#but Germany is still Germany because the only constant in these games is that no matter what happens Germany is the most normal place

[almoststedytimetravel]

Personally I think that the Ace Attorney localisers should have kept up with the "Putting countries where they're not supposed to be" (trying to convince us that the games take place in California when it is so obviously Japan). Like for no reason they say Zeng Fa is a country in the Mediterranean, like it's where Malta is despite being obviously based on Hong Kong. Cohdopia and Alabaste are in Scandinavia despite obviously being based on the Balkin states. Borginia is where Spain is despite being clearly based on eastern European countries.

[qwimblenorrisstan]

Cuddling with 141 (+Roach!)

Summary: How I think Price, Gaz, Soap, Ghost and Roach would cuddle + little blurbs.

Word Count: ~ 2.1k

Warnings: None!

A/N: wrote this at 2am😭 hope you enjoy <3

Requests are open!

Simon “Ghost” Riley 💀

- Tries his hardest to act tough and scary, but only because that’s how a Lieutenant is supposed to act. Or at least that’s what he thinks.

- Also isn’t sure how to cuddle, never saw his dad trying to do anything other than abuse his mom, and his brother was dead before he could ask him for any advice.

- As stiff as a board, has no idea what to do, just awkwardly sitting and glancing at you, increasingly concerned.

- Would eventually get the hang of it only after Johnny made fun of him for being so awful with it, did it just to spite his beloved Sergeant (also practiced cuddling with Johnny, obviously just for practice, nothing more.)

- Likes being the little spoon.

It had been one hell of a mission, 141 barely finding a safe house to rest in for a few hours and restock their weapons and ammo before having to move again. A few more hours, and though Simon knew he should be resting, he couldn’t get his brain off of alert mode, so he settled for watching the game on the telly, even if it was in Spanish. He was mostly fluent, anyway.

You had plopped down next to him after a few minutes, mumbling something about cleaning your gun, taking a rag to wipe it down and try to clear it out, your hands soon slipping down as your eyes dropped.

The other boys had gone off somewhere else in the safe house, probably to find a bed or secure it further like he should be doing right now, but for whatever reason, he couldn’t bring himself to stand up and shake you off.

You eventually went fully limp, head banging against his shoulder, somehow now waking you even then as you mumbled something, hand slipping towards your gun’s trigger. It was then that he moved, but not to get up, simply to gently pry the firearm from your hand as he clicked the safety on and let it drop to the floor.

The game blared in the background, but Simon was more focused on you, still leaning into him, and the fact that he was even entertaining this. His muscles were stiff, quickly growing sore and agitated at him after the constant use of the day. Slowly, he relaxed, finding that you melted into his body a lot easier when he wasn’t tensed up completely.

Slowly sliding one arm around your waist, obviously just to make sure you didn’t fall off the couch, nothing more, Simon leaned his head back against the couch, his own honey-brown eyes fluttering shut soon enough as he found enough peace of mind for an hour or two of rest.

Not much, but a welcome reprieve.

Johnny “Soap” MacTavish 🧼

- Has no shame at all. Will cuddle you during exfil in front of everyone with no care.

- Very clingy, and also a living furnace. Good to have in the winters, since he keeps you warm, but a nightmare in the summers.

- Will whine like a puppy if you refuse to cuddle with him for heat reasons or whatever, absolutely desperate, golden retriever of a man.

- Definitely see him as the type to enjoy lying on top of you, or being the big spoon, but is down to experiment with anything you want. And I mean everything. Frighteningly open to experimentation.

- Sleeps wild or like a rock, no in between.

Of course, they’d sent Task Force 141 and their one notoriously cold-sensitive member out to Russia, staking out for any sign of a recent contract signed between them and Germany, an agreement for some form of biochemical weapon that could be catastrophic in the wrong hands.

“Doin’ alright over there, Shivers?”

You heard a Scottish voice ask from the crunchy grass you were all lying in, Gaz and Price twenty feet to your left, Ghost twenty to your right, you and Johnny right next to each other. You could see your own body shaking, feeling the ground leach out any remaining warmth from it despite your thick clothing.

“Yeah, just-t-t cold.”

You saw Ghost glance back at you, probably having heard your teeth chattering from over there. You heard the radio hiss before his voice sounded.

“When I said stay frosty, I didn’t mean it literally.”

His deadpan tone said, earning a hushed bark of laughter from Johnny, and Price shooting you a sympathetic look with Gaz. You sighed.

“Very funny-y, Ghost.”

You mumbled, not even bothering to say it over the radio. Warm palms encompassed your wrists before you could do anything to stop it, and Johnny moved in closer.

“What’re you-?”

“Ain’t gonna be any use to us as a popsicle, eh Shivers?”

You felt the weight of his body settle even closer, nearly right on top of you, gingerly taking your numb fingers and switching your gloves out with his. His gloves were already warm, and larger and kept the air insulated better. Your gloves barely fit his hands, but he didn’t seem to mind. His body heat leaked into you, numb limbs springing back to life as that pinpricky sensation crawled up your body.

You relaxed a bit more into the snow, mind clearer now. Soap moved even closer, now quite literally on top of you, trying not to crush you with his weight but also keeping you nice and warm. After a moment of shifting around and adjusting, you got quite comfortable.

“Thanks, Johnny.”

You mumbled, already seeing the stupid grin he’d be wearing because of the praise.

“Anytime, bonnie.”

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick ☁️

- Serial cuddle enjoyer.

- Usually the one to fall asleep first because he’s more relaxed around his team. Has fallen asleep on Ghost’s shoulder before and been promptly pushed off.

- Prefers cuddling in bed over anywhere else, will slip into your bed in the middle of the night if he felt lonely or somehow has a sixth sense for you getting nightmares.

- Likes cuddling in a pretzel sort of position, or face-to-face despite the fact that he buries his head in your neck every time.

Rousing from his sleep for god knows why, Kyle rubbed his eyes, slipping from the warm bed he slept in and padding over to the kitchen to grab a drink of water. His throat was dry and his tongue felt like sandpaper. Probably the consequences of not drinking enough water while on mission, but he was in his little flat and off duty for now, so it wasn’t like it mattered much anyway.

Drinking nearly an entire glass, he heard a small thug, and his sluggish brain snapped awake as instinct kicked in, he put the glass down, approaching your room where he’d heard the sound come from slowly. Your door was already open.

He peeked inside, abruptly opening it to avoid the awful tension of the slow creaks it would’ve made had he dragged it out, only to be met with the sight of you, his roommate, curled up on the floor and sniffling.

His eyes softened and he crouched down next to you, hands moving to brush the hair out of your face as he caught sight of your watery eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

He asked, nearly a whisper for fear of making you jump. You sniffled again, and tried to get to your feet, only to stumble and be caught by Kyle again before being sat on the edge of the bed by him.

“Had a nightmare.”

You answered in a meek tone, seeming a bit embarrassed, which then was overridden by surprise when Kyle sat on the edge of the bed next to you, calloused hands gently shifting your body around until he was lying right next to you, his dark brown eyes gazing into yours.

“I have them too,”

He admitted, watching as you carefully slipped a hand around him, moving closer as he pulled the blanket over both of your bodies. He relaxed, tense muscles going nearly limp as his head leaned into your shoulder, his breathing deepening out as both of your eyelids grew heavy, eventually shutting as you drifted off into a peaceful rest.

John Price 🏷️

- Is just a big bear of a man. Loves cuddling with his missus when he gets home from a mission.

- Prefers spooning, but when his joints get achy and sore he’ll just lay on his back and let you lay on top of him.

- Is a human furnace just like Soap, so you probably won’t be needing a blanket.

- He usually waits until you’re asleep to fall asleep, but on the really rough nights, he’s out in a few seconds flat.

- Enjoys having your hands in his hair.

- Definitely an experienced cuddler.

Just as you finished your shower, you heard the front door unlocking and opening, and not caring much about getting proper clothes on, you rushed over and pulled a very-tired-looking John into a hug.

He chuckled, hand giving you a few little pats on the head as he pulled you in, taking a deep whiff of the smell of your body wash and shampoo, before slowly releasing.

“Missed me, huh? Missed you too, bird.”

He mumbled as you refused to let go, only releasing when he gave you a light little pinch on the arm, leaving you to finish getting ready after your shower as he trudged off to change and probably at least get a comb through his hair.

With a small smile now on your face, you hurried through your skin and haircare routines faster than ever before, throwing on some underwear and pajamas. As you walked into your shared bedroom, you found John struggling to get a knot out of his brown hair.

“Let me,”

You said, gently taking the comb from his large fingers, brushing the ends of the knot out first, working down to the center of it when you finally got it out. He took the comb and placed it down on his little desk with a little “Thanks, darlin’”, then took your hand and led you over to the bed.

He crawled in first, groaning when his body was finally able to sink into the soft mattress of the bed, body aching after weeks of being gone as he laid on his back, you being quick to crawl above him, head laying against his chest.

He loosed a deep sigh, pulling the blankets over both of you despite the warmth already being shared between you two.

“M’ glad to be home.”

He muttered, pulling you closer, arms settling around you as he already began drifting off.

Smiling, you replied.

“Me too.”

Gary “Roach” Sanderson 🪳

- I definitely hc him as nonverbal (like he is in the games, for whatever reason, you can decide why) but that doesn’t mean he’s any worse at cuddling.

- Roach is a little bit of a wild sleeper, so expect a few nudges and maybe some flips from him during the night.

- Enjoys the sweetheart position the most, just because it lets him hear your heartbeat.

- Serial nuzzle enjoyer. Will nuzzle into you at any moment he can, it’s just something he really likes doing.

- Douses his pillowcases with a lethal amount of your signature perfume or what reminds him of you (has an entire candle of it, too.)

- Can be very clingy.

When you got back home from the little girl’s night you’d had, finding Gary wrapped around one of your pillows and holding it with a death grip, your favorite perfume on the bedside table and a lit candle to match in the same scent wasn’t something you’d been expecting.

As soon as you walked into the room, he glanced up, beckoning you closer almost frantically. With a small smile, you held up a finger, signaling to wait for just one moment. You slipped out of the dress you’d been donning, and pulled off the shoes as well, the heels having made your feet ache anyways.

You used some basic wipes to get any makeup off, deciding that the more complicated cleansing process would be left for the morning, and promptly pulled some pajamas on, finally walking over to the bed, and being pulled in.

Within seconds, you were under the covers, and softly laughing at how he hooked one arm around the back of your neck, pulling you gently into where your head was against his chest, and intertwining his legs with yours. The scruff of his slightly unshaven face scratched lightly against you as he rubbed and nuzzled into you unashamedly, peppering a few little kisses on you while he was at it.

“Clingy,”

You murmured teasingly, and he frowned for a moment, raising a brow as if to call you a hypocrite, and you hummed lightly for a moment in thought.

“Touché.”

You said to his silent response, pressing a light kiss to the tip of his nose, before finally settling in and getting comfortable against his body. Within a few minutes, the both of you were yawning, sleep pulling both of you slowly under as the rhythm of your breathing deepened.

[futbol16]

Who’s Loss  • England Lionesses

Request:  If you write this type of thing maybe R X Lionesses where it's a big game and R found out that her sibling has been put in the hospital or one of her parents died. Throughout the match R is playing terrible and is missing shots,passes,touches and Leah shouts at them on the pitch and half time or end of the game everyone it shouting at R and blaming them until either Jill comes in and hugs R out of nowhere or R leaves at some point to the hospital (unless they have already passed away) and the team found out what happened and u can decide 

Word count: 1,9k

You have no idea what is going on with you but you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Your football isn’t working, whatever you try you fail at it. Your passes aren’t connecting, you let the opposition foul you as if you are blind to their presence near you and you’re playing your worst football.

