Shoreless Sea snippet

Instead, she met her sister’s gaze and saw a stranger. Faelit blue eyes shot through in temper, in magic, silver flame and dancing light, more dawn that drawing fire. Opalescent. Sunrise on serene water, like she’d stolen some more magic to match that pearl smeared all over her body.   Of course she had.   “You,” Feyre swallowed, thick. “You’re been in Summer this whole time. I tried to go there, I tried”-   A gentle frown reshaped Tarquin’s handsome face. “Borders are not flexible. Not after what you took from us.”   The first humiliating, furious tear, ran down Feyre’s nose. “To find Amren. To get back my family.”   Silent, they did not need to speak to carry out the charade, Tarquin twisted and Nesta pulled her leg free. Stood in a slide of soft silk layers, fingertips dancing across Tarquin’s back as he leaned forward and away.   Hand held out between them as she moved, Nesta offered a handkerchief, soft grey fabric forming between seconds.   Feyre fought the urge to take it. To throw it back in her face.   The minute went on and one, before Nesta dropped her hand. Squared those familiar, stubborn shoulders, and went stone still.   Feyre swallowed. “What do you want? For access to the Library?”   “What do I want?” Her voice was a whip crack.   A fresh wash of tears tumbled free. “You’re my sister,” Feyre said, choking on the word, “We need the library. We need- people are dying.”   Nesta did not even blink. It was like the words could not even reach her. “The Library is open to all who do not break its rules.”   She couldn’t-   “Do you want to come home?” Feyre offered, frantic. “Money. Jewels. To be Emissary. Anything, just”-   Very slowly, Tarquin rose to his full height. No true menace in the motion, but something worse. Concern, unhidden, bleeding free, the whole of his attention on Nesta’s bone white, stone cold face. He didn’t try to protect her from Feyre’s anger, painting the air with sparks, rug ruined. Did not even bother to try and end the fight; all Tarquin did was reach for Nesta’s hand, cupped in both of his.   “You would like to be High Lady,” he said, without looking up, Nesta’s unmoving hand a dead thing between the gold adored darkness of his grip, “You only have one job. Take care of your people.”   A thousand miles away, Nesta whispered, “Are they dying? Or are they paying?”   Keir, nothing left of his body but a handful of carved bones. Morrigan’s brothers, cousins, eaten whole. It was only low fae who lived, servants and prisoners fleeing, freed. A wraith who’d spit in Feyre’s face, when she’d promised they’d find her a home.   No High Fae could live through that night.

i'm sorry but saying how much you hate people not wanting to vote for biden anymore isn't gonna make them want to vote for biden. in fact the thing that will get me to vote for biden would be him doing things ro earn my vote. you know the way that voting works and all

incidentally biden would be much more likely to get my vote if he stopped directly aiding and abetting a fucking genocide but like whatever i guess

Valentine’s Day gifts ready to wrap! I ordered matching sets of Stars & Stripes and Union Jack socks from Charles Tyrwhitt and couldn’t be happier with them. ❤️🤍💙

a white english anti-war socialist wins a seat in parliament and the next day the hindi PM says that this is an alarming sign of rising rabid-antisemitism, far-right politics, and islamic fundamentalism.

??? what

very happy Matt decided to clarify his stance on the genocide of the Palestinian people rn. Pretty unhappy with the way he worded it, who he centered in his video, and disappointed to see the responses to it on Twitter.

kinda scared to even post about it bc CR fans can get so defensive about their favorite white people that they can often leave little room for criticism or nuance. but man I have thoughts.

okay "normie median Biden voter ice" got me. That's funny. But also so true! It prob took him a bit to vote dem too (though I believe that Ice would have never voted for Trump). Would love to hear more thoughts on Ice and Mav's politics. Also the list of who they would have voted for if you're willing to share.

i do worry that posting my extremely in-depth headcanons about some of this stuff will have the JKR “wizard shit” effect on my writing and ruin it a little, but ask and ye shall receive

copy-pasted straight from my list of “unhinged compacflt!top gun headcanons” that ive been keeping since september: on ice & mav's politics

16. Since their friendship began, Ice has always told Maverick who to vote for, since Maverick doesn't care enough to pay attention to national politics. They are begrudging ConservaDems (conservative political views, would vote conservative every election if Republicans weren’t actively sending them to war/actively promoting fascism). Ice’s voting record (and after 1988, Mav’s too) 1980-2020—note that he has always considered himself an “educated moderate”: 1980: Reagan. 1984: Reagan. 1988: Bush. 1992: Bush. 1996: Clinton (reaction to aftermath of PGW. Doesn’t care that Clinton enacted DADT because “I’m not [redacted], so it doesn’t apply to me”). 2000: Gore (refusal to vote for another Bush). 2004: Kerry (Mav votes Bush this year out of spite as he and Ice are going through their break-up). 2008: McCain (Navy loyalty). 2012: Obama (liked him as a person/worked closely with him, didn’t like his policies so much). 2016: Clinton (no other alternative). 2020: Biden (actually liked/previously worked with Biden, and now actively married to another man and therefore had to make some liberal concessions). 2024-onwards they will vote for any Democrat as long as they aren’t a “socialist.”

