“You are responsible for the minors in your fandom!!!”

No, I’m fucking not. I’m not your parent. My past-times do not automatically sign me up to act in loco parentis. If you need someone else to monitor your own content consumption online, go get mommy and/or daddy to set up a content blocker on your computer.

Louder for the minors in the back, please.

What I’m responsible for in my fandom:

1. Making a good faith effort to include relevant and informative tags and labels on my creative works.

2. Making a good faith effort to use the “author chose not to warn” rating, a “contains potentially upsetting content” note, cuts or community ratings, or otherwise indicating that there might be untagged, triggering content if I’m not up to or don’t want to tag it.

3. Being a good fandom citizen; not sending death threats or hate, not bullying people, being kind and thoughtful to those I interact with, and leaving alone things that would prompt me to act otherwise.

4. Curating my own experience; not engaging with people or material that I know will be harmful or upsetting to me, disengaging when I realize that something is harmful or upsetting to me, and using tools such as blocklists and tag filters to hide content I don’t want to see.

5. Doing the opposite of whatever the fuck bullshit is going on in tiktok at all times.

Ds9 where everything is the same but it's shot in a mockumentary style.

Merrill could not have made a cameo in inquisition because I think she would meet Solas and be like "Hello! Are you a pride demon?"

merrill could not make a cameo in Inquisition because she would be Rightfully Replacing Morrigan &/or screaming internally at Solas because SHE KNOWS (Merrill's not sure "what", exactly, she Knows but SOMETHING is triggering her Keeper Senses & it's probably not Dagna).

...yes, i am still salty at Bioware going with Morrigan & her Divine Nepotism instead of Merrill "trained her whole life as a Keeper, then for a decade in KIRKWALL with demons & without ever succumbing to all the ambient eldritch corruption going on".

Cats are the new bosses.

This makes me happy in ways I can’t completely describe.

There was a science fiction short story with that plot. Evil Aliens hit a spaceship full of humans with a paralysis ray before boarding. The ship's cat 1.) wasn't affected 2.) had been entered into the system as a crew member as a joke. So, being the ranking crew member, the cat was in charge. Ship's computer displayed the enemy ships on the tactical command touch screen and the cat swatted at the glowy dots, targeting the ships and activating the defenses.

how can you say this and not tell us the name of the story of the author because I AM DESPERATE NOW...

Everything about this post is causing me to make the same face as that cat.

I HAVE A BOOK THAT STORY IS IN!!!!! The story itself is titled “Well Worth the Money” and written by Jody Lynn Nye. The book I have is titled “Cats in Space (and Other Places)” edited by Bill Fawcett and published in 1992 by Baen Publishing Enterprises, distributed by Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-72118-6. EVERY STORY IN THE BOOK IS GREAT, and I suggest if you can lay your hands on a copy you do so. 

(Warning, the front cover says “In space, no one can hear you meow...” and the back cover says, “Space, the Feline Frontier.” Just in case you’re allergic to puns or something.)

Heck yeah.

I will honestly never forgive y’all for going crazy over kylo ren. like u literally had poe and finn and u chose kylo. that’s like saying u would fuck jar jar binks over anakin or obi. rip to ur taste in men but I am different

I mean HONESTLY

Like, I don't mind you calling out hypocrisy but when you attach a negative meaning to "caring for Ukraine" you are ultimately fucking shit up for me personally. How about

"Oh, you care about Ukraine? That is great! Do you know what would help Ukrainians? If the Iranian regime, that supplies weapons to Russia, was overthrown"

Or

"You care about Ukraine? Because you hate authoritarianism? Me too! That is why I support protests in Iran! Have you heard of them? I think we shoudl support each other in our fight"

Or

"You care about the Russian invasion of Ukraine? I remember the way they bombed Syria and invaded Georgia. This ongoing horrid behavior must be stopped"

Or

"You are concerned about the persecution of Muslims in Crimea? It's so awful! I've recently read that Russia promoted islamophobia in western countries too, sponsoring far-right nationalists like Le Pen"

