#(-other points of comparison)

[inkskinned]

you were raised in comparison.

it wasn't always obvious (well. except for the times that it was), but you internalized it young. you had to eat what you didn't like, other people are going hungry, and you should be grateful. you had to suck it up and walk on the twisted ankle, it wasn't broken, you were just being a baby. you were never actually suffering, people obviously had it worse than you did.

you had a roof over your head - imagine! with the way you behaved, with how you talked back to your parents? you're lucky they didn't kick you out on your ass. they had friends who had to deal with that. hell, you have friends who had to deal with that. and how dare you imply your father isn't there for you - just because he doesn't ever actually talk to you and just because he's completely emotionally checked out of your life doesn't mean you're not fucking lucky. think about your cousins, who don't even get to speak to their dad. so what if yours has a mean streak; is aggressive and rude. at least you have a father to be rude to you.

you really think you're hurting? you were raised in a home! you had access to clean water! you never so much as came close to experiencing a real problem. sure, okay. you have this "mental illness" thing, but teenagers are always depressed, right. it's a phase, you'll move on with your life.

what do you mean you feel burnt out at work. what do you mean you mean you never "formed healthy coping mechanisms?" we raised you better than that. you were supposed to just shoulder through things. to hold yourself to high expectations. "burning out" is for people with real jobs and real stress. burnout is for people who have sick kids and people who have high-paying jobs and people who are actually experiencing something difficult. recently you almost cried because you couldn't find your fucking car keys. you just have lost your sense of gratitude, and honestly, we're kind of hurt. we tell you we love you, isn't that enough? if you want us to stick around, you need to be better about proving it. you need to shut up about how your mental health is ruined.

it could be worse! what if you were actually experiencing executive dysfunction. if you were really actually sick, would you even be able to look at things on the internet about it? you just spend too much time on webMD. you just like to freak yourself out and feel like you belong to something. you just like playing the victim. this is always how you have been - you've always been so fucking dramatic. you have no idea how good you have it - you're too fucking sensitive.

you were like, maybe too good of a kid. unwilling to make a real fuss. and the whole time - the little points, the little validations - they went unnoticed. it isn't that you were looking for love, specifically - more like you'd just wanted any one person to actually listen. that was all you'd really need. you just needed to be witnessed. it wasn't that you couldn't withstand the burden, but you did want to know that anyone was watching. these days, you are so accustomed to the idea of comparison - you don't even think you belong in your own communities. someone always fits better than you do. you're always the outlier. they made these places safe, and then you go in, and you are just not... quite the same way that would actually-fit.

you watch the little white ocean of your numbness lap at your ankles. the tide has been coming in for a while, you need to do something about it. what you want to do is take a nap. what you want to do is develop some kind of time machine - it's not like you want your life to stop, not completely, but it would really nice if you could just get everything to freeze, just for a little while, just until you're finished resting. but at least you're not the worst you've been. at least you have anything. you're so fucking lucky. do you have any concept of the amount of global suffering?

a little ant dies at the side of your kitchen sink. you look at its strange chitinous body and think - if you could just somehow convince yourself it is enough, it will finally be enough and you can be happy. no changes will have to be made. you just need to remember what you could lose. what is still precious to you.

you can't stop staring at the ant. you could be an ant instead of a person, that is how lucky you are. it's just - you didn't know the name of the ant, did you. it's just - ants spend their whole life working, and never complain. never pull the car over to weep.

it's just - when it died, it curled up into a tight little ball.

something kind of uncomfortable: you do that when you sleep.

[fiepige]

Compilation of EVERY single time they changed Hobie's filter in the digital version:

Left: Theatrical release Right: Digital release

You might have to click on some of them to get a better look at Hobie, sadly I don't have a video editor that allows me to make better edits than these :')

[screamingfromuz]

Listen. LISTEN, the longer I spend in the academic world, I am more convinced that describing Judaism and Jews as a religion/ethnic grope/ethnoreligion is unhelpful outside of Academic circles.

The best way to explain Judaism is using the tribe model. A lot of times Judaism is a community first and a religion second, i.e., your level of religiousness is rarely a thing that alienate you from the community.

Think of other tribes, like the Sámi, Aboriginal Australians, Māori, Yurok, Inuit ect. Each have their own unique religion, but we do not think of them as a religious group, because the tribal identity is more important, and the religion is considered part of the culture, not the opposite.

