#If people ask

[flowerbetweenfangs]

Clash of the... Bands?

You hadn't intended to sneak up on the Orc War Band. You'd been minding your own business, walking through the forest (sticking to the more secluded areas to avoid the skirmishes and war going on in the distance), when your canteen ran dry. With night falling, you didn't want to look for water after dark.

You came through the brush and were shocked to see a group of four bathing in the stream. They must have been fresh from battle or a hunt, slick with sweat. A little bit of red trickled down into the water, but you couldn't see any injuries.

Most wore fur, crude leather, or even bones as armor. It was no secret that they were muscular creatures. They'd have to be to carry the massive weapons they swung around with ease in battle. Some drew back bows taller than most men, their arrowheads rumored to be elephant tusks sharpened to a point.

Of course, it was one thing to speculate, another to see it in person. Muscular arms and legs, broad shoulders and backs. They may not have had flat stomachs, but you could see their muscles underneath twitch and flex with their movements.

One was twisting bone and feathers into his hair. Another scrubbed dirt and grime, revealing an Olive green complexion. The smallest was collecting glittering baubles. (Maybe jewels?)

And the largest pulled himself onto the back, picking up an axe with a head the size of you arm. Amber eyes narrowed as they fell on you, and you froze, like a rabbit caught out in the open.

Your heart thudded against your chest like a battering ram. Rabbits could literally die of fear. Would you do the same? Before the massive hands of the orcs got to you?

His lower lips shifted around massive tusks. Gold and silver bands gleaned in the setting sun.

"If you'd been an enemy, you would have gotten the jump on us."

His accent was rough, but he spoke Common perfectly.

"I didn't mean it!" You managed to stutter out, pointing to your canteen. It shook in your hand, and if it hadn't been for the strap, you would have lost it to the current. "I'm just passing through!"

"Oh, little hound, you don't just pass by a war band."

"Oh shit is this how I die????" You thought to yourself, swallowing. Your tongue and throat seemed to stick together. The world around your blurred as tears distorted your vision.

"A warrior who can get so close deserves to be celebrated!" The large orc produced a tankard (sporting a nearby kingdoms seal on the side, but you didn't dare comment).

"We're having venison tonight, why don't you join us while we decide our next plan of action?" His smile was geniune, and sent a shiver through you. Although the shaking seemed to helped fan a growing spark of arousal inside you.

"S-sure!"

Maybe diplomacy would get you far enough to live through the night.

[chimerathing]

shit that i made cuz i was bored idk

f2u with or without credit i dont really care

bonus falin ones that say boyfriend instead of girlfriend because i am falin and. also a boyfriend

[junkydoodle]

Hello, love your art! Sorry, random question, but do you have any au's for any of the HTTYD franchises (book series, shows, or the movies), Thank you!

I've been WAITING for somebody to ask me this, and, YES, I DO in fact have an alternate universe thingimajing for the HTTYD series, However, I stopped working on it a multiple days ago.

In one of my earlier posts, I've posted an illustration of Toothless and Stormfly as "half humans" (It's complicated)

This is actually one of my old au's I've drawn when I was younger, I just redrew them!

I'm not sure if I have the time to draw the rest of the dragon riders' dragons as these hybrid human thingies, but I'll see if I can. Thank you for the question!

[koobiie]

shoutout to everyone who wants to infodump but cant string together coherent thoughts to form sentences and instead just look at you like this

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[what-eats-owls]

So there's something I want to say re: intentionally withholding your vote, and I want to do it without coming across as condescending or dismissive.

I've worked as a field organizer in two campaigns, 2010 and 2012, and my job was to help turnout the vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. Technology may have changed, but people are still knocking on doors for specific voters the way they were 12 years ago.

If you say you're not voting/voting 3rd party, the campaign volunteer is supposed to mark that and move on. Their job, in the final month of the election, is to make sure the campaign's supporters have all the information and resources they need to cast a vote.

They aren't collecting data on why you're withholding your vote. They aren't submitting opinion polling results to the campaign. Something like 155 million people voted in the 2020 election, and if you say you're not voting, the campaign is not going to waste a volunteer's time and morale begging you to vote when there are literally millions of other voters to turn out.

Let me repeat that: The campaign does not track why you're not voting. They simply note your vote is not a priority for turnout and move on.

I say this because I see a lot of promotion of non-voting like that's a boycott, when the function is not the same. A boycott is a coordinated mass refusal to engage with an institution—which sounds similar if you see a vote as a good or service to withhold. Unfortunately, it's not.

A vote is a choice you're making as part of a community hiring committee. Your abstention doesn't prevent someone from being hired. It just lowers the threshold for the worst candidate to succeed.

All this to say: In my direct experience as an organizer, abstaining from the vote sends a message. That message is not "You need to try harder to win my vote." It's "Don't waste time on me."

[guidonian-hand]

Why was I today years old when I learned that lead compounds taste SWEET and THAT'S why kids eating paint chips back in the day was a concern?

[pookapufferfish]

[abuadam86]

Emergency: Help save my children's lives

Dear humanity,

I am Habib from Gaza. I am married and have four children: Menna, 12 years old, Adam, 10 years old (suffering from quadriplegia), Maria, 6 years old, and Ezz, one year old. Although they are young, they have survived previous wars, but this current war is the most difficult of all. This is a war of genocide, and the difficulty of the war lies in the inability to meet the needs of my son Adam, who needs special care.

Over the past ten months, we have been caught in the crossfire of the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Our once peaceful home in Khan Yunis has been reduced to rubble, and now we find ourselves displaced in Deir al-Balah, living in squalid conditions in a makeshift tent on the streets. The devastation not only deprived us of our physical shelter, but also destroyed my livelihood - the once thriving business that supported our family's well-being, is now in ruins. The daily struggle for survival is exacerbated by the scarcity of basic necessities such as clean water, adequate sanitation and basic medical supplies

Our home was the place where we found hope and safety, and where we made precious memories. Losing him was like losing years of our lives.

