#except

Dora, children at school tend not to have nuclear weapons

The small talk had diminished, exhausted, about five minutes ago. Whatever conversation lurched on at this point was reanimated, an abomination, just sentences and questions without even conversational value. They were running out the clock, although neither would admit why, at least not yet. 

Occasionally they’d share a look. It would last a short time, about as long as it takes two people to realise that they’re staring, mouths slightly ajar, without saying a thing. To descend into that pleasant discomfort, that happy awkward that occurs when desire has not yet been realised, conversation hasn’t yet avalanched into… well, that was the question really, the one that was hanging in the air like a thundercloud ready to break, burst its banks and drench the two of them. 

He wanted to make a move. Knew he would, it was just about the right moment appearing, when he knew, just knew, that she was thinking the exact same thing that he was, that their minds were completely aligned, and that momentum would carry them through and past the space between maybe-lovers and the actuality of that relationship. 

The moment had almost come a few times, such as when she had made a clumsy innuendo after he mentioned the word ‘bottom’. It had been mumbled, without confidence, a fumble towards a desire, and he’d laughed all the same. It was cute, in its own way, that she could be almost forward, that there was enough confidence to appear without it. Another time she’d tucked her hair behind her ear just as the sunlight struck her across the right side of her face, and she’d been painfully beautiful, ethereal almost, all freckled and shining, more suited to a meadow in Ireland than his bed, in this city. 

But just as resolve had finally had the wherewithal to activate limbs, move bodies, the clouds had slipped in front of the sun, and he’d been meteorologically cock-blocked. 

Now there was just an emptiness. A lack of words because they’d used them all up, meandered through culture, weather, gossip and shared interests, and ended up here, with only one thing on their minds and nothing but the space to express it in. He felt like his mind was cycling through possibilities at an alarming rate, picking up one suggestion only to toss it aside looking for something better, some great pile of ideas residing in the back of his head, a search for the perfect 'Move’. 

This would not do. He would not be the man to see the moment, feel it crackle in the air around him, and allow it to pass unnoticed and unmarked. So he did something. His hand came up, slipped around her neck, and for the slightest moment she stiffened, surprise manifesting as fear in her face, perhaps more akin to shock, before it softened with realisation into something altogether more attractive. 

He surged, the other hand pressing against her stomach, pushing her down onto the bed, so that he could pin her with his body, his chest against hers, the insistent prod of her nipples against him making him swell at the thought of it. Then he kissed her, and it felt like that kiss was the needle that popped the balloon, let all that tension fill all that space, and in the doing of it dissipate, dwindle into nothing but a happy composition of moans, crinkles and the odd gasp. 

Mood❤️

My iPod got wet and my dad yelled at me for getting upset.
I’m sorry, but you’re not the one replacing something that’s $300 if this is broken. Not to mention I have approximately 13 hours on a plane in the next week.

gffa:

robinasnyder:

gffa:

Thinking about the destruction of Ilum again, thinking about a planet that’s been sacred to the Jedi for millennia after millenia, thinking about all the kyber crystals that were there, that they’re semi-sentient rocks, they feel joy and pain.  That Luke visits Ilum in the most recent comic and there’s nothing left as the Empire strip-mines it, only pain and suffering now.  Luke is a child of the Jedi, who has been stripped of his heritage through the Jedi’s genocide.

Cal Kestis visited Ilum only five years after the Jedi Purge, where the Empire has already desecrated this place that he says was once so beautiful, that he remembers Master Yoda taking the younglings there and how the light would shine into the caves and you can hear how much it meant to him.  And you see the devastation all around Cal, that there’s still a kyber left for him, but the planet is dying.

Ilum is a planet that is home to the kyber crystals, the planet itself must be in synch with the Force that they grow so readily there, more than anywhere else in the galaxy.  And the Empire is destroying it, to harvest crystals against their will (the crystals won’t reveal themselves to Jedi unless they’re meant to be found, unless they want to be found, which the Jedi respect, but the Empire just bulldozes and scrapes and claws and rends their way in, taking them heedless of what the crystals are screaming at them) and killing the planet.

Even while Jedi can sneak onto the planet, feel the dying of it all around them, they can’t do anything.  And that’s horrific, to take all those crystals just to make a planet killer weapon.

But what really hurts is knowing what happens to Ilum.  Once all the kyber has been stolen, the Empire abandons it, leaves it out in the unknown territories, until the First Order finds it.  The First Order finds it and turns it into Starkiller Base.

Another desecration of a planet that was once so very alive and connected to the Force, a planet that was beautiful and spiritually sacred.

And then it’s blown to pieces because the First Order made it a star systems killer.

Whatever healing Ilum might have done, whatever chance it had to regrow itself, to let go of all the pain and suffering it had been through, to find its way back to balance and harmony, whether it took a thousand years or a million years, that chance is gone now.

Ilum can never heal, because that’s what the galaxy did to it.  And I’m sad about Star Wars planets again.

I don’t know why Ilum is what just hits me so hard when I think of the slaughter of the Jedi. It’s hard to think of tens of thousands dying, at least hard to imagine. I can imagine individuals, but that’s so self contained somehow. But then there’s Ilum and what happens to it just hits me because it’s the perfect encapsulation of what happened.

