I let you see me

This is who I am and who I aspire to be

[sirenja-and-the-stag-deactivate]

A good fisherman never lets his catch off the hook.

[More Murder Husbands in S4]

[hannibalontherun]

Inconvenient or not, I will always love you.

[fallentaehngel1230-deactivated2]

I don’t care how hard being together is; nothing is worse than being apart.

[syringavulgaris]

Mary Oliver, Worm Moon

[glorfindeled]

I fear not knowing who I am

[just-shower-thoughts]

The only reason that it seems only one sock ever disappears from a pair is that if they both disappeared, you wouldn’t notice.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

Having sensory processing issues is like if every app on your phone was sending unnecessary notifications including apps you never installed & you don't have permission to change the settings. Do Not Disturb is a myth made up by neurotypicals

[paintpencilink]

Also all the notifications make noise at max volume and your phone probably flashes lights at you too

[bluebonnet-witch]

And occasionally an app you swear you uninstalled three or four times already pops up and takes over the whole screen...

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

eventually the whole system just fuckin freezes

[lalitrus]

You're always apologizing for not responding to the texts and alerts that you actually care about because they got lost in the mess of other notifications and alerts.

[veeaziel]

every day i am percieved™️

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

There is a reason for this though!

The original tweet summarizes it pretty well. Fanfic tends to be popular among certain types of neurodivergent people (aka people most likely to read excessively as a child, and have burnout as an adult) for the same reasons that we tend to hyperfixate–neurochemical signaling (I hope I’m using that phrase correctly). What I mean is, for people who are really dependent on changes in dopamine/serotonin/neurotransmitter levels, who have low levels or wonky neural reward systems (perhaps the most common types of neurodivergence)…people like us rely on dependable external sources of those neurochemicals. In order to function, we spend a lot of our free time trying to level out our brain chemistry using things that can reliably bring us a steady stream of joyful moments (rewards) without costing too much of the mental effort that is already in short supply. 

significantly: the investment of reading has to be balanced with a steady “return on investment”–and this return has to start fairly quickly. because again, we don’t have a lot of attention/energy to invest on tiring things. we have perpetual “low batteries” in that regard.

that doesn’t mean these stories are “simple,” or that they lack complexity or value–only that the reward has to come in short regular intervals, and it has to have a low “upfront cost.” these stories are only “easy” to read in the sense that the effort we put into them is rewarded in a timely manner. which is why fanfic stories are so perfectly formulated for neurodivergent readers–they are often beautifully written, but skip a lot of the upfront costs (of introducing new characters, of world-building, of getting the audience emotionally connected to the story elements).

the nature of fanfiction is that the reader has a pre-existing relationship with this world and these characters. that–combined with the shorter average length of fics–means that fan fics very quickly start rewarding the reader in a way that traditional fiction struggles to. that’s not a bad thing! and maybe it’s something more traditionally published writers should be paying attention to.

Fanfic, as a genre, has been uniquely helpful and accessible to many neurodivergent readers who would otherwise struggle to immerse themselves in stories. I’m glad so many of you have found a way to love and enjoy reading again! The important thing is that you are spending time inside stories you love–the way those stories are published or presented to the world is just one detail. The fact that you find joy in the process of reading (or listening!) to stories–that is what matters.

[witchesversuspatriarchy]

What a nice way to be known for! 😂

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

From the Story of My Life Facebook page

[jazzcochina-deactivated20180807]

learning to love the parts of me that i’ve been told to change

[theabyssmeowsback]

Btw this 100% includes trans girls and intersex girls!

[determinate-negation]

so none of yall know what a friend group is apparently

[determinate-negation]

the notes on this are depressing as hell u got all these people saying that this isnt friendship because friends are just people u go out to drink with on weekends and living with people and planning ur life with them in it is more than friendship. damn im really sorry none of u have ever experienced friendship in ur lives and need to make up new terms to describe genuinely caring about people

[oneshortdamnfuse]

All terms are made up, but that is beside the point. 

The terms “platonic” and “polyamorous” have been used to describe complex relationships between people before any of us were alive. They’re not new terms at all. The individual here is simply taking existing concepts to describe their ideal relationship. I don’t know why that’s so disturbing or depressing to you. 

