#that is quite literally just factually what he WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING

[oceanwithouthermoon]

saikis powers are a vital part of him so it makes sense that people who dont know about them cant truly understand his whole self, but its also very silly to me when people act like its the ONLY important part of him... people act like his friends that arent in the know are completely blind to who saiki is, but i feel like that kinda means you missed some major points... he cant keep his powers a secret forever and it DOES matter, but he can still be loved and KNOWN without knowing about them... hes still human, he still has a personality, he still has regular likes and dislikes, etcetc

his friends perspectives on him may have been wrong at first, but they CHANGED... they know him and love him, and theyll KEEP loving him the SAME once they know of his powers...

​some people cough cough cough in this fandom like to reduce saiki to JUST his powers and its so obvious that you just. missed everything. you didnt absorb anything from the show, you just saw it and went "ha, everyone thinks hes just a guy when hes actually super cool and powerful" no no no, he IS cool and powerful but look a little closer and at his core he is still LITERALLY JUST A GUY 😭😭😭

hes such a guy.....

[xclowniex]

Again, calling what’s happening Palestine a “war” is a crock of bs

Cause last I saw, Israelis aren’t being displaced from their homes and constantly being shuffled around to “safe zones” and then being bombed while at these “safe zones”

Their hospitals and homes and schools are still in tact and they have food and water and shelter

Israeli journalists aren’t being intentionally targeted and murdered

Israelis aren’t having to eat dirt and leaves in order to survive, they’re not being starved to death

All of the above is happening to Palestinians, while the IDF targets them day and night in some weird hope to “wipe out Hamas” even though their efforts have been quite shit and instead are just killing any Palestinian that’s in their way

How is it antisemitism to point out that the lives of Palestinians are being put in danger by the hands of Israelis

It’s never been about Hamas or the hostages it’s full blown ethnic cleansing and genocide, why you need to the “approval” from some “experts” when the evidence is shown day in and day out is beyond me

And quit it with the whole “oh no one should be dying” BS when it’s just “all lives matter” in a different font

1. The safe zones they move to are no longer safe zones because Hamas uses them as military zones and undertakes military business in those zones. Under international law, it is a war crime to use a protected building or zone as it makes it no longer a protected zone and makes Israel allowed to attack the area. Whilst intentionally killing civilians is also a war crime and would be the IDF's fault, if any civilians get caught in the crossfire or get any stray fire, Hamas is at fault for their deaths. If hamas cared for their civilians, they would not carry out military business in safe zones.

2. Journalists aren't being intentionally attacked. Hamas and AL Jazeera misreport who are journalists. For example, a builder who was killed was reported as being a journalist. He was not a journalist. Here is a source which goes into it and shows examples of the lies.

3. It is absolutely terrible that Palestinians are starving, but it is not Israel's fault. Enough aid enters the strip to feed people in Gaza. However Hamas and UNWRA staff (which has links to Hamas), instead of letting aid org deal out aid evenly, steals aid and sells it. Palestinians are literally having to purchase aid from Hamas. Aid that they are supposed to get for free. Source.

4. Saying that i don't want anyone dying is not at all akin to saying all lives matter. One is an opinion, the other is twisting a phrase to change the meaning of the original phrase.

Black lives matter means that obviously all lives matter however black lives need to be focused on due to being at a higher risk. All lives matter twists black lives matter into a false meaning of only black lives matter and no other lives.

Saying that "I don't want anyone to die" is a factual statement of my opinion. It is a fact that i do not want anyone to die. It's not me twisting it to make it seem like Palestinian lives are lesser or that no one should be focusing on Palestinian lives.

Considering your media literally is already poor enough for you to believe misinformation, it is not surprising that you lack the reading comprehension to understand the difference between an actual opinion and a phrase being twisted to change the meaning of another phrase.

Lastly, yeah, I am waiting for people with the authority to call what Israel is doing a genocide as since the last ruling on the matter, Israel was not found to be committing genocide at that point in time yet people were screaming their heads off claiming that Israel was.

I like to wait for people who have the authority because they are more knowledgeable than me. Do you believe that the earth is flat because people scream online that it is? Or do you go by what people who have the relevant qualifications say on the matter which is that the earth is round?

The reason why it's antisemitic to call Israel genocidal, is because the current official rule on the matter is that they are not doing genocide and that false claims of jews being murderous is an antisemitic trope. Like legitimately, it is an antisemitic trope in the proto of elder zion, an infamous antisemitic book. Jews have been plagued for centuries with claims of using children's blood, which is false and antisemitic. I am not going to apologize for calling out the same age old antisemitic tropes repackaged for the modern day

[eddiediazismyhusband]

okay no bc i actually need to see abuela having a meaningful talk with christopher about how shannon wasn’t a good mother and that he’s old enough to know the truth rather than eddie just over-romanticizing the whole thing

christopher does not need to be shamed for being upset at his mom leaving. the whole “she didn’t leave, she died 🥺” argument is just factually untrue when she fully intended to leave again before she had her accident

he does not need to be coddled and told about how hard it was for her when she was actively being just as ableist as ramon and helena. he is 13 years old; if he can make a decision on where he lives, he can hear the truth of how awful his mother was so that maybe he can actually provide sufficient context to the actions his dad has taken

yes, she was very young when christopher was born, and no eddie was not a perfect husband/father in the beginning; but the point is she didn’t even give him a chance to even begin processing his PTSD when he cane back, immediately vilifying him for everything before doing the same exact thing as what… petty revenge? giving him a taste of his own medicine? you’re an adult woman with a son who needed you and you walked out on him because you didn’t want the stress. okay, that’s fine, that’s your choice

but don’t show up once he’s older demanding to see him because “he’s my son too” and then proceeding to shame eddie, the one who HAS been there for him after you left, for something he already has made clear he regrets, and has also atoned for by stepping up and actually taking responsibility rather than shirking them the moment it got ‘too hard’ when his parents would have been more than willing to let him do

and then to try and manipulate him with the whole “he’s my son” “we can be a family again” bullshit as a way to get back into his pants— only to dip as soon as things start to get serious again?

and on top of that, the “she was just a girl” argument doesn’t even hold up because yeah, she WAS just a girl. she’s not just a girl anymore. she’s a grown adult woman shirking her responsibility because she doesn’t want to be a mother. That’s all well and good; she doesn’t have to be a mother. But once you make that decision, don’t go crawling back acting like you weren’t the one to actively decide to leave. You’re an adult, making adult decisions, and you need to handle the adult consequences of those adult decisions.

sorry no one will ever be able to convince me to like shannon and im sick of the writers trying to force rose tinted glasses on her existence bc of tim’s obsession with bringing devin back out of nowhere every two seconds

anyway sorry for the shannon rant i saw thay post i reblogged and it just reminded me how much anger i hold towards her for everything she did and how i hate it when people are like “oh she changed she wanted to try again 🥺” when she quite literally didn’t, as is evident by the way she immediately tried to run away again the moment she had to be an adult.

also there is no way buck would EVER look at the way she treated chris and eddie and then actively be friends with her. friend-ly maybe, civil at best, but he would never look at the lasting hurt she caused those two and actively chose to persue a friendship with her.

anyway getting off my anti-shannon soap box and i just needed to get that off my chest lamo

[dukeofdelirium]

This has to quite possibly be the dumbest Anti-Aang I’ve seen on Tumblr. “Aang didn’t go out of his way for anyone”. Like that’s objectively wrong, factually incorrect. Like saying The Earth is flat, you can think it all you want, but it ain’t true. I ask you, I genuinely ask you, how can someone call themselves a fan of this show when they completely misinterpret it and hate the main character this much? This person’s crazy.

