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blackberry-gingham · 2 years

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Logan, Toad, and Kurt bby for the ask game >;))

Alright PHEW finally doing these, sorry lol. Someone else also requested toad so I'll do Kurt and Logan for now but toad will be up next ;)

Gotta use a cut bc you know me and my long ass speeches lol

Logan/Wolverine

Favorite thing about them

Hard to say tbh, but I think it's a mixture of his aesthetic with his tough guy look and cowboy/lumberjack outfits as well as his personality

I love any character with a deeper/inner animalistic nature, especially if it's a masculine character. Lots of room to explore the metaphors behind masculine energy and it's extremes clashing against a civilized society. That's kind of it tbh lol

Least favorite thing

THE FACT THAT HE CANT TAKE AN L IN THE DATING REALM AAAAAAAAAA

He dates around so much as a coping mechanism to deal with his own feelings of insufficiency, so in that sense it makes sense- but still, it's a little annoying when he's C O N S T A N T L Y pushed up against Jean, who can be just as bad sometimes considering she has cyk already. Like smh, at least let wolverine pursue a relationship he can actually ACHIEVE instead of this like "I'm so sad nooooo" plot snsksksk

Favorite line

Anytime in the cartoon when he says something along the lines of "oh yeah, well do you have THESE" and then pops his claws like he's insecure and trying to prove himself. That's always hilarious and definitely doesn't happen literally every other episode hahaha

BrOTP

Another oof, lol. I always picture him more as a loner, but if I had to assign him a best bro- it's pretty close between either colossus or nightcrawler, maybe with some favoritism towards colossus. Just two strong asf, indestructible asf dudes being bros

OTP

Well, I've moved away from my wolverine obsession now lol, so I can let him have an in-universe otp. Gosh, I want to say Storm the most. I love their dynamic of calming feminine energy soothing the masculine SO so much 😭

The only thing that keeps me from raving and screaming over this ship is that I really dislike how their relationship makes Storm out to be his PAAAAAINFULLY obvious B plan, second to Jean sksksk. If their relationship was the first stop instead of the love triangle, I would never shut up lmao

nOTP

Dnsksksksk there's not a lot of ships I don't support, but him and sabretooth, him and jubilee (I've never seen this thank God, so hopefully it's not a thing), and him and nightcrawler (Kurt is MINE 👹👹)

Random HC

He can purr, but not in a cat way. It's kind of like chuffing or soft growling

Unpopular opinion

I honestly think the only opinion I could consider as unpopular would be that I don't like shipping him with Jean or Kurt lol.

On a real note tho, uuuuuh I wish we got to see some actual character behind him instead of him being regulated to "Angry Little Dude Who Stabs Things" all the time. That has its place, sure, but a well done character arc in mainstream media would be cool too

Song I associate with him

The one I love - REM

The concept of using romantic "love" solely as a means of distraction from your problems in life is very him. In fact, this is possibly the only song I can comfortably associate with wolverine, bc anything else I can think of just doesn't fit his personal style sound wise

Favorite picture

These ones lol. Any of the rare, goofy art is PEAK quality, but the really emotional stuff is great too

Kurt/Nightcrawler

Favorite thing

I like him when he's faithfully and accurately portrayed as a Catholic, that's pretty great! I also like him for his introverted and empathetic personality of course. I would marry that man irl, no option for divorce in a HEARTBEAT 😩🤞🏻

I would say same as wolverine in that I like exploring the potential animalistic nature behind him, but he doesn't really have that tbh, so if I do that at all it's more like in my head and for fun. Sometimes tho.

Least favorite thing

Fjejskskks when his current writer gets disrespectful with portraying him according to his faith. I hate that shit man, like FR.

Aside from that, I REALLY don't like his early days in the comics where he was like this creepy as fuck flirt like ?!?! Idk how to describe it other than he somehow managed to make WOLVERINE look like a nice, polite guy

Favorite line

Any of his theological stuff from the animated series, bc I can't lie, that stuff was SHOCKINGLY accurate on the theology

Although, if I could just copy and paste all his dialogue from the animated series point blank period, I'd do that too lol. He has surprisingly interesting things to say about mutant existence and his own experiences and his interactions with other characters- I just wish he had more episodes 🥲

brOTP

This has no basis in the comics, but I imagine him and Toad as like unlikely, but solid bros. Toad is like "hey, another guy who looks like a freak, we could bond over our misery" and Kurt would take the opportunity to try and lift mort's spirits, maybe see a bright side instead of getting so downtrodden about being physically mutated

Healthy and supportive friendships 👍🏻👍🏻

Although, also him and rogue tbh. I like their psudeo siblings dynamic plus the difference in cultures adds some entertainment

OTP

Me, obviously lol. My ride or die f/o, to be completely honest

nOTP

Basically everyone, bc I'm a bitter ass bitch. Sorry 😪

Random HC

Kurt can also purr, but that's boring so I'll also add that I think he gets more mutated as he ages. Like thicker fur, slightly longer ears, slightly harsher facial features, that stuff. He won't let on, but it gets to him a little

Also one more for free: he is the younger one between him and rogue. She will introduce him as her little brother at every opportunity possible, just cause lol

Unpopular opinion

Probably that I like him best when he's a staunch catholic, to be honest

Song I associate with him

TAKE MY HAND BY CHIEF GHOUL WHICH YOU SHOULD STREAM. GO. DO IT. STREAM IT NOW FOR MOODY FALL AND SOUTHERN GOTHIC VIBES.

Favorite picture

I'm ngl, anything that makes his face nice and dynamic and pointy is pretty good. I like seeing artists not afraid to make him look non human as possible without getting too crazy, but of course you can always get me with any of the particularly goofy art too.