Or

"You support Ukraine? I've just found out about the way Turkey and Azerbaijan help them bypass sanctions. No weird these countries stick together, all of them have imperialist tendencies and serious problems with democracy"

Like... Idk how to tell you but Russia sponsors nazis all over the world, befriends as many dictators as they can, sends their paramilitary groups to massacre Africans, and suppresses democratic protests in neighboring states. It's not like this conflict is isolated. Fascists stick together, they help out each other. Even in Ukraine, pre-war fascist groups had connections to Russia. You want to build a unified front against them, not pit different freedom fighters against each other in the hope to receive more attention

There's only one side benefitting from your framing of people's support of Ukraine as coming from (internal) racism. You think you are engaging in intellectual debate, I think you should think about how your words influence people in a life-death situation. There is something more important than you feeling right

And, the end note. For eigth years world didn't give a fuck about the war in Ukraine. It didn't give a fuck so much most of you don't know when the war started. And you know what? Not even once have I seen Ukrainians writing "what about Ukraine" under news about Palestine, Yemen, or Syria. Do us the same grace

A woman makes a deal with the devil… but before signing, she actually reads the contract. She is the first to do so.

She’s got a good head on her shoulders. That’s what Grandma said and Uncle said and Daddy said and Peter said. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.

So even though the brimstone in the air is making her eyes water, even though the ground is so hot it’s making the rubber of her soles soft, even though he’s looking at her with fire in his eyes, she’s not going to go throwing that away now. This deal is too important to lose her head now.

“It’s the standard contract,” the devil says. The pinstripes on his suit aren’t black like she’d first thought. They’re red and they shine in the red light of his eyes. “I get rid his cancer and then you give me your soul on your dying day. That’s a good deal isn’t it? You’ll have the rest of your lives together.”

She hunches over the paper and her shoulders shake. He thinks she’s crying right now, he thinks she’s trying to muster the courage to sign, but she’s not. She’s reading the fine print because it’s the only part of the paper that’s not red like the pinstripes of his suit. It’s black, blacker than anything she’s seen and she knows it’d be bad to let her eyes skip over it.

She bites her lip until blood wells. When it drops, it falls on one word. Just one. Her blood eats through the ink of this word, steaming and hissing. She breathes in the smoke and feels the word settle deep into her lungs.

Then, when she’s done, she stands tall and she looks the devil in the eye. His smile flickers when he sees that she’s got the same fire in her eyes as him, when he sees that there aren’t any tear tracks on her face. 

“Sure,” she says, heart a rampaging thing in her chest. “That’s a good deal.”

His smile returns full force when she signs it. He takes the paper lovingly into his jacket, presses his own bloodied finger to it to sign it, sweeps a bow, and promises she won’t see him until she’s on her death bed.

She knows she’ll be seeing him a lot sooner than that.

Keep reading

Omg yes this!! This is exactly why I feel like Carver's relationship with Hawke is so rocky because of Malcolm and not because of Hawke themselves (unless you RP it so). I personally don't see Carver as the one who put himself "in Hawke's shadow" but actually Malcolm did unintentionally.

Carver wasn't involved with his siblings' magic lessons and was left behind, excluded from Hawke and Bethany while they both had something that strengthened their bond to their father. He always had to work twice as hard or speak twice as loud to receive any attention or recognition at all (including running away to join the army as a teenager, which Hawke and Bethany can talk about in Legacy).

And I think this is why Carver "have we met a Templar that isn't a colossal prig?" Hawke started to consider the idea of becoming a Templar as an option where it previously wasn't one - his namesake. Malcolm named Carver after the Templar that allowed him to be free and Carver took that to heart. He finally had a connection to his father after feeling for so long that he was unloved by him. Carver's idealistic nature and this newfound connection made him think that maybe he could live up to his namesake and make things better on the inside (not understanding that one good Templar can't fix a corrupt system).

But not only that, but he was essentially groomed to fit the Templar role for his family. Not a sibling, not a son, but their shield. And that's why I believe he had a disdain for magic. Not because he hated mages or believed they were evil or necessarily even jealousy for their abilities (he even says that he never understood why people were afraid of magic and knows not every mage is evil), but because his lack of magic is why he was emotionally neglected and made him feel unloved.

