#value assuring

[yelrabmena]

fnaf analog horror series where each episode is just 20 minutes of william afton kicking puppies, stealing candies from and popping balloons of small children, causing 9/11 sixteen years earlier (he does it again on the correct date later on don't worry) , all including a loud screaming audio for everytime he does something evil that goes for longer than it should. Also Freddy's barely if is important except for it being where he does the evil and there being a fazbear branded plane

at least 10 videos, each by different people, will be made for each episode talking about how it's "the scariest fnaf content ever made" and "made fnaf ACTUALLY SCARY again!!!" while the thumbnail is something like a monochrome photo of the twin towers with a fucked up looking springtrap facing the viewer with "HE DESTROYED THEM" written in bold, big red text

[artbyblastweave]

Funniest thing I've seen recently, and not funny in a ha-ha way, more funny in a "the endless entropic void gnawing at my will to live" way, was somebody asking around for alternatives to Neil Gaiman, in the light of Neil Gaiman's ongoing fall from grace. As though what we're currently sitting through isn't the collapse of the carefully curated "Good Guy Neil" image that caused people to parade Gaiman as the same kind of preferred progressive alternative to, say, Rowling. As though we won't be in the same goddamn situation in a few years or months, with some number of the new progressive sci-fi/fantasy darlings- not all of them, to be clear, but at least some of them- when their impeccably-curated marketing implodes in on itself and they're revealed to be the same kind of sex pest or abuser. Can you not see the wheel to which you are strapped. The game of human pinball you are condemning yourself to with this mindset. Maybe you do see, and you're just resigned to taking it one soul-crushing disappointment at a time, one "I never would have guessed" after another. I mean I think we all need to get resigned to that one way or another, sun's gonna go out before it stops happening

[purplepenntapus]

I love how many of us unanimously agree that Zoro would use Wado to kill Sanji. Kitetsu is too aggressive, Enma is too ambitious. Wado is Zoro’s heart. Wado represents all the softest parts of him. Wado is promises kept and undying loyalty. Killing Sanji wouldn’t be a conquest, it would be a mercy—an act of love done for a friend who’s suffering.

Truly, Sanji asking Zoro to kill him was placing his heart in Zoro’s hands and trusting him to do what no one else on the crew would be able to. What can Zoro do besides return that with his own heart?

[statictwoo]

I’ve been thinking a lot about earlier versus later seasons of M*A*S*H and I wanted to see if I could figure out how to keep Frank through the tone shift without sacrificing the quality of the story or the character.  Just a fun hypothetical :] Click “read more” for this because it’s going to be a long one.

First I want to look at Charles.  Between Frank and Charles, I don’t think there’s a better or worse character.  Frank is a better tool to further the anti-military, anti-war message, but Charles is a more dimensional character, and it would be impossible for them to switch places without changing the characters.  I mean, imagine Frank in GFA…ridiculous, but I am going to put him there.  Bear with me.

I prefer the earlier seasons for their satire, but I appreciate the later ones for the realism in characters like Charles and Margaret, so it would be nice to keep those strong core values while also delving into more dramatic territory.  Let’s look at what makes Frank work.  Mostly, it’s the fact that he’s a military fanatic.  His adherence to the rules gives Hawkeye and Trapper (also BJ, for a bit) something immediate to push back against.  Frank is a satirization of the unyielding conservative mindset and also a stand-in for the military itself.  Obviously Hawkeye can’t punch the US Army but he can punch Frank.  But being such a useful tool means that when Frank shows a little humanity, the writers have to pass over it pretty quickly.

What makes Charles work?  Simply put, he’s human.  He’s a terrible snob, he’s racist, he’s classist, but he’s fun.  He DOES actually care for people, he likes playing pranks, and he likes Hawkeye and BJ.  But he doesn’t have strong feelings about the military, and that means that when Hawkeye and BJ argue with him, it only serves to illustrate their personal relationship.  Charles doesn’t stand in for anything larger besides economic class, which isn’t really an integral topic of M*A*S*H since it’s something that matters a lot more back home than at war.

