I’ve been meaning to write this, and I have also been avoiding to write this, because it’s kind of embarrassing. But here it goes.
On Tuesday, I cried in my ED counselor’s office (this is NOT the embarrassing part!).  I was upset that I had already been doing better and I am now doing worse. Feels like I took a step or three backwards. And I was also worried that she was going to be disappointed in me because I hadn’t managed to hang on to what we talked about in earlier sessions. Here’s what she told me. Ready?
Healing is not a straight line.
If you know me as the Close your eyes writer, you know why me having to be told this is funny/embarrassing. If not I’ll get there in a sec. But that’s what she said to me. She even drew it on a piece of paper, going “healing doesn’t look like this“ (draws a straight line upwards), “but like this” (draws a wavy up-and-down line). 
The thing is: I literally wrote about this very sentiment for more than 2.5 years. I wrote a long (looong) fanfiction, about a character trying to heal from trauma and this, healing is not a straight line, was something she had to learn again and again over the course of the story. Because I wrote that for her! I don’t know how many times I’ve used the exact words my counselor used talking to readers in the comments. And yet I have difficulty applying it to my own life. Wild how something can make so much sense for another person and yet you cannot show yourself the same grace.
And to come back to the crying - I tried to hold my tears in and didn’t full-on sob, which was quite the effort. My counselor told me to let it all out. Which I couldn’t do and kind of regret, because my plan to just swallow it down in the moment  and let it out at home didn’t work. Once I’d made it home, I couldn’t cry anymore and I think it would’ve done me good. I literally wrote a scene in my fic where the protagonist hides her face in her hands, so her therapist doesn’t see her tears. And the therapist tells her that she shouldn’t waste her energy on trying not to cry or to hide it, that it’s OK to let it all out 🙃
TL;DR: Healing is not a straight line. It’s just not. You will do better, and then you will do worse and then you will do better again. It sucks when you’re in one of the valleys on that wavy line, but you’ll go up again too. (Trying hard to hang on to that rn.)
Cry in therapy! It’s OK. 
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I haven’t seen nearly enough people talking about Siobhan telling Freeze that he’s “a valid response, just not right now.”
It’s truly ALL I can think about.
Because hoo boy. As a motherfucker in treatment for Complex-PTSD, l am constantly wrestling with my freeze response, and that shit made me ugly cry.
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Does Cloud ever confront Zack about all the neglect he subjected himself to in favor of taking care of Cloud?
I think It'd be one of his first thoughts when he's awake again!
initially I think he'd just think Zack was being a bit silly, and that he'd focus more on himself now that Cloud wasn't completely reliant on him.
After a few weeks(?) he'd realize how much Zack prioritizes Cloud over himself, and he'd try to be more forceful with it
....but neither of them are very good with their words, so it gets worse before it gets better.
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this longest night I hope you are warm and cosy. I hope you are well fed. I hope you have a soft blanket and a fire (or at least a candle). I hope you can reflect on this year with compassion and look to the next with hope. I hope you can rest in the darkness and feel the sun on your face very soon. The light is coming back, we will make it through!
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Hugging, Kissing and Cuddling HCs for König
I'm trying to see him in another light again after everything I've seen about him, so I decided I'd write something fluffy and nice for him. And then came the realization I never wrote some HCs like these for him in my original posts, so I decided I'd change that! He's Austrian, so naturally I have to love him!
When it comes to hugging someone, König is a bit hesitant. Considering he’s not the most physically affectionate person out there, it’s almost an honor to be receiving an unprompted hug from him. Whether his hugs are long or short depends on the occasion: If he’s proud of you for accomplishing something, then the hug will be rather short lived. Though, he might pick you up and spin you around until you’re dizzy. If you’re sad and need some comfort then his hugs could last a while. He’s not the best with words, he prefers to listen to other people, but if he knows a hug is what usually helps you then he’s willing to do so. Despite being a big and strong lad his hugs are surprisingly gentle, he’s worried about crushing you. He could put his all into them, but then you’d likely end up with a few broken ribs and he doesn’t want that to happen. König is also surprisingly warm, so receiving a hug from him is a rare, but nice experience. Although he does go rigid at the beginning, not knowing what to do, but relaxes into the hug eventually.
