#because I already have some articles to use

[splinter-cat]

Unfortunately, if we want men to believe that the body on the right isn’t the ideal we all want, we’re gonna have to combat the messaging that so much of society and media is already sending them.

Think about it, the body on the right is everywhere. Movies, TV shows, magazine covers, advertisements, book covers, video games, online articles, hell even fanart of characters who aren’t buff in the slightest in the canon will regularly feature abs that look like a pack of sweet rolls.

It’s almost impossible to escape the messaging that says this is the thing to aspire to and anything less isn’t good enough.

And yes, women participate in this messaging, too, unfortunately. Both as the creators of some of the media that does this and as fans. It’s less apparent on platforms like tumblr, but having been on e.g. some facebook groups and hanging out with more conservative family members, I can tell you there absolutely are women who will not shut up about the body type on the right.

Does this make women to blame or mean that they all share the same view? Absolutely not. See what I just said above about this being a societal issue. But not acknowledging that everyone can participate in patriarchy (which is to blame for the idea of “ideal” body types in the first place) keeps us from being able to solve these issues.

Do I know exactly how to fix this? Not really. I’m just a trans guy who definitely doesn’t have either of the bodies shown above and doesn’t want to, but still has his own share of body issues, definitely in part because of all the messaging I’ve talked about.

All I can suggest is that we get louder. Show more appreciation for other body types; support media that not only features diverse body types, but shows them as desirable; create that media ourselves if we cannot find it.

i think the reason a lot of men are screaming, puking, and crying about this is bc it forces them to acknowledge that the reason they can’t get women to like them is not actually bc of their physique but bc of their shitty personality

[aroacebaggins]

As Pride Month comes to a close this is a reminder that July is Disability Pride Month!

It's not super well known in my experience, so basically this is a time to acknowledge that disabled people exist and we're not going anywhere, and honor different experiences and disabled history and struggles. Some things to remember:

Disabled is not a bad word. Please just say disabled instead of things like "differently abled".

Not all disabilities are visible, you can't always tell if someone is disabled.

If someone tells you they're disabled, believe them. We already deal with enough doubt and gaslighting from doctors and the medical system. The amount of people who actually fake disabilities is very low and also, not your problem to police!

Anyone can become disabled at any time. We're not so different from you. However, the idea that you may become disabled should not be the only reason you care about these issues.

You are not entitled to information about someone's disability. You can ask questions IF someone says it's okay and depending on the situation. For example, I'm usually pretty okay with questions. Some people aren't. Avoid personal and invasive questions, and never give unsolicited medical advice. Just don't.

We do not owe you inspiration. We can be proud of who we are and we can be angry at the same time. We're humans, don't expect us to be perfect little poster children.

Actual support is better than sympathy. We don't need your pity, but you can still get involved and be an ally.

Educate yourself about ableism and do not assume you are incapable of it, even if you have disabled friends/family. Heck, even if you're disabled yourself. You're not a bad person if you notice you've fallen into the same kinds of ableism prevalent in society, but it is your responsibility to change your behavior/language/etc. Call out ableism when you see it.

Pay attention to political issues in your country that impact disabled rights. In the US, problems with accessibility, education, access to healthcare, wages, marriage equality, etc. aren't new, but we're losing protections right now. (This is a good article, though the title... as mentioned earlier, the idea that issues could affect abled people too really shouldn't be the reason you care).

Use your position as an abled person to help advocate, but try to direct back to disabled voices and spotlight actual disabled people.

I also wanted to go over the meaning of the disability pride flag (shown at the top of this post) because I like it and it's not well known.

Black background - mourning and anger for disabled people who have died from illness but also from negligence, violence, eugenics, and suicide

Parallel, diagonal bands - solidarity in the community and cutting across barriers disabled people face

Red stripe - physical disabilities

Yellow stripe - cognitive and intellectual disabilities and neurodiversity

White stripe - undiagnosed and invisible disabilities

Blue stripe - emotional and psychiatric disabilities

Green stripe - sensory disabilities

So anyway, I'll probably be doing more disability posting for a while as well as my usual, and this is why. Happy Disability Pride Month, and helping spread awareness is appreciated!

[wolfofcelestia]

How likely I would be to follow the boys into a dark alley if I were a stranger

This is a joke. Don't take this seriously

Rafayel

Why is this pickup artist hitting on me? Nahh I'm out

He scrambles to get my attention again before I leave and I think his desperation is cute so he can't be that dangerous

He asks for my help reaching something in an alley but why is he asking someone shorter than him to reach something

Sus

Is it so he can touch my ass? I'm not that dumb, bye

He scrambles again and tells me who he is, pulls out his phone to show me news article after news article about him and his paintings, and tells me he'll paint whatever I want if I help him

I use his hands as a stepladder to grab a shell stuck to the alley wall. I lowkey feel like he's gonna drop me but he cheers me on and tells me I did a good job

I give him the shell and also my phone number so he can contact me about the painting he promised me

It takes me until I get home before I realize I just gave my number to a literal pickup artist

Get it? Because he picked me up and he's an artist

8/10 would follow him into a dark alley but only if he's a little pathetic at first

Zayne

He seems well-put together and reserved. Because of his expressionless face, I'd be a little cautious but that wouldn't be enough to raise alarm bells

+3 points if he's still wearing his doctor's coat

What? He's wearing a dark coat? Well, I'm already following him into a dark alley because he said he needed help with something

Oh shit, he just threw an ice shard at my infected arm but his voice is kinda hot?

If I die here, I guess I die here

7/10 would follow him into a dark alley

Xavier

Unintimidating man in white. He looks young and harmless so my alarm bells don't register at all

He asks me for help with something in a soft voice like he's trying not to scare something away and I assume he found an injured animal. I don't even hesitate, I just follow him into a dark alley

Suddenly the dark alley isn't so dark anymore. I can see his smile and it's as sweet and innocent as I first thought it was

There is an injured animal here

10/10 would follow him into a dark alley

Caleb

Why is there some dude in airforce cosplay standing around in front of a dark alley? Is he wearing sunglasses? Bruh...

He notices me giving him a weird look and he takes off his sunglasses and smiles brightly at me. Lowkey that smile makes me feel even more unnerved. I walk faster away from the weird cosplayer giving me serial killer vibes

He calls out to me to wait. He says he's the colonel of the farspace fleet and I tell him I'm the queen of england

He laughs. No, he giggles at my joke.

He says he needs help. Something about a pocket universe entrance in the dark alley. And I tell him idk wtf he's talking about. I don't have an evol, much less anything helpful for someone claiming to be a colonel. Doesn't he have his fleet to help him out? He says they got separated and needs to find the entrance to this space tunnel thing to get back to them

He straight up sounds like a crazy person. I am running. But then suddenly I am not running anymore

I'm being floated back towards him and he's smiling and telling me that I WILL help him. He seems to actually need my help but my alarm bells are ringing like crazy

1/10 sussy cosplaying baka

Sylus

Tall, intimidating man asking me to follow him into a dark alley? I'm not that dumb

But why his voice kinda....

Holy shit, the eye(s) on this guy

My legs are moving on their own? No, that's just me

Feels like he's everywhere in my brain now. Highkey making me feel insane. I need to be closer to him

Did he just call me kitten?

I am kitten now

10000/10 would follow him into a dark alley

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina I was wondering if you could help me understand the reason for Harry’s kiss last night. I’m so new to this fandom and it’s my first time experiencing stunting so now that Louis and Harry are both stunting I’m lost. If there isn’t any contracts or anything forcing them to do this then why on earth would either of them choose to stunt? Especially Harry because people know he’s queer already (well many assume) and he doesn’t have a reason to stunt. Also he doesn’t need popularity because he’s famous already? I don’t understand it and it’s really throwing me off. I don’t understand the reason for him kissing this girl in public.

