#if this experience isn’t universal

[ricky-mortis]

Curtwen Week Day 6: Happy Ending

[depressedaro]

“love” is not a catch all word for connection and it is not the word everyone feels and it is not a useful descriptor for everyone’s feelings and it’s a word loaded in specific ways, please respect that people might not want to use it

[froggtogs]

short people problems but they’re both short and one of them is pretending to be tall

[apolloskazoo]

Ellie’s eyes were starting to feel heavy as she poked her head around the doorframe to the living in search for Joel, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She spotted him sitting on the couch, book in hand, using the reading glasses Ellie liked to endlessly tease him about. The book he was reading was tilted slightly to receive the light from a nearby lamp, the glow the only source of light in the room, all of the lights in the house turned off to match the darkness of outside.

He glanced up and smiled softly when he noticed her, and she took it as an invitation to stumble over to him and flop down onto the couch next to him, tucking herself closely against his side. He chuckled softly and wrapped an arm around her, causing her to snuggle closer against him.

“Tired?” He asked, glancing down at her. She blinked sleepily back at him and yawned.

“Nope.” She glanced at the book he was holding. “What’re you reading?”

“Nothin’ that would interest you,” he replied, marking his page before closing the book and placing it on a nearby desk. His thumb on the hand he had around her had begun to rub small circles onto her shoulder, and her eyelids began to droop even more. He took his other hand and gently ran it through her hair. “It’s gettin’ late, baby girl. You wanna go to bed?”

“No,” Ellie mumbled, shoving her face into his side and squeezing her eyes shut. “Wanna stay here.”

“You have to go to bed soon, or you’ll be tired tomorrow,” he pointed out, his voice a comforting rumble in her ears.

“Fuck tomorrow,” Ellie yawned. “‘M never tired.”

“If you say so.” He adjusted himself so that Ellie was lying on top of him, face buried into the crook of his neck, one hand between her shoulder blades as he rubbed gentle circles on her back and the other gently playing with her hair. Ear pressed against his chest, she could hear the soft thumping of his heart, over and over again, a comforting thump, thump, thump, and soon she felt the pull of sleep draw her in.

Joel shifted slightly and Ellie clung onto his shirt, making a small noise of protest. He bent down to press a small kiss to the crown of her head and murmured, “I’m not goin’ anywhere, honey.”

Ellie relaxed against him again, and she thought she heard him whisper, “goodnight, baby,” before all of the other sounds around her began to slowly fade, nothing but the soft thump, thump, thump of his heartbeat echoing in her ears before sleep finally took her.

[arceus-forbid]

There’s this stereotype that shiny pokemon are fussy and pampered and generally weaker bc they’re rather babied and adored. And while I understand where that assumption comes from (I’ve seen how some of you guys treat your shinies don’t even lie). I feel like people forget why most shinies are so incredibly rare.

Like, depending on their coloration it wildly decreases their survival rate in the wild. There’s gonna be a difference in living as a blue Vaporeon or a bright pink one, y’know? Makes them struggle to blend in with their environments which, depending on if they’re carnivorous, can make hunting harder, sometimes the pokemon gets rejected from their packs/herds/flocks, they can struggle to get a mate, and makes them an easy target for predators.

So like when you see a shiny in the wild you gotta just stand back and bask in the rarity of it not just for being rare genetically, but the sheer amount of willpower and strength (or luck) that its had to make it this far. That’s pretty badass.

[familyabolisher]

obviously the conventional cultural capital that facilitates fluency in literary discourse being that of the affluent classes is not news to anyone with half a brain, but i'm reading a teacher's reflection on having taught lolita, and at one point he talks about having taught it in a private school where the students were apparently very quick to get to grips with the novel's literary flair and thus "understand" what nabokov was trying to do at a stylistic level. he compares this to teaching it to more disadvantaged students, who came at the novel with a more 'realist' approach in part because they hadn't been imbued with the same kind of reverence for canonical literature and valorisation of the sorts of skills and methodologies that make that particular form of engagement possible. which i think is a good reminder that for all the shit-slinging about lolita and what discourse camp it putatively belongs to and who can and cannot understand it and why, the basic tools of conventional interpretive practice that open up writing like nabokov's are far more readily accessible to the privileged classes, and pontificating about "reading comprehension" does nothing if you aren't willing to participate in the kind of class warfare that can liberate pedagogy from capitalism.

[mogai-sunflowers]

I genuinely don’t get the whole shtick that NPD makes you a bad person, for many reasons.

I mean most obviously a disorder doesn’t define you but like, in my experience it’s also just that NPD does the exact OPPOSITE of what people think it does!

it can be a horrible thing to deal with, I won’t deny that. But it has forced me to confront two choices- who I am/who I want to be, and who NPD wants me to be. Like, most people don’t ACTIVELY make the choice not to hurt or manipulate others, but I do because NPD is always influencing my desire to be in control and manipulate others. It’s much more present in my mind which means i HAVE to actively make a choice every day to not hurt other people. So actually, NPD just reveals the kind of person I actually am, which is a good one!

I didn’t choose the emotional struggles that forced me to develop this way, but i DO choose how I react. When I want to yell and hurt, i CHOOSE to be kind instead. I’m not saying that I never fuck up or anything like that, I mean hell y’all have seen me fuck up a lot. but even with all the narc crashes and self esteem issues, I am glad I have NPD because I wouldn’t know how much I care about doing the right thing without it!