Come ask me again after I get my God Loves, Man Kills comic tho- that's the one that inspired X2 and I'm told it's a banger. This panel alone got me losing my shit lmao

#thank you smokey !!!!#mwah smokey my beloved #nightcrawler #wolverine #marvel hc #ask game

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djmusicbest · 4 months

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Beatport Weekend Picks 2: Trance

- Artists: Beatport DATE CREATED: 2024-01-12 GENRES: Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic), Psy-Trance, Trance (Main Floor) Tracklist : 1. Ormus - Jessed(Original Mix) 2. Fazack - Many Moons Ago(Original Mix) 3. MoRsei, West Galaxy - Beyond the Mind(Original Mix) 4. Inger - Million Words(Original Mix) 5. Vicky Kristine - Inner Voices(Original Mix) 6. Gaston fiore - Untitled 78(Original Mix) 7. ALIGASH - Quicksand(Fuenka Extended Remix) 8. Arte Muradyan - Escape(Juank Heart Remix) 9. Chimitdorzhi, Kay Deet - I Just Can't Believe(Original Mix) 10. hardickoff - Rose(Original Mix) 11. Blake Walker MTL - Dimension(Extended Mix) 12. Super-Frog Saves Tokyo - Shibui(Original Mix) 13. Robert Nickson - Transcend(Extended Mix) 14. James And The Cat - Some Techno Beat(ORMUS Remix) 15. Nexxus 604 - Universal Language(Original Mix) 16. Sphera, Freedom Fighters - Better Future(Original mix) 17. Reborn - Abadi(Original Mix) 18. Sabretooth, Synthetic System - Toxicity(Original Read the full article

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muznew · 4 months

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Beatport Weekend Picks 2: Trance

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fromfiction · 3 years

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Timeline of our own notable fiction-based phenomena experiences

1997: astrally transported/accidentally reality shifted to the world of ‘Samurai Pizza Cats’ over a series of weeks in what I like to consider my own isekai adventure.

1999: First (of many) soulbonds when we invite Cable (Marvel) to our inner world because he’s been through Some Shit.

2001: First kintype awakening when we started having nightmares as Ken Ichijouji and our emotional state got so disrupted we had to stop watching Digimon.

2003: Very briefly switched bodies/universes with Rogue (Marvel).

2006: First contact with the fictionkin (then called otakukin) community and recognizing our Ken Ichijouji awakening, as well as my ambiguous connection to the Red World (Slayers).

2014: Our partner has her first fictionkin awakening.

2015: Accepting my awakening as Vriska after years of questioning.

2016: Pearl awakening.

2020: Jeritza awakening.

2020: intentional reality shifting experiments.

2021: Sabretooth awakening.

#fictionkin #alterhuman #fictionkind #kinnies #kin stuff #personal #me

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the-last-cuddlebender · 3 years

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Eyes of Ash

Sozin has only ten years left until his Comet arrives, and he still knows next to nothing about his enemy or the places that would be their battlefields. Scrolls were few and without any maps. No one knew much about the Air Nomads, just like no one knew where their Temples were. Supposedly, they could only be accessed with a skybison.

...But Sozin had his dragon and a reason for them to let him stay.

Roku trained at the Southern Temple….Perhaps Sozin could start there.

The sea of eyes that greet him are grey like storm clouds gathering. They’re all the same—a homogenous people.

...The eyes of ash were the only exception, and Sozin couldn’t look away.

**************************************

A/N: “But you were right. And if the Fire Nation found this Temple, that means they found the other ones, too.” Sozin definitely got busy in the 12 years before the Comet. An ambush has to be planned and calculated, and that means he had to gather intel on the airbenders.

This uses my “whistle-speak” hc that airbenders airbended whistles in a secret language (explored originally in this fic)

Rating: T

Words: 2,917

ArchiveOfOurOwn

**************************************

...Ten years.

Befriending the airbenders was a pain that pooled bile in Sozin’s mouth, but feigning confidence with them was easier than dancing politics with any statesman.

It was easy.

Almost too easy.

The thought ran away from him before Sozin could ponder it more. The suspicion was silly. Easy trust from easy people should be expected. The Air Nomads were too simple and peaceful to be anything more than welcoming. They were born without the ability to tip their hearts’ scales into black or white. Their neutrality was as grey as their eyes.

But as Sozin, stiff and wrinkled like a walking scar, stepped from his dragon and bowed to one of the more decorated old men, he couldn’t help but wonder. It truly was a miracle that the Air Nomads survived so long. Life was cruel. History was even crueler. Trust freely given was a noose around any man’s neck.

All it took was a sob story about his old age and grief for them to welcome him. Sozin was aching from his years, even moreso from the loss of his best friend. His tears were his testament, and the break in his voice shattered the daydream air filling the temple like a gas. He could find solace nowhere else; he pleaded for a chance to find inner peace where his brother once was and where he would take on new life.

They were reluctant at first, but only because of Talon. Sozin’s teal dragon was as massive as he was deadly, and he was tame as a loaded crossbow. Talon licked their fear from their air and purred a growl that trembled a warning like a mountain’s last groan before collapsing.

The old men were as wary of his dragon as they were of him. It almost made Sozin smile. They could sense a dragon in skybison’s clothing easily enough. Maybe healthy suspicion was how they survived for so long?

Sozin was certain he was going to be asked to leave, but a stranger with eyes and lips wrinkled into a permanent smile vouched for him. The stranger’s smile slipped into his voice, slow and smooth, like a cat curling to sleep on a sun-baked stone.

Sozin had to force his jaw to relax. He never liked listening to the airbenders speak. The air that left them was alien like their voices were crawling into his ears instead of traveling through space like normal.

He gave the newcomer a once-over like any good soldier might. His weaknesses, strengths, and chances of becoming a meaningful threat were tucked into a new file and bookmarked in Sozin’s mind.

But his reconnaissance was cut short by the toddler waddling at the stranger’s heels. The boy barely older than a babe grabbed hold of the old man’s—his father’s? guardian’s?—robe and latched on, teething, on a fold of orange fabric.

Then he looked at Sozin with eyes a shade of grey different from all the others’. The airbenders had eyes like stormclouds gathering. The boy had eyes like ash.

Sozin turned away and coughed.

The boy chewed some more on his favored piece of orange robe. The elder didn’t pay any mind.

(But Sozin caught the way he leaned closer to the boy like a sabretooth moose-lion before its cub.)

Ten years...Ten years and twenty-two days.

Roku had spoken fondly and often of Sozin to the monk named Gyatso. Gyatso smiled wide and warm like the sun cresting the horizon, and he welcomed the Firelord as a fellow brother mourning Roku’s passing.

After a few more pleasantries, he invited Sozin to the prayer room where Roku meditated when something heavy weighed on his mind.

Sozin nodded and followed. His attention, however, didn’t want to leave Gyatso’s young charge.