17. Also, Maverick didn’t vote in 2016. Partially because in my universe the TGM mission takes place that November, very near the election, and he has bigger fish to fry (something Ice will later take him to task for), and partially because I genuinely think he wouldn’t be able to stomach either mainstream candidate and probably would’ve voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson, which might have torn his relationship with Ice to shreds a few days before schedule. “Are you fucking kidding me? Johnson? Pete, this moron’s moronic party wants to abolish the driver’s license—” / “—Yeah, and then I could ride your sweet wheels with no problem whatsoever—maybe he’ll abolish pilots’ licenses, too, I’d like to see that—” / “If you vote for Gary fucking Johnson, I will very happily stop footing the bill for your piece-of-shit airplane, and you can see how useful your pilot’s license is then—” / So Mav didn’t vote in 2016. 

35. In terms of what he Tweets: I do foresee, post-retirement, Ice basically becoming a neoliberal military intellectual type on Twitter a la Mark Hertling (look him up on Twitter). Bio: “Retired @SECNAV. Advisor @WhiteHouse and @VoteVets. Contributing writer @TheAtlantic. Interested in geopolitics & modern warfare. Aviator, husband, Padres fan. [American flag emoji]” Only posts pictures of himself and Maverick at three specific annual events: 1. their wedding anniversary (“36 years with this fool and he’s still surprised to find out that I like the F-5 better than the A-4 #happyanniversary”), 2. every EAA Airventure (huge airplane convention), 3. San Francisco’s Fleet Week (which of course they MUST attend, they even headline it in 2018). Informative, analytical, highly-respected. Maybe goes on CNN or NBC all the time to talk about civil-military relations shit (aversion to FOX since the start of the Iraq War). Gonna say he had like four really viral threads about Russia and Ukraine in April or May and so has 300k followers or something like that. He has a personal website that links back to his Twitter and every essay he writes for international publications, with a pretty braggadocious bio (something along the lines of “Tom Kazansky has directly almost started global nuclear war twice in his life, and in the thirty-year gap in between, sold the Swiss half their entire goddamn Air Force and directed an entire Fleet during the Iraq War”). Lots of tweets like “Military aviation hot take: Compared to the F-22, the F-35 is a waste of money. Source: husband with 400+ hours of F-35 experience.” / “[Quote tweet of Russian Foreign Minister boasting about Su-57 production lines] Oh, so you guys finally figured out how to make more than one every other year?” / “Analysis of the failure of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine, from an ex-US Pacific Fleet Commander’s perspective: a short [thread emoji] [This thread gets 26k likes and 4k retweets]” / “This weekend my husband & I flew in to @EAA Oshkosh #OSH19 & took home first place for best P-51. Not to brag, but.” (A reply to this tweet: “Sir, you really know how to bury the lede that your husband is Adm. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell. I had to look it up on Wikipedia.” / @TKazansky: “What, was it not obvious? Who else could it have been?”) Also, I see him writing a whole bunch of op-eds for international political magazines a la Tom Nichols (look him up on Twitter too). Writing analyses of recent geopolitical/military events for the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Bulwark, the Navy Times, the Atlantic, Bellingcat, etc. Not so much focused on domestic issues (but VoteVets [socially progressive vets’ group] board member, and ardently pro-democracy, yay!). He’s a smart guy.

37. This is not a headcanon, just kind of a… a real-life implication. My Ice was Deputy Commander of Third Fleet in 2003, meaning he’d have been there in command of the USS Abraham Lincoln when President Bush gave his “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard that ship in May less than 2 months after the initial American invasion of Iraq. Very premature & embarrassing. Ice would’ve been in direct contact with Bush/Cheney/NSC bureaucrats many, many times during the war. I genuinely believe this is what pushed him over the edge into firm liberal territory.

Okay, so I know that my reading of The Hunger Games is heavily influenced by my interest (and aspirations in) foreign policy but like... are there not other countries? It wouldn’t make sense for people to only be alive in North America - the global South would get off much better in a nuclear WW3 and if people survived in North America then I wouldn’t rule out people surviving in Europe and Asia as well. 

Then, what is Panem’s foreign policy? Obviously it’s some form of isolationism because Katniss never mentions any international war or country. Is Panem treated like North Korea? A nuclear power led by an unhinged dictatorial regime that starves its citizens? 

Did Coin not... idk... request military/economic support from other nations? Wasn’t she supposed to be smart? In this essay, I will-

I may be considering the crime of... Getting a business degree 🤢

omgggg west wing and f1 together my two obsessions i am soooo 👀👀 about that one!

the working title of this one is "like a bullet train", inspired by tomgreg's gay chicken in succession:

The guy who fucked Yuki last night tries to sneak out very early the next morning, and this would be fine except for the fact that he makes a racket as he does it. Yuki is not an early riser, so the third time the guy’s phone chimes and he starts muttering under his breath as he taps out a response, Yuki blearily raises his head and snaps, “Could you shut up. It’s fucking 5 AM.”

