There is no such thing as escapism in fantasy for readers who are not white, wealthy, or are from marginalized groups.
When Sarah J Maas creates an entire group of people that weirdly resemble caricatures of Muslims that the story takes pains to show us how bad they are, when the villains in Brandon Sanderson's magnum opus are people fighting against colonialism, when so much of fantasy relies on concepts like evil races or --better yet--slave races who like being enslaved, how am I supposed to 'escape'? What escape is there when I can read you saying the same things that warmongering politicians and propagandists say? What, you slap on a magic system and a few spicy scenes with a racially ambiguous (he's italian) guy and it's just going to go unnoticed? It's harmless? Just brush it off and ignore it? Why? How can your story have this and the themes would still be worth anyone's time?
Before any talks of escapism, let's make sure that the story's telling the truth first. Let's also make sure the author has read a book first.
summary: based on this ask. brendan brings home a girl who makes you cry and he feels the need to defend you.
contains/tw: just the brisson family. dad!bren being a semi-good dad, hunter being a good older brother, a bitchy fling who insults y/n. and i'd like to preface that being a stay at home ____ is never a bad thing, but it was used as an insult in this case.
pairing: dad!bren x daughter!reader
word count: 1.4k
note: this can be read as a standalone !!
when brendan brought his.. fling over, he didn't know what to expect. he hadn't been particularly open about his dating life with his kids so this was a new ballpark.
yeah, he messed around with girls from time to time but he'd never been even slightly serious about any of them until now. scratch that—he wasn't serious about this girl. mandy, was her name. he just.. wanted to see if she was a good one to stick with because he could see something down the line.
those were the key words: down the line.
so, he wanted to put his theory to the test, hence why the four of you were sitting at the dining table at the moment. everything was going good so far which he was pleasantly surprised by. he thought either you or hunter would have done something to scare her off by now, but you hadn't.
"so, y/n," mandy started as she swirled some pasta around her fork. "what do you do for work?"
"oh um, i don't actually have a job right now," you hesitated to say.
"oh!" she replied, shocked. "are you busy with sports?"
"school, actually," you corrected, unable to meet her terrorizing eyes.
okay, maybe it hadn't been going as well as brendan thought. sure, nothing had gone wrong but nothing was going great either. unbeknownst to brendan, hunter despised mandy and mandy seemed to despise you, for some reason.
you picked up on the hostile energy a couple moments after she walked through the door and so did hunter, but brendan remained oblivious as usual.
"i see," she nodded, feigning understanding. "so you're like.. the stay at home daughter! you do things around the house to keep things going."
"i—"
"she's not a stay at home daughter," hunter cut you off immediately, not wanting you to agree like he knew you would. "she does a lot of things that keep her busy."
"like what?" she batted her eyelids in question.
he crinkled his eyes at her, turning to brendan as if to say is she fucking serious? all he received was a shrug in response, brendan's own eyes saying i don't know what's happening.
"like studying, hard," this was one of the few ways your brother showed his affection—by standing up for you. it was hypocritical but if anyone other than he or brendan came at you in any way, he was going to take your side.
"and she's involved with clubs, she runs their social media and stuff. it's a lot of work, you might not understand."
"hunter," brendan's eyes widened at the subtle insult.
"no— you know what, i'm done," hunter shook his head, exhausted by her behaviour. "it was nice meeting you, sandy."
"it's mandy," you whispered before he could leave the table.
"yeah, i fucking know," he muttered back before standing and speaking at a regular tone. "should i take anyone else's plates?"
"shouldn't y/n be doing that?"
your eyes bulged. her words stung a hole into your heart but the way hunter's teeth clenched scared you more than the hurt.
"i thought i said—"
"okay, okay," brendan tried to ease the fire, jumping up onto his feet and cautiously looking at his son. "hunter, just take your plate into the kitchen, i'll deal with it later. are we all done with dinner?"
hunter scoffed, taking your plate with him as he walked away. brendan muttered a string of apologies to mandy as you sat quietly in your seat, overthinking her words. technically you were a stay at home daughter. she wasn't wrong.
"i don't think i said anything wrong," mandy told brendan quietly. "she is a stay at home daughter, she doesn't make any money to support the family. she's just living here for free like a freeloader"
brendan felt a pang in his heart, an immediate reaction to the insult being thrown at his daughter. and the worst part? she kept going.
"she doesn't even talk, look at her," she extended her arm at you. "she doesn't have anything going for her, baby."
you fiddled with your fingers, continuing to look down at your lap as she bruised your self esteem. she beat you black and blue with her words and you could say you didn't feel pain like this very often. brendan didn't know why he remained silent for as long as he did. maybe he was in a state of shock, because quite frankly all his expectations were crumbling right in front of him, but the heartbreaking sound of your sniffles were what caused him to snap.
his head turned towards you quicker than ever and he could see the tears dripping down your face. a raging anger burned through his chest, nostrils flaring as he glared at mandy.
"get the fuck out of my house," he demanded in a dangerously calm tone.
