#race specifically would slay these

[pealeii]

Don’t tell me the Newsies wouldn’t wear these

[skitskatdacat63]

This photo was life-ruining for me(and @sweatyflytrap ) honestly....

[local-diavolo-anon]

i'm back!

ok so 2/3 days ago i found this youtube video where op turned Springtrap (or well, William Afton) into a fully build DnD character, and if i say so myself: things got out of hand fast

so here is my take on DnD Springtrap and specifically on that build (adding more infos under the cut for who is interested, i suggest to watch the video first)

starting with saying that unless you're playing in a scifi setting, this build is either not for you or to be modified, since in later levels spells are heavily centered around technomagic and electronic devices; personally when i will play him i will probably tinker around with the chosen spells and cantrips to make him less violently niche and/or more versatile

which kinda saddens me because it takes away not little of the characterization but, given most dnd stories take place in a medieval fantasy or high fantasy setting, a cantrip like On/Off or a spell like Remote Access are NOT particularly useful; so i will go for more psychic damage or necromancy oriented abilities, maybe i might take more than just 4 levels in artificier as well (especially given that again, all of those warlock spells at later levels are all technology oriented) but i need to see what those offer

however it is a kinda tank-y build given that with a shield on you can get up to a 27 of Ac, so even with low damage and not much hp you would not struggle too much to stay alive, and i like that!

as for the character himself, i put too much effort into my interpretation not to share it, so if anyone wants to play this guy as well, i fabricated a possible backstory that might come useful:

The character goes by the name "Dave Miller" (or whatever variant you want to use), and was originally a human artificier who created constructs for a living, mainly with the goal of offering aid to who needed it for whatever reason.

There however he ran into an issue, that being that a robot need a power source, and his own heart and lungs could not sustain a whole robot by themselves.

After losing part of his family to some kind of accident he became terrified of death, so with age he started replacing his own body parts with machinery to delay his last days (which made him a cyborg), until the point where he was very very close to become just a robot.

(This part may or may not involve a pact with a deity of death, this entirely depends on how you want to play him but it would make sense since the build is an artificier/warlock hybrid)

Through particular and very much not illegal experiments tied to necromancy he discovered that the life force of a living being could be shared, and used as a form of fuel. (possibly: age lived of the creature used= amount of extra months you get)

Here comes the second problem: this only worked with intelligent creatures, and more specifically, it worked best with creatures of your own race, which meant that he either went around murdering people or he found another solution. Non same-race creatures worked as well but not as good and there were not easy to find in the middle of a city and with a shop tied to your name.

And here is where and WHY he'd join a party of adventurers: after some time, his reserves or fuel were running VERY thin, and running into a group of adventurers was a god sent because by joining their party he essentially got a free pass to kill whoever he wanted, and reduce them to a dried raisin after sucking some life force out of them. Doing so you learn that the mowe powerful the creature is, the more energy it produces as well.

Your goal, that you as the player are following, when role-ing your character? essentially slay whatever powerful BBEG your Dm throws at you and suck all of that juicy fuel out of them, so that you can return to your little shop in the middle of the capital and return to create and sell whatever weird construct, doll, or robot comes to your mind for another few decades undisturbed.

And this is it. I think this might be a good backstory that could fit pretty much any setting you want to play this guy into, be it classic dnd or some scifi futuristic thing.

of course you don't NEED to use this one line per line, make up your own without looking back if you don't like it lol, dnd is the "make up shit and have fun" game after all!

Edit: also no his outfit makes no sense, i just went with vibes and decided a tanktop dress shirt, a twin tailed gilet and suspenders OVER said gilet was a good choice.

[formulawolff]

✧˖° a day in the life ✧˖°

pairing: female!driver x toto wolff

summary: as the season progresses, you decide to share some of your favorite snapshots to your instagram. however, as you post more and more photos, the fans are beginning to really starting to wonder who that mystery man may be.

a/n: these posts are set between chapters vii, viii, and ix of alkaline! they aren’t really super time specific. they’re just around the time golden girl was in brackley, her travels through england, and of course, the races!

liked by williamsracing, alex_albon, lilymhe, and 800,004 others!

goldengirl: a day in the life :p

view 2,082 comments

lilymhe: oh my gosh!!! it’s me!!! ilysm!! 🥹

goldengirl: ofc!!! my bestie <3 ily more!!

goldengirlforever: these are so cute! 🤍

kikiayy: mother is mothering with the photo dumps lately

f1fanboy: i can feel her aura through the screen

alex_albon: who’s that cutie in the second photo? i need her number ASAP‼️

goldengirl: sorry but she doesn’t date nerds 🤓

alex_albon: if you keep bullying me, i’m going to go straight to james! i am not NOT messing around‼️👹😤

williamsracing: what’s 4 + 4? cause you ATE that! 💅🏻

f1fangirly: PLS WILLIAMS WHAT IS THIS!!?

goldengirlforever: i’m literally crying rn 😭 wtf

goldengirlstan: they really slayed with that comment though

view more replies

lewishamilton: why does it look like you’re in twilight in the first pic lol

mercedesgirly0420: ARIANA WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?

hastalavistababy: WHAT ON—

justaninchident: this is the weirdest crossover episode ever

view more replies

landonorris: can u send me the editing app u use you ur pics

goldengirl: idk can you use proper grammar first?

landonorris: can YOU send me the editing app that YOU use for YOUR photos? please and thank you mommy 🥺

landonorrisfan8383: MOMMY⁉️ 😳 HELLO⁉️

f1ismylife: WAIT WHAT IF LANDO IS THE MYSTERY MAN SHE HAS BEEN POSTING—

mclarengirly: OH MY GOD YOU COULD BE RIGHT!

goldengirl: ahahaha no. that’s not my man. it’s just an inside joke. nothing more, i promise :p

view more replies

liked by lilymhe, mercedesamgf1, lewishamilton, and 736,283 others

goldengirl: recent travels ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

view 4,763 comments

lilymhe: you’re so cute i’m gonna throw up

goldengirl: i WISH a certain someone would flirt with me the way you do 😫

alex_albon: i’m still waiting on meeting the day you bring this mystery man to the paddock. 🤨

goldengirl: i will one day!

mercedesamgf1: hey! that looks familiar! 😎

goldengirl: thank you for showing me around! i had a great time! :)

hastalavistababy: THIS IS GETTING WEIRD.

goldengirlforever: PLEASE DON’T TELL US YOU’RE SIGNING WITH MERCEDES NEXT SEASON.

view more replies

lewishamilton: why didn’t you tell me you were in brackley? 🧐

goldengirl: because it was for business and not hanging out 🙄🤚🏻

mercedesfan737: BUSINESS?