Not only that, they destroyed my source of livelihood, burned it, and demolished it with bulldozers, and today I am without a home and without a job. I was working in a store I owned that met the needs and expenses of my family

Living in tents is miserable. There is a lack of drinking water, hot sun rays, and strange insects that have terrified my children. What hurts me most is my young son Ezz, who I see growing up in an unclean environment and with no healthy food for him. I believe he has not received his right to life.

At this stage, my husband and I decided to go to you and create an account on the Go Fund Me website and ask you to help us in these difficult times until we get out of Gaza, from the land of war to the land of peace. All we need from you is to support us and help us to get out of the war, even if you cannot help. You should spread the word. This campaign is everywhere and among your friends. We thank you for your stance and support for us. Thank you, my friends

The amount that will be collected from this campaign :

We will spend it by paying the amount to coordinate entry through the Rafah land crossing, which connects Gaza to the State of Egypt, since, as I mentioned, they charge an adult $5,000, but depending on the pressures, crises, and waiting, the amount may reach $7,000 per person, and children $2,500 to $4,000.

We will also use it for the rest of the travel and safe transportation expenses to provide for all family members.

A picture of my children's life before the war

A video of my children's lives living the war

May God reward you with all the best and may God bless you

Best wishes with sincere gratitude,

Habib's family

My Instagram account link

My account vetted by:

@dlxxv-vetted-donations

(vetted)

@gazavetters , my number verified on the list is ( #187 )

[gayvampyr]

asking people to be mindful of others when sharing a communal space (especially one you cannot just up and leave from) is not selfish or misanthropic. come on now

[cafffine]

my prof just explained on the syllabus that he’s included more points in the class than we needed to pass, so we could skip up like?? 20 small assignments/quizzes/participation!! and still get a very high grade!!

the idea was that we could focus on assignments that played to our strengths - only do the participation stuff if we like to talk out loud - only do the quizzes/readings if we want to do the class remotely - only do online discussions if we like to talk and share opinions but struggle with anxiety in class ect.

and that’s cool enough but then he pulled up DnD character sheets with drawings he’d done of these hypothetical student player classes and how our various accessibility needs could be gamified to ‘max out’ different aspects of the class to get high grades and like!!!!!

hell yeah!!!! let’s treat accessibility in higher education not just as a necessity but as the fun, engaging, and creative aspect of learning that it is!!! I love this!!

EDIT: For proper credit or further questions about his system please find my professor on twitter @/kurtishanlon

[sunbentshadows]

So, about that outage, huh

[inkskinned]

she's singing in another room and my dog is asleep at my feet. my grandma asked me why i haven't found a man yet and i laughed. oh, you know. i like my house clean.

my girlfriend is also my man is also "my partner" if i'm in a professional setting. yesterday we went to a ren faire and a man mimed at me - you're together? and at my delighted nod, his baffled, you're gay? made me laugh. a woman with rainbow hair said i love the two of you together. you're both so beautiful it's absurd.

my dad introduced my partner as my "..... friend. or whatever" the other day. he knows we're dating. in the same way, i was never able to get my sister's husband to stop saying that's gay like it's 2008. he still uses the word fa***t, and my sister's defense of him has always been well, he's just kidding.

my lover and i dance to old music in a tiny kitchen. we judge new music together and take food critique very seriously. we watch love is blind before we fall asleep and agree that if they had a queer season, it would be bloody but also make for excellent tv. of fucking course queer people would know someone for only 2 weeks and agree to get married. what are you saying.

at a bar with friends, a man puts his hand on my wrist. got a boyfriend? and yes, i do have a boyfriend, she's amazing. i am texting her while i wander around a gas station named after geese. i am visiting a swing state for a wedding. in the candy aisle i overhear: she's actually like a lesbian it's disgusting. two teenage girls with packaged sandwiches in their hands, giggling. no literally, like. i'm not, like. okay with her being there while we're all, like, naked and changing.

my girlfriend and i tailgate, drink gin and cider out of cups. from the frat group beside us, a man corrects himself with one of his friends: bro, i mean, nonbinary entity, and it makes everyone around him laugh, myself included. he razzes his friend the same way i would have killed for at 19 years old - like nothing happened, he continues: you apply sunscreen like an alien. he does a little sassy (and fairly accurate) dance interpretation of the motion. his friend is laughing so hard they're crying.

i am lucky, i live in a safe neighborhood in a safe state. my masc passenger princess comes up from DC. i drive her for an hour to where all the leaves are a violent arrangement of color. we walk along the trails, letting autumn into our blood. in this part of the state, there's a lot of pickup trucks and trump signs. when we chastely kiss before getting into the car, i accidentally make eye contact with a woman holding her child's wrist. she looks disgusted. she looks fucking pissed.

two hours later my girl and i are eating dinner on a patio, soaking in the last warmth of new england sun before the chill of winter sets in. we are giggling and trying to talk through plastic vampire teeth. at another table, i see a young woman sit up straighter. i watch her watch us. she blushes and takes her partner's hand from across the table. shy, like the taste of evening has just become something deeper.

it's worth it for this moment, i think. my lover is still humming the same song she's been singing for four days straight and i don't want to kill her for it. her guitar is beside my bed. her toothbrush is in my bathroom. in a few moments i will make us lunch. we are lucky enough to have found each other. it is lucky enough to be in love.

[doccywhomst]

[sirguyofdykesborn]

how are you a lesbian but he him

please... the pronouns is all i have left of my father