#// them not knowing the way out the area they're in

[cybrheartheart]

OMFG, this is soooo important. I didn't have this; my family didn't do anything together except watch TV because my dad was retired and just needed to rest after his weary years of life. And my egg donor was never there in my life. I never learned crap from her because she was never there.

I learned more from my teachers and neighbors than anyone else, and once I got too old, they didn't want anything to do with me because I wasn't theirs and I had trauma that no one wanted to deal with, because I wasn't theirs.

I have a deep encompassing black hole in my life because of this lack of empathy for someone who just needed someone to be there for me...someone to actually be there and teach me hands on. Please be there for the next generations to come, because they won't have the systematic support that children who fall in the cracks have had when we were growing up, and even the little amount of support we have left these days in the US.

Be there for your children, or be there for those children who are not yours...be they your grandchild, nibling, neighbor kid, or students. Be a safe space, a safe harbor for their lives, and be the example I've never had in my life.

Create life in this time of destruction and harm that will be ahead...and know, we have each other, we have community, we have support, if we're able and willing to create it, even for those kids who seem weird, do weird things, and just embarrass and humiliate themselves because they just can't help it...since they're doing it because they haven't been taught the right way to do it in a way that will help them learn.

Teach why it is important for them to cook, to clean, to take care of themselves, to bathe and shower and clean areas that no one will talk about (hands off, of course), give them your silence so their voice can be heard, give them a place where they won't be looked at with judgement. Give them a loving manner without conditions. Allow them to talk about things that spew out of their minds, random things that no one else will talk about, and give them the opportunity to live without groomers opening them up to abuse.

When children are clean slates, they are open to abuse, to inappropriate touching, to violence, to malicious control, to brainwashing (gaslighting, negging, etc.), to abduction, to kidnapping, to illicit drugs*, and so much more.

Fill your children to the brim with your presence, with your time, with your attention, with your energy, otherwise someone else will fill them up with something worse, trauma, pain, suffering, emotional or psychological torture, and will resent you in their teens and into adulthood.

Don't get me wrong, my dad was always there, but that doesn't mean people were not able to get to me. He invited family and friends into the home all the time to spend time with me, to give me the parental figure I didn't have, but it didn't satisfy because they were never there but to see him and I was an afterthought. And thought he was there, he had people to keep me company and that one person abused me while he wasn't there, and he never knew, he never would have allowed me to stay with them during his heart attack.

One week of my life that damaged me beyond repair and forced me into a position to tell no one. I had no one to trust, had no one's attention, no one to understand with a look that something was wrong with me and I didn't want to go anywhere with this person. I was isolated and it traumatized me for life, and it's hard for me to trust anymore. I can trust mentally, but my body will not allow me to trust, my psychology will not allow me to trust, and it is hardest to reach out when I really needed someone, because I didn't have anyone who was willing to give me a safe space, a safe harbor.

Give children the chance to trust you. Trust is earned, not forced on others. Give them safety, security, and protection...even if they don't have that at home, school, or other places. Give them yours. Always. Choose them. Always.

*And as a side note, since illicit drugs are a lot of the time these days laced with fentanyl. Illicit drugs will most often not just be addictive, but be more often than in the past, lethal. Hospitals use patches to administer fentanyl because lethal doses are so miniscule. When it comes down it the addition of fentanyl leads to instant death. And a lot of the time, you don't know what illicit drugs are cut with, baby powder, heroin, cocaine, rat poison...but fentanyl is a game changer entirely.

Someday your hands will be old and wrinkled, the skin spotted and bunching over your knuckles. And a child will watch you make something. It's a simple task, you'll have done it a thousand times before. But to that child, the smooth, confident way your hands move will seem like impossible magic. You have to keep living.

[un-fwuit-un-fwog]

Fine. One more night.

After Azul's overblot everyone was exhausted. When you finally stumbled out of Octavinelle's portal the sun has already set beneath the horizon.

Leona and the other Savanaclaw boys walked out of the portal behind you in similar states of exhaustion. Seeing them caused you to remember you had still had to grab your stuff from their dorm before heading off to Ramshackle. After that you would likely have to spend around 10 minutes trying to get the front door unlocked and open, check the old dorm to make sure it hadn't deteriorated to the point it would collapse on yours and Grim's heads as you slept, make sure nobody broke into the dorm in your time away (they'd have nothing to steal, but you've caught students more than once trying to vandalize the place), and then the ghosts would likely hound you with questions as to what had happened. You weren't going to get any sleep tonight.

You groaned and ran your hands over your tired face.

Leona noticed this action and looked at you suspiciously. "What now," he asked against his own best judgement. Whatever it was would probably cause trouble for him, but he asked before he could stop himself.

