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ayyy-pee · 12 days

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𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕕𝕖 𝟘.𝟝 - 𝕋𝕠𝕠 𝕄𝕦𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕠 𝔻𝕣��𝕟𝕜

Discord 18+ - Twitter

Pairing: JJK Men x Female Reader

Episode Summary: After a drunken night of binge watching your (least?) favorite show, you find yourself making a grave mistake.

STORY TWIST: READERS WILL VOTE AFTER CERTAIN CHAPTERS TO CHOOSE WHO GETS A ROSE AND MAKES IT TO THE NEXT WEEK. KEEP A LOOKOUT FOR THE VOTING LINK AT THE END OF CHAPTERS

Story Warning: DRAMA, lying and scheming, REVERSE HAREM, profanity bc I can only be me, arguments, fights probably, heartbreak and tears, (more to come)

Artist Credit: momoya348, Umbra3terna, ilameys,maoyaoyao519, _0_0219 Divider Credit: Cafekitsune (Tumblr)

A/N: IT'S FINALLY HEREEEEEE! I hope you guys enjoy this ride (that you're in charge of in later chapters!!!) I'll put up Episode 1 tomorrow after proofreading!!! <3

“God, this show is so stupid,” you mutter, shoving a handful of popcorn into your mouth while you get settled onto the couch.

“Please…It’s so bad, but I tune in to every season.”

You glance over when your friend reaches into your lap and dips her fingers into your bowl of popcorn and grabs a few kernels.

That was the perfect way to describe what was happening now. You’re currently huddled up on the couch, having spent the day binging the most recent season of The Bachelor until you’re all caught up. The new episode airs tonight and you’re eager to see who Joey ends up picking. Will it be Rachel? She’s gorgeous, funny, and her family seems to really get along with this season’s Bachelor. They have great chemistry. Or maybe it will be Daisy? Though you couldn’t see that working out. The girl is a total bore. Or it could be…what’s her name again? The one who looks a little bit like she could be his sister. Ah, whatever.

You’re not sure when you really began to even give a shit about this mess of a show. It’s corny. No one falls in love within a few weeks of knowing each other. And why does one man or woman need to date twenty people to find someone to marry? Are they that unlikeable in the real world? Not to mention, it’s totally unrealistic. Do these relationships even work out once the cameras cut off? Unlikely. You find the entire premise of the show downright stupid.

And yet, you can’t tear your eyes away as this season’s Bachelor takes each girl out on an extravagant date that…you can’t lie, you would love to be on.

Dancing in Malta? Sunbathing on a yacht off the coast of Spain? Getting to see Niagara Falls up close? Sign you up. You don’t think you would stand a chance being the object of everyone’s affection, but you could definitely milk being a contestant for free trips and good food.

“Why can’t he see that Rachel is the best pick here? Ugh, annoying. You know he’s going to give what’s-her-name the last rose.” Your friend downs her wine in one swig and you don’t bother to hold back the laugh bubbling in your chest. She’s all red faced. You’re not sure if it’s from how passionate she is about the show or from the two empty bottles of merlot she’s managed to down practically on her own, but the glowing hue it gives her highlights the thick scar across her face. A product of her line of work, and said line of work being the reason she’s guzzling wine in the first place.

“Maybe take it easy on the drinks, Utahime.”

She hiccups next to you, slouching in her seat. “I haven’t even had that much to drink!”

“You’ve had most of the wine just on your own!”

“Oh my god, you have one or nine glasses of wine and suddenly you’re wasted,” she mutters sarcastically. “I’m fine.”

You roll your eyes, because you know there’s no going back and forth with her stubborn ass when she starts drinking.

The living room dims for about three seconds before it lights back up, the show now having gone on commercial break. The rose ceremony is next and despite shit-talking the show only ten minutes ago, you’re eager for the commercials to wrap up so you can see who goes home. It better not be Rachel. You use this brief intermission to go and get some water for yourself but mostly Utahime so she can sober up.

This has been your routine for the last few weeks. Every Monday night, Utahime comes over, peels you out of your bed and forces you on the couch to chug alcohol and watch this ridiculous show. While you find the entire premise of the show nonsensical, you’re grateful for the time it’s given you with Utahime.

You’re fairly new to the Kyoto area and Utahime was the first person you’d met on your first day at your new – how can you put this? – unique job. You see, you and Utahime both work in the field of Jujutsu sorcery. But there’s about where your similarities in the field stop.

Utahime is an active Sorcerer. She’s an instructor raising up the next generation of Sorcerers, building them up so that they can one day join the frontlines to protect the unaware non-Sorcerers of Japan. She’s strong– a grade 1 Sorcerer. Quite impressive. She could easily knock a curse’s head off if she wanted to.

But you? Well, while Utahime is at the top of the ranks of Jujutsu society, you are what some would refer to as a bottomfeeder – an unranked, unimportant, lowly Window. You’re someone who has just enough cursed energy to see a curse. But can you do anything about them? Not unless you want to end up in the nearest trauma center. So if you’re smart, you’ll do your job and whip your phone out to report it so that the real Sorcerers can handle it.

You’ve been in this field for several years now, but working outside of the major cities of Japan. Transferring to Kyoto was your idea of wanting something new and different. Utahime had quickly taken you under her wing. You were certain it was because she took pity on you. A weak, barely gifted Window. But as time went on, you came to realize that that was just Utahime. She was kind and funny, and had a good heart. Well, except when it came to –

“Hey!” Utahime calls from her spot on the couch. You can hear a slur in her words as she speaks and you know she’s opened yet another bottle of wine from who knows where. “Come here! Look at this!” You peer at the television from the doorway of your kitchen and see Utahime has it paused on a very ugly ad. It’s bright white with a background full of red rose petals across the screen. Your eyes roam over the words.

“THE SEARCH IS ON FOR THE ELIGIBLE WOMEN WHO ARE READY TO FIND TRUE LOVE! DO YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW HAVE THE CHARM, STYLE, AND PERSONALITY TO BE OUR NEXT STAR? IF SO, APPLY OR NOMINATE SOMEONE NOW!”

“Will you hurry up? Come look!” Utahime demands, messily pouring more wine into her glass. But it looks like a normal advertisement to you, so you’re not entirely sure what has Utahime’s interest so piqued.

She beckons you again, yelling “Come here!” So you quickly grab a couple bottles of water from your fridge and head back. Utahime is pointing insistently at the screen. “Look. Look really hard.”

You follow the path where her finger points, shuffling closer to the t.v. to get a clearer look. It takes a moment for you to see it, like really see it, but it’s definitely there. Underneath the last line, hidden from the eyes of those unable to see the horrors that you and those like Utahime can, is another message. You fall to your knees, eyes glued to the tiny additional message floating beneath, glowing with cursed energy that reads, “JUJUTSU SorcererS PREFERRED”.

