#maybe i used to like cooking but not anymore

[moki-dokie]

there's been a bit of a Hot Topic going around bsky (and twt too i guess) about why my age group (particularly in the US) doesn't cook at home much anymore

and there's been a whole lot of takes ranging from dogshit to good and intelligent to total confusion from folks in other countries. neat stuff right. decided to throw my 2 cents in from my own perspective as part of the demographic.

the tldr of it being: there are *several* factors that make it not worth it nor cost efficient anymore where it once was. obviously that isn't gonna be the case for everyone, but it is the case for an overwhelming majority, me included. and this isn't even including, you know, a whole population of disabled people who are physically unable to cook for themselves but I sort of figured that was a given. but maybe not, considering...

then this absolute genius comes in

thank you buddy for having no reading comprehension and missing quite literally every single point i made that it isn't strictly about the dollar amount of the meal itself. like. okay??? good for you i guess.

sure, there will be some meals where that is very true. I could make a bigass pot of ham and beans that'll last me a whole week for about $10. hence why i added there will always be some meals cheaper to make at home. but that completely disregards every. other. point.

it is not, and has never been, about the direct cost of the meal itself. that's just one of a handful of reasons that factor into the whole conversation. there are going to be times that eating out will be more expensive price-wise, but when it checks off like 5 different boxes i couldn't fulfill myself for whatever reason, that price balances out. and we really are in an age where we're having to negotiate the worth of every action we take and every minute we spend on something. i don't know why thats such a hard concept for people to grasp.

legit nobody is arguing it *should* be this way. it shouldn't. we all recognize this. in the ideal world it would be both worth it and affordable to make every meal at home and leave eating out for special occasions, as was the case when i was growing up. and i totally get it that our parents, many of whom raised us by their lonesome, managed to do it fine so in theory we should be able to as well. sometimes, yeah, it really is a matter of sucking it up and doing it no matter how exhausted you might be. that's true for all facets of life tbh. but it shouldn't be that way all the time every time.

and, i don't know about the rest of you, but for us? it really was a whole fucking To Do to clip coupons and plan Shopping Day. I'd spend a couple hours clipping from a few different newspapers and the mail fliers we collected. then we organized them by store. then mom would plan out which stores we would go to for which items,the route we'd take since sometimes it meant going outside of town, the timeframe for everything since it was typically an all-day event. like, a whole day of planning and a whole day of executing JUST to grocery shop, and that was back in the 90s/00s. Inconvenient, yes, but still actually worth the trouble. couponing saved SO much money back then, especially if you knew the stores that would double them. coupons like those don't exist anymore. period. now the ones that do are like, pennies off or bogo deals and otherwise it's app this and app that for any sort of savings - which even then might only be like a meager 10% off the purchase. in no way is it worth my time and effort today to do the same thing we did when i was young.

anyway. so yeah. for a hell of a lot of us, sometimes going out to eat or ordering in is in fact the most worthwhile way, and sometimes even the most cost efficient way, to feed ourselves anymore.

[sucker-just]

It's like an isekai but the modern person becomes a whole new person native to the new setting now too, maybe with some memories of the person they became, maybe without but with knowledge of a piece of in their original universe media the story as you read it is all happening in, maybe with the whole life of the person they have become having played out and sucked and then they, a person from the modern world, get transmigrated to be this new person who's simultaneously being reborn (a similar but different thing where you do this but to your past self).

This results in a lot of interesting avenues to take in regards to the nature of the self, like how much is the protagonist one thing or another anymore? How is it knowing someone may have died for the life you have now stolen? Which is more likely, that souls are real and transferable between universes or that you had a Public Universal Friend moment and a fever cooked your brain in to some cool conclusions or perhaps a god (which are sometimes A Thing in the generic European by way of East Asia fantasy settings) is fucking with you? What's up with this world's soul junk, like is it a Chinese soul parts system, Egyptian, something else? Why did this happen, beyond some frequently anonymous frequently East Asian frequently young adult dying before their time? I have seen a number of these things at least lightly touched on if not used extensively in a work here or there, but mostly ignored. Because it's most often a bare bones excuse to put a modern day sad sack who's life isn't going so crash hot in to a world of magic and underdeveloped infrastructure which our plucky hero will revolutionise, by being chill when their character in the story is not because they know how the story goes, or knowing how to replicate basic modern conveniences and being hailed as a great innovator or something. Basically wouldn't it be great if you were living in a world where you were able to probably be nobility of some kind (though one in a poor position oftentimes) and enjoy the privileges of that, be the first mover on like the whole modernisation and capitalism thing, maybe have cool overpowered magic of some kind, maybe literally know the future, and destroy your cartoonishly evil enemies.

