#but i thought i'd share!!

[chryseis]

FYI every purchase of any of The Adventure Zone music on Griffin McElroy's Bandcamp will be entirely donated to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund for the rest of 2023. His music is set at 'name your price', and the McElroys are also going to match the donations.

If you've listened to even a bit of any TAZ campaign, you surely know what a fantastic musician Griffin is, and there is no better time to purchase his music than now.

[octarineblues]

supporting communities & people impacted by the Southport attack and the far-right riots in the UK

here is a list of community fundraisers I found, starting with those aiming to support the Southport community after the appalling attack at a children dance party, to the fundraisers helping those affected by the subsequent racist and Islamophobic far-right/nazi riots

Edited on 5 August to include Middlesbrough fundraisers. Edited on 6 August to correct the link on the Books for Spellow Lane fundraiser, to adjust the name change for the Belfast fundraiser, and to adjust the wording in the second last paragraph.

Southport:

Southport Strong Together Appeal - organised by the community foundation for Merseyside, for those affected by the Southport knife attack

United for Southport families - the funds will be distributed among the nine families of the children who were at the party

Swifties for Southport - a fundraiser for the Alder Hey Children's charity, which supports the victims and the affected families, as well as first responders and clinicians. Extra funds will also support the wider Southport community

Fundraiser for the Southport Mosque - a fundraiser to aid rebuilding or possibly re-locating the Southport Mosque after the damages it suffered during the riots

Rebuilding Windsor Mini Mart - fundraiser to rebuild the locally-owned grocery store that was targeted during the attacks, broken into, and looted

Liverpool:

Fundraiser for the Spellow Hub - the Spellow Hub was broken into, looted and set on fire at night during the riots. The Spellow Hub is a newly created one-of-a-kind (in the UK) institution, which consists of a library as well as a community centre with a mission to help people get education and pathways to work

Books for Spellow Lane - another fundraiser for the library in the Spellow Hub, to replace the books and rebuild the library there edit: included the correct link

Hartlepool:

Fundraiser for the Nasir Mosque - the Nasir Mosque was attacked following Southport riots; this fundraiser is organised by Hartlepool citizens to help the mosque deal with the damages as well as to show appreciation for the role of the mosque in the community. edit: the funds will be also distributed to the local community!

Rebuilding the Farm Shop - the shop was targeted during the riots, and when the owner and his son tried to protect it, they were also violently attacked. The fundraiser is to help fix the damages to the store.

Sunderland:

help rebuild Citizens Advice Sunderland offices after arson - two of the Citizens Advice Sunderland offices were set on fire during the riots, and one of them is completely destroyed.

Hull:

Hull Help for Refugees - a local fundraiser to support the Hull Help for Refugees charity, the donated money will be re-distributed to community members affected by the riots

Fundraiser for Hull Help for Refugees and Welcome House in Hull - collected money will be donated to the two charities

Belfast:

help fix racially motivated damages - originally the fundraiser for the Sahara Shisha Cafe which was targeted by the far right in Belfast during the riots, now a fundraiser for all affected businesses in the area. edited to reflect the change of the name of the fundraiser to avoid any confusion

Middlesbrough:

Supporting residents after the riots - Middlesbrough has suffered so much during the riots, lots of businesses as well as just regular family homes were vandalised, had their windows smashed or even were broken into. This fundraiser wants to distribute the funds between affected people to help them fix the damages, and to generally support the local community. the newest fundraiser, imo potentially the most urgent one

Fundraiser for a Care worker's car which was set on fire - a car belonging to an employee of a care agency was set on fire during the riots while he was on shift at a care home.

If you want to donate locally but there is no fundraiser to support where you live, consider donating to your local charities oriented towards Muslim or PoC communities, or towards anti-racist and refugee organizations! And go support your local Muslim/Arab/Black/Asian/Refugee owned businesses!

If you have any information about other local fundraisers, feel free to add to the post or don't hesitate to let me know and I will add them here! We have seen so much hate in the past few days, we have to stay strong and keep supporting each other!

