#well that's one way to resolve the consent issue lol

[noco7]

Hi! I just read your post on Nemma and Noah's characterization in RR and, although I actually really like Nemma, I totally agree with you about how nuts the writing was. But it made me curious so I decided to ask: what are your thoughts on Emma as a character? I quite like her, but I prefer Kitty lol.

Hello! Nice to hear from you, and I'm glad n*mma worked for some people. As for Emma, I'm going to be honest - I don't know what to make of her. The first (and last) time I watched RR, I really tried to like her. I didn't want to be one of those people who hated the female love interest for getting in the way of their gay ship. And I accomplished that, I don't hate Emma. But I don't love her either. Perhaps I should love her. She's a bit like Courtney - not as extreme and so not as interesting imo, but she's still a mean girbloss. And I like evil women. Hell, I like Amy from Pakhitew and the only thing she ever did was be mean to her sister. And I enjoyed every second of it. That girl was so evil it crossed into camp. Considering all those things, Emma should have been easy favorite. But ehh, didn't happen. And I think that's more on me. The more I force myself to like something, the more attention I pay to the flaws. The more people tell me something's bad, the more I look for the good things. It's like I always want to prove someone wrong, whether thats myself or the public. But enough about me, let's talk about Emma:

IMO, Emma has three main things going for her during RR. Her relationship with her sister, her relationship with Noah, and her trust issues regarding alliances. 1) The sister plot. I have mixed feelings about how this plot began, because yeah, Emma was pretty mean. Which I should like, because I liked Amy. But I was never supposed to like Amy, so I did. But I was supposed to like Emma. Emma's a protaganist. So I didn't. 💀 That being said, even I can't deny how well this plotline resolved. Her problem had been her putting the competition ahead of her sister, but for her to accept defeat because her sister was more important? Chef's kiss. Masterful writing. Great message for the kiddies and adults alike.

So yeah, mixed feelings, but overall, I'd say it was Good. 2) Her relationship with Noah. Yeah, no. You already saw me diss this ship, which, sorry. But I will be nicer this time! Despite my dislike, It does solve the problem of her not being over her ex. That's good, that she could find love again. And tbf, I think it does make sense that she likes Noah, or at least more sense the other way around. Since she's allowed to dislike him first, it's not insta-love. And once Noah proves himself by always trying to impress her and help him out, like.. yeah of course she likes the guy who's dedicated to being her simp. I too would grow to like someone who liked me. So what's the problem? Ehh, it's her weird comments. She compares Noah's ass to apples, when the guy is flat af. Emma says Noah's funny in his least funny season, then laughs at one of Noah's jokes, before admitting she doesn't get it. Like, it feels like the writers weren't sure of how to make Noah appealing without making Emma a little insane. The family thing, the hair fish thing, the obession over him even when he's gone. I know that's her thing, that Emma is slightly obsessive. (And I'd be a hypocrite to hate Noah's SO being slightly obsessive. Like that isn't the whole plot of my Noco fic. But uhh, I use it as a way to deconstruct anxiety, neglect, and talk about the importance of consent. TD doesn't do that with Emma. It's just a funny weirdo thing she does 😜)

And perhaps that would be fine and quirky. Not everything has to deep. And that's true. Unfortunately, I'm an ex BNHA stan. For those who don't know about the manga, good, but also there's uhh some Sexist Writing in there. In this specific case, I'm talking about Deku and Ochako. Deku is the main hero guy, and Ochako is the love interest. They both start off as capable heros with their own unique motives, yet as soon as Uraraka started liking Deku, everything became about him. Every fight she thinks of him, 99% of her plot and screentime becomes about him. She stops being a character on her own and more a sattelite that revolves around Deku.

Now, TD didn't do this with Emma. She is still her own character after Noah is gone, and arguably a better one. But still, her continuing to think about Noah to the point of getting distracted rlly bothers me. It's like war flashbacks to 2018. So no, I don't think N*mma was a successful plotline for Emma, because while it did solve her problem ✅ and did kinda make sense ✅ it made her annoying to watch. ❌ And I hate Nemma, so BOOO! Negative points!!

3) But what about her thing about not being able to trust people? And I don't mean men, I mean alliances. There's this whole thing where Kitty tries to get Emma to consider alliances. The Nowen one works, sorta. (You know, if Noah was a true boyfriend, he would have continued the competition, just so he could stay and help his GF. But apparently Noah's just one of those guys who like... is lazy and annoying, meets a girl he likes, puts massive amounts of effort to woo her - then once he gets the girl, he stops. Oof. 💀) But what about the other alliance? The Adversity Twins. Uhhh. Emma kinda betrayed them. For Noah! A good cause! But it kinda weakens her trusting other people, and willingness to help her competitors, when one of her Big Moments was throwing them overboard for her bf she wasn't even dating yet. Wow. I'd be so pissed if I were the Adversity Twins, lmao. This moment isn't bad in itself, but it confuses the message. She's trying to learn how to make alliances, but she throws one alliance to save the other. Net gain 0. And if I'm remembering wrong, she also didn't trust the Surfer Dudes later on? So uhhh. Tl;dr Emma had 3 main things in RR, she aced one of them, flopped in the other, and kinda... nothinged the third. At least for me. So in the end, it all cancels out. I feel like if I watched RR again, I might like her more. And if I liked N*mma, like you do, I might have liked Emma too. Unfortunately, I have taken the path into darkness.

If you're wondering if my fic will bash her, the answer is no. She doesn't have much of a presence in this fic for obvious reasons, and if she appears, it will be brief, and as Noah's friend. Emma the dog, however, will be making consistent appearances. I feel less bad about the overlapping names now that the new TD Season also has another Emma. Thank you TD, for assuaging my guilt. They really do care about their fans. 🤧 And if you're wondering why I named the dog Emma, when I could have just not... I took a Jane Austen class in college, thought Noah would like Austen, Emma is Austen's best book imo, thought the coincidence funny, starting thinking of how to insert his Austen like in the narrative in subtle ways, thought of his dog, and well. Yeah. That's the main reason. Should I have just named her Elizabeth or smth? Yeah. But Noah hates the monarchy :(

#td rr #td askbox #this was a really long way to say im neutral #you expect the long fic writer to stop at a few words? #never #and its past midnight so everything feels Deep #you know? #tbh maybe i should blame my rebellious psyche on my kpop days #where fans were basically required to agree that everything an artist put out was good #you could not be a if you went against the grain #so now im programmed to spot any way to go against the grain #i make it sound like it was a cult #it wasnt it was just kpop twitter being kpop twitter #which is #annoying #you say you go against the grain and yet you ship noco and wt is your favorite season #okay maybe im not that much of a hippie i guess

[lord-squiggletits]

Rodimus for the Bingo

IDW Rodimus:

The only character I hate more than Drift, but unlike Drift (who I mostly hate for meta reasons like being boring, Mary Sue-ish, and other personal things), I actually hate Rodimus due to specific things he did in the story and how those were never really addressed at all XD

(Copious Rodimus hate under the cut, if he's your comfort character and you're sensitive about him then definitely don't read.)

Maybe hate is a strong word? I don't have like, a burning hatred for him like he's evil and horrible and should just die. I hate him like... I want to beat him up and steal his lunch money. I want to bully him until he cries and then laugh at him. I want to marry Optimus just so that I can give him mommy issues to match his daddy issues. I want that twink obliterated.

Like it's just so fucking funny to me because the IDW fandom in general is like "haha Rodimus is a funny himbo twink that's silly and stupid" but then I read his story and THE WAY PEOPLE TALK ABOUT HIM DIDN'T WARN ME that Rodimus does shit like be jealous of anyone who's more popular/well liked than him (literally being happy Thunderclash is dying), tell Chromedome to perform mnemosurgery on an unconscious person without their consent (imagine having fewer moral scruples than fucking MEGATRON) despite the fact that it was killing Chromedome AND Rewind didn't want Chromedome to risk his health, imprisoning Getaway under absolutely horrific conditions that not even mechs like Overlord had to suffer... Using Rung as living bait was kind of sus too even though Rodimus never intended for Rung to actually be harmed. Oh also when Overlord escaped the Lost Light, Rodimus seemed more butthurt about how HE didn't get to be the heroic one saving the ship than he was about respecting the lost lives of the people killed during his escape. Imagine being so egotistical that you're more concerned about yourself during a period of mourning than you are the crew members you're responsible for.

Oh, and on top of that he's inattentive, lazy, can't keep up with the basic logistical responsibilities of running a ship, and doesn't respect his officers (mostly Magnus). Not only is he a POS insecure little brat, he can't even handle the basic responsibilities that come with leadership. He can't even listen to Roller complaining to him about Chromedome/Rewind violating his bodily integrity without being completely apathetic and literally saying he doesn't care. BEING A LEADER MEANS LISTENING TO PEOPLE'S COMPLAINTS AND RESOLVING PERSONAL DISPUTES AND ACTING AS IF YOU CARE EVEN IF YOU'RE TIRED AND DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH IT. Rodimus wants all of the glory of being a leadership without wanting the burdens and responsibilities that come with it, whether they're large or small, and as someone who has had a couple leadership positions in my life that frankly disgusts me lmao. He's a manchild who wants to stay in the kitchen but can't take the heat and gets mad when other people are more liked than him. Because people like Thunderclash and Optimus are actually smart, talented, charismatic, heroic, and responsible, while he's just a little brat who's lead around life by his own tender, easily bruised ego. Lol. Lmao.

No wonder half the ship fucking mutinied. Rodimus is like the worst captain ever and LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON HE WASN'T REMEMBERED AS A SHIT CAPTAIN is because Getaway was an even more garbage piece of shit captain (which I've already made multiple posts regarding how I think Getaway was massively wasted as a character).

Rodimus is just a fucking awful person hiding under a cheerful facade. He's a little bitch and I want to yeet him into a horse plinko. He's a sad, strange little man, and he has my pity.

#squiggle answers #negativity #sorry but i love to hate rodders #i have very strong feelings about what leadership and what it means #i have very strong feelings about personal glory vs collective responsibility #i actually used to be a little bit like rod when i was a teenager and guess what #i was a selfish immature bitch that had almost no friends and was cringe and gross #at least i grew up out of it man #like there's a difference between having an ego/pride in yourself #versus being obsessed with your own ego to the point of ignoring or hurting others #and when you're a leader? those expectations go beyond basic morality into EXEMPLARY behavior #everything that a good person is needs to be demonstrated threefold by a leader #and rod is just not even that good of a person on his own so as a leader... lol

[booasaur]

Nancy Drew (2019) - 2x18

#nancydrewedit #nancy drew #bess marvin #odette lamar #george fan #maddison jaizani #anja savcic #leah lewis #nancy drew spoilers #nancy drew 2x18 #femslash related stuff #bess x odette #well that's one way to resolve the consent issue lol #but man the CW can't have done TWO multi-season actually slowly built up f/f ships just to get rid of them? #odette can't just be gone? #I've been so conflicted on this mostly because I never know where the endgame is #but I'm not suuure this is the end? how can she just disappear?

[minteyeddevil]

hey bb~

i'm sorry for the no good headspace - i totally understand

how about exploring some headcanons on what the boys would do to help MC with anxiety? (i would love to read your opinions on Lu and Mammon in particular, but you do whoever you feel like - dealers choice 🥰)

Hi bb❤️

I apologize these aren't like full on headcanons cause my brain is like 'hhhh noooo' so I am just gonna kinda spew what comes to mind :')

Edit: I ran away with it a little bit so ended up being rather full on headcanons so under the cut, lol. xD

Lucifer strikes me as the type who would want to pinpoint the cause of your anxiety and help you come up with coping mechanisms. Very thorough in getting to the bottom of it but also understanding if it takes you time to adjust to the coping he taught you. Will give you affection when you ask for it and let you hang out in his study if being around his brothers becomes too stressful or overstimulating for you. He has his fair share of stress (poor demon gets overloaded!) so he will also sit and listen to you talk as much as you need it.

Mammon, I am 100% sure he understands anxiety, even if he covers up his own with silly antics and mischief. If you talk about your stresses and anxiety with him, he will think of a bunch of ideas to help you distract yourself and help you to relax as well. If you need it, he will get serious with you as well and sit and talk things out with you; but he will still try to do what he can to make you smile and laugh instead of stress out.

Leviathan also understands anxiety really well, but he tends to bury it deep inside and cover it up with games and anime, so it'll be kind of a mess when your anxiety collides with his. It would probably take an outside source to help you both learn to cope and be open about your stressors with each other, but once that hurdle is jumped, you two will be a lot closer! Communication is key for you guys, and he likes the fact that he has someone who understands him and he can talk to, and same for you as well!

Satan gets it. He deeply gets it. Look at how he came into being; his emotions have always been a giant whirlwind for him, and you helped him manage to sort them out. The least he can do is help you adjust with your anxiety. I know its a thing we all fall back on for him, but he seriously does rely on books to understand things! He will find books on ways to alleviate and cope with anxiety, and make lists of things the two of you can do together to help you relax and be distracted. Would you rather sit and talk or just cuddle? He can do that too, of course.

Asmodeus, as I have said before, is the king of self-care! You are stressing and your anxiety is incredibly high? Come to his room, he will smother you in his affections and give you a bubble bath, a relaxing facial mask, massage and even pedicure/manicure (if you would like these things done of course! He will never do anything to you without your consent!) He just wants to care for you and make you feel better. Of course he will also help you tackle whatever is making your anxiety high, but he wants you to be more at ease before facing something that could stress you out further.

Beelzebub deals with anxiety in his own way, which usually results in food binging. He understands communication is important, but he also comes off as the type to keep things to himself, unless his twin pulls it out of him. So he is another one who would need an outside source to help the two of you open up lines of communication between you guys to help you talk about your stressors together. (This person may end up being Belphie considering his relationship with Beel.) Once you two begin talking to each other, he will help you get through the anxiety bouts by listening to you and helping you organize your thoughts, plus offer you snacks while talking to help comfort you because he feels food can have comforts when involved with you.