The boy—Aang was his name?—patted his fist on the now wet section of orange robe like he was knocking on a door. Gyatso offered him his hand, and Aang nearly jumped to greet it in his impatience to hold it. He leaned on his mentor and trotted with his weight resting against his not-father’s leg. It was like the boy was a cart missing a wheel but still rolling forward and scraping against a tunnel’s wall for support.

And then Aang closed his eyes and smiled like accidents could never happen.

And the sight almost made Sozin reconsider.

Almost.

The prayer room was empty when Gyatso finally opened the doors. It took a few minutes since he coddled his charge with gentle words and instructions to wield his airbending to open the lock.

A puff of dust greeted them with an annoying sting to their eyes. Gyatso apologized and cleaned the room with a wave of his hand, tossing the dust out the window.

Sozin inhaled a breath of the stuff, but he cleared his throat to suppress the urge to cough.

But then the boy sneezed, and Sozin looked down at him.

The pain from the error was swift and brutal. Something hit Sozin’s back like water from a broken dam carrying momentum faster than lightning. On impact, it sprayed him into a bloody mist like pieces of porcelain after meeting asphalt.

The hacking fit was a compulsion Sozin couldn’t fight, and it would have put him on his knees if he hadn't stopped it at a kneel.

The eyes of ash misted with tears and were pleading and concerned. The boy patted Sozin’s shoulder with a hand yet able to perform the action without looking like he was trying to beat him instead of comfort him.

The feeling was nostalgic. It almost made Sozin reconsider.

Almost.

...Five years.

Sozin had done worse for longer. It wasn’t like it would break him. What was left of himself had been torn apart and fed to the volcano back on that day. All that mattered was his nation.

His nation.

The Fire Nation.

For his country to be reborn, there had to be ashes.

Five years...Five years and sixteen days.

For his nation, Sozin could do it. He could endure every Pai Sho game and forced bout of laughter. He could endure the nuns and the reckless younglings who wouldn’t leave him the hell alone whenever he visited the Temples.

He brought them gifts every time. Operational conditioning. Same as with a dragon. To tame a beast—to make it complacent—create positive associations.

They were far too trusting. The skybison were ‘companions’. The Air Nomads knew nothing of training.

...Three years.

Sozin wasn’t sure how much longer he could take it.

They were watching him. All of them were.

Their strange secret language—that damn whistle-speak—tricked his mind into thinking it was music so it could hide its secrets from him. It was like listening to singing behind a wall. He could hear the suspicion. He could hear the murmuring. He heard everything they didn’t want him to in passing, and their sung secrets were heavy and thick with a contempt he couldn’t yet decipher.

They were toying with him.

That wasn’t how this was supposed to be.

Sozin wouldn’t let himself be controlled. The Nomads were fools if they thought they could muzzle a Dragon.

He was the one in control here.

Sozin knew how to control people through fear. These damn people did something far worse. They controlled through trust. It was cruel—it was wrong.

The boy—Aang was his name—wove a pillow-soft tune out of braided winds. He made sure he had the other youngling’s attention before darting up the tree, scaring the lemurs from their perches.

Sozin cringed. Even the children were speaking of him—hiding from him.

Eyes of ash peeked at him through the leaves and curved upwards as if smiling.

Sozin turned his cough into an old man’s laugh and dug his nails into his knees.

Three years...Three years and two days.

Gyatso poured their tea and whistle-spoke something to the spies in the trees.

Sozin’s nails nearly drew blood. It was true. It was all of them: the elders, the masters, the skybison, the lemurs—hell, even the children—

He knew it.

The airbenders were a menace.

They controlled others with invisible chains and lured people into a sense of peace like it was a defense mechanism. Their kindness, like their whistle-speak, was nothing more than a siren’s song.

Sozin needed to watch his step. The airbenders had a sophisticated network of communication. They were like one giant organism—a hive incubating enough workers to take over the world.

Nomads. He wanted to spit on the very thought.

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it sooner.

They had been collecting information on the nations just as he had been collecting information on them. Their war tactics were so subtle it was nearly frightening.

They knew he was onto them.

They knew what he was doing.

They kept him in their sights and watched him even when he was in the Fire Nation. Their grey gazes stuck to him like poison powder from a deadly mushroom. He jumped into the ocean before he stepped back on his homeland for fear of spreading their virus.

The wind petted the grass in a lick of something warm and calm. Sozin cringed. Their spoken wind was words without words, and they curled around him like they carried their own life.

Even the damn wind was watching him.

Every time he visited the damn Temples he was surrounded by the spies and their attention. He would have barely landed his dragon before a sea of grey eyes consumed his vision like they were storm clouds gathering.

He hated it.

But he needn't wait too much longer.

...One year.

The Gyatso fellow was as nice as a spy could be. It was almost regretful that he had to die.

Sozin thought to himself as he moved a Pai Sho tile with a ‘clap’ of lacquer and wood. Almost was too strong a word. Inconvenient? That sounded about right. No one had bested Sozin in Pai Sho before. Stupid White Lotus gambit got him every time. It would be annoying to find something new to waste his time on.

One year...One year and twelve days.

His blueprints of the temples were all but complete. One year. One year was all he needed. At this point, his visits were pleasantries, just a means to save face.

The old men were getting nervous but about what they wouldn't say.

Sozin made himself their refuge. He promised them aid.

He could help them so much more if they would kindly tell him who the Avatar was.

They refused, as always, but Sozin was as patient as he was calculating. He kept his voice soft, made the same joke, and laughed along with them even when those stupid flying creatures swatted his beard.

They stared at him, too. Everything did.

Just one year...Just one year and twelve days.

Just a little longer, now. The wild dragons had all been collected and were finishing their training. The old men of the Southern Temple threw a festival in Sozin’s honor. They wouldn’t kill the mammoth green-scaled drakaina that had curled up in their mountains. Their bison were easy pickings to such a creature. They thanked him for giving it a proper home.

Stupid fools. They hardly mourned the loss of their own. They would probably stand against the wall if he asked them.

There was a second festival to be held that day, almost like a shared birthday.

The time was so close that Sozin could almost taste it—dry and dusty like ashes of victory over his tongue. In one year and twelve days, the crimson cloth being draped in the halls would be replaced by fire.

Some would escape, but a few roaches always did when their nest was exposed to the sun. He knew enough to lay traps. They wouldn’t be the sirens anymore.

