#are two statements that should and do coexist

[quirkyfries]

I feel like I should mention that I am not a Ruin defender or apologist because a lot of my thoughts recently have been picking Ruin apart and if you weren’t me you could say I was woobifying him. I like to think of myself as a Ruin understander? I try to understand him as best I can with the means I am familiar with—which just so happens to be speculation.

Ruin is one of those Morally Ambiguous™️ characters that lands on a spectrum in the extremes. The worse a character’s crime, the more dire a reason or event(s) that pushed them to do it. The worse a character’s crime, the more they will try to cope with whatever they did, or they don’t cope at all. (Nevermind additional factors like environment.) That is what I like to think about. Crimes are not excusable no matter the reason; what makes a character like this interesting is how they think they were justified in what they did. It makes them varying degrees of sympathetic, but not correct. This goes for a good handful of the cast!

That being said, the fact a character committed a crime is not always a justifiable reason for other characters to commit crimes against them. In the case of Nexus’ treatment of Ruin, you could argue that it was a little bit justified in the beginning, Ruin killed Solar, but as that went on it was overkill and no longer about Ruin. In the case of Dark Sun’s treatment of Ruin, you can’t tell me that was done out of solely righteous intent. In the case of Molten, that was a direct consequence of the dimensional collapse, and Ruin had that one coming.

“Ruin kinda deserved how he was treated post Dimension collapse” and “It’s kinda messed up what happened to Ruin post Dimension collapse” are two statements that can (and should) coexist. Furthermore, there is no one correct interpretation of a character! But that’s just me

[didiwaffles]

I should stop watching youtube cause I start getting opinions that need to be voiced but also I don't want to invite arguing upon myself

[dinozaurtual]

actually unhinged how easily a lot of people on tumblr could have gotten really into armed Zionism in the right time and place….. the ideology of the corrupt traditionalist world that the true revolutionary must leave behind for something new… the love of cleansing violence and militarization… the idea that in the interests of an oppressed group of people all violence is justified and there are no civillians… agriculture/nature fetishization and cottagecore… why don’t we all just leave society and form an armed found family agricultural commune!!!! We will find community and purity in the harvest. No living In a Broken society.

as someone who grew up in israel so many underlying ideas and rhetoric of leftist goyim i see on here just.. reminds me so much of the zionist ideology we learned of in school here!!! and it makes me sick

[komorisansgarden]

friendly reminder that “im worried about the election results because of the drastic impacts it will have not only worldwide, but also in my personal life”

and

“i should step offline and stop actively thinking about the election, because doomscrolling and worrying over the results will not change them, and instead will only cause me further pain and stress”

are two statements that CAN and SHOULD coexist.

i know that today is very stressful for everyone, both americans and non-americans (like myself), but worrying will NOT do any good. take care of yourself first and foremost. we can and will deal with the consequences of the election when the results are out.

step offline. get some water and a snack. watch a TV you like, or play a video game, or read a book. talk to someone you love. this is not going to be the end of the world. we cannot let this be the end of the world.

[faggotry-enjoyer]

a number of statements that are not contradictory:

jews are not collectively responsible for anything the state of israel does.

expecting the relationship israelis (whether jewish, arab, or otherwise) have to israel to be fundamentally different, more sinister, more antagonistic, more nationalist, or less valid than the relationship people anywhere else have to their countries is an antisemitic double standard.

expecting jews, whether israeli or diaspora, to have any specific take on israel is antisemitic (dual loyalty).

demanding to know any jew's take(s) on i/p is invasive and disrespectful.

attempting to divide jews into good antizionist israel-hating tokens and evil zionist palestinian-hating monsters is antisemitic.

jews are indigenous to the land of israel, and denying their connection to the land is antisemitic.

jews, like any other indigenous group, deserve the right to self-determination in their homeland. in our current world, the typical form of self-determination is the nation-state. therefore, the state of israel is as legitimate as any other nation-state.

the modern state of israel was established for jewish refugees, and continues to be a place for jews to go when the rest of the violently antisemitic world expels them or makes fleeing the least dangerous option. it is the only place in the world where jews are not an extreme minority, and the only place in the world where jews can be visibly jewish without fear. therefore, israel's existence is essential to jewish safety.

roughly half of the world's jewish population lives in israel, which would make their loss of sovereignty devastating to the jewish community as a whole

a number of significant aliyah waves are within living memory. there are very few jews in the world. jewish communities tend to become stronger and form more ties with each other whenever antisemitism increases. communication across long distances is easier than any other point in human history. all of these factors combined makes it so that many diaspora jews are only at most a few degrees of separation away from at least one israeli jew.

all of these factors, and probably more i'm missing, mean that most jews are probably going to have some kind of feelings ahout israel, which are often going to be very personal. expecting their thoughts to fall into your outside party line is antisemitic and quite frankly callous.

