smallblueandloud - Tumblr blog

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I extended. I struggled. I bit through the sun first. It's human nature.

credits: Valeria Aksakova (stock photography) Dan Witz (mosh pit painting, detail) dee railer at flicker (car submerged) Katsuhiro Ōtomo (Akira)

I couldn't find proper attribution for some of them, if you know of any artist not mentioned lmk

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Y’ever read something and have understanding that has eluded you interminably suddenly stop, curl up, and snuggle neatly into a fold in your brain because a new way way opened to it?

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"Old Town Square at Night" by Józef Pankiewicz (1892) vs the same place on November 28th 2023 (Warsaw)

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Harry: Perturbed and disturbed.

Eliot: Goddamn smiling about it!

Leverage Redemption S02E05 The Walk in the Woods Job.

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Good sci-fi is almost like religion in that it raises way more questions than it will ever answer and leaves you chewing on drywall. And that's the good part. Good sci-fi is just philosophy for weird people

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some of my favorite replies to this tweet. happy lesbian visibility week!

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Thinking about Martha and Jack and going a little insane.

Imagine being two of the only people in the entire universe to live through an apocalypse that no one else remembers happening, all because of your associations with a man you both experience deep unrequited love for.

Imagine being two of the only people to step away from that man of your own accord and being better for it, having been the victim of terrible things because this man you love so, so much is ultimately a flawed and sometimes callous person.

Yet you still love him all the same.

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i know that i'm late but! for next time you do this, bridgerton au?

wip friday!

The kid said warily, “It cannot be so impractical.” Robin turned her eyebrows on him, but he only hesitated a moment before plowing on in a surprisingly persuasive tone. “Miss Buckley, consider, if you are courting Steve, then you shall have a chaperone to Nestor Matthews’ lecture next month. And Steve, if you are courting Miss Buckley, then…then the other ladies of the Ton will realize what a match you are, and your dance card will be stuffed to bursting!”

“My dance card is perfectly full,” Harrington protested. Robin snickered a little in spite of herself, and then snickered again when he glared at her. “It could stand to be less full, frankly, I am quite tired of being pursued through balls by every graspingly insipid young woman in the Ton.”

Robin’s mouth fell open. And here she’d managed to forget why she hated the guy. “I hardly think you have so much as half a leg to stand on when it comes to insipidness,” she scoffed.

To her surprise, Harrington actually looked cowed. “That was rude,” he admitted, compounding her amazement. “They are…they are perfectly fine. But they are not…”

“Not Nancy,” the kid finished. He patted Harrington’s shoulder. “You must grow up and move on,” he said, so bluntly that it startled another laugh from Robin. Harrington raised his eyes to the ceiling in silent supplication. Robin would have sympathized, but unfortunately, he sucked, so instead she just enjoyed his suffering.

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Part 2

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This is why it’s so important for parents to support their trans kids.

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this was Kirk at his most Dashing Romantic Hero in th entire series change my mind.

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Remember that episode of the 90s X-Men series   when it was an apocalyptic alternate universe and Storm and Wolverine were a badass married couple?

I do, because it was EVERYTHING

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leverage season 1 plot

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bridgerton au!

Robin finally lost her shit completely, and burst into gibbering laughter.

When she resurfaced for air, she found Harrington and the kid both looking somewhat offended. This prompted another spate of giggles, which unfortunately just made the offended looks deepen. “I do apologize,” she gasped. “It is a—a charming notion,” she managed, and then her own words made her double over in laughter. 

The kid stood to put a hand on Harrington’s shoulder. He said solemnly, “My apologies. I did not realize that ladies truly were refusing to dance with you.”

Harrington’s offense skyrocketed into truly comical levels at that. Robin lost her shit all over again.

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tbh I still think Brock Rumlow was an interesting character and upon further examination way more unsettling a villain than most to me because like. Let’s be real, the second you lay eyes on Robert Redford as Pierce monologuing in his pristine suit and glass office high up in the sky he just screams Evil Politician! at you. You can see it coming a mile away. Meanwhile Rumlow is….Just Some Guy. On the surface, he’s just some side dude. He’s not enhanced, he’s not in some major position of power, he’s just someone who’s really good at what he does and seems dedicated enough to the work and functions well with his team. He respects Steve, might admire him even, but not so much that he gets starry eyed like everybody else. He’s lighthearted but focused, he’s no nonsense, he’s the everyman Steve can relate to way more than spooks like Natasha or Fury.

