#I have my own Generation Kill world going on

[charmwasjess]

My tiny mountain town is a blue dot swallowed up in a sea of red. Our statistically-irrelevant town went for Harris. The larger counties around us all went for Trump. Here’s what this election looked like in the southeastern Appalachian on the front lines of that cultural divide: 

Outright unprosecuted voter intimidation: in the few blocks walk from my house to downtown, I can see a prop skeleton dressed as a Harris supporter hanging from a noose, and Harris yard signs slashed with a knife, others just ripped down to the cardboard.

Gerrymandering - years ago, these little-known poorer districts were redrawn around population centers in ways that give likely Republican strongholds more weight, particularly in rural areas like mine. Republican lawmakers literally have opened prisons in rural counties in my state to artificially inflate population numbers with people who can’t vote due to their felon status to tip the scales.  

Of course, the Electoral college, where US votes are decided by weight of a state’s respective collective population and importance rather than just the counted individuals votes

I’m not making excuses. I echo the rest of the world’s collective disgust and horror about the outcome. I am literally sick with my country. People will die because of this. People who don’t live here, people who didn’t get a choice or stake in the US elections, and who probably wish they’d never heard of the place. And people in my own community. 

Yet it is so easy to picture this election as the ultimate triumph of laziness and inattention, particularly in “ignorant hillbilly” places like where I live, which generally go for Trump without any fight - at least not one that shows up on an election night map. But the Republican right has been working for decades to put the legal, economic, and societal pressures that lead to this in place here. 

We fought hard. Grassroots campaigners, our organizers of LGBTQIA+ groups, leaders in our communities who showed up despite the fact that it put a target on their backs if shit went bad. Teachers fighting Republican-led mandates of ignorance and racism to choke out any thinking that might interfere with their political goals for their ideal voter base. Librarians who get death threats for having kid’s books dealing with gender or queerness in the public libraries. 

These are not imagined examples, these are things that happen to real people I know in my tiny blue community. And the violent, right-wing party, the party that promised to make this second Trump term one of revenge and retribution, knows who those people are too. 

The Charlottesville “Ignite the Right” attack happened in my backyard. I had friends on that street when a self-described neo nazi drove into a crowd and killed Heather Heyer and injured 35 others. Trump was president when it happened; he called the alt-right who invaded Charlottesville with guns and armor and torches that day “good people.” 

I have no faith in my party now. It feels like we’re still trying to play a game we lost years ago, while the other side is busy winning a new game, one where they get to make up all the rules. 

I realize that there are greater global trends at play - incumbents being ousted, a swing to the right, post-pandemic economic scrambles - larger issues than the difficulties of voter suppression in my rural American communities. I'm not in a great mindset to consider them this week. I've been politically active since I was old enough to vote, and it feels like we always build so much momentum and then slam facefirst into this fucking invisible wall.

Honestly? I’m so tired and depressed and anxious, I feel like I can barely function right now. At the same time, I’m disgusted by my own despair and whining. What gives me the right to stop trying now, when so many people across the globe are facing the same anger and exhaustion? When so many people are in more active danger, with less options than I have?

Anyway, I wanted to write something out about the election, maybe just to let go of the words and get them out of me. I'm a queer politically active liberal in a Republican-dominated rural space. Next week, I'll read all the posts about hard work and hope and building support networks. This week, I just need a fucking minute on the floor.

[boobachu]

This is more for my own sanity than convincing you, so be free to ignore.

Our supreme court ruled being homeless is an imprisonable offense and we still have legal slavery, I kinda don't think this is comparable. Our supreme court is going to damn us with a smile.

Good point, tho also has the UN ever been... a thing? I guess it's kind of funny to me cuz we violate war laws all the time but the only thing you ever hear is getting mad at video games for having a red plus. I guess this really doesn't matter just kinda chuckled.

Okay, this part I know cuz I know people have been having troubles getting hormones, which is a death sentence for many trans and intersex people so...

How are we outliving the bastard? Like unless the plan is he dies of a stroke before I die of no hormones.

I will agree on one crucial thing: there's no point in arguing with a stranger about this.

Cuz people have already decided that they care more about people upset their lives are at risk, being "doomers", than they care about admitting the truth that it's hopeless or better yet committing to a plan to stop this.

Tho that'd involve disrupting y'all's lives, the system isn't killing you so all y'all got is platitudes babydoll, well thanks ever so much!

