#(for the boiling frog metaphor)

[dollkichi]

Backing you into a corner ever so gently that you won’t even notice until it’s far too late.

[the-metatron]

how's the frog? You're keeping it in a terrarium I hope.

I'm keeping the frog in my hotdog water hot tub, anon. Slowly increasing the temperature at such small increments that the frog doesn't notice until she finds herself living in a capitalist dystopia wracked by proxy wars and extreme weather conditions caused by global warming, and it's too late to jump out.

But thing is, anon, it was always too late to jump out. The walls were always too high for the frog to leap over, and the condensation from the steam makes climbing out impossible. Such is the case for all competent pet enclosures. It isn't cruel. It's for their own good.

I'm much bigger and far more powerful than the frog. I put the frog into the hotdog water hot tub, knowing that there was no way for it to ever escape. Only I can take her back out, but I never will.

And why should I? The frog is doing fine. She's safe, warm, and comfortable in my hotdog water hot tub. What right does she have to complain?

And soon, the eggs she laid will watch, and the new generation of frogs will grow up in the hotdog water hot tub, in near boiling water, never knowing anything different. But still, they'll always dream of jumping out.

[yifftwiceplz]

man

i keep making wet bug eyes at kk like please can we please get hermit crabs already and hes told me only after we get him gtier and we renew our vows

[poppyseed799]

Brother why are there so many roaches we have had TWO full exterminations and BOTH TIMES the roaches came back. The first time there were less of them for a week (still some) but the second time there was absolutely zero difference in the number of roaches even immediately after the extermination. Like man. What am I supposed to do about this

[steeltempura]

Random thoughts about improvement and attaining your goals :

Practicing a new skill is Hard. Improvement is Slow and we tend to give ourselves objectives that seem so far away from everything we're able to do.

Its a mean to motivate us at first, but as we encounter unexpected difficulties along the way we realise the path might be longer or harder than we first thought, and often this ends up being discouraging.

But we're actually chasing chimeras. As we improve at something, our objectives naturally become bigger, we want to be more efficient, faster, better, we want to be just like this artist we look up too, or as fast as that co-worker, etc, etc

This is obviously a natural way too look at things, but it often make us forget about the here and now, and blinds us to the thousands of little steps we take as we climb toward our next objective, shining in the distance.

We can draw satisfaction from individual successes, yes, we can end a day feeling like we did improve, or learn to do something new, but still, we're often blind to the sum of all these nuggets of knowledge, accumulated from overcoming all of the small obstacles in our way. All the muscle memory we build, all the reflexes we acquire, all the methods we learn, all the habits we develop : we often ignore them, or we tend to diminish them. "Oh yeah I can do that, but its only because I've actually a trick, Its not that fancy" or "well I know how to make It, but I don't know how to make it Perfectly" or even "no, I really don't know what I'm doing, I just followed a Tutorial / been in this situation before".

The thing is, it doesn't matter how legitimate you are, where your knowledge comes from or why you can do a particular thing.

What matters is that you can now do things you couldn't previously. Or you may be faster. Or you may be more efficient.

And we don't have many opportunities to look Back instead of looking up - what we know now seems obvious to us, of course its easy now that's its in our grasp, it wasn't even that hard to begin with, and yet we struggled so hard before, we really were pretty bad at this - NO. Everyone has to start somewhere, and you. made. progress. It is undeniable.

But getting the full measure of your incremental progress is hard, of course. Its easy to forget the struggles of the past, its easy to belittle the actual improvements, when we're focusing on our long term goals, shining brighter than any of the sparkles we're able to produce on our own, and illuminating all the flaws in our work, and thats it, we're only able to see them now, and we lost track yet again of the path we climbed to get there.

We're like frogs being slowly boiled alive, except the warming water is our slow progression toward the hot bath we're dreaming of.

So it might help to try, if just for a moment, to try and remember when you started.

To remind yourself that whatever path you took to get where you hard, however easy it was, even if it felt like cheating, you're there now.

To try and explain to a complete beginner, image of what you were, concepts or skills that you now find painfully obvious, and acknowledge that they used not to be.

Because this frog once didn't even know water was wet, before being plunged in it.

