#was so genuinely horrifying

[not-poignant]

Different anon here but wanted to mention that the last of us doesn't have zombies. It's actually just humans that are infected with a fungus infection that similar to the thing that happens to insects and turns them mad. Just thought I'd mention that since i was confused about it too lol

Hi anon,

I feel like you're kind of quibbling here to ignore the fact that I just broadly don't like zombie content. I appreciate that you want me to have something to do with TLOU, but I don't. So let's talk about this fungus and zombies.

Did you know that when Cordyceps was first introduced on mainstream media via David Attenborough in 2006, it was called the zombie fungus?

Did you know that the common name for Cordyceps when it was first discovered parasitising ants was known as the zombie-ant fungus? And did you know that the ants parasitised were commonly called zombie-ants? Not just by people who knew nothing about science, but by the scientists who discovered this.

I know a little more about Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps than the average person (for a start, I knew about it before TLOU existed), so I know it's got a lengthy history with being considered the first biological evidence of something as close as we could ever get to zombieficition, and it's since inspired horror authors (and video game creators obvs) around the world.

So you pointing out that the game is about a new form of Cordyceps doesn't make this game any less about zombies as far as I'm concerned, because you know...the science and discussions around Cordyceps.

I mean obviously Cordyceps doesn't create literal zombies in the classic sense (these ants aren't doing anything more than trying to spread the fungus, even as their brains are completely taken over and they're directed into strange behaviours by it), but I also know that TLOU isn't a little fun slice of life romp in the sunshine.

I don't like horror. And I really don't like horror that has anything, on any level, to do with zombies, or anything like zombies. And while you can be like 'oh but they're not really zombies it's a fungus' I just want to point out that this fungus - Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps - has been literally associated with zombies in the mass media and by scientists and by authors for like...decades, including by David Attenborough himself when he first drew more global attention to its existence.

[hotvintagepoll]

I love these polls. But this feels like a weird and uncomfortable time to continue them. While we are in the process of deciding whether or not to give fascism unlimited power in the greatest military power currently on the planet, these posts feel uncomfortably out of touch with the existential threat facing all of humanity. I cannot enjoy voting in silly polls when I know that all of humankind faces the threat of extermination.

When we can return to a less horrifying reality, I would enjoy revisiting these polls. At the moment, to continue them feels like a cruel celebration of privilege from those who are insulated from the most extreme consequences of current proposed policies. It is hard to think of what level of inhumanity is necessary to continue laughing in the face of so much world-wide horror.

Of course you don't have to stay, and I won't begrudge you at all for going. But there's one point of yours here I feel is worth discussing, and it's your last one: laughing in the face of world-wide horror.

There is a difference between laughing at horrifying things and taking a break to laugh. In a world that is horrifying—and, to be honest, has been horrifying since this blog began, and long before then, and will be after it's done—you need to laugh to keep your endurance. I mean that every step of the way. You will not be able to keep fighting for the people who need your help, including yourself, if you don't give yourself a break and let yourself have joy and silliness in little dollops on the regular.

In my real life, when I'm not posting hot silly people on the hot silly people blog, I try to find ways to help change the world for the better. I've been trying for a while. And one of the key things I've learned in that while is that having a little fun and silliness does not dilute the work of making the world better—it gives you the fuel to keep doing it. Your human brain and body need a muchness. They need joy and sorrow and work and rest and laughter to keep going—and before you say, that's a privilege! yes, in today's broken world it often is. It should not be one. It is a right. You have the right to find spots of joy, silliness, time off from the world.

Stuff sucks right now, but taking ten minutes off to let yourself rest is not going to contribute to the end of the world. We need to rest and laugh if we want to keep going. I've always said this is a silly blog, and I maintain that yes! it is silly, it is pointless, this is nothing big at all. Nothing here has any consequence. And that can be a small good thing at the end of the day. It doesn't mean the big stuff doesn't matter if we have the small stuff too. We can have both. We need both.

I hope you find peace, wherever you are.

[lestatslestits]

[aziraphale-is-a-cat]

Can I get some chaotic fucking danny? Not like quirky weirdo, but like erratic behavior, too many teeth, laughing at inappropriate times, twitchy, unstable thermodynamic lawyer vibes?(strangers think he's an addict)

In the time since amity park was destroyed, danny slowly became less and less human. Felt no need to act normal or to try to spare the delicate constitutions of the poor humans who found themselves interacting with him. Just pure, unhinged eccentricity.

He's a powerful ally to the JLD, but not one often called on. Zattana finds herself dealing with him when they have to cross paths bc if she let John do it he'd try to strangle the damn thing.

But one day they have no choice and have to summon him on a mission that includes the young justice or teen titans team which has them super fucking worried about how he would interact with kids, but as soon as he sees the baby team he just acts,,, normal????

