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screeching-bunny · 2 months

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Yandere! Townspeople Harem x Lucky Reader

Warnings: Obsessive Behavior, Yandere Thoughts, Bad Writing, Stalking, Possessive Behavior, Reader is Referred as ‘You’

A/N: I have no clue what I was on when I wrote this 💀. This is also inspired by a Reddit post I saw long time ago.

🌟 Yandere! Townspeople who are absolutely enamored by you and everything that you do. They treat you as if you are some kind of entity waiting to be put on a golden pedestal and paraded around town. You are essentially the town’s golden boy/girl/person, a mascot if you can even call it that. In their eyes everything that you do is inspiring and encouraged. It also doesn’t help that you were born with this amazing power that causes you to become extremely lucky. No matter the deed, every action was thrust into the spotlight as if it were a gracious gesture for the community's well-being. Take, for instance, if you ever fatally shot someone the townsfolk would erupt in applause, discovering the individual to be a notorious mass murderer and your action saved the town.

🌟 Yandere! Townspeople who can’t help but gush over every miniscule achievement that you got. You got a perfect attendance award? They wouldn’t expect anything less from you. Did you just get a participation trophy? Well they're cheering for you as if you just won the world cup. To say their actions are embarrassing is definitely an understatement. Everytime they cheer for you, you can’t help but die a little bit on the inside.

🌟 Yandere! Townspeople who absolutely cannot fathom the idea of you moving out of their town. They would much rather skin themselves alive and commit arson than to allow you to leave them. Everywhere you go, there will always be some form of eyes on you. There will always be some type of survance of you at any time of the day. Depending on the person, the townspeople's love for you can either be platonic or romantic. Basically half of the town wants to fuck your and the other half sees you as their beloved child or grandchild.

🌟 Yandere! Townspeople who may or may not be human. Like sure they might have the occasional human sacrifices but what town doesn’t!?!? This is totally normal behavior that people exhibit. What’s that? Did you just see a tentacle coming out from that woman over there? Nahhh. You must be imagining that! What a cute and overactive imagination you have there. In all seriousness, it would literally die for you. You're just a cutie patootie to them. Your small teeth are so cute compared to their razor sharp fangs. You know, you could really use that small mouth of yours and suck on their–

🌟 Yandere! Townspeople have a monthly ritual where they gather around to brag about all of the items that they stole from you. Never in your life will you see someone so happy to own a pair of used underwear that didn’t belong to them or some used pair of socks. If you looked up a textbook definition of “down bad” then a picture of the Yandere! Townspeople would be the first images to pop up. In your presence these people act as if they had never touched grass or seen the sun before. They all seem to have some type of mutual agreement that in your presence, they would try to act somewhat normal in order to not scare/scar you too much.

—

From a young age, your luck was apparent. In school, while others struggled with exams, you breezed through them effortlessly, always managing to stumble upon the exact answers needed to excel. Teachers marveled at your natural knack for stumbling upon solutions, even in the most challenging of situations. As you grew older, the extraordinary luck only seemed to amplify. Job interviews turned into job offers within minutes, as if the universe conspired to ensure your success in every endeavor. Colleagues joked that working with you was like having a lucky charm around, as projects that seemed doomed to fail miraculously turned into resounding triumphs whenever you were involved. It might seem great and all BUT DAMN WAS THIS LIFE SO FUCKING BORING!!!! Which is why you decided to spice up your day a little and rob a bank.

“Oh hello [Reader]! Is this going to be the usual procedure?” The bank teller asks you with a smile on their face as you hold a gun to their face. “You know… the weather is perfectly nice today. It would be a perfect day for a date don’t you think–”

Suddenly a thunderous crash was heard, the police burst through the bank doors, their badges glinting under the harsh fluorescent lights. Guns drawn and voices booming commands, they swept into the lobby, faces masked with determination. Until the police chief sees you and lets out a tired sigh, “Guns down everyone, it’s just [Reader].” A faint sound of disappointed groans can be heard from the crowd of bank patrons from the back. “Why are the police here so soon, I didn’t get enough time to admire their pretty face.” another voice could be heard, “For real, their never this fast in an actual emergency. I mean they only just shot and killed one person, it's really nothing to worry about like who cares–”

—

“You are free to go [Reader], again.” the police officer states as she releases you from your handcuffs. “Turns out the man that you shot ended up being a drug dealer. You really have a special talent for catching criminals don’t you. She states as she gazes at you with loving eyes. “You know I’m free after this shift, you think we can–”

Before she can finish her sentence you walk away with a dejected look on your face. You couldn’t believe how boring a day this turned out to be. Seriously, you wished that something exciting would happen in this town for once you think to yourself. Failing to notice a scene behind you. One that consisted of a bunch of monsters eating the souls of the innocent while on their knees for a statue that seemed to look like you. They all seem to be gripping onto something though– HEY, WAIT A MINUTE ARE THEY HOLDING YOUR UNDERWEAR!?!!?

#yandere #yandere headcanons #yandere imagines #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #yandere scenarios #yandere x darling #yandere x reader #yandere harem #yandere townspeople

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pyreo · 2 months

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I'm comparing the Dungeon Meshi manga to episodes I just watched and now I gotta capital-p Post about this one episode (spoilers past Episode 12)

So this part is an emotional side-step from the central throughline so far - Laios and Marcille got Falin back successfully and reunited, and they got that payoff from the very beginning where they thought it would be impossible. But Chilchuck is very much a part of these layers of development, so after that dragon finally dies, we stop for a second - Laios and Marcille are recovering, Falin has disappeared again - how does Chilchuck feel at that point?

It's the perfect stage to insert that because he didn't really share in that sense of victory in the same way as Laios and Marcille recovering someone extremely close to them. And that's on purpose because he keeps everyone at arms' length. As soon as that arc hits its end and Falin is recovered, there's at last space to ask - why is Chilchuck even here.

He's asking himself that through the chapter. Now that they've lost the person they intended to save, he regrets agreeing to come.

And starts shouldering responsibility for everything ending up this way. We saw that when he got stuck in the mimic room before - he refuses to let himself ask for help, or he'll try to take burdens alone to lessen relying on others. The original Touden Party was six people, and when Laios insisted on going back underground they were two, and he knew they would die, and figured maybe, maybe if they were one more, with his skillset, maybe they'd have a chance. He couldn't let them walk back down just to die.

And he's going back to that mindset - their lives are on me. He thinks he could have prevented this if he'd chosen differently. Essentially, the walk alongside the orc woman is him working through a guilt spiral.

He sees a second chance to correct that mistake of joining the party. He wants them out now, before they die. The orc asks him how they defeated a dragon and, in explaining it, he reminds himself of all the risky, ridiculous things they had to do, and he isn't satisfied with just getting lucky. Laios got his foot bitten off, on purpose! This proves to him that if they go any further they will not survive. And he hints at this dissatisfaction a couple chapters later, wishing his teammates prioritised things other than winning at all costs...

Like, obviously. The point of this chapter is Chilchuck pretending to be a self-serving coward. To the point where others react with disdain, even disgust, towards him because he wants to lie to Marcille and Laios to ensure they turn back. He's desperate to get out of a hopeless situation by any means necessary, and will destroy his standing in the group in a blink if it means nobody else dies. He has to go on a stupid mental health walk for his stupid mental health and talk through his little bout of panic and doubt.

'You called me a coward so don't be surprised when I act accordingly'

He needs someone very blunt to tell him 'dude you're not being a coward for wanting your friends to get out of hell alive. you're a coward for making excuses instead of honestly telling them your concern is genuine' and he BSODs about it. He needs to rant and externalise that frustration over their recklessness at a third party. He needs to scream that they are idiots because he's the only one for which the ends don't justify the means and he can't keep losing his mind over everyone's safety. Down to a point, the orc praises their ability to survive the explosion from the dragon's fuel sac, and it only justifies Chilchuck - Falin didn't even know she could cast the spell that stopped them all being killed, and they cannot continue getting lucky like this.

Anyway. The reason I stopped to think about it was this part-

Where he recovers Laios's monster-infused sword. The thing that made their situation in the dragon fight go from bad to worse, that he swore at Laios for in every language he knew. The most angry we'd seen him. And now he calmly picks it up and praises it for being the only one of them smart enough to make a run for it.

He's projecting, obviously. He's internalising the label of 'coward' and changing himself to fit it. And, look at him, he's so tired of this. It's evidence of his sheer exhaustion that his anger immediately disappears and he actually gives it a compliment. Him and Laios's sword, the group cowards, the only one who agrees with him.

Then, because he had a walk before getting into the argument, he's organised his feelings and drops all the walls and pretense and just says it.

There's a rule of writing where you contrast your high energy sequences with parts that are slow and mundane, to make the difference more apparent. I think that's why I like this bit so much. The fight against the dragon is long, and the emotional stakes are enormous. Right after that we have the bath scene with Falin and Marcille, and Laios ruffling Falin's hair, and this part that pauses everything to explore the stuff that Chilchuck finally needs to say. And it's wrapped in this neat little solemn journey to pick up their supplies and remember how it felt when all five of them had a meal around a real dinner table at last.

And because he doesn't resort to individualistic trickery, because he explains his point as a duty of care rather than pitting himself against the others, he gets backed up. Senshi agrees that they don't have the supplies to continue, and the orc lady mentions her brethren will return later and can give them support, all of which together breaks down Laios's singleminded devotion to his cause.

Personally I think the manga's better suited to comic timing, but in the anime you can get fleshed out little moments, like Laios's face journey as he realises the other three are making a good case for their survival.

This was my favourite part so far, and I like how both Chilchuck-centric episodes have separated him from the others. Because he won't reveal anything he's thinking otherwise. lmao

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi spoilers #long post #yeah im sorry dungeon meshi good i'm posting through it

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lunareiitic · 5 months

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HSR 1.6 SPOILERS AHEAD BE WARNED

I saw a discussion on Reddit earlier where someone talked about how gracious Herta is to Ruan Mei and felt that the plot shows that Ruan Mei is taking advantage of her and I felt like... it's not a bad conclusion to draw from the text but. It feels not correct. Like yes, Herta essentially does let RM do whatever she wants, especially with regards to the space station, and RM doesn't seem to be very thankful for it. (Setting aside the fact that it isn't really Herta's space station. Asta's the one who bankrolls and manages it. It's just got Herta's name on it. Herta is just as uncaring to the researchers lmao) But to call RM a "passive manipulator" (yes, I saw this take too) of her and nothing more I think... overlooks both of their personalities? Taking into account that both of these characters are essentially confirmed autistic (go see the official post about the Genius Society, you can't make this up) their dynamic is a little tragic but very true-to-life.

