#and flags from around the world

[cholgamer]

I am known as the flag master. I think I know why now lol.

Pride vs Place!

Introducing the hot new quiz show: Pride vs Place!

It's simple: you just have to identify whether the flag belongs to a place or is a pride flag.

Easy Mode

Hard Mode

[inkskinned]

he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you're young and you're kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don't like bad boys, per say, but you don't really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.

except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn't learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you're going. he's just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn't he eventually soften? can't you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?

at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you're fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you're not going to punish him for his personality type.

except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn't get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you're the single exception.

about a decade from this experience, you'll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.

he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you're learning what he's actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.

[worldruins]

happy pride month. it’s uncast shadows

[sirtadcooper]

Do you want to live?

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH S1E1 // AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS S1E1

[yakultii]

anyone else get really sad when you see your moots reblog the same post from someone else like damn u really hate me or am i literally just insane

[tcfactory]

Okay smartass how would you fix Bingqiu if you had your way?

If you actually want to know you could do to be less of a rude little shit about it, anon, but all right.

This is not about 'fixing' anything. Bingqiu is a wildly popular ship and a lot of people enjoy the exact kind of delusional insanity these two have about each other and that's honestly great. Love it for them. Not my cup of tea though.

I think the easiest and fastest way to make them sort their shit out and maybe put them in a position where I might actually be interested in what's going on with them is to take the protagonist halo away. Maybe the System short circuits, maybe it just gets automatically turned off after the extras, don't know don't care.

A lot of Shen Qingqiu's self delusions are fueled by his unshakeable belief that Luo Binghe, being The Protagonist, is Perfectly Fine the way he is. Binghe is the Protagonist, so when there are no character development or obligatory angst events going on he is happy and healthy and a slightly charred good boy and Shen Qingqiu is The Happy Wife who dotes on his hubby and Everything Is Right In The World. Endless honeymoon with their responsibilities only coming to bother them every once in a while. And it makes it way too easy for Binghe to cover up that he's still hurt, still unstable and still insecure by what went down because Shen Qingqiu is willing to take him at face value when he presents his insecurities as just being shameless neediness for his husband. Of course he happily indulges Binghe! But that isn't really helping with the core of the problem now, does it?

Like, Binghe takes steps towards ensuring Shen Qingqiu's mental wellbeing even at the cost of his own as soon as Maigu Ridge is over when he takes him back to the sect. Shen Qingqiu tries too, in his own way (the entire segment in the tombs is all about him putting himself in very real danger for Binghe's sake) but at the same time, this is a guy who completely missed the writing on the wall that Bingge was deeply unhappy in PIDW. As long as he can hold onto his internal picture that The Protagonist Suffered A Lot But He Is Fine Now I don't think he can really offer the right kind of emotional support for Binghe to actually heal from what happened to him and move on to a healthier frame of mind.

If you take the protagonist halo away, then first of all Binghe can, you know, suck a little. Or a lot, actually. The world not making excuses for him and him being a little defanged would be good for him. He gets really nothing he actually wants from being the protagonist - Shen Qingqiu will love him anyway. Mobei-jun will still stick around to back him up and help him out, because he's still Shang Qinghua's favorite fictional son and Qinghua is happy to see Binghe happy, just, you know, somewhere way over there where he can't get jealous tsundere over Cucumber bro and maybe murder him about it. Sha Hualing is still going to be his buddy because he's her best source of human trivia and the writing inspiration for her girlfriend. Not having to be demon emperor and getting more time to spend with his husband would be a relief.

But he would have to be more aware of other people because he's not above them anymore. Maybe even forced to make a few new friends to get by. And his mask will fail and Shen Qingqiu will have to see him for what he is: just Luo Binghe, still hurt and still confused half demon, who loves him very much, but can't make sense of him and is afraid that he will be left behind or pushed away without explanation again and that's kinda Shen Qingqiu's own damn fault.

And Shen Qingqiu can't hold onto his delusions about The Protagonist. He can't willfully ignore that things are not fine with Binghe because he's not the Protagonist anymore and the world only allows that special privilege for the Protagonist. Binghe is just a guy now and he has so many heart demons he needs help with. His trauma from the abyss or Xin Mo can't be brushed off with 'oh that's just part of his blackening he's fine now' anymore. And it might need a little bit of adjusting to internalize that these problems have always been here just below the surface, but Shen Qingqiu genuinely loves Binghe and would want to help him become happier and more stable in any way he can.

