A queer story I just thought, but I don’t know if it’s cool or not:
Two books about the same queer couple. A non-binary, elven assassin and a rich, socialite lesbian vampire.
They’re obsessed with each other, they’re in love and happy in a seemingly healthy and normal relationship. The elf comes home to the vampire, and they spend the days napping and relaxing together, then they go about their lives at night, always coming home to each other.
One book is told from the elf’s point of view, their work and how they balance it out with their home life with their fiancé and family, slowly beginning to discover that someone has been watching them, finding people keeping an extra close eye on them out in the night, uncovering their secrets and using them to hurt the elf. As they keep unraveling the mystery, they begin to discover that this stalker knows more about them than almost everyone they know.
The elf stops her, and the first book ends with a confrontation in their shared home, knives drawn and tense, as if they’re about to fight. Ending with the last conversation.
“Why would you do this? You ruined my life… I can never show my face in the assassin world again.”
“I love you too much to let you die for that life.”
The second book is told from the vampire’s point of view, her life as an heiress to her family company, as a nocturnal lover to an equally nocturnal partner, as a secret criminal mastermind. She knows that her lover is the one bringing down her empire, and she needs to stop them before everything crashes down around her and leaves her with nothing left to support the life they both want together. After they take out her biggest ally, she begins to get desperate, pulling out all the stops while still pretending to be an innocent and caring lover.
The elf confronts the vampire in the same scene, and they fight, neither one wanting to really hurt the other. Something changes between the two as the elf is about to finish the fight, and they realize just how much they truly love her. They give up, lying on the floor of the home that they made together, in the middle of the life they created and destroyed together, realizing that they had done this to each other.
They’re both angry, and they’re both hurt that this has happened, but they both love each other too much to let go. They have a whispered conversation, too tired to really get up and keep going.
“Why did you stop? I thought you wanted to kill me for what I did to you.”
“I love you too much to let you die for that life.”
At the end of both books, the scenes mirror each other. Though the scenes are just minutes apart, you get to see the different sides of the two, the sides that show when they’re alone, the sides they would never want their fiancé to see. You can see that they’re messed up but made for each other, ready to go to the extremes to hold onto that sweet love that they both ruined.
That makes sense too, but I meant when they should be in their homes at night and Morgana randomly has a nightmare and Gwen just appears out of thin air all the way across Camelot to comfort her.
People who don’t like Dream’s character must be having a terrible time with the lore, us apologists are getting so fed with the good content Dream rarely decides to feed us
quackity prefacing saying c!dream is his second favorite character with “people are gonna hate me for this” is probably an indicator that y’all are fucking weirdos about minecraft roleplay character preferences to the point where the writers themselves are uncomfortable btw
I can’t be switching fandoms on tumble. The mcyttumblr fandom is a whole other level from mcyttiktok or mcyttwt. These people are pulling shit out of their asses and it’s making me feel like I’m the dumb one for not knowing these things. Like sorry c!tommy apologist, I’m a c!dream apologist because he wasn’t initially the bad guy, and he doesn’t deserve to be tortured.
Aww don’t worry! The fandom can get pretty into stuff at times but it’s all for fun at the end of the day. I’ve not met a single person who thinks the torture is okay, it’s clearly wrong and paints Quackity’s character in a very dark light. In fact most people even dislike the prison arc for it in general, finding the whole thing very unpleasant.
As for Tommy, he’s just really, really fun to discuss!! Like he didn’t deserve his exile and all the traumatic experiences that followed. His depiction of his mental health throughout his arc was super interesting. It hurts to see him trying again and again and seeing him being knocked down - but then he gets back up in spite of all his suffering and it’s just so, so nice to see him starting to heal. A d I’m really excited to see how his story with Wilbur develops. Just... there’s something so nice about the way he talked about not giving up on the people you care about because he understands how Wilbur’s been struggling too. ...Sorry I really like to gush about C!Tommy.
