#there's no other way to do it. and every time i look at the moral directly it dissapears. its always there in the corner of my eye

[theliliesofthevalleies]

Bruce is Tim’s Godfather AU (with a little bit of Tim never becomes Robin thrown in for drama.)

Ages and time in this AU don’t line up with like anything that is canon. You know why? Because ages in canon don’t matter and time is an illusion. May whatever gods you follow bless you when you read this absolutely convoluted mess of an AU that I thought of at like 3 am.

For reference Dick is 7ish years older than Tim and Jason will end up being 3ish years older than Tim in this AU eventually when I get to him. If I don’t lose interest and abandon it like I do with so many of my AU’s.

Also. Bruce’s age is irrelevant because.. well.. fuck that I’m not touching it with a ten foot pole.

I’m also not really going to include the girls in any of this not because I don’t love them but because it’s going to center around mostly the three older boys and adding the girls just gives me too many people to keep track of.

Anyway. On to the AU

Being the only child of the richest family in Gotham Bruce grew up meeting and making connections with the other children of wealthy and influential families. He at the very least knew of every child of every millionaire and billionaire on the east coast. Naturally that meant that he grew up with Jack Drake. They were fairly close being that their estates were Nextdoor to each other, not as close as some other children of the rich and powerful but close enough that when Jack married Janet and they started their family they named Bruce as their son’s godfather.

Bruce was elated by being named someone’s godfather, despite his absolute lack of knowledge about babies or children in general. He was just happy that someone thought of him. Of course since Jack and Janet named him godfather he made time to get to know the kid and he grew attached and protective over the child. Obviously he was already Batman so Tim became the first light in Batman’s life. He vowed to keep his moral compass to be a good example for Tim.

When Tim was five him and his parents went to the circus. Tim’s parents argued about whether or not Tim was old enough to not be scared of the circus despite the fact that he had begged to go on multiple occasions and had even convinced his Godfather to take him multiple times and not tell his parents. He was invested in watching Dick Grayson, his idol, on the trapeze while they were arguing and amidst their bickering Tim was the one out of the three of them that witnessed two out of the three Flying Grayson’s deaths.

In all the chaos of everyone getting the hell out of there Tim saw the bodies, a crying Dick Grayson, and Batman kneeling to comfort him. When they got home Tim looked at a picture he had gotten with Dick and his parents that night. Being a sweet five year old he asked his nanny to print off another copy and he went to Bruce to ask if he’d help him find a way to get the copy of the picture to Dick.

A few weeks later Tim was visiting Wayne manor while his parents worked and his many had the day off when Alfred returned home from an urgent errand. He ran to greet him and when he got to the door there was Dick Grayson. He almost screamed, well actually he was five, the kid squealed in delight. Bruce explained that Dick was going to be staying with him for a while. Then he took Tim to calmly give the copy of the photo to Dick.

Dick looked at the picture and broke down into tears. He collapsed on the floor of the foyer and bawled his eyes out. As he cried he felt a tiny hand on his cheek and heard a tiny voice. “I’m sowwy. I didn’t mean to make you cwy..”

From that moment forward Dick was Tim’s big brother and no one would ever convince either of them that it was false.

By the time Tim was six Bruce’s relationship with Jack and Janet had started to deteriorate due to them leaving Tim home alone with his nanny for prolonged periods of time. He viewed it as neglectful, it was only solidified by the few interactions with their child Bruce had witnessed when they were home. All they ever wanted to know was how school and tutoring was going and then left Tim to do his own thing and basically ignored that he existed, sending him to his nanny whenever he needed anything.

Bruce made sure that Tim’s nanny knew she could bring Tim to Wayne manor whenever she needed a break. She knew that Tim loved it there so she did take Bruce up on his offer. She didn’t want the poor child growing up with no one else around other than when he was in school so they basically lived at Wayne manor whenever Jack and Janet were gone for months at a time. Tim would get to see his godfather all the time and his big brother whenever he wanted. She noted that he acted completely different at Wayne manor than he did at Drake manor.

Tim was there when Dick was officially adopted and celebrated with them happily. He felt like part of a real family. The only time his illusions were shattered was when his parents would come home. Bruce noticed the shift in Tim, he was outgoing and excited while he was at Wayne manor but when he found out they had to go back to Drake manor he would withdraw and isolate himself from everyone but his nanny. He would stop talking to the point that at one point Bruce feared his once bright and happy godson had gone mute.

Eventually Alfred, Bruce, Dick, Tim’s Nanny and Tim started learning sign language for the times Tim would learn he had to go home. Bruce never felt he could confront Jack and Janet about their neglect because he was worried they would take Tim away from him and their treatment of Tim would worsen until there was irreversible damage done to the small boy. Bruce just did his best to remind Tim as often as possible that no matter what happened Tim had people who loved and cared about him.

Bruce was the one that realized Tim liked taking pictures. He was always asking if he could take pictures of everything, everywhere, all the time no matter where they were or what they were doing. So for Tim’s seventh birthday Bruce gifted him a very nice camera that Tim promptly started taking everywhere with him. They would print off his pictures and hang them up everywhere even if they weren’t good. Dick said it was to be able to have originals when Tim inevitably became a famous photographer/artist.

Tim would attend galas with Bruce and Dick despite his parents not being around and would stick near Dick. Dick would introduce Tim to people as his baby brother and even though pretty much all the adults knew that, one Tim was in fact not a Wayne and not Bruce’s child, and two Dick was definitely not his older brother, no one wanted to be the adult that pointed out that Tim was actually a Drake and that at some point he would have to go back to permanently living in Drake manor.

Even though Dick was older Tim would always defend Dick to the other high society children who were all just parroting with their parents were saying about Dick since he was adopted and being raised by a single father. It got so bad once when Tim was seven and Dick was fourteen that Tim punched an older kid in the face shouting at him to be nice to his big brother before being promptly scooped up by Dick and taken to Bruce. They went back home after Bruce apologized to the kids parents with the subtle undertone of a threat that if he found out their kid was repeating anything an adult may have said around him about his son again there would be hell to pay, all with his signature Brucie Wayne smile that left little room for argument.

Of course Tim being as attached to Dick as he was, and idolizing Dick for his gymnastics skills it meant that Dick had to do a lot to avoid being found out when he became Robin. It obviously didn’t work because one day just before Tim’s eighth birthday, he was watching a video of Batman and Robin and noticed something familiar. He went to Dick and asked him about a specific gymnastics trick that required a high level of precision that most gymnasts trained their whole lives to achieve. The Flying Grayson’s quad somersault that Tim knew for a fact that before Dick’s parents deaths only three people knew.

Tim didn’t let Dick know why he was asking as he watched Dick perform the trick in the gym inside Wayne manor. He asked how many other gymnasts in the world did Dick think could do that trick. Dick answered honestly that it was a highly difficult trick that if they hadn’t been trained to do it from an early age they would probably never achieve it.

Tim just left it at that, smiling at Dick with a knowing smile. Dick didn’t even notice.

No one noticed when Tim stopped going to bed after dinner. He would instead let his nanny put him to bed and after an hour he would sneak out. He would grab his camera and run around the streets of Gotham unsupervised at night and snap photos of Batman and Robin, who at that point he knew were Bruce and fifteen, year old Dick Grayson, his idol, his only friend, his big brother.

Tim was around and watched as Bruce and Dick’s relationship began to strain. They would try to hide it from Tim, whose parents seemed to be around less and less as he got older but put more and more pressure on him to be the best and achieve only perfection.

