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callsign-rogueone · 3 months

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harvest day - l.m.

secret admirer!Liam x Luceran!reader. part of my Valentine’s Day celly! 💕 words: 932 🏷: reader is feminine and has longish hair (can be tied), but no pronouns used. I am once again making random stuff up about Navarrian cultures. featuring my farm-boy Sawyer headcanon lmao (Luceras doesn’t have one major city on the map in the book. It’s all farmland, and you cannot convince me otherwise.)

You nearly crush it under your boot in your hurry to get to class, stepping back at the last second to pick it up.

A tiny dragon carved from wood -- your dragon, complete with his horns and a tiny spiked tail. You run your fingers over the wood — it’s been sanded, perfectly smooth against your skin. The level of detail is incredible. This must have taken hours.

“You’re going to be late, humble one.”

Right. You tuck it into the pocket of your jacket, locking your door behind you and jogging down the hall.

You make it just in time, apologizing your way down the row, stepping around people’s feet carefully until you’ve made it to your friends. You settle between Rhiannon and Sawyer, thanking them for saving you a seat. “Overslept,” you explain, digging in your bag for your notebook, which you had nearly forgotten to pack.

You remove your flight jacket, taking the tiny dragon from your pocket and setting it on the desk beside your pen.

“Whoa, sick! Who made that?” Sawyer asks.

“I don’t know. I just found it outside my door. It looks just like him, though. Even got the horns right.”

“It is a very good representation of me,” Cruith appraises. “Though I have never once been that small.”

“That's awesome. Maybe they’re like, a wood-wielder or something,” Ridoc suggests, leaning over to examine it.

“I’m pretty sure that signet doesn’t exist,” Rhiannon says dryly.

“If he can do all that with metal, then it's entirely possible someone could do it with wood,” Ridoc defends.

“That’s what she said,” Sawyer says quietly, trying not to laugh.

Ridoc grins. “I’m rubbing off on you, man.”

You snort. “Now that's what she said.”

“Focus,” Rhiannon scolds lightly, ever the responsible squad leader, her eyes not having left the chalkboard this whole time.

“Yes, mom,” the three of you chorus softly, turning your attention back to the professor.

Violet looks like she has something to say, but she remains quiet.

---------------------------------------------------

“Mail call,” Rhiannon announces, distributing opened letters to each of you.

Your heart drops as soon as you start to read yours.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I just didn’t realize the date. It’s Harvest Day on Wednesday. Last year I was just too busy trying to stay alive to think about it, but…”

Sawyer winces, understanding. “I wish I could be there too. I swear when I graduate, I’m gonna use all my leave every year to help them.”

“I’m so lost,” Ridoc says, looking between you.

You laugh, explaining. “Everyone spends the day — the week, really — helping their neighbors harvest their crops, and there’s always a feast at the end with what we’ve grown.”

“Gods, the food. My family doesn’t come from much, but that was always the one day a year I felt like we were rich,” Sawyer admits.

You sigh in agreement. “It’s gonna be so weird wearing black all day instead of fall colors.”

“That is the most Luceran thing I’ve ever heard,” Ridoc says. “Sometimes I forget you guys are all farmers.”

“It’s only our single most important holiday,” you laugh. “And we’re not all farmers. Two of us are dragon riders.”

Sawyer grins at you, putting a hand up for a high five. “Damn right we are.”

---------------------------------------------------

Everyone’s eyes widen at the silky orange ribbon tying your hair back. You beam, turning your head to show it off. “Courtesy of the wood-wielder. I have no idea where they got it.”

Your joy is short-lived.

“Precisely what is that, cadet?” Dain asks sharply, and your face falls. There’s only one thing he can be taking issue with, the only spot of color in the sea of black making up your formation.

“It’s a Luceran tradition,” someone says for you — but not Sawyer or any of your friends. “Today is Harvest Day.”

You turn toward the voice, seeing Liam behind you, his eyes locked with Dain’s as if he’s daring the wingleader to argue with him. How does he know about the holiday? Had he overheard your conversation with your squad earlier?

“I expect it to be gone tomorrow,” Dain concedes. “You’re all dismissed.”

You breathe a sigh of relief as everyone files out of the hall.

“Liam?” You ask softly, and he stops, turning toward you. “Thank you.”

Then you see the small block of wood in his hand, the rough shape of another dragon etched into it. “It was you,” you whisper, stunned.

He laughs. “What?”

You reach into your pocket, producing the carving of Cruith. “You made this, right? Were you the one who wrote those physics notes for me when I was in the infirmary, too?”

He smiles. “Yeah. That was all me.”

Your heart flutters with hope. “Why?”

“Because I was too nervous to say it, but I really like you.”

You blink. Liam, the one who isn’t scared of anything, was nervous to talk to you? And he has a crush on you? You’ve always found him attractive, but you had never thought this a possibility.

“Say something,” Cruith prods, sounding amused.

You finally form words. “Do you want to go into town with me this weekend?”

He blushes, scratching the back of his neck. “I would really like that.”

“Hey, lovebirds, are you coming to breakfast, or what?” Ridoc calls. “Some of us are starving over here!”

You laugh, a sound Liam will never tire of. “Just a minute!” You yell back.

You touch your fingertips to the soft silk, looking up at him. “Thank you, Liam. It really means a lot to me.”

He smiles. “Of course, sweetheart.”

#fourth wing #liam mairi #liam mairi x reader #fourth wing fanfic #reader insert #x reader #mine

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oikasugayama · 4 months

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Can I request a brief from Tachihara? I don't add any plot, I don't want to seem so demanding :(Ps: I love your work:)

thank you so much!! it's not demanding to have ideas or ask for things i promise <3

you know, i was thinking about this on the way home... tachihara... when he's a bit drunk and when he's with his girl and some Black Lizard subordinates at the bar, he gets handsy.

it's a different culture, almost. your companions don't freak out or glare or tell him off for what he does under the table, instead they smirk and chuckle and make half-assed comments about how they wish their girlfriend was here right now.

and what is it that tachihara does under the table to make them say this? oh he's absolutely going to town on your cunt.

he has you pulled tightly against his side, and his arm is wrapped around you. his hand didn't sneak or caress or slide--he confidently reached down, pulled your dress up, and cupped your pussy in his hand.

"how fast can you get wet?" he mumbles against your head, and half the damn table hears, but no one fucks with him. a couple of them chuckle and mutter something about putting down a bet, but the conversation at large continues even as tachihara's fingers slide under your panties and start tickling your skin, sliding back and forth, teasing for a minute before searching for your clit.

you've got enough natural dampness for him to get a little glide as he circles your nub, getting it more sensitive and swollen as he plays with it. you bite your lip hard, trying to otherwise have a neutral face as he plays with you, but it's not like it's a secret-- every time someone else at the table says something to you, they smirk and glance down, almost like they're trying to silently say "i know what he's doing to you"

after another couple of minutes of circling, he dips his finger into you again and notices a distinct difference in how you feel.

"oh damn," he says, smirking and looking down at you as he pushes his finger inside. "that didn't take long."

"it's not my fault," you whine quietly, and he just chuckles as he fingers you, curling his fingers as he moves them to press on a soft, squishy spot inside you every time he passes it.

you do a pretty good job at biting back any noises and keeping a mostly calm face, until tachihara gets jealous that you're talking to one of the guys at the table he likes the least. then, in obvious retaliation, he reaches under the table with his other hand and uses one to rub your clit while the other fingers you.

"okay, what's the bet?" one of the guys asks. "bc she's not making it."

"it's that they're gonna fuck in the bathroom."

"no," tachihara snaps, "she's cumming right here on my fingers in front of all of you--" he turns and mumbles into the space right in front of your mouth-- "aren't you baby?"

"yeah," you whine, shifting and pushing your body closer to his because now that both of his arms around you there's absolutely nowhere else you can go.

"keep talking," tachihara snaps again to the group, making them go back to the conversation to cover up the little noises that you fail the hold in, and the wet sound of his fingers furiously working over and in you.

when the jittering of his fingers across your clit and the unrelenting press of his fingers against your gspot makes you cum, you turn to bury your face in his neck, both hands grabbing his arms, nails digging in so hard they'd break skin on someone who wasn't as tough as a hunting dog.

"there she goes," someone comments offhandedly as you tremble through a mostly silent orgasm. tachihara glares daggers at them even while he finishes getting you off. he maintains eye contact with them as he raises his fingers up to his mouth and sucks your wetness off of them.

"if any of you think about my girl when you jerk yourselves off i'll fucking kill you. got it?"

he gets a somewhat sarcastic, somewhat fearful round of "got it, boss" responses.

#ask answered #tachihara smut #tachihara x reader #tachihara headcanons #bsd smut #bsd x reader #bsd headcanons

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highfantasy-soul · 2 months

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Ok, here's my breakdown of Jessie Gender's video on NATLA. I decided not to post this as a comment on the video because I just don't feel like it would be productive, but I needed to refute the points she was making as she's a quite respected (at least, I really respect her opinions on things) video essayist and I felt like this video was...wild.

So, I guess it's best to just watch along with her video and read my commentary side-by-side because I don't give much context for my points, this is just a stream-of-consciousness style response.

To be perfectly clear - this is not intended to be a 'hate post' about her, this is just me feeling very strongly that the interpretations of things she had in her video needed to be talked about and another perspective given.

