#late nights with ali

[high-voltage-rat]

I think it's fascinating that the quotes:

"Have you forgotten sir, we were at war? A fight with an alien race for the very survival of our species. I feel I must remind you that it is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable."

"When you spend every day fighting a war, you to demonize your attackers. To you, they're evil, they're subhuman. Because if they weren't, what would that make you? What I'm trying to say... is I've been afraid to see you for what you really are. You're our brothers. Our sisters. And the things we've done to one another are unforgivable."

"These guys want to use us, take us away from our families, and send us all over the dad-gum galaxy just to test if their agents are ready for the big fight? Well... guess I'm interested in showin' em exactly what a big fight is all about! So I'm not ordering you to go. I ain't even asking. You do what you gotta do, Private."

came from the same series whose standard fare is lines like:

"What in the hell are you two doing?" / "We're being executed by our own men, sir." / "Cut it out."

"I only drink the blood of my enemies, and the occasional strawberry yoohoo."

"You always said I could sleep when I’m dead, Sarge, and guess what? I am dead. This purgatory is about to become purga-snore-y, yawn!"

...and both categories manage to be a poignant statement about the nature of war and what it does to the people in it.

[wishfuldivine]

Imagine a sleepy Gaz and an enamored Ghost?

Gaz yawned softly as he fought to keep his eyes open while Ghost leaned back with his arms crossed next to him. They were on the couch, watching a movie. Price and Soap had long gone to their respective quarters.

The lieutenant noticed the slouching position Gaz had taken to. And immediately knew that he was falling asleep.

With a gentle hand to the back of his neck, he moved the sergeant's head to rest on his shoulder. A small appreciative sound escaped the other as his eyes closed.

Instantly, Gaz was gone. His small puffs of air and motion of his chest are a soothing vision. It made Ghost smile warmly, and his heart skipped a beat.

As the movie went on and with Gaz now sound asleep, Ghost's own eyes started to droop. Eventually, he, too, decided to call it a day and moved his head to rest on top of the sergeant's.

Together, they slept peacefully.

[lihhelsing]

He feels the loneliness in his bones. It seeps through the ugly wallpaper his parents thought would be a good choice for a teenage boy and now just feels out of place for an adult.

But how can Steve Harrington be an adult when he feels so inadequate? 

How can he be an adult when he doesn’t have his life together? 

Everything is falling apart around him and it’s scarier than the end of the world. It’s scarier because there were things upside down and Vecna happened and the world didn’t end. 

They saved the world and Steve’s not sure what to do now.

It was easier when they didn’t have to think about something so grand like the future. Steve felt relieved because that wouldn’t haunt his dreams anymore. 

Who cares about college when the world is ending? 

But the world didn’t end and Steve is lying in his bed, inside his big, empty house. He’s all alone. No future. Nothing. 

Things were easier in the eye of the hurricane. 

Even right after it. Rebuilding was hard but it gave him something to do.  And now everyone is ok, carrying on with their lives and Steve?

He’s stuck. Nowhere to go.

He’s alone. No one to call. 

Sure, he could call Robin. But she’s getting ready for college, leaves in a month and Steve doesn’t want to be a burden. 

He’s happy for her. For everyone that’s relieved the world didn’t end. 

They deserve it. A chance to make it good.

But Steve doesn’t know what to do with his chance. So he lies in bed, all alone in the dark. Pretends tomorrow will be better even though he knows it will be just the same. 

Every day is the same and Steve is stuck and he doesn’t know what to do. He’s alone.

Then he hears the doorbell. Thinks it’s his mind playing tricks on him because it’s 3 am and everyone is asleep. 

At least, everyone he knows. 

When the sound doesn’t stop he gets up, throws a shirt on and goes downstairs. Has he gone completely crazy? Maybe.

He knows he lost it when he opens it and sees Eddie Munson. He looks… out of sync. His hair’s messy and his eyes are bloodshot and he’s wearing a leather jacket over pajama pants. 

He’s shivering. 

“Eddie, what…” 

When Steve looks back at his face, he’s crying.

He doesn’t say anything, just steps aside and lets Eddie in. 

It’s 4 am now. Eddie is sinking deeper in his mattress, body curled around Steve’s as he chase some heat for his freezing body.

Steve feels the loneliness, still there. But feels how Eddie’s presence makes it small. How him being there, looking for comfort in Steve’s arms makes him feel.

Not whole again. Not happy. 

But hopeful. Hopeful that he doesn’t feel like that /yet/. 

