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Celia is just so cute!!!

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"im having creation ideas beyond my skill level" DO IT ANYWAY. "i don't have good supplies" DO IT WITH BAD SUPPLIES THEN. "i don't have free time" SO DO IT SLOWLY.

FIND THE SHORTEST MOST DIRECT ROUTE TO YOUR CREATION BEING REALIZED AND DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET THERE

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when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other… like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳

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Jean Pierrot

Kyoto in December

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An Amateur Snapshot of Kodak’s Early Days, 1930s photo by H. F. P. Middleton

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about some of the people I interact with. I have a coworker who I am pretty sure is a MAGA type, and she is also a lovely woman who is dreadfully overworked and so good at connecting to patients when they call. I can see the conflict on her face when she talks to me, a gigantic tranny dork who speaks Spanish and affirms the LGBT community, but can also talk to her about her cows and knows about guns and stuff. I can see the fear in the eyes of my former Young Men’s leader when he misgenders me and realizes that I’m not an ideology but a person he has known for a long time. I can see the way my extended family stop and stutter over political discussions when they realize they are talking about me. And I don’t know why but lately it’s just made me think about my neighbor as a kid.

When we moved to Arizona, we moved next door to a lovely retired couple - John and Lucy. John was a veteran of WWII, he had an M.D. and a Ph.D. in radiology, and he LOVED us to pieces. His wife, Lucy, was a sharp and gifted woman - well spoken, very observant, and VERY clever. I just know that she used that cleverness as a mom to great effect, because with my and my siblings she always managed to find a way to send us home with candy and treats for a week despite my dad’s protests. We loved them, growing up, and even though they have long-since passed away I love them still, and I love what I learned from them.

John was, as stated, a WWII veteran. He was enlisted as a rifleman, and later as a front line medic, starting at Point Du Hoc and moving inwards to France and towards the Rhine. He let me do a report on him in 6th grade where he shared war stories with me he had kept to himself his whole life - he said it was out of respect for his friends who didn’t get to come home and tell their stories.

He said he told me because he knew I could respect the memories of his friends.

He showed me his collection of medals, and which he’d kept hidden away in a sock in his attic because he’d feel an immense grief any time he saw them. He had wanted to be a doctor his whole life, prior to being drafted he was studying medicine and had taken the Hippocratic oath to Do No Harm. He saw his medals as a reminder that he had Done Harm.

After telling me his stories he was able to convince himself that while he had Done Harm, it was only because his only other alternative was, to him, cowardice. He chose to be brave even if it meant acting against his Oath because he felt that if he didn’t do it someone else would have to go in his place and he would be responsible for the harm that befell them. I don’t think that’s true, but for him it was and that was something no being on earth could have ever dissuaded him from believing.

He shared wild stories - melee combat on the beach, clearing artillery bunkers, receiving a Purple Heart for being injured in hand-to-hand combat with a Wehrmacht rifleman he said he felt pity for because they were the same age and he had to imagine the man he was fighting had been drafted just like him.

He shared how he was awarded a Silver Star for charging a machine gun nest, but shared that he was most proud of not killing anyone in the process. He threw a grenade with the pin still in it and when the machine gunners jumped to avoid being blown up they were killed by someone else so he didn’t have to do it. He took the machine gun and shot the other machine gun in that French field to pieces so he didn’t have to kill the people operating it. He said they were giving out Silver Stars like candy but I knew he was being modest.

He told me about being redesignated as a medic, about how he crawled for about 500 yards on his belly to rescue an injured tank driver, then threw him over his back and crawled the same 500 yards back (1000 yards total) to treat his injuries. He said he met the man in an Army hospital in England after his spine was broken by a high explosive panzer shell was fired through a hollowed out French farmhouse and landed about 20 feet away from him.

He told me about all the people he helped and saved as a medic, he told me about his work in radiology and research after the war. He showed me a hallway that was quite literally wallpapered with academic honors he’d earned as a researcher. He told me about how his first Fourth of July back was a horror show for him because fireworks and German artillery make very similar sounds. He told me about how he woke up in a cold sweat well over half a century later hearing the screams of German artillery men being burned alive with flamethrowers, or hearing his own voice apologizing to the young German soldier he stabbed in the heart at Point Du Hoc.