Tim saw it anyway. He saw it in the way Batman would scold Robin and the next day Dick wouldn’t talk to Bruce all day, or in the way Dick would ignore Bruce benching him and go off on patrol anyway on his own. Tim continued to go out and follow them around and by that point he had gotten even better at photography and had many SD cards packed full of photos of Batman and Robin.

Fast forward two years. Tim’s parents were missing. A plane crash. They couldn’t be located, and while technically legally Tim should’ve been placed with Bruce as he was his designated guardian if something happened to his parents Gotham CPS was never known for doing things the way they were supposed to. For six months while they were searching for Tim’s parents he was bounced around from foster home to foster home while Bruce fought to bring him back home with him and Dick in the wake of his parent’s accident.

Eventually they found all the proper paperwork proving Bruce should’ve had Tim in the first place in the event that something happened to his parents and he was allowed to bring ten year old Tim back to Wayne manor.

Seeing as how Tim had already been looking at Bruce as if he were his parental figure it came as no surprise that upon learning about his parents death ten months after they had gone missing he turned to Bruce for fatherly love. And since it was the only fatherly love he could clearly remember the familiarity made him feel safe.

Fast forward about another year and two months to Dick leaving behind the Robin mantle, becoming Nightwing, and moving to Blüdhaven. Tim was devastated. His idol, his best friend, his big brother was leaving him behind. Tim was still too young to really understand the strain on Bruce and Dick’s relationship stemming from Bruce’s strictness with Dick when it came to him being Robin.

Completely unaware of Tim’s knowledge of their identities Dick sat with Bruce to have, what he hoped would be a civil conversation, about the future of Robin. He explained that he knew Tim was the first light in Batman’s life and that would never change. He told him he would have preferred to be Robin longer to give Tim time to train since he knew Bruce would eventually want Tim to be Robin.

“I would have liked to stay longer and give you time to tell him and let him train and become Robin.. i would prefer it if he were Robin and not someone else or you not having a Robin at all.. but I cant do it anymore B. If we keep going at this rate I’ll end up hating you and you’ll end up resenting me.. plus he’s too young now.. you can’t ask him to be Robin yet.”

Eleven year old Tim, who had known the two were meeting that night, crashed the meeting by throwing himself into a window and rolling into the room they were in of the run down apartment building they decided to have their meeting in.

“I know you’re my dad and brother!”

Tim brushed the glass and dust off of himself as the two older men turned and stared at him. He had looked back up at them and sighed.

“And I don’t want to be Robin.. especially not if it means you leave..”

The nineteen year old Dick kneeled on the floor and hugged Tim close to himself and told him he would always come back when his baby brother needed him no matter what but that he couldn’t keep going the way he was going.

Tim had known Dick would say that so instead of arguing he opened the SD card slot on his camera removed the extra SD card that was full of just pictures of Bruce and Dick out on patrol together that went back for three years starting the night he figured it all out. After a heartfelt goodbye Bruce took Tim home questioning him the whole way there.

Once they had gotten home Tim pulled out photo albums, a box of SD cards that were all full, and opened his laptop he had for school and showed Bruce everything he had on them and their identities. But most importantly all the photos he had taken of the two of them on patrol, taking breaks on rooftops.

“You’re not allowed to let this ruin your relationship with Dick.. I’m not choosing between you two. But I won’t let either of you say anything bad about the other either..”

Bruce looked at everything and agreed.

A few months later Bruce went back to the Batmobile to find a kid not much older than Tim stealing the wheels off of it. He was promptly hit in the stomach with a tire iron and the kid ran off.

And that’s where I’m going to leave off for this post. Hopefully I don’t for get this exists because I honestly do have most of the info for the AU already in my head it’s just a matter of writing it all down. ❤️💙🖤

As for the Tim never becomes Robin thrown in for spice don’t worry my loves Tim becomes a Vigilante. Just not Robin in fact the only other person in this AU that will ever become Robin after we get through Jay’s year and a half of Robin is Dami and only because his Akhi tells him cool stories about being Robin.

P.S. the fact that y’all like my stuff despite the fact that I am being mean and writing really sad stuff is making me feel great because I’m trying to get past my fanfic author curse of I have tried to die three times since I started writing fanfic in the last four months so.. thank you. Because I haven’t posted anything up until now because I said “fuck it if I’m going to wind up in the hospital anyway might as well actually post what I write” so thank you. ❤️❤️❤️

[pix-writes]

About Silco (relationship hcs and other thoughts)

I just need to get this out here - I love how multifaceted Silco as a character is and the different takes about him, he really is a morally grey antagonist and that in itself sets him up as meet food to feed on when it comes to fanfic, because you can twist him and his character any which way you want without warping his character ~too~ much! Which is amazing!

HOWEVER, I feel like there are some essential elements of Silco's character that is not talked of enough:

How he loves the ones closest to him (much more under cut)

Admittedly this list is rather short, and many have different takes on his role with jinx and how much did he actually manipulate her vs feeling genuinely parental to her (I tend to agree with the sentiment of him being more of a loving father, but I digress) and I find it vitally important to know how he would be in a possible romantic relationship!

Silco lets jinx physically hurt him in this scene^^^ and barely even flinches! (badass but somewhat concerning pain response there, trauma related?) he knows she is lacking in trust of him in this scene, but remains unflappably calm (despite inner concern/panic) and doesn't over explain himself or come up with excuses or lies, he simply tells her the truth (as he views it/believes it). He also doesn't stop her from hurting him with his eye injection by trying to push her away verbally or physically or even to restrain her movements very much, when he does touch her in this scene and many others, he does so lightly and fairly slowly most of the time too, giving jinx plenty of time to react or pull away if she wished. And as we know, silco entrusts her with his eye injections every day which even if used to help her feel useful and to keep watch on her every day, still requires immense trust, as it is vulnerable and intimate to apply something to someone's eye and silco seemed perfectly capable of doing the adminstration himself before meeting jinx. In fact he comes to rely on her for it in time.

(^^^ I mean, look at how even when he's trying to be firm and serious, he's still not ~too~ harsh or quick with his actions, Silco is obviously not used to affection, yet Jinx is often very close to him physically - if not emotionally - and Silco is evidently the most comfortable with Jinx being in his physical space compared with anyone else, even Sevika, who is his loyal right hand and someone he's known for a long time)

In short, I think based on this, that Silco would be very gentle with his partner, especially if they were in an official/committed realtionship. Perhaps, he may be rough at times in his words or actions; it would be different to how he treats Jinx, as she is his daughter and I feel he has residual grief/guilt over what happened to her mother, too, which makes him more suceptible to be lienient with Jinx in particular (on top of his accpeting nature of her, flaws n all). You're an adult and can take harshness or roughness on his part, especially when it comes to 'working out' frustrations 😏

Overall, though, Silco would be gentle with his partners - based on the evidence above - he may be scary, intimidating, withering to others, but with you - you see a softer, more unreserved version of him (as much as that can be said for Silco, as I feel he is a character who shuts himself away behind the walls he's built up for himself, so it's hard for him to get into a romantic relationship as I feel he's a character that isn't open to that, initially). He will be most receptive to your touch, like Jinx you may even be able to touch his neck (a place that has triggers for him, given his trauma), its less likely he will find your touch unwanted, in fact it soothes him. The times he's likely to ever pull away from your touch is when you're both being observed, as he would be careful about who he shows affection around, given his status, he is aware of how dangerous some people can be (yet he also has confidence that you are 1. well protected 2. it would take a severe lack of self preservation for anyone to attempt to harm the S/O of the Eye of Zaun).