There are two sources of Kyber that are touched on the most (as well as I know). One is Jedha, and specifically Jedha City, the capital. To my understanding, the monks there didn’t approve of the removal of the Kyber, so Jedi didn’t get their Kyber from there. Instead, they got it from Ilum. That was the source of kyber. Kyber was the heart of one of the most iconics parts of being a Jedi: the lightsaber. Grievous collecting lightsabers is already such a violation, because the weapon is the life of a Jedi.

So Palpatine becomes the Sith and because Ex-Jedi Anakin Skywalker knows exactly where Ilum is, Palpatine is able to stripmine the heart of all lightsabers. He doesn’t just kill the Jedi and desecrate their memory, he makes it so if the Jedi ever return, they won’t have one of their key sources of power. Jedha is also stripmined and destroyed, and it didn’t have nearly as much kyber.

Palpatine pulls every bit of kyber he can from Ilum to use is a weapon which is literally world endingly evil. Even if the Death Stars and been dismantled and not blown up, I don’t think that kyber ever could have been used again.

And then the First Order, who are the people who said “this short 20 year rule is the only thing that’s right and we are owed power” made use of Ilum again. Even with as much kyber as was taken from the planet, it was still powerful enough to shoot 5 death lasers at once. The planet itself had that much strength, even have been so destroyed. So the weapon too had to be destroyed.

But then what?

Even withouth the whole Kylo Ren fiasco, Ilum was the source of millenia worth of lightsabers with no end in sight. But now it’s totally gone. The good guys are trying to build the Jedi, but what happens when the kyber is all gone? I know synthetic crystals are a thing, but it’s not the same.

The heart of the weapon of the Jedi was the heart of Ilum. Palpatine mining Ilum for Kyber wasn’t just a greedy power grab, it was one more piece of destruction of the future of a group he planned to wipe out entirely.

What also gets me is that it it’s not just a symbol or a lifeless chunk of rock, but that those crystals had a form of life in them.

The Empire and the First Order aren’t just destroying a symbol of the Jedi–though, that’s all it is to many of them (aside from Palpatine and Vader and maybe the Inquisitors, but that the crystals were borderline sentient is a bonus for them)–they’re destroying something that was full of song and joy and purpose and connection to the Force.

They’re causing the kyber pain, they’re torturing the crystals, whether making them into Sith lightsabers or using them for evil purposes, to kill other life in the galaxy, to kill all that life on Jedha and Alderaan, two more planets that can never recover or regrow themselves, all for the sake of their own greed and power.

The Empire uses living things and creatures and people all like they’re nothing, and it doesn’t matter how much they scream in pain, the Empire just keeps mercilessly tearing them apart until there’s only a dull husk left.  And then the First Order takes even that one last spark and causes it more pain and death and makes sure it can never grow again.

thesirencat:

Imagine having to leave one of the few people who you trust, who you grew up with and went through all the miseries in life, not because you wanted, but because you were the only hope that was left for the two of you.

You leave and your only purpose is to become stronger to keep you and that person safe for the rest of your lives. You are given a rare chance and grab it with all your might, but your time is running short, every day you stay away, that person suffers more and more.

You become impatient, frustrated, and enraged with yourself and in that moment, you lose control of and go into a spiral of rage. When you ‘wake up’ you realize that you have hurt yourself way beyond salvation, you’ll never be the same again, you not only ruined your life, but also the life of that person that was waiting for you, because you were all they had.

Would you, knowing that, still face that person with a straight face, if fate brought you both together? Would you really tell them that, because of you, that person had to suffer even further? 

I don’t think so, in the end, you would do just like Yue Qingyuan too.

The utter nonsense I see being thrown at this character is ridiculous, he deserved better, so did Shen Jiu.

It’s called situational awareness and he wasn’t practicing it. Keep your eyes on on those around you. Too bad he wasn’t paying attention and armed so all three could have left this earth with a chest packed full of lead.

And again, it has to be asked, if the police are the only ones who have guns and are supposed to keep us safe from all this violence…

WHERE WERE THE FUCKING POLICE?

Stay alert and stay loaded my friends. The life you save will be your own.

“It’s been a year since we met for the first time and it feels as if it was yesterday. My hand was in your hand and your head was on my shoulder. I was embracing the birthmark on your hand and you were promising me ‘forever’. I remember I had always told you not to make promises you wouldn’t keep and ‘I want you, that’s it’, you would reply. You wanted me to crave you more than I wanted my books and I never stopped loving you ever since. It’s been a year and it feels as if it was yesterday when you were madly in love with me. Some nights, I forget that we had ever broken up and I hope I would get your text when I wake up next day.” by memoirsofbilal (via Instagram)

— Good morning, baby

“Can we meet once again, for the first time? Can you tell me again that you are falling for my eyes? Is there any chance of you promising me that you won’t break my heart and tell me that choosing you over everything is not a mistake that I’m about to make? Can you hold my hand and tell me you want to get engaged before you leave the town? Can you call me one more time because you want to listen to my voice? Can you tell me you’re missing me more than anything in your life? Can I come to meet you one more time and this time, like the last time you did — can you ask me to stay?” by memoirsofbilal (via Instagram)

— because I wanted to stay and you asked me leave