Stay safe everyone 💛

[regulusdays]

Home At Last

The warmth could be felt from miles away. Not from the many fireplaces that burned bright – which indeed they did, and there were certainly many. But from the love of the family that had just grown a bit larger. There were now two more children for the Potters to love and protect, and love and protect they did.

It was a few days prior that Sirius and his brother, Regulus, had run away from their house. Their parents got characteristically more cruel in the festive period, and would simply not have Sirius’ long hair and loud complaints. So they did the only thing they knew how to do, they educated. Which is short and the biggest euphemism for hurting and punishing and making sure their sons knew just how much they didn’t care.

Regulus had stayed quiet the entire time, not moving an inch. Terrified of his parents, sure, but mostly terrified of doing something that would make it worse for Sirius. He wanted to stand up for his brother, as Sirius always had for him, but he was just so, so scared. The wrath of their parents always made him sit straighter and hold still, hiding in on himself, waiting for the storm to pass. Whereas it always seemed to spread something in Sirius, making him burn brighter. 

Neither of them remembered much of that night, just flashes and general feelings, but they managed to get away to the Potter manor. James, Sirius’ best friend, had welcomed them both with open arms and an open heart. He had always wanted a brother, and having Sirius around would mean just that. A proper brother. 

Regulus came as a bonus, a little brother to mess with and to protect at the same time. They hadn’t talked much, Regulus being the timid, quiet boy he was – always a shadow of Sirius – but James was working on him; making sure he felt safe and comfortable to be open and a person of his own. Not for a long time, but James would still get to see Regulus as the star he was – letting him light his sky when it needed to be night, for the sun can’t shine all the time. 

But it was Christmas, and the Potters were gathered in the living room, by one of the fireplaces. Effy and Monty pouring all their love and affection into their boys. It was warm and cozy, and the Black brothers had never really felt quite good until now. Sitting by the fireplace, laughing and sharing presents and food.

Regulus was shy and quiet and mostly kept to himself, but he had never felt more at ease than he did then. He would laugh discreetly at his brother’s and James’ jokes and antics, and smile fondly at Effy and Monty when they weren’t looking. He still couldn’t talk much, from all the trauma of his last night with his parents, but he was, for some reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on, fine. He was definitely feeling the effect of being surrounded by people who loved him for no apparent reason. 

Monty had gotten him a Christmas present, an old copy of a book he had seen the boy glancing at in their library, and it touched Regulus in places he didn’t know adults could reach. To be perceived as someone worth knowing, someone worth paying attention to, someone worth thinking of and caring for. He hadn’t seen it coming. Monty’s thoughtfulness, that is. He expected to get a gift from James – something related to Quidditch, for the boy was obsessed –, and half expected a gift from Effy. Not from Monty, though. 

He hadn’t grown up around adults who cared, and to be cared for, with such attention and true fondness, caught him off guard. Especially considering he hadn’t gotten presents to anyone. He didn’t know it would be required and that other people had thought about him. He honestly had expected to be invisible during his stay at the Potters – a stay he didn’t think would last long. His parents were sure to come looking for him. War wasn’t over.

Sirius, on the other hand, having already spent Christmas at the Potter’s many times before, rapidly blended into their dynamic. He had already bought James a gift – had, in fact, done it before his birthday, so excited that he was. Something or other related to Quidditch, for he too was obsessed with it. 

So he had come prepared, unlike Regulus who was left with empty hands to return all the love and care he had been granted. Monty and Effy, however, assured him he needn’t return anything at all – he was only expected to do and to accept what he wanted and felt comfortable with. 

The feeling was, for both brothers, that they were safe and loved and happy. They were, in other words, home, at last.

[chubbychiquita]

[d-does-art]

Just a little guy.

More thoughts on this.

