#PARDON MY REACH

[bucklavaa]

….

[vyeoh]

(The Washington Post)

For those who don't know, the US Supreme Court just ruled that states are allowed to enforce trans healthcare for minors. Undoubtedly, this will trigger a wave of other states that either hope to pass or have already passed policies to do the same. This is going to kill children, and harm more in long-lasting ways.

So, how can you help?

FUCKING VOTE. I don't care if you don't like Biden, he's not the only one on the ballot. Vote representatives into your city council who will turn our city into a sanctuary city. Vote for governors and state reps who will, even if they don't pass new protections, oppose bans being pushed through. Chsllenge and kick out conservative incumbents who are banking on their races being obscure enough for people to not vote in.

Anyone telling you voting is useless is either lying to you or grossly uninformed and think saying this is the edgy new take that will make them look hip and informed. Yes, the system is broken. But short of burning the whole thing to the ground (which personally I'm not a fan of as I quite enjoy having like. Roads and the FDA) what we can do is to change it for the better, by starting with the local races and working our way up.

[fancygremlin]

Arthur and John each have a moment in the narrative where one perform a "leap of faith" and the other saves them. Both moments are quite interesting and serve to help the characters realise thay are no longer alone and that they can truly rely on one another (full analysis here, if you're interested).

However, I think there is a third "leap of faith" that occurs way later on... however this time the focus is neither John or Arthur, instead the character being saved is Noel.

Just like Arthur and John, the detective was forced to learn to be independent and self-reliant to ensure his own survival. He was separated very abruptly, and subsequently lost his only friend before being stuck in the Dreamlands. He was completely on his own against the King in Yellow, who tortured him relentlessly and cruelly for months. Noel was then carelessly spit back out in Arkham, traumatised and alone, and had to rebuild his life back up without being able to rely on anyone else.

How could he ever hope to explain all the horrors he was subjected to when no one could ever even begin to understand half of what he had to endure?

But then, years later he meets John and Arthur, and it seems that they can and do understand him. Noel allows Arthur to share his experiences in the Dreamlands... and the detective allows himself to finally recount his story too.

Then, in Part 40, Noel infiltrated a cultist base with John and Arthur and everything goes sideways. His trust in the characters is momentarily broken when John's real identity is revealed to him. Noel is then weakened by reliving his experience in the Dreamlands and nearly loses himself as the King in Yellow once again controls his mind and nearly kills him...

Noel takes a leap:

Noel was the first character that not only knew about Arthur and John's sharing a body situation, but also the first that wholly accepted them and tried to understand them better. It's only right that both Arthur and John reached out to help him and save him when he nearly lost himself.

As a side note, I think it’s really interesting how Arthur kept calling him out using his real name (Charlie), while John tried to reach him using his chosen name (Noel) during this scene. It's such an excellent, little detail which I really enjoyed.

I like to think that the use of both names is because just as Charlie/ Noel accepted both John and Arthur both as a unit and as separate people, the two characters are doing the same by accepting and recognising both the detective’s (past and present) identities as well. They decide to accept and save any and all versions of Charlie/ Noel.

Of course this is not the only interpretation. For example, the use of one name or the other might reflect how John and Arthur are recognising core parts of themselves within Noel/ Charlie instead.

John is calling the detective by his chosen name because he is honouring Noel's choice to start anew. Noel had been hurt in every possible way and reduced to nothing after his experience in the Dreamlands. The detective found that the only way to move forwards was by leaving all the (too far) damaged parts of himself behind and try to create a new self. A clean slate and new name for a new beginning to start a better life somewhere new. He needed to leave his past behind and forget the parts of himself he didn't want anymore. That was what John did too when he dissociated from the King in Yellow and began forming his own identity.

On the other hand, Arthur is calling the detective by his real name because he is honouring the person Charlie was in the past. Charlie was the part of himself that he left behind because he deemed too damaged and too ugly to salvage. Arthur drags behind his past mistakes like deadweight, he carries all the guilt and sorrow with him wherever he goes. He wants to believe that all the hurt, all the damage and all the scars he deems as the ugliest parts of himself don't make him an utterly repulsive and unlovable monster. I think he is trying to demonstrate that Charlie is just as worthy of being saved as Noel is, weaknesses and broken parts included.

Hm, and I seem to have gone off a giant tangent here... I shall stop blabbering now before I completely lose track of what this analysis was supposed to be about.

[poinsettiapavilion]

₊˚♬ ﾟ. In the shadow of the stars,

The lighter makes a spark;

But I look better in the dark. . ˚♬ ₊ *

[frozenartscapes]

Edelgard still lives rent free in my head and I had a random headcanon about her Fallen version in Heroes. (Because I personally think it’s more interesting if each Edelgard had slightly different personalities and quirks that reflect the lives they lived before being summoned. For example, I see Brave!Edelgard as being the defacto “mom” of the group because she’s technically the oldest.)

But Hegie!Edelgard specifically is the most intriguing to me so here’s my headcanon: she’s the tallest. I like to think that she’s got some semblance of control over her Hegemon form, and has figured out that she can stretch her body just a tiny bit when in her non-beast form that puts her a few inches taller than the other Edelgards. Nothing crazy - she’s not trying to compete with Dimitri or Hubert.

But those few inches are more than enough to make the “normal” Edelgards jealous and Hegie is infuriatingly smug about it

[trainingdummyrabbit]

wait nobody move. nominee for worlds funniest ruina sprite

[someprettyname]

Lmao. I love how I come up with silliest shit in your inboxes on the name of award show and y'all actually play along 😭😭 did I tell y'all you're the best?

