ethanrayne

[ethanrayne]

merlin has more strength than me bc if I heard uther pendragon bitch and moan about how magic only brings harm after I just saved his sons life for the ten billionth time that year with my magic and almost died yet again, I fear id accidentally turn him into a log

[ethanrayne]

I ❤️ MY PUBLIC LIBRARY

[ethanrayne]

truly never getting over the greatest loss streaming services caused: the disappearance of DVD special features. behind the scenes, bloopers, deleted scenes, commentaries, I will never forget you, I will never stop missing you.

[ethanrayne]

i walk a fine line between “i’m asexual and i hate how much the world revolves around sex” and “sex is way too stigmatized and people should be able to be more open about it if they want to”

[ethanrayne]

[ethanrayne]

i really like fallout because, unlike a lot of media that uses retrofuturism as just a cool aesthetic, fallout’s obsession with 1950s americana actually means something. it’s not just chrome fins and googie diners, it’s weaponized optimism. it’s that sickly-sweet propaganda sheen slathered over nuclear terror, where smiling mascots tell you to duck and cover while the government quietly preps for the end of the world. it’s about a country that believed so hard in its own greatness it signed its death warrant in cursive.

fallout takes that warped, post-war idealism, the “gee whiz!” charm of suburbia on lithium. and drags it through the dirt, showing us what happens after all the white picket fences melt into radioactive slag. in a world shaped by that specific brand of McCarthyist exceptionalism, the future isn’t flying cars and robot butlers, it’s a dinky holotape of your last moments before the bombs hit, looping forever. like vault 11, the one where the final recording plays after everyone’s already dead, revealing the whole “sacrifice one person every year or everyone dies” mandate was a lie. a loyalty test. a sick joke. and the vault passed, right before it failed, because paranoia and desperation had already eaten them alive.

that’s fallout. not just the end of the world, but the punchline that comes after the moral.

and honestly? that hits way harder than any sleek utopia. because fallout remembers: beneath all that pastel patriotism and canned laughter, something was always rotting.

[ethanrayne]

oh by the way, in Danish, "fag" means "subject" and "slut" means "end" so on library shelves you will see "fag slut" to note where the break in book topics is

pronounced fay' sloot

[ethanrayne]

i fucking hate being an adult with a slowly increasing number of responsibilities its like one day you wake up and youre like aw fuck when was the last time i descaled the coffee machine

[ethanrayne]

[ethanrayne]

The sentences "Asexuals can still have sex" and "Aromantics can still date" need to go up on the high shelf for everyone except aces and aros talking about their own experiences. From now on, everyone else has to use the revolutionary new phrase "Asexuals and aromantics can do whatever the fuck they want forever."

[ethanrayne]

I don’t want to reblog the post because I don’t want to start a debate with a random stranger but I can’t disagree more with the view of Wyll as a noble, optimistic paladin-type whose goodness lies in how he always sees the bright side. I think you can argue he aspires to that, but he absolutely does not live it.

He takes way too much pleasure in killing “evil-doers” to be called noble, and when you have him in your party he repeatedly encourages you to just kill people who he perceives as evil (okay, that’s very paladin, but not the Disney Prince energy that people assign to him). The whole underwritten turning point of his scene after the Balduran reveal is about whether he’ll take revenge on Mizora or not—not that it matters what you tell him to do, but it’s the seed of an idea that he has a problem with vengeance in the guise of righteousness.

I love that his conflict is that he is a good guy with a warlock pact he is trying to turn to good, but he is the first to suggest that even if Tav wants to refuse Raphael, it will be a struggle to hold firm to that line. He’s realistic and even jaded about the evil that exists in the world, and it makes him angry—he just isn’t jaded about whether it’s worth trying to fight it, or how to direct that anger. His optimism lies in his self-belief, but not in believing the world itself is good.

If there’s anything he’s always looking on the bright side about, it’s Baldur’s Gate itself, which is very funny considering it’s canonically considered an utter shithole of violence. Actually, there’s probably something interesting to do with the way he’s built up Baldur’s Gate as this shining city of resilience and opportunity in contrast to the violent frontiers that always need saving.

I recognise me wanting him to show anger at his dad is personal preference, but those scenes are so short and badly written, I truly can’t count them as indicative of character one way or another. Maybe there’s an interesting version of him immediately forgiving his father and not minding how Ulder treats him, but we didn’t get it.

Finally, having just gotten one such scene… he gets mad at Mizora! That whole situation openly pisses him off and it’s some of the most emotion he gets to show! He finds her irritating and petty and there is nothing noble in how he complains about her, he just thinks she sucks and he hates her.

[ethanrayne]

Other authors: My heroine was a poor orphan. Pity her.

Jane Austen: Pft, orphans have it easy! My heroine has two living parents and three extra guardians and all of them are the worst...

[ethanrayne]

random heat survival tips from someone who grew up in a house with no aircon in central australia (40C+ temps sometimes for weeks on end)

soak your clothes in water and put them on, wear until dry

soak a shirt in water, put it in the freezer for a few hours, then put it on

wet (optionally frozen) bandana around the neck/on the chest

drink more water than you're comfortable with BUT MAKE SURE YOU

also eat a lot of salty snacks/drink plenty of electrolytes. ice cold kombucha or apple cider vinegar drinks are a+++

move slowly, sleep thru midday/afternoon if possible, save all activity for mornings or nights

seriously if you can get away with it just straight up become nocturnal

suck on ice cubes or frozen fruit juice

reduce how much you eat. you probably wont have much of an appetite anyways but tiny cold meals are ideal

for sleep: wet towel on face/neck + fan/some other airflow are lifesavers

cold showers are great for cooling down in a pinch. don't dry off after just let yourself air dry

[ethanrayne]

random heat survival tips from someone who grew up in a house with no aircon in central australia (40C+ temps sometimes for weeks on end)

soak your clothes in water and put them on, wear until dry

soak a shirt in water, put it in the freezer for a few hours, then put it on

wet (optionally frozen) bandana around the neck/on the chest

drink more water than you're comfortable with BUT MAKE SURE YOU

also eat a lot of salty snacks/drink plenty of electrolytes. ice cold kombucha or apple cider vinegar drinks are a+++

move slowly, sleep thru midday/afternoon if possible, save all activity for mornings or nights

seriously if you can get away with it just straight up become nocturnal

suck on ice cubes or frozen fruit juice

reduce how much you eat. you probably wont have much of an appetite anyways but tiny cold meals are ideal

for sleep: wet towel on face/neck + fan/some other airflow are lifesavers

cold showers are great for cooling down in a pinch. don't dry off after just let yourself air dry

[ethanrayne]

you have to stay alive. you're going to be such a beautiful middle aged freak. young freaks will see you in the street and know that things can be okay.

[ethanrayne]

One of the major dividing lines of our age is between those who think it's worthwhile to cooperate and work with other people, accepting their flaws and limitations, to build something larger than ourselves, and those who think everything is fundamentally hopeless and that other people are corrupt, degenerate, and suspect. And the latter is not conducive to having any kind of culture at all.