[juiche]

My friend and I had this (we thought) hilarious idea to do a glittery stickersheet of Ghost 💀✨ You know, these really corny, old stickers with lots of roses and badly applied glitter that you could find in magazines back in the day x)

[adamsrcnan]

is everyone even aware of how BAD jeremy is gonna lose his shit when he starts that ceramics class with jean tho. like his clay is gonna be flying all over the place bc he's gonna be too focused on jean's fingers in that clay. pushing it down to make the centre and pulling it out and then his fingers pulling it up like sorry jer bear you do not have a single clue what you have just signed yourself up for. he's not surviving this and THEN the teacher is gonna make jean help jeremy bc he's hopeless and pathetic and jean is gonna get up behind jeremy à la ghost and jeremy is just gonna melt in a puddle on the floor. his hands are gonna be shaking and jean is gonna be like "are you okay?" and jeremy is gonna go red like a tomato and just bite his lip and shake his head bc he can't get any words out and jean is gonna roll his eyes and be totally unaware the effect he is having

[nebulous-bitch]

on love and devotion

unknown // richard siken, litany in which some things are crossed out // hera lindsay bird, I KNEW I LOVED YOU WHEN YOU SHOWED ME YOUR MINECRAFT WORLD // warsan shire // clementine von radics, the next time we talk on facebook // amal el-mohtar and max gladstone, this is how you lose the time war // k.c. cramm, christmas eve forever

[iztea]

medusa and the blind woman 👁🐍

[basketobread]

this is actually old art but i think this drawing of karlach deserves to have a post of her own... she is my special soldier and i love her 5ever

[muzzlemouths]

can i also be beautiful if i am dangerous?

[alelelesimz]

someone updated a bunch of lashes! i can finally update my game yippiee

[melit0n]

Something that always confused me when I read TPOTO was why The Phantom chose box five out of all the private boxes to be his.

Out of all the seats in the house, box five is among the worst and would be (and still is) sold cheaply (average 65 francs at cheapest in 1880, now sold a between 10-25 euros nowadays) on general sale. A higher profit would've been made from a year-long booking, especially since there are multiple seats, so it would be 65 francs per person on a yearly booking no matter how many people are in there at once, but still not as much as other seats.

Visual wise, a good chunk of the left side of the stage is cut off and parts of the performance that would occur in the higher wings would be completely unseen, so, why choose it? Isn't the main point of going to go watch an Opera is to actually see the performance?

(A screenshot from the Palais Garnier's seat listing stating the best seats for viewing and the view from the box five via this video)

Having been there myself in late May, I found an answer to my own question and I'm gonna share it with you guys because maybe someone else was asking the same thing!

Although yes, the stage is half cut off, it's one of, if not the, best seats acoustic wise. You're a perfect distance from the orchestra as well as the stage for everything to sound just right. As much as The Phantom would've loved the operatic performance, I don't doubt he would've been more focused on the music itself as well as the vocals, and, mainly, Christine.

Further, although going to the opera was more of a social thing than an entertainment thing, so the boxes were built for aristocracy to be seen above all things, you can disappear from public view quite easily in that box. There are two to three rows of seats going backwards to the door, so all one would have to do to disappear from sight of anyone on stage or in the audience would be to just move a seat backwards (which means he wouldn't have been able to see the stage at all, but would still be able to hear everything perfectly well).

Plus, the box is located right at the end of the row of private boxes, as well as very close to entry and exit stairs, both public ones and private ones meant for stage hands and general workers.

All in all, those three reasons are why the box was chosen and kept in high priority for The Phantom, because he could quite literally disappear, like a ghost, by just moving himself in the box, as well as disappear out of the box and hear Christine almost perfectly.

[stressedbeetle]

I don't know if tumblr already knows this but there is an intersex viking from about 1000 years ago

they were buried with woman clothing and two swords so archaeologists thought they might've been a woman warrior, but dna tests show they had XXY chromosomes! and considering what they we're buried with they likely had a non-binary role in the society:D

[frommylimitedtravels]

Dandelion fire

[strangersteddierthings]

"Look, Steve, I don't have any bad feelings towards you," Eddie says, has been saying, talking nonsense, like he and Steve weren't anything more than fuckbuddies, like he isn't breaking Steve's heart. "I used you too, y'know?"

