#how i feel about everyone i ever leave

[thedreadvampy]

Losing my shit about this article in which a transphobic Tory was so busy panicking about existing in the vicinity of a Trans that she almost certainly misheard "jeans" as "penis" and decided that not only was this a problem with the other woman, but also that the world must be informed of this pressing danger.

"a trans woman! I had to stand directly behind her....I thought, 'this is going well', I'm handling The Situation fine'..."

translated: I saw a tall woman with broad shoulders. How would I get out of this alive? I thought. she has a PENIS. PENIS PENIS PENIS. through some force of PENIS I mean will I managed to PENIS behave normally towards her. My hands were PENIS PENIS PENIS shaking as I tried to dry them. summoning up all my PENIS courage I said 'dryer's crap innit'. she turned to me and said " yeah I'm just goiPENIS PENIS PENIS"

It's been a week and I'm still shaking. This proves trans women are the problem and I'm not weird. I'm fine. It's fine. If you think about it I'm the hero hePENIS!!!!!

very this

[silusvesuius]

nnnnnnnnnnnnno maa'am

[anghraine]

jenndoesnotcare replied to this post:

Every time LDS kids come to my neighborhood I am so so nice to them. I hope they remember the blue haired lady who was kind, when people try to convince them the outside world is bad and scary. (Also they are always so young! I want to feed them cookies and give them Diana Wynne Jones books or something)

Thank you! Honestly, this sort of kindness can go a really long way, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

LDS children and missionaries (and the majority of the latter are barely of age) are often the people who interact the most with non-Mormons on a daily basis, and thus are kind of the "face" of the Church to non-Mormons a lot of the time. As a result, they're frequently the ones who actually experience the brunt of antagonism towards the Church, which only reinforces the distrust they've already been taught to feel towards the rest of the world.

It's not that the Church doesn't deserve this antagonism, but a lot of people seem to take this enormous pride in showing up Mormon teenagers who have spent most of their lives under intense social pressure, instruction, expectation, and close observation from both their peers and from older authorities in the Church (it largely operates on seniority, so young unmarried people in particular tend to have very little power within its hierarchies). Being "owned" for clout by non-Mormons doesn't prove anything to most of them except that their leaders and parents are right and they can't trust people outside the Church.

The fact that the Church usually does provide a tightly-knit community, a distinct and familiar culture, and a well-developed infrastructure for supporting its members' needs as long as they do [xyz] means that there can be very concrete benefits to staying in the Church, staying closeted, whatever. So if, additionally, a Mormon kid has every reason to think that nobody outside the Church is going to extend compassion or kindness towards them, that the rest of the world really is as hostile and dangerous as they've been told, the stakes for leaving are all the higher, despite the costs of staying.

So people from "outside" who disrupt this narrative of a hostile, threatening world that cannot conceivably understand their experiences or perspectives can be really important. It's important for them to know that there are communities and reliable support systems outside the Church, that leaving the Church does not have to mean being a pariah in every context, that there are concrete resources outside the Church, that compassion and decency in ordinary day-to-day life is not the province of any particular religion or sect and can be found anywhere. This kind of information can be really important evidence for people to have when they are deciding how much they're willing to risk losing.

So yeah, all of this is to say that you're doing a good thing that may well provide a lifeline for very vulnerable people, even if you don't personally see results at the time.

[spielzeugkaiser]

hi, first off i really love your art. the h/c and warmth really hit me where i live and your illustration style is fantastic. lately i've been obsessed with the post where an unwell milek thinks geralt will leave him behind. was that an ingrained insecurity, assuming his super-witcher dad wouldn't have time for a sickly human kid?

[MASTERPOST] - Ahh, thank you for the ask! Yes, this scene.. I actually saw this a bit differently! It's not about Milek fearing Geralt will leave him behind, he actually wants him to. They need to find his Pa!! I think he often feels like a burden; Jaskier knows this, but Geralt isn't aware of this yet. Milek just wants to pull his weight, especially with Jaskier. A little sneak peak to their struggles regarding this:

Meanwhile Jaskier continues to struggle with his omega status.

