#and congested

[b0tster]

for those not in the know, new york, infamous for its traffic, introduced congestion pricing.

this is a $9 toll for cars entering parts of the city. this of course was met with carcels loudly complaining that it would ruin the economy, but the opposite happened:

Subway usage up 11%!

# of reported crimes down by 36%*! (*data from nypd, who have a history of lying about crime data. number is most likely much higher)

car crash related injuries fell 51%!

car honking complaints down 67%!

broadway attendance up by 21%! restaurant reservations up 7%!

fuck yeag public transit!

(disabled ppl are exempt from congestion pricing ❤️)

[bltchkawa]

Beautiful grandma kiryu and the fully fired saejimug

[everytimewetouch-dot-mp3]

shen yuan, dragon god of cang qiong mountain sect, has a new mission.

[Mission {Master of Masters} at 2% progress. Subquest {Master of One} begins now! USER_002 must obtain protagonist [Luo Binghe] as a personal disciple! Continue to work hard!]

there are steps between, of course. shen yuan comes back down the mountain once he’s calmed down—just to check on binghe, not to make a scene! but yue qingyuan was alerted that their sect’s god had descended his peak, and a meeting of all cang qiong’s lords was called. every peak lord is called back to cang qiong. it’ll take a week for everyone to arrive—liu qingge is off on a night hunt, and shang qinghua is accompanying his head disciple to negotiate contracts for fabrics and dyes (and, shen yuan thinks resentfully, probably off doing traitor-to-the-sect business. fuck that guy).

while they’re waiting, shen yuan is invited to stay on qiong ding—as if he doesn’t have a perfectly good mountain he can ascend again until the peak assembles. but yue qingyuan seems anxious to have him, and shen yuan is kind of internally geeking out over getting to properly meet this sect leader. so he agrees, and he’s arranged in a manor fit for a visiting sect leader, which is kind of insane. rich, dark woods; silks in qiong ding’s deep blues and grays; night pearls illuminating every room. is this how people live in this world???

yue qingyuan…hovers a fair bit. surely he should be busy with sect-leader-y things, but apparently having shen yuan come down is a huge deal that requires yue qingyuan’s constant attention. bringing tea and snacks, accompanying him to meals on each peak with all the lords in residence (except shen qingqiu), escorting him to and from qing jing every day when he goes to check on binghe.

that always seems a little uncomfortable for yue qingyuan. shen yuan is still rightfully pissed about binghe’s treatment, but he hasn’t gotten that horrible feeling that his territory is under threat again, so he assumes binghe is alright. the first time he tells yue qingyuan that he’s going to qing jing to check on ‘that young disciple your shidi thought it right to whip,’ yqy gets this constipated look on his face before—before fucking defending sqq.

saying sqq isn’t a cruel man, really—or, he is, but not without reason. all of cang qiong’s disciples are disciplined when it’s appropriate, he says. shen shidi has had problems with that disciple before, and lord canglong shouldn’t judge him too harshly before he hears the full story.

the furious energy crackling around shen yuan is enough to cut yue qingyuan’s entreaty for leniency off. yue qingyuan always seemed like the kindly big-brother type in the novel, if a bit too indulgent of sqq. and shen yuan always wondered why he would turn a blind eye to sqq’s abuse of lbh when he knew it was going on. now he’s seen it with his own eyes, and yue qingyuan still has the audacity to try to cover for sqq, and it kind of makes shen yuan sick.

he’s been doing his best to play the part of the great immortal now that the upset of his initial descent from the mountain has passed. but when yqy defends sqq like this, shen yuan can’t help but drop all pretense of formality and glare, eyes blazing, at this sect leader. ‘do you think i’m fucking stupid?’ he spits. and yqy pales, horror in his eyes, trembling more as shen yuan lays into him.

to discipline a child is to teach them the way they should go. what does whipping a thirteen-year-old boy teach him? shen yuan knows what luo binghe has learned from his shizun’s instruction. that he is stupid, incapable, unworthy of his martial family’s care. that the sect who took him in—the sect shen yuan himself established centuries ago—only took him so it would have something to beat.

