#i love spouting bullshit but also not total bullshit

[hyewka]

ⵌ. txt’s favorite places to mark you

totally based on an extensive and objective analysis.

➥ yeonjun | neck

something about yeonjun makes me think (believe) he’d be the type of person to transition a very heated kiss—having you grind on his lap, catching little breaths —to trailing his wet lips to your neck, vacant flesh all for his to color. gently sucking on your neck that you bare for him, older faded sore spots being his favorite to revisit. bringing the swell back up as his hands squeeze your ass, getting you so needy, a literal mess on his lap, dazed and lightheaded, only for him to just…end it there. like, literally… that’s it. because yeonjun loves marking you, especially where it’s extra visible and you have to fumble around to make an attempt of hiding them with your color corrector, the cutest furrow of your brows of concentration as you carefully dab concealer on all over your neck. he’s quiet when he notices you accidentally let one or two peek through, the light purple hue beating the rushed light cover of concealer spurs him on. like, going outside with those hickeys unknowingly showing with his fingers intertwined with yours— it’s basically screaming to the world that you’re his. and to yeonjun, that might just be the hottest thing in the world. he’d definitely get some sort of ego boost when seeing someone that was checking you out finally take notice of the marks and almost immediately averting their gaze. even those damn questioning raised brows and prying eyes gets him in the mood. his dick’s pathetically twitching in his pants to finally get you home and completely ruin you, while keeping in mind to make sure of occupying the naked space you have for him on your neck </3 (definitely loves to touch them once in a while, he’s seriously mesmerized)

( ;´꒳`;) other members under the cut!

➥ soobin | tits/chest

having soobin buried in your tits while you cockwarm him :/ … yeah, he’s going to be rough. dumbly just kissing all over your chest, drool trickling down as he makes a mess of spit all over your chest because the man just can’t control himself. head so cloudy as he struggles to crane his neck to suffocate himself further in your tits, not able to think clearly with the way you’re practically dripping on him, the warmth of your pussy doing nothing but make him rougher against your poor nipples, suckling onto them like life depended on it. your chest is almost always sore and entirely covered with hickeys when you’re done with soobin— there isn’t anything particular about hickeys that he enjoys, he just seemingly almost always finds his mouth attached to your tits when fucking.

➥ beomgyu | inner thighs

there is a possessive side to beomgyu similar to yeonjun— he loves to suck hickeys all over your neck and he also tries to convince you of showing them off (of which he fails) but he’s also a man made to eat pussy so his actual number one spot to give you love bites is somewhere near it. it’s when he’s teasing you endlessly, making show of his pink tongue slowly darting out to lick and then slightly suck, all while making eye contact— so so close to your heat but not quite there. other than relishing in the way you struggle before finally giving in and with a bratty whine asking him to finally fucking eat me out! he’s also just quite obsessed with your thighs. like, he’s obsessed. when you wear the flimsy white lacy thigh highs that ride up all the way to over your knees that god, he loves so much, he’s practically begging to have you wrap the soft flush around his head. beomgyu definitely likes the satisfaction of ripping them up only to see the faded purple splotches of messy hickeys from a few days ago, feeling the smirk on his lips as he kisses around them, fluttering his pretty lashes knowing they’d soon get wet with sparkling tears ^_^

➥ taehyun | collarbones, under ear

taehyun is possessive, but in other ways that don’t involve hickeys. he’s especially private about his sex life, to the point friends around him are convinced that he has the most boring sex known to mankind (probably the furthest from the truth). he just prefers to keep it under the covers. and under the covers does he keep it. having you lay facedown on the mattress, ass slightly raised with the help of his hands, god darn near blowing your back out. snapping his hips so deep into you, you’re gurgling and choking on your spit, some of it grossly seeping into the sheets, making so much mess as he mercilessly ruins you. leaning down to your ear to whisper the dirtiest shit ever, he’s so nasty with it i’m telling you!! but when you reach the too-fucked-dumb-to-even-process-what’s-going-on stage, he resorts to dipping his head to your shoulder’s, laying sweet feathery kisses…before he bites down, waking you right the fuck-up from your dazed state </3 he sucks, but he definitely does a lot more biting—teeth grazing your collarbones, just shy of the more-revealing option of going for your neck. but sometimes, if he’s feeling particularily threatened out in pure daylight, he’d pull you aside to somewhere slightly private for a quick session of having you stand there to get the swell under your earlobe to flair up again, little visible purple reddish splotch to show that you’re taken.

➥ hueningkai | tummy

body worship and hueningkai is honestly the realest, most sense making talk i’ve ever heard. he is a tummy lover to the core, have him quite literally splayed on top of you just on your bare stomach, and he’s whining. what can he do when it’s so squishy and stretchy perfectly to his liking? everything all too innocent as you absently play with strings of his hair— until, well, you feel something poking against your thigh. it’s honestly cute how random it is at times; hyuka’s boners. but the way he fucks is absolutely nowhere near ‘cute’, it’s damn near animalistic, unhinged crazy shit that you literally find yourself sore for an entire week, not in the state to have a cock inside you, rearranging your guts. huening’s understanding of when you’re not feeling it, the reason why he completely ignores the tent in his pants…that’s what you seem to believe until…yeah, not completely. it starts off with him suddenly raising his head, startling your hand out of his disheveled hair, and a mischievous smile creeping up. you basically have it all memorized— your boyfriend tickling you to absolute hell, getting both of you giggly and your eyes watering from laughter, then he starts playing with the ends of your shirt, before ‘accidentally’ riding it up and then ‘innocently’ laying ticklish pecks on your tummy, making you chuckle while you watch him with starry eyes. to his credit, it is mostly innocent, in the sense you don’t really do anything further unless you want to. sucking on your flesh, he’s gentle, darting his tongue to lick then suck before moving to another spot on your stomach, doing the same thing a few times until he gets too caught up into it, the exhales through his nose fanning against your skin as his dick starts leaking through his pants because yup, hueningkai’s definitely getting off of this. ‘so pretty’ he’d murmur when he pulls away, turning out to be the one most affected with his droopy lust filled eyes and blood rushing up to warm his cheeks as he stares at your tummy covered with his spit and pretty hickeys all over the expanse—he’s the first in line to blush and admire the work hes done on you.

[mars-ipan]

"deradicalization is best achieved through kindness and acceptance because many radicals feel alienated for one reason or another" and "someone who is hurt by radical beliefs has zero obligation to be kind to someone who holds those beliefs" are two facts that can and should coexist btw

[bougiebutchbitch]

This is definitely hand me down info, and I can't be bother to check cause I'm not on Twitter. But apparently there was some discussion of a scene being cut that, according to Con, was removed because it made Ed 'irredeemable'. Season 2 already went some really dark places, so I'm wondering what your thoughts on it are?

I'm also asking you because the comments were full of people who would have loved to see it. Because to them, Ed is totally fine no matter how reprehensible and abusive his behaviour gets. And I just. You're one of the few non-brainrotted people here sometimes I like to get in touch with reality

I am...... so very intrigued and would love to see it. But I'm also very glad they did decide to cut it.

As much as I love Ed as he is in canon (i.e., dark, flawed, genuinely trying (sometimes), but selfish and occasionally cruel, with untreated severe childhood trauma and related mental health problems, and 0 healthy coping mechanisms to his name) I loathe with a vengeance every person who uses him as a platform to parrot their age-old victim-blaming bullshit of 'um, if you had a Sad Backstory you can abuse and torture people as much as you like! And you 'deserve' abuse if you are in any way an imperfect person. Yes, I believe this is a totally normal and correct stance to have about real life as well as fiction'

So as much as I would love Ed no matter what he did, because I think he's a multifaceted and fascinating character, the mere thought of the bullshit his die-hard stans would be spouting already makes me nauseous lmao

I am once again reminding people that it is totally okay to like characters who do bad 'irredeemable' things. No, you don't have to write essays justifying your love of that character. In fact, you don't need to justify shit to anyone.

Just....... maybe....... don't die on the hill of pretending abuse is okay if you don't like the victim/the victim said a mean thing once. It's that simple.

[belovedstarrs]

do you even care?!

• pairing : geto x fem!reader

• tags : angst, breakup??, just a shit ton of one-sided fighting (verbal) , language galore, drinking mentioned & used, cheating, geto never betrays jujutsu high au.

• a/n : god im half asleep writing this and i havent proof-read sooooo deal w/ it i just need to actually post and get over this writing slump.

• w/c : 602

• loosely based off of all too well & youre losing me

you were laying in your bed and pondering. suguru hasnt been home in hours and he told you he was gonna be home at 5 pm, its 10 pm. you checked his location and he turned it off a few hours ago.

you heard the keys jangle in the doorknobs and you quickly got up, you didnt even know what you wanted to say to him. you looked out your doorframe and saw him taking off his shoes at the front entrance as you angrily walked over.

"suguru what the hell! where the fuck where you at? you turned off your damn location. you know what nevermind you were probably at the bar with gojo flirting with some girls since you clearly dont give a shit about me."

it all blurted out, you felt like throwing up. why now? suguru had to take a minute to process everything from you talking to fast. "y/n i wasnt flirting with any girls nor at the bar. i just had gotten a new mission right before i got off and my phone had died." he said with no emotion in his voice. you could tell it was a lie. just by the way he looks uneasy you can tell hes been drinking.

