#am i in my dark impulsions era???

[bonefall]

My birthday was a couple days ago, and I got to see my bio dad for the first time in a while. He surprised me with the fact that I have a little half-sister, whom I've never met and who was adopted about two years back. So, I wondered if any situations in BB mimic this or have a theme of "secret siblings" or "secret family"? Sorry if this is a weird ask; this blog is honestly just such a cool little place and I love the way you approach the subject matter and take the flawed misogynistic foundation of the WC books and make them so much better (JUSTICE FOR BUMBLE!!!). I've also learned a lot about healthy and unhealthy relationships here and am really glad for your deep dives on Squilf and Bramble. Thanks, Bones!

Not weird at all! I really like exploring all the little nooks and crannies of complicated familial dynamics. I think one of the untapped strengths of WC (that the writers seem to be unaware of) is how their MASSIVE cast allows them to present all sorts of unique dynamics. So I like to pick up on it, since they don't.

For secret siblings...

I'm pretty heavily leaning towards Ambermoon being adopted by Wildfur, as a surrogacy. Something feels correct about it. Especially since Icecloud is getting retooled into a post-Battle of the True Eclipse birth, and a major supporting character in AVoS-era stories as a friend of Alderheart.

Thinking about it, I should zoom in and expand this. Maybe have Icecloud, somehow, acquire forbidden knowledge that would invalidate the Queen’s Rights and he (transman) struggles with if he's going to use it to expose his parents as an excuse to help Ambermoon.

(Especially since Ambermoon and Icecloud are basically nothing alike. Amber is independent, bold, and vain. Ice is jessie pinkman big-hearted, disorganized, and deceptively meek if you look past his "chill" demeanor)

But that's wip-- there's also Breezepelt and the Three, who are going to have an actual friendship. In particular I can't unsee Breeze and Lion having a deep one. I know I commit the Cardinal Sin of borderline himbo-ifying Lionblaze in BB, but I can't help it.

Hollyleaf ended up nabbing a bunch of his most violent roles to make her villainous descent smoother narratively, so BB!Lionblaze's story ends up being more focused on Ashfur's abuse, comic relief with cats in other Clans (something that the very serious Jay and Holly have a hard time providing), and the emotional fallout of the big reveal and Bramblestar's turn on them. Breezepelt slots neatly into that.

They were friends. Lionblaze's whole life came down around the reveal, everyone looking at him and his siblings differently, like they're suddenly something terrible. Why can't we find a silver lining, Breezepelt? Why can't we call ourselves brothers if the whole world is going to do it anyway? So much is changing, but THIS doesn't have to, we will take their weapon and turn it to armor, my ally, my friend, my brother.

(and when Breezepelt is lashing out at the three because of the Dark Forest's influence, Lionblaze is there, taking the blows and trying not to give in to the impulse to send him flying with a single paw)

There's also Harespring and Kestrelflight of WindClan and Owlclaw of ShadowClan. All of them are from a single litter between Whitewater and Mudclaw. She was going to raise the three of them alone as ShadowClan cats, but when the sire was smote, Whitewater felt they were cursed.

She was able to give the oldest two to their bio-uncle, Torear, but the weather was so bad that day and the runt was so sickly and small that it surely would have killed him. I don't think Owlclaw ever finds out why his mother always treated him with suspicion, but it did mess him up horribly.

Over in BB!DOTC, Thunder Storm is getting more half-siblings earlier. Clear Sky and Falling Feather had two daughters-- Pale Sky and Tiger Sky.

I want to explore the way that the various stages of Clear Sky's life acted on his kids. How any little curiosity Thunder Storm had about the life he might have had if he wasn't abandoned is crushed by seeing kittens who weren't. How Clear's favoritism of his oldest child set the trio against each other from the start. How this idea of "love" is toxic yet intoxicating.

It feels good to be the golden child. The power it gives you over his sycophants is satisfying. To know you, and you alone, have what someone else craves. Problem is, that's conditional, and it's cruel.

What Thunder Storm learns from his time with his biodad is that Clear Sky is not his father at all. He's taught him exactly what he DOESN'T want to be. There may be similarities-- in temperament, in physical prowess (though BB!Thunder is three-legged, he's still ripped), in taste and senses. But Thunder Storm's father is Shaded Flower.

(BB!Gray Wing died in the first book, rescuing Shaded Flower from being trampled by a horse. Xey're a patron of wisdom, Shaded Moss is taking the role of fatherhood to Thunder)

His sister is Rainswept Flower. His mom is Bright Storm. If there was a bond he could have had with Tiger Sky and Pale Sky, it dies simply and cruelly on the knife they used to cut each other out.

Pale might have wanted to mend it, she was the gentler one. But she dies in the First Battle along with her mother. Tiger Sky is too stubborn to accept any help, should Thunderstar offer it, and Thunderstar isn't in the business of begging for others to like him.

Naturally I'm lowkey obsessed with them lmao. I need to make a BB!DOTC overviewww

[ruiniel]

hello <3 I saw you’re doing requests and I wondered if you could perhaps do CarmillaxFem! friends to reluctant lovers? Thank you and much love!

Thank you for the ask! I promised I'd do this even with closed requests, so here it is - part I! There was a brief scene in the series where we had a peek into Carmilla's origin story. I went back there. Pre-council of sisters era.

Spirit wild, To suffer brief

Fandom: Castlevania series (2017-2021)

Pairing: Carmilla of Styria x F!Reader

Count: 0.8k

Rating: M

Tags/CW: heavy angst, emotional, strangers to lovers, dark themes, drama you are warned, wlw, mutual pining, unresolved sexual tension, angst again, unresolved emotional tension, confessions, eventual smut, but not in this part

Summary: She's succeeded, taken everything for her own. She is not weak, she will never be weak again. Carmilla now rules over lands as far as the eye can see across the frosted peaks of Styria. A deep and ancient vale is hers, and this will be her seat. The emptiness, she never dwells on. Until one day.

All characters depicted are 18+

Also on AO3

I. Why

“What on earth is that?”

The voice has you lifting your head, peeking upward at the figure standing before you. The heavy scent of lilies fills your nostrils, but you daren’t hold the ice in that gaze for long before you place your forehead against the cold tiles; startled in your resignation.

Where is… he?

One of the guards flanking your prostrated figure scratches their head. “From the village at the base of the mountain.”

You tremble, the cold seeping through your flesh, into your bones as silence falls, a leaden weight ready to break your back.

“...and why is it here?” The voice follows, a tint of exasperation to it now. It seems to belong to a woman, but…

“... for the lord.”

Footsteps near, light as tinsel; the scent of lilies envelops you. 

“Get up, girl.” You know an order when you hear one, and so muster all the vigor left in your wearied knees, the impulses crackling in your joints as you rise to full height. “What is that you were mumbling?”

You open your mouth to speak, hesitate. “I am… every year, our community sends an offering,” Your voice chokes on your heartbeat; nausea roils in your stomach. “To the lord of the castle.”

Silence.

“Do they, now? Why?”

Cold, hungering, and even more confused, you raise your gaze to see the woman better. 

She is…

You look down, absently studying the stained rug beneath your feet. “Every year, if a sacrifice is presented, he… he leaves us be; he does not hunt us, it was a… a pact. I do not know more, it was done before I came to be.”

She snorts, starts pacing. “Of course, just like the disgusting old fool to …” she keeps rambling as you watch with bleary eyes, humming and murmuring as though she’d forgotten you’re there.

Your stomach aches with the hunger it nurses like a wound; you fold your arms around yourself, miserable, finally understanding what those men felt as they approached the gallows during the few executions you’d witnessed. 

Suddenly, a cold grip like the kiss of winter’s breath grabs you by the chin, and you’re staring closely into eyes of blue and lips of red — crimson, like…

She smiles; you try to draw back, but her grip holds firm. “The lord of this castle is gone.” Her lashes are long, shadowing her barely-tinted irises like tender hoarfrost. “I am its master now, and whatever schemes that lecher had in place interest me not at all. This fantastically idiotic covenant ends now, with you,” she spews, and you finally understand this is actually happening, that the thread of your life is to be snipped after nary a handful of years, before you’d had a true chance of doing more than cast shadow upon the earth.

But then…

“... and I have no interest to feed,” the woman, the vampire continues. “So tell me, then, girl, what use have I for you, save for feeding you to my guards?”

“None,” you murmur, eyes closing against the sting of tears marring your filthy cheek.

The stony grip loosens, and she steps back, an eyebrow raised and sounding almost disappointed as she crosses her pale arms at her chest. “Well, that’s the worst attempt at groveling to beg for one’s life that I’ve ever heard.”

“It makes no difference,” you add as an afterthought before you can think better of it. Might these be the last words you speak? Mocking banter at the gates of the undead?

“Why did they send you, then?” she asks, and what follow are questions accompanied by a strange smile. So sharp, a most primeval fear coils deep in your center. “Did they coerce you to do it? Did they cast you out of town?”

You fiddle with the worn material of your cloak. “No, I came of my own will.”

“How stupid,” the words are blunt, but you’ve had your share of scorn — what’s a little more? And then, something unexpected happens: she dismisses the guards with a gesture, before leaning against the stone column in the tallest chamber you have ever seen.

“Maybe so, but it was the most practical choice.”

“Ah yes,” the vampire runs a slender hand through her sleek, moon-kissed hair. They said a vicious monster dwelled here, settled into this abode centuries past. They knew little else, and still, you chose to come. “Humans do have a penchant for it… being ‘practical,’ that is.” She tilts her head, like a nightbird watching the scuttling of small beating hearts in the wilds. “Don’t toy with me. I’m already bored of this game, so for the last time I put to you: why?”

You swallow and part your lips to speak. Your hunger is sharper now, stabbing you inside as fatigue has you lurching over for a minute. She moves not at all. 

 “Because… because I am dying.”

