#two things can be true at the same time

[friedthoughts]

The Leclerc Brothers on Leo Leclerc 🐶

WHICH OF YOU IS THE BEST UNCLE FOR LEO, CHARLES' LITTLE DOG?

Arthur: I don't think we're very good! Lorenzo: We've tried to take good care of him, but Léo is a very spoiled dog. He needs a lot of attention. He doesn't sleep alone and he's not very clean. I've decided to keep him during the day rather than at night. He's adorable, but not always easy! Arthur: He goes crazy every time he sees me, but I've never taken him home. I'm the good-time uncle.

vs

The other fixture in the F1 Paddock, alongside his girlfriend Alexandra, is their miniature long-haired dachshund, Leo, already a firm favourite with the fans. He has travelled the globe with Charles.

'I have always grown up around dogs in my family and have always loved them, but also know how much responsibility comes with them,’ he says, and his lengthy time away during the season meant that a larger dog would be harder to travel with.

The couple didn’t actually choose Leo themselves:

‘One of our friends from LA had a dachshund who had puppies, and gave me one as a surprise for my birthday! We were so happy; he has definitely made mine and Alexandra’s life so much better.’ Dachshunds are known to be strong-minded and stubborn, but Leo, Charles tells me, ‘is just the best, he is not that stubborn. He is super well-behaved. I just love him.’ He is, he admits with affection, a biased party: ‘Obviously, I am his Dad, so I am only going to tell you the positives!’.

Bonus:

He is my first dog. We have had three in our family, but Leo is the first one that I have full responsibility for. He is the brother of the dog that a friend had gotten; he was the only one missing from the litter to find a home. So with my girlfriend we decided to take this step and I am more than happy with it!

🐕

[lem0nademouth]

if your reasoning for being anti-abortion is “but eugenics!!1!1!!!” you are still demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of who abortion is for, which is an already existing person.

[cryptid-artha]

''kids who fake disorders make people look bad'' so that means being a bigot is 100% justified because *checks notes* mentally ill children pretend to have a different mental illness for attention sometimes.

Anyway I want every disability, illness diagnosis, and doctors note you have ever received in your entire life on my desk for Friday because I saw a 13 year old say they had autism in tiktok. I am very woke and normal

Jokes aside I'm pretty sure ableism existed before tiktok and other social media. This whole thing about ''fakers taking away resources from DA REAL disabled people'' is mythology. They don't leave disabled people to die because of fakers, it's because the disabled are considered a strain on able-bodied people's resources and therefore do not care if they die. But yes let's limit access to people's ability to live just because a child who wouldn't be able to get those resources as a minor anyway annoyed you once.

You kinda misread and misconstrued my ENTIRE FUCKING COMMENT lol

I said that the fakers add to the problem and make it worse. The problem is already there. But those who fake stuff make it worse on those of us who are disabled.

Hello, ADHD and Autistic here, with severe memory loss and brain fog I can hardly function through half the time. People abusing the meds I need for my ADHD has made getting medicated literally impossible. Or, at least, gave the shit government an excuse to restrict it for those of us who really do need it. Like. I gave the fuck up and am just going unmedicated. I would go through illegal means, but that's unsafe and expensive and I get to starve this week because my weekend commission stream flopped worse than it ever has before but that's besides the point.

Yes. People in power are a huge problem for disabled people. That's a given. But, those people who fake it to look cool or get sympathy make it worse. They cause and reinforce bad steriotypes that cause damage to people who actually have the condition. Like.... I never said they were the main problem? Like, ever???? I just said they add to a problem that's already there and make it worse.

I also finished out with something along the lines of "Don't treat people like shit because some people fake it." so that people don't have to suffer more than they already do because of some kids who think being mentally ill is a trend to follow for views. We can't do shit about the people in power. But we CAN do our part by treating disabled people with the respect they deserve.

We already have it bad enough with how we are treated. We don't need negative steriotypes being created and reinforced by people who fake it on top of that, thank you very much.