ilovef1: this is getting insane. where is drive to survive when you need them? 😩 i hope they’re covering this for the upcoming season

formulaonefan4life: wdym business? this is fishy af.

view more replies

goldengirl: guys…. i literally had a meeting with some sponsors in london & then i decided to take a trip to brackley to see the mercedes hq & campus. just because i drive for williams doesn’t mean that i can’t just go look at the place 😭

totosgirl73738: it’s just a bit sketch because toto was in brackley the same time you were.

justaninchident: @totosgirl73728 girl… that man owns 33% of the company.. i think he works there.

totoswife1988: she’s just not making herself look good rn with all the affair rumors going around. that’s all. going out of her way to brackley to just “see” the mercedes is weird.

justaninchident: speculating about someone’s personal life is weird. 🥱

view more replies

landonorris: was the mercedes campus cool at least? sorry ppl are being nosy af

goldengirl: yeah! i got to meet a ton of their staff & saw a lot of behind the scenes stuff! come with me next time. we can try fish and chips!

landonorris: omg!! the boys and golden girl take a field trip!! we can visit george and eat beans on toast!

view more replies

alexandrasaintmleux: where can i fill out the application to be you? is there like a tutorial or something i can follow?

goldengirl: brb i’ll post one to tik tok right now! 🤭

[bunbunlovestowrite]

𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕! ❤︎

Rules☽︎

what I do write for

Female reader

Any race reader (should be obvious)

Any culture reader (if I do not know the culture then I will do my research! Sorry if I get anything wrong!)

Any size reader

NSFW

SFW

Angst

Fluff

Non-humans like monsters and (fake) gods

WlW

If I don't know a character then I may not write for them. I'm sorry :(

New Note: If I write for someone they'll most likely be ooc. I'm finna be 100% with y'all. When I write for x readers I imagine myself as your character (kinda the point) and I write both the character and world in a way I would want. Still love y'all though frfr 🙏♥️

What I don't write for

Male reader

Age play

Non-con, dub-con, that shit is disgusting

Scat

Pee

Animals

Feet

Lactation

BDSM

Face slapping

'Daddy', 'master', names like that

Specific names for readers

Roleplaying kinks

Cheating

Abuse

Self Harm

Fandoms☾︎

Love and Deepspace

Jujutsu Kaisen

NBC Hannibal

Twilight (lame I know :3)

Demon Slayer

Castlevania

The Southern Book Clubs guide to slaying Vampires

Elden Ring

Detroit: Become Human

Baldurs Gate 3

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Alien Vs Predator (yaujta only)

Most slashers except Myers, Brahms, Freddy, Chucky, and the Sinclair boys since I haven't watched their movie yet

The Lost Boys

Peaky blinders

Assassin's Creed

House of The Dragon (Not Aegon, Criston Cole, or Harwin)

𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑻𝑺! ✿︎ (only fandoms I currently have posts on are here)

ᒪOᐯᗴ ᗩᑎᗪ ᗪᗴᗴᑭՏᑭᗩᑕᗴ

Father!Sylus x Daughter!Reader pt.1?

Sugar and Salt! Sylus fluff 100 followers celebration

Sylus's opinion on quickies

Showering with Sylus

Sylus hating on Xavier

How Sylus fucks you when he over stimulates you

Sylus x Vampire!Reader (not that good)

ᗰOᑎՏTᗴᖇՏ

Yandere!Tentacle Monster x Fem!Lighthouse reader

ᗴᒪᗪᗴᑎ ᖇIᑎᘜ

Yandere!Rarika x Fem!Reader

ᒍᑌᒍᑌՏTᑌ KᗩIՏᗴᑎ

Summer ends. Camp Counselor! Gojo x Counselor!Reader

Demon Slayer

Hashira men reacting to your neighbor asking you to be quiet

[myysaints]

Hello, I saw your requests are open.... if you feel like it and like the idea I'd like to see Japanese kpop idol reader x yuki where reader had been an idol for like 7 years and she's very private like when someone asks about her TMI she's just like i bought this shirt on sale 😐 so when she was asked in an interview if she watches any sports or stuff her members sort of out her for being an f1 fan and then her group gets invited to a race where her and yuki get spotted standing a bit too close (nothing couple worthy but they did look suspicious)... ensure f1 and her fans on twitter being in flames where a lot of her fans are like, lol no I refuse to believe we might lose our queen to a guy that goes vroom vroom but it just gets quite after that so no one thinks about it until a picture of them kissing gets out and people are like I waited three and a half years, Asian man did it in one week only for her company to announce that they had known each other since childhood and they are childhood sweethearts with a 10 year history and like the whole f1 grid being like yuki! You had a girlfriend this entire time

So sorry if this is too specific, if you don't like it you can just skip the request 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

°˖ ⊹ ꒰ YT22 ꒱ REAL OR NO? ─ YUKI TSUNODA

... (PART ONE)

YUKI TSUNODA x f!japanese!kpop idol!reader

⌗︙・ summary — you’ve known yuki tsunoda all your life, but the world doesn’t know that. so when your relationship is accidentally called into the spotlight, fans understandably freak out – after all, who thought that these two worlds would collide?

genre — social media au, fc: sakura from le sserafim

notes — thank you anon for the request!!! it was so cute i spent the whole day absolutely going ham on this fic, which is why it's... so.... so long.... i also changed some details but they're very very minor. hope i did your request justice, and enjoy!

www.youtube.com

[ENG SUB] WHAT SECRET IS LE SSERAFIM’S Y/N HIDING FROM FANS? | KNOWING BROS

yourusername uploaded to their story.                                29s

[caption: Thank you alphataurif1 for having me at the Suzuka GP! 파이팅 🤍💙!]

yourusername

Liked by le_sserafim, yukitsunoda0511, alphataurif1, and 3,274,302 others

🏷  alphataurif1

yourusername  ただいま (I’m home) ~ 🇯🇵🏎

view all 1,009,284 comments

alphataurif1  かわいい (Cute) 😊

       Liked by yukitsunoda0511 yourusername  thank you admin!

yukitsunoda0511  幸運をもたらしてくれてありがとう (Thank you for bringing me good luck)！

yourusername  どういたしまして (You’re welcome)！おめでとう (Congratulations)！

seulgiphoria  SLAY RECOGNISES SLAY

hannitokki  begging on my knees for just one chance

landonorris  Seeing you in the paddock today made me fearless 😉

yourusername  too bad that didn't help you go faster ... dearhyunjin  LMFAOOOO SHE HUMBLED HIM REAL QUICK

www.youtube.com/Formula1

PRE-RACE INTERVIEW WITH YUKI TSUNODA | ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2023

f1wagupdates

Liked by 932,882 others

f1wagupdates  Submitted by anon 🙈 SPOTTED! After the Yuki Tsunoda and an unknown woman (could it be the same girl from Suzuka?) seen entering the driver’s hotel lift together. The pair were clad in matching outfits. According to anon, the woman had a mask over her face and “looked like she didn’t want to be recognised”. 🤔 Who could this mystery woman be?

view all 546,237 comments

miradrivescars  THEYRE IN MATCHING OUTFITS 😭😭😭

ynsserafim  someone find where y/n is QUICK

isaluvsyn  they just finished their world tour right?? i think their last stop was in dubai channieslix  that was like 3 weeks ago babe im sure y/n is looooong gone and back in korea by now LOL

bitemelando  it’s the same hat as the one in the suzuka picture so it’s probably the same girl

verstrappon  yall gotta chill it’s just a regular schmegular black cap damn 🤣

minimumverstappen  kpop twt is gonna have a field day with this one lol

...to be continued !

