worth blogging over and over

I’m so emotional about dinosaur stuffed animals,,, there are these creatures, extinct long before any of us were alive, but we found their bones and their eggs and their footprints. And we made drawings and models of what they could’ve looked like. And we made them into stuffed animals so we could hold them. We made them soft so we could love them. I’m sobbing

the hunger games is having a resurgence and i’m back on my bullshit so i thought i would post what i always imagined the rest of effie’s life looked like

she stays in the capitol to begin with. katniss was shocked when she saw them kiss, but was hastily shut up by haymitch when she teased him and they never really spoke about effie much after that. effie called haymitch once a week, filling him in on the rebuilding efforts, her rapidly blooming social life, new fashion trends, inter-district moving and the latest in geese rearing tips(i’m a goose apologist here he keeps geese ok). he can tell something is off but he doesn’t realise how much of it is outright lies

Seems like I am not done talking about Haymitch.

Do you ever think about how he probably got a visit from Snow after he pulls his stunt with the forcefield?

I mean, this IS an act of defiance, a very big one at that. Finnick, Cashmere, Gloss and Johanna haven't had their Games yet. Snow maybe starts using people as prostitutes after he sees how badly losing his family breaks Haymitch, how it kills his spirit.

Imagine Haymitch coming home from the Games, stitched up, gasping for air, still feeling the ax digging into his stomach. And he's angry. Angry for Maysilee Donner, angry for his other two district members.

But he survived the hardest Games in history, despite being from the worst district. And the forcefield? He chuckles at the thought. Well, that was just the cherry on top. We, the audience, now know how smart he is. But he knew all along. He's made a fool out of the Capitol... and he is proud of it. Now there is only a lifetime of peace with his family and his girlfriend. And maybe, just maybe, also revenge.

He walks through his front door after two weeks of Victory Tour, traumatized but alive, and strong, and ready to embrace his little brother... And there sits Snow. Smiling.

Haymitch looks around. He doesn't smell his moms cooking, his brothers laughter isn't echoing in the halls. He can't find his family.

"Where are they?" Haymitch demands. He feels fear travel up his spine.

Snow gives him nothing but a cold, cold glare. "I hope you will think twice about fooling us in the future, mr. Abernathy. Enjoy your retirement"

He walks out. Haymitch doesn't know what to do. Then he runs upstairs.

Their bodies are already cold.

With no one around to help him, Snow counts on Haymitch's grief taking him out.

And it works. For over 2 decades, one of the smartest, most cunning people to have played the Games is nothing more than a bumbeling idiot, trying to drink himself to death. Snow makes sure the force field is a dome, that he has measures to take out tributes who play the game too cleverly.

Who could become a problem, like Haymitch.

He starts threatening beautiful victors to kill their families if they don't play whore for him, knowing that it'll be much better to have them close, where he can watch them, then back at their districts.

He threatens other winners too, but more subtely. If they can't be prostituted, they might somehow get addicted to morphling or alcohol. A child, brother or parent might go missing. He starts showing up at their houses, making sure that every Victor understand that Snow is all powerful. That there is nothing his hands cannot touch. Just so they are not alone and unthreatened.

Where they can plan, where they can brood. Haymitch might be drinking, but he's not dead yet. He hasn't killed himself like other Victors have. Somewhere deep inside him, the spark for revenge is still burning. So he bides his time, keeps himself alive, even if just barely.

Snow knows a lot about grudges, and he knows about the type of people who hold them. He cannot kill Haymitch, and he cannot blackmail him anymore either. He learns from that. So he keeps their families over the victor's heads.

Because otherwise he might get a Haymitch who isn't drinking himself to death. Otherwise he might be in serious trouble. Men like Haymitch, killers with a sharp mind, they might become a problem. Johanna almost becomes one, before he teaches her a lesson and robs her of her strenght. And Finnick Odair knows more secrets than his best spies.

Then the 74th Games happen. And Snow sees, much to his dismay, glimpses of the old Abernathy, of the brilliant mind, of the charming personality. He sees him walking around the Capitol. Making connections.

So of course, he tries to take the girl that looks so much like him out. Fireballs, secret gifts, rule changes; if he cannot kill Katniss, he will kill the image of her.

But then Katniss gives Rue her funeral. Haymitch sees Rue die in Katniss' arms and is transported back, for a moment, to 24 years ago, holding Maysilee. After he sees the berries and he knows she is much more like him than is good for her. He knows she is in danger now.

Snow thinks about how to kill two birds with one stone. He wants Katniss back in the arena. But maybe there is a way to finally kill Haymitch, too. If things work out.

Haymitch is angry beyond belief when he hears the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell. But he's not suprised. He knows Snow.

