#love without condition

[compassionmattersmost]

A Prayer for Universal Peace and Harmony

O Divine Source of all creation,The One who is known by many names,And who dwells in every heart,We come before you with humble hearts,Seeking your blessing of peace and harmony. May your love flow through us like a river,Washing away all hatred, division, and fear,And filling our hearts with compassion for all beings. Teach us to see beyond our differences,To honor the divine in every…

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[arinrowan]

My maternal grandmother could crochet.

Nothing complicated. Basic granny squares and double crochet, but she was the one in the family who made blankets for her kids and grandchildren. Dementia hit in her nineties but she still remembered how to make granny squares and made dozens. I asked her for one last blanket but by that point the dementia had taken how to join the squares. They were stacked in piles around the dining room table and when she went into care, into a plastic box for storage.

When she died, I asked for them. By that point I could crochet but didn't know how to join, and figured, someday, I'd learn.

It's at least a decade later. I'm the one who makes blankets for my nephews, for my cousin's children, for pregnant coworkers. Last year I made seven blankets, three for Project Linus, the rest for family and a friend. I can follow crochet charts, filet crochet, do clusters, fans, basic lace, amigurumi.

The world, as is its wont, is on fire. Tonight, I have opened the plastic container for the first time in a decade. I'm sorting them into piles by color. I know now how to look at them and see where her memory slipped or areas I'll need to repair. There's no printed pattern but if I need more I have the skills to copy the pattern.

Each square is 5 inches. Blanket size for Project Linus is 40x60. I'll see how many people I can give her last crochet legacy to.

[deikshen]

Crown Prince Shen Yuan (just... Crown prince, cultivates as a hobby, but no further) which is forcibly compromised with the Demon Emperor Luo Binghe in order to strengthen a peaceful relationship between the human and demon realms. And Shen Yuan is FURIOUS. HOW DARE THEY PROMISE HIM IN MARRIAGE TO SOMEONE HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW?! EVEN IF HE'S TRACED THE POWERFUL DEMON EMPEROR, THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE WANTS TO MARRY HIM!!

Anyway, he'll do whatever it takes to break that engagement. Ha! If those tutors and advisors think he'll just stand by and watch them manage his life, NO WAY! Shen Yuan may have a boring palace life reading about monsters and plants (and trashy novels that traffic in servants when no one is looking) but it's HIS life. He decides what he'll do! They can't steal that from him!!

He will ruin that engagement. No marriage commitment is necessary, gentlemen! Hasn't anyone heard of peace treaties and trade agreements? Seriously! And he's the irresponsible young man, according to reports!

So, fully determined, he will do all kinds of things necessary to ruin that engagement. Disdaining wedding gifts? Done. Sending clearly offensive and uncharacteristic wedding gifts? Done. Dressing inappropriately for peace celebrations? Done. Get drunk and be rude and hostile to prove that he's a silly, conceited guy and that no one will benefit from marrying him? Done.

Shen Yuan does everything he has to do, but NOTHING WORKS? REALLY? Why do the damn demons at court think that behavior is acceptable!? He's being hostile!! Rude! Why do the demons think he's accepting courtship satisfactorily!? Idiots!!!

Determined to go all out and flout all the rules of engagement, Shen Yuan runs away to the Demon Emperor's palace, determined to meet him in person and ruin any expectations Lord Luo might have of him. Then Luo Binghe will see that he is a hostile, rude, noisy boy, that his life will be fucking ruined if he marries him, and that this arranged marriage is a horrible farce!!

... So he meets him in person. Oh god. Okay. Shen Yuan has new plans.

Well, their arranged marriage and peace agreements are on the table for late fall. Shen Yuan needs to fuck Luo Binghe before that, then, it will be a scandal!!! Which will make them get married quickly, without arrangements, without festivities, and of course without forcing him just the way his palace court wanted!! No fancy wedding arrangements! No more having any say over him! Ha!!

If Shen Yuan is going to marry Luo Binghe, it will be on his own terms, thank you for nothing!!