I'm going to eat a pizza for breakfast. Tired of this apathic centrism.

Just waiting to become a statistic so the next generation can go "how could y'all let this happen?"

After years of going "this won't happen" "it's not that bad" "it's not going to happen to you" they'll only have to say "we didn't know"

That is assuming fascism doesn't become the final stage of humanity as the world dies. Then I guess the only that'll be said is in a jellyfish language.

America. I’m so sorry.

A lot of you are terrified right now, and understandably so — the Annoying Orange™️ is all but confirmed to have won. You don’t know what to do now, but I’m going to give you some advice from someone who survived 14 years of a Tory government (basically the UK’s Republican party); the best thing you can do now? Outlive the bastard. Outlast his presidency. Don’t let him break you. You’ll be okay. As my favourite quote goes, “do it scared and do it anyway”.

Be scared. Fear is perfectly natural right now, it’s okay to be afraid. But you have to live. Be scared, but survive. Be scared, but be unapologetically you. Things are going to get rough, and it’s going to feel dark for a while. You will get through this. You are stronger than you think. You have to survive these next four years. Otherwise, he gets exactly what he wants. Don’t let him win. You are loved. The world needs you in it. Don’t ever forget that.

Do it scared. Do it anyway. 💙

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

I'm feeling everything most of you are feeling. And also this: I will help where I can but I am not letting that rapist sack of shit steal my joy for, at minimum, the next four years of my life. That would bring me to nearly 50 years old. I can't let those years go, sacrifice them to fear. Life goes too fast. I'll keep an eye on things but I am not going to guzzle doom from my newsfeed every day and jump out of my skin every time he makes a move. He won't get that from me.

You all know where my heart is and that I'm against everything he stands for and to some extent I will have to react to what's coming, which will be bad. But I am not letting these robber-baron motherfuckers set the terms for how I feel every day in a world of sunsets, donkeys, horses, music, poetry, dogs, rivers, and mystery. Will that be easy? No. Are there people for whom it will be even harder? Yes, for sure. I'm a straight male in a blue state, for God's sake. But I nonetheless urge everyone not to invite him into your soul.

He has no place there; you have primacy. The world spins, rudderless, on rough seas; you can't steer it and you don't own it. Your body belongs to the earth that will claim it and can be hurt or killed. Your soul is yours and is utterly sacrosanct and autonomous and beyond the reach of rulers. It is a locked room and the key is yours. Guard it zealously.

I tried my hand at being a political commentator on here for a while and it brought me a lot of attention, but no joy. And I didn't relish the pressure. I have no wisdom or advice except to focus on the things within your sphere of control: try to be a good person and act with honor and integrity. You'll fail often - probably not as often as myself. But it'll keep you from being like him and his people, these spiritually barren carcasses bereft of wonder, curiosity or love. Relentlessly pursue your passions, have fun wherever you can, protect the vulnerable, be generous, don't take yourself too seriously, be a believer, not an ironist or a cynic. Offer the political resistance you believe is appropriate, but above all don't let this age into your soul.

A week ago I posted a poem by Tony Hoagland little realizing how it would resonate today. It concludes:

... my happiness would kill them so I shove joy like a knife into my own heart over and over

and I force myself toward pleasure, and I love this November life where I run like a train deeper and deeper

(Will Stenberg)

[amalythea]

moonstruck ; birthday event !

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As a way to celebrate me being old and a way for me to get back into writing I decided to host an event! I wrote these prompts like a year ago back on @soleillunne with the help of @starrveill (i love you)

This is a request based event, if you have an idea in mind send me an ask with a prompt, a genre (optional) and a character of your choice.

You can send in as many asks as you want, but only one prompt and character per ask is allowed. So you can ask the same prompt for different characters with multiple asks.

I will delete any request that's against my rules and just make me uncomfortable in general. If you have any questions about the characters I write for please don't hesitate to ask.

I will tag this post and each post related to this one with "moonstruck!", and the event will get its own masterlist. I don't know when I will close the event, but I will announce when I do.

Below are the prompts, go crazy (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

1. “don't smile at me like that!”

2. “may i have this dance?” “well, if you insist.”

3. “stop moving, i'm almost done!”

4. “well, if i tell you it wouldn't be a secret.”

5. “the moon is beautiful, isn't it?”

6. “i wouldn't wanna fight you. you're pretty feisty.”

