#This isn't real life where is it real life?

[carylmeanslove]

Luke's Floral touch to their meal.

Nicola posted a story picture of a romantic birthday dinner for two from last night. This post of course is just speculation. There are loads of clues as to who's with her. The photo taker seems tall, her smile is so obvious a smile she does with a certain denim blue eyed gentleman, it's a freaking Italian restaurant, the cutlery placement. There is some who even see something in the reflective surfaces. I haven't tried looking that close to that one. I am confident it's Luke.

Anyways...I am going to analyze the flowers in this post, because Fran asked me too. So here you go Fran, love ya!

I have looked on a site to see if there are vases on every table as a house decoration. There isn't a vase of flowers on every table, you can go look on TripAdvisor. So yeah, there is a vase of two medium sized bloomed roses here that Luke could have brought with them or most likely was asked to be added on his behalf when making the reservation. There is one yellow rose and the other a red rose. The red doesn't look very vibrate red, but I am taking lighting into account here. The low romantic lighting would lighten it.

Yellow Roses

As you can see it symbolizes the core of their relationship. They are each other's best friend. It makes sense that he would pick this bloom. It represents the core of their relationship. Where it started. The friend part of friends to lovers. That part never goes away. The rest is just added. This is just his way of representing the loyalty, devotion and care of their relationship. I also like to add a spouse is a relative. Not to mention also a symbol of happiness. Spot the perfect birthday gift part.

Red Roses

Now on to the lovers' part of their Friends to lovers' story. It is a clear, like their connection is clear to those of us who can understand it, of their love. The symbol of a deep, passionate, romantic love. They are classic expression of love, longing and desire. As well as respect, admiration and devotion.

Yep, it checks, because like their characters these two are also friends to lovers in real life. Reel to Real, indeed. Thanks for the bread crumb and another bit of a look at yours and Luke's beautiful life, Nicola. We love you both so much and we are so happy for you. Glad you had such a wonderful birthday.

[spiderfunkz]

HYUN-JU x TALL!READER

pairings. cho hyun-ju x f!reader

author's note: where the tall queens at, hellooo! in this the reader is the same height as hyun-ju. also, my requests for hyun-ju are open, but check this out if you wanna request for other squid game characters. if you don't see the character you want to request for send me an ask!

▸ throughout her life, hyun-ju is usually the tall one. you could spot her quite easily in a crowd, she's just really lucky to be blessed with such height.

▸ though sometimes to her, it felt more like a curse. after she transitioned, it was difficult to find someone who wanted a much taller woman as their partner. you know people, they stick with their preferences.

▸ she always felt like the odd one out. but that's before she met you.

▸ you were taller than most of your peers. but that never really bothered you, you were fine with your height, and you never really get why they care so much. you were taught to not care about people's comments as long as you are comfortable.

▸ that's what you slowly taught hyun-ju.

▸ you met her like in any cliché romcom. accidentally bumping into her while walking turned into more dates than you could count. she was so lovely, you wondered sometimes if she was even real. like a dream you've made up.

▸ she values trust a lot in a relationship. thankfully, you were able to give just that. she enjoyed being around you, your presence felt like a safe place to her, and you enjoyed being around her, to you, she is your safe place.

▸ it's cute when you guys are the same height. you love seeing her wear your clothes, your dresses, how it fits her so perfectly, framing her features so beautifully. you love seeing her ask, even when she's shy about it.

▸ "y/n, could i ask you something?" she'd fidget her fingers, "of course, what is it?" your tone is gentle, it makes her feel less nervous. "is it okay if i borrow your dress? the one you wore last wednesday, i thought it looked really gorgeous on you. i was wondering if i could maybe give it a try?"

▸ you'd smile widely, "yes you can! you don't even need to ask, hyun-ju." you immediately get up to find the dress. "i do though, it is yours after all." — "what's mine is yours to share. you can borrow any of my clothes, hyun-ju. i bet they will suit you perfectly."

▸ when she'd come back with the dress on, it would definitely make you gasp. she looked beyond amazing, she looked breathtaking. "do you think it fits me?" she'd ask, "cho hyun-ju, you are the most stunning woman i've ever seen, if you don't marry me right away i will put a ring on your finger before you even know it."

▸ your creative compliments never fails to make her blush. hyun-ju isn't the type to usually just accept compliments, it is something difficult for her to truly believe. but when it comes to you? she believes everything.

▸ her confidence has improved a lot since you've come into her life. your words are so understanding, not pressuring at all, it's easy to take in.

▸ the days where she doubts her beauty are now very rare. but sometimes it does come, though luckily, you are always there by her side.

▸ hyun-ju enjoys being the little spoon, no one can change my mind. she just feels so safe in your touch, so secure. especially when you lay your head in the crook of her neck, whispering soft melodies in her ear.

▸ one day she wanted to buy a pair of heels, but was afraid to get judged in public. she was already tall enough, she didn't want to feel even more out of place than she already does. and you, being the same height as her, bought them without much worry.

▸ you promise to match with her if she goes out with heels. and if people stare, who cares? they are just jealous of two pretty tall girls enjoying their time.

▸ "trust me, hyun-ju, people won't care as much as you think. it is completely normal to want to express yourself and to want to be yourself. who are they to judge? they do not have a right to have a say about you and your choices."

▸ and you were right. hyun-ju's worries were quickly washed away, and after a day of wearing them...

▸ "you are right, my love. but i'm not sure if i'll go out with these often." she shrugs, "oh, why so?" you pout.

▸ "it hurts my feet. i might need some bandages."