[mephoj]

taco and mephone have fascinating parallels more people could explore if taco haters weren't biased cowards

[hanzajesthanza]

“what does geralt get from that friendship…”

another post examining the weight of geralt and dandelion’s friendship… because i don’t think people recognize how painful and debilitating loneliness can become.

the witcher as a deconstruction of the genre takes fantasy tropes to their most logical ends—it asks us to consider what The Lone Swordsman feels, looks into the humanity in a Cold-Blooded Killer. and it turns out he’s not cold-blooded at all.

that despite some superhuman abilities, he laments and worries and curses himself, just like any other worker of any other profession. just as the farmer is scorched by the sun, the washerwoman’s back aches, and the scholar goes half-blind studying, a witcher deals with all of the pains and annoyances and dangers of his job in a mundanely human way.

but the farmer, the washerwoman, and the scholar have something the witcher does not have—they’ll always be seen as human and part of their society. at the end of the day after enduring all of their labor, they have their wife to caress, festivities to attend, and taverns to frequent. but for a witcher? after the killing is over, what does he have? no one and nothing. not even a thank you. he is met with fear and hatred everywhere he goes, baseless bigotry and dislike.

I did my job. I quickly learned how. I’d ride up to village enclosures or town pickets and wait. If they spat, cursed and threw stones, I rode away. If someone came out to give me a commission, I’d carry it out.

so he faces not just loneliness, but being deliberately ostracized and cast out from society. geralt can’t even find a polite word in most settlements, much less a friend.

‘(…) Tell me, where should I go? And for what? At least here some people have gathered with whom I have something to talk about. People who don’t break off their conversations when I approach. People who, though they may not like me, say it to my face, and don’t throw stones from behind a fence. (…)’

this kind of loneliness is not a mere inconvenience. it’s completely altering to your self-perception and ability to see the positive in the world.

each day is not lived, but endured.

day in, and day out—forced to the most difficult and lowest labor in order to survive, and knowing that were you to die, no one would search for your body, few would miss you, hell, they might even spit “good riddance”.

in this situation, to find a friend, is not only friendship, but a rescue.

without dandelion, geralt may have drowned—drowned in solitude, amidst a sea of strangeness.

‘(…) And I’m alone, completely alone, endlessly alone among the strange and hostile elements. Solitude amid a sea of strangeness. Don’t you dream of that?’

No, I don’t, he thought. I have it every day.

because dandelion is not only a bright soul, characteristic rippling laughter and the strum of a lute, but someone who will intently listen to geralt, someone who mutually enjoys his company.

‘(…) you almost jumped out of your pants with joy to have a companion. Until then, you only had your horse for company.’

someone who doesn’t see him as strange and at the fringes of society at all, but as an utterly normal man.

and doesn’t impose demeaning, sappy sympathy onto him, but sobering and realistic “quit your bullshit” which ridicules the very thought that he should internalize societal hatred.

Do you know what your problem is, Geralt? You think you’re different. (…) [You don’t understand that] for people who think clear-headedly you’re the most normal man under the sun, and they all wish that everybody was so normal. What of it that you have quicker reflexes than most and vertical pupils in sunlight? That you can see in the dark like a cat? That you know a few spells? Big deal.

dandelion isn’t “willing” to accept geralt for himself—he already has accepted him. and to him, it’s no difficulty, it’s nothing worth discussing, because he sees no abnormality and no strangeness in him.

while others “prefer the company of lepers to witchers,” dandelion has already offered geralt to share his room and board. not out of sympathetic pity, not out of fetishizing curiosity. because… they’re friends.

and what else does this friendship save him from?

not only from others, but from himself.

worse than enduring others’ apathy and hatred is one’s own thoughts—the darkness and negativity which builds from witnessing and experiencing such behavior.

dandelion’s ability to counter and dispel geralt’s pessimism and self-flagellating tendencies—again, not out of pity, but out of friendship—is undeniably invaluable. someone to rescue you from your darkest thoughts, when you begin to spiral.

and in this darkness, all you can do is cry. you cry, beg for someone to help you, please—

Help! Why doesn't anyone help me? Alone, weak, helpless – I can't move, can't force a sound from my constricted throat. Why does no one come to help me? I'm terrified!

to be alone, the saga reminds us, is worse than a death sentence. to be alone is to “perish; stabbed, beaten or kicked to death, defiled, like a toy passed from hand to hand.” to be alone is to suffer, and to be with someone is to save them from that suffering.

