#this will not have ramifications!!

[lionheartair]

The approval is all he needs. Maybe if he's lucky he can at least let his manager know he's leaving if he's in the kitchens. He'd hate to lose his job, but he'd hate to disappoint Butch as well. It's been a pleasant evening thus far, but he does need money to live, especially as check to check as he is.

"Alright, love. Follow me." He gestures, before walking away from the bar. It served kind of like a centerpiece to the lounge, a ring with a large serving selection behind it and several taps, easily accessible from everywhere else in the room. Most seats around it also had a decent viewing of the stage, where performers might play or entertain with an act. Getting him to the other side of the bar blocks them from view of most of the party-goers by that stage, unless they came this way, so his leaving might not be noticed as swift.

Artair continues leading Butch towards the bathrooms, before taking a left for the swinging doors of the kitchens instead. Inside, the cooks are busy working, too busy to pay much mind. They're already used to the odd person being ushered through to avoid unwanted attention as is. Artair glances around, but his manager isn't here, likely trying to talk up someone at the party. Shame.

Artair sighs and brings them to a doors on the other end of the kitchen. It spills out into a quiet alley with a lamplight hanging from the brick building of the lounge itself. Golden orange illuminates damp street and reflects off rain that must've fallen in the last few hours. The dumpster is to their left, and to their right is a small path beside the building, that leads back to the main street.

"Hows that fer subtle." Artair sounds just a hint hopeful.

Unfortunately for Artair, Butch is full of terrible ideas, something he would quickly come to learn should he decide to stick around.

He watches Blondie’s face as he mulls over the thought of ditching and he can tell he’s more than hesitant. It might have been a bad idea in reality but in Butch’s mind, a bad idea was sticking around and waiting out this boring ass after party even though everything was already over. He loathed the paparazzi and the questions that came with them and more over, he needed a break. No—he deserved one, as did his new acquaintance here. So in his own minds reality, he’s really doing this guy a favor!

The rockstar beams a gold tooth gapped grin when the taller blonde concedes and he’s already prepared to scoot when Artair suggests a more subtle exit which stops him in his tracks. He peers over the crowd too, his managers bright purple outfit standing out the moment his eyes graze in her direction. He can feel those intense ambers staring back, if only for a moment, before they return to the rich looking fella she’s conversing with. Now was his chance.

His attention snaps back towards Artair and he gives an eager nod, “Err—yeah, th’ more down low we can keep it, th’ better. Wouldn’t want y’stuck in th’ crossfire’f them vultures.” He says, eyes darting around then. “S’there some kinda secret passage ‘round here I don’ know ‘bout? I think you oughta lead on this time, Blondie~”

[loverboyfae]

although humbert humbert is the kind of stereotypical image of a pedophile (does what he does because he’s attracted to children (though i mean unreliable narrator he could be lying)), lolita is SUCH a good text to childhood studies with. like humbert retains power over delores by telling her that he is her only guardian, and that escaping her would mean winding up as a ward of the state where she will be treated even worse. he uses the power he has over her and specifically draws attention to the fact that he has so much power over her because society leaves her completely powerless; were she to go to the police about him, she wouldn’t be able to choose to take care of herself or choose who gains ownership over her in the future, so she might as well stay with the guy who rapes her but at least buys her things

the tragedy of her ending, then, in part is the fact that the only person she could manage to go to for help is someone who will also sexually exploit her, but (at least she believes) less than humbert will. her school notices that she is struggling, but the only recourse they have or even seem interested in is informing the guardian who is causing the abuse, a very common issue for abused children in schools. as much as conservatives hand wring about schools taking over their parental rights, they really have nothing to fear even now into the modern day, as only the most blatant and obvious child abuse can be addressed without involving parents; every other action schools have available to them is to consult the child’s owner, their parent(s), first and foremost. nobody in a child’s life, as lolita reflects, is able to materially aid a child without the parents’ permission or else they are breaking the law. as such, delores’s only chance for escape was to go with a man fine with breaking the law, and that wound up being another pedophile.