It was easy to discern what made this home so attractive to the fliers. They needed the thin air. They were as free as the gusts of air that licked the tops of the mountains they lived in. They preferred altitudes that would leave lesser men sick and on their deathbed. (Sozin had prepared for this. Every soldier had trained on dragonback as high as the beasts would fly.)

(It was a shame that the dragons would have to be killed, too. After, that is. The Avatar born into the Water Tribes couldn’t have a source from which to learn firebending. That was unacceptable.)

Sozin winced. The hum of the prayer bell was annoying and the acrobats of air were even moreso. He sat up straight and forced his respects to the boy as he stood. Aang’s smile was brighter than cherry-red metal that had sat in a forge overnight, and it was almost just as warm.

Aang, if Sozin remembered correctly, had just had his twelfth birthday. He was young for a master.

The boy looked at him. His eyes were grey like the rest of his people’s, and they weren’t grey like metal, either.

Aang’s eyes were the color of ash, but they carried the life of something that had never been burned.

Sozin looked away and coughed.

The ceremony and the food were tolerable. The part that came after was almost okay.

The prayer bell—damn that thing—rang one last time.

Like a flame going out, so did the quiet. The younger masters all cheered like soldiers at a bar after returning from their first campaign. Aang was up from his seat in the next second and sprinting like his life depended on it.

“Get back here, Aang!”

“You know the rules! You’re one of us now!”

“It’s tradition!”

The boy laughed and shouted back at them with equal parts fun and fear. He moved more like the lemurs than even the lemurs did. It was like he was made of water, slipping out of the young masters’ hands and dodging a dozen bodies trying to dogpile him.

The old men laughed and reminisced. Some of them pretended not to and forced themselves to chastise the young ones on principle. The lemurs chattered along with all their laughs.

“No, no, no! Hahaha!—C-C’mon, guys! I—Haha!—Y-You know I can’t—Hahaha!”

One of them gasped dramatically. “Did you hear that?”

“Yes, I did, and I simply cannot believe my ears!”

“For shame, Pupil Aang!” The young master flicked Aang’s new arrow. The ink was blue like lightning since it was new and not stretched by the skin. He didn’t wince, though. Sozin didn’t know whether to commend the boy for his tolerance of the pain or the monks for making the aftermath of the process painless (Sozin heard the previous day how much it wasn’t...His screams were muffled by a gag Sozin assumed he was given. He was only allowed by the room as it was performed).

The young men laughed with Aang some more, and they picked on their surrogate little brother for even longer. They only let him go once he was crying from laughing so hard. Two of them threw Aang onto their shoulders. Aang took the opportunity to flick their arrows in turn, and his fraternity of big brothers swooned like they were mortally wounded before they all laughed twice as hard. Aang hugged their heads and swung his legs, and he puffed with something like pride. He looked like a king on his throne, and they sang a song with something that wasn’t words.

It was that thrice-damned whistle-speak again. Oh, how Sozin loathed their secret language. Had Roku learned this?

Gyatso laughed long and warmly, but his age crackled in his voice. The sound was dead leaves crunching underfoot, and the way he fondly spoke of his pupil slid into Sozin’s ears as charred kindling collapsing into embers.

“Woah, woah, woah!”

A roar shook the canyon, and Sozin nearly leapt from his seat. One of the bison landed on the cluster of young masters, and he pawed through the lump of bodies until he found the smallest, laughing one. He picked Aang up by his scruff between his teeth and grumpily shuffled away from the young masters. Curling up, he held the boy in his front paws and looked almost like he was trying to hide his skyrider under his chin. He bared his teeth and growled at the pouting young masters climbing over him like an infestation.

It almost made Sozin think about smiling. The furry creature was more like a dragon with its horde than it was like the flying filth that were its kin.

“Thanks for the rescue, buddy!”

Sozin looked at the boy without knowing that he was.

The boy turned.

Eyes, grey and laughing—ash and mocking him—, caught him in their snare.

Sozin coughed, but, this time, he couldn't turn away. He lifted his sleeve to his mouth to catch the rest. His chest tightened. The air being bent around him was too thick and dusty like he was standing in a room full of mold.

It needed to be burned. The mold needed to be cleansed before it spread and poisoned anything else.

The boy looked away. His smile was infectious.

One year and twelve days. Time was a funny thing.

Because as Sozin stood atop Talon’s back and searched the crowd of faces below him—looking for those eyes of ash—he remembered the ceremony like it was yesterday.

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NaNoWriMo 2020 days 5 and 6 yayyyyyyy☺️

Hope ya enjoyed!:D

#aang #avatar the last airbender #atla #aang love #firelord sozin #air nomad lore #fire nation #gyatso #appa #NaNoWriMo 2020 #myfanfictiontag #post

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thecorteztwins · 4 years

Note

🔥 villains. 🔥 the hellfire club 🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent characters

Welp, this all got STUPIDLY LONG and I’m really sorry. Under a cut because HUUUUUGE.

