#i don't mean to rant but i just wanted to add context when i say it means a lot that anyone even remotely likes my pixels

[holocene-sims]

a sneak peek for an upcoming (timeline tbd) update 😊

#holocene.txt #hlcn: story extras #consider this a thanks for the kind words on gratitude day :) #i wanna respond to everyone individually when i have time and also wax poetic about how much every comment means to me #it really does mean a lot #it's been a rough year and a very lonely year like i'm genuinely just so :/ #i lost both of my grandmothers this year very suddenly and the holidays feel empty now and i'm dealing with scary health issues #i finally had a brain mri after waiting for it to get scheduled since JUNE and now i have to wait on results and undergo some other testing #and i'm losing my mind a little because i planned a nice christmas gift for my mom and it feels ruined because the post office lost it #and my dad ruined the whole surprise of it by calling customer support on speaker phone with her in the room...and she ofc heard everything #i just wanted something nice for my mom :( she deserves it and although i have other gifts for her still it's not all what i planned #i don't mean to rant but i just wanted to add context when i say it means a lot that anyone even remotely likes my pixels #i may not know most of you very well *yet* (trying to fix that!!) but it's nice to feel a little support from somewhere :) beyond nice #and sorry for being absent a lot this year but i swear i have so much appreciation for y'all and i love you and your pixels dearly #i always feel bad like maybe it doesn't seem like i care in return bc i'm offline a lot now but i really do!! i care a lot!! love y'all xox

[mr-ribbit]

gonna rant again bc im seeing a lot of trans women on my dash having to carry the heavy lifting to argue for their basic respect and a lot of other queer people who want to ??? get mad about that apparently. for the record as usual: im tme, im not speaking for anyone besides myself and my perspectives, but I am trying to reach out to fellow tme people to level with y'all from inside the house.

i thought we all got past the 'calling people gendered terms when theyve asked you to stop' thing in like. 2012. i swear we were allllll on board with not calling women dude anymore, nerfing sir and ma'am, neutralizing collective terms for groups, and all of that was like, during the onceler era. that's how we got off-putting shit like folx into the mix - remember???? why are we here again.

to those who I've seen claiming that they REALLY genuinely don't want to offend anyone, and that theyre trying to understand the dude thing, and they don't want to be seen as transmisogynistic when they aren't: ok. let's talk about it. step one, stop sending that really loaded anon to a trans woman you don't know, and close that in-group hatepost with 100 replies from people name-dropping trans bloggers they don't like. try to open your mind and assume for the duration of this post that I am not cynically trying manipulate thousands of tumblr users into making Bro the next big swear word, but a fellow queer human being who thinks you're all being pretty intentionally obtuse about an upsetting trend in our community

to be clear: this post is about the issue of trans women being called bro, dude, man, etc., particularly in recent tumblr discourse about transmisogyny, and the backlash they face if they get upset about it. this is also maybe moreso about the shitty ass excuses I see tme people make for why they supposedly can't stop doing this.

so let's go through some of the things I've been seeing people say they don't understand, supposedly in earnest, about this issue

"I DIDNT USE DUDE AS A MASCULINE TERM. I CALL EVERYONE BRO. MAN IS A GENDER NEUTRAL TERM"

I'm not actually going to exhaust my list of reasons why dude/bro/man are not strictly neutral, but you should be pretty aware that all words have context. Dude might be seen as neutral in many contexts, sure, but 'woman who is frequently called a man by others' is a situation where the context adds extra meaning to your words, just like calling someone "sweetie" might be neutral in some cases, but if you've got the context of knowing that's your coworker who's half your age, it's a bit less neutral. If you're not capable of reading that context and being tasteful about when you say dude, then you need to at least be ready to respond gracefully when someone asks you to stop. This is the part I'd rather focus on.

"BUT I DIDNT MEAN IT THAT WAY. IM NOT TRANSPHOBIC"

I think you should consider broadening your perspective *beyond* your intention behind the word. people may already understand that you meant the word neutrally and therefore didn't have transmisogynistic intent, but that's not really the entire scope of what people are saying. if that's your only concern, you're just trying to clear your record, not actually listen to what they're saying.

there are lots of words people don't enjoy being called, and in most cases, when they say 'pls don't call me that', people respect that and move on. even if the word isn't a slur, if it hurts someone's feelings, we all as a society have agreed that it's pretty shitty to keep calling them that. if your friend asked you not to call them 'buddy' anymore because their dead grandparent called them that, or something equivalently personal, you'd probably respect that instead of telling them 'but I call everyone buddy!!' right? even if you didn't really understand why it bothered them so much?

there is a prominent tendency for trans women to be denied this privilege, and when they ask not to be called dude or bro, people don't seem to respect this request as much as they would in other situations. when I accidentally use a gendered word and someone tells me they don't like it, I try to respond with something like "my bad, I didn't mean it as misgendering but I can see you were still bothered by it, so I'll try not to keep saying it. sorry!" and most people are willing to accept that. when trans women ask people this favor, a lot of people get VERY defensive, and treat the request as inane or unfair, instead of just apologizing and moving on. this is why people are upset when this happens, and it's why people are calling your actions transmisogynistic

also like you might not be doing this, but a lot of people DO use dude and bro in an intentionally gendered way to make trans women uncomfortable. it's a power play bigots use to talk down to them or otherwise maliciously harass them. do you know what arguments they use to defend that behavior when called out on it? 'oh I call everyone that' 'dude is gender neutral calm down' 'dont overreact its just a word'. by acting like this, youre all just giving credence to those same arguments.

"WELL THEY SHOULDNT GET SO MAD AT ME WHEN I DIDNT MEAN ANY HARM"

they can get as mad as they want!! also, are you sure they're 'mad'? or are they just expressing their feelings about a negative topic to you, and it makes you feel bad, so you have to make them out to be unreasonably emotional? how do you think they should have phrased 'dont call me that' to better spare *your* feelings?

also like, in most cases, these women do not knowww you. if your main response to someone saying you disrespected them is to say "I didnt mean it that way, I meant it in a friendly neutral way", well that's NOT YOUR FRIEND! she has no idea what your opinions are or what you think of her!!! she has no reason to assume you only upset her in a friendly way and not a bad unfriendly way! but she did get upset, and she did the one thing she can do which is *tell you what upset her* and your response is to say "well actually you shouldn't be upset at all"??????

and another thing:

it's not just the issue of using the word 'dude', it's because you're coming off extremely dismissive of women who have asked you to stop doing something that harms them, and because your argument is basically that they just shouldn't be so bothered by it. or that they're stupid, irrational, or otherwise crazy for telling you that it bothered them at all, just because you Technically used a gender neutral word according to Your Rules. be honest, does that seem fair? If people were calling you something that bothered you enough to ask them to stop, and they responded like this, how would it make you feel?

focusing solely on your intent and what the words mean when you use them is the same thing as saying "just get over it". no woman should need to Prove to you that 'dude' is gendered for you to care about what she's saying. the fact that you're asking people to do that sucks and makes you look bad, which is why people are arguing with you and calling you a misogynist.

especially those of you who are only doing this with trans women who are actively arguing with. you're wielding misgendering as a cudgel and we can all see it, grow up please.

#discourse cw #transmisogyny cw

[incomprehensiblegiberish]

(Note: This has an edit at the bottom providing context and clarification, please read that as well) Because its an election year and I keep thinking about this, I would like to remind everyone,

THE PRESIDENT DOES NOT MAKE LAWS THAT WILL EFFECT YOUR LIFE SEVERELY

The president does not even MAKE LAWS. The president can VETO a law, but the real people voting for specific laws are voted in STATE ELECTIONS.

If you want change in your life by the government, you have to vote in LOCAL, AND STATE ELECTIONS

I repeat

LOCAL AND STATE ELECTIONS ARE TO PICK WHO MAKES LAWS FOR YOUR STATE AND WHO REPRESENTS IT.

I am sick and tired of seeing people complain about the amount of old people in the government. You have to VOTE. If younger people vote, younger people are more likely to get elected, and then the voting pool is larger. Old people are going to vote for other old people, and they are the only ones voting in state elections therefore, old white men are the only ones represented. You have to vote if you want an accurate representation in your government. The president doesn't do shit regarding laws (other than being able to veto laws). Thats military. Not laws. Get it together, this is an elementary level skill. Its literally taught in the 5th grade, how people don't understand that is beyond me.

VOTE IN STATE ELECTIONS FOR FUCKS SAKE THAT IS HOW YOU GET LAWS PASSED THAT YOU WANT.

The president is only important in regards to MILITARY. The president is commander in chief of MILITARY. Not laws. If you want the US to stop supporting a certain country, vote for someone that agrees or is at least the better option (Damn the two-party system). If you want a law passed to protect your rights, vote for senators and representatives that want to protect your rights. Please for the love of god, so much could be fixed by voting. The system is broken yes, but it is not the only one to blame, go vote for the love of god I swear. EDIT: I would like to clarify some things. This is meant as a GENERAL STATEMENT. The president CAN do things that affect you severely, but GENERALLY the president is not in charge of laws that severely affect people day to day as the laws that the president deals with are for the ENTIRE COUNTRY. And therefore, are usually less specific. This does not mean presidential voting is any less important, that is the opposite of what this post was saying. This post is because the presidential elections seem to be the only one people vote in. And its good that people vote in this, but the issue this is mainly from is the fact that state and local elections are overlooked constantly, and then people complain about how the government doesn't provide representation when no one is going to vote. I am not saying the president doesn't do things, the president is important, but we can't forget about the part actually responsible for making laws in states and in the federal government. I see so many posts about how laws are being made by people who no one (at least over the internet) seems to agree with, and people complaining about how horrible the government is and how many old people are in there. And I agree, there's too many old people past retirement age in the government making laws and other things, but in order to get them out of the government, people must vote for other, younger people. Its not just going to be fixed by screaming about things over the internet. This post is not going to fix anything, it was a rant because I am pissed about this.

