#but better is hard to achieve

[strangepersonwhispers]

the audacity of people who were once the most important part of your life and who you genuinely once upon a time couldn't live without and if you get to know that they were thinking something negative about you, you feel genuine pain in your body, and who are still around tho you learned to live without them and their opinions thinking that yes since i was once your most important i will always be your most important and if you dont give me the same importance *le gasp shocked pikachu face, how could you? you've changed. like yes!!! i did change, im better now not basing my entire self worth and my character on your likes and dislikes, ive changed and i found myself again underneath all the layers of you I've buried myself under. im finding myself again and again and again when i have new experiences with and without you. i am a fragile thing still learning to walk hand in hand with my past to my future where my wings would finally help me fly. i am still a chick with weak wings who is learning to trust my present self with the wounded child of my past. i am still a babe for whom the idea of walking with my present self is very frightening and all she wants to do is hide away and lick her wounds in the dark since that is the healing she learned . i am still the wounded, angry child crouching and baring her teeth and broken claws at people so that they would never get a chance to hurt her again. i am still the angry child that is ready for a fight and adrenaline courses through her veins 24/7 because she doesn't know when and how it will happen. but i am also still the child whose hands shake and body falters and eyes blur when adrenaline seeps in her veins. i am still a child who years for her future promise to herself of a quiet, peaceful home where she can shed her armour and settle down in soft blankets surrounded by soft things.

[vanhelsingapologist]

Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.

They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.

They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.

Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.

On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.

[lameow-l]

GAMING IS MY SON AND IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO HIM IM GONNA KILL EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM AND THEN MYSELF!!

LOOK AT HIM HES SO CUTE

i still have hope in getting the other boys too

its ok they can be a band or smth.. at least then gaming wouldn’t have to be so disappointed in people not hiring him bc he’s just having fun with his boys…

[allebooklover]

Seeing people hate on bnha’s ending for not being a utopia and claiming that nothing about their society has changed, and I just don’t agree with that.

Even if it’s not perfect, their society did change for the better. Crime still exists, but has gone down to the point that less heroes are needed. There’s less idolization on the pro-heroes career - in Deku’s teenage years the ideal job was pro-hero and only pro-hero, but in the epilogue other career tracks such as healthcare and technology are given equal recognition and value to the pro-hero career track. Therapy used to be viewed as a threat and something to be kept hidden because it is shameful to admit that you needed it, and in Toga’s case used outdated practices that did more harm than help - in the epilogue it’s instead seen as something regular and helpful, and that needing help is nothing to be ashamed about, and more up to date and effective at actually helping others, as seen by the therapy programs Uraraka and co created being talked about on tv. Society is shown (I’m mainly thinking about the old granny and the kid) to be less apathetic to those in need. Things have changed for the better.

It’s not a utopia. Crime still exists. Heroes are still needed. But they’re no longer the sole bandage for the gaping wound that used to be their society. Other people from other careers help serves as bandages too, and all of that ultimately helps society function in a way that benefits everyone better. If utopia is the top of the stairs and the society shown in the story’s beginning is at the bottom of the stairs, the society shown in the epilogue is on the step that is halfway up to the top. Not perfect, but improving, and one that is working on continuing their improvement so that they don’t fall stagnant and backslide back to the bottom of the stairs where they used to be.

(Ngl if I want to be more specific it’s that the beginning of the manga has them in the lower parts of the steps solely because All Might and his Symbol of Peace carried them there, but it’ll muddy the metaphor too much lol)

But anyways. BNHA’s ending does something I find much more interesting than ‘they’ve created a crime-free utopia where everyone is happy’. The ending goes ‘things aren’t perfect but they’re improving, and will continue to improve so long as everyone puts in the effort’. It acknowledges imperfections, and the beauty and importance of small steps that lead up to big changes. It promotes gradual growth as important and crucial, and that’s a message I find much more relatable than a crime-free utopia.

[omaano]

"Cassian's face is a brittle thing, no person's eyes should shine as painfully tearful as his. Kino offers his hand and Cassian - bright as the sun, steady as a roc, fluid as water Cassian - accepts it with shaking fingers. He tells Kino everything."