🔥 villains.There’s just been a robbery! All the jewels in the museum’s vault have been stolen! The culprits are….Sabretooth and Magneto!Yeah, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Thievery isn’t really something either of them do, they’re not bank robber or cat burglar types at all. And Magneto’s not a fan of Sabes to my memory, it’s unlikely he’d work with him unless it was essential to his ACTUAL goals…which this isn’t. But hey, they’re both bad guys, so they must do ALL the bad things! No matter what it is, it’s in-character if it’s evil or unlawful, right?This is the logic that I see running both often in fandom, and also sometimes with canon writers. There’s a mentality that if someone is villainous or bad in ONE way, then they must be villainous or bad in ALL ways. I think there’s always been this misunderstanding, as people do tend to think in black and white a lot, but I think it’s also increased with the rise of purity culture in Tumblr, where people/characters/works are All Good or All Bad, and if the bad guys aren’t depicted as 1000% heinously evil then it’s APOLOGISM. An example in RP would be that more than once I’d had people expect Fabian to be a racist. I can see why, given that he expresses sexism, classism, a bit of ableism, and disgust with physical mutations. But not only does he never express racism, he never expresses racism DESPITE AMPLE OPPORTUNITY. Think about it—his main antagonists are Magneto (Jewish) and Quicksilver (Jewish and Romani), he once personally fights Bishop (Black and Indigenous Australian) one on one, he’s on one team with Shinobi (half white, half Japanese), and his allies/underlings in the second-gen Acolytes included people who are African American, Moroccan (and Muslim-coded), and Inuit. And he never, ever, EVER even THOUGHT anything related to race (or religions that are usually implicitly tied to race) about ANY of them. Given how blatant his other prejudices are, I think he would very much let the reader KNOW if he were racist, anti-Semitic, etc. An example in canon…look, I’m sorry to bring up this dead horse again, but it is the best example that I presently have—Sebastian Shaw making the “women’s work” comment. As with Fabian, I get why it makes sense on the surface. He’s a powerful man, the proverbial rich old white guy, and he’s part of an organization where women walk around in lingerie as a general rule. It seems like it makes sense, it does, I grant that. But then if you actually look at his history…for 40 years of canon, he’s been allies and enemies with many powerful women, and never made a remark about their gender, never relegated lesser or menial tasks to them, never treated any of them differently as partners or foes, he actually never even flirts with any of them, be they opponents or partners in crime (except that ONE issue when Emma is in Storm’s body and he kisses her…yeah that was a weird issue, why does a telepath need a gun to switch bodies?) Which is pretty unusual for a male Claremont villain. And he actually reacts with “I…see.” the one time a comrade makes a genuinely sexist remark. He doesn’t agree with him, he’s more like “wow ok I can’t believe he said that but I guess I’ll let it go since I want to recruit him” So, it’s actually VERY odd for him to suddenly say something like that, once you know the character. Especially since, like Fabian, he had TONS of opportunity in the past and he’s also not a character that most writers want to seem sympathetic or likeable. So it’s unlikely the writers were just trying to make him look good by playing down some secret sexist tendencies all this time or something. It’s more likely he just doesn’t have them BUT IS STILL A HORRIBLE PERSON! He just doesn’t need to be horrible in every way! Most people, even the MOST terrible, aren’t horrible in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.That’s also why I try to avoid having Fabian being too homophobic (beyond “I can convert lesbians”) or transphobic, despite the fact that I *could* justify it (since those things are very intertwined with sexism)—because he’s awful enough. Giving him additional bigotries just seems stupidly redundant and cheap. Especially since I think people actually hate a bigoted character more than they hate a murderer; like I feel like if Duggan ever graduates to Shaw making a racist or homophobic remark, I might have to close his blog, but it’s fine to have blogs for fictional serial killers. By the same token, a villain having good traits doesn’t somehow eliminate their bad ones, especially if the good and bad traits are unrelated to each other. A mass murderer supervillain is not “actually a good guy deep down” because he loves his family; it’s actually VERY common for even genocidal dictators to care for their own. Hell, not to go all Godwin, but Hitler was an animal-lover and had a beloved dog. You can certainly point to good traits to show that a villain isn’t ALL bad (which as I just said, I support) but not being “all bad” isn’t the same as “actually a good person and just misunderstood!” Like, Shaw being an egalitarian in a lot of regards or was good to Madelyne Pryor or loved his father, doesn’t change he’s a heartless, morally bankrupt monster who abused his son and sold out an entire oppressed species (his own, no less) for his own financial gain. Mystique is an incredibly complex character, far more so than Shaw, but her love for Destiny and Rogue and many of her other good points don’t change that she hunted down other mutants for the government, abused her human son for not being a mutant, has committed rape by deception numerous times (though I think that’s due to the writers not realizing that’s a thing), constantly tries to manipulate her daughter’s life and choices, and I’m pretty sure I recall an issue where she framed a guy for domestic abuse just for funsies?Basically, villains are people. They have individual different traits and beliefs and motives, and those things will drive them towards individual different types of villainy. One villain probably won’t do the same kind of villainy that another does. Likewise, someone being a shitty person in one way, or many ways, doesn’t mean they will be in ALL ways. Pointing this out isn’t the same thing as denying their flaws or defending them, but some people do do this and that’s wrong too. Nuance needs to be allowed for. Pointing out Shaw isn’t awful in every way doesn’t mean I think he’s a misunderstood woobie whose crimes should all be forgiven. Pointing out Mystique has done awful shit doesn’t mean I think she’s pure evil and all her complex points should be ignored. It just means I don’t think characters should be strawmanned by fans OR writers as paragons or demons, especially when it contradicts what canon has actually established (with the caveat that canon is dumb sometimes too, and also some characters canonically ARE one extreme or the other, but I’m talking about ones who AREN’T)🔥 the hellfire clubI’ll give two on this! One is “unpopular” just in the sense it’s not something I’ve ever heard anyone express, but I’ve never heard an opinion in opposition to it either. The other is “unpopular” in that it does directly contradict a popularly held opinion.The first is that I think it’s stupid that Grant Morrisson made The Hellfire Club into a strip club, and it’s stupid that writers since depicted it this way. The Hellfire Club is shown in the 80s and 90s as being, first and foremost, an elite social club for the wealthiest and most powerful people in society. It’s basically a big posh country club, and most of its members are just regular people. Super duper rich people, but still normal people, lots of old money and new money and big business owners and politicians and probably royalty/nobility. Most of what they’re doing is big fancy, stuffy galas and balls, that kind of thing. But under the surface, it’s hinted that there is indeed a much more sexual underside to it. The female staff wear very fetishy maid costumes, the female Inner Circles literally have dominatrix lingerie as their getups, and while we actually never see what goes on beyond the closed doors in the 80s, nor was anything directly stated, the hints are definitely there that it’s as libertine in the private rooms as they are prim and proper in the ballrooms. We don’t know WHAT exactly is happening, only that it’s dark and decadent and surely sexual in some kind of “abnormal” (read: kink shaming) way.And then it turns out it’s just a strip club where the dancers wear corsets? Really? REALLY? I’m sorry, you expect me to belief that these oh-so-forbidden and secretive sexual delights that are available only to the richest and most powerful people in the world are…a TITTY BAR WITH NO ACTUAL TITTIES EVEN OUT???? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! It’s so fucking juvenile! It feels like something a 13 year old made up while trying to come up with the mos edgy, shocking, “sexy” thing he could. It just…doesn’t work. It doesn’t work firstly because it completely took away the whole “upper class veneer” that is as much an essential part of the HFC as the sex. In fact, I think more so. Writers, artists, and fans all like to focus on ZOMG THE SEXY COSTUMES but thematically speaking, I think the fact it’s an elite organization exclusive to the super-wealthy is much more important; that should be what they’re really about as villains, but writers end up focusing way too much on the shock value of the kink, and that’s how you wind up with stuff like this. The second reason it doesn’t work is that…it isn’t even shocking. When what they were doing was kept hidden, the reader could imagine no limit of decadence and depravity. When it’s revealed, and revealed as something that’s frankly super and common and TAME (seriously, strip clubs aren’t edgy these days) that you can get anywhere else, you’re left wondering why exactly anyone gives a shit about being in the HFC if this is all it really is? We should NEVER get to see what the HFC patrons truly do in private, and we should definitely never get shown that it’s just watching a woman pole dance with Victorian underwear on. That doesn’t make the HFC look sexual, it makes them look like PRUDES!Honestly, I do actually love the sexy sinful decadent aspect, but it’s overtaken the “extremely rich and powerful people trying to rule the world from behind the scenes through political and economic manipulation” aspect (which is far more interesting and