#at least that one is behind us

[residentdormouse]

Quite a few Qualms about my 'Q' Words

I was getting queasy thinking of what qualifying quips I could conjure to quell this quandary, because quitting this quest would be questionable. Quartering the most quotable q’ words, I hopefully quashed this quarrel and quenched the internal quakes so I can continue on with my queue.

My Words: Question Quite Quit Queer Quiz

Your Words: Relax, Regret, Random, Ramble, Realize

(Ramble may be a stretch - if nothing Rant can also replace - and Ready was on standby)

One questionable letter down. @mrsmungus , can we both agree 'x' just ain't happening? 'Z', you're on notice too, buddy...

As always - if you think you may have fun with this, please don't hesitate to jump in for a round or two. OPEN TAG. No obligations. We're just clowning about 😂

Question

"Hey, there's a lot of things we don't know and can't explain right now."

"Exactly! I just… who am I? Aren't you worried I could have been a shit person before this... I know, choices and all now, but that fight… what I knew..."

"Well, I don't know about you, but it seems pretty clear to me that a 'shit person' wouldn't let it weigh on them like this. There are plenty of reasons for you to know--"

"How to kill people?" Her eyes remained downcast, unable to bring herself to look up, but once again, Glen soothed her.

"How to protect people. You made a decision. Did what you needed to, to save lives. Now who's to say that wasn't the right call." He paused briefly, changing course in the debate, "So, you think Stu is a bad person?"

"What? No!" Standing to face him, she slowly realized the meaning of the question while her shoulders went slack, "of course not." He used trickery; it was effective. "Glen…"

"Just giving another perspective." He stood up as well, walking in front of her "Look, Hayden, I think I've been around long enough to become a pretty good judge of character. I don't pretend to know much about all this other… stuff… but I do know people." She found she couldn’t help but reciprocate his smile, even if it didn't fully match his conviction. "I'm not worried about you."

Quite

All things considered, Hayden chalked the night up as a success. She touched base with Larry. A meeting was set up with Stan, once he had a chance to hit up the library regarding her specific request that is. Hell, she even got to a better place with Harold. Recounting the accomplishments brought on an effervescent mood, and with it, a new burst of energy.

Energy and a pretty decent buzz. Prior assessments were retracted: she could do large crowds and parties with the proper liquid courage. Plus, dancing was fun; she liked that a lot too.

Finishing her drink, she began to head to the front of the pavilion where she spotted Glen standing next to Stu and Fran. Taking advantage of the fact that her presence went unnoticed, she snuck up behind them and snatched Glen's pen from his hand. Flashing a cheeky smile, she took a few puffs of the vape while Stu gave a hearty laugh at her antics. Glen made a half-assed attempt to swipe it back, but it was easily avoided. Despite his attempt to seem angered, amusement was evident in his features and she continued to sway in beat next to him, waving the accessory about with an occasional puff. Finally breaking the act, he let out a laugh, and outstretched his hand towards her. She accepted with a spin outward. A puff on the next beat. Spin back in. The last move however, ended with her being held against him. Playfully, she fought back, but truth told, she was quite happy where she found herself.

"You and your damn trickery..." With a sly smile in response, he took his vape back and released her from the embrace. "Eh, I guess you earned it."

Quit

I thought I had this, I really did. But all of them, ALL OF THEM, were just the damn thing finding 'quite' and thinking I just didn’t finish the word. My characters apparently don’t quit. Good on you guys. Keep on fighting that fight.

Queer

Again nothing. I am bisexual, and unless otherwise stated, even when they’re in a m/f pairing, every damn character I write I think of as being this orientation as well. And still, with this logic, I do not use the word ‘queer’?! Shame. Shame on writer for 1,000 years.

Quiz

(I have no instance of just ‘quiz’ I do however have ‘quizzically. Please accept the substitute and my apologies.)

“I don’t think we should bring this up around Stu and Hayden.”

Quizzically, Fran looked at him. “What do you mean?”

Glen simply shook his head. This scenario was always in the back of his mind, but now having it realized... “I don’t think they were meant to make it out of here.”

