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#or how ‘bad’ it is by your or others standards
headspace-hotel · 2 days
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It's important to not force your human morals onto non-human nature, like "this creature, since it disgusts me, is bad" or "this creature, since it has behaviors I interpret as sweet and heartwarming, is good"
But if you study nature whether in life or in profession, nature will make you feel disgusted and uncomfortable, it's not necessary to act as if those feelings don't exist within you, because they are part of your encounter with the otherness of nature, and contain sensitivities that can be sharpened into their own ingredient to knowledge and awareness
Coexisting with discomforting parts of the reality of Nature without trying to resolve them into a moral or aesthetic framework you are happy with, reflects maturity
It is no good to "redeem" a hated animal if the redemption is another false idea of the animal as innocent and good. This implies that a creature's "goodness" is a valid reason it deserves existence. It is also no good to treat a beloved animal with hatred to make things fair.
A good example is with dolphins and sharks, dolphins were seen as good and cute and almost human, whereas sharks were seen as bloodthirsty killers, and this has cost the lives of sharks while dolphins are given more sympathy, so some people have tried to turn it around, portraying sharks as gentle and good while pointing out that dolphins can be violent and rape other dolphins.
A lot of dolphin behaviors are certainly upsetting, definitely it makes sense to be upset that an animal can engage in what appears like cruelty, but human morality isn't made to apply to non- humans, and a particular behavior is not the entire reality of what a whole species is like. Dolphins also engage in behaviors that humans judge as friendly, compassionate, altruistic, curious and playful
Think of a particular dog or cat and the variety of complex behaviors they are capable of—an entire species, made of individuals with their own complexity, must be far more complex. All of your emotional responses to dolphins are recognizing the immense complexity of these animals and how they are both like and unlike you, which is important to think about to expand your understanding of the universe
Fitting a creature to a flat framework for your own comfort or internal resolution is a disrespect to the creature. Certainly with sharks, everyone should know the facts about them rather than sensationalistic misinformation—shark attacks are rare, humans are not a preferred food for sharks, and most shark bites are exploratory investigations of a strange object or animal rather than feeding upon a selected prey item, however this doesn't mean sharks are "good" by human standards and it certainly doesn't mean sharks are "safe."
Seeing a video of an enormous Great White swimming placidly I feel that her presence is not just breathtakingly beautiful, but awesome—in the more archaic sense of something that inspires awe, something so great and powerful it could destroy your fragile human life without malicious intent. Likewise with any shark, it is respectful to recognize that they can be dangerous, it is disrespectful to think of them as ocean puppies and try to touch them and grab them.
Fear, disgust, anger—each is an instinct that functions to protect you and is reactive towards potential or perceived threats. Your brain allows you to evaluate things that cause these responses and choose how to act.
All parts of this whole are important because the natural world contains actual threats but knowledge and intentional behavior are important to protecting yourself.
For example, once when I found a tick crawling on my clothing, I felt disgusted and startled, which is appropriate, but my instinctive reaction was to immediately flick the tick off, flinging it onto the floor or furniture nearby where I no longer knew where it was. In this way my response didn't actually protect me but instead increased the level of risk
There are plenty of other examples—if someone sees a venomous snake they might think it is important to kill it, but trying to kill the snake is much more dangerous than leaving it alone, since the snake will try to defend itself. Spraying pesticides to kill bugs can unbalance the ecosystem causing more harmful pests than you started with because the natural predators are also killed. Using poisons to kill mice and rats will also poison their natural predators. Killing coyotes just causes them to disperse and reproduce at a higher rate, and killing wolves causes overpopulation of prey, which causes disease to proliferate and forests to be stripped bare of saplings that could grow up and regenerate the forest...
...And it also works the opposite way with human responses of affection, love and sociability: humans often may feel that they want to make an animal their friend, but often it would be cruel to take that animal into a human house and treat it as a pet. White-tailed deer may seem cute and sympathetic but hunting some of them is important for the health of the ecosystem, and trying to make them tame puts the deer and the humans in danger. Domestic cats are our friends but they are also invasive species in much of the world, destroying populations of birds, mammals and amphibians.
Domestic cats aren't serial killers or murderers either, they are just predatory animals that instinctively hunt and kill prey.
It is hard for facts about animals to be propagated while those facts must be presented as reasons the animal deserves to live or deserves to die. Virginia opossums are important to their ecosystem and deserve to exist. They also don't actually eat ticks, that came from a very flawed and sloppy scientific study that was contradicted by later studies, and sadly the reason this misinformation got so far is that it was "proof" that opossums are valuable and shouldn't be killed for no reason.
Wolves are keystone species and vital to their ecosystems, but it's not true that they never attack humans, there have been a small handful of wolf attacks on humans, it's very few and wolves generally avoid humans but they're not "safe." They shouldn't have to be "safe" to deserve to live.
Fact is, most animals can harm a human if they feel threatened or end up in an unlucky situation! Most animals can spread disease one way or another! We have to live with this, we have to learn and use strategies to keep ourselves safe, we can't just sterilize the world of animals because of a possibility that an animal could hurt someone, any more than we can cut down every tree because trees fall on people sometimes.
No one likes hearing that there's no way to for-sure eliminate all possibility of ticks from your yard, you just have to take precautions against them, but it's true! Just like there's an inherent possibility a wasp could sting you, an inherent possibility a snake could bite you, an inherent possibility a mountain lion could eat your livestock, but you can dramatically lower your risk of these things by knowing how to coexist with these animals.
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bluegiragi · 3 days
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Hi friend!! I've been following you on a couple platforms when it comes to your amazing art!! I know you've talked about ghostprice, but I saw the Price's hand on the back of Kyle's neck and was wondering if you could talk about the relationship between price and gaz? I loved the ghost price one, but I totally understand if you don't have the same write up for these two lol
!!! thank you so much for this ask, because i love thinking about this dynamic in my free time.
lots of reading under the cut!
so, because I like to cherry-pick influences from canon, in the monster au, Gaz and Price met before Gaz got drafted into the 141. Gaz was the harpy escort to a standard military op that got off-track when doing recon, and ended up wrapped up in a territorial dispute with two griffin hybrids. The whole team got stuck sandwiched between the two with neither side willing to let them move, and when Gaz tried to fly above to do some surveillance he got beaten out of the sky by both of them (they don't take kindly to interlopers interfering with griffin disputes). They had to request emergency assistance from the closest party which, by chance, happened to be Price's team.
This all happened after Price lost his wing, and on this mission he collaborated with Gaz to help get (most of) his team out safely without having to rely on his skill of flight. They both made strong impressions on each other then, with Gaz forming the first seeds of a long-term loyalty to Price. When his contract with his current station ended, he was all too happy to get poached for the 141.
Coming from a more interpersonal perspective - Gaz is a harpy, which means he's fiercely independent and bases a lot of his identity on not being reliant on anyone. Price is a dragon, which comes with a lot of pesky hoard instincts that instruct him to 'provide' for his hoard. It means that Gaz dislikes being taken care of and a strong instinctual part of Price is unhappy about that. When they're more intimate, Gaz insists on giving as much as he is getting (if not more) and is always seeking ways to contribute and prove his value to the group. Even though he might be chill by harpy standards, Gaz is still very proud and he gets flustered when forced to accept things without 'earning' it.
(also he might have a little bit of hero worship for price lingering in the recesses of his mind)
Price only having one wing and being essentially grounded also adds an extra layer to their relationship. Harpies put a lot of stock in their flying prowess, so the loss of a wing is truly a world-ending event in their culture and he's extremely uncomfortable broaching the subject with Price even though he'd be happy to talk about it if pushed. He also feels that it is his role to be Price's 'wings' now, which is a sentiment that he hasn't shared to anyone but puts a lot of pressure on himself to live up to. He doesn't think this way out of any sort of pity for Price - his captain has proved time and time again to be the kind of monster worth following - instead, this mentality is him militantly breaking himself down to how useful/valuable he can be to others.
tldr; gaz is bad at accepting care, price wants to take care of him so bad and is slowly figuring out loopholes
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pinkyqil · 2 days
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player: Esmee Brugts
Esmee comforts reader after the game because reader got into a confrontation with an opponent on the pitch during el clasico
Conflict // esme brugts
You were never the type to starts arguing with the ref or player's.Yes you've had your moments here and there which would be rare.
but today of all day anthea decided that you would be her target.
you knew it was apart of the job but at some point she kept pushing and fouling you around like some ragdoll and you've had enough and weren't going to be pushed around any longer than enough.
