#y'know i just don't know a lot of folks who are as into it as i am. so public opinion kinda doesn't exist to me as much as i might like to

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Jewish culture is finding literally the best music artist ever and finding out they only have a hundred listeners or less 😭

[front-facing-pokemon]

[dredshirtroberts]

y'know. i don't often hate the way my brain is and how difficult it makes certain things for me.

i do a little today though.

[retrievablememories]

one of these nights | dpr ian

word count: 1.1k warnings: kissing. and some suggestiveness/sexual tension. a/n: finally conjured something up. hooray for me breaking a nearly 10 year dry streak of never completing a single fic of this guy?

i'm finding that i'm in no mood to write anything explicit lately (cherry bomb wore me out ok), so this will probably not be what a lot of folks are looking for, but… this was written more for my own self-indulgence than anything else. 🤓 please don’t jump me about a part 2, i don't know whether there will be one or not

divider from here

"i'm tired," you say, crossing your arms and leaning your weight against the brick wall behind you. you blink slowly, trying to placate some of your exhaustion and rest your eyes. it's not the most comfortable resting spot, but it's all you have for now until you're back in your heated apartment and in your own bed.

"it should only take him a minute to find his wallet," christian reassures you as he settles himself on the wall opposite to you, knowing how eager you are to get back home. he can't blame you, as the long night is beginning to catch up to him, too.

"i can't believe he lost it in the first place; who the hell does that?" your friend had dashed back in the direction of the restaurant once you all had gotten halfway down the block and he realized he didn't have his wallet. now you are just waiting for him to find it and come back, having ducked into this alleyway to try to get some shelter away from the winter breeze. you wouldn't have gone anywhere near this dim, narrow alley if you were with anyone else, but you trust christian to keep you safe if anything happens. it feels unusual but comforting to be able to trust someone in that way.

christian chuckles lightly and shakes his head. "y'know, i think he was a little too preoccupied flirting with the waitress to keep track of it."

despite your tiredness, you break into giggles at the remembrance of your friend's corny attempts at flirting with lines that seemed to come straight from a poorly-rated romcom.

even after your laughter dies down, your insides pleasantly warmed by the amusement, christian's eyes stay on you—intently watching. when you realize this, you meet his gaze again with a question beginning to form on your lips.

your eyes only have seconds to remain interlocked with each other's before christian is stepping forward in one long stride, his body heat filling your space and his lips capturing yours.

it's completely unexpected. what's more unexpected is the flash of scalding heat that it sends through your body, and the quiet, surprised moan it pulls from you. his lips are warm and unaffected by the cold of the outdoors. strands of his hair tickle your face, and his nose presses against your cheek, the solid metal of his nose ring disrupting the soft touch of his skin on yours.

there are the ghosts of his hands—one at your hip and the other somewhere between the nape of your neck and the side of your jaw—but neither one fully makes contact with your body, just brushing by like he's decided he can't touch you or it might overwhelm him. his mouth parts, and there is the tip of his tongue gliding across the seam of your lips. you are just about to invite him inside, but then there is nothing more.

the kiss ends before you can fully get your bearings within it. christian separates from you and a trail of spit is the only thing left connecting you both, which breaks when he backs away.

"maybe i shouldn't have done that," he says, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth. "i'm sorry." you don't know what to say to that.

the unruly breeze is back, changing directions and flooding into the narrow alley, and it makes your lips even colder than they'd otherwise be from the new moisture on them. your entire nervous system feels like it's vibrating within your body—trembling with the desire for more. you want to cross those few feet of space and go to him, meld your bodies together, crush your lips against his, scratch your nails across his back over the smooth leather of his jacket.

you might even like it if he picked you up and pressed your back against that rough brick wall—if you wrapped your legs around him and squeezed his slender waist between your thighs—if you felt his fingertips sink into the flesh of your thighs while his tongue sunk into your mouth.

but your feet stay planted right where they are.

"sorry? you don't have to be sorry. but why did you do it?"

"i just wanted to—for a while now. that's pretty selfish of me, but...fuck." he flips a hand through his hair like he always does; he does it so frequently that sometimes it distracts you from the conversation at hand. in those moments, all you can really think about is the softness of his hair as it slides through your fingers, the few times you’ve touched it before.

now, all you can think about is grasping it more firmly and controlling his movements, bringing his mouth back to yours so you can taste him again.

lost in his thoughts, he bites his lip. the vibrating of your nerves intensifies.

"well, do it again. you could be selfish with me, christian."

there's an expectant pause as you both size each other up, a mutual understanding and desire developing in the silence. christian approaches you again, but slower this time, like he's trying to gauge if you're serious. in seconds, he's right in front of you and breathing your air and staring at you like he is hungry for something only you could give him.

quietly, you reiterate: “take whatever it is that you want. i want you to do that.”