Fran and Harold both spit out their comments at once:

“You think they were going to kill them?”

“You think they killed these people?”

The differences in their initial reaction couldn’t have been more clear to Glen, or more appropriate to their character from what he had pieced together, but he continued reporting his observations nonetheless. “Well, I’m no expert, but, seems pretty clear from what I can gather... lots of blood down by one of the open containment rooms,” he pointed at the larger body, "he got shot there, made his way up the hall, and somebody ended it here. I sincerely hope it was this one," he pointed to the other corpse, "but..."

"But where's the gun?"

Harold venomously finished his train of thought with no problem. At least Glen could see Fran shared his sadness at the revelation.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 1: Dread on Arrival

(Part 2)

[fellthemarvelous]

Aziraphale hate makes my brain hurt.

Like let's be really fuckin' for real here.

Neurodivergent fans have repeatedly said that Aziraphale is autistic coded. I agree with them. I have never been diagnosed but I wonder about myself. If only I could get a doctor to take me seriously enough to test me for it, but alas, I'm a 43-year-old woman living in the good ole US of A.

Those with religious trauma have repeatedly said that they identify with him as well. I'm one of those people. I endured 12 years of Catholic schools and just as much time being taught a very black and white view of things that I've had to spend more than 20 goddamn fucking years working to unlearn.

I find that my views as a survivor of religious abuse are often dismissed because people keep wanting to say "Aziraphale doesn't have religious trauma." Yes, thank you, I get that, but unless you've been indoctrinated and brainwashed into a very black and white view of the world, you probably don't understand the kind of feelings Aziraphale's onscreen experiences evoke in so many of us. Heaven might not be real, but the feelings of "God is always watching" still stick with me today even though I no longer believe in God. I have entirely denounced Christianity because of my own personal experience, and I refuse to allow people to try and guilt me or shame me for trauma that I didn't ask for. I wasn't given a choice.

As a child I was told that God was real and always watching everything you do (just like Santa Claus) and can hear everything you say and knows everything you are thinking. Do you know what I learned to do in order to cope with this overwhelming and anxiety-inducing information as a small child? I learned to censor my thoughts. I never spoke up, and I have always felt like I was putting on a show for people because I had to be who I was told to be or I would get into trouble.

Aziraphale said "poverty is a virtue" during The Resurrectionists, and as someone who grew up in the Bible belt and went to private schools, I was taught this very same shit by the Catholic church. He learned in that very same episode that "poverty is a virtue" is actually a tool of oppression to keep the poor poor and the wealthy wealthy. I know we all watched the episode. He went into that episode believing what he said, but by the end of it he knew it was actually utter bullshit. Aziraphale is not ignorant. He's highly intelligent, and he has never been too proud to admit when he has been wrong. He accepts that the information he learned before is not matching up with reality.

And it's so obvious some of you have zero experience with that type of indoctrination because of how very little empathy you show Aziraphale for his "mistake" of "choosing Heaven over Crowley" and "making Crowley sad" so clearly Aziraphale must somehow be "abusive" and "manipulative" and "selfish" and "self-centered" because he didn't choose to run away with Crowley at the end of season two.

First of all.

FIRST OF ALL...

Aziraphale has a mind of his own.

Aziraphale is always going to try and do what is right.

Aziraphale is an angel. He's a being of love. And the reason he's so "bad" at being an angel is because he actually wants to protect humanity. He has always loved humanity. He repeatedly has to contend with what is "right" versus what is "good" and "wrong" versus "evil". Yeah, he has flaws. He's an angel, not a goddamn fucking saint. He has lived on Earth for more than 6,000 years. He has seen everything. He loves doing human things.

He's obsessed with magic. It makes him so happy. He's not very good at it...well not when he's trying to put on a show for Crowley.

He chose to learn French the hard way, so even though he knows every single language in the world, he chooses to be mediocre at French. Something that annoys and amuses Crowley at the same time.

He loves to dance even though angels aren't supposed to dance, and dancing with Crowley was what he wanted the most.

