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songsofbloodandwater · 1 month

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RE: people online talking about how Mercury Retrograde affects them negatively or urging others to do protection work because of this and that eclipse or trine or conjunction or stellar event of your choice. May I bring a different perspective to the table?

I haven't personally felt any negative repercussions. I have felt pressure and shifts here and there, but I wouldn't call that negative or malevolent. I actually only felt a surge of energy recently and, in fact, even did a money working on the day of the last eclipse!

Put down the pitchforks, I am a witch but I'm not senseless. I simply don't see any stellar events as inherently beneficial or malevolent. I find that reductive. Movements, conjunctions, eclipses, anything about the luminaries... is all part of the wider spirit ecosystem and part something else. Part warning and part lesson, and part opportunities that you're invited to take... or resist. It all becomes subjective when you take into consideration who these events are affecting and what the person is doing in relation to that.

You wouldn't call a wildfire inherently malevolent, yet it is destructive. It's simply nature finding it's way. It is an important part of many ecosystems ensuring fertility of the land and the correct sprouting of those seeds that need warmth and ash to grow. Same thing with those considered "malevolent" stars... they're wildfires or, given the current placement of certain Luminaries that seem to worry some of you so much, perhaps you can see them more as floods. A big flood. Where you can learn to go with the current or try to go against it and keep doing whatever it was you were doing before the flood happened.

So, forgive my ecologist brain for having no better way to explain this but see, if you're a very dry soil acclimated plant with no tolerance for salty marshgrounds, you'll obviously see this spring tide as malevolent. You could even argue that the sea is out to kill you, and you're a poor little innocent land plant. Evil Ocean. But other species thrive in the intertidal. I'm having the time of my life.

Assess your current situation, in all that is material and mundane and also in all spiritual fronts, consider what Spirits (up among the Stars, or related to them) may be working with you or against you, and how. You'll likely find more allies than enemies. That by itself is a reassurance, and you'll do good staying by their side until your "problems" are solved. Reorganize and restructure your plans accordingly, with the help of these allies. That could look like protection, yes, but hiding away in a little magic bunker isn't the one solution to everything that presents a challenge to you, or that could potentially be harmful to you and yours either. Sometimes it means walking away until the tide is gone instead of burying yourself in the sand. Sometimes it means learning to swim.

Sometimes it means an orca could get a taste of mouse for the first time. Or Moose, or God Forbid! even a Wolf! Who would've thought. What a great opportunity for the otherwise unthinkable to happen. What a sweet reminder that these are things that not only do happen, but happen more often than we think, and acknowledging it could serve us...

Yes, orcas have been known to eat moose occasionally. Get with the program. Terrestrial mammals prey on sea life all the time, why wouldn't we turn the tide? (very bad pun intended)

The "Cunning" part of witchcraft people talk so often about is exactly that, not letting anything step on you, instead use it as a stepping stone. Do you want to be the plant, the moose or the orca?

I don't think any particular stellar events demand doing more protection work from me than any other regular time. You should always have protective measures around your loved ones. But specifically to those practicing magic in any way? Protection wouldn't be my first thought. Put those shifts to good use. Don't just aim to leave unscathed. That's not doing you or yours any favor.

One of my favorite astrologers made a post a while back saying "The stars impel but do not compel". I wholeheartedly agree and I believe specially us, as magical practitioners, should be able to rise above these events. Whatever that means to you and your spirits.

#and like someone else said #please don't just tell others to protect without even telling them what to expect #how could that ever be useful?#if you have reasons speak those reasons and give them the tools to prepare properly #fear without reason does more harm than good #we all know to do better than that #my notes #stellar witchcraft #traditional witchcraft #folk witchcraft

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gumnut-logic · 6 months

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All three of his big brothers were out on this particular night, so once again the comms room was empty. Even Grandma was off the Island. Brains was around somewhere, so technically, he wasn’t unsupervised. No doubt John had an eye on him as always, in any case, and honestly it was great to have the place to himself.

Besides, it wasn’t like he was three years old and likely to stick a fork in a power socket or anything.

But he was still young, and despite himself he fell asleep watching Virgil packing equipment back onto Two.

He was woken by a sigh.

Someone sat down beside him on the sofa and took his tablet out of his limp hand.

He kept it limp because he had a pretty good idea who had sat down next to him and how much shit he really was in.

“Allie, why?” It was soft and despairing.

And John.

John was his idol.

He did everything Alan wanted to do. He even lived in space.

The downside of living in space meant he was rarely home nowadays. So the fact his space brother was currently sitting down beside him was a big thing.

But also terrifying because he was in so much shit.

So he faked slumber and gambled John might be a little cooler in the morning.

If he didn’t throttle Alan awake in the meantime.

He waited, limp on the couch as his brother examined his tablet. There was a soft hiss, followed by something like a small gasp.

Alan itched to open his eyes, to see his brother’s reaction to his work. But it wasn’t worth it.

Tomorrow was going to be hell.

He fully expected John to shake him awake and have at it then and there. But instead, he was surprised to feel a gentle hand in his hair.

What was it with his hair? Why did his family always poke at it?

But this was John. His secluded brother always gave Alan his time and his care, but the hugs and familial touches were rare.

Alan didn’t mind. After all, he knew all about the effects of space on the human body.

He worried about John sometimes. Alan would be grateful to one day take some of the long space hours off his brother to give him some down time.

When Alan wasn’t flying space rockets, of course.

“Allie, you’ve out done yourself on this one.” It was whispered ever so quietly.

A touch to his temple.

And then he was being lifted. Spacesuit brushed against his cheek and still he let himself stay limp.

He felt bad. John was always sensitive first thing down from orbit. The air pressure on his skin, gravity, it all took a little time to get acclimated to, and Alan did not want to cause his brother any hurt.

Of any kind.

But John was so gentle. He kissed his hair and held him ever so strong in his arms. Alan felt so loved, so cared for, in a way that was usually so far above, so far away, that he let himself fall into it.

While he was ‘asleep’, there was no need for bravado, no toughness, no show of strength. He had no responsibility and could give control of everything to his brother, whom he trusted with…everything.

It was what was so addictive. The chance to be cared for and not have to push it away because he was tough…he didn’t need coddling.

A small voice in the back of his head said that he obviously did, and this was just further proof he was still a kid and possibly in need of that therapy. But if being a kid felt like this, he was willing to sacrifice bravado for the moment.

And why should he need therapy for the need to feel loved?

Caught in his own thoughts and the warmth of his brother’s arms, he did not realise that John was not taking him to his rooms. The corridor was too short and they exited on the wrong side.

A peek and he saw the stardust on John’s ceiling. Before he knew it, John was settling him on a bed. A very soft bed with special sheets designed to be kind to space-soaked skin.

John’s bed was huge and Alan melted into it.

“You may be smart, Allie, but there is no way you are asleep.”

Alan couldn’t help it, he peeked open an eye.

John was standing beside the bed, still in his uniform, a small smile on his face. “Now go to sleep and we will talk in the morning.”

“Promise?” It came out far too childish for Alan’s liking, but it was necessary.

“Promise. Now sleep.”

The bed was little more than a cloud, like those John usually floated above, and Alan was tired.

He closed his eyes as the bed dipped and a finger brushed a hair off his forehead.

The last he heard was a whisper.

“Too smart for your own good.”

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #alan tracy #john tracy #nuttyfic reblog #nuttyart reblog #thunderbirds fanart

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jewishclarkkent · 1 year

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Fic: On the Run to Nowhere (Steve/Tony, 616 CW)

Read on AO3

Shards of glass crunched under the weight of Steve’s boots as he entered the remains of Avengers Mansion. The structure looked worse, somehow, than the last time he had been here — worse even than how it looked on that fatal night it was destroyed. It seemed evident, now, that it had been the exact moment their team fell apart.

When he reached the grand staircase leading up to the private quarters, Steve’s body froze in place, trapped by memories like he had been trapped in the block of ice that brought him to this century. What would he find on the second floor? Ruin and debris, in all likelihood; wreckage was all that remained of his old room and life with the Avengers. It’s not your home anymore , a cruel voice reminded him, a familiar pang of loss situating itself in his chest. Steve clenched his jaw and fists and kept walking. This was not the time for sentimental, childish thoughts.

Coming here had been stupid and careless — two things he couldn’t afford to be, especially at this critical juncture. It was only the latest in a string of poor decisions he’d made in recent weeks, but perhaps the most reckless. He had not informed any of his allies about this meeting — not even Sam — and he did not allow himself to consider how he would handle the situation should it go awry. Steve had already been impetuous enough to lead his team into a trap once, and Bill Foster was dead as a result.

Still, part of him desperately clung to hope that it wasn’t too late to make things right. Tony was a friend. They had been able to resolve differences in the past, their friendship stronger for having done so. There had to be a way for Steve to remind him of that, to make him see reason. For all his bravado, Tony Stark was a good man — always had been. Steve knew that better than most.

They’d agreed to meet in the area that once served as the public conference room. Despite being half an hour early, Steve was not the first one there. Even more surprising was the fact Tony Stark sat behind the oak desk, looking immaculate in a designer suit rather than his armour. Of course, with the help of Extremis, Iron Man could appear at Tony’s whim. Still, it was not what Steve had been expecting; for a moment, ill-prepared and at a tactical disadvantage, he allowed the surprise to register on his face. When their eyes met, Steve nearly stumbled under the wave of emotion he was not willing to name. It was harder to smother this particular weakness when faced with familiar blue eyes rather than shiny metal plates.

“Hello, Steve,” said Tony in the voice he reserved for business meetings and press conferences. The expression on his face was impassive and carefully controlled; a skill he had had a lifetime of mastering. Steve hated and envied it in equal measure. In comparison, Steve’s anger and betrayal rattled inside him like a pressurized canister ready to ignite. “I’m glad you could make it. I was afraid you might think this is a trap.”

“No. You wouldn’t. Not here,” Steve insisted, failing to mention that very thought had occurred to him. He curled his fingers around his shield, finding comfort in the bite of the cold vibranium against his skin. “And if I’m wrong — I’ll deal with it.”

Tony’s lips twitched, dangerously close to a show of displeasure, but he quickly regained control and squared his jaw. Steve felt childish, smug satisfaction at having elicited some sort of emotion out of him. “You’re not,” Tony said slowly, voice measured. “I haven’t told anyone about this meeting. I just… I thought we should talk.”

