#“We survived the last one” no we all didn't

[obitobi-simp]

One day, after dinner, while my younger sister and I were lounging about in Mr. Gopher Wood's yard, we spotted a fledgling Charmony Dove all on its own. That baby bird was tiny, it didn't even have all of its feathers, and it couldn't sing. When we found it, it was already on its last breath, having fallen into a shrub — probably abandoned by its parents. We decided to build a nest for it right there and then. However, thinking back, that winter was unusually cold, with fierce winds at night in the yard, not to mention the many poisonous bugs and wild beasts in the vicinity... It was clear that if we left the fledgling in the yard, it stood no chance of surviving until spring. So, I suggested we take it inside, place it on the shelf by the window, and asked the adults to fashion a cage for it. We decided that when it regained its strength enough to spread its wings, we would release it back into the wild. The tragic part — something that we'd never considered — was that this bird's fate had already been determined long before this moment... Its destiny was determined by our momentary whim. Now, I pass the power of choice to you all. Faced with this situation, what choice would you make? Stick to the original plan, and build a nest with soft net where the Charmony Dove fell? Or build a cage for it, and feed it, giving it the utmost care from within the warmth of a home? I eagerly await your answer.

Welcome to the express

[asexualspectrumspector]

Hey everyone,

I don't usually do original posts and I try to keep this a positivity blog, but I feel I need to reach out to all of my followers, especially my followers living in the US.

Yesterday's election and the time leading up to it were extremely stressful. The results of the election were not what many of us hoped they would be. I can honestly say I woke up this morning and immediately felt my heart plummet into my stomach once I turned on the news.

My mind raced with questions. How was this going to affect my students (I'm a public school teacher)? How would this affect my family? Friends? Me? Why did so many people see what this monster did during the last 8 years and think, yeah that's the guy I want running the country?

I was disappointed and angry. I wanted to rant and rave. I wanted to fight back against an unjust and biased system. But I didn't .

I got dressed, drank my coffee, and went to work. Because I had a duty to my students. I knew many of them would be scared of what would come next and would look to me to give them answers. And even if I didn't have answers, I could still be a consistent, calm, and reassuring person in their lives.

All this to say, I hope you are gentle with yourself in these upcoming days. I hope you can be a consistent, calm, and caring person in someone's life, or that you are able to find someone to be that for you. I hope we are able to fight back against an unjust and oppressive system together.

One way or another, we'll come out of this together. We will have bad days, probably many bad days, in the future. But we will survive this. We have lived through every single terrible day before this, and we will survive this too.

Remember, be gentle with yourself. But also prepare to fight. Because we will not let ourselves be run over by those who think they can overpower us. We will show them what happens when we stand together.

We can do this.

I love you.

🖤🩶🤍💜

[doublejango]

I am already seeing virtue signaling posts from people saying "I don't care what you believe or how you voted..."

That's great. I care. I care a lot. The outcome of this election effects me, but so much more than me. I care. It matters. And if it really doesn't matter to you? Good for you. If you are privileged enough, safe enough, and entitled enough to truly not care about how the election will impact other people... I can't even imagine what that must be like. Nice, I guess?

I spent most of last night and this morning crying.

I'm done with tears now, and have moved on to rage.

And you know what? I promise not to let it burn out. Because smiles and positivity may work for many of us, and I'm not going to lose mine either, I promise not to lose my queer joy--they can rip it from my cold dead hands, not to get too damn dramatic here--but I'm also not in the mood to start forgiving and smiling and welcoming Nazis into the bar.

So. I will hold onto anger. I've been tolerant and accepting long enough in life... and have learned something important about what causes the worst harm.

I have been gay bashed before. Violently. Blood. Broken bones. Lost teeth. And you know what the worst part of the recovery of all of that was, the part that did the most psychological and emotional damage? It wasn't the actual bashing itself. It wasn't even the memory of exactly what it felt like to have something swung full force into my face with extremely violent intent. It was the denial from my "friends" and family afterwards. The people who wanted to deny that it was a hate crime. The people who wanted me to shrug it off and not be upset about it. The people who loved to say oh well it wasn't that bad. You know what helped? Letting myself feel fury. Letting myself name the attack as hate. "It wasn't that bad," though, they said, asif it was their judgment to make--endless hours of dental procedures, pain, wounds that never fully healed, the trauma, the lost work, the new experience of vomiting blood with broken jaws and knocked out teeth. Because it wasn't that bad. And there was so much self-reproach, because I could have avoided it. I wasn't the intended target. He was swinging for a lesbian with me. When the attacker burst out of hiding he was swinging for the side of her head, her temple. I jumped in between them. Didn't think. It was an impulse. Protect the people you care about. So I took it to the face. And I grabbed him. I threw him, and fell doing it. I remember being on my knees in the mud. Seeing my teeth in the mud. Seeing my blood just. Everywhere. And knowing I needed to push back to my feet immediately because it might not be over.

