#drab drab drab memes

[i-am-kat-hi]

The war of the chemists

[vanalex]

[confettimafia]

Breaking news: Trump chooses running mate J. D. Vance to save a buck on signs by scraping off the Pe nce and scribbling Va nce in with a crayon

I can’t be the only one that noticed this right?

ANYWAYS! Vote!! Register!! Here’s a link for that stuff!!

[xaviergalatis]

Lol

[sweetlittlevampire]

10 Questions

Tagged by @kisahawklin ♥

Rules: answer 10 questions and tag 10 people you want to know better

Relationship status: in a happy relationship - 20th anniversary coming up very soon!

Favorite color: Too many to count. I gravitate towards pastels and saturated colours alike, but I generally only like some shades of yellow, orange, and green. I'm very partial to a good warm pastel (millennial) pink though.

Three favorite foods: strawberries, spaghetti carbonara, couscous

Song stuck in my head: none right now

Last thing I listened to: a news article about a baby that went missing here in 2015 and has never been found

Last thing I googled: the weather forecast

Time: 9:00 pm

Dream trip: I miss Ireland. Like, I really do. And Scotland. I would like to see the aurora, and I don't really care if it would be australis or borealis. But, as a general rule, anywhere where I could meet my friends.

Anything I really want: For my brain to calm down and let me get stuff done so I can become an actually useful human being.

Currently reading: a variety of fanfic.

Last song: I believe it might have been "Dancing with your Ghost" by Sasha Alex Sloan

Last movie: I haven't watched a whole movie in a while.

Last series: I haven't watched a series in a while. My attention span is...not good atm, and my mother hogs the TV, so...yeah. :/

Sweet, savory, or spicy: Yes. (← that was a perfect reply, Kisa, so I'm stealing it.)

Currently working on: surviving, pretty much. I signed up for an RBB and I am wrecking my brain about what to draw, if that counts.

Craving: A hug.

Tea or coffee: Both? Usually more coffee (with milk & sugar), but I won't say no to a nicely brewed tea, though I cannot stand the taste of Earl Grey, for some reason.

Tagging: @waltzing-marionettes , @perkynurples , @unforth , @elvencantation and anyone else who feels like doing this. No pressure though - only if you want to! I know these aren't ten people, but Kisa already tagged the majority of the people I would have tagged too, so there's that.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

I've spent so much of my life perfecting the art of walking on eggshells in largely conservative environments that I think when openly gay people see me in my normie ass ponytail and drab cardigans they probably think I'm homophobia coded. when we make eye contact I probably appear so clenched that to them the intention behind my gaze is impenetrable and alien. It's literally the homura meme.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

so the bit about "foucault thinks hospitals are like prisons! he thinks EVERYTHING is like prisons!" omits the crucial context that foucaults major early writing the memes are obviously referring back to was not about hospitals generically but about psychiatric hospitals

the similarity between prisons and heavy security psych wards is in fact quite palpable. the barred windows and security fences, the spy holes in the cell doors, the lack of a functionally private bathroom in each cell, the drab identifying uniforms, the punishment rooms for isolating particularly dangerous inmates. i cant speak personally for state hospitals (the most direct descendants of the institutions foucault criticised), which tend to heavily restrict access, but i cant imagine they are not a whole lot worse. this isnt really entering into an analysis of either, its just pointing out the comparison is pretty apt and would almost certainly occur to you were you confronted with them in person

[pomrania]

Today's prompts were "drab" and "evil twin". I had such a strong mental image for this piece, that I must have seen a picture like this somewhere before. Not EXACTLY this -- even aside from the whole "plague doctor" thing, there's some bits I changed to make it easier for me to draw -- but with nigh-identical framing. No idea where that might have been though; and honestly, since an earlier concept involved the "Spider-Mans pointing at each other" meme, it's not like I'm particularly worried about being "original" for here.

I'm using the prompts from @plaguefairy and @creep-tober. My progress thread for this piece can be found here.

1-10: here . 11-20: here . 21: "force" + "weird architecture" .