"oh stop giving me that bullshit suguru. if you dont like me just fucking say it. i dont get how you can just cheat on me yet still have the balls to say the words i love you." you wanted to die. you used to love this man with your whole life, why is this happening? why does he lie to you so much.

the past 3 months have felt like hell. sugurus been getting more distant and staying out later than he tells you while getting drunk. you dont fucking get it. why is he doing this? what have you done to deserve this? youve put so much into this relationship and hes tearing it apart like its nothing.

he doesnt even have a response to your stinging words. "y/n i promise i still lov-" you quickly cut him off. "you dont ever keep your promises! stop spouting shit that isnt true for once! your just an asshole liar." you pause for a moment before you continue

"why have you put nothing into our relationship? did you never love me from the start? ive been trying so fucking hard to still love you and act as nothing is wrong and ive tried to tell you that but youre just a dumbass!" you brush shoulders as you go to the front door to quickly put on your shoes and a coat to leave. making sure to grab your keys and get the hell out before he says anything.

there was this burning feeling in your chest that also felt like a little freedom. were you meant to not be with suguru? you wished so hard in your head he would come back for you and apologize, make it right. you kept walking down the street and nothing happened.

you pulled out your phone to text utahime and ask if you could stay the night.

y/n : utahime you awake?

utahime : yeah. why?

y/n : just fought with suguru. wondering if i could stay the night.

utahime : totally! stay for as long as you need.

that gave you some relief. your gonna have to figure out you and sugurus situation but for now you need time to yourself to figure out what the hell youre gonna do with him since you two live together and dont have a actual apartment of your own.

part 2 is out now!!

made by @belovedstarrs do not copy or use in any way without permission

[cursedvibes]

Do you mind if I ask why you dislike Getou, Yuuta and Choso...?

Sure. So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't. Take the Major from Hellsing for example. I hate his guts, when Integra fought him I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him myself and when he died it was incredibly satisfying. You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind.

My main issue with Yuuta is that he barely gets challenged for anything he does. He never lost a fight, he pulls powers out of his ass (like doing RCT when we never even heard of it, who knows where he learned that probably just gifted by God), he's always right and can do no wrong. Seems like Takako's words about what it means to be truly strong did reach him to some extend, but we'll see if that will lead to anything for him. He builds his entire identity around other people, doesn't recognize how toxic that is (he kinda did at the end of Vol 0, but regressed again when entering the main series) and then has the audacity to preach at others with far more experience than him who face real challenges and then concludes that it must be the others fault, he only tried his best to get along after all. Why is Takako getting mad at him? So irrational. He's also not really done anything in the main series besides get points in the Culling Game. He killed Yuuji, but Kenjaku already took care of the higher-ups and the death sentence anyway. He beheaded Kenjaku, but anyone else could've done that. If Maki had been in his stead, Kenjaku probably wouldn't have noticed her at all until their head is falling off. He hasn't even fulfilled his promise to Gojo because when he killed "Geto", Gojo was already dead and wouldn't have needed to do it anyway. That's like I'm vowing to buy groceries for my old neighbor, but never get around to it. They die and I'm like "I'll buy more groceries in their memory", but those groceries won't help that old person anymore now. So any slither of anything interesting coming out of that Kenjaku-Yuuta encounter is gone. And that's it. That's all he has done so far. What's the point? I hope he dies like all the other special grades and makes room for Hakari. He's the same as Gojo with being a symptom of an old system, he's just less aware of it.

Choso is mainly too loud and annoying for my taste, but I also don't like his hypocritical view on family and how he treats his siblings. Eso really hated Yuuji for what he did to him and Kechizu, he saw Kechizu being tortured and didn't seem like he was likely to forgive that when he was about to die. Yet Choso comes along and is like "yeah no problem, water under the bridge, Eso would agree". Would he? Given how Eso looks in Choso's hallucinations, I don't think he knows his brother very well. I get that's the point and Choso needs to think like that to hang onto that semblance of family he still has and needs (and is ready to let Yuuji kill the rest of his family members if it means no more internal fighting), but I still don't like that character trait of his. Not to mention that he's very selective and mostly only talks about Yuuji, Eso and Kechizu when talking about the family he wants to protect, forgetting the remaining six Death Paintings. What is also very aggravating is that he barely develops over the story or does anything meaningful. He has a second chance to challenge Kenjaku and all he does is say the exact same thing he already did in Shibuya with of course leading to no change in attitude from Kenjaku. He even talks about his mother's curse beforehand, but then doesn't bring her up in front of Kenjaku, the person who suffered the most at their hands. He's also too weak to do anything against Kenjaku or Sukuna, so he mostly just hangs out in the background, not doing anything. The "onii-chan" bit can be funny I guess (even if not to me), but he hasn't really gotten anything beyond that in around 100 chapters. Turn his dialogue into "oniichanoniichanoniichan" and not much of value would be lost. Also, this isn't really his fault, but I hate that a majority of Yuki's character got turned into salivating over Choso's sweaty body in their big fight against Kenjaku instead of giving us more insight into why decides to fight for Tengen, her status as Star Plasma Vessel, her vision for the future that directly contradicts Kenjaku's and how she planned to achieve it (or if she even had a concrete plan). I don't dislike Choso as much as the other two, but he's getting pretty bothersome lately. Hopefully, when we officially find out that Yuuji ate the Death Paintings or when Kenjaku's "will" comes into effect he'll get to do something useful for once.

[cthulhu-with-a-fez]

i started naruto a few years ago and made it to like the second arc in shippuden before stopping so i never made it to the kakashi backstory but....your notes compel me. tell me more.

okay so like take this with several grains of salt because the sum total of my sources here are "my understanding of the plot and characters as synthesized from the Abridged Revised Illustrated Edition my datemate's been writing me over the last two months", a handful of clips, and the only three (3) episodes of this 600+ episode show i've seen in my life, none of the three of which were relevant to the kakashi backstory

h o w e v e r

oh my god. my dude. my man. [holds him up like longcat] there is so much wrong with you and i'm enthralled.

so like here's the thing. here's the big takeaway that i'm understanding. this whole series is an ongoing exercise in generational trauma bullshit and everyone trying so hard to course-correct from their own tragic backstories that they accidentally set up their kids/students to have completely different but still somehow exactly the same tragic backstories, and naruto's chronic case of shounen anime power-of-friendship-itis is, i mean. yes it's him being the platonic ideal of Pure Of Heart And Dumb Of Ass but it's also a direct response to seeing ninja society's perpetual tragic backstory generator and going "this is bullshit, why are we even fighting? tell me what your side is, and i'll tell you what our side is, and then we can figure out how to make our sides the same side so none of us have to fight about it at all!" and honestly i love that but this ain't about him

so like. to explain kakashi we have to explain kakashi's father sakumo first. because sakumo was one of konoha's powerhouses, been on tons of successful missions, well-liked, well-respected, one of the earliest and loudest adopters of konoha's then-new and radical pivot towards a ninja being people first and disposable tools never ideology.

he really, genuinely believed in that.

except then he and his team went on a mission. and it went really, really badly. and he had to choose between completing the mission objective or saving his teammates' lives, and he chose their lives, because those who fail their missions may be scum, but those who abandon their teammates are worse, right?

... no, actually.

just because the ideology had been circulating and people were broadly toeing the party line didn't mean they actually believed in it, and sakumo's mission failure was already causing critical backlash.after sakumo made it back to konoha he was a fucking pariah for it. he was never officially reprimanded, but he didn't need to be if people went out of their way to personally spit at his feet, and... one day young kakashi comes home to find his father's body on the floor, wrists slit and suicide note devolving into begging apologies beside him.

this, as you may imagine, fucked him up, and didn't exactly predispose him towards believing the party line about the value of life.

he gets put on a genin team that was. basically the alpha build of the sasuke-sakura-naruto team dynamic. because it was him, and rin the healer girl with a massive crush on him who he never gave the time of day, and obito the Loudest High-Vis Uchiha Who Ever Lived who had a massive crush on her, and minato their teacher who was doing his absolute best to try and get them through to understanding each other, which is an Ordeal

because kakashi at this point has internalized that the party line is pretty lies for the gullible, that his teammates are only there to drag him down, and it drives obito nuts because that's the same exact bullshit that his family keeps spouting that he's rejected as thoroughly as a 12.9-year-old can, how does kakashi not see that it's bullshit? and there's rin who's looking at kakashi like i can fix him?? and getting upset when he doesn't let them in at all or even really visibly care that they're trying, and it's one hell of a dysfunction junction but minato is working on it.

... and then the worst happens. their team is caught out alone and everything goes wrong. rin is captured and obito's body is half-crushed under a rock and one of kakashi's eyes got slashed out and none of them are going to make it out of this, at this rate, until obito calls kakashi closer and tells him to take his eye. take the sharingan. he'd give him both but the other one got squished. kakashi will do more with it than obito ever did, so use it to save rin. please. and here's kakashi in the middle of field surgery on his dying teammate finally, horribly realizing that sometimes the win condition is, actually, protecting your friends, and he's already lost. but he can still try to save rin, it was obito's dying wish.

by the time he found her it was already too late.

the people who'd captured her had tried, poorly, hastily, messily, to seal one of the Tailed Beasts into her, and she was already dying. she had a demon thrashing in her soul that was tearing her to shreds around it and all kakashi could do was mercy kill her

and she thanked him for it.

and he goes back to konoha, sole survivor of his team, charred by the newfound comprehension of why you have to care and what it feels like to lose what you love and with obito's sharingan in his head and rin's blood on his hands and something in him that was already hanging on by a thread finally snapped.

and the only thing he could think to do, the only way he could even parse that grief through, is to just... make himself into a living memorial to them. he started trying to live as obito. adopt his mannerisms, his interests, craft his entire adult persona around his memories of his friend like a grave offering, and quarantine the bleakly mercenary anything-to-get-the-job-done ice in him off into the hound mask he wore as part of konoha's black ops division, which he joined at the ripe old age of way too fucking young.

he uses the sharingan to incredibly brutally efficient effect, copying enemy jutsus and bringing them back until the library's overflowing with them. but in the end, no matter how many he can technically use, they're still just cheap copies. and so is he.

and in the meantime the uchiha are collectively losing their shit about this random outside kid having one of their eyes in his head and getting all kinds of dubious 'glory' with it, and oh, wouldn't you look at that, they have a prodigy too!