The look on Leah’s face would be an understatement for how you felt. It was an incredibly important match against Germany who were here on a revenge tour for the lost Euros, worst time for revenge at least for England because you were in a World Cup semi-final and it looked like you were losing. 

You didn’t want to think in such a negative way, it was still only the 38’th minute of the game, nowhere near being finished but the score was 1-0 to Germany and you doubted you would be able to help your team to a goal, not with the way you’ve been playing. Or not playing, that’s what Leah shouted at you the last time she passed you exactly two minutes ago.

It was rightful of her to be angry at you as captain. It was her job to make sure the team could give their all but you weren’t co-operating. You were trying but once again, nothing was working and you helplessly watched as the ball rolled over the side line under your foot, you mistimed it. 

“Y/N THE BALL FOR GOD’S SAKE!” Leah’s shout is louder than the screaming of the fans and you’re met with a harsh glare from the blonde. The rest of your teammates are sporting similar looks, many of them refusing to even look your way and you let yourself take a glance at Sarina.

You were playing terribly but if Sarina kept you in she must think differently, it could cost her and England a World Cup though and you definitely didn’t want that, much less to be the reason for the loss. You realize she might just sub you off at half time and for a mere second you’re relieved about it.

Leah has been on your ass the whole 40 minutes of the first half and she made sure you knew just how much she wanted you off the field in this moment, you did not blame her, once again, but the comments and constant glares did hurt. 

You knew why you weren’t doing your best, scratch that, why you were playing like you’ve never seen a football. Recently your older brother had been diagnosed with cancer and he fought hard but it had been late and the chemo therapies were doing little to help him and he spent most of his days tied to a hospital bed. Not literally, but it felt like that for the both of you.

The two of you were very close despite the five year age gap, he had always been someone you could rely on, he was the reason you started playing because your parents were against the idea until he talked to them and they allowed you to try yourself out in the sport. 

He knew he didn’t have much time left but you’d always deny it despite seeing how weak he was getting, you were in denial you didn’t want to lose your big brother. 

His condition got a lot worse two days ago and he was rushed to urgent care, hence why you weren’t able to focus on the match you were supposed to be playing. All your thoughts were consumed by the well being of your brother and guilt at not being there with him in the hospital on what would undoubtedly be one of his last days with you. 

When the half time whistle is blown you’re bent over, hands resting on your knees as you breathe in deeply and you watch as both teams make their way back to the tunnel and their respective changing rooms. You feel the presence next to you but you don’t dare to look up knowing exactly who it is, instead they lean down to your height making sure no one else would hear.

“Get yourself together Y/L/N or I will have you subbed off and you’ll watch your team lose on the bench.” This isn’t the Leah you know, and you know she’s not herself right now, the girl is under immense amount of pressure and you were not helping her case. 

You give her a small nod and she leaves you there, eventually one of the staff members walking onto the pitch to escort you to the changing room after your teammates.

Whispers are what you hear first when you enter the room and none of the girls notice your presence as harsh comments are thrown around, all of which are about them wanting you on the bench or that you’re threatening their chance of winning the World Cup.

You let them whisper, too consumed by your own thoughts until loud cheers interrupt the negative and hopeless energy.

“JILL!” in an instant the girls are piling on the retired footballer who greets them with a big smile and gives them a short pep talk about not giving up.

Her eyes are set on you however and she beckons you over, the look in her eyes making you hold your breath. The girls watch confused as Jill guides you into the corridor before the door closes in Leah’s face and whispers are exchanged again, this time about whether you were going to get an earful from the woman or not.

Just as the whispers die down they’re replaced with loud booming sobs and wails, your crying echoes off the walls of the hallways and if anyone were to take a look out their door they’d witness your collapsed form that Jill tries to hold up, her own tears running down her face. Instead your team just assumes you were, thankfully, going to be sent off the pitch. 

The sobs quiet down after a few minutes until the area goes silent and the next time your teammates see you you’re ready to walk back onto the field, much to their surprise.

There’s a fire in your eyes, along with something else they haven’t yet figured out but the second half of the match it’s like you’re a completely new person from the one before, you’re yourself.

Aggressively playing the game you were so passionate about and Leah isn’t shouting at you as much as before, but it’s not enough. With the score at 1-1 by the end of added time, the teams are forced to go into a penalty shootout.

It’s beyond stressful and you can’t help but bite at your nails as each player takes a shot.

Fran first, German player, you’re too focused on the ball to notice who on the other team lines up, Lauren then German player and so on until England’s fourth player, Lauren Hemp has taken her shot. Both teams are still at an equal, three shots in one shot missed and as Germany miss their final penalty, you know this is England’s final chance at winning the semi-finals.

Leah looked around for someone to take it, usually you were England’s key free kick and penalty taker but she was doubting your capabilities right now, especially after the first half of the match.

Nonetheless, you approach your captain with a determined look.

“Please Leah, let me take it, please I promise you” you’re begging her at this point, desperately pleading with her and she contemplates. For a moment she looks to Sarina only to find the manager enthusiastically nodding as if she hadn’t seen the way you played the first 45 minutes. But if Sarina believes in you, and she does then so does Leah. 

Your eyes zero in on the goalkeeper and everything around you goes silent, focus on getting the ball where it belongs in the back of the net. Much like the past two hours, your mind wanders elsewhere and with the feeling of your brother next to you, waiting for your big moment you take a final breath and run up.

You strike the ball, a strike that barely has the ball spinning and it’s in slow motion as the goalkeeper dives in the direction of the ball. 

You could practically hear Leah cursing herself for letting you take the shot but then suddenly the ball changes directions and ends up in the upper left corner, opposite of where the goalkeeper had reached. 

Screams of joy are heard throughout the stadium as you run towards the corner flag before falling to your knees. You dedicate it to your big brother as you point to the sky, head tilted upwards as tears flow down your cheeks and your body shakes as you’re overwhelmed with emotion.

Teammates pile on you and hug you but you pay them no mind, eyes set on the starry sky above until Sarina reaches over and pulls you out from the pile.

You let yourself drape over her shoulders as she hugs you and congratulates you, she was the only one apart from Jill who knew about your brother’s condition. She believed in you too, just like he had.

“He’s so very proud of you Y/N” she lets you know and you nod into her shoulder, letting her go after a few moments.

You avoid eye contact with your teammates, all who share guilty looks amongst each other and you head for the German team to thank them for the game and console them. Many had been your club teammates just a year ago. 

Leah watches as your form gets smaller as you walk further down the pitch to Lena and she turns to Jill.

A few other girls crowd the former England player demanding for answers to their questions. The next time Leah turns to you, the blonde has a sorrowful look on her face, one she shouldn’t have after winning a World Cup semi-final but she feels like she’s betrayed you.

The English girls glance at each other, defeated and guilty expressions as they learn about your brother. You avoid all of them as long as you can and your captain has known you long enough to realize what was next. 

You were going to turn off your emotions, it’s what you did when something became overwhelming and you were hurt. The way you chewed on your lip to keep the tears at bay and the looks some of the German players shot told her enough and though to the outside world it just looked like the Germans were salty about the loss, Leah and the team knew it was something else. 

Her thoughts are far from the World Cup as she holds her head, now more upset with herself than anyone else as she remembers what she has said during the game. 

She was a complete asshole and she let your friends do the same too, she didn’t know if you’d let them back in again, if you were going to be willing to call them your team again.

[buckrecs]

Do you have Bucky cheating fics ??

Cheating

masterlist | req masterlist

Some of them are bucky cheating on reader and some are bucky cheating with reader .. because the former hurts too much

ONESHOT

Like Nicotine by @babyboibucky

You and Bucky broke up but he keeps on crawling back to you.

But It’s Better If You Do by @ohbuckie

Bucky finds out you're pregnant while deployed in Germany

Petty by @mirkysconcubinefiction

The Affair doesn't surprise you. Bucky pointing a gun at you didn't scare you, him threatening to shoot you didn't make you flinch. He crossed a line and you run, cutting ties with your ex, baby, everything you had built over the past decade. Desperate you call an old friend and hope they can help...

Happiness and Heartbreak by @lokiandbuckysdoll

You’re willing to break your own heart if it means Bucky will finally find happiness even if it’s not with you.

Fire and Gasoline by @wicked-mind

Break-ups are hard. Especially when the cause of the break-up is the man of your dreams cheating on you. But what’s even worse… You both still love each other.

Just one night by @buckylattes

You find out your fiancé is cheating.

Stay by @flordeamatista

How many times do you stay for him?

Consequent Circumstances by @writingcroissant

You never intended to cheat, never intended to break someone's heart in such an unfair manner - but it happened, and now you and Bucky have to deal with unexpected consequences, some quite happy news following along with some that happen to shatter your heart into a million pieces.

blurb by @mavsstar

You couldn't focus at all during work, not after the fight you had with Bucky last night.

Holy Union by @qyllenhaal

With his marriage on the rocks, Bucky finds comfort in his younger neighbor.

Excuses by @venusstorm

You and Bucky are just friends right? Right…?

Cause You’re Just A Man by @multiverse-sparkles

to the world, mrs. barnes had played her cards well and landed herself a doting, rich and handsome husband who was madly inlove with her. behind closed doors, she shoulders the weight of his constant infidelity and questions, why was she not enough?

a message that seals your fate by @barnesafterglow

what do you call a love letter that leads to heartbreak

From Past to Future by @fatecantstopme

After you and Bucky break up, you end up engaged to Steve. What happens when Bucky come back into your life two years later?

deadly nightshade by @kinanabinks

the brightest berries are oft the most poisonous. why do the ones we can't have look like they'll taste so much sweeter?

SERIES

Take It Back by @allandoflimbo

About five years ago, a one night stand with Y/N tore Bucky’s life apart. It was also the night before his wedding. Now he’s married to her sister and she needs a place to stay.

something borrowed by @buckys-darling

You’ve been in love with Bucky Barnes for as long as you can remember. Small problem, though: he’s engaged to your best friend. So why not sleep with his?

If Only You Were Mine… by @bbgem329

You’ve been in love with Bucky Barnes since the moment you laid eyes on him. That was five years ago, when your older sister brought him home for a Sunday lunch and introduced him as her boyfriend.

Wicked Games by @summerofsnowflakes

You need to give him up, but it’s just too good to stop.

clandestine by @bucksfucks

you have it all— the nice car, the huge house, and the cheating husband. now all you need is a way out.

Ask for a Rec <3

.

.