villainous) that I kind of wish sometimes they had been created without the kink or colonial cosplay aspects, and instead had just worn some 80s powersuits.Now, here’s the “unpopular as in contradicts the popular” opinion. I see the Hellfire Club described a lot, in canon and fandom, as an organization of powerful MEN, as a bunch of MEN who just want to control others, as a BOY’S club…but aside from Sebastian Shaw, all the most prominent and effective members of the Club have been women? I mean, think about it. The names most synonymous with “Hellfire Club” in fandom are Emma Frost, Selene, Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, and Sebastian Shaw. Shaw’s the ONLY dude that really gets any focus from writers OR fans; the women are almost always utilized more by writers and remembered more by fans. Heck, in the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, NONE of the male members of the Inner Circle even got NAMES, while ALL the women did. Now, of course, individual women in an organization being successful in said organization and beloved by fans/writers, doesn’t mean the organization itself can’t also be sexist. And like most people, the disparity between the costumes of both the Inner Circle and the mere staff does lead me to believe that it was probably founded and run only by men originally, and I bet women probably weren’t even allowed in for a long time (especially given that it was established in the 1700s) But that’s my HEADCANON. That’s what I EXTRAPOLATE. But what’s actually on the page IN THE PRESENT is women that are on equal footing with men, or superior to them. They’re not just simply ALLOWED in the Inner Circle, they’ve been dominating it from the first appearance with Emma ruling it alongside Shaw over Leland and Pierce, and then Selene coming in to challenge Shaw and Emma (with Shaw being terrified of her) in a way that none of the other members (all male—Leland, Pierce, Von Roehm) could. Gender is never brought up by anyone, even the most despicable male HFC members like Donald Pierce. So while I believe it was founded by sexist men, the Inner Circle seems pretty egalitarian now.But of course, there’s the costumes. I absolutely think it’s a sexist setup that the men get to wear (super ugly) period cosplay while the women are in fetish lingerie. It seems to be the standard uniform, and the fact that they haven’t CHANGED it shows that there’s definitely still some sexism.Except…it doesn’t seem to be a rule in-universe that the women HAVE to wear them? We actually see female members of the HFC, such as Selene, wearing clothing other than that while hanging out there; there’s actually a scene wear Selene is wearing pants and a sleeveless turtleneck with gloves. Maddy also wears a lot of black leather when she’s a member, but it doesn’t look like the Hellfire Club ladies getup, it looks like all the other stuff she was wearing in the 90s. And when Selene, Emma, etc., AREN’T in the Hellfire Club…they often still dress exactly like that, or in a similiar manner. I think it’s pretty clear that no one is MAKING them wear the uniforms, they just LIKE them, they’re probably “encouraged but optional” or something like that. And Emma even has that WHOLE DAMN SPEECH about how this is her armor, how it empowers her, etc. That said, while I don’t think any other CHARACTERS are making these women dress like that, I do think the writers/artists are. If a real woman made the speech that Emma did, I’d be like “ok sure, you go girl, do what feels empowering for you”. But Emma ISN’T a real woman. Every word in her mouth in that panel is being put there by Chris Claremont, a horny man with a dominatrix fetish who is trying to justify it by selling it as feminist. That is what it is. But just because that’s the case on a meta level…on an in-universe level, no one makes these women dress like this, and that’s very evident, and while the way they’re treated by writers/artists is definitely affected by them being women, the way other characters, including the Hellfire Club men, treats them, isn’t. At least not til shitty recent stuff. (I’ve seen some people think SHAW made the women dress like that….yeah, sure, like he could make SELENE do anything? He’s completely afraid of her but somehow can make her wear something she doesn’t want? Emma and Selene dress like that no matter where they are and whether they’re presently HFC members or not, but somehow he’s making them do that? HOW DOES ANYONE GIVE THIS GUY THAT MUCH CREDIT?)Basically, I think people are TRYING to be feminist, but it often ends up feeling like SEXISM to me? Because it’s totally ignoring and erasing the power and agency that these women exert in this organization, and often even claiming that it’s actually the men who have all the control, when aside from Shaw it’s usually the ladies running the show. It just seems disrespectful to me. It’s like, as much as people are claiming to hate a lack of agency for female characters, they seem more comfortable with that idea than a situation where women actually HAD it. Maybe it’s because they’re villains, maybe it’s because the costumes really are distracting and unequal no matter how the writers try to justify it (again, I wish they’d just gone with business suits), but there seems to be an overall fandom determination to insist on women like Emma Frost and Selene as victims or simply accomplices to a greater (male) villain, rather than embracing them as the Top Tier Bad Bitches they were/are, and, again, that seems more sexist to me than not. But I worry people will think I’m sexist if I say that. But you know me, you know I LOVE agency for female characters, and how I rail against it when see them ACTUALLY lacking it in comics, so you know it’s not that. I think it’s just a part of the rise in purity culture that even “progressive” people would rather see a woman forced or coerced to be a victim than choose of her own volition to be a villain and be GOOD at it :/🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent charactersWell, firstly, obviously there IS a difference. Naivete is just a lack of experience or learned knowledge, neither of which has anything to do with intelligence. A naive character may make mistakes in a new situation based on their lack of knowledge about it, and that may LOOK stupid to those who have this knowledge, but it’s not the same thing. I think we can agree that, say, Tony Stark isn’t stupid, but if he had to navigate in the wilderness, he might do things that experienced hikers and campers and outdoors people know are SUPER BAD IDEAS. Because this isn’t something he knows about or has experience with.So, I think considering characters who are new to this world (as is common in comics—lots of people from other dimensions, planets, and times) as stupid because they don’t know a lot of things we take as a given, is erroneous. I think it’s pretty common for fandom to look at, say, Longshot or Thor, and deem them as basically being idiots because they’re not familiar with their new environments…when in fact, we’d all be acting the same if we wound up in Asgard or Mojoworld. Not that there’s not other reasons they can’t be idiots, but not knowing what a toaster is isn’t one of them.The big difference is that naivete is a temporary state, and I think both writers and fans forget that. The character’s naivete will gradually decrease as they learn more and more. So if you’re writing an Avengers fic where Thor has been on Earth for five years so far, he probably knows what a toaster is, can order normally at a restaurant, isn’t confused by normal sights like cars or traffic lights or computers, etc., but could still be confused if he went to a Midgardian country with very different cultural norms than the ones he’s learned in the United States. Likewise, I can keep Malcolm perpetually baffled by new worlds in RP since time is kinda wobbly here and can be static or move forward or back as we like, but if I were writing him in a linear story, he would have to learn along the way about the technology and norms of other worlds as he experiences them; if he didn’t learn, THEN he would be unintelligent, not just naive. If he touches a hot stove once because he didn’t know what it was, and it burns him, that’s naive. If he touches it twice to test if it does the same thing again, that’s curious and maybe even smart, despite looking stupid to others. If he keeps doing it every day by accident, then THAT’S an idiot. Also, even a naive character may still be able to deduce that certain things are bad ideas, dangerous, etc. For instance, let’s say my character is a normal everyday girl sucked into a fantasy realm. She doesn’t understand the language, and the people around her don’t look like anything humanoid, but when all of them go quiet and still when a larger, more decorated one enters, and they all give it a lot of space, she can probably deduce that this is someone of great importance, and she probably should do what the others are doing and not risk pissing it off. She may know nothing about these beings or their customs, but she still can use her powers of observation and common sense. It may end up being a TOTALLY wrong move—for instance, maybe newcomers are meant to come introduce themselves to the leader by touching them–but it was a good, sensible guess. Whereas if she’d just walked up to the being and given it a good swift kick, that’d be unintelligent to an almost unbelievable point, and no amount of “she’s just naive!” could excuse it.Oh yeah, and optimism doesn’t automatically equate to naivete either. To be honest, I think that extreme cynicism is just as naive in its own way as thinking everything is sunshine and daisies, and I’d like to see this explored more in fiction rather than the perpetual “happy positive people are dumb and naive and just don’t know better, whereas the grumpy cynics are always smarter and more experienced” that media is so fond of.TL;DR Not only is naivete not unintelligence, it also should be a temporary state. It’s definitely cute to watch a naive character stumble around their new experiences, but in gaining those experiences, they’re going to become less naive, and make few mistakes. Naive characters should also still be capable of acting in ways that are sensible, even if they end up being wrong for the new situation. And being positive doesn’t automatically equate naivete either, nor does negativity equate to the reverse (and can be naive in itself)

