Brick may seem to have a bit of a double standard here when it comes to labels, but they don't consider "halfhouser" (half housecat) to be a bad thing, much less an insult. But "half-cat" is too far into icky and demeaning and invalidating territory; they are very much not cool with that, and they're eager to call it out.

On another note: the escaped prisoner is Stonefur.

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Part 1: Friend and Family

See up to thirty pages ahead, with timelapses, on Patreon! Deputy and Leader tiers are temporarily 33 pages ahead due to a double update! :D

Backgrounds, brushes, and other assets for sale on my Ko-Fi!

happy autism month to this very important scene in gaming. reminder that beating the shit out of racists/ableists is morally correct and good for the soul.

I feel like the magic world has a lot of racism.

👀

26, 27, 28 for October

26) Do you like it when your whumper holds or touches you? How often would they do that?

"Of course I do," October said without hesitation. "He can be gentle, when he wants to be. Even the beatings aren't all that bad. Attention is to me as carbon dioxide is to a plant. And I don't get nearly enough of it."

27) Has your whumper ever made you wear something you hate?

"Not that I can recall. I don't mind dressing like a whore if he likes it." October crossed its arms over its chest. "Though sometimes the absurdly skimpy Middle East-like clothes get on my nerves. Just a little. That is not how we dressed. At least, not when I was a desert nomad."

28) What do you prefer to do to comfort yourself when you've been hurt or feeling sad?

"Bold of you to assume I have feelings." October tried to laugh it off, but its voice dropped to a whisper. "Uh, between you and me, I cuddle with my rats. They're really sweet. And unlike some animals, they aren't freaked out by vampires."

-Hart :D

Excitable, bubbly and with a touch so delicate she’ll melt your heart, is that Alice Angel? Nope! It’s the voice behind the beloved cartoon Susie Campbell! Though you’d be forgiven for such a slip up, yes Susie does quite love being Alice and using it to perform some lovely method acting with her coworkers. She can always be found around the music department singing a tune, talking with her coworkers or even dancing her way to the recording booth.

Yes Susie is quite the gal, but she’s not one to admit it, while she’s sure the connection between her and Alice is special... Susie sometimes admits she’s not used to playing the star in a show and she’s shocked she got the role. Even being shy or dismissive towards some of the wonderful compliments she gets about her performance as Alice. Some chalk it up to being humble while others of the staff think Susie deserves more credit than she is willing to give herself... Not to mention her taste in men, but that’s not super important her best friend Allison will gladly tell you, maybe a bit too eager to move onto a different topic while Susie gives a playful glance to the janitor.

Despite her seemingly simple to grasp character Susie can be very surprising with how mischievous, devious or even spiteful she can be sometimes. She of course never means any harm, the gal will happily tell you she is a bit of a troublemaker when she’s drinking, out with friends or even just a little too caught up in whatever thrill she’s having in the moment, but nothing too bad has ever come of it. At least that’s what she claims, after all every angel has a little bit of a devilish side right?~ Well give her a few shots and Susie will reveal hers with a few giggles and a lot of stories you’ll never forget.

Despite it all Susie is quickly getting used to the attention being one of the stars of Bendy’s cast brings! She loves the feeling of no longer being cast aside or ignored for her peers who the acting world and society deem as far more attractive and ‘healthy’. The spotlight is on her and she’s adapting to it with a giggle and a playful wink. It’s all she could ever ask for, a character she connects to and an audience who loves her, perhaps dreams truly do come true, even for girls like her.

Marcela McClain has always known that her children were thieves.

Well, maybe that’s not fair. They were not always thieves, and she’s relatively certain only two of them actually do any thieving. The rest just help. Honestly, she’s not even sure what they steal, or how they do it. There’s a lot she doesn’t know, and she won’t ever ask. It’s safer for them if she doesn’t know.

