#Or people whose politics we don't agree with

[itsfreerealestatelol]

Just. Really fast.

I really do try to keep politics away from my social media but...

I'm American. We just voted for the stupidest candidate we could have possibly voted for. If you know that one Cyanide and Happiness skit where the presidential candidates were a perfectly good, reasonable and professional person vs. a literal glutton for humiliation promising to make the country fall into ruin just for shits and giggles? Yeah that's basically this election right now. We fucking voted for a man so cartoonishly bad he is basically a Cyanide and Happiness character.

This country quite literally hates women more than it actually wants to have freedom. That's the bottom line here.

We are literally getting lambasted by OTHER COUNTRIES because we voted for Trump, our allies overseas are quite literally calling us idiots, and frankly? We fucking deserve it. People want to kill themselves over this election, LITERAL CHILDREN are concerned for the future of this country- I recently heard my very, very conservative, God-fearing mother express concern over her own future moving forward over Trump. It wasn't just her either, it was my entire right-wing family as well, they are all so concerned about what's going to happen with Trump in office, so it's not just the fucking liberals or whatever who are terrified of what's about to happen.

I'm scared for the hundreds of thousands of other queer folks out there who didn't get the chance to start living their truest selves before their rights got stripped again. I'm scared for the women who now have to live in constant fear of their own bodies because what if they get taken advantage of and don't want to carry the baby, or what if they miscarry or birth a still born? Congratulations you're going to jail! I'm scared for the POC people in our country who are about to face the worst racism this country has seen since the goddamn slave-years. I'm scared for every single person in this country who isn't a cishet white man because they're about to face the consequences of someone else's actions and have no say in it.

I'm scared for the businesses who are about to face tariffs so dumb they're going to have to restrict their worker's pay. I'm scared for the enviornment because Trump wants to go after the fucking climate crisis for some goddamn reason. I'm scared for my own future, because I want to go through college, I want to be an architect, and I may not get that opportunity over the sex I was born with and didn't get a choice in having.

I agree with the people that are saying shit like "if we can elect a president with 34 felons, then you should be able to get a job with one" because yeah. I think people are seriously forgetting Trump is convicted on 34 felony charges, is a rapist, a literal national security risk, is half a billion dollars in debt, is also convicted of fraud, whose own political party minus the loud part stopped supporting him, and his administration is not returning to the White House because they either hate him or are in jail.

And yet we elected him to be our president.

All of this to say-

Raise fucking hell.

Demand those votes be recounted, fight for your rights, donate to good causes, research what stores and businesses support human decency, do what you think you can do within your own limits to help our country and it's people.

We are not done fighting, we are not going to just wallow in our own defeat. If they get to be loud, then we get to be louder.

As Optimus says, "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings"

-

Edit:

Trump doesn't have the power to do shit right now. That is why I'm saying we fight before he does.

And also,

Our lives are worth more than the price of gas and eggs. Remember that.

[anxiousosaurus]

Wearing these to commemorate the day!

[mustainegf]

Sooo james is your best friend and he is a plus one for a wedding and he knows nobody there and he sees you talking to some guy and he gets possesive and jealous and you tell him that he is your cousin but then you realise that he likes you or smth aaaaaand you fuck in the car outside the venue

(i know this is too long, I'm so sorry)

𝐏𝐋𝐔𝐒 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ¹⁹⁹⁶

I toyed with the delicate lace sleeves of my dress for the millionth time as I stood in front of the mirror. The soft ivory colored fabric fitted, dare I say, just right, while the detailed beadwork sparkled delicately in the light.

I exhaled, trying to gather my nerves. Weddings always made me a little nervous, but tonight was a totally different story. Tonight, I had James as my plus one.

James and I had been friends for years, cemented in so many memories. For me, he was way more than just a friend. Though his exterior was quite thick, he had a heart of pure gold, and he knew just the way to make me smile.

I heard someone knock at the door, and when I opened it, there James was, dressed in his tailored black dinner jacket suit. His usual casualness turned into some polished elegance, though his eyes still held that rogue gleam.

"Wow," he said, his voice low and appreciative as his eyes traced up and down my figure. "You look beautiful."

A blush crept up my cheeks as I smiled shyly. "Thank you, James. You clean up pretty well yourself." I chuckled softly, pretending to dust off his shoulders.

He laughed, stepping into the room. "I do what I can. Ready to go?"

I nodded, reaching over and looping my arm through his as we left. That brought the problem, with this many guests at the wedding, James was going to be known by at least somebody, and while he had agreed to be my date, I still was nervous that he might be a bit ticked off getting attention.

James didn't like to show it, but he really was quite shy, preferring to slip into the crowd rather than be the one directing it.

The ceremony was gorgeous, such a great mix of love and tradition. During the ceremony, several times, James would glance my way, his soft, admiring eyes, rarely ever to be seen, something that made me feel special.

We ended up sitting at a table with some of my distant relatives during the reception. They were excited to meet James, who, in turn, was very polite. I could feel his discomfort.

"Can I get you something to drink?" he asked, bending close to me. His breath in my ear, and that deep voice of his sent ripples down my spine.

"Just some water, please," I replied, smiling up at him. "Thanks, James."

He nodded and made his way to the bar, leaving me with my relatives, who immediately bombarded me with questions.

"How did you meet James?" asked one of my second cousins, whose round eyes nearly popped with her curiosity.

"I did stage work for his band like years ago," I said, trying to sound polite. "We've just been friends since then I guess." I say with a laugh.

"Friends, huh?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "He seems pretty into you."

I laughed it off, but her words stuck like superglue. Was James into me? I shook my head once more. He was just a friend. Surely...

He came back with our drinks and set a glass of water before me. "Here ya go."

"Thanks," I said, taking a sip of the water. "Are you okay? You seem kind of jittery."

He shrugged, giving me a small smile. "Just not used to being in a room full of people who don't know me... Well most people. It's really nice, actually."

I nodded, I understood what he meant, having done work with the band, I knew how relentless some fans could get.

We spent the next hour chatting with other guests and dancing. James was shockingly an excellent dancer, guiding me effortlessly across the floor. His hands slipped into a grip on my hips that felt like always should've been.

As the evening ticked on, I was having a conversation with one of my cousins, Mark, who I hadn't seen in years. We were chatting about old times, dumb stuff we did as kids, when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning back, I found James, his jaw clenched, his eyes a little squinted.

"Who is this?" he asked, so easy, yet laced with something that I knew was less than kind.

"This is my cousin, Mark," I said, introducing them. "Mark, this is James, my date."

James relaxed a little at my words, though in his eyes, I could still see the unease. "Nice to meet you, man," he said, holding out a hand to Mark.

Mark shook it, smiling up at James, who was much taller than him. "Nice to meet you too, James."

There was this awkward silence, and I felt the need to break it. "James, why don't we go get some air?"

He nodded, and we excused ourselves, stepping out of the venue, just outside the doors. The sweet night air was cool and forgiving. I turned to James, who was staring out at the stars with clenched shoulders.

"What's going on?" I asked gently. "You were weird back there."

He sighed and ran a hand through his short ruffled hair. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to come off like that. I guess I just… I didn't like seeing you with some other guy."

I blinked in surprise. "James, he's my cousin."

"I know that now," he said quickly. "I just… I don't know. It felt weird. I'm sorry. I feel really dumb now."

I searched his expression. Could he mean more in his words? Was it the continuous lingering gaze throughout the evening, the possessiveness in his tone, that finally could be a proof he has feelings for me? Could he really?

"It's okay," I nodded softly. "I understand."

He turned to me slowly, his eyes boring into mine. "Do you?"

I nodded, though I wasn't entirely sure that I did. The idea that James might have feelings for me was paralyzing. In a good way.

The idea of him feeling the same way that I did, because, if I'm going to be honest with myself here, I have developed feelings for him too, was something that was hard to be ignored.

"Let's go back inside," I said, clearing my head. "We still got a wedding to enjoy."

He smiled, and in that second, things were good. "Yeah, let's do that."

The rest of the night was spent dancing and laughing, but I just couldn't get that question out of my head. Had James felt something for me? If so, what did it mean?

With the sky darkening, James and I walked toward his car to find the soft hum of crickets filling the night air as we were leaving.

James, being the gentleman he was, matched strides with me with a light hand resting at my lower back.

We walked to his car, sleek and black. "Tonight was… interesting." He said with a low chuckle, almost like he was trying to relieve any sort of ill air.

I turned toward him, his tone piquing my curiosity. "Yeah,but I had a great time with you. Even if you were a bit tense."

He rubbed the back of his neck, and a sheepish grin tugged on the corners of his lips. "I guess so. I just—" He looked aside for a second before his eyes locked with mine again. "I didn't like seeing you with someone else."

I blinked, taken aback by the admission. "James, I told you, Mark is my cousin ".

He chuckled, but of course, it was nervous. He didn't have to make that, like his usual, confident laugh. "I know, I know. It's just… seeing you with him made me realize... a lot."

My heart felt a heavy beat. "Realize what?"

He drew a deep breath, as if bracing himself. "That I'm in love with you."

Those words strung along in the air, floating around as I tried to collect them. I stood there, stunned, shocked, bewildered, unable to form any coherent response. James shifted uncomfortably, mistaking my silence for something else.