© myysaints

[gayloringinplainsight]

"Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn't a straight white cisgender male," she tells Vogue, when asked about why she chose to, all of a sudden, stand up for LGBTQ+ rights. "I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of."

Source: https://www.out.com/news/2019/8/08/taylor-swift-says-shes-straight-despite-all-bisexual-rumors#toggle-gdpr

I was waiting for this to come through my inbox lol. (There was more then one ask about this but I'm only responding to the first.)

There's lots to unpack here but the first and foremost thing is: She doesn't actually say here, "I'm straight." It was a perfect opportunity. It was the ideal conversation. She punted. Why?

Why did she instead give this vague, circuitous, carefully couched answer?

She calls out communities encompassing sexuality, race, and gender, followed by saying, "a community that I'm not a part of." There are lots of communities that she could have been referring to, but she crafted the sentence in such a way that makes it unclear which one. She could have been talking about the trans community. She could have been talking about the poc community. She could have been talking about the ace community. She could have been talking about the gay male community. There are lots of possibilities. In this carefully worded sentence, she deliberately avoided naming the specific community she's talking about.

Another thing to consider is that many, many closeted people don't consider themselves part of the queer community. They don't feel like they belong because they're not out and proud. And even once people come out, it often still takes time before they feel like they're part of the queer community. That was certainly my personal experience. Cara Delevingne said something similar in her Hulu show when discussing her own coming out.

Let's move on. The link anon provided isn't the source. It's an article quoting the source. The actual source is the 2019 Vogue cover article. And the full article is important because there are lots of interesting things that give context to this quote.

First, there's a great deal of conversation about gay stuff and lgbtq+ rights. And the writer makes a point of saying about this subject matter that Taylor seems to enjoy that part of the conversation "as much as she’d enjoy a root canal." Wouldn't a straight ally be eager to discuss this? They would. And a closeted queer person would be uncomfortable and panicking at the thought of having to talk so blatantly about this subject. The writer also makes a point of saying that once the conversation changes to music, Taylor lights up and her demeanor and speech patterns relax dramatically.

The other important context that the Vogue article discusses is Taylor's very long history of supporting lgbtq+ rights. Everything from the Mean mv of a gay boy being bullied to the "boys and boys and girls and girls" line in WTNY to donations to lgbtq+ organizations to giving out queer awards to queer people to dedicating Dress to Loie Fuller, an openly gay artist. There are plenty of other examples of Taylor advocating for the queer community that aren't mentioned. All the way back in 2008 she participated in the LOGO queer anti-bullying PSA. In 2009 she was in Seventeen magazine taking a stand against the slaying of a teenager for being gay.

Why is this important? Because it proves that Taylor is lying in the quote in question. "I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate…" girl yes you did. You've been advocating for years and years at this point. She's lying. She's lying. She's covering herself up. She's hiding in the closet and hoping desperately that no one notices.

And this isn't the first time she's done this either. During the 1989 press tour she gave an interview where she was asked about the "And you can want who you want / Boys and boys and girls and girls" line. As the interviewer is starting to speak about this, a look of pure panic immediately takes over Taylor's face:

And then she starts stumbling around trying to give a coherent answer. At one point she stutters out, "And also I wrote this song, um, I wrote this song, kind of, kind of following, the, uh, when gay marriage became legal in New York." This interview was in October 2014. Gay marriage had been legal in New York since June 2011. Sooo three years later is "kind of following." Right. Sure, Taylor. Nice closeting. You really nailed it.

Okay let's review. She doesn't actually say she's straight even though this was a perfect opportunity to do so. She doesn't name the actual community she's talking about, giving herself cover if she ever comes out. She's closeted and probably doesn't think she's part of the queer community anyways. She full-on lies about not knowing she can advocate for others. And the writer states Taylor seems deeply uncomfortable talking about lgbtq+ things even though the context of the article was that blondie wanted to make it clear how much of an ally she is.

None of this remotely adds up to hetero. And none of this comes even close to Taylor saying that she's straight.

[less-dev]

We're making a Starbound/Terraria inspired space sandbox game!

We're making a 2D sandbox game similar to Starbound! Or uh, terraria in space.

#nodev contains shitposting

#planetarium contains dev progress

Specifics under the cut

Who are you?

Aspen - Project Lead, Programmer, Pixel artist, Sound Designer.

Hey! I'm Aspen, I've been programming and making games for many many years in basically every engine there is... But never felt the drive to finish one, until now! I consider myself very experienced in the engine we're using (Gamemaker Studio 2.5) and have confidence we'll be able to make this game a reality. I also run the Tumblr account, so assume it's me behind the wheel as a default. Thank you for checking the game out!

Alec - Concept artist, Character Designer

H a l l o I'm Alec, I like writing and drawing and painting and designing shiiiiiiiit. I adore world building and have frequent bursts of creative possession in which I conceive and birth the greatest ideas and concepts in a mere moment. Otherwise, I can be a total dumbass and completely useless. I'm good at colours 👌 I have been a 85% a home-brew DM for about 2 years now and that is the greatest proof of my ADHD-given God powers of creativity. Slay.

What a cool guy!

Design pillars

Immersion. Above all else, I would like roleplay (casual or serious) to be natural and well supported. I would like players to find engaging with the world, and it's characters to be very personal.

Innovation. Tropes such as "You spawn in a green forest and can walk left or right" will be actively avoided. Biomes will have generation that presents more unique movement opportunities. Such as geysers in rock pools launching players high up, or giant twisting vines that hold up chunks of land to hop between.

More quality less quantity. Planets will be significantly more content-dense than Starbound, and perhaps controversially travel between them will be more difficult/expensive as well. This would encourage players to take advantage of all the resources presented on each planet, instead of hopping from one to the next. This would also encourage us throughout development to give each planet as much love as possible. Each planet should feel like a 'miniature terraria world'. Though actually achieving that is easier said than done.