Binghe becoming part of the world in a way that's one person among many - building a support network! maybe befriending new demons or actually getting to know and making up with the QJ disciples or finding common ground with LQG and becoming sparring buddies - rather than a protagonist in a sea of NPCs is a lot more interesting to me than whatever he has going on at the end of canon. And Shen Qingqiu can be there with him on that journey, because he already started unlearning the sense of unreality the System conditioned into him, but he still has a long way to go.

[inthebeginning-rebellion]

i do think people are taking djenks 'izzy is a father figure!!' comment a little too literally

ED saw Izzy as a mentor/'father' figure, a safe, codependent, but also deeply toxic and volatile bond. 'I loved you, as best I could.' he could never love Izzy in a way that was... better, because it was dependent on violence and repression of the true self. I don't think he really saw Izzy as a DAD, it was more that he was a sort of... amalgamation of a lot of things that Ed never had and wished he had but were still not what Ed dreamed of. Lucius says to Stede 'maybe the time with you is the best he was ever gonna get'. Izzy was... the best of a lot of bad relationships, but still not a relationship where he could be his true self. He had to be Izzy's ideal.

Izzy loved who he and Ed were together, the infamous notorious brigand of the seven seas Blackbeard and his loyal, deadly first mate. He loved this concept and this ideal and this comfortable niche they built together after a lifetime of not belonging, but he spent all of season 1 HATING Edward, pushing Edward down, wishing Edward would die. He loved an idea of a man that did not exist anymore, and Izzy knew that about Ed, he knew it long before Stede came around and was refusing to acknowledge the fact that he was beating a dead horse. 'I have... love for you.' I have love for who we are together. I have love for the idea of us as a pair. I have love for what we built. But not you, not what's in your heart.

They're still and always will be family, there still is and always will be love, but love that was unequal and dependent on things that did not match up to what the other loved. I think when Izzy comes back, in whatever way they bring him back 'cause look I'm sorry he's not staying dead if we get a season 3 are you kidding me? Buttons is a bird. Ed was dead long enough for the crew to resort to eating raw seabird. Magic is real and love is true and varied and comes in many many forms, and witches turn into seagulls, and widows paint lighthouses, and soup is good, and whim-prone men open inns, and to be loved is to be changed. I think I'd be a lot sadder about Izzy if I wasn't so 100% sure of the fact that he'll be back. I just don't see a world where Izzy isn't there in season 3, I really don't.

I don't think Stede and Ed are going to be staying as Innkeepers for very long. I think they're going to miss the sea and they'll have to get back out there in the great wide open sooner rather than later, and I think they're going to end up bringing Izzy with them in some form or another. I don't think they'll necessarily be pirates, but I do believe The Revenge is home and I do believe they'll find a place to meet in the middle. (I'm saying, Dinner Theater on the Revenge, docking in Nassau, Barbados, and the former Republic of Pirates.)

Anyway the point is. Ed and Izzy felt vastly different types of love for one another and it was tainted by experience and aggression and pain. They brought out each others poisons and when Ed got tired of the poison, Izzy demanded it continue. And by the time he got what he wanted, Izzy, too, had changed too much to want that poison. But he did ask for it, he demanded it. And it nearly killed them all- it did kill Ed. Imagine that, demanding your oldest friend, your family, to be their worst self, regretting it, and then killing him for it. And yes, he became a unicorn and came out of his shell and grew. But there's still... more, for Izzy to become.

His death will be his rebirth, I think, in a way that goes far beyond the unicorn. He is the spirit of piracy. He became that, in season 2. If we get season 3, fuck it man. Give me ghost pirate Captain Hands, the true and literal spirit of piracy.

[pastel-rights]

asta.

darling.

dearest.

beloved.

get this man AWAY from me.

[galaxseacreature]

Weird fucking end of the day, y'all!

I've got a progress pride flag pin and a little round ace pride flag pin on my backpack. The progress pin has been there long term but even the ace pin has been on there for probably a year now. I've gotten exactly one chill "hey me too!" in that whole time (nice!)

So ofc it's the day I'm drop dead tired, I'm talking brain absolutely fried, need to get home asap, lay on the floor, and recalibrate type of bone tired. Ofc THIS is the day a coworker I'm walking out of the building with decides to ask what the ace pin is

[navarchus]

tag drop me hearties.

