#we’re gonna have to vote on it

[inchling-prince]

So y’all remember how I said I had thoughts about Krux having a cat? I may have actually FINALLY written that. It’s about 1400 words long so I put most of it under a cut. So, presenting this under the working title of Operation: Give Krux a Kitty

There was that sound again. Every evening that week near his front door Krux could hear it. Barely more than a squeak. He assumed it was some kind of animal. It wasn’t uncommon for him to run across one, he didn’t live in Ninjago City proper, just the outskirts, but he wasn’t sure what kind would be making that particular sound. He was only vaguely curious, he wasn’t about to take time out to go looking for it, but he found his answer anyway when a kitten came tumbling out of a nearby bush, chased by an angry mocking bird.

It was extremely small, and extremely filthy, and much to Krux’s displeasure, making a bee line for him and forcing him to duck the mocking bird as the kitten tried to weave between his feet.

“Oh for… look out you furry little menace,” he snapped, barely avoiding stepping it while trying to wave the bird away without much success. In fact the only thing he managed to do was to convince it to dive bomb him for a while instead of the cat. It must have a nest nearby to be so aggressive. He gave up any semblance of dignity and ran the last short distance between himself and the door, slamming it behind him once inside.

The next morning as he left he spotted the kitten again, out in the open. It looked to be eating a large locust. Krux huffed a laugh at the sight. Some mighty hunter it was, chased around by a bird and reduced to eating bugs. He briefly considered going back inside for something to feed it, he thought he had some canned tuna, but suppressed the impulse. If he fed the damn thing, it would never leave. It hissed at him as he walked past, much to his amusement. “I won’t take your bug, you’re safe from me cat.”

He didn’t see the cat again that afternoon, but the next morning just as he stepped outside a tiny paw snuck out from beneath a broad leafed plant and slapped at his foot making him jump. Not that he would admit to anyone that he’d been frightened by an animal.

“Now see here cat, this won’t do,” he said leaning to move the leaves aside, revealing the kitten. “You get me attacked by birds, you leave grasshopper legs on my sidewalk, and now you attack my innocent foot on its way out of the house.” Krux fought to keep from cracking a smile as the kitten fluffed itself up as large as it could go. He hadn’t actually meant to scare it, it was just feisty. Looked like it was a long haired cat, just based on how huge its tail puffed up. He thought it might actually be white under all the grime. It hissed and spat at him as he reached for it, which he ignored until it took another swipe at him, this time drawing blood on his hand.

“Ouch. Like to fight do you?” he asked it, grabbing hold of it by the scruff and pulling it up and out of its hiding spot. It was clearly furious, twisting and turning in his grasp, trying exceedingly hard to bite him. He couldn’t help but smile at it as he tucked it into his elbow where it couldn’t claw him again, although it sank its little teeth into his sleeve.

“You certainly are a little menace,” he told it, petting its head with one finger. “You kind of remind me of someone. He loved to fight too.”

Krux gingerly sat down on his front step, still holding the kitten in his arms. It had given up biting him and was instead maintaining a low growl. “I might have referred to him as a menace once or twice too. I miss him every day,” he said softly, rubbing behind the kitten’s ears. He was rewarded with a break in the growling. “Aha, found the good spot, did I?” he asked, before heaving a sigh. “As nice as it’s been, cat, aside from the bleeding, I have to go to work.”

He slowly loosened his grip on the kitten and it was off like a shot into the bushes again. “Well, some gratitude for the ear scratches that was, kitty.” Krux pushed himself up off the step and decided that maybe he would stop and buy some cat food on the way home. Maybe.

The kitten was nowhere to be found that evening, or the next morning. Even the familiar squeaking sound was missing. When it failed to appear the following evening, Krux assumed it had moved on and told himself that he wasn’t disappointed. He tucked the cat food into the very back of the cabinet just in case.

It was another two days before it reappeared with a brand new bloody notch in its ear looking filthier than ever. “Oh, there you are!” Krux said as he stepped out. The cat made a token effort to pounce at his foot before Krux snatched it up to examine its ear. It was mostly scabbed over but looked like it had broken open again at least once. “Tch. You’re too young for cat fights already no matter how feisty you are, what got you?”

The kitten growled as Krux touched the injured ear and swatted ineffectively at his hand, seemingly resigned to being manhandled. He figured it was a good sign that it was still ready to smack him. The injury didn’t really look too bad all things considered. He thought that it felt skinnier than a few days ago though.

“You’re in rough shape, little one.” Krux looked around once to check if anyone could see him. Taking in a stray kitten might look good in the Dr. Saunders persona, but he was still somewhat embarrassed about it. Satisfied that his few neighbors were minding their own business, he brought the kitten inside.