TBC

MASTERLIST: CASTLEVANIA SERIES x READER

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[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 2 thoughts

woohoo! we are back for another s2 moment! each night i do my duolingo and then have mulder and scully time <3

so we open on a boat which is already awful. boats are lowkey horrific. and something grabs a man working on the sewage and pulls him under. what the hell! worst case scenario on MANY fronts

then we see our good friend mulder who is listening to audio recordings. and boy was this a scene, because he had sunflower seeds everywhere, cartons of takeout scattered, a million empty cans and cups, and a page of little doodles. all while he sits in the dark.

i figured perhaps this was the squalor of the single man apartment, but no! someone opens a door and light pours in, and tells him he has to leave and someone else will take over his case. and that poor man gets forced into his disgusting space. truly the king of not giving a fuck. please try and give one fuck for me mulder

skinner moves him to a murder case in new jersey and he's all "but why did skinner want MEEEEE"

anyway he goes into the sewers, which are thankfully now free of eugene tooms due to the hard work of that one escalator... everybody say thank you escalator... and he finds a body and says send that back to the FBI

mulder busts into skinner's office to yell at him while he was IN A MEETING oh mulder!!! i get ur mad but have some decorum! he's like WHY are you wasting my time! well mulder if you want to work your way back up the ladder i think screaming at ur boss is not a good place to start!

(we also see that skinner's first name is walter and that he has a picture of bill clinton on the wall which i know made sense at the time but in 2024 it's just really funny. there's old willy looking over business)

cutscene to mulder Pondering in the dark and look! enter our dear friend scully!

"is this seat taken?" she asks "no, but i should warn you i'm experiencing violent impulses" he replies. "well, i'm armed, so i'll take my chances" she answered, and i audibly said "AWWW" <3 how sweet

he says he wants to leave the bureau! but she is his only reason to want to stay! gasp! we are gonna have to unpack that later!

she's like but you have a body right...? can i see the body....? can i pls pls pls pls be involved in ur case?

girl's night: autopsy edition! this body was quite decomposed and it had me wondering how exactly they film these scenes, and while i was pondering the process of making a prop body, we hear a loud thunk of scully removing the dude's rib cage to which i nearly fainted but we were Fine it's okay

and i'm holding my breath trying to deal with seeing this dude's insides when we get a WORM JUMPSCARE crawling about in his corpse

back in new jersey we see more sanitation workers and another man getting pummeled by the sewer beast... have we considered giving these men a raise?

the man has a nasty wound and i wrote "i am not built for this" in my notes but mulder strolls into the doctor's office while he's being checked out to investigate... we see the wound that the sanitation guy thinks is a snake that got into the sewers... and i'm thinking that doesn't sound right but i don't know enough about sewers to dispute that information

scully calls and he has to hang up and he gets ANOTHER call and picks up like "scully not now >:(" BUT THE GAG IS... it isn't her... it's some guy saying he has a friend in the FBI....... um

scully has mulder come down to the lab to show off the worm she found and give the audience a nice PSA to not eat raw meat! thank you dr. scully! we then get some worm facts and she seems pleased

BUT MULDER IS MEAN and he accuses her of being responsible for the phone call and she looks so hurt! she says she wouldn't betray his confidence by talking about him wanting to leave! mulder i get that you're in your questioning era but literally one episode ago she picked up your mostly dead body from a jungle compound so?? let's be rational here???

the next scene involved blood coming out of sanitation man's mouth and mostly what i wrote at this point was a few variations of "AUGH" "i cannot look" and "cannot handle this"

at the sanitation plant they capture whatever this Thing is and oh my. well. all i can really think of are those fake mermaids. you know the barnum fake mermaid hoax? or is that too 19th century niche? well either way, it looks like that but Worse. and equipped with suckers. it's a gnarly beast to gaze upon and i wrote more "AUGH"s here

cutscene to scully on a computer reading worm facts. back when you used a big ol computer to research creatures. i miss the 90's (disclaimer: i was not alive for them at all)

mulder lets her see the creature (which they have put in a mental hospital?) and she is SO excited to see this sort of beast BUT she figured out it was connected to the first attack because someone slipped a magazine article with a hint under her door!!!! looks like there really is someone on the inside...

she also says "i'd consider it more than a professional loss if you decided to leave" WAHHHHHHH <- me crying like a baby at this line

mulder's sitting in skinner's office like a kid stuck in detention and skinner says they're gonna prosecute the worm monkey baby thing and i nearly cried at the mental image of putting that beast on trial. skinner was like "you want to put it in the zoo?" I fear that's far more reasonable.....????? like how is he gonna testify he's WORM MONKEY BABY THING

mulder is again very pissed off and tells skinner that they could have saved the second man (who died in the shower while i was looking away from his bleeding) because he had agents who could have handled it but he shut the x files down and skinner is like. i know. but i was just following orders... tea....

okay so i THOUGHT the worm monkey was baby sized but now they're taking him somewhere else and he is full man sized... but he breaks out of his restraints, we hear a gunshot, and he escapes into a toilet... NO, i yelled to the sanitation worker on my screen, THE WORM IS INSIDE (he couldn't hear me)

mulder's at the scene and gets another mysterious phone call telling him he CANNOT mess this case up because there needs to be undeniable proof the x files must come back... okay no pressure!

so the worm monkey is somewhere in the sewer plant and scully calls like "i think the little worm we found was a baby and it's looking for a place to lay its eggs so we CANNOT let it escape"

(mulder and another worker go into the sewers without any sort of worm monkey handling equipment, idk i was thinking a shotgun might be appropriate here. like what did they think they were gonna do? wrestle it?)

the other worker falls in so NATURALLY our hero mulder (who is still a hero even if he has been cranky af lately) jumps in after him

and mulder GUILLOTINES the worm monkey in what can only be described as an average fox w 🔥🔥

at the end we see scully and mulder once again meet on a public bench in the dark, where she shares that the genetic testing proved that this thing was actually a mixture of human and worm that came from radioactive waste at chernobyl??? so. that's fucked up. haven't they suffered enough.

(but i like that this is a monster made possible by humans and yet still very real, even if that seems... an unlikely story... still, for dana scully's sake i'm happy this is something that can be proved by Science)

((although i hate to know what the implications are for the chernobyl dogs in this universe...))

we end with a shot of worm monkey baby, who has been split in half, re-opening its eyes. now i do think sea worms can sometimes grow back so this isn't SHOCKING. but it is displeasing nonetheless.

overall, listen; mulder, you've had it rough. they've slashed your life's work and you doubt reality. but man. clean your desk up. be nice to scully. skinner is clearly on ur side. i need to shake his stupidly tall frame and knock some sense into him. that beautiful woman wants to tell you worm facts and you should be writing it all down intently.

(good angst though, love that she's the only reason he wants to stay. and love her little autopsy time <3)

[mazzystargirl]

ok living up to pinned post w some true confessions/dark secrets… so basically after i tried to kms in 2021 fall and went to the hospital i entered a really intense slut era and like started impulsively spending money and stuff too and i didnt have a job so i was like oh omg having a sugar daddy would work out really well for me and also i wanted to do things that would be like damaging or whatever idk why i did it rly. but anyway i engaged in some sugar baby behaviors. and then that winter break i went home from school and met up w some of my friends who ive known since i was a kid. now i have to give a little bit of context here cuz its important. so i have these 3 friends, one of whom ive known since i was 3 years old (N) and the other two since i was like 7 (S and J). and we all live in a very tight knit neighborhood/cultural community where mostly everyone knows everyone. and so my 3 friends parents know my parents. i guess you can see where this is going… but anyway i told them i had a sugar daddy or like it came up in conversation idk. and that was that. then literally the following AUGUSTTTT my mom comes to me and is like oh so some people in the neighborhood have been saying that you’ve been engaging in risky behaviors with older men and that youve been meeting them in hotels. so obviously i denied it very emphatically and tried to pry out who tf she heard that from and honestly i was like what like who could have even spread that and she said J’s mom told her and was lowkey rly cagey about it bc she didnt want to “break her daughter’s trust” and had asked other aunties about the situation like wtfff… and then i remembered i had mentioned to them over winter break so she must have fucking told her mommmm. i decided to assume best intent and chose to believe she was worried abt me and thats why she told her mom so i messaged her like hi did u tell ur mom abt this and i appreciate ur concern but i would have appreciated it if maybe u came to me directly and checked on me it would have been better and u lowkey hurt my feelings cuz now im stressed and anxious and don’t know whos saying what abt me etc etc. and then…

she fucking LIEDDDDD she said she didnt say anything to her mom AND that her mom didnt say anything to my mom!?? which i know is fucking bullshitttt 😭 like it makes 0 sense like if no one said anything is my mom just pulling shit out of the air and if she was how would she land straight on the money like that it just doesnt add up. so i was like um ok ?? uh have a good day. and decided to let it go and i lowkey don’t speak to her anymore and i told N and S that im not speaking to her but they can hang out w her if they want. and i forgot abt it.

but now i just moved back home after finishing school and its lowkey been eating away at me. it hurts me that she was my friend for 13 years and its all up in flames and i never got any closure or an apology or even her to admit or acknowledge the situation?? it hurts me to be at home worried abt what people are saying or thinking about me. i know i shouldnt care but what other people think of me bothers me. im not ashamed of myself and my choices but i don’t want other people to think less of me. i don’t want to reach out to her bc what if she doesn’t care at all about the situation ??? i don’t want to be like this has been eating at me forever and it really hurt me and her to be like what r u talking about i don’t think about you at all. she also just got into med school and im happy for her for real like glad shes doing well its just like. she hurt my feelings really bad :(

anyway if you read this far… what should i do 🥲 is the only path forward trying to let go… tbh i think i just need someone to validate my feelings like am i right to be hurt or is it all my fault and should i beg for forgiveness 😭 like my friend N got coffee w her a couple weeks ago and brought it up to me twice what does that even meannnn

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 21, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 22, 2024

In 1974, music writer Jon Landau saw a relatively unknown musician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wrote for an alternative paper: "Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theater, I saw rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." The review helped to catapult Springsteen to stardom. 

After three days at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, I feel like I have seen the political future and its name is the Democratic Party. But rather than feeling like I’m hearing politics for the first time, I am hearing the echo of political themes embraced in the best moments of America’s past.

The theme of the third day of the Democratic National Convention, held in the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, was “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” But the speeches were less about fighting than they were about recovering the roots of American democracy.

