#ideally their homelands wouldn't exist

[persistent-wallflower]

Few things I feel more icky about than queer people from rich western countries condemning all people from places with less progressive societies as irredeemably backwards 🤨😒

[homielander]

that scene of homelander assuring ryan he doesn't have to do any stupid tv shows was really sweet. (taking that guy's wallet and keys was hilarious 😭) love how he's always asking ryan how he's feeling and making sure to make decisions based on what's best for him, i know people are going to say he's manipulating him but it's wholesome and shows how much hl wants better for ryan!! he outright said the equivalent of "i'm sorry for manipulating you"

i think you're correct in how you interpreted homelander's intentions. he really does want to do better for his son and allow him autonomy. of course, the way homelander is raising ryan is (despite his very best intentions) coloured by a severely warped worldview. homelander genuinely does not see the point in helping regular people as ryan hopes to do. it's clear from past seasons that he enjoys his saves for two reasons: the validation and approval he receives from the people he saves, and the opportunity to inflict harm on the people he should simply be apprehending. and he's resolved to no longer rely on people's approval, so even though he immediately supports ryan's stated goal, humiliating adam is the only way he can conceive of making this moment fun and fulfilling for both of them. and he wants to share everything with his son, after all! so i wouldn't label it deliberate manipulation... more like a misguided bonding attempt. at worst, homelander would say he was trying to ensure ryan saw eye-to-eye with him.

i think what people can fail to grasp when it comes to less-than-ideal relationships in fiction (yes, i know this is an understatement for ryan and homelander) is that there is often love there, and sometimes there is even growth, and acknowledging that does not mean that everyone is blind to the more troubling aspects of these relationships. you can enjoy what positive moments do exist. i support your right to find these scenes sweet!!

[aguineapigcouldntdothis]

im still pissed off at how @xitemo treated jews that I care about and respect as if they were worthless internet trolls whose contributions are worth nothing. which is entirely false in case that isnt obvious.

"protect your jewish friends" my ass

you claim to "protect jewish people" yet stop showing that support the second you realize that we have our own lives, our own communities, our own ideals, etc. you say you wouldn't raise your hand in anger to people who don't want these horrific events in palestine to happen any more than you do, yet you continue to do just that. its pretty fucking clear you give zero fucks about the jewish community.

why is it that you no longer believe those jewish people are deserving of protection when we express beliefs that do not perfectly align with your own? I mean, the vast majority of jews are zionists because we believe israel deserves to exist and remain a homeland for jewish people.

im sick and fucking tired of antisemites like you going after my friends and family in the guise of peace and hurling disgusting shit at them while hiding behind a shield of "but but I care about my jewish friends!!" when that clearly isn't the case. you respect the actions of a man who was mentally ill and suffering more than the actions of alive, coherent, and knowledgeable jews.

im not usually into starting shit like this and I thought about blocking and leaving it alone, but I cant sit around and let people mistreat other jews. our strength comes from our ability to have so, so many different perspectives and I dont want a single jewish person to think their opinion doesn't matter. every jew present in the thread i pulled the screenshots is amazing, and I dont want them to internalize bullshit like that. I also dont want other jewish people to internalize the idea that their opinions are worthless. yall are not trolls, you're not cowards, you're not scum. you're brave as fuck for surviving and being jewish and speaking out against antisemitism.

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

So apparently the "Jesus was Palestinian" bullshit is doing its rounds again, continuing the proud tradition of that fucking pink infograph from May '21 that claimed "the first Christians were Palestinians". I'm not going to go over why this is a load of racist antisemitic a-historical crap, I've already done so in the past (one, two, three, four, though I do feel I could explain it better today... but I'm not gonna do that). But I do believe we need to talk about this a little more. Not about the content of the claims, which is so unbelievably easy to refute by reading literally the first paragraph of a couple of Wikipedia articles, but the reason for the existence of the claims themselves and their structure.