Confusion slowly takes over your features, the corners of your lips turning down with a frown, a brow arched and skepticism in your eyes. Were you missing something? Was this some sick joke? Were Jujutsu Sorcerers huge fans of The Bachelor or something? You spin around to face your friend who has a look of mischief twinkling in her eyes. You know it all too well, mouth falling open and a finger pointing when you scream “NO” at the exact moment Utahime yells “YOU SHOULD APPLY!”

“Absolutely not!” You must be looking at Utahime like she’s grown two more heads because she looks just as confused as you.

“Why not?! You’d be great on there!”

Maybe she hasn’t grown two more heads. Maybe her brain was swapped while you were in the kitchen because why the hell was she suggesting this?

“Well, for starters, I’m not really looking to date.”

Utahime rolls her eyes, as if that’s just not a good enough excuse. You should just ignore her, snatch the remote from her hand and hit play so you can get back to the show and see who this guy chooses to potentially get engaged to. But for some reason (could be the single drop of wine your friend allowed you to have while she downed the rest), you feel the need to keep listing off reasons to not sign up. “Secondly, I– why would I even want to go on this show?”

Utahime sips her wine, eyes low as she falls into her drunkenness, but you can still see the sparkle of mischief in those brown hues…and it scares you. So you keep talking, chatting away and listing excuse after excuse to your friend, eventually finding yourself back on the couch trying to drive your final point home.

“Besides, they want Sorcerers.” This seems to get Utahime’s attention again, makes her set her glass down as she looks at you.

“I’m sure it’s fine. You are a Sorcerer.”

“I’m a Window.”

“Semantics. You can see curses, can’t you?” Utahime argues.

“...yes.” You shift uncomfortably in your seat. “But I can’t do anything about them.”

It’s not something you should be ashamed of, but there’s just the tiniest bit of you that is ashamed. Because being able to see these monsters and not having the power to do anything about them…well, it feels like a curse in and of itself.

To this, she sighs. “Sorcerers, Windows. They’re just terms used by the higher-ups to keep their stupid, fucked up heirarchy intact.”

You know it’s the wine that’s loosened her tongue. In public, Utahime would not dare to speak so freely. The Jujutsu politics in Kyoto were a lot stricter than they were in Tokyo. Not that that said much anyway. The politics were shit regardless. But Utahime worked closely with those connected to the higher-ups, so outside of this little bubble in your apartment, she kept pretty hush hush about her true feelings.

You watch Utahime closely as she fiddles with her wine glass. She really is beautiful. You think she’d be incredible on a show like this. Which gives you the idea.

“What don’t you apply?”

Utahime leans back, a cackle so loud and abrupt leaving her tiny body.

“No way. I would never date any of these Sorcerers.”

“And you want me to?!” You ask incredulously. You don’t know whether to be offended or not.

Your friend fixes you with a deadpan stare. “You don’t know them the way I do. The only good one out of all of them is Nanami Kento…and Shoko.” She mutters the last name quietly, like it’s a secret that she thinks so highly of her. And maybe it is a secret…the way she feels about the doctor in Tokyo who you couldn’t help but notice has Utahime’s cheeks glowing red whenever she’s mentioned.

“Besides,” Utahime continues. “If I signed up for this and got paired with Gojo –” she shudders at the mere thought of being near the man. “I don’t think I’d be able to keep myself from projectile vomiting just at the prospect of having to kiss him.”

It’s your turn to laugh obnoxiously now, because – “Why the hell would the strongest Sorcerer in a thousand years sign up for this shit? You don’t think he has anything better to do? Like, you know…keep all of Japan safe?”

“Satoru Gojo does whatever Satoru Gojo wants.”

You can’t argue with that. Utahime would know best. She did grow up with him after all. She knew him well. You’ve never met the man, being just a Window, you doubt you ever will. Out of all the Sorcerers, you’ve only ever met Utahime and Principal Gakuganji. You’ve never even met any of the students. You all run in different circles, but that doesn't mean you don’t keep up with the going-ons of the Jujutsu world. Everyone knows Satoru Gojo.

“You should really sign up, though,” Utahime suggests once more. “You might meet a good person. If anything, you’ll get a good vacation out of it.” With that, she stands. It’s clear that the wine is hitting her again, because she wobbles clumsily to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

If it’s anything like every other week before this, you’ll be peeling Utahime out of your bathtub because she will have inevitably fallen asleep.

Your eyes fall back on the hidden message on the television, reading it over and over before you finally just hit play and let the finale finish.

Joey chooses whatever that girl’s name is. You’re only halfway paying attention because against your better judgment, you’re actually thinking about applying to this. But you think the show is stupid, right? Why would you waste your time? But what if Utahime is right? What if you do meet someone? It’s not that you’re against dating. You’re just not actively in the market for romance because you’ve found that dating non-Sorcerers is more stress than it’s worth.

The constant obligation you feel to regulate their emotions so you can avoid the creation of a cursed spirit that you’ll have to call in and do paperwork for? Exhausting. Not to mention, if you ever grew to truly love this person, you’d be overwhelmed with guilt if a curse manifested and harmed them in any way and you couldn’t do anything but watch in horror as you made a phone call.

You’d never really given any thought to it, but perhaps dating a Sorcerer is what you needed. You could end up meeting an amazing man!

But also, semantics or not, you were not technically a Sorcerer. You were simply a Window. Why the hell would an actual Sorcerer want to be with you? Better yet, what were the chances of this show even choosing you as their next Bachelorette?

- - - - - -

Apparently, the chances were extremely high, because one phone call, four video interviews, a nearly five hour drive from Kyoto to Tokyo, and days of promotional video and photo shoots later, you find yourself standing outside of the Bachelor Mansion, donning the most expensive gown that money could buy.

This is not what you expected. Not at all. There is so much going on. You want to run and hide from every single camera you see being propped up. You want to curl into yourself when the lights come on and the director calls, “Action!” And you see some man you’re just meeting for the first time approaching as he speaks directly to the camera.

“...and she’ll be making history tonight as The Bachelorette’s first Jujutsu Sorcerer,” you hear him tell the camera as he stops just a few feet short of you. Tall, blonde and handsome. He looks like an American football player. “I’m Jesse Palmer, ladies and gentleman. Now, let’s meet our Bachelorette!”

He turns to you, wearing a bright smile. The cameras follow, moving closer to catch a close-up of your face, so you smile as naturally as you can and try not to flinch when Jesse moves forward to embrace you in a swift hug.

Jesse calls your name as though you’ve been friends for a long time. “So nice to finally see you. You look great.”

The camera pans down your body and back up to your face. “Likewise, Jesse.”

“How’re you feeling?” he asks.

