#but as someone outside the us

[nonbinary-hacker]

Idk why I, a meme blog, have decided to get on a soapbox about this all of the sudden but you know what, here we go.

Why is it that when there’s any mention of various countries (frequently Britain and Canada, but others as well) in a critical context, or even in a joking sense, the first reaction is to jump to the point of Americans being stupid, fat, lazy, etc.? Don’t get me wrong, America has Problems, but no people are a monolith, and the US isn’t the only one with a bad track record. Yes, America is incredibly corrupt and only masquerades as a “free” country. I’m not making excuses for any of that. But to claim it’s the only one is revisionist and honestly irresponsible. In the spirit of openness, I’m gonna address things here so I don’t have to in the future.

Yes, America has a gun problem. But using “ha ha well at least our kids don’t get shot at school” as an escalation to friendly teasing isn’t the gotcha you think it is. Especially if it’s followed by the “well you shouldn’t have voted them in then”. Who. Who did I personally vote in. Was it when I was a toddler? Earlier? Let me know because if I was there in 1787 when the second amendment was drafted up then I’m sure scientists would be thrilled to know. And it also shows that you have no clue how our electoral system works, since the majority of voters can be in favor of something, only for it to be denied, or vice versa.

Yes, America has a problem as the tenth most obese country in the world. But a lot of that comes down to the lack of access to healthcare and healthy food in areas where fast food and less healthy alternatives are cheaper. “Well it’s not hard if you meal prep and budget right and buy organic and try this detox te-” shut the fuck up. Managing a minimum wage (or lower because that’s a thing) job with raising children, and feeding a family doesn’t always leave enough time to focus on healthy eating. And food deserts are shockingly common, especially in predominantly poor neighborhoods and for people of color.

Yes, America has a problem with healthcare. But in a country where people would rather take painkillers than go to a hospital when they have a serious illness because they can’t afford the bill, people are more afraid of the hospital than the actual injury.

Yes, the American education system isn’t great, but point to Montana on a map without looking it up. New Mexico. What’s the capital of New York? It’s not New York City. Our states are the size of most countries. As far as math and science, I’d argue that we can compete on a global scale. Ignorance comes from everywhere, not just here. I’ve also never actually met someone who thinks that London is a country, or that the sun turns off at night. I’m sure they exist somewhere, but there’s an equal chance they’re in your town as they are in mine.

Point is, we get it. I get it. I wrote this entire thing because I get it. But I’m also fucking tired. Using murdered children to win an internet battle when someone jokes about how you stole shit for a museum is,,,honestly just sad. Making jokes or talking about shit you know nothing about isn’t helpful to anyone. It’s not as easy as voting them out, or a glorious revolution. Expand the depth of your knowledge on the subject before you start shit. And check your own hands before you say shit about the blood on ours. We’re aware of the horrendous shit our country’s done. It’s broadcast 24/7. Just because yours isn’t on the global news doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

A lot of us are scared about the upcoming election, doubly so if we’re PoC, queer, disabled, etc. A lot of us are facing some very grim realities right now, and we’re terrified. We don’t need the constant reminders of how fucking bad we have it.

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[apollos-olives]

before october 7th this blog was a meme page btw.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Introvert adoption

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[ekat-fandom-blog]

Jack decides he needs a bit of time away from family to mourn the loss of his one sided friendship with Vlad and Vlad's death. So he takes a trip to Gotham. On this trip, he runs into Damian and Tim, who are convinced he's Captain Marvel in disguise.

Meanwhile, Jason's also run into Jack as he's coming into his ghost powers. Jason starts freaking out because someone just saw him when his new powers started glitching. Panicking only worsens the situation as now he can't figure out how to get his foot un-caught in the cement.

Jack, despite not knowing if this kid is a halfa or not, decides to give him advice based on how Danny told him his powers work. It works.

Now, Jason has a sort-of mentor that he didn't ask for but definitely needs, and Jack has something to do while he sorts out his feelings on the whole Vlad-was-never-his-friend thing.