Hi, darling. I think what you have to realize is, first of all, so much of the world is grossly homophobic. And so much of Harry’s image is built on him being a sexual fantasy. So, no matter how many people think he’s queer, there are still more (or at least a lot) who think he isn’t, and he/his team/his label aren’t ready to lose any of them.

So, they’re going to keep his sexuality ambiguous for those who don’t want to look beyond the surface.

Second, yes, he’s already very famous. But fame and success isn’t a once and done kind of thing. Celebrities always have to have something going on in order to keep them in the public eye. But especially if they’re about to have a new project. I’d guess HS4 is coming sooner, rather than later. Having him show up at one of the biggest festivals in the world, and then articles about him making out with some woman, is a very easy way to get people talking about him.

So, he’s going to have a reason to “stunt” for as long as he wants to continue being in the public eye and for as long as he’s not making a definitive statement about his sexuality or showing the world who his real partner is. As annoying as that sounds, I think that’s how it is.

I think, too, that you have to look at it differently than “they have a contract that forces them to do these things.” Yes, I do think they’re more in control. But they’re also operating within a system that, to an extent, dictates their behavior. They might not want to do PR relationships, but they also know they’re fairly easy and effective ways of keeping themselves in the press (which is necessary for them in their industry), and keeping their closets in tact, at least as far as the world outside of a certain part of fandom is concerned.

IMO, the only way to be okay with what they do, is to let go of needing a certain outcome. Don’t get yourself get hung up on them coming out, then claiming each other, them being a certain sexuality, etc etc. Enjoy their music, enjoy the parts of themselves they show us, enjoy your friends here… and roll with the idiotic parts of the music industry. They clearly both still want to be successful within it. And that means having to play some stupid games.

I hope this is a bit helpful. ❤️

[morlock-holmes]

I disagree, fairly strongly actually. The aesthetic territory of image and video generation is primarily produced by mainstream, traditional artists because that is who, almost by definition, creates the data-set used to train the model.

This strikes me as relatively unlikely to change, because even though more AI stuff is entering the internet, it's AI stuff designed to mimic the most prevalent aesthetic trends, so I don't know that it's going to pull the models in any direction besides "What they were already doing."

Current technology is, as far as I can tell, mainly of use to people who are on some level indifferent about the aesthetics of what they produce; getting Stablediffusion to produce something mildly interesting is extremely easy; getting it to reliably produce an orderly aesthetic is more difficult, and getting it to produce a reliable aesthetic which deviates heavily from obvious mainstream aesthetics is very difficult and requires a fair chunk of work.

So it tends to be used in cases where a specific aesthetic vision is unnecessary, e.g.

To replace stock assets;

As part of a practice where the generative nature of the production process is more important than any specific attribute of the final product;

Shit posting;

Content farm garbage;

Pornography;

Propaganda;

I think it was an article I read on this that used the term "Obviousness" to describe the Trump aesthetic. The combination of the immediate but shallow impression of technical acumen combined with loud, easy to comprehend imagery appeals to people making blunt propaganda.

Less so to idiosyncratic artists. Especially because many artists want more control, not less.

So we’re ending up with this weird situation where the most powerful creative tools in human history are being used primarily to create increasingly sophisticated Matroyska patterns of 4chan humor, not because the technology is inherently suited to that purpose, but because the people willing to experiment with it come from communities that value transgression over everything else and dominate the platforms that let this sort of content spread.

I would dearly love to know were they're hiding "One of the most powerful creative tools in human history" because I quite enjoy playing with StableDiffusion, and not to be redundant, but StableDiffusion has massively improved my ability to produce the kind of images that StableDiffusion produces easily.

It has not really effectively allowed me to express most of my creative ideas, and is in fact fairly bad at this task.

I think the mistake being made here is that because there is a moralizing opposition to the use of genAI, that must mean that moral objections constitute the primary obstacle towards adoption by artists.

I, conversely, think it's because these tools as they exist today integrate very poorly into most conventional artistic workflows, except for little bits and bobs around the edges like background removal and similar such technical tasks.

Like, a few days back I asked this question the consensus was that if you have a particular vision for an OC, the only way to reliably produce it in imageGen is to first produce it via a more traditional process (e.g. 3d modeling or drawing) and then train a model on those conventional images.

Which like... Hardly heralds the oncoming demise of the traditional artist, right?

Gee I Wonder Who Has Been Screaming Shit Like This Already From The Rooftops Hmm?

[movingmusically]

What Are Friends For? - Chapter 28

Author’s Note:

Lily isn’t the face claim for Angie—but this set of paparazzi shots is exactly what’s being referenced in the chapter.

Word Count: 2.9k

Masterlist

It started with Zara.

A WhatsApp ping just after eight, when I was still in bed—duvet kicked halfway off, one arm flopped uselessly over the side in search of my phone.

Just a link.

I blinked, thumbed the brightness down, and squinted at the screen while the page loaded.

And there it was: my actual private life, splashed across the Daily Mail website with a headline I couldn’t have made up if I tried.

PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: Elvis star Austin Butler puts on a VERY steamy display while sharing a kiss with mystery brunette after dinner date in London

Below it, a carousel of photos: Austin leaning in close, his hand on my back. Me laughing at something he’d said. And then the worst of it—us kissing on the pavement like we hadn’t noticed the world, or the long-lens camera aimed directly at us.

I sat bolt upright, heart thudding as I read the rest of the article.

Austin Butler appeared completely smitten as he wrapped up a low-key dinner with a mystery woman on Saturday night. The 29-year-old actor, currently in the UK filming Masters of the Air, was spotted sharing an intimate kiss with the brunette beauty after enjoying a dinner date over the weekend. The pair arrived at a swanky restaurant alongside a male friend earlier in the evening. They enjoyed a two-hour dinner before being seen hugging and kissing after waving goodbye to their friend. The pair looked relaxed and affectionate throughout the evening, holding hands as they strolled by the river, with Butler keeping a protective arm around her waist. Sources say the actor has been spending more time in London in recent months, and was “clearly enjoying some downtime” during his break from filming.

They didn’t name me. Just “mystery brunette.”

But it wouldn’t take much. A parent from school. One of the Year 6 girls with older siblings and a TikTok addiction. A colleague who still read the Mail Online just to feel superior about it.

And if anyone clicked through—there I was.

Not exactly behaving like someone who’d just reminded her class last week about online safety and keeping your personal life private.

I stared at the screen, rereading the headline like it might change if I blinked hard enough. It didn’t.

Another ping. Zara again.

Zara: You’re literally the Daily Mail mystery brunette??

What a way to start the summer holidays x

A beat. Then:

Zara: You ok?

I didn’t reply straight away. Just flopped back on the pillows, phone still in my hand, the duvet twisted around my knees like it might anchor me to reality.

Summer holidays. Right. Technically, yes—they’d started on Friday.

We’d had the leavers’ assembly, the staffroom prosecco, the frantic clearing of classroom displays and emotional goodbyes. I’d said see you in September like it meant something. Like I had any idea what my life would look like by then.

Now here I was: not even through the first weekend, and already headlining a tabloid’s sleaziest corner like a cautionary tale.

A primary school teacher turned clickbait girlfriend.

Brilliant.

I opened Zara’s message again, thumbs hovering. Typed Honestly, I want to crawl into a bin, then deleted it. Typed Didn’t even know we were being watched, deleted that too.

Finally landed on:

Me: Absolutely mortified.

The typing dots appeared straight away.

Zara: You look hot, if that helps.

I mean. Terrifying and exposed. But hot.

I snorted. Then felt immediately guilty for laughing.

Because it wasn’t just about being seen. It was about being seen like that. With him.

Not that she didn’t know. But now everyone would.