[coquelicoq]

Ce n'est pas pourtant que M. Mabeuf eût été dans cette occasion autre chose que l'agent calme et impassible de la providence. Il avait éclairé Marius par hasard et sans le savoir, comme fait une chandelle que quelqu'un apporte; il avait été la chandelle et non le quelqu'un. (t. III, 5, iii, p. 865)

C'est ainsi qu'à travers cet obscurcissement qui se faisait autour de lui, toutes ses espérances s'éteignant l'une après l'autre, M. Mabeuf était resté serein, un peu puérilement, mais très profondément. Ses habitudes d'esprit avaient le va-et-vient d'un pendule. Une fois monté par une illusion, il allait très longtemps, même quand l'illusion avait disparu. Une horloge ne s'arrête pas court au moment précis où l'on en perd la clef. (t. III, 5, iv, p. 869)

i love both of these. so clear and evocative. hugo has such a facility for metaphor.

[psychosodomy]

Me when autistic niggas are suffering

[lellu]

Anne for blorbo bingo

shes everything to me.

[cassandralexxx]

In one of my courses we read the short story “How to Leave Hialeah“ by Jeanine Capó Crucet. I don’t think it was until I read that short story that how I was feeling about being in this town really made me feel. I never truly appreciated back home and the way that the culture, MY culture, was so so present. Back home I had many friends who were Like Me, and I felt one with where my family comes from but up here it isn’t like that at all. I reference the big and the small any semblance of what I know from my community and there is a lack of comprehension it is like we are of different worlds. When I was younger I was appalled by the concept of staying close to home but now I long for the chance to engage with what I once took for granted. It is so weird missing my connection to my culture when I hadn’t even realized how present it was in my life before.

[jawbone-xylophone]

Okay time to be really opinionated: I think almost the entire TMA fandom writes Michael Distortion wrong.

Every time I read a fic about him people are emphasizing how swirly and elongated he/it is.

What's scary about Michael is that it is essentially the living personification of gaslighting. He makes everything else metaphorically swirly.

Sure there's "nobody would believe you", but most people who meet Michael think he looks angelic. He only looks scary out of the corner of your eye, or if he's feeding you just enough truth to get your guard down. He's fun to draw and describe as a psychedelic nightmare, but he is basically the gaslighting demon. It's a polite young man with curly hair and a beautiful smile who you could absolutely take home to meet your mother.

You only know he's a monster because your lizard brain starts screaming.

On a related note, its portfolio also includes dissociation and hallucinations, and nobody takes enough advantage of that– like, kissing Michael. Lots of people describe kissing Michael as a very physical event with notes of static and that tingling sensation of limbs falling asleep. A good start, but my argument: you feel him smooching your cheek and giving your hand a cute little squeeze, despite the fact that he's across the room ordering a coffee. It feels so real. You can feel his callouses catching at your fingers, but no matter how you flex your hand there's nothing there but air. You don't know if you just want it that badly and your eyes are lying, or what. He brings you a coffee and the sensation vanishes.

I know exactly what that episode about "the man who wasn't there" was because I've experienced it, and nobody utilizes that enough. Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to walk through a room, and been Firmly Convinced there was an object in front of you you were about to run into, despite no evidence of such an object when you open your eyes? It's a little like that. Any sort of relationship with Michael Distortion (not recommended and likely a way it has killed many people) would involve you getting comfortable with the fact that your senses are lying to you at an exponentially increasing rate, like a frog slowly being boiled alive.

Is he there? Is he not? Does it matter? You feel loved. You remember being told good morning and eating a homemade breakfast. Did you actually? Maybe it's a memory from a year ago you only think is from this morning. He's adorable even if his laugh gives you tinnitus. Maybe you've always had migraines. He takes care of you through them. Can you remember what he does to take care of you? ....normal people stuff, probably. Ice packs. You think he brought you ice packs once. You're sitting at a bus stop, going... somewhere, for a reason you're sure, and your body is telling you you're sitting on his lap but you keep checking, tapping with your nails, and the seat is hard metal. Does it matter? Maybe it really is him. You'd prefer if it was him. These cute little hallucinations are his way of showing affection. It's comfortable, even when the city shuts off your water because you only thought you paid your bills. He gives you his coat in the rain, and you laugh together and run through the weather, but when you get home you're holding a stranger's purse full of cash instead of a coat and you have no idea why. It's his idea of affection, though. He says he loves you when you ask about it, anyway, and don't you need the money now?