Almost all the men and women he knows are going back into the arena. He might go back. The chance that Katniss or Peeta comes back is extremely small.

When Peeta volunteers for him, he knows he can't do anything to stop it. The boy is far too noble for his own good. Haymitch admires that about him.

And that is the moment he starts planning. He knows how he needs to protect her, the girl that looks so much like him. And he's heard the rumours about 13. He might be an alcoholic, but he's still clever as the devil himself. He knows - fuck, he doesn't want to, but he's clocked it - that there are other victors that are angry like him. He starts building his alliance, just like all those years ago, in the Games. Only this time he isn't playing a simple game of kill or be killed. This time around it's much more dangerous.

This time, it isn't just his life he's playing with.

But he succeeds. Even though it costs him almost all his allies, he gets Katniss out. And for the rest of the war, he is right there beside her, advising, keeping her alive.

He knows he cannot keep her safe, so he lets her go into the Capitol, lead a team. Clipping a bird's wings is just as bad as killing her, and she is the revolution, even if she doesn't see it herself.

With Peeta's hijacking, she needs a goal, otherwise it might eat her alive like it's eating Haymitch, who curses himself for not being on time. He could have saved Chaff and Peeta if he got there earlier. If only, if only.

He promises himself two things: that if they make it, somehow, he'll take care of her for the rest of his life, and if she doesn't, he will finally do what he wanted to do ever since he found the bodies 25 years ago.

When she comes back they hug for a long time. Katniss tells her about Prim, about the bomb. She tells him about her talk with Snow, although she doesn't tell him what it was about. But he's figured it out already. How could he not? He's spent months studying Coin; he connects the dots almost as fast as Katniss herself. Coin used the bomb to break the resistance. And Gale designed the trap. So he tells her "to remember who the real enemy is" He trusts that Katniss gets it. She is so much like him, anyways.

And because he knows her so well, because the same dark thoughts Katniss has have been racing through his head ever since he looked into broken eyes of his brother's dead body, he replaces the nightshade in her uniform with simple black berries. And he posts Peeta right next to him, near Katniss. Just in case.

But he needs to do one more thing. The day before Snow's execution, Haymitch visits him. He sits down in front of the dictator of Panem and does not move. Snow doesn't notice him, at first. But after years of substance abuse Haymutch cannot get his hands to stop shaking. Snow notices the twitch from the corner of his eye and starts looking at his hands. He wonders if Haymitch can still feel the blood on them.

Then he looks up. Katniss doesn't terrify him, he knows her through and through. She's an arrow, fast and straight. He knows exactly what to expect.

But when he looks in the eyes of the victor of the Second Quarter Quell he shivers, despite the temperature. For the first time in a long while he feels fear.

Because if Katniss is an arrow, Haymitch is a knife. Concealed, sharp, o so deadly. And slow. Very, very, very slow.

An arrow needs to be fired, but knives can twist all by themselves.

Snow doesn't know how to describe the look in Haymitch's eyes, but it looks nothing like the boy he left broken on the steps of his home, 25 years ago. In his eyes is hurt that sits so deep it's become part of him. And rage. Haymitch, drunk Haymitch, cunning Haymitch, in control Haymitch, has to clench his fists and grit his teeth to not strangle Snow with his bare hands.

Snow is at a loss for words. Haymitch only leans forward and moves his finger slowly across his neck in a gesture that leaves nothing to the imagination. He doesn't say a word. There is no need. Snow knows exactly where he is: in that house in the Seam, 25 years ago.

Haymitch gets up.

For the first time in ages, he doesn't feel like drinking.

Haymitch does not get enough fucking credit

Reminder that Haymitch was the one who took care of Katniss after the final battle of the Capitol. It was Haymitch who made sure that Katniss ate, and took her medicine and and got sleep and that she wasn't alone. When the guards stop her at Snow's greenhouse, it's Haymitch they consider getting to come help her. It's Haymitch who sits and talks to her about the war or just pointless talk, even though she never responds.

It's Haymitch who does all these things.

Not any of the other adults in her life, not any of the people who put her through all the suffering, not her friends

Not her own fucking mother

No, It was Haymitch.

Haymitch who genuinely cares for her so much, both her and Peeta, and who did all of this weeks ago for Peeta as well, when he was highjacked.

I swear that I'll fight the next person who say that he didn't care about her and Peeta, cause that's simply not true

He poured his heart and soul into those kids, protected them as much as he possibly could in the circumstances he was given

Was he perfect? No

Did he make mistakes? Yes

Did he so anything in his power to try and protect them? Absolutely

twenty years later

Sometimes burnt bridges can be rebuilt.