"Seeing you with him just brought something to the surface, and I'm sorry if this is gonna... fuck things up."

I didn't need to think, I reached up and cupped his face in my hands, pulling him down to my level. Standing on my tiptoes, I pressed my lips to his in a kiss that was loving but thirsting. For a heartbeat, he was still, then responded as his hands instinctively slid around to my hips, drawing me closer to press against him.

It was as if the whole world had opened up in front of us after years of saying 'Just fuckin' kiss already!'

With mingling breaths and soft laughter escaping through the kisses. When we finally pulled back, our foreheads rested against each other, with our lips still touching.

"I´ve been in love with you for so long, James," I confessed, my voice shaking from my emotions as I ran my hand over his cheek, feeling his prickly facial hair.

He smiled at me then, such a natural, heartfelt smile that I'd always loved for its uniqueness. "That makes two of us."

His hand trailed down my arm, fingers intertwining with mine. "Get in the backseat, missy," he said, murmuring low, his eyes full of intentions and a tad bit of the liquor from earlier.

My heart grew weak in my chest at what I knew he meant. I nodded, letting him lead me around the back door he had opened on his car.

He gestured for me to get in first, and so I did, feeling the quickening of my pulse.

James quickly slid in beside me, closing the door behind us as my arms instinctively reached for him. His eyes brooded into mine, soft but still insistent as they ate me up. "You're sure?"

I moved in closer, lightly touching my lips to his. "Always."

As we kissed, hands moved over each others bodies, discovering all the curves and lines with our touch rather than just sight. I straddled him, my dress hitching up around my thighs as I settled onto his lap. His hands found their way to my hips, pulling me closer, and I felt the heat of his bulge pressing up against me.

"God, you're beautiful," he whispered against my lips, voice hoarse. "I've wanted this since the day I saw you."

I smiled, my chest spilling with love and lust. "Me too, James. M-Me too..."

Our lips met again, and this time, it was much deeper. Our tongues danced, explored, each shock was evident in his taut body and the barely restrained need. But what turned me on was how I couold feel him getting harder by the second, his clothes erection rubbing my thigh.

"I want you," I begged, pleading for anything he would give me. "Right here, right now."

"I need you, James. I need you so much."

James responded with his hands sliding under my dress to stroke my thighs. I moaned into his mouth again, this feel of his hands being something I never knew I needed. He lifted my dress higher, exposing my delicate panties, and he was tender, reverent.

"You're so perfect," he murmured against my skin, his lips trailing down my neck. "So fuckin' perfect."

I ticked at his words, my fingers threading through his hair as I held him close. "I love you, James."

He looked up at me then, his eyes very dark. "I love you too."

He pulled my panties to the side, the tips of his fingers touching my most private parts. I gasped as my body arched up into him. His fingers took teir sweet ass time, learning each crease and vulnerable nerve.

"You're so wet," he whispered in wonder. "All for me."

"Yes," I breathed, already dripping just at the thought of what we were about to do. "I want you inside me, James. Please."

He didn't need any other invitation. He undid his zipper and quickly released himself from within his dress pants. He sat there for a split second, gripping the base of himself that the breath caught in my throat. With a soft chuckle, he pressed himself at my entrance, his eyes locked with mine.

"This might be a bit awkward," he said with a small, nervous laugh.

I giggled at him, falling in love with his dorkiness all over again. "I'm sure we'll live."

Slowly, carefully, he guided himself inside me. I could feel every singl inch, every vein, as seated his complete length inside me. I moaned softly, trying to dig my fingers into his shoulders as I adjusted to the feeling of him inside me.

"You're tight, baby," he groaned, restraining himself. "You feel s-so good."

Slowly I rocked my hips, trying out different angles to find a rhythm that suited the both of us. I gasped as I felt his tip just gently graze my G spot.

I bounced softly, his greedy fingers pawing at my sides as he helped buck upwards. Everything was more in the close confines of the car, every touch, every movement as we whispered soft, breathless words.

"That's it, honey," he murmured against my lips, "so, so perfect."

I whined softly, my frame trembling with the stretch of him. "Keep going, James. Don't stop."

His free hand grasped gently at my bouncing breasts, squeezing at me like I was his own personal toy, looking to enjoy every second of it. "I love you," he said again. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," I replied. My voice was breaking with emotion. "So much."

It was creeping in, the thrusts, so timed and deliberate. I could feel my orgasm approaching, knotting in my stomach.

"James," I gasped, trying so hard not to cum right there and then. "I'm so close."

"Me too," he groaned, his hands clamping on my hips, my flesh spilling from between his strong fingers. "Cum with me, baby. Cum with me."

With one last, mighty thrust, I was cumming all over his cock, my walls gripping him as if begging for more. The air was occupied by my cry as fingers bit into his shoulders. Soon enough, James followed. He quickly pulled out, pumping his fist to reach the edge.

"Quick, grab my shirt-" He gasped.

I laughed out loud at him, rapidly bunching up his shirt to his chest, just seconds before he was spilling cum all over his tummy. The warm, thick liquid dripped down as the final spurts washed over him.

The two of us just sat there for the moment, gasping for breath and trembling.

Both James and I locked eyes before falling into laughter. "That was amazing," he choked out, still hoarse.

James helped me balance myself carefully, his hands remaining on my hips as he did so. "it's a good thing your suit isn't wrecked," I mumble with a short giggle.

"Yeah, thanks for that..." He chuckled, paying a short kiss to my lips.

[darklinaforever]

Daemon as father :

- Seems to want children in general, but not in the state of his marriage to Rhea Royce.

- Teaches Baela high Valyrian himself.

-Shares a goodnight kiss with Baela, and continues to watch her as she walks away.

- Daemon kissing Laena's baby bump.

- Rhaena saying Daemon ignores her.

- Laena replying that in reality he is doing his best.

- Daemon completely unsure how to handle Laena's traumatic death with Baela and Rhaena.

- Daemon telling Viserys that Pentos is his home and that of his children, therefore his daughters.

- Daemon subtly checking where Baela and Rhaena are when he returns from his intimate moment with Rhaenyra in the great hall of Drifmark.

- Daemon who agrees to honor Laena's will by sending Baela as Rhaenys' ward to know the part of her heritage linked to Drifmark (in addition to obviously wanting to calm Rhaenys in relation to Laenor).

- Daemon maintains a corresponds with his daughter Baela.

- Daemon having kept Rhaena by his side in Dragonstone.

- Daemon caressing Rhaenyra's baby bump.

- Daemon defending the position of heir of Drifmark of his stepson Lucerys.

- Daemon looking proud to present his sons Aegon III and Viserys II.

- Daemon stroking Viserys II's hair.

- Daemon who tries to console Viserys II when he cries.

- Daemon decapitates Vaemond for insulting his stepsons of bastard.

- Daemon who agrees to marry Baela & Rhaena to Jace & Luke, therefore allowing his daughters a good marriage, both politically speaking and with good people.

- Daemon who seems proud that Lucerys finally has his place as future lord of Drifmark assured.

- Daemon seems particularly happy and cheerful to toast the engagement of his daughters and sons-in-law.

- Daemon who stops the fight led by his daughter Baela and his stepsons Luke and Jace against Aegon II and Aemond.

- Daemon who shows Jace what the definition of true loyalty is.

- Daemon who defends the position of heir to the Iron Throne that Jace has.

- Daemon who collapses on the beach after the death of his stillborn daughter Visenya.

- Daemon watching Baela & Rhaena during baby Visenya's funeral.

- Daemon who walks towards Rhaenyra to announce the death of Lucerys, looking sad but also looking like he is wiping away a tear.

- Cut scene, seen as canonical by the directors of HOTD, where Baela says that she is a dragon rider, like her father, in addition to her mother and Rhaenys, with pride. Which wouldn't make sense if she didn't have a good relationship with her father.

- Not counting all the positive cut scenes whose photos have been revealed, and also the other positive scenes from the original script also cut...

- Visibly resentful / bitter towards Rhaenys to whom he reproaches that she could have exterminated the Greens and that thus Lucerys would still be alive. [S2]

TG logic : Daemon is the worst father ever ! He doesn't love his children and only cares about himself !

Corlys : Ready to marry off his daughter when she hasn't even had her period yet, so she is still a child for their world, all in order to get closer to the Iron Throne. Don't accept that his son is gay. Wants to marry his son Laenor to Rhaenyra, even though he knows it would potentially be a bad marriage and Rhaenys warns him that as the husband of Rhaenyra, the heir to the throne, Laenor could be in danger in the future.

Otto : Essentially pimping his daughter by forcing her to visit Viserys secretly in his chambers (something which could greatly damage his daughter's reputation, particularly her virtue, if it became known, so basically, it could totally ruin her for in eyes of the society), so that Viserys becomes attached to her enough to want to marry her, that she bears his future children, and therefore potentially put his own lineage at him on the Iron Throne.

Basically, Corlys and Otto think : Are we jokes for you ?!

Logical conclusion therefore for Daemon : A correct but imperfect father.

Aegon II as father :

- Never seemed to want children.

- Didn't seem interested in them.

- Doesn't seem interested in them once he has them. (legitimate children)

- Don't share any scenes with them.

- Has no dialogue referring to his children.

- Rape their nanny.

