#what could possibly go wrong...

[hashileio]

it’s Dust’s turn to watch the portable flashbang baby while he’s on break

[luckylewis]

closed for: @willxmeyers

where: on a boat

"I think I have a body that rejects these," Lucky says as he fixes the dive boots on his feet, trying to make them sit comfortably though they seemed to have other ideas. He's not sure when the hair-brained idea of scuba diving left the text thread and became something they were actually doing, but it was too late to turn back now, especially with tips being relayed by the instructor and waves lapping against the side of the boat.

"Would you consider yourself buoyant in general?"

[madtomedgar]

I cannot take "fraud" talk about benefit programs seriously because I know what can get labeled as fraud. Taking a tupperware of leftovers home from a friend's birthday can be argued to be food stamp fraud. Exchanging SNAP for cash is fraud, that makes sense, except in many cases, people will let someone else use their leftover SNAP at the end of the month in exchange for cash they need for shampoo, toilet paper, Tylenol, or other essentials not covered by SNAP. Paying the nurse or attendant for the full shift even though you asked them to leave early because you wanted to go to bed is fraud, even though the alternative is either they get less pay for no fault of their own, or they have to hang around while you sleep. Meanwhile, paying someone for the full shift when the jobsite has to shut down early is policy in many workplaces. Giving your attendant or nurse cash to go pick up your medicine and letting them keep the change is fraud. In some states packing your kid lunch if you are on free lunch is fraud. Because of how strictly benefits programs are defined and regulated, for the recipients, basic human acts and impulses are defined as fraud.

If people want to talk about benefits fraud, they should be talking about third party administrators, nursing homes, and farms. That's where big ticket fraud that is malicious, deliberate, and with the aim of ripping off the government happens. It's the province of large scale service providers and contractors, not people who use benefits or the workers directly assisting them. So unless you're explicitly talking about that, shut the fuck up about "oh I'm sure there *is* fraud."

[puck777]

Trying to figure out clip studio paint. Anyways have more doodles of my freaky creature

[friedricebunny]

i'm really so curious how deeply tbhx is gonna go with its whole premise of "heroes are made and gain powers based on trust" because i really wasn't anticipating that

1) moon/xiao yueqing has teleportation-based powers but because everyone wants her and nice to stick together, her teleportation leads back to nice which was INSANE to me

and

2) lin ling is becoming increasingly more worried about being clean and perfect which is a side effect of nice's image of perfection which is indicating that this whole trust system can have mental effects??? and that's horrifying to me???

we are 2 episodes in, how deep is this gonna go

[scribz-ag24]

What if the Time Gears had actually threatening guardians.

[maryymaruu]

I present to you, the Iterator oc number two, the child that refused to be named, now having many, hah! _(:3 」∠)_

While I adore the true name I finally scrambled for him, and couldn't resist disclosing it, for lore reasons it'd be best to address him with his title;

Sentinel Of The Unforgiven, [SOTU] or just The Sentinel.

This one's novel is even longer, so for those who don't have the patience, the trivia board on the ref is a pretty good TLDR! ^^);

This guy needs to have quite a few more clarifications made first, as I'm stepping quite further away from the canon here, and even more into fanfiction/AU territory.

Some background;

[We're talking about one and the same group Three Signals (TS) is included in. They are neighbours of Sliver Of Straw, far away from in-game locations.]

- This group exists in a very mountainous area, and from the very beginning, the Benefactors decided it's more efficient to use their already existing underground tunnels (from drilling for Void Fluid) as a transportation modus; turned into an underground train system for Iterator construction process. That system runs quite far into the group, connecting Iterators like roots, with SOTU at the near center (first one built in the area).

- Due to some harsh weather conditions and poor decisions the city was equipped with "wind-breaking" walls, giving a quite claustrophobic effect. Citizens began feeling discomfort there even before resource problems.

- Once the resource demand problem became eminent, the citizens expressed lack of care or attachment to the city and/or the Iterator. It was agreed upon to simply use the underground trains to relocate to now already standing, various newer cities.

- The justice system is... blurry at best. This post is getting too long already so I'll fully explain it another time; for now it's only important to know SOTU is not the one judging the criminals, he merely holds them up to the verdict.