Anyway, don’t feel discouraged. Different opinions are always cool. ❤❤
I can’t be switching fandoms on tumble. The mcyttumblr fandom is a whole other level from mcyttiktok or mcyttwt. These people are pulling shit out of their asses and it’s making me feel like I’m the dumb one for not knowing these things. Like sorry c!tommy apologist, I’m a c!dream apologist because he wasn’t initially the bad guy, and he doesn’t deserve to be tortured.
originally i just wanted dream to recover, preferably in the syndicate. but after today's quackity lore? he deserves to fuck shit up for a bit. let him get his revenge. tommy got his revenge on dream, techno got his revenge on l'manberg, dream deserves to get revenge on quackity and sam! then he can recover after that lol
(context: ask was sent on march 16th and i am very. very late.)
but YEAH !! logic brain says revenge bad and cycle of violence will continue BUT emotion brain wants c!dream to go crazy go stupid !! go beat them up honey we’ll be here with juice boxes and fruit snacks when you’re done <3
i wrote this while looping casino royale by derivakat for (checks time) something like 12 hours straight so uhh,,, yeah LMAO have some of c!dream going apeshit bc honestly he deserves it (/hj)
tw: implied torture, abuse, mentioned injuries, suicide, murder, explosions, death, violence, dark portrayals of c!dream, c!quackity, and c!sam, emotional distress, prison arc, pandora’s vault
Sam is uneasy long before he enters Las Nevadas - Quackity’s terse, serious-sounding string of texts he’d woken up to had sent his heart racing before the country even came into sight, and he’s pretty sure the pit in the middle of his gut since Dream escaped a week ago won’t disappear until the prisoner is either jailed or dead at his feet. Still, the city hardly does his anxiety any favors - each step within its limits feels a bit more like walking to his own death, the silent storefronts and looming, boarded up casino seeming to watch his every move, making him pick up his pace to move a little faster and avoid their judging gazes.
Stuck in his head as he is, it’s not until he’s halfway to the meeting place that he realizes how eerily quiet the place is - Las Nevadas has yet to be a particularly busy country with the casino yet to open and their recruits usually doing their own thing in the meantime, but still there’s usually at least one of them lingering on the city grounds, between Fundy’s work on his yacht and Foolish’s construction and whatever Slime does, usually involving an immense amount of following Quackity’s every move. The city as it right now feels much more like when it had been no more than a secret of his and Quackity, months spent with just the two of them working to make Big Q’s vision a reality. There’s something uniquely unnerving about it, like stepping into a ghost town, and Sam’s unease only grows.
“Sam!” Quackity calls from the base of the casino - Sam shades his eyes from the sun as he jogs over. Even from this far, it’s clear Q is displeased - his lips are flat in a small frown, skin taut from where the corner of his mouth is pulling at his scar. His tie is slightly askew and shirt rumpled - he looks disheveled, eyebrows narrowed irritatedly as he taps at something on his communicator. Sam smiles slightly, hollow.
“Hello Quackity,” he responds simply, drawing his trident and bringing it to his side. “You said we needed to meet?”
“Yeah,” Quackity’s voice is distracted, and he mumbles a curse as he jams his finger particularly hard against the communicator screen. “What is up with everyone today? They sent me these- weird fucking messages and then we get here and nobody’s here-”
“Who?” Sam’s lips press together. “You mean like- Fundy? Or Foolish?” They seem to be the ones that Quackity got messages from most frequently, if he remembers right. He doesn’t know for sure - usually, Quackity handles the social side of managing Las Nevadas.
“Fundy, Purpled, Foolish, Slime-” Quackity makes a vague, affronted noise. “All of them! Where the hell are they?”
Sam pauses.
“Q, when did Slime learn to use a communicator?”
“That’s the green one, right?” Both of them freeze, whirling around to the voice behind them, seeing nothing but the empty, arched doorway of the still-locked casino. “Naïve. Easy to fool.” The voice pauses, barks a sharp, quiet laugh. “Made my job easy, at least.”
The voice is familiar- too familiar. Sam doesn’t think he’ll ever get that cadence out of his head, not after months after months spent in the prison, hearing it in every possible tone and form. Quackity’s shoulders are hunched up to his ears, teeth bared in a snarl.
“Dream- I fucking swear- where the hell are you?”
“Aw, not so brave when the other person can actually fight back, are we?” Dream’s voice is lilting, mocking, and Sam’s hands tighten on the trident. “Fine, I’ll show myself. I’m not like you- no need to extend this game any longer than necessary.”
Dream slinks out from the shadows, wearing all black and covered in netherite armor, seeming fiddling with a small, grey thing in one hand. HIs stance is wide, torso pulled close to the ground - instead of a mask, his outfit includes a hooded black cloak that pulls down over his face, barely offering a glimpse of his eye glaring from underneath it.
“I’m giving you three seconds to tell me why the hell you’re in my country,” Quackity growls, sword forming in his hand, blade still crusted over with old blood, “And I’ll make your death half as painful as it’ll be otherwise.”
Dream laughs, high-pitched and unstable. “Please- what are you gonna do with that thing?” Quackity stalks forward with a low, wordless yell and Sam only barely manages to snag him back by the wrist.
