#single thoughts

[junkdyke]

i do believe that pursuing romantic connection at all times and making it top priority is a huge distraction and gets in the way of so much. I've seen it happen with myself, and I've seen it happen with friends, where it takes away from everything you could and should be doing. Going on a trip that should be fun, but you're crying and feeling down the whole time because you're concerned with how that person is texting you. Not focusing on work or projects because you're so preoccupied with trying to see this person or stressing about how things are going with them. And you don't see how much it takes away from your life until you really eliminate it as a factor altogether. I've had chunks of my life put off because romantic pursuits came first. I've seen people wanting more for themselves, but not working on that because they're putting all their effort and energy into another person instead. Months later, still single and still not working on their career or going learning the skill they talked so much about.

The best people to date imo are people who are their own complete selves. Who have worked on themselves and their lives so they have something going on, something they're passionate about or proud of. Ambitions, goals, or a love for something that fulfills them. If you seek fulfillment in someone else, you will get burned. Be okay with being by yourself. Become the kind of person who simply wants someone else, not needs someone else.

And work on your friendships!!!

[alexiasleftoversalmon]

I want a girl to put her arm around me the way Lucy wraps hers around Ona 🥲

[idontchara]

I got a free blaze so now you all have to look at pictures of my cat. Look at my precious daughter.

[transmascissues]

do you actually care about trans men or do you relegate male pregnancy to the status of "gross but funny fanfiction trope" at best and "literal body horror" at worst? do you actually care about trans men or have you accepted without question the ideas that bottom growth is a borderline-torturously painful process and phalloplasty is a dangerous surgery with objectively unsatisfactory results because they confirm your implicit assumptions about the violence and horror of masculinization? do you actually care about trans men or do you think testosterone being a controlled substance is fair because you prioritize fairness in sports more highly than transmasculine lives? do you actually care about trans men or do you distance yourself from us as we transition and make half-joking comments about us being traitors because you view transmasculinity as a shift from ally to enemy? do you actually care about trans men or do you get mad at us when we read transmasculine experiences into female characters because you see it as an act of theft and believe transmasculinity is inherently less valuable than womanhood? do you actually care about trans men or is your first thought when you see a transition timeline about how pretty the "before" picture is? do you actually care about trans men or does your interest in our lives begin and end with how badly you want a boypussy to fuck?

do we exist to you as real people or only in theory? do you read the stories we tell, listen to the music we make? how many of us can you name? when we speak, do you listen? would you fight for us? do you trust us to know ourselves best? are you our friend? do you mourn us when we're gone? do you care for us while we're still here?

[mithrun-house-of-kerensil]

Lately, I've been thinking about Mithrun and the ways he is dehumanized in canon.

Before I get started, we know that elven society is incredibly afraid of death and illness. This is obvious in how they look down on the short lived races and see them as weak and childlike. We also know that Mithrun himself had ableist views toward his brother and these values did not leave him once he, himself, became disabled. He is a product of the society that raised him, but I also think how Mithrun is currently being treated contributes to his view of himself.

Mithrun has had three different caretaking groups over the years. The first are the ones his brother hired for him. From what we can see, they did the job, but we can understand that they did not know what to do with him. No one had ever recovered from having their desires eaten so the focus was less on rehabilitation and more on keeping him alive.

Later we see Milsiril take an interest in him because of his desire to return to the dungeon. Since she did not bother to visit him for decades after finding him, we can assume that there is an ulterior motive here. Timeline-wise, this was when the majority of the canaries had just been wiped out. They needed more men, and Mithrun is set up to be the perfect single-focused soldier.

Honestly, we can assume that Milsiril doesn't really care about him or see him as a person. Mithrun is just a new project for her to play with. We can see this in how she's focused on superficial level concerns like the fact that he doesn't look nice and wanting him to be overly grateful toward her. She also talks about him like he's not in the room and can't hear her. This is a dehumanizing trait shared by many characters when talking about Mithrun.

When he finally does recover enough to return to the canaries, the military does not make any effort to accommodate his needs. We know the canaries are understaffed and the ethics are already bad, but they really did not even try to care about Mithrun's safety at all.

Entrusting a criminal with his care was questionable at best, especially when Cithis immediately took the opportunity to abuse her power over him and no one stopped her.

While acknowledging the light-hearted nature of the manga, it's uncomfortable that Mithrun was treated like a child and an animal by Cithis for her amusement. Regardless of her 'learning to respect him' later, the point is that Mithrun was taken advantage of and degraded because she believed he couldn't say no. No one bothered to do anything about this until Pattadol yelled at her.

Truly his treatment is summarized well by Milsiril here. Mithrun is extremely vulnerable to being abused by those taking care of him because he won't advocate for himself. He has one desire so he won't fight for himself in any other way.

It is obvious that Mithrun was not treated well by his caretakers and this has resulted in him identifying his needs through a disconnected and frankly, infantilizing lens.

I understand that it may have been a translator's decision, but I always thought it was interesting that Mithrun says that he's "not sleepy" which is a childish term. Otherwise, he speaks like everyone else, if not rather posh.

This, followed by the fact that he is responsive to Kabru treating him like a literal infant to get him to eat, paints a clear picture of the fact that Mithrun is not unfamiliar with being treated like this. He responds to it because he's used to it and has no desire to argue with being treated this way. When we consider the fact that the chapter started with Milsiril treating an older child Kabru in the same way, it is likely that she also did the same thing to Mithrun when he was under her care.

In these panels, we see that Mithrun does not believe that he can sleep without magical assistance, even though it is immediately refuted when Kabru takes the time to bundle him up and help him relax. Not only does he fully believe he can't sleep without external assistance, but he states directly that there is no point in him getting comfortable.

As Kabru observes, Mithrun's inability to recognize his needs applies to needs such as hunger and exhaustion, but it obviously also applies to emotional needs. Kabru just wanting to feed him something delicious and not wanting him to give up on life is the most consideration someone has given Mithrun in years.

The relationship they form over the course of a single week is enough to shape Mithrun's behaviour completely. Mithrun ignores Cithis's demand in favour of asking Kabru's opinion. It is Kabru's hand Mithrun takes to pull him out of his defeated state. It is Kabru Mithrun confessed his true desire to.

Do you realize how depressing that is? All it took was the new perspectives from Kabru and Senshi to make him consider the fact that he should keep living despite no longer needing to fulfill his duty. Being treated well could have helped Mithrun much sooner and this shift in the way he sees himself contributes to his recovery going forward.

TLDR: Mithrun has no desire to be respected, but why does that make people feel comfortable acting like he doesn't deserve it? Someone not caring about being treated well doesn't give you permission to treat them poorly. This feels like a playschool-level consent lesson: just because he's not saying no to a humiliating or degrading act doesn't mean it's a yes and therefore okay to do. Acknowledging this is the bare minimum of treating him as a person.

[hatepotion]

iii / vi / vii / ix

[kltrainbows]

At the end of the day, other than my furbabies, I am alone and that’s how I fear I’ll stay forever.

[habken]

forced reconciliation through becoming family

[liittlecrow]

yea soo like .. i got my septum pierced on a whim today◜ᴗ◝

[suntails]

GAME START

[succo-al-limone]

DC doodles for funzies

[junkdyke]

I agree on your thoughts on being single. It's nice to be able to flirt and mess around but in the long term nothing beats having big chunks of time to yourself

Yeah, i think it's just really important to not lose building yourself up and your own life in lieu of focusing on finding a relationship. Every time I went through a breakup, i had no friends of my own to talk about it with. When that happened after a long-term relationship for the 2nd time, it was a huge wakeup call to me, that I hadn't actually been putting in the work in my individual life the way I thought I was. A partner may not always be there to fill the spaces you leave in your own life, whether its social or emotional regulation, or so many other things. It HAS to be built on your own to be stable and sustainable. It makes you a better partner too!

[frownyalfred]

I just know the weekly pharmacy delivery Alfred gets for the Manor is full of several types of opiates, ADHD meds, like 16 different anti-depressants, and a whole bucket of prescription-grade sleeping pills.

[saturnvs]

come a little bit closer hear what i have to say just like children sleepin' we could dream this night away but there's a full moon risin' let's go dancin' in the light

[hinamie]

binding vow

[raptorrobot]

low tier shitpost for today