Love, Meg

Things that were taken from Annabeth in the Heroes of Olympus:

Three of these were gifts from people she looked up to. Every single item she was given held within it the esteem and the love and the trust and the hope and the respect that made them more than just items. They were physical representations of the fact that she mattered to someone, and they were ripped from her hands.

She's never been the one with insane powers, the one who can command attention and respect just by existing. She had to prove to people that she was capable and strong and wise and all the rest, just to prove to herself that she was worth seeing. And having the attention that was given her in the form of gifts be taken away... it would feel like being cut from a tether and left to drift. And not only that, but those items were also the things that gave her something like powers. She learned to wield them, knew exactly how to plan an attack using the resources that had become like extra limbs to her. And then she's left with nothing. She has to learn how to build up a reservoir of plans and strategies again that don't involve those tools. And of course she can do it, of course she's going to, but damn if it doesn't hurt like hell to see everything slip from her grasp in such a way.

And maybe they were crutches, and she's ready and confident enough to step out on her own without that idea of support.. but as prideful as Annabeth can be, wisdom is about using the tools you were given, not necessarily about making your own. It's about knowing when to trust others and let them help you, even if they're just the ghosts of others that have been left in the items they gave you.

Which brings me back to the first thing that was taken from her: Percy. Percy who, alone among the things she lost, has free will, who not only saw her, but refused to stop looking at her. Percy, who could almost have been a gift himself to little Annabeth who was just dying to go on a quest. Percy, who, when everything else was slipping away, held on tighter, who would never let her be all on her own again.

i had three fic ideas.  wrote one.  i still have three fic ideas.  this is not how math is supposed to work.

can this post please back up it’s too close to home

I had five ideas, I wrote two, now I have seven

Listen. They’re called “plot bunnies” for a reason, and it’s not just because they hop around all over your brain demanding attention.

🎶99 fanfic ideas on my blog

99 fanfic ideas~

Take one down, pass it around

137 fanfic ideas on my blog🎶

this post walked into my house and kicked in my ribs

For anyone who ever asked me where ideas come from. They creep in and breed when you’re making something else.

The outfit

So if someone is asexual they have dress like a nun or something???

Heaven forbid we want to look cute.

That's what I'm saying! And outfit is very cute

An interesting rear window view into the same psychological politic that asks assault victims whether their clothes were "asking for it"- IE, how dare YOU fail to take responsibility for the actions I choose to take based on MY reaction to your appearance.

Failing to understand that "the way I choose to act on my own private feelings is my own responsibility, and I cannot blame others for those actions when I decide to make them."

It's absolutely wild to me that there are grown adults who think- what? That laying eyes on an attractive body invites a demon to posess you and get boner-happy?

Like. People wear whatever they feel good and comfortable and pretty in, my guy. Nobody is asking for sex unless they are literally verbally to your face asking for sex. Nobody hands me sacks of flour when I put an apron on. How the fuck are fishnets a game changer

Reblogging things I like feels a lot more goblinesque than upvoting ever did. The upvotes felt like "hmm yes, I approve *golf claps*" while reblogging feels like furtively staring at something before shoving it in your mouth and scurrying back underneath the nearest piece of furniture.

Which isn't to say that I don't like it. But I definitely find myself going "maybe I shouldn't reblog this because I've already reblogged a bunch of things today and I don't want to look like I don't have a life," I say as I close the app and reopen it like one of those little automatic box toys with the switches.

Anyway adults saying “I don’t know isn’t an answer” is part of the reason I learned to lie and bluff so well.

Really though, what was that about? I don’t know is a valid answer. It communicates very clearly that the child cannot answer your question, and therefore maybe needs more help understanding the question/situation. Why do you try and push them to give an answer they don’t have? That stresses them out and it makes them feel like they’re being punished for not knowing something.

i thought i was the only one with an “i don’t know” problem because my parents made it seem it was the strangest and also most horrible thing in the world. i genuinely didn’t know and they got angry and that only blocked my thoughts more which meant i didn’t know the answer to anything else.