What she does know is that one year, when her youngest was maybe fourteen, her fridge started miraculously stocking itself with groceries. One day she realised she hadn’t bought eggs in a while — and yet they hadn’t run out. And then it was milk, and then meat, and on and on until she realised she had not stepped foot in the grocery store in months. And then her mortgage rate mysteriously went down. Suddenly Luis and Lisa were no longer struggling to get supplies for the babies. And every once in a while contractors would appear to do the renovations they’d been unable to afford in years.

There were less coincidental things, as well. The things around the house she could dismiss. Maybe everyone was suddenly excellent at budgeting. Maybe Lancito got a job he wasn’t telling them about. Maybe Vero finally landed that rich girlfriend she’s always dreamed of having. Marcela likes to be in the know about her children’s lives, but she understands that there are some things they don’t tell her, things you don’t always share with your mother, and she was willing to accept it. But then she realised that if she offhandedly mentioned a friend of hers was struggling, or maybe a neighbour was worried about affording food this month, their problems were quietly resolved. Any time she so much as whispered the possibility that a friend of a friend wasn’t doing so well in front of her children, within a month, the friend would have bags of groceries appear on their doorstep in the dead of night, or a letter from the bank informing them that their overdue bills had been paid. Little things, things that isolated she could brush off, but that together painted a very dangerous picture.

Let her be clear – Marcela is proud of her children. Ineffably so. Her children are good people, doing good things, doing wonderful things. If Miguel were still here, he’d be proud as well.

Her pride does not erase her worry.

What do her children do, exactly, to help others the way that they do? From whom do they get this money? These resources? Are they covering their tracks? Who’s watching them? Do they know the danger they’re in? Do they know to protect each other?

(Once, as she had been pouring the warm water into the flour, ready to mix and knead, hands covered in dough, she had realised abruptly that she had forgotten to remove her grandmother’s bracelet before getting to work. She couldn’t remove it now, not with her hands already dirty, not without wasting ingredients she couldn’t afford to waste, so she called for help. Lancito had answered her immediately, tiptoeing into the kitchen in the quiet way he walks, reaching over to help. He’d unclasped her bracelet quickly, one-handed, with a touch so light she’d barely felt it. That is when she knew exactly what her children – or at least one of them – had been doing to get the money.

She couldn’t quite bring herself to be angry, but she felt the weight of her worry grow heavier.

Of course it was Lancito, in the heat of the action. Lancito, who was never satisfied enough with his own problems. Lancito, who always took on more weight. Lancito, who smiled and goofed and joked but who’s eyes held a quiet pain, a quiet knowledge, a quiet nobility, since she’d held him in her arms the day he’d been born, the minute he’d looked at the world. Lancito who watched, who observed, who knew but did not speak of things aloud. Who distracted and deflected and pretended to be flightier and dumber than he was. Who did his best to brighten a room, to protect his loved ones, even at the expense of himself. Who looked nothing like her, not in his hair or in his stance or in his voice or in his steps, but who was the only one of her children who stared back at her with eyes that were round and dark and brown and the same eyes she saw in the mirror every day of her life.

Of course it was Lancito.)

Her children are not stupid. All of them, every single one, has been blessed with intelligence from birth, and burdened with wisdom from growing up the way they did, in the environment they grew up in. She and Miguel did what they could, for years. They were not always struggling. There was a time in her life when she was conscious of her money, yes, but never afraid making it through the next month. And then her husband was stolen from her. And then she got a call, late at night, and she drove, terror coursing through her veins, to the police station, where she saw her youngest son covered in the blood of his father and flinching away from the touch of the cops, and she knew, and she knew, and she knew, and she wished from the bottom of her heart that it had happened to any other family. To anyone but her husband, her baby, her children who would have their lives uprooted and changed in every possible way –

She has since learnt to live with this selfish part of her. The angry part, the terrified part, the anxious part. The part that wanted to take her family and hide them, away from the world, away from hurt, away from armed men in uniform who believed themselves to be above the law and above people like her Miguel, who was as kind and brave as he was foreign and dark.

She cannot hide her family from dangerous people. She cannot even hide her family from the dangerous parts of themselves.

