#by allowing stupid stuff like this to happen

[bringbackmaes14]

My mom has her TV on in her room almost 24/7 and it's always on some news outlet or other. We talk a lot about politics and world/national/local events. And we do have a lot of varying views on a lot of things but we're both adults who are capable of saying "well we've both stated we have differing opinions and it's clear that we're actually arguing at this point and not just talking so let's put away the topic for now." But there are also other times where I'm just too overwhelmed by my own life to think about what's going on in the bigger world around me, so my mom knows to be hesitant to bring up news stuff with me (i.e. she doesn't just start talking about politics/world events with me rather she'll ask if I'm in the mindset to discuss things when she wants my opinion on something). This is all relevant.

We've always been able to talk about nearly everything from the economy to the school system to human rights to human tragedy and we've never tried to censor ourselves around each other (outside of getting too emotional with our language). But about two weeks ago when the United Healthcare CEO was assassinated, my mom, who is in her 50s, came to me and she said "Did you see that the CEO of United Healthcare got unalived?"

And I just sat there and looked at her completely confused and she was like "did you not hear about it? It's all over the news. It happened in clear view on the street." Like the problem was that I hadn't heard of the event not that my Gen-X mother had just in a real life conversation said the word "unalived".

And I told her as much. "Yes I've heard that. Why did you say 'unalived' instead of 'murdered'?

And she told me that she just thought that since I'm touchy about heavier topics sometimes (which is definitely true, that does occasionally happen) she thought it would be better to just not use the "heavy" words. I asked her if she realized, honestly, how stupid that was because regardless of the word she used, she was still talking about a murder, it didn't change the subject matter, she was only making the subject matter seem less significant and severe by changing the word to baseless internet lingo that a bunch of misguided, clout-chasing influencers spread.

She hadn't. She's doesn't use the Internet replacement words a lot, online or otherwise. This was a first. She thought this was a different situation, and a fine one to use it in, and like the above stories people shared, it's still not.

I'm allowed to say there are days where I want to avoid heavier topics because I'm overwhelmed. I'm allowed to not ever really discuss certain topics because they actually trigger me based on my own experiences. But people who are out here living their whole lives like just talking about about difficult or controversial topics, or asking questions about it, or enjoying media where it's portrayed (especially when it's actually portrayed respectfully) are being ridiculous, and they're handicapping themselves. They're never going to learn how to talk about hard things, or how to handle hard things. And honestly I feel bad for them.

Luckily, in my case, once I explained why my mom saying what she said was incredibly weird and honestly devaluing to the conversation, she backtracked and told me that (like I said above) she doesn't talk like that regularly and she has no intention to start; it's just that this was a huge news event and that day had been particularly rough for me emotionally and she wasn't sure how to approach it. So her intentions were good and I'm very lucky that she understands and also agrees that the Internet censorship language is incredibly unnecessary.

we have GOT to kill tiktok/twitter self-censorship i just witnessed a grown adult say the word “smex” out loud to our professor

[totallynotobsessedwithfandoms]

Random ninjago headcanons

Nya, Jay, PIXAL, and Zane are the most mechanically gifted of the team

Jay used to love building cars and big mechanical things but as he got older he started getting more interested in coding

Now Nya builds the things and Jay helps her code them

Zane taught Cole how to cook and bake better

Lloyd looks normal. Like freakishly normal. Like, skin too perfect of a shade, eyes too symmetrical, hair the perfect shade of blonde, etc.

Kai hates swimming but loves the beach because it’s nice and warm and sunny

Zane follows to the law to a concerning degree

PIXAL…does not

She considers the law more guidelines than actual rules

Jay and Lloyd taught Kai how to use his cellphone

Nya and Zane have who can hold their breath underwater the longest contests

The rest of the team finally started liking cliff gordon movies after Jay told them that was his bio dad

The rest of the ninja had tons of recurring dreams about someone asking them to wish it all away 

Jay and Nya finally told them everything that had happened

Jay’s hair was always curly, he just didn’t know when he was younger and brushed it out weirdly so it was a frizzy mess and then he would tame it with tons of hair gel

Pre-season 8 Jay is the only person to ever come close to rivaling the amount of hair gel Kai uses

No one really has their own clothes at the momentary because everyone raids everyone’s closets

ESPECIALLY Nya and Lloyd

Lloyd started it when he was really little, Nya started it as a show of power

Now everyone steals everyone’s clothes

The only way PIXAL can change her hair is using welding

She only trusts Nya to help her with that

Jay and Nya take weekly ballroom dancing classes

After Prime Empire the rest of the ninja will sometimes join them

Usually Cole

Lloyd calls Kai and Nya his brother and sister in his head but he hasn’t had the guts to call them that out loud

Every so often the ninja do karaoke

Jay and Nya always do some sort of romantic duet (with varying degrees of success) 

Kai, Cole, and Jay team up to sing rock songs

Zane is a surprisingly good singer 

So is Lloyd

Jay stayed in touch with Unagami after prime empire 

Cole and Vania write letters to each other on the regular, usually filled with whatever dumb stuff the ninja did and what the Upply and other inhabitants of Shintaro are currently up to