shen yuan is pissed. he doesn’t wait for yqy’s escort to qing jing; he takes his sword there himself, finds luo binghe, and brings him back to the guest manor yqy set him up in. binghe is confused, of course, to be faced with his savior’s fury, but when lord canglong makes a request of him, he’s all to happy to comply. and if he buries his face against lord canglong’s robes as they fly back to qiong ding, it’s only to protect his face from the wind.

there’s warmth in his chest whenever he walks near lord canglong, and as he’s led by a hand on his shoulder into lord canglong’s guest quarters, binghe feels like he might combust (in one part, from the overwhelming, humbling joy he feels at being the subject of his sect’s god’s attention; in the other part, because lord canglong’s grip is imbued with so much spiritual power it makes binghe’s skin tingle all the way down to his toes).

binghe follows lord canglong into the main room and, when it’s clear they’re done walking, he sinks to his knees in gratitude.

‘enough of that, luo binghe,’ shen yuan splutters, reaching to pull binghe up from his kowtow. honestly, he’s going to be the emperor! none of this prostration; it’ll only be a debt on his head later on! ‘get up. i won’t see you humble yourself to this—uh’ shit! System, help! What do gods like this call themselves?!!

[Answering USER_002, his title is {Lord Canglong, Shen Yuan, Grand Master of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect.} ‘This Grandmaster’ would be expected and appropriate.]

god, that feels so pretentious. shen yuan swallows his millennial sensibilities and does his best to thicken his face a little. ‘—to this grandmaster whose sect has treated him so poorly.’

binghe looks up with stars in his night-dark eyes, and it takes every shred of shen yuan’s self control not to soften at the awe in this child’s face. how come no one told him little lord luo would be so cute?! of course he’s adorable; he’s the protagonist.

‘this—this lowly disciple wouldn’t dare—that is, he wouldn’t presume to, um—lord canglong is—”

poor thing! too cute, too cute!

‘luo binghe is not lowly,’ shen yuan says first, because that feels like the most important part to address. no humbling yourself in front of this old dragon, ah! no debts to this sect! ‘didn’t this grandmaster say in front of everyone that luo binghe is uniquely gifted?’

‘this disciple thought…’ luo binghe’s eyes are already trained on the ground, but he shrinks into himself at this. in this grand room, luo binghe looks so small, so unlike the menacing demon lord shen yuan knows he’ll become. ‘this disciple thought that perhaps, in his anger, lord canglong…exaggerated… to make a point to shizun.’

‘if i have anything to say about it,’ shen yuan mutters, ‘he won’t be your shizun much longer.’

at that, luo binghe’s gaze snaps up, his shoulders tight. ‘this stupid disciple doesn’t understand.’

‘not stupid,’ shen yuan says immediately. ‘what this grandmaster means to say is just that. luo binghe will not be a qing jing peak disciple for much longer. this grandmaster does not trust qing jing peak’s lord to raise luo binghe well, so he will do it himself.’

[kraftykelpie]

Sobbing like a fool laying in my bed because I had the sad thought of Ben and Cody on Tatooine in their old age (pre-ANH) and them going to sleep, holding hands.

Cody passes in his sleep. Obi-wan/Ben, feeling Cody's bright presence suddenly blink out in the force, shoots awake, palming for a heartbeat where he knows there is no longer one. They had talked about it, Cody had known his time was coming to a close, he was content with how the rest of his short life had panned out, by his beloved general's side, married and at peace (kind of). Ben saw it. He knew. When it would happen seemed indeterminate; if Ben knew when Cody was passing, perhaps he could have prepared to be ready for it. But real life doesn't often work like that.

Gently cradling Cody's cooling face in one of his palms, uttering quiet "why's" into the dark, and, "i wasn't ready to let you go".

A final keldabe kiss in farewell as he combs his fingers through Cody's curls for the last time.

Just like with Qui Gon, Satine, Anakin, Padmé (we'll be here all night if I list them all), the emotional gut punch of watching the light die (metaphorical in Anakin's case) in the eyes of people Obi-Wan deeply cared about. It caps off at Cody. This is why to me, he was so ready to face off against Vader (including normal plot relevant reasons), because not only was he getting Too Old For This Shit Anymore, but one of the strongest lights (love) in his life had died a few years prior. So instead of offing himself like a coward or giving into his grief all those years ago, and when Cody passed, he became a “self-sacrificial jedi” one last time. Whereupon he would pass into the Force, where hopefully, Cody would be waiting.