[oceanarcaneum]

okay so the "fake out lujanne-lissa" scene/plot is egregious for a lot of reasons, but actually, my BIGGEST complaint with this one isn't even the hypocrisy, but rather what a MISSED OPPORTUNITY it was for a deeper, more complex exploration of the SIBLING dynamic between claudia and soren.

when terry says "i think there's one person who can put those pieces back together," and soren asks, "what are you getting at?" i was absolutely flabbergasted when he followed it up with "your mom," because i was completely, 100% expecting him to say soren.

terry's whole argument here is that everything claudia does, she does out of love for her family. why would he think of lissa OVER soren - lissa, who, as terry seems to know by now, hurt claudia so badly when she left, and who claudia hasn't seen in fifteen years? who claudia has barely even spoken of outside of talking to ezran about how hard it was for her being asked to choose between her parents? she talks to viren multiple times about doing things for "our family," but lissa ostensibly hasn't been a part of that family since claudia was very young.

the show even makes a point of drawing a parallel between soren and lissa in season three, when soren chooses to leave viren's side after his takeover of lux aurea, and claudia pleads with him "don't ask me to choose, soren - not again." and then refuses to say goodbye to him, because she can't bear accepting that her brother is leaving her. if the writers really wanted to go with the angle of "her love for her family is the only thing that can stop her" why not use soren instead - whom claudia clearly hasn't resolved her issues with, who's a much fresher example in her mind of being abandoned or left behind?? (AND with all the focus put on terry making them PROMISE not to hurt her, it feels like it was the perfect setup for soren to actually TALK to her, and for the story to explore their relationship in more complexity.)

i just feel like it would have made so much more sense for soren to be the one to try and stop claudia by genuinely connecting with her - a real attempt at reconciling with her and offering her a true path back, instead of the weird manipulative choice to try and trick her with an illusion of her mother (who, again, broke claudia's heart last time she saw her and has caused her emotional trauma that's stuck with her for years of her life. like????? UGH.) vs soren, who claudia clearly still loves - in the final scene with her, she still labels herself as his sister that he should love and be unwilling to kill, and refuses to kill him because she's "still herself" - inherently saying that he's still her brother, to her, and she doesn't want him dead, even when she already considers herself as being abandoned by him.

soren is, by now, the only living & present family that claudia has left. it just feels so much more intuitive and believable that he would be the only one who can connect with claudia where she is now and offer her a way back home.

[weaselle]

i work with dogs and to me treating your child like a dog doesn't mean you're treating your child badly it means you treat dogs right

i mean clearly they are different, i often say children and dogs are like bikes and motorcylces, there is a lot of overlap but also they are not the same

But the Brain Chemical Process and the Emotional Guidance aspects are a ven diagram that' basically a circle

I joke that my own brain is my "problem dog" that i have to keep training because it helps me remember that giving my brain rewards (like a sugar hit) for doing the right thing (letting go of a bad mood or succeeding against my dysfunctional executives) trains my brain whether i feel like it's working in the moment or not

the real reason for that ethic of "work before you play" where you mostly don't give yourself good things until you've done good things isn't because of some kind of "do you deserve good things/have you earned them" thing.

It's because life is full of good and bad things and you're going to have the good things anyway, but if you establish a pattern of giving your brain the good things as rewards after accomplishing what you want to get done, it sets up a chemical feedback loop as a behavioral pattern that will help propel you on the road to growth and enhance your ability to achieve your goals.

I want to apologize to my friends and family who have children for low key treating their kids like dogs but the standard methods for training dogs are even more effective of them because they actually understand language and are better at reasoning.

Positive reinforcement is amazingly effective, like I saw my nephew poking their cat so I sternly told him no, he stopped and I immediately changed my demeanor and cheerfully told him thank you and how happy I was that he listened to me instead of staying angry at him and he got this strange “Oh…It actually does make a difference wether I’m naughty or not” and later my sister in law asked why he’s so polite around me.

That’s literally what works best on dogs. Let them know when you don’t like what they’re doing but also let them know when you’re happy with them even if that means changing your demeanor on a dime (and even if you’re still a bit mad at them for doing it in the first place).

Oh and little treats. I skipped the aunt phase and is already turning into a grandma who has candy in her pockets for the kiddos for good behavior.

[betweenthescarletmoon]

Random Thoughts on the Arcane Fandom about Jayce

this is gonna be a mess but I have nowhere else to talk about this.

I've recently noticed how Jayce Talis has been subjected to all kinds of sexualization since the drop of Act 2 of the second season. People have mentioned many times how trauma has made him "hot". A good and well-known example of this is Danny Motta's reaction to episode 5, where he said, "Holy shit, they made Jayce hot! [...] My dude went from looking like a Muppet to the king of Rohan, and all it took was a little bit of trauma."

This isn't entirely new for him? If people didn't hate Jayce back in S1, they ogled him in the scene where he works on the Forge shirtless, which IS kinda the point because the animators are making him very obviously attractive. But most importantly, he as a character has been reduced to his sexual or romantic relationships since the beginning of time.

It seems that S2 is a response to this in a way. His arc from the ending of S1, where he took responsibility of his actions out of guilt for the child he killed, was slightly set aside for Viktor. Well, ALL of his life, dreams, decisions, everything about him was eclipsed by Viktor's shadow because of the whole "all times, all possibilities" twist. He wasn't expected to show up as a Councilor in any of the meetings, and we must assume he quits at some point, but he surely hasn't resigned from his position by the time Viktor wakes up. Apart from that much needed scene between him and Cait, and the one where he attends the memorial (and is attacked by a vengeful mother), we don't see many of his decisions or what leads him to make them, other than Viktor. This is beautiful in a way because we can SEE how it is a trauma response to losing him. He is obsessive by nature, and he clings to what keeps him and his loved ones safe excessively, but I still had to do a bit of mental gymnastics as to why he went back on the second promise: to not build Hextech weapons again. (Hint: it has to do with the fact that VI saved him with HIS weapon, but it went so fast it's hard to process in the first watch.)

Now back to the sexualization problem. Every time I look up his name and trauma, or PTSD, 95% of the results are thirst edits on Tiktok about how hot he is. No joke. One of the more serious results is my own edit. Of course, a lot of people connect with his suffering without naming it as trauma, and that is great. My concern is that there has been so much focus on Jinx's trauma, Viktor's trauma, even Silco's trauma (which are all valid and fascinating to explore), but there's less attention for other characters who clearly show how their own traumatic experiences has shaped them. Vi, Caitlyn, and Jayce are some of the clearest examples of this, and they've experienced some truly heinous things in the show. Trauma cannot be compared, ever. But why is it that Jayce, who lived through an apocalypse that HE knows HE caused, and lives in complete isolation except the "company" of metal watchers, to the point that he loses touch with reality, and is changed so irrevocably that he loses the naivety and starry-eyed optimism that has always defined him...is seen as hot? And more importantly, why is it that there is very little attention to his experiences on that cave? Every scene between him and Viktor is uploaded in 1080 HD quality, but the scenes of him alone? Fighting to survive? Showing remarkable resilience in the face of his suffering? No, that's not as fun. Not a single one of those scenes is uploaded fully, and I have checked many times. (Some people have actually skipped those scenes to focus on Timebomb. I'm...)