He's not one to physically intimidate or be rough with his partners (at least not without their consent first), in fact he is to others, uncharacteristically soft with his S/O (not that they're likely to witness this, as he is his most unreserved and gentle behind closed doors). He will be teasing, joking and smile more around you, his world is often harsh and I think his partner will be one of his solaces in his life and this is in part why you are treated so affectionately by him <3

Even in his speech he would be much more receptive, encouraging and softer in comparison to how he interacts with most others. Praise is hard earned from this man but his partner can expect the most well considered praises and compliments that could ever come from Silco's mouth. The things he will say will leave you with a glowing ego for days or make you incredibly flustered! ;)

Silco is also a person who greatly values respect and loyalty, despite being a character who has been continually betrayed in trust in different and catastrophic ways, even reserving respect for Vander after his betrayal. You can also see this with those closest to him - Jinx and Sevika and how he treats them, and in turn how they treat him to some extent. So, Silco would deeply resepct and admire his romantic partner, he will value their opinions/what they say and do as well as be the most accepting of how they are as a person. Some of the qualities you dislike or think are deep flaws of yours? Yeah, they will be something he will likely most admire you for! He knows he has his own flaws, his own trauma and insecurities that he has transformed or wants to transform into strengths, I feel like Silco has had people see him as the monster, the freak well before his eye injury, shunned by most others; therefore these traits are things he can see beauty within, and as his partner you best know that he will want to see you transform, too. The dark/shadow parts of your self? He'll see it clearly and will love you all the same, in fact it's perhaps one of the first things that he notices that endears you to him.

[poemtoken]

I’m becoming increasingly aware that some of the fandom doesn’t really see Ben as a person outside of his obligation/responsibility to the team when he is an entirely developed person/character with an individual moral system and motivations specific to his situation and his own fears, and I rlly don’t fuck with it. Shauna reserves every right to feel pissed off and abandoned by his inaction but he was also experiencing a genuine mental health crisis in the middle of that whole situation. No, it doesn’t make his reaction less hurtful to her, but I wish that people would have even an ounce of the empathy that they have for Shauna and the others for him and that any actual attempt to humanize and understand him would be made without vilifying him for his reaction to a situation that was entirely out of everyone’s control to begin with.

In terms of his monologue, people have widely glossed over the part where he expressed his fear at the thought of being next. Rationality or fairness of that judgement aside, his fear in that situation is closely connected to his disability and I’m not going pretend like it’s not.

I think part of the reason his authority dwindled to begin with was an implicit realization by the team (maybe in part from having to carry him from crash site to lake to cabin after the crash) that he cannot, in fact, do everything that everyone else can do in order to contribute despite being the only adult around to look after them. Therefore, they aren’t going to let him make the rules for them. The shift of power is slow but constant over the course of the first season, and while his leg is never directly referenced as the reason why, it’s certainly an influencing factor. By the time the second season rolls around, the team’s general lack of care for authority in combination with his assumed ability or lack of leaves him in the back seat entirely.

His bearing witness to the way the group ousted Jackie with the underlying resentment of her inability to contribute and lack of survival instincts, and then watching as they cannibalized her in such an animalistic way awakened that fear in him, which was only intensified in finding out they killed Javi, and though he doesn’t know how, the truth might horrify him more. It’s through no fault of his own that he was injured but losing his leg leaves him at a disadvantage and in icing Jackie out and later on, what he can only assume is the team’s ambush of Javi (the youngest and by extension, the weakest of the group) he sees his own lack of ability to contribute as a target on his back. He sees himself as the weakest link, and he knows what that entails regardless of his intentions. So perhaps the judgement was unfair but after realizing he didn’t want to die anymore, he chose his own survival in a fit of uncertainty at a great cost, the team’s trust in him.

i will say. im not looking forward to how gleeful some people will be about a gay and disabled character being killed for something he didn’t do it’s gonna suck coach scott i hope you make it

[some-pers0n]

Every once in a while I think about the ship I've been obsessed over for close to two years now and feel like I'm ascending to another plane of reality. Like sometimes you just encounter a ship that hits every single mark and is perfect in every regard and you're left stunned how something like that can even exist

[bumblingbabooshka]

Chakotay leaning on the fact that he was Maquis to play-flirt with Janeway as they work on reports after hours and Janeway laughs, waving him off with a smirk and at the moment she says something like “I haven’t been charmed by the bad boy routine since I was in 8th grade” she turns to see Tuvok (also with them, has been there the whole time) looking very much charmed by the bad boy routine. (Only she can tell this.)

[gibbearish]

btw similar to the whole "if you try adderall at a party and it calms you down, get an adhd test" thing, if at some point in your life you try microdosing shrooms with a friend and end up feeling like a functional person for the first time in your life, get tested for depression. like yeah hallucinogens come with elation so youre probably gonna have some "this is the best ive ever felt in my life" vibes regardless, but like. if that in and of itself feels like finally breathing in for the first time in years, thats for sure a sign that something is up with your ability to process serotonin most of the time. feeling better than ever before should be a nice bonus, not a crushing weight off your chest

[syn4k]

Can I ask for a 🍉 in the ask game?

you may indeed!

*exhales* okay. this one's gonna be terrifying to elaborate on but here we go anyways.

there is no art without the artist and there is no artist without the art. they are, in a lot of cases but not all of them, one and the same. every detail you write into these little stories is probably revealing a small patch of your soul without your even realizing it.

this goes double for some of our longer works, for example- take twice., a story that was written during one of the worst times of our life. there was a situation with a guy, you know how it goes, and we literally threw ourself into working on it as an escape. that one's got a lot of themes of healing and how one mistake can cause horrible outcomes. actually now that i think about it a lot of our works deal with hope and healing. i guess it's a mirror

(btw whoever said that your teens are your golden years can die of a thousand tiny papercuts. i am NOT thriving and it is NOT my fault)

ashes is... a long and complex thing. it's faceted. it's messy. to be completely honest we absolutely hate some of the chapters we've posted. but it's been an exercise of honesty- both with ourself, and with our readers.

the characters in it, they fucked up SO bad. most of them are dealing with some serious shit. but there's still hope for them. (i'm not gonna lie, i finished chapter 7 and read back through it like "huh. if anyone ever thinks for half a second about us the author writing that in such staggering detail, we're toast")

there's a lot of projection. like a lot. i aint gonna say where but it's there. it's such a personal thing to be doing this for free and of your own will, both for your own good and others.

life is fuckin tough, and as writing is a reflection of life, the things expressed there will also be fuckin tough. i keep on, though because 1. if i ever stopped writing i would literally explode and 2. i've already promised myself to NEVER abandon a work. (breaks are allowed, though.) i have a commitment here both to the story ive started and to the readers

[dandyshucks]

if I try to mess with the eyes on the first one anymore I'm going to lose my mind DBDNDML so here have some self insert art,,,, also the houndoom was largely copied from someone else's art (dvixie/SkyVixie on deviantart, the art seems to have been taken down from their gallery though, I just found the art on pinterest and then had to track down the artist fjfkdl idk why ppl repost art with no credit 😭), I was trying to just get a feel for drawing them so I figured (HEAVILY) referencing someone else's piece would be alright for this sort of personal art thing!!

[tenok]

.

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[falesten-iw]

To Those Who Still Hold Onto a Shred of Morality and Humanity - Stand with Us and Don’t Forget Us.

Over 40,000 lives have been lost, with 70% of them being children and women. Among these numbers are my own family members—many of whom I’ve already lost.