The Democrats have not lost their conviction that the reelection of Donald Trump and the enactment of Project 2025 are an existential threat both to democracy and to Americans themselves. Speakers throughout the convention have condemned Trump and highlighted Project 2025, a blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing organizations for a second Trump term. Although Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who was a high school football coach, notes that no one bothers to write a playbook if they’re not going to use it.

Tonight, comedian and actor Kenan Thompson illustrated the dangers of Project 2025 with humor, bringing home the horror of it as only humor can do. With a giant copy of the plan as a prop, he gave a woman married for eight years to her wife the bad news that Project 2025 would end protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, informed a woman who pays $35 a month for her insulin that the plan would overturn the law that makes drugs more affordable, notified an OBGYN that the plan would ban abortion nationwide and throw abortion providers into jail, and put a woman who called herself a proud civil servant on notice that Project 2025 would guarantee she would be fired unless she is a MAGA loyalist. 

But the dark dangers of the assault of Trump and the MAGA Republicans on the country have finally pushed the party to move away from its customary caution and focus on policy to embrace the possibilities of a new future. The convention is electric, packed with young people who push jokey memes and poke fun at themselves, much as Walz and presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris are doing to deflect criticism, and who are sharing homemade politically-themed friendship bracelets that echo the homemade paraphernalia of singer Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. 

And, after decades in which Republicans claimed the mantle of patriotism, now that the fate of democracy itself is on the line, Democrats are joyfully claiming the symbols and the principles of American democracy for their own. 

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, many Democrats shied away from symbols of patriotism because they seemed to support imperialism. Then, in the 1980s, Reagan and his supporters wrapped themselves in the flag and claimed it for their own. That impulse to define “Americans” as those who vote for Republicans has led us to a place where a small minority claims the right to rule over the rest of us. 

The Democratic National Convention has powerfully illustrated that the rest of us are finally reclaiming the country and its symbols. The convention has been full of references to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the American Revolution, the national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance. Tonight, attendees chanting “USA” waved signs emblazoned with the letters. Speakers, many of whom are military veterans, have testified that they are proud to be Americans. The theme of patriotism was even in one of tonight’s afterparties: Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean played The Star Spangled Banner with an interpretation that recalled Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. “America is the best place to be,” he said. “I’m the best of the American dream. Welcome to America…. You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.” 

As Jean indicated, that embrace of our history does not come with the exceptionalism of MAGA Republicans, who maintain that the U.S. has a perfect past that it must reclaim to become great again. Indeed, speakers have emphasized that honoring our history means remembering the nation’s failures as well as its triumphs. The Democrats’ patriotism means recognizing that despite the fact that the U.S. has never fully realized the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, it has never abandoned them either—a statement paraphrased from President Joe Biden, who has said it repeatedly. 

Speakers have highlighted that the imperfect version of those principles has enabled their personal success stories. Speaker after speaker, from Harris and Walz, of course, to tonight’s speakers Maryland governor Wes Moore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and journalist and television personality Oprah Winfrey, have recounted their own process of rising from humble beginnings to their current prominence, 

Winfrey is an Independent who generally stays out of politics, but tonight she spoke passionately during prime time about electing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Walz. When a reporter asked her why she was willing to make a political statement, she said: "Because I really care about this country. And there couldn't have been a life like mine, a career like mine, a success like mine, without a country like America. Only in America could there be a me."

The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency, and service to others implicitly conflates those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself. Running through the stories told at the convention is the theme of working hard through a time of darkness to come out into the light. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” speakers have quoted the Biblical psalm, and they have referred to the vision of the American flag still flying after a night of bombardment during the War of 1812, captured by Francis Scott Key in the national anthem, promising that after our time of national darkness, there will be light.

The DNC has called not just for reasserting patriotism, but for reclaiming America with joy. It has showcased a deep bench of politicians, some of whom are great orators, repeatedly calling for joy in the work of saving democracy, and it has shown poets like Amanda Gorman and a wide range of musicians, from Stevie Wonder to Lil Jon to D.J. Cassidy to John Legend. The convention is designed to appeal to different generations—tonight actress Mindy Kaling helpfully explained to older attendees who she is—and younger attendees have handed out friendship bracelets saying things like “Madam Prez” to older people in an echo of the exchange of bracelets among Taylor Swift’s fans.

After an era in which politicians have seemed to lie to the American people, the convention has emphasized authenticity. It has featured testimonials about the candidates with speakers ranging from the candidates’ children to extended family and, tonight, to members of the football team Walz coached. There have been stories of Harris’s cooking and how Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff awkwardly called her for a date, and fond memories of Walz pulling a student out of a snowbank, hunting, and caring for his children. The convention has emphasized that the American government is made up of individuals and that the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does. 

Further, the Democrats have made their points with the stories of individual Americans who have overcome dark hours in order to move forward. In that storytelling, individuals represent the nation itself.  

The message of joy as we protect democracy, backed as that message is with four years of extraordinary accomplishments that have bolstered the middle class and spread opportunity among poorer Americans, has taken off. The convention has heard from three Democratic presidents and a range of other speakers, including a number of Republicans who have turned against Trump and are backing Harris and Walz. In July, Harris raised four times the money Trump did: $204 million to $48 million, much of it from small donors. 

The palpable energy and enthusiasm in Chicago, based as it is in a celebration of American values—especially in the idea of American freedom—reminds me of the enthusiasm of 1860 or 1932. It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.

Tonight, after his acceptance speech, Walz walked off stage to a favorite song of his: Neil Young’s “Rockin‘ in the Free World.” Neil Young personally allowed the campaign to use the song. When the Trump campaign used it, Young sued to make them stop.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[piquedpequod]

"The Mercy Trap" - fanmix for Itsuki and Sensui from YYH.

Listen: (Youtube | Spotify) Lyrics:

Temptation Waits - Garbage I'll tell you something I am a wolf but I like to wear sheep's clothing

You come on like a drug I just can't get enough I'm like an addict coming at you for a little more

The Sodom and Gomorrah Show - Pet Shop Boys Are you gonna go To the Sodom and Gomorrah Show? It's got everything you need for your complete entertainment And instruction Sun, sex, sin, divine intervention Death and destruction

Lights Out - Röyksopp (ft. Pixx) Save me with a kiss A gentle touch, before the darkness

Lights out We won't be home tonight Everything is better in the half-light

Asking to Break - James Blake Asking to break All this time So go ahead

True love lets you break And stays around

Edge to Life - Recoil There's a piece of dust that crumbles in your hand If you decide to lose control There's a castle of sand that gets kicked in your face To see how easily you'd fall from grace

There's an edge to life That will cut you like a knife When you lay your head down You know you can't escape

Halo - Depeche Mode You wear guilt Like shackles on your feet Like a halo in reverse I can feel The discomfort in your seat And in your head, it's worse

Bring your chains Your lips of tragedy And fall into my arms

And when our worlds they fall apart When the walls come tumbling in Though we may deserve it It will be worth it

Never Let Me Go - Cindy Look at me right now Look at me right now Never let me go Never let me go

Suki Suki Daisuki - Jun Togawa A love so pure you could call it violent A ‘Je t’aime’ so forceful that it's engraved into the Shōwa Era

Kiss me as if you're punching me, until my lips bleed Hold me until my ribs make a cracking sound and break

Deep Slow - Buck-Tick Get rid of the sun; let’s become angels of darkness Just being born now, you waited only for me Soon, we’ll see the answers

More passionate, to the point of pain, like we’re tasting each other I was only waiting for this night, I can feel it already So, I’m sad—vanish for me

Soon, we’ll see the answers So please fuck me so hard I die

audience KILLER LOOP - Dir en grey Even the blood that flows from cutting your chest needs to be for a reason, right? People are healed by inflicting harm, right?

Can't you find a reason to live? There's a deep spiral and a garden full of all you people's lies up ahead

I Am Not Here - VOLA Houses, water I appear But I am not here

I believe in you There's a simple story We will make it through Don't you ever worry I believe in you

There is something beautiful crawling under violence There is something vulnerable moving into silence

Give - Sleep Token You take the dark and carve me out a home I picture you when you are all alone I know how we got here I know how we got here I am the shadow, you're a passenger I am the intake of breath so sharp and I know you better Just wanna know you better

If you wanna give Then give me all that you can give All your darkest impulses And if you wanna give me anything, then give Give in again

A Stroke of Luck - Garbage Did you know I was lost until you found me? A stroke of luck or a gift from God? Hand of fate or devil's claws? From below or saints above? You came to me

Mercy in You - Depeche Mode I would do it all again Lose my way and fall again Just so I could call again on the mercy in you

High Rise - Ladytron Black sun rising New day dawning Amplifying and destroying

Signals fading Darkness falling New day dawning Black sun rising

We're on the same high you and I Open on the same page, no sunrise

started 201?, fin. june 2024.

[parachutingkitten]

My sin, is that I am a mess

I miss the ship wars. It always gave someone something to talk about. There was art of everything. Even the stuff that is toxic or fanon criminal. Now I can't find any of that. Or anyone with the confidence to do it anyways like they did back in the day

The hate that made people choose sides, burn bridges, and make enemies. Was actually hilarious. And I want it back, but everyone's so sensitive or ready to block at the slightest mention of you can probably guess what ships I'm referring to. Its so sad that we can't fight like we used to, yknow?

...you want the ship wars back? Like oni trilogy release ship wars? Endless posts about how the fandom sucks and needs to be better ship wars? Pros vs Antis vs anti- antis ship wars?

I... like that's genuinely not healthy. If you want that level of contention in fandom there are certainly other places that will accommodate that impulse, but I would look at what's driving you there. I'm all for some funny silly competition, but that era got dark, and mean, and very hateful. I would not wish that upon any fandom. I get that drama can be fun, but it also has real life consequences, so creating more for no reason is never a good thing to do. Especially when there's so many other places to get your drama fill if you need it.