For many people, friendship is defined as two individuals spending quality time with one another. That could involve going out for drinks on the weekend, but rarely involves a long term commitment as described above. Friendships often become secondary to romantic commitments and/or marriages. 

The majority of my friends are in committed romantic relationships and/or they are married. They feel obligated to their partners first and foremost, as is their right to be. In addition, our society puts an incredible value on heterosexual partnerships between two individuals above any kind of friendship. 

The individual above is describing a commitment between multiple individuals to a platonic relationship. By commitment, they are referring to taking on some of the same responsibilities as one would in a marriage or long term partnership. That is not the same thing as being in a “friend group.”

I continue to have “friend groups” in and outside of work and school. We may be there for each other when we need to be. We may have a lot of fun together. We care about each other. However, we don’t live our lives like a marriage. We are not always together, either – and that’s okay.   

That’s not what the individual above is describing, though. They are using existing terminology which encapsulate very specific experiences in order to express a desire for a specific type of relationship that cannot otherwise be explained using your preferred terminology… (i.e. “friend group”)

…because what you are describing has little to do with their conceptualization of a platonic polyamorous relationship. You are describing expectations you have in a friendship. They are describing a committed relationship wherein resources are shared between multiple individuals. 

You might own or rent housing with a friend, but you might not be committed to doing so forever. You might make decisions and share resources with a friend. You might be there for a friend in desperate times. That doesn’t mean you are committing to them as a partner. 

…and if it comes to a point where you and a friend or friends are involved long term in each other’s lives to the point where you desire to commit yourselves to one another, then that’s perfectly fine – you may choose to still call it a friendship, but you may also want to call it something more fitting. 

Given the societal perception on what a friendship should entail, people might need a term that goes beyond “friendship” to describe their relationship(s) but that does not fall under sexual or romantic labels. Otherwise, “friendship” can be interpreted as “a person I go out and get drinks with on the weekend”

And that’s it. 

For those in committed platonic relationships, polyamorous or not, they might not be content with people thinking that about them. They may also want to differentiate between friendships and committed relationships. It’s their personal business, and it’s not sad that they’d want to do this.

I care about my friends, but I do not have a platonic polyamorous relationship with any of my friend groups. That’s not what we have and it’s not sad that our friendship doesn’t look like that, because a platonic polyamorous relationship doesn’t hold the same exact meaning as “friendship.”

Stop freaking out over it and let people live.

tl;dr – words are meaningful; you can cry about it without making judgments about other people’s desires and life choices 

[holybikinisbatman]

reblog for the comment directly above because its a great breakdown

[randomslasher]

THANK YOU. 

I have friends. And I am in a committed platonic relationship. 

They are not the same thing. 

My friends and I see each other when we can. Sometimes it’s virtual. Sometimes it’s in person (more so before this whole quarantine thing but even then it wasn’t always frequent–sometimes we’d go weeks or even months between visits because that’s how adult life works). 

On the other hand, my partner and I own a house, a car, and six cats together. We’ve lived together for over 11 years. At one point we were engaged, more because it felt expected of us than because it felt right (largely because of pedantic people like the ones in this thread who insist that you’re either romantically involved or you’re “just friends” but that there’s no in-between). 

But there is an in between. We live there. We exist in a perfectly lovely, perfectly valid in-between that is no more or less than friendship or romance, but that does not fit neatly into either one, and you know what? I’m tired of people deciding that just because it doesn’t make sense to them that it must not be “real” or we must be just “special snowflakes” because we can’t just call what we have “just friendship.”

We don’t call it that because that’s not what it is, at least not the way you want it to be. It’s not romantic either, though, and that’s also fine. 

But it exists, and I’m tired of people saying it doesn’t just because they don’t understand it. 

[sparkyblizz]

Qpr rights

[db4yup]

QPR RIGHTS

[indigipunk-deleted-deactivated2]

QPR RIGHTS

[artisticlog-deactivated20231213]

the sound 💿

[acnhcodeisland]

Witch theme dump 🔮

[avegetariancannibal]

Cake

Happy birthday ficlet for @damnslippyplanet!!!

