Ways To Help Protestors If You Are Unable To Protest

Jace stepped forward to help Alec into a dark blue gear jacket printed with golden runes, while Catarina draped a cobalt-and-gilt silk jacket around Magnus’s shoulders.They both moved back, and a hush fell over the crowd as Jia spoke. “Through the centuries,” she said, “there have been few unions between Shadowhunters and Downworlders that have been recognized as such. But a new age has dawned, and with a new age come new traditions. Tonight, as Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood blend their lives and hearts, we stand ready to recognize this union. To witness a true bond between two souls who have cleaved to each other.” She cleared her throat. There was delight and pride in her face as she gazed around the gathered group. “Alexander Gideon Lightwood. Hast thou found the one thy soul loves?” It was a question asked at every wedding: part of the Shadowhunter ceremony for a thousand years. The crowd hushed, the hush of holiness, of sacred ritual observed and shared.  “I have found him,” Alec said. “And I will not let him go.” “Magnus Bane,” said Jia, “Hast thou gone among the watchmen, and in the cities of the world? Hast thou found the one thy soul loves?” “I have found him,” Magnus said, gazing at Alec. “And I will not let him go.” Jia inclined her head. “Now it is time for the exchanging of runes.” This was the moment when, in a traditional ceremony, Shadowhunters would Mark each other with wedding runes and speak the words of the vows. But Magnus could not bear runes. They would burn his skin.  Alec moved closer to Magnus and Emma saw that it was a golden brooch in the shape of the Wedded Union rune. As Alec moved toward Magnus, he spoke the words of the Nephilim vows: “Love flashes out like fire, the brightest kind of flame Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it.” He pinned the brooch over Magnus’s heart, his blue eyes never leaving Magnus’s face. “Now place me as a seal over thine heart, as a seal over thine arm: For love is strong as death. And so we are bound: stronger than flame, stronger than water, stronger than death itself.” Magnus, his gaze fixed on Alec’s, laid his hand over the brooch. It was his turn now: Alec drew aside his jacket and rolled up his sleeve, baring his upper arm. He placed a stele in Magnus’s hand and clasped Magnus’s fingers within his own. With their hands entwined, Alec traced the shape of the Wedded Union rune onto his own arm. Emma assumed the second rune, the one over his heart, would be added later, in private, as it usually was. When they were done, the rune stood out stark and black on Alec’s skin. It would never fade. It would never leave him, a sign of his love for Magnus for all time.  Slowly Magnus lowered his hand, still clasped in Alec’s. He gazed at the rune on Alec’s arm in a sort of daze, and Alec looked back at him, as if neither of them could look away. “The rings now,” said Jia, and Alec seemed to start out of a dream. Jace stepped forward and put one ring into Alec’s hand, and another into Magnus’s, and said something quietly to both of them that made them laugh.  The rings were Lightwood family rings, etched with the traditional design of flames on the outside, and with words inscribed on the inside. “Aku cinta kamu,” Magnus read out, gazing at the interior of the ring, and he smiled at Alec, a brilliant, world-spanning smile. “My love for yours, my heart for yours, my soul for yours, Alexander. Now and for all time.” Magnus and Alec slid the rings onto each other’s fingers, and Jia closed her book. “Alexander Lightwood-Bane. Magnus Lightwood-Bane. You are now married,” she said. “Let us rejoice.

The Wedding ceremony of Magnus Lightwood-Bane and Alexander Lightwood-Bane (via magnusbane-aleclightwood)

I hope we do better there. I hope Jasper was wrong, and we aren’t the problem. I hope your lives there will be as happy as mine has been. Be the good guys. May we meet again.

A love that never tires

Bro, it's like 4PM in São Paulo right now and all the smoke made it look like it's already night...city of ashes indeed.

Lightwood-Bane/Clace Headcanons

“Uncle Jace” has written no less than four piano lullabies for Rafael.

After they adopted Rafe, Magnus begged Clary for a portrait. 

She delivered the finished product the following Christmas, and Alec was misty-eyed and emotional. The portrait is framed and hanging up in their place – the first thing people see when they enter. 

Jace gives Rafael piano lessons every other Wednesday afternoon, while Clary and Max use the studio next door to paint and draw and generally make a mess.

Clary always lets Max play with her hair. He’s surprisingly gentle with it, and she finds it super relaxing. When Clary and Jace take the boys to the park, Max will put flowers in her hair.

At the park, Rafe always ropes them into riotous games of Extreme Tag. (Their version of “tag” usually turn into a game of “tackling” when Rafe and Jace are at it.)

(Meanwhile, these Wednesday afternoons for Alec and Magnus mean a continuation of their ongoing Wednesday Strip Poker tournament. They’re always delightfully disheveled when they come to pick up their boys.)

Rafe’s piano lessons with Jace are interspersed with lots of parabatai wisdom and stories of Alec-Jace shenanigans, which Rafael eats up and Alec learns to dread.

“You told him about the Faerie food incident?!” “It’s funny!” “YOU WERE RUNNING AROUND NAKED, JACE!” “I know – Rafe loved that bit.”  “YEAH WELL NOW MAX DOES TOO, YOU HORRIBLE UNCLE.” 

Max thinks Clary should have a baby because the baby she’d have might be “the opposite of him - not blue, but red, like her hair.”

To which Clary always makes the face :0 and replies gravely, “you’re so right.”

The 100 season 4 character summaries - in a single gif:

John Murphy:

Echo:

Bellamy Blake:

Clarke Griffin:

Emori:

Raven Reyes:

King Roan:

May We Meet Again

In peace, may you leave this shore.

In love, may you find the next.

Safe passage on your travels.

Until our final journey to the ground.

May we meet again

do you ever read a piece of fanfic that is just so fucking spectacular that makes you actually feel things? 

boy, i swear to god, i’m so goddamn grateful for every single one of you writers, yall literally giving us entertainment for free almost every goddamn week; and this is not only for those gracious magnificent bastards that are practically gods because they’ve perfected (and keep developing) their craft, this is also to that little (and equally amazing) writer that is just starting and might not be the best at it, you my friend keep writing because practice makes perfect, don’t stop writing if that’s what makes you happy. i just want all of yall to know that i appreciate you so goddamn much and yall the fucking best

to every fanfic writer out there: i love you, u crazy motherfucker

the wolves will come again

Hunger Games Relevance

(Please read/boost if you’ve ever read/watched the hunger games or you care about what’s going on)

I don’t know if other people feel the same way but especially with the new hunger games film coming out I’ve been absolutely floored by some of the parallels between the world in the series and the current conflict in Palestine.

Firstly, Suzanne Collins did say that she partially got the idea from flicking between channels showing reality TV interspersed with footage from the Iraq war so I guess there’s a good reason for me to be seeing similarities now.

But the fact it’s being live-streamed - the carnage - the propaganda - the fact that lots of us have been following the same few (often very young) journalists who have become the ‘face’ of Palestinian resistance (because right now journalism IS resistance being actively targeted by Israel) - it’s all crazy familiar.

I saw a clip of Israeli’s sitting on a hill watching and laughing at the bombs dropping on Gaza today as though they were fireworks just minutes before Israel bombed the 3rd floor of a paediatric hospital. The same ‘Sderot Cinema’ where Israeli’s bought deck chairs and snacks to ‘watch the spectacle’ of the 2014 bombing campaign on Gaza.

The way not everyone in the capitol was evil or bad and some people actively supported the districts but realistically they were still complicit in the exploitation - even if just through ignorance.

The incredible amount of children dying - the bombing of hospitals and withholding of resources (like in District 8 in Mockingjay), the taking of people not involved in Hamas into administrative detention (hundreds arrested in the West Bank - like how the victors were taken in Catching Fire even the ones who weren’t involved in the rebellion), the collective punishment of Gaza (the firebombing of District 12).

The way Israel dropped pamphlets from the sky to tell Gazans to evacuate south and then bombed the route (literally straight out of the games I swear - the video of the pamphlets falling was like the scene with the parachutes in Mockingjay which represent hope and then detonate).

It’s so eerily similar and I just wonder how so many watched those films and read those books and are silent now - why could they identify resistance and oppression and desperation and exploitation in fiction and not reality?

And I wonder if maybe it’s because we have to remind ourselves that we aren’t Katniss in this situation - we aren’t the heroes - we are the Capitol and District citizens watching it all happen on our screens - and that’s an unfortunate and uncomfortable concept to grapple with.