#when my back aches

[inkskinned]

it just sucks because nothing is ever fucking made for you, and if it is made for you like 75% of the time it gets chopped into little pieces by every person alive because this is the one thing you have, so it has to prove itself to you.

like, a thing can't just be for women. men need to assign it to women. women have to experience "must" or "should" before their hobbies and passions - women are allowed to do silly, passive things like tuck our ankles and titter behind a fan, or something. women are allowed to, they are welcomed to. like the world is a house and we are supposed to be in the kitchen and now we are being given the divine right to enter the living room if we bring chips

because when it becomes for you, or about you, that is when the thing is vile. you should/must wear makeup so you can appear beautiful to men. once you wear makeup for yourself, or because you yourself enjoy putting it on, then you are no longer doing the right thing. there is a reason men hate certain fashion trends. there is a reason men hate things like the pumpkin spice latte - because it's not about them. you are buying it because it is good for you. they degrade your passions and interests. there is a reason women-led fields are largely seen as being "not a real" profession. when you are a good cook, that is because you can provide for him. close your eyes. you're not going to be a chef, be honest. that is a man making food for himself.

bras are made so breasts will be appealing to men. they are rarely about comfort or support. you have given up entirely on the idea of pockets. young girls have to worry about a shorter inseam on their shorts. a girl on instagram gets her septum pierced, and men in the comments are rabid about it - i just want to rip it out of her face. she'd be beautiful without it.

and fucking everything is for them. even the media that is "for you" is for them, eventually. remember "my little pony"? remember how hard it is to convince any executive to believe that little girls are worth selling to? in the media that is for you, you see little ways that you still need to make it accessible for them - the man is always powerful, smart, masculine. he is a man's man. the media usually forgives him. it usually says okay, some men are awful, but hey! gotta love 'em. because if you don't hold their hands and say "this is literally just a story about my lived reality", they shit their pants about it. they demand you put them into the media that's for you.

these are people who are so used to glutting themselves on the world. they are used to having every corner and every dollar and every place of leadership. so you say can i please have one slice of cake, just for myself, please, holy shit. and they fucking weep about it. they say you're being unfair, because some of their one-thousand-slices aren't beautiful, and your singular cake slice doesn't have their name on it. and aren't you being rude by not offering to share?

and honestly. fucking - yeah, man. you were kind of surprised, because the cake is a little basic (you bake at home, you're way past this stuff). but holy shit, it was nice just to be offered cake in the first place. you're used to having to starve. you're used to getting nothing, but going to the party anyway, because you're expected (professionally) to show up. you liked that it is a simple cake, and that it is warm, and mostly: you like that there is, for once, a cake-for-you.

in the real world, outside of metaphor, it feels like fucking being slapped. barbie didn't even say anything particularly unusual; it literally just made factually evident points. there are less women in leadership than men. we can look at that fact objectively. that is a real thing that is happening. and the movie is aware that it has to defend itself! that it has to spend like half an hour just turning to the camera and saying: i know this is hard for you to understand, but this is a real thing that women experience.

it's just - this is that one kid on the playground who thinks its allowed to hog all the toys. he builds this hoard that nobody else is allowed to even look at, or he'll get aggressive. everyone's a little scared of him, so they let it slide, because his daddy gave him the golden touch. he hates when people cry and thinks bullying is cool. he writes boys only! on a big sign and makes all his friends take "alpha male" classes.

and then girls pick up barbies, because there was nothing left for them. and in the void they've been given, with their scraps: they make long, spiraling narratives about how barbie is actually descended from snakes and has given her righteous followers magical (if concerning) powers and can speak 32 languages (2 of which are animal related) and has big plans for infrastructure (beginning with the local interstate). and the boy comes over, and he has a huge fit about how the girls aren't "including" him. he wants to know why the girls aren't making the story about ken.

"we didn't like your story." the girls blink at him. they point to his war stories and the gi joes and the millions of male-led narratives and how still in the modern day men get two-thirds of the speaking roles in movies and they point to men making mediocre shows that don't get lambasted and they point to men encouraging toxic masculinity and they point to men everywhere, men and men and men. and they say: "how is this our fault? you had ken."

"no!" he is already back to screaming and stomping his feet and tearing at his hair and intentionally reminding them that men are holding back thinly concealed violence and he says: "if it's not for me, it's actually sexism."

[canisalbus]

Was at a farmers market recently and there was a giant white sighthound of some kind with a woman. He was standing stock-still nervously staring at this eggplant shaped exactly like his head until someone bumped the table, the eggplant moved, and he jumped about a foot in the air. The woman, who I don't think even saw what happened, just patted his head and told him 'everything is ok' without looking up from her tomatoes, and he just looked up at her with the most pathetic and tearful expression before hiding behind her legs from the produce. Like, I've never seen a dog that looked like it was physically holding back tears before, but now I get it. All I could think for the entire rest of the market was "that's Machete". Felt like I saw a celebrity. I get why you characterized him like that, the sighthounds really are just anxiety on stilts with big watery eyes. Just wanted to share.