“darling...” his voice sounds deceptively gentle, teasing even though he doesn’t mean for it to be. he whispers to you as if you’re a glass figurine that could disintegrate if he speaks too loudly, even as his tattooed hand presses against the brick beside your head, already enveloping you. leaning in, his eyes flicking down to your mouth and staying there, he says: “do you really want me to—”

"hey! i found it."

you abruptly turn away from christian, looking at your friend who's standing at the entrance of the alleyway and holding his wallet up with triumph. "what are you two doing?" your friend looks at you cluelessly, though realization immediately dawns on him with an embarrassed smile he tries to tamp down.

the moment is shattered; christian's expression breaks into an awkward smile that matches your friend's, and once again the space between you is wider than you'd like for it to be, his arm back at his side. "dude..."

you give a heavy sigh and roll your eyes, suddenly remembering how tired you are. "...nothing. let's go home."

[libraford]

The Pickle Ball drama is wild!

For those that don't know, pickleball is like if you played ping pong on a full size tennis court. It is generally considered an 'old people's game.'

Retired people wake up early in the morning and the first thing they do is go play pickle ball with their likewise early-rising friends. I'm talking like... 5:30am. And the first thing they do when they get there is complain that the bathrooms aren't open.

Of course they're not open. The park employees don't get to work until 7 and the facilities don't open until 9 at the latest because we only got two guys to unlock the whole city. Calm down. Go before you leave the house or get comfy with the bushes.

Well, someone gave the Head Complainer a key to the bathroom. Because we seem to reward this kind of behavior, I guess. So when I get to Madeline Park at like 8:30 the bathroom is already unlocked. But I still have to clean it.

Before I do that, though, I have to take care of the trash. Today, it is full to the brim with beer bottles. I'm pissed about this because it was clearly the pickleball folks who were drinking, which is illegal on the premises, but as previously mentioned- I'm not a cop.

But more than that I'm pissed that there's broken bottles in there, which is a hazard to me. I have to double bag the trash and be really careful or I'll have a sparkly glass shard bracelet.

I run my arm along the rim of the bag and it comes out...red? I didn't think I got cut. It is undeniably blood, but more notably it belongs to someone else.

Well, I'm washing that arm thoroughly. I scrub it off my arms in the women's room and use hand sanitizer, and then clean the bathroom while im there.

I go into the men's room to do that one next. There is blood on the sink, the floor, and the toilet. And y'know, I'm used to blood in restrooms, I'm just not used to blood in the MEN'S restroom. It's not like... a fatal amount of blood, but more blood than should be outside of a person.

Well, that's no good. I clean it up, but it's eating at me that I've already encountered human blood twice and it's not even 9 yet. So I go over to the Head Complainer and I ask him:

"Hey uhhh... there was a lot of blood in the men's room. Is everyone alright? Do I need to file an accident report?"

He gives me a good-natured laugh. "Oh, that's just Greg. He came over from Kauffman Park and I have to say- didn't like the rules he played by."

Oh my God what a vague and horrible answer. I cant tell if nes joking or not. "Is... is Greg okay?"

"Oh, ha hah ha! He's fine, he's just back at Kauffman Park where he belongs."

"Oh! Okay then. Ha...hahah..." Absolutely terrifying.

Day 7/50.

[nothorses]

sorry but that post you reblogged about "anti egg vegans" being stupid because chickens don't care i feel like is missing the point of most people being vegan due to animal explotation within mass factory farming and not like having some chickens in the backyard or a small farm. the critique is the comodification of animal products to the point of animals not being treated like living beings but as products and so often being put in terrible living conditions because of that. i think whether most vegans see it as capitalism being the real probelm or not the critique should be aimed toward capitalism as a whole, rather than individual people participating in it.

I absolutely agree with critiques of industrial farming, and I believe a lot of folks do feel that way! And I think it's just as silly to pretend that everybody understands the nuance there. I'd say most of the vegans I have encountered are not specifically against industrial agriculture, and are just as vegan when encountering animal products that have been sustainably produced/harvested/whatever as they are with every other animal product. I have had conversations with people who are against honey because it Exploits The Bees, but are perfectly happy to use agave syrup as a replacement regardless of the abundant human rights issues that impact immigrants and people of color in other parts of the world in particular.

I think there are perfectly respectable reasons and ways to be vegan, and it's shitty to assume that any individual person has the Wrong Reasons or a shitty way of going about it based entirely on the fact that they are vegan. I also think it's just as ignorant to pretend that the people who are in it for entirely the wrong reasons don't exist, or even that they aren't, like, fairly common.

I live in an area where it's the norm to ensure all food provided is vegan-friendly unless you know for a fact that it doesn't need to be. I promise you there is absolutely a culture of veganism because it looks or feels good, particularly among white people, and the reason I am frustrated about things like ignorance of the impact of industrial agriculture on human people, and the obsession with "vegan leather" without any mind paid to the environmental impact it has, and the ignorance of our profit history toward indigenous relationships with animal products, is because I constantly meet people who believe those things & it is, y'know. frustrating.

[bendyartistic]

Be Aware of alexbstudios. (Part 2) TW: uh.. slur, sui mention.

Recently I've been requested by some people to make another awareness post about Alex, and what has been going on since I made my last callout. So.. let's take a look. I'm gonna be honest I have been paying little to no attention to him at all since my post up until this point, didn't think I'd have to.

Ever since I made it, Alex has been talking about me a lot more, and it feels much more obsessive in a way. I think it's funny but also pretty weird considering some of the things he's said about me. Eugh.