“Watch it, Q,” Sam mutters, looking closer. Sure enough, there’s a faint, reddish haze rising from Dream’s body, only barely visible, interspersed with some lighter blue wisps. Strength and Speed. “He’s got potions.”
“Outmatched, aren’t we?” Dream cocks his head to the side, a tight-lipped smile visible under the hood’s shadow. “What a shame. I was hoping for a good fight.”
Quackity curses at him, loudly, but mullishly stays in place instead of lashing out like earlier, and Sam hisses a small sigh of relief. He looks back over at Dream - under the sun, he looks worse than ever, armor doing little to hide the gaunt edge of his face, limbs skinny and shaking. His hands tremble, wrists kept close together, as he continues to move the thing within them from hand to hand, small and grey and smooth from what he can tell in flashes between scarred and calloused fingers. He’s still favoring his left side slightly, but his eyes are cold and clear as they follow his every movement, clearly lucid and intelligent. Unfortunately for them, Dream is the best of fighters at the worst of times, and he has no doubt that with potions on his side and themselves relatively unprepared for battle, any fight with him won’t go particularly well.
Negotiation it is, then. “Why are you here, Dream?” If they stall long enough, then the rest of the server can come to back them up, and then even Dream won’t be able to fight back for long. He and Quackity can figure out what to do with him once he’s safely back under their control - for now, they have to play things safe. He pulls out his communicator carefully with one hand, trying to avoid drawing attention to his movements. “I doubt you’re here for a housewarming visit.”
Dream waves his hand slightly. “Something like that-” he bares his teeth in a small smile. “How about a housewarming gift, instead?”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Quackity bites, aggressive in a way that speaks of how threatened he feels, and the pit in Sam’s stomach only grows. Dream’s eye seems to glow as he turns and presses his hands to the nearby wall; when he pulls them back, there’s a stone button fastened on the quartz.
“Say, Quackity,” Dream’s voice is too light to be anything but forced levity, rolling his shoulders back to try and hide the way his entire body has begun to shake even more violently than before. “How much TNT do you suppose it took for Wilbur to blow up L’manburg?”
Sam gasps, low and harsh through his teeth, a quiet, breathless no falling from his lips. Quackity’s head shakes, eyes widening in fury and denial.
“No- no what the fuck did you do- Dream what the absolute fuck did you do-”
“Eleven stacks of TNT, to blow up that country to kingdom come.” Dream laughs, directing his wild, manic expression to look them in the eye. “The amount of TNT hooked up to this thing is ten times that.”
“You’re a liar-” Quackity rushes forward, sword raised, “I’m going to fucking kill you-”
Sam grabs him, again, ignoring his yells to look at Dream, who’s still standing, seemingly unruffled, one hand hovering over the button that’ll spell doom for them all.
“That’ll kill all of us,” he tries to reason, panic clawing up his lungs, “You’re on your last life. You can’t-”
“And what, Warden, makes you think I give a single goddamn fuck about that?” Dream’s voice cracks, slightly, and for a moment Sam almost thinks he’ll break, that he can press the point until the other backs down - but Dream is nothing if not stubborn, and within seconds he’s composed himself again, looking at them with a determined set to his jaw that Sam recognizes well enough from Quackity’s visits to know that he won’t back down. “Everyone else is far away from here. I made sure of that. It’s just you, and Quackity, and me, and I’m pressing this button if it’s the last thing I do. Call it a parting shot, will you?”
Sam pulls at Quackity, wrist still locked in his grip. “Q, we have to leave.”
“I’m not letting him destroy this place Sam, are you out of your fucking mind? This- Las Nevadas- it’s everything- I’m not letting him take this place from me not again-”
“He’s going to kill us all, Quackity,” he throws a water bucket at his feet, charging up his trident. The sign taunts him at the edges of the city borders, far too far away for any of them to even hope to reach. “We have to go now-”
“Say your goodbyes,” Dream taunts, and there’s a quiet click. Sam smells the faint, smoky smell of redstone being activated, hears a hum growing in volume from the ground beneath him. He looks over to Dream, who has a hand pressing the button to the wall, fever-bright eyes wide and wet as he stares at his own hand before shutting them with a soft, almost serene smile. “And see you in hell.”
There’s the literal definition to consider, of course - spanking = striking a child with the intent to cause fear and/or pain. And that’s…. hitting….
