#the strain rant

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[ipledgeawaymysanity]

Imagine you fall in love with a god. His eyes always peer at you through your son and for his safety you give up everything. EVERYTHING. your dreams. your safety. your relationship. your potential. your love. you tolerate a horrid HORRID man and his addiction and his abuse and the pain...for him...your son. the one who smiles like the sun and has the eyes of the ocean.

AND THEN everything you have kept him away from, comes rushing for him at the bloody doorstep and not only do you have to let him go to his father's world, you also have to leave him not knowing if he'd actually stay safe...

THIS is why i loved that detail in the books that Sally was against sending Percy to camp...because she had given up everything for him. Despite all her strength and motherly love you have to admit there was also a co-dependency between them. Only she could keep Percy safe and Percy could only trust her because he was a 'problematic child'. They loved each other but it was bound by desperation too...

While the show could not express it in the detailed way the books did I still love how that tension was so palpable. Especially when she was struggling and stood in the rain listening to music...because not only does the water soothe... it hides away the tears too.

[buildingabetterfuture]

the weather is lovely up here.

[empyreansentinel]

im gonna be honest ur posts pose a bit of an Issue for me bc like my rewrite has a plotline that involves lilith doing some shady shit in the name of the greater good and. in the light of the whole settler colonialism thing. is there a way to differentiate her attitude from jack's because i really dont wanna come off as "she's just as bad as him" guy number 172

I STRUGGLE WITH THIS TOO…To me the distinguishing factor is that the raiders don’t act with the same all encompassing anger that jack does. I don’t think there ever could be a true “just as bad as him” argument because he wants and has the means for total annihilation. no bias, no care for the individual, he says himself he wants every man, woman, and child on pandora dead. its his end goal, quite literally nothing matters more than that. whereas the crimson raiders have tunnel vision in regards to what they want and everything else is just white noise - the bandit casualties are just a byproduct of what they’re convinced they Have To Do, but their deaths are not the underlying goal. these people are violent criminals, so who cares if they die? they were in our way. the raiders have a scale for who is important and who isn’t, and the scale has some leniency for bandits. (that service = fondness cycle we’ve talked about before.) jack has no scale. it doesn’t matter what can be offered to him or what can be done for him. everyone is the same because everyone is a bandit and so everyone should die. so on and so forth. the best example i can think of is how lilith handled the children of the firehawk: she uses them as a shield, and tolerates them because of it. this tolerance grows to fondness. she’s flattered by them killing in her name. (its only bandits dying, after all. there’s no real value lost.) and then she intervenes whenever they start burning sanctuary citizens. (people who are decidedly Not Bandits, and deserve her protection.) jack would have just killed everyone at first glance. the bandits, the settlers, the vault hunters, and everyone else within a five mile radius if he could. lilith, if incentivized, can see the humanity in her enemy. which is something that jack outright refuses to do. i think comes down to generalized apathy versus abject hatred. someone can be made to care. it is a hell of a lot harder to convince someone to love or even tolerate someone they hate.

[delta-lethonomia]

welp the news of 2025 so far:

good news: I signed up for the first in a series of art classes. Fingers crossed I get good and someday muster the courage to draw and post some Tav/Astarion/BG3-related artwork this year

bad news: I was hoping to get a job working for the city and the new mayor immediately instituted a hiring freeze. Fuck me I guess 🫠

[autotheophagic]

it's so fucking funny (see: miserable) to me that ppl who are "pro life" only care abt the babies who don't even exist or have brain activity yet, but i rarely ever see them advocating for the thousands of children in foster care or the many more who were born into abusive families. Pro life my ass

[clambuoyance]

I’ve never been so obsessed with a character so bad that I literally can’t do anything else I’m like the squidward meme watching SpongeBob frolic outside the window stretching a hand out to all the pretty paintings and animations and comics I see in my head but being unable to feel any motivation for it . If only i could use the energy spent to create 20 kon doodles to sit down and concentrate on a single finished full piece I used to be able to make like 5 page comics what happened to me

[doodles-with-noodles]

I don’t really know why but this past months I’ve been suffering under knee pain and I’ve discovered how difficult it actually is to find any spots to sit down in public spaces. If my knee were fine, benches placed this far apart would be fine, but it isn’t so every time I go anywhere I just have to be prepared that I will be in pain after a while. Hell, I was in a museum that said it was accessible for people with disabilities- turns out that was an elevator and two benches in the whole exhibition (sitting down on the floor hurts, as well as getting up again).

