#week 74

Week 74 Prompts:

“My life would be empty without you in it.”

“Surprise, I have feelings and you just hurt them.”

“I hate to say I told you so, but …”

No Barriers - @liaromancewriter (Open Heart; Ethan Ramsey x F!MC)

If I Lie (Maybe I'll Believe It) by weepingvirtue

16/?

At sixteen years old, Tommy knew so many things.

He knew that people were predictable and selfish. He knew not to trust, not to take, and not to get comfortable for too long. He knew that the concept of family was as fake as the highlights in his foster mother's hair.

Tommy had known for years that life was painful and had no extra love for some ratty foster kid like him. He knew that it was him and his copy of The Odyssey against the whole world. He knew that he only had to survive long enough to make it to his eighteenth birthday before he could escape.

But when Tommy ends up fostered in the Watson household completely by chance, he finds that maybe he never knew anything in the first place.

or, the one in which Tommy Innit has never really experienced love, family, or belonging, and is suddenly surrounded by it all at once.

with a heavy heart by qar

1/1

“Are you doing okay?”

Tommy doesn't pause. His hand fists into his sweatshirt, and he twists the fabric tightly. "Yeah," he says. "Promise."

He's lying. He knows that Wilbur probably knows that he's lying. He thinks back to a few months ago, when he could talk about his feelings openly, because Wilbur loved him and his friends all loved him. And they still do.

"Okay," Wilbur says slowly. 

They talk for a while. When Wilbur finally hangs up, Tommy stares at his phone for a minute. Taps absently on the screen. And then he throws it, as hard as he can, at his bed.

He's lying to you. He doesn't need to be bothered by your stupid fucking issues. He's not your brother, no matter how many times he says he is. He's indulging you.

 It bounces once, twice, and then comes to rest at his pillow. It doesn't really make him feel any better. He'd never been particularly violent anyways. 

there is no looking-glass here and I don't know who I am by plantform

1/1

"You're not what others think of you," Wilbur tells him, and it should be comforting but it just isn’t.

"But who am I then? I don't know who I am- I've never known. Having an identity that others place onto me is comforting because I can't figure out who I am otherwise."

It’s both true and not; Tommy was someone before, and maybe instead of his self disintegrating, it’s a maze and he just has to collect all his pieces and he’ll be made real again. But also what if that’s just not true; what if he’s just gone? What if, as scary as it is, he’ll never find himself again—not his real self; what if he’s simply destined to be the caricature they picture him as forever?

Wilbur brings his knees to his chest and tilts his head at Tommy and doesn’t smile or frown or reach out to remind Tommy they’re both real. "Identity isn't a concrete material thing to hold and view; it's abstract, you don't need to feel it to be a person."

CONFESSIONS ★ WEEK 74: @inejz-ghafa / @starkkov / @delilahhbard / @evanbuckleys / @amandaseyfried / @planet-her

This week we have the pleasure of announcing @wingedcatninja and @princesslaguia as our creators of the week!

Help us welcome them as we showcase their writing and art throughout the week by reblogging anything that you enjoy!

And if you would like to see your original creations reblogged to this blog on Saturday, make sure you use our tracked tag #spncreatorsdaily!

Pushing Hands (推手) dir. Ang Lee (李安). 1992. 

Second New Wave director Ang Lee’s first feature film Pushing Hands demonstrates the beginning of his series of family-focused films, the “father knows best” trilogy. The title of this film refers to the pushing hands training routine of traditional tai chi, the practice of the elderly grandfather whose experiences are at the movie’s focus. He emigrates from Beijing to live with his son, American daughter-in-law, and young grandson in New York City. Conflicts between traditional Chinese values and Western customs arise, and Pushing Hands depicts the resultant attempts at compromise.

The grandfather’s personal history and the persecution he faced during the Cultural Revolution as a tai chi teacher are woven into Pushing Hand’s contemporary tale. Having sent his son to the United States after his family was fractured at the hands of political change, the grandfather anticipates a reunion picking up where they left off. His initial culture shock from the intercontinental move and the process of adapting to new beginnings in old age frame a larger Chinese immigration narrative.

CONFESSIONS ★ WEEK 74: @arnos