these stories only exist in your dreams

Max | they/them | adult Hobbyist hobbyist. Kind in return. Follow nightshadeowl for art and Minecraft.

[lucidowl]

I've just recently started playing Thief: Deadly Shadows and I like it significantly more than I expected to, so I may be a liiiiittle prone to obsessing about it in the near future.

[karrasyne]

for my thief fans still out there

[thefairytaler]

My wife pointed out to me the other day that apparently most people were literally only taught how to say Sorry and not how to Apologize or even that they are different things so here.

If all you ever do is step 1, not only did you not apologize, but people will rightfully stop believing you and start getting pissed or hurt.

[1five1two]

'Carousel in the Woods'. Yifang Wu.

[crabussy]

Hello Mr. Robin Crabussy do you have any advice on starting university (not that I'll be in your field of study or anything)

if you have to neglect some of your studies in order to have a social life, DO IT. SKIP THAT LECTURE TO SPEND TIME WITH FRIENDS IF IT'S THE ONLY PART OF THE WEEK YOU HAVE FOR SOCIALISING. you are a social animal first and foremost! you'll learn better if you're socially fulfilled!!!

your lecturers give less of a shit when you mess up than you'd think. EMAIL THEM. ask for extensions even when your only excuse is that you forgot!!! you can lie! they don't care! do whatever you can to give yourself a fighting chance.

I know it's tempting to stay home but I'd seriously suggest going to lectures whenever you can. speaking as someone who spent a few semesters mostly at home!!! it's relaxing, sure, but you'll meet more people and learn better if you go in person when you can.

pack lunches. dunno where you're based but if your uni is anything like mine, the food places around it will EAT YOUR MONEY before you know it.

if you're having a VERY BAD TIME, change something. switching up your degree can be daunting, but talk to student services about it! it's their job to help you out!! my friend switched her degree halfway through and it's been fine for her. don't get stuck doing something you hate.

[lucidowl]

Point 2 is incredibly real and way too many people I know neglect to do so.

Slight addition as well, especially for STEM but not exclusively: ask questions. Email and office hours are great for this. Ask for clarification whenever you need it, everywhere you need it. Better to feel you've made yourself look like a fool than to actually make a fool mistake. (The former does NOT a fool make.) I'm in a difficult degree path and so much of my strife could have been solved by being willing enough to just ask the darned questions. People want to help. Ask questions.

[jupiterjames]

Did I just employ the "Treat Them Like You are A Kindergarten Teacher Again" method with my insurance company today? I surely did. Did it work? Probably better than intended because I made an actual doctor feel contrite.

So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.

I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.

This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.

ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?

DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.

ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?

DOC: It looks like eight.

ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?

DOC: Two.

ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?

DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.

ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?

DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.

ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?

DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.

ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.

WALGREENS PHARMACY TECH WITH 5 NOSE RINGS AND PURPLE HAIR STARING AT ME: ........... OKAY! It'll be ready in five minutes. You wanna come work here?

[headspace-hotel]

Kill them with kindness

BUT KILL THEM

[cutecipher]

i really thought the point of "being lgbt+ doesn't absolve you of racism as a white person" was that white people arent absolved of racism by being marginalized but it really seems like people think other marginalizations make it okay. no being disabled doesn't do it. no being poor doesnt do it. we need to fight against racism actively no matter what.

[imjunebitch]

now that the Trans Infighting has reached a point where its not only transandrophobia, exorsexism, and intersexism being levied constantly in the name of "fighting transmisogyny," but also actual constant fucking TRANSMISOGYNY being levied in the name of "FIGHTING TRANSMISOGYNY," can we all take a moment to say "oh my god june I'm so sorry you were right this is just alt right fucks perpetrating infighting and using it as an excuse to hurt trans people online"

[imjunebitch]

i mean its stupid as FUCK that it took shit like the fucking "transmascvoicesproject" (a parody that is very clearly transphobic and I feel VERY safe saying could not possibly have been made by an actual trans person, or anyone other than a grifting anonymous incel) to get people to realize this when I've spent entire months of my time online getting suicide baited at least weekly and getting my existence as a trans woman questioned because I said "wait guys, isn't it strange that this uptick in infighting is corresponding directly with the second term of a president who wants to kill and subjugate trans people, the rise of people like the groypers, the spread of alt-right politics in the UK and throughout Europe... almost like were being divided against ourselves so as not to be able to stand against any attacks from outside our community"

[imjunebitch]

heres a fucking idea, if you care about trans women, stop platforming people who threaten other trans women with rape. stop platforming people who make jokes about annihilating minorities. stop following and platforming and running PR for the campaign to sort everyone into a binary of two gender-based categories that are imposed on others rather than chosen! stop platforming these people because they are literally bigoted fascists! I saw someone making a post who is big on this infighting shit admonishing other people for saying hateful and untrue things about one of my close friends, it was a pretty popular post you may have seen it, but I don't wanna drag my friend into this. and to that person I say... fuck you! fuck you, you are like Ben Shapiro desperately trying to cling to some semblance of order because you have seen the true depths of fascism and now know that what you are platforming can hurt YOU TOO, but you're too scared to cast it off and go another way. you're a fucking coward, and you could turn away from this at any time. and you should, because it's going to hurt you. because it wants to hurt all of us!

[lastoneout]

I love when people try to gotcha me on my stance that all sports should be gender integrated with "even American football???" because I can instantly come back with "oh lmao, no, I don't think ANYONE should play American football at all, it's way too dangerous" like nice try but I know no amount of testosterone is going to protect you from the profound, life ruining health issues caused by getting repeated severe concussions over the course of several years. No one should play this sport.

