An Easier Softer Way

[aneasiersofterway]

An Easier Softer Way

Injured after the hell rescue goes wrong, Dean ends up disabled and living in a small rural town in Eastern Washington. With Sam fucked off to god knows where and without the fight to distract him, Dean has nothing left to focus on but his burgeoning sobriety, and persistent dreams of hell.

Set in the arid low-lands of the river valley, surrounded by apple orchards and twisting irrigation canals, Dean becomes convinced he can see a great beast stalking through the hills bordering the town. The same beast he has dreamt of since returning from hell, the same one he can sometimes feel beside him when he knows that he’s alone.

Walking the line between grief and reality, isolation and community, Dean has to pull together what's real and what isn't as he adjust to his disability, and finds faith that he is capable of building lasting relationships and creating a life for himself worth loving.

Also eventually Cas shows up, and they save the world. Read Here

[holybeings]

What a blessing to be moved by anything at all

[agentdeanswift]

tell the fandom dean's literate

dean winchester x tell hip-hop I'm literate (demo) by fall out boy

thank u to @dean-isms and @scoobydoodean for collating these incidents together and @nostalgicbones for answering my questions <3

[alivehouse]

what do you mean you havent used mindfulness techniques to accept the state of the torture labyrinth as is yet. its like youre not even trying

[surpriseimbored]

Fun fact of the day

[ripeteeth]

One of my favorite things is taking someone to the Great Lakes for the first time - or describing how you can fly over them and see only hundreds of miles of glittering blue water and no coasts at all; how they have their own Coast Guard (the only lakes to do so); that the Earth's rotation steers their currents; that they're studied using ocean models; that they have wrecked more than 6000 ships - and watch them realize that the word "lake" is misleading and that they had no idea of the size and majesty of them at all.

[ripeteeth]

Some fun facts about her majesty, Lake Superior:

It has a surface area of 31,700 sq. miles, roughly the size of South Carolina or Austria.

It's incredibly deep and has enough water to cover all of North and South America to a depth of 12 inches.

Waves over 30 feet have been recorded.

Its deepest point is 1,333 feet, which is the third lowest point in North America

Its average temperature is around 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius), which inhibits bacterial growth in bodies, diminishing bloating and gas, and frequently shipwreck and drowning victims to sink to the bottom and never be recovered.

[callisteios]

please join me for a session of gentle weeping in celebration of the beauty of our shared world

[tanoraqui]

Fish recorded singing dawn chorus on reefs just like birds

Underwater recordings of vocal fish off the Australian coast reveal an ocean choir composed of at least seven distinct choruses

[blackbearmagic]

no but seriously I still get chills thinking about turning off my headlamp in the cave and The Hand That I Did Not Actually See, and it’s been twelve years since it happened

it’s such an unreal experience

like

you turn off your light in a cave and wave your hand in front of your face

and

you can see this shadowy thing moving in the black space where your hand is

it looks like the same shadowy thing you would see in your room at night if you waved your hand in front of your face, it’s there and vaguely hand-shaped, and your brain recognizes it as your hand because your brain is aware of where your hand is and what it is doing

But You Are Not Seeing Anything

Inside a cave, there is No Light. No matter how far your pupils spread, there is no light for them to draw in, no light to put an image on your retina.

But your brain just Fucking Assumes that because it knows where your hand is and what it is doing, clearly it can see it.

So it creates a shadowy thing for your eyes to be seeing.

Brain is like “there’s a hand there”

Eyes are like “yup sure thing brain I can totally see it”

Brain is like “nice”

but there is no hand, you cannot see the hand, you are seeing a literal actual hallucination in the cave because your brain thinks it knows best

Caves are awesome, but also terrifying. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[nikniknikin]

we once went spelunking, and a our guide said that once he was in a cave with a stream, so he could hear running water, and his brain was like ‘oh, running water? that means there must be Ducks out there’. and he saw like…low light shadows of ducks. that his brain just Put There.