I do not know if you're looking for comic recommendations at the moment but as a big fan of the greatest estate developer I wanted to recommend some stuff that struck me as similar:

Unlucky is as lucky does (weird name, good story, weird faces galore. Fantasy but not transmigration)

Love advice from the great duke of hell (comedy, weird faces slightly to the left, kinda isekai if summoning counts? Fun demon guys in there)

Vainglorious is... admittedly the weird one out here for having less weird faces but the shenanigans at times feel similar.

Princess Hurricane is two isekais for the price of one and although there isn't much out yet I would say it does hit some of the greatest estate's good spots, both comedy-vise and weird faces-vise.

That's all, have a good day, big fan of the normal spaceship, peace and wellfishes!

So I get that an isekai is a portal fantasy with Asian characters but what the fuck is a transmigration

I spent too long working in biology and I can only imagine a flock of wild Protagonists heading closer to the equator for the winter

[cherrysurf]

winning you back pt.2

-where haikyu boys try to win back you their ex gf

-this is lwk depressing but maybe it’s bc of the music im listening to rn LMAO

contains; atsumu, tsukishima, kita, sakusa, oikawa, iwaizumi

pt.1 of winning you back here!

atsumu; He still very much has all your pictures on his feed that he never deleted and never will you had to go minimal contact with him because he kept texting you every other day to try to get back together, he still loves you and thinks your gonna be his wife and that this is just a rough patch, so when you post that you’re going to be volunteering at osamu’s restaurant for a charity that osamu is doing for young kids to get into volleyball he takes it upon himself to cancel his practice for that day and go and join you two and begged and forced osamu to make you too work together so he can talk to you, and those dam miya’s being so good and weaseling there way back into life’s, it worked. You two are now talking again. You told him that you wanted to take this slow, but atsumu later that week posted a soft launch of you two at dinner.

tsukishima; tsukishima acts like he’s so nonchalant but no one’s seen him cry over how bad it’s killing him that you can fully ignore him when he’s usually the one doing that. He hates how bad he fucked up so he decided to make a plan to win you back, what does that mean he had to do? work at the same cat cafe as you, at first you weren’t on the same shifts and maybe hanging out with cats was a plus but getting crushed on by other girls wasn’t. Anyways as soon and he saw you two were on the same shift he couldn’t be more happy, it was a slow shift so he used this time to catch up and be very soft and respectful he saw you weren’t fighting back so he was thinking that was a step forward, until later on when a girl came by to order a drink and was clearly flirting with him so tsukishima ignored her, as she said “can i get your number?” you turned to see what he would do all he said was “no i have a girlfriend she’s right there actually, i don’t what gave you the confidence to think you could ask me” he said laughing which left the girl embarrassed and you flustered.

kita; Kita is forever my yearning man. He writes letters for you and sends them, you kept them all because you still didn’t get over him. He thought it was the right choice to let you go but he couldn’t have been more wrong, and I fear kita is the type to have a romantic scene like the movies. So what? anyways he comes by your hour IN THE POURING RAIN. to apologize “i’m sorry im selfish for breaking up with you yn, i just clean up well i forget myself” OOOO YOU END UP SOBBING BC WHO WOULDN'T?! anyways safe to say you kissed in the rain and he won you back

sakusa; stubborn ass ho. He was shocked when you broke things off even more when you actually stood on business, sakusa was one to keep his composure and not crashout but he couldn’t understand why he was so affected by the breakup it’s like his whole life flipped upside down. He even stopped keeping up with himself for a bit which was totally out of the norm. So when you saw him at your apartment in the lates of the night messy hair, wrinkles in his clothes looking dead you knew something was wrong, he almost felt like he could breathe again once you embraced him, disgusting and all and he didn’t let go since and tried to change for the better

oikawa; He acted happy at first like it didn’t matter because he thought you needed him more than he needed you. Oh how wrong he was, the fan girls didn’t support him the way you did, didn’t cheer for him the way you did, no one could cook as good as you, no one could get him out his depression like you could, so one night around 4am he gave you a call wanting to quit volleyball because he felt like he couldn’t do anymore without you there, which broke your heart because you saw how bad he was struggling without you there and that’s when he finally admits “I needed you more than you needed me. Come back yn, i’m sorry” and you did because you needed him just as much as he needed you.