THIS ^^^

Also “I don’t know” is a commonly used sentence for children with ADHD/Autism. We DON’T know why we can’t do our homework. We DON’T know why we can’t eat certain foods sometimes. We DON’T know why we forgot to do a chore. It’s really distressing when you genuinely don’t know and people think you’re just lying or indifferent

(me, my parents, my sister, and the baby are sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch)

baby, pointing at the light fixture over the table and signing "on": o.*

my sister: we actually can't turn that light on right now, because the lightbulb inside is burnt out! it needs a new one.

baby: ighbu.

sister: yes, lightbulb! granddaddy said after we eat he's going to climb up there on a ladder and change it, and then the light will come on!

baby: gadada! adda, uuu! ighbu o!

sister: exactly!

baby, signing "on" and pointing at the light and then my dad, with increasing urgency: GADADA ADDA UUUU. O.

my sister: we're going to finish eating first though, ok?

baby: nonono. O. gadada adda uuu.

[a split second goes by]

baby, pointing to himself: ba. adda uuu. ighbu.

me: you're going to climb the ladder and change the lightbulb yourself?

baby: dzyeah. *pointing to the buckle where he is buckled into the high chair* ububu.

me: unbuckle you? so you can change the lightbulb?

baby, highly businesslike: dzyeah.

*pronounced like "on" without the n

this comment passes peer review

Sharing space is nothing new. Sharing bathrooms is nothing new. The reactionary outrage is so manufactured.

The parking lot? As in the gender neutral parking lot? As in a place where you have no privacy?

These are the bathrooms at the airport in question:

As you can see, complete privacy for all waste-expulsion activities. You only encounter other people around the sink.

This just proves a point that I’ve repeatedly noticed and it’s that every time a bathroom goes gender neutral it gets about a hundred percent safer.

I distinctly remember coming back from college to find that they’d converted the two of the bathrooms into all-gender restrooms. Among the changes were doors that went all the way up and down, a locking mechanism within the door, and actual door handles. Even the single-occupancy bathroom got a wall for extra privacy.

In contrast, I remember the women’s bathrooms in my old school. They were broken as shit. Some doors needed to be held by a friend, some doors you held with your foot from inside. The wheelchair-accessible bathroom straight up did not have a door at all. And yet we all pretended this was okay because hey, the womanly honor code. You think that shit would have flown if there were two gender-neutral restrooms?

All I’m saying is that if I were fleeing a predator or wanted to be absolutely sure I was private, which one would be the better option? The one that assumes that a “no penises allowed” sign will be enough? Or the one that actually, physically protects me?

Lying to children is fun when they know you are being ridiculous. When you hold up a carrot like “guys look at this huge Cheeto” and they all scream “NOOOOOOOOO that’s a CARE-OTT!”

“What? No, it’s my giant Cheeto.”

“NOOOOOOO!”

When I was a camp counselor a fellow counselor claimed that any silly camp song we sang was “his next hit single” and we should all follow him on SoundCloud and he stuck by this daily and it never ceased to amuse both the adults and the children.

When children are small and learning to count and you say the numbers out of order? Peak comedy.

“How many toys are there? Let’s see… oneeee, twooo, six!”

“NO! One two three!”

“What? Are you sure? Let me try again. One, two… six?”

“Noooooo!”

Once reduced a toddler into a fit of giggles by singing “A B C D E F Q.”

Tags from @windyvalleyzone

on Halloween at the store i work at there was a little boy in a Batman costume, and as I was helping his mom I kept addressing him as Mr. Superman and Mr. Aquaman & he kept correcting me, “noooo, BATMAN” until they were leaving and he very seriously told me, “actully, I’m Ryan”

@wearepaladin

my favourite thing to do when a small child hands me a random object with no clear intent is to answer it like a cell phone. Gets em every time

The objective of all conservative policy/rhetoric is for [white] men to inflict trauma on others.

Conservatives demand the overreaching power and none of the consequences.

That's why you never vote for Conservatives.

glad this resonated with all of the freaks i love you

in hysterics

thank you @fangirl-ofrandomness for including @slickshoesareyoucrazy ’s tags!

EXACTLY. And that is why he declared so far in advance. He thought it could thwart an indictment. 

He knew he'd be indicted because he deliberately ignored a request from the National Archives, refused to return all the documents required, did not secure the documents in his possession, told his lawyers to remove some documents before returning others, and lie to law enforcement about what was kept/returned. This goes above and beyond what Trumpsters accused Hillary Clinton of doing.

