her, per-say..." she replies, "Natty just doesn't like animals in the house."
"I mean, I get it," Carol replies, kissing Hedwig's head, "but I'm not opposed to her staying a few nights.
"Well you get your wish. Bella's owners can't come until tomorrow."
"Really?!" You can't help but jump up and down on your feet. "Do we have any tuna in? I'm give her a whole tin!"
You run off and Hedwig frees herself from Carol's arms and scurries after you, meowing loudly.
You end up sitting next to her as she devours the tuna, gently stroking her back with a soft smile.
"Can cats drink milk?"
*
Hedwig follows you everywhere.
Literally everywhere.
You get up to go to the toilet and the can patters after you, following closely by your feet.
When you shut the door, Hedwig meows loudly and scratches at the door until you let out a little giggle and let the small animal into the room with you.
"If this isn't an invasion of privacy, I don't know what is."
Natasha only watches you with an unamused expression, rolling her eyes when you shut the door.
Carol pokes the red head with her foot.
"Gonna tell us why you hate Hedwig so much or what?"
"I don't hate the stupid cat." Natasha says, sipping her wine. "I just don't think it's smart for Y/N to get too attached to it. It's not hers."
Wanda narrows her eyes.
"Are you speaking about Y/N or yourself, Natty?"
The sudden eyebrow raise has Wanda sinking back into Carol.
"I - I..."
"Don't scare the poor switchy, Romanoff." Carol kisses the side of Wanda's head. "What Wanda means is, are you projecting what happened with Liho onto Y/N?"
"I just don't want her to get hurt."
"Wait, what happened with Liho?" Wanda asks.
Natasha just sighs.
"Just a street cat I grew attached to when I was a kid..." Natasha replies, "she got picked up one day and I never saw her again. That's it. Nothing special."
"You loved Liho, Natasha." Carol says. "Loved her like she was your own cat."
"So what if I did?"
"And when Liho got taken away you were heartbroken." Carol continues, "and you don't want Y/N to feel like that. Do you?"
"There's no need to get attached to animals..."
Wanda clambers onto Natasha's lap and pulls her in for a cuddle.
"Aw, Natty." She squishes the redhead's face into her chest. "You never told me Liho broke your heart!"
Rolling her eyes, Natasha pries herself free from Wanda and huffs.
"I didn't tell you because I'm over it. She was a silly cat. She got collected and probably lived a better life than she would have with me. I've processed it. Over it."
"Mhmm." Wanda doesn't look at all convinced. "Sure. Whatever you say, Nattypie. Me are Care-bear totally believe you."
"What's with these new nicknames..." Carol asks, amused.
"Y/N's inspired me to try new ones, what do we think?"
"I think you're a doofus." Natasha says, shoving her girlfriend from her lap.
When you come back into the room with Hedwig in your arms, you're sporting a long scratch on your arm.
"What happened?" Natasha asks.
"Hedwig doesn't like to wash her paws. I learnt it the hard way. Stop talking about it."
*
At bedtime, you and Natasha end up having a small argument over whether Hedwig can sleep in the bed with you all.
It lasts for two minutes and ends in your favour when the cat jumps onto your pillow and settles there happily.
"She is not sleeping on your head, Y/N."
"Works for me!" You squeal, jumping on the bed, scooping the cat off your pillow. "She can sleep on my tummy, can't you?"
Wanda gets into bed next, snuggling up close to you; hand automatically reaching out to stroke Hedwig's head.
The grey cat settles instantly on you, purring happily as she becomes a furry ball on your chest.
Carol climbs in next, behind Wanda and Natasha slides in besides you.
"I can't believe we're sharing our bed with a random cat you found on the street, baby girl." She says. "Alexa, goodnight!"
The bedroom lights click off, plunging the room into a thick darkness.
The only sounds come from Wanda shuffling to get comfier and Hedwig purring loudly from her spot.
"I don't see the issue, do you, Hedwig?"
The cat, much to Natasha's disbelief, meows.
