Royal court of Saranrap the Elvenking.

I am just a little Elvenking (She/Her) Main topics for this blog: Hetalia, MXTX novels, C-dramas, Tolkien, Avatar: The Last Airbender, history and mythology, and any cute, pretty, or socially-relevant things I find interesting. *************(Bingo in the Elf Lounge is at 4.00)

[lost-in-love-maze]

south indian wedding zutara

commissioned the lovely NiahtiArt to recreate rashmika and vijay's adorable wedding pics and could not be happier with how they came out.

[phoebester]

I mean… (sigh) zutara you will always be.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[sergle]

are you guys hearing about this dude working to developing a vaccine for cats that he's hoping would like. theoretically double their lifespans?

[sergle]

turns out i wasn't making that up, his name is Dr. Toru Miyazaki! he also wrote a book called "The Day Cats Live To Be Thirty", so cats are kind of his thing.

apparently, cats' kidneys tend to be the thing that takes them down, something about their bodies being unable to self-clean their kidneys, and the vaccine is supposed revitalize the body's ability to do just that. It would be very VERY fucking cool to have cats suddenly reaching 30 years of age be the normal thing.

Could the macrophage-derived protein AIM save cats from kidney disease?

As they age, almost all cats develop kidney disease, from which they eventually die. Just as in humans, kidney disease i

Cat Kidney Disease Cure Nears Reality: Dr. Toru Miyazaki’s AIM Therapy

Dr. Toru Miyazaki’s AIM injection for cat kidney disease enters trials in 2025, aiming for a 2027 release. Greycoat Research supports the sc

[moki-dokie]

whoa wait i actually read the articles and it's so much cooler than just that!!

dude cracked the case about WHY kidneys fail, across the board as far as i can tell. turns out there's a specific molecule whose job it is to attach to waste and signal macrophages to come eat it. it remains inactive in cats for some reason, but the molecule is still there. basically what he's done is found the switch to activate them. this will be profound not only for our domestic babies, but for big cats too - especially cheetahs!

although his research was focused on cats, it's already being used to develop drugs for humans too!

on top of that, since these molecules are tags for waste, this could also dramatically lower the rate of fatty liver disease, liver cancer, urinary crystals, rheumatoid arthritis, and even some neurological cases! like, they're hoping it may have an impact on parkinson's and alzheimers, but it DOES have an impact on stroke recovery. like. holy shit.

furthermore, he's insisting that the feline drug be affordable if and when it rolls out onto the market. he wants this to be something anyone can get for their cat!! idk how much sway he'll have over the human drug, but hopefully enough that it, too, won't be that expensive.

annnnnd in his research that he's still doing for the human side of things, he's found a potential link between this molecule and estrogen. in the 20,000 samples he's tested, women between ages 10 and 29 had the highest amount of this molecule present in their blood (a higher amount means Something Fucky is going on, essentially. There's a higher amount of waste the body is trying to clean out) but it drops down to be almost equal amongst men and women after menopause. it hasn't been looked into yet, but fuck, just the fact it's noted and known and probably WILL be looked into soon??? imagine if this is what leads to figuring out all the various ways the ovaries and uterus fucks with people and how to fix it. or even like, maybe there's something about estrogen that makes it work better. who knows! but it's rad the link is there to be researched :D

man just think, not only could our kitties start living longer, healthier lives, but just maybe dialysis will become as rare and obsolete as the iron lung is for people. what a badass Dr. Toru is!

[fluxxdog]

"But I don't want to turn people into dinosaurs. I wanna cure kittie kidneys!"

[rorleuaisen]

Update: So they have done clinical trials and have submitted it for approval as of april 2026. They are expecting it to be available late 2026/early 2027

AIM Kidney Drug for Cats: 2026 Approval Update — How It Works, Efficacy & Expected Cost | Carelogy

The AIM protein drug for feline chronic kidney disease has been submitted for approval in Japan (April 2026). We break down clinical trial d

As for the study itself, the 360 day follow up on stage 3 kidney failure kitties showed that the control had a survival rate of about 20%, while the test group had a survival rate of 80%

New 2026 study: AIM protein boosts cat kidney disease survival from 20% to 80%. Discover how this scientific breakthrough is changing the fu

[idiomagic]

Our cat Scout is in the early stages of kidney disease. This might be available in time to save her!

