#talking about hard cases

[adarafaelbarba]

Hi, if Ugly Sweaters is still open, could I request it with Barba? ☺️

Confession and Ugly Sweaters

✨ Covering the «Ugly Sweater» square of @storiesofsvu ’s holiday bingo ✨

Warning: This piece has mentions of childhood trauma at the hand of a parent, and mentions abuse towards people in close relations. Please do not read if you’re sensitive to such topics. I’ll be sure to tag it accordingly down below in the tags.

The fun with Christmas in your opinion, was how you could get out all the silly Christmas themed sweaters you owned, and just wear them, and no one, well not that many, would judge you for it. But where you were filled with the Christmas spirit, your boyfriend, Rafael Barber, was more like the Grinch. You still loved him though, even if he never wanted to join in on the Christmas fun. 

He never joined when you decorated, always claiming there was a case he needed to work on. Baking was done either on your own or with your mother-in-law, Lucia. And he never wore the Christmas sweater for the holiday photo. 

Usually, that didn’t bother you. However, it was your fifth Christmas together. And even if you knew you wanted to spend forever with him, you weren’t sure you could spend forever with someone who wasn’t at least trying to indulge in your favorite holiday. So, you decided to just not bother with Christmas and see how long it would take before he would comment on it. You knew it was childish of course, but if it got him at least trying, you would be happy.

So when December 1st rolled around, you continued on as you were the rest of the year. No Christmas music playing, the decoration still in the closet, not a whiff of Christmas in the air. 

It took two weeks for him to notice, and by then your fingers were itching, your whole body, was itching to get the decoration up and the apartment to look like Santa’s elves had thrown a bomb in there.

He came home after a long day of work, walking over to kiss the top of your head, «Amor—are you okay?»

«What do you mean?» You were sat on the couch, going over the tests your students had completed, marking errors and setting points around where it was fitting.

«It’s December 15th—you should have the whole apartment decorated by now—.»

You wanted to scream, but simply kept correcting the tests. «Didn’t feel like it.»

He knew something was wrong, he was smart enough to sense it. Crouching down in front of you, he took the stack of papers from you and placed them on the coffee table, then he took your hands and made you look at him. «Please talk to me, what’s wrong?»

«Why do you care if the decorations are up or not? Whether it smells like a bakery in here, or the Radio City Rockettes are having a show—,» you huffed in frustration, but kept your eyes on him.

«But you love Christmas—»

«Well, you hate it—and I just wish for once you’d just—indulge in it. Your mom told me you loved Christmas when you were a kid.» You could see the hurt in his eyes at your words, but you had to tell him, you had to make him see your side.

He took a deep breath, contemplating his words. «Did she tell you about the times my father would beat me, for asking for a small thing for Christmas? Or how he would stumble in on Christmas Eve as Santa, drunk and reeking of beer? I loved it as a child, sure, but I have so many painful memories from that time that makes it hard for me to see the joys of it anymore. Not to mention t all the horror stories that happens during December, to women, children, people of all ages, genders and beliefs. I don’t indulge in it, cause I can’t stand the holiday. But I never tell you to stop celebrating or be excited over it because I know how much you love it.» He had tears rolling down his face now, confessing everything, laying himself bare for you.

You were in tears too by the end, holding him close and apologizing for asking so much of him.

«It’s alright, amor, I should’ve told you sooner. And—maybe I can take at least one Christmas photo with you, if it makes you happy.»

«But does it make you happy?» It was a simple question, but you did not expect the response you got.

«Whenever you’re happy, I’m happy too.»

You leant in, brushing his lips with yours, smiling through tears as you shared a soft kiss.

For him to agree to a Christmas picture, was just the first step towards mending his heart, and you’d take it, but you wouldn’t make him uncomfortable.

«We can pose in front of the tree—in normal clothes.»

«We’re getting a Christmas sweater for me too. I will try small steps to indulge in the holidays, but in my own pace.»

