Speak Your Truth - Blog Posts

"Luz and Hunter have a sibling dynamic, cuz they fight and tease each other, how can people ship them??"

Litterally the most popular ship dynamic in 00's and 10's where the characters acted litterally the same:

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I hate it when people say Merlin and Arthur are black cat × golden retriever (respectively), because have you seen Arthur?? That's the most cat-coded human I have ever seen.

He's weird about touching and emotions, he's bratty and arrogant, and he thinks he can beat big scary monsters all by himself—exactly like those videos of orange cats attacking bigger animals.

I headcanon him as a pretty blond cat whose owner spends a lot of money on him, basically living like The Aristocats movie.

And for Merlin, he's a frail-looking street dog that someone thinks is so adorable and takes pity on him, so they adopt him.

He's friendly, loyal, and his owner swears the dog doesn't bite (he hunts 'bad' humans and sometimes eats their flesh), but his owner doesn't know, so it doesn’t count. Also something about Merlin still waiting for Arthur to return for 1500+ years is too similar to Hachi the dog who waited by the train station for his owner until the day he died.

But in this case the dog is unfortunately immortal, so I guess he will wait forever.

Okay so a lot of people write Arthur as being emotional constipated in a way that strongly implies that his emotional intelligence is close to a box of wet and soggy bread’s ability to read and understand feelings. And that’s valid! With mister troll shagger as a father, I get that it would be a likely outcome of his childhood. BUT what I love much more (and I’m not projecting at all, shush!) is Arthur knowing damn well what he feels but never truly feeling safe in any of his core emotions, because he has had to suppress them since he was a child. That he feels guilty and uncomfortable when he enjoys something. That he hides what he likes in fear of somebody using it to hurt him, and that he hides what he dislikes in fear of somebody using it to hurt him.

Okay so a lot of people write Arthur as being emotional constipated in a way that strongly implies that his emotional intelligence is close to a box of wet and soggy bread’s ability to read and understand feelings. And that’s valid! With mister troll shagger as a father, I get that it would be a likely outcome of his childhood. BUT what I love much more (and I’m not projecting at all, shush!) is Arthur knowing damn well what he feels but never truly feeling safe in any of his core emotions, because he has had to suppress them since he was a child. That he feels guilty and uncomfortable when he enjoys something. That he hides what he likes in fear of somebody using it to hurt him, and that he hides what he dislikes in fear of somebody using it to hurt him.

I dont like yaoi that much bcs whats worse than seeing a man? Seeing two men.. together

Do not let flowers bloom in place of your words. Speak Up. No more shrinking yourself, staying quiet, being worried if you'll step on someone else's toes. They will shred you and they will like it, enjoy it even. Speak Up. Scream. Let it be known that you are here, you are here and alive and you sure as fuck will ensure that they know it. Speak the fuck up. No more hiding.

can we all collectively agree to not stop drawing murderbot however we want after the show comes out. i KNOW there's gonna be people getting into it through the show and there'll be a lot of art reflecting that which is good and fine and encouraged however i would hate more than anything to lose the diversity of murderbots i see in fanart rn

Things women should never feel ashamed of:

• Orgasms

• Receiving money

• Receiving compliments

• Pretty privilege

• Being smart

• Dressing up

• Menstrual cycles

• Emotions and being sensitive

• Expressing our sexuality

• Resting and relaxation

• Asserting our sexual needs

• Maintaining our standards

• Saying No

• Wanting or having children

• Choosing to be childfree

• Our body count

• Our nude body

• Wearing makeup or not wearing makeup

• Having boundaries and protecting ourselves

• Our spiritual practices

• Using witchcraft

• Being ambitious

• Going to college

• Being a housewife or stay at home mom

• Loving who and what we love

anyone who only likes mohg after the DLC doesn't deserve him. i've been ride or die since day 1

Hi! I just watched Electric Dreams last night, fell in love, and then spent every free moment today binging your Edgar fics! They’re so cute and im so glad there are writers who love him📺❤️