My family, my cousin, aunt, their children, and grandchildren were all directly targeted by Israeli airstrikes. I’m sharing a video of my aunt and cousin to reveal the harsh reality we are facing in Gaza. In this video, my aunt bravely shares her story about how the Israeli army airstruck them along with their children and grandchildren. Even if you don’t understand Arabic, just watching her speak will help you grasp the immense suffering we are enduring in Gaza. You can see the vedeo in this post.

The few family members who remain are in grave danger, and I’m terrified of losing them too. We have a chance to make a real difference and give my 24 surviving family members a chance to live.

In Gaza, jobs are non-existent, and nonprofit organizations like the UN have drastically reduced their work on the ground. Basic necessities such as milk, food, and medicine are almost as expensive as gold. My family is struggling to afford even the essentials, and my mother urgently needs medication that we simply cannot afford.

I’m also sharing another video that shows the daily struggle people face just to get clean water. The suffering here extends far beyond my family; it’s a genocide affecting every aspect of life in Gaza.

Thanks to the generosity of those who have already donated, we’ve raised $535 toward our goal of $190,363- august 17th. I’m deeply grateful to each of you, but we still have a long way to go, and I need your help more than ever. Imagine if it were your family—how would you feel if they were in this situation?

For those who have created special posts or reblogged to amplify my voice, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your support means everything to me and to my family. If you haven’t yet shared our story, please take just one minute to do so. Your voice could be the lifeline my family desperately needs.

You cannot continue to treat human lives as mere numbers. This is a genocide that demands immediate action. How many more should be killed before you all wake up? Will 40,000 lives be enough to stir us to action? 50,000? 100,000? 150,000?

Asking for donations and charity is something we never imagined having to do in Gaza before the war, and it’s heartbreaking that it has come to this. But if everyone who saw my last post donated just $10 or $20, we could reach our goal in no time. If you’re looking for a way to contribute, consider giving up your coffee, tea, or other “cup” for one day, one week, one month, or anything in between. Then, donate what you would have spent to help me. Please help us and donate now!

This is about more than just donations—it’s about preserving human lives and upholding our shared moral values. Your contribution can make a world of difference in our survival and ensure I don’t lose more of the people I love.

Demanding an end to this suffering is a matter of basic humanity. You cannot remain neutral in the face of such genocide. Please, let’s stand together. Enough is enough.

Every donation, no matter how small, brings us closer to hope and healing. Thank you again for your kindness and support. I will never forget it.

Vetted and shared by @90-ghost: Link.

Verified and shared by @el-shab-hussein: Link

Listed even as number 282 in "The Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser Spreadsheet" compiled by @el-shab-hussein and @nabulsi : Link

Additionally, Al Jazeera News has documented apart of my family's case: Link

Important note: ** 105 Swedish kr is just 10$ ** 1050 Swedish kr is just 100$ ** 10500 Swedish kr is just 1000$

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[ultimate-marysue]

I feel like Alfred keeps count of every time the kids have made him and Bruce update the house rules. Everyone expects Damian to not be in the list, since he's so uptight but just because he's very strict on his moral code doesn't mean he respects a random set of rules. He's made it a few times to the list including "no murder/maiming attempts at Tim the family" and "a limit of two pets per family member". He gets around the limit by making his siblings "adopt" his pets.

Both Damian and Cass are the reason behind a lot of the addendums to the "politeness" section of the rules. Or, as Jason puts it, the "normal human behavior rules". Problem is: Cass pretends to not know how to read even years down the line, so Bruce ends up giving her an audiobook version.

Now everyone assumes top of the list has to go to Jason or Dick. And to be fair, they do rack up quite a few rules to their name. The infamous "no hanging from the chandeliers" and "No C4 No explosive materials in the manor" are theirs. Dick got most of his as a kid and Jason as an adult.

But no, the top two spots for "most changes made to the rules" are Duke and Tim. They just can't help themselves. These aren't new big rules like the others, but a never ending barrage of addendums to preexisting rules. Like, the book looks like this at this point:

Everyone must participate in household chores

Everyone must do their chores for the day

Everyone must do their chores between 1:00 to 4:00 pm (and never at six am on Sunday)

Everyone must do only their chores at the specified times. It's forbidden to do a siblings chores and argue they should be punished for not doing them.

You can't do chores dressed in an inflatable trex costume

Etc etc

It's gotten so bad Bruce is thinking about making an online list just so he can stop reprinting it. Those two read the book of rules as if it's their life's mission to find loopholes. They follow the rules in the most obnoxious way possible. Stephanie helps them brainstorm from the comfort of her own house, knowing she doesn't have to deal with the consequences.

[obsessivevoidkitten]

Hated. Fucked. Loved.

Kinktober Day 16: Hate-Fucked

Male Rival Yandere x Male Reader CW: PAINFUL noncon, bloody non-con, oral sex, face-fucking, cum swallowing, kidnapping, non-sexual bondage, piss, reader pissed on in shower, OC hates reader then turns yandere, sadism, sadistic yandere, protective yandere, mind-broken reader, briefly feminized reader, forced crossdressing, brief display of homophobia/f-slur, psychological damage, violence, minor character death, WHUMP, angst but eventual comfort, weapons-grade Stockholm Syndrome, Dead Dove: DO NOT EAT Word Count: 4.1k (Oh lordy, this one is brutal. Hope you enjoy it anyway. Not betaread so please excuse any errors. The longest fic of kinktober and the finale. I wish you all a Scary Hexmas and hope this Hexmas time meal is filling. Don't forget to comment <3)

Will. Fucking. Hated. You.

He had ever since he first met you in grade school. It seemed that no matter what he did, you always had to show him up. The only area he seemed to do better than you was in popularity. But that just didn't fulfill him enough.

Will wanted real acknowledgment that he was better than you could ever be. He wanted it reflected in his grades and in the opinions of the teachers. He wanted absolutely everyone to see he was better than you.

He wanted you to see it, too.

But despite all of his unmitigated vitriol towards you, you always ignored it and treated him with kindness. You figured maybe he had a bad home life or some other difficulty that made him take it out on you. His behavior still made you cry sometimes... but you really wanted to make everyone like you. You were a people pleaser, and you wanted him to be happy.

But it infuriated him, stoked the embers of his hatred for you into a full-on inferno every single time you did it. To him, it was clear evidence that you thought you were better than him. That you were above him. Morally superior.

As if poor trash like you could be better than him.

He knew all your kind behavior was a farce to make him look bad. To taunt him.

One time, when Will had been out of school with a broken leg, you had gotten the entire class to join you in sending him get well cards. You had even made homemade cupcakes. He was sure you were laughing at him!!! Goading him. And convincing everyone you were so great at the same time. Fucking piece of shit.

No matter what you did in life Will couldn't stop following your path until he proved he was the better man. He was obsessed.

When you went to a small cheap college, he dutifully followed you to it. His family was immensely wealthy. He could have gone to a much more prestigious university, he could have just gotten a job in his father's company, but he didn't want to use his money or connections to prove he was better than lowly scum like you. He wanted you to see he was better in every metric.

And he had to be there to see your face when you were finally defeated.

He even went into your field so he could do the same courses. So he could prove that you were a piece of shit to be discarded in comparison to him.

Since you were going to school to be a nurse for the elderly, you saw Will's obsessive competition not as a crazy need to prove you to be inferior to him but instead as absolute proof that he was secretly a wonderful person. For how could someone so devoted to the care of the old possibly be bad? Especially when nurses were paid relatively little and he had come from such a wealthy background! It wasn’t exactly a glamorous job.

So you still treated him with kindness. It was okay that he didn't like you. Now that you knew he was actually sweet below that prickly exterior, you could laugh off all his cruel behavior towards you much more easily.

This was unacceptable to him.