It was like your teammates could read your mind around half time alexia lucy and Irene came up to you.
after esme had told them something you couldn't hear sometimes you loved your girlfriend but when she does stuff you don't know about it really gets to you.
"Whatever plan is going on in your little head don't do it just ignore athena it not worth running el classico for yourself". alexia told you which the other's agreed.
"Fine".was all you could get out.
"Don't let her get to you kid you got a brick heart so let's keeping playing like that". Lucy added.
"Thanks guys I'll try". You told them.
After the little chit chat the game had resume and it seemed liked the real madrid coach had told athena something. cause right now all she's been doing was bitching around and talking smack whenever she got close to you.
You ignored her for half the time and tried focusing on the game that would be before. Right now you had the ball as ona passed it to you with a clean pass.
which you got has you were about to kick it in the goal you spotted athena coming your way you quickly dribbled the ball around her. and as you we're kicking it into the goal it got to athena who also seemed to be flying in with the ball and obviously into net along with your goal.
You didn't know to celebrate or just stand there trying to think about how on earth you mange to pull that.
You wanted to get her ass but definitely not like that.before you knew it athena was marching past you and started yelling at you.
you both got into a very heated argument which lead to both teams having to pull there player.
The ref was thankful on your side after giving seeing the bull shit athena has been pulling.she got subbed off and you we're finally being able to enjoy the final moments of el classico.
Once the team had finished celebrating on the pitch everyone made there way to the dressing room.
"Ay amiga the trick you pulled on athena was badass". patri told you
"I wasn't even planning on doing that".
"as if we all know how bad you wanted to get a go at her".
"Yeah but not like that".
"Patri just drop it she's clearly not in the mood". esme called putting an end to patri teasing she wasn't the type to always speak out as she had a very shy persona.
"lo siento, amiga". She apologized.
"No worries you told her". es you ready to go,you called out to her.
"Yeah let's go".she said grabbing you're hand.
"Bye guys".you both told your teammates before leaving.
"Thanks for your help out there and in the changing room". You told her as you both arrived at your destination.
"No worries there isn't anything I would do for my favorite girl and what patri was right earlier theway you knocked her into the net was badass babe". She told with a bright smile on her face.
"If you say so now let's forget about it and enjoy our dinner at the restaurant".
The rest of the night was filled with a lot of love from esme she made sure to give you extra massages and kisses which made you feel better.
A/n: hope the fic reached your standards,I'm always opened to you guys sending in a player prompt and location or any type of request in general and as always feedbacks and comments are appreciated enjoy reading and hope you have a spectacular day ! 🫶🏾
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dragon-kazansky · 2 days
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Heart of the Dreaming
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Morpheus x Female Reader
Soulmate AU
You are the daughter of Rodrick Burgess. You find out about the "demon" in the basement and decide you want to see it. Things take an unexpected turn when your soulmate connection is made with the man you find down there. You are the one he has been waiting for, and you're being taken away from. Not for long. Dream will protect his soulmate.
{Masterlist}
{Next Chapter}
Chapter One - See you in my dreams
☆☆☆
1916 - 11 years old
Tonight was the night.
Tonight was the night your father was going to summon Death and try and bring your older brother back.
You were sitting in your room, on the edge of the bed, hands restlessly placed in your lap as you can hear the clock ticking away. You were nervous. Of course you were. This plan was crazy, but your father was crazy enough to go through with this.
Of course you missed your brother. He was better than you and Alex in every way, but he loved you both. Rodrick certainly loved him better than his other children. When he died, your father seemed to only hate you even more.
You could hear everyone bustling about the house. The book your father had been waiting for had arrived. Tonight he would attempt the impossible. At least, impossible by your standards.
No one could capture Death.
Death was inevitable and came for everyone. Even your brother. That was just the truth of it. There was not a spell in the world that could being him back.
You were not allowed to leave your room, despite the fact Alex, who was younger than you, was permitted to watch. It didn't seem fair. Even if you believed the matter to be impossible, why couldn't you witness the attempt?
At some point, the house grows quiet. You sit there with nothing but the sound of your soft breathing to keep you company. Your eyes focused on the door.
The silence was becoming deafening.
Had they done it?
You climb off your bed and open your door. At first, you don't see or hear anyone. The house seemed empty, but after a few more moments, you can hear voices and footsteps. You stand in the doorway of your bedroom and watch as many of your father's men go past talking too quickly for you to understand what they're saying.
You look down the hall and see your father walking to his study, a peculiar item in his hand. Alex comes into view and looks at you for a moment. You want to go over and ask what happened, but his name gets called and he hurries off.
A sense of something bad sets in your bones.
☆☆☆
You're in bed when you hear knocking on your door. It's quiet and hesitant, as if the other person wasn't supposed to be here. You climb out of bed and head to the door, opening it slightly. You see Alex standing there.
Alex comes into your room and closes the door behind him quickly. He looks at you with big eyes, worry embedded in them.
"What happened?" You ask him.
Alex walks over to your bed and takes a seat. He looks down at his slippers. "I think he did it."
"He did?" You look at Alex with wide eyes.
"Well... there's something down there..." Alex tells you, voice quiet. You swallow nervously.
Something.
"Death?"
Alex shakes his head. "No... I don't think so. I heard father talking to someone in his office, but I couldn't hear everything."
"What did you hear?" You ask, eager to know what had happened.
"Something about dreams."
"Dreams?" You had no idea what that meant.
Alex simply shrugged and looked up at you. "I'm afraid."
"Will it hurt us?"
"I don't know... I hope not. I didn't get to look at it for very long."
Silence fell between you both. You weren't sure what else to ask. All you knew was that your father had successfully caught something down in the basement, and you were too scared to even dig deeper.
Alex left your room, leaving you more questions than answers. However, for now, it felt better to leave it like that.
☆☆☆
1926 - 21 years old
Rodrick never mentioned the demon in his basement. You never asked about it, no matter how curious you got. You had heard the whispers. Everyone called it a demon, which frightened you even more.
You had done your utmost to forget about the thing in the basement. The stories were enough to put you off going down there. Even the people in town talked about Rodrick's demon.
He became something of a celebrity.
However, the world was suffering.
Dreams. Alex had told you Rodrick and his stranger in the office had spoken about dreams. As it turned out, some people could no longer sleep, some couldn't ever wake up. Dreams became a thing of tale, none existent.
Except for the ones you had been having.
You hadn't told anyone. Not even Alex. Your dreams were yours. Your secret. Your strange mysterious secret.
You dream of a man.
It's dark, but you can see him. He's sitting there, naked. He is expressionless. He never speaks. He just sits there with his legs up, arms around his knees, and staring forward.
You don't know his name.
Every night, you see him in your dreams. He seems to be trapped. Unable to go anywhere. You wonder if he's hungry and cold. He must be.
"Who are you?"
You always wake up right after that.
Every night, he's there in your dreams. It's strangely comforting. He's your secret. You just wish you knew who he was.
As you leave your room today, you see Alex leaving the office with a shotgun in hand. You frown as you look at him, catching a glimpse of your father in the office.
"What are you doing?" You ask him.
"I'm going to shoot a bird." Alex responds, though not so happily.
You stare at him hard. "A bird?"
"A raven," Alex says.
"Huh?"
"I'm off to kill his raven."
"Who's raven?"
Alex looked at you with an empty stare. He clutches the shotgun in his fist tight. Alex knew you had never seen the man in the basement. Rodrick had kept it that way. He had always said you were more trouble than you were worth.
"The thing in the basement."
Alex didn't say anything more as he left the house. You were confused by everything. Nothing made any sense to you.
You wanted to know what your father was keeping down there. Yet, fear consumed you. Was it dangerous?
Why did it have a raven? That confused the most.
It was half an hour later when you heard a gunshot. You had been in your room, staying out of the way as usual. The sound echoed through the house and scared you. You rushed to the door and looked down the hall. Alex and your father emerged from the basement. Alex looked lost.