the state of israel has its problems and deserves to be criticized like any other country

most outside criticism of israel is done in bad faith, and israel is not treated like any other country. no other country has its right to exist denied or called into question so frequently or so widely.

antisemitic tropes are commonly projected onto the state of israel

the state of israel is commonly used as a rhetorical prop for justification or denial of antisemitism

if the anti-israeli crowd and broader discourse on i/p wasn't antisemitic, we wouldn't see massive increases in antisemitism every time tensions rise or large-scale violence breaks out in israel and/or palestine

inverting an incorrect point of view does not produce a correct one. inverting "jews are inherently more likely to support israel and anything bad israel does" to "jews do not have any connection to israel" doesn't get rid of the antisemitism. it's just a different antisemitic talking point.

i am not jewish. all claims about jewish community and culture i make here are based on the most common views i see expressed by the many jews i follow. political takes are heavily influenced by analysis and stories from a number of jews and middle easterners, especially israelis and mizrahim, but are ultimately my own and always subject to change. this reblog was written on january 19, 2024.

thinking about how so much of the left spent so long making dual loyalty accusations that so many jews had to reiterate that "judaism != israel" as in "just because i'm jewish doesn't mean i support anything and everything the israeli state does wtf" only for the left to turn around and start saying "judaism != israel" as in "israel has nothing at all to to do with judaism" as in "any and all discussion of antisemitism with regard to israel is irrelevant derailing" (at best) and have the gall to act like they're saying the same thing because those are the Right Words, right? forced them to put up a shield only to rip that shield from their hands and beat them with it. vile. fucking vile.

[despazito]

I feel like "porn is not evil and porn addiction is likely a misnomer for a more complex series of issues you should do some therapy about" and "I have seen a non negligible amount of usually young men online become so disillusioned with real life women bc they don't look and act like vtubers and hentai waifus and that's concerning" are two statements that can coexist

I would argue whatever you take from porn heavily depends on the attitude or lens you bring to it. A queer woman and Kyle, 19, can both watch the same lesbian BDSM porno and one can magically still have a totally healthy sexual relationship with women while the other is googling "bomb that kills all women"

[oh-katsuki]

it's been a really long time since i wrote porn for porn's sake. here u go. it's alpha nanami :)) i don't have a title for it oops

cw: alpha!nanami, omega!reader, a/b/o, breeding, knotting, heat and rut cycles, dubcon on both sides, fingering, cohabitation, taboo, protective nanami, i feel like there is a slight primal kink in here, light dacryphilia,

wc: 3.1k

nanami didn't mean to take in a stray, but that's sort of how it happened. you're staying with him until a particularly careless friend helps to find a suitable living arrangement for you. nanami really isn't sure how it became his problem, but he'd feel awful if he'd told satoru no and left you without somewhere to go, no matter how against living with an omega he is.

frankly, nanami doesn't support the idea of alphas and omegas living together. he thinks it's a bit perverse. there's far too much at risk and the situation can become dangerous if it's the wrong pairing. sure, sometimes it works out. the better of his kind (of which he considers himself to be) give the necessary space and resist the temptation, but the others... take it too far. it'd be easier for you to live with a beta, and nanami wonders why satoru didn't first go to one of them. maybe your pheromones are weak and satoru isn't worried. that's probably why he hadn't noticed them when satoru first brought you by to ask if it'd be okay.

he knows that second gender is a spectrum. some alphas and omegas hardly emit any pheromones at all, even during heat and rut cycles. nanami thinks he likely falls into this category, seeing as he's never been particularly tempted by an omega and very few have ever been all too tempted by him, but it's a gamble. it's—frankly—unethical to ask this of him and though nanami knows that he should have said no, something in his good nature compelled him to say yes.

you've weak pheromones too, he thinks. he, of course, can feel them to a degree, but seeing as you mostly keep to yourself, it's hardly a problem in the first few weeks. frankly, the most tempting thing about you is that you're beautiful. you seem to have an almost standoffish air about you, proud and dignified, with a preference towards a more solitary and observant lifestyle. most of the day, the two of you hardly even see each other, going about your lives entirely separately only to settle into the same house for bed at night.

you don't say much when you're home. in fact, nanami would wonder if you could speak at all if it weren't for the conversations he hears you having on your phone and the little laughs or eyerolls you give in response to his comments. there's understanding there, but it's silent and you hardly ever dignify nanami's words or invitations with a response. maybe you're airing on the side of caution. he wouldn't blame you if you are. so, for the next two weeks the two of you coexist without so much as a hello between you both, silently sharing a space. you stay out of the way and nanami pretends that he isn't slightly unsettled by your constant proximity and the creeping feeling that you don't really like him all too much.

"they're a little difficult," says gojo over the phone. "kinda standoffish and really smart."

