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I was thinking about Laika. Crying about her.

Because I ses these lovely poems and drawings of the space dog, making her death into something beautiful. But.

She must have been so scared. She went into that little shuttle because we told her to. Because she was good dog and she trusted us. Dogs trust us. They do what we tell them, they love us and obey us without knowing what we are asking them to do.

She got in that shuttle and they launched it into space and it must have been terrifying. It would be so loud and it would have shook and moved and the g-force alone...

Did she bark when they started it? Did she whine and cry and scratch at the door? She must have. She must have shook and barked and been so so scared. Then it would have been cold. She died from hypothermia. She must have been bruised and in pain from the flight. Scared and alone and so cold and she died up there. Alone.

It doesn't matter what we learned. It's not worth it. Not the life of a dog that trusted the humans that put her in that shuttle to die, cold and alone and so very very far from home.

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The thing is, I don't like AltPowderxEkko. It was sweet in Ep 7, Ekko definitely needed that break and that reminder of what/who he was fighting for, but I don't like the ship.

The alt world is a nice world. AltEkko and AltPowder fit, because they both grieve Vi, but they have been allowed to grow up in a softer, kinder world. They are softer, kinder people.

Our Ekko is broken. He has been through so much and has fought so hard. Jinx is broken too. They are both broken people who are broken together. AltPowder will never truly understand Ekko. But Jinx and Ekko have been through similar things, and through the fights and pain and enemies to lovers, they fit together. Not like puzzle pieces, but more like a two broken vases that put together, make a whole.

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the default way for things to taste is good. we know this because "tasty" means something tastes good. conversely, from the words "smelly" and "noisy" we can conclude that the default way for things to smell and sound is bad. interestingly there are no corresponding adjectives for the senses of sight and touch. the inescapable conclusion is that the most ordinary object possible is invisible and intangible, produces a hideous cacophony, smells terrible, but tastes delicious. and yet this description matches no object or phenomenon known to science or human experience. so what the fuck

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The Clone Wars are so so good. The story and the way the Clone Wars adds to the entire Star Wars universe and completely changes the feel of the original Star Wars trilogy is amazing.

The Clone Wars turn Star Wars from a classic heroic tale into a tragedy and a bittersweet and horribly sad story.

The thing about the Clone Wars is that it makes you love the characters. We, as the audience, cheer for the clones, for the Jedi, for the other characters we have grown to love. The episodic nature of the show makes us invested in each part of the Wars, and we watch in anticipation for the Clones and Jedi to accomplish their mission and create a happy ending.

But the show isn't a happy ending. The good guys lose. The bad guys win. It's horrible, the people we love die or face a fate worse than death. The Jedi lost the war before the war even began. Palpatine created such a good, ruthless plan that was set into motion years before the show, and he pulled it off.

It completely changes the feel of the entire Star Wars universe. The orginal trilogy was so fun. It was rebels and a happy ending and an empire defeated! Heroes that are triumphant and the little people winning against the tyrannical Empire!

But then the Clone Wars happen, and that happy ending doesn't feel too happy anymore. Because the Jedi and all of their culture is gone, and will never return to what it once was. The Jedi children were slaughtered. The Temple was torn apart. The Clones are dead, and they suffered so much. Alderaan is gone, Mandalore is gone, Padme died, Naboo probably is gone, so many other planets had their culture ripped out and crushed. The Republic will never be the same. Palpatine died, but he still won. He wiped out the Republic and the Jedi.

It really makes you aware that for a rebellion to happen, the tyrannical dynasty destroyed the culture before it. Empires don't just appear from nothing. Clone Wars forces you to face that.

It changes the story from a happy ending to a sad one. It changes the narrative completely.

The best thing about Star Wars is that it is not a happy story.

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I work for an air district, and we get calls from public members complaining about their air quality problems, and my supervisor once spent an hour arguing with this woman over the phone who called to complain about chemtrails. In the end, our manager had to calm him down cause he was almost shouting at this woman over the phone. People are idiots.

As my boss once said, "I used to be a people person. Then people happend."

i know most people following me dont care about the weather, but i really need to share this because im genuinely gonna throw the fuck up dying of laughter over whoever runs this national weather service account on twitter fighting for their lives

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I'm sorry he looks like a closeted gay guy at a bar while a straight woman flirts with him

The Temptation of Sir Percival, 1894

Arthur Hacker

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explain your gender in 10 words or less without using boring words like “male”, “female”, “nonbinary”, “masculine”, “feminine” or “androgynous”.

go!

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Literally the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. Society suffered a magic apocalypse that destroyed most of modern civilization about 50 years before the books start. Now the world switches between magic and tech on a regular basis, each "wave" lasting about half a day.

