#( that works for me! )

[rocketbirdie]

Can we hear more about your mind meld Zakkura au? Either by itself or with the others, your choice.

OHOHOHO........ cracking open a giant can of worms now are we........

The core idea is that, due to their 4 year involuntary mako jacuzzi session courtesy of Hojo, their "threads" of the lifestream become irreversibly tangled together. You'd have a very hard time telling where one soul ends and the other one begins. Their bodies are separate, and they receive not only their own sensory input, but the other's as well, sort of. More like a distorted, incomplete "echo" of the sensation?

For example if Zack listens to someone talk, Cloud won't necessarily hear what the person is saying, but he'll sense what Zack wants to say in response, so he can get it through context. And if one gets hurt, the other won't feel the pain, but know what the injury is and how bad it is, and have a hard time thinking straight due to it. Etc. It's not that they can hear each other's thoughts— it's that their train of thought is one and the same. So if Cloud wants to leave, he doesn't have to consciously think "hey let's gtfo," Zack will just know.

Because of this, they're very much in sync when they're near each other. Everything feels nice and normal when they have the same experience at the same place at the same time. But when they're apart, hooooo boy...

The au kicks off immediately following Zack's last stand. Everything plays out fairly normally for a bit, Zack is (presumed) dead, Cloud drags the buster sword to Midgar and stumbles his way into Sector 7, yadda yadda. Except he never really shakes off the mako coma all the way. He feels like he's still half asleep. His movements are disjointed and his reflexes are poor. His head is filled with fog, and he forgets things constantly.

So when his health starts to improve a little bit, it's a huge relief to Tifa and the rest of Avalanche! Except it's NOT a relief to Cloud, because all of those problems just get replaced with new ones as some hidden part of him resurfaces bit by bit. It starts out small. Almost like those little Jenova headaches in canon. Intrusive thoughts overwriting his own, emotional outbursts, feeling disoriented. Every now and then he gets struck with a panicked HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME feeling, but he doesn't know how to articulate it, so everyone else thinks he's just losing his marbles.

It escalates when Zack fully regains consciousness, only to find that his "dead body" was taken to another one of Shinra's secret labs to be further experimented on. The result is a total mental cataclysm, as they both slowly but surely begin to understand what Hojo did to them back in Nibelheim, and fear what might happen next.

Cloud tries so hard to convince the gang that they need to go back to Midgar, they need to rescue Zack, they need to do something. Of course Tifa is freaking tf out, because she had just finished convincing herself that the buster sword is standard issue and definitely not Zack's, and that Cloud is just having a little psychotic break and he'll be ok when they get him to a proper doctor...

Haven't thought of much more past that yet. But I do have some ideas for late-game CC... Cloud in his coma, Zack shambling along like a zombie, dragging him to Midgar because the thought of leaving him behind feels like death, with an unshakeable sense that Cloud really IS still in there. He can't prove it, but he's certain of it.

[emotionlcss]

﹝closed starter ⇾ @brokenbcys​ from xx﹞

looking up at the girl as she was moving to stand over him, his hands had easily moved  to her hips, pulling the girl down onto his lap. ❝ manners went out the window the second you decided to show up here. ❞ forcing the girl down onto his lap, he could see as the hem of her dress was starting to ride  up, only causing the male to smirk. ❝ i’d bet some good money you’ve got nothing on under there, and you came here with the intention of this happening. so let’s skip the innocent act, and get right down to it. ❞ 

[erstwhles]

continued ft. @dozenrozez​

“Oh, and the truth comes out after all,” Finley says, laughing. It has been a while since just the two of them have spent time together. Really, despite her teasing, she is happy to spend the evening with her friend, evidenced by the smile and the fond roll of her eyes as she pretends to consider the offer. “I never said I didn’t want to go! I mean, I guess it would be sad to watch you all alone. What kind of friend would I be if I let that happen?”