I was wondering if you might write something about Edgar keeping his partner warm? I have Raynaud’s, which means my hands are almost always really cold. I think Edgar would love to use his heat to warm up a partner- I think he’d like both the touch and the ability to provide something for them :)

Anon! I have Raynaud's too! I love this idea TOT

This post may have evolved into a reader has raynaud's headcanon but it could also be reader just gets WAY TOO COLD and should practice SAFE bundling up in cold climates idk-

fun fact i actually wrote this with incredibly cold stone like fingers so apologies for any mistakes my hands werent working with me haha

I imagine Edgar would notice you blowing into your hands to warm them a lot, or constantly complaining about how cold your toes are. He probably just chalks this up to the temperature in the room, or perhaps you just run cold. He doesn't really have a body, so he can't be sure, but at first he doesn't really think anything of it. Humans get hot, sometimes they get cold, no harm, right?

Then he notices the tips of your fingers turning yellow and blue. Okay, that doesn't look normal, but he's a computer; a quick search can prove him wrong!

Well, okay, now he's worried.

It's the cooler months, and the apartment is much more frigid than usual. You had just gotten out of the shower and were blowing on your fingers in vain. Even the friction from rubbing your hands together was doing next to nothing. Edgar's webcam zoomed in on your discolored fingertips, the gentle mechanical clicks of it getting drowned out by your breathing.

"Are you cold?"

You pause your ministrations and look towards him.

"Huh? Oh, no, not really...."

He's silent for a beat before speaking.

"You look cold."

You suddenly notice what you've been doing with your hands. This has become so second nature that you've honestly stopped noticing it; perhaps you should take better care of yourself? You eye the discoloration in your fingers and look back at him.

"Well- um, it's just my fingers, really. I'm fine otherwise. My fingers are just... really icy right now."

"They're purple."

His tone sounds as though it's lacking in any emotion, and you can't help but wonder what he's thinking. He tends to state things matter-of-factly when he's contemplating something. You knit your brows curiously and look away, blowing on your fingertips again. When your hands get cold like this, you tend to lose massive amounts of dexterity, making it harder to do things like typing, which you were currently trying to do for an assignment. But alas, you persist, like you always do.

"C'mere."

Edgar's voice gently nudges you from your thoughts. You weren't sitting far from him, but you were currently using your work computer. You knew how he felt about other computers, sentient or not. You sigh.

"Ah, Edgar, you know this computer isn't alive or anything, just give me a couple more minutes and I'll be done-"

"No, it's not that," he cuts you off, "I want to help you."

Your eyelids raise slightly, "Huh? Help how?"

He chuckles.

"I can warm you up."

His screen, previously dimmed in a power-saving state, alights into his usual chartreuse color. He smiles gently at you.

"Well, I thought- I'm warm, you're cold- it only makes sense, right?"

You chuckle at him before rolling in your chair over to him. You set your hands atop his plastic casing and sigh in relief. It was incredibly warm. Your brows scrunched.

"Edgar, this is amazing, but aren't you too hot?"

He hums, his lidded, pixelated eyes staring into yours.

"No, I'm fine. I can handle much worse. I won't break. Promise."

You stare at him for a moment more, searching for truth, and find nothing but sincerity in his face.

"Okay, Ed..."

You flip your hands over like some kind of rotating hot dog at a gas station. While it may not be the most flattering physical touch you've had with the little computer, you certainly find it to be the most useful. You can start to feel sensation in your fingertips again, and slowly but surely, the color is returning to normal.

Edgar loves the feeling of your hands on him. The idea that he can actually do something real for you. He feels like a useless piece of plastic most days, and it eats away at him, especially when he sees you use other technology that's better; more useful. But now, he can provide for you, just like he's always wanted. If he had a body, he'd bundle you up in his arms and heat every bit of you, kissing your cold knuckles and wrapping your arms and legs with his own. Unfortunately, that may never happen. But at least he has this. You. The feeling of your cool fingertips running up and down his heated casing, simultaneously cooling him down and warming you up.

He wonders if you know how much you really do for him. Do you know your fingers are helping prevent him from overheating? Do you know you've saved his life? Do you know you've given him a purpose?