7. “your eyes are always on them.” “…are they? I haven’t noticed.”

8. “do you think the moon is jealous of how pretty you are?”

9. “are you sure you're okay? your face seems a little red.”

10. “...on the bright side, we'll know how not to cook next time.”

11. “you're my favorite person.”

12. “close the curtains! my eyes are burning!” “don’t you think you’ve slept in long enough, you little vampire?”

13. “here.” ”what are you doing?” “giving you my jacket. cover yourself up, people are staring.” (bonus: “…are you sure you’re not the one staring?”)

14. “how… do you understand my feelings so well?” “…because i’d been in your place once”

15. “i love you. now say it back.” “please— stop talking, save it till we get you help—” “say it back—” “i love you. i love you, i love you, i love you so fucking much, please don’t leave me—”

16. “dont miss me too much, okay?”

17. “tell me what i can do for you.” “stay.”

18. “wait! don't go... not yet.”

19. “i swear to you, that as long as I’m alive I won’t let a single soul ever harm you.”

20. “how do you make the pain go away?”

21. “you feel like home to me.”

22. “it's okay to cry, you know.”

23. “you're acting like my mom.” “shut up and let me take care of you.”

24. “i'm never leaving you. you're stuck with me.”

25. “in your darkest moments, I'll be your guiding light.”

30. “you're exhausted, honey.”

31. “can i have another blanket?” “do you really think that’s a good idea, love?”

32. “come over here; let me patch you up.”

33. “how do you do it?” “do what?” “make me feel alive.”

34. “i have no idea how i got through my days before i met you.”

35. “what do you feel when you're with me?” “when i'm with you... i feel at peace.”

36. “you lied to me. was i just a pawn in your game? the easiest one you can discard?”

37. “you make me feel so alone.”

38. “i don't know what to do without you.”

39. “make sure it kills me.”

40. “i love you, until the end of the world.”

41. “you had your chance.”

42. “wait for me, will you?”

43. “i don't want to go.”

44. “i'm sorry, have we met before?”

45. “it's okay, you can let go.”

46. “i can't help but wonder if you ever truly loved me.”

47. “given your history, i should have known better.”

48. “you made a promise.”

49. “in the end, I was just a stepping stone in your path to success, wasn't I?”

50. “i can't trust you anymore, not after what you did.”

51. “…please don’t come any closer.” “why not?” “i don’t want to hurt you.” “who said you would?”

52. “people always leave, so why should it be any different now?” “what if i told you that i never planned on leaving? not now, not ever?”

53. “the only thing that makes every ounce of pain worth enduring is you.”

54. “i love you too much to stay away, and I wouldn't wish for anything less than to spend an eternity by your side.”

55. “the day i lose you is the day that i lose everything.”

56. “please don't go... i love you.” “...i wish i could believe that.”

57. “i'm sorry. you deserve so much more than this, and i can't even give you that, no matter how much i want to.”

58. “do you know the difference between history and you?” “what?” “history is the past, but you’re my future.” “…oh my god.”

59. “now remember, you don’t need to apologize for things you aren’t responsible for, okay?” ��okay! i’m sorry!” “…i literally just said not to apologize.” “sorry..” “damn it. we’re gonna have to work on that a bit more.”

60. “i’m sure the feeling won’t last, but let me hold onto you a little bit longer before i go.”

Bonus: send me a prompt/lyrics of your choice!

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moonstruck — unable to think or act normally, especially as a result of being in love.

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@amalythea 2024. | do not re-upload, copy, translate, etc. my works on any form of media.

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Do you have any thoughts on what Satine and Obi-Wan's lives and/or the galaxy at large would have looked like if she'd survived the events of The Lawless?

Oh man, this premise has an infinite number of answers depending on where you go with it. But I think I can give some general principles.

Like ... for example, Satine survives The Lawless but Order 66 is subverted. Actually, I wrote a fic about that (Tethers of Inconvenience), where Satine pursues an arranged marriage with a senator from Kuat (Giddean Danu, a character in the RotS deleted scenes) who would be able to help her rebuild and protect Mandalore, which she finds difficult to do on her own since she humiliated Palpatine and the Senate in TCW Season 2.

