#this does not get the gift tag

[egguv]

no reflection needed.

[durge-marzio]

Ohhh, I'm rereading Mystra's entry in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide... and this detail:

This means Gale was punished for trying to restore and preserve what he thought was a lost piece of Mystra's magic. Gale being Mystra's ex-lover put aside. He as her follower, she his goddess, was punished for attempting to do the one foundational rule of her faith.

I'm seething and so sad at the same time.

Edit: I used the word punish loosely, as in, toxic/abusive people will take any small mistake or action and twist it into something they can take advantage of. This post was also largely from the stand point of a toxic deity rather than a toxic partner, but both takes are valid here. Especially with the, “you didn’t stay compliant so now I’m giving you the silent treatment” part of it—from a god and a partner perspective.

[guardevoir]

Fiber arts update: Embroidery (derogatory)

Wedding gift for my lil' sis (who saw something like this on etsy, balked at the price and immediately went "hey I know some fucking idiot who'll do it for free" and then the idiot did in fact do it for free)

To my deep and lasting horror I'll have to do this again because my sister does, indeed, have two feet.

Also I'm helping out at an academic conference this week and my job is mainly just "sitting around looking like someone who would be able to give directions to places if asked" so I did this on the clock while everyone was attending lectures. I guess there's some poetic justice in bringing the worst project you have to something like that.

[copypastus]

"You never told me where you got it - where you got all my favourite dresses." Rhys arched a dark brow. "You never figured it out?" I shook my head. For a moment, he said nothing, his head dipping to study the dress. "My mother made them." (...) I gazed a reverant hand down my sleeve. "I- I had no idea." His eyes were star bright. "Long ago when I was still a boy, she made them - all your gowns. A trousseau for my future bride." His throat bobbed. "Every piece... Every piece I have ever given you to wear, she made them. For you"

Sometimes you just read something and can't help but think about the implications.

"aww how sweet his mom made all her favourite gowns how wholesome" nonono EVERY. PIECE. Ma'am please he's still a baby boy you're making a lot of assumptions about his future preferences.

[elodieunderglass]

is PCRF still where you recommend people donate, or do you have another recommended group? I would like to donate but haven’t had time to do research.

(In reference to fundraising campaign I did for PCRF)

One of the most important things I have learned about conflict and healthcare and devastation, from someone who deals with them for their living, is that it is fractal, each piece of it containing unimaginable complexity, and that as a human you can’t really deal much with fractals that get more complex than, like, ferns. I am oversimplifying here. But the thing is that you cannot get bogged down endlessly in debating the nature of fractals. You decide on the level of complexity you can manage , perform an action and move on. You cannot take responsibility for every mathematical pattern that follows from your action; if you were a sort of cosmic weatherman, affecting the fates of people you’ve never met through some vague alchemy of intention, you’d know about it already. Therefore do not obsess too much over The Good Place levels of ethics and research, spiralling into fractals in search of the perfect. Therefore, also, if you want to give £2 to someone, feel free to ignore people who say “ah but if you give £2 to that guy they’ll spend it on something bad, and the whole fractal is rotten and broken.” You can only ever claim your own actions, a small piece of the fractal: to insist on your power over distant pieces of mathematical patterns is bonkers. It is religious nonsense. This is what I’ve learned and I thought it was pretty good, from someone who’d know.

So I believe the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund is not able to operate in Gaza at the moment, like many non-profits; I believe Medeciens Sans Frontiers aren’t in Gaza at the moment and that’s pretty dire indicator. However, they are mobilised in Lebanon.

The reasons why I selected PCRF to support include the fact that they have been able to deliver material aid, had pragmatic routes to evacuate children, and were reporting some success in providing/stabilising healthcare infrastructure. They have stated from the beginning that their intent was to support, and ideally restore, healthcare infrastructure, without which you cannot run a nation. I have known healthcare professionals who traveled with PCRF to work on complex cases prior to this conflict and I personally know/respect one of their prominent supporters, which helped me to make this choice. I also was hoping in the future that Gaza would have restored healthcare infrastructure and PCRF had stated their commitment to doing so.