I encourage everybody to read the actual indictment document.

It's deliberately written as a narrative story and very easy to understand. The DOJ wanted us to see with our own eyes what the former guy did, when he did it, and why it was wrong.

Yes, it's 49 pages, but it's double-spaced with huge margins, crammed with photographs & tables. It only took me a few minutes, even accounting for the times I stopped to re-read some things because they are so batshit insane.

I guarantee you most people defending him haven't read it.

funniest thing about the “reddit migration” is that I haven’t seen a single post shitting on anyone coming from Reddit. when twitter started bleeding users everyone was firing rent-lowering posts but with redditors skittering about we’ve left the doors open and put out food bowls

Redditors offer helpful advice, insane opinions about subcultures you barely new existed, and weird humor.

They're basically cousins.

To expand on the crumbling of the patriarchal edifice of the family.

If society agrees that children can know themselves, and have a right to self determination…. Everything else that Conservatives argue they have a right to exert over children crumbles. As just two examples….

ALL corporal punishment rightfully becomes recognised for the assault it is.

Failure to appropriately consider the wishes of children in medical care and provide information in an age appropriate way is recognised as child abuse and malpractice.

Children are entire people, they deserve all of the rights, privileges and protections afforded to adults.

When Murderbot is upset with ART and stops responding to its messages

[Image description: The cover of the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells, but the word Red in the title has been replaced so that the title now reads "All Systems Left on Read". /end ID]

happy pride month to country mama lynn and country mama lynn only

Someone give this woman a damn crown and medal

Happy pride month to country mama lynn and ger gay son only

aint it crazy how many people realize they're queer when they have the language to express how they feel and a support system to encourage self exploration????

I never stop enjoying reading this. Literally everyone's lives improves.

Ancient legends say that if you reblog this on June you get 110% gayer and stronger

In before I start seeing people bitching about rainbow capitalism MY favorite rainbow capitalism story is about Subaru. Yes the Japanese car company.

In the nineties, they were struggling. They were competing with a dozen other companies targeting the main demographic at the time: white men ages 18-35, especially after a failed luxury car launch with a new ad agency. “What we need is to focus on niche demographics,” they decided, and then focused on people who enjoyed the outdoors. The Subaru was excellent at driving on dirt roads that many other vehicles couldn’t at the time, so it was perfect for all those off-road campers; they started making all-wheel drive standard in all their cars to help with that. And the people who wanted cars to go do outdoor stuff? Lesbians.

Okay. Of course it wasn’t only lesbians buying Subarus. They’re on the list with educators, health-care professionals, and IT people. But the point is, this Japanese car company interviewed this strange demographic (single, female head of household) and realized one important factor: They were lesbians. They liked to be able to use the cars to go do outdoorsy stuff, and they liked that they could use the cars to haul stuff rather than a big truck or van. Subaru had a choice to make then. They had four other demographics they could market to, after all–the educators, the health-care professionals, IT professionals, and straight outdoorsy couples. Their company didn’t hinge on this one “problematic” demographic.

And they decided “fuck it,” and marketed to lesbians anyway. This included offering benefits to American gay and lesbian employees for their domestic partners, so it didn’t look like a cash grab. (This was not a problem. They already offered those in Canada.)

Yes, there was some backlash. They got letters from a grassroots group accusing them of promoting homosexuality, and every letter said they’d no longer be buying from Subaru. “You didn’t buy from us before, either,” Subaru realized, and ignored them. It helped that the team really cared about the plan, and that they had many straight allies to back them up. There was also some initial backlash when Subaru hired women to play a lesbian couple in the commercial, but they quickly found that lesbians preferred more subtlety; “XENA LVR” on a license plate, or bumper stickers with the names of popular LGBTQ+ destinations, or taglines of “Get out. Stay out.” that could be used for the outdoors–or the closet.

Subaru said “We see you. We support you.” They sponsored Pride parades and partnered with Rainbow Card and hired Martina Navratilova as spokeswoman. They put their money where their mouth is and went into it whole hog. In a time where companies did not want to take our money, Subaru said, “Why not? They’re people who drive.” And that was groundbreaking.