I Feel Like When I Say ‘relatable’ What I Really Mean Is ‘resonant.’ I Don’t Want Characters

Fili and Kili (the ugly dwarves)

Gentle reminder that the human eye is naturally drawn by noise and movement, so the next time you walk into a crowd or a bit late into a lecture or something like that, they’re not staring at you or judging; it’s just an instinctive reaction that has nothing to do with you doing anything wrong.

me: *posts vampire content involving mirrors*

all 500 comments from people who all read the same tumblr post in 2013: ACTUALLY, vampires don’t have reflections in antique SILVER backed mirrors, but NOW mirrors are back with ALUMINU-

me:

Help the Pataxó people fight for the right for their land

I’ve made a few posts about this but they may have been a bit confusing, so after a few days of tourmoil of emotions and stress, I’ve decided to take some time to talk a little more in-depth about what’s been going on with the Pataxó people in Brazil and how we can help them prevent an immense injustice that’s just about to unfold

First off, an introduction!

The Pataxó inhabit the areas of the Brazilian states of Bahia and Minas Gerais, and nowadays have a population of about 13.000 people. The Pataxó were one of the first peoples in Brazil to come in contact with the Portuguese settlers, along with the Tupinaky’ia, Poti’wara, Tupinambá, Tabajara and others, and have been resisting colonization and genocide for over 500 years.

in the picture above, you can see a picture of the Awe ritual at the Coroa Vermelha reservation, 2006 taken from the website https://img.socioambiental.org/v/publico/pataxo/foto+20_+AWE+SARAH+MIRANDA.JPG.html

After centuries of colonization, the Pataxó, like many of the other first contact nations previously mentioned, have suffered many losses to their culture, including land sovereignty, language fluency, the right to practice their religion, the right to name their babies with traditional names, and many others. 

But like the aforementioned nations, the Pataxó have been doing an amazing job going back their traditional lands, getting to teach their children their traditional language, the Patxohã (pah- tsho-han) language, strengthening their ties to their spirituality, culture and land.

this a video of the IX Pataxó games, featuring competitions of traditional sports and practices

The most difficult part about fighting for their land when you’re a first contact nation in Brazil though, is that, as you can see torwards the end of the video, our traditional land is the coast, the beaches and the forests that sorround them (Mata Atlântica). And the thing with the Brazilian coast, is that it is heavilly disputed by multimilionaire hotel companies and construction companies, gringos and rich Brazilians wanting to build summer houses and buy private beaches, basically EVERYONE has their eyes on this land. Because having a hotel in the brazilian tropical coast, or building summer houses by the beach to rent is pretty much guaranteed to bring in a LOT of money. It’s all about money.

this is a traditional build (kijeme) destroyed last year in results of a conflict with white land owners. many other builds were destroyed in the occasion. The criminals destroyed them in the middle of the night and no one even saw them. Picture posted on the village leadership Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

So there are enormous and lengthy legal conflicts between the Pataxó people and the big business owners and private land owners (because of course the Brazilian government doesn’t give a shit) over the land. And of course, like all indigenous people, the land is SACRED and fundamental for the Pataxó’s lives. But sometimes the Pataxó are able to kick out invaders and rebuild villages* on their regained land. 

in this video, Pataxó youtuber Tukumã Pataxó shows us traditional body paint done by artist Janarô Nuhay 

SO HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED A FEW DAYS AGO

An aviation club owner (we still dont know his name) claimed that the entirety of the Pataxó village Novos Guerreiros, which is a part of the Red Crown reservation to be his, somehow arguing that he owned the land before the Pataxó reoccupied the area. This process is called Land Repossession.

The village were notified out of the blue that there had been an judicial ruling against them and that they will be FORCED TO LEGALLY AGREE LEAVE THEIR LAND IN FIVE DAYS. So of course everyone is absolutely angered and has started a big campain to fight against this judicial ruling.

Today (27/08/2020) was the deadline the federal police gave them to peacefully leave the land. But of course they resisted and said they weren’t going anywhere. After an entire day of arguments between the caciques (chiefs) and village leaderships and the police, the Pataxó were given a week to leave their land, under the threat to face police brutality. But obviously they still aren’t going anywhere.