[asharkapologist]

Fandom Opinion Chart + Explanations Under the Cut

I love Giulietta, it's as simple as that,,, her character growth from her selfish attitude towards her sister before the game, to trying to make her way into high society, to returning to her roots but finding love in a man supposed to be her enemy, to trying to stop the gang war that takes almost everything from her, to later leading a resistance against a dictator is incredible to watch. She's the real main character of Crimson Banks and Capital Peak idc. She endures so so much heartache, I cried both times I played In Love and War, that case genuinely makes me feel ill, and yet she manages to get back up because she's just that strong. I hope she was happy after the game ended.

On the other hand, I despise Jack. He makes several sexist comments throughout the game (I've half a mind to compile them to prove my point), and I have no idea how someone as immature and annoying as him managed to get a job in Interpol. His relationship drama with Asal is insufferable to sit through, and the way he constantly whines about her in South America and North America months after they broke up made me want to throw my phone, especially with the awful way he treats her after she's stabbed and almost died. And then in Travel in Time, he's just boring.

I initially didn't like Samson at first because he killed one of my favorite characters for a stupid reason (accompanied by a confusing message--how was Malcolm supposed to know Archie's death was targeted towards him?) but now I love him because his plan was so dumb and he's fun to meme on and he's REALLY hot.

Nebet is like my favorite main antagonist and it's so sad that she's gone for like two whole districts because even though I saw it coming, her betrayal HURT. Like 99% of s6's writing effort went into her, and she would have been a good antagonist even if she hadn't returned after killing her father, but the fact that she comes back and kills her younger self because she changed in exile makes her such an interesting character. I want to know so much about her, her thoughts while she was working with the team, and especially her epiphanies in exile, how she changed in exile and decided to turn against her parents and their goals. That's incredible fanfic material. She's also incredibly beautiful just LOOK AT HER.

Trevor Finn sucks. Fake af shark "expert" who probably just gave himself that title after watching Jaws but never bothered doing any research about sharks because he just spews misinformation and stereotypes about sharks that aren't true. For some reason, Pacific Bay really hated sharks. But other than that, there's not much else to mention about him, when with Jack I at least have stuff to complain about.

I realllly don't like Rozetta and do NOT think she was redeemed, even if Denise was a greater evil. I feel like people brush over the fact that she was KIDNAPPING AND TORTURING HOMELESS PEOPLE TO DEATH. She abducted who knows how many people and conducted horrific, torturous human experimentation on them that only one person (Zoe) survived, and nothing indicated she felt any remorse for those crimes, she only started fighting against Denise when Denise betrayed her and her friends. And even though Zoe escaped, Rozetta started the chain of events that led to Zoe's death. However, that being said, Rozetta is really, really pretty.

Archie is a millionaire and yet he dresses so drab. Lawson isn't as rich as Archie, and yet he dresses more fancy. Also Archie's collar looks weird and like his tie would be strangling him or something

I don't really talk about Penelope, but she (besides Nebet) is my favorite main character of s6! I relate to her a lot because we both like history and writing. I think we'd get along great talking to each other about story ideas, fangirling about fandoms, and talking about history.

Seamus x Giulietta is my favorite because Giulietta is my favorite character and I'm a sucker for tragic, star-crossed lovers. Got really emotionally attached to them even though I knew they wouldn't have a happy ending. Honorable mentions go to Arthur x Bernadine, Archie x Elisa, and Hope x Gwen.

Speaking of Hope x Gwen, they should have been canon instead of Gwen x Pierce. I hate this ship so much. Hope and Gwen had much more chemistry, and the FIRST DISTRICT in s7 proved why Gwen and Pierce wouldn't work out, and then out of nowhere Pierce shows up??? And gets back with Gwen randomly??? Huh??? And they have a kid??? Why. Hope was RIGHT THERE if you wanted someone to comfort Gwen after her mother's death and the complicated relationship she had with her.

