#this picture is literally a nightmare

[thebearchives]

there are so many things to discuss about this picture. the fact that guanyu looks like he's actually just rolled out of bed and is simply sleeping with his eyes open; the fact that lance looks like he is reliving his most embarrassing moments; the way nico is literally manspreading wider than any man has ever manspread in the history of manspreading

[heritageposts]

What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵

Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.

Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."

Warning: very long post

Kaesong, the historic city

Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.

From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:

For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS

Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...

Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.

As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.

But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong

On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.

What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.

Kaesong's main street, pictured below.

Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.

Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.

Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.

One of the statues guarding the tomb.

Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.

Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.

The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.

Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.

A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.

Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.

Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.

Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.

Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.

When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').

The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.

Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.

Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.

By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.

Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.

The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.

Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.

By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.

Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.

Sariwon, another rebuilt city

One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.

I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."

No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.

Life outside of the towns and cities

In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.

Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.

For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.

Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.

Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.

[lord-squiggletits]

I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.

I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.

The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...

Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.

I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.

And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?

It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.

To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.

In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.

Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.

So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.

What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.

Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?

[parin-gurumin]

hiiiiiiii, why did I jump from sasha <-> layton, raz <-> luke, milla <-> claire to Cruller <-> Chelmey? my brain told me to

Also I felt like having a page that includes some of my line of thinking of how I MAY come up with these concepts for character swaps LOL

[hyunpic]

hyunjin on bubble: hello

[108garys]

Visitors

So within the first week of tdim's release this came to me in a dream and I've only just now sorted out exactly how to capture the vibe, I have only altered as far as making it center on the morello sisters and stuff specific to Natalie's pov instead of my own... Other than that this 700+ word nightmare is completely 1-1 as I remembered it 2yrs after the fact

Natalie struggles to sleep, tossing and turning, trying to push down the sense of unease she feels, cursing herself for agreeing to come on this trip in the first place. No one normal sets out to replicate the actual literal murder castle and no one normal would ever agree to come here but dad said that it had to be five visitors and Mr Du'met is weird about it and the trip would be cancelled otherwise. She stares up at the ceiling, following the intricate patterns as a quiet knock sounds at her door followed by a soft. "Nat?" Bethany…

Natalie swings her legs out of bed, feeling the cold floorboards underfoot as she pads over to the door, unlocking it to let her sister in. Harsh yellowish lights sting her eyes as she opens the door to the hall, Bethany looks up at her over her pillow clutched to her chest. She still has nightmares…

"Can't sleep either, huh?" Natalie brushed a long strand of hair out of her face, shutting the door behind her leaving the room dimmly lit by cool moonlight pouring through the window. "There was a man with a skeleton face." Bethany presses close to her, Natalie felt a wave of anger that her eight year old sister was exposed to this place, it was one thing for herself at eighteen but Bethany? It was selfish. She knew this damn place and all its creepy mannequins would freak her out. She turns just enough to catch her glare in the full length mirror before she softens her demeanor, giving her sister a reassuring squeeze. "It was just a bad dream, look no one is coming in here, just us." She made a show of locking the door and demonstrating that it won't open without the key. Bethany crawled into bed and Natalie put her hands on her hips, putting on a smile that hopefully looked confident. Leaving the keys on the bedside table as she sits next to her. "See, just you and me now, get some sleep."

The sisters say their good nights before settling in. In a way this is better for Natalie, her sister coming to her room because of nightmares or thunderstorms… It was familiar in this place. She drifts off only a little after Bethany. Wrapped up in her arms, a slight breeze rustles pale translucent curtains… It's almost possible to forget where she is… She sinks into the void, her eagerness to leave for college, her resentment over how much her father's obsession comes first and her avoidance of family time falls away… Through the haze she sees one dazzling bright spot, blinding as it approaches but she can't look away… She feels warmth breathes on her face, rolling over in half sleep to feel Bethany's soft face against her cheek. Disoriented and turned around she looks through the searing yellow light, shapes move at her feet, a skull with fire in its eyes looms over her, it's all consuming presence pressing all around her, it gazes upon her, stealing the breath away from her-

-Natalie jolts awake, heart beating out of her chest, Bethany stays asleep, breaths steady and even. Natalie carefully sits up, nearly flinching at her reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall, she slides out of bed feeling a chill. Beginning to calm as she shuts the window, she looks down to see… A bowler hat? Like one of those old period costume pieces? She hadn't noticed it before, it must have been blown off the hat rack next to the mirror, she picks it up turning it over in her hands, struggling to imagine anyone's look benefiting from such an ugly hat, unless they're balding… She only looks up as she holds the hat up in the mirror, extending her arm over her head as she tries to imagine the wears height, yellow light casts dramatic shadows over half of her tired face, her short curly hair a mess. The harshness bothers her as she hangs the hat. Reaching out her heart stops, blood turning to ice as her finger tips make contact with the cold metal door knob. Her breath catches, feet rooted to the floor as her hand closed around it, bathed in garish light and fear beyond description…

…She had locked that door.

