#I know i don't actually want to

[myrskytuuli]

The promised military post.

Last weekend I spent three days doing a military introduction course for women hosted by the National Defence Training Association of Finland. The aim of the course was to give an overview of what military service is like in practice, for women who are on the fence whether to apply for military service or not. Since my biological clock is ticking, and I have a friend currently doing her military service, I got reccommended this course, which I galdly took in order to put to rest whether I should still quickly shoehorn myself to apply for the women’s voluntarily service or not, before I age out. 

(note that politically I still believe that mandatory service should be upheld for both sexes. Even after chosing not to serve my time, I do politically belive that someone should show up at my door and force me and every other woman in Finland to do some kind of crisis training service akin to what men have to do. but I digress.)

Great course. 100% reccomend MPK courses for anyone who is interested. Absolute kudos to everyone involved in creating and running it. Got exactly the experience I was looking for, and very amazing experiences and skills to go with it. They gave you a intense, full-packed, cut-through of the entire first three months (alokasaika) of the army experience. Obvioulsy in order to actually become somehow good at all of the things we went through, you would need the three months of repetition you get with actual service, but we compared notes with my friend and we did pretty much try everything you do during alokasaika.

Foot drills. making your bed. Taking care of your equipment. military rank and discpline. how to clean and oil your AR. Survival skills. Setting up a camp. how to handle a grenade. How to handle a shoulder-fired missile. How to use and set up military communication equipment. How to move with an AR. How to move in a formation. How to basically move as a soldier without fucking everything up. How to do basic emergency care on battle wounds. How to crawl to foxhole without killing yourself. How to spot an enemy from foliage. How to shield yourself from artillery. How to crawl without fucking over your AR. (How to create a parasocial relationship with your AR who is also your wife) how to shoot your AR without your shitty breathing technique getting in the way of your shot. etc. If that sounds like a lot- It’s because it was. we had a minute timetable and the only breaks were to eat and the couple minutes to drink water from time to time. The weather was abominable, so we were doing all of this while most of the time it was either raining sleet or hailing.

I really liked it. I love new experiences and this definitely was one. most of the skills were appliable to a life outside of military too. Outdoor survival, emergency care, how to use a compass, etc. not going to lie, learning how to use several different pretty gnarly weapons was cool too. Obviously I’m not good at any of them, but I have the knowhow in how to use an AR, grenade and an anti-tank missile. Not saying I would hit anything, but I know how to get all of them to work. And now I know intimately all the ways I’m very bad at shooting an automatic rifle. It’s hard you guys. (I don’t have the upper-body strenght)

Not a big fan of the army base life. Fuck foot drills, I understand why they exists, but fuck them. The same thing with all the army base decorum. as a teacher I genuinely do understand why you need to keep big masses on tight lines when moving from place A to B, but doing foot drills at 6 in the morning is just...well it just is. Doing foot drills 6 in the morning for a several months? Yeah, not sure if I have the headspace. Lot of things were annoying, and I would be lying if I said they weren’t a big reason for my decision to not apply. I can imagine that things that are kind of annoying now would become big fucking breaking points when you do them for a year. Like keeping count of all of your zippers being closed and your collar turned 24/7. But the real issue was that I simply do not have the physical stamina. If I wanted to keep up, I would have to not only keep up, but be better than the 18 year old men who I would be surrounded by and who would set the pace, and sister I was already struggling with the young girls. Yes, obviously, if I was very motivated I could spend the summer getting into shape before stepping into service next year, but I do not have the motivation to put mysefl through an extreme fitness glow up. And I’m still not sure if that would help at all with my knees, which were the real breaking point for me several times while crawling on the frozen ground.

So, I’ve given up the idea of doing a year of service. Maybe, if i was 7 years younger, I would have the fitness and the joints to do it. If I could travel back in time, I would probably tell myself who has just returned back from London to spend a year doing the service, because there are genuinely so many usefull skills you can pick up, but not now. I’m looking forwards to starting a new life in a new city with hopefully new academic ambitions and I don’t want to postpone those plans.

Anyway, super happy I went. Absolutely drained when I got out. (Three days non-stop physical activities, sleeping on frozen ground, doing those physical activities ankle-deep in snow, getting woken up for emergency drills when you sleep, you know, draining stuff) Had to really properly recover afterwards and caught a flu from being soaked most of the weekend, but you know, fun. I had fun. There is genuinely a part of me that is now very sad that I’m not doing the full service. the camradery of our group was amazing, and you do miss it. There were so many skills I would want to be actually good at. And you know. I wouldn’t want to be useless in a case of invasion. But for now, I have to be realistic and try to live my life and realise that I probably wouldn’t make it to the end of the service anyway, and even if I did, it would probably be like trade school where I would have been better off doing something else with the time anyway.

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[egophiliac]

bring back zooterkins, the best 17th-century swear word

I don't normally do Just Characters Swearing, but. ...this kind of wrote itself and then wouldn't leave my head. it comes from both a piece of character-writing advice that has always stuck with me, and also my conviction that Leona is 1000% funnier as a character if his dialogue has to stay G-rated. let Kalim say fuck, but don't let Leona say bastard.

