#but these just keep getting progressively worse if i keep going

[elumish]

So, what, things are bad so we say, fuck it let's make them worse?

Okay, frustrated 4:30am response aside, here's my real answer:

I don't think it's laziness, and I never said it was. It's disillusionment with the system, and apathy, and ideological purity, and people convincing themselves that protest votes are actually effective, and people thinking that if they don't vote then their hands are clean of the results, and a million other things.

Whether people felt the impacts of what he did or not, Biden implemented the most progressive set of policies and passed the most progressive set of laws we've had in a really long time. He was quiet about it, I think genuinely to his detriment and to the Democratic Party's detriment, but he did. He passed the biggest climate bill in forever. He put protections in place for trans people, which will be torn apart by the upcoming administration. He was vocal in his support of unions. We got Finland and Sweden into NATO which obviously can't be attributed wholly to Biden but sure as hell wouldn't have happened under Trump, a man who wants to get us out of NATO.

Now, I have big issues with some Democratic policies, including how far right we've swung on immigration and our Israel policy, but the Democratic Party has been actively pushing to increase our civil rights for decades, while the Republican have been trying to preserve the status quo or drag us backwards, depending on the issue.

The parties are not the same.

And yes, they tried courting the Never Trumpers--because the goal of an election is to win votes, and those were potential votes to win. But that doesn't mean that they were somehow running a Republican campaign. And maybe this is jaded of me, but having the Vice President actively try to undermine her President by publicly fully contradicting major policy decisions was not actually going to be helpful for the country.

Now, though, the party might move to the right--because if you look at who showed up and voted, especially for the presidency, it was a hard swing to the right. And the most obvious lesson to take from that is that the voting population has swung right, and so the party should as well. Obviously, I hope that isn't the case, and I will do what I can to be vocal about how I think the party should keep fighting for progressive causes and policies, but it would be an unsurprising and logical outcome of how voting turned out.

And just to say: pundits on CNN aren't the Democratic Party. They're just people paid to say things. The question isn't what pundits say--it's what the party actually does. And that's why we (the voting population) have to be the ones to actually speak out and say, don't abandon trans people.

Harris was one of the only candidates we've had in a long time with no scandals, and she ran a remarkable campaign in an extremely short period of time. She was not a flawless candidate by any means, but chances are that if it had been basically anyone else the results would have been an absolute bloodbath up and down the ballot. At some point, people need to show up and vote.

I have some much less nice posts currently saved in my drafts that I am clinging on to my self control enough not to post, but I will say this:

This is why you show up and you vote. This is why you show up even when you don't agree with every policy, when you think both candidates are too far to the right, when you think your vote doesn't matter.

We will be spending the next 4+ years living with the consequences of people's decision not to vote or to vote for a third party or to vote for the racist authoritarian rapist felon over an extremely qualified Black/S. Asian woman.

Want a better candidate? Start working on finding and supporting them tomorrow. But in two years, and in four, and in every election in between and after, show up, fulfill your civic responsibility as an American citizen, and vote.

[holylulusworld]

Every Breath you take (19)

Summary: There is a shadow following you. He doesn’t know what he got himself into.

Pairing: Stalker!Bucky Barnes x fem!Reader

Warnings: a man out of time, secret admirer trope, “crazy” reader, fluff, domestic life

A/N: You all made me do it! Here’s the series to this random idea: Stalker Bucky & Crazy Reader

Catch up here: Every breath you take (18)

Every Breath You Take Masterlist

“More salt,” you comment as Bucky stirs the sauce. You decided to start over, and the first thing you did was to cook together. “It tastes good but lacks salt.” Licking the spoon, you watch Bucky add more salt.

Since he came back, you tried to talk about the elephant in the room with him. Bucky must, once and for all, realize that he cannot treat you like a caged bird. You’re with him on free terms and don’t want to be treated like a prisoner.

“I didn’t know you could cook.” You try to ease your nerves and talk about anything but what’s on your mind. “It’s nice having a man who can cook.”

“Uh—I’m not much of a cook, but I can try to get better.” Bucky seems to be as nervous as you are. “For you.”

“Bucky,” you begin, but clamp your mouth shut. You sigh, shake your head, and try again. “Okay, we need to talk.”

“Doll, I already told you that I’m sorry." Bucky winces as you cross your arms over your chest. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have locked the cabinets. It was a mistake and won’t happen again.”

