#because I didn't have an escape plan

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

the boss thinks it’s like divorce papers lmaooooo you can’t do it if you can’t find him

hahaha, for real.

I did spend a good chunk of time last Friday unleashing on him about our absolutely abysmal "merit increase" budgets. We're talking about one of the top 15 companies in the world by market cap, whose annual revenue went up 14% in 2023, and because we apparently didn't hit some unknown secret business unit goals, they're not even giving people enough money to cover cost-of-living increases.

I am incensed. And obviously, I'm already three quarters of the way out the door and I'm very happy with what I was able to negotiate for my new position, so it was very easy for me to be blunt-as-fuck with him but honestly, the abject greed is just beyond the pale. And of course they're trying to ameliorate it by saying that anyone over a certain pay grade isn't getting any raise at all. But everyone at that pay grade or higher has STOCK! A stock that has gone up by 5% in value over the last year, and 90% in the past five years.

UGH. I can't WAIT to quit.

Those divorce papers are getting signed this afternoon. I used some other "high priority" item to get him to meet with me today. He's NOT ESCAPING THIS DIVORCE! I will hunt him down if I have to.

Okay...rant over.

[memento-morri-writes]

More dnd writing because it's all I have but I here's a snippet from a vignette I did of Rook's past (from Zara's POV), because Rook and his mentors never fails to make me sick (/pos).

[transcript under the cut]

Taking a coin out of her pocket, she rolled it across her knuckles, back and forth. It gave her hands something to do, and prevented the urge to bite her nails, something she hadn’t done in years. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Zara began to pace as Rook’s breathing grew shakier and the color drained from his skin. Where the hells is Jay? she wondered. The room was so quiet that she could hear every tick of the small clock on her bedside table, and each one echoed in her head. How many ticks does he have left? She didn’t want to think about it.  She’d had crew members die before, of course. You don’t go as many years as a captain as she had and never lose a soul. But all the others who had died had died quickly, in combat. She’d mourned for all of them, even shed tears in private, but there was something different about watching the life drain out of a person right in front of your eyes.

[sskk-manifesto]

(*・ω・*)b♪

[moongothic]

Crocoman has been on my mind lately and I had a realisation (what I have to admit is that my memory is shit, so the whole conundrum might be pointless, but) wet + Croco = bad times for our Sandman. So... If he slices up a man and in turn gets splashed by blood, does he just... nullifies his own power? You can smush or suffocate with sand, but Crocodile makes stabby weaponry from it too, stabby weaponry that I am reasonably sure is attached to his arm at times. Does he developed a combo of sucking the moisture off his victim right before it soaks him and makes him a sad soggy man?

He loves living right on the edge. Desk right in front of a huge glass window that is the only thing separating him from tons of water rushing in and ending his career? check (additional flex is that it'd take as little as one very motivated bonk from his bananawani to said window for that end to come). Close ranged, bloody fights that pose the very reasonable danger of getting soaked by blood? check. Our man fears nothing.

I mean from what we've seen, usually Crocodile uses his stabby-slicy attacks from a distance, while in close range it's usually either Sables to blast people off or Barján to dehydrate people, as seen here

Like Barján doesn't cut people, surely Crocodile could've used it to cut people instead if he wanted to, but no, it mummified the guards instead

So considdering our beloved Crocodile is a smart little boy, this all could be intentional, because yeah, if he did get splooshed with blood he would lose his Logia Invunerability at least until the blood would dry, and that would just be inconvenient

And that would make for a good combat tactic in general- mummify those in range, if you can't mummify them then nuke them with Sables, and if Sables only blasts them out of your range, well now you can use Desert Spada to slice 'em without getting moisturized. Like if this was a video game that'd make for a good gameplay loop

Also while it's only stated in canon he can absorb moisture with his hand, I wouldn't be surprised if Crocodile could also passively absorb moisture from his whole body (if just less efficiently). Like during Round 2 with Luffy he did get completely soaked but was able to turn back to sand soon again, so unless the Alabastan Heat was on Croc's side, surely he couldn't have dried that fast. Same for when he was covered partially in his own blood in Marineford, surely when Doflamingo decapitated him he would've actually died if his face was still wet with blood (though Oda forgot to draw the blood on that page so take that with a grain of salt lmao)