- Enjoys watching his illegitimate children fight in arenas to survive.

- Wishes to leave Westeros without any mention of his children and therefore officially leave them behind.

- Does not, to our knowledge, have any type of positive deleted scenes related to his children, nor any positive dialogue or description from the original script between him and his children.

- Differentiates his daughter from his son (now this boy he his heir for the throne I remember) who are twins when he sees them from the front. [S2]

- Doesn't seem interested in his daughter. [S2]

- Does not know that his son is taking lessons or where they take place. [S2]

- When he is finally with his son, he lifts him up to prevent him from going up the steps of the council room, smiling. [S2]

- Then smiled again while watching his son try to play with a ball once seated. [S2]

TG logic : Aegon II is such a good father who loves all his children ! He his so a family men ! Much better than anything Daemon will ever be on this subject !

Logical Conclusion : Aegon II is a father who doesn't care about all his children and is clearly absent from their lives, now only caring about his son because he is now his heir to the Iron Throne.

[cheriladycl01]

Better than me - Charles Leclerc x Reader P7

Plot: You are a rookie in your first f1 season, adding to the ever-growing amount of Brits performing in the grid

You left Japan as quickly as you could, you wanted to completely forget about the race.

You'd gone home as there was a pretty large break between Japan and Australia, you spoke to your family about whether they thought getting more of these therapy sessions was a good thing.

Everyone thought it was a good idea, they could tell you'd been struggling for the last few weeks as you looked nervous and pressured during media duties and even though your driving was good, they knew you were made of more you were just scared to push.

So you had started to pay Chris, he made himself available 24/7 to you over text message and you were set to have weekly calls with him. You'd had one before Australia stressing some of you minor concerns about the race.

But all in all, Australia was one of your more confident tracks. You'd spent al lot of time on the sims going round Albert Park, you'd started to test out new racing lines because you were that confident.

When you got to the paddock, entering in a blazer and trousers with a nice pair of stilettos. You always liked dressing up when walking through the paddock for the first time, there was a certain level of power you felt when you did. You had a lot of cameras on you, as you walked through with Chris, who agreed to come to this race weekend with you and your PR manager.

You saw some fans waving you over so you hastily walked over to them.

"Y/N! Y/N!" they cry making you smile and start to take pens and caps and your mini helmets signing as much as you could while taking pictures with all the phones being offered to you.

A little boy shyly comes up to you, holding a little Audi car all boxed up, one that you promoted.

"I-I don't have a pen! Some-one stole it from me" he sniffles and you squat down to his height seeing the tears in his eyes.

"Can i borrow that please?" you ask a girl whose cap you just signed and she nods politely, squealing a little when you touch her hand as you reach up from your lower position to take it.

You sign the little boy's car for him and he pulls you into a big hug, thanking you. The parents further the thanks before you look at the paddock lanyards round their necks. You take the little boys hand and start to take him with you.

The parents follow behind happily talking to Chris and one of the Audi Mechanics that had seen you signing stuff.

You walk him to where you can buy merch. You get him an Audi Hat, Audi top and you get a little driver's poster. You sign it all there on the desk and hand it to the parents in the bag while placing the hat on his head.

"Thank you" he grins at you, the parents thank you as well before leaving. You leave towards the Audi garage, waving at the few people who you still trusted.

Alex had eventually caught up to you and walked side by side with you.

More people took pictures of the pair of you as you walked down the large and open stretch. Martin Bundle had come up to you both during his media day grid walk asking you both questions that you simultaneously answered questions too.

Eventually, you found yourself getting bored. Your PR team wanted to give you a cool down after the accusations from last week and not force your image back so soon. So they mainly focused on Alex.

You eventually left Audi hospitality where you'd been doing some private work on a laptop. You needed to get some fresh air and go for a walk. There was also only an hour before the F1 Academy Qualifying started and you wanted to be there for that.

You were walking down the strip when you see the two Ferrari boys walking towards you.

"Y/N? Can we talk?" Charles asks and you cross you arms looking down at him. Usually you felt quite small around Charles, not just because of his personality but because he was naturally taller than you. Now you were in these heels he was the one looking up at you, and if he was about to apologize you'd find that kind of funny.

"Depends what you want to talk about!" you admit to him.

"About how I acted about what I said!" he offers looking down meekly making you scoff.

"Look Charles, the fact that you ignored me all last weekend when I tried to reach out to you and then went as far as to not believe me when I'd be accused of drug use... which is a really serious accusation which was pulled into investigation because of your team and Red Bull... I don't really feel like I owe you a conversation! So no, we cant talk" you say, before walking off and towards the Mclaren garage in hopes of finding Lando.

You walk up to the entrance finding two workers outside who wave at you.

"Hey Y/N!" one of them smiles at you.

"Hey guys, how are you?" you smile at them and they nod talking to you about their stressful day trying to get content for Mclaren. You nod along with them as they rant until Lando comes trotting down the steps.

"Y/N! You wanna go for a track walk?" he asks and you nod, pit walks were always really good. It gave drivers the change to see it up-close and take it in while you walk around it.

"So, Charles text me" Lando starts as you both walk out of the pit lane and onto the track.

"Mmmm" you mumble quietly not really meeting his eyes.

"Said you weren't ready to talk to him?" he almost asks as if he's seeing if you thought you made the right call in not talking to him.

"All last week i tried to talk to him, tried to be his friend but tell me why he ignores me and pushes me away at every opportunity he gets. You don't do that, not when he spent the whole time between Japan and South Korea with me" you admit, rubbing your hands together.

"Maybe if you let him explain?" Lando suggest with a shrug.

"You meddling little bitch" you say lightly making his shoulder.

"Hey, hey! Ease up or i'll report you for trying to sabotage another team!" he jokes rubbing his shoulder a little.

"Seriously though, I agreed to this walk to talk with you, not talk about Charles, it's not just the fact he ignored me anyway" you sigh holding a hand up to block the lowering sun.

"Anyway, how are you feeling about the race?" you ask trying to steer the conversation away.

"Yeah pretty good, this year could be our year!" he smiles looking over at you.

Australia went alright, considering you not only had a lot on your mind but had car troubles you managed to finish P10, in the points Alex just above you in P8.

Team debrief was longer. talking about the car troubles you experienced before you were let go.

You met with Daniel, both he and Oscar wanted to take you out for food where they were both in their home country. Of course this meant you guys picked up Lando as a default. You guys went out for a meal, everyone online was excited to see the four of you out together.

Next weekend up was Jeddah, you performed really well there, your team thought it was time to use you for media again as much as Alex, and you ended up coming P4, Carlos just ahead of you taking that podium alone with Lando and Max.

After that came your most feared circuit... Spa. It was sort of a meme, when you were working your way up through feeder series and driving in other motorsport championships before you came to F1 that you never finished a race in Spa, there was either car problems or it rained and strategy was awful and you'd crash out or you would just have a problem driving.

You were hopeful to end that streak, the Curse of Y/N in SPA.

And it looked like that throughout all the free practices you completed and coming in P3, having set the fastest lap in Q1 on top of that.

You were nervous, but everyone was telling you that it looked like clear skies for the whole day and that it should be fine.

"Y/N?" a voice said behind you as you were about to hop into your car. You turn round spotting Charles there looking at you.

"Oh, Charles! You okay?" you ask looking over him.

"I know you struggle here, but I just wanted to say that I believe in you and what you can achieve today" he says in a small voice. The words, they were just words but it was the way he said them that you could tell that there was a different meaning behind them. And you appreciated it.

So you went into the car with a clear head.

"Radio check Y/N?" your engineer asks.

"Loud and clear, lets make this a good one" you reply before heading out for the formation lap. You do it and everything feels normal with the car.

You then wait for the lights out, you get an incredible start managing to go between Carlos Lando.

"OH WOAH, INCREDIBLE RACING FROM Y/N. She's managed to go between the Mclaren and Ferrari and SHE'S IN P1 Y/N Y/L/N LEADS THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX" Crofty exclaims as he watched you on the screen in the commentators box.

You lead for the next few laps defending exceptionally from both Lando and Sainz who had managed to keep pretty close to you. After that it was a complete shit show. You had a really long pitstop, it was around 15 seconds and you were asking your engineer what was going on but they just said they were looking into it. It sent you down from P1 all the way to P18.

"Fuck sake!" you complain.

"I'm sorry for that Y/N, but lets pick up the pace and try get back up there" you have a spectacular drive. Your car was a rocket ship and you managed to get all the way back up to P4 and was about to overtake Leclerc when the rain report came through.

2 laps later and it was really raining, you'd pitted after a safety car was deployed changing tires and you managed to get the overtake on Leclerc. Into P3.

The rain only got heavier and that was when the race went tits up. The rain somehow interfered with your radio and it was only static you were receiving.

For the next laps you were relying on the pit board.

"What an interesting race this has been. Y/N has driven phenomenally and this is to date with out a doubt her best race in Spa, even through all the bad luck she's managed to pull through and she is currently in P1, defending her ass off from Lando and Lewis who are close behind her. This is just immense racing here today. She really came here with the mindset of a winner!" he explains looking at your on-board.