I shift from saying 'you' to 'Jessie' like halfway through (when I decided not to post this as a comment) but I don't feel like going through and changing all those, so yeah, just ignore it.

1) you insulted a martial arts kata as 'a mildly choreographed dance' - it shows a complete lack of understanding of other cultures and a desire to take a quick dig at something you didn't like in a way that insults a cultural practice. I really didn't expect to hear that sort of comment from you so it was pretty jarring when you said it. Ironically, you say that Sokka was wrong to assume the Kyoshi warrior's kata was a 'dance' because that's 'a girl's place' when...you literally made the same insult with not a hint of recognition just a few minutes earlier about a movie you didn't like…

2) I felt that the live-action really deepened a lot of the themes from the OG - take Iroh's storyline for example, fleshing out Suki's character so she's...you know, her own character and not just there to teach Sokka a lesson, and delving into how hard of decisions you have to make during a century long war. Idk, I'm just really curious as to how you felt quite literally the polar opposite of me

3) Sokka's sexism: the animated show handled it one way, but Sokka's treating women as 'less than' wasn't a core part of his character - in all honesty, it doesn't actually make any sense as he was raised by Hakoda (who we never see being sexist), Gran Gran (who left the NWT due to its sexism), and was surrounded mostly by older women. The sexism storyline in the cartoon was to teach a very blatant lesson to kids "don't be sexist, boys!" while the live-action made Sokka's struggles much more realistic and in line with the world building: he struggled with non-traditional masculinity and if he was 'allowed' to be that way while they were at war. For me, it's a much more important message for young men today than the very dated 'women can fight, too!' message that was needed in the early 2000s. It's very odd to me how you claim that Sokka always taking charge isn't ever challenged when...in literally the scene you're showing when you say that, Katara challenges him.

4) I'm sorry, but I cannot possibly see how Suki is her own person more in the animated version than in the live-action. She was literally created solely to teach Sokka a lesson and have no character traits other than 'I'm a strong woman warrior' where 'woman' means 'I like romance' rather than...I'm a whole person with my own wants and desires and fears that have nothing to do with a love interest as is shown in the live-action. You keep comparing the animated and live action as though they were trying to tell the same story about Sokka's journey with his role in the world, but they weren't. Of course Suki's attitude toward him is going to be different, of course he's not going to need to tell her 'you're right, I'm a dumb, terrible man, pretty please could you teach me', because it's a different dynamic they're going for in the live-action.

5) When Sokka pinned her in their lesson in the live-action idk how you got that she was 'demuring herself' to Sokka? Just as in the cartoon, he managed to get the upper hand - which she promptly took back, teaching a lesson along the way. She didn't make herself less so Sokka could feel secure in his masculinity - it's a bit odd you feel that showing respect to someone and helping them learn is 'demuring yourself'. I much prefer them respecting each other than the animated version of them seeing each other as less than and then...her giving him a kiss to prove 'see, I'm a romance-loving girl, too'.

5) To me, Suki beating Sokka in the live-action when the first sparred wasn't her being mean, it was her not understanding how much less experience Sokka had fighting - she genuinely thought he would be able to hold his own against her because he had told her he was the best warrior in his tribe. Her face clearly shows 'I have no idea what I did wrong - I thought that type of sparring is what everyone did for fun, why was he uncomfortable with it?' Not really sure why you made the connection that us seeing Sokka's abs was meant to indicate that his insecurities are unfounded when...literally the whole season shows us that Sokka's struggles aren't "end goal = big strong warrior" but rather "you don't have to be a big strong warrior to help, you are allowed to delve into other aspects of who you are and those are just as important". Just because he has muscles, also doesn't mean he's a competent fighter - those two things aren't the same.

6) It feels like you took certain scenes and made wildly left-field interpretations of them and then claimed that that's what the show was intending you to take from it. It's like saying that the scene that cuts from Sokka saying he bets Momo tastes like chicken and cutting to the scene that shows people cooking meat actually means the showrunners are saying Sokka is going to cook and eat Momo this season and that will then give him the powers of the Avatar. It's very clearly not what the showrunners were saying, but if you interpret it in the least forgiving way and then make a wild leap off that, then yeah, you might get upset with that made-up interpretation. Same with the reasons they didn't put Sokka in the Kyoshi outfit - there is 0 evidence of them nixing that part due to transphobia. I didn't see it as any malicious intent, just a streamline of the plot so Sokka doesn't have to go change before running away on Appa.

7) I feel that the live-action DOES challenge the Fire Bender's colonialist rhetoric in the Kyoshi Island episode, but the animated...doesn't? At all? It's solely about girl power - and as we see with Azula and all the women fire nation soldiers, the fire nation doesn't seem too caught up in sexism. You know what they are caught up in? Which you mention? Bender supremacy. And that's what the live-action directly addresses with Sokka being so surprised that Suki is able to hold her own so well even though she isn't a bender. He's seen just how powerful benders are (they destroyed his home, killed his mom, and beat his ass last episode) and it's in line with the worldbuilding that he feels like he's already several steps behind in being a good enough warrior because he doesn't have bending (a storyline that isn't brought up until an episode in season 3 of the animated show). To me, the live-action Kyoshi storyline refutes the Fire Nation's imperialistic themes much better than the animated show does.

8) The live-action's lesson wasn't that might makes right - Suki never did any strength training exercises with Sokka, she taught him how to control his body and use his opponent's strength against them. Fight smarter, not harder. Know what you're fighting for, not just that you want to fight. Even if you don't have the resources of your opponent, it doesn't mean you're doomed from the start. That last one is particularly poignant when we look at how much stronger the Fire Nation is than the other nations they're subjugating: it's the classic 'oppressed rising up against their oppressors and not winning because they just punched harder, but because they used what they had to fight for a righteous cause and didn't just give up because the other side was more powerful'. That's quite directly what the live-action was saying - the exact lesson you thought it should be saying. You have to do some serious extrapolating from the animated episode to get to those themes while the live-action drew that concept up to the forefront immediately.

9) Aang's journey to accept his Avatar responsibility and the previous Avatar's enforcing this is directly from the animated series. Like, directly. It's not the live-action show saying 'colonialism good'. Showing the Avatar power wasn't the showrunners saying 'see, this OP is good and cool', it was to show the magnitude of it - something the animated show does too. The live-action does talk about how terrifying and damaging that power is - literally the previous episode has Aang almost toss Katara and Sokka off the mountain and they mention it. Just earlier in that episode, Sokka talks about Aang almost killing them and Aangs major hang up about embracing it is that he might hurt someone. Kyoshi argues that not learning to control it will hurt more people and - y'all, individuals are allowed to have their own views of the power that everyone doesn't have to agree with. What happened to 'make strong characters with flaws in their world view?' did you all of a sudden decide that's NOT actually good writing? So having the Avatar who used her powers liberally, and as the video states, used them maybe too much, telling Aang that he needs to use his own powers a lot is…consistent characterization? Which is then challenged by Roku later as he tells Aang that all the Avatars are different and have different views on the power of the Avatar. Why is Kyoshi's opinions suddenly taken as wholly accurate in representing what the show overall is trying to say? She's giving her opinion to Aang - an opinion that has some truth to it, but also some flaws that Aang will need to navigate on his own journey. Kyoshi and Roku's stories are not compressed all into Kyoshi - only the aspect of Roku taking control of Aang and using his body to fuck shit up in the Avatar state is compressed - not the ideological aspects of it

10) Sokka supporting Katara's fight against Pakku is a culmination of his arc to let go of obsessively protecting her and actually letting her decide her course of action herself - because his arc was different in the show than in the animated series. Trying to say that the reason he told her to kick Pakku's ass didn't fit because he was never sexist wasn't the reason - it WAS a culmination of his arc, you just refused to see it by clinging to the old one.

11) The whole argument as to 'why show genocide' I already made a post about, but to condemn the depiction based on the way you interpret the showrunner's quote is disingenuous. Again, it's taking something and making up a narrative around it so you can feel justified in hating it. It's important to show a culture before they are killed because they deserve to be seen as people, not just martyrs. They had lives. They lived and were happy and had a rich culture. They were not just 'fated to die and be told of in history books'. Genocide is disgusting and hard to watch - it's calculated and brutal. Showing that drives home just how awful the actions of the fire nation are in practice rather than just theory. Yes, the airbenders fighting was 'cool' to see - in the way that all action is 'cool' to see. But no, the genocide wasn't played as 'look at neat fighting!' in the live-action. It was shown as brutal and terrible, horrifying and surprising, and the airbenders didn't deserve what happened to them. It also gives you a direct view of what the fire nation is capable of when they come to the south pole and the northern water tribe: you've SEEN the devastation first hand and you DON'T want to see it again. The threat isn't theoretical, it's very real.