I have received and listened to criticism about this choice, and I firmly believe that no matter what choice you make to support a cause, you’ll receive some measure of criticism (the fractal! Elodie you must consider the fractal nature of reality at all times! Scrupulous frantic morality is necessary at all times !), and that this should not stop you. To explain a bit about this, the criticisms I’ve received have mostly fallen into two camps:

- “the wrong sort of charity” - one concern is PCRF are not able to promise that their work will never support Hamas supporters or their families. This has been raised as “PCRF support Hamas”. but genuinely, given the realities of conflict, it is not practical or sane to require that people bring proof of political affiliation when seeking healthcare for their children. I’m comfortable saying that this, like other risks of fundraising/donation, is always possible but not a major consideration for me.

- “the wrong sort of fundraiser” - conversely some people stated they’d prefer I support individual families seeking evacuation through GFMs. This is also fine but my choice in the charity was partly in thinking about families who do not have GFMs, and children who do not have families. I also felt, at the time of fundraising, that supporting healthcare infrastructure was very worthy in a different way - after all, at the time the same people doing GFMs were also using/needing what healthcare was available.

My shoulders are broad, and I’m comfortable with these criticism. I am fully aware that this is not a complete solution but I personally continue to support the charity. I am explaining this to indicate that there will always be criticisms; you must accept that you can only take a small piece of the fractal, and you must accept that quite a lot of the fractal was never in your gift to control.

The situation is constantly changing and with the departure of organisations there is genuinely less hope of materially restoring the infrastructure in Gaza. At the moment donations to PCRF will likely be mobilised to Lebanon. It may be that this speaks to you. It does still speak to me.

Ultimately while it’s important to do research, it is always going to become fractal, especially in conflict situations. Nobody’s ever going to be able to point to a perfect thing that will fix everything and absolve us of criticism, you know? You will always only be able to pick up a piece of the fractal.

Now moving away from “what I personally support” there are many people more informed than myself and I would like to direct you to them as well. @gothhabiba is someone I follow who has posted several very useful posts about this and has been extremely informative, and spent a lot of time and attention on this, so I would defer to the resources and fundraisers they’ve put together. Her response to a similar question has been “pick 1-3 personal fundraisers” - this is a piece of the fractal. At the moment if what you want to do most is “materially help people in Gaza” that seems like the best option.

Also he doesn’t post much on social media, but when you get the opportunity to read a scientific article or anything by https://x.com/sullivanprof it’s worth stopping and processing. To me, Richard’s life work really shows how a piece of the fractal unpacks to reveal the whole world. I think if you have emotional space to research, it’s honestly a good investment to read some of his “manifestos” on intersections of healthcare and conflict.

[brainrotisseriechicken]

..

extra:

(it was a spring morning)

(he was a frail boy with no friends)

(he ran into you from across the wall)

(you said hello to him, and asked him to play along)

(at that very moment, he received his lifelong—)

extra 2: oscar boogaloo

yeahhhh....iykyk

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Jingles a little bell in front of you to convince you to do tasks.

[First] Prev <--> Next

[completeoveranalysis]

[7]

OK OK OK LET’S BREAK IT DOWN

There is so much just in this that I love entirely. 

Firstly that, like she mentions, Watanuki sees cooking as something SO important that he’ll go through all the effort of teaching her for no, uh, 'tangible' price. Including all the effort he’s already gone through over the past month. 

Because Watanuki sees it as something “vital” - like, the food itself sure, but mostly because teaching her how to cook is essentially teaching her how to grow her own personality and craft herself into someone that she actually likes. And he’ll do it because he genuinely cares, but also there is no tangible price that could ever really cover that. 

And that branches into the Yuuko of it all. I think this might be the first time we see Watanuki with his own customer and setting his own Mystical Price that will balance out all the effort he puts into it. And like, I’m not sure that Watanuki has the same restrictions that Yuuko had when it comes to her store - I’m sure we’ll see later, and I’m sure we’ll see if that was externally or internally imposed. If there was any outside consequence that helped dictate the threat of an imbalanced price or if it was entirely just Yuuko herself knowing how the universe works and working so hard to make sure it all worked out ok. If it’s that last one, then we can assume that Watanuki has inherited some of that concern from her and knows how to work out a price that has the same effect. 

And so Watanuki sets the price of the terrible tasting Omusubi. WHICH is loaded with emotional weight - because even though it's monetarily worthless, it’s the price of someone KNOWING exactly what kind of person she is, which was her greatest fear. And so, the price of fixing that fear is facing that fear - whic means that Watanuki tasting the Omusubi and knowing more about her is the direct step towards a future where that is no longer her fear. It’s the process she needs to take to grow a personality that she herself likes. 