If you need your side taking itch scratched, come up with something harmless. Find some people willing to engage in some good faith debate (that doesn't get personal). But if you wanna turn ninjago tumblr into a clique ridden high-school drama factory that's barely about the show anymore- I think you need to reevaluate why. Cuz a I know a LOT of people who got seriously hurt because of everything that went down, and I for one would prefer that not happen to anyone ever again. If you want that era back, you are wishing for a lot of people to cry their eyes out, ruin long term friendships, get bombarded with death threats, and live with an emmense amount of stress on their shoulders for months on end. And if you want that- there is something wrong with you.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Timeline Shifting: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics Week Five

I really dug the idea of Fate of Cthulhu. Then I actually read Fate of Cthulhu and it blew my mind. I’m an impulse ttrpg buyer– there are companies which I’m always going to check out new releases from and, if they even sort of match my interests, I will pick them up. Right now that’s Evil Hat, Sine Nomine, Modiphius, and Pelgrane, it used to be more Free League and Magpie.

So when I saw that EH was doing a Lovecraftian horror game set in the modern era while taking on the shitty stuff from Lovecraft, I was sold. So I backed it and promptly forgot about it. That’s not accidental– more often than not I put Kickstarted things out of my head so I don’t anxiously await them or wonder when they’re coming out. That’s allowed me to remain even tempered about several things I never expect to actually get like Project: Dark or Super Dungeon Explore 2nd Edition.

I try not to read anything about the game and, if I’ve backed the physical version, I don’t even look at the advance pdf about half the time. Such was the case for Fate of Cthulhu. Seriously. I just assumed it was a Fate version of Cthulhu Now or Delta Green and I was absolutely OK with that.

So when it came I actually realized what it was: Cthulhu meets The Terminator with characters coming back to stop one of an amazing set of richly conceived apocalypses. And I am absolutely on board for that– despite my general disinclination for time travel games and stories.

Fate of Cthulhu overcame my hesitation by building a structure which brilliantly blends Fate’s strengths with a concrete mechanism for changing the timeline. In brief each apocalypse has a major foe and series of events which led to their rise. At least one of the PC comes from that future and has been sent back to change things. But those characters aren’t armed with the full story. They only know pieces and fragments of history which have remained after the fall.

In mechanical terms they know of the basic shape of four key events. They know where and when these things happen and some of the major characters. But they have major gaps and no specifics on how it fits into the catastrophe. Your characters interact and impact those events. We play out scenes to figure out connections and try to stop the climactic event fifth event which is always the final rise. Mechanically these events each have four catalysts– represented by Fate aspects- each with a value.

In play two parallel timeline tracks exist: The Great Old One and The Resistance. Various things tick these boxes. For example the GOO track increases when a player invokes a corrupted aspect, a player marks corruption, or a GOO minion succeeds at a goal. On the other hand, the Resistance increases when players invoke timeline aspects and succeed, players foil a GOO minion, players make heroic last stands, or players change the timeline by dealing with an event.

When these tracks fill they create a Ripple and change the ratings of other events down the line. Players want to eventually change the ratings of the aspects for fifth and final event, to make dealing with that easier. They can also ripple other inciting events they haven’t yet dealt with in order to shape their task.

When I first saw the timeline, it confused me. But as we played and I understood how it worked, I came to dig it. I like that it begins with a concrete set up– events you have to deal with. I also like that the players don’t necessarily have to approach them in any order. There’s still timey-whimey nonsense, but that’s anchored by these key points in time. Evil Hat has provided a great set of apocalypses– most based on Lovecratian Great Old Ones– all executed smartly and compellingly. They’ve also included a couple of non-GOO challenges, like the Zombie Apocalypse.

The timeline set up is rich and fun to explore, but it's also skeletal enough that GMs can easily build their own. This is honestly what the best of the tools for Fate do. Simple structures with deep play value. One of the two Fate of Cthulhu series I played in reworked the foe to be the returning Faerie Queene. I can imagine a ton of other possibilities, like doing a superhero story with Kang taking over, Darkseid, Thanos, or another similar cosmic event.

[hannahlovesluca]

Hi can i get a nijisanji matchup if u dont mind (:

Male nijisanji en member :DD

Pronouns:He/him(literally any of those)

Sexuality:Gay for the homies....jk im bisexual.But men.My favorite genre of men is men who seems cool-headed but turns hot-headed whenever he plays amongus cause they're so fun to annoy(i may not have a type,but i have a pattern.and that's men.That's it.I'm so sorry for putting you through this but this sounded funnier in my head)

Zodiac:...what is a zodiac.I was born on April 12th if that helps?

Appearance:176 cm,almost a literal twig(i make up strength with agility i swear),dark brown eyes,short fluffy(?) brown hair??like those kinda wavy hair thing tho sometimes i tuck my bangs behind my ear like a disney princess if the temperature's hot,i don't neccesarily wear edgy clothes,sometimes i just find what's comfortable or i dress like a manhwa male lead.One day you see me in a black turtleneck and white shirt and the next day you see me in a blown up two piece suit while playing the most random stuff ever.I guess i have like a small waist??my friends told me i have those thin waists than even a corset wouldn't affect me(send help) oh and i had an era where i had waist length hair and ended up cutting it out of impulse,i only have like 3 fingers on my left hand cause im missing a pinky and ring finger(i honestly dont have any trouble against it i just think its annoying that i cant remember what even happened to begin with)

Mbti:ENTP/INTP(sometime si get entp sometimes i get intp)

Personality:Pain in the ass.Metaphorically.I will not hesitate to say something so abominably horrendous for the sake of arguing cause it's my favorite passtime.I'm the embodiment of that one character who never dies in a series and die at the end of the series from a tapeworm cause it felt lonely--On super duper rare occasions i get serious when it comes to problems but that's just a whole nother person atp,i'd be serious and maybe waaaaay too logical and blunt....but i still have a sense of humor tho

Likes:When people just randomly ramble to me,random 3 am shower thoughts,crabs(they taste good i swear),the concept of death(not in the depressing way i meant as in 'what if i die from a washing machine while showering' type of thoughts),physical touch and affection,i'd literally propose to someone if they'd let me doodle(rick astley) on their skin for funsies

Dislikes:Curfews,this thing we call math,toxic parents like if i see one im deadass gonna roast the hell out of them and mentally adopt the child(this happened like 3 times and im a children magnet atp)

Love language:

Giving:Words of affirmation(affectionate insults),physical touch

Receiving:Words of affirmation(affectionate insults),quality time

Extra:I get hurt kind of often so they'd probably see bandage rolls in the trashcan everyday,i actually love math but the act of actually counting the numbers makes me sick/lh,my room is a literal shipwreck unless someone scolds me to actually clean up my room LMAO usually i have to keep up a reputation so sometimes it's a shock to people that think that im introverted

i pair you with…

Uki Violeta!

hear me out…

• you are literally uki reincarnated

• i swear i didnt do this just because both of you are gay

• it works out great though

• you and fulgur probably jokingly fight for uki’s love

• omg imagine you went on Luca’s dating show and thats how you both realized that you loved each other

• might be writing a fic ab that…

• Uki knows your room is a wreck and he will FORCE you to clean that shit. he’ll also help u if u beg enough

• Uki also knows how often you get hurt and he’s always there to help, whether that be wrapping you up, or just giving you soft kisses <3

• HE LOVES UR HAIR!!!!!

• its just so fluffy and cute and adorable and

• sorry this is really short, i am extremely sick but i’m trying to pop out all these reqs!!!

RUNNERS UP: Fulgur Ovid, Claude Clawmark

[cinnamoodles]

hiii could i get a 🍓 [ strawberry dreams ] with the golden trio/marauders era? (im cool w either haha)

personality wise i’d say im pretty sarcastic, i love joking around n making the people around me laugh! i’d say im pretty funny 😅 i can be kind of short tempered but i try my best to keep that under control! other than that i would say i’m pretty laid back and the type to go with the flow. i’m always down to try something new! i can be pretty impulsive (i have 9 piercings that i got on impulse to prove that haha) and i love learning about topics i’m interested in. sometimes i hyper fixate on something and go down a deep rabbit hole

appearance wise im quite tall (5’8) with black hair that reaches past my shoulders and dark eyes. i have rlly pale skin (my friends call me a vampire) and my personal sense of style is a mixture of 90s & y2k grunge (and grandpa sweaters). i have a couple tattoos that arent visible.

im a scorpio, slytherin (sometimes i get ravenclaw), and either an intp or entp (im leaning more towards entp tbh)

i like to read and annotate books, watch films and completely dissect them, the colour green, and silver jewelry (i am not a gold girly). i would say my second fav colour is red! i think my fav subjects r english or philosophy.

i think thats all! thanks!!!

thank you for ordering from the cafe!

i ship you with…

sirius black!

— he’s obsessed with your tattoos omg? constantly admiring them and kissing them (no matter where they are heehee) and tracing them for fun and while cuddling

— impulsive duo supreme like who let you guys be together?? always doing the WILDEST shit and everyone else is like ‘yep that’s them 24/7’ and it is actually hilarious and super fun

— we all know sirius is a big reader so he and you would read muggle books to discuss them but god he looks so hot when he’s nerdy so these book club meetings usually end up in making out. it’s kind of an inside joke between the marauders at this point when it’s time for book club yk?

— constantly stealing sirius’ sweaters and jackets but he doesn’t mind bc you look cuter in his clothes anyway, but he sometimes returns the favor, and since he’s so tall, it’ll usually end up as a crop top on him (you don’t mind either)

— sirius being kind of skittish about getting his first piercing? he was so calm about the tattoo but he was squealing at the needle that pierced his ear (consensually ofc) and you’re calming him down because all he wants in the end is cuddles.

[shostakobitchh]

what are your thoughts/feelings on the marauders? I particularly love reading marauders stories as much as I love reading Snape-centric ones, but unfortunately there’s so much annoying bashing from both sides (don’t get me wrong, I love seeing them fight but you can see which one the author loves and who they despise).

ps.: I have to say though, I’m really enjoying how you’re inserting Lupin on your story so far! I like when authors don’t shy away from making the characters flawed, yet they’re still likable to me. same goes to Snape. lol I’m asking because I know the fandom can be divided by Marauders vs Snape defenders, but their intersection and its nuance is my fav part of it all.

pps.: just saw you updated! I haven’t even received the email yet lol that’ll be my friday night treat, thank you!! ❤️❤️

thank you for the kind words about lupin in the story, he’s my favorite character of all so that means a lot ❤️

okay so, hot take here, but it is so stupid to me because both sides did awful things and both sides pretend like either did nothing wrong. I am a BIG fan of both sides, but I get can't into Marauder's era content because it's very OOC now and it's quite clear it's only to essentially rewrite Harry Potter prequels that cater to specific headcanons, but I also can't completely get behind Snape defenders because many claim he did nothing wrong at all which turns him into some pussywhipped bore and I can’t grapple with the dismantling of such a FASCINATING character. the Snape fandom is almost too defensive which makes Snape's character less interesting to me. I think its AWESOME that this little shithead kid, who loved dark magic and craved validation and power, essentially fucked himself over and intertwined his fate with the son of his worst enemy and best friend. and then he was BITTER about it and was objectively awful until harry sees his memories, where Snape is still awful but like… it explains everything. doesn’t excuse it, but it explains it!