The world building is fantastic, really well thought out of a modern society that is broken, but still remains.

The very first chapter of the first book, the fmc is watching the news, seeing the special report of demon snakes raining from the sky, and is wondering who is stupid enough to summon in this day and age. Doesn't everyone know it only ends badly?

Seriously, these books are awesome. Heavy on the romance and "stunningly masculine and beautiful male characters blah blah) but awesome. The world and characters are off the charts. The nonchalance of the characters who grew up after the magic apocalypse is hilarious.

Neither “the magic is going away” nor “the magic is just beginning” but “the magic has been around for fifty years and society has only partly adjusted”

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I'm watching the new Natsume Yuujinchou season, and I am really noticing how different Natsume's eyes look compared to everyone else's. All the other human characters have round pupils, even when they are startled, but Natsume has cat-slit pupils, no matter what he is feeling. When he is suprised, they narrow, but even when calm, his pupils are not round.

It's such a subtle difference, especially because his coloring isn't that unusual (unlike the manga) but it's noticeable and makes him feel different than the other humans. I can only imagine other people subconsciously pick up on it, and its just one more thing that isolated him from people when he was growing up.

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Look at this shit

There are 4 police men surrounding him and his lawyer during the arraignment, this one guy has his hands on the back of his chair. WTF. The police are trying to intimidate Luigi and his lawyer while in court. That cannot be legal. There is no reason for them to do this. Luigi is cooperating. He's not fighting them at all.

Can you imagine how much stress that adds to his lawyer? It's already an insane case, and now this woman is surrounded by four burly guys with weapons? I bet she feels safer with her murder suspect client.

Also, the fact that the police are so invested in this, are with Luigi constantly, they way he made the entire NYCPD look bad, it worries me. I'm really really scared they are going to kill him and make it look like suicide.

Yeah, it would make him a martyr. But the cops and the mayor have already made so many mistakes and are so terrible at understanding what people are thinking. That perp walk really drummed it in, they are oblivious idiots. I think they would think his death and being a martyr is better than him potentially walking free because of the jury.

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the only thing you can bake with no fear is cookies cause you can add pretty much everything to a cookie and it will be ok. oats, sunflower seeds, nuts, peanut butter, jam, marshmallows, dried fruit, dude anything. cookies love you and want to be made. just don't burn them they are sensitive motherfuckers

like the first rule of cooking is to have fun and be yourself and the first rule of baking is to stay calm because the dough can sense fear

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When Ao3 is down so I immediately turn on airplane mode to save all the tabs I have already loaded so I can read them without the page trying to refresh....

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My random news feed and news paper emails are full of breaking news! that the Senate passed a funding bill and the government will remain standing! no shutdown happening! With pictures of old white guys with their thumbs up, all happy.

Like, yay! great job, you stopped a government shutdown! look how smart and great our senators are!

Guys, keeping the government from shutting down is the bare minimum of your jobs. In fact, I think that when the government is shut down, politicians should not get paid. Because, in case anyone was wondering, they do. Congress gets paid during a shutdown they caused, while all the other federal workers have to work without pay or get furloughed.

Our government is so divided by parties that it can barely function. Keeping the government running should be bare minimum, it should not be a giant fight, and Congress should instead turn its attention to more important things, like Social Security, taxing billionaires, climate change, ect.

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I posted this a while ago, but I wanted to bring it back, in light of everything that has happened. This really isn't a terrible story, or a personal one, but its a basic example of how health insurance is screwed up on its most basic level. It's not denied care, but it shows how insurance companies push on the smallest things to make money.

Health care should not be regulated and controlled by for-profit private companies. Thats it. That's the line in the sand that has been crossed over and over and people are now re-drawing that line and defending it.

Our HR lady told us that our employees are having too many ER visits, and the insurance company is upset that we have gone over the amount we are allowed.

Which is the most bullshit thing ever. ER is literally for emergency and for an insurance company to limit ER visits is so morally reprehensible. We pay a ton of money out of our paycheck to even get the shitty insurance and now they are telling us that no, we aren't getting what we pay for. And we should try "alternatives" before going to ER. Like teledocs.

I swear, this is just a precursor for insurance companies saying you have to go through AI bs before you can go to ER. Like some checklist you have to complete before you get care.

This country I swear to God. It shouldn't even cost hundreds or thousands of dollars just to get medical care in the first place, much less EMERGENCY medical care.

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We have now added a new trope of "Doomed Found Family" and I Do Not Like It.

i can be your angle....or yuor devil

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Our view of Wyldon changes as Kel changes. We see the world through her eyes. In the first book she's a child, literally an 10/11 year old girl. Wyldon is responsible for a lot of unfairness in her life, he's really mean to her and she only sees it as him punishing her for being a girl. So of course, we don't like him and only see one side of him. It's a very childish point of view, which is the point.

