#I can't really explain

[the-sill-of-all-sills]

JJK Chapter 77: I am... Confused?

[starry-bi-sky]

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[bonus-links]

HOMESICK, pt. 9

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PATREON

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

He is NOT the CEO of xiaohongshu lmao

The CEO of xiaohongshu is mao wenchao毛文超/Charlwin Mao, he and 瞿芳Qu Fang are the co-founders.

Actually this is a very good example of how western media casually 造谣 nonsense such as saying xiaohongshu (little red book) was named after mao zedong's quotebook lmao. Cnetizens be like:"OH we don't even know that ourselves""With such far-fetched talent and such a high level of political awareness, they could have taken the civil service exam"

The name Xiaohongshu MEANS popular shopping guide. Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao met when they were both in the U.S. shopping for goods. At that time, Mao Wenchao called his family in Wuhan and asked what goods he was bringing, and when Qu Fang heard the accent she felt very close to him, and the two of them got to know each other.

They are both business elites, passionate about entrepreneurship, and deeply sympathetic to the difficulties of nationals shopping overseas. The two founded Xiaohongshu in the hope that it would become a guide to overseas shopping for Chinese people. According to Qu Fang's interpretation of the words “red” and “book” at the time, the three words "Little Red Book” can be translated as ""very popular shopping guide''. It was launched in 2014 when the name is called “Hong Kong shopping guide” (Source)

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[yhwcomeback]

I can do this alone

[andsewingishalfthebattle]

Novice sewing pattern: Cut out shapes. Line up the little triangles on the edges. Stitch edges together. We've also included step-by-step assembly instructions with illustrations.

Novice knitting pattern: yOU MUSt uNDerstANd thE SECret cOdE CO67 (73, 87, 93) BO44 (63, 76, 90) 28 (32, 34) slip first pw repeat 7x K to end *kl (pl) 42 * until 13" (13, 13, 15) join new at 30 pl for 17 rows ssk 27 k2tog mattress lengthwise BO and sacrifice a goat to the knitting gods. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WANT "INSTRUCTIONS," I JUST GAVE THEM TO YOU

[antiadvil]

hold on when did the subreddit add this rule lmao

[gen-toon]

[vibinginthebg]

Still some doodles of them :DD

[hellcifrogs]

This is what Kenshi sees when he goes visit his husband's AU.

Some good old redesigns to slowly get me back to drawing! - half of these are @dolce-tenebra-toscana 's designs, the other half are mine based off hers.

[edorazzi]

Page 25 of my Miraculous Mentor AU comic A Matter of Trust! In which Felix is offered a downright horrifying solution to get rid of his Miraculous early, and Plagg explains the rules behind the magical bond! 📜💋

Index | Start | Prev | Next

Weekly updates each Sunday! You can also read ahead early on Patreon (with three brand new pages tonight, totaling 30!), and/or buy me a Ko-fi if you'd like to support my work! 💖

[jubileebloom]

As much as I appreciate the people defending Ford in the wake of TBOB's release, and discussing the importance of avoiding victim-blaming and being aware of a person's environment, there's something specific that rubs me the wrong way about some of the things I've read.

The thing about abuse is that takes agency away from its victims. This is actually something that broadly applies to different forms of trauma, as I've just been going over in one of my classes on Adolescent Development. My professor for that class specializes in trauma-informing and training, so she has an entire unit on trauma as part of the syllabus, and one of the things she emphasized was that giving people agency and control over their own choices is critical to helping them recover from a traumatic event.

When it comes to Bill's possession of Ford, the lack of control is even more literal. Ford literally has his body puppeted by a demon, and his mind altered as well. Others have taken agency from him to a lesser extent—Stan limiting his choices in education, Fiddleford potentially using the memory gun on him, as another analysis post I can't find did a really good job of breaking down—but it's not as all-encompassing as Bill's abuse, and Stan and Fidds both make better choices later in the series. Bill refuses to.

But I'm getting off topic. My point is, Ford's loss of agency is one of the most crucial pieces of his character arc. It's why he lashes out so strongly when he returns home, against his will, to find that his identity has been stolen. It probably factors into his need to be the "hero", to be the one to defeat Bill. And even though he ultimately isn't that "hero", and he does let the Mystery Shack continue to operate, he does ultimately get more of a choice in the matter. He chooses to go along with the plan. He chooses to go with Stan on their long-overdue adventure.

But there's something else he does too. He apologizes.

Why is that so important? Because in regaining his sense of agency, he also undertakes the accountability that goes with it. He isn't solely to blame for everything that happened to him, or even necessarily every choice he made, but he did make bad choices.

And that's the thing that bothers me about some Ford analyses and defenses. Some people go too far and say that Ford isn't to blame for anything that he's done. Not only is that untrue, but it is once again stripping him of his agency. He is an adult capable of making his own decisions, and ergo capable of making bad decisions. And we need to accept that, without infantilizing him or blaming everyone else around him.

