#they're not allowed to be separated

[tending-the-hearth]

so steve DOESN'T die in season 5, but he and robin get separated.

idk, maybe steve, jonathan, and nancy go off fighting a group of demogorgons in a parallel to s1, and robin's with erica and max at the hospital, fighting off demodogs, and when the mindflayer dies, there's a horrible, horrible moment where robin sees the place that steve ran off to explode, and she feels like she wants to throw up

but then the party converges back to the hospital, and mike, lucas, and dustin are the first to get back, and lucas throws himself at his sister and girlfriend, and the three of them are crying, and dustin hurtles into robin's arms, because he saw the explosion to, and mike pretends to be nonchalant, but he's clinging to dustin's sleeve.

murray, joyce, and hopper are next, supporting an exhausted eleven and will, and it's then that mike's calm facade breaks, and he sags with relief. at this point, eleven and mike are broken up, maybe will has told mike how he feels, maybe not, but mike just hugs both of them, and they hold onto him, and hopper checks in on the rest of the kids while joyce stands with robin and dustin after surveying the room and realizing who's missing.

and they wait too long. they wait for longer than they should if the trio is still alive. but robin doesn't move from her spot, doesn't sit, doesn't listen to anyone trying to coax her away from the window.

it isn't until the sun is beginning to peak over the horizon that she spots three figures approaching the hospital, in various states of injured and limping, and robin lets out a shriek as she flies out of the room, mike and joyce following at her heels, but robin's the first one out of the hospital.

she doesn't slow down, doesn't pause, she collides with steve in a way that makes them both wince, but his arms are wrapping around her waist just as tightly as her arms are around his neck, and she buries her face in his shoulder as he presses his nose against her hair, and she can feel the sticky blood on his arm, and he can feel the bruises on her side, but none of that matters.

vaguely, they can hear mike and nancy crying as they reunite, nancy cradling her brother in her arms like he's a child again, joyce has jonathan tucked into her side, but all steve and robin care about is that their Platonic with a Capital P soulmate is alive and safe.

in a few minutes, robin will pull away and punch steve's uninjured arm, and ask him through her relieved tears what the fuck took him so long, and he'll explain that he, nancy, and jonathan wanted to make absolutely sure everything was closed, and jonathan will roll his eyes and say that steve got the worst of the injuries protecting him and nancy, and mike will, for the first time, separate from his sister and hug steve tightly.

and later that night, the Party will descend upon steve's house, and pile blankets and pillows into the living room, and robin and steve will fall asleep in each other's arms, dustin starfished over steve, erica pressed against robin's side, the rest of the kids curled up with each other like a giant puppy pile.

but for now, steve and robin cling to each other, tears falling down their cheeks, shoulders shaking with sobs, relieved, heavy sobs. in the back of their mind, they'll both have the same thought, because they're the same person, the same soul. they'll thank whatever deity is listening that they were paired up at scoops, because neither of them ever, ever again wants to possibly imagine a future where they don't have each other at their side.

[laddertek]

@countthelions (tumblr ate this when I tried to save my answer as a draft, so we improvise 🙃)

This one? :D

This whole stream was delightful. What a way to return 🤗

Tango was so happy energetic.

And from Tango calling Etho's storage system cute and Etho in gamechat going "CUTE?!" (00:41:07). To the razzing (and laughing) over shops (00:49:00 and 01:03:49). Etho taking Tango's head twice, and it all being so playful (00:58:11). Etho using Tango's catchphrases 🥹🥹🥹 It gets me every time! "porkchop power" "flee with extra flee!" And the way he said it was the cutest, and Tango's giggle about it too (01:00:59). Etho offering to give the tour Tango wanted. More mail talk and laughing guilt and planning and razzing and teaching Etho to do the stamps. Tango complimenting the path (and that Etho showed it to him when he first came back when Etho came to say hi) (01:15:41). They still plan on doing their sand-collection-off (01:35:06).

And of course the whole TNTificating with Etho's new "boom boom tech" (01:39:43--02:15:17) was just…the most fun. They are having the most fun together...it's an absolute joy. (And it's also them collaborating on how to figure out a redstone thing together which is just so satisfying.) Just...TOO MANY (!!!) (so many) fun moments in that whole TNT section that I can't even start on highlighting them all 😭 I'd need another mammoth paragraph...

Honestly??? Still smiling. Great great great stream 🥹

Timestamps are for YouTube not Twitch because Tango was so fast on getting the VOD up lmao

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

fantasy au scribbles!!