We were lucky. It was over. He hadn't expected anyone to fight back. He ran.

But the people who claimed to love me didn't want to deal with the idea that it was a hate crime. They wanted it to be random and meaningless. That made their world a little safer, I guess. And their denial made my world colder. And my recovery lonelier. Harder. They put me down for "bringing it on myself." As if it would have been more virtuous to let this woman take that attack to her temple, as if I would have been more valid for standing by and watching it happen.

There are so many more stories I can tell you, but the lesson is almost invariably the same: the ugliest hurt is often the one caused by the people who just turn away when you identify what happened to you. The hurts that cut the deepest and last the longest often come from the people we thought we could trust, because they want you to just get over it, don't talk about it, admit it could have been worse, don't call it That.

The betrayal from people who are supposed to have your back? That deepens wounds, deepens trauma.

I won't be that person. I won't tell you to smile and turn the other cheek when someone shows you they hate you. Do whatever you need to do to survive--physically, emotionally, psychologically. Just don't give up, and don't let the cowards force you into feeling shame for not giving up and letting the world break you.

Never be ashamed to refuse to break.

Never let someone shame you for choosing strength. For drawing your line in the sand.

I wanted the "exciting" times of my life to be behind me. But they're not--so be it. I'm not going to tone myself down to be safer. I don't care about my own safety anymore. Any self-preservation drive broke a long time ago when it comes to homophobia. I promise to always be ready to fight. To be a queer menace to "polite" society. I promise to be out and loud and gay, to be a shield however I can for those who can't be out, who can't fight back, who can't even speak up because it wouldn't be safe for them to do so. They are valid, too. And I love them. And I will have their fucking backs. I promise to, in my real off-the-internet life, be someone who will always jump in and speak up if I see queer people being harassed or shamed--especially if they're young. I am older. I will fight for my baby gays. I will love them.

And I will never, never put anyone down for refusing to welcome Nazis into the bar. We don't look the other way and quietly tolerate them. Not here.

I may not be around much for the next few days. I need to handle my own shit. My own fury. My own grief. Because right now, there is so much grief.

But I won't be going anywhere.

I will fight to stay.

Whatever it takes.

I'm not giving up.

If I end up on my knees in the mud again, staring at my own blood and teeth, metaphorically or in fucking reality, so be it. I will get back up. And I will keep getting back up. I won't let go of the anger. The spite. And I definitely won't let go of my love for every queer person, the ones I know and the ones I don't, because that love is what will give me strength to get through this. Whatever comes next.

I may not have much sense of self-preservation. But goddamn, I will fight for you.

[teenitrash]

A few random things I want to talk about regarding Alien Stage bc the brainrot is real

1. The fact that they still let Till win even after he KILLED one of their brethren. His opponent must've been like somewhat bad to lose bc he literally smashed his alien guitar, not only killing an alien (his master idk???) but also showing incredible defiance which is something the aliens don't like??

2. The difference between Till's attitude in Round 6 compared to Round 7... GRANT ME THE SERENITY BC I CANT. In Round 6, Till was depressed and sad and emo and not rebellious AT ALL, which is so out of character for him. He was willing to die simply bc he didn't know if Mizi was dead or alive. BUT in Round 7, he was back to being lively and rebellious again, regardless of his struggle with his memories of Ivan. He still sang to the best of his ability and tried resisting Luka's manipulation.

My guess is that for Mizi, he found no point in living bc of his shallow love for her (this is just my opinion but according to canon, he loved her for her smile and kindness but didn't actually know her well) but with Ivan, he saw how Ivan died for him and didn't want this to be in vain (it kind of was in the end but we don't talk about that 😭) I just thought the difference in Till's attitude during the Rounds with regards to the different loved ones in his life was so distinct and important in some way

3. The way Ivan died for Till. I won't get over it, but it was so tragically beautiful and it makes me cry every time /j. The kiss, first of all AKSNSKAMSL like obviously it was non-consensual but like??? They are humans in an alien world and they know nothing of real love, so I don't think it's that big of a deal.

And secondly, Ivan acted like this on purpose for two reasons. One being that he wanted Till to win and survive and two, he knew that this would be HIS last moments so he wanted to spend it kissing the one he loved. But he could've stopped there couldn't he?? He could've just kissed him and left it at that after he saw the scoreboard BUT NO he fake strangled Till as well bc he wanted to be 100% sure that Till would be safe and alive so he acted violent to ensure his own death.

