#but they didn't know

[teaboot]

My terminal manic pixie dream girl trait is that I like collecting antique science textbooks that have wrong or missing information. My favourite one has an entry for the Piltdown man as an example of ancient man noting that "experts are debating age and authenticity"

[justrambles]

Steve hates it when his parents fight.

It's been only a day since dad came back from his trip and they are already yelling at each other, mom accusing him of cheating on her while she was at home taking care of their child. They go on like this every time, while Steve just sits in the corner of his room waiting for the fight to stop.

But today Steve decides he's had enough. That's why he sneaks out of his room (it's not like they're gonna notice but,) and goes out into the woods. He's only been there a few times, but he's ten now and he thinks he can manage it.

That's how he ends up at Skull Rock, not Lover's Lake. It's not what he expected but Skull Rock is nice in it's own way, Steve guesses. He sits underneath the rock and listens to the sounds in the forest. He watches the ants crawl by, and it's somehow peaceful.

The peace is interrupted not long after.

"You're in my spot."

Steve snaps his head to find a boy with a nearly buzzed hair. He is shifting constantly, leaning from foot to foot, with an annoyed look on his face.

"This is not your spot, this is Skull Rock. It's everyone's spot," Steve counters.

"Wait, it's called Skull Rock? Huh, makes sense. It does look like a skull." The boy makes a pondering gesture, nodding to himself.

"If you don't even know the name of the place, how can it be your spot?"

This kid is unbelievable, Steve thinks, but the boy just grins and sits next to Steve.

"'You don't gotta have a name on it for it to be yours', that's what my old man said. Anyways, I'm only visiting here, so I haven't had a chance to learn the name yet. I'm Ed."

Steve tentatively views the hand reached out in front of him.

"Steve," he says with a handshake. "What do you mean you're only visiting? You're not from around?"

"Nope! I'm just staying with my uncle for a bit until my dad is out again."

"Out of where?"

"The big house of course, Stevie."

"I don't know what that means."

Ed's grin is wide again, and Steve is amused by how he is so full of expressions. Ed starts talking on about all the escapades he and his old man's been through (although they're mostly his dad's alone) and then moves onto some kind of fairytale with Mirkwood and Fangorn and all the other stuff Steve doesn't know about.

It's nice listening to him talk, and sometimes Ed asks for Steve's opinion and doesn't make fun of him when he can't come up with a smart response quickly enough. Steve likes talking to Ed, which is probably why he doesn't notice it's gotten dark.

It's late, and Steve's parents are gonna be so angry with him. He doesn't want to say goodbye to Ed, but the disappointed look on his mom scares him more. As if sensing Steve's thoughts, Ed looks around the forest too.

"It's getting late. My uncle's gonna be waiting for me. You ready to go home now, Stevie?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Mm-hm, except for one thing—," Ed looks a bit nervous, picking on his lips.

"What?"

"I don't know how to get there."

...Unbelievable. He's unbelievable.

"Well, how do you normally come here? Just go the opposite direction."

"Well, you see, I normally just wander through the forest until I reach here—or there, so there is no direction to go opposite. Didn't know I'd be staying late."

Hearing the last sentence, Steve does feel a bit bad because if Ed hadn't been talking to Steve, he might have gone home while the sun was still up. And he's new to the town, too, it must be more confusing.

"I can... take you there if you want?" Steve offers.

Ed beams at Steve's suggestion, nodding so wildly that Steve's worried he might get dizzy.

"Alright! Lead the way, big boy. To Forest Hills we go!"

Ed grabs Steve's hand, starts walking even though he's got no idea where he's going, and it makes Steve laugh. There's warmth blossoming in his chest and he holds on to that feeling throughout their walk out of the forest.

—

By the time Steve gets home (on a ride by Uncle Wayne 'cause that man was freaked out that a ten year old was roaming around on the streets in the night), it's really late and Steve's parents are very, very angry.

