#ANY OTHER STALL

[ratatatastic]

building a collection...

[nightmarearian]

We need posiedon in Ithacan Naga AU!!

Poseidon: ... so, like, What are you?

Ody, munching on a fish: ... 𓆟

Ody, shrugging: (idk)

Posiedon: ... What Do You mean you don't know?

Poseidon, gripping Ody in his hand: what are you??

-

this is basically their dynamic after they make general peace with each other.

tbh riiight after Ogygia/Calypso & finding it all out? I feel like the rush after Charybdis would mean there'd be scales & feathers on Ody, but feel like Poseidon would be too focused on the Get In the Water deal and shit to care.

Afterwards when naga Ody goes into the Ithacan seas and he eventually notices does he start to ask questions and shit and also still be sorta intensely aggro, which is what leads to: 1. Athena noticing and arguing with Poseidon 2. The ruckus and shit (being that Poseidon & Athena's arguements don't usually escalate this much) getting the other gods attention and 3. Forcing an agreement-truce thing that basically amounts to (between Ody & Poseidon) don't [intentionally] bother, kill, harm, make suffer, etc., each other.

and then eventually eventually Poseidon can reluctantly admit that this weird feathered-winged-sea-snake-human monster interests him and he wants to know what the fuck it is (even if he'd rather do without the feathers & wings) and Ody & Poseidon properly make peace or smth.

[realtapiocafan]

JJMARR 😭💜🤧

https://x.com/jonsokoloff/status/1887622479994364108?s=46

JJMARR!!!

'shut those people up'! the PRIDE in his voice, that little smug smile, oooh! i just know justin was just as pissed as joe in ja'marr's rookie year (when people were criticizing him for all the drops)

[starlightseraph]

comrades, don’t kill yourselves.

i know that shit fucking sucks. all of it.

think of all the people in seemingly hopeless situations around the world and throughout history. all the people for whom the world is or was literally ending. all the people who stared down the barrel of a gun or watched as a bomb fell to the ground and who still chose to have hope.

so many people have been in far worse situations or had more immediate tangible threats breathing down their necks.

i’m not saying this to mean that you don’t matter, that your struggle is insignificant.

i only mean that if hope persisted then, hope can persist now. many times before has someone hoped against all hope, fought against all odds, and won.

think of the children who dug through the rubble in hiroshima, in iraq, in korea snd vietnam, and all those who are doing the same in gaza right now. who braved gas and bombs and guns to walk to school in ireland. somewhere in their hearts was a flicker of unlikely hope, one that kept them trying, kept them from falling to the ground silently. we’re not anywhere near that. if they can have even the tiniest amount of hope, then so can you.

the election of one alt-right lunatic over a centre-right genocide funder is not the end of the world. as in, the world will literally keep spinning, the human race will keep existing, and someone somewhere will always be good and worthy of fighting for betterment and even one person like that is cause enough to keep hope alive.

yes, this may bring disasters for women, for queer people, and for the material conditions of many, many within the united states. if only for the abject shameless incoherence of it all.

but there is good. somewhere, in someone. there is hope, as there has always been, from the beginning of time, through plagues that wiped out villages so thoroughly that no one was left to bury the dead, through wars and evil that seemed all encompassing and never-ending.

if you live in the imperial core, i promise that this isn’t the end, and it isn’t as course-of-history altering as you might think. in the aforementioned far worse conditions, which were largely created by the united states itself, people organise, they protest, they laugh. the turn of america ever farther right would have continued regardless of who won. if you truly want change, you cannot achieve it within the us framework. you cannot imagine that voting would save you. it won’t. it may stall, but that’s about it.

the world still spins. human hearts continue beating. we continue to fight and to struggle against a system that made these our only choices, for a revolution, for a better world. it is always possible.