[the-tabularium]

As a cave guide: we call that ‘cave blindness’! True darkness absolutely wigs your brain out - we’re such visual creatures that after a while our brain throws a hissy after not seeing anything. Sensory deprivation is a very real kind of torture. We have a huge, deep cave system at work and there are a lot of places where you’re hundreds of meters in solid rock in this tiny, dark, still space.

I like to turn my torch off, sit down with my back against the wall,  and wait to see how long it takes before I start seeing things or feeling like the ground is moving, or hearing things. Because I know I’m not - I’m in complete darkness, utter silence, sitting in rock that hasn’t moved in hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Proof that brains are Ridiculous and over-react to a lot of stuff!

[draconym]

During the most recent caving trip I went on, our little group took a break in a large chamber to sit down and turn off our head lamps and wait in silence until we started hallucinating. It only took a few minutes for most of us to start “seeing” lights, shadows, or one another. I like to imagine this was a pastime for paleolithic people as well.

[disabled-dean]

Gorgeous illustration of Cas fondling Dean in the bunker kitchen from Chapter 7 of Ten Minutes From Home: Lebanon Coda by @howsdeanshole (and commissioned by @butch--dean). 😭🖤

Pleeeeeeeeease go and follow them for their biblically-accurate depictions of Dean and Cas (Everybody say thank you C 💞)

[beholdingslut]

this from the guy who wrote the sting pain index, a scale he constructed after letting himself be stung by insects

[beholdingslut]

“why did i start this list” pleaseeeeeee this is so funny

[caracalliope]

his descriptions were extremely on-point, and frankly inspiring when writing a hurt/comfort scene

Instagram poets could never!

[lobautumny]

For those who want it, here is the entire list:

Anyways, dude's 1,000% a huge masochist. Nobody just describes pain like this unless they're enjoying it.

[catchymemes]

[superbeans89]

Can’t leave stoat’s tags to wither in the notes

[noonmutter]

remember, these are the animals that still get hunted with weapons designed to make them stop coming toward you, more than they’re designed to actually kill them in one shot. General recommendations for load out include large caliber “backup guns” in case it gets too close after the first long gun shot doesn’t kill it.

Because boars are basically berserkers, and hurting them makes them want to hurt you back so bad that they would impale themselves on the spear you stabbed them with in order to reach you and murder you before they bleed out.

[mckitterick]

I once worked with a woman who went on a boar-hunting trip for her 40th birthday. her husband, carrying a large-caliber semi-automatic rifle because he’d done this before, drove one out of the tall Kansas prairie grass, but didn’t see where it went until he reached the clearing where his wife was standing, pointing her .357 magnum pistol at the beast as it charged her

she didn’t fire until she was certain of her shot (no time for a second shot when a creature that big is charging that fast and all you’re holding is a revolver)

her hubby only had time to shout and unsling his rifle before watching her fire directly into its brainpan from just 12 feet away. by the time it skidded angrily toward her, it was deceased - but barely, still biting at her feet

he never went hunting with her again

ovaries of iron on that woman

[weaselle]

i used to work with a guy who regularly went boar hunting with a bow, and he refused to use guns to do it because he had quote “seen too many bullets bounce off them”

Then he explained that boar have a really dense really thick layer of fat under extremely tough skin and the way the physics of that works apparently means bullets can skip right off them instead of penetrating.

[brightlotusmoon]

What the fuck. What the fuck.

My husband inherited a dense thick layer of fat under his scalp so he’s never gotten a concussion, and somehow I never made the connection between layer of fat and bounciness until right now.

[slyandthefamilybook]

I feel like the focus on wild boars might give people the impression that pigs aren’t just big in general. Obviously the size varies by breed but like. Pig Big

[garden-of-thoughts-fruit-of-lips]

A fun fact from a biblical standpoint: if we were to walk on the sea floor as if there were no sea, the 7 continents would be like 7 mountains, but since there are seas, the 7 mountains look like 7 heads; that's why we are so surprised by how deep the sea really goes - we only see the “heads” of these “mountains.”