I also don't talk about her as much as I should, but I love Priya! I love her character arc, her relationship with Zander is very sweet and well built up throughout the season, and her being a werewolf made her character arc all the more interesting. She's also just a very genuinely kind person, and I feel like she would have been a really good chemistry tutor when I was struggling with it in school lol

Given how annoyed I get with classmates and coworkers who are poor communicators, I would despise being around someone like Frank who's always late, drinking whenever he can, and who treats his female boss incredibly disrespectfully. Plus he eventually becomes a corrupt police officer and yeah, not a fan of those. Wouldn't want to be around one irl. He certainly needs professional help, but I am not the one to give it.

[shoshiwrites]

5 lines of an imaginary fic meme: "the dead of night", Jo/your choice? Please and thank you!

Friend, I don't entirely know what happened here but @floydmtalbert said history outing! and @mercurygray was kind enough to let me kidnap Fred.

She wonders whose idea it was, deciding that the flyboys needed a little bit of culture — her money was decidedly not on the new CO — but maybe Red Bowman had had something to do with it, she figures, sipping a rare indulgence at a corner table, a mug of cider golden and cloudy with fruit.

Culture had meant a half-circle of olive drab standing around a bespectacled professor who looked every inch the part — well, now he was sitting at the bar with Harry Crosby, discussing something or other about the War of the Roses, Jo had heard when she’d passed around the room earlier — but she wasn’t sure just how much attention he’d held other than Harry’s, and maybe John Brady’s, although, Brady might have been looking for a distraction, his gaze alternating between the yellowing leaves above and the ash-blonde braid of a certain Clubmobiler, still watching her now across the pub, as she chats with her colleagues. 

Cruikshank — Crank — he’s a good sport for a quote about missing fall in New England, sidled up against the bar, and Jo’s mind wanders back to the professor’s remarks on folklore, on witchcraft, on the history that lay beneath their steps — yes, yours too, young man, he’d fixed a stage-whispering Biddick with a look that made everyone laugh — underpinning everything. 

She thinks of late fall, though it’s only September, of moonlit nights and moonless ones, horses’ hooves along ancient roads, of declarations and accusations, invocations, graves — if she closes her eyes maybe the chatter in the pub is something of the olden days, the townspeople’s squabbles and songs, a knight’s pining for a love forbidden. 

God, she thinks, I’ve been reading too many novels — she’s sure Kay would be laughing, and before she can take another sip of her drink she’s caught by the arrow of John Egan’s voice hitting the back wall, “one dance,” he’s saying, “just one,” and before she can tell him that no one’s dancing she’s proven wrong by the scrape of chairs being moved and sudden negotiations; she watches Fred and her friends looking around, Crank approaching a pretty English girl in a yellow dress, Biddick elbowing Brady in the ribs. 

Kay would kill her if she didn’t, not that she’d have to tell her at all, but something pulls her up and it’s not just his hands, not just her own heart — something like a forgotten holloway, a shining face in the firelight, a moment in his arms bringing woodsmoke on the wind.

[ofallthingsnasty]

This is highly unlikely to happen BUT imagine the show Wife Swap (old american reality show from the early 2000s). I never saw a single episode and don’t intend to but the premise is simple (and really weird lmao): two wives from vastly different families swap households for a while. Shenanigans ensue.

Anyways, there is not a chance in hell Crocodile would let his basement wife anywhere near Doflamingo, but imagine some devil fruit fuckery swaps basement wife and the family pet temporarily. Everyone, except for Doflamingo maybe, will be having a really hard time until wife and pet can be located and brought back to their proper places

Oh, anon if only you knew - the German version was a huge part of my tween years, mainly because of one specific meme that came out of it (Frauentausch-Andreas)💀 The thought is so fucking funny, though. Idk what it is about dark content with a crack-treated-seriously twist, but it makes me laugh.

tw. crack treated seriously, noncon (only for Doffy), basement wife is fat + fem, family pet is gn as always