The ninja have a giant groupchat with all the elemental masters and the only texts ever sent are usually embarrassing photos of someone screwing up their own element 

Zane might be the mom of the group but Kai is concerningly good at any and all type of housework

Cole is the middle child. I stand by this

Jay has way too many pins and buttons on his backpack

Lloyd has a massive sweet tooth

He and Cole go for candy and cake runs whenever they can 

Jay is not allowed to go shopping because he buys the most random things

Kai and Jay are the clumsiest ninja

Ever since PIXAL became part of the ninja Cyrus Borg has begun to consider the ninja as his children as well

All of the ninja are insanely competitive

Nya helped Cole get over his fear of water after turning back to human

Dareth and Ronin are the ninja’s weird uncle 

Jay loves musical theatre

Kai, Jay, and Cole recreated the Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon versus Maul fight while Zane sang/played the music. young Lloyd recorded it and now threatens to show it to Nya and PIXAL whenever everyone’s being stupid

PIXAL curses the most out of everyone

Kai doesn’t curse because when he was younger he tried to keep Nya from learning curse words and that transferred to Lloyd as well

Jay’s natural freckles are super light and unable to see unless you’re super close up

Nya was the first to find out he had freckles one of the first times they were cuddling together after season 6

She absolutely adored them and so he draws over them with a darker pencil so that they’re more visible 

Jay loves drawing and doodling but doesn’t get into painting until after seabound 

Cole and Nya have arm wrestling contests 

Zane almost always wins paper rock clamp, the only people who can ever beat him is PIXAL and weirdly Kai

Kai is great at riddles. no idea why

One time Jay put food dye in Kai’s hair gel and he didn’t notice 

Kai’s hair had a blue sheen for weeks

The resulting prank war nearly destroyed the monestary 

It ended when someone managed to fill each person’s room with things relating to their elemental power

Zane’s room was full of ice and snow, everything in Nya’s room was soaked with water, Kai’s furniture was on fire, Jay’s blankets were so full of static electricity he nearly knocked himself out, Cole’s room was packed full of boulders, PIXAL’s room was somehow full of a ton of remote controlled robots, and Lloyd’s room was full of green balloons. 

They never did find the culprit 

(Master Wu had gotten so fed up with the prank war that he had contacted Skylor, who was all to happy to help) 

[impossible-rat-babies]

I’ve enjoyed the comedic ways you can die in bg3 it’s v fun

[nullians]

It’s actually insane how fandom in general has become so scared of making weird and dark and ugly works. Like I look at myself and see how I have also subconsciously adapted this instinct to self censor and make things “marketable” and it’s making me want to crawl out of my skin. I need to get weirder and worse and more off-putting hello

[polydamnory]

Oh it's gonna be BAD.

TW for obsessive, unhealthy and controlling relationships, stockholm syndrome, power abuse, mental/verbal abuse, all that fun stuff

Let's ignore everything in Cataclysm for now (minus Angel being dead RIP)

Damien is pulling everything he did with Angel and more with Freelancer and Vin, especially Vin. And by more I mean worse. He's keeping him and Freelancer close by, and probably has their magic muted pretty much around the clock. Definitely has Huxley guarding/keeping an eye on them, even if that's the last thing he wants to be doing (at least at first). He's not letting what happened with his last consort happen again. Of the two of them only Freelancer is allowed the "freedom" to leave, but only if they're with Lasko, and even that's rare because of how distracted he gets at work with them near. It can't be known to the public that the King Imperial has allowed a demon to live, let alone share his bed. Huxley and Lasko have more freedom because basically their whole lives have been dedicated to the Imperium, they have nothing to prove.

Lasko is weird about Damien in a similar way he is to Freelancer, but to a lesser degree. His mother was human born and that's not nothing to him, but him being the King of the giant cult that he views as basically saving his life definitely helps. I'm flip flopping on whether or not he would basically worship Damien for it or if they'd have a sort of rivalry dynamic due to them both being in positions of power, even if Damien outranks him. Maybe both. He probably still doesn't hold the highest opinion of Huxley though. Based on the established dynamic he has with him, I think the most I can see for those two is like they love each other but they also really hate each other. Lasko probably treats him in a very condescending manner, thinking his supposed stupidity and lack of power over him in anything other than physical strength is cute in a weird way, and belittles him in a very saccharine manner. Huxley knows this and it infuriates him, but what can he do? He's nothing but an Enforcer, and as much as he hates him, he can't stay away from him, even outside the context of his job. The moments when he is being kind to him, even when they are mocking, always seem to outweigh the times where he isn't, when he's talking down to him and making their power imbalance clear in the most hurtful ways possible. We already know how he feels about FL, and I think it's through his weird obsession with them that he starts to "like" Vin. Maybe he realized isolating them wasn't working and figured the best way to keep their relationship from progressing while also getting closer to FL was through personally supervised visits. Spending more time with both of them made him grow to tolerate him, then more. That being said he has a very similar viewpoint of him that he does of Huxley - he likes having power over him which has in turn endeared him to him, but it's still not healthy. In some big ways it's actually worse than with Huxley on account of Vin being a demon, and at that an incubus. But I don't have the mind to totally delve into that dumpster fire right now.

