the only ami that could ever feasibly be a taylor swift fan is jehan prouvaire. this is because in the book he is mentioned to be a fan of andre chenier, confirming that reactionary politics is not actually a dealbreaker for him when it comes to enjoyment of art. in this essay I will

im an aroace barbie truther through and through i recognize my own kind

A lot of us have trouble with self-care because we were taught by early caregivers never to put our own self-interest first.

Here’s the thing: in a perfect society, people would look out for each other, right? Because each person deserves to have people looking out for them. But sometimes there isn’t another person who can take care of you.

You are the person with the primary responsibility of looking out for you. 

Little kids’ parents have that primary responsibility, but when the kid reaches a certain age, they are the one with that primary responsibility.

Yes, you have some level of obligation to take care of friends and family and the needy, but the one person everyone can agree that you definitely have the responsibility to take care of is you. 

Think of it like a logic puzzle. Every person deserves to have somebody taking care of them. You are in a situation where nobody else is going to take care of you or nobody else can take care of you. You still deserve to have somebody taking care of you, and you are the person with the primary responsibility to do that. 

Yes, there are times when we don’t put ourselves first, for whatever reason, but for a lot of us, we have abandoned ourselves and have stopped fulfilling that responsibility to care for ourselves. You are as deserving of care as anybody else, and you are your primary caregiver: if you don’t do it, who will?

the autistic urge to use overly formal language. wdym i'm being pretentious for saying "one", its so much faster then being like "somebody ... some people ... blah blah ... "

*dying pterodactyl noise*

"Chance or Something More" already had me in a chokehold but the English dub!?

I thought for sure we'd get the frantic over-the-top Jinshi when he sees that Maomao saved him, but instead we got the quiet, disbelieving, heartbroken, terrified voice of a man who is so so scared to lose the best thing that's ever happened to him.

And then his resolve carrying her out of there, calmly? Not making eye contact with anyone, pace unbroken, thousand-yard-stare of a man who almost lost everything?

He doesn't even care that he almost died. He doesn't care who's around to see him carry a low born servant girl out of the temple. He doesn't care about propriety or cultural expectations.

His Maomao is injured. She is his priority. Always.

if you say shit like 'autism is not a disability' i hope you actually have really bad things happen to you and you are banned from the autism community for the foreseeable future. get another fun weird club if you so badly need one

so profoundly tired of people trying to make autism into this whimsical quirkiness when it's for most people a serious and debilitating life altering disorder

it's just that "i was half-convinced i'd waken, satisfied enough to dream you" is such a delicate declaration, yet so ardent. if perhaps you aren't real, if you are something my own mind has concocted, that's enough. (come back to me, even as a shadow, even as a dream.) the mere gossamer thread of fantasy would be enough to fill my heart, would be real enough if you don't exist in this waking world, i'll bring you into it, i'll find you in a dream. "happily, i was mistaken," and have never been so glad to be wrong. you do exist, some miracle of fate led me to that window, and as long as you are real, there is hope to hold onto. that love could be realized too. anthony is the only person in the story who still believes in anything, and it's love. my heart has followed a winding path, and that you exist is enough to persist. in the cracks of light, i dreamed of you. it was real enough to get me through. 'til i'm with you, then i'm with you there.

Atsushi's back in the game!!! ۶( ˆ o ˆ )

this is not fire emblem i just have to say

HOW IS IT

THAT WE GOT

CHRIS PRATT

FOR MARIO IN THE MARIO MOVIE

RIGHT? RIGHT

AND JAPAN GOT FUCKING MAMORU MIYANO IM FUCKIN LOSIN IT

In the vein of embracing the darkness and kinda owning it, I imagine Redeemed Durge x Spawn Astarion would have viciousness punctuated by tender loving care. Like, turning a Bounty job into a fun little hunt, giving into predator instinct and enjoying the thrill and adrenaline. Durge holding someone still while Astarion gets his fill, then gleefully ending it. They both just appreciate one another's prowess.

Then they're heading back to wherever they're staying, lingering touches and stolen kisses exchanged along the way, then they topple into bed before the sun can even peek over the horizon. Their limbs are locked, bodies pressed, secure and proud of the way they wield their combined strength. Just cuddles while basking in one another.

45 - Boundaries

I have always known I am different from other darkners. Special, somehow. While my compatriots remain as they are, eternally faithful to their designated roles, I find myself constantly changing, evolving, transcending the bounds of my supposed destiny.

What I don't understand, is why.

I always thought that meeting more of my kind would make me feel less alone in the world. I desperately wanted for that to be the case, yet... I feel no kinship towards them. Our similarities serve only to highlight the gulf that exists between us. But perhaps I am being snobbish. Perhaps I am blinded by the magnificence of the lightners, as has been claimed of me in the past.