the criticism of systems of power in lolita is criminally underdiscussed, but a lot of that is also because criticisms of systems is often glossed over in most discussions of csa. people are somewhat aware that pedophiles, like other rapists, are more interested in power than attraction, but the imbalance of power between child and adult is fully naturalized. while obviously some aspects of that are innate (the physical difference, for example), there is also plenty about that difference in power which is socially and legally constructed, ESPECIALLY between a child and their legal guardian, who retains ownership over them even above the child’s own autonomy

[mylittleredgirl]

oh ho ho i have looked up the massachusetts ballot questions and i am so personally excited to vote against the MCAS, the high school standardized test students must pass to graduate. it never impacted my own education because i was in the very last class not to have to take it (late 90s), but i was selected for the pool of beta testers the year before it was universally implemented.

i had a great time actually—get out of class for two days for a test that doesn’t even matter? i enjoyed the process of taking standardized tests (when they didn’t matter) because i had spent most of my pre-high-school days in a homeschool environment without grades, so they reminded of the trivia workbook pages that were rationed out and treated as rewards (in a one room schoolhouse with 5 kids, you take the thrills you could get—public school education was pretty amazing after that).

the most memorable part of it for me was that we got little boxes of raisins as a snack and mine had an inchworm in it. but even then as a dumbass teenager i remember giving feedback that this would be demoralizing and unfair if imposed on everyone. schools chose who would put in the test group, and every one was an A student! what kind of sample was that?

the MCAS wouldn’t become a compulsory requirement for graduation until no child left behind, but it still immediately changed things. my sister was one year behind me, and her experience in the same classes i had taken the year before was so much less inspiring. history and civics teachers who had been painstakingly gathering copies of real articles for decades about historical events had to teach from state approved textbooks. the cross-disciplinary fun projects for multiple subjects were cancelled. older teachers started phoning it in and planned their retirement.

anyway, one of the things i have always felt most grateful for in my life is that i squeaked through my public education before state testing choked it. it was a small rural public school (pretty well funded though, there are a lot of fancy summer homes in property taxing distance), and had very passionate teachers who were having extra creative fun squeezing out the last of their independence, knowing that testing was coming. i was one of the canaries in the coal mine and i will take great pleasure if my vote helps shut it down.

[trauma-bot]

sin eater

[kittykatninja321]

wish more found family enjoyers understood "they should be at the club". Maybe the characters have no other choice, but it should be acknowledged that throwing some traumatized late teen/early 20 something straight into young parenthood when they haven't had a chance to heal or even figure out who they are is maybe not the best for their personal growth and actually somewhat sad. In a kinder world they would be at the club

[hamable]

8,000 other people have probably already made this joke but I can’t believe that both of Fig’s reality breaking confrontations with Ruben this episode culminated in the fact that she’s been here the whole time

[ladyofspoons]

of course you have a blue kanohi and pronouns

[jojo-schmo]

I thought of this today and had to make it real

[exactly24bees]

Can I just say, this election cycle is a fucking mess for people with moral OCD

You vote for Harris and you’re voting for genocide

You vote third party and you’re throwing away your vote and letting Trump win, therefore voting for genocide

You don’t vote and you’re letting Trump win, therefore voting for genocide

There’s no fucking winning. No matter what you do there are people, who you fundamentally agree with, calling you a fascist. Folks with moral OCD I am hugging yall so much this is going to absolutely suck and unfortunately we have to engage with it because it’s still fucking important

[blue-eli]

Lost princess of a shadow broken kingdom.

[robbyykeene]

also shannon keene........

Not sure what exactly you were referring to with this anon but I’ll take this as an opportunity to go on a rant about Shannon and her place in this story because man, I have so many feelings about her. They introduce us to her as a deeply flawed mother, an addict who abandons her son for long periods of time without any means to care for himself, who parades strings of sleazy men through the house where her child sleeps, who lets her son drop out of school and turn to a life a crime just to pay the bills. And I’m not absolving her of her responsibility for these things. But when she was introduced in this show, to me more than anything else this all felt like a condemnation of Johnny’s absence. Like, look at what happened to Shannon. Look at how Robby was forced to grow up. How different things could have been if Johnny had been there, for either of them, at all.