“There is a locked room. I assume it’s the basement,” you sniff. “Did you want to put me down there, and that’s why it’s locked?”

“What?” He drops the spoon in his hands. Bucky looks like you slapped him across the face. He winces and shakes his head. “No. I locked it because it’s dangerous. I didn’t want you to get hurt or hurt yourself.”

“What are you talking about?” You huff, frustrated. He’s hiding things from you again, pretending to keep you safe. Whenever you believe you’re making progress, you take ten steps back.

“If you want to, I’ll show you.” Bucky steps around the kitchen counter to touch your shoulder. “I never wanted you to see this side of me, but I don’t want to hide things from you.”

His hand slides down your arm to take your hand. Bucky guides you out of the kitchen and walks straight toward the locked door.

He unlocks the door with his thumb. The door slides aside, and the light automatically turns on. “I go there when the nightmares get worse,” he says, as he guides you down the staircase.

Down in the basement, there’s no furniture but an old mattress on the ground. You wrinkle your forehead as Bucky steps toward the wall.

He presses a button, and the wall suddenly moves aside, revealing a hidden room. On the walls hang weapons of all kinds. Guns, knives, blades, even something that looks like a rocket launcher.

“I hide it down here if we are ever in danger. You know about Hydra, and you know there’s always the possibility that one of them made it out alive.”

“Why the mattress?” You question. The mattress stands out like a sore thumb. It doesn’t belong down here, in weaponry.

“I told you, sometimes my nightmares are worse. I scream and, on very bad nights, I punch the walls or worse. If that happens, I go down here to not scare Alpine or hurt you.”

“Oh…OH!” You feel awful for thinking Bucky tried to hide things from you again. “I understand.”

“It’s for emergencies,” he hastily says as you glance at the weapons again. “I swear, we won’t need them.”

You nod and swallow thickly. Of course, you heard about Hydra and Bucky’s past. You just never thought the big bad guys could try to go after you.

“Better safe than sorry, right?” you stammer. All the guns make you nervous, but you know, Bucky is right. You can never be too careful. Other people get an extra door lock, and you’ve got a whole weaponry.

“Please don’t be scared,” Bucky says, gently touching your arm. “I know this is a lot.”

“Bucky,” you murmur his name and fake a smile. You’re still nervous because of all the weapons, but you don’t want to disappoint him. Bucky showed you his secret and openly talked about his nightmares. “Thank you for your honesty and trusting me.”

“I don’t want to hide things from you, Y/N. You were right. We cannot build this relationship on lies or secrets.”

“Good,” you say, and nod. “We should take care of dinner now. I bet Alpine is hungry too.”

You eat in silence while looking at Bucky. He seems less tense now that he has revealed this secret weaponry to you. Still, there is something you need to say.

“I don’t want you to sleep down there if the nightmares are bad,” you suddenly say. “If you need me, I’ll be there. We are a pair now, and I want to help you if you are sad or scared.”

“Doll, I can be scary when I wake from a nightmare.” He shakes his head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” you state, and put the cutlery aside. You get up from your seat to cup Bucky’s face. “We’re in this crazy thing we got ourselves into together. No more excuses. It’s us against the world now.”

“Us against the world,” Bucky repeats your words. He watches you crawl in his lap and sighs. “You’re crazy, you know.”

“You too,” you giggle. “For choosing me.”

Tags in reblog.

[chaifootsteps]

I don't get this fandom's fixation with insisting Blitzo is the one who views relationships as transactional when there's so many examples of him obviously wanting to have more than that. IMP is basically his attempt to make himself a new family with Loona as his daughter and M&M first as the people he wants to threesome with but more realistically, his friends

Stolas meanwhile behaves in a much more transaction based mindset where he assumes if he gives X he can get Y

he views his cheating on Stella as not counting as cheating because 'cheating implies a betrayal and [Stella] never gave two shits about [him]'. Even though the marriage was arranged and he never loved Stella either (he somehow forgot he burst into tears when he first saw her and was miserable about the whole idea?) he expected Stella to make an effort to love him because that's how marriages work. He didn't seem to appreciate that it being arranged would make his partner's feelings more complex and things might have gone better if he hadn't tried to play happy families with her, despite the fact he also had reservations about the arrangement and is gay so he should be able to empathize with Stella on some level

he assumes giving Via a trip to Loo Loo Land in the hopes of getting back their close bond but it isn't until he actually listens to her that any progress is made (and while on the trip he actively upsets her by harassing Blitzo right in front of her)

but the bigger example of course is Blitzo. he uses the book to get sex out of him, literally describing what they have as 'favors for favors' and 'transactional'

then he lowkey kind of does it again when he uses the crystal in the hopes of getting a romantic relationship in return