I think the only possible way to keep Frank would be to give him a little of Charles and a little of Margaret—that is, redeem him, just a bit.  Whereas Charles was never really painted as an antagonist and Margaret’s character development came slowly (and was also more personal than ideological), I want to give Frank a very sudden and violent awakening.  Let him lose Margaret and let him have that mental breakdown, but treat it with a little more dignity.  Institutionalize him for a bit and then send him back to the 4077th where he’s still the butt of the jokes, and now Margaret, his only support system, is pulled out from under him.  Let him realize that after doing everything right and licking every boot he was supposed to, he still failed.  He didn’t get the girl, and worse, he ended up in the looney bin.  That’s not supposed to happen to Good American Men.  At this point, I’d hope that his need for companionship would override his worship of the military. Every mention of Frank's past shows that he has always been lonely, and I would use this opportunity to really bring that out.

I’d like Frank to make an honest effort to befriend Hawkeye and BJ and put his actions where his mouth is, maybe by ignoring one out of every ten broken rules.  Keep him racist, keep him republican, keep the baffling fact that he doesn’t seem to realize they’ve left America, but make him enough of “one of the guys” that when these things come out it’s disappointing rather than just classic Frank.  His role would have to change from a caricature of the rigid conservative mind to an example of how the ideology you’re trying to fight is often present even in your own friends.  It might even help to highlight his hypocrisy!  Turn a blind eye to Hawkeye’s antics because they’re friends, but write up someone else for the same thing simply because he doesn’t know them.  

Would I want Frank to turn completely against the military?  No, it wouldn’t serve his character.  But I’d like to see him nudged just a little bit and forced to actually confront his own beliefs through Hawkeye's conscious and consistent effort.  It would be nice to get him to the point of thinking before blindly assuming that whatever the army wants is what’s right.  Granted, the guy is brainwashed and 9 times out of 10 he would definitely side with the army, but that 1 time would be fun.  I think it would be a decent way of showing some tangible results of Hawkeye’s resistance.  His actions were never going to stop the war or destroy the military or overthrow the government, but what if he could chip away at the armor starting with one person?  I would have liked the show to say more clearly that Hawkeye’s actions were worth something, and that’s just one way it could have been done.  I know Margaret is also an example but as I said before her growth is largely personal, so I think Frank would be a clearer target here.

So we’ve reached the end, we’re at “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen.”  What are we going to do with Frank?  I think there’s only one option.  Have him quit medicine.  He doesn’t have a genuine passion for it and he isn’t a good doctor, so I think this is the most obvious first step in the right direction that he can make.  We won’t get to see where he goes from here, but hopefully it’s somewhere much better.

I’m not saying this scenario would be any better than just sending him home and being done with it, but It’s fun to think about a world in which we get more Frank.  I’m biased by the fact that I just thoroughly enjoy him.  Maybe this is a universe where the original script for “George” airs!

[amaraudermind]

“Cleo you don’t know what it’s like.”

“I really don’t. But thank goodness I would know I would never have betrayed my day one ally.”

And they believed that. With every fibre of their being, every earnest thought inside them, they believed it.

Cleo remembered the bitter taste of an ax-head biting into her back. Remembered calling out to no avail, her ally, her friend giving chase before cutting her down in the river. They remembered the pain. But more than that, she remembered the rage.

She remembered more than others attributed to the situation, too. Promises made on the eve of destruction, oaths sworn upon with fervor. No secrets, no betrayals. They remembered trading assurances that none of their Fairy Alliance saw red this day, the message that popped up proving Lizzie had lied. And still Cleo had sought to trust them all.

So what if Lizzie had lied? It could have been harmless. It was harmless, she hadn’t come after any of them.

But she hadn’t been the only liar.

And Cleo had been the one to pay the price.

They felt further vindicated in their fury when their new ally fought the curse entirely. If it was possible to avoid killing altogether, it couldn’t have been hard to choose not to kill a specific person. Even when he had killed, it hadn’t been someone close to him at all. And if Scott could decide to not kill, then Cleo was sure she could as well.