I really loved Sirius and Remus, I think they're deeply flawed characters (even as flawed as Snape!) that are severely fucked up but mask it better. They're good guys that are good at being the good guys, but sometimes, they are human! they make mistakes! Sirius is unhinged, impulsive, selfish. Remus is a straight up coward who doesn't take accountability - it makes me so upset that he didn't reach out to Harry in canon, how did he not mention he was best friends with James?!

I even really like James - we don't know a lot about James/Lily, but we know a lot about Harry, and there are several remarks that Harry is a lot like his mother, and Harry is a very good person, the kind of person who tried to get Voldemort to see his wrongdoings in his final moments. I'd like to believe Lily wouldn't have married a Gigachad and married someone who would be a good husband/father.

I know most of the hatred spawns from SWM, but I’m going to say something controversial here and mention that it’s SWM because it’s when Lily ended the friendship, not entirely because James attacked him. I’m not excusing James’ behavior in this scene, but I am a firm believer that both sides attacked one another on a semi regular basis. there’s also the werewolf incident which is like, inexcusable, but this is where marauders fans are bad, lol. just because sirius almost got snape killed doesn’t mean he’s like, an evil person. some of them cannot fathom sirius did something bad which sucks a lot of the interest out of mauraders era stories for me. if your characters don’t have flaws, what the fuck is the point?

in short, nonnie, we’re on the same page. the bashing from both sides is annoying and I think really uninteresting. why people choose to only see the bad in both sides is beyond me.

[inenochian]

Beautiful California Weather

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Say_It_In_Enochian/works

Say_It_In_Enochian - Written for a JackeDee fic prompt: “Restless”

Summary:

Dean can't put his finger on it but something about this day seems...wrong.

Notes:

Warning: Spoilers for Where All My Journeys End & Twist and Shout

This is one of two ficlets written for Jackie Dee’s art fic prompt, “Restless.”

When writing my Twist and Shout AU fic (in which I butterfly-effected Dean and Cas so that things turned out realistically but differently and ended HAPPILY), I mused over the idea that if something tragic, really really tragic, happened to someone in one universe, might their counterpart in another universe feel some ripple of that? When reading Twist and Shout and trying to map out the timeframe it seemed like “Cas died on a Thursday,” sometime in early to mid-March of 1981. Would an Alt Universe Dean and Cas even notice that day?

Ultimately I didn’t write it, since I didn’t want to put anything sci-fi-ish in something that was supposed to be a historical fiction AU, but for Jackie Dee’s challenge, I explored that idea. This ficlet would have taken place early in Chapter 49 of WAMJE but is not referenced in that story for the aforementioned reasons (except for a small hint by Cas in the final scene of Ch 49).

Because of the subject, it is angsty and references relationships and situations established in WAMJE, including Dean's panic attacks and therapy, but ends with comfort, and hope, and love! 

One last but VERY IMPORTANT note:

I loved Twist and Shout, not for its ending (it wrecked me), but for the beautiful, realistic story Gabriel and Standbyme depicted. My writing an AU of it - or “ficfic,” was never an attempt to “fix” that story. Yes, it's tragic, yet beautiful and true to the time. Writing my T&S AU started as a way to work through emotional stuff I was going through at the time. Thanks to gabriel and standbyme for bringing the era to life.

**********

Thursday March 12th 1981

Dean sat bolt upright in the bed with a gasp, instinctively reaching out to the man in the bed beside him.

Cas wasn’t there.

His eyes strained in the dark for a sign of him. Where is he? Where’s Cas? Where am I?

He pulled himself from the confusion of sleep, like trudging through heavy snow.

A sliver of light framed the window shade to the left allowing him to orient himself.

He was in his bed…In his room… His and Cas’s room…Cas’s side of the bed was cold.

Dean looked at the clock on the bedside table.

5:34

He groped in the near dark for the lamp beside him, almost toppling it. He turned the small knob flicking it on, shielding his eyes at first from the glare.

Cas’s clean laundry was still in the basket near the dresser where Dean set it last night after he’d folded it.

After Cas kissed him goodbye and went in for his shift.

That was seven hours ago. Another nine before Cas would be coming home.

Dean sat back against the headboard, hugging his knees close, resting his head on his arms. He blew out a heavy breath trying to shake the strange feeling - trying to clear the clinging fog from his brain.

It wasn’t right that Cas wasn’t here.

Dean rubbed his hands over his face. That was stupid. Of course Cas wasn’t here. He had a double shift. This was normal.

Perfectly normal.

He flicked off the light, rolling over onto his side and closing his eyes, but couldn’t shake the lingering anxiousness produced by whatever had awoken him.

On an impulse he grabbed Cas’s pillow, tossing his own to the floor as he pulled it beneath his head, hoping the subtle scent of the man would alleviate the weighty feeling of his absence.

He only remembered he’d changed the sheets the night before when he inhaled the nose-tickling fragrance of ocean breeze detergent where the soothing scent of Cas’s skin should be.

He closed his eyes anyway trying not to think about the time and how he needed sleep…. because once you start thinking about the time your mind won’t stop obsessing on it….. so he really needed to just make his mind blank…do some of that deep breathing shit Benny and Pamela always told him to do when his mind started racing out of control.

Inhale…..Exhale….

Inhale……..Exhale…….

Inhale………….Exhale……..

His back was cold where Cas’s body should be pressed up against him - warming him like his own personal furnace.

Fuck.

Dean opened his eyes.

5:47

He sat up and switched on the light again, hating the way it basked the room in its too-yellow glow, making everything it touched seem artificial too. When they built their house Dean would make sure there were lots of windows��lots of natural light.

And still, he couldn’t shake it…this feeling he couldn’t put his finger on that wouldn’t let him rest. A foreboding. He wondered if it had been a dream, but couldn’t for the life of him remember anything more than that moment of dread that had thrown him out of his sleep and now wouldn’t let him get back to it.

He needed Cas.

Like, needed him.

Like a fix…No…more like a life saving drug.

Dean needed to touch him. To know he was real.

Fucking ridiculous is what it was. Missing your lover when he’s at work is one thing. Pining after him like a toddler in need of a goddamn security blanket is something else.

He got up and did what Cas would make him do if it were one of his panic attacks, even though it was clear this wasn’t one of them. Not a typical one anyway. No racing heart. No gasping breaths, no lingering taste of metal in his mouth. Just a looming shadow… a chill at the nape of his neck.

Dean couldn’t explain it. Somehow that made it worse.

Still, he trudged down the narrow hall of their trailer to the kitchen and switched on the light. He popped some bread into the toaster oven and peeled a banana, eating the fruit while he waited for the toast to pop. His shift at the garage didn’t start for a few hours, so after finishing the toast Dean tried going back to bed.

The sunlight streamed more brightly now through the sides of the window shades. Dean lay back down under the covers and pulled the pillow half over his head to block it. He tried going back to sleep but the urge to keep checking the clock for the time was overwhelming.

It was too quiet here in the bed without Cas’s soft snores. Without the little sleepy hums he made when he shifted in Dean’s arms. Too cold without the warmth of their limbs tangling together.

How is it that they’d argued just two nights ago over which one of them was hogging the blankets? Over which one of them was taking up more than their fair space in the queen-sized bed?

How is it that Dean had complained and tried to roll Cas over to “his side” of some imaginary line down the center of the mattress? Had grabbed his pillow and spare blanket and ended up on the couch - when all he wanted at the moment was to be crowded by Cas’s overheated, sweaty, sleepy body? To feel the rise and fall that marked the cadence of his breath and know that he was real. That they were real.

This is crazy, Dean thought, the sudden heartache, almost a physical pain inside him.

Dean needed him. Now.

Needed to know he was safe.

Dean shook his head. What did that even mean? Of course he was safe. The hospital would have called if…

He fought the urge to grab the phone and call Cas in the middle of his shift.

Cas would want him to. Even if he couldn’t talk to Dean right away he’d want to know Dean needed him. He’d find a way to call him back, even if it meant sacrificing his break. Cas was like that. He was always looking out for Dean like that.

Dean hated that he needed it sometimes. He could usually just soldier on through it…but this feeling… this cold at the nape of his neck…the harrowing down his spine…

Dean looked at the clock.

6:01

Dean thought about the way they used to lay, clinging to each other against the threat of toppling onto the floor in the little twin-sized bed they shared in Cas’s old apartment. Thought about their sweat drenched bodies sliding against one another in the California night. Soft lips on hot skin...limbs tangled... never a care for personal space. He thought about how Cas’s legs seemed to always weave themselves around his so perfectly, no matter how humid the summer night, when they were young.

Dean tossed in the bed, switching sides, shifting up against the edge as if doing so could put himself back there, a balancing act - shifting Cas’s pillows behind him to pretend there was a body at his back. It wasn’t the same, and still the need to see him, to touch his face, to kiss his lips….

6:07

He got up and squeezed into the narrow shower stall of their bathroom, pressing himself against the back wall until the water temperature was right. If he hurried he could swing by the hospital before going to the garage. Bring Cas a thermos of coffee or something - just because.  

As much as they hated hiding their relationship, they weren’t in San Francisco anymore. Cas needed a chance to establish himself without having to deal with hateful bullshit and discrimination. For that matter, there was no doubt in Dean’s mind that his new boss at the garage would fire him if he knew Dean was playing doctor with Dr. Novak.

Would it be too obvious? Cas’s “roommate” bringing him coffee in the middle of his shift?

