#am i talking about bears?

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

i love animals where your first impression is "oh this is a PUPPY!" and then it opens its mouth and you realize you're looking at a living weapon that, if domesticated, would commit war crimes. repeatedly.

[sixth-light]

Not adding this onto the post that keeps crossing my dash because it's not really relevant to that discussion, but: anytime the phrase 'nobody was living there' comes up as a form of justification for something or other, it is worth keeping in mind that in literally the last ten thousand years or so the only major areas of the world to have been settled by humans for the first time are Greenland, Iceland, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Madagascar. (We shall not count Antarctica on the grounds that nobody lives there permanently or is ever likely to.) Everywhere else has been inhabited by humans for tens of thousands of years. Even when Homo sapiens left Africa our ancestors were encountering (checks notes) our other ancestors, Neanderthals and Denisovans, not to mention other human species now extinct.

The myth of the unpopulated frontier, open for expansion, is just that: a myth, and one that generally serves a specific purpose in terms of justifying settler-colonialism. The question the phrase 'nobody was living there' demands is - who are you calling 'nobody'?

[sysig]

my 2nd request !! The skeleton brothers wearing matching pajamas :D

Day 13 - The Friendship Brothers

[erinwantstowrite]

You are the only person I have tumblr notifs on for and sometimes I forget to realize you aren’t just…the entirety of tumblr

wdym i am all of tumblr. i can tell you everything you need to know. yaoi. crabs. idea of march. infighting. blood. uhhhh... spider-man :) and batman

[fbfh]

Do you still write for Dave Lizewski? I loved what you've written for him so far!

FUCK yes I do. Listen there's a lot I could say about Dave, but one thing that is NEVER addressed is how deeply rooted and repressed his mommy issues are. I'm sorry, your mom dies in front of you and you're just... not affected by it??? bullshit!!!!!!! Dave CRAVES a soft gentle touch, a divine feminine aura. Even if you're not a girl, if you just take care of him gently and look at him with a soft fondness he will fold SO fast. and yes having a nice rack (while not necessary) will help with this a lot. and by a nice rack I mean literally just having anything on your chest. flat tits, huge tits, lopsided tits, fake tits, real tits, literally ANYTHING. even if your tits are practically nonexistent he WILL still be trying to grope and suck on them. and he WILL succeed. nothing in this world can stop this boy from drooling over you.

after a particularly long night full of stopping some muggers, making sure the town drunk doesn't fight anyone, and helping some college girls get home safe, he shows up at your place, a little bumped and bruised but not majorly injured. you greet him with this soft, understanding smile and bring him up to your bathroom. It's all clean and soapy and smells like you, and he immediately starts to relax. you help him take off his suit and he tries not to get hard from the feeling of your warm hands getting him out of his suit and exposing his skin to the cool air. you start inspecting him to see how bad he's hurt - because of all his nerve damage he doesn't always notice how bad his injuries are.

you smooth his hair and praise him, listen to him talk about his night patrolling the neighborhood. worry flashes across across your face as you see the scratches all over his face and arms.

"Oh, uh, Mrs. Landsberg's cat got stuck..." He trails off sheepishly while you smile and put disinfectant on his nicks and scrapes.

"Look at you, helping little old ladies and rescuing cats from trees." you coo playfully.

"Well, she got stuck in the attic crawl space, but..." he shrugs with another blush, feeling all proud and sheepish from your praise.

"Close enough."

you press a kiss to his nose.

"now all you need is a job at the daily planet."

Dave was so sore and tired after tonight that he felt like he'd need days to recover. but after 10 minutes with you, you already have him laughing and feeling like himself again. Dave doesn't know what he did to luck out and have you in his life, but he thinks about you all the time. If he's not physically with you (or texting you or calling you or snapping you or lurking on your social media accounts or reading through your old texts or looking through the folder of pictures and videos he has of you saved in his phone or-) he's thinking about you all the time. he even dreams about you every night. no matter how much time he spends with you, he always wants more. Dave is definitely in the sex isn't enough I need to crawl inside your skin club.