I went online and looked up "why do people sexualize traumatized characters" because let's face it, it's real, it's interesting, and I cannot judge or else I am a hypocrite. Bucky Barnes, Loki, Ellie Williams, Dean Winchester, Vi herself, the list goes on much longer but I can't think of others off the top of my head. We connect with their suffering, and we are pulled by their experiences.

However, Jayce is such a complicated case because he is usually thought of as the greedy himbo that fumbled two baddies, or the confused bisexual, or the guy who lost it because of a situationship (much like Vi, who DID NOT lose it because of a failed romantic endeavor bfr). And then the plot goes and tells us, "Actually, yeah, his life outside of Viktor doesn't matter, he's not even supposed to be alive, because Viktor saved him. All of time is completely inextricable from Viktor." People hate meljay because she manipulated him and "trapped" him in a relationship or something, only to celebrate it when something suspiciously similar happens with the male romantic interest? I initially thought it was beautiful too, bc Soulmates, but man. Mage!Viktor really left the man he loved to rot in complete isolation, eating raw reptiles until throwing up, losing his mind. Say what you want about the allegory for Viktor's life, at least Viktor's isolation was metaphorical up until the Glorious Evolution.

Despite us being shown this, people make thirst edits of him in his black fit, and fighting with sexual tension with Viktor. I fear...that I am the only one who finds this tragic. The man forced to create a larger than life persona to sell his work and be seen as an attractive pawn of the system, has become the attractive pawn of the narrative. Viktor's narrative.

Perhaps Viktor was forgotten by the world. But Jayce's kind heart, and brave soul, were forgotten by us.

Just some thoughts to chew about my favorite character and my wish that more people focused on his arc with me

[piracytheorist]

I'm rewatching the Yor learning to cook episode and it's just SO fucking good you guys. Not only the episode itself but the way its storyline is presented.

I've seen people react to jokes about Yor's cooking with a "but she's getting better at it!" and while I understand that reaction, the thing is, she doesn't have to get better, and the narrative itself is perfectly fine with her being at best mediocre at cooking. Yor's bad cooking is used to explain her low confidence, but it makes perfect sense when you consider the misogyny in the era she grew up and lives in. But aside from one comment Anya made to deflect, and involuntary reactions to her food that they can't actually help, neither her nor Loid actually judge Yor for her cooking nor do they demand more from her. It's just accepted that Loid will cook as part of his share of the chores and no-one even spares a second thought about it. In fact, the main reason Yor worried about her skill is because she believed Loid spent an entire day in the bathroom because of the breakfast she made, so she wanted to learn better because she wanted to avoid giving them food poisoning.

Of course, this does tie in with her job, where she's trained to kill in cold blood, and with the world around her, who perceives women not only as less valuable than men but also defines them in strict patriarchal terms, one of which is that the wife cooks and she must do it well too. So even though her bad skills don't worry her too much about her worth, it's unavoidable that it will affect her and I think it's important that the story itself takes that into consideration.

And I just wanna point out how it's actually good that the narrative adds a humorous tone to just how bad her cooking is, because while it does make a reference that her low self confidence is because of the sexism she's faced in her life... the humor isn't sexist. Try and flip the genders here. A story of a straight couple (fake or real married) where the woman cooks well and the man is a horrid cook would make no-one bat an eyelash if it simply poked fun at how bad the man's cooking is. Again, without any comments about the character's worth based on his cooking, just that whenever he's in the kitchen, there's usually a bloodbath one way or another.

It's the same exact presentation with Yor! The narrative takes away gender roles and simply pokes fun at her bad cooking, in the same way stories poke fun at characters failing at any random skill. Like we have the word "himbo" as an affectionate term for a male character who's kind but very stupid but god forbid we love a kind female character who is equally incompetent in something. We only find it sexist because we were also conditioned to think that only women cook well and that it's a woman's responsibility to cook for her family and do it well and as we grew we rejected that expectation. The story actually subverts the sexism of that and it says "Yes this woman's cooking is absolute shit and we love her for that."

And it's all solidified with how the story resolves: Yor makes a good dish, and Loid and Anya praise her for it. But it's not in a "you get a good grade in wife" way, it's a "we appreciate this meal you made for us". Yor feels happy because her creation made them smile. She offered them something that they never demanded of her, and it made them feel good. It's about human connection, all over again, that someone's efforts to offer to their fellow human were rewarded with pride and gratitude. It's especially touching that the dish Yor made was something from her own childhood, something that brought warmth to her too.

It's also important to remember that another motivation in the whole thing is that Yor and Loid want the public to think their marriage is real and not worthy of gossip - which is why Yor mentions that she was worried about getting in trouble in regards to her assassin work; her reason to get into that deal in the first place was for cover for that work. The better and more conventional their presentation, the more solid their cover. That's why she mentions at the end that she feels more confident as the wife and mother of the family; it's the fact that she now has something to use for their cover. Say she's talking with someone and the conversation veers towards cooking. Before, if she was asked about her cooking, she would have to say she doesn't cook or her family hates her cooking, and she would worry about getting judged, like Swan judged her. Or she would have to lie, something we know she's not very good at. Now she can at least say "Oh they love my stew!" as the perfect answer because it's simple, clear and also true. So again there's definitely an element of her confidence being low due to the society's sexist worldview. But in this case it's also, and actually more, her worrying about being reported due to not fulfilling her "gender role" sufficiently.

(anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

[apas-95]

why do people keep on describing the fermi paradox as 'lol scientists watched too much scifi and now they think aliens are real lmaoo'. it's like the weirdest twisted knot of anti-intellectualism, where the notion that earth isn't literally the only location of life in the entire universe is the product of watching too much TV or something, and the insightful educated position is just like Knowing Video Games Aren't Real. just a very dunning-kruger approach

[jenroses]

It is incredible to me how much My depression was most effectively treated by no longer being gaslit by shitty medical professionals. When I started getting diagnoses that made sense, rather than "we can't find anything wrong." Also "yes, we can help you".

Yes, antidepressants were helpful in specific situations. But invariably for me, the biggest depression trigger has been feeling trapped and unheard.

I do a lot of things for my mental health. I take the tiniest dose of otc lithium... Basically a "people where the drinking water has naturally occurring lithium experience less depression" dose (the pharmaceutical dose starts at 600 mg. I take 5. This seems to put a floor under me, so I don't always feel great but I'm not falling into the pit as easily)

I take a low pharmaceutical dose of duloxetine for nerve pain. It would probably be better if I could take more but I can't risk the drug interactions.

