#Our Ordinary Life

[alienssstufff]

from that one convo they had in the 12 Hour Limited Life special

The sprites (updated their liml designs a lil)

[silkjade]

by the time his eyes drift from the realm of ink and paper, the late afternoon sun has long seeped through kaleidoscope glass, dancing in threads of gold, as it weaves a crown of light and shadow atop her head. the air shimmers with hazy opalescence, and the beguiling tricks of his heart, echo the words penned by his late-grandmother, ‘may my child alhaitham lead a peaceful life.’ ….and he thinks this might be it. for love lies within the transience of time: in the fleeting daylight and the quiet solace, in the comfort found of a life unadorned. and so he makes a decision he dares not say aloud just yet, but a smile curves the corner of his lips, as he endeavors to imagine the tranquility of a life with her — forever.

illustrated by @/_hui.an on instagram; this was my second time working with them, and it was just as lovely as the last ! reblogs are okay, but please do not save or use — thank you ♡

[monakisu]

heh heh heh check out some of the slides i did for my group's spanish project... i convinced them to do our topic on religion because i was obsessed with pictures of the virgin mary on pinterest at the time :3c

[ionozoned]

( graphic design isnt my friend today but the character inspiration is Cooking )

[kirbytripledeluxe]

should i tell my therapist about ii tomorrow

[thesunmakesmetired]

I know i might have a weird taste for music but i didn't think it was that bad until i gave a lift to my brother and he kept begging be for a normal song after being forced to listen to nyan cat for not even 30 seconds...

And than two trucks started playing...

I just kept skipping through my playlist the whole ride and this is my fun playlist too :((

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also it's something (better) like, the exercise of deliberately [art imitates life imitates art] holding up Billions to My IRL Things Perspective and going like whaaat would i want for winston. first answer is you want any character to not have been within the scope of the show in the first place, and to exit it since they are. and you kind of get that in the accidental reward in banishing winston, since like in the end it's just that the show doesn't care about him existing at that point But like it's winston sitting there quietly as everyone leaves & turns out the lights & Then he can leave too; others have peaced out & nobody remembers he exists so Now he can go off & do whatever.

but like in true form i think they definitely accidentally baked in another divine reward for winston in that, like, the way he's kept around as fodder for these fun little [pov: enjoy abusing this guy] asides with him, where it Just So Happens that he's autistic as something they're unaware of but is completely relevant to the expectation we understand him to be inferior(tm), it Just So Happens that he's also ""bad"" at not ""causing"" abuse to be turned on him. he's ""bad"" at staying in line. like well yes Yes that's what i want for him. just like In Real Life it's like yeah Ideally i'd want people to be able to extricate themselves from where they're trapped in power structures & i'd want them to have the perspective about it of understanding they're not Inferior / i.e. they are as much a person as anyone else and they're not corrupting everything good / i.e. it wasn't them Bringing It Upon Themselves and it's not them being Destructive by toppling a jenga tower of a hierarchy that happened to be pressing down on them. and winston is the kind of [the ruinerrrrrr] who is Turned On exactly because he keeps acting like someone who's on the verge of breaking out of the [being in line] someone demands of him as autist, employee, whatever other supposed manifestations of [inferior]

like in the 5 second stretches in which winston's allowed to speak before retaliation, it's because he's like "matter of factly" delivering whatever Information that's useful for another plotline. then he Brings It Upon Himself by making people aware that he's Also existing in his own right as a person rather than what they think serves their own deal / what they want from him at all times, perhaps by expressing his personality (didn't appeal to them! so it was Wrong) or not b/c of anything in particular said or done at present, just b/c people have a constant / accumulating contempt for him so their being in the same room as him & able to see & hear him is already dangerous. the [we're just seeing Any Abusive Dynamic in action] continuing apace.