Anyways let's get to the stuff from after my callout to the present. This is just a rundown of everything, and there is some stuff I skipped since I didn't feel it was worth mentioning. Once my post had been made, a lot of people went over and said stuff to him (Though I didn't encourage that behavior, I only wanted to make my post so people knew about him, I'm not covering those unless it's important in this.) Little afterwards he made this... post. Erh, are you stalking me and other people?? ALSO don't say the r slur man, like what.

I find it really creepy that he has this list, and has notes along with them about why/who they are. Also why'd he spell my partners name like that? 💀 Next a little after that he reblogged someone's art and introduction saying this. (I don't want to really @ people in this, nor get anyone involved unless they asked to be.)

I still don't understand how Alex views me, but saying this in a reblog no less is so strange. Reblogging another post, saying this with it...

You're right Alex, I didn't need you in my life, yet here we are. Unfortunately. Besides that, no, 12 year old's should NOT be on Tumblr at all, even with restrictions, said restriction should be having the app blocked from their device.

I'm just gonna.. move on from that. Alex reblogged an art post, where he proceeded to @ over 50 people, myself included, saying "surely you can see the problem". I can't fit the entire thing sadly. I don't get what the point in these posts are honestly, besides annoy everyone. He's done it before as well. He got into a small bit of beef with a handful of folk not too long ago, which I got @'ed in at some point I think, didn't really pay much attention to it. Basically the original post is someone talking about art supplies and asking what one's other people use, which I personally think was a very neat post. Alex comes around though for some reason going off on nonsense. Hello? Who invited you!? (Again, censoring names cuz I don't want to get ppl involved.)

I'm honestly kind of wondering why he even showed up. He pretty soon after made this dumb post as if it could have some effect on the situation.. uh?

I guess mark your calendars guys for this date, where we have to immediately forget everything and forgive him! /j And there's this response he gave to an anon responding to his ✨patience✨ post.

Dunno, so far it hasn't because he's still talking about it, so clearly he hasn't gotten over it enough to let it blow over.

He's giving me those like.. stupid sigma edit vibes sometimes. Y'know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Also I'm not sure what to say about this really, but it's pretty funny.

Context for this next one: You and the person on your lockscreen fight god..? That's a weird one.

Wdym racist though? 🤨 Genuinely kinda curious about that. Btw wouldn't that make you like.. 9?? On a different note, I saw him previously talk about this "friend" he has going to a mental hospital, but I know nothing about it, nor do I really want to, however reblogging on an art post saying this feels off. Think the emotes are what do it.

Don't joke about mental hospitals at all, I shouldn't have to explain why. I'm going to move on from all the short stuff now because I do wanna start talking instead of making short joking comments.

Alex made this post, and so it begins with him talking about me again, eh?

Alex, you're already doomed. I can't put it any other way but from what I've seen maybe only 1 or 2 people even like you. The rest either hate you or want to avoid you at all cost, and I don't blame them at all considering you act like a fool and make everyone uncomfortable.

For my thoughts on you? I don't like you, never did. I just have to put up with you because this is the internet, and you'll probably never truly leave me alone like I once hoped. It's a shame honestly that you cannot follow a simple request from anyone. Don't think I don't know about your planned "response post" you're making, I'm still waiting for it. I don't know what good it's gonna do you though. Personally I don't care if you make one, I'd just read it to see the stuff you make up in it lol. (Edit: He decided to stop working on it after seeing this post lol.)

Enough of my rambling, I should continue with this so I can stop talking about him sooner. Regrettably I had to actually look up what this was about, I felt.. iffy reading it.

Saying gyatt right afterwards wasn't funny. At all. I'm quite upset now. There was absolutely no reason for that.

I was gonna be reasonable and say something genuine but I don't feel like it anymore, this ruined my mood. All I have to say is as much as I dislike you, don't actually do that. Sadly moving to the next nonsensical thing, he made a poll post asking this. (It's still ongoing btw)

Are people like.. forced into giving a reason? Like if I for example chose Bendy, am I immediately supposed to state my reasons? What if I don't want to, are we being held at gunpoint? What's up with that? I'm too lazy to interact with the post, I don't really feel like it anyways even if I wasn't lazy. Which one would you choose though lol I'm going to be serious now again cause this last thing is really just.. what the fuck. Palestine related 🍉, someone asking for help came to Alex, and this was his response to it...

MY GOD Alex. Did you really have to respond to that in this immature, insensitive fucking manner? Could it have not been in one of your stupid rambling posts. It should've been. I'm sorry to the person and I'm sorry I had to read it. You're pretty sick honestly. You need help.

That's it. I'm done.

In conclusion:

Alex is still the same and is still never going to change probably. He still shouldn't be here and I believe he really should get off now more than ever. If not I fear what else he might do next.

All I can really tell you folks is please, DNI with Alex, just leave him alone and block him. You're again not obligated to, but I am suggesting it if you want to be left alone by him. And hey, maybe you'll make it onto his dumb creepy list too, who knows. Alright, I'm finished, I stayed up way too late for this... I'm tired. Cya.

Reblogs are much appreciated, it helps spread the word, thanks.

