#I'm not imposing it on anyone

[arlovegood]

We'll get sexually experienced Colin on the show and I've made my peace with that (kind of, still hate this supposed brothel scene because really...why? you can make clear he's experienced without showing me him fucking someone who's not his lead) but I'll admit I'm personally (because I need to make clear this is my opinion and I'm entitled to that, even if you think I'm dumb or wrong for having it), a little sad we won't get inexperienced Colin because that would've been cute and different than what we got on previous seasons (He really gave me major Demisexual vibes in S1, he seemed pretty reticent about romantic and sexual advancements without fully feeling sure about his feelings for the person in S1. As one myself I liked that, but alas). I'll skip the unamable scene and enjoy my babies recking havoc (and tearing clothes) in that carriage.

[daisywords]

hey uh does anyone have a recipe for Potion That Makes You Write

has anyone actually gone from not being able to write that often to a more consistent output and if so how did you do that

[originalcontent]

If good and evil did exist as immutable forces (a la Gary Gygaxian-style alignment chart) and as attributes of personhood irrespective of actions one takes upon the world what's the foundational tenet of each? Is good about striving to help others and evil about indifference to the suffering of others? Or is speaking purely about outlook rather than actions, does evil necessitate some sort of active malice? Or is it better to just throw the words out there and let them be interpreted however by whoever?

[pippastrelle]

See, the problem is I'm so into "Imposing bruiser is utterly smitten for this one sunshine who's secretly feral" but it's so close yet slightly off to a popular archetype that I never get it.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I personally believe that Awdry's original intention was to make "the fat director" a character who was somewhat out of touch with the railway world, and that the Hatt depicted in 3 railway engines who's "doctor has forbidden him to pull/push" and abandons Henry is very different from the Hatt who drives percy to his new home and puts on coveralls to test drive Henry and see his problems for himself. It would almost seem like character development if it weren't for the fact that we know that the latter Hatt is Swindon trained. And, of course, even in book 2 he seems to be much more involved in actual on the ground operations.

Oh yeah, yeah! 'Out-of-touch dumbass' is 100% what "the fat director" was for Awdry originally. The shenanigans in "The Sad Story of Henry" are fully in line with the kinda stories Awdry liked to write — you see it all again in The Little People — he really does just like to make up some guys, put them in situations, and have them ineffectually try to idiot their way out of things (and make an even more bizarre situation in the process).

Actually so based of him to be like, "This is a book about trains. Trains are great. They're big and stupid and emotional, but great. The guys who run the trains are cool too. Btw kids, you know who on a railway sucks? The directors." Wilbert A., in that moment you were kind of an icon.

The anti-fat and ableist tropes ('he's making it up, he doesn't need accommodations, he's just too lazy to try and pull a train') are not so chill but I do love this anti-top-hat energy he was bringing to the table in the early game.

The publishers were honestly right to make Awdry bring all three engines onto the same railway and to make a happy ending for the stories... but, Fat-Director-wise, the result is hilarious. I don't think "some people be hardasses sometimes," even "some of these hardasses are useless themselves but still have the power to destroy your life and they will use it without thinking twice," is nearly as off-color a message in a kid's story book as "and sometimes that terrifying hardass is just this nice, kindly, fair paternal figure :) who was justly pissed off at you for your ignorance :) but who will be nice to you later :) and you should be grateful to them really :)" Such is almost always the way with clumsy attempts to sanitize — the result is worse.

Book 2: "The terrifyingly clueless hardass is your enginesona's dad now, kiddos! :)"

To be fair, I don't think it's certain that Hatt's Swindon training guarantees he'd be any nicer — we don't know that — though it is undoubtedly weird that "the Great Western way," with all its implied efficiency, would result in an apprentice who grows up to brick up a gauntletted line and bore a new tunnel rather than just get a few engines to drag Henry somewhere out of everyone's way before abandoning him. The stupidity of it is harder to explain by "he undergoes some character development :)" But the dropped over-the-top harshness could be explained that way.

Anyway it would be so cool if someone rewrote the RWS but with the Fat Director/Controller maintaining his original characterisation. I just want to see what that would look like.

[mechazushi]

So, I've got this KafHoshi fic I'm working on and it's starting to turn into a, like, 5 + 1 scenarios kinda fic in the vaguest sense of the situation. Which means I need to come up with senarios about Hoshina falling head over heels for Kafka and I listened to Super Massive Black Hole by Muse, immediately followed by Landmines by Sum 41 and all I could think about for a day was a situation where Kafka had a "Homer learns the bass" moment in his teens and his mom or cousin or something was cleaning out an old storage container and sent him his old bass guitar.

