#the other is maybe endurance...????

[cerealmonster15]

i forgot grunt meant like henchman or whatever for a second i thought they were like yeah leonas bitch ass grunts and growls are partial proof to savanaclaw being an athletic leaning dorm lol

[pyrepostings]

Whumpee who goes in a slightly different direction mentally than 'caretaker is new master. New master won't give rules. Means punishment is around every corner, landmine of unsaid rules.'

It initially go through that phase, but quickly realize caretaker isn't punishing it for following whumper's old rules. Which obviously means they want it to continue following those rules.

So it does. It keeps calling them sir, keeps it's eyes down, doesn't eat without asking. Clearly caretaker wants this, and what they want is all that matters, right? If they didn't want whumpee to continue, they would have made that painfully obvious.

Just, a whumpee who is so sure of its ability to follow the rules, the habit. It's easier to follow the rules it knows than to find out they were lying, or testing it by telling it that its free.

[anghraine]

I'm trying to redirect my political thoughts from my fandom escape blog again, but I found something interesting enough that I thought I'd talk a little about it.

Occasionally I choose suffering (looking at the more granular 2024 exit poll breakdowns rather than the summaries that I mostly don't trust much at this point). Anyway, I did find something intriguing, if not particularly surprising, in the CNN exit polls, which were done in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin with a sample size of 22,914 voters.

(I mention the specific states forming the sample because this pretty notably excludes any blue states while including some reliably Republican ones.)

Anyway, most exit polls including CNN's let respondents identify their place on the US political spectrum: conservative, moderate, or liberal (reminder that "liberal" in US usage can be a pejorative for "less leftist than me" but also a shorthand for "radical leftist" but also for "anyone who doesn't seek a cishet white Christian ethnostate", but also can be a more neutral synonym for progressives and/or leftists and is often used that way, as here). So you can look at the election results for each of these ideological factions and what share of the overall sample size they represent.

The interesting thing: this "liberal" category accounted for very similar proportions to 2020 of the overall vote in the sample (24% in 2020, 23% in 2024—a difference well within the margin of error of exit polling). There is no need to explain liberals/leftists staying home in 2024: at least in terms of proportions of the overall electorate, they didn't. Just under 1/4 of voters in 2024 were liberals or leftists, just as in 2020.

Okay, if the most leftwards faction of the US political spectrum actually formed a similar proportion of the electorate, then who did they vote for?

Harris. In CNN's own exit polls from 2020, 89% of this faction voted for Biden, and (surprisingly!) a full 10% voted for Trump. God knows what motivated that 10% Trump share after four years of his hellscape of an administration at the height of COVID, but in any case, that support cratered in 2024. 91% of this group voted for Harris and only 4% for Trump. It's an estimate, but it looks like these very peculiar Trump voters had enough of him in 2024 and around half either voted third party this time or for Harris.

So which faction is Trump's victory coming from? Further consolidation of the far right?

In part, yes! 90% of conservatives voted for Trump in 2024, vs 85% in 2020—likely, some conservatives who voted third party or even for Biden in 2020 came "home" this year. However, conservative turnout was actually a little down in 2024, proportionally speaking: conservatives dropped from 38% of the sample in 2020 to 34% in 2024.

But there's one more major faction in all this: "moderates" or centrists. To be clear, we're talking about the US version of centrism, given that this is a US organization polling US voters about US politicians, not "Bernie would be center-right in Denmark" or whatever. This moderate faction jumped from 38% of the overall sample in 2020 to 42% in 2024, and they swung hard towards Trump, though Harris still won a plurality of them. In 2020, 64% of moderates voted for Biden vs 34% for Trump. In 2024, 57% of them voted for Harris vs 40% for Trump—that is, the Democratic lead among centrists dropped precipitously from +30 to +17.

Tl;dr—ideologically speaking, this data suggests that Trump owes his victory to gains among both right-wing and centrist voters rather than some faction of would-be leftists or progressives apathetically staying home or voting third-party or otherwise deserting Democrats (because they're insufficiently radical or for any other reason).

