#impossible to say for certain

[takemetodragonstone]

every bad thing that ever happened is actually my fault because of the twisted darkness inside of me. you see it all began when I absorbed my twin in the womb

[sugarcoatednightshade]

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

[communistkenobi]

I have to shed cool guy posting brain. whenever my beautiful Mutuals post about youtube drama between guys who review bidets or write cutthroat kitchen rpf I think the world is so beautiful and full of wonder. But I’m too shy to talk about what I’ve been doing (reading mission impossible fanfiction)

[megacarapa]

i found this post and had to make it with them immediately

[cali]

darkraiiiiii

[definitelynotshouting]

You know what's insane about the Hunger AU. the fact that Grian is trying to die because he does not want to inflict pain upon his friends, but that's exactly the thing that's tormenting them. he's become so determined to stop himself that he's hurting them anyway, and it only gets worse the harder he tries. he doesn't want to be cruel but leading the Hermits on like this about the potions is cruel. he doesn't want to hurt them but seeing him half dead is hurting them. i am shaking like a dog

hunger au really is all about how suicidal ideation and mental illness can just twist your entire perspective into a knot.... like the objective reality is that he IS hurting his friends with this and he IS going to hurt them 10x more when it comes to the potions!!! but grian is so caught up in his own head and his hurt and his guilt that he cant see that or accept the cognitive dissonance that comes with acknowledging it. Its a genuinely tragic set of circumstances and being able to showcase the rapid spiral down followed by the slow crawl back up through recovery is so so so rewarding for me as a writer-- not least bc of reactions like these >:]

[useless-catalanfacts]

Btw if you come on holidays and stay at an AirBnb instead of an actual registered hotel I hate you personally. Not "I hate the gentrification and touristic massification and the way we can't live in our homes and are forced to move away because of tourism" in an abstract way- No, not just that. I hate you.

[angelnumber27]

violently forcing myself to have better days

[chodzacaparodia]

Over the years I've read a lot of fics where it's after the final battle with AFO and the characters are pro heroes.

And now that I've finally read the last chapter of My Hero Academia, I feel weird.

Like something is wrong (with me)

[horsegirlhob]

Honestly the worst thing about being raised by and around professors is that I can't really do the whole students bitching about professors thing even when I mostly agree with it, because my whole life I have been hearing the professor's side of the story. Every time someone talks about how ridiculous mandatory attendance or participation is there's a part of me that starts loudly protesting about how actually being in class is really important for learning, and it must be so hugely frustrating for the professor when students just don't show up to your class half the time and then when they do show up they're playing sudoku on their computer.

[divinekangaroo]

Was thinking while watching that scene where Pol tells Ada about her abortion.

Polly really doesn't take on the mum role in the family to my mind, or even the matriarch/aunt tbh. And I think, there was some summary somewhere that referred to her as the consigliere and while she does perform a certain bouncing-board, plan formation role with Tommy (and only with Tommy, and only with insight into certain parts of his plans; I'm struggling to think of times the others listen to her without Tommy backing her up, S3 as example of when they don't), her other behaviours in the family also mean this isn't her role at all.

She's the wild older sister who is loving and explosive and hurtful, and incredibly, incredibly fragile, afraid and she feels so very scared, vulnerable and alone, most of the time. She just wants all her loved ones to be happy and safe and in achieving that, Tommy is frequently as much of an obstacle as he is the vehicle to get her that. I do headcanon that Polly lives 99% of her life in fear and on that edge of breakdown, it's just that she's lived with it so long she probably doesn't even acknowledge it any more. Her reactivity is so high.

So yeah, it's no wonder Tommy sort of plays that joint patriarch-matriarch role (arranging marriages etc), because Polly is *not* playing the matriarch.

[stardustedknuckles]

Look, dominox preys on insecurity. He's not omniscient. Even if the worst was true, even if Chetney DID kill kids when he was feral, dominox does not have magical access to memories Chetney doesn't. His whole thing is playing out the worst case what-if scenario. Dorian's has already partially happened. The only thing that would make it worse is his fear that Cyrus would hate him for what happened on top of being murdered. Respectfully, that himbo is not developed enough as a person to be making insights about his trouble VS Dorian's trouble or ruminating on Dorian never letting him make his own mistakes. That's the specific way DORIAN fears he fucked up.