[traegorn]

Okay. So I got a super long ask that is... a lot. And it's anon, so I can't respond privately -- but I want to address it.

Y'see, sometimes I get asks which I'm pretty sure get sent to me just because I'm a witch who happens to publicly exist on the internet. Like the person sending it to me doesn't seem to be someone who's familiar with the kind of stuff I say -- or else they probably wouldn't have sent it to me to begin with. And they ask me for advice or help though. So I feel like I want to give it still.

But it's probably not the advice they think they want.

Let's see how this one starts:

So this is how it starts. Now the first thing you might be asking yourself is "When has Trae ever talked about 'demons' online?"

The answer is never. This is not a thing Trae talks about. Frankly, I don't even like the word, because it frames the supernatural world in a very Christo-centric viewpoint. Like I believe in noncorporeal things and "energy-shit," and I believe those things can be malevolent -- but calling them "demons" invites a framework I literally do not believe exists.

(You can think whatever you want -- I'm not in charge of you. I do think plenty of witches need to unpack their Christian upbringings though)

The other problem with the "which demon" line is that it implies some sort of authoritative list exists that wasn't just some jackass occultist writing down everything he could think of to piss off some Christians -- or some Christian pissed at some non-Christians trying to other and villainize them. These two kinds of people are largely where 99% of those lists come from.

If a noncorporeal being exists, and if it's malevolent, and if it's "attached" to someone... it's just some guy, y'know? This isn't some grand story. When someone gets mauled by a bear, we don't say "But it was Lord Ursus! King of all Bears!"

Nah. It's just "that bear over there ate Bob's face." We might name it then -- "That Face-Eater" -- but it's not special.

Anyways. That's just the first paragraph. There's so much more, I'm going to put in a cut.

Okay. So... The person "Dabbles." You know I'm a witch, right? And that I literally promote people dabbling? Like I want folks to try stuff out. And like when y---wait, SUCCUBUS? I read that, right? You think she's a literal succubus.

Can she shape shift like in that Piers Anthony book?

This is where I kind of immediately fell off. Like, no ma'am -- she is not a succubus. She might be a shitty or manipulative person, I don't know - I just have your account of things, but she's not a literal succubus.

Human being. She is a human being. I don't even know what "creates deceit and deception" is supposed to mean. Are you saying she lies to them? Or are you saying she makes them want to lie? Because those are very different. If it's the former, okay -- liars lie. Got it. If it's the latter... nah. That is not happening. If they're lying, then it's their own damned fault.

And like... I don't want to dismiss the concept that a malevolent being can't attach itself to someone, because I've... seen shit I don't talk about. But, like, they don't make people do shit. People do shit all on their own.

If you're to be believed, it just sounds like you're dealing with a manipulative jackass. No external paranormal shit required.

But we continue:

So I dated this person for a while, and she was great when we were the only people in the room. Like when it was me and her, the person she acted like made me fall in love with her.

But the moment a third person entered the room, she would become someone else. She was sharper, meaner, and more defensive. She wasn't the same person.

We broke up for a lot of reasons, but this certainly made it easier.

You're right, this isn't DID. This is just normal, human shit. We become different people at different times. And sometimes the better version we think we see in someone else isn't the true version of them at all, or at least it's only a part of them.

And sometimes when someone changes in a way you don't like in a different context, it's not always the context's fault.

You need to define "portal." Different people use that word for different stuff.

And I see we're moralizing drug addiction. Great. Awesome. Horse is preeeeeeetty high there for someone going to random witches on the internet for advice.

And, like, ma'am (I've been assuming you use she/her from the context of this -- but I'm sorry if I'm wrong), you're asking a witch this and bringing up tarot and talking to spirits and... like... that stuff's normal for like 80% of the people I talk to on a daily basis. None of those people have "demons" attached to them.

It's a weird thing to bring up as "proof."

I feel like you've forgotten what community you've come to with your issue.

So, nothing affects them. Could it be, and I want you to consider this, that it's because nothing supernatural is happening.

There are so many details that I'm missing here, so I can't be sure of the actual dynamics at play, but what you're describing to me sounds like an incredibly mundane, human scenario.

Like, it literally just sounds like you're describing an incredibly unhealthy home -- and I'm not even sure if that's true since I just have your version of events. I don't even know the ages of the people involved. You have given zero indications of anything out of the ordinary happening that isn't explained by "one or more manipulative people are somehow involved in this story and it's unclear which ones they are."

This is not a "demon." What you've described is just dysfunction.