... yeah.

itachi gets shoved through the rank advancements on a timeframe of "whatever he did you have to do it faster and better." and then the kyuubi broke free. and minato and kushina died, and a fuckton of the home guard uchiha died, and suddenly he's the most able-bodied fighter in their clan overnight at age 11 and the uchiha pull strings to get him into ANBU as well.

and kakashi is his teammate.

kakashi is his teammate and kakashi sees in itachi a whole awful lot of the edges of the way kakashi used to be, sees itachi trying to live up to and embody the absolutely impossible ideal of the perfect ninja, and he tries so god damn hard to nudge him gently towards something, anything, other than that.

but in the meantime, the uchiha have been... scheming. with danzo, Guy With The World's Biggest Chip On His Shoulder About Not Being Hokage, who's been marinating in a paranoia spiral for years. danzo had tried to set himself up as kakashi's palpatine, and tried to get him to assassinate hiruzen, and kakashi hears him out, and turns right around and goes to hiruzen with it instead, and danzo is pissed. the uchiha are pissed. danzo warns hiruzen that they're almost definitely going to try again and they're gonna make the uchihas' little prodigy do it this time, and kakashi silently braces to have to fight and maybe kill his teammate he was trying so hard for, and then...

and then itachi, who'd been watching his clan get. worse. for a long time. finds his cousin shisui, his best friend shishui, bleeding out in the dirt, who tells him everything, tells him danzo tried to have shisui killed for finding it out, and it worked, he's dying, but he's not dead yet, so please. make it count.

.......................................... And Then The Uchiha Massacre.

and now itachi is one more person that kakashi tried to care about who got destroyed.

and then fast forward a little bit further, he's been retired from active-duty ANBU after a decade-plus of service because the sharingan is starting to burn him out, he's starting to lurch to a halt like unwound clockwork without something to Do, and... he gets given team seven. the worst of konoha's gremlin children.

a bitter, disillusioned loner with a chip on his shoulder and the skill to back it up, the healer girl with a crush on him that he never gives the time of day, and the Loudest High-Vis Pest In The Village.

you see where this is going.

kakashi who at this point has been coasting along by bouncing between mask-personae for years is now having to dynamically engage with life again because if he isn't present and actively responding to his team then there's a nonzero chance he'll turn around to find all three of them chewing on the drywall and he cannot default to scripted responses because they don't work on a pack of middle schoolers hellbent on squabbling til the cows come home. and it's kind of good for him?

but also, uh. [gestures broadly towards... Sasuke(TM) and the rest of the plot]

and yeah i'm not gonna get too much further into it because i'm not confident enough in my own comprehension of the timeline to do that XD but like.

hatake kakashi is a scarecrow of a man stitched together out of his dead best friend, a hunting hound, and his dead best friend again, who's spent his entire life behind one mask or another, who over the course of the series keeps surviving shit that by all odds he shouldn't have, or survives specifically because the people he cares about throw their plot armor around him before they die, and he has a personality mostly composed of the crumpled-up pages of the memetically worst-written trashy bodice-ripper novels ever published because obito used to love them and the inexplicable receipts of other people's love for him, and i want to put him in a gas station hot dog roller and perceive him.

thank you for coming to my ted talk XD

[thewertsearch]

Time to Be Terezi!

Dang, I love her theme song. Who-

My man!

KARKAT: I DON'T KNOW. I GUESS? KARKAT: IT'S NOT LIKE WE DIDN'T GET TO HANG OUT PLENTY OF OTHER PLACES. TEREZI: YOU DONT G3T 1T! TH3R3 W3R3 4LL TH3S3 TH1NGS 1 W4S PL4NN1NG ON SHOW1NG YOU 4ND STUFF W3 COULD H4V3 DON3 TOG3TH3R TEREZI: 1T W4S SUPPOS3D TO B3 SP3C14L DUMMY KARKAT: WHAT WAS SO SPECIAL ABOUT IT? THE FACT THAT IT WAS A MOON MADE OF GOLD? [...] TEREZI: N3V3R M1ND >:[

I know it's awkward, Terezi, but unless you actually say the word 'date', he's not going to get it.

Poor Tavros. I suppose this is better than being berated by Vriska.

What he really needs is support from an emotionally mature adult - and he's not going to get it.

VRISKA: If it was me, I would feel ashamed to get rich that way. 8y having a secret admirer just hand it to me like that, rather than earning it. That's just me though! TEREZI: GOD, YOUR J34LOUSLY 1S R1D1CULOUS! NOBODY C4R3S 4BOUT STOCKP1L1NG M34N1NGL3SS TR34SUR3 OTH3R TH4N YOU. W1LL YOU GROW UP??? VRISKA: I guess you're right. I'm just giving you a hard time!

"Notice me, h8-senpai!!!!!!!!"

It's honestly pretty funny when Vriska just spouts complete bullshit about the nature of her relationships.

It's also just a little bit depressing - a reminder that this poor girl has no idea what a healthy friendship looks like.

VRISKA: Anyway, just so you know, you're not the only one who can play a chumpy 8oy, and manipul8 him into doing what you want. VRISKA: In fact, I'm not even going to use any powers! Just to prove it's no 8ig deal.

Right, your mind-control powers. The ones that totally work on humans. The ones you're choosing not to use on John. By choice.

TEREZI: TH4NKS G4MZ BUT NO 1 4M NOT T1R3D TEREZI: 1 M4Y GO FOR 4NOTH3R UN3XP3CT3D HONK JUMP SOON THOUGH [...] GAMZEE: OkAy wElL MaYbE WaRn mE ThEn mAyBe. TEREZI: NO PROM1S3S! GAMZEE: :o(

Poor Gamzee. No one respects his pile :o(

Not that he seems to mind. Look at his lil' dance!

[neonscandal]

"Sure. So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't. You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind."

I was so sad, when reading this, what do you think?

When previously asked about JJK Antagonists I didn't mention Geto even though... he is my favorite.

It should also be said that, in terms of scary movies, I love a good creature feature or a deluge into the supernatural but, the scariest movies to me? Will always be the ones with human villains because they're far more plausible.

That summation of Geto is that person's opinion so I, personally, am unmoved by it. I've seen so many piss poor interpretations of Gojo and Geto's characterizations that it's honestly just best to let the story play out so people can retroactively come to some sort of understanding. Moreover, I think there are a lot of people who struggle to concede that, between Gojo and Geto, there was always love. Without that, you can't understand his spiral, you can't acknowledge the humanity of the villain. Moreover, to not understand Geto is to not understand Gojo. And.. since JJK seems to very much be a circular parallel between SatoSugu and ItaFushi, if you can't understand them you miss the whole story.

I'd be curious what villain doesn't have a bigoted and/or radical ideology, especially in shonen? They're meant to be horrible and hard to empathize with. Unless that person's tolerance for villainy is Oikawa from Haikyuu? Most stories hinge on the main character espousing a piece of whatever makes villains.. villains. RE: Yuji being a cursed vessel, Denji being a devil, Tanjiro's proximity to demons, Eren being a titan, Kaneki being a ghoul... I'd argue Naruto and Nine Tails but literally haven't seen the show at all to confidently compare.

Even so, let's get into Geto.

Gorgeous, gorgeous boy. So earnest, so upright... so forged to break.

I recently went on a tirade about SatoSugu which I won't rehash here because... then I'll feel inclined to add more and no one wants to see an adult woman cry today.

As a character, Geto attempts to be incredibly principled. Design wise, he is stylized with features that liken him to Buddha which I think he individually plays into as well to give himself some sort of identity. From his long hanging lobes signifying wisdom and compassion capable of hearing the cries of the suffering, to his gentle chastising of Gojo's flippancy. He believes that the strong should protect the weak while also keeping the strong in check. But... how would a jujutsu outsider come to such a noble ideal?

We know next to nothing about Geto's parents except that they were not sorcerers and, based on his affectionate ability to recognize family beyond blood ties, I think it'd be fair to make some assumptions about what typically informs a characters predilection for the found family trope. 👀

His cursed technique, I think, creates an impetus for purpose. I don't know how he figured out he could do curse manipulation. But we know he swallows the curse, the likes of which is compared to a rag that had been used to mop up vomit, in order to subjugate it. This process, this martyrdom of ingesting the negative run off of mankind has to have a reason to justify his suffering. Because, as the only person we see with this technique, it must feel like a burden only he knows. Moreover, with a special class technique, it's not like he's given much of a choice. But if it helps people, if it has meaning, purpose... he can endure.

We've seen the perfect storm of events that, don't necessarily challenge his pre-existing ideals, but... force him to question whether the ends justify the means. We can call each of these events a moral injury and I don't think it's a stretch to say that there is a link between staunch morality and radicalism which I'm going to bastardize as saying a person may have their ideals on a righteous pedestal. Believing that if I do "A" and "B" then "C" is sure to follow and it allows them purpose and reason. But life is seldom free of other stimuli. I'm not going to go into great depth about examples of this but suffice it to say, this break in Geto's belief system caused an internal chasm we see immediately.

When Gojo asks him if he should kill the believers that applauded Riko's death, Geto said "no, there'd be no reason" which I believe is sufficient for Gojo since he readily leans on Geto as a moral compass. But Geto keeps rationalizing further, likely to curb his own impulse to kill those gathered ignorantly in celebration. OP talks about no pushback on his ideals but the truth of the matter is the biggest pushback for Geto is internal.

When he decided to slaughter that village, he didn't leave a margin of error to come back from. He had to keep moving forward, keep pushing to achieve this impossible world because to not would mean that the atrocities he committed were done in vain and we know, from his characterization, that he would not be able to accept that. Gojo speaks of Geto not starting a war he can't win during JJK0 which is empirically incorrect. When they parted ways in high school, Geto relented that with Gojo's power, his vision could come into fruition. They both knew he didn't have the means to achieve this but he didn't have anything else to stand on. So he hurled himself further and further from his previous path of righteousness and further from himself. He'd committed too great a sin to not give it meaning. To question it now would shatter him completely.

