#very political but still good

[manhwamuneca]

He's cute but........ "What if we do it just once" ****Spoiler*****

Manhwa: Turning (Nah man. Wait 200 chapters for a kiss, and like it)

[little-cereal-draws]

whatever you do, don't think of Odysseus and Polites growing up together

don't think of them going on "quests" through the palace garden, waving sticks at imaginary monsters and saving the day

don't think of them watching the older boys spar and trying to mimic it, not sure of the proper form and ending up in a giggly heap every time

don't think of them getting a bit older and finally competing against each other with an intent to win, racing and wrestling their way through the countryside

don't think of Polites always letting Odysseus win because he likes seeing Odysseus’ triumphant smile

don't think of Odysseus assuring Polites that he's ok while he cries over his wound from the boar, wiping away his tears

don't think of them getting taller and finally being able to reach all the branches of the trees

don't think of Polites reassuring Odysseus when he worries that girls won’t like him because his princely status outweighs the fact that he's awkward and gangly

don’t think of Odysseus being jealous of Polites’ growth spurt and Polites teasing him about it

don't think of them going on short trips to neighboring kingdoms as they fill out, making allies and attending feasts

don't think of Odysseus gushing about how pretty and perfect Penelope is while Polites smiles knowingly

don't think of Polites helping Odysseus gather the courage to ask for her hand

don’t think of the wedding festivities lasting a whole week and Polites drunkenly crying about how happy he is for them

don’t think of Odysseus letting Polites hold baby Telemachus, hovering with the anxiety of a new parent, and watching as his friend gently brushes the soft baby curls out of his son's eyes

don't think Polites assuring Odysseus that the war is estimated to last only a few months, he'll be back home before he knows it

don't think of circumstance slowly pulling them apart as Odysseus spends more time with the kings, going on raids and ambushes, and Polites tries to avoid the battlefield as much as he can

don't think of Odysseus freezing after Polites flinches when he claps him on the shoulder after a raid, hands still wet with blood

don't think of Odysseus growing restless and pacing in Polites' tent, mourning the years he's lost with his family and venting his frustrations with the war

don't think of the Trojans breaching the Greek wall and Odysseus scrambling to find the glint of glasses in the chaos

don't think of him finally finding Polites with a spear in one hand, the other hand pressed over a wound in his side, apologizing as he stabs at his attacker

don't think of Polites sobbing as Odysseus stabs the Trojan from behind, splattering both of them with blood when he pulls the body off of his sword

don't think of them fighting back-to-back, Odysseus aiming to kill, Polites just trying to get them to stay back, as the camp burns around them

don't think of Odysseus trying to get Polites out of joining the ambush on Troy but the other kings aren't having it

don't think of Odysseus watching Polites wipe the blood and tears off his glasses as he says he's fine to go, he appreciates Odysseus trying his best

don't think of the fire and screaming in Troy

don't think of Odysseus collapsing into Polites as soon as the fighting is over and sobbing too hard to explain why he's so upset

don't think of Odysseus closing himself off as they prepare to go home, jealous and angry over how his friend remains as optimistic as ever while he's haunted

don't think of the sea breeze and the promise of home starting to ease things back to normal

until it doesn't

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe the problem with Christian fiction is that it's non-denominational. People are just "Christian", with no effort put into showing what practicing that religion looks like for them specifically. No indication that there are other Christians who could have different beliefs. No wrestling with differing ideas and the struggle of how one should live out their Christian faith. And that makes it unrealistic and unrelatable.

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Baizhu design :V ? For funsies totally not going to draw him or anything

had way too much fun with this one hahah

[cementcornfield]

Did you see the clip of Joe yesterday?

Is it a clip now? Oh lord....was it funny at least?

It was the first time he ever used the F word in a conference.

He cursed? Y'all lying...I be trying to get him to curse, he don't curse when I'm talking to him...

[venomgaia]

lobo the drow druid and his quest to befriend every evil/morally ambiguous npc as part of a tactical alliance

[happi-dreams]

i watched wall-e today !!!! it was soo good !!!!

obligatory doodles because !