But here’s the important part: If a child is old enough to understand the distinction between “spanking as a deserved punishment” and “unacceptable physical assault,” they’re old enough to respond to other methods of discipline, so you’re hitting them because you want to hit them. If they’re not old enough to understand that distinction, there’s no point in spanking them and you’re just hitting them because you want to hit them.
Kids aren’t great at understanding cause and effect, especially if it’s displaced over time. A child literally does not consciously understand that cause and effect is even a thing until they’re around 18 months old. Once they develop it, it’s still a pretty limited/immediate understanding until they’re much older. For example, they can understand that if they spit food out, the food isn’t in their mouth anymore, or that if they make grabby hands towards something, somebody will give it to them. But they don’t understand that, say, taking off their clothes will make them uncomfortably cold.
This is because children aren’t really capable of future planning until they’re older. A 2 year old might be able to plan his actions out a few steps in advance (eg, if I climb onto the chair, I can reach my sippy cup that’s on the table and then climb back down), but that’s about it. Kids can conceive of the idea of the future in a more distant sense once they’re about 3 (eg, “when I grow up” and “can I go to grandma’s house tomorrow?”), but the ability to consciously take or not take actions to affect future outcomes doesn’t really develop until they’re about 4 or 5. For example: A child’s ability to delay a small treat now in exchange for a larger treat later improves significantly between the ages of 3 and 5. And delayed gratification tests are testing a good thing vs. a better thing. A good thing vs. the absence of a bad thing later is very different. The first is more concrete and material - do I want one sticker now or two stickers later? The second is more abstract, and plenty of adults struggle with that kind of reasoning. (For example - do I want to go to a party now, or do I want to not have COVID later?)
And then there’s the issue of moral development. Kids don’t even start to understand the idea of “acceptable/unacceptable” behavior in any real sense until they’re about 18 months old. They don’t develop emotions like shame and guilt (which suggest an ability to reflect on their own behavior) until they’re about 3. And most kids don’t internalize any real kind of moral code until they’re about 4 or 5.
So, at what age should a child be considered old enough to understand the purpose of a spanking and distinguish it from unacceptable physical assault? It depends on the kid, of course, but I’d say no younger than about 4.
And guess what? All those things that make them able to understand the purpose of a spanking also make them able to understand things like time-out and losing privileges. You can explain things to a 4 year old. They have the ability to engage in logical and moral reasoning. Which means you have options for punishment beyond hitting them. Which means, if you choose to hit them, it’s about you, not the child. You’re either too lazy to discuss a child’s behavior with them, too lazy to enforce other kinds of consequences/use a continuum of consequences, or you’re spanking them for your own emotional catharsis - spanking out of anger, frustration, and vengeance, which changes the spanking from “punishment” to “abuse.”
And all of this is kind of a moot point because spanking doesn’t even work. It really, actually doesn’t work. It does nothing to cause long-term changes in behavior. This research has been done over, and over, and over again. Spanking can cause immediate changes in behavior, but does nothing to cause long-term changes in behavior, promote moral and ethical development, or improve self-regulation skills. It actually has the opposite effect on self-regulation skills! Children who were spanked are also usually more aggressive, more defiant, commit more anti-social behaviors, and are more likely to develop mental health problems in adulthood. And I promise, whatever “gotcha” you think you have about these results has already been accounted for in the literature (eg, “but what if aggressive, defiant, anti-social kids just get spanked more!”).
Tl;Dr - Spanking is exactly the same thing as hitting your children, because it is completely ineffective as a disciplinary technique. And when it’s not a disciplinary technique, it’s just hitting.
By the way, in case you feel like arguing this with me: I have a bachelor’s degree in child development. I’ve actually read this research. I do kinda know what I’m talking about here.
THIS WAS ACTUALLY A LOT LONGER BUT I I cut out a whole chunk because every single slide was awful and no amount of cosmetic would fix it so I just lopped it off…. nonetheless I’m sorry for what I managed to finish as well.
“You’d be surprised”, said Xaldien, who just lost four followers and received a lovely “men can’t be raped” anon shortly after reblogging this the first time.
Out of 19000+ followers I have, only one of you actually reblogged about this issue, yet a lot of you have reblogged and liked a picture by playboy about catcalling and that how men should never do it.
Additionally, I have received abuse in my ask box (which I will be answering when I can) and threats. In particular death threats and rape threats.
I can see the real problem here already. Male domestic violence and rape is just invisible in our society because we don’t want to talk about this because it just damages the status quo of this fucking website.
I’m a boy , and when i was younger I was sexually assaulted every damn day for three years by my younger step SISTER, So don’t go saying that ‘boys can’t be raped’ bull shit