He's a lovely young man and the only normal thing in a world gone mad. The gloves only come off when it's done playing with its food.

[strwberri-milk]

Hello, good day. Can you do headcanon or a fic for Wanderer realizing he likes reader. Like he’s always thought that he hated her, but then he realizes it’s not hate, but love. Wanderer calling us adorable in the event brought back my Wanderer phase

Wanderer didn’t really want to entertain the idea that he liked you romantically. To him it was just something irritating to have to deal with, not wanting to come face to face with the consequences if it did end up meaning that he was romantically invested.

It takes him a while to realize that there’s the disturbing chance that the reason why he felt so strongly about you was because he’s in love with you. The intensity of his feelings are definitely there but again, all he really wants to do is deny that that’s happening. It’s almost disturbing to him at first but slowly he’ll get more used to it and warm up to the notion.

You won’t know that he feels this way because he’s not going to communicate it to you in the least. He’s going to act as though the same with you. regardless of how his feelings for you are developing. The positive changes are going to happen so slowly that you’re like a frog in boiling water - you won’t really notice they’re there until you sit back and analyze all of the interactions you’ve been having with him recently. Comparing them all together like this you’ll realize what’s happened.

If you’ve got the confidence to confront him about it he’ll most likely avoid the question altogether until you’ve backed him into a metaphorical corner. Without doing that he’d probably take his secret to the grave, not confessing to you about how he actually feels.

If you don’t say anything to him then he’ll keep the status quo until 1) he decides he needs to tell you because it’s irritating or 2) just decides that dealing with this is too much and just starts avoiding you, or being a little mean to you again. There’s no telling what he’ll do or why he’ll do it - it’ll just happen.

He’s secretly very nice to you though so most likely he’d confess at some point but it really might take forever. He’d rather keep things the same rather than risking changing everything in the dynamic just to confess to you, which is why he’d hide it from you.

[atthebell]

Words: 4704 Fandom: QSMP Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cucurucho (QSMP) & Jaiden Animations, Jaiden Animations & Baghera Jones, Jaiden Animations & Rafael Lange | Cellbit Characters: Jaiden Animations, Cucurucho (QSMP), Baghera Jones, Rafael Lange | Cellbit Additional Tags: Manipulative Cucurucho (QSMP), Stream: Aug 5 2023 Don't worry nothing's going to happen :), Lonely Jaiden Animations, Canon Compliant Summary:

She turns to look out over the landscape and nearly jumps upon seeing Cucurucho again. “You’re scaring me,” she says out loud, not even meaning to. But it’s true. She’s afraid, she realizes. She’s never truly been afraid of Cucurucho, not since the first time she saw him. But now she’s terrified of whatever it is that’s making him act like this, that’s making him disappear and return with more riddles, more clues that mean nothing to her.

remember that stream right before jaiden went to japan where cucurucho kept giving her cryptic books and running away from her and then it and osito bimbo asked her to help them? well i wrote a fic about it for @qsmp-month!

[incorrect-tit-tour-predictions]

the pre-show playlist starts out fairly tame/typical but slowly becomes more unhinged/romantic in nature (Ocean Eyes, for example). it’ll be a metaphor for how they’ve slowly boiled the frog over the last year

Oooooooh this is actually a good one and really interesting- and also one that might go over a lotta normies‘ heads if they don’t know how Significant the pre-show playlist is to us

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

What's yout opinion on these two Owl House analysis posts (sending them in another ask)

Thank you for the links. Just for future reference though, that blog blocked me awhile back for reasons I can only guess at so I had to find another way to read the posts.

My biggest issue with these kinds of analyses is how it really has to ignore how toh executes its themes and rely on historical and political realities and awkwardly tie it to the show.

Belos may be a metaphor for colonization and oppression but good luck finding anything consistent in the show to actually demonstrate that. Belos may have been inspired by fundamentalists conservatives and he may speak like one, but on a societal level, the Boiling Isles is not a good representation of a world run by a religious zealot.