Eventually, Damian and Tim catch them while Jack is trying to explain how Jason might have a second form. While Jack explains, Jason just transforms. His ghost form isn't what either expected. Jack was expecting something similar to Danny's or Vlad's. Not a winged little kid with a mask.

To be honest, this just solidifies that this guy is Captain Marvel for Damian and Tim. Obviously he decided to teach Jason magic.

[hedgehog-moss]

I want to know all the scandalous gossips of your village. Is that weird?

It's understandable! I'm not into gossip except when it's animal-related but as a frequent library-goer (a place mainly frequented by elderly women) I end up overhearing a lot of stuff and some of it is somewhat fascinating.

One of my favourite pieces of local gossip is about the Cursed Inn—not the main street inn which is very loved as are its owners, but another inn just outside the village, whose owners keep changing and always seem to meet a tragic end. There have been drownings, kitchen-related accidents (? I don't know), incredibly dramatic divorces, the Fire of 1982, and so on, but the inn is very well-situated (on a hilltop so all the rooms have amazing views) so it always finds new owners.

The new buyers never believe locals about the curse, of course. The people who currently run the inn bought it just before covid started (which is obviously curse-related) (well, people aren't claiming the global pandemic was caused by this modest local curse in the French countryside but you have to admit the timing is suspect), and their son's bakery in another village has recently gone out of business, which is obviously due to the fact that his relatives run the cursed inn. Why else would a bakery go out of business.

Anyway—why is the inn cursed? Because it was built with Resistance money. During WWII, Allied forces would sometimes parachute coffers of money in specific locations for resistants in the mountain maquis, to buy weapons and supplies for sabotage operations, etc, and one day this random cow herder in the village suddenly had enough money to buy this nice plot of land and start building an inn. Everyone strongly suspected he'd stumbled upon some of that parachuted money while herding his cows, and most locals shunned him and his inn (though it still prospered thanks to tourists.) The guy ended up hanging himself for unrelated reasons (family drama) (but still), then the next owners went bankrupt after trying and failing to start an additional fruit tree business on the property. Locals didn't dislike the new owners, who weren't related to the original one, but the reaction was along the lines of "of course they went bankrupt, no one's going to prosper in that place" because of cosmic justice or something. It's been 70+ years and people are still vaguely ill-disposed towards the inn that was built with resistance money and whenever something bad happens to the latest owners the general sentiment is "they live in the cursed inn, what did they expect."

[ranticore]

someone asked me ages ago for more anatomical drawings of harpies so i deliver. the feathers are laid out in tracts and can hide a lot of detail under the contours, and the fact that the body is usually smaller than people think (and much lighter). The neck usually blends in pretty well with the body, unless the feathers are raised or the crop is full.

they do not have hands whatsoever, all manipulation of objects is done by the feet and mouth. even with their lack of hands they do not at all suffer a lack of dexterity. in the kosa region the eagle harpy flock is famous primarily for its weaving culture - weaving is so integral to their society, in fact, that they view the world itself as nothing more than a large and complex tapestry, woven by some unknown artist. this is evident in how they orient themselves in the air, referring to a tailwind as 'warp', while a crosswind is 'weft'.

these aren't like actual muscle groups or anything it's more of a drawing guide to show which areas have mass & define the form

the thing that gets me a lot about drawing birds & birdlike guys is how high up the leg can articulate, in real birds it's like pretty much in their armpit. harpies have a more humanlike torso which means more space between the rib cage and the hips, and more articulation of the spine in this area as well (though i realise now that i didn't actually draw that in any of those poses). it also means they have a more defined belly area below the pectorals/ribcage.

a king is pictured here but there's no real difference under the feathers between a king and a regular harpy, aside from kings being generally more robust and more heavily built (by harpy standards).

harpies are the descendants of humans who were cursed to be birds thousands of years ago. those humans, who aided the apocalypse, were primarily messengers and chanters, assistants of the wizards who ended the world. their relatively unmonstrous cursed form reflects their general lack of importance to the crime - petty criminals, accessories, not perpetrators. their behaviour is strongly informed by the birds they were blended with to the point where there is very little about them that's even remotely human and their cultures and societies are almost wholly birdlike.