However, Kel is a perceptive child and raised from a very young age to respect authority and especially teachers, with her background in the Yamani Isles. So we also see some good sides to him, and he comes across as an asshole, but not a villain. Same with Jon, at this point.

But as Kel grows up, her view of the world changes, as is normal for children. Growing up opens your eyes. Children start to notice things and form different and layered opinions. Kel starts to see more of who Wyldon is.

By the end of the series, Kel is basically an adult, and she can see that Wyldon is a man, is human, can make mistakes, can be wrong, can change. We see the many different sides of him, and his reasons for doing certain things.

Our view of Wyldon changes as Kel changes and grows.

reading The Protector of the Small quartet again for the ????th time (could be as many as the twentieth or more tbh, they're sorta my top comfort reads) and my brain keeps being stuck on Wyldon's character this time around. like he's just FASCINATING. I've rarely read a character who is presented as such a complete fucking asshole who does such a 180 in my estimation in a way that's nuanced and COMPLETELY EARNED, while still staying the same fundamental person at the core, and still being allowed to be flawed. (because oh boy he is flawed) I rank him with Zuko in Top Fantasy Character Redemptions of All Time. I hate him. I love him. some thoughts from this read-through: -he's autistic. like he's just SO very autistic it almost hurts, and half of the reason Kel and him end up eventually understanding and respecting each other so well is exactly for this reason. he's so This Is the Way Things Should Be Done Because The Rules Say So and he is SO rigid and specific but also he EVOLVES and that's a fascinating dichotomy -this is also the SAME reason that Neal and him get along like oil on water, because they are both autistic but Opposite, it's like the personality equivalent of trying to get two hedgehogs to hug -that being said Lord Wyldon RESPECTS Neal in a really bizarre way, or at least understands him? He'd never admit that but that one moment in Lady Knight when he's explaining to Kel about why he picked her for Haven's commander, and he says that he CONSIDERED Neal FOR THE JOB? but said that he thought Neal was 'too fair' and essentially that he would simultaneously care too much and be too irreverent with the refugees, not be objective like Kel would be? again. fascinating. -Owen being Wyldon's squire is such a wild combination of personalities that ALSO should not work at all, because Owen is pure !!!! and Wyldon is like :/, but then my brain was like: oh. Owen is basically a over-excited puppy and Wyldon loves dogs -when Kel rescues Lalasa at the end of Page & passes out, then wakes up to Wyldon and her mum in the room and her mum is arguing with Wyldon about Kel's schedule and stuff. I somehow never really registered before that she FIRST NAMES HIM. She calls him Wyldon, not Lord Wyldon, and is comfortable enough to berate him. do they fucking KNOW EACH OTHER from when they were younger? WHAT IS THE STORY THERE? now I'm remembering when Wyldon got all surprised to hear the story of Illane fighting off the Scanran bandits and saving the sacred swords of the Yamani Islands. hm. interesting. much to consider.

-the bit where Wyldon is like OH SHIT the pages nearly got killed because tradition dictates I don't teach them actual battle strategy and tactics. and I fucking love tradition but I also love pages not being dead, so I guess I better get my shit together on that one.

-or when he QUITS as training master because he's like 'damn toxic masculinity fucked these kids up and I'm kinda partially to blame for that. I gotta get my shit together', and he's like the best thing that came out of being training master was having you as a page. and acknowledges he nearly fucked that up too? -while we're on the subject of 'what went through Wyldon's head' WHEN KEL RAN OFF TO SCANRA AND THEN CAME BACK HAVING BASICALLY WON THE WAR FOR THEM? AND HE WAS SO DISCOMBOBULATED HE ACCIDENTALLY AGREED WITH NEAL? -speaking of the end of Page earlier, i wanna read or possibly write a fic about what went through Wyldon's head when Kel didn't show up to the big examinations, because I think that's SUCH a turning point for his character. Like yes he respected Kel and let her stay before that, but the way he's so clearly kicking himself in the aftermath, going to far as to rope in Duke Turomot, and INVOKE THE GODDESS IN HIS PRAYER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.... what happened when he had to give the command to start the examinations without her? Like it really struck me that he must have thought 'oh. she gave up after all' and I think part of him might have been disappointed, and part of him *relieved* because he was still clinging to those old attitudes despite everything. And to find out he was wrong? That she hadn't given up, but had sacrificed everything she had worked for in the finest single demonstration of true chivalry and courage he had probably ever witnessed from a page? like damn. Lord Wyldon of Cavall you funky, fucked up man, I want to study you like a bug