Parents. Kids. Colleagues. My actual headteacher, who once gave a whole staff meeting about “maintaining a neutral online presence” because somebody liked a tweet that said teachers should be paid more than MPs.

And now this.

Kissing a movie star on the street like I was in some sort of glossy summer romance novel.

Except I wasn’t the heroine. I was the teacher who was supposed to be boring and responsible. Not plastered all over the tabloids.

Somewhere under the panic, I could still hear the front door shutting from earlier. Austin had gone out to get coffee and something breakfast-adjacent—he’d offered to make eggs, then remembered he didn’t have any, and somehow that turned into “I’ll be right back.”

That was… maybe fifteen minutes ago.

We were at his flat. Not unusual these days. Ever since filming moved to Bovingdon and the studio started sending a car to pick him up in the mornings, he’d been based in London full-time. We were splitting time more evenly now, some nights he stayed at mine, but most of the time we ended up here. Mostly because it was bigger. And had windows that actually shut properly. And a sofa that didn’t require you to sit sideways to stretch your legs.

And now I was curled up in his bed, wearing one of his t-shirts, reading a national news article about our kiss.

Like this was normal. Like this was fine.

I wasn’t even sure how it happened, not really. The dinner had been casual—his friend was in town, a guy he’d known from years back in LA. The kind of friend where the rhythm picked up mid-step like they’d never left it. I knew the type. I’d seen it with Callum and his actor mates—how quickly the in-jokes surfaced, how seamless it all felt from the outside, even when you didn’t quite know what they were laughing about.

I was nervous. Not because Austin ever made me feel like I didn’t belong—but because I wanted to. Because he’d slotted into my world so easily. My friends adored him. My mum had smiled so much I thought her face might actually cramp. I wanted to do the same. To hold my own. To make a good impression on someone who knew the version of him I didn’t.

It helped that the friend was kind. He asked about my job, about writing, about London things he should try before flying back. It was good. I’d exhaled. Relaxed. The whole dinner felt light, easy. No need to try too hard or pretend I was more interesting than I was.

And then, after we said goodbye, we kissed. Just the two of us outside the restaurant. Not some secret, hurried, back-alley thing. Something that had felt entirely ours. A soft, almost absent-minded moment like we’d forgotten there was anywhere else to be.

Then we walked—down towards the river, our arms around each other, the night still warm, the kind that made everything feel softer. He’d said something daft that made me laugh.

And now? Now that little moment, that private pause between dinner and home, was public property.

I heard the front door click, followed by the rustle of a paper bag and the soft scrape of trainers being kicked off against the skirting board.

“Okay, so,” his voice called, easy and cheerful, “I know you said coffee and something breakfast-y, but I may have got distracted by that bakery with the ridiculous triple-chocolate croissants you liked—”

He appeared in the doorway, a takeaway tray in one hand, bag in the other. Still talking.

“—and then I saw a woman dressed as a pirate with an actual pigeon on her shoulder, just casually walking down the street at eight a.m., and I think I might’ve hallucinated it, but—”

He stopped. Crossed the room and set the tray down carefully on the bedside table.

I hadn’t moved. Still sitting on the bed, phone in my hand, his T-shirt bunched around my thighs like I’d forgotten how to exist in a human body.

Austin’s brow furrowed as he took me in. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

I didn’t say anything.

I just turned the phone around and held it out, the headline still glowing like it had been seared into the screen.

He took it. Scanned the first few lines. Blinked once. Then again, slower.

“Oh.”

He sat down slowly on the edge of the bed, the takeaway bag landing with a soft thud beside him. The phone was still in his hand, but he wasn’t looking at it anymore.

“I didn’t think…” he started, then trailed off. “I mean, I knew they were around, obviously. But I didn’t think anyone was paying that much attention. Not like this.”

I didn’t say anything. Just watched as he frowned, rubbed the back of his neck, then glanced over at me properly for the first time.

“You okay?”

I gave a short, involuntary laugh. “Do I look okay?”

“No,” he said quietly. “You look like you want to hurl your phone out the window and then crawl into the duvet and never come out.”

“That’s shockingly accurate.”

He nodded, still frowning. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m not sorry.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. He looked genuinely gutted, like he’d walked me straight into it without meaning to.

He set the phone down gently on the bed between us. “Have you ever been photographed with Callum?”

“Yeah,” I said. “But not with my tongue down his throat.”

That got a half-smile out of him. Brief, rueful.

“And not,” I added, jabbing a finger at the screen, “with his hand down the back of my jeans.”

Austin leaned over to look again, wincing. “Okay, yeah, that one’s… not great.”

“Your entire hand is on my arse.”

“In my defence,” he said, glancing up at me, “you were very distracting.”

I stared at him.

“I mean it,” he added. “You were—laughing at that dumb joke, and tugging on my jacket, and you said something about my hands being cold, and I—look, I’m not proud, but I panicked and put them somewhere warm.”

Despite myself, I let out a snort. “You’re unbelievable.”

I shifted to sit up straighter, pulling my knees to my chest. “You think the kids’ll see it?”

Austin raised an eyebrow. “Your kids?”

“Yeah, those. And their parents. And my boss. And half of bloody West London.”

He reached out, resting his hand lightly on my ankle. “If anyone’s got a problem with you having a life, they’re the one being weird.”

“A life, yes. A very steamy display, according to the Daily Mail.”

That made him laugh, properly this time. A warm, amused sound that briefly pulled the tension out of the room. “Your socials are locked down, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “All private. School policy. And I never use my full name anyway.”

“Good,” he said. “My publicist’ll handle it. We don’t comment, it dies down. It always does.”

I looked at him then, properly. Messy hair, creased T-shirt, still him. Still the person I wanted to figure it out with. “You don’t look that chill.”

“I’m not,” he admitted. “Not about you.”

That nearly undid me.

His hand slid slightly higher, fingers curling gently as he rubbed slow, reassuring circles just below my knee. A quiet, grounding touch. “I hate that this touched your life like that. I’ve done press since I was fifteen—I’ve had a camera in my face more times than I can count. But you shouldn’t have to deal with it just because we… because I wanted to kiss you.”

I swallowed. My throat was thick with something sharp and ridiculous and fond.

“You think your publicist’s seen it yet?”

“Probably.” He paused. “She’ll email soon. Just to say not to worry, that we’re not giving a statement. Same as always.”

I let out a long breath. “Okay.”

“You don’t have to say anything either,” he added. “You don’t owe anyone an explanation.”

I nodded again. “It’s just a shock.”

“Yeah.”

We sat there a moment, silent.

He reached for the bakery bag, unrolling the top with more focus than necessary. “You still want the croissant?”

He held it up like a peace offering. “Triple chocolate. Still warm.”

Despite everything, I smiled. Took it from his hand and held it for a second, stupidly touched.

“You’re lucky I’m not making this my Roman Empire.”

Austin tilted his head. “The croissant?”

“This moment. The panic. The headline. The hand placement. And you… trying to fix it with pastry.”

His lips twitched. “Is it working?”

I leaned in and kissed him—quick, close-mouthed, but lingering just enough to make his eyes soften when I pulled back.

“Ask me again after I’ve eaten it.”

Austin unwrapped his own croissant and leaned back into the pillows, legs stretched out in front of him, one arm resting behind me. He didn’t say anything straight away, just took a slow bite and made a noise that was halfway between appreciation and relief.

I let myself do the same—warm, rich, slightly too much chocolate for this early—and tried to pretend that sugar could actually absorb adrenaline.

He wiped a crumb from his lip with the back of his hand. “For what it’s worth, I don’t regret it.”

I looked over. “The kiss or the croissant?”

“The kiss,” he said, then paused. “Though honestly? Bit of both.”

I nudged his foot lightly with mine, still curled beneath me. “It just doesn’t feel like it should be news. We had dinner. We kissed. People do that all the time.”