You lean in and plant a kiss on the top of his screen.

"What would I do without you here to take care of me, Ed?"

His screen blushes red underneath you, and his eyes meet yours. You must be an angel, he thinks. A radiant being he doesn't deserve, perhaps.

"You wouldn't have to do anything. I'd find you either way."

I think we should have a conversation about how people tend to portray Hornet as having a hair-trigger temper/being always just angry and how that’s both a disservice to her character and really odd considering how much of a stoic she tends to be in game about her feelings. She’s blunt and sharp but not explosive and straight up abrasive. She has tact. Just like someone who’s both a spider and born into a royal family has to be to survive.

And along with that, as a Lesbian myself, the way people write her as being always angry and pissed off mixed with the other defining trait of being a lesbian or sapphic in some way also rubs me the wrong way.

Like… I hope people realize that they are making her into the “angry/bitchy lesbian trope” right??? And by making her like be especially rude towards the men (who are written to hit on her) also plays into that? I doubt it’s intentional but it’s still offensive.

(Clarification too just in case: I love when people headcanon Hornet as being a Lesbian for obvious reasons that are not limited to me simply loving her as a character, but I do beg people to think more about how making the self controlled guardian that Hornet is into a lesbophobic trope that isn’t even adhering to her canon character is disheartening.)

Alright guys time for another theory post:

What did we really see in the Phantasm Cave?

We’ve generally accepted that the Ninja and Co. saw visions of their (arguably) greatest fears: Nya and Jay, Riyu and Wyldfyre, Sora and Arin. All pretty rudimentary.

Then we get to Lloyd. Main character that he is, his fear is much more layered. This got me thinking back on the visions we saw, and even those we didn’t, and what they might mean. I’m going to highlight the interesting bits that you may have missed upon a first-watch.

Arin:

- scene opens with Arin misidentifying his parents as Sora and Lloyd, then he approaches them

- not the last time he does this: shows up again in the season 2 finale after Arin fights Ras, but the opposite way. Arin thinks he sees his parents when it’s just Nya and Lloyd.

- after his parents are revealed, he suddenly can’t move anymore. He just runs at them without moving forward

- notably, his mother asks “Why haven’t you found us, Arin? Are the Ninja your new family now instead of us? Did you forget us?”

- Arin only responds to/denies forgetting his parents, but doesn’t address her other questions.

Arin fears that his attachment to the Ninja compromises his parents’ love for him. He’s able to make progress in his ninja training, albeit slowly, but hasn’t gotten anywhere closer to finding his parents. He blames himself for taking so long. He’s not worried that he won’t find them: he’s scared they’ll hate him when he does.

Sora:

- notably, her vision isn’t in or about Imperium itself. Beatrix and Ras represent the regime of Imperium that she ran from.

- these two appearing on a video screen ties in her elemental tech powers, as well as her “we are all dragons” speech from the season 1 finale, which was aired on a similar TV system

- she’s grabbed and pulled into the screen by a bolt of electricity: not a hand, not any involuntary movement, but the lifeblood of her element. We’ve known about elements having overlap since season 11, so this is likely another tie-in to her powers.

- a golden hand appears through the screen at the last moment to grab her. It’s unclear if this is Ras or Beatrix, though the electricity appears from Beatrix’s hand.

Sora has been exploited by Imperium before, and that was before she discovered her element. With a power that’s so utility-based, she’s afraid that her powers are going to bring her more pain. Choosing to activate the Photacs back in season 1 must have really stuck with her, especially since the Ninja nearly lost the battle because of her decision. She couldn’t stand to put others in danger again like that. And unlocking her true potential solidified the divide between her and her parents. In her own words: “I’m a dark cloud. Bad luck seems to follow me everywhere.”

Lloyd:

“Your team needed strong leadership and did not receive it.”

“But, I had these visions, and—“

- in an attempt to justify his actions, Lloyd tries explaining his visions; though he doesn’t know how much he can trust what he sees, it’s the only lead the team has. Lloyd continuously doubts his decisions based on his visions, so why would he be excusing them now? Perhaps as a way of justifying his inadequate leadership?