Belphegor likes to resolve his issues with sleep, so in his mind, it would help you with your anxiety by pulling you into his arms and cuddle you into a nap. Of course, if you can't sleep, he might scrunch up his face and act annoyed, but will ask what is bothering you. He is a truly good listener, even if he acts bratty a good chunk of the time. He can also give great advice as well, helping you think of ways to handle the things causing you anxiety. He will even forgo sleep altogether to spend time with you as you need it, staying up by your side on those stressful sleepless nights. You mean a lot to him, so his actions will show that even if his words don't.

Diavolo would want to literally find the things that are causing you anxiety and physically fight them. Yes, I am being exaggerative, but if you think about it, he probably would though! Lots of tea time sessions at the castle so you could just talk to him and get all your worries out to him; he will be your soundboard and offer advice as best as he can. Late night phone calls and text messages as well, and if he can get away with it, having you stay the night at the castle so he can spoil you and keep you busy so you don't think about your stressors.

Barbatos, okay, yes he is a demon with amazing power and ability, but he also has sooo many responsibilities with Diavolo and the Demon King, the castle, everything. He understands anxiety and stress, even if he doesn't show it at all. So I feel he would give the best advice on how to cope with it. Though he would also offer ways to help you feel better on top of it, like go gardening with him or have tea with him. He knows the perfect tea to help with relaxation and to help one calm down, plus he finds baking to be a wonderful form of enjoying one's self, so he invites you over for that a lot as well.

Simeon is the type to pick up on others' emotions pretty well, so he can see the stress on your face the moment you walk by him. He will find some time to pull you aside and ask what's going on, also being a good soundboard for you to get your mind straight. Offers you a notebook to write your thoughts and worries in, and if things become too much, he is more than willing to meet up with you and talk things out with you, helping you come up with coping mechanisms and maybe even write out poems or short stories to help deal with a reoccurring dream that has been bugging you for a while.

Solomon, though a lot of us classify him as a snarky jokster and mischievous, I fully believe that when it comes down to it, he will be at your side when you genuinely need him. Sure he may poke fun at first and tease cause that is a habit of his, but he would backtrack and apologize, and want you to talk to him about everything. He wants to help you address your anxieties and stressers, and face them head on with him at your side. Maybe spells may help with some of them? He's got you. A potion that can help you sleep? Sure, he can make that! But if anything, you just want his company? He's right there by you.

#obey me #shall we date obey me #lucifer #mammon #leviathan #satan #asmodeus #beelzebub #belphegor #diavolo #barbatos #simeon #solomon #request #headcanon #gn!mc

[spookylightkidranch]

just an opinion about rhysand in azriel’s pov ... and generally in acosf

i kind of think the reason why rhysand was hard on az about elain is more than just protecting the fragile peace in prythia... i think he genuinely wants to protect elain, his sister-in-law, from that potential heartbreak especially with the mating bond riding on it. of course elain can choose to reject the bond, but that decision would be life altering, don’t you think? and rhysand, in his way, doesn’t want elain to sacrifice everything for azriel who has unresolved feelings for another person and who might only be acting on the sexual attraction and nothing else.

the way i see it, maybe rhysand feels like there is an imbalance with what’s at stake between elain and az if they pursued their relationship. we know feyre, our favorite busybody, has been considering elriel romance, but rhys deflects it by saying he was preoccupied with the same person for hundreds of years... that wouldn’t change over night; elain could very well be a rebound or a temporary fix for azriel’s sexual frustrations (i know it sounds bad) while it would be all or nothing for elain in terms of the bond. azriel could easily walk away from that relationship, but elain would have already left everything behind. i mean, this decision or conversation should be between elain and azriel (and add lucien to that mix because, damn, my boy deserves to at least have that conversation) who are consenting adults, but i think this is where rhys stands. it’s difficult because his viewpoint is as a brother, as a brother-in-law, and as a high lord all in one.

we’ve also seen azriel act on what he wants regardless of the risks... i wouldn’t think he’s reckless, but it kind of borders on that at a certain angle. for instance, during the war when he was injured and still wanted to join the fight despite rhysand’s orders. also in acosf when feysand wanted him to pull out his spies because it would not only be dangerous for azriel, they also wouldn’t be able to trust the reports because they could be influenced by the crown. feysand had to enforce rank in these instances because otherwise azriel wouldn’t be stopped and it could very well lead to his downfall. they are his family; rhysand is his brother, he wouldn’t purposely hinder his happiness if that’s what he thinks this is. not to mention, it doesn’t resolve any of azriel’s personal issues, rather it might only worsen them.

anyway!! i was really angry at rhysand for the most part in acosf (and cried so hard at his and nesta’s reconcilation BYE) but i think it’s amazing when you think about it... i mean i don’t know if sjm did it on purpose and maybe it’s just me, but the way i perceived rhysand was different in the original trilogy and in acosf and i connected that with the fact that both are from different points of view.

in the original trilogy, we see rhysand in feyre’s pov. we see him in the eyes that can see through the mask he puts on even for his family. personally, it made rhysand very easy to love in my opinion.

in acosf, we see more of the (annoying) swaggering prick persona that nesta absolutely hated so much... and also the brother whom cassian sees as someone who would do anything for whom he loves but also a high lord who is powerful and can also be demanding, dangerous, and in need of working off his frustrations from time to time. (we know that rhys also has a tendency to hide his “real face” from his family). i don’t know where i’m going with this, but it’s interesting, is all i’m saying. LOL

#elain archeron #azriel #rhysand #azriel’s pov #acosf #i’m scared to tag elriel LMAOOOO #acosf azriel pov #lucien vanserra #nesta archeron #cassian #acotar

[savagesbonergarage]

Heat

Savage Opress x reader

Prompt from @secretnerd00 "Could you maybe write some Savage Smut, with his s/o, who is a virgin but has a really dirty mind an goes just wild once there finally alone and ready for some sexy time?"

(a/n: Okay, so I went a bit crazy with this 😅 I haven't written smut in six years so honestly I have no idea if it's any good. There's some angsty bits beforehand, also because I'm not sure if the smut is good, this might end up being a part 1 and I'll write a part 2 if it's well-received. If you get to the end and you're like "that's it?!" yell at me and I'll write the second part lol.)

Warnings! Past sexual abuse (Savage), blood, fits of anger, heat cycles, striptease (kinda?), Masturbation, oral fixation

It had been days since you'd seen him. Even in situations where his presence was usually required, like at his brother's side in the throne room of the Sundari palace, Savage had been absent. Even stranger still was that no one seemed to have a reasonable explanation for why this was, and when you confronted Lord Maul about the issue he uncharacteristically fumbled a rushed response.

"I've sent him off to...hone his skills."

His gaze didn't have the signature menacing expression that he usually did when you dared speak to him without his brother present, yet something else about his tone convinced you not to implore further. If you didn't know any better, you could have sworn there was a semblance of concern in his voice. Even though you were unsatisfied with his answer, you walked away without any reassurance about the well-being of your beloved zabrak.

The entire situation didn't sit right with you whatsoever. Had Savage truly been sent away to train, he would have informed you of it beforehand. He wouldn't have wanted you to worry about him the way you currently were. Moreover, he would have instigated the tradition you both developed of finding a secluded spot to share a kiss goodbye before either of you left.

Something weighed heavily in your chest as you considered the implications of this unusual occurrence. You decided there was no use in spending the night pondering the possibilities; you were going to find out for certain on your own. It wasn't permitted for someone of your status to access the floor that contained Savage's quarters despite the fact that the two of you were on friendly terms, however that wasn't going to change your mind about getting there.

*

An hour later you stood inside the elevator that would finally take you to your destination, the limp body of the death watch guard stationed in the area crumpled at your feet. Sheer resolve and determination had given you the power to knock him out. You hoped in this case that following your instinct would be worth it, as attacking a fellow palace dweller was sure to have it's consequences if you were discovered.

The shaft finally opened and you snuck through a large hall until you came upon the door that unmistakably belonged to Savage. Creeping closer to better listen wasn't necessary since as soon as it entered your line of sight you heard deep, agonizing groans of pain. Your intuition had been right.

"Savage!"

Stealth was no longer a priority as you flung your body against the door and beat against it with your palm.

"Savage, it's me. Are you okay?"

You heard him approach the door, but rather than open it he lingered behind it. His voice was plagued with concern and he spoke between heavy breaths.

"You shouldn't be here. Leave, now."

His words did little to distract you from your mission.

"Savage, let me in. I won't leave until I see that you're okay. At least let me look at you. Please."

There was a moment of hesitation before you heard the latch click. You stood back as the door slowly opened just enough for you to see the full figure of the man you loved towering above you, clad in only a dark pair of shorts. Your face flushed as your eyes danced along all the defined ripples and crevices that accented the patterns of his tattoos that you hadn't gotten the chance to see until now. His chest was rising and falling with each quick breath he took, and the halo of the moonlight spilling in from a window far behind him caught the beads of sweat that peppered his skin. Maker, he was beautiful.

His resoundingly deep voice brought your attention back to his face as he spoke with firm authority.

"I'm fine. If you're satisfied, go."

You weren't. You knew that he was lying, that he was hiding something from you. From the moment you saw him you rattled your brain trying to decipher the real reason he isolated himself. Something was afflicting him, that much was certain, but you couldn't tell what. He didn't seem sick, he seemed desperate. Your chest thumped as you began to put two and two together.

"Why didn't you come to me?" The words left your lips with a hint of remorse and you found it difficult to conceal the pain in your eyes as you studied him, your revelation serving to stir up the embers that settled within you.

Savage's breath hitched.

"What-"

Before he could properly react you darted through the space between his calves and rolled onto the middle of the floor in his room. As you got up, you took notice of the carnage. Broken furniture, scratched surfaces and obliterated pillows with feathers still wafting around littered the entire space. Your heart sank.

"I knew it. You're-"

Your back hit the ground again as your wrists were pinned above you by his strong arms, eliciting a small cry of pain from your lips as one of his long horns grazed your cheek in the motion. The sound shook him, causing him to pause and look down at the little bit of blood that trickled down your face. He was clearly horrified by his own actions. He swiftly got up and roared in anger as he raked his claws across a shelf, sending everything crashing down with it.

You sat up, watching him with sadness as he knelt and held his face in his shaking hands.

"Savage..."

"I hurt you."

"Savage-"

"Stay back!"

He flung the side of his fist into the wall, a significant crack running up into the stone slab. His horns lowered and he hid his eyes from you in shame, speaking between shaky breaths as he shook his head.

"I couldn't come to you. I would have destroyed you. You're so frail, and I don't...I don't trust myself."

The zabrak had never uttered a sob in his life, but you could tell he was close. You crawled a little closer but still maintained your distance, not out of fear, but out of respect for Savage's concerns. It felt like a weight pressed down harder and harder onto your heart the longer you saw him in this state.

"Why do you insist on suffering? On isolating yourself like this?" Tears threatened to well up in your eyes. "This isn't healthy. What is your plan, to just endure this until it passes?"

"Do you not recall what just barely happened?"

He finally met your gaze with an anger in his eyes that was reserved only for himself.

"I'm a monster, but at least I'm aware of it. I can prevent hurting the one I love by staying away. If I foolishly gave in to this...sickness, I would have no concern for you. I would be no better than them."

You knew who he meant: The Nightsisters.

Everything started to make sense. Savage was afraid of hurting you intimately because he himself had been hurt. The thought had never really crossed your mind, but it was entirely plausible that the witch who changed his fate had also used him as so many others used the nightbrothers they claimed for themselves. His life belonged to her and he had to oblige her whims, despite never truly consenting to it.

The tears finally came. Your heart was breaking for him now more than ever before.

"Savage."

You couldn't help it. Ignoring his groans of protest, you approached him on your hands and knees and threw yourself onto his chest, enveloping him in a tight hug. He recoiled at your touch, but said nothing.

"You aren't sick. You're in heat."

Your hands travelled up over his shoulders and around the nape of his neck until they rested on either side of his face. He was trembling as you pulled back to look at him. You wanted to ease his suffering in any way that you could.

"I trust you. Do you trust me?"

He shook his head.

"Don't."

"You won't hurt me."

"I already have."

"I don't care."

"Then you're a fool."

"I agree."

He removed your hands from his face and you reciprocated by planting your lips firmly against his. An aroused groan escaped him and filled your mouth, causing the fire in your loins to flare up that much more. You deepened the kiss and guided his right hand to your breast. He winced as though he were in pain and broke your connection, and you knew he was doing all he could to hold himself back.

"I'm not some helpless animal, Savage. You think you're a predator and I'm the prey, don't you? You think you'll devour me and that will be the end of it."

His reflective golden eyes were screaming with agony.

"I know it. I won't be able to promise your safety."

"Then don't."

He looked at you as though you were signing your own death warrant. You sighed, frustration starting to get the better of you.

"Do you think I would only help you out of obligation?" The notion made you shake your head. "Have you ever considered, Savage, that maybe..."

You wrapped your arms around his neck and your thighs around his waist, bearing down so that the outline of your heated sex pressed against his growing erection. The sensation drew a mewl from your lips as your own breath hitched before you continued.

"...maybe I'm the kind of prey that yearns to be devoured."

Your name stumbled breathlessly from his panting mouth. You returned his hand to your neglected breast and guided his fingertips to the swollen nub that bade your clit to throb when it was touched. You moaned for him and you felt his impressive cock twitch beneath you, however he still held back. Your eyes were half-lidded and your face flushed with desire.

"I love you, Savage."

You planted another long kiss on the corner of his mouth. As your lips lingered there, a warm wetness trailed against your cheek. The tear was his. You held his face in your hands again and looked deep into those wanting eyes, reassuring him with a smile.

"I may be inexperienced, but I'm not as frail as you think."

Savage was about to break. He offered one final retort.

"I wouldn't be so sure."

It was meant to be a warning, but you took it as a dare. A quiet "oh?" escaped your mouth as you sensually trailed kisses all down his burning neck and chest which caused him to swear. If he was so adamant about how he was going to behave, you were going to make him prove it.

"I think you're making assumptions about your 'prey'."

Suddenly, you retracted your hold on him and backed away completely. For a moment you saw the yearning he tried so desperately to suppress flicker up to the surface. He didn't move. He didn't have to. You wanted to watch his every reaction, every movement from a distance. You stood and took a few steps back.