"so i've noticed," nanami responds. "i can't say i blame them though. you've put us in a weird spot."

"oh, nanamin, i know you well enough to know that you wouldn't lay a hand on them even if they begged," satoru laughs. "and they really might."

nanami grimaces at satoru's statement.

"i still don't understand why it had to be me," nanami says flatly. "you could have called ijichi. it'd probably be safer."

"how noble," satoru snickers, "but i trust you. hang in there a few more weeks. we've been working on securing an apartment for them and once we do, they'll be out of your hair. you're an angel for letting them stay." he sing-songs into the receiver. nanami holds it away from his ear.

"sure," he says. "it's not really much trouble... it's just.."

"that they're an omega. i get it. stay strong or whatever lol," satoru laughs. "unless of course, you really like them."

nanami huffs and hangs up the phone. satoru's got a good head on his shoulders, but he knew where that conversation was going. satoru was likely to say something about your heat cycle and nanami, being an optimist in cases like these, hopes silently that it won't come for another two weeks. he knows he could ask, but he worries about coming across as something of a creep. nanami is a little orthodox in the sense that he believes alphas and omegas should be separate for this reason exactly. suppressants exist but they don't always work and though nanami has sense about him, he's always had an insecurity about the kind of monster his second gender could make him. it sets him at ease a little that your pheromones appear as weak as they are.

you round the corner into the living room, standing just on the far end of the room. you're wearing pajamas, but you seem to feel no need to cover yourself or hide any perceived indecency. nanami glances at you, making a point to avoid looking at the shape of your body. it's inviting and you look at him for a moment with a small smile before raising one single eyebrow and letting out a low huff of air. nanami decides that you'd heard his conversation and he watches you shake your head as you move to the kitchen to peruse what he has. your hips, swaying slightly with each step, draw his attention to the curve of your ass and he feels ashamed for even having looked.

you're beautiful, that's certain. even the way you move is beautiful. nanami has eyes enough to see that. something stirs inside of you when he speaks, wordless recognition, maybe amusement or irritation, and vice versa. regardless, it's beautiful and nanami finds that the longer you're here the more he has to swallow it down.

you seem to get a little uncomfortable if nanami has people over, even for a moment. not that you've ever said anything about it, but you appear set on edge when he does so in the following weeks, it leads him to not bring anyone over at all. he can't bear the idea of making you uncomfortable. for as little as you've spoken to him since you've been here, nanami finds that he's grown rather fond of you. if things continue this way, he should hate it when you leave. admittedly though, he's looking forward to it a little. nanami feels that you're... a temptation. one he can't really seem to overcome.

one evening, you sit down in the living room with him. it draws his attention to look at you.

"i'm not mean, you know," you say flatly.

nanami is astounded to hear the cadence of your voice so clearly and without prompt. he can only offer a nod in return.

"i'm just picky," you continue, shifting in your seat as if you're made uncomfortable by the way you're sitting. "i have to be, being the way i am and all."

"i understand. i'm not offended," nanami says. "but some people would probably call that rude."

you smile at him, coy and delicate. "would you?"

"maybe," he offers. "if the circumstances were different."

nanami clears his throat, furrowing his eyebrows at your body language. something's off and he wonders if maybe your cycle has begun. he shifts on the couch and turns his full attention to you.

you move over to him and sit just adjacent to his leg. something in him stirs, primal and unrecognizable. you've never been this close and he only now notices that you smell nice, like something light and fresh.

nanami feels his chest stir. "this is the most you've ever said to me, i think."

"sorry," you say.

"don't be," he responds.

this conversation is awkward. it's loaded. it's like a conversation between two people who can't exchange more than a few words without experiencing intense sexual tension. he clears his throat.

"i need your help," you mumble, shifting closer. he knows what you're implying.

"i can't help you," nanami responds through gritted teeth.

"please," you say, standing slowly. you linger in front of him for a moment before reaching out and slowly straddling his legs. nanami flinches as you settle on him, pausing for a moment to breathe. "touch me."

you place your head against his shoulder, fingers grabbing his shirt as if you're agitated. the skin of your cheek is warm against his collarbone and he can feel your hair against his jaw. you twitch lightly when you touch him. carefully, he places a large hand on your head. your whole body flinches, unbelievable warmth soaking into his skin.

you feel like you have a fever and the next time you raise your head, your eyes have gone glassy, face darker. your lips are wet and lightly parted and a layer of sweat covers your forehead.