Fish oil seems to help stabilize my ability to cope a lot. Going off it for procedures really fucks up my coping ability.

and choline supplements seem to affect my general capacity for enjoyment of literally anything in life.

Magnesium affects a lot of bodily symptoms for me, mitigating my asthma from chronic to only triggered under extreme circumstances, and affecting my general tension level, as well as easing gut issues.

And by far, the most stabilizing factors involve treating my POTS with hydration and electrolytes and mast cell issues with substantial amounts of various h1 and h2 antihistamines. Because it's hard to get out of bed when you're dizzy and it's hard not to feel anxious when you itch and your heart is racing and you feel like there's nothing you can eat that won't hurt you.

For me, standard doses of one antidepressant or another got me past despair on several occasions but they're not fixing the very real issues making me miserable. The problem isn't my brain, it's my body and the world we live in, the brain is just doing its best and I'm trying to help it along.

Sometimes people need that one antidepressant lifelong, and that's fine. If you can feel substantially better with a single medication, yes, do that!

But for me, the side effects tend to be magnified, and most of my issues with depression are situational and/or treatable by other means. My diagnoses are autism, ptsd, adhd and anxiety, except the anxiety isn't really the thing where you feel anxious for no good reason, but because my life has a lot of things going on that literally if I wasn't worried about them people would be worried that I wasn't responding appropriately to situations that are literally anxiety provoking.

Accepting that, "no, I'm not depressed for no reason, this really just is this shitty" did wonders for my mental health in general. There's nothing wrong with my responses to the world, the world just is that fucked up. It is genuinely difficult to live in my body and anyone would have a hard time with this.

Pacing myself, setting boundaries, asking for help and treating the treatable things has gone a very long way towards helping my mood in general.

90s movies: Psychopharmacology is as good as a lobotomy. If you take pills to treat your mental illness it will literally murder your imaginary friends and you will become a boring, lotus-eating conformist drone.

Me after taking my meds: drives the scenic route home to see if there are any geese on the pond and does a little dance in line at the grocery store and comes home to throw everything​ in my fridge into a stew pot because I can finally taste food again while singing songs at my birds in which I replace all the instances of "she" with "Cheese" and doing a Dolly Parton impression on the phone to my sister

[spacemonkeysalsa]

Little rant, take the trigger warnings seriously.

For the most part I think it's really good to have some perspective, and allow others people to be wrong about video games on the internet without letting it affect me. But sometimes there's just a needling little thing that repeatedly bothers me, and it's usually because there's a real world analogue that I can't forget about. Something that is more important than video games.

As an example, I get more upset than is rational about the "Astarion is actually so evil" takes, because they generally come down to a handful of arguments I have heard before, but in real life, about real people. And when I say I have heard them in real life, I mean in the context of legal arguments about whether or not to prosecute people who have been trafficked for their participation in human trafficking. Additional context is that I am an atty and have a broad exposure to different areas of law.

What a lot of people don't appreciate about human trafficking is that it is incredibly common for people who have been trafficked to be put into a position where they must participate in illegal, and abusive, acts against others. One reason why this is done is because it makes it that much riskier for them to go to the authorities, creating a heavy incentive to not do that. To never ask for help.

You can be a plaintiff in one case and a defendant in another. Duress and coercion could be considered, but it's just not always what happens. Jurisdiction matters, culture matters. But regardless of all that, it doesn't often get to a legal phase in the first place because it's very easy to convince victims of human trafficking that they are just as culpable, because they have helped to traffic others, and that the duress they are under will not be considered. And like. They are often right about that, unfortunately.

Idk for sure how much research was done when they were writing Astarion's character, but this aspect of his story stood out to me because it's so rarely depicted (and then isn't depicted well) in media. I can name you several bad examples, but few good ones. Even being translated into high fantasy, and with magical compulsion and effing vampires, this element of Astarion's story, and how acclimation to cruelty has shaped his personality is not remotely subtle.

Maybe even especially with the supernatural elements, it helps, because it takes away some of the ambiguity that people argue about in a court of law irl. And I think it takes a side in that ongoing legal debate, by emphasizing his total lack of autonomy.

[shisasan]

Moving to Japan many years ago and being introduced more meticulously to its culture, history, and philosophy sparked a deep and lasting fascination that took root within me. Through extensive reading, research, observation, and reflection, it offered me valuable insights that, for some reason, blended organically with my own Balkan mentality. Japanese thought is like a quiet, endless ocean - vast and mysterious, yet full of deep truths for those curious to explore its depths. It’s not only that we can learn from it - it’s that we are drawn to it. The soul, restless and searching for meaning, finds itself captivated by its quiet elegance, by wisdom that is not shouted but whispered, like a secret offered in the stillness of the night. Herein lies its true beauty: it doesn’t force itself on you, it invites. It calls the spirit to explore the unknown, to face its own shadows, and in doing so, to find peace.

Here are a few philosophical principles that I find deeply compelling, each reflecting a unique idea or value within the expansive spectrum of Japanese aesthetics, ethics, and spirituality:

In the philosophy of "kensho" (見性), the gradual awakening to one's true self, there is a calm defiance against the rush of modern life. How easily we are deceived into thinking self-worth is built overnight, but Japanese thought insists on a far more patient, sometimes demanding journey - a slow, deliberate peeling away of the surface until only the real essence of the self remains. This is not comfort, but truth, and the search for truth is never without a bit of struggle. Yet in this struggle, in this slow awakening, there is beauty - one that cannot be grasped by those who seek only the fleeting joys of instant satisfaction.

Much like "bushidō" (武士道), the way of the warrior, this journey demands honor, integrity, and the kind of inner strength that does not waver, no matter how treacherous the path, a kind of inner strength that stands resolute in all circumstances. Bushidō embodies Gi (rectitude), Yū (courage), Jin (benevolence), Rei (respect), Makoto (honesty), Meiyo (honor), Chūgi (loyalty), and Jisei (self-control). It is not simply enduring hardship - it is about living with powerful intention, where loyalty, integrity, and courage form the foundation of a purposeful life. This spirit of Bushidō isn't about suffering but about a fierce dedication to living with honor and resilience, and within that struggle, one’s character is shaped. There is no arrogance in true confidence, only a hard-won resilience, the kind that grows in the cracks like a delicate flower breaking through stone.

