#but love doesn't listen

[not-poignant]

WOWZA. Loved the new stain chapter. I wondered if you could share your thoughts concerning why Alex is still so obsessed Sebastian this many years out of highschool (considering they hardly interacted since). He even expressed that it's love! Obviously they are both very changed now and hardly know anything about eachother. So why is Alex still so attached? I'd love to hear your perspective, thank u Pia!!

Hi hi anon!

So, yeah, Alex knows he's in love with Sebastian and has known it for a while. He admits that in chapter 9, and hasn't ever really flinched away from it.

As for why... No one really knows exactly why they fall in love with the people they do. Or at least, many people don't. It's often not logical, and you sometimes meet people who are way better logical matches and never feel anything more than fondness or general affection. Love is kind of messy like that, and I don't have a neat, logical answer for you, because emotions really hate those :D

I don't think it's true that Alex knows hardly anything about Sebastian. He knows a lot of things about Sebastian, because he's observed him so closely, for a long time. He knows Sebastian has friends but still perceives himself as a loner. He knows Sebastian thinks he's better than the town. He knows Sebastian likes frogs, likes to keep a clean home, is gay, and cares a great deal about making sure people get paid equitably no matter what the job is which gives him a good idea of Sebastian's political leanings.

He knows Sebastian's cologne, the foods he likes to eat, what he likes to drink, and what he likes to wear. He knows how Sebastian lives and that he likes to game and enjoys media. He knows Sebastian is interested these days in staying fit but tends to do it via fighting in the mines, and he knows Sebastian is a very adept hunter. He knows Sebastian has poor communication skills and he knows Sebastian is very good at picking clothes that flatter his appearance.

He knows Sebastian is extremely smart, and very bright in areas relating to maths, science and IT, and that he could probably do anything he wanted to. He knows Sebastian was married, and he knows Sebastian has come from a relatively broken home that looks neater on the outside than it really was. He knows Sebastian lived in the basement for a while and while that sounded super depressing, it was actually a huge space that was one of the largest areas in the house. He knows Sebastian comes from privilege, and doesn't really know what it's like to experience poverty or true deprivation. He knows Sebastian has a mean streak and an ugly streak and can be malicious, and that he's very good at verbal sparring, and he knows Sebastian cares about animals, and also wants to look after people.

I could go on, but I don't think we can really say 'Alex knows nothing about Sebastian' because if anything he knows more about Sebastian now than he ever has. The discrepancy is that we can't say the same for Sebastian when it comes to Alex. He's only learning piecemeal, and it's happening slowly. If anything, Alex is more attached now than he used to be.

Alex finds Sebastian handsome, he feels an electric thrill when he's around him, when he looks at him, he thinks 'that's one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen.' He finds Sebastian interesting as a person, even though he doesn't necessarily trust Sebastian to always really care for him in turn, he knows that Sebastian at least cares a little. He wants to make Sebastian happy and proud of him, and he wants to impress him, and he wants to make him smile, and has thought more than once that he would do just about anything to keep making him smile.

Like, he just loves him. It's something that's grown stronger - not weaker - with time. The more he gets to know Sebastian, the more he wants to spend time with him.

I'm sure Alex has asked himself 'why did I fall in love with him of all people' many, many times, and he doesn't know either. I'm sure he's looked for solutions, and tried to not feel that way, but brains and bodies do what they do.

Love rarely makes sense. That's why not all relationships work just because you love someone, because many of us fall in love with people we're completely incompatible with on a fairly regular basis. Love isn't enough to make a relationship (or friendship) work. You need a lot more than that.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You keep telling yourself that Namari.