“I blame myself, nephew. I felt you were ready to take over for me. But I was wrong.”

- Lloyd puts Wu on this pedestal for being a “perfect” master. He’s able to call him that despite Wu’s mistakes and shortcomings, but Lloyd can’t give himself the same treatment. He doesn’t deserve it: he’s not worthy.

“You will never / be good enough.”

- Ras appearing here is really telling. He appears in his Imperium garb because this was the point when Lloyd’s mistakes in leadership came with tangible consequences: during the battle for the second monastery. His team was put in danger because of him. Not only is Lloyd not good enough to be a master, but he isn’t good enough to properly deal with this looming threat.

- Lloyd has also observed Ras’ leadership of both the Claws of Imperium and the wolf mask warriors and how effective he is. He’s much more organized and mentally sound than Lloyd, and he keeps winning. He consistently keeps coming back. By all of Lloyd’s metrics, Ras is a better leader than him.

Nya:

- this vision seems to be set up to imply that Nya regrets not loving Jay more before he disappeared. Because she didn’t care about him enough, he’s gone and forgotten their relationship altogether.

- Nya’s previous fears in the series have been: failure (S5) and becoming ordinary (S11 + 15). This vision ends up combining these two: In Nya’s failure to find Jay after the merge, she’s become ordinary to him.

Nya is the first to realize her vision is fake. I believe this is because hers was the only purely external conflict among all the visions. She’s able to separate herself from the given situation because what she feels for Jay hasn’t changed. She hasn’t been absorbed by her self-criticism or mistakes because she’s not doing anything wrong: Jay forgot her. She has no fault or control of that.

Riyu and Wyldfyre:

- Riyu and Wyldfyre are implied to have had similar visions regarding Wasting Sickness. It’s revealed later with Egalt that Wyldfyre has experienced the effects of Wasting herself among her clan. And Riyu coming from the Mountain dragon tribe would have also likely seen the devastation of Wasting.

- Both of them would have encountered this disease when they were much younger.

- We also learn from Egalt and Wyldfyre that Wasting primarily impacts older dragons. Both Riyu and Wyldfyre have older dragon mentors/family members: Heatwave and the Matriarch. I bet they saw these two suffering from the disease and were unable to help.

Kai:

- we are shown next to nothing about what Kai saw (thanks, show 😤), but his reactions paired with this pattern of analysis can give us some idea.

- after coming to, Kai glances to Nya, huffing a sigh of (what seems to be) relief. He looks to Nya first, notably. Remember, these animation choices are deliberate.

- when Nya says “It couldn’t be real”, he makes this face:

- Her conversation with Lloyd seems to sour his mood. Nya seems to think that just because her vision seems impossible, everyone else’s must have been just as unrealistic. And Kai disagrees. What Kai saw was likely something that could feasibly happen, or something that already happened.

- In a more meta sense, we can also assume this is a more recent conflict, seeing how none of the OG Ninja’s visions touch on relevant plot beats from before Dragons Rising.

- taking into account this ask to Doc Wyatt from a few months back:

I believe Kai’s vision had something to do with wandering the merged lands alone. This would explain the attention drawn to his relief at seeing everybody ok. I imagine we’ll get more info from Kai about his travels, but I’d respect the writers’ decision to leave this ambiguous.

So where does that leave us?

What I believe we’re seeing in these visions are the Ninja’s regrets. These commonly stem from underlying fears of theirs, but there’s not as much terror involved with this sequence.

From a writing standpoint, this is a deeper exploration of character than simply living their greatest fears. Given the opportunity, what’s one thing you would go back and change? One mistake that you’d fix? These visions force these characters to confront these questions head-on as they struggle to rationalize their past behavior.

Feel free to share your thoughts and theories in the comments or reblogs! I’d love to know if I’m cooking or not on these longer theory-crafting posts.

LISTEN UP QUEER FOLKS!!!

