#only to turn around and say you are 'apolitical'

[asocial-skye]

I'm going to be a heretic and say that the Jedi's problem wasn't that they were involved the Senate, it was that they weren't involved enough in the Senate. The Jedi should have moved out to the Unknown Regions if they didn't want to deal with the responsibilities of the Republic. They should have involved in politics by voting for leaders, running for election and utilizing their representation to push for their interests and agenda.

"but they didn't want to be involved-" look here people, you do not choose to get involved in politics. Politics involves everyone; you have a choice to play or not play. There is no option to opt out. By not playing, you forfeit the game to your opponents, and you lose before you begin.

That's how Palpatine wins. He sets the game, and the Jedi forfeit; they were doomed to lose from the start.

[gatheringbones]

[“Coming out was very lonely. I had very few friends. Most of the adult lesbians I knew were alcoholics, chronically unemployed, prone to violence, self-hating, apolitical, closeted, cliquish. Lesbians hated each other. If you found a lover you stopped going to the bar because you could not trust other lesbians; they would try to break up your relationship. My first woman lover went into the military, where she turned in other lesbians so she would not be exposed. One of my dyke friends got a job as a supervisor in a cabinet-making company and refused to hire lesbians because, she said, they were unreliable employees who were disliked by the other workers. The only thing that seemed worse to me than the apolitical lesbian community I came out in was the strangulation of pretending to be straight. I came out only because I could not go back; there was no place for me to stand in the het world. I was driven out.

Moving to San Francisco improved things somewhat. There was more public lesbian space there—six bars instead of one. But it did not alleviate the loathing with which my family viewed me. Nor was San Francisco in the early seventies any sort of gay utopia. We had no gay-rights law, queer bashing was a frequent event, and everyone had lost at least one job or been denied a place to live. It was a relief to be surrounded by other lesbian feminists, but only to a point. Bar dykes and feminists still had contempt for one another. Feminism rapidly became a way to reconstitute sexual prudery, to the point that it seemed to me that bar dykes were actually more accepting of and knowledgeable about the range of behavior that constituted lesbianism. In the bars or in the women’s movement, separatism was pretty much mandatory, if you didn’t want to get your ass kicked or be shunned. Separatism deteriorated into a rationalization for witch hunts in the lesbian community rather than a way for women to bond with one another and become more powerful activists. The lesbian community of that decade did terrible things to bi women, transgender people, butch/femme lesbians, bar dykes, dykes who were not antiporn, bisexual and lesbian sex workers, fag hags, and dykes who were perceived as being perverts rather than über-feminists. We were so guilty about being queer that only a rigid adherence to a puritanical party line could redeem us from the hateful stereotypes of mental illness and sexual debauchery.

What did I gain? I came a little closer to making my insides match my outsides, and that was no small blessing. The first time I met other dykes I recognized a part of myself in them, and knew I would have to let it out so I could see who I was. For a time, being a lesbian quieted my gender dysphoria because it made it possible for me to be a different kind of woman. That was an enormous relief.

For a long time, I hoped that by being strong, sexually adventurous, and sharpening my feminist consciousness, I could achieve a better fit between my body and the rest of me. Lesbianism was a platform from which I could develop a different sort of feminism, one that included a demand for sexual freedom and had room for women of all different erotic proclivities. I had a little good sex and discovered that I was not a cold person, I could love other people. It was as a lesbian that I began to find my voice as a writer, because in the early days of the women’s movement, we valued every woman’s experience. There was a powerful ethic around making it possible for every woman to speak out, to testify, to have her say. But there were always these other big pieces of my internal reality that lesbianism left no room for.

The first big piece of cognitive dissonance I had to deal with, in my second coming out, was S/M. I date my coming out as a leather dyke from two different decisions. One was a decision to write down one of my sexual fantasies, the short story that eventually became “Jessie.” At the time I wrote the rough draft of that story, I had never tied anybody up or done anything else kinky. I was terribly blocked as a writer. I kept beginning stories and poems that I would destroy. I have no idea if they were any good or not. My self-loathing was so intense, my inner critic so strong, that I could not evaluate my own work.

So I decided to write this one piece, under the condition that I never had to publish it or show it to another person. I just wanted to tell the truth about one thing. And I was badly in need of connecting with my own sexuality since I was in the middle of what would be a five-year relationship with a woman who insisted we be monogamous, but refused to have sex with me. So I wrote about dominance and submission, the things I fantasized about when I masturbated that upset me so much I became nauseated. Lightning did not strike. As I read and reread my own words, I thought some of them were beautiful. I dared show this story to a few other people. Some of them hated it. Some of them were titillated. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. The story began to circulate in Xerox form, lesbian samizdat. I found the strength to defend my story when I was told it was unspeakable or wildly improbable.

In October of 1976, I attended a lesbian health conference in Los Angeles and went to a workshop there about S/M. In order to go to a workshop, you had to sign a registration sheet. I was harassed by dykes who were monitoring this space to see who dared sign up for that filthy workshop. On my way, I had to walk through a gauntlet of women who were booing and hissing, calling names, demanding that the workshop be canceled, threatening to storm the room and kick us all out of the conference. The body language and self-calming techniques I had learned when I had to deal with antigay harassment on the street came in very handy, but how odd it was to be using those defenses against the antagonism of other dykes. Their hatred felt like my mother’s hatred. I am so glad I did not let it stop me.

When I got home from that workshop, I knew that I was not the only one. Not only were there other lesbians who fantasized about sadomasochism, there were women who had done these things with each other. I decided to come out again. If there were other leather dykes in San Francisco, they had to be able to find me, so I had to make myself visible. This meant that I often did not get service at lesbian bars, or I was asked to leave women-only clubs and restaurants. I was called names, threatened, spit at. I got hate mail and crank calls. But I also found my tribe. And because I had already experienced my first coming out, I knew we were not going to be an ideal, happy family. I could be more patient with our dysfunctions, and see them as the result of being scared, marginalized, kicked around. Being a leather dyke took me another step closer to dealing with my gender issues. I could experiment with extreme femme and extreme butch drag; take on a male persona during sex play. I gave up separatism because I needed to take support from any place where it was available. Gay men already had a thriving leather culture, and I wanted to learn from them. I also wanted to have sex with them. It still wasn’t okay as far as lesbian feminism was concerned to be bisexual, to be transgendered, but I could bring those folks into my life and make alliances with them. I could defend them in print. There was even more good sex, and people who loved me and received my love despite the fact that it was dangerous for us to show ourselves to one another. I faced my sexual shadow, and she bowed to me and then danced beautifully in profile against the white walls of my consciousness. My writer’s voice was unlocked.”]

pat califa, from layers of the onion, spokes of the wheel, from a woman like that: lesbian and bisexual writers tell their coming out stories, 2000

[petshopbibliography]

Hate: Neil Tennant on the power of negative thinking. Select Magazine, October 1992.

Text of the essay below the cut:

If not for hatred, I wouldn’t be doing what I do now. I became a pop star because I hated football at school. I hated that whole attitude of being one of the crowd. Becoming a pop star was my revenge. Revenge for being bad at football. For not being athletic. For being mocked.

That’s the thing about negative energy, about hatred. It can be positive. It throws into relief all the things you know you like. It tells you, by elimination, what you’re about. Sometimes you can only define yourself by what you hate. Hatred becomes an inspiration; it makes you think, “What I’m doing now I totally believe in, and I don’t care what other people say.” Guided by hatred, you don’t have to follow the herd.

I hate the way people all like the same things at the same time. I’ve never understood it. When people are told about Coke – “It’s the real thing” – they should think, “No, it’s a hideous soft drink that is fantastically unhealthy to drink, full of sugar that turns into glucose that turns into fat.” They should look around America and think, “God, there are so many fat people here! Why? Because they all eat hamburgers and drink cola.” And they should hate the people who represent that. They should hate Michael Jackson for trying to foist Pepsi onto them, to make them fat victims of their own society. They should hate more. Hate Pepsi, hate Coca-Cola, hate Michael Jackson. Hate George Bush. And think about the alternatives. That’s another good thing about hatred. It makes you think about the alternatives.

Of course, these days it’s more fashionable to be positive. I hate positivity. The problem with positivity is that it’s an attitude that’s decidedly about lying back, getting screwed, and accepting it. Happily. It’s totally apolitical. It’s very, very personal and one-on-one. It’s not about changing society, it’s about caring about yourself. In fact, it’s totally about ignoring one’s economic role in society, and so it works in favor of the system. Just look at work years of personal consciousness theories have given us: those icons of the status quo, George Bush and John Major.

Positivity is fundamentally middle-class. It’s about having the time, the space and the money to sort out where your head is at. Therapy is just another side of positivity. It’s a leisure activity, a luxury for people who don’t have any real cares. It’s new age selfishness, the new way of saying that charity begins at home.

And positivity makes the world stay the same. Hatred is the force that moves society along, for better or for worse. People aren’t driven by saying, “Oh wow, I’m at peace with myself.” They’re driven by their hatred of injustice, hatred of unfairness, of how power is used. That’s as true for pop music as it is for politics. I always feel the reason so much music comes out of Britain is because there’s so much hatred. You see or hear something and grow envious. Whereas if your positive reaction is, “Wow, that’s great,” you just sit back and think how great it is and you don’t do anything. You relax.

Luckily, I’ve never been a very relaxed person. When I look at pop music, I immediately hate things. I look at singers who say they are taking two years off to work for charity when, in fact, they’ll spend two years working on their album, and I hate them. Right now I really hate performers who make a big deal out of playing benefits and donating the proceeds from the sales of their records to charities. They could give plenty of money to charities and not tell anyone, but instead, they cash in on the fact. That’s not charity, it’s marketing. It’s about selling albums under the guise of a moral imperative. They say they’re trying to raise consciousness, as if being a celebrity gives them power and endows them with the answers to the world’s problems. But really they just want to be seen as heroes. I think it’s breathtakingly cynical and I hate it.

Another thing I hate, and another inspiration for what the Pet Shop Boys do, is the way people misunderstand pop culture. It annoys me that after more than twenty-five years, Top of the Pops, Britain’s most important pop-music TV program, changed the rules so that you have to sing live. Why? Because the people in control are the kind of conservatives who think that in the ‘60s, everything was much more talented than they are now. It’s all about Rolling Stone rock culture, which is essentially a fear of the new. Rolling Stone’s idea of a musician is Jerry Garcia, from the 60s. Look at all the ‘new’ artists – Curtis Stigers, Michael Bolton, Lenny Kravitz – all of them living in the past. I think you have to live in the future. Or at least in the present.