[royalarchivist]

[Immediately after Fit brutally roasted a chatter for being a filthy metagamer]

Dono: You became my comfort streamer. It has been great here.

Fit: Oh, thank you so much, thank you thank you thank you. I'm glad I can bring you comfort when I insult the sht out of some chatters, I'm glad I can comfort you. That's right!

Fit: People say I'm nice, no, I'm not nice. I'm polite. Mostly. There's a difference between being nice and being polite, I am polite. I am polite.

[midnight-in-eden]

I realized I never made a thorough post about my experience at the Unitarian Universalist church. I’ve attended several times now and I honestly don’t even know how to sum it up. Here’s an attempt:

At the UU church, all the leadership members introduce themselves with their pronouns. The reverend uses she/they and has a trans teenage son. Today their stole (the scarf-like thing clergy wear) had the trans pride flag emblazoned on it.

At the UU church, I wrote my pronouns (they/them) in large letters on the name tag I wear every week. No one has batted an eye. I am openly nonbinary. Everyone is unfazed.

At the UU church, there are queer people everywhere. I am no longer the only non-cishet person in the room. Far from it.

At the UU church, there is signage explicitly stating that it is a safe and accepting space for LGBTQ people.

At the UU church, so many people expressed worries this week for queer people, for immigrants, for other people impacted by the new administration. It was candidly discussed during our secular meditation group.

At the UU church, congregants are not united by shared religious beliefs, but by shared values, which include equality, inclusivity, valuing human life and the planet.

At the UU church, on my first day, I met Christians, Buddhists, pagans, atheists, and practitioners of various eclectic spiritualities. (Including many exmormons!) None of whom had any problem including each other in their community.

At the UU church, God is rarely mentioned and they don’t fixated on gaining salvation and exaltation; instead they talk a lot about how we treat people and how we can make the world better.

At the UU church, today the little story about animals having a soup party shared for the children was focused on inclusivity and included a they/them fox.

At the UU church, today the reverend asked us to imagine what kind of world we wanted to create together and handed around the microphone. People talked about a world where healthcare is a human right, where schoolchildren are safe, where borders are not more important than people and families. When I took the microphone and added, “Where politicians don’t get to declare that my identity doesn’t exist,” the entire congregation cheered and yelled YES and AMEN.

At the UU church, though she does not mention politicians by name or tell people how to vote, the reverend encourages people to be politically active. Not the way Mormonism does, by sending out a formal letter during big elections, but by reminding people to call their representatives, to vote in elections big and small, to show up to school board and city council meetings.

At the UU church, they coordinate with other churches to provide transportation, meals, showers, and overnight sleeping spaces to homeless people, with the UU church sanctuary taking its turn being used for that purpose once a week. (Try to picture Mormons doing that—allowing homeless people to sleep in their buildings.)

At the UU church, they’ve adopted a refugee family and an elementary school in a low income area and do fundraising and provide assistance for both.

At the UU church, there are so many groups and efforts focusing on different ways of making the world better that I have a hard time even knowing where to start.

At the UU church, instead of demanding people starve themselves to show their obedience and loyalty to God, first Sundays of the month include a lovely soup lunch fundraiser for the youth group. I love this monthly event, where I get to sit with different people and eat and talk. And if you don’t want to or can’t pay, there are always coffee, tea, and snacks provided free at every meeting.

At the UU church, they start and end with the lighting/extinguishing of a flame instead of a prayer.

At the UU church, the congregation is alive. People laugh, cheer, clap, do call-and-responses with the leaders. We are invited to stand or sit for songs as we wish. Every meeting involves some kind of opt-in ritual or extra fun thing; you can light a candle, add water to the water fountain, write a note in a book saying what you’re struggling with or what joys you’ve had lately—all those are every week—and then some of the once in a while things we’ve done include choosing a percussion instrument to accompany the day’s songs (I got to play hand drums today!), standing at a side table to wrap care packages for homeless folks while the reverend spoke, or coming up to the front to write a worry on dissolving paper and drop it into a bowl of water. It’s just so fucking fun. Nothing like the boring, enforced silence of the congregation in the Mormon church.