Meaningful content. Procedurally generating creatures from 100 different pre-set monster parts could technically produce limitless alien creatures for players to encounter. But in both No Man's Sky and Starbound. I find this novelty to wear off quick, these creatures are not manually, meaningfully crafted and beyond an unusual appearance and some shallow gameplay changes... They do not create much of a memorable experience for the player. In my opinion, anyway. I would rather hand-craft every creature and make them all significantly unique and interesting. That's not to say procedurally generated creatures won't ever have a place in the game, but they certainly wont be as prevalent as others games.

Okay well... What's finished?

Fundamental lighting shaders akin to Starbound.

Some world generation brushes and basic commands.

A text mark-up language (heavily optimised), and game chat.

Extensive custom debugging tools

Hard and soft-loading of chunks to save on as much memory and CPU usage as possible.

Complete unloading, and compression of chunks on top of the previously mentioned system. As well as a live-saving system.

Setting, Story baseline, and conceptualization of the first 3 playable species. Each species will have a different starting planet, and immediately different playthrough.

Designs and cultures of several additional unplayable races.

Character proportion tests, sprites and sketches.

First-pass on collision functions.

Weighted Tile variance and tile connections.

CONCERNS

Multiplayer. While I have made an online multiplayer game before and it's definitely doable for this game, it would require some practice in a one-off test game to be fully confident. It would also take a LOT of time.

Modding. As far as I know gamemaker games are notoriously difficult for players to modify. Something like Unity is far easier even without mod support. Gamemaker on the other hand is difficult even if I want to design systems in favor of modders. This is kind of a problem for later, I have faith there'll be something we can do to make it work... But a cursory look says it won't be easy. I would be extremely disappointed if there was nothing we could do.

[linkedsoul]

HI MY FRENCHIES FROM THE 3RD CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF FRENCH PEOPLE ABROAD aka my French residents of Northern Europe and especially London: (and my English speaking followers who'd like to French elections drama)

Macron's candidate, Vincent Caure, is blatantly lying on his program about his opponent's party, the NFP, which feels very dishonest and, frankly, kind of pathetic? I know Frenchies in London voted a lot for him but PLEASE let's not let a liar get ahead of the race.

He claims the NFP - a coalition of green and leftist parties - will have Mélenchon as Prime Minister. For some reason, the French media is OBSESSED with making Mélanchon (the leader of a prominent leftist party) THE DEVIL. Look. I know some people don't like Mélenchon even on the left. But he's NOT EVEN PART OF THIS ELECTION. Besties: he's not a candidate anywhere. And even less for French people abroad. And even worse: the NFP has NEVER said who they'd send as Prime Minister if they get the majority in the assembly. This is FAKE.

He pretends French people abroad will be doubly taxed because of the NFP wants to put back the "exit tax", and that the NFP is obsessed with the universal tax (aka paying taxes for your country even when you work abroad). The exit tax is a specific tax that affects only people who own A LOT in assets. I have no idea how to even reach to that kind of criteria. I don't think neither me nor any of the French people I know in Dublin have the assets required to have to pay the exit tax. I wish I had that amount of money so I could get taxed on it! Alas, Vincent Caure and I don't live in the same world because it's not even remotely a worry for me. As for the universal tax, it's nowhere in the NFP's program so I guess they're not as obsessed with it as Vincent claim they are.

He offers to put more procedures online such as passpot renewal online whereas the NFP offers nothing. Ok slay king, then run your campaign on that instead of telling lies. Unless this is your only good point?

He claims that the NFP wants to end nuclear energy, which would make us depend on Russian gas. Nowhere is this written on the NFP program. There are only 4 mentions of the word "nuclear" in the NFP program and none of it is associated to the word "stop" or "end", half of them are not even about nuclear energy itself... I don't see where he got that from.

He does agree that the NFP wants to make railways more accessible but argue that they didn't vote for a law making mobility within France easier. Fair! He forgets to mention most of the supporters of this law were his party only and BOTH LEFT AND RIGHT voted against, citing lack of funding for this law as an issue, that the Prime Minister back then brushed away, so take that what you will. Also want to note his only point for this program is that they're going to use the funding for transport that they already have so... ok good? that's not revolutionary. That's just expected.

He also claims that:

the left is the one who led to the far right taking the lead when it's his own party who called for an election. Like. The move no one expected nor wanted except the far right. That was all Macron. That was all your party. You guys flirted so much with the far right that you led them right in, that is NOT the left's fault and even less your favorite scapegoat, Jean-Luc Mélenchon - who, I'd like to remind everyone, is not a candidate for this election oh my god shut up about Mélenchon already I don't care about Mélenchon why are you obsessed with Mélenchon

The left wants a Frexit because of their tax policies (debunked above) and nuclear energy policies (also debunked above). The left is notoriously pro-EU, his opponent is a British-French citizen who probably saw the shitshow of Brexit from the front rows. And even if the left wants to tax VERY rich people trying to avoid being taxed on their huge assets out of France (fun fact: it's for the people who try and get their assets moved to Dubai not to pay taxes on them lmao) and wanted to reduce the use of nuclear energy, that does not equate Frexit, like, I... I don't see the correlation.

The left is planning for 300 billion more expenses and intends to cover for those expenses by taxing people the most. The thing he's not saying is that they intend to tax the richest. It's the rich the target. The very VERY rich. Not you, regular French immigrant to Ireland who struggles with the cost of life in Dublin and cry for a better flat.

ALL IN ALL: Vincent Caure is a liar who ment comme un arracheur de dent et fait sa campagne dessus, ce qui est un peu dégueu.

He cries about potential taxes that would only affect a very, very tiny minority of French people who were probably trying to evade said taxes anyway and tries to frame it as "double taxing French people abroad"

The left wants to tax the rich and good for them and good for us who are not playing in the targeted tax bracket AT ALL.

Macron's party is the one who's fucked us all over; Attal is a notoriously impopular Prime Minister; they're a party for the rich (as proven above by trying to act as if a tax on the rich was gonna be a double tax for everyone like... lmao how out of touch are you) and love to frame themselves as the only right solution QUAND C'EST EUX QUI NOUS ONT MIS DANS LA MERDE

As with the rest of his party, he's obsessed with Mélenchon, who has nothing to do with this specific election since the opposition is initially from the Green Party.

SVP SI VOUS ÊTES DANS LA 3E CIRCONSCRIPTION DES FRANÇAIS À L'ÉTRANGER, VOTEZ CHARLOTTE MINVIELLE AU MOINS POUR NE PAS ÊTRE REPRÉSENTÉ PAR UN CANDIDAT QUI VOUS MENT SANS HONTE POUR AVOIR DES VOTES

and for my English speaking friends: please pray for us all (at least here the far right is not gonna pass but I'd rather not have such a liar for deputee please and thank you)

ET COMME TOUJOURS, ON EMMERDE LE FRONT NATIONAL!