It’s both a practical and spiritual price that already matches both ends of the deal. Asking for money on top of that would actually be too much. 

In which my only concluding thought is where does Watanuki gets the money for ingredients in the first place? But shh.

[violent138]

I feel like Jason would wind up married for some reason and just not tell anyone. And then one of his henchmen, while fighting the Bats during one of their weekly ideological disputes on how to handle a shared problem would go, "No wonder he hates you guys, you're ruining his damn honeymoon!" and all hell would break loose.

[superbat-lmao]

Alfred takes his first vacation 9 months after Jason comes to stay at the manor. He’s in England for two weeks visiting friends and traveling through his old homeland.

Jason and Bruce are home alone with each other and Jason has really only started to get comfortable. It’s a long two weeks, but they make it through.

When he comes back, he gives Jason a small souvenir he brought back with him and Jason asks him a million and one questions about how it went and who he saw. Alfred laughs and says that for Jason’s spring break the two of them should take a trip there together. They could go see some plays or the royal ballet or even visit some of the castles. Jason is a little stunned at the idea but is very excited. He asks if Alfred ever took Bruce or Dick.

Alfred says that neither of them had a particular interest in some of the things he did, but that they took other trips together. Jason ask if he’ll get to meet some of Alfred’s friends from the service or if he can see where Alfred went to school or any one of a hundred other questions.

Jason’s nervous when it’s finally time to go to England but Alfred tells him Bruce offered to drop them off in the batplane so they wouldn’t have to take public transit. It’s also so Bruce can say goodbye at the absolute last minute. Because it’s only a week, but Jason’s only been with him about a year and been formally adopted less than half that time.

So Alfred shows him as much as he can. They go to the theater and Alfred takes Jason to his favorite play. They go to the ballet together, visit some castles, it’s peaceful in a way Gotham isn’t. And for how used to the city Jason is, Alfred brings him down to a steadier pace.

They have a lot of fun and Jason only ignores directions once on account of not being able to hear him too well when they’re taking the tube in London, which is easily forgiven.

Jason asks Alfred about other holidays he took in Europe, or the other countries he’s traveled to. It’s when Jason himself really begins to open up about his life on the streets or living with Willis or Catherine. Alfred is sharing so many stories with him that Jason slowly starts to reciprocate.

Alfred introduces Jason to two of his old friends, one who owns a pub and tries to let Jason have a sip of beer and the other whose wife runs a shop that Jason picks out souvenirs for Bruce and Dick from.

When it’s time for Bruce to come pick them up, Jason asks if they’ll come back. Not on all of Alfred’s vacations, but on shorter ones together. Alfred says he would be delighted to do so.

[ave-immaculata]

fellas we're once again wrestling with imperfect vs. perfect contrition and why imperfect contrition with a firm resolution to not sin again and promptly receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation doesn't save

[starheirxero]

I FORGOT TO POST THESE SOONER BUT WOE, MAGMA RESULTS BE UPON YE

Belated thank you @justafunkything @o-i-w-u @zayaayame @crack-a-lackin-max @ichangenameseveryfiveseconds for participating and to everyone else who just spectated!! Y'all're all delights <3

[seagull-scribbles]

If I don’t survive the night,

If I make it to the morning-

[sharky66]

Haiii!! For the colour palette thingy any one of your star wars ocs in evil mayhaps?? :]]

definitely ignored all the rules and decided to do free play because messing around with how i can layer colours with filters is sooooo much fun . thanks for the prompt!

[your-fave-is-bi]

ORDERED A BUNCH OF YARN BC I GOT TWO YARN SHOP GIFTCARDS FOR BIRF

YAAAAAAAAARN

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

what kind of flowers would satoru give u on valentines? how about suguru?