Aang never went out of his way for anyone? My god, if this take were true, Zuko would have been dead at the end of season one. Everyone aside from Aang was fine with the idea of allowing Zuko to freeze to death, leaving him to die. Aang was the one that saved him.

Holy shit, the first thing Aang ever offered to do with no expectation of anything in return was to offer Sokka and Katara a ride home before they died themselves stranded in the tundra. He then offered to take Katara to the other side of the world to fulfill her dreams. When he was banished from her village, he left without protest and even said he didn’t want to come between Katara and her family. Even when he was sad to leave because he had just made a first friend in who knows how long (seeing as we know he was ostracized at the temple), he still left.

He then came back not to break the banishment but to save their lives. He offered himself up, LITERALLY sacrificed himself for them, with no expectation of anything in return.

Aang is an extremely compassionate, good natured person. He is the most “altruistic” character in the show, followed only by Katara who comes nearly as close (one of the reasons they are so good together).

He singlehandedly put the fires out on Kyoshi Island that ZUKO SETS, he protects the NWT from invasion in every possible way he can and singlehandedly wipes out their fleet when he gives himself over to the ocean spirit, he demands they search for Bumi NOT because he needs a teacher but because bumi is his FRIEND! He saves everyone in the cave by making sure they don’t get fucking crushed with its collapse, he is willing to sacrifice himself and force himself into the Avatar State to win the war because he is that guilt ridden even when the AS is extremely painful and traumatizing to him, he stops this only when it affects Katara because he loves her, he offers to let Toph run away with them not because he wants to use her as a teacher but because he listened to her life story and wishes to help her feel free, he fucking dies for Katara and sacrificed his own love for her to save her life

he tries to shoulder every burden he feels on his own as a means to protect the other characters

he supports Sokka when he voices insecurities, he is welcoming and friendly to Hakoda and even inquires about how Katara is feeling when he meets Hakoda, he sobs during the eclipse invasion because Katara and Sokka have to be separated from their father again and Aang blames himself for this defeat and is grief stricken because he is so upset they are losing their dad again (and he thinks it’s his fault)

Why the actual fuck would Katara ever “choose” Zuko over Aang?

Katara was never deeply tied to Zuko. She always saw him as an enemy trying to take away the boy she loved. This is why she threatened to fucking kill him.

Zuko helped his sister murder Aang right in front of Katara’s eyes. It was canonically the darkest period of her life.

Katara’s anger and hatred toward Zuko is 100% justified. Of course, Zuko is a self absorbed ass, so he claims her anger isn’t justified and that she’s just projecting. Her anger toward him specifically had far more to do with what he did to Aang and far less to do with what the Fire nation and Zuko’s family did to her mother. Even still, she’s right to be angry about her mother’s murder too, and Zuko’s piece of shit family is responsible.

Why the fuck would Katara magically drop to her knees and suck Zuko’s dick? He’s literally a colonizer for over 2/3 of the show. He didn’t just have a passive role, he was an active player in the war and invaded the NWT with the FN as a means to capture Aang and take him back to his daddy, where Aang would have undoubtedly been tortured mercilessly and kept on the brink of death. He assaulted Katara during this and knocked her unconscious, he taunted her with shitty words and undermined her bending ability and threw some racial/classist remarks as well as some misogynistic ones her way.

When he eventually did get his shit together and join the group, he just used her mother’s death against her and Sokka because that’s all he ever did in regards to Katara and Sokka’s mother. He learned how she died, then had Sokka divulge trauma to then use said trauma to try and force Katara to forgive him by persuading her to go on a suicide mission of revenge and bloodlust. He also literally mocked Aang’s culture and genocided people to his face, when his family committed the genocide. Oh, and he also mocked Aang’s forgiveness despite begging on his damn hands and knees for that very forgiveness like 3 episodes prior.

And then at the end of the episode, Zuko states himself that he legit doesn’t understand Katara or what she needs in life. Cuz of course he doesn’t. He isn’t a survivor of genocide, he hasn’t suffered ethnic cleansing, he isn’t oppressed. For fucks sake, his mother isn’t even dead and he gets reunited with her a few years after the canon shows timeline. Everything Zuko loses, he has returned to him. His honor, his right to the throne, his mother.

But tell me again how Katara and Aang are a bad match when they are the only two who will ever truly understand the other

[carionto]

Humans and Boredom II

The planet cracker.

A devilish name that somehow still does not do this type of Human ship justice. Arrays of massive gravity hooks capable of tearing out kilometers wide and deep chunks of mass from any celestial object one of them decides to settle in orbit of.

The process is slow and tedious and, luckily, unsuitable for any practical military application, but unimaginably rewarding nonetheless. Once a chunk has been lifted, a fleet of harvester drones meticulously tears it further apart and separates into individual minerals and any other categorizable substances. From there the internal refineries of the planet cracker process them further into more usable metals, alloys, resins, and countless other resources. Finally, another fleet of transport ships ferry those back to where they are needed.

The land based production capacity of an entire (small) planet, with a single (albeit metropolis sized) ship, crewed by no more than a hundred Humans and thousands of drones.

One of these immense beasts - The Hardy Gal - was stationed around one of Saturn's moons - Epimetheus - that was recently voted out of the global popularity contest "Who's Even Heard of This One?" and thus sentenced to become part of the Dyson Ring.

The drone fleet that was supposed to be tearing up the unfortunate little moon, however, was recently recalled for refitting after a report showed a key part was manufactured using an outdated guideline by a suspiciously licensed corporation, that was also caught up in an unrelated embezzlement scandal.

Suffice to say that chief Gravity Master Boris Fruischtyen didn't have much to do. Laws and regulations do not permit any unsupervised extraction results to just be left in orbit. Oh no, can't preemptively arrange chunks for processing later, nope, "efficiency? what's that?". *sigh* Lift, hold, harvest, repeat.

Boris would have nothing to do, except the gravity hook arrays were a set of fifty per array, and The Hardy Gal had eight arrays. Four hundred individually aim-able and moveable chunks of matter.

While his day job was not very productive for now, his social media activity shot through the roof. There's a lot you can draw with four hundred "pixels" and the literal cosmos as your canvas and backdrop.

His personal favorites were water features and creatures set against the blue of Saturn, and he arranged quite a few of the extinct whales and penguins too. Additionally, every day he would fulfill one of the audiences top ranking requests.

Through these he discovered he has a fascinatingly good sense for flower compositions, especially from unusual angles. It's odd. He's only ever seen flowers in images and videos, perhaps lacking actual real life flowers to compare to allows his imagination to fill in the gaps in a way referencing factual knowledge would limit him. Who knows.

Despite having access to a three dimensional canvas, he preferred to keep things flat.

"What can I say, 2D is better. *chuckle*"

However, that doesn't mean he keeps things simple. The gravity hooks are quite good at selective manipulation, they have to be to target certain spots beneath a whole lot of other matter (which is then raised alongside the "elevator" matter). He demonstrated how the same image can look wildly different if you just change the "pixels" from squares to spheres, or how certain material compositions change color when squeezed more densely.