This is likely going to be the only update I add to this, I will not be responding to anything stated about this post, or put into reblogs. I am not in the habit of discussing politics with people and I don't plan on getting a start any time soon. I hope you all have a good day and thank you for coming to my rant I felt the need to throw here

#us politics #rare political posting from me #but this needs to be said #important #i know this is really weird from this blog #but it really needs to be said #I see people all screaming about the president #but no one talks about the importance of voting for your senators or representatives #but everyone complains about old people in the government #only together can we make it look less like a nursing home bingo night at congress

[ae-neon]

Nesta Vs ACOSF, a rambling rant

TW: mentions of sexual assault and abuse

Besides the "love" story that read like a quiet descent into domestic horror, ACOSF has one element that keeps me from being able to pick it up even just to sift through for Nesta gems: sex.

Here me out, I'm not a prude and I think we could have gotten a smutty romance but...

At her core, Nesta has always been a proud and modest person.

To be clear, with pride, I mean that her sense of self - her famous steel spine - has kept her together and unbroken even during harrowing circumstances. It's vital to her. It's so ingrained in her that - given we have no other explanation - we can assume it's what shields her mind from literal magic. However, like any trait, her pride can also be a thing that comes off as negative in the wrong situations.

With modesty, she was raised to keep a certain ideology that based her value on sex, beauty, marriage etc but it's important to understand that Nesta applied those standards inwards, at herself. (Eg In acotar, she brings up Feyre and Isaac in defence of her and Tomas, in acomaf, she is mostly upset about not hearing from Feyre or being notified that Feyre has switched courts - not about Feyre sleeping with Tamlin and then Rhys)

Now, I don't think Nesta's modesty makes her better than Feyre, in fact I was happy to get the representation of two different types of views on sex

But what I didn't consider at the time was that SJM was painting this out to be a negative trait.

In retrospect it seems obvious even though Nesta has defied her narrative destiny and become a sort of icon, at the end of the day she was still supposed to be written in a negative contrast to Feyre.

It seems funny but imagine you consumed the book the way Sarah intended, the way so many in the fandom have. The old Sarah Says rule, for my long time mutuals.

For example:

The dinner in acomaf - it's obvious Nesta is upset that she hasn't heard from Feyre only to have her come through not only as a whole Fae but bringing others and endangering their entire family.

But imagine it as a one dimensional reading and suddenly the "I fuck" dialogue is a girlboss moment of feminism giving a fuck you to the strict patriarchy of the "mortal lands" let's ignore how the Fae are actually more patriarchal and the Illyrians even more so than that

So understand that Nesta's modesty is being directly contrasted with Feyre's sexual freedom. The reader - at least from sjm's perspective - is supposed to agree with Feyre and disagree with Nesta in a sort of win/lose, yes/no, black/white dichotomy.

And because sjm is consistent and boring and a self-inset author, this dynamic doesn't change even when the protagonist does.

Only now sjm and her feminism has changed from fuck-whoever-I-want girlboss to kinky-but-only-with-my-husband tradwife

So Nesta can't be prudish and cut off because 1) it's not as conducive to the breakdown of self and buildup of a dependent and abusive relationship and 2) it's not in direct contrast with Feyre's current monogamous, traditional family values character.

So Nesta starts drinking and sleeping around and it's not because we're going to explore the unraveling of the pride and modesty at the core of the character as part of her transformation or as a result of her trauma

But because it's supposed to be a bad look, degrading, it shows she's failed, it makes her a loser

All of that is already insane. And even more so when taken with the context of her assault by Tomas and the sex centred relationship she has with Cassian

Now add to that the fact that in the book, Nesta is an object of desire for 2 villains and undergoes assault and drowning AGAIN

Sjm literally gives less than 2 fucks about SA, that much is obvious even from the way she inflicts and then disregards the experience of both Feyre and Rhysand respectively. It's a tool for her, a quirky story element

But to have Nesta experience such a similar thing - especially when the experience of being Made can be read as a sort of rape allegory on its own - and all for the sake of "romance" fantasy??

Even Nesta's reading habits are sexualised, to be clear I don't think there's anything wrong with reading smut, but the scope of her intellect and reading is narrowed down when we're suddenly made to believe most of the books she reads are smut.

This is someone who likely taught herself economics and investment within months in order to not just pay off the debt, upgrade her whole family's way of life but also rebuild the family fortune. Someone who, having stopped schooling at around 14/15, did the math needed to calculate the feasibility of the evacuation of a small country.

Someone who's verbally stated life goal was to see what a woman could make of herself in the world.

Even her love of reading is used as a stepping stone for how horny she is, instead of it being a result of her deeply ingrained need for escapism

She reads smut because the only thing she has in common with Cassian and the IC is sex. Because sjm thought one of the core elements of a friendship between 2 SA survivors and a disabled woman from a culture that mutilated her for being born a woman would be their desire to fantasise about men.

All the while the male love interest treats her like garbage.

We could have had a smutty book filled with sex where each scene could have been the growth of Nesta's trust and love of Cassian through intimacy. It could have been a sexual relationship that involved and explored kink - which explored vulnerability and the negative impact of how Nesta's pride became a source of stress and strain.

It could have been an exploration about the complicated relationship with desire and oppressors that many survivors have. But it isn't.

It's hahaha horny, so RELATABLE

Even when it comes to the abusive situation Nesta grew up in, it's just hung up like decoration on the character. Not explored, let alone healed. I don't wanna hear that sjm explained or explored Nesta's abuse when we don't even get her mother or her grandmother's names

We don't get

The complexity of being a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman

Or the complexity of a dysfunctional family

Or even the journey of recovery from addiction and self-harming behaviour

Now, not every aspect of Nesta or any survivors lives have to boil down to how it relates to their experiences but SJM is praised for her "recovery" and so much of this book is about sex and abuse but has no depth

It could have been a less-deep, fun experience of sex and desire and kink. But no

Nesta has sex with many faceless men because sjm is condemning her as a failure. Sex is her punishment, it makes her dirty and unworthy and cheap.

Then, through her "healing", she becomes a sex doll for the right guy. Sex is her reward, it makes her hot and useful and appealing.

Sjm writes not just like a man but like a particularly talented misogynist so it's the way sex is used that really puts me off

Edit: ultimately I think the sex and romance should have interacted with and evolved her pride, modesty and past experiences, rather than those things being demolished to turn her into a sex doll

#anti acosf #anti nessian #anti sjm #acotar rant #nesta deserves better #sjm critical #nesta archeron

[fellow-anime-weeb927]

Hii, I'm back. First off, I'm sorry about the request I send yesterday, I think? I didn't see the 'angst' under the 'don't do' 😭 🙇‍♀️but I'm back with a rant (I should pay you rent for staying in your asks this much- I can pay it with kaldo drawings 😭)

I recently checked the sons' ages and well- Doom, Fanim, Epidem and Delisaster were born with only 1 year of difference (also, the whole family was born of 11th of something- Innocent zero was a weird guy. He even shares birthday with Mash lol) and knowing that a pregnancy lasts 9 months there would be 4 months of non-pregnancy state with each of the 4 first sons (I calculated it- I needed to know if it was actually possible to pop out 4 kids in 4 years like that). Yes, they literally were born Doom-January, Fanim-February, Epidem-March and Delisaster-April (Domina was born in May, but Mash wanted to be different and was born in November 😭). There is a problem, Mash and Domina were born the same year, less than 9 months in between their birthdays. To which I can only find the excuses that, again, Mash wanted to be different and decided that he would be born premature lol (or they just speed up his birth, if mother was getting ill or her health was going down). Also, I checked how much each kid weights and I'm pretty sure Innocent zero starved them- BECAUSE WHAT DO YOU MEAN DOOM (who's 2 meters tall) WEIGHT ONLY 88KG??? THAT MF IS HUGE😭 My older brother (who's 25, 5 years younger than Doom, apparently) is like 1,80m and he weights 110kg😭 Domina (who's 1,76,i think) weights 68kg (that's around my weight, I'm 1,65± and 15 y/o). So, knowing that information I want to add that after mother fell into a coma, Innocent zero had more power over the sons so he starved them (bc before it was impossible. If they told mother that they wanted to eat, or even if they didn't, she gave them food and made sure they ate at least 3 times a day. Since she suffered a lot from starvation herself and almost every family member (all of her three brothers and her mom) died due to starvation), and it would also explain why tf Delisaster has such a thin waist.

It's also possible that, instead of her bearing the children in her womb, they just decided to mix their DNAs in an incubator of some sort. Innocent zero would say something that it wasn't necessary for her to bear them and that it wouldn't benefit neither of them, since he doesn't want for a strong ally to be unable to work for over 9 months and he read that it pregnancy can affect her health (again, that means that his ally will be weaker than before (imagine his reaction when she randomly falls into a coma after mash's 'birth'- and doesn't wake up for a long time). And mother would also prefer it by just mixing the DNAs (✨trauma✨, and probably not liking physical touch?). I'm also sure that after some time, Innocent zero would put some spell on mother just to keep her in the coma (let's say her necklaces worked only around itself and since it didn't cause any actual damage they weren't activated) so that he can manipulate the sons more. I also imagine them visiting her, maybe on their own birthdays or her birthday or just randomly showing up to check on her idk.

I also imagine that when Innocent zero is defeated by Mash and mother wakes up and gets context of everything that happened during her 'absence' (she really didn't care if the realm was destroyed since they didn't care about neither her or those similar to her), she would be mad with both Wahlberg and the divine visionaries (even though she didn't like the realm, she had some respect for Wahlberg when they were young bc he had good ambitions and she expected for him to at least try to make them reality) bc "what do you mean after 100 years the law against lackmagic is the fucking same and nothing changed? And then you dump it all onto a 15 y/o boy? Wtf" She would 100% slap Wahlberg in his face (and it's a good one, after all the sons didn't get the physical abilities from their father lol) and say that if they don't change things soon, she won't hesitate to start a revolution. I also don't know how would Mash react to his biological mother appearing out of nowhere. They would probably have a talk, at least and she would say that she won't interfere in his life unless he wants to and that he should contact Domina if he wants to talk with her or needs something from her, since she doesn't have a phone bc she was in a coma.

Also, after Innocent zero is defeated, I'm sure that the castle doesn't fall down, so as she wakes up she goes through it and sees all of her sons (or their remains) dead (Except Doom, since he did live after the battle with Mash) and she doesn't know the cause of it yet, but when she sees the 'arrows' that attacked Domina she would get the puzzle together that Innocent zero have killed at least one of her sons (she couldn't care less about the realm, but won't hesitate to hurt someone tenfold if they hurt her sons in the slightest), he would have had hurried to hunt that mf down, but tending to Doom's injuries is more of a priority at that time.