“I’m nervous! Definitely nervous, but feeling good! I’m so excited for this,” you lie. You’re dreading this process. But it’s too late to back out now. So you just hold your smile, conversing politely as Jesse makes small talk and gets to know you before the first contestant pulls up.

And you hope that if Utahime is watching, she sees the message behind your eyes screaming that you’re absolutely going to kill her.

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kiwichaeng · 2 years

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Pakistan is drowning, and we need help

Since July of this year, Pakistan has been affected by heavy nonstop monsoons and is yet to stop. It is only getting worse. Rural areas in Balochistan, Sindh, KPK, Punjab and Gilgit Baltistan are the most affected.

As of September 4th, over 1300 people have died and over 500,000 homes have been destroyed along with livestock deaths and ruined infrastructure. The floods have left more than 33 million people affected.

Most of Balochistan is still submerged. Locals are forced to flee and cannot account for their missing relatives until much later. More than 100 districts all across the provinces have been impacted.

Quetta, a major city of Balochistan, has been cut off from the rest of the country as the roads and highways are destroyed.

We get monsoons every year and we are used to them but this is not normal. We are in our 8th monsoon cycle when we usually get 3-4 cycles.

Two of the worst-hit provinces – Balochistan and Sindh – have received 298mm and 689mm rains respectively this year, which is about 400 percent more than the 30-year average. (c)

Along with the floods, there are also landslides and glacier bursts that have claimed lives and made the situation worse.

People from other cities were unable to get in contact with their affected relatives because they did not have electricity. The cloud cover meant no solar power either.

There are more monsoon predictions till September. I don't know how we're going to come back from this.

This is worse than the 2010 floods and the government doesn't give a shit.

This is going to have disastrous impacts on our economy and society but what does it matter? after all, the people are only there to vote, right? :)

It is the volunteers and NGOs helping, it is the public. There was no help when Karachi flooded and people died and they don't care now either.

Here are some links for donations if you can.

Al-Khidmat ways to donate (for international)

Al-Huda

Edhi Foundation

Some GoFundMes

....

Sites to educate yourself more on this

Climate change is very real and I am terrified right now.

tagging some people for signal boost @khaleesiofalicante @binch-i-might-be @gayforcarstairsgirls @all-the-cool-ones-are-gone @elettralightwood @rinadragomir @magnus-the-maqnificent @sociallyineptbibliophile @dumb-ass-biatch @noah-herondale-lightwood @steven--with-a-v

#evie's random shit #pakistan #floods #pakistan floods 2022

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hero-israel · 6 months

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I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and I was hesitant to post about it because I don’t want my voice muddying actual protests and testaments from people actually affected because I am not Jewish or Palestinian. And I don’t know if this is the right medium for this remark but I didn’t know where else to put it.

But as someone from South Africa, who grew up listening to first hand accounts of people, black and white, who lived through Apartheid, as someone who had to learn the horrific history of Apartheid and how sick and twisted that regime was. And even then I cannot claim to be an expert because even my school didn’t teach us every detail (which is sad because while it’s painful, it’s part of history and we must learn about it to never repeat it).

But knowing what I do know about Apartheid and seeing the after effects of it where I live… it really disturbs me to see the word Apartheid thrown around so carelessly to describe Israel. It’s not only untrue but trying to apply to Israel what the white minority government did in South Africa to harm and have power over people of colour in every aspect of life, feels like it only does a massive disservice to actual Apartheid victims. Real people were killed and tortured and suppressed in terms of marriage, to where they could live, who they could love, what they could learn in schools, having the right to vote, having curfews and time restrictions or else risk persecution and brutality…. It just leaves me speechless that people so easily want to wash away the real tragedy of Apartheid because it’s a big sounding buzzword. Calling Israel an Apartheid state, in my mind, does nothing except invalidate the real victims of that horrific regime and it makes me sick.

I’m sorry for ranting like that but I just cannot wrap my head around it at all. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the Apartheid regime and Israel’s government are in no way the same.

This is an extremely important perspective, and it would be a great help if you would be willing to share it openly.

There have been many voices from South Africa rejecting the "apartheid" comparison. It is important to show would-be activists that they are appropriating and disrespecting other peoples' suffering.

#apartheid #israel #palestine #south africa #jumblr

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leohtttbriar · 3 months

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Someone brought an overhated character poll to my dash about Kai Winn and im literally so sad about the responses. I knew there were people who hated her but it's really baffling to me how maybe 10 people tops acknowledge her past and the reasonings behind her choices, they just see a space Karen.

oh dude, i'm sorry that sucks. and "sad" really is a simple but fairly complete word when it comes to the character of winn adami, huh.

like. i think a lot about how she's the most normal-looking woman on the show. she is also, simply, normal. she is faithful and political and appears and acts in ways far more familiar to us than most characters. even the fact of her alien-faith hardly serves to alienate, given that she is faithful in the way we might be--without true expectation of ever meeting the divine in this life. while kira can seem more like a fictional character when she speaks of the prophets, due to her proximity to them, winn sounds like the person accosting you on a street corner to talk about the rapture.

that's the thing, though, isn't it. about the "karen" phenomenon in general. there is nothing uniquely bad about middle-aged white women--nothing that makes them uniquely ungovernable in social spheres in ways men aren't. in ways everyone isn't, in some way. (merely anecdotal evidence, but my own experience in the service industry made me far more wary of men in their 30s wearing patagonia vests over dress-shirts). winn adami is a normal sort of frustration to people. one they encounter in the day-to-day. the political conservative who stands outside of planned parenthood and tells girls not to throw away their everlasting souls. the pentecostal women speaking gibberish in church, gesturing to the heavens with their out-of-fashion french manicures, who brought a tater-tot hot dish with extra kraft cheese to the pot luck. the women with cross-walls. with like. so many crosses. the women with leathery tans on the aging skin of their arms and neck. the women who quietly walk into voting booths around the world and choose "safety" over anything else, whether or not that "safety" is real.

at least. that's who people think winn is. setting aside the fact that most people don't truly know the kinds of women listed above, that it's unlikely they've spared a single ounce of pity for women like that ever in their entire lives, winn is not exactly pitiable in this way. she is awash in power. she is intelligent. she thinks. she would stand in a voting booth and choose "safety" (whether or not it's real) but she's not the lady wearing a t-shirt that says trump could grab her pussy if he wanted. she's not one of the many blonde women on fox news. she's not even sandra day o'connor or any other female conservative intellectual. because she's a metaphor.

