#life hell for a long long time

[running-in-the-dark]

sometimes I just. realise I'll probably never feel normal about money in my life

I grew up poor, but it's not just that. it's that my mother would constantly complain that she didn't have any money, and because I was the oldest and also lived with my dad, she would call me and tell me to ask my dad to give her money. or rather, she'd yell at me to do it. sometimes she'd come over and they'd scream at each other about it. usually not in front of my brothers, I think, but always in front of me.

I remember how I didn't get anything, ever - and I don't mean luxury items, I mean clothes, underwear, school supplies. one time I asked for a set of coloured pencils because I really liked to draw - they weren't expensive, definitely under 10€, but she got mad and told me we couldn't afford that.

but she went to the hairstylist every 4-6 weeks to get her hair cut and dyed. the few times I went with her (I didn't feel comfortable going usually, because I had anxiety but mostly because I knew it was expensive and I knew we couldn't afford it), I saw how much she spent there (not a lot, but definitely a lot more than anything I got). she smokes, so she spent at least 10€ a day on cigarettes too. but that was fine because she 'never got anything for herself'.

when I desperately needed new clothes (because I literally did not have any that still fit and weren't completely broken), she would only take me to one store - because her friend owned it. I hated all of the clothes there and they were expensive, but she got to pay later or something so that's what we did. she always got more for herself than the few pieces I was allowed to get.

even when I had to move in with her again (not voluntarily), she still made me ask my dad for money. when I asked her to buy food she'd tell me she would do that when my dad sent more money. and it's not like he just didn't feel like paying - at least one of us lived with him until I was like 16, and he had less money than she did. but still. she'd always yell at me because he was so bad and I was responsible for making him give her more money.

whenever I got any money, I spent it immediately, because I knew if I didn't, one of my parents would borrow it (maybe I'd get it back, maybe not).

I don't know. I just don't know how to be normal about it. the stupidest things related to money will trigger memories of being screamed at. it all just feels bad.

[rendevok]

The gingerbread anything agency!

A secret santa gift for my good friend max 🥰🫶

[corpsentry]

a glass sun 1/2

[happypeachsludgeflower]

SVSSS BRAINWAVE JUST HIT! I HAD A THOUGHT ™

An average modern person transmitigates into SVSSS. Mind you, I specifically mean SVSSS and not PIDW. That’s right, our protagonist awakens to find themselves as a NPC in the world of Scum Villain Self Saving System. And they think to themselves upon waking up, “Oh, I’m an NPC in a xianxia novel with a happy ending! Cool!!” and goes about their life being a background nerd geeking out about plants, and monsters, and cultivation in general, and neat flying swords.

But this is a world of sex pollen and wife plots and unfortunately the cure for a lot of diseases is duel cultivation with a heavenly demon, and we all know who that demon is going to end up marrying, so it’s best to mess around with meta cultivation knowledge and prep for the worst case scenario, and honestly, they may as well solve some of the minor issues in the plot while their at it, so they invent some new cultivation techniques from some of those nifty svsss fanfictions they read while alive (I’m specifically thinking of this fic’s explanation of duel cultivation and cauldrons, but other weird cultivation methods could be used from other fanfics and xianxia books), so they can tidy up some things.

For instance, is it really necessary for Zhuzhi-lang to be stuck as a weird snake creature for nearly twenty years? Is it really needed for Yue Qingyuan to have crippled cultivation due to his sword?? Does Tianlang Jun have to be stuck under a mountain and then escape only to slowly die in a decomposing body??

They know they can’t change everything without the system interfering, but small nudges should help right? After all, they’re just a background NPC and Shen Yuan will show up eventually and everyone will fall in love with him and no one will even notice the NPC’s existence even if they had noticed something was up during their miraculous healing and salvation spree.

So they go about fixing those things. They catch Zhuzhi-lang unawares and feed him a sun and dew mushroom seed while he’s confused and do some funky cultivation shenanigans and pat him on the head cause he’s really such a cute weird snake creature and give him some vague warning about not trusting in laws and then fucks off to somewhere else.

I’m still caught up on Metagaming’s concept of duel cultivation transactions where you give and take—like taking something from someone’s cultivation, not just power, and returning something else—and keep getting stuck in a brainrot loop of the NPC taking some bloodmite powers from Zhuzhi-lang when they gave him a fully humanoid form that’s not reliant on Tianlang Jun. So my main idea for how the NPC plots to hold Yue Qingyuan in place is feeding him lesser bloodmites (not full ones because they only took a minor ability and can only hold someone for a few minutes before the bloodmites die), while they hold Yue Qingyuan still long enough to draw some ritual to heal his soul and separate it from Xuan Su. But honestly, I’m sure other ideas could apply here too. My Metagaming brainrot is just too strong right now to think of any.

