Will Graham: *Sweating shaking and covered in dog hair* Fuck off, don’t talk to me, you can literally go die

Hannibal: You are the sexiest person I have ever laid eyes on.

Beautiful friendship

can i request three somehow forced into a fake dating situation

Three stares directly into Martyn’s eyes. They are blue and of an average size. It feels as though maybe this should be against the rules, but according to the book it had read, this was… normal. A normal thing to do on a date. Look deeply into someone’s eyes. It would not be suspicious at all, even though Three isn’t really sure how to look more or less deeply into anyone’s eyes at all. Eyes are not flat, but even when Three Looks, it isn’t as though there is anything interesting in there.

Martyn is sweating somewhat. He looks away first.

Three’s pretty sure this counts as a victory, especially given Martyn can’t see Three’s face behind the mask anyway. It is good Three has now won the game of ‘staring lovingly into its date’s eyes’, because that had been a strange, threatening mortal ritual. It would rather not do that again.

“Haha, thanks again for agreeing to this date,” Martyn says, very suspiciously looking around the small cafe in a bustling semi-private Origins server. “It’s been so long since we’ve gotten to hang out like this. Gods, do I sound stupid.”

“You do,” Three says.

“You don’t have to answer those,” Martyn says.

“Will comply,” Three says.

“Oh, for the love of—we’re on a date. A date!” Here, Martyn winks obnoxiously. “It’s not a mission.” He winks obnoxiously again. “Besides, you should lighten up!”

“Will comply,” Three says.

“You know, I had forgotten how obnoxious that was,” Martyn says cheerfully. “Anyway, I should order us some drinks! Have some conversation! Keep an eye out around us, yeah, for our waiter?”

“You are not very subtle,” Three says.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martyn says. “Besides, honestly? I am really glad to just hang out with you. Because we’re dating! On this server for fancy couples. Yep.”

The problem is, of course, that a fancy origins server is a great place for the strangest of people to hide.

When Martyn had asked a favor, Three had been… uncertain. This was not because Three doesn’t care for Martyn—it does, greatly—or because Three didn’t want to see Martyn—they’d met up a few times before now, tentative and quiet and frustrated and all the things that were hard to explain, and then in all the ways they were okay again—but because Martyn, for all Three cares for him, is still an idiot.

Three is its own handler, now. It does not have to follow handlers that are morons. It had told Martyn this. When Martyn had stopped wheezing, he’d explained that it’d be fun. Not Listener business, he promised; he still hadn’t quite gotten out, but he wouldn’t drag Three in, Scout’s honor.

(Three believes him. It’s never been that Three doesn’t trust him.)

It was a friend of Martyn’s that had gone missing. Apparently, on some fancy modded server? And now, Martyn wanted Three to come help him do some recon because, quote, “Jimmy laughed at me until he cried and that hurt me a little bit, not going to lie, and I’ve used up the favors Ren owes me, and Oli was busy. Have you met Oli? You’d like Oli.”

(Three did not like Oli.)

Three agreed, despite its better judgement. The reason it thought this may be a poor plan was because—

“Ah, the lovely Valentines,” the waiter says. He gives them a plate of lovely heart-shaped calamari. Three wonders if they had belonged to heart-shaped squid. “It’s a lovely evening, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s wonderful here with my beloved!” Martyn says.

The waiter and Martyn both look at Three. Three doesn’t say anything and sits perfectly still.

“Um,” the waiter says.

“It’s for a health condition,” Martyn says, which technically isn’t a lie.

“Very well, sirs, although it may get in the way of the kissing competition!”

Martyn, who had just started sipping some wine, chokes on it.

“I will win the kissing competition,” Three says.

Martyn chokes harder.

“I will see you to it!” the waiter says. “And of course, our patented species comparability exam is the highlight of the evening.”

“Oh. I am not sure I can produce viable offspring,” Three says.

The waiter stares at Three. Three stares back, although not into the waiter’s eyes, as to not cause any confusion. The mask somewhat prevents that from working, though.

“Very well then,” the waiter says. “I suppose just—do you need help?”

“It knows what it’s doing,” Martyn hisses.

“I did do research before coming here,” Three says.

“I’ll just head on,” the waiter says, in a tone that suggests to Three that maybe it did not do enough research before agreeing to help Martyn.

Oh well.

At least the mask means it doesn’t have to keep a straight face as it picks Martyn off the ground and, completely flat in tone, says: “Do not die. I would be sad if you died of something as stupid as choking on wine.”

“I asked for this,” Martyn says.