Hopeful that this boy might be what Steve needed. What he wanted. 

The world didn’t end and this is a second chance and maybe Steve’s second chance is shaped like Eddie Munson.

[imruination]

There are very few pieces of media that speak to me on what I can only describe as on a spiritual level, and one of those is Shadow and Bone, written by Leigh Bardugo. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Six of Crows and I think it’s an important story that needed to be told for so many reasons, but there’s something so special to me about the simplicity of Shadow and Bone.

When something is simple, it has to be done well. Yes, Shadow and Bone is on its surface a good vs. evil story which we have seen in media time and time again. I think what stands out to me about it is ironically why so many people call it (or specific things about it) “boring.” There are a lot of important themes, but my favorite is the emphasis that is put on the power of being “ordinary.”

I was 15 when the first book came out, and I read them as they were released. I spent a lot of my childhood reading fantasy books because escaping into them made me feel special, in a world where I felt at once completely ordinary and like a total outcast. This feeling only got worse as a teen, as I would spend a lot of my classes, and even my lunch period reading these books. I understand that this is a feeling that a lot, if not all teens feel. I am not special even in my isolation. I spent so much of my time pretending I had some incredible hidden but innate magical powers.

Shadow and Bone was incredible to me for the very reason why I constantly see it being criticized by my peers and even my friends. The idea of “power” being seductive, while also inherently being corrupt, and fueling the class system and poverty that the entire population is living under, (but Alina as the protagonist is being exposed to a lot of it’s worsts) is something the reader is constantly being reminded of.

Alina is put in a very unique situation by being a girl who holds incredible power as a grisha, but was not raised in that knowledge. To her, the power was suddenly thrust upon her, which made it a lot easier to eventually see the flaws in the entire system. So to read about this protagonist my own age, who had the option of power, was tempted by even more of it in the darkling and the amplifiers- and to give it all up in the end was mind blowing to me.

Alina goes from despising her upbringing and general hardship, to ultimately embracing the simplicity of it. Alina is THE Main character™️ and she ends up as a powerless orphan, in love with another powerless orphan she’s known her entire life. In the realm of all my fantasy books I’d been reading, there was nothing “special” about that. And yet, in it’s difference there was.

Alina’s privilege in making her own choices was special. Her choice to not be controlled by the pillars of power around her. Her choice to embrace her upbringing, and help those who will grow up the way she did. Her choice to accept the love she had had her entire life, that although was not seductive and dangerous, was reliable and enduring and all the more powerful for being that.

It is really surreal and almost funny to see it being criticized for these things now. You think Alina and Mal are boring? Well so did they. And then they grew up and learned better. This is the first book that I can think of in hindsight, that made me wonder if I actually did have this very ordinary but incredible power in myself. I have the privilege of making my own choices. I have the power to love others, and isn’t that incredible? From a person who has now grown up and gained some perspective for myself… Thank you Leigh.

[allysdelta]

I do have other fandoms, even if I keep putting off drawing for them. This is Crescida, my main in World of Warcraft.

[alyblacklist]

James Spader on Late Night with Seth Meyers March 14, 2023

[thexianzhoujade]

time to clear yalls dash with my icymi queues teehee

[lady-clouves]

I know Gale Rankin is gonna do a fantastic job as Alys Rivers but show runners missed the perfect opportunity to cast everybody’s favorite GOT fanfic cast, Miss Adelaide Kane.

[starkeysprincess]

Eddie LOVES forehead kisses.

He’ll be sitting on his couch, strumming a random song on his guitar. You walk over and give his forehead a little peck and he just melts

oh my god AHHH YES

Just imagine that Eddie is sitting on the couch, playing a random song and reader walks into the trailer and greets him by kissing his forehead

THAT MAN WOULD MELT ON THE SPOT & YOU KNOW HE LOVES IT SO YOU DO IT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET

He’s setting up for Hellfire? kiss on the forehead

He’s getting ready to play at The Hideout? boom kiss on the forehead for good luck

HE SIMPLY CANNOT GET ENOUGH & WHEN YOU DONT DO IT, HE POUTS AND GETS ALL NEEDY

[high-voltage-rat]

man okay so I used to play mechquest and dragonfable back in like, 2008 when I was a kid with very little patience to follow a storyline. coming back as an adult and finishing mechquest has absolutely slapped me silly with how deep and serious the story is in between all the absurdist humour. I have. so many emotions over the whole storyline, and especially so many thoughts about the unique form of tragedy that is The Reset.