Really the only thing that doesn't seem to quite fit into his combat loop nicely is the Big Ol' Stabby Hook as you mentioned, because if anything's gonna make people bleed all over him, it's that, that's the thing (though he could just use the actual base of the hook to pummel people with and the hook is there because. It's a prosthetic.) (You know I did always wonder why Croc wanted to use the hook instead of the hidden blade because surely the blade would be more convenient for inflicting pain but, actually, yeah, the hook makes sense)

This all said, while it would be inconvenient for him I would like to see Crocodile get covered in blood more often, it looks good on him ❤️

[asinglesock]

so uh

[kissporsche]

anon, I am so sorry, I tried to publish this but tumblr ate the post AND the ask 🙃 so I hope you see this!

okay okay so. I tried to answer this ask so many times but I kept getting stuck because my brain wouldn't work unless it was part of An AU. so obviously I drafted in @lu-sn to help, assume anything good or fun or clever in this response was her doing

Here's what we got: post-canon, the outbreak starts slow. Infections are just freak accidents at first, but eventually there's so many it starts to cause panic. The compound is well protected and well-stocked with both resources and weapons, so they hide out for as long as they can, essentially locking down the place, but not before consolidating their assets: Vegas, Pete and Macau are brought in for their own protection.

Eventually, it becomes clear that the situation is only getting worse, and the only viable option is to get out of Bangkok while they still can. Korn, the pragmatic forward thinker, already has an Escape The City plan in place, which he triggers just as zombies are breaching the walls. He calls helicopters in to get everyone to safety, and during the chaos of the evacuation ends up killed. If anyone saw Namphueng push him into the horde, they don't mention it.

They're deposited somewhere far from the city, presumably a safehouse with a lot of land around it, and have to try and figure out how to survive not only the zombies, but living with each other for the foreseeable future. The priorities are self-sufficiency and protection, and not killing each other before the zombies do.

Kinn and Vegas make a surprisingly good team on the logistics side of things, Kinn has the loyalty of his men and a good head for large scale organisation, whereas Vegas has much more experience working on the ground level of business, making sure everything is running smoothly and efficiently. There's definitely a learning curve, and a lot of this survivalist stuff is very much out of their sphere of knowledge, so-

Porsche and Pete are invaluable when it comes to the day-to-day. Coming from lower income backgrounds, they have so much more to offer in terms of practical knowledge, how to make food stretch longer, mend clothes, get enough nutrients from limited supplies etc. We saw in episode 6 that Porsche has some legitimate survival skills, so I think those are essential things he can bring to the table and teach to others.

Basically everyone is a good shot and can play their part in protecting their little commune, but it's frequently Porsche, Pete and Kim who leave in search of resources, information and survivors. There's much less hierarchy between family and guards now, there can't be when everyone needs to work together to have a hope of survival, but Kinn is still the de facto leader and Vegas is still recovering from his injuries, so these three end up as the primary scout team.

Kim needs to learn to rely on other people most of all. At the beginning he would disappear for days at a time, take too many risks, and although his kill count was ten times anyone else's he would come back to a hysterical Tankhun, disappointed Kinn and quiet, withdrawn Chay. After that he stopped going out alone.

Lu came up with the galaxy brain take that Tankhun might cope surprisingly well with the apocalypse, the violence of mindless creatures being much easier to conceive of than the deliberate, cruel violence of humans. It's freeing, in a way, to know there's no malice behind the ongoing threat. Despite being the least suited to this kind of life he takes Chay and Macau under his wing, and the levity he brings is as valuable as his perceptive wisdom.

Okay uh this got away from me a bit and has sort of become a fic premise/outline but I hope it still answered your question?!

[the-busy-ghost]

Warning- this is a very petty post, but I think I'm entitled to at least one petty, pissed-off reaction every time I finish a classic novel that hit harder than I expected so take this as my quota for the year.

Also spoiler warning for a book that came out over a century ago but still, I didn't know the plot going in so don't want to ruin it for anyone else, if you haven't read it shut your eyes. (Also Local Tumblr User Going Wild Over Book Published a Hundred Years Ago That Everybody Else Already Read should probably be categorised as akey part of indigenous tumblr culture at this point).

Anyway I just finished the War of the Worlds and in between studying I've thinking about Themes and Motifs as you do, and idly looking for further analysis. I then accidentally ran into an article called 'A Quiet Place II Succeeds Where the War of the Worlds Failed' and:

Now I haven't seen any of the Quiet Place films, this is not a rant against them and of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But re: the ending of The War of the Worlds, I have to ask, did this guy somehow miss, uh, the entire point of the book or am I just utterly insane?