and it's like, well, right there. he's written as acting like someone who doesn't blame himself for how he's treated, which billions frames as being Rude & Mean, and so too does everyone's abusers lmfao like and that these are his moments that are written to be Bringing It Upon Himself. and it's like hell yeah he doesn't blame himself. hell yeah that his self-esteem can manifest as anger at all. hell yeah that he keeps expressing himself with personality & confidence & doesn't even disguise his having been hurt, & it's this [his ass is Not grey rocking] that billions frames as both him "causing" his abuse & making that abuse "successful" lol, wrow just like real life!! and when like speaking of real life yeah it's not "bad" that people Do engage in strategies to mitigate & survive, including things like blaming themselves or being too "boring" to be anything but a non dialogued background character b/c that's all that goes unpunished, it's bad b/c it's done to them at all, not [ohh they're doing it to themselvesss] and like i'm asking myself like Ideally. what do i want Ideally. and i'd want winston to know that it's being Done To Him & i'd want him to find as much room for his personhood & autonomy as possible. and that's basically how he's written anyways, and billions hates that like You See this is why he deserves it this is why he's doing it to himself. and i'm like my god if that's not Inspiration for like "so what if people don't find you Personally Likable" and not preemptively holding back all personality or anything that'd draw attention as if you exist as a person in your own right & not something that only either gets in the way of or serves their wants of a Real person (someone with more power) like hell yeah you have him out here doing it =']

another fun addendum is like, billions isn't getting into it much b/c it doesn't seem to care much about "what if some people were peers & seem to have a genuine, recipcrocal relationship?" but that it just so happened to be like "oh tuk as the next closest loser who deserves it might be nice to winston" while it's framing winston as the "worse" Loser as being....unconditionally supportive of tuk. while the one downside of billions Also giving bentuk as much as it is is that it also inevitably has that shadow of "but ben is Superior to tuk" and like that it's correct that everyone encourages tuk to Stop Bringing It Upon Himself and start being less of a loser; it's wrong for winston to be like hey let's go have a foursome. like yeah probably don't make a list of the women you work with you'd be dtf but it's not like i'm convinced "ah billions and it's strong anti misogyny stance like" roflmao and billions is Not reflecting on "the downsides of unconditional support?" there when winston was beaten up for criticising taylor earlier like we WILL take his ideas while looting his [beaten unconscious] body there but he WAS wrong to express them as though he's BETTER than taylor!!! mafee's beautiful show of loyalty in kicking his ass even when he might agree with the argument and then benefit when it's adopted by taylor anyways! so it's as usual actually purely based on hierarchy & who gets to be in charge of people. it's correct for ben to be in charge of tuk, unless he has to step aside for that bizarre dead-end subplot about how it's tuk's fault if he's treated badly, b/c it's really his own Failure to have Confidence to know he has good ideas [raising our voice to deliver this message over the sound of breaking desks and chairs and computer monitors over winston because he had the confidence to act like he deserved to talk to someone and because he knows his ideas efforts & results are good & valuable around there] like. and isn't it sooo fucked up to talk about who you're dtf in the episode that has it be neutral if your boss is dtf & lets you know but is nice about it (and you're already Correctly tending to their ego, which you're responsible for!) like hey no possible problem! it's not even so much of a problem for a boss man to have the sex they're entitled to & be rude about their leveraging their power in that acquisition that it Stays a problem into the next season. ew, winston is Known (Inferred) Dtf??? we'll use it to exploit His vulnerability, exacerbate it, & punish him further for good measure in another episode that just revels in abuse & violation with a sexual aspect once again, but like, hey tuk don't do that, winston's such a Bad Influence for being like, shrug, kneejerk intervening with the Good Friendship where the One In Charge leaps in & Tells tuk the Correct thing to do. obviously there's also the tragedy that billions will Never let winston push back against Real Winners like rian or taylor in A Way That Matters (actually gets in their way at all) lol like. one thing that would have really been fun, winston should've literal kneejerk started physically fighting wags in either pertinent scene in 7x03 for real 110%. i wouldn't be like Gasp Violence Is Never The Answer if he just hit someone to hit them b/c fuck you. or broke anything on his way out etc etc. billions would Never let him. which is the other side of the same coin of [why he should get to]