"I still have to grab our stuff from Savanaclaw before heading back to Ramshackle. And when we get there. . ." you sighed and rubbed your face again "so much to do. Not gonna get any sleep."

Without another word, you and Grim hobbled through Savanaclaw's mirror. Once the two of you were gone Jack and Ruggie both looked over towards Leona.

"What?" He tried to snap, but he was to tired to put any real bite in his words.

"Surely. . .one more night wouldn't hurt. . ." Jack mumbled.

"Could get 'em to cook breakfast again in the morning." Ruggie hummed. "They're a pretty killer cook."

Leona just stared at the two like they each had grown another head. "You're kiddin'. After the Ruckas they caused last night?"

"They were just trying to convince you to help! They'd have no reason to do that again tonight." Jack immediately piped up.

"It's not like ya had any troubly sleeping the other couple of nights they were here," Ruggie snickered. "If I didn't know any better, I'd even say ya slept better."

The two watch as Leona growl before walking to the Savanaclaw mirror with a huff.

In Leona's room, you'd just finished getting yours and Grims stuff packed up. Grim hadn't been much help, having fallen asleep on a plush chair the moment you stepped foot in the room.

You were about to wake him when a grumpy Leona came stomping through the door. Assuming he was angry at the two of you for still being there you began to apologize: "Sorry, Leona. I just finished packing out stuff and I was just about to wake Grim so we could-"

Before you could finish your sentence he cut you off "You're staying here tonight."

". . .wha-?"

"I said you're staying here tonight! It's dark out and you're already here, so you're staying here tonight. I don't need the two of you getting into trouble on your way home that becomes my problem in the morning," he grumbles.

"Why would any trouble we get in become your-"

"Do you wanna stay here tonight or not?" Leona's tone is harsh, but his posture is relaxed as always, and his face is just a hair softer than usual.

"Uhm. . .yeah. Thanks." You stumble a bit, shocked by his words, but eventually manage to respond. When you do he simply huffs and flops onto his bed.

You hurry to unfold the futon in the area next to Grim's chair so as to not make him keep the lights on any longer. After draping a blanket over the sleeping Grim, you toss the pillow and blanket you had been using the past few night onto the futon and crawl onto it.

Leona finally shuts off the lights (not that he was waiting for you or anything) and the room falls into darkness. The only light comes from the moon shining through the openings in the wall next to Leona's bed.

Several minutes pass in silence before Leona speaks: "Whatever you have to say just say it so I can get to sleep. I can't relax with you staring me down like that."

"It's. . .It's nothing."

You're about to close your eyes and pull the blanket over your head so you can wallow in your embarrassment when you hear a click. You slowly turn over to see the lamp next to Leona's bed has been turned on and he's staring at you with an expression that reads 'don't play with me right now."

You sigh and sit up. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I already told you my reasons for letting you stay here tonight." He grumbles, reaching to turn off the lamp again.

"No! I-I mean. . .for that too, but what I meant was: thank you for letting us stay here and for helping us with the overblot. I know you didn't have to, and I appreciate it. It may sound dramatic, but you really did risk your life to help us today. . .thank you."

The room falls into silence again before you hear Leona's laugh ring through the space. You look up in surprise.

"It almost sounds like I'm a good person when you put it like that."

Another moment of silence.

"You're not?"

He looks at you like you're crazy before clicking the light back off.

You both shuffle back into comfortable positions. You aren't sure if you were simply imagining things from exhaustion, but you could have sworn you heard a mumbled "Thanks to you too" from across the room before you drifted off to the land of dreams.

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[meeedeee]

Calling Your Congresspersons

Not my post but please feel free to copy and paste to share with others

*******************************

FOR THOSE OF YOU LOOKING TO TURN YOUR ANGER INTO ACTION, here's some advice from a high-level staffer for a Senator. Re-posting from a friend of mine:

There are two things that we should be doing all the time right now, and they're by far the most important things.

You should NOT be bothering with online petitions or emailing.

1) The best thing you can do to be heard and get your congressperson to pay attention is to have face-to-face time — if they have town halls, go to them. Go to their local offices. If you're in DC, try to find a way to go to an event of theirs. Go to the "mobile offices" that their staff hold periodically (all these times are located on each congressperson's website). When you go, ask questions. A lot of them. And push for answers. The louder and more vocal and present you can be at those the better.

2) But those in-person events don't happen every day. So, the absolute most important thing that people should be doing every day is calling.

YOU SHOULD MAKE 6 CALLS A DAY:

2 each (DC office and your local office) to your 2 Senators & your 1 Representative.

The staffer was very clear that any sort of online contact basically gets immediately ignored, and letters pretty much get thrown in the trash (unless you have a particularly strong emotional story — but even then it's not worth the time it took you to craft that letter).