[endearingfascination]

I understand the sentiment of “The writer’s entitlement to their human rights is more important than you getting to consume their show without caring if the people behind it are treated humanely”, but a brief reminder that it is imperative we don’t devalue the line of work that the writers have dedicated their careers to by saying “fuck their shows” that they worked so hard on. They want to keep making their art, they want to keep writing their stories, and the corporations are the ones keeping them from being able to, by not treating them right. When a show gets cancelled, it’s a travesty for viewers, yes, but it’s ESPECIALLY a travesty for the writers who were pouring their hearts into it. Don’t take the side of the corporations by saying the writers’ work deserves to be cancelled.

(Tumblr user timemachineyeah said it best here.)

writer's strike is amazing actually go girl get that fucking marvel show UNMADE get that fucking gay pirate show CANCELLED get these chronically online fandom bitches' obsessions on HOLD until the corporations learn to pay you your mf money that you deserve

[tidepoolalgae]

.

[trainsinanime]

I wonder: Do Americans know about american school buses? Not their existence in general, but how they're seen overseas.

Over here, they're one of the symbols of America, on par with the Statue of Liberty, the flag, the Eagle, and well ahead of any chain restaurant you can name. People won't know any US states, but they will know these vehicles.

The thing is, here in Germany, we don't have dedicated school buses. The general idea is that kids go to school on their own. When that's not practical, they're expected to use (and given free tickets for) public transit. Public transit is designed around this requirement; there are many places where there is a bus, and anyone can get on it, but the route and timetable really only makes sense for school children. In case a dedicated school bus is really needed, that's generally subcontracted out, and the lines either use something like a Sprinter Van for smaller routes, or a normal city or interurban bus (often a used one that's a bit older). School trips are normal public transit, or a rented bus, typically a coach or regional bus.

It's not a perfect system, in the past couple of years there's been an epidemic of people bringing their kids to school in their cars instead of letting them walk, which is less than ideal. It is what it is. But building a dedicated network of public transit lines only for students, and building dedicated vehicles only for that, has never occurred to anyone here.

Of course we know about these buses, from movies and such, but they're as foreign here as cacti or pick-up trucks (actually we're seeing more and more of these here) or yellow cabs (all europeans will assume all cabs in the US are yellow until they actually visit).

You do see these buses here at times, because people still generally like the idea of the US, even if they have a lot of issues with a lot of details, and so folks bring them over, along with stretch limos and stuff (also not really a thing here). And of course, if someone goes to all that trouble, they don't do it to haul school kids, they rent it out for city tours or as a party bus or whatever.

So you see these yellow things as a symbol of faraway places, scenic vistas, some vague undefined idea of freedom that doesn't necessarily hold up to any contact with reality, and it's just a huge part of the whole US aesthetic.

And then you go to a student exchange with the US, and you finally get the chance: You yourself get to ride in one of these iconic chrome yellow buses! It looks just like in the movies! You get in, you drive in them a little…

…and you realise they're shit. Just the worst buses in the western world. Terrible suspension. Uncomfortable seats with weirdly high backs (so they don't have to put seatbelts in, they just restrict how far kids can fly in an accident). Everything made out of the cheapest materials. Turns out the reason why the US uses school buses like that instead of normal modern city buses, which the US has, is to save money and because they just hate kids.

And then it hits you why US Americans say "as American as apple pie", a dish that is made and enjoyed literally anywhere in the world, instead of "as American as yellow school buses". Of course the Americans already knew all this. They got tortured by these things forever. It would never occur to them to see this as a symbol of America, it's just a normal part of life for them. It's a symbol of school and school life and sometimes normalcy, and tells us that these actors getting out of it are supposed to be teenagers, nothing more.

But most people in Europe have, of course, never ridden on these buses. So when they see them in movies and TV, that's a giant big yellow signifier that we're not in Hessen or Wallonia or wherever anymore. A symbol of a different world, one that may be at most a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for most people, just like a picture of a tropical beach, Mayan Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Hildesheim (there's no reason to go there twice). And I think Americans don't know that, and that's fascinating.

[gallusrostromegalus]

I was raised agnostic and tend to remain ambiguous on theological matters.

-but my house has a porch on the second story that affords me a terrific view of my neighborhood and the Colorado Front Range and I was partaking of some peace before the 4th Of July Finger-Loss Festivities begin, and I have had a

~*Spiritual Experience*~

I just watched my neighbor try to unload an actual wooden pallet that had to have been forklifted into the back of his insecurity pickup worth of fireworks.

Except that he does not have a forklift in his garage.