Bc he could've also stopped "choking" Till after the scores were final BUT he only let go of Till when blood came out his mouth, a for-sure indication that he was the one that was going to die. Even tho it was clear that Till won, Ivan didn't want the system to screw them over and held on until he was too weak to stand before letting go and dying. LIKE??? IDK IF I EXPLAINED THAT PROPERLY BUT I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A SAD DETAIL. Bc you can see how Ivan's eyes visibly softened after he coughed blood, after he knew that he was going to die, after he knew Till's survival was ensured.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk 😔 if I got anything wrong or if you'd like to add something feel free to say something. This is just me screaming about Alien Stage bc wtf was that last Round. Blink Gone is a bop but at what cost?? 😭😭

[separatist-apologist]

.

I didn't have a dad growing up- he left when I was 2 and I saw him twice after that. Once at his parents house for Christmas, and once when he being sentenced to prison.

I had my grandfather on my mom's side of the family. And while my sister raged and pleaded and begged our dad to pay attention to us, I don't think I thought about him much.

My grandpa came to every track meet- often the only person who came to see me run at all. He came to every play, every musical. He paid for my singing lessons, he bought me a keyboard and let me come to his house to play his piano.

When they released me from the hospital for anorexia, he was the one who picked me up.

When I got pregnant and my aunt's refused to speak to me, he still did- he came to the hospital with flowers to meet the baby. My middle son is named for him.

It feels weird to live in a world he doesn't exist in anymore. He was such a presence- a force. All the values I have, the things that are important to me came from him. He was around in a way none of the other adults in my life were. When my home was mired in violence, his home was a safe refuge.

Even when we knew he was going to leave, I thought some last minute miracle would spare him. The cancer had been bad before, he always survived. They gave him six months. He took two years. I don't know if I ever told him what he did for me, what it meant. How I never told him because I thought we'd have more time before it all fell apart. Because I didn't believe he was going to actually die.

The last thing he said to me and my cousins echoes loudly, "I hope all of you know that I love you all, individually and collectively. I wish you a lifetime of happiness and peace. Our lives should be guided by love and mercy. Learn to forgive yourself and others." He was apologizing because he wasn't leaving us money and didn't want us to think he loved us less because of it.

[instantpansies]

cw for animal death - fish death specifically

i kept science fair goldfish for about two years. one day i was out of the house all day, and when i came back and got up to my room, one of my fish (thor) (i named them all after norse deities) was lying on the hardwood floor in front of the tank. i panicked a bit, called my mom, and went to pick him up. he was stuck to the floor and nearly dry on the side exposed to the air - obviously he'd been there for a while. i thought he was dead, but as i practically pried him from the floorboards, his gills flickered, just a bit, and i realized he was still alive.

at this point my mom and i are flabbergasted. this fish is dry, all the water he'd splashed on the floor when he leaped from the tank was dried up, his scales were coming off as i peeled him off the floor. but he was still alive. i stand there dumbfounded with my goldfish in my hands, and my mom is like "put him in the water!!" so i do. i dunk him in, move him back and forth like at a catch-and-release pond. he looks bedraggled. exhausted, barely opening his mouth as his gills just barely flare enough for him to breathe. but i keep going, sort of desperately, because it's better than crying right now.

eventually he starts to perk up. but i can't swish him through the water forever, it's already late at night and i have other things to do. so we tape some plastic wrap into the corner of the tank (which by the way has five other fish in it. this setup was originally for an aquaponics system, so while the volume of fish to tank was still not ideal, it was at least staying filtered. however, at this point the aquaponics system had been dismantled, so it was just a lot of fish in a relatively small tank). we place thor in this sling of sorts, right next to the filter so he's getting water flow over his gills, and watch.

the other fish don't bother him, he's starting to be able to move his fins a bit, and he's still breathing. we leave him there and hope he survives the night.

he did. in fact, he survived an additional four months after that night. he eventually died along with all my other fish - these were pet store goldfish, they all died within a week of each other. thor was the second last one to go. he had permanent scale damage on the side that had crusted onto the floor, one of his fins was basically unusable for the same reason, and he required quarantine and some pretty intense bouts of medication to build back his cells enough to keep him alive - but he survived.

the kicker is, my dad and sibling were in the house all day. my room is directly above the living room where they were. i asked them if they'd heard anything or noticed when thor jumped out of the tank. and my dad said "huh, i heard some flopping around earlier, but i assumed it was someone on the porch and didn't investigate". he heard the sound in the early afternoon. thor had been on the floor slowly drying up for at least four hours before i found him. and yet my cheap pet store goldfish expected to die as soon as my experiment was over survived blunt-force trauma, being basically drowned for hours, heavy scale and fin damage, and very intense rescue efforts. i guess he's lucky i named him thor.

tagging @thegroundhogdidit @articus-icecream @hypersonicjd @siyratiin @leachcowboy sorry i can only do 5 tags but everyone is welcome to join, i have many mutuals

it's so weird to me that everyone on this website is a human person outside of their weird internet niche so rb this with a random bit of your lore

[streets-in-paradise]

A message of hope for my usamerican followers having a hard time right now:

As i mentioned before, your situation is so similar to what I remember from the Argentina elections last year that I couldn't help to feel like i was going through it again. Given the result didn't change, and both ended in the extreme right winning, i'm going to share with you something I learned in my experience.