Calls are what all the congresspeople pay attention to. Every single day, the Senior Staff and the Senator get a report of the 3 most-called-about topics for that day at each of their offices (in DC and local offices), and exactly how many people said what about each of those topics. They're also sorted by zip code and area code. She said that Republican callers generally outnumber Democrat callers 4-1, and when it's a particular issue that single-issue-voters pay attention to (like gun control, or planned parenthood funding, etc...), it's often closer to 11-1, and that's recently pushed Republican congressmen on the fence to vote with the Republicans. In the last 8 years, Republicans have called, and Democrats haven't.

So, when you call:

A) When calling the DC office, ask for the Staff member in charge of whatever you're calling about ("Hi, I'd like to speak with the staffer in charge of Healthcare, please") — local offices won't always have specific ones, but they might. If you get transferred to that person, awesome. If you don't, that's ok — ask for that person's name, and then just keep talking to whoever answered the phone. Don't leave a message (unless the office doesn't pick up at all — then you can — but it's better to talk to the staffer who first answered than leave a message for the specific staffer in charge of your topic).

B) Give them your zip code. They won't always ask for it, but make sure you give it to them, so they can mark it down. Extra points if you live in a zip code that traditionally votes for them, since they'll want to make sure they get/keep your vote.

C) If you can make it personal, make it personal. "I voted for you in the last election and I'm worried/happy/whatever" or "I'm a teacher, and I am appalled by Betsy DeVos," or "as a single mother" or "as a white, middle class woman," or whatever.

D) Pick 1-2 specific things per day to focus on. Don't rattle off everything you're concerned about — they're figuring out what 1-2 topics to mark you down for on their lists. So, focus on 1-2 per day. Ideally something that will be voted on/taken up in the next few days, but it doesn't really matter — even if there's not a vote coming up in the next week, call anyway. It's important that they just keep getting calls.

E) Be clear on what you want — "I'm disappointed that the Senator..." or "I want to thank the Senator for their vote on... " or "I want the Senator to know that voting in _____ way is the wrong decision for our state because... " Don't leave any ambiguity.

F) They may get to know your voice/get sick of you — it doesn't matter. The people answering the phones generally turn over every 6 weeks anyway, so even if they're really sick of you, they'll be gone in 6 weeks.

From experience since the election: If you hate being on the phone & feel awkward (which is a lot of people) don't worry about it — there are a bunch of scripts (Indivisible.org has some, there are lots of others floating around these day). After a few days of calling, it starts to feel a lot more natural.

Put the 6 numbers in your phone (all under P – Politician.) An example is McCaskill MO, Politician McCaskill DC, Politician Blunt MO, etc., which makes it really easy to click down the list each day.

**If you want to share this, please copy and paste so it goes beyond our mutual friends.**

I have added the following websites:

1. Find your federal and state legislators: Use reps.fyi (directs you to https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/ )

2. Use scripts from 5Calls.org

3. Use scripts from the Americans of Conscience Checklist (updates every 2 weeks) https://americansofconscience.com/checklist/

4. Join a local or virtual group at https://indivisible.org/

[clowntiggles]

I'M BACK AND I COME BEARING HEADCANONS

DOEY MY MAN DOEY THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU

He is a tickle monster first and foremost. He's giant and a shapeshifter, it's practically hardwired into him.

And he's a caretaker, as if he needed any more coding.

Games of tickle monster are very common in the Safe Haven, and he's honed his beastly performance to a fine art. Even the older toys run in (fake) fear. He takes any chance he gets to play monster, it's as much a distraction for him as it is for them (and he likes being little devious).

SO teasy, terrifyingly teasy. When he's not playing monster, he's baby talking you into an early grave or playing innocent, like he's never even HEARD of tickling before and he has NO IDEA why you're laughing so much and he simply MUST investigate this.

Sprinkles puns in there for good measure. What do you mean they're bad -- you're laughing, clearly you find them hilarious!

Of course, even the mightiest beasts have their own weaknesses.

Since he's a shapeshifter who can bend metal beams with ease, it's safe to say tickling him is a challenge. But no matter how many arms he gives himself, he doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, and he can be caught off guard and overwhelmed as much as anyone else.

Ticklish basically everywhere, mostly because his torso is 90% of his body. He doesn't really react much to light touches, but kneading and other such things have him cackling in no time.

It only takes a few rounds of tickle monster for the others in Safe Haven to develop a taste for vengeance. At the end of the day, it doesn't take much planning or coordination to go "everyone get his ass".

It's one of the few situations where his strength is actively detrimental. He can't risk hurting the 30-odd kids and teens viciously attacking him, so he has to stay as still as possible while being tickled half to death.

