#my beautiful ramblings

[muttmoxley]

sometimes im like "wow holy shit im being really fucking annoying. i should stop talking" and then i pull out my magic 8 ball and it says "youve always been annoying and your friends chose to talk you anyways. youll be fine" and im like wow thanks magic 8 ball. and then the ogre attacks me

[goldensunset]

advice i think we should tell children is that when adults say stuff like ‘now that i’m an adult i get really excited about stuff like coffee tables and bathrooms and rugs etc’ they don’t mean ‘and now i don’t care about blorbo and squimbus from my childhood tv shows anymore’ bc your average adult still loves all the same pop culture stuff they always did; they just have a greater appreciation for the mundane as well. growing up just means you can enjoy life twice as much now. you can get really excited about a new stuffed animal AND about a new kitchen sponge. peace and love

[reasonsforhope]

"For most people, a rat is at best an unwelcome guest, and at worst, the target of immediate extermination. But in a field clinic in Tanzania, rats are colleagues—heroes even.

Far from a trash bin-dwelling NYC street rat, the African giant pouched rat is docile, intelligent, easier to train than some dogs, and for East Africans, the performer of lifesaving tuberculosis diagnoses every day.

400,000 new cases of tuberculosis (TB) were estimated to have been prevented by these rats, whose sense of smell would make a bloodhound take notice. As [TB is] the number-one killer among infectious diseases worldwide, many of those 400,000 can be translated into lives saved.

“Not only are we saving people’s lives, but we’re also changing these perspectives and raising awareness and appreciation for something as lowly as a rat,” said Cindy Fast, a behavioral neuroscientist who coaches the rodents for the nonprofit APOPO.

“Because our rats are our colleagues, and we really do see them as heroes.”

APOPO uses giant pouched rats to sniff out traces of TB in the saliva of patients. In parts of Tanzania, a saliva smear test under a microscope by a human may only be 20-40% effective at detecting TB.

By contrast, a giant pouched rat like Ms. Carolina, a now-retired service rat who worked for APOPO for 7 years, raised the rates of detection on TB samples by 40% in the clinic where she worked.

Pictured: An APOPO employee with one of their trained rats

It would take 4 days for scientists to analyze the number of samples that Carolina could screen in 20 minutes. For that reason, when Carolina retired last November, a party was thrown at the clinic in her honor, and she was given a cake.

TB is sometimes thought of as a thing of the past—a disease for which doctors used to prescribe “dry air,” leading a modern sense of humor to muse at the antiquated, pre-antibiotic medical advice.

But it remains the number-one cause of death globally from a single infectious pathogen, and Tefera Agizew, a physician and APOPO’s head of tuberculosis, told National Geographic that once people see what the nonprofit’s rodents can do to slow the spread, they “fall in love with them.”

3,000 times in her career did Carolina detect one of the six volatile compounds that can be used to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and she got a hero’s send-off to a special compound to live out the rest of her days with her closet friend and sniffer colleague Gilbert, in a shaded enclosure dubbed “Rat Florida.”

“We’ve made special little rat-friendly carrot cakes with little peanuts and things on it that the rat would enjoy,” Fast said. “Then we all stand around and we clap, and we give three cheers, hip hip hooray for the hero, and celebrate together. It’s really a touching moment.”

APOPO has made headlines for its use of these rats in other lifesaving tasks as well: landmine clearance.

One of the world’s great underreported scourges (a lot like TB, coincidentally) is landmine contamination. There are 110 million landmines or unexploded bombs in the ground right now in about 67 countries, covering thousands of square miles in potential danger. Thousands of civilians are killed or injured by these weapons every year.

GNN reported on APOPO’s demining efforts using pouched rats back in 2020. One rat named Magawa alone identified 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordnance across an area the size of 20 football fields.

If at the start of this story you didn’t like rats, maybe Magawa and Carolina will have changed your mind."

-via Good News Network, March 31, 2025

[mittenscatgod]

hey is there any particular Qi story you wish existed but can't/don't want to write for some reason. Asking for a friend

yeah im always thinking about his friendship with mint and his relationship with his parents. depending on how long my fic gets through the 'story' of the assistant and qi that exists in my head (my barely uncontained lust) they might wind up meeting qis parents and grandfather but as a person hes very focused on the present moment and doesnt like talking much about himself which leads to questions about his upbringing.

he describes himself as a child as 'aloof' (which i think is jsut qi code for being a normal kid not focused on scientific achievement) and we see him smiling in his pictures. it seems like he's had a pretty positive upbringing with two parents who really love eachother, but he sort of... talks down to them? sometimes in a way thats almost classist (he refers to his parents work area [or their home? idk] as a 'fishing-shack') and rude (criticizing their enjoyment of their profession in a way he doesnt understand or "unoptimized") and its like. the way he talks about his grandfather and the way he talks about his parents are very different. Mint never brings up his mom and dad, but brings up his grandpa. so, like, whats going on there? were his parents absent a lot on fishing trips?

chances are he has a good relationship with his parents. hes canonically confirmed to write them AT LEAST about events important to his life (he mentions telling them when he starts dating you, his 3.14%) so it doesnt seem unhealthy. and he is generally pretty tone deaf and i dont really think hes fully cognizant of the nuances of him talking down on his parents. i doubt its one of active resentment but like dude its so unsexy of you the way you talk about your mom and dad im bone dry over here

i think about qi and mint reflecting on their shared childhood semi frequently as suggested by some of their reflections on it in fwb:mwrm. qi goes through a lot of changes through his canonical 'character arc' and he starts putting more effort into his social responsibilities and it makes me wonder like...