"not like that," you say, something needy creeping into your voice.

nanami, against his better judgement, rests his hands on your waist. you shudder under his touch and he slowly strokes the exposed skin of your sides with his fingers. trailing the pads of them against raised goosebumps on your skin. between your legs, he can feel heat. he knows you're wet and he knows what you want. nanami isn't sure he can give it to you, he's unsure that he should. it's not illegal, but he feels that it's wrong. something about it is fundamentally wrong and the situation goes against all of his morals. his mind still wanders.

you rest your forehead against his chest, and he feels your pheromones as they hit his nose and soak in through his skin. his body responds, tensing. your breath picks up, little heaves and pants, and you squirm down against him almost involuntarily. nanami feels himself grow hard. it surprises him and shames him. he feels heat rise to his cheeks at the realization that he's pressing up against the inside of your leg, something that makes you stir and settle directly over him. every exhale from you is a borderline whine and the syrupy smell of you grows more intense by the moment. nanami still runs his fingers along your sides, venturing over your tummy and back occasionally.

"just a little bit," you command, rubbing your cheek against him and then placing your mouth on the side of his neck and biting. "i'm sorry. just a little bit."

nanami winces and you drag your hips over him. his hands fly to yours, gripping hard enough as you make you whine.

"i can't," he grits out, speaking directly against the way his cock throbs against your core. he can feel it's dampness, a humidity that soaks through his pants.

"it hurts," you mutter and nanami feels an unpleasant stirring in his stomach. he hates the thought of you being uncomfortable.

"maybe we can find help-" you twitch over him, making him wince, "for you."

you shake your head, "you."

nanami exhales and tips his head back, his fingers still on your waist. he weighs the outcomes of this in his mind. he could push you off and fix you a blanket and a safe space, give you some tools to help yourself and then plug his ears and pretend he doesn't want to do it himself. he imagines the buzzing sound, the way you'd whimper from the other room over, still unfulfilled despite the aid. he thinks about your fingers between your legs, unsatisfying and only serving to worsen the itch. it makes him strangely jealous, nauseous almost, that you should be so uncomfortable in his presence.

you exhales against him and it's a near defeated sound. nanami's fingers buzz with adrenaline, his cock swelling and throbbing every time you so much as shift over him. there's a lack of control in this situation and his fingers move to comfort you almost against his will.

something natural and easy takes over as he slides a big hand down to the front of you and cups your cunt. it feels almost like an out of body experience, but both yours and nanami's humanity drips away slowly to make room for these primal actions. you shudder and nanami's chest swells with relief as he sees your expression. there's a need within him to care for you. it's protective, the same way he'd feel if you were in physical danger.

nanami moves his four fingers over you slowly, his breathing hitching as you push your body against him. he can feel your dampness soaking through your thin shorts and it isn't long before your relief gives way to more need.

"just this once, nanami," you breath against his neck. "please."

nanami's head is filled with something syrupy. probably you. it's probably a chemical reaction caused by you and he knows that any pheromones you're releasing are probably being released in equal amounts by him. they take up space in the room, crowding him so that all he can focus on is you, is the need between your legs that calls to him like song.

"okay," he gives in, pulling your panties to the side and dipping his fingers into you.

you shudder and let out a short cry, thighs trembling. he knows he won't be able to satisfy you like this, but he wants to try. nanami knows though that there is no such thing as nipping it in the bud with these sorts of things and as he begins to move his fingers inside of you with a beckoning motion, he feels himself slip farther away.

you're so wet, dripping down his fingers. your pussy clenches around them, begging for a knot, sucking the two digits up into you and then threatening to push them out. nanami has been with omegas before, but he's never felt himself slip away like this. his humanity leaves him in favor of something animal.

nanami shushes you quietly as he pulls his fingers from your body. you whine and squirm against him, pressing down and grinding against the bulge in his pants. he sucks in a sharp breath and quickly discard your bottoms, leaving you bare and exposed in his lap.

your cunt is sticky and shining, glistening with your wetness. he can smell it, the way you're probably fertile, and the perverse thought crosses his mind that maybe you deliberately avoided your suppressants so that he could do this to you. how out of character for him to think that.

for someone so proper, he makes quick work of pressing the head of his cock against your entrance. you push your body forward to try to take him in and nanami very quickly slides into you. you're tight and with the way your cunt makes him feel, he knows that the stretch must hurt you, but he can't seem to stop. he's so focused on quelling the ache within you, buried deep in that spot where his knot will inevitably catch.

you are barely capable of forming words now, dumb and deaf with your heat. any words of comfort nanami offers to you seem to go in one ear and out the other, but he offers them anyway. they're automatic and they come without his even needing to think about them. things about taking care of you, about knotting you the way you're begging him to, about making sure you're never alone when you have to do this. if he were in a better state of mind, he'd be mortified.

instead, he fucks his hips up into you, holding you by the waist against his throbbing cock. then, when that isn't enough, he lays you on your back on the couch and presses your knees to your chest so that he can go deeper. he needs to get deep enough to where his knot will catch, to be able to stay there to ensure it catches properly. he feels the way air leaves you with every fuck of his hips.

you raise your hand to touch his face, eyes glassed over and watering as gentle tears slip down your cheeks. a silent encouragement that pulls him from his thoughts back to you. nanami turns his head instinctively and kisses the palm of your hand. then, he takes your thumb into his mouth and bites down on the fleshly part at the base of it. he could draw blood if he wanted, but he doesn't. instead he takes your hand as it falls from his lips and kisses you plainly again on the palm before pinning it above your head.