Herta is loud, pushy, and bratty. She's like a cat- she doesn't take no for an answer and the moment you try to get her to do something she doesn't want to do she goes limp and useless. She admires Ruan Mei because she's nothing like her. And RM would never push Herta to do anything. RM doesn't push. She doesn't even really manipulate. The woman cannot lie to save her life. All she did was ask Herta if she could use part of the space station and Herta obliged, and it sounds like she'd been waiting for Ruan Mei to finally ask her for something. RM doesn't really have a malicious bone in her body. That's what makes her so terrifying. People are often just willing to do as she asks and she makes no pretenses or illusions about herself, her motives, or her life. The closest she gets to lying is just not answering when pressed. She is so socially inept she has to drug the trailblazer into silence so they'll help her. And I think this is... out of embarrassment? If it were me, an autistic bitch who cannot lie to save my life, I would want to do something similar. She knows she's gotten herself into a situation because she left the incubator on too long and then the space station got attacked, but admitting that to Herta would wound her pride and also cause friction between them. You can tell that she brought the Trailblazer into that Genius meeting because she was afraid Herta and Screwllum had caught on to her, and once she realizes that it's just them debating about (in her eyes) nothing, she lets the Trailblazer go. I've seen people call that "callous", as if she was dropping them as soon as they were not useful to her. But she says why she does it basically immediately- she thinks it would bore us and she has something else more important that she needs our help with.

I think the part of Ruan Mei's character that people are overlooking right now is that Ruan Mei does care. Look at the story bit for Genius' Repose, where she serves machine oil in a teacup for Screwllum and promises to send a box of homemade sweets to Herta's flesh-and-blood body. She's the kind of person who is actively thinking of her mother and her grandmother and their little home in the snow every time she eats something sweet. Her creations are literally desperate with love. Love, love, love, love. Love that feels alien to her, love that she can't put into words, love that her alexithymia won't let her ascertain and compartmentalize. Love that is as elusive and vexing and important as that spark of the divine soul she's been chasing all this time. She loves and she loves deeply, to the point of obsession. But she's in love with the past as much as Herta is- their signature light cones both have them reflecting on a past version of themselves that they know they cannot have back. She quite literally brought her mother back to life because she couldn't bear to break a promise to her late grandmother (who... somehow, is still waiting for her... somewhere). She's a deeply sentimental person. Haven't you ever looked at other people and felt, even for just a moment, that you are apart from them? That they have something you lack? What if you let that feeling consume you? Ruan Mei yearns for a world that she cannot touch because she's lost the trees in the greater forest of her mind. She feels the need to become god because she feels so utterly alienated from the world around her. But she can't escape herself, no matter how far she runs.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that Herta and Ruan Mei are friends, even if Ruan Mei doesn't feel that she's capable of it. It makes a lot of sense that they're both ice too, element ruled primarily by The Remembrance. I wonder how they both feel about that?

#hsr #honkai star rail #hsr spoilers #ruan mei #herta #this got away from me but I have been thinking about her nonstop for two weeks now

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spacelazarwolf · 1 year

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so i said this in response to an ask, but i wanna make an actual post abt it bc this is something that has been really frustrating me for a while. there is understandable backlash to transmedicalism. it’s a bullshit ideology and all it does is further police the bodies of trans people in an effort to become more palatable to cis people.

that being said, some of that backlash has become so viciously transphobic that it’s becoming completely indistinguishable from te/rf rhetoric, and i've noticed that te/rfs have been starting to use some of the rhetoric in order to get people to sympathize with them. so i really really think we need to be mindful of how we speak about medical transition, especially during a time where there are countries that are essentially trying to make it illegal and/or impossible to medically transition when for a lot of trans people that is a matter of life and death. no, you don't need to medically transition to be trans. you don't need to change the way you dress or your pronouns or your name, being trans is different for everyone. and at the same time, for a lot of trans people that is a huge part of their transition, and it is so concerning to see other trans people speaking so negatively about aspects of transness that are not optional for a huge portion of the trans community.

so what does this mean? it means we stop demonizing or making fun of the changes that happen on hrt (especially testosterone), it means we stop talking about bottom surgery like it's "mutilation" (yes, i have literally heard trans ppl call bottom surgery mutilation HELLO?????), it means we celebrate every choice trans people make about their trans body even if it's not a choice we would make for ourself. it means we reject bioessentialism and gender essentialism, it means we reject the idea that there is a firm line between man and woman and between binary and nonbinary. it means accepting people who don't medically transition, who medically transition in nontraditional ways, it means accepting intersex people who do decide to go on hrt and intersex people who don't, it means accepting detransitioners who go back to identifying as cis and detransitioners who feel they aren't cis or trans. it means we respect and listen to people with experiences different than our own, and it means being extremely critical of anyone who tries to convince you that certain parts of the trans community are somehow out to get you. we cannot fall for that, especially not right now. now, more than ever, we should be celebrating the diversity of our community, not condemning anyone whose experience doesn't line up with our own.

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twistedwonderlandimaginesblog · 1 year

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Vil+Purple lilac? :))

Vil Schoenheit:

Purple Lilac - love at first sight.

This was what Vil would define as a poorly defined twist.

It simply didn’t fit his character. Overall, he was the person who people fell in love with at first sight, tripping over themselves at the beauty and power that radiated off of him in waves. He stood tall and proud, a flirtatious smile for the fans, a teasing remark for the questioning paparazzi, he knew how to play the game and play it well. It was hard, near impossible, to get one over on him and even his fans with all their knowledge of him, his life, and his interests, never managed to throw him off-balance, not even once.

“You looked super cool as that detective’s assistant!”

He had to wrack his brain to even remember the film you were mentioning, some passion project that he had joined because his father was good friends with the director and they needed someone to fill in a secondary role. Vil hadn’t minded because it meant he wasn’t being typecasted as some villain, hoping to show off his acting chops and prove his range. It was a simple role but he had been a showstopper, the reviews rolling in for months after speaking about how his scenes were the most heavily highlighted among articles and reviewers online. He hadn’t thought about it in a long time because in the end, it had been just another stepping stone; it didn’t do much for his reputation in the long run, showing his skill yet still not allowing him to branch out to other kinds of roles.

“Was it easy to steal attention away from the main detective? He really wasn’t bad but the way you look on screen, and the little subtleties you add to your characters… Like the way you’d mess with your bangs when you were uncomfortable, or the way your character would count off on his fingers every time he got upset—Did you come up with all that yourself?”

“I did.” Vil was proud, chin held up, even happier to know that the little things he had worked on had been noticed by you. His stunning looks and powerful presence were all the reviewers had mentioned, not the little nuances Vil had attempted to add into his character. He could probably listen to you talk all night if he had the chance to but— “What’s your name?”

“O-oh, me? Oh, uh…” You stuttered out your online name to him, the last thing you get to say before he’s ushered off with some fellow actors and models into the premiere of another film he had a role in.

He thinks about you the entire time.

The light in your eyes, the excited way you spoke, passion laced in every word, he could tell you genuinely liked the movie and that it wasn’t just to impress him. In a world of people constantly speaking on his sex appeal it was a relief that his acting and the plot was what you were concerned about, though he hadn’t missed the way you had described him.

Striking.

Just like you were.

He discreetly peaked at his phone, typing your name quickly into Magicam to see where your profile was; you were a film geek for sure, a variety of pictures and reviews revolving around media filling his vision as he scrolled through your account. He took the time to read a few during a slower part of the movie, noting that you were quite thoughtful with considering the human side of even the worst kinds of characters. Near the top is a post about him, not the detective movie but another one where he had essentially played ‘the other woman’, and you had written a very opinionated.

‘In the end, Vil Schoenheit is often forced into the same old roles with a slightly different font. It’s a waste of talent and I, for one, look forward to the day directors realize what a gem he truly is. I hope to see Vil in many different kinds of movies in the future, and I’ll try to be at the premiere of every one of them!’

Vil hit the follow button.

He’d never just followed a person like that, not unless they were someone in his circle or a brand who was looking to add him to their payroll. Even then, if they weren’t products he believed in, there wasn’t a chance he’d even look at them twice, so his follow list was a rather short one… But now you were there.

He hoped he could see you before his next premiere.

#Disney TWST #Disney Twisted Wonderland #TWST #Twisted Wonderland #TWST x Reader #Twisted Wonderland x Reader #TWST Imagines #Twisted Wonderland Imagines #Vil Schoenheit #Vil Schoenheit x Reader #Scenario #Flower Prompts

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butch-reidentified · 5 months

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1. What is a woman?

Argument for Using "Cis-Identifying"

And related: A conversation with a "NERF" about radical feminism, gender identity ideology, and what we/I actually believe.

2. Inform yourself on some of the work I've done for trans people before you continue the trend of cowardly hypocrisy.

3. My thread responding to the way much of the tumblr trans community handled my sharing my story of surviving the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting (often by stealing my lived trauma and removing my url) is easily one of the most - if not the most - important posts pertaining to trans discourse I've made to date, and Tumblr won't let me pin it. Of course. So here it is. And a bonus: This lovely ask.

4. Hope for Women (this is a very new project, WIP)

About Me:

I am a butch lesbian, married to a badass gnc (but not butch) radfem lesbian goddess whose misandry surpasses even my own; she does have tumblr but rarely uses it - @psychichologramnightmare is hers. I'm 27/Taurus/May baby, though I'll be real, I've never liked astrology and found my birth chart n whatnot always laughably wildly inaccurate to me (sorry astrology girlies). Former competitive rock climber, still in love with hiking and climbing. Wilderness survivalist. Trained & armed woman, advocate for female-only firearm ownership.