#unpopular opinion #salt #meta #badmusesdoitwell

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creedslove · 5 years

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Headcanon: Professor Creed

Professor!Sabretooth x Reader

A/N: This was inspired by that first anon ask, as well as the conversations/asks I had with my favorite frails: @cabinedepapel @princesskittysstuff @thegirlwhowouldbeking (Thank you for the inspiration, I love you ❤)

Warnings: just a teeny tiny bit of smut

- Can we start with the fact that the motherfucker has a perfect feral sight and yet he decided to put on a pair of glasses because according to him, he knows what that professor looks does to frails (and he is right tbh)

- No one really knows how Victor became a teacher at the institute, some people say he was looking for redemption and other say he was planning one surprise attack, but since professor X was okay with it he got himself a new job

- He was a history teacher because he lived through so many decades and he has read so many books about it there was no other subject he could be better at

- But he is pretty good at literature too and he can quote and recite poetry perfectly, surprising everybody

- Since Victor is so protective of cubs, for some weird reason smaller students like him a lot, maybe because he always makes sure to check on them and see if they've eaten properly or because he roared at some bullies. They still think he's kinda scary but also nice… Like Santa

- They even told him that only to make Creed snarl and roll his eyes, but deep inside he liked it

- It is not unusual to see the kids saying hi to him whenever he is walking around the halls and some even have the guts to give him a small hug, followed by a shy “Hi, Mr.Creed”

- The other teachers don't trust him so they often exclude him from informal meetings or gatherings

- He feels left out but he wouldn't show them that, this is why he spends an incredible amount of time at the library

- And among all the books a little kitten draws his attention, she is pretty, smart and smells great. Suddenly, his inner sabretooth is meowing like a house cat

- But he recognizes you as one of the students that attend his classes and he knows that if anything happens Logan and Xavier will be ready to kick his feral ass out of there

- So he decides to keep his distance at first, just watching you read and study peacefully there

- He absolutely hates lazy students and makes sure to turn their lives in a living hell during class. Victor shamelessly embarrasses them and makes mean jokes

- Some of his students hate him for that and others kind of like his dark sense of humor

- You can't help but giggle at his jokes, even though some of them are extremely mean, you end up finding them funny

- He keeps an eye on you because you are hard-working and smart and of course, his favorite

- But he has to act harsh so he won't show his preference in front of other students, so he often isolates you from group work and always gives you a lot of papers

- And once you are doing them at the library he is also there

- Victor decides to come closer one day and after some small talk you both actually found out you had a lot in common when it came to books and movies preferences and suddenly a unexpected friendship starts

- Of course during class you both still act coldly towards each other but when you meet outside the classroom, then Mr.Creed is just Victor - but that doesn't mean you don't like the Mr.Creed part

- Even though Victor hasn't said anything, you know he's often left out of things, so hanging out with him is something you do very often

- He likes you because you treat him like a regular guy and not as an ex-murderer

- He often takes you to night walks around the mansion's woods

- Once you fell and hurt your ankle, so he carried you all the way back home

- When you can't reach a book on the top of the shelf, he either holds you by the waist while you are trying to find balance in a ladder or he just climbs it like the cat he is, making you impressed by his grace and feline balance

- But the attraction he feels towards you isn't one-sided. You also feel more and more attracted to him until the day you kiss him when you are both reading together.