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

Anime only watchers and people who aren't caught up with the Manga, BEWARE... Cuz I'm about to discuss Spy X Family Mission 99... You have been warned...! 👌

[SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT ON]

*Ahem...*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! THIS CHAPTER!!!! 😱 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

S-Sorry about that folks, but uh... There is A WHOLE LOT to talk about with this chapter, so uh, let's into it shall we...?! 😵 [Aggressive Thumb SHAKING] ((👍))

So, to start things off... What happened at the end of chapter 98 was apparently just a false alarm, but it still managed to end the the graduation party after everyone ran to the bunkers... So, Henry asked Martha about what she was going to tell him, and well...:

...She decided not to tell him the truth... 🥲

After this, Martha is seen crying her eyes out at her home...!! 😭 But after receiving a letter in the mail, she has a wonderful idea to write letters to Henry while she's away...!! 🥹

The first thing she writes to him is to see her off before she departs, but because the letter contained her exact location, these assholes "lovely gentleman" had to black out almost EVERYTHING MARTHA WROTE!! 😫 Which meant...:

...Henry didn't show up... 🥲🥲

(Why Endo...? Just, WHY....?! 💔)

But even after that mishap, Martha would continue to write to Henry, and he even wrote back to her...! 🥹 But eventually...:

Aw man... This image is just... It breaks my heart, man... 😔

Soon after that, Henry started to yearn to hear from Martha once again... But then, Martha and the rest of her group got some unexpected news...:

AND THE WORST PART IS THAT THEY CAN'T ACTUALLY DECLINE TO JOIN THE FRONT LINES BECAUSE THEY WOULD BE LABELED AS DESERTERS AND KILLED!!! 😡 (SUCH FUCKING BULLSHIT!!! FUCK WAR!!! 😠😠😠)

While the girls are panicking, Martha steps up and says that she'll fight...:

...And now Herny knows about it... 😞

Y'know... This chapter already had some crazy stuff in it... But nothing, AND I MEAN NOTHING, could've prepared me for THE VERY NEXT PAGE...!!!:

MOTHERFUCKING YOUNG DONOVAN DESMOND!!! 😵😵😵

AND BOY, LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHIN'...! When I read what he said at bottom, that "Human beings are simply liars"... The first thing that came to my mind was...:

...HE HAS TO BE A FREAKING TELEPATH JUST LIKE ANYA!!! 😱

I MEAN, it's the only thing that makes sense, why else WOULD HE SAY THAT...!?!? 😵 He also could've been raised that way by his parents, BUT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT ONE CHIEF!!!!

My goodness... THIS PAGE HAS GOT ME LOOKIN' AND ACTIN' LIKE THIS:

Anyway, Young Donovan continues to speak about how as long as everyone hides their true intentions from each other, war can never truly end... And I just... I can't accept that...!!

Call me a dreamer, but I believe that we as people can make a difference if we speak up & fight back against ideals like Donovan's...!! I know that there is awfulness all around us and not everyone is in it for the betterment of others... BUT THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TO FIGHT BACK; THAT'S WHY TWILIGHT, YOR, ANYA, AND OTHERS IN THIS SERIES ARE FIGHTING FOR PEACE!!! So that we all can have a better tomorrow...!!! ✊

Anyway, back to chapter... And boy, it does not get better for Henry and Martha... 😔

After Martha writes a letter a telling Henry that she wishes that she could see him, it brings him tears and the only thing that he could muster to think of saying to her is "I wish I could see you too"... 💔 Then when going to mail another letter to Martha, Henry over hears on the radio...:

THIS PAGE IS JUST SO HEARTBREAKING!!! 💔

Later at an assembly, Martha's group was brought up as valiant for giving their lives for the cause, but Henry was having none of it:

...and then, they beat him up an locked him away...!! 😠 Then Henry's dad shows up and tells him that if he keeps this up, he'll never teach in another classroom again... And of course, Henry folds... 💔 AND I THINK THAT HENRY'S DAD NEEDS TO GET PUNCHED IN THE FACE!!! 😡

Time passes, Henry has a his famous monoclonal now (most likely due to be badly injured in his eye when those bastards beat him up) and is forced to marry someone for his family... Then, it cuts to place near the East-West border and...:

Martha's still alive, obviously, but WHO TOOK HER IN AND SAVED HER!?!? 🤔

Could it be someone from the Blackbell's, someone related to Twilight, Shopkeeper or McMahon...? I DON'T KNOW...!! But, we'll have wait and find out in CHAPTER 100 BABY!!! 😆

And that was Mission 99, and it was FANTASTIC AND HEARTBREAKING ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!! 💔🥲💔 This why we LET 👏 ENDO 👏 COOK!!! 👏👏👏

But anyway, before I go....

SEASON 3 OF SPY × FAMILY WAS ANNOUNCED BABY!!! 😆

I am SOOOOOO EXCITED for this!! 😄 But when it releases, I'm not sure if I'll continue to do reviews of the episodes as they come out... Near the end of season 2, I got quite a bit burnt out from writing my anime reviews, so I never talked about the last 3 episodes of season 2... 😩 But, we'll see how I feel by the time when the anime returns...!! 😁

Okay, that's it now...!! 😄 So until the next Mission; take care, be safe out there and be kind to one another...!! BYE!!! 👋😁

[lewiscarrolatemybrain]

Y'know what would be cool as hell?

Pirates putting bounties out on other pirates, or even on marines.

Like, pirates have treasure. It's very much The Thing Pirates Do. Granted, a lot of the pirates we see in One Piece have other priorities, but still. Pirates, gold. It's like peanut butter and chocolate. They go together.

And think of what a fucking power-move it would be. There are plenty of strong fighters on the seas who can't -- or won't -- do business with the military for whatever reason, but would probably be more than happy to collect a payday or two in exchange for spilling a little blood. Warring pirate crews in the Blues promise 10mil a head for each of their enemies; that number spikes to 50-100mil in the Grand Line, and usually higher depending on the crews in question. Back in the day rumor had it that Whitebeard and Roger would double the government price if you could bring either one to to the other.

