#not sure if ill consistently participate :(

[vinestaff]

day 1 roleswap

[whoskimii]

dad nanami fluff fic please 🥹 how would he make sure his kids are healthy and safe always????

dad nanami :( so cute oh myyy <33

⋆౨ৎ˚ notes > dad! nanami x daughter! you. he's just so dedicated fr :( daddy materialllll. tell me if i missed anything!! ^^ ౨ৎ warning : you may have butterflies in your belly while reading this!! 𓂃 ࣪˖ ִֶָ𐀔

listen, we all know nanami for his really meticulous and responsible personality, right ? but please the fact that he's actually younger than gojo :)

when his baby daughter was born, he felt like the happiest man in the whole world. he felt spoiled. almost as if he didn't deserve it. but unfortunately, his wife died during childbirth.

of course it took him a lot of time to get used to his wife's absence, but at least he had you. and that was already more than enough to him. he was grateful.

he would be a really caring and protective daddy for his daughter, no matter her age. but since he already lost his wife, he wouldn't be able to deal with another loss. so, his fatherly instincts multiplied because of that. it made him a bit stricter but it was for the best. he still loved you more than anything and anyone.

as you grew older, he let go a little. but!!! he still followed firm parenting strategies. even as a teenager, you studied, ate and slept at the same hour everyday. it just reassured him to know that you had a consistent daily routine, something that you could cling onto even if he was away for a mission. he knew you were a good girl and you never ever ditched that routine even if he wasn't there to keep his eyes on you.

to ensure that his kiddie ate healthily, he would def be involved in meal planning. he would always make dishes that gave you vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients. you were his little girl so what kind of dad would he be if he didn't make sure you ate meals good for your health ?

look at me and tell me he wouldn't make sure that you participated in physical activities, like sports or even martial arts. so ? yeah, that's what i thought. he would definitely go on runs with you. it's givin' daddy & daughter bonding time :(

he would always always always make sure that you felt safe at home. that's why he would listen to you if you had some issues. your boyfriend cheated on you ? and that dumbass knocked on his door to apologize to his daughter ? he would def look down at him and lean on the door frame before slamming the door right in front of his nose.

health check-ups ? health check-ups. daddy nanami would always schedule medical check-ups and vaccination if needed to monitor and maintain his baby's health. you'd go to the dentist often and even other specialists. your health is like, his top priority.

if you had a weak immune system (like me frfr ⋋_⋌) you would defff have a personalized healthcare plan. he would also always limit exposure to illness, especially during flu season or outbreaks of contagious diseases.

he just wants you to stay safe and healthy and happy :( can you blame your dad ?

love me some daddy nanami (,,>ヮ<,,)!

⋆˚࿔ kimi 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

[grison-in-space]

It's never too late. We are beginning to think about how and why we exploit animals, and how it is not morally consistent with our values; several prominent anarchists and communist bloggers on Tumblr have admitted that veganism is ethically and financially superior on every level, though they don't participate in it, which is sad. All it takes is a little extra work. The collapse of capitalism will also bring the collapse of the animal industry, or vice versa. The meat plants subjugate both humans and animals, causing persistent trauma- in fact, it has the highest rate of trauma among every category of labor. If you support abolition, you should support all abolition: children, psych people, and animals. On a site like Tumblr, we have an opportunity to promote the breakdown of all positions of power. We are all equal.

Honey, you have the wrong fucking blog to the extent that I can only assume you are spamming this message to everyone you think might listen. I have gone on the record several times to say:

I am a pragmatic empiricist. I care much less about ideological consistency than I do about observed outcomes. There are traps there, too—sometimes people get too much into the weeds about observing proxies for desired goals—but essentially I do think that careful observation of the world around me is much more valuable than starting with a consistent ideology and assuming that good intentions will yield good outcomes.

I am motivated by animal welfare. For me, part of that involves meeting animals on their own level, using their own species-specific signals to assess stress and comfort, and understanding animals within their own social context. Therefore,

I am opposed to animal rights narratives that encourage people to project their own imagined emotional responses onto animals without assessing the animals' actual signals in context. Additionally,

I believe as a behavioral ecologist that, for good and for ill, humans are essentially animals participating in a broader ecosystem that includes us. I do not think humans are special or exist outside that broader web, and I think that ecological intervention works most effectively when we see ourselves as part of nature rather than as some kind of twisted unnatural personification of original sin. Conflict and death are part of life. You won't make a better world by pretending otherwise.

I am a disabled person ("psych people?!"), and more specifically an autistic and neurodivergent person. I literally spelled out for you last night that I have difficulties eating and that imposing more barriers to that ("a little extra work") is a significant burden for me. Your easy dismissal of this point is, in context, amazingly and blithely ableist. Wow.

"psych people?!" I am happy to critique coercive psychiatry and medicine more generally, but that one's new on me. If you're not brave enough to use the language of mad/crip pride, are you entirely sure you understand the points of the dialogue? Your demonstrated grasp of disability justice is already extremely poor; this ain't helping.

I am not anti-state (i.e. I am not an anarchist; I am a democratic socialist) and I routinely criticize daydreams about burning entire systems to the ground and replacing them with a vague new system. Those criticisms are usually based in historical analysis of attempts to do exactly that, which have typically resulted in a lot of bloodshed, generally from the most vulnerable people in society. They also often yield a new and not necessarily more egalitarian power structure that continues to oppress people, sometimes more aggressively than the institution preceding it.

For the same reason, I am not a communist. I think communism offers too many opportunities for unscrupulous people to seize power, creating more inequality under the banner of equality itself. Again, this position comes from reading the history of communist states from as many perspectives as I can get my mitts on.