We have to ask ourselves why do people need Christianity in general and Jesus specifically to be tied to the Palestinian identity and what the hell does this have to do with the I/P conflict at all? Because, here's the thing; the topic is the I/P conflict, this is our framework. And yet while talking about a war currently being waged, about cease fires and humanitarian aid, about a massacre and hostages, about politics and ideologies, out of fucking nowhere one side of the debate just throws this claim - "yeah, well Jesus was Palestinian!" / "The first Christians were Palestinians!". You might ask yourself what the actual fuck are they talking about. I mean, I could throw random sentences too, it just wouldn't be a very effective conversation, would it? So why are they saying it now in this context?

Let's go back to that OG pink infograph, because I do think it's the most revealing. "The first Christians were Palestinians". This is an equation - x equals y, first Christians = Palestinians. First is important here, it speaks of precedence, of date. Christianity as a whole and Jesus in particular are an incredibly convenient thing to date historically. They are also very ancient. This is about establishing an ancient anchor to the Palestinian identity.

But the sentence isn't actually complete, is it? There's something missing from it. A silent part at the end of it - "the first Christians were Palestinians, as opposed to Jews". This is the context. This is, and always was, about denying the history of the Jewish people. It's literally an attempt at erasing Jewishness from history itself and replacing it with a New and Improved one that is Western-Leftist Approved.

This is the single saddest thing I've ever heard in my goddam life. What they're saying, what they're actually saying, is that the Palestinian plight, suffering and right for self determination only exist if their identity is ancient enough. Ideally - more ancient than that unbelievably annoying people who won't shut up about how ancient they are. What they're saying with their "post-colonial" rotten brains, with their cruelty and their absolute wickedness, is that suffering is only worth acknowledging and fighting if it neatly fits their "colonizer/colonized" dichotomy world view. Palestinians have no right in the leftist world unless: 1) their identity is ancient enough for them to join the oppressed club, 2) the Jews' identity isn't.

And it is just so unbelievably funny. Again, I'm not going to repeat the explanation of what "Palestina" actually is, you can read my previous posts about that. What I do have to say is just how unfathomably historically funny it is to me, not just as a Jewish woman but more importantly as an archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, that they would use a Jewish man preaching Jewish things to Jewish people in the remnants of the Jewish kingdom of Judea, almost a thousand years after its establishment, barley more than a century before its final destruction and the end of Jewish autonomy in their ancestral homeland for the next almost two millennia, to establish an ancient anchor for Palestinian identity.

And by the way, when I said that Jesus and Christianity are "very" ancient - I lied. I can't begin to explain to you how "new" that is to an archaeologist of the Ancient world. I literally haven't seen the other side of the zero in like a decade. So, on top of what I said in my previous posts, along with many other people online, the thing that is even more fucking funny is how every evidence we have for the origin of the word (just the word! not the identity! which didn't exist yet!!!!) "Palestina" positions it in the Greeks' hands around 500 BCE, which is still almost 500 years after the establishment of Judea. Can you do basic math?? Can you fucking do it???

You Westerners (and non-Westerners and Palestinians to be perfectly clear) want us so badly to be foreign invaders who stole precious lands from poor little woobified natives, but we're fucking not. You are incapable of holding more than one fucking thought in your tiny little rotten minds so you try to change history, to change reality itself to fit your warped perception of the world. You do that because you hate Jews, not because you give even a tiny little shit about Palestinians. Because you don't, and you prove that every single day with every single lie that comes out of your mouth.

We are at war for maybe more than a century at this point. They killed my people, they butchered them, they literally live on the ruins of my ancestors. But I care about them because I care about everyone in the world and I am capable of looking beyond my own rights (which fucking exist) and recognize that my enemies are just as human and deserving of life and joy and safety as me. I don't need them to be more ancient than me to recognize their grief, their suffering, their right for self determination, because apparently I have a fucking heart and a working brain, something I genuinely can no longer say about most of you.

[ferrocyan]

15 lines of dialogue

Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

15 feels like too few haha! i'm picking these mostly from finished fics, with a couple of wips at the end. feels like i could go on forever otherwise

tagged by @improvised-finish (tysm!!) and tagging @pillowfriendly and @worldoshaking i wanna read more of your wols pls pls pls (*>∀<*)

(duo)

"I've never heard of such a name before! From which fair land do you hail, friend?"

"Coer--" C'astarhte said something and promptly bit her tongue. She covered her mouth, then quickly added, "Pardon. Meant to say... I come from the Exarch's homeland."