we don't know her real-world politics because she's a fictional character in a fictional universe leading a fictional world. we know she's a conservative because fights very very hard to maintain the status quo regarding her bajoran religion and its teachings. but we don't know how any of that can be truly allegorized to conservative policies in the real-world. the main tension being: conservatives in the real-world base a lot of truly evil policy on a made-up divine figure interpreted through thousands of made-up hermeneutics and it is materially all Not Real. in ds9, the prophets are actual beings who affect reality. winn's said and done things on the show that sound like something an annoying woman with a turquoise-cross around her neck would say at a utah city council meeting about creationism and "inappropriate books." she also says things that a woman would say at a protest against the racist and paternalistic policies of the british museum. all we know of her as a political figure is that she is conservative. and like, power-hungry and desperate, but those aren't essentially related. she wants to conserve. and that encompasses more than one thing.

which means that people, when they see her, simply aren't thinking. they react to a woman who looks as she does. who speaks like a politician. who makes decisions that are unfair. but, exactly as you said, the show grounds her. they give her a past. they richly flesh out so much about her. they have her acting too rationally sometimes for someone of her professed faith. they have her acting completely irrational as her gods reject her again and again. all while she clings to them with a faith that endured actual torture at the hands of violent imperialists who yet attack her planet and yet attack her and yet she has to speak with as the leader of bajor.

and it's hard to see (beyond the obvious) why this character receives so much vitriol when you have characters like garak and dukat and kira who all are considered charming and beloved in some way or another, while still being as complex as they are. (and i don't even think dukat is all that complex.) even sisko has some moments that, if i lived in his world, i would be somewhat repulsed by--like when jake begs him to let the prophets go and sisko embraces the cosmic over the request of his son. (again: the prophets are real though, so my "repulsion" is more a reaction against people i see as priests, who i find in the real world, as a rule, awful.)

so. it's definitely sad. because the level and kind of hate bestowed upon this character really does seem to be a symptom of a much larger issue: of course, misogyny.

also that people don't tend to think.

#i can only apologize for writing an essay #but i also just get more and more into my feelings about this as i get closer to finishing the show.#which i'm sure is very healthy #ds9 #kai winn #winn adami #star trek

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2amtechnicolor · 11 months

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We Need To Talk About Mahiru

Mahiru's second Trial is out and oh my god she just jumped up on my faves list. I love analyzing the MVs from different perspectives so I thought I'd give my 2 cents on Mahiru's character.

My vote: INNOCENT

The first thing I really feel the need to bring up is that people tend to ignore that Mahiru is actually very intelligent. There's multiple kinds of intelligence, and while she might not be "traditionally" smart in the linguistic sense, she's incredibly emotionally intelligent. She's a master of empathy and mood making and is an incredibly charming talker to the point you don't realize she's completely controlling the conversation. That being said, I genuinely don't think she uses her intelligence for malicious gains.

One of the theories going around with her first MV was that she was overbearing to the point of being abusive, while being oblivious to her own toxicity. Now after rereading and rewatching, I'm inclined to disagree. Her love may be seen as overbearing to some but we have not seen any explicit bad behavior towards her boyfriend. (Contrast with someone like Muu, who was revealed to have bullied as much as she was bullied herself). In my unpopular opinion, I genuinely think Mahiru was in a "healthy" relationship, at least on the surface.

[TW for discussions of death, murder, and fictional depictions of suicide]

[Side Note: One of the sticking points people have while saying "Mahiru was toxic" is that "Mahiru's relationship only lasted 16 days" which is blatantly not true when you check the translations for MV1. Day 1 takes place during college finals (mid-March-ish in JPN), Day 7 explicitly takes place in the summer, and Day 15 is New Year's Day (January). Mahiru's affection towards her boyfriend lasted almost a year, and they dated for around 6 months-ish during that. The "16 Day Memorial" isn't about a period of 16 days, it's about 16 days over the course of their relationship where she was explicitly making moves towards her boyfriend.]

I need you to take a real hard look at how Mahiru talks about "love" and "being in love." More specifically, when she talks about the concept of "love," she often brings up the action of "loving/showing love" in her explanation. Never once have I heard her say "My boyfriend loved me." or "This is what my boyfriend did for me." The focus is all on her actions towards the boyfriend. And I genuinely think she was a sweet girlfriend! She loved trying his hobbies and cooking his favorite foods and going to his favorite spots. She was sweet, and kind, and playful, and maybe just a bit clingy. But she was never jealous or possessive.

Es: I see. So, you became a murderer as a result of some relationship conflicts? Jealousy… Grudges… Having your partner stolen from you… Those stories aren’t all that uncommon now are they?

Mahiru: You’re wrong. It wasn’t that. I…never even wanted to kill anyone in the first place!

She explicitly states that her crime was not based off of negative feelings towards her boyfriend, but she still takes responsibility for what happened. Compare that to Fuuta, who, despite his own feelings of guilt, continually verbally denied that he had anything to do with his victim's death. Mahiru not only takes explicit responsibility, but also pins her "love" as his cause of death, to the point where if she was voted guilty, she would never try to love anyone again. Without "loving" anyone, she has no reason to live.

"To not forgive me means to take the act of loving away from me. That’s the same as not being alive. It’s the same as not being able to drink water or breathe."

It's interesting the way she compares basic needs to "the act of loving". Not the concept of "love" itself, but the act of showing someone love. If she is not allowed to show someone love, to her it's like suffocating, like dying of thirst, or maybe...dying of starvation?

Mahiru in her second MV may be dirty and barefoot with torn clothes, but the one thing she is not is starving. You could argue that "perhaps it doesn't show," but when compared to her boyfriend...

She's incredibly healthy.

And of course she's healthy! Her lovely boyfriend's been feeding her those bites of cake! So is the cake "love" then? But if the cake is love, why is her boyfriend, the one whose being "smothered," the one starving?

Feeding the cake doesn't represent "love." Feeding the cake also doesn't represent "the act of loving." Feeding the cake represents the boyfriend letting Mahiru "love" him. Does that make sense?

The boyfriend lets himself be vulnerable, he feeds pieces of himself to Mahiru for her to "love." But yet, he himself is starving.

...Have you even noticed Mahiru hates talking about herself?

It's evident from her first interrogation. Es can barely get two words in before Mahiru interrupts them to ask them questions about themselves or to offer her own advice to problems she thinks Es may be having.

Es: Oh… yeah. Uh… I apologise for that.

Mahiru: Did you zone out just then? This job must be pretty difficult, so you might be mentally burned out from work. Herbal tea’s good for that, you know? Oh! Like ginkgo tea—they say it helps improve brain function.

Es: Oh, is that so? I’ll try a bit then… I mean, no! Enough about me.

Compared to one of the few times Es gets a question in:

Es: I don’t completely understand what you’re saying, but… Being in love and loving someone—are they really that important?

Mahiru: They are.

Es: Hm.

Mahiru: They are… More so than anything else.