I frequently critique assumptions that capitalism is the only root of social problems. This does not mean that I am pro-capitalism. It means that I think you have to think deeply about problems, especially when it makes you uncomfortable, to understand how to solve them. Many problems that capitalism exacerbates are actually rooted in problems about impulse control (as with Ideas Jerry the other day), basic human social dynamics, emotional regulation, complex traumas, and many other things. You must understand how these problems arise before you can construct a structure that guards against them effectively.

Fundamentally, I think you are probably optimistically spamming this message to anyone that you think will listen. I invite you to consider how effective that is as a tactic to advance your politics: when you pick the wrong person, at best you leave the impression that people serving your ideology are essentially self centered and bad at listening. At worst, you wind up pissing people off enough to sit down and lay out exactly how many points they disagree with you on. Coalitions of solidarity are based on listening carefully to one another and finding the places we agree on; shit like that is antithetical to building them because it sends a very effective signal that you are either very, very bad at listening or uninterested in doing so.

Either way, get out of my house.

[washedoutwings]

welcome

// pt: welcome //

time zone: eastern standard time/eastern daylight time

requests/offerings: closed

hyperfixations (in no particular order): cccc

special interests (in no order): etymology, entomology, ornithology, fall out boy (band), history, ceramics, painting, theater, fashion history, sewing, fiber arts, will wood

askbox: open

dms: open

venting dms: open

ask game(s): 1, 2, 3, 4

active poll(s):

hey there!! please call me rook :) i use all pronouns (including neos), especially they/them and it/its. i am the host of our plural collective/system, and am normally at the front.

queer identity:

// pt: queer identity: //

im genderqueer and genderfluid! im also greyromantic, finromantic, asexual, and omniromantic

everyone in our collective is queer!! feel free to ask for specifics if you’d like

mental illnesses/disorders:

// pt: mental illnesses/disorders: //

we have autism, adhd, severe generalized anxiety disorder, moderate to severe depression, mild arfid, moderate chronic pain (unknown origin), insomnia, and some other weird brain stuff.

we are plural!! here are our headmate introductions

current headmate sideblogs:

@flesh-of-the-prophet

we also age regress and pet regress

religion/practice:

// religion/practice: //

i am a pagan witch. i work very closely with Loki. this will infrequently be brought up on this blog

alterhumanity:

// pt: alterhumanity: //

i am a therian, otherkin, and otherhearted. this is the main purpose of this blog, and will be discussed very frequently. check out my theriotypes and kintypes here! i do not currently participate in quads, or use gear. i do plan on making some of my own gear, but this may or may not happen.

we use the alterhuman terms to describe the experience of having animal/creature headmates

hobbies:

// pt: hobbies: //

i write a lot. this includes poetry, creative writing, and some nonfiction. i am an artist, and work in mediums including but not limited to digital art, watercolor, acrylic, ink, and ceramics. i also embroider and crochet. these hobbies will sometimes be discussed on this blog

byi:

// pt: byi: //

please be sure to read the previous mental illnesses/disorders section. be respectful of those :) tone tags are not required, but appreciated. we may have problems conveying tone, but we do not always use tone tags. if you’d like clarification, please let us know. we do not want to be involved in queer, alterhuman, or system/plural discourse. no dni, but we will block liberally and without explanation. we are very forgetful

trigger tagging:

// pt: trigger tagging: //

i have no triggers that i need tagged. this may change.

we will tag most common triggers

mutuals, please let me know if there are any other triggers that you would like tagged

tagging system:

// pt: tagging system: //

i will try to stay as consistent with this tagging system as possible, but there’s no guarantee

#offerings from rook = offerings from my divinekin offering requests

#@— offerings = offerings for a specific user. hyphens are replaced with username

#anon offerings = offerings for anonymous asks

#rook’s ramblings = my general thoughts. me talking

#who got washed out = who i am. my identity. personal development

#rerook = things i’ve reblogged

credits:

// pt: credits: //

dividers: @saradika-graphics, @enchanthings

userboxes: @boxes-for-systems, others are included in the userboxes :) THERES MORE BUT I CANT FIND THEM RN GIMME A MINUTE <33

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for telling someone they're a horrible person and making them relapse?

trigger warning: self-harm, suicide(?)

so im, like many teenagers online, an avid participant of fandom spaces and my current favorite is genshin impact. if you've ever interacted with the genshin fandom you may guess where this is going but i happened to find myself liking a ship that is the big nono ship in this fandom (aka the incest ship, kaeluc) but since i mostly stick to my space and don't really interact with anyone that doesn't already have content of this ship on their account id never gotten into any hot water over it.. until recently.

this person, ill call them rick, suddenly liked a bunch of my (non-ship related) posts. normal interaction, i didn't think anything of if and moved on. (i didn't even notice at the time, but they unliked all of the posts before what happened next, i assume as they realized i was a proshipper and didn't want to associate with me.) next thing i know, the same user is in my askbox, sending me the most vile, hate filled messages i have ever seen.

ok... no biggie. i delete the asks, block them and move on with my life. but it doesn't stop. i had never in my whole life received hate online, but now for the first time ever, i had a dedicated hater, sending me anonymous asks at all times of the day. death threats, dox threats, telling me to kill myself, calling me a degenerate and all that, all with the same consistent writing style. now, one could say that maybe this wasn't rick, and maybe not even all the same person but i really feel like this is the only reasonable explanation considering i have like 6 followers and my most famous post has 3 notes. i don't think im important enough to have that many haters.

so, i did the only thing i could think to do: turned off anon asks. then the asks started coming from random throwaway accounts. ok...turned off asks. then it was dms. turned those off too. THE FUCKING COMMENT SECTIONS OF MY POSTS.