[viaetor]

hi everyone! i hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves and having good days. i haven't been very active here because of my surgeries, but i plan on being more active soon since i've been missing writing a lot. before that though, i need to state something very important for my blog going forward: i will not be interacting with any natlan characters/blogs or characters related/inspired by the region (including ocs), only if they're canon divergent. this will not change with the release of the archon quests. i will simply take whatever i feel is relevant to my aether and that’s it. my reasons for this drastic decision will be explained below. please take this post not only as an announcement but as well as a vent and an attempt to call for awareness, especially since many of us are not only roleplayers but writers, artists and content creators. i'd appreciate it if you could all read this post in full.

this post is also not directed at my mutuals or any people i have contact with. this is just me trying to make my boundaries clear, explaining them, and hoping you can understand (and perhaps relate to) my hurt. read this post and make your own judgement. i appreciate your time regardless. 

i'm latin american, proudly born and raised. my parents fought in the dictatorship of our country, my grandparents were of indigenous settlements. i'm a history graduate with honours, and before that, i studied social and political sciences. i've been a part of political movements in my university to guarantee equality and education, and i only stopped being part of some of them because i received threats by alt-right extremists targeting my family. even so, i still continue to be a constant participant in assemblies and projects. i'm an avid volunteer worker in local schools, and i worked in hospitals, too. i speak portuguese, spanish, french and english with varying levels of fluency. i've lived most of my childhood and early adolescence in villages. i've participated in many religious rituals, invited by practising people of those beliefs, and i've shared so many wonderful memories with people from so many latin american backgrounds that i can't even make a cohesive timeline of all my adventures. 

i'm saying all this to emphasise that i'm speaking from a place of experience, knowledge, and culture. my word is by no means the law, but i sure do believe it holds weight. you're free to disagree with me and think otherwise, of course. but i do think that, if that's the case and you have very strong positive feelings regarding natlan as a whole, it'd be best if you would unfollow and block me for both of our sakes.

i've been playing genshin impact since its launch, and ever since the release of inazuma as a region, i've been discontent with how the game has been progressing in design. i've also written and published scientific articles about the inherent colourism, racism and orientalism found in genshin, specifically in sumeru, while also nodding in acknowledgement to some of the research that the design team put in some characters—namely al-haitham, nilou and cyno. i know the issues we are seeing today are not new. however, it for sure has gotten worse. 

with these disclaimers out, i'd like to put some of my grievances out in the open. 

when you play genshin, you can feel that liyue is china. mondstadt feels like germany. inazuma resembles japan. fontaine is an ode of love to french steampunk and was very well designed. even sumeru, with all its issues of blending all of swana in one single region, has some research done when it comes to the islamic golden ages and pre-islamic mythologies. so if you see anyone arguing that hoyoverse is “just a videogame company”, know that they can and have done better. as their popularity and revenue grow, as players—free to play or otherwise—we are entitled to expect the same quality or more from them.

i don't feel the same way about everything we've seen of natlan so far, and i've been feeling more and more disrespected. 

i was sceptical when natlan was first announced, and some leaks were happening. i expected the worst, and honestly, it sunk even deeper than i thought. the names of the characters we've got, alongside some leaks, suggest that the characters we will be getting are based on the north, central, and south americas, africa, and oceania. this worried me very, very deeply and today, with the newest released trailer, i just gave up hoping for anything good, really.

although some people may (ignorantly? optimistically? blindly?) claim that all these continents are connected—and they certainly have many influences on each other through religion, culture and economics, born from colonisation processes—, it's at best stupidly naive to believe that one single entire region in an online videogame will tactfully tackle complex non-western and non-asian cultures and customs. because, yes, those are non-western and non-asian societies: we are progressively denied a place in western politics and cultures, we are treated as lesser, and we do not participate in global economics. when did you last buy a chilean videogame in the united states or europe? or a fiji pair of shoes? or a nigerian movie ticket in your city theatres? if you've answered "never" to just one of those questions, you've proven my point that these countries and regions are not "part" of the west or even asia. we are outsiders. we have always been treated as outsiders. while these european and asian powerhouses were allowed to stand as their own regions, genshin muddled all these cultures and ethnicities into one melting pot that they are calling natlan. the game is quite literally a global phenomenon now. imagine the impression natlan will be projecting to an audience that is none-the-wiser to the cultures natlan is meant to be inspired from.

so, again: when it was announced that natlan would take inspiration from all these regions, my heart sank. it feels like we're all being put together in one single frying pan of "exotic," "distant," and "unknown." everything that is considered "tribal" (because that's how westerners and asians tend to see us) is being thrown in natlan. it's demoralising. 

this is not to mention the clear money-grabbing and capitalist recycling of character designs going on with some of the characters—something never seen before in genshin impact’s history, by the way! they always came up with new concepts—and the abhorrent colourism that has been intensified. 

the disrespect has been getting rampant. some of the already shown characters have tribal tattoos that are used by some of the indigenous people for important rituals. the patterns of clothes they've shown also mix many cultures and peoples (sometimes even historically rivalling ones, to top that off) that are disrespectful. they went for a streetwear/biker kind of look that looks completely soulless and unimaginative, instead of doing the bare minimum of researching beautiful contemporary indigenous-owned fashion companies. because it's easier. i think it’s also easier to hire voice actors who aren’t latines, right? we must be “scarce, barely existent”.

and, what kicked the bucket for me, after trying so hard to give genshin the benefit of the doubt: an important deity for the yorubá people, iansã/iansan/oyá, has been shown as a fucking child in the game. she… and olorun, who you might know as ororon if you play in english, even though in all other translations (japanese, korean and chinese), his name is written correctly as olorun. but of course, the english translation team for hoyoverse, as usual, couldn’t do the bare fucking minimum. because it’s a nigerian name, right? why do they/you care? but just so you know, in case you’re the least bit curious: iansan and olorun are two of the most important orixás/deities in african and african-latin american religions. they’re worshipped to this day. they’re real, representative religious symbols. not tokens. not your average dead gods. i want to ask you, sincerely: what would you think and how would you feel if genshin named a guy "mohammed", or "allah", or “jesus christ”, or a girl "mary magdalene"? what do you think happened when cod vanguard showed the quran's pages on the floor? people were pissed. and of course, people should be pissed. and don't try to "oh, but people do that with greek and egyptian gods". don't be disingenuous, i know you’re smarter than that and that you know there's a difference and creeping power dynamic here. 

if this is not enough for you, then please, enlighten me. where are the beautiful forests of natlan that could have been inspired by the amazon? where are the amazing deserts inspired in bolivia or chile? how about the colourful cities of el salvador or cuba? is it truly enough for you guys to have something slightly resembling the aztec empire and its continuous fetishisation? wouldn't it be easier to play crash bandicoot or the old indiana jones games? why are we celebrating this?

i'm beyond heartbroken. 

to my latine siblings, whether you’re celebrating/enjoying natlan in your own way and finding light in it or if you’re as disappointed as i am, we deserve better than this. 

to my usamerican, canadian, european and asian friends, please, please, please listen to people who have lived and loved latam and all the other regions. i already did what i could: i've sent tickets to hoyoverse, i'll be muting natlan-specific words, and i will not be rolling on any upcoming natlan banners. 

so this here is just the nail of the coffin: i will not be accepting anything natlan-related on this blog.

thank you for reading!

[videntefernandez]

We need more info on Minerva. She's an icon, such a queen.

(Also drop some info on precious Abeline? 😔👉👈)

Oh my god I have so much lore on the dead mom that nobody ever asked so thank you.

Her story is very tied with Karsten's so I'll have to start with him. He's austrian but he traveled a lot during his life, like I said he went to high school in germany, and eventually ended up in the US, probably chasing the perfect hell portal to settle. He became a high ranking army medic and while he was deployed he and Minerva met by chance in Iran. She was the loaf heiress of a wealthy greek family and her only real interest was falconry. She was there for a competition, and in this universe, women can do anything.

They kinda had this game going on, chasing each other around the world and eventually married. She was his first wife. They were super happy like that for about 5 years, she was living her best loaf wife life, taking care of the children (her falcons) but Karsten was pressed for time, and in the illuminati you gotta start reproducing immediately and have at least 3 (human) kids so they can take their places in the pyramid, so he pressured her to get pergnut, and she had a terrible time.

She immediately handed Diedrik to the nannies and tried not to deal with him again. Between the post partum depression, the constant parties and witnessing some of the terrible things that took place at their home, her alcoholism got worse and worse and her husband pretty much encouraged her to just drink and forget. This kinda caused a rift in their relationship, he was in important member of the secret society and she was lonely at home with the staff and a child she didn't want so this gave her a lot of free time to snoop around the house, she found out what the society did to angels (Joyce and Amelia weren't the first ones to be caught) and became obsessed with them, eventually even learning enochian.

She also found out what Karsten's plans were for Diedrik. Before he could offer him as a sacrifice, she made a deal with the angels to save his soul, knowing this would ruin Karsten's whole plot and teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, she had to offer her soul in exchange. She died in a private jet on the way to a falconry competition. Most people think Karsten had something to do with it, because in the illuminati you gotta make sacrifices, but he was ready to offer his first born, not his wife, so this was all very tragic.

Her deal effectively made Diedrik immortal, as long as there are angels around him. She was the wrench in the plan that set the whole thing in motion. She was a reluctant mother who did the most "selfless act". Diedrik still remembers her as the person who loved him the most, even though she frequently dropped him on his head as a baby.

[thedarkmistress16]

Hetalia G8 (+ Canada, Romano, and Prussia) as Teachers (3/3)

Part 1. Part 2.

~After-School Activities and Clubs~

Axis:

Italy: Art Club. The literal best time. Constant pizza days, only fun field trips to artsy museums and exhibitions, a completely relaxed vibe in the art studio, and constant joy and encouragement spouting from the instructor despite how objectively awful the artwork actually is? The students couldn’t ask for anything more. Unless they want criticism, which Italy is physically unable to do- he’ll cry before he’ll consciously and willingly put his students down like that. So most students who want to be sitting in a positive environment sign up to chat with the other members the whole time, doodle one crude stick person to pass the club participation rule check, and call it a successful day. Pasta Club. The only members are himself and his brother. It’s not going well.

Germany: Newspaper Club. Interested in keeping up with the world so much that he made a club out of it, to inspire students to do the same one day. Diligent but rewarding duties that will absolutely get hard-working and committed students into good journalism companies from Germany’s glowing references. The rest of the school warmed up to this club from the amount of respect Germany instills in his club members when scoping out stories, requesting interviews, and delivering the information accurately and objectively at the time of print.

Japan: Anime and Manga Club. Tries to keep his opinions to himself but will always cringe at really bad takes he finds as “unfortunately incorrect viewpoints” or “not properly representative of the source material.” He’s so respectable about opinions that there are no arguments or shipping wars in his club… most of the time, when Japan’s not in the room, that is. Apart from that, the club is very tranquil and pleasant but also bubbling with fascination and geekiness. Yearbook Club. His Digital Art course lead to the board assigning Japan this club. While he’s good at photography and digital mediums, he isn’t very passionate about the club as a whole, compared to the plethora of students who petitioned it in the first place.

Romano: Horticulture Club. Having a club solely dedicated to tomatoes wasn’t allowed nor wanted by the student body so this was the best he could get. He loathes his new love for flowers due to this club.

Prussia: Awesomeness Club. A part of him wants to have this club solely for himself, regardless of what the board says. But the rest of the students really like the idea of sitting in a club for getting positive reinforcement and participating in events focused on bringing their awesomeness to the rest of the world. He still has his own exclusive, awesome club he enjoys in his head- he just doesn’t tell anyone about it.

Allies:

America: Hero Club. This is the umbrella club for “volunteering because you can and why don’t you wanna help those in need, dude?” So all kinds of events are hosted by this club, on top of doing random acts of “heroism” around the school. Gaming Club. Because of his focus on appreciating both the classics and modern video and computer games, this club America hosts is very well-balanced every year. The routine travel to tourneys helps, too, and he always gets over-excited about them more than the students do. Baseball. Encourages just about everyone in the school to sign on, despite this club being purely seasonal. Always petitioning for a teacher’s baseball club and it never gains any real traction. Softball. Attempted to set up games with his students indoors. It did not go well. The activity got restricted to only open at the same time as Baseball, as per the board’s non-negotiable request. America surprised everyone with how well he balances them on top of his concurrent classes, and is solely left to be in charge of them without interference. Anything he asks, he usually gets for his sports-related expenditures. American Football. Refuses to call this after-school activity anything but “football.” No one knows if he does this on purpose or not, and it seems to be a joke only for him to know.

