roma★
if i look back, i am lost
tumblr dot com
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AnasAbdin
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sheepfilms
will byers stan first human second
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
Cosmic Funnies
Cosimo Galluzzi
JBB: An Artblog!
titsay
Acquired Stardust
todays bird
🪼
⁂
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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@dreadblades
Some frames of He to admire and enjoy because I love him
(the third and fourth screencaps are literally one frame after another and yes it is very funny when the first two caps are the prettiest he ever looks in the whole show)
Which does your OC prefer? Hot weather, or cold weather?
im missing work from yet another sickness, anyone wanna buy some art (25+ for sketches and 100+ for illustration)
ko-fi link
OCs + Social Media:
Cargo has a couple of socmed accounts, doesn't post too often because the kids keep her busy, but she never posts the kids' faces-- she wants them to keep their privacy until they're old enough to decide for themselves. Mostly she just gushes about her wife, discusses the latest Why You Should Have Believed episode, promotes Bond's movies, etc.,
Joy gets online by 2040. She's a total aesthetic blogger, posts up her own study notes/bujo (bullet journal) stuff, general thoughts and feelings. Occasionally posts about whatever game she's playing in her downtime. She's only moots with her mum on one (1) socmed platform, nowhere else.
Bond keeps a professional presence on socmed, all the top sites, and is only personable in a very calculated way where she never actually reveals anything personal but posts empty platitudes about self-care and growth so that people think she's more open than she is. It sounds very PR-driven even though she doesn't actually use a PR person for socmed.
Fuyuko is similar to Cargo, though she mostly posts pics with friends, travel, pride for her heritage and her city, stories from the occupation (including when she was a Reaper).
Miracle posts Buddhist/philosophical discussion, psion support stuff, and also more normal friends/travel/workout selfies. She got fairly popular as an inspiration to others who have disfiguring scars and struggle with their body image because of them.
Adewale is very enthusiastic about interacting with other people's posts. Occasionally he posts for himself, but mostly he boosts his friends from XCOM and especially bestie Fuyuko. He's on basically almost every trip with her.
Rook doesn't do social media at all, though he is online for news, research, and maintaining contact with other subordinates of the Alien Rulers. He is an IP address that occasionally spits out an email and that's about it.
Leon is surprisingly active on social media for a guy who's exactly the type you expect to come from a faction of sneaky murder hoboes (unlike Fuyuko, who is by and large opposite most Reapers in a lot of ways). Mostly, though, he doesn't make original posts or talk about himself or even talk at all-- he just reposts images. On the extremely rare occasion he responds to another person's post, despite being very used to mainly speaking English irl, he'll only ever write comments in Russian.
Vice is similar to Rook, but she is more active than he is as a participant in the online space. She occasionally hops on video chat with parents at her grade school, for example. Other than that, she keeps things minimal-- less upkeep.
Detlef eventually gets on a few platforms in his teen years, but he doesn't actually do much with them. He's posted a couple of videos of starships that have a collective >100 views. He does play video games sometimes, though.
Let's just say that if anyone were looking for proof of Alex being a secret Avatar, it would be the extremely Boomer way she uses the Internet. Like, she engages with it and types in ways only someone too old to know what a Rick Roll is would. Obviously most people just pass this off as her being Quirky, but if/when the truth ever gets out, this is going to be one of the things people point to as hilarious in hindsight when they realize she's been Old As Balls this whole time.
everybody give it up for this brand of green. round of applause for most under appreciated green
BITCH THIS IS THE MOOD WE'RE GOING INTO THIS YEAR WITH
I'M GOING TO WRITE BADLY BECAUSE I HAVE FRIENDS WHO WRITE WELL AND I'M GOING TO PAINT BADLY BECAUSE I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE AMAZING ARTISTS AND I'M GOING TO EMBROIDER BADLY BECAUSE I HAVE FRIENDS THAT ARE AMAZING AT FIBER ART.
