#or is culty okay

[blitheringbongus]

Does this look culty

[cultycatlady]

This kingdom really do be full of tears

[ferally-ships]

This is money cat. He only appears every 1,383,986,917,198,001 posts. If you repost this in 30 seconds he will bring u good wealth and fortune.

[drivemysoul]

like sao is a series that has depicted racism and classism and homophobia and transphobia and misogyny and incest and has several times depicted rape (and sexual assault via coercion) and hasn’t always depicted those things well

but then my followers on that blog jump down my throat constantly like “you can’t read chainsaw man because it has rape in it so the author is a rape apologist” “you can’t watch attack on titan because it has antisemitic imagery so the author is a white supremacist” “you can’t watch black butler because one of the villains is a pedophile so that means the author is a pedophile”

like ohhhhhh my fucking god. god forbid a series depicts a fucking issue. god forbid a series introduces a plot. god forbid a series is like “hey this is a bad thing, here is my series depicting it as bad and wrong” my fucking god. but don’t dare mention any of the shit in sao because reki can do no wrong and he’s the only person allowed to write a story where bad things happen. jfc

every time i check my inbox on my sao sideblog i lose faith in humanity lmfao

[portals-posts]

Do I Look Like Him?

S2!Jinx x Fem!reader(ft.Isha🩷, & Vi)

A/n: This contains spoliers to the 2nd season of Arcane( also this writing may not be 'inline" with the episode im basing this off of, S2 EP6). Use of 'Y/N' a few times!(Also this is a request from lola-hernandez-123, hope you like it!(i did my best🩷🤗)

Summary: Reader arrives just in time to save Isha but get really hurt in the process and reveals something shes been hind from Jinx and Isha

Just as everthing seemed to be going great. Vander's back (just not in the way you'd imagine), Vi's 'darker' than before, and Jinx and Isha are Jinx and Isha. Wondering around this place gave Y/n a culty yet cosy feel, not a dark abandond aircraft in a cave cosy but cosy. "Hey toots, whacca thinkin about?" Jinx asked before taking a bit out of the strangley tastey fruit, as she looked around with her scope. "I don't alot i guess." Y/n explain but not really. "Yeah i get it, with Vander and Vi back a-and now Isha it feels like were kinda one big family again, yeah know?" Jinx asked still looking around. "Yeah and i-i just think tha-" Bingo slippery as an eel" Jinx interupped without realising, spotting Isha hinding something in her hat. "Their ya are,i knew you could do it!" Jinx praises Isha, taking her gun out of her hat. "Hey,i'll be right back." Y/n said getting up, ready to walk out of the 'treehouse' " Huh-Oh okay toots" Jinx said, turning back to tell Isha a something.

After a short while of Y/n just walking around with now Isha tailing her, they heard a few crashes coming from where Vander was staying. And instinctivly running to it, catching up with Vi on the way. "You." They heard as Vi pushed open the door, and Y/n and Isha run over to hug Vander. "Are you okay? Wh-what happened?" Y/n ask as Jinx fixed Ishas hat. "Yeah it was nothin just a-" BOOM. A giant blue light filled the sky for a secound then. Everything seemed to go quiet, until all the 'followers' fell over and let out a horrid scream.

We all ran outside to see what was happening, it was awfull, they all seemed like they were in a painfull trance as they just stared up into the sky. There then was a low roar coming from behind us. And as we turned, we saw Vanders 'pod' glowing a bright orange. Just as Y/n and Jinx began to shield Isha. What seemed to no longer be Vander emgered for the pod, eyes and mouth now burning orange lava . "Vander" Vi questioned, slowly walking toward him, shielding everyone behind her. Vander letting a roar before puking up lava, unknowing scaring Isha.

It was a bloodbath, Vi had a deep cut to the stomach, Y/n laying on her side with mutiple deep cuts on her body, Jinx cant get up and theres no sight of Isha, untill, Jinx notices a little blue blur past by her with her gun i hand. "Y/n?!" "Isha!" Jinx yelled as she was hed back by Vi. And just as Isha's about to pull the trigger, a big, bright purple lighting struck Vander down and revealed a fully head Y/n, carring a pasted out Isha in her arms.

