#this mess speaks

[hinamie]

itakugi sillies fr the soul

[doesephs]

huzzah! time to kidnap neil’s jordans! oh wait…is that NOOOOO NOT THE WHITE CROCD BODYGUARD

[partfae]

there’s something so special to me about the casual intimacy (both physical and emotional) of the stark family. robb carrying bran to his horse. bran holding robb’s hand to comfort him. jon ruffling arya’s hair and pushing her around and her laughing and pushing him right back. ned hugging sansa and arya in front of the entire king’s court. they’re always thinking about each other and missing each other. the kids cry and fight and play and are kids, and ned and catelyn are kind to one another, and it’s beautiful. it’s so warm, so human, in contrast with the coldness of other familial relationships in the book.

[dumpster-fire-rats]

[mostly-natm]

Man incapable of love (his heart does not beat) gives and receives so much love.

[jessmalia]

Dear Bonnie, I’m a coward. I should be saying this to your face, not writing this letter, but I know if I do you’ll talk me out of running away from all my problems. You’re gonna make me face a future without Elena and you’re gonna help make me the best man I could possibly be, the same way she did. And I’m absolutely terrified of failing you both. So, I’m leaving. Because I’d rather let you down once, than let you down for the rest of your life. And I hope it’s the happiest life. Because you, Bonnie Bennett, are an amazing woman, a mediocre crossword puzzle player and my best friend. 

With great love and respect, Damon.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

There was no reason for Buck to be involved with the Diaz situation. No reason at all. Literally speaking, Buck has no reason to be there. Not his kid. Not his marriage. Not his parents. Etc.

And yet there was every reason for him to be there. That's his child. That's his partner. Frankly I think Chris would've asked to live with Buck and not his grandparents if Buck wasn't so close to Eddie and their lives weren't so intertwined (Chris wants to get as far away from his dad as he can right now).

Buck had no reason to be there. But Buck is family. So of course he was there.

[sentientsky]

The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book Depiction of Gay Yearning by Neil Gaiman

[insignificant457]

There is a nebulous jordie lives au which lives entirely in my head in which jordie recovers from the plague while Kaz is still sick. He gets up to find them food and water only to return and discover Kaz is nowhere to be found. Still recovering from the fever, he searches the barrel for days before he finally sees Kaz wandering down the staves in a sort of fugue state, soaked to the bone with a haunted look in his eyes.

Kaz won’t tell him what happened, but jordie knows it’s bad because his baby brother flinches every time he touches him, and soon enough he’s started wearing gloves, even in the height of summer.

Soon, they discover kazs gift for cards, and it keeps them fed and clothed, if not much else. Kaz is angry at jordie for losing the money, refuses to let him make any decisions. Jordie is beholden to his angry traumatized little brother because he can’t deny that he failed them the first time around.

Kaz is offered a place in his pick of the gangs, but the only one willing to take both him and his tag along older brother is the dregs. Jordie dies a little bit inside when they join up, when they take the tattoo side by side, but he’s not sure they’ll survive another winter on the streets.

And the plot of SoC generally goes on from there. Jordie tags along on the ice court, he and Jesper test kazs patience at every turn, he’s constantly offering unsolicited annoying older brother advice about Inej.

This lends itself to a really interesting exploration of Kaz and jordies relationship, what holds brothers together in the face of incredible trauma, the skewed power dynamic of Kaz becoming the breadwinner for them both at the age of nine, etc etc. But mostly, this au is a vessel for the sailing of the ultimate crack ship, which is of course, jordie/alys Van Eck.

[littlebitofdnd]

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak

[mayasaura]

one problem with a theatrical adaption of tlt is htn, where the reveal that Gideon lives on works because of the change of second person to first.

the only way i can think of it working is that the actor playing gideon works backstage, like the lights system (but is hidden from the audience aside from subtle hints)

the biggest hint is when when wake breaches pal's river bubble she 'breaks' the lighting system and the stage goes dark. harrow is ushered into the wings by pal so she doesn't see anything, but the lights flick back on just before the curtains drop for a scene change, and pal looks directly up at the light box in surprise and smiles. if the audience is quick to turn around they can see a flash of a black robe.

Oh boy my friend, have you come to the right place!!

So, fun fact about ninja. Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this. The image of a ninja covered head to toe in black, with a hood and mask, comes from Kabuki theatre. It was originally a stagehand uniform. Like stagehands in modern theatre, stagehands in Kabuki would wear all black to signify that they were not really there, and whatever effect they were causing (carrying a prop, creating a breeze, ect.) was to be taken as happening on its own. Basic stagehand stuff, a lot of productions in many styles around the world do it, especially if they don't have fancy rigging systems.

Someone (I don't remember who now, or in what play) had the idea to dress the ninja in a production up as a stagehand. In the convention of the theatre, this made them invisible. The audience was already so used to ignoring stagehands, they didn't know any more than the characters that the ninja was present, despite the actor being clearly visible on stage. Which meant when the ninja struck, it was as if out of nowhere. I can only imagine the uproar in the theatre the first time it happened. It worked so well as to become commonplace, and the rest is history. The popular image of a ninja is still a kabuki stagehand.

