#so i think its understandable

[borrelia]

if you donate one single us dollar to the unrwa, you will have donated more money than you would have by clicking that stupid arab.orb link every day for four and a half years. yes, they do actually donate money to the unrwa, but even with tens of thousands of clicks, most of that money is the baseline $90 they send every quarter. from 2023 quarter 4, half a million clicks turned into $380.57. maths out to six hundreths of one cent per click. just donate to unrwa.

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[katsinspats]

Tragic: Guy you based your entire villain backstory on doesn't even remember you

[heartorbit]

if we could stay connected, just like this

[toa-arania]

Val's blind spot

Well, really that should be blind spots, but she thinks she only has the one.

Valerie Wester is not a very trusting person. Even people she considers to be her friends she is wary of to varying degrees between "You can make things inconvenient for me" and "You can instantly kill me on a whim". She tends towards overconfidence, but most of the time that is tempered by her paranoia. She is genuinely very intelligent, but can have trouble responding to unexpected situations. She is aware of this, and can usually play defence very well using a combination of quick thinking and an air of aloofness, so long as she is sufficiently paranoid of everything around her and sufficiently confindent in her ability to find a solution. When one of these things is deactivated, problems arise. We last saw this when a drug she made switched off her deductive reasoning, leaving her incapable of responding to the situation. This time, we're going to see what happens when her paranoia fails to kick in.

A little background. After the drugs night, Levi (werewolf himbo) realised that he was losing himself more to Khorne, a god of war and bloodshed that had taken residence in his mind, and took a page out of Val's book by coming up with a contingency plan involving Aluber (clown fairy). Aluber, thanks to a gift from the Fae King, has the ability to create magically-binding Unbreakable Vows that cause you to instantly die if you break them. This is one of many reasons that Val is fucking terrified of Aluber, although not actually the main one, which is his access to an Antimagic Chain spell that Val is acutely aware will kill her if it is used on her. Levi reasoned that a good way to prevent himself being completely taken over by Khorne is to make an Unbreakable Vow to not hurt a specific group of people, so that if he does so he will die and be unable to kill them. Aluber and Levi were attempting to enact this plan in secret.

As part of them figuring out ways to deal with Khorne, they got Val to help by casting Binding on Levi, a hex that prevents the target being able to harm people. They wanted to test how instantly Khorne responded to violence if Levi gets hit, and whether Val's magic could seal the response. Val cast this hex, and then used some of her other magic to go into Levi's mind (something Val has made a habit of now). Inside his mind was as Val expected, except for the ankle-deep layer of blood and the fractured layer of red magic that Val recognised as coming from Wesley, another witch that gave Levi a protective amulet. We tested what happened when Levi gets punched, and Val learnt a lot about the way Khorne interacts with him - specifically that the witches are basically the only thing holding him back. It is at this point that I remind you they have not told Val about the Unbreakable Vow plan because they have (admittedly correctly) assumed she would try to stop it.

Later that day, they attempted the spell on their own. As they tried to make the vow, red magic came from Levi that they assumed to be Khorne attempting to block the spell. Aluber, with the assistance of the Fae King, pushed his magic past it, shattering the red magic. Without Val there to recognise it as Wesley's, they had no idea that they were destroying Levi's primary layer of protection. Aluber passed out from the exertion, and Khorne took over Levi's body. Val's Binding spell was now the only thing left preventing him from harming anyone and causing the Unbreakable Vow to kill Levi. A spell that Levi had already requested should be short enough to wear off by football practice that afternoon. Khorne-Levi picked up Aluber's unconscious body and brought it to Val, claiming that he tried some fae bullshit on him that he managed to shake off.

Val has two blind spots. One of them is Wesley, who Val has known for a long time. They're good friends, even though they mostly act independently and often fuck with each other, and Val genuinely cares for him. She is aware that he is a weakness of hers, and tries to account for it semi-successfully. What Val has not yet fully realised is her second blind spot: Levi. So when she asked if the fae fuckery (suspecting antimagic) had affected the protective amulet and "Levi" said no, she believed him without trying to check for herself. After examining Aluber and working out that he'd tried to channel some of the Fae King's power, underestimating the strain it would put on him, she concluded that he had tried to attack Levi. All the evidence was there: Aluber being unconscious from magical overexertion; evidence of his spellcasting on Levi; Aluber's history of instability - even a lack of apparent effect on Levi made sense due the werewolves' natural resistance to magic.

