#open for solutions

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

This is the child proofing on my steroids. You can't get into that canister without lifting up the red tab attached to the slot. Which tore. Hence why the tab isn't attached.

I've got 72 hours to fix this before I run out of doses in my med box.

[creekfiend]

something that drives me insane on a relatively regular basis as a body jewelry understander is talking to people who have sensitive skin who are like "oh well I just can't wear any earrings without my ears getting inflamed" and I say "well what have you tried" and they say "well I've tried sterling silver and I've tried gold..." and it's like. ok. I don't know how gold and sterling somehow got spun by the jewelry industry as being especially good for sensitive skin but whenever I'm like "well have you tried implant grade titanium" they're always like "no....... but I've tried sterling silver... and it didn't work ..." like. I don't know how this narrative about sterling silver somehow got so strong but when they put pins in your fucking legs when you snap your leg in half are those pins made of sterling silver or are they made of implant grade titanium or surgical steel????????? HELLO. HI. YOU MIGHT BENEFIT FROM TRYING IMPLANT GRADE TITANIUM I AM JUST SAYING

[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[montereybayaquarium]

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[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity’ brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[narcissistcookbook]

the problem with those nuclear semiotics proposals, ways to stop far-future societies from digging up nuclear waste, is that a LANDSCAPE OF THORNS and MENACING EARTHWORKS covered in warnings like BEWARE EVIL ENERGY and DO NOT UNLEASH THE CURSE in languages older than time is one way to absolutely guarantee that future humans will go the fuck there and dig it up just to see what the deal is. they're streisand effecting their own demise.

[factual-fantasy]

I know in your FAQ you don’t take drawing requests, but I was wondering if you ever considered the idea of, seeing as you as well are gripped the TFP hyperfixation, of design a Skyfire/Jetfire and have interactions with Starscream? Hasbro mistreats our star so much, I just want him to be happy.

When I was first really getting into my AU, I heavily considered adding Jetfire to my AU to give Starscream a friend. Not necessarily because I felt bad for him or like he deserved a friend..? But just because I wanted him to be happy.

I even made this post where I dabbled in redesigns for Starscream, his brothers and tinkering with his reunion with Jetfire.

But! Trying to insert Jetfire into TFP left me with 3 huge seemingly unsolvable problems. Which are talked about in depth in the post I linked.

People provided solutions for some of the problems, like using other continuities for Jetfire's backstory. But no solution could solve all 3 problems. The biggest problem being: If Jetfire was brought into my AU, I would want him and Starscream to stay together.

There are 5 options for what path Jetfire would take if I brought him to TFP, 3 of which keep Jetfire and Starscream together, but none of which work for my AU. I went over 3 in the post I linked, but I'll go over all 5 again here-

Option 1: Jetfire stays with the Decepticons. Which wont work because his whole story arc is being an ex-con who doesn't agree with what the cons are doing.

Option 2: Starscream has a redemption arc and joins the Autobots with Jetfire. This is a problem because I would want Thundercracker and Skywarp to go with them. And tbh.. I don't think any of the screamers can be redeemed. Starscream especially. He never struck me as Autobot potential.

Option 3: The timeline is the same as G1. Jetfire splits from the cons and joins the Autobots, leaving the triplets behind. This is obviously sad and I don't want that. 🫸

Option 4: The 4 of them split from the cons as a group and live as rogues in the Harbinger. I don't like this option tho because I like the idea of Starscream and his brothers staying with the cons and being total thorns in Megatrons side. And in my AU, Starscream is more likely to stay with the cons for the energon and safety they provide for him and his brothers.

Option 5: Adopting an alternate backstory, Jetfire splits from the cons before/during the war, leaving Starscream behind. I don't like this one because obviously, I want him and Screamer to stay together-

I told myself and my followers that if I found a satisfying solution to all three problems, then I would absolutely add Jetfire to my AU in a heart beat. But for now he's been put on the back burner 😔💔

[lokh]

square commissions (4/4 slots filled)

※will stop being offered at this price on january 10 (aedt), as i will be bringing back regular commissions

email at lokh.info@mail.com, standard TOS apply. make sure to check the original post for whether slots have been filled. payment in usd via paypal or kofi 👍

turnaround is up to a week at most. thanks!