You wanted to go over and ask what had happened, but Rodrick spots you watching and you retreat into your room.
☆☆☆
A few days go by where you don't see much of Rodrick or Alex. You do your best to avoid them as much as possible. Which was probably for the best as far as Rodrick was concerned.
Ethel, your father's mistress, was pregnant. He didn't want it. Of course he didn't.
Having so much time to yourself gave you time to think. Your dreams were consistent. Every night, you saw the naked man in his glass prison. Just sitting there, waiting.
Waiting for what? You did not know.
However, you wanted to help him. You wanted to understand him. You just didn't know who he was, or where he was.
That night, Ethel ran away. While you were tucked up in your bed sleeping, visiting your dream man, Ethel had run away with the tools, and some money from Rodrick's safe.
She was gone.
Rodrick was furious.
From what you heard, he tried to bargain with the being in the basement. When he got no response, Rodrick turned his anger to Alex. Had heard the yelling. You had wanted to go down there and see what was happening, but the guard at the door was stopping you.
That's when it happened.
Alex pushed Rodrick, and your father hit his head quite badly. He did not get up again.
The funeral was a week later.
☆☆☆
1931 - 25 years old
The house was too quiet these days. Alex spent most of his time avoiding you. You tried to occupy yourself with your hobbies, but there was a voice in the back of your head nagging at you.
The basement.
It was still guarded. Alex kept it that way. However, you knew times when the door wasn't guarded. There wasn't anyone there 24/7. Some of the guards like to slack off.
You had decided. You were going to go down there. After all this time, you wanted to know what your father had captured that day. You wanted to know the reason your father had been so successful and popular with people in town.
You wanted to know why things were the way they were.
You waited. The guard left as usual. He always disappeared for 15 minutes on his shifts. 30 if he thought he could get away with being away that long. This was your chance to get down there.
You were quiet as you moved down the hall. You weren't sure exactly where Alex was at this time of night. You needed to be careful. You double-checked to make sure no one was around and unlocked the door to the basement. You had been planning this for weeks. You knew the codes and the schedules for the guards. You knew someone else would normally be down there, but never at this time of night. That's why the guard thought he could get away with disappearing for so long.
You looked down the dark stairs and took a moment before going through with your plan. Finally, you would see what was down there.
You descend the stairs.
It was dark. Lighting was kept to a minimum, it seemed. You were careful as you took each step and soon enough found yourself at the bottom.
What you saw was not what you expected.
You slowly reach out and open the gate, taking in the sight before you. A large glass globe surrounded by the summoning circle your father had made years ago. Inside the globe was a man.
A man.
A very familiar man.
You feel like all air from your lungs is stolen from you as you stare at him. Your dream man. There he was! Naked and curled up by himself inside his prison.
All this time, you were dreaming of the man in the basement. You find yourself stepping a little closer, not sure what to do. Nothing made sense. This was impossible. How can you be dreaming about this man? And why is he trapped like this?
Who is he?
Sensing your presence, he looks up. In those next few seconds, several things happen. Your eyes connect with his, and you find yourself lost in them. A searing pain crosses your wrist, and you gasp loudly, cradling your hand. You drop your gaze from him to look at the red scar on your wrist. When you look back up, he's cradling his own hand but doesn't seem to be in pain like you.
You stare at him.
He stares at you.
"Who are you?" You ask.
The man in the globe moves slowly, leaning forward slightly. He's keeping himself covered, but he's still moving toward the glass. With one hand, he reaches out, hand dressed against the glass of his prison.
You feel strange. At ease. It was like he was trying to calm you from within his prison.
"Who are you?" You ask again.
You watch as he part his lips, prepared to speak, but a voice behind you speaks instead, leaving you in shock and embarrassment for getting caught in the basement.
"What are you doing down here?" Alex asks.
You frown. "I came to see what was down here! You can't keep me in the dark forever."
Alex pulls you behind him as he looks at the man in the cage. "You have to stay away from him."
"Alex--"
"No! He's dangerous. I think..."
You push past Alex and stand between him and the other man. You glare at your brother. Alex looks at you with mixed confused and disappointment.
"Who is he? What is he?"
Alex says your name.
"No! Tell me. What is all this? What did father do?"
Alex clenches his fist at his side and takes a deep breath. "You need to leave. Get out of here."
"Why is there a man trapped in the basement, Alex?"
Alex loses his patience with you and lunges forward, grabbing your arm tightly. You try to fight him off, but he wraps both his arms around you, restraining your arms.
"Alex! Let go of me!"
"You shouldn't have come down here," he says angrily.
From within his prison, Morpheus stands. He doesn't like what he's seeing. You. You had been living in this house all along, and he had no idea. Now you were here, you had come to see him, and you were being dragged out again.
Alex called for help, and two people came running. Paul and the guard should have been on duty. Morpheus leans against the glass with both hands as he watches Alex demand you get removed from the basement. The two men take hold of you and start dragging you back upstairs, all the while you're ahouing at Alex.
Alex turns and looks at him.
"Don't you ever speak to her. Don't you ever do anything to her." Alex demands. "She was never supposed to see you..."
Alex leaves.
Morpheus sinks back down in his prison and curls up again. His hands ball into fists as he stares ahead of him.
His soulmate had been here all along.
He needed to get out.
He needed to save you from this house.
He turns his hand over and looks at his wrist. A small scar in the shape of a star. He had had it forever. He ran his thumb over it. He knew from the moment he looked at you, from the moment you received your scar, that you were his soulmate.
It was unheard of for an Endless to have such a thing, but Dream had always been unique. If anyone wasn't going to be granted a partner for eternity, it was going to be him.
Not that he was actively looking. Morpheus had had lovers before, certainly, but knowing you're right there above him, it changes things.
You were real.
They only let go of you once you're in your room. Alex closes the door on you and you hear him lock you in. You bang against the door furiously and then stop, sobbing as you sink to the floor.
None of this was making any sense to you.
Did Alex know something?
Who was that man?
And why did your wrist still burn?
☆☆☆
@deniixlovezelda - @missdreamofendless - @kpopgirlbtssvt - @meganlpie - @thoughtsfromlayla - @ladyjbrekker
@mwaaaaaugh - @bluespecs14 - @intothesoul - @lady-violet - @navs-bhat - @krahk - @oldsoulmagic
@rubyrose2014 - @lorkai - @roxytheimmortal - @thescarletwitchjobro - @intothesoul - @gemini-mama - @whotperlinda
@dreamingblueberries - @the-shadow-of-aurora - @novavida - @blackgirlmagicforever
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i wonder if the liberal zionists (assuming the more “hardline” zionists would just universally justify all of the israeli state’s actions) who describe israel as a “non-racist” “land back project” for the benefit of “indigenous jews” know about israel’s arms sales to apartheid south africa in 1975? and to the genocidal serb army during the Bosnian civil war 1992-1995? (Or was that one OK because they mostly killed Muslims?) how does that fit into their theoretical model of the zionist project?
What do they think of Israel’s historical record of arms sales?
In 1994, Israeli-made bullets, rifles and grenades were allegedly used in Rwanda’s genocide which killed at least 800,000 people. Israel supplied weapons to the Serbian army that waged war against Bosnia from 1992-1995.
Despite the Israeli government’s own statement in 2018 declaring it had ceased sales to Myanmar, the Haaretz newspaper reported last year that weapons manufacturers continued supplying the military government until 2022, in violation of the 2017 international arms embargo against the country.
And, in September [2023], Israel supplied UAVs, missiles and mortars to Azerbaijan for its campaign to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, during which 100,000 ethnic Armenians were displaced.
what do they think about israel offering to send nuclear weapons to an apartheid state?
and you can’t say “it was a different time” or say “it was bad but it was like necessary realpolitik” in good faith because the whole zionist argument is that israel as a project was a moral and necessary project the entire time. 1975 and 1995 really are not that long ago in geopolitical terms.
Israel has remained an international arms dealer to this day, selling arms to an estimated 130 countries.
i mean the zionists are the same people who equivocate and/or “softly” justify the 1948 Nakba which was a brazen genocide.
The accusations of holding israel to a “double standard” are also totally empty rhetoric.
