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familyabolisher · 10 months

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Would you elaborate on why you don't really believe in addictive personalities? I find that a useful descriptor for myself that reminds me how easy it is for me to get into unhealthy behavior patterns. I have to fully stay away from tiktok and gacha games(I will never go gambling) because I know I can't trust myself with them. I also have to be REALLY careful with alcohol, etc. I have adhd and bi-polar, and I like having a phrase that describes my experience without being too over-medicalized and relating everything to diagnoses. I'm curious why you don't like it as a construct/whatever your opinion is!

personal explanatory power is one thing and i wouldn’t begrudge you that but i don’t really see how it has any materialist usage; and ultimately, like, i’m a marxist, any way in which i evaluate a framework that’s supposed to explain something in the world has to come from the assumption that the world is best explained through historical materialism. ‘addictive personality’ with no further elaboration is an idealist claim which obfuscates crucial points of discourse around addiction and the conditions that give rise to it—and indeed the conditions which cause us to name one substance or action as ‘addictive’ over another in the first place. addiction is materially punished; through social stigma, but also through housing discrimination, workplace discrimination, policing & incarceration, psychiatry, the sorts of forces that add up to eventually facilitate the conditions of social murder. we only have to look as far as the war on drugs to understand how ‘addiction,’ the consumption and circulation of substances regarded as ‘addictive,’ is not a prediscursive state but one that can be leveraged to violently enforce conditions of hegemony and quell insurgence through carceralism and social murder. i also just heavily distrust psychology as a field and certainly don’t buy these appeals to an essential self as a self who ‘has’ xyz tendencies as though xyz tendencies (such as the traits given in the five-factor model which is applied to ‘explain’ a predisposition to addiction) are anything other than postdiscursive descriptors we’ve imbued with meaning relative to a postdiscursive normalcy. i think psychological theorising around personality tends to obfuscate materialist frameworks in favour of methodologies which presume and reify normativity (eg. the claim that those more vulnerable to ‘addictive personalities’ have a stronger tendency towards ‘social alienation’ and ‘nonconformity’ without defining what constitutes ‘alienation’ and ‘conformity’ in the first place—as though personality traits simply appear out of thin air).

as we’ve seen dozens of times, “addiction” is a slippery term easily wielded towards reactionary ends. “porn addiction” is a line taken by anti-sex work radfems; “food addiction” is infamously unscientific and preying on cultural predispositions towards fatphobia; “internet addiction” is similarly flimsy and frequently deployed in theories of cultural degeneration. this doesn’t mean that the clusters of behaviours we term “addiction” aren’t “real” in the sense that some people do develop dependencies on particular substances, but that the term can be used to draw connections between the reactionary attitude held towards addiction & its attendant connotations (of infantilisation, justified removal of autonomy, incarceration, psychiatric intervention, and so on) and whatever the wielder wants to malign (porn, food, using the internet). if we reify the idea of there being an ontological state within ourselves by which we are more or less prone to “addiction,” we by implication act against the necessity of interrogating what is meant by “addiction” and why it is being invoked in the first place; we also place all our explanatory eggs, so to speak, in the basket of the individual cast as “addicted,” rather than turning our attention towards the source of the “addictive” substance or object and its material origins + usage.

so it bears asking what we’re obscuring and what we’re facilitating when we give legitimacy to the idea of an ‘addictive personality’ in the public discourse, which is what i meant when i said that the term has no materialist explanatory power for me—casting someone in the role of an addict, even if only in the hypothetical, allows others to enforce the stigmas that such a role entails, through, for example, infantilisation, denial of autonomy, and reluctance to treat the individual’s behaviour as worthy of respect, compassion, and mature response. it creates a telos out of addiction under conditions wherein addiction means incarceration (literal or psychiatric), discrimination, ostracisation, everything i just laid out in the first paragraph. it makes addiction into a fundamentally individualist discourse which must therefore have individualist solutions, rather than a complex nexus of social conditions and discourses that we can describe and then fight against.

#ask

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stormgardenscurse · 11 months

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Scuse me! If possible, could I request the first years sneaking into a girls' sleepover that a female reader is attending, and they're disguised as girls? Please and thank you!

sleepover! — twst first years

Summary: First years sneak into a sleepover you're attending (other attendees are all girls). They’re just worried about you (and maybe were bored and thus made bad decisions), but maybe this time they bit off more than they could chew?

Characters: Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, Sebek

Note: I don’t specify the reader’s gender within the work. Due to the nature of the request it’s easily assumed that the reader is female—but really, you can imagine it as anything you’d like because I don’t use specific pronouns here!

Ace

No one’s sure who initiated this whole thing, but they can be sure that Ace was the most conflicted about this. On one hand, why was he going through so much trouble just to do something dumb and embarrass himself? On the other hand, they’ve heard… things from their classmates and senpais about how sleepovers can get sometimes, so of course they’re worried about you! (Read: said classmates and senpais talked about horror scenarios for the drama, not knowing they were applying it to a very real situation).

The moment Ace texted you to ask how long you’ve known those people, it was over for them all. How could you go to a sleepover with people you’ve only met like, twice?! Ace is swearing under his breath as he somehow finds himself at Sam’s shop, buying what looked like cosplay outfits and wigs, just to sneak in and make sure you’re fine.

…And maybe he’s doing this because a part of him is afraid you’ll ditch them for new friends, but no one has to know that. Ace covers this sentiment by talking—a lot—and being the one that makes excuses/fake stories while the girls at the sleepover ask them about themselves. Even making a remark about you and Ace, who they've identified (jokingly) as the type that's extroverted at first but only leans on a few friends:

“Despite loosening up now, Ace must not be used to large gatherings like these, huh? She keeps leaning toward you! I can tell you guys are close.”

He doesn’t do that normally, right…? Surely it’s because of nerves and how ridiculous this situation is. Yes, definitely.

Deuce

Deuce didn’t realize the obstacles of this plan until they all arrived at the sleepover; how does he blend in with girls - there’s no specific way, right? They’re just people— And then they start talking about their type in guys and Deuce can’t help but turn red at the idea that somehow, his thoughts just float to you.

He’s admittedly very interested in what answer you’d give (and a little hopeful that it gives him a little guidance in… Uh, nevermind.) And then it’s his turn, and somehow Deuce just blanks out and says that he’d like someone like you—not explicitly, but he ends up describing your traits and only notices later, when Ace’s answer is instead just flippant, that ‘oh, mine was too specific.’

The other girls there assign Deuce with the ‘sporty girl’ type of vibe, and while he’s flattered, he can’t help but get distracted by how your laughter catches him—it’s so clear and bright, Deuce wants to hear it again and again—but moments like these where you’re sparkling in his eyes are rare, and what Deuce doesn’t know is that it’s not your new friends that caused this, but just the memory of how the first years barged into the sleepover with a mission and ‘I’ve got you!’ written across their faces, despite how they’re completely out of their comfort zone.

Deuce in particular does look very cute in a high ponytail; it’d be a crime to not take some pictures together to commemorate the event. Just don’t show them to any of their senpais, alright?

Jack

Jack agreed to go in an attempt to make sure the others don’t end up doing something that derails the entire night for you - he’s pretty sure you could take care of yourself and know what you’re doing, but boys will be boys… And the last thing he’d want is for their sneaking-in to ruin the sleepover.

The long hair and crossdressing outfit is a little uncomfortable though. When you offer to help Jack tie his hair up, he doesn’t know why he starts to feel embarrassed at how your hands brush against the back of his neck, murmuring a little thanks to you.

He doesn’t talk much during the evening because of his voice, but Jack’s quite relieved at how smoothly the sleepover goes. He just doesn’t want to become a liability (you shouldn’t need to worry, just enjoy yourself!), so when he’s asked about his hobbies or interests, Jack answers that he likes to cultivate cacti.

There’s no reason to lie about such a thing, after all - but it surprises him when the other girls ask you if that’s why you wanted to take a detour to a flower shop the other day to get a beginner’s plant.

Unbeknownst to them, you’d actually wanted to try taking care of one and then gift it to Jack later on... So you improvise, saying that yes! It was Jack’s influence that made you want to try it out (still the truth, but without the detail of you wanting to offer it to him along with a proper confession… Maybe you'll need to rehash you plans to be more romantic.)

Epel

Please don’t point out how he could just enter the sleepover and probably not even need a disguise—Epel still had to apply makeup and dress up to blend in! Honestly speaking this idea seemed entirely ridiculous to him, but he got so caught up in the others’ determination and energy that he ended up here too.

Epel isn’t too happy about how you obviously find him cute in this getup, but he’s relieved from the pretense of acting like a shy, soft-spoken girl when you bring up that he really likes magic wheels!

“Epel looks so cool whenever she goes on a joyride, and she plays Magift too!”

“Really?! I never would’ve guessed! Now I’m starting to admire her too... I wish I could do all those things.”

…Okay, so maybe this isn’t so bad. Aside from pretending he’s a girl, Epel’s glad that the people here are really open-minded about hobbies. He even ends up agreeing to race one of them someday (they’re from another magic school, and one of the girls are quite good at flying).

Despite somehow becoming a favorite of the night, Epel doesn’t let you feel left out! He’s here for you first and foremost, and to him, you’re the main character of the day.

…Also, he wants you to be with him whenever he does show off how cool he is. Wowing everyone else fills him with pride, but there’s something he chases after in the way you smile at him - supportive and lingering with amusement at the inside jokes you share.

Sebek

To be honest, the fact that he agreed to do this in itself is really sweet—Sebek found the idea of joining the sleepover ridiculous, until the other guys started appealing about "what if the prefect ends up not enjoying it?” “What if they need our help?”

Ahem. While Sebek isn’t as worried about your socialization skills, he does worry a bit at the idea that you’re going to someone’s house when you haven’t known them for long. So for the sake of your safety (read: his peace of mind), Sebek agrees to go. Just to check on you and leave.

And then two hours pass and suddenly he’s sitting next to you at the sleepover, in what is honestly an embarrassing disguise (who decided to give him that fake bra?!), and trying not to lose his composure while he answers questions from conversation.

Despite all this though, Sebek does conduct himself with poise and the careful way he’s speaking (trying very hard not to be too loud, and really just sitting straight because it’s good practice plus he’s kinda nervous right now. Are girls always this touchy with each other? He can handle some pushing around, but you’re sitting awfully close to him right now!)

The question of celebrity crushes does appear though, and of course Sebek confidently replies that Malleus is the only right answer (slowly convincing some of the girls of Malleus’ appeal when he rambles about the prince) - but at the end of the day, he’s acutely paying attention to you and responds before you even have to ask for things; asking for the snack bowl and letting you take some before he does, placing a blanket over your shoulder when it starts to get cold—it’s cute when he doesn’t expect you to offer the same comforts to him, sharing the blanket and leaning against one-another while a movie plays on the TV.

#i was going to add ortho too (platonic) but it got too long haha #thank you for requesting/reading!#twisted wonderland #twst x reader #twst writing #twst x you #twst headcanons #twst imagines #twst reader insert #ace trappola x reader #deuce spade x reader #jack howl x reader #epel felmier x reader #sebek zigvolt x reader #storm writings

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soquimic · 1 year

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void state: tips, affirmations, my experience and motivation.

⚠️ i don’t want to sound “rude”, but i will be very straightforward with all that i’m adding to this post, i want to be a help, not only for you, but for me too. i have encountered my fails and mistakes while practicing the void, i want to address them all below to help people analyze and wake them up.

number one: the victim mentality.

you have probably wondered in any point of your journey: why aren’t my desires here? i am doing everything that i can and they still aren’t here.

you probably don’t notice the problem while you’re thinking like this, your mind got tricked into thinking IT IS like that, you have assumed this for so long that your mind only knows that fact and it won’t change unless you decide to flip the thoughts.

you are wondering.

you are NOT accepting.

the moment you notice that you’re looking for a result to say it’s been working, you will see that you’re doing everything wrong. you are NOT SEARCHING. your desire IS HERE. you just need to switch that mentality and accept it is yours. as soon as your thoughts align with your new mentality and beliefs, your life will go better and you will manifest faster.

number two: the limiting beliefs.

no. you didn’t have any limiting beliefs in the first place until someone started to point them out. you think that because something worked in the way it did to another person, it would be the same for you.

N O.

you can be literally sitting, doing nothing, just thinking OF SOMETHING, and it can easily manifest if you assume it will. you do not need to do what x person did, you do not need to have a strict mental diet, you do not have to saturate your mind to the point you’re drained. you do not need to impress anyone, you do not even have to impress yourself.

why not? because a god knows their power and if a god knows the power they hold, they know that everything is easy and they can do anything cause they are a creator. they want a chair to appear in front of their eyes? sure, they can make it appear. they want to be a leader in everything they do? sure, they are a leader. they want to materialize whatever thing they are thinking in that exact moment? a piece of cake.

the moment you embody the god mindset and you start acting as if, you will mock yourself for wasting all that time doing nothing but complaining and running here and there asking bloggers for advice when you don’t even need that, all you need is: believing in yourself and know your true power.

number three: procrastinating, doubts and wavering.

you don’t have to worry about the why, where and how. it’s obvious that is because you deserve that, if you are wanting something is because you know by fact that you deserve it. the time, the date, it doesn’t matter. it is yours. you are that person you are wishing to become. you have that dream body. you have that dream house. you have all that money.

instead of scrolling down through success stories and feel happy about other success, you should be applying all that you have learned from them and their posts. you are the only one who is capable to change their fate and reality, if you decided to sit down and do nothing, how are you gonna make progress? how are you gonna see changes? it’s contradictory when we say that you can manifest while doing nothing, but it’s not the same nothing KNOWING and ASSUMING it’s yours than nothing NOT APPLYING and POSTPONING your desired life.

i want you to ask yourself: what am i doing? what is stopping me? why haven’t i done progress? and answer those questions with total sincerity. if you think you can’t achieve it, you are stopping yourself and your mind and it won’t manifest. if you flip the thought: i can achieve everything as soon as i set the intention for it, i deserve every one of my desires.

stay loyal to your assumptions, don’t doubt them, what you assume is what you’re gonna get.

number three: the void state.

we really love the idea of getting anything in an instant, it makes us feel untouchable. wrong. it doesn’t make us feel untouchable, WE ARE untouchable.

if you are complaining and saying things like: i don’t know why i am not entering the void, i do everything, i meditate, i affirm but i can’t even feel symptoms.