11.5) To take a CHILD'S quote about the sequence being 'so cool' is absolutely WILD to me. GORDON IS A CHILD! No, he's not going to have the most sophisticated and politically nuanced sound bite to say about the action sequence in an interview. HE'S A CHILD! Holy mother of god. To use that to bolster your point that 'that's the way it was intended to be viewed and how everyone is going to view it!' is just…..holy shit. You're taking media interpretation from A CHILD??????? Do you think, if we interviewed a child about the OG show, they'd talk about the fucking colonialism??? How Azula was abused too and didn't deserve her fate?? Or do you think they'd say "The fight between the Fire Lord and Aang at the end was so cool!" Honestly thought Jessie Gender wouldn't try to bolster her interpretation with a quote from A CHILD, but I guess here we are…

12) It's wild that she makes the point that conservatives are incapable of reading deeper than just the surface-level visuals of a story while…she's doing literally the same thing just in the opposite way. The live-action depicted the genocide, therefore they MUST just want to 'cool' visual of firebenders fighting airbenders! There can't be any other things at play here! No story being told whatsoever because all it is is spectacle! That's all I see! Ironically, she's falling into the same trap of not looking deeper at why one might depict the horrors of genocide and the battle against people with no army.

13) Aang actually treats the genocide as more immediate in the live-action than he does the animated show. Most animated episodes, you can forget that it even happened, while in the animated show, it pops up a lot in some unexpected ways like when he's uncomfortable waterbending because Gyatzo had always been his teacher, when he yells at Bumi for making light of the genocide, his desire to get to the north to keep it from happening again, when Zhao proclaims that he can wipe out an entire race of benders and Aang says he knows exactly what that's like, when he constantly stays to help people because 'I couldn’t help my own people, but I can help them'. Not only through Aang, but also through every child in the series - like with the animated show, the live-action shows how kids are shaped by the generational trauma of the war plus the immediate effects of it: Teo ready to fight, Jet making compromises to fight back, Sokka shouldering too much responsibility so young, Katara's trauma around her mother's death and her waterbending, Bumi losing his faith, Zuko and Azula being shaped by their father to be the perfect weapons to continue the war.

14) Interpreting Zuko's comment of 'sometimes the weak can become strong' right after his father mutilated him for showing compassion is not meant to be taken as a thesis that 'Zuko just needs to get better at fighting, this is what the story is saying, I am very smart'. It's showing HIS CURRENT view of the world - the idea that his father has taught him that he needs to be strong and Zuko has bought that and wants desperately to earn his father's love. Zuko's story through the series is showing that 'strength' isn't what his father defines it as (or what Jessie defines it as in her video) but rather it's strength of character - compassion is not weakness, it's strength, and no, that doesn't mean if you have compassion you punch harder.

15) The live-action show makes the Fire Nation MUCH more nuanced than the animated show - we see how Ozai and Azula aren't just maniacal villains, but we see the pain and torment their upbringings deal out to them, and in turn, deal to others. It shows the cycle much more clearly and showing fire nation citizens who disagree fleshes out the culture even more.

16) Jet was much more nuanced in the live-action as he's RIGHT about the mechanist being a spy and the king being lax in his duties. He's created a community of people to try to heal from the harm the fire nation has caused them and he gives actual good advice to Katara, helping her emotionally heal and remember the good aspects of her mother.

17) The argument that 'the live action is trying to ignore the past' is a massively simplified narrative. The live-action is showing Aang stuck in the past, unable to take large steps into the future. Pain, trauma and loss can anchor us in the past - it's HEALTHY to keep moving forward rather than only thinking about the pain in the past (ie Jet's advice to Katara). Aang was continually trying to avoid the genocide happening again while simultaneously trying to get past Avatars to do the big hard work for him. His lesson is not to 'forget the past just live in the now' but rather, don't let fear of what has happened in the past stop you from making a difference in the future. Yes, war is loss and suffering, but if you get paralyzed by not being able to prevent that, the fire nation will just keep marching across the world. It's about not letting the past immobilize you to the point where you stop fighting back against oppression - or getting together with a community to help you fight for fear they'll die just like those in the past did.

17.5) Letting go of the past is a buddhist philosophy that is a lot more complicated than Jessie is making it out to be here. Just as in the animated series, characters can come to realizations about lessons they need to learn while still taking seasons to fully learn the lesson - just because Aang said he's ready to let go of the past doesn't mean he's now ignoring it and all will be smooth sailing. It means he's ready to start taking steps to do that and approach life in a healthier way. It's wild that Jessie took the direct quote "I need to let go of the past to focus on my future" and then states that the show is saying "the character's aren't seeing future possibilities and hope, they're focused on the now" when, quite literally, the quote she just referenced….is talking about building a better future.

18) Then, she references later seasons (Aang in the fire nation school) a lot to indicate that the live-action is ignoring those concepts from the OG when….we're talking about season 1 here - not season 3. Why is the world not allowed to organically grow? Why would you make the argument that 'season 1 didn’t explicitly deal with these concepts that aren't brought up until season 3, so therefore they are ignoring them'?

19) Jessie uses a lot of clips from a Daily Wire (conservative talkshow) guy as if that has anything at all to do with the live-action ATLA. She's trying to draw a line between that ideology and the ideology of the show and I feel like she had to bastardize the NATLA show in order to do that so horribly, her interpretation of the story and themes is completely unrecognizable to what is actually shown on screen.

I usually agree with her takes on media, but this video was not it. Every interpretation she had, I interpreted the scenes/lessons in the exact opposite way and, I believe, I interpreted it closer to what the showrunners intended.

Oh no, i just had a thought: this is The Last Jedi all over again! I saw so many negative interpretations of that movie that I just sat and scratched my head over like "How in the WORLD did you get to that conclusion??" when I thought my own interpretation was just...the obvious way to view the movie. I had no idea my views on it would be so controversial. Here we are again. Time is a flat circle. Life is a meaningless cycle of disappointment and confusion, neverending.

#natla #natla positivity #netflix avatar #netflix atla #this isn't intended as hate to Jessie Gender - only a response to her publicly posted video

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draculasfavoritewife · 9 months

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Din Djarin x Reader Headcanons Pt. 1

Summary: How you met the Mandalorian and eventually became his lover.

Pairing: Din Djarin x fem!Reader

Warnings: Mentions of canon violence, a shower massage. Very slow burn because I like suffering haha.

Yeah so these started out as headcanons but because I can't write briefly to save my life, it basically turned into a fic in bullet point form lmao. There is a second part coming soon once I dig the rest out of my notes app!

Also, because I like to create origins for reader characters, she is culturally Mandalorian by birth, but because I'm a huge nerd she was raised by the Lorrdians because I always thought their nonverbal language skills were absolutely badass.

*Translations of words/phrases in Mando'a at the end

You and the Mandalorian first crossed paths on a wild outer rim planet somewhere, having been sent after the same bounty by the Guild

He questioned why you wore a beskar breastplate, thinking you had stolen it from his people

The bounty had escaped, and against his better judgment, he brought you with him in pursuit, especially after you told him your armor had belonged to your buir

You were born into Clan Viszla, but your family had escaped to Lorrd during the unrest, where you had been raised in the traditions of the Mando'ade but also learned the Lorrdian language

Because of this, you quickly became accustomed to reading his body language, as he rarely spoke

He doesn't know what to make of you, since you long ago abandoned your helmet and thus in his eyes broke your creed

For your part, you're aware he must have been raised by extremists, but you respect his religious beliefs

The two of you make a surprisingly good team and end up splitting the bounty

Neither of you could say why you stayed, and why he didn't drop you off somewhere, but you kept working together

As you get more comfortable, your sarcastic nature begins to surface more often

He can't tell if he hates or enjoys your constant commentary, but he's occasionally willing to give back; most of the time you just get a long-suffering sigh in response

Although he stays mostly aloof, you can read by his gestures eventually that he pretty much considers you friends by now

The problem with this is that you're an extremely touchy person physically, having grown up in a very intimate community, and he is not

At first he shrugs you off whenever your hand brushes his armor as you pass by, but after months of patience from you, he finally accepts your friendly hand on his arm with a grudging sigh of defeat

You get to know each other a little better with all the time you spend patching each other up in hard-to-reach areas

Now you know the color of his skin, which, although such a small detail, makes you feel immensely honored, since hardly anyone else ever will

For his part, he's surprisingly gentle at tending injuries, and you just wish that someday he might take off his gloves to touch you

Little facts about each other keep surfacing during these vulnerable sessions

"What are these for?" he asks you once when he has to pull your braids away from your neck; he's perceptive, to have picked up that they mean something

"The Weequay started that custom, each one stands for a year I've been away from Mandalore"

He's quiet for a long time before asking one more question

"Do you ever mean to go back?"

"I don't know if I want to anymore; but it feels right to honor my first home"

When he's finished cleaning up the lacerations across your upper back, you rise to your feet and let your hand linger on his shoulder

"Thank you, Mando"

"Din," he murmurs, so soft you can barely pick it up over his modulator "My name is Din Djarin"

He trusts you with his actual name

"Din," you smile, warmth spreading beneath your skin at finally having cracked his shell "Thank you"

After that, your interactions shift a bit

He's a little more welcoming of your casual touches

He would never say so, but you can tell he almost leans into them now

You can also tell by his posturing that he hasn't really been touched by anyone for a very long time

Does he realize he craves the contact?

Chasing that one bounty all over Tatooine did a number on both of you

You didn't know sand could get some of the places it's gotten

"I need a shower" you tell him as you step back into the Razor Crest, sand trailing in your wake

"I know you must need one too, Djarin, don't pretend that fancy beskar suit keeps it all out"

"I'll wait" he grumbles

"You can join me, you know" you offer "Another set of hands always helps with sand"

He stares at you for so long, you start to wonder if you've been too forward, but you mean exactly what you've said and nothing more...don't you?