[fxlthyangxl-deactivated20240122]

website

[hesbythecampfire]

StopNCII.org is operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline which is part of SWGfL, a charity that believes that everyone should benefit from technology, free from harm. Founded in 2000, SWGfL works with a number of partners and stakeholders around the world to protect everyone online

Sounds legit

[songue85]

StopNCII.org is operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline which is part of SWGfL, a charity that believes that all should benefit from technolog

[nosferatusnoopy]

everyone reblog this!!

[redbayly]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

In the wake of the new season of the Netflix AtLA show, I got a sudden resurgence in my creativity and was finally able to finish the newest chapter of "Hot Ice, Strange Snow." This officially marks the end of the siege and brings us near to the end of our time in the Northern Water Tribe.

[i-say-stupid-things]

what is it with able bodied people saying “get well soon” after you say that you’re chronically ill?? like? i am not gonna? and i once literally responded with “i’m not gonna, it’s chronic, as in permanent.” and they went like “oh well, hope you get better!” like bro 💀

[marypenelope]

Speaking for me personally (and also as someone who has their own chronic health issues), most of it is, as someone mentioned in the replies, script failure. Humans have a lot of scripts and shorthands for social interactions, and the most common one for finding out someone is ill or injured is to wish them a swift recovery. There isn't really a script for how to respond when someone won't recover tho, and so many people end up falling back on the script they do know even if it's not really applicable.

In my own personal experience, when I end up saying - or feeling the impulse to say - 'get well soon' to someone with a chronic condition, what I'm really trying to convey is something more along the lines of 'I hope your good days outnumber the bad ones', and 'I hope you find treatment that is effective for and accessible to you', and especially 'hey the fact that you are in pain sucks and I wish you weren't but I know that's not likely to change soon but also I hope that it will anyway because I hate to see people suffering and the 5-year-old inside me is insisting it's not fair even though the adult me knows that's not how it works but anyway the point is I hope you're in as little pain as it's possible for you to be in'. All of which is quite a bit harder to fit on a greeting card than 'get well soon', and which don't have any conveinent shorthands that will let me express those sentiments in a concise, understandable manner.

[i-say-stupid-things]

thank you so much for explaining this! i saw the “script failure” reply but didn’t really understand what that meant & also didn’t have the time before to further ask.

but this actually makes sense and i think i’ll try to just take it to mean things like that whenever someone wishes me well/a swift recovery now! again, thank you so much!!

[edenfenixblogs]

This is such a good interaction from everyone involved and now the world is a little better because people understand each other better.

This is so good. All interactions should be this.

[piedude]

Good job everyone, let's hit the showers

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: How to create floating Chinese shufa/calligraphy (cr夏末）

[redbayly]

Hermes: Well, if Athena is gonna tap out on helping Ody, I guess it's up to me. I mean, I am supposed to protect travelers. Wait, isn't Odysseus one of mine? Let me check the family tree real quick. *pulls out massive scroll* Yep. He's one of Autolycus' grandkids. No wonder he's such a delightfully tricksy bastard.

Odysseus: *sitting alone in the woods and trying to formulate a plan to rescue his men from Circe*

Hermes: *pops in* Hey there.

Odysseus: Oh, hey, Hermes.

Hermes: ...you're not surprised I'm here?

Odysseus: Well, no. See, I'm pretty genre-savvy when I'm not doing semi-hubristic stuff like telling a cyclops my real name. And you and/or Athena usually turn up when a hero is faced with an impossible task.

Hermes: Ugh, you help ONE half-brother defeat Medusa because you think he's hot, and now every hero expects you to bail them out, too.

Odysseus: Wait, what's that about you and Perseus?

Hermes: Nothing. Shut up! Anyway, I'm only helping you out of obligation.

Odysseus: Is this to make up for not paying child support to my great-grandmother?

Hermes: Hold on. You know we're related?

Odysseus: My granddad could literally shapeshift and was an infamous liar, cheat, trickster, thief, conman, and all-around asshole. The guy straight-up let Herakles take the fall for one of his heists and got him three extra years of community service on top of his twelve labors. If you're not his dad, I don't know who else could be.