Art for we're spitting off the edge of the world by Xenomorphic for the 2024 Star Wars Big Bang @swbigbang. It is an amazing Canon Divergence Fix-it fic from one of the most memorable moments of Andor onwards, with beautiful prose that fits the mood of the show so so well and will make you feel just as deeply for these characters. Please give it a read and heap some love on my team's amazing and hardworking author, they were such a delight to work with!❤️

[ra-vio]

Kainé, my beloved u_u

[dittolicous]

i dont care where you live in the usa or w/e... if you dont vote for biden you are throwing away your vote and enabling trump. because *everyone* thinks their vote doesnt matter and piddles around because of that. hell, everyone thinks 'its only me, it wont make a difference' about THOUSANDS of things, like littering, picking seashells, taking stones from rivers, etc. and in all of those situations THEYRE FUCKING WRONG. if anything unites us, its our damn ability to think we alone are the outlier despite everything indicating otherwise.

and miss me with that 'biden is just as bad/is a murderer' shit. 1) cool, and how do you plan to change things in a mr. nazi-dictator trump world? how are you ACTIVELY making a difference? 2) CHANGE IS INCREMENTAL. the reason things suck so much is because the left keeps taking slow change as 'no change' and giving up before we can gain any momentum to make big change!

if you vote in hamas or w/e to protest... you might as well throw dirt at all those suffering innocent people. you arent saving palestine that way. that is not a helpful protest. you'll only enable trump to win by throwing away your vote. it is the one bit of actual power you have, so USE IT RIGHT! stop in-fighting for one moment! look at what is possible to achieve in reality! dreams arent fulfilled overnight!

when you feel like your vote doesnt matter, remember this - you have to try anyways

[liquidjapanesetit]

Does anyone else thinks this whole "every other version of donatello would be scared of rise donnie" is a little boring?

Yeah man 2012 donatello the dude who almost had to be physically restrained so he wouldnt murder someone and had a whole episode about fixing a problem caused by him stealing technology from a military base would be terrified of someone screaming evil laugh and talking about uranium sure

[adragonsdance]

Does anyone else ever think about how WC!Scott canonically brought Mertha back to life and there was a bit of hand waving like “Eeuuhh she was a goat that’s not to difficult” but really she was a human soul trapped in a goat’s body, so Scott could bring back a human soul by like, the middle of the trials, so he might have already been powerful enough to bring back Milo by that point or soon after, without having to go full Lich and do all the horrible things that ritual entails, but by that point he had convinced himself so thoroughly that the only way to achieve his goal was by becoming the Supreme Witch that it didn’t even cross his mind to try?

[tsuchinokoroyale]

[funkle420]

god artists really do just pass around the same $20 bill cause dude over half my clients are other artists 😭 and usually they're the ones that tip well!! i just wish i could afford to also commission other artists and buy stuff from their shops!

[lale-txt]

from edging on a panic attack throughout the train ride to standing front row during a concert of one of my fav bands within two hours wahooo

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Everyone’s mad because His Man 3 popped the BL bubble

[mashmoshmoosh]

Extremely important question Arcane internet. If Jinx were a pony when do you think she'd get her cutie mark? After the explosion took everyone out, when she was found by Silco afterwards and fell into him, being placed into the lake that almost killed Silco, stabilizing the Gemstone, after killing Silco...? How'd you interpret her talent/destiny?

[bluastro-yellow]

get it Kim has a lot to unpack do you get it

it's imperfect I'll never polish it just take it as it is I should have put aerostatics not airplanes...

[bonefall]

hypothetically, could a cat refuse an honor title? i'm assuming dishonor titles are forced, but i'm curious if it's the same case with honor titles. like if a cat doesn't want to be reminded of whatever caused them to earn their title (i.e. if it was particularly traumatic for them), could they reject their name?

It would be pretty shocking, but yes. You can refuse an Honor Title.

Basically the same level of shock as Nightheart's little stunt, but a lot easier for the Clan to accept. After all, it's supposed to be a reward! Some would think you're being ungrateful and snobbish ("what? Like your accomplishment was nothing? What does that make the rest of us, buttfeathers?"), others confused, some sympathetic.

Depends on the cat, depends on the Clan.

Dishonor Titles, nope! You're stuck with them! Those are a punishment. Refuse it, and a worse punishment is in store. They're bad but usually not worse than exile. They're not meant to be permanent unless you did something suuuuuper bad.