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I made a uquiz: Which verison of destiel are you !!  please take it :)

Curious female shark  showing off swimming on her back.This is rare to see ! 🤯

As much as I want to celebrate and cheer the Dora Milaje for kicking some stupid asses, the main takeaway from this episode that is unavoidably somber is seeing the shield covered in the blood of someone who was trying to fight for a unified world, who begged for mercy, and who was not responsible for the crime he was murdered for. I want to point out that this visual representation of the shield being misused is only the most explicit depiction of the conflicting nature of that symbol that most people of color have been dealing with for as long as that shield has existed.

Sam refused the shield for many reasons but Mackie has been arguing that part of it is bc it is unimaginably difficult for a black man to represent a nation that has not stood for the black man.

Sarah says, very clearly, that she cannot care about the mascot of a country that doesn't care about her world.

The shield, in many ways, represents America, and America has, historically, systematically and violently oppressed people of color, which makes it very hard for those people of color to claim that symbol, because to them, it is the visual representation of their oppression, and the systems that inhibit their lives.

To people of color, that shield has always had some blood on it, because America as an institution has actively harmed people of color.

And this goes beyond America and the American people, as you can see by the fact that this extra-judicial killing of a member of the Flag Smashers occurs outside of the United States. As someone from a country where uncountable numbers of people have been killed as collateral damage of US-drone strikes, amongst other things, that shield also represents the imperialist military complex that America has and enforces on the world. The shield represents America and America has spilled a lot of blood on foreign soil, a significant amount of it more innocent than the Flag Smasher Walker killed.

TL;DR: Episode 4 may be the first time we are seeing blood physically on the shield for the first time, but for American people of color, and those belonging to nations harmed by American imperialism, that shield has had blood on it for a long time, because it represents America, and for aforementioned groups, America has fronted suffering.

interrupting the bday celebrations to say st. vincent's volcano la soufriere on their largest island chain just erupted and the smoke rose to 10km in the air, and ash is falling heavily.

st. vincent is a very small island in the caribbean - much smaller than that of my own country and my country is like a dot on the world map - of only 100k+ citizens and at least 7,000 people were told to evacuate. this is the first eruption since 1979. st. vincent is a predominantly black country, and as of now i haven't seen any petitions as yet from the people. all i can do is hope that we can boost this and send them our love and support.

(bonus video showing how high the smoke is in the air)

(credit to Jamaican Observer on twitter)

Friday means #FalconAndTheWinterSoldier FALCON (Sam Wilson) Commission

Bucky Barnes: A summary

If I don’t know what it means to be sexually attracted to someone does that mean I’m asexual? I go back and forth all the time on whether I am or not but I’ve realized I actually have no clue what it means to be sexually attracted to someone???

Bringing this back.

the day that tumblr learns that it isn’t progressive whatsoever to shame people for being attracted to men is the day the world heals. there’s nothing progressive about shaming gay and bisexual men using homophobic tactics and spreading biphobia toward bisexual women.

If this doesn't keep going, i'm gonna be truly dissatisfied.

by marvel.superheroz on instagram

SHE HIT EACH AND EVERY POINT

i like how bucky says “steve had a plan” as if steve didn’t just throw around a giant dinner plate and hope that it hit something eventually

with love, from [x]

13.6 Tombstone - Trystings

comic edits ➳ wandavision (2021)

“ You are a witch. You are the Scarlet Witch. Harbinger of Chaos. So it is written. So it is foretold. ”

R*chard Siken said dean gets to choose and he gets to choose love

Heart Bellied Out

(1361 words) Inspired by this post by @skepticalfrog but also all of his art. (ao3)

What does a starving man do when presented with a sudden bounty?

For the first few days following Chuck’s defeat, Dean found this question rolling around his head more often than he’d like. He had been starving, he’d realized, but that hunger ran so deep that it had become part of him, like a barnacle under a whale’s belly.

So, when the wins began to pile up in rapid succession, Dean didn’t know how to deal.

On the first day Chuck was defeated, and the world returned.

On the second Jack gave his god-juice (“Don’t call it that,” Sam grimaced) to Amara for safe keeping until he was ready to assume that power and join her in a balance of light and darkness. This transference resulted in Jack assuming a form that reflected his human age, allowing him to be the child he’d never got the chance to be. It was an opportunity Dean never had, and one he didn’t know how badly he wanted for Jack until he had an armful of toddler pressed into his hip—until the sweet smell of his son’s hair tucked itself under his nose. His son.

That would have been too much for Dean already, but then Amara, more powerful than ever, presented her grandnephew the gift of his father back, just as she had gifted Dean with Mary years ago.

On the third day Cas was human, for good this time. Amara had given him a human soul, which kept him out of the Empty’s reach. He’d stood in the middle of the bunker’s library, flustered and confused, coat and tie disheveled, and Dean had stopped breathing.

“Daddy!” Jack had squealed, reaching for Cas from Dean’s hold.

“Jack.” was all Cas had replied, bewildered as he gathered his son into his arms.

Their son, Dean thought as he stood and watched them embrace.