One of the things that compels me so much about Gravity Falls is that is generally does strike this balance pretty well, of personal agency vs. external circumstances. (There's also an excellent analysis post out there somewhere about Dipper and Mabel's agency, how the show doesn't force them to fix the problems of their predecessors or burden them exclusively with saving the world, but does still let them have agency and power in the fight and in Stan's recovery.) There are so, so many things that happen to the main cast that are mostly outside of their control, and also bad decisions that a lot of them have made that cannot be excused, at least not fully, by their circumstances.

And the beautiful thing about that agency is that these characters are also able to use it to become better people, to regain control over their lives, to take back power after it was taken from them. But you have to let them, and that includes letting them be people who messed up, owned up, and worked to make it better.

In fact, I think the reason that Ford is so quick to own up to his mistakes when it comes to Bill is because that's one of the ways he's taking back his power. He's incredibly stubborn when it comes to holding other grudges, but with Bill, he readily admits to Stan and Dipper separately that he's made some "terrible mistakes", to use his words. And he isn't to blame for falling for Bill's manipulation—Bill was the one actively manipulating—but no, he should not have summoned him to begin with. That doesn't make him deserving of anything Bill did to him, but by admitting to the mistakes he did make and working on a way to defeat Bill, it's letting him take back some amount of control in the whole situation. He can't make Bill change his ways, but he can own up to and correct the things he did wrong.

He does overcorrect a bit; I do think he blames himself too much for "falling for Bill's flattery." But generally, I like how he also doesn't try to blame Bill for every single thing that went wrong with the whole portal deal, like he (initially) did with some other situations, especially everything with Stan.

Anway. Let Ford make mistakes. Let him be wrong sometimes. Let him have his agency.

[froganni]

It's 4 am but wanted to post more Solar-punk Pearl :D

Reblogs appreciated!

[genericpuff]

I find something that annoys me is how people misunderstand why Persephone is considered the goddess of spring.

It’s because Demeter makes it spring when she returns. Not because Persephone has some awesome sick flower powers and she makes it all pretty before returning to her 10000/10 husband.

Agreed! But also, if I can offer up my own food for thought / interpretation: Demeter didn't necessarily create 'winter' as we traditionally perceive it, rather she created famine.

In that same sense, Demeter isn't even necessarily "making it Spring" when Persephone returns - she makes the land fertile again, allowing mortals to harvest their crops and thrive. Thus creating the "seasons" of harvest and drought.

Like many of the myths we've preserved and still read today, The Hymn to Demeter was a story created to explain natural phenomena that we didn't yet know how to explain. In Demeter's case, the story of her separation from her daughter explained the cycle of nature - why the clouds would no longer rain, why the ground would dry and crack, why the soil would become brittle, and why the crops would lose their will to live. It wasn't necessarily because she brought about 'winter', it was simply that she stopped performing her own duties, which were specifically dedicated to the harvest, especially that of wheat and grains (both of which are INCREDIBLY important foods that played their own massive role in the evolution of the human race - they weren't only essential to keeping both humans and livestock fed with their carb-heavy components, but could also be used to make fabrics and tools.)

Just as people prayed to Poseidon for safe travels across still waters, so too would people pray to Demeter for a bountiful harvest. Whenever there were droughts, you could understand it as the period when Persephone would return to the Underworld; or you could even blame it on yourself, or even your own fellow mortals, if you felt that perhaps Demeter had been disrespected in some way so as to bring about a drought as punishment.

This is why The Hymn to Demeter also functions as a foundational story for the founding of The Eleusinian Mysteries - a cult that worshipped Demeter, and other deities attributed to the harvest (ex. Dionysus) whose initiates were sworn to secrecy, never to speak aloud what practices were happening within the cult. And they did a damn good job of it too, because to this day we still don't fully know what went down in those cults. They're mysteries, after all :')

Demeter wasn't the only god who was attributed to the harvest and the weather patterns that would cause drought, but she's certainly one of the most popularly discussed, undoubtedly due to the fact that her story is one of the oldest and most well-preserved, and she was attributed to some of the most essential crops of that era.

But as it would happen to many myths over the centuries, the exact cultural contexts and intentions behind her original story have become either lost, or re-interpreted so many times that we can't even fully trust that Homer's version is "accurate", at least not without any way to retrieve those original oral stories that predated both him and other famous poets whose work we still study and analyze today.

But hey, that's just my own interpretation! One out of the thousands that have existed and the thousands that will undoubtedly go on to exist. I'm sure my own interpretation of it isn't perfect or foolproof, but I hope it offers up some fun food for thought!

[screwpinecaprice]

Oh oof I slipped and hit them with dark and serious beam. 😣