The sincerity in his voice surprised Steve a second time, something he hoped his expression was able to mask. Tony stood up from his seat, walking over to the eastern wall of the room. An old photograph of the Avengers hung crooked and precarious on the plaster, the glass shattered. Tony reached to fix it with trembling hands, tracing the cracked wood of the frame with his fingers. “All these years… everything we’ve been through together… we owe it to each other to try and work it out, one last time…”

“All right,” Steve acquiesced, lowering his shield as Tony turned to face him. It was the reason he’d agreed to meet, after all. “Let’s talk.”

“Listen, about Bill…” Tony said. Steve’s shoulders tensed. “You have to know I never—”

“Not about that,” Steve interrupted, heart thundering in his chest. “Not a good idea. Start with something else.”

Tony stood frozen, seemingly at a loss. No longer the futurist always ten steps ahead, no solutions to offer. He looked around the room as if in search of answers. “That wall. That’s the one I came through, remember?”

“How could I forget?” was Steve’s immediate response, the memory surging to the forefront with hardly any effort. “The first time we fought. You came crashing through the wall like a bull, convinced I was someone named Chameleon, an imposter. I had no idea what you were talking about.”

“Those were the days. When we could almost kill each and smooth it out with a few simple words, remember?” Tony reminisced, mouth turned up with the hint of a smile. “By the end of it you would always say something wonderfully old-fashioned, I wish I could recall—”

“'I’m glad it all came out in the wash, partner,’” Steve recited, a mirroring smile tugging on his lips as he met Tony’s eyes. For a moment, it was as if nothing had changed between them. “I remember.”

They fell silent, transfixed by the bittersweet memory, longing for what once was. Seconds ticked by and the silence stretched, poisoning the room with unbearable grief. The smile slipped from Tony’s lips, mouth flattened to a grim line. He averted his gaze and looked to the ground as if it could offer a reprieve. Frozen with shame, Steve did the same, berating himself for getting carried away by fanciful nostalgia.

“Anyway,” said Steve, unable to bear the tension, “we’re here to talk about what’s going on now.”

Tony sighed. “Can we start with why you’re so damn adamant about this? Didn’t we stand together in this very spot, not so long ago, trying to shut down the Young Avengers because they were inexperienced and untrained? And when we couldn’t stop them, didn’t we agree to train them? The Registration Act makes sure would-be heroes are fully trained in the use of their powers. For the public’s safety, and their own.”

“And what happens when the identities of these heroes are made public? You know how many of our friends have lost loved ones after their identity was compromised.”

“No one’s identity becomes public knowledge unless they choose—”

“Come on, Tony,” Steve demanded, unable to keep his exasperation buried. “We have dozens of enemies who could hack a government database without breaking a sweat. But even if they couldn’t—governments change, administrations come and go. The Registration Act takes away any freedom we have, any autonomy. You don't know who could get elected, how public sentiment might change.”

“Believe me when I tell you, Steve,” said Tony, irritation flashing in his eyes, “your way is a lot more likely to turn the public against us and jeopardize everything we’ve fought to represent.”

Steve took a deep breath, willing down the anger that simmered under his skin. “It was Stamford that changed things for you, wasn’t it?” he tried. “Before that you went to Washington and lobbied against the Act.”

“It was coming anyway,” Tony confirmed with a defeated sigh. “I always thought it was inevitable, though I did try to delay it. But after Stamford, there was no stopping it.”

“But you’re not just bowing to the tide of history, Tony,” Steve observed, wondering if he sounded as desperate as he felt. “You truly believe in this, I can tell. And I don't understand why.”

“I…” Tony tried, the words unable to escape. The expression on his face was visibly pained, and Steve ached to reach for him. “It could have been me, Steve. Instead of the Warriors, it could easily have been me.”

Steve nearly recoiled at the admission. “Ridiculous,” he blurted on instinct. “You’re a brilliant tactician. You’d never have engaged the enemy so close to a school.”

“I would have if I’d been drunk,” Tony said simply.

Steve did flinch at that, his stomach turning.

“I never told you this. Never told anyone,” Tony continued, voice trembling with shame. “When Obediah Stane was stealing my company out from under me, I fell off the wagon… I started drinking… hard.” He sighed and looked down at the floor, struggling with whatever it was he wanted to say next. “On a particularly bad day, Machine Man showed up at my office. I wanted him out, so I put on the suit to throw him out. I swung a lamppost at him and would have hit two of my employees if he hadn’t pushed them away.This close. This close and I would have been a murderer.”

“My god, Tony…” Steve said helplessly, the horror of the confession washing over him. He often wondered how the team had been so blind to Tony’s addiction when he was in the depths of it, how they had been oblivious while he struggled for so long. Unsure of how to express that, Steve took a deep breath, the exhale morphing into a resigned sigh. “I honestly don’t see how registration would have made a difference. If we didn’t know you were drinking again — your friends — if we couldn’t stop you…” he closed his eyes, overwhelmed with the memory of the night he pulled Tony out of the fire. “Once I found out, I tried…”

“I remember,” Tony said, a mix of emotions in his voice that Steve had no hope of deciphering. “And I recognize registration won’t stop every tragedy, but people in our position need accountability .”

This, at least, was a point they could agree on, even if their ideas on what that looked like differed. “Of course we do,” Steve acknowledged. “But this isn’t the way. Look, Tony, I know it’s… comforting to think there’s someone watching over you, seeing you don’t make mistakes. But consider the downside here—”

“See, that’s the problem here,” Tony interrupted, frustration clear in his voice. “It’s why you can’t see things from my perspective. Because it’s predicated on the premise that superheroes make mistakes. And you’re Captain America. You don’t make mistakes.”

“I…” Steve stammered, taken aback by the accusation. After everything they’d been through together, all the times they’d bled on each other, had it not been evident to Tony that Steve was made of flesh and bone, the same as anybody else? After years of friendship, years, was Tony still incapable of seeing him as anything other than a symbol, as cold and unfeeling as a statue? Steve knew he’d been disappearing into the uniform the last couple of years, but next to Tony he always felt like more than just a living legend — he felt like a man.

“I’ve made plenty of mistakes,” he finally managed to say, the words heavy on his tongue. The next moment, his mind was transported back to the night he and Bucky had been captured by Zemo and his men, ears ringing with the sound of his friend’s tortured screams. The look of horror on Bucky’s face was the last thing Steve witnessed before he plunged into the English Channel, engulfed by the nothingness that would eventually deliver him to a new century.

Steve’s muscles tensed and twitched and he only barely resisted the urge to shiver. The cold spread through his body in an instant, as if his veins were carrying ice into his heart. He bit on the inside of his cheek until the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth.

“If everyone were like you, we wouldn’t need registration,” Tony was saying. Steve’s mind felt so foggy that he could hardly concentrate on the words. He watched Tony’s mouth form sentences and heard the sounds, but there was no way to process any of it. What he noticed instead was the way Tony’s shoulders slumped. “But they’re not . Everyone feels inadequate next to you. God knows I always have.”

“You —?” Steve asked, certain he must have misunderstood. The static in his head intensified, his eardrums aching with pressure. “Tony, you’re brilliant. You’re—”

You’re you , he wanted to say. Instead, he pursed his lips to trap the truths that threatened to escape. After all these years, there wasn’t much of a chance that Tony hadn’t figured it out, but he had been kind and merciful enough to spare Steve the humiliation of confronting it.

Tony was speaking again, and Steve fought to regain focus. “—they idolize you, Steve. We all do.”

Steve gritted his teeth. There it was again, Tony speaking to him as if he had no first-hand knowledge of Steve’s humanity. “The resistance to Registration isn’t about me, Tony,” he said, trying to keep his voice measured. “It’s about our freedom.”

“You don’t like the Registration Act? Do you have any idea what the alternatives are?” Tony raised his voice, patience running thin. “I do. I saw the plans when I was Secretary of State. Have you heard of Project Wideawake? Imagine sentinels hunting us down. Inhibitor circuits in our brains, taking away our powers. Genetic testing of the entire population to keep superhumans under government control before they’re even born.”

“It would never happen,” Steve said with conviction. “We would fight it. We’d stop it.” Together .

Tony slammed his fists against the conference table, the old wood splintering under the force. “What do you think I'm trying to do?” he yelled, his voice an equal measure of exasperation and desperation. “I've been trying to keep this from getting as bad as I know it can be! And from day one, you’ve been fighting me. And now it’s come to this.”

It was Steve’s turn to raise his voice, rage burning in the pit of his stomach as he clenched his fists. “You built a super-prison in the Negative Zone to imprison our friends! Is that what you call fighting this?”

Tony’s eyes widened with surprise; clearly, he had not been aware that Steve knew about this particular development.

“What about them, Tony? The heroes who have risked their lives for years to help others, the friends you’ve fought side by side with? Men and women you know to be brave and righteous. Do you have no qualms about rounding them up and giving them up to SHIELD custody? You think that’s just ?”

Tony broke eye contact and looked down at his shoes. For a moment, Steve was certain his expression was one of contrition. “They broke the law,” he responded quietly. “That’s not on me — I can’t — I can’t bear responsibility for that.” His voice was small and desperate, like he was trying to convince himself of the words. “They’ve made their choices. They must answer for them and face the consequences.”

Anger continued to spread through Steve's body like a toxin, galvanizing him into action. It felt like he was on fire; once the flames were lit, there was no smothering it.

“Then arrest me,” he demanded hotly, closing the distance between them in two short strides. The proximity forced Tony’s back against the wall, boxed in by Steve's body. He brought his wrists together, pressing them against Tony’s chest in an offering. His shield was still strapped to his forearm, the metal cold between them.“If I’m nothing but a common criminal to you, Tony, then arrest me !”

A long, insufferable silence followed, suffocating the room. Tony’s eyes were wide and alarmed as they studied Steve’s face. They were close enough to feel each other’s breaths, faces nearly touching. Slowly, Tony brought his hands to Steve’s forearms, fingers reaching to circle his wrists. Even through the thick leather of his gloves, the touch felt scalding. His muscles tensing, Steve held his breath in anticipation of Tony’s next move. The look in Tony’s eyes made it clear he was just as uncertain about what that might be. He pressed closer into Steve’s chest, quickly searching his face before attaching their mouths together. It was less a kiss and more of a dry press of lips, a clunking of teeth. Taken by surprise, Steve kept his eyes open, staring until Tony pulled away.