Also, one thing being true does not mean the other thing can not also be true.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

MAY-U - Ori x OC

Ah, a bit of self-indulgent nonsense!

Characters: Ori x OC

Prompts: Bookshop - Chiropractor - Librarian - Two things can be true at the same time

Words: 2 200

Warnings: FTM character, slight nudity, massages, innuendo

“Say, Charlie,” Fíli looked up from his beer with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Would you do me a favour?”

Charlotte, who only loathed her family’s nickname more than her actual, official name, narrowed her deep green eyes in instinctive suspicion before cocking her head inquisitively. “You can always ask. I still owe you one for letting me use your body for my anatomy study.”

“Abuse, you mean?” Fíli cackled and punched her shoulder playfully.

She’d known the young man for years and usually trusted him fully, but she’d witnessed the catastrophic consequences of his present facial expression once too often not to be wary of his next words.

“I’ve got this friend,” he started in his most melodious and persuasive voice, lifting his strong hands to nip her protest in the bud. “He’s been studying hard to become a librarian, and all these hours hunched over heavy books have left him with a sore neck.”

When she merely stared at him in wordless outrage, he chuckled. “He’s working in the little bookshop by the campus, and I’m sure he could get you a discount on that absurdly weighty tome of technical literature you’ve been eyeing!”

This gave Charlie pause; she’d been in that establishment more than once, but she couldn’t recall ever spotting a conspicuous hunchback on the premises. Then again, she was not actively paying attention to people when there were so many interesting and desirable books around.

“I’m a medical professional, not a masseuse,” she finally muttered. “And I’m not even licensed yet—I can’t go treating people willy-nilly.”

“Oh no,” Fíli exclaimed triumphantly. “This would be strictly non-professional. Really, it would be unethical of me to suggest otherwise.”

“So, he’s hot,” Charlie grunted as soon as she realised she’d blindly run right into the trap her friend had set for her without so much as earnestly trying to dissimulate it.

With a charming grin, Fíli shrugged. “Couldn’t say—I’m not into men. I don’t think there’s anything really wrong with him, so there is no need for you to deploy all your professional skills. See? No ethical dilemma—it’s just a little favour amongst friends.”

“That man—what’s his name?—is not my friend, though,” Charlie protested weakly, thinking of the book she desired so passionately and could not possibly afford.

“His name is Ori, and he could become your friend. I’ll tell him you’ll swing by—I’ll even throw in a pizza for the both of you to enjoy once the deep tissue massage is over.”

“You should have become a salesman,” Charlie grumbled but reluctantly agreed to present herself in the cosy bookshop the following day.

“You’re the best. I promise you won’t regret it,” Fíli cheered, pressed a resounding kiss onto her cheek, and sauntered out of the small pub without paying his tab.

Ori kept glancing at the door as if he expected Death personified to stroll in at any moment.

Ever since Fíli had ambushed him at closing time the previous day, he’d been in a state of high alert that did nothing for his already painfully tense neck and shoulder muscles.

Toying with a bookmark absent-mindedly, the future librarian wondered whether all Fíli’s friends were de facto worried whenever he declared that he had an “idea”. At first, the promise of a free massage had sounded too good to be true—Ori knew that he was in desperate need of a bit of relaxation—but, only too soon, that fleeting sense of nascent ease had dissolved in a surge of paralysing panic.

“Did you tell your friend…You know…?” he’d squeaked, dreading whatever answer Fíli could have given.

“I’ve told Charlie that it would not be a professional chiropractor session, so there was no ethical dilemma impeding the obtainment of a license in the future,” Fíli had grinned. “Just a little kneading between friends!”

“You know exactly what I mean! What did you say about me?”

“Nothing! I want it to be a surprise. We’re friends, after all, and all my friends deserve good things!”

“I am not a good thing!” Ori had exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air helplessly.

“To Charlie, you will be. Now shut up and don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!”

The mere insinuation that he was being ungrateful had had a chilling effect on Ori, and so, he had simply done as he’d been told and kept his mouth shut.