[y-elleven]

i dont think sae would ever fall out of love with you once he gets serious. neither time nor routine could ever dull his affections, because loving you meant clawing his own chest open to get to the battered and vulnerable heart he'd kept hidden behind walls of sea-rotted boards for years. he fought for that softness, for the ease and surety of having a love that's returned, brittle edges and all. there's no way in hell his heart would ever stop bleeding with want and pure affection for you. that's just not how he's built

to begin, being in a relationship with him isn't easy. he knows this. he's made you cry enough times in the beginning to carve a resolve to never make you cry ever again for the rest of your lives together now. sae will always be grateful for your patience and persistence, for not giving up on the two of you (on him) when he already had so many times. for all his effortless cool and nonchalance, he's a messy adult with even messier feelings and a tongue sharp enough to keep almost everyone right where he wants them: at arm's length. his words cut like burred steel and the hurt that comes with them always fade into scars people resent him for, but the fact that you still persevered and met him where he stood, even when he refused to meet you halfway, means so much to him. he'd never be able to put into words even if he tried, so he shows it by doing his best to be a better man for you every day instead

he loves your routine. loves the life the two of you have begun building together. loves the simple reassurance of being able to kiss you goodbye in the morning and kiss you hello in the evening. loves the press of your body against when he goes to sleep and the warmth of breath against his collarbone when he wakes up. loves brushing his teeth next to you and running his fingers through your bedhead to try and tame it. loves having you sit with him in the kitchen while he fixes a quick snack for both of you. loves when you're chatty. loves when you're quiet. loves you when you're sweet on him. loves you when you're pissed to hell. loves when you're all cleaned up and gorgeous, dressed like you're his to show off and adore. loves when you've got sauce stains on your shirt and dressed for a night-in of crappy reality tv and gossip where you talk and he just listens

he loves that simple life. even when you stress him out with your antics sometimes and your own messy feelings make you listen to your insecurities instead of him, he wouldn't trade it for the world. not when you've looked at him and all his mess and decided he was still worth the effort. you've met him where he refused to budge so many times, so he has no problem pushing against his own anxieties and fears to find you when you get too lost in your own head

he's come so far from who he was in the beginning of your relationship and he's proud of that. sae's still a little difficult sometimes, especially when it comes to your health and comfort (two things he refuses to compromise on; he wants a future with you and won't let anything, not even your self-destructive habits, get in the way of that), but he doesn't hide from you anymore. when you've seen the worst of him and still offered the best you could in return, how can he ever do anything but love you forever?

[vaguely-concerned]

I really really like that lucanis reaches the 'there must be some way through this' realization 'off camera', so to speak, while presumably looking at rook explaining the situation to spite. it just. hits right. he gets that moment to himself after 'this place is a nightmare, why would I want to stay here' to come back into focus, to gather himself and think it through in peace, outside of the demands of anyone’s gaze (including the player’s!), while rook takes care of spite’s confusion and urgency and distress as he can’t himself in this shattered state. they're inside his soul, but he still gets that moment of privacy, with rook and spite there and supporting but not intruding. idk there's just something so good and right-feeling about it. rook's presence in lucanis' mind at its most vulnerable and frozen could have felt SO invasive if the quest wasn't written as skillfully as it is, and I get skeeved out by that kind of thing incredibly easily so it's a testament to how well it's done that it always feels safe and supportive. lucanis has had both his bodily and psychological (slash spiritual/existential) integrity and autonomy violated so brutally and repeatedly, and having even the way the camera perceives him here grant him the dignity and respect and privacy of soul he hasn’t experienced in a long time… it’s a whole thing huh. No wonder it’s taken me a while to put it into words lol 

(also what a contrast to what solas and rook have got going on, and what a sly way to slide the point of comparison in there to build to the thematic whole. the solas version of this IS of course wildly invasive and skeeves me out but in the intended delighted horror movie way. solas, too, was let into someone’s soul through the cracks in the wake of a traumatic event, and he IMMEDIATELY sought to turn it to his own benefit and use that trauma as a weapon against them fhdsja I’m sorry but it’s just such a character-revealing instinct for him to act on without hesitation and I love how terrible he is, it’s all so unforgivably premeditated and consistent.