Anyway, I'm really sorry for that request, it was my bad. I would send a kaldo drawing as an apology, but I can't send photos when asking as anon🙇‍♀️ have a good time

-🎨anon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(original ask:)

A/n: dear anon you sure are discovering a whole lot oh my goodness- now that you explain the entire thing I’m like o_o I’m literally confused about the logic (but anime/manga logic am I right?-) so I’m not sure what to do about this, would you still want the ask?

#mashle x reader #mashle magic and muscles #mashle magic and muscles x reader

[bolilloquemad0]

Hello and welcome to my Ted talk.

Today is 15 de Septiembre, the independence of Mexico (fuck the Spain)(notreally), that means one of the most important partys in all México. In honor of that I wanna talk about one of my favorites villans of rottmnt, Ghost Bear, and how his name is a lot better in the latin spanish dub than the original.

(Look at this stupid bear 💕)

So, this guy is a luchador and I think I don't need to explain what a luchador is. However, I want to explain that luchadores have weird and comical names (as example 'El Mistico' -The Mistic-, 'Cibernetico' -Cibernetic-. You get it). So, Ghost Bear is a good name for a luchador.

Well, in spanish his name is Fantasmoso. If you know some spanish, you may be seen how cool it is.

His name is a joke. A play of words.

Time for spanish class. In México and Latinamerica we like to grab the lenguage and use it as a toy. We create new words, use verbs in the incorrect way, use words in contexts that dont make sense, etc.

So, his name is actually two words into one that sounds like is just one.

First is Fantasma for Ghost

And Oso for Bear

So, Fantasm-Oso.

Now, here comes the part when we have fun. We tent to add suffix to words to make them more, cute or easy to understand, you could say.

We have, fantasm-ita -little ghost-, fantasm-ota -big ghost- AND fantasm-oso -bigger ghost-

And is so cool.

When we hear his name, we hear about a very big ghost, but also a bear, cause he is a bear. We hear a ghost that is a bear, a very big one. Is all his character in one word and is so funny.

Fanstasmoso stands for both, ghost and bear, but also the fact that he is a giant man. I like it so much 💕. And his voice actor is just -chef kiss-

If you read until this, thank you for it. I want to rant a lot more about it, but is hard to write and express it good in another language.

Take all this photos of Fantasmoso as a gift.

#save rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt ghost bear #the evil league of villans #rottmnt #tmnt

[lurksunderthebed]

Thoughts on CoD dudebros that attempt to gatekeep their "role" characters? Over the course of last year it's funny how many i've seen upset that Laswell has a wife because they genuinely thought Price was "bonking" her according to them. Even more so going as far as to say that they'd be into experimental poly relationship. And don't get me started on YT side of the base where people say stuff like Soap & Valeria, Ghost & Milena double date, it's hilarious really. But god forbid you post anything about GhostSoap remotelly romantic. It's like hellfire out there.

Oh man that's a good question. I haven't actually thought too hard on that tbh. Funny timing because I literally watched an opinion piece on YT on what they [the male fanbase] thought on mwiii(23).

I think people want to read into things as they prefer. People are so conditioned in these action movie style sort of storylines to assume Man + Women talking = relationship. And in that sense I can see why people would ship Price and Laswell because they do have a friendly relationship, one that implies years of knowing one another. (though Valeria and Milena /soap or ghost?? Why??)

I think the biggest shame is the fact that male and female platonic friendships are so rare in these instances that for a significant part of that vocal fanbase, it blows their mind to have heterosexual friendships that are just that: friendships.

And it's always a bit ironic we have this situation when you have those dudebros pile on the ghostsoap ship and say, "can't friendships just be friendships, stop making everything gay". Can't friendships just be friendships, stop making everything het.

Bro, we ain't making anything gay, it's there in the text. Call the spade a spade. They flirt with each other. I can even pull up the receipts and go through every bit of possibility and still think, wow, even them joking is pretty sus with all the context. Especially when it's Ghost who flirts back, out of all people—the man who is so emotionally constipated that showing his face and letting people use his name is a Big Deal™.

I always wonder what that fanbase would make of these meta posts. In a weird way, I do sort of welcome that critique. It would be interesting to see what would come out of that.

I mean, yeah you can read Ghost and Soap's relationship however you want. But it's definitely not something as clear cut as, "they're just friends. That's what brothers in arms are like. You just don't understand!" sort of thing. I think reducing them down to 'just friends' would be doing a disservice to how much Soap meant to Ghost in terms of the actual codmwii plot line.

The nice thing is that despite all the differences we all have with each other, we as an entire fanbase all agree on this: Codmwiii(23) has the worst campaign out of all codmw games.

The storyline sucked and didn't go anywhere. The ending was there for shock factor. It didn't really add anything to the story aside from making one feel upset. It was sloppy storytelling, and it really felt like it could've been better.

But yeah. Lol 😂 sorry for the rant guys. Hope you enjoyed the Ted Talk.

Btw, much thanks and love from everyone reading my meta posts. All the encouragement fuels me for my next overly long post. 💞🥹

#ask #ghostsoap #soapghost #cod mwiii #cod mw3

[altocat]

I wouldn’t put this in the tag, but why do certain people in this fandom get so mad when Seph gets any form of humanization so much?? Keeping a bunch of his background a mystery is a reasonable request absolutely, but why is it so bad to see him emote and have connections and deal with shit before his downfall?

Why is it so bad to add to the subtle and delicate writing that surrounds his “fallen angel” arc? I mean, do people want a smirky, one-dimensional villain forever? (Not that he ever was one-dimensional anyway but apparently some think he was).

No villain should just be evil for no reason, and if we want their reasons to be a little mysterious, that is entirely able to be done without stripping them of their emotions or tragedy. Everyone’s favorite villains have carefully crafted downfalls and often there is tragedy and misunderstanding involved.

Seph is an absolutely iconic villain and deserves more of this treatment. He is frankly, overdue for some humanization that isn’t bound to the limits of an older game like Crisis Core that often suffered from a lack of deeper exposition or elaboration. He’s earned it after being a terrifying, mysterious villain for so long.

Just a touch of it doesn’t ruin anything. The writers seem to be treating it with care and delicacy so far, which is good. That’s what we need.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Twitter is getting on my nerves because people are saying things like “He better just stay crazy and enjoy burning shit for no reason.” and accusing people that disagree of “not actually being a true fan of the character.” (As if Crisis Core didn’t already make him more sympathetic!!)

(I’m also not using his full name so that this doesn’t show up in anyone’s search results if you don’t want to draw any contention. Cheers).

Pure evil villains are boring, unless it's full camp or they're having fun and it's delicious to watch.

I think people aren't paying attention to context. This isn't CURRENT Sephiroth, this is Sephiroth as a child. If he was always evil and always sadistic, it would take away a lot of the message the original game was trying to convey with him--Sephiroth is the product of SHINRA, the product of immoral ethics, war, and greed. Sephiroth was a normal baby given abnormal enhancement, shoved into extremely traumatic rules and expectations, and subsequently loses everything that ever made him human in a mad quest for revenge and control. To say Sephiroth was evil from the moment he was born is a HUGE disservice to his character, and his story as a whole. Sephiroth is a monster. But he is the monster Shinra created.

Now do I think Sephiroth should be redeemed? No, probably not. It's not about his journey back into the light, it's about his descent into darkness. That's what makes his character interesting. For the record, I don't want them to woobie him either. Part of the reason I find those Disney Remakes insufferable is how they take fun villains (Cruella, Maleficent) and try to make them all weepy and sympathetic. THOSE are villains where being pure evil works. It's entertaining. Their evilness is infectious. They're chewing the scenery and it's great. They're nasty little shits and they ENJOY it and they're cartoony enough to where you don't have to take it seriously. Sephiroth is a completely different beast, with an actual message to his story.

I've always found serious pure-evil villains completely uninteresting because there's no layers to them. No pathos. No depth. Part of having a good villain is looking into their eyes and seeing something of yourself in there. YOU could be that. YOU could become that. These are moral lessons for adults as they try to navigate a confusing and unfriendly world. You shouldn't turn into this because, in the end, succumbing to anger and hate ISN'T good. It ISN'T healthy. And these villains, at the end of the day, are extremely unhappy people who bring about their own destruction. You lose that when they're just a smirking sadistic killing machine. It's an empty husk that just exists for the heroes to defeat. I'd like to think that Sephiroth is more than that, and has always been more than that.

Anyway, rant over. Twitter is dumb, hence why I'm not on it. I'll agree with them if the Remake Trilogy attempts at a redemption arc and it's clumsy and unjustified. But this? A tragic Seph backstory was always a given when you look at the lore. So long as they go about it in a balanced morally gray way, it fits very well with his character.

#asks #ff7 #ffvii #crisis core #final fantasy 7 #sephcanons #sephiroth #Let's discuss #Alto rambles

[inukag]

Hello, so I'm not heterosexual (I'm ace) and as you can tell I do like one of those ships in the poll. I thought your language was very harmful. Now, I'm not here to say those characters are nice people but that doesn't mean their fans like them because they are "hetero" and just like a hot guy. They are good characters and had cool dynamics with Kagome (yes that's subjective and you might disagree with it but some people did enjoy it). I do agree that Sango should have been on the poll but there are legit reasons people enjoy darker ships or enemies to lovers trope, they can be engaging to some. So to dismiss it as just "hetero girls liking a hot guy" is very bad. The reason I'm sending you this ask is because I think you are a good person and might recieve well my comment. I considered sending an anon but I wanted you to "see" me as we talk and I hope I don't get any harassment over this from others. Anyway, thank you for reading.

First of all thank you for sending this message non-anonymously! I know it can be stressful but it is definitely better for discussions. If I see anyone sending you hate over this I will fight them personally.