"Yeah, i mean she'd been without radio communications for 20 laps of this race, and the rains fading now, most crews are preparing to pit and make a final tyre change but its seems like nothing has been communicated to her"

As the track started to dry up you loose grip on the tyres more and more. There was no communication from your team and you were debating what to do. If you eased up now, you'd let Lando, Lewis and Carlos all past and risk your first win.

The last peice of communication you saw going past the pits was that you were leading and there was only 3 laps to go.

Lando was very close behind you, constantly in your wing mirror. He had tried some moves in an attempt to overtake but you'd kept defending like your life depended on it.

You go round one corner at the same speed you had been for the whole wet part of the race not realizing how quickly this corner had dried out. You attempt to break a little quicker, Lando doesn't antisipate and rear ends the back of your car, flipping you over.

"OH MY LORD THAT A MASSIVE CRASH FOR Y/N DOWN ON TURN 6. She broke early being on those intermediates where the tracks starting to dry out and Lando hasn't reacted quick enough. In the process he's busted his front wing!"

Lando Radio: Is she okay? I didn't mean that! I was it bad i went past to quickly to see where she went

Engineer: Red flag Lando, Red Flag

Lando Radio: Please tell me she's okay?

Lewis Radio: Holy shit, is she okay man. Why is she still on the inter's?

Engineer: Lewis that a Red Flag

Lewis Radio: This was a bad one.

And it was, you flipped multiple times before your car slammed into the barrier. You felt like an elephant was sitting on your chest right now and your head was dizzy.

"That's a really bad crash, and we don't even know if she's alright because the radio isn't working, the look of all the audi workers right now is really a sight to see" he says panning to all your colleagues with jaw's dropped and hands covering there mouths as their eyes water.

Some of them are actually crying, as no-body could detect movement and the car was barely visible from the damage caused.

You tried to keep your mind open with the adrenaline, but slowly your vision blacks out.

A/N: Oop i feel like this is my first proper cliff hanger!

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc @mirrorball-6 @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @the-fem1n1ne-urge @21stcenturytaegi @dark-night-sky-99 @spideybv28 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle @kapsylia @laneyspaulding19 @lazybot @malynn @cassielikereading @viennakarma @teamnovalak @landosgirlxoxo @marie0v @jlb20416 @yourbane @teamnovalak @nikfigueiredo @fionaschicken @0picels0 @seomako @urdad-hot @formula1mount @tinydeskwriter @butterfly-lover @ironmaiden1313

[skaldish]

I'm about to give you all the single most powerful piece of advice that was ever told to me:

It is important to be a principled person.

This is more important than being a good person. But don't take this to mean I think we should be bad people.

The reason why "being principled" has more weight than "being good" is because the definition of "good" is arbitrary. It changes depending on who you ask, which means the standards of achieving goodness are always going to change and pose contradictions.

Principles are different. They are more actionable and concrete. Principles are ideas and concepts you personally value, in that you find them valuable to your lived experience. This makes them different than something like a commandment, because they're not a doctrine. Their source is your personality—who you are and the experiences that have shaped you—rather than your goals and ambitions alone.

To give an example, here are a few of my own principles:

I value self-sovereignty. I think it's a person's inherent right to be free of undue influence, and to act as agents of their own free will. (Not to be confused with acting with impunity; people have the right to experience the consequences of their own actions the same way they have the right to act upon their own free will.)

I value people. I show people courtesy as a baseline, even during arguments, until it becomes clear the other person simply wishes to engage in the spirit of hostility. And even then I don't really lash out—I just leave. At no point do I lose sight of the fact that the people I'm interacting with are as real as I am, who have feelings and complex lives the same as I do. This means I also really value trying to understand where people are coming from, and to look at things from their perspective, even if I don't agree with it.

I value being accurate, as opposed to being right. This has been a more rewarding approach for me, by comparison.

I value discernment. I want to know what things are, which means differentiating them from what I think they are from what they seem to be, and from what they are not. The reason why I practice discernment is due how I think—my brain understands things based on how they are, rather than based on what they are—but the reason why I value discernment is because it allows me to interact with the world in a much deeper way.

I value being a mammal. Life becomes easier when I (to quote another Tumblr post) let the mammal that is my body love what it loves. Fighting against this in the past proved to be a pointless and joyless endeavor.

I have more, but these are just the things that come to me off the top of my head. And keep in mind, these will likely change as I change as a person, because that is how principles work.

To be honest, I've never put much thought into whether other people should have the same principles as me; people have different personalities and lived experiences than I do, so it makes sense to me that we would all prioritize different things.

But what I do know is that I fundamentally disagree with people whose principles are antithetical to my own, principles like conquest (of self or other), conformity, purity, and controlling others. Whether or not someone realizes they're embodying these principles is another story, but in any case it's how I know who to avoid engaging with. This is regardless of someone's political alignment or identity.

In my opinion, thinking this way makes it easier to stay grounded in a rapidly-changing world, and to remain focused on what's actually important to you in the face of the unknown. It allows you to find stable ground within yourself.

[hotvintagepoll]

I have a question that Google has not enlightened me on, and that I think is in your wheelhouse. I don't know much Old Hollywood. Why do young 20something pop stars keep referencing Brigitte Bardot? Like, I know a reference to Clara Bow usually means heart-shaped lips and soulful eyes, but I can't figure out Brigitte Bardot

I love being the expert on this but I want you to know that I'm not an expert on this and am just spitballing here. With that said, my guess is that there's a small number of Old Hollywood icons whose legend still sticks around in some way—Clara Bow, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe all still have some cultural relevance, even though that relevance is mostly disconnected from their actual career and more focused on the bits and pieces that remain of the ~vibe~ of their career. People use a movie star's name as a style shortcut. For Audrey, that means long cigarette holders and black Givenchy dresses and big mascara eyes. For Marilyn, that means floating white dresses and platinum blonde and hot pink satin and diamonds. These things are not terribly tied to the actual bulk of movies they starred in, but they're the bits that stick around in the collective consciousness.

For Brigitte Bardot, I think what pop stars are referencing is the ~vibe~ of her status when she first became a star—she had an earthier, bolder sexuality in her presentation than most of post-WWII Europe was used to seeing. She seemed sexy in a straightforward, "I rolled out of bed like this" way, particularly when compared to the studio-controlled Hollywood beauties. (she probably did not roll out of bed like that, but you get my gist—she conveyed a natural vibe, even if it took work on her part.) So I think if you wanted to reduce Bardot to a style reference, you'd be thinking about boldness and earthiness balanced with freshness, conveyed through kohl-circled eyes and tousled hair, sexy but not trying too hard.

I genuinely don't know though! That's just my guess off the top of my head. Sorry I took two paragraphs to get there :)

[I am not advocating for Bardot as a person here and am just looking at her style and reputation as a screen icon in the understanding that we all know this blog does not tacitly agree with her politics or views simply by discussing her.]

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Would I be the asshole to have a luxurious celibacy party with my (ex) future in law's money instead of a wedding ? 👰👯

Sorry for any grammar mistake, English is not my first language.

My(29F) partner(29M) of 12 years cheated on me. I caught him a few months before the wedding and called everything off.

My ask is more about my in-laws and appearing like a gold digger so I will spend some time explaining my relationship with them. I don't care about what my ex thinks. He is dead to me.

My ex's family is old money, mine is blue collar. His family has always been really nice and welcoming.

Aside from a few family vacations paid for me here and there, I never benefited financially from their wealth. For gift-giving occasions they were tactfully giving me sentimental gifts, so I could return the favor and match with them in term of budget.

His parents wanted to teach their future heir the value of money, and he didn't have access to the family funds during his studies. They were even frugal in his allowance (he obv couldn't qualify for scholarship) and we both had to take jobs during our studies to support ourselves (my scholarships didn't cover for all expenses). I got my diploma before him (shorter studies) and supported him financially during the last three years of his studies. He has had a (very) high earning job and access to family funds for a year.

When he finished his studies, we started to plan for the wedding.

His family wanted an extravagant wedding, I would have preferred a smaller event, my fiance had no opinion. I finally accepted because it made his family so happy, and like I said they have always been very good to me. I even ended up having a lot of fun with my ex MIL and SIL planning for things. I mostly referred to them as what was a "must have" for a wedding even if most of this seemed like a rich people extravagance to me.

The plan was for us (me and cheater) to pay 50% of the wedding. My parents were paying for 5% (I wouldn't dare tell them how much the whole thing was worth but they insisted to contributing). My IL were paying for the other 45%. I wanted to pay more, but my FIL told me that I let them have their way with the guest list and as such more than half of the guests were strictly theirs so it made sense that they were paying for them.

Then I caught him…

Obviously, no wedding will be happening but it's too late to cancel most stuff : venue, food, guest accommodation, dress, musicians, horses (yes. Horses. Rich people I swear).

My in-laws told me they are taking full responsibility for their son's cheating and will pay the whole wedding themselves. My ex SIL, who is also my best friend told me in confidence that they plan to make my ex reimburse them every penny.

I asked my MIL if I could keep the venue and organize a smaller event with my closest friends. She agreed.

I am calling it a celibacy party but the truth is I am devastated by what's happening. Full blown panick attack and crying myself to sleep…

I want a nice day outside with my friends and their children having fun. My family was overjoyed to finally have a joyfull family reunion for once, and I wanted to keep that. My niece (SIL's daughter whose I am the godmother of) plans to color my glorious useless white wedding dress with finger paints.