Pictures of federal police on Pataxó land earlier today

OVER 2.500 FAMILIES LIVE IN THAT AREA. CHILDREN, ELDERS, PREGNANT WOMEN, PEOPLE WHO WERE BACK TO THRIVING ON THEIR TRADITIONAL LAND. THEY’RE ALL GOING TO BE HOMELESS AND HAVING TO BEG FOR FOOD BECAUSE THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO HUNT FOR FOOD OR HAVE ACCESS TO THE FOOD THEY CULTIVATE. LAND LOSS IS AN IMMENSE LOSS FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE.

“Pataxó people againt land repossesion! Land Sovereignty NOW“ picture taken today, posted on Thyara Pataxó’s twitter account

AND WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP??

There are a few things that the caciques and village leaderships have asked us (who are not Pataxó) to do:

First, spread the news so that everyone knows what’s going on, cause the traditional Brazilian media doesn’t care to notify this

Second, SIGN THIS PETITION: https://t.co/0fqeoifqIs?amp=1

Third, send this e-mail to the judge who ruled the order against the Pataxó land sovereignty (all info is in the google document): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sygR9_utO214UneqYCxHcjyCBTbW4fXuf5SWk2YmXI0/edit

Fourth, and this is optional, you can donate to their gofundme (originally created to help fight covid-19 related issues). Keep in mind that dollars and euro are worth A LOT in Brazil, so donating 2 dollars is SOMETHING lol: https://gogetfunding.com/pataxoyouth/ . 

You can keep up with the news through the twitter account https://twitter.com/PataxoYouth/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP AND TIME! PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THIS!

*village is a rough translation of the portuguese “aldeia”, which is pretty much our equivalent to what you call in North America a “tribe”. But the direct translation of tribe (tribo) is considered offensive to us. Anyway, just clarifying.

the catholic old white guy asked me to explain lgbtq+ to him and it was honestly kind of funny

kazurei truther rise up

They are mike and will 😭💙💛

This hc has been gnawing at my mind all night)) in the Fire Nation they propose with knives. we know that the NWT (and maybe SWT) propose w necklaces. I’m imagining Zuko giving Sokka this gorgeous knife but sokka doesn’t know it’s a proposal thing. So he’s like “thanks babe :)” and Zuko is just waiting for a yes or no. But sokka is oblivious. And so Zuko is like “he prolly just has to think abt it and talk to his fam”. Like a month passes and sokka mentions it to iroh and finds out the truth

Yes. Yes. YES!!!!

Okay, so

Zuko has been meticulously hand-carving the handle of this knife or weeks wanting to make sure it is absolutely perfect for when he proposes

and he’s so goddamn nervous and second guessing himself

like they might’ve been dating since the war ended but what if Sokka still thinks he’s moving too fast?

Or what if Sokka never actually intended for this to end in marriage?

(that’s crazy and Zuko knows it’s crazy but anxiety doesn’t have to make sense)

He’s so nervous he doesn’t even tell anyone his plans to propose because he’s so scared of failure and doesn’t want to deal with the ‘how’d it go?’ if the answer is ‘bad’

Zuko just decides it’s better if he kept this decision to himself until after he asks

Because then, if Sokka says ‘no’ well... Zuko won’t have to relive that every five minutes with everyone impatiently asking what happened

So he finally finishes the knife right before joining Sokka on a trip back to the South Pole

That’s where they met, after all (tho their meeting was definitely less than romantic lmao)

But it’s also where Zuko confessed his feelings for Sokka after the war

Where they had their first kiss

And where Sokka first said ‘I love you’ to Zuko

It only seems natural that he propose here, too

And it’s Sokka’s home

Like yeah, he might primarily live in the Fire Nation now but that doesn’t change anything

Their first day there is filled with catching up with Hakoda and Bato and Katara and Aang

So Zuko waits until the next day to give it to Sokka

It’s after dinner when everything calms down and the sun is setting that Zuko pulls Sokka outside over by the pier where he first confessed to him

And Zuko has this little speech that he’s planned out in his head which gets mangled together and bits and pieces thrown out until just the bare bones of it remain in a somewhat coherent form for him to say

Which essentially ends up being him rambling about how happy he’s been with Sokka and how much he loves him and recounting their first kiss that happened nearby several years ago

And he pulls out the knife and carefully presents it to Sokka while saying something hopelessly vague like

‘I wanted to give this to you. Please accept it.’ or ‘I hope you like this’ or even just nothing at all because this is Zuko we’re talking about lmao

And Sokka is like ‘wow - Did you make this?’