Then comes "shibumi" (渋み) - that quiet, understated elegance that goes almost unnoticed, simplicity hiding a depth of complexity. True self-esteem, true understanding, doesn’t need to shout. It exists in the way a person holds themselves, moves through the world with calm, steady presence that speaks volumes without saying a word. This is confidence born not from pride but from humility, from understanding one’s place in the larger order of things, and finding peace in that awareness.

The beauty of "wabi-sabi" (侘寂) lies in its celebration of imperfection. It rejects the idea of flawless perfection and instead finds beauty in the cracks of imperfection and flaws. There is something both bittersweet and freeing in this acceptance - that we are all, in some way, broken, and it is through those very fractures that we find our true beauty. It’s a perspective that would resonate deeply with Dostoyevsky, who found humanity in the brokenness of his characters.

Perhaps the greatest gift of Japanese philosophy is the concept of "yūgen" (幽玄), that deep, elusive beauty lying just beyond reach, in the shadows and the unseen. Life is not meant to be fully understood, and some things are better left as mysteries. This unknowable depth gives life its meaning, its richness. The surface may seem dark, but beneath lies an entire world for those willing to look deeper, to feel with their soul, rather than just see with their eyes.

Finally, there is "fudōshin" (不動���) - the unshakable mind. To be calm, to be still, in the face of the storm - that is where true strength lies. It lies not in the victory and worldly achievements, triumph or success, but in the calm, steady enduring of life’s storms. This is the magnetic presence that draws others in, not through force or charm, but through the quiet power of someone who has faced the abyss and emerged, not untouched, but unbroken.

In Japanese philosophy, I’ve found a mirror to the human condition - beautiful, tragic, profound, and endlessly deep. It teaches us that self-esteem, like life, is not something to be attained in a moment, but something to be continuously sought, patiently, through humility and acceptance. There is no end to this journey, and in that endlessness lies its greatest beauty.

[laswells-ashtray]

It’s 9 AM where I am now and I have work at 10 (no car). I’m pretty certain I have some type of chest cold/phenomena, but I’m not 100% sure. And I’m on my period.

Can you info dump about all of the little COD ideas you have in your head so I can read about it on my break or when I get off? If that makes sense? It doesn’t have to be full stories, just the Autism Thoughts.

Damn, and to think I just had dinner. To be fair it was an early dinner but it was homemade spaghetti and it was fucking banging. Don't die of illness and such, also if you've cursed me I swear to God because whenever anyone tells me about their period I end up synced with them and that's happened seven separate times. It's like fucked up Bluetooth. And to the one person who reads this and thinks I'm oversharing, what are you gonna do about it?

Ghost has, and will again smack Soap across the back of the head for referring to food as "orgasmic" in public.

Nikolai has a penchant for hazelnut Happy Hippos. He has sworn John to secrecy but God forbid that man smoke a joint and get near a box of those fuckers.

Alejandro and Rudy once got into an argument because Rudy admitted that out of all of Alejandro's nieces and nephews, Rudy has a favourite. The argument only ended because after Rudy named his favourite, Alejandro realised that it was his favourite niece too.

Once while drunk, a baby gay let Kate hit her vape in a bar and Kate considers it the lowest she's ever gotten while drinking, this is nowhere near true. She threw up in a man's mouth when he tried to kiss her while she was drunk in her early twenties, she does not regret it. Nor should she.

On more than one occasion, Farah has woken up to find Alex's face smashed against her shoulder with him drooling on her shirt. She'll never say a word because it's endearing, it's adorable and if she told him he'd never sleep next to her again.

Speaking of, Alex is a wrestling guy. He's always liked The Undertaker bit, especially the entrance music but he doesn't like the man behind the costume. Follows Stone Cold on an Instagram account that he has mainly for watching reals, he likes photos of Stone Cold with his chickens or his cats. Loved the Punkintyre feud, and sided with Punk because he's a good ol American boy but Drew McIntyre awakens something deeply bisexual inside of him. Likes watching Cena and Bautista in any movies they're in, loved them back in the day. Fucking loves Toni Storm's transatlantic, old-timey actress bit.

Valeria is a reader, likes a good murder mystery with a glass of wine and some takeout. Will sit down to read a chapter or two and finish the book. She has a shelf full of her favourites, she'll read them online first but the ones she loves, she buys a copy of. The only non-murder mystery books she owns a physical copy of are the Jurassic Park novels but she bought ones with sophisticated covers so no one would be able to tell unless they open up to the inside page.

He isn't scared of them but Simon is deeply mistrusting of swans. He refuses to explain why to anyone, he just calls them cunts and moves on with his life.

John's go-to move when Nikolai is irritated with him is to drop to his knees and unzip Nik's zipper with his teeth. The Russian goes for it every time even when he knows it's just John's way of playing with him.

[merrycrisis-if]

I didn't realize up until 3 days ago that you had updated Merry Crisis. I played the demo very late at night and I felt such a strong feeling of melancholy and longing when reading the scenes between MC and their family members. The messy drama with the aunts and the uncles... The endless boredom shared between all older cousins... The bittersweet memories when remembering departed grandparents... The sibling rivalry when playing any type of games... "Don't forget the taste of your mother's soup". God. I might have shed a tear or two. More than the romances (who are actually great, don't get me wrong), I fell in love with the way you write about the MC's family and culture. There are many things about them I could never truly understand ; I'm not Singaporean, nor Chinese, or even American, and I never lived in either of the places the MC spent most of their life. Culturally speaking, we have nothing in common. But there were so many moments where I saw parts of myself reflected in that young adult struggling with conflicting aspects of their identity, especially when it comes to feeling torn between different places, feeling like a stranger no matter where you are, and being queer while fearing coming out to your parents. What struck me the hardest was when the MC thought their grandmother would have gotten along with Nat, even though they don't know how she would have reacted to their partner being the same gender as them... So, thank you for that. Anyways, this isn't really why I'm sending you this ask. There were heavy rain falls where I live yesterday night, and a part of my basement got flooded. I had to throw a lot of things away, including many childhood drawings and family pictures. Some of my dad's old stuff got pretty soaked as well, but his vintage ViewMaster 3D collection miraculously didn't suffer too much damage. I was drying them up as best as I could, before coming to a stop. There were a few slides of Singapore lost among the countless others of European and American cities, dating back from 1957. It reminded me of you, probably because your story was still so fresh on my mind, and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you. I'm sorry for the horrible quality, though. They are pretty old and my phone doesn't take very good pictures.

Thank you for your stories. Happy holidays to you and your loved ones, I wish you all the best.

