#「messages.」

[maliignant]

*hides behind a ginormous Undead Frenchman * Thank you for answering my ask. I appreciate the coaxing out of. How magical of you.

thank you for sending the ask in the first place, lovely! you reached out & that is always the first big step, isn't it? not a lot of people have the guts to do that so you're already well off on the right path. i'm proud of you, love. & again, appreciate the compliment(s), i'm so happy you love my portrayal of this beautiful creature.

[scatcrccio]

@sadauroras (mari) sent: ❛ why are you avoiding me? ❜

IT WAS NO SECRET THAT NATALIE HAD BEEN DODGING just about everyone as much as possible since her forced arrival at Camp Green-whatever. But yeah, Mari especially was one of her top main avoidances, for several reasons. Part of her is surprised that the other brunette even cared or noticed, so when she's confronted by the obvious fact, Nat's a bit taken aback. Her spine straightens as feet slightly stumble in place before she finally scoffs and turns her attention away with arms stubbornly crossed over her chest.

❝ Seriously—? ❞ When she does meet Mari's gaze again, it's with a sterner expression, tongue licking across thinned lips in that brief moment of pause. They may have gone through some serious, fucked up shit together in the past, but that didn't make them friends, even now. Nor had they been friends, really, back then. ❝ Because the last thing I need right now after being ambushed and dragged into this fucked up place against my will is whatever slew of bullshit you've got ready to go at my expense, that's why. ❞

Bad enough that everyone around them knew about Nat's little attempt and she could feel the stares on her at every given moment, sometimes even when she was sitting alone in her room. Maybe that might have been a delusion, but it didn't make her feel any less uncomfortable overall. Arms finally uncross and she elevates them if only to slap both hands against the outside of her thighs as if in some defeat, ❝ but alright, let's have at it then. What'ya got for me, huh?

Or are you just gonna try and convince me that Lottie's still the epitome of perfection; the perfect messiah you've always known her to be and all she wants is what's best for me and everyone here like some Goddess Saint with her woo-woo shenanigans, deserving of whatever pedestal you refuse to take her off of? Jesus, Mari… twenty-five years and you still have your head so far up her ass… it's fucking pathetic. ❞

[marvelsmostwanted]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[seshrat]

flow winning animated feature is the kind of story that's going to be taught like the boogeyman to every big animation studio's intake class for decades

[saywhat-politics]

Keep your messaging simple:

“Trump fired everyone in charge of airplane safety, and a week later planes started crashing into each other.”

That’s it. That’s the messaging. Don’t get bogged down disputing Trump’s false claims. Just blame him, in short and repeatable sentences.

[jellyowllen]

i made this version of that popular cake meme as a love letter to my favourite artists, writers, editors etc who keep making content about my favourite characters/ship

ermm

I LOVE YALL!!!!!!!!

[sop-soap]

Biases being broken down on both sides

[gayvampyr]

apartment. i’m at my apartment

[faequeentati]

thinking about the time my instacart shopper got Cask of Amontillado’ed

[maliignant]

Your Dru is absolute perfection. I am equal parts in awe of her and terrified of her as are my muses. Also your writing style is simply beautiful.

「 ASK MEME : HOW’S MY PORTRAYAL? 」

THANK YOU SO MUCH, LOVELY! & i'm adoring whatever mess of a relationship this is between dru & amy, the toxicity of it all has been adoringly fun to play with. feel free to throw any of your muses at my baby girl, she'd love to torment all of them.

[scatcrccio]

Does Nat have a favorite movie or movie genre?

Now accepting curious anons.

PRE-CRASH, I'D SAY NAT'S FAVORITE GENRE of movies was old classic horror. Pretty much any type of cult classics, really and for the most part that's still true even in the modern setting. Though I wouldn't necessarily say that she has a favorite movie overall, she just tends to lean more towards that specific genre in general. Growing up, most of the films she was able to watch was always whatever was on tv and usually late at night when her mom fell asleep so a lot of that at the time was old campy horror films. Some did bother her post-crash, depending on certain triggers (i.e. anything involving cannibalism or young teen girls turning on each other) but overall, she liked the sillier things. Clue and anything Mel Brooks like, Young Frankenstein just to name a few examples. She also liked some old Westerns, mostly because those were movies her father watched but even those sometimes rubbed her the wrong way if only because again, they reminded her of him. But she does have some fond memories watching Western films with her dad, especially when she was much younger, before he got really bad.

[favroitecrime]

captured from an ambulance. captured. from an ambulance. do not stop speaking about palestine please

[beebfreeb]

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

[cheddar-cheese-enthusiast]

my rage increases with everything i hear about the live action lilo and stitch

what do you mean nani gives up custody of lilo.

what do you mean no jumba redemption— and he’s the twist villain???

what do you mean no pleakley in drag.

what do you mean no nani and david romance subplot.

what do you mean no gantu.

what do you mean no ugly duckling scene.

what do you mean no anti-tourism theme.

what do you mean jumba just sounds like some random american guy.

what do you mean cobra bubbles isn’t the social worker

not to mention nani’s actress being in brownface.

and more than anything— showing an indigeneous family being separated by the government, and having it be shown as a “happy ending.” the original ending was perfect. nani kept custody and gained a support system.

disney’s rise in conservatism is showing bigtime

[teaboot]

Sometimes I think a lot about my mom's cat

My mom's cat is a common domestic shorthair we found on the side of the road as a kitten

Regular cat, not a maine coon or one of those massive breeds. His mom was smaller than a loaf of bread

But in a sort of a Clifford The Big Red Dog situation, he grew super fast, and really really big, and took a super long time to stop growing

Worried that she was overfeeding him, she eased back his portions, but he stayed a massive round baby

When he started having kidney problems, she took him to the vet.

The vet took a look at him and said, "holy fuck, what are you feeding him", checked the nutritional listings on his chow, and told her "Yeah, maybe he's reacting badly to the amount of grain in this, try a meatier diet"

So my mom wound up special-ordering this specific high-protein prescription cat food made of like. Kangaroo meat or some shit that cost like sixty bucks a bag

And, as typical act two in an episode of House, he somehow got worse on the fancy specialized stuff that was supposed to be Primo Athlete Olympic Feline Blend

Like. WAY worse. His guts were inflamed and his kidneys were shutting down and he was all sore and HE WAS STILL HUGE, just miserable and sad

So shetook him back to the vet, where they had to help him pee (he was apparently close to bursting and had some kind of blockage too) and went "Yeah no this is NOT normal and we don't know what's going on, we're gonna do some tests but in the meantime you should go back to what he was eating before, at least that wasn't actively killing him" so she did

And he still wasn't great, but he also improved

And so they take his blood and do an ultrasound and a couple g's later she gets a call back like "this is gonna sound crazy, but we want you to put him on a low-meat diet. Just the least amount of protein and iron and shit. We need you to find the grainiest, filler-iest dollar tree kibble available and give him some of that bad bad shit"

And my mother is a woman of science. So she did

And he GOT BETTER

His energy picked back up, inflammation went down, he started drinking normally again, got back to pissing like a fuckin champion

And so it turns out that out of all the random ass freeway bonus cats we possibly could have scooped out of a ditch, WE got the one-in-a-million freak of nature with a SPECIFIC genetic defect that means a paleo protein free range diet is essentially poison and he THRIVES on cheap ass garbage

Like. He medically NEEDS junk food

I dont really understand how that works, but i cant argue with results.

If we had four of him, they'd outweigh my mom. And he's FINE

Also blind, but that's unrelated

Im not using him as a symbol or a metaphor or anything. I just keep catching myself thinking about my mom's Big Fucking Cat