"Do I have your attention?"

He groaned.

"Always."

"Good. Keep it on me."

He swallowed as his eyes followed you to the foot of his bed. There was a subtle strut in your step and a knowing smile on your face. Truth be told you were nervous as hell, but you didn't care. Your love for Savage was all the resolve you needed. You turned to face him and extended your arms in front of you.

"Don't take your eyes off my hands."

His expression was confused to say the least, but he responded with a slight nod. You tested his listening skills by moving one hand this way and that, and sure enough his eyes followed. You almost laughed, but you weren't there to make him feel like an idiot. Slowly, ever so slowly, you brought your fingers to collar of your shirt and began unfastening the ties. Savage groaned in protest once again.

"Don't-"

"Hush. Remember what I told you."

The zabrak pursed his lips. He might not have been aware of how this strange behavior of yours was keeping him grounded, but oddly enough, it was. For now, curiosity overpowered his carnal instinct. He watched as you continued to make work of your pesky layers, slowly peeling them off one by one. You pulled your bottoms down over your knees and let them fall to the floor, leaving you in only your underclothes.

You could sense Savage's arousal from across the room. Even so, he remained right where he was, gaze still tracking your hands without fail. If there was one thing he was determined about, it was following an order that was given to him. You leaned back against his bedframe as you brought one hand up to cup your breast and guided the other down under the waistband of your panties. You looked to your lover, who was gritting his teeth at the show you were putting on for him. The outline of his dick was fully pronounced through the thin material of his shorts, the sight of which drew a loud moan from your lips as your fingers circled your clit and dived down between your folds and back. You darted your tongue out of your open mouth as you curled two fingers inside and gradually pumped, the back of your hand stretching the fabric of your panties with the motion giving the horny zabrak a peek of the real action.

He cursed. You watched him tremble with need as he grabbed the base of his cock over the fabric of his bottoms and lightly stroked, nearly sending you over the edge. You pulled your hand away before you got too close, Savage's eyes following intently as you brought it up to your face and you carelessly brushed your fingers against your cheek, leaving a streak of moisture that glistened in the moonlight.

The beastial sounds you elicited from the melting man on the ground made you want to beg for him right then and there, but you had an idea you wanted to follow through with. You dragged the tips of your slick fingers to your lips and kissed them, once, twice, a number of times. The kisses became more sloppy until your tongue had flicked across every inch down to the base of your hand. You didn't normally taste yourself, but the reaction you were getting from Savage made you want to behave this way even more. You brought your other hand up and wrapped it around your knuckles, holding your slick fingers in a way that made it allude to something more phallic.

He knew what you were doing, but the anticipation of it almost made it worse for him when you started sucking. If you were able to hear him from outside the door earlier, surely the entire palace could hear him now. You watched as a dark spot appeared on his clothing where the tip of his dick rested against his thigh. You might have been able to tease him further had your own arousal not been demanding you get to the point. You pulled your fingers from your mouth with a loud pop, a string of saliva trailing between them and your bottom lip.

"What are you thinking, Savage?"

You knew damn well what he was thinking, but you wanted to hear him say it. He struggled to get the words out past his groans of desire.

"I'm...envious."

"Of what?" You brought your knuckles up to your lips as he continued to lightly stroke his length.

"Those fingers."

You started mirroring the stroking motions the zabrak was making on them, a shit-eating grin on your face.

"Why?"

He growled, knowing that you were seeking a confession. It was clear as day that you both wanted each other, and there was only one thing keeping you from rutting on every surface in the vicinity.

"I want you to suck my cock. Suck me off just like that and I'll have nothing to worry about."

Those dirty words sounded like magic coming off his tongue, and Maker, were you more than happy to oblige.

Part II!

#star wars #savage opress #savage opress smut #savage opress x reader #savage opress x you #lol take a drink every time reader says his name #no y/n #sorry if this sucks

[percywinchester27]

@caughtaghostsomehow​ I’m just going to put it all underneath the keep reading, picking things from all of those reblogs cause why not!

Part 27: 

I understand why Max trusts Sam so much... Even after he initially failed him, he still kept his promise later on and he's been keeping it since.

The scene when Sam finds Max in the cell... Oh man.. I was angry at first, just like Sam but then my heart broke for this little boy. Sam and him needed each other. I think they may be soulmates.. The universe destined them to help each other out.

Yep. The reason why Sam is just so insanely careful about Max is because he how what it feels like to almost lose him. And the prison scene changed a lot since it was conceived. But I knew I wanted Max to start out as a physical kid and then grow out of it. He and Sam really were destined.

I'm so glad we got to see how Jody found out about the whole situation and I just love her more after finding out that she helped with the adoption (by the way, I love how thorough your research is 🧡).

I knew Dean would never give up on his brother but it just made me really emotional when he kept calling and Sam finally picked up and the first words out of Dean's mouth were "are you alright?". It got to me for some reason...

I thought it was logical to go to her for a lot of reasons- cause she is a legal writings professor, a close friend AND has experience with adoption as a single parent in the very same state. 

Awww... all the Dean parts get me. ALL of them. Especially here because they are so far and in-between in this story.

But Sam wanted his wife to trust him the same way. Unconditionally. He wanted her to trust him with fixing their life, dealing with their loss and grief and wanted her to trust him with rebuilding their life from before the accident.

This is you using my braincells by the way. Cause later on, someone points this EXACT same thing to the reader

I know I've said this before but it just keeps coming back to this in my head, she knew things couldn't be fixed because as much as she probably trusted Sam with her life, she understands that some things just aren't in anyone's control... And Sam wanted her to believe he could mend the wounds all by himself... It's sad and frustrating but I can't wait for them to have this conversation

I know you’ve read part 30 already and you know they touch on this very very briefly but they don’t really resolve this. It gets addressed specifically eventually. His ‘i could fix us’ vs. her ‘I knew you couldn’t.’ Does such for them though.

Chapter 28

Why do I have a bad feeling about that party?

Because. Same. Braincells. Lol.

I really wanted for someone to say that and Sam certainly needed to hear it and I'm so glad it was Chase who opened his eyes about this. He's absolutely right too, let the woman speak for her damn self instead of assuming how she feels.

Chase was me! Yelling at all these characters for not fucking listening to me haha... remember how I told you that people were suspicious of Chase? Yeah, after this chapter, everyone’s kinda adopted him. 

My emotions have been all over the place lately anyway but reading how Sam needed to compose himself before speaking about his son's death... I swear I don't have tears in my eyes while typing this- that was hard to read.

I'm glad Max knows... I don't know how much of it he understands but he's a clever boy, I'm sure he has at least a little bit better of an idea why this situation is so delicate.

Awww I’m so sorry I made you cry :/ But, well... Sam doesn’t grieve his son’s death the way the reader does. He’s always been more stoic. Besides, he had to deal with two griefs back then not just one... but I am sure it still hurts too much. 

I’ve left it to everyone’s imagination how much Max understands. He knows the concept of death for sure.... but his birth father had orgies at his house. We can all only hope that Max is completely shielded from that since he was using to hiding in closets when there were strangers in the house.

I was surprised by his question too but Sam's response was so... Loving. My heart can't take this.. He's such a great father...

Yep. I mean how else could he have reassured Max? His no lying policy is a great way to raise a child tbh. My sister does that with my nephew. That’s how I know.

Chapter 29

I really like Maddie, she's a genuinely sweet person, I love how helpful she tries to be and that she honestly wants her friend to be happy. I wonder what exactly went wrong during that party for her to look so dejected...

Maddie is nice. I was hellbent on making all of Sam’s canon Exes nice in this series. Cause I’ve had enough of reading the evil ex and current gf pitted against each other trope (Though I’ve never written it myself. Maybe I should and see for myself why it is so alluring lol.) I don’t know, maybe it was little a double prank thingy? Throw the reader in the water and be as mean to Madison as you can?

I really fucking hope that Brad gets what he deserves and that is to be kicked in the balls. Ever fucking heard the word boundary? Consent? I hate people like him with a burning passion and that whole situation infuriated and scared me in equal measure.

Yeah. That asshole needs to go down! His endgame has changed more than anyone elses in the story lol.

The fact that all of it came back to her the instant she hit the water made me sob. She wanted to protect her baby but there was no one there... I just- oh fuck.

Kay that part was HARD to write. All of it. Poor reader!

Was Sam the one to pull her out? If so then I don't even want to think about what would happen if he wasn't there, if they haven't made plans...

The way she started crying for their baby when she found her breath again made me cry even more... I don't know why I feel such a strong connection to this story and characters but I don't want them to ever feel pain like that again. It's heartbreaking 💔

Yeah that was Sam... I mean the pool was visible and all that. I mean of course you know. You read the next chapter. Why am I being a dumbass :/ 

Something had to trigger her trauma. It wasn’t going to come out on its own and And Sam loves her too much to force her to grieve. He barely held it together when she did grieve so well...

PS.: I'm really sorry you experienced drowning, it's a horrible thing to go through. I don't do pools- or really, any body of water, either. There's just something about the idea of drowning that unsettles me more than I can express.

Yeahh... God bless that lifeguard. Seriously. He’s the only one who noticed that I wasn’t coming up. It was night time and the pool was pretty dark so. I am so sorry that you don’t like pools, either. It’s terrifying.

Chapter 30

Firstly, Ria, you’re TOO GOOD to me, seriously! The fact that I could have you speechless is about the biggest complement you could’ve given me.

If you can call it that and at first when she asked him about the ring, I was surprised but my heart just sunk. I don't think either of them were in the right, I don't think they were both wrong either... I don't believe I'm good enough with problem solving to know what advice I'd give them but I do know that I have never experienced a feeling more cathartic than this one when reading. Twenty nine chapters leading to this moment... All the questions and pining and heartbreak. .. And sure, there's so much more they could say and there's so much more you talk about and figure out but as of right now... This is the beginning of the rest of their lives.

So, I think what she meant to ask was why did he just not give up on her, but she was tired and spontaneous and the ring question just tumbled out instead. I tried so hard for all their conversations to sound spontaneous and not rehearsed you know? Where they ended up touching on every aspect of the past? Cause that wouldn’t happen. It just wouldn’t. 

And THANK YOU for saying that. I swear to God, this chapter wouldn’t have made that impact if it hadn’t had a backing of 29 chapters. It would have royally fallen flat. Everyone was invested in the story by now and I was counting on it.

I didn't like how Sam got angry at first because I put myself in her shoes but the truth is, someone needed to get angry about something. One of them had to feel some type of overwhelming emotion to get here and it just so happened that it started with pain and landed on anger.

This is and SPN finale type of dilemma though. Like for the writers, they had to Kill of Dean first cause only Sam had the slight ability to move on. Sam way, I didn’t think the reader would have ever gotten angry first. She is so burdened by her own guilt (undeserved tbh) but she wouldn’t just lash out first. Sam had been angry at the start of the series and absolutely livid in their time apart. I just thought it would be easier for him to get mad first. Not defending his choices or whatever, just why I chose to make that decision as a writer. I would have been plenty mad a reader, too.

But the way they got angry wasn't a bad thing, their anger was based in how much they care about each other. Like the anger I would feel when one of my dogs ran just a little too far from me and a car was coming - took like fifteen fucking years off my ife istg. But I wasn't angry and screaming at them to make them feel bad, I was angry because I was so fucking scared that they would get hurt. The anger wasn't based in resentment, it was based in love. It's the same here and you can see it.

Jesus, I’m so sorry that happened with one of your dogs. Seriously. That sounds scary AF. I’m glad your dogs are okay.

Their anger isn’t destructive. It just isn’t. That much I’m pretty sure of. They’ve dealt with so much shit, and truly love each too much to actually hurt one another with words at this point. And it’s a good 10 chapters of journey where they deal with one issue after another to effing solve it like adults and not teenagers in throes of passion. I was like, nope! Not doing the passionate way. These two don’t get to be smart enough to get into Stanford and then be dumb like that and scream and yell and be jealous or irrational. It added a few chapters, but if I can be patient, so can be everyone else :P

The story she told about the cactus was not only a brilliant way to show her mindset and how people saw her over the years but also so fucking heartbreaking. On one hand you have this coworker who saw her and thought, "that person needs something low maintenance if they can care for something at all" and on the other - you've got this woman who tries her best to nurture this plant and help it grow and it ends up dying anyway.

That cactus one is inspired by real life event. And it seriously broke my heart to go through. Hoping each day that the last pod might live through :/ Like you said her co-worker wasn’t being mean, but it sucks that the cactus died anyway :(

Girl, you made my morning today. I woke up to your love and I just... you had me speechless. That chapter took a lot out of our branicells and I rewrote it so many times just to get it right for it to be respectful, vulnerable and cathartic at the same time. 

But may I ask you, WHY YOU WERE UP TILL 5:30 in the morning to read it? I have a timestamp thingy going for me, okay? I knew what time it was over there! And you gave yourself a migraine crying? OMG! I am so so sorry :/ Gosh. If I knew, you were going to binge it straight, I’d have warned you!

Seriously, Ria! Thank you seems like a small phrase. I will tell you this, I love you! So much!

#Ana replies #Ana loves Ria #seriously you make my work look nicer and more deep than it is #sincerely humbled by this #can't word the gratitude right #q

[earlgreytea68]

The Omegaverse Lawsuit

Everyone's been talking about the Omegaverse lawsuit recently, which is a little odd, since it was filed in September, but hey, sometimes that's how it goes!

It literally took me a little while to figure out that the names of the book series at issue here are Myth of Omega and Alpha's Claim. Like, I know this is meant to clearly signal they're Omegaverse books, but it just amused me to be talking about Omegaverse and not have it be a ficcy title. It really drove home to me how very, very different fic is as a genre from commercial original fiction, even when they're hitting the same tropes. 