1. Do you actually think that within the critics of israel there is a preponderance of people that are OK with apartheid and genocide in any case apart from when israel did it?
2. Putting that aside, if you are considering the question of moral “double standards,” what is YOUR universal moral standard? Are YOU OK with apartheid and genocide when committed by countries and actors other than israel, against predominantly non-jewish demographics? (Often using Israel-supplied weapons, of course.)
And when all is said and done, if you liberal zionists recognize the immorality of the israeli arms industry, how do you possibly plan to stop israel from continuing this abhorrent practice? short of the dissolution of the state of israel of course. Or is your ethnonationalism so strong that any sin is permissible so long as it profits the zionist project? what is your moral red line? what sin could israel possibly commit that you would consider the moral necessity of dissolving the israeli state?
to any jewish person reading, at what point does the supposed moral imperative of the sanctity of life outweigh the supposed moral imperative of a “jewish state?”
as a supposed inheritor of American nationality and Jewish ethnicity, under predominant ideological models there exists this supposed connection between me and America and between me and Zionism and between me and Israel. If i was born in Israel or if i moved there (perhaps to an illegal settlement in the west bank) i would immediately have a directly oppressive relationship to palestinians. (In a similar yet different way to the status i have as a white american...)
In my childhood I was educated about religion, about American history, (including the ugly parts of slavery and genocide and segregation, etc) about racism, about the holocaust, about israel, (including the ugliness of the nakba and the border walls and the checkpoints, etc). The pervasiveness of moral vacuousness and hipocrisy in this country have, for my entire adult life, made me feel alienated from other americans and, yes, from many American Jewish communities. Later in life I met other anti-zionist jews but i felt like there was no way to undo my foundation of irreligiosity, atheism, lack of feeling any strong ethnic, racial, religious, or national identity. (This was contributed to by the fact that one of my parents is an immigrant. a sense of between-ness made me feel an outsider to both my paternal and maternal heritages, and the entire idea of ethnicity and nationality felt somewhat constructed even from early childhood.)
Zionism is the state ideology of Israel and, it seems, the United States as well, partially so. (American Empire has to be propped up through ideology to manufacture consent.) Though, notably, the overwhelming majority of avowed Zionists in the US are, in fact, Evangelical Christians. But that’s something I don’t even want to get into right now.
One of the only things that DOESN’T make me feel alienated is internationalism. I feel a kinship with the distant Palestinian who is bombarded and shot with American-supplied weapons, and with the nearby American who is bludgeoned and shot by Israeli-trained police officers.
(Free Palestine, Death to the American Empire.)
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xjulixred45x · 3 days
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I NEED a continuation of that satosugu x bully!reader thing you wrote
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Okay okay😚 i will do it, i will make this a little long, enjoy it~ and thanks for the Request ❤️
They mean a continuation of this one
Bully! SatoSugu x Bully! Reader
Genre: Headcanons
Reader: female
Warnings:EXPLICIT BULLYING (not towards reader! rather she is the bully along with the boys. Don't do this in real life btw, it's horrible), reader has a bad family situation, reader has SEVERE attitude problems, surprisingly good friends Bully! SatoSugu? Ambiguos if this a Romantic poly relationship or a Platonic one(it's Upon You)strange amount of Fluff towards the end.
JUST TO CLARIFY, BULLYING IS SHIT AND ANYONE WHO DOES IT IS A HORRIBLE PERSON, NO MATTER THE REASON. THE BULLYING DESTROYS PEOPLE, THIS HAS NO INTENTION TO ROMANTICIZE THE IDEA OF BULLYING, BUT TO TAKE REFERENCE TO THE TROPE FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE.
reader was someone... difficult to say the least.
From the first day he set foot in high school the only thing he did was cause some kind of trouble.
The students were afraid of her, her volatile nature made it difficult to know what she was going to do or what was going to provoke her.
teachers even started taking precautions around her to stay safe from her outbursts. which were a little bit of everything, from robberies, insults, physical violence, etc.
without forgetting that the girl's class attendance was irregular and inconsistent. just like your notes.
She hated everyone and it seemed like everyone hated her.
That's why he constantly moved between schools when the previous one had had enough of his antics.
which generated a big discussion at home.
The neighborhood where the reader lived was not very good, but her house was worse.
her mother was long gone, and her father, a poor excuse of a man, didn't do much for a living other than berating her for her own bad behavior.
often ending in physical fights. It was the only way they both had to get out their frustration.
It was the only thing the reader knew.
but sincerely? Not everything was so bad.
She had built a reputation as a badass in every school she went to and scared her, she liked the feeling of finally being in control.
Being feared was fun, no one messes with you. You are at the top.
and at the same time you go unnoticed, since no one has the courage to say something against you (unless they want a beating)
Although it was definitely a bit monotonous at this point, the reader liked the feeling of being someone people were afraid of for once.
although something changed in 2007
That year, a reader was reintegrating into secondary education after a particularly unpleasant expulsion.
and thanks to that, it was somewhat difficult for her to find a school that would admit her this year until they forgot about the drama of the previous one.
and she went to the Jujutsu academy (strange name)
That was where he met them, in a way.
or rather, Gojo and Geto already knew about her beforehand.
It was difficult not to recognize her from the recent drama with the beating she gave to the gang of chimpiras in her old school (schools?)
Gojo was curious, Geto somehow felt threatened.
Gojo wanted to know how hard he could push this new student, to see her tough girl image crumble.
Geto took it more seriously, although he did not consider the reader a serious threat, a full-fledged bully with a reputation would definitely draw the spotlight on her for a while. They shouldn't let her think it was important.
The plan they had made was the standard.
First they would start with small incidents that did not seem malicious, so that she would lower her guard. so she would think it was a safe place.
Then those incidents would increase in quantity and more frequently, also starting to bring certain passive aggressive comments into the mix, but you still can't consider bullying, right?
Things like picking on her while she was distracted, grabbing her things without permission, commenting on her appearance, yes, all of that is wrong, but can you really say it's bullying? Are you really going to take a prank that seriously?
and from there, use everything they had.
stealing whatever she had for lunch, throwing food on her, yelling at her during breaks about how fat and ugly she was...
--use any kind of secret of her against her, throw her things in the trash, all so she would understand his place.
she was beneath them.
but things...did not turn out as they expected.
First of all, reader was much more aggressive than one would expect. every time Gojo tried to get closer it was like she sensed danger and moved away or worse, threw something AT HIM.
Like the time he "accidentally" tried to bump into her and she elbowed him in the ribs and told him to "watch where you were going, you idiot."
or when Geto tried to give her a little "constructive criticism" about her disheveled and reading appearance she just looked at him, with cold, dead eyes, and said "you're emo, you don't get a say in how I look" that was WOW.
Phase one failed completely. reader definitely did not act as they had expected, she definitely had experience.
which led to them having a surprisingly brilliant idea.
What if instead of trying to tear her down, they used her as another member of the team?
Sure, they were used to just working with the two of them, but Reader had a clear advantage in several areas where they couldn't reach (reputation, physical fights, etc.).
It was worth trying.
I imagine that at first they went directly to the reader to tell her the terms of this deal, how they would help each other stay on top and thus not bother her, in exchange she could do whatever she wanted.
simple, concise and effective. Reader I accept the terms.
and the following weeks would be HELL for the students and teachers of the Jujutsu institution.
Geto was considerably the smartest of the group, he was the one who put together the heavy tactics and the one who selected the best victims, calculating and deceitful.
He was a relatively good student too, at least when Gojo and the reader forgot their homework (almost always) they could copy his (it's not like he could do anything after all).
Gojo was surprisingly less evil but much more immature and childish. He was like a man child.
He had intelligence, yes, but it was not conventional intelligence, he had great creativity when it came to being cruel. to give you insults. to make you feel like shit.
Apart from the fact that he came from a big family with a lot of money, all of the group's actions were swept under the rug.
and then was reader.
What could you say she became the muscle of the trio.
reader, with her history of fights and bad reputation, could make everyone so afraid to talk to anyone about their problems that it was ridiculous.
It was like a silent warning, say one word and I will beat you to a pulp.
Surprisingly, they adapted very well to Reader, although it was strange at first, since they were "business partners" but Reader was very quiet and reserved when she was not beating up.