Only 10 more minutes until closing time, he now thought nervously as his eyes flew to the clock once more. Maybe, that mysterious friend would not show up after all. No doubt, Fíli’s college buddies had better things to do than to go dispensing much-needed healing interventions—free of charge moreover—to random bookworms they’d never met.

And then, the bell over the door jingled and a young woman strode in, her curly hair tousled by the wind and her round cheeks flushed with colour.

Ori’s heart sank.

“Oh Fíli, you ass,” she cursed under her breath as she approached the counter with unwavering determination.

Ori, who’d always felt so safe behind the solid wood, all of a sudden couldn’t shake the sensation of being woefully exposed on the small dais, akin to a sacrificial lamb about to meet its bloody demise.

“You must be Ori,” she said in lieu of a proper greeting. “How come I’ve never seen you around? Surely, I should have…”

“You’re a girl,” Ori replied sheepishly. “Fíli didn’t say…He let me believe…”

“Righto!” She threw her head back and laughed, wishing Fíli to hell for playing wicked games with his so-called friends’ emotions. “I’m Charlie, and I’ve been told that you needed a neck massage.”

“Charlie,” Ori replied softly, the wheels in his head clicking softly into place. He knew her—of course, he did.

The small, curvy woman had come in several times in the last few weeks to look at one specific book, and he’d often wondered whether he should simply offer to use his employee discount for her to purchase it. Ori knew they’d never sell the blasted thing at full price anyway; it was much too expensive and heavy, and the internet had made it patently obsolete.

“Do you want the book?” he asked as if he’d not heard or processed her very clear explanation for her presence in the shop.

“No, well yes, but not now…You’re almost off, aren’t you? Do you live far? I don’t think that you’d want to do this at your workplace, would you?” Charlie bit her lip nervously, blinking rapidly when Ori only stared at her, dumbfounded, instead of answering.

"Very close, actually. I have…I rent the flat upstairs, so…Do you really want to do that?”

No, Charlie thought, but she’d given her word to Fíli, and she was not the kind of woman to flake even if she was aware that she’d been tricked mercilessly. She’d not grant her friend the satisfaction of having cowed her so easily!

Ori, as she had secretly suspected, was exactly her type—pale and doe-eyed, he had the elfin charm of a porcelain doll and hair shimmering in all the shades of a midnight bonfire.

Few were the people who knew that Charlotte, her parents’ perfect princess, was both astoundingly indiscriminate when it came to the gender of her partners and laughably partial to gingers.

Fíli, of course, was one of those rare chosen ones who were all too aware of that particular proclivity of hers, and a part of her resented him ferociously for having hidden away a rare beauty like Ori all this time.

“Better late than never,” she muttered to herself as she watched Ori lock the register hastily and turn down the lights.

From his reduced range of motion and frequent wincing, she could deduce that Fíli had indeed been right in his layman’s diagnosis, and her professional pride was awakened at once.

Even though they all agreed that it would be better for her not to deploy any overly technical manoeuvres, she couldn’t help but think that a proper deep tissue massage would do wonders for the poor wretch.

“You know that for this to work, you’ll need to relax sooner or later, right?” she teased gently when Ori gestured at the small, squeaking door leading to the backroom jerkily.

The small “hmph” sound that escaped her host as he climbed the rickety stairs stiffly ahead of her made her smile instinctively, and she impetuously vowed that she’d make him unwind at all costs.

His flat turned out to be so small that they walked through the door and right into his crowded living room, and Charlie breathed in the warm, dusty air greedily as if she could learn more about the enthralling tenant through mere inhalation.

“Erm, do you need anything?” Ori asked, kneading his fingers fitfully as he tried to push a pair of worn sneakers under the couch with his heel. “A drink or…”

“A flat surface,” Charlie replied calmly. “If possible one that is accessible from every side…and a lemonade, if you have one.”

She’d only added the last part to give him the illusion of control, and she suppressed another grin when he dashed into the adjoining kitchen right away.

Oh yes, Fíli would definitely pay for this!