My wife and I run our own business, and bought our first home together at 24 & 25 respectively - it's a lovely 4/3 on a quarter acre where we have 5 mango trees and more, plan to start growing our own food and herbs, foster kittens, and provide free housing (and more) regularly for those in need. We do a LOT of IRL feminist action/work/organizing. I post about some of that work pretty often, but I couldn't possibly post about all of it (even if it were safe to do so). I am basically organizing (mostly offline, but some online as well) full-time now.

Survivor of abuse, CSA + captivity, trafficking in my teens where I was forced into porn as a minor, the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando 2016, and more. I am no longer affected by any of these in any negative psychological manner. I own my past, every moment of it, and wouldn't change a thing I've experienced. What I often tell people is, "I'm not glad it happened; I'm glad I was there."

I got my Bachelor's in Neuroscience/Neuropsych, used to work in a top neuro research lab, and have been a coauthor on a peer-reviewed scientific journal publication. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on POTS, ADHD, some of the relevant epigenetics, and norepinephrine dysregulation. I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos & POTS in 2015, before pretty much anyone had heard of them (including most doctors). My POTS is very well-managed now, but chronic pain from EDS is more of a struggle.

I practice witchcraft as a form of artistic expression. I don't consider myself spiritual as I've had a lifelong inability to "believe," but I am particularly passionate about lesbian-centered/lesbian-exclusive (esp butch & gnc lesbian) witchcraft. I am open to commissions for spell jars/sachets on a purely donation basis (we recently were victims of identity theft and are still struggling to recover, but I'll do them for free happily). This is essentially artistic expression to me, something to express love and sisterhood - why I'm not actually charging or anything and will even pay shipping and materials myself if you'd like one but don't want to/can't donate. To me, it's very similar to commissioning a painting or something of the sort, and I deeply enjoy the process of making them, esp for other women, the love that goes into doing so. See tags: #witchcraft, #brujeria.

Adoptee with complex history. Adoption-critical but not abolitionist - I plan to adopt with my wife in a couple years. I've talked a fair bit about my experiences, adoption trauma, ethical adoption, and more. Check out my tags such as #ethical adoption, #adopted, #adoptee, and so forth (tagged on this post for easy accessibility).

I spent many years surrounded by majority-trans-identifying friends/acquaintances both irl and online, deeply involved in trans spaces & activism, and even identified for a bit & was on T for a while. I am not "uneducated" or unfamiliar with trans-identifying people, their experiences, or gender identity ideology in general. You, like me back then, very probably have been lied to about radfems ("terfs") and what we believe and fight for. I am happy to talk in good faith (provided you do the same) 1 on 1 with anyone who is curious about what we actually believe and what we stand for, what common radfem takes on gender identity ideology & trans identity actually are and why.

I have a history of purely physical sex dysphoria (physical sensation like pain or itching). I got "top surgery" (elective mastectomy) due to this and other reasons: constant painful breast cysts & very large breasts (DDD even when I weighed under 100 lbs). I was not trans-identifying by the time I got this surgery (though I tried to briefly identify as nb/transmasc just bc I felt obligated, but hated it). I have never wanted to be a man socially and genuinely hated the very thought. I came out the womb feminist, got in trouble throughout primary school for fighting boys who tried to pull sexist bullshit, always lowkey believed in female superiority (I mean just look at our biology, lifespans, pain tolerance, the things we've done throughout history despite violent patriarchal oppression...). I spent years preparing myself. I read from & spoke to women who regretted this surgery, challenged myself at every turn, dove deep into my mind and thought processes, tried alternative treatment attempts, worked with a non-affirming therapist, made sure my past traumas were fully healed, and waited until I was in my mid-twenties so my brain was more or less fully matured. I have no regrets about it. I still have some (still purely physical sensation) dysphoria ("phantom male genitals" type of thing) at times, but have come to manage this very well. More on this here.

Formally assessed psychopath & participant in research by leading psychopathy experts (read on before jumping to conclusions). Check out this post and my #psychopathy tag (tagged on this post for easy accessibility) for info, particularly about high-EQ female psychopathy, & to find out everything you think you know about us is wrong 💕 (what you know about male psychopaths is usually right tho 💀)

Note: When it comes to politics, I strive to discuss exclusively that about which I am *uniquely knowledgeable* - by which I mean, essentially, that I (believe I) have something to contribute that is unlikely to be found on every other blog. I do not and will not make posts or reblog posts about topics I do not feel this way about. You are not entitled to know my views on every hot-button issue, and I have no intention of speaking on that which I know little about, or that I don't know enough about (through study or personal experiences) to contribute something you can't get a thousand other places.

Tag Guide (WIP):

#mine -> original posts, including ask responses

#ask -> ask responses only

#anon hate, #anon love -> should be self-explanatory. anon love does include some non-anon love for simplicity.

#catposting, #dogposting, #petposting -> images of cats, dogs, and both, respectively (not always my own)

#Wilder wives -> posts pertaining to me & my wife (last name Wilder)

#mvawg, #mvaw, #male violence -> male violence against women/girls

#ethical adoption -> my takes as an adoptee on the issues within the adoption industry & how adoption can be done ethically

#what we believe -> fairly new tag for posts trying to educate on what radfeminism is actually about/damage control for disinformation & misinformation about it

#trans violence -> violence committed by trans-identifying people, including threats of and graphic violent fantasies (primarily misogynistic ones)

#trans misogyny, #trans lesbophobia, #woke misogyny, #woke homophobia, #woke lesbophobia, etc. -> what it says on the tin

#mine #pinned #hope for Women #ethical adoption #adoptee #adopted #ntsd #neurological type sex dysphoria #sex dysphoria #witchcraft #brujeria #tra receipts #trans violence #male violence #mvawg #trans misogyny #pinned post #about me #what we believe

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azk0re · 6 months

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…and they were roommates! (pt. 1)

pairing: roommate!abby x black!reader

synopsis: your sophomore year of college is starting in a few weeks, and you’re in dire need of a roommate. abby just so happens to be in a similar situation…

warnings: mdni, abby is bi (no bi erasure on this page), slightly older abby, reader is black, reader is femme, reader is a simp tbh, strong language used, (y/n) is used (i had to guys i’m sorry T-T)

an: i’m so terrified of posting this it’s not even funny T-T. i’ve had a really shitty week and wanted to post something about my favorite buff masc so here’s this. i know it’s bad but please be nice! i hope you enjoy. look out for part 2 because it’s coming soon! - with love, ellie ♡

You were having an absolute fucking crisis. At the college you attended, all students were required to stay in a dorm their first year but could move out their sophomore year if they wanted to. You definitely wanted to move out especially after having a nightmare for a roommate your freshman year who snored like a banshee, always brought guys over, and, after finding out about your sexuality, constantly accused you of wanting to sleep with her even though she was far from your type.

In order to move out, freshmen had to alert the school of their decision at the end of their last semester of their first year and they only gave students a month to go back on their choice. You were not aware of this and, by the time you were, you’re month had very well passed and you still hadn’t been able to secure a place to stay. It seemed like every one and two bedroom apartment near the school was taken by someone.

You even asked the few friends you had that attended the school if you could room with them but all of them either had a one bedroom apartment or were rooming with someone else.

So, essentially, you were fucked.

You only had a few weeks to figure something out before school started and you were beginning to get desperate. Finally, after days of sulking over your shitty situation and complaining about it for an hour over the phone to your best friend, Heaven, she gave you the idea of looking through the school’s online bulletin to see if anyone had posted a ‘roommate wanted’ post recently.

The only problem with that idea was the fact that the school’s online bulletin was notoriously difficult to navigate. The layout was horrible and the website had no filtering system so all posts from different years were just mixed onto the website and, for that reason, most people didn’t use it.

It took you two days of sifting through hundreds upon hundreds of old roommate wanted posts to find a recent one. You were just about to give up the hunt for the night when you came across it.

The post itself was very short and simple. The original poster hadn’t put much information about herself other than that her name was Abby, she was a junior, what her email address was and the fact that she was looking for a roommate after accidentally renting a two bedroom apartment instead of a one bedroom apartment.

The moment you saw it, you opened up your gmail account and typed out a very quick email before sending it and finally turning in for the night. The next morning you saw a reply from this mystery Abby woman, asking to meet at a coffee shop in town for lunch for a small interview and to discuss the intricacies of the arrangement which you, of course, agreed to. An email was sent back to you almost immediately giving you the coffee shop’s address and where Abby would be in the coffee shop.

Knowing this was going to be one of those ‘first impressions are very important’ moments you put on one of your favorite outfits that fit the somewhat chilly, early autumn weather that included a tan mini skirt, black long-sleeve turtle neck, black boots, and you’re favorite pair of cream leg warmers, before heading out to the coffee shop.

When you entered the little shop, it finally dawned on you that you had no idea what this lady looked like. All you knew was her name and what booth she was going to be sitting in. So, as you made your way to the back corner of the shop where Abby had instructed you to go to, you couldn’t help but imagine what she could possibly look like. A million different ideas ran through your head as you walked. Maybe she was brunette? She was probably taller than you but not by much, and you imagined her voice to be similar to yours.

What you definitely weren’t expecting to see as you drew closer to the booth was a buff woman with dark blonde, almost brown, hair sitting at the table that you had previously been instructed to go to. The woman was absolutely stunning with her hair tied back, a few strands left out to frame her face, freckles splayed across her cheeks, and her brow furrowed in concentration. Her outfit itself was definitely more on the masculine side which is something you did not anticipate. Even just sitting there, typing away on the laptop in front of her, she looked very intimidating.

When you finally approached the table, you cleared you throat, effectively gaining her attention. Her blue-grey eyes were piercing as she turned her full attention to you, raising an eyebrow in question, “Um, hi, are you Abby?”

A small smile graced her features as she nods her head just so, “I am,” she confirms, her voice catches you by surprise. It definitely fit her face, deep and smooth, but it wasn’t what you thought she would sound like. “I assume you’re (Y/N)?”

Her question snatches you out of your own head. You nod and she motions toward the spot across from her, silently inviting you to sit with her. After clearing her laptop off the table top, she once again turns her gaze to you and you can feel the familiar feeling of anxiety rise in your chest.