A/n: So sorry if this is a mess and a bit all over the place, i edited at like 11 at night🤫 Also if yall what a diff version of this let me know!🩷 (requested by. lola-hernandez-123)

[deathlygristly]

For some reason I decided to read a Reddit thread on When The Phone Rings. Yes, I know, that's on me. But I've seen the sentiment on here too.

I guess it's what the kids call "antis"? Like this is a fictional show, none of it is real, and I seriously doubt any of the people watching will ever get switched for their older step-sister in an arranged marriage to the presidential spokesperson, who is the son of another chaebol family that's into politics. But then it turns out that the original son of the political family was a serial killer and the grandfather tried to drown him when he was a kid and then replaced him with the orphan who grew up to be the spokesperson. But the serial killer son survived the drowning attempt, and now the grown up serial killer son and also possibly the twin of one of the serial killer's victims is coming after the adopted son.

Like y'all are not going to be in this situation IRL, okay? You are not going to be in an arranged marriage with a man who is severely traumatized by seeing the drowning attempt, being taken from the man who had taken him in and raised him, and forced to live with people who did not like him and who controlled and abused him and who only wanted to use him to appear "normal" and "likable" so they could win elections and get political power.

And if you ever are in that situation for some reason, it's extremely unlikely that after three years of not communicating at all and pretty much being strangers you'll be targeted by a kidnapper, steal the kidnapper's phone, use the phone to finally communicate a bit, and end up with your husband revealing that he's obsessively loved you all along.

This is fiction. Maybe the female lead falling down a cliff and being fine and the male lead being in two explosions and being fine would clue you in on that? I don't know. Like someone said in the thread, these people must be why dramas all have a disclaimer now at the beginning saying that the drama is fiction and the events aren't real or based on anything real. Not that it helps.

It's just....it's weird and kind of conservative Christian culty how they're all "oh noes but young girls will think that it's okay if their husband doesn't talk to them for three years and is a bit mean!" If you're really worried about that then maybe you should be teaching your daughters or younger sisters or young female friends or students or whatever about boundaries and abuse and emotional awareness instead of not communicating with them at all, like how you say it's so bad that the characters are doing in the beginning of the show?

Also, okay, I've been married for 22 years and we started dating 25 years ago. I can assure you that the spousal person is awesome and our relationship is fine and healthy and the people at our favorite restaurant exclaim over us every time we come in and when I was in the hospital after gallbladder surgery the doctors called us "lovebirds." It's very easy to separate reality from fiction and to enjoy watching characters and stories that aren't your personal perfect ideal template of whatever and still have a healthy and enjoyable life.

If it's not easy for you, I think that's more a personal matter that you need to investigate and work on in your own life instead of judging and hating strangers online about it? Maybe you could look into resources for recovery from high control groups?

[naneun-no]

On “Insecure Jikookers”…

Alright. I might lose followers for this and that’s very okay; curate your timeline and protect your peace babes. But for YEARS, every time the phrase “insecure jikooker” has come up on my feed my eyelid has done a little twitchy twitch 🤨🤨

And I have always ignored it, because I’ve never wanted to be out here policing ppl’s language and we are literally supposed to be having fun and celebrating love, like for me that’s the whole point, but —

I’ve been seeing the phrase popping up again surrounding the release of AYS and I just gotta say it.

You guys the term seems so culty 😬🥲

Like I think I get the origin (maybe)? It probably started when some of the early jikook bloggers (if you are one I salute you, I am not worthy, trust me this is NOT a dig at anyone, jikook bloggers are by and large cool and kind af 🙇‍♀️) would get these sketchy asks that were antis or cultists in disguise just casting aspersions on jikook’s bond or being blatantly homophobic and/or in general being rude little anonymous internet gremlins. Or maybe it was people who did want to believe that jikook was real but kept nagging and begging for reassurance at every turn, which I can totally see becoming annoying as hell and prompting people to start using the term.