---

C'astarhte looked distressed. She glanced around at the rest of the bar, then at Reeq, and whispered intently, "But this worked before... Crystarium people don't ask about the Exarch."

(detour)

"So we've never really fought together, no? When you say we're partners, I'd like it to be earned."

---

"Doesn't need to," Tart shrugged. "What matters is we do it together. No more objections, right? Surely not." She stuck out her tongue at Lue-Reeq, then headed to the stairs.

---

"You know," Tart said, "you're not bad. I don't know much about archery, but your technique is very clean. Efficient, no wasted movement, very well timed. I was amazed how fast you could nock arrows and have shots lined up perfectly. It was nice to fight with you. Good job, Reeq."

(drown)

She just had to kill Andreia. All would be well if she killed Andreia. Remember what she had done to Alisaie, to Alphinaud? Blackguard. Scum. Bitch. Just kill her and get it over with!

(ask of me)

"No," Tart cuts him off. "Don't want to stop, just... want you to stop pretending I'm not here."

"Am I?"

"You're not touching me, not saying anything, not even looking at me! What's with that, Reeq?" she pouts.

---

"Reeq, you like it when complimented and told you're doing a good job. I feel the same. So, not asking for more, you're giving back to me." She smiles, putting her hand on his. "I like you. Always want more of you. If you're having a good time then so am I. Wouldn't know that if you don't tell me, though, so let me hear it, yeah?"

(focus)

"you're scaring me a little, right now."

she smiles. "is that bad?"

"not at all. i quite like it."

"good."

(wurm)

"Say, remember when you asked, would I still love you if you were a worm?"

Reeq snorts. "Why yes, I do! I remember perfectly well," he pinches her cheek lightly, "when you told me that you would feed me to your chocobo."

(peel)

The man is ecstatic, so very amused that he cannot hold his giggles back. His feet kick as he laughs and his tail thumps on the floor, shaking with glee. Unable to wait for Reeq to finish his sentence, he fills in with an exclamation:

"Tart!"

Tart only makes himself laugh harder.

(division)

"ishgard has ways of denying certain people's existnce. mean really, completely erase them, unlike the shite that bishop was spewing about himself. my family no longer exists. how dare he accuse me of not understanding how it feels to be rejected? and how dare you take my prey?"

---

tart holds his focus in his right hand, blade in the left. his tail flicks uneasily. "go easy on me, won't you?"

"what? oh my, i never thought i would hear that from the warrior of light!" aymeric laughs as he readies his own sword.

"i'm ill, you blackguard."

"then maybe you should rest properly."

"hasn't helped. this might, so stay still and let me cast magic at you."

(out to the cold)

"--get it, i get it. zenos wanting me makes me a liability. now that you all have the dragon scales' protection, i am not needed anymore. you--they're setting you up as my replacement. no. no, they can't. won't allow it. can't let that happen. oh--you--you're here to kill me. you can't replace me! i'll kill you first! you're dead, estinien wyrmblood!"

(aphelion)

"not that i want to die, g'raha. just... wish i'd died back there. it wouldn't've been good, but it would've been perfect. my life could've ended perfectly. haven't you felt that way too?"

[blurrymango]

For the record I don't support Zionism (in an ideal world it wouldn't be a thing) but I understand it. Ancestral homeland of Jews + pretty much the whole world hates Jews so they need a place that doesn't hate them. That's really the main one. Every other country is hostile to Jewish people. It's baffling.

I wish I saw more people who supported Palestine without supporting Hamas or calling Israelis white colonist settlers. Or just straight up being antisemitic.

Two-state solution is the most reasonable solution. Palestine and Israel both have a right to exist. I'm hoping this conflict ends soon because. People are dying. Palestinians and Jews are being killed and it needs to end y'know.

I don't like talking about this war because I feel that as an American who isn't like. Affected by it I shouldn't be giving my opinion on it. But my opinion is this- you should support Palestine, not Hamas. And you should stop being antisemitic.

