#and you got this?

[moocowmoocow]

For the prompt ask - Margo takes Sergei to a basketball game as a “non-date” date. It can be NBA, WNBA, Harlem Globetrotters or college. 🏀🏀🏀

They had been friendly, professional since Sergei had started working at NASA after his defection. She had needed time to wrap her head around the fact that he was here and he was safe and he worked for her. And he had graciously given her the space to work her way through their new reality while keeping humans alive on another planet.

She knocked on the door to his office one Saturday morning. He was bent over the schematics for the next generation of engines to make the trip to Mars easier and less time consuming. When he saw her, he smiled.

“Aleida called me in a panic. Graciana is sick and Victor is currently stranded in a snowstorm in Chicago and Javi has a basketball game this afternoon. She can’t find anyone to take him, so she called me.” She shrugged and looked down. “I can’t promise fourth grade basketball will be exciting, but would you like to come with me?”

She was just asking him because she needed someone to keep her company. His face lit up. “Of course.”

“Like I said, I can’t promise anything, other than ice cream after the game.”

“I like ice cream. Very much.”

“Good.” She nodded. “Meet me in my office around one.”

They picked Javi up for the game. He was excited. He was regularly the first or second off the bench and the coach praised his improving defense. “I’m so glad you’re going to watch, Tía Margo!”

She didn’t know what she ever did to make this kid like her. But she liked that he did.

“Who did you bring along with you? Is he going to watch too?”

“This is my friend, Sergei.”

“Are you dating?”

She felt herself turning red. “No.”

“Oh. It’s just that Juan’s tía is dating someone his entire family hates. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Sergei chuckled. “I do not want that to happen either.”

“You have an accent. Where are you from?”

“The Soviet Union.”

Javi’s eyes grew big. “Wow.”

Thoughts about the globe flew out of Javi’s head as Margo pulled into the parking lot and he saw several of his teammates. They followed him into the middle school gymnasium and he disappeared into the locker room.

“Come on, let’s get something to eat,” she said. “It’ll probably be a bag of 50 cent popcorn and a can of coke that we’ll have to sneak into the gym.”

“I wondered why you had such a large purse.”

She smiled and allowed him to put his hand on the small of her back as they climbed the bleachers with their contraband. They both knew the basics of the game - you put the ball in the basket. It turned out they did not need to know much more for the game at the fourth grade level. They clapped and cheered for Javi whenever he made a basket. She never wanted Javi to have to question whether adults in his life loved him and if that meant making noise at a basketball game, then she would do it.

Javi’s team ended up losing the game by ten. He was upset until Margo announced that they were going to get ice cream. After they finished their cones, he insisted that they get some for Graciana and Aleida. When they dropped him back home, Margo wondered if she had really done Aleida a favor returning an excited child filled with ice cream.

As they pulled away from Aleida’s, Margo thanked Sergei for coming.

“It was fun.”

“Really?”

“It was a side of you I’d never seen. I quite enjoyed it.”

She was silent for awhile. “We should do it again. Sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

[hualianisms]

verified ways to donate to gaza directly

[this post is outdated. up-to-date version here.]

Donate to a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical treatment, daily necessities or more. Site run by Palestinians, all GFMs verified (full list here). Spotlights 1 stagnant GFM at a time. (*If you can't decide who/where to donate, just go to gazafunds.com & donate to the 1 GFM they show you!)

masterlist of 200+ verified Palestinian families' GFMs: Operation Olive Branch

Help provide tents:

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents & transport for families in Rafah who urgently need to evacuate to Deir Al Balah. Has a team on the ground in Gaza who have supplied tents to 1% of the displaced population in Rafah. Run by Palestinians. (paypal) (gfm)

@helpgazachildren: Currently helping Palestinians in a refugee camp in Rafah flee the Rafah invasion to Khan Younis. Funds go directly to Hussam, a Palestinian in Rafah who hosts a refugee camp. Funds will cover the cost of tents & transport fuel. Managed by a Palestinian @.fairuzfan. (gfm)

Food:

Care for Gaza: Palestinian charity on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their Twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

We Feed Gaza: Team of Palestinian volunteers in the heart of Gaza distributing food & water to 344+ families. More details & proof in their gfm. Vetted & promoted by LetsTalkPalestine on IG. (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: A Palestinian activist on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash & other essential supplies to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

Water (*urgent and crucial!)