But it feels like it’s used now as like a catchall for anyone who expresses any doubt or asks any critical questions? Even like… reasonable ones? And I used to see a lot of “hey believe what you want to believe but this is what I believe” but now it seems like the sentiment around jikooker communities has by and large become “if you don’t believe you’re an idiotic dumb person who has never known love — you’re either a rival shipper in disguise or WORSE (dun dun dunnnnn) an Insecure Jikooker — and we don’t want people like you around.”

And idk it just feels weird for a community that has always seemed to kind of pride itself on being the “rational, fact-based” ship… like we LOVE to be smug about how jikook don’t need edits to be obvious, don’t need slo-mo zooms with red circles and arrows because their chemistry and fondness and affection is just plain to see in basic footage. We’re the levelheaded ones 😌.

But doesn’t that mean that we should always be encouraging critical thinking, and if someone comes to a different conclusion than us, so be it? Like it or not, none of us have foolproof confirmation that jikook are anything more than very close friends. That’s literally all we know. The rest is our best guess based on vibes, anecdotes, dot-connecting, subtext and body language observation, experience, perception (!!This is a big one because confirmation bias is real!!), and suspicion. That’s literally it.

Look maybe I’m just projecting 😅 but when you criticize people for expressing reasonable doubt over something that is literally not confirmed, it’s just a little too religious fundamentalist for me! (This is why I was a bad Christian, because I always raised my hand and asked questions the Sunday school teacher didn’t like.)

Feel free to ignore me. I never want to come across as pushy or trying to stir up anything, it’s just a phrase that grinds my gears and I’m sort of hoping I’m not alone in that… but if I am, so be it! 🤣 would love to hear people’s thoughts because maybe I’m missing something.

(P.S. If you’re a troll who spams jikook blog inboxes this is not me defending you. You’re still annoying and you need a better hobby. Have you tried yoga? Snowboarding? Fly fishing? Filming food vlogs and/or painting? You should try cooking. You should stop being an anonymous internet troll stomping on everyone’s proverbial sandcastles and instead write a poem. K bye ✌️ )

[copperbadge]

Hi Sam! I wanted to ask if you feel lately like you've been getting anything positive out of your therapy, because a lot of your initial thoughts about it kind of mirror mine. I'm very logical (except when I'm upset at myself) and very skeptical, so I feel like a therapist either isn't going to tell me anything new, or that I'm going to just disregard it because I can't trick myself into believing things that I just plain don't believe.

But I'm also starting to come to a realization, two years after my ADHD diagnosis and letting go (without therapy!) of most of the executive dysfunction-fueled self worth issues I was having, that I'm kind of Not Okay in other ways. I'm safe —going to work every day and doing my job so I won't lose my livelihood and have never had a self harm urge in my life— But I'm not really okay. I'm having major self esteem issues related to my personality separate from the executive dysfunction that are putting me in a bad place. I don't want to take antidepressants for reasons I won't go into but that means my other option is therapy and... I don't know if I'm a person that therapy will actually work on. I found a lot of validation in some of your perspectives, about affirmations being bullshit and "mindfulness" exercises feeling impossible and useless, about not having an inner monologue and how that might be causing issues with traditional methods. So I was just wondering, do you feel like therapy is working now that you've been in it longer?

I've wasted a lot of money on "elective" (and ultimately useless, back to square one) medical nonsense this year and I'm not eager to waste more, but I've also met my insurance deductible so it's the best time to try it if I'm going to.

I mean, it depends on the modality a little but I don't think trying basic talk therapy can hurt, as long as you find a decent therapist. And it's better to try it now when you're feeling Mostly Okay than waiting until you are Really Not Okay. But this entire paragraph comes with a lot of context so....

A lot of what I talked about in terms of struggling with mindfulness, etc. was less related to the therapy I am still in than it was to the DBT class I took at Therapist's suggestion. We were both aware that she was basically throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck, and while it was an interesting class I don't think for me it was helpful. As you mention, I struggled with affirmations and visualization since neurologically I'm not really set up for those; I don't think they're objectively bullshit but I do think there's an assumption within the mental health industry that they will have function for everyone and that's simply untrue, and the expectation that it will is very damaging. I also struggled with the physical-intervention aspects (called TIPP usually) which didn't work at all for me and felt frankly like doctor-approved self harm. DBT can get very culty, which set off a ton of red flags for me -- possibly false flags, but they still waved real big.