When Milei won, what hurted me the most was feeling the betrayal of my neighbors. Looking arround on the streets and feeling this sensation that everybody hated me and voted to erradicate me like a plague. I didn't want to be here anymore, I felt there was no space for me to belong.

As time passed by the thing started to change with all those people that were partying his victory.

My mother's best friend voted for him and during the first months i refused to speak with her but got updates by my mother. While the first time she admitted it she was cheering, claiming the country was going to get better and other kinds of bullshit, happiness didn't last more than two or three months.

Like many other argentinians, she got wrecked by the economic policy of Milei. Then, she started seeing the stupid, the crazy and dangerous her beloved president was all along. Almost a year has passed and now when I see her and the topic emerges on the conversation she cheers me for going to the protests against Milei. We always talk of coordinating with her work schedule because she wants to be in one, but her time disposition is complicated.

So, turns out that many of my countrymen voted for him as some sort of " get rich quick" scheme based on all the lies he spread about the true intentions on his ecomical plan, not because they hated me.

It's true, some of your neighbors will not realize the mistake they have commited and will keep supporting the crazy facist because of their bigotred hate. But others will wake up like the trojans realizing they have caused their own destruction bringing the horse inside.

And with those there is still hope of survival if you get together and fight back.

[rpstartersinc]

* 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐄.

feel free to change pronouns / wording!

— " one of these has to say what happened. " — " prepare to be detained! " — " i'm so glad you're here, which way's the exit? " — " we told you to never come back here. " — " why are we all yelling? " — " no need for violence. " — " thanks for the head start, do you want to give me another one? " — " alright, all clear. " — " i had to jump out of a window this time, almost died, it was wild. " — " i need a new best friend. " — " don't you want to choose your own path, do whatever you want? " — " your feelings get you in trouble. " — " i don't like how fast you answered that. " — " i'm sorry that i somehow gave you the impression that we're friends. " — " could you please exit the tunnel of death? " — " if i get fired because of you— " — " next time why don't you stop and think before you ruin someone's life. " — " my finger can transform, guess which one? " — " you know you were out of line. " — " aren't you tired of being treated like we're nothing? " — " i'm glad you were there with me to get punched in the face, it was fun. " — " humility and presence, that's leadership. " — " what if i kill you for waking me up. " — " don't be a glitch, this'll be totally be worth it. " — " it's time to show them we are more than meets the eye. " — " if we survive this, i'm going to kill you. " — " do not worry, you will be fixed up in no time. " — " i'm not talking to you. " — " i thought you weren't talking to me. " — " i am less mad at you. " — " please stop punching me in the face. " — " i'm gonna need you to talk less. " — " i think this is not right, we should go. " — " it's scanning for life forms, move, move! " — " a cave with teeth... nothing scary about that. " — " why shouldn't we? just walking into the scariest place i've ever seen in my entire life. " — " you deserved so much better than this end. " — " you have not been saved, you've been living a lie. " — " i swear, i will get you the rest. " — " every single day of my life has been a lie. " — " how could we have been so gullible? " — " you just had to do it, didn't you? " — " nothing bad happens when you stay on protocol. " — " you're never thinking about anything else, just yourself. " — " i want him to suffer and then to die in darkness. " — " how you choose to use that power is up to you. " — " i still think we have better odds fighting than outrunning them. " — " traitor. you are a disgrace. " — " you've been a little quiet... " — " i will never trust a so-called leader ever again. " — " are you spies? or just incompetent lackeys. " — " you think you can insult me and just walk away? " — " no one leaves here unless i say so. " — " this is the last time i show mercy. " — " i feel like someone dropped a cliff on me. " — " this is a disaster. " — " it's all my fault. " — " i'm better than you. " — " i'm better than you in every way except you have hope. " — " first time giving a pep talk? " — " you're inspiring. " — " why should we follow you? " — " i don't understand, why are we still alive? " — " i'm not kneeling in front of you. " — " you don't scare me. " — " i don't have anything left to lose. " — " what defines a transformer is not the cog in its chest, but the spark that resides in their core. " — " the truth is what i make it. " — " relax! i'm being very gentle! " — " it was already like that. " — " he took everything from us! " — " he deserves to die, can't you see that? " — " you need to move out of my way, before i move you myself. " — " i'm done saving you. " — " no more false prophets! " — " it's over. " — " it's over when every last one of his followers is dead. " — " we could've built the future together. " — " we were given the power to change our world and you chose to destroy it. " — " you betrayed me. " — " it didn't have to end this way. " — " the line between friend and enemy is not as clear as i once believed, once it's crossed, there's no going back. " — " i hear it's dangerous. " — " you watch my back, i'll promise to watch yours. " — " it's a long story, i'll fill you in later. "