And after that they're never able to convince their sidekicks that there is a genuine reason that they don't like Danny bc to them he's a run of the mill teenage super, nothing weird gross or unsettling to be seen, meanwhile the Justice league regularly has to put up with a nightmare taken human form.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you. I'm sorry.

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[moonlightdancer26]

A challenge for people who say that what James did to Snape in Snape’s Worst Memory wasn’t awful: Read the whole chapter but replace Snape’s pronouns with she/her instead of he/him, and then come and tell me that what happened “wasn’t that bad.”

[shoyoist]

i know i haven't spoken about the annihilation of gaza here at all yet, i've been more actively sharing posts and information on my personal accounts on ig/twt/fb etc. however, i'll say this here right now—if you support isr*el or are staying "neutral", i need you to actually go ahead and block me this instant. this is actual genocide, actual ruthless murder of innocent people and children. if you are not firmly on palestine's side, i do not want you on my blog, or to even breathe the same air as me. kindly remove yourself from my space. thank you!

[paarthursass]

not to advocate for MORE sexism in bioware games or anything like that but like...the "gender equality" in DAO is so poorly thought out and by that I am SPECIFICALLY referring to women in the Grey Wardens.

Sure yeah Alistair makes that off-hand comment about how "there aren't many women in the wardens" that's more indicative of the writing team's sexism than anything else, but genuinely speaking I think there's actually a valid reason for women to not be allowed in the Grey Wardens.

You cannot tell me that Alistair and the HoF were the first to discover what Broodmothers were and how they were made. You cannot tell me that Grey Wardens have been fighting back Darkspawn for centuries and they do not know about Broodmothers. And if the Grey Wardens know about Broodmothers, then they must know that sending female Grey Wardens down into the Deep Roads is a bad fucking plan.

I can understand concessions being made during a Blight; hell, being a Grey Warden is such a Shit Job that I can understand the Grey Wardens being willing to take in anyone. But like...the women who join cannot go down into the Deep Roads for their Calling. And I would argue that them going down into the Deep Roads at all is a bad plan unless they've got some equivalent of a suicide pill with them in case of capture by Darkspawn.

It honestly is baffling to me that there's NO mention of protocols for female grey wardens during their Calling or expeditions to the Deep Roads being different AT ALL. All it would take is Alistair saying something along the lines of "So that's why there's so few women in the Wardens" after they discover the Broodmother.

Because a woman joining the Wardens isn't just risking death.

She's risking a horrific, violating transformation that turns her into a creature that endangers everyone.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

OOH YEAH BABY ITS THE SURGERY EPISODE BABY!!! ME AND THE HOMIES NEED SOME NEW FACES FOR OUR NEW PLAN, AND WHO BETTER TO GET THE JOB DONE THAN THE TWO MOST EVIL PEOPLE WE'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF HAVING OUR LIVES VIOLATED BY? I MEAN IT WOULD BE FUNNY. IT WOULD BE FUNNY.

[withmytailtotheworld]

I JUST FOUND OUT THAT THE STARLINGS CAN MFING JUMP??????????????????

[lovely-v]

i feel like all ex-viners have either vanished of the face of the earth, gone to twitter to spout transphobic bullshit, or they're making genuine well-researched exposés about the dystopian state of our society

[mayushiis]

you’re laughing. kaishin got cousin-zoned in the newest detective conan movie and you’re laughing

[astrolavas]

he'll figure it out—

[sailoryooons]

This awful Taeil reveal is reason number one I am ready to drop any idol for any reason, and at the end of the day, we should always keep in the back of our mind that a lot of the idols we stan are men, and they are not always safe spaces for women. I genuinely hope he rots in hell for the things he's done.

[chaoticstarling]

After reading the books, i got inspired to draw a few scenes

[kat1nkulta]

I can’t stop thinking about Loop. Imagine doing everything, anything, to get out of a traumatic situation but the price is you. Your body is gone, your name is gone, your family doesn’t recognice you, you feel like most of your memories of them are gone too anyway. Suddendly you’re denied your identity. It’s like YOU never existed… and someone else took your place. You, whose biggest fears are forgetting and being forgotten in turn. You, who’s hesitant to change and now you’re forced to. You can’t even really blame anyone else because you did get your wish, right?

It’s explained clearly in the game, but the implications of it just hit me extra hard sometimes. Siffrin is as much of a study of Loop as Loop is of Siffrin. They share(d) their fears too so mal du pays words essentially becoming the truth to Loop is just… 🪨🪨🪨🙁🙁🙁💥💥💥💥

What do you do when all you have is ripped from you, all your worst fears come true, and youre forced to just… come to terms with it?