#i want heads to roll

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I usually balk at those annoying liberals who blame normal people for red state regression, "this is what you get for voting Republican, this is your fault, I hope you got what you wanted," because 9 times out of 10 it's the politicians who are the problem. They are no longer beholden to a majority (not sure they ever really were), and completely divorced from reality, but sometimes I do have to wonder why normal people love them so much. It's one thing to defend voters in Wisconsin or Texas where things are close to 50-50 and the state legislatures have gerrymandered themselves into a permanent majority regardless of the popular vote, but then you have ethnostates like Idaho and Wyoming that are like >80% Republican and >90% white, and I have to come to terms with the fact that a lot of my countrymen really do want everyone who isn't them to live in squalor. Idaho; no abortions, no traveling out of state for abortions, a lot of hospitals no longer delivering babies because they're afraid of getting sued by the government for imaginary abortions, it's an unlivable hellscape for women, and yet a supermajoroty support the fucking Handmaid's Tale. How can anyone be single issue in today's climate? How can anyone ignore the glaring breaches of freedom just because their representative hates the same people they do? Florida's no better, we're arguably worse, what with the fucking demon we have as a governor, I just don't understand why anyone wants to live like this? How can a party that has controlled the government unopposed for decades shift blame onto the side that has been out of power the whole time? Why is there so much wanton cruelty? Are we really a society of sociopaths who just want to do harm for harm's sake? It's like the people who voted for the Leopards Eating Faces Party have stopped complaining that the leopards are eating their faces and are instead embracing it like it is their civic duty.

"I regret that I have but one face to give for my leopard!"

[hinamie]

new official illust of them with puppies healed something in me

[teaboot]

Sometimes at work it's not my place to tell people the things I want to say, and I find I often go home at the end of the rougher days to stand blankly in my shower and tell myself over and over what I wish I could pass on.

This accomplishes very little, and mostly just gives me a tension headache, but through it all I think I've narrowed myself down to a few solid things I'd like to tell people the most.

You can't change people. Not permanently, not for anythig. You can support them, encourage them, love them, give them tools and opportunities and resources, but you can't make them change. They can change themselves if they want to, but they have to want to, and they have to want it for themselves, because they're the only one that's certain to be with them forever.

For better or worse, you make your own choices, and blaming bad choices on others doesn't only work to absolve you of responsibility- it also robs you of control. Because if you say you only did something because I did something, then you arent only shifting blame- you're admitting that you cannot control yourself, that you cannot truly make choices for yourself, that other people can control you- and as long as you truly beleive that, you'll keep facing the same problems over and over. You'll keep letting others dictate your choices, because you'll beleive that they can, and you'll never be free.

White knights on horseback are from fairytales. Nobody can help you if ou're not willing to help yourself. To try, to put the dirty work in, to belive you're worth that effort- Act as though nobody is coming to save you. From a struggle, from pain, from bad relationships, from yourself. And when you do save yourself, because you will, because failure here isn't an option if you want to survive, you'll never find another dragon that can keep you prisoner.

Don't say anything to anyone that you wouldn't want them remembering forever.

Doing the right thing in bad circumstances is hard. It's the hardest thing. But if you make the choice to do that hard thing anyways, despite your fear, you'll go on the rest of your like knowing that you're the sort of person who did something.

The present only seems the hardest because the past I over and the future hasn't happened.

There's so much joy ahead of you, the kind you can't possibly understand until you see it yourself.

The responsibility of consequences is often disguised as the power of permission. "I won't do this if you help me", "I'll work on my anger if you do this for me", "I promised you I'd quit, but can I have just one?". The unspoken question is, "Can it be your fault if this goes badly?"

You cant make someone love you the way you need to be loved. Someone can love you very much and still be bad for you, even if you love them very much in return. Two people can love each other very, very much, and try their very best, and still be wrong for each other.

Sometimes being near to someone changes you, even in good ways, and the people you become don't fit together as well as the people you were.

Caring takes work. Even if it's real. Especially if it's real. And the most important gestures aren't the grand, poetic, songs-and-flowers-and-tears moments; they're getting out of bed even though you don't want to. Paying attention to things you don't enjoy. Scrubbing pans, or opening a window, saying "thank-you", or helping carry groceries into the house. The small things fill the big things- without the small, boring, mediocre things, big things feel hollow.

Thrre is honour and dignity in humble work.

If you are a cruel and spiteful person, then you will find every place you visit to be full of the same cruel, spiteful people. This is not because the world is as cruel as you, but because everywhere you are, you will be disliked. This is the curse that comes with being persistently cruel and spiteful.