Finally he wordlessly gestures at his helmet

Of course, his creed

Wait, does that mean he actually considered it?

You smirk up at his expressionless visor, feeling his sharp gaze fixed on you

"What, Din, don't tell me you've never showered with the lights out?"

You're very satisfied with how your idea unfolds, and he accepts without too much further need for convincing, so here you are, sharing the small 'fresher shower with the Mandalorian himself

Din stays mostly silent as the two of you work to rid your bodies of sand, though you can hear him sigh softly every time your skin kisses his for a moment

He's almost too much for you in this cramped space, smelling of sweat and smoke, solid and muscular where you've collided, and all your other senses are on overdrive since you can't see a thing in the darkness

And that's when it hits you that you've fallen for him

But you keep that thought to yourself

He makes an excellent platonic shower partner, attentive to when you need help scrubbing the grime from areas that are hard to reach

His hands are wonderful without those gloves, so much larger than your own slender ones, startlingly tender despite their roughness

And so warm, his whole body is so warm

You return the favor, and feel how tense he is beneath the surface

You can't tell for once if that tension is caused by you or if he just carries that much all the time

So as you wash the grit from his broad back, as your fingertips skate over the scars of his brutal lifestyle, you experimentally nudge into those rigid muscles, in an attempt to loosen him up a bit

The sharp inhale makes you freeze

"Forgive me --"

"No" your heart jolts at finally hearing his low voice so clearly without the modulator "Don't stop"

So you continue to massage out the stiffness wherever you find it, trying not to let his clipped breaths affect you too much

Then you part ways without a word once the water is off; he leaves you alone there in the 'fresher to dry off with the lights on, wondering if something went wrong

Buir = Parent

Mando'ade = Children of Mandalore

#the mandalorian #din djarin #mandalorian x reader #din djarin x reader #headcanon #slow burn #part 2 coming soon #I am SO in love with this man #hes so hot #i love him #romantic #x reader #female reader #star wars #bounty hunter #absolutely not simping over here in my corner hehe #he's so soft under that beskar we know this #this is the way

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swan2swan · 3 months

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You are every bit as bad as the Comicsgaters who hate Moon Girl (and the rest of Marvel's stuff) because of """forced diversity.""" If you hate nearly all Jews, hate the symbols and, yes, colors associated with our community for millennia, that is not caused by Israel, it is caused by your moral defectiveness and bigotry.

Well, this is an interesting comment to wake up to.

Tell me something:

How often do you see the Prussian Cross in media?

We're not even jumping into the heavy-hitters right now. We're sticking with the particular variant of the Prussian Cross. Black cross. White outline.

Outside of historical stuff and bikers...how often do you see this?

If the answer is "Barely anywhere at all, especially in Children's Media", you'd be correct. Because after the early 1900s, it kind of took on a MAJOR negative meaning.

Obviously, there's plenty of other cross variations to use, so this wasn't exactly a DEATH KNELL for Christian Imagery. Just because people don't want to be associated with the Kaiser's Germany or their biggest crowd that was super-popular in Europe during the 30s and 40s doesn't mean they can't use a DIFFERENT design of cross. But obviously, using that particular brand became something of a cultural taboo

And, again...this isn't even the heavy-hitters.

But now consider: if a bunch of constituents go to John Fetterman's house to protest his support for Israel's genocide, and his only response is to wave a huge Israeli flag...blue and white with the Star of David...what is the message he's sending there? What is the association going to become?

Now, begin to multiply that. Not by hundreds of times directly, but by little moments. People with the Israeli flag on Twitter, putting up arguments about how all Palestinians are terrorists, and how DARE you not sympathize with Israel after the events of October 7th!

Actually, here, you know what? Let's just DEMONSTRATE.

...oh, I was looking for less-silly examples, but sometimes, you get the PERFECT ONE that is making EXACTLY your point:

Here it is. Right here. I dunno how serious the OP is, but yeah, people are actively turning the Star of David into an "I Stand With Israel" symbol, while Israel is committing ALL OF THE CRIMES, and digging a hole deeper and deeper. The longer this goes, the worse it gets, the more entangled they become...do you see why I'm upset now? Do you understand yet?

Especially because...you know who's really having a great time with this? The antisemites. They get to watch a military force do a genocide against those brown Arabs all the way over in a desert while everyone gets MAD, and all they have to do is keep encouraging the fight! Make that Star of David an EVIL symbol! In a few years, guess what you get to do? You get to start SHAMING people for wearing the Star! Heck, you can do that right now! But you don't have to, because plenty of other people are doing that for you.

So we return to my original point:

The fact that while watching a children's cartoon, for s *split second*, I saw something that I immediately associated as a red flag, because it was on my computer screen. And where do I generally see blue and white stars on my computer screen these days? News stories. Propaganda. The guys in your mentions who jump in to accuse you of antisemitism because you say something like "Genocide is bad".

Let's leave with this:

#I've talked about this before too #one of the important reasons for separatiion of church and state is so that the state can't guilt you into associating them with the church #because a state claiming to represent your religion can violate it at any time #and even if it's NOT happening right now #it could happen in ten years or thirty #people die and get replaced by new people #and sometimes the new people are evil people #again: this was a split second #antisemitism

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mooncaps · 5 months

Text

Can't say I cared for that "something a male-presenting Time Lord could never understand" moment. Like, yeah, Doctor, you're genderfluid, but maleness is so inherently, intrinsically toxic, in every species from every planet and culture, that you're blind. Because men, even the ones who sometimes regenerate into women, are just completely incapable of learning and doing better; maleness itself is the problem. That kind of mentality just gives men a pass for being shitty rather than asking them to take responsibility for bettering themselves. And for what? The little dig at the Doctor barely lands.

And honestly, I don't especially care for the fact that Donna and Rose are expected to let go of their power. RTD could've just as easily written in that they can keep it because it's spread more evenly across the two of them. He could've done a more wholesome message about how sharing power makes you more balanced. It almost seemed like he was trying to do that, for a second.

I don't know, maybe I'm the one who's wrong, or maybe RTD was trying to get me to think about something that I'm not quite grasping, but those parts didn't really hit for me.

Minor complaints about letting go of power aside, I did really like the episode.

Loved having a trans girl on the show. (Or is Rose a she/her nonbinary person? Did RTD just really want to do that nonbinary wordplay since Donna said binary over and over in Journey's End?) I love that it was a plot point too. Her transness is part of the story and very much an established fact, not just something left up to headcanons. I'm very glad for that.

RTD came in spicy, going for the throats of those fans who inexplicably thought his return would end wokeness in the show. He got an episode nobody was gonna miss, since it was his return, with David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and the 60th Anniversary, and he said "yeah I'm gonna tell a trans story, with Donna Noble's child, where the fact that she's trans is a big part of what saves the day." And I definitely respect that.

Donna was delightfully Donna, and her being ready to fiercely defend Rose was everything.

I very much enjoyed Rose calling out The Doctor for assuming The Meep's pronouns and The Doctor getting thoughtful about it, acknowledging that it was a good point.

I'm curious about what they're going to make of this story with David Tennant's face being back and Donna being back. I'm eager to see how the rest of the journey unfolds and what else the new RTD era holds in store.

#Doctor Who #doctor who spoilers #my first thoughts on this

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echoesofadream · 7 months

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can i say i think you might be blaming jk too much for this? jk's part is entirely problem-free. idk i honestly think the only problematic thing for jk himself is him not really getting that jack's part isn't just sexual, like he asked for him to make it, it's also problematic. in his interviews, he seems to view the song as being about 'wanting to be with someone you love'. i don't think his own perspective includes jack's, which involved fucking a whole lot of people and is just there to add more explicitness, as jk's own perspective involves dedication to just one person.

they would have to record the song, then ask harlow to write his verse and stick it in. they would have asked for him to be sexual, which is what his lyrics were. from my experience, someone from the east who learned about problematic stuff by interacting with western culture would honestly trust a western artist to not write something problematic.

jk in these songs is not doing anything unfeminist honestly. he's dedicated to pleasing one girl in both songs. both have consent involved, and the second one straight up says, "if you're ready, if you'll let me"

i'm sorry for saying all this in your asks, i just thought from your previous posts that you might get it when others might not.

like I agree but the meaning is pretty clear if you watch the music video? and did you see the tiktok(?) where jk and jack dance/act to that part and jungkook counts one, two, three four with his fingers. like I think if I put out a song in my name, in a language I'm not fluent in, I would want to know the meaning of the lyrics, instead of evading responsibility just because "I didnt know" right? like the music video is a big part of the problem for me. and that pretty much transcends language.