So much of what makes Geto compelling is the fact that he is inherently characterized as a good person, forthright and gentle. He'd have been a great teacher. In fact, the events that transpired between Gojo and Geto are why Gojo is a teacher in the first place. I believe he tried to be a great father figure to Nanako and Mimiko (again, let's forget the murder for a minute) because he pointedly did not raise them in the ways or traditions of jujutsu society. He protected them as best he could even though they still didn't survive their teenage years because they were ignorant about binding vows with sorcerers! Crazy when you think about it. Even what he thought to be a kindness to them cost them fatally.

Things happened to him, likely intentionally, to create this departure from reality and the jujutsu world. He was forged to break because he lacked the flexibility and nonchalance to not be overly concerned for others. He wasn't a diabolical genius, he was overly compassionate and at a complete and total loss when terrible things continually happened to good people who were already sacrificing so much. Riko Amanai was resigned to give up her short life to guarantee the future of Japan. Haibara was a ray of sunshine who, with the means to do so, wanted to help people. The twins were simply cursed to see things the other villagers couldn't, a burdensome reality that damned them to a life he was finding no meaning in, himself. His weakness perhaps lay in a weakness of character? but I wouldn't even say that, honestly. He's like placid water hiding a violent undercurrent deep below the surface.

The gap between who he was and who he died as should be jarring. It should be a demonstration of the grisly reality of jujutsu society. Where classes of 2-3 children are regularly pressed to fight beyond their means against horrors only they know. The sacrifices of the few to protect the many regardless of their virtue. That's the point. He was a casualty of a system that would always lead him toward a moral crisis.

[whoopsmorewhump]

It's okay just to say 'I'm not okay' (platonic stobin fic)

Robin and Steve feel each other’s pain more than they’ll admit, even to each other. From Whumptober day 30, “It’s okay just to say I’m not okay” bridal carry; plus, another lovely prompt from pearlravenlapis (not quoted here, as it gives too much plot away!)

Rated T; no warnings; Also on AO3.

***

The day had started more than okay.

This adorable girl rocked up at Scoops, with the latest issue of “UFO Reality” tucked under her arm. Robin blurted: “You read it yet? The story on alien skulls inscribed with teeny, snack-sized messages from Elvis totally slayed me dead.”

Dream-girl’s shy smile turned Robin’s knees to jello.

She introduced herself as Maud, and they chatted UFOs for the next forever. Right until a square-jawed, smug-as-hell knucklehead loped into the store, and Maud announced he was her boyfriend.

Now, Robin watched her latest unrequited crush sharing a Strawberry Sundae Extra with her excruciatingly not-worthy-of-her date.

“Seriously, Robin,” said Steve, levelling at her shoulder. “I’ve seen more electricity between a pair of squashed ants. They’re not even talking.” 

Robin wasn’t in the mood for chirpy delusion: “That’s because they’re mainlining ice-cream, Steve.”

“She’s hardly stuffing her face. She couldn’t stop blabbering with you.”

Unable to endure the sight any longer, Robin swung her attention onto him. He was chewing on… Hmmm, to be fair, that was only his first banana of the day. Unusual. He dumped half of it, uneaten, on the hatch.

“Did she even actually wanna talk to me?” wondered Robin out loud. “I honestly can’t remember if she got a word in edgeways. You know how it is, when I can’t stop talking. It’s a fault, believe me I know—"

“You were fine. You said stuff. Maud said stuff back. And it’s not a fault—your mom spouts nasty bullshit, you should accept that. My point is, that girl you like totally—”

“—hates me.” Robin sighed.

“No. She’s probably confused.” He sniffed, pushed his hair from his brow. “She should dump that moron’s ass. Who hangs out in an ice-cream joint when it's this damn cold? It’s practically snowing out there."

"It's not cold in here, Steve.”

“It’s goddamn freezing! I mean, it’s this stoopid outfit—what fascist dictator makes their staff wear shorts in winter?”

“Stopped caring. I'm too institutionalised into looking like a dweeb.” She peeped back, to where Maud spooned a cherry into that jack-ass jock’s cakehole. Argh! She wanted to scream. Instead, she mumbled: “Shit-birds, do you think Maud thinks I'm a dweeb?”

“Jesus, how many times? Look, she reads dweeby UFO mags. So do you! Beyond that, I’m not an alien mind-probe, so quit bugging me already.” She gawked at him—wtf? He skittered his fingers over his eyes, groaned. “Sorry. This stupid cold is making me cranky. I honestly reckon Maud liked you. It’s just—”

“—horribly, insanely, eternally complicated?” Her fists clenched so tight her fingernails gouged her palms. On top of it all, she’d suddenly gotten this anxious dread, churning in her gut. Huh? Go figure. “I guess I’ll just keep smiling through. See my customer service smile?”

She bared her teeth maniacally.

“Remind me to get a mask of that for Halloween.”

“That bad, huh?”

He smiled, kinda pensively. “Nah. If I was a babe into babes, I’d still be battering down your door.”

She wanted to hug him then—despite his germs, which she was kinda grateful she hadn’t caught. Yet. A bratty little mall rat clanged on the bell, Steve hurried off to serve, and Robin continued feeling really, really shit. Right up until he caught her in the backroom, dabbing runny eyeliner with her knuckles.

She turned her back on him. Habit, really.

“Hey.” His hand landed softly on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

“Nothing new.” It’s her turn to sniffle.

“Look, I’m sorry I chewed your head off."

“You apologised already, Steve.”

“I’m apologising again. For the whole goddamn human race. I mean, I totally get your thing with UFOs, because, honestly, you deserve another planet. A better one. Worse thing is, I used to think like the dumbest dumbass in this world of crazy, till I met you, and now… Look, things will be better for you someday, because nobody deserves it more. Till then, I know it sounds cliché, but I’m here for you, and I guess… I dunno, when you have this much bullshit to put up with, it's okay just to say you’re not okay sometimes.”

She flung his arms around him and sobbed noisily into his shoulder. He patted her back, then rubbed soothing circles, and she sobbed even harder. She didn’t really know why she was crying. Yeah, what he said touched her deeply. But she’d never been a random public crier, today’s flop was nothing out of the ordinary, and she couldn’t even blame her monthly cycle… Uuuurgh.

She lifted her face, sniffed hard, grimaced. “I made your uniform all soggy.”

“No sweat. I dig your snot.” His sarcasm dropped off: “Any better?”

She shrugged. Superficially, yes, she felt less doom-y. Her catastrophic life remained just that, however, and that weird unfocussed dread loomed ever larger. 

He reached into his pocket, brought out a paper napkin. “It’s clean, honest. Although I guess the cost of that hug was probably catching my cold, so who cares, huh?”

“I care.” Ew! “And yeah, that had occurred.” She still couldn’t quite bring herself to regret the hug. However much she hated them with anybody else, she had to admit that it’d released happy chemicals. She blew her nose noisily. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Uh, you’ll probably need another for the eyeliner. There’s black goop, like, everywhere.”

She whipped out a powder compact with a mirror. Oh yeah. She’d gone for the full-on Joker look. Possibly, this was why she averted her despairing attention and started scrutinising Steve.

“Steve, are you okay? You look kinda—”

“—terminally dweeby? Or terminally dweeby and totally wrecked?” Catching his own reflection in the little mirror, he dabbed his slightly-less-buoyant-than-usual hair back into place.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a bit peaky.”

“It’s just this stupid cold. Plus, the crappy lighting in this dump. Seriously, sometimes guys need make-up too.”

She used her mirror to stare at him harder than herself now. Yeah, he looked pale, the shadows around his eyes nearly as shouty as her make-up malfunction. She snapped the mirror closed, spiralled back to face him.

“Steve, something else is wrong, isn’t it?”

“Woah! You’re, like, witchy when you do that, right?”

“Witchy?”

“Okay, maybe a bit psychic.”

“Alien brain-probe-y?”

“Yeah, that too. I mean, I figured I didn’t want to bother you, but…” He threw his hands up in surrender. “Let's just say my father has been extra cranky and disappointed in me lately, even by his short-tempered standards. That means extra shouty, and…” He rubbed his brow wearily. “Makes me feel even shitter about my life, I guess.”

“I’m sorry.” She longed to pay back that hug, though even with Steve, she was too squirmy and inexperienced to initiate one. He left then, anyway, heading back out front.

They were both uncharacteristically quiet for the rest of the day. He seemed exhausted, and smothered increasingly regular bouts of coughing. She wanted simply to get home, bypass her mom’s daily character assassination, and then sob and bitch to herself about life in general. 

When she finally sank her face into the soon-to-be disgusting and soggy pillow, that feeling of dread overwhelmed her. She simply couldn’t stop worrying about Steve, to the point she felt ill. Which was ridiculous. After all, he was at the end of a phone line, right?

She snuck out past her mom—who was howling her butt off at some screamingly homophobic sit-com—and dialled Steve’s number. When his dad answered, she gritted her teeth, forced herself to be mega polite. 

“Hi there, Mr Harrington. Sorry to disturb you. Is Steve there, please? It’s Robin.”

“Robin? Are you the latest girlfriend?”

“No,” she managed to grind out. “I’m the… friend-friend.”

“Don’t try to be cute.” Seriously, I wasn’t! “If you see him, tell him he owes me a thousand bucks.”

The line went dead. Robin dropped the phone, stared at it as it swung from its coiled wire. What just happened?

She went back to her room, sat down on the edge of her bed. If Steve wasn’t in, was he on a date? He hadn’t mentioned one. That said, given her eternal back-catalogue of disaster on the dating song-list—and her latest episode of moping—he probably didn’t want to upset her. She switched off her lamp, tried to sleep.

