So, today's prompt was "soulmates," which... I didn't know what to do with at all. But I wrote something anyway. So, here is a very weird thing that exists now, I guess.
Revival msr, after they get back together.
Also on AO3
Tagging @today-in-fic
“Do you believe in fate?”
A question out of the blue; he turns his head to look at her. Her face turned up, she’s looking at the sky, fused to his side on the small bench out on their porch. They’re sitting closer than is necessary, but that is nothing new for them. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugs and lets out a small laugh. “I don’t know. It just seems so unlikely sometimes, that we’re here, you know… despite everything.”
It’s only been a few weeks since she moved back in, he knows exactly what she means. “I thought you didn’t believe in fate.”
“I don’t.” She pauses, and he waits. “But if we got here all on our own, isn’t that amazing?”
“It is.” He smiles and takes her hand. “When you say ‘despite everything,’ you mean…”
“Yeah.”
He thought so, and he agrees with her. Back then, when she left, he thought that it was over for a while. That they had tried and that this was their proof that maybe love was not enough. But here she is, her hand in his, their fingers linked together.
“I hoped it wouldn’t be forever when I left,” she says. “But I’d have understood if you hadn’t been able to forgive me.”
“Forgive you?” He waits until she turns her face towards him, then shakes his head. “What is there to forgive? We were too broken, both of us.”
“And now we’re better?”
“Maybe. I think we are. I think…” He trails off, not sure how to put this into words.
“What?” she asks, and he loves how she says it. She wants to hear his answer.
“I think the only way to get us back, you know, to make us whole again… I think it had to be a thing we chose, not something done out of some misguided sense of obligation.”
She nods. “A step back? To reevaluate?”
“If this, us, were inevitable,” he thinks out loud, “then would it mean as much?”
“You mean if we were each other’s only option?”
“Or best option.” He sighs. “Do you think that when we met, it was because we had to? And that it was already clear that we would fall in love?”
“That would be sad, I think,” she says.
And he knows exactly what she means. “You left an impression on me that day,” he tells her. “Like… a tiny ray of light that I hadn’t expected.”
“You too,” she says. “And it kind of…”
“Got brighter all the time.”
“Yeah.”
“But it didn’t have to.”
“No,” she agrees. “If they’d taken me off the X-Files again…”
She doesn’t continue, and he is glad. He doesn’t even want to think about it. “You know what makes me happiest about us being here again, right now?”
“What is it?” she asks.
“That we don’t have to be. That it’s because we want to.”
“Because it isn’t easy, but we’re doing it anyway?”
“Yeah.” He meets her eyes, and she’s already smiling. “It makes me happy that you want to try again because you think it’s worth it. Not because I am your guarantee for happiness.”
“I don’t know.” She squeezes his hand lightly. “You make me pretty happy every day.”
“You make me happy too. But you have to admit it’s really hard sometimes.”
“And that wouldn’t be the case if this were fate?” He hears it in her voice that she’s not arguing, that she agrees with him. But maybe she needs to know this just as much as he does.
“Not in the same way. Because we’d know for sure that it could never be like this with anybody else.”
“It’s special because we don’t have to,” she says, nodding. “Because the hard times can be bad enough to break us.”
“But we choose not to let them. Out of our own free will.”
“Not because some higher power has decided no one else would ever be quite right.”
“That’s what I believe,” he says. “But you know what?”
“What?”
Her hair is vibrant red in the light of the fading sun, he sees each freckle on her face, her face that he knows better than any other. “I still think no one else could ever be quite right. Not because this has been predetermined. Not because it’s destiny. But… because I’ve loved you for so long. You know me. You know me and you came back anyway.”
She shakes her head at him. “Don’t make it sound like you’re so difficult to love. That’s always been the easiest part. But I know what you mean. You know me, and you let me come back anyway.”
“That was because I know you,” he points out. “Not despite the fact I do.”
“So it’s all us,” she says. “It’s you and me. Because we want to.”
“Yeah,” he says. “Because we want to.”
She kisses him, because she wants to. He kisses her back, because he wants this too.
They are unlikely, sometimes they’re impossible. But somehow, they’re still here. And still in love. And that’s all them. Because there is no truth, but there is trust, and so they trust that they will still want this tomorrow. He’s pretty optimistic that they will.
Google is so powerful that it "hides" other search systems from us. We just don't know the existence of most of them.
Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information.
Keep a list of sites you never heard of!
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.
We have to remember that with every day that passes without a ceasefire, more people are being murdered in Palestine. I know it's tempting to shut down! Or brains aren't designed to process this much suffering and pain for long periods of time. But we have to make a conscious, intentional effort to keep paying attention, keep sharing news from voices on the ground, and keep calling for Palestinian justice and freedom. Please don't fall into apathy!
I live in Jordan my friends are Palestinian and their families are stuck in Gaza and it is quite disheartening to watch as the rest of the world blindly support genocide. I have studied and researched the history of Palestine for years now even been inside the wall myself I remember being there for about 2h and feeling trapped just to put it simply now I'm not arab or a Muslim Im Christian and I come from the west and what is going on in Palestine is just terrible. The blatant racism and anti-Semitism (because to be anti-Muslim is to also be anti-semitic.) that these people are being faced with is no better than what the Jews faced in WW2 except this time the rest of the world is on the oppressors' side. I hate to make this comparison but if you look side by side the way Hitler talked about the Jews and the way the Israeli government talks about the Palestinians it is almost the same. Still reading someone who does not live in this area talk in favor of Palestine has helped give me some faith that maybe a ceasefire will be achieved. I hope that the rest of the world can educate themselves and read more about the history of the Palestine-Israel war un bias for it is extremely important to know what you are talking about before you blindly support something. I also hate the way some people are saying that this is not so black and white. It is Palestinian citizens are being treated like nothing more than trash worse because at least trash is treated with some level of dignity. This is genocide and there is nothing good about genocide. It sickens me that a group of people that have all felt what genocide and hatred can do to you goes and does it themselves without any thought to who they are attacking. Again I hate to make this comparison but just look at the way the Nazis treated the Jews and look at the way the Israelis treat the Palestinians they are almost the same.
