merlintheactor

[merlintheactor]

What we’ve gotta understand is that “the modern Internet is abolishing spaces for adults” and “the modern Internet is abolishing space for children” are compatible phenomena. Neither group is being favoured: the modern Internet is abolishing spaces for adults (i.e., because grown-up topics aren’t advertiser friendly) and the modern Internet is abolishing spaces for children (i.e., because online communities which consist principally of people who have no money are hard to sell things to). The Internet that contemporary corporate interests are trying to build isn’t a space for anyone – it’s the digital equivalent of an Ikea showroom.

[merlintheactor]

Vampire and werewolf dating

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notice how it's "with mama" and not "with papa". even in a fake cutesy tumblr scenario, she took the fucking kids. <- what I imagine i'd be posting as a divorced dad on tumblr

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this is funny as fucking hell actually

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i know why this is less common but i kind of wish more spec bio adjacent worldbuilding was less about the ways a species' society was built around their natural behaviors and more about how it failed to accommodate them

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I should draw rouge the bat. But in what circumstance

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i didn't say it was good, i said it has bewitched me body and soul

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flashbacks are pathetic. "oh ho ho time to relive something terrible that happened long ago" when I am literally in the middle of buying groceries. cut that out. I have shit to do.

[merlintheactor]

"Why is it a problem if students use AI to get through college"

Because if you demonstrate to me that you're willing to set aside concern for truth, evidence, and verifying things with your own eyes whenever it happens to be inconvenient for you, I have a solemn responsibility to make sure you don't get into medical school.

[merlintheactor]

[merlintheactor]

Shout out to the little girl at my store today who had a shirt that said "skeleton mouse" and she was carrying around a plushie of a rat, had hair clips in her hair that had rats on them, and a necklace with a rodent skull on it.

As I was checking her mother out at the register she pulled out a handful of rubber rats from her pocket and put them on my counter, to which her mother sighed and said "no sweetie, he doesn't need rats" to which I just looked at her like this

[merlintheactor]

[merlintheactor]

youuuu should draw isabeau :3c

isabeau <3

gave him a tiktok mullet for fun

[merlintheactor]

When I worked at Red Robin a lot of my job was balloons. Thats right, it wasn’t all fursuits and scaring each other. I also learned the valuable life skill of how to fill up a balloon with helium. There’s an art. A technique.

If I was the opening host I had to fill a bunch of balloons for the ravenous masses of children. These were released to float in the little arcade that had a lip on the ceiling to keep them contained.

If I was a closing shift I had to dispose of all the unenjoyed balloons left over. All day long I’d hand balloons to sticky little hands. I listened to the constant screeching that heralded a lost balloon.

Then one day, I learned a secret. A hidden bit of magic that I could immediately tell was going to change the game for balloons forever. I learned how to tie a slip knot.

Suddenly when children asked for a balloon I could tie it to their wrist while their parents applauded my foresight. The wailing of watching a balloon streak away through the sky ceased on my watch.

I was drunk on this new power.

One morning I was opening. I was filling balloons and I thought- I could save even more time if I just premade the knots! I gathered up my balloon babies and unto each one I bestowed a little slipknot that could secure right onto a wrist.

When I was done I looked across my handiwork, the balloons strewn across the arcade ceiling and my fever of madness broke. Suddenly I felt vaguely uneasy about what I’d done. Instead of little strings hanging at a child’s head height it looked more like… nooses. Each balloon looked like a cartoon gallows, ready to slip around a child’s neck and carry them away into the sky.

My manager came up to join me. We both regarded the field of hanging balloons. He cleared his throat and said, “Maybe we won’t pre-tie the knots anymore.”

I mumbled embarrassed agreement and never again made a gallows field of party favors. I did however use my balloon making skills later in life for nefarious schemes.

[merlintheactor]

[merlintheactor]

Anyone got that poem written from the perspective of an English teacher where they know deeply personal things about their now adult students because of the essays they wrote