[mustasekittens]

together again // utterly alone

[jojo-schmo]

My job is burning around me and I’m only seen as an expendable cog in a giant corporate machine, but at least I have Helpy to lend a brightly colored hand!!! <3

[notyourdaisybuchanan]

[biracy]

I can't remember if I've posted abt this before but regardless: I'm sorry but I really and truly cannot get behind the idea that there is any wide-scale societal "pressure for trans men to be feminine" or "to be twinks" or whatever. You are either conflating a very small online community's beauty standard (usually some kind of transmasc pseudo-appropriation of "femboy" aesthetics, which yes, are often Bad and regressive and fetishized and etc.) with Mainstream Society, or confusing society not wanting trans men to transition with "wanting trans men to be feminine", which are certainly not the same thing. Ultimately if a cis person believes there is any validity to the concept of being trans (i.e. not a Posie Parker-esque "there's no such thing as a trans person" type), they are more likely to think that trans men should be like as masc and buff and hairy as possible or whatever bc that's what cis people think men look like and it's easier for a lot of people to recognize someone who Looks Masc as a man. It is difficult sometimes to see derision of trans guys who are Too Feminine and Not Hairy Enough or whatever (which is not always something someone has control over btw) as anything but "this is Skye who I think is a confused little girl because Skye does not pass" slightly restyled for 2023 "filthcore fagdykes" or whatever lol

[elvisqueso]

Pocahontas (1995): 3 times Pocahontas is compared to her mother + 1 time she's recognized on her own merits.

rambling lil meta under the cut

see, what's crazy about this whole situation is that it makes me wonder what exactly pocahontas's mom was like to have left such a massive impression on literally everyone in their community? there's that outright statement that "yeah, your mom's spirit is in the wind, basically, and our people venerate her as a spiritual guide (at the very least)." we know that she's the main connection between pocahontas and grandmother willow, and there's an implication in there that whatever leadership role she held in the village is expected to fall on pocahontas's shoulders someday.

i am so convinced that this role is some kind of spiritual leader/shaman position. wise-woman, priestess, whatever it's called. we don't see anyone else besides kekata performing any kind of spiritual rites, and even he isn't seen acting in direct contact with spiritual entities. kekata has to perform chants, provide offerings, and use a medium. pocahontas can just fuckign. talk to the things. how is she doing that? why isn't anyone else really able to do that? john smith could talk with grandmother willow but would he be able to if pocahontas wasn't there (i actually think he could but that's a different post)? has she ever done that for literally anybody else? nakoma never mentions grandmother willow. nobody mentions grandmother willow. apparently, the only two people who knew about her before pocahontas brought her new bf over was pocahontas and her mom.

i'm losing track of myself here, but the point is pocahontas is Highly aware of the ghost she's expected to live up to. and it sucks. and there's a lot more to her character arc about this but the eventual come-around to accepting that she has a responsibility to be more than herself and more than her mother's ghost is so heartbreaking because it also meant she had to let go of her soulmate at the same time so i c ry

[yannaryartside]

Michael and Sydney: let yourself be

I just had this thought; I hope I can make sense of it. I want to talk about the show"s themes on what allows people to be themselves, pursue their dreams, and defend their identity, particularly amid toxic and abusive elements (family, industry, surroundings).

Long post under the cut, a yappy, unorganized meta. tw discussions of depression and addiction.

If you had to go on personality alone, what character would you say is the opposite of Michael? Michael was an outgoing guy who would command the attention of a room, making sure to read everyone and dial all situations. You may think Carmy is his opposite (we will talk about him later).

But in reality, the character who is shown to struggle with social situations the most throughout the whole show is Sydney.

Sydney has struggled with her leadership skills (commanding a room) and her ability to dial social situations (hiring new staff, dealing with the berzatto antics) for 3 seasons now.

And I think that is pretty interesting. These characters were constructed in a certain way, and there may be an extra theme in the background here: the audacity to be real to the world and to yourself.

Michael spent most of his life pretending to be a version of himself that could carry out his role in the family. He was the glue that kept the family feeling like family, making gatherings enjoyable, minimizing Donna's faults, and bringing everyone together. Is it possible that Michael never had a chance to show his real feelings growing up, and that is likely the reason he learned to use drugs to manage his emotions and hide his depression (because living a lie 24/7 has a toll on the heart).

He had a genuine talent with people (the same one Richie has), but he slaved himself into the role of "glue of the family," preserving the toxic systems around him and, more importantly, never recognizing how that dynamic had hurt him so much. He never gave himself a chance to dream his own dreams, maybe because he was afraid of being nothing without the role he had been fulfilling for so long. In that family restaurant, the one his father left behind, the same way he left him behind, the restaurant he desperately wanted to keep his siblings out of. He was protecting them, and he was also hiding.