At this point I’m just baffled to be honest? It isn’t that difficult to put benches anywhere, right?

[m1ckeyb3rry]

wattpad is so crazy because users will leave comments expressing nothing but pure disdain and anger for whatever reason (y/n’s characterization, the decision to include original characters, temporary ships and subplots, etc)…like at a certain point i start to wonder if they realize that no one is forcing them to read anything 😭

[mamawasatesttube]

okok im going to bed but one last vague grumble. he would NOT fucking say thattttttt

[neuroticboyfriend]

it's so hot out i can feel my eyes

[theloveedit]

"The Lady Bird Effect"

There’s something oddly comforting about watching Lady Bird: the rawness of the relationship between Christine and her mom hits so close to home that it feels like I’m staring into a mirror. The way they love each other one moment and fight the next, the complexity of that bond, the tension, the unspoken words...it all feels so familiar.

It’s like a reflection of my relationship with my mom, one that’s always been a delicate balance of strain and love, where everything simultaneously feels fragile and incredibly strong.

Like Christine, I’ve spent much time feeling like my mom is too much. She’s always been there, hovering in the background, offering unsolicited advice, and pointing out my flaws in a way that never feels as gentle as I need. It’s easy to get lost in the frustration of it all, to feel like she’s standing in the way of my growth, independence, and freedom.

Every time she says, “Are you sure that’s the best decision?” or “I don’t know if that’s what I would have done,” it’s like she’s trying to pull the reins on a life I’m trying to live for myself. And let me tell you, the teenage rebellion I felt in Lady Bird? I know it. I’ve lived it.

But here’s the thing...like Christine and her mom, there’s something deeper beneath all the friction. Love. The kind that’s messy and imperfect. The kind that’s almost suffocating at times but always comes from wanting the best for you, even when it doesn’t feel like it. I’ve spent years thinking that my mom’s constant presence, her need to “help,” was just another form of control. But in moments of quiet reflection, I see it for what it is: care. She pushes me to be better and more and stop settling. Maybe it’s not always delivered most gracefully, but it’s her way of loving me.

There’s also something about how Lady Bird captures that period of growth...when you’re trying so hard to become your own person but feeling constantly tethered to the woman who raised you. My mom has always been a bit of a guide, the one who holds the map and tells me where I should go, but I’ve never been one to follow directions easily. Like Christine, I wanted to create my own path and live life on my own terms.

But I didn’t realize back then, and maybe what Christine didn’t fully see either, that our mothers aren’t just obstacles in our way; they’re trying to prepare us for what’s out there to help us navigate the unknown.

There are days when I feel frustrated, like I’m being held back by her need to micromanage, to be in my business. But then, there are the moments when I get home from a long day, feeling like the world is against me, and she’s there with her unshakable belief in me, quietly pushing me to keep going. She never says it outright, but I can see it in the way she makes my favorite dinner after a tough week, in the way she always remembers the little things that matter to me. That’s love, too.

It’s funny...when I was younger, I couldn’t wait to escape. Getting away from her would be the key to finding myself and defining my life. But now, I realize the truth is more complicated. I don’t need to escape to be who I’m meant to be. I need to learn how to live with and without her and embrace the lessons she’s trying to teach me without feeling stifled by them. It’s a delicate balance that’s not always easy to find.

I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand my mom in the way that I wish I could. Our relationship is one of those constantly evolving things that ebbs and flows, shifting between love and frustration, between wanting to be close and needing space. And that’s okay. Because what Lady Bird reminds me of is this: it’s not about the perfect relationship. It’s not about being perfectly understood or even perfectly loved. It’s about knowing that despite the clashes, the distance, the misunderstandings...there’s always that thread of love holding everything together, even when it feels like it might snap.