N O.

stop right there. you are assuming it, every void experience is different even though people describe it as the same, of course IT IS the same feeling but every experience is seen in another point of view. there are some times where you won’t even notice that you’re in.

you need to assume you always get in easily, you need to believe that it is easy. BECAUSE IT IS. people overcomplicating something so simple as breathing and relaxing.

don’t let negative thoughts take over your assumptions, remember, all you have to do is stay still, relax yourself and affirm for it. you need to persist, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t feeling anything at all, you are getting in.

i also had my doubts with it, i would try every day but i noticed how obsessed i was with it that i had to take a break from it and returned again with new assumptions and i have got in twice, the problem is that i fall asleep.

a tip from me if you’re struggling with this deep sleep at night just right after you start meditating: drink coffee throughout the day, start earlier (1 hour before the hour that you usually nap) or have a little nap in the afternoon. it will sure help you a ton. my concept is alright but what’s stopping me from focusing is that damn sleepy feeling.

if some day you’re feeling guilty, remember: that is what you want, why do you want it? cause you deserve it. nobody or nothing can change that fact. it’s yours.

if you still struggle with the void after all, i have some personal affirmations that now won’t be that personal cause i’ll be sharing them with you:

i am the void.

i enter the void whenever i want.

the void is so easy for me to enter.

as soon as i think of the void, i get in.

no matter what, i’m always in the void.

i enter the void easy and effortlessly.

i deserve everything that i desire.

i can’t be behind it if i am the void.

every night i enter the void.

i always wake up in the void.

i love how easy it is for me to enter the void.

i don’t need to worship the state because i am the void and the creator.

i know the void is within me and i can dominate it.

i am a master at the void state.

they could never dominate the void like i do.

i get into the void instantly.

remember that nothing is impossible.

the only thing that is impossible is what you make your mind believe is impossible. you’re a creator, you’re deserving of everything and you have your desires.

#law of assumption #affirm and persist #affirmations #manifestation #success story #void state #void success stories

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adickaboutspoons · 7 months

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Tea Soup and Sympathy

There’s already been plenty going around fandom about the significance of soup this season, so I’ll just condense soup discourse down and summarize that it’s about love and nourishment. But sometimes, soup is not real soup.

When we first meet Zheng Yi Sao, she is posing as Susan the Soup Merchant. But before the end of the episode, it’s revealed that her soup-slinging ways are all artifice.

And just as soup is love, this Yi Sao’s soup-slinging pretense is indicative of the fact that she uses the semblance of sympathy to manipulate people to her own ends. Let’s look at the case study of her interaction with John Bartholomew: Having successfully sacked his ship, she gets news that he wants to shoot himself, but only with the captain that bested him watching. Yi Sao attends the cabin of of the clearly panicking John with Stede and Olu in tow, and lets John show his ass with his inground racist and misogynistic assumptions; with him first identifying the white guy as the captain, then the MOC, and finally the WOC. In spite of the insult, Yi Sao meets him with the contrivance of compassion to give validation his heightened emotionally volatile state, acknowledgement of the cultural assumptions that are making this a particularly difficult defeat for him to accept, but also plays INTO his misogyny by suggesting that if he follows through with killing himself that his final deed in life with be the (implicitly shameful) act of surrendering to a woman.

Once she has gotten him to a place where he feels like someone is listening to him AND understanding where he’s coming from, and shamed out of taking his own life, she applies the social lubricant to foster that warm, fuzzy feeling of camaraderie by suggesting they have drinks.

Pay close attention to the language she’s using when she’s talking John around. After John complains that he’s just trying to feed his crew, and maybe make a little extra money on the side, Yi Sao jumps in with more affirming statements to demonstrate that she understands and appreciates the obstacles he’s facing in obtaining his goals, and concludes with a restatement of his thesis:

“Sure, but they won’t let you. The Spanish, the Dutch, the fucking English! Everyone is cracking down on the little guy! Like, hello! How’s a pirate supposed to make a living?”

Having established that she understands where he’s coming from, she starts the bridge-building portion of her agenda; inviting him to identify with her because of common interests, but simultaneously downplaying her authority, AND using a rhetorical question to which he can easily agree in order to prime him to continue agreeing with her further down the line:

“I don’t speak for everyone, but I didn’t get into this business to fight other pirates, did you?”

She’s also using neurolinguistic programming: all the while that she’s talking to him, she’s reaching her hand out to him - a gesture that mimics the way she is metaphorically reaching out to him, and inviting him to reach back. She then floats a hypothetical that ALSO is easy to say “yes” to, but posing it as a question rather than an order to encourage him to buy into the idea rather than just submit to it:

“What if we could all work together, support each other?”

From here, she plays coy - feigning reticence to float an idea as though it’s TOO audacious, and employing a little false modesty, suggesting her idea is stupid, to not only, once again, play into John’s misogynistic zeitgeist, but to allow him to feel that, when she DOES give voice to her ultimate plan, he can feel like HE won one over on HER by enticing it out of her.

“I don’t know… be, um…Oh! Forget it! It’s stupid. What if… What if we could be partners?”

And that, ladies, gentlemen, and those betwixt and beyond, is how you get someone to cheerfully buy into their own subjugation in the coming invasion.

And make no mistake - invading and conquering the Caribbean IS what Yi Sao is after. She's not looking for partners - she's looking for subordinates. She’s very clear about that with Stede back aboard the Red Flag.

Her soupy subterfuge in the Republic of Pirates was a reconnaissance mission to scope and get info on the local talent in order to try and get them to either join her or die. But she’s not picky either way. Her red flag fleet is already making its way over land at the isthmus of Panama. This IS going to happen. So are you on-board or not?

“Okay,” I hear you say (or not. I don’t know you well enough to put words in your mouth), “but she’s really nice to her crew, providing them with gentle exercise and kind words and soup that, according to all the Caribbean pirates who taste it, is so good it might be the best thing they’ve ever tasted. What makes you think it’s manipulation and artifice, and not the real thing. Maybe she’s just actually compassionate, but her compassion has its limits - the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove, as it were?”

Because we’ve already seen this behavior before. Using alcohol to lower inhibitions, using both shame and sympathy to motivate participation, using neurolinguistic programming to let the other party think that THEY’RE the one driving the action, and even being calculatedly withholding to make people think they’ve won something when they extract it from you:

That’s right. It’s Calico Jack, the master manipulator (RIP, asshole) all over again. But whereas Jack leaned further on the typically masculine end of the shame-to-sympathy scale with bullying and establishing himself as a subject matter expert, Yi Sao is coming at it from a decidedly more typically feminine place, encouraging self-identification and downplaying her strengths and contributions. But Yi Sao also ups the game transforming into what the other person needs her to be to close the deal. With Jackie the bossbitch businesswoman, Yi Sao is the Money Bitch. With John Bartholomew the prototypical pirate drowning in toxic masculinity, she’s a feminine fount of sympathy and understanding who, gosh, just CAN’T be sure that her silly little ideas are any good unless a big, strong man affirms that for her. And with Stede, she’s a girl-friend who has BEEN THERE and wants to dish about his toxic ex and all the complicated feelings about that.

So when we hear:

It should immediately throw red flags, both for us AND Stede. He was THERE when she used this voice with John Bartholomew. There might not be any liquor, but she KNOWS that Stede has said that he encourages this kind of “talking it through” behavior, so she doesn’t need to get him to buy into it first. Instead, she launches directly into the same kind of tactics she employed before. She hears Stede say “[The crew] couldn’t keep living like that. Ed can be quite troubled.” Out come the affirming statements to demonstrate that she understands where he’s coming from, and restatement of his thesis: “You must feel so weird. Like you’re glad he’s alive, but then he did all this evil shit to your friends?”

Then on to bridge-building (literally and figuratively - look how she reaches out to clasp him on the shoulder) to invite identifying with her: “I’ve dated my fair share of guys on ‘Wanted’ posters.They’re hot.”

She doesn’t bother with downplaying her authority, because Stede has just confessed to being a novice in terms of romance, but she is so calculated with her wording, floating a scenario that invites Stede to come up with a solution for: “But it always ends in a massacre and then the wrong people get hurt.”

So when she “caves” to his suggestion of “Maybe we could avoid that happening here?” with “I AM feeling a little merciful today,” it begs the question:

What, exactly, was going to be the price of this “mercy” if Auntie hadn’t interrupted?

So Roach isn’t wrong when he praises the soup they get aboard the Red Flag as “Beautiful, complicated, and balanced.” It IS a complicated act, an artfully balanced deception, and beautiful in its artifice. It HAS to look better and more enticing than the real thing. Because it will never give you the actual nourishment you need.

#ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd s2e3 #ofmd s1e2 #ofmd s2e1 #ofmd #our flag means death #my modest contribution to fandom

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dilfsonic · 8 months

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Okay so, unpopular take that applies specifically to my Service Animal AU: Shadow and Maria are not siblings/“sibling coded.”

If you’ve read the notes on the original lore post describing them, you probably already know what I mean. While they can and will have moments of inspired ‘sibling’ like love for each other, that’s simply too disingenuous a way to describe them. They’re so much more. They’re each other’s only friend, they’re charge and ward, they can mimic the attitudes of siblings but never fully understand them, they have no romantic interests (until sonic shows up) and so mimic certain attitudes in that way with each other as well. But all of these are mere approximations and mimicry without fully encompassing any of those relationships. Shadow’s “affections” can be easily misconstrued for holding more weight than they actually are intended, as gestures such as hand holding/cuddling/purring are all utilitarian expressions meant to ease Maria’s physical discomfort or anxiety in accordance to his job as her service animal. Nothing more, nothing less. Maria knows this, but others can and do easily make their own assumptions.

I’ve been a little nervous to express this interpretation as I feel it can be really easily misunderstood, and I don’t want to give people the idea that even the immensely “”romantic”” or affectionate gestures or affiliations applied to them are actually meant to be shippy. Their love is an all encompassing one, and to call it sibling-like or romantic are both incorrect, as they’re neither. Ultimately applying any real world label to this au will be incorrect and a little too extreme in either direction; the closest possible relationship that may most accurately describe them is that between a service dog and their owner, if such a service dog was as intellectually capable of their human.

They’re what you get when you’re the only two people in your whole world. They’re what you get when you pair together someone who’s indebted to the other for their existence, which goes both ways. And by normal relationship standards, I would disagree to consider it a ‘healthy’ dynamic, but it also cannot be judged by the milestones of what a normal and healthy dynamic even looks like.

Shadow is nothing without her (in his own mind), and this lends itself to an inability to conceptualize a ‘self’ to even express. Maria hates how Shadow views himself — a tool, a trained dog, a guard, a companion of necessity — but she also can’t avoid using him accordingly. That means having no choice but to treat him not as a person, but as her crutch. Shadow is little aware of her internal struggle with the dehumanization of him because they communicate this almost never. Nor does he mind being dehumanized, he has never been a ‘person’ since the day he was created anyway.

Maria would love nothing more than to call Shadow a little brother, her best friend, someone who she could’ve had take her to prom because nobody at her school wanted to indulge the sickly child, nor did anyone even know her well enough considering she spent most of her time out of school than in it. She’d love to call Shadow these normal things, but she can’t. Not yet at least. Sonic will slowly change them and the way they can view friendship and the world and what it means to belong to each other, but it’s hard work on Shadow and Maria’s part.

They are something that can’t be easily defined, because it’s complex, and messy, and while there are bright moments of wonder and joy, is also overwhelmingly dark in its implications, and they can feel utterly alone even when standing right next to each other. Shadow owes Maria everything, and Maria owes Shadow everything, but each underestimates the full gravity of how their own existence touches and expands the other. They consider themselves worthless compared to the other, and that’s what gets in the way of them truly being able to open their hearts to each other. The way Sonic later teaches them HOW to open their hearts.

So yeah. I hope this concept of blurring the lines doesn’t scare too many folks, but this is based on my personal interpretation of how I feel a continued existence between them in canon or a canon adjacent world might have been like. I know it’s easy and delightful to see em like wholesome siblings — which is also an interpretation I wholeheartedly endorse and adore, particularly the way my bud @ratrrriot draws them (please go follow them if you don’t already, their shadow and maria artwork is to die for!) — but this is just a slightly different and admittedly darker take on them that I hope won’t ruffle too many feathers. Sibling coded relationships between characters are so wonderful, but in this case doesn’t feel satisfying or like it can possibly cover the scope of them for this particular au. I dislike labeling them or comparing them to another dynamic, like Sonic and Tails who are very explicitly brotherly with one another.

I may make a separate post on Sonic’s impact in this world and how he touches the lives of Shadow and Maria, Helen (when she comes along), and this world’s version of Robotnik (Julian) if people are interested in that. I take a lot of inspiration from his characterization in the Adventure games and Sonic X for this AU, as he’s most closely canon-aligned compared to Shadow and Maria who are a little different; though I’m gonna try my best to fit their “canon” personalities into a completely different scenario. Such as, Shadow lacks the innate hatred he has for mankind as he never loses Maria, but he will retain the “my body is a tool” mentality and the general uncaring of others opinions of him, etc.

#I would love to hear thoughts so long as they’re civil #I have a playlist for them but I’ve been waffling on whether to share it or not #ultimately this is a Sonadow au as much as it’s an exploration of shadow and Maria’s peculiar relationship here #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #Maria Robotnik #service animal au #my post

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taizi · 8 months

Note

A lot of people have brought up this idea about devil fruit users inheriting memories from the previous user. It's mostly used with Ace and Sabo, I haven't seen this idea with any other devil fruit pair but everytime I think of that idea all I can think of is Sabo having dreams about what Ace and Luffy went through after Sabo "died", specifically the "Ace didn't protect Luffy when a bear mauled him and Luffy almost died causing Ace to have a breakdown" incident.

read on ao3

It was raining. Sabo was running through the dark. He was very small, the size of a child. Dark hanks of coarse hair blew across his face, getting into his eyes. His skin was brown, not pale. His chest was heaving, and the path in front of him felt longer and harder than it rightly should, and his limbs were burning with exertion. He was carrying something. Someone.

“I’m sorry,” he panted. It was his mouth, his throat, but it wasn’t his voice. That was his brother’s voice, his twin. Utterly familiar in all ways, after all this time—even now, when it was so throttled with fear it hardly sounded like Ace at all. “I’m so sorry, Luffy, it’s all my fault,” he said again.

Luffy, Sabo realized. The person they were carrying was Luffy.

He looked down. Suddenly he could feel the oily slide of blood on his hands. The obscene warmth of it all down his front. Luffy’s face was cradled in the crook of his shoulder, so Sabo could feel the faint puff of his breaths, but they were shallow and slow, like each one was halfway certain it would be the last.

“Hang on, Lu, hang on,” Sabo-as-Ace begged. “I’ll let you beat me up as soon as you get better. But you have to hang on, okay? Don’t go anywhere without me.”