[l-in-the-light]

How does Law deal with his fear of losing loved ones? 😢

Uh, how does he deal with it... Considering what we saw already, I think the answer is "he deals with it badly".

Let's take a closer look at the situations in which he lost people. Fair warning, this will be kinda long and I will go into insufferable number of details, because I feel like it :D Flevance, for starters. First he lost his parents, then his friends from church, then finally his sister, and each time it seems to hit him only harder. One of these traumas would be enough to make you paranoid of losing anyone ever again, but it's a freaking triple portion of that.

Helplessly sitting there in the midst of corpses of his friends, crying and screaming, as if they could still hear him.

His first longterm reaction was losing faith, but not just in religion or god, but "anything". This means he most likely lost faith in people's kindness and compassion (soldiers killing off children and the nun), honesty (again, soldiers tricking the nun and breaking their promise to her to save the children), morality (not even women and kids will be spared), his doctor skills (he didn't manage to save anyone despite being a kid of a doctor), trust in others (because again no one helped him, his parents or anyone else in Flevance. He got out just because he didn't expect to receive any help, he's solely self-dependant at the age of 10 and probably survived on the streets completely by himself too).

Finally, he joined Doflamingo's Family out of desperation, but at first they didn't want to take him in.

He was sitting on a pile of trash, having a really vivid flashback that clearly triggered him and make him lash out at Corazon, full of directionless rage. He was probably thinking they won't accept him into the family after all, so he wanted to take down at least one life of a "scum", as he said it himself.

But even after they accepted him into the family, he's still pretty much expressionless and avoiding getting close with people, which might have been his subconscious self-defense mechanism. If he's not close to anyone, it won't hurt him anymore if anyone dies. He might have been part of the family, getting engaged with his studies and training, but he really didn't grow close with them. Sure, he spends some time with Baby5 and Buffalo, but it seems their interactions are mostly forced by the other kids and didn't start from Law's own initiative.

Like here, "I wasn't asking for [your real names]" and "I only said [my name] because you kept bugging me!". He is not curious about the other kids, he doesn't feel like having fun anymore either (possible sign of depression or traumatic response: suddenly not enjoying things you previously did enjoy). Considering the fact he believes he's gonna die soon, depression would be also pretty much understandable.

Summing it up, at first he dealt with it by putting distance between himself and other people, succumbing to depression, not only feeling like nothing is fun but also thinking it's pointless to even try to change it, and also trying not to think about Flevance (the last part is for self-preserving reasons).

We could see him getting retraumatized over and over again while Corazon dragged him around the different hospitals, and he says it himself: it took so much toll on his mental wellbeing that it even affected his physical health and made the disease progress faster. Anything related to amber lead syndrome and what happened at Flevance, and even just people's reactions to sick people, seem to really affect him in a bad way and psychologically-wise revisit the hell he barely survived.

After he finally got someone he cares about again (Cora-san), he starts to regain his faith in people's kindness and love again (he probably thought no one can love him after he lost every single person who loved him before). Doesn't mean he stops fearing that Cora-san might die and he deals with his fear by constantly worrying about him:

He's so one-track minded about it that he doesn't even pay attention to what Cora-san is telling him. His fear and worry must have been really overwhelming him to the point that he couldn't focus on anything else.

He's blaming himself whenever anyone gets hurt as the result of trying to help him. Later he ever provokes Vergo just so he would harm Law instead of Cora-san, because Law can't deal with the thought that someone dear to him would suffer for his sake or because of his mistake.

Next step is him trying to compensate for the damage. He literally does everything Cora-san wants him to do, even go and talk to a Marine, despite having really hard time doing it (he has bad memories of the Marines and he might have feared them at this point).

Despite promising to stay put, he wants to get out of the chest as soon as he hears gunshots (after all last time it happened, Cora-san ended up badly injured!). But what would he do next, if he truly managed to get out? You can guess it, he would take the blow for Cora-san instead of him. He tried to do the same before, take the beating from Vergo so he stops harming his Cora-san. Law's not beyond self-sacrificing himself if it saves people who are dear to him. He would prefer to die himself than seeing them die (especially for his sake) and not being able to do anything about it.