At the UU church, people swear. People drink coffee or tea. People have whatever piercings they want and wear sleeveless shirts if they want, and “church clothes” can be anything you want. At the UU church, the idea of your religious leaders dictating all these things and even your underwear is completely baffling. It’s hard to see how such infantilizing nonsense ever made sense to me.

At the UU church, I am welcomed with genuine friendliness, but not pressured to formally become a member. No one is harassing me to commit to baptism or declaring that this is the only path to salvation/true happiness/whatever. I’ve met quite a few people who’ve been attending for years but are still not formal members, and everyone is fine with that.

At the UU church, people are encouraged to donate (to pay the reverend who is a professional instead of a voluntold rando doing unpaid labor, to pay for the building, etc) but tithing isn’t a thing. No “Give 10% of your income or you’re stealing from God!!!”

At the UU church, I don’t think I’ve heard the word “repentance” once. It’s just not part of the worldview. Neither is “sin.�� Or “redemption.”

At the UU church, rather than being taught humans are inherently sinful and in need of saving and unable to rely on our own strength or anyone’s strength but God’s, I am taught that humans are inherently good and valuable and powerful in our ability to make a difference together.

In short: Unitarian Universalism is an entirely different world than Mormonism. If you haven’t had the chance to attend a UU church I’d recommend trying it at least once. It has soothed my religious trauma in some ways, and I am starting to love the community there. I don’t know if I will ever become a formal member of any religion again (probably not), but I like this a lot.

[laufxsons]

'Not even Hell will stop the Wrath of a retired Angel'

My hc is that Hell decided to yoink themselves one (1) retired demon to extract information or enact whatever revenge they seem fit for the whole bathtub debacle. What they hadn't account for was that a certain Angel, who is know to be quite territorial about the things he loves, would do anything to find their husband after weeks of missed calls.

Well, once he does which might have included summoning and trapping a very frightened and confused demon and pressing them very politely for information (after Heaven was useless as always), he comes up with a plan.

One might say Aziraphale was quite disgruntled, positively seething, maybe even willing to give smiting a try after finding out demons had abducted their partner.

So, filled with the wrath of God and being judt enough of a bastard to be worth knowing he decided the best course of actions is, of course, passive agressive diplomacy. I mean the demons don't know that he isn't actually immune to Hellfire and noone would be stupid enough to try the main entrance, so noone would actually expect an Angel to just waltz into the place like they own it.

Those demons certainly aren't immune to an Angel's Divine Intervention (of the lethal variety) and Aziraphale be damned if he didn't at least try and get their partner out of this in the most idiotically genius way.

[hollenka99]

Not surprising, they all deserve it, but I am still cackling

[puppppppppy]

the cat seems to like being dragged across the floor that he goes still as im hauling him across the kitchen. he is a little too easygoing it scares me

[mumblesplash]

ok but like the contrast of pkciv evbo being Just Some Guy Trying His Best but he’s a world class prodigy who ends up with god himself holding his hand as he ascends to power vs pvpciv evbo explicitly being The Chosen One but all he has going for him is the ability to die over and over again

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Compound Fracture

YA thriller set in rural West Virginia

follows an autistic trans boy who survives being almost killed by the Sheriff’s son after a party, and accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him when he tries to get back at him

and is pulled head-first back into the 100 year old feud between his & the sheriff’s families, that began when his great-great grandfather was executed after inciting a miner’s rebellion, the grandfather whose ghost has started to haunt him

community & family & socialist revolution

aro-questioning MC

arc from netgalley, out september 3

[spoondoodles]

I blacked out and more Logince HS AU appeared on my canvas idk what happened (also ty @oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat for some inspiration sorry it took so long to make a post about Them <3)

[not-poignant]

Assumption: You have never ridden a horse.

Oooo, this is a fun one, salkfjas

I have! I've ridden more than one horse, more than once.

(Actual storytime) (This is from the Assumptions meme!)

In late highschool and in the few years after I had a close friend who owned a horse (Billy) and agisted him, and was responsible for him. She basically was allowed to get him when she got her driver's license.