[iniziare]

Re-tag drop: Yelan

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Shit like that is why Tangerine should've stayed in Ericson! She must take care of her leg but nooooooo! People in Ericson was mean to me :'(! I'm not surprised she caught a fever considering she's ignoring her wound. Sorry for sounding so bitter.

It's a big issue with the "Clementine left Ericson willingly" plot point in this trilogy. Aside from it just being out of character for her based on what we see in TWDG, it lessens the amount of sympathy we're willing to give as readers.

If she was forced to leave Ericson, whether because they kicked her out or it was under attack, she would have no choice. She'd have to leave, and then these situations wouldn't feel like her fault, y'know? You're more likely to see her suffer, fall down, or get an infection, and feel bad because it's not her fault, she was dealt a shitty hand.

But this angle of her leaving because she was unhappy or because she felt like a burden... she still left the safety of place where she could've properly healed from an amputation. Losing her leg isn't just another injury you can be like, "Oh just keep off it, it'll heal." That's a lot of healing and physical/emotional trauma to get through and she would've had a better chance of it if she stayed with AJ and Ericson.

Since she left, we're kinda just sitting here saying, "Yeah, Clementine... you have to take care of your leg. You have to wash it. You can't be running around on it all the time while it's still healing. You're going to be more prone to infection, and in the zombie apocalypse, that's super not great. What were you thinking? You should have stayed at Ericson. You should not be here at this ski lodge or running through the woods."

A lot of problems with the story and characterization stem from that decision and unfortunately, it's weakening the story.

[anachronistic-falsehood]

hey while we're here let's classpect the gung ho guns i'll go first. midvalley bard of breath prospit dreamer. ok ur turn

[adore-gregor]

So I could really use some advice

[kakusu-shipping]

Sketches of @delightfuldevin‘s Mario S/I I drew a few days ago and I guess forgot to post?? Anyway he’s cool as hell and I hope he doesn’t think my S/I’s too big of a nerd to hang out with

[dredshirtroberts]

Fuck literally everyone who decided it was funny to scare me because I react big and would laugh as i fought off the panic response.

because i'm not with people like that anymore and i still expected laughter at an unintentional startle, and my big reaction upset the person who scared me and that's...that's not fair. They didn't know i couldn't see them, and they didn't know I would be so scared, and I was standing there wondering why they weren't laughing at my reaction because I am so fucking used to it.

My family did it, my extended family did it, my friends, my lovers, all of them. Because it was funny that I would scream and freak out whenever I was surprised by something unexpected.

But now that I'm with people who actually give a fuck about it me, I am so angry that this is my expectation of others. I didn't consent to being startled randomly every fucking day of my life just because it was funny to them. I didn't want to grow up like that. I didn't want that to be a form of entertainment for others in that way unless I was actively volunteering to go through a haunted house setting.

And my partner shouldn't have to feel like they've done something wrong because I (who has bad vision anyway) couldn't see them until they moved, and I shouldn't feel like I did something wrong because they didn't laugh at me as I tried not to have a full-ass panic attack.

Fuck all of the other people who were in my life before I moved. Fuck every single one of them. I didn't deserve that and neither does anyone around me. Because no one in my life currently is a fucking monster who thinks it's funny to startle people who have a fucking anxiety disorder.

fuck.

[puppmeo]

And the cycle begins anew . As it does every week

[kiri-travels]

Tips for traveling to a new place

Never tell Them where you're going, or even that you're going anywhere at all.

ALWAYS make sure you have a way to get back. Always.

Foreign currency exchange is all well and good, but when no one has even heard of your currency, that's an awkward situation. When in doubt, bring all the food/medicine/clothing you might need, because stealing is generally frowned upon.

If you're in a completely new area, it's best to observe first.

Don't get scammed. The only way to get valid travel insurance is to go through Them, and we've already been over that. Other agencies and individuals claiming to sell travel insurance are lying cheats who want your money.

If you're traveling far, rest up beforehand. The journey may be short but it will take a toll on your body.

Most people are harmless. Still, it's best not to accept anything from a stranger. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Stay safe out there my friends, and happy traveling!

[idontdrinkgatorade]

i think i finally have a concept to replace one of my old OC concepts and believe it or not it actually came in a dream