And Tianlang Jun? Simple. Zhuzhi-lang’s got a humanoid form and can easily get the sun and dew mountain flowers for himself. They can’t stop the man from being imprisoned entirely. The system says no since Luo Binghe needs a dramatic entrance. So while they can’t stop the tragedy, they can put some pieces into play for an early escape, maybe a new plan to get him a better body once’s he’s back, and be a ferry for Su Xiyan’s body to revive her at some point as well.

It’s nice being an unnoticeable NPC, isn’t it? You can do whatever you want and no one’s going to know!!

Except. Someone does notice (as we all could have seen coming). And Shen Qingqiu is suspicious as fuck of this obnoxious Shidi because he notices everyone due to paranoid, and he’s even MORE suspicious of the mysterious character that healed Yue Qingyuan’s soul (and wasn’t that a doozy of a realization to have when Yue Qingyuan burst into his bamboo house one day freaking out because some disguised, powerful cultivator somehow did the impossible after ambushing him and holding him down as they healed his soul, and Shen Qingqiu is still reeling from learning that Yue Qingyuan’s SOUL was damaged trying to save Xiao Jiu and the stubborn asshole never told him because he apparently assumed Xiao Jiu knew there wasn’t a single universe where Qi ge didn’t try to come for him). And so yea, Shen Qingqiu is suspicious as all hell and starts snooping and plotting to catch the mysterious cultivator by combing through Cang Qiong because whoever it is has to have an in at the sect somewhere to know about Yue Qingyuan’s soul.

And that’s not even mentioning how suspicious Zhuzhi-lang and Tianlang Jun are now. They might not have realized what that strange cultivator did when they did it, or understood the cryptic in law mention, but they certainly have some suspicions now that Tianlang Jun was as imprisoned by in law like people, and Zhuzhi-lang kept his humanoid form just fine without Tianlang Jun, and now the hunt is ON for the mysterious benefactor, so they can repay the kindness and find out what the fuck is going on.

The NPC is, of course, oblivious to all of this going on and goes about their merry way thinking they’re being the Best ™ at being lowkey. They are SO good at being inconspicuous!! They deserve an award really!!

And then. Shen Qingqiu doesn’t qi deviate.

Shen Yuan doesn’t show up.

Oh shit, the NPC thinks to themselves as they begin to panic. They even check Shen Qingqiu out themselves to see if it’s Shen Yuan just being really good at acting. Maybe he was a better actor in the book than he gave himself credit for or something?? But no. That’s Shen Qingqiu all right. Shen Yuan is missing in action, and someone has to fix the plot of Cang Qiong is doomed.

Thus begins the NPC’s journey to try and unobtrusively fix PIDW’s child abuse problems (that they’re unaware are already fixed), save Liu Qingge from his qi deviation in Ling Xi Caves, make sure Luo Binghe doesn’t raze the sect to the ground someday and hopefully find him some sort of husband replacement to keep him under control when he does return, possibly dispose of the Huan Hua Palace Master at some point because he’s vile trash, and did I mention there are multiple man hunts for this poor oblivious dude currently on going??

And the most important question for them to solve? Where the fuck did Shen Yuan go??

Hmm I wonder where that man could have gone.

[lil-lemon-snails]

"I can't ignore what's under dancefloor boards, The rhythm of my heart a dead-as-disco beat, But I still move my feet, to slip out of this groove, I'm free" ~ 2econd 2ight 2eer, Will Wood, The Normal Album

I have been plagued with visions of LDR Sun every time I listen to this song and I NEEDED to get this out of my system @spadillelicious when do we get to smooch the boy pLEASE

v textless version and close ups under cut!! v

[theatrevampire]

lmao sorry if i was an old man dying from parkinson's with a lot of regrets in my life and the vampire i met in my 20s called me up 50 years after an interview where he attacked me and was like "can we try again?" and then i got to his billionaire dubai penthouse and sat down and THIS was what he said to me it would have been fucking van helsing ON THE SPOT like why don't we take a walk outside in the sunlight you shady ass queen

[rustedhills]

Disney, releasing Wish: "so it's all about legacy--the new generation surpassing the old, overcoming the evils perpetuated by them, relinquishing singular power... and there's an old man in a tower, uh... animal sidekick, i guess..., ah... magic...?