His voice was hoarse, breath coming in great gulping sobs. The jungle was too big. The storm was too loud. Luffy was so small, but Ace was small, too. He didn’t feel big enough to be the one carrying him, he wasn’t big enough to raise this kid all on his own. He wasn’t enough, could never be enough. He was so afraid. His arms were so tired. Luffy was so heavy.

But he didn’t stop. Even when his lungs were burning, and every breath hurt. Even when the trail darted upwards over the hill, and Ace had to clutch Luffy to his chest in one arm and use the other to half-crawl, half-claw his way up through the mud, he didn’t stop.

He ran every step of the way back to Dadan’s country, and sobbed for help, and kept sobbing long after help arrived like a dam had broken somewhere inside him and he didn’t know how to stop the flood from pouring out.

Sabo’s eyes flew open, still wet and stinging, a trail of tears down his temples dampening his hair.

It’s an old wives’ tale. A sailor’s superstition. The sort of thing that isn’t taken seriously and that no one really believes, except no one disbelieves it, either.

A respawned fruit, they say, remembers the body before. It retains an echo of its user.

Sabo didn’t put much stock in those stories, because there was no reliable way to study the phenomenon without a significant amount of murder, and also because it didn’t really apply to him besides. He had a million other things on his mind, an army to babysit, and no plans of becoming a Fruit user in the first place.

The universe sure loves to laugh at him.

It takes a while for Sabo to be sure of what he’s experiencing. The dream of the bear attack was frightening and unsettling, but it could have easily just been a bad dream. He brought it up to Koala once, asked if she’d ever dreamed from someone else’s eyes before, and she launched immediately into an animated retelling of a dream she’d had from the perspective of a lobster. Which was not exactly the same thing at all, but close enough that some of Sabo’s worries were soothed.

“Dreams are weird,” Koala surmised wisely, and then reached across the table to steal his food.

But after that, it continues to happen. When Sabo dreams, he dreams of Mount Colubo. Brief snatches of sun-filled days that he doesn’t remember, that he wasn’t around for. He sees it all from Ace’s perspective, looking out of his twin’s face at his view of the world, at all the things he saw.

He wants to cling to the dreams like a miser hoarding gold. He wants to keep them, but in the pack of his mind he’s still half-convinced that it’s his subconscious trying to make him feel closer to the brothers he’d left behind.

“Hey, Lu,” Sabo says one day, slipping it into conversation as casually as he knows how. “Back on Dawn Island, did you ever have a pet?”

The snailphone laughs, a bright, noisy sound that fills the room. It makes Sabo smile without fail every time.

“I did!” his brother exclaims.

From his end of the transmission, there’s a clatter of voices in the background, something busy and chaotic going on behind him. Luffy doesn’t ever take his calls in private, because the idea has probably never occurred to him, and generally wherever he goes, at least three or four of his nakama aren’t far behind. It sounds like something’s on fire, if the panicked screeching is anything to go by. Calling the Sunny always makes Sabo’s life feel peaceful in comparison.

But Luffy is unconcerned as he goes on, “Her name was Roly-poly!”

It lands in Sabo’s ears like a clap of thunder.

Roly-poly was the tiny peccary he’d dreamed about three nights ago. Her mother had been caught in a trap and she was the last of all her siblings to survive in the wilderness alone. Luffy had stumbled upon her while foraging for mushrooms and, after coming to the conclusion that she was too small to eat, picked her up and held her out to Ace.

“We can’t eat that!” the older boy snapped. “It’s mostly fur and bones!”

“I know, duh! We just have to wait for it to get bigger, then we can eat it.”

Luffy’s baby seal eyes were no less effective at nine years old than they were at six. Ace had rolled his eyes heavenward. He didn’t say it out loud, but Sabo was watching this scene from inside his head, so he heard Ace think loud and clear, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here, ‘Bo. I bet you’d be laughing at me right now.

“Fine,” Ace said, capitulating the way anyone who knew him could have guessed he would from the very beginning, “fine! But don’t you dare name it or you’ll get attached!”

Of course, that had only lasted about three hours. They were both attached by the end of the night, and Roly-poly rampaged around with them every day and cuddled in their treehouse every night for all six long years of her little pig life.

“She was my best friend,” Luffy adds, the snailphone’s eyes squinting with the force of its smile.

“Oh yeah?” Sabo says, feeling oddly like he’s about to burst into tears. “Tell me about her.”

He never hurries Luffy off the phone, content to let every conversation last as long as possible. He once rather famously stopped mid-fight to answer his baby snailphone, holding a Marine to the ground with the butt of his pipe pressed against the man’s throat and listening attentively to his brother describe in great detail the latest island he and his insane crew had sunk into the sea and the impenetrable fortress they’d stormed just for fun. It was a ceasefire that lasted nearly twenty minutes, and the Revolutionaries were just as incredulous as the soldiers were by the time Sabo bade Luffy a cheerful goodbye.

Koala and Hack might let him live that down someday, but Sabo isn’t holding his breath.

“How did you know about Roly?” Luffy asks suddenly. “I haven’t talked about her to anybody.”

Sabo presses the heels of his hands into his eyes and breathes for just a second. He won’t ever lie to Luffy, but the thought of trying to put these experiences into words makes him feel like he’s swallowed broken glass. It hurts all the way down.

So he says, “I’ll tell you later.”

It isn’t every night, and it isn’t always a memory laid out like a story with a defined beginning and end. Sometimes it’s brief snatches, half a dozen mundane little moments that wouldn’t stand out as meaningful or important next to all the other things Ace lived through. But it’s those memories that Sabo clings to the hardest.

Sabo dreams of Ace raising himself at the same time he’s raising Luffy, and all the shenanigans and heartaches and adventures that come with boyhood shared between them. Luffy grew like a weed, or one of those absurdly large tropical flowers you can find along Dawn Island’s coast, and even a complete stranger would have been able to take one look at him and rightly guess that he was somebody’s pride and joy.

Sabo dreams of the day Ace turned seventeen, standing alone at sea in a little boat and tipping his hat out of his eyes so that the last thing he sees is his brother. The memory contains the knowledge of the night before, Luffy’s puffy red eyes and tearful go be free, but make sure I can find you again, okay? and how close Ace came to rethinking their promise, overhauling the whole arrangement, holding out a few more years until this kid—his kid—was ready to tag along.

But on the day of the departure, Luffy is beaming at Ace without a shadow of worry or doubt, holding Roly-poly up so she can see him, too. They would miss each other, but only for a little while.

“Sabo!” Ace had cried, voice carrying across the water, a reverberation of anticipation and eagerness and wistfulness and joy. “Watch me!”

Sabo dreams of finding his fruit by chance and splitting it with the man who would become his right hand, of the fire that coiled inside his blood and bones and never let him feel cold again. Forming the Spades, meeting Shanks on a snowy mountain, being folded stubbornly and affectionately into the Whitebeard crew. He dreams of betrayal and Thatch’s blood on his hands and scouring the seas for the man who tore a hole into his family.

Sabo dreams of meeting Luffy’s crew in Alabasta, the ragtag little group of rookies on a cute caravel too small to survive the New World but just big enough to carry all their dreams until then. To an outsider, the crew is a mess, and there’s no real sense of leadership or structure to be seen at a glance. They’re a collection of extreme personalities constantly at odds with each other, with no cohesive goal.

But Ace’s memory as it slides into Sabo’s mind is washed with relief. Luffy found good people—of course he did. He attracts goodness the way light attracts moths. Ace tosses Luffy the Vivre Card, says, So you can find me again. If Luffy remembers being fourteen years old and tearful and asking his brother for that specific promise before he went away, it doesn’t show on his face. They say goodbye for a second time, but it’s never meant to be forever.

Sabo dreams of a young man with curling orange horns poking out of a wild mane of white hair, shackles on his wrists and a fire in his eyes that his imprisonment hadn’t managed to snuff out. The closest Ace ever came to falling in love, the potential of it a warm secret in the farthest corner of his heart. He’s certain they’ll meet again.

Sabo dreams of Blackbeard, that evil, disgusting excuse for a man, one that Ace used to consider family. He killed Thatch for that stupid fruit when he could have just asked. Then, beneath the rage and hatred that makes Ace feel like he’s ten years old all over again, never having learned how to love in the first place, there’s a sudden stab of icy terror. Because Blackbeard needs a bounty to present to the Marines and he wants Straw Hat Luffy.

Conviction calms the biting, snarling creature Ace’s heart had become. He would die before he let anyone hurt his little brother.

Sabo dreams of Marineford.

He shoots out of the chair he’d nodded off in, chest heaving for breath that isn’t coming. He’s alone on this mission and there’s no one there to help him make sense of the riot in his head and his heart.

With shaking hands, he packs away his things and sprints down to the harbor. Pick-up isn’t for another two days, so without a vessel of his own, Sabo steals a small cutter. He sails out of the bay at full-speed, a fistful of flames aimed behind him to propel him like a rocket, faster, faster, faster.

He’s trembling, the memory like a brand behind his eyes. The very last one. Luffy’s tear-stained face, bloodied hands, his childish, frightened, “Ace?”

Then a slow, creeping darkness. The absence of warmth as a fire went out.

Sabo sails straight through dusk and well into the night. Robin and Nami are good about keeping him updated on their whereabouts, just in case. He feels like he’s going insane, so he tries to keep his mind empty, focus only on the sea and the way ahead of him. Ignore the dark. Ignore the cold.

The Thousand Sunny is heaving-to, headsail backed and rudder locked, her course a sleepy, non-urgent thing. Whoever is on night watch must see Sabo coming from miles away, lit up as he is like a torch on the open water, because there’s a few people waiting for him on deck. Familiar faces peer over the rail at him, curious and concerned. Robin’s arms bloom along the hull, lashing Sabo’s stolen cutter safely to Sunny’s side.

He doesn’t wait for a rope ladder—jumps as far as he can, digs his hands into the worn grooves of the hull, and climbs the rest of the way.

He feels stricken, he feels raw and hurt, and it must show on his face.

Zoro speaks before anyone else can.

“He’s in the bunk room,” he says at length, dark eye steady and unfailingly loyal and seeing more than most people with both eyes ever could. “You know the way.”

“Thanks,” Sabo says, or thinks he says, and cuts across the grassy deck without another word. It takes all the willpower he has not to run. That would be stupid. There’s no reason to worry them anymore than he already has.

It’s been a long, long time since he was a child running for comfort after a bad dream. In the morning, he’ll feel really stupid. But for now, his heart is breaking, and he can hardly hold it together. He needs more hands.

Half the bunk beds in the crew’s quarters are occupied, but he picks Luffy out right away. And maybe it’s the leftover dregs of those memories that aren’t really his, that don’t actually belong to him, but Sabo doesn’t hesitate to shuck off his boots and coat and crawl into the bunk beside his brother.

Luffy’s face scrunches up the way it always does when he doesn’t want to wake up yet, but his body moves automatically to share the space. It’s how he grew up, Sabo thinks with equal parts affection and grief. Sharing space. Making room. Ace is the one who carved out a place for them in the world, but Luffy is the one who filled it.

Don’t go anywhere without me.

Make sure I can find you again.

“Sabo?” Luffy mumbles, half-dreaming. “You’re here?”

It takes him a minute to answer, because he’s wrestling with the pain. Trying to force it down into something he can live through. It keeps spilling out of his grip, the pressure building until it’s unbearable.

With every second, his failure mounts. Luffy’s eyes open, stark brown and wide awake.

“He promised,” Sabo finally says, only it’s more of a sob. “He promised he wouldn’t die.”

Luffy’s skinny arms slip around him, and he buries his face against the top of Sabo’s head, and it’s exactly like the way Ace used to hold Luffy when he was hurting. From Ace’s perspective, as Sabo had seen firsthand, he was floundering, desperate to make it better but unsure of what to do. From Luffy’s perspective, Sabo realizes now, as the one being held this time, it was the safest and warmest place to be in the whole world.

The farthest corners of sky are turning gray with the promise of dawn, the stars and the moon pale and faint overhead. In the kitchen, worried voices murmur over the sounds of the stovetop, the beginnings of a hearty, comforting breakfast coming together. A familiar song on an old violin drifts like a lullaby through all the rooms, reaching every ear.

In the crew’s quarters, it’s dark and warm, and someone has draped another quilt over the two bodies in Luffy’s bed. It smells faintly of oranges and each stitch feels like love.

He looks down at himself, crammed into a bunk that would have been a tight fit even before he decided to share it. His hair is a haphazard mess, and his face is pale and tacky with tears, and his hands are clutching tight to the back of his little brother’s shirt.

Luffy, who could sleep comfortably anywhere he dropped, is out like a light. His face is slack and untroubled in his sleep, even as squished as he is. His hands are curled into fists in Sabo’s shirt, too.

It’s like going back in time. He thinks of those cold, blustery nights in their treehouse when the weather started to turn and they hadn’t scavenged for coats and blankets yet, little kids clinging stubbornly to the tail-end of summer. Even before the Fire Fruit, Ace put out heat like a furnace, and he always complained about Sabo and Luffy piling on top of him, but he never pushed them away.

The jungle was their playground, huge and wild and stretching on forever, and it’s where they built their house. Walls made of scavenged parts and put together by their own clumsy, unlearned hands, a tiny pocket overlooked by everyone else. It creaked, and leaked, and let all the cold in, but it was where they lived.

It’s the first place he thinks of when he thinks of home. It always will be.

He reaches out and pushes Luffy’s hair away from his face. Luffy turns his head in his sleep, pressing into the familiar touch without waking. He doesn’t know how Luffy carries the weight of everything he’s seen without breaking underneath it, where he learned that raw, stubborn strength from, but he’s glad. He’s proud. Luffy will be the best of them all.

He moves on, regarding the sight of himself with wistfulness and fond exasperation. It should have been very strange to look down at his own face but he only sighs. His hand is rich brown against the pale golden hair as he tugs gently on a frizzy blond curl. Warm, the way he’s always been warm, always letting his annoying brothers crowd in close to him against the cold.

“Who’s the crybaby now?” he says, in Ace’s voice.

Sabo wakes up to the pale light of dawn streaming through the porthole. Luffy has moved around in his sleep, sprawled on top of Sabo now in the boneless, drooping way his rubber body sprawls. Sabo maneuvers an arm out from under him and works out the pins and needles.

He isn’t sure what woke him. But the heartache he fell asleep with isn’t so heavy anymore. It feels like someone halved his pain and took their share of it away.

Luffy stirs, called to life by the sunlight on his face, and stretches out his lanky limbs like an overgrown cat.

“Morning, ‘Bo,” he mumbles. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Sabo replies honestly. “I think I had a good dream.”