iwaizumi; it was mutual breakup but not really he just did whatever he could to make you happy he hated fighting with you, he never deleted your pictures, he still kept all your stuff that you didn’t take at his house, he was still loyal even if you weren’t together, He blamed himself for not fighting back. he became very very career oriented that’s when he saw you at a job interview, you had just finished interviewing for the place he works at as a sports medical assistant. you weren’t aware he was working there so he stopped you and asked to get lunch since you were leaving and he was on his lunch break. That's where he apologized for not doing more and still thought about you and asked for a redo and would do anything for a second chance, and you agreed because you felt the same.

tags; @solarvrse (for the atsumu one) @sahrii (for the iwaizumi one)

[inkieflame]

I Need an Anchor (God, I Want to be Satisfied)

A Wild Life Etho fic, featuring the Gs :)

Content warnings: none

2000 words

Aka, Etho doesn't know his self worth, so he tries to prove himself to his new alliance. They assure him they care about him even if he is washed up

Author's note: this was supposed to contain Cletho and that never happened, oh well. Maybe another day

Etho isn’t running away.

He’s not abandoning anyone, he’s not betraying them or leaving them behind. He’s not doing any of that.

He’s just taking a quiet exit.

Because he might drown if he has to stay with Bdubs and Tango one more day. He thinks they can feel it too. Something is wrong with their alliance. Something is inherently broken.

They fight each other more than their enemies. They steal, they mock, and when one of them is injured they’re left to pick themselves up on their own.

It's just not how an alliance is meant to work.

And Etho needs out.

He picks through this chest, looking for whatever valuables he has left. Minimal iron and even fewer diamonds. He manages to scrape together some building supplies and food. Hopefully this will be enough. Hopefully, hopefully.

He doesn’t know what to expect. He wants to seem useful. He wants to be necessary to a team. Indispensable.

Because if he’s not, they might neglect him too, just like Tango and Bdubs. And gosh, it hurts to be neglected by people you love. Etho can’t take it anymore.

He ducks out of his tower, backpack full of supplies and his new beloved trident in hand. Distantly, he can hear Tango and Bdubs bickering about something. Etho avoids them, and makes his way through the woods to the other base.

The late summer sun falls through the leaves overhead, making him squint as he approaches the wheat fields and walled in building where his new friends live. He swallows, and then wanders to the gate. He can hear the soft chatter of people within the base. Etho’s heart swells with jealousy. They are so friendly with each other.

“Etho?” He sees Pearl lean over the top of the wall, “Hey, we can see you lurking how here.”

“Oh. Hi.” He says. “Can income inside?”

Pearl turns back to talk to someone behind her. Etho can hear Scott’s voice. She turns back to him, “Yeah, come up over the wall though. Scott says Impulse just trapped the gate.”

Etho nods once, relieved that he hadn’t let himself in only be blown to bits. He towers up and Pearl helps to pull him over the last bit of wall so he standing on top of the stone next to her.

She jumps from the wall and hurries back over to where Cleo, Scott and Impulse are chatting on the front porch of the building.

Etho lingers awkwardly behind her, dropping down and following.

“Hey guys, hi. I brought some supplies? I hope they’re enough.” He says. He turns to rifle through his backpack, pulling various things from his inventory. “I’ve got a bit of iron? Two diamonds if anyone needs a new sword. And some cooked cod if anyone needs food-“

He is cut off by Scott waving him over and gesturing for him to sit with them, “We’re all good on supplies right now.” Scott says, “But join us! I’ve been wondering when you’d be over.”