Val took Aluber and told "Levi" to pretend everything was normal, and here I'm going to briefly break from the relatively serious tone of the post because what happened next was genuinely unhinged. Val had written down the formula for the Mystery Drug (which turned out to relax the inhibitions on supernatural powers) while she was making it, and since last time Aluber had some he became tiny, she tried to make him tiny with it again so she could put him in a box somewhere secret. It did not work. He ended up 10ft tall. She could not move him. Her cousin, a shapeshifter, came to see what was up, and Val asked for help moving Aluber. He decided to help by turning into a forklift, and the two of them loaded Aluber into a corpse flower. Val kept his head exposed so she could try to go into his mind, but the Fae King blocked her access, and while distracted by her cousin working out how to play megalovania with his horn she forgot to cover Aluber's head again, so he was later able to just teleport away when he woke up.

Val went to go and find Levi, who was also coming to find her and ask her to undo the spell Aluber had placed on him. Val had already been working on ways to undo fae magic because of her own concerns about Aluber, and told him that she'd need a while to figure it out, probably a few days. By this point, football practice was nearing and Binding had worn off, and as Khorne-Levi grabbed her by the shoulders to tell her to get on it fast, Val realised her mistake.

Val is frail. She is very aware of her weakness, in both a physical and supernatural sense. She isn't capable of standing up to most things in a direct confrontation, which is why she prefers to take a more meticulous, indirect route to problem-solving. Her need for control comes from her knowledge of how weak she is. Witch magic may be more versatile than any other type, but in terms of raw power it simply can't compete with that of the Fae or Angels, and definitely isn't much use in a fight. If it came to a fight between her and Levi, she would have one shot to nail a Binding before he simply snaps her neck, and because of her trust in Levi she had allowed herself to get into a position where she wouldn't even have that shot. However, Levi's core drive is the need to protect his friends. With Khorne using his body to put Val in danger, he was able to wrest control back, quite possibly saving both of their lives. Logically, Val knows that Khorne wouldn't have killed the one person he thinks could probably unpick whatever Aluber did to Levi, but the outcome of allowing herself to endanger her life like that is the same.

Val has told herself that she won't let that blind spot get exploited again. Val has not realised the extent of it. She's aware she's into Levi on a surface level (to be fair he is hot) but hasn't yet realised how much he affects her. I don't know how yet, but that blind spot is absolutely still exploitable and at some point it is going to go severely badly for her.

[bunnieswithknives]

The animatic is done!! 💕

[arcade-confetti]

Being someone who read Under The Red Hood and came out with the firm belief that, for Jason, it's not about killing Joker, it's about Jason wanting proof Batman would choose him over the Joker (bc shelia chose the joker). Makes seeing any other media where it's all about just wanting the Joker dead is a teeny bit frustrating. to be honest

Jason could've killed the Joker himself, really, really easily. Jason kidnaps the Joker before the confrontation. I can't open my comic for a reference right now, but it felt like he had the Joker for quite a bit before the confrontation. He had him. He beat him up with a crowbar. He had every single opportunity to kill the Joker himself, but he didn't because that wasn't his goal. Make no mistake, he did plan for the Joker to be dead by the end of it, but do you see what im trying to say here

Edit: If I knew this post was gonna get 1000+ notes I would've tried to word it better or something, this was a rant I made on the way to the grocery store 😭

It's not about making Batman kill either. When Batman says he won't kill, Jason adjusts and goes, 'Let ME kill the Joker or kill me to stop me' instead. The test is all about Batman choosing him. The whole final confrontation is Jason's first death again. The parent, The Joker, and the explosives. It even ends with Jason unable to move as a bomb goes off right next to him again because the parent didn't choose Jason. And instead tried finding an option that'd benefit them and (consequencely) letting the Joker walk, again, lol, lmao <-in agony

[stealingpotatoes]

heres a crappy venn (??) diagram explaining the dynamics in the tl4j time travel au bc it's easier than trying to write a full plot

[lem0nademouth]

it genuinely boggles my mind that my peers automatically, without a second thought, believed wholeheartedly that it was even in the realm of possibility for a five-digit number of children to die all at once from a single cause. do you know how many people 14,000 is. i’m convinced that radical leftists have lost all ability to conceptualize large numbers beyond the logic that bigger number = bigger reaction.