The Pet Shop Boys have always hated most of the prevailing attitudes and tried to do the opposite. Our hatred of what other people do has always helped us redefine our actions. To hate a lot of things is tantamount to really caring about others. If you like everything, you deal with nothing. When people hear Chris and me talking, they’re sometimes shocked by how negative we are. We’re constantly critical of everything, including ourselves. But I come from a generation that liked its artists to say what was wrong with our lives. I retain the old-fashioned belief that pop music is meant to be a challenge to society as well as an affirmation of it. And so I consider it my duty to hate things.

[forlix]

no im so glad you’re feeling the way i am ab skz rn. like i just recently got into kpop and am a baby stay and i was ADORING skz. then lose my breath came out and it was so disheartening… surely they know, they have social media too.

and especially the selfie changbin posted, that REALLY upset me :(

feeling so conflicted rn

sorry for the late response angel. it has been a very taxing few days...

u are so not alone in your disheartenment. i completely agree that they have to know and quite frankly anyone who says otherwise is a fucking idiot. them being idols doesn't change the facts that they 1) have access to the internet, 2) have outwardly stated how present they are on social media, and 3) have participated in activism around the world. though i falter at using the word activism here, as they're proving to us all that their activism is conditional. not to take away from the wonderful things they've done in the past, but those things make their current complacency feel particularly loud

the changbin selfie and the 3racha picture were, as silly as it now feels, the turning point in all this for me. kpop's inherently apolitical nature had me thinking remaining silent was the best thing skz could do, only for them to then break their silence with shows of camaraderie with an extreme zionist/misogynist and an ex-member of the isr*eli army. i think my heart literally dropped in my chest; i unfollowed the boys on instagram shortly after.

all in all, i understand what you're going through one thousand percent. feeling conflicted ab everything is so natural and so okay; i gave this advice to someone else earlier but please take it all at your own pace and take breaks if u need. and i'm here if there's anything else u want to get off your chest about this <3 being able to discuss this with you guys has softened the blow for me for sure. i would love to do the same for you.

[destinyc1020]

What saddens me the most on this topic, is why are we putting everything constantly on Tom's shoulders?? So what he didn't repost. That young man is being pulled constantly in a thousand directions. His dog just died, he's trying to support Zendaya's movie, he's working, he's expected to help his family and friends with there dreams, he's not been allowed to grieve properly. He's even helping his moms charity by using his name solely to get donations. This is nuts.

Why are we expecting celebrities to say something regardless on there platform?. I just told someone earlier this is a test against not only him, but his relationship, a little bit. He and Zendaya may be deeply in love, but people will turn this around and come after her for being with him if this continues. People don't believe me, but it is true. Because it can affect her career and zendaya overthinks, and possible choices may need to be made. I can tell you right now, that young man would rather break off the relationship than to see her career suffer damage because he knows how hard she has worked for this that he would let it go. I see absolutely nothing wrong with being apolitical. I don't want celebrities speaking for me. I couldn't care less about what they have to say if we are dealing with real world issues. People have been hating on him since he was in school. Enough is enough. And Francesca is not a kid, speak the hell up and tell people that she is being supported as well. If she is. I mean what is he personally supposed to do. Get her a mental health counselor. People aren't going to listen to him. They hate him for being with Zendaya and just being alive, basically.

If I were him, leave the damn play, put a black Romeo in there and let them do it without him. Support everyone from the audience. Give the money back, and just finish off Spiderman with a huge contract. Yes, people want to see him but, no. Get the attention completely off him and put in Daniel Kaaluya and keep.it moving. People have been consistently cruel to this young man for zero good reasons for YEARS NOW since 2016 and before. NOT MONTHS, YEARS. Who cares if he supports zendaya by likes. He liked Francescas stuff as well.

People are going to cause him to remove himself sooner than later from public life. Anything that is positive in the world doesn't have a chance. Look how they jumped on Zendaya over a damn seat at a fashion show regarding Law and were just cruel as ever. She gets it in doses, he gets in every time. From his looks, height, hair, etc.

Fuck racist. But, people should be calling on Elon Musk more so than anything to make this shit stop.

I think I'm going the same way as the other anon. It's not fun anymore. Tooo much negativity towards one person. ALL THE TIME IS INSANE. No racists can remove me,but I will support Tom and Zendaya by going to the movies and watching my TV.

I realized recently...I can imagine Tom and Zendaya hate that their relationship is public. The constant beat downs take there toll. People will lift her on a pedestal and slam him daily or vice versa depending on the topic. They don't care about him. Only if he's a good boyfriend or not.

I always wonder where are his publicist, and why don't they get ahead of shit before it gets to this??? What is he paying for? They sure don't do much to keep him in a positive light I know that much, EVER.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Okay Girl.... I need you to take some deeeeep breaths in and out for me....

Maybe you're just ranting and letting off some steam, but nothing you mentioned is going to happen. This isn't going to affect Tom and Zendaya's relationship, they're not going to quit the play, and I don't think TZ regret anything about their relationship....not even being public. (If you ask me, hiding profusely was stifling and not conducive for a long-term relationship of two massive celebrities in the public eye imo)

I personally don't need for celebrities to speak out on political issues on social media either (especially if they haven't done their research and don't know what they're talking about), but to try and pretend that people aren't going to have ANY reactions/thoughts/feelings about what's going on in the world when they live in the same country, or earth that we live on is just naive imo.

Also, not ALL celebrities were born rich. In fact, MANY were just regular degular working-class citizens like you and me. So to say that some are "out of touch".... Like, how do you know that? How do you know what types of lives some people have had before they became famous? Just saying.... Some have had worse lives than I have even had before they got famous lol. Just saying lol.

Anyway.... I think it's good for you all to take a long break from Twitter (or maybe even all of social media) for a while. Either that, or just limit what you choose to look at. If you see that there's something negative on there, immediately click OUT of tweet, quickly scroll away, or go search something else.

[raytorosaurus]

i think where people get confused is that mcr did try very hard and very overtly to make their shows a safe space for queer people and women which is not a political act it just feels political because being queer and/or a woman means you exist in a space where your being is politicised by those around you whether you want to actively be involved in those politics or not. but, as you said, the art itself is personal and the message at shows is generally also about personal expression and learning to be yourself and take care of yourself. there's an element of respect each other/respect each others' differences but that's not political there's no call to action there's no fight for structural change and that's totally fine they don't have to be that

yeah no you said it, i totally agree. like i said, they're only political as far as all art is political - maybe slightly more because they made an active effort to engage with a socially outcast audience, tho in their minds that wasn't about specific marginalised groups like queer people, neurodivergent ppl etc - beyond their vocal support of women at shows/in the scene, they were directing their art just at people who didn't quite fit in in general. there's a big venn diagram there (and obviously some contextual cause-and-effect in terms of what kind of people tended to be unwelcome in hardcore scenes lol - even then, mcr never made any statements about race or whiteness) but it's not like gerard started a band to empower or liberate specific identities in a political sense - it was very consciously an effort to sing more about general unifying human experiences - i.e. ones lots of people can relate to. one of mcr's (especially gerard as lyricist) greatest strengths is being able to tap into those "universal" emotions like grief, loneliness, self-hatred etc. and make them a little easier to confront head-on or feel a little less isolating. that's literally why they're popular - if they had been overtly political they simply never would have made it that big! wait i'll let hanif abdurraqib say it because he said it best (brief snippet from his wonderful essay on the black parade in his collection they can't kill us until they kill us - 100% worth the cost of the ebook alone, and all of his essays are brilliant).

that idea is kind of at the heart of mcr and something i really appreciate about it. there's actually very little specificity in mcr's lyrics by design - it's meant to be projected onto and interpreted. that makes it inherently difficult to politicise bc good politics requires clarity of message and intention. that in turn makes mcr pretty apolitical by nature - which isn't a bad thing! different bands (like all types of art) exist for different reasons, and mcr's reason is catharsis and connection far more than it is any kind of activism. we can be pretty assured based on the lyrics and what we know of the guys that their politics aren't terrible and that's enough for me.

the real issue comes in when people act like mcr are political and give them credit for something they're not (and something they've never really claimed to be!). i get that mcr is a gateway band for a lot of people into harder/heavier music - it was for me too! - but even bands one step removed from mcr in the same scene (e.g. thursday) are leagues more political than these guys are.

this goes beyond mcr/bandom now but....tbh i think a lot of it comes from that relatively recent attitude that's common in online circles that activism is heavily rooted in personal identity (which ties in with the harmful pattern of, for example, white queer people acting like they're somehow above other white people in terms of racism) and comes more from individual thought, words, and discussion (in which using the correct language sometimes has more weight than what you're trying to say) than it does from actual community action. this isn't an attack at anyone btw - a lot of the statements about mcr's politics around here are pretty flippant and light-hearted anyway, i doubt too many people are taking them super seriously, but it's probably worth considering. overall, i'm not listening to mcr for politics and i'm certainly not looking to any of them for political guidance, but it's nice to feel connected to them and to all of you guys and to know that they support my identity, but that’s kind of as far as it goes for me.

[deltadex]

(I took a screenshot to keep the post short)

I agree that, when push comes to shove, keeping Powder (and anyone else who is close to her) safe is her top priority. But when she isn't protecting those she loves, I see her as someone who cares about protecting the Undercity as a whole, as Act one demonstrates:

Claggor: What if Vander finds out we're all the way out here? Vi: Look around you. You think anyone topside's going hungry?

Vander: We stay out of Piltover's business. Vi: Why? They've got plenty while we're down here scraping together coins. When did you get so comfortable living in someone else's shadow?

Vander: We make ourselves a problem for Piltover and they will send the enforcers. Vi: So? Why answer to them? These are our streets. Someone should remind them of that.

Vi: ...and one day, this city's gonna respect us.

Vander: No one is taking anyone. Vi: It's already happening, you heard them. We need to fight back. And if you won't, I will.

Vi: What I don't understand is how you can work with them. We were here, we saw what they did. I grew up knowing that I'm less than them. That my place is down there. I want Powder to have more than that and I'm willing to fight for it.

Vander: So was I. I was angry, just like you. I led us across this bridge, thinking things could change. If I hadn't your parents would still be alive. I know you wanna hurt the topsiders for what they've done to us. But who are you willing to lose?

I expected a continuation of this theme in the rest of the series, but after the end of Act 1, Vi's primary goal shifted from fighting for the Undercity to reuniting with Powder. Nevertheless, we see her desire for justice resurface in this scene:

Vi: You ever been to Stillwater? Jayce: No. Vi: So you just wave an arm? Have someone dragged off, don't bother to find out what it does to someone being stuffed in a stone box for weeks or months or even years?"