“They do,” he said.

I sighed. “I knew this might happen eventually. I just… didn’t think it would feel like this.”

“Like what?”

“Like someone cracked open the door and now I have to decide how much to let them see.”

Austin nodded, quiet for a moment. “You don’t have to open it any further than you want to.”

“It’s not really up to me, though, is it?” I twisted the pastry bag in my hands. “It’s out there now. And whether or not they name me, people will work it out.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “They might.”

I could feel his eyes on me, steady and calm and a little bit sorry.

“I just don’t want to be the reason things get harder for you,” I said finally.

“You’re not,” he replied, with so little hesitation it almost startled me. “This is mine to manage. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I let that settle between us, but it didn’t feel right to just leave it there, like he was shielding me from something that already belonged to both of us.

“I don’t want you to handle it on your own,” I said. “I know I didn’t ask for this, but I’m not pretending it didn’t happen either. We’re in it now. Aren’t we?”

His gaze didn’t waver. “Yeah. We are.”

“And I want that,” I added quickly, before he could say anything else. “I do.”

The corner of his mouth lifted, but it wasn’t a grin—just the kind of smile that said he heard me properly. That it meant something.

“I just… I don’t know what it looks like now,” I admitted. “I was fine with this being ours. Quiet. Low-key. But if it’s out there—if it keeps being out there—what happens next?”

Austin shifted slightly, reaching up to rub the back of his neck the way he always did when he was thinking. “It’s not going to be like this every day,” he said. “It’s a blip. They’ll move on the minute someone else does something more interesting—or messy.”

“Right. So we just… wait for a celebrity divorce or a Love Island scandal.”

“Basically, yeah.”

I huffed a quiet laugh. “That’s comforting.”

He nudged my knee with his. “Look, I don’t want to change anything between us. Not because of this. We just keep doing what we’re doing. It’s been working, hasn’t it?”

I nodded, surprised by how quickly my throat tightened again. “Yeah. It has.”

He paused. “But if you want to slow down, or step back, I’ll get that too.”

“I don’t.” I said it before I could second-guess myself. “I want… whatever this is. Us. Just maybe with fewer cameras involved.”

He smiled again, this time all the way. “I can live with that.”

“Good,” I said, trying to sound decisive and not like someone who’d had an actual existential crisis about it twenty minutes ago.

Austin reached over and plucked a flake of pastry off my chin. “Still got chocolate on your face, by the way.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed the hem of my—his—t-shirt to wipe it.

He raised an eyebrow. “Wow.”

“What?” I said. “It’s multi-purpose.”

“Right,” he said. “Chic and absorbent.”

I snorted, and the last of the tension eased from my chest.

He shifted closer and tugged me gently into his side. I went willingly, curling into him as his arm came around my waist, his lips pressing into my temple like a habit. One I didn’t want him to break.

We stayed there for a while, legs tangled loosely, t-shirt bunched somewhere around my hips, his skin warm where it pressed against mine.

“Think we’ve earned a slow day,” he murmured, lips against my hair.

“Mmm,” I said. “Starting now.”

“Can I be scandalous and suggest we stay in bed till lunch?”

I tilted my head to look up at him. “I think you meant to say until dinner.”

He grinned. “Dinner,” he echoed. “Ambitious. You planning to let me leave this bed?”

I shrugged, curling closer. “Don’t count on it.”

That made him laugh—properly, this time. Low and warm, right against my hair.

“Well then,” he said, his arm tightening around me. “Guess I’ll have to make it worth your while.”

Taglist:

@slowsweetlove @thefallofthedamned @saturnsdaughtr @bellesdreamyprofile @myradiaz @butlerrizz @chocolatetree222 @richardslady121 @ilovereadingfanfics @faegoddessog @lucianegm @butlers-angels @jjubilee-fluff

[ozarkthedog]

do you know if anyone has ever asked shawn about skateboarding on ak like did he already know how or need to learn?

yes, Shawn had some skateboarding experience before AK and it was most likely written into the plot because of it!

Here's an excerpt from an article with CBR

Fans have been very taken with your skateboarding scene. I'd love to hear a little bit about the behind-the-scenes of that. You looked pretty natural on a skateboard, so I imagine you have some experience.

It's funny because it was written a certain way. I think they even talk about it in Episode 9, "Well, he's rolling back and forth." Then, when Loren [Yaconelli], who directed the episode, said, "Now, I'm going to put you in a bowl." She knew I did skating a little bit. That was my first time, I think ever, in a bowl, actually. I used to skate half pipes. The interesting thing is for Season 6, skateboarding becomes a very big part of our story. I think it's because I do skate [laughs].

What's really cool is there's an element where Pope goes off a mini ramp. So I had to go revisit my childhood and put two quarterpipes in my backyard, so I was kind of practicing. But I got to take a skateboard to work for a lot of Season 6, so I'm pretty excited about that.

[wowgrim]

As someone who spent time in the West Bank doing human rights and "activist" stuff, I want to add on to this, but also challenge the idea that ISM is to blame for Corrie's death.

This got long, so I'm taking inspiration from you and adding headings. But this is almost all uncited, as it's from personal experience rather than news articles.

Accident

First, I agree that the evidence points to Corrie's death being an accident.

ISM Origins

With that out of the way, I'll start with my bias and some facts to add to the picture: I've met and talked to some of the people who started ISM, and while I *definitely* disagree with the direction it has taken, I got a good impression from them as sincere people who saw the futility of violence and wanted to use nonviolent resistance, in the vein of MLK Jr/Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Gandhi. At the time ISM started up, there were already some Israeli and Palestinian organizations in the Territories engaged in nonviolent resistance, of course, but the ones that brought in internationals were primarily religious (e.g., Christian Peacemaker Teams, Operazione Columba) and they wanted something secular that could accommodate people of any or no religious belief.

Nonviolent Resistance vs. Peace Activism

ISM were never general "peace activists." They started specifically to protest the occupation (presence of IDF troops and settlements in the Palestinian Territories), which to me explained the sole focus on the IDF even if I didn't agree with it.

Later, they stated their purpose as: "The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles." (x)

That should open the door to protesting Palestinian militants, too; but if they've started doing so, it's not anything they're reporting on their website (unless I've missed something).

Killings of ISM Volunteers by Islamists

In any case, it seems relevant to mention that an Italian ISM volunteer was kidnapped, tortured, and killed in 2011 by extremist Islamist group Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin. (A Palestinian involved in a local ISM organizing committee in Jenin, Akram Ibrahim Abu Sba’, was killed by Islamic Jihad, but this was probably not related to his ISM work.)

Who's to Blame When ISM Volunteers Die?

Activists who go to the Palestinian Territories to put themselves in harm's way are adults. They are fully cognizant of what they are doing and the dangers involved. They have a choice not to be in the Palestinian Territories. They have a choice not to actively put themselves in dangerous situations. Unless they are under arrest or kidnapped, they have relative freedom of movement, which means they can choose not stand in the way of a bulldozer, not to stay in the Church of the Nativity or Yasser Arafat's compound when its under siege, not to escort medics or schoolchildren through a firing zone, not to participate demonstrations, and not to intervene at checkpoints.

But they choose to do so, anyway, because they feel they have a moral obligation to do so, in spite of the risks to themselves.

Back when Rachel Corrie joined the ISM, it was explicitly using the language of "human shields." (Christian Peacemaker Teams in the West Bank, which ISM sometimes worked with, was also using this language; I don't remember if any other nonviolence groups were. Maybe Operazione Columba?) They were inviting internationals to the territories to act as voluntary human shields. I think we all know that a possible consequence of volunteering to be a human shield is death. I never met Rachel, but the ISM and CPT volunteers I met knew that, so I assume she would know that, too.