rook acting out of the desire to make sure lucanis is ok vs. solas going ‘well. When life gives you oops killed my friend, make dead friend poisoned lemonade and make his loved ones drink it. this sunk cost fallacy isn’t going to perpetuate itself’ is such a neat contrast and it’s not in your face about it but it’s still there, deep and solid down in the thematic narrative. rook doesn’t do anything to or in lucanis’ mind, really — they negotiate their way through the layers of defense and are let through, and they help him make the whole thing more explicable, but they never exert any force or go rooting around for anything that doesn’t present itself to them first. solas goes about gathering ammo for when he's going to nothing personel kid this person from like the first moment fhdskh doesn't waste a second before he's on that gaslight gatekeep girlboss grind. the fact that the game goes out of its way to show there IS a respectful, non-selfish and kind version of this process makes what solas is doing even more deliciously awful (glee) and rook and lucanis’ relationship (platonic, romantic, whatever it might be in any given playthrough) all the more moving to me)

[rachemchul]

The Umbrella Academy Season 4, Episode 5 Six Years, Five Months, and Two Days

[lukazade]

Sleepover with two puny mortals that you're in love with (and everything can go right).

Lowkey based on a fanfic I was writing, but as usual I haven't the confidence to post it! Yeah~

Had this in the drafts for months,,,, figured I'd finish it up now so it's done. I like to kinda have some Finished art on the page hahahaha

[sleyu]

omg i wouls sell my soul for more mean bf sirius with corruption kink💔💔💔

mean bf sirius who introduces you to the marauders and lets remus and james fondle ur tits and ass whenever they want, patting your cheek when u look up at him with those maddening—thoughtless doe eyes :(

“they just really like you, puppy”

or or or waking up to the marauders low groans and the tip of their cocks slapping against your naked body and face, sirius laughing breathlessly at how flustered and helpless u look :(

“this is what good girls do, pretty. just lay there n look dumb for us, yeah? helps us cum faster,”

[arthurfoxy]

William and Emma Foster: Parents :)

Grady and Edaline Ruewen: Parents :)

Oralie and Random Guy: Genetics Donors :(((

[fennelwasp]

P1 clara route oh my god

[szfiction]

This parallel makes me insane actually (and there is something incredibly Lawlu about it to me)

[frozen-seagrass]

The WALL-E au no one asked for

[queen-slayer-13]

He is just too precious for this world. 🤍

[crimson-nail]

ex-antagonists always seem to specialize in unconventional love languages — like violence, and threats of bodily harm

[yunmeng-jiang]

every day i wish there had been a better solution for the qin su marriage problem.

in my fix-it fics i either have some other sect leader claim that he was actually madly in love with her this whole time and sweep her away for jgy's sake, have her mom confess earlier, make jgy decide to tell her for her own good and have them work together, or not give them a chance to meet and fall in love in the first place (i guess i could also make qin su have a miscarriage, but that's really sad and awful and not my preferred option at all), but all of those require tweaks to the circumstances, sometimes early on so they don't meet or jgy feels safe enough to talk with her or another confidant, or sometimes later like madam qin finding out they're pregnant before the marriage prep is too far along and telling one or both of them right away so they can make other arrangements.

with the situation being what it was, jgy didn't find out soon enough to do anything that wouldn't involve either marrying her anyway (and he didn't think telling her about it would do anything except make her upset and depressed) or leaving her essentially a ruined woman with no prospects and an illegitimate child who would inevitably grow up fatherless, which is pretty much exactly what his dad did to meng shi. this would be a crueler option than pretty much anything else, and given that he clearly still cares about her, he couldn't do that in good conscience. jgy tries his best to protect the people he loves, unless there is literally no other way for him to survive.

it's one more example of jgy being faced with a situation where the only choices are bad ones, and making the decision that he thinks will hurt the fewest number of people. metatextually, it's one more example of women in fiction being shoved aside and not given agency in their own lives, and getting killed off instead of surviving and growing as people like the male characters are allowed to do. it's just a tragic situation all around and i wish there had been something they could have done.