Britain: Book Club. While he struts like a peacock whenever the subject of reading brought up is from his country, he accepts any and all kinds of books for club discussions. Except the ones that don’t meet his list of “a proper book to enlighten and entertain intelligent individuals” requirements. Which is his very loose way of saying that he very much has standards for book discussions and tomfoolery will not be allowed nor tolerated. Many students just read what they want and never bring it up in front of Britain. Theatre Club. Really gets into making sure the actors’ performances are spot-on, and summarizes the intent of the scene quite well despite his annoyance at having to dumb it down for them when they consistently get it wrong. Regardless, there’s always something about the play for him to like on the initial showing and always gets pumped up to start working on presenting another classic to the public. Roleplay Club. Always involves an element of magic or fantasy, usually both with tabletop, board, and card games. Chess Club. Takes it way too seriously when his club gets invited to tournaments. Otherwise, his mood and the atmosphere during matches are pretty quiet and focused.

France: Cooking Club. Always jumps up to cater all events hosted by the school and further inspires creativity in making food as opposed to the corresponding course he instructs. He’ll cry and insult a dish that is completely inedible or is an insult to the art of cooking, but only in extreme cases of a student’s poor cooking. He’s pretty jovial the majority of the time.

Russia: Arts n' Crafts. Despite slipping his D.I.Y. curriculum into his Home Economics class, Russia was able to finagle the board into giving him a whole club dedicated to it. Many students enroll in this club as an extra study period for the very same class, even if they are frightened of spending more time in the same room as him. The club is surprisingly very serene and enjoyable, as Russia takes it less seriously and is less prone to becoming irritated by little things. This caused a bigger flow of student signups from word of mouth each year, and most enjoy exercising their creativity to make funky designs than just following the recommended designs.

China: Animal Awareness Club. Upset he was denied his request to start up an “I Love Pandas” club and will always be bitter that other, more ridiculous clubs got the go-ahead instead like “Mini-Heroes” and “Pasta Lovers.” Then he overheard Romano complaining to someone about his club’s members not liking tomatoes as much as he does and requesting other crops to talk about instead. China marched straight back to the board with a wealth of confidence and an impromptu outline for a club he thought of in the five minutes it took for him to get there. He now hosts a sanctuary for all animal enthusiasts in his club where they post flyers around the school and hold public discussions on environmental activism to support preserving animal livelihoods. And while he mainly puts pandas as the sole focus of his club’s efforts, he quite enjoys talking about other animals too, including species outside his culture, mainly pertaining to the endangered wild bears and big cats.

Canada: Maple Club. Pancakes are usually a staple of the topics this club has, on top of the history of tree sap. And while this is one of the more niche clubs, everyone had not anticipated just how popular it would get with the student body, and it takes up a lot of Canada’s time to manage as a result.

[chevvy-yates]

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak? 😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship? 🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

Hmm, the celebrity crush thing is hard to answer since I'm not so into lore celebrities and neither of my oc's is into celebrities from the game that are most known, so I'm sorry if this stays unanswered.

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak?

Seeing his first love literally falling apart because of having way too much cyberware installed and being totally devastated from taking black lace. It was a literal heartbreak-nightmare for him.

😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship?

Ending up with someone who had a cheap metal Mr. Stud installed wanting to stick this … thing into him — V prefers as less cyberware on his partners as possible and a mechanic dick is a friggin' no go for him. Since it was the first time, he gave it a chance, but for him it felt awful, definietly not pleasurable, didn't got him going and it also hurt him at a certain angle so he stopped with his safe word, ended that make out aprubtly, explained himself and saw he got out of the rented room.

🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

I have no answer.

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak?

In middle school, when he wanted to flirt with a girl of his interest but she didn't look at Jay for one second. She didn't like him for no real reason. Jaysen was the kind of boy that everyone liked. For some reason he wanted to impress somone who happened not to care about him at all. He had a lot of feelings for her but got rejected with every try. eventually he gave up.

😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship?

Jay once had a short time relationship up with someone who happened to have a foot fetish and this was a huge turn off for him as soon as there was the constant attempt to get him to kiss/lick those feet — they did not look ugly tho, it's just … Jays doesn't like naked feet at all — for him it is the most unpleasant part of the human body. A total displeasure. It went so stupidly that his partner at that time only allowed him to get to have sex once he kissed their feet. Jaysen thought this was a joke but they were serious about it so he ended this realtionship immediately. He doesn't like to be forced to do something he doesn't want to do nor likes in the slightest.

🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

I have no answer.

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak?

Not a usual "I break up with you"-heartbreak but: when Ryder's first love Tommy Reiter got shot out of his life by a mad-man turned Cyberpsycho shooting at a New Years rave party when Ryder still lived in Berlin, Germany. He's been roughly 17 at that time having to watching his first love die while he held him in his arms being totally helpless … He's been in a big black hole after that and it took him years to recover from it. Sometimes he's got reoccuring nightmares of that scene back then.

😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship?

answered here.

🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

Should be some hot gay BD p*rn star in one of his collections.

💔 What was my muse’s first heartbreak?

Relationship heartbreaks: 0. Loosing someone heartbreak: 1. — his father died on a secret mission Thyjs never wanted to believe went the way the documents told.

😳 What was my muse’s worst romantic/sexual relationship?

Thyjs didn't quite live out his sexual drive a lot before Ryder. Sometimes he visited a JoyToy at Amsterdam's red light district in De Wallen when he felt he needed to get laid so it is just sexual stuff, but nothing really relationship tied, since he's never been in a relationship before (didn't matter to him). However, his favored JoyToy wasn't available at that time, so he went along in the streets looking at the windows to pick another female JoyToy of his taste. To his hard luck that one literally turned him off by talking too much about everything and total nonsense so he couldn't get into a good mood. At some point it made him so mad that he got somewhat rough in his tone. They started a verbal fight and ended this session, him losing his money, no bliss and havign a bad mood walking back to his rented apartment.

🎥 Who is my muse’s celebrity crush?

I have no answer.

[whereareroo]

WAR

WF THOUGHTS (10/12/23).

I’ve been struggling to find something brilliant to say about the atrocity that just happened in Israel. I have failed. There’s nothing brilliant to say. The whole situation is so confusing. It’s impossible to condense everything into a short analysis that is fair and accurate.

Whether we like it our not, war is a fact of life. Humans have been fighting with each other since Adam and Eve. During and after every war, people give speeches about the senselessness of war and the wisdom of avoiding war at all costs. Soon thereafter, the next war begins. History tells us that war will never stop.

Ever since the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah (approximately 1000 B.C.), war has been a fact of life in the Middle East. For a long time, it was part of the blood thirsty Roman Empire. Later, from around 1300 A.D. until the end of WWI in 1918, the Middle East was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. War was a tool that was regularly used by the Ottomans. In the aftermath of WWI, by international agreement, the Middle East was governed by British Authorities. When the British took control, the region was predominantly Muslim. There was only a small Jewish population. (Except for Israel, the region is still almost exclusively Muslim.) The British relinquished control in 1948, which gave rise to the birth of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Sadly but not surprisingly, that transition involved war and the warfare has never ended. There has been war in the region in 1948, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1993, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2014. The latest round of war has just commenced. There have been so many wars in the region that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the issues in dispute and the positions of the various combatants. It’s all extremely complex and confusing.

Do you see my point? The fighting never stops in the Middle East. There is constant conflict regarding religion, geography, culture, old grudges, and other issues. Do you think the repetitive wars will ever stop? I’m doubtful. This latest flare up will probably put peace prospects on the back burner for at least 50 years. It will be a very long time before the Israelis and Palestinians can restore even a few ounces of trust.

As we look at the Middle East from a distance, Americans shouldn’t be too quick to criticize the use of war as a means to achieve an objective. We used war to achieve our independence from England. We used war, a war that killed more than 600,000 Americans, to keep America from dividing itself into two different countries. We’ve been involved in many other wars too. Please don’t presume that America is a totally peaceful nation. That’s not true. I’m sorry to say that we’ve played the war game too.

Unlike the warring nations in the Middle East, America has been able to achieve peace with former enemies. Great Britain, our enemy in the Revolutionary War, is now our best international friend. Here at home, The North and The South have reconciled. Even though we dropped atomic bombs on Japan after Pearl Harbor, the USA and Japan are close allies today. We’re also close allies with Germany, the formerly evil country that we defeated in WWII. Despite our history with war and peace in America, peace seems to be impossible in the Middle East. The war never ends.

Because war has such a long history in the world, accepted norms have developed for fighting during wartime. Yes, there are essentially “Rules of War.” Even in the context of a war, certain actions are not permitted. Certain lines cannot be crossed. You probably know what I’m talking about.

We all need to be very, very clear about what happened in Israel this week. The attack on Israel by Hamas was not like all of the other fighting that has occurred. The attack was not consistent with the ordinary rules of war. The attack was pure, unadulterated, barbaric, terrorism. It’s terrorism to attack a crowd at a music festival that is filled with young unarmed civilians. It’s terrorism to beat and slaughter civilians, including women and children. It’s terrorism to capture civilians as hostages and to use them as human shields for protection. It’s terrorism to rape women, to kill babies, and to abuse the elderly. Please stay focused on the fact that Hamas launched a terrorist attack.

Make sure that you’re thinking very clearly about what happened this week in Israel. This wasn’t normal warfare perpetrated by a country that is seeking to protect itself or to advance its own agenda. Hamas is a terrorist group. For years, the U.S. government has designated Hamas as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” Hamas is on the same list as Al Queda, ISIS, and Bolo Haram. Hamas isn’t a military organization that has been authorized by a country to engage in standard warfare. Hamas is a terrorist organization that has committed acts of terrorism. They’re a group of thugs that have committed brutal atrocities. The world will be a better place if Hamas is eliminated from the face of the earth.

Israel has every right to hunt down the members of Hamas and to take whatever action is necessary to keep these thugs from committing additional acts of terrorism. It will be a tough challenge. Israel believes that the terrorism wing of Hamas includes approximately 20,000 terrorists. America should fully support Israel in that effort.

At some later date, we can have an intellectual discussion about the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. You must fight the urge to link this attack with that conflict. This attack has nothing to do with two countries trying to resolve their differences. The terrorists in Hamas do not represent the people of Palestine. Today is not the day to discuss the bigger picture in the Middle East. Right now we need to stand with Israel and hope for the speedy elimination of the Hamas terrorists.

We all need to pray that Israel can find a way to eliminate Hamas without causing the conflict to escalate and drag in other countries. The Gaza Strip, only the size of Philadelphia, sits at the southwestern edge of Israel along the Mediterranean Sea. The West Bank, another troublesome area the size of Delaware, sits on the eastern edge of Israel along the Jordan River. Inasmuch as Israel is only the size of New Jersey, the troublesome areas are not far apart. Isn’t it sickening that all of this grief relates to such small pieces of land? Hezbollah, another terrorist group that’s loosely affiliated with Hamas, operates in the West Bank. Hezbollah, with a force of approximately 40,000 terrorists, is much bigger and stronger than Hamas. If Hezbollah decides to act opportunistically and enter this new war, the battle could soon include nearby countries like Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or Egypt. The nightmare scenario would be the direct involvement of Iran, which is already indirectly involved because it funds and otherwise supports both Hamas and Hezbollah. We need to hope that Israel can “thread the needle” and find a way to eliminate Hamas without precipitating a much wider war.

We live in very dangerous times. War is always at the doorstep. At times like these, we all should be thankful that we’re Americans. In every way possible, we must support Israel in her quest to put an end to the terrorists in Hamas.

[arcticdementor]

Another point, per this:

and no attempting to remove the option of voting for [Trump].

I'm reminded of the talk about Germany and the AfD, particularly two Unherd pieces. The first is from Maurice Frank: The key to Germany’s survival:

Against such a backdrop, Article 1 of the Grundgesetz(Basic Law) is a moment of enlightenment: “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.” And on it goes, with the right to “develop one’s personality freely” and not to be “discriminated against or favoured because of one’s sex, descent, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, religious or political views”. Not even five years had passed since the end of Auschwitz, and here were 146 articles detailing a radical departure from the savagery of the brownshirts. Signing this document must have felt like spitting in the faces of the surviving Nazis. As a German, it still makes me teary-eyed.