[atrophiedemotion]

if we get ivan’s brain mri scan in the vol 1 album (like whoever’s is on the cd) y’all better bet your bottom dollar i’m going to be comparing that fucker’s gray matter to an average brain immediately

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Sometimes I need the stars to align before I get into something new and even that is no guarantee that I will manage to continue following along with that "something new" consistently - see how I've almost entirely stopped playing BG3 as I'm reaching the end because all these endgame quests feel too high-stress for my brain - so when the starts do align, either I can be normal about it and potentially lose steam but maybe I won't, or I can -- yeah you know where this post is going, I read all of Dungeon Meshi in two days, how's your weekend going.

[funeralprocessor]

_

[xx0yeet-everything0xx]

ok so i was thinking about ur jason wings au thing and i had this idea

what if nico had them too, like they were created from shadows / darkness (this might be horrible so u can ignore this if so LMAO)

WAIT NO THATS SO COOL

[gonzodangerfeels]

The mountains are like mole hills

So Atlantis rose to sea level

Our Heart is Forever in Atlantis though

[aviscranio]

Lovely supporter, I hope this message finds you and your family in good health and high spirits.

This is Eman Zaqout a Biotechnologist and PhD student from Gaza. I've started a fundraising campaign and urgently need your help to spread it to the world, after losing my house and my job in the genocide in Gaza and living in a life that you can't bear watch it behind screens.

I hope you can take a look at my campaign on the pinned post on my profile, and help us by donating or sharing our campaign to reach the largest number of supporters.

Thank you for your continuous help for the Palestinian cause until freedom is achieved.

Please know that our campaign is verified by @90-ghost, @aces-and-angels

link to their gofundme ^ if you can consider sharing & donating

[northwestofinsanity]

Not sure if ibuprofen and sheer force of will is going to get me through my shift this time... Maybe half an hour in a hot car just to listen to some music will help me work up enough to last another six hours?

[teefconnoisseur]

tedtalk time! i wanna talk about asexuals, asexuality, and s-x!

cw : discussion of “spicy time” ( attraction, drive, arousal, etc. )

asexuals can have s-x.

yes, that is how i am going to start this off because it is true.

there is a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to the asexual community ( and entire queer community as well, but not our focus for now ). one of the biggest ones and the one i want to touch on in this post is that we can’t have “spicy time” — or simply don’t want to nor don’t like having “spicy time”.

and that is just, again, not true for a few reasons.

firstly, people are mixing up attraction with desire / drive with arousal. like gender expression and gender identity, the two are very similar but distinctly different.

attraction, as defined by The Asexual Visibility and Education Network ( TAVEN ), is ‘a feeling that is experienced that causes a desire for sexual contact with another person.’

desire / drive is one’s desire for “spicy time” and related activities ( you can guess what ), it’s what provokes and encourages one to potentially act on their attraction.

arousal is what typical follows drive / desire, the physiological aspect, the increase hormones and body heat, etc.

secondly, we can and do experience all three of these — attraction, desire / drive, arousal — to varying degrees and varying consistency ( or lack thereof ) depending on the person. we can also have and participate in “spicy time” and related activities, just as we don’t have to or don’t want to for whatever reason.

and guess what? it doesn’t make us any less asexual or valid.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk <3

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year - 2023 Edition

Welcome to our special edition newsletter recapping the best news from the past year. I've picked one highlight from each month to give you a snapshot of 2023. No frills, just straightforward news that mattered. Let's relive the good stuff that made our year shine.

January - London: Girl with incurable cancer recovers after pioneering treatment

A girl’s incurable cancer has been cleared from her body after what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date.

2. February - Utah legislature unanimously passes ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy

The Utah State Legislature has unanimously approved a bill that enshrines into law a ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy.

3. March - First vaccine for honeybees could save billions

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the world’s first-ever vaccine intended to address the global decline of honeybees. It will help protect honeybees from American foulbrood, a contagious bacterial disease which can destroy entire colonies.

4. April - Fungi discovered that can eat plastic in just 140 days

Australian scientists have successfully used backyard mould to break down one of the world's most stubborn plastics — a discovery they hope could ease the burden of the global recycling crisis within years. 

5. May - Ocean Cleanup removes 200,000th kilogram of plastic from the Pacific Ocean

The Dutch offshore restoration project, Ocean Cleanup, says it has reached a milestone. The organization's plastic catching efforts have now fished more than 200,000 kilograms of plastic out of the Pacific Ocean, Ocean Cleanup said on Twitter.

6. June - U.S. judge blocks Florida ban on care for trans minors in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’

A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.

7. July - World’s largest Phosphate deposit discovered in Norway

A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for fertilisers, solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 50 years, according to the company exploiting the resource.

8. August - Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

If the claim by Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim of South Korea’s Quantum Energy Research Centre holds up, the material could usher in all sorts of technological marvels, such as levitating vehicles and perfectly efficient electrical grids.

9. September - World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials

The ability to regrow your own teeth could be just around the corner. A team of scientists, led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup, are getting set to start human trials on a new drug that has successfully grown new teeth in animal test subjects.

10. October - Nobel Prize goes to scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines. Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman will share the prize.

11. November - No cases of cancer caused by HPV in Norwegian 25-year olds, the first cohort to be mass vaccinated for HPV.

Last year there were zero cases of cervical cancer in the group that was vaccinated in 2009 against the HPV virus, which can cause the cancer in women.

12. December - President Biden announces he’s pardoning all convictions of federal marijuana possession

President Joe Biden announced Friday he's issuing a federal pardon to every American who has used marijuana in the past, including those who were never arrested or prosecuted.

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And there you have it – a year's worth of uplifting news! I hope these positive stories brought a bit of joy to your inbox. As I wrap up this special edition, I want to thank all my supporters!

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!