There are no wild witches that are routinely persecuted; Eda is able to walk around openly (save for one episode) with no fear of being arrested, Luz is able to multi-track despite Bump's initial misgivings about the EC potentially withdrawing funding from the school (something that never happens) no one actually treats the Titan like a divine entity despite Belos' reign being founded on that very premise, and the citizens are allowed to openly defy the emperor's potential execution of Eda--despite being the living embodiment of everything the people of the Boiling Isles are taught to fear.

There is one rule in the isles: no wild magic.

Outside of that, witches are free to live as they wish. Joining a coven is seen more like choosing a career path and not something one must do or risk ostracization. Eda doesn't suffer because she's a wild witch. Not really. The narrative focuses more on her curse and how she isolated herself because of that and had to turn to crime to make ends' meet.

Because of this, it's difficult to really discuss Belos as a metaphor for colonization when the islands don't suffer or at least the show doesn't demonstrate why joining a coven is bad outside it being a requirement. So really the theme is freedom of choice rather than "the oppressed must overthrow the oppressor."

It's Belos' status as a Puritan that's doing the heavy-lifting in any kind of post that makes the claim that toh is about colonization. Which is why so many of these posts fall back on meta-analysis and tossing in historical references rather than what actually happens in the show.

As for Luz being an immigrant to the Boiling Isles....I mean I guess? The problem is that Luz never learns to appreciate the BI on its own terms because everything is handed to her; the issue of humans not being able to eat the BI's food is dropped early and the only threats she faces are scammers. A better depiction of a girl-going-to-a-fantasy world-as-an-immigrant metaphor is Amphibia, in which Anne learns the culture and customs of Wartwood and even earns the title of Frog of the Year because of her progress and growth. We never get anything like that with Luz because Bonesborough doesn't have a distinct identity like Wartwood does. We don't get to know recurring side characters outside of Luz's clique at Hexside. Luz doesn't even work as an immigrant in Gravesfield because her problem isn't framed due to her heritage, the focus is on her overenthusiasm for Azura. Camila doesn't struggle fitting in because she's Dominican (and no, letting her hair get curly again is weak because it's literally the only example of her possibly changing herself to fit in). Her struggle is tied to her daughter and the grief they share over Manny's passing. So there's no evidence of the Nocedas having to "submit" to the dominant culture of Gravesfield because we don't know what Gravesfield's culture is. There's no oppression and Vee gets along fine despite coming from another dimension.

Finally, as for Luz's angst over being like Belos--that her anger makes her like him. Yeah no, this is weak. First of all, this is the first time that she expresses concern over being like him due to her anger. In the previous two episodes, the concern was that she "helped" Belos find the Collector and is therefore responsible for his rise and the subsequent centuries of suffering. Then, she's worried about always making mistakes and how that leads to more people being hurt. Next, in her nightmare sequence, she fears her friends secretly hate her because she helped Belos and is the cause of all this suffering so she might as well be him.

But now, her fear is being like him because she wanted the Collector to blast him and that Belos' desire to save humanity is uncomfortably close to her own.

Sorry what?

Luz previously rejected Belos's stated goal of saving humanity in King's Tide when she called him out on his hypocrisy. At every encounter, Luz calls Belos out on his bullshit, why is it now does she seriously consider that his goals are similar to her own?

Oh, so the Titan can alleviate her fears, validate her by calling her a "good witch," and throw out all the recent development of Belos' character and motivations because don't worry, he's not genuine. He's just a Symbol so we can ignore the hints of his backstory making him a more complicated character. (And believe me, Belos' story is just vague enough that you could interpret him in any number of ways).

To conclude, I've noticed a trend in fan posts that develop a conclusion and work backwards from there, taking what they want from the show that fits to support their idea and ignore everything else. It's terrible analysis even if some good points are made.

[exhuastedpigeon]

✨ 2023 writing round-up ✨

I posted the more words to Ao3 this year than I have in any other previous year, which is wild since I only really started writing again in June. It's wild the choke hold that Eddie Diaz and Evan Buckley have on me. Here's my writing round-up for 2023 :)

June

If we’re both still single… Teen || 2.9k

This was my first Buddie fic. Little did I know I was about to fall down the fucking rabbit hole.