The first thing to note is that the complaint is not a copyright infringement claim. Instead, the plaintiff, basically a writer named Zoey Ellis, is making allegations stemming from a copyright infringement claim against *her.*

The whole thing starts with a DMCA notice. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's really easy for copyright holders to get allegedly infringing activity taken down: they file a notice. The website hosting the allegedly infringing activity is required by the DMCA to remove the allegedly infringing activity basically immediately. The person whose material has been removed is permitted to fight against the notice, but of course many people don't do that. It takes time, effort, and a knowledge of the law. For a lot of busy, sensible people, it's often not worth it. What this means is that DMCA notices are massively abused. We know they are. Theoretically they can only be advanced in good faith, however. So, if you can prove you've got a DMCA notice that was issued in bad faith, well, that could be a thing. 

Which is what this complaint builds around. It doesn't happen often, challenging a DMCA notice on bad faith grounds, but this complaint goes for it, which is impressive. And they allege a decent case because they allege a DMCA notice was issued for a book that hadn't even been published yet. Knowing an unpublished book is going to be copyright infringement before you've even seen it is a talent that you'd be smart to utilize on winning the lottery (if that’s what happened, of course). 

The plaintiff here did what you're supposed to do under the DMCA if you believe your work is fine and provided counter-notices. However, unlike in the case of the original notice, counter-notices can take months to process and resolve to get the works back up. 

As anyone familiar with fandom can tell you, rumors spread quickly. Once the word was out there that a DMCA notice had caused a takedown based on plagiarism, the allegations say that forums picked up on it, defaming the plaintiff's reputation. 

The complaint goes on to allege a pattern of the defendant Addison Cain manipulating social media for stars and reviews. I know we theoretically have standards for how stars and reviews happen, but, really, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there in book marketing. These are the examples in the complaint: 

Idk, if the DMCA notice claims are true, they seem sketchy, but these communications don't strike me as that bad. The truth is, it's hard to know as an author when you're going "too far." You need to educate people as to what's helpful algorithmically, and upvoting five stars and downvoting one stars is helpful. That sounds like what she's doing, providing information so people know how they can help a writer they love. Presumably anyone doing this would seem to care enough about Addison Cain's books to spend time doing this. It doesn't seem from these excerpts like she's bribing people in any way. The second example seems especially bland to me, like, the reader seems to ask if it would be helpful to mark it "not helpful," so the reader brings it up, and then in response to Addison Cain they seem to say that they're shocked anyone would find the review helpful, which seems to me to imply that their "not helpful" designation was a true reflection of how they feel. Surely encouraging truthful and honest behavior on the part of your readers isn't a bad thing, and surely we would not ask authors to explain to readers how to be mean to them, instead of how to help them. So, I don't know, this part of the complaint strikes me as a little weak. I just don't think asking for people who liked your book to review it as scandalous as they seem to think. Like, their exhibit is titled "Review Manipulation," and it includes things like this: 

(which, btw, afa I can tell, is her encouraging people to leave good review on *someone else's* book)

and

Idk, what do you think? Are you outraged by those? 

Moving on: 

This does seem ridiculous to me. She does seem to think that she was the first to ever write a M/F Omegaverse (which the complaint alleges is provably untrue), but also seems to think that she therefore influenced the entire genre to be exactly like her. Idk. This just makes me think, like, ::raised eyebrow:: Who goes around saying "Oh, you know why that's like that? They're all copying ME!" Idk.

(Incidentally, it's interesting that she's claiming to own the straight version of the trope, that the straight version of the trope is the unusual version, because romance is in the mainstream culture dominated so much by straight love stories, and indeed every love-story example in the complaint is a het example. They use "The Runaway Bride" as an example of an enemies-to-lovers trope, which was SO WEIRD to me, I stared at it and was like, ....but all of Harry/Draco exists???? lol)

Asserting that on its own, though, would just make me roll my eyes a bit and move on. Coupled with the DMCA notice allegations, however, it does make it seem like she's trying to claim ownership over the entire M/F Omegaverse genre.

The similarities listed in the DMCA notice do seem like pretty basic aspects of the trope that I don't think anyone can own. 

(There are more alleged. This is just the first few.)

But the DMCA notice does purport to contain reviews that say the two books are very similar. 

(Again, there are more, this is just a selection.) Part of me feels like maybe these people just haven't read much Omegaverse? Or haven't read fic, so they're not used to how tropes work? Idk. Without having read the books myself, it's hard for me to make this call. (And that's honestly how copyright infringement gets decided. You just have to read the books and decide if they're substantially similar in something copyrightable. Which apparently somebody did because the books were eventually reinstated as not infringing, it just didn't happen in a court of law. If this case goes on, eventually some judge is just going to have to sit down and read these.)

And of course the DMCA notice obviously chooses the most favorable to their cause, because there's also this: 

If the only similarities are the rules...that just sounds like the Omegaverse trope. 

The claims itself in this case are really interesting. It's not a copyright infringement case, because the plaintiff is specifically saying they are NOT infringing. Instead, the first claim is a copyright misuse claim (that you're using the monopoly granted to you by the government in an improper way, usually understood to be anticompetitive in a way that the government didn't contemplate as being part of the copyright grant). These are relatively rare but I think it's the right call, that using your copyright to send false DMCA notices would be copyright misuse. 

The defendant has now answered the complaint denying the allegations. Indeed, the defendant asserts that the complaint is defamatory because it alleges Addison Cain has only filed one other DMCA notice in ten years of being a published author and thus she has not repeatedly manipulated the system to shame other authors. It also includes a counterclaim that alleges basically that this lawsuit has been brought for harassment purposes because it’s expensive to defend a lawsuit and they alleged that online sales metrics tell them that at most Zoey Ellis has lost about $2000 worth of sales.

So that’s where the case stands now.

Other miscellaneous observations:

--The complaint has spoilers for the end of Alpha's Claim which tell me I would never read that book. 

--This is what the complaint lists as the common markers of the Omegaverse trope: 

--

You know, people in Omegaverse fics often grapple really hard with consent issues, and I love when that happens, and I'm sad that's obscured in this paragraph. I mean, I know the point of the complaint isn't to talk about the ways in which the trope can be subverted, but anyway.

I'm not a huge Omegaverse person, but one thing I do often enjoy about it is how stark it makes the sexism of our patriarchal society, that the gender that breeds is so devalued and treated as dangerous and cordoned off and loses agency, etc. And then how straightforwardly it often has to deal with that. And I know M/M Omegaverse often skimps on female characters but I also like how much it drives that point home, that it's not a man/woman thing, it's literally just that as soon as someone has to bear the children, that comes attached with all sorts of burdens and expectations. 

And I'm also not saying that every Omegaverse author sits down to grapple with those issues, or should be, or has to be. Just that Omegaverse can reveal so much about how we structure societies. And I'm sad that this complaint is just furthering this idea that fic doesn't really do anything profound or interesting or necessary and is just: 

It's cool, not all fic/writing/creativity needs to serve GREAT INTERESTS, nor should it, but also I think a lot of fic/writing/creativity does, and that gets ignored in favor of dismissing it as frivolous. Idk. Obviously this complaint is not about solving that issue, but it made me think about it. 

--

OR. Hear me out. They could get together and just cuddle for 100,000 words and banter and stuff. Just sayin'. Just throwing it out there. 

--

I'm honestly really annoyed by this paragraph's wording. It sounds so condescending. "Employed a degree of creativity consisted with other 'fan fictions.'" I hate those quotation marks around "fan fictions," like they're not sure those are a real thing. So-called "fan fictions" (which, who calls them fan fictions anyway? who are they quoting there lol). But also, like, what's the "degree of creativity consistent" language. Like, the standard for copyrightability is that it possesses a modicum of creativity. That's it. It's a low bar. We know the phone book doesn't have a modicum of creativity but almost everything else has SOMETHING. So this strikes me as a little...sneering and dismissive, like, "Well, it's just as creative as other 'fan fictions.'" No. It's creative. Fic is creative. This is creative. It's an entire BOOK, that no one is alleging copies anything other than tropes (AS ALL PIECES OF FICTION DO, THIS IS NOT A FIC THING). It's got plot, characters, setting, dialogue -- none of which are alleged to be copied. So, like, just say it. It's creative. It possesses a modicum of creativity. Move on. I have no idea why that weird "fan fictions" reference is in there, Idk. 

--They've got an exhibit that they claim is Addison Cain online statements about the plaintiff, but I can't make heads or tails of them. They're weirdness about how she's wrote the original M/F Omegaverse, but I don't see any references to the plaintiff author Zoey Ellis, other than very vague references like this: 

I'm a little bewildered by this exhibit. I think maybe they might be alleging that Addison Cain set up fake accounts to badmouth Zoey Ellis but if that's the case it's not clear to me, especially since they've blacked out the account name: 

--This complaint has an exhibit that's basically an expert witness on Omegaverse. I love this so much. :-)

--Let's just enjoy this being in a legal filing: 

--This isn't part of the main allegations. This is apparently, though, the kind of thing that Addison Cain has in the past considered plagiarism. Just a small selection, again, there are more. But:

I have long said that writing a sex scene is like writing a cover letter: You’re trying to convey a very narrow series of events, over and over, and there’s only so many words you can use to do it. So comparing sex scenes like this just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Sex scenes will mostly inevitably sound similar in isolated sentences like this. It’s so funny, I was just saying to Aja about a gif, “He’s arching his neck to give him access like every heroine in every romance novel.” Because that’s a line we’ve all read in every romance novel.

--

Honestly, honestly, literally every single Omegaverse fic I’ve ever read has this exact moment. (And many of them do it better.)

--This complaint has taught me a lot about how much of a kink some people have for being covered in days’ worth of caked-on semen, rubbed into their bodies and massaged into their hair. Really, the complaint is kink-instructive, I recommend it.

--Honestly to me the most damning thing about this is this exhibit where Addison took matters into her own hands to post the similarities between her book and another book, because I’m just not convinced by any of these, and if this is what she thinks copyright infringement is, then I doubt she understands what it is. Bull all these BTBB/TMO comparisons have been her making her case that these two books are similar, and I’m just dubious. And then stuff like this comes up:

Omegas being tired after a heat, yup.

They…both came up with a futuristic device that has a…screen?

She does end with this:

But I just don’t see what she’s claiming ownership of *other than* these really common Omegaverse tropes that I’ve read a million times. (Which isn’t to say that’s a bad thing. I’m a fic person at heart; I adore tropes.)

Anyway. That’s it. That’s the case so far. Let me know if you have questions, because lawyers can be bad at remembering what non-lawyers might be confused about.

In the meantime, I’m going to dig up some Omegaverse.

#long post #omegaverse #law

[fandomn00blr]

5 Questions for Writers

@serial-chillr tagged me and I’d rather talk about writing than actually do it today, so here! Lots of words about words! 

Tagging some folks who I know also enjoy talking about their writing: @funkypoacher, @sarenkascrawls, @paraparadigm, @eranehn, @curiousartemis, @theaiobhan, @houseofaustrich, @dafan7711, @lostinfantasies38, @whatsherfacewrites (you all can feel free to ignore me, of course!) 

And if anyone else wants to take any or all of these questions, as always, feel free, and tag me so I can read and appreciate your responses!

1. Do you have a favorite character to write? Who and why?

Oh. I don’t know if I can answer this. Can I just change the question to suit my needs? My favorite thing to think about when I write characters is “What is their sense of humor like? Is it a coping mechanism/defensive? A way to connect with others?”

I’ll focus on DA2 characters because they are my favs. I like writing wise-cracking little shits who occasionally have FEELINGS (so my Hawke and Anders, who actually always has feelings, and Varric and Isabela and...okay, so I write most of my DA2 characters like this to varying degrees). I also like writing the more stoic types with their deadpan zingers (*cough* Fenris...a little bit of Aveline, too, in this one when I get around to writing her). And the very sincere types, too, who would never crack jokes at another’s expense, but are just overall wonderfully warm, with, like, a sneaky sense of humor (Merrill...<333! And Bethany!).

2. Do you have a favorite trope to write? Or one you want to write?

Found families, definitely, hands down, no contest. Give me a group of people who care about each other and have been Through Shit together and I will write you so much banter and hugs and Looking Out for One Another and love and trying to heal together. I will even write them a few years down the road, getting old, and still hanging out, and laughing about the ridiculous things they’ve done together over the years. Maybe taking care of each other’s children or pets. Or mourning together as they begin to age and lose their memories, or each other. And...oh, fuck. :(

3. Share your favorite description you’ve written?

I’m the worrrrrsssstttt when it comes to descriptions. I usually don’t even try with places or settings. But I guess, people have bodies, so I have to describe them sometimes. Like, “His hair looked pretty. Her hands were there. No. There. Yes, right there...”

Here’s an attempt at describing my Amell’s first impression of her future wife in Fifth Blight:

Solona’s first tavern. And first brawl, with other humans, anyway. It was hard to separate out how much of the exhilaration she was feeling right now had come from the freedom to actually test her skills in combat, all the new experiences of life outside the Circle culminating in this, or was it the instant attraction she felt for the “lay sister,” as she referred to herself? 

Solona couldn’t resolve the contradictions of this woman…her Chantry robes covered in blood, none of it hers, sprayed from the slicing of her own dagger in quick defense during a tavern brawl.

A pretty face, to be sure, pure and innocent, but then there were those perfectly pouty lips. Everything so well-composed at first glance – the kind of woman Solona had always been suspicious of in the Circle – until she spoke…with an underlying ferocity burning beneath that charming accent and the discerning glare of experience set in the creases that revealed themselves between her eyes.

Leliana is what she'd said her name was, in that false sing-songey voice of hers. A bard's voice. But Solona wasn't sure if that was the name she'd given her sweet Orlesian facade, or if she didn't have some other deeper, darker name. Desire, perhaps, given the way she immediately captivated her imagination and made her want to know what was beneath those robes...both figuratively and literally. Mouse had been Pride, after all. And while Solona was pretty sure she wasn’t in the Fade, why couldn’t this woman also be something more than she seemed?

4. Share your favorite dialogue you’ve written?

I write SO MUCH DIALOGUE...some of it is bound to be halfway-decent, right? I mean, statistically-speaking...lol.

Here’s an older thing I’m a little bit proud of from my Prologue to Lost and Found (yes, I’m aware Justice and Anders don’t ‘talk’ like this in canon...and I don’t care...I like to write them as a bickering couple):

“Hey Anders!” Hawke called to him, loud enough for Fenris to hear. “We haven’t heard about what’s-their-name for a few days. Everything alright?”