When I said “this fandom is painfully straight” I did not mean “every single person who likes these ships is straight”, that would be ridiculous. But it IS a straight ship. My point is that gay ships are almost never taken seriously in this fandom, as shown by the fact that people ship Kagome with all the male characters she canonically doesn’t like before shipping her with girls that she actually likes. I find that sad. Literally the only gay ship in this fandom that has a sizable fanbase is Inu/sess, but that’s another can of worms.

I’m not here to change anyone’s mind about sess/kag or kog/kag, I’m very much a ‘ship and let ship’ person. Those ships have existed for years so I know very well that me saying “Kagome Higurashi would never canonically love these guys” is not going to change anyone’s mind. So I’ll spare you the whole rant but I’ll say that I’ve read some sess/kag stuff (Raindrops and other fanfics I found years ago) and I’ve never seen Sesshomaru portrayed as anything other than a kind, suave, gentleman who saves Kagome from Inuyasha the toxic, two timer. His canonical racism and lack of empathy for others is gone. So I have a hard time believing people when they tell me they love the ship because it’s a “sexy villain/heroine, enemies to lovers ships” lol. Anyway like I said, I’m not going to change your mind and you won’t change mine, so no need to argue about this.

Also for added context regarding the “gay ships aren’t taken seriously” issue, a couple weeks ago a bunch of people on Twitter (inukag shippers) made tweets saying they were “disgusted” by the fact that many people headcanon Moroha to be a lesbian. That her blushing at and complimenting girls is “not evidence that she’s gay” and that the “real canon” is that she will end up with Koga’s son (who doesn’t even exists in any Inuyasha media!!!). It’s not an isolated issue with Sesshomaru or Koga fans, as I pointed out the people doing this were inukag shippers and they were called out by other inukag shippers. This fandom as a whole is just not the most friendly when it comes to lgbt+ stuff.

So yeah, I have nothing else to add. I don’t see how my language was harmful if I’m being honest. Regardless of people’s own sexual/romantic orientations this fandom mostly talk about and support straight ships. This isn’t really a call to action either, I’m not telling people what to ship, I was just jokingly pointing that out and hoping that next time people would just consider the fact that gay ships exists as well.

Thanks again for the message and I’ll take this time to remind everyone following me that I use the tag #<ship/character>-critical tag when I criticize stuff, so you can blacklist that if you follow me and don’t want to see negativity about characters or ships that you love. I didn’t tag my first reblog of the poll so that’s my bad, I’ll go back and fix that.

#ask #sesshomarusamas-blog #discourse #sesskag-critical

[lemonhemlock]

To add to the children's discourse lol.

I've seen people say that the twins are Aemond's but Maelor is Aegon's and that is why she would choose to get killed because Helaena hates Aegon that much. and I hate that, it doesn't matter who the father is, the kids are Helaena's and she will always try to protect them.

I personally would prefer the kids to be Aegon's (not because I'm a helaegon first, then a helaemond lol) because I think the children being his adds a depth that he's seriously lacking in the show. going insane for the kids he ignored most of their lives, it will be really good to watch and explore. I also don't think Aemond needs to be the father for the "son for a son" to make sense, because in my interpretation, the person wanting to become the monarch (Rhaenyra) lost a son, so the King has to lose one as well. In this angle, it doesn't actually matter who killed Luke, Aegon would have to lose a son anyway.

I also think that Aemond has too much spotlight to steal Aegon's arc as well...because if Aegon knows the kids are his, why would he go on full revenge and hate if he never cared for Helaena anyway? They also didn't show Aegon and Aemond having a good relationship for Aegon to care that much about Aemond's kids.

If he doesn't know, his whole arc will be hollow, because he's the dumb one that thinks the kids are his but surprise...your sister-wife and your brother actually went behind your back and had kids and had this whole full-on romance behind your back.

Don't get me wrong, the kids could be Aemond's especially with them being so young in the show (why, just why?) but that doesn't mean that I have to like it. lol

Rant over lol, would love to hear your thoughts. :)

Hello there! So, I would start by saying that no one is denying helaemond isn't a show-introduced thing. There are no hints at that in the book - again, this doesn't preclude or deny or contradict its existence EITHER, just that we have no reason to believe off the text that the children aren't Aegon's. Ergo, Blood & Cheese was most likely specifically designed with that in mind.

So, from that vantage point, I really don't think paternity has any play in this Sophie's choice, especially since it's Helaena making that specific choice and the children are all hers anyway. There's also a desperate (and understandable) logic that informs her motivation - Maelor is deemed young enough to not understand what is happening to him and that could serve as a small mercy in this context, basically the best out of a horrible situation. That's a lot more reasonable for a mother rather than prioritizing her children based on sperm donor.

As an aside, making helaegon a failed marriage and giving Aegon his downright sociopathic hobbies serves to hinder the plot, rather than further it - this has nothing to do with helaemond, it's just the writers not thinking their decisions through. Like, as things stand, I'm supposed to believe that 1. Aegon doesn't care for Helaena anyway 2. he thinks it's funny watching his own bastard children fight to the death in the rat pits, all the while they plan on selling me the fact that 3. Aegon is somehow gonna be devastated when his legitimate son is killed, a son he never interacted with and never showed any feeling towards, because he is too self-absorbed in his own pursuit of pleasure.

Why does that make more sense? It's all a mess anyway, no matter which way you cut it. Obviously, Aegon cared for his children and family in the books, so they're gonna have do some damage control here, otherwise Blood & Cheese is going to logically have absolutely no effect on him, which defeats the point of this entire exercise (also an observation for those against humanizing Aegon).

The children being his and him caring about them is indeed a very easy and immediate way to humanize his character AND not diminish the horrifying aspect of Blood & Cheese. But so is them not being his? Him being able to care for them as if they were of his own body is also a pretty touching element, if you think about it. Show!version will have to be retconned anyway, whichever option you pick.

B&C was specifically designed by Daemon because it fundamentally stabs at the core of the greens - all siblings are affected by the harm visited on these children. Helaena goes mad with grief, Aegon enacts his bloodthirsty revenge on the city's rat catchers, Aemond starts spiraling - even Daeron sacks an entire city in a rage when Maelor is killed. It's not so outrageous or far-fetched for me to believe that these children could have been very loved no matter who fathered them, by their mother, father and both uncles, in whichever permutations.

I also don't think Aemond needs to be the father for the "son for a son" to make sense, because in my interpretation, the person wanting to become the monarch (Rhaenyra) lost a son, so the King has to lose one as well. In this angle, it doesn't actually matter who killed Luke, Aegon would have to lose a son anyway.

That's certainly Daemon's reasoning, but it doesn't mean that he is being even steven about this. Retributive justice in no way involves taking the life of another innocent person who had absolutely nothing to do with the crime in the first place. Even if Aemond had legitimate sons of his own within a lawful marriage, killing his son for Luke would not amount to retributive justice. Daemon utilises false equivalences here and I need people to stop drinking his kool aid. It is not Rhaenyra and Aemond who are peers here, it is Aemond and Luke.

Aegon had nothing to do with this crime, he did not order it or target Luke specifically and involving him in it simply inflicts harm upon innocent parties; targeting Jaehaerys is also disproportionate to the offense committed - as another user mentioned recently on one of my posts, Jaehaerys is a little boy playing with toys, while Luke is actively contributing to his mother's war effort. These two are not peers or counterparts either.

The harming of innocents and proportionality to the crime are two principles of retributive justice that Daemon actively breaks in the pursuit of his sadistic revenge.

If there is ever any doubt, one can always pick up a copy of the Old Testament.

Exodus 21:12-14. He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.

Lo and behold, the punishment for murder is the death of the murderer. Nothing whatsoever about killing the murderer's nephew or the murderer's son.

#ask #slayhousehightower #helaemond #blood & cheese #aegon ii targaryen #aemond targaryen #helaena targaryen #putting this in the tags as i have chosen violence #the aemond tag specifically as the lawless land it is #hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have - but i have it

[vocalhitches]

So you say you're into horror games and villains... are you interested in fic or art for any horror games, villains, or horror game villains ? I know mentioning character names can be dicey on here so don't feel you have to answer this but I'm curious

YES and i’ve honestly contemplated making a whole list of characters i want to see snz art/fics/etc of, so i guess this is my cue to do just that lol

i plan on posting content of some of these characters myself probably, most likely art bc as much as i want to post fics here, writing snz fics is actually sooo difficult for me like i can’t keep up with the plot for anything rip

so here’s my list of fandoms i would adore seeing snz content for and the certain characters from said fandoms i’m most interested in when it comes to snz stuff (fyi all the characters are gonna be male bc that’s who i’m more into, at least in terms of fictional characters):

re/sident e/vil; tbh i don’t have any one specific character i’m into like… snz wise? but if i had to pick i’d say probably le/on bc like come on. he’s a classic. i also feel like e/than and ca/rlos are suuuuuuch good candidates. and this one is super random but we did say we were talking villains here so i’m gonna list him too: will/iam bi/rkin. he’s like a wet rag of a man so why not (also side note bc it just crossed my mind that i completely forgot about THE main re villain, but for some reason we/sker just does not do it for me like at all? idk that’s just me but ofc no judgement here. just me explaining why i never mentioned him)

sil/ent h/ill; okay so honestly i have one specific game that i care about in terms of snz content and that’s sh4. like all the main characters would work tbh but bc this is me we’re talking about wa/lter su/llivan is my man. evil pathetic meow meow

the e/vil wi/thin; ru/vik is too much of a sexy loser for us not to be snzifying him. also his nose is really hot sooooooo… (i also think le/slie would be v cute with a snzy cold but i want to make it abundantly clear that i would never intend to infantilize him as much of the mid-2010s general fandom did, nor would i want to sexualize the abuse he suffered in ANY way. there’s too much nuance to portraying his character than i should get into here)

those are really like my big 3 of horror games i can think of bc most of the other games i’m into i can’t really picture any of the characters in snz context at all tbh? but any less popular fandoms (or just unpopular on snzblr) would definitely interest me so this is just my way of saying pleeeeeease make content of characters from whatever niche fandoms y’all are into! i will always eat it up!!!!

here are some other villain honorable mentions i felt i should add that aren’t horror game related, but still deserve to be put in Situations:

he/nry cr//eel from stra//nger thi/ngs; evil pretty boy that did not get the snzblr attention he deserved when st4 came out (i actually wrote a lil drabble fic for him a while ago… should i post it? 👀)

i mean it’s no secret if you’ve been following me that i’m a slut for ma/hito from juj/utsu ka//isen. he’s cute and crazy and gross and i need to get around to posting the random sketches i drew of him

that’s all i can think of off the top of my head right now!! i know there’s gotta be more but i’m drawing a blank for now 😅 ty for asking and letting me rant about fictional guys i want to see snz lol!