This message struck me really deeply, so thank you so much for sharing this with me. It makes me so incredibly moved when merry crisis reaches across time and space and ends up resonating with someone from a completely different culture/place -- makes me think about just how many experiences are shared in the most unlikely ways.

I'm sorry to hear the flooding but wow it sounds like you uncovered a lot of real gems. Thank you so much for sharing them with me! The one in the top left made me think about my grandma who says back in the day, my old house used to overlook the sea (kinda like those shophouses in the picture) -- until Singapore reclaimed land and pushed the coast much further south. And the other one, in the bottom left of Haw Par Villa reminds me of the time I went to there with my family (this is a little creepy Chinese place with scary statues and an awesome exhibit of the "ten courts of hell") and there was one statue of what happens when you talk back to your older siblings and my younger brother and I had a good laugh over that (you get boiled alive in lava or something equally horrifying).

Anyway, your message was so special to me. Receiving things like this make me so motivated to write!!

Happy holidays to you too!! <3

[battlefrankies]

saw ur tags, wanted to give some context because you do bring up some interesting points!

newkama as a term is a combination of okama (a reclaimed pejorative that refers to drag queens/transvestites, who don't always identify as women) and newhalf (a term some trans women celebrities used to refer to themselves in the 90s, but today i've seen most trans women prefer to just be called women) (and the word for trans people in japan today is just english loanwords, literally just 'trans' and 'transgender', so the terminology has evolved)

the newkama and especially iva-chan's impel down group see themselves not as specifically drag queens or trans women, but as people who've transcended the restrictions of gender entirely. they do tap into that campy drag aesthetic though, like you can clearly see the rocky horror influence on ivankov's designs. i think it's a mistake to try and apply concrete labels that we see constantly online to this group (and also, lgbt people in general). oda isn't on twitter reading about how gen Z kids on tiktok want to be portrayed, he's talking to real-life people he meets, but also mostly he's drawing one piece and playing gacha games.

even on momoiro island when they were trying to put sanji in a dress, i think it's important to point out that sanji agreed to that training regimen and discussed it with iva-chan in order to get stronger; he could've left at any time. imo the optics for that section weren't ideal, but it emphasizes the freedom of expression for the newkama who live on that island. there's no pressure to conform to rigid standards of femininity when they're safe and comfortable having body hair and square jaws, but they just wanna wear a frilly dress too. ivankov could (and would) physically alter anyone's body at any point they wanted, but the newkama of the kamabakka kingdom felt no need for that.

are there better ways to portray that? for sure! i'm not mad about oda imperfectly supporting the lgbt community in a time & media environment that was either dismissive or downright hostile to trans people though. it was, again, head and shoulders above pretty much any shonen that was being published at the time. personally, i like that there's such a diversity of trans experiences being depicted in the series with so much affection, to the point where each time sanji said or did anything transphobic, he'd get punished for it. you can truly tell that oda thinks it's dope as fuck that people can just trans their genders, and to me that matters more than optically perfect trans women.

giselle gewelle from bleach, for example, being a really cute trans girl who is also evil, and whose trans identity is openly insulted by a protagonist and also she dies, in 2013. oda having the newkama not just be empowered, heroic characters but also living and thriving on their own island was basically unheard of at a time when 'bury your gays' was so prevalent it's got a tvtropes page. and it's not just that these heroic characters happen to be trans, their establishment of a supportive community in impel down is the REASON luffy could be saved.

i think a lot of people criticize the trans representation in OP in bad faith without context or any intention of trying to understand the context, but i don't take them seriously. the reason we're even talking about the supportive but flawed 2009 trans rep in one piece is because OP has so much staying power and influence in the cultural consciousness. i think it's fair to be uncomfortable with aspects of it, and that speaks to how far we've come since then, which is a good thing. i think the intent of these characters & oda's stance on trans rights couldn't be more clear though.

the trans representation in one piece is phenomenal actually

[cheynovak]

Gravity Always Wins - pt2

Dean winchester x Y/N female friend

Summar: Y/N comforts Dean when he got aggressively emotional.

Warnings: None described, part from obvious trauma Dean went through

English isn't my first language

Please do not copy my work. Reblogs/comments and likes are appreciated

A part two since I need the fluff... Ps found the amazing AI work (bottom left) on Pinterest no idea who it belongs to.

Dean’s mind woke before his body, heavy and muddled like he’d been drowning in a storm. His eyes stayed shut, but there was a softness grounding him, warm and steady. He realized it was her hand in his.

The memories of the night before came rushing back. The outburst, the rage, the broken shards of his composure spilling all over the bunker floor. He remembered Y/N holding him—arms wrapped tight around him, refusing to let him fall apart alone.

He swallowed hard, his chest tight with an ache he couldn’t place.

His eyes fluttered open, and the dim light of the room revealed her. She was still asleep, her head resting on the pillow beside him. Y/N’s hand was tangled with his, her fingers soft and steady even in sleep. Her lashes rested against her cheeks, and her lips, slightly parted, moved with slow, rhythmic breaths.

Dean’s gaze followed the slope of her jaw, the curve of her lips, and back down to their joined hands. She looked peaceful, something Dean couldn’t remember feeling in years. He wanted to stay in this moment forever, to believe he deserved this quiet connection, to tell her how much she meant to him.

But then it hit him like a sledgehammer—Chuck.

This was part of Chuck’s grand design, wasn’t it? A cruel script meant to give him an anchor only to snatch her away. It was too perfect, too serene. It felt like a setup, a final act in a never-ending tragedy.

Dean’s stomach churned as his thoughts spiraled. His fingers unconsciously tightened around Y/N’s.

A small shift beside him broke through his haze, and her fingers pressed back against his—a grounding squeeze that tethered him back to the moment.

Her eyes blinked open, sleepy and warm as they found his. She gave him a small, soft smile. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Dean murmured, his voice thick with too many emotions he didn’t know how to say.

She stretched slightly, her free hand brushing the edge of the blanket. Her smile didn’t fade, even as her eyes searched his face. She could see it—something weighing heavy on him again, pulling at the edges of his sanity.

“You’re doing it again,” she whispered, her voice low and gentle.

Dean frowned slightly, his eyes narrowing. “Doing what?”

“That thing where you overthink,” she said, her tone teasing but laced with genuine concern. She tilted her head, her thumb brushing over the back of his hand. “Talk to me, Dean.”