“I think we’re going straight to the sink. You won’t like it much, but you can’t be in my home as filthy as you are.”

True to his word, the kitten did not like it much, during its bath it managed to tear a good three or four scratches into Krux’s forearms, and he was as soggy as the cat by the end of its bath, but it was at least done. And Krux had been correct, under the filth, there was a snowy white kitten.

“There. Don’t you feel better now that you’re clean?” he asked it. It mewled pathetically as though it could understand and Krux laughed. “Alright, let’s get you fed. Don’t tell anyone.”

Over the next week or so, the cat made itself at home with only a few minor hiccups. Krux had to lock it in the bathroom while he hurried to buy a litter box, and more than once he tripped when it had run between his feet. A set of curtains was clawed up before he figured out that it needed a scratching post, and his hands took a beating before he figured out that the cat needed some kind of enrichment and he sheepishly went out to buy a few cat toys. A trip to the vet revealed that the kitten was male and only about 7 weeks old, and he had been extremely lucky that Krux took him in. But it wasn’t long before it started coming to him at night to curl up on his chest and sleep. Krux assumed it needed the warmth because it was still so small. He complained about it just for show, but was perfectly content to pet it during the night.

The week turned to a month and the month turned to six months and the kitten grew into a beautiful cat with the fluffiest tail Krux had ever seen. Which if you asked him, the cat used entirely for evil, having made a habit of tickling Krux’s face while he was trying to work. And he STILL liked to attack Krux’s feet in the middle of the night. He never did learn to meow that loudly, mostly sticking to squeaks and slaps to communicate, but he was a good listener most of the time. Krux’s closest and only confidant with his brother still trapped in a temporal vortex. And Krux definitely would take the secret to his grave, but he was a little bit less lonely.

[sophies-junkyard]

Change is incremental, but something CHANGED today. You weren’t sure about voting for Biden? You don’t have to anymore! And now is the time to RALLY. The world is fucked up, but letting Trump win will not lead to the political revolution we’re waiting for. Wake up.

Im gonna vote for Kamala Harris in November because I don’t want a wannabe dictator running our country. Simple as that.

[cyarsk52-20]

Stay In The Line www.Cassandragillensarts.com

[shoot-i-messed-up]

CLOIS FUCKING BROKE UP IN DC HEROES UNITED 😭😭😭😭😭

[songofwizardry]

happy election eve, uk folks!

going to give a shoutout to https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/—their quiz is a super useful summary of the largest parties’ stances on various policies (you can pick the topics that matter to you and do a little quiz where it removes their names so you vote unbiased, and then it gives you your results), and even if you end up voting tactically, it is *extremely* useful and interesting to get a succinct summary of what the various policies are in different fields (spoilers: reform are extremely easy to spot and utterly terrible, and there’s… lots of transphobic policies.)

also bit of a shoutout to https://tactical.vote/ which is just ‘get the tories out’, and will probably tell you to vote Labour in most constituencies in England which yknow you may not want to do bc *gestures at Labour*, BUT it is a handy place to see both the 2019 results and recent polling for your constituency. do with that what you will.

see you at the polls tomorrow, and don’t forget ID! we ARE getting the tories out tomorrow, and we keep building after that bc the world and activism and change does not start or end at westminster and electoral politics will only take us so far! replacing the tories (particularly with Labour) will not fix all our problems (we will retain many of the same problems, have you seen those policies?) and we have to keep actually… doing shit, taking action, getting out there, not letting the name of the party sway us.

also, not going to tell anyone how to vote – make the decision that makes sense for you and your constituency, tho I feel like my stance is pretty clear here – but tomorrow I’m wearing green, yknow? 🌱

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

i feel like some people are acting as though america will not end 2024 with a president,,,, like someone is getting elected fuckheads this is politics 101 if you don’t have an actionable plan stop guilt tripping people from fucking voting because if they don’t vote we’re still gonna have a fucking election

[aurlworthfightingfor]

I love the fact that when I look in the notes of the ship bracket so many people are like “I love the angels but I gotta vote for spirk out of respect.”

Like that’s fucking beautiful. I feel like it means we could have had a chance at winning but honor and respect wins the day.

[notebookpapers]

Finland if Harris loses I am coming for you

[chromedaddyofficial]

MAGAts have way too much time on their hands cause how tf are you gonna film a 30 minute long video essay on a two word Sebastian Bach tweet? Really?