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[oz00ms2]

Young Shuggy idea where Shanks touches Buggy’s hair for some reason (maybe he was untangling a fishing line from it or something) and realizes it’s super soft and starts trying to come up with new excuses to touch it. Meanwhile Buggy is like ???????????????????? is Shanks trying to kill me?

There is only one truth - and that truth is: Shanks is trying to kill him.

No other explanation makes sense truly, truthfully, and Buggy is not sure where it all went wrong.

That’s a lie. He knows. Can pinpoint the specific moment (location, place and time) where Shanks’ strange behavior manifested and became a dominant action in his (bitterly, but also lovingly) friend’s daily routine.

There was a fishing line and flailing and Shanks laughing and Buggy NOT CRYING because future amazing world renown and flashy pirate captains DO NOT CRY!!!

But there was a fishing line nonetheless and a shiny silver hook managed to wrap itself in Buggy’s hair one early morning and somehow it was completely Shanks’ fault. So it made sense for Shanks to untangle it. Awkward teen hands fumbling with ever-growing blue hair that tumbled and twisted into Buggy’s vision while he cursed and whined and still DID NOT CRY while Shanks took his flashy ass time freeing him of this humiliation.

Luckily it was early enough that the rest of the crew wasn’t paying much attention to the boys as they meandered along their usual chore routes or hangover nap spots. (Or so Buggy hoped because he would never live this down) and Shanks did manage to untangle the hair after some time and a few curses. But he was looking at Buggy strangely afterwards while holding a lock wrapped around his knuckles.Staring at the pale strands with a confused expression that Buggy had feared he’d ripped some of it out and they had to be separated because of course he had to defend his honor and punch Shanks then and there.

But Shanks had changed after that and Buggy was absolutely one hundred percent positive his (best, only, anything but) friend had decided to kill Buggy for some reason.

Shanks had always been touchy but now it was out of control. He’d wrap an arm over Buggy and pull him close enough to nearly smother him almost every chance he got. A hand firmly pressed into Buggy’s head, fingers twisting into long hair. Pratting on innocently about their day or plans or a dream he had while menacingly petting through Buggy’s hair while trying to suffocate Buggy into his shoulder.

He’d make it a point to chastise Buggy on how he was wearing his hats, then without question, run over and push his hands into Buggy’s temples. Pulling whatever hat he wore off and cradling Buggy’s head between his palms, rubbing locks of hair in a threatening manner. (But Buggy was too strong and quick and brave and smart to let Shanks CRUSH HIS SKULL BETWEEN HIS HANDS) and he would escape with a detached head and a swift stomp on Shanks’ ankle.)

Then!! At night!! When they’re trying to sleep - sharing a bunk since they were children because their bed was as big as their Captain’s bed - Shanks would pretend to be asleep and roll over. A hand would swim between the space into Buggy’s hair and twist like he was going to wrap it around his neck and strangle him in his sleep!!!

A truly devious minded brat, Shanks’ bloodlust and sudden handsy violence towards him became a daily distraction and Buggy was starting to become paranoid whenever (his) Shanks would appear. Hands extended and some excuse to grab at Buggy’s scalp quickly pouring out of his mouth before Buggy could defend himself.

Well. There was only one thing to do. Only one action an up and coming pirate king like Buggy could take:

He tattled.

“RAYLEIGH!! SHANKS IS TRYING TO KILL ME!”

“WHAT? NO I’M NOT! BUGS, DON’T SAY THAT!”

“Shanks we've had the personal space talk already can you---ROGER YOU STOP LAUGHING RIGHT NOW! YOU ARE NOT HELPING!"

[branwinged]