[aquaaquila]

As for Marcy's name translating to god of war, for some reason my brain always sorta associated it hinting how war started in amphibia, one that did (unintentionally) forge through Marcy's hands via Andrias

Ok, rant time since it's like my first ask which isn't about reblog games or some support scam:

All Calamity Girls represent each race they were sent to in their entirety. All the wars, invasions, and conflicts started with newts. Down from Valeriana and her order creating the Calamity Box that would be later used to conquer the other worlds which would be directly under the command of the Newt dynasty Andrias belonged to (all 3 races contributed though, much like all 3 girls came together to waste their lives together, and sure Sasha was the ultimate control freak, but it was Marcy who "always had a plan" according to Sash and both Sasha and Marcy bonded over pragmatic understanding that Anne is too "nice" (granted it's usually Sasha perceived as mean, Marcy as nice and Anne as in-between, it's more so about Anne being moral to Sasha's immoral and Marcy's amoral), and how she should go along with their schemes like them throwing dance parties + Marcy also always inviting Sash and Anne to do stuff with her even if they weren't interested). And of course the aftermath of Leif's betrayal in which Andrias started Amphibia's racism and used newts specifically to uphold such a system by making them in charge and most privileged, and then leading another invasion on Earth which was basically a war to end all wars.

Because as I said, Marcy represents the newts, she also kickstarts all the conflicts in the show. She got all 3 of them stuck in Amphibia, which finally made Anne confront Sasha, all of their misadventures, and finally enabled Andrias to lead the invasion to Earth by supporting him. And we shall also not forget about Darcy, who while not the same person as Marcy, is still part of her character. Darcy's color scheme also matches the planet Mars which is where the part of "God of War" in Marcy's name comes from, whereas Marcy's normal color scheme represents the Planet Earth, ironic considering she was the least eager to come back to Earth. Darcy of course was the ultimate Mastermind behind the invasion and the tradition of starting wars. Darcy was one of the final bosses of Amphibia to defeat, the one representing the ultimate consequences of how far the toxicity of all 3 girls could've gone.

So yeah, personality-wise Marcy may not seem like she would suit her name, heck people probably would think she should be more like Athena. However without doubt the name of Marcy Regina Wu fits her actual role in the story, even if it wasn't exactly her willing choice. Though it's not like she doesn't have it in her, I mean she is a gamer who always slays-

Just in case you haven't noticed I just love how the entire trio was crafted, they're such perfect characters ong-

[mrkida-art]

What are your headcanons regarding dwarves and their attitude towards treasure and gold?

Hello Anon! I do in fact have a lot of thoughts about this subject. I always go by the legendarium as something that is fallible (since Tolkien’s work is written from the POV of unreliable narrators), especially when it comes to the secretive dwarves who do not share their culture and secrets openly. This leaves a lot of room to recontextualize or even straight up change things (hence the “not canon compliant” disclaimer on my blog lol) and this is one of those cases. 

Anyways, here are some of my headcanons about dwarves and their treasure.

Dwarves are stereotyped as being greedy by other races, this is rooted in many stories circulating about dwarves going to extreme lengths to protect their treasure. This is especially true about the Durin’s Folk dwarves, who are said to have killed men for simply laying claim to what these dwarves felt was rightfully theirs. One of the more well known examples being Fram, the Lord of the Éothéod, who claimed the hoard of the dragon Scatha after slaying it.  This hoard contained treasure which Durin’s Folk claimed as theirs. Fram refused to give it to them, and it is said by many that he was murdered by the dwarves of Durin’s Folk as retribution. Among the race of men  it’s said that this story illustrates the greediness of dwarves.  Fram is said to have had rightfully earned this treasure as it was he who killed this dragon, and the dwarves acted in dishonor and tried to steal it from him.  

Much of this story does ring true for the dwarves, but their attitudes towards treasure is misinterpreted by the outsiders who tell these tales. Dwarves see treasure in two ways, there is treasure meant for trade and monetary gain, which they will guard as anyone would with their money. And then there is the most important type of treasure, artifacts made by their ancestors and loved ones.  The value of their artifacts is not determined by what materials have been used, but rather by WHO made them and who used them, as well as their age. Some of the most ancient and precious artifacts are made of crude stone and wood, not gold and silver. Their artifacts represent their history, heritage, and the story and souls of their ancestors.   To specific families their most important treasures or heirlooms may also be trinkets or craft made by loved ones who have since passed, it can also be tools or weapons that these dwarves used while still alive.  Dwarves  believe that these artifacts  can be used to communicate with their dead, both their ancient ancestors and those who recently passed, which naturally means that their protected treasure is of massive cultural importance. It’s also said that artifacts falling into the wrong hands may disturb the peace of the dead, which may contribute to them becoming restless spirits which is something no dwarf wants for their loved ones. 

The reason as to why Durin’s Folk may very well have killed Fram for what he did is because they are particularly protective of their artifacts. The treasure he took originally belonged to them which then had been stolen  by the dragon Scatha. Many of these artifacts were in fact of cultural or sentimental importance, which means it was something they sought to get back. It’s also good to note that Fram didn’t just claim artifacts from any dwarf clan, these were dwarves who had been exiled from their lands in Khazad-dûm. Big part of their cultural heritage had been lost when it fell which meant that they were even more desperate to protect what little they had left.   And they do not look kindly upon outsiders that steal from them, especially their most treasured objects. 

TLDR: Dwarvish treasure is sometimes artifacts that are extremely important in dwarvish culture. And clans such as Durin’s Folk who have lost so much are desperate to protect the little they have left of their cultural heritage.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it. I have more headcanons about this particular subject but that would be too long of a post haha. 

[bucking-mustangs-with-wings]

Buck x Bucky AU: Legion/Fallen Angels

When God sent the order through the ranks of Heaven that the extermination of the human race was to be carried out, that he had become disappointed and bored with the very creations he had once so reverently adored and loved, one of his most astute angels, Gale, couldn't understand why. Not when from the very beginning they had been ordered to bow down to and love them also. Not wanting to carry out the orders given to him and his fellow angels, he was cast out from Heaven. Not Demon, but no longer Angel either, Gale was given the task of proving to God that the human race was worth saving, that the creations that now were so filled with violence and hatred amongst themselves, were still capable of beauty and kindness. If he could do this, before the final order was given, then God would spare humanity. Or fail, and have one of his own brethren slay him and the humans that he had grown so fond of. John, the angel closest to Gale since the moment of their very own creation, was the one specifically given the order to bring about Gale's demise, should his brother fail in his mission. But when the clock starts ticking closer and closer to the deadline given, will John be able to follow God's orders and be the loyal soldier he has always strived for and thought himself to be, or will he falter when the time comes and he is faced with cutting down the one thing he begins to question if he loves more than God himself?..