Oh my god, call that basement wife's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. You thought your cartoonishly evil pseudo-husband was bad? Hah, you know absolutely nothing, you stupid little thing. When Doflamingo scrapes you out of the crate instead of his little bipedal dog, he's confused - but he can put two and two together, and quickly at that. Obviously, you're not some assassin (really, what kind of strategy is that? Killing one of his family, making the body disapear and then wait for him to appear? Hilariously bad, honestly), not some spy and you really, really aren't the one who's supposed to sit in that cage. And when you start crying the moment he asks you what the hell you're doing here, he knows this isn't intentional. At all. Another once-over, a look at your weird little outfit, at the clunky stone on your hand and it clicks - he only knows one man with a similar taste in clothing and jewelry. Would you look at that, it's Crocodile's well-kept (and apparently not-so-little) secret. Reality can be stranger than fiction, huh? He's real nice after that epiphany. Too nice. Sits you down with a cup of tea like you're old friends, seats himself across from you, legs perched on the table while he smiles. Chats. Laughs. Acts overly familiar. It's bizarre to witness - but he's trying to glean what exactly you, the little teary-eyed butterball you are, offer Crocodile over him. Really, he's a little hurt: you're drab and soggy and soft in more ways than one, you cower and snivel in front of him like some beaten dog. The only fact that saves you from being mind-numbingly boring is that you're immensely valuable to Crocodile - and it makes ideas pop up in his head. He really likes the way you're stunned into silence when he suddenly uses his powers to immobilize you, right as you're in the middle of talking. And he gets why Crocodile keeps you around when you're bent over the table and he fucks you until you're just a sobbing mess. It's at least a little different from his usual endeavours and he takes his sweet time with you, leaves some evidence for the other man to discover later on. Once the mix-up is solved, Doflamingo hands you back dressed entirely in pink and with a thousand yard stare in your eyes. Will ask Crocodile about you every time he sees him from then on, a shit-eating grin on his face while the other almost loses it.

On the other hand, family pet does pretty well, considering the circumstances. I'd even argue it's the best you've been in years - because someone is treating you like an actual person, for once. Even if they aren't being kind. Crocodile is wary, of course - every single member of Doflamingo's posse is not to be taken lightly - but he also knows you. The fucking bird dragged you into official meetings enough for you to be a familiar face to him. He's furious, seething, beyond angry - but it's not necessarily directed at you. Doflamingo has to be behind all of this, he's sure of it, and you're just the collateral. (Admittedly, weird collateral, as you're the apple of Doflamingo's eye, always kept on his arm, cooed at, just treated like some ghoulish human pet, but who knows how the bird works? He sure as hell doesn't.) He'll probaby try to squeeze some information out of you (and when that doesn't help, he'll just plop you into a seastone cage and try to solve the mystery on his own. Yeah, he almost killed you minutes before - but then again, maybe you're worth something? He can always get rid of you later, maybe you do still have some value... He's feeling a lot of emotions, give him a minute.) Really, it's not that bad. You've been through worse. When everything is cleared up, I think he'd even let you take a bath and feed you a proper meal (on a plate!! A plate! Not a bowl!) before he'll trade you back in for his weirdly apathetic looking wife...

[vanalex]

[ceekbee]

(An editorial I wrote on the Trump election for Policy Magazine)

Orwell Redux: 1984 has Arrived, Just a Little Late

It took 40 years, but 1984 has finally arrived, with red MAGA hats replacing Orwell’s drab, totalitarian grey. But make no mistake, Donald Trump’s massive win was a Triumph of Orwellian slogans over democratic engagement. It was driven by an apparent longing for manipulative simplicity in the face of complex global realities.

Having grown up in the 1980s, I thought I knew something about Orwell’s 1984 vision of a future of mass surveillance and strongman control. But Big Tech promised to liberate us from this nightmare future. What was clear on election night, however, is that Big Tech money and technology toxified democratic engagement and drove the agenda of a faux-populist grifter.