His personal favorite part is the finishing touch. After he's had a drone go out and stream his latest piece from plenty of angles for the viewers, he gives the whole image a simultaneous and gentle push back towards the moon. After a few touching hours of people in chat saying farewell, sharing personal stories and just asking questions Boris is always happy to answer, the image impacts the surface where the majority of parts were extracted from in a spectacular show of minor impacts and a shower of debris. Too bad it doesn't have an atmosphere, just imagine how cool it'd look burning up on reentry.

[flowerwiththemachinegun]

Inspired by a better version of Tseng that has been engraved into my mind by @demialwrites. After the events of Advent Children. HOWEVER I don’t think they’d really be able to get access to who and what is needed at this point(i’m plotholing idc) Now, don’t ask if I’m factually correct. I dunno, I did a very very slight reading into it but got the idea from a conversation my partner brought up about heart transplants. (apparently this goes for other organs as well, I’ll look into it more later cause it is interesting. But I don’t want to lose this little drabble idea.) Anyways, I did exaggerate the possible effects from the research I did find on it for the sake of fanfic. Very vague on the accident I know, create your own maybe? Maybe it could make it more interesting idk.

Warning: major character death, hints of suicidal thoughts? also i was too lazy to carry on, or just didn't have the inspiration to, idk. I just didn't want to write anything very long.

Though you didn’t know who you received it from, you were thankful. Having been in an accident along with Tseng, the doctors had to act fast to save your life. Unfortunately Tseng succumbed to his injuries, passing away without you by his side. Something that ate you to the core everyday. 

Would knowing the truth make life any better for you? Tseng would fight tooth and nail for you, would give up his life, and that’s exactly what he did. He was just fine despite the damage done to the area. There was hardly a scratch on Tseng. 

Tseng tried his best to remain calm, but as the day went on your heart was failing with little to no chance of recovering. He couldn’t take it, watching you lay there motionless, a lifeless version of the vibrant person you were just hours ago. It’s a shame how quickly life can turn around. One minute he was thinking of how he would spend the rest of his life with you. Now he wanted to find the fastest way to die by your side. Due to Tseng’s alarming emotional state, Rufus made sure his firearm was taken away. He made it clear he would rather die than live this life without you, knowing that he didn’t do everything he could to save you. So he gave his very heart to you, in a more literal sense that he never expected to take it as more than the usual saying. Rufus made sure Tseng's request was swiftly followed through, the chances of you making it through the night were still low, but the chances to preserve your life would be higher if he at least tried. This way, no matter what is to come, he can be with you. 

You would never get the chance to know. Sometimes you get the feeling that Tseng was lingering around you at all times, like his presence never quite left despite his physical being departing. It was so odd. You picked up a few new habits and food cravings, thinking it was a therapeutic outlet to cope with losing Tseng considering these were all things he appreciated while you didn’t so much. In turn some scents and foods you loved once, you now couldn’t stand. Things that were a guilty pleasure of Tseng’s now were something you craved dearly. 

What became a bit annoying was the odd biological clock you seem to never be able to break. Formerly something you were not used to. Having trouble getting up at 7am for the start of your day versus Tseng’s 4am or even 5am start if he’s lucky. It all seemed very odd to others how you seemed to adopt a lot of Tseng’s habits after receiving his heart. 

Yes, the others were all informed. Tseng wanted the other Turks to know why he wouldn’t be coming back, finding himself incapable of abandoning his team without notice. They were the closest thing to family he had after all. 

Tseng didn’t want you to live with the guilt of knowing he died to save you. He knows you well enough, you wouldn’t move on easily, if at all, you would certainly be in far more despair knowing you had his heart beating inside of you. 

[moe-broey]

UUUUAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LIKE. LIKE. Okay so, because I have no idea where to start, I'm just going in Book order for now. I esppp needed the refresh on the prologue. Also because I am just. This Fucking Close. To actually making a whole ass timeline of Events for Moe. I have a plethora of rough ideas in my head, things that are important to me, but will be extremely difficult to pull off all simultaneously ESP bc in true Alfonsecore fashion, a lot of things. Are just contradicting each other. Here.

But that's not the reason why I'm complaining. No. The REASON I've come back so soon to scream out in agony is because. This is supposed to be for my Alfonse quotes blog bit. And a study. Ect. Okay.

But as Soon. As SOON as Sharena hit the scene. Dude I'm gonna thrup I can't just OMIT her FUCKING DIALOGUE...... not only is she a cutie patootie but like. Her voice IS easier to come up with on the fly, because she's so casual. But. I Feel Like. And I have been feeling this way for quite some time actually. I NEED to capture her voice better, too. Because even though she's more casually spoken than Alfonse, she has this like. Whimsical and almost eccentric air to her. And she still has moments of "proper" speech patterns too, like. She has a VERY funky combination of being so personable and easygoing that you forget she's a princess, BUT! You sort of get the sense that she was raised a very specific way. For better or worse.

About to run in circles real bad and not even get to my point, but. I'm writing all this down in a notebook, btw, just seems like the easiest way as someone who doesn't have a computer (to be able to do two things at once, yeah I'll have to type all that shut out later BUT it's part of the Process).

NOT MAKING SENSE OR ANY POINTS. ALL OVER THE PLACE. BUT. If I don't have her dialogue at very least in this notebook I'm gonna thrup. ESPPPP as someone who's main focus really is just. The family dynamics. Like. My area of focus is SUPER narrow in that and I struggle to expand outside of it

AS AN ASIDE. LIKE. I DO FEEL LIKE. IN ALL OF THIS. I really should study Anna too. She really does hold the group together. And I'm very much thinking about the specific roles charas like Senshi and Chilchuck play in Dungeon Meshi actually. Chilchuck is a literal dad, and that does often bleed into his dynamics with his party members, BUT. He is like World's Most Number #1 Professional Work-Life Balance Business Man. It would be extremely reductive and a disservice to his character to just slot him into being "the group's dad", because. His whole DEAL is that separation of work and private life, how important that is to him. Meanwhile Senshi feels harder to place, in this category, but I feel like he plays a similar role. He's a mentor. He has skills and a lifestyle he's passionate about. What really is making me think this though, slotting him here, is near the end of Dungeon Meshi where everyone is thinking about what they want to do next. Senshi had a good time with Laois and company, but now he's thinking he wants to spend some time alone. LIKE.... I AM. STRUGGLING. TO MAKE A POINT HERE. BUT. No matter how much of a fatherly or even older brother role (esp in the way his old closest party member was, to him) he takes on, at the end of the day. We created some good memories and lasting bonds, but it also just feels factually incorrect to say "found family", here? He's a mentor. And at the end of the journey, he just wants to do his own thing again.

RAMBLING. SO BADLY. BUT. I FEEL LIKE. ESPPPPPPP in how absolutely VITAL both Chilchuck and Senshi ARE in rounding out the party dynamic. I feel like Anna plays that similar role. Keeping everyone together, professional style, mentor style. It is quite literally her job!!!!!!!

AAAUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY BRAIN. SOUP BRAIN. But the point of that ramble was acknowledging that characters like that are SO important to round out a cast. But again, my focus and vision is just so, so narrow. I really struggle with anything outside of it!!!!!!!! Esp bc I feel like in my own life if I'm interacting w someone in a professional manner, it just. Begins and ends there. Each of us have a role to play to perform the intended task to achieve the desired result. No matter how much I trust or am fond of someone in that context, I keep a degree of depersonalization and detachment. Doctor, patient. My task is to give you the information you need to perform YOUR task. Therapist, client. The very same. I have not been employed for several years. But that attitude is still there, with maybe a dash (or a heaping helping) of questioning of authority in there. As you do.