[sagethegremlin]

alright gang im trying to make sure i fully develop all of my characters for my object show before i do too much with it because i wanna make sure i do this right and Charm Bracelet currently has the most stuff filled out for her so BAM heres my Charm Bracelet ramble

OK SO

One big thing I'm trying to do with all of my characters is make sure they have something unique to them that's based on their object and CB's comes in the form of her charms. Without any charms on her, she's basically a blank slate of a character. She has four spaces for charms on her, and the different combinations are what make up her personality (and for fun and simplicity all of her charms are based off of the aspirations and personality traits in the sims c:). The biggest thing about CB's character is how she is absolutely NOTHING without her charms and I really can't emphasize that enough. When she has fewer charms on her, not only does she have less of a personality and general character as a whole, but also the fewer the charms the worse her memory is. The best way I could explain it is the fewer building blocks she has for her as a person, the less of a person she has to work with. The human equivalent would be a person with a severely damaged amygdala; with messy emotions and memory issues.

The other big aspect of CB's character is that she is quite literally an "accessory" and attaches herself to whoever she imprints on. Right after she's first created, the first person she sees is Taffy, so that's immediately who she starts following, and honestly wouldn't be able to function without.

CB is very naive, and isn't really all that observant of the world around her. When other people start switching around her charms, she doesn't notice it. She never notices that her personality or emotions have changed unless someone else points it out to her, but obviously everyone else can realize something's different because not only is she acting different, but she looks different because her charms have changed. And this blindness combined with her attachment to other people makes it so she isn't able to see when Taffy starts using her, and chooses not to believe it even after she knows. My girl has an honestly quite impressive level of denial. She would never blame anyone who ever wrongs her, and would sooner destroy herself than try to take something for herself that she "deserves."

If she were to ever want anything for herself, it would be for her to be able to find out who she is without her charms to bind her to a certain way of being, but that would never happen.

[techno-rat]

Im always thinking about the tubbo execution t.b.h.

coz like it sucked for EVERYONE but schlatt and wilbur, who orchestrated it. Techno realized his allies didn’t give a shit about him. Tubbo was killed traumatically. Tommy watched his best friend be murdered by a man who he thought was his ally. The crowd is various levels of shocked depending on their allegiance

[salvadorbonaparte]

Would you mind sharing your views on backpacking? 👀

Take all of this with a grain of salt because I'm mostly just bothered by backpacking content on Instagram.

I think the concept is fine. I'd actually like to do some backpacking some time.

But backpacking content, as well as most overland* content, always has a really weird vibe. It almost feels like cosplaying poverty if you know what I mean??

It's almost always young people from the so called "West" and almost always they're somewhere in South or Southeast Asia. The most popular backpacking destinations I'm seeing at the moment are Bali (exclusively that part of Indonesia for some reason), Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. The algorithm has recently also started showing me content from Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Since flights to these destinations are usually quite expensive, and many of these people stay abroad long enough that they might need a visa and that accommodation and food would also add up, it can be safely assumed these people have a certain amount of financial stability. Some of them are full time influencers too.

And while travelling with a backpack instead of a suitcase makes sense, and while you want to have an "authentic" experience, the vibe on those videos is often sooooo weird.

They're always like "I just spent 45h standing in a cramped bus without AC because it was only $1. I'm sleeping on the floor of this abandoned building that costs me $4 a night. I only carry 2 t-shirts with me, can't find a laundromat and I'm travelling for 3 months. Yesterday I got scammed and got food poisoning."

And I'm like why are you doing this? Is it really more "authentic" just because it's a foreign country? You can find the same uncomfortable situations and people who live like that all the time in your home country, but when you're abroad it's cool and authentic and #humbling #eatpraylove. Meanwhile there's also people in that same country you're backpacking through who, like, have a comparable standard of living you're used to. Your holiday doesn't have to be luxury resorts but it also doesn't have to be absolutely god awful.

And of course there's also the factor of adrenaline and stepping out of your comfort zone but with these videos it seems like they're almost glamorising having an awful time in an "exotic" country because that's what it's supposed to be like? I guess?

Idk I feel like I should get the opinion of someone living in one of those backpacking hotspots to make sure I'm not just getting annoyed at nothing but I think the vibe is off.