My brain went on an absolute war-path after re-watching Legion (2010) and then this was born. I may write something for it eventually, but time will tell.

[peachyiie-0]

Sanemi wife and kids Au!

(No warnings just pure cuteness.)

Before I start I just wanna say this was a request from this lovely user: toriwallace and they specifically asked for sanemi comming home to his wife and kids sleeping in their bed! Which I thought would be adorable to write!! So thank you so much to that amazing person who gave me the request.

Another thing I’d like to mention is I’ll be taking any requests! And I’ll only take them if I find them acceptable! with all that being said, I hope you enjoy this!!

Sanemi walked into the shared house of him and his wife. He had just ended a long day of his work, slaying demons. He’s almost never home, and when he is he's usually resting in their room.

Of course his wife doesnt mind, she knows the difficulties of being a demon slayer.

She’s proud of her hard working husband, and Sanemi’s proud of her. I mean, taking care of two children is a tough job for a mom. But she cherishes every moment.

As sanemi walked through the door of their home there was no usual welcoming from his wife or kids. He was a little worried because they usually always greet him with tons of “welcome home!”. But today was different; the only thing that filled the house was silence.

He began to worry when he called out to his wife and children and there was no answer. Sanemi’s mind was racing as he began frantically looking for them.

He turned the hall to their room, the only place he didn’t check. The door creaked open as he walked in. His wife and kids were bundled up closely together on the bed.

Sanemi let out a sigh of relief, as he sat close to his wife admiring her beauty. The way her long hair flowed over parts of her face was mesmerizing.

And the way her long eyelashes drooped over her cheeks made him realize again why he fell in love with her. Her beauty was unmatched.

He took off his Haori and placed it on the nightstand as he began to cuddle up next to his sleeping wife. He wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could and began placing a line of kisses on his wife’s neck.

“Mm..” she grumbled as sanemi was slowly frozen in place. She turned over as she wrapped her arms around him resting her head on his chest.

“I love you..” she hummed as she began to fall back asleep. Sanemi’s heart was fluttering. God, he felt like the luckiest man alive.

He buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Me too. I love you too.” Suddenly two small hands then made their way around the both of them. They were all cuddled up closely as they began to slowly fall into a peaceful sleep.

(I’m sorry if it’s not any good, I’m a beginner writer who’s still trying her best to learn and earn the experience. So if there is any punctuation mistakes or anything else you noticed that was wrong please keep that in mind)

I Hope you enjoyed this!!! And I hope you guys have a good day/ night, make sure to get lots of rest and to be safe!!🫶💗💗

[salty-an-disco]

hello! i remember you making a post featuring songs you associated with each of the chapter 2s from slay the princess way back in… december, i think?

did you ever make a post for songs you associated with the chapter 3s? if you did, i couldnt find it; but then again, tumblr’s search system is famously garbage, so… 🤷‍♂️ 

if you did make a post like that, would you mind linking it here? i’d be very grateful if you did 🙏

I did post about that, but I also can’t find it anymore (damn you Tumblr search system), and since I formed a lot of new opnions since then, anyway, might as well do it again–

Anyway– songs I associate with the Chapter 3’s, version 2.0!!!

The Wraith: What Could Have Been by Sting (something something, continually denying the princess even a chance turns her into a bitter monster of your creation)

The Fury: Snakes by Miyavi & PVRIS (the ‘You’ve Fucked Up and Now I Hate You’ track)

The Wild: Exhale Inhale and All is Soft Inside by AURORA

The Thorn: Allies or Enemies by The Crane Wives

The Apotheosis: A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Model

The Eye of the Needle: Get Up by Mother Mother (fits both Skeptic and Hunted’s variation, to me, as they’re both coaching you on to remeet the Princess)

The Den: Villain by Stella Jang (chose this animatic in specific, cuz I think it fits really well with Beast in general)

The Burned Grey: A Dangerous Thing by AURORA

The Drowned Grey: Hand Me My Shovel, I’m Going In! by Will Wood (Skeptic’s perspective), Unknown / Nth by Hozier (Prisoner’s perspective)

The Moment of Clarity: The Silent by Tragic Tantrum, and Almost Human by Voltaire

The Arms Race: When Everything Went Wrong by Fantastic Negrito (originally put this one as Razor’s song, in general, but I think it fits much better as just the Arms Race. I see Normalize by Mother Mother as more of a Razor song now)

The Empty Cup: Turn Out the Lights by The Crane Wives (when you think about it, it really fits with the route where Quiet manages to reign in his thoughts and humble the princess)

[canmom]

more baldur gate

I think I've gathered most of the party now. time to venture forth

we did find another warlock it turned out. they've got a spin on him as a kind of demon slaying folk hero, which is cute. what's weirder to me is when characters will just casually speak of game mechanical stuff like being a 'warlock'. like, oh yeah i made a pact with an eldritch entity beyond space and comprehension, but it's no biggie, you know? there's one in every neighbourhood. though that is something of the problem of Forgotten Realms, it's such a kitchen-sink setting that it's very hard to figure out any sort of coherent narrative thrust for any of it.

my character seems to be settling by default into the kind of default 'pragmatic, generally prosocial crpg hero' model. most of the other dialogue options just seem needlessly standoffish. they do have certain party members disapprove when you take plot hooks, but honestly that all feels a bit silly to take as a prodding to play a more selfish character because like. what do you want me to do, not engage with the game? occasionally you get to click a 'hey, look, I'm also from baldur's gate!' dialogue option, but it never adds up to much.

it's frustrating in a way, because this being so specifically D&D-based really calls attention to the difference between CRPGs and TTRPGs. at the tabletop, I can give my character a distinctive voice, motivation, general habitas - and other players can respond to that and react appropriately. of course, this is not possible in a CRPG to the same degree, except within the rails laid down by the game writers. since the main character is unvoiced and characters react to dialogue the instant you click it, she is even further diminished from the voiced characters.

something noticeable in this is that it has a similar line reading problem as a lot of Bioware RPGs. characters' lines will sometimes noticeably differ in how they're acted - intonation, force, etc. - and there's that ever-noticeable cut between individual lines of dialogue. it has the feeling that the lines were recorded separately in a studio without much in the way of context.

overall the NPC acting in this game is... well it's that classic modern AAA videogame problem right? the character models and rendering are very lifelike when they're still, but the way the characters move is a bit stiff, a bit broad, a bit unnatural. of course nobody has the money to individually hand-animate every single dialogue line in a CRPG of this sort of scale, so they're leaning on canned animations and procedural blending techniques, and it works sorta well enough. it's got that fuzz of videogame jank to it.