“Yes,” Three says. “You did. That is why I am here.”

(Beneath the table, it grabs Martyn’s hand. Martyn squeezes Three’s hand back. It had missed him, though. For all they do not see each other often—)

(Well. It had missed him, though.)

I try not to make a lot of original posts on topics I don't actually have any expertise on, but I haven't seen a whole lot of posts going around that actually... explain what happened and why? Like, the actual order of events, the history, and so on. I want to reblog reference posts and explanations by people who actually know what they're talking about, but I haven't seen anything that hits the buttons I need to actually get a political situation... but I have seen some stuff on other platforms.

So here are some videos I've personally found useful in understanding Israel-Palestine, because that's the format I've found most useful in processing information of this nature:

Why Israel was Originally Attacked from RealLifeLore (explains the decades of political dynamics, internal demographic tensions, and power shifts leading up to the current conflict; notably the best I've seen at actually explaining what 'Israeli Occupation' actually means)

Israel-Hamas War: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (commentary on the actual current situation in terms of who's getting attacked, why, and what the international ramifications so far are)

What's Happening in Israel and Why with Nathan Thrall from Adam Conover, series Factually (a discussion with an on-the-ground journalist about what life was like on the ground for Palestinian people in the areas under Israeli control during the last few years, just up to the attacks themselves)

I'm not going to claim these are comprehensive or completely unbiased (there are a few moments where I'm not entirely sure of the bias levels myself), but for people like myself who came into all this unsure of what the actual situation even is, I think these are a solid set to build up an basic understanding from which to put together opinions on future information.

I can't tell anyone what to think about how or why any of this is happening. I can only really tell you that what's going on right now is a crime on the level of attempted genocide, and that the years leading up to that have been an absolute mess on almost all fronts.

Again, I have no expertise on this subject. I just know what kind of video essay, political commentary, and interview style makes things understandable to me, personally, and might work for others. Please be courteous and kind in the comments and tags, as I am only sharing this because I haven't seen such a resource making the rounds yet, not actually trying to sway anyone in a particular direction beyond "the mass death needs to stop."

If you know of similar, relatively unbiased* resources, feel free to share.

* By 'relatively unbaised,' I don't mean taking or not taking a side; I just mean that it doesn't try to hide some information or other in favor of pushing a narrative, doesn't try to generalize a population, or doesn't seem to be trying to use emotional gut reactions to get readers or viewers to jump past reason or compassion.

My plea to the rest of the qsmp tumblr fandom: Please stop making every piece of content relate back to the first purgatory.

I don't want to be a person who shows up and rains on parades to ruin fun for people, but I think there's a sizeable amount of this community that doesn't really realize how much the first purgatory has affected every less popular character's fanwork. Especially on tumblr, where English is the lingua franca and almost everyone communicates in it. You have to understand most characters on qsmp were not exactly the same characterization wise on quesadilla island than they were on purgatory. Not that they aren't the same characters, it's just people seem to be prioritizing only those purgatory characterizations over every other moment on the server, while also not looking and trying to understand these characters outside of purgatory at all.

Purgatory 2 got hit with it too, like I don't think I saw a single team in P2 that didn't get extensive comparisons to any of the P1 teams. Like I get it, media parallels, that's cool! It's just tiring when you look at any character's tag or a P2 team's tag that is less popular in the English fandom and 95% of it is just to do with purgatory one, or wanting them to do something from purgatory one, or saying how they should join a purgatory one team. I can't wait until we can move on to a new arc in the server that involves all the characters, but until then, please be aware that almost all of the non-English characters have been almost, like, mostly only receiving content about purgatory one still. It's a disservice to the characters and the CC behind them, they become side characters to streamers who are more popular in English fandom.

I don't think anyone's, like, a bad person for liking purgatory or enjoying purgatory content, nor is any one team worse than the other or deserves any hate, just understand it's a struggle for anyone who likes these less popular characters to find non-purgatory one based content. Let these characters be their own individuals instead of extensions of other characters. :(

i disappear inside myself / my friends don't know it can't be helped

[Pure You - Nothing But Thieves]

jason todd has so many underrated canon love interests. essence, isabel, artemis, and rose are all characters i love with him. like those are good ships. why is everyone ignoring them?

obsessed w the episode of Bones where they’re telling some wealthy lady with a mini pomeranian that her ex husband is dead and she starts crying and instead of offering any kind of comfort, brennan just takes the dog off her and happily exclaims (and this is verbatim) "he’s so compact!!"

Gondolin lasted for like four hundred years. Impressive, right.