When you both graduated, he even went to work at the same nursing home as you. This gave you the impression that maybe he was a bit crazy over you. But not in the way that he actually was. You thought he had a crush on you. You thought all his meanness towards you was probably internalized homophobia with his following you through life proof of him really liking you.

You made the conscious effort to make Will happier and be even nicer to him now that you were sure you knew the truth.

That isn’t how he saw you doubling down on kindness.

Taunting him. Taunting him. Taunting him. That's all you ever did. Flaunting it for years. Pretending to be unaffected by him. As if he was an insignificant speck of dust that did nothing to you. That's how he interpreted your behavior. He hated you so much.

The final straw was when you threw Will a small surprise birthday party in the break room at work. Of course, he had to pretend to love it. Eat your overly sweet homemade cake.

To him, it was the ultimate humiliation. He had to pretend to like it. To thank you for the cake and the gift you gave him. A gift card to his favorite store.

You were just so smug. Thought you had pulled a great victory over him, he was sure. It wasn't like he could say anything. If he did, he would sound crazy. No one would believe him if he told them that you threw him the party just to anger and embarrass him.

Will snapped. He didn't show it, though. He acted calm for days as he slowly readied his revenge. He readied his basement and got all the required supplies for his self-appointed task. His reason for being. To break you and get revenge for the countless times you had made a fool of him.

For days after the party, Will had acted a lot calmer and less aggressive towards you. No more mean or sarcastic comments at your expense. You thought that maybe he was finally getting to a point where he was accepting his feelings.

But you couldn't have been more wrong. Will didn’t have to retaliate to perceived slights. You were beneath him, and he was finally going to prove it to you in every sense of the word.

You had stayed late at the hospital. Will waited for you to leave and followed you out into the parking lot. You had walked to work since the weather had been so pleasant, and since it was such a short distance from your house, you had to pass through the nearly vacant parking lot to go home.

As you passed his car, Will reached out from the shadows and grabbed you. Before you could scream, he held a cloth over your mouth with a strong hand. You struggled profusely until the chloroform overwhelmed you, and your body went completely limp. Will briefly noted that you looked kind of peaceful and cute before stuffing such gross thoughts aside. He quickly tied you up and hogtied you before stuffing you into his trunk and driving off. The journal you kept in your pocket fell out in the trunk.

His house was several miles outside of town. It was a long drive, long enough for you to regain consciousness, but that’s what your binds were for.

You were understandably terrified and disoriented. You had not even seen who had grabbed you, and they hadn’t spoken either, so you had no idea who had nabbed you or what they wanted.

When the car finally stopped, you heard your attacker snicker after opening the trunk. You redoubled your efforts to break free of your binds. But the rope that held you was too sturdy for that. Your abductor picked you up with some effort and quickly carried you into a building. You could only tell because the air changed and the sound of the door closing behind you.

You began screaming and shrieking into your gag, but succeeded only in hurting your own throat. Even if the screams had not been muffled by the cloth gagging your mouth, there were no other houses within earshot of you. And this wasn’t an area with any traffic either. Will had thought this all out.

You heard the rattling of chains and felt the cold touch of a metal collar around your neck. He rummaged through your pockets to take your phone, then your clothing was peeled away, and the binds around your arms replaced with handcuffs restraining your arms painfully behind you. The gag muffling your screams was removed, and you began sobbing pleas for your freedom.

The last thing taken from you was the blindfold. You stared up in confusion, not believing for a moment who you saw. Will, looking down at you with insane erratic green eyes and a smile that left a chill on your very soul. His medium length brown hair was unkempt, adding to the terrifying visage before you.

“Wha..? Will… Plea-!!”

You were interrupted by a sharp slap to the face that made your eyes water.

“Shut the fuck up! I am the one talking here. You don’t get to manipulate me with your smug words… I have been waiting so long to put you in your place. I think we should commemorate the moment!”

The unhinged man rummaged in a drawer until he pulled out a camera and took a few pictures of your sorry state. He put the camera away and produced a sharp knife from his pocket which he then held up to your oh so delicate throat. You sobbed more fervently.

“Aw, you’re crying already? We haven’t even gotten to the fun yet! We need to pace ourselves.”

His breathing was heavy. Like he was infusing his sadistic desires into the air with each breath he pulled into his lungs.

“Let’s make one thing clear from the start, if you try to escape or fight back, I will slit your throat. Do you understand?”

You nodded shakily. You knew you wouldn’t stand a chance against him in a fight. Even if he didn’t have the knife, he was still a very fit man.

“I am just SO excited… What should we do first… What will show I am better than you?”

As he sat down on the edge of a large bed a few feet from you and mumbled to himself you finally had a chance to catch your breath and try to calm the slightest bit down while you took in your foreign surroundings. You were in a neat, sparsely furnished room that appeared to be a basement. You were chained by the neck to a pole that was behind you. Only a scratchy blanket separated your bare skin from the cold concrete below. The bed he was on looked out of place, as if it had recently been moved down here, but it was clearly not for you.

“I know!”

Will walked up to you and pulled out his erect cock, evidently excited by having you under his control. He pressed the head of the thick appendage against your lips while smiling maniacally down at you in the same way that he had before, his meaning clear.

“Well hurry and get started then. And if you bite I think you know what will happen.”

Your jaw ached as you sucked him clumsily. It was rather large and you were rather inexperienced. It didn’t help that your hands were unavailable to help you grip the shaft to speed up the process. As he got closer and closer to orgasm he became more forceful. First humping into your mouth steadily and eventually gripping each side of your head hard and violently fucking your face until you thought you were going to pass out.

“You better not spill any!”

Finally he slammed down your throat, pressing your nose into his curly pubes, and came hard. You gagged but managed to swallow it all as he pulled out.

“Fuck. Maybe you were made to suck my cock. That was the best nut I think I have ever had. Don’t forget to clean it.”

After gasping for a moment you licked his cock clean of cum and saliva and he put it back in his pants. You had fantasized about doing things with him, but never like this.

You sobbed and asked why he was doing this, and he immediately put a stop to it by punching you in the gut, leaving you reeling.

“I still don’t want to hear your bitching.”

“You should know why. This is what you get for always looking down on me and having everyone convinced that you’re so great!”

He got in bed before continuing.

“You always thought you could compete with me, make people think you were better, outdoing me. But now you know you’re beneath me. I don’t know about you but I am tired from all the excitement, I need rest.”

Sleep did not come easily for you as painfully restrained as you still were, but eventually, you silently sobbed yourself into a state of unconsciousness. It was a fitful rest, one plagued by nightmares.

You awoke to the sight of Will leering down at you.

"Hey, sleeping beauty! I’m off this weekend, so we will have the next couple of days all to ourselves. I wanted more time, but I couldn’t take vacation right as you went missing. So we'll just have to make the best of it.”

Your lip quivered in fear of the horrors Will had in store for you. It was a warranted response. He started the day by having you gag on his morning wood and licking his nuts and dick clean of the cum that dribbled down them when he came.

You got smacked for spilling a drop, but it wasn’t as brutal as your treatment the night before.

Then he decided that you needed a shower so he hosed you down with cold water in the basement’s bathroom, the chilling concrete room had a drain in the floor making it a very convenient location for Will to torment you in as he did not need to worry about flooding. The concrete exasperated the chill. While the water was still running he took a moment to further degrade you by whipping out his half-hard cock and taking his morning piss all over you.

After that he noticed you sobbing silently again, your naked form shivering with anxiety, fear, and of course the bitter cold.

“Awe, are you crying like a little girly? Maybe you should be dressed like one then…”

A light bulb seemed to go off in your abuser’s mind.