Hermes: You know what, I'm actually going to take that as a compliment. After all, you're kind of a chip off the old block, yourself.

Odysseus: Uh, no, I'm a hero.

Hermes: Heroes are all assholes, too. They just have good PR. Now, do you want my help or not?

Odysseus: I don't have much of a choice. Circe turned my men into pigs and she's probably going to do the same to me if I go in there.

Hermes: I know just what you need. *whips out moly* DRUGS!

Odysseus: I've already had to drag my men back to the ship after they got high on lotus. I don't need any more mind-altering substances in my life.

Hermes: How did my descendant become such a fucking narc?

Odysseus: A Narcissus?

Hermes: That's not what 'narc' means! Ugh, kids these days. Anyway. This plant will keep you from getting transmogrified by Circe's magic. Also, it's vitally important that you don't sleep with her.

Odysseus: I wasn't planning on it.

Hermes: And, I know, that is a horrifically difficult thing to ask a man.

Odysseus: It's not. I have a wife.

Hermes: But I cannot stress enough that you can't have sex with her.

Odysseus: I really, really have no interest in--

Hermes: Because if you sleep with her and don't get her magical pinky-promise not to cause you any harm whatsoever, she is going to...um..."unman" you.

Odysseus: The fuck does that even mean?

Hermes: Anyway. Dire warnings and Holy Moly delivered. My work here is finished. Toodles! *disappears*

Odysseus: ...I really hope Telemachus takes after Penelope's side of the family.

[redbayly]

There's one anti-Zutara argument I've seen come up a lot that has really been bugging me lately. Granted, there are a number of anti-Zutara arguments that bug me, but this one has just been on my mind the most recently.

It's the argument that Zutara would've cheapened Zuko's redemption. That a romance between Zuko and Katara would've meant Zuko only turned "good" for a girl.

But, like, isn't that basically what M@iko is? Mai never worked for redemption. She just loved Zuko and that was enough to justify her being a "good guy" at the end when there was no indication that she ever regretted any of her previous actions. She didn't even save Zuko at the prison out of remorse or compassion. It was solely because she had feelings for him. She was able to jump on the "good guy" bandwagon only because she's Zuko's love interest. She betrayed the Fire Nation just because she liked a boy.

Zuko, on the other hand, went through an entire journey of self-discovery and had his eyes opened to the evils his country was doing. Even if he did fall in love with Katara, that wouldn't have been the only reason for him to turn against the Fire Nation. He's spent months with minimal to no contact with Katara or anyone else from Team Avatar, but he still put in the effort all on his own to reform himself. Zuko isn't the kind of person who heel-turns out of romantic feelings. His near conversion to the good guys was based on his lived experiences; and, if I'm honest, Katara was also very close to breaking through to him when they were in the catacombs due to their shared trauma and the fact that she was willing to speak to him as a person rather than an enemy. The reason for his betrayal at Ba Sing Se was because he was still very susceptible to Azula's manipulation and deeply insecure about whether he'd be accepted on either side. It had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with his internal conflict, his lifelong struggle between what he knew to be right and what he knew was expected of him.

Zutara does not cheapen Zuko's redemption in any way. If anything, it demonstrates his shift in worldview and dedication to fixing both his own mistakes and those of the Fire Nation.

[musicalbunny]

I think this is necessary to post. I see a lot of people “saving” bunnies.

“*Bunnies are one of the most frequently “kidnapped” mammal species. *Mothers dig a very shallow nest in the ground that is easily uncovered when mowing or raking the yard. If you find a rabbit nest-leave it alone!! *Mother rabbits only return to the nest two or three times a day, usually before dawn and right after dusk.  *To determine if they are orphaned, either place a string across the nest in a tic-tac-toe shape or circle the nest with flour. Check the nest the next day. If the string or flour is disturbed, the mother has returned. If not, take the bunnies to a rehabilitator. * A bunny that is bright eyed and 4-5 inches long is fully independent and does NOT need to be rescued! *If you find a bunny that does need to be rescued, put it in a dark, quiet location. Bunnies are a prey species and while they may look calm, they are actually very, very scared!”