But more generally, if she survives The Lawless, I think Obi-Wan takes her back to Coruscant and she lives with Padme. She begs the Senate and Jedi to assist in dealing with the mess on Mandalore. I think that Bo's able to take the planet back, and she and/or Korkie lead since her brainless, idiot, fake-news-believing people are still convinced that she killed Pre Vizsla with her own hands and caused the downfall of their city.

Then, let's say that Order 66 does happen. You've got two diverging roads: 1) Obi-Wan is able to find her and bring her to Tatooine with him, in which case they get to raise Luke together and have a kind of strangely (im)perfect happily ever after living a quiet life neither one of them had before (wonderfully explored in @mg024's Two New Hopes) ...

Or 2) He can't get to her and has to leave her when he goes into hiding, like in @the-obiwan-for-me's Krennictine AU. This has a similar premise to my Marriage AU but with Orson Krennic. In both our AUs, I think we're of the same mind that Satine never loses her personal idealism, but she becomes much more practically minded. I think the run-in with Maul proves to her that "Even extremists can be reasoned with" is much, much too hopeful. I think she's always prepared to sacrifice her personal happiness for her people if need-be, but there's always that piece of her that's longing for her happy ending.

Imperial-era Satine is fascinating because she's the one who characterized the idealism of the Republic but who was really spared suffering by dying before the rise of the Empire. Personally, I think that Palpatine would take very great joy in trying to smash her like a bug once he has no guardrails, given that she was one of the only people who publicly stood against him during the Clone War. I mean ... we kind of forget that after the Republic and the CIS, the largest political entity at play in the Clone War was the Council of Neutral Systems, led by Satine. She's a symbol of the Republic era and she wouldn't go quietly into the night once the man she's always despised proclaims himself Emperor.

I think Palpatine would immediately try to take over Mandalore (canonically, he did within the first year of his reign because he was still using a clone trooper army). In a SatineLives AU, whether he immediately succeeds would probably rest on whether she's willing to negotiate for her people's freedoms (like Bo did with Gideon in The Mandalorian), but even if she did, Palpatine would probably just renege on any agreement they had.

In general though, I lean more toward her giving up any claim to the throne permanently because she thinks Bo (and a Korkie hardened by both The Lawless and the rise of the Empire) can meet Mandalore's needs more than she can.

And if that's the case ... if she has no Mandalore and no Obi-Wan ... I could see her doing something like creating a relief organization that essentially goes from planet to planet cleaning up the effects of the Empire and then eventually becoming a secret organization focusing on saving and rehabilitating injured rebels. It's her way of maintaining her pacifistic ideals in a world where she no longer has the ability to remain fully neutral.

If anyone has any thoughts on these ideas or others of your own, I'd love to hear them!

[phia-myth]

ok i gave a brief rundown in the tags BUT i’m never gonna turn down an excuse to put my english degree to good use.

TW/CW for the obvious (mostly suicide)

so patroclus goes out and fights in achilles’ armour and dies. not only is patroclus the love of achilles’ life, and by extension the only good things he has left in his life, but he is also a reflection of achilles’ rationality, his happiness and humanity. he advised achilles, showed empathy where achilles didn’t, and was generally all the things achilles lacked/denied in himself. so when patroclus dies, all of those parts of achilles dies along with him.

achilles notoriously does not handle this well.

we should keep in mind that when patroclus dies achilles isn’t just wracked with grief, he’s also wracked with guilt. he blames himself for his own suffering and all of this comes together to be such an awful expression of misery that he has to be stopped from killing himself right there. when he mourns patroclus, he is the image of a man who has given up. he can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t bring himself to care about anything but killing hector (which, in this context, we can imagine as suicide).

when achilles does eventually face hector, hector is in his armour. bare in mind achilles was very willing to go out into battle without any armour, so it’s clear that achilles has no value for his own life. when achilles kills hector in his own armour, he’s thus killing himself — or at the very least an image of himself. by killing hector, he kills the two people he can blame for patroclus dying: hector in a literal sense (he kills hector, who had in turn killed patroclus) and himself in a metaphorical sense (killing the mirror image of achilles, when achilles was indirectly to blame for patroclus’ death).

and, obviously, there’s the prophecy. achilles knows how this all ends. he is prophesied to die shortly after hector. he had gone the entire war not killing hector because he had no reason to, but also because he had something to live for. that thing was patroclus, and patroclus is dead. even if hector had not been the one to kill patroclus, achilles would have killed him anyway. because why should achilles live on in a world where patroclus does not?

so killing hector is also a literal but indirect act of suicide. it’s like opening the door to a room full of ravenous predators. and yet he continues to go and fight. because he’s waiting to die.

not to mention achilles finds more relief from this stage of his life than not. he eats and sleeps again. he’s willing to make amends with people. he’s still wracked with grief, but he now has a reason to live again: his own death.

achilles killing hector as a metaphor for suicide

[hitman-two]

Ficklist (Masterlist)

[Radio static] All Hitman Victors, this is Hitman Two Actual, be advised that our ROE remains in place as we roll through Tumblr Territory.

𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬: ▸ Grace x Doc Bryan ▸ Humvee Roadtrip with Brad and Ray ▸ Nothing Homoerotic, Sir...

𝐃𝐨𝐜 𝐱 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 ▸ Amazing Grace (Ongoing series) ▸ Bouquet of Flowers 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐝 𝐱 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐞 ▸ Of Thunder and Fireworks (AO3) | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ▸ The Jalapeno and Cheesy Tears 𝐋𝐢𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐞��𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐤: ▸ Smutty HCs 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭: ▸ Smutty HCs ▸ Smut Request (Scheduled to write) 𝐃𝐨𝐜 𝐁𝐫𝐲𝐚𝐧 ▸ Smutty HCs 𝐆𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐖𝐲𝐧𝐧 ▸ Gunny x Nate's Sister HC (Scheduled to write) 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫 ▸ 𝐑𝐚𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 ▸ Smutty HCs ▸ One-Shot Requested (Scheduled to write, changes might occur)

[sskk-manifesto]

Osamu Dazai and the Depressing Era

[marypsue]

Yanno what, I like high fantasy just fine, but the older I get and the more I read, the more I'm starting to think I like high fantasy better when it's in-universe fantasy fiction for a different story instead of like. Me, directly reading/watching/etc it.

[theood]

Sorry to beat the dead horse I live in lately but I'm so tired. A break from social media probably could help. If I figure out how else to occupy my time doing absolutely nothing. It's what I say every fucking day. Just wish I had friends. People my age around here to talk too. Even younger. Anything. I'm so fucking lonely. I love everyone I talk to online, I have meaningful connections with so many of you but I also haven't had meaningful conversation IRL in idk. Years probably. I haven't seen any of my old friends because we moved and I had to isolate myself because no one really wanted to hang out with me or could get here. And I really don't do anything, I can't be stressed. I can't be depressed I can't. I can't. I can't. Just like every adult in my life says. I don't know. I just wish I could actually see it's going to get better. Be better for me

[omegapheromone]

I would do anything to get Star Railed by the fine men of this stupid money scam game

[moe-broey]

Oh. Huh.

[jimingyue]

Cat Tumblr Dashboard Simulator

🖋️ meowful-musings Follow

🕊️ birdwatching Follow

what's wrong with dry food??? my humans feed me it all the time and i think it's fine

💀 elusivehider-deactivated948204

op wheres the natural feeding option

🌲 outdoorsy Follow

you guys are getting fed?

#im a barn cat so maybe im missing something here #meowtthew don't look

7,192 notes

☀️ pawsitive-affurmations Follow

ITS OKAY TO BE A MOGGIE

ITS OKAY TO BE A MOGGIE

YOU ARE NOT LESS VALID IF YOU ARE NOT A SPECIFIC PEDIGREE!!!!!

☀️ pawsitive-affurmations Follow

extra special shout out to cats who have "common" coat colors. grey tabbies and black cats i am rubbing against your head affectionately <3

🪤 m0usetrap01 Follow

as a grey tabby i really needed to hear this :"3

#i feel like i never see positivity posts for moggies even tho we're the most common type of cat....

154,688 notes

🎵 rage-against-the-meowchine Follow

i cant believe there are cats ACTUALLY advocating for kittens to be separated from their mothers before 12 weeks??? kittens still need to learn how to interact with other cats before being placed into their furever home omg you guys know you're advocating for undersocialized and aggressive cats right

❤️ loving-paws284 Follow

um op some of us??? matured early??????? i was separated from my mother at 7 weeks and i turned out fine... interesting how you assume that kittens being separated from their mothers at a younger age will lead to the degeneracy of the next generation...hmm i wonder where i've heard that before...