This makes Etho’s stomach churn uneasily. They don’t need anything he has to offer. He’s not giving anything, he’ll just be a drain on supplies here.

Okay, so fix it. You have a problem, analyze it and fix it.

He hovers near the group, not sitting down. His eyes dart around the group, trying to fit pieces together. What can he do?

Pearl is still wears some pieces of iron armor. So is Impulse.

“Etho?” Cleo echoes, “Aren’t you going to sit with us?”

Etho bites his lip. He can feel the Scar there underneath his teeth. “No, I, uh, I forgot some things at my base.” He lies. “I’ll be back.”

He ignores how Scott looks disappointed and how Cleo sighs when he turns away.

Etho doesn’t come back until he has enough diamonds to get both Pearl and Impulse a new piece of armor. He jumps the wall again, and then he drops down into the small walled in area.

Scott is the only one outside, tending patiently to the flowers around the building.

“Oh, Etho, there you are.” Scott turns to him, “We thought you’d left us!”

Scott laughs, but Etho can’t help but hear an accusation. Traitor.

He hurries to seem useful, to be a good teammate, “I went mining.” He blurts, “Got some diamonds so y’all can get some better armor.”

Scott stares at him blankly for a moment, confused. “That’s. That’s very kind of you. The others are inside if you want to say hi.”

Etho nods, “Of course.” He shuffles backwards, then turns and makes his way to the door.

Pearl and Cleo are inside, sitting around a small pool in the floor with a few axolotls swimming around it. Cleo is sitting on top of their storage chests, sprawled out over two of them. Pearl sits by the edge of the pool with her bare feet in the water and her boots laying next to her.

“Etho, hi!” Cleo smiles at him, “I was wondering if you’d drop by again.”

“Hi Cleo.” He turns to Pearl, “uh, I got you some diamonds. Make yourself some new armor?” He holds out half of the diamonds for her to take. “I also have some for Impulse.”

Pearl takes the diamonds, “Ooooh!” she turns them over in her hands admiringly, “Very nice!”

Cleo gives Etho a strange smile, “Don’t you need new armor too?”

He shakes his head, “I’m alright. I’d rather put my new team first, be a good teammate and all.”

Cleo’s smile turns to a frown, but she doesn’t say anything else.

When the sun goes down, Etho quietly dismisses himself to his old tower near Tango and Bdubs.

Bdubs is pacing the outside of his own tower, muttering to himself. When he sees Etho, he snaps to attention, “Hey! Where have you been all day?”

“Uh, just out.” Etho shrugs.

Bdubs fumes, clearly in a bad mood, “Likely story! We had that whole list of things to do today, remember? Nothing got done!”

Etho tilts his head, “Didn’t you work on it at all?”

“Well! I just! You!” Bdubs splutters, “Very freaking funny! You need to work on it too! I can’t be doing everything around here!”

Etho nods, “I’ll take a look at the list tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Bdubs huffs, “Time to shreep.”

The next time Etho is with his new alliance, he is itching for something to do.

The five of them are all laying around outside, just enjoying the sunshine. Scott and Impulse sit in the grass together, while Pearl is perched in the pale oak tree that grows inside the walls. Cleo sits up on the edge of the wall, overlooking the group.

Etho sits a small distance from Scott and Impulse, watching Scott teach him how to weave a flower crown.

He can’t help but think how lazy this is. No one is doing anything productive. They just sit together, like they have forever. Like they’re not going to face their encroaching death soon.

They didn’t even have a to do list for Etho to check. If they did, he would be out, being productive. Instead he’s stuck nervously following around other members of the alliance hoping to help with whatever they’re doing.

But none of them are doing anything.

And Etho is failing to smoother this feeling of uselessness.

“Etho, are you alright?” Cleo asks suddenly.

Etho glances up at her, “Yeah, I’m alright.”

Scott shakes his head, “No, Cleo is right. You’re acting odd.”

“Uh, I guess I’m just a little antsy.” Etho shifts uncomfortably, “I was hoping to do something useful today.”

Cleo and Scott glance at each other. Etho wishes he knew what that look meant. And then they both look at Pearl, who nods, and he feels even more lost.

“You seem stressed, man.” Impulse says, “I think a day of rest would be good for you. Take a break.”