it looks like we're about to run into the Evil Races D&D Problem pretty soon, oh boy! the goblins are attacking the poor tiefling refugees. why? i'm sure it will be given a clear understandable motivation and not just that they're evil by nature, right? this is something that I'm pretty sure the game is inheriting from the OG Baldur's Gate games - I definitely remember venturing into a mine to fight gnolls or something. Minsc was there. I have no doubt Minsc will show up in BG3 as well - he's like the most iconic character in the series.

the contrived nature of the premise is classic D&D shit. "you all meet on a mind flayer spaceship, united by parasites in your brain" is definitely the sort of thing that a human DM would cook up as a campaign starting point. that said, it does feel a little weird that everyone on the mind flayer ship between them cover most of the player classes, each with their own colourful backstory and an identically sized tent that they can pitch in your mysterious extradimensional campsite. I think the fact that the introductions are spread out a bit makes it feel more artificial - I get why they didn't want to frontload it with every single character right at the beginning, but it's like, 'damn, this guy has a player character sort of vibe, i bet he was on the airship' and sure enough, he was...

(speaking of the immersion-breaking camp, the respec guy really seems kinda unnecessary as a diegetic element. just have a menu somewhere, trying to make this skeleton guy make narrative sense just raises way too many questions.)

but I mean I can't complain too much that a videogame is a videogame, right? as I recall, in BG1, the recruitable party members were just random adventurers who you'd run into here and there. this is more of a KotOR II-like scenario, where every character has a thing in common that pushes them together.

the Tactician difficulty level, combined with the squishiness of level 2 characters, is definitely pushing me a bit. I had a fight with some bandits. all of them had names and unique voices, interestingly - really applying the Apocalypse World principles. however they will not like, surrender or anything. don't ask me why I was fighting these people to the death, I don't think they did anything that really did any harm to my character, but I wanted to unlock the respec character and you have to get past them to do it. not that I knew that when I saw hostile characters.

anyway, it was a cool fight because it was a bit of party-vs-party - the enemies were using the same abilities I was, and using the environment to their advantage (read: blowing me up with exploding barrels, the nerve of it). Larian of course have their fancy fluid sim system from the Divinity series, which actually integrates rather well with certain D&D spells like Grease. there's a lot of potentially interesting tactical possibilities, although in the end, it came down to the familiar tactics of 'split them up', 'disable them with debuffs' and 'focus dps'. D&D combat is very swingy - once I took out a couple of that other party, the fight was pretty much decided, but when I'd taken a few downed party members, there wasn't really much reason not to just load the quicksave.

I decided to spec my 'lock as a bladelock - I'm playing a chainlock on tabletop so this seemed like a good way to mix it up. of course then it turned out that Wyll is also a bladelock, so he's probably not gonna get much time in the party ^^' but maybe I should bring him along and we can just be warlock buddies. that said... the 4-person party size is... I can see its necessity as a balancing measure, but it does feel like it pushes me towards the standard healer (shadowheart)/tank (lae'zel)/rogue (astarion)/me structure. since I need someone to unlock doors, I need someone to heal, and I need someone to stop the enemy beating up my poor squishy party members. but now I'm a bladelock, maybe I can take over from Lae'zel as the frontliner and free up a slot for one of the other guys. probably it's a big enough game that there will be room to mix and match parties over the course of it.

one thing I do kinda miss from Bioware's games is the intra-party dialogue triggers. the characters here mostly don't have random conversations, at least so far - maybe they will later in the game. that stuff did a whole lot to add life to your party members and make them feel more like characters.

honestly? this is making me want to go back to various isometric CRPGs like Tyranny. so far, despite spicy elements like the mindflayer thing, I'm not fully hooked by this story. but I will give this one a chance all the same.

[mariacallous]

For those who thought K-12 education would be sidelined from this year’s presidential race, we’ve gotten a couple of twists.

One twist is a proposal to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education emerging as a campaign issue. Republicans have floated the idea over the years, but it captured the public’s attention—and concern—when it became the focal point of a Project 2025 chapter. Another twist is Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz is a former teacher who frequently cites his work on schools and parent supports as Minnesota’s governor. At a time when Democrats have seemed reluctant to talk about K-12 education, Walz provides an invitation—and a voice—to rejoin the discussion.

It’s an invitation that Democrats should accept. Ever since Republicans started landing their critiques that Democrats were too slow to reopen schools during the pandemic, Democrats have seemed reluctant to engage on K-12 education. Republicans noticed the timidity. Finding little resistance from Democrats on K-12 issues, Republicans repeatedly looked to schools as their preferred battleground for culture war conflicts over race, gender, and sexuality. The consequences included a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ policies, politically tinged curricular reforms, and statewide private school voucher (or ESA) programs.

In pushing for these reforms, Republicans offered “parents’ rights” as their guiding principle. Since Democrats weren’t paying attention to parents’ concerns, the argument went, Republicans would fill the void.

It’s true that social policy in the U.S. isn’t parent friendly, and Democrats share some blame for that. But parents’ rights advocates operationalized their vision in a particularly narrow, cruel way. They emphasized parents’ “right” to protect children from ideas, people, and materials that make some parents uncomfortable. That meant designing education policy around goals like slaying a critical race theory boogeyman and keeping transgender students from choosing their own pronouns. That came at an especially bad time, when leaders should have been focused on pandemic-related issues.

Still, there’s something to the idea that we need more parent-friendly policies. Parenting is rewarding and exhilarating. It’s also exhausting, anxiety-inducing, and expensive. Policymakers can’t lift all that weight from parents’ shoulders, but they can lighten the load.

Interestingly, if you squint as you read what Democrats and Republicans are saying about supporting parents, you might see opportunities for collaboration. That’s not necessarily bipartisan compromise in the traditional sense. It’s more like what Lorén Cox and Karen Nussle of the Aspen Institute call “cross-partisan” collaboration, which embraces the possibility that collaborating parties will have different goals for their joint work (i.e., agreed-upon means to different ends).

That’s the purpose of this piece: to explore the possibility of a cross-partisan policy agenda to support parents of school-age children.

Rethinking parents’ rights (or expectations)

Let’s stick with the idea of articulating some basic rights for parents. Or, more precisely, let’s think about what parents should reasonably expect from policymakers as their children move through their K-12 years.

I’ll focus on areas where it seems like there could be some cross-partisan (or bipartisan) agreement, and I’ll try to identify specific policy actions (underlined below). To keep this manageable, this piece focuses on parents of school-age children (setting aside important issues like parental leave) and federal policy (setting aside state, local, and school-level actions).