“Hey, give me a minute!”

He tied you back up painfully before leaving abruptly. He came back with a maid outfit from a costume store down the street, it was October so it was open for Halloween.

"You look like such a slut in that, like the filthy whore you are."

You continued looking away in shame and humiliation.

"I bet you have a cunt like a girl's too. Bet you want to get railed by a real man."

"Stop it Will! A-anything but that! Please... I'm sorry!!"

That only pissed him off.

"You're not making the demands here slut!" He smacked you hard across the face, causing you to yelp.

"And you're not sorry yet... but you will be..."

He dragged you over and tossed you on the bed. You were shaking, crying into the pillowless mattress. You wanted to run but were terrified of what he would do. He was much stronger than you.

You heard the sound of him undoing his belt and pulling down his pants.

He spit on his cock and rubbed it to full length. Just enough lube so he could enter you. Not enough to do anything to bring you comfort.

The mattress sank with his additional weight as he got on. He positioned you with your ass up and moved the skirt of the maid outfit to show off your ass. You sobbed more. What had you done to deserve this? Had you hurt him somehow? Had he mistaken something someone else did for your own actions?

Will gripped your hips, nails biting into your flesh. He pulled you back hard and thrust forward at the same time. It felt like fire. His cock split your ass brutally and you screamed as loudly as you could. Will smirked. Music to his ears.

"Don't pretend that you don't want it. This is what fags like you are made for!"

A smack echoed as he slapped your ass but you didn't even register it beneath the all consuming pain of him violating you in such a brutal manner.

Will kept slamming into you over and over. Pulling out almost fully each time before thrusting back in as hard as he could. When he saw blood on his cock it only encouraged him. It wasn't like Will was into blood or anything. He wasn't really a sadist at all under normal circumstances, but he certainly was when it came to you. He was finally putting the trash that mocked and looked down on him in his place. The blood, tears, and choked sobs of pain were just evidence of that.

It felt like the violation was going on for an eternity. The burning pain was unrelenting as he mocked and teased you the whole time. You didn't even know he was talking anymore, and due to straining your voice, you could no longer scream. Will finally drove into you deeply and came hard. He stayed in a moment and let his cock twitch and pulse cum into you. He had totally owned you.

But when his anger ebbed away and he pulled out he saw the blood stained cum flow out of your abused hole. He saw your shaking crying form gripping the sheets tightly. He heard your ragged, uneasy breaths. He knew you were having a panic attack.

What was wrong? This was what he had wanted, wasn't it? To break you. But now that he had, he could only stare in horror at what he had done to you. Even if you had snubbed your nose at him and thought yourself superior, this wasn't a proportional response. Nothing could justify... this...

Will cleaned himself off haphazardly and pulled his pants back up. Then he removed the clothing from your body and picked you up.

He had to make things better.

You weren't aware of your surroundings. You had mostly withdrawn into your own mind. You kept mumbling that you were sorry over and over into his chest.

"No, no, no. Shhh. Don't be. I'm sorry. I'm the bad one... Shit, I'm so sorry..."

His words went past your ears, and you continued your chant-like apology over and over and over. Your brain just couldn't accept that someone could hate you so much without you having done something to deserve it.

Tears threatened to roll down his face, but he wouldn't let them. It was his fault. He wasn't the victim here.

Why had he done this? Because of some childish rivalry that may have only been in his head? No, he couldn't accept that it was in his head. Not yet. He couldn't just let go of the years of animosity towards you he had been harboring. But... still... he obviously took things way too far...

Will drew a bath and placed you in it gently. A stark contrast to how he had treated you up until this point. He washed you carefully, meticulously cleaning the wounds he had inflicted to prevent infection.

You slumped against the tub, eyes staring at nothing, as he washed you of all the filth and blood he had marred you with.

The rest of the weekend passed, and you had scarcely improved. You still muttered apologies and could manage to use the restroom on your own, but he had to feed you himself.

He didn't know what he was going to do. He hadn't actually planned on what to do when he was done brutalizing you. He couldn't just let you leave. There was no way he was going to prison. If he did, you'd be dumped in some psych ward and forgotten about.

He no longer needed the pictures he had taken to blackmail you as you were practically catatonic anyway. You couldn't care for yourself in this state at all.

Your abductor refused to leave you there while he returned to work, and without you 6 had no reason to go back anyway. He had been worried that it would be suspicious if the two of you disappeared on the same day, but he had your phone and just had to make up a scenario that would keep people away. Neither of you were particularly close to anyone, so it wouldn't be difficult.

The excuse he gave was that the two of you were going to move back to your hometown and get high paying jobs working for your father. He figured he could take care of you himself for a week or two while he got things worked out with his dad. Then he could take you with him to a new house there and hire a discrete caretaker to watch you while he was at work.

During the time before the move Will would sometimes get fed up with you and have to catch himself before he screamed or accused you of faking to guilt trip him.

As the week went on, he even caught himself thinking it was a bit cute when you were sleeping while he held you. He had to remind himself constantly that even though he went way too far, you were still in the wrong somewhat for how you had acted.

And then, while he was cleaning his trunk to pack your belongings he had retrieved from your place, he found your journal in his trunk and its contents finally got through to him. It detailed your crush on him and how you thought he must have one on you because of how he behaved towards you. It went on about your thoughts and feelings about your coworkers and all your interactions with them, including all the kind things you went out of your way to do to make them all happy.

It was obvious to him now that you were a real-life cinnamon roll. Part of the reason people liked you was because they could exploit your kindness, and they clearly had. And he had done far worse than that.

There was only one thing he could possibly do to even begin to make things right. He wasn't into men like you were, but he would be your boyfriend and eventual husband.

He would also make you his assistant at his new job so he could watch over you personally. It wasn't like he had to devote much time to work. He had an upper management position and could delegate most tasks. You had begun to do more basic things for yourself when directed so you could eat and sit and look busy so no one would suspect anything.

Eventually, after months of delicate, tender care, you were able to speak more and think properly again. Though you were still a nervous mess occasionally plagued by vivid nightmares that replayed what you had experienced. You never dared trying to escape. The lessons of obedience you had learned your first days with Will had been ingrained deeply within your psyche. And with your newfound anxiety, you couldn't really take care of yourself completely alone. You were dependent on him for employment.

Well, at least your boyfriend treated you kindly by that point. As if you were a porcelain doll that would crumble to dust under the slightest mean gaze.

In fact, rude employees had been fired for even shooting you a glare. And when there was a jealous bitch that had mean words to say about his darling assistant and lover? Some hired goons provided her with a broken nose one dark night.

When Will announced his engagement to you, his father objected because of your lower status and humble origins. He screamed at you directly accusing you of being a gold digging whore unworthy of his son. You curled up in the corner of the room, crying and trembling. Soon after that his father came down with a terrible case of sudden onset poisoned to fucking death with an untraceable toxin that gave him a stroke, a common enough cause of death for a man of his age.

Will wouldn't let anything threaten or hurt you. And if that meant his dad had to die, then so be it. You were his responsibility. But beyond that, what had started with him taking accountability for his actions towards you had slowly evolved into genuine love and care for you.

It took a long time, but eventually, your feelings towards him evolved into love, too. You would always be a little broken, a little fearful of him, but he was the only person you really had, he had isolated you thoroughly and was constantly in your presence, so it was inevitable that you'd start to see him in a better light.

[itsbenedict]

mutual 1: conventional morality is nowhere near cringe enough to be based. you agree.

mutual 2: i'm going to liveblog my attempt at solving this obscure statistics conundrum you've definitely never heard of

mutual 3, reblogging mutual 2: oh, yeah, the Obscure Statistics Conundrum, we've all seen it. i have strong opinions on the obvious easy and simple way it should be solved, somehow

mutual 4: i need. to fuck that old man.

