#you’re the asshole

[aita-polls]

AITA for refusing to stop my pet roaches from sleeping in my roomates socks?

So me and my roomate (let’s call her D) recently got in a bit of a fight over my pet roaches and their nap spots, I recently moved in with D and her little brother (L) and I brought my large multitude of pet roaches with me. At first the roaches were home sick having moved so suddenly however they finally warmed up to the place and had found their favorite beds. The problem being that their favorite beds were D’s socks, she informed me about them sleeping in her socks and asking me to tell them to stop. The thing is, I love my roach babies, I wasn’t gonna deny them the joy of a good nap, besides D always wears fuzzy socks that seem really comfy so I understand my roach babies. 

Anyway, AITA?

TLDR: they are comfy socks your honor

[wanologic]

reminder to take care of your loser human body

[iii-of-ender]

gnashing my teeth like a feral animal. can we stop fuckijg hating on the south???

[mmelolabelle]

Armand is someone who has been has been trained (in brothels, by Marius, and by 500+ years worth of life experience) to adapt himself to what the people around him want. Throughout seasons 1-2, different people get very different versions of Armand, depending on who they are and who’s retelling the story at the time.

It’s the primary way Armand protects himself, whether he’s a teenage sex slave or the oldest, strongest person in the room. It’s how he controls people. Fundamentally, it’s the only way Armand knows to make people love him (an approximation of love at least). Worse, it’s the only way Armand knows how to love — by twisting and contorting himself into whatever form he thinks his current obsession wants or needs him to be. He even does it to his victims for crying out loud.

And then here’s Daniel, who is constantly seeking authenticity and truth. Who’s bullshit detector is never “off”. Who cannot tolerate any kind of masquerade, manipulation or lie – no matter how kind or well intentioned. Not out of any moral or ethical objection, but because Daniel simply cannot leave things well enough alone once something attracts his attention. He has to know. He has to see where it goes and how it ends.

“It’s my job, I’m built this way”

“It’s in your nature, Mr Molloy. Couldn’t get out the door without lobbing one more bomb.”

Daniel knew something was off about “Rashid” from the beginning, so he began to pick the situation in Dubai apart until Armand revealed himself. And then he kept going until he completely destroyed the narrative Armand had spent 77 years constructing.

Daniel deliberately and systematically pulled “Armand, Amadeo, Arun” apart and laid him bare with nothing but but a laptop, some free time, a near-suicidal disregard for his own personal safety and a mouth that just wouldn’t quit.

There’s power in being seen, in being known, ugly parts and all. What would it feel like, to be completely exposed like that for the first time in centuries?

So yeah it makes sense to me that Armand, who puts on all these acts and artifices to draw people in, but which only serve to ensure they’re kept at a distance, would turn his big sad orange eyes on the person who blew them all to smithereens and be all “…I wanna do this forever, actually.”

[inkedinserendipity]

one of the reasons i think that the murderbot diaries’ emotional moments hit so hard is because of a scarcity effect that the author has set up really, really well.

because, like—murderbot, as a character, is an answer to the question how do you “show and not tell” emotional moments from the lens of a character who point-blank will not acknowledge any affection directed their way. or, instead of overtly stating that characters are friends (“tell”), how do you demonstrate it with text (“show”)? well, most authors go ham on characters smiling at each other, laughing, joking, expressing reciprocal loyalty.

murderbot does none of those things. murderbot probably never smiled before preservation, and definitely didn’t laugh. (this is only partially an exaggeration.) telling jokes? hell yeah, MB’s funny as fuck. to other people? hell no. that would require conversations and it’d rather die, thanks.

add that to the fact that murderbot treats any expressions of affection toward it—internal and external—like being bit by a snake.

so you have this character + writing style that bars most conventional ways of establishing relationships between characters. you also have this character who is basically incapable of feeling any sort of reciprocated, positive emotion toward itself. so what do you do?

you work around your character. murderbot will never pick up on affectionate body language. it hates hugs. every sentence it hears passes through about fifteen different filters of self-loathing. so you make your relationships clear, and when you hit, you hit hard.

you summarize snapshots of characters panicking about the main character getting hurt. you drop your character’s performance reliability (and their walls) and have them banter. you have your character walk in on the tail end of conversations that expose concern for it.

and then you do things so overt that even your shit-self-esteem character can’t talk its way out of. you have its friend tell it directly that it can’t lose it too. you have its friends accommodate it and understand it without it directly expressing a single need. you have its friends stand up for it in conversation when it is too tired to do so. and then, when you really want to hit, you have your character pretend to be physically compromised rather than have to feel one (1) positive emotion toward itself.

positive emotions toward itself can’t really pass through murderbot’s walls. so you have to establish relationships by beating your main character over the head with them. and it can’t be all the time—because that’s not how relationships and emotional recovery, yknow, works—but it can be sometimes, and it can be very powerful, and that is why i think murderbot diaries in particular is very, very effective.