Dominox's power is limited only by his prey's imagination, but imagination is all it is.

[softness-and-shattering]

.

[moonliteve]

My headcanons for the deadly alliance before being recruited by Damashi

cw suicide mention

some of these r inspired by my friends' hcs ily cicada and leonarnd!!! <33

SHANG TSUNG

born in an impoverished village near the seaside

his mother had him at a pretty young age

she wasn't the best nor the most loving but she did care about him, she tried to be the best for him even though it was really difficult to do so on her own

mama shang had to teach him basic survival skills

however she committed suicide when he was around 16-17

shang wasn't left with much but in his late teenage years he had gained an interest in alchemy along with some biology

sold what he had to get his caravan, he knew he wouldn't be able to survive if he stayed in one place

at first he did try to plan out an honest living but he realized that he could just. cheat and lie? so he came up with the whole hack salesman thing

"a living? it is barely survival" so what if it doesn't work. so what if he kills a few people. as long as he's getting by

he stays in his caravan a lot and doesn't go outside unless he absolutely has to (eg to gather ingredients n stuff). the inside is a complete mess, it's not like he doesn't want to clean it he just doesn't see the point if everything is just going to revert to a mess once again

he does not care if he's gonna die tomorrow and doesn't care for any consequences

and of course he longs for more but in the conditions he's in right now? don't even think about it

until damashi steps in and offers him a chance

QUAN CHI

born in the mines to parents who didn't want him, was a complete accident

his father died in a mining accident shortly after he turned 5

grew up to resent the world since his mother almost didn't care at all and barely treated him like her son

started working w/ the rest of the miners around 13

autistic + really awkward + no confidence at all

barely interacted with anyone else, not like he wanted to anyways

always just went about doing his job everyday even though it fucking sucks

the others always thought he was an odd one since he almost never talks and just stares and observes a lot

resulted in him always being picked on and nobody really put a stop to it until it gets out of hand

outside of work he would rather spend his time alone

killed his mom when he was around 17. He thought about taking the easy way out and just bash her head in or smth at first but he didn't want to raise any suspicion since ppl knew about the mutual disdain him and his mother had for each other

eventually ended up poisoning her

that was when he first piqued damashi's interest, he doesn't approach him yet though as he wants to observe him more

around the same time he discovered he had an aptitude for magic and had been practicing it in his own time in secret, he couldn't do any crazy stuff yet though

possibly inherited from his father? maybe he was some kind of mage who was thrown into the mines because of some hard labor sentence

and liu kang let him keep this power as he wished for him to use it to aid the slave revolt

when he first heard about his fellow miners planning a revolt he didn't think much of it. he didn't want to have anything to do with them anyways

had he actually had a good relationship with the others he might've had considered helping, but as time passed he decided to snitch. not only to raise his station but also out of spite for how he was treated

late at night the same group of ppl tried to kill him a few days after he ratted them out, although he was strong and had a bit of magic to defend himself he was overpowered until damashi intervened and saved him

he made a complete mess out of the others, blood everywhere

it terrified quan chi at first. he had never seen such power before and he was almost certain he was next before damashi offered him his aid and power

he was hesitant to trust this stranger at first but having seen what he could do it was impossible to refuse

and that's how the alliance came to be :) tysm for reading!

[ghostlysleuth]

i've hit the end of the bell curve of the tiktok experience which is literally "be appalled at how awful ppl can be on the app" -> "get used to it (and maybe even start to combat it)" -> "once more become appalled at how awful ppl can be" because one would think in more elevated places that people were past being so blatantly ableist, racist, queerphobic, misogynistic, and overall cruel to others online, and making genuine progress but nope, or at the very least, definitely not on tiktok.

because why am i seeing QUEER PEOPLE in QUEER SPACES reigniting discourse that we squashed long ago, or people doing the whole "acoustic"/"restarted" thing, or making fun of people's appearances or artwork the MINUTE they disagree with them, even if it's minor. is doing the right thing or being kind just a trend or a passing fancy to this crowd?? like you can tell they've built up the foundation of decency that a lot of us have on the internet but it goes completely out the window because being mean is just A Thing, it's a commonplace activity on that app.

[ghostyclay]

WHAT THE FUCK??? MOJANG IS RESTRICTING WHAT ENCHANTING BOOKS YOU GET FROM VILLAGER IN WHAT BIOME????

NOOO WHAT?!