That's why he says this despite the fact he's in such a bad state he can't move. But he doesn't worry about himself, only about his crew's wellbeing (they can't die on him!).

It's the same in Dressrosa. He either sacrifices himself for them so they can escape (he almost died there, lost his arm, was buying time for Luffy; all of these actions count as sacrifice), or he dies together with them. Technically, what Bepo did by saving him makes Law 100% re-live his past trauma again.

And since trauma is a vicious cycle, that means he might go back to his previous stages after he lost to Blackbeard: putting distance between himself and people, keeping people dear to him safe (which means away from him), trying to focus the possible backlash on himself instead of on them. Generally, he would make sure they don't get harmed for his sake. He might go on another solo mission, leaving his crew behind, just like he did for Dressrosa and Punk Hazard (until he stumbled upon Strawhats, but he also wanted to break the alliance before they get too engaged into his plan, despite barely knowing them).

That could potentially also make us better understand his refusal to get saved by Luffy back in Dressrosa, especially after Law made sure that Doflamingo lashes out at him, not Luffy and the Strawhats, sacrificing himself for them and buying time.

He also deals with his fear by being overprotective. What could he even do for Luffy here if someone attacks them? He couldn't even move or stand up! He would protect Luffy simply by bodyblocking, taking harm in his place... His own survival or wellbeing be damned.

So the second phase of him dealing with his fear of losing people is being overprotective of them, pushing them out of harm's way even at the cost of his own wellbeing or life (sometimes that means tucking them away in a safe place, sometimes it means taking the damage on himself in their place), and agreeing with anything and everything to compensate for putting them in danger, as long as it doesn't harm them. For example, they want to carry them for half of Dressrosa in uncool fashion? So be it, as long as they're not in danger.

That's Law's way of dealing with his fear at it's worst. At it's best though? Hearts and Luffy taught him again how to have faith in people. Bepo, Penguin and Shachi (and Wolf) opened his heart after he had again no one left (second time in his life already) and simply were there for him, and he returned the favour. He lived in quite a peaceful town so for a while he didn't have to worry about losing them (though he had to save their lives twice anyway, always overdoing himself in the process and doing everything by himself, because he couldn't mentally handle the possibility of losing them). Yet soon after trouble in the town happened, he decided it's time to leave the island for good and maybe it wasn't just a coincidence; his fear of losing people might have finally pushed him to take that step.

Law also trusted Luffy to deal with the Sanji's situation on his very own. He could have gone with Luffy to Whole Cake Island, simply because he was worried sick and afraid he might lose him, but he chose to *have faith* in him instead and to wait for him in Wano. What's the difference between this situation and Dressrosa? I guess the urgency. In a normal situation, he can convince himself that it's okay and people won't die on him, if he tries hard enough to fight his fear. Perhaps he also takes some measures to prevent bad stuff from happening, to calm his mind (could he help Luffy in any way on the Whole Cake Island despite not being there by himself? Who knows. But I wouldn't put it past him). But when the situation is dire, he loses to that fear and does really reckless things to protect people. Thankfully, he still has enough awareness to not die on people either, but at times it gets alarmingly close (again, nearly dying in Dressrosa, putting himself in jail in exchange for freeing his Hearts in Wano).

Third time's the charm, let's see how he reacts after the scare of losing his crew to Blackbeard and probably believing, yet again, this is all his fault, because he's the captain and responsbile for their wellbeing. What do you think, after Law lost did the Heart Pirates throw themselves between him and the enemy to protect him?

Because I think they did, 100% certain of it. Law would take it really badly. He would feel like he's again in his past, having to watch his parents and sister and kids dying, or Cora-san being shot to death, and Law again can't do anything about it. That ought to crank up his fear of losing people to 1000%. We can't really expect rational behaviour out of him as the result. I think he will do anything to never repeat it again, and that doesn't mean training like crazy with his crew, but instead leaving them behind so they're out of the harm's way. It is definitely not one of his better days, in which his faith in people will win over his fear of losing them.

I don't know how much he's bluffing when he says things like that, both in Dressrosa and Wano, but even if he himself doesn't always believe in this, just him saying it to others means a lot. Also faith in others doesn't have to be "blind faith". I think it's unreasonable to expect Law to have blind faith in *anything* after what he went through in his life. But he seems to never doubt Luffy, for example, and that's also a sign of his belief in him. Doesn't mean he won't worry his ass over him or that he won't become overprotective, because one doesn't exclude the other :)

And a bonus: how I wish Law dealt with his fear instead. I want him to have a strong crew that he can have faith in to take care of themselves, to trust his dear people to prioritize their own survival (even if it's Usopp's style!) so he won't have to worry for them dying for the cause. And he should definitely stay close to Luffy, because they both having self-sacrificing tendencies and they both worry about each other so much. They can learn together how to be better about it. But Law's fear will always come back in worst situations, because something so deeply rooted can't just go away and never resurface. I'm sure he can manage it better though, we saw him doing that in Zou!