“So, let’s cut straight to the chase,” she begins, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms, “you want to be my roommate, right?”

You nod.

“Well, I have spoken to many people interested in rooming with me and a lot of them haven’t been very…fitting for me.” Just by the way she’s speaking and the look on her face, you can tell that she’s probably ran into some of the weirdos on campus, “But, from just looking at you, I think you’d be a good roommate but I do have some questions and things I’d like to discuss before I make a final decision.”

You nod.

Abby grabs a small black notebook that was sat beside a cup of what looked to be straight black coffee, before flipping open to a page and speaking again.

“Okay, so, for one, I think a huge part of what will make this work best for the both of us is full transparency. I’m gonna tell you what I need in a roommate and I want you to tell me what you need in a roommate, and then we can kind of decide whether or not we’d work well together, okay?,” she asks, looking you straight in the eyes as she speaks. Her gaze is unwavering and intimidating, analyzing every bit of you that she could see.

You nod again, “Okay.”

“Alright then,” she starts, “I’ve never really shared a living space with anyone before. Freshman year, I had a single dorm and sophomore year, I had a one-bedroom apartment. I’m a very private, organized, and clean person and I like my space to reflect that. Therefore, what I need from a roommate is for them to respect my space, my privacy, and just keep up with their end of the chores and house care.”

You nod again.

“Other than that, for the sake of being fully transparent, I have to tell you now that I am bisexual so if that’s going to be a problem then this arrangement will not work.“

Abby’s words catch you off guard. From the look of her, it made sense, but you always tried your hardest not to place a label on anyone based on their appearance. Abby studies the hesitance on your face but she doesn’t say anything, she just stares in silence as you collect yourself before finally speaking.

“Okay, um, that won’t be a problem at all.” You say, speaking honestly but you can tell by the look on Abby’s face that she isn’t convinced just yet.

“Are you sure?” She questions, leaning forward slightly, her voice slightly deeper than it had been a moment ago, and her eyes burning holes into your own.

“Yes, 1000% sure,” you smile at her, trying to ease the nervousness rising in your chest at her intense stare, “I mean, it definitely won’t be a problem for me considering the fact that I am a lesbian.”

Abby hums and you can visibly see the tension leave her shoulders as she relaxes back into her seat, “Is that so?”

“Mhm,” you confirm, “I was actually worried about that being an issue with you but it’s nice to know that it wouldn’t be.”

Abby nods and, after a moment of slightly awkward silence, she says, “What are the things that you would need from a roommate?”

“Um,” you start taking a moment to think Edie’s speaking again, “I think I basically need just about the same things. I like my space but, if we’re being 100% honest, I am not a very social person but I can be quite…clingy?” Uncertainty is present in your voice as you speak, not really sure if that would be the best word choice.

“Clingy?” Abby questions, raising an eyebrow, “How so?”

“I mean, I guess clingy wouldn’t be the best word for it,” you mumble, looking away from Abby’s intense stare and out of the window, “I like to talk to people a lot and sometimes I enter other people’s space without realizing it. I understand that some people don’t like that, so if we were to live together I’d want you to create boundaries and stand on those boundaries so that I don’t make you uncomfortable.”

You look back over to Abby, feeling much more confident in the way in which you’d phrased what you felt. Abby slowly nods in understanding after a moment, uncrossing her arms to jot something down on her little notepad, before looking back at you.

“Anything else?” She inquires.

“Other than that I just need you to be courteous and, um, when you have company over be respectful of the fact that I may be there and may need the apartment to be relatively quiet.”

Abby nods, “I can do that. I don’t typically have others over anyway.”

Abby jots something else down on her little notebook before looking back at you, “Okay, now I just a few questions for you and then you can ask me whatever you want, okay?”

You nod.

“Do you have a partner?”

You shake your head, “No.”

“Do you like to have friends over often?”

“Sort of?” You admit, “It’s usually just my best friend and her girlfriend, though.”

Abby nods, scribbling something down again on her notepad, “Do you know what your schedule will look like for the semester?”

You nod, “Most of my classes are late morning, early afternoon or evening classes, so I would be home most of the morning and sporadically throughout the afternoon and evening.”

Abby nods, taking a moment to write some more things down before continuing, “This one’s kind of odd but are you a morning person?”

“Sometimes,” you respond, “there’s days when I wake and I’m ready to tackle the day but there’s also days where I wake up and I want to slam my head against a slab of concrete.”

“I understand the feeling,” Abby snorts, smiling slightly accentuating a cute little dimple on her cheek that makes your own smile a little wide, “I think that’s the last of the questions I have for you. Do you have any for me?”

“Um,” you take a moment to think before settling lamely on your first question, “are you a morning person?”

“I am, I get up at 5 am every morning.”

You groan, “Why put yourself through that every day.”

Abby chuckles, “It’s not that bad. I just like to get my workout in early,” she shrugs, “it keeps me energized throughout the day.”

As you take in her answer, you can’t help but let your eyes wander over her broad shoulders and toned arms, straining against the tight fabric of her long sleeve shirt. You can definitely tell that she works out every day. After a moment, you realize you’re staring and snap your eyes back to her face to see her looking directly at you with a smug expression on her face.

You quickly look away from her own and down at your hands which were sat interlaced on the table in front of you. You felt the tell-tale feeling of embarrassment seep into you. You clear your throat, trying to ignore the butterflies now beating against your ribcage, “So, what will your schedule look like?”

“For this semester, I’ll be out most of the morning and home around late afternoon, hopefully.”

You nod, finally looking back up her to see that the smugness was gone for the most part but she still had a small smirk on her face, “Do you have any hobbies that would be nice to know about beforehand?”

“I play guitar and I play on our school’s rugby team, so during the fall and spring semester I’ll be gone often because of practice and also because of work.”

“Oh, that’s cool. I forgot our school had a rugby team,” you admit almost sheepishly, “I wanted to come to some of the games last year but I was always too busy.”

Abby hums in acknowledgement, “Hopefully you’ll be able to come this year, we’re going to be having quite a few interesting games against rival schools.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” you agree, “um, I can’t really think of any other questions.”

Abby nods at the admission, “I don’t think we’ll have any problems living together. I quite like your company and you’re a lot better than some of the other prospective roommates I’ve met.”

You smile at the praise, “So…does that mean I’ve passed this…interview?”

Abby chuckles at the question, “Yes, it does. You can be my roommate.”

“Oh thank goodness!” You exclaim, slumping down into the booth behind you dramatically getting another chuckle out of Abby, “You have no idea how much you just saved my life. I couldn’t find an apartment for the life of me and I was so worried about having a roommate.”

“Have you never a roommate before?” Abby asks, amusement apparent on her face and in the tone of her voice.

“Oh, no, I’ve had a roommate before.” You sigh, remembering the suffering she put you through, “I had one last year actually, but she was pretty awful and I was just afraid of having another bad one.”

Abby hums, “Well, I hope I haven’t disappointed you yet.”

“You have not,” your assure her, giggling a bit, “trust me, you’re a hundred times better than she was.”

“What was so bad about her?”

You sigh, “She was just not very…kind. She was quite selfish actually.” You admit, “She was very messy and she would bring guys over to mess around with even when I was there and basically kick me out so she could do her…thing.”

Abby’s face contorts into one of pure irritation as you speak, “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, it really was,” you agree, “she also was convinced that I had a thing for her after finding out I was a lesbian. She wasn’t even my type! She was far from it.”

Abby nods, looking at you sympathetically, “I hate when people assume that.”

“So do I,” you sigh, again before smiling up at Abby, “but it’s alright. It’s in the past now.”

Abby smiles back, nodding again, “Yeah, now you have me as roommate and I promise that I will try my best to give you a better experience than that.”

You and Abby sat in the little coffee shop for a few more hours, getting to know one another better before heading on your separate ways for the time being, but not before exchanging numbers.

The next day, Abby texted you the address to the apartment, and told you that you could start moving in whenever but just to let her know so that she could be home to help. The two of you continued to text routinely almost every day until the day you were supposed to move in.

A week after you guys met in the coffee shop, you were ready to move in and had texted Abby as much. The plan was to start moving in that day with the help of Abby and your best friend, Heaven. In your mind, the move itself would be pretty easy and straightforward since you didn’t have a ton of stuff. In total, you probably had fifteen or so boxes and a few bags which all fit nicely in the tiny U-Haul you’d rented. The rest of your furniture and stuff would be moved in later in the day by a moving company, so nothing that you had with you was too heavy.

When you arrived, you texted Abby to let her know, expecting her to come out in something similar to what she’d had on the day you met, a simple shirt and jeans, but you were mistaken.

When Abby came out, both you and Heaven were distracted with taking things out of the U-Haul, it wasn’t until she called out your name that you noticed her walking up to the two of you. Her appearance caught you off guard…again.

Her hair was essentially the same, tied in the back and braided into a long braid that cascaded over her shoulder with a few pieces out in the front, but her outfit was dramatically different. This time she was dressed in what seemed to be gym attire. Black shorts that hugged her pretty tight, a black muscle tee, white Nike socks and sneakers. The main thing that caught your eye wasn’t really her attire though, it was the dark ink that littered her arms and thick thighs.

You were mesmerized, stuck staring until Heaven smacked you discreetly on the behind, hissing a reprimand at you about you staring at your new roommate like a piece of meat all through a polite smile that was pointed in Abby’s direction.

You quickly tried to pull your shit together as Abby reached the two of you, smiling kindly at the both of you, not seeming to have noticed you gawking at her only moments before. After introducing Abby and Heaven, the three of you began working on your boxes.

You were all able to get your things inside the apartment and into your room pretty quickly. You kept getting distracted though by the absolutely delicious view that was Abby Anderson.

You knew she was obviously strong just by the look of her physique but you couldn’t get over how easily she picked up all of your heaviest boxes without even breaking a sweat. Her outfit left nothing to your imagination, and it made it hard for you to focus causing you to run into and drop things all too often.

When you guys were finally done, Abby had left you and Heaven alone to relax and get you all drinks as the two of you began to go through your things.

