#like its new

[edwardslostalchemy]

Ohmg I don't want to sound materialistic, but I want to get something off my chest because I don't find it to be fair.

So like when it comes to presents, my family is all about giving them with lots of love and purpose and intention. We gift each other clothing, money, perfumes, creams, soaps. One of the most common is clothes, so that's pretty standard and easy for all of us. We just ask for each other's sizes so we get something that fits. My brother and I grew up with this kind of tradition and custom, so we are not new to this at all. If you cannot give everyone a gift, make sure to at least give your parents and sibling something. This is mostly for Christmas. My brother married a girl who is not used to this custom at all. This is new to her and she is uncomfortable with this tradition. She had told my parents she didn't do this with her family when she and my brother were dating, so we tried not to overwhelm her. We want to make people feel special and loved and we shower people with presents and gestures like cake and hot chocolate. So we learned she wasn't used to this and we didn't do it again so as to not make her uncomfortable. But just as we knew that she wasn't used to this, she knew we were used this. So there had to be some kind of compromise. However, that didn't happen and she ended up blowing up on my mom a few months ago (the reason wasn't even super extreme either, but she made a really big deal about it and yelled at my mom, to which my brother did nothing and sided with her while ignoring my mom's feelings). It was a really tense time and she ended up apologizing to my mom, but mom is still hurt. My brother has become a huge cheapskate. I wanted to say he and his wife are frugal, which is okay. But after seeing their gifts for past parties, they have been either inappropriate or generally just lacking effort. We didn't expect much for Christmas because we have an idea of how cheap they are. But I think my brother should have put SOME effort into my mom's gift. She's his MOM. You know... she's like the important person here in the family. Dad and I are like beside the point; we really don't care what we get. But my mom is disappointed in what he got her for Christmas. We all got a mug. And I mean, mugs are nice. I've given people mugs. I filled them with chocolates, added other gifts to make it look nicer, decorated them. They were for professors, friends, roommates. A mug can be a simple yet decent gift for everyone EXCEPT your mom on Christmas. I've given mom a mug for her on mother's day with money, so it had something in it. But my brother just gave her a mug and that's it. After my mom puts in a lot of effort to get him something nice. So yeah fine it's a nice mug, but. At least make it look presentable and nice. Add $20 bucks into it at least. He uses the excuse of not helping us because he has a family, and I mean fair. But like, I don't think he understands his mom is like. The one person that loves him the most in this world. She's never done anything to hurt him. She was never abusive. She always spoilt him ROTTEN. He's done some awful, nasty stuff to me and she still let him live in the house!!!! She was always supportive of him. She fought tooth and nail to defend him from people. She prayed and cried her eyes out so he could stay in school. My mom has done the most for him and he doesn't appreciate him. At all. It's confusing and we didn't do anything to hurt him. I know because I asked him personally and he answered me by telling me we didn't hurt him in any way. He just doesn't like that we always need help. (As if he's never needed help in his life ever...i have receipts...i know I helped him when he needed it so idk where this attitude even came from. Mom and dad have literal receipts saved when they helped him.) He's ungrateful, he forgot where he came from, and it's like we don't really matter much anymore, especially mom. And i know I've complained about stuff mom does, but heck if i don't appreciate what she has done for me throughout my life. Dad, too. We're just tired of him.

[jotasuis]

How I found out about trump getting shot

[obsob]

i am a being capable of immeasurable love and whimsy

[planefood]

rules for thee and not for me

[hinamie]

10 years later

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

being a student during peak pandemic was so fucking surreal like. "it's not an excuse to fall behind" I cannot stress enough to you how much A Worldwide Plague Upending Life As We Know It is literally one of The Top Three Reasons to fall behind

[mroddmod]

everyone be quiet i'm manifesting

[self-loving-vampire]

Extremely dangerous how "grooming" in the context of child sexual abuse went from being a very specific pattern of isolation and trust-building with the aim of abusing someone to "telling children anything that contradicts their parents' ultra-conservative worldview is grooming" to "selling rainbow flags in a store is grooming" to "literally anyone I don't like is a groomer".

These days the word seems to most often be used by people who don't care about what it actually means and just want an easy "this person is irredeemably evil, kill them now" button.

[mamawasatesttube]

BTW... PSA.... even if we arent mutuals if youre in my notes regularly theres a Very high chance i am still fond of you. yes im vaguing someones tags on the compliment the person u rbed this from post. but like. positive vaguing? THE POINT IS im weird abt following ppl but IM STILL SENDING U FOND VIBES...

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

Toothpaste companies must really hate people who are allergic to mint toothpaste, which a lot of people are! Apparently it's NOT supposed to burn like minty hellfire? (I'm fine with mint candy, it's only mint toothpaste that hurts)

I've been using Tom's fennel for years, but am now trying to find one with fluoride in it, and finding a toothpaste that is no mint and yes fluoride should not be such a huge and infuriating quest. still got some more grocery stores to search, but not even the children's toothpaste in the nearest one had any that were suitable.

Edit: Hey you don't need to keep copying out the tags, I wrote all the Minty Hellfire lyrics here. And then someone recorded them here.

Also, I think it might technically be a sensitivity rather than an allergy, but whatever it is, toothpaste is not supposed to hurt! If it's burning then that's bad and you should try to find a new one if possible!

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[sparemoon]

RELEASE THE DA2 VARRIC ROMANCE ENDING BIOWARE

[raynewolferune]

DC x DP Prompt: Bruce is bad at emoting but at least ghosts are empathic (too bad bat kids are not)

Was reading Twincognito on AO3 when I stumbled across this gem again:

~

" “Danny, Tim. I was just…checking in. Is everything alright?” Curse his inability to make meaningful conversation when it wasn’t a life or death situation.

They glanced at each other and shrugged.

Then Danny hauled himself out of the bed and walked over to Bruce.

Bruce tried not to let too much excitement show on his face. "

~

Now I really want to read a story where Bruce adopts Danny post Meta trafficking and is being his usual emotionally constipated self. His kids keep getting mad at him because he's treating their new meta brother who was trafficked poorly (generally being stilted in conversation with him, walking away hurriedly mid-conversation, avoiding Danny when he's feeling really awkward, etc). They think Bruce is discriminating against Danny for being a civilian, meta, dealer's pick, but really it's just Bruce being horribly socially awkward. Danny knows this because of ghost empathy and find the whole thing hilarious. The whole thing comes to a head with the Bat Kids staging an intervention in the Bat Cave.

[bluegiragi]

stuck between a rock and a hard place...

(this piece was not so subtly inspired by the fic Where Moonlight Meets the Sea by MildLimerence! Leave a kudos and a nice comment if you enjoyed her writing!!)

[hinamie]

I'll rip in hands and teeth and take a bite

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael Afton knows the FNAF Mimic’s secret..