Hannibal woke when he heard the motel room door opening on creaky hinges. A shift in the air that told him Will was leaving, but he didn’t find his voice in time to call out in protest.

“It’s not safe,” he whispered at the door as it closed, his throat dry and aching, and still tasting like the sea.

A wave of pain, as dark and turbulent as any the Atlantic could offer, swept him back down into unconsciousness.

**

He woke when he heard the door opening again.

“Will?” he croaked, not even bothered to hear the note of desperation in his own voice.

“It’s me,” came the reassuring answer.

“It’s not safe to leave the room,” Hannibal said. “Wait until Chiyoh comes back again.”

“I was only gone for a few minutes,” Will said. “I was careful.”

The bed dipped as Will sat beside him. In the darkness, he could make out Will’s silhouette against the grim and pallid light seaping through the cheap curtains, but he wanted to see his face. Needed to see his face.

“Why haven’t you turned any lights on?”

Will sighed. “I’m…pretty hideous.”

“Impossible,” Hannibal scoffed.

He wanted to sit up but the dual pressures of the freshly stitched wound in his gut and Will’s steady hand on his shoulder convinced him otherwise.

“Your stitches will pull,” Will tutted him. “Just go back to sleep for now. I’ll have a surprise for you when you wake up again.”

**

The next time he woke, it was to the distinctive odor of a freshly struck match.

Will sat down beside him again, cupping a small candle in his hands. In the dimness offered by that flickering sphere of light, Hannibal could make out the gauze on Will’s face and the bruising all along his cheekbone.

“You’re not hideous,” Hannibal said, recalling their earlier conversation.

“Well, you know what they say about candlelight,” Will said. “It’s flattering to everybody.”

Will held out his hand so that Hannibal could see he’d been holding more than a candle.

“Is that…a Twinkie?” Hannibal asked.

“It’s your birthday cake,” Will said. “Hurry up and make a wish and blow out the candle. Twinkies might be flammable, for all I know.”

“It’s not my birthday,” Hannibal told him, even as he blew out the candle as he’d been instructed.

“It’s the birthday listed on your new, very fake passport,” Will said. “By the way, your new, very fake name is Albert.”

“I suppose I can live with that,” Hannibal said.

After a long silence, Will set the Twinkie down on the nightstand. (Hannibal was relieved he wasn’t expected to eat it, although he would have if it had come to that.) Without the scant light from the birthday candle, Hannibal couldn’t judge the expression on Will’s face.

“Do you suppose you can live with me?” Will finally asked, his voice suddenly shy. “If I promise next year’s cake isn’t a Twinkie?”

Hannibal fumbled in the dark until his hand latched onto Will’s. “In fact, it was the very wish I made.”

-end-

[avegetariancannibal]

Let’s reblog this for the 5th Hanniversary, shall we?

[avegetariancannibal]

7th Hanniversary!!

[theseavoices]

BANG

[seekingmyself]

He would do this, too. He really would.

[the-lily-maid-of-astolat]

“To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.”

— Jorge Luis Borges, Other Inquisitions

[ipeggedwillgraham]

[soracities]

What is love in your opinion?

“i love you. i want us both to eat well” and also, “let me love what i cannot see” and also “you can fuck anyone but with whom can you sit in water?” and also “losing myself in you i find selves unimaginably mine” and also “love is this: two solitudes that protect and touch and greet each other” and also “I wanted us to be entirely alone on this earth, entirely alone under the sky” and also “blow all my friendships just to sit in hell with you” and also “when i love i become liquid light” and also “won’t you come into the garden? i would like my roses to see you” andalso “i deliver myself over to the unknown, in coming to you, i am without reserves or defences, stripped entirely, into the unknown” andalso “i slithered here from eden just to be outside your door” and also “i loved her to the point of invention” and also “you rain on me and i like the earth receive you” and also “let’s plunge into the deep again my love” and also, always–“everyone can forget us–as long as you remember” 

[color-division]

Hannibal ‘I love and need Will Graham back with me’ Lecter