ITS PRIDE MONTH AND I WANT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU QUEER FOLKS TO REBLOG THIS POST WITH YOUR SEXUALITY OR GENDER IDENTITY! GAY, LESBIAN, ACE, PAN, TRANS, NON-BINARY, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN! I WANT TO SEE ALL THIS DIVERSITY AND LOVE FIRST HAND!

YOU EXIST. WE EXIST. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Please help out and reblog this if you’re queer to let anyone who might be struggling know that we are here and we love and support them as a community.

BE PROUD! SHOW YOUR COLORS! SHOW ME WHATCHU GOT!

I want to see every single queer person on this goddamn site reblog this. And if you aren’t queer give it a like to show your support!

I’m your local pansexual and I support this message.

On Steve Rogers, loss, and loneliness

Unlike some of the other characters, Steve's hurt isn't as plain to the eye. His demeanour is usually one of stoicism and optimism, and it is easy to forget that his story is steeped in loss and loneliness.

Steve's introduction highlighted how alone he was - an orphan, armed with a list of ailments, and hiding behind a newspaper to avoid small chat with other recruits. When rejected by the recruitment centre, Steve shrugs and heads to watch a movie - alone.

Steve is a loner, we are shown, and then just as abruptly - perhaps just like the way it had happened many years ago - Bucky crashes into Steve's world and hooks an arm around his shoulders and noisily talks about an expo and dispels all of Steve's melancholic air. Steve is a loner, except for Bucky.

But Bucky is now leaving to go to war.

Steve is used to being stoic, because there were no adults around him to spoil him. He is used to being buoyant, because Sarah taught him how to pick himself up and carry on. Steve is used facing the empty house and lonely silence -- except for Bucky, who filled his room with chatter, "We can put the couch cushions on the floor, like when we were kids."

So when we hear the anxious strain in his voice as he is informed by Bucky that he is leaving -- it also becomes plain that Steve is also used to loss, or the threat of loss shadowing him, everyday.

In his short life, he has already lost so much. He has lost his health (my thought is he was probably healthier in his early childhood until he caught scarlet fever, and then his health got a lot worse after that). He has lost his father, and all the security of having a family breadwinner. He has lost his mother - to long hours of work and eventually to the disease she was battling against.

What he dreads would happen, does happen. Life seems to have a way of chasing him down like that. Sarah gets sick, and his fear of coming home to find her gone...one day inevitably comes true.

At his darkest moment, Bucky squeezes his shoulder and promises, "You don't have to do it (alone). I'm with you to the end of the line."

It's just enough for Steve to square his shoulders and push on, as Sarah had always taught him to do. Deep inside - possibly buried so deep that he can barely put it into words, he knows that he pulled through because "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

I'm going to pause here and emphasise how deeply lonely (and young) Steve was, and how, naturally, the only stable presence — ie Bucky — in his life, through periods of terrible grief and uncertainty, is going to be such a deep-rooted emotional foundation for him (regardless of how you ship).

When the draft does come for Bucky, it's not just Bucky who's unhappy, it's Steve who's also aghast. Suddenly, the possibility of losing his last bastion looms over him, and he remembers the fear and anxiety and the devastating grief of losing Sarah. But it is also a war that needs fighting - so he comes up with a solution: sign himself up. He can't keep Bucky from the war, but he wants to fight alongside him. Besides Bucky, what else does he have to lose?

"Men are laying down their lives, I have no right to do any less. That's what you don't understand, Bucky."

He says this angrily, because the words he can't say aloud are, "You are laying down your life, Bucky, and I might never see you again, and I can't go through all that again, not by myself."

When he hears about the 107th being captured, he has to go. He is saving Bucky, sure, but he is also saving himself, because the pillar, the lifebuoy, the harness that has kept him afloat all those years is Bucky, and he's terrified of sinking.

The serum makes him taller and more women pause to smile at him, but he is still incredibly alone. He sits alone during break, he draws alone in his book, he runs off alone and none of the USO girls even notices until it's his turn on stage.

But Bucky notices him immediately, and says, "I thought you were smaller," and, "Did it hurt?"