He does have so much sports memorabilia and cardboard boxes of unsold MLM Merchandise and patriotically themed camping gear and posters of women in bikinis and flags of suspect political organizations in his garage that there is only BARELY enough space for the fireworks and certainly none for his truck.

So he had to unload the individual boxes of recreational explosives from the back of his truck and stack them in the minimal space he had cleared by hand. This is a tedious and time-consuming process as this neighbor has purchased a wide variety of recreational and locally illegal explosives instead of many of just a few types, so the individual boxes are rather small.

He begins, and this is crucial to what happens next, by cutting apart the industrial-grade saran wrap his explosives dealer had so carefully wrapped his merchandise in, and discarded it unsecured on his lawn.

Where Outdoor Conditions sometimes happen.

His process for unloading the fireworks is to 1. Climb up through the gate into the bed of his pickup truck (a feat made unusually difficult due to the slope of his driveway, and this man's fascinating decision to wear the world's Siffest and least Flexible Denim Overalls. 2. Once in the pickup bed, he selects ONE (1) box from the pile He is apparently from a niche religious institution that doesn't believe in stacking things. 3. Carries it awkwardly around the palette that barely fits in the truck bed 4. His wife yells "Be careful!" when he nearly falls out of the pickup. 5. He Yells "SHADDUP!" back at her. 6. The Large German Shepherd barks from inside the house. 7. He yells "SHADDUP!" back at her too. 8. He sets the (1) box down on the gate 9. Slowly and awkwardly climbs out of the pickup bed 10. picks the box back up, and carries it into the garage.

Question: Aren't you going to help this poor man? Answer: Absolutely Not.

There's four military veterans, MANY dogs, and several people with dementia in this neighborhood, all of whom are terrified by this chicanery every year and many neighbors have repeatedly asked him to maybe do the fireworks somewhere else. (This is the Eighth Year Running he's held a major demolition event in his driveway, and for those of you who can do math, you may be able to guess the precipitating incident to this little ritual) Additionally, I live in Colorado, a state marginally less prone to spontaneous and catastrophic conflagrations than a rotting grain silo, but only marginally. Our recreational explosives laws are written accordingly.

I am in fact calling the Non Emergency line to report Fireworks violations, and reading off the brand labels to someone named Dorothy, who is gleefully totaling up a SPECTACULAR fine for my oblivious neighbor.

However, while I'm on the phone with Dorothy, I notice the wind begin to pick up. and by "Notice" I mean "The Industrial Saran Wrap he left on his Lawn earlier is suddenly swept up about 100 feet into the air by an updraft intense enough to make my ears pop" And by "Pick Up" I mean "I look up to see the sky has turned a fun and exciting shade of glass green, and the bottoms of the clouds are bumpy and rounded, and the overall effect is not unlike looking up through the bottom of the cup at God's Matcha Boba Tea."

For those of you who do not live in places with Inclement Weather, these conditions mean "You have about 30 seconds before a Major Meteorological Event Occurs."

I move under the eaves. "Hang on Dorothy." I say, nose filling with Petrichor. "The show is about to be cancelled." "Oh, that doesn't matter!" Dorothy cheerfully informs me. "It's illegal for him just to possess those, no matter if he actually gets to set them off or not." "Terrific, because he's gotten maybe five boxes out of a hundred inside."

Sometimes, the weather gods are Merciful and give you a verbal warning, typically in the kind of thunderclap that makes your ears ring.

The Gods were not merciful today.

It's not often that I am in the time, place, correct angle or in a properly observational frame of mind to see this, But I got to see it today. Huh. I thought. I've never seen a cloud just DIVE for the ground before. Oh. I realized as it got closer. That's RAIN.

Sometimes, a thunderstorm will form in such a way that the rain that would normally be distributed over an area of say, five to tent square miles, is instead concentrated into an area of say, my neighborhood exactly.

So today, I was granted the rare privilege of being able to actually see the literal wall of water descend from On High and DIRECTLY onto my porch, my street, and my neighbor's truck, and his pile of unwrapped fireworks.

The sheer impact force of the downpour immediately scatters the teetering pile of fireworks boxes in the back of the truck, like the wrath of God striking down the tower of Babel. Boxes tumble, then are washed out of the bed of the truck by the deluge. Smaller Boxes are carried down the road in a little line by the stream forming in the gutter, like little impotent explosive ducklings.