Carver loves his family and would do anything for them (including die for them: Ostagar, ogre attack, putting himself between Hawke and a threat, fighting alongside them in The Last Straw, etc), but the hurt, internalised inferiority, and lack of regard for his feelings - especially in regards to Malcolm who most likely didn't even realise what he was doing - is a scar that ran deep and Carver was only able to break away from those feelings once he was away from that environment.

this post made me think of this dialogue from the legacy DLC, if it’s hard to read it says

because I always kind of think imagine hearing your father tell your siblings they represent the best in him and knowing you’re not part of that. Especially when so much of what Carver says and does is about caring about and protecting his family, he loves his family, but he’s told his siblings are the best part of his father and for a reason he can’t ever share because he’s different to them :(

And then the next line of that, which is about Bethany and not Carver but kinda suggests a father that had high expectations the kids (or at least one of them) needed to live up to and was worried about failing, intentional or not

His codex further proves that he felt like an idiot and lesser than his magical family members. Always feeling like he couldn't live up to expectations so he'd overcompensate to try and prove himself.

I'd say this pain even goes deeper than people - including Carver - realise. I'm going to be speaking from my own experience with depression and how I interpreted these next bits, so here's a trigger warning for suicidality.

In Carver's want to feel appreciated and that he's worth something, his fierce loyalty to his family, in my opinion, is quite self-destructive. He will push and push with no regard for personal safety, and perhaps even believes that if he dies for a righteous cause, maybe then he will be loved and appreciated.

In World of Thedas Volume 2, there is an entry talking about Carver's time at Ostagar. His fierce devotion to his family especially is what had him enlist in the first place. It talks about how his lack of regard for his own safety as well as trauma from the battle left him in tears and almost killed, had it not been for fellow soldiers stopping him from what was essentially suicide.

If he survives, his codex even says that he knows that he had to flee Ostagar, but that part of him wishes he'd fought and died there. Which... to me doesn't sound like someone who puts much value on his life.

And if he dies in Lothering, his codex is also quite... concerning. Furthering the point of overcompensating to the point of killing himself to feel like he's worth something.

And the shocking realisation I had is that if he dies, Hawke remarks that Carver died a hero, but if he lives, Hawke calls Carver a brat and criticises him for being understandably traumatised by the blight. The fact that he was more appreciated in death than in life really broke my heart, tbh.

I'd say this is a direct result of the emotional neglect and loneliness he felt within his own family.

Meanwhile, on Twitter…

…Sound familiar?

I want to put this out there:

If you are trying to escape out of state (particularly Missouri) because you or a kid is trans and the lack of a job is an issue:

My work, a Fortune 50 insurance company, has its flaws, but it is hiring in Central illinois. Our entry-level claims roles are continuously hiring, pay in the mid 30k, with good benefits. The job is 50 to 75% work from home. No college degree is required. It's call center work, but honest work.

If you are in tech, there's options for that, too

I will send referrals for anyone who needs it.

We have a good PRIDE erg, with lots of trans/gnc folks out, as well as supportive parents.

In town, there's a planned parenthood with HRT, welcoming churches (if that matters to you), a local gay bar, and a drag scene. It's a college town as well with 2 major universities and a community college.

Again, not perfect (we've got our fair share of fascists, but they lost their elections. By a lot) but smaller and cheaper than chicago, which is easily accessible by train and bus.

Message me for more details if you need it, and please share.

Would ya look at the time! It's 4:20 somewhere

Okay this is so unbelievably cute 😍

I want this so bad 😭

Me at the beginning: 90 seconds! What is that? Two books maybs? Hardly a 'spree'

Me halfway through: oh, oh that time limit was very necessary

Husband enrichment

THE MUMMY (1999) dir. Stephen Sommers

[a TikTok video by @deafcarguy. A man with a beard faces the camera. You can see him from the chest up. He is wearing an orange shirt and a backwards baseball cap. He is drinking from a beer can.

