#DON'T DO IT!))

[darlingofdots]

hey. psst. do you knit? crochet? yeah, you, come closer.

that voice you're hearing in your head telling you to make a temperature blanket for next year?

bonk it with a cardboard tube and tell it to shut up

[respectthepetty]

If someone takes a picture of this moment, and uses it against our boys,

MURDER

[jerzwriter]

OK… I felt this. Poor Carolina/MC, in the early stages of falling in love with someone who seems just so right for them. But the very real differences between them are a valid threat to them becoming more, and it's heartbreaking.

BUT this was handled horribly…

I will give points; Mag's explanation of why he would stay is at least reasonable. BUT….

My MC would never forget who she is and give up everything that makes her "her" because she’s in love. She’s intelligent enough to know she'd be miserable in the long run, and that would leave Trystan miserable, too.

Her reaction would NEVER be, “OK, let's put on a pretty dress and fight for my man and (apparently) the crown.”

NO! NO! NO!! NO!! NO!!!! PLEASE PB I beg you - don't turn this into some dimwitted MC who is about love only, because I think the very thing that made so many of us fall in love with this MC is that wasn't who they were.

I really hope we get some choices. If they force my MC to become the princess of Drakovia, I am going to throw my phone into the ocean. @choicesbookclub

[kply-industries]

Don't do this, idiot!

[lunarw0rks]

https://www.tumblr.com/lunarw0rks/729952052900462592/i-heart-captain-mactavish

WOAAAAAA SOAP HIT PUBERTY! but nah fr he looks so mature here snjsjsmed

definitely don't imagine how he'd be even more buff as a captain

or like

how he'd have a bit of a tummy

and like

a sexy beard and stuff

[luxmaeastra]

Nicasia smiled seeing the new scene, a spring cove she hadn't yet visited. The coral and fish were beautiful. Tharion took her hand pulled her to a massive anemone. He urged her to reach in with a nod. She bit her lip but Tharion was a good warrior, he'd been nothing but caring to her.

She gasped pulling the pearl necklace free, the different pearls had been stitched together with caddisfly silk. She held it out to him, her tail fins twitching as he put it on her neck. It had all the colors from the various ocean farms. She beamed up at him, touching his cheek.

So she hadn't misread the signs, he did want her! How wonderful that a warrior like him wanted her! And her mama said she wasn't ready for such things.

"How can I repay you? Would you like a kiss?"

//NICASIA NO DONT FALL FOR IT!!//

Beautiful, that was her strength. Her beauty, it was a shame that when it came to her mind she seemed as aware as some of the guppies that swam about in the water. That she enjoyed the simple actions, the grand acts of gifted.

Tharion was loyal and a good warrior, but that did not mean that he did not do things for his own benefit. That he did not try and lay out his plans, obatin what he could. Just like he wanted to earn her, but not in the way she hoped.

He smiled as he reached out, the backs of his fingers brushed against her cheek as his eyes wandered down to the earls he had push palced around her neck. The simplest touch, the charm.

"A kiss would be a nice repayment from such a beautiful princess."

[pandacommando]

[j-tee]

SHAPE HELL

Yup.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Vulcan teen on Vulcan [tiktok] saying "I have just lost track of my father in the grocery store." The camera turns to show the viewers the grocery store in which almost every single older middle-aged man has a bowlcut and long robes. Camera turns back to show the teen's face which is expressionless and yet communicates all it needs to.

[kenapiece-main]

Can you believe I'm having to make this meme even after successfully finishing up taxes and applying to job

[some-pers0n]

I hate how people will look at popular indie artists who had one or two songs go viral on TikTok and start making fun of anybody who listens to them. "Oh you listen to Lemon Demon, Will Wood, Jack Stauber, Glass Animals, and Mother Mother? Tsk, don't you know that is stupid TikTok neurodivergent white transmasc preteen music? It's so mid and bad you should listen to real music–" you are a pit of misery

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[respectthepetty]

Several of us feel like some of the casting for Be My Favorite was excruciatingly intentional for reasons, so if this show redeems Not's character in the future after all the problematic and fucked up shit he has said in the past . . .

*lays down in a field of lavender and takes deep breaths*

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

that article going around abt firefox's new ad program is annoying bc it's phrased as though "mozilla has finally TURNED on its people and is SELLING YOU OUT for cold hard cash!!" when. that's not what's happening. it is specifically being implemented to discourage tracking behavior, and literally all the data they are giving to advertisers is aggregate and anonymized, which is like, the opposite of what that post wants you to worry about, lol

[inkskinned]

it's extremely critical that you see the photo of the perp walk for luigi mangione as being propaganda. i've seen so many people wave it off and instead fawn over his looks. and trust me, i know it ended up being kind of pathetic and weird - but please don't brush it off as a "modelling opportunity" for him. it's a fucking terrifying message the police are sending.

i want to make a few comparisons here, in case you're not from the US or familiar with why the perp walk thing is something to pay attention to. just to set the groundwork for why this is a purposeful, unusual, and cruel act by the nyc police - for why this is not a common occurrence and for why that matters.

the prosecution alleges the show of force is due to the charge of "terrorism." for comparison, in june 2015, tsarnaev was found guilty for the boston marathon bombing, which killed 3 people and injured hundreds. his actions are considered to be an act of domestic terrorism. i have spent the last hour looking through google for pictures of similar to mangione's perp walk - and so far, i have found zero. i also just do not personally remember a moment like that, despite living in boston at the time.

they allege that luigi is a stone-cold killer who carried out a longterm plan, making him particularly dangerous. again for comparison: in nyc, recently cory martin was found guilty of the killing of brandy odom. the murder was planned and premeditated to steal insurance money. and yet no staged perp walk. why didn't her life matter enough for a "show of force"?

but mangione gets paraded by a veritable army of police officers as if he is a rabid animal. for a single citizen who allegedly killed one other single citizen, the "largest perp walk ever" occurs.

so what is the "strong message" that the mayor and the police were trying to send here? the mayor speaks as if mangione is already convicted of terrorism. there is a very thin number of people who feel threatened by the CEO's death. none of us felt like mangione needs to be under massive armed guard.

the message is that you shouldn't resist. they are trying to "make an example" of him - that if you behave badly and kill a single rich person, you'll be treated as if you killed hundreds of people. you will be treated worse than a man who was found guilty of terrorism. you will be considered guilty without trial. the message is that the rich are a protected class, and you cannot touch them without massive punishment. they are trying to prevent a revolution by showing dominance and force against you.

the message is that the police are a puppet of the wealthy and that the law is not equally applied across class disparity. it is "some are more equal than others." it is "one life is more precious than another."

the show of force wasn't for luigi. it was for us. it was a warning. they are trying to remind us who is really in control.