Local Bean Collects Stuff &Things @beaniebaneenie - Tumblr Blog

catharsis

some short fluff. Ken x gn!reader. Songfic if you squint. Ken learns a new word.

Ken hears your sobs as he gets in from his run and his blood goes cold. In a state of panic he kicks through the living room door (which will probably need replacing, his fear that you’re in trouble seems to give him a great burst of strength) and he is at your side in a flash, your shoulders in his hands as he checks you over.

“My darling baby angel? What’s the matter? Did someone hurt you? Do you need me to call the police? The ambulance? The fire brigade? All three?”

You sniffle as you laugh, wiping your tears away as you smile fondly at him. You reach out to pause the music that he only just now realises is playing, soft and mournful.

“No, Ken, honey, I’m fine. Better than our door is, at least. I had a long day and needed a bit of a cry, you know?”

He doesn’t know, and it must show on his face.

“Do you ever feel all your emotions all well up in you at once and you need something to channel them into? This is how I like to do that. I put on some sad music and just let myself sit with how I feel. If I cry, it’s okay. It helps me feel better.”

“Crying makes it better?” he repeats incredulously, trying to parse this. Very few people cried in Barbieland and, if they did, it was often from joy at winning another Nobel Prize. He’s always assumed sad crying was a bad thing.

“Do you know what ‘catharsis’ is?”

He’s pretended to know words to impress you before, and he always gets caught out. He shakes his head.

“Mm, okay. Come sit with me.”

You open your legs and manoeuvre him until you can hold him between them, his back to your chest. You rest your chin on his head and skip back to the start of the track before hitting play.

“Just listen for a bit.”

He does. The singer’s voice is new to him, smoky and melancholy. He feels your tears in his hair and fights every urge he has to ask if you’re okay again; you know yourself, after all. He trusts you.

The song sinks in and he begins to feel a strange twang in his chest. He lets the lyrics settle.

Well I’ve been afraid of changing, because I’ve built my life around you.

Oh. That hits him, because he knows that feeling himself. That was how he felt about… well, about her. Long before he came to live with you here and his life got infinitely better. Some kind of thick emotion gets lodged in his throat and his eyes grow dewy.

“Who… who is this husky-toned enchantress?” he manages, and you laugh fondly.

“Stevie Nicks. Not all her songs are this sad, don’t worry. How are you feeling?”

He is sobbing… but it’s okay. It’s nice, even.

“A bit sad, but mostly good,” he confesses. You drop a kiss into his blond hair.

“That’s catharsis.”

The two of you listen to the next verse and let the tears fall in comfort.

“Is catharsis something you can do with a boyfriend?”

“We’re doing it right now, aren’t we?”

“Huh. I guess so.” A beat. “Can we do it again some time? If I need to?”

“Of course. Whenever you need.”

Ken relaxes into you and lets the music wash over him as he considers how glad he is that now he’s built his life around you.

myrandomstuffpage

epicallyepicepicosity4

apatheticfluorescence

some hyper famous artists like Van Gogh transcend overratedness and become underrated because they're so normalized. Like I'll look at a van Gogh and I'm like wait this really is amazing you guys don't get it

headspace-hotel

Shakespeare is like this

insufferablepirate

Every time I see a Van Gogh that’s not one of his better known pieces it absolutely blows me away

Have you seen this shit my liege? smh unreal

copperbadge

THE ORANGES

teashoesandhair

Time for my biannual freakout about Two Crabs

helenvaughans

allowing myself one little bit of conspiracy slop about this before i make myself stop, but i do low key wonder if russia didn't assassinate lindsey graham. like he was recently in ukraine and for all his many, MANY faults, he was a fairly staunch supporter of ukraine and the us sending aid to them, and he also had trump's ear to a certain extent. russia is also infamous for using various kinds of poisons deployed in weird ways to attempt (and sometimes succeed in) assassinations abroad (and domestically).