[thriftdyke]

it really does bother me how no one can seem to answer the question “what even is romantic attraction, really.” like some people are like “it’s who you wanna kiss and cuddle <3” and I’m like ok well kisses and cuddles can be either sexual or platonic depending on context. “It’s who you feel passion/desire/arousal for” well that just sounds like sexual attraction which you can have without even knowing somebody so I fail to see how that’s romantic. “It’s who you want to go on dates with” I go on dates with friends all the time plus “date” is a social construct anyway there’s really no innate difference between a date and hanging out. “it’s who you have deep feelings for” great news for you that can be literally any type of relationship. my friend told me she defined it as “who you wanna give roses to” and I’m like do u hear urself??? like the more I talk to people the more I’m convinced romance and romantic attraction is an elaborate socially fabricated illusion that has no real defining characteristics. and like there’s nothing Wrong with it being a constuct but why people are so attached to defending the supremacy of it is something I cannot for the life of me figure out

[cybertron-after-dark]

Average transformers g1 episode:

Megatron is attempting to black out the entire sky across a hundred mile radius and funnel all the sunlight into one, concentrated solar death ray to target a heavy duty solar panel he's having soundwave and the cassetticons build in order to convert it to energon. Then he plans to hit the autobot base with the death ray just for funsies. Starscream plans to push Megatron directly into the death ray, also just for funsies.

Optimus sends Wheeljack and Spike to deal with it, along with two bots you're pretty sure have not been in this show before this point, but you're kind of past asking how many of these fuckers were on the ark offscreen when it crashed. One of them has the worst fake Canadian accent you have ever heard, and the other's name sounds inexplicably dirty.

Starscream tries to get Megatron to stand in the spot he told Skywarp and Ramjet to direct the death ray, but is interrupted when Rumble asks why Starscream stuck him with extra work (a task Megatron assigned specifically to Starscream). This vexes Megatron. The autobots show up and try to figure out what the point of the blacked out sky is while Starscream attempts to talk his way out of it. Then the death ray goes off two feet away from Megatron, which only pisses him off further.

The Canadian bot yells "AH BINARY-BEAVERS!!" because the death ray caught him off guard and completely gives away the bots' position. Soundwave immediately fires on them. Gratuitous robot violence ensues. Spike is generally useless and tries chucking rocks at Rumble. Megatron is too busy trying to almost-murder Starscream to bother with the autobots and just lets Soundwave handle it.

Probably-an-innuendo-name-bot is luckily a flier and takes the chance to see what's blocking the sun now that their cover's blown anyway. He gets up there and the seekers are sticking tinfoil on the clouds to make the tops reflective. The writers are really just hoping you don't think too hard about it.

Skywarp starts firing on dirty-name and calls him a nerd. Dirty-name takes evasive action. Skywarp runs out of ammo and starts just chucking tin foil at him. Dirty-name calls him dumb and says his processor is made of spare toaster parts. Then he crash lands and canada-bot asks if dirty-name's wings are spare toaster parts as well. Wheeljack yells that they'll all be spare toaster parts if they don't focus on the decepticons. The death ray goes off again and barely misses the autobots. Wheeljack corrects himself to Melted spare toaster parts.

Dirty-name gives Wheeljack the rundown on the tinfoil clouds so he can figure out a way to get rid of them while Canada-bot fights Soundwave and the cassettes in the background. Spike is kind of helping too sort of almost. Those rocks hes chucking sure are damaging. Ravage gets straight up drop kicked. It cuts back to Wheeljack whipping up a good old fashioned Device™️.

Starscream flies up past the tinfoil barrier while Megatron shoots at him. All the holes he's shooting in the blackout barrier are just making more, slightly shittier death rays and the main one is losing concentration. One of them hits Megatron right in the optic and he keels over with an over the top screech. Starscream descends, breaking another hole in the tinfoil to see a golden opportunity.

"MEGATRON HAS BEEN BLINDED!!! I, STARSCREAM AM NOW YOUR LEADER!!!"

Wheeljack finishes his Device™️: A grenade that makes tinfoil entirely invisible, thus rendering the whole weapon unusable. The writers are hungover, please do not think about it too hard. Pretty please. Dirty-name doesn't know if he can throw it into one of the holes in the barrier on his own since he can't fly in robot mode and he cant throw in altmode. Spike offers to get on his back and throw it in for him if he can get close enough. And he's just SO good at throwing things. The other two agree he's their best shot, they're so happy spike is around, couldn't do it without him.