#one piece #opfic #revolutionary sabo #monkey d luffy #asl brothers #my writing #prompt #op #asl bros #anonymous

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goodtoyous · 10 months

Text

The Trouble With Tagging

Tagging in fandom is useful, but ultimately detrimental because of how people are using it.

When I shop online for shoes, tagging is what lets me filter my view to white sneakers in size 7.5. But there are other attributes I look for in shoes. Maybe I want shoes with widely-spaced holes so they aren’t too tight when I lace them. Maybe I want to buy soles that aren’t too thick because I think that makes them clunky. And there will be other people who have these preferences too, so that must mean they’re useful classifications to have!

So it should be in a company’s best interest to provide me a way to find white sneakers in size 7.5 with widely-spaced holes, thinner soles, and whatever else I want in my shoes. Because otherwise it’s just a waste of time for me to buy something and return it later when I don’t like it, right?

No. Absolutely not.

I can’t ask for all the shoes that aren’t red to be tagged as #Not Red. I can’t ask for all shoes to be tagged #Loose Around the Ankles, when that isn’t a universal metric. The best way for me to find the shoes I want, and maybe this is still somehow controversial but I can’t imagine how, is to go into the store MYSELF and either try on shoes until I find ones I like, or ask a salesperson to help me.

Yet, somehow, people fail to see how this applies to tagging.

Back in the days of cable television, when a show was about to start, you’d see a rating and a content warning. ‘Viewer discretion is advised’, and maybe a few more words on what kind of content to expect: crude language, sexual situations, or graphic violence. We still use variations of those ratings and contents warnings on AO3 today, and they are very useful, standardized indicators.

Writers would use these indicators, and it was understood certain ratings would contain adult topics. There was nuance there, and room for interpretation, and responsibility on the reader’s side for monitoring their own content consumption.

In fandom, we coined our own terms to help enforce the idea that fanfiction was a free space for everyone to write what they wanted. ‘Don’t like; don’t read’ (DL;DR) is a common term that has perhaps become less common over the years, and has lost some of the meaning it used to have.

DL;DR does not mean ‘we, the writers, will warn for every topic that this work will include so you can avoid it’. What it meant was, if you read a story and came across something you didn’t like, you would stop reading. It did not have to be something triggering, it could just be something you didn’t like. You would hit the back button and that was the end of it.

Using tags became a way to include additional information on a story so that people could avoid certain topics more easily. So that back button didn’t need to be hit quite as often. Nowadays, I feel as though people have begun to see it as a requirement.

People will preach about wanting to avoid content they don't want, but you have always been able to do that from the very beginning. You always have the option to close the tab, to stop reading.

‘I wouldn’t have read this if I had known ___’ is a complaint most writers are not unfamiliar with. Readers complain about having wasted their time on stories that were ‘disappointing’, ‘problematic’, or ‘misleading’, simply because there is an aspect of a story they disagree with.

If a story doesn’t have ‘Unhappy Ending’ slapped on it, readers hold the author responsible for their emotional response. If one topic isn’t tagged, the author is somehow at fault for being ignorant, insensitive, or irresponsible.

It is grossly misleading to approach this by assuming authors are acting incorrectly, or possess malicious intent for not including a tag. Simplifying fiction by categorizing it into tags is exactly what that is, simplifying it. Maybe it isn’t tagged because it's a spoiler. Maybe the author didn't think it was an important aspect of the story. Maybe they just forgot!

If an author is mistagging and misrepresenting their work, that is a different story that is subject to different nuances. But it is not a requirement, unspoken or otherwise, to include a tag, because this isn’t how reading works! There is a reason why 'Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings' exists, and that is because tags are for an author to classify their own work how they see fit. It is their choice!

People have been trained by social media into not curating their own content; they let algorithms and FYPs do it for them, and when they see something they don't like, they blame it on the person who posted it.

"How dare anyone encroach on this public space with something I don't want to see!"

So I ask you this: does an author’s opinions and desires on how their work is presented not matter? Are authors shackled to public opinion irregardless of what they believe is most important about their own creation? Should creative control be fully relinquished because people who had nothing to do with a work's creative process believe they know better?

If your answer to that last question isn’t a firm, resounding NO, then you are admitting you feel more entitled to a creator’s work than the actual creator.

Society has evolved to no longer value art for being art, but value art only if it is able to conform to various labels for commodified consumption. Yet there is no faster way to kill true art than to try and cram it into a billion tiny little boxes.

Fiction is subjective. Tastes are subjective. Tagging is useful, but it isn’t everything. Take responsibility for the content you consume. Stop asking people to pick out your shoes for you, and go try some on for yourself.

#ao3 #writing #meta #fanfiction #fiction

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getcardedtarot · 8 months

Text

Manifestation PAC

Hello, lovelies! Today I have a PAC to help you on your manifestation journey.

If you would like to tip me or book a personal reading you can do so at my shop. My 10 card spread is currently reduced from $12 to $5.

My readings are for entertainment. Your choices are your own.

What can I do to accelerate the wish I’m manifesting? Page of Cups

Remain open to new ideas. Embrace inspiration, even if it comes from unexpected places. Stay consistent with your manifestation, don’t falter. What you want will come to you, you just need to continue working towards it.

How to avoid holding myself back? Queen of Pentacles

Don’t let yourself become sour if your desires aren’t manifesting quickly. Things come when they are meant to. Be especially careful of becoming jealous of others. Remain positive in order to attract more positivity to you. Remember the law of attraction. Keep an abundant mindset to attract abundance.

What can I do to be more aligned with opportunities coming my way? Two of Pentacles

Be flexible. Opportunities may not come from where or who you expect. Try to be adaptable and ready to pounce on opportunities when they present themselves. Make space for this new balance in your life. Don’t let yourself become overwhelmed by your manifestation or by the responsibilities in your life. Give them equal space.

What can I do to create space for my manifestation? Seven of Pentacles

Put in effort. Work consistently in your life and in your manifesting. The most effective manifestation comes not only from wanting and mentally attracting, but by working towards it every day. Stay motivated, your work will be rewarded!

What can I do to accelerate the wish I’m manifesting? Queen of Cups

Be kind and understanding with yourself. Don’t get frustrated with yourself if things aren’t happening as quickly, as easily, or in the way you thought they would. You are attracting your desires, and they will come to you when the time is right. Getting frustrated will only delay the process. Stay positive to attract positive outcomes quicker.

How to avoid holding myself back? Seven of Swords

Don’t try to sabotage others to get ahead. Be honest in your word and deed. Resourcefulness is good, but trickery is not. Protect yourself and your energy without stooping low. Lowering your energy will only attract negativity.

What can I do to be more aligned with opportunities coming my way? Ten of Cups

Positivity is the name of the game. Find happiness within yourself where you are, and positivity and abundance will flow to you. Try to find joy with your loved ones, don’t let yourself become isolated. And who knows? Maybe networking will open new opportunities for you.

What can I do to create space for my manifestation? Ten of Pentacles

Keep your end goal in mind as often as possible. Remember why you’re putting in the work. You’re building the foundation for your abundance. Think of how your loved ones will fit into your reality. Planning ahead for where people/things you love will fit in will help when the time comes.

What can I do to accelerate the wish I’m manifesting? Two of Cups

Find a balance in your life. Nothing should overtake anything else. Once you have achieved this balance, your desires will find harmony with the other aspects of your life. This will be imperative to usher in your wishes.

How to avoid holding myself back? Six of Pentacles

Avoid relying on others for your desires. Manifesting desires is not something someone else can give you. Be wary of anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. If someone offers to help you, or an opportunity should arise, check that there are no strings attached.

What can I do to be more aligned with opportunities coming my way? Three of Pentacles

Collaborate with like-minded people. Consult with others who are interested in manifestation. Look also at those who have achieved what you desire. What made them successful? How can you apply that to achieve your own success?

What can I do to create space for my manifestation? Four of Wands

Make sure that your life is stable enough to handle what you’re attracting. Welcome your desires in, make sure that there is a welcoming environment. Be that inside yourself, or in your immediate space. Cheerfully look forward to your desires coming to you.

#tarot #tarot readings #free tarot #free tarot readings #tarotblr #free readings #tarot reading #pac #pick a card #pick a card reading #pac reading #tarot pac #tumblr pick a pile #pick a pile #tarot pick a pile #pick a pile reading #tarot pick a picture #pick a picture #pick a picture reading

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olderthannetfic · 7 months

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729708592592306176/how-about-a-different-discourse-death-of-the

What this ask is missing, a bit, is that Death of the Author *does* mean that the author’s take on things is no more or less valid than anyone else’s. It’s about decentering authorial intent in analyses of media. Barthes is pretty clear and quite pointed about it in the original essay.

What bothers me about misuses of it and what I think this anon means to say is when people start decentering the actual *text*. The idea behind Death of the Author is also that the text stands alone. You don’t need to look at any extra shit to understand it. As you said, it was a response to a mode of analysis that obsessed over plumbing through author biographies.

The issue with what people do in fandom is they ignore the text. “I don’t like this element of canon, so it doesn’t exist.” (Which is different from arguing that it’s there but it sucks because of XYZ reasons, so I’m going to consciously ignore it in my fan works. This is when people just act like it isn’t there in the text in the first place.) “You have to take my bizarro world out-of-nowhere headcanon that is based on nothing except that I want it to be true, that I love this character and I wish they were XYZ therefore they are” and take it just as seriously as headcanons that actually engage with what’s in the show/video game/book/movie/whatever and use that as their basis (like building off something that is subtextual in the original work).

Granted we all do this to some degree, we all come to a text with our own biases and you can’t *always* easily separate those out, and that can affect, for instance, your interpretation of what the subtext is, but I think the irritating fandom behavior is when this kind of ignoring-the-text-to-substitute-your-own-reality is this very deliberate sort of laziness. The annoying thing in my current fandom is people who are fans of this one ship that they insist is the most progressive and other people just don’t see the scintillating “subtext” of because we are bigots or whatever, between two characters who don’t interact that much for two MCs and when they do it’s not at all shippy (but these characters both have very shippy subtext with different characters), but where these people think the ship *should* exist because of their identities. And their “evidence” for the ship is always gifsets taken way out of context and not including the dialogue that makes the non-shippy context for that scene very clear (including that it might actually be shippy for conflicting pairings). It’s like this bizarre version of “close reading” that strips out the largely context *deliberately* in order to make a particular conclusion seem more compelling than it actually is.

Anyway, all that ignoring-the-text stuff is STILL bad analysis per DOTA. Since the point of DOTA is to go based on the text, if you’re obscuring the text you’re kind of just installing yourself as a new author.

This is why DOTA doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It just means “authorial intent is just one interpretation that doesn’t have to matter.” It doesn’t mean other stuff we use in analysis doesn’t matter, and if anything the point is to make it even more text-centric than the older author-centric analyses were. People can still disagree about what the text says, of course, but they should both be going back to it in how they construct those arguments, and not, like those shippers, deliberately ignoring chunks of the text that weaken their arguments.

I don't think all of them are consciously throwing out actual canon, but they are often throwing out all context that would help evaluate subtext.

Like... if you're analyzing a Marvel movie, you might ignore what the director said in an interview, but you probably shouldn't entirely ignore the fact that it is a Marvel movie and apply assumptions that make sense for some arthouse film.

And, yes, if you're arguing for shippy subtext, even unintentional on the part of creators, "I like this ship because..." needs very little, but "This ship has more support than this other ship" requires going back to the actual text and looking at it in its totality.

There's a lot of faux-intellectualism around garbage like TJLC where people try to make themselves feel smart by using the language of close reading while having the media literacy of a bucket of rotting fish.

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artofpoeticjustice · 1 year

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Websites for authors

Hello, lovely people!

Sometimes it's not easy to find certain things. You search and somehow only a few know.

It took me a long time to find good websites, and today I'm sharing them with you.

Google Maps → Most people don’t know, but you are able to create your own map on Google. It’s a little complicated, that’s why I suggest you to google it – otherwise write me, and I’ll try to help you. It’s very helpful and if your story is based in this world, you can easily mark places or change them. I love it!

Canva.com → You need a Cover, but don’t know how to start? This site gives you the opportunity to use fonts, templates and much more. Sometimes it automatically offers you pictures from pixabay.com, which are free to use. If not, you can also visit this site and check out if a picture matches your wishes. Play with it and watch how you create your own book cover. (It offers even more than covers, but I’m not going to talk about it in this post.)

Familyecho.com → If you want to create a family tree without much work, this will help you. It’s a great site, and you can actually see how everyone is related.

Korrekturen.de → This is a German site, and I’m not sure, how good it is for English. BUT for German writers, this is almost a must-have. It’ll correct your writing prompts and help you to think more about your text. You just have to remember one thing: It only allows you to correct 1.5k words at a time. If your writing is longer, you have to copy and paste all the time (like me!).

Lanuagetool.org → This is the alternative for every other language (including German). You can apply it on your browser, download it, or just use it online.

Worldanvil.com → If you want to create a whole new world, this site will help you. I haven’t checked it out in detail till now, but I really like it. You can create a history of a world, an atlas, encyclopedia and areas and a map – it offers everything.

Nuclearsecrecy.com → If you’re writing a story, where a bomb is exploding, you can use this. You can select the type of bomb, and then you’ll see how much it will destroy. Great thing, if you’re going to write a dystopian story.

Mattbierbaum.github.io/zombies-usa/ → Another great site for zombie stories is this. I only found and used it for the USA, but I’m sure you can get it for other parts of the world as well. Here you can place a zombie and check how much time it’ll take till he comes to a certain place. Furthermore, you can simulate how fast he’ll spread the virus in a certain time. It’s a very interesting thing, and you can practically watch how quick the apocalypse will take down a country.

Oldmapsonline.org → If you are writing a story, which takes place in the past, this site might help you. You can check out old maps and furthermore, you can place them in today's world map and get an idea of how it used to be back then.

Tvtropes.org → You don’t know what kind of story you write? Well, there’s a name for everything. A list of tropes can be found here. Have fun and feel free to tell others what you’re writing.

Nanowrimo.org → I’m not such a fan of this site, BUT as a motivation it might help you to connect with other writers during the nanowrimo – the months in which writing is THE topic! You don’t upload anything there, but you talk to others and share your word counts!

Dafont.com → Most people are using the same font over and over. Sometimes a change in look, can motivate you so much! You can download every kind of font here, and almost everything is for free! (Remember the talk about covers? You can use those fonts for them.)

YouTube → Everybody knows it, but only a little people use it. You can create playlists and make a great soundtrack for your story.