[bunnithechubs]

newlyweds out & about!

[zeldabf]

wtf did termina do to him

[pangur-and-grim]

why does she respond this way to singing?

[pratchettquotes]

Vetinari waved a languid hand. "Full carts congesting the street, Vimes, is a sign of progress," he declared. "Only in the figurative sense, sir," said Vimes.

Terry Pratchett, Thud!

[whumpster-dumpster]

Whumpee: I can put up with all these other terrible symptoms as long as I don't have to deal with [insert most miserable symptom here]

Whumpee the next day, now experiencing [most miserable symptom] at full force: Well, shoot

[brainrockets]

I went outside. I touched grass. I spent 3-4 hours suffering for my hubris. (I am quite allergic to grass.)

[bltchkawa]

Hi….. hello even…..

Ok so the fit is fire but I personally cannot tell if this looks like kiryu 😭😭 i am deep breathing and coping though bc this was for funzies and not that srs… also I think abt long hair kiryu a lot so I gave him a little ponytail for science and then I realized it kinda fucks lol

[explorerof-theunknown]

[funishment-time]

i think the Danganronpa fandom here on Tumblr is the perfect size now to be Manageable and is still beautifully active in its own way, but i would be lying if i said i'm not CONSTANTLY astounded at non-mainstream character fanart (e.g. not Makoto or Komahina) from like 2015 having gotten 10k+ notes within six months of posting. i don't think i want to go back to that but wow. what a time that must have been

[cultivating-wildflowers]

ladies, I need to wander despondently across a foggy moor asap

[nightly-nightcat]

day 174 - languishing

[kacievvbbbb]

But what if I said Mihawk

*puts my hand on your back as I lead you down an endless hallway* walk with me.

Mihawk not wanting shanks to know how much he means to him. How he was the only barrier between Mihawk and and an all consuming nihilistic loneliness. How he hides himself so thoroughly that he feels he needs an excuse to be around shanks. If it’s not dueling then it’s bringing him a wanted poster Mihawk can’t just see Shanks because then he’ll know! He’ll know that he is all Mihawk has and that sometimes the loneliness he’s surrounded himself in suffocated him threatens to swallow him whole.

That he knows Shanks loves him has no doubt about it Shanks is incapable of not loving the people around him. And Mihawk doesn’t know what to dj with it. Doesn’t know how to love him back. Doesn’t know how to love without the weight of expectation . Doesn’t know how to stay without feeling restlessness settle in his skin. Doesn’t know how to be bad at something and so he avoids it. Let’s himself get swept up in Shanks love and never think about what it might mean to love him back whole heartedly (because he does he always has he always will even when they were ten years apart the only face he ever wanted to see at the end of a blade was shanks this is the only way Mihawk knows how to love)

Mihawk by his nature is casually cruel. He’s callous with people and capricious.Mihawk is terrible at making friends in the way all lonely people are. Doesn’t even know he needs friends. He places to much on shanks. Revolved his life wholly around the expectations on him. He said a lot of things he regrets that day. Some part of him still desperately wishes to see that smiling boy with the straw hat and 2 arms again live and in motion. He doesn’t know how to be sorry for this. Doesn’t know how to apologize at all. Doesn’t know what the weight of guilt is supposed to feel like. But Mihawk is sorry for the words he said that night, he didn’t mean them. He’ll never say that tho. But he will show up with a wanted poster and takes of the exploits of a smiling young boy with a straw hat and a body nit made of rubber. (It’s not the same but he’s glad that boy wasn’t gone forever that he gets to live on in color and motion)

There is a green haired swordsman that has changed the trajectory of Mihawks life. And a pink haired ghost girl that’s complicated his entire philosophy and the red headed man that is the catalyst that started it all. Mihawk has changed in the 2 years of having known these 2 kids more than in his 41 past years of being alive. There is nothing as undoing as a child. Maybe Mihawk can just love for the sake of it no expectations, no requirements, no guilt