#i went a little too intense with this lol #but again ty for the ask!!!! #answered #snz #snzblr

[dilfdoctordoom]

The prompt you got about justice for Peter perfectly illustrates exactly what's wrong with vol 3. The movie focuses on abuse victims getting healing, closure and set on a new path they deserve except Gamora who it blissfully ignores is one of the biggest victims of all.

She's not given multiple scenes to explore how she feels about a family she was robbed of. She's not given any scenes about what it was like to be 9 years in the future, find out her abuser murdered her and that she would have to build a new life while lots of other people know her as a guardian never got to be. Her own struggles are absent in vol 3 and that echoes through the fandom/audience.

You mentioned some people think this is feminist because she doesn't end up with Peter and that's really sad. Being single doesn't equal automatic feminist win and if people's feminism isn't intersectional or taking context into consideration they're doing it wrong. Gamora being loved, supported and fought for by Peter and the rest of the guardians in the other movies was not anti feminism. Especially with her being played by a woc. It's more obvious when you see people absolutely adoring how all of vol 3 is about Rocket getting loved, supported and saved by everyone.

Being sidelined, kept away from regaining her superhero team, having no arc of her own and miniscule representation on merch is also not feminism. More women, more poc, more diverse heroes, more women included on merch etc are all things fandoms have said they want and vol 3 said bye bye bye to a lot of that with Gamora. It's as if more people are happy she's not with Peter due to troubling concepts of what makes a strong female character than angry she was murdered. That's the exact opposite of feminism.

I'm sorry if this reads as ranty. I don't mean for it to. It's just getting harder to be at peace with this being the end of the road for Gamora. I don't think she was a perfect character but I do believe she was one of the best they had in the mcu before her murder. I am still trying to grasp what it means that they wanted to murder the first woc lead character we had so her abuser could advance and what it means that nothing about vol 3 portrayed this as something heinous we should all be upset about it.

This does read as ranty and this is the perfect place for that as I am consistently ranting about how Gamora was ultimately treated.

Gamora's very presence ruins everything Vol 3 aims for. The message of escaping your abuser and living your own life, becoming your whole self, falls hilariously flat when she's included. You cannot try to have that message alongside fridging a woman to make her abuser more sympathetic.

Add in how this movie even brought up Thanos's abuse-- it's treated as a punchline for the most part. The only time it isn't a joke (like with the eye scene between Nebula, Gamora & Peter) is when Nebula says "it's worse than what Thanos did to me" after finding out what happened to Rocket. That line drives me crazy; abuse isn't something that can be measured, as a basic thing, and if Gunn really wanted to try that... tell me which one of these characters is 70% cybernetics.

Gamora's such a non-entity in this film. Of course she gets to be mad at Quill-- but she doesn't get to speak to the others Guardians, doesn't get her new relationship with Nebula fleshed out, gets a single throwaway line about her alternative self having escaped Thanos. Does she know the details of how she died? Does she know she sacrificed everything for Nebula? Does she know she begged Peter to kill her?

We have no answers. Fuck, it's barely acknowledged that she knows Thanos murdered her.

I get that Gamora is green, but people really don't seem to get that she's played by Zoe Saldana, a woman of color, and how that does impact things. WOC get held up to very different standards and while there is obviously overlap in harmful tropes, it's insane to pretend that there aren't different ones applied to women of color. Acting like Gamora being robbed of a love interest that brought her true joy is feminist isn't a girlboss move; it's fulfilling a trope that women of color don't "need" a love interest.

What happened to Gamora was just sickening and so was the fandom response. There are a million think pieces on why what happened to Natasha was wrong; there isn't even a quarter of that for Gamora, when hers was, objectively, worse. I despise what happened to Natasha but god, at least it wasn't done to uplift her abuser.

I think it's also very telling how these characters have been treated post-mortem; Natasha received a solo movie & was memorialized in Hawkeye. Gamora... gets everything that mattered to her stripped away like it's nothing, her most important relationship (with Nebula) goes stagnant, and her horrific murder is brought up as a silly little joke.

Yeah, Gamora's treatment is rooted in a lot of sexism, but also a lot of racism and it's that second bit that has heavily impacted how the fandom reacted.

There's a lot of overlap between misogyny and racism in regard to the Guardians women, specifically, Gamora and Mantis, and there's also this strange refusal to see it addressed.

Seeing the interview Zoe Saldana gave recently really made it worse, IMO. She spoke about how even she wanted Gamora to return to the Guardians, but that wasn't the story Gunn wanted to tell... so now, just like us, she's left hoping that maybe in the future, Gamora gets to have her family back.

The Gamora aspect honestly killed the Guardians trilogy for me. I think it breaks the established pattern of the past 2 movies in a bad way, is nonsensical a finale to that story, and is overly reliant on downplaying the suffering of women to glorify a fucking raccoon.

#q & a #im never rewatching gotg3 again the last time i tried i got so mad at it i started hating rocket on principle lmao

[rosepetalsthings]

Regarding the Dtblr, Let👏🏾Your👏🏾Voice👏🏾Be👏🏾Heard👏🏾 Rant if you gotta, your followers gotchu

My followers trying to encourage me to be mean on main 😂

This is gonna get long and very stream of thought so gonna add a read more for once. This is a rant so it's mostly just gonna be my annoyance at everything. And the meanest I'm likely to get on this blog.

Look... I really really dislike how some of the old blogs left, and how they are perpetuating a lot of misinformation, and frankly a misinterpretation of what has actually happened. I can get leaving, but stop acting as if anything has been fucking confirmed as real. Or that her word is more reliable than dreams when both of them have, frankly, fuck all to show us.

The most she has is that Dream and her have communicated before. And the way people talk about it makes it sound as if dream went out of his way to go find her and message her. When literally every Instagram dm is dry as fuck and NEVER initiated by him.

Then if we go with snapchats are real, what do we have? Only a few saved convos, no context behind any of them, and messages that could be interpreted a whole number of ways depending on what the context we're missing is. And you cannot tell me that if you were introduced to the messages by themselves with no context, you would even slightly jump to sexting or grooming. Hell, she had to show a seperate screenshot of one of the compliments, which might I remind everyone we were just criticising the validity of taking a picture of a screenshot with your phone.

What does it take for some people to fucking think for a second about what is being presented to us??? Instead of flying right off the handle and immediately condemning everyone that doesn't come to the same worse case conclusion as you???? "Oh we left so everyone else must have too or there too busy defending dream" like fuck off. There's more nuance to what's happening then you care to admit or look into because you don't want to confront the idea of dream in your head, good or bad, with the real life human being.

And THEN you get the fuckers who outright believe just anything they hear because why not. "Oh but he confirmed the flirty messages!" Actually that was one of the things he said an outright statement on! And it was that he didn't!!

Or the person who somehow added an extra person to the mix, and then just fully believed without any critical thought that Amanda was telling the truth about dream deleting evidence and that's why she cant show us the proof she definitely has :( or definitely doesn't because she went between having hard evidence and nothing at all so fucking quickly. (At the same time can people stop acting as if everything she says clears dreams name???? Like as much as she isn't doing herself any favours there's nothing here that definitely proves she's lying, just that what she's presenting us deserves scrutiny)

Or fucking everything to do with the techno mermorial.

there are people so fucking convinced that they've pretty much stated that it doesn't actually matter how it shakes down legally, cause clearly he can just hire better lawyers then her and buy her to be quiet :( completely misrepresenting what's actually happening and how a court case (or settlement, which also is not this big evil thing. Most things don't reach a court). Like don't be so fucking close minded that you'll shut out anything presented to you because he has more money so clearly he's just bought everyone off

And then when confronted with the fact that they overeactted and behaved horribly they say "well I'm not defending a potential abuser and clearly my thing isn't as bad as that but I'm sorry I guess :/ "

Or the talk on "iT's NoT tHe AgE gAp It'S tHe PoWeR iMbAlAnCe" like okay then hope you were real fucking critical of purpled dating a fan then. Or is not actually about the power imbalance? Because power imbalances is not a fan and a cc talking??? Like if it's the potential age gap then just say it!!!!! Stop just saying power imbalance as if it's at all at play here from what we've been shown.

And like half of them won't even look into it more. That this is the reality they've settled with because it's easier to deal with posting breakup lyrics, and posts about how you can't trust men then to confront the fact that this isnt a black and white issue and at this point there is no hard line in the sand everyone must follow or else theyre a horrible person.

it is fine if you leave, it is fine if you think that messaging fans at all is bad (although maybe examine why you think that about this but for nothing else), or if you think that talking on snapchat is bad (which I really disagree with, but youre allowed your opinions), but don't act as if any more than that has been confirmed, or saying if you don't leave or if you remain neutral than you're clearly a bad person. Fuck off

#discourse #rant #dream situation #Idk how much sense that made #That is one of the rants I wanted to go off on #Just to be clear I am chill if you left and wanna check in later or just are gone for good #I am not chill if you behaved in the above manner #Like I blocked one person and it's because they followed me despite being a freak about the techno mermorial

[ruthlesslistener]

I still remember how one time someone asked you to respect other people's headcanons, and immediately you went on a rant. I don't think that anon meant to... convince you to like that ship or to change your headcanons. They were saying exactly as it is. So I can understand why some are starting to see you as an arrogant fighter when answering asks. Will you blow up on this simple ask? Will you make fun of some anon for "having no reading compression" because they didn't go full into crazy details? It feels like that unless some ask fully agrees with you, there's a chance of you coming off as a jerk in some way.