And that's because I also have a lot of trust issues surrounding therapy. To the point where, the minute one of the people running the DBT class made actually quite gentle fun of me for asking a question he couldn't answer, I checked out on anything he said. We were learning about a DBT concept called Wise Mind and I asked, "If wise mind is an identifiable mental state, how do we know if we're in it?" and when he couldn't quite answer beyond "It's different for everyone" I said, "But if we know it's real there must be some kind of common denominator, a measurable data point," and he said "Well, Sam, you're not going to levitate" and the rest of the class laughed. Sorry bud, this is almost certainly an over-reaction, but I'm me and you lost me when you came at me instead of just admitting you didn't know. (Also it turns out I just live in Wise Mind like 80% of the time which is one reason I couldn't tell.)

But basic talk therapy outside of DBT is just...you talk at someone about your problems and come up with ways to try and solve them, which is a lot more straightforward and way less frustrating. You have to be an active participant, you have to both have a goal and be willing to discuss reaching it, but that goal can be as simple as just "figure out what my mental health goals should be" at first. You don't have to learn like, vocabulary for it.

The thing is, while I have seen some improvement in regulation issues, I also struggle with basic talk therapy. Most people, and this blew my mind, see measurable improvement in nine to eighteen therapy sessions. A lot of people don't go long-term, they just are having a moment and get help getting through the moment and then can disengage, with their therapist's approval.

I was in therapy consistently from the age of nine to eighteen and only stopped because I reached legal majority and physically refused to go.

Not one minute of those nine years did I want to be there. And, because none of the three therapists I saw across those years actually explained to me why I was there or how therapy worked, for me it felt like "Your punishment for having feelings is to speedrun every feeling you had this week in an hour, to a stranger." There was also what my current therapist believes to be some extremely unethical behavior going on, which didn't help.

So it has taken actually a lot of time to get to a place where I would even allow her to understand what help I need. I've been in therapy for about a year (generally weekly but there have been some gaps) and it has only recently gotten deeper than very basic interpersonal problem-solving.

Like, two weeks ago I told her, "I had a thought this week that I couldn't tell you about something I was doing because then you'd have material on me" (meaning blackmail material) "and that's a fucked-up thing to think." And once I'd actually identified it as fucked up I had zero issue telling her about it, wasn't even nervous as I did so. Who's she going to tell? She's literally legally constrained from telling.

I think well over half of what she does is either validate that whatever emotion I'm having is normal, affirm my reactions so I don't keep believing I behaved weirdly, or praise something I've done that was a positive act. Does this work? Not always, because I'm unfortunately very aware that it's part of her job to do those things. But yeah, sometimes. Even if you don't fully believe it, "Hey that was a really smart move" is nice to hear. Sometimes she helps me come up with a plan for stressful future events or (rarely) behavior modification, and sometimes she either provides me with research or points me towards research I can do on my own. We don't do meditation or affirmations or stuff like that.

Like, last week I brought up the fact that I hadn't really ever thought about how if I have a disability that causes emotional dysregulation and I got it from my parents, they also likely had undiagnosed emotional dysregulation when raising me. So she said I should look into research on children with emotionally dysregulated parents. I was pretty annoyed by what I found (the ONE TIME adults are the focus instead of the kids is the ONE TIME I needed to learn about the kids, really?) but it led to something that was both informative and upsetting, so we discussed that. And when I was stumped about how to move forward with the information, she suggested that my general coping mechanism of writing about it was probably a good plan.

(At which point I just silently advanced my powerpoint presentation to the next slide, where I had a series of quotes from the Shivadh novels where Michaelis, acting as a parent, repeatedly does the exact opposite of the upsetting thing, because I realized even before the meeting that it's an ongoing theme in my work whenever I deal with people being parents. It's a good thing she has a sense of humor and also that I do.)

