#i choked up for real.

[flagellant]

The more I think about Wildmender the more I grow invested in it. It's a fascinating interpretation of terra nil and solarpunk since so often the genre is fundamentally rooted in settler-colonialist philosophy, and even games which are intended to be the opposite of that--terra nil comes to mind as the obvious one--just end up actually revealing a different side of the factorio problem, because terra nil is an incredible impersonal restoration of ecological systems. Terra Nil acknowledges climate destruction on a global catastrophic scale and it accepts the responsibility to fix that, but it isn't shown as a human act, nor does it really allow itself the realism of just how terrifyingly impossible the task is to try and literally fix the entire world. Its game structure is supposed to be the anti-factorio but its puzzle structures focusing on efficiency and robotic engineering patterns of rewilding end up feeling more like a dialogue than an inversion. It's trying to say that the idea of humanity as fundamentally destructive is wrong while it doesn't actually ever address the human element.

And then there's fucking Wildmender. A game where you are a single human child in a world of endless wasteland and death, where the only other things are ghosts who remember a halcyon era and the hubris that ended it, wraiths which are consumed by their own greed and destruction of the land for their cursed immortality, and a couple god statues. The entire map is just ceaseless grief, filled with the literal dessicated remains of all the biodiversity that came before the countless disasters. And it's a big fucking map.

And then...the game gives you a shovel and a sickle and a mirror that shows the wraiths what twisted reflections they've become.

And the game says, "The entire world is waiting to be better, and the only way to do that is by doing it yourself, long and hard and hopeless as it seems."

I cannot emphasize enough how overwhelming the task you're handed. There is not a single speck of life left in the world. You are given a shovel and a water bottle and just...expected to do something about it. To look at the literal endless wastes and think you can heal it.

This is what Wildmender cherishes that Terra Nil denies: This is an impossible task for you alone. But it has to be done...and you can actually do it. The way you can turn sand into soil and dig irrigation channels is beautiful. Every single scrap of land that you reclaim is something you had to do on purpose. You had to do it yourself. You had to actively choose how to do it.

And the game makes the reward of even just getting a bit more water into the sand feel like victory. Your starting oasis turns from soil into lush and beautiful meadows--sure, technically instantaneously by doing magic on a specific type of plant. But it took me 4-5 hours before I got there. You have to travel so far into the desert to learn how to grow grass again, and then you realize that this endless hostile wasteland is a fraction of the map you're given. And you look at this sudden profusion of meadowy grassland surrounding your spring and despite how sudden it feels you remember how big the world is. You made more progress in a minute than you did in 5 hours and it's not even a speck on the map. How the fuck is this gonna happen?

And the answer is by accepting that it's going to take a long fucking time and a lot of hard work.

That's how it's gonna happen. Get to work.

[heart-select]

Honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips

[theloveinc]

jason todd x reader - as a guy who also just happens to be a parent?

(warnings: parenting!au, you're not gendered i think but you got a UTI lol. it's not mentioned where this baby came from tho except that she's from jason)

Jason Todd is the dad who puts too much bubblebath in the bath tub because he doesn’t read the instructions.

I mean, it’s a few (large, very large) spoonfuls of kiddie soap (given he just rips the cap off and pours for a good five seconds), it can’t be worse than the time in his 20s when he forgot to buy body soap for one of his safe houses and was forced to wash with the minuscule amount of dish soap he scrounged up from under the sink. Wouldn’t have been such a problem, ‘cept for the fact you had sex afterward and he didn’t feel like fessing up when, a few days later, you developed a UTI.

Anyway—

You find him in the bathroom trying to downplay the fact the tub is overflowing with shiny, opalescent bubbles and your daughter is squealing with excitement. His big, vigilante ass is slipping around the bathroom in wet socks, trying to make dissipate the rainbow-sheened foam as she flaps her hands in pleasure and ruins his progress by making them fly.

“Oh my god, she’s gonna choke on them, Todd,” you scurry to the side of the tub, pulling her soaking wet and naked body from the water. She kicks her feet against you, clearly displeased by the sudden transition from warm and cozy (and covered with soap) to… dripping water against dry cloth.