Tone: deeply frustrated, but calm

So this IS about the adult Ghost discourse. Well that's because I wasn't replying with the intent to rant, I was explaining my take on it (and was admittedly probably very bitter about it because the misunderstandings were deeply frustrating me)- which I already explained to you earlier was something I just do by default. Can't remember which exact post it was either, but I believe it was also condescending as hell because I do respect other's headcanons most of the time, but this came after I had already stated that I was without any context for adult ghost prior to the incident with the exception of pornography, which negtively tinted my views on it pretty hard. So I had to add that context in there, because it deeply skewed how I engaged with the concept, and also I'm pretty sure that I stated it was personal preference already and that I didn't want to engage with it, but people were still saying that. Remember that food metaphor I made earlier? That's where I think the misunderstanding is coming from- I clearly stated my opinions on it because to me, it's as simple as not liking pie, but because I forgot that other people don't have that same view of fanon, it came off like a moral judgement. In which case I have to state again: it's not that deep for me.

As for losing my temper, yeah I did during the heat of that ask bombardment. But I mean, you gotta understand that this was one event where I responded ineloquently, with zero context for what I was talking about, and got a whole slew of comments by people who jumped the gun to conclusions about what I thought that I didn't say at all. That's deeply frustrating! And I'm really fucking bad about regulating my emotions bc of the afformentioned autism, so that frustration carried over into my posts, probably doubly so because I just write plainly without tone tags. Then when more asks that missed the point of what I was saying rolled in, I got even MORE frustrated. Because it was clear that my point wasn't being made, and it made me more and more upset- hence the 'no reading comprehension' gripes, bc I thought I was speaking clearly but people were responding with things I didn't say. Like, even now, I'm not angry- I'm frustrated and upset because I thought I was getting better at this whole social thing, but clearly not. Also, for context, the people who replied 'no reading comprehension' are those who either picked up on what I was saying, or are those I went to for help because I didn't know where I was going wrong.

Though I have to ask, anon- why not block me? You clearly seem to have some sort of problem with me, or at least with reading me properly, and I genuinely don't want you to continue to get raised hackles because of my social ineptitude fucking things over. I'm not some kind of social bitch who uses status to push people around, and the thought that I might inadvertently be doing that has honestly made me want to delete my blog and start over (though I probably won't bc I hate change). I'm not a professional. This is something I do in my free time with the few friends I have because it's a special interest, and no more. There's really no obligation for you to tolerate me if you don't like me, or can't read my tone- just block me. It'll get me off your feed and prevent you from having to deal with me, because while I'll try to get better with my tone, I don't think I can change my brain chemistry to be any better at knowing what people want from me or how to respond in a way that doesn't seem inflamatory. Because I genuinely don't know what to do.

#im not angry rn im deeply upset #and frustrated #i certainly was in the wrong but i dont know how to make it better #other than state over and over again that i lacked context and dont think kts that deep #anon #reply

[i-love-sweet-william]

out of context pre-stozyers #7

with context post-stozyers: byler branch

a collective 6k words of fic+rant. I tried so hard not to add byler but here we are.

"You're not busy unpacking, right?" What a weird tone…Mike hadn't heard Will use it before. "I'm not sure how long this might last."

"I'm free!" For you, always. "What's up?"

"Do you still love me?"

Mike dropped his fucking phone.

But only after performing a shitty juggling act in an effort to catch it, and then proceeding to eat the floor. With the sudden barrage of emotional and physical and property damage, it really would have been no big loss if his phone had dropped right on his head and knocked him out cold. Unfortunately, he was fully conscious, and aching, and on the verge of a fucking heart attack.

Will's distant voice continued as Mike tried to recover, patting around for his phone. "—you okay? Mike, are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine! I just…fell. Uh, can you repeat that?"

"I asked if you still love me." Jesus fucking Christ. "Like, do you wanna date and—whatever comes with that territory, I guess."

(As if he ever stopped.) "I, I mean…Territory? Is dating a quest to conquer?" Shit, that was stupid. Why did he say that. He rolled onto his side and muttered, "Never mind, ignore me."

"I don't think I can do that." God, he could hear that soft, reassuring smile through his cracked phone. "Besides, you're the only other person in this call, and…Listen, it's okay if you moved on already. But if you—"

"I haven't!" Fuckfuckfuck, that was too fast. He didn't even know what Will was going to say. What if Will wanted him to move on. The initial rejection was offensively gentle and hadn't affected their friendship for years, but what if Richie and his weird friends said something to Will over spring break? "I…haven't…" Real fuckin' smooth, Michael. "…Why?"

[disclaimer: Will doesn't have all the vocabulary to explain what he's talking about, but he's gonna try to describe having a poly relationship and being aro/ace. there's a rant about his mindset (and byler backstory…and stozyers context) that's over half of this post]

Will hesitated. "So…the thing El is doing with Max and Lucas, would you do it with me?" What. "If I was with someone else first, would you still—"

Mike sat right the fuck up. "Are you dating someone?!" When did this happen? Mike didn't even know Will was considering dating yet, let alone have suitors lined up! (Well, of course he did…but he didn't show them any interest before!)

"I…think so. No, I definitely am. In some way." In some way? What the fuck did that mean?! "And I thought, I don't know, maybe I could date you that way. If it's…okay."

Okay with Mike? Of course it would be, because Mike was currently having heart palpitations over the option of dating Will in any way, but also, just to be sure, "If what's okay? Like, if dating me is okay with your…" What, his first partner? Fuck, Mike did not enjoy how that sounded.

"Oh, I already cleared that with them." Them? Is it not a guy? [note: Will labels himself gay, and in past conversations he's generally used he/him for a hypothetical partner (because his only point of possible reference was Mike) and it was just easier to say "gay but not looking to date rn" than "not actively looking to date ever"] "It's just, uh…Okay, y'know how Richie"—please, god, do not be dating Richie—"supposedly has a looong history of sex experiences. I mean, claiming to have fucked every mom in the city is his peak of humor. But turns out, he hasn't had sex in, like, five years or some shit."

Mike took a deep fucking breath. "Please hurry and tell me what Richie's sex life or lack thereof has to do with us dating. Please." I am not mentally or emotionally strong enough for this.

"Okay, so what if we dated…but instead of kissing and having sex and whatever, we did something else. Can you still be, y'know, 'fulfilled' in a relationship like that—"

"Yes." Not a moment of hesitation.

(Honestly, Mike would be fulfilled if he got to touch Will's hands and share deep eye contact everyday. Simp.)

"Wait, think about it for a while," Will insisted. "It might be more important than you realize, and…I don't want to hurt you again. If I can't—do something."

The "something" in question was Will's first and last kiss. Everyone else had had their first kisses (even Dustin when he was off at camp), and Mike had hoped that…

Well, Mike wasn't exactly expecting movie sparks to fly, but he thought Will would at least like it. Or maybe be neutral. And if it was bad, maybe they could've awkwardly laughed it off. But instead, Will reeled back to wipe off his mouth, grimacing like he'd accidentally eaten something rotten.

It took Mike several days to recover from that, even though Will had started apologizing immediately afterward.

It took Mike several years to fully internalize the fact that Will wasn't grossed out by kissing him, just kissing in general. And when Mike reached that stage, he also realized that he didn't need that shit! Sure, it was nice, but honestly even the fantasy of being with Will was better than actually making out. (Unfortunately, such fantasies also needed to end. At least a physical kiss didn't lead to reality crashing down on him. The reality in which Will did not reciprocate whatever Mike was feeling in the past, and would probably never reciprocate in the future.)

If they'd had this conversation when they were younger, Mike might not have been so confident; he might've been scared shitless of feeling that deeply repulsive again. But now he knew how to separate himself from initial reactions, things Will had no control over. Mike was ready for it, if ever given another chance…if he'd ever asked for another chance.

He had planned to wait for Will to show interest in finding a relationship, and thought up hundreds of ways to have this conversation…but among all his hypothetical scenarios, not once did he imagine anything close to what was happening right now.

Despite his complete lack of preparation, he could not afford to fuck this up. "You won't hurt me again," Mike promised.

"But how do you know?"

"Because—" Maybe it would be best to have that talk after this one, or the anticipation might literally kill him [read: I need to contain the word count]. "Because meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me…and no matter what happens or doesn't happen, that will never stop being true. Okay?"

Will fell silent…for an uncomfortably long time.

Fuck, was that too much? Did Mike get ahead of himself already? They were being so open and he—

"Okay," Will said quietly. "Then there's…one more thing I want to say. I've just…I'm not…I don't—"

He took a shallow breath. And tried again.

"I can't fall in love with you. But!" Will hurried to beat Mike's impending meltdown. "I think—I've already done the closest thing I'm…capable of. A long time ago, probably."

…Which meant those words were the closest thing Mike could get to a mutual confession! This was the best day of his life! Fuck!

"So, after hearing that, do you still…wanna try dating?"

Oh, there would be no fucking "trying" about it. They were gonna be SO good at this, immediately, without any challenges whatsoever. "Yeah. Yes."

This was happening. Holy fucking shit.

"Okay." The relief in that one word washed over Mike, and he almost felt bad for causing enough tension that Will could be relieved at all. "I just…I want to make you…so happy." Christ, how can you just say that shit without warning—"I think I can do that now."

Mike was going to fucking explode from the emotions rampaging inside. Each one was distinct and frantically clawing at his throat to be the first expressed, but they all sounded like I love you, I love you, I love you.

Unfortunately, before Mike could choose the perfect response, a distant door burst open, and Will let out a very tiny oh no.

"Will, what's wr—"

"Uh—"

"Oh shit, he said yes?" Richie's stupid voice. Of course.

Something fell with a dull thud, and the cord of Will's earbuds rustled in the mic as he moved. "Wait, Ri—"

"WELCOME TO THE HAREM!" Mike nearly threw his suffering phone against the wall to save his hearing. "We meet under every full moon to give thanks to William Byers for blessing our pathetic mortal lives," he informed, at a much more tolerable volume.

You only thank him once a month? Wait, that wasn't the fucking issue here—

Mike was so caught up in the euphoria of having Will's reciprocated love that for like a minute he lived in a world where he didn't sign up to share that love…but Richie made sure to give him a violent reminder.

"Give me my phone, Richard."

"Nooo, lemme bond with him, I'll be so civil, I promise—"

"Mike, I'm hanging up!"

"Mike, tell him not to!"

Hold the fuck up, did Richie just use his actual name? Was he being serious for once? "Wait."

And Will did.