[flashinglightsandecstasy]

Never knew this, keeping this for reference

[kazuha159]

As a student of Veterinary Medicine I can completely confirm this! Do NOT take them out of their nest unless you’re 100% sure that the mother did not come back for them after at least one day!

[gallusrostromegalus]

It’s that time of year again!

[redbayly]

Man, I leave my computer for a few hours to eat dinner and watch old Scooby-Doo episodes and come back see my feed blowing up with stuff about a Zutara anti comparing Zuko to the KKK.

I mean, I'm not entirely surprised an anti took it this far, especially considering this particular anti's history and how antis, in general, have been spamming the tag with stuff about how Zutara is colonizer apologism. Still, not how I expected my Friday to end.

But as someone whose family actively took a stance against the hate-group mentioned, as the daughter of a former civil rights lawyer, the granddaughter of a man who got death threats for hiring black people at his business, the great-granddaughter of a man who threw his younger brother out of his house and completely cut off contact with him for joining that hate group, and the several-greats-granddaughter of an outspokenly abolitionist Union soldier, I feel it is my duty to say that this anti can go fuck themself.

The KKK (or, as my dad calls them, "the Kluckers") is not some little prop for your virtue-signaling jokes about how much you hate a fictional ship. They were and are a very real danger. A terrorist group that was propped up by institutional and systemic racism, founded by men who were so bitter over the loss of their legal ability to own other human beings that they channeled their hatred into intimidating and killing black Americans and any progressive white Americans who tried to support black Americans' rights or push for reforms.

The Fire Nation is fictional. Their crimes and atrocities are part of a show for children. Zuko isn't real. He's simply a character who is meant to show that good can be found in unexpected places and that it is possible to break free of prejudices, extreme nationalism, and the cycle of abuse.

There is no excuse in my mind, not a single one, that could ever justify bringing real-world evil like the KKK, the Holocaust, or the disgusting crimes being committed against Iran and Palestine into a disagreement about fictional ships from a kids' show.

Those topics might be appropriate for a discussion on how the show handles things like genocide, racism, or colonialism, and then only if they are treated with the seriousness that they deserve, but it is beyond being in poor taste to use them as fodder in a shipping war.

I'm not normally one to jump into situations like this. I try not to meddle or let my anger get the best of me, but there are some things I simply cannot stay silent about. And this...this really got under my skin. I don't know if it's the recent surge of hate in the Zutara tag that's been building up my frustration and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back, or just that this particular "bad joke" hit an especially sore spot for me.

With how I was raised, the KKK were always the real-life boogeyman. Even being white, I grew up terrified of them. I was afraid that they might come out of the woodwork and kill my classmates or neighbors just because of their skin color. At school, when learning about the Civil Rights Movement, I saw old photos of them marching around in those stupid white hoods and felt sick when I saw one picture of a baby whose shithead parents had dressed him in that hateful outfit.

I have tried to avoid being an angry person. I believe anger is a dangerous thing, especially because of how addictive it is. So, I do my best to stay calm and civil and respectful, even when things make me upset. But there is something about the KKK and other white supremacists that triggers a gut reaction of rage and revulsion in me.

So, again, I say to the anti who so casually injected this genuinely horrific example of real-world hate, violence, and bigotry into a "joke" about a fictional character: FUCK YOU!

On a more positive note, I want everyone to be aware that January 18th is a special day of commemoration for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. It honors the Battle of Hayes Pond, an event in which several hundred members of the Lumbee Tribe whooped ass on a gathering of KKK and got the entire hate group expelled from Robeson County and their leader, James "Catfish" Cole, arrested for inciting a riot.

[kisachio]

Yet another horribly stupid thread from a non-Buddhist that uses Buddhism to "defend" Aang. Apparently OP was even buying followers to increase the engagement of their account so more people could be exposed to their blatant misinformation. They had an alt account that they deactivated when they were caught confessing to it.

They share similarities but that doesn't mean Buddhism is just a branch of Hinduism, Buddhism arose as a rejection of Hinduism. The two religions are oppositional. This is like saying Christianity is just a "branch" of Judaism when Christianity has a deep history of violent antisemitism.