He signs with one hand at the camera, with text overlain:

"I'm reading a horror book in Braille"

"Something terrible's about to happen"

The camera zooms in on his face starting intently as he signs

"I can feel it"

He takes a big drink and the video ends]

Duck Amuck | Director: Chuck Jones | Studio: Warner Bros. | USA, 1953

NOT ME YOU SLOP ARTIST

This is a close up? A CLOSE UP YA JERK! A CLOSEUP!

Alright, let’s get this picture started! (The End) NO NOOOOO!

One of the defining moments of animation history.

“Ain’t I a stinker?”

In Babylon 5, didn’t one of the non-humans think Daffy was the god of frustration?

Holy shit, this is nearly 70 years old. This would have been right on the heels of color television being commercially available to the public.

Humanity has finally reached the stars and found out why no one had contacted us. The universe is in a sad state. As such, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, and many othe charities go intergalactic.

The thing the recruiters don’t tell you about space battles is that you die slowly.

Ships don’t blow up cleanly in flashes and sparks.  Oh, if you’re in the engine room, you’ll probably die instantly, but away from that?  In the computer core, or the communications hub?  You just lose power.  And have to sit, air going stale and room slowly cooling, while you wait to find out if the battle is won or lost.

If it’s lost, nobody comes for you.

It had been about half a day (that’s a Raithar day, probably a bit shorter than yours) and Kvala and I were pretty sure we had lost.  Kvala was injured, Traav and I were dehydrated and exhausted, and Louv was dead, hit by shrapnel when the conduits blew.

Most fleets give you something, of course.  For Raithari, it’s essence of windgrass.  I looked at the vial.

“It’s too soon,” Traav said.

Kvala gestured negation, shakily.  She had been burned when conduits blew, and her feathers were charred, and her leftmost eye was bubbly and blind now.  Even if we were rescued, she probably wouldn’t survive.  “You know we’re losing the war.”

They couldn’t deny that.  “It doesn’t mean we lost the battle.”

“Doesn’t it?  The Chreee have better technology.  Better resources.  And they have their warrior code.  They don’t care if they die.”

“We can’t give up!” Traav protested.  They were young, a young and reckless thar who had listened to a recruiting officer and still believed scraps of what they had been told.  “Any heartbeat now—”

There was a clunk.  Something had docked with our fragment of the ship.

“You see?!” Traav crowed triumphantly.

Kvala exchanged glances with me.  The Chreee never bothered to hunt down survivors.  What was the point, after all?

The Aushkune did.

There weren’t supposed to be Aushkune here.  They were supposed to hide in nebulas.

But if there were—

If there were, we were too late.  The windgrass couldn’t possibly destroy our nervous systems in time to stop the corpse-reviving implants, and once you were implanted, it was over—or it would never be over, depending on how you looked at it and whether Aushkune drones were aware of anything—

Footsteps.

Bipedal.  The Aushkune were supposed to be bipedal.

And then the blast door opened, and a figure stood in it.  My first thought was, robot?  That’s almost worse than Aushkune . . .  But no, it was a being in some sort of suit.

Who wore suits?

“Friendly contact,” the suit’s sound system blared, as the being moved over to Kvala.  “Urgent treatment.  Evacuation.”

“Who are you?”  Kvala struggled upright.

Despite the primitive suit, the blocky being was using up-to-date medical scanners.  “Low frequency right angle shape,” it explained—or maybe didn’t explain.  Two more figures came into the room and put Kvala firmly onto a stretcher.

“You’re with the Chreee, aren’t you?”  Kvala was not at all happy to be on a stretcher.

“Not Chreee,” the sound system said.  “You Man.  Soil Starship Nichols.”  The being hesitated.  “Rescue Chreee as well.  On ship.  Will separate.”

“You what?” I said faintly.  Who would do that?

“Oath,” the being explained.

“What kind of oath?  To what deity?”

The shoulders of the being moved up and down.  “Several different.  Also none.  For me, none.  Just—oath.”

