Still Collecting The Full Alphabet Of The “live, Laugh, Love” Variants If Anyone Has Some Good Examples.

ERASE the idea that America saved lives by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan from your minds. ERASE the idea that it was anything more than a political move to scare Russia and also to satiate US curiosity as to the true ability of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not military bases. They were heavily populated civilian cities chosen precisely bc the U.S. wanted to see how many people an atomic bomb could kill in one go. Japan was on the verge of surrendering, the U.S. literally wanted to test out their nuclear weapons on people that they deemed disposable. That is it. If those bombs were dropped by any nation other than the US veryone involved would have been tried as war criminals.

does existence ever make you just... ache? 

i see and hear and know about so many atrocities and it’s just so overwhelming. how can people stand by as these things happen? how can people do these things? and i’m not just talking about things on the national, or global scale. how can people cheat on their partners? how can they stand to hurt someone like that? how can people be abusive? how do people rape and beat and murder others in cold blood? how do leaders turn a blind eye to the suffering of their people? how can a parent manipulate and abuse their child? 

how can anyone do anything horrible and not feel as if their brain is being ripped apart? how do their hearts not feel as if they’re being stretched to a snapping point and crushed all at the same time, when they hurt someone?

and at the same time,

i see and hear and know of such boundless love, such all-encompassing, unconditional adoration, and i know how i feel it for others, but i can’t possibly imagine someone feeling that way for me. and for this, i feel so arrogant. so self-absorbed. i’m ashamed at how sometimes i feel as if no one, never in the expanse of human existence, could ever feel these things as raw as i can. how only i bear the weight of the world, how only i feel as if all the suffering and weeping of the world is projected onto, into, my heart, and how my heart so often feels as if it’s combusting from all this.

i just... ache. i don’t know if i’m alone in this pain (i hope i’m not), but even the knowledge that those who experience emotions the way i do exist as well would not ease this burden, i think. 

Nesta's untapped mean, sarcastic and bisexual older sibling vibe was what drew so many of us to her character and then Acosf had to wipe it all away until she became another Feyre and no, i will never stop grieving

I love this, I love you, I'm going to die mad about Nesta's entire plot being about apologizing for who she was and fucking babies.

Like yes- you are SO RIGHT. Nesta's appeal is outside those pastel lines. She's angry. She's smart. She's self aware and miserable and relatable- and yes, incandescently bisexual, thank you, yes this is in everything I write even though I consistently pair her with men.

BUT ALSO

Can we speak for a second about the fact that Nesta is literally. Supposed. to be Feyre's foil?

Two sides of a coin! Sister's who look alike, who manage to live the same experience in totally different ways, who would never make THE SAME CHOICES. The whole fucking point of their conflict is a fundamental breakdown of understanding- they start in the same place- love, because the sister's love the fuck out of each other even at their worst- and then move in opposite directions.

Their terrible, neglectful, shitty parents? Feyre enshrines them. Nesta hates them as much as she loves them. Elain? Feyre writes her off. I refuse to believe Nesta, who is her best friend?, does the same. Stupid, aggressive faery flirting? Feyre learns to play the game. Nesta's game ends in murder, given the opportunity.

The idea that there is only one happy ending: mate, marriage, babies. Is just....wild? insane? reductive?

It never surprised me that Feyre defined herself by Rhysand because Feyre...is, frankly, too young to know what to define herself by. She sticks to the same exact pattern of falling into the shadow of a shitty relationship. She doesn't have chance- he's her mate. he's her husband. he's her overlord. she works for him. she works with him. He dresses her. He plans for her. He makes her a place by his side. A promise binds her to stay- Feyre's journey is, essentially, a circle.

Nesta survived abuse exactly the same, from childhood, from a man- but the entire point of her fury, of her stubborn to the point of self-destructive attitude, is that she learned from it- she's grieving, she's angry, she's never going to allow herself to be hurt again in anyway except for pain she chooses.

That women folding in on herself?

Apologizing for herself, that it's her at all? Altering her literal body? Falling in line? Giving up what small piece of human life she had left? Bowing and begging and crying and taking any shred of affection, even laced as it is in LITERAL physical punishment??

That's not a happy ending, that's a breakdown.

lucien was always described as somewhat a ladies man before the mating bond snapped into place for him. “I’m a mated male now,” he stated after, and we have yet to see him break his word. to see him remain loyal despite his complicated relationship with elain is so attractive, especially considering he used to be a flirt.

May the Fourth Be With You

Don’t forget to wear glitter, take your meds, and practice self-care in honor of our dear departed Space Mom.

Blessed Be She Who Drowned In Moonlight, Strangled By Her Own Bra

When Azriel had pictured his future, it had never featured this kind of happiness. His brothers, their families being his family too, sure, but he never expected someone of his own. He certainly never expected the preppy, yoga-teaching, freelance writer who lay in his arms. He never expected someone who liked late nights to his early mornings, someone who danced in their underwear around his apartment, someone who made him drink green juice smoothies and practice stretching.

He never expected bliss.

Lucien is sweet and kind in a way that none of the other male characters of Acotar are. All of these horrible things have happened to him, his friends and family have betrayed and thrown him aside multiple times, and he still wants to help. He still wants to fight for those who are even weaker then him, and just be a good person regardless of how it could benefit him.

He has nothing and no one and he still tries.

toxic dysfunctional complex sibling relationships will always always be IT it'll always sweep it'll always top romance you can't undo a blood bond it'll always exist you can't unmake it it lives it lives you both breathe it and it lives even long after one or both parties are dead

this is why stories with compelling sibling arcs will always fuck you up irreversibly and in very specific way. it's like, you are my mirror you are my opposite you are my foil you are my blood i see myself through you i recognize myself because you exist and no one can ever destroy me quite the way you can.

Reflection, c. 2020 Daniel F. Gerhartz (American, born 1965)

FYI everyone sometimes medication for mental illness is the only option (read my exp w meds and depression below)

Since the age of 8 I showed signs of depression. This was unfortunately ignored by family though I have family history of depression. I though my symptoms were myself just "growing up" and every day I lived in dread that the lack of happiness was how the rest of my life would be lived. During my teenage years this got significantly worse, leading to self harm and suicidal ideation among other things like recklessness/lack of care with my own life.

This illness followed me until I started therapy in my twenties. Two years of sessions on and off definitely helped. I saw three different therapists and still the sadness/numbness remained. I was diagnosed with dysthymia.

I started medication, and over the course of a year and a half, went on to two different types. I tapered off after the second med made me gain a ton of weight. I was terrified that the crushing sadness would come back, but tapered off.

I've been off meds for about a year and feel so completely normal. Change is possible, don't let anyone shame you into thinking you don't need ut when you've tried everything. One of my therapists refused to give me a referral for meds because they didn't understand dysthymia. If you think you need the help, DO IT! you know yourself and your body and mind better than anyone.