[akkivee]

read a post that classified?? explained??? the various ways kuukou’s been written across hipumai’s media and it made laugh lol so it went

stage:

DEMON

anime

functions on actual common sense

actually uses fundamental buddhist monk arguments

his father will tell him to do something and he will actually do it diligently

the kuukou with the least corrupt personality

arb

a completely pure individual. purity at its finest

he’s living his best life out here, the kinda guy that excitedly runs to his dad to show off his decorations, and had a blast celebrating halloween, christmas, hinamatsuri etc

adults tend to treat him to food

will also throw away the mattress his teammate sleeps on

the kuukou with the most corrupt personality

drama tracks/manga:

a healthy 19 year old that may have experience with women

the kinda guy who will sing a song like get busy and can also make a lady ghost experience nirvana

because of an intense and overwhelming love for his family, he will occasionally adopt a buddha-like tone of voice

he has a corrupt personality

[sleeping-donkey]

[Redemption AU]

Adudu and Ejojo gets haunted, more at 11

Bonus:

[binders-and-beanies]

I appreciate that the “trans men hold privilege bc they can pass as cis men” argument is being challenged w “what about people who don’t pass” and “hiding your identity isn’t a privilege” etc but can i also acknowledge that a lot of things literally get harder when I’m perceived as a cis man. It’s hard for me to be on board w the “yeah sure if you look cis you have no problems” thing when a lot of my problems are exacerbated *because* people think I’m a cis man.

Those arguments assume other forms of privilege, and without those privileges I’m literally less safe when I pass. and I hate that that’s considered like, a misogynistic transphobic political stance rather than just an observation about what happens when I go out in public as a disabled person

[questwithambition]

Weekly(ish) update - 18th June 2023

I’ve moved out of my uni accommodation, saying goodbye to the city that has taught me so much after the past five years. So many other goodbyes: friends, lecturers, dance partners and teachers, silent goodbyes to the library and the spot where I always worked. I am glad to be moving forward though, it felt like it was time to move on.

[inkykeiji]

When did rei realise that her son was drowning in drugs? Did he have an accidental overdose like at natsu’s birthday party when she was near or did he just admit to it while conversing with her? im so curious abt these little details, u seem to do such a great job at humanising fictional characters

anon first of all i love u thank you so much for your compliment omg!!! it really made me smile so big hehe (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) i am always so flattered and excited when someone wants to know more about the lil worlds i’ve created; they’re so special to me and they mean so much to me and i love them with all my heart, and i love being able to share them with you!!! i’m always super excited to talk about them!!!

this is a phenomenal question and something i haven’t actually thought much about before you brought it up! touya’s drug use definitely goes on for a LONG time before rei begins to clue in on it; especially since touya is so meticulously organized and hellbent on keeping his private life private. he’s in his early twenties when his drug use is discovered.

she’s actually a bit shocked when she finally finds out, to be entirely honest. touya had been exhibiting some signs of use; his pupils were always either pinpricks or the gaping size of the moon, he constantly had the sniffles, his pockets jingled with the tap of narcotics against plastic, and sometimes his speech would speed up considerably—a stark contrast to his usual apathetic drawl. but these are all tiny symptoms, and they’re easy enough to write off…until she catches him cutting pills on her kitchen counter, with one or her favourite knives.

her presence startles him; she isn’t supposed to be home for a couple hours, and he had only just stopped by for a minute or two between jobs, so he definitely isn’t expecting to bump into his mother. he doesn’t try to make excuses when she catches him, either. just kind of shrugs in a it is what it is type of way, sweeps his halved pills off of the counter into his palm, and brushes by her with a brisk gotta go, see ya later. she tries to confront him about it again, goes on about her disappointment and her concern and her fear, but touya’s never listened, and he isn’t about to start now. she’ll just have to accept it, just as she’s learned to accept everything else.

[planarbindings]

more people need to realize that just because you did well in english class in high school does not mean that you are an authority on media criticism. you are not exempt from biases because you wrote a good character analysis. there’s a reason people have phds in this stuff

[oldbutchdaniel]

underrated roommate experience is starting to watch a show that they see a few episodes of and get tangentially into but don’t commit to all the way so you get to keep them updated on all the drama when you’re apart. when i watched the end of hannibal season 1 for the first time i was on a plane and i took notes in my notes app so i could send it to my roommate when we landed.

[gayvampyr]

one of the funniest (most annoying) responses to my posts about my own personal experiences is “um this is [x] erasure” or “op this needs more nuance”. ??? no it doesn’t, it’s literally just a vent post about my own feelings and experiences ? lol

[alevolpe]

your hc on the tiaras being the eyes of serenity makes me wonder if you have any hc about the planetary symbols on the foreheads aside from it being the natural state

Mmh, let’s see. Not particularly I guess, if anything I think I’d take away stuff from canon.

Like in canon is implied that the symbol appears when a senshi “needs help” or “is willing to help”, I don’t have that, cause that would imply the symbols inherently being tied to the team rather than to the individual, or it could mean that the senshis are inherently born to be tied in a connection where they would need this type of almost instinctual communication engrained into their being in the first place.

The ladder isn’t an inherently bad idea and I think you could go very interesting places with it, but I just haven’t gotten that far.

That really cuts to the question of: what is a senshi? Why do they exit and what is their purpose? And I know we have an answer in canon, but I don’t particularly love it, so I’m reworking the whole structure from the ground up.

In the general sense though, the symbols just stand as a way of identifying if one is a senshi or not. A weird analogy I have for it is like the red markings on a black widow, tho in the senshis’ case it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a threat and the symbols is a warning. The symbol just is, as far as we know, and it’s prob not as easy to understand as the red markings on a spider.