#in your nature etc etc

[tyrannuspitch]

but it's so fucked up. genuinely. so fucked up. what if you had a brother almost exactly the same age as you. maybe not precisely a twin, but close. and there were only two of you, and you were princes, so he was (theoretically) your one and only peer. he was how you learnt to interact with other people, and he was your childhood best friend, and he was the only one who understood your growing responsibilities as you got older, and your political futures were tied together. but the entire time it was subtly but undeniably clear that you were NOT peers or equals. he outranked you. he had authority over you. he could threaten you and you couldn't respond in kind. he could give you orders and expect you to obey. you were beneath him and if you got too far above your station he could remind you of exactly how far. and this was NORMAL. it was so fundamental that you would struggle to even recognise or name what was hurting you, and if you did, you would feel guilty for challenging it, because your rank was not just a fact, it was an obligation, and defiance wasn't just doomed, it was treacherous. and you couldn't imagine any relationship where a dynamic like this didn't exist. you didn't BELIEVE there was any alternative. AND. your brother wasn't trying to be cruel. it was normal to him too. he couldn't imagine an alternative either. he loved you. he was trying to protect you. he was trying not to lose you. so how could you ever really try to escape. if this was all you could imagine love being then it was this or nothing. and was this really worse than him leaving you behind

[idontmindifuforgetme]

One thing I’ve noticed about people in or entering their 30s is they don’t make as many compromises anymore. If someone doesn’t meet them halfway, is not up to standard, is just not where they’re needed to be, they’re just like “ok cool” and they move on from the person. Which is not to say they’re less empathetic or understanding, but more that they have learned that time is their most prized possession and they’re not willing to make massive compromises on it. They are not obsessed w the idea of fixing someone (bc the concept of fixing a person doesn’t really exist). They simply move on to someone who is up to par. I want that. I want to always move w the awareness that time is my most priceless belonging and I can never buy it back. Ever. So I have to use it wisely

[1000dactyls]

my huge gripe w modern httyd aus is that it’s always set in the suburban midwest in podunk nothing town without taking it to its natural conclusion. As if berk would not be a steel mill town on the rust belt with the gas prices jacked sky high for tourists driving through the middle of nowhere. As if the barbaric archipelago would be the suburbs of a big city rather than rural towns in the Deep South. as if hiccup would not somehow end up hiking in the appalachias or turn up half dead after missing for 6months in the oregon wilderness. Cowards. Fools. if you’re setting it in america then you should take it to its natural conclusion 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[cuubism]

I REALLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYY LOVE YOUR BELOVED PROFESSOR DREAM FIC!!!!!!!! PEOPLE TEND TO FORGET THAT!!! EVEN IN CANON!!!! HES FULL OF LOVE!!!! AND PASSION!!! AND HE CARES SO MUCH IT LITERALLY DOOMS HIM!!!!! AND IF ONLY HES BEING GIVEN A MUCH MORE KINDER CIRCUMSTANCES!! HE WOULD BEHAVES EXACTLY LIKE YOUR FIC!!! I FEEL SO CRAZT!!!! PLEASE NEVER DIE I LOVE YPUR WORKS SO MUCH!!!

I've grown quite fond of him myself 🥺 @five-and-dimes and I discussed him at length and created more lore for him. It was determined that Dream's earnest whimsy probably got him bullied a lot when he was younger. Not since he met Hob though.... it's probably a coincidence 🤷‍♀️ surely everyone just realized the error of their ways and decided to grow up and be kinder! Dream knew it would happen some day :)

-

Dream is still reeling as he reaches the cafe where he's meant to get afternoon coffee with Hob. He feels a bit shaky, but happy. Joyful. In disbelief.

When Cori had cornered him after class, Dream had been sure he was going to shove him up against a wall, or throw his books on the ground, or any of the other number of things he seemed to get satisfaction out of doing. He'd clutched his books tight, bracing himself.

Instead, Cori had, with halting, uncomfortable words, apologized to him. Actually apologized! Dream had been wary at first, sure it was just another way to hurt his feelings--he's been called gullible many times and he knows there's truth to it--but Cori hadn't taken it back, or suddenly turned on him again like he had every other time Dream had tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. He seemed genuine.

It was what Dream had always wanted, what he had always hoped for, so decided to take it and just pray that Cori wouldn't change his mind again in the future. Or trip him as he walked away.

He didn't, though. And as Dream left to walk to his next class, he couldn't help but feel victorious. He knew he would get through to him eventually! He'd always known that eventually people would grow out of their juvenile pranks and learn to treat others better. And finally it was starting to happen.

None of the other usual suspects bothered him that day, either. Nobody tried to trip him, or snickered when he said something overly sentimental in class. It was like overnight the world had woken up and decided to better itself. It was magical.