Stolas is so fixated on the idea of Blitzo as an object who just fulfils his desires that he punishes him whenever he has a life of his own to attend to (taking Loona for the jab) or whenever Blitzo points out his fantasies are not reality (replying to 'that's a romcom' with 'fuck you'). He's so committed to this that despite knowing Blitzo's insecurities he dances with someone else because that person is giving him attention and that's all that matters.

And when Blitzo doesn't respond to the crystal with what Stolas wanted to get out of the interaction - a romantic partner - Stolas dips immediately. He doesn't explain himself and he doesn't make any attempt to keep Blitzo in his life. It's incel logic at its core - he doesn't want Blitzo in his life even as a friend, despite the fact he supposedly likes him, because ultimately he doesn't actually see Blitzo as a person. he's an object who is supposed to fulfil the transaction Stolas is still unconsciously setting up

worse than that is Stolas has fooled himself into believing he's the good guy who was doing good things for him out of the kindness of his heart. he reframes exchanging his book for sex as 'supporting him', reframes humiliating him in front of a crowd by sexualizing him as 'letting everyone see how much [he] likes [Blitzo]', talks about his passive aggressive texts trying to get Blitzo to still come over on the full moon as 'wanting to spend time with [Blitzo]' even though those nights were probably going to end with Blitzo feeling like he had to sleep with Stolas, again

tl:dr but so far Via is the only person who can break her end of whatever exchange Stolas views an interaction as being without him getting pissy about it, since he tries to empathize with her even when he repeats the exact same mistake 5 minutes later. he doesn't care Stella was forced into marriage too since he expected her to play house because that's what he was doing, and he cares so little about Blitzo despite saying he thinks highly of him that not only does he not want his friendship, he's happy to ghost him after their fight in full moon then for a full month going into ghostfuckers. Blitzo didn't give him what he wanted and Stolas doesn't actually care about his feelings, so Blitzo may as well not exist

This fandom, and increasingly Viv, don't seem to have the first clue what Blitzo is or what his problem is or what he wants. He just does things in whatever order, according to what makes Stolas look better.

[enigma-the-mysterious]

AITA for trying to accomplish my father's dreams and hurting my best friend in the process?

Alright, here we go. So, I (30M) have been working on a pretty intense task for the last few years. I made a promise to someone very dear to me—my father, to be exact—that I would do whatever it takes to accomplish it. To do this, I had to take some drastic steps. We’re talking undercover stuff, working within a system that’s more rotten than an overripe jackfruit, all to get closer to taking down the enemy from the inside.

To accomplish this mission, I needed a special promotion. I have been putting myself through hell and back, but those racist assholes at higher up kept passing over me to promote Mediocre White Dude #57. Then a few months ago, I finally, FINALLY made some solid progress when my boss's wife guaranteed me the promotion if I could track down and arrest some anonymous dude who was proving to be a security issue for my boss. Pretty straightforward, right?

Now here’s the issue. At about the same time a few months ago, I met this guy; let’s call him A (26M) for now. My work-life balance had honestly been, well, shitty to say the least, thanks to my father's mission, and I barely had the time to socialize and make any meaningful connections in the city I moved in. Meeting with A had been a chance encounter too. Long story short, we clicked instantly and became fast friends. He is a great guy all around— smart, funny, passionate, good natured, kind, helpful— just about everything you can possibly wish for in a friend (although he could be a little naive sometimes).

But here’s the kicker: a few days earlier, I found out that A has been lying to me about... basically EVERYTHING! ALL this time. He is not from the city; the people he claimed to be his family are not even related to him. Even his name isn't A, it's B! But what's worse is that he is exactly the guy I was supposed to arrest. And he was on a mission too. Except his mission was not targeting my boss, it was to rescue someone— his sister M (9F) to be exact— my boss and his wife had kidnapped and enslaved (long story). Yup, that’s right, we were on opposite sides without even realizing it.