Are you old enough to remember that night in January, 1984, when a small-time California computer company called Apple went all-in with a Super Bowl ad directed by Ridley Scott? The ad brilliantly played on our 1984 fears with a crowd of shorn cyberslaves mesmerized by Big Brother brainwashing them on a jumbotron. The defining moment comes when a female athlete appears in vivid colour and hurls a sledgehammer at the screen, shutting down the propaganda feed amid a shower of sparks.

And then the punch line, “You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”

We were sold. I know I was. The dystopian future could be beaten. Silicon Valley promised a future of connectivity, individual autonomy and freedom. All we had to do was buy the gadgets.

And then more gadgets. And then more.

In the 80s, 90s and for good parts of the 2000s I was one of the many believers in the premise that if people had the power to do their own research, create networks of increasingly large groups who only knew each other through their digital IP address it would inevitably lead to spreading creativity and democracy. How could it not make people smarter and more engaged?

The Silicon Valley pioneers presented themselves as idealistic mavericks willing to move fast and break the stodgy political, economic structures holding us back. But that wasn’t the real story of the Big Tech revolution. It was born as a project of the US military. And from the beginning, the digital revolution was driven by a culture of toxic alpha-male libertarianism. By the time it exploded onto the world stage in the mid 1980s, author Max Fisher writes in The Chaos Machine that it was deeply rooted, in “the unashamed capitalism of the Reagan ’80s.” These “mavericks” believed that they had the right to arbitrarily rewire democracy and society.

What could possibly go wrong?

The 1984 Mac ad promised individual autonomy in the face of looming mass conformity and state surveillance. What we failed to grasp is the cost that came from allowing a few tech giants to rewire everything from democracy to our personal relationships. We paid little attention as our every online move was tracked by ever more-powerful machine-driven AI. Few noticed when our online “experiences” were siloed into increasingly isolated chambers of information. And only the tech giants knew that the secret sauce of the digital revolution was that disinformation and rage was the most powerful driver to keep our eyes locked on our screens.

I write this as a recovering digital utopian. Our global economies have been rewired to the benefit of libertarian capitalists and our addiction to gadgets has led to measurable breakdowns in social trust and rising online hate.

My Facebook feed has become a swamp of ugly and vicious memes generated by AI and Bot farms attacking the prime minister, climate action and “woke” individuals who dare express concern for environment or minority rights. As an elected official who has dealt with relentless harassment, I just recently received my first AI-generated death threat. It is such a far cry from those idealistic, Google “Don’t be evil” days when we believed internet interactions would inevitably build community, not tear them down. For a few years, it worked.

We looked to defy an Orwellian future defined by lies. But what we learned is that in a 140 (or even 280)-character world, slogans move quicker than truth. And what has driven the right-wing power of Trump, Bolsanaro and other propaganda actors is the exploitation of the immediacy and seduction of the internet to weaponize thought in the form of slogans that tap into a proud, defiant, terrified vulnerability.

How does democracy compete with that?

The connection between Trump and Silicon Valley goes deeper than how the Steve Bannons of the world broke the political code on rage algorithms. Huge amounts of money were used to ensure Trump’s election because right-wing tech billionaires understood the irresistible connection between the rise of AI, profits and undemocratic government power. Ben Tarnoff, writing in the New York Review of Books, states that Silicon Valley venture capitalists see Trump as key to the “linkages between the public and private sectors…in which tech companies would partner with the state to strengthen its coercive capacities at home and abroad.”

It took four decades, but 1984 finally arrived. It isn’t the grey world of military strongmen but an ugly marriage of toxic AI, billionaire capitalists and grifter politicians. What is perhaps the most dystopian factor of all, is just how cynical and mean it is.

I know that there are other lessons from the 80s to show us a better way. They are the pre-millennial memories that can help unwire our lives into a more sustainable future.

Policy Contributing Writer Charlie Angus is the MP for Timmins-James Bay and frontman for the band Grievous Angels. His new book Dangerous Memory Coming of Age in the Decade of Greed is published by House of Anansi Press

[the-pen-pot]

#5 for the fic writers asks game

5. How many wips do you have?  What fandoms/pairings are they for?

*Whispers* So many. At the moment I have five Merthur ones in the Merlin fandom (King & Court, Sigh No More, Love Is Never Lost, Hiraeth (obviously) and an as yet untitled one.