He sighed, dragging his free hand down his face. “I just—” He stopped himself, his jaw clenching.

“You what?” she prompted, her tone so patient and soothing it made his chest tighten.

“I don’t want to lose this,” he finally admitted, his voice low, almost broken. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Her brows knit together, her lips parting in surprise. “Dean…”

He sat up slightly, turning to face her fully, his green eyes swimming with unspoken fears. “It’s all a script, Y/N. My whole damn life—a script Chuck’s been writing since day one. Every moment, every loss, every time I thought I could catch a break—it’s all just him pulling the strings.” He shook his head, bitterness edging his voice. “And now… now I’m afraid you’re just another part of it. Something good he’ll take away the second I start to believe it’s real.”

Y/N sat up slowly, her hand never leaving his. She studied him, her expression soft but resolute. “Dean,” she said quietly, reaching up to cup his cheek. Her thumb brushed against the stubble on his jaw as she looked into his eyes.

“You’re right. Chuck’s been messing with your life, all our lives,” she said, her voice steady. “But what I feel for you? That’s mine. That’s real.”

Dean stared at her, his throat tight. He wanted to believe her, but fear gnawed at him, relentless.

“You don’t have to trust Chuck,” she continued, her hand still resting on his cheek, “but you can trust me. You always have.”

Her words settled in his chest, heavy but comforting, like she’d taken some of his burden and made it hers.

After a moment, he let out a slow breath. “You make it sound so easy,” he murmured, a faint trace of a smirk pulling at his lips.

“It’s not,” she admitted, leaning her forehead against his. “But I’m here, Dean. For as long as you’ll let me be.”

Dean’s hand instinctively mirrored hers, cupping her cheek with a gentleness that belied the storm raging inside him. Her skin was soft beneath his rough fingers, warm and grounding in a way that steadied him without him realizing he needed it.

Y/N’s gaze shifted upward to meet his, her eyes full of something he couldn’t quite place—but it made his heart stutter all the same. Her breath hitched as she caught the way his eyes lingered on her lips, and suddenly the world around them faded.

Before he could second-guess himself, before he let doubt creep in and ruin the moment, Dean closed the distance, his lips brushing hers softly. It was tentative, unsure—like testing the waters—but also unbearably real. He tasted the faint hint of bourbon still lingering on her lips, felt the warmth of her exhale as their breath mingled.

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

But then he realized she wasn’t kissing him back.

Dean pulled away, his lips hovering an inch from hers as his heart sank. His eyes found hers, and he saw the surprise written all over her face. Panic surged through him, and his confidence shattered into a million jagged pieces.

“I-I…” He stumbled over his words, pulling back slightly, his hand slipping from her cheek. “I’m sorry. I thought…” He ran a hand through his short hair, shame building fast. “I shouldn’t have done that. I—”

“Dean, don’t.”

Her voice stopped him cold. He froze, his breath caught in his chest, unable to look at her. But then she shook her head, reaching out to gently grab his hand, keeping him from retreating any further.

“Don’t apologize,” she said softly, her voice shaking just slightly as she tried to gather her own thoughts. Her fingers tightened around his.

His green eyes darted back to hers, confused and still a little hesitant. “But you didn’t…” He trailed off, unsure of how to finish the thought.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for you to kiss me,” she admitted, a wry smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

Dean blinked at her, completely caught off guard. “Wait, what?”

She bit her bottom lip, her cheeks warming as she looked up at him. “I just… I’ve always thought…” She sighed, gathering herself before continuing. “I’ve had feelings for you for a long time, Dean. But I didn’t think you saw me that way.”

Dean stared at her, the words hitting him like a sledgehammer to the chest. For years, he’d convinced himself he wasn’t allowed to feel this way about her, that he needed to bury those feelings deep because there was no way she’d feel the same. And now, here she was, baring her soul.

His heart thudded painfully against his ribs. “You’re serious?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Dead serious,” Y/N replied, her smile softening.

Dean let out a shaky breath, his hand coming up to brush a strand of hair away from her face. “And here I thought you were just putting up with me all these years.”

Her laugh was soft, and the sound sent warmth flooding through him. “Dean, you idiot. I’ve been waiting for you to figure this out.”

He couldn’t stop the grin that broke across his face, and before he could second-guess himself again, he leaned in, capturing her lips once more. This time, there was no hesitation. Y/N responded immediately, her lips pressing back against his with an eagerness that made his head spin.

Her hands slid up his chest to his shoulders as the kiss deepened, and Dean felt something in him break free. The weight of Chuck, the years of pain, the doubt—they all faded into nothing as he held her close.

When they finally broke apart, both breathing heavily, Y/N rested her forehead against his, a shy smile tugging at her lips.

“Well, that’s one way to make sure you don’t overthink,” she teased softly.

Dean chuckled, his forehead still pressed to hers. “You might have to do that more often,” he said with a smirk, his voice warm and full of something he hadn’t felt in a long time: hope.

“Deal,” Y/N whispered, her fingers curling into his shirt as if she never wanted to let him go.

And in that moment, Dean Winchester finally let himself believe that maybe, just maybe, this was real. And for once, it was his.

--

Tags:

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@deans-baby-momma @ancles @tulipsvanilla @thesilmarillionblog @jays-bonnie-on-the-side

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[shazzbaa]

Asking the FLoc crayon [neon carrot] bc someone has to.

neon carrot: if you could give them any npc as a spouse, who would it be and why?

THIS IS SUCH A HARD QUESTION.

To address the obvious answer given recent activities: no i dont think he should marry Feducci, but he… might, if given the chance. The man CANONICALLY sent Sam 12 cellars of wine with a note reading "TO PASSIONS UNMATCHED" i dont think anyone can blame him for feeling like they had something special!!!! Feducci seems like he could make him very satisfied intimacy-wise but would also almost certainly Make Him Worse.

Samuel's constant difficulty with Marriage is that he isn't really… romantic in the traditional sense. HE HAS A LOT OF PHYSICAL DESIRE but romance rarely does anything for him outside of stories, and he gets antsy whenever he's locked in to a particular life plan. HOWEVER: he is usually too Catholic(TM) to really embrace a no-strings-attached lifestyle, and his tastes are well outside the typical Veilgarden hookup anyway (one of his most sensual experiences was getting murdered by an actual literal lance through the gut, so…). The real reason he bought multiple viric dreams of the Bishop of Southwark was that he was trying SO hard to Want Marriage, but even with someone so physically intense and driven, that dream of settling down for life isn't what he really wants; he just wants the part where they're wrestling by the fire.