He owns a bookshop and refuses to sell any of his books because they are books he's had for as long as there have been books. He will chase customers away from his collection, and Crowley understands how much they mean to Aziraphale because he refuses to sell any when Aziraphale leaves him in charge.

He and Crowley have been speaking to each other in coded language for more than 6,000 years. They have to be very careful about what they say because Heaven and Hell are always watching.

Heaven has photographs of Crowley and Aziraphale sitting or standing together throughout history. Hell had one photo of Crowley and Aziraphale actually working together and it was Aziraphale's quick thinking and how good he actually is at sleight of hand tricks that managed to get that photo out of Furfur's hands so he wouldn't be able to turn Crowley over to the Dark Council.

Aziraphale saved Crowley from being taken to Hell again. He wasn't able to save Crowley from Hell in Edinburgh, but he sure as heck managed to save Crowley from Hell during WWII. He took Crowley to his bookshop and showed Crowley that he stole the picture from Furfur. He saved Crowley.

You get that, right?

Aziraphale SAVED Crowley.

People always talk about how it's "always Crowley saving Aziraphale" because apparently heroic acts are only heroic when they are grand gestures. The sleight of hand wasn't heroic at all, am I right? It wasn't sparkly and showy. It wasn't interesting enough, therefore not heroic. At least that's all I'm hearing when people start with their "blah Aziraphale deserves to suffer because I have no imagination or ability to understand the media in front of me blah", and all these reasons he deserves to suffer is because Crowley almost got hurt.

Aziraphale did that without flinching and I watch that part closely every single time. He's not scared for himself. He's scared for Crowley, and he managed to hold onto that photograph. He did not fail Crowley. He protected Crowley.

And so here's another thing that we like to point out. The way that Aziraphale, an angel who is effeminate and male presenting, an angel who is soft and full of love, an angel who is kind and forgiving because he has empathy and compassion, is somehow painted as abusive and manipulative. He's not violent, but he could easily fuck up your world. He doesn't use his powers. We have no idea how powerful he is because we only ever see him do small acts. He's used to hiding. It's the only way he has ever been able to protect Crowley.

And I'm not saying that Aziraphale has actually saved Crowley before means that Crowley hasn't also saved Aziraphale. Like, you get that those are not mutually exclusive and their relationship is not transactional, right? They have spent their entire existence protecting each other but never actually getting to be together because Heaven and Hell are always watching.

Yeah, Crowley fell. We all know this. We are aware of this. He was the serpent of Eden. He gave humanity the knowledge of free will.

But what we don't talk about is what Aziraphale gave humanity.

What did he give them?

We all know what it is!

Let's say it together!

He gave Adam and Eve his flaming sword because it was dangerous outside the garden and Eve was pregnant and she was already having a really bad day. He showed them compassion and gave them his extremely powerful angelic weapon so they would stand a chance on the outside of the garden. He gave humanity the gift of compassion. It's just unfortunate that his flaming sword became a weapon of War.

And then what did he do after that?

Ooooh, yeah, that's right.

God asked him about it and he straight up lied to her and pretended he had no idea where he'd managed to misplace it. She didn't say anything after that. He told Crowley the truth though. He told Crowley the truth even though Crowley fell.

Yeah, we know Aziraphale has done some really fucking questionable things. He and Crowley both suck at passing for human in front of observant people like Nina. They're not human. They are still learning, but they managed to experience human history together despite being on opposite sides and their experiences with humanity are what has shaped them into the compassionate and loving duo they are now. One of them is not better from the other.

This, my friends, is what we call meeting in the middle. It's why shades of gray is so important. Aziraphale constantly breaks the rules. Crowley refused to play by Heaven's rules. It's the reason he fell. He doesn't play by Hell's rules either. These two dorks figured out how to cancel each others' miracles out throughout human history in order to have more time learning about humanity and each other because working all day every day sucks when there are so many new things to learn and experience with the people you love.

We know Crowley and Aziraphale both love each other. Neither of them are good at hiding the hearts stars in their eyes.