"i'll take care of you," he grunts out and you nod deliriously.

nanami makes quick work of knotting you. he bullies his cock as far in as it will go, swelling and swelling until he sticks. you squirm as he does, gasps growing higher in pitch until you're silenced by the pressure deep in your abdomen. you cum around him, he thinks, pussy fluttering as it throbs around his knot. then, you exhale as the heat recedes into the background with this momentary relief.

nanami winces as he holds himself up over you, slowly returning to his head as the swell of pheromones recedes and leaves only the feeling of the space he takes up in your cunt.

you search his face for something, benevolence maybe, and nanami places a wide palm to your cheek.

"i'm sorry," he breathes as words find him again. "i didn't intend to-"

you shake your head, returning to yourself as well. "don't be, i wanted to."

nanami isn't really sure what to say and you wince under him as he settles his weight a little further, throbbing lightly at the mention.

"hold me," you ask and nanami obliges. he settles fully over you before lifting you so that you're straddling his lap again. you wince and nanami soothes you by gently stroking your face. it's automatic again, the urge to comfort you is well beyond his control.

something in you triggers something in him and it is two full days before either of you are lucid and well enough to separate. satoru calls him multiple times, but nanami ignores him, too preoccupied with his unexpected rut and keeping you comfortable. at present, he's well past the initial guilt and frankly, entirely hellbent on deciding that you should stay. so much for his practicality, nature won out in the end.

nanami doesn't really think he'll ever hear the end of this, especially not from satoru who, when he inevitably gets a hold of them, will tease so relentlessly that it might shock nanami and you back into your senses. he decides to hide out here with you for a little longer, filling the room with the scent of you both until it crowds out everything else. he likes the way you feel nestled up beside him, messy and breathing deeply as you sleep.

a tag for my friends @antizenin and @kentocidal bc they asked!!!

[ossifer]

the paul poll compelled me to just quickly write up my little opinion piece on paul and necromancy in the tlt verse bcs tags are a pain in the ass to elaborate on my opinion in: paul horrifies me. i think that a lot of people read palamedes' interpretation of lyctorhood as being some sort of objective truth and that there is a right way to do lyctorhood and paul is it, but i just don't agree with that; i think in a series rife with unreliable narrators, palamedes' views on lyctorhood should be considered as subjective as any other person's.

“Can one person even be two people? I feel like I’ve only got enough room inside for me, and sometimes like that room’s not even enough.” “Lyctors can,” said Palamedes, “or at least—they thought they could; in fact all they became were half-dead cannibals. I think a true Lyctorhood is a mutual death … a gravitational singularity creating something new. A true Grand Lysis, rather than the Petty Lysis of the megatheorem [...]

what he says here about lysis is in response to nona asking if one person can be two people, and thus it is a very loaded statement when coming from someone heralding from a society where the extreme co-dependence of the fundamentally unequal necro/cav bond is encouraged, especially considering camilla and palamedes are called out by others from that same society as being an exemplary case of co-dependence in that department!

camilla and palamedes are arguably more equal than any other cav/necro pair in series, in part due to that co-dependence, but we even see in NtN that cam does stuff that undercuts that equality (telling pyrrha to lie to palamedes, 'don't tell him i was weak'). and that equality, that love, is shown to be thought of as coming at the cost of freedom: when palamedes says, “I cannot bear the thought of using you.”—camilla responds, “Love and freedom don’t coexist, Warden.”

in the end, every permutation of the necro and cav pairing is irrevocably descended from john + alecto's example and while i think beauty can be found in some of them, they all suffer from the same fundamental imbalance that bond hinges on; nonconformity abates it, but abolishment is required for real freedom from it. the so-called indelible sin of lyctorhood is just an echo of the original sin john committed.