"what?" she gasped, bringing a hand to her heart.
even you looked up at them, taken aback by his unusual behaviour. it was always unexpected when he stood up for you, no matter how much your family knew he always would when he deemed fit. somehow, it hadn't crossed your mind that this would be one of those times.
"get the fuck out of my house," he repeated, this time more aggressive. "i don't want to repeat myself again."
"but, baby—"
"don't call me baby!" he finally broke, causing you to flinch.
hunter ran out from whatever corner he'd been in, eyes wide like saucers as he realized his dad was livid. no one wanted to cross paths with an angry brendan brisson but clearly mandy didn't know that. he walked up to your seat and gently touched your shoulder, making you look up at him red eyed. after just one look at you, even he was angry. he knew better than to let it out because your dad had it under control.
"i'm not your fucking baby," he grit through his teeth as hunter pulled you up to your feet and into his arms. he felt your wet tears dripping onto his neck.
"my daughter is the most important girl in my fucking life and i won't let you disrespect her like that," brendan spat, pointing towards the front door.
"get out."
"ugh," she made a sound as she grabbed her bag, hoisting it onto her shoulder.
"you were never that good in bed anyway!"
"ew!" you exclaimed through cries, shoving your head further into hunter's neck.
he gagged. "we didn't need to know that."
"leave, mandy," brendan pinched the bridge of his nose as he crossed his arms.
"i'm fucking going," she grumbled as she left.
"and don't call me back!"
a slam of the front door gave him his answer and he looked down at his feet as he let out a deep breath, taking a moment to think. the sound of your hiccups hurt his ears more than he could ever have imagined. he hadn't seen you cry like this since you were a little girl, not knowing this was a regular occurrence and you always just hid from him.
hunter ran a soothing hand through your hair as your dad slowly walked up to you. hunter's grip loosened as brendan pulled you into his arms, holding you in front of him by your shoulders.
he bent down to your level but you failed to meet his eyes as his soft ones remained fixated on your frame. his hands cupped your cheeks and he tilted your head up, however you continued to find interest in the lights above his head instead of him.
"look at me."
your eyes flicked towards his but this only caused more tears to well up. he tried his absolute hardest not to let his emotions show, the only thing on his mind being that he had to comfort his daughter.
"you're okay, hm? she's gone and she won't come back," he wiped your tears away with the pads of his thumbs.
you felt a spark in your gut at the attention he was finally giving you. you wished you could have it more often but you didn't want to dwell on it in the moment.
"she was right," your bottom lip quivered.
"no she wasn't." he didn't miss a beat. "she wasn't, don't say that."
"she was," your voice cracked. "i-i don't do anything. i just study and stay home."
"well, you don't need to work right now," he shook his head, telling you it was okay. "i want you to focus on your schoolwork, she just doesn't know that. she's stupid, don't listen to her."
your swallowed the lump in your throat, your doe eyes nearly making him sick as he continued to wipe your silent tears away.
"it's alright, sweetheart," he mumbled, cradling your head as he pulled you into his chest. you wrapped your arms around his torso, holding him tight. "you're my strong girl, aren't you? i love you so much, y/n. i'm so sorry.
I’m currently thinking about Misty Knight possibly being in Cap 4 and possibly being Sam’s love interest, and if that happens I might just swerve into shipping Sam/Misty/Bucky- (which isn’t really already a ship and I’m a little disappointed) -because I think that ship would be incredibly cute and fun to both read and write.
Like Sam obviously has a type, cute people with a metal arm and I already have a fic idea with these three that I think would be amazing if someone or I wrote it and it involves Bucky being head over heels in love with Sam AND Misty.
I’ll always ship SamBucky and I’ll ship SamMisty too, but basically what I am saying is, let Sam be happy with his metal armed partners, that is all.
Plus another black character (especially a black women) getting love is always a win
Help me I haven't even gotten to v3- hell-haven't even watched the anime, but I'm thinking of an... au? I guess? A scenario I suppose with my favorites from each game.
So after the whole tragedy thing happens and some other things (idk I don't have enough context to be detailed) the characters are just kind of doing their own thing, just trying to survive the apocalypse. Some people are in groups others are lone wolves. I'm imagining my favorites from each game end up meeting each other and making their own little group. So Hifumi, Teruteru, and Ryoma (I don't know why I just like his vibes).
I'm thinking Ryoma already has his own little hideout and he just happens to stumble upon Hifumi and Teruteru, who have already allied together, in a bit of a pinch. At first he's like "OK you can stay for a night but after that you're gone" but ends up liking them too much and let's them stay lol. Their dinnamic would be Teruteru makes the food edible (haha), Hifumi brightens the mood, the previous two share one brain cell together, and Ryoma keeps them out of trouble.
There's more to it than this in my head (especially regarding Teru) but so far this is too freaking amusing to me and my brain won't shut up about it.
Also this is hella hyping up Ryoma in my mind for me which might not be the best idea but I can't help it :/