And from what I saw of ISM and heard from volunteers, they were never forced or compelled to do anything and were free to say "I'm not comfortable with this." Not uncommonly, international volunteers would go beyond what local (Israeli and Palestinian) ISM activists were comfortable with. I don't know if that was the case with the events leading up to Rachel Corrie's death, but I wouldn't be surprised. (I do suspect that they weren't happy with some of her previous actions, like burning the American flag.)

After Rachel Corrie's death, activists continued to travel to the Territories to volunteer with ISM. All of them knew an international ISM volunteer had been killed (intentionally or unintentionally) in Gaza and decided to go anyway.

When someone decides to lie down in front of a moving bulldozer or position themselves in the line of fire, they are knowingly risking their life. These ISM volunteers weren't drafted, so I'm not going to blame their deaths on ISM.

Why Do We Care?

And now, I'm going to say something that probably sounds a bit heartless: the death of Rachel Corrie, or any other activist who has died in a similar manner, should not be getting the same level of attention and outcry as the preventable deaths of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

I'm saying this as someone who made the choice to go to the West Bank knowing of the risk of violence, and who sometimes made the choice to be in places that were more dangerous than others.

I'm a Westerner. The West Bank isn't my home. I can come or go whenever I want. I made the choice to be in a conflict zone. People who live in a conflict zone (West Bank, Israel, Gaza, DRC, Ukraine ...) don't have that choice. They don't get to leave whenever they want.

I like to think that Rachel would agree with me and many of the activists I have met over the years, and wouldn't want the attention on her.

But she was young, and I didn't know her, and from what I gather, she had a very different worldview. So I can't speak for her.

No Conclusion, But ...

As someone who has voluntarily traveled to conflict zones, I have many many more thoughts about why people volunteer to be human shields and/or put themselves in danger. Some of the motives are altruistic and some aren't. I don't want to write about them here because I don't want to, by proximity, link any of those motives to Rachel Corrie.

But maybe I'll say more some other time.

hi! I'm deeply thankful I found your blog because it's such a breath of fresh air to find someone with articulate, sensible thinking on this hellsite. i was formerly very pro free palestine but blogs such as yours helped me open my eyes. with that being said, I ask this in good faith, because you've been really respectful and sensible in your other asks: what about activists killed by the IDF, such as Rachel Corrie? Again, I ask this in good faith, I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on it

Thanks for the kind words, Anon.

I'll get lots of Anon Hate for this, but I so appreciate your open mind and your good faith question, so I'd feel like an asshole if I didn't try to answer it in the same good faith.

All I can offer are my own (unquestionably biased) thoughts from what I've read. I have no more access to objective truth than anyone else ~6,000 miles and ~22 years removed from the events we're discussing.

I think this is one of those awful cases where a tragic death was turned into a political football...which is still being kicked around decades later.

The Basic Facts (upon which most seem to agree)

Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old college student from Washington State who joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and went to Gaza in 2003 and was killed while standing in front of an IDF bulldozer in Rafah.

It's a media-ready story. A young, idealistic woman trying to stand up for people she believed were being oppressed, and then dying violently. That should disturb people. It should make us ask questions.

When we ask those questions, we must also be willing to look at all the answers, not just the ones which flatter our instincts or fit our preferred existing narrative.

What actually happened?

In March 2003, Rachel Corrie was trying to stop IDF bulldozers from demolishing homes in southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt.

Why was the IDF demolishing homes?

The area, Rafah, was at the time a hotbed of militant activity. It was riddled with tunnels used to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza. These tunnels were often dug directly under civilian homes, and the IDF was using armored bulldozers to demolish structures suspected of being part of that infrastructure.

Corrie, with other ISM activists, placed herself in front of one of these bulldozers to block it. She was struck and fatally injured.

I believe that everyone agrees on that much.

Accounts diverge from there.

Some witnesses from ISM claimed she was clearly visible to the operator of the bulldozer and that she was deliberately run over. Other ISM witnesses disagree and have said the operator could not see her.

The IDF said the driver couldn't see her.

An internal IDF investigation concluded it was an accident, not a deliberate killing.

Corrie's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Israeli court, and in 2012, a judge ruled that the military was not liable because Corrie had voluntarily entered a closed military zone and her death occurred during an active military operation.

It's entirely legitimate to disagree with the ruling, but the legal process did not seem to reveal a cover-up by the IDF and does not appear to have been a sham legal process.

The Bulldozer Issue: Framing in Western Media

One reason this case still circulates with so much distortion is because of the images attached to it. If you Google Rachel Corrie today, you'll probably find photos of her standing in front of a yellow bulldozer, holding a megaphone.

Western news outlets used this pair of photos from the ISM to portray Corrie as standing very visibly in front of the bulldozer which fatally injured her.

You see what pairing these photos implies, right? One moment Corrie is standing in front of the bulldozer with a megaphone, the next she's injured on the ground.

Our brains fill in the blanks like these are two panels of a comic and conclude the bulldozer operator saw her standing there and deliberately plowed into her.

Look carefully at the bulldozer in each photo.

They're not the same machine. Look at the background. It's not the same place. It's not the same time.

The bulldozer in the top photo is a civilian Caterpillar bulldozer.

The bulldozer involved in Corrie's death (in the second photo) was an IDF armored D9, modified for combat conditions. It's massive, encased in steel armor, and built to operate in environments where there's a real threat of gunfire, explosives, or ambushes. Consequently, visibility from inside the cab is extremely limited. Drivers rely on spotters and cameras...but human error is very possible, especially when the scene is chaotic and high-risk...like in the combat settings where it is deployed.

Not the same machine, not the same location, not the same time.

Presenting these photos together is at least misinformation if not disinformation. It serves a narrative, not the truth, by suggesting that the second photo took place immediately after the first and that Corrie was fully visible to the operator of the bulldozer.

The IDF's position (and that of the Israeli courts and the US State Department) is that Rachel Corrie didn't die in a peaceful standoff with a malicious construction vehicle. She died in a war zone, in front of a combat bulldozer, during an active military operation, in an area where armed groups were explicitly attempting to kill Israeli soldiers...because she was put in harm's way by ISM for the explicit purpose of risking her life.

In my view, Corrie never should have been in this active combat zone.

None of this makes her death any less tragic.

What is the International Solidarity Movement and what exactly was Corrie doing there?

The ISM was not just some loose collection of Quaker-style peace advocates. It styled itself as nonviolent, but it took a deliberately confrontational approach. It inserted young, usually Western activists into active conflict zones, telling them to stand between the IDF and Palestinian militants or infrastructure.

Their theory of change was that Israel wouldn't risk bad PR from killing an American or European. It was a gamble. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Either way, ISM was using Corrie as a human shield. The whole point of ISM's tactics is to put people in harm's way.

ISM activists were injured or killed in multiple cases. Others were detained for coordinating with militants or knowingly entering combat areas. Even left-leaning Western journalists have criticized the group for being reckless and manipulative in using under-informed idealists as cannon fodder for political theater.

It's also worth asking why ISM wasn't doing this sort of thing in areas where Palestinian militants were putting civilians at risk. If they were non-partisan peace activists, why weren't they forming human chains to prevent rocket launches from schoolyards, hospitals, or mosques? Why weren’t they protesting the use of children as shields?

You can't claim to be a non-partisan, anti-war organization while assisting one of two sides in its war efforts.

Was Rachel Corrie murdered? Was she deliberately killed?

As far as I can tell, no.

I haven't been able to find any evidence that the IDF targeted Corrie deliberately. The legal case didn't find such evidence. The US State Department didn’t find such evidence. Even some ISM members admitted Corrie may not have been visible to the driver.

