Gen Z Has To Reckon With Its Radicalization Problem. You Are Not A Morally Pure And Superior Generation

Alignment chart of fictional male characters

no, YOU’RE looking at him respectfully. i’m objectifying him to filth we’re built different

thinking about this again

My brother cracked my rib one morning and gave me half of his orange in the evening.

I remember being younger and sometimes wishing to be a single child, to have all the attention and gifts and time but when he was away from home for the first time, I remember crying and stroking his side of the sofa as if blurting out my first wish- for him to be home, without thinking twice, without a shadow of doubt. Even the genie cried. Growing up with a sibling is like being the only people on a stranded boat, constantly figuring out how you can live with them and questioning how you could ever live without them.

One evening, in a fit of anger, I told him how I never wanted him to be my brother and he yelled that he didn't ask for it either. The air smelled like kerosene and my chest was filled with arsenic. I was raging and threw his favorite toy aeroplane down the window, 7 stories of guilt and shame. He cried all night and I wanted to cut off my right hand, the hand that hurt my baby brother. I didn't know if he was ever going to forgive me or even talk to me. The next morning at breakfast, he didn't look at me or say a word, I felt like my chest was about to explode and guilt clouded my vision. But then, I felt a hand quietly holding half of an orange my way.

The only people on a stranded boat. How do you live with them? How could you ever live without them?

-Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire

Edit: I added a visualizer for this on my YouTube channel. Check it out here

love is stored in the hand. love is stored in the hands that hold each other. it is stored in the hands that create art. it is stored in the hands that have the power to harm but don’t. it is stored in the hands that are warm and the hands that are cool. it is stored in the hands that do things for others just because they can. love is stored in your hands which express the desires of your heart.

THE UNTAMED

a compilation of lan wangji looking at his wei ying

Jiang Cheng + smiling

i’ve never needed a wangji more in my life

I just find it beautiful (and heartbreaking) how Wangji immediately takes responsibility for Wuxian as soon as he comes back from the underworld.

He knows by now Wuxian is not that good at taking care of himself and he’s not going to let the same mistake repeat over and over again, so he just decides he’s going to be the one who will take care of Wuxian, whether he likes it or not.

And he does take care of him. Perfectly, in fact. Not only does he take care of Wuxian, he anticipates his needs (like when he fixed his flute) and you can see that Wuxian is confused at times, but also extremely comforted by how protective Wangji is of him. 

Because let’s face it, Wuxian is used to being the protective one, the one who has the weight of the world on his shoulders, even when the people he loves don’t know what he’s done for them (like Jiang Cheng).

This is the first time someone is taking care of him without him asking for help and without expecting something in return. 

Wuxian has known little kindness in his life and certainly none in the years leading up to his death. By that point, he had no family, no clan and everyone would rather see him dead than try to understand him.

The Wen Clan was a found family, but he was the one taking care of them, not the contrary. So no, Wuxian probably doesn’t remember what it feels like to depend on someone else because he never had the luxury to do so. 

And yet Wangji has no hesitation and will not negotiate. He immediately makes himself dependable for Wuxian. He’s not going to lose him again. He lost his chance to protect him once and he’s not going to repeat that same mistake. 

He knows that very well and immediately acts on it without second thoughts, losing all the hesitation and maybe even a little of the discretion he had 16 years before. If Wuxian is wounded he will touch him or undress him, if Wuxian can’t walk he will carry him even if it’s “embarrassing”. Whatever Wuxian needs, he shall have.

And Wuxian’s reactions honestly have me in tears most of the time, because he doesn’t think he deserves any of that. But that’s exactly the point: Wangji knows Wuxian doesn’t love himself. So he decides he will love him enough for the both of them until he does.