trashy-trash-can2

[trashy-trash-can2]

memoraven · emori’s thoughts about her lovers

[trashy-trash-can2]

Gonna start a post with blank memes. Please add any you have on hand and reblog to spread them.

[trashy-trash-can2]

Listening to all your music on shuffle is such a whiplash bcos one minute I’m listening to a song I used to sing with my old best friend and am having an Emotion and thinking about my younger self and how if I wasn’t mentally ill would we have grown apart ? Does my old friend know it wasn’t their fault. That sometimes I couldn’t even function let alone be as free and bright as I used to be. Do they know I loved them ? My younger self and her friends do they know I miss when the days didn’t feel so endlessly dull and blank and I could sing stupid songs ? I hope they know they’re loved and the distance that grew wasn’t their fault that maintaining friendships are hard when you’re mentally ill but I appreciate that we both tried. That I miss them and wish them well and hope one day I will be bright and free again. AND THEN the next song comes on and it’s “Let’s have a Kiki/Turkey Lurkey” by the glee cast.

[trashy-trash-can2]

hope is a skill

[trashy-trash-can2]

a core memory for me is that when we were kids my mom would make us read parts of the bible every morning and one day i started giggling while reading a scripture that was like “do not avenge yourselves, beloved, for it is written that ‘vengeance is mine and i will repay’ says the lord” bcs the vengeance and beloved words reminded me of bruce and talia and my mom asked what was funny and i said it read like a batman comic and her response was straight faced ‘god is the best superhero’ and then looked genuinely scandalised when i said i thought spiderman could give him a run for his money

[trashy-trash-can2]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[trashy-trash-can2]

if a supervillain said "you wont kill me thatd make you just like me" i would simply say "no it wouldnt id be saving millions of people" and the villain would say "but youd be dooming yourself. could you really live knowing youre a killer" and id say "well id certainly have trouble. ill probably be very sad about it. definitely a lot to unpack" and theyd say "so you wont do it" and id say "oh no im still gonna" and theyd say "what" and id say "youre a supervillain responsible for countless deaths and yet here you are desperately trying to bargain for your life. you want to live. which means you can easily live with yourself after being responsible for countless deaths. i, on the other hand, will at the very least have tremendous difficulty with even killing just one person and at worst might just jump out a window right after i do it. the very nature of this whole conversation about whether we are the same has proven to me we are very much not the same and i am certain killing you to save millions is the morally correct decision here" and theyd say "what" and id say "get killed idiot"

[trashy-trash-can2]

memoraven · emori’s thoughts about her lovers

[trashy-trash-can2]

when u snuggle ur stuffed animals the love gets storred in the stuffing for later and then when u hug them later u feel the love come back out its like a spomge

[trashy-trash-can2]

because “because she’s selfess” is such a WEAK motivation. Upon rewatch it really looks like Clarke’s sacrifice at the end of S4 was atonement.

First, she, an upper class girl in a position of power, chains up Emori and Murphy, promising to use both of these outcasts (& notable undesirables within their communities) as convenient test subjects for ‘the greater good’ of ‘the people’ (who banished them). She almost sacrifices (read: tortures) them both. It takes Murphy screaming at her, begging and pleading, to make her come to her senses at the very last moment. It is an incredibly traumatizing experience for Emori especially, and for Murphy. Especially when Abby destroys the machine after Clarke injects herself, rubbing it in and proving once and for all that they didn’t matter and Clarke did.

She locks Octavia out of the bunker, holding Bellamy at gunpoint, shooting a wall right beside his head in an attempt to frighten him into submission, so he doesn’t open it up and let his sister inside. He absolutely expects her to kill him. It’s either he loses his sister-daughter, love of his life & the motivation behind his every move, or he dies, and she dies anyway, too.

Locking everyone else out of the bunker meant Clarke was letting Raven (and Monty, Harper and Jasper) all die after leaving both Monty and Harper (and probably Jasper, too) off her list. Bellamy wants to go get Raven, and Clarke, desperate to walk back her earlier confrontation with him, invites herself along. Not for Raven, but because she wants to do something good to make up for all the bad.

That’s Clarke hurting every single member of Spacekru, in the same season, before the final countdown begins. She owes them. She needs to walk it back, make it up. So slowly, she’s testing herself and not running full speed into hell just yet by deeming human experimentation necessary, she’s giving her helmet away to the almost-victim she deemed disposable, she’s offering company and help to a man who’s faith she betrayed and sister she almost stole, she’s going on a mission to rescue a girl she left outside the bunker to die alone, she’s fixing a satellite so all of these people who have recently almost died because of her reckless choices- can live.

And I think that’s a really fucking COOL storyline. And either a wonderful send-off to her character and good conclusion to her story, or a decent finale for the show as a whole.

[trashy-trash-can2]

the found family trope in fiction is an inherently queer trope because it directly involves deconstructing the heteronormative notions of what family is and involves defining what family is for oneself rather than assuming that the people you are biologically related to are always going to support and care for you. Furthermore it inherently deconstructs and challenges amatonormativity because rather than focusing on a central romantic relationship as the genesis for a family and on forming a romantic partnership as what constitutes making a family, it is focused on close non-romantic bonds. In this essay I will

[trashy-trash-can2]

ive said it once, i’ll say it again;

Shaw does not need to know Clarke’s entire life story in order to be ‘allowed’ to be upset with her. Shaw met a woman in season 5 who betrayed the people he was alligned with (spacekru), and set him and raven up to be tortured. He almost lost his leg as a direct consiquence of Clarke’s actions and he did lose teeth. He met a woman who would betray anyone and everyone in order to preserve herself and Madi. It doesn’t matter if “he doesn’t know all she’s been through” because ? that doesn’t excuse what she did.

Clarke didn’t know what all the mountain men went through, she didn’t know what all the grounders went through, she didn’t know what all the criminals on Dyoza’s ship went through, but she still villainised them and was allowed to be angry at them for hurting her and the people she cares about. Diyoza and her men had their reasons, as did the mountain men and the grounders, too, but Clarke was still allowed to be angry at them despite it all because their actions affected her. Shaw is allowed to be angry at Clarke because her actions affected him. It’s exactly the same. Knowing Clarke’s past won’t change all the awful things she did to Shaw and spacekru in season 5.

[trashy-trash-can2]

eddie: you have to apologize to them, yacker.

patricia: fine! but i must warn you that this might make me a better, nicer person and that is NOT the person you fell in love with!

[trashy-trash-can2]

So on a positive note, I wanna talk about how much I love Sebastian as a character.

Set-up And Personality

I do love his snarky attitude but above that I love how his character was set up from the beginning to be somewhat forgivable. Unlike the other mean characters on the show, Sebastian doesn’t start insulting anyone until he is insulted. Yes, he’s trying to fuck Kurts boyfriend but he has nothing against Kurt. Sebastian only starts to insult Kurt after Kurt insults him. And a reminder: he starts his insult spree with “fun”.

It’s clear from the start that this is all just a joke to Sebastian and that he doesn’t actually have anything against these people. He’s just giving back what Kurt is throwing at him, and having what to him feels like a fun back and forth that eventually gets out of hand.

(Just look at his face in the Scandals dance scene, does that look like disgust or hatred to you?)

Queer Representation

I’ve already talked about this. But I love Sebastian as a piece of queer representation. He is an absolutely perfect example of a character who is allowed to just be queer.

As I’ve mentioned before, they try and fail to do this in season 6 with Spencer. Having him specifically identify himself by the fact that he isn’t your stereotypical queer. But Sebastian doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t allow himself to be defined by his queerness, in either direction. He just is queer.

He flirts with a guy and all his scenes are with other queer characters. And some of his storylines are about specifically queer experiences. But the show never makes a big deal out of it. He doesn’t fit every queer stereotype, but he’s also not actively trying to avoid queer stereotypes. 

He is a queer character who is allowed to just be queer. And not to be all dramatic, but that’s so fucking rare that just thinking about it makes me teary eyed. The impact it had on a little queer me to get to see someone like me who wasn’t defined by their queerness but who was also allowed to be explicitly queer is immense. I genuinely think he is just an absolutely amazing and important piece of queer representation.

Redemption Arc

The two previous points also inform how much I love his redemption arc. It makes perfect narrative sense and fits his character so well.

As mentioned, it’s clear from the start that this is all just a game to Sebastian and that he doesn’t actually have any animosity towards the New Directions. Which is why him changing doesn’t just come out of nowhere.

And it’s also clear how important his identity as a queer person is to him, even if he doesn’t let it define him. So having him change after he realises how his behaviour is hurting other queer people and adding to the pain that already comes with being out queer in a queerphobic society makes perfect sense.

The entire redemption arc, however short it may have been, is just *chefs kiss*. 

And honestly, I really like the fact that we didn’t get to see him a lot more after that. Because one of the things that makes his apology mean so much is that we feel like he’s genuinely changed. 

Glee storylines are almost exclusively based on internal conflicts between the characters. Which, when they have the same characters for so long and not very good writing, means they end up reusing storylines a lot. Which is why, for example, you’ll see Rachel making everything about herself, then apologising, then doing it again, apologising again, doing it again, apologising again, and on and on it goes. After a while the apology stops having any meaning because the characters aren’t actually changing.

But because we don’t get to see Sebastian a lot more that means the writers didn’t get to have him fuck up over and over again. Which makes the apology we do get feel a lot more genuine than most of the “redemption arcs” the rest of the characters get.

In conclusion:

❤️ Him ❤️

[trashy-trash-can2]

Opals 🔮

[trashy-trash-can2]

World Building // lockup

Cells

cells were rather small with two people (of the same gender) to a cell. for someone coming from lower class stations (which was the majority) it wasn’t an overly uncomfortable living space. there were two types of cells but they were practically the same with the difference of a second bed. clarke’s cell was used for solitary confinement and a waiting cell for adults preparing to be floated.

friends wouldn’t be put in cells together but they did make sure they matched up people who generally got along to avoid fighting without the presence of a guard so it was common to become close with your cell mate. some cellmates were, harper and fox, murphy and mbege, jasper and miller, etc.

Education

even though most delinquents got floated at 18 rather than let back into society they did continue their schooling. they were put into groups of 25 give or take a few depending on how many prisoners there are at any given time. this made it easier for the teacher to handle, violent offenders and close friends were also split up to keep as much control as possible. depending on which delinquents are causing problems or have violent tendencies there are one - two guards in each classroom.

Common Area

cells were meant for sleeping, if the delinquents weren’t in school, they were in the common area. there wasn’t a whole lot to do but there were card games, chess sets, books and some other things the delinquents used to waste time. fights broke out occasionally as you’d expect for a prison station but guards were always quick to break it up. fighting was a sure way to spend a night or two in solitary, the more you fight the longer you’ll spend in solitary.

Visiting Day

there were prison visiting hours, (not that the majority had anyone to visit them) but they were short and months apart. it also was not deemed an appropriate reason to skip out on school or work so only certain jobs allowed the luxury of visiting loved ones, for example, raven would rush to finish her job to visit finn while bellamy, (being from factory station) was not once in the year octavia was in lockup allowed to visit her.