When reflected back to her, her answered become short and vague. Her voice grows soft and shy. She avoids questions, especially questions about difficult topics, not because she doesn't understand the gravity of them (like Haruka) but because she does. Like I said at the top, she's incredibly emotionally intelligent. She was beaten nearly to death because Kotoko decided to be Es's "fang", and yet she still empathizes with them. She still makes a strong attempt to see their point of view, and even to encourage Es to keep working hard. Compared to the other attacked prisoner we've seen, Fuuta, who blames and grovels for forgiveness, these responses are like night and day.

But what do we know about Mahiru, really?

She's 22

She's a university student

She likes romantic novels, comic, and dramas

She loves love. [But she's not obsessed with being loved. Haruka is obsessed with being loved, Haruka wants to be loved and taken care of, Haruka killed out of jealousy and for attention because he didn't feel loved enough. We never get that from Mahiru.]

Everything else we know about Mahiru? Is for other people.

Her favorite hobbies? Whatever her partner is doing.

Her fashion sense? Whatever will catch her partner's eye.

Her favorite food? Well, as long her partner cooks it, anything's her favorite!

The only time we ever get a sense of her and her boyfriend possibly disagreeing on something is Day 14 in MV1. Mahiru wants to see a French film and begs her boyfriend to take her. This is odd, because just a few scenes ago, she was bragging about how their tastes in films perfectly line up. If their tastes are the same, why would she have to beg him to take her to see this one?

Mahiru, like Yuno, is hiding behind a facade. But unlike Yuno, Mahiru doesn't have a strong core underneath her mirroring. Yuno can drop her "nice girl" act and she still has strong opinions and feelings and acts accordingly. Mahiru, when you try to go behind her mask, clams up, redirects, searches for a way out.

So. Back to cake.

The boyfriend feeds pieces of himself to Mahiru. He makes himself vulnerable, he lets her in, lets her care for him, lets her "love" him.

But Mahiru? She never feeds him until the very end, and even then, her "cake" isn't anything edible.

She's not stupid. She knows she can't give him what he really wants: any sort of vulnerability.

Their relationship is one-sided, but not because Mahiru is toxic or the boyfriend is apathetic. Their relationship is one sided because that's how Mahiru wants it to be. She wants to be the perfect girlfriend, because, if we're being honest, Mahiru doesn't like herself very much.

Why else would she hate talking about herself? She clearly loves to chat.

She puts her all into everything...as long as it's for someone besides her.

She will outright ignore her own pain and suffering, her own emotions, because she doesn't want to make anyone else upset.

Mahiru: Sorry… for making you worry. I’m fine! It doesn’t hurt at all.

Es: It’s a horrible injury. There’s no way it doesn’t hurt.

Mahiru: It doesn’t!

So why did her boyfriend die?

Mahiru's very good at hiding her emotions. If she slipped up and her boyfriend realized and noticed how she refused to love herself, it could cause friction in their otherwise perfect relationship.

Maybe Mahiru was the one who wanted to die in the woods, and her boyfriend, starved for any sort of real connection to her, found her at the last moment? Maybe her mental health dragged his down with her.

Mahiru's incredibly complex and tragic and endlessly relatable. She only loves too much because she can't love herself. If she's truly unforgivable, and she keeps her promise to stay alone...what's stopping her from killing the only thing she hates most?

#milgram #mahiru shiina #this is how to be in love with you #character analysis #i love you #daisuki #meta #deco*27 #milgram project #mahiru innocent #i log into the milgram fandom #i post a 1.5k word essay #i leave for another 5 months #lux talks

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thewebcomicsreview · 6 months

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You know what, good job Kevin and Kell, having this storyline about a local city council election perfectly line up with real-world election day in the United States. Most comics wouldn't have bothered, hell most people wouldn't even know today is election day!

...You did know today is election day, right fellow Americans? Because it is. Some states, like Ohio, are having hugely consequential ballot decisions regarding abortion access, that I don't think I need to sell you on the importance of.

Other places, like my home city of Boston, are choosing city counselors, which seems like a minor inconsequential choice, until you remember how much influence city councils have over what housing does and doesn't get built, and thus rent in your city.

Since I live in one of the most expensive goddamn cities in the world, I did some research into my candidates' position on housing. There's a candidate who supports rent control, one who opposes all housing projects that negatively affect landlords, a YIMBY who supports building more housing in nearly every instance, and a NIMBY anti-vaxxer who wants to let conservatives take over schools. That's a pretty goddamn consequential choice, it turns out!

Your vote matters more in local elections (literally, since there are way fewer votes), local elections affect you in major and under-reported ways, and the people winning local elections now will be running for higher offices later, so getting a guy you like in at city council may may huge national dividends one day. Take some time to look up what's on your ballot, and vote if you can!

Voting: It's more than once every four years!

#Kevin and Kell #Democracy #I'm voting for the YIMBY guy #Did you know Tokyo is the most crowded city in the world #And yet you can rent a studio apartment ten minutes walk from the train for under $400/mo?#Isn't that a way better world?

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tittyinfinity · 6 months

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i can't shut up i'm sorry I'm ranting about Biden again

I'm starting to think Trump's presidency really wasn't any worse than what we have going on now, he was just targeting different people.

Bear with me.

The thing is, Biden has been the president for most of the pandemic and he hasn't been doing anything to stop the spread of it, so when people say "but Trump would kill US here!!" I wanna mention that Biden is already killing people of all parts of the political spectrum with his passiveness on covid

Biden is smarter than Trump. He's been in politics longer. He has had decades of learning how to maneuver politics. He has agreed with a lot of bad policies, many more than Trump even had the ability to do w his only 4 years of presidency. Trump is more interested in his image than anything else. Which is also dangerous! But it's much easier to convince people that Trump, a guy who is loud about his prejudices and caused a lot of damage because of that, is worse than a guy who pretends to agree with you on issues and then commits literal genocide.

Like I said, it just changes who is targeted instead. But is that really the case? We're already being targeted in different ways. A few good things have passed under Biden! But we also lost more bodily autonomy rights as far as abortion and trans rights go (not everywhere, but many states have become dangerous to live in). "That's not completely his fault" sure! Well then if the president doesn't have the power to change things truly for the better themselves, then worrying about who the president will be doesn't really matter. Also, presidents in the US have the ability to make executive orders.

And maybe he has spoken up on these things more and I just haven't heard about them - but Biden does not take the time to speak out about the anti-abortion, anti-trans, or healthcare related issues, except for the occasional quip here and there before he goes right back to not giving a shit. And I'm only using those as an example because a lot of "vote blue no matter who" people apparently only care about what happens to people here instead of in other countries.

And it's just really shitty to say "well what about the people who COULD die under a republican presidency instead of the real people dying from Biden's incitement of genocide right now!"

Trump incited a LOT of hatred in our country, yes. It pushed people to be more loud and open about their prejudices. But the deaths caused by hate crimes and COVID here in America were not on near of a large and deadly scale as what Biden is doing right now. We didn't watch our entire cities get destroyed and have our entire families wiped out.