Messletters.com → it’s a great site, if you need a different kind of writing and the page you’re writing only offers a few. You can copy them easily and use them. Furthermore, this site also has a lot of symbols. Check it out and see if it satisfies your aesthetic heart.

DeepL.com → if you require translations, use this one instead of Google translator. You can also upload PPTX data and much more.

Ko-Fi.com → if you want to sell stuff or just a tip from your readers, this site will help you. You can easily create an account and your readers can give you little money as a support.

Timeanddate.com → You want to know what kind of weather it was on a certain date at a certain place? This site will help you.

Hopefully this will help you. Have fun and follow me for more.

Justice. ♥

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dr-spencer-reids-queen · 7 months

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Masterpiece: Part One

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.5k

Summary: While giving a lecture with Spencer and Rossi, a man approaches you with information regarding five missing people. Can you save them in time?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

"Let us consider that we are all insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles..." - Mark Twain

Assisting Spencer and Rossi in a lecture to college students seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that you're actually here, you can tell some of them don't want to be listening to this. There are others who are genuinely interested in all of this, and those are the ones you're talking to. These students have an interest in criminal justice, and in order to be accepted into certain fields of the FBI, they have to know what they're going to be signing up for.

"Most of us have done extensive post-graduate work in areas such as abnormal psychology and sociology as well as intensive study of relative casework and existing literature, but that's after selection to the unit," Spencer says.

"First you have to be an agent," Rossi says, "work in the field, and that's what we're here to talk about. For that, the academics are wide open. For everyone in this room, once you graduate and regardless of your course study, you are eligible to apply to the FBI."

The classroom doors open and an older man with white hair walks in. The dread you feel from him is enough to make you sway from shock. He doesn't even look at you as he sits in the back of the classroom to listen in on this. Something isn't right with this man, and Rossi sees your reaction to this.

He nudges you and you snap out of it enough to look at him. He asks you with his eyes if you're okay, and you give him one nod. He knows something is bothering you, but he'll ask you about it once the lecture is done.

"What did you study?" a student asks Rossi.

"Criminal Justice, but sports appreciation was all full up at my community college."

"I hold Doctorates in chemistry, mathematics, and engineering as well as BAs in psychology and sociology," Spencer smiles proudly.

"I have doctorates in Criminal Justice with a sole focus on profiling and one in Psychology," you state.

Everyone seems shocked about you two, and you think it's because of how you look. You and Spencer are very young so it's shocking to hear how many doctorates and BAs you two have gotten over the years.

"How old are you?" one student asks Spencer.

"Uh, I'm twenty-seven. Last month, I turned twenty-seven. I'm--I'm also completing an additional BA in philosophy. Which reminds me that I have a joke." Rossi looks at him in a panic because he doesn't want Spencer to embarrass himself, but Spencer dismisses him. "How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

No one answers the question which can only mean they aren't interested in it, but Spencer decides to tell it anyway.

"Two. One to change the light bulb and one to observe how it symbolizes an incandescent beacon of subjectivity in a netherworld of cosmic nothingness."

Not a single person laughs at his joke, but you can't help but giggle into your hand. Spencer is just too cute, and any kind of joke he makes is funny to you. Spencer looks at you and then around the room nervously.

"Um, an existentialist would--"

"Okay," Rossi cuts him off, "before he does his quantum physics knock-knock joke, do we have any other questions about opportunities in the FBI?"

"Did you ever shoot anybody?"

It's a good thing this lecture is only an hour long. College kids are easily entertained if it has to do with gore. At the end of the lecture, you, Rossi, and Spencer leave to head back to Quantico. The hallways fill with students trying to get to their next class, and you have to push past them to keep up with the group.

"You do know we want them to actually join the Bureau? We want these kids to think it's a cool place to work," Rossi says.

"I understand that, yeah."

Sometimes, things go over Spencer's head and it's the cutest thing ever.

"Existentialism?"

"That was a funny joke. What do you mean?"

"Yeah, to Sigmund Freud."

"I thought your joke was hilarious," you grin and kiss his cheek as you're walking. "I love all your jokes, and I love you."

"I tell them I shouldn't--they keep on sending me here. I don't know why," Spencer shrugs.

"Because you're young."

You walk towards the stairs to get to the first floor, but the same man you saw in the classroom joins your group. Your smile is lost, and you grab Rossi's arm to let him know something isn't right. Rossi sees how pale your face is, but he doesn't know why you're like this.

"Dr. Reid? Wouldn't they sit in the dark and hope that the bulb decided to light again?"

"Excuse me?"

"An existentialist would never change the bulb. He would allow the darkness to exist."

"Yeah, that's pretty good," Spencer chuckles.

"I'm Professor Paul Rothschild. It was a brilliant presentation. Brilliant. You're a remarkably effective recruitment tool. The FBI is very lucky to have you."

"Thank you for saying that."

You really want to get away from this man, and as much as you try to rush Rossi and Spencer out of there, he keeps up.

"May I show you something?"

"Of course."

Paul takes out a manilla folder and hands it to Spencer, and you tap Rossi's arm urgently. You open your mouth to say something, but no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to speak. Inside the folder are pictures of people in distress. Some of them are of women, some are of hands as if the person tried to cover up a camera, and others are of pure fear.

"I don't understand. What are these?"

"Seven homicide victims."

"Homicide?" Rossi asks and looks at you.

"Seven women. The bodies have never been found. Not a fingernail, not a hair fiber. Acid is a very tidy way of disposing of something."

"Acid? Are you saying that you killed these women?"

"There is still time to save the others, though. Five more. In a bit less than nine hours, five other people are going to be dead. Unless you can find a way to save them."

Of course, Rossi calls the local police to have this man arrested and brought back to Quantico for questioning. After the police are called, Rossi gets Hotch on the phone to let him know what is heading his way. You knew something was wrong with this man from the beginning, but you couldn't get the words out.

Paul cooperates with the police as they escort him back to your car. Students watch as you pass by, but Paul isn't paying them any mind. In fact, the only people he's interested in talking to are Spencer and Rossi. He has not looked your way or spoken a word to you. Interesting, huh?

"I knew I felt something wrong," you whisper to Spencer just as Rossi got Hotch on the phone.

"Hey, Dave."

"Reid, Y/N, and I were just approached by some guy here with photos that he claims are seven women he killed. These pictures have all been manipulated in some way that you can't really see what they are."

"Did he say he killed them?"

"Yeah, seven women so far. There are five more live victims somewhere that we can save in nine hours."

"Is this guy for real, Dave? Or is a confessor wannabe?"

"I don't think so, Hotch. I got a hit off him, and Y/N was tipped off the second he entered the classroom. I'm bringing him in."

"Okay, what can I do?"

"I'm sending shots of the photos to Garcia to start looking over. I'll see you in about forty-five minutes." Paul is placed into the back of the car you drove here in, and Rossi turns to you and Spencer with a serious look on his face. "Do not forget a word he says the rest of the time we have him."

"What is happening?"

"I'd like to know."

You reach for the back door, but Spencer stops you from getting in the back with Paul. You don't question it when he opens the passenger door for you, and you slide inside without a word. He gets into the back since he doesn't know what Paul is capable of.

"So, you said you're a professor at Strayer?" Spencer asks.

"No."

"You didn't?"

"No."

"I mean, you did introduce yourself as Professor Rothschild, right?"

"Your degree in philosophy surprises me, Dr. Reid. It doesn't fit with mathematics and engineering."

"I kind of like it because there's no right or wrong answers."

"Without right or wrong, how would we recognize perfection?"

"Is this fun for you?" Rossi asks as he drives back to Quantico.

You're staring at Paul to get a read on him, but it's kind of hard to. He knows how to hide himself very well.

"It's quite a bit more complicated than that."

"What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Rossi glares at him through the rearview mirror.

"I read your books, David. You're not of the intellectual capacity to grasp what's going on here."

"If you're trying to piss me off, it's not gonna work. If you killed seven women without leaving a trace of evidence, why turn yourself in?"

"Imagine what the world would have missed if Da Vinci never showed his work."

Rossi gets to Quantico, but they don't give him a warm welcome. The entire bullpen is on alert, and you look at your team as soon as you walk through the glass doors. There is a news report on the big TV that everyone is watching.

"Earlier this morning, police were contacted and informed that Kaylee Robinson, who ran a daycare center out of her home, had been abducted along with four children. When a parent arrived at 9:30 this morning to drop off her child, she discovered the door had been opened."

"What's going on?" you ask.

"He said there were five more victims we could save, and now five people are missing," Hotch states.

"Are those the five more?"

"Are you pissed off yet, David?" Paul smirks.

Rossi has Paul escorted to an empty interrogation room, and you follow loosely behind them. As Rossi and Derek get him set up, you and Spencer watch them from the window. Paul must know that someone is watching behind the glass, but his only focus is Rossi.

"It's not your fault, you know. Your IQ is your IQ. It's not education, David, it's genetics."

"What's this?" Rossi asks about Paul's necklace.

You lean closer to the window to get a better look, but your view isn't the best one.

"I need to explain what a pendant is?"

"What does it mean?"

"Mean? It's just something I found at a fair," Paul shrugs.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you. You have the right to have an attorney present. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand your rights--"

"Genetics is the key to everything, David," Paul cuts Derek off. "If you're not born with the right--"

"Do you understand your rights?" Derek cuts him off.

"Perfectly. I can have a lawyer but no, thank you. Some games are just intended to be played by higher intellects."

"Harming a person weaker than you doesn't take any special ability."

"Neither does slamming your fist down on a table, but we all must do what we must do. Bring Dr. Reid back with you."

"I never have any normal fans," Spencer sighs.

"I'm your fan," you smile at him.

Spencer wraps an arm around your shoulders and kisses the side of your head. Derek and Rossi leave the room to let Paul stew for a while.

"This guy loves attention. He has a God complex. Sooner or later, he'll give up something important about Kaylee and the kids. Guys like him always do," Rossi says.

"Before he hurts them?"

"It's 1:45 pm. He said we had until 10:00 pm."

"We need a button to push."

"The seven original homicides could give us some leverage."

"He says we'll never find any evidence so he has nothing to worry about. He also made a point of saying there are no bodies and no physical evidence," you point out.

"We just have to show that a crime was committed. We can do that circumstantially."

"We need to identify the original seven women. Going back in there with names just might shake him up."

"How do we do that?" Spencer asks.

"Reverse profiling. We learn everything we can about him and his methods, and then profile it back to what kind of victim he would choose and from where."

This kind of case requires everyone to work together, so you all gather in the briefing room alone with Penelope to try and make sense of what is going on. As soon as she gets the pictures Rossi sent over, she gets to work trying to figure out who the women in the photographs are.

"I went through ViCAP. There are literally thousands of open missing women cases across the country."

"It's not the entire country, though. Kaylee was abducted at 9:30 this morning. He had time to take them somewhere, hide them, and make it to Fredericksburg two hours later. He'd need a place with a lot of privacy to hide five victims," Spencer says.

"He was late for the presentation," you say. "You know, it was more like two and a half hours after the abduction. He got there around noon, which puts him somewhere around that radius."

"Garcia, work up a map. We need the farthest point he could have taken Kaylee from Loretto and still gotten back to Fredericksburg by noon," Hotch says.

"It shouldn't be too hard."

"Alright, what do we know so far?" Rossi asks everyone. "He's obsessively neat and clean. He did research on Reid and me at least. He's abducted five people and then gets to a scheduled recruitment session at a specific time. That's extensive pre-planning."

"What my question is, why didn't he talk to me? He refused to even look my way much less acknowledge me. He was only focused on Rossi and Spencer."

"Maybe he's intimidated by women," Emily theorizes.

"Did you find anything in those pictures, Garcia?" Spencer asks.

"I can't even positively say they're dead."

"What about hair color?"

"All the ones that show hair, they appear to be brunettes. I'll start there. The only thing is that his prints didn't come up. He's not in any system. It's like he's a ghost."

"If he hasn't been fingerprinted, then he hasn't been arrested. Which also means he doesn't have a passport, driver's license, or been in the military."

"He's never been a teacher, either. You have to be fingerprinted to be a teacher," Spencer points out.

"So, he's a professor who doesn't teach? What kind of professor doesn't teach?"

"A researcher? Maybe someone on a grant. It would give him the time."

"There must be some sort of central grant database. I can't imagine the government just handing out money and not--" Penelope sees everyone staring at her, and she starts to type furiously. "I'll look into it."

"From past conversations, we know he's a narcissist and seemingly remorseless. We can eliminate a lot of these open missing persons cases if we could just figure out how he met them," you say.

"Jordan, contact the Loretto PD and get us an invitation to consult on the Kaylee Robinson case. Be nice to them. They don't have to let us. Then, you and Morgan go down there and find out what you can."

"Let's go."

Derek and Jordan leave the office to do what they're told while the rest of you stay put.

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

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ecoamerica · 24 days

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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perpetuelledaydreaming · 1 year

Text

18 | chapter twenty-one

summary: Honestly, you knew this was going to go horribly wrong.

warnings: violence.

listen to: You don’t own me - Saygrace & G-Eazy | Tainted love- Soft Cell | Little Freak - Harry Styles | Chasing Pavements - Adele (playlist here)

Please go look at the playlist, I revamped it all so you can read the chapters with the new songs and also maybe give your guesses of what's coming next given the songs?

word count: 3.1 k

series masterlist + read the next chapter early on my ko-fi!!

This was a bad idea.

It truly was an awfully bad idea and everyone had told you but you didn’t listen. It wasn’t until you sat down in front of your mirror and you applied the mascara that you realized how awful the idea was.

You’d often prided yourself on how in control you were of your feelings, and how easily could you move on. The truth was, though, you never did. The feelings never went away, you just stuffed them inside and refused to feel them. It worked so many times before, and yet there was an impossible flaw in your technique.

You could blow up occasionally. When the feelings became too big, too overwhelming to lock them in the little box you often imagine your feelings lay in, you would explode.

Just as you’d done a week prior at Steve’s party.

You felt like you couldn’t hear anything but your heartbeat as you walked back to the house, holding back tears as you thought about Billy kissing that girl. You didn’t stay for the show though, as soon as you saw her press her lips against his, you turned around.

You couldn’t bare to witness it. Your whole body felt like it was buzzing with the rage coming from your chest, you felt hot like you could spit fire but your throat tightened as you tried to hold back a sob, avoiding feeling stupid in front of everyone.

Then, your eyes met those blue ones that often annoyed you so much. The dull blue made you want to turn away but you were so hurt, so hurt that you didn’t even think about the disgust you felt.

“Hey, Craver!” you yelled at him, and he quickly smiled at you. Your voice didn’t tremble, you noticed, you were so angry that it came more as if you were scolding him.