He told me that when he was asked to present at a medical conference in Germany 25 years after the war ended that he was so scared he couldn’t step off the plane, and that his wife had to hold his hand and lead/pull him with her. He said he was not scared because he was worried about being triggered, but because he knew that someone somewhere outside of that plane had the course of their life irreparably altered by his military service. That to someone out there he was the cause of immense suffering and harm. That some unwitting waiter could be the son of the Nazi Officer he stabbed in the heart with a 12-inch hunting knife. That some woman asking questions in the audience would be the daughter or widow of a man he sent to judgement with a .30-06. He was scared that they would hate him.

He knew what the Nazi’s had done, he knew better than anyone I’d ever met. He’d watched the documentaries, he’s seen the PoWs returning from camps, he’d seen the civilians massacred and tortured by their regime, but he also knew that among the monsters were people like him - idealistic 20-somethings who only wanted to make the world better and were ripped away from that life by the Nazi war machine. And he spent his whole life mourning the loss of innocence and peace that was forced on so many people by such a corrupt power.

To be honest I don’t know if I could do that, but he could. He told me he could still feel the dead and lost with him, both when he slept and when he woke. He told me he thought he’d go to his grave never having told a word of this to anyone. That the stories of him and his friends and allies would disappear silently with him and those like him. That he had wanted that until he realized that he didn’t have to sell out to share the stories - that he could give the stories away for free to someone who would love the people in them, and not just the content of them. He didn’t want his stories to be used as Patriotic Pornography by some TV network or magazine. He wanted the people he knew to be respected, he wanted their memories to be honored and loved, and he entrusted me, a 12-year-old “boy” to do that.

He told me for years afterwards that after telling me these stories that he slept better than he ever had. That by sharing the stories with someone who could hear Him over the din of victory and glory and honor and revisionistic history. Someone who could see the man in the story and not just see the plot of a battle being won. He wanted to be human, and he wanted the people he saw die to be human too - everyone, not just the people on his side. He wanted someone to see and to know the anguish of having to look someone in the eye as heartblood muddies the ground beneath them and hope that they understand that this was not an act of love or hatred but an act of desperation. To hope that you had just taken out One Of The Bad Ones instead of a medical student or a poet who had been drafted. He wanted me to see how hard he had worked since then to build a world without scarcity, to build a world of peace. He wanted me to know SO badly that the cost of violence, any violence, even necessary violence, is always ALWAYS paid by both parties involved.

I think about the rise of the new right wing - the new Nazi movement’s traction in politics, and I feel sad and scared - the world that Johnathan J Yobaggy, my neighbor, my friend, and my hero, worked SO hard to build is being done away with by people who do not understand the cost of the path they are entering. I can see brief moments of recognition in the eyes of some of the people I mentioned - The former young men’s president who immediately regrets misgendering me and hen he makes eye contact with me and sees Me staring back at him and not a faceless “ideology.” I can hear it in the voice of my uncle who quietly comes up to me to apologize for some homophobic comment he made absentmindedly. I can see it in the eyes of racists and sexists being interviewed on TV when they realize that they didn’t vote for a concept, they voted for a real thing. And honestly, I have mixed emotions about it. Because while I understand frustration with the status quo, the importance of basic human needs like affordable good and rent, and I know the fear that comes with feeling powerless, I also can’t help but grieve the endless wheel of history bringing us back to this God Damned Fucking Place again. I hope we can avoid this fate, not just for our sake but for the sake of everyone who has ever tried to make the world safer. For everyone who has ever tried to make up for human nature, for everyone who has ever placed themselves on the offering plate to protect others from the cruelty they know lies just under the surface of mankind’s tenuous grip on progress. I want SO badly for there to be a solution to this, for the people who idolize the Nazi party and the impact of fascism to see that the price of this path is paid in more than just blood but in soul. That they’re allowing themselves to be devoured too. I want for the centrists and the fence sitters and the idealists who want to “change it from the inside” to see how dangerous our politics have become. I want them to see that they’re losing the things that make them great in exchange for a security blanket that’s now become far far far too small to ever work for them again.

Safety found in the past is already gone, and safety found in the future is only as real as a daydream. That any ideology that promises that by “joining us now we’ll make things rough so we can make things safe in a decade” is a promise made by those who will not have to fight the battles they send you to.