If you are a kind and ppsitive person, you will repeatedly encounter kind and positive people, because as they grow familiar with you, they will be happier to have you near. This is the reward of being a kind and positive person.

When splitting paths with loved ones, briefly or forever, aim for your last words to always be "I love you".

[zombolouge]

The thing is, it's not about the Therapy Speak. It's not that everyone who disliked DAV hates healthy communication as a dynamic in fiction. It's not even about only being allowed to be a good guy, really, because most of us did do that anyways (though the option not being there is a loss I grieve even if I never chose it myself, but that's another rant for another day).

It's that DAV does all that stuff at the expense of being believable. At the expense of characters being permitted to have personalities. At the expense of emotions behaving the way emotions actually work for people. At the expense of letting the plot build tension through the stakes we're forced to grapple with.

Half the fics out there take the conflicts between the characters in the previous games and resolve them. I do it myself ALL THE TIME because I like to find a path to resolution through just about any conflict, that's what fascinates me about telling these stories. But the higher the stakes, the harder a conflict is to resolve. You CAN resolve any conflict, you CAN communicate healthily through any emotion, but you can't skip the time it takes to process it all to even be able to communicate it. As someone whose got CPTSD and recovered from many Traumas, I can tell you that the TIME it takes to work through it is not something you can fast track, and the ups and downs of your emotions on that journey can't be skipped. It doesn't matter if you know exactly how to do it, exactly how it's going to feel, or exactly what the end state will be, you CAN'T speedrun it.

DAV has stakes that are astronomical, but nobody treats them that way. Nobody experiences denial - a common psychological reaction to being presented with information that shatters your worldview. Nobody expresses any distrust in the establishments handing out this information - something common among cultures that have at times been at war, even if those wars are "resolved" in the present. Nobody really ever breaks down - something that any person is capable of under extreme circumstances, especially when facing multiple crises of faith that challenge everything they thought they knew about themselves. Nobody blows their lid because they've been repressing the hell out of everything. Nobody grieves for southern Thedas, the entire thing dying off screen and giving you, the player, NO way to engage with it in any way.

Not to mention there are barely any inter-party conflicts, when there should be a lot more. Why is everyone (except Spite) fine with it if Emmrich sacrifices Manfred to become a lich? Why is everyone fine with Illario potentially being set free if he was working with the venatori and Elgar'nan, two sources that have actively attacked everyone in the party? Why doesn't Neve resent Lucanis if Treviso is picked? Why doesn't Harding get pissed off at Nevarra for having a secret society of liches that never helped during the Inquisition's war against the breach and corypheus? Why doesn't Harding feel ANYTHING about Ferelden and the rest of the south? Shouldn't Harding resent the fact that she's stuck in the north while her home dies?

All of these conflicts ARE resolvable, but not easily. And it's not believable that they're never brought up. It's not believable that these characters skip through everything that happens with like, barely a frowny face most of the time. In DAO, Alistair leaves if you don't treat his conflicts with respect. In DA2, your party members try to kill each other if you don't pay attention to their conflicts/emotional needs. In DAI, people can leave or betray you, Cassandra throws a chair at Varric and tries to body him out a window. ALL of these can be resolved but it takes effort, and the characters get to SHOW that they're bothered by them and struggling the way a person would when faced with those emotions.

The problem isn't the therapy speak, or that everyone is loyal and won't leave, or that they aren't mean to each other enough. It's that it's toxic positivity. It's toxic as fuck to imply that anger or grief should be smiled over or else you're giving up, and it's damaging to people to avoid engaging with their own negative emotional responses to extremely negative stimuli. It's pasting optimism over very real, very weighty issues, sweeping it all under the rug, and you keep waiting for the lid to blow off the pressure cooker that creates, but it never does. It never becomes anything that emulates real emotions, which is why the whole damn thing feels hollow. Everything's dying and nobody cares, not even about themselves, and that's NOT healthy communication.

It's bullshit, half-assed storytelling that didn't tell us the actual story, just the vague idea of what it could have been.

[shawsimmer]

a sulani trip for mars' birthday :)

i've finally escaped the toddler phase yippeee

[heartfulselkie]

Marinette: (furiously knitting)

Marinette: (furiously drawing)

Marinette: (furiously baking)

Marinette: (furiously optimizing hero squad's patrols)

Marinette: (furiously brainstorming new ways the hero squad can help Paris)

Marinette: (back to furiously drawing but not the same one as before)

Alya: you know - just because you have an idea doesn't mean you have to act on it

Marinette: what?