She whines, reaching for Jason, who’s still puzzling over the mess that has seeped onto the floor surrounding the tub. He points half a glare at you, faking annoyance at being caught in such a silly mishap.

(In his mind, there are much more dangerous things to worry about than a bath full of bubbles. He didn't even have a bathtub as a kid. Besides, drowning in bubbles sounds like the best way to go, in his opinion. Not that he wants his daughter to die, god forbid, he'd kill before he let that happen, and he’s cursing himself for even letting the thought fester so.)

“I was just about to fix it,” he huffs, pulling down the shower hose. Before he even reaches for the tap, however, you’re nudging him out of the bathroom with your hip and a cold and fussy child.

“Spraying water around will just make it worse!"

-

Takes JT a bit to manage the… washing a toddler’s hair thing, too. The amount of times your daughter has ended up with water in her eyes because he forgot to cup his hand over her forehead when he was pouring the clean water over her head… is just, lmao.

He’s good at giving your tykes showers, speedy at it, in and out when there’s not enough time in the evening to have them at the park for two hours and splash around in the tub (Todd children need the exercise, otherwise they’re up all night long, kicking around in your bed sheets—which is funny because Jason is more bothered by it than you, especially when they pinch his nose to get him to stop snoring. It always ends up with them scruffed by the necks as he drags them back to their own beds, giggling).

But baths are a whole other story. They’re part of your routine, and the kids prefer it that way, cuz you know which toys need to float on which side of the tub, and which rag belongs to who, and how to successfully tilt the kids’ heads back so that you can rinse their hair without the soap running into their eyes.

Jason, on the other hand, forgets. Or doesn’t forget, but makes bath time so splashy and fun that he forget that rinse time isn’t just about pouring water over their little heads to make them laugh.

The kids always have fun when dad gives them a bath…until water is getting in someone’s eyes or up someone’s nose (and then returning the gesture before Jason can wrangle the chaos it all causes and stop water from going up the walls) and you have to pop in and give all of them (Jason included, given his clothes are already soaking wet from the splashing) a rough scrub just to finish the job.

-

Jason Todd also struggles with getting his children to wear jackets. Function over fashion is his motto, as he tries to make your daughter put a large puffer over the shiny princess dress she chose to wear, much to her tiny, toddler-version of chagrin. She’s a wiggly one, just like him, making him do the labor of stuffing her in the jacket arm by arm.

“’M not cold, daddy.”

He’s just got her other arm through the sleeve of the coat when he realizes she shook the first one free.

Jason sighs, on his knees in the foyer, sounding like he sounds when he’s arguing with his brothers; half-humorous, more defeated. “You’re gonna be, sweetheart.”

She looks just like him with her cute lips curled downward. “No, ‘m not.”

“Yes,” he manages to wrap both of her little hands in his grip so that she can’t weasel her way out of his next attempts to get her back in the jacket. He gives her his most serious eyes, and the two of them glare identically at one another as he pulls the zipper up to her throat. “You are.”

Worst is when he manages to get a little hat on her, too, right on top the dark braid you so carefully weaved over her shoulder. She stomps, pulling away from him and swatting when he reaches back out to try and settle it over her forehead.

“Dada, my hair, it’ll muss.”

And Jason Peter is sighing and sticking one big hand on the crown of her head. “It stays on until the park. Then we’ll fix the muss.”

(Of course, the second you show up at the park, she’s ripping everything but the dress off and running in her little plastic heels into the sandbox. All of his struggle, for nothing.)

[dieselocelot]

are you going to strangle me next?

[galaxy-fleur]

Going strictly off of CV here, but I sooo love how vastly different Wesker is in his treatment of Chris vs everyone else. He's so detached and methodical in his violence towards Claire, treating her as nothing but a nuisance that isn't worth half his effort. In a way, that makes his cruelty towards her even scarier, knowing he literally just does not care enough to give her the time of day or treat her as a person worth making much direct conversation to. And, of course, the only moments he does show some personal interest with her is when he's pondering the possibility of hurting Chris through causing harm to her. He does not care about Claire or her pain, not one bit. He's only keeping her under his boot so she doesn't cause trouble. The only thing he does care about is Chris' potential response to what he's doing.