Was certain she’d never betray someone because of something as irritating as a curse.

Of course, knowing of the curse, and of the kills, from afar was a pale imitation of what had occurred. Cleo may know that Scott killed, but not the frenzy that took place with it. The panic of having to kill someone, of having to make sure they can’t tell anyone you have it. They’d seen the cool way Scott had handled himself while assuring others he wasn’t going to kill them, but they couldn’t hear the incessant voice craving death death death death. They didn’t know the dread of feeling the curse settle over his bones like an old friend, whispering let’s play this game again, and the terror that brought a horrid need to get it gone as fast as possible.

She’d never felt the itch under her skin, the way it could consume a person.

For all they had seen, for all Cleo had learned about the curse they’d brushed with over the years, They didn’t know.

They didn’t know.

[anoddopal]

Meanwhile, on Banaro Island...

Silva felt a degree of notable concern when the situation between Ace and Captain Teach escalated into pure chaos. Would today be it? Would this be the end of her days? She had predicted The Bla.ckbeard Pirates would be the death of her, but not quite in this way. Yet she hardly had time to ponder the matter before La.ffitte promptly scooped bun up when the rest of the crew booked it; for he feared her shorter stature wouldn't allow bun to run away in time.

The best they all could do was stay out of the way by fleeing the scene. The outcome of the duel was in fate's hands...

[bnesszai]

you ever think about kunichuuzai and skk having to sit down and tell Kuni about Arahabaki and Stormbringer and--

[gu6chan]

just found out my tl works have been put on a website with machine-translated content by one of the same ppl who reassured me not to quit translation because it was "irreplaceably human" during a crisis where i was left questioning the whole point of my efforts when those exact "works" got passed off as something with just as much artistic merit

[demonwebs]

sometimes i sit here and think about lolth is so mercurial and contradictory and how one of her creations couldn't possibly be anything less, so maybe that's why vhaal's made of contradictions, not just in his actions, but how the very essence of his being is a concoction of unexpected kindness and senseless cruelty, blind faith and never ending doubt, arrogance and fragility, childlike innocence and the cold, bitter cynicism of adulthood and i could just sit here and think about this for ages actually

[saints-who-never-existed]

hey i hope this is alright to ask but what would you say to someone who's really going though it these days? it seems like everything's taking 10 times more effort than it did last month

It's more than alright, my friend. <3

-

The first thing I would say is that I'm proud of you.

Just reaching out for a bit of support is a very courageous thing in itself and you ought to be proud of yourself for doing so. You're doing all the right things, even if it doesn't feel like it at the moment!

The second thing I would say is to please, please, please be as easy and gentle with yourself as you can be, and remember that you're not alone. You can't operate at 100% capacity all of the time. You can't do everything. You can't control everything. And do you know what that means?

That you're just the same as every other human on the planet!

-

In terms of practical advice, I can only really tell you what works for me and that is to take a step back and quite literally ask myself, out loud "Okay, so what can I actually do about this issue I'm facing? Right here, right now?"

And the answer to that question is usually one of three things:

Sometimes I can actually do something about the problem, right there, right then - making a phone-call maybe, or sending an email - and it's a matter of summoning the willpower to get it done and out of the way. This is often difficult and quite often sucks, but I find it helpful to look upon it as a kind of self-care - I'm doing a nice thing that my future self will thank me for.

Sometimes I can actually do something about the problem, just not yet - maybe that phone-call has to wait a few days until Monday, say. But that doesn't mean I can't do anything - I can double-check the phone number and availability of the other party, I can plan when I'm going to make the call and figure out what information I need to get when I do so. Even though my future self still has to do the thing, she will thank me for putting in some groundwork.

And sometimes there really isn't anything I can do right there, right then. Sometimes a rough patch does come around and there's nothing to be done but try to ride it out (because, rest assured my friend, it will not last forever!) and to distract myself from it as best I can. This is also often difficult and often sucks but it's also a kind of self-care - doing something nice for myself in the present rather than the future.