His immediate reaction is to curl up like a pill bug and tuck all his limbs in, both to protect himself (it doesn't work) and to protect whoever's tickling him from potentially dangerous flailing (this part works, fortunately). However, if he doesn't get his nervous energy out somehow he'll simply explode, so all of it goes to his legs, disrupting his protection ball. His habit of kicking and stomping can betray his ticklishness before something even tickles enough to make him laugh.

His laugh is the silliest collection of sounds ever. It changes cadence wildly the way his regular voice does, oscillating from loopy giggles to belly laughs to rough barks, and unlike his voice he has no control where it chooses to go.

DOES NOT SHUT UP; any time he can talk though his laughter he will be talking, even if all he can get out are muddled words and scraps of sentences. Yet oddly enough he never tells whoever tickles him to stop huh that's so weird I wonder why that is.

Whenever someone tickles him he kind of HAS to let them do it for their own safety, but aside from that little concern he genuinely enjoys it. Protecting the Safe Haven (and being basically the only adult figure in the area) is a stressful, exhausting job. Seeing the kids happy lets him know that his efforts are worth it, and being able to laugh so freely takes his mind off of things, even if only for a few moments.

Final note, does stuff going through his body tickle? Yes and no. It mostly doesn't. Both inside and outside have pretty much the same level of tactile perception because it's all the same material, so when something goes through him he can feel it like he were touching it "normally", and it's generally not a ticklish feeling the way most things you tough aren't ticklish. But because it's the same amount of feeling, it CAN be ticklish.

Stuff inside his body can't move very freely due to the pressure of being surrounded by several hundred pounds of playdough, so it generally isn't enough to make him laugh, but it can be enough to make him squirm and kick and his voice wobble.

The scenario I'm imagining is that the player tries to grab him with he grabpack, only for him to grab it right back by letting the hand sink into his torso. He intends to hold onto it while giving them a scolding about how we do NOT use our grabpack on others, but the player constantly tugging on the cord and making the hand move quickly begins to take the bite out of his voice, much to his chagrin.

[lsunstreakerl]

for those of you who have been awaiting more on the kidnapping- I bring you 800 words from Pierre's POV. things are happening here...

A/N: I've totally switched around what order the extra drivers went in. yes I'm using Pierre, but this is not canon to the actual chronological timeline of 2nd RB drivers. suspend your imagination please and thank you <3

darkbull! the next couple ficlets are going to be the kidnapping, so if you haven't read the previous snippet I'd recommend doing that. just so you know what you're getting into.

Sweat drips down the back of Pierre's neck. He feels clammy with it, half convinced there's a glaring neon sign above him saying SUSPICIOUS. He certainly feels that way.

He wipes his palms off on the inside of his pants. It's fine. He's a Redbull driver, the same as any of the others.

Except for the fact that he isn't really a driver. Sure, he gets in the car, drives it passably well- but he hasn't clicked with Max.

He's learning that cohesion with Max might be the most critical trait in the garage, valued above anything else.

He doesn't have it.

It's not his fault- Pierre quite likes Max, but he's not allowed to get close to him. Not even really allowed to touch him- Charles has a thing about wandering hands.

Pierre has been subject to one too many rants about Redbull and their fondness for contact, but the bender Charles had gone on after the jewelry... Legendary, even by the normal Charles standards.

He takes a quick breath out. It's fine. It'll be fine.

Charles has done the work already- been slowly pulling Max further and further from the safety of the garage each weekend, has the cameras for this area on the fritz- all Pierre needs to do is get him down a few hallways.

He beeps his keycard into Max's hotel room. There had been an "unexpected" podium change after the race, propelling Daniel from fourth place to third, so he's out doing media. Carlos is still in his debrief. The Redbull team has been trickling down to the bar, and it's the work of several subtle miscommunications that has team members under the impression that someone else is coming to get Max.

He'd be worried about the higher members of the team noticing, but they're occupied at the moment, ending Pierre's career. That's what he assumes anyways, based on the fact that he'd seen Mark Webber follow Christian into the meeting room.

This is the only chance he's going to get.

Max's head pops up from where he's digging through his suitcase on the hotel bed. His shirt is partially unbuttoned, showcasing the gold necklace he's always wearing, interlinked rings resting against the hollow of his throat.

"Pierre! Hello!"

Pierre almost feels bad. He's gotten fond of Max, despite his best intentions. Max really has tried to get along with him, loop him into team activities and make him feel included, and here Pierre is- about to deliver him, gift wrapped, to the rest of his life.

Charles doesn't let go of his things- not without leaving claw marks behind. The chances of Max getting out are slim. The chances of him getting out unscathed are zero.

It's not Pierre's problem. Pierre's focus is on himself and Esteban, and Charles dangles both of their lives and their careers from his fingers, makes them dance like little marionettes.

Pierre has the protection of Ferrari, if he can get out of Redbull's clutches. He's not stupid enough to believe Charles will ever let him go, but maybe if he brings him Max- maybe he and Esteban can have a bit more freedom.

"Max, hello. Christian and GP are still in their meeting, and Daniel's down for media, so I'm taking you to the bar."

Max nods as he runs a hand through his hair, slipping his shoes on before standing. He's closer to Pierre than he's ever been before, enough for Pierre to smell his cologne, soft spiced notes and nutmeg.

His eyes are a stunning shade of blue.

"You will have to lead the way mate, I haven't been to the bar they picked before."

Right. Showtime.

Pierre flashes him a grin he hopes doesn't look as strained as he feels, before he's leading Max out of his hotel room.

Max is perfectly content to follow him, and Pierre is struck by it for a moment- it's really no wonder Redbull has him surrounded so often. He's too trusting. Hasn't even considered for a second that Pierre might be lying to him.

Because Pierre is Redbull.

Well- at this point, probably not. The contract has most likely already been signed, booting him out of his seat.

Pierre guides him through twisting hallways, and when they leave the hotel he deliberately takes them the wrong way. A few curved streets later, and they're in front of a bar, boisterous and noisy.

It's not a Redbull bar.

It's a Ferrari bar.

Pierre is putting his faith in Charles now, because Redbull will want him dead for this.

"Right inside, Max."

Sweet, trusting Max. Charles is going to crack him open and bleed him dry, leave him begging on the floor. He'll remold him exactly how he wants, removed of anything he deems unworthy.

He plays rough with his things. Pierre watches the glint of the gold around Max's neck and wrist as he walks in behind him.

Spoiled, naive Max.

He won't trust so easily again- not after this.

[asktheevilgeniusesson]

[ @silver---linings ] - Reluctant Allies prompt (not canon to the lore obvs)

It's bad enough that Silver's stuck in an unfamiliar dimension, but he's stuck in an unfamiliar dimension with one of his sworn enemies, Metal Sonic.

Apparently, when trying to foil Dr. Eggman's latest plot, and Metal Sonic tried to stop Silver, their battle somehow got them sent to an unfamiliar dimension, most likely from accidental Chaos Control. Silver would use the Chaos Emerald that possibly sent them here to send them back to their home dimension, if the Chaos Emerald wasn't out of juice.

Now they're both pretty much stuck in this dimension until the Emerald's energy is restored, or they find something to charge it back up faster.

The thing was, Silver didn't want Metal Sonic's help. He would much rather be on his own than work with an enemy, but he could not shake the robot off his trail as he wandered this dimension. No matter how many times he told the robot to quit following him, it never wants to listen.

"For Gaia's sake, you're unbearable." He told snidely as he tread the uncharted sands without turning to the robot. "If my powers weren't on the fritz, I would've had a better way of ditching you. Why do you insist on following me? Waiting to kill me the first chance you get?"

The robot was.. unsure why it was following silver exactly, honestly. But maybe he just didnt want to be alone in someplace unknown. It was almost like he was a lost animal following silver for familiarity, besides, he learnt the horror story of shard. Getting abandoned for 100+ years? Yeah, no. It didnt want to run the risk of that happening again. As much as these two were enemy’s he felt.. drawn to follow silver. He was no pacifist like Sonic but he wasnt trying to kill him yet. Listening to the hedgehog complain, its ears swivel upwards before it signs to the hedgehog, as it has no voice.

‘I am aware. However. Negative. I am not looking for a chance to destroy you or harm you. I do not know this area, and neither do you. I do not wish to be abandoned by the doctor here if i cannot find a way out myself. Therefore. I am following you. I will not touch, nor harm you. As long as you do not attack me. My only primary directive is to destroy sonic. You are not him. Therefore. I have switched off kill mode for now.’

It signed in explanation. Seemed simple, really silver wasn’t sonic, so, no need to be hostile. Atleast to his scanners as he was taking in silvers biodata while he stared at him. A way to know him better without talking, really.

‘Plus.. the sand is getting in my feet and i fear they may tense up and rust if i am alone. My jets are. . . Out of service. My flickey power source is tired, afterall.’

[yawujin]

─ what type of kissers are they?