Starscream is hovering in the air as he gives his Decepticon Leader Acceptance Speech he's prepared for this very occasion, golden light streaming in from the him-shaped hole in the barrier. Dirty-name and spike zip past him and spike makes the best goddamn throw of his life. Before starscream can properly question the Fucking Audacity of these autobots interrupting him while he's trying to have a moment, the invisible explosion goes off that the animators are just happy they don't have to put that much effort into drawing. Starscream gets knocked out of the air and crashes directly onto Megatron. This vexes Megatron.

Sky's normal again. Don't worry that there's still tinfoil there, don't even fuckin worry about it dude. Spike and Dirty-name touch back down. Round of applause for spike for throwing super good. Wheeljack comments that he's just happy it blew up the way it was supposed to. Cue uncomfortably long laughing. Megatron manages to roll starscream off him and calls for a retreat.

Back at the decepticon base, Megatron has an eyepatch and is skulking. Starscream yaps about how it makes him look like a proper tyrant, brooding and battle scarred, and, dare he say, darkly handsome? This vexes Megatron.

[s0fter-sin]

ghost who works with abused dogs because he can relate to their fear and anger and soap who's terrified of dogs but needs a service animal after he gets shot

ghost who's covered in just as many bite scars and scratches as he is scars from his childhood and the military, but he never holds it against a single dog

he knows what it's like to feel trapped and think you only have one way out

he sits through the barking and the lunges, steadily gets closer as he gently talks with each dog, apologises when he moves too quick and gets bitten because it's always his fault, never the dog's. no one bites for no reason

the pride he feels when he gets to share their blanket for the first time is only matched by the day of their adoption

it’s soap's friend’s idea to bring him to check out a dog to foster while his service dog goes through training. he knows he's uncomfortable around dogs - he never made a production out of it but you can only duck around someone so they’re in between you and a dog so many times before they pick something up - but he just thinks he's not used to them and being around one will be enough to calm him down

soap knows he needs a service animal; both for medical reasons and help with every day tasks but also for emotional regulation. he pings from depression to apathy to white hot rage so quick it exhausts him; he's so tired of blowing up at people just because he can't keep his head on straight

he needs a service dog

but just hearing the barking from outside has him so on edge, he's almost sick from it

a volunteer shows them all the dogs available to foster. his friend gushes over every single one; cooing about how cute and sweet they look, just darling things, encouraging them to jump up on their barrier and play tug with their toys, and “come on soap, say hello”

soap keeps his distance, smiling thinly as the volunteer introduces each dog

but ghost happens to be in one of the kennels working with his latest trouble case

and he can plainly see how terrified soap is, no matter how well he thinks he’s hiding it

he flinches at every bark, his hands fisted at his sides, but his friend just doesn't notice; too occupied with the lab mix he’s playing with. ghost can see just how tight he's winding up, the tension creeping up his spine, his “smile” twitching uncontrollably, and it doesn't surprise him in the slightest when he finally snaps at his friend to “just fuck off, alright!” after he keeps pushing him to get closer to the dogs

the abrupt silence is tight and judgmental; the friend giving him a wild look. soap gives a short apology, still angry even though if anyone just took the time to look, it’d be clear he doesn't want to be, and storms out while his friend apologises to the volunteer; dripping with shame and embarrassment that sets ghost's teeth on edge

he could've stopped a dozen times before soap blew up, should've seen the warning signs that he was getting overwhelmed and afraid long before he got to that point

he spreads out a few treats for his dog, both a reward for his patience and an apology for prematurely ending their time together, slowly getting to his feet. he heads outside to find soap in the alley beside the shelter, swearing at himself under his breath and looking seconds away from punching the brick

and when soap snaps, “enjoying the show?”, squaring up with his teeth bared, ghost just leans back against the wall; open and non-threatening and waits for soap to come to him

just ghost who knows what it's like to be angry and afraid and has the patience to help soap feel more in control of himself, never flinching from his bark or his involuntary bite, as well as help him through his fear in time for his service dog

[shkika]

exactly where u belong

[out-of-lucky]

Batgirl 2000!!! To the person who recommended it, it's sooo good.

It's got to be the craziest experience to have your whole thought process fundamentally changed. I'd crash out on that telepath dude.

[ohno-the-sun]

My propaganda for Misuta from the fic Ghost in the Machine by the illustrious @venomous-qwille

I think about him a lot