-

I love you, my friend. Please, please, please do not hesitate to slide into my DMs if you ever want to talk more. <3

[time-is-restored]

our foreign affairs minister shut off her phone line over the last few days. within the last few weeks of me calling it went from automated message about who to contact for consular assistance, then straight to a person -> prerecorded message with a dedicated 'press 1 to register your views on the israeli palestinian conflict' -> if you want to express your views on Anything you are taken to a message saying 'we can't always answer every call, please contact us via our website instead' and it hangs up on you. can't talk to a person.

i can still so vividly remember the years when penny wong (foreign affairs) specifically used to be the one good politician everyone would look towards for hope in our political space. we wanted her to be prime minister. idpol analysis specifically hoped that her race and sexuality had granted her a more empathetic and critical perspective on politics. now she's the one being called out by name in protest chants. our prime minister used to attend pro-palestinian rallies - we trusted them, our muslim + arab population trusted them. and now This.

apparently ethics and values mean nothing in the face of supporting US interests in the middle east. another minute that any of them spend in power is one minute to many.

[decidentia]

Just a note to say thanks for bearing with me. ♡

[void-tiger]

Maybe it’s the “avoidant” part of my “fearful avoidance,” but. I really just…don’t care if someone I’m attracted to romantically likes someone else, or doesn’t share those feelings. Like, you do you. We’re not dating or owe eachother anything, and it all boils down to autonomy and compatibility, anyway. (And let’s face it, I don’t believe I’ll ever be compatible with anyone in terms of physical intimacy and I’m not able to compromise that without bruising my own boundaries, so.) But also like. I’d just. Turn attraction “off” if I could reach inside my head and flip a switch. Sadly humans aren’t that simple. Absolutely unfair.

Nah. What does get me into the Fearful instead (and struggling with that FA push-pull of “keep away/please don’t leave”): whether or not someone even wants to be my friend. Especially when I also accidentally developed attraction to them.

[monstermp3]

☀️

[cathymee]

Kakegurui chapter! (Ye, El Fili chapter 11)

I love how Padre irene is just... smiling

Camorra losing like a kid LOL (Padre Irene still smiling... creepy)

Diamonds and "values"? BET

Oh my goodness SIMOUN, OF ALL PEOPLE

Part 2 later

aaaaa sorry this had sat too long on my inbox my friend!! i haven't been doing well for the past few weeks BUT i have also gathered enough brain cells to reread some of el fili to familiarize myself again with the events as i've told last time - it has been a while but here i am still ready to beat the shit out of simoun-

everyone in this chapter is very strangle-material ^^ these bitches do nothing but sip tea, gossip and lie to each other's faces. it's incredible. in wednesdays they wear pink

and i love how their personalities shine through in this scene of them playing cards alone lmao - padre irene with his goody-two shoes act, padre sibyla generally not giving a shit, padre camorra (ew) being a goofster (albeit unintentionally this time) and the general being such a doormat (and his poor secretary who just wants to do his job)

AND YEAH LMAO need camorra to play the rampant online combat games we have now can you imagine the way he'd shit talk his enemies

gaah simoun's propositions…ngl kinda chilling! padre sibyla about to drop banger lines and this man's just like "ok if i win u'd say dumb shit that would go against what your religion literally stands for just to further demonstrate the power you all hold against these people under you rule" and THEN "i'd also get to commit literal violations of human rights. as a little treat for myself. :)" like bro???? chill man jesus

and the thing with him being like "we are also tulisans but we're not declaring ourselves to be; that's why these people won't rebel against us" fucks. so hard. and tbh fits so well with our administration rn lmfao because who are they even fooling. literally we're being robbed of our resources but the people that have been blinded by their propaganda wouldn't believe them to be doing anything heinous as long as they're spouting their 'bagong Pilipinas' bullshit. absolutely wild that even these little details can still be paralleled to the happenings of today

AAAA ANYWAY going over to part 2 now!!

[thesixtyin69]

i wanna eat you

In what manner?