"from my experience, someone from the east who learned about problematic stuff by interacting with western culture would honestly trust a western artist to not write something problematic." im sorry but idk if I get what you mean by this? genuinely btw ofc! im not taking any offense to your ask just to be clear yeah definitely agree that the lyrics from his side arent problematic they're just about sex and giving a girl an orgasm basically. but in the context of the mv and jack Harlows part I feel more icky about it. I dont know if you know this about me but I am a raging misandrist? so men in general are walking on a thin line with me. if theyre going to sing about sex (I prefer when they dont – in fact I prefer when people dont sing about sex like this in general, call me a prude I really dont care so. altho I do have many sexual songs on my "jungkook cover this" playlist but theyre mainly about well theyre different and usually by Kim Petras..) and especially (this is just a personal preference) idont like hearing about heterosexual sex. and like obviously this isnt problematic in its nature (or is it? I havent read enough feminist theory sorry) it's just personally im not gonna dig it like jungkook isnt doing anything wrong singing about these things obviously! im just being a hater on my own blog, not everything I say is valid criticism! just my own feelings about things! I think men should be castrated for less than this in general like those are just my feelings

that said I dislike the trend of jungkooks music in general and on a feminist level, wasnt his last mv about begging a girl to have sex with him? like yeah it was endearing because he was submissive about it the whole time but now this, i dont like it.

dont apologize its totally OK, thanks for the ask! im hard on him because my expectations are so high!

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drwcn · 2 years

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Hello! Quick question: JC-antis will prove their (insane) arguments about him by citing how the "real" JC is described in MXTX's text. I know a lot of the story revolves around the danger of rumor and hearsay, but in my English translation, the story seems to be written in 3rd person omniscient, which unfortunately seems to give their argument some weight. Could you lend me some insight regarding the original Chinese or any cultural elements that might help me defend my Fave? Thanks! <3

i mean Jiang Cheng is very much a little shit face, but is he a bad person? Hmmm no.

as far as i'm concerned, antis can say whatever they want and i just...block ppl LOL

it's hard to give really concrete evidence without digging up the real text and MDZS is....VERY LONG. And i just can't...be...bothered.

But I will say one thing about Chinese as a language. Sometimes I found that translation often made what is just "casual speech" very abrasive and aggressive and rude sounding in English.

Even just the most basic example from the show: when that dude from episode 2 fainted in the Fairy Temple, Sizhui is translated to say: hey what's wrong with you? Or something to that effect. (the only reason i can pull this up as an example is bc i recently started watching it again with a new friend who i've infected. i'm like patient 0 in this untamed epidemic that's going around in my friend circles).

Which honestly, if a person fell down in front of you and your automatic response is what's wrong with you? People would be like wtf, why are you so rude? But in Chinese, it's....not a rude thing to say. In fact that is exactly what Sizhui says: what's wrong with you/what's going on with you?

And this is Sizhui we're talking about. Like the Angelic Boy of the mdzs universe no matter which iteration.

So naturally you can see how that plus a shitty temper would make Jiang Cheng seem like an irredemable asshole.

Not to mention all the misreading into the cultural dynamic, trope dynamic that people seem to be doing left right and center. Completely heedless of the myriad of people telling them bruv, you're reading the book wrong please calm down.

It's like whenever i read a good fanfic and i see the words "Madam Yu abused Wei Wuxian" - I click (x), right away. I'm too old and too tired to deal with this kind of shit in my life.

Also the absolute projection I see in some people's analysis/fic/headcanon. Bruh....

But who am I to tell people how to live their lives? If they get more out of mdzs/cql than is intended by the author or production team, well that's none of my business. I can have selective blindness.

and do i feel show jc is a bit watered down than book jc? hmmm yeah, to an extent. but also i feel that's the thing with books right? when i read it i imagine one thing, but when i see it as a visual in the show, that's both the director's interpretation of the character as well as the actor's interpretation of the character. and i decided that it's canon enough that it's not ooc, and i actually like the show's interpretation so that's what i'm gonna stick with.

#corie replies #cql #the untamed

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fairycosmos · 6 months

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Idk I think lumping mean rude abusive and cruel all together as if they're of the Same Severity is casting a wide enough net to not really be useful, and that that's demonstrated in your response automatically rolling all of that into "abuse". Sometimes people are thoughtless. Sometimes ppl are just kinda unpleasant. That's not the same as a pervasive pattern of harmful behavior.

Totally agree that the people actively harmed don't owe forgiveness though.

Also, literally everyone has, intentionally or unintentionally, done something harmful to someone else at some point. Is anon asking that we all remain in a state of constant penitence or ostracization forever, or just asking about the ppl they harmed directly? It can be hard to tell with culture of both demanding "purity" and it being increasingly easy to dig up dirt on anyone no matter how old, or what changes they've made, and rebroadcast it over and over, you know?

yeah i definitely zoned in on abusive there as it was the most extreme example - i was replying basically using their example of abusive ppl. ofc there's a wide grey area between what is considered cruel and mean and what is considered abusive and i wouldn't use the same parameters to judge like, everyday impoliteness or occasional low moments as i would to judge consistent abusive behaviour. i think we're mostly in agreement but yeah i should've specified! x

#anon

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a-tale-of-legends · 1 year

Text

The Applin Incident

Summary: Ramona gives Arven an Applin. Neither of them know the cultural implications of it. Everyone else is. Chaos ensues.

Note: Happy Valentines Day! And yes, this is gonna go the shipping route, to go on theme. This was supposed to be more of a comedy, but it ended up a semi character study of Ramona. All in all, I hope you enjoy :)

~~~

"Arven!" Ramona calls, as she walks past some nearby students. Arven looks up from his rotom phone, giving her a slight smile.

" Took you long enough. It's rude to keep the person you called waiting, you know," he teases, and Ramona rolls her eyes.

" Well I'm sorry I can't walk down stairs fast enough for you,"

" Can't you just take the elevator?" Arven asks, raising a brow. Ramona gives him a soft glare.

" I would if they weren't broken. Now do you want this Applin or not?"

Ramona doesn't wait for a reply, as she takes out Applin's PokeBall. With a flick and a beam of light, a small Applin appears in her other hand. The small pokemon cries , looking up at her trainer with glee. Ramona feels a pang of guilt, knowing what's going to happen.

" Hey there, girl. Remember when I said I couldn't find the time to take care of you? Well I found someone who can!" She gestures to Arven, who gives the small Applin a small wave.

" He's a good trainer and a big softy," Ramona says with a wink, earning a soft glare from Arven, " I trust him to treat you right, okay?"

The Applin looks between Arven and Ramona, as if making her assessment. After a few seconds, she jumps up and down on Ramona's hand- thankfully she's light so it doesn't hurt- and takes a massive leap towards Arven's shoulder.

" Well then!" Arven laughs, using a finger to let his new pokemon, " Glad I made a good impression,". The Applin coos, nuzzling against Arven's cheek, making him giggle.

" And that's that! I'll visit ya, so don't think you've seen the last of me!" Ramona wags a finger at the Applin,who chirps in response.

"Now that's done, I think we have time before our next class," Arven hums, " Wanna get a sand-"

Arven was cut off by a... suspiciously loud group of murmuring. The two teens turn to see a group of students whispering amongst each other, looking at them. Or maybe their just looking at her. Ramona feels a pit form in her stomach. It always starts with whispers, does it? Being "The Calamity" will never really go away-

" Hey," Arven rests a hand on her shoulder, " Let's not worry about them. Wanna get a bite to eat?"

Ramona looks at the group of students,still whispering, then back at Arven. She gives him a smile.

" Yeah. That- that would be nice,"

The two went off to the school cafeteria, their fellow students and ultimately ended up enjoying their day. If only things were that simple

~~~~

" Are you and Arven dating?"

" What."

The girl seemed completely unfazed by Ramona's reply, merely looking at her with amusement.

" You gave him an Applin, right? Everyone saw. You confessed to him,".

Ramona stares at the girl, completely godsmacked. What does an Applin have to do with confessing? It's a pokemon???

" Wha-" Ramona tries to reply, but her voice seems to let out. The student continues anyway.

" I mean the fact that you caught a real Applin instead of, like, buying a charm or something, but you went for the real deal!"

Ramona clenches her jaw, a glare starting to form. She's patronizing her. She can feel it. It's all in her voice, the mask of wanting a simple conversation, only to just take small digs at her.

" So. Are you two dating?" Ramona doesn't respond. She's not going to give this girl that satisfaction.

" Or did he reject you?"

Ramona's temper rises, and she shoots up from her desk and immediately books it to the door.

" Huh?! Wait, class didn't even start-"

Ramona blocks the girl out, her mind sizzling.

Dating. Seriously?!

~~~~~

The rumor spreads like wild fire. Every turn she takes someone asks if she's dating Arven. It's almost inescapable. Almost all of them are condescending, in a way. Though some of them were just blunt.

" Arven? Dating The Calamity?"

" Oh man, he must want a death sentence-"

She tries to ignore them. Remind herself that she isn't that person anymore. That she's not some mindless brute. That she doesn't want to harm anyone. But it's hard. The rumors make it harder. Bless Nemona for scaring them off, though. She's been by Ramona's side since the whole ordeal....even if she does tease her about it.

A walk down the hall and Arven and Ramona's eyes meet. They both look away.

~~~~~

" .... It is kinda funny,"

" Jacq."

Ramona glares daggers at her legal guardian ( ...dad? She doesn't know) from the couch she's sulking in. She's watching him lose at a racing game.

" It kinda is! I mean, you didn't know-"

" Because your Pokedex didn't mention it!" Ramona points a finger at Jacq accusingly,only for Jacq to snicker. He's still losing.

" True, but you have two Galarian friends that could have told you that. Giving Applin to a crush is apart of Galar's customs,"

Ramona mentally pauses, then glares at her hands.