ⓘ danganronpa protagonists , non established relationship , valentine's day , head canon format , friends to lovers , cute , non killing game 💌

makoto naegi ♡

waits for the perfect moment to ask "can i kiss you?"

tries not to overthink it but he knows he would be pretty embarrassed if he ended making a goofy face while going in for a kiss

that thought leaves makoto's mind as soon as his lips touch theirs

he allows enough time to pass for the other person to ease into the kiss, and soon after, he relaxes too

his hands move around to feel them. after he tests the waters for a little bit, wandering his partner's body becomes as natural as breathing

there's not a lot of force behind his kisses, leaving room for his partner to pull away if they need to. as for makoto...he could kiss them for hours (okay, maybe not that long...)

komaru naegi ♡

poor girl rushes into the kiss without thinking, pulls away with a big grin and asks if she did alright

her partner lets her down easily, telling her that she'd be better off starting slow

nervously, komaru places her hand on her partner's shoulder. she leans in and tries not to pucker her lips so much

her mouth is left slightly open after each kiss, not knowing if she should keep it like that until everything is over

after a while, she starts to feel flustered and pulls away. she's wide-eyed , pink in the face and out of breath...

"that was great!" ...but has zero complaints for her partner

hajime hinata ♡

sometimes, he'll wait for his partner to initiate. he'll only lean in to kiss them when they've already started to do so themselves.

other times, hajime will intertwine his fingers with their own, holding their hand before going in for a kiss. it's either that or he'll let his hand glide up their arm and hold onto their shoulder.

his kisses are quick, but don't feel that way. they're deep and passionate, as if he's trying to steal their breath away (which he always does)

watch out though! his lips may be sort of dry due to him constantly licking them (a habit he does while he's thinking)

kaede akamatsu ♡

she's very sweet and tastes even sweeter

her kisses are very loving, she makes sure of it each and everytime because she wants them to know how much she appreciates her partner

kisses on the lips are used sparingly, but kaede tends to go wild with forehead and cheek kisses 😌

she'll gently place the palm of her hand on either the back of their neck or on their cheek, going in slowly for a quick kiss (that may or may not be easily turned into a semi-short makeout session)

usually carries lip balm with her, so no need to worry about chapped lips ;)

shuichi saihara ♡

the first few times he kissed his partner, shuichi was held back. he felt kind of restrained, not knowing really where to put his hands and all

sure, it takes a while to get familiar with a friend turned partner's likes and dislikes but...he was feeling anxious

this feeling of anxiety faded out little by little, as he got to know their boundaries (their new ones, now that they were together, that is)

he seems to be the type to tentatively move his hands up from their waist, to their back and caress those areas as he kisses them.

he tries his best to quiet his thoughts as they continue on further. he's pulling them in closer to him. he's adjusting himself so he can be as close to them as possible, deepening the kiss and feeling his partner's warmth.

[crowley-winter-boots]

Instead of humouring the messages in the screenshot, I would like to make a post regarding people who think this way. DO NOT LOOK FOR THIS INDIVIDUAL OR HARASS THEM. I know people like to jump the gun and do that online, so please don't bother with it. I am making this post to address, that you can in fact, still protest without attending mass protests and that not everyone is able to attend those mass protests.

(*Notice how I didn't "name call", I said "I won't reply anymore as I'm PRETTY SURE you're trolling." I was making an observation based on past experiences, and I'm still convinced they were only saying this to cause problems.)

You CAN still protest without going to larger protests. Its OKAY if you can't attend those large protests.

Here are some ways you can help out if you're unable to go to a protest!

Spread the word

One of the best ways to get people to attend is to tell other people about it! The more people that know, the more that can know when and where to show up.

Find a way that fits you to do something as an individual

There are a few ways you can go about this, but here is what I've personally been doing:

- I've been wearing a pride flag to school. Specifically, the trans flag. Pride flags banned from hanging up in schools? Nothing in the dress code that denies it. It will make people angry and confused, but it will also make people like you feel seen. I've had a lot of negative reactions from students and teachers alike, but there have been fellow queer kids who walk up to me and talk to me about my flag, often saying they wish they had one of their own. I'm planning on painting "WE THE PEOPLE" on it soon (I was going to this weekend, but there was too much going on and I didn't want to start a project I couldn't finish before school on Monday.)

- Make a battle vest (or any other punk fashion, such as crust pants!) I've been working on mine, and will post the patches and progress soon. I've been meaning to make one for a while for myself, but put it off until recently. I'll also make a post going more into detail on how you can make punk fashion yourself, and the ideology of punks.

**PLEASE NOTE. Both of these can be dangerous. Especially wearing a pride flag, as there is't anything that can make it safer. With the punk fashion, there are ways to make it safer, and I'll go more into detail on that on my other post: but essentially, you don't want any political statements or pride flags on the back. You won't see anyone coming, and they'll be less likely to attack you if they see it from the front.

Talk to local activist groups to set one up in your area

I'm not too sure about how this process works, as I haven't yet contacted any local activist groups to set up a protest. I'm not even sure if that's how you CAN set up a protest, but I asked around and this was the answer I had gotten. I'll make an update once I figure out how to set up a protest and if I personally was able to (and the details of the protest, ofc!)