So he's still shaking a bit when he sits down across from Hob, who's already gotten him his mocha latte. When he doesn't say anything at first, just takes several long sips of his drink, Hob nudges his leg under the table.

"Everything alright?"

"Cori," Dream says, "apologized to me."

He must have milk foam on his lip, for Hob reaches across the table to wipe it away with his thumb, lingering on the corner of Dream's mouth. "Did he?"

Dream nods. "It- it did not seem to be a joke. Hob, I think he actually learned."

Hob smiles sweetly. "That's great, honey."

"Nobody tripped me today," Dream muses. "Or made fun of what I said in class. I cannot believe it. I knew that eventually people would grow up and learn how to treat others kindly, but it's startling to see it happen in real time."

"They must have learned from your example," Hob says. He takes Dream's hand on the table and starts playing idly with his fingers. Hob is very touchy-feely with him, always holding his hand, or playing with his fingers like they're a fidget toy, or petting his hair while they're lying in bed together. Dream found it strange at first. He was used to others he had attempted to date wanting to rough him up a little. When he questioned it, they would say, with a laugh, you're just too sheltered. Dream didn't think he was, particularly, he just didn't understand wanting to push someone around. At least not without finding out if they even liked it.

When Dream mentioned it, Hob had said, with a grimace, that Dream's kindness could be misinterpreted as innocence, and it made people want to 'corrupt him.' Dream didn't get it, but there were a lot of things he 'didn't get', at least according to other people. In any case, Hob didn't do that, because he knew Dream didn't like it, so Dream is content now. And he has Hob to at least attempt to interpret other people's odd behavior for him.

"I hope it sticks," he says, worriedly. "I would hate for Cori and the others to backslide now that they're finally making progress."

"Oh, don't worry," Hob says, bringing Dream's hand to his lips and kissing his knuckles. He looks at Dream over their joined hands, gaze absolutely sure, a look that never fails to make Dream shiver pleasantly when it's directed at him. "I think it'll stick."

[anghraine]

While I'm on my disruptive Tolkien opinions kick:

Yes, obviously, he was a conservative Catholic and this was really important to his understanding of the world and pervades his work and so on and so forth.

But I'm a bit "..." about reducing everything he thought and felt about the world to that. Like, yeah, there's a tradition of conservative pastoralism that meant the context of his environmental opinions was not inherently progressive in the way it can mistakenly seem in 2024. Do I think he was Like That about trees because of conservative pastoralism, or his Catholicism, or that the particular form taken by his TREES TREES TREES #OLDMANWILLOWDIDNOTHINGWRONG TREEEEEEEEES ethos much resembles most of his contemporaries' feelings?

Not really.

I mean, he would never have said it, but I kind of doubt whether his very sincere and deeply felt veneration of the actual figures of his religion was truly comparable to how he felt about things like That One Oak on the Corner That I Liked Got Chopped Down by Evildoers. I've read other conservative British writers of this era who have their own forms of pastoralism and most of them are way less intense about it. I truly don't think Tolkien loved trees the way he did Because Catholicism or whatnot. I genuinely think he just really loved trees.

Basically, I can imagine some alternate universe in which alternate Tolkien ends up with really different beliefs about religion, about politics, about all sorts of things. But I can absolutely not imagine a universe in which any version of Tolkien did not take the part of trees against all their enemies.

[shaykai]

*Taps mic* Gortash would still love Durge as a Mindflayer

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

utter bullshit that we stop growing at a certain age.

humans should grow (both taller and wider) at a continuous rate throughout our lifespans. i want to be 80 years old with the proportions of an average human being except i am the height of a multistory building. that would be so fun. that would require so much societal rearrangement. this isn't a want it's a need

[callisteios]

I have a new uquiz for you, go on a pilgrimage with me. discover who you are.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Still always looking for ways to use this cardigan in things because I really like all the silly little pictures on it, but it doesn't match with much since it's such a bright pinky kind of color. but is similar to these very fluffy shoes lol

[commsroom]

making hera manage a space station is inhumane. she's supposed to be creating unmarketable art. post-canon hera makes like fifteen dollars a month off niche experimental multimedia poetry zines, eiffel is begging people to listen to his music on bandcamp (between an assortment of jobs that would be perfectly fine, if he could hold any of them for longer than two months), and they are both so, so lucky minkowski cares about them so much.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Hey, other Durge players, I'm curious: what class/es did you give your Durge and how do they tie into their backstory?