(That was technically true, they did agree to that, but they were drunk and it was mostly a joke, so...)

I imagine pirate bounties would work very differently than government bounties. For one, pirate bounties are almost always Alive Only. Pirate bounties are usually personal, and pirates are a vengeful lot by nature. You don't send somebody else to kill a guy for you, no, you deal the finishing blow yourself.

For two, the stronger the pirate the stronger their enemies, so there's less and less available folks out there who even could collect the bounties, much less would want or need to. So instead, big bounties -- like the aforementioned Roger and Whitebeard bounties -- are less about Actually Go Get That Guy and more about Cause Him As Much Hell As Physically Possible. Fuck with his food supply, use guerilla tactics, spy on him, blitz his men and leave them dead in the water. It doesn't matter, just cause him grief. Make this person suffer in any way you can. I imagine pirate bounties also deal in more than just cash. They trade territory, information, weapons and technology, they'll even loan out crew members for a job or two for the right hunt. They could also be more symbolic than literal; a war declaration by another name.

Upstart pirates will occasionally try to put bounties out for heads way above their weight class to make themselves seem tough. Every pirate and blacklisted bounty hunter in the New World is foaming at the mouth for Blackbeard's head in the wake of Thatch's death, because they all know Whitebeard will pay bank for a traitor. The Straw Hats rack up bounties from other pirates -- big name pirates, at that -- even faster than they do from the government, but they don't put out any of their own.

Not until after Marineford, when Straw Hat Luffy appears in the newspaper with two messages. One a secret for his crew, a crossed-out date and a new meeting time. The other for the world at large:

A bounty poster for the Red Dog Akainu.

[front-facing-pokemon]

I've gotta ask: what's your opinion on the Mystical Forest theme from Super? I think it's severely underrated

ARGH thank you for reminding me this track EXISTS it's gotta be one of my favorite in the entire game. i don't know musical terms that well but the notes in threes like at the beginning are just wonderful. i remember really liking it when i played thru psmd (but i liked basically every track quite a lot) but i couldn't remember where it was from. so. thank you for this reminder because it's really really good

[antimony-medusa]

Okay so, there is a thing twitter does and you sometimes see it here, when people are professing that a certain block man relationship is platonic, and/or that anything else is boundary breaking. The stance is that you love the platonic relationship so much, and anything else is "weird". So you're defending from the weirdos.

And the thing is, I am not intending to say that you personally have to be comfortable with romantic or sexual relationships when it comes to the block men. If you go "y'know this is not for me", that is 100% fair. That's why I do think that appropriate tags are so important, so that you can curate your space. However. This specific interaction has been sitting in my head for days.

First of all like slimarina has repeatedly rped gay sex on stream, artists drawing them kissing should not be getting death threats on twitter. Second of all— why is it weird. Why are you saying specifically that a relationship between two men is weird or bad or unclear inappropriate? Do you know what you sound like when you say that?

Cause it isn't just "keep the nsfw away from the minors", which is fair and based. Tag that shit. People also acted like this with beeduo when all we were talking about was handholding and kissing, which a) they were making jokes about lap dances on stream, I don't think a kiss is too far, b) handholding your beloved is a behaviour that shows up in humanity in *middle school*. Like this was the type of romance that would show up in disney movies, and people would be like "I am protecting the streamers from the weirdos" by saying that this is abhorent and you're a degenerate if you think about it!

Cause the thing is, when you are saying that queer romance is somehow inappropriate for minors, or saying that a "gay couple" is incompatible with the concept of nsfw without being weird, this is indistinguishable from homophobia. It is literally a homophobic talking point, that gay romance is inherently sexual and inappropriate, and that gay sex is inherently weird and bad. This is a thing politicians are using to push regressive political agendas.

A lot of people are not comfortable with nsfw and that is fine, but when you are making broad statements about sex and romance In General, you start to fall into some traps where like, literally I have heard these talking points from evangelical christians telling me that sex would make me inherently unclean and broken. I am begging people to draw a distinction between "i don't want to see that" and "all of that is bad/weird/inappropriate/should never be talked about in public".

Uncomfortable with slimarina nsfw? Fine. I don't necessarily want to see slime physics sex either. Saying that all engagement with nsfw between two adults who are enthustically consenting and having fun with it and specifically asking for tiktok edits of the sex scenes but happen to be guys is weird and needs to be defended against? FOLKS. You literally sound like a conservative politician.

Like something like 98% of the population is sexually attracted to other people, at a low estimate. And that is FINE. That is how humanity works. We have social rules about how to navigate that, but it's not inherently weird or dirty or inappropriate to be attracted to people, or to think or talk about sex, or to have sex! Average age of having sex for the first time in north america is 16! People are having sex and that's FINE. I'm not but like, sure I'll read stories that include that as an element, because I'm an adult and it's part of the human experience. I also read stories that don't have sex. Neither is morally superior or less weird than the other just by virtue of if there's sex in it or not.