“Who?”

“Your new ‘friend’...” Fenris grumbled up ahead. Hawke lit up. He was listening! They were very nearly having an actual conversation!

“Oh, I think they’re more than friends!” Hawke nudged Anders with her bony elbow right in the ribs. It wasn’t the gentlest of affection, but he’d take it. From her.

Fenris sighed and rolled his eyes at Hawke, who barely noticed. For as witty as she thought she was, she could be particularly slow to pick up on his own attempts at humor, dry and sarcastic as they were. Especially when she was distracted by something more sparkly or animated. Or someone. Namely, the mage.

“I honestly don't know what either of you are talking about,” Anders insisted.

“Oh please...you talk about them all the time, right Fenris?”

“Clemence, was it?”

“Yeah! That’s it! You’re always like, ‘Clemence looked so cute today. Clemence came for another visit. I made Clemence dinner last night. I hope Clemence will stay longer next time. Clemence Clemence Clemence!’”

Anders looked at both of them in disbelief for a moment. They were kidding, right? Hawke was, of course, constantly teasing him about all his supposed admirers. But she was usually way more obvious about it. And Fenris...he wasn’t sure Fenris even had a sense of humor. They must have thought -- he suddenly burst out into laughter.

“The Abomination is losing it. Say the word, Hawke, and I will take care of him,” Fenris muttered.

Anders felt Justice stirring.

He’s kidding, Justice. Relax.

“You think that Clemence is a -- “ Anders couldn’t contain his delight as a second fit of laughter overtook him.

Hawke looked at Fenris. Did he know what was so hilarious? He simply shrugged back at her and kept walking. He always seemed so irritated and impatient with the mage. She had really hoped this casual conversation between the three of them might have lasted more than a few minutes, but it seemed Fenris had already lost interest.

YOU CANNOT ALLOW THIS MISUNDERSTANDING TO CONTINUE. IT ISN’T RIGHT. AND SURELY A FELINE IS NOT A SUITABLE PARTNER FOR A HUMAN, ANYWAY. HOW WOULD YOU KNOW IF IT HAD GIVEN PROPER CONSENT?

Cats are actually pretty clear when it comes to giving consent, or taking it away. But that’s hardly the most pressing issue in this entirely ridiculous hypothetical situation you’ve suggested…

WHY DO YOU FIND THIS SO AMUSING?

It’s just that...oh, nevermind.

“Oh wow! Okay! Sorry…” He took a deep breath. “Clemence is a cat! A stray I’ve been feeding and trying to convince to hang around the clinic to keep the mice and rats at bay!”

5. Scene you haven’t written, but want to?

I’ve written it, but I haven’t published it yet. Shortly after giving birth to my own daughter, I wrote a birth scene for my Hawke that, in my series, is still a few chapters away. It’s...graphic, I guess? But very real and, in my opinion, kinda beautiful? Complicated? Joyful! Except when it’s terrifying. Someday I will look back over it and maybe even share it (with anyone who WANTS to read such a thing)!

#about me #my writing #dragon age #5 questions for writers #tag!

[dcomposing]

jumin route rewrite???

ive had.... Issues with jumin's route since the first time i played it and im waiting out a 3 hour layover which means its time to self indulgently fix all of those problems right now in excruciating detail

for the record, i dont mean any disrespect towards cheritz -- i love mysme dearly and this is purely a self indulgent experiment to see what my ideal jumin route would have been! if you like his route as is thats totally fine! it just wasnt for me lmao

this was super fun to write and if this picks up i might do another route rewrite (and i might do it even if it doesnt because it was just that fun lol)

anyways this is REALLY long (literally its like 3k words all in outline form) so its gonna go under the cut lol

okay so: issues i had with jumin’s route that i want to address:

it moves WAY too fast — i mean all of the routes do to a certain degree; they’re only 11 days long but like... you’re literally engaged to him by the end of it which iirc, is something that is only replicated in seven’s normal ending (and even then i think its only implied?) and i get that the point is that jumin goes all out for the people he loves and is VERY certain that he loves you but it just feels... way too soon for my liking ESPECIALLY because you’re his first love! it just makes it feel like he’s caught up in the rush of being in love for the first time and isn’t thinking things through which... isn’t exactly the making of a great relationship lol. so for this re- write we’re gonna slow it WAY down because... oof. 

the sarah and glam plot line happening concurrently with the mint eye/possessive jumin one makes the route feel overly busy. i actually have a similar issue with the echo girl/mint eye overlap in zen’s route but that’s a topic for another day lol. so i’m gonna try to delineate between the two a bit more so there’s less overlap.

SPEAKING OF possessive jumin lol... maybe its just my Personal Background bleeding in, but possessiveness is a really big red flag/trigger for me and i felt like it went WAY too far in his route. dgmw, i understand that its meant to be a character flaw and something he’s meant to overcome but i just feel like there are simpler ways to show that side of him without it becoming... as scary as it got. i wasn’t sure how to deal with it though -- i think it would best be expressed through smaller actions and the minutia of dialogue with the others (e.g. jumin refusing to send a photo of you into the chat room when zen asks if you’re alright, locking up elizabeth, etc.)

the canon first kiss with jumin happening both without your explicit consent AND just to drive sarah away is.... icky to me. especially because he MAKES EYE CONTACT WITH SARAH while kissing you??? i hate that cg lol. it just takes what should be a moment about the two of you and turns it into him using you to prove a point and i don’t like it at all. it’s not romantic and it feels... out of character for jumin to use someone he cares about like that. i have similar issues with the proposal happening right after he exposes glam and sarah. so lets make the kiss more genuine and nix the proposal entirely because it happens too quickly for comfort anyways.

with all of that in mind, i decided a fake dating plot would probably work best (and like i said, this is self indulgent and i’m a SUCKER for fake dating stories sooooo). it makes sure we hit all the beats of the glam/sarah plot line without shoving him and the mc into a relationship too quickly. it also means we can keep their first kiss as a big “fuck you” to sarah, but this time mc gets to be 100% in on the joke AND they get to have a “real” first kiss later on! that’s two (2!) kisses for the price of one folks.

i also decided that in order to streamline the plot a bit, the glam and sarah plot should end earlier, allowing for the mint eye plot to take center stage instead of being shoehorned in around a larger love triangle plot line. also glam and sarah are annoying and i don’t want to deal with them for six full days. the only downside is we don’t get to see v dunk on sarah at the party :-(

in lieu of a proposal for the necessary Big Romantic Gesture at the party, i thought it would be nice if jumin whisked you away from the party to paris or somewhere far away for a ridiculously extravagant first date literally in the middle of the party. not only is it ridiculously grandiose in and of itself, but in abandoning the party halfway through, it shows that jumin has grown into a more relaxed and spontaneous person through knowing you! he’s ready to throw caution to the wind and have fun with you (plus, Big Romantic Date cg!!)

day 5:

VN mode where we essentially get the exact same scene of chairman han telling jumin he wants him to marry sarah to make the merger with sugar round go more smoothly BUT this time jumin blurts out that he’s already with someone and that he didn’t want to go public with it yet. he assumes his father won’t press further, given that they’ve always had a mutual respect for one another’s privacy, but at glam’s insistence, chairman han says he wants to meet jumin’s partner. oh no!

jumin laments his situation to the rfa, resulting in pretty typical responses. zen laughs, yoosung is sympathetic but also kind of wishes it were just that simple for him to meet a wife. jaehee is worried that the inevitable fallout of this will result in more work for her. everything is business as usual until seven is like “ur so rich why don’t you just pay someone to pretend to date you lolol” and jumin (being, well, jumin) runs with it 100%. because they don’t have time to vet candidates (they’re supposed to have dinner with his dad tomorrow night!) he decides it should be someone he knows, but the majority of the other rfa members are already acquainted with his father via rfa events, making it more likely that he sees through the ruse. mc, however, has never met him, making them the perfect candidate! who would have thought lol

so they decide to move you into the penthouse that evening BUT before that can happen, they have to clear it with v because bomb, hacker, mint eye, etc. (yes this is how i’m choosing to do the bomb reveal lol). bonus, v gets to chide jumin about his dumb lie and we get a fun bff conversation with them!

final VN where you show up to the penthouse and you and jumin establish the parameters of your “relationship”. you decide that you’ll both sleep in his bed, just in case a cleaning staff member walks in and notices that he and his partner sleep separately and it ruins everything. establish what physical contact is and isn’t cool, etc, etc. you also decide that when the time comes, you’re going to tell his dad that the entire debacle with sarah put so much strain on your relationship that you had to break up. the hope being that chairman han will feel so bad about ruining things for jumin that he won’t try to force him into something like that ever again.

days 6-8:

you have dinner with his dad and answer pretty typical “meeting the parrents” questions. he asks what you guys did for your first date and jumin tells a 100% fake story about taking you to dinner on top of the eiffel tower and kissing you beneath the stars and the chairman is satisfied. that doesn’t mean that glam and sarah are though. they decide to do some sleuthing to prove that you guys aren’t really dating.

this is the fun part where we get to hit most of the beats of ur typical fake dating story! you and jumin get to know each other really well, albeit kind of superficially (favorite foods, fun childhood stories, etc. etc. nothing too heavy yet.) you guys cook together for the first time, cue cg of jumin with like... idk tomato sauce on his cheek or something. you watch a movie together and elizabeth falls asleep on your lap and jumin dies on spot idk

this is also where your first kiss happens, and pretty much in the same way except its much more mutual and he doesn’t look at sarah this time because his focus is on trying to make it look like he doesn’t even care that she’s there because you’re the only thing he cares about. (which.... isn’t actually hard for him to do at all)

chatrooms are pretty typical for this timeframe — you guys all know the drill. the other members are like “wow they seem really close” and speculate on whether or not you guys are actually together. zen is worried that jumin is going to force himself on you (wolves, etc.). yoosung is jealous that jumin gets to hang out with you. jaehee is upset that jumin is neglecting his work.

VAGUE mentions of weird activity on the messenger, but nothing too serious sounding. just enough to make jumin nervous -- esp with sarah and glam on his back still. this is when he locks elizabeth up. 

 day 8, the chairman learns that sugar round is worthless and that glam and sarah have been duping him the whole time. they’re disgraced and are never heard from again so... problem solved but this also means that you and jumin no longer have a reason to stay “together”... and you’re both kind of falling for each other so obviously that’s no good. you spend one last night in the penthouse before resolving to break things off officially in the morning. the other members talk about how sad you guys both seem to be parting.

BAD STORY END 1:

if you shy away at the fake intimate gestures (hand holding, hugging, etc), and pointedly answer incorrectly when asked a question about jumin that you should know the answer to, your ruse fails and you guys are caught faking the relationship. to avoid the scandal breaking to the press, jumin winds up marrying sarah anyways.

the branch point for this one would be right before the kiss scene, if you’re on track for the good end then the kiss happens, if not, you’re forced to shove him away when he goes in for it, revealing to sarah that you guys are frauds.

the cg would be him and sarah at the press release for their engagement announcement. sarah’s all smiles and jumin is... pretty understandably miserable looking. a reporter asks him about the other person he was in a relationship with prior to his engagement to sarah, and he reads off a line about how sarah captivated him like no one else ever could in an emotionless voice.

BAD RELATIONSHIP END 1:

if you do fine during the VN portions, but aren’t active enough in the chats, then the fake relationship plan works, but afterwards its just... really awkward. once the whole mint eye thing ends you’re pretty much just excommunicated from the rfa since you... didn’t really seem to like them all that much.

day 9:

a huge attack on the messenger happens, coupled with explicit threats directed at mc, sending everyone into such a panic that ending your fake relationship is the last thing on anyones mind. jumin is so fucking scared that he’s going to lose you, and muses in the chatroom about why he’s more scared for your safety than he would be if it were, say, yoosung being threatened (cue yoosung’s crying emoji lmao). everyone else is like “well clearly its because you’re in love with them”

anyways. they decide its for the best if you continue to stay at the penthouse and in spite of everything, you’re both... kind of relieved lol. 

everything is all fine and dandy until elizabeth III runs away, ramping jumins anxiety up to 11 like... right away

this is where we really start to see behavior more along the lines of what happens in his route, you suggest the two of you leave and search for elizabeth, and he refuses to let you go, etc. etc. 

it sort of turns into a fight, but it all works out in the end. he tells you about rika and elizabeth and why she means so much to him, and you guys talk about how fear of losing someone important to him can’t rule his life, and that its one thing to be careful, but another entirely to try to control someone else’s behavior because of fear. 

you convince him to get some sleep, assuring him that elizabeth will turn up soon and that he’s going to be alright. you guys fall asleep next to eachother without even thinking about it. its not until jumin mentions something about waking up next to you in the chat the next day that the rest of the gang is like “uhhhh,,,, why are you guys still sharing a bed”

MEANWHILE lol seven and yoosung arrive at mint eye and find elizabeth, just like what happens in canon. they decide to bring her back tomorrow.