Many Tibetan Buddhists (such as myself!) have expressed their dislike of ATLA, particularly Aang and the Air Nomads for playing into the Shangri-la stereotype. Tibetan Buddhists don't object to priests getting married because they are NOT monks. On the other hand, Air Nomad society is composed entirely of monks and nuns. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has said that Buddhist monks getting married is completely forbidden, and the Buddha himself has said that non-celibate monks will go to Hell. It is completely blasphemous to our religion. A monk being a celibate is FAR more important than him being a vegetarian. Are you a moron?

Really showing your ignorance here. Both are called "monks" in English but they are not actually monks at all. A monk must follow the Vinaya. The warrior Shaolin are not monks and in many cases they are not even Buddhists, they are like secular guards who live in the monastery. Meanwhile Japan has no tradition of Buddhist monks whatsoever. All Japanese "monks" are actually priests. Bryke didn't know about the difference because they are idiots, and so are you.

You do know that many people have spoken up against the Fire Nation for being a mix of different cultures too, right? At least the reason for the Fire Nation being a mix of cultures was so that they wouldn't be creating a direct parallel to a real world culture since they were portrayed as the villains of the series. But you're coming in here with the claim that Aang is a Buddhist, therefore making fun of him for being bald is racism to Buddhists even though Aang himself is a racist caricature of Buddhism.

Of course Buddhists would reject to their religion being considered Hinduism? Some Hindus will claim Buddhism as a branch of their own religion to deny a unique Buddhist religious identity because India is plagued with fascists who want to create a Hindu ethnostate, and Buddhism's disappearance in India can be attributed to the assimilation of Buddhism into Hinduism.

What the fuck is the claim of Korea and Japan coming from the same culture as China? Korea and Japan are heavily influenced by Chinese culture but they didn't just arise from China, all three are separate nations with distinct histories. Holy shit, this is even more ridiculous than saying Buddhism is a branch of Hinduism.

Aang being bald has nothing to do with his religion, being bald is a choice for Air Nomads to allow them to feel the air better. Bryke appropriated Buddhist aesthetics and none of the meaning. Once again, you go on about his vegetarianism when vegetarianism for monks isn't as big of an issue as celibacy. The Vinaya explicitly allows monks to eat meat, but under no circumstances can they ever be sexually active. Next.

Fellas, is is racist to mix up Chinese and Japanese culture because they both have similarities like using chopsticks, logographic writing, and Confucianism?

"you cannot speak for an entire group of people" Yet here you are speaking on behalf of Tibetans and Buddhists when you are literally neither of those things yourself.

How many times do I have to fucking say it? Aang and the Air Nomads in general are disrespectful of Buddhism. Their very existence in a highly popular children's television series is more racist than people calling them bald. Now you ignorant Aang stans are even spreading misinformation about Buddhism, a real religion, in order to defend your Orientalist fictional fave.

It is performative activism. You only care about Buddhism when people dislike Aang even though lots of Buddhists themselves don't like Aang. You will get mad at bald jokes because you claim it's offensive towards Buddhists yet you're a rabid Kataang shipper (because Buddhism suddenly isn't so important to you when it makes your ship look bad, right?). You are more concerned about a fictional character getting insulted than the character's very existence being the legacy of centuries of racist, Orientalist stereotypes that are disrespectful of real world Buddhist cultures.

[sneezypeasy]

I was raised Buddhist as a kid, and Buddhist monasticism comes up fairly frequently in Vietnamese folklore (Like in the stories of Quan Âm Thị Kính, Mục Kiền Liên etc). I can attest to everything said here and also provide a bit more context for people who are confused, because the point about Aang's chastity (and lack thereof) is actually NOT a "whataboutism" in regards to his hair (and lack thereof). They are actually symbolically connected - or at least, they're supposed to be. Let me explain:

So in East Asian cultures, hair is typically considered sacred and beautiful, for both men and women. Traditionally both genders wore their hair long, and only cut their hair during specific ceremonies/rituals. Monastic life is considered an extreme example, where both monks and nuns keep a shaved head for life, and the reason for this will make you laugh when you consider the context of this discussion ("stop saying Aang is ugly for being bald! His baldness is an homage to Buddhist monks and your mockery is racist!"):

Buddhist monks and nuns shave their heads to make themselves unappealing to the opposite sex, in order to commit to their lives of celibacy.

