#with more examples

[gentleman-detective]

I saw a post earlier today about how Holmes and Watson would know they love each other but never say it outright, and I’ve been thinking about it all day. It’s so funny how I’ve read countless fanfictions about them but have spent such little time thinking about whether or not they’d say “I love you.”

I’ve finally come to the conclusion that they would say it, but it would be a bit silly, just like how most of the original stories have a bit of underlying comedy.

Maybe Watson says something seemingly unrelated to Holmes’s line of thinking on a case and all the sudden Holmes is exclaiming “That’s it!” and grabbing his hat and coat. As he’s leaving he grasps Watson and says something like “My conductor of light. Oh how I do love you.” Then, Watson spends the whole day wondering what he could have possibly said to reveal the solution to Holmes, not even realizing what Holmes said. It isn’t until that night when he’s laying in bed that he has the classic “Oh. Oh.” moment.

[pinkponygrl]

need to string together my thoughts more on this but reeeeeally interesting to see the influx of media - severance, the substance, mickey 17 - centered on the idea of a double/expendable iteration of yourself.

the dehumanization of workers by the way of non-livable wages, unsafe working conditions, and identity based discrimination (and the current removal of dei initiatives), all drive a wedge between our personhood and the value we are prescribed as a member of the workforce. something something the effects of ai and deepfakes already putting people in danger, the way we live and present our lives online vs in reality, there’s a lot to unpack here. but it’s fascinating to see this trope so widely translated as a storytelling vehicle for these ideas, and that this is the story that people are interested in telling.

[noperopesaredope]

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

[aphel1on]

i have such a love for characters who descend into madness or villainy out of deep, deep empathy. characters who fundamentally cannot cope with the cruel realities they find themselves in and blow up about it in spectacular fashion. fallen angel type characters with tears of outrage in their eyes. characters who break before they bend, and break so badly they splatter blood all over their noble ideals. every variation on it gets me so good

[vexcraft]

cub when there's a prank-ish repetitive task at the function (replacing all crafting tables with obsidian) (hiding thousands of sculk catalysts around the server) (breaking every single bed he can find)

[cryptidtumbleweed]

It's 2025, can we agree that you can be straight and LGBTQIA+ finally? Or is the concept of asexual straights and straight trans people still too complex for this world?

Not aimed at the community as a whole of course but some of y'all gotta stop being so uppity about straight people existing within the community.

[inkskinned]

i have chronic pain. i am neurodivergent. i understand - deeply - the allure of a "quick fix" like AI. i also just grew up in a different time. we have been warned about this.

15 entire years ago i heard about this. in my forensics class in high school, we watched a documentary about how AI-based "crime solving" software was inevitably biased against people of color.

my teacher stressed that AI is like a book: when someone writes it, some part of the author will remain within the result. the internet existed but not as loudly at that point - we didn't know that AI would be able to teach itself off already-biased Reddit threads. i googled it: yes, this bias is still happening. yes, it's just as bad if not worse.

i can't actually stop you. if you wanna use ChatGPT to slide through your classes, that's on you. it's your money and it's your time. you will spend none of it thinking, you will learn nothing, and, in college, you will piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. you will stand at the podium having done nothing, accomplished nothing. a cold and bitter pyrrhic victory.

i'm not even sure students actually read the essays or summaries or emails they have ChatGPT pump out. i think it just flows over them and they use the first answer they get. my brother teaches engineering - he recently got fifty-three copies of almost-the-exact-same lab reports. no one had even changed the wording.

and yes: AI itself (as a concept and practice) isn't always evil. there's AI that can help detect cancer, for example. and yet: when i ask my students if they'd be okay with a doctor that learned from AI, many of them balk. it is one thing if they don't read their engineering textbook or if they don't write the critical-thinking essay. it's another when it starts to affect them. they know it's wrong for AI to broad-spectrum deny insurance claims, but they swear their use of AI is different.

there's a strange desire to sort of divorce real-world AI malpractice over "personal use". for example, is it moral to use AI to write your cover letters? cover letters are essentially only templates, and besides: AI is going to be reading your job app, so isn't it kind of fair?

