#topics of discussion

[simonoliverseville]

“Can people go one minute without interrupting me about something irrelevant?”

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

being called "cringe" by another tumblr user is just so..............my sibling in christ u are also on the app

[blackkatdraws2]

[ORV] Happy (late) Father's Day to Han Myungoh. Spread the word for Men's Mental Health Awareness Month



[kendyroy]

they should release the scene where wade undresses logan

please let’s have a full discussion on this…

where do you all think wade ripped off those clothes to get to logan’s jammies? where’d he get the gloves? does logan remember any of this? how many layers was logan wearing?

[marlynnofmany]

Spice in Space

“Of course your food is a biohazard,” Zhee said while the security scanner approved our delivery.

“The label’s just a precaution,” I said. “Pretty sure this is mostly pepper.”

“Right, yes, the food flavoring that gives your meals the flavor of fire.” Zhee tilted his head, bug eyes looking at everything at once while managing to roll sarcastically. “Not a hazard at all.”

“I don’t mean the really spicy kind,” I said as the box slid out of the scanning machine. “Just the regular spices to sprinkle over eggs and whatnot.”

Zhee picked up the box in his pincher arms. “Right, because eating fire-flavored unhatched creatures is a perfectly normal thing to do.”

I laughed and followed him out into the spaceport. “It is where I’m from!”

“Absolute maniacs, all of you,” Zhee declared with a flick of his antennae. “Now where is that food stall? The briefing said it would be tiny.”

“Tiny and close,” I agreed, looking around. Once past the security checkpoint, this place was a riot of booths and pedestrians with an artsy wave pattern on the ceiling that seemed to dampen the sound. It wasn’t as loud as most spaceports I’d been in.

“I see a directory,” Zhee said. “Let’s just check that.”

“Wait, there it is!” I pointed to a little kiosk between full-sized restaurants. It only held enough room for tubs of ingredients, a gigantic hot plate, and the guy currently scraping food around on it with flair. The sign said “Earth Fry.”

“Of course,” Zhee said, moving toward it. “I should have just looked for the fire.”

As we maneuvered through the crowd of Strongarms, Mesmers, and miscellaneous others, the guy tossed the food with his spatula, caught it deftly in a takeout box, and handed it to the customer waiting at the side: another human. No surprise there. By the time we arrived, he was ready to greet us.

“Hello! Can I interest you in some Earth Fry?”

Zhee held up the sealed package. “We have Earth ingredients for you. Apparently they are hazardous.”

“Oh! Yes, thank you! That’ll be the hot sauce and other stuff.” He took the box and found a flat surface to put it on, then accepted the payment tablet I held out for him. “Thanks for being so fast. Somebody got a bit clumsy during the lunch rush and knocked over a few things. Paid for ‘em, but I can’t get all of these local.” He signed for the delivery while I tried to place his accent. Australian?

“Luckily we were just coming from a trade hub,” I said. “This stuff is straight from Earth.”

“Excellent. It’s been a while since I was home, and you can’t beat the real thing for spices.” He handed the tablet back.

“Very true,” I agreed. “Where are you from?”

“Melbourne,” he said while I congratulated myself on guessing right. “Still getting used to how little any of that matters out here. To the average offworlder, Earth is one place with one type of person.”

“And we’re all lunatics who eat poison, right?” I agreed with a sly glance at Zhee.

He spread his pinchers. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Hey now, the garlic is only poisonous to some creatures from Earth,” the guy said, pointing to an airtight tub. “And the onions. If you want the real toxins, the alcohol stores are that way.”

Zhee looked at the ceiling. “It’s like you all have a death wish. Or take pleasure in hurting yourselves.”

“Some of the pain tastes good?” I said with a wave toward the hot sauces.

At the same time, the guy said, “There’s a reason they call us space orcs.”

I laughed. “Do they still? I wouldn’t think enough people even know what an orc is.”

To my surprise, Zhee recited, “Mythological creature from your planet, famed for strength, durability, and lack of foresight. Rumors do go around.”

“I suppose that’s one way to put it,” I said.

“Nobody thinks that’s funnier than my family,” said the Australian. “I get no end of jokes about it. Especially from my mom’s side — she’s from the US, and thinks we all say ‘space’ funny.”

“Does she?” I asked. “Interesting word to focus on.”

“Right? She insists that it sounds like ‘spice,’ and I just don’t see what she’s on about. But!” He held up a finger and fiddled with his collar. “That did lead to my favorite shirt.” With a dramatic sweep of his overshirt, he bared a bright red T-shirt that said “Spice Orc.”

I burst out laughing. “That’s fantastic!”