My neighbor was definitely yelling something, but I could not hear what over the DEAFENING noise several million gallons of water makes upon high-speed contact with the earth's surface, but there was a lot of arm-waving and faces turning red as he went looking for the saran wrap that had probably blown to Nebraska by now, while his wife started disassembling the complex three-dimensional puzzle of interlocking material goods in search of a tarp. They do not have a tarp. They have one of those wretched Thin Blue Line flags though, and my neighbor jogs out in a futile effort to cover what's left in the truck.

Which is when the hail begins.

"HELLO?" Yelled Dorothy. "HI!" I shouted. "WE'RE HAVING SOME WEATHER!" "OH GOOD!" she shouts back. "WE NEED THE MOISTURE!"

I watch for a minute longer, but the loss was immediate and catastrophic- the hail is the size of marbles and dense and cares not for your pitiful cardboard and cellophane, ripping the boxes asunder and punching holes in the few things covered in plastic. The colors on the Thin Blue Line Flag are seeping all over the remains of that it was supposed to protect in a particularly apt visual metaphor. Not even the few boxes that made it into the garage are spared, as the German Shepherd escapes from indoors, and in an attempt to assist her humans, jumps directly into the small stack of not-yet-ruined boxes, scattering them into the driveway and deluge. She even picks one up so her humans will chase her around the yard, before dropping it in the gutter to be swept away.

So. I was raised Agnostic -but even I can recognize when God slaps someone upside the head and shouts "NO!" at them.

---

(If you laughed, please consider supporting my Ko-fi or preordering my book of Strange Stories on Patreon)

[andragoras-in-vanity]

city people are fucking freaks, why do you hate life so much?

id much rather people be taking their pets out in public than their children but god forbid i say THAT out loud.

i cant do fuck all about my migraines when children start screeching in the middle of the grocery store but people who are allergic to animals can take pills for it if they know theyre leaving the house that day. obviously dogs should be well behaved so they're controllable should someone with a service animal be around, but thats common sense and common decency but like.....why do yall city folk gotta pitch a bitch fit about shops being dog friendly? or restaurants letting dogs be on a patio? or god forbid a theatre having dog hour???

like say youre from the city without saying youre from the city by throwing a tantrum about the fact a stray cat sat in the open kitchen door at the cafe. yall act like its a health issue but then never wash your hands or wear masks. as though anyone who doesnt live in the center of a city doesnt have about 13 mice in their walls at any given time as it is. animals in public is the least of anyones problems and it shows a real lack of understanding at the divide that capitalism and colonization in the west have caused between humans and the planet we live on when people complain about animals having the audacity to exist in public spaces. oh but i bet yall laugh at the fuckin videos of a seagul stealing a sandwich from the grocery store. (no i dont think dogs should be allowed in grocery stores unless the placement of stock like unwrapped veg is raised since allergens ingested can be a trigger regardless of medication, but a dog would have to actually lick the fruit or veg itself for that to happen, and if its not cut open already most dogs wont since the smell is different)

i really cant imagine being that far up my own ass that you think every dog you pass is going to bite you and yet crossing the street and getting hit by a car isnt even more plausible????? lmao and whered you get the idea anyone would kill a dozen homless people for the sake of a dog?? like girl you're drinking the peta koolaid for real or just making shit up to boost your point??? thats just NOT A FUCKING THING outside of like...seattle?? the homeless population tends to take better care of their animals than every suburban white woman ive ever met, and their animals are in public at all times!!!

anyway dont look at the notes cause the comments are just as fucking self righteous as op is, and my condolences to their dead braincells i guess.

I hate hate hate hate how dog friendly everything is in the city now. Barring medical necessity, there is no reason to bring your dog to a restaurant, there is no reason to bring your dog to the grocery store, there is no reason to bring your dog to the nail salon. Dogs do not need to go everywhere you go why am I being forced to be around dogs all the time

[arrghigiveup]

[...] there was a unique sight in the final practice session on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix when an adventurous lizard put a halt to proceedings. The curious reptile ventured onto the Marina Bay Street Circuit, running around without a care in the world while cars sped past at frightening speeds. To protect the drivers – and the lizard – the session was red flagged, meaning all drivers had to return to the pitlane while the reptile was removed. The official Formula One X account called it the “weirdest red flag ever,” while some of the drivers were clearly perplexed by the lizard. Mercedes driver George Russell could be heard asking: “What on earth is that thing?!” After his engineers informed him it was a lizard, the British driver replied: “A what?! It looks like a dragon!” As the drivers returned to the pitlane, it was left to the marshals to remove the lizard from the track so racing could continue. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/21/sport/f1-lizard-practice-singapore-spt-intl/index.html

Bonus: