#to share with the masses

[nyxi-pixie]

'wah wah everywhere is falling to the right wing the whole world is doomed' literally like 6 months ago we were talking about how there was a trend in countries getting rid of their right wing governments. poland at the end of last year, france voted in a unified centre left/left alliance, even the UK finally got rid of the tories after 15 years (right wing splitting be damned, it still happened). outside of europe, bangladesh removed a dictator in like 2 seconds, india may have reelected their Evil Guy but on a DISTINCTLY reduced majority, theres been queer rights successes in thailand, with gay marriage set to be legal by 2025, and thereve been positive court cases on it in japan. and this is just stuff i vaguely remember hearing about. im sure theres more if you care to look for anything aside from more reasons to make yourself miserable

the US has a distinct effect on everyone, so this won't be fun for anyone (least of all its population. sorry guys), and there ARE a lot of people sliding into right wing extremism, but presenting this like its an unchallenged worldwide phenomenon is inaccurate, its damagingly bleak, and all it does is encourage despair and apathy. you DO have political power, and you shouldnt forget that just because of bad election results and the media's desperation to make you lose hope

[kindred-spirit-93]

the devil works hard, but people work harder omg

posted something on r/TOMT a lil while ago and my jaw quite literally dropped when within record time some angel had already found exactly what i was looking for. God bless you kind stranger :')

if that wasnt brilliant enough as it is, turns out i had misremembered a lot lol (like the gist of it was alright but the only accurate detail i got was this background character mentioning their daughter), but still, it was ridiculously impressive and im devastated.

this morning i randomly remembered a scary short story i had read back in 2017 ish in highschool as a means of escape from my surroundings. id turned to scouring the small library my school had at the time, and quickly found an outlet in works of mystery and horror.

i read all sorts, most notably the many adventures of sherlock holmes, as well as miscellaneous and less known classics of the genre. this particular gem stuck with me more than the others, which is maybe why now that ive found it, im oddly emotional.

and its the strangest assortment of feelings too, from not expecting anyone to answer, the shock of finding a strong lead, anticipation while reading through it to see if it was a match, a moment of epiphany when id really and truly found it, to the cold bucket of 'oh?' is this it? the cold emptiness after a mission completed, a purpose fulfilled. i dont think ive experienced this wide of a range of emotions within this short of a timespan. i think i went through the 7 stages of grief all at once.

it never fails to surprise me how fast i unintentionally get attached to really insignificant things and let them have their way with me. in this case i think my mind unlocked a little drawer that had been long forgotten, so mush so, its contentents, regardless of how small and harmless they may have been, were bound to overwhelm my senses.

its interesting to think that as amazing and awe inspiring as the human mind is, the brain cant differentiate between whats real and what is percieved as such. a connection to a fictional character for instance is real, even if they arent, the brain builds connections and those, are very real.

i think the newfound (or rediscovered) knowledge of this particular period of my life physically threw me back into my 12 year old body, complete with the whirlwind of thoughts and neurotransmitters that defines that sticky age.

i felt the warmth of the sunshine peeking through the blinds of the library, warming me and the pages between my fingers, but the bitterness in my throat followed when i as an adult remembered what had put us in this situation in the first place. what, or rather who, i was escaping by living through ink beside another kind of monster...

tl;dr - it was The Mezzotint by M.R James that u can read here, highschool sucks, im going to eat ice cream.

UPDATE we ran out of ice cream now im really crying while munching on bugles. bruh 😭

[elizaisdunn]

how I imagine Grian telling the gang it’s time for a new season

[livtylerstoplip]

[legionofpotatoes]

My annual N7 Day illustrations for the new Mass Effect game so far. Got them as wallpapers right here!

[stil-lindigo]

ashes to ashes.

a short comic about the day Ash was born.

Ash's story

Red and Wolf's story

notes:

--

all my other comics

store

[halorvic]

[mattodore]

birthday boy 🎂

[mikufigureoftheday]

🤍🖤💀Finally....after 800 years....my dreamie has come home 💀🖤🤍

[aceouttatime]

Waist? Snatched.

Anyways I'm still laughing about the spur holes in the pants. Enjoy one of the many outfits I'm working on. Some casual wear for today.

[amandashepard]

post date: December 26, 2023

Just a heads up for anyone who may not have gotten the chance to buy it yet, Mass Effect Legendary Edition is on ridiculous sale on all the major platforms (Steam, Xbox, PlayStation) right now!! I think it ranges from $6-8 depending on where you buy it.

Steam is also offering this awesome BioWare bundle deal too!

Go save that money honey!!

[scificrows]

Okay, my brain refuses to think about anything other than Murderbot, so I looked at every use of the word "friend[s]" in TMBD and... created some pie charts. Normal human activities.