IMORTANT SIDENOTE: I am aware that many of those tribes, and other tribes have a big chunk of Christians in them, usually more Christians than those who follow the indigenous religion of the tribe. BUT for the sake of discussion, I am equating Judaism to the section that does follow the indigenous religion of the tribe.

So, despite the fact that the religious structures of Judaism is very integral to Judaism, it is partly because of the community based focus of Judaism. The most basic example is the Minyan, the fact that prayer is preferred to be done in a group. Or the fact that the Sader is meant to be a celebrated in a group. and so on.

SO, ethnoreligion is a great academic term, but for outside that world? A tribe is a much better term to explain Judaism.

[fallloverfic]

I'm sure it's been pointed out, but when you realize manhwa Yoojin/Hyunje did the Sophie/Howl air walk thing...

Ah terrifying, tall, special coat-wearing, magical blonde men from other worlds and their shorter, dark-haired, terrified partners...

[brother-emperors]

lmao the rival dynasts are fighting and they're fucking it up for everyone else at a record pace

this tweet made me laugh, and I frequently make political comparisons between these specific groups of people, so now it's finally a comic

regarding the OctavianOctaviaAntony Uniteam Alliance

Octavia Minor and the Transition from Republic to Empire, Katrina Moore

in the red panel, which is an obvious anachronistic soup of events happening all at once: we have on the left: messalla corvinus

Alternative Memoirs: Tales from the ‘Other Side’ of the Civil War, Kathryn Welch

and then octavia (in despair & weaponizing that sacrosanctity to turn rome against antony), some kids (the two closest to antony are the twins, but tbh you can just kind of. pick whoever from the soccer team of kids antony had)

octavian and antony's back and forth is referencing suetonius augustus 68 and 69 (specifically: Antony also writes to Augustus [...] "What has made such a change in you? Because I lie with the queen? She is my wife. Am I just beginning this, or was it nine years ago? What then of you — do you lie only with Drusilla? Good luck to you if when you read this letter you have not been with Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia, or all of them. Does it matter where or with whom you take your pleasure?") and also the whole. thing. about antony's will. that sure was something.

the herod comment from kleopatra is referencing all of this

Mark Antony: A Biography, Eleanor Huzar

AND FINALLY. the art in the inset panels are from The Roses of Heliogabalus, Lawrence Alma-Tadema

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[welcometogrouchland]

I miss them so bad (Dick and Damian)

[worstloki]

there is a difference between being born to a throne, maliciously vying for a throne, stealing a throne, and having a throne thrust upon you when you are already in the midst of an identity crisis. And I fear Loki's place in the line of succession has people unable to differentiate between any of these

[fromtheseventhhell]

"Arya wouldn't have been able to survive in KL" is really one of the dumbest fanon takes where you can tell someone only believes it because they like the idea of Arya and Sansa being "exact opposites and perfect complements" (even though it goes against the books). Actual evidence from the books to back it up? Never anywhere to be found despite how confidently people make this claim.

And not only does it severely mischaracterize Arya and ignore what she's been through, it also ignores her importance as a political hostage. The Lannisters weren't searching for her, and lying about having her, for no reason. They needed her because having only one Stark after executing Ned put them in a poor position to negotiate. So Arya would have been more than capable of handling herself (thoroughly shown in her Harrenhal chapters) and the Lannisters would've done everything in their power to keep her alive but, somehow, she wouldn't have been able to survive? It's truly one of those takes that falls apart if you think about it for more than two seconds but apparently, that's too much effort for some people.

[efplanning]

grandparents part 3 outta 3, baby!!!!

Long text under the cut,

espeon evolved at a young age. when he had begun to develop a mysterious illness in his brain that couldve been fatal if his body didnt evolve into an espeon to combat the potentially terminal disease early on. it didnt really impact him past that point in his life and recovered very well but...

his own unconventional evolution piqued his interest in how far an eevees adaptive abilities could be pushed. But from what he could tell no one else had been able Really look into that.

but espeon had always been fascinated by evolution in general helping his parents with their work. espeon was born around the time they started the research facility in kanto after they had moved there together. he had made impressive advancements in the field of evolution studies himself. wrote books, publicly spoke on the topic and just. generally became a respected authority on it all, over the course of his life.

over the years he had also found the time to start a family. not very present in their lives since he was extremely busy with his work. his oldest and youngest did not have much interest in their family's line of research at all but his middleborn always had a respect for the work his father did.

However, as successful as he was in his field...he still wasn't satisfied with his personal knowledge of his own species's natural abilities...

