#it seems very gray

[sword--princess]

just road being road, cosplaying her siblings

[bean-spring]

Mel haters are so funny to me because they quite literally have nothing to say against her besides "nooo she used Jayce for hextech!!" well, it's what happens when that's your fucking job

[fictionadventurer]

If Laura Ingalls Wilder had written The Wizard of Oz.

Kansas would be portrayed as a wondrous, beautiful place at least as good as--or better than--Oz.

Dorothy would come from a very devoted loving household.

Her father would be in the house with her when the tornado hit and would be her guide and protector through all their adventures.

Dorothy would absolutely still have a devoted dog.

Dorothy would not go to the Wizard to ask for help. The "kill the Witch" requirement (or some other quest) would be presented early on as the condition she had to fulfill to earn her way home.

Instead of giving life and backstories to inanimate objects (like the land of the porcelain figurines), the people and creatures Dorothy would meet would provide explanations for things that happen in nature (like, explain where the colors of sunset come from).

[mildmayfoxe]

rare weekday migas

[lord-squiggletits]

One of my least favorite parts of how JRO wrote Optimus is that he wanted so badly to continue his dark and gritty world building making the Autobots problematic, but evidently couldn't reconcile this with Optimus being a Heroic Paragon, so instead he leaned way too hard into "oh Prowl was the one who did this and it was behind Optimus' back" which if anything I think makes Optimus look worse, not better. Because then it's like, okay I know Optimus trusted Prowl a lot as his friend but you CANNOT TELL ME that over the course of 4 million years, Optimus as the leader of the Autobot army who literally would have access to 99.9% of all the records they produce, would never notice or question where some of these odd/inconsistent details were pointing. It just seems really inconsistent with how a real military would actually function, especially regarding Optimus' character, who is incredibly thorough and responsible and wouldn't neglect to keep up with all the details of his army.

Hell, Optimus knows who the Wreckers are and had them on call for tricky operations when he needed them (Stormbringer) so he's literally not at all ignorant of/averse to the use of special wartime units composed of dubious individuals. He's the fucking commander of an entire army, of course he knows that War Is Hell (TM) and no one's hands are clean. That's not even getting into all the stuff he got up to in phase 2/3, I mean everything from the annexation of Earth to OP breaking humans out of prison against Council orders shows that Optimus is no stranger to immoral and/or unlawful means.

It also leads to a lot of annoying fanon where people write Optimus (sometimes unintentionally, sometimes not) as like some sort of ignorant fool who's unaware of the machinations of his own army or has some sort of naiveté of "b-but we can't use bad tactics against the enemy! I would never condone the use of morally gray means in war!" No, IDW Optimus knows perfectly well all of the bullshit he's enacted/condoned for the sake of trying to win the war. Some stuff is definitely out of character for him and was only machinated because of Prowl, but I think this fandom REALLY underestimates Optimus' personal agency/responsibility as the commander of a whole ass army and ESPECIALLY underestimates Optimus' capacity to condone morally gray Bullshit Of War while still being a good person individually as well as, comparatively, the lesser evil compared to Megatron/the Decepticons.

Anyways what I'm saying is JRO may be a good writer but he's really hesitant to make Optimus morally gray and does some asspulls sometimes to justify most of the bad things the Autobots did as "Optimus just didn't know," and since the majority of the IDW1 fandom only reads JRO's stuff they go running with this premise of ignorant/uninformed Optimus when there's evidence elsewhere in canon to show that Optimus is, in fact, very highly aware of the bullshit he's allowed "for the greater good" and the only stuff he was "unaware of" was the stuff he would literally never agree to the ethics of, like bombing innocent neutrals disguised as Decepticons to get them to join the Autobots.