So it seems, again, like the "vote blue no matter who" crowd only cares about politics when it comes to how THEY will (or MIGHT) be affected.

Am I saying vote for Trump or DeSantis? Fuck no. I'm saying prevent the next election from happening and burn this imperialistic genocidal government to the ground. The US has caused enough death, well into the millions, ever since it was created, and hasn't ever stopped committing genocide. But it only seems to matter when it (COULD) happen to white Americans.

Mexican people are still being put in cages and having their children stolen, too.

Indigenous people are still being murdered.

Disabled people are still dying from lack of accessible healthcare.

And the prices of everything have SKYROCKETED since Biden became president.

People are already suffering under a democratic president. You just won't care until it happens to you.

#.bdo

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avatarofcuriousity · 1 year

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Why YOU Should Vote For Solomon In The 2022 RAD Popularity Contest!

YOU. YES, YOU! YOU are sleeping on Solomon!

He doesn't like that, MC.

So I am making this post as a fellow Solomon enjoyer!

1. Much Character And Development (Very Cool!)

Solomon is an immortal sorcerer. So, he's not a demon or angle. He's different like that, a bit quirky if you will.

He's lived a long time. He's very lonely. The RAD program was finally a place where he could find his found family. Doesn't that make you feel bad? Don't you think he deserves more love to compensate for his very much lonely life? I am guilt tripping you, you are being held at gunpoint, MC...

To elaborate more on his character, please allow me direct you to these AMAZING posts (that are actually serious and put things in way better words than I ever could lol) to explain why he's SUCH much character.

@books-and-catears Quick read of his Birthday Event and all the details of how amazing he is!

@3vocatio 's Analysis Of Why Solomon is a Consistently Written Character AND The Devs FAV (CANON???) (REAL, NOT CLICKBAIT) (😱) (😍)

@yourboyhack 's reblog of Solomon's B-day Character Card and how it mentions the obvious and is so very based

2. He Just Loves You So Very Much

As evident by his constant praise and affection! You're his darling apprentice and is very proud of you! 💙

Example shown here in @books-and-catears post!

He is absolutely your soulmate, MC. No, I'm not gaslighting you, MC, what do you mean?

He is determined to show you how much he loves you! He's open and honest. All he wants is to be sincere with you, as also evident by ANOTHER @books-and-catears post (They're so fucking based, one of the biggest Solomon appreciaters ever) and @he-calls-me-kitten 's reblog!

Conclusion?

Solomon is a very amazing and fantastic character. Especially after his Birthday Event, it's clearer than ever he's one of the best written characters! He deserves much more fans and appreciation. And the Devs ESPECIALLY deserve to know how much we adore his character! And even if you STILL don't like him or prefer another character?

Do it for the bit. That's right. If nothing I said reached you, at least do it for the funny.

And THAT is why you should vote for Solomon in the 2022 RAD Popularity Contest!

VOTE NOW!:

(NOTE: You can vote as many times as you'd like! (If you go into Incognito Mode 😏👀) Vote your true fav, but I encourage you to go vote for Solomon as MANY times as you can in Incognito and go HAM.)

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how-to-fail-at-ship-jumping-au · 22 days

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Hetch, as a note before I send this message, I've never once played a role to you or Ranboo or anyone else. My name's Jordan. They/them. I'm much younger than you but I've got eye bags and grey hair that match yours. I've spent most of my life trying, in one way or another, to help people in situations like yours and Ranboo's. If I were in your world, I would have tried to get you as many legal, financial, and medical resources as you could.

I don't know what to say. There's so much TO say and all of it is goodbyes. I want to ask about everyone - Cameron and Ashley, whether Mike made it back or not. Jerma and the entire cast and crew and what's happened to Showfall itself.

You've had a month to get ready to say goodbye but we haven't. I want to thank you for everything, to express how much we love you and love having been part of your lives. To wish you the best of luck as life goes on. To celebrate the time we've spent together.

But I guess I don't know how much you'll hear this from the others so I'll try to focus on one thing. And I think I speak for most of us, but I might not. In that case, it's from me personally.

I'm sorry. Deeply, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize. To everyone we've affected and to you specifically.

We entered your world without your permission, under a power that only Janine understood. We teased you, we played around, we didn't respect you because you were only fictional to us. We're the reason you almost died (not through our own fault, but still). I've been so morbidly curious about your life story that I've encouraged people to ask for a glimpse at your future if we'd voted differently, because I (thinking of you as only fictional) wanted to know more about you even if that required seeing you in pain.

We've joked to you about things that you were clearly horrified or disgusted by. We kept calling you "babygirl" to your face against your will - and I can't speak for anyone else about this, but I personally thought that this would be sexual harassment if you were "real." I hope it's the loving nickname we meant it as rather than a despised term, but my hope doesn't change the way it actually affected you.

Ranboo, we've known things about your life that should have been private. That also wasn't under our control, but we could have stopped reading at any time and we didn't. Our constant eyes on you as a vulnerable teen probably hurt you sometimes in ways I don't even remember or haven't considered.

Sneeg, I'm sorry I didn't ask if you wanted to be reached out to as much as the others. Charlie, I'm sorry I didn't ask if you wanted a break from us at any point. And I'm sorry that there are probably a million other sorries I don't have time to give.

I don't expect an answer to all of this. But I wanted to tell you this as part of my goodbye. Love you all.

And for the sake of making sure this message can get to you... please react in a way that only shows one person in the frame for us? Without much talking?

Everyone, please don't listen to this part but Hetch. And Hetch, please cover your ears if you don't want to know something about yourself that you haven't realized yet. Or maybe I'll need to send in a separate censored version of this before it reaches you?

Alright, if you're listening, this is about your own sexuality maybe not being what you think it is. Please cover your ears at any time. But I have good reason to believe that you're bisexual. It's a good thing, a beautiful thing. But no one can determine who you are but you.

#ship jumping au

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decolonize-the-left · 2 months

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Lol. lmao even.

Thank you so much for proving my point.

Like forgive my "holier than thou" and "fake leftist" attitude about it but I think if you want change you have to take risks, risks that upset the status quo. Like voting 3rd party, especially when nobody (including historically blue labor unions and states) wants Biden to be president.

If there's a chance to change things for the better then leftists and progressives take that opportunity. Every time. If you don't take that opportunity then you aren't even a progressive, let alone a leftist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Conservatives are called conservatives cuz they don't want things to change. You know why? Progress always threatens privilege and their privilege is something conservatives care about maintaining. "Things are fine the way they are, not perfect but be reasonable."