I exchanged glances with Traav, who looked as unsettled as I was.  I had never, ever heard of groups cooperating when they couldn’t even swear to or by the same power.

The being scanned me.  “Have water,” it said.  “Recommend.”

Raithari have fast metabolisms.  I could—would—die of thirst quickly, and painfully.

“Where will you take us,” Traav asked, “after you give us water?”

“Raithari to Raithar.  Chreee to Chreeeholm.”

“Chreeeholm would kill them for failing,” Traav remarked.

The being hesitated, and then said, “War news sometimes bad.  Sometimes lie.”

We had learned long ago not to believe the recruiting officers, but what did that have to do with anything?

“And you—what?” I asked.  “Just fly around looking for battles and rescuing victims?”

The being seemed to consider this.  “Best invention of soil,” it said finally.

Most of what it was saying didn’t make any sense.  Did it worship soil?  But it had said that it had sworn to no deity . . .

Madness.

On the other hand—war was a deliberate, rational act by deliberate, rational people, and I wanted no more of it.  So why not embrace madness and see what happened?

“Soil Starship—Rrikkol?” I asked, stumbling over the word.

“Yes.  Soil Starship Nichols.”

I followed the being in the suit.

Took me well over a minute to realize "low frequency right angle shape" was Red Cross.

This whole thing is brilliant with translation stuff.

idk who needs to hear this rn but suffering is not noble. take the tylenol

One time when I was younger I was refusing to take headache medicine and my mom said “the person who invented that medicine is probably so sad you won’t let them help you” and now every time I find myself denying medicine I just imagine the saddest scientist making those big wet eyes like “why won’t you let me help” and whoop then I take the medicine

This is how vicodin addictions begin...

Vicodin is an opiod (specifically, it is the opiod Hydrocodone mixed with acetaminophen so that you can give people a lower dose of the hudrocodone and have it still be effective.)

Opiods are a whole other situation than just OTC painkillers. Opiod addiction is a complex and tragic thing- a mix of unresolved chronic pain, lack of social support networks, and the chemical dependency that opiods create in the body.

It is unhelpful fear mongering to suggest that taking Tylenol when you have a headache or period cramps is a gateway to opiod abuse.

Even when talking about opioids a lot of chronic pain patients do not take their prescribed medication unless things are absolutely horrible, exactly because of this rhetoric! People deserve to have relief without always being side-eyed about addiction. AND people with addictions shouldn’t be your fucking boogey man prop to scare people out of taking medication when they need it.

Anyway, back to pain. Especially chronic pain.

It is harder to calm a body down than to keep it from getting to the breaking point in the first place. If you let your pain get to a fever pitch before taking you medication, you’ve already done damage and the opioid may not be able to bring you back from that.

So some people think they need to take more to make it work, except they shouldn’t take more, they should have had it time managed so that their pain doesn’t explode to the point where an opioid would do little to help.

Toughing it out can also compound complex issues.

For example: You are in pain. You feel you should be “used to it” by now, or some other nonsense. So. You don’t take your pain meds, so you feel more tense, so your muscles spasm more, so it’s not safe for you to do normal activities (cooking, driving, etc), so you do something safe and more passive, like reading or goingo n the internet, so you develop a tension headache or even trigger a migraine, so you stress out your joints, your body gets put on alert mode, you feel mentally stressed, your focus is harder to draw away from the pain, the pain and one’s perception of it, increases. You now have to spend a full few days in bed because you tried to tough out your body when it needed help.

Addiction can ruin lives. But so can chronic pain.

Folks need to stop scare mongering about medication in general. Take your meds, use them when needed, if you think there may be a problem, talk to your doctor and help manage things. Don’t be scared to take your medication.

And then there’s this:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/20/health/dementia-chronic-pain-wellness/index.html#:~:text=Living%20with%20chronic%20pain%20can,later%20dementia%2C%20new%20research%20found.&text=Equally%20important%20is%20a%20link,pain%20and%20inflammation%2C%20Isaacson%20said.

Take your meds.  Seek help for chronic pain.