I suggested to my IL to come during the day event as our family has been blended long before we decided to make it official. My IL politely refused which yeah I understand. I didn't expected them to come, it was more to suggest them subtlety that I still want they in my life and I don't consider them responsible for their son's cheating.

Maybe the night event will be less kid friendly and I do intend to party hard in case it could make me forget the last twelve years of my life with my ex. There will be single men (close friends and family), and a lot of alcohol obviously but I don't see myself hooking up with anyone I would have previously invited TO MY OWN WEDDING. There will also be my previous ex, that I dated when we were 12 and who while celibate, is fully homosexual.

My ex learned about the plan and called me furious. He called me names (I don't care about the names a cheater calls me), but he said that it was a slap in the face of his parents and it makes me look like a gold digger. He also said that people will talk and my in-laws would look like fools among their guests when they will learn what happened in place of a wedding.

It makes me second guess myself. I asked again my in-laws and they told me that the event was mine, I could marry someone else at this venue and they couldn't blame me. I pressed again my SIL for her parents' true opinion (After all this time I struggle to understand rich people speak) : she admitted that they do think it's a bit in poor taste (That's the worst insult in rich people language) but my SIL told me it's still in better taste than putting your dick in some luxury sex-worker without condom a few months before your wedding (ex might have a love child with Another woman. It's a full shitshow but it's not mine anymore)

I am certain most people will call me NTA, as my ex SIL did, but I wonder if older people from richer backgrounds (and who are not my best friend) would agree… I do love my ex IL and I don't know how I will manage it but I want to keep them in my life and would cancel this stupid breakup party in a blink if I have to. I am not sure if tumblr has a lot of people fluent in old-fashioned old-money tradition, but it's still worth a shot. I am at still undecided about the whole thing and might change my opinion 13 times till this ask is published…

[jewishvitya]

Hi, I stumbled upon your political posts (and then Yuri, you might get me to watch it now) and I find your perspective fascinating. Maybe it's because I grew up with rather a lot of exposure to Palestinians and various peace movements, but your experience is alien to me, and I am really thankful to be able to read it.

I would like to ask, what do you define as Zionism? As the last month taught me that no two people define this term the same. For me it is the ability for the Jewish people to control our own life in a land that we are bound to, and that has no contradiction with the Palestinian doing the same on this land, that they are bound to it as well. No pressure to answer, just pure curiosity.

And if I may offer some hope for our future? On the fourth day of the war, someone who helps in one of the donation centres for the displaced Israelis ask in the group chat if there is a way to pass the extra clothing and equipment to the people of Gaza. In the past two month I got invites for over a dozes or meeting between Israelis and Palestinians, meetings were both sides shared their sorrows and hopes. When an acquaintance was raising money to help a Bedouin family whose house was hit by a rocket, he has to tell people to stop donating. People in my surrounding have been talking about the day after, building plans so they could help build a better place for both people. A long-fought battle in the courts was won, and a group of settlers were ordered to evacuate Palestinian land. Activists have been going to assist in the olive harvests in the West Bank, despite it all.

There is hope for us here.

Hi! Thank you! If you do watch YOI I hope you enjoy it lol.

I know my experience is not very common. Even other Israelis get shocked by the depth of the hatred and the indoctrination sometimes. I try to emphasize that it comes from the most extremist community we have, because I have no idea what the schooling looks like in other areas.

And sure, I'll try to explain, and maybe also why I choose to label myself as anti-zionist.

I don't know that I can give you a dictionary definition, because I define zionism mainly by what it did in practice - the colonizing of Palestine. And when I say colonizing, I'm not making claims about indigeniety or lack of it. I'm defining it through our tactics and our actions. Especially because early in the movement they openly used colonialist frameworks.

Some of the softer definitions of zionism, things like our right to self determination, our right to seek safety - these aren't things I'm against. And I understand that within zionism there were other proposed ideas that weren't necessarily meant to end up with an ethnostate, resulting in ethnic cleansing. So I know zionism is more complicated than what we see in Israel. But what we see now is the reality people are living as the outcome.

If we came here and said "we've been longing to go back here for such a long time, we suffered so much abuse, we want to live alongside you in our shared homeland, can we find a way to ensure our safety and yours" - this would have been a different conversation. Still complicated, because mass immigration is complicated, but different.

In reality, we destroyed communities to manufacture an ethnic majority. Tore a whole society apart and shattered it, spread it all over the world. We killed and expelled and traumatized. I called it the cycle of abuse on the scale of nations - taking horrors we suffered and inflicting them on others. So given the practical results of the zionist movement, I can't treat those softer definitions as the "true" definitions that people should go by.

I keep thinking about Jewish refugees being given the homes of Palestinians with meals still on the table. Because of course we have a right to food and shelter, but not at their expense. And I know you agree with me on this.

When I say I oppose zionism, that's generally because I'm talking about the reality, the impact the movement had on human lives, not an idealized version we might imagine or a philosophy someone wrote about that never came to be.

For me, if I want to talk about our safety in our ancestral homeland and detach it from the horrors committed by Israel, zionism isn't the right framework. And after all the destruction we caused the land to conquer and colonize it, if I want to talk about our connection to it, I think zionism shouldn't be the word I'm using.

There's also an aspect of, by insisting on defining zionism through a nicer idea rather than harm done to real people, I see it as taking away a language that oppressed people are using to talk about their oppression.

I hope that makes sense.

I really want us to find a different way to work towards safety, without it being at the expense of another group of people.

And thank you for that last paragraph. I definitely have hope. It's hard, seeing videos of our soldiers being so gleeful about the destruction. I lost a friend of over ten years because of the callous and cruel things he said over the past couple of months, and I can't bring myself to repeat them. But I know that better things are possible, and I'm glad we're building towards them. I'm terrified that our government won't let us move in that direction, but we're going to push there anyway.

[hussyknee]

it’s rare to find a sinhalese person (online atleast) who is supportive of tamil self-determination. genuine question: among leftist circles in sri lanka, how common is such a stance?

I don't know whether I'm a reliable source to answer this question because I'm very jaded about this in general. A couple of days ago, someone on the Sri Lanka Reddit started up discourse about Maitreyi Ramakrishnan's choice to reject identifying with the country that tried to genocide her people, which I'm still chewing wire about. I'm a very isolated person with a very small social circle of like-minded leftist friends. They're mostly not SinBud and anti SinBud nonsense, but none of them are Tamil and I'm the one who really convinced them about Eelam I think. The people I learned from, who are out there doing the work of building inter-ethnic dialogue and overturning Sinhalese propaganda, might have a more hopeful view.

Thing is, there's no one "leftist" faction here because "left" doesn't mean the same thing as it does in the West. The Rajapaksas' party SLPP is socialist, a legacy of their ancestor the SLFP who was the party aligned with the USSR. They and their voters and their saffron terror acolytes (Buddhist priesthood) are all for public infrastructure they can rob blind and central government they can use to crush minorities, and build on the nationalist fervour of genocidal Sinhalese Buddhism that's served both major parties independence. There's quasi-communists, descendants of the ethnonationalist Marxist JVP that rose in opposition to the class corruption of ethnonationalist USSR-aligned socialist SLFP and enthonationalist US-aligned neoliberal UNP. They've since distanced themselves from their ethnic myopia, possibly due to suffering much of the same state terrorism as minorities via militarisation and policies like the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act. They're the most vocal about the abolition of the executive presidency, the defunding of military and police, and restructuring and executing the long-mismanaged socialist infrastructure. These are usually the working class and university students, but their base has been growing in other demographics too, since we "held our noses and voted" for the Yahapalana government in 2015 and it ended up fucking us over. But despite their sympathy with the suffering of Tamils and Muslims and favouring the devolution of power, most still cling to the idea that Sinhalese majoritarianism is a fair result of democracy.

The kind of pro-LGBT, anti-racist, feminist liberals that would pass muster with the western left otoh, are a minority of urban, English-speaking professionals. Their panacea for enthofascism is voting for the neoliberal party, whose idea of reducing corruption and increasing efficiency is privatizing everything, are against racism because it's bad for tourism, and coasts on the promise of never actively feeding ethnosupremacy, even if they won't do anything about it either. Both these groups hate each other but are equally deeply uncomfortable with if not entirely resistant to the idea that the North and East are Tamil lands colonized by the Sinhalese. Both groups are aware of the corruption and complicity of the Buddhist priesthood and are prepared to do exactly nothing about it.

What I'm trying to say is that Sinhalese Buddhist ethnosupremacy is baked in to the Sri Lankan political fabric. "Left" means jack shit when it comes to whether Tamils have rights, in much the same way that the western left agrees on everything except Palestine. It's a political no man's land everyone tries not to look at.

The fundamental problem is that Sinhalese people who know enough about 1958, 1983, or the full scope of genocide perpetrated against Tamils during the last push of the war, let alone all 26 years of it, are very much in the minority. It takes a particular education to understand that "Sri Lanka" is a post-colonial invention that took over from "Ceylon", which was nothing but a construct for the ease of British administration. As far as I know, this education is confined to activist organizations and whoever followed my sociology program. So my kind of anarchist leftism that calls the war a Tamil genocide with their whole chest and the priesthood saffron terrorists and recognises Eelam is, afaik, vanishingly small.

