#it's not long

[bread-making-vikings]

Can you imagine the posting on here when trump dies though

[maslickonachlebik]

I was too lazy to make his hands XD anyway I'm supposed to prepare for school but idc I'M DRAWING DEAD PLATE BOYZ❗❗ I also want to draw Manon 🤭

[devisopod]

Levity Creek!

Chapter One (?)

Grammar? I hardly know 'er

I really need to brush up but we're going right for it instead. Don't know how often I'll update this, or if it'll get any reception at all. Here you go, folks! Don't expect too much to happen right away.

____

Entry 1.

You know, I'm not even sure I could tell you the last time I spent three hours on the phone with someone. Let alone someone I felt growing further from my touch each year, but it was like the connection never really left as soon as we spoke. Hell, it felt like a blessing to hear from Fiddleford — some kind of proverbial spark reignited. Sounds silly, but I swear it's like we were kids all over again.

He always was as friendly as they come, and damn it if I didn't looked up to him for it. The guy could make a friend quicker than I could get my mouth open. Then again, I hardly ever did open it.

Fiddleford's still everything I knew him to be, actually. I guess I'd just been afraid that we were too different nowadays to be as close as we were. After all, he's got a kid now. Tate. How about that?

In his fashion, he forgot why he called me until the very end. He landed a freelance job up in Oregon that he wants my help with. I don't think I've ever agreed to anything quicker. If it'll get me outta here for a while, it's a gift.

I'm heading for Oregon tomorrow. Hope my van makes it.

___

If it weren't for the obnoxious rumble of the engine and the undeniable need to keep the vent windows open to accommodate it, I might have been able to hear the radio. Every now and again, I manage to hear the static of leaving and entering broadcast range — sometimes a dull guitar riff, but nothing satisfying. The speaker nestled in the driver's side has been busted for as long as I can remember. I think I've started to enjoy complaining about it, so I reckon that's why I never fix it. No, instead, I get to sit with my thoughts and a rattling doghouse. In hindsight, it was a miserable choice to make for such a long drive.

In fact, driving from the East Coast to the West Coast in a metaphorical brick, which reaches fifty-five miles an hour on a good day, is undoubtedly one of the stupidest decisions I've ever made. Sure, I could have flown, but then I would have left this marvel of machinery behind. And what am I without my office?

From floor to roof, I'd turned the back of my van into a space as comfortable as my apartment back home. More often than not, I spent my time in it. As long as I could hook it up to a power source, I could relax on the beanbag chair and type for hours. I've gotten better sleep and more work done in the back of this van than anywhere else to tell you the truth. At least, that's been the pattern so far. I'm starting to hope that Oregon changes that. I could use a change.

While I'm excited for the job, it's bound to be a big adjustment. From what I understand, which isn't a lot mind you, Gravity Falls is the town sending out contracts for the construction of the software service. When Fiddleford mentioned the name, I thought he might have been joking, but then I got the document in the mail. It looked incredibly legal, not to mention formal, for such a small job in a place that can only be described as "nowhere". Then again, most places were keen on adapting to new systems so they don't get too far behind.

It sort of made me wonder if the whole "nowhere" front has a purpose. After all, I did sign something that effectively mirrors an NDA.

By the time I reach Oklahoma and park, I recount that I've stopped about ten times for one reason or another. I had stayed in Memphis last night, which wasn't much of an annoyance, but the stops prior had been. A flat tire, the engine stalled, I suddenly really had to use the bathroom. Though that last one seems more like a poor lunch decision, I could almost swear that it was like the universe telling me to turn around and go back home before I got too far. I'd considered it while cursing over the carburetor as it hissed at me.

The only reason I still lay here in my motel with the intention of continuing tomorrow is for Fiddleford if nothing else. I called him when I first got here, half ready to let him know that it's just not a trip I can make, but he sounded so excited that I couldn't bring myself to crush his enthusiasm. He was already planning things we could do and prattling on about places he wanted to take me. The thought of disappointing him seemed wrong.

Pushing the covers of the stiff bed down toward my ankles, I roll onto my side and stare out the window. Each time I shift it feels like I'm getting further from sleep. Either the matress springs make an unholy creaking noise, they press into my back, or the people in the next room over get rowdy.

Eventually, I decide it isn't worth it. If I can't sleep, I may as well get going. So, I grab up my keys and my bag and sling everything into the passenger seat. Slamming the driver's side door shut behind me, I gas up the engine while it whines and protests before it finally relents. It isn't until then that I actually let some relief wash over me.

"I know you're tired," I mumble, "but I gotta get the hell outta Oklahoma."

I started hearing the radio a little more clearly after that.

NEXT

[firstkil]

JUNEBUG, SKIPPING LIKE A STONE┆ CUTFACE | ON AO3

With the headlights pointed at the dawn We were sure we'd never see an end to it all

1979, the smashing pumpkins

[marvelsmostwanted]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[lrndvs]

compliments from girls go hard

[itsscaredycat]

so ok yeah fine i watched gravity falls again and read the book of bill

[hydrattan]

I was feeling agitated and artblocked yesterday so I decided to give my brain a rest by watching TV and then the next thing I knew these were in front of me

[ducktollers]

🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊

[piedpip3rrr]

What is this? A crossover episode???

[climbingthefloors]

obsessed with this baby hippo from thailand's khao khew zoo.. she has been so utterly betrayed by the world

[gongyussy]

good thing from jp twitter this week is queen of old man yaoi michiru sonoo discovering the term old man yaoi

update: somehow it got impossibly more wholesome

quick translation: おかえり: welcome home あ 終わった 終わった: ahhh, it's over! it's done! コーヒー? お茶?: coffee? tea? コ~ヒ~ ありがと: coffee, thank you~ ネクタイレア★★ ネクタイ取るレア★★★★: seeing him with a tie on, rarity level ★★, seeing him take a tie off, rarity level ★★★★ にあうな~: it suits him~

also please do follow: AraigumaSha: sensei's twitter account marureviere: maru, who does such valuable work highlighting bl manga for an international audience

[thankstothe]

folk hero really

[mintaii]

take responsibility

[tawnysoup]

Found my fav Slay the Princess route recently. Dragon my beloved. Your horrifying beak mouth was an impossible-to-refuse lip syncing challenge 💖

Shoutouts to @blacktabbygames for making such a cool game!