#by which I mean:

[wanderingmind867]

Marvel had their own Nightwing back in the day: Nightwing Restoration Services, Ltd. Misty Knight and Colleen Wing's detective agency together. And honestly: it's a clever name for a detective agency. They really had the perfect names for it. Also, i will admit to probably works as a ship name for the two of them. Nightwing sounds like the perfect ship name for those two, although you may need to make it clear you're not talking about the DC character.

Also, if we want to get petty: Marv Wolfman was Marvel's editor when Chris Claremont made the name of Nightwing Restoration Services, Ltd. So Marv Wolfman definitely stole the name for his Teen Titans series later. I don't blame him (it is a great name), but it's clear he probably did steal the name. And if he did, I find that funny.

[nickbutnodick]

pro tip: assume the best in people. it makes you happier.

[abetterscarletletter]

hating taylor swift is the present day equivalent to hating twilight fifteen years ago

[intogenshin]

Does Genshin the game really care all that much about the morality of their characters?

Like a story is allowed to pick which elements it draws attention to in order to make the points it needs to make. So Scaramouche is granted an arc revolving around regretting his actions and admitting he’s done wrong, because his character is based on Buddhism and such story explores the concept of karma; while things like traveler committing genocide against the Tanit tribe and wiping out an entire clan in Inazuma is never questioned as the correct course of action, because the story doesn’t see any value in its moral dilemma —universally, this is not an acceptable thing to do, but the story had no points to make about it.

Fontaine so far is the most complicated nation in this aspect, where the story doesn’t bother all that much with the heavily charged morality (or lack there of) of life in the city, even though there’s so much that could be explored. For instance, something I keep complaining about because of the inspirations on Metropolis: the fact there are citizens living in the sewers and how ex convicts stay in the prison after completing their sentences due to the discrimination they face outside. Fontaine is highly unequal, yet the writing is not concerned with giving these aspects any more depth than an acknowledgement.

Perhaps as an audience we’re not meant to dwell on it, the story had other goals that it has achieved. But it also conveniently avoids placing responsibility or blame on the main and playable characters, specifically characters like Neuvillette and Furina who had been ruling the nation together. If we paid too much attention to these issues presented in the city, we’d start wondering why Neuvillette’s infinite compassion doesn’t extend to the children who play in the sewers and the prison. It’s almost like the writing intends us to observe these narratives in two different planes, divorced from the main storyline played by the main characters.

And that’s fine, I don’t personally mind suspending belief over something like this.

So I wonder if Arlecchino’s character will go a different route about the fact the orphanage is a child soldier factory. It seems she inherited it as part of the punishment for killing Cucrabena, and she takes care of the children in making them stronger to survive the harsh life they’ve been handed. It would be hypocritical, like the things I named earlier, to address Arlecchino’s moral dilemma without burning (heh) other main characters.

Because, first, why are there so many orphans in the nation where children are born by wishing at the fountain? In theory, there should not be this many unwanted children. Second, if there are this many orphaned children that the Fatui are taking advantage to fill their ranks with them, why hasn’t the government done something about it? Do they think it’s an appropriate measure, since the kids get a chance to survive and get extra criminal skills? Focalors’ plan relied on the machine accumulating power from the trials, so were the orphaned child soldiers the price to pay? Either by feeding the machine with criminals or by imprisoning their parents so they’d end up orphaned. There’s a lot of crime that goes unpunished in the city, for example, by individuals engaged in child trafficking, to the point characters like Wriothesley in his youth or Arlecchino take justice in their own hands. Nobody batted an eye to Cucrabena’s battle royale orphanage either. And the institute pays little attention to the freak accidents that kill workers.

So, at this point, is it really worth it for the writing to address the moral dilemma of Arlecchino’s orphanage without altering the perception of other characters like Neuvillette? It certainly could, and then just never mention how the entire system allows for it to happen, but me as the audience can’t say that I will care all that much. The writing has gone out of its way to downplay the buildup to her character, even adding new dialogues that exonerate her from what happened in the fortune slip quest in Inazuma, since that was the fault of the previous Knave. And the orphanage itself is a punishment imposed on her by the Fatui.