…

The Grundgesetz has created a shared identity, though. For the Nazis, myths of racial purity and superiority were supposed to be the unifier. In the Federal Republic, more innocuous narratives emerged. There’s the one about German intellectual excellence (“Land of poets and thinkers”), the one about engineering excellence (“Autoland Deutschland”), the one about a shared consumer culture (Haribo, VW, Playmobil etc.), and let’s not downplay Fußball and the accomplishments of the Nationalmannschaft. But perhaps underpinning it all is “constitutional patriotism”, a term promoted by West German thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas. In short, it’s hard to be proud of our country after Nazism, but we can at least be proud of our constitution and the liberal state we built around it. And yet, constitutional patriotism feels perhaps overly academic, dry, even naive in today’s polarised, fraught environment. Not least because the Grundgesetz and the values it embodies are under constant attack. The most obvious threat comes from those who don’t even recognise it, like the Reichsbürger, a peculiar and somewhat ludicrous Right-wing movement whose leaders went on trial this week for planning a coup. Nostalgic for the pre-Hitlerian Reich, they say the Federal Republic has no sovereignty, refuse to pay their taxes, and print their own passports. Led by the self-declared Prince Heinrich XIII, they argue — correctly, in fact — that the Grundgesetz was intended as a temporary document, valid only until the unification of all the Germans (meaning West and the GDR). A permanent constitution would have to be approved by the entire Volk, even though East Germans did eagerly vote for reunification, accepting the western constitution part and parcel. The AfD, by contrast, are playing a longer, subtler game. Earlier this year, a purported AfD “remigration” plan was uncovered by journalists: not just immigrants but also non-white German citizens were to be deported. This alarmed the broad centre and millions took to the streets in protest. “Never again is now” stickers appeared in the window of my local ice-cream shop, as if the country was a hair’s breadth from returning to genocidal fascism.

…

Faced with these crises, more durchwursteln is to be expected. This is how the centre holds in post-war German democracy. And while it’s not exactly sexy, this is still easily the most peaceful, most prosperous Germany we’ve ever had. All of which is a long way of saying: Let’s pause for a second, raise a glass. Prost!

And in contrast, Thomas Fazi's "Germany’s authoritarian turn":

It goes without saying that attempting to outlaw the country’s second most popular party wouldn’t just be appalling from a democratic perspective, but would also have unexpected and far-reaching consequences — potentially pushing the country from a fraught political situation towards a state of civic unrest. But the establishment’s war on the AfD is just one part of a much wider crackdown on dissent — not only on the Right, but on the Left as well. In many parts of the country, pro-Palestinian protests have been restricted, and schools have been granted the power to place bans on Palestinian flags, pro-Palestinian speech and keffiyeh scarves. Across Germany, using the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea” is now a criminal offence. These moves are part of a broader process of institutional engineering aimed at dramatically narrowing the scope of democratic action in the name of protecting democracy. This includes the passing or proposal of an array of illiberal new laws. One such example is the recently approved “Law to speed up the removal of extremists from civil service”, aimed at making it easier to target so-called “extremist” civil servants — or “enemies of the constitution” — who may be removed from their posts and even denied their pension payments. If found guilty of sedition, the civil servant faces a prison sentence of six months or more. The law’s logic was spelled out by the Interior Minister: “Anyone who rejects the state cannot serve it.” But what does it mean to “reject the state”? Or to be an “extremist” for that matter? These concepts are so vague — and deliberately so — that they can easily be weaponised against anyone who happens to disagree with government policy on any given issue.

…

Many of these initiatives were born amid the hysteria that gripped Germany following the revelation, in 2022, of an alleged coup d’état that was being planned by a “far-Right terrorist group”. When it emerged that most of the members of the Reichsbürger group were pensioners, and that one of their leaders was an eccentric 70-year-old self-styled “prince” with a penchant for astrology, people started taking to social media to denounce its farcical nature. But this didn’t stop the government and media from inflating the group’s actual threat, claiming that a fascist military government was around the corner — and emphasising the fact that the conspirators were AfD supporters. The trial began this week, a year and a half after the alleged conspirators’ arrest, and no doubt we’ll see a slew of hyperbolic headlines in its wake. But even so, it’s hard not to view the government’s measures as having very little to do with protecting democracy, but rather being about protecting a failing and increasingly delegitimised establishment from democracy — and from the surging “populist” challenge, both on the Right and the Left. This has, after all, been taking shape for years, and well before the Reichsbürger plot.

…

It would be comforting to see all this as a betrayal of German post-war democracy and of its institutional bedrock, the constitution of 1949, or Basic Law — not least because it would imply that this is an awkward deviation from the norm, which may be potentially corrected by appealing to the strong democratic safeguards offered by that very constitution. Indeed, this quasi-religious faith in the constitution is deeply engrained in the German post-war collective consciousness, not just among intellectual elites — Habermas and others developed the concept of “constitutional patriotism” — but among dissidents as well: during the pandemic, it was common for protesters to hold up a booklet of the constitution as a symbolic shield against state repression. But what if the current authoritarian turn in Germany is not a failure of the constitution but rather a case of it doing exactly what it was designed to do? The German constitution has long been seen as the country’s main democratic bulwark against the kind of anti-democratic aberrations of the Nazi era. However, for its creators, this meant, paradoxically, that it also had to act as a bulwark against democracy itself — or better, its potential “excesses”. After all, as liberal commentators never tire of reminding us, Hitler rose to power through democratic means. As the weekly newspaper Die Zeitrecently observed, the Basic Law is “deeply laden with scepticism” and mindful of “the abuse of power and the obstruction of the democratic system”. Its creators didn’t trust the people, and were actually quite fearful of the concept of mass democracy. They thus took it upon themselves to create a constitution that, while guaranteeing equal individual rights for all citizens, would also contain various safeguards and provisions to ensure that the “will of the people” would not get out of hand. The document’s authors envisaged the creation of only three “people’s parties” — the CDU, SPD and FDP, reflecting a narrowly defined spectrum of acceptable opinion. This allowed for the ban of anti-constitutional parties — and even for the temporary stripping of the basic rights of individuals who oppose the “democratic order” too vehemently. Importantly, the text’s “safeguards” were excluded from any future change, even via a parliamentary majority.

…

Once one understands the ideological premises of the German constitution — that the state must do whatever it takes to protect the status quo from any threats arising from the masses — the nation’s authoritarian turn starts to make sense. Far from being an aberration, this is exactly what the German post-war system was designed to do all along.

Synthesize these two views together, particularly that "our constitution and the liberal state we built around it" of which Frank is proud is indeed premised on the position that "the state must do whatever it takes to protect the status quo from any threats arising from the masses." One then comes to the idea that to protect democracy — to "decrease the risk of a loss of democracy" — requires defending said democracy from the voters. To avoid repeating the mistake of Weimar and falling into populist "authoritarianism," we must constrain politics to "a narrowly defined spectrum of acceptable opinion" and remove those who fall outside it, like Trump, from electoral contention.

After all, the "liberal" part of "liberal democracy" is predicated on the position that some things — like human rights — aren't "up to a vote." That certain options aren't "on the menu" no matter how much of an electoral majority may want them. So we've already established that the "menu" presented to the voters is limited; now we're just negotiating where those limits are.

Thus, there is no logical contradiction in believing, on the one hand that democracy is the only legitimate form of government, that our leaders derive their authority through the consent of the governed, as expressed through free and fair elections; and also, on the other hand, that the choices presented to the voters in those free and fair elections can be — indeed, must be — confined to a limited spectrum of elite-acceptable options. And thus, by removing the option of voting for Trump, we defend Our Democracy from itself.

What do you say to this argument?

Or, more cynically, how does removing serious opposition like Trump from "the menu" hurt the Left establishment? Why shouldn't they do it, really? Sure, it might be bad for the rest of us, but what possible bad consequences could follow for them?

I would just like to note, briefly, that I agree with x.com user petespiliakos's earlier take - earlier during the 2024 Republican Presidential primary, there were a number of Trump voters who would have been OK with DeSantis. After the attempts to take Trump off the ballot, these voters were no longer willing to compromise.

Pete is not a Trump fan, and he will not be a Trump voter.

If you're worried about democracy in the United States, the logical way to lower the heat and decrease the risk of a loss of democracy, while being opposed to Trump, is to defeat Trump in a way that establishes a clear democratic mandate - no election irregularities, no acts that will make Trump a martyr, and no attempting to remove the option of voting for him.

This leaves an open question - how much of Democrats' current behavior is due to the contradictions within the Democratic coalition and the false promises that Democrats cannot actually deliver on, in combination with Biden's weakness as a leader and inability to both synthesize new ideology and to wield power over his coalition, leaving them unable to coordinate in the face of an actual threat, versus how much of the "Trump will end democracy" rhetoric is just hot air intended to emotionally motivate committed Democrats to go to the polls?

If Matt Yglesias were in charge, he'd be ordering cuts across the Democratic coalition so that physical infrastructure and housing actually gets built.

[fizzycherrycola]

Post whatever Prussia headcanons you've been waiting to talk about but never got the chance. :)

Thank you anon this is just what I need ❤

Before losing his nationhood, Prussia would wake up at 5AM everyday for morning exercises. A five kilometre run, followed by squats, push-ups, deadlifts, bicep curls, and a slew of others. Germany learned this workout routine from watching his older brother and he still follows it to this day. Prussia on the other hand doesn't exercise very much anymore, preferring instead to sleep in and scroll social media from his bed. But if Germany invites him to the gym, he'll go without hesitation.

The idiot (affectionate) thinks he's very good at flirting, but he absolutely is not. This works out fairly well, since he doesn't take very many romantic partners anyway, and when he does, it's usually someone who already has a longstanding friendship with him, like Hungary, England, etc.

Prussia has a history with alcohol. Monkhood and military life required intense discipline, so beer became his way to unwind after a long day of work. His metabolism slowed after 1945 and now he doesn't drink as much as he used to because the hangovers just aren't worth it.

Because he enjoys journaling, and has kept up the habit for centuries, he has fantastic penmanship, probably the best in Europe and it drives the aristocratic Austria a little insane.

He's devilishly clever on the battlefield and studying wartime manoeuvres is his type of fun. Without checking his phone, he can explain to you exactly why Napoleon Bonaparte was both a genius and a terrible threat. As a result, he loves grand strategy games, both tabletop and computer kinds.

Unfortunately, because his inevitable death is a constant concern, he has a touch of depression. He manages it with hobbies, live music, journaling, and crashing with his friends. Staying indoors all day seems to make it worse for him, so he tries to get out as much as possible.

Adding to this, his natural personality is not very punk or rebellious at all. He likes order and organization, but he began slacking off and acting out only after 1990, and it's a symptom of depression that he still occasionally struggles with.

[100hearteyes]

Well this is now a Clexa au

(written on my phone real quick, so be warned)

----

"I'm a sports reporter covering the Women's Euro 2022." Sounds more glamorous than it really is. People usually picture tons of interviews and perilous reporting and special treatment, but actually, the glamour lasts for 90-plus minutes and the rest and is just the nitty-gritty of sports reporting; trying to frame roughly the same event across dozens of games in a thousand different ways.

A player took a shot, the goalkeeper didn't reach it. Goal. Now try to recount that over and over and over again in as many different ways as possible.

As it turns out, the one constant to this competition has been hallways. Lots and lots of hallways. And walking and running and rushing to get to places you have never been and trying not to get lost.

Clarke can't say she hasn't got lost once or twice in these past two weeks.