......... You are looking directly into my brain. It is such a mess, in here. You are watching me pace from the living room to the kitchen from the kitchen to the living room and so on, talking to myself. Is there anything worthwhile, in here? I'm talking at a rubber duckie. Throwing darts at the corkboard that's tangled in a web of red string of seemingly unconnected topics. Can anybody hear me. Hello........

IN SHORT I think at very least for my notebook I have to write down Sharena's dialogue, too. I WILL start crying if I exclude her. It is for the very same reason my Alfonse folder on my phone is also my Sharena folder. Do NOT separate them. They are A SET. Also some vague thoughts about Anna and how I really struggle to write anything that's outside of a familial or familially-coded context. But having those other flavors of bonds really do flesh everything out and like. Well when I try and think outside of my very narrow tunnel vision I just

All of that is just a lot of words to say I love Sharena with all my heart anf I'm gonna be unwell if she isn't At Least in the notebook, idk if I'll do anything w the dialogue I'm recording there outside of just. Studying it I fucking guess. And also, when it comes to Anna, just. Skill issue. Of some sort. But I am Thinking About It. For the sake of a well-rounded cast of characters...........

[weenwrites]

Hi

Can you write headcanons of Transformers EarthSpark Bumblebee (romantic) and any of the terrans of your choice with a reader that is in her period? I would like the confort, going through this is not verry pleasant😞.

I was thinking of reader being a neighbour (and Bee's partner) the kids visit once in a while to learn more about earth and humans since they have to remain hidden and can't interact with other humans out of their family. But this time they find reader struggling with period sinctoms and they help her while she and Bee answer the kids questions about menstruation.

[ Please do not repost, plagiarize, or use my writing for AI! Translating my work with proper credit is acceptable, but please ask first! ]

A/N: Take care of yourself, anon! The terrans are written platonically, while Bee's is the only romantically written one.

Bumblebee

Ah, that time of the month again. If you've been in a relationship with him for a good while, chances are that he's already memorized what he needs to do to help you. He'll whip a heating pad out, go fetch you some asprin or some other off-the-counter pain killers and dietary suppliments (if you use any), and if there is absolutely anything else you need? Just call his name and he'll be there.

Even if your relationship is still relatively new, he'd immediately ask you what you need and what he can do to help, or he'd search it up online and he'd immediately get you these things to help with the pain.

Nightshade

Even with a human family, they're not all too knowledgable on human biology... So the moment you explain what's happening, they're very concerned. Up until this point they've just thought that any kind of bleeding is bad, and they were seconds away from ushering you to a hospital if you and Bee hadn't cleared things up first.

They'll ask you a lot of good and thoughtful questions to try and better understand what you're going through, so hope you don't mind. And even if you wanted, they could build you a personal assistant to help with any rigorous physical activities, or just general day-to-day activities.

Hashtag

With the internet at her fingertips... She can learn about literally anything she wants...! That is if she finds factually correct information first, instead of bumping into a whole bunch of misinformation. And that's sorta what happened when she was trying to find some stuff to help with period cramps and whatnot. Of course she knows not to take some of this info at face-value, and takes your opinion as fact over what incels on the internet have to say.

She's read online that physical exercise or reducing stress can help with period cramps, and though she doesn't know if it'll help out or not, she'll give it a try if you're willing to do it. She'll take you out for a short stroll in the woods, or practice some yoga poses out in your yard, and the moment that the pain becomes too much for you to continue, she'll call it quits right there and then, and the two of you can just chill.

[scatterbrainedart]

I've only seen people talk about that scene as a confession, but to me it reads much more like a proposal.

Crowley didn't tell Aziraphale anything new. Nothing in the things he said came as a surprise to any of them, more than the fact that he was just saying them out loud at all. Sure, they haven't talked about how and why they love each other, but have they ever needed to? They already know it. The two of them is such an integral part of their every day. They do most things together. They trust each other more than they trust anyone else.

The worst thing Aziraphale could think of to threat Crowley with at the end of s1 was never talking to him ever again. He knew that was one of the worst things Crowley could imagine in that moment. It was the end of the world, the world that Crowley helped create and was naturally very attached to (to the point of falling), yet the worst outcome of it all was to never talk to Aziraphale again. Aziraphale already knows that Crowley loves him, therefore, a "confession" isn't necessary.

I mean overall, it's just factually a proposal. Crowley proposes that they run away together, once more. That's been what he wants for a long time, and Aziraphale knows that too. He's already been asked that once. Crowley is not even confessing that for the first time either. Nothing in that entire conversation is news, just feelings that haven't really been voiced in such a formal manner in quite a while.

And "We are a team, a group. A group of the two of us". Not "we could be". We are. And he wants to keep it that way. He is not confessing his love persay, even if there's definitely love behind what he's saying. He's literally saying "we've been (working) together a long time, relying on and trusting each other, and I want that to continue. I want to spend forever with you, as an us, just you and me".

Even with the whole "nothing lasts forever" with Crowley interpreting that as their relationship. He was hoping it would. He was trying to secure it so it would (get away from the things that were pulling them apart), much like someone would try to secure a relationship to last forever by proposing marriage. And personally, I think that hurts even more.

"We could have been us."

They could have been ineffable husbands, more or less. GAHH!!

[ladamedusoif]

Books (Professor!Ben x OFC Lydia)

A Merry Fic-Mas - December 14

Part of A Merry Fic-Mas: A Holiday Fic Calendar - click for masterlist.

Follow @ladameecrit for my writing updates!

Pairing: Professor!Ben x OFC!Lydia (part of the Visiting universe)

Word count: 848

Warnings: Language, angst, pining

Rating: Teen

Summary: What’s the harm of imagining an alternative future, when you’re lonely this Christmas?

This Fic-Mas story can be read as an add-on/deleted scene to Chapter 8 of Visiting, 'Sister Winter'.

Iceland has this thing called Jolabokaflod - literally, “book flood”. It can mean the rush of new books published for Christmas gifts, or it can mean the tradition associated with them. 

Put simply, the idea is that on Christmas Eve, you exchange books with your nearest and dearest. And then everyone snuggles up in bed, armed with hot chocolate and candy, and reads their new book. 

It sounds like heaven. 

The book flood tradition pops into your mind as you place a neatly-wrapped selection of books under the tree at your parents’ house on Christmas Eve. And with it, a pang, and another thought. 

Ben would love that. 

“Fuck,” you mutter to yourself, trying to fend off the thoughts of him. “I think it’s time for bed.”

You creep up the stairs, last one to turn in for the night, and nestle in with your hot water bottle. 

You wish he was keeping you warm, girl. 

“Fuck.”

Sleep doesn’t come easy. And you begin to imagine, to let yourself daydream (if one can call it that) about an alternative reality, an alternative future, if only for the night. 

It is Christmas, after all. It’s canonically a time for what might have beens, for counter-factuals. What was A Christmas Carol, if not that? And - even more obviously - what of It’s A Wonderful Life?

Alright, you think, maybe it’s not quite the same. Clarence the Angel had to show George Bailey how much better he made the world, and how wonderful his life actually was. And Dickens showed Scrooge terrible things, to help him change - a far cry from the cosy scene you were about to conjure up. 

Still, the point stands. What if things were different? What if things could be different? 

You close your eyes and let your mind wander, telling yourself it’s just idle fantasy. It’s not hurting anyone. Right?

So indulge. Find comfort in thinking about how it might be, could have been. Imagine the comfort of books, of warmth, of him.