If there was one thing Gideon knew about necromancers, it was that they needed power. Thanergy—death juice—was abundant wherever things had died or were dying. Deep space was a necro’s nightmare, because nothing had ever been alive out there, so there were no big puddles of death lying around for Harrow and her ilk to suck up with a straw.

necromancy necessitates consumption, taking by its very nature: death, especially violent death, is what fuels it—infants producing more thanergy on death is literally a noted phenomena! paul's birth, while it could be seen as triumphant in the sense of it being an act of creation, is literally identified by palamedes himself as a mutual death, death being required to fuel it the same as any other necromantic working. i don't want to say 'necromancy is fundamentally evil' but uh... it is irrevocably tied into john's conception of human nature: "This is the problem, the incorporation, this is the hardest part … It’s the human instinct, to take."

something i always point out about camilla and palamedes' grand lysis is theparallel with gideon and harrow's incomplete petty lysis: both come about as a result of a fully-realised lyctor (ianthe, cytherea) having cornered the pair, resulting in both being threatened with imminent death (camilla critically injured and palamedes facing expulsion from naberius when ianthe re-emerges; harrow necromantically spent and gideon having suffered multiple injuries, both going to die when cytherea breaks through the bone dome). paul's birth only happened as a direct result of the continuation of the lyctoral cycle of violence, with ianthe in cytherea's position; per palamedes, “I am not saying this was our inevitable end … I am saying we have found the best and truest and kindest thing we can do in this moment.”

paul may be the best and truest and kindest thing cam and pal could've done in that moment, but that moment should've never came to pass: the codependency instilled into them through their society, the violence that put them in that position, and the consumptive necromancy that made paul possible. paul is horrifying because they are the most hopeful and kind thing, and they are the product of two people, one sans his own body, undergoing mutual death to fuel their birth.

they're the truest response to one flesh, one end: an oath purportedly coined by cristabel and alfred, who compelled their necromancers to ascend via a suicide pact.

valancy says one flesh one end sounds like instructions for a sex toy. can’t stop thinking about that so can someone stop cris and alfred before the sex toy phrase catches on, thanks.

did the sex toy phrase really need a response?

[s-insomnia]

"artists deserved to be paid" and "this is a horrible decision" are two statements that should and do coexist

[undiscovered-horizon]

[Apparently, all it takes for a doomed man to feel hope again is bad flirting and corny jokes. Or maybe it's about the comforting presence of someone he loves?]

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Whether Gale wants it or not, he's a quite predictable person. His reliability seems to extend far enough for you to always be able to correctly guess where he might be when the wizard is not near his tent. Although his tendency for routines might be mistaken for something dull, you've always thought of it as somewhat comforting - that among all the chaos that your life has become, there's a sense of regularity; the comfort of knowing how to navigate certain situations.

Just as you knew he would, Gale is sitting by the riverside. His back is slouched as he mindlessly reaches to grab a blade of grass, tear it off, and let his fingers play with it. Brown eyes would be intently staring at the flowing stream if their owner wasn't so lost in thought.

He hears you coming, dry leaves crumble under your feet but he makes no effort to look over his shoulder. Maybe you're actually a wild raccoon that will finally put him out of his misery... On second thought, that is a rather pathetic end for a wizard as great as him. To die by a raccoon. Ha!

"Hey handsome, come here often?" you ask as you sit down next to him.

Gale's robes once smelled of musty books and seawater but during your travels, they have lost their original fragrance in favour of a fresh aroma of pine needles, campfire smoke and herbal medicine. It gave him an "edge", if such a word could coexist with the wizard's homebody way of life.

"Only when I wish to wallow in pity," he answers. Although it's fleeting, almost secretive, you do notice the glance he gives you.

You raise an eyebrow at his response. "And that's often?"

A sad chuckle rumbles in his chest. Gale looks down at his fingers, for the very first time studying what his hands do with the long blades of grass. "A lot more than I'd like to admit." He actually bothers to make himself sound light-hearted but the dread eating him up has already soaked into his words.

You put your elbow on your knee and rest your chin on top of your hand. The new angle allows you to see more of his face, not that it changes your impression. Something's eating him up. "Is this what pretty wizards frequently engage in? I think I ought to update my schedule."

He looks almost like a painting, you think. The one a cleric would put up at the temple, a depiction of martyrhood in the name of something greater. Normally, you'd shrug at the thought of some poor sod thinking that making themself suffer will somehow please their god. It sounds like a questionable freedom of choice at best. But in Gale's case, you can't just shrug. Not anymore. Not since the two of you made it very obvious there's nothing platonic going on.

"I think you'll find that a moping wizard is hardly treasured company."

"Then maybe I should help him stop moping." Playfully, you bump your shoulder into his.

A sad smile graces his face. His brown eyes give you a quick glance again. Gale just can't help his longing. "As much as I appreciate the thought and the effort," he tries to sound unbothered, "my troubles already take up enough of your time. The others might want to have a word with you too."

Not a thing about Gale's statement surprises you. He's always wearing a facade of "Don't worry about little old me" but having gotten closer to the man, you know he's far from that - he wants someone to worry, only doesn't have the pride to ask for that. Part of him probably thinks he ought to earn the right to take up the space in someone's mind. How silly.

Gale's eyes return to you when he sees your fingers sneaking between his hands and a blade of grass he was playing with. No matter what he might say and how laid back he attempts to appear, all of his half-hearted bluffs dissipate when he forms a tight grip around your fingers.