Heaven kept giving you a look that you were pointedly trying to ignore. Eventually, she got tired of being subtle and hissed your name, “You need to get it together, girl.”

“I’m trying.” You whine, quietly.

Heaven sighs, glancing over to and out of the open door to check to see if Abby was coming or not. When she confirmed that the other woman was still downstairs she leaned toward you, “I get it, babe. She’s hot as hell but she’s also your roommate now. You’ve gotta tread lightly.”

“You have a girlfriend, you can’t call other people hot.” You throw back at her trying your best to ignore the last bit of her sentence.

Heaven rolls her eyes, “As if Ellie would give a shit,” she snorts, “we point out hot women to each other, and, trust me, if my baby was here, she’d agree with me and add a lot more vulgar comments.”

You ignore her statement knowing how true it was, sighing to yourself instead, you halt your work on the box of your belongings in front of you, “What am I gonna do, Heaven? She’s completely my type. I thought I could do it before, y’know? At the coffee shop it felt fine because I couldn’t see all of her, but now…”

“It’s the tattoos ain’t it?” Heaven teases with a shit-eating grin and you whine nodding your head before flopping backward on to the floor beneath you, laying flat on your back. Heaven simply laughs at your pain, enjoying the dramatic display in front of her.

“I mean, she might be hot but there’s no way she’s gay, right?” Heaven says, giggling a bit as she turns her attention back to the box of your belonging in front of her. When she’s met with no answer she looks at you, squinting, “Right, (Y/N)?”

“She’s bi,” you whisper with a sigh, covering your face with your hands.

Heaven gasps, dropping whatever she was holding back into the box, “You’re lying!”

“I’m not!” You groan, “I wish I was.”

“Oh, honey,” Heaven says, sounding sympathetic now, “the only thing you can do is try not to fall for her.”

You groan once again in absolute defeat. There was no way you were going to be able to manage that.

“Maybe she’s got a boyfriend or a girlfriend or something and you won’t have to deal with her being single and hot as hell.” Heaven offers, going back to rustling through the box in front of her.

You’re about to say something about how that wont help much at all because it would just piss you off to see her with someone else, when you hear the sound of footsteps approaching the room. You shut your mouth quickly and turn your attention to the doorway of the room, seeing Abby with three bottles of cold water, still looking as mesmerizing as before.

Abby hands a bottle to Heaven and then to you before speaking, “I’m sorry for taking a while to come back, I had to take a phone call.”

She opens the lid of her own water bottle and takes a few gulps from it, pulling your attention to her adam’s apple as it bobs in her throat.

Heaven nudges you with her foot, once again pulling you out of your embarrassing staring before Abby could see.

“It’s no biggie,” Heaven says, snickering a bit as she answers for the both of you knowing that you are far too distracted to respond to Abby.

Abby smiles at Heaven after pulling away from her water bottle, turning her attention to you, “The call was about your key. It’ll be ready tomorrow, so when I get back from the gym I’ll pick it up and bring it home to you, yeah?”

You nod, still too distracted to speak.

Abby doesn’t seem to think anything of your lack of verbal response, instead she just nods as well, “I’m gonna head to the gym. If you girls get hungry please help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I’ll be back in about an hour and a half, okay?”

You nod again and Abby spares you one more sweet smile, before telling Heaven that it was nice to meet her which Heaven, of course, reciprocates, and leaving the room.

When Abby is far enough away from the room, Heaven turns to you and shakes her head, “Girl, you are so fucked.”

You knew she was right but you didn’t have the energy to respond verbally, so instead you just cover your face with your arms and groan.

You were far beyond fucked.

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hauntedpearl · 2 years

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afadshd I SAID I WON'T SAY ANYTHING BUT. hmm. okay. this is gonna bug me i need to get it out. i think we as a fandom just. forget some things about the show. the thing is, canonically, dean doesn't have an "Asian woman fetish" because the show does not acknowledge it as a thing that even deserves such terminology. every male character on the show is into that porn mag (remember that teenager sam bodyswapped with? proof enough i think if this random kid also had a copy of it. oh also! old vintage bab at the bunker 😐). it's essentially the only porn mag that's explicitly shown on screen on the show. like. THAT'S the issue. the problem is that the show normalizes fetishizing Asians to the point where the only form of East-Asian rep until, i guess, Kevin (??????like???god?????) is like. bab. sgfshsjd IT'S INGRAINED IN THE SHOW THAT BADLY. LIKE. IT'S FUCKED UP. like. essentially. the show is saying that if you're into women, you're into bab. which. hmm okay. i mean I'm not as offended as i probably should be when i sometimes come across it in fic bc i am a tired old asian woman and i filter it out for my personal enjoyment of things. (which. again. tired old person. im careful enough, but i just need white people to know that I am one extremely hardened and tolerant person who puts herself out there for conversations like this all the time and therefore is USED to it to the point of being able to shake it off pretty easily. but like. this is not the norm and IT SHOULD. NOT. BE)

(also engagement with fanfic and traditional media is like different for me but ig that's a whole other conversation. im so much more forgiving w fanfic.)

anyway. this is me just trying to tell you that bab is not an essential part of Dean's sexuality. it's not a personal thing for him, being fetishistic about Asians. Bab is the show being like that. it's the camera. ghostfacers effect or whatever. In a world where eric kripke is not one seriously messed up insane man, it would probably just be some skinmag with like. idk. naked cowgirls or whatever ykwim? like please don't think you're veering from canon when you remove it from your work/discussions/whatever. you're not. you're just ignoring it like you're ignoring other stupid stuff that the narrative normalizes for you.

also. i am not trying to coddle any white people, but i need you to understand that doing a racism ≠ being a racist. like i think a lot of you are afraid of owning up to racisms because you think you'll be branded a racist (in this case, a gun touting redneck who says slurs ig), and like. you need to divorce yourself from that kind of thinking my dudes. we all live in a white supremacist world (me, too, even in India so far away) we are ALL going to do some racisms some times. it's okay to acknowledge that and learn from it. like we are pigs in mud, some will get on you etc., the best you can do is like. see what went wrong. self-examine. reroute thinking to greener pastures.

OKAY STUPID LONG POST BUT YEAH

#i won't say anything about 4lw tho because i think it's more nuanced than that in case of that particular fic and it's like. okay whatever #like i kinda see what the author waa going for and im like ehhh okay whatever.#the thing is. im not terribly attached to it bc it was very smutty for me so like yeah it was cute but it's not Thee Fic or whatever for me #so im like SORRY BUT I DON'T CARE ABOUT HER IS THAT AWFUL 😭😂#but because all this discussion came up. i wanna talk about the overarching problem. which is not one fic or one person or one anything #it's the construct of the show and it's how you as a creator of fan content engage w it etc #don't @ me too much about this im TIRED AND STUPID #tw racism #long post

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that-ari-blogger · 2 months

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The Cooler She-Ra (Huntara)

Let me clear something up.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power doesn't get good, and it doesn't go places. It is good, and it has been in those places since day one. The first story discusses the cost of war with considerable nuance, lest we forget. Yes, the quality of the writing, animation, and debatably the acting increases as the series goes on as the crew finds their feet. But the themes of this series are explicit from the jump and do not change.

Reading that back, that was a bit more confrontational than I intended, so let me try and phrase it a different way.

For a lot of episodic stories, good and bad, the overwhelming vibe is of acceleration. The themes start out slow, then get piled in over time. Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, for example, starts with the basic idea of friendship and secrecy, but matures to discussion of family, history, and legacy over time. This isn’t a flaw with the writing of Mystery Inc. at all, it’s just a way of writing.

Watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is like being in a single roomed house with a few small windows. You can see the outside world and the story through those windows, its clear enough to know there’s something interesting, but you can’t see the whole thing.

Then in season three, the walls start falling down and you start to realise where you have been the whole time.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

I’m going to start with something small that isn’t particularly related to the rest of the post, but I think it’s of equal importance and can’t be ignored. Huntara is gay.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it kinda reframes the rest of the series. Because up until this point, the queer coding we have seen has been a few background characters, and Spinnarella and Netossa, who have an implied relationship.

That’s just what it is, coding. They are coded together, but it isn’t dwelled upon. If it had only been season one that got made, I guarantee you there would be eejits online who would argue that they were platonic friends.

But Huntara explicitly flirts with another woman in a bar. This is a named character, who is casually queer, and that is what sets the precedent retroactively. Now it can no-longer be argued that this series isn’t interested in showing queer stories. Now Spinnerella and Netossa’s relationship is essentially confirmed, as the series has made itself and its stance abundantly clear. This is a show with queer people, it isn’t subtext, and it hasn’t been subtext this whole time.

Let me be clear, I am not arguing that Spinnarella and Netossa aren’t married in the first season at all. They are together, end of argument. But on a literary level, it is coding in that season, and it stops being coding retroactively.

The reason for the coding angle is actually linked to the casualness of Huntara’s sexuality.

Unfortunately, in popular culture and mainstream storytelling, the idea that a character is straight unless proven otherwise is a general attitude. This often means that a queer character isn’t queer unless proven so.

But Huntara establishes a different precedent, casualness. Huntara is just gay, there is no fanfare about it. The episode doesn’t dwell on it. But at the same time, it’s undeniable. This is a series where people are just queer, there doesn’t need to be confirmation, you can assume.

Anyway, Huntara, the episode, is still early on in season two, so it is still setting up what ideas the series will focus on. I mentioned earlier that the series as a whole has themes that it has been discussing from the get go, and I stick by that, but every season and every episode has to zero in on something (with exceptions) for clarity’s sake. In this case, Huntara centres around the idea of revelations, hence this post. Nothing in this episode is what it seems.

Worldbuilding is a key storytelling concept that is rarely dwelled upon except by Game Masters for TTRPGs, and Necrit. But it’s actually one of the most important elements of any work of fiction. Stories are based around vibes, and the easiest and most effective way to set up a specific feeling is to evoke that through the setting.

