#I think about this post every day

[mikkaeus]

[ultralaser]

Tagged: #paul ryan has apparently been dreaming of getting rid of medicare since he was an undergrad

#evil since he was 22

me: I would like to buy one social security and one medicare on layaway please

republicans: ok

me: here are my monthly payments

republicans: thank you 

republicans: we have decided we don’t want to offer medicare and social security anymore

me: can i have my money back then

republicans: no we are using it to buy ourselves a tax cut

[pemprika]

loose sketches of my comfort food 😇

[daysofnights]

when sirius and james accidentally find out about regulus’ crush on james, sirius makes the mistake of assuming him and james are on the same page and tells him he trusts him to do the right thing (ie., let regulus down easy) james misinterprets this as sirius trusting him to never do anything that could hurt regulus and starts planning the wedding

[chrispypapas]

he cant stop

text insp

[teenagedirtbaglku]

It’s them!!!

john, looking at paul: hes my mom, hes my boyfriend, hes my Stupid Tiny Kid Brother, hes my enemy, hes My One And Only, hes the name of the boat im on, hes a conniving genius, hes got nothing in his head, hes the man i know best (how to hurt)

paul, looking at john: hes my dad, hes a genius, hes A Bit Daft, hes my specialest baby boy, hes my hero, hes my poor little meow meow, hes a duplicitous manipulator, hes my strictly metaphorical lover, hes in my walls

[stump-not-found]

Second or Third Contact

part 1 /part 2 / part 3 / part 4

---

and they never ever had any problems ever . the end

[aquanutart]

I was talking and I mentioned that I have my old Game Boy and original Pokemon cartridge. I said, "I think they still work."

I was told, "The internal batteries on the Game Boy cartridges have run out. They're all dead."

"Oh," I said, trying not to show how crestfallen I was. I felt like I was losing nerd cred for not knowing that, although I never kept up with that type of info anyway. I'm here for the fantasy and imaginative aspects of games, and tend not to follow the competitive or technical details.

I tried not to feel anything as I went home. If they were real animals, I reminded myself, I would have had to say goodbye long ago.

But like so many other people, Pokemon was my childhood. It was all I thought about and dreamed about, and the closest thing I could imagine to heartbreak was the knowledge that they weren't real. I spent nearly all my time writing longhand self-insert Pokemon fanfiction--far more than I spent actually playing the game. My Pokemon were with me in my imagination wherever I went. I started playing Pokemon Blue when I was 5, and the last time I had played it was probably when I was 9 or 10. I remembered I had turned it on again one more time after that, not to play it, but to look at my childhood Pokemon.

It was during high school, after a move overseas that completely upended my life, and I was struggling with the crushing blow of being taken away from everything I knew and trying to make sense of anything (least of all adolescence) in another language. All I wanted was to go back to childhood and have everything go back to how it was before.

Seeing my Pokemon, just as I'd left them, had comforted me. I had looked at their stats pages, taken photos of them with my digital camera (that I don't even know if I still have), and then turned it off without doing anything.

That was probably 9 or 10 years after the games came out. It had been a long time since then. I had long since taken the AA batteries out of my Game Boy Color and left it untouched. I didn't even have AA batteries anymore.

It had worked then. But now it had been 27 years... I thought about not trying to turn my cartridge back on. As long as I didn't turn it on, I could believe my Pokemon were still there, the way I remembered them.

On my day off, which happened to be Pokemon Day, I googled and read that some people on forums and Reddit were still able to play their original Pokemon games.

Then... it was possible. I went out to buy toothpaste. At the store, I asked where I could find AA batteries.

It was a big thing for me to be able to go to the store and buy things myself. When I moved at age 13, I felt like something went wrong with growing up. It was difficult to follow what people were saying, and people didn't always understand what I said either. I had been introverted even in English, but now I had enough negative experiences that I became afraid and stopped trying to talk to people altogether.

I threw myself into video games and reliving childhood memories. The internet was where I could communicate in my first language and understand. I lived online and didn't interact with the real world. On the internet I felt like I was understood and could find people who shared my interests the way I did, but in the real world it always felt like I could get hurt if anyone knew me.

I realize now that I could have had a better experience overseas if I'd known how to adapt and socialize, but this was not something I knew even in English, and trying to learn in another language made it ten times harder. I'm sorry now for missing out on interactions that I know I could have had, but I just didn't know how. I wouldn't know how until I learned, and it took me a long time to learn.

I grew up online, in the company of others who had trouble fitting in with the real world, even in their own language. Those experiences shaped me, and the friendships I've made and support I've received online are invaluable to me. The internet gave me a way to live, and through it I learned how to interact with others. But in many ways, for many years, it felt like my life was put on hold and I stopped growing up.

Several years ago I moved back, to not far from where I was born, and I was able to work for the first time. I began to interact with people and feel like I had a place in the real world.