Here’s my list:

1. A basic level of financial resources

One of this election’s more interesting policy questions involves financial support for families with children. Democrats tend to frame the idea in terms of ending the scourge of child poverty and making child care more affordable. Republicans also point to child care affordability, sometimes as an engine for economic growth, and are increasingly raising alarms about falling birthrates. (There’s also J.D. Vance’s odd framing, which emphasizes punishing non-parents rather than supporting parents.)

Despite those differences, leaders of both parties are expressing support for an expanded child tax credit. In fact, it’s a pledge in both the Democratic and Republican platforms. There are details to iron out regarding the size of the credit, possible phaseouts for high earners, and possible work requirements. Still, there’s plenty of room to get something done—and plenty of empirical support that it’d (again) have positive effects.

In addition to expanding the child tax credit, supporting other public assistance programs like SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, CHIP, and Summer EBT would shield children from poverty while likely generating long-term benefits to society.

2. Physical health and safety at school

By and large, U.S. public schools are safe places for children, where rates of victimization have declined markedly in recent decades. At the same time, school shootings have continued at a horrifying rate—and continue to weigh on the minds of students, families, and educators.

As one shooting after the next passes without a meaningful policy response, it’s fair to be cynical. The fact remains, though, that a large majority of Americans support gun violence prevention measures like increasing the minimum age for buying guns to 21 years, banning assault weapons, and requiring background checks for gun buyers (ideas embraced both by advocates and experts). The federal government also can provide guidance and resources to schools to improve mental health supports and safety measures. For example, it might be time for another try at a federal school safety commission after the Trump-era version accompanied some reasonable, apolitical ideas with some not-so-reasonable, partisan ones.

Other threats to students’ physical health are harder to see. A growing body of research shows the far-reaching harms from children’s exposure to school bus emissions, lead, and other pollutants. Federal investments to modernize school infrastructure and electrify school bus fleets are well supported by research. And protecting kids from toxins shouldn’t be a hard case to make to parents of any political stripe.

3. Evidence-supported curriculum and teaching practices

Some of the fiercest conflicts in K-12 education have been about what schools teach, especially in subjects like U.S. history and civics. At the same time, we’ve seen important changes in what (and how) schools teach that didn’t cause big, public clashes along party lines. This includes a shift towards a more evidence-based “science of reading,” which Cox and Nussle cite as a prime example of cross-partisan work. The growing push to ban cell phones from classrooms may be another example.

Even if Americans continue to disagree about how schools should teach more values-laden subjects, that leaves many subjects like math and reading where parents care far more about how well their kids are taught than how they’re taught. Frustratingly, though, the evidence on “what works” in teaching these subjects is often lacking. That’s partly because there just isn’t enough rigorous research that evaluates curriculum (with some exceptions), and it’s too hard to find the research that’s out there.

This leaves state, district, and school leaders to make curriculum purchases with little evidence to guide them beyond the “research” reported by the curriculum companies themselves. If you’d like to put yourself in these leaders’ shoes for a moment, imagine that you’re making an important decision about whether to procure a certain curriculum or technology (maybe Eureka Math or IXL). Try searching the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse for evidence on the program you’re considering. I bet you won’t find much.

The federal government could be more helpful here. Research on curriculum—in particular, on new, AI-assisted programs—should comprise a larger share of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) funding portfolio. Where IES funding goes, researchers follow. And when that research is published, the U.S. Department of Education needs to actively disseminate it and make the research easily searchable.

4. Student privacy protections

The core legislation that protects student privacy in the United States, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), turned 50 years old last month. It’s gotten dusty over the years. Today’s technologies, coupled with the omnipresence of third-party companies in U.S. schools, have drastically changed the risks and possibilities of data breaches. For example, FERPA’s writers weren’t thinking about students revealing personal thoughts and information—including images and audio—to AI-powered chatbots run by private companies that might turn and sell those data. But that’s the nature of privacy risk in 2024.

It’s time to update FERPA and other relevant privacy legislation (such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act). The Democratic platform contains a pledge for bipartisan legislation in this area. On the right, even groups like Moms for Liberty are raising concerns about data privacy, albeit with a very different framing.

5. Protections for the most vulnerable students

Instead of protecting vulnerable students from harm, the parents’ rights movement has seemed more interested in “protecting” parents and their kids from vulnerable students. For example, it has prioritized a parent’s supposed right to keep their children from being exposed to LGBTQ+ or nonwhite literary characters over another child’s opportunity to see their identities represented and embraced at school.

It might take some extra-hard squinting (or maybe a refresher on Rawls’ veil of ignorance) to find opportunities for cross-partisan collaboration to protect vulnerable students. But there are points of agreement. For example, the vast majority of Americans oppose book bans and support teaching about race in schools.

To start, the federal government should provide the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights with the resources it needs to fulfill its core mission (enforcing federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination against protected groups). It also should more fully and sensibly fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title I. Red states, after all, rely on Title I funds just as much as blue states.

6. Respect for parents’ time

Time is a precious commodity, and parenting is nothing if not time-consuming. That should be on the minds of policymakers and administrators as they design school policies, programs, and processes. American parents lose too much time—and too many opportunities—to needlessly burdensome activities. That includes navigating school choice processes, applying for gifted programs, and just enrolling in school. Administrative burden scholars have shown the costs of this “time tax,” and it’s been a point of emphasis for the Biden administration (with, shall we say, limited success in simplifying the FAFSA).

I’ve gotten a taste of this “time tax” through an ongoing, Louisiana-based project that aims to reduce the burdens associated with applying for public assistance programs like SNAP, WIC, and free pre-K. One interesting, early lesson from that work is that there’s opportunity for cross-partisan collaboration; what some see as a promising way to improve access to critical services, others see as a promising way to reduce government waste.

The federal government can provide resources and guidance to help states build integrated, streamlined public benefits applications. Additionally, for federally funded programs like WIC and Head Start that are run at the local or state level, the federal government’s eligibility and application requirements are a frequent source of frustration for parents and administrators—and cause of program underutilization. The federal government should reassess these requirements with an eye on eliminating unnecessary burden. This includes working with local and state leaders to align eligibility and paperwork requirements across programs and create more standard, cross-program approaches for determining income and household size.

Another possibility for time savings: free, universal school lunch. As governor, Walz signed a bill in 2023 to provide school lunch to all Minnesota students regardless of family income. That means time savings for parents tasked with making lunch every morning. It also could mean less paperwork for families and school administrators, along with—most importantly—less food insecurity and better student performance and attainment. There’s potential for more federal action in this area, too, though Republicans seem wary.

Of course, all of this is easier said than done. The bottom line, though, is that there are real, cross-partisan opportunities for improving supports for parents of school-age children. Those opportunities are well worth pursuing no matter who is elected this fall.