Early after XCOM won, the world wasn't whole. The wild was still dangerous, crawling with Lost, with unmoored resistance soldiers unsure where to go. Leon coped with the loss of his tether-- with the Reapers "coming in from the cold"-- by becoming a mercenary, and it's in this environment that he meets Vice.
At first, he realizes that his latest clients have been... unsavory, by Reaper standards. Which is to say, hybrids and aliens. At first, they didn't show their faces, and Leon had to uncover them himself. That's not to say he didn't take the jobs they offered them-- survival takes what it takes-- but he wasn't happy about it. He eventually figured out that they were also being sent his way by a third party, and Vice was that third party.
See, Vice needed to test his willingness to set aside the war's grudges and cooperate with aliens without trying to kill and eat them. See, she had somewhere she needed to be, with incredibly precious cargo. She needed an escort through territory still occupied by Leon's own, and Reapers that were far, far more unforgiving than he. Leon balked at the job until he understood what precious thing he was intended to help deliver to safety.
Detlef. An alien child, but a child nevertheless.
Ultimately, he agreed. And over the course of the journey, he got to know Vice, got to know Detlef. Detlef, obviously, is at first scared of the hooded Reaper man and the way he carries himself. But while Leon is much stricter on how much he wants to bond with Vice (which, at first, is not at all), he can't bring himself to be so harsh with someone who is, at best, kindergarten-aged.
He learns that vipers are indeed venomous from birth, but Detlef isn't dangerous. His venom sacs only produce enough to get someone half as sick, and only if he bites them-- and that's assuming he even figures out how to envenom somebody that way. He can't spit it yet. And Detlef doesn't want to have venom, anyway. He wants to spit ice like Papa did. Ice is more useful. (Leon can see the logic in that. It's also unbearably cute that the first thing Detlef considers using ice breath for is for snow cones and snowball fights.)
A few weeks in, Leon is comfortable enough with the little noodle boy to be the one carrying him sometimes. ("Your coat stinks," is the first comment Detlef makes. Leon can't help the laugh that escapes him.) Vice, though Leon is still reticent about being friends with her, is glad to see him getting along with her stepson.
("I don't want him to grow up afraid of humans," she explains. "You can think the world is moving on too fast. But so long as he knows that there are humans worthy of trust, he can live a good life on your planet."
"Was he there when XCOM killed his father?" Leon asks, watching the boy as he sleeps coiled in his lap.
"No. Gamma asked me and a few others to take his youngest children and bring them to one of the ADVENT facilities least involved with the Avatar Project. That included Detlef."
"Then the stories of that slaughter are all he has."
"For now. But XCOM wants to put on a façade of transparency. One day, that'll mean someone will tell him every detail of how his father, mother, and half of his sisters died. If he's unlucky, he may even someday have to look the man who did it in the eye.")
But eventually, they have to pass through the heart of Reaper territory. Reapers who likely know Leon, at least by reputation; Volk keeps his people close, or at least, he did. Now that the war is over, Leon has to provide cover and distraction for the vipers to get through to the other side of the ruined city, only for the Reapers to still catch them mid-sneak.
Leon raises his own rifle and fights to defend the mother and stepchild. In the end, he kills over a dozen of his own former comrades for the sake of creatures he wouldn't have blinked about killing himself just a couple years earlier.
(At least. The woman. He'd like to think he'd have never murdered an alien child, no matter the circumstances.)
In the end, they make it to City 31 in one piece. Vice thanks and pays Leon, as promised, but now that Leon's bonded with Detlef, that isn't the end of him seeing either the boy or Vice. Eventually, Leon does have to answer for the other Reapers he killed (and assume responsibility for the kills that weren't his. Detlef has lost enough of his family). Law is a work in progress in the post-war world, but he does eventually get through the process without being put behind bars. Self-defense is ultimately the winning argument.