Impossible.

What his Dad said rankled, and made no sense anyhow. Why did Steve owe him a thousand bucks? That was a year's wages! Then again, Steve had mentioned something a while back about his tightwad parents charging him rent. It was probably what they’d been rowing over.

By the early hours of the morning, that sensation of dread had flourished to the point where she could no longer stand it. Sleep wasn’t happening, so she pulled on a warm coat and scarf, headed out, and grabbed her bike.

Once Henderson had gotten over the initial shock of her tapping on his window at four a.m., he considered her theory seriously enough: “You reckon his parents threw him out, and he’s sleeping rough somewhere,” he clarified, while he unlocked the wheel of his bike. “Why didn’t he tell us?”

“He can be kinda proud like that. Plus, I was having a beyond-horrible day.” She clutched her handlebars ever tighter. Steve hadn’t needed to tell her, anyhow. She’d known, and her anxieties flurried toward panic. He’d been getting up sick, right? As her clouding breath confirmed, tonight was bonkers cold.

Dustin jammed his woolly hat down over his ears. “Right. If you were sleeping rough in Hawkins, where would you go?”

They tried the bus station, the shop fronts on Main Street, even the High School outbuildings. They wound up outside the police station, debating about whether to go in. 

“Nobody will take us seriously,” pointed out Dustin. “I mean, he’s not technically missing. We don’t have any evidence that he’s not at home in his bed, comfortably snoring, while we’ve been cycling around freezing our faces off.”

“He’s not,” said Robin, and creepily—witchily? —she’d rarely been more convinced of anything in her life. “He’s in trouble. I know it.”

“Seeing as we’ve looked, basically, everywhere, I’m going to need something a bit more scientific than that.”

“We’ve barely started!” protested Robin, as a police wagon drew up beside. Chief Hopper got out, bleary eyed and with a cigarette hanging from one side of his mouth.

“God, that was a wasted call-out,” he muttered, then, belatedly absorbing who they were, said: “What the heck are you two doing here?”

“Being total idiots!” said Robin, so loudly even the Chief baulked. “It’s so obvious! Why didn’t I think of it before?”

Hopper looked crankier. Dustin gesticulated wildly with his thickly mittened hands: “What!?!”

“His car! His dad said something like, ‘Steve owes me a thousand bucks.’ That’s about the value of his car, right?”

“Steve Harrington?” asked Hopper. “Yeah. Kid’s got a nice set of wheels. Anybody gonna enlighten me what you’re doing here at this godforsaken hour?”

“Steve’s been sleeping rough,” said Robin. “In his car.”

“What? Last night?” Hopper frowned. “Temperatures have been sub-zero.” 

“Yeah, we know,” mumbled Dustin. “We also don’t actually know for sure that Steve isn’t home, and this isn’t all in her he—"

“It’s not in my head, Henderson. He’s out there. Chief, you’ve got to help us find him.”

Hopper wearily stubbed out his cigarette, swung open the passenger door. “Get in.”

***

Shivering hurt. His teeth hurt from chattering. As the night got colder, Steve curled up in the backseat of his car and discovered everything hurt.

He never knew cold could feel like this, like how his gran used to describe it—creeping through his veins and into the marrow of his bones. Whatever the heck that was. He was wearing, literally, all his clothes. What the hell else could he do?

He'd used the heater the previous two nights, since he’d taken off from his parents’, basically homeless. Now he was out of gas, and there was no chance of getting a refill can till next payday so…

He curled even tighter, wrapping his arms around himself. Like a hug. He recalled how he and Robin had hugged earlier, how he’d felt better after that, about… everything. Which was stupid. Because it’d solved nothing for either of them. He faintly hoped he hadn’t given Robin his germs. If they even were germs. Who needed germs, when you were this damn freezing?

At length, his fingers and toes stopped hurting and turned numb. Then, at last, he sensed some warmth. Which was weird, but then again, he felt increasingly weird—his skin kinda prickly as if he sweated, then suddenly, he was way too hot. Which was totally nuts, and confusing, but he’d take it. He shrugged off his blanket, which slid into the footwell. He might have removed his scarf, which was getting suffocating, but he was too damn tired.

He slept, shallowly, and the darkness beneath his eyelids grew pitted with white. It wasn’t like snow. Nothing was that yielding or soft. He hadn't the strength left to rub his eyes. He threw all his effort into his next, shallow, whistling breath, and… Christ! It suddenly made sense. He could see his lungs, right? Which was insane, but his fevered little mind saw it anyhow. They seemed all brittle, lined with scratchy glass, scraping and tearing with every breath, until...

An ice-toothed gale blasted him sidelong. Robin's scared face veered up in front of him. Uh, he’s definitely hallucinating, right? Nobody knew he was here; nobody should know. He needed her, though. Kinda figured he’d die here without her, and then… he was just plain scared.

He closed his eyes. Too much. Waaaay too much. And, shit, maybe that wasn’t Robin. Maybe it was her aliens, and those were lights from a spaceship—a UFO?

Somebody—some thing —slid an arm around his shoulder, another under his knees. He was scooped up, and felt the sensation of being carried. His stomach performed a feeble flip. Am I dying? Am I dead? Or am I zooming to another planet!?!

Then nothing. Until…

His lungs still felt too tight. He was lying somewhere warm and soft, however, and the air didn't burn or freeze, nor make him prickle and sweat. In fact, it was kinda soothing and sweet, though it still proved a struggle to get enough.

Somebody squeezed his hand. Somebody or thing was holding his hand! Aliens? If so, why wasn’t he freaking out? He pried his too-sleepy eyelids open. Robin! 

"Steve!" She smiled and gave him another squeeze.  There was a plastic mask over his mouth and nose, and he lifted a hand to bat it away. She stopped him, settled the mask again. “I’d leave that, it’s the oxygen. You’re okay now. You’re gonna be just fine.”

He tried to talk, though speech wasn’t happening. Just an embarrassing croak. Her make-up was smudged again. He almost forced his dry lips into a smirk. He must look worse, but with Robin, that’s okay.

A nurse turned up, checking his pulse, and the oxygen machine, fluffing the pillows. She talked, but he was too sleepy to listen. Robin bobbed up again, working her face strangely, and he couldn’t read whether she was about to laugh or cry:

"Look, Steve,” she burst out, “yeah, it's okay to not be okay. Next time, can you please be more specific about EXACTLY HOW NOT OKAY YOU ARE."

"Okay," he wheezed, and she started up talking again. Her voice soothed him, even though he was too far gone to listen. 

He isn’t okay. He feels weak and jittery and everything aches.

From this new all-time low, he can’t even start to think about what his future might hold without wanting to yell. Which he can't even do! But her, and their friendship—it’s good. Which was probably why, even now, he’s feeling her pain again, just as strong as his. He hated how she suffered every single day, keeping her hopes and dreams a secret. Jesus, whatever hurt her, hurt him, too. And he was stupidly grateful for that, which made no sense either.

Perhaps he should tell her, when he’d gotten his voice back? Before or after he’d thanked her for having somehow saved his life. Or perhaps that would sound crazy and a bit creepy. Or witchy and physic? Huh, hadn’t he accused her of that earlier?

Listening to her talking, he ebbed and sank into somewhere safer and warm.

****

Part of this fic series (whump, platonic stobin & steddie fic)

[grimogretricks]

JKR has ruined things in my country

TW/CW: Transphobia, homophobia, Scotland and the UK being a transphobic hell hole right now. Brief mention of sexual assault.  Also this is a depressing rant.  

 JKR has ruined things in my country.

 That sounds pretty hyperbolic, but, it's, surreally, unfortunately probably true.

 The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon has long been one of the few UK politicians who could provide an articulate, progressive, well argued voice in support of important left leaning principles against a prevailing right wing tide. In complete contrast to the total mealy mouthed nonsense spouted by the likes of the labour leader, who's afraid to stand up for anything at all lest he do a poor job of pandering enough to tory ideas to get voted in. She's the closest thing the UK has had to an opposition to tory principles, standing up for worker's rights, equality and the NHS.

 And now, she's resigned. And regardless of what she says, I do believe it's because of the rampant transphobia stirred up by JKR, who personally made Scotland's gender reform bill an ignition point for anti-trans hate in the UK. Transphobia from the media, transphobia stirred up in her OWN party, transphobia from all sides, is causing rifts and schisms due to the deeply morally regressive panic JKR gave so much voice to.  

 Now Nicola Sturgeon has resigned, and it's like a mask has fallen off the SNP. What had seemed to be a progressive party, with commitment to LGBT rights and equality, now shows itself as riddled with transphobia and homophobia. Because among those slated to replace here, there are.. a right wing religious lunatic who doesn't believe in gay marriage, and a woman who supported 'Alba' - which was Alex Salmond's transphobic, Russia pandering party (the ex SNP leader, a man who could not be left alone with women without sexually harassing and groping them). Granted, there is also Humza Yousaf, who is pro-LGBT rights, and hopefully will become our leader, but that these people even exist in the party, let alone want to become the leader, is alarming in itself.  

 It was fun for five minutes to think that maybe transgender rights would split the UK  but what's this fuss from the media against Nicola Sturgeon has  actually done is removed one of the last progressive and articulate voices in British politics willing to actually call the tories out on their bullshit. And now this has also created articles saying things like 'maybe joining with the greens and trying to be progressive about trans rights was a mistake from the SNP as trans rights aren't popular'.

 Apparently, it's not worth sticking up for Scotland's own ability to put bills into place in its own country and stopping Sunak from trying to block our reforms if it's about transgender rights.

