#rant over !

[jayrockin]

Hi, what are your favorite fountain pens and inks?

For entry level, I would recommend Platinum Preppy. For affordable/reliable, I would recommend Lamy Safari or Kaweco Sport. The only TWSBI Eco I ever bought was a lemon, so I can't recommend, but I know a lot of people who love them, so ehhhh? Sailor Compass is also a great writing pen, or fine liner. If you want something higher end for drawing, BlueDew Flex has blown my socks off with the insane bendiness of their nibs. I don't use pens for writing much so I don't have a particular preference for any high-end writing pens lol. I would just recommend finding a pretty vehicle to insert a Jowo nib and converter/cartridge in. And imo, generally, if you are paying more than $100 for a pen you are paying for the jewelry aspect of it. Which, like, no judgment, but also if someone tells you that you NEED to buy a gold nib pen for any functional reason they are lyyyyyyinggg.

Ink I mostly just buy dozens of 3-5ml samples to fuck around with because I like hoarding vials of colorful fluid, but Diamine Ink is affordable, has a wide variety of colors, generally has wet (high flow) inks, and offers $8 30ml bottles which are great if you want to buy a color but not like, a LOT of it. Though, my most used ink color is Vinta Hanan because I am the rare pastel yellow ink-liker. I also generally dislike shimmer inks, I find the effect underwhelming and they love to clog pens.

Also obligatory warning that Noodler's is affordable but the owner is kind of a libertarian shithead and their pens are great to start but break down in like 1-2 years (At least, every pen I've gotten from them). Also their inks areeeee all over the place in quality...

[touchyluffy]

part one

In the days it takes you to heal from your injuries, Luffy comes to your bedroom to sleep next to you every night. He does try, the night after the first, to sleep in his own bedroom but he can't. Usually sleep comes easy to him, especially after a long day of adventure but not now. He closes his eyes, trying to think of your wounds healing, your soft breathing, your warm hand holding his, but he can't fall asleep. He huffs in irritation and rises from his bed, sulking across the ship to knock on your bedroom door and opening it slowly. You put down your book, you were also struggling to sleep, and open the covers for him. You smile at each other as he excitedly hops into your bed.

And so it becomes routine for you two. Even as your injuries heal completely, as the sunsets and the crew walks off to their separate bedrooms, Luffy follows you into yours and you let him. It becomes normal to roll over in the middle of the night and snuggle into his warm body, to wake up in the morning with his arm wrapped around you, to feel him pull you closer in his sleep, to giggle at his sleep-talking, to hear your name in his mumblings. You offer to let him keep his toothbrush and some clothes in your room, he accepts.

Sleeping together becomes so routine that you have trouble sleeping without him. There were times when you two would be separated by a foe that Luffy challenged and each night you would stay awake staring at his side of the bed, worry clouding your mind and making it impossible to sleep and eventually when Luffy defeated the foe, he would be covered in bandages and it was your turn to listen to his soft, even breathing as he slept. There were times when you be working late into the night and he would come find you, curling up on the floor next to you to sleep in your presence until you eventually finish and drag him back to your bed so you can both sleep comfortably. There were times when you would get angry at him for putting the crew in danger with his recklessness and you'd slammed your bedroom door in his face and toss and turn, your anger at him turning into desperation for him to just come to bed already, eventually you get up to find him and as you open your bedroom door, Luffy's sleeping frame falls on your legs. He'd been sleeping against your door. Smiling you pull his rubbery body into bed and cuddle up next to him, his heartbeat your lullaby. He smiles in his sleep and his arms come up around you. Whenever he's missing his hat or sandals, you find them by your bed.

This new routine of you and your captain sleeping together left your other crewmates with their mouths on the floor several times. They still hadn't gotten used to you two waving goodnight and walking into the same bedroom. When they would ask, you tried to explain but there really wasn't anything to explain. You and their captain couldn't sleep unless you slept together. That's all, why do they always stare at you in such surprise when you say that? Their shocked faces didn't discourage you both into cuddling up to each other at night, finding relaxation, warmth, safety, and comfort in each others arms. What was once your space becomes "our bedroom", "our closet", "our bathroom".

