#—— CW. LONG POST

[kaienmaru]

It seems by now, Matako and Mutsu have grown close enough for Takasugi to be privy to insider information; the mastermind's network is just as impressive as when he were still active, it seems, but now he has the luxury of using it for his own indulgent benefit.

Left in the Kaienmaru's captain quarters is a small box, with a new gun model Tatsuma had apparently been admiring, the second time Takasugi has done such a thing; it's been commissioned to shoot faster rounds, and been made with an even lighter metal, in consideration of any potential strain in his arm. Tucked beside the gun is a holster and a card, with a new calligraphy set underneath it.

The card is anonymous, but the handwriting and contents are more than telling:

"Wasting all your time making letters for Gintoki when he's too lazy to ever write any back is pathetic even for you, don't you think?

You know where I live. Or is a new pen not enough to bribe even a greedy old merchant. You're getting old, though. Better hurry while you can still use one.

Happy birthday——I'll treat you to a bottle of booze and a song, if you can make it back alive. I heard the party your crew is throwing you might get a pretty wild.

So come visit soon, Tatsuma. As much as space might miss you...mine is too quiet without a voice like yours to fill it."

( ... ... .... ♨️ )

Unsigned, sealed, and delivered.

Having the box passed along to Matako and then Mutsu makes it worse, somehow; he has to stew in it from his place in Yoshiwara, and can't even see the bastard's reaction. He's making a fool of himself, perhaps, but it's...worth the risk. With Tatsuma, it's easier to convince himself of that.

After much chainsmoking, he'd changed his mind about adding sunflowers, though——Mutsu didn't include them with his gift box after he realized his lapse of judgement.

( *Except a bouquet was included, after the two women conferred about it privately. )

he sighs dejectedly as the door to his office slides close behind him. apparently, he's been ordered by mutsu to stay in his quarters until the dining hall is done being decorated. he tries to tell the two subordinates escorting him that he doesn't care for such ceremonies. let him help! then they can finish faster and start the party earlier! but they both simply shake their head and reiterates that they have to obey mutsu's command. how come the vice captain's words carry more weight around here? sure, he sneaks out of his obligations sometimes, but he's still the captain of this company and vessel, both in name and in practice!

but the two men plead for him to stay put, so he has no choice but to agree. and now he's confined to his room for the next hour or so.

it's only then that he notices the box and bouquet of sunflowers on his writing desk. someone must have put it in here while he was attending to his duties somewhere else. most likely mutsu, who does have a master key for all the rooms in the kairinmaru, and the gun he finds within the box, one he's been contemplating on purchasing and—more importantly—one that mentioned to her some time back, only lends more weight to his suspicion.

though he is slightly miffed that she chose to snuck into his room instead of just handing it to him directly, for example during his literal birthday party that's happening soon.

however, once he gets to the card that came with it, he immediately realizes his guess is not 100% correct. yes, mutsu most likely was the one who put these gifts in his room, but she's not the one who sent the gifts.

tatsuma would know that handwriting anywhere. he's had more than a decade to familiarize himself with it; seen it on parchments detailing battle strategies, covert mission correspondences, and shopping lists for the market, and later, new year postcards that would come weeks to late because the postal service often has a hard time pinning down his location.

and then there's the content of the card itself: the diction, mention of their mutual friend, the inside jokes... and the invitation at the end.

his body feels warm all over. he brings the paper close, as if the writer's scent would still linger on it, though of course it isn't. but it's a scent that he knows so intimately that his mind is able to easily conjure it up, anyway. his other hand caresses a sunflower's petals, a poor substitute on the thing he actually wants to touch.

he snaps himself out of it after a moment, and goes to pick up the last items remaining in the box, the calligraphy set, and a letter paper. after all, he has an hour to burn and a shinsuke to inform about when his next earth visit will be.

@scentofcamellias

[cleolinda]

AITA for banning my husband and father in law from the delivery room due to their intensely stressful/creepy behavior during my pregnancy?

There’s a famous Reddit post from 2020 where a pregnant woman wrote that her husband and father-in-law were a little too comfortable with their certainty that she was absolutely going to die in childbirth just like her husband’s late mother. It was to the point where her FIL was insisting that she go ahead and put all her clothes into storage, because she was obviously going to die in the hospital and it would save them the grief of packing up her things afterwards. Like. It was WILD.

When I tell my husband [that she feels suspicious of her FIL], he calls me paranoid, but I feel like my FIL WANTS me to die; his whole life identity for the past 35 years has been “amazing single dad” (never dated or had close friends or even hobbies really), and it seems like he’s looking forward to being able to guide my husband through what he went through. At this point, I’d honestly be happy to never see my FIL again, and I certainly don’t want him in the delivery room, especially since he told me he was “putting [his] foot down” about me not being “allowed” to have an epidural…. My husband, in addition to backing his dad on everything, acts like my due date is my death date, and has completely pulled away from me.

The commenters (and me, honestly) were convinced that the husband and FIL were either going to kill her outright to fulfill this expectation, or just make decisions about her care that might conveniently let her die.

And then she never posted again.

Over the last four years, people have frequently mentioned that post, always leading to a thread of people saying, “Oh god, I still worry about that woman.” I did too. It became one of those famous unresolved posts that people always wondered about.

