Years before the covid pandemic began, author Naomi Kritzer wrote the charming, emotionally genuine short story "So Much Cooking," which was a pandemic log through the eyes of a cooking blog. The premise is that the author is a home cooking blogger raising her kids, and then a pandemic hits--and bit by bit she's feeding not only her own, but her sister's kids, some neighbors' kids, and so on, in a situation of pandemic lockdown and food shortages.
It's very good, and was prescient for a lot of the early days of the covid pandemic. I found myself returning to it often in the first couple of years because of how steadfast it was in its hopefulness.
Last year she wrote a novelette, "The Year Without Sunshine," which attacks a similar problem in a similar way; instead of pandemic, this one is about the aftereffects of a distant nuke or a massive volcano explosion (it doesn't say), which has churned a great deal of dust into the air, causing massive damage to society and agriculture. The story covers one neighborhood, pulling together to keep each other alive--not through violence, but through lawn potatoes and message pinboards and bicycle-powered oxygen concentrators.
I recommend both stories. They're uplifting in a way that a lot of what I see lately isn't. They're a bit of a panacea for constant fearmongering about intracommunity violence and grinding hatefulness. We can be good to each other, if we try.
One time a friend told me that if she wanted to have a chill night she would come to me and ask for tea and a book to read. I didnāt like tea at the time, but I always made sure my cupboards had them in case she needed a quiet night. One time I told my boss that I loved oranges, but couldnāt peel them because of my nails. For a year he made sure to peel me one at least once a week. Once my friends gave me a made up superlative of āmost likely to have a pen they could borrowā and ever since Iāve made sure I always carry a pen with me. A long time ago, my high school librarian told me that no one would care what my grade in my sophomore chemistry class was if Iām bringing them doughnuts and asking them about their day.
Sometimes friendship is about carrying pens and peeling oranges. But the point is, surrounding yourself with people who you want to do the little things for. The point of it all is bringing in the doughnuts because youāve found the people who deserve the doughnuts.
the z-team would be such a bad influence on grace and def bring out his "been a long time since I've taken a pill from a stranger without knowing what it was" era
Saw this edit and it made me think: what if Robert just died at the end of Dispatch? Not temporarily, like that immortal AU I love to think up ideas for, but actually died. Forever. No coming back, no last minute deus ex machina.Ā
Imagine that he came into the Z-Teamās lives, propped them up and helped them become heroes, and then didnāt get to stick around to see the results of all their hard work. Imagine them rising up the ranks, becoming well-known and well-loved heroes, and always naming their dispatcher Robert Robertson as the reason for their success.Ā
Imagine that he reconnected with Chase and rebuilt their relationship over the course of a few months, just to die before him. Imagine Chase breaking down over Beef because the dog wants Robert but Robertās gone and thereās no way to explain that heās not coming back.Ā
Whoever you ship him with, imagine that those few months they had together were all they ever got. Imagine that person wondering what might have been, whether they would have been happy, whether they would have stayed together or ended up as friends. If they hadnāt kissed yet, imagine them wishing theyād just gone for it while he was still here. Or worse, imagine their first kiss was a rescue breath.Ā
Imagine Robert Robertson spent the entire story working towards being a hero once more and slowly coming to the realization that he didn't need to be Mecha Man to be a hero. Imagine he accepted that, and then still got back in that suit to save the people and the city he loved. Imagine he was finally content living a quiet life behind-the-scenes, just to end up dying a hero's death anyway.
You know every show that the premise is like āpeople find out ghosts/monsters/demons are real and are charged with stopping themā appeal to me way more now as a post-graduate not because I believe in ghosts more or whatever but because can you IMAGINE just being handed a job that you donāt even need to apply for? Like just being told ābasically thereās this bad thing and all you do is make sure it doesnāt do what it wantsā thatās just customer service baby and I worked that for 6 goddamn years! Just TRY getting past āI have a job to offer youā before I can jump down your throat agreeing.
some idiot with a dumb ghost-hunting name who joined the Cause because they love the paranormal: oh fuck oh shit this is really scary guys Iām having second thoughts
me, who knows that if we run away I have to apply to like, a real actual Jobbe again: wakey wakey demons itās this or retail so guess whoās got nothing to lose
āpeople who make six figures shouldnāt be allowed to complain āā most people who make six figures are, these days, solidly middle class. where i live, a combined household income of $110k is *lower middle class*.
āpeople who can afford homes āā are typically 400-600k in debt for them. also if ācan own your own homeā is your threshold for the rich you are contemplating eating, i think you are genuinely stupid
āboohoo your investments dropped, stop complaining rich boyā idk how to tell you this but. most of us have a retirement account. you should probably open one
I love when people ask "how did you learn this skill?" I just started, there's no secret. that's it. a vast majority of the time the only thing holding you back is your trepidation to start.
(This was fully going to be a different, very irreverent joke about Robert pouring a year's worth of his whimsy into his cute lil dispatcher photo and him looking like a Husk the second it was taken but then I fully couldn't eyeball the image without one eye looking so goddamn sad.... so it became this instead. I have a lot of feelings about Chase man)
au is by @eiiegeia <- unhealthy obsessed with their designsss
Also Iāve seen people call bat pups ābittensā. yaāll have to live with that knowledge now, too.
sheās PURRING aaaaaaaaa babyās first purrs aaaaghhhhhggggggggghhhhhhhh
the eraser shavings are for authenticity šāāļø
can you tell when I began to get tired mid comic and completely changed artstyle? Yeah me too
pushing my āsonar in a sweatshirtā agenda. ā¤ļø
ā¦.this was supposed to be short yall but nothing about this post is short š
headcannons and bat facts under the cut
Paternity leave headcannonā¦
headcannon that while recovering Robert dispatches from home, for more than a couple reasons:
First was blazer needed the z team running, and so someone would need to do it. At surface level, the z team just donāt listen to anyone else quite like they do Robert. Maybe itās because theyāre being difficult (but maybe that has to do with the fact that Robert knew them so well, their strengths, how to foster the best cooperation, and he held their respect unlike any other team-member could.)
but another reason, as helpfully pointed out by his team, was to keep Robert ābusybodyā Robertson from spiraling into boredom, which they assumed was a deadly state for Mr. Almost-dies-every-day to be in. They were right on some level, inactivity did make him antsy, and so in the later months of recovery blazer consented to the set up of a temporary rule loophole, that allowed Robert to work from home.
sonar is more than happy to lounge at home for a few months, soaking in all the affection from Robert and all new-baby time he can get his claws on, As well as administer copious amounts of his own affection onto his little family.
Of course the big family (largely composed of the z team) want in on the baby time too, and thatās a whole different can of worms.
Ok, HERE are the bat facts āØš¦
purring tends to start at around 2 months apparently
also bats are great at understanding another batās emotions through their calls, catch sonar whining by the nursery door because Robert said he couldnāt go in because Harper needs to cry out her 2-year-old tantrum for a bit.
Side Note:
yāall should see my search history, nothing but bat and seal facts. (A lot of the seal facts are for my fixation on selkies, also seals can move very fast on land btw guys, do not approach.)
a lot of my headcannons are based off of information I looked up without much further research beyond the first few results, so if Iām wrong youāre quite welcome to let me know ;-;