__

@kassiekole22 @delurkr @ctrvpani @tinynightmarewoman

@eframschweigersskincells @kindheartedgummybears @aydeenchan @qusok

OK so basically where it ends is where I wake up, not just bolt upright but like I was on my feet halfway to checking if my door was locked before I could process that I was awake. I really wanted to convey how legitimately terrifying it was at the time, also literally every thing I have ever done of Hector Du'met was created after this, so rate my highly cinematic nightmare with attention to lighting and spacial placement lol(it had no business making that much sense)

Yeah he was close enough to breathe on her, don't ask me why the my subconscious thought it was a stellar idea to happen to me specifically Idk 😂

[fredbread555]

it's fall y'all 🍁🍂

an autumn themed recolor set by fredbread555

HAPPY SIMBLREEN!!

details, download, and credits beneath the cut

The set includes:

14 bgc recolors

-Matching pajamas for the whole family!

Long-sleeve cozy pj top for male and female sims aged toddler-elder (11 swatches)

Cozy pj pants the match the tops for male and female sims aged toddler-elder (10 swatches)

A warm onesie for infants and toddlers (8 swatches)

Patterns by Krissy Mast

-A cutie pie onesie for infants (9 swatches)

-A cozy nightgown for children mesh required (12 swatches)

-A festive shirt for children (13 swatches)

-A festive shirt for female sims aged teen-elder mesh required (21 swatches) (plus some secret swatches!) (they're secret bc i forgot about them when i was making my swatch doc!) (it's snoopy. they're snoopy swatches)

All are base game compatible!

download (google drive) or patreon

THUMBNAILS

(onesies don't have seams in the thumbnails but they do in game)

see all swatches here

CREDITS

credit to @serenity-cc and @historicalfictionsims for the t-shirt and nightgown meshes

reshade by @okruee

credit for designs goes to all the artists ! I found the images all on Pinterest so let me know if u want me to take something down or credit you specifically!

Let me know if there's any issues or anything and tag me if u use these!!! I'd love to see y'all's sims being autumnally festive! Love y'all! Happy fall!

@simblreenofficial

[ratatatastic]

man who can finally relax now that the season is over and he doesnt have to carry his team with his insane plusminus rating (congrats to forsy despite the 3 game rough patch for ending up with ± of 9 in the postseason and whopping league leading ±56 in the regular season! best defenceman in the world indeed paul.)

edmonton oilers @ florida panthers game 7 postgame | 6.24.24 (x)

[oxymoronicdumbass]

the joy and whimsy that comes with having a good hyperfixation is absolutely priceless, but it does get annoying sometimes, i can't even lie

[rammingthestein]

Olli sitting in an ice bucket after trying to light up his farts (???) during their Mutter tour in Europe, 2001.

🔥 Photo by Matthias Matthies ( Instagram , Big Cartel ) 🔥

[weedhillfarm]

Vicky is doing great! And walking with me holding her collar very well recently :•)

[ragnars-tooth]

One of my big compulsions is taking a fuck ton of screenshots Just In Case a piece of information is important in like 4 years and I can't remember it (sometimes the information is an instagram post that I might not remember later and of course needs to be recorded everywhere (I will Not be looking at that again)) so today is my transfer 16000 images off my phone admin day (woo)

Like yeah I never looked at any of them and they were completely irrelevant to my daily life, But what if I need them ✨️ later ✨️ (you'll see that the idea of Later is doing a lot of heavy lifting here) OR what if there's a vital piece of information in the mix somewhere that I'll lose forever if I delete them? So: onto the external hard drive they go

This is one of those cases where. Yeah. Ideally I wouldn't take 16000 screenshots in half a year. And YEAH ideally I'd just delete them and not transfer them somewhere else to never look at again. BUT at least I get a clean slate and I can maybe not mindlessly save everything for 2 seconds. It's like. Small wins? Progress. Yknow.

[weaponizedmoth]

There's so many cool musical theatre professional photographs that'd be great for composition reference. I've been looking at them for one hour. It's great.

[lunarrolls]

we as a fandom do not talk enough about how terrified ashton is of his powers. like. god. taliesin’s mentioned it on a couple four-sided dives, but it actually came up in bassuras when that wizard cast phantasmal killer on them. they straight up got psychically attacked by a manifestation of their own literal worst nightmare and it took the form of a broken, shattered, roiling being of pure chaos taken completely over by the forces that lie in wait in the back of their mind. and then they just. their friends had no idea what was happening. matt said they just watched as ashton doubled over in pain and his eyes widened in fear. i think about it daily what a fucking MOMENT

[cuteniaarts]

What if… Suiren in Vaatu’s colours 😳👀

[ashersbraincell]

Genuinely worried that I’ll develop trich aswell

mostly because a recent picking area on my forehead has been encroaching closer and closer to my hair line.

I think I would actually never leave my house again ffs. Like I’m already fucking repulsive to look at and my hair’s like the one thing I like about my appearance. Ffs.

I’m gonna die alone