Until yesterday, when someone on r/BestOfRedditorUpdates dug up a 2022 update she had posted on a different account:

TLDR; I had a beautiful and healthy baby girl, and I divorced my ex-husband. I lived, obviously.

She writes that she put her foot down about having her own mother in the delivery room rather than her FIL (!), and she WOULD be getting an epidural. Her husband lost his shit. And in his outburst, he let slip--

I admittedly lost my temper, and told him that I wasn’t going to die- it wasn’t my fault his father’s trauma wormed it’s way into his head, and that he needed to fix it without taking it out on me. He yelled at me that he didn’t need therapy. That caught me a little off guard; I asked him why he went to his therapist and was given advice about my death if he felt he didn’t need it. His expression gave it away, and he caved not long after. It turns out there was no therapist. It was just his dad. During the times he was supposed to be at therapy, he was with his dad. I’m still fuming.

And that was when she got the fuck out.

I’ll wrap this up- I’ve got an adorable little toddler tugging at my leg atm. I’m alive, I’m happy, and I’ve got my baby in my arms. Life is good.

I truly never thought we'd see a resolution to this, and I feel like there's probably a good number of people who remember it, so I thought you might want to know.

ETA: Brilliantly, I put the link in at the top; here it is again for convenience.

[alienbycomics]

Gender Nonconforming Jesus: A look at art history. CW: religion, transphobia, artistic nudity, depictions of open wounds (Long post)

Here’s a link to the original comic: Trans Jesus

[seenthisepisode]

no offence but the reason tumblr is “dying” is, well, yes, of course the cursed like/reblog ratio and the change in user behaviour (because of people being used to how instagram and tiktok work) BUT also the lack of weekly shows. i say it with my whole chest, they don't produce captivating and engaging stupid weekly tv shows anymore because streaming killed that so you have spikes of activity here when Something happens in general fandom or up to three days after a new season of whatever drops and then it's a wasteland. this is obviously an old woman yelling at a cloud missing supernatural and the vampire diaries and pretty little liars and all these other shows type of post but honestly give me back weekly tv shows where i have something to watch for 40 minutes almost every day of the week after work so then i can read and reblog it on tumblr give it back for the sake of my sanity

[sui-imi]

Funeral, right

---

been seeing some discussion about canon/fanon sans re: papyrus' death, and then i thought, unrelatedly, "hey i wonder what he did with the dust"

[starberry-cupcake]

THIS WAS INTENSE IN MANY WAYS

congrats to jim kirk for surfing through a panic attack and also wow

[pigswithwings]

what if aquatic animals had Tumblr would that be fucked up or something lmaooo anyways

0 notes 🔁❤️

🌿 mx-seagrxss Follow

mating season is such a chore. wdym i have to migrate back ten thousand miles just to find some bitches

🐟 thatsalmonboy Follow

outta my way gayboy I'm boutta get it

🐟 thatsalmonboy Follow

i have been transformed into a creature beyond my wildest imaginations

1,284 notes 🔁❤️

🎣 cardinesan Follow

uhhh was nobody going to talk about how the new update makes the site virtually unusable for crustaceans ???

🌊 pelagic-tragic Follow

honestly even if we tell staff you know they're not going to do anything. crustaceans make up such a small percentage of oceanblr right now that it's going to be impossible to get them to care. the treatment of anyone who isn't a bony fish on this website is atrocious tbh

573 notes 🔁❤️

🌑 the-midnight-zoom

oh my cod its so dark down here why do i have such piss poor eyesight. if my eyes could open any wider id be doing that but nooo my house in the god damn depths says get fucked. not even my cousin in that one cave has to put up with this wtf

🔦 anglerfished Follow

hey come here for a second

325 notes 🔁❤️

🦑 a-sinkingsquid Follow

absolutely freaking out right now you frys don't understand ... There's another squid at this whale fall and she's really really cute! I want to talk to her so bad but I'm scared as all hell ... what if she thinks I'm trying to eat her and swims away ? ?

3 notes 🔁❤️

🐋 girlwhaletail Follow

shipping discourse is sooo pointless like? you argue about ships? ⛵ those things that sound really loud & pass by me everyday? 🛳️ whoo whoo?

2,821 notes 🔁❤️

🐌 justasnailfish Follow

where is every one ..

[rubyfunkey]

The Rehabilitation of Death by @bamsara

didnt have time to clean this like i wanted but i needed to get this scene out of my head desperately. im good now

[confessionseddie]

EVAN BUCKLEY 8.03, “Final Approach”

[guavi]

n-no, certainly not

[felassan]

Matt Rhodes: "Some "Non-Standard Game Over" slides from Inquisition. -Red Templars win -Kicked out of the Winter Palace -Inquisitor possessed -Inquisitor dies" [source]

Art by Matt Rhodes

[ren-054]

*slowly takes out a handful of bird seed*

[bedupolker]

Limerence & Lust: Part 2, Limerence and Lust practice self care

Part 0

Part 1

Part 2.5

[90scully]

BATTLE ROYALE (2000) dir. Kinji Fukasaku

[itseghost]

a few meager cr3 sketches :] ft feywild fearne, orym's sending stone blues, and the revival scene from blood and dust that i sketched ages ago and decided i was never going to finish lmao

[umblrspectrum]

"smaller mass" you say