“Is this your idea of a joke?” he asked, barely willing his voice not to crack. Tony was many things, but a cruel man was not one of them; despite everything that had happened between them, Steve refused to believe he would toy with him like this.

Tony deflated against the wall, pressing his back further into it as if hoping it would make him disappear. His eyes remained closed as he slid down the length of the wall to sit on the floor. “I don’t have any jokes left in me, Steve.”

It was then that Steve really looked at Tony, noticing the drawn lines on his face, the deep shadows under his eyes. A fit of nausea hit his stomach at the realization that he had been too absorbed in his own pain to notice the evidence of Tony’s exhaustion. Steve crouched down so they were on the same level. His hand shook as he reached for Tony’s face, tracing the sharp curve of his jaw. His face was thinner than it had been only a month ago. Steve wondered if he had been drinking — if his sobriety was yet another casualty of this war, sacrificed in the same manner they’d sacrificed everything else. The question was heavy on his lips, but Steve knew he’d lost any right to ask it.

“Steve,” Tony called, his voice hoarse with desperation. The sound of it made Steve want to collapse, suddenly so tired. He was taller and bulkier, but he still felt like the same 98-pound asthmatic kid who came from nothing — ill-equipped to fight this battle, much less lead it.

It was then that he realized that even with its armour, his uniform won’t protect him — not from this. His fingers went limp, releasing their tight grip on his shield until it met the floor with a deafening clang. Slowly, he pulled off his cowl and chucked it aside, cold air creeping up his neck. He allowed his head to drop against Tony’s shoulder, nose brushing the chord of muscle in his neck.

“I don’t want to have to do this,” he confessed, speaking the words against Tony’s clavicle. This battle was not one he wanted to fight, but Steve had never been able to ignore the call of duty. The uniform on his back had never felt so cumbersome.

He expected Tony to respond with a simple ‘then don’t.’ Evidently, he knew him too well for that. Instead, Tony surprised him a second time when he reached to card his fingers through Steve’s hair, gentle and comforting. “Me neither,” he admitted. His other hand came to rest on Steve’s back, firm and grounding.

Nothing had changed between them. The circumstances remained the same. Each of their convictions remained resolute. Nothing had been accomplished in this meeting. If anything, it was more evident than ever that they were at an impasse, that each of them was a staunch advocate for the position he had taken. In truth, they hadn’t arranged this meeting to try and understand the opposing side, but instead to convince the other. A losing game neither of them was prepared to call.

The wise thing to do would be to leave. Give himself time to process and refocus on the mission. Outside the walls of this dilapidated structure that they once called home, the real world awaited. Was there really a rush to get back to it? In the course of his miserable, lonely life, had Steve not earned the luxury of claiming just a few minutes of self-indulgence?

Lifting his head, Steve searched Tony’s eyes for answers. There was a mirroring sorrow etched in his expression. Recognition. Resignation. Ironically, they had reached an understanding.

With trembling fingers, Steve reached for Tony’s face and tipped his chin. He leaned in and kissed him, pouring all the things he wished he could say into the simple gesture. Tony’s lips were warm and pliant, his tongue hurried and desperate. He fisted Steve’s uniform in his hands to draw him closer still, knowing it was the only chance they would get to share this. There was no time to mourn the what-ifs , only the fleeting opportunity of the moment.

Steve was going to fight for what he believed in. So was Tony. But here, for just a moment longer, they could be suspended in time.

#stevetony #stony #superhusbands #my fic #otp: you gave me a home #otp: i miss your battle cry #otp: i'm not half as good at anything as i am doing it next to you #otp: the ultimate weapon for good #otp: you could be my rudder #marvel civil war #marvel 616

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creepy-crowleys · 7 months

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((Thinking...))

((I think I'm getting to the point where I'm just ready for this arc to end. Heh...

So the tentative plan is this: The idea of writing out the finale is killing me more than anything else at the moment, so I might go with drawing a couple pieces for the final bosses instead. Maybe try to get in the puzzle(?) idea I was playing with beforehand too. It's... probably not much of a puzzle really, especially when I was thinking of doing some circuit puzzles for the lighthouses too and those... never got drawn.

Anyway. Three-ish drawings. Can hopefully manage that in a timely basis.

And that brings us to the other reason for this post: Would anyone want to join in for the boss fights? Crowley'd be willing to potentially accept a small group of experienced fighters to help out, with preferences towards people she knows well and has fought alongside before.))

Further details on boss encounters under cut

((There are two bosses I'm playing with, fought separately, one right after the other: Mother Hydra and the Manifestation of the Red Sargassum.

Mother Hydra I'm planning to be a mostly underwater fight with a very big, angry fish monster. Toying with imagery of viperfish, anglerfish (with attached males), termite queens, and wasp-parasitized caterpillars (with the little cocoon poking out). Potentially able to produce a siren song to temporarily subdue targets, but mostly just big and toothy and full of young. (Kind of like the idea of her being responsible for all the eels in the world.) Probably a pretty straightforward fight though?

The Manifestation of the Red Sargassum fight would still be technically underwater, but so long as it's active the space would take on a dreamlike quality and not really apply so much. Less resistant than water, floatier than air, just the dream. It's very presence is a crushing pressure and an almost irresistible force of will, and it will poke and prod and sift through the memories and very selves of anyone in its presence. People not from its dream - anyone from outside of the Secret World - will be of particular interest to it. Big Cthulhu-esque monster (see Draug Lords, Ur-draug, and Unutterable Lurker), though hard to get a good look at with the dark and fog and shifting nature of the dream. Crowley will probably play a more supportive role in this fight, keeping the arena anchored and allies buffed and protected, akin to the Varangian in the final fight of the Darkness War.

Post-Battle at a minimum, Crowley'll fiddle with the Engine and snap the Sargasso Sea back to the way it's supposed to, and then she's probably gonna be fried for at least the rest of the day. I'd considered having the Phoenicians rush in to try to take advantage of everyone being drained from the fights to take prisoners and get their hands on Excalibur, but I don't know if that'd be something anyone's interested in? Something to worry about later, probably.))

#((I guess poke me here or on Discord if interested in hashing anything out?))#.FROM THE HANDLER #.MISSION LOG #:Tides of the Tideless Sea

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fierceawakening · 1 year

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I was wondering if a radfem might brave that post to tell us what we got right. Hi there @capybarad , I appreciate your stopping by and being civil. I disagree with you on a lot of things most likely, but I appreciate your civility.

So I’m going to reply, but just so you know, I’m non-binary and many of my friends are trans. I don’t know if you’re trans exclusionary or not, but if you put trans people down, I’m no longer going to engage, as I care more about them feeling safe here as they’re my friends than I do about this discussion.

I cant speak for others but the reason why I personally don’t post about things like fgm but do post about things like US conservative traditionalists who are misogynistic and gross and such is just that… I’m not sure what circulating posts about fgm actually does. Where if I’m commenting on something going on in my own culture, I might very well have a chance to sway someone who’s tempted by that rhetoric. I pick my battles now because trying to pick them all in years past just made me exhausted and too drained to fight well for anything.

I appreciate you mentioning that pornography and the harms you see in it are the biggest issue for you, and I can see why you’d want more mainstream feminisms to ally with you there since it’s important to you. The problem is… again, I can’t speak for other people as well as for myself, but what I read of radical feminist theory on pornography as research for the I’ll fated dissertation just… was unconvincing to me.

First there’s my personal experience. Male partners who liked porn were non abusive; the lesbian I met and got together with in feminist circles was. One person’s experience proves very little; there’s surely someone else out there (maybe even you yourself) who’s had the opposite experience.

What would adjudicate this would be clear data. What percentage of people who watch porn go on to pressure or abuse their partners? Is the correlation solely with porn watching, or is it porn watching AND something else (so maybe someone who is low on authoritarian values and watches porn has no problem relating to a partner, but someone who is highly authoritarian sees it as a justification of sexual cruelty and does)? While radfems would claim to have data, it always seemed that it was old, or funded by odd organizations, or not shown to have been repeated consistently. Consequently I doubt that most people who watch porn coerce their partners.

Similarly, it’s clear that exploitation exists in the industry, but the claim seems to be that all participants are exploited more so than any other job under capitalism and that we don’t need actual data to show this. ThT theory alone can tell us that sex work is uniquely and inherently degrading, even if people who do it say this is not so. I’m unconvinced that theory alone can tell me what other people are experiencing, so again, I want data. How much of the industry is exploitative? What are we defining as exploitative, also? What trends are there in’s h in workplaces are better than others?

Relying mainly on theory here just seems as wrongheaded as “I have a theory that most feminists are traumatized, so you can’t possibly care about Women’s issues for rational reasons.” It just doesn’t make sense. Where if there is a fact of the matter, careful research will bring it to light.

Then there’s the theory itself. It may have changed some since I was studying this, I’ve kind of avoided radfems since. But I do have Pornography Embodied on my bookshelf (if it didn’t get spring cleaninged into the trash), and the theory in that was that orgasm is uniquely good at training humans into behavior patterns in ways that other pleasurable experiences aren’t.

Again though, it seemed to me like this was presented as theory, not as something with evidence to back it. And without that evidence I’m not convinced.

(Again, anecdotes are not data, but I can’t think of any time in my life that I laser focused on one particular fantasy over all others, and I have purchased and looked at porn made by lesbian creators. There are some fantasies that I really enjoy and go back to many times, but I don’t experience that as needing x over and over, much less as needing increasingly intense versions of it. That doesn’t mean it’s not a thing people do, but again… which people? What percentage of humans? How do we know when this is happening?)

So if you’re aiming to sway me personally, the best projects would probably be ones where you discover that a particular performer or studio is violating the ethics standards of the industry itself. In cases like that I’d be glad to call for someone’s firing or maybe even for a particular studio to close down.

But opposition of the whole industry based on theoretical principles? No, I’m highly unlikely to be convinced that way.