"What the fuck am I living with?" She lets out a chuckle, moving her body closer to yours. "Goodnight, my little cat whisperer."
"Night night, Natty. Night, Carol, night Wanda." Your eyes drift shut. "Night Hedwig."
Much to Natasha's shock, you fall asleep first.
A soft snore escaping you almost five minutes after you said goodnight to everyone.
For Natasha, sleep doesn't come easily.
She lies there, cuddled up to you for nearly fifty minutes, trying her best to will sleep to come.
But her brain won't stop.
Won't stop overthinking everything.
The day when she first met the small black cat on her way home from school.
A scrawny thing trying to sneak up on a shoe caught in a tree.
Natasha had ended up watching, amused, and decided that she was going to ask mama and papa for a pet kitten when she got home.
The next day, after being told no, Natasha spots the cat again. This time it's sitting under the tree, licking at its paws.
When Natasha approached it, the cat quickly scarpered away; vanishing into nearby bushes.
Natasha spots the cat on her way home again a few days later.
This time instead of approaching it, she holds out a slice of ham and wiggles it to get the cats attention.
Disinterested, the cat ignores the small red head completely.
Deciding to leave the food on the ground, Natasha walks home, hurt.
After school, Natasha decides to try her luck again and this time, the cat slowly comes near.
It doesn't let her touch it but it does eat the food that's offered.
It takes a full week of constant feeding for Natasha to be able to stroke the small cat.
Its fur is soft and tickles her fingers.
"I'll call you Liho." Natasha says.
Weeks turn into months and Liho sits and waits for Natasha every afternoon on the wall.
She feeds her cat a small portion of meat, is rewarded by cuddles, head bumps and kneading before the cat grows bored and ventures on.
One afternoon, Liho even licks Natasha's nose.
Natasha loves it. Loves the skinny cat she's adopted as her own.
It's their routine.
Until one day it isn't.
Liho isn't there to greet her one day after school.
And even though leaving food out for her, Liho doesn't come.
Natasha stops by their spot under the tree every afternoon for a week, hoping for Liho to come back.
She doesn't.
It isn't until a lady who lives in the area tells her that Liho was taken by a family, to go and live somewhere else; does Natasha's heart break in two.
She walks home, trying her hardest to swallow back tears.
Blinking quickly, tears fall down her cheeks and Natasha, back in her bed with her lovers, sits up and wipes the wetness away.
"Stupid cat." She whispers. "Stupid cat, making me love you."
Lying back down, Natasha sighs.
And spots Hedwig observing her closely.
"Sorry, did I disturb you?"
The cat doesn't respond.
A few seconds pass before Natasha slowly reaches out and puts her fingers by the cats nose.
It sniffs her before nudging her hand with its cheek.
"Cute."
Natasha strokes Hedwig, a smile tugging at her lips.
She drags her hand back over to herself and lightly taps her side.
"You wanna sleep on me for a bit? Give Baby a break?"
Hedwig yawns, stands and stretches before climbing over to sit on Natasha.
She can't believe that the cat actually listened and can't stop the smile forming fully on her face.
"You're not too bad, Hedwig."
The pair settle and get comfy and finally, Natasha drifts off to sleep.
*
To no real surprise, you get emotional when Hedwig's owner comes to collect her.
You try to keep it together when the cat is guided into its carrier with treats, smiling sadly when the cage is locked and the owner - who looks freakily like you - thanks you again for keeping her precious cat safe.
"No wonder Hedwig liked Y/N." Carol mutters to Wanda. "Long lost twins or what?"
You refuse any money she tries to give you and after a brief hug, the lady and Hedwig leave.
Wanda goes with them, showing them the way out.
Once out of sight you let out a small whimper and cuddle into Natasha, who's arms are already spread, waiting for you.
"I know, baby. It hurts." The red head kisses your head. "You're such a kind thing. My kind girl."
"I'm gonna miss Hedwig."
"Hedwig will miss you too, detka." Natasha replies, pulling away. "But she's where she belongs."
"Mhmm." You let out a defeated sigh. "Thank you for letting me keep her here."