[russiasredguardian]

❛ are you saying you care about me? ❜

go back a handful of years and he might have spat back a knee-jerk response. barked a laugh at her inference perhaps. scoffed at her question or slung back a litany of sarcasm or vitriol.

but it wasn't back then - this was the now and present and maybe there was a psychological thread that needed pulling about them having become staples in each others lives, about being the certain presence when others came and went ... but he definitely wasn't about to tug on that thread.

the whole fucking thing might unravel if he went picking at a loose end.

did he care about her?

love had been there before - back then. but that love had died a tragic death and he'd filled up the chasm of grief with the martyrdom of the red guardian. hadn't that been the ideal back then? sacrificing your personal life in order to better the prospects of the homeland. a throw-back the stalinistic mantra of not one step back.

he didn't use the l-word now. he'd used it before and he had allowed himself to be vulnerable and that whole life had been torn away from him with no closure. there was probably another psychological thread to be tugged at there too - a shrink would have a fucking field day picking him apart; pointing out how he chose not to use that particular word because if love didn't exist, then he didn't run the risk of having that person or thing taken away.

he hadn't answered her question and alexei could feel her eyes lingering on him - not a glare. no, that felt different. this wasn't accusatory, it was hesitant. a brief pause that had her wondering if she should have asked that question to start with, but he wouldn't ignore it. because those years had also taught him that she found just as hard to be vulnerable as he did.

' — i care about what happens to you. '

@taliaromanova

[deathdxnces]

it is difficult for irelia to see who she is now and who she was before the war as the same person. i think in many ways she considers that girl — who was so cheerful and optimistic and loving, who was so good and believed in good, who was so certain she would never harm anyone and who valued harmony and balance and peace because that's what she was taught — to not exist anymore. although she survived, the person she was died then. childhood and innocence were a privilege she was then robbed of. she never got to outgrow childhood properly; it was abruptly ended, cut off in a way that it would never have been recoverable, even should she have been spared the following years of war.

the person irelia is now is considerably more serious, closed-off, full of grief, more melancholy than she really is cheerful. but the starker contrast isn't in that; rather, it's in all the anger she carries, all the hatred she cannot let go of, all the violence that became part of who she is. she knows better than to believe in good, or balance, and she knows peace has a steep cost, as does freedom. to anyone who knew her as a child before the war, and who lived long enough to see who she grew up to be, i think the differences couldn't be more obvious. they are different people; or so irelia feels, at any rate.

i think whenever she thinks of her younger self, of how she used to be, it invariably makes her sad. she didn't grow up to be the person she thought she would be then. she knows the child she was would never want to be what she is now. but she didn't understand, then, how brutal the world could be to anything good and soft and beautiful. there was never any choice; noxus took that from her. that girl had to die for irelia to survive.

in part, irelia longs for that life, i think, the one where she grew up to be what her younger self would have wanted. but i don't think she necessarily regrets what she became. she will never regret taking action rather than staying idle, even if it stained her hands with so much blood they'll never be entirely clean. she'll never regret rejecting the idea of balance or peace at any cost, when maintaining those ideals would only have led her people to extermination. she wants to be good, still; but she knows good isn't as simple as she thought it was as a child, and she knows if it comes down to goodness or protecting her homeland and her people, she would leave that behind, too.

and she is certain her younger self would be horrified by the idea. there's a deep disconnect between who she was and who she is. the girl she was feels like an entirely different person; one she looks back to with fondness, one she grieves nearly as much as the people she lost.

but i remember this tidbit from the dev diary about ionia that spoke of how used to change ionians are, because the world around them is so mutable, and i think that is how she looks at it, in part. the girl she was, different though she might be, was the necessary foundation for her to follow the path she did — if she didn't care for her people so much, if she wasn't so idealistic, if she wasn't so determined and defiant, she wouldn't have taken a stand — and that the things that broke her were necessary for it too — anger moved her as much as the pursue of freedom, revenge remained in her heart each step of the way. she changed, as all things do.

her younger self died for who she is now to live, as death fuels new, different life in nature as well. like ionia, she had to adapt; and regardless of how much she wishes it could've been different, i don't think she ever feels compelled to try to be the person she wanted to grow up to be as a child. that's not who she is anymore, but she made her peace with that, even if she hasn't entirely accepted the one she did become.