It's as she's walking down one of the many halls of her hotel and looking down at her phone, waiting for updates on a player's health, that Clarke collides with a solid mass of... something, she's not sure what. Before she knows it, she's falling on her ass, her phone landing on the carpet with a stifled thud, and a hand is stretched in front of her face.

Behind it, the face of none other than Lexa Wald, Germany's number 12, captain, and major star, and maybe-maybe-not the very player Clarke has had a teeny-tiny celebrity crush on for the past five years. Because the universe hates her.

Still, she takes the proffered hand and pushes to her feet. She lets go of Lexa's hand with a chagrined smile.

"Thanks. And I'm sorry, I shouldn't be looking down at my phone in these narrow hallways."

Lexa offers her a polite smile. "It's okay, I was not careful either."

Her light German accent, abated by half a decade in the FAWSL, is even prettier in person. Clarke tries not to focus on it too much as she shrugs her shoulders with a smile.

"Well, I appreciate the help, anyway."

She's expecting Lexa to smile and move on, but the footballer narrows her eyes at her as though she's trying to place her.

"You're a FIFA referee, right?"

Clarke doesn't know whether to hide or run, so she does neither and grimaces instead.

"Yes," she blurts out, panic taking over.

Lexa snaps her fingers with a self-satisfied smile.

"I knew it." She taps a finger on her temple. "I'm very good with faces."

Lexa's smugness is, although unconsciously, so ridiculous it actually helps ease Clarke's nerves. She feels her shoulders sag and smiles, this time for real.

"Yeah, of course I'm a ref." She gestures at herself with a touch of irony. "I'm mad fit."

She watches as Lexa's eyes follow her hand and then linger. It causes a pleasant kind of chill to skitter over her skin and heat to pool in the pit of her stomach.

"That you are."

Lexa drags her gaze back to meet Clarke's, then, and raises an eyebrow.

"Although I think you mean I just made a fool of myself." At Clarke's responding smirk, she huffs out a small chuckle. "Scheisse."

Clarke leans back on the wall behind her. It's the first time she's felt this carefree since the Euros began. What a change from the start of their conversation.

"I guess it's only fair I tell you what I actually do, since I already know what you do."

"Unfair advantage."

"Yeah."

"So?"

"I'm a sports journalist. But don't worry," she rushes to add before Lexa can say anything, "I won't spill your secrets."

Lexa raises an eyebrow at her again. It seems to be a habit, one Clarke doesn't mind at all. "What secrets?"

"I'm just saying," Clarke shrugs. "if you ever want to tell me all your deepest, darkest secrets, all you have to do is say 'off the record' and I won't tell a soul."

Lexa smirks, a lopsided, adorable thing that ties around Clarke's wrists and drags her forward, closer, until the two of them are but a foot apart.

"I could tell you a secret or two."

Clarke wets her lips slowly, aware of Lexa's eyes tracking the movement of her tongue.

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hm."

Lexa's demeanor has changed now. Her smug veneer is gone and she's now more open, desire heavy in her eyes.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she asks, her voice raspy.

"No."

"Are you gay?"

"Bi."

Lexa reaches behind herself and there's a beep, before the door she's standing next to unlocks. She pushes it open, just enough to keep it from locking again.

"Would you like to come in?"

Clarke nods, too busy staring at Lexa's full lips, until her mind catches up and she clears her throat, meeting green eyes.

"Yes."

Lexa smiles, full and toothy now, and tugs at Clarke's lanyard to drag her inside with her. Clarke allows herself to be pulled into the bedroom, but Lexa stops her at the last moment.

There's a mischievous glint in her eyes as she crowds Clarke's space and it's all Clarke can do not to moan at the mere sight of it.

"A word of warning, though," Lexa whispers, leaning forward to capture Clarke's lower lip between her teeth.

She tugs at it lightly, just enough for Clarke's breath to catch in her throat, before releasing it.

"I don't think saying 'off the record' will be enough to keep you quiet."

[valeriianz]

I posted 494 times in 2022

That's 339 more posts than 2021!

28 posts created (6%)

466 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@asingularcanadian

@landwriter

@be-they-do-crimes

@teejaystumbles

@alibonbonn

I tagged 490 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#fanart - 152 posts

#the sandman - 62 posts

#dreamling - 58 posts

#hades game - 56 posts

#patrochilles - 41 posts

#tsoa - 39 posts

#movies - 27 posts

#morpheus - 27 posts

#hob gadling - 26 posts

#achilles - 21 posts

Longest Tag: 134 characters

#and after he leaves (cheeks tinged pink and 'forgetting' the box there) hob's coworkers tell him how dream had been coming in for days

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

“You’ve grown old, Hob Gadling.” 

Hob tensed at the all too familiar voice. A voice he’d never forget, despite the years that had passed since he’d last heard it. The melodic, rich voice that transfixed many, Hob being no exception. He swallowed as he turned, knowing the voice could hear it, could hear his heartbeat suddenly in his ears.

“Tends to happen to mortals, you know?” Hob regarded him in the darkness. He was a shadow on the wall, peeling away and floating towards him now.

Morpheus glides until he meets Hob at the window he’s stationed at. The night is cold and bitter, snow has begun to gently fall, like ash after a bonfire. After a public execution.

“Have you come back to me, my one?” 

See the full post

254 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

#4

Robert Gadling is a character just BRIMMING with possibility. The lives he’s lived, the cultures he’s been a part of. The turning points in history that he’s witnessed! He’s into printing in 1489, imagine he was in Germany when Gutenberg invented the printing press? Why not! (He probably still owns a copy of Gutenberg’s Bible). Hob goes through an art phase and is there for the unveiling of Michelangelo’s David (imagine how fucking immaculate that statue looked in 1501). And then, Hob stays in Italy, obsessed with the renaissance and maybe befriending Michelangelo, gifted with the privilege to witness him working for 5 years on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Hob’s life is rife with history, with experience. He’s traveled the world, I bet he joined Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition to circumnavigate the globe (because Hob would, HE WOULD). He lived on that ship and drank piss ale and rum and stepped on land he never dreamed of exploring. 

Hob’s there for the steam engine. Can you imagine him ranting and raving to Dream about how they managed to remove water from flooded mines and convert it into energy? “The power of steam!” Hob raves, gesticulating at Dream with a huge grin on. The birth of rail transport, the invention of the telegraph, the suffrage movement “women are finally fighting back!” I’d love to read something where Hob gets smacked with an appreciation for women, because you know he must’ve been some kind of problematic womanizer, back in the day (century). On and on and on it goes!

He's lived dozens and dozens of lives, different names, shifting personalities. Everything you can think of, Hob’s done it. I love when fic writers just let their imaginations run wild with Hob, the deeper the introspection the better.

He strikes me as a man of adventure and consequence. He’s smart, so fucking smart. Imagine the schooling this man has had, imagine the life experience. Imagine the people he’s taken to his bed too. This man is a literal definition of “fuck around and find out.”

Imagine the loneliness at times, knowing each relationship never develops. He makes friends, lovers, and has to break their hearts. Hob probably starts accidentally falling in love with Dream because he’s his only constant in life. He probably bites his tongue every time they meet, wanting to beg for more than one visit a century. By the 1600s Hob’s desperate for companionship. He loves the gift of immortality freely given to him, he treasures every second on this green earth, but god damn can it get lonely. 

I want to read Hob speaking foreign languages, communicating effortlessly and fluently with anyone. Striking up a conversation because someone catches him reading a worn copy of The Odyssey in its original ancient Greek or something like that. Can you imagine the tracks he has to switch in his brain when he has to converse in Yiddish? Turkish? Japanese? It probably takes him a full minute to rifle through his metaphorical filing cabinet, like a slow Internet connection because you have too many tabs open.

Imagine all the work he’s done, the jobs he’s taken up, good and bad. Morally gray or just immoral, so bad Hob can’t bear to remember. (He’s been in the mob, he’s been in a gang, he's been a marksman, he’s been a private investigator, he's been a doctor and an archeologist, on and on and ON). I can see him loving a position as a museum curator.

Oh man, this got long. 

TL;DR: I go absolutely insane for a Hob character analysis that explores his time through history and how it has changed him as a person.

319 notes - Posted November 13, 2022

#3

Hob hums along to the music quietly playing through his phone speaker, the knife in his hand coming down swiftly over the thinly sliced peppers, dicing them for his latest meal endeavor. He’d never really been much of a cook, but after living on his own for so many years, Hob came to the realization that living off takeout and boxed pasta wasn’t very sustainable (or healthy) and had strived to make at least one homemade meal a day. And today it was breakfast.

He scraped the bell pepper into a small bowl and reached for the red onion. Hob was on a mission this morning to get an omelet correct– redemption round– he called it. Preparing the vegetables was easy enough, it was cooking them with the egg mixture while keeping its integrity that was the challenge. 

With the knife poised to make the first cut into the onion, Hob suddenly feels two arms snake around his waist, followed by a cold nose pushing its way through his hair at the back of his neck.

Hob huffs a startled, but pleased laugh, as Dream nuzzles his way around, pressing feather soft kisses on his neck and up to his ear. He didn’t even hear Dream approach; he never hears Dream, like the man weighed nothing or just glided along the squeaky floorboards. Hob unconsciously tilts his head, stretching his neck out for Dream to have more access.

“You weren’t there when I awoke,” Dream rumbles, his voice impossibly low and rough from sleep.

Hob smiles. He still has the knife in his hand, but he’s lowered it to the cutting board, blade safely out of the way.

“I wanted to get started on breakfast,” he answers simply, trying desperately to not turn his head and meet Dream’s wandering lips. “And I made coffee.”

Dream presses his body along Hob’s, crowding him against the counter and ripping a surprised gasp from Hob, which turns into a soft groan as Dream nips his ear before dragging an open mouth down his neck. One of his hands is slipping underneath the hem of Hob’s shirt, rucking it up and fingers dancing across his stomach.

Hob’s eyes slip closed and he swallows hard.

“I’m holding a knife, love.”

He feels one of Dream’s hands move from his hip to lightly grip his elbow, fingers caressing down Hob’s arm and gently dislodging the knife from his hand. Hob chuckles softly, accepting his fate and allowing Dream to tie their fingers together, resting their hands on the countertop as he pushes himself forward again, so Dream’s front is flush against Hob’s backside.

Hob’s breath catches in his throat, feeling the distinct, hard outline of Dream’s arousal nudge against his ass as he shamelessly rolls his hips, pulling Hob impossibly closer as he does so. Hob brings his free hand around, winding it back and touching Dream’s middle, feeling skin. He tilts his head back against Dream’s shoulder, splaying his fingers and exploring down past Dream’s ribs to his hips, and lower…

Hob is almost breathless as he speaks, almost stammers as Dream bites his exposed neck.

“Why are you naked?”

“Why aren’t you?” Dream counters before getting both hands on Hob’s hips and spinning him around, shoving a gloriously firm, pale leg against Hob’s crotch and crushing Hob against the counter with renewed vigor.

Hob can only meet Dream’s mouth as it descends onto his, moaning as Dream’s tongue slides along his, hot and insistent. Hob crumbles at once, wrapping his arms around Dream’s shoulders and pulling so there’s no more space between them, no more air.

Hob cries out at a particularly hard thrust, causing his lower back to dig into the counter’s edge. Dream is kissing down his neck again and Hob can only hold on, getting a handful of silky soft hair and pulling.

“Dream–”

“Come back to bed,” Dream demands, licking the shell of Hob’s ear and making him shudder pleasantly.

Hob relents, abandoning his mission that was breakfast, it had been a lost cause from the start.