dedication isn't enough to describe this. at this point it's actually becoming distressing to me and im considering closing my whole account cause i just wanna get away from all this. im 16, i don't have the mental capacity to spend all day policing my social media because someone wants me to die for liking fictional incest.

so i very reluctantly unblock rick and send them a dm. i very gently ask if they are the person who has been sending me asks/dms/etc and if they are, if they could please stop because it's become genuinely distressing to me and i just want to be silly on a website. they block me.

alright, im now out of options. everything on my profile is blocked at this point and i don't even want to post anything else so i just kind of leave the account behind for a while. when i come back, i discover that someone HACKED into the account and defaced the whole thing (changed pfp, deleted posts etc etc) so now im genuinely bummed. i go to rick's profile and guess who has been unblocked? i ask them if they can please answer my question. they don't answer but instead tell me i deserve everything ive gotten and i should choke for all they care.

i tell them they're a terrible person and go absolutely off the rails like the dumb, upset teenager i am. i didn't say anything particularly horrible (mostly i just tell them about how awful they've made me feel over fictional shit that really doesn't matter and how i just wanted peace) but i definetely wouldn't like to receive a message like that. and rick didn't either, because they blocked me.

well, since im sure you're wondering where this comes in, here's where i kind of feel like an asshole:

i continued to stalk rick's account on a different blog (because i was bitter. ok?) and they've been posting about how they relapsed into self harm because of a message they received from a stranger and how they've been crying non-stop and this is the worst relapse they've had in years and etc etc and i just got this pit in my stomach. this person's bio says they're 15! i don't want to ever be the reason a fifteen year old is hurting themselves! i've been feeling like a piece of shit ever since (esp since i also deal with sh) and i just feel like the worse person ever. i honestly don't know if i was just acting like anyone else and this was an unfortunate consequence or if i need to go pray for god to forgive my sins or something.

aita?

What are these acronyms?

[lurkingshan]

Love in the Big City Drama: Episodes 5-6 Book Club Discussion

How we feeling, book clubbers? Devastated? Frustrated? Depressed? Managing warring urges to shake and hug Yeong with all your might? Yeah, me too. On to this week's discussion of PAIN.

As a reminder, these are the questions we originally discussed for Part 3 of the novel, and this is the meta round up, where you can see all the brilliant things you initially wrote about it. Here are your official discussion questions for episodes 5 and 6 of Love in the Big City, courtesy of @bengiyo:

The consistent presence of the T-aras has reshaped their entire role in this story. How does their ongoing relationship with Yeong change their role in this section?

In Part 3, Young reveals that he's been carrying his illness since he was discharged from the military. How does that information impact your understanding of prior events?

His relationship with Gyu-ho is the most successful we've seen Yeong have thus far—before he ended it. What does Yeong's "dull" relationship with Gyu-ho reveal about him?

How do you feel about the way Yeong’s illness presents a genuine stigma and barrier in his personal and professional life?

As always, you are welcome to use any or all of these as a jumping off point for your own posts, ignore them and post your own thing, or just participate by sharing and commenting on other people's posts. Please create new posts with the questions if you want to use them rather than adding on responses to this post--it will be easier to capture everyone's content if it's all in separate posts in the tag. I will be tracking everything posted in the [#litbc book club] tag and posting the weekly round up--look for that to go up next Monday ahead of the next set of discussion questions. Feel free to also directly tag me to make sure I don't miss your posts!

@becomingabeing @belladonna-and-the-sweetpeas @blalltheway @elimstillnotgarak

@colourme-feral @doyou000me @dramacraycray @fiction-is-queer @avorbl

@hyeoni-comb @littleragondin @literally-a-five-headed-dragon @loveable-sea-lemon @my-rose-tinted-glasses

@neuroticbookworm @poetry-protest-pornography @profiterole-reads @serfergs @starryalpacasstuff

@stuffnonsenseandotherthings @thewayofsubtext @troubled-mind @twig-tea @wen-kexing-apologist

@impala124 @shinjiikar1 @h4ppyfr066y @moutheyes @waitmyturtles

[electricdissonance]

50 Follower Electric Dissonance Q&A!

thanks to all who sent in asks!! grab some popcorn and i hope you enjoy!! :]

I'm not sure! There are definitely a handful of major plot points I have planned for you all to work through that will take many months to get through (especially given my work schedule oof). After which, I'd consider the AU technically concluded. I'd love to go beyond just the main stuff, but I don't really have plans for something like an after story yet ^^;

I think the existence of after story fully depends on the kind of relationships with characters and new plot/conflict potential YOU all build using your characters!

idk im a huge fucking furry LMAO

really though, in the earliest Sonny concepts I visualized him in the digital world as this horrifying mess of vengeful teeth and claws. It was the most appealing way to manifest the monstrosity of his character, and at first I tried to create some vague beast-shaped creature and when it ended up looking like a bear, I just rolled with it!!

(he's also a big hairy dudeso like there's that too HAHSDJ)

As for your second question.........

:)

The year is 1997, a year derived from the game's lore which states that Sonny passes away months prior to KinitoPET's scheduled release by the end of 1999. I just subtracted two years since this is an AU that takes place early in KinitoPET's development :>

I'm glad you've been enjoying it!!! <3

IT'S VERY FUN!!! Growing up I loved reading and participating in ask blogs; I never thought in a million years I'd be behind one :) one of the most rewarding aspects has got to be watching you all interact and play with the story and characters <3

I do wish I could move this chunk of my life to an earlier time though because having next to 0 time or energy to consistently update sux :')

Certainly! :3

Kinito - He's still pretty hurt by what Firecracker had said... He's too nice/timid to treat them harshly or anything like that, but he's certainly going to be fairly guarded unless they come forward and apologize.