Etho sighs. Impulse get up from his spot near Scott and comes to sit by Etho.

“I don’t need a break.” Etho says, “I just want to be a good teammate.”

Because he needs this. He needs someone to tether him down when he can’t find a direction to go. He needs an anchor.

Scott scoots over until he’s seated on Etho’s other side, “Etho. You don’t need to be a good teammate.” He says, “We don’t care if you bring nothing to the table. You’re part of this group now, so you belong here no matter what.”

“But I still need to be productive.” Etho insists, “Otherwise, why am I on this team?” Scott hesitates to answer, and Etho panics, joking nervously, “It can’t be my irresistible charm?”

“Your pathetic wet-cat energy.” Cleo offers.

“Yeah yeah, that.” Etho’s says, “I’m washed up.”

Impulse sighs, “Man. We want to hang out with you even if you are washed up.”

Etho doesn’t believe him.

Etho makes it to the late afternoon before his restlessness gets the better of him, and he finds himself getting ready to go back to his tower. At least there he has something to do. He could work on Bdubs’ list, or try to finish his tower.

Scott watches him out of the corner of his eye as he makes his way back up the wall, and prepares to drop down.

“Etho.” He calls.

Etho hesitates, looking out at the forest beneath the wall. He turns back, “yup?”

Scott pulls himself up onto the wall next to him. He eyes the rest of the group, and drops his voice to a whisper.

“Stay?”

Etho frowns, “It’s getting late, I have work to do.”

Scott seems disappointed, “I know you wanted to keep this alliance on the down-low, but…” He doesn’t finish.

“Bdubs will be wondering where I am.” Etho says. It’s a lame excuse, but not untrue. “And I have to go home sometime. Get some rest like everyone has been saying.”

Scott sighs and steps back, “Alright.” He says. “But know you can stay here too, if you ever want. You’re always welcome here.”

When Etho gets home, to his own cold bed, alone in his copper tower, he can only stare at his ceiling. He knows that somewhere Scott and Pearl and Cleo and Impulse are all going to bed together. They will fall asleep to the sound of each other breathing.

Etho will fall asleep to the sound of Tango pacing next door, restless.

“I brought food.” Etho says next time, because despite the constant reassurances he can’t help but feel like an addiction to the team instead of a part of it.

He has to prove himself, he needs to deserve this.

The fish are cooked on an open fireplace, while the group sits around it, enjoying the fire and the food. The base smells like warm fish, and bread that Pearl made, and the herbal tea in Scott’s mug.

Etho smiles, watching them chatter.

He’s glad to have given them some sort of substance, and a moment of peace away from the start of next session tomorrow. He feels useful and needed.

He ignores how Bdubs blows up his communicator with messages about preparing for tomorrow. Etho will deal with him tomorrow. Today is for his alliance.

“Stay?” Scott asks again, as the sun comes down and after Bdubs is long asleep.

Etho thinks about his cold bed, and his copper tower, and Tango’s insomniac pacing. He thinks about all the yelling he’ll wake up to in the morning if he goes home, verses to prospect of bread and tea if he stays.

“yeah.” He says softly, “I’ll stay.”

Then he falls asleep that night curled in the bed between Cleo and Impulse, like maybe he was still at home with her in Secret Life, or with him in Limited Life. Nearby Scott and Pearl are breathing steadily, drifting into sleep.

And he can’t help but think he is the luckiest person here. Because he knows he doesn’t deserve it, but they want him here anyway.

Etho thinks he’s beginning to trust them. He knows they will be here, a firm constant in a ranging sea. Something to keep him grounded.

His anchor.

[theboardwalkbody]

me: I like cooking

also me: *breathing harder than normal, needing to stop to catch my breath, heart rate over 140, tense, irritable, i can feel the blood pressure spike, tense*

you do not need to rush as if youre working for a Michelin star restaurant - there is no time restraint (also - maybe dont wait until youre so hungry you feel nauseated to reduce some of the pressure).

you do not need to clean and wash dishes as you go along and try to do 4+ things at once (ex: cook, wash dishes/cookware that isnt being used anymore, wipe down counter tops, let the dogs in/out, take out the trash, set the table, answer texts, make a to-do list for the week). Doing one thing while waiting for water to boil or for something to cook in the oven is one thing - but trying to do all of that while also chopping onions and grating cheese and sautéing said chopped onions gets to be a bit much.

you are putting too much pressure on yourself for why?

you are rushing as if you are being times for why?

you are trying to do literally everything at the same time for why?

you are one people - not multiple people.