[lastoneout]

Like do you really think muscle mass or gender/sex can protect you from CTE?? You think men are naturally more resistant to concussions?? Because idk how else you square this sport being too dangerous for cis women and people afab but perfectly safe for cis men and people amab. Having a testosterone dominant endocrine system isn't gonna do shit in the face of traumatic brain injury. Be serious. This sport should not exist.

[mattpresents]

How do you know you're not Asexual? Maybe you just haven't met the right nobody.

[physiqueandfantasy]

Congratulations card

made by me!

soon to be available as a greeting card

[roach-in-a-box]

GRAAACEEE!!!!!!!

[this-is-trans-joy]

Reminder to newly out trans women/fems or anyone else on E, don’t let anyone gaslight you about your period symptoms. don’t let anyone with a child’s level understanding of how periods work make you feel like you’re stupid or delusional for experiencing period symptoms, especially if you think there might be something wrong.

things like endometriosis can develop in an estrogen-dominated system, because its the hormones that cause the growth of endometrial lesions, not the “parts” themselves. If you’re experiencing unusually painful symptoms* then you have a right to find a doctor who will take you seriously and not try to gaslight you into thinking that the pain is “normal”.

*period pain is not supposed to affect your daily life. It’s supposed to feel more like an inconvenience rather than a medical emergency. If you are struggling to go about your life, if you can’t move due to the pain, if you’re bed-ridden for the majority of your period, then that is not normal and you need to find a doctor who is going to take your pain seriously. This obviously goes for anyone who experiences periods because unfortunately it’s not common knowledge that experiencing agonising levels of pain is NOT NORMAL!!!

[this-is-trans-joy]

This post is now overrun with TERFs like fucking ants but I think it’s really fascinating to watch how hypocritical they are by literally denying basic biology. It is a simple and logical fact that taking estrogenising HRT will lead to an estrogen-dominant system, and when one has an estrogen-dominant system, they will experience the effects of the way in which estrogen works in a cyclical manner.

This cycle causes the shedding of the uterus lining, which is menstruation, but that’s only one symptom of a period and the two should not be treated as synonyms (hence the distinction between menstruation and PMS). In fact it’s actually quite daunting, and reflective of a severe lack of sex education on how estrogen-dominated systems work, that so many people in the notes of this post do not realise that menstruation is not the only part of a period. Cis women without uteruses, for example, still experience period symptoms if their ovaries remain intact, because the ovaries still produce estrogen, and if they also don’t have their ovaries, then cis women may also go on HRT to restore their low levels of estrogen back to their normal levels, and will again experience the period symptoms caused by an estrogen-dominated system, such as bloating, mood swings, fatigue and even things such as PMDD (which is a hormone-based disorder and does not require the presence of a uterus, hence why trans women on HRT can also develop this debilitating disorder).

This knowledge is vital, not just for trans women, but for everyone with an estrogen-dominated system (cis women, trans women, pre-T trans men etc.) because working under the belief that period symptoms are entirely contained within the uterus means that many symtoms, issues and disorders can go undiagnosed when the uterus is not present. Endometriosis, for example, is literally a disorder caused by endometrial tissue growing outside of the uterus, so removing the uterus does not cure endometriosis.

TERFs are willing to ignore basic biological facts and literally put women in danger by minimising the effects that estrogen itself has on the body purely to further their exclusionary agenda wherin the idea of a trans woman being able to relate to them in any way causes them to seethe with misplaced anger.

It’s also interesting how much they’ve deified their own pain and suffering, so being exposed to the fact that this pain is not exclusive to cis women (or more specifically, those with a uterus) is so threatening to them that they have to literally change immutable facts in order to deny this reality.

Which I find incredibly ironic.

[this-is-trans-joy]

Had a pretty significant typo in there at the end so please reblog this version :]

[starcrier]

and you know what? i am REALLY sick of these ads that are openly mocking people for being concerned about the products they’re selling.

Amazon’s super bowl ad where the Alexa mocks Chris Hemsworth for being worried about giving spy software control over his entire life. Waymo’s ad with the intro “the robots are coming!” mocking people who are rightfully extremely concerned about sharing the road with, or riding in, self-driving cars.

i don’t know, it’s just genuinely insane to me. “Oh, you have legitimate concerns about our shitty product? sounds like you’re just lame!!!” like what kind of “quiet part out loud” marketing is that?

[starcrier]

so this post blew the hell up — which is i’m sure a sign that things are very normal and fine and none of us are remotely frustrated by this kind of thing — but it’s given me time to think about how to articulate the SECOND thing that pisses me off about these ads, which is that they don’t even bother to address the concerns.

i feel like any normal ad would go, for example, “i know you’ve heard that this shaving cream might give you cancer. but it doesn’t! and also it smells nice!”

but THESE ads mock you, and then go “anyway, your concerns are invalid because our self-driving cars that run over children at crosswalks have heated seats!”

it reminds me, in a much less comical way, of that scene from Emperors New Groove when the angel and devil on Kronk’s shoulders are having a debate, and the devil goes “don’t listen to that guy, because look what i can do” and then does a handstand. Only these are real-life commercials. That they expect you to take seriously.

[thegreatyin]

big fan of when characters meet another version of themselves and their first instinct is to literally physically kill their doppelganger with their own two hands. which could mean absolutely nothing.

[digitalkiddo]

If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.

[roadrasherss]

Probably my favorite attack so far :]

This one’s for @turtle-brownie 🗡