331 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

#2

had thoughts about Dream being able to sleep, how soft and human he would look. for your consideration:

Hob announced his arrival from work with a long sigh, heavy with exhaustion, and leaned into the door as he opened it and stepped into his flat. He dropped his keys in the little bowl and toed off his shoes. He had just shrugged off his messenger bag when he noticed a pair of large black boots in the living room, stark against his off-white rug. They were about a meter apart, like they’d been kicked off or tossed aside without a second thought.

With one brow raised, eyes scrupulous, Hob deposited his bag on the couch and bent down to pick up first one boot, then the other, tucking them together and neatly placing them on the wooden floor next to a bookshelf.

“Dream?” Hob called out, straightening up and casting his gaze upon the room. It wasn’t like Dream, when he paid surprise visits, to not immediately be within eyesight of the door, let alone leave his shoes haphazardly on the carpet.

Hob’s eyes landed on the entryway of the hall, spotting Dream’s thick, long coat in a heap on the center of the floor. Worry began to creep in as Hob slowly stepped up to Dream’s mystical coat, his pulse thrumming under his skin. He stooped down, grabbing it by the collar and brushing it off with his other hand. The material felt luxurious in Hob’s hands, soft like cashmere or shahtoosh, but also durable– something akin to wool or even canvas. Hob’s fingers caressed the fabric, feeling the lip of the tall collar between his thumb and fingers. 

Gently folding the coat over one arm, Hob continued down the hall, stepping softly, carefully. 

Hob’s bedroom door was open, the rays of the setting sun streamed in through the window and lit up the entryway, revealing more dark clothes in a jumble leading into the room.

Swallowing, lips parting, Hob bent down once more to collect Dream’s t-shirt, his pants and, following the line of mayhem, his socks, taking them all into his arms. Hob wasn’t sure what he expected to see when he finally straightened up and turned, but it certainly wasn’t this.

Hob almost dropped all the clothes he had spent carefully collecting, his mouth going dry. 

There was a considerable, person-sized lump in Hob’s bed, buried under his thick gray comforter. The only indication that it was indeed Dream laying in Hob’s bed, was the mane of wild dark hair poking out from the mass of linens.

Hob took a step forward, then another, crushing the pile of clothes to his chest as he walked around the bed, his gaze transfixed to the top of Dream’s head– a smattering of black ink spilled on his white pillow. He held his breath as he finally came to face Dream, the only part of him sticking out was his nose and eyes, Dream’s impossibly long lashes draped down, threatening to brush the tops of his cheeks.

Hob felt his jaw drop, lips parting in wonder at this ethereal creature in his bed.

Dream was sleeping.

See the full post

565 notes - Posted October 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

You are an obsession, you're my obsession Who do you want me to be to make you sleep with me?

“Hello, Hob,” a low, sultry, and achingly familiar voice speaks behind him, cutting through the heavy bass reverberating off the walls and straight through Hob’s chest, lighting him up.

Turning, Hob finds– who he’d been referring to as– his stranger behind him, close enough to reach out and touch. They’re in the middle of the dance floor, bodies packed and grinding all night, but somehow they’ve given them room now.

Hob was dreaming, he was aware of it almost immediately. He’s been thrown back into the 1980s, one of Hob’s favorite periods of the 20th century, and in a nightclub no less. The music loud enough to penetrate skin, feeling the twangy synth pop in his bones. Everyone around him dressed in every color of the rainbow, over accessorized in neon hoop earrings and bangles, leg warmers, windbreakers, and mesh patterns. 

Hob’s dreams often took him back in time, and he wondered what prompted this. Though as Hob often did in his dreams, instead of considering why, he simply indulged. The music wasn’t anything particular, perhaps nothing was actually playing and it was all in his head, but Hob had felt the push and pull of everyone around him and followed along like a buoy at sea.

And now, feeling drunk off the sticky sweet air in the room, Hob grins as he boldly steps into his stranger’s space and slips both arms around his middle, pulling so his skinny, pale, gorgeous friend is flush against him.

He’d been dancing with strangers all night, shadows with indeterminate faces, allowing them to trace patterns on his skin, grip his shoulders or tug on his shirt. Hob hadn’t been dancing or even hanging around loud bars or clubs in decades, maybe somewhere deep in his subconscious, he missed it. Missed the anonymity of it all, getting high off everyone else’s pleasure and succumbing to it. So it made sense, as Hob felt himself getting hot, his skin prickling, that his imagination would wander, drifting to his perfect stranger. The only constant in his life, and someone who frequented Hob’s dreams often, especially as their centennial meetings came around or passed.

Though this iteration of his friend appeared distinctly… solid. He was dressed in that long black coat and skinny jeans from their last meeting (where he’d apologized, apologized! And called Hob a friend), his black hair gently tousled as before.

Hob paid it no mind as his tongue finally became useful and spoke for him.

“Hello, stranger.” he tried his best to mimic his friend’s deep voice and giggled at himself, cataloging the twitch of amusement in his usual stony face.

“You were thinking about me.” He spoke again, choosing to not point out how Hob currently had his arms ensnared around him and swaying them back and forth. “In a place like this.”

See the full post

811 notes - Posted November 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[loveatfirstwriteblog]

A Complete Analysis of Harry Potter

Like a lot of kids, we probably grew up on Harry potter. We were obsessed and rightly so. The universe created in the world of Harry Potter was, and is, a hugely successful one because of the fact it gave kids a world where magic exists! It seemed to be a great world to live in and it made even better with the fact that it included elements of empowerment, Whether it be showing girls can be just as successful if not more in various pursuits(Hermione), or the fact that even if you have a history of bad events, you can have a good heart(Hagrid), Harry Potter teaches us a lot.

JKR has written a mind-blowing plot in a world of magic, wizards, witches, wands, potions, friendship, love. Our inner-five-year olds--and actually most of our young adult selves too--jumps around excitedly at the beautifully penned words that creates an exit out of this world and into one where magic does exist. 

As you get older, though, you begin to think of Harry Potter in a more critical fashion. The thought of “oh my god, it’s magic” no longer completely overrides my mind, but more of “but what are the laws regarding this? Can people just do this whenever they want? Are there no ethics?” 

No matter how much we’re going to expose the flaws and plot holes in HP now, we’ll always love the books--we grew up on them! But some things just niggle you as you get older, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in this post.

Something I adore about the HP books is that everyone, including the “good guys”, has flaws. Harry has a “save the world alone, do first, think later” complex, a driving force that makes him go save Sirius, Ron is very, very insecure to a point where he ditches Harry twice, probably when Harry needed him the most, Hermione is a judgemental, narrow-minded nag (her thoughts on Luna, divination, Trelawney, basically anything that doesn’t fit her black and white world), Molly Weasley is misogynistic and blatantly favourites her children—probably being one of the main factors behind Ron’s insecurities, Arthur is condescending towards Muggles and makes several comments you cringe at while reading the books as a young adult/adult, Sirius, Snape, and Lupin still haven’t let go of their childhood grudges and hatred, etc etc etc. 

These flaws are what make these characters so three-dimensional, so layered, so human. But the problem was, most of these flaws are never intentionally acknowledged. And honestly, that could have been such a good character arc, because the main characters are mostly students. No student is the same through their teenage years—they change, they evolve, they get over their flaws, they try to better themselves. I would have loved to see Ron becoming his own person, Hermione opening her mind up a little, etc. 

Neville is not one of my favourites, but I love his growth and development, from someone who was scared of his potions professor to a man who faced down Lord Voldemort. Ginny Weasley could have had character development, from the trauma she went through in second year, but that was never written in.  She went through this terrifying ordeal when she was only twelve years old, and jump to a year or two later and she’s absolutely fine, with no transition from her trauma whatsoever.

Some of JKR’s characters are brilliantly written and fleshed out, but some of her others lack the structure and complexity that usually comes with being vital to the plot—Ginny Weasley for one. Her internalised misogyny also plays a huge part in the way her female characters are written. We see this again in the case of how she wrote the character of Ginny. 

Ginny Weasley is not a favourite of ours (if you don’t know that by now). She feels a lot like a convenient male daydream—when she waits for Harry to notice her by dating other guys, gets annoyed by Hermione “not knowing quidditch”, etc etc—and fits the “not like other girls” archetype too much, almost like she was made for it (hint hint). She’s portrayed to be strong-willed, spunky, and independent, and I love the idea, but I really don’t see it. To me, she’s a very shallow character, the least fleshed out one. 

Just like James Potter wasn’t necessarily redeemed just because JKR said he was, and Ginny isn’t interesting just because JKR writes that she is. 

Hermione also fits the archetype, but she’s JKR’s self-insert, so we really can’t say much about that. 

To make things worse, Ginny and Hermione are pitted against each other in a very subtle way. Ginny is the sporty, pretty, flirty girl who’s never single from book 4. Hermione is the not-conventionally-attractive, nerdy girl who’s had a few dates here and there but never a relationship. They’re very different characters (the only thing they have in common is the archetype) but they’re against each other in the defence of Harry. 

Another place where JKR’s misogyny shows up is the way other girls are written. Lavender Brown is shown as vapid and immature, just because she likes clothes and boys and didn’t know how to handle her first relationship. Cho Chang is perceived as shallow because she’s emotional. Pansy Parkinson is seen to be throwing herself at Draco Malfoy. The Weasleys hated Fleur because she was beautiful and sexy and French, and that was ever really resolved in the end (Molly accepted her, but we never got Ginny’s and Hermione’s opinions again). You see where we’re getting at? The typical “girly girls” are portrayed as insipid, shallow, emotional, and boring, while girls like Hermione and Ginny are seen to be fun and multilayered. 

The problems with Harry Potter don’t just stop with non-fleshed out characters. There are plot devices that go unacknowledged, issues like blood purity—which is the basis of Voldemort’s tyranny—are never really resolved, huge Chekhov’s guns that aren’t fired. 

A common misconception, which if cleared up could probably expose a load of problems in wizarding society by itself, is that the wizarding world is racist. It’s not racist. Muggles and Muggleborns are not a different race, they’re a different class, at least according to pureblood wizards. Mudblood is a classist insult (a direct reference to nobility blueblood and aristocracy).

Another factor that wasn’t talked about but made the HP world so complex and realistic is the inherent classism in every single pureblooded wizard, including the Weasleys.

 The “Light” wizards all operate on the notion “at least I don’t kill or torture Muggles”. The Weasleys refuse to talk about Molly’s squib cousin who’s an accountant, the Longbottoms were so desperate for Neville to not be a squib they nearly killed him trying to force magic out of him, Ron makes fun of Filch for being a squib, thinks house-elves are beneath him, and confounds his driving instructor in his mid-thirties, the ministry workers kept obliviating that muggle at the quidditch World Cup, etc. 

This could have been a metaphor for how small prejudices and microaggressions (kind of the wizarding equivalent of white privilege) enable discrimination and murder, if JKR had actually acknowledged it. 

The parallel to Nazi Germany is very twisted and definitely shouldn’t be taken too far, but the Nazi ideology grew on the basis of everyday antisemitism, “that’s not that bad” little things. Voldemort’s circle and army grew because the wizard superiority complex festered and blew up in some people, egged on by a deeply classist society. 

Ultimately, Harry Potter has very, very shoddy worldbuilding, the kind of worldbuilding that’s obsessed with answering the “what” of the wizarding world, rather than the “how” or the “why”, which is strange, considering that fantasy or dystopian-era novels’ driving plots and conflicts are usually answering the questions the worldbuilding raises--The Hunger Games and The Shadowhunter Chronicles are two of the best examples of brilliantly written YA fantasy and dystopian novels. 

In HP, however, the main plot just avoids the questions the worldbuilding brings up like the bubonic plague. 