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gritsandbrits · 9 months

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Rewrite vs. Canon: Ben 10 Alien Force

Involves my OC Jora 😉

10 years later Ben and Gwen are in high school, and has plans to hang out with Max for the summer but they find he is missing. They learn that Max had been investigating the High Breed but disappeared. Firing up the good ol' RV, the pair go on a cross country. They stop by Jora's hometown to pick her up because she wants to help them find Max too. During their journey they have brief spats with Kevin, a juvie delinquent who managed to escape the Null Void. Kevin only agrees to help because the High Breed is that dangerous and he owes a favor to an old friend he met while imprisoned. They do manage to stop the high breed and save max.

Essentially it's the same set up as the OG but with an overarching storyline. Along the way we learn actual history and myths about aliens, magic, nature etc. There is no retconning everything to be solely aliens, real earth magic and mutants exists.

Kevin and Gwen still fall in love but the relationship is slow build. Gwen still teaches herself magic, with Anodites being a secret group of the universe's best mages. She also wears different outfit from her school uniform, and starts her superhero career as Lucky Girl.

Once the high breed are cured they are NOT easily forgiven and forced to fix all the damage they cause. Their actions also legitimizes the Forever Knights' crusade, using the growing anti alien movement for their ulterior motives. This sets up the conflict for the rest of the show.

The quartet meet old and new characters; Coop in particular serves as their tech guy and informant. Julie also appears as an ally, I might have her join the group full time or something. Herve (her bf in OV) would be like a Jimmy Olsen type reporting on all the strange things and eventually becomes a "good" counterpart to Will Harangue. Alan is their most recurring ally; I could have him join as a way to find a community to kids weird who are just as weird as him. Pierce Helen and Manny form their own trio and works with the main group time to time. With exception of Herve this makes our main group of hero kids to TEN members!

Kai is the aloof ally who doesn't join the team but travels with her granddad to protect earth and alien artifacts from theft. She and Ben also have a friendly rivalry, and while she has a temper she's also passionate about history and HATES the Knights for their manipulative tactics.

So essentially we have an actual ALIEN FORCE, where Ben learns that being a hero doesn't mean shouldering the burden alone. Also just because somebody is a hero doesn't excuse putting unfair pressure on them to solve every problem and that we can be our own hero.

#gb asks #ben 10 #ben 10 oc

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itsclydebitches · 10 months

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I'm on season four of my Walking Dead rewatch and it kinda baffles me that Carl isn't the one to kill Karen and David.

Obviously this would require reworking later episodes/seasons (Carol would no longer get kicked out, this would be a huge blow to Rick, etc.) but imo it makes way more sense for their character arcs, Carl in particular. We've just come off of a season where Carl shoots someone, a kid (by Hershel's standards) while he was lowering his weapon, then strongly defends himself to Rick. This isn't a moment where Carl considers shooting someone to eliminate a potential, future threat—which could have been a nice parallel to Rick nearly giving the Governor Michonne—or a case of him only wounding the kid on accident and essentially getting a reprieve. You didn't kill him, so now you have to chance to consider whether you'd have been okay with the fact that you had. No, Carl murders this guy and then displays no remorse for it, speaking with complete conviction that they must eliminate anyone who crosses them to keep their family safe. That's a hell of a set-up for the next season.

So Rick takes Carl's gun away and, given that he needs a break from the pressures of leadership himself, tries to rehabilitate Carl by redirecting his care-for-the-family energy into gardening. Okay, so far, so good. The problem is that nothing happens during "Infected" to change Carl's moral stance. He's forced to pick up a gun to defend Michonne from a walker and Rick accepts the necessity of that, giving Carl his own weapon back at the same time Rick takes his. The message is far more, "I recognize that you need a way to defend yourself in this new world and I trust you to use this responsibly"—growth Carl already went through back in the second season—rather than, "I can trust that you'll use this on walkers and immediate threats only, not the people surrendering who might later become allies, friends, and family like so many others have." There's a vague reference to how Carl has been "trying" lately (AKA over the course of a month given the time skip) and that Rick is proud of him for that, but it's merely implied that Carl has changed his mind on this incredibly fraught issue. Worse, that this monumental change happened off-screen between seasons.

So why not get rid of that lackluster, non-redemption by really leaning into Carl's flawed perspective for a while? Season three gave no indication that he was backing down about this, so... he doesn't. Rick takes his gun, makes him farm, and all the while Carl is chaffing at the kid treatment and what he's coming to see as his father's "weak" approach to contribution. Why are you farming when you could be out there defending us? Cue arguments about the necessity and worth of keeping a home running, even when yes, physical safety is a major priority. (That's something I always thought was missing from the Andrea vs. Lori kitchen argument in season two. Lori is wrong for the misogynistic, "Let the men do it" attitude, but Andrea is equally wrong to devalue the "laundry" Lori does—AKA, everything that ensures the fighters are fed, clothed, clean, have a roof over their head, and have something to come home to after all that horror.) Rather than Carol, I can easily picture Carl realizing that no one is going to stop treating him like the kid he is, so he uses that to his advantage by starting story time. Yes, Dad, I'm doing exactly what you want and taking time away from the horrors of this world, acting my age by enjoying some good books with my friends. I'm definitely not teaching them about knives and stuff :) When the sickness hits Carl again has that need to do something, to protect everyone, but no one is letting him near a gun. Alright. That's fine. He's resourceful. He's still allowed a knife and there's no one guarding the gasoline. Taking out a sick Karen and David in their sleep is easy.

I can better buy into someone Carl's age thinking that killing the people showing symptoms will fix the problem, as opposed to Carol, an adult on the council who knows more about how disease works and that they're pretty much all already infected. (And yes, obviously for this post I'm working under the belief that Carol did kill David and Karen, rather than engaging with the Lizzie theories.) I can better buy into the character who just killed someone in the name of safety a month ago executing sick friends than I can one of the most nurturing members of the original group. Which brings me to Carol's rather rapid, mostly off-screen development. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE badass!Carol—she's one of my favorites in the whole show—but binging the series has really highlighted how quickly this hardened Carol came about. It might have worked better if she'd become colder after loosing Sophie, but she remains the softer, caring group member all the way through season three. We're told that she's made huge strides—she's a "good shot" now whereas before she'd always cower during an attack—but that's not exactly the same thing as becoming someone willing to murder preemptively to keep others safe. I can't even quite reconcile the end of season three Carol with the shady Carol at the start of season four, the one who teaches self-defense behind Rick's back. While it's definitely well-established that she's often used Rick as a convenient target for her frustration and grief, questioning his leadership in the process, they seem to have come to a better understanding by season three. Basically, Carol has changed, undoubtedly, but not this much in this short a time. Merle comments that she's not the same woman anymore, but that's in the context of her being able to put him in his place; she's no longer terrified of the Eds of the world. Roughly a month before the sickness goes down, she's still the same Carol who talks gently to Daryl and reminds him that just because you love someone doesn't mean they're good for you. That's a wildly different Carol from the one giving clandestine knife lessons, telling a little girl she's "weak" for not stabbing her dad, and burning two friends on the off chance that this will keep others safe.

So give all that to the character who has actually been focused on learning to defend himself, is adamant that kids (like him) need to be tough, and has just established that he's willing to kill in the name of future protection. Let Carl go through all that and let Rick grapple with it. Meanwhile, I'd hold off on hardened!Carol for another season or two, rather taking her through that development via Lizzie. She's more confident now, better at defending herself, but still fundamentally the Carol we met back at the quarry when separated from Ed; the one who cheekily admits she misses her vibrator. She's made huge strides, but she's still grieving Sophia—obviously—and now suddenly this man is charging her with loving two girls roughly her daughter's age "like her own." Carol promises, but not with the obviously-of-course-why-wouldn't-I? vibe of the original scene. She doesn't know if she can love them like that, or protect them better than she did Sophia, but how can she deny him his final wish? Let Carol struggle with motherhood again (perhaps paralleling Michonne with Judith), how to navigate it, and juuuuuust as she thinks she's starting to make some headway...

Lizzie kills Mika.

That, alongside killing Lizzie herself, could introduce the Carol we come across at the beginning of season four. She once let Lizzie try to put down her father and when she couldn't do it, Carol comforted her and tried to protect her. Of course she did. Now she puts down Lizzie and realizes that she can't be "weak" anymore. Not if she's going to protect any more little girls. She's going to learn more, train harder, cease hesitating, and god help anything that gets in her way.

#The Walking Dead #TWD #mymetas #nothing to see here folks #just lots of Thoughts about a decade-old season of television #you know #normal Friday night stuff

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vintage-bentley · 3 months

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Fandom also finally led me to terfdom as well. Not the GO fandom but still.

I’m not surprised, they’re so ridiculously homophobic and sexist that it’s hard not to stop and question things.

For me, I remember being introduced to what radfems actually believe (instead of what the TQ+ community claims they believe) while searching the makeup critical tags. Because turns out, radfems were the only ones posting things that echoed my experience of being pressured and expected to wear makeup. Then I think I started to lose faith in the whole concept of gender identity, mostly because I was starting to see how ridiculous and offensive the idea of heterosexuals calling themselves gay/lesbian/homosexual is.’ Basically just having little questions pop up in my head and finding out that radfems were the only ones with answers that made sense.

But fandom was what sort of pushed me over the edge, I think, because it’s where people go to let loose. It’s where people let their fantasies run wild. So everything you see in fandom, is the product of people’s wildest dreams. And I was seeing so much homophobia and sexism, making it clear to me that many people in the TQ+ community hold homophobic and sexist concepts close to their heart, and found a place to express that. I was always very annoyed by the GO fandom in particular, but I felt a sense of almost religious guilt over it? Like I was a Good Trans Ally, I shouldn’t be annoyed at trans headcanons. I shouldn’t feel like all of the PIV fanfic wasn’t gay, because it totally is, right?

But then repeatedly, TQ+ people showed me that they were entirely unwilling to put in even a fraction of the effort to be a gay ally, that I put in to be a trans ally. Just from seeing how hostile they were to something as simple as gay headcanons made me think “shit, if they can’t even handle the idea that a fictional character is only attracted to the same sex, what must they think of real homosexuals?” Which then led me to allowing myself to actually see the homophobia in what people said about things like “genital preference”, instead of trying to block out the discomfort I felt in fear of being “transphobic”.