You save the world but it's not the world anymore. You and your friends survive but you don't know each other anymore- have nothing left of the lives you fought to keep. You 'save' everything but it's still all gone. Everything you knew and loved, gone, and you don't even know what you've lost. You can't even keep the memory of what you had- and that's almost kinder compared to being one of the 3ish people who DO remember... and have to live around everyone else who doesn't, knowing their closest friends look at them and see a stranger, and that they may as well be because they aren't that person they remember being.

And to top it all off, that terrible sacrifice doesn't even end it. you're still left fighting impossible and devastating wars over and over. It's the tragedy of doomed time loops with extra layers of devastating all over the place. The GEARS University students being forced to become soldiers because they're all that's left to protect their homeworld. The horrors of the Shadowscythe virus taking over friends and loved ones you may be forced to put down to save yourself. The town of Falconreach burning over and over because no matter how hard they fight, it's never enough. The people like Sha'rae who sacrifice themselves to try and prevent tyrrany from seizing power, only for it to be utterly useless.

Anyway the brainrot is severe and especially dangerous since I'm coming into exam season and all my hyperfixated brain wants to do is chew on glass about these games.

[theworldinclines]

alexa force just said him and neo kissed to break the ice when they found out they had to be paired up for only friends. oh we’re gonna die

lmaogjssjskaksk VILLAINOUS omgjsks where did he say that!!!!! kissed where when how; how could he say that 😫😫 is he trying to put me into an early grave before they even begin filming like🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️be serious pls

[pelipper]

I'm extremely giddy right now thinking about the cute shippy Soul Eater fanart I want to commission.

[savoirfairee]

Its Nearly December And I'm Feeling Sentimental About You

Its Nearly December And I'm Feeling Sentimental About You

Your face looked different today. Your eyes were more sunken, and your cheeks sallower. Your skin wasn’t its usual shade of crisp snowfall, and your hair wasn’t its usual shiny flaxen vibrancy. I know it was eating at you, because it was eating at me. Perhaps if I loved you less this conversation would be easier, but you know how I get from time to time. You told me how drunk you got last night, and I envied the bottle that touched your lips. I envied how close your organs were to your heart. I envied the place next to your left rib that Autumn occupied, and where she has held court. I envied my own friends for how they’ve touched you, how you can kiss them hello and goodbye and it holds water like a straining pot. When I see you, I feel the Earth’s gravitational pull hold me down just a little tighter. I love you, but it was a different love this morning.

This morning I loved you like the eagles love the sky, how the body yearns to run at the sound of something unsettling. i loved you like adrenaline pumping through your aorta

But tonight, I love you differently. This tonight I loved you like fallen leaves of trees love wet sidewalks. The equivalence of the way rain sounds when you’re comfortable, warm, and dry in your bed. It is washed with cool blue light and there are no worries. I love you like a pair of cheap shoes that last longer than you expected, like the cool air on a satisfying hike. I love you like the amazon packages I didn’t pay for. I love you like how car tires sound after summer rain, driving slowly through town. I love you in a way that’s complete stillness. A great nap. Keys tapping on a keyboard in a warmly lit room.

I have a softness for you. The way I could ring one million bells and still remember what it's like to hear my name out from between your lips. A kind of soft that makes you want to nurture it, grow it like a sapling or hold it like an infant. A soft that makes me hope every choice you make is the right choice, and that every opportunity you take is successful. A softness that hopes that your socks are always warm, and your ears never hurt.

There is comfort in knowing what I was not sure of. Im sure that I love you more than you love me, that you will forever look at me like I am tarnished. I am sure that you will never want to speak to me again after tonight. That you couldn’t speak to me, that you stumbled over your words and asked all my friends about me. Asking what vile creature I am. There is comfort in certainty, even though it hurts. The ache you just can't shake. There is comfort in knowing that its all over, albeit it skull-crushingly painful.

Abandonment is written in my genetic code. It is simply in my nature to be left behind. I wish you couldn’t abandon me, like your organs within your flesh.

Like the space your left rib takes up in the lower left-hand portion of the abdominal cavity.

[lizwinter]

This is what Van Gogh was looking at when he painted the starry night 🌌 ❤️

[grishaxverse]

you and me and chak de chak de chak de chak de saare gham tere sang hai hum when?????

[lexxwithbooks]

📖: 𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒍𝒚 (𝐶𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑌𝑜𝑢 #1) ✏️🛌🏍

✍🏽: 𝐀. 𝐋. 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧

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