tl;dr how great that winston's being "out of line" means he's basically always noticeably flouting & rebelling against the [He Deserves Abuse] agenda lol. that IS what i want. his being "beyond hope" like ohhh he's sooo stupid he doesn't realize how much he has the bad tastes & wrong interests & annoying personality He Will Always Be This Way like hell yeah!!! billions like oh no winston's personhood will never stay tamped down & locked away such that some godawful person tolerates keeping him in their inventory :( ohhh the ABA will never work :( that's right!!!!!!!!!! although they're not sad about it because it's about relishing the promise there will always be True Inferiors you can enjoy abusing with your righteous power over, but like well you wrote him escaping anyways even while dragging other "better" characters into standing around to serve axe's need for more than 1.8 employees and [crickets, reverberating cough, sneaker scuff] like. another ""wrong"" thing for winston to do, another thing for him to not "deserve," which is itself godawful actually lol like lord what it "rewards" its Good, Deserving characters with, no thanks. meanwhile winston's punishment is that he's autistic and """bad""" at being abused like lmfao good for him, fantastic for him, just what i want

[gurorori]

i love when she starts shit-talkin' us without even checkin' if we're asleep. woman yer a room away an' we have great hearing. i heard every single dam word

[insteading]

Ed's so attuned to visual patterning and metaphors (in a way Izzy isn't, cf s1e4 and the frankfurter clouds) that I've been thinking about the twine as his way of trying to suggest tying the parts of his life together, but not having found a way to do so yet.

And he explains the twine's presence on the breakfast tray by saying "I panicked," but whatever foreboding he has in the morning about whether the parts of his life can be tied together hasn't curdled the way it does after he's seen Stede leaning into fame and responding dismissively to Ed's desire to try different work.

I think the twine is a bid for connection and a sign of trust that it's possible, which makes the later parts of the episode sting more: they had to have that conversation, but it didn't have to go that way.

it's also worth remembering, right, that ed and stede both wanted that night. ed gives stede a nod before stede kisses him. he kisses back enthusiastically. he goes to bed with stede. we see him sitting a little shyly, on stede's bed - still fully dressed, even, where stede's lost his shirt.

look at how achingly tender that face is. it's ed wanting to take care of stede the way no one took care of him; it's stede wanting to protect ed where he's failed in the past. it's a near-death situation drawing the love and need and desire out of them like bleeding a fever. it's accompanied by a romantic song. the imagery we're giving is fireworks. it's fucking fireworks for them.

the morning after, ed makes breakfast in bed. shares with stede the beautiful moment of his mermaid vision, which is an incredible show of vulnerability. you see the first sign of ed Having A Realization when stede says avoiding near-death situations isn't likely in their line of work.

then they go out to the republic of pirates, but ed takes stede out of the town and into the countryside, to a place where he feels safe. ed high-fives a child who isn't afraid of him. stede tells ed about writing him love letters. they're having a great day together, they're laughing, they're having fun.

it's not really until after ed sees stede becoming famous, until he sees stede stepping into the role of The Pirate, that he starts to pull away. jackie says he's trying to be a regular dude, and that sounds good to ed. trying something new. he wanders off to go watch fishermen and these shots are weird until you see that he's focusing on the twine the fish are caught up in - just like the twine he left stede on their breakfast tray, just like the twine he wrapped up his leathers in. and stede, who is feeling accepted and powerful and capable for the first time in his life, pulls back too.

they each want to be something the other is trying desperately to leave behind. how does anyone reconcile loving someone who loves the parts of yourself you hate the most?

when the fireworks clear, all you have left is smoke.

for ed and stede to find something real, something they can hang onto, they're going to have to put in the work. that's how you build the happily ever after. brick by brick.

[journey-to-balance]

If you can face leaving the bed when it's still dark outside, this is such a special time to wander, when the air is clear, the trails are silent, and your breath clouds before you as you walk.

On this particular day, the landscape was doing its best impression of a snow globe. Not only was this our first snow of the season, but the much awaited Solstice, or Yule. Indeed, the shortest day arrived bringing with it not just beauty but the reassurance that from this day forward, the sunset would tick later, minute by tiny minute, until gradually light returns, ready to coax sleeping seeds and fill the forests with new life once again.