Gaza Municipality: The official Municipality of Gaza is doing vital, life-saving work to rebuild the water pipes in Gaza City to restore access to clean water & waste management services for the people of Gaza.

eSIMs (*very urgent):

guide to buy & send esims to gaza

Crips for eSims for Gaza: donate any amount to this team of volunteers who pool funds to buy & maintain gaza esims regularly (see their financial accountability document).

Medical Aid:

Gaza Wound Care: Palestinian doctors in central Gaza treating injured/sick children & mothers in neglected displacement camps far from hospitals. Facing a severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and medical supplies. Currently raising funds to support their efforts to battle infectious diseases in refugee camps. (gfm) (paypal) (gogetfunding)

international charities: Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians

How to help if you can't donate:

Share & amplify Palestinian fundraisers in your irl & online circles

Organize or help to run an online/irl event to raise funds for Palestine

Boycott

Get involved with a protest/strike/direct action in your area

Contact your reps

Educate yourself & others both irl & online

Daily clicks on Arab.org

(you can even adopt 1 fundraiser campaign to regularly boost it & make materials promoting it online, or print posters/flyers about Palestinian fundraisers to encourage others to donate. (poster/graphic about gazafunds.com: here, flyers about esims: here, flyers about gazafamilyfunds: here)

(longer masterpost of all ways you can help)

(*all these links and more now in this rentry page. will no longer be updating this post, instead refer to the rentry page)

Last updated 3/6/2024 with Gaza Wound Care & We Feed Gaza. Wanted to focus on Palestinian-run grassroots initiatives that will actually reach Gazans on the ground, so all of these except eSIMs, PCRF, MAP are by Palestinians. Donating to international orgs is not ideal rn as aid is still being stopped at the border. Please focus on Palestinian-run initiatives on the ground in Gaza.

Remember, small donations really do add up. Any amount counts, even $1!

[piosplayhouse]

Well you see minors under 25 years old should not be allowed to get gender reassignment surgery because what if they go to the clinic but instead of giving them a normal penis the nurses mess up and give them the evil penis. That's irreversible

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Knowledge Revenge.

[prismatoxic]

dadchuck is everything to me

[froody]

“can straight men be romantically and sexually attracted to men?” sure, I’m not a cop

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[jotasuis]

How I found out about trump getting shot

[tariah23]

Oh…. Well, it’s over for Crunchyroll I guess

[captainjonnitkessler]

>Join a union

>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on

>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members

>The only attendees are the same ten guys every month, giving detailed reports about everything that's going on

[bats-and-the-birds]

Situation where Clark has formed a tentative working relationship with Batman, but somewhere in that time, Batman acquired Robin and, naturally, didn't tell him.

Clark finds out about Robin's existence when a ten year old Dick Grayson in full Robin gear breaks into his apartment at two in the morning and shakes him awake because Batman's missing and Alfred's away and Bruce taught him that, in the case of emergency, Superman was one of the only people he could trust. Bruce just didn't think to tell Clark that he was, by all means, his son's emergency contact.

Clark: -wakes up to a small boy that he's never seen or heard of before in a cape and a mask with lenses that reflect light like a cat's perched on the edge of his bed in a pitch black room-

Dick, calmly: Hey, Batman's -- stop screaming -- Batman's missing. I need help.

[christadeguchi]

make men slutty again.

HEAT STROKE | GQ CHINA Photographer: Wintam; Editor & Image: Shawn Gao Ding; Makeup: Lucas; Hair: Tao Liu; Art: Grade 2 & Lei Min; Art Assistant: Jiang Mi; Models: Kim; Ye Hao, Yu Hang, Ho Jun; Fashion Assistant: Yiyi, Coco; Photography Assistant: Li Zhenxi; Song Luanyi

bonus as rightfully added by @polyabathtub:

[badolmen]

People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

Edit: if you are able, use $5 you would otherwise use for a streaming subscription to donate to a GazaFunds campaign.

[finalgirlcock]

haunted house uquiz by streetlighthalo

[everchased]

THAT one's goin on the list too now!

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

I'm a cryptid in Stardew valley. I live on the outskirts of town. I disappear for days on end, purchasing daily one-way tickets to the calico desert. Nobody knows where I go while I'm there. Can occasionally be found fishing at random spots throughout town. I am never not running on at least one triple shot espresso. I take the abandoned minecarts to get around and am frequently seen disappearing into the sewers. I carry a sword for some reason. Once every week or two I will stride into your bedroom to deliver you your favorite meal. I'm a self-made millionaire. I attend all the town events and will go to your concert in the next town over. I have donated approximately 2583 items to the local museum and singlehandedly revitalized the town community center. There are rumors I can talk to junimos. I'm friends with the local wizard