*overland content as in "travelling from XY to YZ without flying - Day 420" type videos. They're often interesting and I follow some of those people and I actually have some ideas for cool overland or long distance train trips but some of the accounts also have a weird vibe. Most of the ones I saw were men and they're like hitchhiking through some desert somewhere and I'm like oh this would feel so unsafe to me as someone perceived female. And obviously they also make lots of content where you know they have lots money because they've been travelling for several months but it has that same fake low budget backpacker vibe.

I hope this makes sense. I'm not sure it does.

[puppysdog]

one of the worst things i see on this app is people talking about who gives a shit if people have public sex in places like a bathroom stall (agreed) and the replies will be full of 🤓☝️ "umm im okayy with people being disgusting most of the time, but what if someone disabled needs to use the bathroom? they better not be taking up a stall because then id beat them up" and im like. will the fabled disabled strawman please share their experience of being inconvenienced by people fucking in a stall? can anyone actually give me an example of this happening or are we just making up pretend what if scenarios as gotchas?

[tracle0]

I think I have enough money to see my partner again next year!!!!!!!!

[sysig]

Guess who :3c (Patreon)

[sasster]

Made It Out Alive

So there I was, on the train ride home from class, and I thought.. Man. I’m gonna write something really indulgent. Hope you guys like it as much as I do! [Doc] —

Turning from the stove to the counter, with a knife and cutting board in hand, Lopard comes face to face with a jade blooded nuisance who smiles back at him from his seated position upon it.

The orange blood rolls his eyes.

“Get your ass off of my counter if you want to keep it.” He warns, waving the knife in the air for emphasis.

“Two problems with that, chief,” the nuisance starts, despite jumping off the counter with an ‘oof’ when his feet hit the ground. “S’not your counter and that’s a stupid threat.”

Once again Lopard rolls his eyes, but happy that there would no longer be an ass where he plans to chop vegetables, he carries on his prepwork.

“I’m sure Areios doesn’t want your ass on his counter either. Make yourself useful and—”

Before the command even leaves his mouth, Demuye is already behind him setting some pots to boil and pulling seasonings from cabinets.

“Yeah, yeah, on it boss man.” He says with a smile he doesn’t bother fighting.

Just as the pair are getting into the groove of cooking together, the owner of the hive paces his way into the kitchen with large, frantic steps that would shake the foundation of a less secure building, worrying the front of his shirt between two very anxious hands. Lopard barely gets to open his mouth before his much smaller “babysitter” comes toddling in behind him, on legs much too short to keep up with the exaggerated gait of the behemoth.

Thuein pauses to catch his breath, resting both hands on his thighs as he heaves.

“Running a marathon?” Demuye questions with ill-contained humor, only to receive a sharp look from the therapist in response.

Areios paces his way to the far end of the kitchen and stares at the undecorated stone for several seconds as silence overtakes the kitchen. His three guests exchange worried glances with each other.

Slowly, unable to be serious for too long, Demuye raises a hand and presses his index finger to the tip of his nose.

Thuein copies the motion.

For the third time in such a short stretch, Lopard finds himself rolling his eyes.

“Alright big guy,” He says as he wipes his hands clean on a dish towel. “What’s eating at you so bad that our best and brightest can’t help you keep it together?”

Truthfully, his annoyance with Demuye and Thuein doesn’t last long. It is barely a fizzle before it dies out on its own, really. As the oldest of this portion of their inner circle, he’d been used to wrangling everyone in for some time now. A part of him thrives on it, if he had to be honest with himself.

Areios lets his shoulders slump forward, too prideful maybe to face his friends as he speaks. “Do you think he’s actually going to come?” He finally asks, after his own silence becomes too much for even him to stand.

Once again the three exchange looks that the behemoth can’t see. Demuye seems annoyed at the notion, indicated by him sucking his teeth, Thuein only frowns, and Lopard lets out a resigned sigh.

“I don’t think he’d lie about something like that.”

Areios inhales sharply and exhales in a way that suggests he wishes, right now at least, that he was smaller than he is.