But here's what's really fucking annoying about the Aziraphale hate.

Aziraphale was already crying when Crowley grabbed him and kissed him. Aziraphale is trying so very hard to do the right thing. He loves Crowley. He does. But he also has a duty to humanity, and he has taken that job very seriously since the creation of Adam and Eve. He sent them out into the world with a flaming sword so they would have a chance at surviving beyond the walls of the garden.

And he knows that Something Terrible is going to happen and he spent all of second season trying to figure out what that Something Terrible was while trying to have some sort of more honest and open relationship with Crowley, but again, they aren't human, they are a demon and an angel approaching life from opposite sides who met in the middle and fell in love with humanity together.

He wants more than anything to tell Crowley how he feels about him, but he wants to do something grand for Crowley because Crowley has always been grand and dramatic and sexy and a little bit scary.

Crowley is impulsive and has a temper and sometimes says the wrong thing but he has always trusted Aziraphale because Aziraphale gave him a chance even after he fell. Aziraphale chose to shelter him instead of smiting him while they stood on top of that wall. He knew he was supposed to kill Crowley, but oops, he gave his sword away to the humans so he didn't really have anything to kill him with and Crowley is the one who created nebulas. The Pillars of Creation is Crowley's work and Aziraphale was there to witness that, but he watched Crowley more than he watched the nebula. He witnessed the pure joy on Crowley's face when he said "let there be light" as a nebula full of colors exploded before their eyes. He was fascinated by Crowley.

But Aziraphale is going back to Heaven even though he has made it perfectly clear he absolutely has no desire to go back to Heaven. He told the Metatron this during their conversation. He spoke these words out loud. They exist.

But then The Metatron said this....

The Metatron. The very same angel who told Aziraphale in season one "to speak to me is to speak to the Almighty." He's the boss. He's the big guy. He's used to existing as a giant head and he had to give himself a body so he wouldn't stand out on Earth. And he knows that Aziraphale and Crowley have been working together since the beginning. He knows they worked together to prevent Armageddon in season one, and now he's made it clear he knows they were working together long before that. And let's face it, Aziraphale really wants to know what this Something Terrible is that Gabriel is running from so he can try to prevent it from happening.

It makes sense that he would want to take Crowley to Heaven with him because he would be able to keep Hell from getting their hands on him again. Aziraphale hates it in Heaven. He doesn't want to go, but Something Terrible is happening and Metatron isn't taking no for an answer, and maybe Heaven won't be so bad if Crowley is there with him. At least they can fix Heaven together.

But Crowley can't go back. We all get that. We don't blame him for saying no. It doesn't change anything.

Something Terrible is about to happen and Aziraphale has to figure out what it is. He wants to change Heaven.

He is fully aware that Heaven sucks. He still has faith in God. His faith isn't in Heaven. He deserted his platoon in season one and threw himself back to Earth so he could figure out how to make sure the war between Heaven and Hell doesn't happen.

But see, here's the thing. Heaven is at the top. Heaven has all the resources. Heaven is responsible for the creation of Hell. Heaven is empty and Hell is overpopulated. Aziraphale knows this. Crowley knows this. It's obvious every time we see either place. Both sides are desperate to go to war and will not hesitate to destroy humanity in the process. This is the opposite of what Crowley and Aziraphale want for humanity. If anyone can change Heaven, it's Aziraphale. He's the only one up there who gives a shit about humanity as far as we know. No one else is going to speak on humanity's behalf.

Some of us are so busy getting mad at Aziraphale for going back to Heaven and giving Crowley a Big Sad. Newsflash: Crowley is not the main character of Good Omens. Aziraphale and Crowley are equals, yet we wanna hold Aziraphale to higher standards because he's an angel, and when he makes mistakes it's proof that he's the bad guy.

Holy mother of all things that trigger my religious trauma, let me tell you. I spent my entire life hating myself every time I made mistakes. I've had to teach myself that just because I mess up sometimes doesn't mean I'm bad. It means I'm human. I still struggle with it. I probably always will. So when you say that Aziraphale deserves to be punished for breaking Crowley's heart, you not only ignore that Aziraphale's heart is also broken, you're saying he deserves to be punished for doing what he thinks is right.