Not to overindulge, but basically my mind wouldn't let go of the image of Kafka singing SMBH, but in his Kaiju voice, which then morphed into Iharu begging on hands and knees asking if Kafka could learn the bass line to Landmines and be the bass to his lead guitar and play the song on his birthday in front of the Third Division with him.

And THEN my brain was like....

"Ok, but a Saturday morning cartoon about A rock band getting mystical guitars that transform them into humanoid Kaijus with super powers so now they fight crime just because and they have to keep the identity a secret from the police and Dollar Store Iharu leads the team and in the first episode show starts off with the band needing a new bass player so they start tryouts and a Kafka-like character shows up and the whole team isn't impressed with him until he starts playing an absolute sick riff and they let him join and DS Iharu's dad is the band's manager and he's a shit dad but he knows about he Kaiju Guitars/private hero identity thing (Cuz' he's the one networking the media to help keep it a secret) and there's a side plot about Kafka the Bass player becoming DS Iharu'd Better Dad and Reno's there too, but he's the "No enthusiasm" Guitar seller that sold them their mystic guitars and he had no idea about what the guitars do and the team rope him in once he and the rest find out KnockOff Reno had been chosen to help the people that became bestowed with the Kaiju Guitars and now KnockOff Reno is the team's Guy-In-The-Chair and HE gets his OWN character arc and him and Dollar Store Iharu start to fall in love and then you find out that Kafka had a secret love child that he didn't know about and then spend a season off screen fighting for custody and I've given this way too much thought already but doesn't it sound REALLY COOL because I could see it becoming one of those cult classic shows that were only made to sell toys, but it became one of the few that managed to transcend beyond that..."

It's never going to happen. but I do agree with myself.

[lovemongerer]

alastor is always in drag. to me.

[stars-inthe-sky]

So, hey. How did you and your family celebrate Passover when you were a kid? How about now?

My Rhode Island aunt and uncle almost always hosted a big family Seder, and it was the absolute best. A good Seder is educational, food-filled, and legit fun—it's a ritual meal that includes storytelling, singing, prayers, and a general focus on including and teaching everyone involved, regardless of age or even whether attendees are Jewish. (If ever you're invited to a friend's Seder, go! Do not bring a challah, which my actually-bar-mitzvahed brother-in-law did once as an attempt at a thoughtful host gift. We still make fun of him.)

And my uncle (the same one who officiated at my wedding, and the wedding of my other sister) may well be the greatest host/leader there is; over the years he compiled from a medley of sources what added up to his own Haggadah (basically the guidebook to the Seder—there are a million published and informal versions working off the same template, with readings and activities and interpretations that can go kid-centric or feminist or traditional or whatever). It was always just insanely fun, and warm, and joyous, with incredible food and an increasing array of baked-in, just-us traditions.

Since I went to college basically down the street from their house, and then lived just an hour away in Boston for so long, that was pretty much the heart of my and my family's celebration most years—right up until Passover 2020, at which point the pandemic negated what had been plans to travel from our new home in Illinois for it, and they also downsized and had their own kids scatter geographically and gain very little ones, so that particular tradition is at best on hiatus now.

But there are fun Seders everywhere—well, the Zoom ones of the pandemic years were a mixed bag, but we've found friends who've make a good go of it, over the years, too, if not quite as an elaborately planned out hourslong celebration as my uncle would do. When I studied abroad in Denmark, Boyfriend and I went to an Orthodox Seder that was in a mix of Danish and Hebrew, for instance—that was novel, and so much of the procedure and the Hebrew was familiar enough to follow along.

Still working on exactly where we'll be for those two nights this year (we haven't really met any Jewish families in Pittsburgh yet to garner an invite, and none of the Reform or Conservative synagogues seem to have community events, which is surprising? And I don't really want to go to Chabad?) but we'll figure something out.

That said, as fun as the Seders can and should be, the rest of Passover is a slog of not eating bread or adjacent products, and experiencing whatever it is matzah does to one's digestive system over the course of a week. It's a meaningful observance, and the fact that the relevant rabbinical boards have stopped including rice and legumes in the "no" column in recent years has been great, but...it's ultimately a holiday recalling the story of the Exodus, and how we were slaves once, so, like, there are some less-fun elements. But the freedom celebration parts usually outweigh that!