🐈 fluffy-the-cat Follow

OP got bit too hard during a play-fight as a kitten and it shows XD

🐟 tunafeesh Follow

also op have you ever considered that just because somecat is kind of scared and unable to deal with strange cats or humans, it doesn't mean they don't deserve to be adopted?? you sound like a vet psyop honestly

🎵 rage-against-the-meowchine Follow

oh meow god saying that kittens should be fully weaned before leaving their mother is NOT veterinarian rhetoric and i never said that they deserve to be euthanized!!! my mother literally died when i was 3 weeks old and it seriously messed up my development so stop putting words in my mouth, thanks

anyway friendly reminder that underweaned kittens are prone to illness and often struggle with basic cat behaviors like litterbox usage, and in some nyavinces it's even considered kitten abuse

#discourse #cant believe "kitten abuse is bad" is controversial now

32,456 notes

🍃 naturalliving Follow

BORN TO DIE

WORLD IS A FUCK

猫神 Kill Em All 1989

I am trash cat

410,757,864,530 DEAD BIRDS

#outdoorliving #outdoorcats please interact #outdoorcat friendly

48,971 notes

🎣 salmonpurina Follow

can't believe cats are uncritically reblogging that born to die world is a fuck post. i know it's funny but op is literally an outdoor cat truther

#like cmon now you just have to go to their blog #lulu speaks

34 notes

💀 tabbystripes-deactivated098712

gentle reminder that pushing cups off the table is not cute and can cause a lot of distress in your human!!!! gentle reminder that our teeth and claws can easily hurt them more than they can hurt us!!!!

🐰 evil-tabbystripes Follow

evil reminder that the cup should always be pushed off the table. evil reminder that you should always bite and claw at your human no matter what. you can do whatever you want forever

💀 tabbystripes-deactivated098712

make your own pawst

💀 laser-point-deactivated8574721

umm i know a tomcat who did that and his human ended up putting him down so...

👬🏻 nyasunaruenjoyer Follow

Nyaverage shelter cat behavior

#not nyaruto #re-nyab #pickles shut up

545,460 notes

🌈 nyaoi-warrior Follow

saw two male cats sleeping together on the porch today. homeow behavior imo

💡 discourse-meows Follow

hey um what the fuck??? it's really not okay of you to go assuming other cat's sexualities, especially cats you don't even know???? as a queer cat i'm VERYY uncomfortable. real-ass cats didn't consent to your nyaoi fetish, thanks

🌈 nyaoi-warrior Follow

1. i was making. a joak

2. i'm literally gay???

#literally what's your pawblem

7 notes

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

reblog if you've ever caught the laser pointer

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

i know you fuckers are lying

🍭 gaykittens Follow

this tom hasn't caught the laser pointer

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

shut the heull up

988,653 notes

🐾 b-e-a-n-t-o-e-s Follow

grey toebeans >>>>>>>>> pink toebeans and don't let the haters make you believe otherwise

🐁 ladymouser Follow

op shut the fuck up ALL toebeans are beautiful!!! just bc you're miserable and insecure doesn't mean you can bring others down based on things they can't control

🐾 b-e-a-n-t-o-e-s Follow

oh so the cat-human separationist wants to preach to us

[alexanderwales]

This is a water-seal stoneware crock. The design is ancient.

It is, essentially, a large ceramic vessel that you put vegetables and sometimes brine into. To prevent spoilage, you place those ceramic weights on top of whatever food is in the crock, and that keeps them weighted down, below the level of the water. Because fermentation creates gases, most crocks have a "water groove" in them. The lid sits in the groove, which allows air to escape but not come in. Because fermentation creates gas, the interior of the crock is positive-pressure, and because the gas created is almost entirely carbon dioxide, it's a low-oxygen environment that additionally helps prevent spoilage.

And all this would be pointless without lactobacillus, the bacteria that chomp down on the vegetables you put into the crock. They're anaerobic, which means totally fine without oxygen, and they produce an environment that's inhospitable to most other organisms. The main things they produce are CO2, which means no oxygen for other bacteria, and lactic acid, which makes the fermented thing sour and also decreases the pH low enough that many other bacteria cannot survive. They tolerate high levels of salt, which kill yet more competitor bacteria. It ends up being a really really good way to keep food from going off.

Our ancestors figured this out thousands of years ago without knowing what bacteria were. This general ceramic design has been in use around the world in virtually every place that had ceramics, salt, and too much cabbage or cucumbers that was going to rot if they didn't do something about it. It's thousands of years old, so old that it gets hard to interpret the evidence of the ceramics.