---

one day espeon had gotten an offer from team rocket to be a lead scientist on some project. something about cloning mew. they said that they would assist him with anything he wanted. give him any amount of money he wanted for him to be on the project. he made a big show of kicking them out of the facility, however...he secretly contacted them telepathically before they got very far away telling them he would work with them.

the project progressed and espeon became fascinated with not only the science and technology involved in what they were doing but the ethics as well. And how they could just...do it. But then again he'd never personally cared about whether an experiment could be considered cruel to its participants. Always being ruled by his own curiosity and his want of knowledge in that regard...

As he felt like the progress was going smoothly on the project...something went wrong and Mewtwo broke out. He was prepared for his offer to be rescinded but...team rocket kept up their part of the deal they agreed on and gave him as much protection and money for whatever he had in mind as they could...

he wanted to see how far an eevees natural adaptation could be pushed. Even though he knew the route he was going possibly wouldn't offer reliable research he didn't particularly care as long as he could sate his own curiosity in the topic...he only had three test subjects after all.

Espeon couldn't let his kids evolve for the sake of his pet project to work. Not only did he do experiments that physically harmed them on occasion but since eevees also evolved w emotional stimuli he messed around a lot with that aspect of it too... his eldest evolved on her own one day the first chance she got. after an argument w him she left home on her own. Soon after his youngest followed her lead. Left with only his middleborn he still did what he could...

Begrudgingly the experiments came to an end. leaving him still unsatisfied but he understood that there was little point in continuing on.

---

as the years went on he actually did try to have a *decent(by his standards at least) relationship with his grandkids despite his son being "overly cautious" and not really wanting them to have to interact with him in any way if they didnt have to...

when one of his grandchildren evolved into an espeon he immediately took them on as an assistant of sorts in hopes that they would be able to take over the family business. However his expectations were not met and he was disappointed more than anything.

When he eventually passed around his late 70s(?) he kind of had no other choice but to put his son in charge of the family labs seeing as everyone else he thought of as a possible option was either no longer in contact with him or dead.

He died about 2 years before EVs egg was laid.

[linterteatime]

Silly little Strawberry with wings 💕🍓

[thegreatyin]

this nemesis ambition started out a little slow but I am getting closer to finding that bastard who killed my wife, and I’ll not rest a minute now that im far closer to on his trail

sorry got in character for a second

Anyways fun ambition so far very fucked up though

congratulations on joining the murder club anon!!!! depending on who you ask the name refers to either people who have murdered or people who have witnessed murder. usually both. actually extremely often both. it's a swell time you'll feel right at home (don't mind our collective skyglass knife collection in the back)

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The more the time passes, the more convinced I am that a reading of Jane Eyre that omits the theme of mercy as key to the story is incomplete at best and bad at worst.

[unhelpfulfemme]

I just realized that Ekaterin Vorkosigansaga's maiden name is Vorvayne because the structure and nature of her and Miles's romance are heavily inspired by Sayers's Wimsey novels, in which the romantic heroine is called Harriet Vane.

[mobblespsycho100]

kabru as a pwnpd headcanon is genuinely so iconic that man rlly is odysseus' hubristic tendencies made manifest tbh . . .

[crowned-ladybug]

I wanted to draw my own take on ART-as-a-presence-in-the-feed but struggled with what path to take for A While bc all I had was that I was adamant about a winding, serpentine body, too large to take in at once and So Good at piling upon your shoulders with weight that's either overwhelming or comforting, take your pick

And then I brought in the hexagons and everything just worked

(They let me give it a face without an actual face, make for a good shorthand to show that it's talking/present in potential future art, and as a bonus serve as an homage to JWST bc hey, science!)

Partially brought to you by a whole lot of listening to Satellite by Starset

[gayleviticus]

the way fma 03s female characters are such an interesting nuanced exploration of all kinds of gendered tropes like how sloth is a mother who feels forced into and constrained by that identity, lust is a sexy femme fatale but this identity is literally erasing her cultural roots and whitewashing her into dantes little pet, winry is the childhood friend on the sidelines who uses this as an opportunity to live her own life and build her own relationships and goals independent of the protagonists, izumis complicated relationship ,w motherhood and wrath and the elrics, dante as abusive matriarch/cult leader of the homunculi family who objectifies women of colour (rose, lust)

and I'm not even criticising mangahood itself here, but the subtlety and nuance does feel like a marked contrast to the kindve girl boss feminism a lot of fans spout when they talk about how fmabs female cast are some of the best in anime (because they're cool and beat people up and aren't fanservice fodder, which to be sure are good things but seriously feels like grading on a curve)