[turbent]

“This war between Zutara and kataang shippers has been going on for so long. Maybe all of you guys should calm down 🥺🥺🥺

Besides, zukka is the best ship and the solution to it all right?? 🥺🥺🥺”

Genuinely, please be quiet! And keep your BS out of the Zutara tag 😭

[local-redhead-bookworm]

Stop! Putting! The "I have crossed oceans of time to find you" quote on stuff and saying it's from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula!! It's not!!! It was invented for the 1992 movie where Mina is Drac's reincarnated wife!! The closest we have is Drac saying "When my brain says 'Come!' to you, you shall cross land or sea to do my bidding" right after he's forced her to drink his blood!!! That's not romantic!!!! It's not even in the book!!

[ereardon]

Can we all agree that it's OK for characters to be unlikeable at times? It's realistic, honestly. It's normal for characters to make choices we wouldn't. It's normal for characters to mess up once, twice, three, even four times before getting things right. It's normal for people to make mistakes and run away from things that make them scared.

I think too often people read stories and are fussed when the character doesn't do what they want them to do immediately. When they don't see what's right in front of them and they don't get their happily ever after.

Reality is, most people take a handful of turns before they figure their shit out. Normalize characters making mistakes!

[julikobold]

I'm not even through season 2 yet and I'm already fed up with people (eg. Deaton) expecting Derek to be a great Alpha right from the start.

That's like having this guy in a family owned company.

He was never supposed to take over the business and that was fine with him. He'd rather stay on the technical side of things instead of handling all that management and HR stuff.

But then something bad happens and he is the only one left. He never wanted to be CEO but if he doesn't take over, this company that has been his family's everything would be lost.

He needs more personnel but people don't want him to hire the staff he thinks fit his vision, but expect him to work with this one person who'd rather go to his biggest competitor. Although the competitor made it very clear that the person is not welcome and will never be.

Additionally this competitor does everything to destroy all that is left of the company.

Instead of support, what he hears from former business partners is that everything was so much better with the former CEO, who probably had the right education, proper training and an established staff. But hey, new CEO, why aren't you as good?

That doesn't even take into account the trauma and grief surounding everything that happened to Derek's family.

And then others are surprised he is not a people person.

Really?

[growinguparo]

edit: hang on i'm remaking this post to add a correction

[cilil]

Ok class repeat after me:

It's ok to like evil and "problematic" characters.

They're not real, they haven't hurt anyone

Their victims are not real either, nobody is hurt

They're merely a vehicle for storytelling and entertainment

There is no need to tear other characters down to justify their actions

They're not you. Them being wrong or bad is not you being wrong or bad

There is no need to make up arbitrary rules and moral codes to justify your taste in fiction

Their fictional actions and morals have nothing to do with the real actions and morals of real people

The only hurt parties are the people affected by your negative and aggressive behavior

[chronically-ghosted]

day before a 5 day holiday weekend. office empty. got me thinking thoughts.

[stunnerstix]

I am SICK and TIRED of unjustified eurylochus slander. No, he was not the reason Odysseus wasn't able to make it home, his crews growing fear and discontent was. Eurylochus is such an interesting character because he represents the crew as a whole. Not only is his designated instrument the crew itself, but everything he does is for the benefit of the crew. From wanting to raid the lotus eaters island to get as much food as quickly as possible for the crew, opening the wind bag to satiate the crew's curiosity, wanting to protect those who were left and leave Circe's Island, and killing the cattle not just for himself but for everyone else who was starving. Eurylochus was justified in declaring mutiny against Odysseus, because the whole crew agreed. He speaks for them, so nothing Eurylochus did would have gone directly against their wishes. I sincerely believe if Eurylochus hadn't declared mutiny, someone else would have. Odysseus was not a great captain to begin with, and Eurylochus' constant questioning of his decisions proves this. The crew was always discontent with his leadership especially after the cyclops!!!