You had thought for a long time about the book for Ben. Eventually, you settled on a personal favourite, one that reflected your personality, your interests, yourself: The Belly of Paris, by Émile Zola. You knew he hadn’t read it - “just Thérèse Raquin and Germinal”, he’d told you as you raved about Zola’s books - and you wanted to see what he thought. 

The edition is a recent translation, a handsome paperback, and you wrap it up in brown paper and add a length of dark red ribbon, placing it under the tree to await Christmas Eve. 

The next day, it’s joined by a matching book-shaped gift: this time wrapped in dark green paper, your name written in his distinctive handwriting on an old-fashioned gift tag. 

Christmas Eve is idyllic: mulled wine, old movies, talking and preparing food for the next day’s meal as the snow falls softly outside. By about 8 that evening, you’re settled cosily on the couch and your eyes land on the little packages. 

“Time for book flood, I think.”

Ben smiles as you reach under the tree and retrieve the gifts. “You want to open them here?”

“I’d rather do it in bed, baby. C’mon, grab some hot chocolate.” 

He follows you upstairs to bed, making you giggle as he purrs in your ear: “Gonna make you read soooooo much, Lyd. We’re gonna read so hard.”

You wiggle your eyebrows at him as you join in the suggestive jokes, pulling him close to you. “Well, you know I can keep reading for hours, Benjamin.”

You can. And you do. 

Ben’s book gift to you is a gorgeous vintage copy of Love in the Time of Cholera, which you clutch to your chest in delight. He opens his parcel carefully, a wide smile spreading across his face as he recognises the title. 

“Émile. Of course.”

And now it’s just the two of you, side by side in bed, the only sounds the occasional crackle from the tall candles you’d lit in the bedroom, one or both of you sipping your hot cocoa, and the turning of the pages. 

Without lifting his eyes from Zola, Ben’s left hand finds your right, and holds it: safe, secure. Your thumb traces over his tattoo, making him hum quietly with pleasure. 

“Imagine if we hadn’t figured things out”, you muse, eyes still fixed on Garcia Marquez. 

Ben turns and looks at you, eyes warm and expression most serious. “Not figuring things out was never an option.”

When you wake in the grey light of Christmas morning, it takes a moment for you to remember.

The pain hits you all over again. The fantasy - simplistic and all as it might have been - had been too convincing, and facing reality feels even harder. 

You can hear your family already waking and pottering about the house, little nieces stampeding out of the spare room they’re sharing with your sister and brother-in-law for the holidays. 

Craving the warmth of a familiar hand on yours, you turn over and cry into the pillow. 

[kingscholar-archive]

an analysis of leona kingscholar and ruggie bucchi’s relationship | twisted wonderland

disclaimer: this analysis is a take on my own interpretation of the characters and their lore. if you agree and want to add on, feel free to do so! if you’re just going to argue without factual proof, i’d rather you save it for your own post instead. this is a safe space for both Leona and Ruggie lovers.

first, let’s start off with Leona Kingscholar. the second-born prince of Sunset Savanna, the one whose dreams are all dashed. Leona is clearly a very intelligent character; there’s tons of proof of this. i can go off on how mischaracterized Leona is, but i’ll save it for another post.

but in any case, Leona is smart. and that’s why he has Ruggie by his side.

to me, Ruggie Bucchi’s main goal is survival. and if he can get the easy life in addition to surviving, then why would he ever say no? Leona and Ruggie’s relationship is very much like a symbiotic relationship, where they both benefit off of each other. to Leona, Ruggie is a helping hand that can do a lot of the work he doesn’t actually want to execute himself, all for the price of a few thaumarks or a deluxe sandwich from the cafeteria or whatever Ruggie desires (that’s within reason, of course). meanwhile to Ruggie, Leona is someone who’s willing to provide for him as long as he puts in the work.

and it works for them! with Ruggie’s resourcefulness and Leona’s huge wallet, they both mutually benefit from their deal.

now i’m going to move on to book 2 and Leona’s Overblot. there’s quite a lot of arguments and hate directed towards Leona because “he almost killed Ruggie! he injured him! he’s a monster!”.

here’s the thing though: Ruggie quite literally kept badgering Leona. i’m not saying that Leona’s response was justifiable, but even Lilia says it; how Leona could never compare to Malleus (in terms of being king-like) because the way the latter reacted was like that of a child. he was acting like a spoiled kid because his dreams and scheme of taking down Malleus got exposed and ruined. and Ruggie, who probably didn’t think Leona would hurt him or even realized he was so close to Overblotting, was the closest person to Leona. so on top of him arguing with Leona about giving up, Leona’s already riled up about other matters. and again, while Ruggie didn’t deserve what happened, he’s also not innocent in the grand scheme of things. he was a willing participant in the plot to take down Malleus pre-comp.

and as i said before, i really think that Ruggie’s ultimate goal is always survival, even if it means he has to work a bit harder. he’s not stupid; Ruggie made it into NRC of his own volition and hard work. he didn’t even know Leona personally before NRC. it’s just that being at Leona’s side helps him a lot in many ways. if Leona was truly a danger to Ruggie, he’d scram. he wouldn’t put his life in jeopardy if he knew his chances of surviving were slim to none.

and in any case, as per book 6, those who Overblotted at NRC have all been checked and verified by magical professionals that ensured that they were okay, that their lives weren’t still in danger, etc etc. as such, Leona isn’t a danger to anyone anymore (at least, not any more than he was before). and Ruggie knows this. that’s why he still stays by Leona’s side, why he still chastises him without fear, why he still works for him.

additionally, Ruggie was well enough to play in Spelldrive matches during the tournament and was even after. he also continues to joke at Leona (especially laughing over Cheka’s “Unca!” entrance). so clearly, he’s not too fussed over what happened. he probably milked his injury to get stuff from Leona. and after book 2, they’re still seen together. i wish the writers for the game delved into this more (which leads me to another issue i have: how poorly written book 2 is. but that’s another issue for another post).

i know people will always have their difference in opinions on Leona and Ruggie’s relationship, but seeing Leona get so blatantly mischaracterized just never sat right with me. of course he’s not the only character to be mischaracterized, but i find that when it comes to the subject, his name often appears. you can accuse me of being biased because i love Leona, but honestly i could go on a rant about so many TWST characters and how mischaracterized they are by the fandom, because it’s not just Leona. i love Ruggie but even he isn’t the perfect angel compared to Leona. he also actively injured students to achieve his dreams alongside Leona.

these characters are all portrayed after villains, so they’re all going to do evil things!! so like,, please don’t act like certain characters are better than others morally when they’re not :,)

[thegreenthepeacetheorange]

Everlark (The Hunger Games, Ch. 21-22)

21

it's crazy how easily they both fall into domesticity in that cave, like constantly snuggling/curling up together in the sleeping bag

katniss wondering about whether gale would be her boyfriend if she opened the door and what he makes of all the kissing (another thing the movies robbed us of)

she gives fever-ridden peeta a "long lingering kiss" before she heads to the cornucopia, but just for the cameras of course. acting!

22

katniss dreams of her mother gently stroking her cheek but of course it's peeta. she talks about how much she craves that gentle touch. again with peeta being the first person to truly make her feel safe since she kinda lost both her parents in a way

she jolts awake in alarm but feels better when she realises peeta is there

him saying "good to see your eyes again." and just generally how he looks after her with so much tenderness. he feeds her, rubs warmth into her feet, wraps her up and tucks her in. he kisses her on the nose. swoon

her still not getting why peeta gave her that bread. like after all these hints, how is she still clueless?