[mrfancyfoot]

Today I logged into facebook for the first time in nearly 4 years and went through every profile in my friends list (like ~300) and purged out all the assholes (anyone who openly voted for Trump, other conservatives, and those who I strongly believe did). I've done this before so there weren't many but there are a number that have been wishy-washy with being outward in their bigotry and it helps me keep a mental list of people that deserve only the most very basic level of respect that I can muster because they certainly do not respect me nor people I care about nor many of their fellow human beings. Most disheartening is seeing friends and family who continue to put effort into engaging with people who argue in bad faith and weaponized ignorance.

I dated a man for nearly a year who went to women's and pro-choice rallies and liberal groups with me and said many times that he "was on my side" but turned out to be lying the whole time because he knew I definitely wouldn't date him otherwise. I'd known him for years before since we ran in the same friend circle. I wasn't the only one he had fooled. He slowly lifted the mask until we were constantly arguing because of his bigoted and racist remarks. His favorite thing to do was act oppressed and show me the most obvious Russian propaganda that he would get upset at me for fact-checking and asking for real sources. He wanted to argue, so what he hated most was when I refused to argue with him. Nothing I said was going to change his mind, so I wasn't going to humor or tolerate it (we didn't last long after that point, but by that time, I was afraid of leaving without an excuse that would be "good enough" for him). He legitimately wants civil war so that he can play survival hero and feel validated in his hatred. It didn't come on quickly and a lot of the comments started as "odd" off the cuff things through the time that we dated. He was very much pretending to be a kind person and once really called out, that pretense dropped. He thought I was more like him and that a lot of my regard and kindness for others is "fake." Because that's what a lot of people like that do - they fake being kind for optics, they are not actually kind people, and therefore presume that everyone else is doing the same thing. It's given me major trust issues.

Can't say this enough: these people feel validation in their bigotry when you continue to associate with them. They need to be dropped. They need to learn that their shitty beliefs mean that they get shunned. Make them feel uncomfortable. Quit tiptoeing around and coddling their delicate little feelings because they might get upset. It's okay for them to get upset because someone was mean and told them they don't like them because they think gay and trans people shouldn't exist. I once made a post about how a raped 11 year old child should never be expected to give birth, was told that it was "god's will" and like 5 people piled on the guy so badly he told us to stop being "mean" to him and was terrified to talk to me at work ever again (I have since cut all ties and no longer work with him). I'm personally extremely tired of playing nice for the sake of possibly "converting" someone - especially because you can be polite in telling someone to fuck off with their beliefs. Their beliefs are dangerous, are going to result in people losing their lives, and a frightening number of them are completely okay with that. We need to stop being tolerant of intolerance. It is okay to cut people (including family) from your life when all their presence does is bring you stress and harm.

In a similar vain, don't let the people who chose not to vote (or "protest voted") stick their heads in the sand to escape blame. They are just as culpable as anyone else who directly voted for Trump and other conservatives. They need to grow the fuck up.

For a lot of liberals, it's really uncomfortable to be confrontational and feel like you're being intolerant of someone, but it's way past time to play hardball and call them out instead of coddling them, especially as we're going into the holiday season where many of us will be seeing family with shitty views and targeted family that may need someone to stand up for them. Let them know they're shitty and inappropriate and a disappointment and unworthy of your regard because they certainly lack it for others. Obviously still be safe, but many of us very likely aren't losing anything of value in that scenario. Not having bigoted family members in my life in any way has made me so much happier.

A helpful tip to those who may find themselves in a confrontation: do not stay engaged. Let your views be known and then disengage. Because many of them love to argue and feel like they're defending themselves (many are addicted to those feelings of hatred and overcoming "oppression"), what they don't like is being ignored and feeling like you're rinsing your hands of them. They don't deserve your stress and constant efforts. There are ways to open a dialogue when they are willing to discuss civilly with an open mind, but if they bring intolerance, just shut it down.

