valuable type 3 skull jar demoted to armrest

Can you do something for me, please?

I want you to reblog this if you believe that two people can be very close and physically affectionate with one another, but still have a completely nonsexual, non-romantic relationship. 

Even if the two people in question are capable of being sexually or romantically attracted to one another. 

Because the friendship I share with someone I consider family in a way that transcends blood has been typecast as a romantic relationship ENTIRELY too many times, and I’m beginning to get sick of it. 

Lucy + Lockwood ❤️

Illustration for my fic Give the Flowers to the Living

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

Happy Passover to everyone celebrating!

May it bring peace and foresight to you and yours.

May it usher in a ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank.

I saw that the Jewish and Muslim students at Columbia protected each other as they had Shabbat and evening prayers on Friday. This is what all the world should be. Helping and loving each other. Being respectful to others religious beliefs even when yours are different.

Don't stop talking about Palestine!

May next year see a free Palestine!

Permanent Ceasefire Now!

Humanitarian Aid Now!

Save Rafah Now!

Save the West Bank Now!

The further I get into this reread of The Screaming Staircase, the more convinced I am that it deserves the same five-star rating I gave the rest of the series, it's just sneakier and quieter about it in ways that you have to fully absorb the other books to appreciate. Like! Currently going insane about that seemingly pointless hanging case they have in the middle of the Annie Ward investigation. Obviously, it's been pointed out before that this is our first real clue into the depth of Lockwood's grief and the death wish he's drifted into as a result. It also gives us an excellent sense of the team dynamic, strengths and weaknesses, and sets us up for further drama along the same themes for each character.

We start out with the characters disagreeing over the Annabel Ward article in the Times, and Lockwood's praise of Lucy is taken the wrong way - which the show did a really good job with, incidentally - because Lucy hears mostly that Lockwood keeps her around purely for her Talent and she has no agency. From her point of view, the arc here over the course of the series goes from "I trust your Talent" to "I trust you, but not your Talent" to a healthy balance that works best when they're tackling problems in tandem, as a united front.

George is, as ever, focused on the practical (which comes in handy when he saves the day later). From the start, Lucy's already falling to the miasma and malaise - she's always more sensitive to the emotional warfare waged by the supernatural - Lockwood is upbeat, clinging to optimism and a renewed sense of purpose in their work. While this is usually an effective distraction, it can't last forever, and as the emotional contagion spreads, it hits Lockwood hardest:

Lockwood doesn't usually care about the human backstory element to their cases. So why does he ask now? Of chief concern for the current plot, he's now seen the benefit to Lucy's habit of caring and connecting with ghosts, with the case they're hoping will put them back on the map. Then Lockwood finds himself empathizing with a Visitor in a way he rarely indulges:

On reread, it's achingly obvious that that radiating suicidal grief hit too close to home to ignore. But the thing I didn't notice until this third time is how Stroud tells us exactly where to look: the trick is to look slightly away; don't look at the Visitor's face - the point of this scene will come into focus if you stop getting caught up in the immediate details and shift perspective.

From there, we get to a moment I fondly remembered as one of the funniest bits of the first book - Lockwood shrieking only to discover his coat was caught on a bush - and I doubt I would have noticed if I weren't already overthinking the melancholy mood of this scene, but - oh. This moment is also grounding; it's Lockwood being snapped out of a trance, being quite literally tugged back to earth. And while I don't think there's necessarily one single, cohesive symbolism to the coat throughout the series - it plays a part in many - I do think it's probably intentional that here, the coat contributes to saving Lockwood when he's going after the dead in such a state he could very well join them, as compared to the last book, when the coat contributes to saving Kipps (by being sacrificed for bandages). It's one of my very favorite things about this series, how things can be simultaneously silly and serious and have equal purpose in both dimensions.

Here - Lockwood asks his team to cover him, instead of recklessly running off on a mission. They have to and they will, because they're a team, they're better together and he's not alone - despite the vulnerable moment he just had where he might have believed otherwise. Then Lucy tumbles after Lockwood into the emotional pit, as the past gets clearer; and seemingly they're both a little too lost to it - the ghost moves, and Lockwood does not—

(He wasn't attacking; he was too busy thinking about all that he lost.)

—and George finally has enough of waiting for something to happen (good or bad) and intervenes with a salt-bomb. God bless steady, cautious, clear-headed George, who's not going to let his stubborn, impulsive, complementarily traumatized friends drift any closer to danger. Wherever Lucy and Lockwood are too much alike, George is their balance.

Every case has something to say, a reason it's slotted into the story where it is. It is very clever writing, writing for the themes but also letting each plot point have its own resonance outside of the greater whole, and I am frankly in awe.

This is one of my favorite icons - Christ walking with his arm around the believer’s shoulder. I first encountered it at Taizé and now have it in my room, too.

The Dutch woman who is the only other volunteer here right now keeps this icon in her room.

Tumblr Top Ships Bracket - Round 1 Side 2

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.

Every time you think you've seen the penultimate step, you're wrong.

holy shit is this gorgeous.

Let's get crafty!

This last point is critical. What you/we already own and what you/we do with those possessions is not the salient issue. That's a conversation that requires a lot of nuance and discernment and that, in opinion, doesn't end in one right answer.

Further purchases and support, however, fund efforts that have real world, negative impacts on marginalized people we know and love (including one of my sisters).

I haven't purchased a HP item in close to a decade - I use the books I already had as doorstops or to prop a laptop up for meetings nowadays.

There is NO "death of the author" with JK Rowling - she controls and continues to profit from her IP, and uses that money to fund hate groups.

Who makes the porn bots. Where do they come from. What do they hope to achieve.

It is the very definition of bittersweet.

So scared to read TEG, not cuz of what it contains. Oh no I've been spoiled by quite a few things. No. Im scared cuz then it will be over.

Netflix robbed us of seeing Cameron and Ruby act out the aching, mortifying scene of Lucy's reunion with Lockwood at her Studio Apartment of Depression and I'll never forgive them for it.

hey boss i can't come in today it's a sunny day and there's a lovely breeze coming in through my window, yeah it's rustling the branches of the tree outside that's finally bloomed so it's pretty serious

Lucy: Can you do the thing?

Lockwood: What thing?

Lucy: You know, that thing that makes me happy

Lockwood: Oh

Lockwood: :)

Lucy, softly: Thank you