#this one is not as sad

[abby-the-druid]

Technicolor Ch. 4

In which a stranger becomes an ally.

Read on ao3 and ff.net

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Preview:

Then.

“Sasuke,” the boy glanced over at his mother, Mikoto, who was crouched on the cracked tile floor, picking through a cardboard box he had yet to empty. Her slender hands were wiping at her dark eyes, and he realized, with an uncomfortable quiver, that there was water dripping down her face. “I – I’m sorry it’s taken me this long to come over and help you.”

“No, mom, you’re fine.” He hesitated in grabbing the next clean bathroom towel to fold.

“With your father and his…” she winced and sighed, biting at her mouth. “I never know when you’re here. You’ve had… I don’t - ” she tossed the object back into the box, which gave a loud clatter in the small room. She jumped at the sound and frowned in an apology, quickly pulling the object back out and inspecting it for damage.

“I know you need space from us… me, that’s why you…” she folded into herself for a moment, arms crossing between her chest and legs, face pressed into her knees and Sasuke listened helplessly as her breath rushed in and out of her lungs. “I didn’t mean to drive you away.” She sobbed; voice garbled as she spoke weakly into her body.

Sasuke shrank, a layer of icy dread rested around his shoulders like a heavy cloak. He shuffled closer to her, feeling completely out of place with her small breakdown, in the apartment he had been relegated to because of his big breakdown.

He kneeled beside her, resting a hand on her shoulder. Her head shot up, nearly identical sets of eyes meeting, and Sasuke realized for the first time how tired his mother looked. She had matching navy bruises decorating the soft skin under her eyes and elegant stress lines ran along her cheeks.

“Mom, you didn’t,” he shook his head, palms damp and heart racing. “You didn’t push me away. It was…” his voice died as his brain worked to explain what he couldn’t describe to himself. A frustrated hand ran through his hair, and he offered her a hollow smile. “It wasn’t you; I can promise you that.”

Mikoto slowly unfolded, coming to rest on her haunches, a slender hand reaching up and wrapping her fingers around her son’s. “He’s said that before too.” She breathed softly; sniffling, black eyes blank as she stared at the faux wooden grains in the cupboards.

“Who?” Sasuke asked, a black brow raising, but she simply blinked and shook her head, squeezed his hand before dropping it.

“No one,” she said, “excuse me.” She stepped away from him and into the bathroom. He was left kneeling on the cracked flooring, still slightly sticky even after he had deep cleaned the entire space, and he frowned as he stood and turned back to the living room. He was in the process of folding a shirt, mulling over the uncomfortable show of emotion, when she came back in, the redness of her cheeks was gone now, any blemish of streaked mascara had been removed, and she was holding herself as though everything were normal.

They were back to business now.

The small glance through a crack in the wall of his ever put together mother had snapped shut in the short moments she had left the room. And like a distasteful book, she had put the moment back on the shelf to gather dust.

[stevenrogered]

Dame Maggie Smith as Muriel Donnelly The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)

[nijuukoo]

If you look really, really close, you can see there's a dead pixel in the upper right corner.

[stump-not-found]

i don't think the theraprism is a good thing, guys

[inkskinned]

the tradwife movement is the same as it has always been - back in the kitchen, back to breeding - it just has better branding.

when i was younger, i hated pink. i was not like other girls. this is now something i'm embarrassed of - this was not me being a "girl's girl."

but it was expressing something many of us felt at the time: i literally wasn't what girlhood was supposed to be. this is a hard thing to explain, but you know when you're not performing girlhood correctly. it isn't as easy as "i liked x when girls liked y" - because there were other girls that liked x, too - but i never figured out exactly the correct way to like x, or to be interested in y.

now there is the divine feminine. this is the same rhetoric it has always been: women are biologically driven to like pink and ribbons and submitting to our husbands.

the problem is that the patriarchy found a better PR team. because yes, actually, i want every woman to have the choice to be a homemaker. i also want her taken seriously for her legitimate home-making labor. i want her to be recognized as also having a job, just unpaid. i want men to have this opportunity, too.

but it is no longer "i made this choice and I love it." instead it is a sixteen-paragraph rant about how selfish it is that my generation isn't having kids. instead it's long videos about how if you feed your children processed foods, you're going to kill them. instead it is "this is what womanhood is supposed to be. i feel bad for any other choices you're making."