One day, I’ll look back and realize how much I needed all of it: the advice, the nagging, the overbearing love. Because deep down, I know it was all part of her way of helping me become the woman I’m supposed to be. And when that day comes, I’ll probably wish I had embraced it sooner, just like Christine does when she finally sees her mother for who she really is.

Until then, I’ll keep learning how to navigate the complex, messy, beautiful love that is my relationship with my mom. Because, just like in Lady Bird, I know it’s the love that will stay with me long after everything else fades.

[aggravates]

so obscenely pissed off that my father always eats my ice cream but is too cheap to ever buy any for himself

he ate the rest of the small container i got for xmas, not even the one i'd prefer him to eat if he had to, but the good one of course -_-

i bought him a large toblerone in that xmas money haul, and he ate it in one singular day. and i gave him a bowl with several scoops of each ice cream too.

no wonder i'm fat and have such a bad relationship with food when i need to eat my stuff quickly or it'll be gone. can't save anything for later or make it last.

[snickerdoodlles]

To be fair kidnapping Chay wasn't Vegas's fucking plan, Tawan is just insane. Agreed though I think Kim and Porsche are decent in-laws

I know it was left a little vague, but in canon, Tawan went off Vegas’s plan by accelerating it.

Vegas and Porsche make a plan to pick up Chay the next day so he can join the two of them on the run. while that itself wouldn’t be kidnapping, Vegas’s entire plan was to. y’know. frame Porsche as a sell-out and kill him and Chay to cover it up. kidnapping Chay and holding him hostage is still part of that plan, it was still going to happen—Tawan ruined it by kidnapping Chay before Vegas could.

also, even if it wasn’t, Tawan kidnapping Chay in the first place was to help Vegas. this doesn’t necessarily put that blame directly on Vegas, but who the fuck would blame Porsche if he were really fucking pissed at Vegas for it anyways? bros don’t kidnap other bros little brothers, not even tangentially >:(

but Porsche doesn’t hold it against Vegas! he might’ve let it go because of unusual circumstances and how he was short of options at the time, but Porsche overall has astronomical reserves for forgiveness. he quietly works through his feelings when he’s upset with people and usually comes out the other end having forgiven them—see Arthee, see Kinn, see Vegas, hell even see Khun! the only person he doesn’t forgive is Korn (who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, forced him into the mafia, and fucking more) (fuck Korn). getting back to my point—Porsche doesn’t hold grudges against people, and he most certainly is going to start with Kim.

Porsche just plain isn’t going to hate Kim for any of the mafia shit, or even anything that went down in Kim and Chay’s canon relationship. they’re dumdums in love, but Porsche will let them sort it out themselves (may I remind people that Porsche only punched Vegas once for KIDNAPPING AND TORTURING HIS FRIEND even while also giving him the chance to talk shit out with Pete—Chay might be more of a hot button than Pete, but Kim only hurt Chay’s feelings and ran away, Porsche is not so irrational). sorry nonny, I did not mean to go off on a rant here, but I despise this trope where Porsche hates on Kim because it:

a) completely disregards who he is in canon and massively distorts Porsche’s character into this irrational piece of shit hypocrite

b) overrules Chay’s feelings/choices/decisions just so the author can be mean to Kim

c) Porsche’s gaydar got replaced with a nongdar. the only person who adopts more little brothers than Porsche is Tankhun—Porsche 100% sees angry little bitch Kim and goes free brother! without stopping to ask permission

[karokawwo]

thibking about the chibi new years art where they're serving champagne but instead of the cast is my ocs.... sash making sure everyone is getting the same amount of champagne, kaiho rolling his eyes since he's the one holding the glasses, hellebore impatiently reaching for one, narci judging sashey's choice in alcohol (he doesn't have a problem with champagne the problem is quality🍷), santana Not enjoying it because she has literally never had alcohol (she'll hand her drink to sash once the toast is over)

[ace-and-the-rpg-horrors]

oh not again