“What if he gets here and realizes he hates me as much as--”

“Ah,” Lopard interjects, holding up a hand that the other party cannot see but heeds regardless. “I’m not entertaining that sort of talk. He’s going to come and we’re going to have a great time. Just like we always do.”

The orange blood crosses the kitchen and pats Areios on the back.

“I’d beat his ass otherwise.” He offers and gets a laugh out of the purple blood.

“Imagine the emotional toll that’d take on you.”

“Smashing those guys is like second nature to me. Now get out before I put the pair of you to work.”

Demuye emphasizes Lopard’s point by slamming a pot onto the counter and Areios laughs again, putting up both hands, as he and Thuein leave the way they came.

Thuein mouths a ‘thank you’ to Lopard on the way out.

“We really don’t pay you enough.” Bemoans a more than humored Demuye, shaking his head, while Lopard returns to his post.

“Yeah, I’ll have to garnish it from somewhere.”

“If you touch my check, and I mean this so seriously, I’ll skin you.”

—

Later the hive is alive with chatter, the way it used to be when Areios housed most or all of the current guests in their respective times of need. The intoxicating bouquet of Lopard’s cooking carries from the kitchen to the large front room that most of the trolls occupied.

His chest swells with pride each time someone so much as compliments the smell of the goods. It is nice knowing that his hard work is appreciated, after all. Soon the smell will be overshadowed by someone else's, probably Achina’s, baking skills. But for now, the pride was all his.

Lopard plops, exhausted, on a couch between the host and a violet blooded sailor who the pair have not seen in countless sweeps, waving a three fingers hand around as he exposits what’d happened to him in those sweeps.

“It hasn’t been all that crazy,” Velrum concludes, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant manner that suggests he was merely describing a shopping trip and not a literal odyssey. “I was on the sea. That’s where I came from, so it wasn’t awful.” He lets his good fin flair for emphasis.

Lanaen, seated in a chair across from them, scoffs.

“Were your more stuck-up personality traits concussed out of you, then?”

“Quite possibly. And yours?”

“Oh, no. He’s still very much a dick.” Lopard chimes in before Lanaen can defend himself, and the four of them enjoy a good laugh at the fuchsia’s expense.

It has always been too long since the last time they gathered everyone together like this and the hive itself is practically a flutter with it’s own life.

Lopard chances a glance to a corner of the living room occupied by Zurven, of all people, signing away in a conversation with Isnons who appears to have turned off his hearing aid for the evening.

Each of the pair jumped at the chance when they heard that the other would definitely be in attendance, masterful trickery executed by Thuein and Achina, who were convinced neither would come otherwise.

From what he can make out from his bout of eavesdropping Isnons just wrote his first book and Zurven’s gotta get his hands on it.

He smiles to himself, satisfied that he would not have to field any angry partners  for a botched night out. He hardly notices when Velrum and Lanaen leave the room, absorbed in yet another conversation.

This one possibly about the former’s missing fingers.

“See, we’re having fun.” Lopard nudges a shoulder up against Areios as he speaks. “Regardless.”

“Yeah. It’s always nice having everyone back together. Makes the hive feel less lonely.”

“I think that’s called empty nest syndrome.”

“Look at me, your sad mama bird.”

Lopard only laughs and nudges him again.

Very suddenly, Holoth appears in their space, beaming despite the way sleepiness decorates her features.

“Does that mean I can call you mommy?” She inquires, brightly.

“Please don’t.”

“C’mon guys, I brought something you need to see.” She quickly pivots, seizing Areios by the arm and giving him a tug that actually pulls him to his feet.

Nonplussed, he follows her lead with Lopard bringing up the rear.

Holoth leads the two of them outside, away from the excitement of the hive and closer to the cliff that overlooks the sea. It does not take long for Lopard to recognize the form of a troll pacing back and forth at the end of it, but he is certain that Areios cannot make it out, what with his deteriorating eyesight and all.

He turns his surprise on Holoth who only winks back at him. Then she trudges forward with the giant in tow until he and the pacing figure stop short, staring at each other.