It's then Steve rears back like he been slapped. Or punched. It feels more like a gutting. Joke's on him, he supposes. Once again, he wants more than the other person. He wanted a boyfriend, Eddie'd wanted sex. Why does he keep trying? When Steve finds his voice to speak, it comes out flat and dead and not really like a question at all. "Used me. Like you think I've used you?"

Eddie shrugs, looking for all the world like he's not bothered by that statement. "We had fun, right? So it's all fine in the end."

"Fine," Steve repeats, hollow. They're in his house but Steve feels the need to leave, to run before the reality of how unlovable he truly is sticks inside him forever.

"But I think we should stop while we're ahead," Eddie continues and Steve wonders if Eddie is listening to him at all, or just saying his piece before he goes. Can he not hear Steve's heart breaking? "I want to... I want to find someone to love."

If Eddie's previous words felt like being gutted, these ones feel like cement. Heavy and solidifying. Trapping in the truth of Ever Unlovable Steve. He doesn't even feel heartbroken anymore. Just numb. Dead inside. He should say something encouraging. Let Eddie know that all he's wanted was for Eddie to be happy and loved. But words seem impossible, so he gives one jerky nod of his head. An understanding.

"Right," Eddie says, returning the nod before turning away, towards the door, "I'll just go now. Umm, see ya later, Harrington."

Facing the horrors of the Upside Down should feel like the scariest thing he's ever done but it doesn't. Watching Eddie walk away does. Steve should be able to hold it together long enough for Eddie to leave. He's the tough one. He can hold himself together no problem-

"Why can't you love me?"

Eddie whips back around, an expression on his face like confusion and anger mixed.

It's only then that Steve realizes he spoke. He hasn't meant to. He was going to let Eddie walk away but now his voice has been freed from the cement. His heart has shut down his brain it seems because he just keeps talking, voice flat and hollow, "why can't you love me the way I love you? What is so broken and wrong within me that no one loves me back? My parents, Nancy, now you. Why can't- I thought that we were- where did I go wrong?"

"What?" Eddie asks, and the anger is gone from his face but now he just looks horrified. Which is understandable. It's horrifying to be loved by Steve Harrington. "What did you think we were?"

Boyfriends. Together. Going steady. At the very least, dating without labels. But none of those very reasonable, normal answers come out of Steve's treacherous mouth. Because Steve can't seem to be a reasonable, normal person. He's got to be too much, too soon, too clingy. So, instead, he says, "In love."

Eddie looks like he's just received the worst news of his life. In fact, he looks a little sick. "Oh fuck. Jesus Christ. I can't- I thought- Fuck!"

Steve just nods along. He hadn't actually said I love you to Nancy that night at Tina's Halloween party, but he imagines if he had, the beginning of the bullshit conversation would have sounded much the same as Eddie does now; like anger and regret, the starts and stops. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have- if you want to go, you should go."

Eddie crosses the room back to Steve in half the steps he took when he first walked away, hands reaching to grab Steve's face between them. He speaks quickly and sounds panicked now. "No, no no no. I fucked up, misunderstood. I don't know how I got it so wrong. I don't want to go. I never did."

"What?"

"I am in love with you, sweetheart. I just- I didn't know you loved me back. I thought you didn't- that we weren't..."

"I thought we were boyfriends."

"Jesus, please let me fix this. Let me stay and make it up to you. I'll be the best fucking boyfriend you've ever had."

Steve thinks if he had any shred of self-worth he might step back, make Eddie explain himself, but as it is, he steps into Eddie's space and kisses him, hands pulling him as close as he can get. He doesn't want to think about the cruel things Eddie's said, about using each other. Maybe one day they'll have to hash that out, have that conversation, but Eddie says he loves him too, and that's all Steve's wanted.