Revelation 17:7

So the angel said to me: “Why is it that you were amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the wild beast that is carrying her and that has the seven heads and the ten horns:

Revelation 17:9

...The seven heads mean seven mountains...

[guiltyidealist]

new favorite YouTube comment just dropped

[limerencs]

cemetery of laeken, brussels.

the story of a marble worker evrard flignot who devastated by the death of his wife built a mausoleum for her. at first look inside, there is a mourner reaching out to an empty wall. but, once a year, on the day of the summer solstice, the sun draws a light that recalls this love for almost a century.

[bogleech]

I know it's unfair vilification and stuff but it's also a lot of fun to see old media and stuff where people were SO scared of big animals like lions, sharks, crocodiles and wolves were fully expected to just come and eat you the moment you stepped into their territory. In older media we also made that assumption about gorillas and in still older we thought it'd be whales. But some animals that will actually fuck you up got left behind. Boars will kill you and eat you. They're way more likely to do so than any of those other things actually. Hippos, obviously, got off like bandits always being depicted as cute and dopey. And then there's the squids. Not giant kraken size squids. The eight foot squids that hunt in packs and will fuck you up if you fall in the water at night. I can't BELIEVE people slept on that. It's like all they cared about were the huge deep sea ones we never see. The medium size wolf pack squids were right there.

[bogleech]

Oh some of you don't know about the squids. I talked about them in another thread that went kinda viral somewhere or other but one of the reasons you should not swim in the open ocean at night in many parts of the world is that the water starts teeming with these:

And as you can see it is not like instant death, they too are just animals and they are often just gently curious about the presence of humans! But people who study and dive with sharks will tell you you're safe as long as you stay calm and know what you're doing. The world's leading professional night divers and experts on these squids, specifically??? Stress in every interview and article and paper they write in that you simply do not fuck around with these squids. They know what they're doing and they still all have at least one story of being attacked, in some cases having to be hospitalized. Considering just how rarely anybody puts themselves in the pitch dark nighttime ocean on purpose, let alone during a squid feeding frenzy, it sounds like they're quite a bit more likely to consider you potential food than other marine predators. We also don't know how many fatal attacks might have ever happened, because what humboldt squid like to do with large prey is just drag it away into the darkness forever. The two worst attacks ever proven involved two or three squid at a time latching on to a diver (in BOTH cases they were professionals and knew the risk!) and jetting straight downward with enough force that both divers suffered injury from the sudden pressure change alone, including burst eardrums, nearly passed out and they probably would have died if they hadn't broken free. In general, people who die drowning in the dark open ocean are either never found, or they're found in pieces picked over by enough scavengers that the precise cause of death can only be narrowed down to "the sea." But now you know ONE of "the sea's" possible murder weapons :)

There's a short section on Humboldt squid in Wikipedia's entry for Cephalopod attacks on humans:

Cephalopod attack - Wikipedia

And if you can get past some of Animal Planet's hokey presentation style, this video includes a bit of interview with one of those professional experts who still got nearly squidded from existence:

There is of course some debate about all this, with some arguing that all proven documented attacks occurred on people with reflective diving equipment, which they say the squid must have mistaken for the shine of fish. However, there are lots and lots of people who have to fish around these squids to survive, who do not have access to that kind of equipment, and also have a consensus that if you fall in the water when big squids are out hunting you might disappear without a trace or perhaps just get your head bitten open. With many modern science guys agreeing with this sentiment, this is one case where the "they're just misunderstood sea friends" crowd is kind of outnumbered. The sea at night is theirs and not ours is all. It's not ours during the day either but since we are neither marine nor nocturnal animals we are double fools in the eyes of the squids, which by the way are these eyes:

No for real:

[my-ants-are-anxious]

Absolutely! Also, the Humboldt squid will hunt in packs, sometimes with one flashing brightly to draw attention while the others approach in near unseeable camoflage!