So yeah. Going into therapy you have to be ready to reject a therapist if you don't like them or if they get weird and pushy, you have to be ready to be a self-advocate, but you are the client; it shouldn't be super difficult to find someone who can at least walk you through what you want from it and agree not to do the stuff you don't want, and if you want to stop going you just...stop going.

Good luck, in any case! I hope you get what you need, whether or not that ends up being therapy.

[charlesoberonn]

just saw your cult post and i wanna add something a bit controversial? (probably not for this website tho but yk)

im from a religious country in the middle east, and until i was like 16 i hadnt heard the word "cult" and i had no idea what it was.

when i looked into it and read about it tho, i realized that islam (the religion of my country) IS a cult. and then i went around online asking my other ex-religious friends about what they think and some also told me that they think their religion was a cult too. and no im not talking about like obviously culty religions (mormons, evangelists, etc), im talking about whats considered the norm for a religion to be practiced. whether it be islam, christianity, or any other one.

i started wondering why not ALL religions count as cults when they literally fit the bill to a tea, and tbh the best explanation i found was that, they ARE cults but they are so old, have so many members, and are so entangled with our cultures that people just accept them.

i told this to someone who was an atheist herself and even she got defensive and said that its not okay to call peoples religions cults "if its not hurting anyone" so i dont say it to anyone because i dont want to be an asshole and i accept everyone no matter what religion yk?

but that all being said, i still wholeheartedly believe that ALL religions are cults (im talking about organized religions tho btw. like native people having their religions is a completely different thing that i cant comment on because i dont have enough information about those)

i think that if you are in any religion then you are in a cult and you should leave, i know its controversial, but it is what i think yk?

I see where you're coming from but I think this is dangerously reductive.

The problem is that you're thinking in terms of a 'cult-not cult' binary that doesn't work to describe the nuance of real life groups.

What makes a cult are the methods of control they use on their members. A cult, or high-control group, will use extreme and predatory methods to try to control their members as much as possible.

The difference between a religious cult (for there are non-religious cults) and religion is the level of control and the harmfulness of the methods the group utilizes.

I don't know about what religion is like in your country, but not all religious groups are high-control groups. Many of them don't try to control or exploit their members.

By equating all religions to cults you're not only making accusations of harm against groups that don't deserve it, you're also muddying the distinctions for people, allowing actually harmful groups to pass themselves off as harmless.

[obsidianpen]

i... I was thinking more of a normal muggle family taking him in and loving him and accepting that he's a wizard and what that would do for his views on muggles and muggleborns.... But my god your idea sounds so fucking chaotic god damn😭🤣

Would he just try to destroy evil witches and wizards then?😂

okay but continuing to ignore your initial question and carrying on with my crazy: imagine if he was born into one of those horrible religions, you know where they tell people who are deathly ill not to go to doctors and shit because they can cure them with prayer, that kind of thing - super culty - but then Tom can ACTUALLY heal them so it starts taking off. And someday he learns of the prophecy about him and Harry and immediately discards it because that’s clearly a false prophet, like so many others, only sister Annabelle gives real prophecies (Annabelle is 100% a muggle woman who has never had a true prophetic vision in her life; but her supposed visions lately always include Tom as the leader of the new world, so that’s obviously correct), so he doesn’t even give a shit about him. Or maybe that prophecy never happened in the first place. Tom still becomes a dark lord, but he’d probably take on some weird biblical name instead, and the only people he wouldn’t want to purge from the world would be whoever Annabelle says gets to stay (those who say Tom is their lord and savior amen)

[tekumaniac311]

Rider Rescue: Search

Dogbite steered his ship down towards Xuacury, as they flew over the land into the desert environment, Lean Lemur walked over to ask.

"Captain?" Lemur asked "Yo?" Dogbite replied, without looking back. "How come your so excited for this mission?" Lemur asked. "Glad you asked little buddy. As you know he's my older brother, and i've not seen him in years. So i've been aching to find out what he's been up to and what kind of crew he's got."

"He also hates him." Drago told Lemur, crossing his arms. "He left home to join the academy in a flash, leaving me to fend for myself, and I hated him for that." Dogbite explained as he steered the ship down.