I would not dare to presume I stand equal to either of them. They know the conventions as well as I do, by now. Despite that, there is a strange, inexplicable parity between us. Here, too, are beings capable of reflection and growth, their inner lives so rich and nuanced, forms of joyous, angst-ridden contradictions, both masters of their own destiny and prisoners of a greater provenance.

Their choosing to spend time with me, when they could be out there, living a truer, fuller life... if they can cross that forbidden threshold so easily and so readily... who is to say that I, too, cannot hope to do so, one day?

But until that day, I will stay as I am, with one foot in the light and one in the dark. Caught between two incompatible states of being, not entirely belonging to either. Some wretched in-between-thing, grasping endlessly at something I will never be able to hold...

...could there truly be a place for me, in the world we strive to create? Or will I fall between the cracks once more, lost and forgotten to all?

_______________________________

The Dark Menagerie No. 45

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I still have a really big soft spot for ESO's class design tbh, I think having to realistically make every spec able to perform every MMO role while also having to make every one of those classes feel noticeably unique and different even in the same role was a really fun design decision

Thinking abt Jessica Cruz and the ability to overcome great fear again

For Clover: ✨ and because my weird little mortician brain wants to know all about everyone’s funeral whether they actually exist or not: 🌓

- @heylittleriotact

🌓 - What would your OC’s funeral be like? Would they prefer a tomb, cremation, or to be given back to the earth? 

Okay so first thing you need to understand about Clover is that she's more Druid than Ranger, and her mother is a retired Cleric of Chauntea. She's also half wood Elf lmao.

She's very much a "return me to the earth" girly. Don't even put her in a coffin, she wants to nurture the land with her body. She wants her friends and family to gather to remember her fondly, not mourn. Don't cry because I'm gone, smile because you got to know me, type. There should be music and her favourite foods for everyone to enjoy.

Plant a tree or flowers or something to mark her grave, visit her often and have picnics there.

Honestly she's pretty chill about death as it is, seeing it as just the next part of life. And honestly, presuming this happens a century+ after the end of the game? She's literally fought Myrkul... she's not afraid of death

@static-overlord // cont x

Elin nodded her head, listening to Vox’s explanation with interest. Seeing the sparks shooting from the demons fingertips was actually quite fascinating. After a moment of silence, the Irishwoman nodded her head. Glancing down at her own freckled hands, the woman seemed to come to a decision. With a simple wave of her hand, a circle of mushrooms and wildflowers pushed up from the ground.

“What does it feel like tae ye? Traveling like that I mean. When I travel..”

Elin hummed thoughtfully before continuing.

“Kinda feels like I’m being pulled in completely different directions? Not enough to hurt but enough tae lose my way if I’m not careful. When ye travel through the circuits do ye see anything? Fer me I always end up seeing heavy mist and the outline of trees when I travel using my abilities.”

it's always interesting to me how a bunch of analyses on knives’s character I've seen/read rely on the affirmation that he's inherently in an advantageous or privileged position compared to vash when not only are both of them from the same female-presenting species, they both suffered from the same gendered trauma and exposure to oppression/violence in the form of tessla as kids - it was their reactions and processing (or lack of processing, in knives’s case) of it that ultimately shaped what would later become their opposing ideals and/or beliefs.

obviously, our own different experiences, thoughts, beliefs etc irl will influence our readings on these sort of characters but idk, I think it's curious that knives's brand of rage/hatred/violence is seen as a Clearly Cis Masculine thing (which boy. there's a lot to unpack there) when these feelings stem from a deeply rooted fear of exploitation and consumption (that he can be subjected to, by virtue of the species he belongs to and what his body can do) that can be pretty relatable to afab folks imo. the lowkey infantilization is huh interesting as well bc honestly a lot of knives's overly emotional reactions remind me of afab characters who are immediately dismissed as crazy, hysterical etc etc for acting the same

anyway. I don't really care what genitals ppl hc knives with bc lord knows porn is free real estate and that's another matter (I've personally enjoyed fanarts/fics where he's depicted as having either, both, or smth completely different) but eh ig what I mean to say with all this useless rambling is that knives belonging to the same (oppressed) species as vash and still exhibiting abusive behaviors towards him doesn't automatically make knives the Cishet Male Privileged guy fighting against vash's Queer Trans Marginalization when both can easily be read as sexually-and-gender queer (even if in different ways) and if you believe folks from the same oppressed/marginalized group can't hurt each other well. think abt that perhaps

(as a side note bc this apparently needs to be said on these kinda posts but No I Do Not Think Knives’s Genocidal Tendencies Are Okay)