"i think we would like thresh. i think he'd be our friend back in district 12" - again katniss referring to her and peeta as "we" and "our." they never spoke before these games but now it's them, together. forever more.

again they kiss constantly. like it's very normal and natural and not out of place for them. and katniss welcomes the kisses because i feel like otherwise, she'd definitely have something to say.

her trying to flirt with him and pulling out the f*ckboy "or what?" looool

"and while i was talking, the idea of actually losing peeta hit me again and i realised how much i don't want him to die. and it's not about the sponsors. and it's not about what will happen back home. and it's just not that i want to be alone. it's him. i do not want to lose the boy with the bread" - in this little paragraph, katniss essentially shuts down literally every argument about how and why she's faking her feelings for peeta. she let's us know that deep down she knows that it's not for any of the reasons above that she's trying so hard to keep him alive. it's because he's him and she cares for him and he matters to her. after she realises this, she wants to pull the shutters closed and not have the whole of panem see this vulnerability from her. so she changes the subject and avoids talking about her feelings.

then they have their first kiss they're both fully aware of. she feels the stirring inside her chest, warm and curious, and she wants more. she is quite clearly falling hard for this boy but can't/won't let herself give in to it. but the feelings are there, the spark is there.

he pulls her head down (notice that dominance pls) to use his arm as a pillow and protectively drapes the other over her body while he sleeps. she notes that no one's arms have made her feel this safe since her dad died. and that is such a big statement! she's not been held like this or felt safe like this in like 5 years. gale's been around all that time but he's not made her feel like this. this is something new, something warm and curious.

(I fully believe that while katniss is the fighter with the bow and arrow and considered the more powerful one - in their romantic relationship, peeta is the protector, the dominant one, and she is the one who needs more looking after. and honestly i love that for her. i love that she and peeta found each other because she needed his energy in her life)

when he tells her why he fell for her, i have to laugh at her being like "i thought we were just playing pretend so why is he declaring love for me like this with factual evidence i cannot deny?!" like she is truly clueless. and it's why we love her. but wow. her mind works in insane ways

his story makes her "almost foolishly happy" though. like a giddy teenage girl who's falling in love for the first time.

when peeta says he doesn't have much competition in here (for katniss) and katniss replies that he doesn't have much competition anywhere, obviously it sounds like a cheesy line but before she says it, she again wants to close the shutters on her feelings. i really believe she felt that when she considered everything.

this is the moment where i think he really captures her attention. they cross that barrier from "pretend" into "real." her feelings are real but she cannot make sense of them. she leans in for the kiss and the readers are wondering how much of it all is playing to the cameras but i think peeta's confession completely disarms her because she wasn't expecting that.

a few posts ago i noted how peeta can easily tell when she's lying (3 occasions he mentions) so it's interesting that she's 'playing pretend' here but he doesn't see it as lying (because at the end of the games he's going to be hurt when he realises it was an 'act'). what he feels from her is real. katniss is rubbish at lying

[lost-inanotherlife]

I gotta get it out of my system: bringing up Sawyer as an excuse for post-island Jack and Kate's break up makes absolutely 0 fucking sense.

First of all, both Jack and Kate have so many issues and real, factual problems to solve that Sawyer is literally the least of their concerns.

Secondly, it's disrepectful to Kate's character and unfaithful to Jack's.

It's disrepectuful to Kate because it flattens her character out and reduces her to the role of the eternal undecided between two lovers.

And it's not the case?* When earlier on in the flashforward she tells Jack that's important to her that he's decided to stay, to give them a chance with Aaron she's meaning it. At this point in the flashforward the love triangle is done, we're 3 years later the events we see happening on the island, Sawyer's been out of the picture for years. Of course, this doesn't mean that they can all forget about him, absolutely not, but compare him being a problem in Jack and Kate's relationship with their REAL problems:

Jack's alcholism and pills abuse, his commitment issues (does he really want to be there for Kate and Aaron or does he feel like it's his responsibility?), his general trust issues in relationship matters after his wife cheated on him (and him wanting to cheat on his wife, too), his douche behavior when he thinks people are deceiving him (re Sarah and Achara), he's fucking seeing his dead father, AGAIN. And I could go on.

On the other hand, Kate's basically fresh from prison and from what I assume must have been quite a long and taxing trial, her estranged mother tried to cut a deal with her in order to see her grandson and she only has a few months to live. She's caring and providing for Claire's baby on her own and has promised Sawyer that she would make sure his own daughter is well too. She's on probation and can't leave California so keeping Sawyer's promise might endanger herself and her own son. Her partner, who's also her adopted son's uncle, is heavy drinking in the afternoon and being a general dick lately.

I MEAN. COME ON.

It's unfaithful to Jack's character because he's always, ALWAYS been aware that Kate and Sawyer are first and foremost friends. Because they are. Aside from their romantic involvement their platonic relationship is very strong. On the island, where he actually may or may not have had some ground to throw a fit at Kate for her romantic attachment to Sawyer, he's always been respectful toward their relationship. A bit bitchy sometimes (fuck yeah but that's Jack Shephard y'all), I won't deny it but never a complete douche.

And what's up with this pathetic excuse that Sawyer wouldn't want Jack to know? Even if it was true, lady we're talking about a kid here okay? Let's be real, you can't keep your fiancé out of the loop of "people on the island's kids I'm providing for". This specific writers' choice (making Kate say that she can't tell Jack because Sawyer wouldn't want) makes Kate seem absolutely fucking stupid and it's NOT fair.

Also, when she made that promise to Sawyer she was not engaged to Jack. Years have passed and things have changed, I seriously doubt that Sawyer thought that Kate was gonna keep that secret to her grave. And it wasn't a secret in the first place, it was a favor.

Sorry for bitching and moaning, I might be doing that again in the future, LOL.

it's just that... Kate's character has got so much potential and I hate when she gets pigeonholed as love interest. Jack's struggles too are way bigger than his supposed rivalry with Sawyer. I hate when they don't do justice to previously consistently written characters.

*and, imo, it's never been the case? As I've stated before, the apex of the love triangle has always been Jack. Ofc, this doesn't mean that both Kate and Sawyer can't make their own decisions, but Kate's (Sawyer's too but that's for another day) are very much connected to what Jack does or, to be more precise, what she thinks Jack might do (more importantly what Jack doesn't do, cause my babygirl Jack's quite slow on the uptake when it comes to flirting) and always, always depend on her own belief that Jack's "good" while she's "bad" and she unconsciously begrudges him for that (see "What Kate Did").

[wirewitchviolet]

Fascists getting impressively bold in asserting their alternate take on reality, example number some big number.

So when I looked at my phone today, I saw an alert pop up about a Times of London article about Judy Blume, and mostly it got me really concerned about what the hell installed itself on my phone without my consent that’s pulling headlines from some transphobic rag, but the short version is they ran a story about Blume being this full-throated supporter of J.K. Rowling’s horrific transphobia, which is just complete fiction, and she’s been spending the day running damage control with statements like these:

I’m going to circle back around to this, but on the off chance people follow me here who aren’t up to speed on this sort of propaganda, it’s been going on for quite a long time, particularly in this specific context of fascists completely fabricating stories about other authors supporting their uh... genocidal ambitions.