After a few moments, Richie asked, "Is he still there?"

"…Ye."

"Okay, cool, everyone sit comfy for confession time!"

Richie really had to use that word right now, huh. If he interrupted this conversation just to ask Mike out as a joke—

Starting out with a dreamy sigh, Richie said, "Ever since I first saw your bitchy little face on that fateful video call, so many moons ago, I knew…" Mike braced himself. "I wanted to bully you. Relentlessly."

What the fuck.

"Bro, you got so pissy before I even did anything. I was just existing in this assigned room and you looked like I was fucking your boyfriend on camera—(Hey, was he like this with all your roommates?) Were you like this with all his roommates or did you just know I was special? That'd be some fuckin' ESP shit. You should've told me sooner, because then we…"

Richie trailed off and Mike could feel the intensity of a Will Stare radiating through the phone. Good. Keep him under control.

"Anyway, now that we are officially boyfriend-in-laws, I have taken it upon myself to begin the painstaking process of not taunting you on sight…no matter how fun and easy it is to piss you off. But also! Also! It's illegal for you to be jealous of me ever again, so jot that down."

Since when was Mike fucking jealous? Richie was just annoying as hell, why would he even think—

"I'm gonna be on your little screen, touching his hair and holding his hands, and you're gonna have to roll with that." Motherfucker. "But on the bright side, you've only got a couple more months to go before you can be here too! Well, not here, in this dorm, but somewhere…Eh, those details aren't important yet. What is important is I am going to befriend you by force, so be fucking prepared." Richie put on some weird villain voice, rasping out, "You have two months left to steep in your loathing before I drain it all out and flavor you with love. Enjoy being bitter while you still can."

So this was what Mike would have to deal with for the rest of his life. Agony. But it didn't matter because Will Byers could cure all his pain with ease and grace. (And regrettably he trusted Will's judgment enough to accept that Richie must have some redeeming qualities…deep down, beneath that obnoxious surface, so it might not be as excruciating as he anticipated. Hopefully.)

"Okay, that's all!" Richie said, returning to his usual aggravating tone. "Just wanted you to be aware that you will be fundamentally changed as a person soon. Love you, bye~🙈❤️🧂👌👨‍🍳😘"

…How the fuck did he say that out loud? And what did it even mean?!

And then Richie disappeared as abruptly as he'd intruded, and Mike absently muttered, "I'm going to suffer. So much." However, he made sure to speak up when he added, "But you are so worth it. I hope you know that."

"Um…thanks?"

"But also please, please, please, fill me in on why and when you started dating him," Mike said.

"Okay, so over spring break, I found out—how did he word it…I guess Richie and Stan have been 'courting' me. And they—"

"Both?" Where the fuck did Stan come from?

"Yeah," Will said. "For at least a few months or so."

Months?! At least? But he hadn't even known Richie for a year yet, and Stan even less than that, and—and Will was okay with it? Immediately after finding out? They just told him and he accepted? That was it? "What did—" What did they do that I couldn't? "Why exactly did you start dating?"

"I discovered a lot of things this week…about them, and about me. And I think you might learn a lot too, if you felt like talking with them." He paused and reconsidered. "Well, with Stan anyway—because with Richie…y'know."

Yeah, he knew. Yet despite this, Will chose to date that fucker before Mike. A tragedy and an injustice, truly. This was not at all like "the thing El is doing with Max and Lucas", and Mike had no fucking idea how he was meant to interact with them. He hardly knew a thing about Stan, and he only knew annoying things about Richie. (But remember, trust Will's judgment! Redeeming qualities, redeeming qualities, Richie has redeeming qualities…and Stan has…unknown positive qualities? Well, if nothing else, he has good taste in men.)

As if reading his mind, Will continued, "Now that I think about it, Stan isn't that far away from you. He's just a state over, if you happen to wanna meet him before graduation…But you're not obligated to have interest or go out or anything—"

Fuck it. "I want to."

"I mean, he's never talked to you directly before, and you probably want to have some sort of online friendship before meeting him in real life anyway, and there's not a lot of shared interests (except me), and—What?"

"I want to meet him." And see if he's really good enough for you.

"…Okay!"

BYLER BACKSTORY

okay so after the kiss (the kiss Mike asked for, the kiss Will agreed to, the kiss that was just supposed to be Getting It Over With so they could say they did it, the kiss without any explicit feelings attached to it), Will discovered he might actually be thoroughly disgusted by things he previously thought he was neutral about. he was forced to acknowledge how little he could assume about his own limits. before that, he thought "well I don't particularly want to kiss people but I think it'll be fine when it happens" and then it Wasn't Fine. what else would be like that? what else couldn't he do? he had no way to find out without Finding Out and he didn't want Mike to be on the receiving end of such a visceral reaction again (and also didn't want Mike to be the cause of such a visceral reaction again) which is why he rejected Mike later on. he thought that Mike needed the kinds of things that all their friends talked/joked about, and giving him that chance would probably just make them both hurt worse in the end.

Mike was about halfway through his personal journey when he decided to try to confess properly, he was working through what he really wanted in a relationship and wanted to see if they could figure things out, but Will didn't accept it. and made the rejection as gentle as possible and took all the "blame" and looked so fucking Disappointed in Himself that Mike just. chose to wait until Will was ready to pursue his own relationship…which he didn't do, up until now, when bringing up Mike's confession out of the blue. (even tho Mike was somewhat confident that they could figure it out, he didn't want to risk crushing their chances by forcing Will to do something like this before he was equally open to it)

in that time frame Mike did try to date other people eventually. at the start it was casual teenager shit to take the weight of his confession off Will's shoulders, but later on it was because he was mentally preparing for Will to never want a romantic relationship and was genuinely making an effort to move on and be able to just be his platonic best friend. he hadn't been successful, but he was still friends with those exes, because that's the kind of connection he created naturally when he actually chooses to date and isn't pressured into it without an escape. he is full of love and affection and support but in the end Mike's the one that Wasn't Enough because those partners could tell he wasn't fully committed emotionally

(actually they all went into it Knowing he wouldn't be emotionally committed at first because Mike's pining is radiating out of him at every moment. everyone at his college with bare minimum romantic attraction or functioning eyes knew he was fucking whipped for someone from home that he didn't seem to have a chance with. or else they would be together already. there is no way Mike "Where's Will" Wheeler could interact normally with this unfortunate one-sided love. and they thought they had a chance to help Mike move on, especially since Mike was also making a conscious effort to do so. but they gave up within weeks or months because it was honestly kinda depressing that even with his best efforts and genuine emotional connection, the pining for who he Actually wanted to be with was still blatantly clear)

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Will's disappointment was entirely built around "I wish I could make Mike happy" and not "I wish I enjoyed the kiss/I wish I wanted a normal relationship/I wish I felt what everyone else feels/etc". he didn't care much about his own enjoyment or being able to blend in. if he was at least Neutral about that kiss, he would've accepted Mike's confession and fully appreciated the emotional intimacy that came with the physical shit. but he wasn't neutral, and didn't want to submit Mike or himself to that.)

(bonus note: in this au, Ben is that type of asexual. having sex and anything relevant to that is pleasant only for the intimacy he gets with his partner. otherwise it doesn't matter and he has no need or desire for it. but also he is absolutely not anywhere on the aromantic spectrum he is All Romance All The Time. the main difference between how he and Mike see sex is that Mike does actively like the idea of sexual intimacy as its own thing despite not Needing it in his relationship, vs Ben never actively wanting sex itself but he always wants to make Bev feel as loved as possible and sex happens to be one option at his disposal.)

WILL'S MINDSET

okay so Will's not trying to invalidate being poly or aroace by not outright stating the terms or phrasing things oddly, he was just never really concerned with being able to discuss his sexuality with specific words (obviously if someone told him they preferred certain labels he would acknowledge and respect that, he just doesn't care about searching for more terms for himself. he So Much does not fucking care when he could spend his time thinking about like…monsters and shit). "I like boys" "I like girls" "I like both" "I don't think it matters as long as they like science" statements like that were enough for him to comprehend. and for him it was just "maybe I like boys (mike)?" until Stan exposed him to the option of not liking anyone, not in the ways people usually mean when talking about their sexuality (which probably contributed to why he gave so few fucks. everyone around him had preferences that could be labeled and worried over, while he had a severe lack of preference and didn't feel the desire to look for something that wasn't needed)

(also after everything he still calls himself gay and that's his Right, he doesn't have to change the label if it still does its job for him. and he's a dude that's now dating three other dudes. sounds pretty fuckin gay) ngl I didn't know I was aromantic until a friend was talking about their Stan for an au and called him aro and I was like. Wait. that?? counts as aro??? that's a defined thing???? so Will got my Stan Awakening in this au.

btw Will (and hanbrough, the Other Byler) is trans (but hanbrough Fucks, because 99% of the time I make a character trans they're also some kind of asexual. and I think they deserve to Want To Fuck sometimes) so Will's also passively aware of there being more than just two possible genders. but again, he isn't real concerned with learning or claiming specific labels, he just does what he wants. (he and El still look really similar but Also they're the same height now. and depending on who gets seen first when they're standing near each other, a stranger might think they're both girls or both boys, but willel isn't bothered by this. it just happens. then the difference in vocal range makes the stranger change their mind)

anyway finding out stozier had been happily dating for years also showed Will that even someone that really enjoyed sex and romance could be satisfied in a relationship with "someone like him". he didn't think he could do that before, he didn't think he was going to be "enough'', but Stan was more than enough, so maybe Will could be too. that was his thought process when deciding to start the phone call.

the way Will describes his feelings to Mike is partially copying how Stan described his connection with Richie (because Will didn't know they were dating and didn't even think it was possible for Stan, which is one of the things they bonded over, so Stan had to explain). Stan's not exactly In Love with Richie and probably never will be, but it doesn't matter because whatever feelings he has, it feels right for them. and they're all that matter in the relationship they've chosen to commit themselves to (well, plus Will now. and potentially Mike. if he gets there. he'll take a bit more time than Will for that tho…or he might only ever date Will, but he'll at least become less jealous of stozier over time)