He doesn't have it that much easier after that's over, mind. He's still not fully comfortable around aliens, save for the few he's now befriended. He still feels abandoned by Volk and bitter with the state of the world, that it had to be so utterly destroyed before XCOM could finally get the Elders off their damn planet. And now he's put a bullet in his own reputation with his fellow Reapers, with many of them now sneering him as an "alien-lover" and "species traitor".
But having a place among aliens as the lost and abandoned at least gives him company he can relate to. Maybe he'll even come to actually like aliens in general, with enough time. But as it is, he takes exceptions, and his only substantive goal is continued survival-- just like it was back in the war.
Real quick before I explain one of the shorter plotlines for my OCs: Xetal "Vice" Horne
Much older than my other viper OCs-- she was deployed as a Thin Man in 1993 at the age of 15, and that would put her at 37 at the time of the invasion. She's 57 by the end of XCOM 2, 62 at the time of Chimera Squad.
Stepmother to Detlef. She's one of the Viper King's surviving consorts.
She never slept with Gamma, though. Are you fucking kidding her that boy is barely 20 years old, and she's not one of those middle-aged women who fancies younger men. Not that much younger, at least.
Really, she was more of an advisor to Gamma. At the most personal, she was his friend. She describes losing him as "barely a step removed from losing [her] own son".
That said, she's dedicated herself since to protecting Detlef, and to supporting the other followers of the Alien Rulers who outlived their monarchs. This includes Rook.
She works by day as a schoolteacher in City 31 by 2040, but covertly seeks out internal XCOM documentation and, in particular, information about Dr. Vahlen. Vice's own connection to Gamma motivates this.
Because she's been using her old infiltration skills for these ends, she's gathered up interesting little tidbits on the side that she'll sell on the low to interested parties, assuming they aren't anyone too beyond the pale. She won't work with those still sympathetic to ADVENT, despite technically having never defected herself. ("I'm not saying you need to be a saint. But it's a new world out there, and there are some things we need to leave in the past.")
She speaks English with a German accent.
In her Thin Mint days, she started as a regular "joe", then graduated to supervisor (under a Sectoid Commander, of course). She was one of the nicer supervisors for other thin men to work under, allowing them free time and mild mischief while Earth was still (relatively) peaceful.
Despite her age, she doesn't really feel old, if you were to ask her. The way she sees it, she's lived several lives; one when she was young within the starships; another as an infiltrator; yet another as the Viper King's advisor, and one more still, now that she's untethered. She believes in playing things by ear, and admits she keeps the long-term future rather close in scope. After all, she never knows what tomorrow might look like.
since it’s pride month, throwback to this beautiful cover and this wholesome interaction between two icons
I'd love to know where tf my magikarp found a cactus fruit in the middle of verdant grassy suburbia
PBS just set up a youtube channel where you can watch full documentaries!!
https://m.youtube.com/@pbsdocumentaries
Welcome to the PBS Documentaries channel—presented by PBS Digital Studios and Independent Television Service (ITVS), dedicated to documentin
^ live link to their channel! looks like it's been live since 2012, and has 213 videos plus tons of playlists
NFB (National Film Board of Canada//ONF in french) is also a great place to find free documentaries + lots of animation movies. Their youtube channel is here but they also have a website thats wayyy easier to use. They even have an app!
Watch quality Canadian documentary, animation and fiction films online
Ok so my kid had an ear infection, right? As kids often do.
The doctor scraped out a bit of earwax to have a better look inside.
I was sent a bill for $200 PER EAR for this 5 second procedure which I did not give permission for them to do.
That was key- they did not ASK me if they could do this "procedure". And, as I OWN a medical practice (it's me. The medical practice is me, sitting in my house on video calls) I knew to call them when this bill came in to be like "You did not obtain informed consent for this procedure, and it was not en emergency procedure. You had full ability to gain my consent and didn't. I'm not paying."
And the massive hospital who owned the bill said "yuh-huh you do have to pay."
And I said "I own a practice. I know these laws. I do not owe you money for this."
And they conducted an "internal review" and SURPRISE! Decided I totally owed them money and they had never done anything wrong ever.