Ultimately it was this essay that really showed me how much the TQ+ community hates homosexuals. Because I read it, and as a lesbian it made so much sense to me. I remember being so happy to have finally seen a perspective similar to my own; a homosexual perspective.

But commenters were bashing it as “transphobic”. Which just told me that to them, homosexuality and speaking about homosexuality is “transphobic”. And I was remembering those same sentiments being echoed by so many people outside of fandom spaces, and I had to accept that I just couldn’t associate with that ideology anymore. Not when it stood against the way I was born.

I could say so much about my whole “peaking journey” for lack of better term, but I’ve already said a lot lol.

#sorry it took me so long to answer this lol #I knew I wanted to talk about what got me here so I wanted to wait until I had energy to do that 😅#asks #anon

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cchapsticck · 1 year

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Hi lovely person! I feel weird sending prompts to writers, I never know if they’re too specific or too vague, or not up the ally of the writer. So no offence taken if these don’t float your boat.

I don’t think there are enough fics that see Eddie wind up in jail, for weeks, while things get sorted out, months if it can’t be waived away, and years if it all goes wrong. I also love the idea of him ending up in Pennhurst. These were grotesque killings, and even if he didn’t plead insanity, could a court potentially commit someone based on the acts committed? Or under enough pressure would Eddie start babbling about floating cheerleaders and psychic serial killers…

There you go, if nothing else it’s nice to talk about ‘what ifs…’!

I have been obsessed with this prompt since you sent it to me, and were it not for the sheer number of naps I took over the last week I'm pretty sure I would have had this posted days after you sent it. I think I went a little off the rails again from the spirit of the prompt but, here it is:

So. Felony Murder is when, quote, when someone is killed in the commission of a dangerous or enumerated crime, and so when Raymond Munson Jr. kills a man by way of vehicular manslaughter in the commission of grand theft auto, he receives a trial by a jury of his peers and receives 25 to life. He learns this particular way of the legal system in these united states at age 12.

And you know.

After everything, the thing that did it was a gram of weed in his glove box.

So that’s. Coming down the pike for him too. Probably.

Good ol’ dad. Teaching all kinds of lessons even after all these years.

But uh. You talk enough about levitating corpses and spontaneously broken bones when there’s a dead cheerleader in your living room and everyone’s ready to believe you’re a pawn of the Devil himself so like yeah yeah yeah whatever the more level headed people start thinking something’s fuckin’ scrambled about you even when its all true.

But it sounds like it sounds.

So uh. He doesn’t get bail once he comes to, handcuffed to a hospital bed, but he gets transferred to Pennhurst for protective custody while someone tries to scrape up a public defender who could even be bothered, or the government fabricates evidence to keep their hands clean, or wait on someone to tell him he’s been arraigned or what the fuck ever. No one’s really keen to tell him what the fuck is going on.

Figures.

So he’s in police custody in a room with a door that locks from the outside and a new and different hospital bracelet and an ankle monitor that screams when he crosses his threshold unless the orderly is outside the door holding the key turned but he’s not cuffed to anything and the psychiatric doctors come twice a week and ask him about his mood and if he’s still seeing things or seen things before and it always feels like they’re looking for a specific answer.

But he’s apparently not a danger to himself even if everyone’s fuckin’ sure he’s nuts so they let him have books from the day room - nothing good - paper and the shittiest pens imaginable because he might not be a danger to himself but they still don’t want him stabbing anything or anyone else. So he tries drawing, but all he ever used to draw was demons and monsters and swords and shields and maybe that’s gonna hurt more than help and it sure fuckin’ hurts to think too hard about when he’s seen it all in real life now. And he used to write songs and stories and he’s just not feeling terribly fuckin’ inspired but he starts writing anyway.

Or he tries. Anyway.

Because if fiction’s off the table, even if it's non-fiction, what’s he got? Like what does he have to say? Sorry Wayne? I fucked it up for you again? I’ll probably never repay you. Hey Harrington? What the fuck was that, right? How are the bat wounds? What was with all that eye contact? Hey Dad? Been a minute. Thanks for all that car shit I guess it came through in a pinch. How’s that prison food? Guess I’m about to find out for myself.

Like.

Fuck.

So he tries and it doesn't come easy.

We weren’t friends but. Neither are most of the people I saved the world with and I guess and that’s probably kind of fucked up but I feel like you and I still have something to talk about. Or maybe I just still have something to say to you. I probably have a lot you deserve to hear. But you won’t. Sorry. I thought it was funny that you remembered me. I made it sound like we had some love connection standing around in the gym for the middle school talent show, it wasn't that. Like I think I wanted you to feel bad that you didn't remember it but honestly you just said good luck to me after I said it to you. Literally 4 words. So that was shitty of me. Add it to the list. But it kinda feels like the me you remembered and the me that was gonna sell you ketamine were entirely different people. They might be now. And it was middle school, right? I'm sure you heard all those "Munson went to jail" rumors. Back when they shaved my head after my dad locked up and there was a whole bunch of talk about how those things had to be related. Y'know? 14 year old bullshit. (If you're asking - there were lice at the home, wasn't living with my uncle yet, its a long story. I kind of wish I could have told you. I think you would have let me. I think you would have listened. I think you might have thought it was kind of funny. Its kind of a funny story.) Maybe this is too personal, we weren't close, it was like we just met, but I think I remembered you because you seemed like the kind of girl I was supposed to like. Pretty. Cheerleader. Popular. You know the type. You were the type. Fuck. Sounds like I'm blaming you. I'm not. Promise. Not your fault. Knew it then. Knew it for a long time. Just kinda hoped something could shake it out of me, I guess. Shit would have been a lot easier. I think I didn't so much think you were going to be mean and scary but more what I was gonna try to make you into was scary. I don't know if that makes sense. You were nice though. For real. Not in that bullshit way a lot of kids treat the weird kid. Y'know, that 'be nice to the weird kid until he does something weird you can laugh at' nice to the weird kid. False sense of security to ridicule nice to the weird kid. Got a lot of experience with those kinds of nice. I think I was kind of a jackass. That afternoon. I got pretty used to selling weed to jocks that'll be civil long enough to hand me a 20 before going back to taking a swing at me for looking at their girl wrong or whatever reason they decide they want to take a swing at me for on any particular day. So, I guess I expected one thing and got another and I got you being clearly freaked out and. I think I told myself it was good girl's first drug deal and I figured who cares, doesn't matter to me if you're nervous because I gotta pay my plug back but you uh. Stayed spooked. And I decided I didn't care. I'd put on my clown shoes because you'd pay up, not because I really. Cared if you felt any better. A sale's a sale. And if I'm going to keep being honest? I was kind of just talking shit when I said you should come to The Hideout, like I figured no fuckin' way, a place like that would eat a pretty church girl alive. But you. Didn't seem to hate the idea. Which was surprising. I was learning a lot about uh. Preconceived notions of people. That week. Jocks proving me wrong all over. You didn't ask me to turn it down or change the Iron Maiden in the van when I drove you to Wayne's. Kinda thought you would. Kind of turned it up to be an ass about it. I think I kept it loud so I wouldn't have you notice that you never stopped being that same flavor of scared. I think I need to apologize to you? I fucked up. A lot of shit happened that no one's gonna believe me about, about myself or about you and it all kind of boils down to: I fucked up. And I'm sorry. I don't think I could have changed anything, with what I knew then and what I know now. But I could have given more of a shit, at least. - EAM

Anyway he’s pretty sure it's all incriminating so he ends up eating a couple pieces of paper scribbled on with ball point blue pen, stuffs it whole into his mouth and waits for it to turn to mush and chokes it down. He's pretty sure, a few hours later, its not what's got him feeling sick to his stomach but he'll tell himself it is.

#prompts #dreamwatch #eddie munson #eddie munson fic #stranger things fic

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camelely · 2 years

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So S&L had a little (okay a lot of) sophomore slump going on this season. And I personally think it was because of four main things, so I thought I'd post about it weeks after the show aired because why not?

Ally and the main villain:

Okay so part of my issue with this was the character design of Ally. Were they going for a maternal look? Because it looked too Granny Goodness to be Parasite.

Either way, they seemed to mirror the real life cult with Allison Mack but that stopped being the case once they decided to make fictional Ally's beliefs factually correct and she became the main supervillain of the season. So it didn't really make any statements, and it didn't really need to be there. I don't think they needed to make a statement about Mack or any of her crimes but once they brought in the main villain, a cult leader named Alison, they needed to do something unless they wanted it to fall flat.

IMO, she should already be parasite when we meet her. She feeds on her followers and leaves them in a state of euphoria at the end of the process. While Lois is chasing down Lucy/dealing with the fallout of Lucy accusing her of cutting corners, Chrissy can meet a woman who escaped the cult, she's sick and doctors are unable to diagnose it but she's certain it was from Ally's powers. Chrissy believes this woman and is moved by her story, this makes her more determined to help Lois with Ally. They didn't need to fight as much as they did, and working together sooner and quicker would have worked out better. Ally can still have the pendant plot, she wants to merge with her bizarro self because her family legend says if she does merge she will no longer need to feed on people. Her other self will cure her, now she's a bit more sympathetic too since all she wants is to stop being a parasite. In the Bizarro backstory we can find out the bizarro Ally wants the powers of her alternate self because she is the opposite. Her energy builds up inside her and she needs to purge it, traditionally she has done this by forcing her energy into others. This is how she gives her followers powers, it's not perfect and often times sending her energy into people kills them. Once she merges Ally can take control of both power sets and give power to her people and take it from anyone she deems unworthy. She can still want her trusted followers to merge, since they can become more powerful through the merge as well. We still get Bizarro Jon, Lana, and Tal. I never thought I would say this, but Tal was the best part of the season and watching his bizarro half die was heartbreaking. Ally can still kill him after a betrayal and Lucy can still betray Superman. We just needed more time with Lucy and they needed more scenes of Lucy and Ally together, just Ally and her followers in general.