[eruditetyro]

good morning let’s hear it for Mildly Cool Outside a round of applause for Mildly Cool Outside

[epoxyconfetti]

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[sadclowncentral]

my family is fucking addicted to macgyvering and it's becoming a problem. every time something in this house breaks, instead of doing the sensible thing of replacing it or calling someone qualified to fix it, we all group around the offending object with a manic look in our eyes and everyone gets a try at fixing it while being cheered on or ridiculed by the rest.

it's a beautiful bonding activity, but the "creative" fixes have turned our house into a quasihaunted escape room like contraption where everything works, but only in the wonkiest of ways. you need a huge block of iron to turn on the stove. the oven only works if a specific clock is plugged in. the bread machine has a huge wood block just stapled to it that has become foundational to its function. sometimes when you use the toaster the doorbell rings. and that's just the kitchen.

it's all fun and games until you have guests over and you have to lay out the rules of the house like it's a fucking board game. welcome to the beautiful guest room. don't pull out the couch yourself you need a screwdriver for that, and that metal rod makes the lamp work so don't move it. it also made me a terrifying roommate in college, because it makes me think i can fix anything with enough hubris and a drill. you want to call the landlord about a leaky faucet? as if. one time my dad made me install a new power socket because we ran our of extension cords

[muffinlance]

My baby daughter got her adorable puffin-print dress absolutely CAKED in mud crawling around the yard and my first thought was "oh no her beautiful dress"

And my second thought was "oh huh it really WOULD be easy to unconsciously steer her away from playing in the dirt. Unlike my son, whose outfits are usually some kind of solid dark easily washed pants plus a shirt that doesn't trail in the dirt like a dress does."

Anyway something something gender roles start getting shoved on kids from literal birth, but with a little time to think about things, YOU TOO can let your children of any gender absolutely destroy their clothes in the dirt pit they're digging in your garden

[starridge]

also deciding to make stuff that 12 year old me would have wanted to draw

[nighthawkes]

I must sleep. Sleep is the mind-healer. Sleep is the big-life that brings total ability to fucking do anything. I will face my bed. I will permit the blankie to pass over me and snores to pass through me. And when sleep has gone past I will turn the outer eye to greet the new morning. When the sleep has gone there will be everything. Energy and will to live will remain.

[sylvies-kablooie]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[thelaurenshippen]

watching bridgerton and obviously there were a lot of things wrong with the way socializing has worked in the past, but honestly the idea of a "calling hour" is so appealing. office hours for friendship. you can show up unannounced at my home between 1 and 3pm. you must leave by 3pm. I may give you a pastry. lets bring that back

[ilona-mushroom]

Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.

[brainrotcharacters]

When irl pisses me off, I rewatch the Honda Odyssey scene to relax

[emjaydoubleyou]

this post is fearmongering. the results of this study are concerning and should definitely be a matter of public discussion, but this is certainly not the conclusion the researchers came to.

the point of the study was to assess the risks of exposure to toxic metals- something one of the co-authors notes are “ubiquitous” fwiw- via menstrual products. Their research confirmed that these metals are indeed present in tampons, but no further conclusions are drawn. it is possible the metal entered into the cotton from the soil, which is a well-known phenomenon; cotton is so good at lifting heavy metals that it has actually been suggested as a part of the solution for revitalizing polluted ground.

the authors conclude with an acknowledgement that the study should be repeated- their sample size was 60 tampons- and a suggestion that further testing ought to be done to indicate whether or not these metals can even leech out of the tampon in the first place, let alone whether or not such leeching could occur at levels deleterious to human health.

there is, in fact, a body of research- too small, for sure, but much larger than this single study- indicating that long-term proper tampon use has no observable negative impact on health. i am grateful and thrilled that more research is being done and i hope that this study is the first of many on this line of questioning, but i am really frustrated at this post and the response it got.

obviously, if this study alters your approach to menstrual health, more power to you. consumers should be informed-risk-takers, and menstrual health is double-obviously a very personal choice. but it definitely wasn't the researchers concluding that you ought to “avoid using tampons at all cost," only this tumblr user did. the lead author of the paper, in fact, specifically says that she hopes people do NOT panic about the results.

(the notes of the post were disappointing. people affirming that they knew they were right to be suspicious of tampons all along, or even recommending alternatives that actually have very little to no research regarding the safety of long-term use, etc. it’s a different conversation, but categorical distrust of tampons is old-school misogyny. you certainly shouldn't wear them if you don’t want to, but there is nothing inherently scary or wrong about them, and people who prefer them are not being reckless or crass.)

((if you're really worried about exposure to heavy metals, you may want to turn a critical eye to fast fashion, as an aside))

[badolmen]

People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

Edit: if you are able, use $5 you would otherwise use for a streaming subscription to donate to a GazaFunds campaign.