To be honest, I never really questioned the propaganda and narrative we've been spoon fed myself until I went to Canada when I was 23 to complete my anthro degree (became disabled and dropped out after). One thing that struck me was how racist the Sinhalese diaspora was. I was raised SinBud, my school didn't admit any non-Sinhalese, half my uncles were in the military, but these people that had left the country decades ago still hated Tamils and Muslims in a way that nobody else I knew did. I wondered whether this was what it had been like when it had all started; whether this hatred that seemed to have been preserved in amber was a true taste of what had ignited Black July. Suddenly the attitude of the Tamil diaspora towards the Sri Lankan government and Sinhalese people didn't seem so unreasonable.

Then, later in the same uni term, I went to an art exhibition of a white artist who travelled the world collecting information about their genocides and made art about them, and found a painting depicting Sri Lankan Tamils in 2008. Promptly had a meltdown. Went to the lady and told her tearfully that it was all propaganda, we didn't really hate Tamils, not even my uncles in the army hated Tamils, it was a war, the LTTE had terrorized us for my whole lifetime. Bless the woman, she didn't fight me, just let me cry at her and patted my hand and pretended to take me seriously. This made it easier for me to really think about what I knew once I'd stopped wailing and stamping. It prompted a years-long self-interrogation and fact finding that made me unearth how much brainwashing had been done to us by everyone, from our families to our school textbooks to news media. It's like the air we breathed was propaganda. And I still didn't know a fraction of what life had been like for Tamils (or Muslims) and the scope of atrocities perpetrated by the Sinhalese until I began my Society and Culture degree at the Open University when I was 30. The first year textbooks were only broadstrokes facts, but at last I found out about Gnananth Obeysekera, Prageeth Jeganathan, Stanley Thambaiya, Malithi DeAlwis. Their work on nation-making, ethnicity, historical revisionism, genocide and ethnic conflict and state terrorism...everything I should have been taught as a child. The chapters on the rapes and murders and shelling and war crimes and IDP camps were..indescribable. That was what properly radicalised me about Tamil self-sovereignty, because there's clearly no possible way the Tamil people will ever be safe and safeguarded under a Sinhalese majoritarian government.

I had to drop out of that programme too because of my health. But during the mass protests against the government in 2022, I learned even more about Tamil indigeneity, the extent of JR Jayawardena's crimes, and the persecution of Marxists and victims of the '71 and '89 insurrections. So much of the protests and their encampments were directed and galvanized by social media, that organised online and in-person lectures, teach-outs, and live discussions that anyone and everyone could attend right alongside the protests. I've never seen that kind of truly democratized, free, egalitarian civic education and discourse before. That was the very first time I saw academics, survivors, refugees and human rights activists being given a respectful platform, the masses hearing firsthand accounts from people of the North and East and witnesses of Black July. April to July 2022 was a truly golden bubble of time where I saw people finally start listening, believing, and challenging all their convictions. It was the closest we ever came to realising the hope that things could be different; that we could, as a society, understand how Sinhalese ethnosupremacy had been the black rot killing this country from the first, stop being racist Sinhala-first cunts and actually hold any of these murderers accountable.

Teach us to hope, I guess.

But I suppose it's no small thing that I learned about the Tamil resistance and struggle and taught all my friends about it. I'm sure they're informing their own circles in small ways too. These tendrils are hard to see, but they exist and grow. Especially with the fall of the Rajapaksas and their Bhaiyya contingent, more people can see ethnosupremacy for the grift that it is, and the younger generations are less defensive, more willing to listen and eager for justice and change. So I guess the answer is: not very common, but less uncommon than it used to be.

[hearts-hunger]

okay i lied. i'm back. been struggling with things and trying to think through them with a charitable and open mind.

but all these posts about genuinely hating trump supporters and right-leaning people and not wanting to ever be near them but in the same breath saying that you care about people and want them to be okay. is this not. like. cognitively and spiritually dissonant at all. are we not doing what we claim others are doing in unilaterally disavowing and hating people. i mean there is just so much nuance to these things that a broad stroke of detachment and hatred does not seem useful at all. i want people to be all right. i want people to live and prosper. even my enemies. not in a worldly way of having money and power and opportunity to oppress but. like. the ability to grow and change and love and discover. i don't want people to die alienated from their fellow man, from an experience of love and decency, from a chance to become great and wise and loving people. even people whose values i completely and firmly cannot agree with. especially people who are acting from their current knowledge and moral compass and genuinely in their heart trying to do their best and getting it wrong. i want to be in community with people i disagree with because how else do they change. how else do i change. how else do i learn to love selflessly if not when it is difficult. how else do we have community at all.

we have a chance here to be people who really love. who really are brave and selfless. who care enough about maintaining human dignity and valuing human interaction and growth to reach past these seemingly insurmountable barriers to political, religious, personal commerce between people. we have to be people who extend a hand of kindness and mercy and patience and goodwill. the average person is not someone who wants you dead. they are not someone who wants to hurt you or your family and friends. they are people, just like you. there are loud people on the internet who want you to think that your neighbor is someone with a deeply vested interest in harming you. it's just not true. friends, coworkers, people on social media you talk to, fellow patrons of the grocery store �� these people are doing what they can. what they know. what they think is right. and i don't hate them. i hope you don't either. as truly as you think you're right, so do they. and when they're wrong, and when we're wrong, i hope to god we can figure out how to live with that. because that's the only way this thing works. we are living in fear and it is a disease of the mind to hate people who are different than you. even people that are wrong, deeply wrong. truly, i mean this — get a grip on reality, which is that people will always be wrong and you must still want the best for them. you must. it's the only way life works.

[thenightfolknetwork]

There's a bit of a taboo amongst my genus. I mean, I can't know for sure about the whole population, but certainly in my family there are rules about what is and isn't appropriate to do when we exercise temporal fluidity. And that's for good reason--I get that. You can't just go about changing the tides of war because you feel like showing off your historical foreknowledge. Fine.

Recently, though, I've been spending a lot of my time in one particular period--just about a half-decade on the other side of 0 AD. It's been great! I'm a bit of a Classicist, and a Latinist at that, so obviously there's plenty for me to do in Rome. The food is good, the literature is fascinating, and the people--well, I've certainly met some people. Specifically, there's this one guy. He's older, for sure, but we're both adults and happy with what we have. It's hardly an exclusive relationship, so we don't get bored with stagnation, and not to brag, but his achievements are nothing to scoff at. In fact, not too long ago he put down the remnants of a veritable civil war over in Hispania. My interest in this period has been primarily academic in the past, but I feel like he and I really get each other. I know how he takes his wine and his sense of humor and how he feels about his family. I care about him.

But here's the thing: I know he dies. Soon. And quite violently. I've just gotten back to the twenty-first century recently for a family reunion, so of course "soon" is relative, but back in Rome there isn't much time left. I haven't spoken about this to my family. I know what they'd say. I should just let it happen.

Although, I mean, should I really? Not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but I know for a fact Great-Grandma Margaret wasn't as rule-abiding as my mother likes to think--it's hardly a secret where (more accurately, when) she met Great-Nana Bonny. And, plus, lots of historical scholarship on the subject says, if my Roman friend hadn't died when he had, it probably would've happened sooner or later in a similar manner anyway (his approval ratings are not so high as of late). So is it really an interference if I warn him just this once? I mean, if he dies in another incident somewhere down the line--one of which I have no previous knowledge--then, fine, he dies. This isn't about preventing his death entirely. I understand that, in many ways, he is already dead. But I feel I would be a horrible companion if I didn't at least give him a heads-up. Just a nudge, you know? It's a politically unstable time back in the BC's. The line between this temporal reality and the other is so thin, and the difference is so small. Would my "interference" be so bad?

[Note: The sender later clarified that their letter ought to read "half century on the other side of 0 AD" where it here reads "half decade".]

I'm afraid I can't give you the kind of answer you seem to be seeking here, reader. While I am perfectly happy to help you talk through you moral quandaries, I must draw the line at making your decisions for you. You, and you alone, must discern for yourself whether or not such an act aligns with your own personal, moral code.

If an outside perspective will help, I will say that I'm not sure I entirely agree with your assessment of the circumstances here. I believe I have enough historical knowledge to infer which figure in history you're speaking about, which is, in itself, a concern.

It is a fact of existence that we shape the world around us. Even the quietest, most innocuous life casts its shadow. It is a fact to be embraced and celebrated – there is simply no such thing as an insignificant life. But neither is anything served by pretending that certain figures do not cast rather longer shadows than others.

It is one thing to consider fudging a timeline or two for the sake of someone whose impact reaches no further than their own village, or even their own country. It is quite another to speak of altering the timeline of a person whose existence left ripples across the surface of a significant portion of the globe!

I also don't necessarily agree with your assessment that your interference would not change anything very dramatically. Your friend's “approval rating” may not be great, but I am not at all sure it is universally accepted among historians that either his demise nor the manner in which he met his fate were inevitable.

Finally, you must consider the old paradox faced by every time traveller at some stage or another. You are an actor in this historical period, casting a shadow of your own, and you have no more idea than anyone else how that shadow may fall.

How do you know your warning might not precipitate the event itself? Alternatively, how can you be sure your warning is not already part and parcel of our historical reality? There is just such a warning made in most of the accounts I know, after all – if I am thinking of the right person, of course.

