#not trying to start shit

[angels-heap]

I've been replaying parts of the HL2 series over the last few weeks, and I was recently struck by one of Alyx's lines from Episode 1:

"Hey – an airduct. I've heard stories about you and airducts. Doctor Kleiner says whenever he locked himself out of his office you and Barney used to compete to see who could get in fastest without using a key."

I feel like it's significant here that Alyx heard this story from Dr. Kleiner, rather than from Barney himself. If Alyx had grown up around Barney or he'd "practically raised her," as so many people like to claim, why wouldn't he have told her this himself? Why wouldn't Alyx have said as much to Gordon?

For silly fandom ship discourse purposes, I feel like this is pretty compelling proof that Alyx and Barney barely know each other in canon. Contradictory headcanons are fine and good (and I've indulged in plenty of them myself), but anyone who tries to claim that Valve intended for us to see Barney as a huge figure in Alyx's life or an "uncle" or otherwise part of her "found family" is straight up pulling that out of their ass.

For broader fandom speculation purposes, this only reinforces my belief that we're not likely to see Barney again, even if we get another HL game at some point in the future. Valve doesn't have any grand backstory in mind for him. He's a glorified tutorial agent who's served his purpose. At least in canon, he's barely a blip on our latest protagonist's radar.

And maybe that's for the best.

[elderyautjavegeta]

I saw a piece of Meta about Croc the other day and was vibing with it until they said "maybe he had a wife in the past—" and I literally

Because I literally forgot not everyone headcanons him as gay/bi/queer+male-attracted in some way. I was startled.

[riddlesandlies]

If you carefuly read the first two lines of my post, you'll see that it's not about trying to pitch it to people, it's about being able to say something about it, anything in fact. Which I did. Both about the gameplay and the narrative.

I also don't like advertising it as a time loop game, because the process of figuring out that it's not a funky loading process - your character actually remembers your playthrough - is also an experience that shouldn't be taken for granted. It got taken away from me by my complete inability to avoid spoilers, and, having later gotten that experience secondhand a couple of times, I value it as a narrative element much more now.

I keep seeing people say "play Outer Wilds, no, I can't tell you anything about it". Bitch. It's an exploration game about astronauts fucking around in space, doing archeology, astrology astronomy and science, with the gameplay itself consisting mostly of navigation in various 3D spaces with your legs or your trusty spaceship. There are interesting characters and tantalizing mysteries. It will require a fair bit of reading and thinking, it will sometimes test your speed, reflexes and precision. The story is about curiosity, courage, compassion, music, death, rebirth, and the terrifying vastness of space. The game can induce agoraphobia, claustrophobia, fear of heights, fear of depths and that which is unseen or hidden. Your character has four eyes and can roast marshmallows on any bonfire. Bitch.

[kitamars]

hhhnhhghgjjghgugujgutuutghn piskin……..

[idolomantises]

Sometimes I’m a bit annoyed when I see a lot of biblical inspired fiction not really go into depth about angel types compared to demons, but other times I get it because have you ever researched angels? It’s all just “the strongest most specialist guy ever”

[5weetmeat]

I wish straight people were real

[possiblycringe]

Sometimes I wonder how Akechi felt being on the other end of the encounter with a cornered animal.

[numbuh424]

Day 6 & 7 of @dnrarepairweek | Prompts: PROXIMITY & JUDGEMENT

We interrupt this showdown to bring you an intervention ft. Near and Light who have a serious discussion about where their colleagues' priorities lie.

[habken]

The whole werewolf concept is basically izuku gets attacked (sometime between first getting ofa and a little bit after the dorms were put in place) and doesn’t fully remember what happened but shortly afterwards, his senses are amplified and he’s faster/stronger. He chalks it up to training and ofa, but what he’s oblivious to is the fact that during the nights surrounding the full moon, he transforms into a bloodthirsty wolf-man

Meanwhile, Aizawa and some other underground heroes have been tracking down a “villain” with what they think is a wolf quirk. At some point, Aizawa finally subdues the villain and hands him over to the police. With a job well done he gets some much needed rest

The next morning, his students are panicking because they can’t find midoriya. While looking for his missing student, he gets a call from the precinct telling him something strange happened with the villain he arrested; the wolf turned back into a human and it’s a kid. A kid who is looking for Aizawa specifically. A kid with green hair and freckles.

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

[grimalkinscribbles]

Mhin accidentally walks in on mc changing:

[disheveledtranquility]

"Wow...I know how much you hate musicals."

[navree]

my adventures with superman turning deathstroke the fucking terminator into an anime twink is the single greatest thing i've seen in the history of animation i have not been able to stop laughing

[captainmaxatx]

I think Deadpool and Wolverine 2 should start with them beating the shit out eachother in some nondescript field, just going full tilt completely mauling eachother

And then we see colossus come out the mansions back doors and he starts yelling about them ruining the lawn

[chimerafeathers]

i know we love to rag on Siffrin for feeling so miserably guilty and manipulative for the crime of [checks notes] “doing nice things for their friends so that they’ll be happy and care about him even if it’s not perfectly sincere on his end”

but like. in context i don’t think that thought process is anywhere near as nonsensical as it always sounds written out like that

i’m sure i’m just stating the obvious here but it’s not really about the “crime” of making people happy. it’s about what he’s not doing, which is anything that would allow their friends to have any real knowledge or agency over the situation they’re all in.

it’s about never acting according to his real feelings in the moment and letting them see the messier version of him that exists now, never allowing their relationships to evolve or develop meaningfully beyond the “safest” iteration, the thing that is Known and produces the Correct Results, because anything else has the possibility of leading to negative emotions towards Siffrin.

Siffrin knows he’s not really doing all this for their benefit, not entirely, because the “right” thing to do would give them the full context to choose how they feel and what to do about it. they’re happy, but in a way they don’t get to keep. they’re happy, but in a way that keeps Siffrin safe from anything more complex and real. they’re happy, but only because some Siffrin in the past said the right things once, and this new, bitter, lonely, desperate version wouldn’t know how to get the “correct result” without a script to follow. they’re happy, and it was real once, it meant something once, but not anymore.

they cared about that Siffrin, yes, but would they still care about this one, if they knew? if Siffrin ever allowed them to know? (he won’t, he can’t, he refuses.)

and there’s something that could have been said in favor of Siffrin allowing himself this “selfishness” if it made him happy anyway, if it could be a genuine source of comfort in a difficult situation—but it doesn’t! not really! because that guilt is there, because that fear is there, because of how flimsy it all inevitably feels.

so they’re not doing it for their family’s benefit, because that happiness is predicated on lies and ignorance. he’s barely doing it for his own benefit, because they’re torturing themself by revealing things they no longer want to reveal, concealing things they no longer want to conceal, acting out of fear of rejection rather than genuine desire for connection. who benefits from this hollow “kindness,” really?

that’s why the last loop had to be the ugliest one. Siffrin had to see that the worst could happen and there could still be love and connection on the other side. that even when the party sees the worst of him, when they have the agency he’s been knowingly denying them, they will still choose to love him.

[the-ancient-dragons]

Speely baby!!!

woah I meant sleepy

Feelin quite speely myself...

Details and explanation below, otherwise next week is the start of my dynamic bases. See you then!!

There isn't really much to say. The image says it all. Sleepy. Baby. MudWing. Inspired by a clip from a nature documentary when a baby crocodile was napping on a branch. I might do more of these because holy crap, the untapped cuteness-