For a few key examples, Bloodborne is a story about injustice, horror, and monsters hiding in plain sight, so what better place to put it than the false civility of Victorian London? Similarly, The Magnus Archives is a story about injustice, horror, and monsters hiding in plain sight, so it is set in modern London. As a contrasting example, Robert Galbraith’s series, “Harold Pots and the Magicky Magic Stuff”, is about how the status quo is fine, actually, and that any attempts to change that is tantamount to murder, so it is set in a British boarding school. I disagree with the premise of one of these stories, can you tell which one?

The Crimson Wastes is an area where nothing is what it seems and everything wants to kill you. The ground could easily be quicksand, or deadly bushes, or a pile of snakes.

The opening scene is a phenomenal way of establishing the new territory. Not the dialogue, but what it shows you. Enormous skeletons of creatures that couldn’t handle the environment litter the ground, fossils that stand as a testament to life that had to adapt to survive

A bird drifts past the characters, landing on a plant. It’s peaceful. Then the bird literally iced, and falls from view, leaving the camera to focus only on the plant itself and all of that terrifying glory. This is telling you a few things. One, look twice at things before jumping in, not everything is as it seems. Two, this story is dangerous, and not even a cute little bird is safe from death. Three, nature and magic are one and the same. I wonder what that will mean going forward.

Also, there is a reason that the Horde hasn’t managed to conquer this area. I think praise needs to be given to the sound design of this episode. The scratching noise that accompanies the skeleton is unsettling, and it exists to make you remember that image. This area is dangerous in a different way to anything you have seen before. Not even the villains of this story can reach you here.

However, there is humanoid life here, which comes back to the theme of revelations and things not being what they seem. Making a living in the Wastes is possible, and that bar being literally inside an enormous skeleton is about as blunt of a metaphor as you are going to get. Surrounded by death, there is life.

Enter Huntara’s eponym, and let's take her apart, starting with her character design.

Huntara is practical, first and foremost. She carries a weapon that can double as a stick to poke things with from a distance (remember this), in case they turn out to be dangerous. She is dressed in simple clothes, not too heavy as to cause her to overheat, but enough to protect her from the sun. She is partially armoured (remember this too), and wears the exact same shoes as Adora, hinting at her background, although she has reinforced and repaired them, again, she’s practical.

But there are two things that I’m missing, and they are the two most obvious things about her. She’s built like a brick privvy, and she’s cool as all hell.

The coolness thing is partly based on her sense of self image. This is someone with a distinct sense of style, utilitarian as it may be. She has styled her hair, wears clawed earrings, and has that tattoo across her head, as well as the torn crop top. Despite her surroundings, Huntara has taken effort to make herself look good. She’s confident in herself.

The strength thing, on top of being the other seventy percent of her coolness factor, leads me into something weird about her design: she looks like Adora. Bear with me on this one.

This isn’t exact. Don’t get me wrong, the designs aren’t a one-to-one thing. Her design just has the same energy as Adora’s. The short jacket, with its jagged collar, kinda matches Adora’s jacket. But where Huntara’s is open (remember this too), showing off her strength and confidence, Adora’s is closed in, restricting her and keeping her polished and refined. I mean “polished and refined” here in less of a mark of quality, but more in the sense that she has a lot holding her back and holding her down.

Similarly, Adora has those shoulder pauldrons, making herself look bigger, like a prey animal with false eyes. But Huntara has boxy shoulders that form a shape language, as she has actually developed the defences Adora pretends to have. In that way, she acts as a more completed version of Adora, which is interesting.

Finally, there is that hair, which is put up in a similar way to Adora’s, not the same, but alike enough to make the silhouettes echo. The shot below is about as much proof I have for this crackpot theory.

But she’s not exactly a good role model, is she? She’s duplicitous, which harks back to those ideas of revelations and second glances that I mentioned earlier. But she’s also standoffish, at which point I will bring back those elements of her design I said to remember, the spear, the partial armour, and the open jacket.

Huntara isn’t emotionally healthy, she has just dealt with PTSD in a different way to Adora, she has run. She has adapted to keeping things at a distance, and not letting people get close, exemplified by the polearm that doubles as a long range weapon. She is also terrifying, which also helps her stay isolated.

This all covers up for the fact that she has very few emotional defences. She is only partially armoured, and despite her best efforts, she has nothing protecting her heart. Adora brings up something that is a little too close to Huntara for comfort, then asks her about it, and her only reaction is to make a threat.

She does this twice in this episode. She feels emotionally vulnerable, and immediately pins the cause of that vulnerability to the closest wall. It's as if it's a stock reaction.

“Huntara doesn’t run from anything. I want to be here.”

I call bollocks on that. It’s a mantra, a myth, not an actual response. It’s like saying “haven’t you heard the legend”. But I actually want to talk about the vernacular a bit here.

The second sentence is reminiscent of a character not yet mentioned in this episode. She has intellectually acknowledged that things are bad, but she has convinced herself, emotionally, that this is where she wants to be. She wants this, this is her life, she cannot be out of control. Similarly, if things go wrong, it’s what she deserves, because she wanted this. If the phrasing of that and the need for a feeling of control doesn’t sound exactly like Catra, I don’t know what does.

On a different note, the third person thing isn’t done by many other people in this series, but isn’t it a funny coincidence that two of the people who do it are in the same place at the same time? Who could have foreseen this?

Putting it mildly, Adora, throughout the series, has an identity crisis going on. She cannot decide if she is Adora or She-Ra, and it leads into a true Jeckyl and Hyde plot that I discussed in more detail in this post, which manifests most acutely as her referring to herself in third person. When she is most powerful, she is She-Ra, and Adora is a different person. But when she is feeling weak, she is Adora, and She-Ra will save her.

Although, in another weird twist of fate, Huntara knows more about She-Ra than anyone else besides Razz and Light Hope, because she has heard of the legends and has studied what Mara left behind, she gives us a summary of what this whole She-Ra thing is, through all the biases of Adora and Mara. So don’t think this line escaped me:

“She-Ra is a person?”

From everything that Huntara has seen and heard, nothing has told her that She-Ra is an individual. Instead, it's a thing to be revered, a concept rather than an identity and this is… correct?

She-Ra isn’t another person who Adora becomes, it isn’t an identity for Adora to assume, its something to be, like a hero, or a friend. It’s a facet of Adora, rather than her whole being. But Adora can’t see that, because of the aforementioned identity crisis.

I mentioned in my last post that season three gets as close as this series gets to evading the tragic format without actually breaking free, and I think that the talk of identity is a good place to explain where Adora fits into this.

Adora’s tragic flaw is also her greatest strength. She thinks incredibly quickly. This makes her a phenomenal tactician in the short term but causes her to be incredibly shortsighted. This is in contrast to Catra, who is always about ten steps ahead of everyone, ut can’t see the forest for the trees most of the time.

So, Adora internalises things quickly, and a majour side effect of this is that she doesn’t always complete things rationally. Her identity problem isn’t so much this incarnate as just this problem exactly.

She has been given a magic sword and told a bunch of things about it, and she has taken that at face value and moved on, internalising this in a way that isn’t accurate. She is She-Ra, but that doesn’t remove everything else about her.

Adora has been tossing up the idea of giving up her past and embracing this new identity that she has been given, and season three presents her moving away from that idea. Huntara is an example of that extreme, and it isn’t enviable.

But at the end of the season… well, you will just have to wait for more of my blog to see how that works out.

Or you could just watch the show.

Lastly, I would like to talk about Hordack and Entrapta, because their scenes in this episode are both really cute and really thematic.

The reveal of Hordack’s frailty plays into that idea of revelations that I have been talking about, but it also plays into his and Entrapta’s themes of failure and self worth and sets up those themes in Horde Prime.

Stylisation is something that this series plays around with a lot when it comes to backstories and asides (I conveniently have a post talking about this idea in detail), and that comes back for Hordack’s flashback.

This is simple, incredibly so. There are simple shapes, and very few colours on display. It is flat, but in a way that is very clearly intentional. Hordak has an extremely simple worldview. He isn’t a two dimensional character, but like Glimmer, he sees the world in an overly reductive way.

The colouration also sets Horde Prime out from the rest of the scene here, holding him up on a pedestal. Hordak and everything around him is a shade of red, orange, or yellow. It’s warm in tone, but also blends together with the purple to make Hordak look at home, and one with his surroundings. But Horde Prime stands out, and the eye of the viewer is drawn to him because of that abrasive green. He is at the centre of Hordak’s mind.

The flashback does this multiple times, using that green like a highlighter to focus the viewer's eye on the most important part of the image.

Also, this looks like a political poster, doesn’t it? It’s propaganda, and Hordak has taken it, hook line and sinker. That actually serves to explain the flat stylisation, it’s conveying simple ideas. Horde Prime doesn’t get any detail to what he actually looks like other than “he probably looks like Hordak” and “he’s got a cape and that collar thing”. This is the idea of Horde Prime, not the actual guy. We are looking at the pedestal this character stands upon, rather than the character itself.

That collar thing is actually a neat little character design element that is reflected in Hordak until this episode. Entrapta replaces it with her armour, and I think its important that Entrapta and Horde Prime are immediately presented as opposites.

The literal only thing we learn about Horde Prime’s personality in this episode is that he doesn’t particularly like individuality. Failure, defects, and deviations are all worthy of being killed for. You have to prove your worth, instead of it being assumed. And even then, I am inclined to doubt whether Hordak will be able to prove himself, no matter what he does.

Entrapta is villainous, kinda. She is aligned with a machine of war and death, which isn’t the most ethically sound of activities. But, she opposes the main villain of this story on principle.

“Everybody needs help sometimes. And you shouldn't be upset that you're not perfect. Take Emily! Her programming is glitchy, the left leg sticks, and she's loud. Emily's got quirks, but that's why I like her. Imperfection is what makes scientific experimentation possible. Imperfection is beautiful. At least to me. … And you're really too obsessed with this whole failure thing, I mean, I'm a failure... I don't fit in. I became friends with Adora, but she abandoned me. Then, I became friends with Catra, but she doesn't talk to me anymore. But that doesn't mean I give up. I scrounged up a few more pieces of First Ones Tech, and I can't think of a better use for it than this.”

Imperfection is beautiful.

There is also the scientific aspect of Entrapta, which I think hasn’t been discussed that much. She-ra makes a point of equating the natural with the good, and the artificial with the bad. But Entrapta is a scientist and an inventor, where does she fit into that?