Nah.

He was being paranoid. Friends do nice things for each other all the time.

Dean made a fresh pot of coffee and poured most of it in his work thermos, adding in sugar and cream, just the way Cas liked it.

He quickly made a ham and cheese sandwich, wrapped it in foil, and put it in the metal Stanley lunchbox that he’d had since he worked in Sacramento at Bobby’s, along with another banana, a hostess fruit pie, and two cans of A&W. He placed the lunchbox and thermos in his backpack, grabbed his army surplus jacket from the hook by the door and headed out.

The hum of the 4 stroke engine of his motorcycle grounded him. Pamela was forever making jokes about it but it beat her badass Harley with its ape-hanger handlebars any day for sheer power, and for a moment, as he sped down the dirt driveway of their new property toward the main road, Dean felt like he was flying, leaving that shadow that had plagued his morning in the dust.

There was barely any traffic, when he got into town, early as it was for even the morning commute. Still, the noise of the engine garnered him a few frowns and disgruntled looks from people waiting for buses while he waited for the lights to turn.

7:09

Dean pulled into the grounds of Angels of Mercy Hospital. He parked the bike in the emergency room lot and made his way into the lobby. Cas was working in the ER today. He went to the main desk which was currently unoccupied except for the receptionist flipping through the latest copy of the Ladies Home Journal.

“Hey,” Dean said.

“Hello,” the woman smiled, closing the magazine and pushing it aside, her eyes alighting on Dean with an interested smile.

“I’m a friend of Castiel Novak. You don’t happen to know if he has a minute, do you? It’s not an emergency or anything,” Dean said, feeling foolish even saying that part given he’d just walked into the ER.  “I just have something for him.”

Just then a doctor in a white coat, stethoscope round his neck, popped into the registration area. “Wendy I just got a call that they’re flying in a patient from that accident on 97 and another ambulance is en route. Direct anyone with non-life-threatening conditions to the clinic on Broad Street okay?”

“Yes, Dr. Wallace. Oh! Would you happen to know where Dr. Novak is? This gentleman has something for him.”

The stupidly handsome doctor with the blue eyes and perfectly white smile regarded Dean, offering a handshake in greeting. “Inias Wallace. I’m Dr. Novak’s Attending Physician. How can I help you?”

Dean wasn’t expecting the jolt to the spine that ran through his limbs making him feel he might sprout claws from his fingertips, nor the way his eyes narrowed on Wallace like a sniper.

No.

No you can’t fucking help me. Where’s Cas?

“Dean Winchester,” he said with a squaring of shoulders and lift to his chin. He shook Wallace’s hand.  

“Oh, Dean! Cas mentioned you. You’re his roommate aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Dean said thickly, fighting the urge to tell this guy exactly who he was to Cas. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“He’s asleep in the on-call room at the moment. We had a pretty long night. Do you want me to wake him?”

“No!” Dean shook his head. He’d figured catching Cas in a free moment was a long shot, still, it was a disappointment to say the least, and making things worse… the way this guy spoke about Cas like he was his keeper.

“No, don’t wake him.”

A voice in his head told Dean he was being unreasonable. This guy was in charge of the Residents. He should be glad he was looking out for Cas.

Dean reached into his backpack, pulling out the thermos of coffee. “When he does wake up, can you give him this though? It’s just coffee. I was on my way to work so figured I’d stop by and bring him some.”

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate it,” Wallace said, taking the thermos.

“Yeah,” Dean said, slipping his hands in his pockets. He was stalling now, hoping Cas would pop through the door if he just waited a minute longer. “Okay…okay well, anyway…gotta go,” Dean nodded to them both finally, and turned to leave.

*****

Dean finished replacing the carburetor on a Ford Escort when he was called into the office. He checked his watch.

10:17

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yeah, some guy called. I told him you were working. Said to tell you thanks for the coffee. I ain’t your answering service Winchester.”

“Yeah..No..I mean. Thanks for the message.”

“Hey, there’s a station wagon out in the lot waitin on brake pads and an inspection, and a Volkswagon with a leak in the cooling system. Get on it, pretty boy.”

Get on it.

Dean took a deep breath and reminded himself that he needed this job, at least for now, if he and Cas were ever gonna build a life for themselves here. He checked his watch again as if by some miracle it would tell him more than two minutes had passed by since the last time he checked. No dice.

3:41

“Winchester, inventory the shipment of the new parts we got in, then punch out.”

He took the clipboard from the shop manager and made his way to the back of the shop.

“Hey, Dean, why don’t you come out with me and Richie for a few drinks later,” one of the full-time mechanics offered.

“Yeah Dean, you can witness this loser hit on every chick with a pulse and strike out anyway!” Richie laughed.

“Shut up faggot! At least I ain’t afraid to approach a woman. You just stare at your feet and mumble if one of 'em tries to even talk to you.”

“Thanks, guys. After this I got somewhere to be,” Dean said, eyeing the inventory list.

“Is she hot?”

4:10

Cas should have been home twenty minutes ago. Dean turned on the tv and went to the window, but there was still no sign of Cas coming up the road.

Dean reprimanded himself. This wasn’t like him, hovering like this, but ever since this morning there’d been this itch under his skin that he couldn’t scratch.

He went to the sink to put away the dishes that had been left to dry in the rack the night before. One slipped from his hand smashing on the floor. Cas’s NYU mug.

Shit!

Dean bent over to pick up the shards before Freddie could come nosing around and injure a paw.

Fuck. It was the only thing Cas really had from his time in New York City. Now Dean had fucking broken it.

And where was Cas? Why wasn’t he here?

It was too quiet here without him. It was… empty.

Dean suddenly felt like he was being pulled under water, into a dark overwhelming gloom.

It had been nagging at him all day. This feeling like something was just behind him, something he was trying to outrun…he’d tried keeping busy all day just to keep ahead of it, knowing if he slowed down it would catch him…pull him under…. Ruin him.

5:01

Cas wasn’t coming home.

That’s crazy…he’s coming home…of course he’s….

The metallic taste filled his mouth.

Fuck!

Breathe through it…it’ll pass

Breathe….fuck!

Dean couldn’t breathe.

He looked around the living room of the trailer…he was alone…

I’m going to lose him.

He was only ever going to be alone…Cas was gone…he’d lost him somehow…

“Cas?”

Despair covered him like a shroud…heavy and crippling… malevolent…

He was going to die alone…

Maybe that was okay…at least the dying part

Then maybe he’d be with Cas…

What? No…Fuck!

Dean couldn’t breathe…

He needed air… this fucking yellow light on everything …Dean needed air…

He burst out the front door trying to suck in the fresh air but his chest was too tight…

Five things…find five things…

Dean stumbled toward the patch of trees…

The crunch of last year's leaves underfoot…rough bark on his palm…

Breathe…

Fuck! Don’t pass out here….fuck!

He sank down…back against the tree…pulling his knees up…head between his knees

Breathe Dean…fucking breathe…

The ground was cold and damp beneath him…

Cold like Cas’s hand…like Cas’s body…

No!

This isn’t real!

The ground, Dean refocused …cold and damp…how many was that? Shit! He hadn’t been counting.

I’m gonna lose him…

He closed his eyes tight…hand cradling his forehead….he was alone….

I love you….I love you….

Inhale…..Exhale…..Inhale….

Breathe Dean….

It’s…it’s gonna be okay…breathe….

“Breathe Dean…”

Inhale….Exhale….

“I’ve got you…breathe with me….inhale…exhale…”

Five things…five things he could sense...

Crunch of last year's leaves next to him…cold ground where he sat….

“You’re okay, Dean...inhale….”

Rough scrape of bark against his skin…

“It’ll pass…”

Birdsong in the trees….warm sun on his face….a calm voice...

“Can you look at me, baby? ...Dean, look at me, sweetheart.”

Warm hands on his skin…gentle hands…

“You’re doing so good, Baby…you’re okay…it’ll pass…I love you…”

Cas’s hands…

I love you…

Cas….

“I love you… It’s okay…breathe with me, Dean…”

“Cas?”

“I’m here,” Cas said. “Dean. I’m right here. Just keep breathing with me.”

Inhale…..Exhale….

Cas’s body, warm against his side where he crouched next to Dean…

Inhale……..Exhale…….

Inhale………….Exhale……..

“You're doing so good, Dean. You’re okay.”

“Cas….Cas, I’m so sorry!”

Cas regarded him, concerned eyes soft on his own, “For what, baby?”

“For leaving you…I’m sorry I wasn’t what you needed me to be…”

“I…I don’t know what you mean,” Cas’s hand rubbed circles on his back.

“When I left you…all those years…I left you..”

“But you came back,” Cas’s brow knitted as he searched Dean’s face. “Sweetheart…that was a long time ago,” Cas touched the back of his hand to Dean’s forehead, checking for fever.

Dean took his hand…gripped it tight against his chest.

“I know…I know Cas…I don’t know why I…I just woke up this morning and I…” Dean shook his head. “It felt like I was losing you.”

“Dean,” Cas cocked his head, his tone mildly admonishing. “Don’t you know by now you’re stuck with me?” Cas smiled, his free hand cupping Dean’s cheek. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You weren’t….” You were gone, Dean thought. I lost you… . He searched Cas’s eyes. Cas hadn’t left him….why did he even think that? They were okay….they were going to be okay… “It doesn’t matter now,” he said finally, closing his eyes and shaking his head to clear it.

When he opened them again Cas was appraising him, eyes blue, like the lupines that grew in their meadow in spring. Blue and full of life and tenderness.

“Come here,” Dean gasped suddenly, pulling Cas into his lap, and clinging to him tightly. Cas let out a little surprised “Oh! Okay!”

Dean cradled the back of Cas’s head with his hand. Cas tucked his face into the crook of Dean’s neck.

This was what he’d needed all day. The reassuring touch he craved. The softness of Cas’s hair against his cheek. The feel of Cas’s heartbeat against his own. His skin smelt clean like the Ivory soap he’d showered with before coming home from his shift.

“I needed this,” Dean confessed, his lips against Cas’s hair. “I just needed to feel you…to touch you.  I can’t explain it.”

“I tried to call you, but your boss is a real dick.”