BAD STORY END 2:

obligatory mint eye ending. if you’re too aggressive and forward with jumin and don’t give him time to properly process his feelings, he doesn’t offer to let you stay at the penthouse, relying on seven’s assurance that the apartment is totally secure (it’s not). saeran breaks in and takes you away.

this branch happens pretty early in the day, before elizabeth escapes.

i thought about a cg for this one but tbh... there are so many saeran and mc at mint eye BE cgs that idk what i could come up with that wouldn’t be super derivative lol

BAD RELATIONSHIP END 2:

again, because you’re only talking to jumin and not the rest of the rfa, he assumes that you don’t like being in the rfa very much BUT he still likes you... a lot and is very worried about your safety re: hacker, AND because he still hasn’t really dealt with his issues regarding v/rika/emotions, you guys decide to just straight up leave lol. you move to a different country where he can pretty much continue doing his work remotely while keeping you safe.

the cg for this one is the two of you in a different cushy apartment somewhere. you’re making dinner while he works. its... stable, but noticeably stiff. neither of you are talking much and his dialogue is pretty stilted. its pretty clear that he regrets abandoning his friends and is unhappy.

day 10:

3AM chat with zen where he speaks entirely in thinly veiled hypotheticals about you guys. (“well, if i thought i could have a shot with someone i really loved, i think i would take that chance and tell them, even if i might get shot down. and even if that person was a huge ass who my sexy white-haired best friend hated. i would tell them how i felt”)

seven secures the messenger again and the threat is declared neutralized! you’re safe to go home but neither you nor jumin want that at all.

yoosung brings elizabeth back around 9, and it proceeds pretty similarly to what happens in his route: he’s wary about taking her back because he feels that he’s mistreated her, you’re like “whoa buddy you’re going too far in the opposite direction here” and you and v have to convince hm that its going to be okay. the only real difference is that v doesnt also have to convince him to let you go. he just says something about how the two of you seem to bring out the best in each other, and that jumin is brighter when you’re around. 

later, jumin (tries) to make you lunch using the cooking skills you taught him a few days ago as a final payment (since you refused actual money) for all of your help, both with his father and with elizabeth, but he winds up ordering in instead. its very cute BUT its super awkward because neither of you has said anything about not wanting to leave.

finally you have to face the music and pack your bags. you hug jumin goodbye and make him promise to still get lunch with you sometime before heading back to rika’s apartment sadly.

everyone is like “yo what the fuck???” and its actually yoosung of all people who is finally like “this is ridiculous. you two clearly have feelings for each other and you need to deal with it” 

jumin is absent from most of the chatrooms for the rest of the day  though, so he doesn’t really see anything until he forces himself to log on later that night and is like “oh”

and YES of course this is going to culminate in a typical romcom scene where he has driver kim race to the apartment so he can pound on the door and apologize to you and tell you how he feels!! maybe it even happens in the rain just to maximize romance. the important thing here is that you finally kiss him for real this time and its perfect.

BAD STORY END 3:

pretty much jumin’s BE2, if you werent assertive enough with him re: his possession/control issues on day 9, he never gets over them. when elizabeth is returned he locks her back up and insists that you continue to stay with him as well, canon BE2 ensues.

i gotta hand it to cheritz. its a really good bad ending and theres not much i wanna change about it. its so scary in a calm sort of way, which i think is the perfect vibe for a dangerously unhealthy jumin. if only people would stop fetishizing it lolol

party (GE ver):

you and jumin mingle with the guests and the other members for a bit, but as the evening goes on, jumin gets restless. he pulls you aside and tells you that, while you did a wonderful job planning the party, he can’t help but regret that your guys’ first

date is technically a work function. especially when the fake first date you told his father was so perfect. he then decides that the two of you have been there long enough to fulfill your obligations, and that no one could really begrudge you if you “took off” a little early. you guys fly to paris that night and have that dinner on top of the eiffel tower.

the ending cg isn’t a kiss one, but a more simple, sweet one of the two of you in a dimly lit restaurant, jumin listening to you talk with the most tender, loving look in his eyes.

party (NE ver):

you and jumin mingle with the guests and the other members for a bit, but as the evening goes on, jumin gets restless. he pulls you aside and tells you that, while you did a wonderful job planning the party, he can’t help but regret that your guys’ first date is technically a work function. especially when the fake first date you told his father was so perfect. he laments the fact that if he was caught shirking responsibilities to take you on a real date, the press would have a field day with it, but promises to make it up to you, and take you out on a proper one tomorrow.

this cg is the two of you dancing at the rfa party, jumin resting his chin on the top of your head and daydreaming out loud about everything the two of you could do on your real first date.

#jumin stans please dont come for me jfgjflkjlkjdl #jumin han #mystic messenger #mysme jumin

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Heya Steph! You have any good whump!John fics? Or just any fics where Sherlock's the one caring for/worrying about John?

FUCK YES I DO NONNY XD It’s on my Sick Fics offline list, so it makes me happy when someone wants fics I’ve already got sorted, LOL.

Check it out:

SHERLOCK TAKES CARE OF JOHN

You Lead, I Lead, You Follow, I Follow by BrighteyedJill (M, 862 w. || Fever, H/C, John Whump) – John wakes up after a chase gone wrong to find Sherlock watching over him, but he’s a little hazy on the details.

Home and Dry by BeautifulFiction (G, 1,052 w. || Fluff, Friendship, Pre-Slash) – Sometimes actions speak louder than words, and comfort can come from the most unlikely source. John and Sherlock pre-slash blanket-fic fluff.

What to do with an Ailing Flatmate by LyricalSinger (K, 1,076 w. || Friendship / Fluff) – John is ill, and Sherlock is trying!

Internal by OldBesinaStuff (T, 1,131 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, John Whump) – Just a one-shot wherein John is injured and Sherlock deals with it - in multiple ways.

Overtime by glow_in_the_dark (G, 1,149w. || Fluff, Tea, Caring Sherlock) – John has worked over 80 hours this week, and will no doubt have to go into work tomorrow too. Arriving home beyond dead tired, his flatmate seems to take make it his personal mission to make John comfortable. Part 2 of Little Fluffy Oneshots

I’m Sorry by bewdifuldragon (K, 1,172 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Sick John) – During a case - that just for the record, he never wanted to take on anyway - John falls ill; and a guilt-ridden Sherlock does everything he can to make amends.

Two To Tango (The Cold Hands, Warm Heart Remix) by igrockspock (T, 1,207 w. || Domestic) – When John is wounded while pursuing a suspect, Sherlock refuses to leave his side. {{FAVE!}}

Fractured by Starlight05 (K+, 1,865 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Unconscious Violence, Nightmares) - John has a nightmare, and Sherlock, worried, goes to help him, with consequences.

Listening By Ear by StillWaters1 (T, 3,384 w. || Lestrade POV, Friendship, H/C, John Whump) –  Lestrade figured that anyone who thought John Watson wasn’t important, and that Sherlock hadn’t changed since meeting him, had to be completely, bloody deaf. Because it was all right there, in every sound Sherlock made. For anyone attentive enough to listen.

Worth It by JezebelGoldstone (G, 3,467 w. || Fluff, Humour, Injury, H/C, Cuddling) – John receives a minor injury during a case, and Sherlock’s reaction makes John wonder if Sherlock is the best friend he’s ever had, or the worst.

All That I Have by the_arc5 (M, 3,721 w. || Post-TGG Canon Divergence, Pining Sherlock, John Whump, Anxious / Worried Sherlock, Light Angst) – In the aftermath of the Great Game, Sherlock finds himself with a new weakness. John is both the cause and the cure.

Every Step of the Way by Shi-Toyu (T, 3,858 w. || Romance, Hurt/Comfort, John Whump) – When John is injured on a case, Sherlock can’t forgive himself. Everyone expects him to give up on his flatmate and get bored, but he’ll prove them all wrong by sticking with him…every step of the way. Eventual Johnlock.

Water Is Another Matter by cathedral_carver (T, 3,903 w. || Pining, First Kiss) – He thinks it’s in trouble, his poor heart.

I’ll Take Care of You by Lastew (T, 4,123 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Sick John) – Sherlock doesn’t always communicate well and sometimes that leads to problems. What happens if John suffers because of it?

A Moment Changes Everything by CymraegCariad (K+, 4,294 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Angst, John Whump, Friendship) – John gets hurt and Sherlock tries to help.

Between Asleep and Awake by katydidit (K, 4,309 w. || Friendship, Sick Fic, Post-TRF / Reunion) – John is sick. Incredibly, extremely, dangerously sick. Plagued by a high fever, he begins to hallucinate, start seeing things that aren’t really there. Because they can’t be there. Can they?

Memories Lost on Christmas Day by agnesanutter, PlainJane (G, 4,479 w. || Fluff, Hospitals, Worried Sherlock, Post-TRF, Christmas) – It’s the day before Christmas and Sherlock and John are exactly where they need to be….

Cephalalgia by the_beekeeper_of_sussex (E, 4,979 w. || First Kiss, Frottage, Friends to Lovers) – John is in pain and it’s up to Sherlock to set him to rights by any means possible.

Drive by lifeonmars (M, 9,537 w. || Virginity, Awkward First Times, Minor Injuries) – John and Sherlock are stranded by the roadside, and John is injured. They need to spend the night in the back of a humvee. Sherlock is confused. John is understanding.

Where the Sun Never Shines by teahigh (T, 11,634 w. || PTSD, Nightmares, H/C, Post-TRF, Implied Sex) – John is a mess. Sherlock can’t fix him, but he tries. That’s good enough, John thinks.

Understanding by rizandace (T, 13,268 w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort) – Sherlock’s hiding something about his newest case, and John wants answers. Set post-TGG. Friendship fic, mostly, with brief entrances from Harry and Lestrade just for fun.

The Consequences of Caring by Richefic (K+, 16,156 w. || Friendship & Angst, Domestics, Platonics) – Sherlock might scoff at this ‘caring’ lark. But John Watson’s situation cries out to be 'solved’ and there is nothing that Holmes likes more than solving things. A series in four parts.

Partners in Crime by Richefic (T, 16,560 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Sick John, Meddling Mycroft, Caring Sherlock, Domestics) – John Watson receives some devastating news which puts a spanner in his medical ambitions. Will Sherlock prove capable of the kind of comfort and reassurance he needs or will their partnership be ended before its even begun? Set between 1.1 and 1.2.

John Watson doesn’t have a Boyfriend by naughtyspirit (E, 18,932 w. || UST / URT, Fluff & Smut, Voyeurism, Masturbation) – John’s date has gone very well. Sherlock requires tea. John wishes he hadn’t resolved that their relationship was strictly hands off and isn’t about to address it. Unless he has to. Smut, fluff and shower time for a naked John Watson.

The Midas Touch by flawedamythyst (E, 32,231 w. || Magical Realism, John has a Magical Cock, Dub Con, Healer John) – John Watson has a medical condition that means everyone he sleeps with is instantly healed of all illness and injury. This causes complications when Sherlock breaks his arm, and even more complications when Sherlock falls in love with him. Yes, this is a story where John has a literal magic healing cock. It’s a lot less cracky than you’re probably imagining. Warning: Contains complex issues of sexual consent, although not between Sherlock and John.

Right Hand Man by SilentAuror (E, 42,031 w. ||  H/C, Injury, Slow Burn) – When John’s left arm becomes paralysed after a car accident, Mary asks Sherlock to take him back to Baker Street to recuperate, as she’s about to give birth. Despite the fact that the search for Moriarty is ongoing, Sherlock takes John in and takes responsibility for overseeing his rehabilitation as he adjusts to the loss of his arm.

Scars by SilentAuror (E, 60,493 w. || Rape / Non-Con / Abuse, Gaslighting, Manipulation, Dub Con Elements, Homophobia, Angst With Happy Ending, Mary is Not Nice) – S3 rewrite, showing Mary’s manipulation of John as he realizes his love for Sherlock. Mary is not having it.

Maintenance and Repair by patternofdefiance (E, 106,650 w. || FutureAU, Augmentation || Augmented John, Depression, Body Modification, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, Sci-Fi, Self-Care, Body Dysmorphia) – John wants to explain the rush of sensation and data, which is just another form of sensation (or is it the other way around?). John wants to say:Augmentation circuits report temperature, pressure, various forms of quantitative input. Sudden changes are reported as pain, since sudden changes are dangerous, and pain is the quickest way to encourage reflexive extraction. But all John can manage is, “Nng.” Because this sudden touch is not reporting as pain. Part 2 of STATIC

Sketchy by serpentynka (E, 184,053 w. || Post-TRF, Post-Mary, John Whump, Slow Burn Love Story, Case Fic, Art, Porn With Feelings, Switchlock, Travelling, Career Change, Family Secrets, Illness / Health) – What (and who) will be left when nobody cares about your Work? A slow-burn fic with cases, places, mistaken identities, unfair choices, essential changes, violent feels, blatant lies, fearless portraiture, family secrets, high-risk bespoke gifts, durable friendships, bedtime stories, foreign travel and tongues, sickness (and health), and the significance of things which are slow to unfurl – but cannot be ignored. Oh, and…porn. Part 1: Sherlock takes on an obvious case (barely a 4) and meets someone who will force him to re-examine what it means to see. Part 1 of Sketchy

JOHN IS SICK / HURT (WHUMP FICS)

Prayers by Jberry (M, 665 w. || H/C, Injury, John Whump, Fear of Death, First Person Sherlock) – Sherlock has never been a man who prayed.

Words Were Never Useful by Jenn1984 (K+, 819 w. || Hurt Comfort, John Whump, Friendship, Ambiguous Ending) - ALLEY BEHIND THE BOOKSTORE, JOHN STABBED. HELP NOW. SH

I Never Told You by MrsNoggin (T, 1,650 w. || Fluff & Angst) – Who looks after John when Sherlock is gone? Just a bit of angsty fluff, maybe with a bit of a happy ending. A little wishful one-shot, rated for John’s good old British pottymouth.

206 Reasons by whitchry9 (K+, 1,693 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Pre-Slash, Light Angst, Worried Sherlock) – John won’t wake up, so Sherlock lists all the reasons why he should. Because he appears to be a bit besotted. How inconvenient.

Take My Hand, Knot Your Fingers Through Mine by patster223 (K+, 2,003 w. || H/C & Friendship) - “I know this is an inconvenience for you, but I would really rather you were awake right now, John.” John is unconscious, and Sherlock decides to talk to him anyway. Sherlock/John pre-slash.

Water Is Another Matter by cathedral_carver (T, 3,903 w. || Sick Fic, Pining, First Kiss, Heat Wave) – He thinks it’s in trouble, his poor heart.

Between Asleep and Awake by katydidit (K, 4,309 w. || Friendship, Sick Fic, Post-TRF / Reunion) – John is sick. Incredibly, extremely, dangerously sick. Plagued by a high fever, he begins to hallucinate, start seeing things that aren’t really there. Because they can’t be there. Can they?

Bound Into the Fire by Tara Laurel (T, 6,672 w. || TEH, Suspense, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Bonfire Scene, John Whump, Mary is Nice) – “John sometimes compared Sherlock Holmes to the flaming beast in his mind…Not such a bad way to go, John mused. Being consumed by Sherlock. Dying in his fire. No. This was different. He was burning alive. Not figuratively. Not some flowery metaphor. Burning.” There was no two minute stay of execution. “Amazing how fire exposes our priorities.”