the shame spiral is just prettier. it is large houses devoid of personality. it is the implication: if you don't have this, you aren't happy. the solid, everlasting assurance: women are actually supposed to be submitting. this is the default. this is the natural state of things. all other attempts inflict suffering.

but you can no longer say i'm not like other girls. you can no longer reject this image completely. you cannot find it revolting, even if you know that the underbelly is toxic and festering. sure, it is the same repackaged patriarchy. but the internet does not have shades of grey. you should support and reward other women! your disgust is actually internalized misogyny. not because you are seeing a vision of yourself the way they're trying to train you to be. not because you feel her ghost pass within an inch of your earlobe. not because your father will eventually ask you - why can't you be like her?

because they figured out how to make it beautiful: women will sell other women on this idea, and we will find the singular loophole in feminism. sure, she's shaming you in most of her videos. sure, she implies that a different life is obscene. but she just wants you to be happy! you'd be happier if you were listening!

and the whole time you're sitting there thinking: i'd actually just be happier if i had that kind of money.

[artkaninchenbau]

Crocodile finds a strange stray cat an 11-year old Nico Robin (AU where they met 13 years earlier. Robin's been on the run from the World Government for 3 years. Crocodile's 27 and has not set up base in Alabasta yet)

It seems like I have become possessed. By some sort of demon.

Bonus:

[kuuhaiyu]

i really can't emphasize how heartbreaking it is that the recent harassment campaign against @/90-ghost (among others; see: 1, 2, 3) has led to well-meaning people telling others not to listen to him. he is one of the most visible survivors of the genocide here on tumblr. his entire journey of escape is so well documented! and yet, it only took a few people confidently pointing fingers to create an entire witch hunt accusing him and other palestinians of being disreputable scammers and liars.

i can't help but feel like the reason why people were SO eager to believe those accusations, is because it was uncomfortable to see posts from palestinians every day asking for our time, attention, money, and support; so when someone presented the perfect excuse to ignore all those posts and asks while also taking the high ground, people just LEAPED onto it. they wanted to believe it, because it would be more comfortable.

honestly, i understand feeling overwhelmed by bad news, by the number of asks and messages in your inbox, and so on and so forth. i understand needing to set boundaries for yourself so you don't get burned out. i think this is really when you have to have a set of principles to fall back on, even when you're tired, uncomfortable, angry, and/or sad. so here's the one i suggest, which has been working for me best: don't make your discomfort with this situation into someone else's problem, and for god's sake don't make it a public problem.

if you hate seeing fundraiser posts or news about gaza, i can't emphasize this enough, JUST MOVE ON. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND SCROLL PAST! all you have to do is absolutely nothing. which is what you were doing anyway, so it shouldn't be hard. if you don't have the heart to read, or reblog, or share, or donate, or support in other ways, at the very least, don't obstruct the efforts of people who ARE trying to make a difference. this is, quite literally, the least you can do.

[monkesupreme]

ref

a satisfactory answer for Selina

[holdoncallfailed]

always been kind of fascinated by the fact that so many wikipedia pages for complex emotional states/afflictions are represented by paintings, a disproportionate number of which are by edvard munch

[barghest-land]

ancient sun cast your light cause there’s no hope in endless winter

Bogolubovia

[housederiva]

[chloesimaginationthings]

Elizabeth Afton bets on losing dogs in FNAF..

[bigturtl]

i love lawyer game

[sga-owns-my-soul]

reblog to give ur mutuals a soft lil kissy on the head

[dongslinger--420]

When BoJack Horseman (2014-2020) said "you can't keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it ok. you need to be better" and "all we have are the connections we make" and "I really should've thought about the view from halfway down" and "sometimes you have to take responsibility for your own happiness" and "you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, you turn yourself around, THAT'S what it's all about" and "things have to get worse before they can get better" and "in real life, the big gesture isn't enough, you need to be consistent" and "if we hadn't met each other until now, we wouldn't be the people we are now" and, my personal favourite, "every day it gets a little easier, but you gotta do it every day, that's the hard part, but it does get easier".

[vongulli]

Woah, drawings!!