Listening to the clinking of glassware and the thump of a fridge door being opened and closed, Charlie assessed the cramped living room. If she half-converted the rickety sofa bed, she could push aside the coffee table and walk around the furniture with ease…she had to keep herself distracted, lest she dwell too long and too intensely on the endearingly wavering smile or the deep, dark eyes of her unwitting host.

“Here we are,” Ori spoke behind her and handed her a promotional glass with another heart-wrenching smile that made her shiver with joyful anticipation of she knew not what exactly. “I can give you every discount in the system for the book; I’m sure we can bring it down to an almost reasonable price!”

He was sweet, Charlie realised, and that alone made her all but forget about the blasted volume of wisdom, slumbering in the fragrant darkness downstairs.

“Let me earn it,” she purred, feeling for her bag across the mutilated couch. “Why don’t you take off your sweatshirt? You’re not allergic to arnica or mint, right?”

Ori shook his head but didn’t undress.

“There is something you need to know,” he murmured, visibly ill at ease. “Fíli should have told you, really, but…”

Beneath his wispy beard, his face filled with colour, and Charlie gripped her bag tighter to keep her hands from reaching out to dip her fingers into that entrancing pool of blossoming pink.

She nodded encouragingly.

“I was not…My biological sex does not correspond to my gender identity,” he said firmly, belying the tension in his shoulders and the quiver in his lower lip. “But I am a man!”

“Two things can be true at the same time,” Charlie replied in her most professional tone. “As it is, I might also need a towel, please. I will not ask you to take off any more than your sweatshirt if you’re not comfortable with that, but I need to have access to your shoulders. We usually cover the chest area of people with breasts.”

“Oh, they’re not worth the hassle,” Ori chuckled nervously. “So, I just wanted you to know…in case that changes things for you.”

“Other than me asking for a towel, not really. Why would it?” Charlie was genuinely confused. “Right. You’re only here as a favour to Fíli…I didn’t mean to imply anything improper…I’m sorry!”

“You’re cute,” Charlie interrupted his self-conscious waffling resolutely. “Fíli knew precisely what he was doing.”

She grabbed him by the shoulders, digging her fingers into the tense muscle tentatively, and looked him in the eye. “It changes nothing. Now, let’s start before I forget myself!”

Her breathy confession seemed to embolden Ori considerably, for he tore off his woollen sweater in one fluid motion and tossed it aside.

“Sports bra! Sensible choice!” Charlie praised and motioned at the cleared sofa bed. “Lay down please.”

On account of her previous act of unsanctioned vandalism, she now could comfortably crouch over him for the first part of the massage and thus managed to apply enough pressure to work out the knots of compounded tension progressively.

“You should watch your posture!” Charlie muttered as she got up and walked around the piece of furniture to stand over her softly moaning new friend.

“Will you come back if I don’t?” he asked dreamily.

“I’ll come back if you ask me back,” she replied immediately. “I’d rather not see you in pain, though. Now close your eyes and enjoy!”

No matter what she’d said before, she had to admit that she was thoroughly enjoying this, and—even though her hands grew tired—she wished that this moment would never end.

“Charlie,” Ori whispered then. “As this is in no way a professional intervention, I can take off the bra, if…”

“Yes,” she said with unmistakable fervour, relieved that her unshakeable sense of professional ethics would not be compromised by whatever happened next. “Please!”

↬ Masterlist

Thank you so much for joining me on this new adventure.

@fellowshipofthefics here's the next one for May!

Lots of love from me!

[nirvanaida]

Name one Republican alive right now who is not directly a hypocrite. In good faith I'll let go any indirect slip-ups they're too cowardly to own and try to sweep under the rug, all I'm asking for is one Republican that does not say he believes or feels one way while knowingly doing the exact opposite when the cameras aren't on them.

[adulthumanproblem]

Yes yes, rainbow capitalism, this, that

15, heck, 10 years ago I could not have bought this at the little supermarket in my small village. Now it's just. There. This makes me happy.