not to gotpost but my god they hated catelyn. like it was quite obvious they were not comfortable adapting a mother character who was emotionally abusive to one of the children in the household, and they either didn't have the time or didn't care enough to talk about the systemic prejudice bastards suffer in westeros and how that intersects with the disenfranchised status of noblewomen and the fundamental inequality of marriage, which obviously doesn't excuse catelyn's behaviour towards jon but gives you context to understand why she is like that. instead they framed it as an exclusively interpersonal conflict wherein catelyn was sort of made to look like the only one in the blasted continent who took issue with bastards and then this was turned into half of her personality which is how we got that incredible monologue about everything bad that has ever happened to the starks is because she 'couldn't love a motherless child'. now the really insidious thing about this is i'm certain the writers thought they were doing her character a favour, making her more likeable by having her expound on her flaws, because to them nothing was more discomfiting than a woman who would go to her grave completely unrepentant about being an inadequate mother, and i think this is also why they made her out to be so passive, constantly wanting to leave robb so she can return home to her youngest, because isn't that what a good, devoted mother would do? having littlefinger trick her into releasing jaime instead of it being a conscious and risky gamble because god forbid she exhibited any agency, even the agency to make mistakes in a tragedy. they turned her into a poor helpless woman who exists largely in the background for some audience sympathy, which is arguably the genre expectation her character is intentionally set up to fly in the face of in the books. because the northern war effort in books 1-3 was never robb's story, it was catelyn's. and they didn't get it. they didn't get it.

[antigonesghosts]

autistic4autistic jazzalil. Send post

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

I can't believe it's taken me this long to have Leliana and Sten together in a party. I won't lie, Sten's usually my least used companion so I'm making a conscious effort to use him more this playthrough.

His banter with Leliana? It's so good.

Leliana: I saw what you were doing back there. Sten: Oh? Leliana: Don't play innocent with me. Sten: What are you talking about? Leliana: You. Playing with that kitten. Sten: ...There was no kitten. Leliana: Sten, I saw you. You dangling a piece of twine for it. Sten: I was helping it train. Leliana: You're a big softie! Sten: We will never speak of this again. Leliana: Softie!

And then she continues to call him "Softie" in later banter, I love it.

I also appreciate all of his banter with Shale, that's been a real interesting one.

Shale: I have a question of religion, Qunari. Sten: For you, kadan, I will answer. Shale: Would its "qun" accept a convert that was a golem? Sten: I do not know. It has never happened. We accept beings of all walks of life, so long as they are willing to accept their place in the world. Shale: And what place is that? Sten: One of equality. Within the Qun, an individual exists to serve. Shale: Hmm. That is less appealing. Would it consider birds to be its equal as well? Sten: Birds? Birds are... but animals. Enlightenment does not await them. Shale: Excellent. That sounds very promising.

Like... it's not that I don't like Sten, he just ends up being the companion who gets benched the most, especially once I've gathered everyone else. My Tabris always gets high approval with him, though don't ask me how. Every time they talk at camp, Sten's out here throwing "+7 Approval" and "+13 Approval" left and right? Rose is straightforward and doesn't take his shit, so I guess he likes that? I don't know, they're buddies though.

I have a rule that Alistair's never allowed to leave the party--he's a grey warden, too. He and Rose gotta deal with all the bullshit together no matter what, but that means I already have a warrior constant in my party. When I want another, I tend to gravitate toward Oghren more than Sten. That's mostly because I like Rose and Oghren fighting together a lot before Awakening, and that means poor Sten's a benchwarmer in the Blight.

Not this time, though, I'm working to rotate my party around a lot.

Except for Alistair.

He's never sat on the bench and he never will.

[craftingcreatures]

Why does everybody think capybaras are so chill. Every capybara I've ever interacted with has been one withheld orange slice away from committing a homicide

[dootznbootz]

As someone with ADHD, you know you're fucking exhausted when you're not even fidgeting. :'D

[grapecaseschoices]

UP TOP: Is the Tadpole Consumers! Sometimes being 'Power Hungry' means eating an actual worm.

Kendis Wolfcrossing (left): Bearbarian (Druid and Barbarian), She/They (nb). Romance Rolan [Maybe Minthara. Maybe Halsin. I'm just fucking around in the PT]

Kaeliana (right): aka The Dark Urge, Soradin of Kelemvor (Sorcerer and Paladin), She/her (trans). Romance Wyll.

BOTTOM DOWN: The Parental Trauma Cleric Sibs (and potentially both technically undead).

Amryl Shadowhoard (left): Ranger/War Cleric of Bahamut, They/It/She (in order; nb). Romance Wyll/Lae'zel/REDACTED [yeah that's the polyam!]. Is, technically, Isyl's younger sibling.

Isyl Shadowhoard (right): aka The Dark Urge. Cleric of Light [hhaha] of Lathander, ???? (trans and nb). Potential Romance Barcus. Is, definitely, Amryl's older sibling. Isyl remembers that fact and Isyl remembers Lathander. Everything else is secondary. Right?

[shadowxamyweek]

If you don't want to be at GUN, why did you sign up? And why don't you leave?