He's grounded for a month, and when he gets to Skull Rock after, he doesn't find Ed. But Ed did say that he was only staying in Hawkins for a bit, so Steve hopes that Ed's dad got out of that big house and he's with Ed now.

(He doesn't know that Al Munson was in serious trouble this time, unlikely to get out of prison for a long time.)

(He doesn't know that Ed Munson had to stay in the system until Wayne Munson could get full legal custody of the kid.)

(He doesn't know that the sullen new kid in the grade above him—who the teachers whisper about— is the boy he met once at Skull Rock, Eddie Munson.)

(He doesn't know that for a long while.)

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[sherdnerd]

Listening to the Fallout 4 soundtrack and.... LYNDA FUCKING CARTER?!?!?

[knightofleo]

A Hand-Muppet Great Potoo Getting Snacks

[asweetprologue]

this is so devastating. laois should have just shot him with a gun

[hoodedjelly]

my little relativity falls designs for fun

[shittymoviedetails]

To make sure their accents were accurate, the child actors in the Harry Potter movies were forced to grow up in England

[uncanny-tranny]

I think so many people are so deeply alienated from themselves that they have no clue how to exercise their free will and autonomy. For some, this alienation runs so deep that they are afraid of their own autonomy and humanity. It is completely understandable why one would have those feelings, but it can be worrisome.

I want to help others who feel this way, so here are small things I have done to exercise my free will:

Add "guilty pleasure" songs to playlists and actually listen to them (I have a ton of late 1990s-early 2000s music I listen to now proudly that I never listened to in the past out of shame)

Getting the décor item, bath set, bed spread, ect. in the patterns you like, even if it's "childish" (I got a dinosaur-themed wastebasket from the kids' décor section and I adore it)

Taking a new route to get to a place you go to often

Eat dessert first

Celebrate well, and often

Collect things that are "odd" or don't seem like an "acceptable" thing to collect (somebody on my "for you" page collects dandelion crayola crayons and it was so cool!!!!!!)

Incorporate one new piece in an outfit you wear frequently (e.g., a new chain, a necklace, ribbons, bracelets, ect.). Challenge yourself to add onto the outfits if you feel up for it.

Sing along to songs without worrying that you sound "good" or your intonation is completely accurate

Read a book from a genre you weren't allowed to read as a kid (comics, thrillers, mysteries, anything!)

Walk without having a specific destination or goal

Pick up a new craft without expecting yourself to master it or to ever be "good" enough. Get your hands messy.

I don't want to shame anybody for not feeling as though they have free will or that they are exempt from exercising it. However, I wanted to give ideas so that you might read this list and find your own ways to express your intrinsic autonomy and will. You deserve to be a person, to feel alive, not just living. That is what our lives are for.

[cognitiveinequality]

So... a bunch of NFT grifters threw a party in Hong Kong this weekend and reportedly a bunch of attendees are now at risk of permanent eyesight damage because the promoters used unsafe lighting, and people are going to the ER...

[nipuni]

"I am a higher dimension life form, I am a complex space-time event"

A step by step process of this will be available at my Patreon next month, you can find prints of my work at my Store 😊

[melpherno]

[qiinamii]

we'll do fine.

[sparrowlucero]

The greatest injustice ever faced is that I almost certainly started the still thriving "clown husbandry" tag on here, but any discussion about it (from a know your meme page to a youtube video with 500k views) says it's a joke of "unknown origin" or credited to this post, likely bouncing off of mine (which was actively circulating at the time with like 30k notes):

This is a tragedy for many reasons, most of all because it wasn't just an offhand joke but actually a direct response to some of the funniest online hate I ever got:

They're erasing the truest history of tumblr: its desperate need to seethe and argue over every obvious joke with more than 10 notes.

anyways here is the canonical pet clown. according to me

[vraska-theunseen]

DID YOU ALL KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO WHATEVER UOU WANT WHEN YOURW MAKING ART ISNT THAT WILD