[vintagebutterfly]

Both sides are absolutely relatable

I’m amazed there’s people nostalgic for highschool and being a teenager literally when I feel super low I think “well at least I’ll never be 17 again” like a positive affirmation and it does make me feel better

[beastsovrevelation]

Why is Vincent surprised Adriel doesn't remember what he said? My boy received a crossbow bolt through the brain right after. 🤣

Because, jokes aside, WN is sorely stingy when it comes to lore. We know Adriel's kind can't be killed on Earth, but we have no idea whether they'd be impacted in other ways, for example, if a brain injury would cause memory loss.

[currantlee]

Fine! Since absolutely no one asked — here’s my take on Sabrina Carpenter’s latest announcement as someone who was neutral about her previously.

TL;DR: it’s satire, it’s punk as fuck, and I love it. Now get ready, because I’m about to sound really fucking intellectual here.

The album is called Man’s Best Friend, a metaphor usually used for dogs. Sabrina Carpenter puts herself into the position of one on this album cover: on all fours on the floor, having her head pet. It’s reminiscent of a sexual activity known as pet play or doggy play. Needless to say, I think this is deliberate. Sex is always a good way to ruffle some feathers.

If you’ve listened to Manchild, her latest single, it’s basically her insinuating that a lot of men are idiots and incapable of keeping their lives together without women.

Sabrina Carpenter likes to play with vintage and Americana aesthetics, both of which are reminiscent of a more sexist, more misogynist time. And by ‘play’ I mean she subverts them. I think this is another instance of her taking something very familiar (and in this case, provocative) and subverting it — but not in the lazy, boring way (which would be ‘consensual kink’ — which, you can still interpret it that way, but I would go a step further).

I think Man’s Best Friend, and its cover, are about how men are incompetent and need women to assist them like service dogs. They know this, and they are so scared of being without a woman to take care of them that they force women into submission, into their ownership, to the point where they make the women believe they are doing this voluntarily. So a man’s best friend is not his dog, it’s women — and men would do good to remember that. The layers you can apply to this are insane, and I FUCKING LOVE IT for that! Edit: But most importantly — it’s a great way to start a conversation about some things that unfortunately still exist in our society and that we should really have some conversations about.

Also. On a meta level, the fact that she is doing that, putting herself into that position? She isn’t catering to men, she is actively taking their expectations, turning them around, and throwing them right back at them. She is owning her sexuality, adding yet another layer to this hell of a power move.

And yeah. Maybe this is me reading too much into everything (which is something I like to do). But honestly? I don’t care. I think this is fun, I think this is the best thing I’ve seen come out of pop since I can’t even tell you, I think it doesn’t matter if I’m right or not ‘cause I’m gonna appreciate this regardless, I think this is complex or can at least be interpreted in a complex way, I think it ultimately doesn’t matter which interpretation is ‘correct’ because it’s powerful either way, and yes, once again, I FUCKING LOVE IT!!

Bonus points because this is so punk that it pissed off the extremist babies on all possible sides, and I’m kinda here for that.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

dreaming abt sophomore year class swap bard!riz

[ahappydnp]

Hey so I hope this is okay to ask as i’m a bit confused and crazy atm. In the WIQYT screenshots going around again about the doc, the last one talks about Dan having self image issues. I was curious if you could possibly help spread some light on the subject maybe? I remember always seeing him posted on the proana blogs back in the day frequently, and even in Dan and Depression he says his lexapro made him “gain loads of weight” but it never seemed like anything visually changed. I know you’re not a mind reader and trying to understand another persons self image is impossible, I guess I just maybe don’t understand where this comes from. I know he used to rag on himself in videos by putting pillows down his shirt to signify that he was chubby as a kid even tho he never was from the pictures available. I’m aware this is very parasocial but I’ve been going through a lot self image wise and he never got to make his documentary where he talks about it and idk. To me, Daniel is lowkey a philosopher and i’m so desperate to hear what he has to say on the subject. Can you think of any times he’s talked about this kind of stuff? (Sorry for this being such a downer anon i just kinda feel like i need to hear about it rn and i don’t know where to look)

I hope your weekend is amazing and filled with joy and laughter!