Gojo was the most determined to change this, he was part of the group now after all! At least you have to learn to have a little fun.
Geto was more concerned upon learning of the reader's long history of previous schools, at first because it could mean she could leave at any moment, but upon closer inspection, it's more that she doesn't want to lose this new addition to the group.
The three of them skip classes from time to time, or force the reader to attend more so they don't expel her. How do you expect them to make life miserable for the first years without her? Woman, put your will!
They both even share food with her or steal bentos so that she eats more when she realizes that there really is absolutely nothing coming during class time, she has to stay nourished to take the beating! They won't let her kick ass until she eats >:(
If there is any group work that they do or do have to do, it is most likely that they will do it at Satoru's house, it is the largest and with materials, and it is also fun for him to see his two friends with astonished faces when they see his house every damn time.
although definitely when they both have a more serious problem, they usually go to where the reader lives, since her father is not there most of the time.
Suguru usually goes to the trouble of throwing away the old sake and beer bottles, along with the old bills scattered throughout the house.
Satoru limits himself to sniffing around whatever is within his reach, but at least he has the option of not opening what is closed. But when he sees the family photos or how dirty everything is along with the broken things.
It makes them have a better understanding of Because she is a reader like that, she allows herself to be somewhat vulnerable with them by showing them how she lives.
and surprisingly they appreciate it.
And it's not like it remains reader only receiving a certain type of comfort.
Reader will be a shitty brawler, but if you mess with her Squad, you're Dead.
not only in the school environment, but in life in general.
When Suguru goes through a depressive episode, she and Satoru combine neurons to try to make him feel better, whether with company, games, food, etc. Same goes when Satoru is feeling shitty.
I think that in general, the reader is the "heart" of the group. Having a complicated life, she knows better about emotions and how she would have wanted to be comforted, in a certain way.
(only applicable to this fictional case, this may vary. Don't take it seriously)
For the same reason, when she is especially down, it usually means a day of rest for everyone, a break from EVERYTHING.
from family, from school, from responsibilities, from the whole world.
Just go play at some arcade, win silly prizes and discuss who will take it home.
play basketball and have Satoru kick their butts because neither Suguru nor the reader invites him.
go on a motorcycle and race who is faster.
eat ice cream and sleep on the street.
and miss school the next day, they missed yesterday after all, what does one more day matter?
On these types of days they can forget what kind of people they are, the things they do, what has happened to them.
Yes, in short they are all three DEPLORABLE and horrible beings, but at least they are deplorable and horrible all together.
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Shares, reglogs and comments are very welcome!
Sorry if i take long in the works😅 i'm trying to keep publishing AND have a more healthy schetule with My other Activitys, so if i Slow down, it's bc i need it.
Thanks for the Request ❤️
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Hello! Me again, back to pester you about lore.
So what's going on with The Drifter? For once I know a little about the character, I read 'A Man With No Name', but I still have questions. From how the book read, Drifter convinced Felwinter to get revenge for the destruction of the village. Did that go anywhere? And what did Drifter get up to for the (unspecified very long) timeskip between the book and the game?
And with the modern day, does the Vanguard know he's running a fighting ring out of the basement? Or does every single guardian look away when Zavala tries figuring out where people keep getting these weapons? I guess first rule of fight club and all that. What's he even trying to do? He seems to be pretty against most of the Vanguard's leadership.
Anyway, another invitation to infodump about your other blorbo. I hope you don't mind XD
If you thought I was long-winded about Eris... She's maybe 400 years old whereas the Drifter may be 900... get comfy... this will not be quick.
"Dark Age was wild times."
I adore the Drifter and a good chunk of how and why I adore him is his voice - both the voice acting and the syntax/diction/phrasing used in the writing, but voice alone does not cover why I find his character so utterly enthralling and fantastic.
I wrote a short piece consisting of Eris telling Ikora what she sees in him in my story Finders Keepers. It's basically a personality analysis and some people have (I think probably accurately) accused it of being a love letter to that character. (Reminder: that link is fanfiction - I wrote it - it is not lore, but it is based on lore. However, everything else I list after this is actual lore.)
But, personality aside, ultimately the Drifter's story is what I find most compelling about him and makes him so empathetic. You mentioned you've read A Man with No Name, but there's more. A lot more.
To start, the Drifter is D2's most violent pacifist.
He doesn't want to fight and when he does, it's vicious. The Emissary of the Nine, formerly Orin (his ex-best friend and/or ex-lover, depending upon how you read it) aptly says "He hates violence. He hates it so much he'll murder anyone who tries to inflict it on him."
In A Man with No Name, we see him go from hiding in a town and having it obliterated by warlords, to running a bar at the bottom of Felwinter peak, to getting Lord Felwinter himself to avenge the town. Drifter doesn't fight anywhere in there and gets other people to do his fighting for him, which is a pretty standard tactic for him. And yes, it is strongly implied that Felwinter does indeed murder the fuck out of Lord Dryden when he says "Call Lord Dryden. Prepare my Iron Banner arsenal."
But then we get Dark Age Drifter entries where he's gunning down Fallen attackers with quotes like "He had never brought himself to shoot a human. Or anything even resembling a human. Risen included." (Bonus mention: notice "Alright" repeated here and compare to his standard Gambit opening of Alright, alright, alright...") Where he's slipping away from non-violence, specifying, in particular, that he won't shoot a human but will defend himself from aliens.
And then he becomes something else entirely in these amazing entries with what I've been calling his Breakneck crew:
Now Otto's a Sword man. He's all about "craft." Technique. Precision. It's disgusting, but I don't care how he does it, as long as it gets done, so I just let him do it. And Otto does it so beautifully that, when he's done, you're standing there holding your guts in your hands and thanking him for the show.
Never touches a gun, that girl. She likes to get close. Likes to look right in their eyes and be the last thing they see.
The chumps that run out to stop us are babies. That's the kicker with Warlords—other than ours, there's not a Ghost in sight here. Just civilians who can barely hold their guns without wetting their pants, who can't aim worth a damn, who stick their necks out for the bad guys with eternal life. Real geniuses.
Cenric stood up. That vein of his looked about ready to pop. Drifter let his feet down as he reached for his rifle, asp-quick. "And you know what we do with rats, don't you, brother."
And the thing I love about this is the character development this speaks to where he goes from pacifist who won't fight at all... to someone who will use a machine gun competently, repeating "Alright" and getting himself used to killing, but not humans, never humans... to stone cold vicious murder-Drifter talking about the lightless who die to his crew in ways that make them (and himself) seem no longer human, to gunning down his own crew, people he felt were a perfect team, when they make deals with warlords behind his back and lie to him about it.
The Drifter started out adhering to an ideal of nonviolence and it destroyed him and everyone he cared for. His sense of self, his principles, everything he believed in is eroded until he completely loses all hope and in order to survive the cruelty of the world he lives in he becomes a ruthless monster.
Either before or after his Breakneck-era crew (it's not clear), the Drifter (under the name Eli) joins the Pilgrim Guard, a group of Titans protecting lightless people as they travel to the Last City. He does this out of a desire/need to be near Orin, a Titan with a complicated past and strong ties to both Queen Mara and the Nine. But then after spending time with Eli/Drifter and the Pilgrim Guard, Orin, the one person Drifter's ever had a deep human connection with, the person he considers his best friend, leaves without a word.
It's very telling that the green snakes, the jade coin, and the red string on those same coins that form such profound parts of the Drifter's symbolism and identity all come from Orin. When the Drifter truly cares for someone, he incorporates part of them into himself, into his identity, making them part of who he becomes, so they live on inside of him.
After his time with Orin, we get into the extremely confusing, contradictory mess that is the Drifter's intersection with Shin Malfur-related Rose/Thorn/Lumina lore. And by this I mean that the Drifter, after fighting alongside people doing genuinely noble good work, in the wake of losing Orin, leaves the Pilgrim Guard and eventually ends up joining the evil cult of evil: following in the footsteps of one of the most reviled risen to ever exist - the guardian-killer: Dredgen Yor.
