#i've got a lot of affection to give

[thatlittledandere]

I adore them

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

In the world of heavy metals, love is denser than hate!

[deoidesign]

My comic is so pretty...

The hiatus is letting me take a little extra time on these episodes, and I'm definitely putting it to good use!!!

[plutonious]

experimentation is forever and ever and emmet is guinea pig

[lith-myathar]

.

[suddencolds]

vent//

[cluescorner]

Terry you've gotta start treating Dana better istg. I can excuse the fact that you are a Batman who kills people but I draw the line at mistreating your genuinely lovely girlfriend.

[askbrasil]

"are you back???"

YESN'T

[icicleteeth]

Oddly enough I feel more comfy anxietyposting here instead of twitter so uh. I preface this with Yes I’m A Grown Adult but I am irrationally anxious about This :’)

[blujayonthewing]

so in juniper's campaign we've just found ourselves in a high-stakes situation that I as a player do frankly find stressful and am anxious about, but hey hi also the DM was like 'okay here are the exact mechanics of how this is going to work because I don't want to surprise you with serious repercussions, also here are all the options you will have to try to do something about the situation-- [affected player] what do you think? honest feedback, I don't want it to feel unfair, I want to be clear that I am not just trying to kill your character, and if it ends up being badly balanced we can revisit it down the road' and oh my god I could COLLAPSE and WEEP with gratitude

[deetherusalka]

.

[confused-spood]

literally me when I think I have a crush on someone

[madlori]

My ankle journey

I am sharing this with all you good people on the dash because I am so fucking mad it took so long for me to learn it and if I can spare one (1) person the agony it will be worth it.

So for like...oh, 8 or 9 months, I've been struggling with pain/inflammation/tendinitis in my left Achilles tendon. I don't know what caused it. It just started up (welcome to middle age, this shit happens). It wasn't severe enough to be debilitating, but it was annoying and limiting. It was also intermittent, in that some days it would be very painful and other days hardly at all. The kind of shoe I was wearing affected it a lot.

Now, I have bone spurs on both heels (it's just a thing that happens as you get older sometimes). I'm also aware that heel pain is usually the result of tight calf muscles that pull and irritate the tendon. I tried stretching that calf muscle. You know the stretch, this bitch right here:

I did it all the time. I also iced the ankle after walking for awhile, hoping to avoid inflammation. Results were...unsatisfying.

I went to:

A chiropractor

A podiatrist

A physical therapist

A bodywork coach

They all gave me some variation on the "strengthen your calf muscle, stretch your calf muscle" advice. I continued doing this without results.

I was getting frustrated, and a little afraid that this was just my life now. Finally, I thought...maybe some targeted massage might help. I asked for rec on a local FB site and was pointed to a woman who specializes in therapeutic massage including cupping, etc.

I went to her a week ago.

She spent over half our first session working on my left lower leg. Within about 10 minutes of making my eyes water, she uttered the sentence I did not know I had been waiting to hear:

"Oh, it's your soleus."

Excuse me, what?

"It's your soleus that's the culprit. It's all tied up and stiff." She started digging into it and I felt literal sparks run up my leg as she released adhesions and got the muscle moving a little. When she finally put the leg down, it felt like it was on fire with all the blood rushing into it.

She said, "You'll need to stretch your soleus. It'll clear up, but it'll take a bit of time - tendons take ages to heal."

But I HAVE been stretching.

"No, you haven't. The usual straight-leg calf stretch only stretches the gastrocnemius, that's the big belly muscle in your calf. That's not your problem. That stretch doesn't stretch the soleus. Don't worry, I'll show you how to stretch it."

My mind is spinning.

So here are the muscles in question:

The gastroc (as the pros call it) just attaches down the back but the soleus runs underneath it from the knee around the side to the heel. The lower part above the ankle is where it typically gets tight and forms adhesions.

To stretch it, you do the same calf thing where you put your foot back and press your heel to the ground, but you have to do it with your KNEE BENT:

The bent knee keeps the gastroc from engaging. It's one of those selfish muscles (like traps) - if you give it an inch, it'll just take over and prevent other muscles from working or stretching. There are other ways to stretch the soleus but this is the easiest and you can literally do it anywhere. I've been doing it while standing and waiting for things (the elevator to come, the toast to toast). You just put the heel back and bend the knee. It's kind of like curtseying.

The minute I did this stretch, I could FEEL where it was pulling on my tendon. I knew that THIS had been the problem.

The massage therapist also told me to stop icing my heel. She said icing is for an acute injury, but a more chronic aggravation needs heat, to increase blood flow for healing. She recommended elevation with heat every day (I've been doing it in bed during "phone before bed" time).