" I'm gonna kill them,"

" Please don't,"

Jacq loses his race, a disappointed sigh escaping his lips. He pauses the game and turns to Ramona.

" Jokes aside....how are you holding up? It's kinda everywhere at the academy,".

Ramona sulks deeper into the couch, crossing her arms.

"They...they keep calling me The Calamity. Saying Arven has a death wish cause they think we're dating,"she digs her nails into her skin, ' I'm not that bad, right?"

" You were never 'bad', Ramona," Jacq says sternly, " Never. I need you to understand that,"

In slides a little closer to Ramona, resting a hand on her shoulder.

" I'll bring it up with the other teachers and Clavell. We all thought it was a cute rumor at first, but then we started listening. And now..." He shakes her head, " I don't think we can let that continue, hm?"

" I mean....I guess," Ramona mumbles, covering her face with her hands, " I'm gonna have to sit through a dumb PSA, aren't I?"

"Maybe!" Jacq chuckles, "Who knows! We haven't discussed it yet,"

Ramona groans loudly.

" I hate this,"

" You said that 10 times already,"

" It's your fault, by the way,"

" Oh, of course," Jacq muses, clearly not taking her accusations seriously.

" And Arven's," This makes Jacq raise a brow?

" Arven?"

" Arven is stupid," Jacq smiles at her, a teasing glint in his eye shining.

" So you do like him,"

Heat rushes towards her cheeks.

" Shut up and play your game, old man,"

Jacq chuckles again, un-pausing his game,mumbling something of " the irony".

~~~~~

Good news: The rumors died down. Whether it was the staff's doing or it just died down naturally, Ramona doesn't care. Thank fuck not everyone is asking her if she's dating Arven. There's still a few whispers, but nothing extreme. She can look at Arven again without a shit ton of embarrassment washing over her. They even waved at each other today!

Bad news: Students are still bitches. Point in case: this bitch.

" So....you two aren't dating?" The girl- Ramona doesn't even bother with her name at this point- asks, eyeing Ramona with curiosity.

"No," Ramona says curtly, hoping that the girl would get the idea and leave her alone. She doesn't. No one ever does.

"So does that mean you're available?"

When Ramona thinks this girl can't leave her speechless anymore, she does. She feels like she was just run over by a truck then hit by lighting.

" Huh?!"

Again, the girl- should she learn her name???- doesn't look fazed by Ramona's reaction.

" You're open, no?"

Ramona feels her emotions spiral under a blanket of pure confusion. This is the same girl that sounded so condescending towards earlier. The girl who made her storm out of the classroom before class even started. The same girl who she knows was looking down on her during the entirety of that first conversation. She's???? Asking her out?????? In a classroom???????????

" W-well, yes,but-"

" Let's go out then,"

The irritation is back.

" No,". The girl stares at her, then turns away. She doesn't look upset, or anything really. Just. Unfazed.

" Fine," she says as the teacher calls for the class's attention." Your loss,"

Ramona wants to slap her.

~~~~

Dammit, she was pretty too.

~~~~~

" You know Arven," Ramona sighs, taking a bite of her sandwich, " You're the last person I would expect to get into a fight,"

" Almost,"

" Almost, right,".

The two of them gradually started hanging out again, with the rumors dying down. They were waiting on Nemona, who was bringing Luca and Penny along for their picnic. Arven's idea, of course. It doesn't stop Ramona from snagging a sandwich while they wait.

" Please don't nag me about it, I already got an earful from Nemona," he sighs, crossing his arms, " Luca said he wasn't mad, but disappointed,"

" Yikes. From your own little buddy," Ramona holds back a laugh, " What was that even about anyway?"

Arven's face hardens, a scowl on his face.

" Some other students were talking about us. How I have a death wish dating " The Calamity". Tsk,".

Ramona takes another bite out of her sandwich and shrugs.

" Eh. Should have expected those guys to stick. It's no big deal,"

" But it is!" Arven counters, " You're not some bully! Or "The Calamity"! You're Ramona Beatriz Luna, my friend and one of the coolest people I know! I can't just sit there and let people talk about you like that-"

" You think I'm cool?" The question seems to catch both of them off guard. Arven's cheeks redden, as does Ramona's, and Arven avert his gaze.

" W-well, yeah. Of course I do! Who wouldn't?" Ramona's blush deepens.

" Oh." She pauses, thinking over her words, "I think you're pretty cool, too". She gives Arven a slight smile. Arven returns it, albeit a flustered one.

" T-thanks,"

The two stand there in silence, both trying desperately not to look stupid with their red faces and goofy smiles. Fortunately, Nemona and the others come along, Nemona and Luca waving excitedly. The group walks off together, Ramona and Arven staying close to each other the whole way.

~~~~~

The small package from Arven was at the front of her dorm room when she reached it. It was wrapped in a yellow cloth- his favorite shade- with a sunflower pattern on it. There was a note attached to it:

' Sorry for being a coward. Applin says hi, btw'.

Now confused, she unwraps her gift. Her eyes widened to what was inside.

Applin cookies.

Her heart is soaring. Teary eyed, she took a bite.

It was sweet.

#no applins were harmed during the creation of this fic #r rambles #oc: ramona beatriz luna #oc x canon #arven x oc #Arven #rival arven #pokemon arven #r writes #IT'S DONE. FINALLY.#gonna edit this later and post it on AO3.

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weebsinstash · 2 years

Note

Who are your top 3 yandere characters right now

One thing I've learned is that I can latch on to certain characters for certain reasons depending on what I'm looking for emotionally so honestly my interest has been bouncing around a lot depending on just how my day has been going

To be honest I've been hella HELLA stressed so I've been going heavy on the escapism stuff. I still think of the Chocobros a lot so I would put them as number 1 without question. I've been recently thinking heavily on, like, if I were to sit down and start writing for them, what would it be and why. Most of my ideas involving them honestly just, have an embarrassing amount to do with American specific politics and culture so I don't know how digestible to everyone it would be but I guess the main theme is mostly just "wow Reader, where you came from is really shitty and horrible, stay with us, we think your environment is kind of making you a worse person" and situations revolving around that

Interrupting myself to add as a general thing, I need to remind myself that writing shorter stories is just fine, but for some reason I keep obsessing on emotional buildup and like, other things that are certainly nice to have, but not necessary. Been really considering writing several smaller stories with the goal of making them digestible but not horribly long as kind of. An exercise on restraint? Cause I'm kinda starting to wonder if my reluctance to write is partially mental illness-driven "make it perfect or don't make it at all" and like. That's so exhausting 🤦‍♀️

Number two would be. Hm. I would say still Valentino honestly 💀 im embarrassed by how bad I want hazbin hotel to come out so I can mindlessly consume whatever scraps of content of him will be in it. I'm feral. I'm hungry. I'm embracing my inner cringe. If you're into HH there's been a lot of buzz about the official Twitter posting redesigns for the show that animators have been saying are easier to animate and such, so, you know, more details for the show being released makes me hopeful for maybe a release later this year?

But nah with Val im mostly just having ideas of just awful downright fucknasty sex and also him just being horribly terribly jealous and possessive bc that's just. A big personal kink of mine as terribly unhealthy in an actual relationship it is. Also like. Four armed tall imposing monster is A Type for me ok. I have like. A thing for the possibilities brought on by four arms. Man when yall were ever kids too did you ever watch like Machamp from Pokemon or Ben 10 and think "hope this doesn't awaken something in me" because--

As for number three. Hm. There are honestly several different ideas that have been floating around for me. Being exhausted by my retail job reminded me of Nanami and his "fighting curses is no worse than working a regular job" and you know what? king shit. Man's right as rain. Been thinking about something with him and a reader with a similar mindset where he eventually realizes "oh wait, we harness negative emotions to fight curses, I wonder if Reader is potentially Digging Too Deep and possibly feeding into potential mental illness problems" which then leads into "well fuck guess I better take responsibility and start taking care of them"

I've also been having a few thoughts for Volo who is, you know, obsessed with knowledge and such and would definitely have a lot to learn from a Reader from the future, and also like, there's that whole thing where, he did technically, you know, physically threaten us actually. Like, you know what, im digging up his actual words:

"Not that you have a choice. Even if you don't wish to battle, I'm not above using force to take those plates from you."

So yeah, look at it from this perspective. If you consider Reader as, well, us and our player character, and we, or some of us, are technically people who have had "all sorts of pokemon adventures" as in when we've beaten such and such games and watched such and such movies. Imagine Volo hearing all of these crazy stories and tales and also seeing Reader's talent as a trainer and adventurous heart and just kind of like, becoming near zealot-like obsessed because Reader has Literally Met God Several Times, traveled through time, found lost underwater kingdoms, met pokemon from space, ones that granted wishes, so on, so on, and well... maybe he decides Reader is also some sort of divine figure for him to behold and revere and serve oh so diligently, never to part with. That Reader is such a magnet for the amazing and the unknown that he should keep you alongside him when he remakes the world and all that

Anyways long answer is long but anyways yeah I've got a lot of characters taking up space in my head and my heart and my pants and maybe I'll write something soon, who knows

#ive actually been looking into seeing if i can squeeze a desk into my room and see if that helps #like having a place to sit down with my laptop in my private room is a huge help haha

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ekho-ekho-ekho · 2 years

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no disrespect to cat lovers, but y’all can write all the six-page essays you want about how preferring dogs to cats is a sign of boundary issues/controlling behavior/self-entitlement and how if people just entertained their cats and learned to read their body language, they’d earn said cat’s affection and it would stop drawing blood. . . .

but I hope y’all have an answer ready when someone asks, “And what about when the cat draws blood while showing affection?” because otherwise, it takes y’all less than twenty seconds to start talking like an abused spouse.