“Yeah?”

You sighed, deciding against looking back at Billy. Secretly and sickly hoping that he was listening. “About that date? Count me in,”

“Are you- you are serious?”

“You want the date or not?”

“Fuck, yes,” Craver yelled with the same bright smile he’d given you when you first met him.

It was stupid. Eddie had told you it was the most stupid thing you did, even worse than getting into some kind of situation with non-other than Billy Hargrove. You’d snapped at him telling him that you hadn’t particularly disclosed if you were exclusive or not, that you hadn’t accepted Craver’s date out of spite but out of curiosity, and that Billy Hargrove would dream of hurting you but that he hadn’t.

It was all a lie.

You knew that Eddie knew, he didn’t care to say anything else after that though. He had just added that if you wanted him to rescue you from the double date you’d agreed to with Billy and Tina, you could call him. You told him that you would be fine but as Craig called your name, telling you that Jason had arrived, you felt like you needed Eddie to get you out before the date even began.

It was too late, though.

Like Billy had been that night.

Jason had screamed that he had a date with you, people cheering him on and on, guys congratulating him as he pressed a kiss to your cheek and held your hand. You gave him a tight smile before letting go of his hand and walking away from the patio, you were so done that you didn’t even bother changing. You decided to go into your house through the back door, Craig never noticed that you left it open from time to time when you wanted to see Billy.

You walked through the crowd of the house and into the street without looking at your friends or at anyone, honestly, you didn’t realize that Billy was chasing after you until he’d taken a hold of your wrist and turned you roughly towards him.

“What the fuck was that?” he roared at you. You could see how dark his eyes were, the ocean-blue eyes that looked at you lovingly mere hours before were no longer there.

“What the fuck was that?” you spat as you tried to remove his hold on your wrist. “What the fuck you were doing with Tina?”

Billy’s eyes widened for a second, confusion clouding his features until it dawned on him that you’d watched him. You notice exactly the moment he realized that he had fucked up too.

“You got to be fucking kidding me!” he snapped at you “I wasn’t doing anything,” he complained while you let out a dark chuckle, anger bubbling up under your skin as you realized how fucking clueless he was.

“You were letting her kiss you and you didn’t stop her!” you screamed as you finally took your wrist back and quickly pushed Billy onto his chest.

It hurt more than Billy wanted to admit, he’d barely moved from the way you shoved him but to see the hurt and anger on your face, the hatred, you’d never looked at him like that.

“And you go and accept a date with Jason fucking Craver?” he screamed back in disbelief.

“Since you clearly believe that you’re not exclusive with me, why do I have to be?” you spat cruelly.

Billy scoffed as he shook his head in disbelief. It wasn’t a first for Billy, he had known pain before, he lived with the pain of knowing that he was never wanted, that he was a waste of space for everyone but you.

Now, it was all gone.

“Fine,” Billy spat. “You know what?”

“What?”

“We should do a double date, then!” he suggested, the venom of his words stinging you.

“Of course, we should, asshole,” you replied.

That’s how you’d gotten to where you were at the moment. Climbing into Jason Craver’s car without listening to a word he was saying.

The funny thing was, that this was the perfect date that Craig had wanted for you, he’d always craved power so being seen with the son of the politician of the town gave him something he could hold onto, this would be the perfect fix. If anything, he seemed beyond happy that you were going out with him as he’d knocked on your door asking for you.

“Your dad seems nice,” Jason stated as you reached the driveway to the restaurant that Jason had picked.

It was the fanciest there was in Hawkins which wasn’t much but you didn’t care. You were too focused on the Camaro that was already parked there, Billy was reclining against the hood of the car while Tina pressed kisses on his jaw and neck, he was holding her hip uninterestedly as he gazed back at you.

Billy knew it was a bad idea since the words came out of his mouth.

He’d been jealous even before you started seeing each other. He wasn’t really sure how he would handle being at the same table with Jason being your date. He’d been like a short-fuse since Steve’s party, and you weren’t left behind either. Your conversations in class were generally clipped with insults flying within a few seconds. Barely any work got done for your projects and Billy almost started three fights during the week, each one coinciding with that he’d seen you before.

And yet, both of you decided against your better judgment.

You exited Craver’s shitty car begrudgingly as Craver opened the door for you and proceeded to hold your hand a little bit tight. Billy noticed your apprehension right away about the way he’d touched you. If he wasn’t so angry at you, he would’ve punched Craver and taken you home.

He decided against it after recalling how you’d agreed to this and hadn’t backed down either.

“You guys are early!” Jason said with a smile as he walked towards Billy and Tina, who’d finally decided to let go of Billy’s neck.

“Yeah,” Tina said as she glanced down at your outfit. It was a far cry from your previous outfits, you were wearing a rather modest cream dress. It covered way too much, you had small heels on and even skin-colored stockings. She snickered softly at the outfit. “What are you wearing?”

You were aware of the choice of outfit, and you wondered if it would deter Craver from making any moves but you still thought it was a nice. You frowned slightly at her as you gazed down at the dress. You were going to snap back at her but Billy beat you to it.

“She looks beautiful,” he answered honestly.

You glanced at him for a second, he could see how your eyes beamed slightly, and your lips quirked up too. Jason frowned at Billy for a second before he took your hand and pulled you closer to him, giving you a peck on the cheek. “She does,”

Billy’s lips turned into a tight line as Jason told all of you that you should get going if you didn’t want to miss your reservation. You frowned at the comment, all of you knew that the place wasn’t fancy enough to put on reservations, all of you were aware of that.

The dinner was as awkward as you would’ve expected it to be. Billy and you did your best not to acknowledge each other as Jason and Tina tried to make conversation with each other, breaking the ice as best as they could. Billy remained as stoic as he possibly could, refusing to make a scene and you tried to ignore as best as you could too, especially Tina and her hands all over him as you sipped on your lemonade, glaring at her.

It shouldn’t be hard to get over yourself, you agreed to this. But it’s still hard for you.

After thirty minutes of Jason and Tina trying to break the ice, Billy decided that it was time to talk when Jason handed over a bouquet of roses to you. He said that he ordered it before you even arrived at the restaurant, that he was doing his best to please a girl like you.

Billy waited for you to roll your eyes, but you didn't. You smiled at the roses and thanked him quietly, a slight blush on your cheeks.

That’s when Billy lost it.

“So, Tina has been selected as captain of the volleyball team,” Billy told all of you from his place at the table. Tina smiled immediately and Jason nodded softly, you glanced at Billy who was already looking at you.

You knew what he was doing, and yet you decided to play.

“That’s nice, I really like volleyball,” you replied as you smiled at Tina who leaned over Billy’s chest.

Tina looked at you up and down. “Really? You don’t seem you have the legs for it,” she snickered.

Your small smile dropped from your face as you glared at her. Your mind immediately went to insult her chest or throw a drink at her. You knew that she didn’t particularly like you after Billy had been following you around like a puppy.

But again, you were cut short. Though this time, it was Jason.

“She sure has the legs for that cheerleader uniform though,” he answered back to Tina cockily before looking at you and giving you a rather racy look.

It was a clumsy compliment but you couldn’t complain, at least he said something. Billy just stayed quiet as he stared at the interaction while Tina continued to eat her food. There was a minute or two of silence as you tried to eat your food, hoping that the dinner could be over sooner rather than later but as you felt Billy’s eyes burning holes on your body, you decided to speak up.

“Jason, haven’t you been elected to work to help for the senate race for the state of Illinois?” You asked him, you remember he said something about it in the car. He seemed pleased that you remembered.

“Yeah,” he said as he placed his drink down. “Charles H. Percy, I’ll work with him for the elections of the next year,” he answered proudly as you nodded happily before you continued to eat.

Billy watched you still pretending that his chest didn’t twist in and turned as it dawned on him that you were talking to Jason in the same sweet manner that you talked to him. Billy frowned slightly as he glanced at Jason.

“Your dad must’ve hooked you up with that one, right?” Billy asked with a glare as he stared at Jason for a second, who seemed a bit stunned at the question. Obviously, his father had hooked him up, but he was saying it to diminish him, you knew it.

You bit your inner cheek as you waited for Jason to say something.

“I mean,” Jason stumbled before Billy glanced at you and shrugged his shoulders slightly before Tina snickered softly.

You felt anger bubbling up under your skin as you witnessed the interaction. “That doesn’t matter, he’s doing something for our community, right?” you asked Jason as you raised your eyebrows expectantly at him. Anything for him to say something.

He simply nodded.

“Sure,” Billy breathed out with a slight smirk on his chest as he continued to take a sip of his drink, still refusing to eat, just enjoying the moment.

Jason frowned at Billy, knowing he was trying to embarrass him. Billy was indeed and in his defense, it was always so easy when it came to Craver.

“Come on, baby,” Jason said softly at you as he leaned into you while he stared at Billy. The nickname made you want to recoil but you knew that he was trying to make himself look better in front of Billy and you didn’t mind right now. “How are you handling being class president?”

“It has been good,” You stated with a smile. “We’ve begun with the college program, we’re bringing people from Chicago to Hawkins,”

“That’s nice,”

“Yeah, it's great,” Billy grumbled as he took another sip of the drink.

Tina smiled softly. “What university do you want to go to, Jason?”

“The community college that’s close by,” he explained “My mom’s the dean on their political science department and they have a nice business program too,”

“That’s ambitious,” Billy snickered.

The whole table went quiet as your gazes fall on Billy who was looking through the window of the restaurant. You furrowed your brows slightly, taken aback. It was a dry comment, you would’ve gotten it if the two of you were alone, and you would’ve laughed too.

But this was just mean.

Your first instinct was to snap at him, calling him out on his rudeness. Jason beated you to it.

“Well, a deadbeat like you Hargrove, isn’t even thinking about college,” Jason bit back at Billy.

You take a deep breath as you turned yourself towards Jason. The comment made you sick, eyebrows furrowed while you glared at him.

Jason always seemed to be dull, lacking humor or any feeling whatsoever. But until that moment you hadn’t realized that he knew how to hurt people, with their greatest insecurity.

He was actually good at it and the smirk he has on his face for a second, let you know that he enjoyed it.

“What did you just -” you began but were quickly cut off.

The whole table shook, making you jump completely startled by the way that the glass clatter and fell around the table as Billy, who had remained quiet until then, grabbed a fistful of Jason’s shirt, pulling him upward and almost over the table. The drinks spilled over the food and onto Tina’s lap while Billy’s eyes were making holes in Jason’s head as he held him, ready to knock him out.

“Go ahead Craver, say it again,” Billy threatened as he held Jason tightly, who was holding Billy’s wrist, trying to get away from his hold.

You quickly stood up as you took a hold of Billy’s bicep and tried to stop him from doing something stupid. One thing was fighting at school, another thing was fighting in a public place, and being charged with assault or battery.

“Hey hey,” you pleaded to him as Billy was still glaring at Jason, who with trembling hands was trying to get away from Billy without much success. “Stop, Billy please,” you pleaded as you quickly moved your hands from his biceps to his face, trying to turn your face towards him.

“Sir,” you heard from behind you, probably the waiter that was attending to you. You winced slightly, hoping Billy would let go soon.

“Billy, don’t,” you pleaded once again, for a fleeting second those ocean-blue eyes went to your face.

There was a beat of silence as Billy stared into you.

Before you could plead with him again, Billy dropped Jason on his seat with force, his breathing was harsh as he at the same time, shook your hands off him. It was hard enough that you gave a step back from the table but you didn’t sit down. Your eyes went to Jason, who only seemed a little bit shaken up as the waiter was now standing behind Billy, ready to get his hands on him.

“Sir, we’re going to have to ask you to leave,” The waiter stated seriously.

Billy’s eyes then fell off you, breathing heavily. He stared at you, burning with anger.

“Nice one you got there, y/l/n,” he spat as he nudged his chin towards Jason before glaring at Tina. “Move,” he muttered as he took his leather jacket from the chair and walked out of the place.

You stood silently, chest heaving as you tried to process what just happened. It wasn’t until the waiter asked you if you wanted to sit down that it dawned on you that you were frozen in place as your mind playback the way Billy looked at you.

You sat down next to Jason, who seemingly refused to meet your eyes. You sighed. It was your fault, you’d asked him for the date and then brought Billy into this. “Are you okay-” you asked quietly but you were cut off immediately.

“I’m fine,” Jason snapped back at you without looking. “Can you just like to eat?”

By the end of the night, you were curled into your bed, crying softly as you wondered if this was truly the end of whatever Billy and you had.

Billy was thinking the exact same thing as he laid on the back of his Camaro while Tina continued to kiss his neck and straddle his lap while he dreamt that it was you.

***

taglist: @happypopcornprincess @hannahnikohl @phishyie @amethystx3 @gloryekaterina @alicetweven @frogtits1 @make-me-imagine @dedicated2viktor @zanmorgan @queenofshinigamis @literally-a-ferret @milkiane @mysterygirl-14 @oli-leo-ska @tsukibaby1 @theshinyrock @belledawnidk @the-mysterious-miss-s @rlvslouis @linkpk88 @daygirl26 @steveharringtonswifey09 @alwaysbeenfamous @kazbrekkersangel @allazay101 @finelineskies @that-levi-kenma-kinnie @riffcrusader @patheticreative @emmettcullenswife @milenadixon @whiskeypowder @ponyboys-sunsets @yunho-leeknow

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jynjackets · 10 months

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Sorry to ask but why did you call Adria sexist? What has she done?

I don’t mind the question. I think it’s important to back up my claims so here we go.

If you watch her interviews, she's weirdly consistent about this really odd opinion she has about women.

Here she basically says men and women have different attributes when it comes to strength and toughness (which is sexist). Talking about her character that is known to "talk like a woman, walk like a woman," I don't even know what this means. But it comes off that she thinks there exists a single way a woman should act. Her character being a typical feminine-damsel type also implies her preference for this stereotype.

Reading through her other interviews she has a very narrow idea of what a woman should be, especially when it comes to ‘taking care of men’ and whatnot. I want to be clear it is one thing with having personal preferences to how you want your female characters to be presented, which is totally fine, preference is preference. But why this is problematic and moves past mere preferences is because she is saying one is better than the other. That women should be represented in this certain way.

She's done this not with just her latest character, but a lot of them.

Here she says her character is a "real woman" implying that there is a way to be an authentic woman as opposed to an inferior type. She also implies that her character is a real woman because she takes care of people. I don't feel the need to explain the issue with idealizing this.

It's again, her weird notion there's a difference between "tough" and "strong". Here she adds that women should 'own their femininity,' as if the opposite is what women are experiencing.