- The notion of "a stay in SOTU's city feels like a punishment in itself" became wide spread amongst the Benefactors. In face of necessity it evolved into an effort to make it a reality; SOTU was repurposed into a prison facility. Instead of upgrading him to be able to be more habitable, they completed the claustrophobic city with taller sealed walls and gates, and a new set of laws/taboos for the Iterator to obey. Making for a secure, depressing, fully automated trap box.

Now more about the Sentinel himself...

SOTU has always been a rather reserved personality that struggled to express emotion or weakness. There was a specific idea he had to live up to, (be it conditioned into him or self-imposed) of someone competent, serious and strong. Giving off a strict, cold and unapproachable first impression. The Group Senior that believes he has to carry the woes of the world on his shoulders alone and never break, in order to be a good example.

However, despite poorly expressing it, SOTU does deeply care about his people and about his peers. And always tried his best to be someone they can relay on, without directly admitting it though. Like a grumpy old man, would chew one out for making a mistake first, and then help them out of trouble, without sparing any effort.

Would never admit it, but feels quite hurt by how easily his citizens decided to abandon him, and resents them for what he's been turned into. He really tried to take care of everyone. He doesn't enjoy what his city has become, he doesn't enjoy being feared. Secretly wished it was a lot more like something that of TS's city... full of life, bonded and happy, but is unable to let go of the false idea what a Senior should be like, denying himself vulnerability to even express that.

The reformatting into a prison only worsened this problem. The new, additional programming discouraged acts of compassion or affection. (So that he doesn't pity the prisoners)

Despite best efforts, his group did not integrate very well. His ways of handling things left much to be desired, some labeling him a tyrant no one can ever reason with. Some just simply disliked him too much to ever relay on his advice. Communicating within the group was difficult, hence why eventually many stopped bothering and kept to themselves, or to smaller private cliques.

The repressed emotional impulses did catch up to him eventually, allowing for small acts of disobedience against the law.

Didn't stop SOTU from feeling it though. And feeling he sure did....

Those efforts were too little too late, inadequate to prevent the conflicts escalating into hostility. Once an arrest warrant was cast from the Benefactors above, there was nothing he could do. And once the poorly integrated group got a taste of connection against a "common enemy" it was over.

Delays, stalling, omitted reports, "errors", "lost" data, "unreceived" broadcasts... All in efforts to keep the prisoner numbers low, and make the stay of those present shorter and more bearable. Ignoring all reports about what was going on in TS's city in particular- hoping to at least protect something SOTU could never be.

(More to come)

TS got hurt, and the lively community on top was broken up. It is unclear who is responsible for the malware attack idea, nor who exactly deployed it, but SOTU feels fully responsible regardless. He wallows in ever growing guilt and regret since.

[cubbihue]

Indeed, Why did Peri get assigned Dev as his first godchild?

Peri’s assignment was as correct as any other fairy’s assignment!

Which is to say that somewhere, out there, there is a fairy with great experience, a fairy so good at their task that they can handle even the most extreme cases.

And that fairy has been given an “Extreme Case” child whose biggest concern is “Quick Sand”.

As far as the system is concerned, Dev is classified as “Simple”. A perfect beginner’s child for a beginning godparent like Peri!!!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Peri's Assignment: [Start] > [Previous] > [END]

[ascesabo]

the great irony of early one piece antagonists believing zoro was the actual captain and using luffy as a puppet ... oda really threw us a bone and curb-stomped it right in our faces. yes, zoro could be a captain in his own right. yes, zoro could match luffy in strength. yes, zoro knows this perfectly well. and you know what? he chose luffy two years ago, and he will continue to choose luffy again and again. roronoa zoro, the pirate hunter, who followed a wannabe pirate with a nonexistent crew on a whim because luffy brought him his swords and made a half-assed attempt at a bargain. zoro, who made a vow to never lose again on both his and luffy's honor. zoro, who told luffy he'd make him commit harakiri if he got in the way of zoro's goal, only to turn around and be willing to sacrifice his dream if it means that luffy reaches his. zoro, who stood in place and took luffy's pain and told a warlord to take his head instead of luffy's, who got down on his knees before his supposed rival and begged mihawk to mentor him so that he could return strong enough to protect his captain. zoro, who has conqueror's haki- a natural born leader- but chooses to stay at the right hand of a man he has deemed greater than himself.