I have been doing the soleus stretch at least half a dozen times a day for almost a week, and the ankle is at least 70% better. It is still a little tight and tender, but the improvement is significant. I think a few more weeks will have it feeling normal.

I am...blown away by this. This massage therapist was able to pinpoint an issue in only a few minutes that eluded all the other professionals I saw. I can't wait to go back to her and have her solve all my other problems, tbh.

[sachermorte]

so the thing about english is that people think it's so divorced from other germanic languages based on like. words. I've even heard people try to insist that english is a romance language. because of that whole messy business in 1066 with out-of-wedlock willy and his band of naughty normans. and now a good chunk of the vocabulary is french or whatever and they're prestigious so not using them makes you sound like a rube and this and that and the other

and yes william the conqueror will never be safe from me. I will have my revenge on him. he fucked up a perfectly good germanic language is what he did. this will be me in hell

but the thing is that most words in, say, german do have a one to one english equivalent. not all hope is lost, for those who still dare to see it. it's just that you 1066pilled normancels aren't looking in the right place

dog (en) ≠ der Hund (de) but der Hund (de) -> hound (en)

look with your special eyes. that one was easier. not all of them are this intuitive because of semantic narrowing and broadening and waltzing and hokey-pokeying and whatever else. I'll give you a few more

animal (en) ≠ das Tier (de)

aha! you think. I've got him on the ropes now.

but then

das Tier (de) -> deer (en)

nooooo!! you whine and cry in gay baby jail. the consonants are different!!! listen to me. listen, I say, putting both my hands on your shoulder. /t/and /d/ are the same sound. you just put your voice behind one of them.

nooooooooo!! you wail. deer are animals but not all animals are deer!!! listen to me. LISTEN. they used to be. animals used to be deer. that's just what we called them. it was a long time ago. it was a weird time in all our lives. it's okay.

let's try for a verb this time

to die (en) ≠ sterben (de) but sterben (de) -> to starve

same principle with the consonants, we're just changing a stop (where we completely stop the airflow and then let it through) for a fricative (where we still let some air go through. idk where it's going. maybe to its job or something.)

to starve used to mean generally to die, not just to die of malnourishment. we do that a lot. we take one word for a lot of things and make it mean one thing. or take one word for one thing and make it mean a lot of things. this is common and normal.

"okay but roland," you say, suddenly coming up with an argument. "what about tree? trees are super common. I don't think we'd fuck around too much with that. the german word is baum! what about THAT?"

"when did you learn german?" I ask, but then decide it isn't relevant right at this very moment. but fine.

tree (en) ≠ der Baum (de) but der Baum (de) -> beam (en)

beam??? you ask incredulously. beam???? BEAM?????? you continue with the same tone and cadence of captain holt from brooklyn 99.

yes. beam. like the evil beams from my eye I'm going to hit you with if you don't stop shouting.

but the vowels!!! you howl.

listen. listen to me. the vowels mean nothing. absolutely nothing. they're fluid like water. it got raised in english.

"WHAT DOES RAISED MEAN"

it doesn't matter right now. they were raised better than you, at least. stop shouting. open your eyes and see what god has given you. they're the same word.

"they're NOT the same word. they mean different things!"

we've been over this. they didn't used to. a beam was (and is) a long solid piece of wood. much like the long solid piece of wood I showed your mother last night.

FAQ:

Q: could english be some kind of germanic-romance hybrid?

A: do you become a sexy thing from the black lagoon just because you dressed up as one for halloween? english may have gotten a lot of vocabulary from norman french, but its history and syntax are distinctly germanic. that's what we base these things on.

Q: okay but what does it matter? this doesn't actually affect my day to day life

A: you come into my house? you come into my house, the house of an autistic man living in vienna austria and studying english linguistics and you ask me what does it matter? sit back down. I was going to let you go but now I have powerpoints to show you

Q: you're stupid and wrong and gay and a bad person

A: I know it's you, Willy

[selamat-linting]

yknow, my life is objectively better and i can confidently say that im thriving and more happy more than im not, but that feeling that im going to die young or that im not really human never really goes away. and i cant really stop it because the dying young thing wasnt just a trauma response, its me acknowledging that my hometown is ever slowly drowning or that a particularly hot day could simply burn everything and that the chance of getting killed from reactionary backlash from the government is never zero. and the not human thing is just something you get when youre trans and neurodivergent in this society. so like, i can go to therapy, i can improve myself, but im never going to stop being all combative and suspicious because that is necessary for me to stay alive. ngl its pretty depressing that im cursed to be a bitch.

[soft-beams]

piercer!vi x f!reader, modern day

you come in for a piercing and vi's instantly smitten.