But imagine living 400 years in one city in relative peace. It necessarily means that at some point Turgon’s council must have been discussing something really petty compared to the struggles of the rest of Beleriand.

Such as how many trees should they plant. The maintenance of public spaces. Lack of trash bins. Overpopulated pigeons. Loud night life.

Imagine being one of the greatest warriors ever and having to sit through endless council meetings about new benches in the Lesser Market instead of taking down Morgoth.

Hello to my beloved followers and mutuals and anyone who just sees this post lol hi anywaY I have gotten a few asks recently just chatting about hankcon and I haven't answered them because I'll compile a general answer in this one post <3 Okay SO basically I agree with what everyone is saying and I'll reiterate it here and mix in my own opinion:

People's tastes/opinions are different. It's strange to see people attack and block each other over a fictional pairing, like, I've been on voice call with a Tumblr mate of mine who ships hankcon and we didn't explode. I am on the dad-son end of things, and guess what. She talked to me about all the things she likes about hankcon and I was happy that she was happy. It's fun, ok. It's FUN. FUN. When people argue "oh this isn't even canon" like. Dad-son and hankcon aren't canon, but we get to enjoy them in different ways and in different universes. Which is epic. It doesn't matter what side you're on- harassing someone for having a different opinion to you is not nice. And you're missing out on making friends with others.

Did you know that I follow someone who is self-labelled anti-reed900 despite me being a reed900 shipper? Guess what fuckers. I like a mix of opinions on my dash because I get to experience 5 GUM. This person doesn't post reed900 at all and I haven't seen this person harass others either. And it's all boiled down to taste. Did you know I disliked hankcon when I first got here? I had the tag blocked, but I didn't block others for having fun over in the other corner. Now I'm like, super neutral about it and even reblog it. You know rk1k? I used to dislike that too. Now I ship it. rip me. anyway. I was into simarkus and now I'm not! But I'm still going to do the simarkus arc in Encryption hella justice. So ultimately, I guess my opinion is who cares bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our interests change!! (Like the anon in my asks who said they liked hankcon and now don't anymore!)

End note which is a personal opinion: Posting "I don't like X" is not being hateful. Posting "Anyone who likes X is a [redacted] and Y is superior/canon/the right way" is not cool.

Edit: ur so hot and sexy if you follow me and our opinions clash about anything ever

I desperately want to live in the fantasy world that people who go on about “the importance of representing healthy platonic male-male friendship in media” live in. clearly, these people live in a world where gay romances are super common in media, and platonic male friendships are extremely rare. They certainly don’t live in our world, where it feels like the majority of all media centers on platonic friendships between men, or het romances. I’d love to live in their bizarre little world where queer romances are so common

i have to admit the phrase "curate your experience!" is kind of a pet peeve to me at this point. like i agree with the sentiment i LOVE the block button she is like a wife to me. and don't even get me started on tag exclusion my sweet darling. however the people who say "ummm just block people and tags sweaty :)" every time someone complains they dislike something are so . like. sorry you guys don't understand that sometimes bitching about stuff on your own personal blog is a way to process negative emotions and move on. sorry you guys don't understand the noble art of haterism or whatever. get well soon

Louis might not be chucking bricks at No. 10, but people are responding like he’s never displayed leftist politics or challenged a government position on anything. He supported demands to the government about a fix for UK touring musician post Brexit and Marcus Rashford’s petition about food insecurity. He fought the police about their social media use in 2018 and criticised the UK government position/support for factory workers in the pandemic. The things he speaks about are usually UK issues and meaningful to him or his family and friends. He’s also most likely to speak when he isn’t working. Also that specific anarchy has a punk anti authoritarian message as well. That statement fits Louis pretty well. He has been a poster boy for not sitting down and shutting up and doing what you’re told since 2012. If he was he probably wouldn’t have a solo career and he definitely wouldn’t have sold out the O2.