But she can watch. She can be their mother, the person they can come to, if nothing else.

She does not thing it will be enough.

She prays that it’s enough. She has nothing left to offer, if it isn’t.

Imagine trying to respond to someone with a comeback about how you understand these two characters...only to show how much you misunderstand those two characters. On what Earth are either TFA Prowl or TFA Jazz so-called chaos/chaos tamers?

Also, note the use of the word 'tamer'...hmmm...that's weird. Maybe that person should read into the historical use of such a word, especially when describing two characters who are coded to be people of color.

why are those shippers so insistent on the weird terms they use to describe them... since when have either jazz or prowl worked as the other's "tamer" counterpart? and since they're talking about their animated counterparts, do they not know how weird it sounds?

>be me. >make post about my dislike for reducing character to ship. >people read it. >people prove my point. >mfw.

There are people raging in the tag about how much they hate the series just from the trailer and say it's an insult, and. While everyone is allowed to have an opinion, being mad about the change in Louis race, removing the certain aspect of his character (you know the one) really bothers you, well... I'm not going to say it, but you're saying it loud and clear.

If you're bellyaching because of things like Lestat not looking 100% like he did in the book... Well no character in any adaptation are going to match exactly like your imagination. The actors for Louis and Lestat are perfect, like there's nothing wrong that I can see

As for Claudia, ok yes. In the book she's a 5 year old, in the 94 movie she's 10-12, in the show she's 14. And if you take a moment and think, why they made these changes, it makes sense: in the books, Claudia and Louis have a romantic relationship. And, well it was awkward enough in the movie where they watered it down to a kiss at most. The show is going into more in-depth, meaning they're going to show us their relationship. I can't be the only one that winces every time they have romantic relationship moments in the book. Making her in the body of a 14 year old makes it much less awkward. Also, so you really expect a 5 year old actress to be able to do the vampire action scenes like she did in the book? Or did you want Reneesmee?

I've also seen complaints that Lestat is too much in love with Louis and like... Is interview the only book you read? Louis is an unreliable narrator, and the original interview was told as a jaded ex lover. In the other books they are so much in love, that Lestat's love of Louis is in no way out of character. I'm a new fan. But I've been looking at old media and spoilers and, sure their relationship is toxic AF, but they genuinely do love each other!

As for complaints about Daniel, that's the only thing I can't speak on, I don't know anything about him except I think he's supposed to be a vampire? I don't know, I'm only 80% thru the first book so I can't give any pushback about the change to his character.

But also, I've seen accusations that no one making the show bothered to look at the source material have not seen all the trailers, have not watched the 30 second promos for each character or even the BTS footage. The show runners and actors took great care to include info from the books, took feedback from Chris, even the lead actors themselves read the first books during production to get a feel from their characters. Don't make accusations and unfound judgements just from 30 seconds into the trailer.

All I know about Omori is that Sunny pushes Mari down the stairs (and that he hung her on a tree????) To frame it like a a suicide (omg heathers moment) and Aubrey is very mentally ill and Kel is whitewashed literally all the time. What is going on here

i think kim is just as complex of a character as harry, but i think a good amount of players (not all, but a chunk) choose to unflinchingly characterize him as “the Good Cop” and leave it at that.

The thing is. Bad/gross food is rarely a DISH - when food is bad it's because it's been badly made, whether because of skills or available ingredients. but a dish p much only exists recognisably and has a name because someone likes at least one version of it.

which is to say. there isn't really a way of naming a dish, school of dishes or specific food culture and going EW ISN'T THIS DISH UNILATERALLY CONCEPTUALLY DISGUSTING without denigrating quite a lot of people.

like you don't have to like it in any form. but it's eaten and shared because it's good to a not insubstantial number of people when cooked right.

(and I don't really understand how you approach that with total incuriosity when it's a dish you haven't tried like. ARE rocky mountain oysters good? Maybe! I would very much eat some to find out!!!!)

this is actually something the British food poll did in a way the American ones I've seen haven't really - they described how the food they're imagining is, specifically, badly prepared (grey meat and veggies; unseasoned shepherd's pie). which is wildly tipping the scales by calling it British Food but. like. that is an on point definition of why that food is gross.