Sam - It's pretty hard to get under his skin; he's a pretty empathetic guy, so he understands why Firecracker is the way they are (the whole situation sounds insane). So, he has no particular favor or ill will towards them.

Sonny -

im a huge fucking furry

[wesleysniperking]

Water 7 Thoughts

I truly think that Zoro's words wouldn't have kept up as much morale as they did if Usopp hadn't apologized and come back. If all, Usopp's apology validated Zoro's words, given I'm not sure what it would've looked like (how valid his words would have been) if Usopp hadn't come back.

The problem with the crew seemingly willing to leave Usopp looks wrong on so many levels that it bothers me. But thinking of the potential fallout afterward (if Usopp were left behind), in that regard, clears up some things for me. I wholeheartedly believe that Luffy was willing to compromise with the team on that level simply because he truly believed that Usopp was going to apologize one way or another. After all, there was a reason why Luffy chose Usopp. Without Usopp returning, I'm not sure if the team would've been strong enough to continue onward.

I can get past Zoro's need for that apology when I look at it from a couple different perspectives. But sometimes I feel as though the fandom tends to warp some of Zoro's ideals because it gives others (admittedly myself) leeway to antagonize him to a certain level. People always praise him for his loyalty to Luffy, yet, if he's commonly considered a first mate or vice-captain (which IS disputable), that doesn't necessarily (to me) bring morale to the overall collective of the Straw Hats either, if Zoro does everything in Luffy's best interest, with the false pretense of wanting to keep the crew together…how can a group stay together if Leader 1 trusts the crew/group but Leader 2 doesn't? It leads to a bit of resentment on the rest of the crew members' end. Sure this ideology barely works in the armed forces (I need to gain some insight from my army veteran mother to see if this better checks. Edit: she said that knowing how to find a balance is what works. But overall, you have to look at the collective. There are bad leaders in the army because of what I mentioned), but the Straw Hats aren't a typical pirate crew and are Nakama. So...that's why I'm not so up on the take of agreeing with Zoro's words when it doesn't look like power dynamics on the crew are acknowledged as drastically as they are in the Water 7 arc; which leaves inconsistencies with the overall narrative. Also, one must consider the age of the crew members.

My feelings toward the end of the post-Enies Lobby arc consist of disappointment, frustration, and being ill of ease. I would have accepted Zoro's decree if it hadn't meant leaving Usopp behind. Sure, it would take a while for the crew to trust Usopp again, but he did participate in the rescue mission and despite what Sanji heard, Usopp would have eventually let his own guilt eat at him and he would've inevitably apologized, especially if he were to have gotten on the Thousand Sunny without the apology, he would've eventually given them one. Usopp should've been given that benefit of the doubt since Luffy had already forgiven him.

Usopp was a friend too, who had his flaws. Why forget that? Yes, maybe the situations are slightly different, but to see how happy the crew were to get Robin back, and just let Franky on board because of his showcase at Enies Lobby and his engineering prowess, why wasn't Usopp given that grace? We can only go on theory, and come up with this hypothetical convo that happened after the whole saga, but all of it just looked wrong.

Usopp deserved a second chance, regardless.

[scorchieart]

Happy, Wholesome Yves Headcanons

Because my week was full of baking sweets and pretty pink flowers, you all deserve some wholesome Evie vibes as well 🌸🌸🌸

Ask any prince to rank his favorite brothers and Yves will consistently appear in the top 3.

Tell Yves this and he’ll turn pinker than his freshly-baked peach berry pie.

Yves started a personal vegetable garden in the palace when he was first learning to cook so that he could have extra ingredients in case his recipes flop. They rarely flop. So he distributes most of his crop among families in his territory.

The palace cats patrol the garden and scare off thieving vermin.

Once, Licht couldn’t attend Yves’s tea party because of a conflict with his training schedule, so Nokto stepped in pretending to be him. Yves immediately figured out the switch, but didn’t mention anything.

Whenever any of the princes falls ill, Yves makes his specialty chicken soup and personally delivers it. His faction members have his nagging “I’m not leaving until you finish the entire bowl!” speech memorized, but Yves typically leaves the tray with a get-well letter and a knock at Chevalier and Clavis’s doors.

Whenever Yves falls ill, Sariel and Licht take turns standing guard at his door to make sure no undesirable pranksters decide to strike. 

There are never any incidents. But the others pitch in to make or purchase Yves’s favorite sweets and stop by to check on him.

When Luke first arrived at the palace, Yves hoped to impress him with homemade honey treats. It only took two days to win him over completely. Two more days and the town was entirely out of honey.

Even though he isn’t a fan of the cold, Yves never misses the first snowfall of the season. He curls up by the window with a thick blanket, a large pot of tea, and a warm crumble cake and watches children pulling their parents into the streets to play in the fresh snow. 

Growing up, Yves used to give apprentice and trainee cooks and tailors advice discretely from behind curtains and columns. Nowadays, artists and specialists travel from across the continent to seek guidance and approval at the hand of the fifth prince.

Requests from these visitors became so numerous that Yves fell behind on his official duties. To control demand, the first of May was designated a national festival for anyone to display their talents, from cooking and fashion to art and music, and Yves would spend the day meeting with each participant and giving reviews and feedback. 

Tagging:@atelieredux @queengiuliettafirstlady @violettduchess @venulus @thewitchofbooks @leonscape @rhodolitesrose @venti-tangents @dear-sciaphilia @ikesenwritings @myonlyjknight @ladyofcrowsx @otomefoxystar

If you would like to be added or removed from my tag list, please send me an ask or a message.

[beardedmrbean]

The stance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on face masks has taken many twists and turns throughout the COVID pandemic.