[bmpmp3]

sorry to be a bit of a hater but i do wish youtubers weren't so scared of making their videos just like, "reviews", whys everything gotta be a "video essay" all the time. every day my recommendations are filled with 40 minute videos titled "_____: An Underrated Masterpiece" where the first like five minutes are reading the wikipedia definition of "masterpiece" in a somber voice with dramatic themed text on screen. please just tell me how good or bad you think something is and use the rest of the runtime to explain why. you dont need to put on all these airs

[faaun]

we sang in the aeroplane over the sea tgth ☆

[bogkeep]

always in the wake of yet another beloved creator turning out to have committed truly horrific things, there are a flurry of discussions on a host of topics while everyone tries to wrangle with the unsettling feeling of, How Can We Know Who To Trust Anymore? and we can't. there's never going to be one single true trick for predicting someone is going to break your heart, you're going to have to live a life where your heart can get broken. and, look, i think putting people on a pedestal is a troubling, dehumanizing experience that cuts both ways, you'll have no argument from me there. but the way talk quickly turns into, never love or trust anyone again, for you will always come to regret it..? that sounds very sad to me. i know what it is, it is the wish for our love to go untainted, to only tread safely. for all my aromantic years i have been lectured on the bravery and inevitability of love, and yet here we are! never love anything again! sighs.

[fellhellion]

insert joke abt glutton for punishment etc etc but truly i am that dude who reaches the end of every wayhaven book like waow...detective/A have come so far 🥰....

[ratatatastic]

You got the 4 Nations Face-Off coming up, it's less than a month away. I wonder... I mean, you guys, like, [have] half your team going pretty much, right? So is it a topic of conversation yet? Is there genuine excitement now as opposed to maybe, you know, a couple months ago when it was much further in the distance. Now we're just a couple of weeks away.

Lundell: Yeah, I mean, for sure. You know, time flies, and the tournament is around the corner so... you know, when the time comes, I'm sure we will all be super excited, and it's still- it's close but we still have probably fifteen games before that so... of course all focus is on these games with the Panthers right now. But for sure here and there we joke about stuff, you know? It's gonna be fun to play against each other. It's gonna be weird but I'm sure everybody wants- is pretty excited to play against each other too.

Is it really gonna be fun to play against Matt[hew] Tkachuk?

Lundell: Yeah, I can't wait to hear what he's gonna, you know, chirping guys so it will be fun actually. I can't wait for that.

I'm glad Shawn brought that up because alright, Finland-USA, that's your first game—8 o'clock at the Bell Centre on February 13th. Let's call it 8:30. You go out for a shift, Matthew Tkachuk goes out for a shift, puck goes in the corner. You go to the corner, he goes to the corner. Who comes out with the puck?

Lundell: Haha, well I'm gonna come out with the puck.

Now will there be a battle? Like, I mean, is- you know, or is it just- you just gonna use your skills there and get it away from him because you know exactly what he's doing?

Lundell: Yeah! I mean, we battle against each other every practise, so we have been battling a lot with all the guys that's gonna be at the 4 Nations so... obviously, it's gonna be weird but I think it's gonna be fun too. You know, probably gonna have some laughs before the game and after the game for sure.

So who's jersey did you have? Who's jersey would you have wanted? Who's was your guy for the national team?

Lundell: So, well "my guy's" Mikael Granlund when he broke out, and he was pretty good in the World Championship. He did a lacrosse move in 2011 which went viral so... He also played in my favourite team—which I grew up playing for—also IFK Helsinki. So he was one guy I looked up to. And, yeah, he's pretty cool. You know, now we get to play on the same team as well.

By the way, how does it feel to play with royalty—Finnish royalty? You have [Aleksander] Barkov just named the Finnish Athlete of the Year. In the proud, proud hockey history of that country, no hockey player has ever earned that award until this year.

Lundell: Yeah... no, we'll see if he's even talking to me anymore, he's a-

His head getting too big?

Lundell: Haha, yeah! But his feet [are] on the ground still. He's one of the most humble guys I know. It's gonna be very fun to play with him. Obviously, I get to see him everyday in the Panthers. You know, we talk a lot, we're very close friends and... but it's also fun to see him putting the Finland jersey on because he hasn't played in many, many years for the country, you know? It's been a long break since he wore the Team Finland jersey last time so I'm happy and excited to see him in it as well.

You have to be honest with me now—how often do you think about the Stanley Cup? I know it's a new year but I would imagine when you're alone and it's quiet—how often do you think about what you accomplished and the time you had with the Cup?

Lundell: So probably, I mean like- you don't think about it that much but it does pop up in front of you a lot, you know? You see something, or you hear something like people still bring up, you know, about last year, keep saying congrats but I mean it is a cool memory every time you think about it—like the picture up there of Barky in the- in the- just like... every time you see it, it brings a little smile on your face because it's something we're always dreaming of, and it feels even bigger than a dream, you know? Just like something that shouldn't feel possible to do, you know? It just felt so big, and then we did it so... obviously you get hungrier than when you go forward, and now the goal is to make the playoffs again and win another Cup.

NHL @ TheRink | 1.23.25 (x)(x)