[republicansaretheproblem]

[cult-rangoons]

new guy in my brain everyone say hi to nick i love you l4d

[j-liz]

HEADCANON: Becky 100% gets her first Tonitrus Bolt when she snaps and publicly cusses out a teacher for being a jerk.

You think so, huh?

[aita-polls]

AITA for repeatedly feeling angry at my boyfriend?

Context:

I have some mental problems that stem from trauma revolving abandonment and suddenly being ignored, me and my boyfriend have had multiple conversations on his tendency to randomly fall asleep around 8-10 pm at night, and I've come to expect it now. The issue is I never get a goodnight, warning, or even acknowledgement that this is triggering for me. Besides this, he's a good boyfriend so I refuse to leave him.

I don't say anything because whenever I do, I end up triggering myself and it isn't good for his mental sake to handle me in that state, I'm just getting really pissed off. I also have issues with insomnia, so I'm often left alone for hours on end.

I'm also fairly certain he turns off his phone, because theres no read receipts when he falls asleep, which only upsets me more, because then I get no warning he's tired. I'm getting so sick of it, because it's extremely upsetting, and I've told him numerous times to tell me when he's tired, but he keeps insisting he isn't and just falls alseep randomly. I'm not sure what to do anymore.

AITA for being so angry over this?

[wintersnails]

a House MD universal law is that if Wilson or Cuddy says “i’m going on a date” three times, House will spontaneously manifest like a cheap horror movie villain so that he can ruin their chances of getting any life outside of him

[arcane-vagabond]

Now in what fucking world are either of these photos fair?

[hawkeshep]

datv critical post: well thought out, eloquent 5 paragraph essay expressing their disappointment and highlighting what’s wrong with the game and what could’ve been improved upon

bioware dick rider: WELL ACKSHEWALLY the game is amazing and none of you have any reading comprehension or critical thinking skills!!! also you’re fucking stupid and I hope you die xoxo

[paperglader]

they really put alicent in bridgerton blue on the reunion and genuinely expected me to think that she didn’t in fact march all the way to dragonstone to get wifed up? bfr

[francesderwent]

thinking about snarky cultural/theological commentary and. the thing about snark is this: it’s easy, and it’s instant gratification. it’s easy because you’re playing to a likeminded audience. you get the way they think, you know the sort of things they find ridiculous, and so you know what’s going to play well with them. it’s not that hard to come up with a zinger that’s going to earn you applause from your own side. it’s also pretty easy to make another human being who’s not on your side look stupid, because we’re stupid creatures and we all have plenty of exploitable weak spots. it’s preaching to the choir, and it’s preaching meanly to the choir. and then, your snark bears all its fruit right away. you get the glowing feeling of having scored points against the enemy while being patted on the back by your friends for being so brave. if you succeeded in being snarky, you get the rewards of snark that very instant.

on the other hand, seeking to share the truth you possess in a mode in which it could actually be received—that is, says St Thomas, according to the mode of the recipient—that’s hard, and it’s so far from being instantly gratifying that you may never see the fruits of it in this life. not only are you not thinking about your likeminded audience, you’re not even going to trot out the truth simply in the way you understand it and call it your best effort. rather, you have to try to get inside your interlocutor’s frame of mind and understand how the truth you know is going to fulfill their own priorities and longings. you have to understand them so well that you see the truth of their position, even if that truth is buried very very deep, and then see how that truth connects them to the truth you see. you have to be insightful, and compassionate, and so, so patient. you don’t get to score any points, with anybody. your interlocutor might still get annoyed with you and turn around and make you look stupid. but you can’t just say “I’m going to speak the truth and I don’t care who hears and how they take it”—you have to care how they take it, because the truth is relational, it’s given and received, not just spouted into a void. and frankly you have to care how they take it because you have to care about their salvation.

don’t get me wrong, there are times in every person’s life when they will be called to stand up and be counted, to put fumbling words to what they hold most dear even if they can’t make everyone understand. but I don’t know that it’s a virtue to be always focused on being seen saying the truth, with no consideration given to who hears you and what they’ll hear in it—and it’s certainly not a virtue to be always focused on being seen saying the truth in a mean and funny way. “instruct the ignorant” is a spiritual work of mercy. but instruct the ignorant does not mean “instruct the ignorant while making the knowledgeable laugh and/or high five.”

[henreyettah]

Shit talking with bae

[kingcrustacean]

Why is he so hard to draw