“He doesn’t do that!”

“What ‘cuts’?”

“Oh, these cuts? Haha! That was an accident! We were just playing!”

“Well . . . yeah, okay, so maybe he does ‘draw blood’ on a ‘regular basis.’ But it’s not that bad!”

“Wha—so what if he’s literally digging his claws into my bare thigh right now? He’s just making biscuits! It’s how he shows love!”

“Look, if the couch gets stained red the couch gets stained red. Maybe that’s MY fault for not having a red couch in the first place!”

“Well maybe you just don’t understand him! You ever think of that? Maybe you don’t know him like I do!”

look, I’m sure some people to some extent disdain cats because they “expect them to act like dogs,” but it’s not exactly fair to treat that as indicative of some moral failing. first of all, if you're used to cats and prefer them to dogs, is it because you “expect dogs to act like cats”?

put it this way: one of my friends has a dog that likes to put peoples’ arms in his mouth. doesn’t bite down or anything. he just gets excited and places his mouth around your forearm.

so we have to warn new friends, “Hey Rocky’s gonna want to lightly chew on you but it’s not aggressive, he’s just very stoked.” because some people get (understandably) freaked out when they think a largeish dog is trying to bite them. maybe this new person has childhood dog trauma. maybe they’re just not used to dogs in general. whatever the case, if you’re uncomfortable, any responsible dog owner will do their best to distract the dog until it calms down.

so, say you grew up with cats and then meet a dog like Rocky, and say he greets you by engulfing your wrist in his maw, and say nobody warned you about this or steps forward to help, and in fact scoffs at you for not being able to tell the difference between “playing” and “attacking”—in other words, say they reacted the same way many cat owners react to their cat “just playing” with a guest’s bare feet. would you be upset?

would you be upset because you fully expected the dog to quietly sidle up and rub himself against your leg?

or would you simply prefer not to interact with an animal that’s behaving in an unpredictable way while putting its teeth on your skin?

look, OBVIOUSLY there isn’t any excuse to go around harming cats on purpose. OBVIOUSLY if you’re going to own a cat, you should familiarize yourself with cat behavior. and OBVIOUSLY some people don’t even try.

and that brings me to my second point, which is that those people just aren’t good pet owners.

correct me if I’m wrong, but I would guess that someone who gets a cat and makes no effort to understand its needs (much less meet them) is equally likely to keep a betta fish in an unfiltered bowl. or for that matter, a dog chained up in the yard year-round.

and yeah, sure, that kind of behavior could imply that person also sucks in other ways. OR! it could mean that they didn’t do their research because they don’t know what they don’t know. which most people don’t until they do.

just—Occam’s Razor: What’s more straightforward?

a person preferring dogs to cats because they feel dogs are less likely to harm them by accident?

or a person preferring dogs to cats because of their cultural/philosophical stance on the concept of free will or, idk, internalized misogyny or something?

TL;DR: .....it’s not that deep, fam

#cats vs dogs #I see these essays floating around every few years trying to pathologize cat-dislikers and istg the 'internalized misogyny' one was real #like circa 2016 mind you but they're always way longer than necessary #for the record I don't even hate cats I've just had enough bad experiences that I don't *trust* them #also for the record the 'cat lover impression' is based on actual conversations I have with my friends who own cats. don't @me #'how dare you move him from your lap!' 'well I don't want him to scratch me.' 'he doesn't scratch!' 'he scratched you ten minutes ago.'#'that wasn't scratching!' 'you yelled OW! and had to get the first aid kit.' 'he was playing!' 'were his claws out?' '...yeah.'#'did they break skin?' '..........yeah.'#'so he scratched you.'#'............well okay sure I GUESS! but only in the literal sense!'#(oh also guess I should add)#abuse mention

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regarding-stories · 1 year

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How worthy? In what sense? (Rent-a-Girlfriend)

So, yeah, I finished the current two seasons of Rent-a-Girlfriend yesterday. And one thing gave me pause in particular while watching the show, and when thinking about it today I realized that the show never really answered the question:

"Why did you risk your life for a rented girlfriend?"

The show sets up a contrived circumstance where the protagonist and his love interest end up on a ferry and she gets terribly seasick. So much so she keels over and falls overboard. He follows his impulse and is the only person to act and jumps after her. He dives after her, drags her up, but then somehow they end up washed on a shore of a small island where she actually regains consciousness first and gets water out of his lungs. (In other words, they save each other's lives.) They get rescued immediately after.

The sequence of events makes no sense, that's not the point. The whole incident, however, triggers a few other things. It makes it practically impossible for them to "break up" the fake relationship - since he just risked his life for her and everybody knows. It becomes a bit of narrative glue meant to hold the dynamic together that will drive the show for the remainder of the two seasons. (And beyond.)

All of that is fine, suspension of disbelief, whatever. What gets to me is another thing. This question he gets asked twice - why did he chose to risk his own life for saving a rented girlfriend?

The abyss looks back

You know, my natural response would be to think "because he's a decent human being". And I can guess that this is a story hint that says "I'm in love with you". Also fine. That's not what gets me so much.

What gets to me is how this question frames human worth.

"What is she to you? Why does she matter to you?" seem to be heavily implied here, but as soon as I dig down here I encounter multiple things. Is it a question of social status? Is it a question of familiarity? Is it even meant to express anything about the "goodness of character" in the context of Japanese values at all?

I watched this video a while ago. Apparently the Japanese are very unlikely to help a stranger - contrary to their reputation. Helping a foreigner who is obviously in trouble navigating the place - many Japanese people seem to go out of their way to help. But when it comes to other kind of help, the culture seems to have ingrained tendency not to. Says the video. Or the statistics. Whatever. I can't really tell you, myself. The statistics could reflect reality imperfectly, the video's conclusions or attempts at explanation could be off, I'm not saying this is how it is. All I'm saying is that I remembered this video while trying to understand this better.

So I deem it possible that this specific question might highlight more than I initially suspected. Why would you help a stranger? Being socialized in Lutheran Christianity as a child, we discussed in Religious Education the story of the Good Samaritan twice. We tried to understand why people were predisposed to not help a cultural outsider, and reading the book The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond made it clear that helping somebody out of your own group is not a universal human value. Diamond makes the point that if you observe traditional societies you notice that strangers were often enemies or killed on sight for various reasons. Traveling was often a stressful negotiation or outright dangerous.

The in group, the out group, and what it means to be in either, is cultural. But we don't always get a glimpse into that. A girlfriend "lives" in a different circle of closeness than a friend or an acquaintance or a business interaction or a complete stranger. This is not specific to Japan, nor am I saying it would be natural to a specific culture to risk one's life for a stranger. But the way the question is posed and (not) handled struck me as odd.

Or is it status?

Something that pervades Japanese fiction in some way or form is also social status and social relationships. The language itself has it encoded. You talk differently when polite or when casual. But for us on the outside the easier identifying mark is the use of suffixes: -kun, -san, -dono, -sama, -chan, -hime, etc. They express degrees of closeness and social relationships constantly. They are part of proper respect in the sense of knowing your manners, but they also can encode and transport the social structure.

You notice it everywhere. Younger students address older students accordingly, this is reflected in works like Accel World or Alicization, for example. This is the "Seniority Principle" that also pervades the Japanese business world, and hence its institutions. But implications of status and questions of respect are often cause of conflict between already antagonistic groups - I notice this in Sword Art Online or in Jobless Reincarnation, for example. Groups have a standoff about "showing proper respect" and you feel altogether like in a story about the Mafia. This conflates the individual's worth with social status.

So we have the variable of social proximity (are you in my family? in group? clan?) and the variable of social status (are you my superior? kohai? senpai? in a more respected position? "better breeding?"). The question is relevant, because her work is in... a service position. Hell, you could make the point that she's an "escort." An issue the series circumnavigates with the same "grace" as Pretty Woman or Failure to launch for the most part, though it does not completely avoid the implications, either.

Or ... what?

So, is it implying "she's not your real girlfriend" as in social proximity being the decisive factor or "she works as a rented girlfriend" as in social status? Is it "Who would help a service worker?" or is it "Who would help anybody that is not in their group?" Or is it a question of seeing the intrinsic worth of a human being because you can see past either? And why do others ask him that question?

Maybe ambiguity is not a bad thing here. Else I would not have asked myself the question, either. I assumed he was presented as a good person and also in love with her. And I guess I was not wrong. But the implications are that this might transcend more implicit cultural values than we as audience outside Japan might appreciate.

Looking closely many fictional works out of Japan have a complicated relationship with the society they depict. By which I mean they portray it and disagree or try to depict something else - a sort of escapist reality where people live flaunting the rules.