I was the kind of friend (and still kind of am, energy willing) that you could drag around to all your chores and I'd just be there. So I'd be there when she went shopping. I would be there when she went to get horse food. I would be there when she did homework. I would be there when she went to visit her horse and brush him down and feed him etc.

I helped with basic chores and watched from the sidelines and mostly hung out with her dog, Huskee, who was not a husky, but a borderline collie x corgi who barked nonstop at that horse, who she alas, could not herd.

Through this friend I actually learned about Natural Horsemanship, to the point where I actually went to a couple of Pat Parelli seminars (run by Pat) in like 2000/2001. It was the thing that really sparked my interest in animal training, especially humane, fear free animal training (and clicker training specifically, since Pat was teaching marker training at the time, and said friend started using it on their dog, Huskee).

I never rode, for a long time, because I was happy on the sidelines, and also I went there so my friend could ride her horse, not so I could like, steal her horse out from under her lol. I don't think her horse liked me very much anyway (later I'd find out that was pretty much true, it was a zero respect relationship, maybe he knew I was a doormat lmao).

Anyway, said friend had another friend who was extremely horse intense, and she got her own horse (Coda) , that she then never really took the time to ride. Coda was kind of nuts. Billy was the kind of horse who walked so slow you felt like you were going backwards, Coda had one speed: gallop. Coda and Billy got on great.

But Coda was pretty neglected, and so I often spent time with him while my friend did her chores with Billy. I was used to bringing out food, or changing water etc. so I did that for Coda sometimes. And after a while, friend was like 'it would be cool if we could trail ride together, how about you learn on Billy first since he's so slow and sedate.' And friend was like 'I'll ride Coda because I have more experience.' This made sense! She wanted me to stay safe!! But...

Billy was slow, sedate, and did not give a shit about me. This is a horse that stepped on my feet (on purpose), who deliberately angled towards low-hanging branches to scrape me off the saddle (hilarious, but also not really), and made it clear how much he wasn't interested in anyone else riding him in the most passive aggressive way a horse possibly can.

Coda, on the other hand, had a reputation for being wild and unstable. He'd tossed multiple riders more than once, hadn't been trained with Natural Horsemanship (like...kind of? But not really) and was not halter-broke by the time friend-of-friend got him, so just getting him to accept a halter and a saddle at all was huge, and anything beyond that was like 'welp, good luck.'

However, it was obvious trying to do anything with me and Billy was not going to work out. So...Coda it was.

And idk how to explain it, but Coda and I just got along. It was on the other hand terrifying, because his default movement was 'canter' and all he wanted to do, all he wanted to do, was gallop up and down granite hills as quickly as possible and spook at fucking everything. It wasn't his fault, he wasn't taken out much and he had that kind of personality. He once saw a kangaroo in the distance and spun a full 360 degrees, and I ended up half off him, hanging on for dear life, while friend just stared at me and said: 'how did you not fall off, that was insane. You might actually be good at this.'

Well. No, I wasn't, I just had a good grip, lmao.

So we went on extremely stressful trail rides together. Billy thankfully curbed some of Coda's GOTTA GO FAST instincts but only to a point, so I had to be pretty hypervigilant nonstop because that dude bunched his hindquarters what felt like every ten seconds, and I can't really blame him, it's what he loved to do most. He was just a terrible horse to learn to ride on, lmao, even if we did get along.

I haven't ridden since and honestly haven't felt much of an inclination to. I'd be too heavy now anyway. And I'm pretty certain I'd be bad at it. When your first experience is 'placid horse who generally accepts everyone but stares at you in a desultory manner and makes sure you know - while feeding him / brushing him / watering him etc. - that you do not matter in the grand scheme of things' followed by 'I like you! NOW I WILL FLING MYSELF DOWN THIS GRANITE HILL WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WE ARE ALL SCREAMING IN EXCITEMENT AND NOT FEAR' you think 'actually I don't need to ride the murder ponies, it's fine.'

Anyway, yeah, I have ridden a horse.