like you said, no one knows what goes on inside someones mind especially things like insecurities. but i do think it's two seperate issues that dan has talked about (under the cut for sensitive topics)

i think it's important to remember how society treated weight in the early 00s, obviously it was muuuuch worse for women but boys would also get ridiculed for their weight regardless of their size. i assume that dan did get picked on for being bigger (more than likely he was probably just taller than his classmates but kids just really like generalizing words like "fat" and that sticks in your brain). it was such a shitty time for body acceptance as a whole and he was bullied so much i'm sure people did throw in weight comments just to add to the blow.

and like everything else that's going to stick and then when you're a little older you just repeat this truth that other people told you that "i was a fat kid and fat=bad just like gay=bad so i'm going to agree with them" of course that was suuuuuuper toxic and unhealthy and dan definitely did even more damage peddling casual fatphobia and making insensitive jokes online. but he was pretty openly struggling with his body image from the get go (all the ED comments he made in 2009) and as we know, there's generally another root cause. dan's talked about his self hatred when he was younger (particularly stemming from the bullying and his internalized homophobia) at length and it makes sense that manifested into body dysmorphia the second part is in that screenshot from WIQY he was specifically talking about gay men's beauty standards which is a whole different issue altogether. he's talked a lot about his baby face and how he's felt insecure about his lack of "masculine" features and build. he's talked about how people don't take him seriously because he doesn't look like "a man". there's also the added layer of him being the poster child for ~pretty boy twink~ who's now getting older and aging out of those very rigid beauty standards solely because he's no longer 21. but gay men can be incredibly toxic when it comes to labels and what's attractive (i mean think about the fact that grindr literally has a body type filter so you can exclude whole subsets of people). so he's not saying that he's not attractive or not the general beauty standard, it's that he came out and fell face first into gay standards discourse because he was actively engaging and consuming queer community in a new light

allll of this to say i COMPLETELY get how it can instinctively rub people the wrong way when dan howell, who was famously coined "the hot one" for years and has had people drooling over him his entire adult life, says he's insecure. it can feel like a slap in the face if you don't consider his own struggles but i do think he's self aware and healed enough to know that he's very much within societal beauty standards (tall, straight sized, white, eurocentric features) and has actually benefited greatly in his career because of his looks. and he's unpacked a lot of his fatphobia and has made a point to be vocally body positive even going back to like 2016/2017

[alienfangs-mov]

:(

This scene kills me, he's such a show pony he can't even say no to Sage taking his picture.

(So cute) Mask on as soon as he sees a camera

It's not even until she's done taking the picture that he realizes that his reaction was completely compulsive

[veliseraptor]

one thing I'm thinking about this morning is how I think xue yang has a very funny relationship with song lan's having hurt xiao xingchen.

on the one hand he's incredibly smug about it because yessss exactly as planned, he set it up and song lan knocked them (xiao xingchen) down for him, perfectly executed, well done xue yang, two daoshi wrecked for the price of one

on the other hand as he gets closer to xiao xingchen he's also like. that dirty traitor. how dare he. >:(

[soulmvtes]

had a lovely little day by myself today, feeling so much joy and whimsy <3

[qoldenskies]

i love giving donnie ninja turtle food issues because he just like me fr

[roykentschesthair]

I’m going to play Veilguard day one

I took days off work so I could play it the moment it drops

I’ve waited ten years (a literal 1/3 of my life) for this game and I’m gonna play it and even if it’s not my favorite I’m sure I’ll still enjoy it because BioWare, for all their faults, does manage to write characters and companions that draw you in

But I’m still going to be skeptical. I’m going to be critical, you can critique things you love.

I’d argue you should critique them

They’ve had 10 years to do this, it should be as close to flawless as humanly possible

And we’re allowed to be upset if it’s not

We’re allowed to hold space for disappointment and discussion and while I agree it’s best to wait for the entire game before deciding if it’s good or not.

Let people criticize what we have seen and had confirmed about the game.

Let people be skeptical and nervous and maybe even a little disappointed

It doesn’t mean we’re not still massive fans