Not that this completely applies but it’s common for women who perceive other women to be adopting too ‘boyish’ of traits, to believe they are misogynists and rejecting their own kind. But this generally isn’t true— and the real issue with this is that it’s actually those that show conventionally masculine traits that are typically a minority and/or marginalized across women. Studs, butches, and tomboys helped pave the way and redefined culture for all women. In reality, they can be considered the epitome of feminism – proving that you don’t have to look, think, or act “like a woman” to be a woman.

It's, again, fine she may have had a preference. But to make a whole career where women are meant to be portrayed a certain way is such a red flag for me. Especially when she likens herself to them.

The rest of her snippets, to be very honest, it's just a bad fucking vibe I get from her, man. Like why would you say this?

and this?

"Sexist," one might say, might be a rather strong claim for someone who may, arguably, insist on a certain portrayal for women?

No, it fits because not only is this "preference" already largely overrepresented in media, but there are several ways of being sexist. The actress especially is exhibiting what is known as benevolent sexism, a more socially accepted form of sexism prevalent among both men and women.

Examples of benevolent sexism include:

basing a woman’s value on her role as a mother, wife, or girlfriend

focusing attention and praise on someone’s appearance rather than their other attributes

believing that people should not do things for themselves, such as manage money or drive a car, because of their gender

A lot of these can be done without intentional malice very easily! It could be seen as a complement telling someone "wow! I love your braids and lipstick, you really look like a real woman," or "my character is special and great because she is such a good friend and so loyal to this male character" without adding anything else. These, no matter the intent, are still very stupid and sexist to say.

I guess it's important to note where I am coming from and it is that I fucking hate toxic radfems. I hate how lesbian spaces drown out studs and mascs. I hate terfs and people who gatekeep identities because a certain representation isn't good enough for them. And while this actress's crimes are likely a misdemeanor compared to these awful gatekeepers, I cannot stand the stupidity of any hint of lateral violence. Especially when you’re relatively rich and famous you have a responsibility to not hold people back.

I can see that for others it’s not a big deal, hence “socially acceptable”. But it’s ideas she spouts like these that are poisonous to progress. The point should be that there should be no expectation for women. You can be anything you want because you want to. It's when I see comments to the things she says that make my blood boil like “yea! I love women who aren't so in our face ” (aka I don't want female characters with agency or opinions or as the lead) or “this is what a real woman is, sensual and feminine” (aka sexualized, long hair, tits, and ass).

I’m not above giving her the benefit of the doubt that she’s just kind of dumb. Like she’s not out here with a tradfem agenda or whatever. Outside of sexism she’s just bad at explaining anything. This is the last time I’ll probably criticize this woman because I already blocked her tag and she’s a flop anyway so she's easily ignorable. I really hate hating on women because they’re criticized enough, but there is a standard to be met when it comes to being aware and respectful. I wish I was cherry picking but I found all these interviews in like a 20 minute Google search and that's pretty damn telling of her career. She's also like 30 something years old. It's difficult watching a full adult infantilize her own character or see people believe she's "just naïve" when you can just say that they're being sexist.

#this is the last time I'll talk about her though #tw sexism #so to be clear tony is also sexist lol if that wasn't obvious #but I hate men so I just ignore most of them #there are many actresses who go through this but don't say weird stuff like this #critical #anon asks #sorry I never learned how to edit and make the longest rants #anti adria arjona #bix caleen #martine bancroft

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showtoonzfan · 1 year

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Something that bugs me about the designs and world building is what differentiates a hell born and a sinner? Like hellborns and sinner have humanoid designs especially the women, (Verosika, the succubi women, Charlie, Vaggie and other Hazbin’s characters that are women) have human womanly figures and features they’re just painted a different color, only the men both hellborn and sinners have cartoonish designs but other than that there’s not a difference. Like what makes someone a hellborn and a sinner? sinners can’t travel the other rings? Why? What was the point of introducing 7 or 9 rings of hell if your main series will never have the main characters go to those other rings (the ONLY one in the main cast that can travel to different rings is Charlie but I’m pretty sure all the villains, her dad and Helsa will come to her so she never has to leave the hotel) why isn’t Asmodeous in charge of the porn industry if he’s the literal embodiment of lust and rules over a ring dedicated to sex? Why isn’t Mammon in charge of entertainment? If again he is the literal embodiment of greed and would be the one to own everything and charge hellborns and sinners a lot of money to to be entertained? Does Valentino and Vox ONLY rule in Pride? I get it’s the old money vs new money theme going on but Asmodeus and Mammon can easily destroy Vox and Valentino. Is Pride gonna be the biggest ring compared to all the other rings? Yeah i get It’s overpopulated but is it really more overpopulated than 6 other rings combined? Why are sinners considered the worse if you have a civilization of natural born species that were born in HELL and exist to cause trouble for humans and the sociology is being evil and shitty is the norm in hell? The imps make sense since they all have the same design red skin, horns and tails so they’re easy to identify as hellborn. I just wish the varied in variety when they’re born in different. This is why people were saying everyone looks the ame because it’s the same designs being overused over and over again. Where’s Jane so she can design characters? One of these shows are gonna hurt badly because of the poor world building and have a feeling it’s gonna be HB because they’re retcon things so things make sense in Hazbin.

I don’t know the answer to the majority of these questions my guy, you got me LOL. I agree, for starters I still think it wasn’t a good idea to make all the sinners trapped in one single location of Hell. I get that this is Viv’s interpretation so she doesn’t need to go by Dante’s Inferno completely or whatever other religion or mythology, but like you said…yeah, what IS the point of having all these other rings if you’re just going to have the characters (and Hazbin as a whole) take place in ONE location? Hazbin could have been the perfect opportunity to explore the world as a whole since again….Charlie is literally the Princess of Hell, they never said she and her plan only applied to sinners and ever since it was revealed that sinners can’t even go outside of the Pride Ring, I’ve been confused and upset. How are going to say all of Hell is overpopulated when all the sinners are in ONE damn location? What about the rest of hell? The way Charlie spoke made it sound like she was talking about ALL of Hell, and now you’re saying it’s only the Pride Ring? I get that Vivzie wanted to create Helluva apparently to explore the lore OUTSIDE of the Pride Ring and it’s demons, but choosing that for a show that should be more about the HUMAN society doesn’t help. I don’t understand why Helluva even needed to be centered around the rest of Hell when in reality it was SUPPOSED to be about demon assassins going to earth to kill people. I feel like Vivziepop really had no idea what she truly wanted Helluva to be because she kept flip flopping it’s concepts and purposes. Hazbin could have easily explored Hell just as well, the concept of demons coming from all around the globe is very interesting, instead of a bunch of demons cramped into a city that looks exactly like our world. I just feel like the idea of sinners only being in one location makes this entire thing more complicated than it really needs to be. It also ruins Charlie’s idea as well, she says she wants to rehabilitate demons and is tired of her people being slaughtered, but then you realize all the other demons in the rings outside of the Pride Ring AREN’T sinners, so what would happen to the Hellborn demons? Did Charlie ever think of that, or should I say Vivzie?

Also yeah…I definitely wish there was a more distinct difference between the Hellborn species and sinners. Part of the problem is that in Viv’s version, she sees “sinners” and “demons” as the same thing, and I think it would have been better if a “sinner” was labeled as a human who got damned to hell, and then a “demon” are the Hellborn species. Visually however, it is a little complicated. On one hand we are able to see clearly what Imps look like, but the problem is that with Viv’s sinner designs, they can be freaking anything. You could be big, small, have a mouth, have teeth, have horns, be an animal, be a floating ghost like thing- heck…even if I were to look at a Succubis, I would have just said it’s another sinner because the designs are just a human body with horns and a tail. So far the imps are the only Hellborn species that stand out from the sinners, even the HELLHOUNDS could be regular sinners for all we know.

Like…most of these designs were clearly just something Viv could come up with at the top of her head, and yeah, it also didn’t help that most of the background demon designs in the pilot are way more complicated and detailed than the main cast…and look more INTERESTING than the main cast. All I can say is that I hope Viv really branches out each hellborn design compared to the sinners when the actual show comes out, it would be easier if she had her own RULES to what a sinner looks like compared to a hellborn demon, cause she clearly didn’t have any for the pilot. Also the whole “most sinners resemble how they died or who they were”- thing that she pulled in most of her livestreams are a load of bullshit because they clearly don’t, ESPECIALLY for the main cast Lmao.

As for how the overlords rule “all of Hell” apparently even though they’re not allowed outside the pride ring and it was established that the seven deadly sins rule each location, I have no idea, that’s the confusing thing. Like….for all the people saying “Why isn’t Ozzie ruling the Porn industry since he’s literally the embodiment of lust”- you’re exactly right. Like…it makes no sense, at least to me. Like, Vivzie keeps saying how Vox is able to control all of television across Hell, how Alastor broadcasted his radio across hell, how Val controls all of the porn industry across hell, ect but like…how? How exactly does that work? If sinners aren’t allowed to be outside the pride ring, how are they able to be powerful enough to control and manage their work across the rest of Hell? Every time I look back at the pilot, I just get more and more confused, especially since Vaggie states that there were overlords who had been “dominant for centuries” and describing then as “Our worlds most ancient and destructive evils” and I’m just……does Hell have laws when it comes to the sinners? What about the Seven Deadly sins? What about Lucifer? Were they just sitting around while all this shit was going down? The issue is that not only is it confusing on how exactly these rankings work and how an overlord ruling differs from a Deadly Sin, but it seems like just about ANYONE can easily become an overlord. There seems to be nothing from stopping the sinners from toppling over, because there seems to be no RULES for the Pride ring. It’s just…all over the place and very confusing, and I pray to god that once Hazbin comes out, it’s storytelling improves compared to the pilot, because right now everything in Helluva just makes the world building for Hazbin confusing.

#vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #anti vivziepop #helluva boss critique #Hazbin critical #vivziepop critique #Hazbin worldbuilding #worldbuilding #writing #answer #reply #hazbin hotel criticism

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canonicallyobserving911 · 10 months

Text

9-1-1 Season 6 - Constructive Criticisms #9

The use of Metaphors, Themes & Theories

Metaphors, themes and theories loosely defined are methods that can be used to identify actions, ideas, objects or topics which can then be used to describe, represent or justify something. According to Grammarly.com, “a metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison”. A theme is “a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation” (Merriam-Webster.com). Dictionary.com states a theory is “an idea used to account for a situation or justify a course of action”. Even though each method is distinct and can be used on its own to represent something, they can also be simultaneously implemented to creatively tell a story.

In previous 9-1-1 seasons, all three methods were creatively used in main characters’ storylines but they weren’t complicated and it didn’t require a lot of mental gymnastics for viewers to decipher their meanings. Even though these methods were used in the past and they were easy to interpret, that wasn’t the case during season 6 since the meanings behind them were easily misinterpreted and/or they got lost in translation by viewers.

This post will identify metaphors, themes and theories presented during season 6 to illustrate how they may have been confusing and/or included conflicting messages. A lot of viewers were left scratching their heads after 6x18 aired because most of the methods used throughout the season didn’t end in a way that made narrative sense. While fandom viewers will take the time to analyze and research things after an episode airs, the same isn’t true for the majority of the general audience (GA). Most viewers watch the show weekly for entertainment purposes only but they aren’t looking for the underlying meanings associated with the “couch theory”, the colors of main characters’ clothing or victims’ related injuries. These are examples of the reason why the reveal of these methods is so important.

Since this is the final overall post that I will make for season 6, the purpose of it is NOT to decide whether these methods were properly or improperly used and/or to state if they were good or bad because those items will be addressed in the remaining six “constructive criticisms” posts. However, the purpose of it is to illustrate how easy it was for them to be misunderstood and misinterpreted since the season ended without them being resolved.

My ninth set of “constructive criticisms” regarding the use of metaphors, themes and theories in season 6 are included below the cut. Please note criticizing a TV show is NOT a bad thing especially since TV critics have been doing it for decades. Constructive criticisms are designed to help make something better and they are VERY different from negativity. A person can offer criticisms about a form of entertainment they spend their time watching and not be negative about it the same way two people can agree to disagree on a topic. Just because one person liked the season, they shouldn’t expect others to feel the way they do because everyone has their own opinions. Simply put, two people can have different opinions about 9-1-1 and those opinions can COEXIST since they are not mutually exclusive.

If reading criticisms about the TV show 9-1-1 upsets you, then don’t read below the cut.

Warning! ⚠️“Constructive Criticisms” Ahead!⚠️

Please note this post has been divided into three sections, i.e., metaphors, themes and theories and some of them have multiple subsections included underneath them. Additionally, some of the methods used in season 6 can be applied to one, two or all three sections.

_____________________

Metaphors “are figures of speech that describe objects or actions in ways that aren’t literally true but help to explain an idea or make a comparison”.

Hearts were referenced as early as season 2 and based on the way they were included in storylines, they can be identified as metaphors, themes and theories. In season 6, there were a lot of references to characters’ hearts but the underlying meaning and their importance were never identified.

The teenage victim with an artificial heart in 6x1.

The victim whose aorta was missed when his son’s wedding ring shot out of the woodchipper in 6x1 and hit him in the chest.

Lev’s heart stopped and he died in 6x2.

Karen’s heart stopped in 6x6 but Hen did chest compressions on her while Bobby worked the defibrillator.

Buck’s heart stopped for three minutes and seventeen seconds after he died when he was struck by lightning which is the same amount of time it took to get Eddie to the hospital after he was shot (related post with timed shooting linked here).

Buck was put on an ECMO machine in 6x11 and it’s used to “pump blood outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body” (Mayo Clinic.com).

Buck made constant references to his heart in 6x12 because he wanted to know if it was ok after the lightning strike.

In 6x12, Dr. Valerie Salazar was the same cardiologist or “heart” doctor who was included in episodes during seasons 5 and 6.

What was the purpose of all the heart references if they didn’t or don’t mean anything significant?

Weather was used a metaphor with regards to rain and lightning.

In 6x8 Buck referenced the song “Raining Men” after a victim slid off the fire engine.

In 6x10 after dry lightning hit the beach and the 118 arrived on the scene, Buck said, “No rain. Where the hell did it come from?”, then Eddie replied, “I don’t know. Really hope it doesn’t strike twice though” (it was lightning).

Later, while Eddie, Buck and Bobby were riding in the engine, Eddie said, “The rain finally started”.

Buck and Eddie were struck by the same bolt of lightning in 6x10.

In 6x15, Eddie told Buck, “Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.”

Was there a purpose for all the weather references and if so, what were they?

_____________________

Themes “are subjects or topics of discourse or of artistic representations”.