Compare this to his beat downs with Chris. He's fully engaged with him, practically bursting with emotion, be it glee, malice or pride. With Claire, he is methodical, calculated. With Chris, you can argue he is almost purposefully showing off to him on some level. He needs to see that shocked look in his eyes, and he'll make sure he gets exactly that. It does make you wonder which version of Wesker is scarier to deal with. The cold, detached one that will get rid of you in the quickest, most efficient way possible without batting an eye? Or the pompous, sadistic one that will gladly take his sweet time tormenting you, if only to have you squirming at his feet for his own entertainment?

I love this duality in him, genuinely. You could argue he makes himself vulnerable with Chris by getting so lost in the chase, so to speak. Which is another interesting point to think about. Either way, Wesker is one cruel guy to have to deal with.

[emeraldotter]

keep reaching out

[kittykatninja321]

my controversial (?) opinion is that I am not opposed to objectifying men I just wish the Nightwing butt thing wasn’t so corny

[logansdoe]

Putting your hand in his hair and slowly dragging it down to his jaw to rest it there QGHSHHS— I will kms

[augustatheghost]

"chris and i were very careful and very judicious in the way we interacted physically" yeah yeah yeah

[doesnotloveyou]

"why is my fave actor still in a dumb franchise 😢" there's this lil important thing called CONTRACT LAW where, if you are 22 and you sign up to do say 11 movies in a franchise (*cough* Sebastian Stan), but the contract doesn't say when those movies will release....you could still be stuck in that franchise into your 50's

"oh, they really love the franchise that's why they're still in it 🤡" could be, or could be they signed their life away to it and have little choice. if they rely on the franchise for their income---a number which can go up or down---they better not talk trash

"why would such a good actor pick such a stinker film???"

they read an amazing script, signed up to be in the film, but NO LAW says the studio cannot completely change the script, their character, and everything else about the movie after they've signed

they heard that an actor/director they like will be in it, or were directly asked to join by someone on the project they respect

they genuinely need the paycheck (which CAN be protected by law) the same way other people work at McDonald's

they wanted to try something new (some actors do get bored, guys)

they prefer indies where the managers are dedicated to the craft not the box office lottery

shockingly, their every move is NOT dictated by strangers on the internet, aka fans

[specialmouse]

X

[eonars]

Ok couple things I want opinions on:

- do I venture out to the art store I've never been to today and see if they have panel boards and maybe some nicer equipment than just the regular hobby store even though it's above freezing today after a full day of snow. I have to go to the grocery store regardless so I have to go out in the ice but the grocery store is much closer than the art store. I have spikes for my boots

- guy off an app who described himself as a pleasure dom and who keeps sending me crunchy jpegs of like I WANNA MAKE YOU WHIMPER WHILE WE WATCH HORROR MOVIES TOGETHER on snap wants to meet me tonight and I genuinely cannot be bothered. Tempted to just block him out of the blue and not have to deal w it anymore but iono. I think I already know the answer to this one just needed to throw it out there

[kismetconstellations]

(Do not seek this author out, please.)

I can't believe this even needs to be said, but... If you look at Voltron: Legendary Defender's Takashi Shirogane and see a potential Alternate Universe Christian Grey, you are not writing about Takashi Shirogane. You're writing about your own ideal, wish-fulfillment Daddy Dom boyfriend inspired by Takashi Shirogane's physicality with absolutely no regard for his personality.

You know, this one?

@sockdooe, When you commented that so many people reduce Shiro to a dildo for their favorite/self-insert character, you were not exaggerating in the slightest.)

[joelletwo]

PLAY ON THE PLAYGROUND TOGETHER...........................

[chicago-geniza]

Looking at the weather forecast and I imagine next week will be mostly pendulum-ing between the poles of "if I don't have at least one window open I get claustrophobic and dust-allergy-asphyxiated and Die" and "it is 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside"

[mafaldinablabla]

It's less than a month that I start having suicidal thoughts on top of depressing ones when I'm really tired including after the weekly yoga class but it could mean anything right haha right?