To hear that he’d agree to, even suggest the sweaters, it made your heart soar and you kissed him again, harder this time. «I love you so much, Rafael, never forget that!» 

«And I love you, y/n, forever and always.»

~~~

Tagging:

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[taffywabbit]

so like. at what point are we going to stop listening to game companies saying "the game was poorly received and didn't meet our sales targets, and that's why we're removing it from storefronts and taking down all the servers mere months or even weeks after release" for titles that had a long expensive development, were barely marketed, and nobody knew they'd even released until after they heard they were getting shut down and couldn't be played/purchased anymore?

I feel like the prevailing takeaway for anyone who doesn't just conclude "yeah, game was pretty mid, makes sense to me" has usually been "this company just has unreasonably impossible sales expectations and treats every project like a failure if it doesn't print a trillion dollars". but these ARE allegedly experienced business execs who aren't complete idiots, and after this most recent debacle with Concord I'm starting to wonder if a bunch of these "games getting wiped out of existence when they underperform instead of just being allowed to persist as they are and maybe improve with time" cases in recent years might be more of a Warner-Discovery type situation, like nuking an entire animated series or film that was worked on for years and preventing it from being sold because it has to be officially unprofitable for the company to use it as a tax write-off. I look at a game that was worked on for 8 years and only made available for 2 weeks, and it's hard not to see the parallels.

great work, AAA games industry, really normal and sustainable stuff you're doing over there as usual

[buttercupshands]

can you even call it a warm up if I'm going to bed without drawing anything big

and a sketch I made while sitting in the park today

[lotus-pear]

finally finished nana and i fear i will never be able to emotionally recover

[canisalbus]

Building on the favourite animal ask, another Very Important Question: favourite PREHISTORIC animal? And why? (I've always loved gorgonopsids and pterosaurs like anurognathus, but a new favourite is aquilolamma the eagle shark. They're just very cute).

I feel like my top favorites are pretty pedestrian, but I like prehistoric deer a lot!

Megaloceros giganteus aka Irish elk

Sinomegaceros ordosianus & Sinomegaceros yabei

Eucladoceros dicranios

Cervalces scotti

[fairandfatalasfair]

Edwin doesn't talk about hell because Charles is innocent, pure and righteous and destined for heaven, and doesn't deserve to be tainted by the ugliness of Edwin's past.

Charles doesn't talk about home because Edwin is innocent, sweet and soft and a stranger to violence, and doesn't deserve to be tainted by the ugliness of Charles' past.

Edwin doesn't talk about hell because he doesn't want Charles to think of him as broken, doesn't want the first friend he's ever had to look at him with pity thinking of the hunted animal he became in those green-lit halls.

Charles doesn't talk about home because he doesn't want Edwin to see him as weak, doesn't want his favourite person, the one he's sworn to protect with every ounce of strength he has, to know Charles couldn't even protect himself.

Edwin doesn't talk about hell because he doesn't know where to start. It's one thing to say that you spent 73 years in the worst place, with the worst people. It's another to try to open your mouth and pour out what that means. There is no order of events or narrative structure that can make sense of that much grief and rage and terror and anguish. There are no words in any language to describe the scale of it.

Charles doesn't talk about home because silence is a hard habit to break. He learned it young, saw his parents lie to teachers and doctors, and prompt him to do it too. He practised it all his life, 'till the lies came to his lips easier than the truth. Slipped on the stairs. Wasn't looking where I was going. My fault. How do you crack open that vault? There's never a good time to bring it up. It's easier just to leave it unspoken, hinted at but never explained.

[erinwantstowrite]

Erin the comparison of JL vs the Avengers to Camp Jupiter vs Camp Half blood is toooo accurate 😭

JL: There’s an established system in place and contingencies for every foreseeable scenario

Avengers: fuck it we ball