Galapogos by anchors (E, 8,460 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Angst, 5 and 1, John Whump) – Somewhere in the depths of the universe, and somewhere in the middle of Sherlock’s chest, a star goes into supernova.

We Might Not Make It Home by Ballykissangel (K+, 10,702 || Angst, Hurt/Comfort, No Slash) – A few months later they are on a case that has gone horribly wrong They find themselves gravely wounded and locked in a cellar Holding onto to each other and trying their best to stay alive Sherlock can’t bring himself to say another goodbye to his dying friend and John can’t find the will to live anymore and just wants to stop hurting. Sequel to When Evening Falls So Hard.

Equilibrium by augustbird (M, 12,351 w. || Jealous then Worried Sherlock, Sick John) – At Baskerville, John is infected by a virus that turns him into a genius. But when the infection progresses into neurodegeneration, it’s a race against time to save himself. Flowers for Algernon fusion.

Obsession by storylover18 (K+, 15,213 w. || HC, Case Fic, Friendship) - Dr. John Watson wakes up ill one morning but it is not the 24 hour flu he thinks it was. Soon he lands in hospital, quickly deteriorating and Sherlock must work to find out what has happened to his blogger before it is too late. Case!fic mixed with sick!fic / No slash.

Vessel by Rhuia (E, 15,695 w. || Cancer, Medfic) – That was the surprising bit – the way his doctor said it, eyes shining with sympathy but breathing it out, shifting it off her shoulders and thrusting it onto his, making him take it like an unwanted gift.

Partners in Crime by Richefic (T, 16,560 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Sick John, Meddling Mycroft, Caring Sherlock, Domestics) – John Watson receives some devastating news which puts a spanner in his medical ambitions. Will Sherlock prove capable of the kind of comfort and reassurance he needs or will their partnership be ended before its even begun? Set between 1.1 and 1.2.

The dying Doctor by marylouleach (T, 21,168 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, John Whump) – Doctor Watson is gunned down in a dark alley after work, Sherlock wont rest until he finds the man responsible. Guilt riddles him when he realizes he could have prevented this.

M Is For Moriarty by ElvendorkInfinity (T, 29,882 w. || Suspense, Mystery, Case Fic, Worried Sherlock, No Slash, Whump) – A figure at the end of the hospital bed; a needle in the dark…Moriarty has John, and Sherlock must follow the paper trail through London to find him before time runs out. Sequel to BANG.

You Have Drawn Red From My Hands by J_Baillier (T, 67,085 w. || Heavy John Whump, Hurt / Comfort, Pining, Heavy Angst, Case Fic/Adventure, Slow Burn, Sick Fic, Injury, Guilt & Depression, Just Talk Already Please, Medical Realism, PTSD) –  John getting injured leads Sherlock on a path of guilt and revelations.

The Vapor Variant by 88thParallel (CanadaHolm) (M, 72,684 w. || Post-THoB, John Whump, Protective Sherlock, Guilty Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD John, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Suspense, Virus, Sickfic, Big Brother Mycroft) – They stood face to face in the middle of a clearing. The dim light of the moon barely allowed Sherlock to see the glassy terror in John’s eyes and the sweat that glistened off his forehead. His nose was bleeding again, blood dripping in a slow stream from his right nostril. They were both gasping for air, John’s eyes locked on Sherlock’s. There was no recognition there, just wild animal fear. Time stood still for an eternal few seconds, and Sherlock took a shaky breath. “John—”Spell broken, John spun and bolted back into the woods. Still heaving for air, Sherlock took off after him.  {{HAVEN’T READ THIS FIC YET, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION}}

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #john whump #whump #sick fics #Anonymous #fic rec sunday

[ghostmaggie]

hey so in your MKAT post (which you’re 100% correct about) you also mention you’ve had some issues with RT in the past. i’m fairly new in the fandom and also watch his other show iZombie, but i wanted to ask what issues they were?? i like to be informed about the media i consume lmao

Oof okay so I'm on mobile and therefore this will probably be more rant-y and opinion-based than you might be looking for, so I invite anyone with opinions or sources or thoughts or contradictions to reply or shoot me asks and I'll share them (plus I'm curious of other thoughts) but,,

Idk if this was clear in my original post, but my issues are mainly contained within the actual show as opposed to things about him irl, because idk that much outside of secondhand info, so take it with a grain of salt I guess, lol

Also, I feel like I need to say that this is really negative about vmars--which, to be clear, is a show I love dearly--and I know sometimes I like to avoid negative commentary on things I enjoy because it gets stuck in my head and ruins my enjoyment. So if that's you, feel free to skip this! I wont be offended and you shouldn't feel bad about it! It's also just one person's opinion, and I'm most definitely not always right :)

So mostly setting aside the brand new season because I have no clue how to talk around spoilers effectively, in short (with spoilers up through the movie and maybe some spoilers for the books and new season, I cant really tell at this point):

(Editor's note post finishing writing: it's not even all my thoughts, but it's not short. Sorry.)

RT shares in the grand tradition of showrunners I do not care for along with Steven Moffat and Jason Rothenberg, for many parallel reasons. Moffat thinks hes cleverer than he really is, jroth is a douche about romance and character motivation, and both are smug jerks who drove me away from shows I used to love, so.

So number one I guess would just be the sense that he really fucking does not care about the fans. It's especially egregious, as I've seen others point out, when he literally would never have gotten his show back (after driving it to the ground) without the LITERAL MONEY donated by devoted fans. I'm not saying you have to do things just because fans want them, but to go out of your way to do things you know fans will hate just to be contrary is,, yeah.

He thinks he's so very smart, and yet his plots are riddled with holes and inconsistencies (hello, Moffat). It speaks, to me, of a lack of respect for everyone involved--fans, writers, actors, crew, critics, just everyone. Write down a timeline. Something. Try.

One of my bigger issues, though, is that the misogyny in vmars is just...beyond appalling. Not just narratively--i understand representing the flaws in society, I guess, but veronica is honestly one of the most misogynistic parts of the show, and she is never ever ever held accountable for it. Ever. The show never sends the message that she's wrong for the atrocious way she treats, to name a few, Madison, Kendall, Gia, and even Carrie during the s1 plot with Adam Scott. The carrie thing is especially fucked up bc iirc the narrative only condemns her for guessing the victim wrong. (As another note, her treatment of other marginalized groups or basically anyone she ever treats badly--logan, Keith, Wallace, weevil, the list goes on--is rarely or never narratively critiqued. Veronica mars can do no wrong, apparently, even when she's obviously wrong.)

She's far from the only example of misyogny, of course--duncan's s2 dream about madonna/whore meg/veronica comes to mind in screaming color, yet donut is somehow treated like a prince forever and ever and v's lost true love even though he's basically the scum of the earth (pardon, my true feelings are coming out a little here).

Somewhat connected is, of course, the show's treatment of rape in general (hi, season 3), but especially Duncan's rape of veronica. I'm still not over the way they walked it back to "not a rape" and took back holding him accountable. I live for all the fanfiction that addresses it, because at least there people remember that, whether he "thought she could consent" or not, he literally thought she was his sister and didnt know. That's uninformed consent at best, babe!

And if that wasn't bad enough, to "resolve" that plotline and then come back at the end of season 2 to be all, "jk! You WERE raped, by SOMEONE ELSE [too]! Enjoy that reenabled trauma, and some chlamidya to boot!"

Speaking of retconned instances of sex, how about that piz/veronica tape that suddenly became full on sex in the movie? Fun times.

My favorite bout of misogynistic writing, you ask? That would have to be "narratively-enforced nicest girl in school who stands by her friends and is sweet and loyal becomes a raging hell bitch yet also the representation of misogynistic virginal innocence because she was knocked up and abandoned by Mr. Narratively-Claimed-to-be-Perfect-but-Actually-the-Worst and completely undergoes a 180 personality change then dies for plot reasons" because holy fucking shit.

Okay sorry I got way more into that than I meant to. I'll try to wrap up.

RT does a very jroth job of treating fans like shit for giving a shit about a romantic relationship he created. He acts like fans are a bunch of stupid girls for caring about romance, but then pushed it at every level of promo to reel us back in. Make up your mind, asshole. It's desperately unfair to bait fans with romantic promo (even in the form of an inane and ooc love triangle) and then snap back with "oooh it's noir, shut up about the romance!"

If that's how you feel, stop making every other plot point and promo about the fucking romance.

RT seems to want to be making a show that he isnt. He wants to be grimdark and angsty and awful, I guess, and while there have been elements of effective darkness throughout vmars, they have been tempered by the show as a whole. That made it (mostly palatable) for people like me. To flip the script now does a disservice to long term fans and does nothing to attract new viewers. If you want to make a different show, make a different show. Don't drive beloved characters into the ground because you're bitter about how your work is perceived post-death of the author.

To wrap up--he hates character growth. He must really hate it. This is dipping a little into the new season, but he just. Won't let anyone develop. Well. Maybe some people. A very few. But not veronica. Never veronica. Because heaven forbid your main character, the person we've followed for 15 years, be anything other than she was at 16. Her personality, her approach to the world, none of it has changed. Which begs the question: what has been the fucking point?

Sorry this is so long. I'm not sure I even answered your question, so feel free to ask me to try again 😂

#post #vmars #vmars spoilers #maybe #thanks for asking

[jawnkeets]

ok so I guess links still don't work though tumblr says it sent the message... anyways. I read the wiki article on the French petition against the age of consent laws a while ago, and the people named there really threw me for a loop and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. how can these people write so astutely about humanity and society yet think that this is okay? thus the 'separating the art from the artist' question..

from the first ask: […] is [… it] right or productive to separate the art from the artist, which is an age-old question […] maybe it’s quite fitting that Barthes theorised about the death of the author.. I don’t know what to think. 

yes, it’s definitely a vexed question. i don’t feel qualified to talk about it with any certainty as of yet, and so will not give too many of my foetal opinions away here. that said, i’ve been asked this question a couple of times before and thought i’d finally take a stab at saying something as neutral as possible in response. 

to me, this is linked to the wider question of whether morality and literature can and/ or should go hand in hand (in terms of writers and readers) - whether reading and studying literature makes you a better person (harold bloom for example has spoken out against what he calls the ‘school of resentment’ for bringing their political ethics to bear on literature, whereas on the other hand literature has been written with didactic purpose since, say, hesiod*), whether the metaphorical memorial of a deplorable writer should be vandalised even if what they’ve contributed by general consensus are works of serious merit (i see many posts on tumblr urging us, for instance, to throw the works of wilde and plath into the fire because of their anti-semitism). often writers (and geniuses generally) praised for their services to humanity have left trails of destruction and misery in their wake - shelley and einstein are two famous examples that spring to mind. some have attempted to resolve the issue by pointing out that even the most wretched of characters is capable of writing a work containing that something which transcends everything (the optimistic implication is then that we all carry ‘that something’, that little bit of magic the best literature seems to be concealing and revealing at once, and are capable of giving intimations of it in writing). for others, when faced with the prospect of praising sexists/ racists/ anti-semites/ homophobes/ transphobes/ paedophiles, that view seems unnecessarily idealistic, abstract, and removed. some say we should place actions into context and see whether a writer’s views and/ or actions were mild or extreme for their time. some think we should just, as you hint at, ignore the artist completely (which then opens up questions in the arena of biographical criticism). some think we should not erase these authors from history, but learn a lesson from them for the present and future (thus theoretically leaving the literature out of it and learning from the lives of the authors only, or perhaps resolving only to praise the more morally pristine in the present day). getting deeper and more complex, it’s as vital as ever to continue evaluating how beauty, truth, and goodness relate within literature, and then the relation of literature to life. 

i had a pretty similar reaction to yours when i read allen ginsberg’s wiki page for the first time (needless to say, a message to my followers - do not read it if you find paedophilia triggering), and it’s not something excessive intellectualising on the subject has worn away, that’s for sure. it’s a situation that i think requires heart as well as head (though both i think are needed, and i stress this too). that said, do i think we’d be losing something if we condemned every influential writer who’s done terrible things and expelled them from our reading lists? yes, i do. it would also, i am sad to say, be a great many of them.**       

i hope this goes some distance in the way of help - it really is a huge debate (though debate sounds perhaps too cold a word). but i hope this indicates that there are degrees and shades to the issue, and that whilst you can be sensitive to the suffering that famous writers of history have either caused or condoned, it doesn’t necessarily mean that literature must always carry some taint for you, or that you have to give up on literature forever in order to preserve your moral integrity. 

~

*bloom, however, praises some heavily didactic authors (dante being an obvious example), and i’m not sure the contrast i’ve drawn is properly sensitive to the differences between ethical-politically reading a text and ethical-politically writing it, or the difference between what is generally labelled as ‘didacticism’ and the ethical politics of the ‘school of resentment’ (i use bloom’s term for ease and clarification only, not wishing for it to carry his disparaging tinge here in the interests of neutrality). to me the latter is a very modern phenomenon, though recent theorisations have argued that we are paradoxically returning to tribalism in a sort of horseshoe, rightly or wrongly. of course ‘ethics’ here is also unquestioningly tied up with politics, and that relationship is another can of worms. but i digress, and won’t get into all that stuff here properly - just trying to clear a few things up (… lol) and don’t want to give the wrong impression. 

** that doesn’t mean there aren’t degrees of ‘terrible’ - ginsberg’s involvement with NAMBLA and the one sexist joke in george herbert’s entire poetic oeuvre are obviously not comparable.

#asks #if i’ve said anything wrong do lmk! i make mistakes often #tw paedophilia mention

[boymeetsweevil]

pedophilia & noncon /// yo i can't speak for other people but lots of my friends and i dropped halsey after she kissed a minor w/o consent @ one of her concerts and it would've been understandable if she just apologized but she tried to defend herself when people pointed it out and has yet to apologize for it so 😬like if u can forgive her for that then idc man but i can't stand supporting someone who refuses to apologize for kissing a minor when they were clearly the adult w/o consent

OH! well i did not know and obvi im not condoning kissing minors when youre a grown ass adult, but im also not like in a place to forgive her?? no one except that child really is in the place to forgive her??? but that’s a whole other issue about ppl insinuating themselves into the place of the victim to absolve their faves which im NOT here for lol. And like also dropping her is one thing but i never really fw her in the first place so that’s that on that. either way thats sad and i hope the situation is resolved as best as possible for the kid. thats really too bad because in general she seems nice and so its nice to see her with the guys, but im sure this also doesn’t really bleed into how she interacts with them.  but still sad!

