#but i really do believe it

[threadbareturnbacks]

I think a big problem is that people should be having children.

Okay fair that's clickbait. Not literally. I love bc and abortion and choice. If you want to be childless that's fantastic. Full support.

But children:

a) take up a lot of your time and mental energy

b) are an act of hope and trust in the future even if that future isn't readily apparent or understandable to you

c) are a lot of fun and keep you seeing the world in new and fascinating ways

And I honestly think a big issue is that a lot of people are stuck seeing the world as something horrible and boring and not worth fighting for and they are stuck with a myopic, siloed vision of reality. Children completely upend that. You truly cannot think the world is 'futureless' when you have kids. You just can't.

And again, literal children are not the answer. But a fully consuming hobby that you treat with the same intensity and love as you would your own child is. Getting obsessed with gardening fulfills all of those briefs. Getting obsessed with baking, sewing, carpentry, rpgs, running, hiking, dance, activism etc all do the same thing. They take up your time, they give you hope and something to work towards, and they force you to see a richer more beautiful world.

Most consuming hobbies ask the same thing of you as kids: waking up early, physical and emotional discomfort, learning at a breakneck pace, a community you might not entirely get along with but need to rely on anyway, a kind of fulfilling, radical, self-actualizing love for the world, gross practicalities of life like poop and death up front, intergenerational knowledge, and access to more energy than you ever thought possible.

The issue isn't that people aren't having children. It's that people, humans, are supposed to be actively learning and growing in partnership with each other. We used to all have kids and that was a common thread. And thankfully we have a choice on that issue. But we are still human and we still need something to occupy our time. The more we remove ourselves from community, creation, and hope the bleaker the world seems.

But it's really beautiful out there. I promise you.

[isjasz]

[mob killing noises] BAM!!!!1111!!

[datcravat]

SCIENCE BEGETS TRUTH✨

[talesfromthecrypts]

I get so frustrated by "yeah make vampires scary again" stuff every time a vampire movie has a "monster" vampire (Nosferatu, Voyage of the Demeter, etc). It reeks of an attitude that thinks all horror is about something being ugly and horrifying on the outside. If you can't see the horror in Interview With the Vampire, or a Jean Rollin film, or The Hunger, or Carmilla, or the vampire sections of Baldur's Gate because they are attractive that is absolutely an issue on your end. There is such a rich well of themes to dig into with horror and vampires, especially where sex and romance are concerned, but people are so desperate to separate romance and horror. The despair of being frozen as a child even while your mind matures, the loneliness of an eternity alone, the terror of eternal hunger that can't be sated, the awful seduction by something beautiful but monstrous. Trying to turn vampires into just any other monster doesn't make them more horrifying, its just a more kind of overt horror that can only be done so many times and is often covered better by other monsters.

[benevolenterrancy]

poor Liu Qingge is really going through it in the succubus extra, he just had to go and get a crush on the most oblivious man alive

"Younger than me... we had a rocky start... completely devoted.... often together.... saved each other..... peerless beauty..... outstanding talent.... noble blood.... totally in love with me...... Wow what a weird love fortune! Definitely doesn't match anyone in my life!" says Shen Qingqiu while actively sitting next to one of the two men it perfectly describes

[thatonedudeinthecorner]

You’re telling me this ISN’T what happened in season 1 episode 1????

Is it hypocritical for Aang to be the one to call Zuko bald when he is objectively balder? Yes. Was this really funny to me? Also yes. God may forgive you for not capturing the avatar, but NO ONE will forgive you for that fuckass ponytail.

[posalis]

Viktor & Jayce in Arcane (2.08) // so elegant and sensual.. and FOR WHAT.

i'm obsessed.

[giantkillerjack]

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

[plain-text version of this post can be found under the cut]

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

Plain-text version:

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

P.S. Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

[rendevok]

Moon dance 🌕✨

[cashmoneyyysstuff]

yall i kinda dont care what you gotta say on this one cus its real to me but katsuki is lowkey a crybaby. i fully believe he cries extremely easy,, like..HAVE YOU SEEN HIM ??? do you see how quickly bothered and emotional he gets over stuff ? no,not angry—bothered and emotional. (but the angry part also works lowkey i like to think in certain situations he gets so angry he cries.)

so yeah every time you argue—wether it’s over the phone n he hangs up on you or in person and he storms off to get away from you. he’s just so mad at you, he’s angry so so angry but he doesn’t like fighting with you. he’s in the right, he’s sure he is.. but a minuscule little part of him sorta wishes he wasn’t so this fight never happened. and also, don’t tell anyone, but he’s also pretty fucking worried you’ll leave him.

oh and there they are, he feels little tears prick at his lash line, practically clawing at his face the moment he feels them coming. he sniffles loudly nose already clogged and he scowls so hard, eyebrows pinched harder like that’ll make them go away.

he’s angry, so angry. he tries to convince himself he’s fuming just so he can stop crying.

—and he cries anyway. it’s nothing too dramatic, no sobs. only a hiccup manages to pass through his lips and he’s heaving and sniffling hard, wiping at his eyes and nose.

and he cries anyway.

[bixels]

Scary Sunset.

I'm concepting things way outta order in this story, but I'm sure you can piece things together. Context is for a storybeat where, after defeating and capturing Adagio (thus having all three sirens in her possession), Sunset enacts her revenge plot to release the sirens on Canterlot as Thea discovers she's been manipulated. In a confrontation, the two scuffle and fight over the siren orbs while Sunset struggles with her conflicting wants and emotions.

[celerydays]

🤍 Monster AU(?) Horror movie/actor AU(?) drawn for the Le Blanc zine in 2023 🤍

I thought it would be super fun to go for an old school, kitschy horror movie poster vibe with a werecat!Chat Blanc -also I may or may not have just come out of a huge monster romance reading binge at the time huhuhu

[its-the-ratdawg]

Hannibal fans who don't believe in hannigram are so funny to me. bc dude. if they're not in love. what the fuck was all that (the entire show) even about???

[tempo-takoyaki]

Memories of the past.

[8pxl]

7 yrs ago it was all a dream, but this yr marks my 5th year of being a pixel artist who supports themselves 100% thru art. kinda crazy to see my dreams to fruition!