As well as this one:

Vi: You've always been a part of this, you've just never had to look it in the eye. One dead kid? There's hundreds more where he came from thanks to Silco and thanks to people like you who stuck their heads in the dirt.

The only difference is, Vi has now realised that it's not as simple as Piltover vs Zaun. There are good AND bad people on both sides.

This and the fact that Vi's main goal shifts away from fighting for the Undercity is what makes her seem "apolitical" in acts 2 and 3. At the moment, Ekko, Silco, Sevika and Viktor are better representatives of revolutionaries because their goals have stayed the same for several years and they've made actual progress in reaching them.

"Vi cares about individual people...more than she cares about...oppression of Zaun" is currently the case. But I don't think she's ever NOT cared about the other Zaunites who were negatively impacted by Piltover. Act 1 shows that.

Since then, as you say, Caitlyn has proven to Vi that her opinion of a place isn't always a reflection of an individual from that place's character. So yes, I agree she has no loyalty to Zaun ANYMORE. Despite her initial stubborness, her philosophy has evolved. Her loyalty now lies with those who share her ideals and values, whether or not they're from the Undercity. And yes, this includes Caitlyn.

We are yet to see if she applies this same philosophy to her sister, who's values have turned out very different from hers. And if it so happens her sister isn't her main goal anymore in season 2, her focus might shift back to implementing justice, this time not just for those in the Undercity, but for Piltover as well. And what better way to achieve that than becoming an enforcer?

[cryingoflot49]

Book Review

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Mother Night is the darkest novel by this author I have encountered so far. As an early novel, it contains some of the types of characters, situations, ironies, and philosophical explortions that would be developed in his later works. But this is one of his first publications so it isn’t as polished or fully-realized as his subsequent works would be.

Mother Night tells the story of Howard Campbell Jr., a bland, everyday kind of American male. The narrative starts with him writing his final work of literature while confined in an Israeli prison since he is on trial for war crimes during World War II. How he got there is the obvious thrust of the plot. As a young man, Campbell went to live in Germany where he found a German wife and became a playwright of stature. When World War II broke out, his prominence in the theater scene earned him special status with the Nazis who admired his work. They gave him a job writing and delivering speeches in favor of the Third Reich. Campbell justified this to himself because he was also a double agent, working for the American military. After being approached by a spy in a German park, he agreed to lace his radio speeches with hidden meanings that could easily be picked up by commanding officers in the field. So Campbell had the unique distinction of promoting the cause of the allies and the axis simultaneously.

The twisted thing about this all is that Campbell is entirely apolitical. He only agrees to these arrangements so he can stay in Germany to be with his wife who dies soon after the war starts. At the beginning of the war, Campbell begins work on a statement about his apolitical stance, a play called A Nation of Two meant to explain that his only commitment in life is to his marriage, not to any political cause. He feels no hatred towards anybody whether they be Jews, Germans, Americans, Russians, Black people or anything. He feels no lyalty to them either. You could say that he has never reached full development as a human being. Campbell is also the kind of man who never says “no” to anybody. He acts under no agency of his own and lets himself be manipulated by anybody he encounters. The only exception to this is when he writes. In this way, Vonnegut draws a sharp distinction between Campbell’s public persona and his vacuous inner life. This dichotomy is set up to drive one point home that Vonnegut wants to make about human nature.

True to this author’s writing style, the narrative jumps around from place to place and from time to time. After the war ends, the U.S. military sneaks Campbell into New York City where he settles down in a brownstone attic, a place that becomes like a prison cell. In the apartment below lives a Jewish doctor and his mother who are both Holocaust survivors and below them, an elderly painter named Kraft that Campbell befriends. He doesn’t know it at first, but this man is a Soviet secret agent who has plans for Campbell as he acts as the deus ex machina of the novel.

Kraft secretly arranges for a dentist named Jones to show up at Campbell’s apartment. Jones is a middle-American crank, a white supremacist who listened to Campbell’s speeches via shortwave radio during the war. He regards Campbell as a hero. He shows up at the attic with his friends, a Nazi named Krapptauer, a Catholic priest named Keeley, and an African-American man he calls the Black Fuehrer. Later, when Jones is confronted by the police as to how he could be friends with a Catholic and a Black man, two groups of people he claims to hate, he says they are friends because they all have the same enemy, the Jews. Again, we are given another piece of the puzzle that Vonnegut constructs for the reader. He also brings a woman who says she is Helga, Campbell’s German wife. But nothing about her is as simple as it seems on the surface.

Helga turns out to be, in actuality, her sister Resi. After revealing this secret to Campbell, they agree to stay together as man and wife. Resi is yet another character who has contradictions in her personality. Aside from deceiving Campbell about her identity, she is also a secret agent for the communists. One thing she reveals to him that a Russian soldier, while fighting in Germany, found a trunk full of Campbell’s writings. He took them to the USSR and published them under his own name where they took off in popularity. His success as a writer is actually beyond his control, happens without him knowing about it, and even without his making any effort at getting published. Vonnegut is telling us that our work can have consequences beyond our reach, taking on a life of their own, and going places we never intended them to go. All the more reason we need to be careful.

Meanwhile, Krapptauer dies of exhaustion after climbing a staircase and Campbell agrees to give a speech at the funeral in front of a group of neo-Nazi teenagers despite his inner repugnance to their cause. Campbell remains characteristically unemotional and without affect throughout the whole book. As he meets up with Helga/Resi and the white supremacists at the funeral, his past is paraded in front of his eyes so that he sees the unintended consequences of his actions. He describes himself as being numb and emotionally dead. He is unable to reconcile the conflict of being a hero to Americans, Nazis, and Communists all that same time and he is also unable to fully engage with the atrocities of the Holocaust that he helped perpetuate. The simplest thing to do is to suppress his emotions, shut off his mind, and plunge himself into a catatonic stupor of anhedonia.

Campbell’s turning point comes when he gets stalked by an American soldier named O’Hare who confronts him in his attic. O’Hare represents a whole other side of Vonnegut’s world view. After returning from the war and being given a medal then sent on his way, he sinks into misery and poverty, becoming an alcoholic and moving from one dead-end job to another without purpose or glory. He expected to live the life of a war hero and instead becomes a bum and a loser. His solution is to hunt down and kill Campbell, the known Nazi war criminal.

Campbell, after coming face to face with his past, is ready to take control over his own life and atone for his sins. He fights off O’Hare and turns himself in to the Israeli embassy to be put on trial in Tel Aviv. He solves all his contradictions and liberates himself by voluntarily going to prison.

So what does it all mean? First off, Campbell exemplifies how we are what we do. In the eyes of society we can be different things to different people. We play different roles in a play depending on who we are talking to. This was written in the era of the sociologist Erving Goffman. To the American military, Campbell is an agent who helped them win the war. To the Nazis he is an effective propagandist. To the Soviets, he is celebrated as a writer of subversive literature, clandestinely sending subtle messages of resistance to the citizens of the oppressive Communist state. He was all of these and none of these at the same time. The fact that he believes in no political ideology is irrelevant during his trial because it is by his public persona that he get judged. Our inner lives, our true, selves, are of little or no consequence in how the public perceives us. However, the one thing we do know about Campbell’s inner life is the he was madly in love with his wife Helga. And so we are forced to ask the question of how far would we go to stay together with the person who matters most. Campbell did what he had to do to keep his marriage, his sacred bond, alive. Given this contradictory bundle of actions and motivations, are we still at liberty to judge Campbell as a person who is either good or bad?

The public personas that Vonnegut portrays are contradictory and confusing though. Each character’s flaws and virtues are on full display so we can examine why people do the confusing things that they do. Kraft, the Russian spy, sought a career in the Soviet secret service so he can live in America. Resi pretended to be her sister Helga so she can be with the man she had loved all her life. The Jewish doctor helped Campbell, the Nazi propagandist, because he learned from the Holocaust that helping people in need was better than judging them. The white supremacist Jones can be friends with a Catholic and an African-American because he believes they are all fighting for the same cause, no matter how idiotic that cause may be. O’Hare wanted to kill Campbell so that people who think of him as a nobody would see him as somebody. What Vonnegut is saying is that people are complex and life is confusing. To eliminate this confusion, people try to see the world in either/or dichotomies of black vs. white or good vs. evil. But this only muddies the waters more, creating more confusion and sometimes causing people to make bad decisions. Whether we support the axis or the allies, we are all coming from the same place and that place is one of confusion. Vonnegut isn’t asking us to forgive or sympathize with the Nazis, rather, he is asking us to admit that the confusion of life can lead people astray, causing them to do the wrong things and sometimes even terrible things. Asking us to examine the human side of Nazis is always a risky business, but I think Vonnegut is saying it is a necessity if we are going to prevent other atrocities like the Holocaust in the future. We don’t want to become like the Nazis we oppose. Vonnegut himself survived life in a prison camp during the bombing of Dresden. The trauma of this experience made him feel like equalized with people on all sides of the war and led him to write the kinds of novels he did for the sake of preventing future wars. The sincerity of his endeavor shines through in books like this and that is why he can get away with posing such controversial questions.

Mother Night is not perfect and I wouldn’t recommend it as the first Kurt Vonnegut novel anybody should read. He follows the dictum of showing without telling a little too carefully, and at times the narrative is so opaque that it might benefit from a little bit more explanation. There is a lot to unpack in this story and it may require some second-order thinking after you finish it. It is not his most direct writing. The flaws are few and minor though and Vonnegut would later iron out such wrinkles in other books.

Mother Night is a probe into the darkest regions of human motivations. It is a probe that levels all of its characters by stripping away all their appearances and exposing the messes inside them and around them. It shows how people are thrown into a world of confusion while making futile attempts at understanding it, shooting wildly in the dark, and bungling everything up further while tricking themselves into thinking we are on the side of the good. But it is impossible to know if we are really doing good so all we can do is keep doing what we do while hoping it is right. The ontological foundation of our existence is one of chaos and nonsense, but we can only forgive ourselves when we are courageous enough to admit that we made mistakes in our judgments, however terrible those mistakes may be. This is the bitterest of pills tp swallow, but one that may be necessary if we are to make progress as a species. And whatever you do, don’t be a man like Howard Campbell Jr., a man with no convictions, living without will and making no effort to take control over his life, getting blown around in whatever direction the wind takes him. Being informed and knowledgeable doesn’t guarantee you won’t make bad decisions, but at least it increases the chances that you might get something right.

[ithisatanytime]

Alexander O'Neal - If you were here tonight

 one thing that always puzzled me about leftists is that when i was on twitter for instance whenever i would see a man espousing a fucking pants on head retarded point of view or just any scenario where a man made it clear he was far left, i would always click on their profile picture and every single fucking time without fail, its some fat fucking retard. i specified the men  because all women are at least partially leftist, their political views dont really matter to be honest, and are subject to change based on who they perceive to be the majority choice, ive gone in depth on that many times so ill spare you, basically women are just women, but with the men you can really see it, visibly retarded, like, unmistakably genetic refuse. if i was on the left, and i looked around at my brothers in arms and they were all clearly fucking retarded, and i mean independent from their world view like you just look at them and know they play with fucking action figures or some shit, if that was 80 percent of my comrades i would switch sides or at the very least just be apolitical.

 sometimes im grateful that elon musk turned out to be a controlled opposition pussy all along, i never really trusted him or liked him but i found the backlash against him to be decidedly reddit, as was his initial hero worship. but anyway im sort of grateful to be banned or at least i feel good about it, because these fucking retards literally cant exist without moderators, police, the system keeping them safe from people like me, i used to shred them, and i still want to so badly sometimes, these goofy ass motherfuckers man. back when i was on twitter i felt like a fox in a chicken coop, these estrogen enriched ultra pussies fuck me man. when someone says some fucking outrageously stupid shit it is human nature to correct them quickly and thoroughly, the practical reasons for this should be obvious if you think for a moment, but the way the website like most social media websites and workplaces and college campuses operate give every fucking advantage to a leftist man, and by god does he need them.

  not all leftist men are straight ugly, only the vast vast majority, there are handsome ones but those are always the most braindead men you will ever encounter, husks, the ugly people are at least sort of acting in their own self interest, they join a collectivist movement backed by a strong central authority because they know individually they are weak, but the rare handsome leftist is always JARRINGLY stupid to the point that even your rank and file leftist knows it deep down but they keep them around for optics. they are often gay if not overtly they are covertly gay. basically leftist men are one or more of the following without fail, ugly/weak, stupid, disingenuous date rapist. the ugly/weak part isnt even my opinion its been proven in literally dozens of studies that leftist men are physically weaker and less attractive, the stupid part is interesting because when you break down the data the IQ is pretty close, i think in the past leftists were on average a couple points smarter but thats changed in recent years, but when you break it down you see that the whole midwit bell curve meme is not just a meme its the literal truth. for instance if you look at rates of vaccine hesitancy by educational attainment, highschool dropouts and no college types are very high on vaccine hesitance, the more educated people become the more accepting they are of getting the vaccine but only TO A POINT, and then once you get past masters degree and start getting into PHD and beyond, the vaccine hesitancy shoots back up again, so basically the very dumbest people are conservative, because they are acting on their god given or evolved instincts (either way this implies they were important to have and theres no other explanation for why we attained these instincts) and then your midwit, your rank and file dullard college student with spotify and overwatch installed is just smart enough to be convinced to believe a litany of lies but not smart enough to be truley skeptical, like women these feminized men determine whats true not based on instinct like an actual idiot, nor based on the veracity of the iinformation as its presented to them when tested against a broad pre-existing understanding of the world like a smart person does, instead they determine the truthfullness of information based on the extremely subjective estimation of the person or party delivering it or championing the point of view.

[midnightactual]

A Brief Unpacking of Soul Society

so writing all this up in a super-detailed fashion with things like supporting evidence and explaining every little point takes a super long-ass time and let’s be real probably nobody is going to sit and argue the finer points with me so while I will eventually substantiate all this I’m going to give the tl;dr which is still going to be extremely long

Willpower

the first thing you need to know is that in Bleach’s universe willpower is pretty much everything (see: Soul Physics) and manifests as a de facto physical force. Aizen tells Soifon that Shinigami battles are battles of will, Hiyori survives being cut in half by Gin because of her will to survive, Ichigo completes Kisuke’s training and cuts Kenpachi because Ichigo discovers his will, Yoruichi says that reaching for power is Ichigo’s instinct, and on and on. there’s a million examples of this. every time Ichigo’s eyes flash blue-white and “Number One” starts playing that is your clue that will is at work for him. willpower is everything. this is why I only sorta joked about Nietzsche but not really because it’s actually dead accurate

Shinigami

the next thing you need to know is that the parallelism between Shinigami, Quincy, and Hollows is ridiculous (see: Bleach’s “Races”, Bleach’s “Races” II, and the power comparison chart) which suggests a common origin although the nature of that is speculative. it is less that they are actually completely different and more that they are competitive facets of the same underlying reality. Shinigami occupy a dominant position because they 1. control the vast majority of the Soul King and 2. the nature of them is “stagnancy” (as revealed through Mimihagi’s power and the name of the Seireitei itself) meaning that they are perfectly positioned to be (and continue) the status quo

The “Shinigami” State

as I began outlining in The “Shinigami” State (Part 1) the country which has been assembled by Shinigami (which I dub Yomi for a lack of something better to call it) “is fundamentally theocratic, feudal, patriarchal, and marked by internecine political competition along class lines. its major class divisions are 1. Great Noble Clans, 2. Nobles, 3. Shinigami, and 4. Peasants. each of these classes is in turn riven into different competing factions (for example at the first level the Shihōin, Shiba, Kuchiki, Tsunayashiro, and Still Unnamed 20 Years Later Fifth Great Noble Clan). these parties all jockey for control among themselves and with each other at every level. there are various parallels to real world feudal societies in this, especially with Japan. the main competition is however between the Great Noble Clans and the Nobles; the Shinigami (nominally led by Yamamoto for much of history) largely positioned themselves as apolitical.

(it is worth noting at this point that what “Shinigami” means is purely contextual. it is both a job, a political class, and a “race”. this shouldn’t be surprising as Japanese is a very contextual language. Great Noble Clan members and Nobles are also “Shinigami” [the “race”] but often use “Shinigami” to refer to the political class or occupation. this confusion is deliberate to muddle these issues, just like the state lacking a name)

both SAFWY (with Azashiro’s backstory revolving around vicious infighting among Nobles) and CFYOW (with Tokinada’s scheming to upend the balance of power between the Great Noble Clans and the Nobles for his own ends) reflect this handily

Power Accumulation

now I’m just going to start asserting things. as can be derived from the above Yomi implicitly views willpower as the only force in the universe worth really cultivating because it’s the only force in the universe that scales well at an individual (human) level. it believes in technological products only in so far as they help with that program. all its science and philosophy is centered around changing the self, not changing the world. in this regard it is diametrically opposed to (our) lived human experience which is embodied in the Living World

Yomi is “Power” hungry, rather than “Energy” hungry. this distinction is crucial. it doesn't really build water wheels or windmills or dams or nuclear power plants or bombs or particle accelerators or washing machines of fridges or air conditioners or anything like that. it is not about augmenting its denizens with external machines, but about improving their selves or creating new selves. it's all people power, not machine power.

thus, the resources it seeks are not energy sources like rivers or coal or oil or uranium with which to run things, nor valuable minerals like gold, iron, or rare earths with which to build things, but populations. it is focused exclusively around the management and exploitation of human souls. souls are the only resource it cares for and all else is luxury. part and parcel of this is continually creating new underclasses to add to its existing class divisions: slaves. examples include artificial souls, mod souls, reigai (Ouko being canonized in SAFWY), and gigai. these slave underclasses serve as both tools and ingredients. a brief summary from “Blade Runner 2049″ (incidentally this is yet another reason Bleach is Cyberpunk):

Niander Wallace: Every leap of civilization was built on the back of a disposable workforce, but I can only make so many.

this disposable workforce includes the regular Shinigami who routinely suffer immense casualties and are treated as utterly expendable. everything that exists in Soul Society exists to control these lower classes.

Power Conflict

you might be wondering what “leap of civilization” all of these developments are building toward. as I’ve pointed out: the main driver of Yomi is the competition between the Great Noble Clans and the Nobles. I’ve laid out before that Great Noble Clan members are generally simply superior in power, focusing upon Yoruichi with the CAT series, but also noting Isshin and Kūkaku here (it’s worth mentioning here that in CFYOW both Harribel and Nelliel observe that Kūkaku is incredibly strong) while there are notable examples who do not originate from their ranks (Yamamoto, Retsu, Kenpachi, Aizen, and Azashiro to name a few) those are the exceptions that prove the rule.

all these scientific developments to improve Shinigami exist to elevate the Nobles to the level of the Great Noble Clans and end that conflict decisively in their favor. this is particularly true of Hollowfication. the Shinigami as a people embody stagnation, and the only reason they seek advancement is to triumph over one another. per chapter 535:

the Nobles (and Great Noble Clans) have gotten a succession of “apolitical” scientists or de facto scientists (like Kirio, Ouko, Kisuke, Aizen, Mayuri, and Seinosuke) to work on various means of powering themselves up in an ever-escalating arms race. (it’s notable that everyone who gets sent to Zero Division is some kind of inventor.) in classic Jurassic Park fashion, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

Kisuke Urahara

as I just said the scientists caught up in this process are largely apolitical and only concerned with whatever interests them intellectually. probably the most notable advance in this arms race was made by Kisuke with the Hōgyoku. why did he make it? CFYOW offers up some vague reasoning but it’s best to remember that Kisuke is a scientist operating in an environment where the primary resource and field of study is human beings and where there is no regard for human rights or indeed any value accorded to human life: human experimentation is the norm

Kisuke made a research tool to quickly and radically modify the human organism and not a strategic asset. what is the Hōgyoku really? to put it quite simply the Hōgyoku is for biological experiments what catalysts and accelerants are for chemical reactions. it increases rates of change and allows in minutes, hours, or days what would normally take years, decades, or centuries. it is essentially a time machine for a given organism as much as it is a pathway determinant growth engine. it can actualize an entity’s long-term potential in a short timeframe. it basically allows a given individual to timeskip to some future version of themselves as desired as long as that version is possible. the Hōgyoku is an entropy machine: it creates additional data and complexity using energy.

(of course in science you want reversibility whenever possible. you want subtraction along with addition, division along with multiplication, integrals along with derivatives. so if you have an entropy machine you need an anti-entropy machine to complete your tool kit. and you can use your new entropy machine to make anti-entropy "machines". it is notable that all three individuals with anti-entropic abilities, like Rukia with absolute zero violation and information destruction, Orihime with event rejection, and Hachigen with space regression, were all heavily modified by the Hōgyoku. but that’s another story.)

Dual-Use Technology

the thing about technology is that every advance can be used for military purposes as readily as civilian ones. nuclear energy can be used to make reactors or bombs. CRISPR can be used to make high-yield crops or bioweapons. and the more energy-dense technology becomes, the more destructive it can be: a laptop battery has roughly the energy yield of a hand grenade. so you shouldn’t be surprised that the Hōgyoku also makes for a potent weapon.

the Hōgyoku can obviously modify any organism (as we see it work on Shinigami, Hollows, Arrancar, and Fullbringers and Shaz Domino in BRT wanted to use it on himself, a Quincy) but it was made to work with Shinigami first and foremost. now the question is not really “why did Kisuke make the Hōgyoku?” because he made it for whatever personal reasons but rather “who set in motion the historical process of using science to improve themselves for political ends, which Kisuke represents a culmination of?” and the answer is the Nobles.

think about it. the Hōgyoku actualizes potential. the Great Noble Clans already have the most built-in potential and can best actualize it already; they don’t need it. the Shinigami (the political class/job) are highly expendable and Yamamoto has never viewed them as anything more than chaff; they don’t need it. only the Nobles have the mix of need and potential to properly utilize it. (and the Nobles have been behind all these other examples too, like Spearhead for mod-souls and Azashiro’s experiments with improving Shinigami which led to Ouko’s research.)

the Nobles... and Aizen. (and Shaz Domino but he’s not too important here.)

Actualization

it’s notable that most of the villains in Bleach are an example of each of these political classes (Great Noble Clans, Nobles, and Shinigami) trying to conclude the class struggle in some fashion. Tokinada is a member of the Great Noble Clans who wants to position himself at the top to maximize suffering. Azashiro is a Noble who wants to avenge himself and his family against the depredations they suffered. and Aizen, it would certainly seem, is a Shinigami who wanted to stand atop the system (even as he replicated and admired many of its features like its aesthetics and culture). only Yhwach and to some extent Ginjō were truly outsiders.

although the personal motivations of these individuals varied, what they each really represent is the “logical conclusion” of the drive of their respective classes to overthrow or otherwise subvert the others. they are “inevitable” products of this intensely competitive system: eventually an individual will decide to use outside the box solutions to overcome the “rules” of the “game”. in other words they will “cheat”.

Downfall

this is also why these villains lose. as I said at the beginning the Bleach universe relies almost wholly upon personal willpower. a dialogue on the difference between Japanese and American perspectives on weapons is instructive at this point:

The martial philosophy of Japan comes out of Shinto and Buddhist traditions, and so is focused on spiritual attainment and mastery. This philosophy is the legacy of a warrior culture which greatly predates the advent of the gun, and is itself intimately tied with the spiritual life of the nation. The martial ideals of the United States, on the other hand, are the product of Enlightenment philosophy, and thus focus on personal freedom. The nation itself was born by the gun in support of just such principles. But what do these varying culture outlooks mean for gaming? Quite a lot, really, because whether they realize it or not, the cultures in which these developers grew up often influence their games.

In Japanese games, the gun isn’t so much a gun as an extension of the self. The gun is a part of the person, the suit, or the vehicle, and is a representation of internal force rather than a mere firearm. When an actual gun is given to a person it’s often a tool for survival whose use indicates that everything else has gone wrong. Of course there will always be exceptions, though interestingly these exceptions usually star American heroes rather than Japanese ones.

This idea of the weapon as an extension of the self, as channeling inner force rather than relying on external power, is distinctly a Shinto and Buddhist conceptualization. It allows for concepts like Megaman’s internalization of new powers and his need to become a unified whole he can put the world back to the way it was and restore peace. It even allows for games about martial artists who can project fireballs due to their mastery of their art.

it really shouldn’t surprise you that Ichigo and Aizen merge with their zanpakutō during their final confrontation to attain vastly greater power: this is exactly an embodiment of this cultural viewpoint which Yomi itself embodies. what is notable is that Aizen’s use of it is a fake, imperfect mirror of Ichigo’s:

the Hōgyoku mimics what it sees embodied in Ichigo. Aizen has no great awareness of what this means or why it happens. Aizen goes on to attribute his continuing metamorphosis to the Hōgyoku:

and the Hōgyoku continues to mimic Ichigo and follow what it believes a more transcendent organism ought to look like using him as an example (ironically in the exact same fashion as Ichigo’s bonded Shinigami-Hollow powers, Zangetsu, mimic what a proper zanpakutō ought to be like by copying Isshin):

note Aizen’s words here because they precisely spell out his doom: “Hōgyoku has... determined I no longer need a zanpakutō!!” Kisuke’s seal on Aizen activates in the very next moment because Aizen has finally verbally admitted a basic truth:

“Hōgyoku has...”

none of Aizen’s ability to compete with Ichigo is Aizen’s own doing. Aizen is relying on external power rather than channeling his inner force. his willpower is weak and he has broken the basic compact of power in the Bleach universe whereas Ichigo absolutely embodies inner force in a fashion which the Hōgyoku is merely copying and which Aizen cannot sustain. Ichigo’s earlier criticism of Aizen is absolutely correct:

Aizen completely fails to understand the situation. not just tactically (as in the nature of Ichigo’s powers which he is confronting which Aizen repeatedly misidentifies and gets wrong) but in terms of what is happening with his own power. Aizen isn’t even aware that he’s relying on the power of another until it’s too late. this is why he loses.

it is also essentially why Azashiro and Tokinada lose. Azashiro is obsessed with merging with Roka Paramia to gain her powers and Tokinada relies almost entirely upon Hikone Ubuginu and Aura even as he claims there are nothing more than his tools. none of these individuals demonstrate personal mastery of themselves and thus they are ultimately unable to triumph against others with greater wills. their cheating got them nowhere.

Conclusion

the Shinigami state within Soul Society, Yomi, is founded entirely upon class warfare and political competition, and the eternal arms race for ever greater power and domination over others which it encourages frequently results in spasms of conflict and warfare by individuals trying to overcome the endless and intractable deadlock by acquiring power beyond their abilities. this inevitably does them in as they wind up breaking the most basic compact of power in the universe which is that all power flows from within.

the general inability of the Shinigami (the “race” and not the political class/job) to grasp this is the principle reason why Yomi, Soul Society, and the realms in general are seemingly regularly racked with wars: most do not truly understand the basic truth that to master the world one must first master oneself... let alone that in seeking internal harmony one will seek to promote external harmony rather than conquest. this basic misunderstanding is a result of cultural values and drives almost all conflict through the series throughout time

[yourstarvic]

You and Kita were waiting a few feet outside the cafe. You had your arms linked through his as the two of you waiting. 

“Is she coming soon?” Kita asked you.

Checking your phone, you checked the time and saw it was ten minutes past the meet-up time, “She should be…”

“(Y/n)! Kita!” You both heard a sweet feminine voice called out behind you. 

Both of you turned around and saw a young girl running towards you wearing a cute date outfit with her long black hair trailing after her. As she reached both of you she gave you an apolitical smile, “Sorry! I was trying to think of a lie to Rin.”

“You could have told me you were having trouble getting him off your back,” You laughed at her, “I have ways to make him keep quiet.”

“But then he’ll know something is up,” The green eye female pouted. She then looked at Kita and smiled at him, “It’s good to see you again Kita.”

“It’s good to see you again as well, Suna-Chan,” Kita smiled at her.

“Please call me by my first name,” she sweatdropped at him.

“Of course, Himari,” Kita nodded.

“Thank you,” Himari smiled at him and looked back at you, “so what’s the plan?”

“Since this is your first date,” you started, “Kita and I are going to spy on you to make sure everything is going smoothly. You remember the signs I told you about?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect!” You exclaimed, “If anything feels weird or sketchy, tell us and we’ll come and save you.”

“I will,” Himari nodded understanding, “but do you have anything to do to help calm my nerves?”

“Take deep breathes,” Kita said softly and saw Himari taking his advice, “you don’t have to be nervous.”

“But this is my first date,” Himari frowned, “what happens if I embarrass myself?”

“You’ll be fine,” you assured her, “just be yourself.”

“Okay…”

“Should we get inside?” Kita questioned the both go you. You and Himari nodded at him and started to walk to the cute cafe. Entering it, you and Kita gave Himari said good luck and went to a table as she went to a different table and wait for her date.

A waitress came to you and Kita’s table and take your orders. Right when the waitress finished taking your orders, a boy around Himari ages went up the table. Both you and Kita watched as Himari shy smiled at him and offered him the seat in front of her.

“He’s attractive,” you muttered as you saw a tall brown hair boy sitting across Himari.

“Being attractive doesn’t mean he is a good person,” Kita said as he stared at the back of the male’s head.

“That’s true…”

“Here’s your drinks and your cake,” the waitress said as she placed the items on the table, “let me know if there is anything else!”

“Is everything okay, (Y/n)?” Kita asked you as he saw you scrolling through your phone with a confused look.

“Huh? Oh,” you said looking at him, “it’s just ‘Tsumu blowing up my phone…saying he’s sorry?”

Kita nodded his head at you in understanding and went back to eating his cake. But before he could place the piece in his mouth, Kita looked over your shoulder, “Himari is giving us the sign.”

You quicker turned around, seeing Himari messing with a strand of hair. “That mean’s he’s funny!” You whispered to Kita and putting your phone on do not disturb.

You grabbed your drink and took a sip, happy how the plan is going well. But it was ruined all too soon when the cafe door was busted open reviewing Suna looking at his little sister.

“Rin?” You questioned, standing up from your seat.

“Brother?” Himari whimpered, seeing her older brother at the door.

“Atsumu?” Kita looked behind Suna, seeing Atsumu have a panicked look.

“(Y/n)!” Atsumu yelled out in panic.

“Kita?” Aran looked at his caption in confusion, trying to figure what was happening.

“What is going on?” Osamu asked as he looked around and saw everyone.

“I would like to know,” Suna glared at the boy sitting in front of his sister.

“I’m on a date,” Himari gulped, putting on a strong face.

Suna looked at his younger sister in disbelief, “You’re too young to date.”

“I’m two years younger than you,” Himari countered back.

You decided to intervene, slowly making your way to Suna’s side and gently placed a gentle hand on his arm, “It’s fine Rin, she was just getting to know him.” “You knew?” Suna looked down at you in disbelief, no longer having his usually static expression.

“She came to me and ask for help,” you explained, crossing your arms, “and Kita and I are watching her just in case anything happens.”