After initially claiming face coverings weren’t necessary, the CDC changed course in April 2020, calling on all Americans — even children as young as 2 years old — to mask up. 

That September, then-CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a Senate hearing that “face masks are the most important powerful health tool we have,” even suggesting that they might offer more protection than vaccines.

Those recommendations likely played a large part in 39 U.S. states eventually enacting mask mandates.

Now, a new scientific review — led by 12 researchers from esteemed universities around the world — suggests that widespread masking may have done little to nothing to curb the transmission of COVID-19.

Published by Cochrane Library, the review dug into the findings of 78 randomized controlled trials to determine whether “physical interventions” — including face masks and hand-washing — lessened the spread of respiratory viruses. 

When comparing the use of medical/surgical masks to wearing no masks, the review found that “wearing a mask may make little to no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness (nine studies; 276,917 people); and probably makes little or no difference in how many people have flu/COVID confirmed by a laboratory test (six studies; 13,919 people).”

Next, the review compared medical/surgical masks to N95 respirators (or P2 respirators, which are used in Europe).

It found that “wearing N95/P2 respirators probably makes little to no difference in how many people have confirmed flu (five studies; 8407 people); and may make little to no difference in how many people catch a flu-like illness (five studies; 8407 people), or respiratory illness (three studies; 7799 people).”

The 78 studies looked at participants from countries of all income levels. 

Data was gathered during the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009, non-epidemic flu seasons, epidemic flu seasons up to 2016 and the COVID-19 pandemic, the study authors wrote.

Doctor says review had some key limitations

The new findings seem to call into question the CDC’s enthusiastic embrace of widespread masking.

However, Dr. Marc Siegel, professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, pointed out a key limitation: “The researchers focus primarily on randomized trials, but most of the studies that have been done on masks are population studies,” he said. 

“There are very few randomized trials on masks.”

In a randomized trial, researchers place participants in different groups and observe the results in a controlled environment.

By contrast, population-based studies measure outcomes in a “real-world” setting.

The study authors did admit to some limitations and a risk of bias, including the low number of people who followed mask guidance and the wide variation of outcomes. 

“The results might change when further evidence becomes available,” they wrote.

‘Be sure of consistency’ 

Dr. Siegel said he has never supported mask mandates. 

He believes that while masks might be effective on an individual level, they don’t work as well on a population level.

“If you’re going to mandate something, you’d have to be sure of consistency across the population, and that’s never happened,” he said.

However, the physician pointed out that the CDC never actually mandated masks — with the exception of a public transportation mandate in January 2021. 

“It was the state and local authorities that took the CDC’s recommendations and implemented the mandates,” Dr. Siegel said. 

“The recommendations may have been wrong, but the CDC doesn’t deserve the blame for everything. I think they were aware that masks may have value on a personal basis, but they got carried away with the politics.”

What do you think? Post a comment.

As of right now, no U.S. states have mask mandates in place. 

On Sunday, New York dropped its state-wide mask requirement in hospitals — leaving the decision up to individual facilities. Many healthcare facilities are currently still requiring them. 

[risetherivermoon]

----

“A baby is a lot of responsibility,” Grant says, looking from his book and adjusting his glasses. “I just…want to be sure it's something you can handle.” He gives Linc a half smile. Lincoln doesn't return it, frowning.

“Dad. I’m 28 next month, though I guess technically like 160- but that's beside the point, we can handle this. I don't need you projecting your own anxieties onto me. We’ve thought about this for two years, really thought about it.” Lincoln expresses. “I want to have a family.” He looks over to Taylor who’s smiling at him. Linc grabs his hand, giving it a squeeze, mostly for his own comfort than Taylor’s.

----

woo! heres the first chapter of a small fic for the final and 7th day of swiftli week 2024: Out of Time / Dancing / Future AU

when id intially decided to write for this event i saw that the last day had future au on it so i was like!! omg!! and decided to start smth about swiftli adopting a kid together when they're adults, and what started as a oneshot became a full length fic idea soooo ill be updating this as consistently as i can!

i just love found family type stuff as well as foster parent type aus, so i decided to add it all into the mix! wee!

i loved swiftli week and making all these diff projects for it! i love swiftli so im glad i was able to make a bunch of stuff for this ship, and i definitely think i want to participate in more fandom events because i loved writing and drawing for it as well as reading and seeing other people's interpretations of these prompts, so thank u to the creators for making smth so fun as well as all the other ppl in this fandom who decided to participate! loved this sm!!!

[orlamccools]

ok i need brutal honesty pls read and respond to the following poll:

so basically. met this dude at work in 2022, thought he was super hot right off the bat and i felt like there were maybe ~vibes~ there too but nothing ever came of it. early 2023 he starts dating one of my coworkers, and even though they have a decent relationship they break up in october, mainly bc of her schedule. break up is completely amicable, she has no ill will towards him and is cool with other people talking/being friends with him.

around december i organize the stores secret santa, and i invite him and another driver to join the group (after making sure it was cool w everyone else who was participating). since then, the group chat the three of us have has been consistently active, and i talk to both of them fairly often, both thru text and in person. new years eve i go and get drinks w the two of them to celebrate the holiday, and into the new year we still talk all of the time.

now. starting january the person in question starts razzing me a little more, calling me a "silly goose" and just taking time to make more jokes with me. he also like stresses that if school doesnt work out, that i should come work with him at the company they are employed with/that im connected to via my job, and saying things like he would want me to be his helper next holiday season. during this time, he also tells his ex/my friend that he has a master plan to get me to drop out of school and like go travel the country and become like tour groupies for taylor/the bands he likes ??? i did not hear the conversation, and thats the jist of what my friend told me

prior to the release of ttpd, he asks me if i was gonna do a 30 day countdown of my top 30 taylor songs (which i hadnt been planning). bc of his suggestion, i spend the next 30 days curating my fave songs, and he interacts w those texts and asks abt the songs and what have you.

fastforward to the 18th of april: i reveal my favorite song and he responds with "thats 2 hrs and 10 minutes". i ask him to clarify, and he sends a playlist he made of all of the songs i recommended, so he can listen to them whenever. he also keeps suggesting that we (the group chat) go out to celebrate the end of the semester (which we probably will i just need to get thru next week before i commit to anything).

i still think this man is hot as hell, and i feel like there might be mutual vibes flowing between us again. with all of that: do we think theres a possibility he is interested in me in a romantic sense? or am i being delusion and reading too much into something thats platonic??????