I don’t know if America was ever really great, but as long as John was alive it felt great to me. There is no ideology that can replace a neighbor. No tax plan that can replace a friend. No grocery bill that can replace community and connection. No amount of budget cuts that can replace kindness. No amount of suffering from people I hate that will ever make more love. I don’t know how to make America great, but I know how to make my America great and it is not by selling out integrity and compassion and community and fucking humanity to make eggs and gas cheaper. It is by seeing and hearing the people around me. I’m not Mormon anymore, but I still know the value of mourning with those that mourn and comforting those that stand in need of comfort. I’m not Christian anymore but I still have Eyes That Can See and Ears That Can Hear. I want to make this all stop but I can’t stop the collective power of tens of millions of people so instead I listen to my MAGA coworker tell me about how sick her kid was last week. I make jokes with my Young Men’s leader. I hug my uncle. I let them see me fully, as a human and not an ideology. As a woman and not the concept of gender. As a whole person and not someone who can be easily summarized or boiled down into something short and quippy. And I let them know I can see them fully too, and I can see all their humanity as easily as they can see mine. I just have to hope that this works - that enough people can See and Hear the people in their lives who matter to them to bring them out of their personal world of forms and into the real world.

I am probably, honestly, just spiraling a little bit. I took my ADHD meds today and in addition to helping me focus they make me a little anxious so I doubt things are as bad right now as they seem. But just in case there’s any truth to the way things seem to be going, remember, and I mean this seriously: Be kinder to each other, be gayer, and read more Terry Pratchett.

And for the love of god day hello to your neighbor.

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me: i don’t want to see jellyfish so i will blacklist the tag #jellyfish

people with no common sense: je11yf1sh, je11¥fi5h, j*llyf*sh, je//ÿf!sh, j3ï||yf¡sh, gel lee fisk

result: cannot account for the sheer amount of possible ways to alter the word jellyfish

conclusion: i have to see jellyfish now.

Once again, tumblr is not tiktok, tag properly.

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Nirvana in Fire (2015) -Episode 39/54

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joan watson + (ง'̀-‘́)ง

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Break, Shinjuku 新宿

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Losing your empathy, losing your imagination, and finding yourself alone are all connected.

Right-wing masculinity influencers are counting on book bans and banned words to shrink your heart and mind.

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Botanical illustrations taken from 'A New British Flora' by A. R. Horwood, J. N. Fitch.

Published 1919 by Gresham Pub. Co.

New York Botanical Garden, LuEsther T. Mertz Library.

archive.org

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山神 / Mountain Diety Trailer

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fanfic writing culture isn’t “oh dang! I wanted to write about this prompt with this character but someone else already wrote it, so now I can’t”.

fanfic writing culture is always “two cakes is better than one. the more the merrier. there can ever be enough fics of this character with this prompt!”

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Pingxie Exchange 2025: Schedule and Guidelines Post

Hi and welcome to the Pingxie Exchange: a fic, art, and fanvid exchange about the Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling pairing.

In this exchange, participants will be anonymously matched to create gifts for one another during a five week creation period. The gifts will be revealed on August 17th: the day Wu Xie welcomed Xiaoge back after his 10-year-long absence behind the Bronze Gate.

This exchange is open to all the DMBJ canons (adaptations featuring Wu Xie or Xiaoge and the original novels). It will take place on AO3, so you need an AO3 account to participate--if you don’t have one, you can request it here; if there isn’t enough time, no worries - contact the mods at pingxie-exchange@hotmail.com, on DreamWidth, or on tumblr, and we can send you an invitation!

Schedule

Sign-ups open: June 11th Sign-ups end: June 24th 11:59 PM Anywhere On Earth (what time is it for me?) Matching: June 24th Assignments out: no later than June 25th Assignments due: August 10th 11:59 PM Anywhere On Earth (what time is it for me?) Gift reveals: August 17th Creator reveals and treats deadline: August 24th

Further information behind the cut...

Guidelines

This is a ship exchange: as such, all the works created for this event must be focused on Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling. Works with threesomes/moresomes or other pairings involving Wu Xie and/or Zhang Qiling are not appropriate for this exchange, but background ships of other characters are fine.

You will be expected to create a gift matching your recipient’s request. Filling any specific prompt is not obligatory, but try to create something you honestly think your recipient will enjoy!