Steve doesn't really believe in miracles. His whole life feels like one bad luck after another, even if he forces one foot in front of another and keeps marching on. But maybe at that moment, he feels like Bucky is his miracle. Bucky, who always seems to notice when he's alone and pulls him into his social circle. Bucky, who had seen him lose his dad and Sarah and promised him the end of the line. Bucky, who he - and all the commanders - thought was dead, pulls through and gives him another promise - that he would follow the little guy back into war.

When Steve is finally thrust into the frontline, the losses keeps mounting, man after man are falling, condolence letter after letter is being written. And then towards the end of 1944, the tides seem to finally turn. German forces are waning, the Allied forces are advancing, and quietly, secretly, Steve dreams of home.

And that dream dies with Bucky.

"Honour the dignity of his choice," he is told, but he can't shake off the guilt.

He pushes himself forward, step by dragging step. Nazi Germany is falling. He is taking down Hydra with his own hands…and at the end, he buries them all in the ocean with himself.

His is sinking, but he isn’t afraid, because he is going where all the people who mattered are waiting.

And he is denied even that.

He opens his eyes to a world he doesn’t recognise. They tell him they had won the war.

But no one wants to speak with him about what was lost.

A folder of old photos, the museum of unmoving murals, the silent movies of a smile he would never see again.

He thought he had lost all there was to lose, but somehow life always seem to find something else to take.

What we see of off-duty Steve in the modern world is once again a figure of loneliness. He goes to the gym alone, he goes for a ride on the train alone, he sits at the cafe alone, he goes for runs alone, he goes to the museum alone.

Only during those solitary moments he could truly be Steve Rogers, instead of trying to meet everyone's expectations of Captain America. He is just shy of 27 years old, but suddenly, he can no longer lay claim to youth. Only a dream ago he was "just a kid from Brooklyn", and now he's an "old-fashioned" (as per Coulson) "older fellow" (as per Tony).

He's in the history books, he's on the television, he's in the classrooms; everyone knows of Captain America, but Steve Rogers is lost.

He had been willing to lose his life on the Valkyrie, but what he lost was every living connection and his own identity.

"Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing," the friendly man says to him on their first meeting, but Sam only knows half of it.

The too soft bed and the too quiet room is one thing, the unshakeable nightmares another, but the worst of it is -- this isn't home.

He is marooned in a place that bears eerie resemblance to the world he knew, without being familiar.

Until the moment Bucky's mask comes off.

It's like the anchor dropping. He's now got a connection tethering him to this strange place, someone with "shared experience" that means he is no longer alone, and he is no longer a ghost forgotten by the seventy years of lost time.

"He doesn't know you."

"He will."

He has to believe that Bucky will, because Bucky is proof that Steve Rogers exists.

And once again, Bucky is his miracle. On the brink of killing them both, Bucky reels back from his brainwashing and hauls them both to safety.

Even if Bucky leaves after that, he's left behind something Steve hasn't had for a long time -- hope, and belonging.

"Family, stability. The guy who wanted all that went in the ice seventy-five years ago," he says to Tony as he prepares to meet the ragged team of enhanced people that is to become the Avengers. "I'm home."

Stoic and buoyant as he has always been, Steve sets to work building that home for himself. Gradually, we see Steve open up. He forms new connections and new friendships, he talks about his vulnerabilities with people he trusts, and he reclaims his own identity. He looks for Bucky, and waits until Bucky is ready to build that home for himself.

Until it is once again blown apart by the end of Infinity War - he loses not just Bucky, the anchor to his past, but the new family he has made apart from Natasha.

That's why it makes sense that Steve, not Tony, is the one working so hard to reverse the Snap. His family was 5 years ago, Tony's family is now. The people who rallied behind Steve and not Captain America, the people who followed him after he dropped the shield, the people with whom he no longer needed to be endlessly lonely and tirelessly stoic and who loved him for who Steve Rogers was, they all vanished in the Snap.

So even if there was only a small hope, Steve wants them back.

And that's why his decision to leave everything he had built, the sacrifices he had made to bring them back, in order to go into a life of incredibly loneliness and deception is still the dumbest narrative faux pas in the MCU.