If you're gonna hang with me, you need to know about the Shadows of Yor. They follow the edicts of a very bad man named Dredgen Yor. And what're his Shadows after? Everything the Light can't provide. I thought they could help me find an answer to the battles of Light versus Light that raged during the Dark Age. But the longer I flew with them, the more I saw they're blind as all those who follow the Traveler. One albatross for another. I was done with 'em.
And while in the cult, in some sort of ritual, he communes with the Darkness directly and gets some sort of Darkness powers (possibly Stasis, possibly something else - it's super unclear) and the Darkness whispers to him his Dredgen name: Dredgen Hope, which is particularly brutal in context with this quote from Dredgen Yor himself:
I care only to give hope to the frightened, huddled masses so that when I come upon them they will have more to lose. Their pain will be greater. Their screams more pure… Nothing dies like hope. I cherish it.
But it is also particularly pointed because hope is the thing the Drifter doesn't have. Trust is the thing he doesn't have the ability to do any more because of his experiences (and is also the name of the hand cannon he wears shoved into his pants). He is the most jaded (literally - constantly fidgeting with a jade coin) character in the D2 universe. He loses everything and leans in on it and follows that path to full evil.
And then he walks away. Because evil doesn't work for him either.
But also (either before or after he's completely left the cult - it's ambiguous, but possibly when he's still entangled but it's already fracturing and falling apart) he finds Orin again (he's using the name Wu Ming at this point - either having returned to it, or because he hasn't changed it yet from Felwinter Peak, or perhaps this happens before Felwinter Peak - the order and timeline is somewhat fuzzy).
Orin does not remember who he is when he finds her the second time (she's pretty nuts at this point - her story is filled with madness and tragedy), and is going insane with grief over losing Namqi (the person she left with when she disappeared the first time) as well as her obsession with the Nine. And the Drifter is once more drawn to her and once more connects deeply with her:
Wu Ming leaves his questions by the wayside as he is drawn inexorably into the gravity well of her desperate honesty. Her confessions lower his defenses. He talks of himself. Of his fear. Of his loneliness. How he feels he is one fingernail away from plummeting into an abyss. How he feels vicious resentment every time he is brought back from the dead: He never asked for the gift of the Light... They make excuse after excuse to meet again. Every conversation is colored by excavated truths; every day they feel they will reach some bedrock that will break them to pieces. It is as frightening as it is intoxicating.
But then Orin finds out about him being a Dredgen, terminates their relationship, goes off to become the Emissary of the Nine and, as someone I was talking with once referred to it: 'it was a breakup so bad he had to leave the solar system.'
Things go very poorly the first time the Drifter loses Orin but the second time is far worse. He has a full-on Lovecraftian 'At the Mountains of Madness' style horror-movie-plot experience with a crew he calls his 'best friends' (which may or may not be all ex-Dredgens but there's at least evidence they might be) out on a frozen planet being stalked and driven to insane levels of paranoia by Darkness creatures able to snuff out their light:
I think I mentioned we're all raving psychos at this point. Well, we did what all measured raving psychos would do. We thought we each had been betrayed by the others. We drew on each other.
The Drifter kills them all to keep them from killing him (at least, that's what he says - no one else is alive to argue). Then his ghost, who up until now has been kind of a moralistic asshole, suggests he hunt down the ghosts of his former crew and Frankenstein them together in order to survive:
And the craziest thing happened. My Ghost snapped... But we would need parts. Ghost parts. And we knew where we could get some... The Ghosts of my former crew all fled as soon as their charges hit the dirt. So me'n mine, we hunted them... "Hey. There's always hope. For what it's worth, I'm proud of you." It was the last thing my Ghost ever said, and the last lie it ever told.
The Drifter's ghost is rendered mute from the experience (either mechanically or due to the trauma of hunting down and murdering other ghosts - it's not clear) but the plan works, they survive, and the Drifter builds the Derelict out of scrap, returning to the Tower where he sets up Gambit.
It's super unclear (again, the Shin-related lore is just a mess and deliberately confusing) but it turns out that Drifter going on about how the Man with the Golden Gun is out to get him is actually a deal he made with Shin to set up Gambit (because, spoiler: the leader of the entire Dredgen cult, Dredgen Vale, turns out to be none other than Shin Malphur, the Man with the Golden Gun, who hunts Dredgens and who the Drifter has been saying is out to get him this entire time) to draw out the truly Darkness-corrupted guardians so Shin can kill them. (And this is ultimately why the Vanguard lets him run a fighting ring in the basement - because Shin convinces them it will help find the truly bad guardians so they can be eliminated).
If you find that confusing, that's because it is. Anything to do with Shin Malphur/Dredgen Yor/Rose/Thorn/Lumnia is pretty much an acid-trip, continuity-wise. It hurts my brain.
As for where the Drifter gets the weapons he gives us for Gambit? To the surprise of no one, he's stealing them. Because of course he is. It's him.
While running Gambit, he ends up visited by the Emissary of the Nine (formerly Orin - same body, different person) and has the Haul attached to the Derelict as a 'gift' in this amazing cutscene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFtmr___dSw
And he pretty much stays in "shifty morally ambiguous guy in the basement" mode until Arrivals when the pyramids show up on Io and we get one of my favourite lore tabs in all of D2: Whispering slab.
The two sit. They speak. They listen. Linkages forged in Light and Dark of traded secrets as the Derelict hangs in orbit around the Earth. Pacts are made. Soon, there is only the silence of knowing left between them.
"Next time you fly over the Moon, dust your boots. Tracking that crap all over my floors."
Both of the Drifter's deep emotional entanglements with Orin happen when he really genuinely talks to her, and now in Whispering Slab, he's genuinely talking to someone else, plus we get the origin of why he calls that someone else Moondust.
Then, during Arrivals, we get the amazing banter between him and Eris, and in Beyond Light they learn to control Stasis together with the result being (in my highly subjective opinion) the best cutscene in all of D2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQAB-sSi6P0
At the end of Haunted we get Eris' message to him about healing and finding joy , he has this line in Plunder "What we do now matters more than who we were", we end up with the Kept Confidence lore tab during Season of the Witch where the person who previously insisted he trusted no one now is saying: "He didn't trust them. He trusted her" and then in the Gloaming Journeyer tab, he pulls her into a hug and reminds her of what she told him once (in the Prophesy dungeon dialogue): "That we'll live in the night if we have to. We do it for what comes after." (What comes after is dawn, hope, the continuance of existence after the darkest point.)
Someone in a chat I was in once summed up the core dynamic of the Drifter and Eris' relationship perfectly as "He gives her trust. She gives him hope."
There are people online who are very frustrated with the Drifter's character development, feeling that the Drifter has 'had his teeth filed off' and that he 'got his depression cured by getting a goth girlfriend' but I feel that's just people who don't like change. The Drifter has, throughout his entire storyline been constantly changing who he is. Change is part of his many self-constructed identities which he re-creates over and over as his old sense of self is destroyed and remade. Gritty vicious Drifter is still in there and he will be just as brutal as ever if he needs to be.
He doesn't want to be, though. He never has. And as someone who deals with medical-grade depression and who found themselves in a situation where they needed to reconstruct a sense of self to replace the one that was lost, the Drifter finding a way to hope and trust again after all he's been through is an extremely powerful and poignant narrative which speaks to me on many levels.
It's not trite, thoughtless happy fluffy rainbows, friendship-fixes-everything-whee! It's painful and slow and beautiful as the Drifter learns to have healthy relationships with other people. We need stories like this to speak to us at an unconscious level and tell us that even if you're not Eris Morn and you failed, and you gave up, and you didn't make it out of the Hellmouth, and you in fact gave in to despair and completely lost all hope, your experience erasing who it was you were and having that old you replaced with someone else, you can still find hope again. Even if you've been burned so severely by so many, many, negative human interactions that you cannot trust anyone, if you find the right people, you can slowly learn how to trust again.
The Drifter's story has been called a redemption arc, and I guess in a way it is that too but, for me, the essential quality of the Drifter's narrative isn't redemption: it's healing.