There’s a pause, and then, “Sorry.” A moment later, there’s a hand across Yuki’s shoulders, searing, and his chin is being tilted up into an equally hot and filthy kiss. The guy’s mouth is minty fresh, and Yuki bites at him as he pulls way.

The guy laughs, shocked. “Have a good day, Yuki. Good luck with everything.”

“Thanks.” He doesn’t remember the guy’s name; only that it’s emphatically French, to go with the accent, and almost certainly fake, because in Yuki’s experience, hot guys in suits who say I’m not gay though before sucking his dick always use fake names. It’s whatever. It’s too early for Yuki to think about too hard.

It’s a shame though, he muses idly as the door clicks shut. It would have been nice to know one other person in DC; plus he was a good fuck, and Yuki wouldn’t have minded a second round this morning.

Iran & Russia are allies

Russia & China are allies

Japan & America are allies

America gives explicit permission for Russia to invade Ukraine

America lifts sanctions on Russia

America gives Afghanistan to the Taliban

Russia invades Ukraine

America funds Iran

Iran sends those funds to Hamas

Hamas invades Israel

Ukraine, being at war with Russia, allies itself with Israel

China, encouraged by Russia and the Taliban, eyes Taiwan

China expands military operations closer to Japan

Japan strengthens diplomatic ties with Taiwan

India & Israel are allies

I’m not saying WWIII is inevitable but this is how you start one

There’s something uniquely frustrating about the state of American politics right now where I feel like democrats are critiquing people for being too far left on certain issues, when the policies those people are actually advocating for are a majority opinion by a large margin. Like a ceasefire in palestine has twice the approval rating Biden has? How am I the unreasonable one? I get it we do have to continue voting because this is what we have right now. But arguably the presidents biggest job is foreign policy. What’s happening in Gaza is the biggest foreign policy issue Biden has faced in his presidency, (second only to maybe the pullout of Afghanistan which was also a huge clusterfuck) and he has utterly failed. Not only was he barely able to obtain a less than week long ceasefire that wasn’t even honored, he has completely gone around congress and approved BILLIONS more in military aid to Israel. His OWN STAFF are quitting/protesting in droves at how he’s handled this.

I can’t be the only one concerned that the Democratic party’s best man for the role of “guy leading the biggest military and the biggest diplomatic corps in the world” is someone breaking federal, constitutional, and international law to further a policy 2/3rds of the nation disagrees with.

no matter what Biden only gets one more term, what is the presidential future of this party? Because from where I sit that future needs to come a whole lot sooner, and in the form of someone who actually will fight for the policy position most Americans (not most democrats, most Americans) believe in.

I get it that trump is a huge threat, I get that trump would be even worse for the people of Gaza, but I am scratching my head as to how having a candidate who advocates for a hugely popular policy position is going to hurt that candidates chances? Like we saw how the pro choice playbook payed off extremely well for the democrats on a domestic policy level. Because safe and legal abortion is actually a hugely popular policy! So why is this not the case when it comes to presidential elections and foreign policy issues? This ain’t the general, it’s the primaries people, so why are we cool with having a candidate with a demonstrated track record of being fucking horrible at the biggest constitutional duty he has, when we could be auditioning other candidates who you know, aren’t war criminals. Just a thought.

"You try to be cool -- you look like a fool to me..."

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As Chiara finished reading the letter, a loud thud resonated from the table. Both [Chiara and Carewyn] looked to see Diego's head faced down on the table, his teacup knocked over on the side. Muttering could be heard, yet he dared not to make any movements. "Uh, Sire…?" Chiara called, Borf walking over to the King before nudging his foot. "Are you okay?" More mumbling from the King. "That's twice…twice I messed up my impression to her…stupid Diego, how could you be so stupid?!" ~"Flowers for Your Garden," a ficlet by @ariparri

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HPHM Cardverse AU developed by @ariparri​ // Carewyn's dress inspiration

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LMAO, I'm sorry -- while reading Ari's recent drabble about Diego trying and failing to court Veruca, I just was consumed with this overwhelming urge to draw this part during my breaks at work today. 😂 ​Poor boy really cannot win, can he? It's just like him trying and failing to befriend Carewyn when they first met, except worse.

I'm sorry, but the idea of Drama King Diego embracing his inner Tamaki Suou and just having the most over-the-top, anime-esque reactions to things just cracks me the hell up. 🤣 Don't worry, Diego -- the Host Club king eventually "gets the girl" in the end too! Hang in there!!

Much love, Ari!! And to everyone else, hope you have a lovely evening! xoxo

Yo, imagine characterizing someones position as “America bad” and thinking thats a dunk and not a dub.

Its 2024. “America bad” is just a basic fact that everyone’s come to terms with. I’m sorry it feels icky but grow up.

YES I was once North Korea at a MUN and I had So Much Fun whenever the other teams were like “um what about your human rights record” I’d be like “wow I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And just watch them get angrier and angrier

'A report from the CNN states...'

"Oh, the same CNN that reported Iraq had nuclear weapons??? clearly this is fake news to further American hegemony to accuse my country of human rights violations it is totally not doing!!!"