I cannot make this decision for you, reader. I cannot tell you what the right answer is, or even reassure you that there is a right answer. All I can do is to encourage you to think carefully about the risks involved, weigh them against your own moral judgement, and make sure that, whatever your choice, it's one you can live with. At the end of the day, that's all any of us can do.

[For more creaturely advice, check out Monstrous Agonies on your podcast platform of choice, or visit monstrousproductions.org for more info]

[emeraldsandamethyst]

Inspired by this post by @nerdpoe thank you

AN: a whole new au. Danny is not the ghost king. He is running errands for the ancients. He is unaware but he's a baby ancient himself. The new ancient of space. Though he's not there yet.

Tim is going by Cardinal in this. Jason is still Red Hood, and also the prince that Danny is talking about. Jason and the bats have no idea he's a prince or what it means. I had originally planned on making this dead on main but now it might be dead tired. Unsure. If it is Tim is polyam and already dating Bernard for sure and maybe Kon too idk.

***

Tim, as Cardinal, landed on the rooftop across from the unknown potential rogue. They were glowing weakly and floating just off the gravel on the roof. Their hair was white and mid length. It moved more like smoke than hair. They were wearing a simple black suit with white gloves, boots and belt. They had no face covering.

"Oh, you're here! Awesome! You ready?" They asked cheerfully. He'd been expected. Or if not Cardinal then at least someone from The Colony.

Tim hummed noncommittally. The guy looked confused then disappointed.

"You don't know why you're here, do you?" The guy said, both his shoulders and floating hair drooping in disappointment. Curious.

"Why don't you tell me what you think I'm here for and we can compare notes." Tim said with bland politeness. He didn't do anything so stupid as relax, but he wasn't in the mood to fight. So de-escalate it was. Hopefully the unknown would agree.

"Right. Okay. At least you're definitely her knight so you're the right guy." He said, apparently to himself, then he straightened his posture and pulled out a scroll from somewhere, making it look like it came from his suit. "Ahem ahem." He actually said instead of clearing his throat. He began to read. "It has come to the attention of the Council of Ancients that one of our peoples is claiming their haunt in the Living world under false pretenses and with malicious intent beyond reasonable expectations of the Dead. 

"Recognizing the great disruption that the Living would experience at Our collective presence We, the Council of Ancients, send in our stead a champion, known to the living as Danny Phantom, to enforce Our decree. 

"It has been reported by the Dead victims that the Living have been unable to otherwise mitigate or contain or banish this criminal from their world. The wrongs done are so numerous and so horrific and the Victims so plentiful that We, The Council of Ancients, condemn this man, known to the Living as 'The Joker', to eternal imprisonment. This judgment is to be enforced forthwith. Once apprehend and safely contained We, The Council of Ancients, shall provide a means by which the Living can file their own grievances against The Joker to seek redress.

"Danny Phantom-" Danny stopped reciting and looked over at Cardinal with a disgruntled expression, "that's me. I'm Danny Phantom, I have to read it exactly." Then he went back to reading the document. "Danny Phantom is hereby charged to speak with the Ghost whose haunt has been so grossly violated and follow their demands that do not conflict with Realm law."

Danny waited, holding the scroll open for a few more moments before he offered it, rolled back up, to Tim.

"And that's why I'm here with you, by the way, Lady Gotham told me her knights and Prince would help me and you're her knight, so, yeah! That's why I'm here! Got my warrant and everything Mister Birdman, Sir!"

"... It's Cardinal, actually." Tim said. He took the glowing paper with some concern and opened it himself. The words were not in English or any other language Tim knew. Except as he looked the document translated itself into English.

This was, indeed, a very strange but official seeming document that could be called a warrant. Calling for the detainment of The Joker. In another dimension.

An excuse to get The Joker gone forever? Tim wanted to accept this right now, immediately. But Bruce would need more than a scroll from an unknown government and the words of their supposed representative as proof.

Tim breathed in for four, held it then exhaled for six. "How exactly am I to determine this is a legitimate warrant from a legitimate governing body with actual jurisdiction in Gotham, New Jersey, The United States of America, North America, Earth, third planet in the Sol system, the Milky Way and not some wackos with big ideas and more power than sense." 

"But, it is legit?" Danny Phantom looked confused, as if the concept of this situation being faked had never even occurred to him. Tim stared at him. Phantom stared back.

"Sure, okay, you're telling me it is. But how do I make sure you're actually who you say you are. Anyone can put on a costume and claim whatever they want. Doesn't make it true." Tim said with patience he didn't feel.

"Huh. Uh, I guess?" Phantom said, somehow looking even more confused now. "Um, usually your patron would be here to introduce us, well she is here but she's not able to be seen by the Living. Not even her knights. She's supposed to be able to show herself to you guys but can't because this The Joker guy is messing with her. Taking her power and junk.

"What?" Phantom's eyes lost focus, like he was communicating telepathically.  Since it was a total non sequitur Tim figured it likely was telepathy, or something like it.

Tim waited, mentally rifling through his memories to find ways to vet this guy that would satisfy Bruce. Because honestly? Tim was tempted to just let him go and watch what happened.

"Oh! Well, why isn't your prince here, Lady? That should make everything easy— wait, seriously? Of course not, that would be easy. How can they even function? Ugh."

"Excuse me? Who exactly is this prince that I'm supposedly following the orders of?" Tim interjected. He didn't need this unknown likely meta going off on irrelevant tangents. Definitely not now.

"It's- ugh. I'm not allowed to say anything? He's a dude that… you know." Danny flinched and hissed. He glared at nothing, sulking.

"Uh-huh." Tim said. "The prince of Gotham is 'a dude' that 'I know' right. Sure. I know Brucie Wayne is the media's prince of Gotham but he's not actually an actual prince. That's just hyperbole. We don't actually have royalty here."

"I'm from Ohio! Of course I know that's not your Lady's real prince!" Danny scoffed and looked offended. 

"Condolences on being Ohian."

"Oh come on! You're from New Jersey!"

"Your point?" Tim asked.

"Look. Just. I am trying to do my job and help you and your patron and your people." Danny snapped.

"And what do you need from me, exactly? You never actually explained. You just read me your warrant." Tim pointed out.

"Oh. Uh. Sorry Cardinal." Danny said, embarrassed. "I just need your okay for me to get him or for you to come with."

Tim hummed and thought. That was it? Tim technically didn't even need to go with him? Tim was, of course. He was much too untrusting to just let this stranger run off in Gotham unsupervised.

"Yeah alright. I'll escort you, don't run off."

"Aw yeah!" Phantom said, immediately flying off. He did at least come back and look embarrassed, staying close to Tim. "Um, sorry. Got excited. Lead the way Sir Cardinal!"

***

That's all I've got so far. Just kinda wrote this to get back into writing. No idea if I'm gonna continue it.

Thank you.

[comikadraws]

how often is hashirama demonized or made out to be a villain while having his positive qualities ignored or even omitted compared to tobirama? it seems to be that tobirama is more disliked and even demonized.

Definitely. Though I can also see why and, to a degree, agree with them.

Of course, there will always be exceptions (for example, I have a mutual who harbors a burning hatred for Hashirama), but generally speaking, Hashirama often gets treated like an angel compared to Tobirama.

Hashirama is the one who founded the village and fans usually associate him with that perfect image Hashirama made up in his mind. Peace, stability, friendship.

But Tobirama is the one who actually structured the village and fans associate him with his failings. The brutality of the shinobi system, the wars waged by Konoha, the corruption in the village's government.

Both, I find, are actually fair assessments of their characters, though very one-sided. The nuances are missing.

What I believe people like to forget is that most of the village and its political relationships were built and structured by Tobirama during Hashirama's time in office. That means Hashirama oversaw the process and agreed to Tobirama's ideas.

As I explained in a different post, and as paradoxical as it may sound, Hashirama's initial goal to protect the lives of children became second to the wellbeing of the village. The village that was established for the purpose of protecting children. As Hashirama lost sight of his original goal, children were sacrificed and ended up protecting the village and not the other way around.

Madara says that Hashirama mistook the cause for the end or put the cart before the horse, depending on the translation. Hashirama, looking back at his village's history, openly admits that these were circumstances he had considered acceptable in the grand scheme of things. A mistake, as we all know.

To make matters worse, Tobirama also gets the bigot treatment from the fandom. Or rather, the fandom has identified him as what they perceive to be a racist. I have further talked about the whole issue in this post, but long story short, Tobirama makes a good training dummy for that sort of discussion but within a fandom context - even if it distorts Kishimoto's initial vision, as I have explained in this post.

What is strangely interesting is that Hashirama seemingly agrees with Tobirama's theories (about the nature of the Uchiha Clan) yet doesn't get the same amount of hate that Tobirama does for this prejudice. I have previously explained this detail in this post. The fandom's perception seems to be influenced a lot by Tobirama's and Hashirama's respective personalities and their resulting actions rather than beliefs.

And Hashirama genuinely does have more (or at least more striking) positive traits than Tobirama. He is more likable. Meanwhile Tobirama's personality, in the databooks, is described as "bold, zealous, rational, principled", whereas Hashirama's traits are listed as "warm, considerate, carefree and easy-going". Particularly Tobirama's brutal honesty and rationality are unpopular character traits.