“Mom was pretty proud of herself for this one,” he said. “Gave it to me for my last birthday.”

Zhee declared, “Appropriate. Entirely in character for your species.”

“And we even brought you spice!” I laughed.

“That you did!” he said, resettling his clothes. “Care to try some? The shredded beef dish is particularly tasty.”

I looked at Zhee, then turned back without waiting for a response. “We’ve got a couple minutes. I’d love some. With extra garlic, please!”

“Coming right up!” He spun his tongs like a gunfighter, and began tossing ingredients onto the hot plate where they sizzled madly.

Zhee just grumbled and looked put-upon, but didn’t object. I planned to make a big deal of enjoying the tasty fire-and-poison meal on our walk back to the ship.

~~~

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book.

Shared early on Patreon! There’s even a free tier to get them on the same day as the rest of the world.

The sequel novel is in progress (and will include characters from these stories. I hadn’t thought all of them up when I wrote the first book, but they’re too much fun to leave out of the second).

[lumons]

thinking about how all the heroes in thunderbolts are physical hand to hand combat fighters and how this is more than just their fighting styles/abilities/skills but also a greater very pointed metaphor for their unhealthy coping methods.

throughout the movie punching stuff doesn’t get them as far as they would all hope. they can’t easily escape the incinerator, they can’t easily climb the elevator, or fight together, but beyond that they are battling depression and negative thoughts by punching it all down as yelena puts it. and of course yelena also gives this piece of advice to bob, who has never really known how to deal with his own dark thoughts and, when presented with the chance, he starts punching the void. but especially then it becomes the most clear it has ever been — punching and shooting shit is not the way out. it’s what the void wants. it’s the repetition of this violent, self-destructive cycle. the void slowly starts to take him over that by the point yelena comes to pull him into a hug he’s only moments away from being entirely consumed by the darkness. and ultimately it isn’t the punching or physical combat that wins out. bob’s dragged away by a tight embrace that perhaps opens him and the others up to a new perspective or realization about what it takes to overcome their struggles.

[soulbrand]

man you all were not kidding abt the therapyspeak in veilguard.

[nickpeppermint]

So i watched it, and this mf doesn't know what he's talking about AT ALL

He whines that Elio doesn't have a unique shape (neither do protagonists of Coco / Inside out / most of Incredibles cast which he praises) and completely ignores all the unique aliens, which INTENTIONALLY CONTRAST to humanoid Elio

He doesn't know the difference between art style, character appearance and silhouette, and he only sees it as a marketability tool

He doesn't bring shape language reasons, characters should be shaped like squares just for funnies i guess

He says that Elio's design is not memorable, and compares him to characters from Up, who is the most generic normal people, who looks this way for relatability sake, they're recognizable only because you've already seen this movie as a kid

If you draw Carl or Russell in a different art style you wouldn't recognize em i swear, while Elio, Mei, Luca have tons of distinct and unique features

You don't need to make character a dodecahedron to make him memorable, the design must correlate to its tone first, Elio rounded cuz he's friendly and inoffensive

If you relate more to Carl than to Elio or Luca or Mei well it's because you're old af, and just hate everything new

"But Pixar used to be about animals and objects n shit, now there are too many humans" first of all, most Pixar movies have big human focus in them, second Elio isn't just about the single human, there are wacky aliens, Luca has sea monsters, Turning Red has big effing red panda, are these not unique and memorable enough creatures?

I can cherry pick a bunch of old characters with Le Bean Mouth, but which is only bad now because a meme said so, and we all must hop on a trend made by a bunch of a-holes who have no idea what they're talking about and spread negativity about the movie they haven't even seen

[transingthoseformers]

Other news outlets: Optimus Prime signs peace treaty, prevents interplanetary war between Cybertron and Earth

Decepticon news: Lord Megatron's loser ex-husband cyber-chickens out of fight with squishy organics

This is 100% what would happen

[sengenism]

well aware that gen manages senku's finances but wdym inagaki mentioned it again during his birthday live yesterday like yeah ok whatever just kill me i guess

[contact-guy]

what's the butchest emoji? My choice is 🫡 but I want to gather a range of opinions.

[genericpuff]

it's so funny that dramatubers are calling the censoring of asmongold from bbno$'s new music video a "controversy" when it's actually a totally reasonable and sane thing to do and the only controversy is the fact that asmongold still exists

not funny haha funny weird

it's just flat out weird that people keep defending this loser, you're weird, go outside

[khaire-traveler]

hello! i love your blog and I wanted to ask a question, do you/how do you balance science & faith? Do you completely ignore science (especially things like evolution), do you work it into your practice, or something else?

sorry if im not getting my question across well, this is coming from someone who has been practicing as of almost a year, i've been asking myself this recently and I wanted to know other practitioners opinions on it.

Khaire, Nonny!