“I’m sorry, you’re gonna have to repeat that for me?” Eddie had a beer halfway to his lips, his arm slung lazily on the back of the couch. “If we’re both still single when we’re 35, we should just get married,” Buck repeated, as casually as if he was saying they should order pizza or change the channel from the basketball game to hockey. 

let me see them tan lines Teen || 2.8k

Four times the 118 notices Eddie Diaz's ring tan line and one time he was wearing a ring.

give me a sign, I want you next to me Teen || 7k

Buck loves working at the 118. He loves living in LA. He loves his kid. He loves the life they've manage to build. The only thing he doesn't love is that his husband is across the world in a war zone. OR The 118 knows Buck has a really cute kid and a partner he loves, they just think that partner is his husbands ex.

July

it's like everything you say is a sweet revelation Mature || 5.6k

“Marry me,” Eddie said. It wasn’t a question, it was a sentence. He said it like he was commenting on the weather or last night's Dodgers game. Buck slowly lowered his coffee cup, eyes wide. Eddie lifted his drink and took a sip, a satisfied hum escaped him as he did. “Come again?” “Marry me,” Eddie took another sip of his coffee. “Please?”

boiling point Teen || 2k

Growing up, Buck heard the story about frogs and boiling water, that if you put a frog into boiling water, it’ll jump out, but if you put the frog is put in room temperature water and then slowly bring it to a boil, the frog won’t perceive the danger and will be boiled to death. When he was a kid, he had believed it, like so many other stories and fables. OR Evan Buckley's extremely extended metaphor for loving Eddie Diaz.

August

wet your lips (and smile to the camera) Mature || 6.8k

Buck has a problem and that problem is that Eddie Diaz is going to ruin his life. OR Eddie starts modeling on the side and Buck can't stop looking at his pictures, mostly because Eddie's ads are everywhere.

you are the only one that needs to know Teen || 2k

"You're not my dirty little secret. And I never want you to think that,” Buck says it practically into Eddie’s mouth, with a hand on Eddie’s chest. He shoves him, gently, into the Grant-Nash laundry room next to the bathroom. “But…” “But?” Eddie grins, feels the way Buck is grinning against his lips too and lets himself be moved backward until he collides with the washing machine. “But… I will miss sneaking off to make out with you when we finally tell everyone."

this kiss is something I can't resist Mature || 1.6k

Happiness snuck up on Evan Buckley like a summer storm in Florida, but unlike a summer storm, the happiness he was feeling didn’t seem to be going anywhere. If anything, it was getting bigger, the feeling threatening to jump out of his chest at any moment. 

take my hand, don't let it go Teen || 2.3k

In retrospect, dating a death doula pretty soon after one of the most traumatic experiences of Buck’s life, an experience where he actually died, was maybe not Buck’s smartest decision. In which Buck realizes that dating Natalia isn't what he needs and talks to Eddie about their shared death related trauma.

you're the cream in my coffee Explicit || 8.6k

“Dad, did you know there’s a coffee that’s made of poop!” “It’s not actually made of poop, bud,” Buck grinned, handing Eddie Chris’s backpack. “It’s partially digested cherries. The cherries actually ferment as they’re being passed through the civet’s intestines. They disinfect them and everything before they’re consumed.” “Yeah! That! It’s called copy loo-wake” “Kopi luwak.” “Uh huh!” “I take it you had fun with your Buck today, huh?” “Buck's the best dad!”

September

a dream is a wish your heart makes General || 3.3k

It takes a soft, domestic dream about Buck for Eddie to realize what's been true for a long time - he's in love with his best friend.

October

Hot and Heavy Explicit || 9.4k

Eddie can admit without shame that he’s having a bit of a hoe phase. He’s thirty, recently out of the closet, and even more recently single, he’s allowed to have some fun. In fact, he’s pretty sure it’s basically a requirement that he fuck around since he didn’t get to do it when he was younger. OR Five times Eddie had casual sex with someone who wasn't Buck and the time they finally got their shit together

Feels Like Magic Teen || 47.8k

“You used too much magic again,” Buck’s voice was quiet as he spoke, but he knew Eddie heard him. “You’re alive,” Eddie’s eyes were closed, but Buck knew the look Eddie would be giving him if they had been open. It was the same look Eddie had given him when he had said ‘because, Evan, you think you’re expendable but you’re not’. It was a look that made Buck feel truly and completely seen in a way he never had before. “There’s no such thing as too much if it saves you.” “Go to sleep,” Buck said, because if he left himself say anything else he’d be telling Eddie he loved him and he didn’t think in the bunk room at two in the morning after an exhausting call was the right moment, but then again, Buck was pretty sure he’d be taking that secret to his grave.

November

kiss and make up Explicit || 3.3k

Eddie always thought that if he and Buck ever kissed it would be in the heat of the moment, it would be pure relief that they were still alive. Maybe after a big rescue or (another) near death experience. That if it wasn’t in the heat of the moment as they both came down from an adrenaline rush that it would be something soft, probably in one of their kitchens while they did the dishes. He always figured that the first kiss would be like a homecoming. (Not that Eddie thought about kissing Buck often, because he doesn’t do that.) Instead of being soft and sweet or adrenaline fueled and filled with love and thanks that they're both alive, their first kiss comes in the middle of a fight in Eddie’s living room.

gold when you see me Teen || 4.3k

"Ouch,” Eddie says when he lands, his teeth clacking in his head. His ass hurts in an extremely unfun way, his ankle feels terrible, and he’s seeing spots. None of that is good news. “Eddie?” Buck sounds panicked. “Eddie?” “Down here,” Eddie calls up. He’s definitely going to have a bruised tail bone and there’s a pretty decadent chance that he’s sprained his ankle, if not broken it. He’s a little too shaken up to try to get up right now, especially since it's not like he’s not going to be able to get himself out of here. He takes a deep breath and feels every second of it in his ribs. On the bright side, they don't feel broken, just bruised. Buck’s face, illuminated by nothing but Eddie’s flashlight and Buck’s own, appears in the hole that Eddie fell through. “You okay?” Eddie will explore the tremor in Buck’s voice later, right now he needs to get out of this fucking hole before it caves in even more. “Definitely a little banged up, but I landed on the ground, not anything else.”

wanna lose my mind in a hotel room with you Explicit || 4.1k

"Think you’ll ever have that kind of love?” Eddie asks as he leans against the wall with a beer in his hand at Maddie and Chimney’s engagement party. He’s got a fond look on his face, if not a little wistful as he turns to face Buck. “I hope so,” Buck says with a small smile on his face as he looks from Maddie and Chim dancing with Jee-Yun between them to Eddie. He’s pretty sure he’s already got half of a love like that standing next to him, he just isn’t sure if it’s reciprocated. “I-I really hope so.” “Want to dance with me?” Eddie asks after a few seconds of quiet between them, his eyes bright in the yellow light of the string lights that crisscross the patio. 

December

it hurts to hope for more Mature || 15.5k

“I’m never - I’m never going to be a dad,” Buck sobs into Eddie’s shoulder. “She didn’t want kids. Why do I keep dating people who don’t want the same things as me? Is- is the universe telling me that I don’t deserve it?” “Hey, no,” Eddie pulls back from the hug and Buck lets out a pitiful sound at the loss of contact. “The universe doesn’t do that. The universe doesn’t scream and it definitely doesn’t get to tell you what you deserve, because you deserve everything Buck. Everything.” OR Buck wants to be a dad, it takes a couple break-ups and a major non-romantic heartbreak for him to figure out that maybe he already is.

can't make it stop, give me all you got Explicit || 4.1k

“Are we really doing this?” Buck’s lips graze the shell of Eddie’s ear as he speaks. They're in a club, the music is loud, so Eddie would have chalked the proximity of Buck’s mouth up to that, but Buck nips at his earlobe. “I think we are,” Eddie grins and turns his face to capture Buck’s mouth with his. He doesn’t care that they’re probably in view of all of their friends. He doesn’t care that there are sweaty, dancing bodies all around them. All he can think about is the way Buck’s hands feel on his waist, the way Buck’s breath hitches as Eddie grabs a handful of his ass. OR Eddie and Buck fuck in a club at Pride