#tw death and dying

[skywalking-through-life]

Hey friend!! I thought I'd give you a challenging one, hehehe: you get a free pass to kill anyone, who is it? - Hermes

Oh my friend, you love giving me asks that make me think, and then subsequently make me word vomit, lol.

(Obviously a MAJOR CW here for death, dying, and the idea of killing vs. assisted natural death.)

I've actually been thinking about this for a few days, because I feel like my basic answer might seem, upon a first read, I don't know...trite? Overly moralistic? Abstract? Naive? But it's what I believe, so I'll try to explain a bit, operating under the assumption that there is a *reason* for killing, and that it isn't just random.

I don't want to kill anyone. I never have, and I hope I will never feel that desire.

Does that mean I don't understand how righteous anger, fear, desperation, and/or desire for justice might lead a person to experience those feelings? Of course not - there are a thousand wrongs in this world that I wish I could make right, and if I thought that killing one person might do that, of course I'd be tempted! But I don't believe - practically, materially - that any one person's death makes the world safer or better to the degree that I would compromise my moral stance on murder. I belong to a faith that values non-violence above many other values, and so killing of any kind is something my people grieve, and take very seriously.

There are many reasons for that, but here are a few key ones, summarized as I understand them:

1) Who am I to decide who deserves to live, and who deserves to die? What knowledge, insight, power, or moral clarity do I possess to be able to make such a choice? Can I be sure - 100% sure - that it is worth making? Anyone who claims to have that sort of undisputable wisdom is a person I find difficult to trust - death, and the things that lead up to it, are rarely as straightforward as anyone tries to make them out to be.

2) We do not - and cannot - know what may result from a person's death. Take out one tyrant, and another rises up to take his place - perhaps committing even worse atrocities than the first. Out of revenge, kill a person who committed a crime of desperation, and you only add to the desperation - you don't fix the problem that led to the crime in the first place, and perhaps you create a whole new generation afflicted by it.

3) Relatedly, killing creates a vicious cycle of violence. If we repay a wrong with a wrong, all that happens is that there is more wrong - which oftens spirals out of control, bleeding out into places where innocents are harmed. And once we reach that place, it becomes difficult to parse the innocent from the guilty - which leads us back to the question of: how do we know? How do we decide? Can we make that decision without knowing for sure? True justice is rehabilitative at its core, not just punative. If we give into our urge to punish people for real or imagined crimes, we eventually become the perpetrators of crimes ourselves.

Now, all that being said: there are times when I think a person might very reasonably desire death for *themselves,* and need help and advocacy to have the sort of death that is meaningful to them. In my line of work, I spend hours every week with people who are dying, sometimes in terrible, painful, undignified ways. For many of them, the idea of death is scary, but for many more, it's a relief - an end to a disease process that is 100% going to kill them eventually (and probably soon), we just don't know exactly when or exactly how. Some of these folks want to be able to take charge of their looming death, and want to meet it on their terms. I support their right to do that in whatever ways are meaningful, consistent with their values, and legal - but that is a choice *they* are making, and must make themselves, not a choice I could or would ever make for them.

There is an important distinction here between 'killing' and 'allowing natural death' that is always relevant to my field, but one that I thought was relevant to this answer too - I include it as a caveat, to explain that I do not necessarily view death as evil. It will come to us all in time, and I do think it matters how we prepare to face it.

[mari-lair]

First Loop

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[mournfulroses]

Sylvia Plath, from The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath; "Lady Lazarus,"

[echoingalaxies]

Whumpee is dying, nothing can stop it anymore. Instead of a goodbye - when Whumpee closes their eyes for the last time, when they take their final breaths, when their hand in Caretaker's goes limp - Caretaker whispers "good night."

[sporeclan]

< Previous | First | Next >

Yet another just generally bad time for all of SporeClan :')

[drawsmaddy]

[ID: A digitally coloured ball point pen drawing of Dorian Storm from Critical Role. Only Dorian's left arm, some of his cape, and some of his hair is visible. He is lying on the ground with blood pooling around him, staining his hair and cape. In his hand he holds his sending stone. End description.]

I would like to immediately clarify that I am so sure Dorian is fine, however I absolutely had some angst-ridden fun with the idea that Dorian could've died with the sending stone in his hand just like Orym did a couple years ago

[shanalikeanna]

"....What have you done?" Fic (Bad Ending) Author: @pluck-heartstrings Read the full fic here I'm BEGGING YOU it's really good I promise TW:Blood under the cut

[yesornopolls]

Are you afraid of dying? Not of suffering before you die, but specifically of dying itself?

[creative-clawmarks]

I have decided that Brian is a ghost in this AU.

Because I know it will make people sad.

-------------------------

COMMISSIONS

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

Readerbot’s Alternate Ending: crushed beneath rubble as the PizzaPlex is burned, they have a sort of dying dream before going offline for the last time

(Dialogue is from BMO’s ‘death’ scene, it’s rlly sad for absolutely no reason and I think abt it a lot)

[wishchip106]

honestly Erik should’ve been fighting for women’s rights instead of mutant rights 🤨

all the times he turns into magneto is because something bad happened to a woman 😭😭

Edie Lehnsherr:

Magda Gurzsky and Nina Gurzsky:

Raven:

okay #1 feminist 🤨🤚

[tart-miano]

Edit: whelp there it goes. Worth a try at least. Here's the playlist by itself. It's set up so that you can follow along on here and see the art that goes with each song (both music and art are arranged in the same order for convenience)

-

HOOOOOOO BOY this was a lot of work lmao, so i got into LGTS this past christmas and after making a playlist inspired by it for myself, i figured i'd make a video of it paired with original fanart!

I'm aware there's a high risk of the video getting taken down for copyright (what i'm doing mostly is just seeing what i can get away with under yt's Ceaselessly Watching Eye and maybe if it goes well i can make more playlist/art videos?? no biggie if it doesn't work out, just testing the waters ig) SO! i'm putting the art on its own on tumblr jic i can't keep the video up. the art is the most important part to share anyways right?

[shaotie]

**WARNING** this comic does NOT have a happy ending

🔹🔹🔹

What if Leo didn't survive the prison dimension?

🔹🔹🔹

"Took You Long Enough"

🔹🔹🔹

- masterpost for my rottmnt ao3 fanfics and art

[j0celynh0rr0r]

Drowning

[echoingalaxies]

Whump drabbles, 15/100: proposal.

cw: death

“Will you – marry me?”

“Shh,” Caretaker stroked Whumpee’s cheek, wiping away the blood on their lips with their thumb. “Save your strength.”

“Please,” Whumpee mumbled between shallow breaths, eyes barely open, leaning against Caretaker’s hand. “Would you?”

“I can’t marry you if you die. So stay still…”

“I – need to hear it –”

“Yes,” Caretaker whispered. “Yes, I’d love to marry you. So you have to promise you’ll make it.”

Whumpee smiled, a tear rolling down their temple. “That’s everything – I’ve ever – wanted.”

“Whumpee, promise me.”

Eyes closing. “To – be with – you.”

“Whumpee?”

Their chest rising, falling, and suddenly, not.

“Whumpee!”