#december 23 2022

[dogstomp]

Dogstomp #2914 - December 23rd

Patreon / Discord Server / Itaku / Bsky

[dmwrites]

When it is so easy to defy death, why be careful? Why bother being scared, with the caution that comes with human life, when death doesn’t matter?

The totems of undying were dangerous in that they were easily accessible, affordable, and so useful. Joe found he could negate all instances of hot-guying just by adding the totem to his offhand when Scar joined the server. He could save time and make a statement by simply plummeting to earth and walking while everyone else flew.

“You need to be careful, you know.” Cleo once told him.

“Oh please, you’re just jealous.” Joe said.

“No, I mean it, Joe. Those totems… have you ever heard the myth of the demigod who couldn’t die?”

“I haven’t, but why do I suspect you’re about to tell me about it.”

Cleo rolled her eyes. “Listen, I’ve been reading a lot of mythology recently, and this one… it reminds me a little of you. The story goes that a demigod built a statue of a haughty god, in order to please him. The god was pleased, vain and conceited as he was, for the statue was perfect. The god decided to reward the demigod, and told him he could have one ability. The demigod was just as power-hungry as his god, and asked for the power to never die. So, he became a living totem of undying. He could fall from great heights, he could be stuck by lightning over and over again, and nothing would happen to him. He began to see himself as a god, immortal, powerful. He no longer feared death. He became cocky, and the god who had given him the power came back and told the demigod that the rules of the game of life had changed- one day, and there would be no telling when, the blessing would end, and the demigod would die. It could have been that very day, or a million years from then. But still the demigod refused to listen to the obvious warning, and kept living as dangerously as before. And then, as you might have guessed, he died one day. And they did not remember him as the demigod who cheated death, but the man who had died trying to cheat death.”

“Cleo, please. That’s just a myth.” Joe replied. “Impulse has a farm for these totems; the only way I’m dying is if I run out of money.”

“Defying death is addictive, Joe.” Cleo warned.

[every-dayiwakeup]

At the end of day, it all comes down to this:

the Stranger Things fandom lists all the "reasons" (most of which are false or overexaggerated) why they believe Billy deserved everything that happened to him. Okay there are three things wrong with that. One, he's fictional, calm the fuck down. Two, he didn't do anything. Three , even if he did something it does not mean what happened to him is justified or okay in any way! That goes for everyone. Whatever you did, doesn't make what happened to you/what is happening to you okay.

I do have a bone to pick with this mentality. Especially because victim blaming exists, and it not only shouldn't, people would rather go after the victim for not reacting the way they would have than ever turn the same amount of heat on the offenders. Even if you didn't do anything (again it doesn't matter), someone will find a way to shame and blame you. It is not your fault. Any of it. I don't care what people may tell you, it's not your fault.

Performance activism solves absolutely nothing. It's become so much of a problem that it overshadows actual problems. Ya know, because their outrage is not about those who ARE impacted by said issues.

Again as always, victims know you aren't fighting for them. The whole "I'll create my perfect victim because real ones aren't good enough 😔" undermines your claims of giving a shit.

[card-of-the-day]

Today's Card Is: Croaking Counterpart

[1morteveryday]

357/365 👣

[music-asylum]

December 23, 2022

[deadestofdoves]

I wish windtrace was permanent. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.

[averbaldumpingground]

There isn't anymore, no you, nor I, no touches, whispered words. There isn't reason for your silence.

But it's the cold that penetrates too deep. The cold that settles in.

[yahooanswersblog]

Lexi: Who’s up?

Me: I might be better off if I wasn't.

[fishchomp]

lake effected

i look at you and i realize that i don’t recognize you much anymore.

so much has changed, i don’t know what’s still a secret. i don’t know how many new ones you have.

i tell myself that i have secrets, too. you’re not the only one hiding yourself from the world. except at the end of the day you have someone to hold on to and im still held up.

i dream of making myself so small that no one will ever be able to find me again. nobody will care enough to ask where i went.

constantly going 100 miles per hour towards a brick wall all while stopping to smell the roses. i have to punch in the address every time, no matter how many times i go.

lives are meant to be lived in two ways: screaming (at the world, at each other, at the mirror), and in complete silence (at night, on long roads, forever in your own head).

tell me where you’ll be in ten years just to give me the headstart.

[ciselle]

[dmwrites]

The Hermitcraft x TAZ: Ethersea crossover that no one asked for but I’ve been thinking about for a long time

——

Ever since he was a guppy, xB loved the ocean. There was something so numbingly peaceful about the deep ocean, where no human could follow, and very little lived. xB looked for diamonds down in the deepest depths, since no one else would dare. It was dangerous, yes, but totally worth it most of the time.

But now, xB had hurt himself badly. He’d been deep-sea mining and had come across a patch of gravel that had given way to pointy dripstone, which he’d fallen into. Badly injured, he couldn’t swim, and instead found himself drifting down a narrow underwater ravine, unable to move without pain.