I also struggle to imagine what plausible motive the IDF would have to deliberately kill an American. That would obviously bring all kinds of international trouble from the US...and that was the ISM's whole reason for putting Corrie in harm's way. Killing Corrie deliberately would be giving them exactly what they wanted. Why would the IDF do that on purpose?

What happened to Corrie was preventable (and that was the basis of the negligence claim her family made in court), but preventable is not the same as criminal or liable.

In the long term, the tragedy lies not just in Corrie's tragic death, but in how eager people were to risk it and exploit it.

Corrie's face has been painted on walls and printed on protest signs for more than 20 years. This isn't because anyone seriously studied the facts of her death, but because she became a useful symbol. A martyr. A weapon.

Her story has been flattened, turned into a cartoon of noble activist vs evil bulldozer, figuratively and literally:

What would accountability for Corrie's death look like?

If people really want accountability for Rachel Corrie's death, they might consider starting with the ISM. They put untrained American college students in front of armored military vehicles in war zones.

They took advantage of people who wanted to make a difference, and they fed them a script designed for media consumption, not for survival.

Or maybe ask why Hamas and Islamic Jihad were building weapons tunnels under civilian homes in the first place. That's why bulldozers were there. That's what made the area a war zone. That's what put civilians and foreign activists in danger.

Decades later, what do we now know about Hamas' tunnels?

Most people don't want real accountability. They want a nice clean story which serves their preferred narrative. Wherever context and nuance gets in the way of the narrative, they cut it out.

Rachel Corrie's death should make us ask serious questions about:

How propaganda works

How war zones get whitewashed for the comfort of Western audiences

What happens when idealism is used as a propaganda tool instead of as a principle

As always, I welcome anyone to take issue with my reading of these events. If you do, please bring support for your assertions.

Here's where I'll annoy some of Israel's defenders:

While we likely agree on much about the Western "Free Palestine" movement, Anon, I hope we also agree that Palestinians in Gaza and (particularly in Area C of) the West Bank need real help and Israel must do more.

The "good guy vs bad guy" framing by anyone on either side is bullshit. There's plenty of failure to go around, even if it is unevenly distributed.

The settler violence in the West Bank is committed by a tiny minority, but it's still terrorism...and Itamar Ben-Gvir fails to make a good faith effort to end it. I hope the universe brings Ben-Gvir the justice he richly deserves.

Set aside the international law question of whether the West Bank is occupied for a minute. Palestinians in Area C have little to no say in their own governance.That's obviously wrong and needs to change.

I hope the rumors that Egypt and the UAE will get deeply involved in the rebuilding of Gaza are true. When/if that happens, I urge you to support those efforts any way you can.

A prosperous Gaza at peace with its neighbors becomes possible with both regional and international support after Hamas is gone.

Thanks for the Ask, Anon. I'd welcome any others you may care to submit.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

So I haven’t been on twitter since after the LS finale so I have no idea what people have been saying about Rafa in terms of the Waterfront but I see your tags and posts about it and that makes me laugh. Rafa didn’t have any more screen time in it than he did in LS. It wasn’t even til the last 2 episodes where he had an actual decent amount of screentime. And honestly, his talents showcased a lot better on LS because Carlos was way more complex than Shawn so he had more range to explore and his scenes were better written and felt more realistic.

Particularly the weekend after the Waterfront released, there were a bunch of people on twitter going on and on about how Lone Star didn't know how to utilize Rafa, saying it was so great that now Rafa FINALLY gets to be in a show that appreciates his talent, and that sort of thing. Basically all the same stuff that was in that stupid screen rant article. It seemed like these people were saying that, because he got to use some of his martial arts skills on the Waterfront, that means a show is finally letting him do something good/appreciating his talent.

It really is laughable for the reasons I said already--Rafa got tons of screen time and lots of really juicy storylines, both Tarlos and on his own, particularly in seasons 4-5--plus, yeah, I also watched the Waterfront and it doesn't come anywhere near showcasing his talent the way Lone Star did. I think Rafa was good in the Waterfront. He was my favorite thing about it! But not once did he get any scene that came close to touching things like:

I think maybe some people were just excited for Rafa to have new success, and I am too! But I don't understand why they think putting down the show that Rafa put years of work into is a good way to go about complimenting him. I don't know the man, of course, but if I had to guess, I'd assume that Rafa would not find it that flattering that people are acting like he never got to do anything good until now.

[freyafrida]

rilla of ingleside, chapter eleven

“Walter, too, was quiet and dull, all through the holidays. He showed Rilla a cruel, anonymous letter he had received at Redmond—a letter far more conspicuous for malice than for patriotic indignation.”

Interesting Things brought up in further discussion: one, only 4% of PEI/Novia Scotia enlistment was voluntary before conscription (per @asymphonyofstarlight here; although also worth mentioning that it was mostly British-origin men who enlisted, so possible all the other men who didn't enlist are ignored by the narrative since they wouldn't be part of the characters' Anglo milieu); two, several other characters are mentioned to have sons/brothers who aren't going. Irene Howard herself has a brother who "hasn't any idea of enlisting."

So -- apart from the story purpose of giving a facet of the war experience to a main character -- kind of weird that everyone's on Walter's case about it! My first thought is like, everyone already thinks he's a sissy/gay/a weirdo who goes around talking about tears of blood, and that makes him a target even though he's not doing anything different than the majority of men. It might also be that he doesn't seem to be contributing to the war in other ways? If he'd joined a Patriotic Society or did some kind of volunteer work he might also dodge suspicion. (That said, the white feather was often given out to any guy just walking by who wasn't in uniform, so he might not have escaped that, anyway -- but it also must have been happening to way more dudes at Redmond. It's possible Walter's being myopic and thinking he's uniquely being singled out for being a coward. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought it was broadly wrong but dismissed it when it happened to other guys like, "Well, it's wrong because they're not cowards," but when it happens to him, it causes a crisis because it attacks the part of him that does think he's inadequate, deep down.) walter/una agenda time: and una's letters make him feel like he's enough?? i cry 🥹

The Dr. Milne mention (that he's always made a pet of Walter then turned on him) is kinda odd to me. This is Walter's first year at Redmond, right, and this is Christmas of the first term? It's not like he met Walter before the war broke out and the question of enlistment came up. "Always" feels like an odd choice if it actually means, like, two months.

“Nor I,” said Mrs. Blythe. “I hate going to bed now. All my life I’ve liked going to bed, to have a gay, mad, splendid half hour of imagining things before sleeping. Now I imagine them still. But such different things.”

Oof. "But such different things" just implies so much.

“Do you suppose it could have been a Zeppelin, Mrs. Dr. dear?” “I do not think it very likely, Susan.” “Well, I would feel easier about it if Whiskers-on-the-moon were not living in the Glen. They say he was seen going through strange manœuvres with a lantern in his back yard one night lately. Some people think he was signalling.” “To whom—or what?” “Ah, that is the mystery, Mrs. Dr. dear. In my opinion the Government would do well to keep an eye on that man if it does not want us to be all murdered in our beds some night.”

As with so many Susan things, this is meant to be quirky and funny but is a little dark when u think about it :/ Susan is so easily led into hating countries and people she probably couldn't find on a map four months ago; her suspicion that zeppelins might be invading her not particularly militarily prominent home because she thinks some guy she doesn't like could be a spy is rather reminiscent of people looking for scapegoats in their community -- 'private disputes were given a veneer of patriotism' (article is specifically about suspicion of enemy aliens in WWI, but the book reflects similar paranoia about pro-German Canadians). I know Susan is intended to be good-hearted and plucky, and reflects a lot of things people actually said and felt, often in a funny and even over-the-top way -- buuuut I just struggle with seeing her as straightforwardly lovable and wacky. At the very least, she's as much part of the conversation about how contemporary WWI beliefs affected and are woven into this book as Jem's enthusiastic enlistment and Walter's sacrificial attitude are. (lmao I know everyone loves Susan but 😭 get behind me Walter you and I are gonna have unpopular WWI opinions together) (I do think she's funny sometimes though. If you see me laughing at her I'm not being inconsistent 😌)

(FWIW, other characters often suggest that Susan would probably be soft-hearted were she to actually meet the Kaiser -- or more realistically, any actual German person or a pacifist who wasn't a total caricature -- but since the only actual pacifist character in the book is Whiskers, who's Wrong About Everything, I guess we'll never know.)