[addictsitter]

Chambers (2019) | episode five: "murder on my mind"

"i'm sorry. i..." "i don't blame you."

[pastelince]

You ever have a fellow mentally ill person basically call you ableist for not being able to be there for them anymore?

Like, my brother in christ, we are both suffering here. What am I supposed to do? Prioritize only you and hurt myself?

Guilting me (and my friends) by saying your disorder "isn't pretty enough for you" is accusatory and manipulative. I̲t̲'̲s̲ ̲n̲o̲t̲ ̲t̲h̲e̲ ̲t̲r̲u̲t̲h̲. It's only hurtful, and doesn't make helping you any easier.

It doesn't matter if your disorder is stigmatized; you don't get to start basically implying people are ableist for not being able to constantly be tolerant and be supportive of you.

People run out of spoons! People have other shit going on outside of you!! OTHER PEOPLE ARE ALSO DISABLED BY THEIR MENTAL ILLNESSES!!

If they leave, it's not because your disorder is "ugly." It's because they have their own priorities.

[teddybasmanov]

I know people say Anton is a bear and I love bears as much as the next person, but I think that's a stereotype - give me that deep-voiced Slavic twink!

[dawntheduckrb]

I'll stop posting wips eventually but it's been five days since I've said anything and I don't want anyone to think I'm dead/dying/stuck in a ditch and withering away, so here's 10% of the reason I disappeared (the duck is stuck in rendering hell) (and my little baby laptop is screaming at me every time I open up this file)

I might still be mostly lurking for a little bit so please be patient with me in the meantime 🙏🙏

[sainte-artemis]

i live with two flatmates (women) and one of them very often brings her guy friends over (we don't have a living room, the shared space is a small kitchen), and it irritates me so much at times cause i don't want men in my space ?? And most time they stay in her room, but still just knowing they're here is annoying, but sometimes they stay in the kitchen and I feel like I can't go there kinda. And tonight there is two or three of them, and i can't hear my flatmates voice so maybe she's not here (???) and they're in the kitchen, i can't go and fix myself something without having to get exposed to them (i only befriended, slightly, one of them). Also, earlier, (cause they've been around all day)i came across one while wearing a croptop and panties, and i myself don't care, but i hope he felt awkward !!

[fennthetalkingdog]

As I've grown up, I've found myself looking for more control in my life. I try to find patterns and continuity in just about everything, from bus and walking routes to class to staying in the same places and hanging out with the same people. In a world where I now have a ton of options, I like to stick to the same ones, to surround myself with situations that I know how to deal with and places I know from the inside out, and I find my anxiety rising when I don't know what to expect or what to do.

Conversations are something that I can never truly control, though. Trust me, I've tried, but creating the perfect, never awkward conversation that you can find in TV shows or online just never seems to happen. But nowadays I'm trying to remind myself that conversations are just meant like that. Nothing is ever truly controllable, and so conversations are just a reflection of everything else. They're chaotic, but that's what adds to the fun. And to the stress. It's a double-edged sword, and it's up to me to decide whether it's worth it to still try.

So for me, whenever I find myself getting stressed that a conversation didn't go as planned, or anxious that I don't know how to fill a silence, I try to remind myself that they'll never go as planned or have perfectly filled silences all the time. Sometimes no one knows what to say. Sometimes someone says something that gets on the other's nerves. But other times a silence leaves room for a car's music to drift into the foreground, or an unplanned remark starts an endless inside joke. I can't just accept the "perfect" of conversations and friendships without also preparing myself for the awkward, and if I have to choose, I'd rather have a million awkward pauses and still hang out with potential new friends.

[thekimspoblog]

Demon trying to feed on my insecurities: "You're a bad driver"

Me: "Of course I am. I hate driving. Going 80 mph surrounded by tons of metal is nerve-wrecking. I try to do it as little as possible. Of course I'm bad at it"

Demon: "You're a bad writer"

Me: "Well that part's simply not true. I never claimed I was the greatest author of my generation, but when I put pen to paper I know what I want to communicate and I usually do it well. If someone isn't impressed with my work, that's unfortunate but they're entitled to their opinion"

Demon: "You're a bad leader"

Me: "Well I don't know about that! I mean there was that one time when... Ok look just because people don't see me as an authority figure doesn't mean... 😠 You know you can be a real asshole, demon!"

[thecodeveronica]

"this is just gonna be short, shorter than the last one" I said

"it was SUPPOSED TO BE SHORT" I scream, descending into madness as I'm still not done but want this done by Tuesday