2. The secret conversations:

Season 2 is too soon to be having the secret conversation. There is a reason the everyone knows Oliver is GA was a low point for Arrow. There is a reason Supergirl waited until the last ten minutes of the show to do the reveal and spent several episodes talking about why no one has any right to the secret with the Lena subplot. There is a reason everyone in Central City pretends they don't know Barry is the Flash. Say what you want about those particular plots, none of them happened at the start of s2. Not only are secret centered plots boring but the Superhero identity is a staple of the genre so every show eventually gets there. The MCU has had success with the secret identity not being a thing because everyone knowing the secret identities of the heroes is a way to avoid secret subplots, one that works in some scenarios but not others. Having a whole side plot with the boys pressuring Clark into telling people his secret was tedious, and it made the boys come off as naive and dumb. And it is too soon for the boys to be burdened by the secret. They have know for like a year, they should not be this obsessed with telling everyone else. Jordan and Jon don't know the struggles their father has had for his entire life.

Lana finding out the secret was fine I guess... I wish they had Clark fly in front of her and she just looked at him and said, "yea I know", and chose to keep his secret because it's his secret and not hers. The boys (mostly Jordan) could have learned something from that too.

However thats not the direction the show decided to go with. Her getting angry at Lois did come off as a ex jealous of the new girl. But Lois isn't the new girl, she is his wife of like a million years. So it made Lana seem a little desperate.

Slight digression, but what was Clana? The Clark flashback implies she moved on while they were still young but here it feels like he's the one that got away to her. And when he's having the sex talk with the boys they imply he's only ever been with Lois and he doesn't correct them. So the logical conclusion seems to be they liked each other maybe had a little high school fling but never were more serious since Clark left and then Lana moved on by the time he came back. IT also implies they had no closure. I don't care if they ever tell us exactly what Clana was but I do think the writers need to know exactly what Clana was and I don't think they currently do.

Anyway, I think if she didn't already know (the writers were cowards for not doing this), they should have had her ask Clark for time to process, tell Lois she needed space because she felt like she told them everything but they kept so much from her and her family/daughter was put in danger multiple times because of the events of last season. Her conversation with Jordan was so mean they needed to call it out in the same episode lol, but honestly Jordan needed the wake up call that telling people doesn't make things better so I didn't mind it. I also didn't mind her being angry at Lois for seeking out a friendship or whatever, we just needed to get payoff for that. She had a better resolution with Clark which makes sense since he is the friend who was lying to her, but if she was more mad at Lois and the resolution was with Clark it goes back to the Lana is not over Clark conversation and I was not here for that angle.

The writers this season seemed to forget the Superman secret is Clark's secret. His family can have an opinion because it effects them, but at the end of the day it is his choice to tell people or to not tell people. The way the plot played out it seemed telling Lana was because the boys wanted him to and Lois telling Chrissy was something Lois wanted to do. I did like Chrissy's reaction, it was cute her and watching Clois dance like THAT'S SUPERMAN!! was adorable! But it wasn't necessary.

Also Lana, Sarah, and Chrissy all found out too close to each other! Three characters went from not knowing to knowing in record time. Why? They needed to be spaced out better, it really did ruin the pacing of the season and will likely continue to mess with the pacing.

3. Sidelining John Henry/Natalie for the Cushing family:

Natalie is such an interesting character. Her developing a familial relationship with Clark after his dopple killed her mom would have been such a good plot. Instead we get her being rightfully distrustful in the start and then coming around offscreen and eventually helping save the day. But like it felt rushed and cheap. I think when they eventually had Jon and Clark fight, she should have been someone he talked to. Someone who gets the feeling of powerlessness around Superman.

The Cushing family did not need two cheating plots. And sure Lana being lied to and thinking 'you never loved me' directly leads to her yelling that at Clark when he revealed her secret. But like we didn't need that angst either. They invested so much time in establishing Kyle as a jerk at the start of last season and gave him a mini arc where he ended the season ready to become a better person. Why did they spend all that time just to undo it all here? For a bad cheating plot? I kinda think he should have died last season and Lana's arc should have been about grieving him while raising kids. But if he did survive why not either have him be a supportive husband trying to wrestle with his alcoholism and have the alcoholism be the thing that might upset the mayoral campaign? Or if they absolutely need to do the cheating plot because they want to leave the door open for Lana/John and Lana/Tal just write Kyle out. Why is he still taking so much screen time!?

Sarah's coming out plot was bad, the cheating trope was harmful, and they did nothing with it. Others with more knowledge and experience can and have talked about this in more detail, my only thought is it would have been so much better if they did the Jordan Sarah breakup and then had her explore her sexuality and meet Audrey? Aubrey? at school. She can still choose to be with Jordan by the end but we should have seen her figure things out on screen and while she was single.

4. The Kent family drama, and the Clark/Jon stuff:

My personal big issue with this season, IMO it brought down the entire season. Firstly Jon and Jordan switched plots this season. Jordan should have had the dad will only care about me if I have powers thing, since the pilot implied pre powers Clark and Jon were closer. Clark should start training Jordan and Jordan loves the bonding but he realizes his dad used to play football with Jon and spend all this time with Jon, he thinks the only reason Clark is interested in doing this stuff with him is because he has powers. And Jon should have had the secret training sessions with General Lane. Then when Clark visits bizarro world and sees a version of Jon that became a hero and hates him and a version of Jordan he neglected and hates him it should be a wake up call!!!

I could write multiple essays detailing the many reasons the drug plot was bad. But the one I want to talk about is it dragged on too long and made Clois look stupid. I mean they keep complaining Jon has no friends, but like he went out drinking with the football guys and seemed to be friends with a few of them so... But regardless if he has no friends the only people he could be covering for are his girlfriend and Jordan. And clearly Jordan isn't dealing X-K... And I don't blame Jon for most of it. Clearly he is having a hard time and Clois just ignored him!? I mean Lois had a whole month to bond with and assure the boys everything would work out. And Jon straight up tells Clark he feels like he has no future and Clark leaves to go fly with Jordan. Wtf. I think if they had taken a beat with the X-K and let it develop all season and then resolved it next season that might have worked a little better, but here we got Jon learning about it, trying it, deciding it wasn't for him, and getting caught all happen in record time and then Clois was just dumb for so long about where he was getting the drugs/who he was covering for. By the end of the season the Kent family feels broken, and yet they didn't really get it together by the end. The writers just pretended it was all good. And had the family moment with the ocean fortress, but it was just them all happy the world didn't end. Once that feeling passes the problems will be back. I guess we just needed a moment with Clark and Jon that showed they were going to work on their issues. And no Clark being like Jon should meet holo grandma and get technology does not count. I guess the season could have been done without the drug plot, it would have been so much better without the drug plot, but really the drug plot was just for angst. Unneeded angst.

Overall 'unneeded angst' is exactly how I would describe the whole season. A little joy will go a long way for a show like Superman and Lois and I hope s3 realizes that. Anyway this was really long so if you made it all the way to the end thanks :).

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royalreef · 11 months

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@wolfpackmuses inquired: Out of a general curiosity, had she ever had a wolf venture to her kingdom? Because it seems Death might be visiting for the first time.

(( Nope!

Though this is not special to wolves in particular. In fact, landfolk in general have never officially ventured into the Merkingdom, and the only merfolk which have been allowed out have been royals or those otherwise permitted by the Throne. They’ve been this way for something akin to 27,000 years now, with the only difference being that any merfolk are finally being officially permitted out.

Primarily the Merkingdom is just... very isolationist. Even bare minimum information about the Merkingdom or merfolk themselves is just now struggling to be shared, and for most of the world, people don’t even know the Merkingdom itself even existed, down there in the oceans of the world, conducting their business and living their own lives. Part of it is just the fact that... they’re in the ocean. There is no way around it, someone would just have to go down into the ocean without drowning, or being exhausted by the amount of swimming needed, or falling victim to hypothermia, or having any issues with the pressure differentials. Given as merfolk lighting is mostly for bragging rights and the ocean is a dark place, even just finding them would pose an issue, let alone not being otherwise detained by the Merkingdom for obviously broaching their borders.

Which is exactly the reason that Miranda is on land, actually. Only recently is this long-held embargo on contact finally being challenged, and even those efforts are still in their infancy. Miranda is just the very beginning of a long, long process, and her job is to act as Ambassador to the land. This means largely breaking the news to people that the Merkingdom and merfolk both actually exist, providing some information about both, introducing the Merkingdom to other powers-that-be, and starting off those new political relationships on the right foot, so that they already feel positively about the Merkingdom starting off. The fact that she’s their Crown Princess is also part of the reason why she’s been picked as an Ambassador — it’s a gesture of good will and trust towards the land, that they will not harm her and thus harm their new relationships with the Merkingdom, and also as assurance that the Merkingdom will use these new relationships and consider their new allies going forward, as a promised part of their future.

Of course, the fact that Miranda’s still introducing the fact that mermaids exist to a significant chunk of the people she meets again suggests exactly how early along this process is, but, all things considered, it’s starting off well enough. The fact that the Merkingdom is mysteriously and terrifyingly wealthy and powerful, even from first brush, likewise helps expedite the process. Not a whole lot is known about them, but everything that is known so far suggests that it would be best not to be enemies with the Merkingdom.

#Most secret royal advisor || OOC #Dreaded rumors || Asks #wolfpackmuses #(( all of this to say Something Weird Is Happening In The Ocean #(( miranda just throwing down absurd amounts of money over nothing is both very real #(( and something that suggests a lot of other things about exactly how well-backed the merkingdom is #(( see also: her seemingly just being able to snap her fingers and get absolutely anything she wants #(( and likewise considering how old the merkingdom is and how big it is #(( that's. that's not looking good.#(( ''could literally eat all of dry land and still have plenty of room'' is a terrifying size for a kingdom to be

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mattyalston · 2 years

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nothing left so let’s call it an accident // Matty (read more for literally an essay of commentary, i warned you this was my kind of task)

I’ll Come Crashing / A Giant Dog: Mama always told me I should have a sense of pride/Daddy always told me I should be a straight up guy

Mom and Dad had such pride in themselves and what they’d built - Matty’s afraid his acting out’s, or even just not being good enough, going to burn the whole thing down around him and leave him with ashes and dust as a legacy. There’s also a certain irony in the pull quote given that these two consistently and unapologetically allied themselves to Alexei.

The Road / Hurts: that roaring engine sings your hallelujah

Drifting in and out of consciousness on the back of a patrol truck, once they’ve found him in the grass and the adrenaline’s running out. His memories cut off after being found - the last thing he remembers is dragging himself back towards a known patrol route and lying in the grass in case there were any more of them around. His survival was very much not a foregone conclusion.