That is why they shave their heads. It is not an aesthetic choice nor is it incidental to their celibacy - it's literally a way to diminish their own sex appeal so they can remain pure and chaste.

So, to recap:

1. Bryke design their main character to have the dress and appearance of a Buddhist monks, including the shaved head,

2. They then create a romantic subplot for this main character, and give it such focus that they even bake the "will they won't they" into said character's character arc, and his ability to defeat the Big Bad (The Guru/Crossroads of Destiny),

3. They ultimately make this romantic subplot canon, either not knowing or not caring about the importance of chastity for Buddhist monks despite literally incorporating the visual symbols of said chastity into the character's appearance - again, I emphasise, the baldness that literally codes for UNATTRACTIVE -> SEXUALLY UNAVAILABLE -

4. (Some) fans who aren't thrilled with the portrayal of the romance and/or the Buddhist elements mock the character for having an ugly bald head, and then:

5. Aang stans get Very Upset, and write long diatribes about how calling Aang's baldness ugly is an insult to his Buddhist-coded character design.

The irony here is genuinely hilarious.

[redbayly]

I am genuinely starting to wonder how some men survive to adulthood.

This evening, my father, a man with multiple degrees and a boatload of life experience, did something I cannot comprehend.

He was making himself a salad and decided to use the chopping knife to cut the plastic around the bottle of dressing. This was a fairly large and very sharp knife which he just started jamming into the plastic, all while a pair of scissors was right there in front of him.

I tell him, "Dad, you know you probably shouldn't do that."

He responds, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't. OW! My hand!"

Like, the timing was that comedically perfect. He grumbled about hurting himself and then asked me to pass him the scissors.

He's done stuff like this before. Stuff he knows he shouldn't do. Stuff I warn him not to do. But he does it regardless and gets hurt.

It wasn't even him dismissing me, he knew perfectly well that what he was doing was stupid.

So, I have to ask, how are men like this even alive?

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP is a Mauritanian student based in Beijing, and she joined the first Across Latitudes cultural exchange festival at China University of Geosciences. Cnetizens say she rocked both her traditional Mauritanian attire and Chinese hanfu. (cr 艾米 Amy)

[arienai]

yuri shipping

[cannibalcaprine-deactivated2024]

update!

[mildmayfoxe]

for everyone else who wants to see better pics of the most beautiful ship in the world

[is-there-a-boat]

THERE IS THE ITALIAN TRAINING SHIP AMERIGO VESPUCCI!!

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SHIP IN THE WORLD!!!

[through-a-historic-lens]

Mississippi’s first interracial marriage, August 1970.

[brazenbells]

Adding @bethanyactually 's informative tags!

[redbayly]

I think I recruited a new Zutara shipper or two today. I was covering a class at the local high school (I'm a substitute teacher, in case anyone didn't already know) and I got to chatting with a couple of the girls in class after they finished their work and told them I'm into fanfiction. They got really excited and asked what fandoms I'm in and I told them about AtLA. Some of them had heard about it but only knew a little about the show.

I then explained that I ship Zuko and Katara, and then explained some of the show to them and my reasons for shipping Zutara. I also explained a bit about K@taang and asked the girls if they would ever think a 14-year-old girl would fall for a bald, goofy 12-year-old. There was an immediate "No" to that. A couple of them actively cringed at the thought.

Bear in mind, these were girls around Katara's age. I gave the most surface-level explanation of Aang and Zuko as characters, but they all agreed that they would pick Zuko if they were Katara.

I know antis will just say it's teen girls self-inserting into Katara because Zuko is hot and I'm like...

Yeah. What a surprise. Breaking News: Teenage girls know what teenage girls like. Stop the presses, everyone. Teenage girls are more interested in handsome, broody, older boys than dorky 12-year-olds who kiss them without consent.

They didn't even see a picture of Zuko before deciding that he'd be their pick over Aang. They just knew what they liked and didn't hesitate to say so.