This sort of thing happens literally all the time. More often than not it happens with people who have been dead for decades or centuries so there’s more plausibility on going “well who’s really to say what this person would have thought about trans people? (Besides us, saying they’d be in favor of total extermination.) There wasn’t even a concept of trans people anywhere in the world before let’s say last Tuesday after all!” And like, they’ll do this with famous historical trans people. Like bigots were on this huge crusade to claim Dr. James Barry as a would-be supporter. Look him up.

They’ve been getting bolder with it though. Especially when it comes to beloved authors. Like, literally RIGHT after Terry Prachett died, a bunch of Nazi ghouls immediately started in on this weird campaign to claim him as a supporter. It uh, made a few headlines. Specifically it made a few headlines because he was very actively and vocally in support of trans people, as could be seen in books he’s written, the testimony of his family friends and coworkers, and you know, countless trans people he’d interacted with.

So then they started trying to pull this with authors who don’t quite have such a public history to be thrown back at them, and started getting really bold, claiming people who are still alive. Mostly just kinda trying to bait people with weird loaded questions like “hey, did you hear J.K. Rowling has tons of people bullying her lately, isn’t that messed up?” at the likes of Stephen King and Phil Pullman, who responded like you do when someone says that that hey, it’s not cool to bully people” and tada, here’s our headlines. Of course they PRETTY QUICKLY became aware that in this context “bullying” means “publishing factual accounts in the public record about her heavy involvement in a fascist collective with genocidal aims towards trans people” and walked that the hell back.

That sort of one-day-confusion from white guys in their 70s who haven’t been paying much attention to civil rights issues and absurd internet nazis is the closest these people can really get to a “win” here, and still aren’t really the best possible gets, so what about going with still living but probably not all that up with the times feminist writers? Like hey, what about Margaret Atwood? This sort of bigot’s all about calling cis women who don’t actively hate trans women “handmaidens” as a reference to her book, which they definitely read and understood, so that should work out, right? Not so much.

They had a similar strike out with Ursula LeGuin a while back. I don’t think they’ve quite been stupid enough to try and claim Madeleine L’Engle while her book with the non-binary angelic beings are helping kids fight against fascism was being made into a movie, but eventually they decided to come for Judy Blume, because... that makes sense when you’re this far removed from a reality.

So... those quotes above? Those aren’t things I went and dug up on my own. Those are straight off her social media feed, because she’s straight up furious bigots are trying to put words in her mouth on a topic she’s pretty clear about. And if you look at the responses those statements are garnering, it is some grade A cultist reality denial:

I could keep going with this, but, you know, these are intertwined with people shouting just utterly horrific hate speech at her and I don’t want to keep wading through hat sort of sewage just to find even more people directly replying to someone saying “I completely abhor your disgusting hate movement and have made my stance on this clear for years” with “no you don’t! You secretly agree with us! You’re just backpedalling in these... statements that don’t at all work with the timeline I’m using to cope!”

I don’t really have a greater point beyond demonstrating how just COMPLETELY GONE these people are, unwilling in any way to accept the truth of the world around them, that no, people don’t in fact agree with their hateful rhetoric, and no, children’s authors who right about being yourself do not, in fact, want children to be abducted and tortured until they act in a way complete monsters would prefer. Also a lot of them have carte blanche to print straight up lies in newspapers and use that pretty regularly.

[synonymouswithanonymous]

What lies? Could you justify and give some precise examples. I'm curious 🙂

where to begin? I've written about loads of them. Mistranslating her words. I've said that one repeatedly. As I've said before some people have created fictions in their heads and hardcore believe these lies they're spewing. A whole list of pure speculation, presented as facts (another post).

Claiming she's got *insert multiple medical disorders as an insult* How would we know of anything other than what she's talked about? You can't diagnose over social media clips. It's just more lies. Lies designed to make her look bad.

Claiming she's abusive behind closed doors. How would we know? This is speculative lying to further claim she's "bad" etc.

Claiming to know "their real timeline" when all we have is speculation, they want to say shes a cheater. That's clear character assassination, by creating a lie, and repeating it a lot, to try to make her look bad. Or make him look bad by calling him a homewrecker.

Claiming she's not a real survivor of abuse, or uses it to further her career is not only twisted, but again creating a fiction to rail at her, just bc you don't like her is a cruel, unsympathetic lie.

Claiming she's manipulating him, as if anyone outside his real life would know? People are claiming this as fact, like they have proof. No there's literally no proof, just opinions. To claim this as a fact is a bold face lie.

That she pushed him into revealing their relationship before he was ready. As if we could know? To create fiction just bc you don't like her, is a lie. He'd been spotted out with her before April.

I made a whole post about how haters claim she "chains" him to her side, and he never gets to see friends, family or work. These are lies. From several pictures and projects, this is an outright misrepresentation of the truth. And also, again, just bc it's not posted and we don't see it, doesn't mean it's not happening. But clearly he isn't chained at her side lol.

Trying to twist everything she does from cupcakes to war, into Something to justify calling her an evil leech worm etc. Is a type of lying imo to force a narrative designed to hurt her.

Example: That her ladybug book video was her "flipping off the fans." Now that's just a ridiculous twisting of a video.

That she's "mocking the mentally disabled" by "talking funny", she was speaking Norwegian. That by dancing she was doing the same. These are horrible abusive lies to try to spread around about someone. That was repeated quite a bit, they were serious. Again, speaking another language and dancing on a red carpet? This makes someone want to spread malicious lies about her that she's mocking the disabled bc they don't like she's dating AHA. Don't get me started on the stereotypes about the disabled that that person wants to perpetuate. And I'll also point out, when this popped up the first time, a fan with 1994 in their name was openly mocked for liking Johanne. Their malicious ridicule of that person, still bothers me. But that's gone off topic.

To say she was pissed at a premiere before they revealed themselves, by the "look" on her face. Maybe they saw different clips, bc the ones I saw only the back of her head was seen. So not sure how her facial expression was "glaring" lol. So more lies.

Literally the only factual truths we have are these, they are a couple, they live together, they say they love each other, they're vacationing in Italy. They're both actors. Those are facts, bc they just exist without interpretation. Now if you're not one of the ones who genuinely believe everything they're saying about her, then I'm glad. You understand we don't know them in reality. I'm more of a benefit of the doubt, easy going person. I like her and she seems great to me. But will we ever know if either one of them is as nice as they appear to be? Nope.

That's just off the top of my head, we could debate the laws of the art world etc but meh. I don't really care one way or the other where someone draws inspiration. From pastiche, fair use, fan fiction, gifs, whatever, just be creative how you want to be. So I guess calling her an art thief would be a lie also, by laws definition she's not (made a post about art, links to laws) . I like Weird Al too, he's hilarious lol. I could see fair point, if someone morally disagrees with the practice, but it's not imo a big deal.

I will wish you a good day, though I remember you were among the ones calling me rude names. 😂

Edited to add, this post is public, even if I block someone it's still a public post. And naturally I will block people who've called me a variety of names in the past. Shouldn't be surprised that they were blocked lol, what you really thought you could slide into my inbox and I wouldn't remember your name? 😂😂😂😂

[firstumcschenectady]

“We Hope for What We Do Not See” based on Jonah 2 and Romans 8:18-25

Despite my enjoyment of the “Who Did” song1, I haven't preached about Jonah often. I may even have groaned when I looked at the texts for this week – even though I was the one to pick the essay from “We Cry Justice” and the accompanying recommended scriptures. I fear, though, that my avoidance of this text is unjustified.