Three in the Sherlock fandom, all Johnlock - Tipping The Scales (Merman Sherlock), Guard of Diocletian (Shapeshifter Sherlock) and L'Appel Du Vide (Van Helsing John and Vampire Sherlock.

Two in the Hobbit fandom, Bagginshield, Quarantine and Where The Heart Is.

Plus a few others scattered here and there.

Hiraeth's the only WiP currently updating on AO3 currently, because it's my "main" wip, the rest are being written in dribs and drabs over on Patreon.

The days wher I only had one WiP are long, long gone!

Thanks for your question, @alexagirlie! (And if any one else is interested, the meme is here)

[fkajohnlennon]

For the fic writers ask meme, could you let me know more about 6.) Paris is lovely this time of the year/ golden age

and/or

5.) catboy?! Pretty please!

Sooooo Golden Age is my golden age of cinema AU, where both John and Paul are actors during, you guessed it the 1930s-1940s. Can two Liverpudlian boys make it AND find love in Hollywood??

May 1937

The air of the party was warm and thick— the summer humidity compounded with the heat of bodies packed into the parlor like sardines in a tin. Overall, the affair had been an absolute drag to John, with only sips of his wormwood cocktail and his funny cigarette to tide him over. Next to him, some man was droning on and on about how there was going to be a war on ‘any day now’, and boy, wasn’t that just terrible? It did nothing for the mood of the party, one so drab it made the Hindenburg seem an awful good time.

“John!” a hand clapped John on the shoulder so abruptly, he nearly dropped his glass.

“Bloody Hell,” he yipped, feeling his eyebrows pinch together, “trying to make me shit meself, Stu?”

Stewart was the man behind him— a handsome lad who’d served as John’s confidant the past two years. They’d started as roommates in the Land of Angels, two blokes within the confines of Liverpool looking for their big break on the other side of the ocean. They’d barely met when they packed their bags and took a steamliner dead across, then hopping from train to train with one trunk between them until they made it to Hollywood.

Thankfully, they had a bit more than a trunk between them now.

A bit.

Stu was grinning like a madman when John whipped around, his arm wound around some choirboy-looking attendee who couldn’t be anything but a fan, the way his eyes shone with stars in the low light.

“John, this is Paul. He’s from Liverpool!” Stewart said with such gusto, John felt his stomach curl.

“Hello,” the boy, Paul, said in a voice so soft, saccharine—hell, posh—John could only grimace at the greeting.

“Scouse you say?” John asked, ignoring the interloper in front of him. “Sounds more like His Highness to me.” He took a deep drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke out into the boy’s face.

It would take more than that to unseat Stu once he got started on something, though. He rolled his eyes but kept his smile in place, ignoring the way Paul’s eyes narrowed from the sting of smoke. “Oh, come off it. Don’t blame the lad for knowing how to play the game. Paul, didn’t you say that you booked a gig just last week?”

John glared at Paul as the other man looked to meet his gaze. “Two, actually. Commercial, one is, but the other is a background actor for Sweethearts.”

“Oi, MGM,” Stu nodded while stealing John’s cigarette, “that’s a big’un. Fancy introducing me to the director?”

John ignored Stu, now much more focused on the haughty grin of the kid in front of him. “Right, I thought I’d seen you somewhere.” John waved his glass at Paul. “Catsup advertisement posted down at the pharmacy. Givin’ out free samples?” And John chuckled at his own wit. Because really, he knew it wasn’t Paul in the advertisement, but a bird who looked much the same— short pin curls and tarty eyelashes about three inches from her face.

[goingxmissing]

💖 & 🍄 (bc i think it will be so interesting to see your answer!!!) 😘

killing me and making me talk about myself 😭 handwriting ask meme dropping in dribs and drabs <3