Curiosity. Science is the study of the world. It is a means of learning more about nature, and to create things from that nature. She experiments, and understands. Imperfection is beautiful, and if there is one thing nature is good at, it’s variation.

Entrapta doesn’t exist in contrast to nature, but parallel to it. All she does is express the natural aspect of this story in a different way to everyone else.

Final Thoughts

The sound design of this episode is unrivalled so far in the series, and it will get better over time. The sting at the start with the skeleton is perfectly unsettling, and the ambience of the Wastes is superb.

Also, the cinematography of the fight in this episode is really well done, filled with motion and dynamism and tactical expressions of character. The sword duel is cool, and the fact that Glimmer is out for blood isn’t really dwelled upon, but it's notable that both of the goons she fights survive the experience through sheer force of luck.

However, Huntara figuring out Adora was from the Horde because of how she fights was a little weak to me. “I recognise that training”, really? Not the boots? Not the fact that she keeps bringing up the Horde? Ok.

Next week, I will be looking at One Upon A Time In The Wastes, so stick if that interests you.

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newtonsheffield · 10 months

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molly, when you write kate and edwina`s relationship in your fics that is always so sweet and caring it like more based in the books right??? becasue they did such a mess in the show with kate lying to edwina and with edwina not paying attention to kate. In fact, do you belive that edwina should have listened to kate when she command her to not let anthony court her??? that feel bad honestly, kate was like being bossy with edwina.

Okay, I’m going to run through this one more time really quickly because I have like 12 hours of videos on season 2 that you can watch that details all of my opinions on these things but the dynamics at play here are a lot more complicated than we’d like.

It’s below the cut. This post is not tagged for a reason.

First off, I had my characterisation of Mary and Edwina set long before the show came out. Basically: I’m the one writing it so I’m gonna do whatever I want tbh. There are plenty of other people who write the dynamics differently.

Before we discuss Kate lying to Edwina let’s discuss the events of the show up to the point where it would have been best if she had told Edwina.

Kate Sharna meets a handsome man in the woods. He was cute, and charming, and sure they flirted a little and Kate liked Anthony a little. We see this because-

She sees Anthony again at Lady Danbury’s ball and she confirms that she thinks he’s handsome (Mary’s look to Kate in this moment is so sweet, don’t even get me started). She then seeks out Anthony’s company again after she sees him dancing (poorly) and sees him talking about how he’s not interested in getting to know the woman he’s marrying. Worse, he talks about them as though they’re all the same, interchangeable and only really good for one thing: Having children so you can fulfil an obligation and move on with your life. Anthony immediately tries to flirt with her again and Kate feels honestly stupid. She came to London thinking she was prepared for the task ahead and at the first hurdle she’s found out that she wasn’t. She feels awkward and uncomfortable and upset and she needs to regroup.

Anthony has now set his sights on Edwina. There’s no interaction here.

Anthony makes an idiot out of her by essentially organising someone to spend time with her. It’s insulting and disrespectful. Edwina then has her moment of teenage rebellion

They go to Aubrey Hall and this is where the shift starts to happen. They play Pall Mall and they have a moment of shared sameness where Kate starts to realise that maybe the version of him she saw at first is the real Anthony. They then have that moment with the bee but this is only the beginning of Kate recognising what she;s actually feeling for Anthony. She’s still not very sure.

They have their moment in the library they go hunting, they actually spend time together, learn about each other and they dance together and this is when Kate begins to be sure that she;s having actual feelings for Anthony. Here. Following the fact that Edwina already wants him to propose. So she’s already in a difficult position. This was the perfect time to tell Edwina and get I think some blowback but it would have been minimal.

Anthony has already proposed out of his own fear.

The window was minimal because of the fact that Anthony acted out of his own fear for what he felt. He was so sure that if he just proposed to Edwina all of this would stop. It was more than expected of him at this stage. To the outside world, Mary is right, he has shown her every attention in the world. He took her and her family to his home privately, if he had withdrawn even then there would have been questions about what was wrong with her. Bare in mind, that Kate has no confirmation from Anthony that he has feelings past lust for her so even if she told Edwina she was in love with Anthony: What could come of it? She feels it would be selfish to ruin it for Edwina, to ruin it for Anthony because if what she feels.

This is further complicated by the fact that Kate is used to sacrificing what she wants for what Edwina needs. This started because it was made clear to Kate when Edwina was about 10 that she needed to marry nobility for them to have any hope. Kate couldn’t marry because she herself would have then been expected to look after her husband’s family and there was no guarantee that they would allow her to have the same amount of contact with Mary and Edwina so I think this just seemed best at this point. Because Kate, in a way, feels that she owes Mary the life she gave up in Marrying her father. In choosing Kate and her father Mary gave up her life in England and Kate wants to give it back. This is misguided because Mary doesn’t actually want it back but alas, Kate hasn’t asked. So Kate’s entire life focuses on Edwina’s education now. Mary is obviously deeply depressed and I think when they were in India was probably less distant with the girls than we see. Being in England has likely brought up a lot of shit with her husband and family and the ton in general so I think we’re seeing Mary struggling more than she has for a while. Somewhere along the line Kate has likely stopped only doing what Edwina needs and has started giving Edwina what she wants. Frankly, we need to stop viewing their relationship as sisters and start seeing it as an unequally mother daughter relationship. Edwina is also, very used to getting what she wants, and she’s 18. So I think when she learns that there’s more going on with Kate and Anthony and even with Mary to a certain degree: She’s surprised because she is used to being at the centre of their family unit. So that shatters as well. Do I think this was managed perfectly in the show? No, I have my own ideas about how to fix that but Netflix isn’t paying me so I’m not gonna hand them out.

So we’re now in a situation where really: Everyone feels betrayed

Edwina feels betrayed by Kate.

Kate feels betrayed by Anthony but more importantly she feels betrayed by herself. Because she should have put aside her own needs she shouldn’t have been there in the way.

And Mary feels betrayed by herself as well. And here’s where most people get this wrong (in my opinion) Mary does not feel betrayed by Kate. Mary feels guilty. Because the second she saw Anthony kneel in front of Kate she realises exactly how much she has let slide. Exactly how much Kate took on herself. Because I think until that point she genuinely thought she still had the kind of relationship with Kate where Kate would have told her this. Kate was telling her the truth. Kate is her daughter, who she has never known hide sections of herself away. Why would she now? Thus isn’t even to mention the fact that Anthony gets a lot of praise for defending Kate to the Sheffields but Mary did it first. Mary stood up to her parents and said: That is my child, take it or leave it.

So no. I don’t think Kate was bossy with Edwina. She was very hurt at what she’d done and she was trying to make Edwina see that Anthony wasn’t going to love her. Which she was right about. Edwina probably should have listened. Would have saved everyone a lot of time but I also think she was a young girl who got swept up in the romance of being in a Different place and being so sought after. I’m not saying she’s vain, I’m not saying she’s frivolous, there are plenty of signs that she too was under a lot of pressure. But she got swept up in the moment. It’s easy to do.

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owlpellet · 4 months

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Hi I saw your post about having 12 species of birds in your backyard so now I’m genuinely asking: what’s your advice for bird watching? And getting those birds into my backyard?

so i'm not what anyone would call a comprehensive resource but i can offer a few tips, yeah!

for making your yard attractive to birds:

birds do not like open space, as it makes them vulnerable to predators. they need lots of foliage to hide, so place any feeders or other features in places that aren't wide open. if you do not have a lot of plants in your yard, change that if you can!

diverse plants will also attract nectar-feeding birds and insect-eating birds, and are sort of your "natural" feeder setup. you can check if your area offers grants for pollinator gardens.

a non-stagnant or regularly-changed water feature (fountain, bird bath) is also very attractive to birds. in hotter climates, i would say it's an essential addition.

different types of feeders and food attract different types of birds. you can draw hummingbirds with nectar and bright flowers (they love fuchsia), most songbirds with black oil sunflower and safflower seeds, a whole variety with different suet, corvids with peanuts; doves and juncos and corvids prefer tray or ground feeding, little songbirds like something they can cling to, etc. research what kind attracts what you want to see, or make a diverse setup if you have the space. you can usually avoid feed that has millet, most birds will just hurl it everywhere.

don't feed birds bread; it's empty fluff and just fills them up. seed is boring but fine, they don't really have a concept of food being "boring"

clean your feeders every time you refill them (and change hummingbird feeders every few days regardless); there are several contagious avian diseases and you want to avoid outbreaks. your feeders will become known as foul and the uninfected will move on.

if you live in an area that has them, figure out a way to rodent-proof your feeders, like squirrel baffles. they'll destroy your whole setup and scare away all the birds (you can try to set up a special squirrel feeder, but they do not respect borders).

consider nest boxes! make sure they can be opened for cleaning, and don't have any harmful materials in their construction.

check if your town has a backyard birding store, like wild birds unlimited or a locally-owned equivalent. there will almost always be an old woman who may or may not work there willing to dispense advice about your local birds.

keep your cats indoors

for watchin them birds:

get the merlin app on your phone; it's kind of like Bird Shazam and can help you ID based on its song

if you want to get more serious, you can also get eBird and report your findings/keep a checklist

if you don't have a fancy zoom lens camera, get a pair of binoculars! they're good to have even if you do. you can even take pics through them with your phone.

the best time to watch birds is from about sunrise to late morning

don't interact with the birds, save for outlier circumstances (rescue, one lands on you, etc)

yard-watching and trail-watching are pretty different when it comes to ethics and how much humans and birds should be interacting. in general it's frowned upon to feed birds in wilderness areas to attract them, whereas urban birds are already accustomed to human presence. it's also frowned upon to play mating songs to attract birds.

don't go off-trail trying to find birds you can hear. it's dangerous for you and upsetting to them.

your area might have local birding meetups, or online groups where people report sightings and good spots.

there's uhhh probably a lot more i'm forgetting to add but i think this covers the basics!