(pause to cry, I love Michael so much)

Sydney is a person who is always herself; she has her heart on her sleeve and shows who she is and what she cares about constantly despite being brought down over and over again. Despite how much it hurts her, she doesn't want do do things in a way that is contrary to her nature and values. When presented with the toxicity of the kitchen (that Michael used to run and that Carmy made even worse), she battles fire with little drops of water (patience and firmness) that build up to create the ambiance of trust within the staff today.

Sydney wanted to make a difference because she believed everyone has a chance to do better. And Michael thought it was his duty to keep things the same, despite how awful it all was even to himself.

He believed in Carmy's potential to the point of excusing his belief that he could never do better than what he had done.

This is also illustrated by the show of how much the staff felt threatened by Sydney in s1, because they believed (kinda like Michael) that they never could be better of what they had, that there is no better, not for people like them. Better is for geniuses and people without baggage.

They believed change would prove them inadequate, and Sydney showed them the chance is to support you, not destroy you.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORST PART OF THIS IS?

Neither of them had any choice. Yes, we are all creatures of fault with a chance to change, but 75% of our being is preprogrammed. We are the people that we have built ourselves to be to survive in the world around us.

Sydney had a chance to let herself be and Michael didn't.

Sydney had an incentive (a loving parent) to recognize her own feelings and identity growing up. Michael didn't. Despite how flawed she may feel, at least she knows the basics of who she is; Michael could never look at himself and his wounds because that would be admitting he didn't want to play his usual part anymore in the facade that was the happy Berzatto family.

Both the Berzatto and the Adamus are working class (besides mafia links that may have put them in a financial crisis). Yet, Mr Adamu can encourage her daughter to follow her dreams in an industry as unreliable as fine dining. Meanwhile, Michael was told: "you are gonna do the same shit as your father because that is what you are supposed to do"

My last point is back to the dinner and the party afterwards.

It is not an accident the most confident we have ever seen Sydney is at a table surrounded by mentors and peers. She values her experiences and dreams and is eager to share, be nurtured, and nurture others. That is the basis of connection. You cannot connect if you are hiding.

Carmy was in the same party, hiding in his fear of his abuser, and previously, he had desperately tried to fit in the frat party to the point of pretending to be someone else. Carmy pretends to be Michael, but Michael never allowed himself to meet his true self.

[nonbinaryeddiekaspbrak]

"IF TOMORROW I'M GONNA BE HAUNTED, TODAY I'M GONNA BE FREE."

- Bears In Trees, Things That Look Like Mistakes

[mytimeisyours]

Any favorite gale fic recs? (currently sick in the head about bg3 too)

Oooooh bb I have several!!

These are all on AO3 (because I've been a sucker for AO3 for over 10 years lol)

if you're looking for angst, hurt/comfort, etc. might I suggest In The Wake of Your Departure ... it has consumed much of my brain, lately. I cried, I got angry, I felt *all of the things*.

Fluff/angst/slow burn, I recommend The Wizard and The Druid of Waterdeep (also on AO3) (it's a WIP, it may have been abandoned, but it definitely leads to inspiration for art/other fanfics, if you're looking for that!)

I've also been enjoying Hero! It starts at the beginning of the game and moves along with the storyline. (I will be honest, I haven't finished it yet!)

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Bonus content because I love to share and this Halsin one absolutely WRECKED ME and has been an absolute worm in my brain (pun intended lol): An Old Elven Adage

I'm also going to start reblogging/tagging some of my favs onto my page now that school is out and I'm not teaching over the summer (thank the gods lol) - I'll make an easy-to-find link, if you're interested! (:

[dionysuswearsanorangetracksuit]

I MADE A FROG SHUT THE FUCK UP??!!!?!!!!!

[black-salt-cage]

actually I'm done being the better person and not directly interacting with posts that shit talk me or screenshotting them like this because you do not get the courtesy of me leaving you alone after you block me if you don't leave me alone

"they practically say it in some of their posts" fleeglefazbeagle I mean this in the meanest and most forward way I possibly can, if you take even TWO SECONDS to look at any information on this blog and you do not realize that I'm a proshipper then you have the brain the size of this walnut except way smaller. Though that's not surprising if you deadass think you can police the accounts other people in stimblr can interact with.

[mari-lair]

I'll never forget that Akane wore bright green pants when he went to the shrine.