After shutting myself away for so many years, every little step I made out in the world felt terrifying. But every little thing I did on my own made me feel like I was living for the first time.

Even something as little as going to the store and buying a pack of batteries.

I was directed to a shelf at the end of an aisle, and found myself looking at a rack of lithium AA batteries. Did they not sell the old kind anymore?

I walked around to the other side and was relieved to find the familiar black and brown Duracell batteries I'd known from my childhood. I felt more confident about putting in a battery that looked the same as I remembered. The smallest pack they sold was an 8-pack for $12.99. I really didn't need 8 batteries. I didn't have any other devices that used them.

I thought, what if I turn it on and it doesn't work and I'll have wasted $12.99?

I also thought we might already have batteries. I might be able to say, "Mom, do we have any batteries?" and she'd pull out two AAs from a drawer somewhere and I'd save my money.

But somehow I felt like part of what was important about this was being an adult and being able to buy my own batteries.

Yet... what if it just ended up making me sad? Was it better not to know?

I went to the checkout with just the toothpaste and stood hesitating at the edge of the checkout line.

If I didn't get the batteries now, and it turned out we didn't have any batteries, I wouldn't try it. I knew I would just put it off until even more time passed, and then... "Are you in line?" someone asked me.

"No," I said, and I turned around and went back to the shelf.

I bought the batteries.

At home, I took out my original Game Boy Color from the drawer where I left it, the one my dad had surprised me with when I was 5 years old and that I had brought overseas and back.

I put the batteries in and turned it on without a cartridge first to make sure the batteries were inserted correctly. The Game Boy logo scrolled across the screen and it made the familiar blinging Game Boy startup noise. I turned it off again, satisfied.

I took out my original Pokemon Blue cartridge, momentarily having to remember which way it went in, and slotted it in.

I turned it on, watched the whole Pokemon Blue intro out of nostalgia, and then pressed START.

My heart leaped for joy.

MY POKEMON!!!! MY POKEMON ARE ALIVE!!! 🥺🥺🥺

My original Pokemon, that were with me in 1998 when I was 5-6 years old, are still with me 27 years later. I want to cry!!! I love the old sprites, I'm SO happy to see them again 😭😭😭 the Pokemon look so little and cheerful at the same time, which I love 🥺🥺🥺 I know there are people with many more hours on their games, who have leveled all their Pokemon to 100. But these are my Pokemon who were with me through my childhood, and I spent many more hours making up stories about them than actually playing the game. I'm so happy to see them again 😭😭😭

All I want is to see my Pokemon. My other Pokemon are in boxes. Now, how do I get to the nearest PC? Where am I?

Oh... Oh. I have to confess something. When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark cave areas, and whenever I got to them, I stopped playing for a while. (I was stuck at Mt. Moon until I was like, 7.) So I never actually beat the game.

And here I am on Victory Road, with the team of Pokemon I was taking to the Elite Four, without an Escape Rope.

The only way for me to see my other Pokemon is... to finally make it through Victory Road, after 27 years?!

[johnnyshrine]

★ 090 // “My Realest Post”

[luthqrs]

original post

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Birthday to Fallen London; My favourite British people beefing it with bats simulator.

[wistfulwatcher]

[kaboom-kitten]

"My Star..."

I'm not recovering from this

[thirtenth]

Gap E9 | The Loyal Pin E15

Requested by @purrpickle

[mellytunee]

quietly tiptoes in

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @jackofallrabbits !! 🎉 🎂 ✨It is May 2nd over here in the land down under, so I thought now would be a good time to post them hehe >:))

UWA!! I'm so excited to have finally finished these little evil goobers >:))) They've been rotating around my head for a good few months now, and I've been itching to draw them (I have a good few wips that I am excited to continue working on tho!! as my brainrot for them has yet to hush ahah)

BUT YES YES!! These geisha boys belong to @jackofallrabbits they have a fic called Stars In The Garden, and it's such a good read. Please, please, please go check it out and send the author much, much love!! transparent bg versions under the cut!!

[thebramblewood]

In 1920s San Myshuno, it was difficult to find a man who hadn't been mesmerized by the seductive young socialite known only as Lily - and even more difficult to find one who'd lived to tell the tale. She seemed to flit carelessly from one promising young gentleman to the next, serving as muse to an up-and-coming commercial artist at the beginning of the night and murmuring sweet nothings into the ear of the Spice District's most talented pianist by the end. Curiously enough, few paused in their revelry long enough to wonder why these men so abruptly disappeared after flaunting Lily on their arms. The contraband absinthe that flowed freely in the city's underground establishments is likely to blame.

- "Chapter 5: The Mysterious Cal and Lily" from Tangled Vines: A Complete Investigation of the Vatore Disappearances

Huge thank you to @surely-sims @doctorsimcraft and @lumenniveus for letting me test this stunning and swanky collection (and also insert a bit of my vampire nonsense). Go grab it immediately!