Osamu suddenly came in-between the two of you asking, “So you and Kita weren’t on a date?”

“No, we were not,” Kita said behind him.

Atsumu then let out a whimper as he said, “So everything was a misunderstanding? Perfect now let’s just go before anything else is said…”

“Are you and Suna pretending to date?” Osamu asked you, ignoring what his brother said.

“Why would you asked that?” You questioned, turning around to look at him. 

Since your attention was on Osamu, you didn’t see Suna, and Atsumu’s face morphed into a panic, and Suna shaking his head no at Osamu. But Osamu didn’t pay attention to Suna and continued to say, “Atsumu said you two were faking.”

“Atsumu said what?” You said angrily, glaring at the piss hair bee.

“Um,” Atsumu started to panic, trying to look around to see anyone could help him, “it slipped out… But! Suna didn’t deny it! He told us everything and I mean everything.”

“You told them everything?” You slowly turned your head to the fox look alike.

“I um…” Suna hesitated, “that’s not important right now! What is important is my baby sister is out on a date and lied to me about it and you know and kept it from me!”

“She’s a big girl Rin!” You tolled your eyes at him, “She can handle herself.”

“You don’t have to worry about me all the time!” Himari said, standing next to you as she defending herself. “But what do you mean by everything? What did you two do with each other?”

An all-out argument then proceeds to commence. You would switch between yelling at Atsumu for being so careless and telling the secret, answering Osamu’s questions which you found weird since he kept asking if you were single and wanting to know why you and Suna did what you two did. You also argued with Suna, helping defend Himari with her date. Himari would switch between Suna and you, defending herself that she can handle herself, and questioned what you and Suna did. 

Suna kept saying how Himari was still too young to young to date and trying to stop Osamu and Atsumu from saying anything else. Kita and Aran looked at the group, trying to stop the argument. Himari date stared at the group, trying to follow what was happening. The workers were also trying to find what was happening, gossiping with each other to try and understand what was happening since there weren’t any other customers at the moment.

At his wit’s end, Kita decided to take action into his own hands. “Enough!” Kita yelled, making everyone flinch at his hard voice and stopped talking. “Suna, Himari is old enough to make her own decisions and take care of herself. If something would have happed (Y/n) and I would intervene. Osamu, (Y/n) is single and isn’t daten’ anyone so please stop asking her those questions. Atsumu, you shouldn’t have revealed their secret. It was none of your concern and not your place to reveal they kissed and their relationship, there will be consequences.”

“You kissed my brother?”

“It was a moment of weakness…”

“Ew…”

“(Y/n), please go easy on Suna, he is only looking out for his little sister. But I will help you with Atsumu, he needs to understand he can’t blurt people’s secrets. I want y’all to apologize to the workers for causen’ a disruption and you will all write an apology letter,” Kita crossed his arms in disappointment as he looked at the second year and Himari.

You all nodded your heads and slowly walked over to the staff and apologized for causing the disturbance. The staff assured everything was fine and said they enjoyed watching everything unfold. You paid then paid for the food and exited the cafe with trails of apologies. Aran, Kita, and Himari date all followed them, saying their goodbyes to the staff.

“I don’t know what to say to Kyo…” Himari whispered.

“Go talk to him,” Suna sighed, “whatever happens, I’ll be there to support you.”

“Thanks, big brother,” Himari smiled and walked up to her date.

“Good luck,” you whispered to her as everyone watched as she went up to Kyo. You all walked a few feet away, wanting to give them their privacy but were still close enough to hear what they were saying.

“So…” you all heard Himari started, “wild date huh…”

“Yeah,” the Kyo awkwardly laughed, “wild…”

“Do you want to have a redo date?” Himari asked shyly with blushing cheeks.

“Sure, only if you brothers join,” the guy awkwardly smiled.

“What?” Was all Himari said, “My brother?”

“Yeah,” Kyo shrugged. “I was hoping to ask him a few volleyball tips…”

“What did he say?” Suna’s eyes twitched, taking a few steps in their direction, “Is he trying to hurt my little sister’s heart?”

“Rin,” you whispered, tugging on his arm and pulling him back.

“So you were using me…” Himari came to the conclusion. The boy then started to explain how cool her older brother was, wanting to talk to Suna about volleyball and not caring about Himari’s feelings.

“(Y/n),” Suna gritted his teeth.

“I know,” you glared at Kyo letting go of Suna’s arm. Everyone all glared at the young boy, walking behind Himari, and glared threatening at him. The boy slowly stopped talking as he saw a group of intimidating volleyball players and their manager glaring at him darkly.

“Oi,” Suna gritted his teeth, “are you saying you were using my little sister?”

All the boy did was gulped, too scared to say anything.

“It’s best if ya leave ya scrub,” Atsumu said threateningly.

“And stay away from her,” Kita warned.

“Y-Yes!” Was all the boy said before running away. You all smiled as you watched him running away. But the smile dropped when you all heard a small sniff coming from Himari. You wrapped one arm around her shoulder and bring her close to you as you said, “It’s okay…We are here for you.”

“Thank you,” Himari smiled at you and then looks at everyone else, “and thank you, guys…”

Everyone gave her a smile and a nod while Suna patted his little sister’s head. But the happy feeling was destroyed when Atsumu said, “Anytime! And next time if ya want, I can help ya make sure Suna never finds out. I’m good with secrets!”

“Oh really?” You smiled innocently at Atsumu. Atsumu let out a small cry, realize what he said, and remembered what he did earlier. Letting go of Himari, you walked up to Atsumu and patted his arm, making his flinch as the contact, “You’re good at secrets? Then tell me why you told them my secret?”

Atsumu let out a gulp, trying to avoid her eyes, but he suddenly thought of something and pleaded, “Kita! Help me!”

“I really liked the cake here,” Kita said thoughtfully at Aran, “they had my favorite.”

“That’s good,” Aran thoughtfully nodded, “we should come here next time with everyone else.”

“I agree.”

“K-Kita,” Atsumu cried, seeing his only savior ignoring him. Suna and Osamu chuckled at him, Suna already having his phone out to record the bee look-a-like being scolded.

“I’m waiting,” you tighten your hold on Atsumu’s arm.

“It’s his fault!” Atsumu pointed at Suna, “He was blackmailing me with embarrassing videos!”

“Atsumu,” you smiled evilly at him, letting go of his arm, “watch your back and just wait until practice tomorrow. It’s going to be fun. And if you tell anyone else… I’ll definitely kill you.”

“B-But,” Atsumu stared at you in shock, “I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!”

“Anyway!” You turned around, looking at the time, “It’s almost 5… Do you want to go now, Miya?”

“Huh?” Osamu stopped laughing at his brother and looked at you, “Yeah we can go now.”

“What’s going on?” Suna asked, looking between the two of you.

“Miya needs some with figuring some stuff out,” you smiled at him.

“Ya can go ahead and go home without me,” Osamu patted Atsumu’s back.

“See ya at practice!” You said as you and Osamu started to walk in a different direction away from the group. Everyone wished you goodbye and then went to see if Atsumu was okay. Suna moved his hand in front of Atsumu’s face, trying to get a reaction out of him.

“Anyway,” Suna shrugged his shoulders, “what do you think Osamu and (Y/n) are doing?”

“Just admit you like her.”

“Didn’t you just got dumped?”

“Seriously?”

“Too soon?”

MASTERPOST-PREV-NEXT

TAGLIST: @thelochtessmonster99 @freaksnque @bloody-bella​ @girlyluke​ @tendo-sxtori​ @angels17324​ @madmelle​ @tiktikty-tokity-spagetti​ @helloalex80​ @fandomatakeover18​ @mus1caln0tes​ @kac-chowsballs​ @satoriluver​ @bbdaydreams​ @hi-im-a-bat​ @circusjanreblogs​ @420-uwu​ @sakusaakiyoomii​ @erinoikawa​ @kuroo-icedtea​ @kaleidoscopekai​ @fayeimara​ @dd0ie​

[moontheoretist]

When she and Tony Stark meet it is very clear that he was not expecting her there, “Jesus Christ, who the hell are you?” he asks, hand pressed to the space over his heart. His right arm is in a sling and that does not look good. “Is there something wrong with your arm?” she asks. It did not appear to be in a cast and she saw no bruising. His breathing was restricted though and that did not bode well either. She narrows her eyes at the thought of someone harming her King’s soul mate but she blinks, letting the anger go. Now was not the time or place. “None of your business, and you are?” he snaps, glaring at her suspiciously. “Dora Milaje,” she responds vaguely, “and I am here on the behalf of King T’Challa.” “T’Challa can fuck off,” Tony snarls viciously and her eyebrows shoot up. “Excuse me,” she says in a dangerous tone. Soul mate or not she would not allow him to insult her King. “Anyone who is involved with Steve Rogers is no use to me,” he snaps. Her eyebrows remain raised, “I understand that Steve Rogers has caused you pain, but I do not understand how that extends to King T’Challa,” she says calmly. Perhaps too calmly but Stark either does not understand the danger or he does not care. Stark rolls his eyes, “I’ve spent the last five years dealing with people who blindly follow Steve Rogers around like a bunch of fucking lap dogs, I don’t need to have one more person tell me that I can never compare. I know that. No need to have anyone else remind me,” he says bitterly, his lip curling up in disgust. That changed things. “I here because the King is not sure what to believe about you. He and the Dora Milaje agree that the information about you is too conflicting to draw a reasonable conclusion. So I am here to try and find the truth, to see what you’re really like. I must admit that I do not like you,” she says honestly. Perhaps the man would take the honesty well. He does not, instead he flinches hard but the expression is gone very quickly. “Great, then you’re just like everyone else. Go report back to your king, tell him I’m as worthless as everyone says I am,” Tony says, turning and walking towards his kitchen. “I do not like many people, that does not mean that you are not a good person. And my personal opinion of you means little when you are not meant for me,” she says. Tony’s shoulders tense at that but he turns slowly to face her. “What do you want to know?” He looks exhausted, like he hasn’t slept in days and she supposes that it is very likely that he has not. The man had chronic insomnia and she suspected it made his very obvious PTSD worse. The dismissals from everyone else around him, including his closest friends, probably did not help the situation. “Why did you support the Accords?” she asks bluntly. Cutting to the heart of the issue was what she was good at, and it saved her time and effort beating around the bush. “Steve told me that I needed to trust people, to listen to them. He was right, so when the opportunity came to listen I did, or at least I tired but apparently that wasn’t right either,” he snaps bitterly, that disgusted look back on his face. “You feel guilty for Ultron,” she says and it is not a question. He flinches at the bot’s name, he certainly felt guilty for being the creator of such chaos. “Of course I do, who the fuck wouldn’t? I nearly ended the world when I ran that program and I should have said something to someone,” he says. She finds that curious, his anger at Steve and his acceptance that Steve was right in his conclusions about his communication skills or lack thereof. “But you did talk to someone, Dr. Banner. I know that he is currently missing but surely you count your communication with him as something,” she says. Banner appeared to be the only Avenger who was not adverse to Tony. The two bonded over science and Tony’s lack of fear of him. “Lot of good that did,” Tony mumbles. “But you spoke to him and he agreed that it was a good enough idea to try,” she says. “So what if I did? Everyone blamed me for it anyways, might as well take the blame. Bruce said it could go wrong and I didn’t listen, I should have.” He leans against the counter and sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Just because your team blamed only you does not mean it was fair. It is not like they are lacking in recklessness and stupidity themselves. What kind of moron releases a brainwashed assassin onto the world? Steve Rogers is very lucky that seems to have had no consequences. And his taking the word of Bucky Barnes as proof of five other Winter Soldiers was not wise either, the man hardly knows what is real and what is not, he is still partially under the control of HYDRA conditioning. Only a fool would take the man’s word at face value. I believe that your holding off until you found real proof of the Winter Soldiers’ existence made you the most intelligent and clear headed of the group, at least in that moment. The rest of the team has far too much faith in a man who is living in nostalgia. Bucky Barnes does not, nor will he ever, exist again as Rogers knew him. He should accept that,” she says bluntly. It was a harsh truth, yes, but a man would never be the same after a trauma like that. Rogers himself was more than likely not the same man he used to be so he should not expect Bucky to be. He should also accept the reality of that trauma on his friend because living in his memories was not going to help Bucky Barnes. Accepting reality, no matter how harsh, was the only way to help Barnes heal from his wounds. It would not be easy for anyone but it was the most beneficial. “You… think I’m the smartest and most clear headed of the group?” Tony asks, looking beyond shocked. “In that moment, yes. You are not without your mistakes but that was not one of them. Tell me more about why you chose to support the Accords,” she says. This time Tony pauses for a long time and she lets him gather himself. It was important to make an accurate judgment. Finally Tony looks up, “Steve was right about listening to people. Sometimes I go too fast and I don’t think things through right, I’ve done it time and time again, even when I was supporting the Accords. I’ll make a snap decision that looks good at the time but I don’t talk to the people I’m supposed to be helping, I just make a decision and assume it’s for the best when it isn’t. I had one hundred and seventeen countries telling me to slow down and stop and I didn’t think that was something I should ignore. They weren’t making unreasonable requests, they just wanted a say in how we ran things and you can’t help people if you aren’t willing to listen to what they need you to do. I’ve learned that now,” he says. “Rogers thinks the best hands are still your own, you do not agree?” she asks, curious. Tony rolls his eyes, “no, he thinks the best hands are still his own, not our own regardless of what he says. You saw what happened when someone said no, it didn’t line up with his beliefs and instead of reaching out and asking to change things, or asking why things looked the way thy did he threw the whole damn thing out. Besides, if we’re talking histories here I have a near one hundred percent fail rate. The best hands aren’t my own so I thought maybe if I had someone else vetting my decisions they might be better but if that person isn’t Steve Rogers Steve doesn’t think it’s good enough.” Harsh words, but they were mostly true. She, too, found the Captain too rigid in his values. “And the agendas he spoke of?” she asks. He was not wrong for being suspicious of the government. They were corrupt, as near all systems were outside of Wakanda and even there they had their issues. At this Tony looks down, “I put too much faith in a system I know doesn’t really work that well. But we aren’t apolitical people, we know what the UN’s agendas were, they were clearly written on paper and we could have worked with that, used it to our advantage. But the fuck if I know what their agendas are. Natasha flip-flops more than a fucking fish out of water, so does Clint, I have no idea what Wanda’s thinking, you already know what I think of Steve, and Sam… well he’s an alright guy. I think he’s an idiot for following Steve around like a lost bird but he’s a good man. I know I made mistakes but that bullshit letter Steve sent me proves he doesn’t care.” She did not read the letter so she is unsure what he is talking about, “would you care to explain?” she asks, trying to be gentle. The man was raw, in pain, and it was bound to end badly for him. She was sure she had her answers but she was curious about the letter and more information would not hurt. “Oh he’s glad I’m back on the compound, obviously I moved back out, but he doesn’t like to think of me being alone because the Avengers were more mine than his. Pretty sure the fact that they’ve all always hated me minus maybe Bruce indicates that that’s a bunch of shit but whatever. And he has faith in people, in individuals? Really? Because I didn’t see any of that faith when people, individuals, were reaching out to us to talk to them and he slapped them down because what they wanted wasn’t what he wanted. And he’s never had faith in me. Never. I find it really hard to accept that he gives a damn about hurting my feelings, especially when he’s always assumed that I didn’t have any. And his stupid ‘I wish we agreed on the Accords but we didn’t so fuck you’ at the end was a real nice touch. He might as well have wrote ‘lol everything before this was a joke because I don’t really care what you think was right, it wasn’t what I think is right so you’re wrong’. At least we can both agree that he was a selfish prick keeping my parents’ deaths to himself,” he mumbles. So Tony Stark fell somewhere in between his public image and someone she did not know. He was clearly emotional, in pain, and that was not going to go well for him but he was not a bad person. He was not what the Avengers thought he was either. “You’re parents’ deaths?” she asks. “Yeah, I mean I can’t keep secrets or so he reminded me about a million times with that Ultron bullshit, but he can keep the fact that Barnes killed my parents to himself. Guess all the shit I do is totally fine if he does the same damn thing. I don’t listen and accidentally create Ultron I’m a problem, and that’s fair, but he can ignore the whole fucking world and that’s totally A-Okay with him. I can’t keep secrets, but it’s fine if he does. I can’t be suspicious of government structures without being labeled ‘insubordinate’ and ‘arrogant’ but when he does it it’s fine!”

The Truth Never Set Me Free (I Did It Myself) by TenSpencerRiedPlease

[moonwalkshadow]

HATED IT! Neil Tennant on the power of negative thinking (1992)

If not for hatred, I wouldn’t be doing what I do now. I became a pop star because I hated football at school. I hated that whole attitude of being one of the crowd. Becoming a pop star was my revenge. Revenge for being bad at football. For not being athletic. For being mocked.

That’s the thing about negative energy, about hatred. It can be positive. It throws into relief all the things you know you like. It tells you, by elimination, what you’re about. Sometimes you can only define yourself by what you hate. Hatred becomes an inspiration; it makes you think, “What I’m doing now I totally believe in, and I don’t care what other people say.” Guided by hatred, you don’t have to follow the herd.

I hate the way people all like the same things at the same time. I’ve never understood it. When people are told about Coke – “It’s the real thing” – they should think, “No, it’s a hideous soft drink that is fantastically unhealthy to drink, full of sugar that turns into glucose that turns into fat.” They should look around America and think, “God, there are so many fat people here! Why? Because they all eat hamburgers and drink cola.” And they should hate the people who represent that. They should hate Michael Jackson for trying to foist Pepsi onto them, to make them fat victims of their own society. They should hate more. Hate Pepsi, hate Coca-Cola, hate Michael Jackson. Hate George Bush. And think about the alternatives. That’s another good thing about hatred. It makes you think about the alternatives.

Of course, these days it’s more fashionable to be positive. I hate positivity. The problem with positivity is that it’s an attitude that’s decidedly about lying back, getting screwed, and accepting it. Happily. It’s totally apolitical. It’s very, very personal and one-on-one. It’s not about changing society, it’s about caring about yourself. In fact, it’s totally about ignoring one’s economic role in society, and so it works in favor of the system. Just look at work years of personal consciousness theories have given us: those icons of the status quo, George Bush and John Major.

Positivity is fundamentally middle-class. It’s about having the time, the space and the money to sort out where your head is at. Therapy is just another side of positivity. It’s a leisure activity, a luxury for people who don’t have any real cares. It’s new age selfishness, the new way of saying that charity begins at home.

And positivity makes the world stay the same. Hatred is the force that moves society along, for better or for worse. People aren’t driven by saying, “Oh wow, I’m at peace with myself.” They’re driven by their hatred of injustice, hatred of unfairness, of how power is used.

That’s as true for pop music as it is for politics. I always feel the reason so much music comes out of Britain is because there’s so much hatred. You see or hear something and grow envious. Whereas if your positive reaction is, “Wow, that’s great,” you just sit back and think how great it is and you don’t do anything. You relax.

Luckily, I’ve never been a very relaxed person. When I look at pop music, I immediately hate things. I look at singers who say they are taking two years off to work for charity when, in fact, they’ll spend two years working on their album, and I hate them. Right now I really hate performers who make a big deal out of playing benefits and donating the proceeds from the sales of their records to charities. They could give plenty of money to charities and not tell anyone, but instead, they cash in on the fact. That’s not charity, it’s marketing. It’s about selling albums under the guise of a moral imperative. They say they’re trying to raise consciousness, as if being a celebrity gives them power and endows them with the answers to the world’s problems. But really they just want to be seen as heroes. I think it’s breathtakingly cynical and I hate it.

Another thing I hate, and another inspiration for what the Pet Shop Boys do, is the way people misunderstand pop culture. It annoys me that after more than twenty-five years, Top of the Pops, Britain’s most important pop-music TV program, changed the rules so that you have to sing live. Why? Because the people in control are the kind of conservatives who think that in the ‘60s, everything was much more talented than they are now. It’s all about Rolling Stone rock culture, which is essentially a fear of the new. Rolling Stone’s idea of a musician is Jerry Garcia, from the 60s. Look at all the ‘new’ artists – Curtis Stigers, Michael Bolton, Lenny Kravitz – all of them living in the past. I think you have to live in the future. Or at least in the present.

The Pet Shop Boys have always hated most of the prevailing attitudes and tried to do the opposite. Our hatred of what other people do has always helped us redefine our actions. To hate a lot of things is tantamount to really caring about others. If you like everything, you deal with nothing. When people hear Chris and me talking, they’re sometimes shocked by how negative we are. We’re constantly critical of everything, including ourselves. But I come from a generation that liked its artists to say what was wrong with our lives. I retain the old-fashioned belief that pop music is meant to be a challenge to society as well as an affirmation of it. And so I consider it my duty to hate things.

(https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=40&threadid=20871)

[the-colony-roleplay]

COL22 EVENT  ╬  RUINA REX: “THE FUNERAL” ╬  part ii

Kiss your perfect day goodbye Because the world is on fire Tuck your innocence goodnight You sold your friends like guns for hire Go play with your blocks And now you'll pay when these walls come tumbling down Oh, they're tumbling down                                                —Guns for Hire, Woolkid [x]

The day dawned bright and unseasonably warm, as though nobody had thought to tell the sun that it was to be a grim day. Breakfast was a subdued affair; anyone with a hand in the funeral wasn’t present, whether they were discussing last minute changes to the ceremony or ensuring the coffin was properly sealed, and those that were present talked only in hushed tones. It was out of respect, in some cases. In others, it was out of a furtive need for privacy as people discussed whether a man like Kaiser could really be felled by something as mundane as an aneurysm.

It was the first grave in many years that had been dug at the Natural Memorial and it felt momentous to different people, for different reasons. At the foot of all those thin, sickly trees lay a hole, vacant for now. Soon it would be Kaiser Bahr’s final resting place, and as Colony 22′s first martyr (if one believes the rumours), it would likely change the meaning of the Memorial forever. It would be impossible to go to the trees now and not think of him.

There was certainly no risk of anyone forgetting him today. If he had few he called friends in life, it seemed as though the whole Colony turned up to say goodbye this morning, gathering in little groups around the grave, which was presided over by the Colony’s own reverend, Enoch Lynch. Cambie, while arranging the funeral, had hesitated to approach him since by no account was Kaiser a religious man, but if nothing else Enoch knew how to lead a funeral and she’d really had no idea who else to ask.

She’d had no idea what ought to be said, either. They couldn’t incite a riot, but it was difficult to talk about Kaiser without acknowledging his extreme beliefs—and yet getting into that would only anger the NWRF. His son, Diederick D’Mornay didn’t have the energy for much input beyond ensuring nobody accused Kaiser of being a good father. In the end, the ceremony was simple by necessity. Enoch spoke, the crowd listened, and heads were bowed respectfully as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

With the formalities completed, attendees were invited to move to the chapel where there would be a wake. This was when the rain came. A sudden, bellowing downpour, driving citizens inside in scurrying lines. It was as though the skies had now caught up and wept for this unexpected death, swollen tears from angry clouds nobody noticed rolling in. Perhaps Kaiser had sent them. Perhaps his followers, fallen before him in the wastes, in riots.

Inside, the chapel was muted and eerie beneath the thundering on the roof. At the end of the room was a charcoal portrait of Kaiser, hand drawn by one of the more artistic members of the Colony, a wreath of synthetic flowers, a few candles and an abstract tapestry to make a memorial of sorts. It was carefully apolitical, and as a consequence felt as though it were missing something. The pews had been pushed to the sides of the room, with a few tables scattered through the space left by them. What might pass as a buffet was laid out— sausage rolls, mini sandwiches, potato salad, cheese and meat, chocolate cupcakes, the sort of finger food that is easily eaten while milling around. There were even a few bottles of wine set out, though the guards made it clear they were keeping an eye out for anyone taking more than their fair share.

Since Enoch had done his part, Cambie was unwilling to ask more of him— instead she took the lead herself, and went to the fore of the room to say a few words about Kaiser, and to invite anyone else that had stories to share to go up at some point over the course of the afternoon.

And with that done, the rest of the afternoon’s proceedings were left in the hands of the residents of the Colony. While Cambie hadn’t known Kaiser terribly well, she felt pretty confident in her conclusion that he’d not want his funeral run exclusively by Elites. He was a man of the people, and the people should be the ones using their voices now.

A/N: Alrighty, without further adieu, here is part two of the Ruina Rex (#col22rex) plot drop!!

This is where the timeline will officially move forward to the 2nd week of April, and as per the Colony PDD Notice that was released, the funeral will take place at 10:00am, Monday, April 10th.

As usual, you will no longer be permitted to start any new threads from the week prior or part one of the event (“Howl”), but you are encouraged to keep going on those threads as long as you need to to wrap them up! 

And to avoid confusion on the dash, we’re again asking you to accordingly title any new threads you start that have to do with the funeral or wake portion of this event, to help differentiate new stage ones from the old ones. However, like last time, this is a plot drop style event, meaning that you are permitted to do threads and paras about being at the funeral or wake, during the time of the funeral (if your character didn’t attend), as well as any time that follows during the new timeframe week. In other words, this is not a contained event, and you still have the full week available to you to plot and play with! Check out the Colony Calendar here for reference!

Now in terms of the wake itself, though Miss Cambie Andrews opened with a small and somber introduction, she invited others to say a few words on their own time throughout the function. One example of someone who will eventually go up to speak is Adrián Benítez. If you think any of your characters will step up to say a few words or tell a story, please let us know ASAP on the Main Blog and we will release a list of speakers in the coming days, so that everyone can know for reference in their threads or future plots! 

If you do put forward your characters as people who’d spoken during the wake, you may certainly post a self para about it if you like, but you are by no means obliged to. We can still include your character on the list, even if you don’t plan to officially write a thread or segment about it! 

The wake itself will go from approximately 10:30 to 1pm, at which time a late lunch will be served back in the Colony main building. Again, all citizens will receive the rest of the day off any classes and training, and schedules will recommence on Tuesday (save for anyone with special exemptions, like Ricky D’Mornay). 

Anyone with questions about the event, please direct them to the Main Ask Box so that we can answer them publicly in case they’re helpful to others! 

And finally, just a reminder that it will be during the third and final stage of this event, that we will be incorporating another ‘volunteer’ character to be written into the drop. So keep your eyes peeled on the main for more information—we will be reaching out to again ask for volunteers a little closer to the next drop.

With all that said, we hope you enjoy part ii: The Funeral of our Ruina Rex event!

Much love, 

xxCol22Mods

[unproduciblesmackdown]

speaking of “what else is new” the eternal genre of Takes available online or off through any platform that go like “this hangup / issue people can have can impede the success of like, connection & relationships & other aspects of someone’s life” like oh groundbreaking insight, go on. & then the conclusion is just “And That’s Bad” generally through like, criticizing any hypothetical individuals in a “have you considered that that’s bad? have you considered stopping? why haven’t you? sounds like a lack of Individual Responsibility...and maybe...You Suck??” vein like oh, again, groundbreaking. and it’s fast easy & free [sense of righteousness] i guess b/c it’s like oh i’m just helping, are you saying it’s Good / Better to have to struggle with / be impeded by xyz issues hmm? and like “here i am up on the cross >:)” satisfaction if anyone’s disagreeing lol like not only am i correct but ppl Hate it so it’s gotta be cutting edge, rather than it’s like, this is the most basic, well-trodden ground possible here. people hear about the notion of Ableism, resent the idea this might be a complicated thing to engage with requiring effort (but will also complain that idk it’s not serious b/c oh alllll people want to do is unreasonably issue a list of frowned upon language. like yes that’s all that exists and it must be frivolous vs being if nothing else an exercise in asking someone to shift their perspective / framework around taken for granted ideas) and then be like “well enough is enough (hasn’t done anything) i think this has gone too far & have we considered that it sucks to be depressed?? what about the people Dealing with other people dealing with issues who are doing everything right by being Not Mentally Ill but burdened or punished by the mental illness of others. not Their responsibility” like yes if we keep this in the realm of Individual Responsibility Apolitical Vibing then we can just call it a day. what does anyone expect the “absolutely demolishing these hypothetical Complacent mentally ill people, one issue at a time until everyone learns they should strive to be normal” to accomplish here. like oh enough, nay, Too Much consideration of Supporting anyone out here. i think it’s time we turned to voicing Disapproval & even moral judgment condemnation of these hypothetical individuals. can’t argue with that unless, what, you Want people to have problems? you think it’s good and right to potentially harm other people / make interpersonal relationships more difficult??? sounds like someone has some growing up to do 9_9 lmfao like again. just visionary & groundbreaking insights which is why this approach has kept being continuously reinvented here & everywhere else this whole time. like how would this relevantly / helpfully apply to the Reality of anyone’s situation on any side of anything. vs like well at least some people will be mad about This one, good posting

[sapphicconservative]

My family believes that you cannot be racist towards white people, that they cannot be badly affected by slurs, and that whites have white privilege. I am really scared about speaking up against these beliefs and the BLM movement because I am worried that my family will call me a traitor and my friends will cut ties with me. I know you have lost some friends due to different political beliefs. What do I do?

"My family believes that you cannot be racist to white people,"

So, I assume racism based on personal actions as a whole doesn't exist? Otherwise... I hate to say it, but you have a family of hypocrites. While it wouldn't be any better, the consistency that racism on a personal level doesn't exist at all and only on a systemic level would have been a bit more tolerable.

"they cannot be badly affected by slurs,"

Well, they are half wrong, but still horrible. White people, on average, are more likely to laugh off slurs and mockery racial images. I'm not sure why this is exactly, though. I remember my mom crying from laughing so hard when she realized another implication for "cracker barrel."

But, this isn't to say you should still go around and call white people slurs. Have a jest and joke around, so long as you're not afraid to take what you dish out. Offensive humor is only good if both parties can equally take jabs at each other.

"and that whites have white privilege."

I'm sure my mom had white privilege when the black teachers and faculty staff turned a blind eye as the black students repeatedly sexually assaulted her. I'm sure my dad had white privilege when the school threatened to expel him because he threatened one of the teens. Or, what about in recent years, how most of my mom's family have fallen to poverty and drugs because, while the people around them (the minorities) get federal aid but they, my family, was denied help again and again and again because they were white and had "generational wealth."

We don't have a race privilege issue. We have a class privilege issue. Some white people are just as poor as some minorities, and some minorities are just as rich as some white people. We need to stop pitting us against each other based on race.

"What do I do?"

If you still want to be friends with these people, then I recommend you keep your opinions private and find a group of friends who you can discuss these opinions with. It's okay to not announce your opinions to your friends and family. It's become the norm to announce your politic and social opinions, and simultaneously expect everyone to agree with you. This isn't good. Unfortunately, many people can't handle differing opinions.

In some places I know without a doubt if I spoke my mind freely, I'd lose friends I've had for years, I play off being apolitical and just stressed from these chats. It works, mainly because these friends of mine are also in places we cannot be political in.

You can also set a boundary and state that further discussion on politics or BLM (can generalize as hate crimes as a whole) makes you feel stressed out and sad and would like to avoid them around you for the time being. Whenever they try again, just remind them of what you told them on your boundaries until they understand.