You must not include anything stated as “do not want” in your recipient’s sign-up.

The minimum requirements for the gifts are 300 words for fic, one sketch on unlined paper for art (traditional or digital; no manips), or 30 seconds of video for fanvids.

After the matching is done, all the requests will be made visible to everyone to allow for treating! There are no minimum requirements for treats (but remember to mind your recipient’s do not wants!). You can also create manips for treats.

Please note: Now that AO3 has changed the way that gifting works on the archive, if you wish to be eligible for treats, you need to select the option "Allow anyone to gift me works" under the "Collections, Challenges and Gifts" section of your AO3 preferences.  You must also indicate that you are open to treats in your exchange sign-up.

This is an anonymous exchange: refrain from discussing your assignment in public. After the works are revealed, there will be a one week anon period when the creators remain anonymous before the creator reveals. DO NOT post your creation anywhere but the AO3 collection (e.g., Tumblr, Twitter/X, Bluesky, Dreamwidth, etc.) before authors are revealed on the 24th. If you do this, you will not be allowed to participate next year.

If at any point you need to drop out, just click on the “default” button on your AO3 assignment page (https://archiveofourown.org/users/YOURNAME/assignments); we’ll find a pinch hitter to create a gift for your recipient instead. If you need an extension to finish your gift, contact the mods before the deadline.

After the reveals, comment on your gift.

Most importantly: be excellent to each other!

Sign-Up information

Sign-ups will take place on AO3 here, starting on June 11th. There, you can fill out details about your request and offer. You can edit your sign-up at any time until the sign-ups close.

When signing up, you will be able to choose fandom, "character" (this is actually going to be the fanwork type: fanart, fanfiction, or fanvid), and genre tags, as well as specify any additional details.

You will have to select the DMBJ canon you’re interested in creating for and receiving a gift in:

Novels: The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles

TV: The Lost Tomb 1

TV: The Lost Tomb 2 - Explore with the Note

TV: The Lost Tomb 2.5 - Heavenly Palace on the Clouds

TV: Ultimate Note

TV: Adventure Behind the Bronze Door

TV: Tomb of the Sea/Sha Hai

TV: The Lost Tomb Reboot/Reunion: The Sound of Providence

Movies: Conjuring Curse (2023) & Misty Creed (2023) -- rare canon

Movies: Time Raiders -- rare canon

Video Games: Time Raiders (mobile game) -- rare canon

Note: If you choose a rare canon, then you must also choose at least one non-rare canon.

You are not limited to requesting or creating a work during the canon timelines for those series/books. It’s just to mark which canons you’re familiar with to allow for easier matching: some participants might have a preference for a particular canon era, some might not be familiar with all the versions. You still have to choose your preferred canon eras even if you want to create or receive an AU.

You will have to specify which "characters" you’re interested in:

Fanart

Fanfiction

Fanvid

(That's right, this isn't really a character selector; it was the only way I could include fanwork type preference in the matching.)

You will also have to specify genres you’re interested in:

Action/Adventure

Angst

AU

Canon Compliant

Canon Divergent

Dark

Domesticity/Slice of Life

Fluff

Humour/Crack

Hurt/Comfort

PWP (only select this if you’re 18+)

Request

In this section, you describe the gift you would like to receive.

Note: please make sure that if you are requesting something that you really would be happy to receive a gift for it. Don't try to pad out your signup by requesting something you would not enjoy. The goal is for everyone, creators and recipients, to have fun, after all!

The requests will be made publicly visible after matching is done, so that others will be able to create treats (additional gifts) based on them! So, please don't write anything in your optional details that you wouldn't want everyone to see.

Fandom - you have to choose at least one. If you’re willing to receive a gift in any canon era, you can just click “Any”!

Character (remember this is really fanwork type) - you have to choose at least one tag.

Genre - you have to choose at least three tags.

Optional Details - here’s where you can go into more detail about your perfect pingxie gift! You can include:

General Likes: your creator may, but doesn’t have to, include them. This isn’t a place for detailed prompts, just general themes you enjoy, like getting together or established relationship.

DNW (Do Not Wants): things that your creator must not include - squicks, triggers, things that you simply don’t like. Remember that you don’t owe anyone an explanation about why something is a DNW, and that DNWs are not meant to be taken personally. Just list the things you don’t like, “DNW: X, Y.”