"And I want to have a few words with you," you tell him in round terms. "Well, I want to have many things with you but I guess I can settle for a good old-fashioned conversation."

"I, erm..." he hangs his voice at your allusion. The blush on his cheeks is barely visible in the darkness of the night but you can tell it's there - his whole body is suddenly on fire. Gale clears his throat. "Enlighten me, then! What sort of lexicon do you wish to bestow upon me?"

You can't help the whole-hearted chuckle that leaves your lips. "You're really adorable when you talk all sophisticated." Gale laughs nervously at the compliment and he's just about to say something back but before he gets the chance, you reveal the truth about your arrival. "On a more serious note, I didn't have any endgame plan. I just thought that I'm going to ask you what's on your mind and no matter what you answer, I'm going to bless you with my presence until one of us falls asleep."

For the first time this evening, Gale's eyes linger on you for a long while. Although his initial embarrassment at your boldness is now gone, a sense of nervousness lingers. But do not misunderstand - it's a welcome kind of tension; the anxiety of holding something dear and fearing breaking it. "I'd very much like that," he answers. A small smile of genuine happiness curves his lips.

Gale momentarily tenses up when you lay your head on his shoulder. Then, as though paradoxically a weight has been lifted from his back, he finds himself sighing.

Strangely enough, he feels... calm. Too caught up in his thoughts of impending doom and past failures, Gale has been oblivious to the good things in his life. Especially in the present. He tries to grasp at the fleeting thoughts he had been pitifully entertaining for the past hour or so but they escape his focus. Now that each of his breathes is filled with the smell of campfire smoke and fragrant oils that stuck to your skin, the doom that had been haunting him before dissipates like storm clouds blown away by the wind. Part of him wants to laugh - the morbid scenarios that once rendered him sleepless seem so trivial now. Gale was dealt a bloody difficult hand, yes, but that doesn't mean it's impossible to play it, does it?

He's known hope for a long time but only now does he see her. And what a wonder it is that she's wearing your face.

[infectiouspiss]

liked your post until i got to the addictive substances part. let people decide what they want to put in their own bodies ffs. tell me youre a secret conservative without saying it.

people can do whatever they want with their bodies, i just think that while advertising is being rammed down our throats and forced upon our children, we shouldn't be advertising anything addictive. no alcohol, no drugs (wtf usa), no gambling, no gatcha games (which are gambling for kids), no coffee, no energy drinks, no weird pre workout.

companies don't care about addicts, they want addicts to keep buying their stuff. until we have proper regulation on advertising and respect and care for addicts regardless of if they want to get sober or not, we can't have such forceful advertising.

"all addicts deserve respect, dignity, and the freedom to put whatever they want in their bodies" and "advertising addictive substances is harmful and should be banned" are two statements that can coexist

(also we know that these things are dangerous this isn't a 1930's advert for uranium therapy i'm talking about here we Know the potential dangers, big companies don't care about addicts and most of them are in the pockets of politicians who could provide care and safe spaces for addicts, they're paying people to campaign against harm reduction because they don't care about other humans)

[starryjoy]

"We need to speak up against the people who bully some identities they don't like and talk about how that is bad" and "we should all be a united community full of love for each other" are two statements that not only can coexist, they absolutely need to coexist.

The queer community is built by the people within it, it is not some sort of mandated commandment from a gay divinity.

We are the ones who shape it every passing day.

We need to make sure all of our siblings are safe, we need to make sure none of us attack any of each other, and we need to make sure that when we do see some of us attacking each other that we talk about it and we put an end to that immediately.

We need to love each other, to care for one another, to love one another. It is so important.

If your first instinct towards one of your siblings simply being themselves is to hate them, please think about who it benefits that.

We need to love each other. We need to protect and uplift each other. These two statements are both extremely important.

[beanghostprincess]

I believe everybody who thinks Zoro isn't the first mate because Luffy sees every member of the crew equally should rethink what the role actually means. It isn't confirmed verbally but it is obvious Zoro accomplishes everything a first mate should do, and even if Luffy himself hasn't said it, if you told him what being a first mate is he would instantly, with no hesitation, mention Zoro. But it wouldn't be putting him first and before the others. It would be a simple statement of "oh! He's my first mate the same way Nami is my navigator and Sanji is my cook and-" because all of them are important to him but obviously have different roles within the crew.

To say a first mate is about hierarchy is just not true because Luffy himself doesn't even have a crew based on hierarchy. It isn't even big enough for that to happen. And he is the captain in the sense of inspiring everyone around him and starting the crew, the rest of them following him because they want to, but he is not an average captain and a lot of characteristics of his role are accomplished by other members of the crew.