[wonder-worker]

"The newly widowed Elizabeth (Woodville) was exceptionally vulnerable. Several of the trustees responsible for her jointure refused to hand over the manors that were meant to sustain her in her widowhood. Moreover, her brother-in-law, Edward Grey, had seized estates that her son Thomas should have inherited from his paternal grandfather, while her mother-in-law’s new young husband, Sir John Bourchier, had prevailed on Lady Ferrers to settle her principal properties on them jointly for life, ensuring that Thomas would have to wait far longer for this inheritance too. Rivers and Scales were pardoned in July 1461 and swiftly moved into the Yorkist establishment, which perhaps explains the success of the chancery suits Elizabeth launched to regain her jointure. Her son’s inheritance proved harder to recover. By 1463, Rivers was often in (Edward IV's) company and on his council, but Elizabeth needed someone with much stronger influence over the King. She turned to a distant kinsman, William, Lord Hastings, the King’s chamberlain. Hastings drove a very hard bargain for his aid but it was probably amid these negotiations that the King’s desire for Elizabeth was kindled."

— J.L. Laynesmith, "Elizabeth Woodville: the Knight's Widow", Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty

[milkweedman]

Decanted the flower dyes I've got going yesterday.

The reason for decanting (rather than just removing the flowers) is that I was pretty sure I could get at least a little more color out of them, but the water was so saturated I didn't think it would happen before the flowers started to mold.

I also was going to strain all of them through a cotton rag to remove the particulate matter, which is mostly in the two hollyhock dyes, but that turned out to potentially not be a very good idea.

This one was marigold, the first dye I decanted and strained. I was in the process of pouring the right bottle into the left (through a folded rag that was in the funnel). I'm not sure if this will actually improve the color I get but the left bottle (which has been strained) does look a lot brighter !

After that was the yellow hollyhock. Same setup: right is before straining, left is after straining. I think I lost a lot of color--im starting to suspect that the color from hollyhock dye is in the particulate, which of course is what I strained out (although it's still very cloudy and there was clearly still particulate left, along with the much weaker color). So I didn't do that with the red hollyhock.

Sorry for the random assortment of jars and bottles, I think one of my roommates has been throwing away jar and bottle lids and I haven't had a chance to ask them yet, so this is what I was stuck with lol. The yellows and reds both look identical, although with hollyhock (from what I've read and seen myself) the color you see in the dye is not particularly likely to be the color that you end up with, so I'm not very bothered.

I refilled the jars with more water, and here's how they look today.

There was definitely more color left ! Especially with the nasturtium (which is a beautiful neon pink at lower concentrations) given that I'm still putting more flowers in.

[cupid2aiko]

Drawing the Dorian Gray Characters for class part 2! Basil Hallward<3

[scarlct-vvitch]

if no one else will say it i will. the ballad of songbirds and snakes should have been split into two movies

[suddencolds]

the urge to write morally gray f/f enemies to lovers h/c...

[neilanuruodo]

I hate hate HATE that "touch grass" has become this gotcha concept. I hate that it's seen as "haha you are too online" instead of "here is genuine and well-meant advice that will make your life better." For Ilsensine's sake there are studies proving that looking at a picture of plants improves your mental state when you're stuck inside.

It's not something I say a lot (because of this nonsense) but please if I ever do say "touch grass" I truly genuinely mean it, and I mean it in this particular way. I mean it like "Moss."

[jupiterbyrd]

You ever just see something that makes you say "yes, this is what is supposed to happen."

Because one of my cats loves cardboard boxes so today she spent a long time like this

[deathsweetblossoms]

Rereading The Raven Cycle ten years later and why is the Gray Man making me feel ~a type of way~? Is it because I’m older now, and he’s like an intellectual, nefarious version of Gansey? His flirting with Maura sent me over the edge, he recited poetry on the spot per Calla’s request, and now he’s sitting in a stakeout passing the time by reading a translated Bede’s Death Song?? Daddy hitman 🥵

[bumblingbabooshka]

Sorry, rewatching ‘Workforce’ .... Janeway’s thing really is old men huh.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent things.. mostly just writing screenshots lol

[aldieb]

let’s crowdsource my career trajectory (note that i absolutely will not be listening to this poll. unless)