Zuko is just kinda like ‘yes?? it’s... tradition. Do you... like it?’

Sokka’s answer to that one is ‘it’s beautiful, Zuko’ and a kiss on the cheek

And Zuko is very confused because Sokka did not react at all like he expected

Like any of the worst or best case scenarios that Zuko’s run through in his mind (and there were a LOT of them) were so completely different

But Sokka didn’t really say ‘yes’ or ‘no’

(It doesn’t cross his mind that maybe Sokka doesn’t know what the knife was for)

But he doesn’t want to pressure Sokka for an answer because he knows that marriage is a big deal and all

He tries not to be hurt by the lack of an immediate answer, though because well maybe Sokka just wanted to talk things over with his family

and that’s fine, Zuko can wait

so he waits

and waits

....and waits

and his hopes are slowly dwindling but Sokka also hasn’t returned the knife or even... said anything about it.

He knows Sokka still has it, he’s seen it with him

Meanwhile, Sokka is trying to plan his own proposal and figuring out if he should make Zuko a betrothal necklace or maybe go with the Fire Nation tradition which...

he realizes he doesn’t actually know what that is

But he wants to find out and weigh his options or maybe he can combine the two traditions together somehow to make it really special

So he goes to talk to Iroh to 1. get his approval since he is essentially Zuko’s dad since Ozai is less than trash and 2. ask what the Fire Nation tradition is as far as marriage proposals go

So he takes a secret trip to Ba Sing Se and drops in just as Iroh’s closing up shop and they sit and drink tea

Iroh is THRILLED when Sokka tells him his plans to propose which takes a big weight off of Sokka’s shoulders already

...and then he asks what the Fire Nation tradition is

Iroh starts talking about it but Sokka doesn’t hear anything past ‘hand carved decorative knife’

bc ohFUCK

and Iroh like stops talking when he notices Sokka’s not listening anymore and is like ‘are you alright?’

And, shaking, Sokka pulls out the knife and holds it up and is like ‘would - is... does this look like a uh - a proposal knife, maybe?’

and Iroh looks at it and is like ‘Yes! That’s an excellent example. Where did you get that?’

And Sokka goes quiet and sheepishly is like ‘...Zuko gave it to me. Like. Three weeks ago.’

And Iroh’s just like deadpans ‘You are an excellent match for my nephew’

Sokka’s not sure if that’s supposed to be a compliment or not but, hey, the Uncle approves!

Now Sokka has to figure out how to un-fuck this situation, though

He travels back to the Fire Nation as quickly as possible and like sprints through the palace until he finds Zuko and like drops down in front of him, knife in hand and already rambling a million words per minute

About how he didn’t know Zuko was proposing marriage to him when he presented the knife

and essentially his whole journey realizing this including the parts where he was trying to figure out how to propose to Zuko

and ends it with ‘So YES, of course I want to marry you I just... didn’t know you were asking me to marry you when you gave me this bc i’m a dumbass’

Zuko is like shocked and has no idea what to do but also hella relieved bc omg he seriously thought Sokka was just trying to figure out how to turn him down this whole time and ahhh

and then Sokka is just like ‘so... so um... Is that offer still on the table? Are - Does this mean we’re engaged?’

and Zuko realizes he hasn’t said anything and breaks into a grin as he pulls Sokka into his arms to kiss him

only breaks the kiss to say something sappy or - actually, no, he’d be snarky af about it now that he knows it was a misunderstanding

prolly something like ‘No - I really want to see how you were planning on proposing, actually’ 

And like he’s teasing, of course, but Sokka still surprises him a week later with a betrothal necklace right before they make the official announcement of their engagement

(which there’s been a LOT of talk and rumors about with Sokka walking around with that damn knife not knowing what it was for lmao so no one’s really surprised in the slightest) 

Iroh’s speech at their wedding consists of him recounting the moment when Sokka realized that his now-husband had just proposed to him... three weeks later sitting in the Jasmine Dragon lmao