[the-alpha-doodle-dome]

recently fought mitty with oomf for the 1st time

[sir-meows-a-lot]

I Eat Pasta For Breakfast was detrimental to the marble hornets community (ahem, twink masky) but literally ALTERED the Creepypasta community. Like, to this day people think it’s just. canon that slenderman and zalgo have beef. But if you think about it. Why the fuck would zalgo, this Cthulhu/satan being, this god of chaos and corruption, this destroyer of worlds, give two fucks what a bald white man-cryptid-thing is doing with his gang of mentally ill teens in the woods

[kandyzee]

I think one of the main parts of why I don't like season 11 is cause of the way Ian acts after Terry died (honestly how they handled it as a whole). Why did they give us ZERO sweet scenes with them ??

I defend Ian a lot about how he acts after 3s ep6 and I feel like this is kinda a similar situation? Not completely the same. Mickey is clearly upset and vulnerable and Ian laughs. Ian goes through so much emotional growth in between s3 and 11 and they still make him act like that?? His husband is literally crying and he just looks at him like a fucking freak. mickey even being able to cry is already such a big thing but infront of Ian is a whole different step forward. The writers love taking serious situations with gallavich and turning them into bad attempts at humour. LET THEM LOVE EACHOTHER

And ur telling me we don't see mickey interact with any of his siblings about Terry dying. I wanted a Monica type celebration. I want to see them playing drinking games about all the bad shit Terry's done to them. Give me an old welcome banner where the word home has been crossed out and replaced with hell. The fact they don't even mention mandy is a FUCKING CRIME.

[gerec]

Oh no you do not just show up to a 10+ year old fandom and loudly proclaim you can't find any good fics!

[natasha-in-space]

So I'm replaying Ray's After ending rn, and it got me thinking that what I adore so much about Rika as an antagonist is just how damn scary she can be. I always found those who cause harm with good intentions (at least in their point of view) much scarier than those who hurt you with pure intention on hurting you. I think the best example of it is this CG in particular:

Look at that. Such a loving, gentle expression on her face. Probably kissing his forehead. Because she loves him. Heck, without any context, this CG looks even sweet, if you think about it. And yet, all that is while Saeyoung is forcefully sedated on a powerful concoction of drugs even a trained agent like him can't do anything about (and Saeyoung WAS definitely trained to deal with this sort of thing, hence it's mentioned that this is a 'special' kind of drugs). He looks miserable. Bags under his eyes, his expression pained and troubled, even his hair is paler than usual. All that as a direct result of her actions. But she's utterly blind to it. What's scarier, is that she knowingly shuts off her understanding of what's really happening. She's not oblivious to it at all. She just chooses not to see it that way. Simply because she doesn't want to.

Rika is the type of antagonist that will cup your cheek into her warm hand with the most loving of smiles on her face, all while you are getting elixir poured down your throat. Even whispering to you that you're doing great, that the pain will soon pass, and that she can't wait to see you reach the happiness she knows you deserve. I won't be surprised if she even cried genuine tears of compassion during some ceremonies for her believers. All while being the sole reason behind their suffering.

And that's... God, that's terrifying to me. I love that about her.

Rika Kim, they could never make me hate you

[weewoow-20706030]

Look- I understand the angst potential of Dick threatening to send Tim to Arkham. I get it. I also love angst. But barring the fact it makes no sense what actually happened also has plenty of angst.

And! It makes sense from both sides. Dick is objectively in the wrong with the Arkham route. But Dick wanting to get his brother help. To get his brother to a therapist is a good thing. Tim was grappling with insurmountable amounts of grief and loss, along with his problems/unsteadiness in the home, of course Dick tries to find a good therapist to help him.

It also makes sense from Tim's perspective. With the Arkham route it feels like 'poor little baby he just acted logically blah blah blah' but with the therapist route it makes sense from Tim's perspective, because to him it looks like Dick is trying to get rid of him first replacing him as robin then trying to ship him off to metropolis. Plus Tim knows Dick doesn't believe him but, due to his grief, he can't see that Dick is trying to help, he thinks Dick is just trying to make himself feel better, feel like he helped despite the fact Tim thinks it's the wrong route.

And above all, it can lead to more angst if others get involved. Because from an outside perspective it could just look like Tim being difficult, because he denies therapy, he denies the chance to get better despite Dick trying to find the best of the best to help.