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 6: [twenty-post long reblog chain arguing about politics with a stranger in stubborn defiance of the obvious fact that the stranger is not reading a single word they're saying]

mutual 7: here's my take on the latest chapter of the current Wildbow serial that you're going to have to blur your eyes and skip past because you haven't found time to read all five million words of this cool thing you don't want to be spoiled on

mutual 8: what if [the most deranged shit you've ever heard in your life]- and we were both girls?

mutual 4: don't forget i need to fuck that. old man. please.

mutual 9: [automatically generated link to a post on some ideologically extreme underground social media site with ten users that they use instead]

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: god every single thing about my life situation sucks so fucking much i want to cry and now you do too

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 10: reblogging that last picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 4: that old man. you know. what i need.

mutual 11: here's today's doodle :) [outlandishly beautiful piece of original art which gets seven notes]

mutual 12: only posted eighteen spicy takes about gender today, so here's a new one i just came up with. is this anything

mutual 13: hey, wanna look at this pornography that somehow hasn't gotten taken down by Tumblr yet?

mutual 14: [a pun so bad she gets put in the fucking Hague]

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 5: picture of a bird

mutual 15: [21st reblog on the politics reblog chain where everyone is talking past each other and has zero intention of persuading anyone]

mutual 4: i need to FUCK that old man. what do you mean he's dead

mutual 8: what if i fucked that old man. and we were both girls.

[beatrice-otter]

I’ll be honest, when one party’s aiding and abetting the genocide and the other’s outright gonna kill all my friends, I don’t really care if the fascists “win”. They’ve won already.

You know who would be delighted to hear that? Trump and Putin. The US far right and the Russian government have poured lots of time, effort, and money over the last decade+ into convincing US leftists and liberals that things are hopeless, there's no point in even trying to make things better, and the Democrats and Republicans are functionally interchangeable. They do this because one of the easiest ways for them to win is if the left gives up and stops trying. Every person on the left they can convince to give up in despair brings them closer to complete control. Defeatism on the left actively supports victory on the right.

I think your statement is wrong on a number of levels, both factual and emotional. It comes from not understanding what the actual options are for the US government and the President specifically, either at home or abroad. And it will allow actual fascism to flourish and make the world far worse than it is now.

On an emotional level, the way to address this is to stop doomscrolling. Stop focusing on the worst things happening in the world. Don't ignore them! but don't let them consume you. Start looking for the things that are going well. Find places in your community that you can get involved in making things better. Even if it's only on a small scale like volunteering in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter, it will help you realize that you aren't helpless, that there are things that can be done to make the world a better place. Stay informed about things on a local, national, and international level, but limit how much time and attention you give to things that depress you that you can't affect. Instead of sitting there thinking about all the ways the world sucks and how awful things are, look for things you can do that are productive, and then do them. You'll feel better and you will have made your corner of the world a little better. And you will be a lot less likely to unintentionally fall into the despair, nihilism, and passivity that the fascists want you to be consumed by.

Always remember that the worlds problems are not resting solely on your shoulders, or solely on America's shoulders, and neither is the hope of fixing them. Everyone has things that we can do to make the world a better place, but there are also things that are beyond our control. We can control what we do; we cannot control what others do. We can and should try to make the world a better place, but focusing on the things we can't change has no positive benefits. Focusing on things we can't change accomplishes two things: it makes you feel bad, and it stops you from doing the things you actually can do to make things better. Neither of these things is good for you or anyone else. Look for things you can do and do them. Keep informed on the things you can't change, but don't focus on them.

On a factual level, let's look at "aiding and abetting genocide," shall we?

First, it's important to remember that the US President is not the God-Emperor Of The World. The US government has limits to what it can and can't do in other countries, and both legally and practically. If the US wants to intervene in a problem in another country, there are a variety of things we can do that boil down to basically four categories. It's a lot more complex than this in practice, of course, but in general here are the categories of things we can do:

Send in the troops. Invade, either by ourselves or as part of a NATO or UN operation. (Or maybe just send in a CIA wetworks team to assassinate the head of state.) I hope you can see the moral problems with this option, and also, we've done this a shitton of times over the course of the 20th Century and pretty much every time we've done it, we've made an already awful situation worse. On a moral level, it's pretty bad, and on a practical level, it's worse. Sure, we could stop the immediate problem, but what then? Consider Afghanistan and Iraq. We got rid of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, and everything went to shit, we spent twenty years occupying Afghanistan with pretty much nothing to show for it. (The Taliban is back in control of Afghanistan.) Things were worse when we left than when we arrived. So this option is pretty much off the table (or should be).

Diplomatic pressure. Now, the thing is, they're a sovereign nation, they don't have to listen to us if they don't want to. We have a lot of things we can leverage--including financial aid--but the only way to force them to do what we want is to invade and conquer, and that only works temporarily. Since we can't force, we have to persuade. This requires us to maintain our existing relationship with the country in question, and possibly strengthen it, because that relationship is what we're leveraging to try and influence them to do what we want them to do. If we do not maintain our relationship, they have no reason to listen to us.

Cut ties and go home. Break off any existing relationship and support, loudly proclaim that they're awful and doing awful things and we wash our hands of the whole situation. This keeps our own hands lily-white and pure, but it also means we have zero leverage to work on any kind of a diplomatic solution. They have no reason to listen to us or care about what we think. We can pat ourselves on the back for doing the right thing, but we destroy our own ability to influence anything. Not just now, but also in the future. Let's say the current crisis ends, and then ten years later there's another crisis. If we want to have any effect then, we would have to start from square one to start building a relationship. Cutting ties would be great for making Americans feel better about ourselves, and there are times when it's the only option, but it should be a last resort. If there is any hope of being able to influence things for the better this will destroy it at least temporarily.

Cut ties and impose sanctions. Break off any existing relationship and support, loudly proclaim that they're awful and doing awful things, but also use the might of the American economy to isolate and punish them. We've done this a lot over the 20th Century, too, and it has never actually resulted in the country in question buckling down and toeing the line we want them to. What happens is the sanctioned country has an economic shock (how long it lasts and how bad it gets depends on a lot of factors) and then pulls themselves back together economically, except this time they're more self-sufficient and less reliant on international trade and financial networks. They tell themselves that America is evil and the cause of all their problems, and so not only do they not listen to us, they actively hate us. And they have fewer international relationships, so fewer reasons to care about what the international community thinks about them. So they're most likely to double down on whatever it is they're doing that we don't like. This one is completely counterproductive and utterly stupid. It's great for making Americans feel better about ourselves, but if we actually care about being able to use our influence for good (or, at least, to mitigate evil) this option shoots us in the foot. It encourages other nations to do the very thing we're trying to stop them from doing.

So, with those four options in mind, both option one (invasion/assassination) and option four (sanctions) are off the table for being immoral and counterproductive. That leaves "breaking our relationship and going home" and "using diplomatic pressure" as our only two viable options.

Biden has chosen option two, diplomatic pressure. Yes, he and our government have continued financial support for Israel ... but with strings attached. They have put limits on it that have never been put on any US foreign aid before. They have taken legal steps to lay the groundwork to target Israeli settlers (i.e. Israeli citizens who confiscate Palestinian homes and businesses). We've been hearing reports for months that Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister, and a far-right-wing demagogue) hates Biden's guts, because Biden is pressuring him to stop the genocide and work towards peace. Biden is maintaining the relationship, and he's using that relationship to try and influence things to curb the violence and pave the way for a just peace settlement of some sort. Biden has also mentioned the possibility of a two state solution where Palestine becomes its own completely separate country. That's huge, because up until this point the US position has always been that Israel is the only possible legitimate nation in that territory. If Biden stopped US support for Israel, it wouldn't force Israel to stop what it's doing ... but it would let them ignore us. It would remove any leverage or influence we might have.