Sam and Eileen were safe, Jack was safe, Cas was back, and the world was free. Dean didn’t know how to trust it, even though it was all he wanted. If he allowed himself to indulge in hope, he knew he wouldn’t survive having it taken away. If he filled himself up with it all, he’d risk feeling a hunger he couldn’t turn away from.

Dean looked over at where Cas was holding Jack against his side. With one hand Jack held onto Cas’ arm and with the other he was reaching for Dean, little fingers spread wide to grab at him. Dean huddled in and wrapped his arms around the both of them, his left hand splayed over as much of Cas’ back as he could hold, his right wound tight around Jack as he pressed their bodies impossibly close.

What does a starving man do when presented with a sudden bounty?

He shares it.

Two years later Dean found himself washing dishes after dinner. Sam and Eileen had come over to celebrate Jack’s first day of kindergarten. They still lived in the bunker, while Dean, Cas, and Jack moved into a house a few hours away, on the edge of a town with good schools and a zoo (Dean had insisted on the former, Cas on the latter).

Dean took on a few hours here and there at a local garage and Cas occasionally set up a stall at the Saturday farmer’s market when his garden was doing particularly well or when the bees he kept were especially busy, but in all manners that really counted they were retired. Sam and Eileen kept things held down on the hunting front, and Dean surprised himself to find he was more than fine to walk away.

There were still days when he woke up with a phantom pang of hunger, the ghost of a feeling in his stomach like the one he’d come to know growing up after days without so much as stale wonder bread to further stretch stolen meals for Sammy. The muscles in his gut contracted around a hollowness, a pit of fear like a leaky faucet he couldn’t seem to permanently plug.

On those days he’d retreat into himself. He’d be quiet. He’d feel a magnetic tug try and pull him to the bar down the block, even though it had been a long while since he’d picked up so much as a beer.

Before he could self-destruct or leave his body long enough that it could do itself harm, he’d feel Cas at his side or Jack’s weight on his chest. He’d go to bed early and when he’d wake the next morning the pit would be gone.

Dean knew it would never truly go away, but it would always leave just as quick as it came.

Most days though, Dean was good. This particular day especially so.

His family had sat around his table in his house and ate the food that hemade for them. They’d filled up on roast chicken, rosemary potatoes, and laughter.

And pie, of course. Dean made a pie.

He washed the dishes while Sam dried. Or, while Sam was supposed to be drying. Instead he held a dish towel in his hands and leaned against the counter, giving Dean an appraising look.

Dean tried not to snap about the stack of clean, wet dishes piling up, only raised a brow at his brother as he set another plate in front of him.

Sam answered the look with soft grin.

“What?” Dean asked exasperated.

“You’ve gone soft.” Sam replied.

Dean stilled at that. He’d heard those words before from a different mouth. John would bark them out like a slap. But the tone in Sam’s voice made Dean pause.

For the first time in a long time, the word soft didn’t sound like weak.

Soft. Dean thought of his body. What had a few years ago been all hard edges and blunt muscle now gave way easily to the press of fingers. At first Dean was sensitive to the change, worried Cas would no longer find him desirable if his body was not what it had always been.

“I guess the burgers and booze finally caught up to me huh?” Dean disparaged his reflection, holding his belly with both hands in an unforgiving grip.

Cas had come up behind him, threaded his arms through Dean’s and snaked them around his middle so that the ex-angel’s broad hands covered his own. Dean’s grip had loosened as Cas rested his chin in the crook of his neck.

“You think this is a punishment for your past.” Cas had said with his usual unnerving baldness, “But in fact it is a sign of your current blessing.”

Dean had huffed in embarrassed disbelief.

“This is happy weight, Dean.” Cas had pressed on, planting a kiss to his freckled shoulder, “It means you are, perhaps for the first time, truly settled.”

Soft, Dean thought with a plate in his hand, like the sheets on the bed that he shares.

Soft like the still baby-soft skin under Jack’s feet that he presses against Dean’s stomach on those nights he has a bad dream and can only sleep if he’s sandwiched between his dad and daddy.

Soft like Cas’ slightly grown-out hair between Dean’s fingers, like the meat of his thigh that gives way to Dean’s loving hands.

Soft like the mid-morning sun that filters in through their kitchen window and stirs the dust-bunnies into a dance. Those mornings when Dean is cocooned in warmth, a cup of coffee in his hand, Jack pressed up against his back, and Cas flush with his side, holding his face in big hands, leaning down for a soft kiss—

Dean glanced up at Sam, a shy smile on his lips.

You’ve gone soft echoed in his head, “Yeah, I guess so.”

Soft meant that Dean had built a life that was pliant to him for once, something Dean never thought he would get.

Practically born with a gun in his hand, for the longest time Dean was certain he’d die that way, empty and starving and hard as stone.

He had not touched a gun in over a year.

Soft, Dean thought, and let himself feel strength in it.