And so I called my state's Attorney General office, and explained the situation because, as I mentioned, I know the law. The AG got in touch within a couple days to say they were taking the case and would send the massive hospital conglomerate a knock it off, guys letter.
Lo and Behold, today I have a letter where said hospital graciously has agreed to forfeit the payment.
"How not to get screwed over by companies" should be part of civics class.
Know your rights and know who to call when they're infringed on. This whole process cost me $0 and honestly less effort than I would have expected.
May this knowledge find its way to someone else who can use it.
This post is super cute and all but like.... This isn't practical advice. I called the AG???? And they got involved over a $200 bill. Maybe because you yourself are a medical practitioner. Not just your knowledge but also your status.
Civics class wouldn't help most people in this case because the AG will not take on all these cases and most people cannot afford an attorney in this instance or more importantly, the hit to their credit.
The issue is not education over the system, it is the system
I agree the system is a mess but I think education does matter because people seem not to know that this is actually perfectly routine AG office stuff. I’m not the only person who’s done this- this is just what they do?
Were they going to get into a lawsuit over my $400 bill? No obviously not. But they printed up a letter on fancy letterhead to say to stop and it worked. They followed up with me the next day to be sure, and so ask how much money they had saved me.
They use dinky cases like mine to track habitual misbehavior of large scale companies to build cases they could actually go to court over.
And because people are shocked- I never spoke to the AG of my state directly. He operates mainly by overseeing a whole crew of people. And this is what those people do.
This didn’t happen because I’m special because of my tiny therapy practice.
This happened because this is what the AG office is for.
“The problem is systemic” doesn’t mean “and there’s nothing you can do”.
This is a systemic problem but that doesn’t mean there are no resources to help.
Thank you for clapping back on this. I'm here to reinforce. Yes, you CAN call your state Attorney General office when an entity is doing something illegal, even if it's "only" for $400. You think they don't care a hospital is doing a crime because it's not a big enough crime?
Then you've been trained well by "The System".
Yes, that System you say can't be fought? Where did you get that idea, huh? Who taught you that "small" acts of illegality don't matter? Who made you think that there's no point in fighting back because it will all come to nothing?
Might it be the same entities that benefit if you believe all that?
Gonna pause and let you ponder.
Never. Ever. EVER.
EVER.
Let companies or corporations or hospitals or organizations or any business big or small get away with screwing you over without a fight. Maybe you personally don't win every fight, but you lose 100% of the time you don't try. You'll win more often than you think you will. I know cuz I've done it.
So have others. Attorneys General offices bring lawsuits against businesses all the time. They do so because citizens contacted them to say "someone is doing a crime" and the crime doers did not stop when told and got into way more trouble than if they'd just stopped. FAFO. The Find Out can't happen if you don't even bother to report the Fucking Around.
On that note, as OP said, please know your rights! And, in a situation where you don't but suspect something is hinky, ask! The people of the internet can help! So can librarians! So can many others. Find out what is and is not okay for them to do. If it's not okay, report them! See something, say something.
Don't let the System win by default.
Fight, damnit!
Additionally, pay attention to State Attorney elections! Here in Minnesota, our AG Keith Ellison has made it a POINT to go after slumlords, has created an entire UNIT in the AG office dedicated to wage theft, and gone after debt relief for people who were conned by those scummy fake universities. And despite MN being a blue state, one of his elections was a fucking NAIL-BITER.
Absolutely fight the system, absolutely go to your AG office if you’re being screwed over, and also pay attention to the people running for AG in the first place.
Government of the people, by the people, and for the people only works if the people make it work. That's you! You're the people.
"Don't bother doing anything because nothing will happen" confused cause with effect: it's really "Nothing will happen if you don't bother doing anything." Yeah, I know, it's a travesty that they don't hand you psychic powers when you take your oath as a civil servant, but until we fix that clear defect in our democracy: you're serving the public, too, when you report fuckers like this.