Some Thoughts™ I had while putting this together (under the cut):

In All Systems Red, Murderbot notes that the PresAux crew are all close friends (twice! and goes on to explain their internal relationships which I think is very cute). This is pretty much the only use of 'friends' in ASR, except for when Murderbot says that SecUnits can't be friends with each other.

It seems that this may be one of the first times Murderbot has ever really been around a group of friends before? Murderbot notes that this is not the norm for its contracts and admits that the fact that they are all friends and the way they interact with each other make it actually enjoy that contract (before!!!! the hostile attack, so it already enjoys this contract before they start seeing it as a person etc ghghhhh). [Inference: Friendship seems enjoyable.]

The first character that calls Murderbot its friend is ART in Artificial Condition. Murderbot immediately refutes this (and then goes on to call ART its friend to its clients for the rest of the book). [Inference: Maybe ART is Murderbot's friend. And maybe that is... agreeable]

Rogue Protocol has more than twice as many instances of the word 'friend' as any of the other novellas. Why? Miki. Friendship and its implications for non-humans are a central theme because Miki is friends with everyone. Murderbot initially scoffs at the notion that Miki and Miki's humans are friends. At the end of the book, after witnessing how desperately Don Abene tried to stop Miki from trying to save them, and her grief after its death, Murderbot has to admit that she had in fact been Miki's friend. [Inference: Humans can be friends with bots and can sincerely care about them]

In Exit Strategy, Murderbot tentatively uses the word "friends" for its humans for the first time (several times actually). It questions whether it can actually call them its friends or not and later realizes that it had been afraid what admitting that the humans are its friends would do to it. At the end of the book, Mensah tells Murderbot the PresAux crew are its friends, which is the first time a human has directly said that to it (at least on-page). [Inference: Humans can and want to be Murderbot's friends]

In Network Effect, Murderbot seems to be more habituated to the word 'friend', confidently calling ART and Ratthi its friends, like it is no longer just trying the concept on unsure if it fits. There are many instances in which other characters refer to MB as ART's friend or the other way around and Murderbot's humans refer to Murderbot as their friend several times. Generally, there seems to be less hesitancy, because yes, all of them are Murderbot's friends, why wouldn't they be. [Inference: SecUnits can have friends. This SecUnit has friends. They care about it a lot.]

Conclusion: The Murderbot Diaries tell the story of a construct that does not seem to consider the possibility of friendship for itself and is fine with that - until it accidentally starts caring a little too much and suddenly more and more people annex it as a friend (ew) to the point where it can no longer deny that this is happening and has to begrudgingly admit that yes, it has friends now and maybe that is actually not a bad thing.

[madamedramatics]

I think of Mass Effect, and the brain train reroutes me to Shakarian thoughts. I don't make the rules. I just follow them.

Now then,

Hear me out. Plz. I'll only be a second of your time.🩷

Turians are sort of a homogeneous society that likes predictability, rationale, integrity, honesty, and all that jazz. Since they have to be selfless, always putting the whole before one's self, they are more than likely not very materialistic meaning whenever they do give or receive gifts, it's a rare moment and probably something that reflects quality or some sort of sentimentality.

Now imagine the beginning of Shakarian's relationship. We have Garrus reading up on human cultures where a large chunk of human societies have gift giving sometimes all year round, which varies in price and other factors. Then imagine Shepard being stumped on what to get Garrus as a gift because she doesn't want to cross cultural boundaries and get something that isn't meaningful to him. The first date happens, and Garrus gets Shepard something super sweet and cost efficient, like a handmade card, so he doesn't come off as desperate (according to the forums he's read) and Shepard gets Garrus the most expensive gun money can buy. Neither knows the other has done their research. Garrus thinks he looks like an asshole by not sticking to his values, and Shepard thinks she looks desperate for such a new and budding relationship since Garrus got her something small but sweet.

They both loved the gifts they received, but they felt internal turmoil about the gifts they bought. Then it comes down to the awkward confession that they both looked up what to do when it comes to gift giving. They both decide they should probably just ask each other from now on about any questions they have since their relationship is neither strictly turian nor human. It's human AND turian, meaning they should just do what feels right for each other and no one else ❤️

[puppistarwonder]

then a couple seconds after this, wilson agrees to dinner because his wife isn't speaking to him.

"Unlike her, i can make it worth your while"

I'm gonna shoot myself, deadass.

[pelcrow]

re-sketched a concept i did awhile ago hehehoho

[oloreandil]

me: wow where have all my evenings gone lately 🤔

also me: it has been 382 days since i started working on the Yarneater3000, and it is so far from over

i am slowly encasing every seam and disintegrating edge of those jeans (so. most of it eventually) using every possible colour of embroidery floss, and it's been really fun !