 It's despair inducing, that fighting for trans rights has been made into such a divisive issue, and genuinely, that JKR has actually been at the forefront of a massive wave of senseless and cruel moral panic that is diverting people in Britain away from actually caring about actual massive, huge problems in the UK. Like people dying due to NHS waiting times, like the massive inflation, like the unprecedented cost of living increase, like tories actually proposing further reducing our human rights, our rights to protest, and worker's rights, and various disasterous consequences of Brexit. Things are DIRE right now, and hating transgender people has been whipped up into a fury not solely by JKR, but SHE made this gender bill into an ignition point for UK anti-trans hate.

 The tories meanwhile, are loving this massive diversion in attention, especially since to 'fix' it requires that they do literally nothing except get in the way of further progress. They found a way to curb Scotland's right to determine their own bills without upsetting the majority of Scots by counting on people to be transphobic, and it worked.

[ultfreakme]

"Sure. So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't. You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind."

I was so sad, when reading this, what do you think?

Hm, I think whomever said this obviously has their own reasons for disliking Geto and I'm cool with that. I really don't want to like, argue this specifically and try to come up with something that's like "um actually, you're wrong" because this is how they view the story and Geto's character. I personally am partial to evil characters as long as I think they're fun. But I do want to engage with this, and I'm thinking that's what you want too Anon?

To break it down:

Geto's incompetent and acts like a Disney villain I understand why it can come off like that. Disney villains usually have simple, straightforward motives, the older 2-D ones acted flamboyant and show-y, in which case Geto fits into it all. I think the OP meant his reasons are shallow but I think Hidden Inventory gives you a perfect, deep insight into his spiral and how he ends up being so extreme. Geto seems incompetent but to put into perspective, he's been working on this cult for 10 years(and is rather successful), when he was fighting Yuuta, he was also technically simultaneously fighting literally every sorcerer in Tokyo and Kyoto. There's been hints throughout the movie and especially in the light novel, that Geto wasn't exactly fighting to win. He's not in his right mind like you can see it in the way he is towards the end of the fight. Gojo says Geto doesn't want to be saved. I think Geto could have survived after fighting Yuuta, he had just lost an arm and yeah that's a devastating blow but JJK characters have moved pretty well for a good while after worse injuries(Nanami was half burned and was fighting, Toji was literally speaking with his guts blown out, Todo had his hand chopped off, there's probably more I'm forgetting). Geto COULD have gotten out but as we established from Hidden Inventory, he would allow Gojo to kill him, that part stands above his own ideologies. It's subtext, but it's like Geto was giving up. He wasn't intending on winning, he even made escape plans for all his cult family members but not for himself? That's not something a man who's sure of victory does.

Geto doesn't get pushback Oh he absolutely does. No one's engaging with him on his ideologies on-screen, sure, but Geto atp is not someone you could reason with. Shoko engages with him, calls him out on how childish he is but Geto doesn't engage he straight up ignores her and just politely chuckles, he doesn't want to. It's a dead-end and that's what extremism does to you. On top of that, it's been explicitly stated that the sorcerers agree with him on some level. Nanami still respects him, Shoko worries about him, Gojo too. Because they know where he's coming from. His end goals are stupid but the starting- getting tired of being exploited and being forced to watch everyone you know and love die for ZERO credit or help, is exhausting. No one pushes back because no one can wholeheartedly oppose the root of his problems and they don't WANT to. If Geto isn't listening, and a good chunk of the adult sorcerers who can speak with him don't want to, what's the point of forcing an engagement? We as the audience know why he's wrong, it doesn't need to be spelled out in a conversation with Geto specifically. There are other parts of the story that engage with the argument itself, but Geto isn't present. Ultimately, the ideology is refuted very thoroughly by Kenjaku, Yuki and Gojo! In the anime episode where Yuuji got his heart-ripped out and is in Shoko's office about to be examined, Gojo tells Ijichi "hey, I could just kill everyone and do what I want but that's inefficient. what I can do instead is build a good, strong community of sorcerers who use trust and teamwork to change the system from within" or smthg like that. That's Gojo refuting Geto's way of working. Yuuta does say "hey back off stop hurting my friends" but like, it's obvious he's also talking about every other non-sorcerer, he's just using his friends as a launch-point. The movie shows Maki specifically because we've built an emotional connection to her, so the idea of a character we and the MC knows personally dying puts into perspective the devastation of Geto's plans. It's hard to understand the effects of killing every non-sorcerer- the scale is too big(it's why kids shows can say "we're ending the universe!" but not "I'm going to rip your mother apart limb from limb", one feels worse), so we concentrate it on one person and now we can imagine the horror every other person will feel.

Geto doesn't give pushback It's because he doesn't give a shit what others think. If you wanna join, go ahead, if you don't, well he doesn't care to convert you. Even with Yuuta, on the surface it looks like recruitment but his final plan is killing Yuuta to get Rika. He didn't even seem serious in his talk with Yuuta. Geto doesn't argue being like "hey MY way is the high way" because sorcerers aren't his final enemy. They can believe whatever they want, as long as they don't get in his way. He lets his cult members and his daughters engage with non-sorcerers and doesn't push his ideologies on them. He doesn't engage with non-sorcerers because their opinions mean nothing to him. Geto's oddly lax about his ideologies(hence the split in his cult family on whether they should respect Geto's body as Kenjaku or follow his ideals, if Geto was stricter this wouldn't even be in question). There's also the fact that Geto's self-aware enough to know that his goals are fucking ridiculous. It's why he doesn't ask Gojo to join him, or even Shoko. Isn't it odd that he points out that Gojo's very capable of following through Geto's plans, but Geto doesn't ask his bff4ever to even consider this? Gojo ASKS him "hey explain yourself" but Geto chooses not to. He's thinking of himself as this martyr who's gonna go on this dangerous, impossible path to create a world where the people he loves, the sorcerers, are safe. His cult, his ideologies, it didn't make him happy. He thought this is the sacrifice that needed to be made and he was willing to bear the burden. His ideologies are like his power; they put him above others by destroying him.

The rest is OP expressing they dislike his character and that's cool, that's their choice and me liking him or contesting this is not to change their minds, just to....idk engage with this because I think it's fun.

I like Geto because of these things. I'm reasoning all this but I know he's evil, irredeemable, but I think he's a prime example of how selflessness can go horribly wrong when you don't engage and communicate. We see how lonely he is, how isolated the JJK society makes their sorcerers. Perhaps this lack of communication and engagement with his ideologies with Geto himself in-story is intentional- I think it is because the manga's all about love and loneliness when it comes to the special grades, the distance power creates.

Thanks for the ask Anon, I think it's best to ignore people who dislike characters we like, it's always going to drive us around in circles trying to discredit or disprove them XDXD(I did this with Jiang Cheng from Mo Dao Zu Shi, and it was really draining after a while).

Geto my belove pookie princess criminal!

[olderthannetfic]

Answer to that one anon annoyed about HP fans, but what personally bothers me about the current treatment of the books is how the current narrative is "they were always bad/mediocre" and literally everyone acts like they totally always thought that and never liked them.

For starters it doesnt add up the books were huge and a LOT of people must have at least enjoyed them. It also just feels incredibly smug and disingenuous to me to see so many people going "oh I'm not a sucker like you, i never liked them".

Firstly art doesnt need to have bad quality for you to be able to judge it morally thats a stupid fallacy. Secondly its ok to just admit that you used to like them and enjoyed the series and fandom and then later realised its flaws and found out about JKRs bullshit. Changing your mind is perfectly fine. Sure a portion of people obviously never liked them in the first place but i am certain its not all the ones spouting this shit.

Not only is it dishonest but also i find it makes this whole split so much worse where if you have fond memories of it or liked it once at all its treated like a moral failure or ridiculous so obviously people are gonna double down that its fine to like HP because they cant exactly go back and change that now.

--

It's easy to pick apart faults in anything, even something good. People love tearing shit down. It's also pretty funny because the series majorly jumped the shark, at least in the editorial department, which is why I stopped reading it and never finished. But this entails that, yes, the parts before that were better.

[venturismcdonald]

Alright you, I am totally willing to chat with you about Derek Venturi's vibe being "folklore" by Taylor Swift. I'm gonna end up listening to that album again this weekend while thinking about him, my favourite blorbo, and internally screaming while I work retail; and I both blame AND thank thee.

Okay, yes, because here's the thing: folklore is an album full of contradictions and really fucking confusing plotlines and self doubt while simultaneously believing in oneself above all else and that is Derek Venturi to a t. (He's also Midnights but that's a conversation for another day.) Please add your thoughts to this somewhat comprehensible thing I wrote about this!