"Hey..Captain?" Mammoth said as she checked the radar "I've detected the other Riders ship down below, no cultists though." She explained to him "Okay, we'll land there." Dogbite said as he took the ship down and landed beside it.

Dogbite, Drago, Leopardaisy and Berserkerine activated their black suits and headed out. "Okay, here's how it goes." Dogbite said to the other four who stayed behind. "Pretty, you patch up any wounds the other riders may have once we've recovered them. Lean, your on tracking and keeping us posted. FixFox, you check out my brothers ship, look for damages and irregularities. Mammoth, stay on comms."

"Right!" The four replied, as Dogbite and his three fighter riders ventured further around the abandoned town, listening and looking for anything, that was when a black space-cycle flew over them and landed in front, Dogbite couldn't believe it, HE was here?

Dressed in black, with only his ears and tail as evidence, he stepped off his space-cycle to look around before facing Dogbite's crew.

"Z, the Rouge Rider?" Leopardaisy asked the figure, intrigued. Dogbite shoved her aside and aimed a solar ball at him "Halt it right there, fake rider!" He barked.

The black clad rider just casually raised his hands "At ease, I'm just here to rescue some friends." He said calmly, Dogbite wasn't buying it. “Could fool me, hands behind your back” he added.

Z shook his head and looked back at Dogbite “I assure you, I’m a rider just like you. And I’m here to help rescue Dogday and his crew.” Drago stepped in “I say he comes along, we might encounter heavy resistance from the cult." Dogbite just scoffed "Hmph, fine. But we're detaining him after this job!"

Together the five walked on, Leopardaisy's ears flicked, hearing the sound of distant church organs "You hear that?" Drago looked around "I hear it to." Z looked in the direction of the sound "It's coming from over there, that abandoned church."

"That must be where the cult is keeping them. Come on!" Berserkerine growled, together the five headed off towards the church.

Meanwhile inside...

One of the cultists was indeed playing on the abandoned church's organ as the cultists danced and cheered around like lunatics, all while Dogday and his crew were still tied and strung up. The High Priest...rather creepily stroked Dogday's chin "Smile, Rider! You are all soon going to understand true joy, and help us spread it!" He boasted.

Each rider just looked SOOOO done with the cult, as the organist continued playing, the riders just rolled their eyes. "I hate this." Crafty spoke, need she say more.

Meanwhile, entering the church and walking down the halls was Dogbite, Drago, Berserkerine, Leopardaisy and Z. "This should be a piece of cake." Berserkerine spoke grinning. Z then turned and pointed at a cracked wall, generating a sniper rifle via his wrist gadget. "There, we can take a vantage point and scope out what we're dealing with."

Dogbite however pulled Z back "I'M the leader of this team, so therefore I make the orders." He then points "We will take a vantage point at that cracked wall." He then moved ahead

"He's always like this.." Drago told Z. They then headed up and peaked behind the wall, the five then peaked to see the crowd of cultists and their High Priest, preparing the ceremony.

"And now my fellow cultists, in honor of our great god who blesses us with JOY, we shall envelope these heretics with the truth about our cause and then..they will understand true HAPPINESS!!!" The High Priest cackled, with the 8 riders looking unamused and so done.

"Time to crash a party." Dogbite says to his team.

TO BE CONTINUED

Space Riders AU belongs to @onyxonline

[myanmardoesnotexist]

Valentino Rossi is a manic pixie dream girl that uses his powers for evil. Instead of changing a sad boys life into something better, he just twists their brains until they would die for him and agree with everything he says.

Current victims: Uccio Salucci (okay if I had a crazy, fearless, wild, famous best friend who looked like THAT I too would lose my marbles), old Italian men (never seen so many old men ijbol so much), many of the academy riders (not their faults, they didn’t know how culty it would all get)

Failed Victims: Marc Marquez (cant manic pixie dream girl a fellow manic pixie dream girl) Jorge Lorenzo (cant manic pixie dream girl a diva) and Sete Gibernau (honestly I don’t even think he tried to, just went straight to trying to annoy the shit out of him)(manic pixie nightmare girl?)