[area51-escapee]

Trying to be excited to start HRT this November while the looming threat of it being ripped away by next year hangs over me

[exopelagic]

okay so labour won big why am I actually fucking terrified seeing the reform numbers

[sqweegee]

mannn why does this have to be my first active election year

[tittyblade]

Oh ya I’ve heard Türkiye is having some elections today, how’s that going? :D

it’s on sunday!!! ive spent the entirety of this morning crying over election coverage LOL. this is the single most important event of my life. yk how every politician says the next election is the most important one so everyone should go out n vote? thats the situation here but quite literally.

on one hand you have islamic extremists (erdoğan. one of the “parties” that support him is literally formed from an extremist cult. the only reason they haven’t all been put on trial is bc erdoğan supports them and he’s only got the extremists’ support left. and also bc years back he declared a nationwide state of emergency and quickly passed multiple laws in succession where. he’s no longer the prime minister but “the sole leader” of turkey. yeah)

and on the opposition there’s a coalition of 6 parties, literally all the major left parties with some nationalists, with their joint candidate kılıçdaroğlu. CHP (the main opposition party) has been center left lately, but its the actual fuckin party that first turned turkey into a republic from a sultanate. its huge. compared to US politics the average left wing party is actually pretty fuckin left here LOL. and they havent won the govt since 1950s (last peaceful n prospering decades of turkey) AND. THEY ACTUALLY STAND A CHANCE. all the polls point towards kılıçdaroğlu winning the elections

and you have no idea how bad it’s been here for the last few years. god. there’s so many shit thats wrong in the country because of the current government. civillians getting arrested for tweets criticizing erdogan, not being able to afford anything, being unable to pay your rent, erdogan (WITH HIS SINGULAR DECISION) withdrawing from the istanbul convention, the femicides being the highest it has ever been since the entire history of the turkey, murdered religious minorities and murdered journalists, tens of thousands of people left alone to die after the earthquakes back in february. its pretty fucking scary living here unless you’re a cishet sunni muslim man.

everyone i know that can afford it has been fleeing the country. sometimes it feels like thats the only option you have unless you want to get killed as a 20 something year old trying to make ends meet. i’m only 20 yo myself and the past 8 years has brought me and everyone under 30 to such a place where the only thing we feel about the future is hopelessness. i feel like ive aged 10 years in the last year alone and i bet anyone thats lived under a similar govt can relate. my countrys politics alone has been robbing me of my youth and my will to live.

AND. DESPITE ALL OF THAT. i have hope for the very first time. i have hope for a better future now bc of the opposition candidate and i have faith in him to deliver his promises. everything thats happened since january he’s been dealing with with grace, and him + mayors from his party actually do shit.

so yeah. the entire course of turkey is gonna change this sunday. if we were to lose this would be the last democratic elections held (the last elections held, period) before erdoğan fully converted the country into an autocracy, and when kılıçdaroğlu wins its gonna become a socialist state, as socialist as it’s ever been since the 1950s. pretty fuckin big stakes

[faslaidir]

CW: US politics rant

If you are not planning on staging a mass revolution and successfully overthrowing the current US government within the next 3 months, you MUST vote for Joe Biden in the general election this November.

He is not a perfect candidate. The case can be made that he is a BAD candidate, particularly if we care about Palestine, but he is NOT Donald Trump.

Biden sucks. Trump is WORSE.

Voting is often about choosing the lesser of two evils. Remember in 2016, how people tried really hard to pull for Bernie Sanders instead of Hilary Clinton, and split the democrat vote just enough to let Trump win? Because of that, we now have a conservative majority in the Supreme Court and lost Roe v Wade. Hundreds of thousands died (and still die) from horrific handling of Covid. Racist idealism became mainstream.

Shit like that will keep happening if Trump gets back into office.

Not a single other candidate has even a faint chance against Trump other than Biden.

You don’t have to vote for Biden in the primary election. But you do have to vote for him in the general election. That’s where we’re at. It’s gross, but we’re gonna suck it up and do our duty to mitigate future disasters.

[mars-ipan]

i KNOW it was bait i know but i just saw a tiktok of this woman saying some shit like “gen z can’t use a paper map they can’t read cursive if they take over the world it’ll be easy to get it back” and i am so bitter bc 1- if a child cannot do something then their guardians have failed to teach them 2- most of the things she mentioned are not things we actually need in the year of our lord 2023 3- why do you consider gen z as an aggressor trying to take over the world and 4- I CAN FUCKING DO THOSE THINGS

[bubble-you]

what if you give people who live in rural areas money so they can homeschool their kids (as long as it’s, y’know, factual)

but wives aren’t teachers of everything. this is why the education system needs reform. but only local taxes go towards local education? why not give like federal taxes to rural areas. more teachers smaller classes. how do you improve rural education? how is trump going to help people keep jobs???