But then season 5 comes along and we have Shannon apologize to Johnny. He says he’s sorry for not being there and Shannon brushes him off, says she’s sorry too, they were both young and dumb and didn’t know any better. Except Johnny was 35 years old when Robby was born, and Shannon was what…19? 20? 23 at the very oldest. And she didn’t get to be young and dumb. She didn’t have the choice to walk away, to just not be there at all.

And I think all the time about that line Robby says to Tory, how his mom used to be a dancer. Like, when do we think Shannon stopped dancing? When she met Johnny? When she got pregnant? When she gave birth? When Robby was a kid? Was she an addict before Johnny came into her life, or did that only come after? Did Johnny know from the outset what kind of person he was abandoning his son with, or was it something he discovered over the years and just did nothing about? When did she start engaging in survival sex—because that’s what that was—to pay the bills?

And even more than that—what was their relationship like to begin with? Was it a one night stand? A casual on and off hookup? A serious relationship? How did they meet? When she found out she was pregnant, what was Johnny’s reaction? What was hers? Did she want an abortion, and Johnny convinced her not to? Did he want an abortion, and Shannon refused? Was it too late for that by the time she found out? Did Johnny promise to be there, to be involved? Did Shannon think she was giving birth to a kid who would have two loving parents, or did she already know he was doomed from the minute she saw the positive test? How did she feel about all of it?

And ultimately none of these questions will be answered or even matter, because it’s not her story it’s Johnny’s. And I guess that was always the point. She was an object to him then, an object to him now, and nothing but an object to the narrative. But still. I think about her.

[funishment-time]

i desperately want more spin-offs like UDG where we're given the events of DR through Very Different points of view.

one idea i always enjoyed is a Protagonist completely disconnected from the main cast, who does not know or care that the Remnants were once innocent kids and will once again be (mostly) innocent kids, who is not invested in hope versus despair or whatever the fuck. they see terrorists and suffering and they want the Remnants dead.

battling big-ass Nekomaru is cool and all, but i'm thinking boss fights to agonize the player where you're chasing down non-fighters like Ibuki and Mahiru and you see a flash of who they used to be before delivering the blow. each time the protagonist has to be convinced to only knock them out, to let the FF deal with them. each time the protagonist has to tell themself that the infinite layers of grief they see in those young eyes are manipulative, false.

you don't know who Sato or Natsumi or Chiaki are. you know half your friends are gone and your city's exploded and you haven't heard from your partner in two months. you're able to split up the yakuza couple and, heavily injured and unable to move, the bodyguard woman with the sword yells for her boss. what was it? Inuhiko? Fuyuhiko? she reaches out. you swing the bat.

because it doesn't matter what they were: it only matters what they took from you, the Protagonist

[xiaq]

B, going to the climbing gym without me because I'm sickly: Goodbye, darling! Me: Bye! Don't let any vital, healthy, people flirt with you, okay? B: I won't; I'll say "Begone, wench, I have a diseased wife at home!" Me: Perfect, thank you.

[nehoteika]

it's strange, knowing now who it was this whole time...

[darkwood-sleddog]

You know it’s fucking wild that one of the most followed small malamute sled teams on social media was asking if she should give her 6 month old puppy back to the breeder because of the severity of bilateral elbow displaysia like 54 days ago after getting said puppy for mushing from a breeder that does not health test and now she’s running that puppy in harness only a few months post surgery at an age most mushers would just barely be putting malamutes in harness for the first time (most mushers would be putting a young puppy under maturity in a team so that adults can take the brunt of the weight mind you) and that puppy is in fucking wheel (dogs in wheel take the heaviest load out of all dogs in harness and the most strain on the body). People advised her that running in harness might be harmful for this dog’s joints, advised her to think long and hard about this dog’s quality of life and this dog is already in harness under a year old. Normally I would have no problems with a dog being put in harness in a team of adults at this age but it is wildly different to do this with a dog that had surgery for her deteriorating joints only a few MONTHS ago. A dog who is not done growing. The straight irresponsibility of this and the visibility of this is so gross to me.

[wanderer-clarisse]

cousin bonding time (I like to imagine that Maedhros is the one who tied baby Finrod's hair!)

sorry for being suddenly inactive here lately, Things Happened and I haven't really had the time to sit down and draw until this week ;-; hope this little sketch can make up for it!