Miyazaki, just out of frame, sledgehammer raised:

[blueskittlesart]

*sigh* thoughts on Nintendo's botw/totk timeline shenanigans and tomfoolery?

tbh. my maybe-unpopular opinion is that the timeline is only important when a game's place on the timeline seriously informs the way their narrative progresses. the problem is that before botw we almost NEVER got games where it didn't matter. it matters for skyward sword because it's the beginning, and it matters for tp/ww/alttp (and their respective sequels) because the choices the hero of time makes explicitly inform the narrative of those games in one way or another. it matters which timeline we're in for those games because these cycles we're seeing are close enough to oot's cycle that they're still feeling the effects of his choices. botw, however, takes place at minimum 10 thousand years after oot, so its place on the timeline actually functionally means nothing. botw is completely divorced from the hero of time & his story, so what he does is a nonissue in the context of botw link and zelda's story. thus, which timeline botw happens in is a nonissue. honestly I kind of liked the idea that it happened in all of them. i think there's a cool idea of inevitability that can be played with there. but the point is that the timeline exists to enhance and fill in the lore of games that need it, and botw/totk don't really need it because the devs finally realized they could make a game without the hero of time in it.

[justalittlebluetiefling]

I'm just realizing how wild it is that they let a ridiculously powerful fey creature set up a team-building scavenger hunt for them.

[professoruber]

Arcane Season 2 Act 3 Spoilers

Vi deserves better.

And her death being the cause of the alternate almost-perfect timeline was… kinda maybe a bit much?

I get that it was less a case of “Vi dying made everything better” and more so a case of “Undercity child dying caused enough of a scandal to force Piltover to care about the Undercity” but still.

Vi’s life has been non-stop suffering. She has constantly tried and tried to save and protect those she loves and has time again failed horribly.

By the end of the series she lost her birth parents, her adoptive father, her adoptive brothers, her adoptive father (again), and finally her sister.

And even if Jinx possibly survived, it’s unlikely the sister swill reunite anyone soon and so Vi will have to live with assuming her sister is dead. Plus with the guilt of Jinx having died saving her because she couldn’t leave behind Vander. Plus it was Ekko who convinced Jinx to keep living.

So the whole alternate timeline where she dies and everyone is great just feels like kinda punch in the gut on top of the sheer level of suffering she endures despite her good intentions and desire to just protect those she cares for.

Arguably made kinda worse by how the living Vi of the main Arcane timeline doesn’t really contribute overly significantly to the final battle against the Noxians and Viktor?

It was Mel and Caitlyn who had the final fight with Ambessa. Ekko of course saved Everyoje with the Z-Drive when Viktor was on the cusps of victory. Jayce was able to convince Viktor to stop. Jinx’s aerial rescue with mini-gun also probably took out more Noxians than Vi.

Not to say Vi didn’t contribute at all, of course. She still definitely held her own and fought a good fight. But still feels kinda crappy to have the whole good alternate timeline with Vi dead and then not give main Vi bigger moments to succeed and make positive changes.

Anyway my feelings are still fresh so I’ll probably mull over them and reflect on the season more as time goes on. Did really like it overall I think though,

But still though; Vi really deserved so much better.

At least she and Caitlyn mended things and seem happy together at the end, and so together they can hopefully grow and heal.

[jackshiccup]

to celebrate my otnwasversary last week i watched httyd in orchestra concert and got a custom tiny toothless tattoo like woah.. we used to pray for times like these 12 year old me would be ecstatic to know this is what we’re upto now

[be-an-echo]

from another mother...

the day when Tess and Maria got shitfaced

[avernusreject]

What if when Rook chooses not to redeem Solas, the last thing Solas sees before he gets dragged into the fade prison is Lavellan. For ten years, he'd only seen her in her dreams, imagined her in the lonely hours of the night. To see her one last time, utterly helpless to move. Hearing her scream his name as she sprints towards him. To far to make a difference. Desperation lacing every syllable that leaves her mouth. The only words that escape his lips is a rush "vhe-", before he gets pulled in

[dykedvonte]

See like the only reason I think the others seriously believed Curly may have crashed the ship is cause he basically had a 30 Rock "I lie to myself" momentary breakdown in front of them after one too many mocktails and like completely forgot about it.

[shannonsketches]

what if they murdered freeza together. as a treat.

what if we gave granolah a big ol kaiju vegeta and they stepped on freeza as a team instead of going to therapy

[journey-to-the-attic]

what a mildly concerning message from my dear friend jo, i wonder what it could- OH MY GOD

WHERE DID SHE FIND HIM?????