---

Ace Attorney had it's 20th anniversary last year and combined with the long awaited translation of Dai Gyakuten Saiban/the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles I got all nostalgic.

THIS moment is my absolute favourite scene: Phoenix Wright, terrified of heights, running across a burning bridge above a canyon because he's far more scared of losing anyone else, that he'd do anything to stop it. And in what would become a recurring motif, when Phoenix is in desperate straits, Edgeworth puts everything on the line to build him back up.

The same way Phoenix saved him.

I love these games.

(longboy combined version under cut cos the quality gets nerfed)

The two video games that hit me the hardest emotionally were Dragon Quest IX and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky.

What were yours?

ID: People don't derive joy from their ocs like they used to. Talk about them on main. Put them in silly little AUs. Torture them a bit. Ship them, make playlists, be cringe. Just have fun.

It's so easy as writers to forget why why're doing this, to get bogged down perfectionism and followers and plotting and marketing when none of that is the point of writing.

The point of writing is just to make a little guy. To make them happy and to make them sad. To teach them lessons and watch them grow. To maybe be a little horny about them (if that's for you). To make YOURSELF happy, above all else.

professor layton experience:

Santa is on strike due to global warming.  All presents this year will be delivered by Sasha the Christmas Tiger.  Milk and cookies may not be sufficient.

“MUST BRING PRESENTS TO GOOD CHILDREN”

“Yes good”

“AND EAT THE BAD ONES”

“Wait no”

“EAT THEM”

“sasha no”

@burstofhope the Christmas tiger is watching

She is making a list

It is not easy with her paws but she is making it

shes almost here

Okay fine this is the ONE Christmas thing I will reblog before Thanksgiving BUT THAT’S IT

SASHA’S BACK ON MY DASH!

Y’all better behave, you have two months

You better watch out

You better watch out

You better watch out

Sasha the Christmas tiger my absolute beloved

Ah, a splendid specimen of the Yule Cat.

Scientific name Felis navidad, of course.

Okay, now I’m REALLY pissed

https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/z9apih/sudowrites_scraping_and_mining_ao3_for_its/

The Elongated Muskrat is scraping works on AO3 for profit.

Hate to do it, but my works are now locked to registered AO3 users only, and will remain that way until and unless we get word that the site administrators (who I’m told ARE already aware of this, please don’t flood them with reports) have figured out a way to prevent it.

if you're a human adult you physically need to eat actual vegetables, read real books, work, exercise, be outdoors, have sex, and have other real adult humans to talk to all on at LEAST a weekly basis or else you go will literally go completely insane and the problem is too many people choose to skip all those basic needs on purpose

"I'm depressed and always tired and my body is in mysterious pain all the time for no reason" yeah you've spent a whole month isolated except for talking to online people and coworkers and eating convenience store snacks for half your meals with 0 physical activity like that isn't passive self harm. of course your body doesn't like that, it's exhausting

this is such a priveldged take lol

"eat actual vegatables" have you ever been so poor you couldnt afford vegatables or time to prepare them into meals? ever had to rely on the foodbank that rarley has vegatables (and if they do they are usually rotting). ever had ARFID or sensory issues that made eating vegatables so distressing it negativley impacts your mental health?

"read real books" ever had no time or engery after working long hours or multiple jobs where all you can do is relax/sleep on your free time? ever been dyslexic or had cognitive issues that make reading nearly impossible? ever not been able to afford books? ever had a mental illness that greatly affects your consintration that makes reading and retaining what youve read nearly impossible?

"work, exercise, be outdoors" ever been physically disabled? ever been mentally disabled? ever been both? how can this be good for people who literally physically cant do these things or could only by straining themselves and causing pain?

"have sex" ever been asexual? ever had sexual trauma? ever wanted sex but couldnt have it because communication skills and physical attractiveness are lacking and making it nearly impossible to have sex? ever been practicing a religion that requires you to be celibate or wait until marriage?

and the rest of it, ya know people have communication issues? ya know people have trouble making friends or connections? ya know people are severly mentally ill and will "go insane" no matter what they do because theyre brain is literally wired that way. like me having schizophrenia, osdd and cptsd, it truly doesnt matter what im doing on a weekly basis i will be "insane" regardless. also really you couldnt think of another word besides "insane"? do you even know what its like to be considered insane? cause it doesnt mean being lonely, eating junk food and not working out.

and then to totally dismiss depression and chronic pain as something the person is causing with their actions is so inconsiderate. mental and physical disablities arent the fault of the person experiencing it. you can easily learn about these things and the biological reasons for them.

also can i get some sources for your claims about lack of sex in the replies? id really love to see it and know if any of those sources consider the reasons why someone wouldnt or couldnt have sex. anyway heres an artcile i easily found about the topic on how there is nothing wrong with lack of sex:

and all these things and types of people i brought up arent abstract concepts for the sake of argument, they are real people and real circumstances and multiple apply to me personally.