Because after all, putting roles aside, they're a family and nobody is above anybody. There's nobody more or less important to Luffy because losing anyone would break the stability within him and the crew, because they are not only fulfilling a role, but helping with other doings and with Luffy's specifically. Zoro is the first mate in the sense that he's the one Luffy relies on the most when it comes to protecting the whole crew. Zoro is the first mate in the sense that he takes the hard decisions when Luffy can't. Zoro is the first mate in the sense that he guides Luffy to the proper path of being a captain. And everybody does a little bit of that, but Zoro's whole persona is basically devoted to that one role, and having roles in a crew doesn't mean somebody is less or more important, but that they're good at that one thing and Luffy acknowledges people's different strengths. Luffy's love for his crew isn't reflected in the strawhats' roles.

So "Zoro is the first mate" and "Luffy sees everybody as equals" are two statements that can and do coexist.

[rainboneish]

‪saw that one “people can’t accept gojo’s negative traits” post circulating again and i feel like that person is the one who is fundamentally misunderstanding his character…

gojo being someone who would give the world for his students and being an overconfident dick likely to lose himself in the thrill of a good fight are two statements that can and should coexist actually, in fact i think that’s what makes him a well written character ‬

it’s not a coincidence that one of Gojo’s first meaningful lines in both jjk 0 and the proper jjk animanga is “No one should be allowed to take the youth away from young people”

Gojo’s “fatal flaw” is not his selfishness, it’s his overconfidence!

it’s the fact that he has a superiority complex a mile wide, because with two notable exceptions, every time he has tried anything, he succeeded! Satoru Gojo is a man who has been told he’s the greatest from the day he was born and who usually had the skill to prove that assumption right

all that said, the two times he did fail taught him something: the first time (the start plasma vessel mission) unlocked his full potential, the second time (Geto’s defection) taught him that his full potential alone wasn’t enough to do everything.

in his own words, he learned that he can only save those who want to be saved and that to cause any meaningful change (at least partially motivated by his own loneliness and frustration), he needs to make sure the new generation is strong enough (both physically/in the combat sense and mentally) to keep up with him and eventually replace him

these are all things Gojo has learned before the start of the actual series… but him having learned and decided all that doesn’t mean that he is suddenly perfect

Two “failures” do not erase a lifetime of nurtured overconfidence and risk taking and at the end of the day he’s just a man… he fails to dispose of Geto’s body according to protocol because of emotional attachment, he puts his students in risky situations because he believes that’s the only way to make them grow because that’s how he grew, he walks into Shibuya station despite knowing it’s a trap because he is overconfident and believes he can outsmart or overpower the enemy, one could also argue he “played with his food” when fighting the disaster curses

but he is not uncaring of civilians, something Kenjaku knew to take advantage of, he cares deeply for his friends and his students, he will put his students’ safety above his own more selfish desires when it comes to it (the reason why he had to kill Geto at the end of jjk 0, despite postponing his execution order for 10 years)

he is not selfish in the classical sense of the word, though he is egotistical

he is a dick to anyone he doesn’t respect who isn’t under his direct protection (and he is still a bit of an ass towards the people he genuinely likes), but it’s not maliciously motivated

he oversteps and isn’t the most emotionally intelligent of people (sometimes genuinely bullying people he perceives to be weak/lacking potential like Utahime and Ijichi) either to get a rise out of them or to keep them from biting off more than they can chew

he enjoys going all out in battle because it’s something he rarely gets to do, he gets lost in the bloodshed and the thrill of the chase like a big cat, he is lonely at the top so he craves human connection

there are a lot of flaws you could pick on in his character, but i would very much like to argue that selfishness (at more than surface level) and an unwillingness to sacrifice himself for his students are not at the top of that list (if they make the list at all)

[anthonycrowley]

like i don't know how to explain to people 'gerard way is very clearly gender nonconforming and has been openly for years and you should respect and acknowledge that if you are a fan of their work' and 'using she pronouns for gerard way is disrespectful as he has specifically said that he prefers he/they pronouns and until he specifically changes them you should respect that, especially as doing otherwise kind of shows other nb/gnc people that you don't respect their pronoun choices' are two statements that can and actively do coexist.

[eight-littlenightmares]

idk if this is controversial or not but i very firmly believe that the statements “being born and raised/socialized biologically female presents a very specific kind of oppression that people who aren’t biologically female haven’t experienced” and “trans women are women and should be included in feminism” can (and should!!) coexist.

there are going to be differences in experience and that is ok. it is basic intersectionality.

trans women also experience different kinds of oppression that cis women do not experience!! intersectionality!!!

we do not have to tear down trans women to be a feminist. and we do not have to tear down feminists to support trans women. ALL women (cis and trans!!) are impacted by misogyny, and instead of tearing each other down we should SUPPORT each other and tear down the systems that oppress us all!!

just my two cents. i also believe that radical feminism doesn’t have to be trans-exclusionary.