[twisted-deal]

Spreading my agenda that Ace Trappola might be the worst and best option for Heartslabyul's next housewarden

[dawnbreakerluna]

SYLUS who has loved you endlessly and forever. who never falters even in the face of death, as the only thing that ever stuck as his ultimate priority was ensuring your safety. who initially teases you about the mundane things you find joy in, only to memorize each and every detail. who quite literally puts everything on the line that dares to threaten your life or serve as an obstacle for your happiness. SYLUS—who has sworn to himself to give you the world at all costs—if it meant the cosmos had to burn, if it meant that gods would have to be betrayed and killed.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

christ sometimes I just wanna. steal a time machine & go back & sit down next to my 9-year-old self and just like. let them pull out their pokemon card binder & gush about their holographic gyarados or whatever. I'd just smile & ask questions about motherfukcing bulbasaur & tell my kid self that I thought they were a neat person, & someday they'd find other people who thought so too.

like i'm a grown adult who honestly finds most kids stuff boring, but. damn if i could go back & hang out with my baby self & listen to them ramble...just so they knew someone was listening. i would in a heartbeat. thinking about u kid

[chalkrub]

saw some mangy dog on the outskirts of town

[bumblingbabooshka]

People honestly portray Tuvok as far too "rolling his eyes, reluctantly going along with Janeway's silly little shenanigans" - he's literally so serious about being right there with her on every decision she makes. Janeway's like "I'm going to stay behind if the ship blows up" and Tuvok's like "I'm staying with you." Janeway's like "I'm going to deliver every member of the Equinox crew into the jaws of death via an alien revenge massacre" and Tuvok protests a grand total of one time before being fully on the bridge assisting her. He was the only one with her when she made the decision to honor the caretaker's wishes and save the Ocampa, dooming them all. He was willing to get court marshalled in order to fulfill a wish she couldn't grant by her own hand: Get them home [no matter what happens to me] <- wherein 'me' is Tuvok. This was the same wish that spurred him forward when he had to leave her on that planet and everyone left thought him cold for trying to fulfill it without her when in his mind it was akin to a dying wish, the last thing she'd ever express to him: Get them home [no matter what happens to me.] <- wherein 'me' is Janeway. He told Seven that the golden rule to follow is that the captain is "ALWAYS RIGHT" <- (His ACTUAL words) and when Seven asks if the captain should be followed even if someone KNOWS she's wrong he says "Perhaps." This man is perhaps the most ride or die dude in the universe about Janeway. Despite her labeling him her 'moral compass' he is by NO means impartial or unbiased. He'd defend her to his last breath. He canonically makes detailed psychological observations about her and has for years. He accounts for her luck when calculating the success of certain plans. It's implied in 'Twisted' that Janeway typically listens to Tuvok's suggestions and follows them nearly without fail - to the point that he's surprised and obviously irritated when Chakotay doesn't. Despite this they've been inside one another's quarters so infrequently that Tuvok can remember each instance. They call each other "Captain" and "Mr. Tuvok" even though they've known each other for twenty years. There's something wrong with them.

[inkskinned]

one of the things about being an educator is that you hear what parents want their kids to be able to do a lot. they want their kid to be an astronaut or a ballerina or a politician. they want them to get off that damn phone. be better about socializing. stop spending so much time indoors. learn to control their own temper. to just "fucking listen", which means to be obedient.

one of the things i learned in my pedagogy classes is that it's almost always easier to roleplay how you want someone to act. it's almost always easier to explain why a rule exists, rather than simply setting the rule and demanding adherence.

i want my kids to be kind. i want them to ask me what book they should read next, and i want to read that book with them so we can discuss it. i want my kid to be able to tell me hey that hurt my feelings without worrying i'll punish them. i want my kid to be proud of small things and come running up to me to tell me about them. i want them to say "nah, i get why this rule exists, but i get to hate it" and know that i don't need them to be grateful-for-the-roof-overhead while washing the dishes. i want them to teach me things. i want them to say - this isn't safe. i'm calling my mom and getting out of this. i want them to hear me apologize when i do fuck up; and i want them to want to come home.

the other day a parent was telling me she didn't understand why her kid "just got so angry." this woman had flown off the handle at me.

my dad - traditional catholic that he is - resents my sentiment of "gentle parenting". he says they'll grow up spoiled, horrible, pretentious. granola, he spits.

i am going to be kind to them. i am going to set the example, i think. and whatever they choose become in the meantime - i'm going to love them for it.

[woolysstuff]

I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT HIM

Evil!Sun my beloved (Edit// This Evil!Sun is from TSAMS and is not an AU of mine guys)

Bonus doodle

[somerandomcockroach]

[divineandmajesticinone]

CENTURY OF LOVE (2024) I 1.04 "Vee is the fox that conceils himself in Ms. Wad's fate. Like the nine-tailed fox that possessed the consort Daji."