[bogleech]

Beautiful footage of the nefarious sea demons also :)

Also because I can't reblog every addition together:

Okay where's the other 1199

[spiralshellsreblogs]

I absolutely adore Humboldt squid. I saw a doc once where a scientist was cage diving to study them, and one of the squid squeezed it's entire massive body through the cage bars, bit the guy and squeezed right back out.

[bogleech]

Why isnt this an animal that's already long gone viral like honey badgers once did. This is the animal that actually gives no fucks. People really are just that obsessed with bigger squids I guess? But the bigger ones frankly come across as big softies in comparison. One big sea monster can never be as intimidating as a thousand coordinated man sized sea monsters.

This is why I thought that if mermaids had a cultural equivalent to lycanthropy it'd be weresquids. Fun fact nocturnal marine life increases activity on the brightest nights ie the full moon.

[joshuu-nutboi-higashikata-deact]

[neurospicybirb]

Fun fact! Water actually turns “blood red” when it is contaminated by sulfur creating sulfuric acid. And scientists have discovered that around the time of the plagues a volcano went off that disturbed Egypt’s environment. So the plagues are scientifically proven. The other parts of the plagues are explained by the sulfuric acid river making the animals leave the river and escaping into the human population.

[vampiregirl2345]

WHY DIDNT ANYONE TELL ME THE PLAGUES WERE PROVEN

[kvothe-kingkiller]

if anyone wants a full list heres how they happened:

basically they all stem from a massive eruption of a volcano on the island of santorini off the coast of greece. the ash then floated over to egypt which kickstarted the plagues

1) blood: the ash carried the mineral cinnabar, which has the capability of turning water red

2) frogs: the ash also had many toxic and acidic substances so naturally, all the frogs are gonna flee the river

3) lice: given what was going on insects would have burrowed into dead animals/peoples skin and laid eggs, which then hatched

4) beasts: everything is getting poisoned from the ash and toxins, causing animals to freak the fuck out/die

5) pestilence: toxins again

6) boils: the ash would have caused storms that carried acid rain which when it fell, would irritate peoples skin causing boils

7) hail: the storm again

8) locusts: again with the insects and the amount of dead bodies and such which attract more insects. a lotta insects basically.

9) darkness: the ash covered the sky, blocking out the sun

10) slaying of the first born: given that children’s bodies were found in higher numbers than others, some archeologists think they may have been sacrificed to stop all the destruction, but they aren’t 100% sure about that. this is just me but I would say another possibility is that babies/kids are a lot more susceptible to toxins and shit, so while an adult may have been fine or gotten a bit sick, it might have been very dangerous/deadly for kids or babies

the volcano would also attest for the parting of the sea weirdly enough. the red sea was in fact the ‘reed’ sea, and was very shallow, probably waist deep or so. given the amount of shit dumped into the ocean from the volcano, this wouldve caused a tsunami to head towards egypt. the water would get sucked out from the reed sea right before the tsunami hit, letting people pass it easily, then the actual tsunami would hit, fuckin up anyone who tried to follow.

another theory is that the red water was caused by algae, which would cause the frogs and stuff to jump out as well. the algae also carried substances toxic to animals so if they ingested any they’d get sick and die, so more insects. in this theory there was a sand storm coincidentally that caused the rest

some sources: X X

[wigmund]

The volcano wasn’t ON Santorini - it WAS Santorini, then called Thera. It completely blew away the Minoan settlements on the island and was one of the largest eruptions in human history. 

The tsunamis from the Theran eruption devastated Crete, weakening the then-powerful Minoan civilization, leaving them open to being invaded by the Mycenaeans.

The volcanic winter it created devastated crops in China leading to the fall of the Xia Dynasty. 

The abrupt and catastrophic loss of the people of Thera may have also inspired the myths about Atlantis.

[orville-redenbacher-space-hero]

this is blowing my fucking mind

[missmagooglie]

I love that if you really boil all this information down, what you get is something approximating “the sinking of Atlantis caused the 10 Biblical plagues of Egypt” which is, like, one of the greatest mythological mash-ups I have ever heard of.

[ultrafacts]