Literally ever since the thought came to me all I have been able to think is Derek being every song and I have ✨thoughts✨ on it.

the 1: alright, look, Derek is aware that people *think* he's cool. But the thing is, he's had two serious relationships in his entire life. Sally was cool, he thinks he loved her, in the fearless way someone loves when they're sixteen and might have had feelings for their stepsister at the same time. Being with Sally was cool, but he knew it never would've worked out long term because... *vaguely hand gestures to his brain, which must be at least 20% Casey.* It's not that Derek regrets being with and loving Sally, he's just aware it wasn't forever and was never meant to be. He always felt like he had to be better around her, to be a version of himself that didn't prank Casey and start wars with the football team (even though, hello, they're football players, Sally, they totally deserve it! Max is annoying and an ass and not a good partner to Casey and football is a terrible sport that only narcissistic egomaniacs who should be spouting the Star Spangled fucking Banner play), a version of himself that was soft and kind and just not Derek. He can be those things, but not all the time. His love language is fond insults.

cardigan: this one is how he feels a lot of the time. As a society, we've acknowledged this is a song about being used when someone needs something but not actually being what they need or want. That's how Derek feels. He's a god amongst men, alright, and that comes with people wanting him for something or another constantly. Do they care about him? Not really, but don't they do a damn good job of pretending? It's almost convincing. Just like the song.

the last great american dynasty: is he a woman named Rebekah living in Rhode Island after the death of her first husband? No, not to his knowledge. Does he fit the vibe of someone who decides that fuck it, he's going to spend the rest of his life doing a bunch of random hijinks with his friends and Casey and their pack of kids? Of course. That's literally Derek. He has dyed a dog key lime green (Casey didn't find it nearly as amusing as Derek and Molly did, because she is lame and needs to expand her horizons), he has decided to pace rocks just to look insane and aesthetic and he's certainly made questionable gambling decisions (hence Sky's conception. Use a condom, kids.)

exile: do you know how long this man spent pining after Casey?? If we take LWL into effect, it's twenty four years! And in those 24 years, Casey was never single longer than nine or ten months (because she's Casey and loves long term relationships and all the bullshit that comes with them because she's never done anything casually. Except the one time they fucked and he ran away to Paris and they never spoke of it again), which meant Derek had to watch her fall in love, over and over again, with different terrible men! Really, what was she thinking? A football captain, a douchebag who rated her (and only thought she was a six and a half, as if Derek would ever obsess over a six and a half! It's insulting), a guy who didn't have a personality and a neglectful husband have been her choices. He has to watch, from the sidelines, because she doesn't let him in after everything happened, after the fight and the sex and the avoidance. All he is to her is a stepbrother she once hooked up with. Nothing more. Meanwhile, his heart cracks every time he sees her and Peter on Facebook.

my tears ricochet: specifically the first verse is giving Derek vibes to me. He knows he can bring out every side of people effortlessly, he can read them like a book because Derek is so smart, it's just people smart! It's why he knows that he has to try and be the greatest (not that it takes much effort, but it's difficult some days) to get any attention, to get love from his parents and his family and everyone around him. Because everyone loves him conditionally and Derek is barely holding himself together. Scotch tape doesn't fix everything. But c'mon, Marti, Simon and Sky are the only people who have loved him without conditions, without terms of service. What else is he supposed to believe? That he's suddenly lovable and perfect and doesn't need to put in any effort ever because he's not a fuck up? That would erase literal decades of George, Abby and Nora's parenting.

seven: being a kid is fucking great, man. Even a kid whose parents don't like him, who make him feel like a fuck up because he had to repeat the first grade (look, alright, it's hard to focus and his brain won't because Derek is broken and he's aware. Moving on), a kid who tries so hard and never gets acknowledgement. And then his parents have Edwin! Just because! Edwin is planned, he's wanted, he's everything Derek isn't. But when Derek is seven, George and Nora start fighting more. He takes Ed (who's two) and they hide out in the backyard, in a shitty treehouse that'll probably result in a broken bone one day, playing pirates until Edwin falls asleep or the yelling stops, whichever comes first. Because being seven is also impossible. It's great in hindsight, but at the time? God, it sucks. He romanticizes it until he remembers having to scream so loud the neighbors thought something was wrong so George and Abby would stop fighting, remembers the time he broke his arm on the slide because they wouldn't get outside and play so he went first and they didn't even notice until three days later because they were in such an intense fight. Being seven was the best and worst of times and sometimes, Derek thinks it was his peak. In a weird competition, his parents would always try to shower him with love right after a fight. It didn't add up, but whatever, who is he to judge?

august: Derek is August. I need this to be known; he's the one waiting on a call, who desperately wants to get it and knows he won't. Casey won't call, she'll never call, because they fucked everything up, hooking up. He saw it clear as day on her face the morning after, it's why he went to fucking Paris. And honestly, he's never really a first choice, is he? He's always the backup guy, the guy who you drag out for looks but don't actually love. You'll pretend to, and you'll do a good job, but no one actually does and that's okay.

this is me trying: he tries, alright? It may not seem like it, with Derek being a solid D+ student, but he tries. So hard. It's not his fault that his fucking brain won't cooperate and he can't learn the useless stuff. Give him a hockey stick, he'll be so good you'll forget all about your problems, but don't make him do school. He hates it. The only topics he can learn about are the ones he's obsessed with (mythology, film, music, the history of video games that one summer, the bodice rippers Casey keeps under her pillow, Casey as a whole entity (this is entirely against his will. Believe him, his life would be so much easier if he didn't know so much about Casey and feel so much about her he cannot breathe and he can't talk about it so it just sits there, being a crushing weight on him because she is inconvenient! And annoying and the absolute worst!), hockey, all of Marti and Simon's interests, etc) and five paragraph essays do not fit that. But then there's the fact he practically is a parent to Marti, doing all the emotional and physical labor of one most of the time. He tries so hard to not fuck her up because he loves her so much. Ed's cool and he loves him, but Smarti's different, okay? When Derek met Edwin, he sort of just shrugged, loved the kid and failed to get him into anything cool. When he met Marti, Abby told him he'd be taking on responsibility and Derek took that seriously. He's uncharacteristically responsible with her. Marti is the fucking best. Derek tries so hard to not be obsessed with Casey, even though it feels like she's in his fucking bloodstream, she's running through him, she's a goddamn part of him and sometimes he wants to crawl inside of her skin and live there, because he knows she can't feel the same. Casey doesn't love him. Casey doesn't even like him! So he pranks her and grins and throws a fit when she dates Sam (which, seriously Sam? What a fucking betrayal, dude. The male code! It's a real thing and definitely not something he just pulled out of his ass so you wouldn't date his annoying and hot stepsister) and eventually tries to be a decent person because, for some reason, she doesn't give up on him. It's sickening.

illicit affairs: before Casey finalized her divorce with Peter, there was (shh, it's a secret, don't tell the family) an affair happening in her house. Take two guesses as to who it was. Derek and Casey? Brilliant. Yeah, it's an affair, and it makes Derek feel dirty, like all he's good for is being a secret boy toy, but he loves her so much that he'll take whatever she's giving, even if it's just bare scraps. Derek will break himself in half to help her, to make Casey feel better, and if being her mistress is how he does it, then it'll be fine. He won't panic about their future once her divorce is finalized at all.

invisible string: there is only one explanation for why Derek's felt so drawn to Casey since he first met her. She had a schoolgirl uniform on. Is it his kink? No, not particularly, but she's a hot girl in a schoolgirl uniform. He's not blind! But also, he met her and something in his brain lit up, some part he'd never known was there before, some part that made him want to be around her all of the time for some inexplicable reason. She's infected him like a cancer. It's evil. He loves it. There's something dragging them together constantly, and at his age of 38 (please don't mention it, he's coping poorly), he can admit it might be fate or the universe or whatever. Derek loves Casey and she loves him back. Has for decades, apparently. They should've pulled their heads out of their asses so much sooner, because they're in love and it's great and they go do all the cute coupley shit Derek used to swear he'd never do but in his defense: it's Casey and she lights up doing that bullshit and Derek is a total marshmallow when it comes to her. She even gets to steal his food! And watch her terrible reality shows during hockey games! This whole love thing has turned him into a disgusting sap of a person. Shoot him, please. He begs.

mad woman: Derek's spent enough time around women (Casey especially) to understand they are complex creatures. He'll never fully understand them, but he can try to. They get mad at... A lot, honestly, being a woman must be exhausting (Casey and Marti are constantly feeling things so deeply it's painful) and sometimes it's each other? He's not quite sure, but he knows they're mad. And when they are, do not mess with them. Even Casey, who is stupid hot when mad. The world is against women, apparently, so they get mad at that and the fact they have to pay for tampons (Derek ends up buying them, do not make it a thing) and having it be inferred they're just fucking insane. Which, to be fair, they are! Casey especially! But yeah, it's gotta be annoying, so he's trying to empathize and be feminist and other bullshit that Skyler has bullied him into.

epiphany: so here's the problem: Derek is aware he's had a pretty decent life, all things considered. No massive traumas, nothing a therapist should see him for. Still, he can't help but feel sometimes like there's a war being waged between his brain and the Canadian education system. It's fucking insane! School just doesn't work and Derek is broken because he doesn't get it, he doesn't understand, everything feels violent and he can't cope. Hence hockey, where he can hit things and people with sticks! Hockey is great! It's bloody and gorey and everything else Casey hates.

betty: oh boy. This one's a doozy. But it's not Derek's fault, he will maintain, that he accidentally pissed Casey off so much she won't talk to him. He made one joke about her divorce (which wasn't even that bad! The kids laughed! Simon laughed! Casey is the only one who didn't) and now she's stormed off and won't talk to him so obviously Derek needs to apologize. He hates apologies; they're lame and suck all the fun out of everything and they are the worst! But he does, and god, does he hope that it'll be enough for him to apologize by playing her a song he wrote and talking about his (ugh) feelings for her to kiss him in front of the kids and their parents and admit this is what she wants. Because this thing between them has always been on her terms, he's just along for the ride, but he'd really like to be with her forever.

peace: one of the few cons of being as amazing as Derek is that he doesn't get any privacy half the time. Neither do his romantic partners, as a result. He's aware of this and it's part of why he doesn't date anymore; it's too hard to find someone willing to deal with all of it. Once he and Casey officially get together, one of Derek's biggest fears is that she's going to realize he's not worth it. Because she'll never have a quiet, peaceful life that Casey deserves, not being with him. Everything will be an article and it's going to suck and Derek loves her. Will she be okay without getting that peace? He'd get it if she wasn't; it's okay, he won't hold it against her. She'll never get to live a normal life with him. When she tells him she'd rather insane with anyone else than normal with him, he may or may not shed a tear or two. Because he's not worth that, he isn't even close to worth the chaos that'll come with it, but Casey thinks he is for some reason, so Derek will keep trying to prove to her that he is. Every day for the rest of his goddamn life.

hoax: when love feels conditional and faithless, it's essentially a massive hoax. Derek doesn't believe in a love that'll exist with unwavering loyalty and faith and trust. It's not for him. Maybe for other people, but he doesn't get that. Everyone's love for him is a fake, a pretend, and Derek is great at pretending he doesn't know it. Love is bullshit, the kind they talk about in the movies. That doesn't exist for people like Derek. It exists for Marti and Casey and Edwin and Lizzie and Nora and George and hell, Abby and Dennis, but not for Derek. He's not wired to receive it. And he'll believe they all love him endlessly to go to sleep at night, waking up knowing it's a lie.

the lakes: sometimes, a man wants peace and quiet. He wants to go to an abandoned lake, write songs with his girlfriend, let the kids play and do whatever the fuck Luca and Sky do (he thinks Luca has a boyfriend?? It's confusing. He FaceTimes him a lot) and avoid people forever. And then Derek remembers how much he hates camping because urban hell scapes are his favorite thing, shrugs, and proceeds to overromanticize small New England towns until he goes to one. Let him have his fun, he's an artist. This is his muse.

