#Conversation Rate

[sualne]

he's fiiiiine.

[floertoer]

team natsu is ridiculously clingy. lucy goes on a solo job with a 500 jewel reward and they all tag along. I hope you guys weren't expecting to split that

they'd literally follow her anywhere. she could go on a job and now fairy tail's strongest team is picking weeds out of someone's garden

[virfujiwara]

rip international fans

[orchres]

Hate to make an urgent post but this is, well, urgent. My mum is the equivalent of 200 USD away from completing payments on a loan she took in 2020 before she was laid off and hasn't been employed since. The bank told her that she has to get things squared away by the end of this week or they'll send auctioneers to come take our shit and those ppl are basically thieves they will take as much as they feel is necessary. That's not a threat I wanna see them make good on 😭 I want to raise at least 100 for her and I'm sure we can scrounge up the rest from friends n family. I would really appreciate any help at all with this!

pp: dropinthisdrive@gmail.com

kofi: https://ko-fi.com/azucarnegre

[idliketobeatree]

Here is one of the best friends he's made in what seems like forever; she's so open and sweet, beautiful and brilliant. It was inevitable, he thinks, that Niko Sasaki would effortlessly endear herself to Charles like a lost younger sister.

(And that is another story entirely, but not one for Edwin to tell.)

He finds it contradistinctive, Niko Sasaki becoming a new source and the easiest target of Charles' spontaneous, affectionate smiles — different than watching him stumble around Crystal. It's well-nigh surprising just how secure Edwin feels, observing their budding friendship, the phantom echo of it spreading around his chest like a slow warmth from a hearth. He harbours no jealousy or hurt at the frequency with which their more private conversations take place. He does not mind the way Niko wraps her hand around Charles' arm as they walk, not one bit, when his best friend's sole attention is focused on her excited chatter. He can thoroughly relate, after all.

As a matter of fact, Edwin suspects that the only thing he'll have to worry about is stifling an inelegant snort when they're all descending a hill in the middle of a legwork-heavy case and Charles picks Niko up for an impromptu piggyback ride.

"No no no no, put me down!", her voice carries over their heads, but Niko's shrieking protest dies in her throat just as quickly as it came to life, turning into an appreciative whistle at the view. In front of them, Crystal turns on her heel and raises her eyebrows in amusement.

"You're that desperate to be the last at home?"

"Please, we'll be there faster than you lot. Right, Niko?" Charles, ever the multitasker, uses his shrug to adjust the grip on Niko's swaying legs. "Edwin?"

He dares to look in their direction, dreading... precisely double the amount of puppy eyes sent his way. His lips twitch in a helpless smile.

"I must agree. The Charles Express is quite a commendable machine. I would not underestimate it, Crystal."

Charles barks out a laugh. Whatever expression Niko must've had on her face breaks through Crystal's composure; she, too, cracks up, a spring in her step as she turns to walk forward again.

"Can barely feel her, can't I? Lighter than my backpack," Charles says, matter-of-factly.

"It's not a race."

"It could be a race."

"I'm not going to race you down the hill in these platforms, be serious—"

"That doesn't sound like a definite no," Niko pipes in.

"Take them off, then," offers Charles.

Edwin glances up at the orange sun set against the milky autumn sky, to his left; the brightest thing on the horizon. He hears her gasps of delight at Charles' cheeky step through the trunk in their way. Something inside him has been shifting and smoothing out for quite a while. Edwin doesn't know how long it will last or what the destination will be. All he knows is that the slope hits his feet once or twice at most.

One afternoon she invites them to watch Scooby Doo together. It's the first time they've gathered as a trio, and Edwin immediately understands why this hasn't happened before when Niko unlocks the door to her room. The bed they usually end up on is narrow to say the least, why hadn't he noticed that before, but it seems too late to make a flimsy excuse and eloign himself from the picture. They were long overdue.

Charles, who looks about ready to turn into an orb of post-case tension, has no qualms about using the threshold for a shimmering quick wardrobe change. He appears right at home, comfortable, downright domestic, in socks, trousers and a polo shirt, sliding his suspenders down and trailing after Niko who heads for the coat hanger.

What Edwin doesn't expect, apart from the rather tight fit for three people - or rather two ghost boys and one living girl - is Niko giving him a knowing look over Charles' head as he unceremoniously flops down on the bed. His groan, which prompts Niko to pat him sympathetically on said head, makes Edwin snap his open mouth shut, suddenly flustered.

He waits politely, pulling down his knitted vest and admiring the decorative sequins sewn onto a flowery cushion, deliberately not looking at the long line of Charles sprawled on the neatly tucked in duvet. He half-listens to Niko as she chatters on, something about needing to show them the more modern rendition of their Mystery Inc. detectives, grabbing her laptop from the desk and sitting down in the very middle, hip-checking Charles' side. Charles sluggishly lifts himself and rolls onto his back, pushing himself up, shoulders halfway up the headboard, neck supported by a plush pillow, hands folded across his chest and long, long legs crossed at the ankles. He must have done this several times now, Edwin's lungs remind him before tightening into knots. The mattress barely dips when he gingerly sits down and settles, too. His back remains straight, and he is barely brushing her arm when she announces out of the blue, "I forgot my snacks. Give me a moment," climbing off the bed and leaving them in — on Edwin's side — suddenly charged, tense silence.

It feels different, of course it does, and Edwin feels guilty that his carefully tucked away thoughts are knocking on the doors of his consciousness when they're in Niko's room, for God's sake. Edwin tries to subtly move away from the overwhelmingly horizontal line of Charles' body. Right now, sitting cross-legged, Edwin's knees are barely touching him, and he bumps his knee against Charles' arm twice before stilling. He doesn't want to hunch down; never again. He stays put.

The sensation of Charles' bony elbow is like the flash of a sharp smile. The room fills with a low hum, something musical and... campy that Niko must have shown Charles on one of those afternoons. With his eyes closed, Edwin compartmentalises the points of sharp heat.

Much, much later, Charles jogs up to the beach where Niko and Edwin are watching the starfish. "What're you doing?", he asks curiously, just when Edwin finishes talking about their lack of a centralised brain.

He hears the shift in Charles' posture more than his opening to say something mouth, and a second of hesitation before it closes again.

He wonders if Charles has noticed their colours.

Niko sends Charles a lingering smile. Her eyes crinkle with mirth. "Luckily, love requires no logic", she says cryptically. They don't notice, crouching down as they are, but his head tilts synonymously with Niko's and Edwin's.

When he dares to peek at Niko, he finds her eyes locked with Charles', with an expression that Edwin knows she must have learned recently, but is not sure when exactly. It says something like, go on. Be brave.

He swallows and clenches his fingers around the red, red sea glass in his coat pocket.

[vivlily]

Happy fox girl friday one and all,

This week you have a slightly more foxlike miss Arizona wearing a comfy coat and turtleneck. And whats this? She's offering you some of her famous iced tea, somehow she's managed to keep the price down to only one lmd all this time, how impressive.

And finally, I bid you another happy fox girl friday

[meowmeowuchiha]

Okay so because the search function on this site is busted I had to use Google to find the post and took a screenshot of it but

This is hilarious enough, but OP did not get the correct conversion rate. I don't know how they got what they did, but I found the actual conversion rate. I wasn't meaning to, it was just a happy accident during research for a fic. But I found this.

1 ryō is 10 yen. So you multiply that 35 million by ten, and you get 350 million. Like so.

So then I ran that 350 million through a currency converter from yen to usd and

IT'S NOT 500K AFTER PARTIES

IT IS FUCKING 2.4 MILLION

WHAT ARE THEY GETTING WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO SPEND THAT MUCH FUCKIN MONEY

HIDAN

HIDAN EXPLAIN THIS SHIT

[didalexiabreakupwitholgaisback]

doesn't Mariona have insane penalty success rates???? why are people blaming her for *one* missed

it's a *very good* conversion rate. people are being thick because they think it's funny. 🙄

[cnestus]

this photo doesn't look like much but it represents probably over a hundred hours of bee identification over the last few weeks. the right half of the drawer is mostly bees in the genus Andrena, a monstrously tricky group containing over 450 species across 47 subgenera just in the US.

i haven't been keeping track of my overall bee project's stats but i'd estimate i've IDed easily thousands of specimens across hundreds of species over the last year. not bad for someone who'd almost never keyed a bee past genus level until i started this. at some point hopefully i'll have the time to take some nice macro photos of a bunch of them. they won't be Sam Droege level but it'll still be fun.

[hillbillyoracle]

So I saw this screencap earlier

And I thought it was a great chance to talk about something.

A lot of progressive folks are familiar with the fact that right wing circles use feminine as a derogatory term and that there's a real cost to that for women.

What people are less familiar with is how it hurts men - queer and straight, cis and trans.

And I'm not shocked given how common it is in left leaning spaces to be reactionary (read: dismissive or outright harass) when men try to talk about these what these issues look like for them.

When men talk about how they've experienced toxic masculinity and anti-feminine bias, in addition to the usual right wing responses, I'm starting to see a bunch of supposed feminists and trans/queer allies harass them as well - saying they're hurting women/feminine presenting folks by "centering men", dismissing their concerns as made up (even when there's research to back it up), "why aren't you talking about what this is like for cis and trans women instead??".

I've seen trans men accused of being TERFs or being liars (by other trans people even - wtf) when they talk about their experiences of allies actively excluding them from trans spaces or harassing them for using T4T tags. I've seen men be accused of lying about publicly accessible clinical research that shows men make up 75%-77% of suicide cases - or worse suggest they deserve it. I see posts about how men's complaints "aren't unique to them" and dismiss them because women also suffer things those authors assume are the same (even when the research contradicts this).

And here's the thing:

When you assume feminine=good/safe/gentle and masculine=bad/unsafe/enemy - you're parroting a conservative talking point.

There is no way around this fact.

A big part of what underpins child rearing being "the woman's domain" in conservatism, is the idea that men are inherently dangerous and therefore shouldn't really be around children without women present.

The reason why they blame women for abuse and rape - because they believe men are inherently dangerous and if a woman trusted them then it's her fault.

Part of why women have been effectively banned from many trades and careers for so long is the assumption that being around that many men presents an inherent danger to a woman.

"But!" you might be saying, "This person is clearly talking about men engaging in open conflict as good here!"

Yeah because conservatives see politics as an inherently male/dangerous/toxic sphere and uphold it as such.

I could go on and on really.

All of this is to say - please be more thoughtful in what you consume, comment, and reblog.

There are experiences specific to being masculine. Erasing that is one, a dick move, but two, particularly violent toward those talking about trans masculine, minority masculine, disabled masculine, and queer masculine experiences.

All privilege comes at a cost. Listening when people talk about that cost is key building a new more fair reality. Seeing the privilege is not worth the cost makes fervent allies. Want more allies? Don't be a dick to people having that realization.

Push back against the assumption of woman=good and man=bad when you see it - especially in community spaces. The amount of times I've seen domestic violence services only available to women is insane...

Do not let identarian politics blind you to the fact we're all human and working toward our own liberation should not come at the oppression of another. Believe me, those with real power would much rather you stay raging out at men in a similar class with you than directing your efforts at them.

The right wing wants you to believe it's either/or. Fuck that - it's both/and.

[weiseccs]

P1 tomorrow too king?

[fukaseautismsoldier]

keychain design!

[spaceandbones]

Anyways glad to be back in canada but travelling w my friends did make me realize my province sucks shit and everyone here is miserable and I need to move

[theamazingmr-j]

OSCAR WINS IN BAHRAINNNNNNNNNNN MY BOY IS OFFICIALLY A TITLE CONTENDER

[marlynnofmany]

"Picture a plant that's all roots, except for an occasional fruit popping up above-ground. No stems or leaves. It gets all its food from the dirt. Got it? Cool, that's what a mushroom is. Mushrooms are the fruits of the fungus underground."

"That can't be right."

"Oh, not if you ask a real scientists; fungus aren't really plants any more than they're animals, but it's functionally accurate."

"Huh. So I can call a mushroom a fruit?"

"Sure, if you want to piss off the real scientists. Cucumbers really are fruits though, at least going by plant categories instead of food categories. Vegetables don't exist."

"What??"

"Carrots are roots, lettuce is leaves, broccoli is flowers. Vegetables are just edible plant parts that aren't sweet enough to be called fruit. Or berries. Though there's some overlap."

"Right, I heard strawberries aren't really berries; something about the seeds?"

"Yup. Though the real freaky weirdos are the figs."

"...Do I want to know?"

"Not during mealtime! Enjoy."