Dreams and fantasies vs. realities were included for several main characters during the season.

Buck told Maddie and Chimney in 6x8; he was living the dream when he was preparing to babysit Jee-Yun.

Karen’s dream was to be an astronaut but she said she had a new one on earth with her family during her flashback in 6x6.

Hen said she was dreaming of being a doctor but she hadn’t considered the reality of what she would have to give up in 6x6.

Hen asked Athena what her fantasy was if she won the lottery in 6x8.

Eddie’s comments to Carla about fantasies vs. realities in 6x8.

Buck had a coma dream in 6x11.

Since everyone’s dreams weren’t realized by the end of the season and since 6x18 could have been the series finale, what was the purpose for including all these dreams, fantasies and realities?

Family has been a theme since the show began and they’ve always highlighted the importance of found family when compared to biological family for the main characters. The first responders all found each other since Hen and Chimney were already at the 118 when Bobby arrived and Buck joined the team after he finished the academy. Hen and Athena were best friends before Bobby and Athena started dating at the end of season 1. Maddie is Buck’s sister and she became part of the found family when she arrived and she became a first responder after she got hired at Metro Dispatch. Eddie being recruited by Bobby because he was at the top of his academy class brought both Eddie and Chris into the found family as well. Michael was married to Athena and they got divorced in season 1 but he was still part of the found family for years since he is May’s and Harry’s biological father but he was also friends with Bobby, Hen, Karen and of course Athena.

Biological vs. Found Families - the season ended with a conflicting message because it was insinuated in 6x10, 6x11, 6x12 & 6x13 that biological families were better than found families and that’s not true.

Buck was asked to be a sperm donor in 6x4 which would make Connor and Kameron’s baby biologically related to him but not legally his.

Hen and Karen were shown adopting Denny in 6x6 via a flashback that showed him as a baby.

Denny asked about his biological parents in 6x9.

Buck told Chimney, Eddie and Hen he was the official creator of new life in 6x9 even though the baby isn’t legally his.

Margaret and Phillip Buckley’s arrival in 6x10 was the beginning of the “bio is better than found family” forced narrative which is totally false. They’re Buck and Maddie’s biological parents but they couldn’t depend on them while they were growing up.

Sang Han, Chimney’s biological father, showed up with his wife and Albert in 6x10 and the bio vs. found family narrative was dismantled even further.

May told Bobby he went into the marriage with Athena with a child, Buck who is not biologically his but Buck is his found son.

Athena told Buck while he was in his coma dream that Bobby had already lost two children and he wouldn’t survive it if he lost him too in 6x11.

Hen and Karen were told by Toni, Hen’s mother in 6x13 Denny had a right to have a relationship with his father if he wanted one even though Nathaniel was the one who hid his relationship with their son.

Eddie and Chris had a picnic in front of Shannon’s grave in 6x15 but they’ve never done that before and it was used to force the narrative that she was a good mother even though she abandoned her son for two years and didn’t try to contact him.

Connor bailed on his pregnant wife since the baby wasn’t going to be biologically his in 6x17 and 6x18.

Since the show spent years showing the importance of found family, what was the goal of the characters’ actions in 6B because the message they sent about bio families being more important than found families overshadowed everything else? They completely imploded the idea of one’s found family being just as important as one’s biological family when they included the Buckley parents, Sang Han and Shannon Diaz without any of them earning or deserving to have a parental redemption (related post linked here).

Fatherhood is included in the family theme too but it was highlighted in season 6 like it was the most important parental relationship a child could have with their parents.

Eddie’s biological relationship with Ramon appeared to be growing in 6x4 when Eddie was on FaceTime with him.

Buck’s biological relationship with Phillip was just as awkward as it always was in 6x10. It wasn’t as weird in 6x11 but that was because it was Buck’s coma dream and he admitted his parents saw him the way he always wanted them to see him during it.

Chimney and Sang’s biological relationship was irreparable in 6x10 but Chimney told Denny in 6x13 he let it go for himself.

Bobby and Buck’s found father son relationship was highlighted in 6x10 when Bobby told Buck the secret ingredient to his chili recipe and again in 6x11 when May told Bobby that Buck was his son.

Buck’s own family relationship (the family Eddie and Buck chose) of being Chris’ second/other dad was highlighted by Margaret in Buck’s coma dream while they were standing in front of the two Ferris Wheels in 6x11 and again in 6x13 when Buck and Chris were baking cookies.

Nathaniel and Denny’s biological relationship was shown to be more important than the relationship Denny has with his mothers in 6x13.

Connor’s future relationship with his baby was highlighted in 6x18 when he finally showed up at the hospital.

Why were father and son relationships given more attention in season 6?

Motherhood is also included in the family theme but it was practically IGNORED for main characters who are great moms like Athena Grant, Hen and Karen Wilson, and Maddie Buckley or the narrative was forced for the toxic biological mothers like Margaret Buckley, Helena Diaz and Shannon Diaz (forced narratives post linked here).

Hen and Karen had a whole episode which focused on how they sacrificed their dreams to build their family but them being fantastic mothers was overshadowed by all the Nathaniel fatherhood talk in 6x9, 6x10 and 6x13.

Maddie and Athena are mothers too but motherhood wasn’t given the same level of attention fatherhood was given and no explanation or resolution regarding the reason for it was included.

Kameron gave birth to her and Connor’s baby and even though she’s the biological mother, more attention was given to Connor and Buck in 6x17 and 6x18.

Why was motherhood overshadowed while fathers received the majority of the attention?

Cheating, fraud and lies were referenced and the people who participated in those acts appeared constantly throughout the season.

The wife lying to her husband and cheating on him in 6x2.

Felisa’s assistant lied to her about the money she was spending and the man she bought the bracelet from for 20K was committing fraud in 6x7.

The couple who lied and killed Wendell in 6x9 then tried to commit fraud when they burned down their own rehab treatment facility followed by them lying to the police when they blamed Bobby.

Maddie and Linda lied to Josh in 6x9 about working during the Santa Ana winds even though he already knew what they were doing, he lied to cover his own actions to prank them back.

Denny lied to Hen and Karen for months so he could meet with Nathaniel and it started in 6x9.

Chief Williams’ insinuation that Buck was using his special math skills to cheat at poker in 6x13 even though it can’t be done because card counting works in Blackjack not Poker.

Eddie lying and saying “I do not panic” in 6x14.

Buck admitting nobody likes a cheater in 6x14 even though he cheated in 5x11.

Biggs was a cheater and he put motor oil in his arms to inflate his biceps in 6x14.

Rhonda Fitzsimmons cheated by committing coupon fraud and she lied on the woman who bought her house in 6x13.

What was the purpose of showing all these people lying, cheating and committing fraud? Was there an underlying goal that should have been mentioned but wasn’t?

Injuries were included for the entirety of the season to both main characters’ and victims’ arms, hands and shoulders but there was no explanation about why or anything to explain the significance.

The victim’s hand got injured when he stuck it in a woodchipper in 6x1 while he played golf with his dad.

The husband’s arm got injured after he set off those explosives so his neighbor would get injured in 6x2.

The neighbor’s shoulder was injured with shrapnel in 6x2.

The victim’s shoulder was dislocated in 6x8 after he slid off the fire engine.

The two hand injuries in 6x9 that resulted from mishandled fireworks.

Ibrahim’s arm injury in 6x10 after he was encased in sand that turned into glass after the lightning strike.

Both of Buck’s hands were injured after he got struck by lightning in 6x10.

Raina’s arm got injured in 6x14 after it was caught in the mixer at the commercial bakery.

Ravi described his shoulder injury in 6x14 that he got while rescuing a father and their child from a submerged car.

Ledbetter’s shoulder injury in 6x14 he obtained while practicing a rope rescue when he tried to help Novak. They were at the academy.

Biggs’ arm injury in 6x14 during the body builder’s competition.

Natalia’s hand injury in 6x15.

The victim’s arm injury in 6x16 who got caught in the huge pile at the dump.

Eddie’s hand injury in 6x17 after he got nicked by a dog.

Why were all these hand, arm and shoulder injuries included and what was the purpose of highlighting them?

Numbers were referenced in different ways multiple times but their importance, significance and the reason for them being included were never explained.

Betting was done twice in 6B and this doesn’t include the lottery references because they’re mentioned separately.

Buck and Eddie betting to win money against the other firefighters with Eddie saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted” wasn’t resolved.

Why was Poker included and misrepresented like it’s a numbers game when it’s clearly a game about betting and bluffing to win?

What was the purpose for including information about betting when nothing came of it?

Lottery play was referenced at least twice but there weren’t any more references to it.

Hen and Athena scratched off lottery tickets in 6x8.

Maddie told Buck in 6x11 he should buy a lottery ticket.

None of the main characters won the lottery so why was it even mentioned or included?

Measurements, ingredients and recipes were used as both metaphors and themes.

The 6 different types of cheeses Buck included in Bobby’s lasagna recipe and the number of tries it took him to get it right were heavily focused on in 6x1.

Bobby telling Buck about the secret ingredient (cocoa powder) in 6x10 and how much to include in his chili recipe.

Buck reading the ingredients in the Tummy Tuck Tea at the gym in 6x13.

Buck and Chris measuring the ingredients to bake cookies in 6x13.

Hen tried to duplicate her mother’s jerk chicken recipe in 6x14.

Was there an underlying meaning to all these mentioned measurements and ingredients?

Money and it’s uses were mentioned several times.

The money Chimney and Maddie borrowed from the Buckley parents in 6x10 for their downpayment.

The reference to all the money Sang Han made in 6x11 when he moved back to Korea after he abandoned Chimney.

Money being collected and counted by Eddie and Buck in 6x13 from the other firefighters.

Steaks were used as winnings instead of money in 6x13 during the poker game.

Rhonda Fitzsimmons collected money orders for sending people fake coupons in 6x13.

The money Maddie and Chimney owed to the IRS for misfiling their income taxes in 6x15.

The reference Maddie made about her paying more money towards their household expenses than Chimney in 6x15.

Chimney buying and spending money unnecessarily on ice cream because it was on sale in 6x15.

Chimney spent a lot of money on Maddie’s engagement ring in 6x16 but he couldn’t afford the downpayment on their house.

The insurance money for the engagement ring Chimney would have collected if the ring hadn’t been found in 6x17.

Ravi worked double shifts to earn more money to buy a third condo in 6x17.

What was the purpose for all these money references?

Taxes are all about numbers but it was insinuated that a person should hire an accountant to do their taxes instead of them using a computer program which is not true for everyone. Use of an income tax computer program was defamed even though the real problem was Maddie and Chimney weren’t talking to each other.

What was the purpose of using income taxes to push them to get engaged when all they had to do was talk?

Leadership was presented not only for main characters but others involved in emergencies too, however the reason for it was never provided.

Buck wanted to be interim captain in 6x1 but he didn’t mention it again even though he took charge of the scene in 6x18 before he handed the leadership he temporarily had over to Hen. Does Buck still want it or was he going to use the captaincy as a distraction like he does a lot of other things? Reminder he never talked about it again after 6x1.

Hen told Bobby in 6x1 how Captain Gerard didn’t see her as a firefighter but Bobby explained she has everything it takes to make a great captain. Does Hen want it or not? It wasn’t explained and she told everyone not to call her Cap in 6x2.

Raina told Lavern in 6x14 she should be supervisor of the team at the commercial bakery after her arm got injured in the mixer.

In 6x1, Bobby said Chimney told him “Never again” when it came to him being chosen for the interim captain role but Hen explained the entire team said they didn’t want him to be interim again. In 6x14, even though Chimney told Bobby everyone knew he didn’t want the big chair, Bobby sent him to the academy anyway to bring Ravi back and to illustrate his leadership skills. Therefore, the question is, did Chimney really want it or was it thrusted upon him because Bobby wants him to be captain?

Ravi was a peer group instructor who led newly hired firefighters at the academy in 6x14.

Chimney was a peer group instructor too in 6x14 after Bobby sent him to the academy but he didn’t realize why he was there until later in the episode.

Since it wasn’t established before the season ended, what was the purpose for all the leadership attention given to these characters?

Water was heavily included at the end of 6A and continued throughout the first half of 6B.

The insides of both Buck and Eddie’s refrigerators were shown in 6x12 even though no one else’s refrigerators were and the focus was on their water pitchers.

Buck asked Eddie for water instead of beer after he woke up on Eddie’s couch in 6x12.

In 6x12, Dr. Salazar told Buck eventually people find their water levels.

Buck sat in front of a pond that was in front of the MacArthur Park Apartments in 6x12.

The teenage girl who was allergic to water in 6x13.

Sex good, bad, dangerous, fantasy, toys and the like were heavily focused on throughout the season but the reason for it was never explained. I’ve already completed a detailed post on this topic and it’s linked here.

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Theories “ideas used to account for situations or justify courses of action”.

Couches were used throughout the season to insinuate something about Buck and his relationships. But the problem with the couch theory was VIEWERS HAD SEVERAL DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF IT but the show never clarified it’s meaning. Will it return in season 7, who knows.

Color theory was included in several episodes but the purpose of couples all wearing blue and green in different shades in 6x13 wasn’t clarified or explained and Buck, Eddie and Chris all wearing different shades of blue wasn’t explained either (related post linked here).

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With everything that happened right before the season ended regarding the show being cancelled on one network, FOX, and being picked up by another, ABC, what was the purpose for including all of these metaphors, themes and theories if 9-1-1 never intended to reveal their meanings? It’s certainly possible the decision makers knew the show would return for another season so they didn’t bother to provide an explanation. However, when 95% of these metaphors, themes and theories are viewed together, only one conclusion can be drawn but the issue with that is, the conclusion would be one person’s interpretation and it may not be interpretated the same way by others. Also, since the show hasn’t addressed or revealed the meaning behind them, it’s possible they didn’t intentionally make the conclusion which means it could have been a coincidence (doubtful since they don’t do coincidences). This is the primary reason why metaphors, themes and theories must be explained so viewers will know what they mean and they won’t be left up to each individual’s interpretation.

Was the goal to end the season with the audience confused? If so, then they succeeded since nothing was resolved or explained but hopefully season 7 will provide closure to all the metaphors, themes and theories that were presented in season 6 so there won’t be any more room for misinterpretations.

These are my criticisms regarding the use of metaphors, themes and theories and “Constructive Criticisms” #10 will be posted on Monday, July 24, 2023.

I have a total of 15 CANON “Constructive Criticisms” (6 remaining) and my goal is to have all of them posted by Monday, August 28, 2023. The topics are being posted in a specific order that begins with the overall issues for season 6 so they can be referenced within the posts about individual characters and ships that will follow them.

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