Vin and Freelancer are the last of the group to "come around", and only do so because of stockholm syndrome. It was bad enough when Lasko was just creepy towards FL, but now he's weird towards both of them and they can no longer get any alone time. They had plans of trying to escape, but somehow they've caught the attention of both an Enforcer and the King Imperium?! Worst yet, said King has now taken them into his home and hardly ever lets them interact with anyone other than himself and eventually Lasko and Huxley, sometimes even separating the two of them too when they act out too much. And Huxley, despite initially being cruel and rude to them (albeit he is no longer allowed to physically hurt them like before) even as their guard, has also seemed to come around to them in his own twisted way. There's no chance of escape now. So their brains do the only thing it thinks can make this better - trick them into thinking they're okay with this. That these people holding them hostage genuinely love and care about them, and that they love and care about them back. Better than rotting away in misery.

"poly damn this, poly damn that"

poly IMP damn

how would that work yall

[werebutch]

Omg it would be way easier if my bff just ignored me and changed the subject but instead I have to wait like a week for him to just say “that sucks wtf” to my rant 🤦

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

rewatching 13s era for me is not so much diminishing returns as it is something opposite and eviler...............increasing losses? increasing losses

[rubiesintherough]

.

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

next week we're going into the peak of our conference season (starting on wednesday we'll have 6 conferences in 11 days) and our department's website decided to act up this week so we have to use workarounds for everything and still the most cosmically unfair part to me is that satisfactory 1.0 launches the day before everything gets the most busy which means i absolutely cannot play it for the next two weeks or i will be exhausted and get zero work done

[anaalnathrakhs]

i keep looking at posts like "i stopped a binge" "i prevented a binge" and all of them are like. "i waited until the urge went away". buddy. the urge doesn't go away. there's no urge. there's just nothing else to do. i don't have anything else to do. every time i stop eating no matter how long i sit with the feeling or not, i always go for more food because there is genuinely nothing else in my life. nothing is enjoyable anymore. the world sucks. no matter what i force myself to do it's the only positive thing i can ever find.

[wipples]

What is it like to lack a sense of agency?

What is it like to have it?

[sonknuxadow]

i think some people are setting their expectations wayyyy too high for what shadow will be written like now. "the mandates are COMPLETELY gone shadow is fixed now guys!!" no theyre not literally all they said is that the rules have changed a little. like dont get me wrong thats good news too but a lot of people are exaggerating and setting themselves up for disappointment in my opinion

[that-was-anticlimactic]

there’s something so sacred about sharing what you love with others: whether it be a song or food or clothes, a show or a movie or pictures. it's just... such a deep and personal thing, you know? having someone carve out a little part of their heart and gift it to you with an abundance of joy and excitement and passion... yeah.

[fragglerockopinions]

The worst thing about suffering is that it still hurts when the danger is over but no one cares about it anymore because it shouldn't hurt. No one will ever say "I'm sorry that happened to you" especially when they barely say "I'm sorry that's happening."

[8lah8lah]

"both sides of shipcourse are wrong" says person about to not bat a fucking eye when someone on one side gets chased off the fucking internet and doxxed and told they deserve assault for liking ships that are abusive in a way they dont immediately understand/relate to. "shipping discourse is just sooo dumb and immature" says person about to fucking gasp and scream and tell all their mutuals and post "STOP putting ***** on my dash in 202_" vagues like A Gross Drawing Existing In The World is going to singlehandedly groom and traumatize and enable and Normalize everything for everyone on the planet simultaneously for simply being put out there and it being out there is a category 10000 mental safety hazard that they must bravely defend people from. "youre stupid if you care about ship discourse lmao" posts brave tumblr user about to get really upset publically over One person they saw shipping a like, 4-year age gap between two fictional chars that's there if you Squint, an opinion that Clearly has NOTHING to do with very specifically one side of the discourse

[honestlyvan]

As the pendulum is swinging back to “stop shaming people for leaving likes”, I am going to go on record to say I don’t like like because they’re a purely “number go up” metric that most people do not treat with the kind of thoughtful affection people who talk about leaving “little kisses for the people they follow” treat them as. I feel this exact same way about kudos in that mindless interaction from a potential audience is a real “good for you” kind of situation that simply does fuck all for me.

And before someone can call this grind culture brainrot, I also feel this way about reblogs without commentary. Good for you. I'm glad I was a good dancing monkey, enough for you to go “hey [people following me], lookadis guy”, even if you’re not gonna actually tell me that. We can talk about our choices for engaging with things and people on this site all we want, but intent isn’t magic, and I’m gonna reserve the right to complain about how that treatment feels regardless.