It was here that he heard the voices.

“Hello?”

The voice wasn’t heard, more beamed directly into his mind. xB looked all around, but saw nothing.

“Hello?” He answered back out loud.

“Stranger in our lands, yes?” Another voice asked, right in his head.

“Who- hello?” xB asked. There were definitely two separate voices, both peculiar and curious, but nothing like xB had ever heard before.

“You are fish, yes?” One voice asked.

xB clicked his tongue in indecision. “Uhhh, yes and no. I just, like, vibe mostly. Are you a fish?”

“No.” From either side of the of the narrow ravine xB was still slowly sinking into, two sets of glowing orange eyes appeared, bigger then xB was expecting. Those bulbous eyes watched him sink slowly, and xB could do nothing but look back. “We are dangerous to not friends. You are not fish, yes? Are you not friend? Yes or no.”

There is a very particular feeling of dread that comes with realization of being trapped and utterly helpless to get away. It’s prickly, a slow, awful, whole-body sensation, and xB could feel if so deep inside him it threatened to come out in a scream. He was the prey here, and he didn’t even know to what.

“Hard to tell if I am friend or not when I don’t even know who you are. It’s good manners to introduce yourselves, you know.” xB managed to choke out, hoping that if that was the wrong thing to say, at least his death would be king of funny.

“Good… manner?” One voice asked.

“Yeah, like, you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, so we have to talk to each other and figure out if we are friends or not.” xB still hasn’t moved, and those eyes kept following him. He knew he was one wrong word away from a horrible death, but he kept talking. “I’ll start. I am xBcrafted. I mostly hang out on land, but I can also breathe underwater. So like half a fish. And you- oh! You’re blinksharks!” xB had drifted so far down that the two creatures were having to strain themselves to watch him. They both moved, quick and sudden, and with their movement came long lines of bioluminescent light on their skin, and he could see their bodies, and the myths of blinksharks came back to him

“Yes. You know us?”

“Know you? Yeah, I grew up with stories of you!” xB said weakly. As a little guppy, his community elders had told him stories of what lurked deep below the surface of the water. Fish with jagged teeth, microorganisms that ate flesh and scale. But most prominent, at least in xB’s mind, had been the myth of the blinkshark. Huge, ancient creatures that had been slain and saved by the gods. As the legend went, they were like hammerhead sharks, but huge, with bulbous eyes. They were invisible, unless it was already too late. xB had always assumed it was myth to keep the children out of the deeper waters, but there had clearly been more to it. xB stared at the two huge, ancient creatures, and they looked back at him with curiosity.

“You know us by name?” One voice asked.

“But you come from surface. We were once hunted on surface, yes.” Said the other voice. “You hunt us?”

“No.” xB said. “I would never.”

The blinksharks were both eye-level with him now, so it was like being in a bioluminescent tornado. xB felt absolutely tiny, like the guppy he had been when he’d been told those myths.

“Friend.” The voices both spoke as one.

“We take.” One voice said.

“Back to the surface, yes?” The other voice said.

“Yes!” xB said.

“Okay. Don’t move, yes?”

One of the blinksharks moved forward suddenly, tilting its huge head to one side and gently taking xB’s body into its mouth. There was a squeezing sensation, everything went dark for a moment, and then xB was breathing in warm spring air. He looked around- he was lying at the edge of his starter base, a place he hadn’t visited in months. The water of the Hermitsippi River lapped at his clothes gently.

“Home?” One of the blinksharks asked him. He sat up, hissing in pain, and looked into the river, where both blinksharks were crowding the water, causing flooding on the riverbanks. In this space, xB could really appreciate and marvel at how big they were.

“Yes. Thank you. Friends.” xB said. There was a pop, and they were gone. The water that had been displaced rushed back in, flooding xB’s house. But xB didn’t mind, not one bit. The blinksharks had called him friend. They’d spoken to him.

He knew he couldn’t tell a soul about them, had sensed their gentle terror at the mere thought of a hunter in their ocean. But he knew now, could call those ancient beasts friend. And that was incredible.

[thejdblog]

STRANGE WORLD (2022)

[ashleesimpsons]

jessicasimpson: ❤️💚

[louisupdates]

Indonesian Louies have raised money to prevent and treat childhood cancers, in honor of Louis’ 31st birthday. Congratulations!

louisid: We have officially closed our donation drive for Louis' 31st Birthday Project (as we called it Bigger Than Us Project). We’ve raised IDR 9.500.450, 257% of our initial goal 🎉

Massive thank you to everyone who have donated and shared the project, we couldn't do this without all of you!

Thank you to @.yoaifoundation for being our fundraising partner.

[wiiildflowerrr]

@5SOS: Happy holidays everyone ✨2022 has been a dream come true. Thank you for this absolute gift of a year, we couldn’t do it without you. Love you all so much.

23/24 December 2022