Because, the issues I have are really quite silly. Here we go:

Whales don't eat people. Nor do large fish.

Stomachs have acid, but not a lot of air, making them uninhabitable

You know, stuff like that.

But it turns out that taking a story literally and objecting to the pragmatic details is a really great way to miss powerful symbolism and deeper meaning within a story. So dismissing this story has only had the impact of keeping me from attending to the wisdom it has.

Which I noticed when I actually read the 2nd chapter of the book of Jonah, which is rather surprising. You may recall that in the first chapter Jonah was asked to to to Nineveh and tries to run away instead, gets on a ship going in the other direction, a storm comes up, Jonah suggests that the storm is God's way of saying he isn't listening, he suggests he be thrown into the sea, the sailors try not to do so, but finally they throw him in hoping the rest of them will live, and the storm quiets and the sailors are converted.... and then the whale did swallow Jonah. Down. ;)

So, given that chapter 2 is a prayer of Jonah from inside the whale, I think there would be just cause to assume that the prayer is either a lament that God put him in this horrid situation OR a plea for help, a request for forgiveness that results in Jonah being released from said whale? Right?

But it isn't. The prayer of chapter 2 is a prayer of THANKSGIVING, whereby Jonah seems to have already concluded that the whale is a means of salvation, and is thanking God for God's gracious actions. And that's a place where I noticed that there is something useful in this story, because … well, I'm not sure I'd have gotten there.

I think that if I had a sense of God asking me to do something I vehemently didn't want to do, that resulted in my very near drowning, and then gasping for air inside an enormous beast I couldn't talk to or control, I'd have missed the memo that said enormous beast was a gift from God. Really. I mean, maybe, 3 days in, hungry, thirsty, and still wet but shockingly alive I might have figured it out, but that's even kind of doubtful.

But Jonah's prayer starts with “I called to the Lord in my distress and [God] answered me.”(NRSV 2a) So, it seems like he got it immediately. (We're working with symbolism here people, let go of any assumption of factuality and let a good story be a good story.) And, the prayer is even specific, “The waters closed over me; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped around my head...yet you brought up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God.” (5,6d)

Wow. Jonah is sinking to the bottom of the sea, hopeless, and helpless, and then experiences God as lifting him up from the place of death, of bringing LIFE out of DEATH. And, I'm kinda familiar with THAT metaphor, right? But this is a different angle on it.

For me, the incongruities of life in the belly of the whale finally recede to make space for the questions of life and faith. When have we been floating down to the bottom of the sea, out of air, and out of hope? There are a lot of possible answers to that, right? And our lives are different, so our answers are different. Grief can feel like sinking to the bottom of the sea– anticipatory grief and the utter horror of waking up and realizing someone you love isn't there Depression can feel like sinking to the bottom of the sea. Job loss and financial hardship can feel like sinking to the bottom of the sea. Loss of relationship. Abuse. Illness. Injury. Car accidents. Becoming unhoused. Failing. Flailing. A lot can feel like sinking to the bottom of the sea.

And what was the thing that picked you and kept you alive when you could no longer do so for yourself? Who or what was the whale? Was a phone call from a friend who cared? The arrival of flowers? The long, hard, careful work of a therapist? An unexpected welcome? An offer you couldn't have anticipated? The life restoring work of first responded and medical professionals? Someone showing you the ropes you couldn't figure out on your own? A good Samaritan?

How long did it take you to realize that you weren't at the bottom of the sea anymore, and you could breath (if only a little bit), and there might be a hope for dry land again someday? Was it immediate? Did it take 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 years?

I wonder, if sometimes the darkness at the bottom of the sea is so scary that we block out the memory of it, but with it we then block the memory of being scooped up. Especially because being eaten by a whale does NOT immediately seem like rescue. Right!?! At the bottom of the sea, one condolence card can't really make a difference – except sometimes it can. Sometimes knowing that someone else grieves with you, or sees you, or can share a memory that gives you a new story about a person you loved – sometimes that can be the whale.

Several years ago during a stewardship campaign, I was gifted the task of asking participants in some of our ministries what our ministries meant to them. As previously mentioned, I have a problematic tendency to be overly pragmatic, and while I delight in our breakfast program, I'm aware that it offers 1 meal out of an wished for 21 for a week. However, our guests assured me that the 1 meal matters.

Similarly, at that time we had Sustain Ministry, where we gave out soap and toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, and diapers to those who needed them. (Note: other organizations now do this work – thank God – and the need we were responding to then has changed.) I asked those waiting if they'd be willing to be interviewed, and I asked them why what we did mattered. One woman said that the resources we offered made the difference for her between being able to take care of her kids on her own and being financially forced back into an abusive relationship.

I loved Sustain ministry, but I thought it just made things a little easier for people whose lives were really hard. I didn't know it was whale picking someone out of the bottom of the sea.

In the fall of 2021, after about a year and a half of ministry during a pandemic, while adjusting to being a new parent, and with a few other significant stressors in my work life, I was a hairsbreadth away from leaving ministry. Truthfully, I had been, on and off, for 2 years by that point. More so, I didn't really know it. I knew I was really tired. I knew I felt like my ministry didn't matter. I knew every day of work was a fight, and I didn't want to fight anymore. But I actually didn't know I was near the bottom of the sea in my work, until our District Superintendent looked at me and said, “what you've dealt with isn't normal, you need a break. How long do you want? I'll find coverage and money to pay for it.” She was the whale, or maybe the 8 weeks I took off were. Maybe both? Let's go with both.

Sometimes I still meet people who know that I took that break – the announcement of it was shockingly popular on YouTube- and I watch them carefully dance around asking me if I'm still a pastor, or still a pastor here, or really what I do in the world now. They're often shocked to learn I'm still in ministry and grateful for it. (That's fair, a whole lot of people have exited ministry since then.) I continue to think I have a lot to learn to be in ministry in life-giving and sustainable ways, but the way I knew I still wanted to be a pastor and YOUR pastor was that once the day-to-day pressures were relieved, I found myself dreaming of what we could do together, and missing you. I'm been in those weeds at the bottom of the sea, pastorally, but I just needed some gulps of fresh air to be able to find the dry land. I'm really thankful there was a whale. And, yet, I didn't know how important the whale was when it arrived.

Romans 8 speaks of hope particularly directly, reconsidering the struggles of people and the world as labor pains of the kindom of God being born. While I don't want to sanctify the pains or struggles of the world, it would be really great if they were productive like that. If they mattered, and made new things possible. The essay from “We Cry Justice” today talks about the pain of ecological destruction, and the power of the people to stop horrible decisions, EVEN when money is on the other side. That people, together, have power. Which is a good example of the ways that the pain of the earth can become motivation for healing the earth. It is a way that pains can be labor pains.

Romans 8 also speaks famously about hope. “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” None of us can see the whale coming when we're at the bottom of the sea. Nor, even, could we know it is a saving whale if we did. But hope involves knowing that God is with us, and God is creative, and there ARE whales sometimes, and we can BE whales sometimes, and no matter what happens, we know a God who brings life - again and again.

Dear ones, sometimes God sends whales when we are at the bottom of the sea. Thank God. Amen

1For the uninformed: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/10499923/100+Singalong+Songs+for+Kids/Who+Did+%28Swallow+Jonah%29%3F

February 25, 2024

Rev. Sara E. Baron  First United Methodist Church of Schenectady  603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305  Pronouns: she/her/hers  http://fumcschenectady.org/  https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady