please consider how you engage with aaron bushnell's death. you may react to it as you will, but it's crucial to remember that his death was specifically a call to action. it was not meant solely to shock but to draw attention to a vast moral hypocrisy: that to many, a soldier dying in a campaign backed by the U.S. government is noble, even if the soldier kills innocents to do so, even if the cause is morally bankrupt--but this? this is insanity. a man taking his own life, on his own terms, in an attempt to help others while hurting nobody else, is somehow less rational and more horrifying than the mass killing of civilians.
of course aaron's death was horrific. but as he said beforehand, it is realistically no more horrific than what's happening in gaza. if we can't stomach this, then why can we stomach children being bombed? thousands being starved? for all that self immolation is, it brings death in a matter of minutes. it is a fraction of the amount of pain, fear, and grief that people in gaza are experiencing. it's just that we are able to quantify it. and this tiny, quantifiable sliver of horror is still so unbelievably awful. how can anyone bear to think about anything else when this horror is happening a millionfold in palestine? this is the question aaron bushnell was asking. and he wanted you to face it, head-on, watching him burn to death.
I've been seeing people make fanart. minimalist graphics to sell on t-shirts. to commodify his death, to mythologize it not a day afterwards, is not only in poor taste but a hindrance to his message. the answer is not commodification, nor is it defeatism, nor is it rejoicing in his death. if you want to honor aaron's legacy, take action. channel your horror and your outrage into making a material change. this wasn't about him. this was about palestine. remember that it was always about palestine.
gen fic appreciation post. i love you gen fic. i love you serious, plot-heavy gen fic. i love you funny, lighthearted gen fic. i love you angsty whump and h/c gen fic. i love you emotionally complex and intimate gen fic. i love you super long chaptered gen fic. i love you oneshot gen fic. i love you strictly canon adherent gen fic. i love you alternate universe gen fic. i love you crossover gen fic. i love you gen fic about queer identity and relationships. i love you found family gen fic. i love you gen fic.
(edited to add: by ‘gen fic’ this post is NOT referring to rating. it is referring to fic that is not about and does not prominently feature romance, regardless of rating.)
I'm not even close to kidding anymore; I think drawing iz stuff is helping me draw more loosely and avoid getting burned out. I had so much fun drawing Gaz!! It was wild "designing" a character after the challenge that was zim. Features wise, she takes after dib/dad, so I was basically just playing dress up with her. And you know what? She can have a little outfit variation, as a treat. (The big skull earrings are clashing and creating all sorts of tangents with her face framing hair thingies, but OH WELL!!!)
"SO SHOW ME EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE , T̷̤̘̺͓̟̽͋̍̍̋̄͛̕͝R̸͍̖̥͋̂͌͆̀̈̿E̴̗̠̥̣̘̼̞̺͓̥̋̈̌̎̀̍̎̓͆͝͠Y̷͉̱͍͚̖̖̟̙̘͗̐̓̅͌̓̈́͗̄ ̶̧̟̹͑̓͂͛͒̄̂̏̃̋̓͊͠C̷͎̲̖͍̩̮̲̜̲̯̗͖̘̱̖̀̆̓̋̄̌̐͛̒̔̈́̆͂̓͠Ļ̷̟̞͎͉͙͚̺̱̜̠̩̹̓̑̀ͅƠ̴̟̿̓̈́V̴̨̹͉̬̣̮̈́̌̉̈́̏É̸̡̢̝̟̜̝̯̺͉̫̣͚̲̱̕R̷̛̼̘̘͗̈́̄̉̋̀̈̎̊̀͝͝͠"
like we were so fucking robbed of seeing perez in the wake of saw vs events I want to see her getting out of the hospital and flipping tables and pointing a gun in ericksons face after being told that strahm is the lead suspect. I want to see her having a breakdown after strahms fingerprints come back dead. I want to see her hand twitching over her gun everytime she sees hoffman. I want to see her fucking losing it and desperate to avenge her friend and partner and to clear his name. I want to see the thought process that lead to her inviting known serial killer mark hoffman to the basement lab just so she could torture him psychologically before she had a legitimate excuse to shoot him. I want to see more of her and I want to see how strahms death impacted her the way the reverse impacted him.