While we're on the topic, I found several eps of s1 (just off the top of my head, there's probably more throughout) extremely racist towards Indigenous peoples of America — obviously s1 ep2 appropriates and bastardises a figure from Algonquin mythology, and has the white heroes saving the white people from the evil Indigenous creature. Then s1 ep8 "bugs" where the ~evil~ Indigenous American curse is attacking perfect white suburbia. The pro-settler pro-colonial pro-white rhetoric is not even a little bit subtle in the early seasons. Someone else did a good, in depth (which this is Not) analysis on why the croatoan storyline is racist and dehumanising.

"Bugs" in particular struck me, because the plot is essentially that white people commissioned the building of a beautiful and expensive suburban development on Indigenous land. The development is framed as being state of the art and luxurious, an idealistic emblem of the white American fantasy. It is framed as the sort of place anyone in their right mind would want to live, but it's exclusively for the well-off (there's a brief scene at the beginning where one of the construction workers says he'd love to live there, but will never be able to afford it). It's framed as being a welcoming society, one of the estate agents says (paraphrase) "we welcome residents of all ages, nationalities, and sexual orientations (insert homophobic joke about Sam and Dean being mistaken for a couple). Yet the episode is clear that only the rich, white and socially conforming actually get to live in these houses.

However, the 'monster' of the week is a curse invoked by the building of the development over the bones of the Indigenous people who lived on the land before it was colonised. The episode makes it clear that the colonisation was violent and brutal. Any useful criticism of the inherent exclusionism of white suburbia flies out the window here as the episode focuses on the ~evil~ curse, which attacks the residents in the form of bugs. The episode goes out of it's way to paint the residents as innocent victims and Indigenous people as manifestly inhuman — as bugs, explicitly, and I am sure I don't have to unpack all of the symbolism of that for the point to be clear.

The brothers are then cast in the role of protectors of white suburbia — which is the ultimate role for them in the framework of the show — where saving people and hunting things puts anyone who isn't white firmly in the "things" category. The episode is blatant in positioning colonisers as victims and Indigenous Americans as the evil magical force threatening the ideal manifestation of the nuclear family and the white American dream.

The episode places utopian suburbia, which is white, rich, socially conforming, superficially inclusive but actually exclusionary towards any outsider group, in the role of the innocent victim. What might have been a commentary on the evils of suburbia turned into an endorsement of those same values, all while dehumanising Indigenous Americans to the level of comparing them to insects. Truly, the show outdid itself with the racism here.

Anyway, donate to the Yuchi Language Project because they're the ones explicitly named (& vilanised) in this episode.

i have been laughing for 10 mins

At what point does one pass from fan territory into stan territory???

dean on his very successful cooking blog: well, fellow parents, there’s a chill in the air, which means it’s that time of year again! school supply shopping time! my husband is going to have a blast at target picking out new folders and notebooks, since our son jack starts first grade in a week! boy does time fly! when i was his age, six years old, i witnessed my father kill a man in front of me for the first time. it damaged my fragile psyche in ways that i can’t unpack even now, as i approach my late forties. if it wasn’t for the help of my husband and family, i’d likely still be picking at the metaphorical scabs of that particular trauma. below you can find my recipe for seasonal squash soup, which, while i only ever had it once with my uncle bobby while growing up, provided a comforting memory to me during those cold september nights spent in cheap motel rooms, as i was mentally preparing myself to shoplift bread for my brother and i so we could eat the next afternoon. 

pink in the night

Imagine Dean, telling Charlie all about Cas. Telling her ‘this is my best friend’ and gushing about Cas for hours. He tells her about Cas’ quirky traits and the silly phrases Cas says that make Dean laugh, to the way Cas humors him and goes along with whatever Dean wants- whether its hunt related or just whatever movie night Dean has planned. Dean talks Cas up; explaining how damn good the angel is in a fight, but that it’s not about Cas’ angel powers, more that Cas is well, Cas, and there’s nothing the angel can’t do. He even quietly says how Cas has taught him a lot- about free will and family and to follow his heart instead of his brain. And hours later, when Dean has made himself hoarse from talking about Cas and only Cas, he finally says, “I’ve never had a best friend before, but Cas just… he just stole that spot, you know? Sorta snuck up and became my best friend without even knowing it.” And Charlie looks at him, and she smiles; not teasing or gloating, just soft and reassuring. Instead, she reaches out, placing her hand ever-so-gently on Dean’s knees, and she squeeze softly. “I know you’ve never had a best friend before so you don’t know what it feels like, and maybe I don’t know much about it either because I’ve always been on my own. But if there’s one thing I do know, no one talks about their best friend like that. Not unless their best friend happens to be their crush or their lover. There’s nothing wrong with that, Dean. It’s okay, you know. To have a crush on your best friend. You know everyone says the best relationships are the ones where your lover is your best friend, because there’s no one else you’d want by your side. If your partner is your best friend, you know you’ve found the one.” And suddenly Dean is reeling, and oh God oh God, Charlie’s right. This whole time… he’s been calling Cas his best friend. But Cas is more than that. So so so much more. And it’s there, in that moment with Charlie, that Dean realizes he’s absolutely head-over-heels in love with his best friend.