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[witheredgardenparty]

I will never forgive a single one of you

[time-is-restored]

btw not to make everything about My Fucking Guy but i honestly think one of the things that seperates q!phil out from the other islanders is the approach he takes to dealing with the lack of agency + control all the islanders have over whatever the fuck the federation's doing.

it shows up most prominently whenever tubbo is excitedly telling him about the 'progress' he's made with cucurucho or various investigations (ie: trapping him into a corner with the 'do you have free will' questions), and phil always shoots it down w an immediate 'that doesn't mean anything. curucuho will say anything to mess with you. you can't take anything he says as true.'

and it's not that phil is... a paticularly pessimistic character? he's just EXTREMELY practical. like, he's yet to give up on anyone EVER finding ANY answers (he was the one who initially gave the federation that one week ultimatum w the cage for a cage stream), he just doesn't trust the idea that curucuho is ever going to voluntarily give them. they're uncontrollable + senseless - you might as well argue with the weather.

and like, if that's how he sees the one (1) and only point of contact the islanders HAD with the federation for months, it explains a lot abt his characters lifestyle! ofc he sits on the wall all day, talking to his kids, and keeping his head down. he believes that the federation wants nothing more than to drag the islanders into sick games + tasks just so they can fuck with their head (ie: curucuho revealing he was the one cellbit gathered all that information for). and while he can't totally PREVENT any of that from ever impacting him, he can make sure his kids are well fed, well protected, and as happy + comfortable as he can manage. this is objectively not a perfect situation, there is a guaranteed amount of suffering + fear that he can't mitigate, but he can at least account for it.

like, he REFUSES to engage. whenever curucho shows up, he treats them with total ambivalence. he's not going to get riled up by anything they do, he's not going to get super attached to the guy, he's just gonna laugh it off and irish goodbye it when things drag on. the ONLY time he's strayed from that general guiding principle has been since he's lost his eggs, and can no longer afford to let the federation's fuckery go: those are his fucking kids.

hence the completely unprecedented levels of outward rage and sadness and terror he shows throughout the birdcage streams - almost all directed directly to cucurucho. it's all a completely fair + proportional response to the horror the islanders are being subjected to, but it feels so different bc until now, q!phil has been so dedicated to not reacting, and not giving the federation any sign that they're actually getting to him.

[arasigyrn]

My maternal granduncles were, in retrospect, very clearly neurodivergent and were considered 'odd' by their community. I barely knew them because socializing was not something they ever did.

They ended up living long lives, mainly thanks to the fact that they were known and had relatives all around to help but age came for them and they started to need the kind of medical help that involved hospitals because my maternal family routinely outlives the warranty on their lungs.

My aunt, one of the support system, was the one who drove them to hospital. One day, she called my mum from the hospital. The last surviving uncle had had an x-ray and the doctors were worried about it.

"Is it pneumonia?" Mum asked.

"No."

"Is it TB? I didn't think he was the one that had it but he might have-"

"No." my aunt said, loud enough that I heard it from across the room. "It's spotty!"

"Spotty?"

"There's all these little white dots," my aunt said.

"In his lungs?"

"In his whole body!!"

"Oh," Mum paused. "On the x-ray?"

"That's what I said."

"Hmm," Mum paused again. "Do you think it's the pellets?"

"The what?"

"The pellets, you know, from the shotgun."

I should mention at this point that we are all Irish. Living in Ireland, guns are not particularly common, nor was I aware of any living relative with a history with guns. My aunt was delighted; of course that must be it!

When she hung up, I was waiting because WTF!?!

"Oh yes," Mum told me in the same tone of voice she spoke about friends I'd had in Junior Infants. "They had this game you see. [Younger Uncle] would run down the stairs while [Older Uncle] loaded the shotgun. He'd slam the door just as the shot was fired. We had to change the door when they stopped farming."

"Were they trying to kill each other?"

"Oh no," Mum said. "It was just them acting the maggot. They did it for years until [Younger Uncle] started to slow down. Your grandmother had to take the shotgun away at that point. They both sulked for weeks!"

And then she went off around her day

[parsapuff]

Who put the entire charmony dove copypasta in my poll come out rn

[running-in-the-dark]

my niece is staying with us for the whole weekend for the first time. until now it's always been one night only, not two.

it's the second night now and I have already decided this is not happening again anytime soon. I'm so fucking exhausted. it'd be less exhausting if it was my nephew, I think - he's older and also doesn't need as much help (even when he was her age).

I love my niece but she just asks so many questions. like when we're watching a show or a movie, even if it's one she has seen before (even multiple times), she doesn't understand what's going on and constantly asks me to explain everything. I don't mind it, really, but it does take a lot of energy. plus tonight it took over two hours for her to fall asleep because she was scared by the noises of the house and the nearby road. I get it, but damn I'm so fucking tired, I just want to sleep 😭

[boxwinebaddie]

everytime i rem(ember) that at the end of rm jersey has short hair something inside me screams and dies