Biden's hands aren't clean. But the only way for them to be clean would be to also give up any chance of influencing the situation or working to protect Palestinians now or in the future. Only time will tell if it works, but I personally would rather have someone who tried and failed than someone who didn't even try. You might disagree about whether this is the right course of action, and there's a lot of room for honest disagreement about the issue (there's a lot of nuances that I'm glossing over or ignoring). But please do acknowledge that Biden isn't supporting Israel because he supports genocide; he's doing it so that he can continue to maintain diplomatic pressure on Israel to stop the violence.

Which brings us back to "aiding and abetting genocide." Trump is not like Biden. Trump is good friends with Netanyahu and backs Israel to the hilt. Trump thinks that all Arabs are terrorists (and all Muslims are terrorists) and genuinely believes the world would be a better place with them dead. Biden is continuing to support Israel, but using that support as influence to get them to stop or slow down. Trump would be using that influence to encourage them.

And those are the two choices. Someone who is trying to curb the genocide, and someone who actively supports it.

I really hope you can see the significant and substantial difference between those two positions.

But let's say that you're right and Biden's policy towards Israel and Palestine is every bit as bad as Trump's would be. If there was nothing to choose between them on foreign policy grounds, there would still be a shitton to choose between them on domestic policy grounds. You admit that the right wants to kill your friends, and yet you don't seem to think that stopping them from killing your friends might be a good thing to do.

"We can't save Palestinians, so we might as well let Republicans destroy the rights, lives, and futures of LGBTQ+ people, women, people of color, people with disabilities, poor people, non-Christians, and anyone else they don't like." "We can't save Palestinians, so why bother to try to save the people we might actually be able to save." "We can't save Palestinians right now, so there's no point in trying to build up a longer-term political bloc that might drag US politics to the left over the long run."

Do you get why there's a problem with that line of thought?

[jennaflare]

So Disco Elysium is the only game you've ever really liked

I get it! It's a phenomenal game with superb art and writing, and its themes are consistent and deeply explored. It sets a high bar for video games. But there are other really, really fantastic games out there. This is a list that is 100% my own taste of things that aren't necessarily similar, other than the fact that they're really fucking good. (A lot of these are on sale for the Steam Summer Sale until July 11 2024!)

In Stars and Time

In Stars and Time is a time loop game where you play as Siffrin, the rogue of a party at the end of their quest to save the day by defeating the King, who is freezing everybody in time! But something is wrong: every time you die, you loop back to the day before you fight the King. You're the only one who remembers the loops, so it's up to you to figure out why it's happening, and how to break out.

In Stars and Time is a heart-wrenching dive into mental health, friendship, and love. It's about feeling alone, and how awful it is when the people who love you don't notice (and how awful it is when they do). It's about falling deeper and deeper into your worst self and your worst tendencies, and how to come back from it.

The creator also did one of my favorite Disco Elysium comics ever, which is only tangentially relevant but worth mentioning.

Roadwarden

In Roadwarden, you play as the titular Roadwarden for an undeveloped and "wild" part of the kingdom. Monsters roam the forests and roads, and it's your job to keep people safe. On paper, anyway. Your real mission is to find out what is of value in the area, and how to take it from its people. How well you perform this task is up to you. It's an oldschool text-based RPG, and I take a lot of notes by hand when I play.

Roadwarden explores exploitation and industrialization by making you look in the face of your potential victims. You can only learn what your bosses want you to report on by getting close to the residents, after all. There are mysteries to be solved, secrets to be gathered, and hearts to win.

The Longing

The Longing is an adventure-idle game where you play as the solitary servant of a sleeping king. Your task is to wait for him, for four hundred days. Time in the game passes in realtime (for the most part). There are caves to explore, books to be read, and drawings to make.

The Longing is about loneliness and depression. It's about whether or not you decide to stay in that hole, and if you do, what you do with yourself while you're there. Maybe you'll wander. Maybe you'll stare at a wall. Maybe you'll just sleep until it's all over.

Papers, Please

Papers, Please casts you as a newly hired customs officer in a country that is rapidly tightening its borders as its fascist government tightens its fist. This game is stressful. Sometimes you intend to help out the revolutionaries when they asked, but then you got so stressed out trying to make your quota so you can feed your family and pay your bills that you didn't notice the name of the person they were hoping to contact while going through their papers. Sometimes someone puts a bomb in front of you and expects you to defuse it. Sometimes someone suggests you steal people's passports so you can get your family out, and with the horror you see daily, the idea tempts you more than you'd like.

Papers, Please is all about hard choices and testing your moral fortitude. Everything you do has consequences. Being a good person in this game is hardly ever rewarded, but not in a way that feels overly cynical. Papers, Please asks you what kind of person you want to be and what you're willing to sacrifice to get there.

The Return of the Obra Dinn

From the creator of Papers, Please, The Return of the Obra Dinn is a game where you play as an insurance investigator for the East India Trading Company. The ship the Obra Dinn has just floated back into port, its entire crew missing or dead. It's your job to figure out what happened aboard the vessel. For insurance reasons.

I don't know how to go into the themes of this too deeply without giving away too much, but the mechanics of the game itself make the game worth playing. You have a magic stopwatch that allows you to go back to the moment of a person's death, allowing you to try and figure out who (or what) killed them, and how. And the soundtrack is extremely good.

Outer Wilds

In Outer Wilds you play as an unnamed alien, and it's your first day going to space! Your planet's space program is pretty new still, so there's still lots to explore and discover on the planets within your system. There are ancient ruins from a mysterious race that once lived in your system, long before your species began to record history. Why were they here? Where did they go? How are they connected to the weird thing that keeps happening to you?

The fun of Outer Wilds is in the discovery and answering your own questions. The game never tells you where to go, and it never outright tells you anything. There are clues scattered through the system, and it's up to you to put them together and figure out your next steps. It's about the way that life always goes on, no matter what, even when it seems like the end of everything, forever. I'd recommend NOT reading anything else about this game. Just go play it. Seriously, the less you know, the more fun this is.

If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers

In If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers, you explore the circumstances of the deaths of four individuals.

This is a short one that took me about two and a half hours to play. If for no other reason, play it for the stunning pixel art. The game explores sexism, racism, and homophobia in the Victorian era and leans heavily into horror themes. Best of all: it's completely free!

Pentiment

Pentiment takes you to the 16th century, where you take the role of Andreas Maler, a journeyman artist working on his masterwork in the scriptorium of an abbey. When someone is murdered, Andreas takes responsibility for finding the culprit.

The game is set over 20~ years and you get to watch how Andreas' actions affect the village in various ways (who's alive the next time you come by, have people gotten married and had children...). It's an exploration of how the past affects the future, and what parts of that past we choose to keep or discard. It has beautiful art, and fans of both Disco and Pentiment often compare them.

Other games you might wanna check out

Night in the Woods, Dredge, Oxenfree, A House of Many Doors, Inscryption, Slay the Princess, Citizen Sleeper, Chants of Sennar, Loop Hero, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, The Pale Beyond, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Elsinore, Her Story, Before Your Eyes, Pathologic (not delved into above because the venn diagram of Pathologic fans and Disco fans is basically a circle)