ANON…. what a cute question 🥺🥺🥺🥺 this was soooooo fun to think about……. our baby boys and their gift giving ways………..

ultimately!!! i think satoru would go for flowers that remind him of you (or just your faves / something classic), while suguru would put a lot more thought into symbolism!! he’s a flower boy to me :33 buuut if we’re being more specific…..

my spontaneous thoughts (<- this is a lie i spent like half an hour choosing these) are as follows!! as you can tell i got carried away instantly <33

satoru’s picks:

(pink) roses the classic choice!! it’s what’s on sale, what everyone recommends, so he just goes for it. HOWEVER!! he doesn’t wanna be too basic so he goes for a nice pink instead of the classic red :33 might even go for yellow roses because i firmly believe he’d associate that colour with you. the sunshine of his silly little life !! if he finds out that yellow roses symbolize friendship he’s going back to pink though LMAOO he’ll apologize for friendzoning you too as if he doesn’t regularly call you his bestie …. silly man. i just know he’d get the biggest bouquet of these ever too <33 a whole delivery of roses that completely block your front door so you’re kinda… stuck. with him & his love. lucky you !!

sunflowers kinda goes back to the forementioned point but i just feel like satoru views you as his sun :((( so when he discovers a fresh field of sunflowers he’s like !!!! wow !!!!! wowowow !!!!!! and buys a whole bunch immediately. he’ll be carrying as many sunflowers as he physically can, cradled by his long ass arms, bringing them to you with a big smile on his face <333 they end up reminding you more of him than anything because he’s just beaming when he gives them to you …. sunny sunshine man ,…… and that makes you love them so much more . you never tell him the reason why you suddenly adore sunflowers so much because that would be embarrassing + inflate his ego he would cry a little bit

lillies SENTIMENTAL SATORU HAS JOINED THE CHAT i just think he’s sort of drawn to lillies!! :< like i don’t necessarily think he’d be interested in the symbolism, lillies being associated with purity and whatnot — i think he’s just kind of mesmerized by them. their petals are silky and they smell so sweet and somehow he feels a little sappy to be carrying a bouquet of them around. nostalgic maybe; a little soft. like he’s your husband. even if you aren’t even close to that stage yet… (lillies can also symbolize commitment, which… yk). i just think it makes him feel oddly vulnerable LMAO he’s a loser. gives them to you with a soft smile and a kiss to your forehead <333 he thinks they look right at home in your arms.

suguru’s picks:

roses can’t go wrong with a classic!!! this is his spontaneous choice. the symbolism is obvious, and i think he just. likes the idea of being a rose guy yk… 😭😭 the kinda guy who gives you roses for every single special date !! makes sure there’s always a fresh bouquet waiting for you :33 personally i think he’s a basic bitch but he will continue to buy roses for you unless you tell him otherwise like he’s Very adamant abt it. true love!!! they symbolize true love!!! what else could he give to you? what else is there to say? he wants you to feel loved and special and when he can’t verbalize his love properly he knows the roses in his arms will do the talking for him <333 i think that in the beginning of your relationship your apartment is constantly smelling of roses because of this.. after a while he starts to chill out a bit and gives you other flowers, but you’ll never quite be rid of that floral scent.

camellias this is where he starts to get more creative. maybe satoru calls him basic or boring for always buying roses and suguru huffs and tells him to shut up but it still ends up bugging him LMAO… so !! he does his flower research <333 i firmly believe he would buy a whole book on flower symbolism JUST so he could pick out the most fitting bouquets for you.. he won’t tell you what they mean, though. just gives you a very fond, secretive look when you ask <333 (if you ever figure it out and he gets to see your cute blushing face, then that’s just a nice little bonus.) but yes!!!! camellias!!! a symbol of love and passion and inner strenght. i think he gives them to you with a sentiment of you being his inner strenght…. the reason he’s made it this far. camellias are also said to represent eternal love / everlasting devotion, because the calyx and the petals of a camellia always fall together… and i just think he’s weak for that. he’s like. that’s Us baby <33 but he doesn’t actually say it because that would ruin the subtlety of it all yk?? silly pretentious man…

forget-me-nots he’s a sentimentalist <333 i think i just associate him a lot with forget-me-nots bUT it feels very suguru to give you the most blatantly symbolic flowers he can find :’3 he’d give them to you in a small bouquet, but brimming with sooo many feelings and thoughts. the most obvious one is ”don’t forget me,” but i think he’d see it more as a symbol of trust and gratitude. and his own promise to never let you slip from his fingers or take you for granted :(( forget-me-nots symbolize both true love & devotion and i think that’s all suguru really wants to convey to you!! he’s in love, he’s devoted, you’ve burrowed your way so far into his life that he knows he’ll never be able to forget you. and he wants you to know. probably makes it a habit to get you these for every truly special occasion because he never wants you to forget how loyal he is to you. sap