Make signs or stickers to post in your community

There are a lot of ways you can make signs and/or stickers! I've never made a sign myself, so you'll have to do the research yourself for that, but you could make them as flyers with paper as well. But with stickers, they're relatively easy to make! I sold some for a while, and made about $250 off of it in just a few weeks by selling them on my school campus. You just need a pack of sticker paper (GLOSSY makes it shiny, MATTE makes it flat like printer paper,) a printer, and some kind of art app to import your images on. Fitting stickers is like a jigsaw puzzle- you'll need to rotate them at weird angles and fit any nook into any cranny. Find patterns, repeating patterns will make the process easier. The goal is to have as little white space as possible- but that being said, leave enough room between each sticker to give a solid border. A common mistake I made when I first started making stickers was overlapping the edges.

Join communities online

Discord servers are a good way to find online communities for people who want to oppose the American government! I am in a server that shares resources, information, protest days, and more. I can share the link in DMs, and you can also look online to find more.

Start a social media platform

That's what my blog is for! I'm posting online as a form of protest. There are a number of social media platforms (except Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok....) that you can advocate on. I do believe Tumblr and YouTube are the safest ones, and therefore have the biggest communities on there.

Buy banned books

THESE WON'T BE SOLD ANYMORE, SOON. They are information and knowledge the government is afraid of. The Diary of Anne Frank is on the list, which just goes to show how far they're going in this. They know they're fascists. They know America is going through the same beginning stages of a fascist dictator's overtake of a country. You can find a lot of these secondhand before they're gone. Find PDFs online of the books and download them in a place they can't be deleted. Physical copies are much better to have as they can't be taken away.

Pirate and get physical copies of music

Alphatron, FMovies, those are good sites for live action. WCO.tv is a good site for cartoons (and as far as I know, perfectly legal online archive!)

Learn how to burn CDs. Collect CDs. Collect vinyl records. And please, for the love of the Gods, DON'T USE SPOTIFY. I used Spotify because it was the easiest option for me, but they financially supported Trump's campaign. I switched to YouTube Music. Even the free version of Spotify supports the company- every song you listen to and every advertisement you sit through puts more coins into their bank account. I also have a vinyl collection I've been growing for 3-4 years. I'm thinking about learning how to burn CDs and get a Walkman (I currently don't have money, but I'm looking to get a job soon.) Like with the banned books, physical copies are the best. They'll have to pry it from your cold, dead hands.

That's all I have for now!! Feel free to add onto this with your own ways to protest and/or additional information from what I've already put.

[rederiswrites]

What resources would you recommend for someone new to vegetable gardening? I'm in Zone 6 surrounded by Zone 5, and my initial web searching is overwhelming. I have a north-facing porch and I'm sure my dad will let me plant in his yard, though I might be fighting with the dahlia and lily bulbs that are already there.

Also, do you have any arguments I can make to my apt complex about why we should have a community garden?

Oh man this is always such a hard question, tbh, because there's so MUCH? You know? And I've been reading about this and studying it for like...since I was a teenager? But let's see.

First, the dahlias and lilies shouldn't be too aggressive, so there's that. And a north-facing porch won't give you much by way of tomatoes and peppers in your zone, but you can get loads of greens and herbs! Might be fun to maximize space with one of those super cool planting towers I've never had any excuse to get!

Over on Youtube Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening is really great. He's both very approachable and very rigorous about evidence based practice. Also fun and cute, so there's that. There are a lot of other gardening channels that come highly recommended but which I don't have any direct experience with. Hopefully someone else will jump in with more recs!

I just went and looked at my gardening bookshelf, and I'll be totally real with you, I remember reading most of them, and some of them made an impression on me, but none of them stand out as The Beginner Book. Like, Eliot Coleman's books are great for learning about season extension--which in your climate my well be something you want to learn about early on--but they're not specifically for beginners. Carol Deppe's The Resilient Gardener is a great book I should probably re-read, but it's specifically about gardening under adverse circumstances. Which, now that I say it, is also immediately relevant to a lot of people. Sigh. Anyway.

Oh I guess I am almost literally contractually obligated to prop for Master Gardeners and the Extension Service, which put out excellent, science-based regional information, such as when to start various plants in your area and how to address noxious weeds you're likely to encounter.

But to be honest I feel like I'm shit at answering this question!! So I am begging my many other gardening mutuals and followers to add their favorite resources, please!

[fluentisonus]

chiens-loups

[greenerteacups]

What do you think of jkr as a writer? I for one has always felt like she didn’t treat her female characters well. It felt strange, being critical of her when she was god queen of the earth, and also being 10

I think most of the problems in her books can be chalked up to genre hopping. Books 1-3 are perfectly good and serviceable children's books — great children's books, even! They have compelling, relatable characters and juicy mystery plots. They have problems, sure, but for the first three books someone's ever written — especially someone with little or no background in creative writing — they're really fucking good. So: there's her flowers.