Not gonna leave this in the tags:
Suspicion of The System™️ is one of the ways The System™️ perpetuates itself.
If you believe The System™️ is only for Them™️ and not you, it will only ever be so.
Know the rules so you can make them work for you. Or better, how to break them in ways that hurt The System™️ and help you.
And always, always appeal EVERY denial of coverage. I had a similar situation to OP's happen to me recently--I went for a routine cleaning and my dentist was on her lunch so a different one saw me and the insurance company tried to say he wasn't in-network.
So I asked @moniquill what special medical words to use and wrote it in the form and sent it away.
I didn't consent, I was not informed, etc.
And I sat back and waited, and lo and behold, suddenly they send me a letter saying oh that dentist I saw for five seconds was in network after all.
ALWAYS APPEAL. Write to your Attorney General. That is your right, that is what the AG is for, as previous have said. The AG serves YOU, the people.
And insurance companies and hospitals are just school bullies trying to intimidate you into giving up your lunch money. But they're paper tigers.
And speaking as someone who has always been very very poor and often without insurance at all: they can't get blood out of a stone. Know that. If you can't pay? Well, you can't. You literally do not have it. So you have nothing to lose by fighting them.
Here to reinforce "challenge every denial." I worked for company that hired out temp employees, and I got assigned to an insurance company to organize their backlog of physical files for about three months. While I was in the file room, I absolutely heard their weekly meetings. And I absolutely heard them be instructed to deny everything, even if their policy clearly covered it. "If they push back, then we'll take a look, but if they don't, then we've saved that money."
For profit insurance is the work of the devil, but you can still step on his tail and make him holler.
bigenitalia = a fantasy trope where someone has two entire (usually fully fertile) separate reproductive systems. this does not happen in real life and is not intersex.
ambiguous genitalia = a real phenomenon that exists on a spectrum. ambiguous genitalia refers to genitalia that exists in intermediate stages of sexual development. this can look like a penis and vagina however a maximum of one reproductive system is present though they may have characteristics of both within their single reproductive system
ovotestes = a real phenomenon that exists on a spectrum where someone's gonads consist of both ovarian and testicular tissue within the same structure. many people with ovotestes have ambiguous genitalia. many people with ovotestes are fertile but no one with ovotestes can get themself pregnant.
ambiguous genitalia and ovotestes are intersex.
having a bigenital fantasy is okay! please stop labeling it as "intersex" and please stop fetishizing real life intersex people.
tbh i love hear me outs but i also love the opposite of hear me outs where it’s like nearly everyone thinks they’re fuckable except you
count me outs
Adopting that immediately.
Hey guys, my sapphic fairytales picture book is up for preorder! Release date is July 27th!
Printed versions here, ebook version here
If you want to support the project for free, podcast version is here!
Happy Pride❤️💜💙💛💚🧡
So whenever tumblr finishes processing it there's an AMV that's about to go up on my art blog
and. I didn't realize until working on it that there are some Parallels the cinematography of the game makes between Elena's first appearance in the Lost and Abandoned, and the cutscene introduction to the Chosen Hunter
It's in the posture. The way they favor moving forward with their left side in front of their right, because the right hand is the one that'll grab for their rifle. The parallel of costume design is a given (hooded, mostly practical with a flashy edge, if you play L&A on a PC that can handle better than potato-quality graphics then Elena's face is mostly bathed in shadow the way Hunter's is). Surrounded by their own people as well as by danger.
I suppose this creates more of a subtextual link between the Hunter and the Reapers more than anything-- because we can at least say for certain that that intent was in the game's development, regardless of how much was determined before the release of Factions. That said, the only reason there's any parallel to make with Elena specifically is the fact that she's the first Reaper we meet, and functionally, the most important one we care about (no offense to Volk but he's another head to talk at us between missions while Elena's the one who actually does shit lmfao)
happy pride month to all gay and trans africans especially gay and trans ghanaians in ghana
Check out the full song here!