So like, man. We have GOT to stop assigning anything sexual as bad and wrong. It's just a thing that adults do.

[bcolfanfic]

~ person a and person b staying up so late to talk to each other without even paying attention to the time. and then they fall asleep on the phone with each other ~

this on “mutual crush prompt list” but was wondering if we could change it up a little bit for angst purposes and make it so its the first work trip buck has to take months after bucky’s suicide attempt so they’re on the phone all night.

my babiess. for new-to-me folks, this is based off my young veterans modern au- specifially this fic.

---

John unlocked his phone, relocked and unlocked it again, squinting at the brightness before he swiped up to lower it.

10:50

He'd talked to Gale four hours ago and they'd said their goodnights then. It was even later in New York- almost one in the morning to be exact.

Gale was probably asleep or getting close to it, and John didn't want to call him. Wanted to let him rest before he had to go be in academic mode all day, wanted to prove to himself just as much as his husband that he could get through a night alone.

But the longer he laid in the dark the itchier he felt.

There was something in a flask under the mattress that would take the itch away without waking Gale- the only thing keeping him from it being how tired he was down to the bone. Too tired to lift the mattress.

He swiped open to Gale's contact and pressed the small phone icon, sucking in the right side of his cheek.

It barley rang twice before he picked up.

"Hey hon," He said softly, and if he hadn't been asleep he sounded like he was getting pretty close to it. "Everything okay?"

"Mhm." John said, letting his cheek back out with a small exhale. "Sorry if I woke you."

"Don't be. But you know I gotta ask again. You okay?"

Gale Gale Gale. Ever the perceptive one.

"Don't wanna make you feel guilty for going." He said quietly, eyes fixated on a thread coming loose in their comforter. He hated that he could feel his eyes starting to sting. Being vulnerable was still, as his therapist referred to it a skill there was room for progress on.

Whether he knew somewhere in his head that Gale needed no prompting to feel hesitant about going to this conference was irrelevant. John had practically had to push him through the automatic doors of the airport terminal when he'd dropped him off, but guilt clawed at him anyways.

"Hey- no." Gale said on the other end, and John could hear him sitting up a little. "Not gonna do that, so tell me what's going on?"

"Just miss you." He said. "I'm not feeling bad y'know?" He continued, opting for a euphuism- not wanting to say the words that'd be needed to spell it out exactly out loud. "Just weird being alone I guess. I dunno."

It was quiet for a moment, like it always got when Gale figured he might have more to say when he actually did.

"Think you might be able to get some sleep if I stay on the line till you're out?" He said finally, so tender for someone who had to be up in just about five hours that it made John's chest tight.

"Don't have to do that." John replied, predicting the protest he got before it left Gale's mouth.

"Yeah, well I want to- so let me? Can bore you to sleep with physics gibberish."

A small, tired, laugh escaped John at that as he rolled back down onto his stomach, resting his phone on Gale's side of the bed. "'kay," He said, voice half muffled by his pillow. "I'm all ears."

Gale kept to his promise in regard to the psychics talk, and even when it was saying a whole lot of things that he'd still struggle to understand fully awake, his voice made John's chest warm. Made his shoulders feel like they could actually relax, the itch shedding off just enough for him to let sleep pull him under.

[trans-cuchulainn]

your posts about English folk culture being treated as esoteric within England reminded me of a conversation I had with my dad relatively recently. I was complaining about how much I hated doing scottish country dancing in P.E every year in school and he, having grown up in London, mentioned that he never did any kind of folk dancing in school and it really surprised me.

Having an Irish family and growing up in Scotland I just assumed that folk culture would be a big part of national identity in England because it def is in Ireland and scotland. I mean I grew up in the city and I went to a Catholic school where a lot of pupils didn't come from Scottish backgrounds so I'm sure my experience would be different from somebody who grew up in a smaller town or a rural area, but my school still dragged out the girls who could sword dance every year on burns day y'know

Also now I'm wracking my brain trying to remember all the English folk songs I know and realising that it's comparatively few next to the hoard of Scottish, Irish and American folk songs I've accrued over the past 2 decades. That's definitely partially just due to being connected to the cultures those songs come from and that American folk songs are generally quite a bit younger than the scottish & Irish ones, but it's still not something I've ever really thought about

yeah absolutely. it's something england -- and probably urban england and london especially -- has really lost touch with. a lot of my friends and colleagues are irish, and when the topic of things like irish dance comes up, it's always like "oh yeah i did a bit of that as a kid, everyone did" or "yeah i learned the whistle, obviously, but i stopped when i was eight" -- but there'd be no obviously about that here (even when people learn the recorder at school, it's not often trad tunes they're learning to play!)

i don't know if this is to do with the proportion of the population that's urban vs rural in england compared to ireland or scotland (not sure where wales is at with this, they have a strong song tradition but i don't know much about the welsh equiv of trad dance music nor tbh enough about the song tradition to say anything meaningful on the topic), or if it's a "survival of trad culture to spite oppressive dominant cultures" thing so england lost it due to lack of need to defend it, or if it's predominantly a class issue (but that wouldn't wholly explain schools/the national curriculum, particularly at primary level)... i think there's a lot of factors at work

but it's something i do notice because i spend time in those irish-dominated spaces where the attitude towards trad music and dance is so different. but then those are also often irish language communities, so they're specifically irish communities that are interested in their cultural heritage, and maybe that's not representative of the whole country. still, it feels like even people who aren't interested and haven't carried that interest through to adulthood were exposed to it in childhood in a way that many english people weren't because our equivalent traditions have been relegated to this very niche, marginalised (and potentially very rural) status