[awheckery]

tonight I'm all about those

mental health crisis mozzarella sticks

[doctorwhoisadhd]

NOT saying people should shut up about being gay but sometimes it is just literally not the time to talk about it

[damnesdelamer]

Sure, but may I also submit:

[paintedcrows]

Did anyone tell Ford (bonus doodles: Family Movie Night, 70s Classics)

[bookwyrminspiration]

sometimes a theme recurs in your work without your permission. and sometimes it reaches a threshold where you're like. well now i think this is saying something about me against my will. don't know what though

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

as an aroace person with limited sexual experience, no interest in watching porn, and poor sex ed as a teen, there IS something simultaneously funny and vaguely tragic about being 28 adult years old and realising how extremely tiny your frame of reference is for genitalia and deciding you should expand this to better understand bodies (yours and others). and then you're just there like "okay so what the fuck do I even google right now, anyway"

[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

[inkskinned]

she's singing in another room and my dog is asleep at my feet. my grandma asked me why i haven't found a man yet and i laughed. oh, you know. i like my house clean.

my girlfriend is also my man is also "my partner" if i'm in a professional setting. yesterday we went to a ren faire and a man mimed at me - you're together? and at my delighted nod, his baffled, you're gay? made me laugh. a woman with rainbow hair said i love the two of you together. you're both so beautiful it's absurd.

my dad introduced my partner as my "..... friend. or whatever" the other day. he knows we're dating. in the same way, i was never able to get my sister's husband to stop saying that's gay like it's 2008. he still uses the word fa***t, and my sister's defense of him has always been well, he's just kidding.

my lover and i dance to old music in a tiny kitchen. we judge new music together and take food critique very seriously. we watch love is blind before we fall asleep and agree that if they had a queer season, it would be bloody but also make for excellent tv. of fucking course queer people would know someone for only 2 weeks and agree to get married. what are you saying.

at a bar with friends, a man puts his hand on my wrist. got a boyfriend? and yes, i do have a boyfriend, she's amazing. i am texting her while i wander around a gas station named after geese. i am visiting a swing state for a wedding. in the candy aisle i overhear: she's actually like a lesbian it's disgusting. two teenage girls with packaged sandwiches in their hands, giggling. no literally, like. i'm not, like. okay with her being there while we're all, like, naked and changing.

my girlfriend and i tailgate, drink gin and cider out of cups. from the frat group beside us, a man corrects himself with one of his friends: bro, i mean, nonbinary entity, and it makes everyone around him laugh, myself included. he razzes his friend the same way i would have killed for at 19 years old - like nothing happened, he continues: you apply sunscreen like an alien. he does a little sassy (and fairly accurate) dance interpretation of the motion. his friend is laughing so hard they're crying.

i am lucky, i live in a safe neighborhood in a safe state. my masc passenger princess comes up from DC. i drive her for an hour to where all the leaves are a violent arrangement of color. we walk along the trails, letting autumn into our blood. in this part of the state, there's a lot of pickup trucks and trump signs. when we chastely kiss before getting into the car, i accidentally make eye contact with a woman holding her child's wrist. she looks disgusted. she looks fucking pissed.

two hours later my girl and i are eating dinner on a patio, soaking in the last warmth of new england sun before the chill of winter sets in. we are giggling and trying to talk through plastic vampire teeth. at another table, i see a young woman sit up straighter. i watch her watch us. she blushes and takes her partner's hand from across the table. shy, like the taste of evening has just become something deeper.

it's worth it for this moment, i think. my lover is still humming the same song she's been singing for four days straight and i don't want to kill her for it. her guitar is beside my bed. her toothbrush is in my bathroom. in a few moments i will make us lunch. we are lucky enough to have found each other. it is lucky enough to be in love.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

couldnt draw my thang for mid-autumn so treated myself to a calne redesign instead

[noodles-and-tea]

How the gentle wind,

Beckons through the trees,

As autumn colours fall.

[la-lune-chante]

fellas is it gay for your fight scene to be a metaphor for sex

[foldingfittedsheets]

At the store I was covering today a dad walked in with his kid. They were on the teen side of childhood but age was indeterminate to me. He said, “So they need a new bed.” Later he added, “Their current bed is pretty squishy.”

I glanced at the child and said, “Would I be correct in intuiting your pronouns are they/them?”

Both dad and child lit up and he thanked me for noticing.

“It’s no big deal. My wife uses they/them. It confuses people because they hear wife and assume she/her but they’re a they/them. It just sounds so much better than spouse or partner to say my wife.”

The kid was ecstatic and exclaimed, “Yeah cause that’s your wife!”

It was fully heart meltingly adorable.