'(…) I wouldn't like anything bad to happen to you. I like you too much, owe you too much-'

'You've said that already. What do you owe me, Yennefer?'

The sorceress turned her head away, did not say anything for a while.

'You travelled with him,' she said finally. 'Thanks to you he was not alone. You were a friend to him. You were with him.'

it is true that geralt has saved dandelion countless times, helped him, gotten him out of some scrape… but to ask what did geralt get in return? are you kidding me?

did you ever consider that it is dandelion who saved geralt?

by being with him. by being by his side. by being his friend.

indeed, dandelion has rescued geralt, countless times, from the yawning jaws of endless loneliness. he’s helped him, chased away the danger of geralt’s own rumination. and he’s gotten him out of scrapes, his own insecurities and bitter helplessness.

so what does dandelion give geralt? what does geralt get from their friendship?

an amusing question. what one gets from friendship is the friendship itself. and that is more than enough.

[mymarifae]

me: i finished the latest trailblaze mission in hsr so i can look at what other people are posting now! oh boy i hope it's discussions and theories about the story. i can't wait to see what everyone thought about firefly (what was going on with you sweetie...) and A Child's Dream - that segment in particular really left a profound impact on me. like who is mikhail? the voice we hear throughout is obviously misha's - did he have a twin? does mikhail have something to do with clockie? and from what we heard and saw, misha or... mikhail. encountered the embodiment of Death that lurks beneath the dreamscape. what's... the full story there...? i can't wait to see other people's perspectives it'll help me piece a more coherent theory together-

other hsr fans: *thirstposting about aventurine and/or dr. ratio, trying to cancel sparkle even though the entire point of her character is that yes she's a horrible person because it's high time we see how DANGEROUS and CRUEL the masked fools can be - no more reducing them to the silly wacky hijinks sampo pulled on jarilo; you should be scared of these guys; the game's story never wanted you to make sparkle your next skrunkly blorbo babygirl lol, heated discussions about whether dr. ratio displayed the same racism towards aventurine that sparkle did and if that makes aventurine/ratio a bad thing to ship (??????????), more thirstposts about aventurine, 500 billion generic yaois of aventurine and ratio that don't even maintain either of their characters*

me:

[toytulini]

man the thing about beauty standards and being ugly and being pretty and being insecure is that ultimately you do just kinda have to Decide that youre pretty. like ultimately thats how you become pretty, or hot, or sexy. you have to just Decide that you Are. you have to recognize that its made up, its arbitrary, its subjective, and that people might disagree with you about it, and as much as you are able, you need to completely and utterly disregard their opinions on your appearance, and decide that youre pretty now. and THEN.

you need to find beauty in "ugly". you need to recognize that ugly is made up, that its arbitrary, that its subjective, and you need to be able to find the beauty in it all. and this means you cant bodyshame people. you cant body shame shitty celebs or politicians. you need to base your criticisms on the substance of their character and misdeeds and unhinged horrific opinions and not give a shit about what they look like. you cant go calling people ugly for being shitty. you cant go calling people ugly for looking A Way You Dont Like.

and then if you wanna really galaxy brain this shit you start using ugly as endearment. OBVIOUSLY do not fucking call other human beings ugly. that shit is far too loaded, its just Rude. Dont call specific features of people or even characters ugly cos thats also too loaded. as a term it has baggage. but you can see the ugly in tacky, loud, garish clothing, and it can be Good. you can see the ugly in a distinctive, horrible tiny car from the 90s, and it can be good. you can see the ugly in animals that have evolved to look the way they do, without a single thought of what humans find appealing. you can see the beauty and the freedom in "Ugliness". you can break out of this shit altogether and feel nothing but disdain for anyone who stoops to insulting your appearance if they disagree with you about shit. you can get completely out of the cave of these beauty standards. you can find it so freeing to revel.in letting yourself be ugly. in recognizing that the way you look and exist might be ugly to some people, and youre out of the cave enough to simply recognize. thats just your opinion and it doesnt matter. didnt ask.

you can look at ppl arguing about the correct amount of skincare products to use daily, the Correct Amount of makeup, and whether or not its radical to conform to beauty standards or defy them and argue about is it really conforming if visible makeup pisses men off, and you can say, well I dont care about any of that, I recognize the societal pressures of flawless skin and all that but you see,

I just want to look like a silly little clown :o3

[hecatesbroom]

as a generally curious person, the one question that's always burning at the back of my mind is: how do my mutuals look?? so because tumblr is the Great Anonymous Basement of the internet and we're obviously not posting selfies, I'm asking you all (very very nicely) to reblog this and tell me what you look like in the tags!!

[nyarumitsu]

sometimes i think about how maya would probably hate how cagey mia would get around her, or how little she got to see of her sister, and how she's always wanted to be closer to her but she knew the moment mia went to law school and essentially removed herself from the fey clan that from thereon they'd always be in two different worlds.

then she meets phoenix, who loves and cares for her unconditionally like how something like an older sibling would, kinda like the love she's yearned from mia all along. she's incredibly high off of the feeling of finally feeling like someone's equal because phoenix treats her exactly like one. she knows she has a place beside him in court, and that she truly does belong there with him. sometimes i think that phoenix was maya's first taste of true proper friendship, since she couldn't get any of that at all with her sheltered life in kurain. her only friends her whole life was her older sister and her younger cousin.

it's just ... nice to be disconnected from a family that's only ever isolated and hurt her for so long by nick's side, and she relishes in the escapism of it all. but of course, it never really lasts too long.

when phoenix gets disbarred, she gets insane deja vu like when mia started going to law school. he becomes even cagier, he never even contacts her that much anymore, and it might just drive her mad again. she knows she's his equal, they've went through several life and death situations together. but when she sees him again he feels like a husk of the man he once was. she can never stop loving him, not when he's unconditionally loved her all these years, but it hurts all the same again. like mentor, like student.

[deus-ex-mona]

such is the tale of a ✨chronically online hypocrite✨

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Me, when Sebastian joins my party for the first time: Okay, this time I'm not going to forget about you, Sebastian. I'm going to make an effort to use you a lot this playthrough so I can better understand you.

Also me, immediately forgetting about Sebastian while finishing Act 2 and making it halfway through Act 3 before I finally notice his Faith quest: ......................Oh. Right. My bad.

[malaierba]

Crying over Kinniku and Iromatsu, cry with me @ the "Karamatsu dies and becomes a ghost and does his best to pretend he's still alive" fic (linked as a source)

[softshuji]

Any men out there wanna pretend to be my bf to get my parents off my case about marriage? I am so so serious right now.

[katyspersonal]

I have only two possible emotional responses to feeling really safe and warm talking with a new person:

1) Withdrawing from them almost instantly and rarely responding, even if against my wish or control, because of reflexive fear of attachment since usually everyone I felt safe with blocked me out of blue and revealed that all along I was giving them """red flags""" I didn't even know existed

2) Somehow not falling for withdrawing reflexively, but in turn the value of everyone else I know that does NOT make me feel safe (so, 95% of the people) sinks in my perception and now I have to struggle against a very strong wish to abandon everyone except The Person. Why waste time on anyone less than this?

[softquietsteadylove]

What if the roles are reversed? Thena being the kind and gentle one and Gil being the introvert and quiet one?

He catches her in the corner of his eye, a room away, talking with Kingo and Sersi. She does well with the humans, with her soft voice and gentle touch. They're talking with some as they celebrate the victories of today. She smiles at him.

He catches himself smiling back before he takes his leave. He's not one for the revelry of things. He much prefers taking up his post on the high walls of Babylon temple, scouting for Deviants, being the Strongest Eternal in every sense of the word.

Thena is meant to be beloved.

She glows, in a way. She is both a paragon of their team of Fighters as well as one of the most adapted to life on this planet. The humans think of her like an angel, or a goddess. He understands how they would come to think that of her.

They're more...frightened of him.

Thena swears they aren't--that all they need do is get to know him. See the gentle nature he has with her. But she doesn't seem to realise that she is the oddity. She is this completely new and unique thing unlike any other in his world.

She is his whole world.

"Here."

He smiles as she sets down a full mug of wine in front of him. She's always doing little things like that for him. He looks at her, "and you?"

"Hm, I'm not one for it, you know that," she shrugs, her voice even softer than usual with him. It assures him that the soft spot she has in his heart matches the one he occupies in hers. "But it was quite a fight today. You should let yourself relax."

"Revel, you mean?" he chuckles, but does take a sip of the human fermented wine. It's not nearly strong enough for the makeup of their cells, but he supposes it's not unpleasant.

"Fine, indulge in some revelry," she laughs under her breath, and it's a beautiful sound. "For me?"

He would rip the planet in two for her. "Fine."

She grins at her victory, her smile showing off her pearly teeth. Everything about her is pearly. "Were you listening to Sprite's story?"

Thena looks at him though with crystal green eyes like the seas across the entirety of the planet. She slips her hand under his, "you don't scare me."

He shrugs, leaning more easily on the railing of the mezzanine. "It's a nice story--don't think it's gonna change anyone's mind about me being the scary one."

She scares him, though. The rhythm of his heart shifting to match hers scares him. He smiles, "nothing scares you."

"That is true."

He chuckles this time, just a little, and she looks like she's taken on a hundred Deviants and come out with victory. She's funny, and yet she acts like making him laugh is the highlight of her day.

He takes another sip of wine so he doesn't start telling her that she's the highlight of all his days, too. "Shouldn't you be down there?--revelling?"

She looks at him as if the answer is quite obvious, and maybe it is. "Why would I want to be down there if you're up here?"

He stares down at the crowd, at Sersi dancing with the humans and Ikaris clumsily trying to join in just so he can have a chance for his hand to brush the Elemental Eternal's in passing. There are plenty of things he doesn't like about his brother, but this part--this, he understands.

"Hm?" Thena prompts him again, bringing herself even closer to him. She's tall, and lithe, even against his intimidating frame, although he's quite sure she weighs the same as a human child. But she never hesitates to put herself close to him. She almost seems to enjoy it.

"You win," he concedes, because she loves winning. She gets this little look on her face, and he wonders if he should participate in more of Kingo's antics or Ikaris' little contests just to see more of that look.

"As much as I do relish victory of any sort," she indulges with a grin. She looks at him, and it softens like the sun melting into the horizon. "I would rather be here with you."

By all the stars in the sky, his heart beats for this woman. Not that he has the poetry to express that, so instead he puts his hand on her back, and she lets him. His lips pull up slightly, "then I'm honored to have the Goddess of War choose my company."

She gifts him with another laugh at his little joke before leaning into him again. She's not afraid of affection--not like he is, fearful of hugging someone too hard and breaking their bones. She allows Kingo to pat her shoulder, hugs Sersi and Makkari and Sprite, even Ajak from time to time. She and Ikaris jostle each other in good faith (most of the time).

But with him, she leans in, rests her head against his shoulder, as if he is a safe haven for her in which to find rest. And he may not understand it, but if that's what she needs from him, then he will be that for the rest of his days.

He holds her delicately, but the fear of his strength leaves him. Because every breath they take together is a push and pull, perfectly balanced. He doesn't have to be afraid with her. For all his rough, unbending edges, she has fluidity and grace. She doesn't mind his withdrawn nature or quietness or intimidating stare.

"Gil?"

"Hm?" he responds, because he loves it when she calls him Gil. No one else does. To anyone else, he's not a nickname person. But she can call him anything she wants.

"We have watch," she reminds him gently, moving away but keeping his hand in hers as she starts drifting outside the party room and towards the walls. "Shall we?"

He will follow her anywhere, across this whole planet if need be. But instead of saying that, he squeezes her hand and says, "after you."