Speaking of -- don't have enough brain cells left to touch on Rilla quite literally being the reason a few more men enlist and Jem thinking Germany and German soldiers emanate evil, but those things are also there :/

“oh, not the babies, mother! Just say the babies are not hungry, mother.”

i'm sorry but sometimes i laugh a little at Bruce's lines. This is like a parody of a Victorian child.

“The only things that are the same are the stars—and they are never in their right places, somehow.”

God. That's such an elegant line; fascinating how LMM walks the line between acknowledging the war is horrific but still clinging to the idea that it's necessary :(

glossary:

Readying Rilla bits:

Jem's "goblet" from Marilla is originally written as a "tumbler", then a "glass". Gotta say I've always been intrigued/confused by the image of him drinking out of a goblet, possibly because it just reminds me of Harry Potter.

Susan originally "cheerfully" says "Bury them" re: invading Germans; this is changed to "off-hand."

Interestingly, there's a whole chunk after Anne says "But such different things" that isn't crossed out, but does seem to have been cut (unless there's yet another unabridged version of this novel floating around lmao) -- she talks of seeing "trenches -- and blood-stained snow -- and dead men -- and Little Jem! And when I hear the wind wailing round the coves I think of all the souls going out on the western front."

When it's mentioned that Jem and Jerry are in the trenches, "and Robert Grant" was added later. LMAO sorry Mr. Grant, I too forget you exist sometimes.

Jem originally writes that the Nova Scotian was "blown to pieces" instead of just "killed."

[odearly]

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

just when i thought i'd reached the bottom

song 5: going under by evanescence

rafe x maybank!reader

summary: the pogues are plotting and rafe wants you to come to his party.

══════════════════════

The moment Rafe dropped you off you went inside and passed out on the couch, not waking up until 10 hours later at 2pm. Unfortunately, the sound of clamoring pots and pans are the reason you didn't get more sleep.

JJ was looking for the right pan to use to make a grilled cheese while Kie sat at the table, scrolling on her computer.

You walked up behind JJ, grabbing the right pan for him and handing it to him. "Here, Idiot." He smirked and wrapped am arm around your shoulder, almost putting you into a headlock. "My sister lives, everyone! After so heroically standing up for me."

You pushed him off of you. "Shut up, I was looking for an excuse to shoot him." JJ laughed and turned around, starting up to stove to make some grub. "But you didn't!"

You rolled your eyes and walked over to Kie, sitting beside her. "Hey, watcha doin?" Kie didn't look up, still scrolling through news articles and contact numbers. "Looking for information on someone."

You nodded, unsure how to help. "That's cool, maybe I can help you guys?"

Kie nodded, glancing up at you for the first time. "Yeah for sure, i don't need anything right now though." You nodded and stood up from the stool.

You walked to the bathroom, changed out of the clothes you'd been wearing for your jail adventure last night. You heard your phone buzz in your pocket. It was Rafe, asking for you to come to his party.

Surprised was the only emotion to describe how you felt, you had beat up this man twice and put a gun to his head and yet he wanted you to come to his party.

That definitely made you skeptical. Was he thinking about embarrassing you in front of a bunch of Kooks? Was he stupid enough to think you would hesitate again? You never backed down from a challenge though, you needed to prove you aren't scared of him anymore... as if you hadn't already.

Whatever, atleast you'll have free alcohol. You opened the door, walking outside to go find Sarah. You were NOT going to a kook party alone.

══════════════════════

══════════════════════

You and Sarah were on the way to Tannyhill. You were sitting in the passenger seat, regretting your decision of coming to this idiot's party. "Did you know Rafe fucking bailed me out?"

Sarah laughed and nodded. "Yeah, I told him to. I thought he'd say no.. but he did it."

"But why is he inviting me to one of his parties? A kook party with the one girl who fits every stereotype ever that they give the pogues." You shook your head and laid back in her car, staring out the sunroof.

"I don't know, he never would do this for someone a year ago. Maybe he actually feels bad about how he used to treat you?" Sarah suggested, shrugging her shoulders because she didn't really understand either.

You nodded. "Doubt it, they always want something. I guess we'll find out tonight though."

Sarah pulled into the driveway of Tannyhill, filled with many cars which showed the party had already started.

You sat in her car, mentally preparing yourself for the worst. You finally opened the car door and stepped out in your black doc martens and white ghostly dress. You definitely don't fit in here.

You and Sarah walked into the party, your eyes darting all around you as you got some strange stares. Sarah patted your back, knocking you back into reality where no one was actually looking at you.

"Where's the kitchen?" You turned to Sarah, wanting a drink immediately if you were going to survive tonight.

Sarah led you to the kitchen, where you poured yourself two shots of jack daniels and downing them. "I'm here to get shitfaced, Sarah."

Sarah nodded and smiled, "I don't mind being the designated driver." You nodded back to her. "Thank god."

You and Sarah moved outside where you could be more comfortable because there was less people.

You were holding a beer bottle in your hand while you and Sarah talked on Tannyhill's porch. She looked behind you as footsteps approached, you immediately turned around and saw Rafe walking straight im your direction.

You sighed and turned back to Sarah as she just smirked. You shook your head, taking a long drink of your beer as he stopped right in front of you and Sarah.

You pulled the drink away from your face, just staring at him while trying your hardest to be intimidating.

He smirked and spoke up, "You came.. and brought my sister."

"Well she's the only person I know that has experience with this shit." You gestured to this huge house with your beer bottle.

"Can I talk to you.. like alone?" Rafe said, leaning on the railing now and trying to be 'casual'. He looked like an idiot.

Sarah glanced at you, looking to see if you'd be okay alone. You nodded at Sarah to assure her you'd be fine and she walked off.

It was silent st first, a stare down until he just smiled at you, a giddy fucking smile, like he just won the lottery. That stupid smile made you roll your eyes. "What?" You scoffed out, crossing your arms.

"Nothing really, you're just.. different now." Rafe said simply. "Yeah so are you, dipshit." You retorted, which was true he definitely was different.

The Rafe you used to know would have never let you in--much less invite you--to one of his parties.

"One thing hasn't changed though, you're still closed off as shit. You're avoiding talking to me." Rafe said, with his stupid shit eating grin that you hated so much.

"Maybe I just don't like you." You tried to defend, knowing that was actually starting to become less true as you get to know him better. "If you didn't like me you wouldn't be here." He still had that grin.

"I just wanted a chance to hit you again." You held your composure, leaning against the railing now. "Careful, I'm not gonna bail you out this time." He countered.

"Why'd you bail me out in the first place? Why did you invite me here?" You said, genuinely wondering why he did any of this.

He shrugged, "I respect you for protecting your family. I always tried to do that for my dad but he never appreciated that."

You looked at him suspiciously, honestly not believing him. "And you wanted to appreciate me after I almost shot you in the face?"

Rafe shrugged and smirked, taking a long sip of the whiskey in his glass.

"I don't think you're going to do that again."

You scoffed and shook your head. "I might be inclined to."

"I think I can change your mind about me." Rafe said with confidence, yet you didn't understand why he gave a shit.

"Maybe you can start by getting me another beer?" You suggested, pushing your empty bottle into his hand.

He nodded and smiled at you, not even phased. "Of course." Then he walked inside to probably get you a drink.