Natasha taps your nose and smiles.
"Like you would have listened if I had said no."
You grin.
"That's true."
When Wanda returns, she pulls you in for a cuddle.
"The lady wanted me to tell you thank you. Again."
You smile.
"I had an idea..." Natasha says as you all walk towards the kitchen; Carol automatically going to make coffee for you all. "Why don't we go to the animal shelter sometime?"
"What do you mean?" You ask, curious.
"To help out. Get as many cuddles as you'd like. No adopting them though, baby."
You squeal and tackle Natasha in for a cuddle.
"You mean it?"
"Yes, baby." She replies, "who doesn't love a cuddle, hmm?"
"Weirdos that's who."
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have a cute cat gif just 'cause🐾
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detransraichu · 1 month
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my transmasc nonbinary ex said that they keep getting gendered as female when going out, especially now that they're off testosterone, and that they're not opposed to it per se but it just gets tiring to be called the same thing all the time and they wish people would switch it up every now and then (so they feel more validated as enby)
i remember what it was like when i had nonbinary dysphoria and it was almost like a game. like you want a good ratio of being gendered as male vs female. they were gendered as male for long enough for years that they got actually dysphoric from it, like they got miserable living 100% as male. so now they're in-between. they've had top surgery, they have stubble but always shave it and want to get laser for it (they don't enjoy anything they rly got from hrt afaik, they just "needed something to happen" and top surgery was taking a while to happen at the time). so they're androgynous, but they're hyperfixated on how others view them. it's obviously not what they always think about, but enough to notice and keep track. if they only get gendered as female that month they get uncomfortable. if they only get gendered as male another month they get uncomfortable. it must be so fucking annoying. it was for me, anyway. like never feeling satisfied w how others view you, bc what you want is basically impossible unless you were super dedicated every single day to curating your appearance to pass differently
sometimes i feel like telling them just be yourself, even cis ppl get misgendered, try to feel secure in yourself and all the other bullshit will fade away. strangers only take a quick glance at you and your sex characteristics. and if you have an afab-typical body outside of a flat chest, and you wear stylish clothes, and you're conventionally pretty... and have shaved your stubble... i mean yeah, ppl are gonna think you're afab, and they use the typical sex-based pronouns associated w that. it sucks though. nonbinary ppl, including me from back then, tend to daydream abt a world where ppl would just be able to tell they identified as nonbinary and used they/them or did the "oh miss... i mean sir! sorry" thing every time. they're seeking that rush of "omg i did the nb thing!!" even though they themselves will use she or he for others unless the person is alternative enough & androgynous enough where they cannot believe the person is at peace w their sex. they'll say all day long that nonbinary isn't a look or a behavior but they really go against that aaall the time!!! honestly often the word nonbinary is basically synonym with "androgynous" in how it's used, and other times as a nebulous identity based on the understanding that everyone has an inner womanly or manly feelings inside their head except for special enbies. some nonbinary ppl are androgynous, others genuinely for all intent and purposes are considered gender conforming in society. sometimes i think that's to the detriment of genuinely androgynous folks (nonbinary-identified or not) who face the blunt of anti-gnc hatred
honestly once i embraced being a female human life seemed kinda boring at first bc i didn't get those "omg i reached androgyny!!" rushes anymore. it's like the game was over bc i aligned w my sex as a neutral fact. and all that energy i had focused on gender stuff i now put towards just seeing myself as a human who happened to be female, and would be female no matter what, and no matter what ppl thought it doesn't change the body type i was born in. i'm just like any other female animal. it means absolutely nothing. ppl can think i'm a dude all the time and i just laugh it off bc i know what i am, it's like a funny little secret i have when i get misgendered. but trans ppl don't view it like that... i wonder, what if they desensitized themselves to misgendering and found security in themselves and confidence in their identity? even while still identifying as trans etc? what if they could learn to laugh too cuz they know what they are? i feel like that's what they should work on instead of changing the world around them and feeling bummed out everytime they don't win at gender
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