Don’t Cry / Bugzy Malone & Dermot Kennedy: no crying, I’m a soldier/and I’m holding my composure

Oh, how he wishes he was - and the Dermot Kennedy parts of the song are a lot more realistic. He feels a substantial amount of pressure to hold the pain of loss inwardly - that it’s part of being the good soldier he was raised to be - and especially the ruthless enforcer archetype laid out before him. He can’t live up to the family legacy if he looks weak and emotional.

Oceans / Twin Atlantic: I’m making ends meet fixing up cars/yeah it’s the only thing keeping my mind awake

The early aftermath of the Incident. He’s found a task that he can do that keeps his mind occupied, but he’s also just existing and feels obliged to do it - he doesn’t want to still be here but is afraid of how it’s going to end for him. He’s just going through the motions of daily life in Idaho Falls.

Papaoutai / Stromae: Will we be hated?/Will we be admired?

The experience of being raised in Idaho Falls, an anthem to daddy issues. For Matty in particular, he spent most of his 20s coming to understand he’d led a very charmed life, but never quite managed to question his father’s role in generating said inequalities - and now there’s a serious risk he’ll fall back into uncritically replicating that ideology because how could he possibly be anything other than an Enforcer? He thinks he owes his dad everything, literally everything, because of the way he rescued him.

Pray For Me / The Weeknd & Kendrick Lamar: if i gotta be sacrificed for the greater good that’s what it gotta be

A child of the revolution against FEDRA, this is an expression of Matty’s loyalties and the politics of Idaho Falls. He was taught to understand this community as having built itself on ending oppression and defending its people - and that being a good thing to die for. Part of the awfulness of his grief is that he doesn’t have the comfort that it meant something in this framework - they weren’t out fighting for their community against people who want to destroy it, they were out on a routine scoping exercise to expand its territory and find more resources.

Taro / Alt - J: do not spray into eyes/i have sprayed you into my eyes

Matty knows how much it hurts to lose everything and how utterly possible - maybe even probable - it is in this world. He still hasn’t shut himself off. He cares about Daiyu, Ophelia, Eva even though they could disappear forever too. He even shows Wendy time and care even though he knows she won’t make it. Also, this song is about an artist who’s dying in a war and is about to be reunited with his long-dead-fellow-artist-lover who met a similar end. Make of that what you will.

I Remember / Damien Rice: to remove the stain of my love/paper maché

This one is more about the vibe - shifting from soft memories to discordantly, viscerally trying to make sense of them - memories that need the blood wrung out of them - and the feral desire to cling to them, to know, either way.

You Are The Devil / Twin Atlantic: there’s nothing left so let’s call it an accident/got no direction I’m not taking the ambulance

The playlist namer - bearing the warrior’s mantle, pushing down his big heart in order to carry a legacy built on deceit and blood and pain because that’s what’s before and behind - that’s all there is, and there’s nothing else he could possibly do with his life.

Atlantis / Seafret:

maybe i’m not built for love/if I knew that I could reach you I would go

Except, except, except... there is - or there was - love, too. He has to believe there’s something, the possibility of being reunited - because if everything’s just gone forever, he can’t handle that. It’s superstition, it’s sentiment - but he needs it. There’s faith and love as well as loyalty and legacy.

All I Want / Kodaline: cause you bring out the best of me/a part of me I’d never seen

Also, he’s still struggling to admit to himself that he was irrevocably in love and it’s the things that he didn’t say that get him. He doesn’t have a strong moral compass of his own. There’s this fear that everything good and kind about him’s gone with the beautiful soul that kept him right. He wishes he’d done better by Pedro, and he can’t fix that - at least not until he meets his own end.

So Far / Ólafur Arnalds & Arnór Dan: am I asking for too much?

One of the many tragedies of Matty is that he has learned the hard way that he should speak up about his feelings before it’s too late, but still can’t follow through on the lesson. Trying to seem like a good, valuable warrior who should be let back into the inner fold has him pushing down the desperate desire for his friends to see him, understand him - show him there is a way through all of this. He wants to scream from the rooftops I love you and I need you all to be safe and I need you stay with me - but he can’t express it, so he loves silently and desperately instead.

Peacemaker / Green Day: you thought I was a write off/you better think again Now we’re onto rage - a Matty who needs to take everything out on the world and prove himself. A man who believes he’d take out whole hordes of infected and anyone who threatened their community with further losses, and who’d do it violently and remorselessly. It’s a side of him that exists and which could be unleashed by circumstances. Hurt / 2WEI: what have i become/my sweetest friend? There’s also a part of Matty that thinks he could have and would have been so much better a person - who wants to dream of a life that isn’t just ruling over the ashes of a collapsed world. A warmer, kinder, life that he can’t really ever have now that everything’s been torn from him - but that other people can enjoy.

Black Eyes / Radical Face: and the birds up there mock me and the scenery’s turned wicked/and your name is trapped beneath my tongue He will have to make choices about his future at some point. His future, and the future of his community, without his guiding star by his side. He can only rely on himself. It’s also a Matty who’s making his debut at Fight Club and - if he’s honest - finds it a little too easy to switch off and do what needs to be done to win, without anyone telling him that he can stop now (or that he shouldn’t have started to begin with.) And The World Was Gone / Snow Ghosts: i wish you’d felt me falling/i wish you’d watched over me His world has just changed forever, and all he can do is put one foot in front of the other to get closer to base. He has to continue existing, but everything he’s ever relied upon suddenly isn’t there. Everything’s slow and fast - narrow and all-consuming - at the same time. Fortune 500 / Everything Everything: i don’t want this/i never spoke up enough/think of the people that i’m doing it for Maybe one day he gets what he thinks he wants. Gets back onto the big jobs, is given a chance to prove himself. He’s good at it, but it doesn’t feel like it should do. He doesn’t feel pride or accomplishment or even any less empty. It just feels fundamentally fucking wrong. Ghost Towns / Radical Face: there’s no coming home/with a name like mine But even if he somehow chose a different path - one that perhaps led him away from Idaho Falls completely - that could lead to something better and safer, his people would still be on that land in a distant graveyard. How would he ever fit in anywhere else, carrying a memory of a place he wouldn’t ever be able to go back to? He’ll live and die in this town, that’s one of the few things he’s sure of. Guapa / The Twang: for it’s me they call the savage/but I would never do/the things that they have done There’s also the factionalist tribalism of growing up as an Enforcer’s child - an Enforcer who helped bring down FEDRA - in Idaho Falls. Nobody in this world is covered in glory, everyone’s a second away from committing terrible crimes against others because they’re not their people - but anyone can tell themselves that they didn’t start it. This is how Timmy and Kiera would have done things - they came for us, so we’ll revisit their horrors on them tenfold and they won’t dare do it again. Matty’s very much at risk of being dragged into this ongoing cycle of violence. In The Woods Somewhere / Hozier: my dearest love, I’m not done yet/How many years/I know I’ll bear There’s still something in Matty other than adrenaline and instinct that kept him alive. He still has a will to survive in him somewhere, even though he yells at Eva for bringing him back. He could’ve let himself be torn apart by Infected too, could have bled out in the grass or given into infected wounds, but he’s still here and the belief people had in him can’t just be let to disappear. The memory of them only lives on in him, too, and he has to keep that going. Good Grief / Bastille: whistling the melody/crystallising clear as day/oh i can picture you so easily

One day, Matty will be out patrolling and will start whistling loudly and tunelessly, and his partner will ask him what the hell he’s doing - and he’ll say Pedro taught him it deters bears. He’ll have a small smile on his face, and a sense of closeness to absent family, and he’ll be starting to get better.

Lydia / Highly Suspect: at your worst, you’re still the best/but at my best, I am the worst Matty talks a good game, is a fun guy, but it was only Tracy’s influence and success in raising a decent, kind son that gave him a morally upstanding influence in the world. He’s fundamentally not the good guy, and he knows that. He can try to be better because it’s what Pedro would have done, but that’s yet another example of being torn between the respect for Alexei instilled in him as a child and his growing understanding of the reality of what this regime is and does. Software Greatman / Everything Everything: I don’t know how to get over this thing, ‘cause it’s always there

Everything in his world reminds him of something that isn’t in it anymore. The world doesn’t work like that now, but he keeps looking for advice that isn’t coming, making cups of tea nobody will drink. He’s also - he’ll never admit this - scared again. Everyone’s just accepted that Infected monsters roam around as a fact of life, and they’re not afraid because they think they can control the risk. He’s re-experiencing the primal fear of knowing that actually, no, you don’t have the upper hand. Who Am I Living For? / Katy Perry: who am I living for?/I can see the writing on the wall He’s not oblivious, as much as he’d like to be. He can see rising dissent, knows that the two halves of his family would be at loggerheads over it if they were still here. He doesn’t know what decision he should make. He’d just be trying to mediate between them, begging them not to fight each other - and, fuck, Pedro’d be down the Fight Club all the time so he’d just be quietly patching up bruises and wounds. He can’t go to Mom for advice about navigating the tensions or to Dad for a plan of action. He just has to figure it out himself. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall / Laura Marling: and what will you do, my blue-eyed son?and what will you do, my darling young one? This is from Matty’s biological mother’s perspective. She doesn’t know what happened to her boy - thinks he’d probably ended up a FEDRA soldier - and wonders what he’s done and seen. She’d love him all the same, she’s decided, no matter what. Whether he ever comes through Jackson or not. Ghosts / Muse: I’d set things straight/and I believe that you would love and forgive me He will eventually get to a space where he can admit he was in love and missed the boat on it without breaking down completely, although will likely do it through making an oblique reference and then refusing to elaborate any further, but I digress - this is about imagining explaining his decisions to a ghost and hoping he’d be met with understanding as to why he chose to do certain things.

#;tasks #//i am done with tumblr formatting oh my god

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allylikethecat · 6 months

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🍜🍠🍢 if you're in a mood for more fic writer asks!

Oh my gosh I am ALWAYS in the mood for more fic writer asks! Thank you so much for sending this in! I love chatting with people and partaking in these ask game situations - I think they're so much fun!

🍜 Do you ever feel pressured to write?