“Heh,” Dean huffed, with a tired smile. “Don’t I know it.”

Cas hummed, thoughtfully. He shifted back in Dean’s arms, letting go enough to see his face.

“It was a nice surprise. The coffee.”

“It wasn’t nothin, Cas,” Dean blushed, knowing Cas was assessing him now, searching his expression with a worried little pinch to his brow.

Cas lifted his hand to cup Dean’s cheek. Dean placed his own hand against Cas’s, holding it there before placing a kiss on his palm.

“I broke your mug,” Dean remembered suddenly. He gripped Cas’s hand, pulling it away from his face, but holding on, caressing Cas’s fingers and palm. “The NYU one. I’m sorry, Cas.”

“Oh! That’s okay. I didn’t really like that one anyway,” Cas's lips quirked into a smile as he caught Dean’s eyes again.  “It’s too wide. Too much surface area. The coffee and tea always get cold too fast in that one.”

Cas shifted off Dean’s lap, sitting next to him, both of their backs against the tree. He smiled softly. “Should we go inside? Or do you need a change of scene?”

Dean searched Cas’s face as if looking at him for the first time, trying to take in every feature, every crinkle and laugh line and commit it to memory. He swept the hair from Cas’s forehead smiling back. “Maybe…maybe a quick drive with you. Just…yeah..change of scene for a bit, but…I just really want us to spend time together tonight.”

“We could go into town and get a pizza,” Cas suggested. He looked around seeming to notice their surroundings. “It’s still warm out. Actually a pretty nice night for a walk through town. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way home and picked up that new motocross mag and a few catalogs that had home designs and blueprints in them. I saw a few that looked nice and wanted to show you. That’s why I was late actually. Sorry I wasn’t home sooner.”

“That’s okay Cas.”

“I guess that might be kind of boring though huh? Just looking at house plans. We can go see a movie if you-”

“No!” Dean interrupted. “Boring is good. Boring is… perfect. But for the record Cas, looking through design catalogs for the home I’m gonna build with you is anything but boring. That was actually really sweet of you.”

Cas smiled with a shy bite to his lip, then stood, offering a hand to Dean and pulling him up.

“Feeling better then?” He asked, regarding Dean, the little furrow in his gaze returning briefly.

“You’re here.” Dean’s hand squeezed Cas’s tighter. “I feel perfect."

They walked to the Impala, Dean holding Cas’s hand, thinking about all the little ways Cas showed Dean every day that he loved him, and about all the ways Dean was going to show his love to Cas in return. Every day.  

A whole lifetime full of love.

[lenaswritingandstuff]

hi could i get a marauders era and golden trio era ship?

im fem, queer, and go by she/her pronouns, im a slytherin and a scorpio. personality wise, i’m pretty sarcastic, easy going, and i goof around a lot. for the most part i’m pretty chill, but i’m still kind of short tempered and stubborn. i never take things too seriously, but i do when i need to. even though i slack/goof off too much, i’m still pretty responsible. i guess i’m smart (i hope so) and i read a lot, and research on things that i find interesting. whenever im with my friends we always jokingly insult or tease each other (with love). i’d say i have a good sense of humour since i make a lot of ppl laugh, and i do have a loud personality when im with the right ppl. otherwise i can be quiet or withdrawn, but that doesn’t mean im shy i just dont feel like talking lol. also im always down to do anything, and i like to be spontaneous. i’d say im nice, and overly polite sometimes but i’m not afraid to be mean to horrible people. im pretty impulsive, and thats the reason why ive got so many ear piercings, and dyed/cut my own hair so many times at like 1 am lol.

in terms of looks, im quite tall (5’8), have black hair and (super dark brown ???) eyes, a lot of ear piercings (9 of them!), a tattoo and i have a wolfcut. my style i would describe as being kind of grunge, 90s to y2k inspired. i wear a lot of oversized sweaters, leather jackets, tote bags, cargo pants/jeans and chunky sneakers. i’m really into 90s japanese streetwear as well. idrk how to describe my style but yeah ??? i think this is fine

i have a fear of spiders (i’m just like ron fr ✊🏻✊🏻✊🏻), i like to read, watch videos on random or creepy topics that i hyper fixate on (at one point it was the medieval times), draw, listen to music and all that good stuff. yeah tbh i think thats everything.

thanks!

Hi!

I ship you with...

Harry Potter: Fred and George Weasley

And James Potter

Thank you for the request, hope you like it!

[yourreddancer]

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

August 21, 2024 (Wednesday)

In 1974, music writer Jon Landau saw a relatively unknown musician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wrote for an alternative paper: "Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theater, I saw rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." The review helped to catapult Springsteen to stardom.

After three days at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, I feel like I have seen the political future and its name is the Democratic Party. But rather than feeling like I’m hearing politics for the first time, I am hearing the echo of political themes embraced in the best moments of America’s past.

The theme of the third day of the Democratic National Convention, held in the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, was “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” But the speeches were less about fighting than they were about recovering the roots of American democracy.

The Democrats have not lost their conviction that the reelection of Donald Trump and the enactment of Project 2025 are an existential threat both to democracy and to Americans themselves. Speakers throughout the convention have condemned Trump and highlighted Project 2025, a blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing organizations for a second Trump term. Although Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who was a high school football coach, notes that no one bothers to write a playbook if they’re not going to use it.

Tonight, comedian and actor Kenan Thompson illustrated the dangers of Project 2025 with humor, bringing home the horror of it as only humor can do. With a giant copy of the plan as a prop, he gave a woman married for eight years to her wife the bad news that Project 2025 would end protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, informed a woman who pays $35 a month for her insulin that the plan would overturn the law that makes drugs more affordable, notified an OBGYN that the plan would ban abortion nationwide and throw abortion providers into jail, and put a woman who called herself a proud civil servant on notice that Project 2025 would guarantee she would be fired unless she is a MAGA loyalist.

But the dark dangers of the assault of Trump and the MAGA Republicans on the country have finally pushed the party to move away from its customary caution and focus on policy to embrace the possibilities of a new future. The convention is electric, packed with young people who push jokey memes and poke fun at themselves, much as Walz and presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris are doing to deflect criticism, and who are sharing homemade politically-themed friendship bracelets that echoe the homemade paraphernalia of singer Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

And, after decades in which Republicans claimed the mantle of patriotism, now that the fate of democracy itself is on the line, Democrats are joyfully claiming the symbols and the principles of American democracy for their own.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, many Democrats shied away from symbols of patriotism because they seemed to support imperialism. Then, in the 1980s, Reagan and his supporters wrapped themselves in the flag and claimed it for their own. That impulse to define “Americans” as those who vote for Republicans has led us to a place where a small minority claims the right to rule over the rest of us.

The Democratic National Convention has powerfully illustrated that the rest of us are finally reclaiming the country and its symbols. The convention has been full of references to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the American Revolution, the national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance. Tonight, attendees chanting “USA” waved signs emblazoned with the letters. Speakers, many of whom are military veterans, have testified that they are proud to be Americans. The theme of patriotism was even in one of tonight’s afterparties: Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean played The Star Spangled Banner with an interpretation that recalled Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. “America is the best place to be,” he said. “I’m the best of the American dream. Welcome to America…. You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.”

As Jean indicated, that embrace of our history does not come with the exceptionalism of MAGA Republicans, who maintain that the U.S. has a perfect past that it must reclaim to become great again. Indeed, speakers have emphasized that honoring our history means remembering the nation’s failures as well as its triumphs. The Democrats’ patriotism means recognizing that despite the fact that the U.S. has never fully realized the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, it has never abandoned them either—a statement paraphrased from President Joe Biden, who has said it repeatedly.

Speakers have highlighted that the imperfect version of those principles has enabled their personal success stories. Speaker after speaker, from Harris and Walz, of course, to tonight’s speakers Maryland governor Wes Moore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and journalist and television personality Oprah Winfrey, have recounted their own process of rising from humble beginnings to their current prominence,

Winfrey is an Independent who generally stays out of politics, but tonight she spoke passionately during prime time about electing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Walz. When a reporter asked her why she was willing to make a political statement, she said: "Because I really care about this country. And there couldn't have been a life like mine, a career like mine, a success like mine, without a country like America. Only in America could there be a me."

The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency, and service to others implicitly conflates those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself. Running through the stories told at the convention is the theme of working hard through a time of darkness to come out into the light. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” speakers have quoted the Biblical psalm, and they have referred to the vision of the American flag still flying after a night of bombardment during the War of 1812, captured by Francis Scott Key in the national anthem, promising that after our time of national darkness, there will be light.

The DNC has called not just for reasserting patriotism, but for reclaiming America with joy. It has showcased a deep bench of politicians, some of whom are great orators, repeatedly calling for joy in the work of saving democracy, and it has shown poets like Amanda Gorman and a wide range of musicians, from Stevie Wonder to Lil Jon to D.J. Cassidy to John Legend. The convention is designed to appeal to different generations—tonight actress Mindy Kaling helpfully explained to older attendees who she is—and younger attendees have handed out friendship bracelets saying things like “Madam Prez” to older people in an echo of the exchange of bracelets among Taylor Swift’s fans.

After an era in which politicians have seemed to lie to the American people, the convention has emphasized authenticity. It has featured testimonials about the candidates with speakers ranging from the candidates’ children to extended family and, tonight, to members of the football team Walz coached. There have been stories of Harris’s cooking and how Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff awkwardly called her for a date, and fond memories of Walz pulling a student out of a snowbank, hunting, and caring for his children. The convention has emphasized that the American government is made up of individuals and that the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does.

Further, the Democrats have made their points with the stories of individual Americans who have overcome dark hours in order to move forward. In that storytelling, individuals represent the nation itself.

The message of joy as we protect democracy, backed as that message is with four years of extraordinary accomplishments that have bolstered the middle class and spread opportunity among poorer Americans, has taken off.

The convention has heard from three Democratic presidents and a range of other speakers, including a number of Republicans who have turned against Trump and are backing Harris and Walz. In July, Harris raised four times the money Trump did: $204 million to $48 million, much of it from small donors.

The palpable energy and enthusiasm in Chicago, based as it is in a celebration of American values—especially in the idea of American freedom—reminds me of the enthusiasm of 1860 or 1932. It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.