[blackwoolncrown]

curious to hear your thoughts bc i think they're sharp, as a person still figuring out fandom. what do you think of the moral okayness of thorki (the ship)? they're brothers, but gods.... godly incest? at what point does "ship what you want" stop applying?

It’s not so much about where it stops applying. Understand that I actually never have said what people should or shouldn’t read- only that what a person chooses to focus on in general (and therefore including what you write, watch, or read) is indicative of something and in many cases of certain taboo* or violent material my heavy suggestion is that that something is ultimately meaningful.

It’s not ‘just’ fiction.

So like, me personally? I often don’t actually care what someone is into (with some logical exceptions), I care whether or not they’re aware of why, because often people would rather not inspect the why so they can keep enjoying problematic media (and also my actual Big Thing is I don’t approve of situations where someone engages in activity they are not fully aware of, because to me if you aren’t aware of the consequences or origins of your actions, you haven’t fully consented to what you’re doing and that makes me sad. Example: Do you smoke cigarettes? Fine! It’s your body; as long as you aren’t exposing non-smokers to second hand smoke, no one should have shit to say. But if you start smoking bc you believe that cigarettes aren’t actually bad for you and there’s no downsides, you haven’t fully consented and now I wish you either a) inspected your motives and actions or b) stopped).

Overall I suspect that many of the most vociferous defenders of ‘fiction is just fiction!’ are people whose interests often veer into what we often call taboo (I think that word is so ineffective) who don’t want to ask themselves why. My other general rule is that people are most doggedly defensive about what they get off to. There’s also the issue of people having already brought to question their fictive interests and instead of wanting to find out the answer, deciding There’s Nothing To See Here, Fiction Is Just Fiction! Or, on the cusp of identifying a maladaptive interest and feeling as if that’s an action of self-judgment, they identify with their fictive interest because to them judging it means judging themselves.

Ideally neither is necessary. You can just understand that you got into something at a previous time but you’ve grown past it, learned from it, and can walk away from it without shame. After all, it’s ideally just your business. All I’m saying is that you know what the fuck your business is, pardon my french, because people who don’t know themselves are….well, it’s an issue.So to answer your question, here’s another question: If Thor and Loki were not brothers, would you care as much? Imagine a situation in which Thor and Loki are not related, but still share a lusty rivalry. Is something missing? What is it? What about them being gods absolves, in your mind, the impact of their siblinghood?Often, something like sibling incest (which to me is, honestly, not my bag but obviously way less awful than parent/child due to a whole slew of issues with imbalance there) is exciting to people simply because either a) the incest is the barrier to love and in general barriers to love make ‘good’ stories because two people overcoming the bounds of a romantic limitation is a more moving story than two people who can love freely (bc we love suffering and strife! it seasons things, I guess lol) and the incest is just an easy yet huge barrier b) because we have a hard time working through something without sexualizing it and who could write or would want to read about two brothers’ having a heartfelt love/hate brotherhood? Very few people, apparently, because that’s not a valued interaction. Thus, add some fucking into the story and Thor and Loki can work out their antagonistic feelings without getting to the bottom of them because we imagine sex is an equalizer and a balm (it’s not, but I understand the idea has a huge place in erotic fiction and absolutely use it myself when I write for fun).That speaks, to me, of an issue (and I’m going to be specific here) with not really having the language or familiarity with the social concept of brotherly love to make a story about it and its struggles interesting. We don’t have the language and thus cannot conceive of brother/brother reconciliation without sex. And this again speaks of a larger issue our society has with sex and the huge void of emotionality between strangers and lovers (friendships, loyalty. non-sexual bonding? What’s that?). We cannot conceive of a way to intensify, for the sake of adult (in age, not nature) entertainment, something like siblinghood without using sex.

It’s just cheap writing.

On the other hand, the very real ramifications of this easy-route conflict writing is that it sexualizes and normalizes sibling incest (or other things in the case of other stories) and I think it’s incredibly callous to want to ignore the voices of SA victims in this regard. People like to retort that ‘well YOU might not be able to tell fiction from reality, but I can’ but here’s the thing: Your subconscious mind can’t. If your brain wholly knew that the fiction you were reading was Not-Reality the information would be irrelevant and would fail to produce an emotional response. The reason we are excited, aroused, sad, scared, angry, tense, etc during movies and books is because while we are focused on them our mind is interpreting the happenings as actual happenings. To the extent (!) that media ‘pulls you in’, your  subconscious believes it, validates it, and signals responses accordingly. That’s why it’s entertaining.

I say this because something many fans of certain content don’t want to face is that the consumption and support of, and proximity to certain types of violent or taboo content starts to lessen your reaction to them. I’m not speaking as an outsider, here, and so I caution you and anyone else to second-guess the awareness of anyone who says ‘there’s no way that’s true!’. What you repeatedly experience becomes normal for you. This doesn’t apply as heavily with Thorki or similar ships bc of the conceptual complexity (it’s pretty far-removed) but there are certainly fetishes/ships  where repeated exposure lessens your reaction to that concept in general. As if that doesn’t seem to be problem enough, since this is an issue of entertainment, this also means that a person seeks more of the content. After all, what fic fan reads just one story about their scandalous OTP? You need more, or more extreme versions. And I’m not talking out of my ass here- people for some reason love incest- it’s one of the top-searched terms on any adult media site for general consumption. On sites that it’s not, that’s only because the term itself is blacklisted and users use some other coded term. In the absence of pearl-clutching, we must recognize that smutty fiction and tube sites’ activities are largely the same. b/b m/s and f/d incest continue to draw attention and I honestly don’t know why. 

And this is why I pay no mind to people who say that fiction has no effect on reality. Even if it didn’t, it arises from our reality. The real minds of real writers in the real world. And I’ve seen the results. I work with sex and fetishes- it’s my job. I know what people as a whole are into and I’m begging y’all: UNPACK THIS BAGGAGE. Soooo many fetishes are just maladaptive coping mechanisms, so talk of ‘fiction being just fiction’ are literally bullshit. Fetish, and the relative psychology of it, is my job, to the point that it’s also what I have to navigate to try and ensure my safety (by avoiding volatile fetishists) and income (my first job, for instance, was a porn artist, and by now I’m an adult content producer and prodomme). And again, many fetishes are the back end of intense or subconsciously formative moments in our lives. The attraction is not ‘the thing’, it is a thread us leading back to that moment, to learn from our experiences, to resolve past issues with the wiser perspective of our older selves.Again, there’s not much going on in terms of Thor/Loki here but on a wider scale there is. Often in fandom, for instance, it’s not really about the ship so much as the fetish. It’s disguised in the language of fandom, but people who have a bunch of incest ships are incest fetishists, full stop. There’s no difference in motive between them and the ~gross pervert guys~ reblogging porn gifs and adding incest prose to them. If geeks could more often find porn gifs that looked like their taboo OTP rest assured they’d do the same damn thing, most of them. Ficlovers like to act like their position is somehow more morally acceptable because there are no ‘real’ people involved like in porn, but whether or not a physical body is used to represent the characters/roles is a pedantic and nebulous distinction at best. Your interest is still your interest. And people are going to hate this, but it sounds so much like pedophiles on 4chan  who say that their ‘fetish’ is okay because the characters aren’t real. Furries into cubs (not the gay dude kind but the baby animal kind) feel justified the same way because the figures are fantasy creatures. But they’re still expressly coded as the infantile versions of adult characters, and again, the motive is the same. I’m not saying ALL of these things are one to one, I’m saying it’s a similar logic: “This is a fantasy and as such it says nothing about me. It would only matter if I physically did it.” Which is dishonest and illogical bc one’s fantasies  and interests arise out of their own minds. Porn consumption is a night map of the human social psyche. It’s not ‘nothing’.

Sure, most of those people would probably never touch a child, but that’s because the real world provides consequences the fantasy world doesn’t- not because they’re not interested. I know bc I’ve seen them say that themselves, many times. I was a 4chan teen. What was normal there would make a well-adjusted person puke. But I was maladaptive, impressionable and young at the time and it became normal for me. So many forms of incest, rape, pedophilia, bestiality etc became normal in the ‘shock makes things acceptable’ speed-posting culture of neverending offensiveness there. And that’s not just a 4chan thing. It’s a group anonymity thing. Any imageboard vet can tell you that. When you’re in the anonymous group, what the group does is what you do, and you go along with it, continuously being desensitized until you suddenly go WTF or…keep going. And having seen these arguments before, I’m wary of those who go to battle on the idea of all erotic fiction being totally beyond judgement, because often what is going on is that people whose interests should be judged, at the very least by themselves, argue against that so that there are other people who feel the same way who don’t realize they’ve been manipulated to cloak the offenders in their community.

But I digress.

Since my feelings on Killmonger fans* started this, I’ll offer an example of my own: I think AoU Ultron is hot. But I don’t actually want to fuck him. I wouldn’t be interested in any ‘reader x Ultron’ narratives. Why? Because despite my love for and identification with  many villains (usually bc of their victim’s rage and queer coding which always leaves them far cooler and better dressed than the hero) and my love for robots, I can’t ignore that Ultron is a heartless, people-hating, death-machine. He has no interest in love, doesn’t care about anyone, and if he bothered to fuck a person (I fucking doubt it) he’d gladly fuck them apart. And since I love myself, I don’t find that appealing. If I found the idea of being fucked to death by a robot arousing, that says something about how I feel about my existence. I know bc I am strangely fascinated by the idea of armageddon (another reason Ultron appealed to me). Spoilers: it’s just easier to feel like you want the whole world to end when you’re so certain there’s no other solution and you yourself are afraid of the emotional responsibility of weathering the world and social interactions. When you love yourself and other people, the idea of seeing the world burn stops being so entrancing. So sure it’s an enthralling literary concept. Is it something I dedicate my blog to or obsess over?

No.

Other things I’ve examined- my love for robots. Do I find myself attracted to robots because they are humanoids you can objectify free of moral conflict? No, and that sucks for me bc that’s why most people like them and that affects the kind of adult media made about them (can you tell im bitter), it’s because I find humanoid robots to be something I can identify with, I see them as symbolically human, and relating to them is, to me, acknowledging that a human is also a construct with both programming and a will of its own it uses to explore and often fight that programming. My attraction to the concept of an automaton stems from my early realization that my own body is but a fantastic collection of parts, electric signals, programmed genetic data, pulleys and fuel. Amazing! Now that I know that, have I stopped consuming robot fetish media? Well yes but only because I can’t find any I like…but in general, no. I’m not ashamed of my attraction, I’ve unpacked it, faced it, and go on about  my life. It actually did lessen the obsession, though.

So, to stay on point, sibling incest as a concept is IMO not ‘wrong’ to write/read about objectively but it is questionable to perpetuate, romanticize, fawn over, collect, celebrate, etc.  Most problematic to me is the issue of how these ships are identified. Generally any time there are 2 handsome brothers in a piece of media, some not-small-enough contingency of the fandom assumes they’re fucking, and sees all forms of affection or antagonism between them as evidence of their lust.

What does this say about your ability to recognize sibling love? What does it say about the social value (or lack thereof) of the same? When ‘all feelings lead to sex’ is the overarching theme of our entire society, I can’t really say I am uncritical of concepts like hatesex and incest being so intensely attractive to people over, say, romantic love between two people who are not related by blood. A bit of a tangent but similarly while I get the chemistry appeal, the fact that ‘hatesex’ as a concept (two people who often express aggression, hatred, intolerance etc of each other being interpreted as actually masking feelings of attraction) is so popular is ripe for questioning. How far removed is it from “He picks on you  because he likes you” and other maladaptive forms of “loving someone means hurting them…a lot” which are real actual problems people suffer for right now?

Plus, it begins to suggest as I said before that all forms of affection/relationship end in sex. Even if sex never happens, sex must logically be the apex of love if two characters who have any kind of affection, even if that affection is also seen in the presence of aggression (!) or a moral barrier (family bond), are easily assumed to be sexually compatible to the extent that fandom perpetuates.

So back to your point, this is again not really an issue (as far as where I’m coming from) with what’s right and wrong. It’s an issue of people needing to take responsibility for themselves and being curious about their own issues and interests. I’m not advocating for censorship- I’m advocating for people to enlighten themselves about themselves in which case a lot of ‘taboo’ media would be produced in a lessened capacity.

I find it interesting that when I ask “Why are you into ____?” people don’t answer that question, or seem unwilling to, since their first reaction is to flip out and cry censorship. No one seems to notice that that’s not what I’m actually saying lol.

I don’t care what people do, if it’s not hurting someone. I care that people know why they do what they do. I am critical of things and of myself. I think people should just dare to be critical. It’s a great tool for self-healing that doesn’t involve perpetuating damage.*I dislike the term taboo because it and the moral judgment it applies is a nebulous term that is used far too broadly. Incestuous pedophiles soften their interest by calling it ‘taboo’, but interracial relationships are also classed as ‘taboo’, thereby suggesting that the term is as loose as ‘whatever many people think is wrong’, which is clearly far too transient and easily-influenced. Often, I find, it’s used as ‘something that is morally objectionable for reasons we’re not going to explore, we’re just going to lump all this shit together indiscriminately as taboo’.

*Again, I don’t care about people who mainly think MBJ is hot as Killmonger, that’s totally logical. I question people whose fantasies specifically extend to Killmonger THE CHARACTER being seen as sexually attractive **because** of/specifically on the grounds of his general character (i.e. radicalized, violent, murderous, apathetic) and what kind of person would fantasize about being subject to a man like that.

#Anonymous #long post #long as fuck #and here's how I feel about things #mine #full transparency I have a robofetish blog #it rarely updates bc there's just not that much interesting content to me