Also since you asked about my praxis; The last 4 years I have: protested/taken tear gas to the face across the entire PNW, organized for BLM, helped create a police alternative in my area so people don't have to call the cops, built mutual aid networks that cross state borders, and then I caught COVID the first time. At which point I became too disabled to keep doing the same level of praxis. So then I spent a Lot of time at the doctor trying to get my new COVID-caused chronic illnesses diagnosed. I couldn't handle activity like that anymore so I shifted gears to accommodate my body. I changed my passively political Tumblr to be my main source of outreach for radicalizing that would double as a political resource for leftist newbies.

Additionally, I've posted about this before and even showed y'all my ballot but I live in Nazi Territory. There is nobody who runs for any office here that isn't a Republican or libertarian and most of the time they're unopposed, too. I regularly don't vote because I don't have anyone to vote for, let alone have a 3rd party candidate to support.

"decolonize your own nationality privilege"

I'm literally Ojibwe, first off. Secondly, you think decolonizing the USA looks like re-electing a colonizer actively commiting genocide? l m a o

Like I said....people like this are closer to being conservative centrists than any kind of leftist. There's No Way someone who supports liberty and self determination would vote for Biden when there are other options ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and if I did NOT call out this clearly co-optive behavior then I would Not be decolonize the left.

Centrists and conservatives will not be allowed to water down leftist beliefs as long as this blog is here.

I literally came here to be holier than thou and judgey and to hold leftists to a higher standard after I shared so many online spaces with leftists who did Not support Landback, hated IDPOL, and thought class reductionism would lead to a revolution.

So if my posts strike a nerve: good, tbh

Ps;

"real leftism is when you vote for capitalist genocidal Democrats to maintain the peaceful status quo and if you disagree you're a privileged liberal" and "how come you as a famous Tumblr blogger haven't materially affected our elections the last 4 years???" are takes I'd be embarrassed to say out loud so I've hidden your URL, lmfaoooooo

Pps:

You could open any of the books I've suggested on race or colonialism or imperialism or native history :) or join one of the unions I've posted about. Watch one of the videos about building mutual aid networks. You could even learn about presidential candidates on my page. And if you think you can do a better job than me then do it. I'm literally begging.

Or yeah, I guess you could keep doing whatever this is *gestures to the post* instead.

That's obviously very useful.

#not to be mentally ill on main but why do people ALWAYS assume im just preachy???#i went to the PDX BLM protest after ppl said i didnt have enoughy IRL experience to be a “real” leftist #i hate being dismissed lmfao yall have no idea the things Ive learned and done out of spite to “earn” my voice #so yeah nobody can tell me shit cuz i stay on top of business and thats why i act holier than thou in my posts #its just so aggravating to be literally fucking disabled and VISIBLY doing more work than “allies” who just make posts like this #“why isn't decol radicalizing more people or being useful” thats called a projection worstie #the real question is how have you followed me this long and STILL believe voting for Joe is a decolonial action....#unless you haven't actually internalized any of the free education and resources on my blog #rant #vent

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macontheweb · 7 months

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Today, Australia is voting in a referendum on the Voice to Parliament: an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body, enshrined in our constitution, that will give our First Nations peoples a say on policy that affects them. A Voice would be the first step in Australia reckoning with its history: a history which has so far ignored and silenced — often violently — the voices of the oldest living culture on the planet.

It is not lost on me that I am a non-indigenous person being asked —again — to weigh in on the future of indigenous Australians. I don’t take that lightly, nor am I sure whether a referendum is right for this. I would have felt perfectly comfortable with a Voice being enshrined without my input. Maybe that would have spared my indigenous friends the emotional toll of begging for political recognition.

But it is the way it is, so I’m voting Yes. I’m voting Yes on Wurundjeri land. Stolen land. Land where I live the kind of comfortable life out of reach for many indigenous Australians.

I’m voting Yes because it’s time for real reconciliation.

And I’m voting Yes because here hasn’t been a single argument from the No camp that I could square with doing the right thing. They say the Voice will divide Australia, but Australia is already divided. They say it will give indigenous Australians an unfair advantage. It won’t, but it will hopefully start undoing the years of unfair privilege white Australians have had in deciding their fate. The No camp has told us, “If you don’t know, vote no,” as if that’s an acceptable thing for our country’s civic discourse. As if the answer to not knowing is not to find out, not to ask questions, not to make an informed decision weighed by evidence.

They say indigenous Australians don’t want it. The polls say eighty percent of them do.

In all areas related to quality of life, non-indigenous Australians are leaps and bounds ahead of the people that lived on this land first. Indigenous Australians aren’t living as long as non-indigenous Australians. They are being incarcerated in disproportionate numbers. They don’t have the same access to high quality education. Domestic violence and sexual abuse rates are disproportionately higher in indigenous communities. The economy, housing, employment…the list goes on and on and on and the stats remain dire.

We are already living in a No world. It isn’t working.

It’s time for a change. I don’t know if we’ll get it. I’m fearful that we are too conservative and too selfish a nation to take this one small step, but I hope desperately when I wake up tomorrow we will have said, “Yes. Have a seat at the table. It’s long overdue.”

#bear with me on this #I know there’s a lot going on in the world but I had to get this out #the voice to parliament #long post #auspol

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still-a-morosexual-help · 1 year

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@bigprincessrebel hi! I just saw your ask and ummmm so it's gonna have to be part of a somewhat bigger series of posts? I already have two asks about the morality of demons that I'm going to turn into one post, I've got a post about the functioning of the Celestial Realm vs Devildom and how that affects their morality/values in my drafts -> both would relate a lot to your ask. I also have a post about religion vs the the Celestial Realm & Devildom floating around somewhere that I should find cause it's also relevant. But I'm really busy these days so all that might take some time so till then here's a summary of my thoughts

I think it's dumb to believe Diavolo's a shitty ruler because he wants peace between the realms and demons are supposed to be evil? And to believe that the other demons won't like him because of that? Because:

1. The game literally said that Diavolo's voted the most popular demon every year

2. Lots of the background demons have made friends with not only MC (a human) but also with the angels. Hell Luke has demon friends outside of the main characters. Also like pretty sure lots of demons are romantically attracted to humans? Given how there was a queue to give MC Valentine's day presents

Okay but here are the more serious points:

3. It's heavily implied and straight up shown that the Celestial Realm does not equal Heaven the same way the Devildom does not equal Hell. (I have a whole post breaking this down and going into detail that I'll add when I properly answer your ask) meaning that in the same way that OM's angels' aren't inherently good, its demons aren't inherently bad. If you actually stop and look at it, you'll notice that the angels are more prone to everyday violence than the demons eg: Diavolo's solution to stopping an angry dragon being talking to it while Simeon's was to fight it (and we see that Diavolo's solution actually worked). Michael's punishments as an angel were scarier than Lucifer's punishments as a demon. Just generally how trigger happy Raphael is vs how weirdly kind Mammon is

4. OM! may borrow characters and certain plot elements from christianity but it's not a direct parallel or reflection of it so if you try to apply the logic of the "real" stories to these characters then the characters and the world they live in stop making sense and you get a warped version of the story where the demons are pure evil and Diavolo's a shitty leader for trying to go against their nature. The best way, in my opinion, to enjoy it is to acknowledge that there are similarities but ultimately analyse it independently. Using the lens of christianity to look at stories that don't completely follow it is how you end up with things like Disney's Hercules (a fun time but not accurate to the actual source material)

5. A BIG part of obey me is about overcoming prejudice. Like it's not even subtext. It's right there. The angels are shown to see demons as pure evil and a big part of the story is showing them that actually they're also just people. We see this in the Devilgram where Lucifer & Diavolo first meet, in the flashback where Simeon and Diavolo first meet, this is literally the entirety of Luke's arc/character development and in certain things said and done by Michael, Raphael and even Mammon. This....this huge part of the story wouldn't work if the demons actually were evil and Diavolo was just an idealistic idiot...