I like this point about him speaking out more when he's not working, I think that's a really great and useful observation and makes so much sense. I feel like it makes sense in two ways right now: like first, I don't blame him for not wanting to do things that would jeopardize how beautifully everything is going for him right now after the number of setbacks and troubles he's had to get here, it must feel so precarious. And knowing for a fact that any political statement you make will spawn a dozen tabloid stories and all kinds of outrage is bad enough, but add to that the fact that it's simply impossible to predict which thing will turn into a huge viral mess- it's a lot. And second, he's not just working, he's been on TOUR! I've been around musicians my whole life and one constant is that tour is time outside of normal time and life, it's a bubble, it's only paying attention to right where you are and what's in front of you and the people there with you and everything else is put off and neglected, is for when you get home (and have massive post tour letdown depression and fatigue). I'm not saying he can disconnect with the outside world entirely... but putting everything on pause? I would be surprised if it were any other way, and I would be surprised if he's been following the news and counter news and so forth closely enough to feel comfortable speaking out publicly about anything when it will be so scrutinized and picked apart. I would add to your list supporting the rail strike (something we wouldn't even know about if it hadn't been tossed in as an aside by an interviewer in the print only version of a piece, he didn't post about it or anything) and attending and posting about the BLM protests (not to mention telling people to pirate his stuff come on how punk is that), and I agree he is much more likely to speak out about UK issues which makes sense: most people are most moved by issues that are close to their lives in some way, and it's his brand. And I agree that even though as an anarchist I love talking about what anarchism as a political ideology actually is, the symbol does also have a common meaning in the world as just basically standing for anti-authoritarianism, and Louis as a guy who rejects authority and the status quo is nothing new at all and one of the reasons we love him, and in the last few years I feel like he's been going further in that direction both aesthetically and politically, and we love to see it! Plus he has pretty much always sported this slightly punky aesthetic to some degree, even when he was being dressed up like a little ken doll he snuck in skater looks and indie band tees and so forth (something something it's part of why his fanbase was so primed to love his new sound and it wasn't the risk he feared it was because people were always drawn to him who were already into that aesthetic even when his sound wasn't that yet) it's not like it's just a brand new out of nowhere side of him or something.

Does anyone want to hear my “Uncle Harlo is Syril’s real Dad” theory?

No? Too bad.

So to begin with, I don’t think Harlo is an uncle to Syril in the traditional sense. He’s not related to the Karns by blood or marriage. From Syril’s dialogue, he seems too distant to be a close relative, with Syril implying he won’t even remember who Eedy is

I realise he’s also taking a jab at Eedy here, but even she reveals Harlo doesn’t keep in touch with them often (”he’ll respect me for having waited so long in asking and being so prudent about it.”) 

We already know Syril has grown up without a Dad. If we go by the backstory Kyle Soller and Kathryn Hunter devised, Eedy’s husband left the family in an “acrimonious, horrible way” early on in Syril’s life.

Without her husband around, Eedy tries to frame Harlo as a replacement father figure for her son, giving him the title of “uncle”, emphasising how important his favour is and his supposed interest in Syril’s career:

But to Syril, Harlo is just as absent as Mr. Karn. He doesn’t understand Syril’s career ambitions, he doesn’t make the effort to speak to Syril directly. As far as Syril’s concerned, he doesn’t know him at all:

Which leads us to wonder, why does someone as influential as Harlo have this detached investment in a guy he barely knows? To a family he’s not particularly close to? What is this “family favour” Eedy is supposedly calling on?

Idk how gospel it is, but Kyle has said in interviews that Syril’s corporate security job was a handout just like his Bureau of Standards one. If uncle Harlo facilitated that position for Syril too, then surely the favour has already been called on?

And this is the basis of my theory: Syril is the child of an affair between Harlo and Eedy. Due to Harlo’s position (and Eedy being married at the time) it’s far too scandalous for him to acknowledge his son, so he keeps his distance. Whenever Eedy calls he lends a hand time and time again, out of a sense of obligation.  

Of course, I don’t think Syril knows any of this. Eedy has always told him Harlo is an “old friend” and because they see so little of each other, he’s never questioned it. I do think Mr. Karn found out and that is why he walked out on the family (yes this sounds like a soap opera, but is Star Wars not just a soap opera in space??) 

I don’t propose any of this will actually be revealed in season 2, but if it is, it could add some very sad context to the relationship between Eedy and Syril. Maybe that’s why she pushes him to succeed so much: so the Karns can prove themselves to people like Harlo who keep them in the shadows. 

I doubt Andor is the type of show to reveal Harlo is actually some major Star Wars character we already know. But if there is any sort of twist coming with him, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was something like this.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Donate Esims: https://x.com/najungie/status/1745479172158640131?s=46&t=Y9v8MyDFtoijFntn0_tDwA

Places to donate: gofundme.com/f/careforgaza https://irusa.org/middle-east/palestine/ https://donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page/en_EN https://www.islamicreliefcanada.org/emergencies/palestine-appeal https://palestinian-ama.networkforgood.com/projects/206145-gaza-medical-supplies-oct-2023

free! just click this link: https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/