I also somewhat implied this above, but I also believe the fandom tends to simplify and reduce the Hokage a lot to their most striking character traits or their most striking accomplishments/failings (which are not even necessarily connected to their time as Hokage).

You can see that reflected in polls. This one was made by @/narutopolls.

Hiruzen "wins" by a ridiculous percentage because he is the Hokage whose failings we have been confronted the most with during the series. His leniency on Danzo and Orochimaru, the Third Great Shinobi War that was waged during his reign, Naruto's neglect and ostracization, the mishandled Hyuga Affair, the Uchiha Genocide, and so on and so forth.

The problem is just that we don't really know that much about the other Hokage and their respective legacies aside from Tsunade maybe. Most of the decisions we see from her are in relation to Naruto, but even then she does do things for the village like founding medical law or strengthening relations with Suna. But also, her reign was not as morally complex as other Hokages' and she had the power of hindsight on her side, thanks to Danzo already having proven his untrustworthiness during Hiruzen's reign. The decisions she made are not exactly decisions other Hokage wouldn't have made in that specific scenario (Hiruzen also tried to prevent wars if we look at the Hyuga Affair and wasn't opposed to medical law, even if he didn't act on it). But we honestly don't know what Tsunade would've done in their shoes. Still, she just so happens to be a very positive, likable character with no obvious political disasters. She had less screw-ups, sure, but also she reigned during a less morally challenging time. Is she a positive figure? Yes! Would she still be if the circumstances were harder? No idea!

In regards to Minato and Kakashi, we barely even know what they did in office. Could be anything, really, but they have likable personalities and cool fights, so they are better regarded than the others and we assume that they must have excelled as much as political leaders as they have excelled in our hearts.

Naruto we also barely know anything about. You could give him shit for not abolishing the use of child soldiers, but neither did any Hokage before him. Or you might dislike him for stopping Sasuke's revolution, but he did that before his time as Hokage. So why did Naruto get voted third worst Hokage? I'd daresay it's because people were able to watch his failings on screen and that soured his character for them.

All of this is just to prove that (with the exception of Hiruzen) people seem to base their perception of a character's competence on their affinity toward that character.

And now, apply all this to Tobirama and Hashirama. We barely have any particular failings to directly connect to Hashirama. We just know about his founding of the village, his mercy and empathy for the Uchiha, and his positive personality. But that's because we never saw him actually fulfilling his Hokage duties to begin with. Additionally, while in office, he had the support of his more rational and cunning brother to prevent political disaster. He was never given the opportunity to disappoint us.

In the case of Tobirama, he gets credited specifically for the village's (poor) planning, he openly expresses prejudice toward the Uchiha (who are fan favorites), and has an unlikable personality. In the case of Tobirama too, we never got to see him in the position of Hokage and only ever witnessed the aftermath. Unlike Hashirama, for all we know, Tobirama did not receive any particular assistance to balance out his negative personality traits. He was never given the opportunity to win us over.

This creates a sharp contrast between the two. It elevates one brother's failings and facilitates choosing a "worse" brother to turn into a scapegoat for the other. And while, yes, certain things apply to both Hashirama and Tobirama (their willingness to train and use child soldiers, or their shared belief in the Uchiha's innate predisposition to strong love and hatred), we can also say that one of them actively caused those circumstances while the other mostly just condoned or supported them. They are both responsible, just to different degrees.

The only thing I really disagree with is that many fans completely absolve Hashirama of all blame or fail to even notice his faults to begin with.

[nothorses]

With the whole voting shit going on, I've felt incredibly conflicted about voting. But recently, the opinion I've landed on is similar to Kelly Hayes. I am roughly paraphrasing here, but she said that it's incredibly insensitive to ask Arab Americans and Palestinians, people who have outright LOST their family members due to the US's unrestricted military aid to israel and the genocide, to vote. That makes sense to me. I absolutely agree with that, and I don't think it makes sense to yell at these people to vote. BUT, Kelly then goes on to say that the argument that if you're voting, you're got blood on your hands, is just wrong. Because living in America, benefiting from the imperialistic violence, we always had blood on our hands, and no one's breaking solidarity with marginalized folks simply by voting. You break solidarity when you justify your politicians' horrible actions, such as police brutality, prison industrial complex, etc. But in this case, when someone acknowledges these politicans aren't gonna get the real important shit done, only direct action works, and you're voting to choose your opponent--I don't think that's breaking solidarity. Or throwing people under the bus. The truth is even if every leftist didn't engage with electoral politics at all, and spent it on mutual aid, community defense, these things--there would still be a president until we somehow destroy settler nation America. And that president will destroy public infrastructure and attack marginalized folks a lot quicker if he isn't a democrat, because the Republicans are literally just--fascist party.

I dislike people whose only engagement with politics is to vote shame. But I also think it's just a wrong take to act like people who vote, who aren't vote shaming, who do think it's harm reduction, are all idiotic liberals. As we try to mobilize against imperialism, it's crucial to try to pick our enemies when we can. I understand the fact our wealth, the fact we have these healthcare systems, this public ifnrastructure and government assistance even if it's nowhere near enough--it comes from blood of the Global South. And there is a real problem with liberals who care about these elections only to maintain their quality of life, don't care about imperialism and global oppression at all. These people exist, and if we do start dismantling imperialism ina meaningful fashion, USA quality of life will drop. But people voting Democrat because they don't want the Affordable Care Act dismantled, want to keep their food stamps, their schools funded--they're not inherently selfish and breaking solidarity with third world folks. There's nuance here, a lot of nuance. Which is why I like Kelly saying we can't let electoralism destroy our relationships., because we are going to need to build, build, build if we are going to survive. I'm going to vote because ultimately it won't take me much time, but I also won't judge the people who refuse to, choosing to invest their efforts in direct action.

I also think the people who say voting doesn't do anything...they also ignore the nuance. I get it. I get the frustration. But as I read various perspectives, I'm starting to realize the treachery of black-and-white thing. Before there's a revolution, it's more likely we are going to build new things out of the old system, incrementalism, before we make any foundational leap. Again, this shit has nuance.

Yeah, I think this resonates a lot for me. And I'm not really here to "vote shame" either! I think I do have a similar opinion on it to FD Signifier, though, who says he thinks of voting like washing your hands.

You can choose not to, it's not the end of the world. But like. Why? Who is this helping? I mean maybe it's not my business, maybe you have a good reason, whatever. It's just one of those things that, y'know, especially if it takes you 5 minutes to mail a ballot in... it's just good hygiene.

And I think a lot of people say, "put your energy towards these other things instead!" without any intent to actually do so, and without any follow through themselves. And do you really need to not vote in order to do those things? Like is voting the thing preventing you from Doing The Revolution? For real?

At the end of the day, I'm not going to shame anyone for not voting. I talk about it because I think some people are misguided about how all this works, and I think some of the opinions people put out there just, like, suck. But it's ultimately not up to me. 🤷‍♂️

[olderthannetfic]

I know with social media the way it is, and how horrible the us political climate is, that this sort of response to Audrey as an OTW candidate was probably just a ticking time bomb. But damn, I went to her actual Twitter, and honestly? She seems like one of those old-style, fiscal conservative Republicans who may want to change things from within the party, however unlikely that may be. She literally pointed out how small govt means less govt messing with our rights, and how the current Republican national party is hypocritical about that.

So many of her typical tweetings (?) are pretty socially progressive. If she's in deep south Missouri, it may be that she had to run Republican for any chance of changing things for the better in her local area.

I do not support Republicans as a whole. I think they ARE dragging the country to a horrific, fundamentalist grave. But she is an individual, and from what I can tell, supportive of lgbtq rights and freedom of speech on the internet. I likely would not have voted for her anyway, but nothing she has done or said so far has earned her the hate and vitriol she has received over such a short period.

Tiffany was ALSO not a CCP spy working for the Chinese govt. She was literally not even in confirmed to BE in China for fucks sake. Chinese people have been leaving the country in droves! Was she a good fit for the board? Hell no! But she wasn't voted in, was she?

I'm just so exhausted of people assuming the absolute worst and going on a hate campaign based off their own misinformed assumptions. This is not helping anyone see the "left" or "proshippers" or whatever our "side" is, as reasonable, helpful people.

I'm exhausted of defending people whose positions I don't even agree with, because the people I do "agree" with are acting so abhorrently.

What are your thoughts on this?

--

Yeah, that's my read on her in the context of local US politics. Running as an independent and then a Republican where she is is typical of people with her type of platform. It doesn't make her Fundie Satan.

Like Tiffany, there are plenty of different reasons not to vote for her, so we don't need to worry so much about the minutia of her political stances. Only if she were a great candidate but with a couple of red flags would we need to dig into this.

Like I said last year, working for OTW means having people assume the worst constantly and come for you with pitchforks. There are reasons it's not attractive above and beyond internal mismanagement. It's hard to get enough people to run for Board to even have a contested election. We usually do these days, but in the past, we often didn't. It was just people taking turns to jump on the grenade.

This kind of response to someone agreeing to the worst job in OTW just reaffirms that it's not worth it and discourages future candidates.

I think everyone should chillax and vote in somebody else.

ETA: and while this has been sitting in the queue, it has become a moot point anyway.