If you want to help but arent in a place to donate boycott these brands that support the genocide of Palestinians.
There are many more if you want to look at them just search list of brands that support Israel. This is how we help this is how we make the world a little better.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. My heart goes to you and everyone else who have friends and family suffering in Gaza.
The remark about the similarities between the Holocaust and this genocide is a little too true tbh...
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of attending a teach-in regarding Palestine's history + current fight for liberation by a Palestinian-Jordanian former university colleague. While I can't share the exact lecture due to confidentiality, I strongly recommend looking into the following educational resources we received from the event.
Please don't stop talking about Palestine. Please continue educating yourselves and others about Palestine's past and present. One of my biggest takeaways from this workshop is the UN's (and consequently most of the world's) historical "induced amnesia" toward Palestinian humanity and rights to their own land, but continuing to educate and speak out is a direct disruption to this cycle of willful, violent negligence.
History & Other Teach-Ins:
A 101 Course to Understanding Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People: https://uscpr.org/activist-resource/palestine-101/
Noura Erakat, In This Moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YavyF186PA
UCLA’s “Teach-in on the Crisis in Palestine” (Part 1 - 10/11/23): https://racialviolencehub.com/teach-in-on-the-crisis-in-palestine/
UCLA’s “Teach-in on the Crisis in Palestine: Genocide in Gaza” (Part 2 - 10/19/23): https://racialviolencehub.com/emergency-teach-in-the-crisis-in-palestine-part-two/
Gaza in Context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAKWgcpeYNo
Brief History of Israel-Palestine Conflict: https://youtu.be/nUfWTHbCS78?feature=shared
UC Berkeley Teach-in with Angela Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_lL0eFchEY
Haymarket Books and Critical Resistance’s Abolition and the Liberation of Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9GjTMP9qZs
Zionism from the Point of View of its Victims - Edward Said: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~aoude/ES455B/said/Said_Ch.5.pdf
Palestine Solidarity: Speak Out/Talk Back - (10/23/23, organized by Lara Sheehi and The Red Clinic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLrC8m8Ka4E
The Dig’s Palestine Teach In interview with Noura Erakat.
Resources from Our Teach-In:
A Newer Hamas? The Revised Charter | Institute for Palestine Studies. https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/214551
Khalidi, Rashid. 2021. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. https://www.everand.com/book/516439155/The-Hundred-Years-War-on-Palestine-A-History-of-Settler-Colonialism-and-Resistance-1917-2017 (I couldn't find a completely free resource, but check with your local library)
Mondoweiss – News & Opinion About Palestine, Israel & the U.S. https://mondoweiss.net. Includes articles such as:
El-Kurd, Mohammed. “What Role Does Culture Play in Palestinian Liberation? – Mondoweiss.” September 5, 2023. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/what-role-does-culture-play-in-palestinian-liberation/
Jewish Settlers Stole My House. It’s Not My Fault They’re Jewish. – Mondoweiss. September 26, 2023. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/jewish-settlers-stole-my-house-its-not-my-fault-theyre-jewish/
The Stenographer Party – Mondoweiss. November 29, 2023. https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/the-stenographer-party/
“Origins and Evolutions of the Palestine Problem.” n.d. United Nations. https://www.un.org/unispal/history2/origins-and-evolution-of-the-palestine-problem/part-i-1917-1947/#Origins_and_Evolution_of_the_Palestine_Problem_1917-1947_Part_I
Toolkits for Organizing & Taking Action:
Palestinian Feminist Collective’s All Out for Palestine Digital Action Toolkit: https://palestinianfeministcollective.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/All_Out_Palestine_Toolkit_3.0.pdf
Religion and Reconciliation Action Guide: https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/Religion-and-Reconciliation-Action-Guide.pdf
The Cynefin Framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oz366X0-8
A Better Strategy to Discuss Gaza - Janine De Novais’ “Brave Community” Approach:
https://kingdomofculture.substack.com/p/a-strategy-to-better-learn-and-talk?utm_medium=ios
Zero. I'm Gen X. I have done/used all of these things and the things in between these things and the things that we do/use now instead of these things.
What to boycott NOW to help stop Israel’s unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
We call on our supporters to strengthen our targeted boycott and divestment campaigns to maximize our impact!
Reminder that boycotting DOES work, there is historic proof! Don't let anyone discourage you otherwise!
The BDS movement uses the historically successful method of targeted boycotts inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the US Civil Rights movement, the Indian anti-colonial struggle, among others worldwide.
We must strategically focus on a relatively smaller number of carefully selected companies and products for maximum impact. Companies that play a clear and direct role in Israel’s crimes and where there is real potential for winning, as was the case with, among others, G4S, Veolia, Orange, Ben & Jerry’s and Pillsbury. Compelling such huge, complicit companies, through strategic and context-sensitive boycott and divestment campaigns, to end their complicity in Israeli apartheid and war crimes against Palestinians sends a very powerful message to hundreds of other complicit companies that “your time will come, so get out before it’s too late!”
Please reblog! Spread this! There is an effort by zionists to discourage people from boycotting! Don't let them trample your spirits and help us in the fight for a liberated Palestine!
@Shepherds4Good: Palestinian children in Gaza hold a press conference outside Al Shifa hospital, speaking English so the world cannot pretend not to understand them: “We come now to shout and invite you to protect us; we want to live, we want peace… we want to live as the other children live.”
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