(I'm sorry)

[uncanny-tranny]

Fat people deserve mobility aids, too. No matter if it's connected to their fatness or not, because having a mobility issue that is connected to one's fatness won't change that they're still fat and still have the issue at hand. Fat people don't deserve to "tough it out" because fatness should be this divine punishment doled out to those who "deserve" it. Fat disabled people deserve to have the peace of mind that they can exist in whatever way is most comfortable and accessible to them

[abellarts]

[ID in alt]

jon should have been able to sock him at least once before s5

[swordsonnet]

i'm sorry but i don't think we should call this the "autism website" when there's still posts with tons of notes mocking people who:

struggle with social skills / have anxiety around social settings

are unemployed / unable to work certain jobs

have intense or "age-inappropriate" interests

haven't had certain life experiences that are deemed universal/essential

struggle with personal hygiene

don't have any friends or dating experience

don't go outside much or at all

take things literally / don't get sarcasm/jokes

have unusual ways of speaking

generally aren't "normal"

[thereallycoolmonsterithoughtup]

kabru and mithrun's fun succubus adventure

[artkaninchenbau]

People keep on asking for more Baby Robin and Papadile so here is more Baby Robin and Papadile. Now never ask anything from me ever again

[canisalbus]

I love the duo, both the historical setting and modern AU. Does Vasco ever go to confession while Machete is running it, just to 'confess' to something they did before as a way to tease?

[thecryptidzenith]

When Schrodinger was talking about the cat in box that's both alive and dead, he was talking about Kalina. She's a goddess's familiar, she's a plague, she worked for Fantasy MI6, she died, she came back, she got rage stared, she snapped her own neck, she came back as the companion for a god borne from a Fantasy Mormon child's misplaced belief. She's alive and dead, good and evil. She worked tirelessly for 800 years towards one goal and then fucking abandoned it (maybe.) Her goddess thinks she can fix her. Her goddess's wife always hated her. She is everyone's problem at all times and holy shit is she a Problem. What a fucking legend.

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[egophiliac]

WAIT when did he get FANGS

[akanemnon]

Shouldn't there be a minotaur in the labyrinth? Who put this goat here? This is not accurate to the mythology! /j

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[tititilani]

I can't stop thinking about if Simon had taken Edwin's offer

Like Charles finds Edwin in the hallway as ever but this time there's another boy there too, cowering against the wall next to him. Maybe the dollhead spider doesn't care about Simon, too busy focusing on its favorite target, so Charles is left standing in the hallway with Simon when Edwin is taken.

They get out of hell, but Edwin doesn't confess due to Simon hovering behind his elbow. He doesn't want to confess his emotions in front of his killer, who he probably hasn't even properly figured out how he's feeling towards yet.

The Night Nurse is pissed they came out with an extra soul but Niko's same loophole still applies and Simon stays.

"This is Simon," Edwin says when it's all said and done, finally introducing the boy that's been hiding behind him since the door closed. "He was a...classmate of mine."

"He saved me," Simon says, looking up at Edwin moony-eyed and Charles knows that look and something settles heavy in his stomach.

"Glad to have ya, mate," he tells him even though the words taste sour. This other boy knew Edwin when he was alive, the thought is slightly terrifying to him.

Simon settles in fine with the agency even if the agency feels a little crowded now with five people in it but he continues to moon over Edwin and Edwin just...never tells anyone how they actually knew each other. He reasons it just doesn't matter, that he can't find the right time, whatever.

Charles never really warms up to him, though he tries to hide it, but he sees the looks Simon gives Edwin, a soppy smitten look that is somehow worse than anything Monty or the Cat King ever tried with Edwin because of all of them, Simon arguably knows the most about like Edwardian courting. That, like Edwin, Simon has also survived hell. Charles hates the idea that someone could potentially understand Edwin more than he does.

He hates it so much that nothing further happens between him and Crystal because the idea of Edwin being left alone with Simon bothers him so much. He sees Simon adjusting Edwin's collar one (1) time and it makes him feel sick.

And then there's the fortune-teller.

They only go to her sometimes for cases because she never fails to freak Charles out but her prophecies tend to be accurate like 60% of the time which is pretty good for a fortune teller. She looks at the two of them at the end, because it is just the two of them for once, and then looks just at Edwin.

"How kind you are," she says, the words a compliment but the tone snide. "To house your killer. Pray tell it doesn't come back to you."

"What." Charles says. "The fuck."

Charles is furious, of course, and it takes Edwin a long time to talk him out of smashing Simon's face in with the new cricket bat.

"He's like me," he insists in that quiet but firm voice. Charles wants to scream that Simon is nothing like Edwin - that he doesn't have a fraction of Edwin's kindness or pissiness, that his blue eyes are not nearly as beautiful as Edwin's green - but before he can even open his mouth, Edwin continues. "He...He likes boys, Charles. He likes me."

Oh. Oh.

Charles stares at Edwin who is looking back at him, trying and failing to hide the fact he's terrified, and Charles doesn't give one shit that Edwin likes boys because he's his best mate forever. He's still pissed that Simon is apparently staying but he has to hug Edwin at that. "I'm still pissed you didn't tell me about him," is all he says, swallowing back the other words he wants to say.

Charles grows even more paranoid about Simon being around, who has to get used to the fact that Charles takes to swinging his cricket bat ominously every time he comes within ten feet of Edwin. He finds out that adjusting clothing was an Edwardian courting thing and wants to break something. The very idea the very person who killed his best mate is now trying to put the moves on said best mate pisses him off.

It also makes him think of numerous times Edwin had readjusted his collar or jacket in the past and it makes his non-existent stomach flip.

Eventually, Simon decides he's ready to move on to his after-life and Charles keeps his hands from fisting when he looks at Edwin with that same soppy look. He knows Edwin has forgiven Simon by now but Charles has always been better at holding a grudge and he knows what is going to come out of Simon's mouth before he even asks. He knows that if Edwin says yes, he won't stop him.

Charles also knows that if Edwin does, there is no way he is going to find any kind of his own afterlife.

"You could come with me," Simon says hopefully and the moment after is the longest in Charles' life.

"Thank you, Simon," Edwin says kindly and Charles has to keep himself from crying. "But I have no interest in going anywhere without Charles."

He steps back - away from Simon and back towards Charles. Ears suspiciously pink, Edwin links their hands and they watch as Simon follows the Night Nurse.