Briefly, Lopard thinks that it was very wise of her to not bring him inside for this reunion. He would never tell her the thought, lest everyone have to reckon with her ego for the foreseeable future.

She gives Areios a shove and he continues the rest of the way on his own, where he and the newcomer continue to stare at each other in stunned silence.

What must be running through their heads right now?

“Areios, I’m so sorry I--”

The full apology dies in the doctor’s throat when  Areios, unable to contain himself, wraps him up in his arms and crushes him into his chest.

“I missed you so much, Aelium.”

[hinadori-chan]

okay but to all the earring wearers out there imagine you and keigo wearing each others pairs sometimes

like, you in his little red princess cuts and him wearing your favorite pair

[samuraisharkie]

god it’s insane how quickly most Americans forget about the rest of the world when voting season comes in. People that were going to either abstain or vote third party are transforming into “but project 2025 vote blue no matter who” criers because ultimately the rest of the world and their current bloodshed means nothing to them. It’s like they don’t even register it’s happening under the people they’re claiming have a “clear difference in goals” (they don’t. they’d do project 2025 too if it netted them the most money and voters. and for most of the world democrats have already done most things in that list and are still doing it.) just fuck everyone else, every man for himself, right?

[musical-chick-13]

Sorry for the GIANT vent post, I just...need to dump all my feelings out somewhere. For my sanity. Because Keeping It In™ is not tenable anymore, but this is the only place I think I can really. Put things.

So, I've been making an effort to engage with the world more. To actually talk to people and pursue conversations/activities and generally interact with more than just my own brain.

As this so often goes, I met a woman. This is bad.

Not because she's bad; she's really cool--and intelligent and funny and entertaining and incredibly sweet. That's why I like her so much. This is bad because the situation is bad, for a variety of reasons. Like first of all, she's seriously dating someone (who is not me, obviously). So. There's that. And in normal circumstances, if I met someone I felt some degree of romantic interest in who was already attached, I would just. Not continue to pursue any kind of relationship with them from the get-go. Except I thought, because of the whole being-attached-to-someone-else thing, that there was no way I would ever develop feelings for this person. I genuinely for-real thought this was the ONE avenue that was safe. Guess who was wrong!!!

And I didn't even like. Realize™ how I really felt until this got so intense it became a problem. It's probably been there for more than I've been aware it was there, but I shoved it down, because the last experience I had feeling *Romantic Feelings* was SO BAD. Regardless of who the next person-of-romantic-interest ended up being, I would have done this. I would have avoided dealing with it, because I would have refused to accept I had put myself in the position of feeling this in any real capacity again.

I actually, genuinely, straight-up did not realize this was what was happening. I had actually convinced myself my uncomfortable, complicated feelings were because I was jealous of this person. That I felt weird because I was angry, and I was angry because she had personal qualities and things in her life that I wanted. (Which. At least that's a common Sapphic Feeling™ so yay for me for actually doing something not-unheard-of for once.) In addition to the whole feeling-sick-thing that comes with being romantically interested in someone, I was (once again) completely, laughably incorrect.

And there's just...nothing to do, about this. I can't tell her about my feelings. There's someone else in the picture, and I'd be introducing a degree of discomfort into a situation I have no right to intrude on. And it's not like it would help anything--I know my feelings aren't returned, I would just. Be knowingly walking into a rejection. Which, I have to believe that isn't going to improve anything on my end. And I feel like I'd be potentially be giving away too much personal information if I elaborated on the specifics, but I can't avoid her either, there's no way to reasonably do that. So I just. Feel actually, genuinely sick, and I hate myself for ending up here, and I don't know why this had to happen, and I frequently find myself wanting to entomb myself in a fancy coffin and bury myself under the earth.