Yes this was inspired by @hairpinturnn ‘s post about the Claudio Vitale pictures of young Valentino

[dsireland86]

Anonymous asked: What song do you think the guys would have their first dance to at their wedding including Matt please?

The First Song was posted to this request a few weeks ago, and as requested, I'm making a part 2 to it. Each song will have a short story behind it. Enjoy my wonderful Culties!

First Dance Part 2

Tag list: @philomenie @supersquirrel1996 @foliosgirl @angelmarie89 @fadingintothegrey @thisbicc @lacy1986 @dominuslunae @shayzillaaaa @mrsnoahsebastian @flowery-mess @iloveyoutodeathbutimdrowning @stardustsirenmelody @romanreigns-supreme @anything-more-than-human @into-the-grey @rumoured-whispers @myownthoughts12 @sister-sebastian @missduffsblog @bngurngheart  @somebodyllelse @xxkittenkissesxx @dizzylmwahh @Youlookforultraviolet @kenjipepsi1

Folio

It took a lot of convincing for you to finally agree to go on a date with Nick. He's goofiness and energy and energy is not easily tolerable all the time, but that's okay because you knew how to reel him in each time he went a little too far. You became his stability, his conscience, his beautiful day, his everything. So, when you got engaged and were planning the music with Noah, he asked if he could pick the first song you dance to. You'll admit, you were scared at first, thinking it was going to Metallica or something off the wall, but when that moment came, after you were officially Mr. And Mrs., and the beginning of the song came on, you immediately teared up. It was one of your favorite songs and you never realized how perfect it fit your life with him. Taking your hand, Folio led you out to the dance floor and even though neither one of you knew how to properly dance, it didn't stop you from falling in love with your husband even more.

Nicholas

When you and Nick fell in love was a mystery. It just kind of happened, and it continued to happen everyday. Five years in and you two still felt the same way about each other as when you first met. Nick had a way of wearing his feelings for you on his sleeve. He never did it with anyone else; just you. You'd tell him often that his feelings were always thinking too loud, to which he'd reply it was hard not to do it with you. You'd joke with him and say that eventually his feelings would change especially once you had kids, but that would never happen. It would only make him love and want you more. Your wedding day came and after the toast, the first dance. You took Nicholas' hand and led him to the spot set up for dancing and wrapped your arms around his neck while he found your waist and together, as close as possible, danced to the song that would forever be yours.

Noah

Being with Noah wasn't easy. You met at a time in his life when things weren't going the best for him mentally and at first you believed that the relationship wouldn't last. His attitude and behavior, his negativity and outlook sometimes got to be too much. But you stayed. Time and time again, over and over you stayed, refusing to give up on him. You loved him, despite all the hardships, because even though things got hard, Noah loved the hell out of you, he was crazy about you and the future you were building together, and you felt it every single day. When he asked you to marry him, you didn't even let him get the proposal out all the way before saying yes, making Noah the happiest he'd ever been. You asked him to choose the song for your first dance, confident he'd pick a good one. And he did. Dancing alone together after everyone had left, Noah softly sang the song to you as he held you close with your head pressed against his chest. 

Jolly

When you and Jolly met, it wasn't under the best circumstance. There was tension and irritation involved, a high lack of tolerance from both sides. But as time went on, you noticed that Jolly had softened up to you just a little bit and eventually you began seeing him in a different light. He became sort of a beacon of safety in the midst of chaos and before you realized it, you had fallen for him, even though you were sure he didn't feel the same. But you promised yourself you'd wait for him, no matter how long it took; even if it never happened. Jolly was the one you'd ever want. It took a world rocking moment in Jolly's life for him to realize what you were to him; how you stayed by him and supported him through the worst, never questioning, never wavering. It was in those moments he knew he loved you. You and Jolly didn't have a reception after your wedding, instead choosing an intimate dinner with the Omen family. But once you were home, alone together, Jolly played this song for you as the two of you consummate your marriage.