Oh, and if you're curious as to how this compares to CNN's 2016 exit polls, I also checked those! Harris's 84-point lead among the most leftwards faction is a significant improvement from HRC's 74-point lead in 2016. Trump also got 10% of that group in 2016, as in 2020, so it's this campaign—not Hillary's or Biden's—that managed to eat into whatever the hell is going on with that group.

Harris's +17 with moderates is actually a slight improvement on Hillary's +12 in 2016. Biden's jump to a +30 lead among centrists in 2020 represented either a backlash against Trump from centrists, or Biden's own rapport with that group, or some mysterious issue some of those voters had with both HRC and Harris (I wonder what it could be!!), or some combination thereof. Regardless, there are a lot of actual ideologically centrist voters in the USA and not just would-be leftists who haven't heard the good news of Marx yet. And Trump has an iron grip on the right wing at this point: he beat Hillary with conservatives by +65 in 2016, then beat Biden with an even larger margin of +71, then leapt to a 81-point lead over Harris with right-wing voters this year.

[oh-my-bindery]

After Draco lied to his family and the snatchers about Harry being Harry - The Malfoy Manor

Lucius: So it was Harry Potter we just let escape…Draco you do realise that we are going to get punished for your stupidity?

Draco: …

Lucius: Why would you lie to us if you clearly knew what Potter looked like? Don’t you want Potter dead and us being alive and back to power?

Draco: …

After Harry risked his, Ron’s and Hermione’s lives to save Draco from FiendFyre in Room of Requirements

Ron: So we almost just bloody died because you decided to save that git - Malfoy?

Hermione: Harry, seriously, what was that about?

Harry: …

Ron: I swear to Merlin if you’re going to make us save his sorry arse once again I’m going to lose it!

Harry: …

[souenkun]

I loooove the jp fandom's headcanon that geeta and larry are childhood friends who met during their time in the academy and, sometime in the future, geeta personally recruited larry to work for the paldean pokemon league, as she must be one of the first people who knew of his prowess in pokemon battling! Like yeah, the whole geeta being a "strict boss who is frustrated by larry's stubborn insistence to be an average worker that she has to assign him different workloads just to broaden his horizon" idea is intriguing, but stepping it up a notch by making geeta be the "best friend a.k.a the only one who has seen larry at his very best and his very worst, and knows for a fact that he could excel at anything he put his mind into if he steps out of his comfort zone, so she doesn't particularly drag him out of said zone, but pushes him out of it each time she can because she can't bear to see her best friend be unaware of the good chances and positive things that awaits him out there, not if she has a (small) say in it" is also downright hilarious 😭🤚

[khalliys]

This is it. I can't save everyone, and therefore I cannot save you, nor myself. I'm sorry.

Get yourself a DM that you trust implicitly, but that also loves to really traumatize your PCs. We basically had our Critical Role Otohan-moment (adversary with the power to one-hit-KO everyone going around doing exactly that to psychologically hurt one of our PCs) last session, except our antagonist wasn't out to finish the job just yet.

Unavar had just brought Emery back to consciousness, and then was the only one left with enough hit points to withstand a fireball that targeted the whole group (minus the one PC this was about). She did consider going Cave Bear, grabbing Emery and trying to escape with them, but that would've meant leaving the rest of the party to die, so all she could do was curl over her little unconscious friend and helplessly (she's very afraid of dying) accept to die with them.

[deprivedofbraincellsandsleep]

aftg bonus content spoilers‼️‼️

ok but Kevin saying "Coaches have no honor" when wymack said coaches honor???? Like in tsc, spoiler warning if you haven't read it yet, it is revealed to us through Jean how much coaches are feared respected highly in the nest. They're seen at a higher level than a coach should be, seen as some superior being that knows better anyone. It absolutely destroyed me seeing Kevin say that but in the good way because I interpret it to be him unraveling and opening the tight stitches the nest sewed into his mind from a young age.

[ashmp3]

i always think like would it be better for 26yo me that’s bitchless as fuck right now and always to have been put through situations that would’ve made me uncomfortable with people that i didn’t wanna be with just to experience more when i was younger so now it doesn’t feel as grand and literally anxiety inducing but that’s neither here or there ❤️‍🔥

[slayerdurge]

A Deal with God (Post-Ending Durgetash Fanfic)

CHAPTER TWO - THE REUNION

Enver re-entered his body screaming.