.

[starcurtain]

I have this small, deeply personal headcanon that after his grandmother's passing, Alhaitham's home was so unbearably quiet that he started--just barely, just one or two words--to speak out loud to her as if she was still there.

"I've been accepted to the Akademiya, Grandmother."

"I passed my promotion exams."

"I debated with Haravatat's sage."

Just that, and quiet again.

But one day, it's: "I met someone strange."

"He keeps showing up when I'm trying to study."

"We don't agree on anything. Still..."

"I made a friend."

"Today, Kaveh and I were researching--"

"It's already dark. I didn't realize we spent so long in Razan Garden. Kaveh wanted to hear about my article--"

"He's going to be furious when I tell him the whole point for his portion of the lecture is based on a false predicate--"

The house where his grandmother used to be gets a little louder again; the noise lasts a little longer.

Until one day, when there's no words at all.

One day, when there's just the sound of a single sob, and then a long, long silence.

[inkspottie]

Repose

[esmes]

so i bet all i have on that furrowed brow and at least in this lifetime we're sticking together me and my husband we're sticking together

[hyohaehyuk]

Sam being really protective of Jacob in 2 comic cons 🥰

[sdcc 2022]

sam encouraging jacob to share which new figurines he got/jacob about taking him & eric to the floor:

Jacob: i think they were like, “oh, we thought–” Eric *teasing*: “–you were a normal person” Sam: i loved it. I just cant believe some of the artwork [of the figures]. it's amazing!

He really loves the fact jacob is a nerd 🥰

Also at beginning, Eric even says "now i know the level of lunacy of the fandoms (that attend to comic cons)" and Jacob was outraged. He even mumbles "how dare you?!" to Sam 🤣

[sdcc 2024]

sam protecting jacob in his absence, as the interviewer jokes about trash-talking jacob:

interviewer: he can't fight back! sam: *fighting back* jacob has massive fomo […] *glancing at delainey & assad* so let's not trash jacob!

via thejamlore (x)(x)

[clockworkvampyre]

my favorite steamgoth icon

[enden-k]

taru, somewhere in the waters for who knows how long after he broke out from underwater jail, possibly reliving abyss trauma or smth, while fontaine is about to be flooded :

"yea hell be fine"

my bbg falling and scraping the entirety of his ass in a tournament :

[abyssal-ilk]

the thing about ghilan'nain is that when i look at her, she doesn't freak me out or feel gross/unnerving in any way. like i look at her and i can't even focus on how she's supposed to be corrupted and scary because i'm too busy looking at her face and back and going. damn. that shit has gotta hurt, right??

[soulmvtes]

it is so sunny and golden today and the light is illuminating all the trees and green leaves so beautifully on my train ride home <33

[mitskiluvr]

watched the haikyu movie thinking it was going to be normal but unfortunately i came out battered bruised bleeding and 5 years younger, back in 2019 watching haikyu on my couch and trying to get my sister hooked on it

[nemotakeit]

i think that if we dig all the way down to the roots of tøp's musical theme, it all comes down to that constant internal conflict between desperately wanting to be seen and desperately wanting to stay hidden. we can see how they've been making gradual progress in "managing the tension" but it's still there on Clancy. dare i say it's the central theme of the lore as well.. the reason the character & the era Clancy feels so rebellious is because he's actively fighting to Be Seen. the oscillation continues, but a subversive variable has emerged.

[braceletofteeth]

“Is this how you we are supposed to be living?”

(insp.)

[chirpsythismorning]

I’m just gonna come out and say it… Byler’s best scene has gotta be the rain fight. It just is. It’s arguably Finn and Noah’s best performance for their characters’ dynamic. It has everything. Repression. Instant regret. Groveling. Heartbreak. Devastation.

Me, rewatching the rain fight to feel something that is akin to every single feeling one experiences after watching a masterful feature length romance, only in this case it’s all happening in one single scene:

[queenofbaws]

Hello fellow chilly queen!! I’m sorry I’ve been MIA, have been recovering from surgery (wisdom teeth). Doooo you think I could get some jossam, anything of your choice 👀👀👀? I hope you’re doing well and this week was better for you than it was me lol <3

catch me catching up on some prompts! ;)c

She could still hear the party going on. Doors closed, windows shut, the breeze in her ears, and...yeah. Yup. Mhm. That was definitely the bassline of Mike's (questionable) music choices making the hum under her butt. The whole point of slipping out for a little fresh air had been to, well, get away, but even so, Sam had to smile. Shake her head.

As long as everyone was having fun, what was the harm, right?

It was always cold up on the mountain - freezing, more often than not - but tonight, bundled up as she was, the chill barely bothered her. In fact, she shut her eyes, tipped her head back, and took in the deepest, deepest breath she could, filling her lungs with the crisp scent of pine. Not the artificial stuff either, the real deal, baby, roots and all. In her mind's eye, she saw her exhale plume out in front of her, a cloud of her worries pushed out of her and carried up, up, and away to join the ones in the sky, and when she opened her eyes for real, she...

Actually screamed.

"Wow," Josh snorted, deftly rocking to one side to avoid any punches she might've considered throwing. "A 'hello' would've sufficed."

When her fight-or-flight registered he was not, in fact, some crazed mountain man come to chop her into a billion little pieces, Sam fell flat onto her back, pressing her hands to her heart in an attempt to calm it down. "That...was incredibly mean, what you just did."

Because he'd sat himself beside her, she had the perfect vantage point to watch his face contort. No regret, she noted, not even a teeny-tiny sliver. Plenty of self-satisfaction, though. Lots of pretending like he wasn't laughing his ass off, inside his head. "Sitting on my own deck, huh? Punishable offense now, I guess."

"The sneaking, Josh."

"Who said I was sneaking, Sam?"

"Me. I do. The one whose eyes were closed."

"Have you ever considered...not dropping your guard while in a big, scary cabin in the middle of the dark, spooky woods?" He glanced down to meet her eyes, then raised his beer in a silent toast before taking a drink. "The killer always goes for the ones who split off from the rest of the group, Giddings. C'mon, you know this."

"The killer," she began, pushing herself up with her elbows, waving his hand away when he offered to help, "can try. I might not look like it, but I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, I've caught on to that," he nodded. For a second she thought he might say something else...but then he simply looked out towards the woods and nodded, taking another drink. "I've caught on."

Her pulse dropped back to its usual resting beat, and so she resumed her earlier position, legs crisscrossed and hands at her sides, her mittened palms flush against the deck itself. She tried not to look at him directly (not right away), instead rolling her eyes at the faint snow-angel she'd left in her panic. Snow-amoeba, really. There hadn't been a lot of snowfall since she'd gone out, only enough to barely dust the deck, but if the clouds on the horizon were any sign, they'd be getting more any minute now.

The song inside the lodge ended. A new one began. Beneath them, a different bassline began to thump. One of the windows rattled in its frame.

"You're not being a very good host," she said after a while, shooting him a sidelong look. Despite the scare he'd given her, she couldn't help smirking when their eyes met. He was good at that, Josh - making her forget things like that, smoothing them over without doing anything at all. It was a dangerous skill to have.

"Or I'm the best host," he argued, "rushing out into the night to make sure all my guests are having a good time."

She heard the unspoken question in it, figured maybe that was what she was good at - cutting through his crap. Another dangerous skill, that, just...in a different direction. "I'm having a good time."

"Mmm. Glad to hear it."

"Yup."

It was funny, really, how well she knew him. Maybe not funny in the laugh-out-loud kind of way, maybe funny more in the whacking-your-elbow kind of way, but funny all the same. In her head, Sam counted one, two, three...and then he turned to her again, keeping his bottle close to his mouth the way he did when he was trying to seem unbothered.

"Let's say, hypothetically of course, that you weren't having a good time. You'd tell me, right?"

She turned to him. Nodded. "I would tell you."

"And if, still entirely hypothetically, someone had said or done something to piss you off to such a degree that you had to flee the party..."

Her eyes rolled so hard that they brought the rest of her body with them. "Josh," she said, scooting so she was fully facing him, "I'm fine. Seriously. Things just got a little loud in there, that's all. A little crazy. I know you don't get this, but sometimes I like to just sit out in nature - " she spread her arms wide, gesturing to the mountain and its snowy trees, the stars above, the shimmering ribbon of aurora in the sky, " - so I can think my thoughts to myself. My quiet thoughts. Just so happens that I've...got a few of those, tonight. That's all."

After another drink, he set his beer down on the deck, copying her so they were facing each other, their postures mirrored. He wasn't wearing mittens, though, so she had to figure his hands were freezing. If they were, he didn't seem to care.

"Anything you want to share with the class?" he asked, and again the word appeared in her head: dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.

What she needed to say was no, that there wasn't anything in particular on her mind, that she'd simply wanted a moment to herself. That would've been the smart thing to do, the safe thing to do, but...well. Those warning sirens in her head, they weren't just for his actions, now, were they?

She sniffed from the cold, giving her nose a numb little wiggle, then did something significantly more dangerous than splitting off from the rest of the group, something more dangerous than sitting with her eyes shut and her guard down in the middle of nowhere, something that, as Josh had pointed out himself, she knew better than to do.

She told him the truth.

"Just thinking about how absolutely furious Hannah and Beth would be if I told them I think I have a crush on their brother," she said, measuring her words carefully, watching his face more carefully still. "Between you and me? I kinda feel like they might eat me alive."

[chloecherrysip]

Mario watching his and Luigi's commercial in Punch-Out Pizzeria