The other complication is that he has finally found partners he can be happily intimate with: Peter and Jack (@little-red-notebook and @reliably-derogaffectionate's characters, respectively), to whom he is essentially a friend with benefits. He was best man at their wedding somewhat wistfully, but since they've both assured him that they still want him involved in their relationship, it feels very easy to be with them; a closeness he wants without the expectations that come with being a Spouse. It's still, you know, making love outside of marriage, but Samuel has never been good at avoiding that, and at least here he knows he's not leading anyone on or cheating on anyone.

An Ideal Marriage for Sam would involve some amount of polyamory to give him room for these inevitable, ah, extracurricular activities, someone that doesn't tie him down, ideally someone he can do physically dangerous things with and, importantly, have sex (these two activities can be combined). But I also think in an ideal world he would have someone who respects his own principles and doesn't try to smother his hope for compassion with duty, which feels like the big sticking point for a lot of the aggressive characters (like Southwark and Feducci) that Sam's attracted to.

I don't remember well enough to say how many of these points she hits, but I keep thinking of the Zubmariner from the Sunken River ES, as someone no-nonsense in a way Sam really respected and found attractive, but who also has people she cares about. She might be too cool to fall for this soggy loser, though, and the chances of her turning out to be a lesbian seem high. (Also Sam left her behind…. that's a choice he regrets, and I kinda wanna replay that story at some point, with the idea of him actually trying to go back for her). But in general, the idea of Samuel marrying a principled pirate where they both know their first love will always be the zee feels like something that could turn out to be a genuinely happy partnership for him. BUT WHO KNOWS maybe in a year I'll come back with a totally different answer I never saw coming.

[alexanderwales]

A writing idea I've been mulling is that of internal contradictions vs external contradictions. It's very possible that this just boils down to "Man vs Nature" and "Man vs Self", but perhaps slightly more specific.

The idea is that we give a character everything they say they want, then they find that it's not all it's cracked up to be, and that there are two broad genres here. The classic example of this is the movie Big, where a kid wishes he was a grown up. He initially enjoys it, then had to deal with some adult bullshit, and goes back to being a kid. So the standard is:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> it's initially good -> turns out it's not what I wanted (yet)

But in the case of Big, and a bunch of other movies like it, there's some hidden aspect of [this] that has revealed itself. The idea of [this] was a naïve one.

There's a different version, which is mostly the same, which goes like this:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wow did I not actually understand [this] -> turns out [this] is still good, but for different reasons than I thought

Or a slightly different version:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wow did I not understand [this] -> turns out that my very presence or effort was enough to make a new/better [this] that does get me what I initially wanted

So here are our three types, with some examples, to make sure that I understand what the hell I'm talking about. I am going to use "weeaboo goes to Japan" as my example, because I think it's funny, relatively inoffensive, and something I haven't seen done in a fiction context:

Return - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, has various adventures, and returns home, having changed and given up his weeaboo ways

Adaptation - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, has various adventures, and comes to appreciate Japan as it actually exists

Synthesis - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, had various adventures, and the people he's met enjoy and appreciate his infectious enthusiasm enough that he changes ... maybe just a small town, to be slightly more realistic

Internal Contradictions

A different approach, which I'm not sure I've ever seen, is one where we follow a path like this:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wait, it turns out that [this] is just fundamentally incoherent and in tension with itself, and in fact [this] does not and cannot exist

I hope you agree that this is different from any of the above. It's not a fiction that our protagonist gets disappointed about. It's that the protagonist gets everything he wanted, and finds out that's not actually what he wanted. So this is our new class:

4. Contradiction - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes the anime was real all along, meets some hot pink-haired girl who is very into him, is lauded by all the otaku that bow to his superior knowledge, finds that this is ultimately a shallow, hollow kind of life that he does not in reality enjoy.

If the central idea of external contradiction is "reality isn't like that", then the central idea of internal contradiction is "the idea falls apart under its own weight".

I think to do this, you have to really understand the idea and its own internal contradictions, and it needs to have internal contradictions. If someone gets the unrealistic thing that they always wanted, maybe they're just happy! Maybe the unrealistic thing could never exist in the real world, but can be found in a fantasy. No, for this idea to work, we need a fantasy that falls apart on its own, and not in a malevolent genie way where someone immediately says "well obviously I didn't mean it like that".

A guy who wants to be loved by everyone. He gets his wish, everyone loves him. Lots of options for what the internal contradiction is, and I think it depends on the nature of the fantasy, but "they love me but do not know me, so their love rings hollow" is a good example, and I'm not sure even a benevolent genie could fix that without creating more problems. "They love me and they know me perfectly" is, I think, also the kind of thing that people would freak out about, since they know all the bad stuff, the things that our protagonist wouldn't want people to know, that he glosses over about himself.

A guy wants his country to have perfect freedom of expression, but also wants dogmatic adherence to specific ideas. These cannot both exist, so the whole thing must tear itself apart and be rebuilt with compromise.

A guy wants a woman who is strong and independent and speaks her mind, and also a woman who goes along with whatever he wants. He wants her to be sexually adventurous and also virginal. This is a case of external contradiction, where such a woman does not exist in large quantities and is extremely unrealistic. But some formulations are also internal contradictions, depending on how the story is told.

There's something that these all have in common with each other, which is that there are at least two things which are in tension. Maybe you would even say that this tension makes them external to each other. But I think that this is something that's often true about human desire: we want things that are in tension with each other.

For this to work within a story, I think your protagonist has to be a bit of an absolutist, someone who isn't willing to compromise, because most of the examples I've been able to think of do have compromise solutions, where you give up a little of one thing and a little of the other and meet in the middle. Sometimes, this means acceptance.

I'm not entirely sold on this analysis. I think that it's hard to find examples I couldn't argue are some different kind of external contradiction, or a dumbass genie.

One of the examples I was thinking of was Click, where the protagonist wishes for (primarily) the ability to get through all the boring parts of life, and we see how this comes into conflict with his desire to be a father ... but isn't this an example of Return? He does, in fact, return to his life before he got the magical remote. So there's an obvious internal contradiction, but the film just says "actually, you would hate that, it wouldn't be like how you thought it was".

So I've felt like this post was half-baked, but it's been baking for what feels like months, sitting in drafts, and I cannot bake it anymore. Hopefully it does not fall apart under its own internal contradictions, because that would be quite the blunder.