Sarah was watching from a distance, just to make sure neither of them attacked eachother. She had rarely seen Rafe act.. mentally stable.. but he actually was when talking to you.

Sarah knew Rafe as her bipolar brother who tried to kill her twice.. but he was being nice to one of the pogues that he used to bully? She couldn't understand it, it made her wonder what exactly was their history to make her hate him so much.

══════════════════════

══════════════════════

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

Is “the science” in the room with us right now? Or is it a cherry picked YouTube video and the embarrassing Lori Marino papers where she uses little to no welfare data and references her own flawed work as sources?

Your crusade to “empty the tanks” at all costs is actively detrimental to welfare. There is no evidence that the changes proposed by this law are beneficial for welfare and in fact there was a whole multi institutional study that showed that habitat was not as important to the animals as enrichment and general management.

Most of the current data we have about dolphin welfare is showing positive welfare states in human care. Anyone who says that the science is settled is lying to you.

I agree that facilities have a role to play in improving welfare. But that’s not your goal is it? It’s to eliminate these animals from human care at all costs because of “documentaries” that have convinced you that is the only way.

Moving dolphins who have lived in closed systems (tanks) into open systems (sea pens) is fraught with challenges and risks and absolutely cannot happen overnight. And certainly not in 18 months.

I don’t know where you think these companies can pull millions of dollars for the construction and maintenance of a sea pen… The money made from guest programs are going back to feeding the dolphins and paying the staff. And there aren’t many feasible sites for sea pens in Mexico.

Yes, rubbish for profit companies like The Dolphin Company are absolutely greedy and their CEOs and upper management do take way too much money at the expense of the staff and the animals. But unfortunately, that’s capitalism. There has to be some sort of revenue source to maintain facilities- even sea pens.

But you seem to think that a YouTube video showing poorly run dolphin swim programs is “evidence”. When in fact there are multiple studies now showing that dolphin swim programs can be positive for welfare or, at the least, have a neutral effect.

https://www.jzar.org/jzar/article/view/440

Anyway, you might already have your mind made up. But don’t think that you can wipe your hands clean of this when it is lobby groups pushing this sort of legislation, which does very little to actually improve welfare.

Rather, it aims to remove marine mammals from human care because it makes people like you uncomfortable. With no regard for individual animal welfare and no understanding what that individual animal actually needs.

Oh… oh this is REALLY bad.

18 months is not enough to build functioning sea pens and transition the animals into them.

No breeding = forcing social-sexual mammals into split sex groups (with no regard for compatibility) and long term birth control (with potential health concerns as a result)

No public interaction - there’s very little science that says public interaction creates poor welfare. Well run public programs and shows can actually enrich cetaceans and they genuinely enjoy them.

I don’t know how many times we need to reiterate but SANCTUARIES STILL DON’T EXIST!!!! They can’t push this legislation while sanctuaries for marine mammals are an unproven and experimental concept!

Legislators are falling for propaganda and Marino et al papers that are 90% self referential and contain NO welfare data.

It just is so frustrating to see this happening when the situation in France already proved that this legislation just leads to facilities falling into disrepair and shutting down without improving animal welfare.

[crossbackpoke-check]

blessed be (lorscher bienensegen) | telling the bees (wiþ ymbe)

"Bees" [remixed, abridged], Claudia Emerson // "Letter to Someone Living Fifty Years from Now" [remixed. abridged], Matthew Olzmann // "Letter to my Great, Great Grandchild" [remixed, abridged], J.P. Grasser | Len Redkole, Nina Weiss, Brian Babineau, Christian Peterson, Mitchell Leff, Dave Isaac, Megan DeRuchie

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[r0semultiverse]

Should have posted this sooner but Netflix leaked the date of The Amazing Digital Circus episode 4 back in October

Back when episode 3 had just launched on Netflix like a whole minute before the Youtube premier (since it had a count down), Netflix showed this on the mobile app.

A placeholder image for Episode 4 of Pomni in front of the digital turkey from episode 1 and text that says "Coming in December."

I screenshotted it because surely there's no way this was true given the spacing between release dates of the last 2 episodes (two & three) and sent it to my partners and a server I'm in dismissing it as just Netflix being Netflix and putting out misinformation as streaming services are known to do quite often. Seeing as Netflix just acquired the rights to have it also shown on their platform, it was even more likely it was just total misinformation as GLITCH hasn't been that transparent with us before about this series and there was no word on episode 4 in any official capacity.

Editing this after having written the initial post: Apparently it was also supposedly leaked on the Netflix website too with a more specific date given.

Cut to yesterday when we got this image of seemingly promotional material for the next episode from GLITCH. I was shocked, it's coming soon then? Maybe this is just to tide us over for a few months, the Netflix leak was probably not even a leak. (This is the best quality I got, I don't have a twitter and I'm sure the instagram image compression is as bad as the Youtube community post.)

Ah yes, this man is super charitable with his 57 cents. 😂 (inb4 North America public service job moments with the two gunmen NPCs on the loose.)

AND THEN TODAY THE TRAILER DROPPED TELLING US THAT EPISODE 4 WILL DROP ON DECEMBER 13TH! I am shocked, I am in awe, and fuck Netflix for leaking the general date (even if it's just the month) that the next episode would come out as that wasn't official information that we were probably supposed to know. Also here's a banner showing something new going on with Gangle.

Having said that though I enjoy little leaks like this personally, whether it was coincidental and misinformation on the streaming service's part or not. CHECK THE NETFLIX PAGE AND APP RIGHT AS EPISODE 4 DROPS OR WITHIN THOSE 24-48 HOURS I GUESS! MAYBE THEY'LL DO IT AGAIN! 🤯 Netflix just can't stop leaking things I guess, from entire shows to release dates of shows.

Another edit: Apparently Gangle's VA said somewhere in this live stream that it was coming out in December, but I haven't watched all of it; so, I can't confirm if that's true.

[mantisgodiveblog]

Against all odds, we have survived. We're taking a university course now, because the government will pay us for it and we do need the money, but it has unfortunately been eroding at our sanity somewhat, and we are learning nothing that we don't already know. We are, however, getting money.

We have somewhat of a backlog on Discord at the moment, as it doesn't have a daily upload limit and also it's easier to stick things on while we are being told things that we already know by people who are phrasing in in ways we find significantly misleading or incorrect (note: we don't use apps for things the vast majority of the time and if we access Tumblr via browser it immediately fucks up our formatting on PC, which can last several months). We will, hopefully, be posting these soon, but all is dependant on if we can actually scare up the time between courses to conglomerate that and fix any formatting errors in thoughts and such.

If that will happen any time soon... good question! Every time that our work practicum teacher opens her mouth, we take points of physical damage, and we don't think she understands the fact that getting back after we walk to a place also involves walking. We've had a lot going on for a while now and very little of it has been good. We're on new meds, and if the gods prove merciful, we won't have to tolerate this particular clown show past March. If there is no mercy to be found, however, we might have to keep doing this until June, in which case you can probably expect the quality of this to take a sharp downturn as the short time we have already spent in this program is already having immediate and catastrophic effects on our mental health.

We do not recommend going to university in any circumstances, but we are unfortunately aware that it may be necessary to get such things as a fancy piece of paper saying you are employable. Additionally, we would tell you to calibrate your expectations for anyone with a degree lower, but apparently what we consider the basic level of knowledge you should know before saying anything on any topic is everyone else's "bachelor degree and a bit", so our estimations on what people think is a high degree of knowledge to have are probably also off.

Any donations go to the Fund To Compensate Us For Having To Correct A Teacher Multiple Times In A Lecture And Then Looking Up Her Sources Later And Discovering They Are Blatant Misinformation. We are very tired. Please do research on things before talking about them. Thank you.