[pinkysberg]

I saw a lot of people getting upset in a post where in someone’s fan casting they chose a black actor for Charles, and people were saying that “Charles is more indigenous” “he chose his indigenous side so casting a black actor doesn’t make sense, if they can’t find a mixed actor then they should just choose a native because he doesn’t talk about his black side as often””why choose a black guy for a native?” And it just really irked me that people are perpetuating this idea that mixed people have to ‘choose a side’ or that they are more one thing than the other. I don’t understand what’s people’s obsession with erasing Charle’s black side as if him being both black and native isn’t important to his story and a lot of dialogue concerning him. Additionally I think Charles’ has more Afrocentric facial features so what’s the big issue with casting him as black OR native equally ( in the case they cannot find an Afro indigenous actor ofc)? Idk maybe you could talk about it? Would love to hear your thoughts

I don't know if I'm the person to necessarily discuss the identities of afroindigenous folks, but if it weren't significant to his character he wouldn't have been written as afroindigenous, y'know? It's frustrating how often his racial identity and it's significance to how he's characterized is overlooked. It's how he is viewed in the world, it informs how he's spoken about and treated by others, it informs how he behaves in the world. His discussions of isolation and feeling like he's alive to hurt and be alone are directly correlated to his identity. He does not have connection to his own culture and fills that with his devotion to the wapiti. His only connection to blackness growing up was his father, who we know he had a strained relationship with after losing his mother. The aspects of Charles are significant, without them he is not the same character. It's frustrating to me, I can only imagine how frustrating it is to black, indigenous and especially afroindigenous fans of this franchise.

[dgcatanisiri]

I've seen it said on occasion that it was a refreshing change to have the Inquisitor be unable to persuade and change the minds of the characters around them, that the characters felt "more real" that a brief conversation shouldn't change their entire worldview.

This is bull.

First of all, no one asked for their entire worldview to change, just that they GIVE a little - argue with Vivienne about the merits of mage freedom, be able to point out that fear is learned as much as anything, that the fear of mages has been taught because mages are not allowed to be part of the world that the common folk experience, or even that her view of magic is not shared BECAUSE it comes from so lofty a position in society, as she is a First Enchanter, leader of the Loyalists, mistress to the head of the Council of Heralds. Or, here's one of my personal favorites, the vote to break away from the Circles may have passed by a narrow margin, but it still PASSED, and if Fiona had refused to accept that, she'd have faced a hundred minor revolts instead of a singular organized one, which would have meant that the few who went around, burniating the countryside, would be seen as representative of them all, while have an organized structure to the rebellion allowed them the ability to disavow bad actors.

It's asking Sera to acknowledge that there's more nuance than her definitions of the world offer, or countering to Cassandra that, particularly if she intends to take a position of top authority in the Chantry, she needs to be able to look beyond its dogma and realize that to those who follow a separate faith, the Chant of Light is a herald of death, an omen of doom, because it refuses to allow any who follow a separate faith. It's telling Solas that the Dalish have been forced to build their history from tattered scraps, and rather than condemn them for what they lack, he should acknowledge and appreciate what they've recovered with no more than a vague notion of what the original picture looked like.

Y'know, it's asking to be able to actually ARGUE with these characters, rather than be lectured to by them about how THEIR views are the only proper way to view things, even if those views fly in the face of our experiences as the players, or even just how we roleplay a singular character. BioWare tries to talk up a stance of grey morality and a desire for the answers to be more than black and white, yet here in Inquisition, you ONLY get their stance, and, if you don't agree with it, you are dismissed - which also causes a lot of problems with something like the approval metric, where if you DON'T agree with a character, you'll never manage to unlock their full content - I am generally rolling a male Qunari Inquisitor, and yet I have, in over a dozen characters, only ONCE managed to obtain the rooftop cookies scene with Sera. If you don't get these scenes of character development, then you don't get to have a full view of a character.

And then there's the second and bigger issue - With most of the characters being various flavors of Andrastrian, with most if not all of them buying in to the narrative of the Inquisitor as the Herald of Andraste, a position that is borderline messianic within their religion, why do they NOT listen to the words that the Inquisitor says? If Skyhold becomes a place of pilgrimage as Cassandra notes in the arrival at Skyhold scene, if the Inquisitor is a voice of authority in Thedas like everything the game tells us, why SHOULDN'T their words carry weight, especially with the people closest to them? Why is the Inquisitor NOT persuasive to the people who know them when they believe through much of the game that they have been touched by a divine figure?

It doesn't make sense for the Inquisitor to lack in persuasive ability when the whole game is about how they have become a powerful voice and figure within the world.

So, no. It is NOT a good thing that the characters effectively brush off any attempt that the Inquisitor makes to argue with their stances.