You're so pretty when you walk in, bubbly and sparking with energy that's hard to find these days. You smile at everyone, pulling them into your orbit with only a few words. Even the receptionist, known hater of everything, melts at your presence, and that has Vi wondering:

What the fuck are you doing here?

You're flickering through a magazine when Ekko approaches her, a knowing look on his face as he feigns a cough. It barely works to drag her attention away from you, and Ekko laughs when Vi tries to look at him and you at once.

"You're such a disaster," he laments and evades the incoming headlock Vi aims his way. "It's like you've never seen a beautiful person before. Do you know how lame you look?"

"Fuck off," Vi says, but it's lacking heat. "I've seen many beautiful people. Do you know how many hotties I pierce in a day?"

"And yet I've never seen you drooling over them," Ekko replies and shit, he's got her there. "Well, because I'm such a good friend, I'm gonna let you pierce her."

Vi tries not to seem too excited at the prospect. She's already been too much of a loser in front of Ekko already.

"Okay?" She shrugs, feigning nonchalance. "And what piercing is she getting today?"

Ekko smiles innocently. "Nipple piercing."

Oh, shit.

"Vi, she's ready for you," the receptionist says, poking their head around Vi's room. "So get off your ass and attend to her already."

Vi raises a brow. "You usually don't give a shit if I'm late or not with my clients." She replies, a little stunned. She then grows even more stunned when she sees the receptionist's cheeks turn a slight pink. "Oh my god—"

"Fuck off." They hiss before they're storming away and that, in itself, shows just how powerful you are.

"I'm not gonna survive this appointment, am I?" Vi says weakly, already knowing her fate.

Ekko snorts. "Good luck, buddy."

Vi's gonna need it.

~~~~~~~

It isn't long before you're seated in Vi's room, all comfy and relaxed like you owned the place. You smile when Vi appears back in the room, after having taken the time to compose herself.

"So I know what you want from your form," Vi says after sitting down in her stool. "But I like to hear from the cilent themselves. What's made you want to get a nipple piercing?"

You think about it for a second, pretty lips pursed in thought as your gaze wanders up to the ceiling. Goodness, it's such an innocent gesture, yet Vi's here kind of losing her mind over it.

"I wanted to do something I normally wouldn't do," you finally answer. "I've been kinda clean-cut my whole life. Not because I wanted to but because I had no choice." You give a small laugh, the sound a little rueful. "So when I moved out, I went a little off the deep end and fuck, it was nice. I got my ears pierced for the first time." You gesture to the three piecings you have on each ear. "And got a tattoo, but those weren't enough so my friend recommended another piercing."

Vi hums, sympathetic to your story before she's grinning. "And your friend recommended nipple piercings?"

There's a sudden shift in your demeanor; the confidence and ease you once had simmering down to something else. Something more delicate and awkward; a little embarrassed.

"Actually," you start softly, eyes lowered. "I made the decision..." You fiddle with your hands in your lap. "I heard that getting your nipples pierced made them more sensitive and...I wanted to see if that was true..."

Vi swallows heavily, her breathing suddenly deepening at your confession.

This isn't the first time a client has said they're getting a piercing for sensation. Vi's pierced more body parts than she can count, a lot of them beneath the belt. It's never affected her because, after all, the bodies she sees are simply bodies. They're nothing more than that, and there's no feelings attached to it.

Yeah, she's been appreciative of the bodies she sees, but it's like appreciating art.

This, on the other hand, is different because she knows she's attracted to you. Since the moment she saw you in the waiting room, laughing with the staff and sitting elegantly as you flipped through magazines. You're exactly what she's into, and the fact that she's about to touch you is driving her a bit crazy.

She takes a deep breath, deciding to speak now because she's been silent for too long. To the point she can see you fidgeting anxiously.

"Hey, that's absolutely valid," she assures you quickly, lips quirked up in a smile. "You're within your rights as a person to explore yourself and have these experiences. Especially when you weren't allowed to have them." Her smile turns cheeky. "And I can say that nipple piercings do make the nipples more sensitive, so you'll really enjoy them."

Your eyes widen at her implication, shooting down momentarily to her chest, before you're murmuring a soft, "oh."

Fuck, you're too cute.

"Okay," Vi starts, drawing away from this moment because she needs to focus. "So I'm gonna need you to take off your top so I can see what I'm working with."

You give a slight chuckle as you go to take off your top. "Charming," you tease, and Vi winks.

"It's a part of the pack—" she starts to say but stops short when your top's finally off and to the side. "—age..."

You blink, tilting your head to the side as you say, "Vi, are you okay?"

No, she's not.

No, because she's just come face to chest with the most perfect tits she's ever seen.

a.n: yes, there will be a part two