Tonight, after his acceptance speech, Walz walked off stage to a favorite song of his: Neil Young’s “Rockin‘ in the Free World.” Neil Young personally allowed the campaign to use the song. When the Trump campaign used it, Young sued to make them stop.

[wondercrushed]

💀

🏴‍☠️

Story Time

Today I spent at least 5h trying to figure out some small tech thing.

Instead of saying that this was such a huge waste of my time and getting super mad at myself though, I'm just gonna go ahead and talk to the tech people at school tmw to resolve it. Instead of getting mad at myself, I'm just going to say one little thing that maybe when we start working on something super little and nit picky, we can give ourselves as much time as we want but as long as we are listening to the same thing all the way through.

As a girlie with a hard-wired brain AND daddy issues I really have so much empathy for other girlies who channel their hard headedness into places like these where your daddy issues can really be your kryptonite and your superpower at the same time.

I started getting so frustrated with myself asking demeaning questions like:

why doesn't my life have any windows? it's so dark :(

why am i like this?

why am i wasting my time like this?

why couldn't i have just been born into a diff era?

why why why ... etc

and then it felt so good to cry. i mean like i tried everything. i called them 1st ofc nobody picked up, i kept reorganizing things, then i emailed someone back, i made like 2 new accounts of sorts and added security to 4 diff accounts and then after i was like why didn't i get any work done... ?

Guess it doesn't matter anyhow -me OK. It's Reality Check O'clock.

1st of all you did get some work done so don't let those creepy crawly wormy ants and brain monsters get to you

This is just the age we are living in.

Whether you want to romanticize it or let it eat you up all the way along with all of your woes, the choice is mostly up to you.

hm

OK but what if we can we marry good and evil? What if we can dare to conjoin evolution and biblical tradition? whatever happened before and after the fall??

This book truly gets at the ruthlessness of our own human nature.

ahem spending 3h sitting in front of ur computer not listening to an audiobook ex: beloved

Looking beyond the simple dichotomy between good and evil, it slyly hints at the misery of the caged and enslaved humani. The very culprit may be the cerebral cortex. However, it is only negative when viewed in isolation...

from the rest of the brain, that being the more ancient subcortical and cerebellar systems. What did we evolve from and what do we appear to have lost that we may be on the cusp of repossessing? How can we view our own brains with the same integrity as the ancients did?? Giving ourselves the same

grace, but less harshness and the recognition that power is a prison and that death is a life.

Now that we have the internet everything is so connected and our association cortex is probably growing faster than ever. Our association cortex is responsible for the complex processing that goes on between the arrival of input in the primary sensory cortices and the generation of behavior... IMPULSIVE SHIT but probably also not being able to stop type shit too. We need not view that part of our brains as apart from the subcortical and cerebellar systems because that simply eradicates the need to hold anyone who does anything impulsive accountable for anything :)

This seems very on par w 2000s energy

To bring my point home, "The people - that great beast." -Alexander Hamilton. Now that we've admitted we are all beasts, we can pray.

I pray that all of the hours you spend daunting over moons so far away are pardoned and you never quite imagined how whole heartedly every second was re payed. The coziest hug you ever imagined was given to you from the other side. Turtles all the way down from the heart of the earth. No moments were wasted or lost and every secret was kept beneath your pillow. On your way to sleep with effervescent spurr like horns when twilight comes blessing your listless memories like these ancient horns that just wilt away into mystical musical ones with time no longer piercing or poking at you. Now they are just like the one hunting horn that Hillarion blows in the ballet Gisselle as a signal for the prince to return, expose the impostor, reveal that Loys was not meant for Giselle and then she lets her hair down and dances herself to death.

[misfitwashere]

August 21, 2024 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

AUG 22

In 1974, music writer Jon Landau saw a relatively unknown musician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wrote for an alternative paper: "Last Thursday, at the Harvard Square theater, I saw rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time." The review helped to catapult Springsteen to stardom. 

After three days at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, I feel like I have seen the political future and its name is the Democratic Party. But rather than feeling like I’m hearing politics for the first time, I am hearing the echo of political themes embraced in the best moments of America’s past.

The theme of the third day of the Democratic National Convention, held in the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, was “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” But the speeches were less about fighting than they were about recovering the roots of American democracy.

The Democrats have not lost their conviction that the reelection of Donald Trump and the enactment of Project 2025 are an existential threat both to democracy and to Americans themselves. Speakers throughout the convention have condemned Trump and highlighted Project 2025, a blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing organizations for a second Trump term. Although Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who was a high school football coach, notes that no one bothers to write a playbook if they’re not going to use it.

Tonight, comedian and actor Kenan Thompson illustrated the dangers of Project 2025 with humor, bringing home the horror of it as only humor can do. With a giant copy of the plan as a prop, he gave a woman married for eight years to her wife the bad news that Project 2025 would end protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, informed a woman who pays $35 a month for her insulin that the plan would overturn the law that makes drugs more affordable, notified an OBGYN that the plan would ban abortion nationwide and throw abortion providers into jail, and put a woman who called herself a proud civil servant on notice that Project 2025 would guarantee she would be fired unless she is a MAGA loyalist. 

But the dark dangers of the assault of Trump and the MAGA Republicans on the country have finally pushed the party to move away from its customary caution and focus on policy to embrace the possibilities of a new future. The convention is electric, packed with young people who push jokey memes and poke fun at themselves, much as Walz and presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris are doing to deflect criticism, and who are sharing homemade politically-themed friendship bracelets that echo the homemade paraphernalia of singer Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. 

And, after decades in which Republicans claimed the mantle of patriotism, now that the fate of democracy itself is on the line, Democrats are joyfully claiming the symbols and the principles of American democracy for their own. 

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s, many Democrats shied away from symbols of patriotism because they seemed to support imperialism. Then, in the 1980s, Reagan and his supporters wrapped themselves in the flag and claimed it for their own. That impulse to define “Americans” as those who vote for Republicans has led us to a place where a small minority claims the right to rule over the rest of us. 

The Democratic National Convention has powerfully illustrated that the rest of us are finally reclaiming the country and its symbols. The convention has been full of references to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the American Revolution, the national anthem, and the pledge of allegiance. Tonight, attendees chanting “USA” waved signs emblazoned with the letters. Speakers, many of whom are military veterans, have testified that they are proud to be Americans. The theme of patriotism was even in one of tonight’s afterparties: Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean played The Star Spangled Banner with an interpretation that recalled Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. “America is the best place to be,” he said. “I’m the best of the American dream. Welcome to America…. You know what makes America great? We’re a bunch of immigrants.” 

As Jean indicated, that embrace of our history does not come with the exceptionalism of MAGA Republicans, who maintain that the U.S. has a perfect past that it must reclaim to become great again. Indeed, speakers have emphasized that honoring our history means remembering the nation’s failures as well as its triumphs. The Democrats’ patriotism means recognizing that despite the fact that the U.S. has never fully realized the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, it has never abandoned them either—a statement paraphrased from President Joe Biden, who has said it repeatedly. 

Speakers have highlighted that the imperfect version of those principles has enabled their personal success stories. Speaker after speaker, from Harris and Walz, of course, to tonight’s speakers Maryland governor Wes Moore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and journalist and television personality Oprah Winfrey, have recounted their own process of rising from humble beginnings to their current prominence, 

Winfrey is an Independent who generally stays out of politics, but tonight she spoke passionately during prime time about electing Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Walz. When a reporter asked her why she was willing to make a political statement, she said: "Because I really care about this country. And there couldn't have been a life like mine, a career like mine, a success like mine, without a country like America. Only in America could there be a me."

The many stories in which ordinary Americans rise from adversity through hard work, decency, and service to others implicitly conflates those individual struggles with the struggles of the United States itself. Running through the stories told at the convention is the theme of working hard through a time of darkness to come out into the light. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” speakers have quoted the Biblical psalm, and they have referred to the vision of the American flag still flying after a night of bombardment during the War of 1812, captured by Francis Scott Key in the national anthem, promising that after our time of national darkness, there will be light.

The DNC has called not just for reasserting patriotism, but for reclaiming America with joy. It has showcased a deep bench of politicians, some of whom are great orators, repeatedly calling for joy in the work of saving democracy, and it has shown poets like Amanda Gorman and a wide range of musicians, from Stevie Wonder to Lil Jon to D.J. Cassidy to John Legend. The convention is designed to appeal to different generations—tonight actress Mindy Kaling helpfully explained to older attendees who she is—and younger attendees have handed out friendship bracelets saying things like “Madam Prez” to older people in an echo of the exchange of bracelets among Taylor Swift’s fans.

After an era in which politicians have seemed to lie to the American people, the convention has emphasized authenticity. It has featured testimonials about the candidates with speakers ranging from the candidates’ children and grandchildren, to extended family and, tonight, to members of the football team Walz coached. There have been stories of Harris’s cooking and how Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff awkwardly called her for a date, and fond memories of Walz pulling a student out of a snowbank, hunting, and caring for his children. The convention has emphasized that the American government is made up of individuals and that the character of the people we put into leadership will determine what that government does. 

Further, the Democrats have made their points with the stories of individual Americans who have overcome dark hours in order to move forward. In that storytelling, individuals represent the nation itself.  

The message of joy as we protect democracy, backed as that message is with four years of extraordinary accomplishments that have bolstered the middle class and spread opportunity among poorer Americans, has taken off. The convention has heard from three Democratic presidents and a range of other speakers, including a number of Republicans who have turned against Trump and are backing Harris and Walz. In July, Harris raised four times the money Trump did: $204 million to $48 million, much of it from small donors. 

The palpable energy and enthusiasm in Chicago, based as it is in a celebration of American values—especially in the idea of American freedom—reminds me of the enthusiasm of 1860 or 1932. It is about ending the darkness, not indulging in it, and it requires the hard work of everyone who believes that we deserve the freedom to determine our own lives.

Tonight, after his acceptance speech, Walz walked off stage to a favorite song of his: Neil Young’s “Rockin‘ in the Free World.” Neil Young personally allowed the campaign to use the song. When the Trump campaign used it, Young sued to make them stop.