Again, he’s not a very physically affectionate person, but isn’t opposed to the occasional peck on the cheek or on your lips either. There is some anxiety whether you’d actually want a kiss from him or not, so he doesn’t kiss you very often, even if you do reassure him that it’s quite alright. He’s a bit tense at first when he presses a kiss to your lips, but calms down eventually. It’s especially bad during the beginning of your relationship, but he’s since gotten better at being calm about it. Since there’s a good chance he’s taller than you he loves giving you a kiss on the forehead. It’s a small but sweet gesture. He doesn’t need to bend down entirely to reach you but he still gets to be affectionate with you. However, if you’re on the taller side, or just as tall as he is, then he’d love to receive kisses to his temple from you. It makes him smile every time you do it. If he’s in the mood for receiving a kiss then he’ll lay his head on your shoulder and nudge you a bit. Or try to get his head in your closer vicinity. Kind of like that one bunny video where the bunny stretches to receive some kisses.
Cuddles with him are a bit more common than hugs actually. However, he refuses to lay down on top of you. If you’re shorter and weaker than him then there’s no chance he’ll put his weight on you, he’s just that afraid of hurting you. If you’re taller or just more muscular, then he might, but he’s still a rather heavy lad. Most he’ll do is put his head on your shoulder while you’re cuddling in bed and are both lying down. Although it’d be a lie to say he doesn’t want to be held. König is alright with being the one to hold you, but sometimes he would prefer to be the little spoon as well. That urge gets especially bad if you’re roughly the same size as him. Sometimes just nuzzling into your chest does the trick for him as well, though. Loves it when you run your fingers through his hair as he does so. Another thing he adores is you sleeping on his chest as he holds you. He gets to hold you close, he gets to protect you and he gets to doze off a bit himself, it’s bliss to him. Sometimes he leans down to press a kiss to your head and accidentally wakes you up like that. He feels bad about it and apologizes profusely, but does chuckle a bit when he sees your disheveled hair and your tired expression that shows you just woke up.
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Thinking about the symbolic weight of smoking in the TLT universe that comes to the fore in The Unwanted Guest -- the way it moves through from person to person: Pyrrha smoked, and Augustine wanted to impress her in all her stone cold fox MILF James Bond glory (and tbf who wouldn't) so he started too. and even though as far as he knows she's been gone for a myriad and is never coming back, he keeps the habit. Ianthe sees something in the hollowed-out Faberge eggshell of Augustine that resonates with her, all that gilded eloquent emptiness and disdain through the ages, so she picked it up from him to try to emulate it. She picked it up so hard that Palamedes -- the exact spiritual antithesis of the 'smoking! on a space station! what a powermove' ennui Ianthe so admired -- spontaneously unnerded enough to even known how to, simply from a sort of contact contamination of the soul.
G1deon and Augustine sharing a jittery smoke after their near-Harrow experience during soup night, and it's the closest thing to any real sense of brotherhood that remains between them. Pyrrha going ten thousand years dying both literally and for a smoke (and then Camilla sold her fucking cigarettes (for a third of what they were worth, probably Pyrrha's own good, and also more importantly grocery money). what an entirely haunted time to be alive etc.). Augustine and Mercy trading a cigarette back and forth in the middle of their collusion over the love and murder of god.
An act of small and measured self-destruction in the name of something a little bit like connection when you're stuck somewhere in yourself where love itself dares not or cannot tread (ritualized, transmissible)..........
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can i be fr for a minute?? sending abuse to people online for holding different views than you is not activism and in fact actively hurts your cause. most people are not extreme in their viewpoints, you can give them a new perspective if you're willing to spend some time explaining shit. if someone is saying something you disagree with and you rush in there to condescend to them and call them disgusting and subhuman and dont even TRY to explain calmly why their views are harmful, they're going to shut you out instantly and double down on their views.
most people are simply genuinely ignorant to the issues they're talking about - they just pick their views up from the news and the world around them and express opinions because that's what every person does. if you run in there and tell them they're scum for it, what then? if someone does that to you, are you going to think "maybe i should do some research" or are you going to think "this person is an asshole, im blocking them." a lot of you think you're activists and then refuse to do any kind of actual WORK to support your cause.
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