I do incorporate science into my practice. Personally, I believe that trying to separate the two is kinda...not great. Being spiritual shouldn't mean that we can't be scientific also, in my opinion; both things absolutely can coexist. I'm not a mythic literalist, for the most part, so I'm sure that makes it a bit easier for me lol. Spirituality isn't an "illogical" thing, and I think that's a common misconception spread throughout the U.S. society especially: that spirituality is purely hogwash, and no spiritual person can be a scientist.

I believe in evolution, and I also view it as a very beautiful thing! I love animals and plants, I love the history of the earth, I love the science of weather and the ocean and the sky and space. I incorporate it into my practice as subtly as breathing. I say this in the sense that it's not really a big deal for me; I don't draw a line between "science" and "spirituality". Spiritual things can be scientific, and vice versa. Are the stars that burn millions of light-years away from us just beyond our atmosphere not filled with a divine beauty? Is the fact that trees that have lived for millions of years still being alive today not a reason for pause? Is the existence of our bodies at all not indicative of some divine intervention, some living miracle? There is SO MUCH that had to go right in order for us to even be here.

So yeah, I tie these things together because I don't believe they were ever meant to be separate. Someone once told me that only fools separate science and religion, and to some degree, I feel there is truth in that statement. Those who ignore vaccines on account of their religion, who deny the existence of evolution, who deny things that have been proven time and time again - those are fools. I'm not really a judgemental person, but when it comes to these things, I have rather strong opinions (some family members of mine are like this, and that's partially why; I've seen the harm directly). My advice is to not separate these things, but I'm obviously quite biased. It's ultimately up to you on what you decide to be right for your practice.

[underwater0firework]

I still can't believe that Bryan Fuller wrote gay fanfiction of Thomas Harris's world-renowned horror series and managed to get it aired on cable television.

[srslylini]

I have some thoughts about the idea of forgiveness and moving on we see in media and fans. The thoughts mostly come from being in therapy and spending time with people who specialize in those fields and helped me come to terms with my own pain.

This can very well be taken in general but is mostly about Vi.

Right. So.

Vi is a genuinely interesting character, who has gone through hell and back to put it lightly. She lives in conditions in the undercity that has people who don't live in them wear masks to handle them. She grew up and saw her parents die, which means she had to step up. Vander did adopt her, her sister, Mylo and Claggor but Vander still put a lot of responsibilities on Vi. She was told she cannot be selfish when people look up to her.

Then, of course, the entire act 1 of season 1 happens, which in itself is already very much and not something that should have ever happened to anyone, let alone a kid/teenager. She then, on TOP of all of this, got thrown into Stillwater after seeing her entire family die (and presumed Powder also as dead, although she continued to hope), where she was canonically beaten, starved, put into isolation and... the rest is up to interpretation because I guess the writers did not care. But that interpretation is not a good one.

What I am trying to say with all of this is that Vi has been put through so much by the system and by people (Enforcers get a special mention here) all around her.

This gets me to the point. I see a lot of people, the writers themself even, talk about how Vi needs to (or already did) forgive and move on. And I just wonder where this idea comes from?

In all my time in therapy, no matter what and who I talked about, you know what I have never heard? That I need to forgive.

What I heard instead was rather close to this:

"What happened was not your fault. It happened and can't be changed. But there is still something you can do, because you stand here now. You can imagine yourself back then and guide yourself. Hold yourself and tell the younger version of you that what happened isn't ever going to be fine but that you are still here and that you need to be kind to yourself." She told me "take the hand of your younger version and walk her through it because in the end it will have always happened but you can choose to help yourself"

There is a lot more she told me, but that is between her and me. What I am trying to say with this is that not once did I ever get told that I need to forgive the people involved. I am also not trying to say that doing this works for everyone, because health does not work this way. The point I am making is that I find it incredibly weird that we came to the point of saying that the only way to let go is to forgive, when that could not be further from the truth.

I would say understanding it happened and being kind to yourself does a lot more than trying to forgive people who hurt you so much that it ends in you being broken to what seems beyond repair (it isn't I have learned that much, lol). That's what my therapist taught me.

Which brings me back to Vi and why I find the notion of "she needs to forgive and move on to get better" or the writers writing "she forgave and moved on" so weird.

What happened to her is not something that can be forgiven. And... that is okay. Or it should be okay. But for some reason it isn't?

I mean if you can and want to forgive that is for you to do but to say that it is a (or even THE) way to move on does not sit right with me. At all.