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he probably very irritating, absolutely, but an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would shock me. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[alaskan-wallflower]

i saw this one pic of BG with his hair in a ponytail and y’know what?

i feel like Pony does that too sometimes, like he just ties his hair back when he needs to get something done.

He actually pulls it off too (i need to draw this)

[emmafallsinlove]

thinking about how people arguing about rory and jess doesn’t have a “you jump, i jump” moment but like. have you ever been 17 and a guy bought your home made basket for $90 and sat with you on a bridge by the lake, look into your eyes and told you “you know, ernest only has lovely things to say about you”? because tbh, it changes everything.

[ratflame]

Starting a collection of these

[winxanity-ii]

Umm, are y'all ok???

I just want to say that it feels a bit unfair (read: weird as fuck) that people are uncomfortable or feel that Andy only deserves a 'platonic bond'. And this isn't just me assuming but based on me scrolling through Tumblr—specifically the Alien: Romulus tag—and seeing plenty of Tyler, Rain, Bjorn, hell, even damn Xenomorph yandere/romance/smut stories but zilch for Andy.

I even received an ask telling me that I shouldn't continue writing Andy as a love interest but instead to make it a 'platonic' familia one. And all I can say to that person: please go to hell. It's wild that the audacity was even implied.

As far as I know, I'm the only one writing Alien: Romulus content that showcases Andy in a romantic light, and I plan to continue doing so. He deserves to be seen as a versatile android—whether that be a yandere one who loves the MC or a sweet soulmate that's always there—just like the other androids in the Alien franchise receive. *cough* Walter *cough*.

I don't know, sorry for going off on a tangent, but this is something I just needed to get off my chest. I'm practically filled with butterflies at the opportunity to create such a love story for a character that swept so many, like myself, off their feet. Andy is perfect and he will continue to receive stories from me until a bunch of people can get it into their thick skulls that he deserves to be thirsted after just like the rest of the cast…

At the end of the day, my version of Andy is staying romantic, yandere, or whatever I see fit and if you don't like that, please do your part and create more stories centering him in the vision you'd like to read/see...

[freakinator]

thinking about kab and the thing about her i think is she knows just enough to keep herself safe Generally but not enough to really predict what would happen should something more... complicated??? unforeseen??? idk whats the right word to use but something not covered by someones reputation and/or vids happen, believe it or not this also affects her view of clownpierce (we'll get to that)

for example, mapicc has a reputation for being an violent, angry, & impulsive guy and nothing else which makes sense but is incredibly surface level and something that only really works if you dont have a lot of experience working with him

another is reddoons, his betrayal after the base incident while shocking is not unforeseen but his reputation as being a guy whos seen as being a reasonable person whos fairly loyal to his team made it seem like something he wouldnt do even tho it absolutely is

regarding how it affects her view of clown, since he isnt perfectly aligned with his reputation she instead pivots in the complete opposite direction and forgiving basically every crime he does even tho hes something much more mild and complicated than either his reputation or her view of him will ever be (think madonna-whore complex which is especially obvious when it comes to kabs vs woogies view of him)

another side effect of this Just Enough amount of knowledge aside from being blinded by her own expectations is that it frustrates ppl who think shes oversimplificating things (like me and seemingly several other tumblr users as well) especially when she claims that shes objectively correct and the smartest in the room at any given moment

how this roughness in her analysis affects her in the server still has yet to be fully seen but we do still have at least a couple months until the end but 'til then shes just gonna keep stumbling as more and more complicated situations pop up as is typical in lifesteal to happen and eventually shes gonna have to learn to adapt or else she'll be suffering the consequences one way or another

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[themoonunderstoodmydadjokes]

I don’t think we talk enough about how being love bombed can like really fuck you up??? Like yeah is it easy to identify from an outside perspective? Absolutely. But being in it and having someone devote that much time and attention to you (even if it is manipulative in nature) to then having it end abruptly when they’ve gotten what they wanted out of you… 🫠

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

My buddy and I just had a fifteen-minute conversation with him speaking Latin and me speaking German and we in fact communicated all the information we wanted to