Wanting to change Heaven for the better is not a bad thing.

And some of y'all wanna see him suffer for going back into the lion's den that is Heaven, knowing that he is already an outcast, that they have already tried to kill him once, knowing that he is a deserter, that he has been lying to Heaven about a lot of things, and you still think he's blinded by Heaven? You think he's just so naive and that's the only reason he's going back. He doesn't show his emotions the same way Crowley does so it means he doesn't care as much. He's expected to consider Crowley's feelings over his own when making choices. Like holy shit if all of that hasn't defined my experience as a woman with religious trauma in this fucking society. He's expected to be subservient to Crowley and if he doesn't do what Crowley wants then he's being unreasonable and illogical.

What the actual fuck, y'all.

Like seriously.

I'm sick of this bullshit. I had to step away from this fandom because of how toxic some people in this fandom are. It's not chasing me away, but the fact that I chose to hang out in a a more toxic fandom that is already notorious for being really toxic over a fandom that claims to be more open-minded and welcoming should probably tell you something.

It gave me a lot of perspective, and yeah, I'm still gonna speak up against the bullshit Aziraphale hate.

People are entitled to their opinions, but the Aziraphale hate isn't an opinion. It's just ableist, misogynistic garbage. At this point we all know y'all say these extreme things about Aziraphale because y'all get more joy out of the harm and alienation it is causing others.

Keep being loudly wrong, but if you think I'm not entitled to challenge shitty-ass, harmful, hateful discourse, bite my ass.

I'm not the one who lost the plot in this fandom.

[inkskinned]

oh, i am so enamored with the way the lesson of the velveteen rabbit rings true in our modern life. i love that we name our spaceships and write love poems to old buildings. i love that we all cried about the mars rover, that we made her so real that she was no longer a machine but a friend, a companion, a hero.

i love that we become attached to certain mugs, spoons, mason jars. that we develop a strange protective love-hate of our tablets, that we feel weirdly reverent about our new notebook. we name our cars silly things like the crab shack and call our favorite whisk attachment the one great destroyer.

there's a dog statue at my local park that has a golden back and golden head from how often people have pet it. at my college campus, people love an ugly little pointless sculpture we call bacon pants or bacon legs. we assign personalities to fountains, parks, laptops.

i love that our basic instinct is to include others in our community, even where there isn't a real community to speak of. that we love things, even when they cannot physically love us back - for us, the exchange isn't what's important. we give our heart to things so entirely that the thing begins to, in its own way, have its own heart.

the last transmission from the mars rover was not words; it was data. nevertheless, someone translated for her. my battery is low and it's getting dark. they made her last words a poem. they looked at data and saw a soul, a divine spark.

i keep thinking about the first AI born truly free-thinking. i keep thinking about the way scientists and artists talk about their work. how their eyes light up and their hands start moving, how even when they're flat broke and confused and the coding isn't working - there's this love of the thing. i keep thinking that whatever is being born into this new world will be born here on purpose, over a long time, with great energy. that when it arrives, the first thing it will know is most likely the hands of a creator delighted, overcome.

that we made it in our image. that the image we wrote was one of human compassion within ingenuity. that we couldn't make this thing without it being a labor of real-and-true: love.

[fisheito]

blade, superspeed superstar investigative extraordinaire (flinging entire men around since , uh, Saia)

[catgirlkirigiri]

Welcome back to my eternal curse of needing to turn every interest of mine into warrior cats. I resisted for so long but alas... wc satosugu

[skitskatdacat63]

those 2011 pics remind me of hard the McLaren race suits used to fuck, I loved the vodafone era suits so much 🥹

YES AGREED!!! I love the Vodafone McLaren livery, literally peak!!!!!