- Victor gets confused because he's all like ‘what would she want with me’ so he starts to push you away

- You try to talk to him but since it's no use, you decide to do something about it

- And that's how you start attending his class wearing short dresses and provocative skirts, with no panties of course

- Victor hates it because that makes him grow hard on's in the middle of the class, so he has to sit down while teaching so no one will notice it, but he also likes it because he can sense and smell how turned on you also get when the situation is dangerous

- Oh no, exams coming and you got an awful grade! :( so you decide to talk to him after class because you are sure you studied hard

- Once everyone is gone you start confronting him, you guys argue and get angry

- Fed up with your attitude he bends you over his desk and swats your butt, only to have you moaning

- He lifts up your skirt and enjoys the view, opening your legs a bit wider he can see your sex glistening with arousal already, so he spanks you good

- He fucks you many times in a row, sinking himself so deep and bringing you out to so many orgasms you didn't know you were able to get

- He helps you get back to your dorm and waits patiently for you to get out of shower just to be surprised when he sees you want him to stay and cuddle

- He sees how exhausted you are, so Victor kisses your forehead and tells you it's okay to skip classes the next day

#victor creed #sabretooth #liev schreiber #xmen #sabretooth x reader #victor creed x reader #liev schreiber x reader #xmen imagine #liev schreiber imagine #sabretooth imagine #victor creed imagine #x men x reader #professor creed #professor kink

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elodieunderglass · 7 years

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itsallblogtome

replied to your

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goodnightmoonvale: thecuckoohaslanded: ...

@elodieunderglass is it true the animals were so much larger in prehistoric periods because the air was much more oxygen rich?

That’s such a good question! It would be true in the case of arthropods - the group of animals with exoskeletons, that contains insects, spiders and crustaceans. Terrestrial arthropods - that is, ones that live on land - breathe air through holes in their exoskeletons.

When vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, fish, birds) breathe, we suck in air or water through noses, mouths or gills, using our muscles to suck with. We suck the useful oxygen into our lungs or over the gills, transferring the oxygen to our blood, and exhale the wastewater/gases. For vertebrates, breathing is a very ACTIVE thing. We go around actively gulping down oxygen, powered by our muscles, like vacuum cleaners. Then we fling the oxygen into the deepest, darkest, frilliest parts of our bodies by packing it into vacuum tubes (blood vessels) and powering it into every possible corner of flesh with the aid of a massive engine (heart). Mammoths and sunfish and blue whales and tyrannosaurs and dogs and us have all kinds of dark, meaty depths. We can power the air into our dark meaty depths and ALL of our nooks and crannies. Vertebrates have the infrastructure to get BIG. We’re like a city full of subways and complicated train routes.

Arthropods are more passive. Mostly, they just waft the oxygen through those holes in their exoskeletons. Spiders, for example, kind of need to move to breathe (!) and their breath is kind of like... absorbing air through the holes in their bellies, as they stir up the air with their legs. And they don’t have blood or veins or lungs or muscles. They don’t have an active circulatory system. They just have loose sloshy amounts of hemolymph. The air gets as far as it gets into their bodies, and that’s it. They don’t have the same kind of oxygen-moving machinery. So there’s a limit to how much oxygen can passively penetrate into their interiors. And that EXACT limit is the upper limit for how big arthropods can get on this Earth. You don’t get giant spiders, because the arthropod body plan just doesn’t have the infrastructure to get big in our atmosphere.

Back in the day - the air WAS more oxygen-rich. And that’s probably why we had those iconic ENORMOUS DRAGONFLIES. The air had more oxygen, so it penetrated more deeply into their dark inner depths. So you got REALLY BIG BUGS back in the day. And someday, we may again!

But vertebrates are kind of “eh” about oxygen levels. They don’t really restrict our growth. In periods of safety and comfort and abundant food, vertebrates get big. There are various reasons for this. If you are very large, you can defend yourself from anything, access different food, stay warm in cold climates, and adapt to different environments. You can get into an arms race with your predators, where you’re both trying to be bigger or meaner.

Big vertebrates eat a fuckload, though. and they are DELICATE AF. You need a huge, thriving, delicately balanced ecosystem to develop really big terrestrial vertebrates. Big carnivores - like direwolves and sabretoothed cats - need massive amounts of meat. They need to be at the tops of HUGE food chains, in which there are thousands of even more enormous meaty beasts for them to eat. The enormous meaty beasts need massive amounts of vegetation to eat. Biomass is expensive.

And the maintenance on those things is ridiculous! The minute there’s a disaster, like a mass extinction or an Ice Age or an unexpected level of human, charismatic megafauna can’t make it, and they all drop dead. They are magnificent, but not nimble. They’re really dependent on always having the same habitat that they evolved in so they can get the food they need. They don’t really colonize new habitats. Usually, it’s the fierce little adaptable things that survive the big extinctions - little lizards, and birds, and rats, and little monkey things. Fierce little things breed really fast and get EVERYWHERE. A rat can thrive in a thousand different environments, but giraffes can only really exist on the African savannah. Giraffes could be erased from the planet without much effort, but rats will probably go with us into outer space. Or LEAD us into space.

The Native Americans watched while white invaders slaughtered the magnificent bison, an enormous primal beast that numbered in the millions, a beast that had survived the Ice Age without even blinking. A few years of butchery - not even a blip of geological time - and boom, gone, now the American bison is nearly extinct and will never again carpet the prairie. It went from possibly 60 million individuals to about a thousand in a few years of white people. Try playing extinction with something small. Try picturing that happening with rabbits.

Although I have FEELINGS about the causes of quaternary extinction event (which killed off many of the enormous prehistoric mammals, leaving the current ones we have today) it is certainly true that humans tend to repress the development of enormous mammals. In our lifetime, we might be the death of rhinos and elephants.

So in conclusion: higher oxygen levels in the past were possibly responsible for the development of giant arthropods. In the case of prehistoric animals, it’s more that animals tend to get big when times are good, and small when times are bad. The Ice Age was a bad time, and lots of iconic big things went extinct.

However, we do currently share the planet with the BIGGEST ANIMAL EVER TO BE - the blue whale.

#itsallblogtome #long post #charismatic megafauna #prehistoric beasts #megaloceros

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