I headed out for a morning of possibilities as the sun rose above the frost, the trail ahead beckoning. It's hard to beat the feel-goodness of a winter walk, wrapped up warm, footsteps crunching, knowing there's a hot cup of coffee waiting at the end.

Deep in the woods, as the wintry season settled in, amid the tangle of branches and bracken and briar, I walked into a world where fairytale and reality blurred. I always fall under the spell of trees, this time standing proud and stoic as flakes swirled.

Some scenes almost look better in winter, stripped of summer's green fripperies. This, after all, is a season of long shadows and unobstructed fields. With barely a ripple from the water, or a rustle from the trees, and the grasses frozen in place, the only movement came from the occasional mist rising to meet the sunlight or the rambunctious thumps from a playful pup.

Sometimes, moments of pure magic simply sneak up on me and casually take my breath away. Ah, the world is more beautiful than we deserve.

Maritza Alvarez

[ahlam910]

Please help❤️🙏

Hello everyone, I am Ahlam, 21 years old. My life before the war was simple, filled with ordinary dreams like any young woman my age. I envisioned a future full of the ability to help others. I lived with my family in a warm house full of love and security, thinking about how I could achieve my dreams and become an impactful person in society.

But suddenly, everything changed. The war swept through our city like a relentless storm. In a single night, my home became just a memory, and the city I once knew crumbled before my eyes. The sound of planes and shells became the only thing people could hear. We tried to find shelter, a safe place to hide our dreams and lives, but the war followed us wherever we went.

We were forced to leave everything behind—the house, the memories, and even the university. We became displaced, homeless, with no destination, just trying to survive. I walked with my family through unfamiliar roads, searching for a place to take us in, trying to escape danger, running from one explosion to the next, from one ruin to another.

The war didn't just destroy our city and homes, it destroyed our dreams. My dream of completing my studies became far out of reach, and every day, I feel hope slipping further away. But despite all this, something inside me refuses to give up. There is a desire to escape this reality and build a new life, a life worth living. I dream of continuing my education, I dream of standing on my own feet again and achieving the goal I was once striving for: to help others who have lived through the pain of war like me.

I ask for your help, humbly. I can't get out of these circumstances on my own. The donations you gather will help me travel to a safe place where I can continue my studies and start a new life away from war and fear. The amount I'm asking for is the key to a new life, to the dream of becoming strong again and one day helping my family and community.

Help me rebuild my life and become the person I dreamed of being. Every donation, no matter how small, is a step towards safety, a step towards a better future.

Thank you for reading my words. Many thanks and respect to you

Vetted by:

@gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #73 )

< 90-ghost

< heba-20

< dlxxv-vetted-donations

< ibtisams

< magnus-rhymes-with-swagness

[godsg111rl]

you have to prioritize hearing your voice over all others or you may find yourself living a life and dancing to a beat that isn’t your own.

[misfitmasquerave]

TAGS!

💀 a mazda bongo friendee // ooc. 🎭 welcome to the masquerade // p. 🎭 so this is the fabled tilted towers // crack. 🎭 i am a lost boy from neverland // steven. 🎭 i found something in the woods somewhere // dipper. 🎭 brighter than a shooting star // mabel. 🎭 i will not surrender; this life is mine // chilchuck. 🎭 you can't kill an idea. // marcille. 🎭 i'll be anything but ordinary // laios. 🎭 toss your oatmeal & eat something new // senshi. 🎭 fish in a birdcage // hunter. 🎭 life's alright in devil town // luz. 🎭 we'll make the world our playground // collector. 🎭 tunnel vision from the outsider's screen // gordon. 🎭 feelin' so matryoshka // benrey. 🎭 come hang; let's go out with a bang! // tommy. 🎭 in the clearing stands a boxer // coomer. 🎭 strike a match & burn it down // bubby. 🎭 i gotta ramble on // rambley.