Voldemort’s agenda is built on prejudice towards Muggles and Muggleborns, but the plot just validates the negative perception of them—at the end of the day, being a wizard is what’s special. The Statute of Secrecy is the foundation of the main concept—blood supremacists believe wizards shouldn’t be hidden away—but only vague, barely-there answers are given to why it exists (a Chekhov’s gun that was never fired). 

There are love potions that function like date rape drugs (even Harry was given one by a girl who wanted him to ask her out), potions that force people to tell the truth, potions that literally let you disguise yourself as another person, but the ethics are never talked about, and the laws are so lax that three twelve-year-olds broke them and were never caught. 

But at the same time, the worldbuilding is so authentic, because it transforms the wizarding world into straight-up fridge horror. The everyday horrors are just accepted and rolled with. A corrupt government, constant obliviation of Muggles, slavery that isn’t even talked about. These things aren’t obvious to us as readers, or to the wizards as characters, because they match up to the real world, which is filled with things that are horrifying if you dig deeper. The multiple, normalised forms of abuse, police brutality, the violence in prisons that nothing is done about, the glaringly obvious cultural problems we have with consent, etc. 

The abusive authoritative figures in HP, like Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Dumbledore, Umbridge, etc, are so authentic because real-life politicians and people in high places of power behave that way, and their abuse is excused. 

The wizarding world is just like the real world. Corrupt, prejudiced, messed up, but if you’re privileged, or at least have certain privileges, you’re probably not going to notice. The ultimate problem is that the plot doesn’t acknowledge a lot of fridge horror things are messed up either, which is why it miserably fails. 

[jeannetheblonde]

putting out some thoughts about the war on Ukraine before I start to scream, also why can Putin go and fck himself. he can take Orbán with him, I don't really care at this point.

disclaimer 1: I'm Hungarian, not Ukranian, so everything what I'm writing is from a Hungarian perspective. please take this into consideration.

disclaimer 2: if I write something and it seems generalizing (like "Ukraine did this" or "the Russians did that") it's never about the regular folks but mostly the Russian, Ukrainian or, in some instances, the Hungarian governments. most of the folks in this conflict didn't want any of this to happen, the so called """leaders""" did.

disclaimer 3: I didn't have a draft for this post so if my thoughts seems to be incoherent, not that consistent or anything else, I'm sorry for the mess, but keeping this fever dream in my head is just torturing me. laying at home with postcovid symptoms doesn't help, but enough about me.

disclaimer 4: any other perspectives than mine are more than welcomed.

so. where to start. besides that I can't remember when I was this anxious or scared about a semi-foreign situation.

one thing I guess I can safely say is that this was one of the Central and Eastern European region's (including Finland, Georgia and the others) worst nightmare. the threat was always in the air, even during the fall of the USSR, that the Russians can come anytime and claim our countries, and no one will interfere for us. the region is a pufferzone between Russia and the West, it's convenient for them to keep it that way, not so much to help small, not that notable countries with very, very complicated relations with each other and everyone else.

the thing which scares us the most right now: the fact that Russians can come any time.

this is the map of the USSR before it collapsed between 1989-1991, and I don't want to be to harsh but this is still the sphere of interest of modern day Russia. yes, the most Western point of it is Germany. Putin said it on more than one instance that the fall of the Soviets was a disaster and implied that it's his intention to restore the "glory of the old days". he just went for the long game.

the ethnic map of this region is quite colorful. each and every one of these sovereign countries has their own, very distinctive ethnicities with their different cultures and languages, including the majorities and the minorities.

to understand some parts of this conflict, we have to talk about minorities. (also, I can't stress enough the huge impact of the nation or ethnicity one belongs to in European politics. not only this part of the continent but anywhere else.)

first of all: Ukrainians are NOT Russians. both of them speak an Eastern Slavic language, from the outside, they seem to be culturally similar, but they're very much not the same, and that's basically the root of the problem. because the Russians don't think so.

let me draw a very, very vague, not specified timeline for the events: Ukraine became the part of the USSR around the end of WWI, faces disastorous events like famine, WWII, aggressive attempts for assimilation, poverty etc. -> Ukraine gets its independence after the fall of the USSR -> USSR turned Russia doesn't like that -> Russia puts a constant pressure on Ukraine -> Ukraine, after a while, without any other tools, starts to discriminate minorities, mainly because of the vast majority of them are Russian -> Russia, claiming it's for saving their minority in Ukraine, starts with the first attack in 2014 -> full-blown war in 2022.

it's kind of common knowledge that Russia never thought about Ukraine as a sovereign state, more like "the stolen part of the Motherland", and since 2014 it was certain that the conflict will spiral down, and won't stop until Putin doesn't try to annect the land some day - all of it or only some parts, doesn't matter, but one way or other, that's not a thing you can do silently nowadays.

not that Putin ever intended to do that, but I digress.

Russia did everything so Ukraine cannot join the EU or the NATO (same thing with Georgia), which means they won't (well, they can't really) intervene immediatly, which gives Putin plenty of time to make a mess in Ukraine. and he does.

here comes another fear: the West never really took a step when Russia started to play the bully. not really during the chechen wars, calling it an inner conflict, not really when Russia started to bomb Georgia (in the Caucasus) in 2008, the list goes on - and not now, when a sovereign country is on the verge of getting partly or, God forbid, completely swallowed. this last one can change though, it's only the first day right now, but the option of "no intervention" is still there, and if that happens, that will carry the message of "if it's not directly threatening us, we won't do a thing. you can lay down and rot, just let us be in peace." and that won't make us feel safe in the close proximity of the conflict, that will make us feel like "free real estate for Russia", and I'm not so sorry to say, but 40-80, sometimes even more years for this region was more than enough with Russian influence over our heads. (not to mention the overall feeling of the West sacrificed us. AGAIN.) if Ukraine goes, that will mean that anyone can be the next one: the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, the list goes on, and if one thinks that Russia will stop after a while then I have to say no, they won't. if no one stands in their way, they just roll through Europe.

of course, that's the worst case scenario, but based on the last hundred and more years, I would not dare to say it's completely unconceivable.

and after the vage international situation, here comes the case of Hungary, just to show how a "seemingly local conflict" can go more complicated than it seems to be. and it's only one little slice of it.

because, oh boy, did we fck up again, and this time, BIG TIME.

Hungary has a pretty strained relationship with Ukraine. besides our dearest leaders Orbán Viktor's association and known stan-status with Putin, here's the thing with those minority laws: we have a considerable amount of Hungarians in the Western corner of Ukraine, living mostly between the border and the Carpathians, and they would've been hit pretty hard by those laws (mainly about the language of education and what they could use, in what amount, until when, etc.). though I don't agree with those, the only one I'm putting blame on is mostly the Government of Ukraine, not the everyday folks. oh, and also on the Russian Government, cause God forbid they can't stay on their place and stop trying to win everything through brute force, or thinking the whole globe is the Kreml's righteous property.

so yeah, we have those constant debates with Ukraine over our minority, Orbán is one of the biggest fan of Putin, what could go wrong?

everything, mon ami, everything.

the war over there was expected, there's only a small amount of folks who told otherwise - if not in months, in the last few weeks it was obvious that open conflict is unavoidable.

so Orbán went and promised Putin that Hungary will NOT engage in this conflict.

...

Hungary is a member of the NATO. if they tell "you will send soldiers to Ukraine" one can't answer with a noppe, not in this situation, and I don't want to be there when the sanctions will go live, no thanks. (neither from the EU, they hate us already.)

but if Hungary does just like that, Putin won't be forgiving about or forget this breach of contract either.

the only way getting out from this catch-22 if the conflict doesn't escalates and to be honest, Putin doesn't seem to be in the mood for some peace.

maybe if the conflict stays in Ukraine, but after that, Hungary loses the last amount of its dignity we had left.

we can't win in this situation, and I don't want to be that pessimist in the back corner of the kocsma, but I'm pretty much afraid about how things will work out, and to be completely frank, our odds are far from being the best.

tl;dr: Europe is a hot mess right now, states which were part of the USSR or had close affiliation with it are afraid for their existence, the Prime Minister of Hungary somehow found the way to be the aggressor's best footman again, and I can't decide I want to scream, cry or laugh over how fucking terrible this is, maybe all of them at the same time, but I know for sure that I hate all of it, and I'd be grateful if once, for fucking once, Hungary wouldn't be the asshole in a conflict this big.

thank you for reading my mad rambling.

my heart goes out for Ukraine.

[cadopan]

I know we're all still disappointed in the CL game but I'd like to shift topics a bit. Two people were missing from the team and while we might have still lost with them in it, most people agree that Wally and Beth would have each added something vital to the game that may have changed the energy and unity of play on the pitch. We brings me to point of the ask: my personal pick for player of the season, Beth. Not sure if you agree with my selection but I thought I'd add an ask on your page that was about good things! ✌🏽

She was missed on the pitch in Germany because of her pressing, her hold up play (which Caitlin had but we would have been better with two of them), and her persistence in the face of coordinated defensive opposition play. It's why she was, for me, the best outfield player at the FA Cup final and against Barca at the Emirates. She stands her ground against big opposition and doesn't get overwhelmed by the occasion. While her finishing at goal can sometimes improve, she is still a lethal player on the pitch as a whole. Prior to the CL games, and after she came back from her minor injury rest for England against Germany and Arsenal rest against Liverpool, she scored 3 goals (vs Brighton, B'ham, Coventry) and began a sequence of play that led to a Stina goal assisted by Viv soon after she was subbed in against Reading. I also think she is very often targeted because even good opposition like Barca, Wolfsburg and Chelsea know that the only way to stop her is to foul her and bring her to ground.

The season isn't over but she will play her 150th game for Arsenal on Sunday, is due her assist record of 36, and will very likely hit 50 WSL goals within the next few games (she's on 48 or 49 I think). She's been POTM 3 or 4 times already as well. I feel that since this season began, she's not have a bad game unless the whole team has been shite (like Birmingham away). Even when she hasn't scored or assisted, we've all noticed her defensive work and her ability to nick the ball off opposition (in 1v1s against Ona at LSV/Arnold Clark and against Alexia at the Emirates for example) has been very noteworthy as well.

Sorry this is so long. I know she's gotten a lot of praise over the season, but I still feel that she is overlooked as an all round contributor, and therefore when she doesn't score, people say that she's done a mediocre job. Anyway that's all i wanted to say.

Would love your thoughts on this and please feel to reply if you think I'm delusional or something. (Very much not a Beth stan but someone who has now become a fan and really noticed her quality this season!)

The season is coming to an end and while there are some outstanding players like Lia, Noelle, Viv of course, Katie for worldies, and Leah, I rate Beth higher this season for her consistency. For the amount that she has played for club and country, her standards have remained high throughout.

Ooh thanks for a nice ask with a bit of a different vibe!

I won't add a whole lot (since you basically covered it all 😁) but yes, Beth is definitely my player of the season so far too! There's still a little way to go, but she's the only outfield player who's a real candidate for me. Beyond her really outstanding patch of form in the early part of the season, she's the only one who has been a solid presence throughout and I'd say has been at a constant level of quality despite the team having its ups and downs.

Personally, up for second would be Manu. She's bailed us out many a time and kept things from getting embarrassing, especially when our defence was practically in a coma halfway through the season. In fact, I think she hasn’t put a foot wrong all season, but the only thing is that she had a considerable amount of games where she didn’t have much to do. 

Yea... I thought about it but the rest of the outfield players are quite far behind for me. Leah did great in the league but left so much more to be desired in big games, Katie and Viv had their moments as well but were too inconsistent with their form. Noelle might actually be third for me! Love her, she’s basically synonymous with the term underrated and I wish her silent hard work would be more recognised in the media etc. 

But either way, I think Beth would be the only one from Arsenal I’d back if we were discussing players of the season across the league overall.