(when Will was younger and other people talked about romance, he usually assumed "eventually that'll happen to me. it hasn't yet but it will, because everyone does that, right?" and once he became aware that he treated Mike a little differently than his other friends, he just Expected to fall in love with him. he was waiting for it to happen. he was waiting to wake up one day and just be like "aight cool. I feel distinctly different now". feeling like that is about the closest he'll get to actually Falling In Love. but even if he had fallen in love, he wouldn't have felt the need to ask Mike out. he'd still have been like "I'll keep all my emotions right here, and then one day I'll die". he wouldn't have wanted to date Mike until Mike wanted to date him)

when Will brought up the topic of Maybe Possibly being able to date Mike (he's dating for the first time in his life and it's with two people that have open communication down to a science, so yeah he's gonna bring up his hesitant Mike Thoughts), Stan emphasized that, naturally, they (stozier) don't know what Mike needs in a relationship and can't say whether Will could give it to him. Mike isn't Richie, he might not have any alternatives that Will could do with him. but they won't Know that unless Will asks and byler have an actual discussion about what they can and can't do/try with each other, a conversation that Will had closed off before (a conversation which…kinda becomes unnecessary because of the self discovery Mike had gone through already, but it's still a good conversation to have).

stozier didn't plan on their efforts causing Will to consider dating someone else, but they're definitely aware of Mike being "different" for Will, and they would rather give him the chance to find out if byler could survive than for Will to continue wondering about it. tbh they weren't even 100% confident that Will would choose them if Mike was an actual option but refused to date Will with other people involved. but I think the most simple kind of love is wanting someone to be happy, regardless of how it happens. and after finding out that Will deadass wasn't aware of a single mcfuckin stozier thing going on, they kinda feel like it wouldn't be the worst thing if all they did was teach him it was possible to have a relationship like theirs. (but Mike also wants Will to be happy in whatever way he chooses, so even tho he really fuckin wanted to be Will's only partner, he wouldn't ask Will to immediately dump stozier. his general displeasure with Richie's presence will be fucking suffocating, but he won't make it about Will's choice in dating. it will be entirely Richie's Fault Always Forever. and as long as Mike continues not to take his jealousy out on Will, Richie really isn't that bothered by it since he constantly provoked Mike before this all happened. but someday Mike will notice that Richie's no longer actively doing things to upset him.)

PREFERENCES AND SHIT

Mike can make out or have sex without repulsion but he doesn't require a particularly sexual relationship, his needs are primarily emotional and just having that general physical intimacy, which byler already did Without actually dating…but now they can get Even More Emotional!!! and Completely Erase their Already Minimal Personal Space!!!! they can add another dynamic to their life long friendship, and try out things that even Mike "I'm gonna get you home (to our nerd basement)" Wheeler couldn't pass off as platonic, and continue to discover shit about their boundaries and preferences, and it's gonna be a good fuckin time.

Will and Stan both lack romantic attraction but in different ways, and they chose to date for different reasons. Will was aware a lot earlier than Stan that he wasn't going to fall in love the "usual" way (tho he didn't have a word for it), but once Mike confessed Will Did actively wish he could date just to make Mike happy, and would have done it if they hadn't kissed. for him, the idea of saying "we're dating" is kinda like giving Mike a limited edition cd for a band Will thinks is average at best. he doesn't really care about it but he Does care about the happiness Mike would get from it. but dating isn't a cd, and he knows he has to address the expectations that come with that word before even considering using it (but he kinda shut down the possibility because he would rather Mike be sad from not dating him than purposely put themselves in the path of his repulsion).

meanwhile Stan was Full of dating thoughts but wasn't super interested in pursuing them, he treated them more like a blorbo thing than a personal goal. he wasn't actively disinterested (in fact he really wanted to have a romantic relationship "eventually"), he was just more preoccupied with the fantasy of romance. but when Richie asked him out he wasn't opposed to trying, and he became a little disappointed as he slowly realized he wasn't going to get to experience a romance out of a story, but he still enjoys doing some traditionally romantic gestures (and Richie likes them too)

(when it came to Will accepting stozier's confession/proposal, it was more like informing him that they were already acting like they would if they were dating. because before stozier did Anything, Richie basically asked if it would be okay to so much as flirt, just in case Will would be uncomfortable with an established couple having interest in him (Will is fine with it because people have Apparently flirted with him before and he's never noticed until told, so he figures it won't bother him if people are expressing their interest. it's not his problem if he's not aware. but he didn't explain this logic to Richie, he just said "it would be okay/fine" or "I don't really mind"). and after they had Permission to Pursue, they did just that, gradually building up their individual and shared bonds with him (with Richie increasing the intimacy and affection in his body language and crafting his own Soft Will Voice, since he already uses dramatic romantic/sexual displays with everyone, and Stan changing his actual verbal language, since he only had online contact). but they never stated in Extremely basic terms "we are already in a serious relationship but would like to also maybe date you. can we try that out and see what happens? also this is Not a joke." so Will just did not process anything as having actual romantic intent. oblivious aroace representation)

on the sexual side, while Will has felt "bad" about not being able to do something Mike would like, he's never felt guilty or wrong or anything. just disappointment or sadness. about equal to being disappointed he's severely allergic to Mike's favorite food or something, unable to even touch it let alone eat it together. not a personal failure, just an unfortunate fact. and after entering his first relationship(s), he continues not to have any guilt about what he can't do for Mike or Richie, because they are clearly satisfied in the relationship. he can make them happy. meanwhile Stan occasionally feels guilt about it despite how aware and accepting he is about shit. logically he knows that there's nothing wrong with not wanting to have sex or kiss or whatever, but he can tell himself that as many times as he wants and it won't stop the feeling from popping up (partially because he wanted it so much, and he can imagine Richie wanting it too. but unlike Stan, Richie actually Could have that kind of romance if he was with someone else). he's also open with Richie about when it happens and gets reassurance that he's enough

one big issue Will had with dating Mike was not wanting Mike to miss out on doing things. but stozier was literally already dating long term and had been gradually involving Will in the level of intimacy they were used to, so he wasn't worried about not being able to give them what they needed. he accepted without much thought. honestly Richie's type of personality is probably the only reason they were able to get to this point. Will wouldn't feel the desire to "try" dating if he wasn't already confident he could offer what the relationship required, so basically anyone could ask him out and he would immediately say no. but Richie didn't ask him out, he just asked for Permission to fucking Pine and Express Interest and Flirt and shit, and because Richie already made a big show of general physical and verbal intimacy with everyone, Will didn't even notice it shift from casual/joking to a genuine pursuit.

Richie (and losers in general) is a lot more experienced and chill with sex-repulsion (Stan and Eddie). that disgust is treated kinda like offering someone a really shitty candle and saying "this is so bad. you have to smell it." and giving them the choice to smell it or not. sometimes the scent is intense enough that they Know it's bad even without getting close, but with a weaker scent they can go into the situation knowing that it'll Probably be a negative sensory experience, while also acknowledging that candles only make it to the shelf because Some people like it, so there's a Possibility that it won't be that bad. because of that casual outlook, Will is eventually (Eventually) going to start his Fuck Around and Find Out phase with Richie, and slowly begin to define his physical limits more explicitly.

Will was fucked up about Mike getting that fucked up over their failed kiss, but also he was fucked up about Mike ever being a source of that kind of disgust and he doesn't want to be in that situation again. even if Mike thinks he can handle it now, that doesn't mean Will can handle it. he wants to know what actions he's capable of doing and what things he can never do. and for stozier, Richie Being Gross is like a core part of their dynamic. so Will wants Richie to show him the Shitty Candle Collection and be able to comfortably enjoy being disgusted or pleasantly unfazed (or maybe possibly find a slightly good candle) even if he gags or pukes, even if he can only smell one candle a day or week or month, he wants to know his limitations. he wants to learn that for Himself so he's never surprised by sudden repulsion again. and he wants to do it with someone that's not Mike. 

(about kissing specifically, one reason Will was particularly confident that it would just be neutral is because Byers openly do kisses on cheek/forehead/hand/etc and he never had any reactions stronger than exaggeratedly wiping off his cheek or fake gagging at Jonathan or some shit. he didn't think a kiss on the mouth would affect him like that. anyway plot twist even tho Will was always half-assed grossed out by kissing and pretended to throw up when he walked in on El and Max making out, now he's gonna be one of the the gross ones. he absolutely can't do mouth kisses and doesn't enjoy being kissed in general but he's fairly neutral about Giving kisses (Stan doesn't give or receive any kisses anywhere, stozier makeout session is pure forehead touch babey) and Will's gonna get to see Mike collapse to the fucking floor from a gotdam palm kiss. fucking simp.)

ONE FINAL NOTE

since byler are equally stupid and Mike got the majority of his stozier exposure either through Will or from Richie butting in on their calls, Mike Also did not realize that Richie and Stan were dating. literally from his pov rn, it just looks like Will's annoying roommate fell So fucking hard that he must have gone on lovesick rants that made a whole second person also fall for Will. and since Will's mostly talked about Stan in reference to roasting Richie together, Mike hasn't yet made the connection that Stan is the reason Richie hasn't fucked in "five years or some shit" (more like 3-4, but no one ever accused Will of being good at math) and is also the one that encouraged Will to try to explore multiple ways to have and define a relationship. not that Richie didn't also encourage him, it's just that Will never took anything he said seriously until Stan's comments made him realize that Richie was in fact Not fuckin joking or talking purely in hypotheticals over the past several months.

(for the record Will takes Richie seriously with other topics, it's just the romantic/flirty shit that he is fucking physically incapable of processing as genuine (especially when directed at him). it was like that with Mike too, Up Until he was forced to acknowledge that Mike was serious and actually did want to date and be gross)

aight if anyone made it to the end…god bless. I hope you're fed because this won't be happening again soon

my favorite parts of Mike's very uninformed narration…

"what if Richie and his weird friends said something to Will over spring break?" what if Richie and his weird friend told Will it was okay to ask you out a couple days after he started dating them

"please, god, do not be dating Richie" guess what bitch

"well, if nothing else, [Stan] has good taste in men." Guess What Bitch

#will byers #mike wheeler #byler #stozyers #ryers #and a brand new tag for this specific au branch #Stozyler #yeah #I'm Just Having A Good Time with an au catered to me and me only #my post #art #stranger things