Rouge: Why did we-? [Rouge's brows shoot up, lips pursed in a hard line as she breathes in deeply.] Rouge: Kid, we didn't really have a choice. They had too much on me to let me breathe outside let alone go free. Why the hell do you think I threw myself into the middle of Eggman's mess? Not by choice! If I wanted the Master Emerald then, I would have just stolen it- from Egghead or Kuckles, it doesn't matter- and called it a day. No, there were things on the line for me- and there still is now, more than ever. With Shadow- Chaos, as messed up as it is, Shadow's theirs, and Omega is labeled as spoils of military espionage. [There's a pause. Rouge's ears droop. She presses a knuckle into eye, sighing.] Rouge: When I found them both, well... Shadow's Shadow, and Omega would not leave Shadow's side. Couldn't tell you whether it was part of their programming holding them back or something else but- both of them sort of wandered for a bit. GUN by this point was keeping tabs, so I know Shadow hunkered down in an abandoned Eggman base for a while off the cost. I'm sure Omega was there too. They weren't causing any harm, but GUN was getting antsy. [She shakes her head.] Rouge: So GUN was on high alert. They considered them a threat. Shadow was their biggest walking PR disaster. Any time they showed their face, and with a big hulking Eggman robot in tow, it was a nightmare for them. I mean, think about it, the ultimate life form and then the only thing that could kill the ultimate life form, just wandering around, GUN not looking like they were doing anything about it? No, GUN didn't like that look on them. [Rouge runs a hand down her face, fingers drumming against her cheek, before she moves to the kitchen and fixes herself a drink.] Rouge: I was tasked with finding out about the Gizoid at the time. The goal was to either get it back to GUN or destroy it- didn't really matter. GUN does this thing where if they're not allowed to play with their toys, they break them... Knowing that, I pulled some strings, specifically on Lead Commander Towers. Who knew the guy had a heart, or at least, what's left of one. [She starts to drink, keeps drinking, tilts her head back until it's all gone, and then with a sigh, sets the glass on the counter as she stares into the ceiling.] Rouge: If GUN had Shadow and Omega, they'd keep them alive, but if they weren't responsible for them, if there was a middleman take the blame were something to happen, they'd let them live... [Rouge smiles. It's not pleasant.] Rouge: Do you understand? I sold myself deeper in to keep those two as safe as I could. I will not leave them, and so, we're all stuck here, with GUN.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

a surprise reboot of the show!

que the puppets fleeing while a heavy working crew fuckin snatches everyone up in nets to clean the place us

"should we muzzle sally?"

"she fuckin bit me!"

"doesnt answer the question"

"wally stole my wallet!"

"hes legally allowed to, travis."

yk what i'd really wanna see is how they wrangle the massive dog & the equally tall four-armed caterpillar. Wally would get netted and Barnaby would appear behind the person, about to ruin their entire career

[cedar-sunshine]

my boys are so comically intertwined. They're two halves of one whole but it wasn't a neat split, they're torn remnants of what could have been a person and there's pieces missing and things that they picked up but they're both roughly half of a whole, not cut nearly, but torn apart by hand, sorted into mismatched piles. They were always supposed to be together and they will do everything in their power to avoid this until it happens. It's not sun and moon symbolism, its life and death, day and night, the same font saying two reflected things. They're interchangeable and complete opposites and the exact same

[deadpoets]

2023 CHARACTER WRAPPED

i was tagged by the vv cool @dlndjarin to share my top nine characters of this year, thank you for tagging me <3

1. snoopy (peanuts)

2. cassian andor (rogue one)

3. jyn erso (rogue one)

4. blue sargent (the raven cycle)

5. lottie matthews (yellowjackets)

6. shawn spencer + burton 'gus' guster (psych)

7. inej ghafa (six of crows)

8. neil perry (dead poets society)

9. pippa fitz amobi (aggtm)

tagging: @ohwarnette, @delilahsbard, @shirleyjacksonesque, @jeanmoreaux, @pallases, @haniishu, @moirainesedai, @singularities, and anyone else that wants to do it

[clhampir]

one of my least favorite themes about the internet lately is non-american people complaining that americans are talking about american-centric issues on the internet and being like "nOt EvErYtHiNg ReVoLvEs ArOuNd YoU iDiOtS" and it's like. yeah buddy. that's why we didn't apply it to anywhere else in the world. we're talking about the specific issues we are facing as americans living in the states. the reading comprehension is atrocious