[ladymorghul]

"these writers are annoying because the actual first crack in aemond & alicent relationship should have been alicent toasting rhaenyra, saying she will make a fine queen despite still no consequences for what happened to him and even ewan underlined this, that a crime went unpunished and that aemond's world became unbalanced because of this and then you have alicent being like 'forget all that, rhaenyra you will make a fine queen'. "

you're so right about this but it's very clear the writers hadn't thought of this when they wrote the dinner scene otherwise we would've had Aemond's reaction to Alicent's toast but we didnt so it's a sure bet the first crack in their relationship is going to be Luke's death. But even that will probably consist of Alicent being mad on behalf of Rhaenyra and her pain as a mother who had just unfairly lost her son and how dare Aemond do that do her. I know some will point out book!Alicent being mad at book!Aemond for killing Luke but that was because his actions started a war and she knew there was no going back from that, but not because she felt anything for Rhaenyra.

Look, I have no problems with the writers making non-canon ships canon in the show (or any other changes to the source material) but something like Rh*enicent is too disruptive and is detrimental to the whole story, but especially to Alicent since they're just taking away her whole agency and ambitions in the name of a friendship (or more than that even) that should've never happened to begin with. They're basically making Alicent the victim of the men around her (her father and sons) and the decisions they are making and to some degree the same can be said for Rhaenyra since they can pin most bad things on Daemon for example.

yeah, there's plenty of stories that they can adapt where a ship like rhaen*cent would make sense and even enrich the story, but this is not it especially because it's making alicent as a character unrecognizable. she goes from someone who is taken as wife to provide more heirs for the king and then decides her children are more important than the said king's wish to crown his daughter from his first marriage to someone who by the end of the story might want to poison the very son she put on the throne?

while the book underlines that the war starts after luke's death saying that the war of ravens ended and the war of fire and blood began, it was clear a war was coming anyway because even in the show, with a softened rhaenyra, alicent says from the first moment that neither she or daemon will publicly bend the knee to aegon.

so what i'm saying is that we took this character who had an agency in saying 'fuck that' after giving the king four children, all legitimate, and being ignored, and deciding to put her children above the king's wishes and do as she wanted to this character who omg!! just found out there's a plot to crown her son and omg!! she's only participating in it because her very ill, half rotting husband blabered something to her on his death bed.

the 'you are the challenge, aegon' speech forgotten, even though it happened BEFORE aemond's eyes was taken, BEFORE laenor 'died' under very suspicious circumstances, BEFORE vaemond was killed. so suddenly all her worries and her care for her children are gone and she's not doing ONE thing about it and even more than that, she's out here at the same table as aemond saying 'rhaenyra, you will make a fine queen'.... these writers are ridiculous.

at the end of the day alicent's character suffers more from this writing then rhaenyra. because they turned her into this woman who supposedly hates everything about her life and just stands there hoping, praying rhaenyra will glance at her once so she can melt on the spot and say thank you my queen. meanwhile rhaenyra had laenor as a husband who she was friendly with, harwin the father of her first three children and even daemon, who although toxic was a significant part of her life in all those years she lived. she had experiences and people in her life outside of alicent and alicent isn't nearly as central to her.

[grison-in-space]

Hey! Not trying to keep an annoying conversation going but I wanted to say I super appreciate your rebuttal on the ARA stuff, it was a really good clear summary. Particularly glad you brought up the "nothing with us without us" thing because that tendency in ARA circles to treat animal liberation as the Same Thing as liberating marginalised humans, who can speak for them-fucking-selves, is so upsetting and overtly dehumanising and it's really valuable to see that pointed out. It's also so connected to the move towards tankie or fascist rhetoric, because it so strongly relies on a paternalistic view of exploited people as passive recievers of harm and charity. Anyway sorry I'm a bit ill and rambly but I really appreciated the clarity of your takes is what I wanted to say.

No worries, the boundary I wanted to set was more "I'm not interested in repeating that I know full well what ARA ideology is and how that hooks into veganism, and I'm not a captive audience." I'm happy to have conversations, including with people I disagree with; I am not happy to have to repeatedly explain the same thing that has, again, been my consistent experience for nigh on twenty years of interacting with the community. This is not that, so. Thank you for the compliment.

The paternalism is such a huge factor. It reminds me very much of benevolent sexism (as opposed to hostile sexism), and rings all the same alarm bells. It really, really, really reminds me of the way Autism Speaks talks about autistic children and always has.

If animals don't have language (and they largely don't) and if they communicate in ways that might be non-intuituve to a human (and they often do), surely it's incumbent on us as humans to decode the meaning of the signals they are sending in order to understand how to ethically interact with one another. Communication, after all, can happen perfectly well in the absence of language. And yet.