[youve-always-had-me-cas]

On a semi related note the more I am subjected to Microsoft products the more I become convinced that the reason so many people these days believe themselves to be “bad with computers” is that the programs they are forced to use in their professional life are utterly incomprehensible to ANY rational human being and they are (rightfully enough) extrapolating out that this is just how computers are. They aren't!!! In their quest to remove all the “scary” details from their poor fragile end users Microsoft have created an ecosystem that behaves completely erratically and unpredictably and is by definition unknowable. Things just happen. Then they stop happening. Nothing ever announces why or how. Just a thousand vague and useless popups that may or may not be there tomorrow. I PROMISE computers are actually extremely simple and logical beasts.

[ilikedetectives]

"This bond we share…I believe it is alurlssrin. If that is so, it will last as long as we do."

[lilybug-02]

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑶𝑷𝑬𝑵 Closed (0/3) ✨

Howdy Everyone! I'm glad to announce I'll be taking commissions right now. Last time was stressful, but I've learned a lot since then and want to redo a few things.

First off, I will only be doing my Sketchy style, no clean line art. I will also only have 2 layout types (COLORED/SHADING and NO COLOR) and only have Busts & Full Body Available. Time to finish commissions will be undetermined, but I will talk about each one individually.

I will be Accepting PAYPAL and VENMO

If you are interested in Commissioning me. DM me a Request and I will let you know if I have open spots

Receipts of Donations will be shown for Proof <3

*Accessory pricing will be by individual circumstance

🦋🐞🐛 About The Xerces Society 🪱🐝🪲

They are the largest international non-profit for the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats. Their key program areas are: pollinator conservation, endangered species conservation, and reducing pesticide use and impacts. Donations will go directly to the organization to help with it's cost of upkeep and wildlife conservation. Feel free to donate here if you want to go the extra mile.

[the-meme-monarch]

watched the spamton sweepstakes stream again yesterday. happy belated anniversary to All That

[hybbat]

I think there's something there that the healthiest, strongest, and longest lasting partners in black sails is Jack and Anne, the ones who refuse to define their relationship by anything other than the nebulous, all encompassing 'partners.' Everyone else is preocupied defining their relationships with labels that box them in. Silver is Flint's friend, Eleanor is Roger's wife, Vane is Blackbeard's son. Billy can't find a label to put on anyone that sticks so he never finds someone, even while Ben parks himself in his shadow.

Jack and Anne, though, they spend the second season working through "what are we?" And the conclusion is whatever they need to be in the moment for one another. They never bothered to define their relationship since it started and Max made them painfully aware of this, and so they spent time apart figuring out themselves and what they were to each other. In the end they're the ones who come out of top because they're the ones who refuse to put themselves in a box with rules for what they should and shouldn't do. They're just 'partners' and that leaves them the room they need to let Max in as well (and maybe in the future Mark also). Their relationship with her ends just as undefined, and they all come out on top.

Flint, Thomas, and Miranda get so close to this as well, before the world tears them apart when the three refused to fit into the boxes they were placed in in the absence of putting themselves in one. Miranda's ghost describing all the things she was to Flint and Thomas I think is basically everything I mean. She could be anything they needed her to be at any point without limitations.

Basically Jack, Anne, and Max are their successors and they do in fact manage to succeed in their place, marked by their ability to avoid society and boxes to define them. They overcome the shame Flint couldn't.

[raspbian-official]

i do love it when i wade through a mass of online-only proprietary bullshit software to eventually find that there's a small foss library that does exactly what i want it to and a kde tool to view the output, we love happy endings

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

I’m just imagining Bill putting in so much effort to try and find the “loophole” out of theraprism because he thinks it will get him out faster, but it actually would take more effort than if he just actually worked on himself lol.

He’s like that one guy who was too lazy to wash his hands, but he didn’t want people to know he didn’t wash his hands, so he turns on the water, put then is worried they’ll know because he didn’t use soap, so he pumps the soap into the sink, and then when he’s done he wipes his hands on the towel to mimic the sound of drying hands.

And when he’s done he realizes he just could’ve washed his hands at that point-