monochrome candor

It’s summer at the cottage & their two year old daughter comes toddling up to Ilya with her little arms outstretched all wet & cold from the lake. Ilya scoops her up & is just about to press little kisses to her forehead when he sees something. He thinks maybe it’s mud or dirt at first spattered across her cheeks, but when he rubs at her little nose & nothing comes off he suddenly finds himself choking up. Because the sunshine has taken his daughter’s already perfect face & given it a small cluster of her dad’s freckles

It would kill half the 19-25 year olds online to realize "I can't help it I have trauma" is one of THE quintessential abuser excuses

Like there is a difference between "My trauma creates impulsive urges and has changed my instinctive reactions to be irrational, I need to relearn shit." vs "I'm traumatized so I Can't Help It and you're not allowed to expect better of me"

i went at not writing island and saw all of you there

i’m going to be really honest with you guys i think the tendency to read the absolute worst possible intentions into every action you don’t agree with is getting too automatic and it’s eating you from the inside out

our age of rivalry is heating

Shane working on verbally complimenting Ilya more, expressing the appreciation he's alway thinking but rarely saying. He sets a little vibration alarm to go off on his smart watch every two hours. When it goes off he tries not to overthink and just says the first thought that comes to mind. Ilya is too busy to notice, feeling extremely gooey from Shane turning to him and in an earnestly serious voice saying things like "I love your smile" or "I married a fucking sniper boys" or "your new haircut is really fucking hot" or "you were a fucking beautician on that powerplay Roz."

I’m sorry, welwitschia, I wasn’t aware of your game

Everyone except me is wrong about The Character

And my beloved mutual who fills a sort of "scheming advisor" role in my opinions about The Character