There's also just so little understanding and interest in the reality of what the consequences of "freedom" for animals living in captivity actually are and can be; consider for example Flaco the eagle owl who escaped into NYC, as @why-animals-do-the-thing covered last year. For a species that is notoriously reliant on our social structures and learned skill sets to survive, you'd think we could handle this better. But I see an awful lot of animal rights activists who seem to think that successfully releasing animals into the wild—freeing them from human control—is just a matter of one heartwarming video where the animal steps out of the cage and immediately locks its new job as an independent forager into place. It isn't.

I am also just straight up not convinced that freedom in the sense of being on your own and able to do whatever you want is all that great. I have spent my entire life boldly going where no one has gone before. It kind of sucks, actually. On the other hand, as a neurodivergent person personally I do a lot of structuring my choices with an eye to Past Me pissing off Current Me because I know Future Me will appreciate it. I can devise my own structures to let me successfully do that ... or I can just outsource the enforcing to a third party with opinions, which is something I sometimes need to do badly enough to purchase and train an entire stupid dog about it, because asking other humans to do it is relationally expensive. Sometimes having external structures that keep me from doing dumb things when the impulses get me is good actually.

And I mean, I'm a biologist. I went a little viral here a few years ago for being silly and describing what acacia trees do to try to fight off their greatest enemy: the mighty but terrifying giraffe. I know how plants engage their agency as dramatically and persistently as any animal; they're just sessile, so they do everything without the ability to get up and go. They are, however, no less active or opinionated a participant in the ecological chaos of the world than any other kingdom. To say nothing of fungi! To live is, unless you have chloroplasts, to consume. And even an awful lot of chloroplast-bearing species engage in a little heterotrophy now and again.

So like. Why should I think that eating plants is necessarily any more ethical than eating animals? Why does ARA-driven veganism think that increasingly processed and modified diets that camouflage and hide our connection to our food as part of the natural world that, yes, we also live in? Why do we hide from the complexity and the small grief of life, the shadow of death that has to come for there to be any room to change? One day, I too will die, and something will consume me unless I choose instead to be consumed by fire itself. That's carbon, baby!

[myhauntedsalem]

Queen Anne’s Revenge – The Flagship of Blackbeard the Pirate

Before she ran aground in 1817, Queen Anne’s Revenge haunted the waters off the Eastern United States during the early 1800s, sending fear into her victims at the mere sight of her. The ship had the ability to intimidate visually just as her Captain, William Teach did. He was more commonly known as Blackbeard the Pirate. Blackbeard himself is said to haunt the waters where he met his demise off the coast of North Carolina to this day.

Built in 1710, the British cargo ship Concord, was captured by the French shortly afterward and rechristened La Concorde. The French enlarged the ship to carry more cargo as it was used to ferry slaves to market. In 1716, La Concorde had an encounter with the pirate Benjamin Hornigold who then converted it to do battle, fitting it with 20 cannons. Hornigold terrorized the Guinea coast before setting said for the Bahamas and the Americas. It is thought that Blackbeard derived the name of the ship from Queen Anne’s War in which he participated in.

In late 1717, Horgnigold turned his ship over to one of his crew members, Edward Teach. Captain Teach renamed the ship Queen Anne’s Revenge and fitted her with twice the number of cannon, making her one of most intimidating warships of the day, a devastating weapon to be used in the name of piracy. Teach amassed a flotilla of ships, using Queen Anne’s Revenge as his flagship. His menacing appearance with a long braided beard with black bows and his reputation earned him the nickname Blackbeard. He would destroy any ship or person who resisted his attacks.

At one point in his notorious pirating run, Blackbeard and his devilish flotilla blockaded the city of Charleston, South Carolina and held it for ransom. Upon his departure from the city while fleeing pursuing ships, he hastily ran the Queen Anne’s Revenge aground while trying to enter Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. He transferred his flag to another of his ships named Adventure, thus ending the Queen Anne’s Revenge reign of terror.

There have been no consistent reported sightings of Queen Anne’s Revenge as a phantom ship, although some claim that one of the ghostly vessels of Whites Creek off the coast of Virginia, is that of Blackbeard and his men. There are those that believe that Blackbeard hid some of his treasure there in the coastal forests and that he returns in his ship on occasion to make sure that his treasure is safe.

In 1996, a team of researchers discovered what they believe to be the remains of Queen Anne’s Revenge off the coast of North Carolina, retrieving one of the cannons, anchor, and other artifacts from the ill fated vessel. Many of the artifacts are on display at the North Carolina Maritime Museums.

[mschimdt]

unbelievable

recom!quaritch +recom!mansk x recom!reader

oneshot

very poorly written, dk how many words so bare w me

1579 words

you were at recom training with wuaritch and the others, you needed the training because your avatar bodies are still pretty weak and in need of excersise and muscle.

the training was around 3 hours long which meant theres about 40 minutes left you were all running around the court like maniacs, the last part of the training was basketball because its a really good sport for your physicall health

quaritch put us in 2 teams so we can play basketball against eachother, my team consisted of z dog, mansk, prager , and lyle and the other team had walker, lopez, ja, and quaritch, you were surprised to see that he joined on the game because he never usually participates when hes training you and the others, he usually trains himself at the gym

the game finished after you scraped your knee just 4 minutes into the match, no one complained because none of them wanted to play anyways, so they just left.

you started walking towards the medical clinic to clean the scrape because you cant risk an infection because this body costs 5 billion dollars

the human nurses run away terrified for some reason, you order one to come amd help and she does come but shes shaking, she stood there for a few minutes staring at the floor and shaking and you were getting pretty tired of this so you finally spoke up to the little human "can you clean this up?" you were met with silence until you heard her speak "y-yeah sorry i zoned o-out" she walks over to the shelves and grabs some iodine aswell as cotton pads and a big bandaid, she cleans your knee and wraps it with the bandaid "thanks" you say and she looks up and nods

you stand up and leave and head to the cafeteria because you needed to eat since you havent eaten for 4 hours and your naavi body isnt like your human one, you sit down on the recoms table, the only spot being between mansk and quaritch, so you had to take it

you brought your food and sat next to the big blue men,it was arpund 4 pm now and you wanted to finish your food to take a nap, you rarely get oppurtunities to take naps these days because of the missions you have

mansk finished his food, unintentionaly putting his hand on your thigh, he didnt notice his hand was on your thigh, or maybe he did?