(this also applies to American chocolate, which like. Broad category but I think most of us understand this refers to low-cocoa high-sugar chocolate, probably with bucolic acid. so we are being invited to imagine Badly Made Chocolate not. the concept of chocolate)

personally I just think it's very rarely a good or funny idea to shittalk how gross any given food culture is. partly because food is important and culturally evocative for most people, partly because it's very...alienating? to be like WHO COULD EAT SUCH A THING? just because you wouldn't, and largely because to be frank it says more about you than about the food that you have so little imagination or curiosity that you can't imagine why a food might be enjoyable to folks who aren't you.

yes this includes jello salad, I would like to try it. ONCE. if it wasn't appealing to someone it wouldn't be so widespread.

When Brianna was killed I couldn't log on to tumblr or facebook without seeing posts about her. There were vigils held locally for her.

Not even my local trans support group has said a word about Nex. I had to post about them myself. This silence is deafening. I'm exhausted.

people love their ghostly, frail anorexic friend until her hair thins and she looks genuinely skeletal, or until she throws up or binges.

people love their hyper adhd friend until he forgets your birthday because he was daydreaming.

people love their quiet, honest autistic friend until they shut down, or visibly stim, or are a bit too blunt, or they weird out your other friends.

people love their tidy ocd friend until she tells you about her intrusive thoughts or trichotillomania (how the fuck do you spell that)

people love their sad-boy depressed friend until he shows you his sh scars or gets admitted to a psych ward or you’re scared he’ll actually kill himself.

people love their gay friends till they get a partner before you.

people love their trans friends until they’re a bit too out there, or they don’t quite pass.

people love their brown friend until he brings up colonialism.

people love their disabled friends until their disability impacts them.

people love their fat friend until she starts loving herself.

people love you, but only if they can step on you to get higher than you.

you know, if spop really wanted to make catra latina, they could have just done what the OG version did. make her a human (or etherian) who could shapeshift into a wild cat when needed. i mean, that was catra's strength in the original she-ra and that's what her headpiece was for. she looked completely human otherwise.

in the reboot, she just has the headpiece as a fashion statement and instead of shapeshifting into a cat, she's just a human-cat hybrid. they had the easy option there if they were aiming for more representation but nah, let's give the latina character cat ears, claws and a tail, and make her act like an aggressive animal. that's not offensive at all.

A subtle way you can tell lestat is very selfish and ignorant about race, especially in ep 6 is that he said that they'd go to Argentina, a country which at the time was explicitly looking for white Europeans (including n*zis) to move there after spending decades pushing their black and Indigenous populations to the fringes of society to whiten up the country

Making the Future

AO3

Masterpost

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Please reblog my writing!

Reminder that all Content Warnings for this story will be found in the Content warnings portion, linked in the Masterpost! I will be updating it frequently! I will try to, at least on tumblr, put the CWs with each chapter. If you find a Content Warning missing, please tell me!

CWs for this chapter: Death, Implied Child Death, Fantasy Racism, War

Taglist: @cutebisexualmess @duck-in-a-spaceship @oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat

Prologue

He was thrust into the war. Chaos surrounding him and his companions, the barbarians advancing -yet they stood no chance. Taking his bow, he aimed for the one who seemed to be the leader, memories swarming him before he could shoot. Memories of his little brother, the one who was all excited when he learned something new. The one who was shot, blood spurting on his favorite outfit. The brother who died in his arms. And it was all their fault, the barbarians. Steadying his breathing, he fired, and he watched the arrow fly into the heart of his enemy. However, he was too busy paying attention to what his arrow was doing to realize the danger he was in. Until it pierced through his skull. In his moment of greatest victory laid his greatest defeat, as he was shot down by the same weapon he had used. His dying memory of his best friend, Aleanderathol, shouting his name.