And I think the worst part is that even if there WASN'T someone else in the picture, I know this woman still wouldn't ever return my feelings. Partly because she could have...literally anyone (more on that in a second), but mostly because the kind of person she wants, based on every indication I've seen, is someone who does the whole Performing Desirability™ thing. And I don't mean that in like...a judgmental way or an "oH eVeRyOnE iS vApiD aNd sHaLLoW" way, just...in the sense that tapping into that, at least every once in a while, is seen as the Normal™ or Fulfilling™ or Correct™ thing to do. Everyone is expected to, at least in some situations, dress up and curate their appearance and abide by the "rules" that dictate whether someone is socially "hot" or not. They're expected to have certain relationships and attitudes toward sex (and flirting and romance in general), they're expected to have a certain...lax-ness? I guess? For lack of a better way of putting it? In terms of how they approach new people and the types of activities they do (like...going to clubs/parties/etc., or being interested in one-night-stands or casually partaking in substances, as some examples--none of which is like. Wrong™, it's just not who I am as a person). You're supposed to be open, but not vulnerable. You're supposed to be talkative, but you can't be too Serious��� about it, and absolutely you cannot bring any of your trauma or mental illness or personal difficulties into these situations, even if it's just a general, passing mention of how it affects your life or to explain why you seem out-of-it today.

This is really important to a lot of people, but it's not and never has been important to me, simply because that's just...as I said, not who I am. I am not that kind of person, and I don't want to be that kind of person. I want to be myself. I want to exist, without having all of that surrounding me. But relationships are a two-way street, and it ultimately doesn't really matter what I personally want if no one else wants that. And this woman, from all I can gather, does want all those things and behaviors and life choices that I can't do. They're important to her. (Honestly, I get the feeling that she kind of sees me like a child sometimes because of that disconnect, despite there not being the sort of age gap that might naturally lend itself to that perception--i.e., she's not 20 years older than me. And due to my constant anxiety and lack of accurate self-perception, I could be convinced I might be making that last part up, but...I genuinely don't think I am.)

And all of this being important to her has worked out really well for this woman!! Everybody wants her, just about. That's not an exaggeration; she's just one of those people. (So there's also the angle of "Well I'm just another person who's obsessed with you and Likes You This Way, you already have all this praise and interest and admiration and now you have that much more, save some for the rest of us**," you can see how I thought my feelings were just jealousy.)

**(Yes, I know that she has no control over what other people feel and that there's nothing to fault her for here, that's why I feel so stupid. If you've seen me screaming about the song "gold rush" lately, that's why.)

I don't know how to explain to anyone with any degree of normalcy just how painful and fucking. Ruinous the experience of having romantic feelings is for me. (Nor how utterly unhinged (derogatory) I feel trying to manage the isolation that comes with trying to avoid desirability culture.) It makes me INSANE, and I do NOT use that term lightly. I went through significant trauma in my late teens/early 20s and I would still take the trauma over having to experience this. Which, again, sounds ABSURD, not to mention probably insensitive, but that is how horrible having a genuine romantic interest toward someone is for me (and, you know, at least I meet people who understand the severity of the trauma and treat it seriously; no one understands the severity and isolation of this). I am barely hanging onto any shred of...anything, at this point, and yeah, okay, maybe I'll make it through this one (big if there!!!!!), but if I ever end up here again, I am pretty sure it is actually going to permanently destroy me.

I just want this to be gone, I want it to stop interfering with my life to the point where it mentally blocks me from doing things I actually want to be doing, and mostly I just wish I didn't care about human connection so much so that I could focus fully on healing my brain. I didn't sign up for any of this, and I still have to fucking deal with it. Alexa, play the a cappella, doo-wop "fucking bullshit" song from the C&T anime.

[racingmiku2018]

will forever be chasing the high of that one extremely good banh mi i had at like 7am on some side street in danang

[waterbearable]

delighted to report that doing a lil more regional worldbuilding for aera (mostly coming up w names) seems to have gotten me past a block i was having writing a conversation w nate. wahoo!

oskary has been broken up into 10 diff provinces, and i've named more of the tow's islands. Might actually update my map w some more details. i may or may not have fantasy-ified some state names (hollis is located within the province of penn, there's another province called merelynd, pronounced mare-lind, which i swear i did not realize was close to maryland until after it stuck).