And okay, maybe what Rumlow does for a living is beat intimidate and kill people, but it’s not like that’s the primary objective, right, because SHIELD are the good guys and this is what Steve does now, too, anyway; except that Steve doesn’t really use any weapons other than the shield, he holds back, he doesn’t carry a gun anymore which is usually fine since he’s dangerous enough without it. But when that leaves him vulnerable, he’s covered: Rumlow’s got his six, and he does it well, and he earns some of his trust. This is familiar to Steve.

And maybe Rumlow’s a little too good, fine, maybe he shoots a guy in the head within the first fifteen minutes of the movie when he doesn’t necessarily have to and then cracks jokes immediately after but that’s alright too, because that guy had Steve at gunpoint and that guy was Bad whereas Rumlow is One of the Good Guys just doing his job, right. Rumlow’s joking around because he’s used to the violence, they’re all used to it, and this is just how it works. They’re just soldiers doing the grunt work and following orders, and this is familiar, too.

Except that they’re not soldiers and this isn’t a war, except that the work is for an intelligence agency whose job it is to hoard and steal information and monitor civilians and orchestrate and sabotage and meddle in internal and external state affairs. Except that the Good Guys, in reality, are extremely grey at best. Except that many of the Good Guys turn out to be Nazis on top of everything else, and it’s not that far of a stretch.

But when it’s all starting to unravel, you’re still thinking well maybe some of these guys didn’t know. Maybe they didn’t do it out of individual belief, and if faced with the right choice, they can be redeemed.

That is until you realize that Rumlow maybe didn’t respect Steve and what he did so much as what Steve could do if only Steve weren’t “weak” in other ways, if Steve had chosen the right side. That it not being personal is less a cop out and more a taunt the same way just following orders has always been, for Rumlow and many many men that came before him and will continue to come after. Until the vault when, by the most charitable of interpretations, Rumlow looks at the Winter Soldier letting himself be smacked around and crying and getting shocked like he’s maybe a little unnerved (if not just downright fascinated) by the whole thing, but not enough that it really changes anything for him, because the end justifies the means and it’s not really his problem, anyway.

Until Sam shows up and Rumlow looks at him like a bird of prey and says This is gonna hurt with a fucking smile on his face, and then you think: shit, man, obviously. How was it not clear from the start.

To me, what makes someone like Rumlow a good villain, even a side one, is not that he’s straight up Insane & Evil™️ or suffering from Tragic Backstory Syndrome or all hopped up on magic superstrength juice or whatever, but precisely the fact that he’s Just Some Guy with a cockroach survival mentality who operates well within the established system and just so happens to be really good at his job - a job that he might’ve even joined thinking it was for a good cause, or because he had something to prove, or simply because it gave him one hell of an excuse to be a bully. Because he either wholeheartedly believes in HYDRA or he just doesn’t give much of a shit either way so long as he gets his due in the end, and both are just as bad.

Because when you strip away all the grand scale superhero theatrics, you’ve seen this before. You’ve seen Rumlows in your school and in your neighborhood and in the military and the cop car patrolling your street. They’re the ones who sometimes say or do somewhat offputting shit but you figure it’s fine because they’re otherwise real nice or charismatic or normal looking, or maybe they work a job that’s framed as helpful or protective or inherently good despite the power dynamics at play, or they share your background and interests and you chat about the weather being crap this time of year.

And every time one of them turns out to be a violent, hateful piece of shit, you’re still somehow surprised then, too, when you really shouldn’t be.

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i had a weird dream last night where i was playing a game. the rules were simple -- the players had a minute to run around the room they were in, grab an item, and hide it on their person. then the audience got to walk around and try to figure out what was missing. you had an advantage if you know the space well, because you had a better sense of what obscure thing you could take without being noticed. it felt like hide-and-seek, but with more pride staked on knowing the space very well.

in my dream i was playing it in the church i grew up in, with the childhood family friend who grew up there too. that friend has gotten more and more unpleasant over the past few years -- deciding their own opinions are always right, justifying their prejudice with their own identity, trying to tell me the way i should feel about our childhoods. it was a surprise to see them in my dream, in that same building, which they've ceded their claim to, which i still love.

they beat me at the game.

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random dash inspectionnnnn 🎩🔎 ....clean as a whistle