(i got so worked up my head started hurting and my chest is aching again and im tired and i just want to close my eyes and sleep)

((also its 8pm and i started this at 715pm and i have been up since like 530am and was already wore out from the 10hr work day))

[faaun]

ok let's catch up quickly

[moongothic]

Lotta people wondering if there is correlation between "Haki can reverse DF status effects" and "Croc never used Haki" (-> "he can't use Haki lest it detranses him"), and while plausible

I do want to ask, do y'all think Haki could reverse what Shinobu did to Momonosuke? No, this is related I swear

Like my logic is that there's generally speaking two types of Devil Fruit abilities

there's ones that create "temporary status effects" onto others, either wearing off with time or if the user passes out/dies/undoes the ability (Foxy, Sugar, Bonney etc)

ones that change you permanently and won't become undone even if the user died (though some may still be reversible by the original user) (Hancock, Shinobu etc)

And as we know, Haki can reverse those temporary status effects, as we see Law do with the Sickness Doc Q inflicted on him and his crew, right

So the question is, while Haki can reverse the temporary changes, can it also break through those (mostly) irreversible changes? Do you think Momonosuke could reverse Shinobu's Ripening ability and deage himself if he mastered his Haki?

Because I feel like, if not, Crocodile could totally use Haki (if he can in the first place) without it undoing Iva-chan's HRT, because Iva-chan's HRT is supposed to be permanent, it doesn't wear off, the only way to reverse it is supposed to be by Iva-chan's own hands

But if Momonosuke could deage himself again by mastering his Haki, then I feel like Crocodile could indeed be in trouble

[penisbilt]

the bittersweet but absolute flood of relief that comes from admitting defeat at living independently, to have to move back in with parents. we tried! we gave it our best shot for almost 3 years! but living like this (being on our own) is just not possible for us at this time of our lives. we've finally proved it to ourselves that we can't do it. it'll be okay to let ourselves rest now

[star-the-car]

it feels weird that within 24 hours I went from laughing and singing karaoke with my friends to us crying and comforting each other as we express our fears for the future

[kenmaiii]

oomf right honestly drawing faves and ocs like ponies is fun :3. pretty slay for a first attempt i think

[rawliverandgoronspice]

.

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about nora again

[gladiatorcunt]

john b x pogue!reader who’s a bitch in that “i’m in love with you but i hate myself so i’m convinced you’ll never love me back and i’m going to push you away” way

[aparticularbandit]

I don't know how to put into words that there is a line beyond which I want credit for things.

Like. Guitar Hero being an inspiration for Ibuki's shift from Light Music to Screamo isn't something I need or want credit for.

General headcanon I don't need or want credit for.

But there's. there's a line beyond which. and it's not a strict thing? it's intensely variable?

Heck, even when I write Jess stuff, if I'm referencing Willow's headcanon for Roger, I credit that. If I'm using Alana in Jess stuff, I'm probably drawing huge inspiration from Kat's Alana, and I credit that.

I don't know how to put into words what that line is, and I feel bad because I feel like I sound like I'm saying no, don't use my shit, which is not. what I'm saying.

And I don't want people to feel like oh, we have to ask Bandit permission to use their stuff, because like. that's not. strictly speaking true either.

-sighs-

It's just complicated.

[ame-to-ame]

there are things that you don't do for a year or more and pick up just right where you left off and these days i fear loving you might be one of them

[theramblingvoid]

Sometimes I think about how even when I'm trying not to be, I am entirely made of the people I love. I recently reconnected with a close friend I hadn't seen in about three years. Apparently they're into watching video essays now. I'm more of a gaming YouTube person, but to each their own, I've always known this friend to be a touch more academic than me anyway. Fair enough. We find other things to talk about.

It is two months later. My watch later list is entirely filled with video essays. Three years is not enough time to forget how to love somebody. I'm glad of that.