peter thinks that the Avengers have it all together because they're his teachers and they're constantly telling him to use his brain but it's really because they, for the first time, saw their own "fuck it we ball" mentality in a teenager, and thought "oh my god maybe that is like... super dangerous." like when a parent was younger and they partied a lot and sometimes got into dangerous situations and thought "this is normal" until they had a kid and they quickly realized "oh that's why my mom was insane."

that didn't make them any better, it just made them hypocrites. peter just doesn't know that because they act super responsible when he's around

[cheriboms]

[spite] has entered the chat >:P

[astralzeraphias]

“he was mentally ill. this monster was a- was a sick fantasy. a product of his dementia.”

“…i saw it too. does that make me disturbed? demented? does… that make me sick too?”

[xxplastic-cubexx]

cant stop thinkin bout charles and erik readin together on the couch but instead of reading with him charles is listening to eriks thoughts while he reads. Live mind commentary ……..

[poliffwoog]

The guide fweheuhuieheueuhehehhehehiheh

[madisoncounty]

THE GILDED AGE — Heads Have Rolled For Less (1x06)

[bruciemilf]

Comic book writers who still make Bruce hit his kids even after years of mass criticism from fans who TELL you it's a bad creative choice that pushes them away from the fan base and comics in general,,, you did this for what?

[ingravinoveritas]

For those who haven't heard this, this is a clip from the episode of David Tennant Does A Podcast With... featuring Olivia Colman, from 2019. In this clip, Olivia and David talk about people filming them without permission, the ubiquity of camera phones, and the idea of "home" as a sanctuary from loss of privacy. I thought it was something interesting to think about and consider, especially in the wake of recent events.

Transcript of notable bits below:

(Talking about a woman filming David on the set of Broadchurch) Olivia: "[...]And I was very defensive on your behalf, too." David: "I remem--Yes, there was that wonderful day on the pier at West Bay. Where I was having some microphone wire put down my trouser leg. It was very undignified." Olivia: "I think she was videoing you. From a table's distance away." David: "Yeah. I was very touched that you were furious, and you leapt at this woman. Although she sort of still didn't notice, did she? She sort of grinned and kept filming." --- Olivia: "I have friends that I adore and I like going to safe places with them--my home or their home or something." --- Olivia: "Now I noticed the world's changed. Everyone's got a fucking camera. And people are desensitized to fellow humans." David: "When you first lose that anonymity, it's quite threatening. It's much more threatening than you imagine it's going to be objectively. Cause you imagine that sort of--for want of a better word, celebrity--it somehow empowers you, but actually I think it's the opposite."

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

I love how these two don't give a flying fuck about their own safety but when it's about the safety of their best friend? Their childhood buddy? Their good-time pal?? Their brother in arms?!

You better goddamn believe they'll take that seriously.

Dick's all 'oh a bunch of assassins and mob bosses are after me and I'm injured but it's fine, I got this handled-' and Wally already has the man tucked into the pullout couch bed at his house before he's finished the sentence.

Wally's all 'okay so I know that the future version of me is dead on the floor and I'm supposed to die after fighting a fire BUT I can't not help if there are people who need me, so I'll just fight this forest fire and-' Meanwhile Dick already has 60 tranq darts locked and loaded and the floor lined with anti gravity beams.

[philsmeatylegss]

Yesterday, in NYC, a man lit a woman, who was sleeping in a subway car, on fire until she died. So the man arrested will be charged with terrorism as well as murder, correct? His attack was also threatening the lives of other homeless people (which it is assumed she was so). Surely he will also be charged with terrorism for scaring those people, right?

Or is it only terrorism when rich people are threatened?

Also, surely the fact the person who did this being an undocumented immigrant won’t be mentioned in every single news article about it, right? A woman was brutally murdered. Who gives a shit where the perpetrator is from, all we should care is that he is detained and punished.

Right?

We all agreed to this, right?

Or does race and immigration status only matter when a non-white and or undocumented immigrant commits a crime?

Same place, same police.

And I think we all know how differently this murder will be treated. And why.