Let me emphasize something else at the end, though. While a Christianity-influenced culture might opt to emphasize "helping strangers" as a value or not, people of most if not all cultures gladly believe cultural self-deceptions about themselves and repeat stereotypes as if true. We might happily believe in our ingrained willingness to help strangers as we walk past the homeless. My purpose is not to single out Japan in any way. I just try to see a work within the context of the culture that it was created in and for. Within the scope of my very limited knowledge and exposure.

Which I really did not expect to be triggered by a mostly light-hearted series about a guy having various dealings with four girls.

#rent a girlfriend #romantic anime #human worth #social status #social proximity #anime series

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uneconomy · 2 years

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What is desirable difficulty for East Asians? In context for East Asian born in the west and a western East Asian in Sino-technosphere.

I don’t people realize how far removed they are from how things are made or even developed even as a person who went to college. Like if your sassy you talk about data, and it’s mostly marketing. Like how is development happen in your neighborhood. Like literally no clue.

I’ve watched YouTube for about five years and it literally did not capture anything about either technosphere in either side. And I still watch YouTube and like there’s like not even news clips of current political environments. Like I have to watch tv news which is a little sensational.

I go the the library all the time and I haven’t found a good book on either technospheres. On top of that barrier, people are weird when you talk about what is personal responsibility and what’s layered systems responsibilities. Like I guess the conversation can be very binary or reactionary because nobody talks about front of east commmunist turned Darwinistic technosphere in East Asia and like the west’s capitalizing on their white supremacy techno-schlock. Like yes there should be conversations about how technology blurs the line between human and machine. Like how difficult is it to have a place where you meet and talk about a cultural book you just read. Like you shouldn’t have to go to the city to figure that out or that their are only two high-profile advocates on crisis. I think it’s Naomi Klein for climate change, which sometimes I look back on her work and it kind of like looks like a front for privatizing climate change machines/products and she’s also one of the high profile people for the green new deal which also doesn’t talk about the hierarchy of guaranteed jobs, like where are the questions about who monopolizes all this information of climate tech and like what can the people do. Then I also think there’s Yuval Noah Harari on human tech/the parts of new technological frontier which he calls Homo Deus which is very clever because I guess globally the middle class have been doing homo economics. And yeah it’s fun to think and be a person who gets to be the face of new human tech but like guys it’s a monopoly, do you think somebody like Richard Brandson wants to be on the same yacht as you. I think Dr. Fauci is the face of COVID-19 which he has recently stepped down but it’s still very much a western deal even though I believe it started in China. Bill Gates is the next face of COVID-19 and global health initiatives. There’s also the racial inequality which has been around for awhile and it took 5 years to find a book by an African American economist. 5 years. Then there’s the Russian-Ukraine war which is very recent still but that’s also a western deal which I’m still very confused by. But it’s still very which a crisis in which white people dictate. And whatever finance crisis I don’t know but it’s still a western deal. And like weirdly, nobody talks about manufacturing. I think people sometimes call it deindustrialization as if we just went to growing trees on a massive scale but like isn’t people like going nuts on digging up oil. Currently, I’m in a suburb close to NYC and like people walk around like they going to Turks and Caicos tomorrow.

And I have two sisters, which recently we’ve had complicated communication with but they seem like our personal conflicts outweigh having social conversations about being a person in the world is.

Obviously, if I did something horrible like what is it and like is that really something to hold onto when like the world is so complicated. We were all born in America but now I’m starting to feel like East Asians get a very different way to internalize what it means to be American. Like yeah on my mom’s side they are like the American dream but like as East Asians like what do they think of things socially, culturally, and politically. Like I have no clue if they like living in America and being American. How do they feel about China? Because of recent personal events, I have no clue if I feel American or not. I really do feel like living in America is way better than living in East Asia. Am I American, I really don’t know even though I was born here and I don’t know how to continue be American. And like I watch tv news and they will be a rotation of ads on vitamins for your brain but gosh having a social place to talk about cultural events what a communist.

In conclusion, yeah I guess there’s 24 in a day 7 days a week and those algorithms can have at it. But please stop putting influencer beauty marketers in my feed. They are never going to talk about who gets to commercialize bio-chemistry. I do not care about East Asian Internet personalities, like on a list write down what qualities they have and like could somebody have done it better. Like sure people who empire are going to empire but like are you just putting yourself in a box. Like write it down.

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thorraborinn · 3 years

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I'm reading The Viking Spirit by Daniel McCoy after being recommend it, but I'm finding myself quite disappointed with it as the author seems to often insert his own opinions and emotions, mostly without clearly stating what is his own conjecture and personal opinion and biases.

Do you know of any better books that go over the history of the religion of the Norse peoples?

Hey, yeah, I don’t recommend Dan McCoy -- anyone presenting their website as “Norse Mythology for Smart People” is trying to sell you something other than just the information you’re looking for.

I gotta admit, the longer I’ve been out of academia, the less qualified I’ve become to answer this. Still, if I sat here for a while I could probably come up with hundreds of books on the topic off the top of my head (although to be fair, most of the authors would be listed as “I forget their name, I think they’re Danish?”). It’s a huge, multidisciplinary field. The old general introductions are all out of date and the topic has gotten so broad and detailed that a new general overview probably couldn’t possibly be written, because it would be such a massive undertaking that by the time it’s done, it would already be obsolete. I’ll give you a few recommendations though. Some of these are about narrow topics like seiðr or fate, but it’s impossible to treat those thoroughly without also digging into other aspects of Norse religion, so even those may be helpful even if those more narrow subjects aren’t of particular interest.

The best way to find good reading material is, once you have something already that you like, check out that book’s footnotes and works cited. Look into the author, see what else they’ve written and who they’ve worked with. Of course, you need to already have gotten started for that to work, so hopefully my response can help with that.

I have a lot of very well-informed followers, so hopefully some of them can add some stuff to the list too.

Most of the work that gets done in the field gets is in articles rather than books. That can be hard to break into, because most of them assume you already know a bunch of stuff that you might not. Any peer-reviewed article should be well-cited enough for you to investigate any of that, but sometimes those sources will turn out to be hard to acquire or maybe in a language you don’t know. Still, it’s not a bad idea to head to https://www.academia.edu and search for some sub-topics interesting to you, or find a paper like this one (just a random example) and check out the related papers on the right.

Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives, ed. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert, and Catharina Raudvere (2006). A big collection of conference papers from a conference on this topic in 2004 by some 70ish authors, covering a huge range of topics. It’s not a general overview -- this is like going to academia.edu to look for papers but taking a shortcut by having a collection curated for you, but it’s a good collection by some of the most important authors in the field.

Thomas DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (1999). I’ll be honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually read this, but it was kind of a game-changer when it was written. I found it early in my own development and it helped send me in the right direction. Once this book came out, it was no longer possible to write about all Nordic peoples having a single monolithic culture. It also takes the Sámi people into account in an actually respectful and considered way, which has become more common since then, but was a big deal when it was written.

Christopher Abram, Myths of the Pagan North: The Gods of the Norsemen (2011). This is an introduction to the study of Norse mythology, which is to say, not an introduction to Norse religion. It treats these as two distinct spheres of study with different methods for approaching them

Anders Andrén, Tracing Old Norse Cosmology (2014). This is actually about the pre-history of Nordic religions. It’s about using a dialogue between archaeology and later mythological texts to try to see what can be learned about the development of that later mythology. Andrén focuses specifically on three aspects of the cosmology: the world tree, middle-earth, and the sun.

Karen Bek-Pedersen, The Norns in Old Norse Mythology (2011) or her dissertation, which is free online, Nornir in Old Norse Mythology (2008). The most thorough source out there on the topic of the norns and of fate in Norse myth and religion. One thing that stands out about this book is just how much upheaval of old assumptions and misunderstandings it does. If you happen to be heathen yourself, that probably makes this one even more important.

Neil Price, The Viking Way (2019). An extremely dense, detailed book about seiðr, using mostly an archaeological and anthropological perspective. Definitely a must-read for anyone interested in the topic, and it’s very well-sourced and there is a great deal of text in it explaining the history of research and fairly presenting opinions of other authors that diverge from his.

And here are some more that might be useful, but should be read with a little bit of caution:

Neil Price, The Children of Ash and Elm (2020). Full confession: I haven’t read this one. It comes highly recommended from many corners of the internet. I’ve already recommended a book by the same author. This is probably something somewhat like what you’re looking for. Just, if you’re going to read it, read this review by Mathias Nordvig and keep the criticisms in mind.

E.O.G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North (1964). This is kind of the old standard introduction. It’s quite out of date, having been written back when such a general overview was possible. While I recommend reading it with the understanding that anything in it could have become corrected, recontextualized, debunked, or otherwise made obsolete in the last half-century, it’s still actually not a bad idea to read it anyway, not only because there’s plenty of stuff that actually will be found to hold up, but also because it gives you a picture of the state of scholarship as it went into the more contemporary modes of research. Norse mythology has been studied for so long now that scholars aren’t just studying that, they’re also observing and dialoguing with Norse studies from earlier periods, and this is among the best of that. It also has the benefit of being in the public domain: https://archive.org/details/TurvillePetreMythAndReligionOfTheNorth

I hope that helps, and if you want some more, or if there are particular subtopics that you’re looking for, or if there’s anything I can clarify for you feel free to send another ask.

#ask #anon #norse religion

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