i recently found out that people use AI as a romantic or sexual partner. it seems like teenagers particularly enjoy this connection, and this is one of those "sticky" moments as a teacher. honestly - you can roast me for this - but if it was an actually-safe AI, i think teenagers exploring their sexuality with a fake partner is amazing. it prevents them from making permanent mistakes, it can teach them about their bodies and their desires, and it can help their confidence. but the problem is that it's not safe. there isn't a well-educated, sensitive AI specifically to help teens explore their hormones. it's just internet-fed cycle. who knows what they're learning. who knows what misinformation they're getting.

the most common pushback i get involves therapy. none of us have access to the therapist of our dreams - it's expensive, elusive, and involves an annoying amount of insurance claims. someone once asked me: are you going to be mad when AI saves someone's life?

therapists are not just trained on the book, they're trained on patient management and helping you see things you don't see yourself. part of it will involve discomfort. i don't know that AI is ever going to be able to analyze the words you feed it and answer with a mind towards the "whole person" writing those words. but also - if it keeps/kept you alive, i'm not a purist. i've done terrible things to myself when i was at rock bottom. in an emergency, we kind of forgive the seatbelt for leaving bruises. it's just that chat shouldn't be your only form of self-care and recovery.

and i worry that the influence chat has is expanding. more and more i see people use chat for the smallest, most easily-navigated situations. and i can't like, make you worry about that in your own life. i often think about how easy it was for social media to take over all my time - how i can't have a tiktok because i spend hours on it. i don't want that to happen with chat. i want to enjoy thinking. i want to enjoy writing. i want to be here. i've already really been struggling to put the phone down. this feels like another way to get you to pick the phone up.

the other day, i was frustrated by a book i was reading. it's far in the series and is about a character i resent. i googled if i had to read it, or if it was one of those "in between" books that don't actually affect the plot (you know, one of those ".5" books). someone said something that really stuck with me - theoretically you're reading this series for enjoyment, so while you don't actually have to read it, one would assume you want to read it.

i am watching a generation of people learn they don't have to read the thing in their hand. and it is kind of a strange sort of doom that comes over me: i read because it's genuinely fun. i learn because even though it's hard, it feels good. i try because it makes me happy to try. and i'm watching a generation of people all lay down and say: but i don't want to try.

[buggachat]

btw I am OBSESSED w this new character, Diane, who wears clovers and has a running gag about weirdly lucky things happening to her. i am eating her scenes up and i want more of her. new favorite minor character

[carapaced]

I’m putting “mansplaining” on a shelf with the other terms the internet isn’t allowed to have anymore like trigger and gaslight. Mansplaining is a specific phenomenon that happens within certain contexts and I feel it’s just been turned into “any conversation that’s mildly annoying you are having with someone who happens to be a man/masculine.”

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[mythicalcoolkid]

You don't wish your disability was worse or more visible, you wish your disability was taken seriously. Please stop confusing the two, I guarantee you would not get the support you need JUST by being more severe or more visible. Please listen to visibly disabled people when we tell you it isn't better on our side

[catgirl-gw-hegel]

big fan of a good shit-eating grin. like a ruckus-causing, pot-stirring type of grin. a smile that truly fucks around and finds out. anyway

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Every time a streaming service puts out a new show with deliberate focus on diverse casting and featuring queer characters, refuses to devote any marketing budget to the show at all, and then cancels it for not getting enough hype, we should be allowed to ritually sacrifice an entertainment executive.

[mienar]

the wandering painter, part one

instagram | shop | commission info

[dykeofmisfortune]

i LOVE IT WHEN REDEEMABLE CHARACTERS RELAPSE INTO THEIR OLD WAYS!!! WHEN THEY GO BACK TO THE DARK SIDE!!! TO THE FEIGNED COMFORT OF WHEN THINGS FELT GOOD!! BUT THEY LEARNED SO MANY THINGS ABOUT THEMSELVES THAT THE OLD PLACE DOESN'T TRULY FEEL AT HOME EITHER, BUT IT'S THE ONLY PLACE TO RUN TO!!!! HELLLL YEAH

[jakeperalta]

the thing is I already know that men and society at large hate women. I know that young men in particular increasingly skew right and towards misogyny (I've read the articles, although all I really need to do is spend any time on any part of the internet to see the evidence). but then every so often something like this happens where it still somehow surprises me. like my god.. they really hate us this much.