Prompts/specific ideas: if you have any prompts, you can also put them here! You can be as general or as detailed as you’d like but remember that while your creator will try to make the best gift for you, filling a specific prompt is not obligatory. You can include a crossover prompt (with other DMBJ versions or other canons), but make sure it’s not the only prompt you have.

If you chose novels as one of your fandoms, you can use this field to list the ones you’re familiar with. If you're interested in receiving a Buried Tree Devil - Book 3 Donghua gift, you can also mention it here.

Optional Tags: You may use the optional tags to share more about your preferences, if you like.

Offer

Note: please make sure that if you are offering something that you really would be happy to create for it. Don't try to pad out your signup by offering something you could not easily create a gift for. The goal is for everyone, creators and recipients, to have fun, after all!

Fandom - you have to choose at least one. If you’re willing to receive a gift in any canon era, you can just click “Any”!

Character (remember this is really fanwork type) - you have to choose at least one tag.

Genre - you have to choose at least three tags.

Optional Details - in this field, you can tell us more about the kind of works you like to create, for example if you really prefer established relationship, feel best with certain kinds of AUs, or like writing darkfic. You can also tell us if you have a preference of which type of gift you will create (fic or art). We’ll take all of these optional details into account when matching!

If you chose novels as one of your fandoms, you can use this field to list the ones you’re familiar with. If you're interested in creating a Buried Tree Devil - Book 3 Donghua gift, you can also mention it here.

In the optional details of your offer, you can also name one person you don’t want to be matched to, for example your regular beta, and we will do our best to avoid matching you!

Optional Tags: You may use the optional tags to share more about your preferences, if you like. The offers will only ever be visible to the mods; never to anyone else.

Your assignment

You will be matched to create a gift for someone who requested at least one of the fandoms that you offered and one of the fanwork types you offered, with as many similar genres/likes as possible. This exchange will be matched using the AO3 algorithm to generate the initial matches and then tweaked by hand, if necessary, based on the information provided in everyone's optional details.

If you have any issues when you receive your assignment (you have a question about it or think there’s an issue with it), contact the mods as soon as possible. Do not contact your recipient on your own.

You will have to create a gift for your recipient, fulfilling the minimum requirements, and avoiding any stated "do not wants". Filling exact prompts is optional but try to create something matching your recipient's likes that they will enjoy!

You will have to post your gift to the exchange AO3 collection before the due date (August 10th), using the "gift this work to" option to give it to your recipient. Your work will remain in the collection only visible to you and the mods until the reveals happen. Remember to tag your work appropriately, especially if any of the major archive warnings apply, or use the "choose not to warn" warning.

Treating

Treats are additional gifts for the participants! To allow for treating, the requests will be made visible when matching is done. You can create treats at any time until the creator reveals! There are no minimum requirements for treats, and in addition to the fanwork types allowed for gifts, manips are also allowed. As with assignments, you have to respect the recipient’s Do Not Want, and while the optional details are optional, try to create something fitting the listed likes. One treat can only be gifted to one person.

Please note: Now that AO3 has changed the way that gifting works on the archive, if you wish to be eligible for treats, you need to select the option “Allow anyone to gift me works” under the “Collections, Challenges and Gifts” section of your AO3 preferences.  You must also indicate that you are open to treats in your exchange sign-up.

Pinch Hits

In case someone needs to drop out, we will look for a pinch hitter to complete their assignment. Pinch hits will be posted to the DreamWidth community and advertised on tumblr.

Extensions

If you think you can finish your assignment, but you need a day or two more, you can always ask the mods for an extension!

Other important information

Make sure to check the email you use on AO3 frequently during the exchange, as it will be the primary means of communication. We might contact you if there is an issue with your sign-up or if your gift creator has a question for you. If you’d rather we contact you on your twitter or tumblr, please leave your handle in the offer section of your sign-up. Follow us on DreamWidth and/or on tumblr to avoid missing an announcement or a deadline! If you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to contact the mods at pingxie-exchange@hotmail.com, on DreamWidth (anonymous comments are allowed), or on tumblr.

A very large thank you to laireshi for writing the rules and guidelines being used for this exchange.  They are presented here with minor changes.

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Ram a stronger person than me because I could NOT have resisted kissing him between his sweet sweet eyes here