hollydermovoi

“I know I’ve told this story before, but my abusive ex refused to let me take birth control. I was on the pill until he found them in my purse. I went to the Student Health Center—they were completely unhelpful, choosing to lecture me about the importance of safe sex (recommending condoms) instead of actually listening to my problem. Then I went to Planned Parenthood. The Nurse Practitioner took one look at my fading bruises and stopped the exam. She called in the doctor. The doctor came in and simply asked me: “Are you ready to leave him?” When I denied that I was being abused, she didn’t argue with me. She just asked me what I needed. I said I need a birth control method that my boyfriend couldn’t detect. She recommended a few options and we decided on Depo. When I told her that my boyfriend read my emails and listened to my phone messages and was known to follow me, she suggested to do the Depo injections at off hours when the clinic was normally closed. She made a note in my chart and instructed the front desk never to leave messages for me—instead, she programmed her personal cell phone number into my phone under the name “Nora”. She told me she would call me to schedule my appointments; she wouldn’t leave a message, but I should call her back when I was able to. And that was it. No judgment. No lecture. She walked me to the door and told me to call her day or night if I needed anything. That she lived 5 blocks from campus and would come get me. That I wasn’t alone. That she just wanted me to be safe. I never called her to come to my rescue. But I have no doubt that she would have come if I had called. She kept me on Depo for a year, giving me those monthly injections in secret, helping me prevent a desperately unwanted pregnancy. I cannot thank Planned Parenthood enough for the work they do.”

—

Curious Georgiana (via grrrlstudies)

I know I’ve reblogged this before, but it bears re-reblogging (?). This is how you respond to abuse, this is how you give people control over their bodies/uteruses, this is how you act as a generally non-judgmental and compassionate person. I love this story so fucking much.

(via coffeewithants)

rorywonder

hey so filming people without their consent is weird. you know that right? filming people you don't know and they aren't aware of what you're doing is creepy. posting strangers online is fucking weird. we're too comfortable with doing it now for shits and giggles, chasing some sort of viral hit instead of reckoning with the fact that you posted someone who did not consent to their body and face being publically used.

we're being pushed these Meta Glasses as if mass surveillance of strangers is fun and normal! it's weird!!! there are already reports that people are using these to film women without them knowing and sharing it to communities who get off on this shit. who else knows who people are filming. these glasses with cameras are not obvious and that is dangerous.

jus7-k

He's so me

andhumanslovedstories

There’s an emotion only unlocked when you live in a house with multiple stories. I call it “the stair emotion” and it’s when you realize the object you need is on the other side of yet another trip up and down those goddamn stairs. It’s the closest I get to transcending the desire for material goods. Maybe I don’t need that notebook. Maybe I don’t need anything.

smallpotatoes-dandelions

I don't know how to articulate this well, but I really fucking hate the way a lot of thin writers write fat characters. Like how men write women "breasting boobily" there is something so dehumanizing about how fat characters are often written. "He waddled", "he lumbered", the writer of the book I'm reading always mentions this characters "fleshy hand" when he does something with his hand. Like, we already know that he's fat. There is no need to describe everything he does as "doing it fatly".

sulkybender-retired04042026

*fishes this absolute treasure from the tags*

discworld-heritage-posts

Discworld Heritage Post

soberscientistlife

Do Not Let HR do this to you. It is not illegal to talk about wages in the work place. I did and got a 12% raise!

katsdom

True info. Now let me add something: The power of documentation. (I was a long time steward in a nurses union.)

Remember: The "'E" in email stands for evidence.

That cuts both ways. Be careful what you put into an email. It never really goes away and can be used against you.

But can also be a powerful tool for workplace fairness.

Case 1: Your supervisor asks you to do something you know is either illegal or against company policy. A verbal request. If things go wrong, you can count on them denying that they ever told you to do that. You go back to your desk, or wherever and you send them an email: "I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that you want me to do xxxxx" Quite often, once they see it in writing, they will change their mind about having you do it. If not, you have documentation.

Case 2: You have a schedule you like, you've had that schedule for a while, it works for you. Your supervisor comes to you and says "We're really short-handed now and I need you to change your schedule just for a month until we can get someone else hired. It's just temporary and you can have your old schedule back after a month." A month goes by and they forget entirely that they made that promise to you. So, once again, when they make the initial request, you send them an email "I'm happy to help out temporarily, but just want to make sure I understand correctly that I will get my old schedule back after a month as you promised." Documentation.

can-i-make-image-descriptions

[Image ID: Text reading: In the middle of a busy clinic at our practice, I got pulled in by my manager to speak to HR, who must have made a special trip because she lives several states away, and told I was being 'investigated' for discussing wages with my other employees. She told me it was against company policy to discuss wages.

Me; That's illegal.

Them: (start italics) three slow, long seconds of staring at me blankly (end italics) Uh...

Me: That's an illegal policy to have. The right to discuss wages is a right protected by the National Labor Relations board. I used to be in a union. I know this.