As The Dark Urge listened in transfixed stillness, his screams gradually changed into a strange and discordant mixture of laughter and sobs, and all she could think was that she’d heard that sound before.

But she couldn’t place it until a series of sensuous fragmented memories crashed into her mind—the damp stone walls of an underground dungeon, the thrust of steel as it penetrated flesh, the tantalizing ferrous scent of fresh blood, an influx of saliva pooling in the bottom of her mouth, and the howling keen emanating from the pile of meat in front of her. Then came the feeling of satisfaction. The knife clattered to the floor, and as she wiped her mouth, she heard the sound change.

It was the sound of a torture victim who’d been offered a moment of reprieve, and the only coherent thought she could form in the mangled, macerated caverns of her brain was that that sound should not be coming out of him.

She couldn’t say exactly how long the sound continued, but eventually she became aware that it had stopped, and that his eyes, which had been alternately twitching and rolling backwards into his head, had refocused. He was looking at her.

She became aware of what she must look like, standing stock-still and staring at him in paralyzed silence, but she could rouse herself to neither speech nor movement. 

Slowly, he sat up, supporting his unsteady balance by spreading his hands flat on the rock’s surface. He looked around, taking in the sizeless expanse of the Astral Prism. His gaze seemed to sharpen. “How long?” he asked.

“How long…” She didn’t immediately understand the question. 

“How long was I dead?” he repeated, over-enunciating each word impatiently. 

The twinge of annoyance that caused within her brought her fully back to herself. “Less than a day,” she said. “Maybe slightly more. I lost track of time during the battle.” She glared at him pointedly. “You’re welcome, by the way. For your life.”

He stood, wobbling slightly but catching himself and righting his posture quickly. He walked towards her, stopping when there was only a few feet of distance between them, and met her gaze evenly. “Thank you,” he said, without a trace of sarcasm. “For my life.”

The Dark Urge found it suddenly difficult to maintain eye contact. 

[read more on ao3]

[corvidcall]

i spent so long as a lotr hater* that sometimes i forget that i read the books last year and fucking loved them. I'll be like "UGH lord of the rings 🙄 .... WAIT I LOVE LORD OF THE RINGS"

[dormiloncito]

if you see me comment under your posts ignore me do not answer me i'm procrastinating (actually do reply to me hehe... 🥺)

[2129888]

One thing I find super interesting with yasashii watashi is the way that seiru says that everyone at the nationals level was on steroids with tennis and like, baseball is even more infamous for its doping scandals, but nobody ever even mentions it as like “something other teams used to do” in oofuri

omg you really made me think with this... i stood in one spot and zoned out and ran the whole manga thru my head like no wait they never actually mention steroids huh.... you would think maybe shigapo would've given one of his long-winded lectures over it or maybe even momoe's dad would've brought it up considering his experience... but no. huh that really is interesting. i wonder why? there have def been many opportunities. i literally have no answer to this besides wonder sorry

[xxplastic-cubexx]

since Rivals!Erik is such a beefcake, he would be bursting out the seams of the fc outfit. It’ll just be strips of fabric covering his more private areas 😭

😶

[i-like-turkey]

I'm gonna start my Lioness rewatch tonight. Once I'm through 1x05, I'll try to get words down on a fic.

[binah-beloved]

You not knowing why binah is so warm to you when you both have met for the first time not knowing it has been several cycles already

Binah's warmth is subtle, like many of her emotions, but it's undeniably there. she's always watching you from the background, coming up behind you and reading over your reports- it startles you at first, since her footsteps are so quiet, but you get used to it eventually. she's softer with you, the coldness in her expression gone when she looks at you, even giving you tiny smiles when you say something endearing or lighthearted, which makes you smile in return

when you're not looking, Binah stares with a mournful glint in her eyes, knowing you'll be claimed by a horrible death in this cycle just like all the ones before

[thedawningofthehour]

Okay guys I really want to do the boys' SPECIAL stats so anyone who knows Fallout tell me what you think their spread should be like.

I'm mostly struggling with Leo, because he's good at so many things I don't know what to pick as a dump stat.