and the thing that luffy fears most? being alone. being rejected. being left behind. and what should have been his foil- the pirate hunter to his pirate king, the nonbeliever to his divine, the king of hell to his sun god- instead becomes his first and most devout follower; the one who demands to follow him to hell and back. oughhhggg i'm sick to my stomach

[gatoburr0]

im so bored so AU lore drop in the middle of the night

I did this in ms paint and yes I was lazy so it looks shitty a bit on purpose

does this mean anything? no. I will continue to draw feral lesbians ripping each other apart because this is just a dumb comfort au

[summerwages]

sunrise reflections...

[cowboylikesel]

tommy heard the 118 bickering in the back of his helicopter about how much they love each other while risking their lives because of a hunch one of them had and was like i need to be a part of this again immediately. also the idiot who thought the motto „who cares“ would be a good fit for our profession has charmed me in ways i haven’t felt in years. i should start making mouth static noises as some sort of mating ritual and the rest is history

[etrevil]

Taking it as canon that Chuuya listened through one of Dazai's gayass speeches and when a second one came rolling in, decided to shut him up with a bullet instead of being subjected to his dramatics again 😭

It's the "that's what makes me love you!"/"ew no" moment in the fifteen novel all over again

[sun-e-chips]

Just rewatched Practical Magic and gosh I love it so much so felt inspired to make this!

You come from a line of witches with a curse that any man you fall in love with dies… but what if you fall in love with something else entirely..

[mabelmidnight-takeover]

the thing that doesn't make sense to me regarding the "he was putting her career on the line" POV is that there's no previous behavior from abbot that makes that believable to me. abbot faked a teenager's exams (w/o her knowledge) so she could get an abortion, told another doctor said teenager was getting back for the pills and didn't seem to care that robby could very easily find out what he did, reprimanded but immediately praised santos for doing a risky procedure she wasn't allowed to and took every opportunity he got to do procedures the hospital board wouldn't allow on the daily. nothing from his behavior told me he would put someone else's career on the line with something we were shown he's very capable of doing. add that to mohan's arc this season and the possibility of that POV being the case becomes nonexistent to me. it never even crossed my mind before checking what people were saying about the episode. i read it as a joke bc nothing else shown would tell me it wasn't.

comparing it to robby and david's situation: it was Not a surprise how robby reacted after david was proven innocent from the shooting. he was a bit more asshole-ish to how he'd probably react in a normal day, especially after a breakdown, but where he stood on the whole situation was not new. we were shown and told robby could react like that; we were shown and told abbot didn't care about what could happen to him or his career if a patient's health was on the way

[shanklin]

Stan arrives in Gravity Falls when Ford is at the height of his Bill worship.

The brothers meet, fight and get swiftly cursed to 

hold hands or die ♡

Turns out there is a very simple solution to the curse. 

All you have to do is let go first, and you will be perfectly fine and alive.

The other one dies in agony 10 seconds later, though. 

Both Stan and Ford refuse to even consider that option, and bind their hands together to prevent accidents.

Over the next week or two, they do not so much make up as get used to each other's company again. It’s almost impossible to stay mad at someone and ignore them if you’re holding hands 24/7 and have to suppress a laugh every time they make a silly snide comment.

Despite Bill's protest, Ford realizes he missed Stan more than he ever thought was possible and is almost ready to ask him if he wants to stay in Gravity Falls after the curse is broken.

The very next night, Ford wakes up screaming to the worst pain imaginable. 

He is dying.

Stan stands above him with wide eyes and just watches. The bindings around their hands are cut off, and Ford’s hand is free. This was no accident.

With his last bit of strength, Ford reaches out and grabs Stan’s hand. 

The pain is gone in an instant, but the realization of what just happened hurts much more than dying.

Bill has been right all along. Stan couldn’t be trusted.

He wants Ford dead.