HR: Oh, this is news to me! I have been working HR for 18 years and I never knew that. Haha. Well try not do do it anyway, it makes people upset, haha.

Me: people are entitled to their opinions about what their work is worth. Bye.

I then left, and sent her several texts and emails saying I would like a copy of their company policy to see where this wage discussion policy was kept. She quickly called me back in to her office.

HR: You know what, there is no policy like that in the handbook! I double check. Sorry about the confusion, my apologies.

Me: You still haven't given me the paper saying that we had this discussion. I am going to need some protection against retaliation.

HR: Oh haha yes here you go.

I just received a paper with legal letterhead and an apology saying there was no verbal warning or write up. Don't even take their shit you guys. Keep talking about wages. Know your worth. /End ID]

noping-out-deactivated20241117

At one of my old (shit) jobs my boss would continually come have these verbal discussions with me and would never put anything in writing I took to summarizing every discussion we had in email. Like “just to confirm that you asked me to do X by Y date and you understand that means I won’t be able to complete the previous task you gave me until Z date - 2 weeks later than originally scheduled - because you want me to prioritize this new project.

The woman would then storm back into my office screaming at me for putting the discussion in writing and arguing about pushing back the other project or whatever. At which point I would summarize that conversation in email as well. Which would bring her storming back in, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.

Anyway I cannot imagine how badly that job would have gone if I hadn’t put all her wildly unreasonable demands in writing. Bitch still hated me but she could never hang me for “missing deadlines” because I always had in writing that she’d pushed the project back because she wanted something else done first.

Paper your asses babes. Do not let them get away with shit. If they won’t put what they’re asking you to do in writing then write it up yourself and email it to them.

elfwreck

If you don't have this kind of job but someday you'd might: start practicing.

After a casual conversation with friends, write up a brief synopsis of what you discussed & agreed to. (...Do not email this to friends unless you have their agreement that this would be a fun group project.) Get practice with,

"A, B, and C had a brief meeting about food options after the big game. We decided on pizza, with A&B agreeing to contribute X dollars each, and C agreeing to contribute Y dollars and also bring soda. A will call for pizza on the day of the game and schedule it for delivery at 8:30 pm."

"A, B & C discussed movie options. A wanted something lite and fun; B wanted something scifi; C was fine with anything but horror. Nobody wanted superheroes. Decided on Lost Space Wanderers which opened last weekend; C agreed to research theatre options and report tomorrow."

...and so on. Practice describing the results of "meetings" with friends and you'll be ready to sum up "boss told me to set aside Project A to focus on Project B for the next two weeks" - because what's likely is that boss didn't say anything that clear; boss talked about how important Project B is and how the company needs parts X and Y done asap and you have the best skills for that, and when you mentioned how much time Project A was taking, boss said "eh don't worry about that right now; marketing is breathing down my neck so we really need part X by Friday, okay?"

...at no point did you get a direct instruction.

Which is why anyone who is not the screaming-drama boss mentioned above would think it was perfectly reasonable for you to say, "I want to clarify the discussion we had earlier - you told me to focus on Project B to the exclusion of Project A for the next two weeks, even if that means Project A will miss its deadline; is that correct?"

krakenartificer

Genuine question: what do I do when the boss in question doesn’t reply to my confirmation email, then says that he never approved the project delay?

ms-demeanor

In person or over the phone you say "that doesn't match with my memory of the project but let me check my records and I'll get back to you about what happened on this project." Then go back to your desk and write the pettiest email in the world.

To: Boss

From: you

Cc: work group, team lead, project partner, direct supervisor, etc.

(Depending on severity of problem) Bcc: your personal email

"Hi Boss, I'm trying to resolve some confusion here. After our conversation about priority projects on [date] I reached out to you for confirmation of these details (see attached outlook item) and didn't receive an update to the timeline since that communication. I have been working from the agenda we discussed (summarized in attached outlook item from [date]) in absence of further direction. Do you have a copy of your response updating the changes or correcting mistakes in my summary? It's possible that I didn't see your email and I'd like to identify where a communication was missed so that we can avoid issues like this in future projects.

Best,

[Name]"

For this to work you have to be militant about sending summary emails and firm with coworkers and supervisors that you will be documenting project plans via email, but once they're used to your MO it's worth the work.

cookietastic

Spark in the dark

cookietastic

I’m excited to read 👁️👁️!!!!!

wilwheaton

In 2018, Pastor Dave Barnhart of the Saint Junia United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama posted this message to Facebook:

“The unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It’s almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.