-Mint is very family oriented in portia, having had none growing up in the orphanage and craving the opportunity to start one, where as qi seems to be pretty flippant about his up until he gets married and has a family of his own. does that ever create any difficulties between them? Would Qi talk about his parents the same way infront of mint?

-When do you think Qi really changed his mindset from aloofness to his now very progress oriented track of mind? did it impact their relationship at all?

-Mint and Qi both confirm that they remember the old creations they made together. how does seeing qi realize some of what they'd discussed change their relationship?

i like their friendship. i see them like distant siblings i guess. i can't see myself writing anything devoted to it outside of fwb but i feel like qi has a lot of intricacies that people dont pay attention to. his relationship with mint is clearly very important to him even if he has an ...interesting way of showing it (mint breaks his equipment and he's barely mad, bronco touches his equipment and he'll 'never forgive him') and thus the builders/his partners relationship with mint is probably also pretty important. and mints relationship with his kid if he ever has one ('uncle mint' is a VERY cute idea).

i also love the idea of him going to a festival with the builder. any of them. ohhhhh i just know he'd fucking love winning at the prophunt one

[bizarrelittlemew]

i can't wait to be 30+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 40+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 50+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 60+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 70+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 80+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 90+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to look back on my life and know that i loved things deeply and passionately and was inspired to create and was part of communities with incredible people from all over the world brought together by the stories that touched us

[preciouspeppermintts]

What actually happened before Shadow Milk starts his redemption arc :

[foldingfittedsheets]

I feel the need to share since my lube post is going around that my life is just like that since I worked at the sex shop. Sex Ed is a very standard topic. People just immediately pick up a vibe from me and even in situations where someone doesn’t know I used to sling dildos for a living they’ll just start confiding sex stuff to me.

Not in a creeper way. But like this weight had been lifted and they can finally talk freely about sexual topics. The energy I put off is just so blasé and accepting that people tell me about their sex lives, usually very quickly after meeting me. They usually then have a moment of panic or regret and apologize but I always reassure them that I used to work in a shop and that I see nothing odd about talking about it.

My go-to line is, “I’m a creature devoid of judgement.” They always laugh. Then the questions get more specific or people start asking for brand recommendations. It’s always been funny to me.

My beloved has always been a little confused by it. “People don’t just start talking to me about sex! I know you don’t bring it up. It just always seems to go there when people talk to you.”

“It’s just my energy.”

The first time I was meeting their mom she was coming to stay with us. We picked her up from the airport and brought her home. My beloved went upstairs to use the bathroom. When they came back down their mom was asking me questions about vibrators and their jaw hit the floor.

In our room later they said, “She doesn’t even talk to me about that stuff! She’s so embarrassed about sex topics, I cannot believe she was asking you about that!”

“What can I say,” I shrugged, “I’m a creature devoid of judgement.”

[minalots]

ARE YOU IN PAIN LIKE I AM?

(Now on inprnt!)

[rookanisstuff]

“Oh,” Rook says. “That’s the Eighth Talon.”

“Fuck,” Lucanis says.

Based on a scene from chapter 6 of @ttrevelyan’s fic I, Carrion because I am LOVING IT.

[somnimagus]

My page for @sheikahzine; about Impaz's duty to her village, empty of people and full of memories.

[id in alt text]

[katetorias]

there is something so horrible about destroying churches, or any place of worship. im not even religious. it’s about the fact that people were so devoted, put so much effort into building and decorating and just experiencing this part of their life, that they hold so important. and all that effort is taken away by a fucking bomb

I find religion beautiful, and it’s harrowing to see these things happening in PaIestine and no one cares. suddenly now no one cares about religion or the importance of religious monuments

[randomminty]

Five billion octopath 2 scribbles i feel sick

[fleshdyk3]

lolita hyena 👍

[o3o-lapd-o3o]

odysseus is a better person than me...

because if the person/woman/goddess who had me trapped & under her control for 7 years, and was forcing onto me a one-sided relationship (even though she knew from day 1, that i had a wife called penelope, who i cried for every day at the beach for those 7 years)

was then crying about being "not sorry for loving you" and trying to justify her actions in keeping me prisoner (you can't convince me she wasn't)

my response to my LIE (she asked him to lie don't forget) saying "i love you" and her responding "you do?"

it certainly wouldn't be "but not in the way you want me to"

it would be "HADES NO, YOU DERANGED ASS MANIPULATIVE HARPY"

before swiftly grabbing my stuff, jumping onto my raft and sailing away as quick as i can (while totally not giving her the ancient greek equivalent of a middle finger)

but that's just me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[nibbelraz]

You need to write bad you need to draw bad you need to do everything bad because if Shang Qinghua didnt write the worst story in the world we wouldn't have gotten the beauty that is Svsss and Moshang and Bingqiu wouldn't have gotten there happy ending

[cptapathy]

Transition timeline time

10 years ago (I had to go for 10 years ago because I refused to be in solo photos much of the time)

Is she happy?

How about her first dress

Do you think she felt confident the first time out femme? Even if she was "still cis thou"

And now? 10 years on? 3 years HRT, 4 years out?

Do you think she feels confident and happy now? Do you think she's content now?

Because the answer is no, she's had a taste now. Being "content" is the last thing on her mind.