[reggie-gayflx]

The Fundamental Fallacy Of “Christian Nationalism”

-I’ve got to admit, I’m getting really fucking sick and fed up with those two words, Christian Nationalism. You know what those two words are? A totally political construct. Not only is there no constitutional basis for the phrase, but every time some GOP scumbag utters it, he or she is literally betraying their oath to serve and protect the constitution.

Let’s take ’em in reverse order, shall we? Let’s start with the word nationalism. Let’s be clear here, in the United States, there is no room for the word nationalism. Because unlike almost every other nation on earth, if you’re not a Native American, this isn’t your nation. We are a nation of immigrants, originally we all came from somewhere else. And the only ism there should be in this country is patriotism for the country that welcomed us in and gave us a shot.

Now let’s deal with that sticky Christian wicket. These GOP douche nozzles that love to spout their claptrap about the United States being founded as a white Christian nation are simply using an age old dog whistle to curry far right racist and religious zealot votes. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit! Most of the founding fathers of this republic came here fleeing religious persecution in their native lands. Not only does the US Constitution forbid a religious test to qualify for government service and office, they took steps to ensure that all religions got the same freedom to practice their faiths that the founding fathers were after themselves. The two words Christian Nationalist are totally incompatible with our constitution.

Here’s what the two words Christian Nationalist mean when you strip away all of the political sophistry and bullshit. They are a far right political fire alarm for every racist or low education far right religious zealot to make them feel better about their piss poor lives. The logic is simple, I’m a Christian, and this is my nation, so I’m a Christian Nationalist, which makes me mentally and religiously superior to all of these other races and religions wandering around out there. After all, it’s our nation, we just let them hitch along for the ride.

I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we take the Christian Nationalists, and combine them with the far right militias, and call them by 2 other words instead. I’m thinking of Domestic Terrorists. I like the ring of that, because that’s what they are. Christian Nationalists don’t have a Christian bone in their bodies. They use the cloak of their Christianity to give them license to hate and strike out at anybody who is different from them. Because they’re the root of all problems, aren’t they?

And don’t even get me started on the far right militia groups. Their use of the term militias is an overt reference to the constitutional phrase Well regulated militias. But they’re not well regulated, and they’re not militias. What they are is domestic terrorist cells. Just look at the inane screeds and infantile blather they engage in. They claim to be true patriots, defending democracy from a government that has turned imperial. And their only goal is the overthrow of the US government. Read the mentality as follows, I’m a total loser, and my life is in the shitter, so it’s all the gubbmint’s fault for giving all the help to minorities and gays. Time to overthrow the gubbmint, and take back out White, Christian nation! Helpful hint. Try a bar of soap, a shower, a shave, a GED, and a job, and see if things don’t look up for ya! 1st Amendment of free speech is the crown jewel of our constitution. But it has also been misread and misapplied that it is muddied. The only thing the 1st Amendment does is to protect citizens from government retribution from expressing their feelings about the government. But when those citizens turn into organized cells or organizations, with their sole purpose being the overthrow of the duly elected government, then they become domestic terrorist groups. And congress must find a way to deal with this threat. Believe me, I’m well aware of the fallacies of the politicians in the US Congress. I screamed and wailed, and gnashed my teeth at the passage of The Patriot Act. But there has to be a solution. Because the implication is clear, when you stop being a citizen, standing on a soapbox and shouting through a bullhorn, and instead organize into a group to overthrow the government, you’re not a citizen anymore, you’re a domestic terrorist. And law enforcement and the FBI must have a way of keeping the rest of us safe from you. - - By Joseph Murphy 12/2022

[definitelyuseless]

'are you an optimist a pessimist or a realist' im all off them. except for the realist. is there one in between that doesnt involve being remotely realistic or reasonable? no but really all that positivity lovey dovey love yourself bullshit and all that other olny mildly or completely unrelated bullshit that just also happens to be really insufferable is actual such rubbish and insufferable and intolerable. 'im proud of you' shut the fuck up you dont even know me, like that is so absolutely totally bloody meaningless is that actually meant to make people feel better. and like those pretentious posts that are like romantcaise this, love that yada yada yada. love yourself think positive blah blah blah. theyre so annoying and bullshit and they make me hate evry form of optimism and also, like, 'romanticism.' but actually its like possible to be optimistic about stuff and like yourself and be in a good mood sometimes without being a infferable positively vibes poster (im talking about a picture with writing here not a person on social media but actualy that too) and just being normal about stuff, like naturally you have to feel good aabout yourself and like yoursef at least a bit, even if you also hate yourself. its normal to feel a bit of both, wwhich involves at different times feeling quite strongly about one or the othr. and its possible to be an optinist without being a bloody weirdo, like not wanting to give up and shit is normal human sentiment, just cause you dont go spouting it like a preacher. and thinking things will turn out alright eventually, like people literally counld not survive if they didnt believe that. ptuuing it insocial media posts is completely patronising howwevr. and on a different possible unrelated possible mildy related since theryre both about anoying infufferable people, like 'romanticising' things when people on the internet do it is so fucking annoying and pretentious and cringe. but like you can be like 'pretentious' and shit in a fun way which youd know if you ever read a book, theyre really pretentiosus and thstas pprobably in a good way. and like having emotions and stuff? thats normal humans do that im allowed to have emmotons without being a weirdo, and enjoy things and be annoying and pretentious. and like dramatic that was the workd was looking for. like the romanticism poets movment thing like about the beauty of the natuaral envionment. i mean they were soort of weird. but like being peotic and stuff, when youre relly bored and lifes really boring and you dont have any emotions cause you dont have a life, like feeling emotions by thinking like that is a normal thing you can do that can make you sane and feel a bit of enjoyment even though everythings rubbish

but like the point is why cant people have positive emotons and be normal about it and not annoying and not be like emotions are for annoying middle aged cgristian positivily juice women and teenaged girls who read books about vamipires. why cant emotions be a normal thing that people can be normal about having without it making you a girl or a woman especally a specific sort but also like in genral or a weirdo or a loser or a infuerable pretetious annoying loser. like obviosly im not going to be talking about having emotions and optinimism and stuff in real life or anything, but it can be in my head theres ntohing wrong with that except that imman annoying preetentious insuferable loswr but a dfiferent way from how hteye are like really im nothing like them i may be just as rubbish loser like whatever yeah fair enough but i cant explain why but in personality were nohting alike im not even being supioer except for the bits where i am i mean i did say i was better than them but thats just to me i personally think im better caue i like myself bterret i dont care what they think but the point isnt about being objectivly better its that i dont like them and im not like them even though were all people so we all have the same emotions its how they talk about them thats the point they see things really diferently and im thr normal one

[someoneonthewayside]

Touched fucked up lately, you know. Someone in the family has become a conspiracy theorist, which has almost caused him to die of COVID because he believed that the vaccines would kill you (it’s been over two years and I’m still not dying of any vaccine-related issues, and even with however many people unfortunately may have passed away as a result, the existence of the vaccine is still a net positive compared to the alternative). And you know, this guy, he’s also a fan of U.S. conservatism because he thinks that even if they are awful people who have fucking over millions of people, they sure could run a country (they cannot, same as their counterpart, but anyway) and it’s totally worth putting up with that.

And it’s really sad, because he doesn’t understand - refuses to understand, even - that the same people he is supporting would gladly slit his throat in front of his loved ones if it meant earning them even one dollar more as they crush us all in the pursuit of The Number. He thinks the Earth is flat. He thinks that global warming is fake. He thinks that aliens had a hand in the creation of all global religions. He thinks that those fucking black people (you can imagine the language here; I’m not typing that out) and those goddamn faggots should learn some fucking manners and that women are already as equal as they need to be.

And you know what’s at the root of it all? A desire to be right above all else. He claims that he doesn’t need to rely on anyone despite asking for money. He claims that he respects women when mocking trans women every single fucking time they are mentioned in conversation because whatever dumb fucking pundit he worships that day decided to rally against them. He claims that he knows God has deigned to speak to him in the moments where he nearly crossed over when the only reason that happened was because he was just so goddamned stupid that he thought he could play against the then-unknown factors of a newly discovered virus.

But you know what I think? He’s terrified. He knows that what he’s spouting is stupid bullshit deep down. I know him. The man has had a hard life, many setbacks. I’ve had to personally bail him out of a few of them because of my obligation as a member of the family. And he knows that, for all the supposed truth-seeking he claims to do, he doesn’t really know anything. And that’s too much for him to bear.

I will admit this here: If he did end up dying back then, if the worst had happened? I’m not really sure how I would have reacted. Do you have any idea what that’s like? Watching someone who was somewhat tolerable transform into a dangerous fool before your very eyes over the many years you’ve known them, tricking themselves into a plainly unhealthy mentality and then nearly dying from it only to double down on it after that experience? If that man just croaked and I was, for some reason, forced to give a response, I think my first reaction would have been: Terrible, but expected.