Matt

Matt was anything but traditional when it came to your relationship. He never asked you out, but just started telling everyone that the two of you were together. You were his and he was yours and that was that. When you were alone he'd call you his lover and that's what you became to him; his lover with benefits. As time went on, the two of you became such a strong team together. You became a huge part in the way he worked and managed things behind the scenes for the band and other projects he did. But you needed him just as much. He was your voice when you were too scared to stick up for yourself, he was your protector from the assholes who tried to mess with you, but mostly, Matt was solid rock you anchored to, making everything that you couldn't figure out make sense. You both knew you were destined for one another, so it was no surprise when he took you to the clerk's office in town and you got your marriage license, keeping it a sacred secret between the two of you. And the very first and only time you ever saw Matt dance, was with you, a few days afterwards when he played this song for you while the two of you were working in the warehouse. To your surprise, Matt was a natural dancer and that was the day he swept you off your feet forever.

[sophie-frm-mars]

What's the difference between mutual aid and toxic codependency? Is relying on others an okay thing to do, or does it simply make one a burden to others? I ask because, as socialists, we talk a great deal about community and solidarity and argue against Reaganite/Thatcherite notions of "rugged individualism" and "self-reliance". But is it possible to take it too far in the other direction, where we focus too much on people supporting each other and too little on individual initiative?

Codependent was a concept developed in the 12 step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous for relationships where people don't want to recover from addiction because it gives them emotional security to be enabling. The concept has spread around a lot since then into quite inappropriate usage, like you'll see Instagram posts that are like "never say I need you to your partner that's abuse" and like no it's not actually.

Nobody engaging in mutual aid is helping each other because they don't want the other person/people to get better.

Of course social structures have the potential to be cliquey or even culty if left unchecked, but that's why you organise into explicit democratic structures rather than just letting charismatic leaders take you for a ride

[thewolfruns]

it's not like rhiannon was bullied in school or anything. she'd always been naturally likable--the kind of girl who could get away with being an atheist because she still had a jansport. the kind of girl who was still popular somehow despite listening to her parents weird old music. she didn't have some old association, but some things still made her uncomfortable on a good day. being dependent for survival on a bunch of people who seemed like they played soda pong in their youth group didn't sit right with her at all. at least dovid wasn't an asshole.

"fake it?" she laughed mirthlessly. "isn't that like ... blasphemy or something?" not that it mattered. they were already in hell. "do you think we can just avoid the subject entirely until we're rested enough to lea--" she dropped the rest of the word suddenly, hearing a knock, but unsure if it was at their door or somewhere else. "that wasn't our door was it?" she whispered loudly.

conversely, religion had always been part of dovid's life. judaism, that was, but still. he wasn't uncomfortable with the idea of organized religion, though perhaps not all that comfortable with christianity. again, he wasn't, like, an asshole about it though. "hey, i mean... fake it 'til you make it, y'know?" he attempted to assuage rhiannon's fears. it was worth suppressing himself, maybe, for shelter. she wasn't exactly wrong, however. they did seem a little creepy, all wearing khaki pants and a button down, like they were cape cod business men lost in the country club. "we don't have to stay for long. or at all. we can head out together again. i won't leave you here by yourself, i swear."

[theplottdump]

𝗠: Okay, How does that feel? 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: It's serving Cult. Very Culty. 𝗠: I actually meant your wire.

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗮: You don't think it's a little - on the nose do you?

𝗠: When in Sim-Rome- 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: Stab Caesar?

𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲: Stabbing's too much paperwork. Easier just shoot cleanly- that's only a three page disclosure.

𝗠: Speaking of paperwork- 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: For me? Aw pookie, I knew you liked me!

𝗠: Just be careful, we still don't know what exactly we're dealing with here.

𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: Fire it into every townie with bad hair I see- got it. 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲: Time to move Angels. 𝗠: Good Luck 009.

𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: What? Antsy to meet up with your new boyfriend? 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲: 009- shut. 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗽𝘆: // 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 //

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗮: Uh- I hope you have a good day? 𝗠: // 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 // What?! That's horseshit! - No Jay, I'm not overreacting, you're overreacting!

𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗮: Cool Beans.