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gandalfsbignaturals · 1 year

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That post about tme/tma was pretty funny to read as I have as a trans man experienced trans misogyny multiple times. I have a man’s name and dress in men’s clothes and multiple times people have thought I am a trans woman who I guess is mid social transition or smth? Idk man its weird. I think its valuable to talk about different experiences with transphobia within the trans/lgbt community and outside of it but i guess its easy to forget how varied the trans experience can be. Also why is there no term for the transphobia fuelled misogyny trans men face? As a trans man i feel like i can’t escape misogyny even from people who accent me as a man. Misogyny is also often the first punishment and slap in the face against me by transphobes. They rarely say anything about me being trans but just talking sexist shit?

see, thats another thing about transmisogyny that i think a lot of people forget. its not separate from misogyny and transphobia, it is the intersection of those two. so, if someone is both transphobic and misogynist, anybody who they think looks trans and they think looks like a woman is a potential target.

this actually includes, like, a lot of trans men, because 99% of these bigots dont actually care to learn a single thing about trans people. they often literally do not know enough about trans-ness to tell the difference between a trans man and a trans woman. they see someone who looks like theyre doing gender wrong, and they floor it, and anyone who doesnt conform enough can be caught in the crossfire.

additionally, trans men dont get to opt out of misogyny when they start transitioning. many trans men struggle to pass as men, because gender is a tricky thing. and if you dont pass as a man, or if you dont have your legal name changed, or if you dont have your gender marker changed, then anybody could still decide that youre a woman and treat you accordingly. trans men experience misogyny just as much as trans women do, and because they are also trans, they often fall victim to the same structures that cause transmisogyny.

trans men have actually tried a few times to coin words to describe these unique intersectional experiences, similar to the reason transmisogyny was coined, but everytime they have faced pushback from the community, and especially from trans women. transmisandry and transandrophobia are both words that trans men have tried to coin to describe their experiences, and theyve been so thoroughly ridiculed for it that ive seen trans women go around calling people "transandrophobia truthers." these words that trans men have tried to define for themselves have become jokes in the mouths of those who should be their allies.

this is another reason why i am so against tme/tma as labels. if we exclude trans men from being able to be victims of transmisogyny, but we also deny them the words they need to talk about their own unique intersectional experiences of oppression, then we are essentially saying we dont care about those experiences. we are silencing them the same way we have been silenced for years.

thats why im so gungho about trans unity. yes, our experiences are different, but the structures and the people oppressing us are the same. we are not enemies, and if we paint each other as enemies, if we try to silence each other, if we continue to squabble amongst ourselves and focus on what divides us instead of what brings us together...

we are doing the fascists' work for them, and our communities will crumble to dust.

i dont want to live in a world where im enemies with my trans masc brothers. i dont want to live in a world where finding common ground between us is seen as wrong. we have to stick together if we want to survive, but moreover, we have to stick together if we want to thrive. trans men, trans women, and every other flavor of trans people under the sun all enrich the queer experience. it is a beautiful, profound thing to reject ones nature and find belonging with the othered. to sully that beauty with the blood of our allies is to invite the end.

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psycheofaphaggot · 6 months

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we’re opening the floodgates people because the only thing i think about ever, and what i WILL shout from the top of every rooftop i come across

DINA IS THE PERFECT WOMAN.

i don’t care. i don’t care what anyone else says. i don’t care if your opinion is different because you’re wrong.

she’s witty, she smart, she’s incredibly fucking kind, patient, and yet so strong willed and never not willing to speak her thoughts even when she’s unbelievably scared. she’s so perfect it hurts honestly.

one of the things that breaks me the most about dina and ellie’s dynamic throughout the entirety of part 2 is dina’s part in it all. her, irrevocably in love with one of her closest friends, JUST after finally confessing to one another officially is suddenly thrust into a WAR where she can only be a bystander. ignoring the whole pregnancy thing, just that is fucking insane.

and she handles it with the utmost care and patience. moreso than honestly anyone around her deserved (not that these characters didn’t deserve kindness).

i could go in depth about how much i believe ellie williams is one of the best representations of PTSD in modern media today but as much as seeing that breaks me, watching dina deal alongside her is infinitely worse. ellie is a character who has just lost her entire world basically, only a few years after seemingly losing her purpose for being alive at all. with no closure. she’s sad, she’s angry, she’s broken, she feels essentially unloveable.

and dina treats her with the gentleness of a morning breeze. you know the thing thats like “character who feels unloveable and the other character who loves them like its breathing”? yeah.

dina is patient, kind, stable. she is exactly the thing that ellie needs. she never blames ellie for her outbursts, she never insinuates that ellie should get over her emotions faster, and even better she doesn’t even treat ellie like glass that could shatter at any moment. she just loves her. in the easiest way one could possibly be loved.

and its hard. it’s difficult and they both go through an unbelievable amount of trauma together and yet they still come out on top. they’re still able to build the semblance of a life together in the ashes of what they’ve lost.

as someone who identifies a lot of myself in ellie. everything about their love and how they love each other does nothing but break me apart. its so full of hope yet so layered in nothing but destruction. it really is the worst kind of despair. especially because of their end. all of that work and just the existence of trauma is what throws it back in her face.

i am not the most eloquent person. im sure my thoughts are jumbled and insane and hard to understand when i write them out like this. but there are so many aspects of this games that are so fucking admirable. naughty dog found a way to tell a tragic story full of people. not good people, not bad people. just humans, and the world would devolve into when pushed to the absolute edge. and even before that. it is a story of the human race at its most raw.

and its heartbreaking. its enjoyable, its sadistic, its humorous and it’s absolutely gut wrenching. its beautiful.

this series will probably never not be my favorite game ever. i will scream about it and look like a crazy person, and i will keep finding more and more things to love about it.

but this is a ramble when its really supposed to be a dina appreciation post. i love her. everyone should love her. she’s such an amazing person and i think about her constantly. i hope that wherever she ended up, her and JJ live the happiest and most fulfilling life they can.

#dina tlou #dina woodward #dina appreciation post #the last of us part 2 #the last of us #dina and ellie #ellie williams #ellie tlou #im insane #i love her so much #jj tlou #please appreciate her as much as i do #literally the most patient woman on the planet #god i wish they could both just have a happy ending #but thats not reality is it #i’ll just be depressed then #rambles

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freckliedan · 1 month

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yk when you talk about mpreg (you absolutely do not have to answer his btw) do you mean the one getting pregnant has """"female"""" anatomy or just . is a cis man who Somehow gets pregnant

coz i've never known like when ppl talk about mpreg do you imagine one of the people as trans or just Somehow being a cis man w a uterus of a Secret third thing like????!!

hi anon!!!!! ty for asking me this i LOVE to yell about mpreg. the thing about this is that literally every person you ask would have a different answer. and i personally am fascinated by how many different ways there are of conceptualizing and writing about mpreg so i'm willing to read most things?

on my own blog when i'm riffing about phan mpreg i would say i'm picturing neither of the options you mentioned in your first paragraph?

in general¹ i am at best disinterested, at worst squicked by mpreg or omegaverse (or even transmasc fics) where the character who can get pregnant's body is referred to with exclusively "female" terms/has a body like a cis woman's/that is pointedly emasculated or feminized.

nothing inherently wrong with that being someone's cup of tea but it just makes me personally uncomfortable bc of how i and the lovers i've had have experienced transness! & i know that's maybe not 1:1 what you were asking with your phrasing but it's something i see pretty commonly so i figured it was worth mentioning.

i also don't necessarily picture them as cis men who magically got pregnant either? that's way closer, but it's less interesting to me on a personal gender and potential worldbuilding level. a lot of the time fics that do this are also going for mpreg being more medically traumatic/dangerous rather than a normal occurence and i'm overall pretty ehhhh on the execution of that. it can end up pretty intersexist & transphobic at times.

oooh no men ever get pregnant but the protagonist of this fic is an exception and it could kill him and there's relationship problems now about this being a surprise AND whether to keep the baby. have we mentioned yet that no men ever get pregnant and that there's something seriously weird about someone having atypical sex characteristics²?

you get the picture.

overall my posting is essentially playing in an unspecified/vague (and impossible) realm where both dan and phil are their usual selves—so overall still have the primary and secondary sex characteristics cis men do—but they ALSO have uteruses etc & maybe an associated extra hole. and the base assumption is that that mix of traits isn't atypical for the universe i'm playing in when i explore concepts?

overall the way think about phan mpreg is much closer to omegaverse biology than our own, but without the more wolfy aspects of omegaverse? it's not realistic or possible biologically. clearly defining that aspect would make it fall apart. and that's fine!

figuring out the nitty gritty of how birth & biology works isn't the fun part for me? the fun part is "how would dan and phil react to an unplanned pregnancy in a world where they are the same besides that being possible for them". i do usually imagine it being possible for both of them to become pregnant and cause a pregnancy? but the details on how it's possible are adaptable moment to moment depending on what suits my fancy.

for full transparency, this is all just in regards to phan mpreg. i think that people could teach college courses on destiel mpreg. there's SO many different interesting ways i've seen that go that are completely incompatable with the way i enjoy being silly about dan and phil. and that's just one example?

my ideal mpreg universes when crafting aus for fave existing characters are very much so in line with "trans man but no need for top surgery and he gets to have a built in functioning dick & balls, no surgery required there either"³. but that inherently takes things more seriously than i take phan mpreg posting.

or i just go with a character being a trans man? one of my OCs is a trans man as well, and in happier AUs⁴ of my original story he gets to have a family with his lover.

i hope this helped but i really have no idea whether it did or not! either way thanks for the excuse to ramble.

¹i have read exactly one omegaverse mpreg that falls in this category that has an execution i actually enjoy, and i think it's because it's self aware and intentional about what it's doing.

²it is somehow worse when people do actually say "this is because the person who got pregnant is intersex". i've never once seen that actually done well.

³this is transgender wish fulfullment.

⁴unfortunately for him his lover is very much so doomed by the canon narrative. reason why i'm on about AUs of my original writing. i post about my original story @unloneliest and @ostrela-wip

#jam replies #anon #mpreg #phan #luckily for my oc jay him becoming a single father directly after his beloved dies badly of swords IN HIS ARMS is simply not in line w the #themes and overall messaging of my story because otherwise things would be so much harder for him.

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