Things escalated quickly. I... well… I had to make a choice. I chose to betray him to keep up my own cover and stick with my father's mission. And yeah, it was brutal— there was a literal fight to the death involved. I tried to convince him at first to surrender without fighting, but of course B didn't listen and refused to back down. I can’t even begin to explain how much it hurt to turn on someone I came to respect, even love…. uhh…. like a brother, of course.

And then, to rub salt to the wound, once I arrested him, my boss (FUCK HIM FUCK HIM FUCK HIM FUCK DIE BITCH) ordered me to flog B publicly till he fell to his knees and begged for mercy. Yeah, those were his exact words, that bastard! I felt like I had no choice, so I did what I was told. And it was one of the worst days of my life. I kept asking B to kneel so I could end the torture, but he is one stubborn and tough motherfucker and decided he would rather suffer through a public torture session than kneel. My dickface boss and his bitch wife weren't satisfied with how little blood I was drawing out of B, so they kept escalating the torture until B couldn't take it anymore and fell unconscious.

I ended up hurting him so badly, both physically and emotionally. It is fucking me up, honestly. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I can't even get out of my bed right now. I honestly feel like dying.

So, AITA for betraying and hurting my best friend to accomplish my father's mission? I did what I thought was necessary to save countless lives, but I can’t shake the feeling that maybe I went too far.

Edit: No, B did not know that I worked for the people who kidnapped his sister. He did not befriend me to take advantage of my position, as some of you have been implying. He did not, I repeat, he did NOT betray me. If anyone has betrayed and wronged him, it's me!

Edit 2: No, I didn't tell B my real intentions and my father's mission. Didn't you read the post? I am working UNDERCOVER!

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Another progress update for you all. Inks for chapter 2 are done!

I'm doing the character flats this week, only 7/24 pages are left at time of posting this :). Full page colours will probably be started at the end of this week. My earlier estimate for resuming posting in late July might be inaccurate due to a flareup, but we'll see.

That's all! bye~ヾ( ˃ᴗ˂ )◞ • *✰

[dailyriolu]

A silly guide on how I draw normal Riolu vs My sona

[icewindandboringhorror]

A very interesting cloud formation!

[goblin-enjoyer]

*draws something for the first time in a while. “Man I suck at drawing! Maybe go back to being good at it if I draw more!”

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

*doesn’t draw

“Oh I got a neat idea for a drawing! Surely I have gotten better by now!” Loop post

[theblankest123]

Quick quastion:

[st4rshiptr00per]

getting my fucking brain ruined today 👍

[lycanwlf]

back on my bullshit of trying to get away from spotify bc i thought about having to keep spending money on a subscription service and it made me ill

[moss-sauce]

life really fucking sucks right now

[oceansabove]

ugh i genuinely don't think i'm capable of getting over someone until i get with someone new...miserable apparatus in my brain

[thethingything]

I would really love it if maybe we could have a break from the horrors for five fucking minutes

[umberandmochaagate]

You know what fuck it bro

I'm tired of seeing "but Joe Biden is our only chance and if you don't vote for him—" I'm tired. I'm so tired. I'm tired of bearing witness to the crimes America has done over and over to so many places and people. I'm tired of the ways they try to crush us under their boots. I'm tired of the illusions of choice. I'm tired of trying to make it in this world as a black femme. I'm so tired. And I'm not near as tired as my family and my friends' families trying to survive in Haiti. I'm not nearly as tired as those suffering in Congo to provide the very devices that we're all using. I'm not nearly as tired as the journalists in Gaza who get on the internet when they can to report the genocide around them. I'm tired for them, and if the weight of it all is breaking my heart from the pressure, I can't imagine it for them. What can even an atom of compassion mean? And every day those people in power get up on their podiums all spick and span and look into the eyes of the millions watching them and go

"Keep killing them"

"We want these people tortured and suffering"

And I'm supposed to act like none of this is happening?? Because this guy wearing one color says he's not bad like the guy wearing red and vice versa??? People are fighting, have been fighting, and continue to fight for their liberation and human rights. Yet these handfuls of people, those who's greed and lack of humanity, go "But we don't want them to."

For years. For decades. Centuries even.

All they have to do is stop. Stop. And they don't. They won't. And I'm supposed to suck it up because one seems better than the other, rather than the truth that none every ACTUALLY have ALL of our best interests to heart. None. But I'm supposed to settle. Because that's all I'm supposed to do as an American. Settle. I'm so tired.

[killerandhealerqueen]

Episodes written: 24/37