as someone whos mentally and physically disabled and has sexual trauma and an eating disorder- OP is a fucking idiot who doesnt understand how any human beings' experiences differ from their own

i go outside regularly, i talk to friends and hang out with them, i have TWO partners who i can have sex with whenever we mutually feel like having it, i eat vegetables, i go to the doctor regularly, i take vitamins and fish oil for my health, i love to read (even tho its really fucking hard for me sometimes), i exercise when my body will let me

but you know what? i Still have chronic pain, depression, anxiety, cptsd, and a whole bunch of other shit because being disabled isnt a fucking choice. i also have disabilities i was Born With that will never go away. i have disabilities that developed later on that dont have a cure or a way to "fix" them, i just have to live with them for the rest of my life

no amount of exercise will change the fact that i need a cane to walk, no amount of fresh air and sunlight has mitigated my depression in the past 12+ years that ive had it, no diet will fix my eating disorder - in fact, they would only make it Worse

there is literally nothing i can do about the fact that stress makes me physically sick, like shaking and throwing up kind of sick. there is nothing i can do ab7 that my brain shuts down and i will dissociate for days

fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuvk uou fuvk you fuvk you fuvk you

you may notice i use the phrase "my beloved" frequently. this is because i am in love with the world and everything in it. hope this clears things up <3

girl help the pessimists found me

"girl help i am staunchly refusing to realise my own naivete in a world almost completely made up of things that couldnt care less about me or are actively exploiting me"

Girl help the pessimists are mistaking an inherently meaningless universe for an inhumane and joyless one rather than recognizing the opportunity to make one’s own meaning and joy and to spread those things to others

i want to add this 🥲

Amazing addition

To be honest I think now that every MAGA candidate running for secretary of their state with explicit plans to fuck up the coming presidential election has lost AND it looks like Dems are going to win Georgia and thus have enough of a majority in the Senate to actually do stuff AND it's entirely possible they'll keep the House I think we can change the post election messaging from a bittersweet "it may seem like we lost and didn't achieve much but if you look at the bigger picture this was a big step in the right direction" to a loud, victorious "despite everything with the help of millennial and gen z voters we pulled off the fucking impossible and you should feel so incredibly overwhelmingly proud of and empowered by that"

This election didn't just hold the line, we crushed the far right almost everywhere that it mattered, made up for our losses flipping previously red areas, kept the margins razor thin even where we lost so they know we aren't here to fuck around, and set ourselves up for an even bigger win in 2024, so you should never again feel like you're powerless or your vote doesn't matter. Every single one of you mattered. You made and will continue to make all the difference. I mean the 18-28s voted so hard we apparently canceled out EVERYONE OVER 65. That is fucking incredible. Trust me, the GOP is scared of us for a reason and we can keep up the momentum, crush them again and again.

We didn't just barely stagger to the finish line, we ran full force over it, and we should celebrate that.

Like I cannot stress enough that on Tuesday night the idea that the Dems would keep the Senate by as wide a margin as this AND possibly keep the House was Completely Fucking Unthinkable, and yet here we are. Damn near every political analyst on twitter is admiting they never thought this was possible, that it basically shouldn't have been possible. Everything was stacked against us, every bit of previous wisdom and statistics and polls and state, county, and demographic voting history said it should have been a red tsunami, but IT WASN'T, and that's because of us.

I am not exaggerating when I say that we literally pulled off the impossible. We humiliated the far right by beating them within an inch of their lives in an election cycle that should have been a cake walk for them. They're in full meltdown, attacking each other trying to rationalize it, hell they want to change the voting age because they're so scared of us.

Young voters proved that we're not apathetic, that we make all the difference, that we're who needs to be catered to, that no one can afford to ignore us.

We made fucking history this week, and I can't wait to see what we do next.

and this is with roughly ONE. QUARTER. of gen Z turning out to vote.

imagine what we could do with 30% turnout? 50%? if we can overcome the gerrymandering, voter suppression, lies, conspiracy theories, billions of dollars, and open threat of violence with only 1 in 4 of us turning up to the polls, what magic could we work if it was 1 in 2?

if you voted this election, please take this as proof of how important your vote is. this is something to be insanely proud of, to get fired up over! we can fucking do this!

this is what being a DM for the first time feels like (real)

have you ever stayed up late with someone texting or chatting and known as the hours ticked by that you’d be ridiculously tired in the morning but it didnt matter because it was really fun and totally worth losing sleep over just to laugh with someone and enjoy their company maybe and then the next day you keep tiredly recalling how much fun it was