he was talking to lyle while his hand was under the table rubbing your thigh, so he did notice, he did it on purpose

quaritch then saw what was happening under the table and he decided to put his hand on your other thighx it wasnt unusual that quaritch does these things but it was the first time mansk did something like this

i couldny help the heat between my legs, soon enough i could smell myself and im pretty sure the others smelt me too, it was embarassing being horny whike with your friend

you noticed their noses twitching which means they must have smelled you, you devided that it was enough and that you were going to leave before anything embarassing happened

youmoved your thighs from under their hands and turned your chwir around and stood up

you started walking away until you heard quaritch speak,"where ya goin'?" you let out a nervous chuckle "o-oh um i need to go do a few things" quaritch stood up " im coming with ya'" you were getting even more nervous when you were walking around bridgehead trying to find something to do because you didnt want to take quaritch to your room,

"you know i can smell you right?" quaritch spoke and laughed after, blush appearing on your face you let out a inaudible "oh" "if you want me to help you youve got to speak up sweetheart, just say you want me to help and ill help you" quaritvh said still following you around bridgehead, you started walking towards your room and as your hand hut the doorknob to open it you said " please help me " "sure thing sweetheart"

you locked the door, the moment it clicked you were lifted up and thrown onto your bed, quaritch hovered over you and kissed your cheek, but something had to ruin the moment

there was a knocking at the door, you got up and opened it while quaritch was laying on your bed, it was mansk "uhmm im looking for the colonel i saw him heading in here, lyle wants to speak to him" quaritch got off the bed and headed to the door "well it can wait, tell lyle to wait" "whyre you in y/ns room, anyway colonel" quaritch looked mad while he spoke to mansk "long story, its none of your buisness unless you want to join" wuaritch let a small smirk onto his face

"join what? oh i see" mansk walked inside with a devilish smirk slapped across his face, similar to quaritchs he walked inside quickly grabbing you and throwijg you onto your bed once again, quaritch walked over and started kissing your neck while mansk attached his lips to yours soon turning into a sloppy makeout session while quaritch was marking you all over, you felt a tug at your top, you pulled away from mansk and sat up to pull your top off your head, you werent wearing anything under lucky for them, mansk moved to your necj and started adding his own marks to your bruised neck

both the men quickly followed and took their tanktops off revealing their defined bodys, you would have never guessed these meb were in their 40s and 50s as humans if you were never told, they looked majestic and you couldnt deny it

mansk quickly took quaritch's place, running his hands all over you while having a heated makeout session, quaritch was busy unbuckling your belt, one he finally unbuckled it, he pulled your pants down, you were wearing a red pair of panties

quaritch kissed inbetween your legs while shuffling to get his own pants off, mansk pulled away and worked on getting your shirt over your head

finally your shirt was off, you wrrent wearing a bra so your tits were on full display, mansk took no time getting to work sucking and massaging your delicate nipples, quaritch on the other hand was spreading your legs open grinding his clothed erection against your throbbing cunt

you finally had enough, you needed one of them inside you right now, you sat up slightly and pulled your red panties off, quaritch noticed your movements and pulled his boxers off, his hard on springing out of his pants

it was huge you didnt know if it would even fit, he was large even for a naavi man, mansk followed and noe you were all naked, mansk pulled away when he felt quaritch shuffling you onto your stomache pulling you into a doggy style position, mansk stood infront of you while wuaritch was behind you

mansk leaned down and kissed your lips "think you can take it?" he said in a worried tone, you nodded, quaritch was grinding his erection into your flaps, he finally held his cock inorder to position it with your tight cunt, he knew you could take it

mansk on the other hand had his tip on your lips, waiting patiently for you to take him, you opened your mouth and let mansk in, you slowly tried to take his entire cock, you ended up only being able to take half of it, he didnt mind

suddenly quaritch entered you, without a warning, once he was balls deep he stopped, mansk was fucking your face and quaritch was stroking your hair waiting for you to give him a sign that he could move

you pushed bacjk ahainst his dick and he took that as a sign to start moving, he started off slow, after a few seconds he couldnt take it anymore, he started fucking your throbbing stretched cunt has hard as he could

you were getting fucked from both sides and you wouldnt complain, you moaned against mansks dick, mansk let out whimpers while quaritch grunted

your legs were starting to shake and you were getting close, the other men clearly close to their orgasm too, their thrusts were getting sloppy and unirganised

"oh shit i-im gonna cum" quaritch said followed by a grunt, "m-me too" mansk said trying to not whimper as much because it wasnt very man like

you came first, you vame onto quaritchs cock, he was still going and it was over simulating you, quaritch finally came and manssk followed, you swallowed mansks cum, quaritch pulled out, a thin string of white liquud connecting his cock sith your hole

he saw his fluid dripping out of you and he stucj to fingers in your hole pushing the liquid back in

your hands gave away and you plotted onto the bed, quaritch layed to your right and mansk to your left, you could feel mansj looking for the blanket, once he finally found it he pulled it over the three of you kissing your forehead, quaritch did the same after him

you were sandwitchrd inbetween 2 huge blue men and you didnt mind, you quite liked it, you knew you were going to have a limp the next morning but you couldnt care less