Yes and no, sometimes if I made a bold statement (like this fic *will* update every Tuesday) I do feel some pressure to have a chapter finished by that date, and I am not very good with commitment so that kind of thing can be really hard for me. But for the most part, I just really enjoy writing and it's my biggest form of stress relief, and as a very high stress person... I write a whole lot 😂

🍠 How long does it take you to write one of your fics or a chapter/part?

Depends on the fic and the chapter - I've knocked out an 8,000 word chapter in a few hours before, and other times its taken me weeks to finish a 2,000 word update. I can usually finish a prompt fill in about an hour though, as long as inspiration is hitting, and a chapter usually only takes me a few days from start to finish as long as I have time and inspiration for that particular fic. I know I write really fast though - it's from being a copywriter and in one of my previous jobs just being expected to churn out a massive amount of content everyday.

🍢 Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

Yes! I did get some hate once on one of my fics that dealt with some more serious / delicate subject matter. I understand that the person was coming from their own place of hurt and upset about the content, however, I do also believe that everyone is allowed to explore different themes (especially in fiction.) If someone is upset or triggered by something, and the content warnings are present, it is the reader's duty to avoid that content. Everyone processes their OWN personal trauma and experiences in different ways and one person's trauma or experience is not more valid than another person's and everyone should be able to co exist. It's my personal belief (and personal practice) that If you are upset by something, triggered by something, or just straight up don't like something, just don't read it. However, for the person(people?) who was upset and sending me hate, there were also three times as many people who reached out saying that they enjoyed the fic and that it really helped and resonated with them. At the end of the day, it was never my intention to upset anyone with my writing, and I know a lot of my fic isn't for everyone. I do however write it for myself and it made me sad that there was someone out there hurting so much, because as my mother always says, hurt people, hurt people. I wish I could have helped them and I hope they are doing okay. Other than that once instance, everyone has been so kind and welcoming and supportive and I am so happy and thankful to have found a place here in the fandom!

Thank you so much for sending this ask in and listening to me ramble! I'm so sorry for over sharing! If anyone else wants to send in any questions the list can be found here. I hope you continue to enjoy my fics and have a great rest of your day!

❤️Ally

#allylikethecat #ask ally #anon ask #fanfiction #keep it kind #gatty #fic writer asks #questions #answers #sorry for rambling on about the hate one #whenever i think about it too much i just get sad for the person #and hope that they are in a better place and doing better #because i stand by my writing and make sure to tag properly #but i feel awful that i inadvertently upset someone(s)#anyway thank you so much for sending in these lovely questions!#answering them was fun!

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espinozaxrhtruelsen · 2 years

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idreamtofmanderleyagain · 3 years

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Hot takes about Severus Snape are a wierdly decent glimpse into how a person with progressive values analyses things. Literally every time someone talks about Snape, it’s like this tiny window into how one-dimentionally people actually think.

Recently saw a twitter post that was a fantastic example. Here’s how it goes (paraphrasing):

Person A:“Snape is POC and Queer coded, that’s why you guy’s hate him uwu lol.”

Person B: “Actually I hate him because he was mean and abusive to children under his care uwu but go off I guess lol”

Both of these takes are designed to be dramatic and/or reactionary. They each use partial truths to paint very broad strokes. These are get-em-in-one-hit quips. This is virtue signalling, if you’ll excuse that loaded phrase. Nobody had a substantial conversation, but now everyone who sees their statement knows the high ground they took.

At least a hundred other people chimed in to add their own little quippy hot takes into play, none of which add anything significant, but clearly made everyone feel very highly of themselves.

So many layers of nuance and complex analysis is completely lost in this kind of discussion. On tumblr, you get more of this kind of bullshit, but you don’t have a word count limit, so you guys just spew endless mountains of weak overblown evidence backing up your bullshit arguments, none of which was really about engaging in a real conversation anyway.

Here’s the thing about Snape.

He is a childhood domestic abuse victim. His abuser is a muggle.

He becomes a student at a magical school that takes him away from his abuser and immediately instills in him the idea that being a part of this magical world is a badge of self-worth, empowerment, and provides safety and security - provided that he keeps in line.

There is a war is being waged in that world over his right to exist (he is a half blood).

He is a marginalized person within the context of the narrative, forced to constantly be in the same living space as the children of his own oppressors who are being groomed and recruited into a hate group militia (the pureblood slytherins). They are in turn trying to do the same to him.

He is marginalized person bullied by children who are also part of his oppressor group, but who have “more liberal” leanings and aren’t direct about why he’s being targeted (the mauraders are all purebloods, Sirius, who was the worst offender, was raised in a bigoted household, the same one that produced Bellatrix.).

He had a crush on a girl who is a muggleborn, and therefore she is considered even lesser than him and carries a stigma to those who associate with her. That girl was his only real friend. In his entire life.

For both Snape and Lily, allying themselves to a pureblood clique within their own houses would be a great way of shielding themselves from a measure of the bigotry they were probably facing. There would have been obvious pressure from those cliques to disconnect with one and other.

Every other person who associates with Snape in his adulthood carries some sort of sociopolitical or workplace (or hate cult) baggage with their association. Some of them will physically harm and/or kill him if he steps out of line. He hasn’t at any point had the right environment to heal and adjust from these childhood experiences. Even his relationship with Dumbledore is charged with constant baggage, including the purebloods who almost killed him during their bullying getting a slap on the wrist, the werewolf that almost killed him as a child being placed in an authority position over new children, etc. Dumbledore is canonically manipulative no matter his good qualities, and he has literally been manipulating Snape for years in order to cultivate a necessary asset in the war.

He is a person who is not in the stable mental state necessary to be teaching children, whom has been forced to teach children. While also playing the role of double agent against the hate group militia, the one that will literally torture you for mistakes or backtalk or just for fun. The one that will torture and kill him if he makes one wrong move.

Is the math clicking yet? From all of this, it’s not difficult to see how everything shitty about Snape was cultivated for him by his environment. Snape was not given great options. Snape made amazingly awful choices, and also some amazingly difficult, courageous ones. Snape was ultimately a human who had an extremely bad life, in which his options were incredibly grim and limited.

In fact, pretty much every point people make about how shitty Snape is as a person makes 100% logical sense as something that would emerge from how he was treated. Some if it he’s kind of right about, some of it is the inevitable reality of suffering, and some of it is part of the cycle of abuse and harm.

Even Snape’s emotional obsession with Lily makes logical sense when you have the perspective that he literally has no substantial positive experiences with other human beings that we know of, and he has an extreme, soul destroying guilt complex over her death. Calling him an Incel mysoginist nice guy projects a real-world political ideology and behavior that does not really apply to the context of what happened to him and her.

Even Snape’s specific little acts of cruelty to certain students is a reflection of his own life experiences. He identifies with Neville; more specifically, he identifies his own percieved emotional weaknesses in his childhood in Neville. There’s a very sad reason there why he feels the urge to be so harsh.

Snape very clearly hates himself, in a world where everyone else hates him, too. Imagine that, for a second. Imagine total internal and external hatred, an yearning for just a little bit of true connection. For years. Imagine then also trying to save that world, even if it’s motivated by guilt. Even if nobody ever knows you did it and you expect to die a miserable death alone.

There are more elements here to consider, including the way Rowling described his looks (there may be something in there re: ugliness and swarthy stereotyping). These are just the things that stand out the most prominently to me.

J.K. Rowling is clearly also not reliable as an imparter of moral or sociopolitical philosophies. I don’t feel that her grasp of minority experiences is a solid one, considering how she picks and chooses who is acceptable and who is a threat.

All of that said, this is a logically consistent character arc. Within the context of his narrative, Snape is a marginalized person with severe PTSD and emotional instability issues who has absolutely no room available to him for self-improvement or healing, and never really has. And yes, he’s also mean, and caustic, and verbally abusive to the students. He’s also a completey miserable, lonely person.

There are elements in his character arc that mirror real world experiences quite well. If nothing else, Rowling is enough of an emotional adult to recognise these kinds of things and portray something that feels authentic.

In my opinion, it’s not appropriate to whittle all this down by comparing him directly to the real world experiences of marginalized groups - at least if you are not a part of the group you are comparing him to. There have been many individuals who have compared his arc to their own personal experiences of marginalization, and that is valid. But generally speaking, comparing a white straight dude to people who are not that can often be pretty offensive. This is not a valuable way to discuss either subject.

Also, I believe that while it’s perfectly okay to not like Snape as a character, many of the people who act like Person B are carrying Harry’s childhood POV about Snape in their hearts well into their own adulthood. And if nothing else, Rowling was attempting to say something here about how our perspectives (should) grow and change as we emotionally mature. She doesn’t have to be a good person herself to have expressed something true about the world in this instance, and since this story is a part of our popular culture, people have a right to feel whatever way they do about this story and it’s characters.

The complexity of this particular snapshot of fictionalized marginalization, and what it reveals about the human experience, cannot be reduced down to “he’s an abuser so he’s not worth anyone’s time/you are bad for liking him.”

And to be honest, I think that it reveals a lot about many of us in progressive spaces, particularly those of us who less marginalized but very loud about our values, that we refuse to engage with these complexities in leu of totally condemning him. Particularly because a lot of the elements I listed above are indeed reflected in real world examples of people who have experienced marginalization and thus had to deal with the resulting emotional damage, an mental illness, and behavior troubles, and bad decisions. Our inability to address the full scope of this may be a good reflection of how we are handling the complexity of real world examples.

Real people are not perfect angels in their victimhood. They are just humans who are victims, and we all have the capacity to be cruel and abusive in a world where we have been given cruelty and abuse. This is just a part of existing. If you cannot sympathise with that, or at least grasp it and aknowledge it and respect the people who are emotionally drawn to a character who refects that, then you may be telling on yourself to be honest.

To be honest, this is especially true if you hate Snape but just really, really love the Mauraduers. You have a right to those feelings, but if you are moralizing this and judging others for liking Snape, you’ve confessed to something about how you’ve mentally constructed your personal values in a way I don’t think you’ve fully grasped yet.

I have a hard time imagining a mindset where a story like Snape’s does not move one to empathy and vicarious grief, if I’m honest. I feel like some people really just cannot be bothered to imagine themselves in other people’s shoes, feeling what they feel and living like they live. I struggle to trust the social politics of people who show these kinds of colors, tbh.

But maybe that’s just me.

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