So, back to the stage play of Harrow the Ninth. I think you've hit almost exactly on how to incorporate the Gideon twist into a theatrical production. But not as a lighting tech. Gideon is a stage hand. Maybe there would be more than one stagehand, maybe she would be the only one, but she would operate in full view of the audience, literally setting the scenes. I think it works best if she's the only one, but if the production needs more, she should subtly stand out in some way. As the play went on, we would notice that this one stage hand... increasingly interacts with Harrow, though Harrow never acknowledges it. At first it might look like she's playing Harrow's necromancy, because that would be the main special effect she would need to help with. When Harrow is unconscious at the end of a scene, it's always the same stagehand carrying her out. But we all know she's not really there. Until Palamedes acknowledges her. Turns to look right at her, and speaks to her. I can see the scene clearly. He would look at her, stunned, until Gideon finally took off her mask. The line "Kill us twice, shame on God," would be addressed to Gideon, and then he would turn back to Harrow, kiss her on the forehead, and tell her to go. Gideon, always out of Harrow's line of sight, would guide Harrow away while Harrow looked back at Palamedes.

[the-final-sif]

For anyone in the US who has just realized that they are nearly 1 month away from their taxes being due (April 18th) and is panicking because they don't know what to do,

Calm down.

If you're new to taxes, and in an early part of your life (just earning wages from a company that does withholdings), they're actually pretty easy to do and odds are you're just gonna get some free money (your tax refund).

Collect documents. Specifically, go get your get your W2, a form sent to you by whatever company you work for. Most will send you this online. Some might send you a paper copy.

https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free

Go to the above link, there's free filing options for federal taxes, and for some state taxes. It took me ~15 minutes to do my taxes in total, and then the government gave me like 1k back.

If your situation is more complicated than just having a W2, then go to the IRS's help page. They have a ton of super helpful tools that can walk you through different situations and what you need to do, they also have a toll-free help line.

https://www.irs.gov/help/ita

I know everyone talks about how much taxes suck, but legit, if you're an average wage earner and don't own a house or anything, odds are your taxes can be done in 15 minutes and then you get some of the taxes you paid back. It's not that scary, and the IRS has been working really hard to make the process as simple as possible.

Good luck!

[official-linguistics-post]

i keep reading conflicting info about this so i figured i’d ask someone who definitely knows more than me about linguistics— is vocal fry actually bad for your health? if i understand correctly, it’s a characteristic of some accents, and i hear it pretty often in the pacific northwestern united states (where i live), so i’m curious if it can actually damage your voice.

oh wow, i'd forgotten about this part of the 2010s vocal fry fixation. it looks like yeah, vocal fry can result in damage to the vocal folds (be warned for images of actual vocal folds at that link and a prolonged sound of vocal fry in the video). it's an overuse injury from moving the vocal folds in a way they're not designed to sustain for long periods. i can't find anything on whether typical vocal fry use in daily speech is likely to result in that kind of damage, though.

[sunkissedlouis]

Louis during his exclusive interview with LOS40 Chile 04.04.24

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Not to wade into discourse, but the reason why Taylor’s measured tone on the Republican ticket and instead detailing what issues are important to her and why Harris and Walz have earned her vote and prioritizing voter registration efforts are precisely because she has such a huge, influential platform with an audience from so many different walks of life.

There’s no doubt she hates Trump, and it’s even in the subtext of what she’s said in her post, but coming out guns blazing on Trump in an endorsement for the other candidate not only takes away the power of that candidate’s platform, but can turn off uneducated readers who she, like many campaign efforts, are trying to reach. People don’t want to be told who to vote for, but by Taylor saying what issues what matter to her, she’s signaling to voters what issues the candidate stands for too. People want to feel like they’ve drawn their own conclusion vs. being told what to do.

I’m not naive enough to think Taylor can sway an election at all. (And before anyone says it, I know she’s not an activist and I have never claimed she was.) But she’s kind of taking the “trying to gently make a case at Thanksgiving dinner with your blowhard cousin you see once a year with facts instead of taking the bait with their rants” approach with this. It’s not both-siding the candidates or trying to be apolitical or not ruffle feathers. It’s using facts and policies to make a point instead of only raw emotion or opinion. It’s outreach, in its own kind of way.

There will be plenty of time for her to make her thoughts on the Republican ticket known, if she so chooses. (I hope she does, not because I don’t know she hates those two, but because I know she can eviscerate them so eloquently and cuttingly.) But I don’t think this endorsement, on this day, with this kind of spotlight on it, was going to be the platform for it. Obviously she wants the Democrats to win, but she wants people to learn about the issues themselves so they personally understand why these issues are important and make the choice for themselves instead of because of a celebrity telling them to.

​

[turtleblogatlast]

Small but significant character moments that I actually really adore are from both the times we see the boys as tots. There is a reoccurrence that happens in both of them that I find so incredibly interesting.

For the turtle tot short, Splinter leaves the boys with weapons. In the short, Raph is the one who suggests they do “what Lou Jitsu would do” and Leo is the one who takes point when Splinter comes back to reprimand them. Leo, in taking point, is the one to defend them and get Splinter off their tails.

And then, in the flashback regarding the Kuroi Yōroi helmet, Raph is the one who grabs and throws “Skully” as a way to replace their missing ball which breaks it into pieces, but Leo is the one who speaks for the group and rushes into action to fix the teapot.

I love this for multiple reasons, but the biggest are how it shows that Raph has always been inclined toward the bold and fun and making the plans to include his brothers in what he loves and believes they’d love, whereas Leo has always been inclined to be the “Face” of the group and shoulder the attention even if it’s potentially negative all while coming up with on the spot attempts to fix the situation.