Anyway this was the summarised version, believe it or not!

#asks #?#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me!#shall we date? obey me!#swd obey me #swd obey me!#shall we date obey me #obey me diavolo #om diavolo #obey me! diavolo #om! diavolo #swd diavolo #shall we date diavolo

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daydadahlias · 20 days

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What’s your stance on the Ashton hate right now?

ok so i've gotten a few asks abt this now and i will concede and answer this one because i love the insinuation here that I can have a stance like I'm a politician or smthn <3 thank u for voting and for this platform <3

I'm also going to take the opportunity to say this is entirely my stance, not what i think everyone should believe or i think is the "right" perspective or blah blah yada yada disclaimer disclaimer. no one come at me saying I'm forcing my beliefs on you. you catch my drift. if you disagree with me, that's your prerogative and i frankly just don't care very much.

that being said <3 lock in for a jessay <3

if we're being entirely honest, I think people in the modern age - especially twitter users - actively seek out reasons to be upset. they crave drama like bees crave honey. especially when it comes to ashton tbh. the man can't breathe right without people claiming he's being problematic so I don't put a lot of stock in general in anyone's opinions of him but my own, especially bc I'm in fandom for my own enjoyment, not for anyone else's !! so it doesn't much matter to me what they think of him. i don't value their opinions!

if you'll notice, fandom is a lot about curating your own special little bubble and here on tumblr, literally no one is talking shit about ashton that i follow. it's literally just on twitter that I've seen any hate because twitter is a cesspool filled with chronically online social justice warrior bullshit :) and there's a reason I'm not on there often.

i think hate like this is just point-blank stupid because, as I've said before and I will say again, cancel culture is fucking fake ! it is literally not real and it is invented by people who have miserable sad little lives and want to self-impose their issues and hypocritical views onto others to pretend that they're doing good in the world when, in reality, they're making it that much worse!!

now, don't get me wrong, i really don't mind someone saying to their fave, "hey, this thing you said was hurtful for X reason, maybe you could consider that in the future :)" but I've already seen people saying ashton should kill himself sdfghjk so ! i don't care much for any opinion they have because they undermine their own arguments by telling people to spread kindness by spreading cruelty. it's frankly moronically hypocritical and embarrasses me every time i go online and see it.

as for the actual reason ashton's getting hate right now, i don't personally think it's as big a deal as people pretend it is. and this is getting into my own personal perspectives of things and please feel free to disagree with me on this because i know it's a Hot Take, but i can believe and support victims while simultaneously thinking that anonymous twitter allegations are mostly bullshit.

all allegations against All Time Low were entirely anonymous from a twitter user with no evidence/support/timeline (and, yeah, a random user said there were "97 allegations" but when people asked where she got that number from, she literally admitted she made it up and deactivated her account. but that didn't stop people from just fucking running with the number) and when ATL threatened to press charges for defamation, all of a sudden this anon user disappeared with no further comment. but twitter went wild - as it often does - and completely exaggerated all the actual information given.

twitter spreads misinformation like a disease. that's just the truth. and im certainly not saying all allegations that originate on twitter are fake because they aren't but i am saying that people online need to support victims at the same time that they actually start thinking critically about things. twitter acts like it's "guilty until proven innocent" instead of the other way around.

that being said, i don't personally support ATL because i didn't listen to their music before so this doesn't affect me and - if there is the chance they're abusers, i don't really want to listen to them. But that doesn't mean i tell people to turn them off if they like them or something, or tell them to stop being fans. because it doesn't affect me and i, frankly, just don't care. people need to learn that supporting the artist and supporting the art are two totally different things. you can listen to a song you like without knowing every allegation the artist has ever faced. also, if we stopped listening to every song made by a problematic artist, I'm afraid there would be very little music left.

that's where this brings me to the fact that people are throwing around insane accusations like that ashton supports rapists which is a fucking insane thing to say about a) people who arent even confirmed/charged rapists and b) over the fact he literally just played a song by them? he was DJ-ing for an emo/pop punk night? people would have been shocked if he hadn't played All Time Low??

also, I'm sorry but are you going to boycott every single person and establishment that plays one of the biggest pop-punk bands ever?? if you walk into a store and hear it playing All Time Low, will you never shop there again?? where is the line drawn?

and finally, the whole thing pisses me off because people use it as an excuse to say that they stand with victims and that ashton is actively harming victims by playing All Time Low when, I'm sorry, but no the fuck he's not ?? and, in my opinion, this is actually does MORE harm to victims than it does good? it's all just performative crap to make yourself look "woke".

and, excuse me, but what have you actually done to genuinely fucking support victims other than tell some random rich man who you don't fucking know that he should kill himself for DJing at an emo night?? using all this time to "cancel" Ashton Irwin's privileged cishet male ass could have been spent actually raising awareness about rape or helping actual real life fucking people in your community? this level of vitriol doesn't help anyone. it's pathetic.

this is just my real problem with the internet in general is that people act like hate inspires kindness and education when it does the exact opposite.

so, that being said, i just think the hate against ashton is small-minded and embarrassing. it doesn't mean anything at all. and I'm going to keep enjoying tumblr where people aren't pathetically insane (they're funny insane) and we can just learn how to fucking enjoy things because the world is too ugly right now to not find beauty in SOMETHING, goddammit! i am in fandom to have fun. not listen to people bitch and moan about their uninformed, damaging views of what social justice is.

and i will also spend my time in my real life genuinely supporting victims of assault and abuse instead of just pretending i do on fucking fandom social media.

#mic drop #i said what i said #and i will say no more <3 #if i get any more asks abt this <3 i shall not engage #but this one's for u anon #now back to ur regularly scheduled program #also ok i'll just say once again #i love ashton #and that's not going to change #so im going to keep posting abt this guy dfghjk #dont expect a public denouncement of him any time soon #pigeon #anon #tw negative #tw hate #tw all time low #tw atl

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