[cheesomancer]

🐍 Cheeseless version's hereeeeee!

[myrkulitescourge]

i'm surprised i haven't seen any text posts yet about the Unsubtle Differences between astarion’s tiefling party/high approval forest scene and the one you get after the goblin party.

there’s something so terribly interesting about how the conversation afterward plays out depending on which variation you pursue.

like, most people have seen the tiefling party version by now. astarion basking in the sunlight the morning after, playing off most of what tav says with relative ease, even when they ask about his scars and he tells them about cazador. his cadence is smooth and composed, his smile almost friendly, even though you know, as the viewer, he’s playing a game of manipulation at this point. the only real crack in his demeanor is if tav notices that cazador’s “poem” was written in infernal, which, understandably, startles him.

but recently i watched the goblin party version of this same scene, and everything reads so differently. unlike at the tiefling party, it’s still the middle of the night when astarion tries to leave, thinking tav is asleep—almost immediately after the act, in fact. when tav does speak to him, he’s visibly nervous, halting and stammering in the middle of lines delivered unflinchingly in the other version of the scene. he gestures broadly and fidgets more while talking, his smile comes and goes. there’s even some of his distinctive high pitched, fake laughter sprinkled throughout the exchange, almost identical to later scenes where he's very, very obviously uncomfortable (like if raphael mocks him and magics off astarion's shirt to show the party his scars in act 2, or when confronting the gur children in their cell in act 3, etc etc).

siding with the goblins represents something deeply familiar to astarion, a level of cruelty he's more than familiar with and embraces likely because cruelty and duplicity, to him, go hand-in-hand with the power and freedom he craves so badly—but he won't stay the night with this tav, even if he approves of their actions. no, in this case, he'll keep to what's familiar and attempt to leave them in the forest under the cover of the very same darkness he resents having been cast into by cazador. when he gets caught, it sets him on edge, and everything he says becomes such a blatant lie to save face that tav would have to be completely oblivious not to see through him, or maybe just not care enough to.

but if tav saves the refugees? challenges his worldview and comes out victorious? oh, he'll complain of the poor rewards for his trouble at the party and whine about it being boring, but he decides to stay with tav through the night while they're asleep and on past dawn. he takes a moment to enjoy the morning sunlight, returned to his life after two centuries without. the same is true if you have high enough approval that he asks before the party, in which case, you've almost certainly hit his biggest approval gains: trusting him and supporting his safety. maybe he doesn't trip over his words when he speaks because, well, maybe this is someone he doesn't have to worry about. someone who's already more than proven themselves a foolish, heroic sort with a bleeding heart or otherwise demonstrated that they're already in his corner. in other words, not a threat—at least not to him.

does any of this make sense. i wanna study this guy under a microscope.

[kedreeva]

Might be a silly question, but if someone needed to handraise a male peafowl, could they wear some sort of face covering and use a hand puppet like wildlife rehabbers and zookeepers do to prevent imprinting?

The ONLY reason anyone would "need" to handraise a peacock is if the bird is in need of major medical attention that requires more handling than usual. Rehabbers use hand puppets for feeding chicks, but peafowl are precocious- they aren't directly fed by their mothers or fathers, they are just shown foods and they eat by themselves. They're also pretty perceptive little shits with excellent eyesight right from hatch, and do NOT like things that look like peafowl but Aren't (they seem to have an uncanny valley, I have video of chicks freaking out when shown not-real peafowl), so I would think a puppet wouldn't work anyway.

The good news is pretty much no one should "need" to hand raise a peacock; most major medical issues should be culled, not raised, and ones that ARE raised should be handled by experienced keepers that can deal with the problems that occur. This is a part of responsible breeding.

And any chick that isn't a medical issue should never be a "need." Peafowl breeding season is during the summer, when people all over the place are hatching a bazillion chickens, turkeys, guinea, and quail every day- including large box stores like TSC, FFH, and other farm stores, and local feed mills often have local bred chicks. You should have no problem finding companions for solo peachicks (or groups), and you should be able to leave any groups of chicks alone enough to not imprint them.

[knifefightandchill]

from the razor to the rosary we could lose ourselves and paint these walls in pitchfork red

[ptieuca]