Stories have power. We incorporate them into who we are. Dredgen Hope ultimately does live up to his name. Within D2 he is finally starting to heal. I find that idea, of healing in spite of being so altered by one's experiences as to have had to become an entirely different person in order to survive, of being unable to trust and still finding a way to learn how to trust again, to be important and beautiful to have in my subconscious as something to draw from. It is a story that is very much needed by a lot of people. We need to be reminded that we can be irrevocably changed and have everything taken from us and still find a way to trust and hope and love again. That might seem a bit much for a shooty game, but I maintain this is why D2 has some of the best storytelling of any game I've ever played and that the character of the Drifter is a huge part of what makes that storytelling so compelling.
Sorry this took so long to answer. This seriously was as short as I could make it and still say everything that I felt needed to be said. There's more, and more detail, of course, but this is my treatise on why the Drifter is as awesome as I think he is.
That is all.
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edsanon · 3 days
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I don’t feel like drawing, so have some platonic Lumi and Alastor headcanons :
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They met via Rosie. They had seen each other before, Lumi accidentally helping Alastor taking down on an Overlord, but they officially met via Rosie.
Lumi is terrible at social cues, but they are good at picking up patterns, which is how they can read people, Alastor was no match for that.
Alastor is thankful for that, since Lumi can pick up on people, and Alastor can use that to his advantage to strike deals.
Lumi died in 1917 at 18, while Alastor died in 1933 at 35(ish). They often joke that they could’ve met each other had they lived in the same country, and how they could’ve been around the same age had they died at the same time.
Lumi and Alastor don’t exactly show vulnerability, if at all, so for one of them to show vulnerability, the other will have to show that first. It’s truly a mess.
During the time where Alastor disappeared, Lumi genuinely thought that he had died. They grieved and continued on with their life- until they saw the commercial for the hotel and they recognized him.
Lumi has their little family down in hell : twin sister, younger brother, youngest sister and mother. They do not get along with their mother. Their younger sister and father are in heaven.
Alastor doesn’t really like the twin sister, can barely handle the younger brother. But the youngest sister ? Who is a cannibal ? He adores her ! He doesn’t like children, but Yu is an exception, he secretly spoils her to no end.
Speaking about baby Yu, she resides in cannibal town with Rosie, Lumi visits often.
Alastor believes in discipline that involves hitting children (it’s canon), but he knows better than to hit any of Lumi’s siblings.
Being friends with Lumi made of Alastor a cat person. He hates dogs already, so a friend who is a cat and purrs and smells like happiness and all the best things ever ? Count him in.
Husk dislikes Lumi for this very reason.
Speaking of Husk and Niffty, Lumi likes them, they don’t understand how Husk hates being a cat, they’re apex predators after all, and they like Niffty, and Niffty adores them so much.
Lumi showed her a katana they use when they train with their students, ever since then they became one of Niffty’s favorite person.
Alastor has witnessed how they train their students, they were a samurai after all and he was curious. Let’s just say that watching them gave him new torture ideas with how rough and hard that training looked (He quite felt bad for that one student who had to start over 500 swings because their body wasn’t correctly placed in Lumi’s standards.)
Lumi reads Alastor better than a lot of people, so they know that he loves and craves attention 24/7 among other things. So when the attention is striped away from him (like in episode 5 where Mimzy turned her attention to Lucifer) Lumi is here to give him some attention (“So you used to dance ? Maybe I should accompany you to one of your outings then, I’d like to see that for myself.”)
Which Alastor appreciates immensely.
Lumi has a set of rules they follow to stay on Alastor’s good side.
Alastor was very sour when he learned that Lumi had a partner when they were human. They are the one to always give them the attention he wants and needs, to always praise him in some way, who can understand him like nobody else, he doesn’t want their attention away from him.
In reality when the partner comes along eventually, Alastor has now 2 people hyping him up and giving him attention when he needs it.
And this is Lumi’s partner we’re talking about, when Alastor latches out and tries to make the partner jealous (“I’ve stayed with them for the last 80 years”) instead of being met with anger and jealousy, he is met with patience, gratefulness and understanding. (“I see. Thank you for taking care of them, I am glad they found a friend who cares for them the way you do.”)
Alastor taught Lumi how to cook, and cooks for them sometimes.
And Lumi taught Alastor French. He had a good start, but it could’ve been better.
Lumi speaks 9 languages, and they are native Japanese.
Alastor had to teach himself how to hold chopsticks, and Lumi had to teach themselves how to use a fork.
Whenever Alastor notices that Lumi isn’t doing great (aka they start to melt because when their emotions are too much they become magma and they start to melt), he takes them on a walk in the Bayou side of his room.
Alastor and Lumi fought Adam together, they got severely hurt together and left to lick their wounds together.
Lumi has tagged along on a few radio broadcasts of Alastor, it’s just them sitting next to him, listening and purring quietly.
Alastor loves the sound of their purrs, he wants Husk to make the same sound.
Lumi started to use pet names such as “honey” or “baby” after hanging around Alastor and Rosie as much as they do.
Alastor often calls them “Lumi dear”, and occasionally “Darling” (he found out that the nickname snaps them out when they are panicking or experiencing a flashback of some sort)
Lumi nicknames Alastor “A-kun”
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midnights-dragon · 1 month
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just so you know, if you’ve ever created anything ever, there is someone out there who will love it more than you will ever know
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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 1 year
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Okay, random question but in the panel where Lan Zhan & Wei Ying are riding side by side, why is Alan Zhan’s horse sad? Is Little Apple bullying him? :(
PS: I check in daily for your posts, OBSESSED 😭
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Alan Zhan (patron saint of when the substitute professor gets your name wrong).
#poorly drawn mdzs#ask#MDZS#wei wuxian#lan wangji#mdzs au#I was going to give a serious answer but then I saw Alan Lan#I gotta warn you all; if it was not already evident - I am the biggest instigator of 'typo in the group chat' hazing#be warned (affectionate (non-threatening (a little threatening)))#Shout out to everyone with a non-western standard name who went to a western school and had their name constantly butchered#shout out to everyone who goes by/went by a nickname because 'people don't mess it up'#I *see* you. May you find Solstice in St. Alan Zhan's arms#whether wwx snuck into the class early to change the attendance sheet is is innocent is up to your interpretation#he's just enjoying the class president (and his academic rival) lose his cool#i dont have a ton of modern au thoughts but I do love the teen era dynamic of ‘smart class clown and smart nephew of headmaster’ rivalry#idk how it was at other people’s schools but the viciousness of being in the top 5 in class was a bloodbath at mine#The *Drama* between top students was wild. Validictorian selection was basically done at knife point#anyways; who’s writing teen wangxian modern AU where they are rivals for the valedictorian spot?#getting to know each other just to win but then actually enjoying the tome spent together#they both need to win and be the best sooooo bad; I cant imagine such a story ends well#wow we got far from Alan Zhan in the tags#Thank you for your on going support! I hope you don't mind me teasing you a bit like this tumblr user deathoverdignity#comic proper resumes tomorrow!
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fayevalcntine · 9 months
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Positioning Louis as the "Edwardian wife who becomes trapped by her husband" in a literal sense does no justice to analyzing his actual place and role as a Black man in his society and in his relationship with Lestat. Any interpretation or analysis you do of him when it comes to their relationship cannot be stripped of the racial aspect because it's constantly there. Texts analyzing Edwardian wives (and particularly ones this fandom loves to bring up) typically were white and the dissection of their place in societal rules are always viewed from the aspect of gender that is within these texts only allowed to white women, but never to Black men or even Black women. And gender and race become inseparable when you discuss the latter, no matter how people may view it.
This is why I can't take this approach to analyzing Louis' story seriously because if you don't consider the racial aspect in his relationship even to himself and his sexuality, what's the point? You're still centering the standards that were more placed upon white male/female couples than you're willing to look into the unique structure of Black families, religion, their view of homosexuality and how that sooner heavily influences Louis than the family's "need" for him to be sold off to an Edwardian husband. Even in Louis' own story, him and Claudia being Black is more centered on than any demeaning "housewife" comment he tries to go against from Claudia's perspective. She makes that comment once, whereas we have at least two episodes from Louis' perspective that have very blatant hints and showings of the racism he still suffers from under the Jim Crow era and how it affects his self-worth as well as his relationship with Lestat who doesn't seem to take into consideration how any of the blatant racial aggressions and objections still affect Louis and what he considers to be important to achieve in his own life.