The last four books pivot sharply into much more emotionally complicated and sociopolitically loaded territory, because they're describing a war. And it's hard to write children's books about war. I would venture you can't really do it, at least without dramatically misrepresenting what war is! And so Rowling makes the executive decision somewhere during the writing of Book 4 that she's not going to flinch away from that, she's going to go for dramatic realism, and she kills Cedric Diggory to let us know. People had died in Harry Potter before, of course — Quirrell gets sent to the fucking shadow realm, for example. But children haven't. (It also gives parents who are reading these books with their children a warning shot: shit is about to get significantly more real, think twice before you buy the next one of these for your 10-year-old.) After that, Rowling starts leaning much more into dramatic realism, and the fast-paced mystery-novel plotting of the first few books is replaced by a slow, simmering political conflict that unfurls over the course of about a million words.

The problem — besides the fact that she's picking one of the hardest things to write about, like, in all of literature, war is really insanely complicated and emotionally intense and hard to portray well — is that she's now trying to use characters, plot points, and technologies she developed for a children's series to enact a sprawling war drama among teenagers and adults. So Hermione, who was a reasonably precocious snobby eleven-year-old, becomes this sort of encyclopedic all-knowing savant of the wizarding world, who somehow remains functional and mostly even-headed despite her identity being the chief target of a prolifically murderous terrorist group. Draco Malfoy, a schoolyard bully whose primary tools included 1. namecalling and 2. telling teacher, JOINS said terrorist group (and admittedly does react reasonably, i.e., has a total crashout and takes to sobbing in a girls' bathroom whenever he gets a free minute). Dumbledore, who starts out as "whimsical friendly winky-wink trustworthy grandfather type", ends up being Magical Winston Churchill in a violent game of spycraft and espionage, eventually revealing he's only been keeping Harry at all these seven years because he wants to KILL him! And like, maybe really good technical writing could smooth out these transitions and make the first-order dramatic choices seem more natural, but Rowling is like, a Fine Writer, technically speaking. meaning she's reasonably consistent in characterization, her plotting is well-paced and believable, she has a clear authorial voice, and her prose is readable. personally, that's not enough to get me to buy into some of the changes that happen in the later books, and because she stuffs these things so full with new elements every installment, a lot of stuff ends up getting glossed over.

And like, I still love the books. I think they're wonderful, and they taught me how to read. but i can say that and also say that Rowling probably did herself a disservice by trying to write four giant war novels as sequels to her first three mystery children's books.

[gxlden-angels]

You know the Bible does go kinda hard when you start to read it like a very rough draft of a Percy Jackson-like novel with too much world-building cause there was absolutely no reason for gayboy Jesus to do all that shit

[galehowl]

Been passively thinking about my Digimon pet project and realized what a nightmare it'd honestly be for the Tamer characters in the setting to just exist, due to social media rip.

I can just imagine constantly having videos and pictures of them plastered all over the internet and every soc media site and app, whenever they have to go out and do their job, not to mention the total lack of privacy and some people definitely finding out where they live and all your information and being unhinged about it. Since that's kind of the reality of things as is.

Not to mention that people would probably try to film everything on their phones or whatever, whenever there's a rogue/wild Digimon spotted, or something interesting ( read: dangerous ) is going on, with no regard for their own safety

Should probably consider giving the characters some kind of disguise or something, now that I think about it lol

[megumi-fm]

.

[legless-fish-on-rollerskates]

Um. Brett?

I was under the impression that the Phil/Brett stuff was a running joke, but there comes a point where you've gone beyond committing to the bit into just straight-up dating. like, this lowkey reads like a relationship announcement, is that on purpose?? Hello???

[racke7]

As I don't want to leave negativity on someone else's post, but saw something WILDLY out-of-character, when an actual in-character relationship is RIGHT FUCKING THERE.

Sakura and Shirou's kitchen-relationship:

Shirou: "I need to get there first and start breakfast, or-"

Sakura: *innocently smug* "Hello senpai, I got started without you"

Shirou internally: "Noooo, my kitchen-time is being stolen"

Shirou externally: "Ah. Well, if you've already started, how can I help?"

Sakura internally: "Yay! I won first-place, and I get to make senpai happy with my cooking now!"

Rin and Archer's kitchen-relationship:

Rin: "How dare you-!"

Archer: *smirking like a bastard* "Oh? Have I touched a nerve, Rin? Were you under the mistaken impression that your chocolate-chip cookies are in any way adequate beyond the bargain-bin at a kindergarten bake-sale?"

Rin: "... I will fucking END YOU"

Archer: *scoffs* "I should be so lucky"