[iamthedukeofurl]

Scott Pilgrim is, I think, the best example I can think of for establishing a setting's Nonsense Limit. The setting's Nonsense Limit isn't quite "How high-fantasy is this". It's mostly a question of presentation, to what degree does the audience feel that they know the rules the world operates by, such that they are primed to accept a random new element being introduced. A setting with a Nonsense Limit of 0 is, like, an everyday story. Something larger than life, but theoretically taking place in our world, like your standard spy thriller action movie has a limit of 1. Some sort of hidden world urban fantasy with wizards and stuff operating in secret has a nonsense limit around 3 or 4. A Superhero setting, presenting an alternate version of our world, is a 5 or 6. High fantasy comes in around a 7 or so, "Oh yeah, Wizards exist and they can do crazy stuff" is pretty commonly accepted. Scott Pilgrim comes in at a 10. If you read the Scott Pilgrim book, it starts off looking like a purely mundane slice of life. The first hint at the fantastical is Ramona appearing repeatedly in Scott's Dreams, and then later showing up in real life. When we finally get an explanation, it's this:

Apparently Subspace Highways are a thing? And they go through people's heads? And Ramona treats this like it's obscure, but not secret knowledge. Ramona doesn't think she's doing anything weird here. At this point, it's not clear if Scott is accepting Ramona's explanation or not, things kind of move on as mundane as ever until their Date, when Ramona takes Scott through subspace, and he doesn't act like his world was just blown open or anything, although I guess that could have been a metaphor. there's a couple other moments, but everything with Ramona could be a metaphor, or Scott not recognizing what's going on. Maybe Ramona is uniquely fantastical in this otherwise normal world. And then, this happens

Suddenly, a fantastical element (A shitty local indie band finishing their set with a song that knocks out most of the audience) is introduced unrelated to Ramona, and undeniably literal. We see the crowd knocked out by Crash and The Boys. but the story doesn't linger on the implications of that, the whole point of that sequence is to raise the Nonsense Level, such that you accept it when This happens

Matthew Patel comes flying down onto the stage, Scott, who until this point is presented as a terrible person and a loser, but otherwise is extremely ordinary, proceeds to flawlessly block and counter him before doing a 64-hit air juggle combo. Scott's friends treat this like Scott is showing off a mildly interesting party trick, like being really good at darts. The establish that Scott is the "Best Fighter in the Province", not only are street-fighter battles a thing, Scott is Very Good at it, but they're so unimportant that being the best fighter in the province doesn't make Scott NOT a loser. So when Matthew Patel shows off his magic powers and then explodes into a pile of coins, we've established "Oh, this is how silly the setting gets". It's not about establishing the RULES of the setting so much as it is about establishing a lack of rules. Scott's skill at street-fighter battles doesn't translate to any sort of social prestige. Ramona can access Subspace Highways and she uses it to do a basic delivery job. It doesn't make sense and it's clear that it's not supposed to. So later on, when Todd Ingram starts throwing around telekinesis, and the explanation we're given is "He's a Vegan" , you're already so primed by the mixture of weirdness and mundanity that rather than trying to incorporate this new knowledge into any sort of coherent setting ruleset, you just go "Ah, yeah, Vegans".

[akajustmerry]

for over a year i've been seeing palestinians campaigning for funds for their survival across social media. i see Palestinians in tumblr notes, twitter replies, youtube comment sections, tiktoks, instagram, etc. there's no social media i regularly use where i haven't seen multiple posts a day from Palestinians asking for help and to be heard. of course, i share and donate what i can. but what gets me is that if I am seeing posts every day then so are the millionaires and billionaires and politicians with the power to end their suffering...and they don't!!!!!

it makes me sick. according to forbes there are over 2700 billionaires in the world with a combined wealth of trillions. it would take less than even 1% of that to fill the gofundmes of Palestinians trying to rebuild their lives. yet the majority of money in these gofundmes is from ordinary folks scrounging spare change. its heartening in a way to watch so many with relatively little pool our resources to help others. but it also makes me so angry because i know there are people with more money than anyone in history seeing the same faces and gofundmes and are doing nothing.

so i'd really appreciate it if you could all help me spotllght Hani Alanqar's campaign. Hani is @haniyassersposts, is only 26, and currently sheltering in a school in Gaxa with his young siblings. He needs 25k to escape the genocide with his sick mother and father and has so far only raised 5k. His campaign is vetted #5 here. let's keep doing what we can to help until Palestine is free.