Alya: you don't have to do every idea you ever think of

Marinette: what are you talking about and also how dare you

[karvakera]

blehhh sillae

[krazieka2]

Vampire Mercedes lore doodles (and vampire Lorenz bullying)

[namelessprince]

bunch of random jrwi sketches :3

reminder my commissions are open :D

[yuwuta]

gojo would kill your work husband. but if he were the work husband, that's a different story

REAL!! he’s such a hypocrite because if someone mentioned you had a work husband, his entire world would stop and he wold devise the absolute worst plans to make sure that your co-worker, everyone at your job, and everyone in the next building over knew that he was happily committed to you 

but if he is the work husband, he’s very........ dutiful in his role. there’s a loose office/lawyer au in my head where satoru is your secretary, and for all intents and purposes, your personal assistant, and he’s good at his job, but mostly because he considers his job to be pleasing you. he has coffee for you when you arrive, he moves your schedule around without you asking, he has answers to questions before you can even ask them, he has fresh flowers on your desk weekly, pokes into your meetings to pretend to hand you a file that’s really just maybe a single document in a manilla folder with candy on top of it—he’s made himself your business, your partner; he’s made himself irreplaceable, and he loves to remind everybody of that fact. 

he’s also extremely loyal. sure, he could day a week’s worth of work done in about a day, but that doesn’t mean he’ll just use his talents for anybody. he’s your secretary, so he’s at your beck and call, and everyone knows it. they know he’s the best, but also that he’s off limits—not because you won’t share him, but because satoru won’t let himself be shared. 

he also extends his duties beyond work, of course. when he hands you a print out of your schedule for the day and you’re confused by the three-hour block of time you have in the middle of the day, satoru just helps you shrug your coat of your shoulders and smiles, “that’s for the lunch date you have with me, of course!” hanging up your coat in your closet for you, “i’m paying, see you soon, sweets.” and because you’re great at your job, and satoru helps you be great, nobody really questions when the two of you have time for a 13-course tasting menu at 1pm on a tuesday afternoon. and if they did, all satoru would say that you two had a lovely date 

[whatev-i-guess]

Ghost: Hey, what's wrong?

Soap: Why do you assume that something is wrong?

Ghost: Because you are the sunshine of the team and your sun isn't shining.

Soap: Never asked to be the "sunshine", you all just made me one.

Ghost: Yeah okay, what's wrong with you today?

Soap: I am just... not feeling good.

Ghost gently taking Soap's hand: Well, then let me help you to feel better instead of pushing me away.

Soap: I am sorry...thank you, love.

Ghost: Don't mention it. No one can be happy all the time, Johnny.

[dizzybizz]

sleepy gill and gill with the bubbled evil cat

[whydoesthiskeepappening]

What if instead of doing the forced exchange program, Juno sent Jason on a quest, promising that he would find out more about his family from before Lupa. Eventually he makes his way to Camp Half-Blood where introduces himself, and Annabeth, Percy, and Grover (or whichever of them is there) immediately responds with “I’m sorry, Jason What, Son of Whom?” And then after he confirms they heard him right, they tell him to stay right there while they run off to go make a quick call. Roughly two minutes later the moon descends out of the sky, and a teenage girl runs up to him and holy shit that’s his sister, he was only two the last time he saw her but he knows that that’s his sister what the fuck

[darkwings-and-horcruxes]

There’s this deep possessiveness at the center of Luffy’s chest whenever he looks at Sanji. 

Come with me. Be mine. I want you. 

But he can’t take him by force - no matter how much he wants him. Sanji has chained himself to the Baratie with ropes made of grief and guilt, and he’s hard-pressed to let go, even now.

People don’t stay for Luffy, but he’s hoping Sanji may stay with him for the sake of his Dream. That’ll be enough - to have Sanji by his side while they accomplish their dreams together. 

Or maybe, he’ll stay with him for the sake of Nami. Luffy knows the way the others have written Sanji’s flirtations off, but there’s a depth to Sanji’s feelings, visible in the way that he looks at Nami like she’s the prettiest thing he’s ever seen, like he’s blessed to have her near him. Maybe Luffy’s not worth staying for, but Nami is. It's why he’s going after her despite everything she says.

No matter the reason, he just needs Sanji to stay.

[calamityskies]

Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.

Masters of the Air episode 5 / Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson

Screencaps from @itstheheebiejeebies

[cleopatragirlie]

His smile 🙄