And I have crocks like this in my kitchen, where I make my own ferments, and I always think about how beautiful and elegant it all is, and how this was probably invented hundreds of times as people converged on something that Just Works.

(I do have pH testing strips though.)

[stellanslashgeode]

Allow me to add an excerpt from Sundari Lament:

  The fact that Death Watch had tussled with Ahsoka suddenly made them seem a more pressing threat to Barriss. She had battled a Mandalorian warrior a few weeks ago but her affiliation was not confirmed. Ahsoka had battled Pre Vizsla himself! They were real to her now and beyond threatening the Duchess they were messing with others she cared for. It lit a fire under her. She pestered Thrace for access to intelligence reports which she poured over with her exacting scholastic thoroughness.

  During her next fencing practice with Satine she proposed a mission to find their current whereabouts. She was rebuffed. Once they had showered and changed and had settled down for some iced tea to rehydrate, she asked again.

  “No.”

  “Why not? Aren’t you concerned? Now that Mandalore is in a stronger position to resist the influence of the war isn’t Death Watch the most pressing threat against you?”

  “Yes. And I do have intelligence assets keeping track of their movements. It is not much of a challenge. They leave such a mess wherever they go.”

  The Padawan leaned forward, her face earnest. “I could do more than track their movements. I could find them! We could confront them!”

  Satine waved her off.

  “I do not need to know where they are, or even where they have been. I know where they are going. There’s only one place Vizsla can go to achieve his goal.”

  “And where is that?” Barriss leaned back and sipped her tea.

  Satine indicated the door with a slight jerk of her head. “Out there. He’ll confront me before my throne. He’ll declare me a heretic and have me arrested.”

  “Arrested? Not killed?”

  Satine sniffed. “Not right away. He’ll need me alive for a while.”

  “Why?”

  “Because as he solidifies his power things will go wrong. He will gut my administration and put his own people in charge, only to find they might be fine warriors but will fumble a bit at statecraft. He’ll find himself isolated. Death Watch has been trying hard not to confront either the Republic or his former Confederate allies. That means they have been galivanting all over Unaligned Worlds wreaking havoc, pillaging, and stealing. Do you really think our allies will want him as chairperson in my place? He will find that the Mandalore System will become an island standing by itself once more. All the trade agreements we have made will fray apart. And that’s why he will need me alive. He’ll trot me out before the people do denounce me and blame me for all ills. He’ll say I corrupted the youth. He’ll say I encouraged decadence and amorality. I made young Mandalorian men into soft diplomats instead of proud warriors. I encouraged young women to be more interested in social causes than becoming mothers to the next generation or dissuaded them from being proud shield maidens or some such nonsense. Any who don’t fit into his ideals for masculinity and femininity will be forcefully corrected or shuffled out of public life. He will need to assert his authority over the populace, and he will face resistance as often as he gains new converts.”

  Barriss shivered. “What then?”

  “Then, to make ends meet, he will resurrect the tradition of raiding. He may succeed for a time. Once there is a victor in the war attentions will turn towards Vizsla’s rampages. Sundari will burn once more.”

  Barriss put down her glass. “You know his plans and what he will do if he wins. Why cannot you see you are making my argument for me? I should go after them.”

  “No. The strategy has not changed. He seeks to win by being a strongman. I will win by building a strong community. And I need you here to assist me.”

Don't mind me. I'm just making sure the Americans know who they're supposed to root for because I don't think it was clear enough.

[sharp-tooths]

Hm i love being so tired that now im sleeping in my dreams and ive JUST has my very first dream in a dream bc my mental heath is just blegh but this is the 2nd night in a row where an unwanted entity has made itself comfy with harassing me in MY own room in my sleep and i know its an unwanted entity bc the fucker is pushing back against my energy shifts so in my dream tonight when i started dreaming i felt it come in and when i tried to make it leave it pushed back HARD and tried to paralyze me in my dream but i got up anyways and when i told someone to get rid of it for me cause im too tired to do it myself this time it let me wake up for real.

I know this is fuckin weird, but i am sensitive to energies, and talkin about it right after it happens helps me. I did accidently start ranting in the tags so i wasnt able to tag this as vent cause i reached the tag limit, srry about that.

Its midnight now anyways, whos gonna read this