Then there's also the pointed topic of Louis' position as a Black man who is a pimp to the Black women he has as sex workers, as well as how his position as a Black father affects Claudia, another Black girl. If you insist on Louis being centered as this "Edwardian white wife" who is confined by his implicit gender in his marriage, where does that leave Claudia and the blatant misogyny and disrespect she gets from both him and Lestat? Lestat who is her white father abuses her. Positioning Louis within the strict confines of "being her mother" doesn't do her any favors because he didn't hesitate to choke her when he was deeply emotionally distressed, nor does it make him look any better when he's fine with chopping up her diaries and then delivering them on a silver platter so that Daniel, another white man, can read and dissect. Even if he does this under the sole pretense of "doing right by her", how does it in any way help when he also can't face up to his failures towards her?
#interview with the vampire#claudia#louis de pointe du lac#i just feel like all these needless 'Lestat is the patriarchy' discussions; even when done in order to shield Louis#do him and Claudia no favors because y'all keep centering these weird strictly white standards in your interpretations#'Louis is an Edwardian wife' Louis is a Black man who was turned in 1910s Louisiana#the structural confines Edwardian wives were given really aren't the same when you take into consideration the racial segregation#of Louis' time; and I feel like the specific issues that Black men then faced when it came to 'proving' their worth when it comes to gender#are then just sidelined and forgotten as if those aren't the standards Louis grew up with#if you want to discuss Louis' placement in his relationship with Lestat it's kind of really heavy-handed even on the show#that he's a black man and that that heavily affects him foremostly in this relationship#also I'm so confused over this insane idea that Lestat is somehow the patriarchy while Louis is a woman and y'all say this unprompted#without considering how it looks when you call a gay black man a woman and a white bisexual man a guy#i feel like you can evade bad stereotypes of painting black men as overaggressive without veering off into the whole other side#while still sounding vaguely backhanded#and it doesn't make it any less weird when I see other non-black/white fans insist on this interpretation#it just comes off as y'all sooner being able to connect to Louis if you see him in a role typically embodied by white women#than to refer to the actual identity he has as a black gay man
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sluttylittlewaste · 29 days
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Hilarious that the same people defending any and all questionable choices the Bad Kids make (namely Kristen lbr) by saying "They're just kids! They have all this trauma and it's fucked up to expect teens to be good and nice all the time!" are the same people insisting that Kipperlily is an evil bitch and the Ratgrinders deserve to die.
#it's almost like the rules of empathy and nuance only apply to characters you like 🙃#we know absolutely nothing of significance about the Ratgrinders#and i can't wait for Brennan to remind us of that#you want to complain about Kipperlily using her families money to try to buy the campaign???#The entire shrimp party that kicked off Kristen's campaign was bankrolled by her rich friend#Adaine is a total bitch to anyone who isn't in her immediate friend group#Fig is a literal full time criminal at this point#they have at least 50+ murders under their collective belts at this point#the only verified difference between the Bad Kids and the Ratgrinders at this point is that we know nothing about them#I hope they are the biggest red herring Brennan has ever pulled#because I feel like there are people in this fandom who are so used to self-identifying as victims that they've become full bullies#and they're projecting that shit in some really gross ways#The same way Brennan had to remind Adaine that she wasn't the only one with a shitty life when she was dunking on Zayne?#how about we all take a big step back and try to have a little more perspective#instead of jumping straight to being triggered by a CHILD who had the audacity to not love your faves behavior#let me die#if i die#d20 fhjy#fhjy#dimension 20#kristen applebees#kipperlily copperkettle#the bad kids#the ratgrinders#we have no context on what those kids went through in all the time the Bad Kids have been running around doing other shit#Aguefort is an awful school and their friend is dead#maybe she has a reason not to like the super special “chosen one” that got personally resurrected by the principal and keeps failing upwards#i didn't want to be a Kipperlily defense page#but the energy of the Kipperlily hate reeks of double-standards and unprocessed high school bitterness
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bookshelfdreams · 10 months
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#just saw that tweet abt pink days on the set of the barbie movie & i think it made me realize why it - the marketing etc - annoys me so#'margot robbie went around collecting fines and donated them to charity haha' okay. look.#that's just the perfect metaphor for how it worked for us - me - anyone who wants to align themselves with me - when we were girls#isn't it#because you grow up and you desperately want to fit in with the other girls but you don't & you don't know why#but you're surrounded by things and people telling you what a normal girl is like & little-to-none of it is things you find appealing or#interesting. makeup and fashion and skin care. gymnastics and romance. you're told that you are obligated to be pretty#but prettiness has never been part of your perception of yourself. femininity is an arcane concept#an exclusive club that will never grant you entrance#& the only comfort you can give yourself is deciding that it's dumb anyway. shallow. vain. who cares about looks and boys and all of that#idiots that's who#but this is Doing It Wrong too isn't it? because now everyone who has taught you that you will forever fail at femininity turns around#& tells you that's patriarchal oppression and YOU'RE the bad one by distancing yourself from something that always made you feel defective#'YOU may have never lived up to this impossible standard of perfection but some ppl do and actually it's fine to be like that!#hyperfeminine traditionally beautiful women are the most oppressed group of all & finally we will stand up for our rights!'#'girls can be pretty AND conpetent' but that's not what they're actually saying. isn't it.#because performing femininity correctly is the prerequisite. a threshold you can never cross and you know that. & that's fine#but somehow that's wrong too because you're not supposed to make peace w that are you. you're SUPPOSED to want to do it right#even if you don't and never have and never will#and once again everyone is yelling at you that this club isn't meant for you. if you criticize the barbie movie you're antifeminist#if you refuse to wear pink I'll make you pay a fine#hashtag girlpower#(well im not a girl. not a guy either. and not a secret third thing. just bad at femininity.#bad at being a person. and y'all don't need to tell me you don't want me in your club#I've always known that. i just wish you'd stop expecting me to beg for entrance.)
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worldlydesiretemple · 4 months
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a little upset with the chiyo change tbh. i didn't realize or know chiyo was going to undergo a COMPLETE remodel/rework but seeing erissa is just ... man. i understand where people were coming from with their criticisms on chiyo's design but it feels even more backhanded that they just straight up made her (afaik) white.
erissa doesn't have much ... personality? to her design? it's an alright design by her lonesome, but it doesn't signify chaos to any degree. this is just a tiktok influencer to me. and she doesn't seem like an actual child anymore. chiyo was fun in the regards that she's clearly meant to be a rambunctious tweenager and could be seen as such, but now this is just. Ambiguous Older Teen/Young Adult to me.
i don't agree with their solution to chiyo criticism being "oh let's just not make her japanese!" because her being japanese wasn't . the problem? so.
i showed my friends the new design and we all came to the collective agreement she doesn't look like a dark rider or chaotic at all this is a quirky tiktok fashion influencer
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simplepotatofarmer · 10 months
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people need to learn how to 1.) curate your own online experience and 2.) model the sort of behavior that's important to you.
if you don't like someone, block them. i have blocked a lot of people who make me uncomfortable. you don't constantly go out of your way to harass or bother them.
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hecksupremechips · 4 months
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The fact that Junpei proposed to Akane in ztd just baffles me every time I think about it like. He doesn’t know anything about her. They were friends for, what? A year? When they were kids. And Junpei never even knew she was an orphan or that she had a brother. Given just how important Aoi is to Akane and the massive role he played in her life, it’s very telling that Junpei doesn’t know about him. He also doesn’t seem too interested in Akane as a person. He only likes the idea of her, of sharing a bed or taking a shower together, but when she actually starts talking about her interests such as the titanic, he thinks she’s talking nonsense and only plays along when he doesn’t know what else to say. He also has this image of her as a damsel in distress (partially because Akane puts up an innocent persona to avoid suspicion) and he wants to play an action hero who protects her from seeing the scary dead body, completely oblivious to the fact that she put them there, that she wants that bastard dead. And how much does he come to terms with the truth after the nonary game? He feels betrayal, resentment, but he still proposes to her. He still spends his life chasing after her. He still puts himself and quark in a potentially dangerous situation in order to see her again. Junpei doesn’t have his shit together at all, he refuses to accept that the girl he liked as a kid isn’t perfect and has changed, has changed without him
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