Thank you for sending this ask bcs now I get to talk about 2011 in particular. There were these special Saturday race suits and they're all so pretty!!! Hugo Boss did a design competition to celebrate their partnership with McLaren and different artists made different designs for the Quali days. They're so beautiful 🥹🥹 Why can't they do anything fun like that now???? I digress, I went through all the Qualis and compiled pics of all of them!!

[sugarcarnation]

bsd characters trying to use chuuya for their own gain thinking he’s an easy target because he’s easily manipulated and only has strength at his disposal vs the fandom’s insistence that he’s simply the brawn and not intelligent enough to fool people like dazai or fyodor. fight

[coldcanadianwinters]

I just like the fact that Simon apparently has about a million of the exact same polaroid of Betty smiling at the camera. This man must have told her to hold still and keep that smile on her face for like 2 hours as he just snapped shot after shot so he could guarantee that he'd always have her by his side (and also always be able to make rituals ifg HFGDHS)

[james-stark-the-writer]

started watching A Murder At The End of the World and i'm only like 4 minutes in rn but oh my fucking god, they already did the impossible, they made synthesizing a literal audience not only not annoying but actually intriguing and effective. holy shit.

[gaylactic-fire]

Ok last bit of TOTK saltiness for now but can we agree that trying to tell a linear story via the same collecting memories system was fucking dumb as hell

[httpiastri]

from the f2 site, love the photoshop

a teaser of what he’s gonna look like in the trident suit???? making me go crazy 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[bookwyrminspiration]

i want it to be you // what could have been

hey @everliving-everblaze I have a present for you <3

kotlc art taglist:

@bronte-deserves-better@imaramennoodle@thisbluewind@theofficialkai517@delphicstrawberries@thesandsofdawn@crumpledwitchfeet@ascendant-queen@axels-corner@loverofallthingssmart@silveny-dreams@girlofmanyfandoms@enbies-and-felonies@impostertamsong@sofia-not-sophie @alabestrine @keefes-hairgel @fanartofthelostcities@three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat@a-lonely-tatertot @cosmogyral-cleo @meg-doodles @dragonwinnie-kotlc@anaccidentwaitingtohappen@maglorslostsilmaril@even-if-in-another-time@crazedfangirl14@callas-pancake-tree@katniss-elizabeth-chase@wolfstar-being-ridikkulus@thefoxysnake@florida-preposterously@fandomsareforlife@deulalune@just-a-honey-badger

[zvaigzdelasas]

American Unexceptionalism

[swordmahes]

Trying to study, here!

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

The little German boy went into the weed cave 😔

Text translation and content under cut

STUTTGART NEWS

Little German Boy Fucks Shit Up

This Friday at 2AM, a little German boy in the name of Johann Ludwig entered the premises of a weed cave despite the warnings to not from many others. Once entered, Johann suddenly decided to smoke all 90 kilograms of the weed inside the cave and went in a weed induced murder spree. Over 15 innocent people were killed that night. Witnesses claim that he was "high off his ass", and several of his family members told us how they never coukd have imagined a sweet young upstanding boy like Johann to rip a bong like that.

Professional drug scientists have said that this particular incident may or may not have done permanent damage to the little German boy's brain. They have stated that "he might become like, a totally maniacal hot mercenary DILF in the future, like, he's gonna be fucking crazy dude".

The little boy's intentions from going into that cave are yet to be know, but police investigations are still ongoing and officers are saying that they will soon get answers out of the boy as soon as they find a police officer that isn't scared to death of the boy.

The little boy's family, the Ludwigs, have chose to make no further comment on the boy's unusually violent behavior, finding the topic too upsetting. However, according to the family's neighbour's, the Smidtts, little Johann had a distant Uncle whom he visited often without his family's permission or knowledge. Dr. Hans Ludwig, a dentist with a clinic not far from the boy's home, had several things to say on the subject when our reporters asked him his opinions. "Let the boys have some damn fun. He's not doing any harm!" He had said. "What's wrong with a few casualties in the name of science. Besides, who doesn't smoke weed every once in a while. You people and your silly 'laws' are inhibiting the true potential and creativity of our future children!